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Violation of Bell's Inequality: A Confirmation of Quantum Theory Requires a Wolfram Notebook System In Bohm's reformulation of the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiment a spin-zero particle decays into two spin (, ) particles moving in opposite directions. The particles are detected by two polarization filters (Stern–Gerlach devices, SG1 and SG2) oriented by an angle (for particle 1) and an angle (for particle 2) with respect to the vertical (positive ) direction. Two counters register spin (+) particles only. In the theoretical description, denotes the joint probability that particle 1 passes SG1 at the angle and particle 2 passes SG2 at the angle . From classical probability analysis, J. S. Bell (1964) derived the following inequality for three joint probabilities connected with arbitrary angles , , and , where , known as Bell's inequality: However, quantum theoretical calculations yield the result , which violates Bell's inequality for certain special angles , , and ; for example, if , , , then the inequality gives ! This Demonstration shows in green regions where the quantum result is contrary to Bell's inequality. Contributed by: Reinhard Tiebel (May 2011) Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA Quantum mechanics does not make definite predictions for the outcome of measurements. If the actual state of the physical system is known, then probabilities for the possible measurements can be calculated. For many natural scientists it is difficult to accept that in an experiment a definite final state is chosen from among all the possible outcomes. The quantum theory seems to be incomplete. Thus some people have tried to make the quantum theory "complete" and "deterministic" with the help of the inclusion "hidden variables" in the theoretical description. Bell's inequality is an expression of expected classical results. There are some different versions of Bell's inequality related to the one shown here. All experimental results on two-photon correlations thus far [4] have shown violations of Bell's inequality. A tentative conclusion from these results has been summarized as "Bell's theorem": No physical theory of local hidden variables can ever reproduce all the predictions of quantum mechanics. There still remain, however, a number of unlikely but possible philosophical loopholes that have been evoked in counterarguments. [1] M. O. Scully and M. S. Zubairy, Quantum Optics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. [2] F. Schwabl, Quantenmechanik, Berlin Heidelberg: Springer–Verlag, 1993. [3] J. Audretsch, Verschränkte Systeme—Die Quantenphysik auf neuen Wegen, Berlin: Wiley-VCH, 2005. [4] A. Aspect, J. Dalibard, and G. Roger, "Experimental Test of Bell's Inequalities Using Time-Varying Analyzers, Physical Review Letters 49, 1982 pp. 1804–1807. Feedback (field required) Email (field required) Name Occupation Organization
What is a Population Bottleneck? Let’s look at an example. beringia map There were obviously males and females. Think about a bottleneck in this fashion. perez autosomal This matching is the effect of a population bottleneck. Thank you so much. DNA Purchases and Free Transfers Genealogy Services Genealogy Research 15 thoughts on “What is a Population Bottleneck? 1. I am an Acadian who lives in Nova Scotia, Canada. I am also grand-child (many generations later) of Jasmine. I find your information intriguing. I see that you have used the Acadians a s en example of a “bottleneck” example. I read your Jasmine Journey (which is how I decided to follow your entries). • I have been trying to decide whether to try a trip to Acadia this August or wait a year. I really want to go back but I don’t feel prepared enough yet with the genealogy. I’m thinking next year. I can hardly wait though. It will be something to look forward to. 2. I do a demonstration similar to the diagram for my biology students. I place the same number of 6 different colors of small marbles into a long-stemmed wine bottle. This represents the different varieties of a particular gene in the pre-bottleneck population (the gene pool). Students then tilt the bottle and collect 6 marbles one at a time. Only rarely would they get equal mix of all of the colors. 3. Very interesting post! I’ve been watching the “First Peoples” series on PBS and finding them fascinating, in light of what we learn here and what science has revealed in the last few years. I’ve come on an interesting situation I’ve not experienced before and would like your feedback, even if it’s just on what to make of a short segment which is heavily packed with SNPS. Five people who match me on FTDNA, each have 1) a short segment on chr 6 only 1.2 – 2.0 cm, each of which contain from 6000-7500 SNPs, and on chr 8 a short 2 cm segment that is perfectly aligned. They form a straight line. (On the chr browser it looks like a wee piece of coloured string). I tried duplicating this with numerous other matches and couldn’t and wonder tentatively if it might be a deep marker for our Native heritage? Both the original match I am working with and I share the same tribal background. His is current, he is over 50% genetically NA and knows his tribe. I haven’t contacted the others yet. • Start contacting people. Otherwise, you’re guessing:) The answers will be VERY interesting. Don’t forget that at GedMatch you can see your matches compared with another individual and painted with the ethnicity of specific segments. I’d try that. • I’ve been using Gedmatch for a while now but I don’t recall seeing anything about painting segments with ethnicity. Can you provide a pointer to that facility? • Thanks, Roberta but there are an awful lot of options to choose from and I have no idea which to use. Can you make any recommendations for someone who is 90% Jewish Diaspora? • You’ll need to do some experimentation. I use this when I’m trying to determine if someone matches me on a Native segment, which is a small part of my genome. How you use the tool depends on your goals and what you are trying to achieve. 4. Whew ! That takes a load off. It explains somewhat why in the 14 matches I have in Family finder FTDNA that I am double matched with 11 or 12 on both Y and Mt. There for a while I was getting worried that we were all products of generational habitual inbreeding of some cultish level ! just kidding, but I found it odd. The last ice age made strange bedfellows, or at least they kept warm across Eurasia. 5. I realized recently how loosely that term is used, and is used in conjunction with Founder’s population/effect. While working on the Pitcairn family genealogies the past several weeks, I saw how they went through a bottleneck. Staring with the year 1790 through 1856 –> 1859 –> 1936 –> 1996 –> 2014 the population went from 27 –> 193 –> 16 –> 250 –> 43 –> 56. So it grew, reduced drastically, grew, reduced & slowly recovered but that they predict will end soon. On the island of Molokai where I come from, they estimated less than 2,000 in 1778, and in the 1950s they said it was around 10,000 and I remember several years ago it was 6,700 and now they say it’s almost at 8,000. In Hawaii from 1778 –> 1872 –> 1900 –> 2000 the population for Native Hawaiians was 300,000 – 800,000 (estimated) –> 51,431 –> 37,635 –> 460,000. In those two examples we know what happens. I get matches with Maori people of New Zealand or Samoans, Tongans, all of whom we shared common ancestors from at least 800 years ago. Or getting a match with a man from Norfolk island whose ancestors left Pitcairn island in 1856 & married other outsiders coming to that island, or with a man whose mother is from Rotuma island (Fiji) a place where 3,5000 years ago our common ancestors settled that area. This man’s ancestors stayed in that area whereas mine eventually ended up in Hawaii thousands of years after. It may have started from a long time ago, but with recent bottle necking, it seems to really affect all of us and we can see it with autosomal results. 6. Thank you for providing such a clear explanation. I am part of the AJ endogamous population and totally frustrated by having so many matches and yet no clue how we are related, even going back four generations. This post helped me understand why. 7. Roberta, some of your folks are from the deep south. Makes me wonder if there was a society-wide bottleneck here after the American Civil War? Leave a Reply
Updated: Dec 26, 2015 • Author: Sandy N Shah, DO, MBA, FACC, FACP, FACOI; Chief Editor: Barry E Brenner, MD, PhD, FACEP more... • Print Asystole is also known as flatline. It is a state of cardiac standstill with no cardiac output and no ventricular depolarization, as shown in the image below; it eventually occurs in all dying patients. Rhythm strip showing asystole. Rhythm strip showing asystole. Pulseless electrical activity (PEA) is the term applied to a heterogeneous group of dysrhythmias unaccompanied by a detectable pulse. Bradyasystolic rhythms are slow rhythms; they can have a wide or narrow complex, with or without a pulse, and are often interspersed with periods of asystole. When discussing pulseless electrical activity, ventricular fibrillation (VF) (see the following image) and ventricular tachycardia (VT) are excluded. Rhythm strip showing ventricular fibrillation. Rhythm strip showing ventricular fibrillation. Asystole can be primary or secondary. Primary asystole occurs when the heart's electrical system intrinsically fails to generate a ventricular depolarization. This may result from ischemia or from degeneration (ie, sclerosis) of the sinoatrial (SA) node or atrioventricular (AV) conducting system. Primary asystole is usually preceded by a bradydysrhythmia due to sinus node block-arrest, complete heart block, or both. Reflex bradyasystole/asystole can result from ocular surgery, [1, 2] retrobulbar block, eye trauma, direct pressure on the globe, maxillofacial surgery, hypersensitive carotid sinus syndrome, or glossopharyngeal neuralgia. Episodes of asystole and bradycardia have been documented as manifestations of left temporal lobe complex partial seizures. [3, 4] These patients experienced either dizziness or syncope. No sudden deaths were reported, but the possibility exists if asystole were to persist. The longest interval was 26 seconds. Secondary asystole occurs when factors outside of the heart's electrical conduction system result in a failure to generate any electrical depolarization. In this case, the final common pathway is usually severe tissue hypoxia with metabolic acidosis. Asystole or bradyasystole follows untreated ventricular fibrillation and commonly occurs after unsuccessful attempts at defibrillation. This forebodes a dismal outcome. Causes of primary and secondary asystole are briefly reviewed in this section. Primary asystole Primary asystole develops when cellular metabolic functions are no longer intact and an electrical impulse cannot be generated. With severe ischemia, pacemaker cells cannot transport the ions necessary to affect the transmembrane action potential. Implantable pacemaker failure may also be a cause of primary asystole. Proximal occlusion of the right coronary artery can cause ischemia or infarction of both the sinoatrial (SA) and the atrioventricular (AV) nodes. Extensive infarction can cause bilateral bundle-branch block (ie, infranodal complete heart block). Idiopathic degeneration of the SA or AV node can result in sinus arrest-block and/or AV heart block, respectively. This process is slow and progressive, but the symptoms may be acute and asystole may result. An implantable pacemaker is usually required for these conditions. Occasionally, asystolic sudden death occurs from congenital heart block, local tumor, or cardiac trauma. [5] Asystole can occur following an indirect lightning strike (ie, direct current [DC]) that depolarizes all the cardiac pacemakers. A rhythm may return spontaneously or shortly after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is initiated. These patients may survive intact if given immediate attention. Alternating current (AC) from man-made sources of electrical current usually results in ventricular fibrillation (VF). Secondary asystole Examples of common conditions that can result in secondary asystole include suffocation, near drowning, stroke, massive pulmonary embolus, hyperkalemia, hypothermia, myocardial infarction (MI) complicated by VF or ventricular tachycardia (VT) that deteriorates to asystole, post defibrillation, and sedative-hypnotic or narcotic overdoses leading to respiratory failure. Hypothermia is a special circumstance, because asystole can be tolerated for a longer period under such conditions and can be reversed with rapid rewarming while CPR is being performed. If available, institute cardiopulmonary bypass immediately, because it can accomplish both of these goals. Most survivors have received cardiopulmonary bypass. The number of US adults in cardiopulmonary arrest who had bradyasystole as the initial arrest rhythm is difficult to measure accurately. Reports vary and may be skewed by the patient population studied and/or by the method of reporting the initial rhythm. For example, in a 1991 study of 185 patients in cardiopulmonary arrest at the time of arrival to the emergency department, 9% had survived to hospital admission but none were discharged alive. [6] This study was not limited to patients with asystole. [6] In one study from Goteborg, Sweden, asystole was the presenting rhythm in the field in 35% of patients with cardiac arrest. [7] Race is not a significant factor in asystole except as it relates to the underlying conditions that may lead to a cardiac arrest, such as chronic hypertension, renal failure, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, or cardiac dysrhythmias. Individuals with low CAD incidence When the incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in the population of a country is relatively low, asystole is relatively more common as a manifestation of cardiopulmonary arrests. This is because cardiac ischemia more frequently results in ventricular fibrillation (VF). The prevalence of asystole as the presenting cardiac rhythm is lower in adults (25-56%) than in children (90-95%). In fact, asystole is most likely to be found in cardiopulmonary arrests occurring in children; this is usually secondary to another noncardiac event (ie, respiratory arrest due to sudden infant death syndrome [SIDS], infection, choking, drowning, or poisoning). [8] Infants are more statistically likely to suffer a cardiac arrest than older children or adolescents. The Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Epistry-Cardiac Arrest trial, nontraumatic cardiac arrest occurred at a rate of 72.1 per 100,000 infants versus 3.73 per 100,000 in children and 7.37 per 100,000 in adolescents. [9] Investigators found the adult rate of cardiac arrest was 126.52 per 100,000 when they evaluated 25,405 adults and 624 patients younger than 20 years. Pediatric patients with VF or ventricular tachycardia (VT) were 4 times more likely to survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (20%) than those with asystole (5%), and patients younger than 20 years had an overall better survival rate than adults when all rhythms are included and traumatic arrests are excluded. [9] The frequency of asystole, as a percentage of all cardiopulmonary arrests, is higher in women than in men; however, the frequency of cardiac arrest in general is proportional to the underlying incidence of heart disease, which is more common in males until around age 75 years. The prognosis in asystole depends on the etiology of the asystolic rhythm, timing of interventions, and success or failure of advanced cardiac life support (ACLS). Resuscitation is likely to be successful only if it is secondary to an event that can be corrected immediately, such as a cardiac arrest due to choking on food (a cafe coronary), and only if an airway can be established and the patient may be rapidly reoxygenated. Occasionally, primary asystole can be reversed if it is due to pacemaker failure, which could be either intrinsic or extrinsic, and this is corrected immediately by external pacing. Generally, the prognosis is dismal regardless of its initial cause; in particular, individuals with postcountershock asystole have an even worse survival rate. [10, 11] In the Termination of Resuscitation study, when no shock was advised in patients with unwitnessed cardiac arrest, there were no survivors. [12, 13] In the Goteborg, Sweden, study, 10% of 1,635 asystolic patients survived to hospital admission, but 2% survived to hospital discharge. [7] The most recent American Heart Association guidelines to improve cardiocerebral resuscitation (CCR) have validated studies that show improved outcomes in all adults with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation only. [14] Complications from asystole include permanent neurologic impairment and complications from cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or invasive procedures (eg, liver laceration, fractured ribs, pneumothorax, hemothorax, air embolus, aspiration, gastric/esophageal rupture). Death often occurs. Patient Education Advice about electrical storm safety and prevention of hypothermia is appropriate for those likely to be exposed to these conditions. For patient education information, see Heart Health Center as well as Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Heart Attack, and Coronary Artery Disease.
Key for End Notes, Footnotes, and Notes Symbols Your document may not have all the sections mentioned here in the key, usually you will have less. These end-note, footnote, and note marker symbols are optional, and some documents may not have, or need them. Found below a paragraph, or part such as a pre-made tweet ✎🗒 Note: placed under paragraph, or parts such as a pre-made tweet. At the Dividing Line for a Section, or a Heading Level A footnote has a matching symbol that can be found near a line dividing a section, or near a section end marker, such as a heading level. Footnotes are generally not references here, but short notes that are too large to fit into the brackets or em-rule. Found In the End Notes Section A short note ‖Ⓐ that is often hyperlinked to send the reader to the End Notes section for short notes, and expanded references. If a footnote becomes too large, it will be sent here instead. Random facts (II) use bracket enclosed roman numerals, but are not generally placed in the main article as they are slightly distracting, as other markers can perform this function. They tend to hold facts that are related to the main article. Generally they are not hyperlinked, as the information they contain is not considered critical, or high priority. Highly critical, and priority facts will be in the glossary. A table of contents will usually indicate if a glossary is included in your document. Pure supporting references2.1.1 are always numbers, and are hyperlinked to the particular reference that exists in the End Notes section. Nearly all references will go in this section, and not in the short-note, footnote, or random fact section. This section only holds references that are relevant to the main document. In The End Notes Section You Will Also Find A) 🖍 random notes not related to the main article. They are organized in alphabetical order. Many different thoughts occur while working on a project. ⭐ Brainstorming, and Unrelated Notes, fragments 🖊 🖋 🖌 🖍 💭 ⭐ 💎 🚩 ⚠ that don’t have a particular structure, and may even be incomplete sentences or fragments. —End of Page— Shortened link to article: 🚩 Key for End Notes, Footnotes, and Notes Symbols [article]:
Surge is JPLs entry for 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals Surge is JPLs entry for 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California have designed an improved version of their RoboSimian robot, Surrogate, and it is heading to the DARPA Robotic Challenge Finals this year. There are many improvements over the original and the team have even given it a new nickname too, Surge. [Image Source: JPL] Surge was designed to work in close quarter disaster areas that are deemed too dangerous for humans to work in, for instance, working close to damaged nuclear reactors. They came up with a robot that is able to tackle broken ground, walk up stairs and ladders, and undertake many tasks using tools it has to hand. Surge can open doors, operate valves and clear away debris. RoboSimian lumbers along on tentacle like arms when walking, rather like an ape, but Surge is more sophisticated and rolls along on tracks. This means that the robot is more stable and gives it better speed. However, it doesn't work as well in areas that are strewn with debris or dealing with ladders and stairs. Surrogate has a head and this comes complete with two stereoscopic cameras. RoboSimian may lack a head but it does have vision all round thanks to seven cameras. [Image Source: JPL] The principal investigator for robots at Jet Propulsion Labs said: "It comes down to the fact that Surrogate is a better manipulation platform and faster on benign surfaces, but RoboSimian is an all-around solution, and we expect that the all-around solution is going to be more competitive in this case." [Image Source: JPL] The team used leftover limbs and part from their original RoboSimian, which they designed and entered into earlier rounds of the DARPA challenge. It also uses the same code and data files to allow it to identify and use tools. RoboSimian was designed without any thoughts to looks, but Surrogate has been designed to resemble a humanoid. The robot is 4.5 feet high with a weight of 200lbs. Surge has a spine and two arms, allowing it more dexterity than the previous version, which means it is better when it comes to manipulation. This led the team to enter the newer version into the finals for 2015. The DARP Robotics Challenge Finals are to be held in June 2015 in California. Robots entered into the competition will have to drive a car, navigate around an obstacle course, cut a hole in a wall, clear debris, operate a valve and successfully complete many other tasks. Stay on top of the latest engineering news Just enter your email and we’ll take care of the rest:
Sei sulla pagina 1di 3 Annotated Bibliography John Antisz The Clarinet BBoard. Accessed October 06, 2017. The clarinet bboard is an online forum where everything clarinet is discussed. Here thousands of clarinet players and enthusiasts discuss sound, technique, instrument makers/models, performance practices, etc. Here I have looked specifically at the discussions pertaining to clarinet vibrato or vibration, especially when referring to blending with another instrument. The resource is a bit scattered; however if the user is looking for a beginning to their research on a topic, this is possibly a place to start. Frost, Eberhard. Accessed October 05, 2017. http://www.the- is a web page that provides extremely thorough explanations of what the clarinet is, and how it can be played. Here, information on the mouthpiece, sound production, equipment modifications, along with common conventions, a complete guide on the clarinet family, and much more is easily found. The website is used both as a destination to gain more information about how the clarinet is played along with a forum for clarinetists and musicians alike to discuss the clarinet. Here, the webpage references different regional styles of clarinet playing that dictate their tone, articulation, and use of vibrato. Lawson, Colin. "The Authentic Clarinet: Tone and Tonality." The Musical Times 124, no. 1684 (1983): 357-58. doi:10.2307/964062. The Article refers to the use of different clarinets, those in different keys such as Clarinet in A,Bb, C, Eb, etc. Within the article, Lawson describes the thought process of the composers for choosing which clarinet to write for including the technical limitations that each clarinet might have. With the invention of newer, more in tune clarinets, it became obsolete to have so many different instruments, where players began to play primarily on their Bb or A clarinets. Collin Lawson is extremely qualified to write about such a topic as he is a renowned performer of historical clarinets and their uses. With the creation of new instruments, the use of vibrato to fix intonation problems were not as prevalent after the 1800’s; yet the performance practice has seem to come both in and out of style over the year. Lawson, Colin, and Ingrid Elizabeth Pearson. The Early Clarinet : A Practical Guide. Cambridge Handbooks to the Historical Performance of Music. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000. The early clarinet is a book that gives and in-depth information of how the clarinet and clarinetists’ playing conventions have changed and evolved since its conception. The Book is separated into sections that include; the physical limitations and tendencies of the older instruments, style of playing, compositional understanding, along with evidences of writing analyzing famous clarinet players in the past. Lawson references the use of vibrato specifically in Richard Mülfeld’s playing (the clarinetist that premiered all Johannes Brahms clarinet works). Both Lawson and Pearson are experts on historical clarinet performance both as scholars and period performers, where both have published many scholarly articles. MacGillivray, James A. "Woodwind and Other Orchestral Instruments in Russia Today." The Galpin Society Journal 10 (1957): 3-9. doi:10.2307/841801. The article recounts the use of woodwinds in Russia in the late 1950’s including where their instruments were being made, the quality of the instruments at hand, along with some playing conventions. The journal article references the use of vibrato for bassoon, flute, and clarinet describing when such uses of the expressive technique were appropriate. This article shed some light on how different regions saw vibrato as appropriate in some situations, genres, and instrument type. Ward ,Martha Kingdon Ward. "Mozart and the Clarinet." Music & Letters28, no. 2 (1947): 126-53. The article references how the use of the clarinet intraditional orchestra was heavily influenced by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s compositions for the instrument; specifically his chamber works and concerto. Ward also mentions the use of the clarinet within Mozart’s orchestral writing, how he paired the instrument with other woodwinds to help blend and add color to certain sections. I believe that it is this blending quality that the clarinet produces discourages clarinetists from using vibrato, even when the instruments intonation was Backun Musical. YouTube Channel. Joined on Jun 23, 2010. Backun Musical is a Youtube Channel that that creates content by clarinetists who use Backun Clarinets to the benefit of other musicians. The channel is run by Morrie Backun, an instrument maker and clarinetist which many professionals are now switching to use his brand. Most of the clarinetists in the video are either premiere soloist are orchestral musicians that have successful playing and teaching careers. The channel is meant to give clarinet players a resource to watch videos on how to play the clarinet along with professional advice including auditioning, along with promoting the Backun brand as a leading company in the recent market. The channel uses current leaders in the clarinet world to give insight to other performers to inform them of current clarinet playing conventions including the equipment, reeds, and concepts that they use/possess. Rehfeldt, Phillip. New Directions for Clarinet. Rev. Ed. ed. New Instrumentation, 4. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. New Directions for Clarinet displays the performance practices of clarinet playing starting in the 1950’s. Rehfeldt tries to give both clarinetists and composers alike the capability and availability of extended techniques on the instrument; including vibrato, multi-phonics, slap-tonguing,etc. The book tries explain modern capabilities of the clarinet that may not be in the current skillset of the “classically” trained clarinetist. It serves as a resource for both composers and performers including the difficulty and intricacies of many extended techniques. Rice, Albert R. From the Clarinet D'amour to the Contra Bass : A History of Large Size Clarinets, 1740-1860. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. This book refers to the clarinet; specifically its larger auxiliary family and how these instruments have evolved over time. These instruments have not only evolved in their playability and portability; they have had major additions to their repertoire along with improvements to instrument . Rice is a prolific author whose works include The Baroque Clarinet, The Clarinet in the Classical Period, among other clarinet research works. The material goes into detail about how these instruments were played including their use of a non-vibrating sound, since their conception.
Mammoth Memory To bisect a line you split into two equal parts. Bisection is splitting a line into 2 equal parts Buy secators (Bisect) and cut sticks in half. You bisect a line as follows: Bisect this line between A and B Measure the halfway point between A & B. Measure the mid point You now have the bisection point. Draw a blob on the bisection to remind you If you draw a line at 90° to this bisection point. Draw a perpendicular line through A and B and through the bisection You now have a perpendicular bisection of the line A-B. More Info
Recent quotes: The Deadly Combination of Heat and Humidity Water consumption can go way lower At the height of a severe drought a decade ago, Australians reduced their water consumption to thirty gallons of water a day per person—a fifth of Californians’ current consumption. “People were taking 30-second showers and collecting the shower water in a bucket and using it in their yards, and running dishwashers once a week,” says Kightlinger.
Measuring Greenhouse Gas Warming Of The Atmosphere Satellite data provides continuous high resolution temperature information across almost all regions of the Earth, and across all the layers of the atmosphere. By contrast, surface data provides spotty low-resolution data which is UHI contaminated, tampered with, and scientists say suffers severely from time of observation bias. Scientists of course choose to use the meaningless surface data, because the satellite data doesn’t show any warming. ScreenHunter_375 May. 12 13.06 Never mind that NASA says the satellite data is more accurate. Funding is the important thing. About stevengoddard Just having fun This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. 27 Responses to Measuring Greenhouse Gas Warming Of The Atmosphere 1. Phil Jones says: Makes purrrrrfect sense!! Ignore the Satellite data for Temperatures… But push certain Geographic Satellite data for Sea Levels!! That way everything fits into your Anonymously Peer Reviewed paper on Catastrophic Global Warming… Funding + Grants=$$$$ • Truthseeker says: Some of the comments are very good. I particularly like the suggestion to shoot liberals at it until the problem is “solved”. • David A says: The red is hiding in the bottom of our oceans per the alarmist cartoon graphs. 2. Andy DC says: I think US data from 1930 was reliable, a lot more so than now. 3. slimething says: If farmers were in charge of the SAT system, the data would be reliable. 4. Don says: Posted on DTT dot com. 5. Chillville says: Little did they understand that the super El-Nino of 1982-1983 and progression toward the super-dooper El-Nino of 1997-1998 would be their rather large mistake in calculations 😉 6. -=NikFromNYC=- says: Climatologists rediscover the UHI: “Excess heat from air conditioners causes higher nighttime temperatures” • QV says: It’s obvious, air condition lowers indoor temperatures, and raises outdoor temperatures. By the way, are satellite temperatures not contaminated by UHI effect too? • -=NikFromNYC=- says: I imagine that both the urban areas involved are way too tiny to influence a global area average and the overall urban heating effect on the bulk of the environment is also trivial even though it can grossly affect urban area thermometers. • On my bicycle, I often see 5-10 degrees difference in nighttime temperature between a small neighborhood and open space 50 yards away. All it takes is one asphalt road nearby to push temperatures way up. • -=NikFromNYC=- says: But if those small roads appear once when a thermometer station is added somewhere, or were there all along, then over time there is little extra trend added to the readings any more than there would be if a billion year old black rock mountain range was nearby. Only growing urban areas would create trend errors over a whole state or country. • There is vastly more pavement than there was 70 years ago. • David A says: It depends on what thermoneter you use for your extrapolations and 1200 K anomaly spread. A much higer percentage of the used thermometers are now at airports. • Gail Combs says: The Great Dying of Thermometers By deciding which thermometers to use and not use the ‘global’ temperature can be “adjusted” There has been a lot written on thissubject at various sites. • Brian G Valentine says: Gail, you’re probably not too far from Tom Karl and his hairpiece, go thank him personally for that • -=NikFromNYC=- says: I asked Chiefio years ago about why use of anomalies didn’t compensate for mere “hot areas being dropped” instead of “increasing trend” areas and he said it was hard to simplify any argument with such complex black box effects going on. Q: “Isn’t the whole point of anomalies that using them instead of absolute temperature removes the problem that Smith is making a case for?” “E.M.Smith says: January 15, 2010 at 12:48 pm -=NikFromNYC=- (23:24:47) : “Global averages are presented as anomalies, meaning variations above/below an arbitrary time period’s average. If this was done for the input data too, then only the difference in variability of cold vs. hot regions would be modified by the great dying out of thermometers, not the absolute temperatures.” Aye, now there’s the rub… It is NOT done for the input data. The anomaly map is calculated in the final land data step of GIStemp: STEP3. All the homgenizing, UHI adjustment, etc. are all done on “the monthly average of daily min/max averages”. Only at the very end is the Anomaly Map made. There are a few points along the way in GIStemp where sets of averages of averages are calculated, and then offsets between these are used for some part; and technically you could call those “anomalies”, but they are not at all what folks think of when they think of anomalies. (For example, there is a UHI adjustment calculated in STEP2 in the PApars.f program. It does this by sprialing out (up to 1000 km) looking for stations to use. It adds up (about 10) of these and uses there (sort of a mean) as the comparision to the station to decide how much to adjust that station for UHI. Yes, it is TECHNICALLY an anomaly calculation. But then the average of that (semi-random) set of “nearby rural” stations (up to 1000 km away and including major airports and cities with significant UHI) is thrown away and only the station data (now suitably adjusted) moves forward. You see this all the way through GIStemp. Some average is used to adjust the station data average, then only the station data proceed. I would call these “offsets” rather than anomalies (and the code calls them offsets internally). Finally in STEP3, the Anomaly Map is made and “Ta Dah!!” it is “all anomalies so it’s perfect” is the mantra… Well, one small problem. If there are insufficient “nearby rural” stations, the data is passed through unchanged. No UHI adjustent is done. So delete the rural stations in the present part of the data set, you get induced warming via no UHI correction. A very large percentage of “rural” stations now are at major airports (such as the largest Marine Base: Quantico Virgina). Any guess how warm it is on the Quantico airstrip right now with all the flights to Haiti? Delete the “real rural” airports, more of the UHI correction goes “the wrong way”, more induced artifical “warming”. All of this BEFORE the Anomaly step of STEP3. I could go on with many other examples of how this works, but then I’d be retyping my whole blog. Just think on this: NOAA have announced that 100% of the pacific ocean basin will be from AIRPORTS in the near future (it is almost that now). A station on an island can “fill in” grid boxes up to 1200 km out to sea. So one hot station on, oh, Diego Garcia where we built a giant air base that is “rural” can, and does, warm a 2400 km diameter circle of cool ocean via “fill in”… and there being no “nearby rural” station to compare with, will get NO UHI correction. Think those islands airports changed much between the start of 1950 and the advent of the Jet Age Tourist boom in the 1980′s? But that’s OK, the magical “anomaly” will fix it all up in STEP3 when we compare Diego Carcia today with what it was in 1950 … There are three non-satellite global averages, GISS, Hadley and NCDC so there are three software packages to ask this question for. Isn’t the whole point of anomalies that using them instead of absolute temperature removes the problem that Smith is making a case for? I can only speak to the process done inside GIStemp, but the fact that it has close agreement with NCDC and HadCRUT leads me to believe they are similar. Further, inside GIStemp the “dataset format” is called NCAR (As in NOAA NCDC North Carolina…) during the early steps then swaps to a HadCRUT compatible one for STEP4_5 where the Hadley Sea Surface Anomalies are blended in. This says that these folks share data formats (and thus at least the code to read and handle them). They also all work from the same set of “peer” reviewed literature, so will share methods from there as well. I’d love to take a team of programmers through all three and show how much they match, but there is only me and only one set of published code (GIStemp). NCDC is mum, and the UEA leak while helpful is not the whole code base. Please forgive the length of this, but the “Anomaly” is a frequently used dodge by the AGW believers, and you can not get them to look at what really happens in the code… and it sounds so good… but it is just a “honey pot” to distract you from the real process being done to the data.” • Gail Combs says: Thomas R. Karl says Welcome to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). The NCDC is a premier service organization dedicated to providing climatological services to every sector of the United States economy and to users world-wide. Our archive is the largest climate archive in the World. It contains data as old as 150 years and as new as a few hours. The Center houses data collected by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and data collected utilizing the most modern collection systems and satellites. NCDC has the primary mission of preserving these data for future generations as well as making it available to the general public, business, industry, government, and researchers. We continuously endeavor to improve the services provided and welcome your comments and suggestions. I can assure you we review each one. Please direct your comments and suggestions to I have seen less brown stuff come out of the back of a bull… 7. Ross Handsaker says: Given the rise in carbon dioxide levels is expected to cause an enhanced “greenhouse” effect through adsorption of more outward long-wave radiation in the troposphere, I wonder why we bother looking at surface and ocean temperatures. If there is no discernible warming in the troposphere (particularly over the tropics), the cause of any increase in surface/ocean temperatures will be something other than the extra carbon dioxide. 8. Brian G Valentine says: Tom Karl has no control of satellites. Tome Karl only has control over the adhesive for his hair piece and what comes out of NCDC, In a couple of years Tom will only control one of these HA HA HA HA HA Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s
In the shade of the Fig tree In India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the murmur and movement of the heart-shaped leaves of the sacred fig on a still, hot day is taken as a sign that Devas or Gods are residing there. The stirring leaves give voice to the tree, fill themselves with light and shine with the promise of illumination and renewal. Roots run deep and spread wide. Branches reach out to offer passersby a moment of rest beneath their canopy. Sacred fig trees are a symbol of peace and associated with the origin and interconnectedness of life. They represent cultural, social, religious and ecological benevolence. Buddhists name them Bodhi trees if their lineage is thought to stretch back to the fig tree under which Gautama Buddha achieved enlightenment (bodhi). For Hindus, they are sacred to Vishnu who was born beneath one. Shrines are built in their generous shade, decorated with flags, coloured silks and ribbons. Painted stones, fresh flowers and burning incense sticks are placed among their buttressed roots. People pace meditatively around their trunks as a sign of worship. Women stand beneath them in spring to catch rainwater in their mouths from the tapering leaves as they pray for fertility, healthy children and a long, happy life. To plant, notice or nurture any tree is an act of devotion and a gesture of hope. Sitting still beneath one could restore our understanding of the nature of things and just might repay our attention and offer us perspective. Then, ideally, we too would be filled with light and willing to let it flow through us out into the world.
