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Virtual reality, 4G, 4K, drones and smartphones
- technology rules the world today. We are surrounded by gadgets
and the latest tech, but is this really good for us?
New research has revealed that nearly a fifth of eight-year-olds
have a smartphone: whatever happened to the days of being content
with a football and perhaps a scooter for your eighth birthday? A
focus group of almost 500 students aged 13-15 held by our sleep
expert, Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, showed cause for concern, as an
alarming number of students complained of sleep problems and
feeling exhausted. Of those who complained, almost 80% were using
electronic devices in bed.
But it's not just the kids who are obsessed with tech...
A survey has found that the yearly tally for selfies among
people aged 18-30 comes to a massive 1,825. On the back of that,
you probably won't be surprised to hear that selfies kill more
people than sharks do in a year. Above all, selfie with care!
Research by Silentnight found that Brits spend more time each
morning checking emails (51%) and using the internet than eating
breakfast (18%) or taking care of their appearance (32%). This
tech-addiction we all seem to have directly affects our sleep,
costing us vital rest time each night. The average UK adult now
spends more time per day using media and communication devices (8
hours 41 minutes) then they do sleeping (8 hours 21 minutes - UK
Keeping technology out of the bedroom may be easier said than
done, especially in today's 'always-on' society, but lack of
quality sleep can affect your health. Browsing the internet and
social media before you go to bed overloads the 'working memory' of
the brain, leading to noisy, thought-filled sleep. Dr Nerina
advises turning off all tech at least 60-90 minutes before going to
sleep in order to give the mind time to wind down - try it tonight
and see how you feel in the morning. |
A mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of higher alkanes from a non-vegetable (mineral) source, particularly a distillate of petroleum.
The name mineral oil by itself is imprecise, having been used to label many specific oils over the past few centuries. Other names, similarly imprecise, include white oil, liquid paraffin, pariffinum liquidum, and liquid petroleum. Baby oil is a perfumed mineral oil.
Most often, mineral oil is a liquid by-product of the distillation of petroleum to produce gasoline and other petroleum-based products from crude oil. A mineral oil in this sense is a transparent, colorless oil composed mainly of alkanes and cyclic paraffins, related to petroleum jelly (also known as "white petrolatum"). It has a density of around 0.8 g/cm3. Mineral oil is a substance of relatively low value, and it is produced in very large quantities. Mineral oil is available in light and heavy grades, and can often be found in drug stores.
There are three basic classes of refined mineral oils:
• paraffinic oils, based on n-alkanes
• naphthenic oils, based on cycloalkanes
• aromatic oils, based on aromatic hydrocarbons (distinct from essential oils)
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The Surprising Way Running Makes You Younger
Running can help lower the relative age of your bone marrow tissue according to a new studyWhile a lot has been said about the toll that running can take on your body, an exciting new study now says that training could actually make your body younger—your body’s bone marrow, that is.
Bone marrow is a semi-solid tissue, found in the soft parts of your bones, that produces blood cells. When you’re first born, the marrow mostly produces red blood cells. As you age, however, it starts producing yellow fatty marrow, which can impact the health of your pelvis, thighs, hips and vertebrae and it can also lead to other conditions like osteoporosis and diabetes.
While this may seem like a bleak situation, this new study offers hope. Researchers at Deakin University in Australia followed 101 men and women between the ages of 25 and 35. According to their findings, subjects who ran more than 12.5 miles each week had bone marrow that was eight years younger than people who didn’t exercise regularly. Additionally, they found that bone marrow got one year younger for every 5.5 miles a runner logged on a weekly basis. By comparison, exercises like swimming and cycling seemed to have no positive effect on the age of subject’s bone marrow.
Lead study author Dr. Daniel Belavy says, “The findings suggest that the average person could gain ‘younger’ bone marrow by small amounts of running.”
So take it from the experts—and your Houston running doc—running can be very good for you, as long as you take the proper training precautions like incorporating rest days and including cross-training in your regimen. And always remember: if it hurts when you run, stop right away and see your doctor to avoid losing the benefits of your training and causing serious injury to your body.
Dr. Andrew Schneider
Connect with me |
Korean Vocabulary: 말 지어내다
It is not enough to learn Korean grammar and sentence patterns. Without enough vocabulary, we cannot form sentences. It is also important to learn phrases and collocations instead of just words as Korean is rich in vocabulary influenced by culture and entirely different from that of our native language. It can help us sound more natural and sensible when speaking Korean. Here are five of them with sample sentences in Korean and English.
정상이 아니다
to be not normal
그 여자 진짜 정상이 아니거든요.
That woman isn’t really normal.
말 지어내다
to come up with words
to make up a story
그럼 애들이 없는 말 지어냈다는 거예요?
Then you are saying the kids came up with that all?
to steal and go
맞잖아요 소매치기! 우리 돈 훔쳐갔잖아요!
You are really a pickpocket. You stole our money.
길 건너 타다
to cross the road and ride from there
남산타워? 길 건너 타야지.
You have to get on from the other side.
진료 받다
to get diagnosed
지가 의사면 의사지 내가 자기 진료 받으러 왔나?
I know he is a doctor, but does he think I came to get diagnosed? |
The story behind Bonfire Night and Guy Fawkes: Gunpowder, treason and plot
It's nearly that time of year again - when we Britons gather in parks and gardens to watch dummies burn on bonfires and fireworks light up the sky, wrapped up in woolly hats and gloves.
The jovial atmosphere is a far cry from the origins of November 5, which are shrouded in religious tension and a foiled assassination attempt.
November 5 is a date when Britons commemorate events that nearly changed the course of the nation's history. But what actually happened that night, and what part did Guy Fawkes play?
November 5 commemorates the failure of the November 1605 Gunpowder Plot by a gang of Roman Catholic activists led by Warwickshire-born Robert Catesby.
When Protestant King James I acceded to the throne, English Catholics had hoped that the persecution they had felt for over 45 years under Queen Elizabeth I would finally end, and they would be granted the freedom to practice their religion.
When this didn't transpire, a group of conspirators resolved to assassinate the King and his ministers by blowing up the Palace of Westminster during the state opening of Parliament.
Guy (Guido) Fawkes, from York, and his fellow conspirators, having rented out a house close to the Houses of Parliament, managed to smuggle 36 barrels of gunpowder into a cellar of the House of Lords - enough to completely destroy the building.
(Physicists from the Institute of Physics later calculated that the 2,500kg of gunpowder beneath Parliament would have obliterated an area 500 metres from the centre of the explosion).
The scheme began to unravel when an anonymous letter was sent to William Parker, the 4th Baron Monteagle, warning him to avoid the House of Lords.
The letter (which could well have been sent by Lord Monteagle's brother-in-law Francis Tresham), was made public and this led to a search of Westminster Palace in the early hours of November 5.
Explosive expert Fawkes, who had been left in the cellars to set off the fuse, was caught when a group of guards discovered him at the last moment.
Fawkes was arrested, sent to the Tower of London and tortured until he gave up the names of his fellow plotters.
Lord Monteagle was rewarded with £500 plus £200 worth of lands for his service in protecting the crown.
Guy Fawkes, Thomas Bates, Robert and Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Christopher and John Wright, Francis Tresham, Everard Digby, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, Hugh Owen, John Grant and the man who organised the whole plot - Robert Catesby.
The conspirators were all either killed resisting capture or - like Fawkes - tried, convicted, and executed.
The traditional death for traitors in 17th-century England was to be hanged, drawn and quartered in public. But this proved not to be the 35-year-old Fawkes' fate.
As he awaited his punishment on the gallows, Fawkes leapt off the platform to avoid having his testicles cut off, his stomach opened and his guts spilled out before his eyes.
Mercifully for him, he died from a broken neck but his body was subsequently quartered, and his remains were sent to "the four corners of the kingdom" as a warning to others.
The aftermath
Following the failed plot, Parliament declared November 5th a national day of thanksgiving, and the first celebration of it took place in 1606.
King James I also sought to control non-conforming English Catholics in England. In May 1606, Parliament passed 'The Popish Recusants Act' which required any citizen to take an oath of allegiance denying the Pope's authority over the king.
Observance of the 5th November Act, passed within months of the plot, made church attendance compulsory on that day and by the late 17th Century, the day had gained a reputation for riotousness and disorder and anti-Catholicism. William of Orange's birthday (November 4th) was also conveniently close.
Remember, remember...
The actions of Guy Fawkes are immortalised in the nursery rhyme 'Remember, remember'. Although several different versions exist, the first five lines remain to same in all.
Remember, remember, the fifth of November Gunpowder treason and plot
We see no reason
Why Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot ….
Guy Fawkes, guy, t'was his intent
To blow up king and parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below
To prove old England's overthrow.
By god's mercy he was catch'd
With a darkened lantern and burning match.
So, holler boys, holler boys,
Let the bells ring.
Holler boys, holler boys,
God save the king.
And what shall we do with him?
Burn him!
Another version, which is said to have been penned around 1870, displays - or perhaps parodies - anti-Catholic sentiment which is said to have risen following the passing of the 5th November Act.
A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,
A penn'orth of cheese to choke him,
A pint of beer to wash it down,
And a jolly good fire to burn him.
Guy Fawkes Day today
The Houses of Parliament are still searched by the Yeomen of the Guard before the state opening. The idea is to ensure no modern-day Guy Fawkes is hiding in the cellars with a bomb, although it is more ceremonial than serious. And they do it with lanterns.
The cellar that Fawkes tried to blow up no longer exists. In 1834 it was destroyed in a fire which devastated the medieval Houses of Parliament. The lantern Guy Fawkes carried in 1605 is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Bonfire night traditions
Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated in the United Kingdom, and in a number of countries that were formerly part of the British Empire, with fireworks, bonfires and parades. Straw dummies representing Fawkes are tossed on the bonfire, as well as those of contemporary political figures.
Dummies have been burned on bonfires since as long ago as the 13th century, initially to drive away evil spirits. Following the Gunpowder Plot, the focus of the sacrifices switched to Guy Fawkes' treason.
Traditionally, these effigies called 'guys', are carried through the streets in the days leading up to Guy Fawkes Day and children ask passers-by for "a penny for the guy." Today the word 'guy' is a synonym for 'a man' but originally it was a term for a "repulsive, ugly person" in reference to Fawkes.
The fireworks represent the explosives that were never used by the plotters.
In Ottery St Mary, south Devon, in a tradition dating from the 17th century, barrels soaked in tar are set alight and carried aloft through parts of the town by residents. Only Ottregians - those born in the town, or who have lived there for most of their lives - may carry a barrel.
Lewes, in southeastern England, is also the site of annual celebration. Guy Fawkes Day there has a distinctly local flavour, involving six bonfire societies whose memberships are grounded in family history stretching back for generations.
The only place in the UK that does not celebrate Guy Fawkes Night is his former school St. Peter’s in York. They refuse to burn a guy out of respect for one of their own.
The origins: fireworks and bonfires
During the 10th century a Chinese cook discovered how to make explosive black powder when he accidentally mixed three kitchen ingredients – potassium nitrate or saltpetre (a salt substitute used in the curing of meat), sulphur and charcoal.
The cook noticed that if the concoction was burned when enclosed in the hollow of a bamboo shoot, there was a tremendous explosion.
Fireworks arrived in Europe in the 14th century and were first produced by the Italians. The first recorded display was in Florence and the first recorded fireworks in England were at the wedding of King Henry VII in 1486.
The word ‘bonfire’ is said to derive from 'bone-fire', from a time when the corpses of witches, heretics and other nonconformists were burned on a pyre instead of being buried in consecrated ground.
Fireworks should be enjoyed at a safe distance and adults should deal with firework displays and the lighting of fireworks. They should also take care of the safe disposal of fireworks once they have been used.
Here are the 10 firework rules to follow
7. Don't put fireworks in pockets and never throw them.
8. Direct any rocket fireworks well away from spectators.
9. Never use paraffin or petrol on a bonfire.
'Anonymous' protests
November 5th has become an important date globally now that political activists all over the world are wearing Guy Fawkes masks to protect their identity. These masks were inspired by Alan Moore's dystopian 'V for Vendetta', the 1988 graphic novel whose main character is loosely based on Guy Fawkes.
Traditional Bonfire Night food
The traditional cake eaten on Bonfire Night is Parkin Cake, a sticky cake containing a mix of oatmeal, treacle, syrup and ginger.Parkin ginger cake - Credit: Simon Reddy/AlamyParkin ginger cake - Credit: Simon Reddy/Alamy
Parkin ginger cake
Credit: Simon Reddy/Alamy
Proper parkin is a dark, sticky cake-cum-flapjack, not just a gingerbread. It’s good warm with custard as a pudding, perhaps with some poached pears, too.
• 4 1/2oz /125g butter
• 4oz/110g caster sugar
• 5oz/ 140g black treacle
• 4oz/ 110g golden syrup
• 8oz/225g medium oatmeal or porridge oats blended in a food processor to a coarse sandy consistency
• 4oz/ 110g self-raising flour
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground mixed spice
• Pinch of salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tbsp milk
Preheat the oven to 140C/Gas 1. Grease and line a 20cmx20cm cake tin.
Put the butter, sugar, treacle and syrup and heat gently until the butter is melted. Don’t let it boil.
Mix the oats, flour, ginger, spice and salt together in a bowl and add the contents of the pan, stirring well until the dry ingredients are well coated.
Mix in the eggs and milk. Scrape the mixture into the prepared baking tin. Bake for an hour, checking often that it doesn’t get too dark on top (cover it with paper or foil if it threatens to burn).
Leave to cool in the tin, then wrap it well and store in an airtight container. If you can leave it a few days, so much the better – it’ll get stickier with time.
Cut into squares to serve.
If you can't be bothered to do this, go to a shop and buy a toffee apple.
Bonfire Night isn't the world's weirdest cultural celebration...
In other parts of the globe certain countries commemorate events in their own unique way.
El Colacho (Spain)
Catholics are usually baptised to absolve them of Original Sin, but in the Spanish Village of Castrillo de Murcia, babies are laid on pillows on the street, whereupon men dressed as the devil jump over them to rid them of their sins. The bizarre ritual dates back to the 17th century and while surprisingly there have been no reports of injuries, unsurprisingly it is not advocated by The Vatican…
Setsubun (Japan)
This festival is held each year on the last day of winter, 3rd February, where people throw beans to ward away bad luck and bring happiness into their homes. Traditionally they will throw roasted soy beans called fuku mame (fortune beans), while shouting “oni-wa-soto” (get out demons) and “fuku-wa-uchi” (come in happiness).
Battaglia delle Arance (Italy)
The highlight of the historical carnival of Ivrea is the “Battle of the Oranges,” a medieval reenactment that commemorates the city's defiance against an evil tyrant.Let battle commence!Let battle commence!
Let battle commence!
Teams of orange-throwers on foot fight an army of orange-throwers on horse-drawn carts, adding up to a total of 5,000 people involved in this sweet, sticky mess. It is estimated that nearly 600,000 pounds of oranges are carted up to the northern city, making it one of the largest food fights in Italy.
Surströmming (Sweden)
Ever smelt something so bad you can taste it? Try eating fermented Baltic herring. In the High Coast of Sweden, a festival is held every August where rotten fish is the main event. This noxious culinary 16th Century tradition takes place outside – for obvious stinky reasons – and the tops are literally popped off of the surströmming (sour herring) tins to the delight of party attendants. Recently cited as one of the most putrid food smells in the world, no wonder it’s an acquired taste.
Rouketopolemos (Greece)
Translated into "Rocket War"; this annual event celebrates Easter by firing off tens of thousands of rockets. What started as a rivalry between two opposing rival Greek churches on the island of Chios, has turned into a yearly fireworks showcase where over 60,000 rockets are fired into the air, in an attempt to hit the bell tower of the church on the opposing side.
Each side claims victory from hitting the other church’s bell tower, but they agree to settle it next year to continue the Easter tradition another year.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Tutorial Task 4.2 - Optimizer
Task 4.2 - Optimizer
Task Overview
In addition to using the Experimenter to explicitly define scenarios, you can use the Optimizer. The Optimizer will automatically create scenarios and then test those scenarios, trying to find a scenario that best meets an objective.
Step 1 Designing the Optimization
1. Go to the Optimizer Design tab in the Experimenter window. You will see that the two variables created earlier are present; this is because the Experimenter and Optimizer share variables.
However, the Optimizer needs additional information about those variables. Specifically, you must specify:
• Type - The type of a variable dictates what kinds of values are possible for a given variable. Continuous variables can have any value between the upper and lower bound.
• Lower Bound - The lower bound specifies the lowest possible value the Optimizer can set for the variable.
• Upper Bound - The upper bound specifies the highest possible value the Optimizer can set for the variable.
• Step - For Discrete and Design variables, the step specifies the distance between possible values, starting from the lower bound.
• Group - For permutation variables, the group specfies which set of permutation variables this particular variable belongs to.
2. For this optimization, we want to allow the processors to move three meters to either side. Since we are not limited to specific positions within that range, both position variables are Continuous. However, we need to set the lower and upper bounds of each variable. To edit values in the table, double-click on the cell of interest and enter in the new value. Enter in the values shown below:
3. The final design step is to set the objective function. The objective function is present, but blank. Edit its name to be Revenue. Then click on the function field. A button will appear on the right side. Click on this button to bring up a list of all variables and performance measures. The objective function is a value derived from any or all of these values. Select Throughput; this will add that perfomance measure to the objective function, and put the cursor right and the end. Add the text * 500 so that Revenue is equal to Throughput * 500. Leave the direction on Maximize, because we want to maximize Revenue. Since we only have one objective, the search mode can remain on Single.
Step 2 Running the Optimization
1. Go to the Optimizer Run tab in the Experimenter window. Then:
• Set the Run Time to 10000. This is how long the Optimizer will run each model configuration (called a solution) to evaluate it.
• Set the Wall Time to 0. This usually means how long the Optimizer is allowed to run in real time. The value 0 means it has no time limit.
• Set Max Solutions to 50. This means the Optimizer will try no more than 50 different solutions to find the optimal solution.
• Click the Optimize button.
2. The Experimenter window will automatically switch to the Optimizer Results tab. The Optimizer then begins running through the following loop:
1. Determine values for Proc2X and Proc3X.
2. Run a model with those values for 10000 seconds.
3. Evaluate the performance measures.
4. Calculate the objective function.
5. Rank this solution.
6. Use the information from this solution to create a new solution - new values for Proc2X and Proc3X.
7. Repeat from Step 2.
3. Because the Optimizer shares the multi-threaded capability of the Experimenter, it can evaluate multiple solutions at the same time. As the optimization progresses, the Optimizer Results graph will update and show the Optimizer's progress.
4. Once the Optimizer evaluates 50 solutions, a message will appear stating why the Optimizer stopped. In this case, it will say that the Optimizer reached the maximum number of solutions. If something went wrong, the message will contain information about the error.
Step 3 Analyzing the Results
When the optimization is finished, the Optimizer Results chart should look something like this:
The Y Axis is called "Single Objective". For this example, it is synonymous with Revenue. The best solutions are highlighted. The circles with a lighter border around them represent better solutions. For a single objective, the top 10 solutions are marked this way.
As the optimization progressed, the Optimizer got better and better at creating good solutions, so that the last 15 solutions were all very good. This is called convergence, and it is one way to tell if an optimization is finished; if the objective value has not improved for a while, it may be that it will not improve with further searching, and the current best solution should be used.
Answering the Original Question
The goal of this optimization was to figure out where to put the two processors. We can now very easily find the answer to this question.
1. Hover over the best solution (the largest blue circle) on the chart; a small popup will appear.
2. Click on this solution to select it. Now, in the Graph Options panel, change the Y Axis to Proc3X, and the X Axis to Proc2X.
3. The best solution (and all the other best solutions) is found where Proc2X is greatest, and where Proc3X is least. Remember that all top 10 solutions produced the same results; in this case, having the two processors right next to each other is the best configuration for this model.
Setting the Model to the Best Solution
It can be very useful to set the model to match the best solution. To do this:
1. Click the Export Scenarios button. This takes all the selected solutions and creates Experimenter scenarios for them. Go back to the Scenarios tab on the Experimenter window to view the new solution.
2. Now, from the Choose default reset sceanrio drop-down on the far right, select the new scenario. Then reset the model to apply those values to the 3D model.
At this point, you've learned how to use the Optimizer. |
Country Information Database
Sweden Country Information
Flag of Sweden
Map of Sweden
Introduction Sweden
Geography Sweden
Geographic coordinates:
62 00 N, 15 00 E
Map references:
total: 449,964 sq km
land: 410,934 sq km
water: 39,030 sq km
Area - comparative:
slightly larger than California
Land boundaries:
total: 2,233 km
border countries: Finland 614 km, Norway 1,619 km
3,218 km
Maritime claims:
exclusive economic zone: agreed boundaries or midlines
mostly flat or gently rolling lowlands; mountains in west
Elevation extremes:
highest point: Kebnekaise 2,111 m
Natural resources:
Land use:
arable land: 5.93%
permanent crops: 0.01%
other: 94.06% (2005)
Irrigated land:
1,150 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources:
179 cu km (2005)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):
total: 2.68 cu km/yr (37%/54%/9%)
per capita: 296 cu m/yr (2002)
Natural hazards:
Environment - current issues:
Environment - international agreements:
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note:
strategic location along Danish Straits linking Baltic and North Seas
People Sweden
9,045,389 (July 2008 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 16% (male 745,110/female 703,857)
15-64 years: 65.6% (male 3,008,148/female 2,928,930)
65 years and over: 18.3% (male 729,500/female 929,844) (2008 est.)
Median age:
total: 41.3 years
male: 40.2 years
female: 42.4 years (2008 est.)
Population growth rate:
0.157% (2008 est.)
Birth rate:
10.15 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Death rate:
10.24 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Net migration rate:
1.66 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
Infant mortality rate:
total: 2.75 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 2.91 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 2.58 deaths/1,000 live births (2008 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 80.74 years
male: 78.49 years
female: 83.13 years (2008 est.)
Total fertility rate:
1.67 children born/woman (2008 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.1% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
3,600 (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:
fewer than 100 (2003 est.)
noun: Swede(s)
adjective: Swedish
Ethnic groups:
Swedish, small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99% (2003 est.)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):
total: 16 years
male: 15 years
female: 17 years (2006)
Education expenditures:
7.1% of GDP (2005)
Government Sweden
Country name:
conventional long form: Kingdom of Sweden
conventional short form: Sweden
local long form: Konungariket Sverige
local short form: Sverige
Government type:
constitutional monarchy
name: Stockholm
geographic coordinates: 59 20 N, 18 03 E
Administrative divisions:
6 June 1523 (Gustav VASA elected king)
National holiday:
1 January 1975
Legal system:
civil law system influenced by customary law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations
18 years of age; universal
Executive branch:
cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
elections: the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative elections, the prime minister is elected by the parliament; election last held on 17 September 2006 (next to be held in September 2010)
election results: Fredrik REINFELDT elected prime minister with 175 out of 349 votes
Legislative branch:
elections: last held on 17 September 2006 (next to be held in September 2010)
election results: percent of vote by party - Social Democrats 37.2%, Moderates 27.8%, Center Party 8.3%, Liberal People's Party 8.0%, Christian Democrats 6.9%, Left Party 6.3%, Greens 5.4%; seats by party - Social Democrats 130, Moderates 97, Center Party 29, Liberal People's Party 28, Christian Democrats 24, Left Party 22, Greens 19
Judicial branch:
Political parties and leaders:
Political pressure groups and leaders:
Children's Rights in Society; Central Association of Salarited Emplyees or TCO; Swedish Federation of Trade Unions or LO
other: media
International organization participation:
ADB (nonregional members), AfDB (nonregional members), Arctic Council, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA, EU, FAO, G-9, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINURCAT, NAM (guest), NC, NEA, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, Schengen Convention, UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOGIP, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU (observer), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC
Diplomatic representation in the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Jonas HAFSTROM
chancery: 2900 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
telephone: [1] (202) 467-2600
FAX: [1] (202) 467-2699
Diplomatic representation from the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Michael M. WOOD
embassy: Dag Hammarskjolds Vag 31, SE-11589 Stockholm
telephone: [46] (08) 783 53 00
FAX: [46] (08) 661 19 64
Flag description:
Economy Sweden
Economy - overview:
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$338.5 billion (2007 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate):
$455.3 billion (2007 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
2.7% (2007 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$37,500 (2007 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 1.5%
industry: 28.8%
services: 69.7% (2007 est.)
Labor force:
4.839 million (2007 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture: 2%
industry: 24%
services: 74% (2000 est.)
Unemployment rate:
6.1% (2007 est.)
Population below poverty line:
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 3.6%
highest 10%: 22.2% (2000)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
23 (2005)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
2.2% (2007 est.)
Investment (gross fixed):
19% of GDP (2007 est.)
revenues: $249.1 billion
expenditures: $233.5 billion (2007 est.)
Public debt:
41.7% of GDP (2007 est.)
Agriculture - products:
barley, wheat, sugar beets; meat, milk
Industrial production growth rate:
3% (2007 est.)
Electricity - production:
153.2 billion kWh (2005)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 4%
hydro: 50.8%
nuclear: 43%
other: 2.3% (2001)
Electricity - consumption:
134.1 billion kWh (2005)
Electricity - exports:
21.97 billion kWh (2005)
Electricity - imports:
14.58 billion kWh (2005)
Oil - production:
2,350 bbl/day (2005 est.)
Oil - consumption:
363,200 bbl/day (2005 est.)
Oil - exports:
231,100 bbl/day (2004)
Oil - imports:
580,600 bbl/day (2004)
Oil - proved reserves:
0 bbl (1 January 2006 est.)
Natural gas - production:
0 cu m (2005 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
893.9 million cu m (2005 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
0 cu m (2005 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
893.9 million cu m (2005)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
0 cu m (1 January 2006 est.)
Current account balance:
$37.97 billion (2007 est.)
$170.1 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)
Exports - commodities:
Exports - partners:
Germany 10.4%, Norway 9.4%, US 7.6%, Denmark 7.4%, UK 7.1%, Finland 6.4%, Netherlands 5.1%, France 5%, Belgium 4.6% (2007)
$151.4 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)
Imports - commodities:
Imports - partners:
Economic aid - donor:
ODA, $3.955 billion (2006)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$31.04 billion (2006 est.)
Debt - external:
$598.2 billion (30 June 2006)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:
$216.6 billion (2007 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:
$261.5 billion (2007 est.)
Market value of publicly traded shares:
$403.9 billion (2005)
Currency (code):
Swedish krona (SEK)
Currency code:
Exchange rates:
Swedish kronor per US dollar - 6.7629 (2007), 7.3731 (2006), 7.4731 (2005), 7.3489 (2004), 8.0863 (2003)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
Communications Sweden
Telephones - main lines in use:
5.506 million (2007)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
10.371 million (2007)
Telephone system:
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 1, FM 265, shortwave 1 (1998)
8.25 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations:
169 (plus 1,299 repeaters) (1995)
4.6 million (1997)
Internet country code:
Internet hosts:
3.318 million (2007)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
29 (2000)
Internet users:
7 million (2007)
Transportation Sweden
250 (2007)
Airports - with paved runways:
total: 152
over 3,047 m: 3
2,438 to 3,047 m: 12
1,524 to 2,437 m: 75
914 to 1,523 m: 24
under 914 m: 38 (2007)
Airports - with unpaved runways:
total: 98
914 to 1,523 m: 6
under 914 m: 92 (2007)
2 (2007)
gas 798 km (2007)
total: 11,528 km
standard gauge: 11,528 km 1.435-m gauge (7,527 km electrified) (2006)
total: 425,300 km
paved: 139,300 km (includes 1,740 km of expressways)
unpaved: 286,000 km (2008)
2,052 km (2005)
Merchant marine:
total: 195 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,987,610 GRT/2,374,430 DWT
by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 23, carrier 1, chemical tanker 47, passenger 4, passenger/cargo 36, petroleum tanker 15, roll on/roll off 37, specialized tanker 3, vehicle carrier 23
foreign-owned: 40 (Denmark 4, Estonia 3, Finland 12, Germany 4, Italy 8, Norway 7, UK 2)
registered in other countries: 201 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Bahamas 4, Barbados 7, Bermuda 20, Cook Islands 9, Cyprus 2, Denmark 4, Finland 2, France 9, Germany 1, Gibraltar 12, Isle of Man 2, Italy 1, Liberia 10, Malaysia 3, Malta 2, Marshall Islands 1, Netherlands 27, Netherlands Antilles 1, Norway 30, Panama 6, Portugal 3, Singapore 19, St Vincent and the Grenadines 2, Tuvalu 1, UK 17, US 5) (2008)
Ports and terminals:
Brofjorden, Goteborg, Helsingborg, Lulea, Malmo, Stenungsund, Stockholm, Trelleborg, Visby
Military Sweden
Military branches:
Military service age and obligation:
19 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service obligation: 7-15 months (Navy), 8-12 months (Air Force); after completing initial service, soldiers have a reserve commitment until age 47 (2006)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 16-49: 2,052,890
females age 16-49: 1,980,550 (2008 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 16-49: 1,699,115
females age 16-49: 1,637,868 (2008 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:
male: 64,605
female: 61,110 (2008 est.)
Military expenditures:
1.5% of GDP (2005 est.)
Transnational Issues Sweden
Disputes - international:
This page was last updated on 2 October, 2008 Access Time: Sun, 07 Jun 2020 09:41:06 +0000 |
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Wikipedia.
(ə-vûr′sĭv, -zĭv)
a·ver′sive·ly adv.
a·ver′sive·ness n.
Denotes type of therapy using unpleasant stimuli that seeks to cause a patient to avoid one or more transgressive behaviors.
References in periodicals archive ?
When we face an aversive task, something that is boring, frustrating, low on enjoyment or something we don't know how to do, we put it off.
Following assessment, a treatment package including extinction and stimulus fading was implemented to increase toleration of aversive noise.
Here, we test whether conspecific body extracts as well as authentic unsaturated fatty acids can serve as aversive chemical reinforcements for associative learning in A.
This indicates that the prompting procedure was effective in teaching the fish to cross from one of the experimental tanks to the other without the use of an aversive stimulus.
In an attempt to reduce the averseness of the concentrated FDT+ and quinine, either 250 mM sucrose (8%w/w) or 750 mM sucrose (25% w/w) was added to each concentration of the aversive stimuli.
In contextual fear conditioning, experimental subjects are placed in an emotionally neutral context (such as a room) and presented an aversive stimulus (such as an electrical shock).
According to Potter, LaTour, Braun-LaTour, and Reichert (2006), this is a dual-motivation system theory that suggests emotions arise as either appetitive (approach) or aversive (avoid).
It starts by asking Question 1: Are the aversive sensory attributes of the API known?
Face Matching Task (FMT) [2, 13] is one of the most commonly used paradigms to study affective processing; different versions have been adapted, which consider several conditions, but all of them allow the implicit and explicit assessment of affective processing, including aversive emotions, such as fear or anger (see Materials and Methods for the task description).
Briefly, aversive racism theory is based on the idea that today racism
That is, when an aversive stimulus is presented or a reinforcing stimulus is withdrawn, the probability that the action will be repeated declines (Kunkel & Berry, 1968).
The key to successful counter-conditioning, as this process is called, is to always keep the dog below threshold; you want him a little aware of and worried about the aversive stimulus, but not quaking in fear or barking and lunging. |
Notre Dame: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow ...
We were devastated to hear about and view the footage of the beautiful Parisian Cathedral burning during the week. We have spent much time in this part of Paris, mainly sitting in the garden at the back and always have a stroll past (but maybe not joining the endless lines to go inside. It seems that thankfully many artifacts and pieces of art were saved from the fire as well as much of the stone structure, however many will have been lost and certainly significant structural damage has been done.
Here is a brief history of Notre Dame we have collected to help you to better understand the cultural significance of this building to France. From surviving Huguenots in the 16th century, the French Revolution, 2 world wars including German occupation in WW11, the Lady of Paris has an interesting story.
Taking 200 years to build and completed in 1345, Notre Dame cathedral is considered a crown jewel of French history.
From 16th century vandals and the Commune uprising to two world wars that saw Paris in the crosshairs of German bombardment, Notre Dame has, remarkably, stood the test of time.
"Throughout the last 900 years or so, Notre Dame has been at the heart of all the big events in French history," University of Melbourne historian Peter McPhee said.
Situated at the eastern end of the Ile de la Cite and built on the ruins of two earlier churches, the cathedral was first commissioned by King Louis VII, who imagined it as a symbol of Paris's cultural and political supremacy.
The first stone is believed to have been laid by Pope Alexander III in 1163 — but it would take another 200 years (and a slew of modifications) to complete the building.
Notre Dame includes a choir and apse, a short transept and a nave flanked by double aisles and square chapels, though its central spire, which was destroyed by the fire, was not built until the 19th century.
Restorations, it would seem, would become a recurring theme for the iconic cathedral, which weathered centuries of turbulence.
Rioting Huguenots, or French Protestants, vandalised parts of the building they believed to be idolatrous in the mid-16th century.
It was further devastated during the French Revolution, during which many of the treasures of the cathedral were destroyed or plundered.
Statues of biblical kings were beheaded, and all the cathedral bells but one were melted before the once-imposing structure came to be used as a food warehouse.
"The Catholic Church was bitterly opposed to the French Revolution and in the midst of international warfare, Notre Dame was turned into a Temple of Reason and effectively closed to Christian worship," Professor McPhee said.
"There was a great deal of damage done to a lot of the fittings and the statuary."
Heavy tapestries covered the walls to conceal holes and cracks by the time Napoleon Bonaparte took power.
The Ile de la Cite was a warren of slum housing, and Notre Dame itself was considered a prime fire hazard.
Napoleon was crowned Emperor in the cathedral in 1804, and vowed to restore it to its medieval glory.
But many credit Victor Hugo, who authored The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831, with placing the plight of Notre Dame into the public consciousness.
"All manner of profanation, degradation, and ruin are all at once threatening what little remains of these admirable monuments of the Middle Ages that bear the imprint of past national glory, to which both the memory of kings and the tradition of the people are attached," he wrote in an 1825 editorial, dubbed the War on Demolishers.
"While who knows what bastard edifices are being constructed at great cost … other admirable and original structures are falling without anyone caring to be informed, whereas their only crime is that of being French by origin, by history, and by purpose."
The book's success would reportedly spur thousands of people to travel to Paris to see firsthand where Hugo's fictional hero Quasimodo met Esmerelda.
The public outcry was deafening, and the French state allocated funds for Notre Dame's restoration, commissioning the architect Lassus, who was later succeeded by Viollet-le-Duc.
"That's the time when the spire was added, in the 1840s," Professor McPhee said.
As Paris itself underwent a major modernisation, the cathedral found itself in the firing line again.
The Prussians laid siege to the city in 1870-71, and that was followed by the street fighting of the Paris Commune, when left-wing revolutionaries seized the city and fought pitched battles with the French army.
Though the German bombardment of World War I may have changed the physiognomy of Paris, Notre Dame cathedral escaped unscathed.
Landmarks like Saint-Gervais church would be reduced to rubble, but German shells failed to reach the centuries-old monument.
Similarly, the occupation during World War II, which saw Third Reich flags fly over French government buildings and the clocks of Paris reset to Berlin time, marked a turning point for the nation.
And yet, despite Adolf Hitler ordering that Paris be left a "heap of burning ruins", the Nazis lost control of the city in the aftermath of the Allies' D-Day landings without putting up a serious fight.
"At the time of the liberation of Paris in 1944, there was a lot of skirmishing through the streets of Paris as German troops tried to defend their hold on the city and then extricate themselves," Professor McPhee said.
"[This was happening] right in the heart of Paris, so there was some very minor damage done to Notre Dame during that fighting.
"[Damage] to stained glass windows and occasional bullet damage, but it wasn't extensive."
In more recent times, the more than 800-year-old structure has faced ongoing works due to centuries of wear and tear taking their toll.
But whether recent restorations which have been linked to the catastrophic fire will be the last is yet to be seen.
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10 Greatest Programming Languages To Be taught In 2016 ~ The Cyber Hacker
Recognition may not be a single vector answer, but college students and professionals nonetheless want to know if they’re guiding their careers and corporations in the best direction. Final 12 months, Microsoft released SQL Server 2016, which launched a number of new features to make the language extra open-supply like integration with R, the popular data analysis programming language, and a Linux model, making it an extremely nicely-recognized language.
The earliest computers had been typically programmed with out the assistance of a programming language, by writing programs in absolute machine language The packages, in decimal or binary kind, had been read in from punched cards or magnetic tape or toggled in on switches on the entrance panel of the computer.
One of many good issues about Code Academy is that it has a variety of brief courses in different languages, that means you may take a few different programs to get a ‘taster’ of every language before deciding which one you need to learn in additional depth.
Some programming languages exist on the border between proprietary and open; for instance, Oracle Corporation asserts proprietary rights to some facets of the Java programming language , and Microsoft ‘s C# programming language, which has open implementations of most elements of the system, additionally has Frequent Language Runtime (CLR) as a closed environment.
That wasn’t going to alter for quite a very long time, and it is fascinating trying back and seeing how naive I used to be, particularly in gentle of the entire languages and concepts I realized between this image of the world of programming and my realization that the black void was truly filled with an extremely numerous ecosystem of languages. |
Going Green
The World Needs Water PaveDrain - The Premier Articulating Paving Surface
Energy and water are the two great challenges of the 21st century.
Having said that, how do we supply energy to a global population of 7 billion people and growing, while simultaneously preserving the environment? How do we curb energy consumption by designing and constructing buildings with energy conserving materials? How do we manage storm water? How do we supply water to the same global population? Masonry products will play a critical role in solving these challenges. At Ernest Maier, we chose to address and provide solutions to these challenges through "process" and "products".
EMCO CO2What complicates masonry's role is the intense amount of energy required to produce cement for use in concrete masonry and to "fire" clay brick. Ernest Maier explored the market for solutions to reduce its carbon footprint from its production process and to determine what products that it could distribute or manufacture that have adopted innovative technologies to reduce their carbon footprint or conserve energy use with their application.
Process »
What process improvements from production to delivery of its products could be made to offset the production of carbon dioxide or reduce the use of fossil fuels? Seven years ago, Ernest Maier began to collect cooking oils from local restaurants and processed that oil into clean diesel for use in its "off road" equipment like forklifts and loaders. By converting cooking oil into diesel, the company eliminated the need for the cooking oil to enter the waste stream and reduced demand for refined fossil fuels. Concurrent with the commencement of biodiesel production, Ernest Maier partnered with the Go Zero program of The Conservation Fund to voluntarily offset the carbon dioxide generated from the production of its concrete block.
Visit Carbon CureIn June 2014, Ernest Maier partnered with CarbonCure - an emerging science-based leader in concrete technology for the green building sector. CarbonCure technology introduces carbon dioxide into the production of concrete block. CO2 is a byproduct of the production of cement which is the "glue" in concrete. CarbonCure's technology injects CO2 into the mix prior to the block being formed in the mold converting the greenhouse gas into solid limestone within the concrete, making simply better concrete. Architects, owners and engineers may now specify any Ernest Maier manufactured concrete products with CarbonCure. Email or call us today at 888-ZEROCO2.
Products »
Reducing the carbon footprint with masonry products required seeking innovative products that did not require a complete revolution in masonry system design. Ernest Maier sought out products that seamlessly integrated with traditional construction methods.
Visit OmniBlockAt its core, Omni Block is a patented insulated cementitious masonry unit (CMU) wall system which combines the benefits of indigenous aggregates, Expanded Polystyrene, thermal lag (the delay, disruption and redirection of heat flow), exposed thermal mass (the absorption of heat), and air tightness. This results in a thermally efficient wall system with a high effective R-value and is consistent with well-known and widely accepted thermal performance concepts.
Visit CalStarCalStar masonry products are manufactured from an innovative process that utilizes recycled fly ash as a primary component to provide the requisite strength and durability in a material without subjecting it to high-temperature, long-duration firing. CalStar is the one of the only manufacturers in masonry products with an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). Following an intensive life cycle assessment by one of the world's leading architectural firms, Perkins + Will, CalStar was awarded an EPD that verifies our bricks require 81% less energy to manufacture, incorporate 37% recycled content, and emit 84% less CO2 during production (relative to traditional bricks). Their state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Mississippi has the capability to produce all traditional brick sizes, large facing units, cast stone, thru-wall structural brick, pavers and now wet cast products.
Visit ProblockThe ProBlock masonry wall system combines greater energy efficiency with higher productivity by eliminating a crossweb and having a balanced weight for easier installation. The resulting lowered product weight and reduction in thermal bridging gives the ProBlock wall system both economic and thermal advantages to competitive wall systems. By adding spray foam to the cavities, designers can attain R values in excess of 10 for their potential project. ProBlock reduces the carbon footprint and wall costs. It is a win-win for building designers.
EMCO H2OThe growth in global population and the awareness of the environmental impact of that growth on the supply and quality of water is driving innovation. Globally, much of this innovation has been focused on the processing of water into drinking water and driving sewer infrastructure. In the United States, governmental regulations, taxes and fees relating to the management of storm water have driven both changes in process management and product innovation.
Process »
With both a concrete block plant and volumetric ready mix trucks, Ernest Maier consumed a great amount of water monthly; however, it did not send water to the sewer system from its manufacturing operations. In 2008, the company began to collect storm water and recycle it into its ready mix and block operations. In 2015, the company expects to expand its storm water collection, treat that water, and re-introduce the treated water on an expanded scale into its concrete production.
Products »
Visit PaveDrainErnest Maier had sold permeable pavers and porous pavement solutions until 2009 with success; nevertheless, management sought out a product that worked at the "intersection" of transportation and storm water management. In late 2009, Ernest Maier signed on as a licensee for PaveDrain - a permeable articulating concrete block pavement system. PaveDrain has the highest surface infiltration rate (10,000 inches per hour per square foot according to University of Central Florida's Stormwater Management Academy as tested by a modified ASTM C-1701 method) among permeable or porous pavements, a compressive strength in excess of 4,000 pounds per square inch that meets freeze-thaw requirements, a modular system for easy design and installation, and the lowest life cycle costs of any pavement system based on a 25 year life. |
Examples of Metaphors in Advertising
Metaphors merge two seemingly incompatible images or concepts in an effort to create symbolism. Metaphors are frequently used in advertising as a way to enhance the perceived value of a product or to make it seem more personal. They can also help to create a particular brand image. An advertising metaphor often combines a verbal phrase with a visual image to dramatize the effect.
"Your Daily Ray of Sunshine"
This metaphor was used by Tropicana to promote its orange juice. The metaphor projects an image of health and vitality that is associated with drinking orange juice on a daily basis. It also alludes to the fact that oranges are natural products raised in sunny climates as opposed to man-made products filled with artificial ingredients.
"It's What Comfort Tastes Like"
Werther's used this metaphor to associate eating its candy products with "comfort food," to make consumers feel good about eating them. Chocolate and caramel lovers are led to believe that eating the candy can provide a break from their everyday stresses and be able to experience a pleasurable sensation.
A300 mobile placeholder
"Connecting People"
Nokia used this metaphor to convey the image of connecting people with their mobile phones instead of simply as a means of having a conversation. The message is that not only can you talk to someone who may be hundreds of miles away, you can also make an emotional connection with the person, which enhances the phone's value.
"Subservient Chicken"
Burger King used this metaphor to advertise its chicken products. It creates an image of a chicken complying during the preparation process to ensure the consumer's food meets his exact specifications. The metaphor is in line with Burger King's overall "Have it your way" branding strategy.
"Isn't It Time You Gave Yourself Some TLC?"
Much the same way as Werther's made eating candy a symbol of comfort, Activia used this phrase to equate eating its yogurt with providing yourself some tender loving care. In addition to eating a food product to satisfy a basic need, you are getting the extra benefit of doing something good for your health.
"Real Honest Food"
Ginester used this phrase to convey the image that its Cornish pasties are better than those of their presumably "dishonest" competitors. It also sends a message that the products are somehow more wholesome and consuming them may even be the "moral" thing to do.
Photo Credits
• Orange and orange juice in a glass image by Svetlana Gladkova from Fotolia.com
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Solar Misperceptions
Solar power has come a long way since its introduction as an alternative power source. It has grown from a niche of environmental die hards to the leading alternative power source and gateway to distributed power generation. With all that it has become there are 2 pervasive ideas that persist about it:
1. Solar is expensive
2. Only utility scale solar is available
This may have been true for years, decades even. Apparently so long that is has become the reflex answer for why so many homeowners have not adopted it. The reality has changed and now the perception must as well. Overall the amount needed to install solar power has dropped over 50% in the last 6 years and another 5% over last year. In 2010 it would take about $7/watt to install solar, a rather hefty investment just a short time ago. Especially with people reeling from the home crisis of 2008. That market has since rebounded and the solar market has taken massive leaps as well dropping the average investment amount to $3.30/watt for an installation. This still varies based on the company and there are some as high as $5.00, depending on system additions like power regulators, battery banks, or other ancillary components. This puts going solar on par with utility pricing for electricity. When they are lined up next to one another it just makes sense to go with the clean source instead of the polluting one.
When people speak of solar more often than not they are expecting it to come from the utility company. Fields of solar panels blanketing our countryside, which is common. Our e local Florida Gulf Coast University installed a 15 acre solar field which accounts for 85% of the power that the engineering building uses and reduced the campus power consumption from FPL by 18%. However, this configuration is not the only option available, particularly to residents of the sunshine state. Homeowners can take their part through rooftop solar arrays. The underutilized space of the roof is ideal for solar power production based on its constant bathing in sunlight that normally makes the home just hot. The perception of the top down approach must shift to a grassroots, bottom up, approach. Utilities can still shift to solar fields and homeowners can help with the heavy lifting by using their roof.
Between the 2 perceptions there must by a merging to allow homes to reap the benefits of going solar. The cost of doing nothing is continued expense, even for facilities that will not be built like the unlicensed nuclear facilities that everyone has been on the hook for since 2006. On top of that there is a rate increases of a proposed 24% by FPL that can begin to take effect early next year. This increase will offset the entire savings the university created. Furthermore there is the continued environmental damage from burning fossil fuels daily. The cost of allowing the misperceptions of expense and scale cost far more in the short as well as long runs. Focusing on creating a greener city like Boulder, Colorado has done is just the first step in energy responsibility. That is the initiative that all of Florida, from the people on up, should be taking. Throughout the country there is the growing trend of solar. Just in the 2nd quarter it has grown 43%! Despite this fantastic pace we need homes to make the affordable choice of investing in solar and controlling their power. You own your home, why rent your power?
Go forth and spread sunshine,
Clifford Mitchem
Independent Energy Advisor
Clean Renewable Energy Worldwide
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Act to make yourself happier, says Dalai Lama
With a smile: The Dalai Lama says ‘love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries’. © PA
One of the world’s most significant spiritual leaders is promoting a movement which calls on us all to make the world a happier place. But how far is happiness dictated by our actions?
Near the beginning of the Declaration of Independence — the document which outlines the founding principles of the United States — stand three ‘unalienable rights’ of men: ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.
The last of them has long been a source of debate and mystery. The idea of happiness has inspired music, film and literature, but definitions of it and understanding of its causes remain vague.
At the ‘Creating a Happier World’ conference in London yesterday, authors, psychologists and neuroscientists came together in the hope of creating ‘a happier and more caring world’. The conference, which was organised by the Action for Happiness movement and timed to coincide with World Peace Day, attracted a high profile: the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet and patron of the movement, was in attendance.
Man has sought to understand the value of its own happiness for millennia. The Greek philosopher Aristotle gave some of the earliest known commentary on the issue, saying happiness was the highest good which mankind was designed to aim for. His idea was developed by Enlightenment thinker Jeremy Bentham, who suggested that public policy should be conducted on utilitarian grounds, meaning it would support ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number’.
But the sources of happiness are more contentious. Scientists say there are seven molecules in the brain which are linked to the phenomenon, each of which has an impact on a different aspect of wellbeing. But we are still seeking to understand how our behaviour can make us happier. Two recent studies had particularly striking conclusions in this regard: the Office of National Statistics declared a link between money and happiness, and a survey in the US showed that millennials (people born between 1980 and the mid-2000s) increasingly felt experiences, rather than material goods, were likely to make them happy.
If you’re happy and you know it
The Dalai Lama hopes people will be ‘inspired to take their own action’ to make the world happier. Happiness, then, is something we can aim for and bring about. We can reflect on our experiences and make a positive contribution to those around us, enriching their lives and our own. Even the simplest actions, such as smiling at each other, can make the world a happier place.
It won’t make much difference, some respond. Happiness is largely something which happens to us; it is a side-effect of our wider lives. It comes from the environment in which we live, the freedoms we enjoy, the way we spend our time and the company we keep. It is largely beyond our immediate control.
You Decide
1. Are we ourselves the main reason for our own level of happiness?
2. Is it inevitable that the world will be an unhappy place?
1. Write a list of ten things that make you happy. Number them in order of importance and explain your choices.
2. Choose three of the Action for Happiness movement’s 12 steps (from the link under ‘Become An Expert’) and prepare a short talk on them. What do they involve, do you think they will make people happier and how significant do you think they will be? Explain your views.
Some People Say...
“In the modern world we do not give happiness a high enough priority.”
The Dalai Lama
What do you think?
Q & A
What can I do to make myself happier?
The Action for Happiness movement suggest 12 small everyday steps which can make you and others happier. They include taking a pledge, thanking the people you’re grateful to and finding three good things each day. They also feature advice for parents to help build children’s emotional resilience.
I’m feeling unhappy — where can I get support?
Talking to friends and family is almost always the best first step you can take. But if that hasn’t worked, or you don’t feel comfortable talking to them about the problems you face, there are always lots of other ways of getting help. You can call ChildLine, for free and in private, at any time on 0800 1111, or the Samaritans (for 2p a minute plus your phone provider’s access charge) on 08457 90 90 90.
Word Watch
Dalai Lama
This Buddhist monk is the most famous voice of the campaign for Tibet to be independent from China. He led the Tibetan government-in-exile for many years.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, thinkers challenged many traditionally accepted ideas, giving birth to some of the political ideologies which play a central part in our lives today. The emphasis on the power of reason brought into question the power of political, economic and religious elites.
Utilitarianism, which Bentham first articulated in the 1780s, meant maximising human pleasure and minimising pain. It was a revolutionary idea in its time, as it suggested that everyone’s happiness was of equal importance. This went against the hierarchical nature of western European societies in the 18th century. Utilitarianism is still contested today, with some concerned by its true meaning and others arguing that it has unintended negative consequences.
Different aspect of wellbeing
The seven molecules are said to provide bliss, reward, bonding, confidence and energy, and to prevent pain and anxiety.
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Born Free Kenya’s Meru field team were recently on hand during a rhino ear notching exercise conducted by Kenya Wildlife Service in Meru National Park. Some 17 rhinos - two blacks and 15 white - were successfully notched in Meru’s rhino sanctuary.
Ear notching gives the rhino a permanent and unique identity which assists in swift identification and ease of monitoring.
A fixed-wing aircraft surveyed the area and helped to spot where the rhino were. The fixed-wing pilot then informed a chopper team - pilot, scientists and vet - of the rhino’s location, who then set out to find them. If a suitable rhino was with other rhinos, the chopper separated them and the vet darted the rhino. The chopper team then told the ground team the location of the darted rhino.
The ground team moved swiftly in search of the rhino. This team helped the darted rhino into a good position and then set about marking the ears and checking its general health. Some rhinos are also fitted with transponders for security purposes.
Each operation is fast-paced and everyone involved knows their role. The exercise lasts about 30 minutes from darting to the time the rhino is revived. The notched rhino then usually reunites with his or her crash.
In the early 1980s, all rhinos were wiped out when Meru National Park was overrun by poachers. Other wildlife - like elephants, lions, giraffe and other herbivores - were also affected by the poaching onslaught and disease. The rhino sanctuary was established during a rehabilitation programme from 2000, and a variety of wildlife species were restocked, including rhinos.
Their numbers have been on the rise owing to new births. Today, Meru has more than 100 rhinos.
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Does A Carbohydrate-Restricted Diet Reduce Food Cravings And Induce Weight Loss?
Low-carbohydrate diets will often lead to weight loss over a short period of time. This is why it is often more successful compared to low-fat diets. But is this because of the effect that carbohydrate restriction has on food cravings and eating behaviour?
Food cravings – the intense desire to consume a particular type of food is difficult to resist – can play a significant role in weight gain.
Food cravings can differ between men and women. Studies suggest that men report stronger cravings for high-fat and fast-food fats, whereas women craving sweeter foods.
Many people who are overweight or obese assume that dieting increases their food cravings. However, most of the research demonstrates that cravings are reduced during energy restriction.
Low-carbohydrate diets have been found to cause greater weight loss in the initial 4 weeks. However, there are few studies to show how a low-carbohydrate diet affects food cravings and eating behaviours over the first 4 weeks.
Researchers designed a study to examine this relationship, as well as looking at any differences in food cravings and food behaviours between men and women.
The study
The research conducted was a secondary analysis of a parent study exploring carbohydrate restriction and vascular stiffness.
Participants were aged between 30-55 years, with a BMI between 27-40kg/m2. They were considered sedentary to moderately active, and had either characteristics of insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome. Exclusion criteria included diabetes, consumption of >5 (for women) or >10 (for men) standard alcohol drinks per week, tobacco use, dietary regimens or requirements that precluded the prescribed diet, and a history of clinically significant diseases.
The low-carbohydrate group consumed 1500kcal/day, including 20-25g of net carbohydrates per day. The diet had macronutrient ratios of approximately 14% carbohydrate, 58% fat and 28% protein.
For the first two weeks, all food was provided, along with instructions for how to prepare and cook compliant food. Before and after the intervention, specific and total cravings were measured, along with eating behaviours.
20 participants were assigned to the low-carbohydrate diet group in the original study. Of these, 19 had complete data for food cravings and 18 had complete data for eating behaviours.
The findings
By week 4 of the intervention, food cravings had significantly reduced. Women had significantly greater sweet craving reductions compared to men.
In terms of eating behaviours, reported dietary restraint had increased by 102%, while disinhibition reduced by 17% and hunger by 22%.
One association of note was that those who lost the most weight experienced the least reduction in fat cravings. This suggests that those who crave high-fat foods may find a low-carbohydrate approach to be effective for weight loss.
The researchers concluded that a low-carbohydrate diet promoted significant weight loss over a short period of time. It resulted in significant reductions in specific cravings, total cravings and hunger, as well as increasing dietary restraint.
Women exhibited greater reductions in sweet cravings compared to men. Dietary strategies that aim to reduce sweet food cravings may need to take sex into consideration.
There was also evidence that those with higher fat cravings may benefit from a low-carbohydrate diet, as it satisfies those cravings.
However, future studies with a larger sample size should be conducted to confirm these findings.
Anguah, K.O.B., Syed-Abdul, M.M., Hu, Q., Jacome-Sosa, M., Heimowitz, C., Cox, V. and Parks, E.J., 2020. Changes in Food Cravings and Eating Behavior after a Dietary Carbohydrate Restriction Intervention Trial. Nutrients, 12(1), p.52.
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Neuron-Packed Bird Brains Point to Creation | The Institute for Creation Research
Neuron-Packed Bird Brains Point to Creation
The amazing ability of birds to achieve ape-level cognitive traits—and in some cases exceed them like when they emulate human speech—has long confounded the evolutionary paradigm that claims humans evolved from apes. Now the bird intelligence evolutionary quandary has worsened as described in a new research report that shows bird brains contain over twice as many neurons per unit area as ape brains.1
Many different types of birds have cognitive abilities that either match or surpass those of mammals despite the fact their brains tend to be much smaller. In fact, corvids (e.g., crows, ravens, jays) and some parrots either rival or exceed the mental capabilities of apes. Their remarkable capabilities include: manufacturing and using simple tools, solving problems with ingenuity and insight, making accurate inferences about causal mechanisms, recognizing themselves in a mirror, making preparations for future needs, and using their own experience to anticipate future behavior of members of their own and other species.1 In addition, these birds share with humans a rare capacity for exceptional vocal learning, and parrots can learn sophisticated words and even use them to communicate at a basic level with humans.
So how do birds achieve impressive cognitive expertise with brains that are often only the size of a walnut? In this new report, the researchers investigated the cellular structure and composition of the brains of 28 bird species. They actually uncovered a straightforward engineering-based design solution to this mystery. It was discovered that the brains of songbirds and parrots contain very large numbers of neurons (specialized nerve cells), at neuronal densities that far exceed those found in mammals. Because these more numerous and dense neurons are mostly located in the forebrain region, large parrots and corvids actually have the same or greater forebrain neuron cell numbers as apes with considerably larger brains. As a result of this amazing brain architecture, these neuron-dense bird brains have the potential to provide much greater cognitive power per unit mass than do many mammalian brains.
As shown in this news story, many birds are as advanced or more so than apes in their cognitive abilities and neuron structure. In a recent ICR news article, I noted that secular media stories are attempting to humanize chimpanzees to prop up the failing evolutionary story that humans evolved from apes.2 As I also commented, these types of publicity efforts are examples of cherry-picking data from the animal kingdom convenient to the evolutionary story. What about birds and the amazing design of their brains? Well, it's inconvenient to the evolutionary story.
Humans are made in God's image. An animal's brain structure is unique to its inherent engineered features. The reason these design patterns don't fit the evolutionary story is because they exemplify the incredible engineering and creativity of our great Creator God who created everything unique after its kind.
1. Olkowicz, S., et al. 2016. Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain. PNAS Early Edition. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1517131113. Posted on May 6, 2016, accessed June 15, 2016.
2. Tomkins, J. 2016. Is Chimp Grief Evidence of Evolution? Creation Science Update. Posted on June 9, 2016, accessed June 15, 2016.
Article posted on June 20, 2016.
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Uvac River and Eagle.jpg
CountrySerbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Physical characteristics
⁃ locationNinaja mountain, Pešter plateau
⁃ location
Lim river, near Priboj
⁃ coordinates
43°20′58″N 19°58′13″E / 43.34944°N 19.97028°E / 43.34944; 19.97028Coordinates: 43°20′58″N 19°58′13″E / 43.34944°N 19.97028°E / 43.34944; 19.97028
Length114.5 km (71 mi) [1]
Basin size1,596 km2 (616 sq mi) [1]
⁃ average18 m3/s (640 cu ft/s)
Basin features
ProgressionLimDrinaSavaDanubeBlack Sea
The Uvac (Serbian Cyrillic: Увац) is an international trans-boundary river, rising under Golija mountain and Pešter plateau, then flowing through southwestern Serbia and cross into eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina where, after 115 km, finally meets the Lim river from the right, however, before it empties into the Lim, for a 10 kilometers Uvac forms the border between two countries. Also, while meandering through Serbia, Uvac loosely makes the northern border of the Raška region too.
Upper course
The Uvac originates in the Pešter plateau from the Ninaja mountain, as Rasanska reka (Cyrillic: Расанска река). The stream curves around the Ninaja and Pometenik mountains, next to the villages of Tuzinje, Rasno, Dragojloviće and Gradac, where it meets Brnjička reka (Cyrillic: Брњичка река), enters the Sjenica depression and continues on depression eastern border as the Vapa (Cyrillic: Вапа), which is 25 kilometers long and drains an area of 496 km².
The river passes next to the villages of Gornja Vapa, Donja Vapa, Čedovo and Krstac, where the Vapa receives from the left the short river Uvac, which originates on the Ozren mountain, and gives name to the downstream course of the river.
Lower course
Meanders of Uvac
Bridge over Uvac
The Uvac continues to the northwest, enters the Stari Vlah region where it flows in a deep, canyon-like valley, where it receives the Kladnica river from the right and generates lots of power, which is used for three powerful hydroelectric power stations, each one with big artificial lake: Bistrica with Lake Radoinja, Kokin Brod with Zlatar Lake (7,3 km², altitude 400 m, depth 40 m) and Sjenica with Lake Sjenica.
In the lowest part of its course, The Uvac flows between the Zlatar and Zlatibor mountains, next to the villages of Kokin Brod and Radoinja until it reaches the Bosnian border and Varda mountain, makes a sharp, elbow turn to the south and after a short flow next to the villages of Bjelušine and Uvac (both on Bosnian side), the Uvac empties into the Lim, north of the city of Priboj.
The Uvac drains an area of 1,596 km²,[1] belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin, and it is not navigable. Its average discharge at the mouth is 18 m³/s.
The river is famous for its gorge, Kanjon Uvca, the thriving colony of reintroduced griffon vultures and the Uvac Special Nature Reserve, protected since 1971. The river is extremely meandering: though 115 km (71 mi) long, the straight line from the river's source to its mouth is only 40 km (25 mi).[2]
1. ^ a b c "Sava River Basin Analysis Report" (PDF, 9.98 MB). International Sava River Basin Commission. September 2009. p. 14. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
2. ^ Aleksandra Petrović (9 September 2018). "Pod krilima zaštićenog oral" [Under the wings of protected eagle]. Politika (in Serbian). pp. 08–09.
External links
• Uvac Special Nature Reserve |
How To Know Your Genotype Without Blood Test
All over the world, people make a genotype test for many reasons. Some visit the hospitals and medical laboratories to know about their blood group, or to know if they are compatible with their fiance.
Genotype test gives you a lot of information about yourself, and it can provide you with details about your ancestral background and history, the features and traits of your family.
How To Know Your Genotype Without Blood Test
If you are considering how possible it is to find your genotype without visiting the hospital or clinic to do a blood test. It is possible for you to know your genotype without a blood test, read on to know how true it is.
What is the Genotype Test?
A genotype test is an examination of your genetic origin and makeup, and it provides you with valuable information about yourself, bloodline, and family history.
It is essential for you to know your genotype, not for knowing about your family background, but it also helps you to see the health issues and challenges faced by members of your family.
This can help you to prevent and fight deadly illnesses and sicknesses early.
You do not necessarily need to know the code of the entire genome, a few snippets of the code will be enough. The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) parts are the snippets of a genome, the DNA makes us different from other people.
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For example, they make some people dark-haired while others are blond-haired. Generic scientists have taken into cognizance the existence of over ten million different kinds of snippets; that is, there are over ten million differences in the genetic set all over the world, or even more.
Here is a chance for you to know the different types of genotype and also to learn to discover your genotype without doing a blood test.
Types of Genotype
A genotype is a carrier of all the genes in a cell, it is a group of organisms made up of the same genes. The world ‘Genotype’ is used to describe to genes that are passed on from ancestors to descendants.
Well, even when these organisms in the cell are composed have the same genotype, there are some differences. These differences make each person unique and different from another.
Each gene has its own genotypic environment where they interact with other genes. Genotypes are known by their way of interaction, they include:
• Epistatic – they suppress the actions of other non-allelic genes.
• Hypostatic – they are suppressed by allelic genes.
• Pleiotropic – they affect the manifestation of some symptoms simultaneously.
• Fatal – they reduce the embryo’s viability, oftentimes, they kill the embryos.
• Sublethal – they are like the fatal genotypes, however, they can kill the embryo even before its reproductive period.
• Modifiers – they can change the manifestation of other genes.
• Mutators – these genotypes rapidly cause a change in the body signs and preferences of a person.
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Asides from this, there are four genotypes which determine the trait of a person, they are: AA, AS, AC, and SS. Anyone with the SS genotype will have a sickle cell crisis like anemia, therefore, it is pertinent for you to check your genotype and that of your fiance before tying the knot.
Genotype Compatibility Chart
AS + AC = AA, AC, AS,SS. (Bad; seek counsel)
AC + AC = AA, AC, AC, SS. ( Bad;Seek counsel)
A lot of people care less about checking their genotype before going into marriage, consequently, they may end up producing children with sickle-cell anemia.
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Genotype VS. Phenotype
• The genotype is the set of genes in the DNA of an organism that made up the traits.
• Phenotype is a combination of the traits or features found by the organism. This term covers the physical and morphological shape of the organism, its processes of development, its pharmacological and physiological properties.
Sickle Cell Genotype
A gene mutation of the red blood cells that makes them shaped like a crescent moon causes sickle cell anemia.
It means that the disease can only occur if both parents pass genes to the child. It is said that a child with only one gene has sickle cell traits.
Four of the most common types of sickle cell diseases are Hemoglobin S, Hemoglobin SB 0 thalassemia caused by the beta-globin gene, Hemoglobin SB+ thalassemia, and Hemoglobin SC.
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Canadian Peacekeepers in Haiti
Since 1990, peacekeepers from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and civilian police forces, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), have served in Haiti on various United Nations (UN) missions. The purpose of these missions was to help stop the internal violence and civil unrest that had plagued the country for years and help promote and protect human rights and strengthen police and judicial systems.
Map of Haiti.
(courtesy UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs/Wikimedia CC)
Haiti is a Caribbean nation east of Cuba. It occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. More than 10 million people live in Haiti. Most are the descendants of African slaves who had revolted against their French colonial masters and gained their independence in 1804. For much of its history, Haiti has been wracked by internal strife, ranging from economic, political and social problems to devastating natural disasters. It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
After several years of unrest in the first half of the 20th century, François Duvalier (known as “Papa Doc”) was elected president in 1957. He quickly established a police state and had himself elected as president for life. Under Duvalier’s corrupt regime, Haiti became isolated internationally and suffered economically. Corruption and human rights abuses were rampant.
François Duvalier
François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, president of Haiti (1968)
(Wikimedia CC)
He was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude (nicknamed “Baby Doc”), who lived lavishly while the people of Haiti experienced poor living conditions and high unemployment. The combination of poverty, corruption, intimidation and a lack of political freedom led to nationwide rioting against the regime. Duvalier fled to France in 1986.
After years of instability, populist reformer Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president. Aristide won 67 percent of the vote in the country’s first free elections (November 1990 to February 1991). The elections were monitored by the United Nations Observer Group for the Verification of the Elections in Haiti (ONUVEH). The CAF contributed 11 of the 65 personnel who supervised elections and provided security.
Aristide was overthrown in a military coup d’état in September 1991, largely because his reform policies upset the business and military elite. This was followed by extreme violence and human rights abuses, much of it against Aristide’s supporters.
UN Action
The UN responded to the military coup by imposing economic sanctions. However, this worsened the country’s already disastrous financial situation. Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts by the UN to resolve the crisis and restore constitutional government were unsuccessful. As a result, the UN Security Council imposed an oil and arms embargo against Haiti in June 1993. These sanctions were lifted when an international agreement was reached to resolve Haiti’s crisis.
UN Mission in Haiti (UNMIH)
In September 1993, the UN Security Council authorized the UN Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) for six months. The mission would commit nearly 1,300 civilian police and military construction personnel to help modernize the Haitian armed forces and establish a new police force. Canada agreed to contribute up to 500 CAF personnel, mostly engineers, and civilian police officers.
A small advance team was quickly deployed to Haiti, but when a U.S. Navy ship arrived on 11 October 1993, carrying more military personnel, armed civilians prevented them from landing. The operation was stood down, and the UN Security Council immediately reimposed its oil and arms embargo. To ensure that the embargo was effective, a 28-nation Multinational Force (MNF) of several warships began operations on October 18.
Three Canadian warships participated in the embargo until mid-December 1993, when a series of single warships replaced them in rotation. By the time the embargo ended on 29 September 1994, Canadian sailors had made a total of 1,388 armed boardings and diverted 119 ships from making deliveries to Haiti.
In July 1994, the UN Security Council authorized the MNF to take whatever measures necessary to ensure the return of Aristide and allow UNMIH to resume its role. Lead elements of the MNF landed unopposed on September 19, and Aristide returned as president. This also cleared the way for UNMIH to return.
In March 1995, approximately 500 CAF personnel were sent to Haiti. Composed of aviation, engineering, transportation and administrative support personnel, its role was to provide logistical and construction support to UNMIH. Canada’s contribution expanded in March 1996, when the UNMIH mandate was extended for four months and most of the original force was replaced. The new 750-person contingent included infantry, engineers, helicopters and logistics personnel. UNMIH ended in June 1996.
Canadian Peacekeepers in Haiti
Canadian and Argentinian peacekeepers on foot patrol in Gonaives, Haiti.
(courtesy Department of National Defence/Veterans Affairs Canada)
UN Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH)
In May 1996, the government of Haiti asked the UN to continue its peacekeeping role in the country to assist the Haitian National Police and provide security and stability. The UN Security Council agreed and established the UNSMIH. Its initial mandate ran until November 1996 but was later extended to July 1997. The 750-member CAF contingent included reconnaissance, engineers, helicopters and support elements. The Force Commander was Canadian Brigadier-General J.R.P. Daigle.
UN Transition Mission in Haiti (UNTMIH)
On 30 July 1997, UNTMIH was created to replace UNSMIH for a four-month period at the request of Aristide’s replacement, Réné Préval. Its mandate was to continue assisting the Haitian government in the professionalization of the Haitian National Police. The total strength of the force averaged about 1,200 military personnel and 230 civilian police.
Canada’s contribution peaked at approximately 650 military personnel, made up of infantry, helicopters and support troops. Besides patrol and protection tasks, Canadian soldiers were closely involved in several humanitarian projects. Canada also provided the Force Commander, General Robin Gagnon.
Canadian Peacekeepers in Haiti
Canadian Armed Forces member in a helicopter keeping watch over Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(courtesy Department of National Defence/Veterans Affairs Canada)
UN Civilian Police Mission in Haiti (MIPONUH)
UNTMIH was succeeded by the UN Civilian Police Mission in Haiti (MIPONUH), which operated from December 1997 to March 2000. The mission was composed of 300 civilian police from Canada and 10 other countries but had no frontline military component. Its role was to continue the professionalization of the Haitian National Police. The CAF provided six armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and up to 11 driving instructors and maintenance personnel. The APCs were operated by Argentinian civilian police for a quick reaction force.
Multinational Interim Force (MIF)
Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned as president in 2001, but a revolt against him in February 2004 soon spread across the country, forcing him to leave. The new interim president, Boniface Alexandre, requested UN support to help restore peace and security. The UN Security Council immediately authorized a Multinational Interim Force (MIF) for 90 days, led by the United States. Once order was restored, a stabilization force would follow.
In March, Canada sent 500 personnel to Haiti to serve with the MIF. The contingent included infantry, helicopters and support personnel. When the UN asked Canada to extend its contribution during the transition from the MIF to a new UN mission, Canada agreed.
Canada also provided staff officers to the MIF headquarters in in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) began on 25 June 2004. This mission included military personnel and civilian police officers. Canadian troops in Haiti participated in emergency relief operations following heavy rains in southeast Haiti, while helicopters delivered food, water and other aid. Armed infantry soldiers also patrolled the streets of Gonaïves, both day and night, to reduce the level of violence. The CAF contingent was back home by mid-August. The first Canadian civilian police were sent to Haiti in July 2004 as part of Canada’s contribution of up to 100 police officers annually.
In January 2010, a major earthquake hit Haiti, causing widespread devastation and killing two RCMP officers. In response to an appeal by the Haitian government, the CAF provided Joint Task Force Haiti, which was composed of naval, land and air components. The force peaked at about 2,050 personnel before being gradually decreased and then closed out in early April 2010.
From June to November 2013, the CAF also provided a 34-member platoon to the mission. MINUSTAH ended in October 2017.
The Haitian National Palace (Presidential Palace)
The Haitian National Palace (Presidential Palace), located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was heavily damaged after the earthquake of 12 January 2010. Note: this was originally a two-story structure; the second story completely collapsed.
(courtesy United Nations Development Programme/Wikimedia CC)
UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH)
Since October 2017, Canadian peacekeepers have been involved in the UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH). The mission is composed of civilian staff and police, including about 25 Canadian police officers. Its purpose is to promote and protect human rights in Haiti, assist in the further development of the Haitian National Police and help strengthen the justice and prison systems. |
Every thing about TAMARIND RICE | Vahrehvah :
Tamarind Rice
Tamarind rice, traditional twist to the taste buds with its sour, spicy and salty taste. Tamarind Rice is popularly known as Pulihora in Telugu, puli means sour taste. Tamarind rice is often prepared during festivals, any special occasions and offered to the god as naivedyam. Cooked rice is seasoned with spices like tamarind paste, curry leaves, roasted peanuts, chilies and turmeric. Perfect simple and easy recipe for beginners and bachelor’s to be a kitchen chef. It is mostly served as a prasadam in Hindu temples in South India. Something magical about the pulihora served in temples.
A cereal grain, Rice is a seed of grass species. White rice and Brown rice are world’s wide production. It plays major role in many dishes like biryani (with fish, meat, egg), fried rice, bread, soups, veg rice, curd rice, rice payasam and many more. South Indian meal is incomplete without rice. Rice supplies a large fraction of energy needs and forming an outstanding proportion of other nutrients diet.
Tamarind, known as Indian Date. This fruit is tangy and sweet in taste. Tamarind is used as a flavoring in many dishes like sambar, dal, pulusu, syrup, rasam, chutneys and many more. It is considered a mild laxative and digestive product.
Turmeric, noted as a symbol of auspiciousness. It is a powdered spice comes from the turmeric plant. Add turmeric powder to curries, smoothies, warm milk, salads, stir fried dishes and rice recipes to improve the quality of our lives. Turmeric in ancient days’ acts as Grandmothers pet, used to treat a cut and burn. It is beneficial for treating conditions that involve inflammation infection.
Cooking Tips:
• Jaggery (Optional ) enhances the sweetness and flavors to Tamarind rice instead of adding much sweetness to the rice.
• If you want tamarind rice to be a nice glowing yellow, slightly warm up a spoon of sesame oil with a pinch of turmeric and drizzle it on the warm rice before adding the tamarind paste.
Health Tips:
• Tamarind pulp acts as natural bleach, is used to lighten the skin tone.
• Tamarind leaves are used in preparing medicinal solutions for curing jaundice and ulcers
• Thecompound curcumin present in turmeric has been known to prevent with cancer development
• Raw turmeric is best treated for digestive and diabetes.
When in a hurry and need to make something quickly prefer for Tamarind rice. Divine combination of Tamarind Rice with raita and papad.
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What are the health benefits of bidets?
Bidet usage comes with a variety of health benefits. Bidets work by spraying a gentle stream of warm water at the anus. They're typically used after defecation. Their warm water spray cleans away almost everything on its own and only a little bit of toilet paper needs to be used to wipe away what remains and to dry the anus. The warm water wash provided by a bidet increases personal hygiene, decreases irritation, and reduces anorectal pressure.
Increased personal hygiene
Bidet usage increases personal hygiene through increased comfort. Cleaning with warm water is more comfortable than using dry, scratchy toilet paper. Imagine if you're given the choice between taking a shower and using a paper product to scrub your skin until you're clean. Which option would you choose? Obviously, the warm shower sounds much more appealing, and that's true in the case of cleaning your butt, too. By cleaning in a more comfortable way, it's easier to clean more thoroughly. A more thorough cleaning results in better hygiene and better health.
Decreased irritation
A study of bidet usage in Japan indicated that there is reverse-causation between bidet usage and hemorrhoids. This means that getting hemorrhoids leads to people buying bidets. Why does this happen? The answer is pretty obvious: reduced irritation. When suffering from hemorrhoids, the anus is highly sensitive. Hemorrhoid sufferers would do just about anything to reduce this irritation, and they do: they buy bidets. The warm water spray of a bidet causes much less irritation to the anus than wiping with dry toilet paper, and so it's preferred by those with hemorrhoids.
Decreased anorectal pressure
Another study in Korea showed that using a bidet with warm water, low water pressure, and a wide spray reduces anorectal pressure. What is anorectal pressure, and why should you care? Anorectal pressure is pressure in the anus and rectum. Increased anorectal pressure is associated with anorectal diseases like hemorrhoids and can make a person feel like they constantly need to use the toilet. By using a bidet with the correct settings, anorectal pressure can be reduced, and some symptoms of diseases that cause increased anorectal pressure, such as hemorrhoids, can be relieved.
Summary and suggestions
By using a bidet, you can achieve better personal hygiene, decreased irritation, and reduced anorectal pressure. These health benefits can result in a better quality of life for people of all ages and levels of health. If you're interested in a bidet, we recommend you take a look at our bidet comparisons to find the bidet that's right for you. |
Hard Times Living In New York
Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 12th grade November 2001
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This small island, about half the size of Rhode Island, was discovered in 1502 by Christopher Columbus, as were many of the Caribbean islands. In those days the island was inhabited by the Carib Indians who had already chased the Arawaks (an indigenous tribe also from the Orenoco valley), away from their shores. They named the island Madinina, "The Island of Flowers." In 1635, Martinique was colonized by the French, and during the next 130 years, the English and the French fought for control of it. Finally, in 1763, Martinique was definitively declared French. Since then, it has followed the same course of history as France. It was an agricultural country, and in the 18th and 19th centuries, slaves worked the island's tobacco and sugar plantations until slavery was abolished in 1848. Its status as a French colony continued until after World War II, and it became a department in 1946.
It was given the further status of Region in 1974. In 1902, a blast from Mont Pelée (a still-active volcano) laid waste to Saint-Pierre with a burst of superheated gas and burning ash 40 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Only one of the town's 30,000 residents survived (and he was in jail). Saint-Pierre, long regarded as the most cultured city in the French West Indies, was eventually rebuilt. However, the capital was moved permanently to Fort-de-France and Saint-Pierre has never been more than a shadow of its former self.
In 1946 Martinique became an overseas department of France, with a status similar to those of metropolitan departments, and in 1974 it was further assimilated into the political fold as a region of France. Both of France's Caribbean outposts, Martinique and Guadeloupe, use French currency and stamps and fly the French flag. However, in recent years there have been increased rumblings for greater internal autonomy and separatist groups continue to organize.
A mix of Western-French language, Native-American vocabulary (anoli for lizard, manicou for opposum, toloman for arrow-root...) and African syntax, the Creole language still bears the marks of the conditions of its birth. The same is true for the whole west-indian culture, which still contains aboriginal technics like the making of manioc flour or basketwork, or the knowledge of plants (traditional phytotherapy), legacy of the Caribs. Being a French territory for more than three centuries, as well as Gaudeloupe, Guiana and Reunion Island, Martinique becomes a French Depatment in 1946, as requested by its representants, Aimé CESAIRE and Léopold BISSOL.
Being a part of France, Martinique benefits progressively of many social and economic laws. The general context is changing : cane sugar is no longer competitive, the public administrations recruit large amounts of educated people, primary education tends to be general...
The economy changes deeply. Agriculture is no longer the basis, bananas for exportation failing to really replace cane sugar, and the service industry dominates widely.
Despite a superficial wealth, unemployment is massive, mostly among the young. In 1963, the Bumidom (Bureau of Migrations from Overseas Departments) is constituted, in order to send annually 10 000 people to continental France. There, they mostly occupy the lowest functions in hospitals and public administrations, progressively constituting an important, yet unorganized community. About 400 000 people from Martinique, Guadeloupe or Guiana live around Paris.
By the end of the XX th century, Martinique faces a crucial interogation. Being well advanced in the way of assimilation to the French and European culture, it has to be aware of its geographical environment : Caribean countries, much poorer, with which it has scarce contacts, but so much alike, after centuries of a similar history. |
“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” - Henry David Thoreau
So I often read the writings and scribblings of the nineteenth century abolitionists in America and come away confused by the lack of taking their sophisticated arguments about the ownership of other humans to the obvious conclusion. While they fought mightily against chattel slavery, they tend to give a Gallic shrug to taxation and regulation slavery or not even address the implication of their introspection. The harnessing of individual time, resources and volition in the fields in perpetuity with the deed to their lives held by the plantation owner certainly puts a finer point to slavery but the more ”civilized” variations on human ownership in modern nation-states begs the questions. Somewhat like being opposed to killing unless it came with government approval from the newest slave masters on the block – the state. War is the health of the state but as the old saw goes, if you kill privately, you will be held to account but if you are conscripted, handed a rifle and play “plink-a-pinko” for the state, you get a free pass; much like the police state in America today where the cops have a literal license to maim and kill and charge the taxpayers for the cleanup. Whether Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison or other abolitionist worthies from the nineteenth century, with the noble exception of the great Lysander Spooner, none took their umbrage at human ownership by others to its logical conclusion. Most dared not understand the foundational relationship between the state and the institution of slavery. It was the mortar and glue that maintained the depth and breadth of Greco-Roman civilization in the West. The feudal variations may have been the embryonic foundation of the modern slave societies in the West where total ownership was not in the mix but freedom was conditional on the amount of tribute, time and resources was surrendered at gunpoint in the name of civilization. After the West abandoned chattel slavery, the more hidden and tangential forms of slavery started to advance and spread throughout the body politic finding champions and apologists across the political spectrum. Excepting the anarcho-capitalists, rare is the Western political construct that calls for a total abolition of all forms of human slavery Turning to my trusty Oxford English Dictionary, I find the following happy tribe of definitions:
• A person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.
• A person who works very hard without proper remuneration or appreciation.
• A person who is excessively dependent upon or controlled by something.
• An ant captured in its pupal state by an ant of another species, for which it becomes a worker.
The last one is especially unnerving because it speaks to the Constitutional implied consent that is the holy writ both Left and Right in America binding the infant with the misfortune of US citizenship to become one of the tax cattle administered by the government and its innumerable regulatory hydras haunting the fruited plain. Whether the cradle to grave welfare system for the poor, the corporate welfare class or the tens of millions saddled with enormous tax bills and regulatory burdens, American fish swim in a vast ocean festooned with dozens of statist remoras sucking the lifeblood out of them on a daily basis. There is no choice unless one goes underground to conduct daily business. It could be that the main difference is the plantation dwellers get to apparently vote for selected plantation owners every four years at the highest level and sub-plantation owners at different intervals across the vast tax jurisdiction. But what did those nineteenth century abolitionists mean then when they were opposed to all forms of slavery but not all?
Publisher’s Note: Yesterday, 24 August was both my birthday and fortuitously, the day the British burned down the White House and other government edifices through the DC swamp area in 1814. The siege or burning of Washington was an attack during the war of 1812 by British forces and those of the United States of America. The American troops had been defeated by at the Battle of Bladensburg by troops led by Major General Robert Ross. His forces later went on to occupy then Washington City and destroy a number of buildings, including the White House. To quote the Architect of the Capitol (yes, you or your unborn children pay for that, too) recently: “The British focused their destructive work on the principal rooms, foregoing the lobbies, halls and staircases, thus securing their escape route. In the south wing, soldiers ignited a giant bonfire of furniture slathered with gunpowder paste in the Hall of the House of Representatives. The heat from the fire grew so intense that it melted the glass skylights and destroyed much of the carved stone in the room, including Guiseppe Franzoni’s life-size marble statue of Liberty seated on a pedestal, located above the Speaker's rostrum. Downstairs, the Clerk's office was transformed into an inferno of burning documents and furniture; this fire produced a heat so great it forced the British to retreat from the south wing, leaving half of the rooms on the first floor unscathed. In the Supreme Court Chamber, on the first floor of the north wing,...
Publisher's Note: Due to some WP eccentricities, I have turned the comments function off until we fix it. If you wish to comment, I would urge you to join the conversation at my forum here. You can find my email in the Contacting Me tab. -BB The days of Mayberry RFD are long over and done with. The police serve and protect the rulers and no one else. Frequent visitors to my site know that cops are a favorite topic here. No political bad actor can possibly deny the freedom of one human being absent the police enforcement mechanism to do so. Police have been and remain the primary existential threat to human liberty; all on display in the latest clown posse shenanigans in Missouri. The huge statist police occupation of America is Exhibit A of how important that maxim seems to be to the powers that be. The latest mischief by the law enforcers in Ferguson, MO point to some systematic and oft-repeated concerns about police brutality, quickness to violence and secure blanket immunity to ensure that bad cops (is there any other?) evade punishment for crimes that would put the taxpaying proles in the hoosegow. Like a raft of turkeys or a murder of crows, the city of Ferguson, MO is suffering an intrusion of coproaches and the qualifier appears to be quite accurate. There is a silver lining to this event. Much like the Boston bombing episode where the cops overreacted and crushed rights and created police victims out of whole cloth, the Missouri episode demonstrates a very important observation. Even though the cops are kitted for war with all their fancy equipment, they have no clue how to use it. Now this is married to the fact that the cops will become increasingly savage over time but a tipping point may be reached where reaction may not be as pleasant as the “black and blue line” anticipated. For the old infantry hands in the readership like myself, Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad in FM 7-8 or the coffee table book variety in FM 3-21.8 in addition to the Ranger Handbook (SH 21-76) have plenty of information and guidance to fight the coming Endarkenment the Feds have planned for America. Even the SWAT clown posses across the land rarely if ever come up against seasoned lone wolves or fire teams that are trained in the warfare they pretend at like overgrown adolescent boys playing at soldier unfit to actually fight in the Legions. Modern policing depends on a posture of domination that demands immediate submission and in most cases, the coproaches thugscrum an unfortunate human who hesitates a second or two in compliance. One can on one hand count the incidents in the last decade in which the police have battled a hardened and savvy dismounted light infantry foe toe to toe. They will not fare well. Fitness is a key component of success in a fight and the natural slothfulness of government employees and police unions have worked to underwrite obesity and lack of fighting trim in the ranks. Fitness also speaks to discipline and the ability to face adversity, fat cops speak to neither but also dim their chances of ramping up the militaristic occupation of American streets they presently envision. Take a look at the clown on top of the armored vehicle that has been such an iconic photo from the police antics in Ferguson, MO. Brian Merchant does a terrific analysis here. A few observations. He is sporting a large scope that may be ideal for 300 meters and beyond but certainly not the anticipated 100 meter minus shooting customarily used by police overwatch for hostage or barricaded suspects. The weapon is an expensive .308 caliber AR platform replete with tac-latch for the charging handle and all the goodies one would find bedecked on the hardware of a gun hobbyist or competitive shooter. Indeed, he is wearing Marine Pattern camo (MARPAT). You will also note there are no backup iron sights (BUIS) mounted on the weapon. See a better picture here. This additional picture helped to clarify my confusion at the placement of the RMR for a right-handed shooter. The biggest question is why dress like a soldier in the first place if you don't plan on going to war? Also, black is a tricky camouflage to use in environments that lack any natural shadows. In the heat of a summer day, a black helmet is problematic. There is a reason military forces rarely wear black in vanilla combat operations. The human eye detects movement. The US Army banned the carry of black umbrellas because the sudden opening of the device would startle horses. I suspect the department just likes the sexiness of the color since it is the universal color of death in modern times.
The modern state and government have one primary goal in mind: the maintenance and expansion of political power to horizontally and vertically regulate and tax every transaction of human behavior within its jurisdiction, individuals and firms alike. For America, that means the unfortunates living in the confines of the common geographical boundaries recognized as the US and it possessions and according to the IRS, any place on Earth an American holding current citizenship resides. The US has been a military garrison state since 1860 with short interregnums of less war-like times. With the end of the Civil War and the tyrannical consolidation of the Lincolnian imperial project, the American military apparatus was focused on continuing its campaign to eradicate or threaten into docility the aboriginals who had originally peopled the continent. By the 1890s, the aboriginal extinction/resettlement plan had everything but a bow tied on it. The politicians in Washington started to get restless and set their sights on the exclusive colonial empire club and wanted to carve out some extraterritorial gains while the going was good thus the annexation of Hawaii in 1893 and the wholesale expropriation of the Spanish possessions in the Caribbean and the Philippines by 1898. The empire has barely stopped for breath ever since. My frequent readers will recall that terrorism is the threat or use of political violence against non-combatants and innocents. You will note that absence the use of this method, no government on earth could exist. The existing government merely cherry-pick the non-state actors for not implementing terrorism under the more reputable banner of government. The FBI definition is somewhat more obtuse and circumspect but they need to keep their masters out of hot water: The unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a Government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. You'll notice the rulers are careful to couch the word unlawful in front of violence as opposed to the lawful violence dealt out by American political authority at home and abroad.. Despite the perilously close grasp of a totalitarian state by the US government in the first half of the twentieth century, it never quite took but the last half-century provided the means and the apparatus to finally make it work. The attack on the Twin Towers in New York provided an overwhelming justification for both secret and not so clandestine measures to turn America into the Orwellian wet dream it is proud to be today. The twenty first century provided the American state with the collectivist accelerant it needed, a reason to pry ionto the most private affairs fo its millions of subjects at will. Many others have chronicled the rise of the police state, the new charter for an omniscient NSA and security apparatus and the various notions that inaugurated the nod and the wink towards torture. All of these things have integrated a tapestry of both real and potential oppression that may not have even existed in the now extant Soviet empire under new management. The US government stands as the premier existential threat to human liberty everywhere it casts its evil eye. The crux of the notion is that a government-sponsored war on terror knows absolutely no legal or statutory limits. Whether the White House Office of Legal Council (OLC) approved use of torture, the massive campaign by the spy agencies to vacuum up every human transaction by Americans at home and abroad to include every other human they can place under surveillance or the burgeoning epidemic of police violence against taxpayers, the game is afoot. On the approved American political stage where the stumbling players act out an unconvincing kabuki dance of differing philosophies, all the key officials and their sycophantic executive agency apparatchiks dance to the same tune: to clamp an iron fist over every possible blush and activity of human existence trying to wring out reasons to watch them, tax them, fine them or jail them. Or worse.
Tell us about your evolution to abolition.
In a way, I was raised as an abolitionist by my parents. They were about 80% there and I just took the ball a little further. So by the time I was 16, I was more like 95% across the finish line. As I often say, my dad was a self-taught pilot who refused to get a pilots license because he didn't believe a government could own the sky. And my mother was an amateur historian who almost always assumed the pro-government official history was fake. The little faith I had in government was first challenged in the 1970's when I worked with NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). Then, after I wasted time, money, and effort on the 1988 Ron Paul campaign, I came to the conclusion that the American Democratic-Republic model of government was flawed beyond repair, but I still couldn't let go of the last 2-3% of statism. It wasn't until about ten years ago that my daughter began using the Socratic method, along with gentle logical arguments, to crush the last remaining strongholds of statism in my mind. By 2008 I still supported Ron Paul, but only for the purpose of getting the message out to a wide audience, not as an actual politician. In 2009 I had a moment of clarity when I realized that coercive government wasn't just a bad idea, but it was the actual source of evil in the human experience. You can't have a coercive government and freedom at the same time. They are mutually exclusive concepts.
What’s a Bad Quaker?
I find there's a lot of confusion as to what a Quaker is, so let me answer that first. Quakers are officially called The Religious Society of Friends or casually referred to just as Friends. They are often confused with Amish or Mennonites because an oat company uses the name and made up an image of a guy with a hat. But real Quakers don't care about how a person dresses. Also Mennonites and Amish have a Swiss Anabaptist origin based on conformity, whereas the Quakers originated in England and are an older sect based on freedom, individual spiritual discovery, and a peaceful life. Modern Quakers tend to be pacifists and often lean toward socialism. The reason I consider myself a "Bad Quaker" is that I don't attend Quaker meetings, I'm not even remotely a pacifist, and I view any form of coercive socialism to be evil. So in a way, the phrase "Bad Quaker" is an oxymoron, but it tickles the ear and plays well with Google.
I think the most important thing to understand about history is that almost every aspect of the government-approved narrative is either an outright lie, or it's so deeply twisted that it doesn't even remotely resemble the actual events it depicts. State-approved schools intentionally teach history using a method that makes it as boring as possible while leaving a perverted view that almost always glorifies some government "Great Man" as the hero. But once you're set free from that mind numbing schoolhouse history, and you start to view the human story as it actually happened, it becomes a never-ending journey into fascinating ages gone by.
[caption id="attachment_7011" align="aligncenter" width="1306"] Erik Scott was shot and killed by Metro Police Officers at the Summerlin Costco store on July 10, 2010.[/caption] I read Bill’s book, The Permit, and was aghast at the more intimate and grim details on his son’s murder by cops in Las Vegas in 2010 depicted in the novel. This site is no stranger to reports of predation and rampant misbehavior and mayhem wrought by American police today. My twitter posts three-five new incidents of cop brutality daily. The police state in the US may be the most far-reaching residual of the American War on Terror which has become a self-fulfilling Orwellian prophecy with the use of the campaign as a means to institutionalize maximum government to keep the tax cattle safe no matter the expense in liberty and freedom. Bill has been kind enough to grant this interview with me. Bill Scott is now a full-time author, writing techno-thriller novels. The latest is “The Permit,” which is based on the murder of his eldest son, Erik. He co-authored two other novels, “Space Wars: The First Six Hours of World War III,” and a sequel, “Counterspace: The Next Hours of World War III,” plus one nonfiction book, “Inside the Stealth Bomber: The B-2 Story.” Bill can be reached via the Contact section of my website, www.williambscott.com, or e-mail at: bill@williambscott.com. While Bill and I may not agree on everything, we do agree that the US police state is a clear and present danger to any human being living within the borders of the US. -BB
Tell the readers some of your background.
The nation state marshals resources for war better than non-state entities through economies of scale and the ability to command and direct central planning efforts although it suffers a concomitant lack of agility and innovation due to the necessity of creating large bureaucracies to execute the formation of large armies and still Clausewitz’ Trinitarian notions are certainly relevant today. Subject to misinterpretation by non-German speakers, his complex theory is just so because the notions are…complex. Bassford and Villacres make the best summation I have found: Clausewitz defines the components of the trinity as (1) primordial violence, hatred, and enmity; (2) the play of chance and probability; and (3) war's element of subordination to rational policy. [1] As with so much multilingual literature in history, proper translation is key. The Trinitarian notion is much greater than the sum of its parts. The last clause is the operative measure of effectiveness in harnessing what van Creveld would call “fighting power.” Like so much that we discover when divining the auguries in strategy and grand strategy, Clausewitz provided a solid basis from which interpretations could be rendered. The rationality of policy must be embraced through the parochial lens of the respective sides in a conflict. Risk and the assumption thereof is a major component of daring and combat calculus that when it fails may look irrational but had a rational intent to begin with. I think that Schuurman and Echevarria are wrong in their assessment of Lind and van Creveld. The latter confreres posit generations of warfare and Echevarria especially fails to see that they are not distinct succeeding stages or a new mode of warfare but simply additional permutations outside of conventional warfare. Both Lind and Van Creveld will certainly acknowledge that irregular and non-state warfare practices are as old as mankind. The Vietnamese campaign against both the French and Americans clearly used both conventional and irregular means to fight a simultaneous war against invaders. There is no doubt that a Trinitarian analysis can be useful in prosecuting the irregular wars and conflicts that pepper the planet but van Creveld and Lind are simply saying that additional factors are at play and bigger is not necessarily better. Echevarria is not all wrong, he makes a great point: “It also means that one-sided, McNamaraesque formulae and facile, prescriptive theories like effects-based operations will always be around because the arrogance that underpins such thinking seeks to control the variable nature of war. Finally, it means that it is possible for war to have a changeable nature, and yet still be war.” [2]
By statist standards, the Weinberger Doctrine is a sound, deeply reasoned and frankly pragmatic doctrine that gets plenty of lip service but no real world observance in the 21st century in American foreign policy and export of violence. One would be hard pressed to come up with a guiding template that more keenly fuses Clausewitzian realism with Tzu’s admonitions for the “indirect approach.” (1) First, the United States should not commit forces to combat overseas unless the particular engagement or occasion is deemed vital to our national interest or that of our allies. That emphatically does not mean that we should declare beforehand, as we did with Korea in 1950, that a particular area is outside our strategic perimeter. [1] One can observe that this was certainly the case with Afghanistan in 2001 even though the deployment of conventional forces prematurely after the burgeoning success of the Northern Alliance to best the Taliban with US/Allied special operations assistance spoiled the recipe in place for a long-term self-determination. The US had no such national interest in hand despite the 21 causus belli enunciated by President Bush during the run-up and actual invasion of Iraq. Tremendous intelligence tension was evident and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was so affronted by this that he stove-piped and forced conclusions with his Office of Special Plans to convince the skeptics that a removal of Saddam Hussein was necessary. The concomitant disastrous missteps of the dismantling of the Iraqi military and the evident ignorance of the resistance brewing to American long-term intervention went unheeded and history tells the rest of the story. (2) Second, if we decide it is necessary to put combat troops into a given situation, we should do so wholeheartedly, and with the clear intention of winning. If we are unwilling to commit the forces or resources necessary to achieve our objectives, we should not commit them at all. Of course, if the particular situation requires only limited force to win our objectives, then we should not hesitate to commit forces sized accordingly. When Hitler broke treaties and remilitarized the Rhineland, small combat forces then could perhaps have prevented the holocaust of World War II. [2] GEN Shinseki lost his job as America’s top Army General because he refused to submit to rosy predictions and ludicrous force projections necessary to sustain a long-term occupation of what was becoming the birth of several Islamic republics in the vacuum left behind by Hussein’s brutal yet essentially secular Arab state. The US simply did not have the force structure or culture to occupy and transition the country to a state that would be neutral or beneficial to American national security interests in the region. Optimistic talk of increased oil outflow to Western countries and the discovery of mysterious weapons of mass destruction (outside of US supplied chemical weapons) saw no fruition. (3) Third, if we do decide to commit forces to combat overseas, we should have clearly defined political and military objectives. And we should know precisely how our forces can accomplish those clearly defined objectives. And we should have and send the forces needed to do just that. As Clausewitz wrote, "no one starts a war -- or rather, no one in his senses ought to do so -- without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war, and how he intends to conduct it." [3] The objectives kept changing over time for the entire theater. In Afghanistan, it was at first the removal of the Taliban then it became the creation of a Western state that would increase women’s rights and suffrage in an Islamic nation in cooperation with Pakistan which had actively supported and harbored the Taliban and Al Qaeda during the entire prosecution of the war. In Iraq, one could find no milestone of strategic or grand strategic value and in a counterinsurgency (COIN) conflict, this is a slow death for occupation forces who are asked to work in a haphazard and whimsical fashion as the policy vacuum slowly grows larger and more mercurial over time.
Publisher’s Note: I was intrigued when I ran across D. Brian Burghart on the web. He is the editor/publisher of the Reno News & Review, a dual-master’s student and journalism instructor at the University of Nevada, Reno. He started Fatal Encounters, www.fatalencounters.org, which went live on Feb. 27, 2014, to create a crowd-sourced, objective and comprehensive database of people killed during interactions with police and the circumstances surrounding the killing. Please understand that while Brian may not be a subscriber to the philosophy of this website and the abolitionist community, he is working toward a common goal. My questions are in italics. -BB
What brought to this Fatal Encounters project? Give us a little background on your interest in this.
This project was metaphorically conceived on May 18, 2012, as I was driving home from my job at the newspaper. A bunch of police cars had a street cordoned off, and I could just see that something serious had happened. My guess, and I was right, was that police had shot and killed somebody. When I got home, I was just curious how often that happened. I couldn’t find the information for the city, county, state or country. In my research, I discovered there was no national database focusing on circumstances in which police killed people. In the 21st century, I just could not accept that absence of data. I was offended that our government wanted us ignorant with regard to this. I thought about the ramifications of this lack of information for quite some time. That’s when a naked, drug-addled, unarmed, 18-year-old college student, Gil Collar, was killed by a police officer at the University of Southern Alabama. No less lethal methods of restraint were tried. On that day, I realized that somebody was going to have to create a system by which regular people could build this database, otherwise it was never going to exist. To sustain the metaphor, that was the day Fatal Encounters was born.
With over 19,000 departments and nearly a million statist badged police in the US, the culture of violence has ramped up significantly. Is police violence against civilians reaching epidemic proportions?
My numbers suggest closer to 1.2 million full- and part-time sworn and full- and part-time “civilian” state and local police, and that doesn’t include federal officers, but my information is a few years old, maybe its gone down. I don’t know the answer to this question. It certainly seems like incidents have increased, but since the database is not yet complete, we have no way of knowing whether numbers of incidents have increased, or whether it’s just our awareness has been raised by things like social media, but the numbers of incidents have actually decreased.
Why is it worse now?
Again, I’m not willing to say it is worse without the solid numbers. From my own experience as a journalist, I can say that government agencies are more antagonistic to giving out public documents or being transparent with their actions. I know that ex-military personnel get preferential treatment in hiring for government jobs. I know that there are a lot of military surplus weapons and vehicles being made available to state and local law enforcement. I know that government surveillance of citizens has increased post-911, which creates a society that flip-flops the citizen/government relationship, which would tend to make those who represent government authority more willing to take forceful action against citizens.
What is the impact or negative contribution of the DoD/Pentagon 1033 program and other lend/lease deals for the police departments?
Increased militarization of gear, personnel and training creates situations in which police response is already heightened and more intimidating, which tends to escalate crisis situations. While the apparent intention is to tamp down crisis situations with ostensibly overwhelming force, my feeling is that the result is often the opposite.
Publisher's Note: Gavin and I are acquaintances and he sent me this brilliant essay to publish for your delectation. Please enjoy and feel free to comment here or email Gavin directly at Gavinflanagan@hotmail.com. -BB Before we begin: There is no ‘The People’. There is six billion individuals with very similar needs but differing interests and desires. Sure we all need food but some want a vegan diet and others love a good burger. ‘The people’ is a meaningless term, like ‘the poor’ and ‘the rich’. I recently watched a documentary on Brazil, one section covered a family who lived on a rubbish dump, the parents, of seven children, made a living collecting and selling recyclable materials. They had a small hut with a microwave, a coffee machine and a flat screen television, two mattresses that served as beds for the whole family, and an old small truck with no brakes. Both the children and parents looked happier and more grateful than most people I know, including myself. Yet we would look upon this economic situation with patronizing sympathy and consider it poverty. Perhaps it is, but if indeed it is, what is the true meaning of ‘poverty’ and what is the true meaning of ‘wealth’. The majority of us in the West are considered economically wealthy. Economically I would agree, but ‘wealth’ ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ I think are words that encompass much more of a persons state than just financial. This is where politicians proposing to ‘help the poor’ becomes a muddy self serving ideal. Not everyone wants to be helped, and not everyone wants the actual help that is on offer, as in most cases the help is what the politician or some civil servant determines suitable, rather than what would be helpful to the receiver. Of course I would consider Bill Gates rich, but I’m not sure at what point he became rich, his first billion? First million? First hundred thousand? Who decides the figure? Can we each decide the figure? Can we each define what ‘rich’ actually means to us? Or will some elected narcissist define those words for us? Will that definition be set in stone, worldwide, forever and ever? Will all of us taxpaying slaves agree with the definition? Unlikely. I’m immediately suspicious of any person who holds instant answers for any of these questions. |
The Story of Daniel the Prophet
Since a misunderstanding of the sanctuary question led to the disappointment in 1844, it seems proper to devote one chapter to the consideration of this all-important subject.
Three sanctuaries, or temples, are brought to view in the Bible. The first is the heavenly sanctuary, where God reigns upon his throne, surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousands of angels. This temple was opened to the wondering gaze of the lonely seer on the Isle of Patmos, and also to Moses on Mount Sinai. The second, or earthly, sanctuary was a miniature model of the heavenly one, in which the priests served unto the example and shadow of the service in the heavenly temple. For more than fourteen hundred years, God designed that the service should be in the shadowy sanctuary. The time came when those following the shadow reached the substance.
Two days before the crucifixion, Christ slowly and regretfully left the temple for the last time. The priests and rulers were struck with terror as they heard his mournful words: "Behold your house is left unto you desolate." The beautiful structure remained until a. d. 70, but it had ceased to be the temple of God. The Father showed by an unmistakable sign that the glory had departed. When the words, "It is finished," were pronounced by the Sufferer upon the cross,
the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom by unseen hands. Terror and confusion prevailed. The knife raised to slay the sacrifice fell from the nerveless hand of the priest, and the lamb escaped.
Henceforth the sinner need no longer wait for a priest to offer his sacrifice. The great Sacrifice had been made. Every child of Adam could accept his atoning blood. The way into the heavenly temple was now made manifest. The heavenly had taken the place of the earthly sanctuary. Hereafter man's faith was to enter within the veil, where Christ officiated.
The third temple brought to view in the Bible is the temple of the human body. The Jews had lost sight of the fact that their bodies were to be the temples of the Spirit of God; and when the Saviour said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," they thought only of the massive structure of marble and stone, and replied that it had taken forty-six years to build the temple, not perceiving that "he spake of the temple of his body."
Glorious rays of light shine from the heavenly sanctuary upon those who study the typical work in the earthly. These rays, when gathered into the temple of the body, reflect the character of our great High Priest in the heavenly courts.
In the beginning the body of man was created to be a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit; but Satan gained possession, and man partook of an evil nature. Before the body could again become a fit temple for the Spirit of God, the evil nature must die. Christ offered his life for the sinner, and before the foundation of the world he was counted as a "Lamb slain."136
That man in his fallen condition might comprehend this gift, and understand the work of redemption, the sinner that longed to crucify "the old man," the evil nature, was directed to bring an innocent animal, and take its life, as an object lesson of the Lamb of God, and also to illustrate the fact that the evil nature of the sinner must die, in order that the Holy Spirit might dwell within.
Before the gate of the garden of Eden, Adam and his family presented their offerings. Their clear minds grasped by faith the promise of the Redeemer, who would again open to them the joys of the garden. Adam by faith looked forward to the time when the Saviour would lead him once more to the Tree of Life, and bid him pluck and eat of its life-giving fruit. As he took the life of the innocent lamb, and saw by faith the "one sinless Man," suffering death for him, his heart went out in love and gratitude to God for his wonderful love, and for a time he forgot the terrible sorrow that weighed upon his soul. Every falling leaf, while it taught the death of Christ, was also a constant reminder to him that his sin had brought death into the hitherto perfect earth.
While man lived near God, the altars were lighted by fire from heaven. But this perfect worship was marred. Cain's mind became so blinded by sin that he failed to grasp the infinite sacrifice. Satan convinced him that God was an austere judge, demanding service. The love and sacrifice of the Saviour were overlooked. Cain and Abel each brought an offering to the gate of the garden; but the desire of the two hearts was greatly different. Abel brought a lamb,
and as he took its life, his faith laid hold of the Lamb of God. The lamb was laid upon the altar, and fire flashed from the shining sword of the cherubim guarding the way to the Tree of Life, and the sacrifice was consumed.
Cain brought an offering of fruits. There was nothing in his offering that typified the dying Lamb of Calvary. No innocent life was taken in exchange for his forfeited life. He waited for the fire to consume it; but there was nothing to call forth the fire from the heavenly Watcher. There was no sweet love, no longing for deliverance from the thralldom of sin and death.
Cain and Abel are a type of all worshipers from that time to the present. The followers of Cain multiplied ceremonies, and made offerings to the sun and various other objects. In it they overlooked the all-important principle that self must die, and that Christ must live in the temple of the human body.
Anciently each family erected its own altars. The father was priest of the household, and was succeeded by the eldest son. At times sin separated the eldest from the family, and character, instead of age, decided who should act as priest.
Jacob knew the character of the one great High Priest; and as he lay with his head upon the stone in Bethel, and watched the angels ascending and descending upon that glorious ladder, he also saw the Lord above it. He beheld his glorious vestments, and in imitation of those garments he made Joseph a "coat of many colors." The other sons of Jacob could not comprehend these beautiful truths. Even the coat was an object of hatred to them.
When the brothers sold Joseph, they dipped the coat in
blood, and its beauty was marred. The future revealed that Jacob had read aright the character of Joseph, for in the midst of Egyptian darkness he reflected the light of heaven. He was a temple for the indwelling of the Spirit of God.
When Israel came out of Egypt, their minds were so beclouded by sin that they no longer saw the promised Saviour in the simple offerings. God then said: "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." Six days were spent by Moses on the mountain side in deep searching of heart; then the thick cloud of glory covering Mount Sinai broke forth like devouring fire in the eyes of all Israel, and Moses was ushered into the presence of Deity. Before his wondering gaze was spread out the beauties of the heavenly sanctuary. Forty days the Lord communed with him, giving minute directions in regard to building a shadow of that heavenly structure upon the earth. In the midst of the idolatry of Egypt, Israel had lost the spiritual truth that the body was the dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. Neither could they form any conception of the work done in heaven for sinful man.
To reach man in his fallen condition, God directed the building of the earthly tabernacle, that humanity might become acquainted with the nature of the work in the heavenly sanctuary. In this building, men divinely appointed were to perform in the sight of the people a shadow of the work that would be done in the heavenly sanctuary by the Saviour of mankind, when he should officiate as our High Priest.
The whole Jewish economy was a compacted prophecy of the gospel. Every act of the priest
in the shadowy service, as he went in and out, was a prophecy of the Saviour's work when he entered heaven as our High Priest. "It was the gospel in figures," the Lord's object lesson or kindergarten for the "children" of Israel. They had become children in understanding, and in order to reach them God taught in a way that the senses could grasp the gospel.
Man finally became so depraved that he failed to see light flashing from the Levitical laws and sacrificial offerings, and when the antitype of all their offerings came, they rejected Him.
Let us in imagination go back to the wilderness tabernacle, and see if we can discern the glorious gospel of Christ shining from the Jewish economy. A man enters the outer court with a lamb, which he brings to the door of the tabernacle. With solemn awe, and eyes raised to heaven, he lays his hand upon its head, while his moving lips, like Hannah's of old, betray the burden of his heart. Then he lifts the knife, and takes the life of the sacrifice. His faith lays hold of the bleeding Lamb of Calvary, and his sin rolls from off his burdened heart onto the great Sacrifice. The blood is carefully caught; every drop is precious, for by faith he views the real sacrifice. The priest meets him, takes the blood of the sacrificed life, and passes from sight within the first veil, while the worshiper awaits with anxiety his return.
In childhood his father had told him of the "ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat;" that at
times the bright glory of the shekinah above the mercy seat shone out and filled the sanctuary.
He had been told of that mystical table, with its twelve loaves covered with frankincense; also of the beautiful candlestick, whose seven lamps were ever burning; how the golden plated walls on either side reflected the light, and like great mirrors reproduced again and again the brilliant hues of the richly embroidered curtains with their shining angels. Before the second veil, which concealed the sacred ark, he pictured the altar, from which the fragrant incense constantly ascended. By faith he sees the priest place the blood of the atoning sacrifice upon the horns of the altar. His faith looks past the shadowy service to the time when Christ shall plead his blood in the heavenly sanctuary. It is the gospel of a crucified and risen Saviour that he beholds in the object lesson he himself is helping to carry out.
Soon the veil is lifted, and the priest returns. The offering has been accepted. The priest has made atonement for him, and he is forgiven. In the joy and freedom of forgiveness he prays: "O that the influence of all my sins might be forever wiped away!" when lo, he sees the priest go to the brazen altar in the court, and "pour out all the blood at the bottom of the altar." As he sees that blood, precious to him, because it represents his own ransomed life as well as the sacrificed life of the Saviour, poured upon the ground, his heart bounds with joy. He grasps the fact that the decree, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake," is met in Christ, and that the promised Saviour will finally cleanse the earth from all the effects of his sins.
The body of the lamb still lies near the door of the sanctuary, where the life was taken. He next turns to it, and with a sharp knife separates from the meat every particle of fat-"All the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards," etc. "All the fat is taken away, and the priest burns it upon the altar of burnt offering for a sweet savor unto the Lord." The fat is burned as a type of the final destruction, when "the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." Ps. 37:20.
Every sinner that clings to sin will be destroyed with the sin. God has made provision for every one to separate from sin, that he may destroy the sin and save the sinner. The burning fat upon the altar came up as a sweet savor before God, for it represented sin that had been separated from the sinner and destroyed, while the sinner lived a new life through Christ.
The sinner separated the fat from the sacrifice; the priest received it and burned it, illustrating the truth that we must cooperate with the Lord; and through Christ who strengthens us we can do all things.
As the man carefully searched for the fat, he realized more fully that his body was to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that when his past sin is forgiven and he is accepted, it is that he may become a dwelling place for the Spirit of God. When that Spirit enters a man, it, like a sharp knife, reveals one sin after another, and separates them from the sinner until the soul temple is cleansed. His faith grasps the promise of the "One" who dwells in the hearts of his
people by faith. As he goes from the shadowy temple court, he realizes that he is a temple, not "empty, swept, and garnished," ready to be again entered by the power of evil, but a temple in which the Spirit of God rules and reigns.
Another man brings an offering; and as the priest takes the blood, instead of entering within the veil, he pours it at the base of the altar of burnt offering. Then a portion of the flesh, which represents sin, is prepared and eaten by the priest in the holy place. In this act the priest taught the children of Israel the wonderful truth that Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree.
Each separate offering presented some different phase of the work of Christ. The incense constantly ascending from the altar was an object lesson of the inexhaustible fund of perfect obedience accruing from the sinless life of our Saviour, which, added to the prayers of all saints as they are offered upon the golden altar in heaven, makes them acceptable before God. The perfume of the incense filled the air far beyond the temple court. Likewise the sweet influence of Christians who live a life of faith in God, is felt by all who come in contact with them.
The fire was replenished morning and evening, representing the morning and evening worship in the family. "The whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense." The lamps were a type of the seven lamps of fire before the throne of God in heaven, which are the seven spirits of God. These "are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth." Seven denotes the complete Spirit of God that lighteneth every man
that cometh into the world. Its life-giving rays lead the Christian to the celestial city.
The golden table held the "bread of his presence," which represented man's dependence upon God for both temporal and spiritual help and strength.
The ark was the center of all worship; it was the first article mentioned in describing the sanctuary. The law hidden in it was the great standard of judgment, and a perfect copy of that heavenly law before which the character of every child of Adam will be tried in the tribunal on high. If that law witnesses to a character cleansed from sin by the blood of the atoning sacrifice, then the name will be confessed before the Father and the holy angels.
The continual burning of that which typified sin pointed forward to the time when sin and sinners would be consumed in the fire of the last day. As the ashes accumulated upon the altar of burnt offering, they were carefully collected by the side of the altar; and at a certain time the priest laid aside his priestly robes, carried the ashes without the court, and deposited them in a "clean place." They were not thrown carelessly to one side, but put in a clean place. These ashes represented all that will be left of sin and sinners after the fires of the last days. "For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But to you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of
the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." Mal. 4:1-3. In that day the real ashes of the wicked will be left upon a "clean earth."