Portrait of Emma Goldman as she appeared just before entering the federal penitentiary to serve her term after a later arrest, in 1917 PhotoQuest / Getty Images By Lily Rothman February 11, 2016 For decades after the passage of the Comstock Act in 1873, it was illegal in most states for anyone—even doctors—to dispense information about contraception. But that didn’t stop Emma Goldman, one of the 20th century’s most famous anarchists and also an early crusader for family planning. Goldman’s outspoken advocacy of birth control led to her arrest 100 years ago—on Feb. 11, 1916—on obscenity charges while on her way to give a lecture on the topic of atheism. A few days later, Goldman wrote a letter to the press laying out her motivation (the letter is in the impressive Emma Goldman Papers collection at Berkeley): Concluding her letter, Goldman noted that, “while I am not particularly anxious to go to jail, I should yet be glad to do so, if thereby I can add my might to the importance of birth control and the wiping off our antiquated law upon the statute.” The activist ended up spending two weeks in a prison workhouse. The Carnegie Hall meeting that marked her release that May drew more than 3,000 people who wanted to celebrate her return—and to obtain information about birth control. Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com. Read More From TIME
Intended for healthcare professionals Education And Debate Usefulness and validity of post-traumatic stress disorder as a psychiatric category 1. Gillian Mezey, senior lecturer in forensic psychiatry (gmezey{at}, 2. Ian Robbins, consultant clinical psychologistb 1. a Forensic Psychiatry, St George's Hospital Medical School, Jenner Wing, London SW17 0RE 2. b Traumatic Stress Service, South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust, Clare House, St George's Hospital, London SW17 0QT 1. Correspondence to: G Mezey • Accepted 29 June 2001 Post-traumatic stress disorder has attracted controversy and scepticism since its first appearance in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in the 1980s.1 Over the years the diagnostic criteria have been refined and revised, but the causal relation between the diagnosis and an external trauma has remained fundamentally unchanged. Post-traumatic stress disorder is associated with clinically important distress that transcends ordinary misery and unhappiness as well as with disruption and impairment of daily functioning. We argue that the diagnosis is valid and important for both patients and doctors. Summary points Post-traumatic stress disorder is a valid and useful diagnosis but is not the only psychiatric response to trauma Prevalence in the general population is estimated between 1% and 7.8% The disorder is associated with high rates of psychiatric comorbidity and impairment in social and occupational functioning Post-traumatic stress disorder can be differentiated from other psychiatric diagnoses by biochemical, neuroanatomical, and phenomenological characteristics Concerns about the diagnosis in victims of chronic and lifelong trauma could be resolved by further refinement of the diagnostic criteria Social or psychiatric diagnosis? One of the main criticisms of the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder is that it has been constructed out of sociopolitical ideas rather than psychiatric ones.2 However, most psychiatric conditions reflect changes in human thinking over time.3 For example, changes in the political climate and fashion were more influential than advances in medical research in altering the categorisation of homosexuality as a disease. Social factors such as poverty also contribute to mental illness, stress, suicide, family integration, and substance misuse.4 Sociocultural factors may determine whether the person is able to cope with the potentially traumatising experiences that set the stage for the development of post-traumatic stress disorder.5 What does diagnosis achieve? The diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder was developed partly as an attempt to normalise the psychological, cognitive, and behavioural symptoms observed in many traumatised people. It redefined the symptoms of the disorder as a normal response to an abnormal event rather than a pathological condition. The diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder helped to deflect blame away from the sufferer and diminish his or her sense of guilt, shame, and failure. Nevertheless, the disorder is associated with low rates of referral for treatment and high rates of early drop out from treatment.6 The main purposes of a diagnostic classification are to facilitate communication between clinicians and researchers, promote research activity, encourage the development of specific treatments, provide information about prognosis, and allow services to be developed.7 The diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder meets these requirements. This contrasts with the diagnosis of personality disorder; not only is this a socially constructed condition, but the classification offers little guidance for treatment or diagnostic validity, and the diagnosis is, by definition, highly stigmatising.8 Validity of diagnosis The fact that the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder has been internationally recognised is an indication of its usefulness and perceived validity. However, awareness is increasing that the diagnosis has more validity for some groups of trauma survivors than others. People who have suffered repeated chronic trauma, including victims of torture, intrafamilial violence, or childhood abuse, tend to present with a more chronic and complex clinical picture.9 This is more closely embodied by the ICD-10 (international classification of diseases, 10th revision) diagnosis, “enduring personality change after catastrophic experience.”10 Post-traumatic stress disorder is now known to be only one of several possible psychiatric responses to trauma, and it should not be allowed to trump other equally serious and disabling mental disorders that may arise.11 Causes and effects of post-traumatic stress disorder Although an external traumatic event is the central aetiological factor in the development of post-traumatic stress disorder, pre-existing vulnerability factors are important, particularly after less severe trauma.12 This is also true for psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression, in which vulnerability factors may predispose the individual to develop the illness but do not influence the phenomenology and are not incorporated into the diagnostic criteria. Embedded Image Epidemiological studies in the United States have found rates of post-traumatic stress disorder between 1% and 7.8%. 13 14 There has been no study on the epidemiology of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder in the United Kingdom, but comparative data from other developed countries suggest the rates of post-traumatic stress disorder are similar to those in the United States.15 People who have post-traumatic stress disorder are at increased risk of developing other psychiatric disorders14 and are at significantly increased risk of committing suicide.16 The effect of post-traumatic stress disorder on employment and work productivity is similar to that associated with depression and translates into an annual loss of productivity above $3bn (£2.1bn) in the United States.16 The national comorbidity survey identified increased odds of school and college failure, teenage pregnancy, marital instability, and current unemployment associated with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.14 Thus, the socioeconomic consequences, as well as the personal distress associated with diagnosis, are substantial. Biochemical and anatomical evidence Evidence is accumulating that post-traumatic stress disorder is a discrete nosological entity with biochemical, neuroanatomical, and phenomenological characteristics that differentiate it from other major psychiatric disorders. Dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder results in low urinary cortisol concentrations,17 raised concentrations of cerebrospinal fluid corticotrophin releasing factor,18 increased numbers of lymphocyte glucocorticoid receptor sites,17 and hypersuppression of cortisol with low dose dexamethasone.19 Recent research on the neurobiology of severe stress has shown a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, changes in neuronal function, and altered gene expression and abnormal neurotransmitter production.20 Neuroanatomical abnormalities affecting the medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and visual association cortex have been identified in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.21 These areas of the brain are involved in memory. Neurotransmitters and neuropeptides released during stress may result in overconsolidation of memory traces, giving rise to the intrusive memories of post-traumatic stress disorder.22 According to recent dual representation theory, vivid re-experiencing and ordinary biographical memories of trauma are represented by separate memory systems23 so that sensory data, associated with an emotionally important event, is stored in memory without cortical processing. In spite of this growing body of research supporting post-traumatic stress disorder as a separate and distinct psychiatric diagnosis, there is widespread criticism, not only of the diagnosis, but of the concept of a discrete psychiatric response to trauma. Much of this criticism has been focused on the sometimes indiscriminate use of the diagnosis in civil litigation and the apparent growth of a trauma industry. Post-traumatic stress disorder is the only psychiatric disorder for which compensation can be paid. It thus gives rise to the potential for malingering and the intentional production or exaggeration of psychiatric symptoms and disability. Although in some instances the legal process, and more specifically the promise of financial compensation, may promote and prolong psychiatric symptoms,24 the potential for secondary gain has been recognised for years in psychiatry, and studies of the effect of compensation on post-traumatic symptoms have been inconclusive. Summerfield recently argued that in Britain, victims of trauma should resort to the “time honoured constructions” of “stiff upper lip” rather than importing the “blame culture” from the United States.2 Whether the increasing emotionality of the British people is to be applauded or deplored, depends on your political and philosophical viewpoint. However, the fact that something is not talked about does not mean that it doesn't exist, merely that we are not inconvenienced by having to think about or deal with it. It is only relatively recently, for example, that the extent and effects of domestic violence and childhood abuse have been recognised by health professionals. Before this, the problem was invisible because of the social pressure on women and children to deny their suffering. As with the arguments about psychological trauma, the increasing willingness in society for these issues to be discussed is not in itself responsible for causing the problem. Nor should the fact that many victims require treatment for a range of post-traumatic psychiatric symptoms be interpreted as an attempt by the psychiatric profession to medicalise normal human misery. Post-traumatic stress disorder is precipitated by events that are distressing and disturbing not only to the person who recounts them but also to the listener. Denial of suffering may be one way of coping with distress and anxiety; accepting psychic trauma as a fact requires acknowledgement of our own vulnerability to trauma and victimisation. However, dismissing post-traumatic stress disorder as a valid diagnosis denies the ongoing suffering of people who have been exposed to severe and life threatening trauma. Although we recognise the current limitations of the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, especially across cultures and to victims of chronic lifelong trauma, we believe this is merely an argument for further refinement of the diagnosis, underpinned by high quality research. It is not an argument for abandoning the diagnosis altogether. • Competing interests None declared. 1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 3. 4. 4. 5. 5. 6. 6. 7. 7. 8. 8. 9. 9. 10. 10. 11. 11. 12. 12. 13. 13. 14. 14. 15. 15. 16. 16. 17. 17. 18. 18. 19. 19. 20. 20. 21. 21. 22. 22. 23. 23. 24. 24. View Abstract
Did you know that at least 80 people from the Middle East were on board the Titanic? The true number of Middle Eastern people on board the doomed cruise liner in April 1912 is probably far higher, but passenger records from the time aren’t reliable. For example, some people were using Anglicised versions of their Arab names and were taken for being Brits or Americans. Just 38 Arabs are known to have survived the disaster, including the Egyptian translator Hamad Hassab Bureik. He was so traumatised by the event, he went missing shortly afterwards and his wife was staggered when he turned up on their doorstep three years later, in 1915. She’d thought he had drowned. Plenty of Lebanese were on the Titanic.In fact, 13 residents of the village of Kafr Mishki died, out of a population of just 500. Shawnee Abi Saab, of Lebanon, watched the Titanic go down from a lifeboat and shielded a male passenger in the rescue boat under a dress. Otherwise, she later said, he might have been shot for taking up room (it was strictly women and children first).
Siddheshvar, aka: Siddheśvar; 1 Definition(s) India history and geogprahy Siddheshvar in India history glossary... « previous · [S] · next » Siddheśvar is an archaeologically important site situated in Cuttack district (Orissa or Odisha), known for inscriptions regarding the ancient history of India. For example, at Siddheśvar there is a Bull column in the compound of the temple of Siddheśvara (near Jājpur). This Oriya inscription belongs to king Narasiṃha IV of the Eastern Gaṅga dynasty. Source: What is India: Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy (1945-1952) India history book cover context information Discover the meaning of siddheshvar in the context of India history from relevant books on Exotic India Relevant definitions No further definitions found. Relevant text Like what you read? Consider supporting this website:
From 2014.igem.org The full definition of bioweapon (later referred to as BW) as given by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary is as follows: "a harmful biological agent (as a pathogenic microorganism or a neurotoxin) used as a weapon to cause death or disease usually on a large scale" (1) This is a broad definition including naturally occurring toxins and pathogens, as well as those specifically engineered to cause disruption and/or death. However, biological warfare is usually discussed as distinct from nuclear and chemical warfare, which together form the triumvirate of terror given by the military acronym NBC. A bioweapon may be lethal or non-lethal, in the latter case having, for example, a primary purpose of debilitation, and may be targeted at individuals, small groups or entire populations. Associated phrases include biodefense, biowar and bioterrorism. (2) The distinction between chemical and biological agents is sometimes subtle; for example, toxic products of living organisms, such as ricin, may be considered dangerous chemical agents, where the organisms themselves, in this case the castor oil plant, do not qualify as the biological equivalent. This is evident from the fact that we produce more than 1 million tonnes of castor beans every year. All such weapons have the potential to be labelled as weapons of mass destruction, or ‘WMD’s. (3) A Short Historical Account The use of biological agents as a tool of war has been with us since antiquity. Its most significant initial use in modern times was to enforce colonialism; for example, smallpox was likely disseminated by the British Marines to quell opposition to their settling of New South Wales by the native population in 1789. Similarly, smallpox-infected blankets were handed out to Native Americans by the British in the 1760s, including in times of peace. (4) The devastating power of bioweapons was recognised properly at the beginning of the 20th century, with the advent of international agreements that criminalised certain wartime behaviours, called the Hague Conventions (in 1899 and 1907). These regulated the use of BW via a clause prohibiting signatories from using projectiles with the capacity to spread ‘asphyxiating poisonous gases’. All major powers ratified this doctrine except for the United States, infamous for unilaterally eschewing international regulation. After the Great War, it was felt that further clarification of this point was needed, perhaps given the extensive use of mustard gas by the Germans, and this resulted in the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which extended the Hague Conventions to prohibit generally the use of ‘bacteriological methods’ in warfare (signed by the US 50 years later). (5,6) There are many criticisms to be levied at this agreement, most specifically its lack of application to non-ratifying countries, and failure to prohibit the stockpiling of BWs and their use in civil/domestic contexts. This protocol did not, for example, prohibit the extensive development and weaponisation of toxins by the Allied forces in World War II, including but not limited to tularemia, anthrax, brucellosis, and botulism. We are fortunate that these were never deployed, largely due to the threat of retaliation which made it strategic suicide, similar to the ‘mutually assured destruction’ reasoning prevalent during the Cold War. Nevertheless, the Geneva Protocol is now considered part of so-called ‘customary international law’; that is, law that should be observed by all responsible and right-acting international actors. Furthermore, biological and chemical warfare has been a constant spectre in the Middle East in recent decades, from Saddam Hussein’s chemical assault on Kurdish rebels at Halabjah in ’88 to the euphemistic Gulf War Syndrome with which US and Coalition survivors of the first Gulf War were diagnosed in ‘92 (likely a result of the contaminants released from various Iraqi chemical plants and stockpiles when subject to airstrike). As recently as 2013, the Assad regime in Syria was accused of killing hundreds of Syrians in Ghouta using sarin gas. My country, the UK, was guilty of issuing export licenses for chemicals for sarin in January of that year. It is not just the context of warfare in which this discussion must be had. Another case of the deliberate misuse of biological agents was the 2001 anthrax attacks in the US, in which envelopes containing anthrax were delivered to various news offices and Senators, killing five people. In other scenarios, agents are not introduced maliciously but can develop into an epidemic, as with the ebola currently gripping West African nations like Sierra Leone and Liberia, which is exacerbated and perpetuated by events like the theft of infected materials. Malevolent forces may try and harness or reproduce outbreaks of diseases like ebola for ‘evil’. For example, evidence surfaced recently that ISIS, the Islamist militia group, had been trying to weaponise the bubonic plague. (7,8,9,10) All of this compounds to demonstrate the devastation which anyone capable of engineering and disseminating particular biological agents could inflict upon a population. Synthetic biology, whilst pushing the scientific envelope and extending the frontiers of our ability to manipulate the world around us, creates a unique problem by opening up another avenue for the abuse and ill-purposing of science. With minimal expenditure and an education available entirely online, your average Joe can theoretically build a biological weapon of mass destruction. Safeguarding our Project Against Misuse Given this summary and line of reasoning, we decided it would be pertinent to try and assess the potential for our replicon and for our general theory to be co-opted and abused. The intention of our work is to further the cause of modern medicine, reinvigorate the fight against diabetes, and inspire a new line of research into all things RNA. We do not want it to be used for the advancement of a military agenda or for murder, so it is in our interests to evaluate the possibility of it being hijacked and reengineered against its stated purpose. To this end, we had a conversation with Dr Robert Spooner of the University of Warwick, who has experience working with ricin, to try and establish some possible safeguards, which I now go on to describe. The first and most obvious way our design might be twisted is with the replacement of the target siRNA code, which in our version is determined from DPP-IV since this is what we’d like to downregulate the expression of, with code from a gene that produces some vital enzyme or other essential protein. This is already recognised as an incidental danger in the genetic modification of plants for which the method of modification is based on RNA interference, just like our project. In one example a scientist in New Zealand identified that the genes disrupted in a modified strain of wheat, SEI and SEII, are shared to a high degree by humans, and also asserted the ability of the culprit dsRNA strands (which would later form siRNA strands) to survive cooking and processing of the wheat and the gastrointestinal processes associated with human digestion, to make it into the blood stream! This is a case not of bowdlerizing the replicon, but of hijacking its most essential function. In its most extreme and terrifying form, this idea extends to eugenics because some populations may have genes vital to their survival that others do not. (11) The other problem concerns harnessing the power of self-replication inherent to the replicon to persistently produce a harmful toxin within a person’s cells. As opposed to the previous problem, this represents a complete subversion of the replicon’s intended function, repurposing it as a constant producer of toxin rather than a platform from which to launch RNA interference. Our response to these problems is multifarious. Firstly, we have implemented an aptazyme kill switch in our replicon, so that specific exogenous compounds are able to seek it out and destroy it. This means that if it was adapted as a chassis for some dangerous choice of siRNA, by cutting out and replacing that 25bp part of the genetic code, but it still contained the aptazyme, we could deliberately target and destroy it in vivo to stem the tide. We have demonstrated this via experiment, and it is an essential safety mechanism. Further to that, cutting out the siRNA element and then ligating together the resulting parts is an unwieldy and difficult process which requires intimate knowledge of the construction of our replicon; needless to say, there are perhaps more expedient ways of creating a biological weapon. Similarly, an attempt at swapping out the aptazyme for some other RNA cargo would likely fail. Efficiency issues would arise because of the regulatory MS2 box, which would dampen exponential replication. In response to the toxin question, for this to be an effective attack the toxin would have to build up in a cell in a significant quantity if it were to do any damage. The rate of translation of the RNA strand would therefore have to be high enough to meet this demand. This would require both a more efficient RdRP, which will likely have to be arrived at by random mutagenesis, which would be a severely arduous task, as well as the complimentary promoters working in parallel. In conclusion, we do not deem the threat to be significant, but nevertheless significant and meticulous structures need to be in place to properly regulate synthetic biology, for researchers, hobbyists and industry alike. Crude Bibliography 1. Merriam-Webster dictionary definition 2. Wikipedia entry on bioweapons 3. Wikipedia entry on ricin 4. Counterpunch article on the history of bioweapons 5. Wikipedia on Hague Conventions 6. Wikipedia entry on Geneva Protocol 7. Wikipedia entry on 2001 US anthrax attacks 8. Ebola distribution map from the CDC 9. Huffington Post article on theft from ebola clinic 10. Vox article on attempted weaponisation of bubonic plague by ISIS 11. Paper on RNA interference in GM wheat by Jack Heinemann
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War of Words - Campus Link War of Words James says that words create problems more often than they solve them and so he calls the tongue an ‘unruly evil’. This seems to put all the blame on the speaker and to absolve the listener. But James 1:19 makes it clear that sometimes the problem is that we aren’t really listening. To avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation, a word must be seen in context. For example, a bow could be a ribbon, a part of a musical instrument, an action or the pair to an arrow. It is the context that determines which of these meanings should be used. The meaning of words is often lost when they are taken out of context. This principle applies when interpreting the Bible as well. Wisdom literature, like Proverbs, often does not have a context and each verse appears to stand alone. This makes it difficult to understand and Proverbs 26:4-5 is a good illustration of lack of context resulting in statements that appear contradictory until a context is imaginatively supplied to create a varied understanding of the same verse. For the rest of the Bible, however, every verse has a context and without the context is meaningless jabber. That is why I find the Bible refreshing – it is scripture in context and not scripture without context like much of the scriptures of other faiths. However, many Christians treat the whole Bible like wisdom literature and try to interpret it without using the context. We take words and phrases in isolation thereby creating utter confusion with proof texting and claiming promises that don’t really exist. And when uncertainty about the context results in differing interpretations, we scream heresy at each other instead of obeying James 1:19 – listen. In the theological world as well, theological statements made in a context are often cast in stone for all other contexts leading to war instead of peace. Luther’s sola fide statement was given in a particular context and applying it to all contexts has created much travail as Christians try to explain why life is important if it has nothing to do with salvation. Words are not absolute, they are always in a context. Words are meant to communicate and to create peace by creating a ‘common’ mind between two persons. Instead they often create wars. Imagine the following scenario. A husband tells his home-maker wife that he intends to be back early from office and they can have a romantic outing over dinner in the evening. He gets delayed in the office and the outing does not take place. The wife cries and says that he has lost his romance and does not think of her. He responds that he must earn the money to keep the house running. She responds saying that they spend more on his gadgets than on what the house needs and soon we have a war. Where did the words go wrong? They were hearing each other’s words and not the context in which they were being spoken of. Let us step back. What was the context of the wife? A day spent in day-dreaming about what would happen in the evening, an event long overdue, and the crushing disappointment of it not taking place. This disappointment is conveyed in the statement “You have lost your romance”. Since the husband does not hear the context, he begins to defend his lack of romance, which is irrelevant to the context. The context of the man is his frustration that his work extended and his frustration with his office. When he says “I have to earn the money to keep the house running” his intention is to convey his frustration with his work not his wife, but that is not heard. Whether it is reading the Bible, listening to God, communicating at home or at office, those who can hear the context win. Others lose through unnecessary fighting. Romans 12:2 says that to understand God we need to transform our mind from the mind of the world to the mind of Christ. To understand another human we need to transform our mind into his or her mind by listening. We listen not to find fault with his or her mind but to change our minds. Read this story from China. King Tsao’s desired that his son Prince Tai learn leadership. So he sends for Pan Ku and asks him to train Prince Tai. Pan Ku sends him to Ming-Li forest for a year and tells him to return after a year and tell him what he had heard in the forest. After a year he returns and shares how he had heard the river brooks and could identify the sound of different animal life, and the wind in the trees. Pan Ku says that he has not heard what he needs to hear and sends him back for another year. This time he returns and tells him that he heard the sound of the petals of the bud opening, and the sound of the sun’s rays warming the earth and the sound of the grass drinking the morning dew. Pan Ku tells him that he is now ready to lead. My challenge to you is to be sensitive to context – both when interpreting the Bible and when interpreting the words spoken by the people around you. You get the context when you listen and hear the non-verbal and unspoken nuances of the person speaking. Then words will bring peace and not war. Mr. P. K. D. Lee served as an Engineer with the Indian Government for 20 years. Taking an early retirement as the General Manager of the Indian Government, he worked with Haggai Institute in developing Christian leaders around the world. He is now retired and lives in Chennai. He can be connected through pkdlee@gmail.com No Comments Post A Comment
Ethanol Transport – The Facts Government policies requiring the use of renewable and biofuels has strengthened the demand for ethanol and the need for freight rail transportation.Ethanol is a key ingredient in today's gasoline-but the promise of ethanol as an oil and climate solution depends on how it's made and what.FACT: Ethanol results in fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than gasoline and is. renewable transportation fuels in the U.S. by 2022.Ethanol fuel is ethyl alcohol, the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, used as. World ethanol production for transport fuel tripled between 2000 and 2007 from 17109 liters (4.5109 U.S. gal;.. Youngquist, W. Geodestinies, National Book Company, Portland, Oregon, p.499; ^ "The dirty truth about biofuels".Ethanol has support. the next generation of transportation fuels. By any measure, the RFS has been an unmitigated success. The oil company canard repeated by the Globe, that ethanol has increased.Hazards of Transportation and Transfer of. Ethanol and Ethanol-Blended Fuels. This fact sheet presents general guidelines regarding the hazards of.”A recent story by a Des moines register reporter parroted an Iowa Corn Growers ethanol facts’ claim that the industry accounted. fuels, utilities and transportation.” Iowa’s 43 ethanol facilities.Its difficult, Lieberman notes, to transport. ethanol mandate will continue to apply upward pressure on food prices in the coming years. Even the price of tortillas, the dietary staple of many.said Roland Hwang, director of the energy and transportation program. saying government has known all along that ethanol causes environmental problems and probably should not be used as a fuel.In addition to historical facts or statements of current conditions. from flooding in the Midwest, as well as lower ethanol prices of $0.06 per gallon. Sales for the quarter were based upon 61.3.Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, has the chemical formula C2H5OH. It is the same alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, but ethanol also makes an effective motor fuel.Ethanol is blended with gasoline to produce a fuel which has.. domestic production and use of ethanol, a renewable transportation fuel, and.FACT: Using ethanol in place of gasoline helps to reduce carbon dioxide (co2). such as E85 and biodiesel, and other less-polluting means of transportation.".
[1.III.17.4] Grands Grands require hammer voicing more frequently than uprights; otherwise, they become too "brilliant" or "harsh", at which point most owners will end up playing the grand with the lid closed. Many homeowners ignore voicing entirely. The result is that such grands produce too much and too harsh sound, and are therefore played with the lid down. There is nothing technically wrong with playing a grand with the lid closed. However, some purists will express dismay at such practice, and you are certainly throwing away something wonderful for which you made a significant investment. Performances at recitals almost always require the lid to be open, resulting in a more sensitive piano. Therefore you should always practice with the lid open before a performance even if you normally practice with it closed. In a large room, or in a recital hall, there is much less multiple reflection of the sound so that you do not hear the deafening roar that can result in a small room. A concert hall will absorb the sound from the piano so that, if you are accustomed to practicing in a small room, you will have difficulty hearing your own playing in a concert hall.
The day the Zulus beat the British Empire Issue section: The Zulu victory over British forces at Isandlwana in southern Africa 140 years ago profoundly shocked a Victorian society ideologically bound to the notion of white superiority over black "barbarism". Barry Conway explains why the victory should be celebrated by every socialist. This month sees the 140th anniversary of the Battle at Isandlwana. This, the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War and a decisive win for the Zulu, will be commemorated and celebrated across KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. Isandlwana brought the name “Zulu” to the attention of the world and established them as the paramount native force on the African continent. On 22 January 1879 a British army camp was annihilated by a 20,000-strong Zulu regiment sent by King Cetshwayo kaMpande to defend his land and independence. Of the 1,750 British and auxiliary troops defending the camp, some 1,350 were killed by the Zulu army. Zulu casualties were also high, but at around 2,500 (though accurate figures are not known), this was a much lower proportion of the force that attacked the camp. The defeat was a huge shock to Victorian society, ameliorated only by the successful defence of the Rorke’s Drift camp on the Natal border the same day. The Battle of Rorke’s Drift was immediately marked with an exceptional crop of Victoria Crosses and later immortalised in the film Zulu, starring Michael Caine. Isandlwana was conveniently forgotten for as long as possible. The Battle of Isandlwana is an object lesson in British arrogance and racist assumptions about the tactical skills of the Zulu. The British army, led by Lord Chelmsford, had invaded Zululand on the basis that Cetshwayo had stubbornly ignored their demands. The British had insisted that he dismantle his army — a formidable force composed of regiments and an officer class every bit as organised and replete with symbolism and esprit de corps as any European army — and that he change traditional laws that settlers in the British colony of Natal, bordering Zululand, found unpalatable. Cetshwayo did neither. In truth, these demands were made entirely with the knowledge that they would be turned down and provide the perfect excuse Chelmsford and the governor of Natal Sir Bartle Frere needed to destroy the Zulu Kingdom. Underneath the bluster around Zulu traditions lay deeper reasons for the invasion. Under Chelmsford the British regiment that was to invade, the 24th regiment, had only recently been involved in the ninth and final Frontier war with the Xhosa people, a war that was to spell the end of their independence and the consolidation of white rule in the Cape colony. Snatching land Migrants from Europe had been pouring into the Cape and setting up farms and businesses for decades, moving along the rich coastal land areas snatching land from the incumbent native Xhosa. And as the Europeans spread out, their need for slaves, and then wage labour, became imperative. Over the course of a century nine wars were fought against the Xhosa using British troops, Boer auxiliaries and native dissidents. With the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley the need for labour assumed greater importance, and the influx of European migrants setting up businesses to feed the mines and farms added to the demand. With the final destruction of Xhosa independence, the way was clear to sweep away tribal modes of production and begin the process of capital accumulation. Provided, of course, that the Zulu were willing to bow to British power. At this time British imperialist interests were dominated by India — the source of much of Britain’s wealth and power. Events in South Africa were of little interest except to a growing number of capitalists with investments in diamonds and agriculture. Nevertheless, a number of politicians and industrialists were won to the idea of a Confederation that would see the whole of South Africa, including eventually the semi-independent Free State and the Transvaal — both Boer states — coming under British imperial hegemony. Their problem was that they were not very likely to win support for fighting wars in Africa from a parliament more concerned with Russian influence in Afghanistan threatening to compromise British power in India. The British ruling class, or at least that section of it with interests in Africa, then did what it had always done in these situations: ignore parliament and go ahead anyway. Chelmsford’s and Frere’s ultimatum to Cetshwayo to buckle to their demands wasn’t agreed with the cabinet. The invasion of Zululand and the anticipated quick victory was planned as a fait accompli which parliament couldn’t ignore. At 4am on 22 January Chelmsford took two-thirds of his troops off to attack the main Zulu army, which he thought was stationed south east of Isandlwana. He did not adequately check the surrounding areas, where 20,000 Zulu troops were waiting five miles north-east of the camp. When the Zulu warriors attacked, surtrounding the camp, the British had little hope of defending themselves. In a further humiliation, hundreds of troops that were returning to the camp having heard about the invasion were intercepted by a messenger who told them it was a false alarm and sent them back on their original course to the south east. The destruction of British troops at Isandlwana came as a shock to the public and most politicians alike: “Who are these Zulus?” was a common response. As the news of Isandlwana reached Natal colonists panicked, with farmers and settlers packing up and leaving for the coast. Yet Cetshwayo had explicitly ordered his warriors not to cross into Natal; the regiments were to defend their land and not invade the British colony. In the event, a regiment of exuberant, fired-up and exhausted warriors did continue to run and fall upon the mission station at Rorke’s Drift in Natal at the end of a day’s fighting, only to fall prey to the concentrated fire-power of soldiers behind well-established positions. The humiliation of defeat galvanised parliament into sending troops to Natal together with a new commander, General Wolseley, to replace Chelmsford. But Chelmsford wouldn’t acknowledge his role in the Isandlwana disaster and re-entered Zululand with a ruthless vengeance to settle accounts with Cetshwayo before Wolseley could take command. These shenanigans concealed the fact that any notion of a Confederation was dead in the water — the Zulu had not simply thwarted British attempts at establishing hegemony in the region but had given confidence to others to challenge the world’s most powerful empire. Within a few years the Boers of the Transvaal established full independence by crushing British troops at Amajuba. After Isandlwana Zulu warriors continued to fight in set-piece battles, and conducted guerrilla operations. But their efforts to thwart British incursion were in vain. Their capital Ulundi was eventually overwhelmed and torched in a sea of one-sided bloodshed. Chelmsford and then Wolseley succeeded in dividing the Zulu chieftaincy into factions through the well-established imperial policies of bribery, treachery and violence. Simmering discontent The divisions within the British ruling class over South African policy widened as a result of the Zulu War. Although Cetshwayo had been defeated, it hadn’t been the walkover expected and the simmering discontent and frequent outbreaks of dissidence within the Zulu population continued for years to come. Furthermore, five years after Isandlwana, gold was discovered in the Transvaal, now under control of the then independent Boer Republic. Imperialists such as Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Beit argued and planned for a more aggressive approach to African affairs, which ultimately led to a second war with the Boers, a reckless and messy adventure that exposed the weakness of British military power to European and US competitors. When Cetshwayo was paraded in London, more as a captive than as a guest, to plead the injustice of the invasion, he was cheered in the streets and one army officer, a Colonel Dewe Wight, was moved to write to the newspapers: “It should be considered that Cetshwayo, whether he be regarded as a noble savage or a barbarous ruler, at all events fought bravely for the independence of his country against British aggressors, and being eventually conquered, he was unfairly treated in being deprived of those usages of war practised among civilised nations, which he was entitled to, because the colour of Cetshwayo’s skin and his African birth ought not to prejudice his claim to be thus dealt with. In point of fact, the waging war with the Zulu, partitioning their country, and keeping their King as a prisoner of war are three wrong things we have done.” And this was not a minority opinion at the time. William Gladstone’s Liberals made good use of it in the run up to the 1880 election that saw Disraeli’s Tory government fall. The backbiting and recrimination continued for years afterwards. Lord Chelmsford’s cosy relationship with Queen Victoria saved him from the worst of it, but his reputation never recovered. Socialists should celebrate this anniversary of the Zulu victory at Isandlwana. In the scheme of things tribal social and economic structures as they were in Zululand are no romantic ideal that we would aspire to; yet the shattering of imperial power, the humiliation of the British ruling class and the humbling of the representatives of that class in politics and in the military is always to be welcomed.