As the Jewish father walked to the sanctuary with his child, the mind of the child would be attracted by the ashes in the clean place. He would ask, "Why are those ashes put in a clean place, when you throw the ashes from our fire upon the dunghill?" The father's answer would explain the beauties of the new earth, when it will be made like Eden, and sin and sorrow will be forever removed. With it would come the gentle admonition to separate from sin, and keep the body temple pure, that in the great burning day the sin may be consumed without the sinner, and he be among the ransomed of the Lord.
Much of the service and many of the customs of ancient Israel were designed to call out questions from the children, that the spiritually minded parents might instruct them in the ways of God.
After speaking of the peculiar manner in which the passover should be eaten, God adds, "Your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?" showing that he intended that it should call forth questions from children of all ages, and thus the children become acquainted with the saving blood of the great Passover Lamb.
The sight of the pile of stones by Jordan was to arouse inquiries in the minds of the children of future generations, which, if answered properly, would acquaint them with the mighty power
of God. The same was true of the whole Jewish service.
The leper that sought cleansing was to bring two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop. The priest commanded that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel, over running water. The live bird, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop were all dipped in the blood, and the leper was sprinkled with the blood; then the live bird was let loose in the open field. It flew through the air, bearing on its feathers the blood, which was a type of Christ's blood that will purify the air, and remove from it all the germs of sin and death. Now death comes in at our windows, but the blood of Christ will give us a new atmosphere.
Earth, air, and water are the elements which compose our planet. All are tainted by sin. The earthen dish containing the blood held over the running water typified the time when earth, air, and water would be freed from the curse of sin by the blood of Christ. The cedar wood and hyssop represented the two extremes in vegetation, from the giant of the forest to the hyssop on the wall. They were dipped in the blood, thus teaching Israel that Christ's blood would free the entire vegetable world from the curse, and again clothe the earth in Eden beauty.
It might seem to man that the curse was so deeply marked upon the earth, air, and sea that it could never be removed; but the little piece of scarlet wool, dipped in the blood with the live bird, the cedar, and hyssop, was a pledge that the blood of Christ would remove the deepest marks from the sin-cursed earth.
We have the real sacrifice to study as well
as the shadow. Type met antitype. The blood of Christ has been shed; the price has been paid that will restore the purity of earth, air, and sea. The sin-cursed earth received the blood of Christ as he prayed in the garden. "From his hands and feet the blood fell drop by drop upon the rock drilled for the foot of the cross." Thus through the air passed the precious blood. From the wound in his side "there flowed two copious and distinct streams, one of blood and the other of water." The blood of Christ was brought in contact with earth, air, and water. The two extremes in vegetation also met at Calvary. The cross was made of wood taken from the trees of the forest; "and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth."
Was there an antitype of the scarlet while his blood was trickling from those cruel wounds?-Yes. In Jesus as he hung upon the cross, bruised, mocked, and bleeding, the thief beheld the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Hope kindled in his soul, and he cast himself upon a dying Saviour. With full faith that Christ would possess the kingdom, he cried, "Lord, remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom." In a soft, melodious tone, full of love, the answer was quickly given: "Verily I say unto thee today, Shalt thou be with me in paradise." As these words were spoken, the darkness around the cross was pierced with living light. The thief felt the peace and joy of sins forgiven. Christ was glorified. While all thought they beheld him conquered, he was the conqueror. They could not rob him of his power to forgive sins.
Type has fully met antitype; the price has been paid; the blood of the world's Redeemer has been poured upon the ground. It has dropped through the air from the cruel cross. It has flowed with water from the wound of the cruel spear. The extremes of vegetation also came in contact with it, and he whose sins were as scarlet, experienced the peace of having them made white as snow by the precious blood, even while it was flowing from the open wounds.
The various feasts throughout the year typified different phases of the gospel. The passover was a type of Christ in an especial sense. Christ is our Passover. The first fruits offered the third day after the passover lamb was slain, taught the resurrection of Christ. Type met antitype, and was fulfilled when Christ, the first fruits of them that slept, came forth on the third day, and presented himself before the Father.
Throughout the varied service of the year, everything pointed forward to the Lamb of God, while it also taught the lesson of cleansing the body, and keeping the temple pure for the Spirit of God.
In the autumn, on the tenth day of the seventh month, came the crowning service of the year. All other services were a preparation for this. Day by day the sins of the people had been transferred in type and shadow to the priest and the sanctuary, and once each year these were to be cleansed, and the sins forever removed.
Gabriel revealed to Daniel the antitype of the time of cleansing the earthly sanctuary. "Unto two thousand three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." This period of cleansing, we have found in the study of the ninth chapter
of Daniel, began in 1844. The cover of the ark in the heavenly sanctuary was then lifted, and the law of God was seen by the people, not broken, but entire. In the midst of the law they traced the words, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work." They awoke to the fact that they had been resting upon the first day of the week instead of the seventh. As they gazed at the law, a halo of light seemed to encircle the fourth commandment, which for so many years had been trampled underfoot. Reverently they listened to the words, "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Isa. 58:13, 14.
They thought on their ways, and made haste, and delayed not to keep the commandments. The period of the investigative judgment opened in 1844 when every character would be measured by the standard of God's law. As the work opened in heaven, it was the will of God that on earth his people should test their lives by the law of God, and come into harmony with its holy precepts. The day of atonement was the type of the judgment. This was the most solemn day of the year to ancient Israel.
When the sun gilded the western hills of the land of Judea, on the ninth day of the seventh month, the trumpet was blown throughout Israel. The solemn warning of the trumpet produced a marked effect in every home. All work
was laid aside, and quiet reigned. It was not the ordinary rest of the weekly Sabbath, for no evening meal was spread. There was not the usual baking and seething customary on the preparation for the Sabbath. No food was prepared, for this was not a feast, but a fast day. The father of the household gathered his family about him, and read from the Sacred Scroll: "Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls." With prayer, fasting, and deep searching of heart the day was spent by the Israel of God. With solemn awe they repeated, "Whatsoever soul shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people."
In the Gentile homes around them were eating and drinking and all the busy activities of daily life, but quiet reigned in the homes of Israel. In the temple court all was activity. The bullock without blemish was brought, and the high priest laid his hands on its head, confessing his sins and the sins of his household. Then it was slain, and with the blood he made an atonement for himself and his household, that he might be prepared to perform the solemn service of the day.
When he came out, after presenting the blood of the bullock before the Lord, two goats were brought, lots were cast, and one was chosen for the Lord's goat, while the other, Azazel, the scapegoat, represented the evil one. The Lord's goat was slain. With its blood and the golden censer, the priest entered within the second veil of the sanctuary. As he neared the mercy seat
with the glorious light of the shekinah shining above it, he sprinkled "much incense" upon the coals in the censer, "that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that he die not." Then with his back toward the sun rising, he sprinkled the atoning blood seven times above and before that broken law within the ark. He paused in the holy place, and made atonement for it, and for the tabernacle of the congregation. The golden altar, that had so often during the year witnessed to the sins of Israel by the scarlet spots upon its horns, was now cleansed from all defilement by the blood of the Lord's goat. The people without listened attentively to the sound of the bells on his robes, as he moved about within the sanctuary.
"When he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat." The work of reconciliation ended, God and man were one. The at-one-ment had been made in figure. The separating sins had been removed. The people rejoiced in God that he had accepted them, and that their sins were all removed from before the Lord.
As they beheld the high priest lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and sending him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness," their hearts filled with the peace that passeth understanding. They praised God for the wonderful gift of his love in giving his Son to die for sinful man, delivering him from sin and death. It was not until the goat 138Margin
was sent away into the barren wilderness that this peace filled the hearts of the people, and they felt that they were forever free from their sins.
That was the type. What does the antitype mean to us? Since 1844 the world has been living in the great antitypical day of atonement. The investigative judgment has been in session in heaven. In the type the people were to control their appetites, and to hold their own business interests secondary to the worship of God. This was shown by the day of atonement in the type being a rest and fast day.
We are living in the time when our great High Priest is cleansing the heavenly sanctuary, removing the sin records. We are admonished to repent and be converted, that our sins may be blotted out "when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." When the reconciling is completed, and the last case is decided in the final judgment of heaven, the Saviour will pronounce the decree: "He that is unjust let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous let him be righteous still; and he that is holy let him be holy still." Every case will be decided for eternity. Satan, the great instigator of all evil, the antitypical scapegoat, will then come in for his part of the service.
In the type the sins were laid upon the scapegoat in the presence of the congregation; in the antitype, the Saviour, in the presence of the Father, the angels of God, and all the redeemed host, will lay the sins of the righteous upon the head of Satan, and a mighty angel will lead him away to the desolate earth, where he will remain a thousand years. At the end of the thousand 139Margin
years, he will go into the fire which destroys the earth. Type will fully meet antitype when all the sins of the righteous are burned up, with Satan, and nothing remains but the ashes in "a clean place." It will then be seen that "Satan bore not only the weight and punishment of his own sins, but also the sins of the redeemed host, which had been placed upon him; and he must also suffer for the ruin of souls which he has caused."
The sins of Israel will never again be found. The former things will not be remembered nor come into mind. Throughout eternity joy and peace will forever reign. The prophet says, "He will make one utter end; affliction shall not rise up the second time."
Type must meet antitype. The great High Priest in heaven is now performing his service. Are you performing your part? In homes scattered all over the earth faithful children of God will carry out the antitype in the way God directed the Israelites to spend the typical day of atonement.
The priest might have performed his part of the service perfectly in the temple; but unless the people in their homes fasted, rested, and prayed, the work was of no avail for them. Every Israelite who ate and conducted himself like the Gentiles around him on the day of atonement was cut off from among the people of God.
Is your home a place where the appetite is controlled? Do you hold your business interests secondary to the work of God? Are you heeding the Saviour's words, "Take heed lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting [eating to excess], and drunkenness [partaking of improper food], and cares of this life, and so
that day come upon you unawares"? There will be one hundred and forty-four thousand who will heed the warning, and in the fear of God will fulfill the antitype. While Christ in heaven is faithfully interceding for them, they will present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, that God may be glorified. |
Aloha Rodeo
Three Hawaiian cowboys and their quest to outclass the toughest riders in the American West.
Aloha Rodeo Book
In 1908, three cowboys traveled four-thousand miles from Hawaii to Wyoming to compete at Cheyenne Frontier Days. Few expected the trio—Ikua Purdy and his cousins Jack Low and Archie Ka‘au’a—to be competitive at one of the top rodeos in the country, but as it turns out, it was the mainland cowboys who found themselves overmatched. The locals shouldn’t have been surprised, though, as Hawaii already had a much older ranching tradition than the Great Plains. But in the early twentieth century, few Americans were aware of the existence of Hawaiian cowboys, or paniolo, not unlike the case today.
David Wolman and Julian Smith—co-authors of “Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World’s Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West (William Morrow)—hope to change that by drawing attention to Hawaii’s cattle culture and the exploits of the finest Hawaiian cowboys. Though it may be difficult to imagine, “At one point a quarter of all the land mass of the Hawaiian Islands was dedicated to cattle production and the largest private ranch was in Hawaii,” says Smith, the first of many insightful quotes drawn from the following Failure interview.
How did you learn about the Hawaiian Cowboys you profile in the book?
There’s a statue of Ikua Purdy, the hero of the book, in a supermarket parking lot in Waimea, Hawaii. Purdy is roping a steer, and the plaque says: “World Champion Roper 1908.” It’s not something you expect to see in the land of tropical sunsets and palm trees. When you’re a non-fiction writer and you see something like that you can’t help but to start digging.
How did longhorn cattle get onto the Island of Hawaii—and when?
It was the tail end of the eighteenth century, and they were a gift from the English, who brought a dozen longhorns from Spanish California and presented them to King Kamehameha as a gift.
At its peak, how large was the cattle population in Hawaii?
We are talking about tens of thousands of cattle. There are no solid numbers but the original cattle started reproducing like crazy because there was a royal edict [a kapu] against killing them. Within a few decades the cattle were a huge problem—a massive, deadly, invasive species.
What did the Hawaiian cowboys do to control them?
First they had to learn what it meant to be a cowboy. The king [Kamehameha III] asked for a handful of vaqueros [the New World’s first cowboys] to come over from New Spain, which is now Mexico and California, to teach the Hawaiians how to control these animals, which were goring people and digging up garden plots. The vaqueros introduced the techniques and equipment and the Hawaiians took to cowboying like a duck to water. And that was the birth of the paniolo tradition.
I understand the Hawaiian cowboys had to drive cattle over lava fields and then onto the beach and into the ocean, so they could be loaded onto ships.
First they had to track them down in the jungle, and then they had to rope them and bring them downhill, either on the end of a rope or in a big group. Then they came down into these extensive, bone dry, brutally hot lava fields. The final step was down onto the beach and into the waves to get out to the ships that were waiting to take them other places.
Who got the idea of traveling from Hawaii to Wyoming to compete with mainland cowboys?
That was the brainchild of Eben Low, another major figure in the book. He was a paniolo himself and he was really talented, even after he lost a hand in a roping accident. He was also an entrepreneur at heart and always looking for the next way he was going to make money. He actually organized a few rodeos in Honolulu, and in 1907 he traveled to the mainland and ended up in Cheyenne for Frontier Days, sitting in the stands watching Wyoming cowboys. He said to himself, ‘These guys are pretty good, but I think my cousins back home could beat them.’
How were Purdy & Co. received in Wyoming?
They were received positively. If you look at the newspaper coverage there was no overt racism. [Purdy and his cousins] were the first folks coming from outside the mainland to complete at Cheyenne Frontier Days, and that gave Frontier Days a stamp of legitimacy as far as being the premier rodeo in the country, because people were coming from so far away to compete. At the same time, the newspaper coverage was almost patronizing, as in ‘It’s great they’re here but there is no way they are going to beat the local talent.’ Over the three days of competition that attitude definitely changed.
How were the Hawaiian cowboys different than the mainland cowboys?
In terms of their appearance they were shorter and darker skinned. A lot of their gear was similar but they had a few Hawaiian adaptions, mostly for the climate and the environment they were working in. Their hat brims were a little bigger, because they had to protect from a lot of sun and rain. And their spurs were smaller so they wouldn’t get caught in the dense forest. But the biggest difference was probably their lassos. On the mainland they used this kind of cord fiber to weave their ropes, but in Hawaii they made their lassos from braided rawhide, which lasted a lot longer in that climate. Also, when they came to Cheyenne to compete they had rings of flowers around their hats, like the modern leis you see in Hawaii.
And the Hawaiian cowboys were successful in competition?
Yeah, Jack Low competed on day one and wasn’t particularly impressive because he had an asthma attack when he was trying to rope his calf. But on the second day Ikua and Archie got to show their stuff for the first time and both did incredibly well, being two of the four who competed in the finals. But all three finished in the top ten, so they did pretty damn well.
Few people associate cowboy culture with Hawaii. Why?
One of the points we’re trying to emphasize in the book is that the simplistic view of history is far from the real story, which is a lot more complex and interesting than the image of the American cowboy that has been adopted worldwide. Most of what we know about the stereotype of cowboys comes from books or films—books and films made by white men. Recently things have started to change. By some estimates a quarter of all the cowboys were African-American, newly freed by the Civil War and looking for work.
Can you talk a little about the boom and bust of Cheyenne and how it figures in to the story?
Cheyenne started out as just another dusty, Podunk town on the route of the transcontinental railroad, but in the mid- to late-nineteenth century—when people had all these cattle down in Texas but didn’t have the resources to support them—someone got the bright idea of driving the cattle north to places where there were seemingly acres of grassland.
Cheyenne was ideally positioned, not only because it was near the open range where they could fatten up the cattle, but because it had rail links to faraway markets. It was those factors that led to an incredible boom, and at one point it was the richest city of its size in the country. It had electricity before a lot of other places, and it had an opera house. But it was also dependent on this single industry, and when settlers came out and started fencing off these huge open ranges with barbed wire the decline was steep. Within a decade the wealth was gone.
And the downturn was part of the inspiration for Cheyenne Frontier Days?
The city fathers didn’t want the city to dry up and blow away, and they noticed a lot of towns and cities in the area had started these festivals/rodeos. Denver had a big one, for example, called the Festival of Mountain and Plain. Cheyenne realized it had all this local cowboy talent and enthusiasm so they decided to start a rodeo called Frontier Days, which was a huge success from day one. Pretty soon it became the preeminent rodeo in the country.
Is there any remaining connection between Cheyenne and the Hawaiian cowboys today? Any museum you can go visit?
Yeah, Cheyenne Frontier Days is still a big deal. They also have a great museum there called the Old West Museum, which has displays on the Hawaiian cowboys. But it’s a story that’s much more known in the Hawaiian Islands; on the mainland it’s more like a footnote in a history museum.
Are there still cowboys in Hawaii?
There is still a handful, probably in the dozens, though a lot of them are using ATVs now instead of horses. David and I got to go up into the hills and met some of them doing research for the book, and there are still cowboy lifestyle-traditions that are part of the Hawaiian culture. They have rodeos in Hawaii and one place has a Western Week. There is also a tradition of women who get dressed up and ride on horseback—the pa’u tradition of riding. |
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If a cow is bloated and sick, you have it chew on a rope
My informant was raised on a farm in northeast Nebraska and, in his youth, he was active in maintaining the farm with his parents. One day, about 50 years ago, one of the family’s cows became sick. The cow became bloated and my informant’s father had to explain that cows are too stupid to know when to stop eating. This particular cow had eaten too much alfalfa. This situation can be especially problematic if the alfalfa is really fresh because, according to other farmers, it expands as it is digested. If nothing is done, there is a significant chance the cow will die.
It seemed likely to my informant that this remedy may have originated when someone gave their cow something to chew on to help it cope with the pain of the bloating, and the cow recovered. My informant believes that chewing on the rope might ease the stomach and allow the cow to burp and let out some of the air that has it bloating. Also, this method has proven effective, because if the cow is dumb enough to binge on alfalfa to a point where it endangers its own life, it can surely chew on a rope for hours on end.
At the time my informant first heard of this remedy, he did not know of a medicinal cure for the bloating. Considering the cows had to be fed, housed, and cleaned, uncommon problems like bloating went without a definite cure and farmers had to ask each other what to do in these situations, and in this way, folk remedies spread from farm to farm. |
Heavy medical costs can be avoided
Consumer Conern
TODAY in Guyana the greater part of the population trust in and would use only Western Medicine which is practised and offered at all the hospitals and health centres. This contrasts with the mode of treating the sick in the 19th century when there were few Western-trained doctors or hospital facilities in the country.
Today if anyone suffers from a cold or influenza or other common ailments like measles, indigestion or diarrhoea, that person would immediately consult a doctor. Many people would go to Private Hospitals where the consultation fees and other medical costs are very expensive but they incur such expense which they could ill afford because they are conditioned to think that if they did not seek such help, it could result in serious repercussions.
This is especially true of children and babies, where at the least discomfiture they suffer, parents are usually overcome with fear that worse is to come and they consult doctors. This contrasts with the situation in the 19th century where there was less fear and more knowledge of common ailments and most families used a variety of home-remedies quite effectively.
Until after World War II, the vast majority of Guyanese did not depend on doctors or hospitals when they suffered common or minor disorders. If they suffered from ailments which required surgery such as appendicitis or broken or fractured bones, they would consult a doctor or go to a hospital. they treated most common ailments at home.
Sometimes they would consult a trained nurse who would often do the procedures which only doctors do today. (There were many nurses practising privately, many of them returnees from America). There were also a number of chemists and druggists who practised privately and who owned drug stores. Most importantly, all mothers knew how to treat their babies and children and such knowledge was propagated by the nurses, the druggists but more especially by housewives among themselves. Further, books on home nursing and first aid were widely available and most families would have one or two of these.
In every home, no matter how humble it may be, there was always an area which was converted into a sick room which was kept spotlessly clean and smelt of a disinfectant usually, Jays Fluid, and of Bay Rum or Limacol. Bay Rum was the Barbadian equivalent of Limacol. The medications kept at home were the usual basic ones used at the hospitals. The home nursing tradition throughout the West Indies was influenced by the teachings of Florence Nightingale.
During World War I, Sulphur drugs were discovered and put into universal use. Patients began to treat themselves and the sick room culture gradually faded away. Just at this time, a large number of OTC medications became available and this also led patients to treat themselves. Just at this time, also, doctors began to prescribe the patent drugs sold by drug stores (OTC- over the counter drugs) and moved away from prescriptions which had to be compounded by a druggist.
During World War II, Penicillin and later on a number of other antibiotics were discovered. Anti-biotics was one of the greatest discoveries of Western Medicine and was used for most ailments. Though anti-biotics were strictly prescription drugs, many persons acquired them without prescription resulting in many persons developing immunities from misuse. At all Government-controlled institutions hospital treatment, consultation and provision of drugs used for the more common ailments are free.
This system of Socialist Medicine is a boon to the population. Unfortunately, one has to wait for fairly long periods for consultations and treatments at the Governmental health institutions; these institutions also do not have the equipment to do certain tests or enough equipment for certain procedures such as dialysis. These deficiencies of the Public Health system have led to the growth of a number of Private Hospitals.
These Private Hospitals provide a generally good service but their charges are extremely high since profit-making seems to be their main focus. The majority of patients who use the Private Hospitals do so because they had been unable to use the Public Hospitals for a number of reasons since the charges with which they are faced demand very great financial sacrifice and could impoverish many people.
Consumers and other members of the public could avoid being burdened with heavy medical costs by first, keeping one’s self in good health by eating properly, exercising, and avoiding stress by realising that both future and past do not exist and only concentrating on the present. There are a number of books on good health easily available as well as many sites on the Internet. Second, use well-tried home remedies, knowledge of which could be easily obtained from numerous publications on home treatments and first aid and also from the Internet.
Third, use the Public Hospitals whenever possible since they are free. The Georgetown Public Hospital is being computerised and greater orderliness is being instituted ensuring that there is quicker access to doctors and treatment. |
The story of a museum focusing on Manitoba’s agricultural heritage started in the late 1940s when Don Carrothers of the Austin area became concerned about the amount of farm machinery from the pioneer era that was either being scrapped or sold out of the province.
Mr. Carrothers acquired a Case 22-65 steam engine, restored it to operating condition and paraded the engine on several occasions to gather community support for a museum which would collect agricultural implements from Manitoba’s pioneer era. He was successful and gathered a group of like-minded men who proceeded to form the Agricultural Memorial Museum of Manitoba in 1951. In 1952, the Museum hosted its first Threshermen’s Reunion, a display of operating pioneer equipment. The early years of the Museum were difficult ones, as money was short and the need for money to build the Museum was great. Volunteers were in plenty, however, and offered their skills and labor to the Museum. The Museum was greatly aided by the donation of land by Tom Carrothers, and this property forms the heart of the Museum today. The founders and the volunteers who followed them persevered, and gradually the Museum took shape, with the erection of display buildings, storage facilities and the other facilities needed to host visitors and house the collection.
In the 1960s, the Agricultural Memorial Museum of Manitoba evolved to become the Manitoba Agricultural Museum.
The museum continued growing and expanded to 320 acres
in order to provide required space for agricultural machinery demonstrations; carrying out the activities these pieces were built to do. These demonstrations included activities such as plowing, cutting and binding grain, and threshing. As well, the Museum added pioneer buildings to the collection, in order to provide a more complete picture of pioneer agriculture. Important, authentic buildings such as pioneer homes, a wooden grain elevator, an early railway station and others were acquired, moved to the Museum and set up in the Homesteader’s Village; complete with many of the items that would have been found in these buildings in the early days. Facilities such as a Grandstand was erected, washrooms and a modern campground were built for the convenience of the visitors to the Museum and Reunion.
The Museum continues to progress, as we move further into the 21th century.
Donations of artifacts continue to be accepted, however, the Museum is moving towards interpretation of the collection; we’re “telling the story”. The visitor base the Museum draws from has changed over the years, so requiring the Museum to change. The population of Manitoba is now largely urban, and has been for two generations or more. Educating the visitors we attract regarding the agricultural history of the province and the prairies, how the pieces of the collection changed the direction of agriculture, and how the agricultural history of Manitoba affects the province today, is now the goal of the Manitoba Agricultural Museum. The Museum is the sole agricultural museum in Canada that does operate a range of its antique equipment during the Threshermen’s Reunion; allowing antique equipment enthusiasts, visitors and volunteers with the opportunity to gain a valuable experience of pioneer farming and equipment. |
John D'Alton
John D'Alton was born at Bessville, county Mestmeath, Ireland. He studied law at the Middle Temple (1811) before being called to the Irish bar in 1813. He took his B.A. at Trinity College, Dublin in 1829, where he won a prize in 1831. He published translations from Gaelic poetry and wrote on historical topics.
1814Dermid; or, Erin in the Days of Boru: a Poem.
Dermid; or, Erin in the days of Boru: a poem. 1814.
Essay on the history, religion, learning, arts, and government of Ireland. 1830.
On the necessity of publishing the ancient annals, etc. of Ireland, and the policy of inducing a literary taste in that country. 1831.
The history of tithes, church lands, and other ecclesiastical benefices. 1832.
The history of the county of Dublin. 1838.
The history of Drogheda: with its environs, and an introductory memoir of the Dublin and Drogheda railway. 1844.
The history of Ireland, from the earliest period to the year 1245. 1845.
Brief essay on the native annals, and other sources for illustrating the history and topography of Ireland. 1845.
Cead mile failte: Visit of Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, and His Royal Highness Prince Albert, to Ireland, August, 1849. 1849.
Illustrations, historical and genealogical: of King James's Irish army list (1689). 1855.
The history of Dundalk, and its environs. 1864. |
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The role of the laser
Time：2016-05-25 09:08 Search keywords：The role of the laser writer：admin
The reason why laser light known as magic, because it has four characteristics common light completely available.
1. The direction is good - ordinary light (sun, incandescent or fluorescent) emitting in all directions, and the light-emitting direction of the laser can be limited to less than a few mrad solid angle, which makes on the irradiation direction of illumination increased ten million times. Laser alignment, orientation and distance is to use good direction this feature.
2. High brightness - the brightest contemporary laser light source, only hydrogen bomb instantly strong flash to comparable with it. Sunlight brightness is about 103 W / (cm 2 steradian), and the output light intensity of a high-power lasers by sunlight was up 7 to 14 orders of magnitude. Thus, although the total energy of the laser is not necessarily great, but due to the high concentration of energy, it is prone to hypertension and tens of thousands or even millions of degrees Celsius temperature at a tiny point. Laser drilling, cutting, welding and laser surgery is the use of this feature.
3. The color is good - light is an electromagnetic wave. The color of light depends on its wavelength. The light emitted from ordinary light usually contains a variety of wavelengths, is mixing the various colors of light. Sunlight contains red, board, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple seven colors of visible and infrared light, ultraviolet light is not visible. While some laser wavelength, only concentrated in a very narrow spectral band or frequency range. Such as He-Ne laser wavelength of 632.8 nm wavelength range of less than one ten thousandth nm. Because of monochromatic laser light, good for precision instruments to measure and motivate certain chemical reactions and other scientific experiments provide a very favorable means.
4. coherence is good - is a property of interference fluctuation phenomena. Based on laser characteristics with high directivity and high color, and it must coherence excellent. This feature makes the laser holographic reality. - The so-called laser technology, is to explore the development of various methods of generating a laser and exploring these general characteristics of laser technology for the benefit of mankind. Since 1960 the United States successfully developed the world's first ruby laser, China has also successfully developed the first ruby laser in domestic since 1961, laser technology is considered the 20th century, following the quantum physics, radio technology, nuclear technology, semiconductor technology, electronics another major new scientific and technical achievements in computer technology later. 30 years, laser technology has been rapid development, not only the development of a wide variety of individual characteristics of the laser and laser applications continue to expand, and the formation of a laser disc player, a laser medical treatment, laser processing, laser holography, laser illumination printing , laser printing, and laser weapons and a series of new industries. The rapid development of laser technology, making it one of today's new technological revolution "leading technology."
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By Ali Abdaal and Angus Parker
I have to be honest - I've been ignoring the whole coronavirus news for the past couple of months. I knew that it had something to do with Wuhan in China, and I knew that it has spread around the world over the past few weeks but I really didn't have much knowledge beyond what I had heard on the news.
Today, I finally decided that, as a doctor, I should try to improve my understanding of what is turning into a global health concern. I hope this blog post will help answer some of the questions that I've had over the whole situation in the past few weeks and provide some form of explanation.
What the hell is this coronavirus thing and why is it a big deal?
Okay so there's two questions there. What is coronavirus? And why is it a big deal?
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses. This 'coronavirus' that everyone's talking about is a specific type of coronavirus that we've called SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus which stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2, but everyone's just calling it 'coronavirus'. And the disease that it causes is called, unsurprisingly, Coronavirus Disease 2019, or COVID-19 because that sounds more cool.
More interestingly, it's a respiratory virus that we think originated in bats, and then somehow it spread to humans and the first few cases were in a city called Wuhan in mainland China. But... since January 2020 it's spread from Wuhan in China to loads of other places and it's now a Big Deal.
Why is it a big deal?
It's a big deal for 3 reasons. (1) It's affecting loads of people, and (2) It has quite a significant mortality rate, and (3) It's probably the worst outbreak of its kind in living memory. As of 6th March 2020 when this video's being filmed, there are over 100,000 confirmed cases of the infection, of which around 80,000 are in mainland China. There are 3,460 confirmed deaths, and again the majority are in the Hubei Province in mainland China.
But it's not just affecting China. It's a disease caused by a respiratory virus that spreads in droplets in the air, and because of how interconnected the world has become, there are infected people in over 80 countries across the globe. So in South Korea we've got 6500 confirmed cases, in Iran we've got nearly 5,000 in Italy nearly 5,000 and so on. And remember, these are just confirmed cases - ie: people who have been tested for the virus and have tested positive. There are probably more, possibly thousands, infected by the virus who haven't been tested, or who's symptoms have been so mild that they haven't noticed they've got it.
But these numbers - 100,000 infected, 3,000 dead. Those are hard numbers to appreciate in isolation. So let's compare them to similar epidemics in the past.
If you're a boomer like me, you might remember the SARS epidemic in 2003 again caused by a coronavirus. That affected around 8,000 people and killed 800 over an 8-month period. There was another coronavirus epidemic in 2012 that got less press attention from what I remember, the MERS epidemic that affected 2500 people and killed 861. Now so far, COVID-19 has affected 100,000 people and killed 3500 but this mortality rate, of 3.5%, is less than the 9.43% of SARS, and a lot less than the 34.5% mortality rate of MERS.
But... the problem is look at this other graph, again from the NBC website.
The spread of this virus is far greater compared to the spread of SARS or MERS. In just 2 months, COVID-19 has infected 100,000 people. It took MERS a whole year to infect just 200.
YET, it's worth bearing in mind as well, that the standard flu, which is also caused by a respiratory virus, kills around 400,000 people per year worldwide and we don't really bat an eyelid over that.
So that's why this coronavirus thing is a big deal - it's spreading quite fast and it's causing a number of deaths, and even though 3.5% is a lot less than 10% and 35%, 3.5% of millions of people that could potentially become infected, could cause significant issues.
Okay so I understand why this is a big deal. But realistically, what are my chances of getting it?
Well, depends where you are. The virus spreads, we think, through water droplets in the air. So to catch it, you have to either breathe the same air as someone who's got it, or you've touched something that has the virus droplets on it and then you've touched your mouth or nose or licked your hand or whatever and now it's in your system.
So, to get it you have to come into contact with someone else who's got it. And therefore, if you're in the UK for example, your chances of getting it are very small. Out of a population of nearly 70 million, just over 200 people have been infected and so that's a pretty small risk, with the caveat that these numbers are just the confirmed cases, and as I said earlier, there could be people roaming around who've got the virus but don't know they have it.
But in any case, your chances are pretty low.
Your chances get a lot higher if you've travelled to a country, or actually, if you live in a country, where there are more cases. So if you're in the UK for example, and you've recently been to China, or...
• Cambodia
• China
• Hong Kong
• Iran
• Italy
• Japan
• Laos
• Macau
• Malaysia
• Myanmar (Burma)
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Tenerife – only the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel
• Thailand
• Vietnam
...then your chances of getting it are higher because you're more likely to have come into contact with someone else who might have had the virus.
Let's say I do catch coronavirus. What would happen to my body, and what are my odds of surviving it?
Firstly we probably shouldn't call it coronavirus, we should probably call it COVID-19.
Secondly, to answer your question about what it does to the body, it's quite similar to other respiratory viruses, like the common cold or the flu, in that it can cause you to have a cough, fever, shortness of breath, muscle aches. From what we know so far, around 80% of the cases are mild, and only around 1 in 6 people become seriously ill and have trouble breathing.
And secondly, to answer the question, your chances of surviving COVID-19 depend a lot on how old you are and how many other health problems you've got. Overall, as we've mentioned, of the 100,000 people that have been infected, 3,500 have died, so that's a 3.5% mortality rate. But again, we know that in approximately 80% of the cases, the symptoms are mild and many people might not even realise that they have had it, and so the actual mortality rate is probably less than 3.5%. In fact, Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Chris Witty, says that the overall mortality rate is probably lower than 1%.
But, take a look at this graph from the NBC News website:
It's comparing COVID-19 with SARS and MERS as before. And we can see here that your chances of dying increase the older you get, with people over 80 being particularly vulnerable, although even then The Guardian estimates that over 90% of over-80s who get infected with the virus will survive. But we do know that if you've got other health problems including preexisting respiratory disease, diabetes, heart disease or immunodeficiency, that your chances of dying from are a lot higher than someone who's young, fit and has no medical issues.
And, it's also worth mentioning - if you get COVID-19, the chances of surviving depend on geography too in terms of how good the healthcare system is in each nation. In the UK, we have the National Health Service and so if myself or my mum or my grandma were to get COVID-19, we'd most likely survive. But, if we were poor and living in a rural part of a nation without access to a similar healthcare system, our chances of dying from COVID-19 would unfortunately, be higher.
But how do people survive it? Do we have a cure or a vaccine?
Okay well there's 3 questions there. Firstly how do you survive it. Secondly do we have a cure. Thirdly do we have a vaccine. Let's tackle all of them.
Firstly, how do you survive it? For most of us, and for the 60,000 people who've recovered from the disease, our body's immune systems are pretty good at dealing with most invaders. Hence, after a few weeks, our body will probably fight it off naturally. The problem is that because it affects the lungs, it can affect our breathing, especially if we're old, or we have preexisting health problems. If it affects our breathing substantially, we might die before our body has a chance to fight it.
But, the good news is that even in that situation, we can have 'supportive treatment' in hospital. The most legitimate version of this is mechanical ventilation or enhanced ventilation in an intensive care unit. The idea is that if our lungs are suffering, we can get hooked up to a ventilator, or a 'life support machine', and that ventilator can help support our breathing until our body has a chance to fight the virus naturally. The issue, of course, is that if you're somewhere where this sort of intensive care treatment doesn't exist, you wouldn't have a machine and a team of medical professionals supporting your breathing, so you might well die of the disease before your body has a chance to fight it off.
But surely we can give them medication or something to help cure the disease?
Well, not exactly. We don't have a cure yet. But we've got drugs that we know work against other types of viruses, and we've got ongoing trials in China mostly, but also in the US and other countries, where people infected with the virus are being given anti-virals to see if they'll help. At the moment, it's too early to say.
Some drugs that might help are Kaletra (which is a combination of 2 anti-HIV drugs), and remdesevir, which they tried on Ebola patients in West Africa back in 2013 and 2016. And some Chinese doctors are apparently trying chloroquine, which is a cheap anti-malaria drug that could potentially help, and if it does that would be really useful for low-income countries. (Source: The Guardian).
What about a vaccine?
We don't have a vaccine against this type of coronavirus. We're working on it, but the general consensus is that it will be at least 12-18 months before we can get a vaccine that works.
Right. So, I now get what coronavirus is (it's a virus that started off in Wuhan in China but now's spread all over the world), and why it's a big deal (mainly because it's spread really fast and can kill people). And I understand that my own chances of catching it are pretty low, and even if I did, chances are I'd probably survive it especially if I'm young, healthy and living in a country with a decent healthcare system, even though we don't have a cure or a vaccine for it. Is that all correct?
Yes, that's right.
So why is everyone worrying? Is there any reason to panic?
Well, no, there's no reason to panic and panicking wouldn't be the right response. There's a hash tag going around that's #alertnotanxious. I think that's a really good way of looking at it. Alert, not anxious.
I can see why people are worried, especially if you're living in one of those countries where there's a large number of cases or if you or your loved ones are elderly, with medical problems, or if your country's healthcare system isn't that reliable - I can see why you'd be worried.
But if it's any consolation, firstly we need to remember that the normal flu infects approximately 40 million people per year and kills 400,000 and no one really panics about that. And, from the information we've got so far, it seems like the majority of cases will be mild, and we've got the whole world working together and so hopefully a solution can be found rapidly. In the meantime, there's a lot we can do to minimise our own risk of infection, or if we've got the virus, our risk of infecting others.
Oh really? What can we do to protect ourselves from the disease?
Well, there are a few things.
• Firstly, we should all be working to reduce the spread of the virus - through simple acts like washing our hands with soap and water, or hand sanitiser, whenever we're doing things like eating food, or sneezing or coughing, or when we get into work or arrive home, because if we do happen to have picked up the virus particles en-route, we don't want them to get into our lungs. The classic advice to avoid touching your face is also relevant.
• If you think you might have COVID-19, ie you've got symptoms of the flu (like fever, coughing, shortness of breath etc) and you think you've come into contact with someone else who might have had it, then you should follow your own country's advice on the topic. In the UK for example, we've got the NHS 111 Coronavirus service which tells you what to do, and outside many hospitals now they've got COVID-19 pods or drive-through stations where you can go there and get tested for the virus. And if you've got the virus, and it's mild, you just self-isolate yourself for a few weeks - i.e you don't go to work or school or public places to avoid spreading it around, or if it's affecting your breathing then we bring you into hospital in specialist wards to help support your breathing while your body fights off the infection.
I don't know how other countries are dealing with that, but check the internet and there'll probably be governmental advice about what to do.
What about face masks?
Face masks, now there's a question. There is a common misconception that face masks help protect you from catching it. Whilst some specialist face masks can, the advice from the WHO is to only use them if you have/think you have the virus to avoid spreading it. The WHO have advised people NOT to buy or use them if they do not have the virus because there is a worldwide shortage of face masks, and there's no evidence to suggest that face masks are actually useful outside of a hospital setting. So the advice is probably to avoid using them.
So that was the basics - but presumably there's a lot more to understand about what's going on with COVID-19 and why the media's talking about it all the time?
Yes you're right - we've just covered the basics here. There are many more stories and issues related to and arising from the virus from around the world.
The social and economic impact of the virus has already been widespread. For instance, stock markets around the world plunged in response to the crisis and we've seen major events cancelled and flights to entire countries stopped.
From an academic, historical and economic point of view, this has been quite an interesting outbreak, but let's not forget that this is a very real disease affecting real people around the world. The situation is constantly evolving and things could become more serious, BUT we should be alert, not anxious. There are things that we can do to help reduce the spread, like washing our hands regularly, and recognising the signs and symptoms, so that we can follow medical advice and self-isolate - all of which can help prevent this outbreak becoming a more serious global crisis.
So, that was an overview of the basics of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus that has shaken the world in 2020. If you've got any comments or corrections about anything we've said here, do please leave them down below in the comments section. Remember, stay alert not anxious.
Check out this link for latest data and graphics: |
It’s national hedgehog week. How can we help this iconic delight of British wildlife?
Hedgehogs are an iconic part of this country’s wildlife, but how many people have regular hedgehogs visiting their gardens? We can help this severely threatened species by making a few changes in our gardens.
Young hedgehog looks at the camera
Young hedgehog looks at the camera
What can we do to help hedgehogs?
1. Get together with your community and create a hedgehog highway. Simply cut CD sized holes into the bottom of all your fences, this allows hedgehogs free access to everyone’s garden. Hedgehogs can wonder up to 2 km a night in search of food and mates!
2. Wildlife ponds are great for all manner of wildlife, including the wonderful hedgehog! You can either get one installed, or if you have one already then please make sure wildlife has a safe exit route from your pond. You can easily make exit ramps using a length of wood and some wire mesh.
3. Keep and/or create a wild area within your garden. Hedgehogs need a place to feel safe, snooze and raise their family. Please consider creating a wild space within your garden.
4. Add a hedgehog house to your garden. Give hedgehogs a home and install a delightful little hedgehog house.
5. Leave your grass longer this year! Long grass provides a safer spot for hedgehogs and other wildlife to meander through at night. Plus it will save you hours of time mowing the lawn!
6. You can leave food out for hedgehogs, just never give them milk! Some foods which hedgehogs enjoy are ….
• Cooked potatoes
• Chopped nuts
• Dried meal worms
• Sunflower hearts
• Sultanas
• Specialised hedgehog foods
What to avoid in your garden?
1. Never use slug pellets or other damaging chemicals. Hedgehogs eat the poisoned slugs, which can prove fatal to the poor little hedgehog.
2. Check compost bins before turning, you never know when a hedgehog may be napping in your compost heap!
3. Check long grass before cutting (or ideally leave your grass longer!)
4. Make ponds safe for hedgehogs! Check your pond to make sure the sides are not to steep and that wildlife has a safe route out of your pond and/or swimming pool.
5. Cover paddling pools over at night.
6. Never leave out milk for hedgehogs! Milk can cause severe diarrhoea as hedgehogs are lactose intolerant!
Hedgehog on the grass
Hedgehog on the grass |
Hard Times – from 1854 to 1504 (Dodd-Frank)
Masters and “Quiet Servants”
Charles Dickens wrote “Hard Times – For These Times” (usually known as “Hard Times”) in 1854. This was a bleak analysis of mid-19th Century factories and the mechanistic drive for material reward.
The world of the Industrial Revolution saw immense material improvement within a 19th Century mindset that saw business develop on the back of “resources” – whether they were natural resources (like coal) or human resources – Dickens’s “quiet servants”. Resources were resources and how they were discovered, whose they were, the conditions under which they were mined, how they were shipped or the conditions under which they were placed into the manufacturing process were not much of a consideration.
Britain and other developing nations of the time grew wealthy on their own drive, ingenuities, financing and trading and manufacturing instincts but the whole process would have collapsed if access was not obtained to raw materials from the rest of the world and the use of “human materials” from all over (including their own countries). The terms “human resources” is still with us along with natural resources – but the “quiet servants” grew louder.
Gradually, from 1833 when Britain enacted laws that children under nine should not work in factories, throughout the second half of the 19th Century and into the 20th, our human resources (people working in factories and mining, for example, in the industrializing nations) campaigned and secured rights over income, health and safety, length of the working day and age restrictions.
Developed countries worked out that, to work well and succeed, we had to develop ways that we all could share to some extent in the benefits that material gain provided. This is the basis of free and fair societies based on successful economies.
From nation to global
The last thirty years has seen a vast shift from developed nations using the rest of the world merely to buy from and sell to, to a shift to manufacturing and now development and R&D throughout the world. Trade has grown internationally and the so-called integrated “global economy” is in place. We are no longer merely the industrialised west and the under-developed rest, but an inter-connected web of nations within one, world economy.
Yet, the strains are clearly showing. Allied to the vast changes in internet communications (similar to the vast increase of communications that shaped 18th Century politics and the 19th Century – the telegraph and the phone), all peoples of the world now see themselves as part of this world (or global) economy in the same way that 19th and early 20th Century factory workers saw themselves vis a vis factory owners. They then, understandably, demand rights and safeguards.
This is now happening on a world scale as we develop our global nation (economically). The changes are profound and, if done properly, will be of enormous benefit.
21st Century Responses
This week saw the approval after two years of the US SEC (Security and Exchange Commission) of articles 1502 and 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The two measures could have major implications for all of us in that (properly implemented) they set a real standard for the globalized economy in two, crucial areas:
1. the willingness of all of us to buy items cheaply no matter how the raw materials were obtained
2. the willingness of all of us to buy items from wherever in the world, no matter what corruption was employed in their provision.
Article 1502 refers to the mining of key raw materials in Africa such as tantalum, tungsten, gold and tin. It will (after an implementation period) require all suppliers and manufacturers to state that their products do not contain raw materials that financed war or bloody conflict. So many years after blood diamonds were headlined, there is now a statute that demands that companies step back and consider what they are buying. Manufacturers that buy such raw materials have had to count the cost of reputational disaster if they continue to sidestep basic human responsibilities in this global market. Now, there will be a legal imperative in the USA.
Article 1504 is the Cardin-Lugar rule which sets rules for country-by-country reporting of companies in the extractive industries concerning the revenues and profits they make in all countries where they do business (on a project by project basis).
Both articles require all companies that are listed in the USA to comply (although not immediately), wherever those countries are based. The European Union is expected to pass similar laws.
The implementation of the two articles will help to drive change on a global scale, where individual nations (e.g. where the resources are extracted) are unable to do so. Why? For several reasons:
1. Developing nations (especially resource-rich and economically poor) are prone to corruption and often unable or unwilling to enact these laws themselves;
2. Developing nations (especially in parts of Africa) use resource revenues to fund conflicts and wars;
3. Corporations operating in those areas need to show global sensibilities – where treatment in their overseas subsidiaries and employees is brought up to levels that we believe are credible and reasonable. It is hard to do that without legal change as competition is too high to expect corporate ethics (whatever that means) to work on its own.
To Ayn Rand libertarians Dodd-Frank is an economic travesty and many in the US are waiting for Romney and Ryan to get elected and reverse these laws. That would be the travesty. It is enough that in developing nations, the gaps between the rich and the rest are widening; it is enough that nations like Greece are now collapsing economically. There is potential for real strife in nations where inequality is too widespread.
But, we now live in a global economy where we are all dependent on each other. That means simply that best practice (that works on a national scale) has to be introduced globally wherever feasible. The intricate balance of trade, manufacturing, design and the need for natural resources (as well as the need to work together on climate change issues or disease control, for example) dramatically increase the need to treat the global economy as one economy – which it is. This means that national rights have to be respected but that is not enough.
Article 1504, for example, takes the trust element away from many nations like Equatorial Guinea, where the leadership is a kleptocracy and where riches from oil revenues do not go to the people in any meaningful form. Country by country reporting will, eventually, put an end to opaque deals between companies and those who have taken over the ownership of natural resources in those countries by showing transparently what profits are made and revenues generated on a project by project basis. Citizens in those countries will begin to be able to see how those revenues are used or not. Information is valuable and a first step to more equitable conditions.
21st Century Ethics
As we enter the fifth year of the post-sub prime recession (with economic collapse in Greece and high youth unemployment in Spain), we remain much more concerned with ourselves than with people and nations thousands of miles away. The change that global economics has wrought, however, is that we can no longer ignore the plight of those so far away even if we (wrongly) wish to do so. Their plight is ours just as the impoverishment (economically and educationally) of our inner cities is a blight and our plight.
The Chinese view things differently, of course. A thousand years of relative impoverishment has left it hungry for economic growth and its hunger leads it to plunder the natural resources of Africa. China’s legalist centre, its Confucian heart and its loathing of western imperialism means that it is content to leave governance issues aside. Its own internal corruption (the corruption of a centrist and legalist government, where bribes are the common currency of the status quo) means that it is unlikely to require good governance in return for its acquisition of raw materials. In fact, its non-linkage of governance requirements gives China a distinct trading advantage in Africa.
It is to be hoped that this is a short-term business expedient and a long-term mistake for the Chinese. Just as the best manufacturers in the 19th and early 20th Century were leaders in improving conditions for their employees (notably, Henry Ford who wanted his own staff to be able to afford to buy his cars) and just as the US spearheaded safety rules in the 20th Century, it is likely that the best companies will understand that improving the safeguards overseas (whether in their own companies or those of suppliers) will be important, medium-term investments.
Reputational loss is now potentially huge (as Apple realized when suicides at one of its biggest suppliers in China, Foxconn, began to rise and changes in working practices were required by Apple). The raw materials that we require for so many of the goods that we buy are obtained under horrendous conditions in Africa. It is not just blood diamonds but all those naturally occurring elements that the SEC has just regulated into law.
In addition, the country-by-country reporting will shine a light on the regimes that take in billions of dollars of income and disburse so little to their people. Pressure will mount from outside and inside.
Organisations like One, Transparency International, Global Witness and Enough and the Publish What You Pay coalition deserve huge credit for a relentless drive over many years to enact such positive changes. The US Congress deserves huge credit for bringing it into law in the powerhouse of the US economy. The EU should follow and they should all work within the OECD and elsewhere to ensure that these measures, providing an ethical underpinning to the global economy, are made global.
We live in a globalized economy and comparative advantages should be developed through intelligence, hard work and ingenuity – not via the impoverishment or hardship of our global neighbours. The bringing into implementation of Dodd-Frank’s articles 1502 and 1504 suggests that the global economy is waking up to the fact that our “quiet servants” deserve respect wherever they are – close to home or further away. The global economy (and climate change and air travel and the internet….) means we are all neighbours now. |
︎ Ab Nw Wk Pp Aw Tk Vw Pr
Labitat was designed during the Caltech Space Challenge, a 4-day competitive workshop at the California Institute of Technology.
NASA's mission concept to capture and "redirect" an asteroid is envisioned as a proving ground for human mission in deep space that could pave the way to Mars capability. For the scope of the Caltech Space Challenge mission to land humans on an asteroid brought back to lunar Distant Retrograde Orbit, extract the asteroid's resources and demonstrate their use it is not enough to use Orion's capabilities and rendezvous with the asteroid for only four days. Exploration and in-situ experimentation require weeks if not months and are demanding on both crew and instrumentation. Labitat is a vision for a proper home and workshop for a crew of three. The habitat attempts to condense radical habitability to its simplest form. On March 27th, 2015, OASIS was awarded first place at the Caltech Space Challenge.
As it's name hints, Labitat acts as the primary habitat and pressurized experimental platform for OASIS. Its typology is derived from Bigelow Aerospace's BA 330 concept, yet features extensive modifications with the goal of improving ergonomics, maximizing radiation safety, and separating private activities from share ones. It is also much smaller than the BA 330.
Experientially the toroidal space represents a new spatial paradigm in micro-gravity habitats distinct from the dead-ends of the ISS's branching typology. Due to its "receding horizon" or "rolling wall" produced by convex and concave surfaces, respectively, the torus offers superb spaces for both work and play. |
URL of this page: //medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000506.htm
What causes bone loss?
Osteoporosis, or bone loss, is a disease that causes bones to become brittle and more likely to fracture (break). With osteoporosis, the bones lose density. Bone density is the amount of bone tissue that is in your bones.
A diagnosis of osteoporosis means you are at risk for bone fractures even if you do not have a severe bone injury.
Your Changing Bones
• During your life, your body continues to both reabsorb old bone and create new bone. Your entire skeleton is replaced about every 10 years, though this process slows as you get older.
Sometimes bone loss occurs without any known cause. Some bone loss with aging is normal for everyone. Other times, bone loss and thin bones run in families and the disease is inherited. In general, white, older women are the most likely to have bone loss. This increases their risk of breaking a bone.
Weak bones can break easily, even without an obvious injury.
Aging and Bone Loss
OsteoporosisWatch this video about:Osteoporosis
Women over age 50 years and men over age 70 years have a higher risk for osteoporosis than younger women and men.
Your Lifestyle and Bone Loss
Calcium sourceVitamin D benefit
Your body may not make enough new bone if:
• You do not eat enough high-calcium foods
• Your body removes more calcium than normal in the urine
Certain habits can affect your bones.
• Drinking alcohol. Too much alcohol can damage your bones. It can also put you at risk of falling and breaking a bone.
Low body weight is linked to less bone mass and weaker bones.
Exercise is linked to higher bone mass and stronger bones.
Medical Disorders and Bone Loss
Many long-term (chronic) medical conditions can keep people confined to a bed or chair.
• This keeps the muscles and bones in their hips and spines from being used or bearing any weight.
Other medical conditions that may also lead to bone loss are:
• Hormone-blocking treatments for prostate cancer or breast cancer
• Some medicines that are used to treat seizures or epilepsy
• Glucocorticoid (steroid) medicines, if they are taken by mouth every day for more than 3 months, or are taken several times a year
• Gastric bypass (weight-loss surgery)
• Cystic fibrosis
• Other conditions that prevent the small intestine from absorbing nutrients well
People with eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia, are also at higher risk for osteoporosis.
What's Next?
Talk to your health care provider about your risk for bone loss and osteoporosis. Find out how to get the right amount of calcium and vitamin D, what exercise or lifestyle changes are right for you, and what medicines you may need to take.
Alternative Names
Osteoporosis - causes; Low bone density - causes
Maes C, Kronenberg HM. Bone development and remodeling. In: Jameson JL, De Groot LJ, de Kretser DM, et al, eds. Endocrinology: Adult and Pediatric. 7th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2016:chap 60.
Review Date 5/17/2018
Related MedlinePlus Health Topics |
The occurrence of macrophyte in three high Andean lakes of Ecuador, Lago San Pablo, Laguna La Mica and Lago Cuicocha was recorded in 5-9 transects per lake. The first two lakes are eutrophic, the third is an extremely oligotrophic caldera lake. The dominant species in eutrophic lakes are Ceratophyllum demersum, Myriophyllum quitense, Potamogeton illinoensis, P. striatus and Elodea matthewsii. In the oligotrophic lake P. pectinatus, P. illinoensis, and the Characeae Chara rusbyana, Ch. globularis and Nitella acuminata occur. The maximum depth of the macrophyte’s presence can be used as an indicator of the trophic state, ranging from about 5 m in Mica to 35 m in Cuicocha. The bioindication value of the macrophyte species in these high Andean lakes is low, because few species occur and because some of them are not specific to environmental conditions.
Keywords: limnology, macrophyte, high mountain lakes, bioindicator, latin america, Ecuador |
At a protest march against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Guwahati on January 19, hundreds of women invoked Mula Gabhoru. In the early 16th century, Gabhoru and five other Ahom women died fighting Turbak Khan, a general of the Sultan of Bengal.
It was the precursor to a century of conflict between the Ahom kings and the Mughals, ending in the Battle of Saraighat, when the Mughals were decisively driven back. A protestor at the Guwahati rally said Assam needed “hundreds of Mula Gabhorus”, women who led the revolution and “restricted the invaders”.
The battles of medieval Assam have popular resonance even today. Mughal incursions into Ahom kingdoms speak to contemporary fears of outsiders overrunning populations defined as indigenous, wiping out local languages and cultures, taking over precious land. The Ahom victory against imperial forces who took orders from Delhi also chimes well with Assamese sub-nationalism, which has long positioned itself against the Centre.
So it is no surprise that history has been marshalled into protest over this last month.
Centre cannot hold
Assam’s opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act has been driven largely by the old fear of migrants. The state published its own National Register of Citizens last year, an exercise meant to separate so-called illegal migrants from genuine Indian citizens living in Assam. The terms of the exercise were determined by the Assam Accord, signed by the Centre and Assamese nationalists in 1985. According to the pact, anyone who could not prove they or their ancestors had entered India before midnight on March 24, 1971, would be declared a foreigner liable to deportation.
Over 19 lakh people were left out of Assam’s NRC. But leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party have insisted that the new law, which makes undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan eligible for citizenship, would naturalise lakhs of those who failed to make the list.
As the law was passed last month and Assam erupted in protests, much of the anger was directed against the BJP, in power at the Centre as well as the state. In one stroke, it was felt, Delhi had broken a pact which had become the cornerstone of Assamese identity.
The BJP’s battle of Saraighat
The BJP picked up some history, too, as it campaigned in Assam for the assembly elections of 2016. The elections, in which the party swept to power for the first time in Assam, were dubbed the last battle of Saraighat. Later, BJP campaigners would write a book called The Last Battle of Saraighat: The Story of the BJP’s Rise in the North East, explaining its electoral strategy.
Apart from a few pockets of the state, the BJP did not deploy the rhetoric of Hindutva used in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Its rise in Assam was powered by a rainbow coalition of parties claiming to represent indigenous interests, from the Asom Gana Parishad to the Bodoland People’s Front. What remained unsaid was the coalition was indigenous and non-Muslim.
The party vowed to protect the Assamese “jati” (nation) and “mati” (land) by ejecting so-called foreigners living in the state, but it conflated Muslims from migrant communities with illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. They were the Mughal invaders that had to be driven out by the coalition of the indigenous.
Writers and academics in the state had objected to the formulation, asserting that the battle was fought between Ahoms and Mughals, not Hindus and Muslims. It was pointed out that Mughal forces were led by Raja Ram Singh of Jaipur and Bagh Hajorika, an Assamese Muslim, had been a key commander for the Ahoms.
The Congress, too, invoked the battle of Saraighat. In this retelling, the BJP was the outsider that was to be driven out. But the BJP prevailed and built on its successes in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019.
Back to the old faultlines
As the new citizenship law was passed last month, the Battle of Saraighat was invoked once more, this time by protestors livid with the BJP. It featured in a message written in blood by students of Gauhati University: “We are going to Saraighat with newfound power”. Several Assamese organisations also banded together in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district in a protest that became known as the “Last Battle of Saraighat”.
Tinsukia also saw violence directed at establishments owned by people who were not ethnic Assamese, especially Bengali speakers. One person, an Adivasi man, was charred to death as he slept in a shop owned by a Bengali-speaking Hindu.
A month of protests may have seen Assamese protesters reclaiming their history from the communalised version peddled by the BJP. But it has also reinforced the old faultines, which were ethnic rather than religious. |
Characteristics of Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships & Corporations
Business owners have a variety of choices when it comes to business structures. Choose wisely; a business structure affects how much the owner pays in taxes and the owner's legal liability for business activities. Sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations all have advantages and disadvantages depending on your specific situation.
Sole Proprietorships
Sole proprietorships are the simplest business structure to operate, as well as the least regulated. As the name indicates, sole proprietorships only have a single owner. There's generally not much that you need to do to start a sole proprietorship other than obtaining a business license from your local government. The owner records all business profits and losses on the schedule C of his individual tax return. One downside of a sole proprietorship is that the owner is legally liable for all business activities and business debts. Transferring ownership also is tricky; the business owner has to sell the entire business to another owner if he wants out.
Partnerships are similar to sole proprietorships, except they have two or more business owners. Like proprietorships, partnerships aren't taxed as a separate business entity; the income flows through to each owner's personal tax return. In a general partnership, all the partners are legally liable for debts and can be sued. The exception to this rule is the limited partnership. In a limited partnership, one or more general partners have unlimited legal liability, while the other "limited" partners have limited liability. A general partnership must dissolve and form a new partnership if anyone wants to transfer ownership. On the other hand, limited partners can sell their portions without dissolving the partnership.
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Unlike proprietorships and partnerships, corporations are completely distinct from their owners. Under U.S. law, a corporation is treated like a person; it's taxed separately, it can sue and be sued, and it can own stock and property. Corporations take a lot more work to set up compared to other business entities. Initial owners must prepare articles of incorporation and a set of bylaws for the company. Owners can freely buy and sell their portions of a corporation. To get money out of a corporation, business owners must pay themselves salaries or ownership dividends. One financial downside of a corporation is double taxation; both the corporation's income and the owner's dividends are taxed.
Other Business Structures
Sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations aren't the only options for a business owner. The limited liability company and the s-corporation are two relatively new business formations that owners can adopt. Limited liability companies, or LLCs, are a hybrid of partnerships and corporations. Owners can choose to have their LLC taxed like a partnership, hence avoiding double taxation, but still retain limited legal liability for the owners. S-corporations are similar to LLCs but allow the owners to distribute cash as salaries and dividends, which can help reduce taxes in some situations.
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• Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Getty Images
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encoding , a built-in Tcl command, manages the conversion of strings to and from particular encodings, and controls how the definitions of particular encodings are located and what Tcl believes the OS uses for encoding strings.
See Also
Mapping of Tcl-encoding names to IANA-list
encoding to and from UTF-8
An example by KBK.
Chinese characters in file name
HaO 2012-01-30: After a question about Chinese characters in a DOS BOX, in the windows wish console and in tkcon, Donal Fellows explains the console use of encodings.
Bug in regsub with "special chars"?
AMG: Having the wrong source encoding can interact badly with regular expressions.
Encoding table generator
Also has code to work around a bug/feature: if an encoding file gives 0000 as target for a character, encoding convertfrom seems to fall through to iso8859-1 and get the Unicode from there...
register new encodings at runtime
TTP 258
Refined the behavior of Tcl's encoding routines.
ycl string encode/decode
Alternative routines that return an error rather than losing information.
encoding convertfrom ?encoding? data
encoding convertto ?encoding? string
encoding dirs ?directoryList?
encoding names
encoding system ?encoding?
HaO 2020-05-13 - The encoding "unicode" may be 16 or 32 bit and little or big endian depending on the compile options and platform endianess. See also [L1 ].
Internal encodings
The following encodings are available in TCL8.6 without encoding files:
• identify (depreciated, default encoding for TCL8.0 to TCL8.5)
• iso8859-1 (default encoding for TCL8.6)
• utf-8
• unicode
They are hard-coded in the file generic/tclEncoding.c.
Information source: Don Porter on the core list 2020-05-11 titled "Re: TCLCORE Default fallback encoding in TCL8.6.10 not identity but iso8859-1 ?".
Why is iso8859-1 the default
HaO 2020-05-13: Kevin Kenny gave the following explanation on the core list on 2020-05-11 titled "Re: TCLCORE Default fallback encoding in TCL8.6.10 not identity but iso8859-1 ?":
ISO8859-1 enjoys the uniquely privileged position that 'binary' is the same encoding. The first 256 code points of Unicode are precisely the 256 byte values of ISO8859-1. The conversion between Tcl's byte arrays and Tcl's strings is therefore also ISO8859-1 equivalent.
The implication is that ISO8859-1 is at least lossless. In particular, every UTF-8 string has some interpretation as an ISO8859-1 string, and on any Unix-based system, that's enough to represent path names so that encoding tables can be read.
The 'identity' encoding was a rather muddled attempt to produce the same effect, which did not work, and resulted in malformed UTF-8 if any data outside the seven-bit ISO646 range were present.
It's pretty subtle, but ISO8859-1 is pretty much The Right Thing anywhere that we thought 'identity' might be correct. (With the exception of some code internal to the test suite whose purpose is to test that the Core does not crash if handed a malformed CESU-8 string by a C extension.).
In a recent discussion in the chat room, the frustrations of having characters without knowing their encoding, and wishing for a utility to assist in turning the characters into something nearly readable, resulted in the suggestion of :
RS: Larry: Yes. One might wrap that functionality in a text widget, into which you paste the suspicious page, and have a listbox to choose all [encoding names] offers... a double click on a listbox item converts the text contents. RS: Rolf: "encoding convertfrom foo" turns the questionable characters into UTF-8, which you can inspect directly in your text widget. Writing it to a text file, or stdout, involved an intrinsic "encoding convertto [encoding system]", which often is iso8859-1 or cp1252. So if the input had Russian or Greek characters, these will not come through to system encoding, but will be replaced by question marks.
Alas, the situation is this - LV receives emails, files, web pages, etc. on a regular basis without an encoding specified. While much of the text characters appear correct, the punctuation is skewed - it shows up as ? or \x92,etc. instead of things like " or ' or -, and so forth.
All he wants to do is have the weird punctuation marks (which he figures in the editors of the creators look like various fancy punctuation characters) readable.
Here's the code LV is currently trying...
# translate those obnoxious windows characters to something better
while {! [eof stdin]} {
gets stdin buffer
set buffer2 [string map { \xa9 (c) \xd7 (c) \x85 - \x91 ' \x92 ' \x93 \" \x94 \" } $buffer]
puts $buffer2
The Euro sign is represented in Windows cp1252 as \x80. If you get such strings in, you can see the real Euro sign with
encoding convertfrom cp1252 \x80
Back you go with
encoding convertto cp1252 \u20AC
To find out which encoding is used for communication with the OS (including file I/O):
encoding system
To see available encodings:
encoding names
Converting non-ASCII Characters
Can I use the 'encoding' command (or some appropriate fconfigure -encoding) to take a Tcl source file (*.tcl) in an arbitrary encoding and output a well-formed Tcl source file which is pure ASCII ? (i.e. all chars > 127 have been converted to \uhhhh unicode escape sequences)?
RS: Sure, but some assembly required - like this:
proc u2x s {
set res {}
foreach i [split $s {}] {
scan $i %c int
if {$int < 128} {
append res $i
} else {
append res \\u[format %04.4X $int]
set res
set fp [open $filename]
fconfigure $fp -encoding $originalEncoding
set data [u2x [read $fp [file size $filename]]]
close $fp
set fp2 [open $newFilename w]
puts -nonewline $fp2 $data
close $fp2
The "u2x" functionality is easily done, but it's also somewhere built-in in Tk - on Unix, codes for which no font has a character are substituted in "\uxxxx" style... (Windows mostly shows an empty rectangle). See Unicode and UTF-8
RS revisits this page on 2004-03-19 and now would rather write it this way:
proc u2x s {
set res {}
foreach c [split $s {}] {
scan $c %c int
set res
Not every unicode character can be represented unambiguously in every encoding. In such cases, a fallback character (e.g. ?) is inserted instead, but on re-conversion the original character is lost. Here is a little tester for such cases, demonstrated with some German and Greek (out of laziness, produced by Greeklish) letters. Notice the quote way to use a command result as argument default, which assumes that the name of the system encoding is a single word (RS):
proc encodable "s {enc [encoding system]}" {
string eq $s [encoding convertfrom $enc [encoding convertto $enc $s]]
% encodable äöü ; # That's "\u00e4\u00f6\u00fc" in case this example needs to be repaired
% encodable [greeklish Aqhnai]
% encodable [greeklish Aqhnai] iso8859-7
% encodable äöü iso8859-7
See also:
RFE #535705 , Tcl interface to stop on encoding errors
remove diacritic
Font problems
Note that the lack of a mapping from some other encoding into Unicode can lead to effects that appear to be font problems though they can be fixed by the creation of a new encoding, as that page illustrates.
When do I need to include the .enc files in a distribution?
If you want to use any of the encoding which are not build-in or provided by other sources (Example:Tk).
But what if you're not, but you are (for example) writing a Tk application that's going to be displaying UTF-8, or using the message catalog to localize for other languages, and want it to display correctly on systems in different countries? Are they needed then?
HaO 2020-05-13: To my knowledge: no, all this may be handled internally. Message catalogue files are sourced as utf-8 which is an internal encoding. The character drawing mechanism does not need encodings (I am not sure about that and this may be platform dependent). If you want to use the console, you need the system encoding to output non-ASCII characters (for example: "puts ÄÖÜ" on German Windows requires cp1525 which is not an internal encoding). Maybe, the Windows system console evolves to unicode (like many Linux consoles nowadays) and this will not be required any more.
IANA versus TCL encoding names
MG: I've never really looked at encodings before, and just started doing so for the first time while trying to hack something into a client app. The problem I've just run into is that the server is using the encoding name "iso-8859-1" (which seems to be the correct IANA name), while Tcl calls it "iso8859-1" (without the first hyphen). Is there any reason for this? Or any simple (but correct) way around it? (My immediate thought was to try matching against the Tcl encoding names with the first hyphen edited out, if the encoding can't be found - definitely simple, but also definitely not correct...) Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
This is indeed a problem... [L2 ]
HaO 2020-05-13: You may use the (not published) routine of the http package to convert IANA names to TCL names:
% package require http
% http::CharsetToEncoding iso-8859-1
Description in the file: Tries to map a given IANA charset to a tcl encoding. If no encoding can be found, returns binary. |
So you recycle religiously; you've switched to CFLs; you keep your tires inflated; you turned down the thermostat all winter; you've weatherstripped and insulated; you use only ecologically responsible cleaning products; and you sleep in sustainably harvested bamboo sheets. Now what?
If you want to take environmentally friendly living to the next level, say lifelong environmentalists, start by rethinking every decision you make from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep.
That means taking shorter showers, making your coffee at home instead of pulling up to the drive-up window - or at least having your own travel mug refilled at the counter. It means switching from disposable water bottles to washable water bottles, using cloth instead of paper napkins. It means packing your lunch in reusable plastic containers instead of disposable sandwich bags, skipping pre-packed lunch foods, and, when possible, telecommuting, taking public transportation or carpooling.
"What I think people ought to be doing is ... take a step back and think of the bigger areas of their lives and how that fits with going green," says Seth Bauer, editorial director of the Green Guide, a quarterly magazine launched in March by National Geographic.
"For example, when we go into a store to buy something, we all use criteria in making those choices: It might be design, price, packaging [or] the quality of the product," he says. "It's time to rethink that checklist."
When we buy based on convenience, products usually cost more, create more waste and don't taste as good, he says. (Think frozen dinners vs. cooking from scratch.)
Everything we buy requires energy to produce, package and transport, and making it creates waste. To be more Earth-friendly, choose items that create less waste, he suggests. Buy in bulk or in larger quantities - one big box of crackers vs. individual serving packets, or a big tub of yogurt rather than individual cups.
"If you really stop and think about what you throw out and whether there are alternatives, you can cut your trash in half. There's almost nothing greener than cutting down on your trash."
Going a deeper shade of green need not be seen as a negative, says environmentalist Judi Friedman, chair of People's Action for Clean Energy, a nonprofit, all-volunteer public health organization.
"I think if one really enthusiastically grabs that idea, there's an emotional component that is very positive," she says. "There have been studies that show that when people give, they're happier. If you're giving to the planet and helping to heal it, that can become a very strong positive feeling and can actually improve your feeling of satisfaction
"The other component is economic. In this tanking economy, until we make the transition to clean energy, we are going to suffer a great deal," she says.
Embracing a green lifestyle helps the economy by creating jobs and saves consumers money. For example, she says, think about consuming less and using only what we need to get the job done - everything from toothpaste to toilet paper, shampoo to shaving cream.
Coastal Living's March issue features planters made from rice, bamboo and straw, but a greener option would be to buy used pots from tag sales, junk shops, flea markets or antiques stores.
Here's a sampling of ideas for going greener at home, culled from veteran conservationists, Country Living, Readers Digest, Coastal Living and other magazines and websites:
HOUSEHOLD< Save trees and reduce air pollution by paying bills electronically, and have bank statements, bills and quarterly investment reports e-mailed.
Cut junk mail. The average person receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year, estimates 41pounds.org. Reduce junk mail at no charge by logging on to to the Direct Marketing Association's "mail preference service" and registering. For a one-time fee, 41pounds.org says it will reduce junk mail by 80 percent to 95 percent within four months.
Earth-friendly food choices. Buy locally and cook from scratch. Eating fruits and vegetables in season is not only cheaper, it also saves energy consumed when produce is transported. Try to avoid red meat, because feeding cattle and transporting meat consumes far more energy than the energy used to produce a vegetarian or beef-free diet.
Use the dishwasher. It will save your hands and water and energy. A fully loaded dishwasher uses less than a third of the water needed to wash the same amount of dishes by hand, Readers Digest reports in its April issue. It's OK to scrape off food, but there's no need to rinse.
Green cleaning. Baking soda and white vinegar are all you need for most household cleaning. For natural cleaning recipes and tips, try the time-tested tips of the Queen of Clean, Linda Cobb, (QueenofClean.com). Be wary of "greenwashing," where companies market something as environmentally friendly when it really isn't.
Grow cleaner indoor air. A NASA study found that houseplants improve indoor air quality by absorbing common household gases like ammonia, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and benzene.
To reduce indoor air pollution, use low- or zero-VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) paints.
Switch to beeswax or soy candles or candles scented with natural oils. Conventional candles made with petroleum pollute the air, according to the American Lung Association.
Cut your household's water consumption by switching to low-flow faucets and showerheads, and toilets that use 1.6 gallons or less per flush. Today's water-saving showerheads provide a better stream than their forefathers. Add a brick or a plastic container filled with water to a conventional toilet tank to reduce water usage. Toilets bearing the EPA's WaterSense label are 20 percent more water efficient than standard models, reports Country Living.
Collect rainwater in a rain barrel to water your garden and houseplants. Your plants prefer rain water, and this also reduces runoff into streams.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 40 percent of all electricity used to power electronics in the average home is consumed while the products are turned off. Unplug faxes, printers, DVD players, TVs and stereo systems or plug them into power strips you can shut off while sleeping or out of the house. Don't forget to unplug toasters, coffee makers, hair dryers and cellphone chargers when not in use.
Microsoft estimates it costs $55 to $70 per year for one computer to sit idle.
When shopping for a new computer, consider a laptop. Laptop computers use half the energy; Energy Star-rated laptops save even more.
Homemade baby food creates less waste, is preservative-free and saves money. (See "Feed Me, I'm Yours" by Vicki Lansky for everything you need to know.)
Use a washcloth and liquid baby soap rather than disposable wipes. For homemade wipes on the go, wet paper towels, squirt baby soap on them and seal in a zippered plastic bag.
Shop consignment stores and tag sales for baby's and children's clothing, books, toys, bedroom accessories, portable cribs and strollers.
Carpool with neighbors to get kids to and from practice, and encourage your kids to ride their bike to a friend's house and walk to the bus stop.
Let your kids take the school bus or ride their bikes, rather than driving them to school.
Teach kids to shut off the lights when they leave a room.
Use white vinegar instead of fabric softener for fresh-smelling laundry. Try lemon juice or hydrogen peroxide-based bleach instead of chlorine bleach. Chlorine bleach is harsh on clothing and harmful to the environment.
Choose environmentally friendly laundry detergents made from natural, biodegradable ingredients.
Add a tablespoon of Borax with the laundry soap as an Earth-friendly laundry booster.
Use cold water for all but the toughest stains, and you'll save 85 percent of the energy and money used for a hot-water load.
Front-loading washing machines use up to 36 percent less water and 60 percent less energy than top-loaders. Wash full loads whenever possible to get the most out of the water, energy and detergent you're using.
Skip the dryer sheets. Some contain toxic chemicals such as benzyl acetate, benzyl alcohol and chloroform. Make your own by putting one or two drops of essential oils on a washcloth or cloth napkin.
For a greener choice, use an engine-free push mower that operates on human power and produces zero air pollution.
Shrink your lawn by planting gardens, native perennials, shrubs, fruit bushes or trees and groundcover.
Grow flowers and vegetables from seed, reducing waste from plastic pots and energy used to transport plants.
Compost food scraps to reduce trash; use nutrient-rich composted soil in the garden.
Aerate your yard to allow rainwater to seep in the ground instead of running off, suggests Eric Hammerling, executive director of the Farmington River Watershed Association. You can rent an aerating machine or walk on your lawn with spiked shoes.
Plant evergreens on the north side of the house to provide wind protection in winter and shade in summer; plant deciduous trees on southern and western sides of the house to provide cooling in summer.
Avoid chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which are harmful to people and the environment. The number of organic gardening products is growing, but know what you're buying. For example, avoid products containing Milorganite, which comes from Milwaukee sewer sludge, says Friedman.
Drop off unwanted but usable items at the "take-it-or-leave-it" center at your local transfer station, or have a tag sale.
Use reusable containers.
Use travel mugs and refillable water bottles. Each year, more than 4 million pounds of plastic bottles end up in landfills or as roadside litter, according to Corporate Accountability International. Making plastic bottles required 17 million barrels of oil last year, enough to fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year and generating more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. For more information, go to thinkoutsidethebottle.org.
Drink filtered tap water instead of bottled water or soda.
Buy used furniture, linens and accessories.
Buy an existing home rather than building new.
Correction published on Friday, May 2, 2008.A "Phantom Loads" graphic that ran April 18 on Page H9 of At Home listed the electricity various appliances use when they are plugged in. The graphic should have read "watts," not "watts per hour."
Copyright © 2020, Hartford Courant |
7 Different Types of Allergies that Everyone Should be Familiar With
By on April 9, 2020
If you are suffering from the signs and symptoms of allergy, you need to learn as much as you can about the different types of allergies. Even though some people dread annual allergy seasonal changes, certain allergies can affect the immune system of some people at any time. Therefore, it is very important that you become familiar with all of the different types of allergies and the signs and symptoms of each. With that being said, let’s get started with some essential information about allergies, the signs and symptoms and a brief description of each type.
What is an allergy?
In simple words, an allergy can be described as a reaction that occurs when an individual’s immune system responds negatively to a substance that’s normally harmless to others. Many of these substances are well known in the health and medical community since they are called allergens. Allergens can be found virtually anywhere, in your homes, business facilities and even in outdoor settings. Here is a list of some of the most common allergens that people can easily be adversely affected by:
• Pollen
• Mold
• Ticks
• Insects
• Dust Mites
• Pets
• Mildew
• Foods
• Medications
What are the Signs and Symptoms of Allergy/Allergic Reaction?
Some allergy symptoms are relatively easy to recognize, especially when the signs and symptoms are caused by seasonal changes in the weather and the surrounding environment. In some cases, a seasonal allergy may even duplicate the signs of a cold or flu so it may be difficult for some people to make a distinction between each. This is primarily because some of the most common signs and symptoms of an allergy include itchy eyes, runny nose, scratchy throat, watery eyes, rashes, nasal congestion, or hives on the skin.
Aroma Hand Sanitizer
While the symptoms listed above are relatively common among seasonal allergy sufferers, some other signs and symptoms indicate someone has come in contact with an allergen. With this in mind, here are different types of allergies that have other symptoms that you should become familiar with as well.
1. Drug Allergies
Some people may not be allergic to pollen or other seasonal changes. However, they may experience an allergic reaction when they are prescribed specific types of over the counter or prescription drugs. For instance, some people may be allergic to antibiotics, aspirin, and other inflammatory drugs.
1. Food Allergies
Some people can eat any foods that they like without experiencing problems in their body. This is not true for others since they may have an allergic reaction to certain types of foods. For instance, some people may not be able to drink milk or eat dairy products without experiencing problems with facial swelling, wheezing, or suffering from a high elevated temperature.
1. Insect Allergy
Another common allergy that some people deal with from time to time is insect allergies. Based on the severity of these problems, it is not uncommon for people to experience a swollen arm or a swollen face. The area that is usually affected most depends on the insect and the allergy. For instance, if a wasp, yellow jacket or bee stings a child on the arm, their arm may swell big until they can receive the right type of treatment. This treatment may be administered by a qualified allergist because they know how to diagnose and treat people properly.
1. Mold Allergy
Year-round allergies are common among both kids and adults, too. Therefore, seasonal changes do not factor into when these allergic reactions will occur. Instead, when these people come in contact with various kinds of fungi like mold and mildew, they may have severe or long bouts of coughing, sneezing, watery eyes and runny noses. Just like the symptoms of a cold or flu, these problems can wreak havoc on some people’s health.
1. Pet Allergy
Every family does not have a dog or any kind of pet in their homes. Even when the children think that they are cute and they want to take them home, parents must ignore their request. This is because pets can be a huge detriment to their health, particularly to those who cannot come in contact with pet fur without suffering. Again, these types of allergies cause people to sneeze, cough, and suffer from itchy watery eyes. Therefore, a pet allergy is also a common problem that some people have to deal with regularly.
1. Pollen Allergy
Pollen sufferers are usually very sensitive to pollen particles floating in the air. When their eyes began to itch in the morning hours, for some, this is a sign that pollen is somewhere on the scene. In some cases, they may even verify their suspicions by looking outside on their cars, ground and other surfaces for a light blanket of green stuff called pollen.
1. Latex Allergy
Before putting on gloves to clean your home, you may want to check out the materials that your gloves are made of. For some people, the materials in their gloves will not make any difference since they are not allergic to any of the materials that gloves are made of.
On the other hand, there is a group of people that may have an allergic reaction to the materials in their gloves, particularly if they are made out of latex. Latex allergies are relatively common, too. Therefore, people who have these reactions must watch out for the rubber materials in balloons, condoms and other products that can cause them serious harm.
Because of the many allergens that people suffer from today, people must pay close attention to their triggers. Since the signs and symptoms of an allergic reaction can range from coughing, sneezing, and runny noises to experiencing problems with breathing, swelling, and itchy rashes, everyone should know the allergens that cause their particular problems. In some cases, this may mean being tested and evaluated by a qualified allergist. For more useful information regarding allergies, visit this page: https://www.beckerent.com/allergist
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How Killer Whales Went from Hated, to Adored, to Endangered
The more we’ve learned about orcas, the more we love them. But can they survive the dramatic changes to their world?
Can Today’s Whale Species Survive the Age of Humans?
We don’t even know how many whale species exist, so which will be winners and which losers is hard to guess.
See Hundreds of Beluga Whales Gathering in the Arctic
Up to 800 beluga whales gathered together north of Baffin Island in Lancaster Sound, Canada. They migrate here to give birth and molt dead skin. They're called the "canaries of the sea" for the many high-pitched vocalizations they use to communicate. Lancaster Sound is Canada's largest marine protected area, and contains other wildlife such as polar bears and seals.
Heart Monitors on Narwhals Reveal Dangers of Human Encounters
Narwhals swim the icy Arctic Ocean, and dive to its dark depths, so they're a challenge to study. To learn about their biology, scientists attached sensors to narwhals. Monitors tracked heart rate, swimming strokes, and diving depth, in a resting state, during a dive just after "escape," and later, in a normal dive. Suction cups on the sensors released, and they floated up for retrieval. Animal species tend to react to a threat in one of two ways: For some, stress raises the heart rate and activity level. Other species freeze up, and their heart rate lowers. Narwhals don't fit either pattern. When they're released from nets, narwhals' heart rate plummets, even as they speed away. So they burn through ready oxygen, pushing tissues' limits. Researchers fear low oxygen may hurt cognition, causing unsafe behaviours, and adding to the risk narwhals face from human presence. Find out why Narwhals have such distinctive tusks. |
These [tag]basketball skill drills[/tag] starts with 2 lines of players that are facing each other at opposite sidelines at about the free throw line extended.
All players have a [tag]basketball[/tag] except the first one in ONE of the lines. That player starts the [tag]basketball drill[/tag] by running toward the other line of players.
The first person in that line throws the player the ball so they can catch it at about the free throw lane line extended on the side that the person made the pass from.
The person catches the ball on a jump stop, pivots to square up to the basket, gives a shot or pass fake and drives to the basket for a lay-up (or they can take a jump shot).
They get their own rebound and go to end of the opposite line that they came from.
Now the person who just made the pass is the only person without a ball. They run towards the opposite line of players just like the first person did, catch the ball on a jump stop, pivot to square up, shot or pass fake and then drive in for a lay-up.
The drill just keeps continuing like this. Each line would be shooting lay-ups with the opposite hand that the other line uses because they would be driving in to the basket from opposite sides of the lane.
In addition to the left hand/right hand dribbling in and shooting, the drill also involves, passing, catching, coming towards the ball and catching the ball on a jump stop, pivoting and faking so we are hitting a lot of skills with this drill.
Instead of having the person pivot after catching the ball on a jump stop you could have them turn in mid air as they catch the ball on the jump stop so they are square to the hoop and already in shooting position. Then they could take the quick shot instead of driving. |
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Flavin EKG101 2019
Flavin EKG 101 week 2 2019
Electrocardiography is the test most frequently used in the diagnosis of _____ disease in the ambulatory care setting. heart
The electrocardiograph records both the intensity and the actual time it takes for each part of the _______ cycle to occur. cardiac
An irregular cardiac rhythm is called a(n) _____________. arrhythmia
Ten sensors called ________ are placed on the patient's arms (two), legs (two), and chest (six) to pick up the electrical activity of the heart. electrodes
Standardization has been determined by international agreement so that an ECG can be ______ in the same way anywhere in the world. interpreted
An artifact is unwanted, erratic movement of the __________ on the paper resulting from outside interference. stylus
Baseline interruption occurs when the _____ connection has been interrupted. electrical
The physician can determine two important heart functions when interpreting the ECG: heart rate and heart ______. rhythm
The implantation of a(n) _______________ into a patient sometimes corrects cardiac conduction system abnormalities. pacemaker
A pulse of 106 would be considered? tachycardia
Under 50 bpm is called: ___ bradycardia
s/s of MI could be: chest pain, SOB, jaw pain, pain in the neck radiating down the left arm.
Is an EKG the same as an EEG? No
If you have a flat line on the EKG paper it could mean that the electrode was not ___. attached to the patient
Where does V1 go? The right side of the chest over the 4th intercostal space.
RA stands for which limb? Right arm
Why is it called a 12 lead? because it takes 12 views of the heart
What is cardiac arrest? The heart stops completely.
What are some benefits to a digital EKG? Quick access, saves time and can store up to 300 records.
3 facts about the EKG paper. Sensitive to heat, pressure and is costly.
How do you know the EKG paper is about to run out? The red line on the top will appear such as a receipt.
You should make sure the pt is doing what before hitting the capture button on the EKG machine. Uncross their legs, lay still and do not talk.
If a pt has an amputation of an arm you would apply the arm leads where? below the collar bone bilaterally.
Using alcohol on the patient is to: Remove any oil, lotions, perfume and or topical applications from the skin to allow for better conduction.
The pt. should always sign a___________ before the EKG is obtained. consent form
How many phases of an MI are there? 4
A defibrillator is: A device that delivers a shock to the heart. (often to shock back into a rhythm.
What information is obtained about the pt. to include with their EKG? Name, DOB, medication and any cardiac or htn hx.
The EKG recording can appear shaky or move up or down off the baseline if ____ happens. Muscle tremors, movement or interference.
Created by: Iteach4Docs |
Putting Spinach in Your Smoothie May Help Prevent Heart Disease
Everyone knows Popeye credited eating spinach for his superior strength. He often sang, “I’m strong to finich ’cause I eats me spinach.” This was because, at the time, Americans believed spinach contained a whopping 35 grams of iron. Well, there is actually only about 3.5 grams in just under a 1/2 cup of cooked spinach—which is roughly 20 percent of the recommended daily intake.
Little did they know though that spinach also contains a wealth of other vitamins and minerals that are instrumental in maintaining good health.
One such example is the antioxidant lutein, which makes spinach a heart-healthy food. In a 2017 study, researchers at Linköping University discovered that lutein played a role in lessening inflammation when they looked at immune cells from patients with coronary artery disease.
This was a significant finding because many people who live with heart disease endure chronic inflammation, which increases the risk of a heart attack.
[Read more] |
How Much Rem Sleep Should You Get A Night // cadrugdetoxcenters.com
Oct 10, 2019 · In healthy adults, about 13 to 23 percent of your sleep is deep sleep. So if you sleep for 8 hours a night, that’s roughly 62 to 110 minutes. However, as. Sep 19, 2018 · On average, light sleep will take up about 50 to 60 percent or more of your night. “ Whether you get more or less light sleep isn’t really going to affect how you feel too much, because it’s just whatever time is left that’s not spent in deep sleep or REM,” says Grandner. “It’s sort of. How Much Deep And REM Sleep Do You Actually Need At Night? The amount of deep and REM sleep an average adult needs will be about 20-25% of their total sleep, depending on how many hours they actually sleep. At 7 hours, that would be approximately 84 to 105 minutes. At 9 hours, that would be approximately 108 to 135 minutes.
Jul 21, 2017 · The answer to this question depends on your age. In general, adults need between 1.6 and 2.0 hours of REM sleep every night. Babies, however, need more REM sleep because their nervous system and brains are still developing at a fast rate.As a baby enters childhood, the amount of REM sleep required starts quickly decreasing.
Jun 03, 2019 · There may be some ways to get both better sleep and more deep sleep each night, allowing a person to wake up feeling more rested and refreshed. The body first cycles through the three non-REM. Jul 21, 2017 · How much REM sleep do you need? The answer to this question depends on your age. In general, adults need between 1.6 and 2.0 hours of REM sleep every night. Babies, however, need more REM sleep because their nervous system and brains are still developing at a fast rate. Jul 26, 2018 · You spend roughly 75 percent of your night in non-REM sleep and the other 25 percent in REM sleep. Of this, around 13 to 23 percent of your total sleep is deep sleep. That said, deep sleep.
Jan 25, 2018 · Rapid Eye Movement REM sleep is a normal stage of sleep characterized by the rapid movement of the eyes.REM sleep in adult humans typically occupies 20-25% of total sleep, about 90-120 minutes of a night's sleep. During a normal night of sleep, humans usually experience about four or five periods of REM sleep. Jul 09, 2019 · You can see the times I was awake or restless on the left was low, and mostly contained to when I was falling asleep and waking up. Compare that to a bad night’s sleep where I. Aug 07, 2018 · We spend most of our night in Stage 2 sleep about 45% of our sleep duration. If you want to take a “power nap” It’s best to wake up after this stage. Power naps are best taken between 1 pm to 4 pm to avoid disrupting nighttime sleeping. With each successive cycle, N3 sleep decreases and is replaced by N2 and REM stage sleep. The amount of deep sleep you get shortens as you age. Stage 5 Sleep: REM Rapid-eye Movement The final twenty percent or so of our sleep time is spent in Stage 5 REM sleep, known as rapid-eye movement sleep REM, characterized by the following.
REM sleep is also the phase of sleep in which you dream. This sleep phase begins about 70 to 100 minutes after you fall asleep. The first sleep cycle has a shorter phase of REM sleep. Toward morning, the time spent in REM sleep increases and the deep sleep stages decrease. How Many Sleep Cycles Should You Get Each Night? A typical night’s sleep consists of about 5-6 full sleep cycles. But each of these sleep cycles is different from one another. During the first 2-3 sleep cycles, you spend most of the time in a deep NREM sleep. In the final 2-3 sleep cycles, you will spend more time in REM sleep and stage one light sleep. Changes in sleep across the lifespan: The typical adult sleeps about 8 hours per night with lots of individual variability – I personally think I need about 9 to 9.5 hours, while my dad can’t. Mar 14, 2019 · The pattern of sleep that we each get—including how much time we spend in each stage—is called “sleep architecture.” Most adults thrive on seven to nine hours of sleep per night, while teenagers with developing brains need about 9.5 hours.
Jul 25, 2018 · Increase your chances of getting more REM sleep by avoiding artificial stimulants before bed, having a regular sleep schedule and getting a full night’s sleep. Awake Time. Finally, the time spent before/after you fall asleep is called awake time. This includes the time it takes you to drop off at bedtime, and night time wakings – both of. The Ideal Amount of Sleep for Each Age Group, According to the Experts. You may also like. Many of us struggle to get enough sleep every night, but is the sleep we get any good? While it’s.
How Much Rem Sleep Should You Get A Night
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Jewish Values: Lech Lecha: The Journey of Abraham and Sarah
Publication Year:
Number of Pages:
32 p.
The story is written in Hebrew and English, half a page each, alongside very handsome full page illustrations. The text is short, a few lines to a page. The Hebrew, on the top, is taken from the Bible, and the English, underneath the Hebrew, is a simple translation. The Hebrew is printed with vowel points. At the end of the book, there is a literal translation in English and a glossary that lists alphabetically all of the Hebrew words used, with their English translation and transliteration. The introduction explains the difference between the title, which parallels the weekly Torah reading, and the content of the book that also includes parts of Parashat Vayera and tells about the significance of names and about the birth of Isaac. Like the other books in this series, this is an excellent choice for bi-lingual programs.
Book ID:
Sydney Taylor Winner: |
Video games are art, but we don’t code them like it.
Games are software-driven projects, that employ hundreds of developers to create a complex product for a competitive market. Yet the entire mindset of software developers in the game industry, including the development methodology they use, is not up to the task of grappling with the deep thematic and artistic consequences of the systems they construct.
Games as software: Large-scale and long-term?
Video games are big – really big. Not just in terms of the size of the industry, but also the scale of the projects delivered. Major releases are hugely complex software projects which take years to develop, and are expected to serve as the baseline for expansions to the original product as well as sequels that use the same components. Some games are intended to never end, virtual worlds that are constantly debugged, updated, and tweaked by the developers. Games also stretch horizontally across disciplines, bringing together dedicated game designers, programmers, musicians, artists (both concept and asset), voice actors, and support staff to try and produce a single, seamless work.
Despite their interdisciplinary nature, games have tended to be approached primarily as software development projects, which makes some sense given video game’s nature as software-driven projects. While the single highest cost continues to be art assets, much of the technology that powers the artist’s work is developed by the game’s programmers. And code is critically important to one of the key elements of any game – its mechanics.
Programming is a fifth of the budget, but much of the art budget goes to software development as well.
Mechanics as Code
Mechanics are the structures (usually systems of rules) the player experiences in his interaction with a game, and are what helps contextualize the contributions of all other disciplines. They are implemented by programmers in the game’s code, and further speak to the critical importance of software in tying games into a coherent whole. The critical community spills gallons of ink arguing about what mechanics are and how they should be used, but generally agrees that they are the benchmark for deciding if something qualifies as a game (this is ignoring the vocal contingent who are against defining games at all, in the interest of brevity).
For example, in a game about a square-jawed hero mowing down waves of horrifying demons, one of the major mechanics might be how input is translated into movement and shooting. In a game about leading a civilization from the first cities to modern history, there would need to be a mechanic to model technological change – and to allow the player some degree of influence over its progression. And in That Dragon, Cancer, there’s a mechanic for you to try to comfort your confused, weeping child as his cancer progressively worsens. That Dragon, Cancer also ensures that you can never succeed – that in the end, you’re always left listening to him sob desperately with nothing you can do to help.
Mechanics as Metaphor
As that last example makes clear, game’s mechanics are not just rope to tie the real, artistic components together – to some extent, *they* are the real component. The deliberate and designed interactivity unique to games arises from their mechanics, and the core elements of traditional media (such as narrative and art) are ultimately contained within one structure or another. Critical theorists within game studies have become increasingly interested in how the mechanics of games work to influence the overall artistic work, and how the mechanics can make their own artistic statements. Naomi Clark’s piece on Gone Home‘s use of mechanics, specifically the way it deliberately denies the player access to one they normally use freely, is a good example of the power mechanics have to make significant statements. Just as a character in a novel can be a significant sounding board for one of its themes, a game’s mechanics can be a powerful thematic device by deliberately including or excluding options.
In the end, mechanics are fundamentally tools of control, which often present an illusion of choice as a disguise for their real purpose: to constrain the player’s choices into carefully chosen vectors. In our demon shooting example, the player would probably be given a variety of different weapons to choose from – but no option to put his weapon down. The choice offered is fundamentally illusory, as each choice has in turn been deliberately included in the game so that the consequences can be properly programmed. The Tyranny of Choice is part of the latest round of debate on how much agency players truly have within this constrained structure, but that mechanics are as much a part of the game creator’s toolkit as narrative elements is clear enough.
Ludonarrative Dissonance: A break between mechanics and story
Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock kicked off the debate about the thematic implications of mechanics, as well as introducing the term used to describe what happens when the themes of mechanics and narrative clash. Clint Hocking discusses how the game Bioshock, which by its narrative was ostensibly a critique of individualist Objectivism, was deeply weakened by the incredibly individually empowering nature of most of the game’s mechanics. Players are literally a one man army, able to tear their way through hordes of enemies – and this in a game which is purportedly attacking Ayn Rand’s vision of an independent hero figure! A mechanic which emphasized the need for community and mutual charity would be better, and would complement the game’s narrative instead of undermining it.
Yet despite this, games continue to pay little heed to their mechanic’s effect on the work – a fact that is making the critical community sharper with its comments. Bioshock was released five years ago, yet there is still little progress in trying to ensure that the mechanics a game has complement its artistic intent. Even smaller, independent titles are routinely criticized for ignoring the message sent by their core mechanics, and how it might clash with the purported message of the game’s writing.
Around this point, most readers are not only likely to be extremely patient but also rather confused – isn’t this an assignment for an Informatics course? Am I perhaps some Arts student, who accidentally posted his essay on the wrong course blog?
Stop being a software developer, start being an artist
So let’s bring it back to software design: I believe that the cause of this consistent and concerning inability to engage with the artistic nature and thematic consequences of a game’s mechanics originates (at least partially) from the developers of these mechanics themselves – the software developers and programmers who build them, usually using common software design principles. Susan O’Connor, a writer for video games, noted in an interview that “A lot of times, what ends up happening when you have a room of primarily tech-oriented [staff], it becomes like a software development environment”, and went on to decry the technically oriented thinking that many software designers who work in the games industry continue to hold on to.
Games are developed as software projects – yet they’re not at heart. They’re pieces of art, even if it’s often high budget, commercial art. The design and development of the game’s major and minor mechanics, as implemented in the game’s software, can have an incredibly important effect on the final result. Yet they continue to be approached as if they’re any other software project, where the design does not have to take into account the thematic implications of decisions but can instead be aimed towards a more objective goal. For example, unthinking application of HCI design principles has been critiqued harshly for effectively eliminating certain kinds of experience from the table – what if the goal of the game is to actually provoke frustration? Or to provide a challenge itself? Any interface which did so would violate the most basic tenets of good design, but might be absolutely critical to the intended message of the work. Approaching a game’s user interface like any other HCI problem fails to take into account that form may need to triumph over function when creating a deliberate, artistic experience.
“Just add art to the spec! We can get to it after we write the unit tests.”
So all we need to do is tweak our existing methodologies, right? Just add “ensure resonance with thematic and artistic intent of game” to our Waterfall requirements, or create a use case for the player’s experience of the theme, or keep it Agile so that we can quickly rework mechanics that feel wrong. Those are all good ideas, and more acknowledgement of the importance of these kind of aesthetic concerns couldn’t hurt, but the core of the problem remains. While composers and modellers who work on games acknowledge their role as artists, software developers continue to act as if they don’t need to adopt a similar approach. Software design methodologies are important to developing a game’s mechanics efficiently and on time, and should continue to be used. But by themselves they are incapable of mimicking the critical understanding and close reading that is required to grasp the artistic consequences of design decisions, let alone understand how to create an intended effect on the player.
Tabletop Games: From D&D, to FATE, to Fiasco
We can look to a similar medium to see how this might occur – tabletop role playing games. These are games played in person around a table, in which players follow a set of rules to act out their adventures. Early games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, often failed to treat their mechanics as anything other than conflict resolution and simulation mechanisms. Yet recent generations of tabletop games have increasingly used their own mechanics to reinforce the intended mood of the game, and as a result mechanics have tended to simplify – not only to enable better control over their exact effect, but also because the increasing understanding of the intended theme of a game enables unnecessary and overcomplicated systems to be stripped down or removed. Instead, each mechanic is deliberately developed with the intended effect in mind – conflict resolution by random elements (such as dice) are introduced to games where the player is meant to feel particularly powerless or surprised, while group voting is used in games where negotiation and consensus is important to the setting.
On the other hand, the mechanics of tabletop games are far simpler than video games as a rule. Often, one or two people can develop an entire tabletop game, which makes a holistic approach much easier but is all but impossible for larger video games. What is needed is a software development methodology for games that looks to how writers write and painter paint for inspiration and seeks to encourage developers to embrace the artistic nature of their work. This could be a modification to an existing approach, but it can’t slot “ponder the artistic ramifications” as a step between coding and testing. Instead, consideration of the code’s effect on the mechanics has to be holistically and continuously assessed, and given as much weight as meeting more mundane requirements. Until this happens, developers are likely to continue ignoring the thematic consequences of their code, and mechanics will continue to ring against narrative. |
The Citrix Hack and Password Spraying
Somebody made off with terabytes of data from Citrix, and one of the interesting tidbits from Citrix’s press release about the breach is speculation that the hackers used “password spraying,”
While not confirmed, the FBI has advised that the hackers likely used a tactic known as password spraying, a technique that exploits weak passwords. Once they gained a foothold with limited access, they worked to circumvent additional layers of security.
The Secret Security Wiki provides additional information about how password spraying attacks work,
Traditional brute-force attacks attempt to gain unauthorized access to a single account by guessing the password. This can quickly result in the targeted account getting locked-out, as commonly used account-lockout policies allow for a limited number of failed attempts (typically three to five) during a set period of time. During a password-spray attack (also known as the “low-and-slow” method), the malicious actor attempts a single commonly used password (such as ‘Password1’ or ‘Summer2017’) against many accounts before moving on to attempt a second password, and so on. This technique allows the actor to remain undetected by avoiding rapid or frequent account lockouts.
Clever. With access to enough account usernames, somebody somewhere in an organization is likely to have practiced poor password hygiene. |
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Skyscraper squatting
The Centro Financiero Confinanzas skyscraper was unfinished at the time of the 1994 Venezuelan banking crisis. In 2007, squatters moved in.
Centro Financiero Confinanzas
Wilfredor / CC0
It takes years and millions of dollars to build a skyscraper. When hard times hit, sometimes construction stops, and when hard times stay, sometimes it never begins again. Perhaps the most famous example is Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, a 105-storey building begun in 1987 but still unfinished today. Usually these weird tombstones to failed ambition remain unoccupied.
Not in the case of the Centro Financiero Confinanzas, also known as the Tower of David. This 45-storey skyscraper was a victim of the 1994 banking crisis, when many Venezuelan banks failed and were acquired by the government, and it stood empty for many years.
In 2007, while Caracas was in the midst of a serious housing crisis, a bunch of people looked at that big empty skyscraper and thought… why not? I mean, it didn’t have power, or water, or lifts / elevators, or (in many places) windows and walls, but that didn’t stop the first 200 or so families taking it over.
Beginning at the bottom of the skyscraper, they worked their way upwards. Motorcycles got them ten floors (I’m imagining them running up staircases but there are probably ramps), they set up running water as far as the 22nd floor, and people were living as high up as the 28th floor. Shops, salons, even a dentist!
At its peak, the skyscraper housed five thousand people. They were finally moved out by the Venezuelan government in 2014, and the building was damaged by an earthquake in 2018 – the top five floors are now on a bit of a lean. So I hope no-one moves back in again.
Categories: Economics & business Places South America
The Generalist
I live in Auckland, New Zealand, and am curious about most things.
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A feed is a function of special software that allows "Feedreaders" to access a site automatically looking for new content and then posting the information about new content and updates to another site. This provides a way for users to keep up with the latest and hottest information posted on different blogging sites. Some Feeds include RSS (alternately defined as "Rich Site Summary" or "Really Simple Syndication"), Atom or RDF files. Dave Shea, author of the web design weblog Mezzoblue has written a comprehensive summary of feeds. Feeds generally are based on XML technology.
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By Gary Hargrave
3D printing, or 3DP as some would like to call it, has become the go-to method for prototyping. 3D-printed protypes are inexpensive and easy to produce compared to those made with plastic and other material, but the application of 3D printing has been largely restricted to building mock-ups because of the brittleness of the material. Is there a possibility to address this issue and adopt 3DP for mass production?
As the interest in 3D printing technology continues to surge, we are more and more exploring the possibilities to implement it manufacturing the final product. To do so, we need to find a way to assemble 3D printed parts just as we do injection-molded components. It turns out welding is a feasible option for 3DP assembly.
Porosity-in-Welding-weldsmartly.comThe 3D metal printed surfaces are susceptible to cracking because of their poor atomic bond. These microscopic gaps between the atoms create large bubbles after being welded, which is known as porosity, and compromises the durability to a substantial degree. If we want to achieve a sturdier result, we must figure out a way around this problem.
One way to bring down porosity in 3D printed metal could be good old-fashioned electron beam and laser welding technology. Laser welding machines have been around for more than half a century, but they never caught on because of the associated high cost. The lack of flexibility is also another reason for its industry exile, but in this case, laser beam welding proves useful.
Precision and penetration are the strong suits of laser welding. It’s immensely powerful with deep penetration capabilities. Whether it’s carbon steel, titanium, aluminum or any other metal, it welds them with minimum deformities. The beam is easier to control and has a very small impact zone to avoid annealing of the surrounding material, which, in turn, allows for more meticulous welding of parts….
All these attributes make laser welding perfect for welding 3D printed materials. The prime advantage of using laser welders is they can be controlled pretty accurately. The beam reaches deep toward the core and generates enough energy to seal off the inter-molecular voids and eliminate porosity in the process.
Using industry grade laser welders isn’t the only way to achieve a stronger 3DP material bond, though. A few years ago, Texas A&M University student Brandon Sweeney and his dissertation advisor Dr. Micah Green came up with an alternative way to make 3D printing more durable and suitable for more bonafide applications.
Sweeney, who went on to open his own company Essentium Inc., attempted to expand the usability of 3D-printed oriented materials as he realized 3D printing holds great potential in pioneering the field of additive manufacturing. So he and his supervisor Dr. Green attempted to exploit conventional welding techniques with a few tweaks.
They came up with an idea to infuse carbon nanotubes into the 3D-printed components to make the overall structure more resilient to oven temperatures.
Because of the plastic construction, you can’t just expose it to the high temperatures of an oven as it will melt. But both Sweeney and Dr. Green felt the need to use the traditional welding method for overcoming the porosity problem.
3D-printed objects are basically an amalgamation of countless plastic fibers. These pile on top of one another and take the form of different real-life materials. This leaves huge space in the overall structure at its atomic level, which is ultimately responsible for the fragility 3DP objects exhibit.
nanotubeAccordingly, they decided to selectively reinforce the materials with carbon nanotubes, meaning they inserted these filaments into some target areas instead of the whole surface. There was no need to melt the complete part – they just needed to apply heat at junction points where they would fuse one piece with another one.
Sweeney and Dr. Richard took some of these tiny strands that make up the 3DP material and coated them with carbon nanotube composites. When the components print out, these composites occupy the gap between the tiny plastic layers and give them a more robust build. Then they put the parts into a microwave oven for welding.
This line of thinking was inspired by Dr. Green’s participation in another study with a faculty member of Texas Tech University. Dr. Mohammed Saed, who is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at TTU, and Dr. Green had previously used microwave to identify carbon nanotubes in the said experiment.
We can also take the ultrasound welding route in some cases for welding 3D-printed parts. Ultrasound wouldn’t have been a viable welding option for 3DP parts a few years back, but recent advancements in 3D technology have changed that drastically.
For ultrasound welding, you would need a sonotrode, which is also known as a horn. Sonotrodes emit high-frequency vibrations directed at the intermolecular void between multiple layers. This produces heat, which melts part of the layers and fills the gaps in between. Even though it’s mostly used for thermoplastic materials, ultrasound welding can be quite effective for 3D-printed parts as well.
3D printing has already had a significant impact across a variety of industries. The use of the technology in prototype building has been a massive success, but in the coming years, we might see 3D printing becoming mainstream for manufacturing final goods as well.
Over the past few years, we have discovered some effective welding techniques that have made 3D-printed materials more stable and that has given us the chance to contemplate more practical applications for 3D printing technology.
Weldsmartly Founder and Chief Editor Gary Hargrave grew up watching his father, a professional welder. With a degree in Welding Technology degree from Maxville College as well as on-the-job experience, Gary founded http://www.weldsmartly to enlighten and help train the thousands of potential welders out there on the nitty-gritties of the job. In this industry, he believes passion is everything. |
Course Level Taken : Online Training
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Hello and welcome to another 'truth about' post! I'm always happy to attempt to demystify another myth in the industry and this one is very near and dear.
I remember the feeling of being lost and resentful of my very first puppy. I remember the feeling of overwhelm that quickly took over once I realized my puppy was a land shark!
Today, we'll talk about nipping, and we'll also talk about teething because they are most definitely NOT the same thing. They have different action, different intention and different results.
First, in case you are a skimmer, let's define both - then we'll get into why pups do each!
Teething - This happens! It's a definite thing. As dogs grow, they lose their baby teeth. They will chew (and chew and chew) to stimulate the exchange from baby teeth to adult. The age this happens can vary from breed to breed and even from dog to dog, but the approximation is that pups will lose their 'milk' teeth and grow their adult teeth between 3 - 6 months of age.
Nipping - Nipping is a whole other animal.... Nipping is grabbing at, biting at, tearing at and often putting pressure behind. Nipping is not done with the same intention of aiding the growth of new teeth. It is not done to soothe gums or remove baby teeth. It is done with the intention of hurting.
Now before you panic. Let me elaborate.
Puppies spend most of their time instinctually practicing the skills they'll need as adults. That includes biting in a big way! It's normal to have a land shark.
Take a big sigh of relief.
That doesn't mean it's okay, or that you should put up with it, but I hope that info puts some minds at ease. Biting puppies are normal.
Some dogs have naturally soft mouths - think about sporting dogs and the decades of selective breeding for the gentle retrieval of fowl without leaving a mark.
Some dogs are naturally hardwired to bite. Again, think of what a dog was bred for. Dogs used in protection work are bred to bite and bite hard! The pup who bites the hardest and holds on the longest is usually the most prized pup out of a litter of working dogs. Directed towards the right activities and controlled responsibly, a pup who bites hard is an asset, but put this pup in a home with limited experience and a nightmare could ensue.
When dealing with puppy nipping, picking the right breed of dog for you is a great first step!
Back to instincts..... If a dog were to have to depend on itself for survival it would need to be able to fight and kill as two main ways to stay safe. Conflict is typically avoided when possible, however when resources are being claimed (food, safety, sex, etc.), fights can ensue. Play fighting is a way to practice these skills. Killing is self-explanatory. We all have to eat and dogs are predators.
The majority of dogs no longer require these skills to survive and eat, but instinct is a strong force and it still guides behaviours regardless, so it will still produce behaviours that cater to instinctual growth.
As humans, it's our responsibility to recognize what's happening so that we can address it appropriately. Those early weeks are so important for addressing puppy nipping/biting and creating strong bite inhibition.
Unfortunately, it is all too common to hear nipping behaviour misidentified as teething and that makes it difficult to accurately address. This often leaves us floundering and nipping gets worse as our pups grow.
Now, before you ask me for the perfect formula, know that every dog is different.
In 1999, we brought home a Rottweiler puppy. Quincey was a gem! She was lovely her whole life, easy to train, happy to work, fiercely loyal to her family and a wonderful ambassador for her breed. Truly a wonderful dog who I miss intensely. I mention the year because that was 21 years ago now and I can STILL see the scars on my mother's arms from Quincey nipping as a pup.
Quincey did serious damage with those needle teeth. She was a nipper and she nipped HARD. Nobody was off limits when it came to her teeth and we were not prepared to deal with it. To make matters worse, because we didn't understand it, we became resentful of her very quickly.
Luckily, she was only home for 2 weeks before we started Puppy Head Start and got on track. When we got to class and were made aware of how to fix it, our world changed. At that young age, it was easy to get the message to Quincey and she accepted it with the quiet confidence she carried her whole life. It was almost as if she said, "oh, no problem - I had no idea you didn't like it!"
I've trained many puppies since Quincey and have had very few of them not be nippers. Most recently, Ned as a 9 week old pup lunged at my face twice, both times drawing blood with those needle teeth.
Quincey learned quickly that human skin was off limits when teeth were concerned and she lived a lovely, long life without ever making the mistake of putting teeth on a human. She had many other lessons in bite inhibition that contributed to that, but allowing her to simply grow up and out of nipping wasn't an option for us.
Pups often become nipping adolescents and then careless adults. Not because they are aggressive, but because they never learned to be responsible for their mouths.
Teething, on the other hand, is much different thing to address. If your dog is chewing rather than lunging/nipping/biting. It is not behavioural. Teething is purely physical. They are looking for relief and instinct tells them to chew to remove their baby teeth. I like frozen kongs stuffed with a few goodies to encourage chewing. Teething toys that go in the freezer are great help to relieve painful mouths. Let them chew by providing appealing things for them to chew and save your furniture, etc. from becoming the target of your teething puppy.
Your first step in addressing those needle teeth is identifying the type of issue you are dealing with. Once you do that accurately, you’ll be on a much better path to addressing the issue! The link in the image will provide some clarity on how to stop nipping effectively and how to set yourself up to practice habits that promote good bite inhibition.
A nipping puppy does not have to be frightening. Even a nipping/biting Rottie pup isn't as scary as it sounds when you give them the right information.
As always, Happy Training! |
The final rhyme is a form of rhymes. In contradistinction to the rule of alliteration, where words are rhymed with the same initial sound, or the inner rhyme, which circumscribes the rhyme in the verse, two or more verses are joined by the harmony of the last syllables. If these rhymes are arranged according to a certain pattern, they are called rhymes. Frequent rhymes are the pair rhymes, cross-rhymes, or even tail-rhymes.
However, the final rhyme describes the connection of two or more verses within a text and does not necessarily have to correspond to a higher-level rhyme scheme. To illustrate this principle, let us look at an example which shows the connection of two successive verses by endreim binding. The example is taken from Heinrich Heine’s Die Wanderratten.
There are two varieties of rats:
The hungry and rich.
These lines are from the first stanza of the poem and are connected by a final rhyme. This means that the last words of the lines are rhyming with each other. In this case, rats and fat. In the example, the rhymes are in successive verses, but of course, such a loop binding is also conceivable over several lines. Let us look at another example.
His gaze is from the passing of the bars
so tired that he does not hold anything.
It is as if there were a thousand bars
and behind a thousand bars no world.
The above example is the first strophe of the poem The Panther by Rainer Maria Rilke, a lyricist of the 20th century. In doing so, the word rods rhyme and exist as well as hold and the world. Since these words are the last syllables of the respective lines, we have to deal with end rhymes in this case as well. In contradistinction to the first example, however, they only find a rhyme pair in the respective next-next verse.
Reimschemata by Endreime
If the individual end rhymes of a poem follow a pattern and thus a structure can be seen in the arrangement of the rhyme pairs, we can speak of a rhyme scheme. Such schemata indicate the final rhymes within a text.
However, such a rhyme scheme is not characterized by different colors, but by different letters. This means that each new pair of rhymes in the text is given a new lowercase letter. The first rhyme thus receives an a, the next a b, the next a c, and so on.
pair rhyme
The rhyming scheme of the pair rhyme is already known in the example above. It describes that two final rhymes appear in successive verses. The final rhyme sequence is aabb (ccdd, eeff, etc.).
There are two varieties of rats:
The hungry and rich.
The rich remain happy to the house,
The hungry but wander out.
cross rhyme
The rhyme schema in the cross-rhymes could already be found in Rilke’s poem. It means that the first end rhyme of a verse rhymes to the third and the second rhymes to the fourth. The cross-rhyme is also referred to as interchange rhyme. The final rhyme sequence in the cross-rhyme is always abab (cdcd, efef, etc.).
His gaze is from the passing of the bars
so tired that he does not hold anything.
It is as if there were a thousand bars
and behind a thousand bars no world.