Online marketing A formation to understand HTTP/HTTPS The web is a real world that has its own constraints, specific attractions and language. In this order, http and https are part of these attractions. You are offered training to better understand these two concepts. The amateurs will be able to expand their cultures while the professionals will deepen their knowledge of the field. The http request The training in http and HTTPS security aims to deepen the subject in order to better treat it. In this order, understanding http is essential. Clearly http stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is a communication protocol inherent to the connection between several computers via the internet. Clearly, http is a language that is specifically used by the internet. Like the human language, the language of the internet is specific, but not so difficult to learn. Clearly, the language of the web is summed up by a specific form that is the RFC or Request For Comments. We are talking about a document where we find all the operating rules of the web world. It is with http that customers will understand the results offered by the web. Customers or Internet users therefore use a browser that will send the server http request to have a response back. The difference between these two requests In general, http and https are not the same things. Indeed, apart from the name of these two queries, there are significant differences between them. In the case of http, its role is to clarify the data that go from the browser to the server and vice versa. Thanks to him, all Internet users can easily read the language. Only this data can be intercepted by a third party who can steal this information. Note that the use of intermediaries such as proxies or VPN leads to the same effect. The https has been implemented to solve this type of problem. Initially, his role was to secure online payments. In short, https offers better security for all your online data. All details are treated in the training. Les publications similaires de "Our formations" 1. 4 Juil. 2019Best ways of learning Php programming583 aff. 2. 29 Déc. 2018Become a top Php programmer with required skills1252 aff. 3. 7 Juil. 2017Yes you can have a nice, responsive website with our company !2445 aff. 4. 3 Mars 2017How to find a good partner digital?3120 aff. 5. 5 Janv. 2017Who is Solomon Hykes ?3132 aff. 6. 2 Août 2016The tricks to make your magento nicer3374 aff. 7. 14 Juil. 2016Develop your skills with us !3488 aff. 8. 30 Juin 2016Create a website with Ruby !3485 aff.
Online Hair Booking Tuesday, September 17, 2013 'When Computers Look at Art' - Melbourne University public lecture Dr David Stork is a research scientist from California, and he gave a public lecture at Melbourne Uni this evening. It's really fascinating to hear that new computer technology plays a pivotal role in analysing art. To make a point of what he does, he offered a vulgar example of photo manipulation, which was quite interesting. There's a photo of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie walking on a beach with their children. It was supposed to be a "scoop", and the photo was sold to a women's magazine at whopping half a million dollars. As it turned out, the light source of these people were inconsistent, it was poorly photoshopped. With extremely complex mathematics and computer graphic modelling, he analyses paintings of historical importance. For example, Vermeer's 'Girl with a pearl earring.' He showed a very detailed research (without maths for us, thank goodness) on this painting, and concluded that the light source was correctly reflected on her cast shadows, highlights on her eyes and on the pearl.... Yes, Vermeer painted this, using a real model with one single light source. He had an extraordinary power of observation and a masterful skill to render it on the canvas. Something happened around 1430 in the history of painting. There was a dramatic improvement, figures and perspectives suddenly became more realistic. David Hockney proposed in 2001 that one of the reasons is that old masters started to use optical device to project subjects on a canvas (which is upside down), and then traced its contours.... Using his computer analysis, Dr. Stork successfully refuted some of Hockney's arguments. For example, the most fascinating story for me was 'Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife' by Jan van Eyck. Hockney argued that the convex mirror in the portrait was used as a concave projection mirror to trace the image. According to Dr. Stork's complex analysis, Hockney was wrong. The painting was done without it. Also, the perspective of parts of the chandelier was consistently inconsistent. It wasn't "perfect chandelier" as Hockney said. These stories were really interesting. Old masters used sheer human power to create these masterpieces. So, what happened around 1430? He suggested some factors. First of all. Oil paint. Unlike tempera, oil paint dries far much slowly, giving artists plenty of time to work. Second, around this time, Italian artists invented linear perspective, allowing them to create more naturalistic images. Third, spectacles. Obviously, they helped artists to see more clearly. Competition from realist sculptors, humanism, secularism...... "Did old masters cheat?" "Probably not." I just loved this lecture. No comments:
Home - Save Our Waterways Now True friends, false enemies Plants that look like weeds There are a lot of plants, many of them extremely important, that are in danger of being pulled as weeds because they don't have the classic "native plant" look, or closely resemble some well known weeds. Our widely accepted bushcare methods can be harmful in many situations. Poisoning often kills useful plants. Mulching can swamp the smaller and softer native species. Over-weeding can cause death to regenerating native plants by depriving them of cover. Over weeding can also leave bare earth, leading to erosion and moisture loss. But we have to bear in mind the benefits of bushcare and weigh up these benefits against the possible harm we cause. We can minimise negative outcomes by working strategically and constantly improving our plant and animal knowledge. Here are just some of the lesser known "False Enemies". Abutilon oxycarpum This little Abutilon is far less aggressive than its weedy cousin Abutilon Grandifolium, but it is never-the-less often mistaken for a weed. Why? Because it is soft, small, and unprepossessing. We had a scare in the Enoggera catchment when we listed Abutilon Grandifolium (wrongly) as an Enoggera species. We were most pleased at its ability to spread quickly, until we discovered it was an exotic pest. abutilon oxycarpum Acalypha Nemorum Another small, soft plant that can be mistaken for any number of soft weeds. You'll see this one appear after rain. The new weed Dischoriste is vaguely similar (but with spikey flowers) and there are some weedy Acalyphas (e.g. Acalypha Australis from Asia). A tricky one. A relative (A. eremorum) with male and female flower spikes (nemorum has the cup/disc female flower), is endangered in NSW. Cayratia Clematidea - Slender Grape This local native is often pulled out by people removing Balloon Vine (Cardiospermum Grandiflorum). It can appear weedy, as it is a pioneer. It's excellent at plugging sunny gaps, buit it is not a weed. Maclura Cochinchinensis Many people cannot imagine this aggressive climber is a native plant, but it is. Its name refers to the "Vietnamese" Maclura, but it has been here in Australia a very long time. Not as long as other thorny plants such as Carissa Ovata, but long enough to be throughly integrated into the local biology. Commelina diffusa This ubiquitous scrambler is clearly weedy in habit, it invades sunny creek edges that are exposed because of a lack of covering shade trees. In historical terms it is not normal for our Enoggera waterways to let sun onto the creek. The natural state is deep shade produced by a large range of trees including Waterhousea, Black Bean, Hard Quondong, Sandpaper and other Figs, E. microcorys, Neolitsea, Kamalas (red and green), Cryptocaryas, Jagera, Alphitonia, Cheese Trees, Flindersia and so on. If Commelina is running wild, it's better to leave it and Smart Weed (Persicaria spp.) than remove it. The strategy is to get the trees established to shade the creek, and the weedy natives like Commelina will disappear. Dutchmans Pipe and Pearl Vine Dutchmans Pipe is a nightmare in dry rainforest. It is the "killer from Brazil". In this photo you can see the Peal Vine (Sarcopetalum Harveyanum) on the left and Dutchmans Pipe (Aristolochia Elegans) on the right. Pearl Vine, to the untrained eye, could easily be mistaken for the dreaded Brazilian butterfly murderer. Berry Saltbush (Einadia Hastata) If you encountered this sprawling shrub/climber you could be forgiven for thinking "weed". This one was a rather shabby specimen, not the least because it was rescued from a thicket of Ochna, Madeira, Thickhead (Crassocephalum Crepidioides) and Dutchmans Pipe. A very useful plant with spade or spear-shaped leaves, fire retarding, with abundant berries all year round, and able to grow on very heavy soils. Ottochloa Gracillima (a grass) Any number of small grasses and sedges can be trampled, torn, suffocated or burnt by the extra exposure weed removal causes. This "Graceful Ottochloa" can form quite thick drifts if left alone, as can Oplismenus Aemulus (Basket Grass). Who among us can recognize species in these genuses: Alloteropsis, Ancistrachne, Aristida, Austrostipa, Bothriochloa, Chloris, Digitaria, Echinopogon, Eriachne, Heteropogon, Hyparrhenia, Microlaena, Poa, Sporobolus, Stipa? I know I can't. How many of them have been pulled by mistake? There are many weedy Solanacea but also many native ones like this Kangaroo Apple. Pioneers like this one are useful for the control phase in a reveg because they are very fast growing and have abundant, fertile seed. This brings up a question: "When is a pioneer a weed, even though it may be local?" Probably when its density (as with some stands of Macaranga), prevents the natural generation of species below it. In this case it needs to be thinned. I haven't seen too much evidence of Kangaroo Apple "getting away from us". It seems fairly short lived in dry rainforest, as it is a moisture and heat lover. Carex SPP I know for certain that Carex have been pulled by mistake, because this happened to some of the ones I planted myself. It's easy to confuse with some of those other weedy grasses on the waters edge - but much tougher and with abrasive, cutting edges. Watch out for this one. Lobelia SPP Last but not least this trailing herb is the bane of the herb garden -- it intertwines with Oregano and Thyme and makes harvesting very picky. But all Lobelia species listed in Plant Search are Australian, and this one, probably purpurascens, is local to Enoggera catchment. A great plant when you're looking for a stabilising ground cover. Article by Robert Whyte Lobelia spp Ipomoea Plebeia [Bell Vine] a native is often mistaken for introduced Ipomoea species, not any one in particular, but in general.
Detection of Remote Harmonics Using SVDLobosTKozinaTOsowskiS1998The paper examines the singular value decomposition (SVD) for detection of remote harmonics in signals, in the presence of high noise contaminating the measured waveform. When the number of harmonics is very large and at the same time certain harmonics are distant from the other, the conventional frequency detecting methods are not satisfactory. The methods developed for locating the frequencies as closely spaced sinusoidal signals are appropriate tools for the investigation of power system signals containing harmonics differing significantly in their multiplicity. The SVD methods are ideal tools for such cases. To investigate the methods several experiments have been performed. For comparison, similar experiments have been repeated using the FFT with the same number of samples and sampling period. The comparison has proved an absolute superiority of the SVD for signals burried in noise. However, the SVD computation is much more complex than the FFT, and requires more extensive mathematical manipulations. research-article
I don't know what exactly are the compounds that causes urine to be smelly, but does it (or do they) have higher or lower boiling points than water? If I have both liquid and exposed them to open air, will the water dry up first or will the smell disappear first? There are several reasons that a smell vanishes. One obvious reason is that a smelly component has a very low boiling point and simply evaporates. Another reason might be a chemical reaction of the "stinker" when exposed to air, which converts it to something untraceable. On the other hand, other reactions might result in quite the opposite but I rather doubt that you want to perform a test run with open bowls of urine over the next week at home ;) Here is an older article from 1971 on the gaschromatographic analysis of volatile organic compounds in human urine after extraction with diethylether. On a first view, however, the ketones that they found usually have a rather nice smell. In order to get a hand on the components in the vapour phase above the urine, others have performed a headspace GC-MS analysis, see this application note and this article. Again, the ketones usually have a pleasant smell, but they also identified some of the highly volatile bad boys, such as trimethylamine, methanthiol, and dimethylsulfide. These have boiling points of ~5, ~6 and ~40 °C, respectively. • 1 $\begingroup$ It is important to note that unless the urine is sterile, its composition will change significantly over a few hours, as bacteria will grow feeding of the urea and producing ammonia. Therefore, even though other smelly volatiles are removed with time, ammonia is produced continuously and is tied with the exponential growth of bacteria, so older urine gets progressively more smelly. $\endgroup$ – Nicolau Saker Neto Jan 26 '14 at 14:16 • $\begingroup$ @NicolauSakerNeto do you mean that left in the open, it will grow more smelly (because of the bacteria activity) instead of less smelly (because of evaporation)? $\endgroup$ – Olivier Beaumont Jan 26 '14 at 21:35 • $\begingroup$ @OlivierBeaumont Precisely. Though I wouldn't really recommend you check it out yourself! $\endgroup$ – Nicolau Saker Neto Jan 26 '14 at 21:45 • $\begingroup$ @NicolauSakerNeto oh god, why Now that explains what happened =)) I thought it was related to the boiling points. $\endgroup$ – Olivier Beaumont Jan 27 '14 at 2:53 Your Answer
CNC Machines vs. 3D Printers for Pressure Vessel Connections Forged Components vessel nozzles manufacturers 2017 December28 3D printing and CNC machining are both popular automated technologies for producing parts and prototypes. 3D printing is an additive process that involves layering material to create a desired shape, while CNC machining is a subtractive process that removes excess from a block of material to create a shape. These different processes lead to four primary differences between projects using CNC machines and 3D printers: Because removing excess material is quicker than assembling an object from scratch, CNC machines require much less production time. However, CNC machines usually require more time before production to allow the CNC operator to set up the machine. 3D printers take longer to shape objects but require less set-up time. Well-maintained CNC machines are more precise than even high-end 3D printers. Due to their precision, CNC machines are often used to make parts for engines, airplanes, and heavy machinery. However, some complex shapes are impossible to create with CNC machining. CNC machines may also suffer in precision if the tools are dull or damaged, or if there is an error in the software data. That’s why choosing an experienced CNC machining pressure vessel components manufacturer is so important. In most cases, 3D printers are limited to working with thermoplastics and resins, though thermoplastics can be mixed with other materials such as ceramics, metal, and wood. CNC machines are much more versatile and can create objects from a wide range of materials, including metal, wood, acrylic, foam, wax, and thermoplastics. But while CNC machines are versatile, they are also waste more material than 3D printers. While cost largely depends on the material and complexity of the project, 3D printers are only cost-effective for highly complex, low-quantity projects, while CNC machines are better suited to mass production. When producing over 500 parts, however, other methods such as steel forging are likely more cost-effective. Call an API Blind Flange Manufacturer Today If you need industrial flanges, Forged Components, Inc. has over a decade of experience custom CNC machining connections for pressure vessels. For more information about our carbon steel flange manufacturing, call us at (281) 441-4088 or contact us online.
World War I (redirected from 1914-1918) Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia. World War I Further readings References in periodicals archive ? Europeana 1914-1918 is teaming up with the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Cyprus Library to hold a roadshow in Cyprus on December 1 and 2. When asked why the collections project is restricted to European countries when the 1914-1918 conflict was a global event, Purday reports that funding from the European Union only goes to member states. At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War 1914-1918, by Tim Cook. Comrades in Courage, The British Army in France and Flanders, 1914-1918 is a visceral immersion of the British Army's harrowing experience in France and Flanders during World War I (though a few Canadian, American, French, and German soldiers are spoken of). Narrator C: During World War I (1914-1918), Chicago and other industrial cities are booming. We Lead Others Follow: First Canadian Division, 1914-1918 Rosie Malek-Yonan is an Assyrian Catholic and author of The Crimson Field, a novel about the genocide of Christians in Iraq from 1914-1918, during which an estimated 750,000 Christians were murdered by ethnic (Muslim) Kurds. He was the youngest living "poilu," an affectionate nickname, meaning hairy, used by the French to refer to their soldiers fighting in the 1914-1918 war. Students of World War I history will find compelling Ian Passingham 's ALL THE KAISER'S MEN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE GERMAN ARMY ON THE WESTERN FRONT 1914-1918 (075094241X $39.95): it covers the attitudes of the Imperial German Army as they went to war in 1914, confident they were to achieve a quick victory. Although Shaara is most associated with books about the Civil War, this time the venue moves to 1914-1918. He begins with a step-by-step picture of how alliances brought about the start of the war in 1914. A lot has gone into the making of David Raw 's Bradford Pals: A Comprehensive History Of The 16th-18th & 20th Service Batillions Of The Prince Of Wales Own West Yorkshire Regiment 1914-1918 (0850523508, L25.00): though a specialty item for military libraries, it uses memoirs, letters, diaries, newspaper reports, and official archives to recount the experiences of the Bradford Pals in the face of war. Grahamstown /Shepardstown at war 1914-1918 is written by Alan Turner and published by the Adelong Alive Museum.
Protein Explained - How Much Should I Eat? What is protein? How much should I eat to gain muscle mass & why is it important for our bodies? This week we were lucky to have top nutritional therapist and health coach, Michelle Boehm BComm, DipION to explain more! Why are proteins important? Your organs, tissues, muscles and hormones are all made from proteins. Proteins are used by every part of the body to develop, grow and function properly, from our skin and hair to our digestive enzymes and immune system antibodies. Proteins are constantly being broken down and must be replaced. Therefore, it’s important to consume high protein foods every day in each meal. What are proteins? Proteins are long chains of amino acids, which are essential molecules for all metabolic processes. The body can make some amino acids on its own and relies on food to obtain “essential” amino acids. What happens when you consume too little protein? Eating a wide range of foods high in protein is important to prevent the risk of deficiencies in certain amino acids. If you struggle with the following, it may mean you’re not consuming sufficient protein: • Low energy • Mood swings • Anxiety • Irregular blood sugar levels • Weight issues • Trouble building muscle mass • Poor sleep • Low immunity • Trouble concentrating or “brain fog” • Slow wound healing • Flatulence • Constipation • A sluggish metabolism How much protein is too much & how what is the recommended intake? Try to avoid intakes of more than twice the recommended intake as this can have detrimental effects on bones and kidneys, but the evidence isn't conclusive. The recommended intake(RI) of protein is 0.75g of protein per kg of body weight per day. To calculate your average daily amount of protein required, multiply your body weight in kg by 0.75. For example, the approximate RI of protein for someone weighing 63kg (10 stone) is 50g of protein per day. Everyone is different! It is important to note that RI is designed to meet the minimum requirements of the body and is not necessarily optimal for all of us. Higher protein intakes can be helpful for individuals training regularly, those wanting to build muscle or even those who want to lose weight as protein can help a person stay fuller for longer. If you are trying to build muscle, there are many recommendations for the ideal amount of protein required from numerous studies. It is widely accepted that between 1.6-2.2g of protein per kg of bodyweight is required to add sufficient muscle mass. Try to start with 1.6g to assess your progress and slowly increase this if you need to. What sources of protein should I eat? Vary these as much as possible and try and avoid processed sources as these can lead to health issues. Also, do not swap complex carbohydrates for protein as this can lead to constipation due to the lack of fibre. Here are our go-to sources: • Grass-fed meat • Wild-caught seafood • Free-range eggs • Free-range poultry (chicken or turkey) • Dairy Sources for vegans • Peas • Nuts • Lentils • Seeds • Quinoa • Chickpeas • Beans Here are two high protein meals to try: 1. Vegan salad with quinoa Preparation time - 10 minutes Cooking time - 15 minutes Serves - 2 What you'll need... 80g kidney beans 80g avocado Half a red onion 50g tomato 50g corn 80g quinoa 1 garlic clove Ground black pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to taste To prepare... 1. Chop the avocado, tomatoes and onions 2. Cook the quinoa according to the packet instructions 3. Lay the ingredients out like the picture 4. Top with the garlic, pepper, vinegar and oil 1. Beef Chilli Con Carne Preparation time - 10 minutes Cooking time - 30 minutes to 1 hour Serves - 4 What you'll need... 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 small red onions, chopped 2 garlic cloves, chopped 2 red chillies, chopped 500g organic, grass-fed beef mince 150ml red wine 400g organic carton tomatoes, chopped 400g organic carton red kidney beans, rinsed 100g butternut cubed (optional) salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 bunch coriander leaves, chopped To prepare... 1. Cook the onion, garlic and chillies with olive oil for 2 minutes on a medium heat 2. Add in the mince and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring continuously 3. Pour in the red wine and 1 cup water, simmer for 3 minutes 4. Add in the remaining ingredients 5. Depending on how much time you have, simmer (covered with a lid) for 30 minutes/ 1 hour 6. Serve with brown rice, guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Michelle provides Nutritional Therapy & Health Coaching around the world. She holds sessions via Skype or in her Mayfair, London UK clinic. Michelle can be found on Instagram here & her website is below: ← Older Post
Modernity of buddhism and christianity Comparison of Buddhism & Christianity The emphasis on intentionality is found in the acknowledgment, present since the earliest day of Buddhism, that in order for an action to be considered blameworthy, one has to be aware of what one is doing. But both explanations are unlikely and unnecessary. Comparison of Buddhism & Christianity Different people have different interests and stakes in the embrace of mindfulness and in the relationship between mindfulness and Buddhism. While the former regards the connection between words and reality as arbitrary, so that words are understood as labels, the latter, being a "sonic" view of reality, regards the connection between words and reality as involving an intrinsic connection between the very sound of words and the things named by them. Since so many American adults are converting from Christianity to Buddhism, it may be useful to compare the two. Subjectivity and intentionality The condemnation or at least mistrust of ritual practices, especially of the wasteful expenditures associated with them, has been central to attempts at modernization. Francis Xavier arrived in the East. Suzuki stated that every time he saw a crucifixion scene it reminded him of the "gap that lies deep" between Christianity and Buddhism. It is practiced by people who may not identify exclusively as Buddhists, but have Buddhist ideas and practices as part of a repertoire of ways of navigating the world. As Timothy Fitzgerald shows, besides being highly literate and resisting actively the power of brahmins and Marathas, Ambedkar Buddhists are willing to work only for cash. We also encounter it more than two millennia later when, intent on modernizing their country, southeast Asian kings such as Mongkut r. Ananda Metteyya and Nyanatiloka entered the Buddhist monastic life. Buddhism and Christianity Despite this, gender-based taboos prevalent in South Asia generally do not apply to Buddhists; for example, whereas menstruating women are Modernity of buddhism and christianity allowed to enter Hindu temples, their Buddhist counterparts can enter their own temples. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. Sir Edwin Arnold and Henry Olcott converted to Buddhism, and in the beginning of the 20th century the first westerners e. As we shall see, this is false. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. To support this claim the author quotes the admittedly prejudicial speech of Max Muller from his India, What Can it Teach Us, which states: Be patient, tolerant, compassionate. The counterpart of a causal chain whose components can be identified is a conception of the world based on the principle of correlation, a conception in which various aspects of reality resonate with each other, allowing those who can manipulate such correlations to claim special rights and powers for themselves. And of course many Buddhist meditation practices, even if their origins are acknowledged, are presented as universal and practicable by anyone of any—or no—religion. Yet this seems to be a conflicted phenomenon, with non-religious mindfulness teachers trying to disassociate themselves from Buddhism, or Buddhist leaders or scientists trying to assert Buddhist inspiration for many developments in neuroscience. During thousands and milliards of kalpas Such hear not the name of Buddha, Nor ever learn of the truth. Some have posited that Jesus might have traveled there, or that Buddhist teachings may have reached cities of the Jewish homeland, including Sepphoris, a major city in Galilee only four miles from Nazareth. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. Some Buddhists believe in Miroku, the "future Buddha. The need for a sinless personal savior whose execution enabled individual salvation through atonement. By the early second century, post-apostolic Christian theology had taken shape, in the works of authors such as Irenaeus[11] although Christianity is seen as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy regarding the "Messiah" which dates back much further. Christianity has historically taught that everyone has only a single life on earth. Is there a way to evaluate, whether Jesus or Buddha has the truth, or do we just have to wait until we die to find out? Once this is attained, the mind experiences complete freedom, liberation and non-attachment. Most of the doctrines and teachings of Buddha are steeped in Hinduism. Buddhist monks, or bhikkhus, follow a strict code of conduct, which includes celibacy. They borrowed ideas from the West but also used them to critique Western colonialism and imperialism. Original sin shared by all present-day humans, derived from Adam and Eve.Examining the Fundamental Differences of Buddhism vs. Christianity The popular appeal of Buddhism today is one of “coolness”,”tolerance”, and non- dissention. It’s a belief system that many feel can help them “detach”, maintain neutrality, and find peace in a world of injustice and suffering. Watch video · Buddhism is a religion that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (“The Buddha”) more than 2, years ago in India. With about million followers, scholars consider Buddhism one of. Nevertheless, modern Christian scholars generally hold that there is no direct evidence of any influence of Buddhism on Christianity, and several scholarly theological works do not support these suggestions. Christianity carried over many of the values and ideas of Judaism but at the same time branches off from the religion going in a different direction. Christianity and Judaism are mostly similar as they believe in this one god who is this almighty power. Buddhism is centered upon the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha, whereas Christianity is centered on the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ. Modernity of buddhism and christianity Rated 3/5 based on 86 review
Repurposed Plastic Protects PCBs X-Rays Are the Next Frontier in Space Communications Hundreds of years from now, the story of humanity’s inevitable spread across the solar system will be a collection of engineering problems solved, some probably in heroic fashion. We’ve already tackled a lot of these problems in our first furtive steps into the wider galaxy. Our engineering solutions have taken humans to the Moon and back, but that’s as far as we’ve been able to send our fragile and precious selves. While we figure out how to solve the problems keeping us trapped in the Earth-Moon system, we’ve sent fleets of robotic emissaries to do our exploration by proxy, to make the observations we need to frame the next set of engineering problems to be solved. But as we reach further out into the solar system and beyond, our exploration capabilities are increasingly suffering from communications bottlenecks that restrict how much data we can ship back to Earth. We need to find a way to send vast amounts of data back as quickly as possible using as few resources as possible on both ends of the communications link. Doing so may mean turning away from traditional radio communications and going way, way up the dial and developing practical means for communicating with X-rays. The Tyranny of Physics The essential problems with deep space communications come from two sources – the inverse-square law and information theory. The inverse-square law states that the amount of energy at the receiving end of a radio communications link is inversely proportional to the square of the distance to the transmitter. Basically, radio waves spread out from the source and at very great distances tend to diminish into the background noise. That’s why deep-space communications networks tend to have large antennas on both ends of the link, to gather and focus as much of the weak signal as possible, as well as to be able to transmit a powerful and narrowly focused beam. Information theory tells us that more data can be packed into higher frequency signals than lower frequencies. Early satellites didn’t need much bandwidth to do their jobs, so VHF and UHF radios were generally sufficient. But as spacecraft became more sophisticated and the amount of data they needed to send back increased, their communications links began shifting gradually up the electromagnetic spectrum into the microwave region. The Voyager probes, currently in interstellar space, have an uplink using 2.1 GHz for the relatively low-bandwidth tasks of vehicle control, with a downlink at 8.1 GHz, reflecting the increased bandwidth needed to send scientific data back to Earth. For as stunning an engineering achievement as Voyager has been, and notwithstanding the fact that it’s still working more than 40 years after launch, its radio gear only barely supports its interstellar mission. To be fair, Voyager was never meant to last this long, and every bit of data that makes it back to Earth is just icing on the cake. But for future missions specifically designed for interstellar space, sending back enough data to make such missions feasible will require more bandwidth. Small, Bright, and Fast The Modulated X-Ray Source experiment. The miniature source is center bottom. Source: NASA/W. Hrybyk In late April, NASA is sending a pallet of gear up to the ISS, and one of the experiments stashed in the cargo is meant to explore the potential for X-ray communications, or XCOM, for deep space. The Modulated X-Ray Source (MXS) is a compact X-ray transmitter that will be mounted outside the space station. The receiver for this experiment is already installed; the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) has been gathering X-ray spectra from neutron stars since 2017, while also gathering data about the potential for using X-ray pulsars as navigational beacons in a sort of “Galactic Positioning System”. MXS is an interesting instrument. When one thinks of making X-rays, the natural tendency is to assume a traditional hot-cathode vacuum tube, where electrons are boiled off a filament and accelerated by an electric field in the range of 100 kilovolts to slam into a tungsten anode, would be used. But vacuum tubes like those found in a hospital X-ray suite aren’t the best space travelers, and even when ruggedized they’re too bulky and heavy to send upstairs. So NASA researchers developed a more spaceflight-friendly X-ray generator. Rather than heating a filament to generate electrons, the X-ray source in MXS uses creates photoelectrons by bombarding a magnesium photocathode with UV light from LEDs. The few photoelectrons produced then enter an electron amplifier, an off-the-shelf component found in mass spectrometers that uses specially shaped chambers coated with a thin layer of semiconducting material. Each incident electron liberates a few secondary photoelectrons, which bounce off the other wall of the multiplier to create more electrons, greatly amplifying the signal. The huge stream of electrons is then accelerated by a 10 kV field to collide with the target anode and produce X-rays. Comparison of hot-cathode X-ray tube to MXS. Source: NASA While the MXS source sounds similar to a hot-cathode tube, there are important differences. First, the source can be made cheaply from off-the-shelf components and a 3D-printed metal enclosure. The whole assembly weighs only about 160 grams, fits in the palm of a hand, and has no unusual power or temperature control requirements. The big difference, though, is with how fast the X-rays can be turned on and off. A glowing filament can only heat up and cool down so quickly, meaning that effective modulation of X-ray from hot-cathode sources is difficult. In the MXS, X-rays are produced only when the UV LEDs are on, and those can be switching very quickly, in the sub-nanosecond range. The ability to modulate an X-ray beam lead to data rates in the gigabits per second range, greatly enhancing our ability to move data around in space. What’s more, X-rays can be more tightly collimated than radio waves or even light, which is also being experimented with for space communications. The tighter X-ray beam spreads out less, making transmission more power efficient and reception easier by virtue of the strong signal from relatively bright transmitters. Although the distance between the MXS and NICER in these XCOM experiments is only about 50 meters, they stand to position us for much better bandwidth for deep space communications. The MXS source itself has a lot of potential applications beyond XCOM too, from cheap, lightweight, low-power medical imaging on Earth and in space, navigational beacons for spacecraft, and even advanced chemical analysis by X-ray spectroscopy Full Earth Disc Images From GOES-17 Harvested By SDR The $50 Ham: Dummy Loads L’il Dummy As Al points out in the article linked above, a dummy load is just a resistive element that matches the characteristic impedance of the transmitter’s antenna connection. In almost every case, that’s going to be 50 ohms. The reason that the load needs to be as resistive as possible is that it needs to continue looking like a flat 50-ohm load no matter what frequency is applied to it. Any inductive or capacitive elements in the load will make it more reactive, changing the impedance as the input frequency changes. This could lead to RF power getting reflected back into the final amplifier transistors in the transmitter, possibly damaging them or destroying them altogether. Not what you’re looking for. That means our resistive elements need to be as non-inductive as possible. But, they also need to be able to dissipate a lot of power. The HT dummy load, which I’ve dubbed L’il Dummy, needs to handle the 5 to perhaps 8 watts an HT can output. Trouble is, power resistors in that range are often wirewound, and a coil of wire will have too much inductance. We’ll need to be clever in sourcing components. Looking down into L’il Dummy just before applying the torch. The RF Biscuit board is a handy little thing. The circuit for L’il Dummy is hardly worth a schematic – it’s just an SMA jack with a 50-ohm resistor across the outer ground and the inner conductor. I chose to build the circuit on an RF Biscuit board. This is an open-source design that enables all kinds of handy little RF circuits — attenuators, filters, and as in this case, dummy loads. The resistive element I chose was a thick-film SMT device capable of dissipating 35 watts – way more than enough for this job. That and an edge-mount SMA jack should have been all I needed to make a working dummy load. To my surprise, once I soldered the resistor to the RF Biscuit board, the dummy load was almost as good an antenna as the stock rubber ducky on my Baofeng HT. I was able to hit a local repeater through the dummy load without any issues. Clearly not a good design. To correct it, I put the whole thing into an enclosure made from 1″ copper pipe. Not cheap stuff, but not too bad, and I like the look of polished copper. Soldering the whole case together was a challenge that my big Weller soldering gun wasn’t up to, and trying to get everything heated up enough with a propane torch without overdoing the heat was a fun time. Testing on a Budget Now for the $50 question: does it work? I tested the resistance with a DMM and it comes out to just about 49 ohms, which is close enough in my book. But that’s DC resistance; what about impedance? I don’t have an antenna analyzer, so I trolled around and found a simple method for measuring impedance with only a function generator and an oscilloscope. My scope has a 20-MHz function generator built in, so I whipped up a quick test jig from a BNC jack and an SMA jack, connected in series through a leftover 1000-ohm resistor. L’il Dummy test setup. Measure the p-p voltage on each side of the series resistance connecting the function generator to the dummy, and do a little math. Applying a sine wave into the dummy load, measuring peak-to-peak voltages on each side of the resistance, and doing a little math is all that’s needed to characterize the impedance from 2.5 MHz to 20 MHz. The math is simple: Z_x = \frac{V_2}{V_1 - V_2}R_{ref} with V1 being the voltage across the input, V2 being the voltage across the output, and Rref being the actual value of the series resistance, which I measured at 998 Ohms. And the results are pretty close to 50 Ohms, and flat across the tested band f (MHz) V1 (V p-p) V2 (V p-p) Z (ohms) 20.0 1.49 0.062 43.3 15.0 1.89 0.082 45.3 10.0 2.57 0.113 45.9 5.0 3.90 0.173 46.3 2.5 4.70 0.217 48.3 I wish I could measure it at VHF and UHF frequencies, but that will have to wait until I get a function generator that goes up to 400 MHz or so. I doubt very much that a $50 budget would cover that, though. Next Time I had intended to cover both L’il Dummy and its bigger, somewhat smarter brother in one article, but I still have some testing to do on Big Dummy. I’ll cover that next time, and after that we’ll move onto measuring the output of a cheap Chinese HT and perhaps building a filter to clean it up. The $50 Ham: Checking Out the Local Repeater Scene Could You Repeat That? Basic repeater schematic. Source: Ham Radio School Welcome to the Machine Casting the Net Next Time A New Digital Mode For Radio Amateurs There used to be a time when amateur radio was a fairly static pursuit. There was a lot of fascination to be had with building radios, but what you did with them remained constant year on year. Morse code was sent by hand with a key, voice was on FM or SSB with a few old-timers using AM, and you’d hear the warbling tones of RTTY traffic generated by mechanical teletypes. By contrast the radio amateur of today lives in a fast-paced world of ever-evolving digital modes, in which much of the excitement comes in pushing the boundaries of what is possible when a radio is connected to a computer. A new contender in one part of the hobby has come our way from [Guillaume, F4HDK], in the form of his NPR, or New Packet Radio mode. NPR is intended to bring high bandwidth IP networking to radio amateurs in the 70 cm band, and it does this rather cleverly with a modem that contains a single-chip FSK transceiver intended for use in licence-free ISM band applications. There is an Ethernet module and an Mbed microcontroller board on a custom PCB, which when assembled produces a few hundred milliwatts of RF that can be fed to an off-the-shelf DMR power amplifier. Each network is configured around a master node intended to use an omnidirectional antenna, to which individual nodes connect. Time-division multiplexing is enforced by the master so there should be no collisions, and this coupled with the relatively wide radio bandwidth of the ISM transceiver gives the system a high usable data bandwidth. Whether or not the mode is taken up and becomes a success depends upon the will of individual radio amateurs. But it does hold the interesting feature of relying upon relatively inexpensive parts, so the barrier to entry is lower than it might be otherwise. If you are wondering where you might have seen [F4HDK] before, we’ve previously brought you his FPGA computer. Bidirectional IP with New Packet Radio There are a few options if you want to network computers on amateur radio. There are WiFi hacks of sort, and of course there’s always packet radio. New Packet Radio, a project from [f4hdk] that’s now on, is unlike anything we’ve seen before. It’s a modem that’s ready to go, uses standard 433 ISM band chips, should only cost $80 to build, and it supports bidirectional IP traffic. The introductory documentation for this project (PDF) lays out the use case, protocol, and hardware for NPR. It’s based on chips designed for the 433MHz ISM band, specifically the SI4463 ISM band radio from Silicon Labs. Off the shelf amplifiers are used, and the rest of the modem consists of an Mbed Nucleo and a Wiznet W5500 Ethernet module. There is one single modem type for masters and clients. The network is designed so that a master serves as a bridge between Hamnet, a high-speed mesh network that can connect to the wider Internet. This master connects to up to seven clients simultaneously. Alternatively, there is a point-to-point configuration that allows two clients to connect to each other at about 200 kbps. Being a 434 MHz device, this just isn’t going to fly in the US, but the relevant chip will work with the 915 MHz ISM band. This is a great solution to IP over radio, and like a number of popular amateur radio projects, it started with the hardware hackers first. Es’hail-2: Hams Get Their First Geosynchronous Repeater Friends in High Places Listening In The $50 Ham: Getting Your Ticket Punched Not a $50 ham. W9EVT’s shack. Source: Getting Your Ticket Practice, Practice, Practice Next Time This SDR Uses A Tube
Description of Domain Name System (DNS) Applies to: Windows This article describes the Domain Name System (DNS) and its major components. More Information DNS is the name service for Internet addresses that translates friendly domain names to numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. For example, "" translates to DNS consists of the following components: • Domains: A domain is a logical group of computers in a large network. Access to each computer in a given group is controlled by the same server. • Distributed Database: A distributed database is an archive of information about the computers in a network. • Name Servers: A name server contains address information about other computers on the network. This information can be given to client computers that make a request to the name server. • Clients: A client requests information from the servers. In a domain name system, the client requests network addressing information from the name servers. • Resolver: A resolver provides clients with address information about other computers on the network.