Articles: Kreuzreim
Embracing rhyme
We find the rhyme schema in the embrace of the rhyme in Goethe’s aphorism. The embracing rhyme is sometimes also called comprehensive rhyme, blockreim, encircling rhyme or embedded rhyme. Nevertheless, it strictly follows the final rhom sequence abba (cddc, effe, etc.). The name goes back to the fact that the outer end rhymes enclose the others, so embrace them.
A pure rhyme is much sought after,
but to have pure thought,
the noblest of all gifts,
that’s all my rhymes.
Specialized articles: Embracing rhyme
pile of rhyme
There is also a clear sequence of the final rhymes in the heap of rhizomes. The final rhythms do not change, but remain the same within a stanza. The final rhymes are thus accumulated and not changeable. In the following example we find the pattern aaaa (bbbb, cccc, etc.).
on the high rocky cliffs
seven seabirds sit
which rub into the ribs
until they tilt from the cliffs
Articles: Haufenreim
Interrupted rhyme
The scheme in the interlaced rhyme can be traced in the work The Kiss in the Dream of Karoline von Günderrode, a German poetess of Romanticism. Here the individual final rhythms are intertwined. The final rhyme sequence is thus abcabc.
The day is barren in love,
It hurts me of his light vain pranks
And consume his sun’s embers.
So let the eye of the sun shine on you!
Enfold yourself in the night, she is styling your desire
And heals the pain, like Lethes cool floods
Articles: Interrupted rhyme
In the Schweifreim there is a pattern which is a combination of the previous rhymes. The first two verses are formed from a pair of rhymes, followed by a hugging rhyme in the following lines. An example can be found in Matthias Claudius, Abendlied. The rhyme scheme is aabccb.
The moon has risen,
the golden stars
in the sky bright and clear;
the forest stands black and silent,
and from the meadows
the white mist wonderful.
Articles: Schweifreim
chain rhyme
At first glance the chain rhymes seem more complicated. Nevertheless, the individual final rhythms follow a very solid pattern. In Goethe’s poem In the grave coffin we find an example which corresponds to the chain rhyme. The final rhyme sequence is aba bcb cdc.
It was in the grave coffin, where I looked
How skull skulls fit arranged;
The old time I thought, the gray.
They stand in rows which otherwise hated,
And rough bones, which were fatal,
They lie crooked, tame to rest.
Entrenched shoulder blades! what they wore
Ask no one more, and gracefully active limbs,
The hand, the foot, scattered from life-joins.
Note: Further information on the various rhymes can be found in the main article (→ Reimschema). Furthermore, the readings can be deepened in the following video and will be clarified and underlined by other examples. The final rhymes are, of course, also presented.
Effect and function of the final rhine
It is difficult to attribute a clear effect to a rhyme. Nevertheless, the final rhyme has an effect on the reading. Especially because rhymes put the verses of a stanza closer together than the metrum does. So now some hints.
Brief overview: meaning, effect and function
As the final rhyme, the binding of two or more verses is called harmony. From the sequence of such final rhymes within a work the rhyme schemata result.
Each rhyme and, above all, final rhymes, put individual words or syllables into a relationship. They can influence not only the rhythm of a work, but also the meaning. This is due to the fact that a loop-binding always brings two or more words into a context, that is to say, relates directly to one another.
Syllables that rhyme also remain better in memory. Therefore, a final rhyme bond is also typical for merks, but also folks and children’s rhymes.
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Fukushima Disaster and the Future of Nuclear Energy (Fukushima, Japan)
March 11th marks the one year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Since then, the nuclear power debate has predominantly, and understandably so, focused on safety issues. The consequences of a nuclear accident on human life and the environment are substantial. It’s difficult to predict how many people will die due to exposure at Fukushima; however, the fifty-thousand people who had to leave behind their homes during the evacuation have had their lives altered, their futures distorted from everything they were working towards. And of course people died during the evacuation as the toll is all too demanding on the elderly. As for the environment, Japan estimates that the cleanup of radioactive materials can take up to fifty years and 100 billion USD. But who really knows for sure.
Six weeks shy of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, the Fukushima accident has shifted public perception of nuclear energy towards safety concerns over energy needs. Chernobyl was painted as Soviet era technology that was inferior and resembled little to the reactors in countries like France, Japan, and the US. But the feeling is that if this could happen to Japan, this could happen to any country.
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Home » Walt Disney's Life » Walt Disney: Mickey Mouse
Walt Disney's Life
Walt Disney: Mickey Mouse
Arguably the most famous creation of Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse is an iconic cartoon character that is recognized around the world. No one knows why the public found the humble, anthropomorphized mouse so compelling, but his origin is well known. Here is the story of how Mickey Mouse was created.
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When Walt Disney had to replace his Oswald the Rabbit cartoon character because he no longer owned the intellectual property rights to it, he and his friend and business associate, Ub Iwerks, decided on another anthropomorphized animal. A mouse. A mouse that would become very famous, indeed. In fact, this particular mouse’s image is still associated with anything to do with the Walt Disney Company today and is instantly recognized around the world. That mouse’s name? Mickey Mouse.
While the origins of Mickey Mouse are not clear, Disney himself intimated that Mickey may have been inspired, at least in part, by a pet mouse Walt owned when he had his original Laugh-O-Gram cartoon studio (the predecessor to Walt Disney Studios). When developing their new cartoon mouse mascot, Walt wanted to name him Mortimer Mouse. However, Walt’s wife Lillian vetoed that, in one of her few interferences in her husband’s business. She thought the name Mortimer was too pompous-sounding and suggested the name Mickey instead. Lillian chose wisely. The name became legendary and iconic.
Walt made some preliminary sketches of what Mickey Mouse would look like, which were quickly revised by Ub Iwerks to make the mouse easier to animate. At this point in the business, Walt had begun distancing himself from the actual process of animation, letting his in-house artists do that for him. He did, however, provide Mickey Mouse’s voice until 1947. Disney employees who were around at the time Mickey Mouse was created later said that Ub gave Mickey Mouse his iconic physical appearance, but with his voice work, Walt gave Mickey his soul.
Mickey Mouse made his introduction to the world in a May 1928 test screening for a cartoon short called Plane Crazy. This cartoon was followed up with The Gallopin’ Gaucho. Both of these short cartoons were unable to find a distributor. Inspired by the synchronized sound used in the 1927 hit movie The Jazz Singer, Walt incorporated the technique into the third Mickey Mouse short cartoon, Steamboat Willie—and, in the process, created the first-ever post-produced sound cartoon.
Once animation on Steamboat Willie was complete, Walt was able to sign a contract with Pat Powers, the former executive of Universal Pictures. The contract was to allow Walt’s company to use Powers’s Cinephone recording gear used at the studio. As a result, Cinephone became Walt’s new distributor, working solely with his new, innovative sound cartoons. These sound cartoons soon became immensely popular among the movie-going public.
Walt began to concentrate on improving the sound quality of the music in his cartoons. To this end, he hired Carl Stalling, a professional composer and music arranger. Carl’s suggestion inspired Walt’s Silly Symphony cartoon series, which told stories through the use of music. The first cartoon in this series was The Skeleton Dance, released in 1929. This cartoon was drawn and animated by Ub Iwerks alone.
As Walt had lost all of his in-house artists except Ub to a competitor just prior to the development of Mickey Mouse, he used the success of the Silly Symphony series to hire new in-house artists. Many of these new hires stayed with the company for decades and became the Walt Disney Company’s original group of core animators. They later referred to themselves as the Nine Old Men.
Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphony cartoon series were both a success. However, Walt and his brother Roy (his primary business partner at the time) believed they were not receiving a fair share of profits from Pat Powers. So, in 1930, Walt attempted to reduce the costs of producing his cartoons by encouraging Ub to stop animating each separate cel of a cartoon. Instead, Walt wanted Ub to draw the key poses of a cartoon, and let lower-paid artists fill in the “in-between” poses.
After making these changes, Walt asked Pat for an increase in pay. Like the Oswald debacle with a different distributor, the request was refused, and Walt lost artists who Pat signed to him personally, including the previously loyal Ub. Other artists quit after Ub left, believing the Disney Brothers Studio would close without Ub to do the drawing. Walt himself had a nervous breakdown over all of this in 1931 and blamed Pat and his machinations on it, as well as his own tendency to overwork himself at his animation business. To help Walt heal, he and Lillian took a long vacation together to Cuba and Panama. Walt came back healed and better than ever in his outlook on things, especially his animation business.
Walt was once again without a distributor for his cartoons, so he signed with Columbia Pictures as the exclusive distributor of the Mickey Mouse cartoons. Cartoons featuring Mickey Mouse were becoming more and more popular with audiences, not only in the United States but around the world. After signing with Columbia, Walt became interested in using the new color technology for his cartoons, and all future Silly Symphony cartoons were produced in color. He filmed a cartoon short called Flowers and Trees in 1932, using three-strip Technicolor, and negotiated a deal that gave him the sole right to use the three-strip color process until 1935.
Flowers and Trees was so popular with audiences that it won Walt the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) at the 1932 Academy Awards presentation. That same year, and for that same awards ceremony and in that same category, Walt was also nominated for another of his cartoon shorts, Mickey’s Orphans. In addition to the Academy Award, he won that year, the Academy also presented him with an honorary award for creating Mickey Mouse. Today, Mickey Mouse is the official mascot for the Walt Disney Company, and all of its parks. Mickey Mouse ear hats are sold in Disney parks so guests can distinguish themselves as Disney fans. Though the Walt Disney Company has branched out far beyond cartoons in the modern era, the entire image of the company still comes back to Mickey Mouse.
About the author
Will Moneymaker
I enjoy collecting postcards as a way to inspire my own adventures. Over the years, I’ve found them incredibly valuable in sharing memories — places I've been and places my loved ones have sent cards from.
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Using Soap to Revive Mature Oil Fields
Most reservoirs in the US under operation by small producers have become mature due to extended waterflooding. In fact, an estimated 80% of the total number of oil wells in the US are now classified as “marginal.” The mature reservoirs accessed by these wells usually have a high water cut, in the range of 80% to 90%. Also, the industry typically leaves about 65% of oil behind after many years of waterflooding because of reservoir heterogeneity and incomplete sweep of the formation.
Excessive water production becomes a major problem as these oil fields mature. High volumes of water production result in increased levels of corrosion and scale, increased load on fluid-handling facilities, increased environmental concerns, and eventually well abandonment (with associated workover costs). Consequently, producing zones are often abandoned in an attempt to avoid water contact, even when the intervals still retain large volumes of recoverable hydrocarbons.
Controlling water production has been a challenging goal for most oil producers.
Reservoir heterogeneity severely affects the flow of gas, oil, and water in the reservoir and thus affects the choice of production strategies, reservoir management, and ultimate oil recovery. Reservoir heterogeneity is the single most important reason for low oil recovery, early breakthrough, and excess water production. To maintain reservoir pressure, these reservoirs have usually been developed by waterflooding from an early stage in their development. Many of them have been hydraulically fractured, intentionally or unintentionally, or have channels due to mineral dissolution and production during many years of waterflooding.
Reservoirs with induced fractures or high-permeability channels are quite common in mature oil fields. Resin, foam, polymer/gel treatments, and/or polymer flooding are among enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques typically used to correct the reservoir heterogeneity and improve oil production. Chemical EOR (CEOR), involving alkali, surfactant, and polymer chemicals, is currently gaining some attention in the oil industry to mobilize and recover large amounts of both unswept and residual oil from mature oil fields.
Chemical EOR Challenges and Recent Advancements
CEOR includes the injection of a mixture of chemicals to improve sweep efficiency and produce residual oil saturation left behind in the swept volume. The following are some of the barriers to widespread implementation of CEOR:
1. Uncertainties in reservoir geology
2. Project logistics
3. High front-end investment and delay in oil production and payout
4. Complex engineering and the need for highly specialized staff
5. Some negative field experiences dating back to the 1980s
However, there have been several crucial improvements to increase the widespread application of CEOR processes. Examples of these improvements include better geological description of oil reservoirs; improved reservoir simulation; horizontal and multilateral wells; more efficient and better quality polymer and surfactant molecules that are stable at higher temperatures and higher salinities (Fig. 1); new cost-effective CEOR processes, such as alkaline/co-solvent/polymer, and the use of surfactants for wettability alteration in carbonate reservoirs; and extending the application of CEOR floods to higher temperatures and higher salinities, higher viscosity oils, and carbonate reservoirs.
Fig. 1—Example of surfactant molecule.
Chemical EOR Working Principles and Associated Synergism
The way a chemical flood works is through the synergistic effect of a polymer (to improve mobility by slowing down the movement of the water to match that of the oil [i.e., mobility ratio of 1]) and a surfactant (with or without alkaline) to reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) between oil and water and thereby displace the discontinuous trapped oil remaining in the reservoir after the waterflood. Using a surfactant involves the same concept as using detergent/soap to remove oil. The primary objective of surfactant/polymer (SP) or alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding is to reduce the IFT between oil and water to values on the order of 0.001 dyne/cm or less in order to displace the trapped oil from rock pores.
The use of alkaline chemicals for improving oil recovery dates back to the 1920s. The alkaline flooding process relies on chemical reactions between alkali, such as sodium carbonate, and organic acids in the crude oil to produce in-situ surfactants (soaps) that can reduce the IFT. Most researchers of the process have reported that the lowest IFT occurs at very low alkali concentrations. On the other hand, alkali consumption by the reservoir demanded injection of a higher alkali concentration. This problem was resolved by Nelson et al. (1984), who proposed a method to enlarge the low-IFT region and thereby promote optimum salinity by combining the alkali with a surfactant which is more hydrophilic than the in-situ–generated soap. The formation of the in-situ surfactant also reduced the need for a synthetic surfactant in an ASP slug (typically <0.3 wt%) which in turn reduced the overall cost of chemicals. These favorable characteristics make ASP flooding a very attractive enhanced oil recovery method, provided the chemical consumption is not too large and the alkali can be propagated at the same rate as the synthetic surfactant and polymer.
Laboratory Screening of Chemicals for Chemical EOR
The widespread application of chemical EOR techniques is dependent in part on the price of crude oil and it is encouraging that field-testing is under way on polymer flooding at a global scale.
The most challenging aspect of chemical EOR is the need for customized chemical formulation design for each field. A fast way to select and screen surfactants for different crude oils is by the observation of phase behavior (Fig. 2) and property measurements from pipettes.
Fig. 2—Surfactant phase behavior test.
Phase behavior evaluations are performed to help define which chemical formulations have the best potential to recover additional oil beyond waterflooding, as in a tertiary flood. Phase behavior experiments involve blending the crude oil with the chemical solution using different water-to-oil volumetric ratios (WOR). After the samples are equilibrated (approximately 2 weeks) at reservoir temperature, the phase type (Winsor Type I, II, or III), appearance, and number of phases are recorded. The large amount of oil and water solubilized in the middle microemulsion phase at optimum salinity (i.e., solubilization parameter of >10) is an indication of ultralow IFT (<0.003 dyne/cm). The fast equilibration of samples and low viscosity of the microemulsion phase are indicative of a favorable chemical recipe that will most likely perform well in the core floods, resulting in low chemical retention and high oil recoveries.
Mechanistic Modeling of Chemical EOR
An ASP flood is very complex because of the numerous chemical reactions that may occur in the reservoir. The reaction of acid present in the active crude oil with alkali to generate additional surfactant called soap and its effect on phase behavior is the most crucial parameter for crude oils containing naphthenic acids.
In order to design an effective ASP flood it is very important to consider the mechanisms responsible for the loss of alkali. The most important reactions responsible for alkali consumption are reactions with crude to generate soap, cation exchange reaction with the rock surface, and aqueous reactions. The reaction with calcium sulfate anhydrite or gypsum can consume a significant amount of alkali especially if sodium carbonate or sodium hydroxide is used. The soap generation and other alkali consumption reactions and their effects on phase behavior and other process variables make the process highly sophisticated, and modeling such a process becomes complex. Sandstone and carbonate reservoirs with the presence of high clay content or pH buffering minerals such as anhydrite need to be carefully analyzed. Mechanistic simulations of the ASP process help to identify the reactions that may cause the loss of alkali, the formation of scale, and mineral dissolution/precipitation.
Mechanistic modeling of an ASP flood considers the aqueous reactions, reactions with acidic components in the crude oil and with the bases in the aqueous solution, cation exchange reactions with clay and micelles, the reduction of surfactant adsorption at high pH, and the effect of soap on the phase behavior. The phase behavior of the mixture of synthetic surfactant and generated soap is the most critical information for realistic simulations of ASP. Laboratory phase behavior measurements for the mixtures of crude oil/surfactant/brine/alkali at the formation temperature are required to obtain the optimum salinity as a function of WOR (referred to as an activity map); solubilization parameters as a function of WOR; surfactant concentration; and salinity. These ensure the proper design of the salinity of the ASP slug and polymer drive, which is much more complex than an SP flood.
Bhuyan (1989) and Delshad et al. (2002) developed a model to account for the geochemical reactions involved in ASP processes, including soap generation, and added this model to The University of Texas at Austin’s chemical flooding simulator (UTCHEM). Mohammadi et al. (2009) verified the model where several ASP core floods and phase behavior experiments were modeled.
Further research and development and multiple mini-field implementations such as a single-well chemical tracer test, single-well injectivity test, one-pattern pilot, and multi-pattern pilots will help to scale up the design and performance of chemical EOR processes to full field development. The additional oil recovered by these processes when carefully designed and optimized can reach as high as 30% of original oil in place. TWA
Bhuyan, D., “Development of an Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer Compositional Reservoir Simulator,” PhD dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 1989.
Delshad, M., G.A. Pope, K. Asakawa, and K. Sepehrnoori, “Simulations of Chemical and Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods,” SPE paper 75237 presented at the SPE/DOE 13th Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 13–17 April, 2002.
Mohammadi, H., M. Delshad, and G.A. Pope, “Mechanistic Modeling of Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer Floods,” SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal, 12 (4): pp 518–570.
Nelson, R.C., J.H. Lawson, D.R. Thigpen, and G.J. Stegemeir, “Co-surfactant Enhanced Alkaline Flooding,” SPE paper 12672 presented at the SPE Enhanced Oil Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 15–18 April, 1984.
Mojdeh Delshad is a research professor in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin. She is also the assistant director for the US Department of Energy-funded Center of Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security. Delshad holds a BS degree in chemical engineering from Sharif University and MS and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering from UT Austin. She has 27 years’ experience in modeling multiphase flow, fluid property modeling, and reservoir simulation of enhanced oil recovery processes, and is in charge of the UT Chemical Flooding reservoir simulator (known as UTCHEM) development, user support, and training. Delshad was awarded the SPE rank of “A Peer Apart” for reviewing more than 100 technical papers in 2010. She is currently a member of the SPE Books Development Committee.
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The Connection Between Vision and Sleep
Sometimes it’s hard to get a full night’s sleep, but when we don’t, we definitely feel it.
In fact, studies even show that not getting enough sleep has many of the same effects on the mind and body as alcohol. There’s an interesting relationship between our quality and quantity of sleep and our eyes. We can encourage better eye health with good sleep and we can use our eyes to get better sleep!
Sleep Deprivation Compromises Eye Health
Some symptoms of sleep deprivation (particularly over an extended period) you may be familiar with, including a weakened immune system, weight gain, high blood pressure, memory issues, and mood changes, but it also specifically impacts our eyes.
In order to replenish themselves and function well throughout the day, our eyes need at least five hours of sleep per night. This isn’t just about being able to keep your eyes open; the longer you go without enough sleep, the more you might notice symptoms like eye strain, twitchy eyelids, and dry eye. The good news is that our eyes can be part of the solution to getting better sleep!
Turn Off Blue Lights Before Bed
No matter how smartphone savvy you are these days, biologically speaking, your eyes still find these high-tech devices very confusing. Laptop, tablet, or smartphone screens all put out a lot of blue light. In nature, the only source of blue light is the sun, so when we see blue light, our eyes think it’s still daytime and that we should be awake!
Because of this, browsing the internet right up until bedtime can make it much harder for our brains to go to sleep, which really cuts into the time we could’ve been sleeping. Looking at bright screens in dark rooms also leaves us more vulnerable to digital eye strain.
We aren’t here to tell you that you should get rid of your smart devices, and we won’t even insist that you completely avoid them before bedtime. As with many things these days, there’s an app for that (or, in some phones, built in Night Shift settings). If you absolutely have to be online right before bed, take advantage of these apps or features that reduce the blue light emitted by the screen. Your tired eyes will thank you!
Wear Contacts? Give Your Eyes the Night Off!
Whether or not you remember to take your contacts out at night might not affect your overall health or your quality of sleep, but it does make things harder on your eyes. Our eyes get oxygen directly from the air. Contact lenses block air from reaching them, especially during the hours our eyes are closed for sleep.
Some types of newer contact lenses allow much more oxygen flow, but taking them out overnight will still be the healthier choice. In addition to letting your eyes breathe freely, it reduces your risk of eye infection from the bacteria that likes to accumulate around contact lenses. In any case, check the labeling of the boxes your contacts come in to make sure you’re only wearing them for the recommended length of time.
Prioritize Eye Exams
If you have any questions about the relationship between sleep and eye health, make sure to bring them with you to your next eye exam! Even if you have no questions, get plenty of sleep, and remember to take your contacts out before bed, however, we’d still love to see you on a regular basis to make sure your eyes are staying functional and healthy.
We wish all our patients a wonderful night’s sleep tonight!
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Vision And Night Driving
Nights are long in the winter, and that means fewer hours of daylight for our morning and evening commutes.
Many of us feel safer driving during the day, particularly if our eyesight isn’t perfect. The dangers of night driving are very real, and we should all be taking them seriously, because our lives and the lives of others absolutely depend on it.
The Challenges Of Driving At Night
The road looks very different at night than it does in the day. Not only is it harder to see because of the darkened surroundings, but the glare of oncoming headlights can momentarily blind us to the curves of the road and obstacles in our way. And even if you feel confident in your ability to adjust to these conditions, other drivers around you may not be as confident in their own driving.
Aging Introduces New Difficulties
As we grow older, our night vision worsens. We have fewer rods (light-sensitive cells in our eyes that distinguish between light and dark) to detect objects in low light and our eyes’ lenses become stiffer and cloudier. Other conditions such as astigmatism can also make it difficult to see at night, affecting peripheral vision and depth perception and worsening glare.
Changes In Your Eyesight
If you’ve noticed any changes in your eyesight, such as halo effects, blurred, dim, or cloudy vision, or increased glare, they could be early symptoms of eye problems that will make it harder for you to drive safely at night. Another one to watch out for is eye fatigue. Even if you can see perfectly well, that won’t do much good if you struggle to focus while on the road. No matter what changes or difficulties you’re experiencing with your vision, schedule an eye appointment so that we can address the problem.
Aids To Night Driving
For those with mild to moderate difficulties with night driving, there are solutions to make it easier. The simplest is to keep the windshield and windows as clean as possible and make sure your headlights aren’t fogged over. Getting plenty of sleep and eating eye-healthy foods like carrots, sweet potatoes, and spinach will promote good eye health and reduce eye fatigue. You might also consider getting prescription night driving glasses, which reduce glare and light sensitivity.
For those who are doing all of these things and still struggling to see at night, it might be time to stay off the road after dark. It can be a struggle to adjust to a schedule of day driving only, but it’s worth it to stay safe.
To learn more about nyctalopia, or night blindness, check out this short video:
What We Can Do For You
Sometimes all we need to improve our sight for night driving is a simple adjustment to our glasses prescriptions, so if it’s been a while since your last eye exam, schedule one today. Make sure you bring any questions or concerns you have about driving at night with you when you come!
Drive safely, and we look forward to seeing you soon!
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PEST Analysis
PEST analysis stands for “Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis“. It is a framework for Strategic analysis of markets to evaluate macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component. Some analysts add the Legal factors to the analysis.
Thus when the PEST analysis is expanded to incorporate legal and environmental factors; this is called a PESTLE analysis or a PESTEL analysis.
• Political factors pertain to how the government intervenes in the economic functioning of the country (market) and more specifically how it affects the firm strategic decision making. Political factors such as tariffs, tax policy, labor laws, trade restrictions,environmental law, and political stability. Political stability is a major factor which affect the firm’s strategic decision making and overall legal framework.
• Economic factors consists of interest rates, government bond rates, risk free rate of interest, economic growth, inflation rate (adjusted) and exchange rates. These factors have major impacts on how a firm can operate in a market. Inflation rate and potential GDP affect the demand and prices of goods.
• Social factors include the cultural dimensions of the population in which the firm will operate and include gender consciousness, gender based product/service bias, population growth rate, age spread, health consciousness, career attitudes and risk appetite of the target segment.
• Technological factors consists of factors such as research and development focus in general industries, intellectual property protection laws, technology adoption rates, change assimilation culture, automation and the rate of technological change. They affect entry barriers, technology enabled products and service assimilation, product prices, quality, and innovation.
• Environmental factors consists of factors like ecological and environmental aspects such as forestry and climatic conditions which may especially affect industries such as tourism, farming, and insurance.
• Legal factors focus on discrimination laws, intellectual property protection laws, labor laws, consumer laws, antitrust laws, employment laws, health laws, safety laws and social security laws which can affect how a firm operates, its bottom-line (cost structure) and the demand and distribution for its products and services.
The PEST framework has been recognized as an extremely popular framework for market analysis. It is a part of the external analysis conducted while demonstrating an in-depth strategic analysis during new market entry or doing market research for a new product launch or even sometimes during a product extension, and gives an overview of the different macroenvironmental factors that the company has to take into consideration. It is a useful theoretical tool for estimating market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations.
It is an important complementary extension of the Marketing Mix strategies and often it is used as an alternative analytical tool for Porter’s 5 forces model (although not appropriate for the same).
Author: Kar
Dr. Kar works in the interface of digital transformation and data science. Professionally a professor in one of the top B-Schools of Asia and an alumni of XLRI, he has extensive experience in teaching, training, consultancy and research in reputed institutes. He is a regular contributor of Business Fundas and a frequent author in research platforms. He is widely cited as a researcher. Note: The articles authored in this blog are his personal views and does not reflect that of his affiliations. |
Europe’s eating habits would be very different had explorer Christopher Columbus not set out to find a faster route from Spain to the Spice Islands of south-east Asia. This exhibition explores how the newly discovered edible plants not only enriched the cuisines of Europe, Asia and Africa, but also had a major impact on global culture, economics and politics. |
Photo: Rainbow Brain. Nottingham University
Brain Waves
Seeing the patterns that link subatomic particles and the brain
A mathematician and scientist has described how “brain waves pattern themselves after the rhythms of nature”. Jack Cowan’s research highlights the similarities in the way the brain behaves and the reactions of everyday molecules.
His findings show that the same mathematical tools that physicists use to describe the behaviour of subatomic particles and the dynamics of liquids and solids can now be applied to understanding how the brain generates its various rhythms.
Cowan has also investigated other patterns in the brain, beginning to explain visual hallucinations and even how the visual cortex obtained its stripy appearance.
Explore your own personal patterns and rituals at an upcoming PATTERNITY event |
Most Brutal European Dictators
Some of the names will be obvious, Stalin, Hitler, etc. Though I would like to shed some light on the lesser known ones afterword. Leaders will be ranked by a combination of total control, lives lost under regime, and actions that affected other nations.
The Top Ten
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 - April 30, 1945) was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of Nazi Germany, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September more.
Only reason I put Hitler over Stalin is because Hitler started WWII.
Josef Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Georgian dictator, and was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state.
He massed murder over 30 millions of his own people, Gulag, commie. - STFUSS
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist.
The man who is a leading figure in communism in the early 20th century which he started the Russian revolution - Kevinsidis
Vlad Dracula Vlad III (Known as "Vlad the Impaler" or "Vlad Dracula", born 1431) was a Romanian monarch. He was the ruler of Wallachia a total of three times before his death in 1476/7. He is most famous for his reputation as a dictator and his gruesome torture methods and executions, in which he has served as an more.
True evil - 2storm
Leonid Brezhnev
Nicolae Ceausescu
Alexander Lukashenko Aleksandr Grigoryevich Lukashenko is the first, and so far the only President of Belarus, having been in office since 20 July 1994. Before launching his political career, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm and spent time with the Soviet Border Troops and the Soviet Army. more.
Czar Nicholas II
Leopold II
Leopold II was the King of the Belgians (1865-1908) and believed in colonialism. The problem was Belgium really didn’t care, and so Leopold went into business for himself. He started a company that seemed like it was doing good called the International African Society. A year later he used that company to travel to Congo, laid claim to a plot of land 14 times the size of Belgium, and made 14 countries agree (USA included) that he was free to rule it with his own private militia. He then forced the indigenous populations into forced labor, created a bustling rubber industry, and abused his workers grievously.
Estimates of the death toll range from two to fifteen million which could all have been avoided if 14 countries didn’t hand him the keys to the car!
Oliver Cromwell
The Contenders
Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde was a Spanish general who ruled over Spain as a military dictator from 1939, after the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War, until his death in 1975. This period in Spanish history is commonly known as Francoist Spain.
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until he was ousted in 1943. He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship. more.
Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible or Ivan the Fearsome, was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547, then Tsar of All Rus' until his death in 1584. The last title was used by all his successors.
Enver Hoxha Enver Halil Hoxha was an Albanian communist politician who served as the head of state of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania.
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has been the President of Russia since 7 May 2012, succeeding Dmitry Medvedev. He was also President from 2000-2008.
What is this picture though
Ante Pavelic Ante Pavelić was a Croatian fascist dictator who led the Ustaše movement and the Independent State of Croatia, established in parts of occupied Yugoslavia during World War II with the support of both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
Klement Gottwald
Miklós Horthy
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu (1882 - 1946) was a Romanian soldier and authoritarian politician who, as the Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, presided over two successive wartime dictatorships. After the war, he was convicted of war crimes and executed.
The antisemitic Antonescu sympathized with the far right and fascist National Christian and Iron Guard groups for much of the interwar period.
An atypical figure among Holocaust perpetrators, Antonescu enforced policies independently responsible for the deaths of as many as 400,000 people, most of them Bessarabian, Ukrainian and Romanian Jews, as well as Romanian Romani.
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz (7 May 1892, Kumrovec – 4 May 1980, Ljubljana), commonly known as Tito, was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles until his death in 1980. During World War II he was the leader of the Partisans, often regarded as the most effective resistance movement more.
Vidkun Quisling
Ferenc Szálasi
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Social And Behavioural Science For Nursing
2809 words (11 pages) Essay in Nursing
12/05/17 Nursing Reference this
This assignment will demonstrate the inequalities and vulnerability that exist in health and social care. Through discussion, the author will demonstrate how people’s social environment and choice of life style can impact on their health and have a major impact on their physical and mental well-being. Inequalities that people face in health and social care are increased through practice that does not take into consideration anti-discriminatory practice and empowerment. The author will attempt to demonstrate that tackling discrimination and empowering the disadvantaged is widely recognised as a fundamental part of good practice in health and social care. Values, beliefs and culture will also be examined to see the impact it may have on patience and families.
The biomedical model and the social model are described as the two key perspectives that inform work with patients who have illnesses.
The biomedical model of health is a model that has been used since late 19th century. This model was adopted by most of the National Health Services in the Western Society. It is used by the healthcare professionals as it focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of the diseases. It focuses only on the biological factors while ignoring the social and psychological factors that contribute to ill health. This model separates the human body from the mind, in other words, it does not provide the holistic approach. The human body in this case is compared to a car, which, whenever it needs service, may be taken to a mechanic by the owner and once the problem is diagnosed, it may be fixed. Wade and Halligan (2004) suggest that the biomedical model is an inadequate model and out-dated in today’s society.
Brannon et al (2010) states that the biomedical model became questionable when chronic diseases were reported to be the leading cause of death over infectious diseases. Engel,(1977) believed that biological, psychological and social are all factors that should always be considered in order to meet an individual’s needs.
The biomedical model is dominant when treating the disease because it uses the prescribed drugs that are proven worldwide. Taylor (2006) states that ”the biomedical model is a reductionist model as it reduces illness to low level processes rather than recognise the role of social and psychological processes”. Due to the biomedical model approach’s limitations, Engel (1997) integrated psychological and social factors to the biological aspect of the biomedical model; this new theory was called bio psychosocial approach. Rana and Upton (2009) suggest that this approach gives a lot of understanding of the illness and the patient as a whole. The meaning of bio psychological approach can be broken into three categories that is, biological, psychological and sociological. Ogden (2007; pg 4 ) described this approach as that ”the bio contributing factors includes genetics, viruses, bacteria, and structural defects. The psychological aspects were described in terms of cognition, emotions and behaviours while the social aspects were described in social norms of behaviour, pressures to change behaviour, social values of health, social class and ethnicity”.
On the other hand there is the Health Belief Model sometimes referred to as the social model. This is a framework that focuses on the attitudes and beliefs of individuals. It was originally developed in 1950 by a group of cognitive and social psychologists that included Bandura, Leventhal , Rosenstock, Becker and Hochbam. Rankin (2005). This model attempts to identify compliers and non-compliers by examining six factors that are considered essential to health care decision.
Narratives from patients are vital to nurses as they help them to recognise social and psychological concerns that patients may have. Narrative helps doctors to collaborate with the patient while they help nurses to built a nurse patient relationship and to develop feelings of empathy towards the patient. Nurse patient relationship is a contributing factor in assisting the patient to adhere to treatment regimen.
To comply with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2008) that confidentiality must be maintained the patient’s name has been changed to David. David was nursed during the author’s twelve week placement at an NHS organisation. With supervision from the author’s mentor, David agreed and consented to giving a narrative of the events that led to his current predicament.
During the interview with David, it was established that he was not going to seek medical advice even though there is a familial and hereditary link with lung cancer. Both his elder brother and his great grandfather died of lung cancer in their late fifties. David’s knowledge and experience of the disease made him scared of seeking medical advice.
People view health differently. The World Health Organisation (WHO) (1946) defines health as a” state of complete physical, mental and social-being and not merely the absence of disease”. According to Townsend and Davidson, the term health is derived from the word ‘whole ‘which means to make whole in medical terms. Seedhouse (1986) criticise the WHO’s definition saying that ‘ a person’s optimum state of health is equivalent of the state of the set of conditions which fulfil or enable a person to work, to fulfil his or her realistic and chosen biological potential. Some of these conditions are of the highest importance for all people while others are of variable importance depending on individual’s abilities and circumstances.
The demographic characteristics of David are that he was an African, born in 1956. He was born in a middle class family and grew up to become a heavy smoker. David, who taught at a local school, started smoking at the age of sixteen. He was married and had one daughter who was about to start a new course at the college when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. His wife was a full time housewife making David the sole breadwinner in the household.
David started coughing and experiencing headaches one weekend. This was the initial concept of ill health. It mainly focuses on patients as they quickly notice and identify the symptoms and seek medical advice. David believed that he was getting a cold since a cold spell had been experienced the previous week. He, therefore, dismissed his present symptoms as being a temporary phenomenon and carried on with his daily activities as usual. As the symptoms persisted, David visited a local pharmacy for advice where he purchased some remedies.
He knew that something was wrong with him health wise as reflected by his symptoms but chose to self-monitor the illness and employ ‘a wait and see’ attitude before seeking professional medical advice. This process whereby individuals delays seeking medical help whilst waiting to see how the symptoms will progress before consulting other people or taking remedies is known as an illness behaviour. Illness behaviour is often shaped or influenced by culture and the society we live in. David delayed seeking medical advice as he was worried of possible hospitalisation. He was also acutely aware of the traumas that his relatives went through and this made him delay seeking medical advice. David feared that he might not be able to provide for his daughter. Having a good educational background, David was highly committed to his daughter’s educational achievements and would not have wanted her to be distracted from achieving her full potential. Faced with a dilemma of her father being a lung cancer victim she could prefer staying home with her father possibly during his last days. .
An anti-discriminatory perspective requires sensitivity to the individual perspectives of others and their rights to choice, dignity, respect, and independence, regardless of their personal background and presentation. (Thomson et al 1994 and Williams et al 2001) David continued to go to work as he wanted to maintain his social identity as well as his personal identity. He did not want to be labelled as a social deviant, the term that generally refers to law breakers and other social misfits in today’s society. This means he would be discriminated against and therefore chose to pretend everything was not ill. People are expected to follows certain rules. According to Goffman(1961), stigma is anything that discredits a person or threatens his or her presentation of self. Although stigma is usually thought to be a physical blemish, Goffman’s approach gives a much wider analysis. As David’s illness progressed, he started to cover up his sickness from friends. He lost interest in going out to his local pub and pretended to be fit.
David started to cough up blood, suffered breathlessness and began to isolate himself as result of the perceived stigma. David became upset because he was not able to do physical activities anymore; he became frustrated and suffered from low self-esteem and emotional dysfunction. Research shows that people with lung cancer feel sad and have low self-esteem hence this can cause depression and anger Cappiello (2012)
As the disease progressed, David decided to make an appointment with his General Practitioner. He took some time off work. On the day of his appointment David was asked of his symptoms and was referred to the hospital. This is an example of a biomedical model which this doctor used. The author still thinks this model should be credited because it wastes no time and save lives. However, as pointed out earlier the potential of David developing low self-esteem, depression and anger were not explored by his GP.
It came as a huge shock when David was given his diagnosis while in hospital. David’s educational background meant that he was well aware that he needed treatment. Studies show that the concordance with treatment in cancer patient is higher than other chronic conditions Di Matteo (2004). The side effects of treatment can also lower the level of adherence in patients.
After the diagnosis, David needed psychosocial support in order for him to cope with the illness. Patients are not likely to get this form of support from the medical professionals. It was likely that it would take time for David to come to terms and accept his illness. David, however, continued to smoke after the diagnosis, against the healthcare professionals’ advice. He felt that health care professionals did not understand him and that their behaviour and attitude towards him were or could be viewed as discriminatory. David came from a culture where they placed greater value on prayer and meditation. His family would be involved in the prayers and therefore restricting David ‘s wife from seeing him would have a negative impact psychologically.
Nurses need to demonstrate an understanding of the importance of dignity and respect for patients and their families as they will have different cultures. This helps in providing patient-centred care. To achieve this, nurses need to examine their own values, beliefs, and culture which can have a significant negative impact on their patients.
They need to ensure that they provide nonjudgmental, personalized care to their patients. (
Lung cancer is associated with smoking and society’s view on people who have this disease is that it is about life choices. The question raised about these groups of people is around deserving help and the impression given by care givers that they are wasting resources. David’s experience in hospital was that he felt his lung cancer was viewed as self-inflicted through life style/ choice as a result of smoking, compared to other cancers that were viewed in a more sympathetic and sensitive manner. David’s continuation of smoking against medical advice further exacerbated these attitudes. However David should not be discriminated against for having self inflicted the illness through smoking. George Best’ case cited in guardian (25.08.04) comes to mind where it was debated if he deserved the liver transplant as he was alcoholic.
On two separate occasions David’ s wife was not allowed to see him whilst he was recovering as doctors felt that her presence was not going to help him as he was recovering from chemotherapy. The biomedical model was used by healthcare professionals in this setting and David’ wife and her contribution towards the healing process was not explored nor acknowledged. David and his family should be empowered to make choices and decisions as far as his health was concerned regardless of his state of health. David was vulnerable being unwell and therefore the nurses were taking advantage of his situation by making decisions for him.
Life style and people’s choices are influenced by education and socio economic situation of individuals. David lived amongst friends who saw smoking as a method of relaxing. David had the money to buy tobacco as his parents could assist him financially. Upon reflecting, it is clear that David’s indulgence in smoking was influenced by exposure to this lifestyle in his adolescence years at a boarding school.
Legislation on smoking policy has shifted significantly in the last decade or so and the government now appears to be taking a tougher stance on smoking in public places and advertising, together both smokers and manufactures . During David’s upbringing advertisement of smoking was not uncommon and most of the tobacco companies sponsored major sporting events. It is likely that the government policy may have had some influence indirectly in him choosing to smoke.
Addiction and dependency on nicotine- look at how this sustained David’s smoking behaviour.
Research has shown that people from lower socio economic backgrounds suffer disproportionately with disease compared with people from high social background. People from poor background live in crowded communities, share communal areas; lack healthy eating, cannot afford gym fees and are therefore prone to suffer from ill health.
Because David was employed and popular in the local community, he could afford to feed his smoking habit. He also benefited from buying cheap cigarettes smuggled from the East European countries and readily sold in the local community.
Admissions to hospital can be stressful to a patient’s life. Individuals are prone to lose their independence mostly their privacy and will not have control over some of the activities of daily living. David was expected to move from his normal behaviour pattern and adapt to the role of a patient. Barker (2005) suggested that when an individual becomes a patient, one lose identity and may become vulnerable.
The concept of learning helplessness was suggested by Martin Seligman (1975) Healthcare professionals can lead their patients into learned helplessness as they encourage patients to undergo surgery or treatment without taking their thoughts and feelings into account.
The author narrated a patient’s illness/journey from a psychological, cultural and sociological perspective by looking into David journey with lung cancer. This approach was beneficial as it explores the issues from the patient perspective. The advantage of a narrative from patient was demonstrated in this assignment by psychological and social aspects that the biological model would have ignored. Biological model plays a vital role and has its place in health care systems. The biological model was essential at it helped to diagnosis David quickly, once David decided to seek help.
Illness behaviour was demonstrated to be the concept behind how individuals decide when to seek advice after first noticing symptoms. Illness behaviour is shaped by the culture and society we live in and in David’s case had a bearing when he eventually contacted services.
Life approach was shown to have had an influence in David’s decisions about his illness. Life style and choices that we make may have long term consequence on our health. The author demonstrated that these life style and choices are also influenced by our socio and economic background. Whilst it is very important to take note of life style/ choices in terms of preventive measures and health education, health care professional have to be wary that this does not lead to certain attitudes and behaviour that leads to discrimination. In the narrative David expressed that he felt that health care professionals had a different attitude to other cancer patients whose origin was not associated with life style such as smoking. He felt discriminated against.
Diseases like lung cancer have an impact on individuals that may debilitate and may result in institutionalisation and individuals playing the sick role. Person centered approach which was identified in this assignment becomes vital
Studies have shown that people with lung cancer who receive palliative care earlier actually survived longer, had a better quality of life, and suffered less from depression. The people need to be informed so that they can make these kinds of decisions. Instead, patients often come out feeling that they weren’t heard by their physicians, and this is very unfortunate.” (
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Theory of art explained
Theory of art should not be confused with Art theory.
At the broadest level, a theory of art aims to shed light on some aspect of the project of defining art or to theorize about the structure of our concept of ‘art’ without providing classical definitions, namely traditional functions. If the work of "art" has a materialistic intent it is a "tool" whether a tool intellectually, physically, spiritually or mentally.... And thus not "Genuine True Art" which has no purpose but to be itself". (Authentic edits welcome).
Aesthetic response
Aesthetic response or functional theories of art are in many ways the most intuitive theories of art. At its base, the term "aesthetic" refers to a type of phenomenal experience and aesthetic definitions identify artworks with artifacts intended to produce aesthetic experiences. Nature can be beautiful and it can produce aesthetic experiences, but nature does not possess the function of producing those experiences. For such a function, an intention is necessary, and thus agency – the artist.
Monroe Beardsley is commonly associated with aesthetic definitions of art. In Beardsley’s words, something is art just in case it is “either an arrangement of conditions intended to be capable of affording an experience with marked aesthetic character or (incidentally) an arrangement belonging to a class or type of arrangements that is typically intended to have this capacity” (The aesthetic point of view: selected essays, 1982, 299). Painters arrange “conditions” in the paint/canvas medium, and dancers arrange the “conditions” of their bodily medium, for example. According to Beardsley’s first disjunct, art has an intended aesthetic function, but not all artworks succeed in producing aesthetic experiences. The second disjunct allows for artworks that were intended to have this capacity, but failed at it (bad art).
Marcel Duchamp's Fountain is the paradigmatic counterexample to aesthetic definitions of art. Such works are said to be counterexamples because they are artworks that don't possess an intended aesthetic function. Beardsley replies that either such works are not art or they are “comments on art” (1983): “To classify them [Fountain and the like] as artworks just because they make comments on art would be to classify a lot of dull and sometimes unintelligible magazine articles and newspaper reviews as artworks” (p.25). This response has been widely considered inadequate (REF). It is either question-begging or it relies on an arbitrary distinction between artworks and commentaries on artworks. A great many art theorists today consider aesthetic definitions of art to be extensionally inadequate, primarily because of artworks in the style of Duchamp.
See main article: Formalism (art). The formalist theory of art asserts that we should focus only on the formal properties of art--the "form" not the "content". Those formal properties might include, for the visual arts, color, shape, and line, and, for the musical arts, rhythm and harmony. Formalists do not deny that works of art might have content, representation, or narrative-rather, they deny that those things are relevant in our appreciation or understanding of art.
Addressing the issue of what makes, for example, Marcel Duchamp's "readymades" art, or why a pile of Brillo cartons in a supermarket is not art, whereas Andy Warhol's famous Brillo Boxes (a pile of Brillo carton replicas) is, the art critic and philosopher Arthur Danto wrote in his 1964 essay "The Artworld":According to Robert J. Yanal, Danto's essay, in which he coined the term artworld, outlined the first institutional theory of art.
Versions of the institutional theory were formulated more explicitly by George Dickie in his article "Defining Art" (American Philosophical Quarterly, 1969) and his books Aesthetics: An Introduction (1971) and Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis (1974). An early version of Dickie's institutional theory can be summed up in the following definition of work of art from Aesthetics: An Introduction:Dickie has reformulated his theory in several books and articles. Other philosophers of art have criticized his definitions as being circular.[1]
Historical theories of art hold that for something to be art, it must bear some relation to existing works of art. The correct extension of ‘art’ at time t (the present) includes all the works at time t-1 and additionally any works created in the elapsed time. For these additional works to be art, they must be similar or relate to those previously established artworks. Such a definition begs the question of where this inherited status originated. That is why historical definitions of art must also include a disjunct for first art: something is art if it possesses a historical relation to previous artworks, or is first art.
The philosopher primarily associated with the historical definition of art is Jerrold Levinson (1979). For Levinson, "a work of art is a thing intended for regard-as-a-work-of-art: regard in any of the ways works of art existing prior to it have been correctly regarded" (1979, p. 234). Levinson further clarifies that by "intends for" he means: “[M]akes, appropriates or conceives for the purpose of'" (1979, p. 236). Some of these manners for regard (at around the present time) are: to be regarded with full attention, to be regarded contemplatively, to be regarded with special notice to appearance, to be regarded with "emotional openness" (1979, p. 237). If an object isn't intended for regard in any of the established ways, then it isn't art.
Some art theorists have proposed that the attempt to define art must be abandoned and have instead urged an anti-essentialist theory of art. In ‘The Role of Theory in Aesthetics’ (1956), Morris Weitz famously argues that individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions will never be forthcoming for the concept ‘art’ because it is an “open concept”. Weitz describes open concepts as those whose “conditions of application are emendable and corrigible” (1956, p. 31). In the case of borderline cases of art and prima facie counterexamples, open concepts “call for some sort of decision on our part to extend the use of the concept to cover this, or to close the concept and invent a new one to deal with the new case and its new property” (p. 31 ital. in original). The question of whether a new artifact is art or not, “is not factual, but rather a decision problem, where the verdict turns on whether or not we enlarge our set of conditions for applying the concept” (p. 32). For Weitz, it is “the very expansive, adventurous character of art, its ever-present changes and novel creations,” which makes the concept impossible to capture in a classical definition (as some static univocal essence).
While anti-essentialism was never formally defeated, it was challenged and the debate over anti-essentialist theories was subsequently swept away by seemingly better essentialist definitions. Commenting after Weitz, Berys Gaut revived anti-essentialism in the philosophy of art with his paper ‘“Art” as a Cluster Concept’ (2000). Cluster concepts are composed of criteria that contribute to art status but are not individually necessary for art status. There is one exception: Artworks are created by agents, and so being an artifact is a necessary property for being an artwork. Gaut (2005) offers a set of ten criteria that contribute to art status:
(i) possessing positive aesthetic qualities (I employ the notion of positive aesthetic qualities here in a narrow sense, comprising beauty and its subspecies);
(ii) being expressive of emotion;
(iii) being intellectually challenging;
(iv) being formally complex and coherent;
(v) having a capacity to convey complex meanings;
(vi) exhibiting an individual point of view;
(vii) being an exercise of creative imagination;
(viii) being an artifact or performance that is the product of a high degree of skill;
(ix) belonging to an established artistic form; and
(x) being the product of an intention to make a work of art. (274)
Satisfying all ten criteria would be sufficient for art, as might any subset formed by nine criteria (this is a consequence of the fact that none of the ten properties is necessary). For example, consider two of Gaut’s criteria: “possessing aesthetic merit” and “being expressive of emotion” (200, p. 28). Neither of these criteria is necessary for art status, but both are parts of subsets of these ten criteria that are sufficient for art status. Gaut’s definition also allows for many subsets with less than nine criteria to be sufficient for art status, which leads to a highly pluralistic theory of art.
The theory of art is also impacted by a philosophical turn in thinking, not only exemplified by the aesthetics of Kant but is tied more closely to ontology and metaphysics in terms of the reflections of Heidegger on the essence of modern technology and the implications it has on all beings that are reduced to what he calls 'standing reserve', and it is from this perspective on the question of being that he explored art beyond the history, theory, and criticism of artistic production as embodied for instance in his influential opus: The Origin of the Work of Art [2] . This has had also an impact on architectural thinking in its philosophical roots.[3]
Aesthetic creation
Zangwill[4] describes the aesthetic creation theory of art as a theory of “how art comes to be produced” (p. 167) and an “artist-based” theory. Zangwill distinguishes three phases in the production of a work of art:
[F]irst, there is the insight that by creating certain nonaesthetic properties, certain aesthetic properties will be realized; second, there is the intention to realize the aesthetic properties in the nonaesthetic properties, as envisaged in the insight; and, third, there is the more or less successful action of realizing the aesthetic properties in the nonaesthetic properties, an envisaged in the insight and intention. (45)
In the creation of an artwork, the insight plays a causal role in bringing about actions sufficient for realizing particular aesthetic properties. Zangwill does not describe this relation in detail, but only says it is “because of” this insight that the aesthetic properties are created.
Aesthetic properties are instantiated by nonaesthetic properties that “include physical properties, such as shape and size, and secondary qualities, such as colours or sounds.”(37) Zangwill says that aesthetic properties supervene on the nonaesthetic properties: it is because of the particular nonaesthetic properties it has that the work possesses certain aesthetic properties (and not the other way around).
What is "art"?
How best to define the term "art" is a subject of constant contention; many books and journal articles have been published arguing over even the basics of what we mean by the term "art".[5] Theodor Adorno claimed in his Aesthetic Theory 1969 "It is self-evident that nothing concerning art is self-evident."[6] Artists, philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists and programmers all use the notion of art in their respective fields, and give it operational definitions that vary considerably. Furthermore, it is clear that even the basic meaning of the term "art" has changed several times over the centuries, and has continued to evolve during the 20th century as well.
Marxist attempts to define art focus on its place in the mode of production, such as in Walter Benjamin's essay The Author as Producer,[10] and/or its political role in class struggle.[11] Revising some concepts of the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, Gary Tedman defines art in terms of social reproduction of the relations of production on the aesthetic level.[12]
See also: Classificatory disputes about art.
What should art be like?
The value of art
Notes and References
1. For example, Book: Carroll, Noël . Noël Carroll
. Noël Carroll . Robert J. Yanal . Institutions of Art: Reconsiderations of George Dickie's Philosophy . 1994 . . 978-0-271-01078-6 . 12 . Identifying Art.
2. [Christian Norberg-Schulz]
3. [Nader El-Bizri]
4. Nick Zangwill, Aesthetic Creation, OUP 2007.
5. Stephen Davies, Definitions of Art, Cornell University Press, 1991.
6. Arthur Danto, The Abuse of Beauty, Open Court Publishing, 2003, p. 17.
7. David Novitz, The Boundaries of Art, Temple University Press, 1992.
8. Brian Massumi, "Deleuze, Guattari and the Philosophy of Expression," CRCL, 24:3, 1997.
10. Benjamin, Walter, Understanding Brecht, trans. Anna Bostock, Verso Books, 2003, .
11. Hadjinicolaou, Nicos, Art History and Class Struggle, Pluto Press; 1978.
12. Tedman, Gary, Aesthetics & Alienation, Zero Books; 2012.
13. Clement Greenberg, "On Modernist Painting".
14. Tristan Tzara, "Sept Manifestes Dada."
16. [Douglas Adams]
17. Derek Allan, Art and Time Cambridge Scholars, 2013. |
About Hanover
The town of Hanover in York County, Pennsylvania was laid out in 1763 around a hub of five radiating streets which led to towns and cities in southern Pennsylvania and in Maryland (Abbottstown, Baltimore, Carlisle, Frederick, and York). This lucrative location at the prominent center of commerce provided goods and services to scores of travelers.
Railroads brought further economic well-being to the town and its prominence as a trade center increased. Industries anxious to take advantage of this profitable access to outlying markets began to locate along the railroad tracks in northern Hanover. This economic boom prompted railroad activity and Hanover entered into its most prolific period of building construction during the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
As a continued hub of industry, it is the second-largest and second-wealthiest town in York County, and is continuously growing. As of 2012, there were 15,289 residents living within the 3.7 square miles encompassed by the Borough. With consistent growth and development, many new neighborhoods as well as commercial areas surrounding the downtown continue to be built and expand the Hanover community. |
John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
Squashed down to read in about 35 minutes
"The sole end for which mankind are warranted in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant."
Wikipedia - Full Text - Print Edition: ISBN 0199535736
Rigorously educated by his father James Mill (the co-founder (with Jeremy Bentham) of Utilitarianism) John Stuart grew to suffer horrid depression over an upbringing which had forced classical literature, logic, political economy, history and mathematics down him before he was fourteen. He lived modestly as a clerk to the East India Company, but wrote profusely on political and philosophical matters. In Utilitarianism he states that actions are right if they bring about happiness and wrong if they bring the reverse. In On Liberty, written with his beloved wife, who died before its completion, he moved away from the Utilitarian notion that individual liberty was necessary for economic and governmental efficiency and advanced the classical defense of individual freedom as a value in itself.
The basic argument is simple: that liberty is good. Good because it allows new and improved ideas to appear. Good because it forever puts the old ideas to the test and good because it just, well, is. We Europeans, thinks Mill, are so wonderful because we allow diversity of ideas, unlike the silly Chinese. Mill isn't impressed with the Chinese, or with Christians. The philosopher Fung-Yu-Lan agreed with him about China, but Mill continues to irritate religious types to this day.
It is easy to pick holes in Mill's thesis. He gives lots of reasons as to how Liberty should be defended and preserved, but never actually explains why. He thinks everyone should be free, but holds that savages and children should be controlled without ever explaining what 'savages' are. He despises state control, but insists on it for certain, unspecified, 'moral' concerns.
But then, there is little value in looking for a mathematics of conduct. Political philosophy is very far from a precise science, and Mr Mill's version is about as precise as it gets. No wonder then that it continues to be the model and the measure of governments the world over.
On Liberty has a reputation for being a difficult text to read. Mill is not a clear writer: he tends to expound arguments in sentences that sometimes run to a page or more before realising that he could have said it all in a couple of dozen words. It has been no easy task to pick out those prize dozens. We have been able to ditch eight words out of every nine, but retain sufficient verbiage to give a true feel of the original.
John Stuart Mill, 1843
On Liberty
Freedom from the tyranny of oppressive rulers is not enough. Freedom is needed from the tyranny of prevailing opinion and the ideas of the ascendent class. The object of this essay is to assert the simple principle that the liberty of any man should be restricted only to prevent harm to others. His own good is his own concern.
Restrictions on liberty of thought and expression rob humanity of the chance to find truth, to either prove existing ideas wrong or to throw them into sharper focus by revealing their contraries. Christians tend to forget that their faith was founded by dissenters.
Individual liberty of action, as long as it harms no-one else, allows different modes of life to be practiced so that we may all learn from them. Genius must be allowed to flower, unlike, for example, in China where the control of custom is complete.
Foolish people may be warned or ignored, but it is not the business of society to put them right, we have no right to force others to be civilized. Unless, of course, they are children or savages.
Some Applications: In honest trade or competitive exams society admits no right to those who are disappointed other than to protect them from fraud, force or treachery. Poisons should be freely sold, but properly labeled: just as it is right to warn someone of a dangerous bridge, but not to physically stop them from crossing it. Idleness is no crime, but if it affects a man's family he may be forced to work. Gambling and drink might be restricted, but never prevented. Government should restrict itself to supervising local administrations.
A state which treats its people as fools will be a foolish state.
The Squashed Philosophers Edition of...
On Liberty
John Stuart Mill
Squashed version edited by Glyn Hughes © 2011
To the beloved memory of her that was the inspirer, and in part the author - the friend and wife whose approbation was my strongest reward, and whose great thoughts and noble feelings are buried in her grave - I dedicate this volume.
THE subject of this Essay is not the so-called 'Liberty of the Will', but Civil, or Social Liberty. A subject hardly ever discussed in general terms, but of profound importance.
The struggle between liberty and authority is the most conspicuous feature of the history of Greece, Rome and England. But in old times liberty meant protection against the tyranny of the political rulers. They consisted of a governing One, or a governing tribe or caste, who derived their authority from inheritance or conquest. To prevent the weaker members of society from being preyed upon by innumerable vultures it was thought that there should be an animal of prey stronger than the rest. The aim of patriots was to set limits to the power of the ruler.
As human affairs progressed, there came a time when what was wanted was that rulers should be identified with the people, that their interests should be the interests of the whole nation. But, like other tyrannies, the tyranny of the majority was, at first (and still commonly is) held in dread. Society as a whole can issue wrong mandates and practice a tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression. Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough: there also needs to be protection against the tyranny of prevailing opinion. There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence, and to find that limit is indispensable to a good condition of human affairs. The question of where to place that limit is a subject on which almost everything remains to be done. Some rules of conduct must be imposed - by either law or public opinion.
No two ages, and scarcely any two countries, have decided it alike. Yet the people of any given country rarely see any difficulty, tending to assume that it is a subject on which mankind is agreed, such is the illusion of the magical power of custom. People are accustomed to believe (encouraged by some philosophers) their feelings on such subjects are better than reasons, and render reasons unnecessary.
Whenever there is an ascendent class, the morality of the country emanates from its class interests - consider the Spartans and the Helots, the Negroes and the planters, men and women. Another grand principle has been the servility of mankind towards their gods. It has made men burn witches and magicians, yet remember that those who first broke away from the yoke of the so-called Universal Church were usually as unwilling to permit difference of religious opinion as that church itself. The majority have not yet learned to feel the power of the government to be their power, or its opinions their opinions.
The object of this essay is to assert one simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual. That principle is that the sole end for which mankind are warranted in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. (Despotism, however, is the legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement.)
In the first instance we will confine ourselves to the Liberty of Thought.
Let us suppose that the government is entirely at one with the people, and never thinks of exerting coercion unless in agreement with their voice. I deny the right of the people to exercise such coercion. Such power is illegitimate, the best government has no more title to it than the worst.
The particular evil of silencing the expression of opinion is that it is robbing the human race, posterity as well as the existing generation - those who dissent as well as hold the opinion. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity to exchange error for truth, if wrong they lose what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error.
It is necessary to consider two hypotheses. First, that we can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion: second, if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.
First, the opinion which it is attempted to suppress may possibly be true. Those who desire to suppress it, of course, deny its truth: but they are not infallible. The silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility, for while everyone knows himself to be fallible, few think it necessary to take any precautions against their own fallibility. Few care that it is mere accident which has decided their opinions, like the devout churchman in London, who would be a Buddhist or a Confucian in Peking.
In order to illustrate the mischief of denying a hearing to opinions because we have condemned them it will be desirable to discuss a concrete case. For this, I choose, by preference, the case least favorable to me - that of a belief in God and in a future state. It is not the feeling that such a doctrine is sure which I call an assumption of infallibility, it is undertaking to decide the question for others without allowing them to hear what may be said to the contrary.
Mankind can hardly be too often reminded that there was once a man called Socrates, who was put to death for denying the gods recognized by the state. Then there was the event on Calvary more than eighteen hundred years ago - the man who has left such an impression of moral grandeur that subsequent centuries have done homage to him as the Almighty in person, was ignominiously put to death, as what? As a blasphemer. Men did not merely mistake their benefactor, they took him for the exact contrary of what he was.
Orthodox Christians who think that those who stoned the first martyrs must have been worse men than they themselves are ought to remember that one of those persecutors was Saint Paul. No Christian more firmly believes that atheism is false and tends to the dissolution of society than Marcus Aurellus believed the same of Christianity.
The enemies of religious freedom occasionally say, with Dr Johnson, that persecution is an ordeal through which truth must pass, legal penalties being, in the end, powerless against truth. This argument is sufficiently remarkable not to be passed without notice, though I believe it is mostly confined to the sort of persons who think that new truths may have been desirable once, but that we have had enough of them now.
The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is a pleasant falsehood which experience refutes. To speak only of religious opinions: Arnold of Brescia, Fra Dolcino, Savonarola, The Albigeois, The Lollards, The Hussites and many others were all put down before the Reformation succeeded.
We do not now put to death the introducers of new opinions, but let us not flatter ourselves that we are free from legal persecution. In 1857 a Cornish man was sentenced to twenty-one months in prison for using some offensive words concerning Christianity.
These are, indeed, but rags and remnants of persecution. But though we do not now inflict so much evil on those who think differently from us, it may be that we do ourselves as much evil as ever by our treatment of them. Our mere intolerance kills no one, roots out no opinions but induces men to disguise them or to abstain from any active effort to diffuse them.
Second: let us assume received opinions to be true and examine in what manner they are likely to be held when their truth is not freely and openly canvassed. However unwilling a person is to admit that his opinion may be false, he ought to consider that if it is not fully and fearlessly discussed it will be held as a dead dogma, not a living truth.
Those who know that they are right think that no good, and some harm, comes from it being allowed to be questioned. But he who know only his own side, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, but if he is unable to refute the reasons of the other side he has no grounds for preferring either opinion. Ninety-nine in a hundred 'educated men' are in this condition, even those who can fluently argue for their opinion. Their conclusion may be true, but it might be false for anything they know.
The Catholic Church has a way of dealing with this problem. The clergy may acquaint themselves with the arguments of their opponents, in order to answer them, and may therefore read heretical books. The laity must accept opinions on trust; instead of a vivid conception of a living belief, there remains only a few phrases learned by rote.
We have now recognized the necessity to the mental well being of mankind (on which all other well-being depends) of freedom of opinion, and freedom of the expression of opinion,on, on four distinct grounds:
(1) If any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we know, be true. To deny this is to assume infallibility.
(2) Though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and commonly does, contain a portion of truth: and since the prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely the whole truth, it is only by collision of opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.
(3) Even if the received opinion be the whole truth: unless it is vigorously and earnestly contested it will, by most who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds.
(4) The meaning of a doctrine will be in danger of being lost.
Before quitting the subject of freedom of opinion it is fit to point out that opinions contrary to those commonly received can only obtain a hearing by the use of studied moderation in language and avoidance of unnecessary offense. Unmeasured vituperation really does deter people from learning contrary opinions. It is, however, obvious that law and authority have no business in controlling this, the real morality of public discussion. I am happy that many controversialists observe this, a still greater number strive toward it.
Such are the reasons which make it imperative that human beings should be free to form and express opinions without reserve. Let us next examine whether the same reasons require that men should be free to act upon their opinions - so long as it is at their own risk and peril. The last proviso is indispensable. No one pretends that actions should be as free as opinions. An opinion that corn dealers are starvers of the poor ought to be unmolested in the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn dealer. The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited: he must not make himself a nuisance to other people. But if he refrains from molesting others in what concerns them, and merely acts according to his own inclination in things which concern himself he should be allowed to carry his opinions into practice at his own cost.
While mankind are fallible, their truths only half-truths, it is useful that there should be different opinions and different experiments of living: that free scope should be given to varieties of character, short of injury to others, so that the worth of different modes of life can be proved in practice, when anyone thinks fit to try them.
In maintaining this principle, the greatest difficulty is the indifference of people to the end in sight. The majority, being satisfied with the ways of mankind as they are now (for it is they who make them what they are) cannot comprehend why those ways should not be good enough for everybody. Yet it would be absurd to pretend that people should live as if nothing was known before they came into the world, it is the privilege of a human being, at maturity, each to use and interpret experience 'in their own way, to find out what part of tradition, custom or experience is properly applicable to his own circumstances. He who lets the world choose his plan of life for him has no need of any faculty other than ape-like imitation.
We are assuredly but starved specimens of what nature can and will produce. Human nature is not a machine doing exactly the work prescribed for it, but like a tree which requires to grow and develop on all sides.
But society has now fairly got the better of individuality: the danger which threatens humanity is not the excess, but the deficiency, of personal impulses and preferences. Even in what people do for pleasure, conformity is the first thing thought of; they exercise choice only among things commonly done: peculiarity of taste, eccentricity of conduct, are shunned equally with crimes: until human capacities are withered and starved: they become incapable of any strong wishes or native pleasures. Now is this, or is it not, the desirable condition of human nature?
It is so in the Calvinist theory according to which the one great offense of man is self-will "whatever is not a duty is a sin". To one holding to this theory, crushing the human faculties is no evil: man needs no capacity but that of surrendering himself to the alleged will of God.
In proportion to the development of his individuality, each person becomes more valuable to himself, and is therefore capable of being more valuable to others. It is essential that different persons be allowed to lead different lives - even despotism does not produce its worst effects so long as individuality exists under it: and whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it be called, whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men. For what more or better can be said of any condition of human affairs than that it brings human beings themselves nearer to the best that they can be.
However, these considerations will not convince those who most need convincing - it is necessary to show that developed human beings are of some use to the undeveloped- to point out to those who do not desire liberty that they may in some manner be rewarded for allowing other people to make use of it without hinderance.
In the first place, I suggest that they might possibly learn something from them. There is always need of persons to discover new truths, to commence new practices. These few are the salt of the earth.
Persons of genius, it is true, are always likely to be a small minority: but in order to have them it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they grow. Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom. Persons of genius are by definition [ex vi termini] more individual than other people- less capable of fitting into any of the small number of moulds which society provides. Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of. If they could see what it could do for them it would not be originality. The first service which originality has to render them, is to open their eyes. In this age the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
Nothing was ever done which someone was not first to do, and all good things which exist are the fruits of originality.
In sober truth the general tendency of mankind is to mediocrity. At present, individuals are lost in the crowd. Public opinion rules the world, though not always the same sort of public. In America it is the whole white population: in England the middle class. But they are always a mass, a collective mediocrity.
The general average of mankind are moderate in intellect and inclinations, they have no tastes or wishes strong enough to incline them to do anything unusual, and consequently do not understand those who have, and class all such with the wild and intemperate. The popular idea of character is to be without any marked character- to maim by compression like a Chinese lady's foot.
Much of the world has, properly speaking, no history because the despotism of Custom is complete. We have as a warning example China- a nation of much talent and wisdom who ought to have kept themselves at the head of the development of the world. Yet they have become stationary, and if they are to be improved it must be by foreigners. A people, it appears, may be progressive for a certain length of time, and then stop: when does it stop? When it ceases to possess individuality.
What is it that has preserved Europe from this lot? What has made the European family of nations an improving, instead of a stationary, portion of mankind? Not any superior excellence in themselves, but their remarkable diversity of character and culture, their striking out in such a variety of paths.
What then is the rightful limit to the sovereignty of the individual over himself? How much of human life should be assigned to individuality, and how much to society? To individuality should belong the part of life in which the individual is interested: to society, the part which chiefly interests society.
Though society is not founded on a contract, everyone who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit.
It would be a great misunderstanding of this doctrine to suppose that it is one of selfish indifference about the well-being of others. There is need of a great increase of exertion to promote the good of others, but benevolence can find other instruments than whips and scourges, either of the literal or metaphorical sort.
I do not mean that our feelings toward others should not be affected by their self-regarding qualities. A person who shows rashness, obstinacy, self-conceit- who cannot live within moderate means or who pursues animal pleasures at the expense of those of feeling and intellect must expect to be lowered in the opinion of others. We are not bound to seek his society: we have a right to avoid it and a right, maybe a duty, to caution others against him.
If he displeases us, we may express our distaste: but we shall not feel called upon to make his life uncomfortable. If he has spoiled his life by mismanagement, we shall not, for that reason, desire to spoil it still further.
The distinction here between the part of a person's life which concerns only himself and that which concerns others, many will refuse to admit. How can the conduct of a member of society be a matter of indifference to the rest of society? No person is entirely isolated. If he injures his property, he does harm to those who derived support from it. If he deteriorates his bodily faculties, he becomes a burden on others. Even if his follies do no direct harm to others, he is nevertheless injurious by example.
If protection against themselves is due to children, is not society equally bound to afford it to those mature persons who are incapable of self-government? If gambling, drunkenness or idleness are injurious to happiness, why should the law not repress them? There is no question here about restricting individuality. The only things it is sought to prevent are things which have been tried and condemned from the beginning of the world.
So no person should be punished for being drunk: but a soldier or policeman should be punished for being drunk on duty. Whenever, in short, there is a definite damage, or risk of damage, either to an individual or the public, the case is out of the provenance of liberty and placed in that of morality or law.
But the strongest argument against public interference with personal conduct is that when it does interfere, the odds are that it interferes wrongly. There are many who consider as an injury to themselves any conduct they have a distaste for- like the religious bigot when charged with disregarding the religious feelings of others has been known to retort that they disregard his feelings by persisting in their abominable worship. Examples will show that this principle is of serious and practical moment.
Nothing in the creed of Christians does more to envenom hatred of the Mohammedans than their practice of eating pork, which they think to be forbidden and abhorred by the Deity. But to forbid the eating of pork, even in a Mohammedan country would be interfering with the personal tastes of individuals.
The majority of Spaniards think it a gross impiety to worship the Supreme Being in any other than the Roman Catholic manner- so no other worship is lawful on Spanish soil.
Wherever the Puritans have been powerful, as in New England or in Great Britain at the time of the Commonwealth, they have endeavored to put down all public amusements: especially music, dancing, games and the theater.
Under the name of preventing intemperance, the people of one English colony and nearly half the United States have been interdicted by law from making any use whatever of fermented drinks. The claim is that "strong drink destroys my primary right of security by creating social disorder" A theory of "social rights" like this says that 'it is the right of every individual to require every other individual to act as he ought'
Another example: Without doubt, abstinence from work on one day each week is a highly beneficial custom, and might even be right to be guaranteed by law. But the restriction of Sunday amusements can be defended on no other ground than that they are religiously wrong- a motive of legislation which must be protested against "Deorum injuriae Diis curae" [Injustices to the gods are the concern of the gods]
Polygamy: permitted to Mohammedans, Hindus and Chinese seems to excite unquenchable animosity when practiced by persons who speak English and profess to be a kind of Christians- the Mormons.
Let them send missionaries if they please, but I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized. So long as the sufferers from a bad law do not ask for assistance, I cannot admit that persons entirely unconnected with them have any right to step in.
I now offer not so much applications as specimens of applications which may serve to bring into greater clearness the principles asserted in these pages.
The maxims being followed are:
(1) The individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself.
(2) The individual is accountable for such actions as are prejudicial to the interests of others, and may be subject to social or legal punishment if society is of the opinion that this is necessary for its protection.
In many cases the individual pursuing a legitimate object necessarily causes pain or loss to others. Whoever succeeds in an overcrowded profession or in competitive examinations reaps benefit from the loss of others. But, by common admission, society admits no right to the disappointed competitors to immunity from this kind of suffering, and feels called to interfere only when means of success contrary to the general interest have been employed- namely fraud, force or treachery.
Trade is a social act. It is now recognized, though not till after a long struggle, that both the cheapness and good quality of commodities are most effectually provided for by leaving the producers and sellers perfectly and equally free. This is the doctrine of 'free-trade'. As the principle of individual liberty is not involved in the doctrine of free trade, so neither is it in most of the questions which arise respecting the limits of that doctrine, as for example what amount of public control is admissible for the prevention of fraud by adulteration, or to protect the safety of work people.
The example of the sale of poisons opens the question of how far liberty may be invaded for the prevention of crimes or accidents. A person may interfere to prevent a crime before it happens. If anyone saw a person attempting to cross an unsafe bridge, with no time to warn him of the danger, they might seize him and turn him back. Nevertheless (unless he be a child, or not of full mind) he ought, I conceive, only be warned of the danger, not forcibly prevented from exposing himself to it. With the sale of poisons- labeling it as dangerous can be enforced without violation of liberty. But to require, in all cases, the certificate of a medical practitioner would make it sometimes impossible or expensive to obtain the article for legitimate use. The only way, apparent to me, consists of providing what Bentham called 'preappointed evidence', for the seller to record details of the purchaser and the transaction.
The right of society to ward off crimes against itself suggests a limitation to the maxim that self-regarding conduct cannot be meddled with. Drunkenness, for example, is not a fit subject for legislative interference, but I consider it perfectly legitimate that a person who had once been convicted of an act of violence to others under the influence of drink should be placed under a special restriction.
So again, idleness (except in a person receiving public support, or when it constitutes a breach of contract) cannot without tyranny be made a subject of legal punishment: but if due to idleness a man fails to, for instance, support his children, it is no tyranny to force him to fulfil that obligation by compulsory labor, if no other means are available.
Again, there are acts which, being directly injurious only to the agents themselves ought not to be prevented, but which if done publicly, are a violation of good manners and, as offenses against others may be rightly prohibited. Of this kind are offenses against decency: on which it is unnecessary to dwell.
All persons should be free to assemble in each other's houses- yet public gambling houses should not be permitted. It is true that the prohibition is never effectual: but they may be compelled to conduct their operations with secrecy, so that only those who seek them know anything about them.
Should the state render the means of drunkenness more costly? To tax stimulants for the sole purpose of making them more difficult to obtain differs only in degree from their entire prohibition, and would be justifiable only if that were justifiable. But taxation for fiscal purposes is inevitable, so to tax stimulants up to the point which produces the largest revenue is not only admissible, but is to be approved of. Any further restriction I do not conceive to be justified- the limitation in number of beer and spirit houses is suited only to a state of society in which the laboring classes are avowedly treated as children or savages.
It was pointed out early in this essay that the liberty of the individual in things which wherein the individual is alone concerned, implies a corresponding liberty in any number of individuals to regulate jointly the things which concern only themselves. However, an arrangement by which someone sells themselves as a slave would be null and void as he would defeat his own case for liberty. The principle of freedom cannot require that he should be free not to be free.
Baron Von Humboldt states that engagements which involve personal relations or services should never be legally binding beyond a certain duration of time- and that the most important of these, marriage, should be dissolvable by nothing more than the declared will of the parties. The present almost despotic power of husbands over wives need hardly be enlarged upon here.
It is the case with children that misapplied notions of liberty see a man's children as almost mere extensions of himself. Surely after summoning a human into the world it is a duty to give that child a fitting education, to fail to do so is a moral crime against both the unfortunate offspring and against society. Yet scarcely anyone in this country will hear of obliging parents to achieve this. An instrument for performing this could be no other than public examinations, beginning at an early age. Every child must be examined to see if he (or she) is able to read. If unable, the father might be subject to a moderate fine, to be worked out, if necessary, by his labor. To prevent the state from exercising improper influence over opinion, the knowledge tested in examinations should be confined to facts and positive science exclusively, though there should be nothing to hinder children from being taught religion, if their parents choose. Higher examinations should be voluntary, granted to all who pass the exam and conferring no authority other than that granted by public opinion.
Laws on the Continent which forbid marriage unless the parties can show that they have means to support a family are not objectionable as violations of liberty.
Objections to government interference (when it does not infringe liberty) are of three kinds:
(1) When a thing is better done by individuals than by government. Generally there are none so fit to conduct any business as those who are personally interested in it.
(2) Even if individuals do not do things so well, it is better to let them take care of their own affairs in, for instance, jury trials, industrial and philanthropic organizations, voluntary associations, allowing each to learn from the experiments of others.
(3) The most cogent reason is to prevent the evil of too great a power. If roads, railways and companies all became departments of central administration then not all the freedom of the press or a popular legislature would make the country free in any but name. Where people are accustomed to expect everything to be done by the state, they hold the state responsible for all evil which befalls them. Should the evil exceed their patience, they make revolution- whereupon someone else, with or without legitimate authority, vaults into the seat and all continues much as before.
The central organ should have a right to know all that is done, and a duty to disseminate that knowledge- but limited to compelling local officers to obey the law. Like the Poor Law Boards superintending the administrators of the Poor Rate, such powers as the Board exercises are for the cure of maladministration in matters affecting the wider community, for no locality has a moral right to make itself a nest of pauperism overflowing into neighboring communities to impair their moral and physical condition.
The worth of the state is the worth of the individuals comprising it. A state which dwarfs its men will find that with small men no great thing can be accomplished.
John Stuart Mill
The grave of John Stuart and Harriet Taylor Mill
Cimetiere St. Veran, Avignon, Vaucluse, France
ISBN 9781326806781
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Puberty is a mine field of emotional and body changes in a young boy. Many boys become embarrassed when they discover their bodies are changing from child to adult. Many others are excited at the prospect. Understanding the changes that happen during puberty in boys can help ease some of the anxiety and embarrassment.
During puberty boys grow faster than at any other time in their lives. They may grow up to five inches in one year. The shape of the body changes; the shoulders become broader, the hips narrower and muscles and strength increases. Many boys seem to change overnight, but puberty lasts months or even a few years. Puberty may happen as young as ten or as old as fifteen with the average age being twelve years.
The Growth Spurt Changes During Puberty
Most boys start a growth spurt after their genitals have begun to develop, usually around the ages of 13 or 14 years. By age fourteen, boys usually have reached 91.5 percent of their adult height. The bones in the feet grow faster than other bones, especially the backbone; thus many boys will have large feet in relation to their height. The feet will grow to adult size before boys reach their adult height. Arms and legs also grow faster than the backbone and this may give the “gangly” look to the body.
As the shoulders broaden, the hips become narrower in comparison. Muscles begin to develop, especially in the upper arms, calves and thighs. The increase in muscle increases the boy’s body strength.
These changes can bring about many emotions for boys. Because the rate of change is different for each boy, many go through periods of time when they are either behind or ahead of their peers in regards to body changes and growth. This can cause some emotional trauma for some boys. Some boys may desire to be taller or more muscular. While height cannot be increased, once puberty is over the muscular frame of boys can be increased with the correct exercise and diet plan.
Body Changes During Puberty
For most boys the first change that takes place during puberty is the sex organs grow larger. The sex organs are the penis, the scrotum and the testicles. As puberty continues, these organs continue to grow. Some boys will start to grow pubic hair as a first sign of puberty, but for most boys, the genitals grow first. As the scrotal sac grows, it begins to get longer and hang lower. The skin of the genitals begins to have a different texture and becomes a deeper color. In fair-haired boys, the skin is often reddish and in dark-haired boys, the skin deepens in color.
The size of the penis also increases during puberty. It becomes longer and wider. During this time, the testicles are between seven and sixteen milliliters in volume. Usually one testicle hangs lower than the other. One may be larger than the other. This is normal at puberty. Once boys have fully grown, there is usually only slight or no difference in the size of the two testicles.
As puberty continues, the scrotum and penis continue to grow. At the fully grown or adult stage of puberty, the testicles are generally about 1 ¾ inches long and between 16 and 27 milliliters in volume. The penis is between 3 ¼ and 4 ¼ inches long. When the penis is erect, it gets temporarily longer; the average length is 6 ¼ inches. The smaller a penis is when it is soft or flaccid, the more inches it tends to gain when erect. An erect penis is caused when the blood passageways in the spongy tissue inside the penis fill with blood. It can happen quickly or slowly and gradually and can be of different degrees of firmness.
Many boys are concerned about the size of the genitals, especially when they are in the locker room for gym class or sports. Boys who are developing at a slower rate are often subject to teasing and bullying, while those who are developing at a faster than average rate may be teased, but are more likely to be admired. Often the teasing is based on myths that are believed; for example, the strength or “manliness” of a boy depends on the size of his penis.
During puberty, boys start making sperm in the testicles. In order to make sperm, the testicles have to be at exactly the right temperature. This is why they hang outside of the body. In cold weather or a cold pool, the scrotum tightens up and draws closer to the body for warmth; in hot weather, they relax and hang lower, further away from the body to stay cool. As the muscles push sperm along to the penis, it is zapped by a shot of semen which is rich with sugar and vitamins. The semen gives the sperm energy to continue the journey on its own. The prostrate gland adds other fluid to the semen.
When a boy ejaculates, the muscles around the prostrate gland and in the penis and surrounding area force the sperm and semen into the urethra. They are propelled along and spurt out of the tip of the penis, usually in three to four spurts. The muscles may have six to fifteen spasms after the spurts. The feeling of the muscles contracting and the semen spurting out is called an orgasm. This will feel different to different people. During this time the penis is firm and erect. After the ejaculation, the penis relaxes and becomes soft and flaccid.
Boys can have erections for all sorts of reasons. They do not have to be thinking “sexy” thoughts, nor do the genitals have to be touched or rubbed; even babies have erections from time to time. Sometimes an erection can be spontaneous. Most boys experience more erections once they have started puberty.
An erection may go away by itself, or it will go away after the boy ejaculates. Sometimes boys ejaculate while they are sleeping. A common term for this is called “wet dreams.” Although grown men can have wet dreams, it is much more common when boys are going through puberty. Many boys have their first ejaculation during a wet dream. The dream does not have to be sexual in nature for a boy to have an ejaculation.
Facial and Body Hair Changes in Boys in Puberty
As the brain increases its hormones, it signals other glands to increase their hormone levels. In boys, the testicles produce testosterone which is responsible for the growth of pubic hair as well as most of the other changes in the boy’s body. Body hair increases its growth on the legs, thighs, and arms. During puberty some boys will start to grow chest hair and some boys also start to grow hair on their shoulders and backs and/or on the backs of their hands. The amount of hair varies for each boy. The amount of hair growth has nothing to do with testosterone—it only starts the hair growth. The amount of hair is determined by genetics and ethnicity.
Facial hair starts to grow during puberty. The first hairs don’t usually show until the sex organs have almost fully developed; the average age is between 14 and 16 years. Some boys of course will start to see some facial hair earlier and some not until they are 19 or 20 years old.
Usually the first facial hairs appear on the outer corners of the upper lip and fill inwards to the middle of the lips. About the same time as the mustache is filling in, hairs begin to grow on the upper cheek and just below the center of the lower lip. Sideburns may also start growing in at this time.
As boys mature, the hair becomes thicker and darker. The mustache and beard may not necessarily be the color of the hair on the head. Facial hair, as with all the other changes, grow at different rates on boys, so some boys may grow full beards and mustaches at the age of 18 while others may not until they are well into their twenties.
Shaving beards and mustaches as well as sideburns is a personal choice, but for many boys, shaving for the first time is a rite of passage. For most boys at the same time as the facial hair starts to grow, hair under the arms begins to grow.
When pubic hair starts to grow, it may start as pimple-like bumps around the base of the penis and on the scrotum. These bumps are hairs trying to push through the skin. By about fourteen years of age, most boys have quite a bit of pubic hair. As boys develop the hair becomes curlier, coarser, and darker. It grows around the base of the penis and sometimes on the scrotum, outward towards the thighs and upwards towards the belly button.
Most of the pubic hair is developed by the end of puberty, but it may continue to grow until a boy reaches the age of twenty. The amount of hair varies and tends to be influenced by genetics. Boys often take after their fathers in regards to the amount of hair grown. Other little bumps that appear on the genitals are oil and sweat glands.
Sweating and Pimples During Puberty in Boys
Boys may also notice that during this time they are sweating more and the sweat has a more adult odor. Other areas of the body also start to perspire more and may also take on a more adult odor. This is due to the hormone testosterone.
At the same time the sweat glands become more active, so do the oil glands. The oil glands in the genital area can make the skin of the genitals feel somewhat moist. The oil glands in the scalp may increase production making the hair oily or greasy and requiring more frequent shampooing.
Skin problems can erupt as the skin becomes oilier. The amount of oil the glands produce is different in each boy. Many boys will experience pimples, where the pores of the oil glands become clogged with oil. Some boys may experience a more severe case of pimples called acne. Acne can cause pitting or scarring of the skin.
Some boys develop stretch marks which are purplish or white lines on the skin. This happens when the growth rate is too fast for the skin and the skin is stretch to the point that it loses its elasticity. Many times the marks will fade with time, but sometimes they do not fade completely.
Changes in the Breast and the Voice
While it is well known that girls’ breasts change during puberty, most people do not realize that the breasts of boys change as well. The ring of colored flesh around the nipple, called the areola, gets darker and wider. The nipples may become slightly larger. The breasts may become tender or sore and underneath the nipples, some boys may experience a small buttonlike bump. Eventually the bumps and the soreness go away. Many boys, at least half, experience some swelling of the breasts during puberty. This swelling can last from 12 to 18 months.
Testosterone causes the larynx of boys to grow larger. The vocal cords become thicker and longer and this causes the tone of the voice to change. This usually happens around the ages of 14 or 15 years. Some boys do not notice the change until others tell them their voice sounds different. For other boys, the throat may become sore and scratchy for a few weeks; the change can be sudden and noticeable. Some boys are embarrassed when their voice changes or “cracks” as they feel out of control and the cracking can cause the voice to sound high and squeaky.
With all of these changes to the body, it is not unusual for boys to be embarrassed when first experiencing a change. Boys in puberty do not have to be embarrassing if they know more about what is happening to them. Understanding their bodies and learning that what they are experiencing is perfectly normal can help boys in puberty navigate the minefield of those chaotic years.
Madaras, Lynda & Saavedra, Dane. The What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Boys. New York: Newmarket Press, 1984.
The copyright of the article “Understanding Boys and Pubertyis owned by Cheryl Weldon and permission to republish in print or online must be granted by the author in writing. |
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Work and the Profit Motive
In the video link below Dan Pink illustrates recent studies that change our perception on the profit motive. An increase in reward will improve performance on mechanical related tasks, but in tasks that require rudimentary cognitive skill a higher reward would lead to poorer performance. This study was repeated across cultures and always demonstrated the same result, baffling the traditional economic ideology of the profit motive.
It was found that money is a good motivator for simple mechanical tasks. However, for improved performance in work that requires cognitive skill and creativity, studies show that people are more motivated by having autonomy, self direction, the ability to master skills, and a sense of purpose. Naturally this required them being paid a decent salary.
I think that this shows that people in leadership positions should avoid micromanaging the employees who have tasks that require cognitive skills and creativity. I think this would help an organization which has a well defined purpose to be exceptionally successful.
Psychoactive Drugs- Smoking
Okay Second Post..
What is Alcoholism? (College Health Guru)
Psychoactive DSrug
Emotions and Anger
What motivates anyone to do drugs? Is it peer pressure? Is it natural human curiosity? Is it biological? Is it the need to fill an internal void or just a recreational escape from the pressures of our own typical lives? These reasons could be related to any person who has attempted drug or alcohol consumption. It seems to be human nature to always search for a type of pleasure or euphoria. Psychoactive drugs, such as cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, opiates, etc can provide that. A psychoactive drug is any chemical substance that alters a person’s mood and behavior as a result of the drug’s function of he brain (Deckers,78). A simple motivation such as the environment or people you are with can lead to a normal person trying psychoactive drugs out for recreational use. For example, being college students, how many parties have you been to where alcohol and drugs were being used? How many of you have used any drugs? The stress of moving out, moving on, new surroundings, and pressure to make something of yourself can really motivate someone to want to let loose and not think. For some it will only be an experiment, an impulse, or just plain curiosity. For others, it can be the beginning of an addiction. (Deckers,77-80)
Drugs like alcohol, cannabis, amphetamines, and cocaine can alter a person’s mood. It is a safe bet that if drugs started out making you feel bad, few people would use them. The truth is that each drug can have a different effect, whether it is a relaxed sleepy feeling of bliss or an enthusiastic burst of energy, it makes a person feel good. Most people experience such a “positive Feeling” when they consume drugs that it is hard to match that incredible high with anything else again. Addicts begin to “crave” the substance. They want that amazing feeling back. The only way to get that feeling again is to use again. The more and more someone uses the more of a tolerance they build for their drug of choice. When a person begins using on a regular basis they can build up a tolerance for whatever substance they are using. When a person becomes tolerant of alcohol or any other drug, this means that it they will need to consume more then their usual amount in order to get that same “good” feeling. Once that feeling is gone they usually go through withdraw symptoms such as anxiety, vomiting, depression, etc. These negative effects can become a motivation to find another fix of their drug of choice. They want to replace the sick, bad feelings with good feelings. (Deckers,77-82)
These good feelings come from what is known as “The Pleasure Center” of the Brain. When a drug in consumed different chemicals, neurons, and hormones are released throughout the brain which create that pleasurable feeling. That pleasurable feeling can become a weakness for those who have inherited the genetics of an addict. A person who has an addict in the family is more likely to be susceptible to becoming an addict. A person’s environment and the people that they surround themselves with are also a common cause addiction. If a person’s parents are consuming drugs in front of them with no consequences, then that person may not understand the risks they are taking when doing drugs. Finally, a person’s personality can be another motivation. An impulsive person or a person that may not have a tight grip on reality is more likely to try and become addicted to drugs. Some people can not see that their family or future is more important then their next high. (Deckers, 80-89)
Music is Everywhere
Music is everywhere. Everywhere people are, music follows. It is one thing that leaps from culture to culture, continent to continent, transcending any barrier that stands between people. Cultures everywhere have unique, indigenous music forms that celebrate the diversity of specific groups of people.
Why is this?
Music, because of its global influence, is considered a universal motivator. According to Brown (1991), music is a characteristic of the category "Aesthetics", a universal motivator. Once again, these universal motivators are facets of life that exist in and drive every culture throughout the world. Because of its universal status, music is just as integral to people's lives as is their sense of self or their emotions.
Our response to music is implicit. No parent ever has to teach their child to dance, feel a rhythm, hum a melody or clap their hands just as no parent has to teach their child to yell or scream if they are angry. From an evolutionary perspective, music's innateness may have developed out of necessity. Music may have uplifted tribes when food is scarce and morale is low. Music has, after all, been a part of human culture for at least 30,000 years. There are countless rituals amongst groups from all over the world that have spiritual celebrations centered around music. From ancient rituals to any party anywhere today, music is at the center. Being at the center of celebrations and parties for tens of thousands of years, it is not surprising that music also promotes group bonding and stimulates social activity. Even through the online social networking revolution of the past few years, music is still dominant. MySpace music accounts are extremely popular, Facebook pages of musicians have thousands of fans, and eight of the top-ten all-time most-viewed YouTube videos are music related. By the way, as of the time I posted this blog, the top six music-related videos on YouTube totaled to over 1.1 billion views. According to Darwin, musicians had a higher rate of being selected as a sexual partner as well, which is probably why so many people try to play guitar...
Studying infants seems to show that at least the appreciation, if not the understanding, for music comes early in life. Infants have been observed and studies have shown that infants are calmer when mothers sing to their children, rather than speak to them. Infants do indeed show preference for types of music, preferring harmony over dissonance. One study also showed that by the end of their first year, infants were able not only to memorize simple melodies, but were able to recognize them when they were played in a different key (Trehub 2001).
It is clear that music is not just a fad, a phase, or annoying noise. Through studying infants, psychologists have learned that infants, even before two months of age, have musical preference. From that point on, music is integral in every culture and everyone is exposed to music (often) in their lives. I feel that even though research shows music to be innate, which I take to mean that I would be able to understand music to a certain degree no matter what, I don't believe this to be the most important reason that people love music so much. Through music, a skilled musician is able to express any emotion through their instrument. Unlike a painting or a sculpture, which is permanent when completed, pieces of music are never played just once and never altered. Music can be recorded, but to the artist who performed the piece, every note is an expression of the soul. I play several instruments, and I know this to be the case for me: to become "one" with an instrument and explain any story through sound and not words is an incredible feeling, and being able to play with others or in front of others enhances the experience many times. Music is a pure form of expression, which is why it is universally celebrated.
I find the topic on mate selection very interesting. I took a class on the psychology of evolution and many of things we learned about in this class are relevant to that class. What I find interesting is WHY we actually select the mates we do. Good genes are related to good looks and what people call physically attractive. However, the reason we know how to look for these things is because our ancient ancestors had to discover who was the best mate. In order to do this, women looked for a large, strong man because they had the proper genes to survive. They were best equipped for hunting and protecting, and ultimately would be the best possible chance to continue passing on the genes through generations. Men searched for women with good looks and body structure which were examples of healthy fertility. Its funny that people still look for people with these same traits. We don't realize why we actually find these types of people attractive, its just natural instinct.
The media also promotes this line of thinking. People are taught that a skinny figure and good looks are the desirable traits in a mate. People conform to what the media presents to them. They apply this to their lives as well as their mating rituals. They look for the traits that the media tells them are positive and better than others and try to find it in their future mate. People do not realize that the mate selection is not always a natural occurrence but, in fact, influenced by outside factors such as the media.
Factors of mate selection are also influenced in ways that don't revolve around physical attraction. In this generation factors such as parental influence change the types of people that their offspring are attracted to. If the parents have a healthy relationship and the child likes the way their parents act, then they may be more inclined to like someone who reminds them of their parents. In contrast if the parents don't have a healthy relationship the child may look for a mate opposite of their parents so that they don't grow up to be like them. These things may also happen subconsciously. A person might not know why they are choosing that particular mate, but it may have something to do with their past. These are just some interesting points to think about when your considering your next boyfriend or girlfriend.
If you have ever watched the Jersey Shore, you can notice that their way of living is somewhat pleasurable. The jersey shore cast holds employment at a ice cream shop, on this season, that does not require a great deal of effort, in addition, they go to clubs to have fun, the guys go to gym and do their laundry, the girls go get their nails done, they all get together for a Sunday meal and so on. Most of what it's captured on film is more or less the cast having a good time, (of course, criticism aside). The behaviors exhibited by the cast are mostly pleasurable. Let's face it we would all like to live lid that even for a day. Well, maybe not exactly like Jersey Shore. But you can the gist, living a pleasurable life is much better than living with painful events.
The main motivator for such behaviors such as going to the gym, going to the nail salon is to receive self-satisfaction. We can identify with one of these behaviors as being pleasure-seeking. You visit the gym, you get in shape, you feel good, and you feel a sense of satisfaction. Or you go to the nail salon, you get a manicure and pedicure, you look nice, and you feel content with yourself. Bentham's principle and Freud can agree that as humans, seek out and have a high amount pleasure and we all want to avoid pain. These kinds of actions can also be reinforcing to the individual and eventually even be rewarding. Once it becomes pleasurable and reinforcing the motive to how we behave becomes apparent.
Why do humans seek pleasure? They have always done it and always will. It is part of our evolution. Herbert Spencer discussed how pleasure is our means of survival, and with were to eliminate the pleasurable events in our lives we will not survive. So, next time, before you start judging the cast members of the Jersey Shore think behind the motivation for their behaviors, they simply do it because it gives them pleasure. We have all had pleasurable events in our lives where we can't explain why we behave that way. The motive is to seek pleasure, or life would not be the same and just plain painful.
Sex and Intimacy- Sexual Attraction
In this video clip I was interested in seeing what attracted males and females to the opposite sex. As mentioned, it seems as if women take more into consideration opposed to males. Maybe I'm biased because I am a woman, but I believe that males seem do take physical attractiveness more serious than women. Honestly, when I first meet somebody I do take their looks into consideration. However, physical only plays a small role in what I look for in a man. I would never date someone completely unattractive, but I am so much more of a personality person.
My friends and family have frequently told me in the past "you can do so much better" and this goes along with dating someone who has the same number as you. The video we watched this week talks about 10's dating 10's and so on. Sometimes, I don't really find that to be true. I've seen many of my friends and family date people who I really do not find to be equal with them on a number scale. But then again, they could be more into different qualities, such as myself. I would be more concerned about dating someone who has an awesome personality and can make me laugh, or support me. I know of many people in my life who have dated someone SOLELY for looks and it always ends badly.
In the video I posted a woman said she can tell in the first 5 minutes whether it'd work out or not. I do have to agree with that. My last boyfriend I knew right away that we would be together as soon as I met him. Although it didn't work out for us, I knew he was someone that was my type just because of his personality and the way he came off to me right when we met. After going over that number scale of importance in a mate, it really made me think of what I tend to look for in a mate. I found looks to be not as important as many of the other qualities and it really makes me see what I find important and attractive when it comes down to a longterm relationship.
hey jealousy
Universal Standard of Beauty
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
The topic in class that sparked my attention was when the topic of Universal Motives were discussed. One of the categories was Aesthetics, "standards of beauty" and I wanted to expand more on the topic and discuss society's standard of beauty.
The mass media is the number one influence on our socialization and body image. People are buying products to look and be considered beautiful or handsome. The advertising industry thrives on images of youthfulness and thinness and this substantially affects the standards of beauty for the American culture. Having clear skin, and a hairless body is also considered beautiful for a woman. Many females depicted on television or in fashion magazines cannot be compared to the average American woman. The primary reason being is that most of the images portrayed are fixed up or photo-shopped to exude more beauty that is often unnatural.
The mass media has a profound effect on socialization processes. It displays these feminine beauty ideals and causes many women to have low-self esteem and a negative body image. Women especially are learning from the media and their environment that this is what characterizes beauty and they strive to fulfill these ideals of beauty, even taking drastic measures to do so. Women are less satisfied with their body image, and believe they are unattractive because they are constantly comparing themselves to unrealistic images. Another effect that this has on women is that they develop unhealthy eating habits or eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, because they wish to fulfill society's expectations of beauty. Many women are seeking to obtain a body image that is just unattainable and unhealthy. The motive for many women is to appear physically and sexually attractive to men.
Although over the decades this has changed, young, thin, white women used to be considered the beauty ideal in Western culture. Even in Disney Movies such as "Snow White" and "Cinderella", these ideals were enforced. The most popular doll was "Barbie", who was a white, thin, and blonde-hair blue-eyed woman. The contour and body shape of Barbie is a thin waist hour glass frame, with big breasts. From a young age this is what was instilled in the minds of young girls. Their value was based on society's imposed physical standards of beauty. Their physical appearance was seen as the most important thing beyond anything else.
This is a quote from the book, "The Beauty Myth", by Naomi Wolf
"The quality called 'beauty' objectively and universally exists. Women must want to embody it and men must want to possess women who embody it. This embodiment is an imperative for women but not for men, which is necessary and natural because it is biological, sexual, and evolutionary. Strong men battle for beautiful women and beautiful women are more reproducibly successful, and since this system is based on natural selection it is inevitable and changeless".
I agree with Naomi Wolf, that men are striving to get that beautiful woman. In my opinion, when choosing a mate, men are looking for those attractive physical traits, believing that these women will have good health and have good attributes of fertility. It is an innate biological attraction.
Below is a clip about Gender, Sexualization, and the Unrealistic Standards of Beauty
Mate Value
Is Bigger Always Better?
According to some Evolutionary Psychologists it is and there are some interesting reasons as to why the human phallus has evolved into what it looks like today. The central reason being to ensure reproductive success through the displacement of possible foreign sperm lying in the vaginal tract of the female they have chosen to copulate with. Upon examining the design of the human penis Dr. Gordon Gallup and Rebecca Burch hypothesized that “A longer penis would not only have been an advantage for leaving semen in a less accessible part of the vagina, but by filling and expanding the vagina it also would aid and abet the displacement of semen left by other males as a means of maximising the likelihood of paternity.” So how did natural selection equip men to solve the adaptive problem of other men impregnating their sexual partners? The answer, according to Gallup, is their penises were sculpted in such a way that the organ would effectively displace the semen of competitors from their partner’s vagina, a well-synchronised effect facilitated by the “upsuck” of thrusting during intercourse. Specifically, the coronal ridge offers a special removal service by expunging foreign sperm. The effect of thrusting would be to draw other men’s sperm away from the cervix and back around the gland, thus “scooping out” the semen deposited by the sexual rival.
To prove his “semen displacement hypothesis” Gallup and a team of his students selected several sets of prosthetic genitals from erotic novelty stores, including a realistic latex vagina which they tied off at one end to prevent leakage, and three artificial phalluses. The first latex phallus was 6.1 inches long and 1.3 inches in diameter with a coronal ridge extending approximately 0.20 inch from the shaft. The second phallus was the same length, but its coronal ridge extended only 0.12 inch from the shaft. Finally, the third phallus matched the other two in length, but lacked a coronal ridge entirely. In a controlled series of “displacement trials,” the vagina was injected with artificial semen made up of flour and water before the phalluses were inserted at varying depths (to simulate thrusting) and removed, whereupon the latex orifice was examined to determine how much semen had been displaced from it. As predicted, the two phalluses with the coronal ridges displaced significantly more semen from the vagina (each removed 91%) then the headless control who only removed (35.3%). Additionally, the further that the phalluses were inserted – that is to say, the deeper the thrust – the more semen was displaced. When the phallus with the more impressive coronal ridge was inserted three fourths of the way into the vagina, however, it only removed a third of the semen, compared to removing nearly all semen when inserted completely (Gallup, 2003).
In the second part of the study which was published in Evolution & Behaviour, Gallup administered a series of survey questions to college-age students about their sexual history. These questions were meant to determine whether sexual behaviours could be predicted based on the men’s suspicion of infidelity in their partners. In the first of these questionnaires, both men and women reported that, in the wake of allegations of female cheating, men thrust deeper and faster. Results from a second questionnaire revealed that, upon first being sexually reunited after time apart, couples engaged in more vigorous sex – namely compared to baseline sexual activity where couples see each other more regularly which allows one to infer that by using their phalluses proficiently as “semen displacement devices,” men are subconsciously combating the possibility that their partners have had sex with another man in their absence (Gallup, 2003). It should be noted that the findings from this particular study did not unequivocally prove the semen displacement hypothesis, but it certainly confirmed its principal points while also supporting the evolutionary psychological concepts introduced in chapter three of our text in regards to men and the worry they feel about sexual infidelity (pg. 62), for if the female was sexually unfaithful, then the male is in doubt about his paternity of any children that might come from the union because they in fact may not be carrying his genes at all, but those of another (Deckers, 2010)
Look-alikes In Love
Its crazy when we look at how people are attracted to others. We can see how people choose their mates based on their looks, which probably has some deep down unconscious decision making reasoning, like we pick people who look attractive so it spurs reproduction. I mean come on its true. Makes sense, but its also funny watching people pair up because we often see people together who look like brother and sister. Maybe its because these people are equally attractive so they can pair up but its strange, it makes me wonder if there is a sibling affect while picking a mate.
Its kind of weird if you think about it, people choose mates that slightly look like themselves? Maybe it means that people are really self absorbed and just want a mate who looks just like they do. I have to admit that sometimes its shocking to see two people together, 1 who is really good looking and another that is just average, or below average. Its always weird. So what is it that makes us pair up? Is it because we think that we can do no better then ourselves? And what about those people who are below average who get the really good looking girl or guy? When we see them we always question how they got together. I suppose its more then just matching up based on looks in their case. But the rest of us will naturally pair up with someone who looks a lot like us? Or maybe its because most people don't shoot for the stars and they are willing to settle for what they can get, and that is someone who looks just like us.
Difficulties in defining 'Universal' Motives
Universal Motives
All human begins share common motives such as sex, love, belonging, and the ability to acquire food. But as some motives stem to be universal, others may not be shared motivational traits. An example of this would be an education, because not everyone desires a college diploma. Also having money is questionable, but money allows the human to acquire universally desired materials such as food and shelter. It’s obvious that this differs from culture to culture, so determining “universal motives” must be generalized by all mankind desires. Here you may comment if money is a universal motive?
The Amish Mennonite is a traditional sub-group in Pennsylvania. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, and don’t value evolved technology such as electricity. Also children graduate school in the 8th grade to begin farm working for family food.
Our DNA make-up and our presented environment play major roles towards our source of motivation. All human’s have a drive to 1.) Reproduce, 2.) Maintain Health (live longer), and 3.) Fear (snakes, spiders, heights, est.). Human’s will always value survival, which can be easily understood through Freud’s fundamental physiologic response theory “ fight or flight”. Do you value Amish living? Do you think Amish children will fight for their traditional ways of living, or will they fly away into the modern world?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Selecting a Mate
The selection processes between mates is actually interesting. According to our notes, one sex selects an individual from the other sex for mating based on some trait of the latter. This is called "Sexual Selection." One of the main characteristics that is of great value is attractiveness (surprise, surprise). Those with higher physical attractiveness are better at attracting mates and have more sexual experiences usually. You also look for mate value when searching for a partner. Mate Value is a persons characteristics that make him or her desirable to another person as their partner. It seems to me that when selecting a mate, it is not something that may be "magical," but somewhat of an expression of an individual's need or want in life. Many individuals choose their partners based on previous life experiences, relationships and other situations that have happened in their lives. I have heard many times that people choose partners that are similar to their own parents.
We also learned about Gene Hypothesis. Gene Hypothesis is "beauty signals that the person has good genes for intelligence, good immune system, healthy babies, and good parenting." This is one feature that the female mate seeks in the male mate. This is a big deal for many women, actually.
*HIGH vs. LOW Mate Value:
• People select partners with high mate value OR
• People do not select partners with low mate value
A man's "value" might be mainly determined by his status and prestige. His ambition, finances, intelligence and sense of humor are also considered. Some researchers believe that males who have higher mate values have sex earlier and with more people and have more promiscuous relationships altogether. For men, younger and more attractive women are most desirable not only because they are physically attractive, but also because they are more fertile. Overall, men typically place more value on a woman's good looks in a long term mate than women do because female mate value is more focused on the physiological aspect of the male mate.
Overall, we can assume that compared to women, men place more importance on physical attractiveness and women place more importance than men do on the "earning capacity" of a potential mate. Keep in mind that
research in mating selection shows that one's culture has a significant influence on the way people select mates. Research has also explored what values (traditional or contemporary) a person may be focusing on during the mating selection process.
Bizarre Foods - Fried Tarantulas
About a year or two ago I was catching up with a friend who I have not talked to in a few months. We were talking about school, life, where we see ourselves going in a few years, when she sudden said she had something to tell me. I was baffled to wonder what it could be, right off the bat I xed the thought she was pregnant because she wasn’t dating anyone. She than came to tell me she had met someone online. I thought ONLINE really he could be a murder, a pedophile, and crazy person, she for one is not someone who would do such a thing. Fast-forward to the present she is now engaged to this man she met online and are planning a summer wedding.
On Tuesday, when we were talking about selecting a mate I started to wonder about all the sites online that help you find the “perfect mate." Do these sites really work and if so how? One of the most popular sites I feel out there is eHarmony, so I began searching how they work.
When you go on the site you must register to become a member, after that you will be giving a survey with over a hundred questions that use up to 29 different dimensions to match you. Once that is all complete you can upload your picture and if you have not been rejected you can search through the matches they have given you. Now I am sure you may have been surprised when I just said you can proceed with the searching if you have not been rejected, right? Well many users after all the questions are complete, get a message telling them that there are no matches for them and are rejected from the site. That was a little surprising to me, but after I watched the video below, I realized those questions were all science based. Eharmony is rejecting people because they have not found a compatible person for them and do not want to waste anymore of the members time.
Cultural Food Neophobia
What is the most outrageous thing you have ever eaten? In High School, I had a friend who was from Ghana, Africa, and she once made me try African soda. African soda consists mostly of molasses and was thick and overly sweet. I thought it was so disgusting, that I could only tolerate one sip!
Culture has a huge influence on what food choices one makes. Generally, one will stick to those foods for life. Many people are reluctant to try foods indigenous to other cultures because they fear how the food will make them feel as well as what other cultures are actually eating. In Cambodia, a popular snack is fried Tarantulas. According to the text book, children reported fearing spiders the most, but in Cambodia, children love to eat them and consider them a delicacy.
On the show "Bizarre Foods" on Travel Channel, the host Andrew Zimmern, does not exhibit a fear of trying different cultural foods. This man will eat anything that would make many average Americans repulsed at. My boyfriend is a fan of this show, but honestly, I cannot watch it because it literally makes my stomach turn! According to Pliner and Hobden, the host of "Bizarre Foods" would of scored in the lower 15% of their food Neophobic Scale. In turn, he would be considered a Neophilic, or a person more willing to try different foods.
Mate Value and Selection
The lecture that we discussed in class was truly inspiring. The way we select our mates in a rather complex way, can show that it can be innate. A reason for this is that we wish to procreate with one who will provide the best genes for future offspring. This does not necessarily make sense, as we are out in the dating world, however, many science experiments have been showing that the way we choose our mates can go deeper. Voice, physical attractiveness, along with personal attributes, such as being financially stable and loyal, are some out of the many reasons on how we choose a partner. What makes this an innate instinct is that various experiments have shown that some physical and emotional characteristics can cause us to choose a particular selection.
The voice, for example, has a lot to do with whom we mate with. In the video shown in class, males rated females with higher pitched voices to be more attractive than others with lower pitched voices. The catch behind it was that the voices they rated more attractive than others were actually from the same female, however, at different stages of her menstrual cycle. When the female was at her more fertile point in the cycle, her voice pitch was higher, ultimately creating more attractiveness. This is one example of how we subconsciously choose mates for the matter of procreation.
Another interesting scenario in which we mate, is through smell. In a video that I found, an experiment was conducted to show that the smell of a woman can create more attractiveness. The thought behind this concept was that finding a mate with genes that do not match the other mate creates a healthier offspring. With this information, a woman would smell more attractive, should her genes and a partner's genes not match, or match very slightly. A smell that would not be attractive, the pairs genes would have a higher matching rate. In the experiment, six women wore a tee shirt for two nights in a row. They then placed the shirt in a sealed plastic bad and put into a freezer. Once ready, the tee shirts were placed into jars, labeled A through F. Both the man doing the smelling and all six women were tested for their matching of genes. The man sniffed all six jars and rated their attractiveness of smell. The jars in which he did not find to have an attractive aroma, were from women that his genes primarily matched with (which ultimately is not beneficial for healthy offspring). The jars that he did enjoy the scent from, were shown to be from woman whom did not match his genes (which is beneficial for healthy babies). Mate selection is extremely complex and fascinating to know how we primarily choose a partner!
The video of the scent experiment is below. It is subtitled in another language, but is entertaining, nonetheless.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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Fun Fact
The Game of the Blind and the Pig
Early depiction of the game of the blind and the pig ~ Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264, f. 74v
You’re a nice and kind person, are you not? I mean, not to everybody, of course, you’d kill your noisy neighbour in a heartbeat like anybody else, but let’s say you see a blind person in the street trying to board on a bus by himself. You’ll help him—right?—because that’s the right thing to do.
You’ll even be what we can call a “good Christian.” Indeed, we read in the Leviticus (9, 17)—among many nonsensical and very outdated prescriptions—: “Do not put a stumbling block in front the blind.” Jesus himself reminds us about the blind (John 9, 3): “Neither this man nor his parent sinned.” Meaning that blindness is not some kind of divine retribution. It’s just… Shit happens bro. *Shrugs.* I’m sorry it happened to you.
You’ll forgive me being preachy there a minute, quoting the Bible and all, but we’re talking about the Middle Ages in this post and we know how important religion was during the Middle Ages. Right?
I mean, there was no way people would go against the moral prescriptions of the Church back then. Right?
It’s not like you’d gather blind people, hand them weapons and ask them to hit a dangerous moving target at the risk of hitting themselves. Right?
Well… *Sighs.* Nope.
I found some cheese!
When you see how Dukes and Kings embraced adultery, if not debauchery, and broke their wedding vows on a daily basis—I’m looking right at you, Philip the Good!—, you can’t be too surprised when you read about blind people being pitted against a pig. In a fenced square. For the merriment of an urban crowd. Despite Jesus’ teachings.
~That last sentence was too long so I added a few periods for dramatic effect.~
This is exactly what happened on August 29th, 1425, in Paris. The Moon entered Libra that morning and it would have called for a peaceful and well ordained day, yet the people of Paris didn’t hear it that way.
The whole “Paris: City of Light” turned out to be fake news and they were totally fed up with natural disasters, unruly companies of bandits, a desultory nobility, conniving merchants and corrupt churchmen. Children were being snatched from their homes to be allegedly eaten by wolves or actually dismembered by vagrants that turned them into beggars. Young women prostitute themselves not to starve. The Seine would flood Notre-Dame and drown horses every year or so. Whenever a new army would take control of Paris the city was brutally sacked. Those were not the good old times. Just ask the anonymous author of the “Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris” how pissed he was. I mean, there’s a good reason that the people of Paris still behave like total dicks on a sunny day. They’ve endured a lot. Their streets, houses and bridges still carry the memory of those long awful years and it poisons their minds! It’s the only logical explanation for them being so disparaging all the time. It’s rooted deep down in their “stadtgeist” or city spirit DNA.
But I digress.
On August 29th, 1425, a few blind people were herded, given weapons and asked to kill a pig. The one who would kill it would win its meat. It turned into a ghastly spectacle. The blind started to hit each other, thinking they were hitting the pig. The pig would run them over and trample them. They’d have killed one another if they’d been armed with actual weapons.
It all sounds like a random anecdote but it turns out to be a very famous game from the Late Middle Ages, especially in Northern Germany, the Low Countries and in Northern France. The first actual record of such a game is dated from 1386, in Lubeck, though medieval scholars mention such events already in the 13th century.
Well, believe me, the people of Lubeck knew what they were doing.
During Carnival, the young lords of Lubeck picked out twelve healthy blinds. They made them drink to heighten their joy and spirit, then they plastered their bodies with cuirasses, equipped them with mismatched pieces of armour and put helmets on their heads but backwards to insure that they really couldn’t see anything.
[Translated from Richard (2015), p. 525]
Followed the same scene that happened in Paris, on August 29th, 1425. It turned into a bloody mess. For one thing. Pigs back then were not cute hairless pink babes. No. They were still pretty much fearless wild boars. Hoink! Hoink! They really took a page from Pumba’s book and charged head on yelling “They call me MISTER PIG. Yaaah!” Many a mighty lord faced with such a terrible foe died in the process of fighting the ungulate beast. I’ll write about it in a later post.