When the Rose Blooming in Your Cheeks Happens to be White Cosmetics Box for Rouge and Patches, circa 1750-55 Our ancestors adored cosmetics just as much as we do. While they couldn’t walk into their local drugstore and choose from two hundred shades of eyeshadow and lipstick, women did have access to cosmetics both homemade and store bought. Upper class women famously indulged in cosmetics during all eras, even during the relatively conservative Victorian era. The wide range of anti-makeup rants may seem like evidence to the contrary, but there must have been enough women breaking the “rule” to inspire that many complaints! Indeed, depending on the era, it may be less accurate to go bare faced. The ancient Egyptians and 18th century Georgians are especially well known for their love of makeup. A noblewoman (or nobleman) in these eras would have indulged heavily in various makeups as a part of their regular routine, even more so for court appearances. The Six Stages of Mending a Face by Thomas Rowlandson, May 29th, 1792 The image above links to an alternate version in the Met. It was quite a popular print and there are a few different variations around the web. Poor Lady Archer! 200 years later and everyone is still laughing at her morning…face. Commoners were not exempt from cosmetics entirely; though compared to their wealthy contemporaries, their options were much more limited. Homemade rouges, powders, and creams were all popular. The Industrial Revolution played a huge role in making cosmetics more widely available. With so much emphasis placed on a woman to be not only accomplished, but also beautiful, many enterprising entrepreneurs stepped in to provide the beauty nature may have not been generous enough to give. By the Victorian era, even a servant girl might afford a small jar of skin brightening cream, though she might have been better off skipping it thanks to some being laced with toxins! They must be safe! Everyone knows that printed words never lie… Many modern women avoid makeup for just that reason– well, maybe not for poison, but certainly for allergic reactions, environmental concerns, or a desire to keep certain chemical substances out of their bodies. In addition, makeup then and now is often tied to morality and societal roles. Throughout the ages, most arguments for or against makeup are strongly tied to women’s freedom of expression and sexuality. As those values fluctuate, so does the stance on makeup. In Victorian England, for example, makeup was seen as morally corrupt since it “lied” about a woman’s appearance and was associated with prostitution. In this photo, Belle Archer (not related to the Lady Archer previously caricatured) is wearing stage makeup and looking rather sad for a series of modelling photos taken during her career as an actress. The heavy stage makeup paired with the comparatively skimpy stage outfits 19th century actresses wore made them a target of public ridicule just as many modern starlets are mocked in the tabloids. Time has softened past judgements, however, and Belle is known as one of the Victorian era’s greatest beauties. Makeup still carries many of those negative connotation today, but with the added bonus of being a required part of daily life. We can thank early 20th century marketers for that. They created a whole new persona for makeup and other hygiene products. Makeup became the symbol of a well-groomed, proper lady. To leave the house without completely covering the face was considered slothful and makeup was as indispensable to an outfit as shoes. To compromise these two views, today’s woman is encouraged to “go natural,” i.e. wear makeup, but not in a noticeable way. We walk a fine line! The prevalence of digital media in modern life makes it all the more challenging. We live our lives through the ever-gazing electronic eye of a camera lens. So, how does all this tie back to Georgian Picnic? Well, I am not a strict historical reenactor. I costume for personal pleasure and enjoy socializing with others who share my passion. We agonize over every detail, from the colors to the textures to the smallest button on a cuff. We invest a lot of time and money in our work, so we want to make darn sure everything is the best it can be! The costume doesn’t stop at the dress. Any costumer will tell you that the right undergarments, hair, and accessories are what make or break an outfit. Faces, however, are rarely emphasized. I think it stems from the modern ideal of personal freedom and beauty. No one likes to be told how they should look, especially if it’s genetically out of our control. I am no exception. I am stubborn, insecure, and probably more than a little vain. Vanity has heavily implied negative connotations, but striving to look your best is natural and, in the case of costuming, kind of the point. We want beautiful clothes that in turn make us feel beautiful so we can take beautiful pictures in beautiful places to make all-around beautiful memories! There is no memory more beautiful than six Regency Wedgies (and some 18th century ones) all in a row… The glory of modern HD photography is also a bit of a curse. Humans react emotionally to contrast and color. A lot of human beauty stems from increased contrast, which is why humans in many different cultures have embraced lining the eyes with dark colors. Rouge on the lips also serves the same purpose. By increasing the color and contrast, the features and expressions of the face become easily discernible. It also helps them show up better at distances (which is why stage makeup is so heavy) and in photographs. If you are pale skinned with pale eyes and pale eyebrows like me, your features will all blend together on camera, which is what happened in many photos from Georgian picnic: Little did Jen know that in this shot, I had replaced myself with a wax figure! So, a bare face is historically accurate, but not so flattering in modern photos! Part of it was the weather. Had it been warmer and sunny, I would have had a bit more natural flush, especially in my lips, but the cold sucked all the color right out of my cheeks, making me look waxy and exhausted. Perhaps it’s just my insecure vanity talking, but I find my sickly complexion distracts from my outfit. Now I know why all those antique beauty and women’s housekeeping books emphasize complexion so much! However, unlike 19th century ladies, I rather like my freckles. My sun damage is adorable! So, if you are going to an event and are hoping to get some flattering photos, adding a little bit of modern makeup to your face might be helpful. I don’t know if I’d call the following a tutorial, per se, but it’s what works for me…when I remember to do it, of course! Depending on your natural facial contrast, a bare face might be just fine, but if you would feel more comfortable with a little natural-looking enhancement, take cues from our ancestors! I prefer to stick to a natural look. I find leaving the majority of my skin alone (no foundation or powders) greatly helps with this. However, my pale lips and skin do benefit from some pre-packaged “youthful glow.” Women throughout history have used rouge to this end. You can buy modern rouge in liquid and powder form, but it’s very simple to use a modern lipstick as both a blush and lip color. Just dab it on lightly rather than swiping. I like a neutral shade that’s fairly close to my natural color. “Kasbah” by Rimmel London, if you were curious. Sometimes I prefer to use lipstain rather than lipstick much of the time because it applies matte, sinks into the lips, and sticks around for longer than a lipstick (it doesn’t work very well as a blush, though). For a Renaissance or 18th century look, red lipstick dabbed on with your finger is great for mimicking the look of rouge from those eras. I also carry a tinted lip balm with me to events now, especially outdoor ones. Texas gets hot and dry, so protecting your lips with a balm with SPF and a little hint of color is smart. Just swipe it on for protection and a touch of color! Next, it’s time to go a little anachronistic: Mascara! Remember, I’m not aiming for historical accuracy. The goal is to boost confidence and take photos everyone can be proud of. Indeed, that glorious goop I just declared unfit for pre-1920 wear is a godsend if you are planning on taking photos! It helps increase the contrast of your eyes, making them look brighter. Our ancestors valued long, dark lashes just as much as we do, but while they had to be born with them, we are blessed to be able to apply them right out of a tube. In lots of old paintings, you’ll notice that artists put a line of black or dark brown over the top of the eye to set the eye off. An early 19th century lover’s eye pendant. I need to make myself one of these! You might assume, then, that eyeliner would be appropriate, and it might be, depending on what era/culture you are portraying. However, eyeliner is jarringly unnatural on the face and the dark line in paintings is really there to indicate the presence of lashes. A very light coating of mascara, therefore, is the perfect solution and blends much more naturally with the face. I have deep set eyes, so eyeliner would disappear into the crease anyway. Blonds, redheads, and light brunettes should choose a brown or brown-black for a natural look. Darker brunettes and folks with black hair can use true black. It’s easy to overdo it, so use a light touch. A single, swift coat on the upper lashes only is all you need! I often blot the wand off on a cloth or tissue before applying so I avoid a heavy coating. This might be enough for most ladies. However, I have one extra step in my routine: eyebrows. You never know how important eyebrows are until they’re gone! Yup. That’s Anne Hathaway without eyebrows. Turns out “celebrities without brows” is an internet meme of sorts. It’s kind of unsettling how different folks look without them! While my brows are just dark enough to be visible and an okay shape for my face, they do disappear in far shots. Through an odd quirk of fate, my eyebrows are perfect for the Elizabethan era. Queen Liz and I share a name and eyebrows/lack thereof. Going eyebrow-less was trendy during her reign. Pale, sassy, and proud! However, the Regency period and the century before and after it valued darker brows. Turns out getting nice, fashionably full eyebrows was a challenge for ladies in the past, too. They had a whole list of remedies for sparse brows, including burnt cloves and mouse skin strips! Instead of massacring the local rodent population, I use either eyeshadow in a color that matches my hair or a bit of brown mascara depending on my mood. I avoid using an eyebrow pencil because, like eyeliner, the outline it creates looks too crisp and modern. The ideal Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian brow was arc-shaped instead of angular. They stretched like a gentle rainbow over the eye and were often full across the entirety of the brow rather than just by the nose. My face can’t handle that kind of brow, so I just fill in my natural shape. It also brings out that fetching, perpetual “Huh?” look on my face. The fact that you’re wearing makeup might be noticeable in person, but if you’ve done everything delicately enough, it will harmonize with your outfit, pulling the look together in a way that will satisfy both your costuming sensibilities and your modern tastes without being distracting. Win-win! When lighting and weather fail to flatter, makeup can really help you save face. Now, even at a distance in terrible lighting, everyone can see your Regency bitchy resting face perfectly! I thought I was smiling when I took this photo. Turns out, I was mistaken. Makeup cannot, however, protect you from sudden gusts of wind. If you are interested in wholesome historical cosmetic options (I strongly recommend skipping the lead white!), there are many recipes available online to recreate antique cosmetics using natural ingredients. Madame Isis’ Toilette, for example, details 17th and 18th century recipes, mixes them, and shows you the results. Various vendors online like Little Bits also sell recreations of perfumes, rouges, and powders. In my own experiments, I’ve dabbled with beet juice rouge and had pretty entertaining results! Beet Juice and Cornstarch Makeup Lady Archer would be proud. Ultimately, the type of makeup and the amount you wear depends on the era and class you are costuming for, the type of event you are attending (reenactment, afternoon tea, convention, etc.), and your personal taste. Makeup for conventions, for example, is often heavier and theatrical in nature both to show up on camera better and portray a specific character. Plus, some of us just like to wear more makeup than others. Just find what works best for your situation and roll with it! 6 thoughts on “Saving Face: A Brief History Cosmetics and How to Wear Them with Historical Costumes 1. Its funny I find my face naturally looks georgian. I have thick eyebrows, pale complexion with slightly reddy cheeks (although the frekles are annoying) and full red lips. I find the only thing I need to do is add some concealer for dark circles under the eyes and I’ve got the right look-ish. Finding a pale enough foundation is impossible…I think they expect everyone to have a ‘healthy glow’ rather than be snow white pale. lol! I just do not suit the modern ‘look’ it makes me look like a clown…an orange clown at that. Wearing glasses doesn’t help either. Between that and my skin allergies I rarely wear any makeup…except a lipstick and mascara on special occasions. 1. O ye of fortunate face! Long have I coveted eyebrows worthy of a fine bisque doll! My skin is fair, but life is not. Have you tried using a matte eyeshadow as face powder? I found a cream-colored one from Revlon that works beautifully. 2. What a nice post. I think your make-up tips are useful no matter what the occasion. I find normal make-up difficult enough (and usually go without) and vintage and historical styles even more so. Wearing glasses doesn’t help either. 1. Glasses are a special challenge. Some serious reenactors go so far as to have period-appropriate pairs made (folks have been wearing glasses since the middle ages), but for casual costuming, most folks don’t really notice if you’re wearing them. Mascara does help define your eyes behind the lenses so they show up better in photos, especially if you have thicker lenses. Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s
Essay about The Case Against the Death Penalty 1449 Words6 Pages In the United States, since the 1970s there have been more than 1270 executions according to the death penalty information center (Fact Sheet), What’s alarming about that number, is the number of people who were condemned to be executed based on race, income and social status alone, targeting those that could not afford good legal counsel, and were appointed attorneys that were “inexperienced and had below appropriate professional standards” (Hessick 1069), which sealed the fate of those literally fighting for their lives, on the day of sentencing. Capital punishment is unconstitutional, and violates human rights; a point of view rarely seen when debating the topic. Everyone talks about deterrence, everyone talks about justice for…show more content… When we are in a hurry, or doing something hasty, exciting, or we act in the heat of the moment, we get a jolt of adrenaline. According to the American Civil Liberties Union: "Most capital crimes are committed in the heat of the moment. Most capital crimes are committed during moments of great emotional stress or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, when logical thinking has been suspended. Many capital crimes are committed by the badly emotionally-damaged or mentally ill. In such cases, violence is inflicted by persons unable to appreciate the consequences to themselves as well as to others. Even when crime is planned, the criminal ordinarily concentrates on escaping detection, arrest, and conviction. The threat of even the severest punishment will not discourage those who expect to escape detection and arrest. It is impossible to imagine how the threat of any punishment could prevent a crime that is not premeditated.” As we could notice, adrenaline is what makes people speed and do certain things they definitely wouldn’t do if they were not in a stressful circumstance, subsequently, it will be safe to say that most crimes are committed in the heat of the moment, when adrenaline is running high and people are not thinking about the consequences of their actions, therefore not thinking about a future punishment. That’s what makes the death penalty a bogus deterrent against Open Document
Stumbling onto Piazza della Rotunda from the dark warren of streets surrounding it will likely leave you agape, marveling at one of ancient Rome’s great buildings—the only one that remains intact. The Pantheon (“Temple to All the Gods”) was originally built in 27 B.C. by Marcus Agrippa but was entirely reconstructed by Hadrian in the early 2nd century A.D. This remarkable building, 43m (142 ft.) wide and 43m (142 ft.) high (a perfect sphere resting in a cylinder) is among the architectural wonders of the world, even today. Hadrian himself is credited with the basic plan. There are no visible arches or vaults holding up the dome; instead they’re sunk into the concrete of the building’s walls. The ribbed dome outside is a series of almost weightless cantilevered bricks. Animals were once sacrificed and burned in the center, with the smoke escaping through the only means of light, the oculus, an opening at the top 5.5m (18 ft.) in diameter. The interior was richly decorated, with white marble statues ringing the central space in its niches. Nowadays, apart from the jaw-dropping size of the space, the main items of interest are the tombs of two Italian kings (Vittorio Emanuele II and his successor, Umberto I) and artist Raphael (fans still bring him flowers), with its poignant epitaph. Since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Catholic church, Santa Maria ad Martyres, informally known as Santa Maria della Rotonda. The phone app “A Bit of Pantheon” offers helpful context for your visit.
Sure, essential oils smell great. But are they good for anything else? Essential oils Are these oils truly essential? (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times) Essential oils are all the rage — but do they live up to their claims? You can’t pass through the personal care aisle of a supermarket without seeing labels that tout the benefits of essential oils, including the relaxing effects of lavender and the skin-nourishing properties of pomegranate seed. And anyone with a Facebook or Pinterest account has likely witnessed the growth of multilevel marketing companies that reap large profits from independent distributors who sell essential oils from home and advertise their wonders through social media. But what is it exactly that makes an oil “essential”? And is there evidence that essential oils actually do anything? Essential oils aren’t essential to either human or plant life. The “essential” in their name refers to the fact that they are the concentrated essence of a plant, says John Labows, a fragrance technology consultant in the Philadelphia area. Though humans have used botanical essences for thousands of years (ancient Egyptians anointed their bodies with perfumed oils and medieval healers treated ailments with botanical extracts), essential oils as we know them today are removed from plants by steam distillation or, in the case of citrus oils, mechanical expression. “Essential oils are certainly part of most fragrances,” says Labows, explaining that fragrances typically contain a mixture of natural and synthetic chemicals. “The main difference between essential oil and fragrance is that essential oils are more complex.” This chemical complexity composes the unique aroma of a particular essential oil. A primary scent component of lavender is linalool, which is often synthesized in the laboratory. When manufacturers add linalool to a fragrance, it gives the impression of lavender, but it smells “harsher,” says Labows. “When you use the natural essential oil, you get a rounded scent.” The recent trend in essential oils has more to do with healthcare than perfume, however. Proponents not only use essential oils in body care, but also diffuse them through the air, pour them into bathwater, inhale their vapors and apply them to reflexology points on the bottoms of their feet. Some people even ingest them. Therapeutic benefits attributed to essential oils run the gamut from mood elevation and stress relief to remedies for chronic pain, insomnia, migraine, arthritis and more. The Food and Drug Administration has cracked down on such health claims, leaving companies to adopt more general language such as “promotes wellness” or “may be an important part of a daily health regimen.” A 2012 analysis of 10 scientific reviews looking at several studies on the effects of essential oils for some health conditions (including hypertension, depression, anxiety, chronic pain and dementia) concluded that “the evidence is not sufficiently convincing that aromatherapy is an effective therapy for any condition.” “It just goes to show that the power of suggestion and the power of the mind can override the inherent quality of an odor,” says Estelle Campenni, a psychology professor who led the study. “There really is a mind-body connection.” So it might be that the primary aromatherapeutic mechanism of an essential oil is driven by the placebo effect. But since aromatherapy has few adverse effects, there’s no harm in giving it a try if you enjoy the smell of essential oils. After all, if you believe they will work, there is a good chance that they will. Making scents with Lather founder Emilie Davidson Hoyt It’s calm, quiet — and the place smells divine. The shop’s aroma isn’t heady like a department store perfume counter, where you’re bound to leave with temples throbbing and a nose that’s numb to fragrance for several hours. Rather, it’s a clean, natural scent. Think crushed lemon grass, tangerine peel, vanilla bean. You want to close your eyes and breathe deeply. Emilie Davidson Hoyt Emilie Davidson Hoyt is the creator of Lather. “One thing that triggered my migraines was synthetic fragrance. So I had to eliminate fragrance from lotion, shampoo — any kind of beauty product or personal care product,” Hoyt said. She looked for products scented with essential oils, which are concentrated compounds extracted from plants but at the time they were considered “alternative” and geared more toward the health-food market than the mainstream market. “That was very weird to me,” she recalled. “I thought, why is natural the alternative? The [artificial] fragrance should be the alternative.” Some people come for the aromatherapeutic benefits of essential oils. Others come seeking personalized, natural perfumes. “We keep everybody’s recipe on file,” says Hoyt, pulling a card from a box behind the counter. Reading the recipe of a nervous flyer who was about to board a plane and wanted a roll-on tube filled with a tranquilizing aroma, she said, “I used lavender and camomile to calm her, and then I wanted to use something she really enjoyed, so we added some vanilla [because it] smelled comforting to her and had good memories for her.” Hoyt says that people typically smell the blend as she mixes it, guiding her to use more or less of a particular essential oil. When customers want a relaxing blend, she might suggest her favorite, German blue camomile, Moroccan rose or some of the more meditative scents like frankincense or sandalwood (which smells more earthy and less sweet than synthetic sandalwood). For stimulating scents, she might suggest citrus oils such as orange, tangerine or lemon grass, or other energizing scents such as ginger or peppermint. “Peppermint is a big one for focus,” says Hoyt. “I tell kids to use it when they’re studying and then to use it again when they’re taking the test. It’s a very simple trick and it creates a strong memory association.” You can’t ignore all that road noise: It could shorten your life Medical professionals disagree about new hangover remedies Five tips to get a jump on your weight-loss resolution
Measure for Measure One of the many examples of government-inspired mumbo-jumbo is the idea of measuring unemployment. I’m talking about the oft-quoted unemployment rate. Why measure unemployment? There’s really no way to do it accurately… and so many ways to fiddle with the numbers. For example, the government normally counts as unemployed only people who have looked for work within the past five weeks. It does not count the underemployed – people who have given up looking for a decent job to work bagging groceries in supermarkets. Here’s a better idea: Measure employment — the number of people in a given economy who are actually working. Wouldn’t that make more sense? It would not only be easier to understand but also more difficult to monkey with. Taking this a bit further, we could also measure the amount of money that employed people make, comparing sectors and time frames and so on. Wouldn’t that be more useful?
应用笔记 893 Switch-Debouncer IC Creates A Long-Period Timer 摘要 : This application depicts how to reduce power in systems that only require the µP to be used periodically. By using a debounce IC circuit, the µP can be set to monitor over long timer periods, thus allowing it to enter low-power mode for the remaining time. As a result, overall power is reduced. One major application for long-period timers is in remote weather-data stations. These stations measure environmental conditions at regular time intervals and transmit the results to a central collecting facility. Since these small weather stations are often located in remote areas that depend on solar-cell power during cloudy weather, power efficiency is an important factor in their design. Size and cost are also prominent considerations. A minimum-component configuration is possible for an all-surface-mount, low-power, long-period timer. This design can be implemented with two low-cost components and firmware that reduces power consumption by allowing the microcontroller (µC) to enter a "sleep mode." Later, the µC is awakened to perform regulary scheduled measurements. The circuit shown in Figure 1 accomplishes this task by taking advantage of the extra section in a dual CMOS switch debouncer (U1). Figure 1. In addition to debouncing the microcontroller's RESET input, the unused half of this dual switch-debouncer IC (U1) is used to implement a long-period timer function. The µC (U2) provides 32 bytes of RAM and 1232 bytes of EPROM. (A low-cost, one-time programmable version is also available.) The IN1/OUT1 pins of the dual debouncer U1 are configured to debounce the µC's system-reset pulse. The IN2/OUT2 pair is configured as the long-period timer. Capacitor C1 and a 63kΩ (typical) pull-up resistor internal to U1 form the time constant for this purpose. U1 initiates a 50ms delay when the C1 voltage reaches U1's input-voltage threshold. Following this delay, OUT2 turns on the n-channel digital FET N1, which must remain on long enough to completely discharge C1 in preparation for the next timing cycle. The second transition (high-to-low) at IN2 initiates another 50ms delay. Following this delay, the cycle repeats. Thus, the timer period can be calculated using the following equation: Period (s) = (63k × C1 × (-ln(1 - VT/VCC)) + 0.1s) Table 1 shows the input threshold voltage (VT) for U1 at various operating voltages (VCC). Table 1. Threshold versus VCC Voltage For MAX6817 Switch Debouncer Table System Voltage, VCC Table Threshold Voltage, VT The following equation can be used to determine the C1 value for a desired timer period: C1 = (Period - 0.1s)/(63k × (-ln(1 - VT/VCC))) where Period equals the desired time delay in seconds. Remote weather stations report at certain intervals, and the time of these reports is recorded by the collection station. Since timing is not critical, the C1 capacitor can be a tantalum type with ±20% tolerance. If tighter timing is desired, a surface-mount ceramic capacitor can be substituted for C1. The digital FET N1 was chosen for its low-level gate drive, which enables it to operate properly in 3 to 5V circuits. If a different FET is substituted, it must be capable of discharging C1 completely before U1 changes the output state to low. Specifically, it should provide a discharge time (5RDSONC1) less than 50ms. If the shortest possible period is desired, U1 can be configured as a 10Hz stable multivibrator by removing C1 (leaving the drain of N1 connected to pin 3 of U1). The program code, written in 68HC705 assembler, for the long-period timer is available for download at the Maxim Software Page. A similar version of this article appeared in the October 1, 2001 issue of Electronic Design magazine.
Submitted by David Platt , Southlake, Texas Idea posted March 14, 2008 Some of my 4th graders go through the Recorder Karate extremely quickly. I have developed a more difficult process to challenge them based on the Olympics. After they have received their black "belt" (I use colored beads tied onto the bottom of their recorder with yarn), students graduate to a thin piece of leather cord to put all their beads on. They may tie it on their recorder like they did with the yarn or make a bracelet or necklace out of it. Then, they receive their next challenge: bronze, silver, and gold belts. For the bronze belt, they have to learn "Red River Valley" from Music K-8, Vol. 14, No. 5. They have to play along with the CD and I play part two at the same time. For the silver belt, they have to play "A Little Recorder Music". They do not have to play the tempo on the CD, but slower and keep the quarter note steady throughout. For the gold belt, they have to write their own song: 24 measures of 4/4 time; key of G; use quarter, whole, half, and eighth notes; quarter rests; all the notes we have covered (which is low C to high E); and give it an original title that has some connection to the sound of the piece. The pieces don't usually sound very good, but it is all about understanding how to fill measures correctly and play the notes. They have to play their piece for the class. When they do, we have the grand drum roll as I present the gold bead, followed by thunderous applause. I give them the staff paper to compose upon. When they are finished, they give me their original piece. I put it into PrintMusic!, print it out on cardstock (making it frameable), and present it to them with a certificate at their fourth grade graduation. As they accomplish each belt, they get a bronze, silver, or gold bead that I found in the craft section at our local hobby store. These look metallic and are a real hot commodity.
UV Filter: How important is it and how does it work? UV filter is surely one of the main components in a high pressure device. The haloids bulb which is situated on high pressure devices, emits a lot of radiations, and some of them are harmful for the skin (for example UVC rays). It is for this reason that it is absolutely necessary to place a filter between the bulb and the user. UV filter allows us to choose the right mix of UV rays which flow from the sunlamp and to choose the suntan we want the device to give us. That is why the UV filter determines the quality of the device. {jumi [share]} Why UVISOL filters? Smart, which has always been specialized in the construction of high pressure devices, has decided that all the machines produced from 1st of April 2009 on, will exclusively have UVISOL95 filter. This filter, produced by the German Schott, leader company in the realization of optical professional instruments, has the characteristics which differences it from all the other filters. 1. 1. Very high UV spectrum on UVA rays and low on UVB 2. 2. Low lightening in order to protect eyes from harmful consequences 3. 3. Low infrared radiation. Practically, the filter transmits the heat less than the classical blue filters Using the filtering crystal UVISOL95 Desag, Smart devices can guarantee a constant and particular mix of A rays, with a very low B component, present particularly in wavelength 313/314 (the closest to A rays), universally known as the less aggressive on our skin. grafico uva uvb uvisol Smart Solarium is not the only business which uses UVISOL filters, others do (they usually rename the original name UVISOL with other commercial names), offering it as optional. Our merit is to place UVISOL filters on our equipment. All this is because the quality of suntan is not an optional and skin protection too. Print Email
An Overview of Spina Bifida Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment Woman in a wheelchair positioning a kettle in the accessible kitchen Mark Hunt / Getty Images In This Article Table of Contents One of the most common permanently disabling birth defects in the United States, spina bifida literally means a cleft or split spine. Each day, approximately eight babies are born with spina bifida in America. Spina bifida is a neural tube defect where the spine's vertebrae do not form correctly around the baby's spinal cord. It can range from mild to severe in its impact. In mild cases, no treatment is necessary; in severe cases, there is significant nerve damage. The four types of spina bifida are: • Spina bifida occulta: A small defect that usually causes mild or no symptoms. • Closed neural tube defects: A diverse group of defects in which the spinal cord is marked by malformations of fat, bone, or meninges that causes symptoms ranging from none to incomplete paralysis with urinary and bowel dysfunction. • Spina bifida cystica meningocele: A more difficult case that causes some of the membrane surrounding the spinal cord to stick out through the opening. • Spina bifida cystica myelomeningocele: The most serious form in which some of the spinal cord itself sticks out through the opening in the spine. Children born with spina bifida may have other nervous system disorders like hydrocephalus or Chiari malformation. To date, scientists are unsure what exactly causes spina bifida It is believed to be caused by a mix of genetic, environmental factors, and nutritional factors. Studies have linked an insufficient intake of folic acid—a common B vitamin—during pregnancy as a key factor. To prevent spina bifida and other neural tube defects, many foods are fortified with folic acid and pregnant women are encouraged to take supplements including folic acid prior to pregnancy. If you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, talk to your doctor about taking prenatal vitamins, including folic acid. Risk Factors In the United States, spina bifida occurs more frequently among Hispanics and Caucasians and less commonly in Asians and African-Americans. Ninety-five percent of babies born with spina bifida have no family history of it. However, if a mother has a child with spina bifida, the risk of it happening again in a subsequent pregnancy is increased. A screening blood test called an alpha-fetoprotein test (AFP) is done using the pregnant mother's blood when she is about 16 to 18 weeks into the pregnancy. If the results are abnormal, a detailed (Level II) ultrasound is done which can show the presence of spina bifida. An amniocentesis (sampling of the amniotic fluid in the womb) may be done to recheck the AFP level. If spina bifida is not detected prior to birth, it is typically diagnosed in infancy depending on the type. Closed neural tube defects are often recognized early due to an abnormal tuft of hair, small dimple, or birthmark at the site of the spinal malformation. Meningocele and myelomeningocele types generally involve a fluid-filled sac protruding from the spinal canal that is visible. It may be covered by a thin layer of skin or no skin, leaving the abnormally developed spinal cord tissue exposed. There is no complete cure for spina bifida. The opening in the spine can be closed surgically either before or after birth and this may reduce its effects on the body. Since spina bifida causes injury to the spinal cord, continual treatment is often needed to manage symptoms like difficulty standing, walking, or urinating. Some people will be able to walk with crutches or leg braces; others may need a wheelchair to get around throughout their lives. Children and adults with myelomeningocele will have the most medical complications and need the most intensive medical care. The outlook for children with spina bifida has changed dramatically over the years. Recent developments have shown that those with spina bifida can live mostly normal lives. Ninety percent of babies born with the condition survive into adulthood, 80% have normal intelligence, and 75% are able to play sports and participate in other activities. A Word From Verywell While finding out your child has spina bifida can be overwhelming, recent developments have made managing the condition possible. With the right support, information, and guidance, you and your child will likely live a better life than you could have imagined when you received the diagnosis. Was this page helpful? Article Sources 1. Spina Bifida Association. What is spina bifida? SBA National Resource Center. 2. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Spina bifida fact sheet. 3. Atta CA, Fiest KM, Frolkis AD, et al. Global Birth Prevalence of Spina Bifida by Folic Acid Fortification Status: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Am J Public Health. 2016;106(1):e24-34. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302902. 4. Spina Bifida Association. Genetics and spina bifida. SBA National Resource Center. 5. Phillips LA, Burton JM, Evans SH. Spina Bifida Management. Curr Probl Pediatr Adolesc Health Care. 2017;47(7):173-177. doi: 10.1016/j.cppeds.2017.06.007.
Askmoses-A Jews Resource What is the significance of the Four Species? Browse our archives Scholar Online: Type in your question here: Life Cycle » Marriage » Sheva Brachot \| Subscribe \| What is RSS? What are the actual 7 blessings of Sheva Brachot? Ed. note: During the Chupah the blessings are recited in this order, and blessing 1 and 2 are usually recited by the same person. Following... What ritual wedding differences are there between first and subsequent marriages? The following differences – some of which are law, others custom – only apply when both spouses had been previously married: • On the... What are the customs followed during the sheva brachot week? The first week of marriage is celebrated by the newlywed couple in holiday fashion. Shabbat finery is worn throughout, and neither of them goes to work.... Why do we invite a "new face" to every Sheva Brachot? Joy which isn’t shared with a “new face” (“panim chadashot”) lacks a certain excitement. It is therefore necessary to... Must there be a sheva brachot every day of the week after the wedding? These sheva brachot gatherings are not mandatory—and it certainly isn’t required to have one every day of the week. Nowadays, however, it has... Does sheva brachot last for a full week? The first day of the sheva brachot week is not always 24 hours, for the day of the chupah is considered the full first day, even if the chupah was held... Please guide me through the sheva brachot blessings procedure? • When the sheva brachot meal is concluded, it is time for the highlight of the event—the sheva brachot blessings. Before the Grace after... What's the significance of the Seven Days of Rejoicing? See What is special about the number seven? What are "sheva brachot"? There is a special mitzvah for a bride and groom to rejoice together for the week following their wedding1 -- the “sheva brachot... What's the procedure for sheva brachot if there is no minyan? A minyan must be present in order to recite the sheva brachot. If there is no minyan, only the last blessing of the sheva brachot, the Asher Barah...
Two Animated Maps Show the Expansion of the U.S. from the Different Perspectives of Settlers & Native Peoples After John Ford, the history of U.S. expansion went by the name “How the West Was Won.” Decades earlier, in his essay “Annexation,” Jacksonian journalist John O’Sullivan famously coined the phrase “manifest destiny.” Historian Richard Slotkin called it “regeneration through violence” and novelist Cormac McCarthy summed up the jagged, ever-moving line of westward expansion from sea to sea with two words: Blood Meridian. Indigenous versions of the story do not tend to enter common parlance in quite the same way, a fact upon which Vine Deloria, Jr. remarks in his “Indian Manifesto,” Custer Died for Your Sins. Violence is always central to the story. Usually the savagery of Native people is taken for granted. Savagery of settlers may be more or less emphasized. Yet the long history of land theft over the course of the centuries is also one of broken treaty after treaty. Few tribes were defeated in war by the United States, but most sold some land and allowed the United States to hold the remainder in trust for them. In turn, the tribes acknowledged the sovereignty of the United States in preference to other possible sovereigns. Caught between warring European empires, Indigenous nations made the best deals they could with the advancing U.S. and its army of Civil War veterans. “From this humble beginning the federal government stole some two billion acres of land and continues to take what it can without arousing the ire of the ignorant public.” The brutality of the 19th century became professionalized, carried out by regulars in uniform, hence the detached language of “Indian wars.” These were followed by other kinds of violence: institutionalized paternalism, further encroachment and enclosure, and the forced removal of thousands of children from their parents and into reeducation camps. The two maps you see here, with sweepingly broad visual gestures in gif form, illustrate the 19th century seizure of land across the North American continent from the perspective of a U.S. national history and that of an Indigenous multi-national history. The map at the top traces the story from the country's beginnings in the 13 colonies to the annexation, purchase, and finally statehood of Hawaii and Alaska in 1959. The above map is more focused, spanning the years 1810 to 1891. As Nick Routley points out in a post at Visual Capitalist, “five of the largest expansion events in U.S. history” took place during the 1800s, though the first one he cites falls outside the timeline above. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase ended up acquiring what now makes up “nearly 25% of the current territory of the United States, stretching from New Orleans all the way up to Montana and North Dakota.” Other notable events include the 1819 purchase of Florida from Spain by John Quincy Adams, the aforementioned purchase of Alaska from Russia, and the 1845 annexation of Texas. The Mexican-American War of 1848 gets less mention these days, though it expanded slavery and was quite hotly debated at the time by such principled figures as Henry David Thoreau, who refused to pay his poll tax over it and wrote “Civil Disobedience” while in jail. In the so-called Mexican Cession, Texas became a state and “the United States took control of a huge parcel of land that includes the present-day states of California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as portions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.” Mexico, on the other hand, “saw the size of their territory halved.” After each seizure of territory, mass migrations westward commenced in wave upon wave. Routely does not survey these migration events, but you can learn about them in accounts like Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Indigenous People’s History of the United States and Deloria’s manifesto. When we approach the founding and expansion of the U.S. from multiple perspectives, both visual and historical, we understand why critical historians often use the phrase “settler colonialism” rather than “westward expansion” or its synonyms. And why the overused and limited phrase “nation of immigrants” might just as well be “nation of migrants.” via Visual Capitalist Related Content: by \| Permalink \| Comments (0) \| Support Open Culture Leave a Reply
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause long-term complications if not treated correctly. Symptoms in adults are divided into stages. These stages are primary, secondary, latent and late syphilis. You can get syphilis by direct contact with syphilis sore during anal, vaginal or oral sex. Sores can be found on the penis, vagina, anus, in the rectum or on the lips and in the mouth. Syphilis has been called "the great imitator" because of so many possible symptoms, many of which look like symptoms of other diseases. The painless syphilis sore that you would get after you are first infected can be confused for an ingrown hair, sipper cut or other seemingly harmless bump. The non-itchy body rash that develops during the second stage of syphilis can show up on the palms of your hands and soles of your feet, all over your body or just a few places. You could also be infected with syphilis and have very mild symptoms or none at all. The three stages of Syphilis Primary Stage: During the first stage of syphilis, you may notice a single sore, but there may be multiple sores. The sore is the location where syphilis entered your body. The sore is usually, firm, round and painless, it can go easily unnoticed. The sore lasts 3-6 weeks and heals regardless of whether or not you have recieved treatment. Even though the sore is gone, you must still receive treatment so your infection doesn't move to the secondary stage. Secondary Stage: During the secondary stage, you may have skin rashes and/or sores in your mouth, vagina or anus. This stage usually starts with a rash on one or more areas of your body. The rash can show up when your primary sore is healing or several weeks after the sore has healed. The rash can look like rough, red or reddish brown spots on the palms of your hands and/or the bottom of your feet. The rash usually won't itch and it is sometimes so faint that you won't notice it. Other symptoms may include fever, swollen lymph glands, sore throat, patchy hair loss, headaches, weight loss, muscle aches and fatigue. The symptoms from this stage will go away whether or not you receive treatment. Without the right treatment, your infection will move to the latent and possible late stages of syphilis. Latent and Late Stage: The latent stage of syphilis begins when all of the symptoms you had earlier disappear. If you do not receive treatment, you can continue to have syphilis in your body for years without any signs or symptoms. Most people with untreated syphilis do not develop late stage syphilis. However, when it does happen it is very serious and would occur 10-30 years after your infection began. Symptoms of late stage syphilis include difficulty coordinating your muscle movements, paralysis, numbness, blindness, and dementia. In late stage syphilis, the disease damages your internal organs and can result in death. A syphilis infection is called and "early" case if a patient has been infected for a year or less, such as during the primary or secondary stages of syphilis. people who have "early" syphilis infections can more easily spread the infection to their sex partners. The majority of early syphilis cases are currently found amoung men who have sex with men, but women and unborn children are also at risk of infection. Blood tests can be used to test for syphilis. Information gathered from: www.cdc.gov Call Wabash County Health Department to schedule your testing today @
What is Atlantic RBCA? Atlantic Risk-Based Corrective Action (Atlantic RBCA – often referred to as ‘Rebecca’) is a process to assess and manage the remediation and redevelopment of sites impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons and other contaminants. Centred around risk to human health and the environment, Atlantic RBCA is specific to Atlantic Canada’s needs and equals or exceeds Canada-wide Standards (CWS) developed by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME). It considers typical site conditions for four common land uses in Atlantic Canada: agricultural, residential, commercial, and industrial sites. Atlantic RBCA is based on two main components: 1. the regulatory-endorsed philosophy of risk assessment, risk management, and a tiered approach to remediation; and 2. a technical tool kit which includes modeling and risk characterization software, supporting technical documentation, and applicable provincial legislation, regulations, and policy guidance. Atlantic RBCA is based on the scientific standards, principles, and processes developed by US environmental professionals and ASTM International (the American equivalent to the Canadian Standards Association). It was adapted by the Atlantic Partnership In Risk-Based Corrective Action Implementation (Atlantic PIRI), a collaborative working group of petroleum industry, regional environmental consultants, and government representatives, to address the specific environmental conditions and requirements of Atlantic Canada. This group oversees the implementation of Atlantic RBCA in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. While each province maintains its own environmental protection regulations, using the Atlantic RBCA process ensures a consistent, science-based approach for the management and remediation of impacted sites. What are the Benefits of Atlantic RBCA? The release of petroleum products or other contaminants into the environment diminishes soil, air, and water quality; puts public health and safety at risk; and generates short- and long-term economic consequences. Effective management of impacted sites is, therefore, a major concern for property owners, communities, banks, legal firms, real estate agencies, insurance and petroleum companies, and government agencies. In addition to providing consistent, effective, and achievable standards to protect people and the environment, Atlantic RBCA • Promotes site remediation and redevelopment throughout Atlantic Canada; • Provides a harmonized approach to regulatory and legislative processes in Atlantic Canada; and • Ensures equivalent or better protection than the CCME Canada-wide Standards for petroleum hydrocarbons in soil for specific Atlantic Canada applications. Using Atlantic RBCA When contamination is discovered, the provincial government department responsible for protection of the environment must be immediately contacted. After the type of contamination is identified, environmental professionals apply the Atlantic RBCA process (within the regulatory framework of the respective province) to determine the seriousness of the problem, assess risk, and establish a remediation plan. Provincial government staff will review the remediation plan to ensure it meets provincial requirements.
A small family with 8 species in Europe. The larvae mine in the leaf blade, sometimes also in the petiole or in a thick vein (some species make galls). The miner always finishes its larval life by excising an small piece from the upper and lower epidermis of its mine, spinning them together, and then dropping to the ground in this case. They line the inside of the case with more silk, forming a cocoon. They hibernate in the cocoon; pupation takes place after the winter. Heliozelidae and species of the related family Incurvariidae insert their eggs into the leaf tissue by means of an ovipositor. Many species are associated with the plant family Vitaceae. Davis (1987a), Dziurzynski (1958a) Emmet (1983a), van Nieukerken, Wagner ao (2012a), Parenti (2008a). mod 27.xi.2018
Could These Common Diseases Be Contributing to Tooth Decay? By : Abby Ruiz No part of the body functions truly independently, and your teeth are no exception. Your mouth is a window to the rest of your body and will often show warning signs if there is something bigger going on. If you’ve ever wondered why we ask so many questions about your medical history and lifestyle, it is because we are trying to understand the entire picture, along with what your mouth and oral health are telling us. There are many more things that can contribute to tooth decay rather than just poor oral hygiene. In fact, common diseases such as diabetes, autoimmune conditions, and eating disorders are examples of some systemic disease that do in fact impact the health of our teeth. As your Mississauga family dentist, we feel that it is important for you to be educated on the oral-systemic links in order to achieve optimal oral health. Common systemic conditions are: 1. Diabetes Diabetes is perhaps the most significant cause and effect relationship with tooth decay. Whether you have type I or type II diabetes, your body’s blood sugar level is elevated because of lowered insulin levels. This impacts many parts of your body and the mouth as well. One of the most common symptoms of diabetes is dry mouth. Beyond making your mouth feel more comfortable, saliva acts as your mouth’s natural cleansing system, and protects your teeth against the bacteria that cause tooth decay. Lack of salivary flow makes your teeth more vulnerable and more prone to developing cavities. As the tooth decay continues to build up, the risk for gum disease also increases due to the continual buildup of bacteria in your mouth. In fact, about a quarter of all people diagnosed with diabetes also develop gum disease. To further complicate this situation, gum disease can cause blood sugar levels to rise, which can in turn, increase the severity of the diabetes. It is a vicious cycle that needs to be addressed as soon as symptoms begin to develop. 2. Autoimmune Conditions Autoimmune conditions are a family of diseases that involve the body attacking parts of itself. This can include everything from major organ systems such as kidneys, to smaller systems such as salivary glands. Many of these diseases have an impact on the mouth, but the one that is most directly tied to oral health is Sjögeren’s syndrome. Sjögeren’s syndrome reduces the amount of saliva the mouth produces, which has the same effects we described earlier with diabetes. With extreme cases, patients may not even produce saliva at all. People with Sjögeren’s are advised to make more frequent visits to the dentist in order to monitor and keep watch of any tooth decay as a result from the decreased saliva flow. There are also several over the counter products that can be used in order to manage the symptoms and increase salivary flow. Products including xylitol – a natural saliva stimulant – will be quite beneficial to those experiencing dry mouth. 3. Anorexia and Bulimia Both anorexia and bulimia are severe eating disorders in which a person has an extreme fear of becoming overweight, and either eat less or regurgitate food as a result. Both conditions have implications on the teeth because the body is not receiving the proper amount of minerals, vitamins, proteins and other nutrients that are needed in maintaining good oral health and preventing tooth decay. A person who is bulimic may binge eat and then vomit, which allows the acid that is breaking down the food to eat away at the tooth enamel. Overtime, the acid will weaken the tooth structure, making it more prone to getting cavities. Avoid Tooth Decay with Total Body Care These are just a few of the more common diseases that contribute to tooth decay. The connection between your mouth and body are not always apparent, which is why it is important to share your medical history with your dentist. Our team at Credit River Dental Centre will work with you in order to develop a treatment plan that integrates your mouth with the rest of your body for a full-body approach. To learn more speak to your dental team at Credit River Dental Centre or book your appointment today at (905) 278-4297 and take control of your oral health!
Expressions And Operators: Conditional The ternary operator ?: takes three operands. Based on the value of the first operand, either the second or third operand—but not both—is evaluated, and their result becomes the result of the whole expression. For example: $daysInFeb = is_leap_year($year) ? 29 : 28 Here, $daysInFeb takes on the value 29 or 28, depending on the truth of the result from the call to function is_leap_year. Here's another example: echo "$i is ". ((($i & 1) === true) ? "odd" : "even") . "\n"; If the low-order bit of an integer is set, the value is odd; otherwise, it's even. So, the first operand, ($i & 1 === true), is evaluated. If it is true, "odd" becomes the result; otherwise, "even" becomes the result. There is a sequence point after the evaluation of the first operand, so any side-effects in that expression are completed before the second or third operand is evaluated. For example: $i++ ? f($i) : g($i * 2); // the sequence point makes this well-defined If the second operand is omitted, the result and type of the whole expression is the value and type of the first expression when it was tested. For example: $a = 10 ?: "Hello"; // result is int with value 10 $a = 0 ?: "Hello"; // result is string with value "Hello" Consider the following: process($a > $b ? 10 : 20, $x !== $y ? f($x) : g($y)); Writing this function call without using the conditional operator requires a series of nested if statements, and if there are more conditionally determined arguments, it would be even more unwieldy! That said, sometimes it might be more overt to use the nested-if approach. Compare the following, alternative approaches: function factorial1(int $int): int return ($int > 1) ? $int * factorial1($int - 1) : $int; function factorial2(int $i): int { if ($i > 1) return $i * factorial2($i - 1); else if ($i === 1) return $i; else return 0;
Creating a Channel Mask: The (Practical) Details Create a channel mask in six easy steps is the theory. Of course, most images aren't as straightforward. Let's look at some tricks you can use when creating channel masks for more challenging images. Because every image presents a unique set of challenges, use these techniques as needed. Determining Your Intent Your intention for an image once you've masked it determines how accurate you need to make the mask. If you're preparing a cutout figure that will be placed in a page layout on white paper, your mask will be quite forgiving and may not need to be super-accurate. If, however, you're putting your cutout subject on a brightly colored background, perhaps with different lighting conditions, then every inaccuracy will be painfully obvious. If the masked subject will be composited with other layers, experiment with blend modes to conceal edge inaccuracies. Depending on the nature of your image and the layer or layers you are compositing it with, it may not be necessary to force the contrast to opaque black and white. In the following example of a tree, the black parts of the mask are only 70% opaque in some places. This works because the original masked sky resembles the sky color of the background layer that replaces it. Not forcing the contrast makes it possible to retain as much of the fine detail in the branches and twigs as possible. Figure 6.6. The original images (examples A and B), the finished composite (example C), and the mask (example D). Not forcing the contrast on the mask to opaque black and white retains more of the details in the tree branches. This works in this context because one blue sky is replacing another. Choosing Your Channel Choosing your channel is easiest when your image has a dominant color. The most obvious example is a blue sky, which can often be easily isolated using, not surprisingly, the Blue channel. Color channels have different contrast in different color modes. If none of your RGB channels has enough contrast, try duplicating the image and converting it to CMYK to check the channels there. Once your image is in CMYK color mode, duplicate the channel with the most contrast. To use this duplicate channel, go to your original RGB image and choose Select > Load Selection, then choose the CMYK image as the source document, and select the appropriate channel from the Channel drop-down menu. As an alternative to duplicating a channel, you may get better results using either of two options under the Image menu, Apply Image or Calculations, to make your alpha channel (a potential selection, stored in a channel as a grayscale image). Use Apply Image to combine a duplicate channel with any other channel or with itself, using the same blend mode options available for layers. Calculations works slightly differently, letting you blend two individual channels (or two copies of the same channel) as a new channel. Both Apply Image and Calculate potentially yield the same result. For example, using Apply Image to apply the source Blue channel with a blend mode of Overlay to a duplicate (target) of the Blue channel is the same as using Calculations to blend the (source 1) Blue channel with itself (source 2) using Overlay blend mode. For both options Overlay blend mode usually, but not always, works best, lightening values less than 50% gray and darkening values more than 50% gray. Figure 6.7. The Apply Image (example A) and Calculations (example B) dialog boxes. Figure 6.8. A copy of the Blue channel (example A), and a more contrasty result using Calculations to blend the Blue channel with itself using the Overlay blend mode (example B). You can make it easier to choose your channel mask by adding more contrast to your image with a temporary adjustment layer. Add a Curves adjustment layer and pull the curve down in the shadows and up in the highlights to increase the contrast. Now, when you view your color channels one of them should have the contrast you need. Once you have made (or calculated) your duplicate channel and refined it into a mask, you can trash the adjustment layer. Note that you can also use this approach to help out any of your Selection tools. Figure 6.9. The original image (example A), and a duplicate of its Blue channel (example B). Adding a temporary Curves adjustment layer to increase the contrast (example C) and duplicating the Blue channel using Calculations yield a much more contrasty alpha channel (example D)a better starting point for your channel mask. Blocking Out In step 3 of "Creating a Channel Mask," I advised that when painting on your mask you should stay well away from the edges. In some circumstances, however, you can paint up to the edges. If an edge already has a good amount of contrast, try painting in Overlay blend mode. Painting in white in Overlay blend mode turns the gray areas white, but leaves the black areas unaffected; painting in black has the opposite effect. We saw this in "Using Quick Mask to Paint Selections" in Chapter 2, "Channels." Forcing Contrast Make sure that what looks like black is actually black (100%) and what looks like white is actually white (0%) by opening your Info palette and taking a tour around the edges with your Eyedropper tool to note the exact gray values. You may find it helpful to Shift-click a couple of places to take color samples of your edge areas. These samples remain fixed so that you can compare the before and after values on the Info palette. Note that if you don't want sharp edges, then forcing your mask to opaque black and white is neither necessary nor desirable. Because the gray values of your edges may vary, some parts of the edge may require more force than others to turn them black or white. Here are the steps you can take to force contrast. Try making a selection of as much of the edge as is similar in gray values and applying a Curve; then repeat, adjusting the Curve only as much as necessary for each selection. Those of you with strong constitutions can attempt to use Curves in Arbitrary mode to draw the shape of the curve. To draw the curve, begin by locking points onto the Curve at the darkest and lightest points of the channel by Command/Ctrl-clicking with the eyedropper. Now take the Pencil tool and draw the bottom left of the curve in to the right until it is vertically aligned beneath your first sample point (highlight). Repeat for the top right of the curve until it is vertically aligned beneath your shadow sample point. You may find it helpful to click the Smooth button a couple of times to smooth out any kinks in the curve. Figure 6.10. Using the Curve pencil to draw an arbitrary curve. The anchor points on the curve indicate the sampled areas of the imageone for the light grays and one for the dark grays. Rather than force the contrast on an alpha channel, make your duplicate channel into a layer mask and work on it there. If you are combining the masked image with the layers below it, this is a more interactive way of evaluating how the image will look in the context of the overall composition. I find it useful to do my "first draft" mask as an alpha channel (and as a "base mask," I can refer back to it), and then convert it to a layer mask to further refine it, in the context of the other layers in the composition. Alternatively, turn on the visibility of your composite RGB channel so that the alpha channel appears as a color overlay. You can paint in the mask as if it were a Quick Mask. Figure 6.11. Turn on the visibility of your RGB composite channel to view the channel mask (as a color overlay) in the context of the image. Use the Median filter, one of Photoshop's noise reduction filters (Filter > Noise > Median) at its lowest value1 pixelto pick up any stray pixels on your channel mask. Figure 6.12. Using the Median filter to remove any stray pixels, before (example A) and after (example B). ISBN: 0321441206 EAN: 2147483647 Year: 2004 Pages: 93 Authors: Nigel French Similar book on Amazon flylib.com © 2008-2017. If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net
Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 38 Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering 1. Basic electrical engineering circuit A simple electric circuit An electric circuit is an interconnection of electrical elements. The most basic quantity in an electric circuit is the electric c Charge is an electrical property of the atomic particles of which matter consists, measured in coulombs (C). Charge, positive or negative, is denoted by the letter q or Q. The charge e on an electron is negative and equal in magnitude to 1.602x10-19 C, while a proton carries a positive charge of the same magnitude as the electron. he presence of equal numbers of protons and electrons leaves an atom neutrally charged. Current can be defined as the motion of charge through a conducting material, measured in Ampere (A). Electric current, is denoted by the letter i or I. The unit of current is the ampere abbreviated as (A) and corresponds to the quantity of total charge that passes through an arbitrary cross section of a conducting material per unit second . (The name of the unit is a tribute to the French scientist Andre Marie Ampere.) Math matically, Q == I Where Q is the symbo l of charg m asur d in Coulombs (C), I is th curr nt in amp res (A) and tis th time in s cond (s). Th curr nt can also b d fin d as th rat of charg passing through a point in an el ctric circuit i.e. . dq i == - A constant curr nt (a lso known as a dir ct curr nt or DC) is denot d by symbo l I wher as a tim -varying curr nt 1 (also known as alternat ing current or AC) is r pres nt d by th symbol i or i( ). It must tak,e som,e, work, or energy,, fo r the charge to move betw,e,en two po'inits i'n .a circuit, say, from point a to p oi'nt b. The total wo r k p,e,r unit charg,e, associ.a t,ed w 'i th t he motion of charg,e, betw,e,en two poi'nts is call,ed voltag,e. Th us, the units of voltag,e, are thos,e, of ,e nergy p,e,r un it charge; they hav,e bee n called volts i'n ho nor of Alessandro Volta. Vo,ltag e (,o r pote,ntia l d 'i ff,e rence,) is t he ,e nergy r,e ,q u ir,e d to, mo,v ,e charge fr,o m o,ne, p,,o int t ,o the, o,t he,r, m ,eas.ured in vo,llts (V) . V ,o ltag,e is. deno,t ed by the l,e tte,r v o,r V . Vo tage Mathematica Ily V ,a b- = -d.q w her w is energy in joule (J)1and q is dharge in coulllo mbs (C). 1 vo lt~ 1 joulle/cou llo1m b = 1 newton meter/coullom b Uke ellectric current,, a constant vo lt age is ca lled a DC volltage an d it is rep resented by v, whereas a sin usoidall time-va rying volt age is ca Ued an AC vo ltage an d it is re present ed by v . The ellectro motive force (e..1 m.f) provid ed by a source of energy .such as batt ery (DC voltage) o r an electric generator (AC vo ltage) is 1 measured in vo l ts. Power and E Fo r pract ical purposes, we need to know how much power an electric device can han dle. We also know th at when we pay our bill s to t he ellectric utUity co1 m1pan ~es, we are paying fo r the e~ectric energy consum1ed over a certa in penod of t ime. P' 0 we1r i's the tim,e, rate ofex1pe1nding 0 1r albso1rbi'1ng en1,ergy, 1 1 1 1 m1easured i1 n w atts (W) . P'ow,e,1r, i's ,de,no ted by the, l ett,e,r p, 0,r P' . 1 1 Power and E We write th is relat1onship as: P - -d , Where p is p ower in watts 1(W), w is energy 1n j oules 1(J)1, and t is tim1,e, in seconds (s). From volltage and current equations, 1t foll lows that: dw dw dq . p -- dt . -- dq . . dt. -- Vl p = vi The, power pi in this equation is a t ime-varying quantity and is ,ca l lied the instantaneous power. Thus, the pow e,r absorbed or supp l1ed by an e,lement is the product of the voltage 1 1 1 across the element and the current th rough 1t. Circuit Eleme there are two types of elements found in electric circuits: passive elements and active elements. An active element is capable of generating energy while a passive element is not Passive Elem A load genera llly refers to a component or a piece of equ ipment to the output of an electric circuit. I n its funda menta I fo rm, the load is rep resented by one or a com bi nation of the fo llowing circu it ellements: 1. Resisto r (IR)1.. 2. Inductor (IL). 3. Capacitor (C). A ~oad can eithe r be resiistive, inductive or capacitive nature or a bllend of them . For examp le, a llight bullb is a pu rely res istive load whe reas a transforrme r is both inductive and res istive .. Actve Eleme Tlhe 1 m ost impo rtant active elle ments are volt age o r current sou rces that generaIlly deliver powe r to t lhe circu it connect ed to them. There are two kinds of sources : iindependent and depen dent sources. An idea I independent sou rce is an active ellement tlhat provides a specified vo l tage or current that is complete ly independent of other circu it variabiles. An idea l dependent (or controll ed) source i.s an active element in wh iclh th e sou rce quantity is controlled by a not her vo ltage o r current. Circuit E eme Circuit Element Symbol Resistor R Inductor L Capacitor C Independent voltage source V -4 - v41l t=Y Independent current source Dependent voltage sourc V V Dependent current source M at erials in gen ral hav a characteristic b havior of resisting th flow of electric charge. This physical property, or ability to r sist current, is known as resistanc and is re prese nt d by th sym bol R. The resistance R of an element denotes its ability to resist the flow of electric current, it is measured in ohms (fl). The circuit element used to model the current- resisting b avior of a material is the resistor. Ohm's law states that the voltage v across a resistor is directly proportiona to the current flowing through the resistor. Mathematica Ily V = RI Where the constant of proportionality R is called the resistance or electrical resistanc , measured in ohms (D.). A short circuit is a circuit element with resistance approaching zero. An open circuit is a circuit element with resistance approaching infinity. A capacitor is a pass ive elemen t designed to store energy in its lectric field. Besid s r sistors, capacitors are the most common lectrical components. A capacitor consists of two conducting plates separated by an insulator (or dielectric). The a1m1ount of charge stored,. represented by q, voltag, v so tlhat: q = Cv where C, the ,c onstant ,o f pr,o portiona Iity-1 is known ,as the capa,cita1nce of the ca pa1dtor. The unit of cap,a citance is the fa rad 1(F),. in honor of the Engllish physicist Michael Faraday. The relati,ons.hip, between v,olta,ge and current f,o r ,a cap,,a citor is governed by the foll,o wing . ,dv ,t =C - - dt 1 t v =- [ idt + v(O) C o where C is the cap,acitance measured in Fair.ads. (F)1and v1(0)1is the initi.al v,olta1,ge or initi.al charge stored in the capa1citor. When v = V (,c,onstant DC v,o lta1ge)/dv = 0 a1ndi = 0. Henc,e a cap,, adtor acts as ain open circuit to, DC . The I1ns.ta1ntane,ous, power dell1v,e red t ,o the caipac1tor 1s: P, = vi = cv - . dt w = l. p. dt = C . . - -oo, dt- dt- = C- . v dv = --=- 2 Cv - . t -- oo We note that v(- ,co) = 0,. because the capacitor was unchang,e d at t = - oo . Thus)' w = 1 Cv 2 w =-- 2 2C This energy is stoir,ed in the el,e ctric field of the capa,citor which is s,uppll ied lb.ack to, the circu1 1t when the a1c:tual source is removed. An inductor 1s a p,assive elle,ment designed to stor,e energy In its m1agn,etic f 1el,d . nductors find num,erous applications in ,electronic and power syst,ems. They are used m power supplies, transformers, radios, TVs, rada1rs, and electnc motors. Any conductor of ,electric curre,nt has indluctiv,e prop,e rti,es and may be regarded as an inductor .. But m ordl@r to enhance the 1nduct1ve ,effect, a pract ca l inductor 1s usuall ly form,ed into a cyllin drical coill of a ferromagne,t ic material with many turns of conducting .An inductor ci0nsists of a1coi'II of conducting w ire. 1 1 In an inductor~ the relationship between voltage and c differential equation: i = -1 ft dt + i( l 0 where L is the constant of proportionality cal led the inductan ce of the inductor. The unit of inductance is th e henry (H), named in honor of the American inventor Joseph Henry, and i( ) is th e initial current stored in the magnetic field of th e inductor. Inductance is the property whereby an inductor exhibits opposition to Wh en i = I (con stant DC current L :: = 0, v =0. Hence an inductor a Th e inductor is desi gned to store ene rgy in its magnetic fi eld. Th e energy stored ca n be obtai ned from previous equations. Th e power delivered to th e indu ctor is: Th e energy stored is: w = it it - oo p dt = - oo ( Ld L) i dt w =L i t - oo 1 1 idt =-Li 2 (t) --Li (- oo) 2 2 Since, i(- oo) =0 w =-L i Elect ric INetworlk: a conn e,c tion of varii ou s ciiircui t ellem ents can be t ,e rmed electr ic network. The circuit diag ram sh own i n Figure is an electric network. A node 1s the p,omnt of connection betwe,en two ,o r m1ore branche,s .A. l oop is any dosed p,ath in a1circuit.. Two or 1m ore ell,e 1mem1ts a1re, in seri,es if they are cascaded or co,n nec,ted se,q uentia1llly and c,o nse,q uently cairry the sa1m1,e current . Two, or m1or,e ,e l e m ents ,a re i n pa1ra1lllle,I if t hey ar,e ,c onne,c ted t ,o the same, tw,o nodes and c,o nsequently ha1ve the sa1m e, v,o ltage acro,ss them1. Ohm's Law Ohms law states that the current I flowing in a circuit is directly Proportional to the applied voltage V and inversely proportional to the resistance R, provided the temperature remains constant. vilher . R i the r . si 1u:u1c of 1rh . d1 . uiu e ~p, essed in Ohm:n s a. irchhoff's Law (KCL) Kiirchhoff s cu11rent law (KVL) Kirchhoff s voltage llaw KCL is based on the, law ,o f ,co,n se1rvati,o n ,o f ,c harge,, wlhi l,e KVL is based on the p1ri nci pie o,f conservation o,f ene,rgy,. Kirchlhoffs curr,e nt law (K Cl) state,s that the, alg,e brai,c sum of ,cu I1rr,e nts 1 1 ,e nte,nng a node, (,o r a ,d lo,sed bounda ry), is ze,ro,.. In ,o ther wo,rds; the, suIm of the curre,nts e,nt,e n ng a nod,e 1 ms ,e qual to, the, sum ,o f the, curr,e nts l e,a ving the no,d e,. irchhoff's Law !M athematica lly, IKC L imp l~es that :: ~ i n =O n- 1 m ber of branches connect ed t o the node an d in is the nt lh whe re IN is th e nu1 current ente ri ng (or leaving) the node. By thi s l aw, cu rrents enteri ng a node may be regarded as pos it ~ve,, wh il e cu rrents leaving the node may be taken as negative o r vice ve rsa. Fro m IKCL and we can wr"t e:: I i entering L i /'ving hoff's Law For example consider the node in Figure. Applying KCL gives i1 + (-i 2 ) + i3 + i4 + (-i 5 == 0 Currents at a node illustrating KCL. off's La Expressed mathematica lly, KVL st at es th at: m - Where M is th e num be r o voltages in th e loop (or th e number of bra nch es in th e loop} and Vm is th mth voltage. To illustrate KVL, consider th e circuit in Figure. The sign on eac h voltage is th e po larity of th e t ermina l encou nt ered fi rst as we trave l around th e loop. We can st art w ith any bra nch and go around th e loop eith er clockwise or counterclockwi~ Thus, KVL yields: - 1 + 2 + V3 - V4 + 5 =Q Rearranging t erm s gives: Vt + 4 = 2 + 3 + 5 Adulll 1lzeofadlaa RSlltDn (2 I l'sW. W, W). P wer re 1st rs. a lot rnal r; slstor arrangeme nt b Integra l ct resist r n twork. (Courtesy of B ourns, I nc.) a E t ma! vi w f va1iable r slst rs. b) ln t mal , 'ew of variable resist r. Bru1d 2 ign ifi ant ur; Bru1d l od . Resistor Color Codes Band 1 B nd 2 Band 3 Band 4 Ba nc1 5 Color lg. Fig. g. Fig. M ultl[l lle r Tolerance Rell blllt.y Black 0 ],Q = 1 Brown l ]01= W ]% Red 2 2 w2 = mo 0.1 % Orange 3 ]03 = 1 ,000 0 .0] % Yi low 4 4 W 4 = WO 0 0 .001 % Ore n 5 5 105 = moo o Blue 6 6 l (f = 1 0000 0 Violet 7 7 101 = mo 0000 Gray 8 8 Wl:lite 9 9 Gold 0 .1 -% Silver 0.Q] 10% No color 20% 1% 6B 5 OK , % t r"il r: Single Muni eU AC Cur 1u Fi.xedl. T AJ:r ]ir, .fll. ]Fe1rr:t!te en V, ]ta e _1 :ce Care Cm Core Capacj Ind.net , ___/ 0-- + _L \ Vire J, ,}DJin:g + GfOJJ.lllcJI -----.10 .-, . .-- V, ]tmet 1' -----'10 d i.-- - ][ . J.[. ].:I .[ _:: -'- __ ::: '~ kV A r Co: h', Co . eui te C .re Cbrcui:tt --0 -:-- Breai!k:e Anmrrer. 1' Trant fonue. Two conductors crossing but not Two conductors jo ined together Flxed reslsto r Alterna.tlve symbol >2 ' Variab le resistor for fixed resistor . . I -1,11J1 --11--~11 Cell Battery o'f 3 cells Alterna:tive symbol for battery Switch 6 ilament lamp Fuse, Voltmeter .Alternative fuse Components R,C, diode, IC Battei'y 1 _ L,Ul.11!) LamlP a cil ematl.c u ug lamlf) s mlb l Ioterr: ime !:lug wiffi s ThfC b cb mati 11si11g r istance y.mbol
Finding identity, belonging, and purpose in a competitive world Photo by Goh Rhy Yan Whether we like it or not, we live in a competitive culture. Competition is present on the field, in the classroom, and in the workplace. It is deeply formative—impacting the identity, belonging, and purpose of young people. And while competition can be an excellent context for character growth and identity development, such growth isn’t guaranteed. For example, • A student aims to graduate with a 4.0 and at the top of her class; yet, she secretly wonders if she will have any worth if she earns a B her final semester. • An athlete strives to overcome every obstacle, but at the expense of healthy relationships with others. • A young adult earns a promotion, but feels he is climbing a ladder that ultimately leads to nowhere. Young people need firm foundations to help them form identity and develop character. Sadly, the narrative of success and failure that guides so much of our competitive culture simply isn’t sufficient for the task. We need to offer students a grander life narrative in order to ground their identities and guide their growth. The problem with performance-based identities Fuller psychology professor Benjamin Houltberg is an expert on youth development whose research on performance-based identities and sports[1] reveals how our culture’s focus on winning and losing often negatively shapes young people’s identities. Houltberg found that performance-based identities (defined as “mindsets that link love and acceptance to performance”) ultimately lead to a fear of failure, perfectionism, and a fear of disappointing others. When love and acceptance are built on such an unstable foundation, people turn to coping mechanisms like blame, shame, and control to protect their fragile identities. Performance-based praise can inadvertently become the rubric for self-acceptance as well. Clearly, participating in competition does not guarantee positive identity and character development. Some of the strongest influences on young people’s identity formation are the adults in her or his life. When parents, mentors, and coaches focus on outcomes like winning and losing rather than character development and purpose, young people learn to link love and acceptance to performance rather than the unconditional love of Christ. Given the unavoidability of competition in our culture, how can we encourage positive identity formation in the young people we love? Move from performance to purpose Teaching teenagers to form their identities based on a single narrative of success and failure gives minimal direction, inclines teenagers toward a utilitarian view of relationships, and is largely self-focused. Purpose is a more holistic basis for identity development. As Houltberg explains, purpose “organizes around a life aim, it’s based in relationship with other people, and it’s something greater than yourself that contributes to your sense of identity and worth.” Young people, all people, need a grander purpose and motivation that gives direction to their lives, provides opportunity for relationships with others, and is bigger than themselves. So, how can we help young people gain purpose in a hypercompetitive world? When our own identities and purpose are wrapped up in success and failure and the conditional acceptance of others, it is difficult to pass on anything different to the young people we love. First, we may need to reflect on the source of our own motivations and identities.[2] Ask yourself: “How is my own sense of self based on how I perform and how others perceive me, rather than on who I am in Christ?” Exploring the sources of our identities with a trusted friend or counselor can be an important first step in helping the young people around us do the same. Next, consider the following shifts that might help young people build identities and find purpose on a more solid foundation: 1. Identity Instead of focusing on A’s and F’s, wins and losses, ask young people each week about what they are learning, how they are growing, and how choosing to follow Jesus affects how they see themselves. Make space for their honest answers. 2. Belonging Instead of describing relationships in competitive terms (e.g., ‘beating the enemy’), use competition as a way of building relationships with others (e.g., ‘working as a team’). By doing so, competition can serve to help form a sense of purpose through relationships, as opposed to dominating and defining relationships. 3. Purpose Instead of viewing success as the purpose of life, help young people comprehend their lives in the context of the much grander gospel narrative. Understanding our lives in the context of God’s redemptive work in the world can enable us to live for something bigger than ourselves, build meaningful relationships, and develop a sense of meaningful direction for our lives. When we encourage young people to learn, build relationships, and live for a purpose bigger than themselves, competition becomes a context for growth and relationship instead of defeat. How do you help young people navigate our competitive world? I’d love to hear. Add a comment below. [1] Find out more about Dr. Benjamin Houltberg’s research at and [2] Identity development and finding purpose overlap and reinforce one another. See Kendall Cotton Bronk, Purpose in Life: A Critical Component of Optimal Youth Development (New York: Springer, 2014), 74.