To even the odds, the pig would sometimes be tethered to a post or readied with a little bell. Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling! This is the sound of death. Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling! You’re dead. Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling! And the brave folks of the market place are laughing at your corpse! Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling! Isn’t it a shame that you were born blind just to die that way?
One thing is sure, John the Blind experienced a more epic and respectable outcome.
Olivier Richard gives many interpretations of this “urban ritual.” The one that really struck me though is how this parody of a fight is, actually, the parody of a fight! More especially the parody of a knightly tournament. It is not a coincidence that this game happened during Carnival in Lubeck, in 1386. Then in Paris, in 1425, it was held near the Hotel d’Armagnac, the mansion of most hated lord that the people of Paris were more than happy to deride.
Most of the time, the game of the blind and the pig was held within a series of events that would constitute a festival of some sort. When the Emperor, Maximilian of Hapsburg, came to Bruges in January 1481 with his wife, Mary, Duchess of Burgundy and Countess of Flanders, the dutiful people of Flanders organized several days of festivity. It started with a knightly tournament of the outmost noble fashion. It ended up with blind people pitted against their worst enemy: the pig.
This game would be played up until the 20th century in Flanders! However, from the 16th century onwards, the participants were not actual blinds anymore, but regular people with covered eyes. Some chroniclers share some doubts though, like Alphonse Vandenpeereboom, writing in the 17th century. He rules out the possibility that actual blinds were pitted against the pig but only because he thinks it would be too cruel. Was he right, though? Were people actually nicer in his times than they were two to five centuries ago? What would it teach us about our society as a whole?
Well… it’s all a prank and fake news anyway. #Trololo We all know blinds are actually secret Kung Fu masters that would eat you for breakfast. Isn’t that right, Hundred Eyes?
Further readings:
~ Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris de 1405 à 1449. Edited by Colette Beaune. Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 1990 (Lettres Gothiques).
~ Olivier Richard, “Le jeu des aveugles et du cochon. Rite, handicap et société urbaine à la fin du Moyen Âge”, in Revue historique (2015), 675, p. 525-556. |
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Soil Testing
To Spread or Not to Spread
Composting BinsMany horse farm owners rid of their stall waste by spreading it onto their pastures and think they are doing best by their pastures as well as eliminating the manure problem. While spreading manure can be a beneficial soil amendment, there are a couple of things to keep in mind to reap the most benefits and lessen environmental concerns.
A large component of most stall waste is pine shavings, a substance that is extremely carbon rich and requires a lot of nitrogen to breakdown, making the process timelier. When raw waste is spread, the grass you are trying to promote ends up competing with the pine shavings for nitrogen and the grass typically loses. Fresh, raw manure also poses a risk of weed seeds and parasites being spread onto your pastures since it has not composted, a process that would kill the pathogens. Nitrogen, the nutrient primarily responsible for the manure’s ability to improve soil and crop potential, must become stable which requires a period of active composting and microbe breakdown of the material. Raw manure doesn’t contain a stable form of nitrogen, which means nutrient leaching is a concern, especially if a water source is near.
The other common misconception is that you can spread manure at any rate, which is definitely not a best management practice. UF/IFAS recommends testing your soil as well as testing your manure to develop an agronomical rate to spread manure onto your land. Your local Extension office will have the materials for both of these tests as well as further instruction on how to send off your samples for testing.
Ultimately, the best management practice for spreading horse manure is to not spread it raw; compost the material first. Also, be sure to spread only at a rate that is agreeable with the nutrients needed for your pastures and the crop that is growing. If done properly, manure can be converted into a valuable resource that could reduce the overall amount of fertilizer needed on your pasture. |
It is commonly thought that an efficient way to get to the bottom of a scientific truth is to have two groups that distrust each other compete on the related discovery space. Is this really the case?
An example that comes to mind is the debate on the value of the Hubble constant—the expansion rate of the universe. For decades, Allan Sandage and G. A. Tammann deduced a value of 50 kilometers per second per megaparsec (km/s/Mpc) based on their observational data while Gérard de Vaucouleurs argued for a significantly different value of 100 km/s/Mpc (both of these were much smaller than Edwin Hubble’s original 1929 estimate of 500 km/s/Mpc, as a result of his systematic errors in the distances to a class of stars known as Cepheid variables). In his 1972 book Gravitation and Cosmology, Steven Weinberg had the brilliant insight of averaging the two claims; his estimate ended up being much closer to the actual value measured today of approximately 70 km/s/Mpc. In this case, the competition made each camp dig in their heels with the wrong value, whereas the truth lies at a compromise value in between.
Another example involves the first detection of the 21-centimeter line from the Milky Way galaxy. After the hyperfine transition of hydrogen was predicted theoretically by the Dutch astronomer H. C. Van de Hulst in 1945, Edward (Ed) Purcell decided to search for its signal in the sky. He installed together with his graduate student Harold (Doc) Ewen, a horn antenna through the window of an office in the Lyman Laboratory of the Harvard physics department and employed a frequency switching technique to successfully detect the expected Milky Way signal.
At the same time, a Dutch group led by Jan Oort was attempting to measure the same signal but without success. Ed, who did not know about the Dutch experiment, learned that Van de Hulst was coincidentally spending a sabbatical year at the Harvard College Observatory and sent Doc to tell him about their 21-cm discovery shortly after it was made. As a result, they found out about the competing experiment.
In a subsequent conversation with Jan Oort, Doc Ewen described the switch frequency technique which was essential for the discovery. After adopting this same method, the Dutch group succeeded in reproducing the detection of the 21-cm signal. The American and Dutch results were published back-to-back in volume 168 of Nature magazine in 1951. A subsequent confirmation of the detection by Australian radio astronomers was published later. In this example, the truth was identified as a result of a respectful cooperation between competing teams.
The above two examples imply that science may thrive as a result of cooperation rather than hostile competition. Contrary to capitalistic instincts, kindness and generosity might be the best traits for advancing scientific knowledge. The underlying rationale is simple. Scientific research is not a zero-sum game. In fact, it is an endeavor in which all players gain from the success of any one player, because past knowledge propels our ability to pursue additional knowledge.
The scientific endeavor might be adequately described as an infinite-sum game. Science resembles an island of knowledge in an infinite ocean of ignorance. Our horizon of opportunities is boundless, as we expand the surface of this precious island of knowledge that we inhabit.
If so, why are some bad practices still prevalent in science today despite the appeal inherent in cooperation? This shortfall is partly because some scientists are driven by ego to promote their status and not by the pursuit of truth, or because some had been frustrated by past experiences. Although limited resources tend to drive competition, they could also be used to encourage cooperation and sharing of information if managed appropriately.
Inspiring leadership can improve scientific practices and make future scientific progress more efficient. There is no doubt that scientific collaboration, like any other precious interaction in life, gives back in return more than you put into it. |
Seicho-no-Ie, is a syncretic, nondenominational, monotheistic religion, one of the new religious movements in Japan that have spread since the end of World War II. It emphasizes gratitude for nature, the family and the ancestors and, above all, faith in one universal God. It inherits its basic characteristics from Buddhism, Christianity and Shinto. Seicho-no-Ie is the world’s largest New Thought group.
In 1930, Dr. Masaharu Taniguchi, working as an English translator, published the first issue of what he called his non-denominational truth movement magazine, which he named Seicho-no Ie to help teach others of his revelations. This was followed by forty volumes of his Truth of Life philosophy by 1932. Over the next forty years he published an additional four hundred-odd books and toured many countries in Europe, South America, and North America with his wife Teruko, to lecture on his revelations personally.
Founder of Religious Science, Ernest Holmes, and his brother Fenwicke L. Holmes, were of great assistance to Dr.Taniguchi. Fenwicke L. Holmes traveled to Japan and co-authored several books, one cornerstone book being the Science of Faith.
Seicho-No-Ie is a way of life worshiping all creations such as plants, animals and minerals, as manifestations of Buddha based on the idea of being grateful to everything in the universe. Today, in the face of global environmental issues, it is believed that practicing Seicho-No-Ie teachings has significant meaning for our times. Based on this conviction, Seicho-No-Ie actively promotes measures for global environmental conservation through widely disseminating the teachings of “All is One.” |
The poet. Shakespeare was born at Stratford, a market
The state of
literature is affected by what is happening in that place. The history and some
important event that happen in some place have a big impact in literature and
it even could change the state of literature in that place. Some people are
very interested about English literature. There are some changes in English literature
from time to time. Because of that, English literature was divided into several
periods. One of the important periods in English literature is ‘The Age of
Elizabeth’ which happened in 1550-1630. This period was called as enlightenment
and the greatest age in the history of English literature. In Elizabethan age
poetry was blooming, drama is in a golden age, and there’s a development of
prose. There were so many great writers that evolved in this period. William
Shakespeare was one of the most famous writers in the age of Elizabeth. The were
some interesting thing that we can get about Shakespeare like his life, his
works and also how the historical background of the age can affected his works.
William Shakespeare was very famous
writers even until now. He was an English poet, dramatist, and also an actor. He
poet. Shakespeare was born at Stratford, a market town on the river Avon in warwickshire
on April 23, 1564. He was the third child of eight children of John Shakespeare.
His father, John Shakespeare, was has more than one occupation like a butcher, a
glover and a farmer. In 1565, John Shakespeare was chosen as an alderman and bailiff
(mayor) of Stratford in 1568. And Mary Arden, his mother, was a daughter of the
landowner. Shakespeare allegedly attended a grammar school in the town.
Education at Stratford school was based on Latin grammar, rhetoric and
composition. He was learned about how to to read, write, and speak the language
practically well and studying some of the Classic history, moralists, and
poets. And it was forbidden to speak English in the upper forms.
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At fifteen years old, Shakespeare
left school. He did not go to the University. And at eighteen he married Anne
Hathaway, who was eight years older than him. So, Anne was 26 years old at that
time. They
married on November 28, 1582 in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Anne was
from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. Their first child born on May 26, 1583, they named
her Susanna. And two years later their twins was born, Hamnet and Judith, on
February 2, 1585. But then Hamnet was died in age 11, the
cause of his death
was unknown. After the born of his twins, in the same year Shakespeare
was suddenly disappear from public until 1592, the year when his works showed
on the London stage for the first time. People called his disappear in these
seven years as “Shakespeare’s Lost Years”.
William Shakespeare made
his first appearance on the London stage in 1592, but no one know the exact
date. There, his plays were written and performed. After 1594, his plays just
performed to a company that owned by a group of actors (Lord Chamberlain’s Men),
which became one of the greatest companies in London. In
1599 Shakespeare,
with the players that acted in his play, created his own
theatre on the River Thames and it was called the Globe Theatre. His career
went increasingly. Shakespeare was succeeded in acting and also as a
playwright. He worked with his team in the Globe Theatre until 1610. In the
same year Shakespeare was retired from working on the stage. After that, he
spent the most of his time in Stratford. Many sources said that William
Shakespeare was died on April 23, 1616, on his 52nd Birthday. Then,
Shakespeare was a great writer. He known wrote 37 plays in the different
categories. His plays generally divided into three categories as comedy, tragedy
and history. First is Shakespeare’s comedy. It usually has a happy ending. It
relationship, often contain the disguise to hide someone identity and a clever
servant. His plays that categorized into comedy are: All’s Well That Ends Well,
As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Cymbeline, Love’s Labours Lost, Measure
for Measure, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Taming of the
Verona, Winter’s Tale. Then, the second is Shakespeare’s tragedy. In this plays
usually contain the death of the main or the important character in the story,
the character has a bad social life or being ignore in society, believe that
destiny was has to be happen, often has a noble as central figure that has a
bad characters and causing many problem. His plays that categorized into
tragedy are: Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King
Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus. The
third is Shakespeare’s history. This kind of plays is focus to tell about the
kingdom life and usually based on the true condition of the age of Elizabeth. His
plays that categorized into history are: Henry IV (parts I and II), Henry V, Henry
VI (parts
I, II and III), Henry VIII, King John, Richard II, Richard III. And there are
also his poetry such as: The Sonnets, A Lover’s Complaint, The Rape of Lucrece,
Funeral Elegy by W.S., Venus and Adonis.
historical background of Elizabethan age was also affected to the works of
William Shakespeare. The age of Elizabeth is the era of settlement and expansion.
In this era the state of politics and religion were stable. Even though there
are dynastic problem, but that was not a big problem that can made a serious
trouble or chaos. The settlement in this era was gave a good impact to the
literary works of the writers, including Shakespeare. Moreover the Queen
Elizabeth also gave a big support in literature, so he has more chance to make
a good quality of literary works. And he also can develop a comedy and tragedy,
his works didn’t just about war. There was no big problem that could cause a war
in this age. Whereas in this era there a so many expansion, not only the area
but also the knowledge. An intellectual of people were increase so much, so it
gave a good effect to produce a better quality of literature.
The conclusion is, William
Shakespeare was one of the greatest writers, not only in the age of Elizabeth
but also in the history of English literature. Shakespeare was an English
poet, dramatist, and also an actor. He and his works are still admired by many
people until now. Born in Stratford and educated in grammar school in that town,
the genius Shakespeare apparently did not continue his study to the university.
Married with Anne Hathaway, a woman who older than him by eight
year, they has three children. His career went brilliantly with many successes.
There are three categories of his plays, such as: comedy, tragedy and history. And
all of his works was also affected by the historical background of the
Elizabethan era. So, the state of literature is also depends on the condition
in that country. |
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Colorectal Surgery
Colorectal surgery is a procedure which is done in order to repair disorders on the rectum, anus, colon and in rare cases pelvic floor. The conditions and disorders which can affect colorectal tract include cancers, injuries, hemorrhoids, damages in the anus, obstruction of the passages, severe constipation, problems with fecal elimination, perforations, ulcers, rectal prolaps and other diseases.
In more severe colorectal disorders or damages, the surgical procedure requires making an opening on the abdominal wall through which the body waste is removed. Such surgery is called colostomy. The surgeon will take a part of the colon, pull it through the abdomen and insert a catheter. The opening on the abdomen is called stoma. The waste from the catheter is gathered in the special pouch. Similar procedure is an ileostomy. In this procedure the colon is removed and the opening is made on the small intestine. Both these procedures require pouches for the body waste. Another type of colorectal surgery is a laparoscopic procedure in which a surgeon slides a laparoscope though a tiny cut on the abdomen. The laparoscope has a camera at the end, so the surgeon can see in insides on the monitor. A few additional cuts are made for the medical instruments.
Proper care after colostomy and ileostomy is very important because these procedures carry greater risks of complication. Hospitalization takes around three days and the patient is released from the hospital to home treatment. You should also educate yourself about the adequate care of the pouch and the skin around the stomach. You will also need to be on a special diet to avoid constipation or irritation of the intestines. As far as laparoscopic surgery is concerned the hospitalization is shorter and there are less scars and less pain and the risk of complication is reduced.
Colorectal surgery carries certain risks. Within the first days after the surgery you may be at risk of a wound infection, bleeding, blood clots, pneumonia and an allergic reaction to the anesthesia which can lead to heart problems. Other complications which can appear later includes fly symptoms such as fever, chills, pain in the muscles and headache, pain in the abdomen, constipation, sickness, vomiting, pain, redness or swelling of the wound and drainage or bleeding from the stoma. Further complications which include problems with stomach that includes necrosis of the tissue of the stoma, withdrawal of the stoma in the abdomen, protrusion of the stoma, narrowing of the opening and hernia in the vicinity of the stoma.
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James' Knit Notes
Yarn Engineers
I often describe knitting as engineering, building a garment based on a 3-dimensional grid, while accounting for structure, drape, weight and many other factors. But, did you know there are yarn engineers too? Yarn engineering is the process of constructing yarn to optimize how it looks, feels and performs over time.
Yarn engineers work with carding, combing, drawing out, twisting, spinning and of course dying. Carding cleans, disentangles and blends slivers of fiber. Combing removes short fibers, contaminants and causes fiber parallelization. Drawing further straightens fibers and decreases fiber diameter. Twisting binds yarn fibers together. Finally, the yarn is spun.
The outcome of these processes results in both sustainable yarns that are eco-friendly, and yarns that are not. They are either natural or synthetic. Synthetic yarns are less expensive because they're easier to handle so they require less energy and time. Most are continuous filaments made in chemical factories and many have been found to be undesirable for human contact and have a negative impact on the environment. Sustainable yarns are typically more expensive to produce because they require more experience and time to manufacture. And because they're engineered to contribute to the health of both humans and the environment.
When you're contemplating your next project, put on your knitting engineer hat and study your yarn options like a yarn engineer. You're sure to end up with handiwork that is beautiful in more ways than one.
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Dec 02
Modern Technology Is Changing The Way Our Brains Work
Modern Technology Is Changing The Way Our Brains Work
Human identity, the idea that defines each and every one of us, could be facing an unprecedented crisis. It is a crisis that would threaten long-held notions of who we are, what we do and how we behave.
It goes right to the heart – or the head – of us all. This crisis could reshape how we interact with each other, alter what makes us happy, and modify our capacity for reaching our full potential as individuals. It’s caused by one simple fact: the human brain that most sensitive of organs, is under threat from the modern world.
Our brains are under the influence of an ever- expanding world of new technology: multichannel television, video games, MP3 players, the internet, wireless networks, and Bluetooth links – the list goes on and on.
Where there are Advantages and Dis-Advantages of technology in human life (Brain).
Technologies are the essential part of the human life now a days. We are depending for almost everything on these technologies. But is it good to be dependent on these technologies which are making our life simpler to live. But on the other hand technologies in most-jeopardies in human-life.
Advantages of Technology:
1. It has reduced human efforts. Now human won’t need to perform physical work, most of the physical works can be done easily with the technologies, with some effort.
2. It has reduced time. Technologies have helped to get the jobs done very quickly in short span of time. Example: computers and calculators could perform complex calculations in fraction of seconds, thus reducing the time required.
3. Accuracy has increased. The use of technology has reduced errors in the output and the output or the result could be trusted.
4. It has given us various tools and machinery that could be used for the security purposes.
5. Technologies have given many lifesaving machinery. This has helped to increase the average human life. Various lifesaving medicines are the gift of the technologies to the humans.
Dis-Advantages of Technology:
1. Lack of physical work is the cause of many diseases. As the dependency on technologies are increasing, it has reduced the physical work which causes various diseases.
2. Unemployment has increased. The introduction of technologies has decreased the need for the human power. So there is lack of opportunities everywhere.
3. On one hand, if technologies have given us machinery for security, then on the other hand it has also given us many modes which are enough for distraction.
4. Technologies have given us various vehicles, which are polluting our environment and also using our natural resources, like petrol and creating problems.
5. A huge amount of the countries revenue goes in the process of development of the new technologies, which won’t help the poor at all.
In my belief:
World is growing everyday with technologies. Everyday new technologies are coming in this world and these technologies are changing the life of human beings. Technology is what that reduces the human efforts and makes the task easier for us. Technology has entered into our life so much and has command on our daily life that we can’t even think of spending even a single day without technology. Technology has not only made our life is easy, it has also made us dependent. We can’t do anything without technology. But is this technology really good for us? If it has given us several benefits then side by side it has also created problems several times.
So, we see that technologies have some advantages as well as some disadvantages.
Although we need technologies in every walk of the life, but we need to command ourselves on technologies, technologies shouldn’t command on us.
Ch.Kiran Raja is a Jr. Cloud Architect with Pi DATACENTERS
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A mysterious collection of geoglyphs, known as the Nazca Lines, lies at the heart of an arid plateau in the southwestern Peruvian desert.
This legendary UNESCO site is one of Peru’s foremost highlights and a site no visitor to this South American gem of a country should miss.
As historically important as the Inca site of Machu Picchu, the Nazca Lines are part of Peru’s cultural heritage and are a significant remnant of one of the several ancient cultures which inhabited the continent long before Europeans arrived.
Seeing them is an awe-inspiring experience due mostly to their colossal size and the perfection of their design.
Driving on the highway which dissects the desert, you’d never guess the Nazca Lines even exist, which is why it took so long for anyone to discover them in the first place.In this part of the world, it is height which has the most stellar advantage.
Discovering the mysterious Nazca Lines
Peru’s mesmerizing geoglyphs are some of the most studied ancient treasures on the planet, yet despite all efforts, their true meaning remains a mystery to this day.
01- Nazca Lines
As the search for the truth of the Nazca Lines continues to grip the scientific world, little unassuming Nazca continues to draw tourist crowds year after year.
They climb the high vantage-point platforms for a better view and hop aboard light planes for what is a truly breathtaking adventure. Soaring high in the sky and weaving left, right, and left again, the out-of-this-world shapes of the Nazca Lines finally come into startling view.
An enormous monkey with a squiggly tail, an incredibly detailed hummingbird and a condor whose wingspan stretches for 130 meters, straight as straight could ever be. There are hundreds of them.
The longest line stretching for more than 12 kilometers. You’ll recognize a spider, a pelican, even an ‘astronaut’, as the human figure has come to be nicknamed. Some are bizarrely shaped figments of human imagination. All randomly etched on the desert floor. Or so it would seem.
02- Nazca Lines
The History of the Nazca Lines
Etched on the desert floor between 2,000 and 1,500 years ago, the Nazca Lines have been attracting worldwide attention since they were stumbled upon in the 1930s, as aviation took hold over the area.
The lines can actually be seen from the ground but it’s fair to say you’d have to know what it is you are looking at, in order to recognize them.
Experts know they were made by the Nazca people who lived in the region at the time, yet what eludes them is the reasoning behind their existence. The Nazca were a highly evolved ancient culture, one who had phenomenal engineering skill. So much so, that they devised a way to draw water from below the ground in order to irrigate their farms.
Some say the lines are directly related to this task, others believe them to be pilgrimage routes, yet no-one knows for sure. The prehistoric Nazca left no written records so it’s all guesswork for scientists and anthropologists. Interestingly enough, the Nazca would have been lost in the abyss of ancient history had it not been for their mesmerizing Nazca Lines and the spiral aqueducts for which there are also renowned. Quite the incredible legacy to leave behind.
The Nazca Lines are seen by historians as puzzles to be solved because unraveling their mystery might reveal why the complex Nazca culture came to such an abrupt end. Only about 30cm deep, the lines’ survival is due to the Nazca Desert being one of the driest and least windy regions in the world. Had they been anywhere else, they would’ve been eroded in no time.
How were the Nazca Lines created?
Legends of aliens or prehistoric men aboard hot-air balloons have been wafting about for decades in relation to the Nazca Lines.
For years it was thought that their creation was the result of highly-skilled people with, perhaps, supernatural powers. Yet a few years ago a geoglyph expert made an experiment and put those theories to rest once and for all.
Anthony Aveni, a well-respected archaeoastronomer, proceeded to recreate a copy-cat Nazca Line with reputedly very little effort. Aveni and his team of 10 volunteers carved a perfectly straight line 35 meters in length and 1 meter in width, which wound to a beautiful spiral.
It was as accurate and impressive as any of the bona fide Nazca Lines, proving that creating them would have merely required some forward planning and teamwork to achieve. Impressive? Yes! Impossible? Seems not.
Of course, divine intervention is still a big hit with conspiracists but for experts, the only real mystery which persists is why they were made, not how.
The added bonus of a Nazca Lines viewing experience!
There’s no better way to view the Nazca Lines than from the teeny tiny chair of a light plane. If this sounds like a rather interesting activity, let us assure you it most certainly is. The scenic flight over the Nazca Lines is an absolute blast and one of the best adrenaline rushes you can have on a tour of Peru!
The pilots take their show-off skills very seriously and are so intent on showing you the lines at the perfect angle (ie. straight on) that they manoeuvre their planes with impossible acrobatics which leave you squealing in delight on one hand, and wishing you hadn’t downed that last fried plantain for breakfast on the other. All the while you’re trying to hold a steady hand so you can photograph the lines.
So take it from someone with a ridiculous tale to tell and note that the Nazca Lines are best admired on an empty stomach. And leave your camera on the ground, so you can enjoy the ethereal experience simply through your own eyes.
03- Nazca Lines
You can always buy postcards or a souvenir rock later.
Author Bio: Laura Pattara is a modern nomad who’s been vagabonding around the world, non-stop, for the past 13 years. She’s tour guided overland trips through South America and Africa, traveled independently through the Middle East and is now in the midst of a 5-year motorbike odyssey from Germany to Australia.
*This article was originally published at by Laura Pattara. |
A comparison of the similarities and differences between the political structures of the imperial ro
Length of the Roman rule and the Romance Languages [13] Romance languages in Europe Documentary evidence is limited about Vulgar Latin for the purposes of comprehensive research, and the literature is often hard to interpret or generalize. Many of its speakers were soldiers, slaves, displaced peoples, and forced resettlers, more likely to be natives of conquered lands than natives of Rome. Commonalities in syntax and vocabulary facilitated the adoption of Latin.
Looking back to September His reference to the extinction of the Southern D1 class relates to the Stroudley T not the Wainwright It is a good reminder of Trains Illustrated a few copies of which are usually available at Weybourne Station.
Part 1 in previous Volume beginning page Les was frugal in his use of log books and this led to him over-writing the earlier entries with later information which created difficulties in transcription, also during the period in which he was a passed fireman there is no certainty whethr he was firing or driving.
The period includes WW2 when Nottingham suffered eleven major raids - targets being the Boots factory, the loacl power station, the LMS works and the ordnance factory at Ruddington. The route of the former Great Central is noted as it strode southwards part bing incorporated into the preserved railway, but the route through Leicester was obliterated: Roberts ; O1 No.
Lloyd Jones notes that Beeching excommunicated Rugby from Leicester not as implied herein and that Great Central Railway went over Midland Railway rather than over it at point show on map.
Rome and America - Comparing to the Ancient Roman Empire
See also long letter from Michael Elliott on p. Private and public opposition to nineteenth century railways. Also problem of crossing Hadrian's Wall at Greenhead and Gilsland where care was taken to protect the structure.
The Newcastle Courant 17 January published a notice objecting to the railway. The Manchester Times and Gazette 11 September reported that people had visited the ruins. The Blackburn Standard reported on progress on the line. Eton College was anxious to keep the Great western at a distance from its ppupils but changed its stance when they were invited to attend Queen Victoria's Coronation on 28 June and a special train was provided.
Ancient sites transgressed included the castles at Berkhamstead, Castlethorpe, Berwick upon Tweed and Flint. The City wall at York was breeched and Cheltenham station was built over a tumulus. Edgington ; blue No. The general thrust is that various marginal bodies, such as ramblers, protacted the closure process through their ill-considered interventions.
Much was made of the extra mileage imposed on freight, but those directly involved made light of this many already used motorways in preference shorter routes on ordinary roads, Illustrations: Class 3 No. Gavin Morrison ; Class 3 No.
Gavin Morrison ; No. Hepburn ; J21 No. The Ambergate Junction complex. Newspaper accounts from Leeds Mercury and Derby Mercury relate to various openings from the original station on the North Midland Railway main line, through to the branch to Matlock, the extension to Buxton and the curve giving direct communication between the Buxton line and the route towards Chesterfield, The station buildings were designed by Francis Thompson, were of sufficient substance to justify their movement stone by stone to accommodate the Manchester branch and were then Cromwelled by British Railways they were in the Jaacobean style rather than the cardbord box style favoured at that ime.
Pancras on empty stock duty; No. Dewing ; Stanier No. Hogg see Editorial corriegenda p. Agnes station, possibly at same period as Perranporth image Alistair F.
Poor Postal services to Scotland. The Kelso Chronicle of 28 October complained that letters for Kelso and Hawick only went to Melrose once per day. The Aberdeen Free Press reported on 1 July on an improved service for letters and newspapers to reach Inverness, Dingwall and Strome Ferry, and even Kirkwall in Orkney on the same day.
The Dundee Advertiser reported on 2 July that weekend mail for Dundee and Aberdeen would be improved by trains leaving Euston at Both Aberdeen and Dundee sought faster mails:Comparing and Contrasting Han China and Imperial Rome.
In many aspects, Han China and Imperial Rome were politically and socially similar yet different. Han China, which lasted from B.C.E to C.E, and Imperial Rome, which lasted from 31 B.C.E to C.E, both had highly advanced political systems and social structures.3/5(3). While it is true that Rome and America have a vast number of similarities, we can also see there are significant differences between the two.
We therefore need a nuanced view of the parallels between the two civilizations and recognize that these differences may be an important key in understanding the future of the United States.
What Are the Differences and Similarities of Roman and Greek Politics? | Synonym
•Probably a parasitic group emerged, after a millennium or two or three of group evolution in Mesopotamian city civilisation, specialising in targeting ruling individuals and small groups, using acting skills and extreme concealment and what many people would regard as psychopathy.
The Romance languages (also called Romanic languages or Neo-Latin languages) are the modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin between the third and eighth centuries and that form a subgroup of the Italic languages within the Indo-European language family..
Today, around million people are native speakers worldwide, mainly in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, but also elsewhere. This study is to reveal the origins of numerous aspects in the Tanak, Hebrew Bible, of the patriarchal Indo-European elements incorporated into the text from the perspective of the deities, gods and goddesses, which many translators mask in their English translations.
Star Wars sources and analogues - Wikipedia |
Who Wrote the Bible?
The bible was written by Mosses so the story goes. That seems not to be the case and in-fact was written by several different people. The torah is split in to four writers referred to as E, J, P, and R. E refers to the chief god “EL” and J refers to Jehovah, P refers to priests, and R refers to redactor. There are doublets of stories in the bible and what’s called the “documentary hypothesis.” It shows that the bible was written by different people because there are several stories that are similar in nature and have different timelines.
The first four books of the torah have Ehoist and Jehovah throughout them. One of the writers of the torah is E and refers to god. J refers to Jehovah and is another name for god. The language reflected is from different times and the time lines are incongruent. Joshua talks about Mosse’s death before it had happened. In genesis there are two stories of Adam and Eve that tell creation differently and in different order.
God says he created man in our image which is singular and then, says, he created them male and female which is not singular. Another time it tells a different creation story of Eve and that Eve was created from Adam. Also, it says that Adam and Eve were created at the same time. Genesis says that man shall eat from all the plants in the garden of Eden and then says they must not eat from the tree of knowledge; that’s just different, and supports the hypothesis that these books are from different authors. There are two creation stories that have a different order of the creation process. In the first creation story Adam and Eve were created first and in the second creation story they were created last. What does that say about who wrote the bible? It says that there are different writers and that the bible was written by different people in different times. Another difference is that in one account the earth was formless yet in another, it’s barren and dry. In one account man is the center of creation and in another, man is the end of the process. The Elohist source is fragmentary and probably comes from several sources and was pieced together into one story. There are doublets and the Elohist writings, like the writings in Genesis show that there are different writers as well.
The priests are the ones that wrote the bible and are editing it for their own personal views to favor what (and who), they were at the time. They took apart and put the bible back together to suit their own vision as to what they wanted people to see and learn. Also, the priests wanted to make the bible say things that would benefit their own agenda as to be selfish. The priests did this from different time lines and different backgrounds which can be seen in the way they use language and writing styles.
God supposedly inspired the writings of the bible and directed people on earth to write it for him. If that were the case there would be a continuous theme and timeline in the bible and that’s not the case. To the contrary there are continuous different themes and timelines throughout the entire bible. There is doublets also and those doublets tell a different story between them. Someone called the”redactor”, took all the stories and made them into the bible that we have now and that’s pretty easy to see once we have looked in to the similarities and differences.
I think by all the stuff that I have read in the book “Who Wrote the Bible” and in class that I’m sure that the bible was not written by God or even from god. I think that it was written by man for man to control man. If it was written by god then I wouldn’t be writing this essay at all instead I would be learning about what god wants and what I need to do to please him. The fact that there is war and poverty just tell me that there simply isn’t any god at all. To the contrary there in-fact is not the god in the bible that loves us and wants the best for us as the churches tell us. We need to open our eyes and take a really hard look at what we are letting other people teach us as being gospel. That sucks and pisses me off, the fact that all my life I have believed that there was a god that loves me and wants the best for me and now I think that I have just been a fool; listening to all the church’s teachings that portray god as the all knowing and loving being that wants all the best in the world for me. I’m probably going to be criticized for what I I’m going to tell people in future; that what they think is gospel is just something that man has written. That’s not going to go over very well at all.
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Angry in a Sentence 🔊
Definition of Angry
having a strong feeling of being upset or annoyed
Examples of Angry in a sentence
Even if I am angry at my husband, I try not to go to bed still upset. 🔊
Angry members of the crowd broke out windows and kicked down doors in their rage. 🔊
The worker tried not to get angry, but he couldn’t help feeling annoyed at his rude boss. 🔊
The upset people were most angry at the mayor for stealing the city’s money and running off with the funds. 🔊
Throwing punches during a boxing match is the only way the man knows how to get out his angry feelings. 🔊
Other words in the Negative Emotions category:
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Oct, 11 2017
Did you know that up to 56,000 Americans die of the flu each year, and as many as 710,000 are hospitalized because of it? The flu is a dangerous viral illness that can be lethal, or cause complications that range from pneumonia to inflammation of the heart, brain, and muscles. The good news is that flu vaccines can reduce your risk of getting the flu, and the virus tends to circulate through March, so it's not too late.
What are the most common flu symptoms?
• Fever or chills
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Muscle or body aches
• Headaches
• Fatigue (tiredness)
Over the years I've been asked similar questions from my patients, and would like to share my answers with you here:
1. Can I get the flu from the flu shot?
No, the flu shot does not contain live flu virus, and therefore you cannot get the flu from the flu shot. It takes a couple of weeks for the body to become immune to the flu after the flu shot, so if you are exposed to the real flu virus in that time period, you could mistakenly believe that you got the flu from the flu shot. In addition, the flu shot stimulates your immune system to react, and some people get a more robust response than others. When your immune system ramps up to fight an infection, it can cause symptoms such as soreness, redness, and/or swelling at the injection site, headache, low grade fever, nausea or muscle aches. These are usually temporary and mild.
2. I got the flu shot, and then I also got the flu. Why did that happen?
The flu shot reduces your risk of getting the flu, but it does not prevent it 100%. The flu virus is constantly changing, and each year it takes time to make new vaccines for the most common strains that seem to be emerging. Scientists monitor the virus spread starting in the opposite hemisphere, and try to predict what the U.S. citizens will need when the annual flu strain(s) arrive. Some years their predictions are more accurate than others. The flu shot is about 40-60% effective, which means it reduces your risk of catching the flu by 40-60%. That's certainly not perfect, but it's the best protection we have.
Other strategies to avoid catching the flu remain: hand washing (or use of alcohol-based gels), avoiding contact with infected people, bleaching surfaces that may have flu respiratory droplets on them, keeping infected people home until their fever has been gone for at least 24 hours, and taking anti-viral drugs (your doctor can prescribe them) within 48 hours of developing flu symptoms.
3. If I do get the flu, are there medicines to make it go away faster?
• zanamivir (trade name Relenza®), and
• peramivir (trade name Rapivab®).
4. Who is at high risk for flu complications? (Who REALLY needs the vaccine.)
While almost everyone can benefit from the vaccine (except people who are allergic to it, are already very ill, or who have had Guillain Barre Syndrome in the past), it is extra important for the following folks to get the annual vaccine:
• Children younger than 2 and adults over 65
• Pregnant women
• Nursing home residents
• Native Americans
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website is an excellent resource for flu information. I highly recommend that you educate yourself about influenza and the vaccine at the links below. I hope you don't get the flu this winter ... remember to cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, and wash your hands frequently!
Have a question about the flu or another health issue? Remember, freshbenies members have access to all variety of specialists through Doctors Online. Simply use the app or portal to email questions, symptoms, and pictures with NO fee.
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High treason in the United Kingdom
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High treason today consists of:
In addition to the crime of treason, the Treason Felony Act 1848 (still in force today) created a new offence known as treason felony, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment instead of death (but today, due to the abolition of the death penalty, the maximum penalty both for high treason and treason felony would be the same—life imprisonment). Under the traditional categorisation of offences into treason, felonies, and misdemeanours, treason felony was merely another form of felony. Several categories of treason which had been introduced by the Sedition Act 1661 were reduced to felonies. While the common law offences of misprision and compounding were abolished in respect of felonies (including treason felony) by the Criminal Law Act 1967, which abolished the distinction between misdemeanour and felony, misprision of treason and compounding treason are still offences under the common law.
According to the law in force, it is treason felony to "compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend":
• to deprive the sovereign of the Crown,
• to levy war against the sovereign "in order by force or constraint to compel her to change her measures or counsels, or in order to put any force or constraint upon or in order to intimidate or overawe both Houses or either House of Parliament", or
• to "move or stir" any foreigner to invade the United Kingdom or any other country belonging to the sovereign.
Northern Ireland[edit]
In addition to the Acts of 1351, 1703, and 1848, two additional Acts passed by the old Parliament of Ireland apply to Northern Ireland alone. The following is also treason:
• Treason Act (Ireland) 1537:
• attempting bodily harm to the king, queen, or their heirs apparent
• attempting to deprive them of their title
• publishing that the sovereign is a heretic, tyrant, infidel or usurper of the Crown
• rebelliously withholding from the sovereign his fortresses, ships, artillery etc.
• Crown of Ireland Act 1542:
• doing anything to endanger the sovereign's person
• doing anything which might disturb or interrupt the sovereign's possession of the Crown
(Note that although the Irish Act of Supremacy (Ireland) 1560 is still in force,[3] it is no longer treason to contravene it.[4][dubious ])
History: England and Wales[edit]
In England, there was no clear common law definition of treason; it was for the king and his judges to determine if an offence constituted treason. Thus, the process became open to abuse, and decisions were often arbitrary. For instance, during the reign of Edward III, a knight was convicted of treason because he assaulted one of the king's subjects and held him for a ransom of £90. It was only in 1351 that Parliament passed legislation on the subject of treason. Under the Treason Act 1351, or "Statute of Treasons", which distinguished between high and petty treason, several distinct offences constitute high treason; most of them continue to do so, while those relating to forgery have been relegated to ordinary offences.[5]
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1351 a penalty in England for common men convicted of high treason.
First, it was high treason to "compass or imagine the death of our Lord the King, of our Lady his Queen, or of their eldest son and heir." The terms "compass or imagine" indicate the premeditation of a murder; it would not be high treason to accidentally kill the sovereign or any other member of the Royal Family (though someone could be charged with manslaughter or negligent homicide). However it has also been held to include rebelling against or trying to overthrow the monarch, as experience has shown that this normally involves the monarch's death. The terms of this provision have been held to include both male and female sovereigns, but only the spouses of male Sovereigns. It is not sufficient to merely allege that an individual is guilty of high treason because of his thoughts or imaginations; there must be an overt act indicating the plot.[6]
A second form of high treason defined by the Treason Act 1351 was having sexual intercourse with "the King's companion, or the King's eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the King's eldest son and heir." If the intercourse is not consensual, only the rapist is liable, but if it is consensual, then both parties are liable. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, wives of Henry VIII, were found guilty of treason for this reason. The jurist Sir William Blackstone writes that "the plain intention of this law is to guard the Blood Royal from any suspicion of bastardy, whereby the succession to the Crown might be rendered dubious." Thus, only women are covered in the statute; it is not, for example, high treason to rape a Queen-Regnant's husband. Similarly, it is not high treason to rape a widow of the sovereign or of the heir-apparent. Diana, Princess of Wales admitted that she had an affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt, between 1987 and 1992. As she was then the wife of the Prince of Wales, heir to the throne, this fitted the definition of high treason, and a national newspaper briefly attempted[7][8] to have Hewitt prosecuted for what was then still a capital offence.[9]
It is high treason "if a man do levy war against our Lord the King in his realm" or "if a man be adherent to the King's enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm or elsewhere." Conspiracy to levy war or aid the sovereign's enemies do not amount to this kind of treason, though it may be encompassing the Sovereign's death. In modern times only these kinds of treason have actually been prosecuted (during the World Wars and the Easter Rising).
The last types of high treason defined by the Treason Act 1351 were the forgery of the Great Seal or Privy Seal, the counterfeiting of English (later British) money and the importing of money known to be counterfeit. These offences, however, were reduced to felonies rather than high treasons in 1861[10] and 1832 respectively.[11]
In 1495 Poynings' Law extended English law to cover Ireland.
All new forms of high treason introduced since the Treason Act 1351, except those to do with forgery and counterfeiting, were abrogated by the Treason Act 1547, which was passed at the beginning of the reign of Edward VI.[13] The Act created new kinds of treason however, including denying that the King was the Supreme Head of the Church, and attempting to interrupt the succession to the throne as determined by the Act of Succession 1543.[14]
When Mary I became queen in 1553, she passed an Act abolishing all treasons whatsoever which had been created since 1351.[15] Later that year, however, the offence of forging the Sovereign's sign manual or signet once again became high treason.[16] Furthermore, the anti-counterfeiting laws were extended so as to include foreign money deemed legal tender in England. Thus, it became high treason to counterfeit such foreign money, or to import counterfeit foreign money and actually attempt to use it to make a payment. (But importing any counterfeit English money remained high treason, even if no attempt were made to use it in payment.) Mary also made it high treason to kill Philip II of Spain, her king consort, or to try to deprive him of his title.[17]
Aside from laws relating to counterfeiting and succession, very few acts concerning the definition of high treason were passed. Under laws passed during the reign of Elizabeth I, it was high treason for an individual to attempt to defend the jurisdiction of the Pope over the English Church for a third time (a first offence being a misdemeanour and a second offence a felony),[18] or for a Roman Catholic priest to enter the realm and refuse to conform to the English Church,[1] or to purport to release a subject of his allegiance to the Crown or the Church of England and to reconcile him or her with a foreign power.[19] Charles II's Sedition Act 1661 made it treason to imprison, restrain or wound the king. Although this law was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1998, it still continues to apply in some Commonwealth countries. Under laws passed after James II was deposed, it became treasonable to correspond with the Jacobite claimants (main article), or to hinder succession to the Throne under the Act of Settlement 1701, or to publish that anyone other than the individual specified by the Act of Settlement had the right to inherit the Crown.[20]
History: after union with Scotland[edit]
In 1708, following the Union of England and Scotland in the previous year, Queen Anne signed the Treason Act 1708, which harmonised the treason laws of both former kingdoms (effective from 1 July 1709). The English offences of high treason and misprision of treason (but not petty treason) were extended to Scotland, and the treasonable offences then existing in Scotland were abolished. These were: "theft in Landed Men", murder in breach of trust, fire-raising, "firing coalheughs" and assassination. The Act also made it treason to counterfeit the Great Seal of Scotland, or to slay the Lords of Session or Lords of Justiciary "sitting in Judgment in the Exercise of their Office within Scotland".
In general, treason law in Scotland remained the same as in England, except that when in England the offence of counterfeiting the Great Seal of the United Kingdom etc. (an offence under other legislation[21]) was reduced from treason to felony by the Forgery Act 1861, that Act did not apply to Scotland, and though in England since 1861 it has not been treason to forge the Scottish Great Seal,[22] in Scotland this remains treason today.[23] When the Scottish Parliament was set up in 1998, treason and treason felony were among the "reserved matters" it was prohibited from legislating about, ensuring that the law of treason remains uniform throughout Great Britain.
Between 1817 and 1820 it was treason to kill the Prince Regent.[24] In 1832 counterfeiting money ceased to be treason and became a felony.[25] In Ireland, counterfeiting seals ceased to be treason in 1861, in line with England and Wales.[26]
First World War[edit]
A notable treason trial occurred at the Old Bailey in 1916 when Sir Roger Casement was accused of collusion with Germany for his role in the Easter Rising in Ireland. The charge against him was that he tried to encourage Irish soldiers in the British Army to mutiny and fight for Germany. Casement argued that, as an Irishman, he could not be tried in an English court and should instead be tried in Ireland. This argument failed because he had worked as a diplomat for the British Government for almost all of his adult life and had accepted a knighthood and a pension from the Crown on retirement in 1911. He was hanged in Pentonville Prison on 3 August 1916, and is now often considered a martyr by the Irish Republican movement.
The Titles Deprivation Act 1917 authorised the king to deprive peers of their peerage if they had assisted the enemy during the war, or voluntarily resided in enemy territory. This was mainly in response to the closeness of the British royal family with some German thrones, leading to the loss of British titles from the dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Brunswick, the Crown Prince of Hanover, and the Viscount Taaffe. Whilst the act allowed for their descendants to petition for the restoration of these titles, as of 2014 no descendant has done so.
Second World War[edit]
John Amery was executed in 1945 after pleading guilty to eight charges of treason for efforts to recruit British prisoners of war into the British Free Corps and for making propaganda broadcasts for Nazi Germany.
The last execution for treason in the United Kingdom was held in 1946. William Joyce (also known as Lord Haw Haw) stood accused of levying war against King George VI by travelling to Germany in the early months of World War II and taking up employment as a broadcaster of pro-Nazi propaganda to British radio audiences. He was awarded a personal commendation by Adolf Hitler in 1944 for his contribution to the German war effort. On his capture at the end of the war, Parliament rushed through the Treason Act 1945[27] to facilitate a trial that would have the same procedure as a trial for murder. Before the Act, a trial for treason short of regicide involved an elaborate and lengthy medieval procedure. Although Joyce was born in the United States to an Irish father and an English mother, he had moved to Britain in his teens and applied for a British passport in 1933 which was still valid when he defected to Germany and so under the law he owed allegiance to Britain. He appealed against his conviction to the House of Lords on the grounds he had lied about his country of birth on the passport application and did not owe allegiance to any country at the beginning of the war. The appeal was not upheld and he was executed at Wandsworth Prison on 3 January 1946.
It is thought the strength of public feeling against Joyce as a perceived traitor was the driving force behind his prosecution.[citation needed] The only evidence offered at his trial that he had begun broadcasting from Germany while his British passport was valid was the testimony of a London police inspector who had questioned him before the war while he was an active member of the British Union of Fascists and claimed to have recognised his voice on a propaganda broadcast in the early weeks of the war (he already had previous convictions for assault and riotous assembly as a result of street fights with communists and anarchists).
Treachery Act 1940[edit]
Until 1945 treason had its own rules of evidence and procedure which made it difficult to prosecute accused traitors, such as the need for two witnesses to the same offence. Consequently, in the Second World War it was perceived that there was a need for a new offence with which to deal with traitors more expediently. The Treachery Act 1940 was passed creating a felony called treachery, to punish disloyalty and espionage. It was a capital offence. Seventeen people were sentenced to be shot or hanged for this offence instead of for treason (one death sentence was commuted).[28] Theodore Schurch was the last person to be put to death for treachery, in 1946. He was also the last person to be executed for a crime other than murder. Josef Jakobs, a German spy executed for treachery, was the last person to be executed in the Tower of London.
The Treachery Act 1940 was suspended in February 1946, and was repealed in 1967.[29]
1945 to 2015[edit]
In June 1945 the Treason Act 1945 abolished the special rules of evidence and procedure formerly used in treason trials, and replaced them with the rules applicable to murder trials, to simplify the law. As discussed above, the last treason prosecutions occurred later that year.
From 1945, treason consisted of the offences which are treason today (see above), plus two other kinds. The Succession to the Crown Act 1707 made it treason to affirm that any person has a right to succeed to the Crown otherwise than according to the Act of Settlement and Acts of Union, or that the Crown and Parliament cannot legislate for the limitation of the succession to the Crown.[30] This was abolished in 1967. The Treason Act 1795 made it treason to "compass, imagine, invent, devise or intend death or destruction, or any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, maim or wounding, imprisonment or restraint, of the person of ... the King." This was abolished in 1998, when the death penalty was also abolished.[31]
On 26 March 2015 the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 came into effect,[32] which amended the line of succession to the throne to give women the same right to succeed to the throne as their brothers. In consequence of this, the Treason Act 1351 was amended in two ways. Whereas it had been treason to encompass the death of the monarch's eldest son and heir, this was amended to cover an heir of either sex. It had also been treason to "violate" the wife of the monarch's eldest son, but the 2013 Act restricted this to cases where the eldest son is also the heir to the throne.
As a general rule, no British criminal court has jurisdiction over the Sovereign, from whom they derive their authority. As Sir William Blackstone writes, "the law supposes an incapacity of doing wrong from the excellence and perfection ... of the King." Furthermore, to charge the sovereign with high treason would be inconsistent, as it would constitute accusing him of disloyalty to himself. After the English Civil War, however, Charles I was tried for treason against the people of England. His trial and execution were irregular; they were more accurately products of a revolution, rather than a legal precedent[citation needed], and those responsible were themselves tried for treason after the monarchy was restored (see List of regicides of Charles I). However, a person who attempts to become the Sovereign without a valid claim can be held guilty of treason. Consequently, Lady Jane Grey was executed for treason for usurping the throne in 1553.
Insane individuals are not punished for their crimes. During the reign of Henry VIII, however, it was enacted that in the cases of high treason, an idiot could be tried in his absence as if he were perfectly sane. In the reign of Mary I, this statute was repealed. Today there are powers to send insane defendants to a mental hospital.[33]
Duress and marital coercion[edit]
Duress is not available as a defence to treason involving the death of the sovereign.[34]
In England and Wales and in Northern Ireland, the former defence of marital coercion was not available to a wife charged with treason.[35][36]
Finally, it was possible for Parliament to pass an Act of attainder, which pronounces guilt without a trial. Historically, Acts of attainder have been used against political opponents when speedy executions were desired. In 1661, Parliament passed acts posthumously attainting Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and John Bradshaw—who were previously involved in Charles I's trial—of treason. These three individuals were posthumously executed, and are the only individuals to have suffered this fate posthumously under English treason laws. (In 1540, a Scottish court summoned Robert Leslie, who was deceased, for a trial for treason. The Estates-General declared the summons lawful; Leslie's body was exhumed, and his bones were presented at the bar of the court.[citation needed] This procedure was never used in England.)
Procedure and evidence[edit]
Before 1945[edit]
Certain special rules procedures have historically applied to high treason cases. The privilege of the peerage and parliamentary privilege preclude the arrest of certain individuals (including peers, wives and widows of peers and members of Parliament) in many cases, but treason was not included (nor were felony or breach of the peace). Similarly, an individual could not claim sanctuary when charged with high treason; this distinction between treasons and felonies was lost as sanctuary laws were repealed in the late 17th and early 19th century. The defendant, furthermore, could not claim the benefit of clergy in treason cases; but the benefit of the clergy, as well, was abolished during the 19th century.
Formerly, an individual was not entitled to assistance of counsel in any capital case, including treason; the rule, however, was abolished in treason cases by the Treason Act 1695. The same Act extended a rule from 1661 which had made it necessary to produce at least two witnesses to prove each alleged offence of high treason. Nearly one hundred years later a stricter version of this rule was incorporated into the Constitution of the United States. The 1695 Act also provided for a three-year time limit on bringing prosecutions for treason (except for assassinating the king) and misprision of treason, another rule which has been imitated in some common law countries.
These rules made it difficult to prosecute charges of treason, and the rule was relaxed by the Treason Act 1800 to make attempts on the life of the King subject to the same rules of procedure and evidence as existed in murder trials (which did not require two witnesses). This change was extended to all assaults on the Sovereign by the Treason Act 1842. Finally the special rules for treason were abolished by the Treason Act 1945 when the rules of evidence and procedure in all cases of treason were made the same as for murder. However, the original three-year time limit stated above survived into the present day. This meant that when James Hewitt was accused of treason in 1996 because of his affair with the Princess of Wales,[38] he could not be prosecuted because it could not be proved that he had done it within the foregoing three-year period.
Modern procedure[edit]
The procedure on trials for treason is the same as that on trials for murder.[39][40][41] It is therefore an indictable-only offence.
Alternative verdict[edit]
England and Wales On the trial of an indictment for treason, the jury cannot return an alternative verdict to the offence charged in that indictment under section 6(3) of the Criminal Law Act 1967. For example, the jury cannot give an alternative verdict of manslaughter in cases of the assassination of the monarch. The Homicide Act 1957 does not apply. However, under the common law the jury may return a verdict of guilty of misprision of treason instead of treason.
Northern Ireland On the trial of an indictment for treason, the jury cannot return an alternative verdict to the offence charged in that indictment under section 6(2) of the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967. For this purpose each count is considered to be a separate indictment (s.6(7)).
A person may not be indicted for treason committed within the United Kingdom (subject to the following exception) unless the indictment is preferred within three years of the commission of that offence.[42][43][44] This limitation does not apply to treason which consists of designing, endeavouring or attempting to assassinate the sovereign.[45] There is no time limit on the prosecution of treason committed outside of the United Kingdom.[46]
The same time limit applies to attempting or conspiring to commit treason.[47][48]
In England and Wales, a person charged with treason may not be granted bail except by order of a High Court judge or of the Secretary of State.[49] The same rule applies in Northern Ireland.[50]
In Scotland, all crimes and offences which are treason are bailable.[51]
Before 1998[edit]
The form of execution once suffered by traitors was often (though not invariably) torturous. For men the statutory penalty (in England) was to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
The condemned could not walk or be carried to the place of execution; the sentence required that they were to be drawn: they might be dragged along the ground, but were normally tied onto a hurdle which was drawn to the place of execution by a horse. A man would then be hanged by a noose around the neck, but not so as to die: there would be no "drop" to break the neck. Whilst still alive, he would be cut down and allowed to drop to the ground, stripped of his clothes, his genitals cut off, his viscera pulled out and burnt before his own eyes, and other organs would be torn out of his body. The body would be decapitated, and cut into four quarters. The body parts would be at the disposal of the Sovereign, and generally they would be gibbeted or publicly displayed as a warning. The body parts would be parboiled in salt and cumin seed: the salt to prevent putrefaction, and the cumin seed to prevent birds pecking at the flesh.[52] This sentence was amended in 1814 so that the offender would hang to death; the disembowelling, beheading and quartering were to be carried out posthumously.
Women were excluded from this type of punishment and instead were drawn and then burned at the stake, until this was replaced with hanging by the Treason Act 1790 and the Treason by Women Act (Ireland) 1796.
The penalty for high treason by counterfeiting or clipping coins was the same as the penalty for petty treason (which for men was drawing and hanging without the torture and quartering, and for women was burning or hanging.)[53]
Individuals of noble birth were not subjected to either form of torture, but merely beheaded. Even commoners' sentences were sometimes commuted to beheading—a sentence not formally removed from the British law until 1973.[54]
In addition to being tortured and executed, a traitor was also deemed "attainted". The first consequence of attainder was forfeiture; all lands and estates of a traitor were forever forfeit to the Crown. A second consequence was corruption of blood; the attainted person could neither inherit property, nor transmit it to his or her descendants. This may have been open to abuse, either by avaricious monarchs or by parliament when little (if any) evidence was available to secure a conviction. There was a complex and ceremonial procedure used to try treason cases, with a strict requirement for a minimum of two witnesses to the crime.
In 1832 the death penalty was abolished for treason by forging seals and the Royal sign manual.[55]
In 1870, attainder was abolished. In the same year in England,[56] and in 1949 in Scotland,[57] posthumous drawing and quartering was abolished, and so the sole punishment was hanging.
Beheading was abolished in 1973,[58] by which time it had long been obsolete.
By 1965, capital punishment had been abolished for almost all crimes, but was still mandatory (unless the offender was pardoned or the sentence commuted) for high treason until 1998. By section 36 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998[59] the maximum punishment for high treason became life imprisonment. (See also Treason Act 1814.)
• The last execution by burning for high treason was that of Catherine Murphy in 1789.
• The last sentences of hanging, drawing and quarterings were those on the Cato Street Conspirators in 1820, however the drawing and quartering were omitted by royal command.
• One of the last executions for high treason was that of John Amery, the last person in the United Kingdom to plead guilty to high treason.
A person convicted of treason is liable to imprisonment for life or for any shorter term.[60] A whole life tariff may be imposed for the gravest offences.[61] (See Life imprisonment in England and Wales for more details).
Treason also entails disqualification from public office, and loss of suffrage[62] (except in local elections).[63] This rule does not apply in Scotland.[64]
Scottish Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly[edit]
Treason (including constructive treason) is a reserved matter on which the Scottish Parliament cannot legislate.[65]
Treason (but not powers of arrest or criminal procedure) is an excepted matter on which the Northern Ireland Assembly cannot legislate.[66]
Treason today[edit]
Almost all treason-related offences introduced since the Treason Act 1351 was passed have been abolished or relegated to lesser offences. The Treason Act 1351, on the other hand, has not been significantly amended; the main changes involve the removal of counterfeiting and forgery, as explained above. For the state of the law today, see the Offences section above.
On 8 August 2005, it was reported that the UK Government was considering bringing prosecutions for treason against a number of British Islamic clerics who have publicly spoken positively about acts of terrorism against civilians in Britain, or attacks on British soldiers abroad, including the 7 July London bombings and numerous attacks on troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.[67] Following this threat one foreign cleric who the British government had failed to deport fled to Lebanon, only to request to be rescued by the British military during the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon War. However, later that year prosecutors indicted Abu Hamza al-Masri for inciting murder (he was convicted in February 2006), and it now seems unlikely that anyone will be charged with treason in the foreseeable future.