\| Family First Feature \| At a Loss Experts from an innovative Israeli obesity clinic weigh in on the latest weight loss breakthroughs, and how people can shed excess pounds — and keep them off It should be easy to lose weight. There are a dizzying number of diet plans out there and bookstores full of weight loss guides. The supermarket has a dazzling array of foods that are sugar-free, gluten-free, fat-free, or calorie-free. Nutritional information has become more accessible than ever. And yet, most people still struggle with their weight — whether it’s a few pounds gained over Yom Tov or a few dress sizes during pregnancy. For some, “the battle of the bulge” is a lifelong struggle with agonizing setbacks: A staggering 90% to 95% of people with obesity who diet and lose weight will gain the pounds back, often with interest. Since 1975, obesity rates have tripled, with World Health Organization statistics indicating almost one in three people with a BMI over 30 and one out of 25 with a BMI of 40 or over (mortal obesity). Even more alarming is that obesity is increasing among children. Type 2 diabetes, a direct outcome of obesity and once considered a strictly adult disease, has, since 1990, begun to present in children from age 3. In the US alone, over 5,000 new cases of children with type 2 diabetes are diagnosed annually. What makes these statistics so grim is the fact that obesity has been linked to serious medical conditions — diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, infertility, as well as sleep apnea and skeletal pain (bad back, aching knees) — so inextricably that obesity is considered a disease unto itself. A Global Epidemic The rise in obesity is a relatively new phenomenon, documented in the last 40 years. What’s changed in the course of those decades? Socioeconomic factors such as urbanization, technology, and transportation have made our lifestyles considerably more sedentary, both in terms of employment and everyday tasks. As the saying goes, “Sitting is the new smoking.” In addition, high-fat, high-sugar junk food is becoming increasingly pervasive even in the underdeveloped world, where the WHO says populations are exhibiting undernutrition coexisting with obesity. Professor Amir Tirosh, director of the Center for Diabetes Research and Endocrinology at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, attributes the obesity epidemic primarily to environmental and dietary factors. “In the last 50 years, our world has changed drastically: the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat, even the bacteria and viruses are different.” Dr. Ruth Percik, senior specialist at Sheba’s Endocrinology Institute, places most of the blame for the rising obesity on western food culture, which promotes food primarily as a pleasure and only secondarily as a physical need. “We’re constantly bombarded with tempting images and convincing messages to treat ourselves, to enjoy — and practically speaking, it’s available everywhere, all the time,” she says. “With coffee shops and snack bars lurking on every street corner, we can consume a huge amount of calories for very little money in a short amount of time. We’re accustomed to getting whatever we want, now. In the process, we’ve forgotten what it means to refrain, to delay satisfaction, and to experience hunger.” When discussing modern nutrition, it’s impossible to ignore the advent of processed foods and the accompanying plastic packaging and preservatives. “We’re exposed to hundreds of chemical additives, categorized by the FDA as GRAS (generally recognized as safe), but whose long-term effects have not been thoroughly examined,” Professor Tirosh explains. “We can assume that most are indeed safe, but we don’t need more than a couple dozen that are not so safe to suffer the consequences.” In a groundbreaking study conducted together with colleagues from Harvard University, Professor Tirosh observed the effects of propionate, a common preservative found in bread and baked goods. The findings indicated that the chemical can cause elevated glucose levels, impacting insulin sensitivity and metabolism. While the findings are not yet thoroughly validated in humans to warrant a recommendation to ban propionate, they do point to the need to more closely assess the potential long-term effects of this chemical and perhaps others. Does that mean that the obesity epidemic will eventually be linked to food additives? According to Professor Tirosh, obesity could never be traced to a single compound. “It’s a combination of the amount of chemicals we’re exposed to, the amount of food and the content of various nutrients in our diet, the level of physical activity we’re engaged in, and multiple genetic factors. “At the end of the day, weight gain is always a function of the balance between energy intake and expenditure, but it’s never as simple an equation as, ‘Just exercise more and eat less.’ “Human metabolism is so complex, and we’re constantly discovering new aspects of our biology and physiology. The amount we eat and how we engage in food-seeking behavior is controlled by a very complex network of hormones and metabolites. We know that there is an imbalance present in people with obesity and that they respond less to anorexigenic hormones — the ones that tell us to stop eating because we have enough energy. There could also be metabolic dysfunction, not to mention emotional aspects of food intake.” An Individualized Approach The urgent need to employ innovative approaches in the treatment of obesity has led to the establishment of specialized, multi-disciplinary clinics in various cities across the globe. One of the pioneers in this endeavor is the Israeli Center for Obesity Management, a division of the Department of Endocrinology at Sheba Hospital. “The one-size-fits-all approach to obesity often fails because people who suffer from it have different problems,” says Dr. Gabriella Lieberman, senior specialist at Sheba’s Endocrine Institute and director of the Center. “There’s no one obesity, but obesities.” At the Center, patients undergo a thorough assessment by a team of experts, including an endocrinologist, dietician, psychologist, and sports medicine specialist. After measuring the patient’s metabolic rate as well as body composition, the experts will consult and evaluate all this information to build a tailor-made plan that will suit the individual’s distinctive needs and parameters. “We try not to aim for a specific weight, but rather, specific lifestyle goals that will lead to weight loss,” Dr. Lieberman says. “For example, I might tell a patient to start by waiting four hours between meals. Let them conquer that, and then we’ll proceed to the meals themselves. When lifestyle changes are made, weight loss will come. “How much? That depends on different factors including the effort a patient is willing to make, their energy expenditure, etc.” Professor Tirosh claims that optimally, obesity should be treated in a primary care setting, “but under the current system, where a doctor can devote seven, ten, or at most fifteen minutes to the patient, it’s not feasible to provide a multidisciplinary approach to address this complex disease.” Rachel Z., 44, from Bnei Brak, succeeded in losing 85 pounds at the Center two years ago — and has since kept it off. She admits that the treatment, which is not covered by her medical insurance, isn’t cheap, but attests, “in my years of attending diet programs, I’m sure I spent 20 times that amount and without receiving any professional guidance.” Rachel is convinced that the targeted treatment she received, which included psychotherapy as well as a specialized exercise program, together with continued follow-up, are helping her to overcome a weight problem that had become deeply embedded in her persona. “I feel like a new person today. My life has improved in countless ways.” Measurement of success in terms of weight management is complicated. “In my eyes,” says Dr. Lieberman, “success is when a patient adopts the behavioral changes that will enable him to stick to specific lifestyle modifications and improve his metabolic parameters as well as quality of life. With different people, it takes a different amount of weight loss to reach that point.” The good news is that it doesn’t take much to achieve a drastic improvement in health. According to Professor Tirosh, “In order to treat metabolic disorder, prevent diabetes, and improve high blood pressure, the goal is to lose 7% of body weight. If a patient can maintain that long-term, I’m very pleased.” Beyond Eating & Exercise After receiving their individualized plan, patients come periodically to the clinic to meet with the professionals and track their weight loss. Various tools are available to help the patient achieve maximum, long-term success. A patient who struggles with emotional eating might benefit from psychotherapy or group therapy. Depending on the circumstances, patients might be candidates for gastrointestinal procedures such as intragastric balloons and duodenal devices, endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty or surgery. Bariatric surgery is one of the more extreme tools employed at the Obesity Center, primarily for those with morbid obesity. “You have to realize that the things we take for granted, like walking and other simple tasks, are issues for the morbidly obese. Just tying their shoes is a difficult issue,” says Dr. Lieberman. In addition to precipitating drastic weight loss, bariatric surgery has been shown to help reverse diabetes, eliminate sleep apnea, improve fertility, and ease joint pain and pressure. “While safer than ever before, clearly, it’s not for everyone,” Dr. Lieberman states. “Candidates must first undergo a thorough psychiatric evaluation. In addition to various physical parameters that we examine, we ensure that the patient isn’t currently suffering from any active eating disorders and that they’re mentally healthy.” Less invasive than surgery are some relatively new, promising weight loss drugs that have taken the medical community by storm. Saxenda and Belviq work by suppressing appetite and have relatively few side effects, which usually disappear with time. Saxenda is administered by injection as opposed to Belviq, which is taken orally. When learning about these wonder drugs, the first question patients usually ask is, “How much weight will I lose?” Dr. Lieberman is quick to explain that there is no way she can predict weight loss. “There is an average weight loss, but each individual will experience different results. Some people may lose more than the average; for others, the drug may be less effective.” Although she’s seen patients make tremendous progress with the help of meds, Dr. Lieberman makes it clear that the drug can never replace lifestyle modification. “I always tell my patients: ‘You must make the change, and the drug can help you make it. On its own, though, the drug is very limited.’ ” Dr. Lieberman clarifies that weight loss medication will generally need to be prescribed chronically. “No one asks whether their medication for hypertension or high cholesterol needs to be taken chronically. But with obesity, for some reason, people expect that a temporary intervention will have a permanent effect.” She explains the flaw in this thinking: “According to research, the longer a person diets, the more their metabolism slows down, so that it becomes even more difficult to continue and lose the weight. It’s not like we used to tell our patients that after three, four, or five months, they’ll get used to eating less, their ‘set point’ will change, and they’ll become a lean person. That’s not what happens. The struggle goes on forever, and there’s an option that the drugs will be needed forever.” On the other hand, Dr. Lieberman is the last person to consign a patient to medication for life. Lifestyle modification is much more potent than any drug, she says. “If you make the change and keep it, you may be able to manage without the drug.” According to Professor Tirosh, one of the most exciting breakthroughs in obesity research is in the field of genetic screening. Genetic studies have progressed enormously in the last decade with the Human Genome Project, which deciphered human DNA and mapped the genes through which inherited traits (including those that cause disease) can be tracked over generations. “We’re performing clinical studies here at Sheba and can now screen for mutations to determine if a patient has a genetic propensity to obesity. It’s extremely validating for patients who have been struggling all their lives with obesity to know that they’re not to blame; it’s not because they’re lazy, or because they lack willpower.” Practically speaking, genetic screening will soon provide endocrinologists with additional tools to determine how to best treat patients with obesity. One example is choosing the best fit in terms of weight loss medication. “Knowing the patient’s genetic mutation will enable us to zoom in on the most effective drug for the individual and get it right the first time.” Blue Zones After all is said and done, no matter what procedures or aids are used, it comes down to food intake. Dana Weiner, director of the Department of Nutrition at Sheba hospital, debunks the myths of traditional dieting. “When people come to me, they expect me to hand them a diet. But I don’t believe in one diet that suits everyone. Even the Mediterranean diet, which I agree is an excellent diet, is not suited to everyone.” To support her argument, Dana cites research on the Pima Indians, Native Americans originating in southern Arizona, who exhibited spiked rates of obesity, diabetes, and kidney disease once separated from their traditional homeland, diet, and way of life. Similar phenomena have been documented in Israel among Yemenite, and later, Ethiopian populations after they made aliyah and adopted the prevailing westernized diet. Dana believes that just like all areas in medicine, nutritional science is moving in the direction of a more personalized diet, based on a person’s genetic makeup and where they live. She brings evidence from study of the “Blue Zones,” five areas in the world whose inhabitants exhibited greatest longevity and quality of life, yet each has distinctively different diets. What they all do have in common in terms of regimen is a plant-based diet, strategies to prevent overeating, limited alcohol consumption, and physical activity as a way of life. “Our problem in the West is that we eat too much, too often, and our food is low-quality nutritionally,” Dana states. As a rule of thumb, she believes in eating foods that are as unprocessed as possible. “I tell my patients not to buy foods that have more than three ingredients. If there’s something on the label you can’t pronounce, don’t buy it. “Another rule: eat at home and cook your own food as often as possible. When you cook your own food, you control the ingredients and the quantities.” Dana believes that people can still eat the foods they enjoy, even they aren’t the epitome of healthy, as long as they exercise portion control. “If a patient tells me that their favorite food is fried schnitzel, I won’t tell them it’s off limits; rather, I’ll say that instead of three large pieces, they should eat one small piece with a salad. The idea is to teach basic nutritional information to empower patients to effect genuine, lasting changes that the person is able to live with for a lifetime.” In her work with frum patients, Dr. Lieberman quickly learned to identify their distinctive obstacles to weight loss. “The first change patients should make is to their weekend eating habits. Many are capable of adhering to their diet plan throughout the week, but Shabbat is a different story, and whatever they’ve lost all week, they gain back on Shabbat. It may be a mitzvah to eat a piece of challah for hamotzi, but that doesn’t mean the whole challah!” Simchahs are another challenge. “We’re not going to tell patients not to attend simchahs. We teach them to make choices about what they will eat and how much.” Dr. Lieberman has heard from patients that their weight gain first began during their years in yeshivah, where the menu was based on carbohydrates and fats with little protein and no vegetables. To this day, cash-strapped institutions resort to satisfying ravenous adolescent appetites with a similar menu — and let’s face it, that’s also what the kids want. “My dream as a dietician is to establish nationwide programs to educate families, starting from very young children, about healthy lifestyle, proper eating habits, and the importance of eating home-cooked food,” Dana shares. According to Professor Tirosh, it’s possible to predict already in kindergarten which children will suffer from obesity in the future. It should come as no surprise that negative eating habits, coupled with a genetic tendency, will result in the next generation of people suffering from obesity. But, hopefully, with the type of work the Center is doing, as well as the intensive research taking place at Sheba aimed at deciphering individual genetic “potholes,” the next generation will have access to better, more personalized strategies that will have a much greater chance for lasting, long-term success. In a departure from conventional methods, Dr. Percik is researching weight loss solutions to obesity employing neurofeedback — training the brain and harnessing its power to gain greater self-awareness and increase self-control, willpower, and mindfulness. The notion that obesity could be treated via the brain occurred to her during her stint at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Leipzig, where she learned that the behavior patterns linked to obesity were clearly evident in brain scans. “Our brains are wired with very organized centers that control the fundamental impulses of hunger-satiety, pain-pleasure,” explains Dr. Percik. “Most people are born with healthy regulation mechanisms. In people with obesity, those systems get hijacked and malfunction. “Scientists at Max Planck observed that the people who had lost their excess weight and kept it off for a decade, so-called Sustained Weight Losers, all had something in common: a high level of self-discipline, which is clearly discernible in brain imaging,” Dr. Percik explains. “To illustrate, when obese people were shown an image of their favorite food, all the pleasure centers in their brain lit up, like those of an addict. By contrast, when SWLs were shown their favorite food, only part of their brains was stimulated; the rest was quiet. This indicates an internal restraint mechanism, which translates as their ability to say, ‘No, thank you, not now,’ when offered food outside of their menu plan.” How does neurofeedback work in practice? The participant, wearing probes that gauge brain activity, is asked to concentrate on thoughts of willpower and self-control while gazing at a computerized image in front of him. The image is “responsive” in accordance with the level of concentration the participant is able to muster. In her pilot study conducted in 2017, Dr. Percik helped a group of overweight men slim down through targeted exercises that served to reinforce the parts of their brains responsible for self-restraint. Participants were shown an image of a cockpit and had to keep the plane airborne with thoughts of willpower and determination. “At Max Planck, I learned that the brain is extremely modifiable and can exhibit physiological signs of change even after a single intervention,” Dr. Percik adds, highlighting the potential of the method. A year and a half after the study, 70 percent of participants have managed to keep the weight off, corroborating Dr. Percik’s hypothesis. In clinical studies at Max Planck, neurofeedback is measured via fMRI, which is not economically feasible for widespread use. Dr. Percik and her team are currently exploring a device that is compact, portable, and user-friendly. Dr. Percik’s vision is to incorporate neurofeedback treatments in Sheba’s Obesity Center and to establish it, alongside proper nutrition and regular physical activity, as a part of the strategy toward acquiring long-term tools for a healthy lifestyle. (Originally featured in Family First, Issue 668) • Send A Comment To The Editors
circuitous - транскрипция, произношение и перевод онлайн Транскрипция и произношение слова "circuitous" в британском и американском вариантах. Подробный перевод и примеры. circuitous / окольный, кружный имя прилагательное roundabout, devious, circuitous, indirect, oblique, round-out circuitous, roundabout, devious имя прилагательное (of a route or journey) longer than the most direct way. the canal followed a circuitous route This preliminary question is best approached by a circuitous route. Traffic was not allowed and commuters had to take circuitous routes. And then he came home and wrote about his circuitous journey. Afraid of being followed, I take a circuitous route home.
re: Language Features: Best and Worst VIEW POST Imagine, for instance, that instead of calculating x = 1/9 and truncating the result at some point to store it in the variable x, you instead keep a record of the formula which was used to construct x. If you then declare a variable y = x * 3, you could either store the formula in memory as y = (1/9) * 3 or, recognize that the user entered 3 and 9 as integers, and simplify the formulaic representation of y internally to 1/3. I think Wolfram Alpha does something similar to this, and iirc most Computer Algebra Systems do this as well, or at least they achieve the same goal, possibly with a different implementation. Also are you going to be using flex and bison for the language? Or is it going to be a PEG parser? I don't know what any of this means. (Sorry, I'm new to language design.) Can you elaborate? Alright, as far as I know, there are two general types of parsers, top down, and bottom up. Bottom up is more performant iirc, but is harder to get used to, while top down is less performant (O(n3) if you know what I mean, and iirc), but I hear that they're much simpler to work with. Ohh before I elaborate further, I'll need to know what sorts of systems and tools you're used to working with. What language, OS, compiler? In grad school I programmed in C/C++ for 5 years, now I'm mostly Java and R, but I'm teaching myself Haskell, as well. I work on Windows, Ubuntu, and macOS. If you're asking which compiler I use to compile my own code, just gcc or whatever's available. I haven't yet looked into anything for my language project. I found this article while researching this and it mentions yacc, which I have heard of. I wasn't aware that bison is its successor. I don't know how yacc works, though, I just recognise the name. Before you move forward with your project I strongly suggest you study Julia (as a replacement for R) and Elixir (as a replacement for Java). They're more modern languages so they've worked through a lot of issues in their recent, early pre 1.0 phases and have thought, hard and heatedly, about a lot of things you're looking at. Both are functional, and both are dynamic (I think strict adherence to staticity is a bit of a religion: Julia kills the idea that static = performance, because of its amazing compiler strategy, and Elixir + dialyzer kills the idea that static = correctness - I basically have no runtime errors with static typechecking engine, and the rock solid dynamic stability of OTP makes it way worth it - I'm a a relatively inexperienced dev, they just promoted me from junior directly to senior =) with a lot of freedom and in elixir I wrote a testing harness in three days for a senior coworker's go program (6 months in the making) that triggered both linux and go program panics/errors, while my harness (living on the same node and dispatching and monitoring tens of thousands of concurrent processes) was fine. Moreover, both PLs focus on developer productivity and joy. I don't know if that's what you're optimizing for, but I suggest learning from some of the best! Thanks, Isaac! I'll have to explore a few more languages before I make a decision one way or the other. I'll definitely check out Julia and Elixir. A PEG is a parsing expression grammar. It is a way of specifying all valid strings in a language. It looks kinda like this Statement <- FunctionCall FunctionCall <- Identifier ( Arguments ) These would be converted into a Finite State Automata that can parse a string in LL(1) or O(n). It's basically a program that takes one character after another and changes state depending on the character. Each state can accept different characters leading to different states. This way, a state can encompass multiple non-terminals. Let's say you define a language as having members "hero" and "hello". MyLang <- hello \| hero The way to parse a given string without backtracking or lookahead is to construct this finite state machine. Opening state accepts an h, leading to state 1. State 1 accepts e, leading to state 2. State 2 accepts l, leading to state 3, or r leading to state 4. State 3 accepts l, leading to state 5, which accepts o, leading to a state which it is valid to end on. State 4 also accepts an o and is valid to end on. In this case you could reuse state 4 for 5 if desired. Bison and Yaac are tools that allow you to write a grammar and it will spit out a finite state machine like I described. code of conduct - report abuse
Recent quotes: Infections (or Dr-philia?) correlate with mental disturbances Flu may impact brain health -- ScienceDaily Although influenza is considered to be a respiratory disease, it has been associated with neurological symptoms in some cases. However, the long-term effects of flu on the brain have not been studied. Martin Korte and colleagues investigated three different flu strains (H1N1, H3N2, H7N7) in mice. Two of these strains, H3N2 and H7N7, caused memory impairments that were associated with structural changes to neurons in the hippocampus. The infections also activated the brain's immune cells in this region for an extended period and altered the expression of genes implicated in disorders including depression, autism and schizophrenia. These findings suggest that some strains of the flu may pose a threat to healthy brain function. First multiplex test for tick-borne diseases: Promising to revolutionize diagnosis, a single blood test can now accurately detect if someone is infected with Lyme and/or one of seven other tick-borne diseases -- ScienceDaily The TBD Serochip can simultaneously test for the presence of antibodies in blood to more than 170,000 individual protein fragments. Version 1.0 can identify exposure to eight tick-borne pathogens present in the U.S., including Anaplasma phagocytophilum (agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis), Babesia microti (babesiosis), Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease), Borrelia miyamotoi, Ehrlichia chaffeensis (human monocytic ehrlichiosis), Rickettsia rickettsii (Rocky Mountain spotted fever), Heartland virus and Powassan virus. The researchers also included Long Island tick rhabdovirus, a novel virus they recently discovered in Amblyomma americanum ticks. As new tick-borne infectious agents are discovered, the TBD-Serochip will be modified to target them -- a process the researchers say can be done in less than four weeks. Within a few days, P’s agitation lessened and he became happier, more affectionate, and more engaged in his schoolwork. Upon antibiotic discontinuance, his irritability returned, and resumption of treatment helped him regain control. After 6 weeks of treatment, repeat ASO was 791 with an anti-DNAase B titer of 1,090, i.e., basically unchanged. A Cunningham panel to check for evidence of immune dysfunction and antineural antibodies was unremarkable
Kirsten Van Praet August 11, 2017 How does 3D Printing affect the number of manufacturing jobs and what is the impact of the technology on our society? Jürgen Tiedje, head of Digital Grow at the European Commission, shares the European Commission’s view on these topics. He explains how Europe is moving away from the slope of understanding and onto the plateau of production with mass customization and series manufacturing. “Manufacturing has to and is moving to the digital world, but AM will make a difference as it turns the digital back to the physical. It can create more jobs, bring jobs back to Europe, create more local manufacturing and lead to more highly-skilled people. AM has huge potential, not only to change manufacturing from a technological point of view, but also from a societal and economic point of view” Jürgen Tiedje, Head of Unit, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission He also points out that collaboration is essential to advance the industry and the European Commission provides plenty of avenues to foster cooperation through their framework programs such as Horizon 2020. Their approach is mainly focused on three principles: “open science”, “open innovation” and “open to the world” and he believes that Additive Manufacturing should incorporate these. Watch the interview Tiedje gave to Stefaan Motte, Materialise VP, to discover what role the European Commission plays with regard to the advancement of Additive Manufacturing, how they encourage collaboration and what trends they noticed in the 3D printing scene during the Materialise World Summit 2017. Watch our interviews with GE, Siemens and BASF or contact us to discuss what a partnership can mean to your business.
Strasbourg, France General Information Regional secretariat Administrative status Seat of the Council of Europe and of the Assembly of European Communities; chief city of two districts. Strasbourg - Grande île Registration Year Historical function Trade and culture. Location and site In the heart of Europe, Strasbourg was a crossroads for the Rhine River and terrestrial trade routes. The old city is constructed between two arms of the Ill River. Urban morphology The old city of Strasbourg occupies an island, Grande-Île. Throughout its urban history, its two Roman axes have been maintained. The streets, which vary in width, are organized in a compact grid according to a plan which is almost rectilinear. Today, 20 bridges connect the old city of Strasbourg to the shores of the Ill River. The old city centres around its Gothic cathedral of red sandstone. The older squares within this dense urban fabric are bordered with palaces, hotels, institutions and half-timber houses. Harbours extend along the two arms of the Ill River. Upstream from Grande-Île are a series of fortified bridges and their three towers. Registration criteria At all stages of its construction, the Gothic cathedral of Strasbourg is a unique artistic achievement. (I) The cathedral of Strasbourg served as a vehicle for the movement of Gothic art towards the east. (II) The “Grande-Île” of Strasbourg offers an eminent example of an urban ensemble that is characteristic of Central Europe and a unique ensemble of the residential architecture of the Rhine area in the 15th and 16th centuries. (IV) Historical reference • Strasbourg was built on the site of the castrum Argentoratum, which was established in 12 B.C. and served as part of the Roman system of defense on the Rhine River. • In the 5th century, when Alsace was ruled by the Franks, the devastated site was known as Stratisburgum (meaning “roadside town”). • When the Bishops still had authority in the town, the Carolingians built the first church. Until 1000, the Roman fortifications enclosed the town, and a new fortification wall was constructed around 1100. In the 13th century, the rule of the Bishops was replaced by that of the bourgeois. • Strasbourg became a wealthy city due to its strategic position on the Rhine. Its growing autonomy allowed it to become a free city of the empire; it obtained the privilege of hosting a fair and became one of Europe’s warehouses on the Rhine. • From the 15th century on, the economic development of Strasbourg was accompanied by political and intellectual enlightenment. • In 1681, when Strasbourg was experiencing troubled times, Vauban constructed a fortress. In the 18th century, its population grew at an impressive pace. M. Roland Ries Maire de Strasbourg Ville et Communauté urbaine 1, parc de l'Etoile Strasbourg, France M. Yves Aubert Directeur Général Adjoint Communauté urbaine de Strasbourg 1, Parc de l'Étoile Strasbourg, France +33 3 88 60 93 95 M. Rémi Baudru Chargé de projets patrimoine Ville et Eurométropole de Strasbourg Mme Marie-Séverine Pillon Attachée de conservation - Chargée de mission Patrimoine Ville et Eurométropole de Strasbourg 1 parc de l'Étoile Strasbourg, France
Juno Is Still Stuck In The Wrong Orbit Around Jupiter Problems with the spacecraft's engines are preventing it from entering a new orbit for observations Juno at Jupiter Juno at Jupiter Thanks to engine troubles, Juno is stuck in a stable orbit around Jupiter, but not the one NASA scientists want.NASA Things are really not going Juno's way. The spacecraft made a triumphant arrival to Jupiter last July 4 and promptly settled into a stable orbit. But now it's having trouble getting out of that orbit. On October 14, NASA announced it would postpone that week's planned attempt to move Juno into a closer orbit in order to study the planet. NASA identified the problem as a pair of helium check valves that assist in firing the spacecraft's main engines. Rather than opening in seconds, as they're supposed to, it took several minutes for the valves to open during a test leading up to the planned engine burn. The new orbit would shorten Juno's trips around Jupiter from almost two months to about two weeks, allowing for closer -- and more frequent -- flybys. This "science orbit" was intended to be the spacecraft's final orbit, the result of its final engine burn. After 20 months spent studying the planet, Juno would have plummeted into Jupiter and burned up in February 2018. The fiery death would avoid the accidental contamination of any potential life on Jupiter's moons with our Earthly bacteria. It's not clear what the next step for the mission is. Juno's next opportunity to enter its science orbit will be on December 11. But NASA recently confirmed that it would instead be a "science flyby." Rather than settle into a new orbit, Juno will switch on all its instruments and point them at the planet to gather data, much like it did back in August. After that, the next opportunities to enter a tighter orbit are February 2 and March 27, but NASA won't commit to any of the dates until they have a chance to try and fix the valve problem. If worst comes to worst, Juno will be stuck in its 53 day orbit for the duration of the mission. The mission scientists don't expect this to be much of a problem, though. "We can do all of our science in a 53-day orbit if needed," principle investigator Scott Bolton said during a recent press conference in Pasadena. It can collect the same data while in its more distant orbit, though the time crunch may mean collecting less of it. Juno's mission is to study the origin and evolution of Jupiter, our solar system's oldest and largest planet by far, by probing the planet's atmosphere, mapping magnetic fields, and examining its auroras with a plethora of scientific equipment. It's also solar-powered, setting a new deep-space record for a solar-powered spacecraft. It's so impressive that we named it the most important aerospace invention this year, in anticipation of the scientific understanding it would provide of our largest planetary neighbor. Here's to hoping a pair of pesky valves don't deflate Juno's potential too much. [H/T Gizmodo]
BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) What is BMR? In simple terms, BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) defines the energy that one individual needs for survival. However, this energy count is for the state of rest when a person is not involved in any physical activity. People who are young have more mass on their body and their BMR is on the higher side. Similarly, older people have less mass so the BMR is on a lower scale. Getting help from this BMR calculator It is a major advantage to have a quality BMR calculator. If you have a high standard tool with you, there is no need to perform any calculation steps yourself. This tool would do everything for you once you have entered the input values. When you are keeping a track of fat loss, it is necessary to have accurate results. This is only possible when you are using a quality BMR calculator. With this tool, you do not have to worry about getting wrong estimates. • This tool is a free option with quality outputs Users do not have to worry about paying any cost to use this tool because it is free. This is a key priority for most users. They prefer tools that are free and have a sound technical base and offer free usage. It is quite hard to get this combination. Most free BMR calculators only have short time free trial versions for the users. To continue the usage for a long span of time, they have to spend money. With this BMR calculator, none of these issues exist. The tool offers complete free usage and users do not have to go through any conditions. • Get accurate results in less time When one is dealing with mathematical calculations, there is nothing more important than coming up with the correct results. This BMR calculator produces the correct values so users can depend on the outputs. This is a problem with a lot of BMA calculators present on the internet. Apparently, they seem dependable but when you start using it, various errors are witnessed. One of them is that incorrect BMR values would be produced. When a user is using an online calculator, he does not recheck the values produced. This is because, in the case of a technological tool, no human errors are made. This is a completely dependable tool and you can count on the BMR values. Steps of using this BMR calculator As compared to a lot of other tools, this BMR calculator is much simpler. Here are the short steps you need to go through to get the needed values. • Enter your gender, height, and weight To use this BMR tool, you need to start by entering core details about yourself. For instance, select your gender and then enter the height and weight. For instance, consider that you are a male with a height of 6 ft and weigh 100 kilos. Input this information and then advance to the next step. • Enter activity level and age These are the last two inputs that users have to enter. The sedentary activity level is important as it decides the ability to lose fat. People who work out regularly lose weight at a fast pace. Similarly, if someone does not work out on a regular scale and has a sedentary level of physical activity, he would find it hard to lose weight. • Outputs and a proper example You can move ahead to the output stage after all the inputs have been entered. The outputs are produced after the “calculate” button is clicked. Let us go through an example to get more understanding about the tool functionality. Consider that you are a male with a height of 6ft and weight 90 kilos. Along with that, the activity level is sedentary and age is 35 years. Enter all these inputs and execute the calculation process. The outputs would be BMR and calories you need to run through the day. In this case, the BMR would be 3447 calories per day. Similarly, calories per day would be 4172.6 calories per day. This BMR calculator has online access Online tools are much easier to use than offline ones. First of all, you can start using this tool without completing any installations. All you need is a device with internet connectivity. You do not need to go through any downloads or installation of supporting applications. • The interface of an online calculator matters a lot. Users do not opt for calculations that have a difficult set of controls. The interface of this BMR calculator is incredibly simple so users prefer it highly. BMR calculators are not complex in terms of usage If a tool is complex and several inputs have to be entered, a user may get agitated and exit. BMR calculators are very easy to use. Hence, even if you have the basic technical knowledge, it would be easy for you to use this calculator. When you are using a complex tool, technical expertise is needed to understand it. As BMR calculators are easy, anyone can use them including health professionals, medical experts, and fitness instructors. If you are following a weight loss plan, a continuous check on the BMR value is important. No one has the time to sit down with a pen and paper to calculate the BMR value. At any time if you wish to check the BMR value, insert the values in the tool and the results would be produced. How much energy does the body require when it is in the state of rest? BMR is the term used to define this rate. Every individual should know about his BMR rate. It depends on a lot of factors including the weight you have, gender and physical activity. There are a number of methods to determine the BMR rate. However, using the online calculator is definitely the best way to get correct BMR values. Other than that, a lot of time is not needed to determine accurate results.
Feb 13, 2007 Why a photo works Below a simple photograph. Not a great piece of art by any means but it has quite a few things going for it, many "rules" as people call them. Nobody likes rules and claims to break them, which is rarely true because breaking one rule usually implies following another. The rules aren't rules anyway. They are guidelines based on thousands of years of experience of imagery. Instead of trying to break rules for the sake of it, I try to includes as many as I can in a single shot. More importantly, I just have fun arranging different elements in relation to each other. In a landscape photograph, this is entirely done by the point of view (perspective) and cropping. Ansel Adams said "a good photograph is knowing where to stand". The most obvious rule is the rule of third, ie. separating the frame in thirds, horizontally and vertically, and placing important elements on those imaginary lines, or wjere those lines cross each other. In the photograph below, the foreground occupies the lower third, the middle ground is in the middle and the hills and clouds are placed on the upper third line. Vertically, the cyclist is on the right third. The second rule, which is usually more of a guideline but essential here, is inserting a human in the landscape. It gives a "wish I was there" feeling. The third rule is putting space in front of that rider. It adds dynamism. The viewer can see where the ride is going. There's more! Many little things that aren't so obvious can add to a photograph. - The rule book says "thy shall not make triangles in the corners". Triangles in the corners... corner the eye. I left just a bit of space between the yellow line and the bottom left so the eye can follow the line back to the cyclist instead of getting stuck in the triangle made by the yellow line. - The symmetry of the fence posts. - Even more fun is the symmetry of the mountains where they meet each sides of the frame. I actually had a "hehe" moment cropping that. - The patch of clouds on the top right breaks the monotony. - As the eye goes from foreground to background, those same clouds bring the eye closer and above the viewer's head, including him/her in the picture. (not sure I can explain that one well) - Colors are few: black and white (neutral) green and blue for nature and a bright yellow for two human elements. - The diagonal of the road, which also contrasts with the straight horizon. - And what you can't see: the power line above the frame. It's impostant to scam the edges for unwanted distractions. This shot was made with a Nikon D70 on a tripod. These "action" shots are completely staged. I use a mark on the road (crack, rock), set the camera timer to 10 or 20 seconds, press the shutter and using the clock on the bike computer, do my best to be at the mark at the right time. It's a lot easier with a digital camera becasue youcan check if you hit or missed. The D70 also has a handy remote control but it isn't always practical due to the angle and range the remore can work. No comments:
Destroying Angel: Benjamin Rush, Yellow Fever and the Birth of Modern Medicine by Bob Arnebeck Chapter Nine In a preface to a new edition of Powell's Bring Out Your Dead, three historians suggest that we should not be too critical of Rush's remedies given the harshness and ineffectiveness of some modern treatments of disease.(1) Looking at Rush's performance in that way, one might suggest that he was modern because of his faith in medicine and propensity to over-medicate. However if there is to be any value in the thesis that Rush helped create the modern medical culture, it is necessary to go beyond merely showing the Rush replicated many of the failings of modern medicine. What is generally valued in modern medicine is its ability to translate an understanding of disease gained through scientific research into measures to prevent disease and therapies that alleviate the suffering caused by disease. Most of us use modern medicine with confidence that, despite its many failings, compared to no medicine or so called alternative medicines, it works better. By scientific research we mean essentially the effort to share observations and theories and invite replication and feedback. There are no secret formulas, no magic touches or incantations, no basing happy results on some mysterious personal qualities of the care giver, and no reliance on traditional measures without constant analysis of their usefulness in the light of on-going research and observation. It can be argued that many practitioners in Philadelphia during the epidemic were modern in the ways described above. What distinguished Rush from them, as the past eight chapters have tried to show, was his aggressiveness and creativity. Rush recognized his own achievement as revolutionary. After the epidemic he continued to fight for his gains. His modern critics are quick to note the enormous steps backward he took as he fashioned his new system of medicine. While Rush rashly simplified, to scientists in Europe it was becoming clearer how complex nature really is. Yet it is his activities after the epidemic, and the reaction of his colleagues to them, that proved Rush modern. He failed to create the forms of modern medicine, but over the next six years he defined the functions of modern medicine. His long term achievement is obscured by his short term successes. His therapeutic approach which dominated American medicine for 30 years, we find distasteful. His medical theories which entertained a generation of medical students, we find ludicrous. The program he set before the nation, exhaustive observation and research aimed at preventing disease, constant experimenting to discover new and fine tune established therapies, creating a climate in which decisive and universal care for the sick can be provided, remains the program of the nation. But that hardly captures the Promethean dimension. At Rush it's easy to find that line between the acceptance of death, and the lust to conquer it. That impulse seems natural to us, but in the days after the epidemic he had to create the demand for it.(2) Much like later historians of the 1793 epidemic, many contemporaries applauded Rush for his sacrifices and then waited for him to come to his senses. However, contemporary critics were not motivated by scientific principles. They insisted that he suborn science to the commercial needs of the city. Many were alarmed that his theory on the origins of the fever would cripple the city's economy. Richard Peters, a federal judge then in the countryside, had a townhouse a few doors down from Rush. He well knew the passion and persistence his neighbor brought to any controversy. On October 23 he warned Pickering that Rush's "assertion that the Philadelphia hot beds produced this deadly plant is I believe unfounded and I am sure very mischievous," and would be "eagerly caught at by the anti-Philadelphians."(3) Rush received an anonymous letter imploring him not "to act so much the enemy of this place. Will it alter the nature of things, or be of the least advantage to mankind to know from whence it did arise, other than importation? Will not the New Yorkers, the Baltimoreans, and all other enemies of this town rejoice...?" Upon publication of his theory "all real property would fall in a little while 20 or more percent.... Let it not be said, we have the greatest of our enemies in our own city. Think O Think Seriously."(4) The stock broker Matthew McConnell wrote a friendly but blunt letter to Rush reminding him that his theory was "a dangerous one to advance if not true considering the consequences that might result therefrom to the city as the seat of the government." Rush replied that "the good opinion of the citizens of Philadelphia was now of little consequence to me." Rush lumped opponents of local origin with those who attacked purging and bleeding. McConnell assured him that he had "numerous" friends. "In the company I was in,... you were spoken of respectfully and no suggestions thrown out against your practice."(5) If political pressure wasn't enough, another distracting controversy over the origin of epidemic also tried to push scientific reasoning into the background. The city's religious leaders renewed their attempt to permanently close theatres in the state to appease an evidently aroused and righteous God. With his relish for Old Testament prophets, Rush probably wrestled with himself before deciding not to enter the fray. On November 2 a list of 7 reasons why God visited an epidemic on the city signed by Jeremiah was published by the Federal Gazette. Jeremiah was his favorite prophet and the first two reasons were Rush's particular peeves: lust for wealth "excited by our systems of paper credit," and "rack rents." The first reason condemned his nemesis Alexander Hamilton. And Rush was mad because his landlord had just raised his rent.(6) The five other reasons were more traditional: attending the circus and theater, breaking the Sabbath, swearing, neglect of religious instruction in schools and pride in luxuries.(7) Judging from his letters to his wife, Rush believed in God's agency in the epidemic. But Rush must have sensed that publishing moral lessons from the epidemic would distort his scientific analysis. The anti-scientific bias of the religious side of the argument was evident. On November 8, "An Earnest Call Occasioned by the Alarming Pestilential Contagion," did not mince matters: "I know there are many who attribute this awful contagion to natural causes, and ridicule the idea of a supernatural agent: but I conceive we may clearly trace the finger of God in our chastisement."(8) In December an anti-theater "dialogue" in the newspapers had "A" asking "B" what the "natural or physical causes" of the epidemic were. "It is not yet ascertained, and perhaps never will be." As for the "moral" cause, it was "sin unrepented of, no doubt." The best way to prevent another epidemic was to "let the legislature enact suitable laws for the suppression of vice and immorality."(9) Defenders of the theatre did not try to enlist the support of the city's scientific minds. They replied with constitutional arguments, interestingly not based on the recently ratified Bill of Rights, but on the provision against ex post facto laws abridging contracts. The managers of the New Theatre had hired actors in England and it would be unconstitutional to close them down because then they could not honor those contracts.(10) The pro-theater forces, however, kept the theatres open because they could out vote Quaker and rural members in the legislature.(11) Blaming the epidemic on the city's immorality was not beyond secular writers. In the introduction to his instant history of the epidemic which was out in book form on November 14, Mathew Carey described the boom times of the city, replete with high rents and "alarming" luxury, and allowed that few "will pretend to deny that something was wanting to humble the pride of a city, which was running in full career, to the goal of prodigality and dissipation."(12) This did not differ much from Rev. Helmuth's analysis. He recalled the throngs who went to Rickett's Circus. Then "after such a merry, sinful summer, by the just judgment of God, a most mournful autumn followed." The dying poor were brought to the vacated circus and the place once filled with "clappings of levity, was now filled with the lamentations and groans of the dying." God was trying to teach the city a lesson.(13) Rush was careful to begin his history of the epidemic with a short account of the weather and diseases that preceded it. The scientific stakes were too high to pander to religious feeling. However, uncharacteristically, Rush was not quickly in print to defend his position. In his book, Carey continued his attack on Rush's rotting coffee theory. Carey blamed the privateer Sans Culottes and her prize the Flora. The privateer's "filth was emptied at a wharf between Arch and Race Streets," and dead bodies were seen taken off the ships.(14) An exchange began that became characteristic of almost every succeeding epidemic. James Vanuxem, who owned the Flora, asserted that no one on her nor on the Sans Culottes had been sick. The ships had come from Britain and France respectively, not the West Indies. It was true that a body had been removed from the Flora on July 27, but that Frenchman had been boarding on Water Street, where he got the fever. After being kicked out of his boarding house, he had come to Vanuxem's wharf, and was placed on the Flora's deck where he died in the night.(15) Drs. Currie and Cathrall countered Vanuxem's letter with proof that the fever came from the Sans Culottes, Flora, or the Amelia. Every crewman of the Amelia, which came from Haiti, arrived sick; and Cathrall had treated one of the crew from the Sans Culottes, which had captured several other ships who had crew members with yellow fever. The doctors demonstrated how Mrs. Parkinson, Cathrall's first fever patient who died August 6, could have gotten the disease from a sick Frenchman. The evidence was conclusive: just as in 1762, the epidemic had come from the West Indies.(16) In rebuttal Dr. James Mease pointed out that every seaman who got the fever had been exposed to the rotting coffee. Plus it was insulting to the late port physician, Hutchinson, to think that he would have let any sick seamen or passengers get into the port.(17) Another writer reminded that Rush first recognized the epidemic and developed the best treatment, so it was best to wait for his promised proof for the local origins of the disease.(18) At the end of October the governor had asked the College of Physicians what caused the epidemic and how to prevent another. In mid-November the College, from which Rush had resigned, endorsed the importation theory. There was no evidence that yellow fever had ever been generated in the city or state, "but there have been frequent instances of its having been imported." They thought it had come to the city in some vessels after the middle of July. Quarantines could prevent future epidemics.(19) Although challenged by his erstwhile colleagues, still Rush hung fire. Rush sought the advice of friends. Treasury official Samuel Meredith urged him not to publish his theory. Bishop William White and Federalist lawyer William Lewis thought he should. Tench Coxe, a Treasury official and land speculator, begged him to at least delay his pamphlet until after Congress convened.(20) Rush had never stinted in his efforts to promote Philadelphia.(21) He well knew as he developed his "proofs" that they did not particularly indict Philadelphia. Still he waited until the city was truly back to normal, after the President moved back on November 30 and Congress convened on December 2. Meanwhile Rush assured politicians who asked that "a greater degree of health had never prevailed in this city than at present."(22) Rush presented his proofs in a long letter to Dr. Redman, written on December 7 and published the 11th. Admitting that both sides of the controversy failed to appreciate the complexity of etiological factors, it behooves us to appreciate how each side framed the debate. The importationist focused on the particular moment of the first infection of the city and suggested traditional, seemingly feasible remedies. Rush recognized the epidemic as evidence that the nation had entered a period where threats of death en mass would become commonplace. Prevention required comprehensive reform of the environment and life styles. There was nothing revolutionary in this. Rush was maintaining the gains of 18th century medical thinkers, and not jettisoning them to assuage the colonial and commercial mentalities. He remained true to Cullen's emphasis on the environment and examined as best he could whether similar environmental conditions elsewhere caused a similar epidemic. He went back to basics. Yellow fever was endemic to the West Indies where, all authorities agreed, it was produced by "vegetable putrefaction." Since "the same causes (under like circumstances) must always produce the same effect," and since Philadelphia's summer had been of tropical intensity, putrefying vegetables near Water Street could have engendered a disease of tropical intensity.(23) To prove his point Rush showed that fevers of the same intensity as that in Philadelphia were found that sickly season in other parts of the country where ships from the West Indies didn't land and refugees from Philadelphia didn't flee. An old student in Caroline County, Maryland, saw fevers there more "obstinate and inflammatory" than usual, with head pains and black and yellow vomit, including a man "in a laughing delirium," who "died in about five minutes laughing to the last." A correspondent in Dover, Delaware, wrote of an epidemic of "bilious colic... unprecedented in the medical records or popular traditions of this country." A doctor in Connecticut thought 33 fevers in Wethersfield near Hartford were "analogous" to the fevers in Philadelphia.(24) Philadelphia's contagion was most deadly because of the greater concentration of putrefaction along the docks. The rotting coffee increased that to a level which allowed the deadly epidemic to begin, and the disease spread just as the stench of the rotting coffee was blown down streets and alleys. The annals of medicine were filled with similar situations. Putrefied potatoes killed 14 in Tortola, West Indies, "vast quantities of cabbage thrown in a heap" killed many in Oxford, England. Rush dismissed the recently published arguments of two French doctors, Nassy and Robert, that blamed diet and greasy, dirty skin obstructing perspiration, for causing the disease.(25) "Without the matrix of putrid vegetable matters," Rush insisted, "there can no more be a bilious, or yellow fever generated amongst us, than there can be vegetables without earth, water, or air." Rush did not deny that in rare cases, as in 1762, an epidemic could begin from yellow fever brought to the port by a sick sailor from the West Indies. But isolated yellow fever cases were common every year in Philadelphia, produced by "active but limited miasmata." Rush argued that establishing that fact did not harm the city. "While the cause of a malignant fever is obvious to the senses, it will be easy to guard against." To deny the senses and the dictates of conscience would hazard "the lives of millions that are yet unborn." He recalled the campaign he led to cover Dock Creek which when done added much to the health of the city. Far better than exciting the fear that any ship from the West Indies could desolate the city would be to know that the city was safe as long as it was kept clean.(26) Rush's own nascent medical theory also influenced his investigation. His experience with yellow fever seemed to confirm his theory that all fevers were gradations of the same disease. Yellow fever filled out his spectrum of disease. It made sense that the worsening environment engendered a higher grade of bilious fever instead of the typical bilious fever. The modern bias is to lend a more sympathetic ear to the College's arguments. Yellow fever is a specific disease. But both sides failed to prove a source for the disease. The importationist's mechanism for the disease's spread came close to conceding Rush his point. In his account of the epidemic Currie explained that refugees from the city did not spread the fever to the people they saw in the countryside, because air deprived of oxygen, found only in the city, was necessary for the spread of the contagion.(27) Rush's mephitic matrix of environmental causes seemed to get to the fundamental problem. The program of action urged by the importationists was little more than more vigorous enforcement of one of the oldest preventative measures known to civilization, quarantine. In a public letter to a state legislator Rush amplified his call to civic action: the docks and wharves should be cleaned and all "offal matters... carefully removed from gardens, yards, and cellars." During dry weather the streets should be washed with the fire engines until water could be brought in for that purpose from the soon to be completed Delaware and Schuylkill canal (a project on which work had been continuing that summer.) Trees should be planted to "absorb impure air," exhale fresh air and cool the city with shade.(28) Rush stirred the blood of enlightened folk. Rush was wrong, but since Currie could not prove himself right and no one would accurately prove an etiology even similar to that of yellow fever's for another hundred years, it bears noting that Rush's mistake was more useful to society. To suggest that yellow fever was a specific disease imported from the West Indies was to suggest that 4000 people died from a quirk of nature that likely won't happen again, especially if more precautions are taken, for another 30 years. Rush had that thoroughly modern anxiety: if 4,000 people die in one city in three months, then something is horribly wrong and what happened must be understood in all its ramifications and there must be fundamental changes to protect all towns similarly situated. Rush did not create a public health movement. Uninfluenced by Rush, officials in New York City made civic cleanliness one of their lines of defense against yellow fever.(29) The idea that filth caused and spread disease was long standing. Rush's contribution was the sense of anxiety, a daring display of scientifically based doom saying. Yellow fever had not only struck in 1762 and 1793. Rush discovered that there was some cases of yellow fever in the city every year, and another epidemic a clear and present danger. In January Rush began seeing the symptoms of yellow fever, "particularly puking of bile, dark-colored stools, and a yellow eye." Dr. Griffitts told him of a patient with yellow skin. In February he bled John Coxe who had pneumonia and found his blood "dissolved" like the blood of yellow fever victims.(30) The College stoutly denied that the rumors of yellow fever had any basis.(31) Rather than raise an alarm, Rush merely pointed out to students that Sydenham taught that just such a similarity of symptoms in diseases succeeding an epidemic should occur. Rush however did not emit any calming reports. Alarms, he thought, inspired the citizens to clean-up the city, which was all for the good.(32) Modern critics point to Rush's infatuation with Sydenham as his downfall, the inspiration that placed him on the slippery slope that led to such ludicrous conclusions. Lester King, on the whole a most sympathetic writer on pre-modern medicine, has no patience for Rush, and while recognizing that Sydenham is in the scientific tradition, displays little patience for him either.(33) This reflects King's inability to see any validity in a medical system based not on physiology and morbid anatomy but on epidemic diseases. To him Sydenham is notable chiefly for clinical observation, for example, he made the first clinical description of measles and distinguished it from smallpox.(34) Rush admired Sydenham for entirely different reasons. At about the time his letter to Redman was published, Rush began his medical school lectures. Over 52 years later, one of his students, Charles Caldwell, recalled Rush's first lecture as "a performance of deep and touching interest, and never... to be forgotten." Rush described the "terrible sweep" of the pestilence, his dejection at the failure of his cures, the joy of finding a successful remedy, and his persecution by the College of Physicians. Caldwell remembered that Rush had been "sufficiently sarcastic and trenchant" in ridiculing his enemies.(35) The topic of the lecture was actually Sydenham. He explained to his students that Sydenham produced a complete revolution in medicine, which, involved in its consequences a new era in the life and happiness of the human race.(36) In investigating the character of an obscure epidemic, Sydenham took a retrospect of the epidemics which preceded it. He reviewed the remedies which had been used in them with success, and applied them to the reigning disease, and thus acquired his knowledge of the nature of the plague. It had been preceded by pleurisies, quinsies, and inflammatory pestilential fevers, all of which had yielded to plentiful bloodletting. He perceived that the constitution of the air, which produced these diseases, was not changed, He applied therefore the remedy of copious bleeding to the plague, and if its efficacy was not universally successful, it was owing to the prejudices which were excited against it, by his contemporary physicians.(37) Rush added that "it is our duty to live in peace with all men, but when this cannot be effected, but at the expense of truth, and the lives of our fellow creatures, our obligations to preserve peace with all men, are canceled and destroyed."(38) As we have seen, this was not how Rush developed his therapies, and we can question why he so avidly sought justification from a source over 100 years old. What he found in Sydenham was decisiveness in an atmosphere of crisis. Boerhaave's and Cullen's management of disease did not serve any more. Rush explained to his students that Sydenham took treatment of acute disease out of hands of nature.(39) In his recommendation of bleeding in the plague, he advised that it should be copious or not used at all, "either take the cure wholly out of hands of nature, or leave her wholly to her own operations."(40) The emphasis on the constitution of the atmosphere and the pervasive influence of the reigning epidemic were indeed steps backward, and Rush recognized them as such. But they reflected the reality of life in Philadelphia in December 1793, and at the same time provided a framework for Rush's own pet theory that most fevers were gradations of one fundamental disease. Historians impatient with all three theories demonstrate their misunderstanding of the scientific process. In his discussion of the contributions of the French doctor Broussais, who like Rush believed in one disease and copious bleeding, Foucault rightly points out the necessity for decisive destruction of the 18th century classification of diseases to make way for the germ theory of disease.(41) Believing that people died because doctors paid more attention to Cullen than to symptoms and environmental changes, Rush destroyed Cullen's work in order to allow a fresh look a fevers. Rush was not alone in lecturing about the epidemic. How appealing he was is evident from Kuhn's doomed effort to regain standing among students well aware that he had fled the disease. Kuhn tried in vain to deflect the applause for Rush with a brand of cynicism that usually appealed to students. He told how Dr. Young of ten and ten fame killed himself with that murderous dose. Kuhn insisted that mortality was greatest among those profusely bled and purged, and alluded to a German druggist who kept track.(42) Rush would soon have testimony from Mr. Keihmle that endorsed bleeding and purging. The druggist only lost 47 out of 501 patients.(43) The crucial difference between Rush and Kuhn was that the latter talked about the epidemic that had ravaged the city but a few months before as a freak of nature, a thing of the past. Rush invited every medical student to be a sentinel. His monumental account of the epidemic was, in its simplest terms, a guide to the anticipated hazards of the coming summer. While much is made of Rush the theorist, that was not the point of this work. His previously published ideas on etiology were elaborated upon in the book, but what immediately impresses the modern reader is the richness of detail. The bias was to be inclusive, not conclusive. At first glance the man setting out to simplify medicine is nowhere to be seen. Rush listed three causes of "indirect debility" that predisposed one to the disease: fatigue, heat and intemperance; then there were five causes of "direct debility" that excited the fever: fear, grief, cold, sleep, and immoderate evacuations;(44) then he listed the "history" of symptoms in the blood vessels, liver and brain, stomach and bowels, secretions and excretions, nervous system, senses and appetites, lymphatic and glandular system, skin and blood.(45) The fever affected patients in three different ways. In some it produced coma, languor, sighing, yawning and a weak pulse; in others, pains, delirium, vomiting, heat, thirst, quick pulse with remissions in the fever; in many "the contagion acted so feebly as not to confine them to their beds or houses."(46) Statistics were rudimentary, seemingly done more for effect than to prove anything. All criticisms leveled at mercury during the epidemic were unfounded, Rush insisted, because "hundreds who took it declared they had never taken so mild a purge."(47) As for his bleeding being too copious he did not "lose a single patient whom I bled seven times or more."(48) There was no sense of statistics forcing detail to be sorted out much less discarded as not relevant. But why should he edit himself. Medical works were written for practitioners in an era when practice was a constant struggle. The contribution of Rush's book to the literature was considerable as he wrote about a disease about which there was relatively little written. The details Rush provided about the effects of purging, blood letting, blisters, cold air, cold water, drinks, diet, etc., all rich in particulars, broke new ground. The most interesting form of medical observation then and now is the case study. In some previous works he had included case studies.(49) But during the epidemic he faced a crisis, constantly on call and himself getting weaker. To establish a reality to his observations as compelling as that of the case study and autopsy, Rush had to violate one of the canons of scientific writing. In discussing symptoms and cures, and in some cases causes of the disease, Rush included the names of the patients. Rush discussed Hutchinson's obstinacy,(50) Samuel Powel's dying smile,(51) and quoted personal letters that documented Mrs. William Smith's profound depression.(52) Joseph Coates bled from his left eye;(53) Dr. Fisher forgot everything that happened during his six days of fever, etc.(54) Ethical considerations aside, that approach added some powerful new dimensions to his book, giving it a social context that many other medical books loss by trying to appear scientific. It also increased the heroic aura of the author. It made the conclusion of his book, which Rush subtitled "A narrative of the state of the body and mind of the author, during the prevalence of the fever," not only fitting, but an argument for the redeeming value of science. Rush described a cause as much as he described a disease. The attitude he took in his medical school lectures was sustained. He included all the controversial letters and articles of his colleagues and his replies at the time and further observations on their mistakes. And he included rallying cries as it were. Statistical evidence forms the telling points of modern medical writing. In Rush what the sympathetic reader grabs onto are the analogies that cut complexity down to understandable size. Systems that multiplied the number of diseases were "as repugnant to truth in medicine, as polytheism is to truth in religion."(55) To describe why the disease's great force mocked the stimulating remedies used in treating lesser fevers, Rush explained that yellow fever "resembles a man struggling beneath a load of two hundred weight, who is only able to lift one hundred and seventy five...." Trying to increase the man's strength with tonics was of no avail. One had to slowly decrease the load, i.e. abstract the stimulus of the disease.(56) Fueled by such rhetorical powers over nature, Rush was not shy in making claims and charting the revolution in medicine. He estimated that his methods saved the lives of 6,000 people.(57) Yet God did more than provide a remedy for one fever. He provided a system so successful that medicine in the future would "consist more in a new application of established principles, and in new modes of exhibiting old medicines, than in the discovery of new theories, or of new articles of the materia medica."(58) He pushed on and suggested the implications of that. Bush Hill had complete provisions and country air, still 448 out of 807 patients died.(59) In the next epidemic, people had to prescribe for themselves. "At the expense of an immense load of obloquy, I have addressed my publications to the people. The appeal though hazardous, in the present state of general knowledge in medicine, has succeeded.... (T)he pride and formalities of medicine, as far as they relate to this disease, are now completely discarded in our city, as the deceptions of witchcraft were, above a century ago." It only remained to increase the general knowledge of medicine. "The time must and will come, when... the general use of calomel, jalap, and the lancet, shall be considered among the most essential articles of the knowledge and rights of man.... All the knowledge that is necessary to discover when blood letting is proper, might be taught to a boy or girl of twelve years old in a few hours." As soon as yellow fever makes its appearance, a description of all symptoms which are the precursors to the disease should be published and people directed to purge and bleed immediately upon the onset of symptoms.(60) Rush's achievement was to make a local tragedy a national alarm, a quite proper extrapolation with any infectious disease. The onslaught of such a deadly epidemic in the most civilized square mile in the country forced a rethinking. Rush made Philadelphia's particular crisis, a passage for all Americans. The deadly fever was but the worst form of the common, nagging, debilitating fevers that chilled and shook all the milk and honey tomorrows, the promise of America. In conquering yellow fever he found the key to conquering the endemic discomforts that confronted all Europeans in the new land. And as was only proper in a universe created and continued through divine inspiration, there was a moral lesson implicit in his discovery. The land dealer's paradigm of plenty, the pursuit of happiness through engorgement, had to give way to denial, depletion, and enforced starvation to the point of letting the stuff of life drain out of the body. Here was the Spirit of '76 that encouraged self-denial applied to the hazards that every change in season brought. Prevention depended on communal discipline directed toward scrupulous cleanliness and morality. Rush's book was out in early June.(61) The next sickly season was fast approaching. Rush and his contemporaries recognized that cock-sure as his book was, it proved nothing unless it predicted the future. Go to Chapter 10 1. Powell p xiii; like most modern commentators Foster, Jenkins and Toogood, following Powell, react favorably to the treatment used at Bush Hill. However, Deveze's principal strategy, raising blisters to treat fevers, a procedure Powell didn't note, seems as daunting as purging and bleeding. 2. Applying this thesis outside the American context is more difficult. In The Birth of the Clinic, Foucault discusses the work of many French doctors who knew little about Rush and his work, although to my knowledge no one has examined what influence the American yellow fever experience might have had on French medical practices and research. Rush did correspond with at least one French doctor, see Butterfield pp 980-1, and incidently claimed to read French medical books with greater pleasure than British, and lauded French doctors for not adhering to one system in medicine. The new look to medicine that this group of French doctors created is decidedly more relevant to the discoveries, principally in France, that formed the basis of the germ theory and modern pathology. However Rush's superior skill as a communicator allowed him to create a body of work that when put in the proper context grows on one as genuinely modern in its motivation. European and American attitudes to medicine are different. The contrast, for example, between the American and French approach to the isolation of the HIV virus mirrors the differences between Rush and the French pathologists 200 years before. In Rush and Gallo we see the researcher as the heroic dragon slayer. In the early pathologists and the Pasteur Institute we see a glorification of the power inherent in a group pursuing a problem with a shared sense of the logical way to go about it. To be sure, Americans share the same logic and create the same group ethos, but we glorify the hero. 3. Butterfield p 730n. 4. Anon. to Rush Nov. 23, 1793, Rush Papers. 5. McConnell to Rush Oct. 26 & 29, 1793 Rush papers. 6. Butterfield p 727. 7. Fed Gaz Nov 2, 1793. 8. Evans #25427 9. Gaz. of U.S. Dec. 30, 1793. 10. Amer. Daily Adv. Dec. 16 & 18, 1793. 11. Pernick p 572 argues that partisan politics informed the religious reaction to the epidemic. He makes much of three articles in Freneau's National Gazette as putting a Republican spin on the attacks on the theatre. For a contemporary view that Freneau was writing a "burlesque" to embarrass fundamentalist rhetoric inspired by the epidemic see Q in Amer. Daily Adv. Jan. 8, 1794. For cooperation between Republican leaders and the theatre managers on a charity event during the controversy see Phil. Gaz. Mar. 25, 1794. For votes in the legislature see Journals of House of Reps., Evans # 27480, pp 334-335. 12. Carey p 10. 13. Helmuth p 15. 14. Carey p 19. 15. Fed. Gaz. Nov. 18, 1793. 16. Fed. Gaz. Nov. 19, 1793. 17. Gen. Adv. Dec. 10, 1793. 18. Ind. Gaz. Nov. 23, 1793. 19. Rush 1793 p 146. 20. Rush Notebook Nov. 22, 1793. 21. Hawke p 383. 22. Beckley to Madison Nov. 20, 1793, Rutland. 23. "Inquiry into the Origin of the late Epidemic Fever in Philadelphia in a Letter to Dr. John Redman," 1793. 24. Ibid., for original letters see Rush Papers. 25. Nassy, p 17; Robert letter Fed. Gaz. Dec. 1793. 26. Rush letter to Redman. 27. Currie 1794 pp 8-9. 28. Amer. Daily Adv. Dec. 19, 1793. 29. NY Health Committee Minutes 1793, NYHS. 30. Rush 1815 vol 3 p102. 31. Phil. Gaz. Jan. 26, 1794. 32. Rush 1815 vol. 3. pp 102-102. 33. King (1) pp 147ff. 34. King (2) pp 113ff. 35. Caldwell p 183. 36. Rush 1977 p 42. 37. Ibid p 46-47. 38. Ibid p 60. 39. Ibid. p 48. 40. Ibid. p 50. 41. Foucault p 192. 42. Kuhn lecture. 43. Rush 1793 p. 321. 44. Rush 1793 pp 28-36. 45. Ibid. pp 40-81. 46. Ibid. p 82. 47. Ibid. p 249. 48. Ibid. p 275. 49. Rush 1793 (a) pp 212ff. 50. Ibid. p 306. 51. Ibid. p 78. 52. Ibid. pp 313-4. 53. Ibid. p 47. 54. Ibid. p 64. 55. Ibid. p 92. 56. Ibid. pp 282-3. 57. Ibid. p 319. 58. Ibid. p 284. 59. Ibid. pp 319-20. 60. Ibid. pp 328-332. 61. The prefatory letter is dated June; sale of the book was first advertised in April 4, 1793 Phil. Gaz.