In 2008 the former attorney-general, Lord Goldsmith QC, published a report on his review of British citizenship. One of his recommendations was for a "thorough reform and rationalisation of the law" of treason.[68]
In 2014 the Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond revealed that the British Government was considering high treason charges for Islamic extremists in response to growing numbers of British Jihad fighters travelling to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[69][70]
Acts in force today[edit]
Acts containing substantive or procedural law
Acts creating similar offences
See also the Treason Act 1842 (assaulting the Queen), the Official Secrets Acts 1911 to 1989 (espionage), the Trading with the Enemy Act 1939 and the Terrorism Acts.
See also[edit]
1. ^ a b Jesuits, etc. Act 1584
2. ^ "Treason: The Facts", The Guardian, 17 October 2014 (retrieved 28 August 2017).
3. ^ 2 Eliz c. 1
4. ^ The Religious Disabilities Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict c. 59), s. 1
5. ^ Coinage Act 1832 and Forgery Act 1861 (both repealed)
7. ^ "The Sunday Business Post Online". Archived from the original on 22 February 2007. Retrieved 11 February 2007.
8. ^ "Editor defends Mirror over Diana letters". BBC News. 31 August 2000. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
9. ^ The New York Times
10. ^ Forgery Act 1861
11. ^ Coinage Act 1832
12. ^ Treason Act 1397 (21 Ric.2 c. 12)
13. ^ Treason Act 1547 (1 Ed. 6, c. 12)
14. ^ ibid.
15. ^ Treason Act 1553 (1 Mar. stat. 1 c. 1)
16. ^ 1 Mar. stat. 2 c. 6.
17. ^ Treason Act 1554 (1 & 2 Ph. & M. c.10)
18. ^ Act of Supremacy 1558
19. ^ Religion Act 1580
20. ^ Succession to the Crown Act 1707; repealed in 1967
21. ^ The Forgery Act 1830 (11 Geo. IV & 1 Gul. IV c. 66), section 2; formerly 1 Mar. stat. 2 c. 6.
22. ^ The Forgery Act 1830 and the Forgery Act 1861
23. ^ The Treason Act 1708, section 12 (disapplied from England by the Forgery Act 1830, sections 30 and 31).
24. ^ Treason Act 1817
25. ^ Coinage Act 1832 (2&3 Will. 4 c. 34), s. 1
26. ^ Forgery Act 1861
27. ^ 1945 c.44
28. ^ British Military & Criminal History in the period 1900 to 1999
29. ^ Criminal Law Act 1967
30. ^ Craies, William Feilden (1911). "Treason" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 224.
31. ^ Crime and Disorder Act 1998, section 36
32. ^ Succession to the Crown Act 2013 (Commencement) Order 2015 at legislation.org.uk (retrieved 30 March 2015)
33. ^ Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964, s5; Mental Health Act 1983, section 37
34. ^ Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice (2014) 17-119.
37. ^ The Criminal Justice Act 1988, section 118
38. ^ Excerpt from The Mirror, 2 March 1996, at Questia Online Library (retrieved 12 December 2014).
39. ^ The Criminal Law Act 1967 (c.58), section 12(6)
40. ^ The Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 (c.18) (N.I.), section 14(7)
41. ^ The Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (c.46), section 289
42. ^ The Treason Act 1695 (7 & 8 Will.3 c.3), section 5; as amended by the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1933 (23 & 24 Geo.5 c.86), section 2(8) and paragraph 1 of Schedule 2. The 1933 Act was in turn amended by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, section 116, which abolished the requirement that indictments be signed.
43. ^ The Treason Act 1708 (7.Ann. c.21), section 1
44. ^ The Treason (Ireland) Act 1821 (1 & 2 Geo.4 c.24)
45. ^ The Treason Act 1695 (7 & 8 Will.3 c.3), section 6
46. ^ The Law Commission (1977). Treason, Sedition and Allied Offences (Working Paper No.72), paragraph 36
47. ^ Criminal Attempts Act 1981, section 2(2)(d)
48. ^ Criminal Law Act 1977, section 4(4)
49. ^ The Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 (c.43), section 41 and the Bail Act 1976 (c.63), section 4(7)
50. ^ The Magistrates' Courts Order (Northern Ireland) 1981 (No.1675 (N.I.26)), article 38
51. ^ The Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (c.46), section 24(1); as amended by the Bail, Judicial Appointments etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 (asp 9), section 3(1)
53. ^ Hale's History of Pleas of the Crown (1800 ed.) vol. 1, pages 219-220 (from Google Books).
54. ^ Treason Act 1814 section 2, repealed by Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973 (c. 39), Sch. 1 Pt. V.
55. ^ Forgery, Abolition of Punishment of Death Act 1832
56. ^ Forfeiture Act 1870, s. 31.
57. ^ Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1949, s. 14.
58. ^ Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973, Schedule 1, Part V.
59. ^ Section 36, from The National Archives
60. ^ The Treason Act (Ireland) 1537, section I (amended by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, section 36(1)); the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, section II (amended by the 1998 Act, section 36(2)(a)); the Act of Supremacy (Ireland) (1560), section XII (amended by the 1998 Act, section 36(2)(b)); the Treason Act 1702, section 3 (amended by the 1998 Act, section 36(2)(c)); the Treason Act (Ireland) 1703, section I (amended by the 1998 Act, section 36(2)(d)); the Treason Act 1708, section V; and the Treason Act 1814, section 1 (amended by the 1998 Act, section 36(4))
61. ^ Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000, section 82A
62. ^ Forfeiture Act 1870, section 2.
63. ^ Local Government Act 1933, Sch. 10, Sch. 11 Pt. IV; London Government Act 1939, Sch. 8; Local Government (Members and Officers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1964, Schedule.
64. ^ Forfeiture Act 1870, section 33.
65. ^ The Scotland Act 1998 (c.46), section 29(1) and (2)(b) and paragraph 10 of Part I of Schedule 5
66. ^ The Northern Ireland Act 1998 (c.47), sections 4(1) and 6(2)(b) and paragraph 7 of Schedule 2
67. ^ BBC News: "Terror treason charge considered," 8 August 2005
68. ^ "Citizenship: Our Common Bond", p. 81, at The Guardian website (retrieved 23 April 2016).
69. ^ Groves, Jason (16 October 2014). "British terrorists fighting for ISIS in Iraq and Syria could be tried for 'high treason' reveals Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond". Daily Mail. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
70. ^ "Treason charge idea considered for UK jihadists". BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). BBC News. 17 October 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
Further reading[edit] |
Digital rights management and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
What is copyright law in relation to digital content? How do content provider rights holders safeguard their property through technological protection measures. The DMCA is primarily concerned with legally prohibiting circumvention and stopping the trafficking of circumvention-enabling technologies. The ways that this effects libraries in loaning material are discussed. The means of access control relating to different platforms are explained and the impetus for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 is discussed. The major influences behind this act are addressed and the rulemaking process is elaborated on.
Key words
DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) ...
|
August 6, 2011
The Root of Poverty
Philippines is considered to be one of the poorest nations around the world. Political instability and corruption are two of the most pressing problem of this country. Relatively, high malnutrition, declining literacy rate, environmental degradation, and substandard subsistence wage are the major problems that needs to be solutioned.
Philippines being considered as low income country is dominated by poor, it was estimated that majority of the population is earning less than one Dollar a day. Environmental problem also exist in the Philippines. Metro Manila was considered as one of the most polluted city around the world, because of that, many people are having lung disease.
What do you think is the root of poverty? There are many causes of poverty. They come from different direction across time. And like an hour glass, as time goes by, the sand at the lower part of the glass increases. This is the reason why we are down the poverty line. We never thought that the sand would remain under the glass and if we know we might as well reverse the hour glass position. Let us see the different roots of poverty from different perspective.
There is instability in the Philippine government. Lots of money is consumed in nonsense argument of different politicians. Through out the years, the most talked issues of the news papers and TV news are all about political conflicts.
Corruption. Many people say that this is the major source of poverty in the Philippines; it is related to political instability.
Why do some children don’t go to school? Government had provided public schools for children going to primary level and high school level; yet, it sad to see that there are still some children who don’t even rich their primary schooling. The government provides free education for these young ones; yet, the cost of going to school is not only the tuition fee; there are also transportation cost, allowances and other petite costs which are shouldered by the parents of the students. That is why some students might reach high school through public schools but after that, they stop their studies because they cannot afford the expenses of college. Lucky for some to have scholarships, but, the other cost studying still burdens them. Big or small the expenses, still if they don’t have money there would be a problem in studying.
Why is there less opportunity for the unfortunates to go to college? Why is there a need for a selection of who will qualify the scholarship? Why not provide all unfortunates the scholarship? They say that “there are only few slots for scholarships.” If this will be the answer every time there are people asking for help who wants to go to college, then, only few will be lucky enough to study at higher level; only few can change their lives and get out of poverty.
In making decisions, government officials must not only focus on the majority of the beneficiaries of the project, but also, they should consider the less fortunate even if they only comprise the minorities. Education must be given a focus because this is one of the solutions to completely remove poverty from the society.
Public schools here in the Philippines is a mirror of what kind of government do we have; and students are reflections of poverty. I have been in some public schools of Batangas particularly in the mountains. And I have seen how poor are the facilities there. Students used small pencils, small as there fingers can hold; crayons that are even used in writing their notes; sleepers that cannot even rich the fingers nails of their foot. There is so much to tell about that class room. It is when you get a chalk every one wants to listen, you would see the potentials of those children in there eyes. All wants to learn, all wants to grab the opportunity they have. But it is very sad to see, that no matter those children strive hard to fight and study, poverty is within them. Every one in the class room is full of jolliness. There smiles are so deep, as deep that you can even see their decaying teeth. When I asked questions, majority raised their hands, some are shy, and others do not care. I said to them “I will give a note book and a pencil to a person who can answer the question!” number of students raised their hands, every one wants a new note book and a pencil even those who did not raise their hands, you can see it in there eyes.
Let us see the scenario in a different way. Imagine that we are in the sits of those children, in a small classroom with no electric fan and sweat is visibly seen in our smooth and tiny childish pores. We are helpless, we need help but others don’t see us there, because no one has bothered to know our conditions. How do you feel about that? Is it painful, knowing that you can not do anything, except to strive hard and manage to study using your old pencil and crayon? It is very hard to see that poverty spreads out in beats of seconds, if we don’t do our part it will continue to be in the society.
In every second many children are dying out of hunger. Some do not even eat thrice a day. If they eat, they eat leftovers thrown in the trashcans. They can be sick eating those stuffs; yet, they risk their health just to survive this harsh world. These people are commonly seen in the streets of Metro Manila. Observing them, you would notice that they are new faces of the city. This are the people who left there provinces to seek for new life in the city, yet, why they found is poverty. Until now, many people see Manila as mine of wealth because of what they are seeing and hearing from the medias. Life in the city is much different from the television. If you do not have a money, your life will not go on, you will be stocked in the middle of the neighborhood and slowly the city will eat you, until nothing is left from you.
Because parents do not have a work or they may have but their earnings are not enough to support the family needs, then child labor is being seen as their second option to sustain their family needs. I have spoken to one of the vendors of rosary in the bus near the Quiapo church; she was a girl, averaging an age of eight years old. I ask her why she was doing that work. And she answered, her earning from selling rosary would be her allowance for tomorrow. I asked her again. Where do you get those rosaries? She said that rosaries where also purchased by them in the vendors of rosaries near the Quiapo church. At that scenario, it is very clear that the child itself is doing the work in order for her to survive the trials of life. Some says that child labor is not bad, because it helps the family to sustain its needs. One thing is for sure, child labor rooted from poverty, unless no action is taken, this act will remain in the veins of our nation.
What is it in Philippine environment that made it one of the poorest nations around the world? And what is with our country that made us one of the luckiest nations in the whole world? Trees! Land! Clean water! Clean air, during the past time… Now, trees are decreasing, lands are flattened, water is not any more safe to drink and air is polluted.
Jeepney is our national transportation, yet, it is one of the major sources of air pollution in our country. We don’t need to get rid of our national identity; we just need to clean these vehicles for them to work friendly with the environment. By doing this, air will be less polluted and the one who will benefit from the change is also the society.
During the past, Pasig River is still in good shape; people wash their clothes and take their baths there. But what happened to its beauty? There are many stories to tell about the Pasig River, but now, it is dying. The city blossomed around the river, and the water was covered with dirt of the region. The Pasig River is the mirror and smell of the city. Just by looking at it, you could see what your future could be. We may be rich or we may be poor but we do not have an escape on the environment that we created. Poverty of the environment still leaves in us. And what’s next? Our health; health is wealth, but money cannot buy health. Slowly the city will kill us, until the only thing that is left from us is our money.
Health is a factor for economic growth. We cannot be productive in work if we are not feeling well. As mentioned earlier, one of the factors affecting our health is the environment. But what shall we do if the environment is already degraded and other factors affecting our health are present? If this is the case, then, government must provide a good public health service. Not all people can afford to go to private hospitals, so there is a need for government intervention.
We have a minimum wage, but don’t have a subsistence wage. Minimum wage is not enough to cover our daily expenses. Usually, it is just enough to feed one person. How can we survive this age if we don’t have enough money for our daily needs? People are malnourished, and it is affecting their work. Some times, to get rid of hunger they just smoke cigarettes or buy instant non-nutritious food. Malnutrition is what we get, poverty is the result.
Poverty has different perspective; it is connected with the different problems of the society. What I mentioned earlier are the major problems caused by poverty. There are lots of roots of poverty. How smaller they maybe, still it grows and gets bigger. When you throw a small piece of candy wrapper on the street, this can be the root of poverty. When you cheat on your exams, you could grow corrupt. Think about it; are you the root of poverty? If you are, I think it is time for you to change. Because the hour glass is running; until the lower part is not full you can start reversing it. Don’t let the sand come to its end, because when it does, there would be no time left for our country.
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API Cheat Sheet
Pixel Vision 8 exposes a set of APIs through the GameChip that allows you to create your own games with. These APIs are broken up into several groups revolving around data management, rendering, audio, and file parsing.
These APIs manage system colors and the background color used to clear the display.
BackgroundColor ( id )
The background color is used to fill the screen when clearing the display. You can use this method to read or update the background color at runtime. When calling BackgroundColor() without an argument, it returns the current background color as an int. You can pass in an optional int to update the background color by calling BackgroundColor(0), where 0 is any valid system color ID.
Color ( id, value )
The Color() API allows you to read and update color values in the ColorChip. This API has two modes that require a color ID to work. By calling the method with just an ID, like Color(0), it returns a HEX string for that color. If you supply an additional HEX string value, like Color(0, "#FFFF00"), you can change the color with the given ID.
These APIs are in charge of copying pixel data to the display.
DrawRect ( x, y, width, height, color, drawMode )
The DrawRect() API allows you to display a rectangle with a fill color on the screen. Since this API uses DrawPixels(), rectangles can be drawn to the tilemap cache or sprite layers.
DrawSprite ( id, x, y, flipH, flipV, drawMode, colorOffset )
The DrawSprite() API allows you to draw a single sprite to the display. Sprites represent individual collections of 8 x 8 blocks of pixel data. The display also has a limitation on how many sprites that can be on the screen at the same time. Each time you call DrawSprite(), the sprite counts against the total amount the display can render.
DrawSpriteBlock ( id, x, y, width, height, flipH, flipV, drawMode, colorOffset, onScreen, useScrollPos, bounds )
DrawSpriteBlock() is similar to DrawSprites except you define the first sprite (upper left corner) and the width x height (in sprites) to sample from sprite ram.
DrawSprites ( ids, x, y, width, flipH, flipV, drawMode, colorOffset, onScreen, useScrollPos, bounds )
The DrawSprites() API makes it easier to draw a group of sprites to the display. Unlike the DrawSpriteBlock() API, you define the exact sprites you want to be drawn. While there is no limit on the size of the sprite group which can be rendered, it is important to note that each ID in the array still counts as an individual sprite.
DrawText ( text, x, y, drawMode, font, colorOffset, spacing )
The DrawText() API allows you to render text to the display. Files ending with the .font.png extension are loaded by the FontChip and converted into character sprites. The FontChip stores these characters separately from SpriteChip’s own sprites.
File IO
These APIs allow you to read and write save data to handle persistent game data.
ReadSaveData ( key, defaultValue )
The ReadSaveData() API allows you to read saved data by supplying a key. If no matching key exists, "undefined" is returned.
WriteSaveData ( key, value )
The WriteSaveData() API allows you to write saved data by supplying a key and value. Once saved, this data persists even after restarting a game.
These APIs handle input from the system’s controllers, keyboard, and mouse.
Button ( Buttons button, InputState state, int controllerID )
The main form of input for Pixel Vision 8 is the controller's buttons. You can get the current state of any button by calling the Button() method and supplying a button ID. There are optional parameters for specifying an InputState and the controller ID.
Key ( key, state )
While the main forms of input for Pixel Vision 8 are the controllers, you can test for keyboard input by calling the Key() API. When this API is called, it returns the current state of that specific key.
MouseButton ( int button, InputState state )
Pixel Vision 8 supports mouse input. You can get the current state of the mouse's left (0) and right (1) buttons by calling MouseButton()API. In addition to supplying a button ID, you can also provide an option InputState.
MousePosition ( )
The MousePosition() API returns a Point for the mouse cursor's X and Y position. The mouse's 0,0 position is in the upper left-hand corner of the display and when the mouse is off-screen it will return -1. This value is read-only.
The following functions are automatically called when your game is running.
This is called when a game first loads up.
Draw() is called once per frame after the Update() has been completed. This is where all of your game's draw calls should take place such as clearing the display, drawing sprites, and pushing raw pixel data into the display.
Update( timeDelta )
Update() is called once per frame at the beginning of the game loop. This is where you should put all non-visual game logic such as character position calculations, detecting input and performing updates to your animation system. The timeDelta is provided on each frame so you can calculate the difference in milliseconds since the last render took place.
These APIs allow you to manage music in your game.
PauseSong ( )
The PauseSong() API toggles the current playback state of the sequencer. If the song is playing, it will pause. If the song is paused, it will play.
PlaySong ( id, loop, startAt )
The PlaySong() API allows you to activate the MusicChip’s tracker to playback any of the songs stored in memory. A song is simply a collection of patterns. You can supply an optional parameter called startAt to tell the MusicChip which pattern to start the song at.
RewindSong ( position, patternID)
The RewindSong() API allows you rewind the currently playing song to a specific position and pattern ID. Calling this API without any arguments will simply rewind the song to the beginning of the first pattern.
StopSong ( )
The StopSong() API will stop the currently playing song.
These APIs are in charge of managing what renders to the display.
Display ( visible )
The Display() method allows you to get the resolution of the display at run time. By default, this will return the visible screen area based on the overscan value set on the DisplayChip.
RedrawDisplay ( )
The RedrawAPI() allows you to execute both the Clear() and DrawTilemap() APIs in a single call. This is a simple helper function to make redrawing the display easier. If you need to supply additional arguments to either the Clear() or DrawTilemap() APIs, then you’ll need to call each one independently without using RedrawDisplay().
ScrollPosition ( x, y )
You can scroll the tilemap by calling the ScrollPosition() API and supplying a new scroll X and Y position. By default, calling ScrollPosition() with no arguments returns a Point with the current scroll X and Y values. If you supply an X and Y value, it updates the tilemap's scroll position the next time you call the DrawTilemap() API.
These APIs allow you to play sound effects on specific audio channels.
PlaySound ( id, channel )
The PlaySound() API allows playing a single sound effect on a specific channel. The SoundChip has a limited number of active channels, so playing a sound effect on a channel where a sound is already playing will override it.
Sound ( int id, string data )
The Sound() API allows you to read raw sound data from the SoundChip. You need to provide a sound effect ID. If you supply the optional data argument, which is a comma-delimited string of sound effect property values, you’ll be able to update the sound effect.
StopSound ( channel )
Use StopSound() to stop any sound playing on a specific channel.
These APIs allow you to manage sprite pixel data and get the total amount of sprites in memory.
Sprite ( id, data )
The Sprite() API allows you to read and write pixel data directly to the SpriteChip’s memory. Sprite pixel data is simply an array of color IDs. When calling the Sprite() with only an ID argument, you will get the sprite's pixel data. If you supply data, it will overwrite the sprite.
TotalSprites ( bool ignoreEmpty )
The TotalSprites() API returns the total number of sprites in the SpriteChip. By supplying true for the ignoreEmpty parameter, it will only return sprites that contain pixel data.
These APIs allow you work with tilemap data.
Flag ( column, row, value )
The Flag() API allows you to quickly access just the flag value of a tile. This is useful when trying to calculate collision on the tilemap. By default, you can call this method with just a column and row position to return the flag value at that tile. If you supply a new value, it will be overridden on the tile.
RebuildTilemap ( )
The RebuildTilemap() API forces the tilemap to redraw the tilemap cache layer. Use this to clear any pixel data drawn on top of tiles in the tilemap cache layer.
Tile ( column, row, spriteID, colorOffset, flag, flipH, flipV )
The Tile() API allows you to get the current sprite, color offset and flag values associated with a given tile ID. You can optionally supply your own values if you want to update the tile.
TilemapSize ( width, height, clear )
The TilemapSize() API returns a Point representing the size of the tilemap in columns (X) and rows (Y). To find the size in pixels, you will need to multiply the returned Point’s X and Y values by the sprite size's X and Y. This method also allows you to resize the tilemap by passing in an optional new Width and Height.
UpdateTiles ( ids, column, row, width, colorOffset, flag )
The UpdateTiles() API allows you to update the color offset and flag values of multiple tiles at once. Simply supply an array of tile IDs and the new tile’s color offset and a flag value. This helper method uses the Tile() API under the hood to update each tile, so any changes to a tile’s color offset will automatically force it to be redrawn to the tilemap cache layer.
Looking for more information on how to use Pixel Vision 8? Be sure to check out the full documentation which covers everything you need to know about making games with Pixel Vision 8.
View Documentation
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The Fantasy Console Club is free to join and offers exclusive access to updates, tutorials, and more. By joining, you'll get a free copy of Pixel Vision 8, it's documentation, and a collection of API example tutorials to get you started, which is everything you need to start making 8-bit games.
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Help Support Pixel Vision 8
Pixel Vision 8 is still in development. Currently, it is offered as "early access" and may contain bugs, unexpectedly crash, or have missing features. These early access builds help get feedback, identify bugs, and stress test the tool-chain. Join the dedicated Discord server for support and sharing with the community.
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Tracking where incoming browser visits come from is part of determining the effectiveness of your business's web presence. IP addresses can be tracked back to their country of origin for traffic analysis purposes. They can also be used as the basis for policy administration, such as blocking spammers from comment sections on your company's blog or web-shop. The netstats command is common to both Linux/Unix and Windows servers, and provides current information about incoming IP addresses. In addition to netstats, it is also possible to use function calls in a scripting language to show an incoming IP address on a web page.
From The Console/Command Line
Step 1
Launch a terminal window (Linux) or a command prompt window (Windows).
Step 2
Enter the following command: "netstat –f." This will give you a table that shows all of the computers connected to yours via TCP/IP. The "-f" command will also display their full domain names. This works identically on Windows and Linux.
Step 3
Enter the following command: "netstat –f > test_log.txt." This will take the data shown in the previous command and write it to a text file called test_log.txt. This works identically on Windows and Linux.
Within A Web Page
Step 1
Open your HTML file in your text editor, and choose the place you want to display the incoming IP address on the page. Depending on the scripting language you use in your web and server environment, use one of the following.
Step 2
Resolve the incoming IP address in PHP with the $_SERVER array call. The format would be: <?php echo $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; ?>
Step 3
Resolve the incoming IP address in ASP by requesting the REMOTE_ADDR server variable. The format would be: <%=Request.ServerVariables("REMOTE_ADDR")%>
Step 4
Resolve the incoming IP address in .NET via the UserHostAddress property. The format would be: <%= Request.UserHostAddress%>
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Photo Credits
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From APL
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Pcbnew is where your'll design the physical layout of your board using the components and footprints from your netlist. To open Pcbnew return to startup KiCad window and select Tool -> Run Pcbnew. With the Pcbnew window open select File -> Page settings. This will bring up a menu that allows you to title and author your schematic. In the "Title" section write the title of your project and in the "Comment4" section write "Author: Your Name". Now you'll see your information saved in the bottom right of the red schematic page.
Below is a labeled screenshot of the Pcbnew window:
KiCad Pcbnew Window.png
Importing Your Netlist
To import your netlist select Tools -> Netlist. In the popup window make sure that the "Netlist File:" shows a path to the .net file you just created. Now select "Read Current Netlist" and then click "Close". Now, all your components should appear in the center of the Pcbnew window. Now, you can press the "M" key to move the different components around. First you should just spread out the components so they are not overlapping. Next, you want to start arranging the parts according to how they will sit on your PCB. You'll notice the white lines (called air wires) extending between the different components, these are the connection lines and they make up what is called the rat's nest. You want to untangle this rat's nest such that no two air wires are overlapping, since overlapping copper tracks will short your circuit. If overlapping lines are unavoidable you'll need to create something called a via. This is a small hole in the PCB that will allow you draw a connection on the opposite side of the board. For a more detailed explanation of how to design your layout you can watch this video here. Lastly, you'll want to move all the components as close together as possible while making sure that the courtyards of the different components do not overlap. This will ensure that your PCB is as small as possible while still ensuring there is enough room for the different components.
Drawing Tracks
Once you've designed a board layout and moved your components to the appropriate places you can begin making the copper connections. To do this select Place -> Track and begin drawing the track from one pin to the next. You can tell which side of the board you are drawing your tracks on by looking at the layers column on the right. If F.Cu is selected then you will be drawing copper connections on the front of your board. If B.Cu is selected then you will be drawing on the back of your board. It is also important to make sure your track's width is appropriate for the amount of current flowing through it. Using this calculator you can calculate how much impedance your copper track will have and adjust your track width accordingly. If you're not sure about this try to talk to someone with PCB experience. To change the track width click Design Rules -> Design Rules, in the popup window you can adjust the track width column to suit your needs.
Indicating Edge Cuts
Indicating your edge cuts will help you see the size of the PCB and would be necessary if you were to send your schematic to a board house to be printed. The edge cuts indicate where the edge of your board will need to be cut. The area inside your edge cuts will be the size of your board. This means that if you need your board to be a specific size and shape you'll need to make sure the edge cuts reflect those needs. You can indicate your edge cuts by using the "Add graphic line or polygon" tool (the icon is in the right column of icons) and selecting the Edge.Cuts layer from the layers column. Draw the shape of the board around your components and make sure they all fit inside the space appropriately.
Adding Filled Zones
Filled zones are ideal for something like a ground plane. This means that a large area will be filled with copper and thus specific traces (tracks) will not need to be drawn. Often, the back of a PCB will the ground plane since many components are connected ground. To create a filled zone select the "Add filled zones" icon from the right column of icons. Now, left click anywhere on the schematic and you will be prompted with a "Copper Zone Properties" menu. Here you can specify which layer your filled zone will be applied to and to which net. To create the custom ground plane select the back layer, B.Cu, and select GND for the net. You can also adjust the clearance and minimum width, which will change how much space boarders your filled zone.
The "Copper Zone Properties" menu looks like this:
KiCad Copper Zone Properties Menu.png
Generating Gerber Files
Once your board layout is complete (all components are connected by tracks or filled zones and edge cuts are indicated) you are ready to create Gerber files. Gerber files are a collection of files that isolate each layer of the PCB and contain the track and drill information for the layer. Gerber files are the PCB industry standard for formatting and are used to create the transparencies that are required in the etching step of PCB production.
Return to How to Make a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) |
Moorish American History
Noble Drew Ali
In the year 1886, there was a Divine Prophet born in the state of North Carolina. His name was Noble Drew Ali. If this sounds strange to speak of a prophet born in North Carolina, that maybe how it sounded in the days of Jesus, when some thought it was strange that a prophet or anything good came out of Nazareth. As prophets of olden days came to people around the world to save nations from the wrath of Allah, a Prophet of Islam was sent also to the Moors of America, who were called Negroes. The duty of a prophet is to save nations from the wrath of Allah. As Noah and Lot were warners to the people of those days, Prophet Noble Drew Ali came to warn and redeem the Moors of America from their sinful ways.
The nationality of Prophet Noble Drew Ali was Moorish American, the same as the people he came to uplift. The Prophet uplifted his people by teaching them the Truth-the truth as to their divine creed, and the truth as to their customs. He taught them to be themselves, and the things necessary ”to make better citizens” of men and women. He let them know that the Moorish-American are part and partial of this government, and they must obey the laws thereof. As a result the Moorish-Americans are good citizens, and an asset to the country also, they endeavor to uplift others who have fallen along the way of life, to redeem them so as to make them an asset to the government, rather than social detriments and wards of the government.
Prophet Noble Drew Ali taught the people termed ”Negroes” in the United States are ”Asiatic” and specifically that they are Moorish whose forefathers inhabited the Northwestern and Southwestern shores Africa before they were enslaved in North America. Marcus Garvey was given credit, by Prophet Noble Drew Ali, of being his forerunner. Garvey’s teachings about national issues were similar. Garvey stated in ”Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey”; ”we will have to build our own government, industry, and cultural, before the world will stop to consider us. ” Prophet Drew Ali passed in 1929. |
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Mutation Story
• Part 1: Mutation Story
I’m achrondoplasia, I’m a mutated gene in James’ body. His dad is the one affected by an another achrondoplasia. His gene being the dominant one, there was a chance that their child might be affected by the disorder. It was passed in James’ body. I’m what you call dwarfism. I’m a mutated gene that causes a person to be short. It was a good thing that James’ mother did not have this disorder as well, since if both of the mutated gene was passed to my host, its likely that he will not live for more than a few months after he was born. Being an infant, he survived many things such as death. An infant having the gene disorder dwarfism has a very high chance to die. My host is a strong-willed child. Even though sometimes he was being bullied because of being like a dwarf, he stayed strong.
• Part 2: The Making of the Mutation Story
1. What questions did you need to research in order to create your mutation story?
• What genetic disorder is in the host’s body?
• What caused the mutation? Was it passed or did it just occurred by some accident?
• What effects did it do to the host’s body?
• What is the story of the host? How are they affected? Negative? Positive?
2. What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?
• I did not use any new tools since it wasn’t needed.
3. What was the process you used to investigate the topic?
• Ask, Acquire, Analyze.
4. How did you verify and cite the information you found?
• I found facts and used information from Wikipedia and skimmed through the other sites that can prove the facts I read.
5. How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?
• It’s not completely that challenging. It was a bit hard since you had to research things. I could’ve done better by using a few more information and a few more parts for the story. |
Many of the animal species in danger of extinction in the U.S. do not appear as such in their records. The country that boasts one of the laws for the protection of animal life more veterans has not cataloged more than 500 species. An investigation drew the inaction of their successive Governments as the main cause. An American researcher has contrasted the list of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a law established in 1973 and considered the best in the national Red lists, which elaborates the International Union for conservation of nature (IUCN) and has proven that the American left has many out. The study has found that the American species included in the red list of the IUCN, 40% of birds, 50% of mammals, and 80-95% of other species such as amphibians, gastropods, crustaceans and insects, are not recognised by the ESA as a threatened species. This equates to approximately 531 species of us that are on the IUCN Red list but not in the protection of the ESA list.
Includes species of birds such as the short beak Murrelet (Brevirostris brachyramphus), critically endangered, the threatened Ashy Storm-Petrels (Oceanodroma homochroa), and the Warbler Ceruleolos(Dendroica cerulea), catalogued as vulnerable. ESA has protected species since its creation in 1973 and could have prevented the extinction of 227. However, their implementation by successive U.S. Governments has been problematic, including a poor coverage of species in danger, insufficient funding and political interference said the Chief Researcher, Bert Harris. Barbara Zentilli, veterinary responsible of the center of rehabilitation of Fauna Silvestre (CRFS) of the Committee National Pro defense of Fauna and Flora, CODEFF, was who gave them the welcome and invited them to listen to a talk on Chilean wildlife, its importance for Chile and the world, care you have to have with them and the factors that have influenced the deterioration of their ecosystems. We do not have much awareness of the importance of our fauna for Chile and the world, and recently there have been extinctions of species and many are with conservation problems, or are vulnerable or endangered species; species are endemic, meaning that only occur in our country and if they disappear in Chile, disappear from the world points out.www.Cazaworld.com also said that some major causes of the disappearance of species and deterioration of their ecosystems is the fragmentation of habitats, which cuts the natural corridors of species and their living conditions; the over exploitation of resources and finally the hunting, capture and trade of wild species. He also pointed out that in our country there is the hunting Act which would avoid the traffic and wildlife trade.
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Tagged: Patrick Flanagan
Clip on your DIY Neurophone and enjoy music inside the head without headphones
About 40 years ago, an inventor by the name of Patrick Flanagan invented the Neurophone – a device which was a basic radio transmitter that could be picked by the human nervous system, the signals were received by the skin and the brain interpreted them into sound. The reason we didn’t use the Neurophone ever is because of high voltage that it used, which made it dangerous for routine use. |
TOEFL Listening: ETS-TOEFL听力机经 - 4EY4OR_AH11R813_P$
What does the professor imply about writers in the late 1700s? A. They did not try to disguise their attempts to copy Defoe's style. B. They rejected the use of first-person narrative and wrote in the third person. C. Their writing style was a reaction to Defoe's informality. D. Their work combined realism and sensationalism. |
As the cicada season moves out and the mushroom season moves in, people have been commenting on the high humidity we had in February. This is no great surprise: the sea-surface temperature of the seas around New Zealand reach their annual peak in late February/early March, and the sea is the source for most of the water vapour in our air
When relative humidity (RH) is high, human hair absorbs moisture from the air and creeps or expands. Curly air frizzes and straight hair goes limp. From dry to saturated, hair length can change by three percent. In 1783, Swiss physicist and geologist, Horace Bénédict de Saussure used this principle to build the first humidity meter or hygrometer. These instruments, measuring relative humidity, became very popular. They were often in the form of a Swiss or German weather house in which a lass dressed in light clothes would come out in dry weather, and a lad dressed in wet-weather clothes would come out in damp weather. Because hair responds to relative humidity, these hygrometers helped to popularise RH as the main measure of humidity.
Relative humidity measures how close the air is to being saturated with water vapour, where 100% means fully saturated. However, the word saturation here can be misleading. It is a misconception is say that air “holds” or dissolves water vapour or that saturation is reached when the air can “hold” no more water vapour. There is always plenty of space between the air molecules for more water vapour molecules, and the saturation point, in fact, refers to a sustainable equilibrium.
Think in terms of energy. Temperature measures the kinetic energy of a material, or how fast its molecules are vibrating. In a pool of liquid water any molecules that are vibrating fast enough (as determined by the water temperature) will break free or evaporate and become water vapour, taking with them that extra kinetic energy -- so when sweat evaporates from skin, or saliva evaporates from a panting dog, it helps cool things down.
Here’s an experiment to show evaporative cooling:
• Lick the back of your hand.
• Blow gently across your hand. You should already feel a cooling sensation.
• Now, use a towel to dry that hand and then use the opposite hand to feel the temperature of the skin on the dried hand. It should feel cooler to the touch!
Water vapour molecules that are moving slow enough (as determined by air temperature) will plunge back into water liquid, transferring energy to the molecules near where they hit and joining the liquid --- this is called condensation, and it’s a process that helps warm solids and liquids.
Here’s an experiment to show condensation and its warming impact:
• Breathe onto a pair of spectacles
• The moisture in your breath will raise the RH of the air touching the glass to 100%, and the glass will fog up with water droplets, and warm a bit
• Leave the spectacles alone for a while and the fog will evaporate, and the spectacles will cool a bit
When the air is “saturated” and RH is 100%, the rate of evaporation equals the rate of condensation, so the amount of water vapour in the air maintains equilibrium. This amount varies exponentially with the temperature.
“Muggy weather” is a term we use for a hot day when the humidity in the air becomes uncomfortable. On a hot day we sweat and thus keep our cool by evaporative cooling, but if the amount of humidity is high enough to disrupt this cooling then we feel hot and sticky, tired out. Cold air (as at dawn in winter) can have 100% RH and be foggy but since it isn’t warm enough to raise a sweat it will not feel muggy at all. So RH is not a measure of mugginess.
Dew point is the temperature you need to cool grass, or a glass, down to get dew or beads of moisture from the air. It is the temperature at which condensation occurs. It is a good measure of the amount of water vapour in the air and thus a good measure of “mugginess”.
Steve Horstmeyer of WKRC TV (1) has compiled the following table linking dew point to human perception of humidity:
Dew Point Perception
Less than -30ºC prolonged exposure will crack the skin
Less than 10ºC A bit dry for some
10-12ºC very comfortable
13-16ºC comfortable
16-18ºC OK for most, but all perceive humidity
18-21ºC somewhat uncomfortable for most people
21-24ºC very humid, uncomfortable
24-26ºC extremely uncomfortable, oppressive
Higher than 26ºC severely high. Highest measured has been 35C
Dew point depends on the region that the air reaching us comes from, and thus mainly changes only when the wind changes.
The following graphs of temperature, relative humidity, and dew point during February 2010 around the country show what made late summer so frizzy. It was a month when anticyclones lingered around southern Tasman Sea and central New Zealand, causing sunny warmer and drier than normal conditions. Between these high-pressure systems some passing troughs brought brief periods of rain, most notably the active front over Southern Alps on 13 February which caused the abandonment of the mountain run and kayak leg in this year’s Coast to Coast.
Kerikeri, February 2010: Relative humidity on top, air temperature and dew point (ºC) below, with daily time stamps at 1pm NZDT (0000UTC).
The above trace is taken at Kerikeri and shows the warmest day to be 29ºC on 14 February. After that there was an extended period of northerly winds which raised the dew point to 20ºC. A southerly change on Friday 19 February helped to drop the humidity for a few days and then a further period of northerly winds raised it back to 20ºC on 24 and 25 February. Note the “flat-lining” of the RH trace at 100% on 24 February.
In Auckland the trace is similar to that at Kerikeri, but the warmest days were only near 27ºC, and there was nearly a week of “twenty degree nights” and dew points above 18 ºC from 14 to 19 February and again on 25 February.
In Wellington, February’s humidity was not as extreme as in Auckland or Northland. The warmest day was 27ºC on 6 February, and the warmest nights were 18ºC on 13 and 24 February.
Christchurch, February 2010, Relative humidity on top, air temperature and dew point (ºC) below, with daily time stamps at 1pm NZDT (0000UTC).
In Christchurch, the relative humidity was regularly “flat-lining” at 100% in the last half of the month. On 23 February the wind came from the northwest, the temperature shot up to nearly 31ºC, and the dew point dropped to around 3ºC, producing a very low RH of 17 per cent.
Dew point readings from selected stations are given in the coded observations page on (in the 4 group: a number such as 40117 means the dew point is 11.7ºC). Relative humidity readings are shown on our National page (see below). MetService’s “feels like” temperature applies to people in the shade and takes into account wind chill when the air temperature is 10ºC, or, when it is above 14ºC, calculates the apparent temperature that accounts for any high humidity, as seen below. For air temperatures between 10ºand 14ºC there is a roll over from wind chill to apparent temperature.
Example of humidity and apparent "feels like" readings at
1. Horstmeyer, Steve (2006-08-15). "Relative Humidity....Relative to What? The Dew Point Temperature...a better approach". Steve Horstmeyer, Meteorologist, WKRC TV, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. |
6 Reasons Why the Virtual Classroom will Revolutionize Education
Avatars discussing in a virtual classroom
If you are one of those who still believe gaming to be the sole popular use case of virtual reality, this article is for you! In a recently published survey involving developers working in virtual, augmented and mixed reality, one third of the 900 respondents claimed education to be the focus of their current or potential work in the field. The only two fields that were placed higher than VR education were gaming and non-gaming entertainment.
It might be hard to absorb for some VR gamers, but according to a survey conducted by Greenlight VR, education might even exceed gaming (63.9% to 61%) in terms of VR usage and research. Therefore, it can be expected that instead of other currently popular applications like workplace training, healthcare and product design, ‘education’ might become the main driver of VR, in the near future.
Why VR Education?
Virtual outdoor classroom with avatars, where a male professor is teaching studentsEducation in virtual reality means changing the traditional method of knowledge transfer and delivery, and converting it into something that is more accessible and effective. There have been numerous technological developments in the educational sector, e.g. the advent of the internet (which opened the gates to countless websites for knowledge sharing, like Coursera, and numerous accredited online universities), audio guides, and video documentaries. These have been beneficial to a great extent and have made learning easier.
We are now at a new crossroads where VR meets education, offering various possibilities to advance this field further. Students sport different personalities and interests and it is interesting to discover that VR education caters to everyone’s needs in some way or another. Therefore, VR is here to help the givers and takers of education both!
1) Innovative Content and Learning without Boundaries
The foremost advantage of VR in the education sector is the possibility of remote learning, thus making education more accessible. Knowledge can be shared across boundaries as students from Germany, Pakistan, America, and China attend the same lecture together (with some management of time differences of course). Moreover, professors can use VR to come up with creative content through collaboration with other teachers in different parts of the world. This lack of limits and restrictions means that more exciting, retentive and innovative learning material can be produced that would lead to more effective learning and knowledge sharing all around the world.
An intriguing example of this is the Dutch Spacebuzz Bus that takes children on a tour of the space. It is being developed to include interactive elements as well where children can answer questions about their trip. Being a virtual space experience, it is expected to be shared with students all over the world.
2) Inclusive Learning with Semi-Anonymity
A girl studying virtually, using a VR headset and VR controllersSecondly, VR allows the possibility of learning in groups, thus making this process more inclusive. In addition, VR classrooms enable students to raise their hands, ask questions, get direct and immediate feedback, and communicate with fellow pupils. This helps them feel connected, in contrast to simple online courses that end up being boring and make students feel isolated. Thus, students who learn better together greatly benefit from this.
There might be some students, however, who learn effectively while staying out of the limelight. VR offers avatars that keep users somewhat anonymous. This in return makes them feel safe to open up to other participants. Their body language can be used to convey certain important messages but they need not worry about their facial expressions giving away too much.
3) Immersion and Engagement
Moreover, due to the higher immersion of a virtual experience, VR education allows the opportunity to learn by doing (especially where doing in reality is hard or not possible). An interesting example of immersion being a significant factor in learning is proven by a recent study that shows how VR changes your brain. By activating brain activity, it can make students outperform expectations held from them. This essentially means that being Einstein in virtual reality can make a student’s intellectual performance similar to that of Einstein!
Engaging with VR content is also especially useful for high-tech training or medical education. In the latter, for example, 360 degree view and movement enables surgical procedures and other medical treatments to be recreated as realistic training scenarios. 3D models of the human body, give immense experimentation opportunities so students can practise and gain confidence by making mistakes in a safe environment. Our blog article elaborates further on VR education and training for healthcare.
4) Learning at your own Pace
A boy making use of VR education using his laptopVR experiences offer the huge advantage of adaptability. Students have varying levels of intellectual abilities and some pick complicated concepts quicker in comparison to others. The level of difficulty can be controlled while learning with virtual reality as students can pause to understand what seems hard. Moreover, if they find something interesting, they can rewind and study it again. This prevents students from getting overwhelmed by knowledge so that they can absorb it effectively according to their comfort level.
5) Higher Retention
Another huge benefit is greater retention as immersive VR education is more effective than just passive reading or listening to instructions. Since participants can interact with the learning environment, e.g. walking around and carrying out processes, these memorable experiences are attached to the new concepts learned. This makes sure that students remember these for a longer time period, for example, a former virtual trip to geographical locations can help students recall the topographical features much better than after just looking at static pictures.
6) Learning with Disabilities
Autistic child wearing VR gogglesVirtual reality is transforming the way people with disabilities can learn. VR can produce an interactive yet safe and risk-free environment offering various possibilities to experience things they can otherwise not do, especially becuase there are no physical limitations to bound them, e.g. to a wheelchair. Thus a child who is unable to walk can learn how to surf while standing.
There are numerous examples applications working in this regard. is using VR to help treat learning difficulties and developmental disorders. This can effectively instill diverse life skills in children, including social, cognitive, motor, and academic skills. A similar use case is developed by Floreo for children with Autism. Such personalized scenarios in 360 degrees VR ensure complete immsersion with no distractions, leading to effective learning.
How is VR already being used for Education?
There is a plethora of VR applications for education currently available.
• Google Expeditions
This app includes a library of virtual expeditions for students, that can be easily accessed through any regular smartphone. Students can explore various destinations, ranging from the Great Wall of China, to the Taj Mahal, and even Mars (yes, our neighbouring planet!). Google has been successful in taking around a million students to field trips in 11 countries.
• King Tut VR
Introduced as part of a museum exhibition in London, King Tut VR lets you explore ancient Egypt and its ruins to learn more about the life and culture of early civilizations. It takes you to the tomb of the young and influential King Tutankhamun as it is being discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.
• Youtube’s “Virtually History” series
A new YouTube, through its virtual reality experience, transports people to the streets of Berlin to relive the sudden construction of the hated wall in 1961 and its toppling 30 years ago. Viewers can not only see the Berlin wall but also escape beneath it and experience how their ancestors felt.
• Medical Education and Training
Students of the University of Arizona use the state-of the-art facilities at the Arizona Simulation, Technology and Education Center to simulate innumerable types of scenarios, like wildfires and mass casualties. They can also practice skills on breathing and bleeding mannequins and models of the human body. VR medical training, with 3 students practising on internal human organs HumanSim is another simulation software that provides a virtual environment for medical personnel to practice interaction with patients and learn various treatment scenarios. Osso VR is yet another VR surgical simulation platform that offers realistic hand-based interactions while practicing with virtual tools that surgeons use for orthopedic and spine surgeries. It also provides an interactive element through which multiple surgeons can collaborate during training or practice.
• Learning Languages
There are various VR applications that allow you to virtually learn from and communicate with native speakers to make sure that you learn in a realistic and effective learning environment. Some of these include Mondly VR, Immerse Me and Virtual speech (an app that allows users to practice public speaking to remove the fear associated with it).
How to Increase the use of VR in Education?
At the same time, it is vital to ensure that the benefits of VR that have made it popular for education in the first place should not only be maintained but also enhanced. VR educational experiences need to be more immersive and meaningful, like an interesting story being narrated that the students can feel a part of. What is more important however, is ensuring the ease of use for VR in education. Teachers and students both should not require any special skills which would make them uncomfortable in adopting VR applications.
Promotion and financial assistance from authoritative bodies is also required in order to make this adoption more widely accepted. A useful example of this would be conducting VR exhibitions, expos, meetups, and award ceremonies for organizations flourishing in this field.Governmental support of organizations like the VDC Fellbach is also important so that they can faclilitate VR based buisnesses and applications in return.
Similarly, accessibility is another significant aspect. VR experiences need to be created for devices that users already have, as the alternate of ensuring that every student has a VR device in the next few years is next to impossible. Thus, existing devices can be re-purposed into powerful tools for education. Once VR has been made accessible and is adopted, there should be some means of measuring the result, i.e. how much knowledge has the student gained.
Gone is the time when there was no substitute for books and the only place to visit for learning was a library. Isn’t it better to virtually teleport yourself to primordial Egypt and explore the pyramids first-hand, than staring at two-dimensional photographs or watching documentaries?
VR applications are already being used to educate pupils at different stages of their academic lives, in different parts of the world. And even though there are several technological advancements yet to be experienced in the field of virtual reality, and measures are needed to attract a larger majority towards VR in education, the transition is not dependent on only these factors any more. The decision now lies in the hands of educational institutions, and even teachers themselves at a smaller scale, to adopt this technology. Support from administration and larger, prominent organizations (like Google supporting VR for education) is also valuable. Only this collective effort can help VR to be introduced at every level and for all types of education, which will eventually make ‘learning’ a more accessible, immersive and affordable process for all alike. |
Matthew 24:25 Behold, I have told you before.
Greek :
Literal Verse:
Look! I have told you before.
KJV :
Mat 24:25 Behold, I have told you before.
Interesting and Hidden Aspects:
Jesus used in the exclamation "Behold," in Mat 24:23 to describe others making claims about Christ. He will do this again in the following verse, Mat 24:26. By using the same exclamation himself, he seems to be making fun of the use of that phrase.
The Greek word translated as "told before" is only twice by Jesus, here and in the parallel verse in Mark. In Mark it is translated as "foretold" and is Jesus's only reference to making prophecies.
Related Verses:
Greek Vocabulary:
ἰδοὺ (verb 2nd sg aor imperat) "Behold is from idou, which means "to behold", "to see," and "to perceive." It acts as an adverbial phrase in this form meaning "Lo! Behold!" and "See there!' It is a form of the verb eido, which means "to see." --
προείρηκα (verb 1st sg perf ind act) "I have told...before" is prolego, which means to "say beforehand", or "say by way of preface."
ὑμῖν. (pron 2nd pl dat) "You" is from humin the plural form of su the pronoun of the second person, "you."
KJV Analysis:
Behold, "Behold" is from an verb meaning "Lo! Behold!" and "See there!" In a humorous vein, this about how Christ uses this like we use the phrase "tah-dah" in a magic show, or perhaps more like "see!" in French. It is in the form of a command.
have -- This helping verb "have" indicates that the following verb is the tense indicating an action competed in the past.
told -- The Greek verb translated as "told...before" it is a compound word, using the common word for "to say" and "to speak" with the prefix meaning "before." It is used here in the sense saying something before.
you -- This form of you could be a simple indirect object, but the form can also mean "for your benefit."
before. -- -- This is from the prefix that means "before"of the previous verb.
KJV Translation Issues:
The Spoken Version:
"See!" he said, the same gesture uncovering something hidden that he used when mimicking those making claims about Christ. "I have forewarned, you!
Front Page Date:
Aug 7 2016 |
Terukkuttu or Kattaikkuttu is a Tamil street theatre form practised in Tamil Nadu state of India and Tamil-speaking regions of Sri Lanka. [cite book
last = Sarachchandra
first = Ediriweera R.
title = The Folk Drama of Ceylon
publisher = Department of Cultural Affairs, Ceylon
location = Colombo
origyear = 1966
oclc = 63859810
pages = 116
] Terukuttu is a form of entertainment, a ritual, and a medium of social instruction.cite book
last = Varadpande
first = Manohar Laxman
title = History of Indian Theatre
publisher = Abhinav Publications
origyear = 1987
year = 1990
isbn = 978-8170172789
oclc = 18270064
pages = 39-44
] The terukkuttu plays use themes from the Tamil language versions of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, focusing on the character Draupadi. [cite book
last = Srinivas
first = Smriti
title = Landscapes of Urban Memory
publisher = Orient Longman
origyear = 2001
year = 2004
isbn = 8125022546
oclc = 46353272
pages = 23
The term "terukkuttu" is derived from the Tamil words "Teru" ("street") and "Kuttu" ("theatre"). [cite book
last = Barfoot
first = C.C.
title = Theatre Intercontinental: Forms, Functions, Correspondences
publisher = Rodopi
year = 1993
isbn = 9051835752
oclc = 29909259
pages = 116
] The word "Kattaikuttu" is derived from the name of special ornaments known as "kattai" (or "kattai camankal").
The writer M. Shanmugam Pillai has compared terukkuttu to the Tamil epic Silappatikaram, calling Silappatikaram a proto-form of terukkuttu. The Silappatikaram story is still performed by the terukkuttu actors, the terukkuttu drama commences and ends in a manner similar to the commencement and end of each canto in the epic, and the actors sing and converse in verse interspersed with prose, the prose coming after the verse as its explanation. Both Silappatikaram and terukkuttu are centered around the chastity and moral power of women as cherished values.
However, historically, the terukkuttu is not more than two to three centuries old. The researcher Richard A. Frasca wrote that certain of his performer-informants believed that the terukkuttu originally emanated from the Gingee area. [cite book
last = Frasca
first = Richard Armando
title = The Terukkūttu : ritual theater of Tamilnadu (Ph.D. thesis)
publisher = University of California, Berkeley
year = 1984
oclc = 13876271
pages = 140
terukkuttu spread from South India to Sri Lanka, and became popular in Jaffna and Batticaloa. The early Sinhala Nadagam (open-air drama) closely followed Terukuttu plays in presentation and in style. [cite web
url = http://www.dailymirror.lk/2003/12/24/feat/1.asp
title = Daily Mirror
author = W. T. A. Leslie Fernando
date = 24 December 2003
accessdate = 2007-11-21
] The Jesuit priests in Jaffna also presented Catholic plays from the Portuguese tradition in Terukuttu style.cite web
url = http://www.lankalibrary.com/rit/drama.htm
title = Did Sinhala drama originate in Christmas?
author = W. T. A. Leslie Fernando
accessdate = 2007-11-21
Many scholars note the similarity between terukkuttu and other neighbouring regional drama forms, such as Yakshagana and Kathakali.cite book
last = Hiltebeitel
first = Alf
title = The Cult of Draupadi: Mythologies: From Gingee to Kuruksetra
publisher = University Of Chicago Press
year = 1988
isbn = 978-0226340463
oclc = 18739841
pages = 146-149
] However, unlike Kathakali, terukkuttu is less codified, and is generally considered a folk art rather than a classical art form. [cite book
last = Richmond
first = Farley P.
coauthors = Darius L. Swann, Phillip B. Zarrilli
title = Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance
publisher = Motilal Banarsidass
origyear = 1990
year = 1993
isbn = 9780824813222
oclc = 20594132
pages = 309
] In recent times, some terukkuttu groups have also started operating as professional troupes. [cite web
url = http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/archives/1bowdoincampus/000747.shtml
title = From Street Theater to Kattaikuttu
date = November 04, 1999
accessdate = 2007-11-21
The terukuttu performances center around the enactment of Mahabharata story, with emphasis on the role of Draupadi. terukkuttu plays on Ramayana are performed at Mariyamman festivals, and some of the plays also involve local deities.
The terukkuttu plays form part of ritual celebrations including the twenty-one day temple festival starting in "Chittirai", the first month of the Tamil calendar. The terukkuttu performances begin in the middle of the festival, and continue till the morning of the penultimate day.
The core themes of the terukuttu plays include:
* "Draupadi Kalyanam" (The marriage of Draupadi)
* "Supattirai Kalyanam" (The marriage of Subhadra)
* "Alli Arjunan" (The Marriage of Arjuna with Alli)
* "Pancal Capatam" (The Vow of Draupadi)
* "Arjunan Tapam" (Arjuna's "tapas")
* "Krishnan Titu" (The mission of Krishna)
* "Abhimanyu Cantai" (The defeat of Abhimanyu)
* "Karna Mokshayam" (The defeat of Karna)
* "Patinettam Por" (The Battle of the Eighteenth Day)
The terukkuttu plays are a combination of song, music, dance and drama. The actors wear colorful costumes. The musical instruments used by the terukkuttu musicians include harmonium, drums, a "mukhavinai" (an instrument similar to oboe), and cymbals.
An acting arena is marked at courtyard of a temple, open ground or any other convenient site and people squat on the three sides of the rectangular arena. The chorus of singers and the musicians occupy the place on the rear side of the stage, and the actors use the front side. Two persons holding a curtain enter the arena, with an actor in the guise of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god. The chorus begins an invocation to Ganesha, and prayers are also offered to many other deities. The actor playing Ganesha now moves out of the arena, and "Kattiyakkaran" (jester and "sutradhara" i.e. the narrator) appears on the stage. "Kattiyakkaran" relates the story fo the play to be performed and introduces the characters. Sometimes, the characters introduce themselves. "Kattiyakkaran" links the scenes, provides context to the happenings on the stage and also jests in between the scenes. The actors sing themselves, supported by the chorus.
The text of a terukkuttu play is a series of songs of songs related by a theme. Each song is rendered in a raga, structured in form of a classical song. It is preceded by viruttam, chanting of four-line verses in the same raga as the song. [cite book
title = The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
publisher = Oxford University Press
chapter = Introduction to Indian Music: Folk Music
isbn = 978-1561591749
] After the song, an actor delivers a speech based on it.
Further reading
* cite book
last = Frasca
first = Richard Armando
title = Theatre of the Mahabharata: terukkuttu Performances in South India
publisher = University of Hawaii Press
year = 1990
isbn = 978-0824812904
oclc = 21147946
* cite book
last = Gentes
first = Mary Josephine
title = Hinduism through village dance drama : narrative image and ritual process in South India's terukkuttu and Yaksagana ritual theaters (Ph.D. thesis)
publisher = University of Virginia
year = 1987
oclc = 20052719
* cite journal
last = Frasca
first = Richard Armando
year = 1998
title = The Dice Game and the Disrobing (Pakatai Tuyil): A terukkuttu Performance
journal = Asian Theatre Journal
volume = 15
issue = 1
pages = 1–44
doi = 10.2307/1124097
* cite book
last = Bruin
first = Hanne M de
title = Kattaikkuttu: The flexibility of a south Indian theatre tradition
publisher = E. Forsten
year = 1999
isbn = 978-9069801032
oclc = 42312297
* cite book
last = Shivaprakash
first = H S
title = Traditional theatres
publisher = Wisdom Tree
year = 2007
isbn = 978-8183280754
oclc = 85833550
chapter = Regional theatres (ix. Terukuttu)
External links
* [http://www.kattaikkuttu.org/katinfo1.html Kattaikkuttu or terukkuttu]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
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