Definition of tax treaty Definition of tax treaty com/definition/tax-treaty. However, he or she would only owe $1,500 if the dividend income was classified as qualified dividends. Because of this provision, there have been differences in opin-Treaty definition: A treaty is a written agreement between countries in which they agree to do a particular \| Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples•Article 1(2) of the 2006 U. Oct 24, 2016 · However, many of Canada’s tax treaties provide a reduced rate in the case of a “periodic pension payment”, usually at 15%. These tax savings can be reinvested to generate even more dividend income the next year. 8KWhat is tax treaty? Definition and meaning - InvestorGuide. Aug 23, 2016 · TAX TREATY meaning - TAX TREATY definition - TAX TREATY explanation. In the case where a taxpayer is a simultaneous resident of both the U. 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It will state whether the specific income is only taxed in Saudi Arabia; only taxed in your home country, or taxed in both countries. Apr 09, 2016 · An individual who is ‘treaty resident’ in the other country is entitled to make claims to relief from United Kingdom tax as provided for under the agreement on the basis that they are a …lower than the tax rate that would otherwise apply. . htmltax treaty - noun an international agreement that deals with taxes, especially taxes by several countries on the same individuals What is tax treaty? Definition and meaning - InvestorGuide. Unfortunately, another tax law enacted December 22, 2017, levies a new tax "global intangible low-taxed income" (referred to as the GILTI tax) on foreign corporations owned by US persons, which may tend in part to offset the benefits intended by the enactment of the transition tax. comwww. A tax law must be approved by the Treasury Department. Most tax treaties will conform to the OECD Model Treaty and typically will state how the various forms of income are taxed. IRS “non-resident alien” status vs. Tax relief …May 10, 2016 · If the foreign person qualifies for benefits under an income tax treaty with the U. Following the passage of tax reform in late 2017, here are the 2019 cutoffs for …Oct 26, 2017 · It also observed that Article 5(2) provides for an inclusive definition of a PE and enlarges the definition given under Article 5(1) of the tax treaty and, therefore, Article 5(2) is not required to fulfil the requirement laid under Article 5(1) of the tax treaty. comTo be effective, the interpretation of tax treaties must be acceptable to the authorities and the Courts of both Contracting States. A tax bill must always be signed by the President to become law. tax treaty definition of “residence”. , the withholding tax rate may be reduced. d. See more. e. b. c. This reads in Article 4: For the purposes of this Convention, the term "resident of a Contracting State" means any person who, under the laws of that State, is liable to tax therein by reason of his domicile, residence, place of management, place of incorporation,In the absence of a definition in tax treaties, the term “beneficial owner” should be interpreted in accordance with the domestic law of the country that applies the treaty (i Definition of tax treaty 1jlD \| z3pM \| 0Gef \| a1OY \| MwJU \| H8bi \| MWL8 \| bTwd \| Fsv9 \| 9Hjh \| NbgN \| cLQj \| 5GYH \| KQeW \| j4ZW \| WNZj \| dhrd \| oKJc \| EPcD \| Korw \|
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Worlds Most Powerful Extreme Truck A great documentary about the worlds most extreme & powerful trucks ever seen. A truck (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, called a lorry in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Indian Subcontinent) is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile. Commercial trucks can be very large and powerful, and may be configured to mount specialized equipment, such as in the case of fire trucks and concrete mixers and suction excavators. Modern trucks are largely powered by diesel engines, although small to medium size trucks with gasoline engines exist in the US. In the European Union, vehicles with a gross combination mass of up to 3,500 kilograms (7,716 lb) are known as light commercial vehicles, and those over as large goods vehicles. Other videos below
Perfect is the Enemy of Good Some students are patient and others are very impatient. Some students are diligent and others want to communicate as much as possible and as quickly as possible. The ones I see improve most quickly are the impatient ones. Why? Hungry for language Impatient students are hungry for language and they will try to soak up as much as they can in any way possible. Books, radio, podcasts, DVDs, making friends, joining organisations. Urge to communicate Impatient students need to communicate and this need comes from their heart. They want to talk to people and use the language they are learning and share the passion they have in their lives with someone. They are not ‘good at studying’ Impatient students don’t study grammar with books very often unless someone has told them that their grammar stops them being understood. They don’t sit down with books they don’t enjoy. They don’t always do their homework but they come to lessons prepared to talk. They don’t care about being perfect, they care about being good enough. On they other hand, students who try to be perfect and diligent usually take a long time to speak, but their grammar is perfect. They are nervous about mistakes. However, if you make a mistake, nobody will cry; in fact, nobody cares about the mistake but you. You can’t communicate outside the classroom by taking one minute or more per sentence because people will walk away. Be good enough. Perfect is an unrealistic goal. Native speakers are not perfect all of the time. Try to be as natural as possible and be understood, because what is language for? It is for communication. If you want to be quicker at speaking here are some things to try: • reading aloud; • mimicking television shows, DVDs and podcasts (using the pause and rewind buttons if you need to use them); and • talking to yourself, perhaps even recording yourself.
10 Easy Ways to Go Green \| Teen Ink 10 Easy Ways to Go Green May 15, 2008 By Sarah Wheatley, West Jordan, UT 10 Easy Ways to Go Green Turn off your computer when you’re done surfing the web and IMing your friends. It can save your family almost $100 dollars a year in electricity bills if you turn off you computer every night before bed. Switching your computer to “sleep” or “hibernate” mode also saves power. Go home for lunch instead of going out for lunch. Fast food places always have paper and plastic bags, napkins, cups, and utensils that come with your food. These never get recycled. By going home for lunch you can avoid wasting these products and also save a buck! Eating lunch at home is a lot cheaper than going out and it’s healthier for you too. Don’t let the water run when your brushing your teeth or washing your hands. Also try to cut a couple minutes off your shower time every morning. It might feel nice to stand in the hot shower a few extra minutes, but you’re really just wasting water and energy. Refill your water bottles and soda bottles. I see lots of people at my school with Propel, Gatorade, Vitamin Water, Pepsi, and Coke bottles everyday. I doubt very many people recycle them, or even reuse them. It wastes fuel to ship these water bottles and even though they are 100% recyclable, millions of them end up at garbage dumps every year. When you get done slurping your Gatorade, try refilling it at the drinking fountain and drink water for the rest of the week. Water is better for you anyways and it doesn’t cost you a cent! Remember to recycle the bottle when you’re done with it also. Carpool, walk, or ride the bus to school. I know it’s not as cool to walk or catch a ride to school, but it helps to lower emissions that cause global warming, and leaves some extra dough in your pocket since you won’t have to fill up on gas as often. It’s also safer when you let someone else take the wheel for a change. Turn off the lights when no one is in the room. It’s just a big waste. Lighting makes up 11% percent of your parent’s energy bill, so be sure to flip the switch when you leave the room. Throw away you trash. It surprises me how much people litter. It might just be a wrapper here, or an empty cup there, but it sure adds up. It is bad for wildlife and releases toxic chemicals when it breaks down. It also really ugly! Do everyone a favor and put your trash where it belongs. Donate your old clothes to places like Deseret Industries or Plato’s Closet. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 10 million tons of textile waste went to U.S. landfills in 2003. Help someone else out by giving them some hand-me-downs and help protect the environment. Recycle your old school assignments. It’s almost the end of the school year and you probably have a lot of old school assignments and papers to throw out. Even though it might be more satisfying to rip everything up into little shreds, try putting them in the recycle bin instead. Drive the least amount possible. Coordinate your errands into one trip. It saves gas money and cuts back the amount of pollution and carbon dioxide emissions in the air. We all know how smoggy the air in Salt Lake can get, so do your part to make our air quality better. This will certify that the above work is completely original. Sarah Wheatley Similar Articles This article has 0 comments. Smith Summer Parkland Speaks Campus Compare
Tunel de Guajataca – Isabela, Puerto Rico - Atlas Obscura Isabela, Puerto Rico Tunel de Guajataca This former sugarcane transport tunnel is now a portal to a lovely beach. This Puerto Rican tunnel is often called El Tunel Negro (The Black Tunnel), as its curved bearing permits for very little light to pass through. However, travelers who aren’t scared of the dark have a lot to look forward to - it opens onto a spectacular beach. The Guajataca Tunnel was constructed in the first years of the 20th century, as the American Railroad Company of Puerto Rico made a rapid push to expand transportation infrastructure. Puerto Rico had been annexed to the United States under the Treaty of Paris in 1898, and the Americans were eager for quick delivery of cheap sugarcane. However, in order for (tariff-free) exports to move at the desired pace, there would have to be a significant expansion of the national railway system. The Guajataca Tunnel was part of a larger construction that would eventually connect San Juan in the north to Ponce in the south. At around 514 feet long, it is the larger of two tunnels (joined by a steel viaduct) connecting the towns of Isabela and Quebradillas through the Guajataca River Canyon. Trains carrying both passengers and sugarcane rumbled through it for nearly a century. Although now only a paved walking path runs through El Tunel Negro, it remains significant as both a feat of engineering and a marker of a moment of political transition. It was declared a historical monument in 2000. Know Before You Go The tunnel lies between the towns of Quebradillas and Isabelas Guajataca Beach. From PR-2 follow the signs to Guajataca Beach. Community Discussion
Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a frequent reader of Baring the Aegis who had seen my post on the small packages of the ancient statues and the post about taboos where nudity also plays an important role, and had begun to wonder about nudity at large in ancient Hellas, and specifically in a religious setting. They also wondered how I feel about nudity in modern Hellenismos. I would like to share my--slightly edited--reply with the readers of this blog, because others might be wondering about the ancient Hellenic attitude towards nakedness as well. ‘Naked’, gymnos, in the ancient Hellenic language has a double meaning: it means both nudity and ‘to go without chiton’, which complicates drawing conclusions from the written word. As such, most of the information gathered on this topic is based upon artwork, with a few exceptions. The ancient Hellenes had a very complicated view of nudity, and I don’t think I did that view justice back in 2012. Before I get to the religious part, I feel I must look at every day life first. I want to start with ancient Hellenic clothing, which varied for males and females, although both only wore one or two rectangular pieces of cloth. Undergarments of any kind were unknown to the ancient Hellenes, and they were thus naked under them. Men throughout the whole of the ancient Hellenic time period wore either a chiton and himation, only a chiton, or only the himation. Socrates is famous for wearing only the latter, and so is Agesilaus, King of Sparta, and Phocion, who Plutarch joked about in ‘Phocion’, saying: “His countenance was so composed that scarcely was he ever seen by any Athenian either laughing or in tears. He was rarely known, so Duris has recorded, to appear in the public baths, or was observed with his hand exposed outside his cloak, when he wore one. Abroad, and in the camp, he was so hardy in going always thin clad and barefoot, except in a time of excessive and intolerable cold, that the soldiers used to say in merriment, that it was like to be a hard winter when Phocion wore his coat.“ There were very strict social rules about what was considered proper and improper for men when wearing only one of the two layers of clothing, and even when wearing both. Under no circumstances was the clothing to slide up above the knee during social affairs. It seems that any setting where nudity was not required--something we will come to below--nudity was forbidden quite strictly. Partial exposure like that was considered not only improper but irreverent, again, something I must explain later. Women, whose style of clothing varied greatly throughout the ancient Hellenic time period, had to hold fast to different social rules concerning nudity. Statues and frescos show that in very archaic Knossos, for example, highly placed women wore garments which proudly exposed their breasts. When this style faded, others took its place. For their clothing, women in ancient Hellas often wore translucent materials, which left very little to the imagination. Many ancient writers, including Lucian, Petronius, and Seneca write about this, Seneca most tellingly: “I see silk clothes, if they can be called clothes, which can protect neither the body nor the modesty.” [De Beneficiis, 7.9.5.] It seems that women, while not nude, displayed a nakedness in the streets that was completely accepted. The social rules concerning these displays of the body depended on the intent of the nudity: either natural or erotic. Erotic nudity had no function in public, and was heavily frowned upon. Natural nakedness went accepted. For ancient Hellenic men, a woman’s girdle holding in place her dress was much more erotic than seeing her breasts through the thin fabric of her clothing. Public nudity was not originally an Hellenic custom, but became one. From Thucydides’ ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’: Sports were a frequent platform of nudity: not only did males (and in Sparta and a few other choice city-states, females) who studied at the gymnasium practice sports and even their classes in the nude, there is evidence to support that the two genders did not hide their bodies from each other when women were permitted, and even that they wrestled each other while naked, showing that this type of nakedness was considered completely natural and accepted. Athenaeus records a Spartan custom of this, saying “The fashion, too, of Sparta is much praised, I mean that of displaying their maidens naked to their guests; and in the island of Chios it is a beautiful sight to go to the gymnasia and the race-courses, and to see the young men wrestling naked with the maidens, who are also naked.” [13, 566e] Sporting competitions were always in the nude. It seems that in antiquity, the athletes did wear something to hide their nether regions, but when this covering slipped off of a sprinter, and he tripped and fell to his death, any type of covering was forbidden. Married women, in most city states, (interestingly enough) were not allowed to watch sporting events, not even the major ones like to Olympics, although testimony Pindar (in Pythia) hints at the possibility that the Hellenic city-state of Cyrene allowed married women to watch. Maidens were more often allowed to view the games. Scholars pose that the distinction between maiden and married is made purely aesthetically: the ancient Hellenes valued beauty very much, and maidens were considered beautiful. They were virtuous and thus desirable. Married women were not to be seen as desirous; they were married. Before I come to the religious part of this longwinded tale, I must address two more points: bathing and the ancient Hellenic practice to either be completely dressed, or completely naked. Bathing, in ancient Hellas, had quite an interesting set of social rules attached to it, especially before the Peloponnesian war. ’Baths’, when referred to in ancient texts, unless otherwise specified, nearly always alluded to bathing in hot or warm water, as many bathing house offered. at least until the previously mentioned war, bathing in warm water was considered taboo for men. Warm water was for women; men were supposed to be a heartier breed and thus bathed in cold water. Aristophanes, in Clouds, forbids men from entering the baths, because they are baneful and effeminizing. From the writings of Plato, Demothenes, and Plutarch, we can see that this view was quite widespread (see Plutarch on Phocion above). For my last point before I get to religion, it must be said that the ancient Hellenes felt no shame about their body, quite the opposite, in fact. The ancient Hellenes took great pride in beauty, and displayed their bodies proudly. Especially young males were considered pleasing, as described in my post about the small packages of statues. Sexual organs of both sexes were considered not only natural, but sacred. Aidos (Αἰδώς) is a term (and Goddess) interpreted often as ‘shame’ or ‘modesty’, and linked to he displaying of a person’s genitals, but the term can also mean ‘awe’ and ‘reverence’. The ancient Hellenes were well aware that their sexual organs--when brought together in an intimate setting--produced children. As such, these body parts were treated with an almost religious reverence as the mystical tools of propagation. These instruments produced life, something definitely awe inspiring. This is also how the phallus became a religious symbol; it represents the inexhaustible fruitfulness of human nature and the gratitude that came with this understanding. Because sexual organs were considered somewhat sacred, covering them up--especially when otherwise naked--was considered impious, and so any socially acceptable situation where clothes were deemed cumbersome, unnecessary or impossible led to a state of complete nakedness. The ancient Hellenes took great pride in this fact, and to cover up one’s groin was considered barbaric. As Herodotos puts it so beautifully in his ‘Histories’: “For among the Lydians, and indeed among the barbarians generally, it is reckoned a deep disgrace, even to a man, to be seen naked. ” [1, 7-11] To conclude, nudity was generally accepted by the ancient Hellenes, although social rules had to be observed. Women rarely went completely uncovered in every day life, but displayed their bodies through their clothing. Men could cast off their clothing more readily. If either gender undressed, it was seen as irreverent to do so partly, and thus they appeared either fully clothed or naked. Partial nudity was frowned upon in almost all social settings, while full nudity was often accepted. Now, as for religious worship: there are definitely some instances where complete nudity became required. In other festivals, I would assume--based on the above--that nudity was allowed, if the person went completely uncovered. A few examples of rituals where we know nudity was included: • The young maidens who ‘played the bear’ to Artemis at the Brauronia are depicted naked at various stages of the ritual • Athenaeus describes a 'naked-boy dance' in relation to the cult of Dionysos: “The naked-boy-dance is like what is called the anapale among the ancients. For all the boys who dance it are naked, performing certain rhythmical movements and describing certain positions with the arms gently, so as to represent certain scenes in the wrestling-school during a wrestling-and-boxing match, but moving the feet in time to the music. Variations of it are the Oschophoric and the Bacchic, so that this dance also is traceable to the worship of Dionysus. Aristoxenus says that the ancients, practicing first the naked-boy-dance, proceeded into the pyrriche before entering the theatre.” • Arisophanes in ‘Clouds’ hints at this type of dance being performed during the Panathenaea as well: “But you, you teach the children of to-day to bundle themselves quickly into their clothes, and I am enraged when I see them at the Panathenaea forgetting Athene while they dance, and covering their tools with their bucklers.” • Stabo recorded the following example of public nudity at Acharaca in ancient Hellas: “On the road between Tralles and Nysa is a village of the Nysaeans, not far from the city Acharaca, in which is the Plutonium, to which is attached a large grove, a temple of Pluto and Proserpine, and the Charonium, a cave which overhangs the grove, and possesses some singular physical properties. The sick, it is said, who have confidence in the cures performed by these deities, resort thither, and live in the village near the cave, among experienced priests, who sleep at night in the open air, on behoof of the sick, and direct the modes of cure by their dreams. The priests invoke the gods to cure the sick, and frequently take them into the cave, where, as in a den, they are placed to remain in quiet without food for several days. Sometimes the sick themselves observe their own dreams, but apply to these persons, in their character of priests and guardians of the mysteries, to interpret them, and to counsel what is to be done. To others the place is interdicted and fatal. An annual festival, to which there is a general resort, is celebrated at Acharaca, and at that time particularly are to be seen and heard those who frequent it, conversing about cures performed there. During this feast the young men of the gymnasium, and the ephebi, naked and anointed with oil, carry off a bull by stealth at midnight, and hurry it away into the cave. It is then let loose, and after proceeding a short distance falls down and expires.” • Vase paintings and frescos of Dionysios’ festivals often have men and women dancing naked. • I’m sure I have read somewhere that Aphrodite’s worship was also sometimes conducted naked, but I simply can not find the reference again. Nudity was a part of ancient Hellenic religion, but not often a requirement. In most cases, clothes were cot considered a burden, so they remained on. In the case of Dionysian worship, clothes would hinder the ecstatic dances usually tied to them, so clothes were discarded. Functional nudity. That said, I have not found any references to festivals where public nudity was expressly forbidden. I come from a Neo-Pagan background and was quite accustomed to performing rituals in the nude. It was a big shift to go to clothed ritual for me, but it does seem fitting somehow. The ancient Hellenic viewpoint of functional nudity seems practical and a good standard to uphold. That said, I am not against nudity in Hellenic ritual at all, if agreed upon by all participants and the occasion warrants it. If you have a question for me, please, do not hesitate to contact me at the gmail address 'baring.the.aegis'.
What edX isn’t #edx on twitter What is edX? Using Smarty variables inside Javascript I looked for appropriate answers for this on the smarty site, and the resounding answer was escaping javascript’s {}s with {literal}’s Smarty template vars and Javascript functions How to use Javascript codes in template files? Access Smarty value with javascript They basically all say to do something like this: // $question_ids_json = ["1","2","3","4","5"] var question_ids = {/literal}{$question_ids_json}{literal}; So they want to put everything in a literal tag, and then basically escape that literal tag when smarty needs to be used. I didn’t like this, so I put the value in a hidden input and then just retrieved that input in the javascript, thereby keeping the js clean of smarty shenanigans: <input type="hidden" id="question_ids" value='{$question_ids_json}'/> //var question_ids = {$question_ids_json}; var question_ids = eval($('#question_ids').val()); But this is just a matter of personal preference. Gamificationating Education I’ve been hearing people talk about gamification ever since I entered academia as a workplace. At first I thought of it as a joke. I mean, obviously a joke. The problem is the minimal amount of success with it. People keep trying and failing. More to the point they talk about it but are unable to implement anything with confidence. I keep seeing conferences throwing forward the gamification buzz word, but nothing comes of it. Why aren’t people doing it? Why hasn’t it revolutionized education as some keep promising. The options for gamifying education are: • Make a game with educational content • Give badges or achievements for whatever • Leaderboards • Experience / Levels • Unlocking content The primary problem is people want to make entire games centered around their content. And that is a wonderful idea, except it requires people to build the initial content and add content. It would basically require someone who knows the content inside and out to design it properly. Same with unlocking content. Someone has to create that content. That will die out very fast unless you have a zealot very into it. Slime Forest is a perfect example of this. I was made aware of this project very early on and I LOVED it. It took a game from my childhood and made it all about learning japanese. This would have made a wonderful open source project, but it has a zealot behind it who wanted to make some cash, so good for him. Badges and achievements are fairly new for games, and only work on certain personalities, completionists. Leaderboards work for people who want to be the best at something, and want everyone else to know it. Experience / Levels is hard to qualify. What do you get experience for, what do you get when you level up… I used to be really into experts-exchange. That was the site that used to pop up whenever you googled a tech question. A simple forum that let people answer the questions and they would be rewarded points for their answer. This had leaderboards based on the points you got from answering the questions. The best part was everything was managed by the users. (The worst part was they tried to fool people into paying for it.) Stack Overflow took over this market probably because EE got too greedy. SO does have badges and tracks reputation points, but they don’t have topics with a list of the top 100 experts in that field. So it sort of has experience points and badges but no leaderboard. Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: . No Comments » Bootstrap Alerts with Backbone Views One of the nice things about Bootstrap is that it provides reusable HTML/CSS components for common tasks such as displaying buttons, tabs, forms, and alerts (among other things). The markup for an alert is very simple: <div class="alert alert-error"> <strong>Oops!</strong> Something went terribly wrong. A jQuery plugin that comes with Bootstrap is used for the close button. I found myself duplicating this markup in a Backbone.js project with various Underscore templates scattered around the view classes, so for the sake of DRYness, I decided to whip up a simple view to encapsulate the markup and behavior. Here’s the result: var AlertView = Backbone.View.extend({ className: 'alert fade in', alerts: ['success', 'error', 'info'], template: _.template([ '<a href="#" class="close">×</a>', '<%= message %>' initialize: function(options) { var message = options.msg \|\| ''; var alert = options.hasOwnProperty('alert') ? options.alert : 'info'; if(_.indexOf(this.alerts, alert) === -1) { throw new Error('Invalid alert: [' + alert + '] Must be one of: ' + this.alerts.join(', ')); this.alert = alert; this.message = message; render: function() { var output = this.template({ message: this.message }); alert(); // jquery plugin return this; AlertView.msg = function($el, options) { var alert = new AlertView(options); return alert; Now I can use it from my other views for simple alert messages like this: AlertView.msg(this.$el, { alert: 'error', msg: 'Something went terribly wrong.' Of course, it can still be improved with shortcut methods and general cleanup, but the goal is not to make it work for every possible alert, just the most common ones. Abstracting schemas for MySQL and Oracle with Yii Migrations Yii migrations are an interesting way to keep track of your database changes. I was originally looking for a tool that would abstract the schema SQL — with something like the Yii ActiveRecord — so I wouldn’t have to write duplicate code for Oracle and MySQL. I mean, that’s kind of the point of going with the PDO abstraction. So more than a few forum question/answers led me to Yii migration: I seriously have that page open 3 times in my tabs and I have read it top to bottom probably 20 times. I keep going back to it over and over hoping it will have more information. It’s just a little short on answers to all of my questions. As I said, all I wanted was a way to abstract the schema, so the original premise of “migrations” was a little different than what I was looking for, but it being the only non-custom option, I went forward with it. The point of migrations is to make sure the state of your database matches the revision of your code. So it’s sort of like its own hokey versioning system. As such, it doesn’t function as simply as I might like it. It’s not easy to focus on one migration if it’s not the last migration. Because the point of migrations is that you’re moving forward and editing a past migration would be like editing revision X without it effecting all of the future revisions. So it makes sense for what it is, it’s just awkward. For one the file structure HAS to include the timestamp. And it has to include that timestamp at the front of the filename, so autocompleting these migration filenames is a pain in the ass. One important thing they don’t talk about in the documentation is that the list of what’s been migrated is added automatically to your database via the “tbl_migrations” — and please remember the “s as it will insert it as lowercase, which could be annoying for Oracle users, though Yii seems to handle it “appropriately”. The only major hurdle here is dealing with autoincrement. The way this was dealt with was I created an Autoincrement class that I plopped in the migrations directory: This meant that I could just create the tables like so: class m120402_194059_Quizes extends CDbMigration public function up() $this->createTable('QUIZES', array( 'ID' => 'pk', 'COLLECTION_ID' => 'integer NOT NULL', 'TITLE' => 'string NOT NULL', 'DESCRIPTION' => 'string', 'VISIBILITY' => "integer NOT NULL", 'STATE' => 'string', 'SHOW_FEEDBACK' => 'integer', 'START_DATE' => 'datetime', 'END_DATE' => 'datetime', 'DATE_MODIFIED' => 'datetime', 'DELETED' => "integer NOT NULL", Autoincrement::up('QUIZES', Yii::app()->db->driverName); public function down() Autoincrement::down('QUIZES', Yii::app()->db->driverName); Writing a Style Guide I took a look at the style guides of all of the most popular frameworks. Yii Style Guide Codeigniter Style Guide Zend Style Guide Symfony Style Guide CakePHP Style Guide Yii is the simplest. They just tell you what should go in the Model, Controller and View. I actually believe that’s the best thing when thinking of a framework as a framework, since a framework shouldn’t be telling you how to write your code, and you should never be mixing your code within the framework. A framework is a tool, but it should be on the primary developer to decide on the style that’s right for them and their team. However, I do understand that most of these style guides are talking about their framework as a project, which of course it is There are a lot of topics to consider in a style guide. A lot of things popped up as I looked at the different style guides that I hadn’t even considered. File Names Class Names Method Names Method Definition Class and File Names Using Common Words Database Table Names Variable Names Member Visibility (Private / Protected) Control Structures The PHP Tag Comparing Return Values and Typecasting Logical Operators Debugging Code PHP Errors One File per Class Bracket and Parenthetic Spacing Localized Text One Statement per Line Strings (When to use Single or Double quotes) SQL Queries Default Function Arguments Associative Arrays Unit Tests Some of the style guides got so long I kind of got angry. Trying to enforce things like whitespace, logical operators or indentation is foolish. It’s just too much and it takes away from the things that are actually important. So what’s actually important? What’s important is what people are going to read. Nobody wants to read through a 30 page style guide, and they won’t. The best solution I’ve found is to have 2 style guides. The first, important style guide is to outline the very essential rules you want for your project. Try to keep it short enough to fit on one page so someone may actually read the whole thing. Then, if you choose, you can have a nitty gritty style guide that outlines how you want your variables named and if you’re an indent nazi. You can always refer back to the nitty gritty if someone is submitting code that you find repugnant. My style guide for Quizmo My nitty-gritty style guide for Quizmo Yii fixtures with Foreign Keys CDbException: CDbCommand failed to execute the SQL statement: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 2292 OCIStmtExecute: ORA-02292: integrity constraint (QUIZMO_DEV.FK_ANSWERS_QUESTIONS) violated – child record found (/web/quizmo/PDO_OCI-1.0/oci_statement.c:142). The SQL statement executed was: DELETE FROM “QUESTIONS” Totally annoying. Now I’m not one who has a ton of experience with foreign keys as most places seem to have relations with tables but never explicitly link them as such. So a FK just doesn’t let you add a record when the record it’s linking to doesn’t exist and won’t let you delete a record when there is some other record linking to it. The problem is I don’t think Yii thought about these when they did fixtures. They built in a way to deal with it, but it’s a little annoying. Let’s ignore the fact that all of my tables are in caps because I want this to work in Oracle without having to throw single quotes around everything all the time. Let’s take a look at the fixtures of a section of my tables in a project I’m working on right now. First I need an init.php in the fixture directory. This is called from /yii/framework/test/CDbFixtureManager.php public function prepare() $initFile=$this->basePath . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $this->initScript; foreach($this->getFixtures() as $tableName=>$fixturePath) So the init file just needs to do this: The issue is the resets and loads need to be done in the right order. So the way I went about this is I put in an array of the tables, using that and a reversed version of the array. $reset_order = array( $load_order = array_reverse($reset_order); if(!in_array($tableName, $reset_order)){ throw new CException("Table '$tableName' is not in the reset_order."); if(!in_array($tableName, $load_order)){ throw new CException("Table '$tableName' is not in the load_order."); foreach($reset_order as $tableName){ //echo("resetting $tableName\n"); // this runs the TABLE.init.php if it exists // otherwise it just does a $this->truncateTable($tableName); foreach($load_order as $tableName){ //echo("loading $tableName\n"); That’s not all though, because EVERY table needs a TABLE.init.php file that will be run when “resetTable()” is run in the above script. Without these scripts, each table will just DELETE FROM MYTABLE when resetTable is called. The problem with this is if you DELETE FROM COLLECTIONS without deleting the QUIZZES first, you get an integrity constraint violation. So a table init file needs to truncate all tables that are “children” of that table in the order of smallest to largest. COLLECTIONS.init.php looks like this:
The Citizenship Clause declared that everyone born on American soil is a citizen of the United States—regardless of race, color, or parental origin. This provision overturned Dred Scott (1857) and ended a decades-long debate about whether free African Americans were American citizens. Finally, African Americans born on American soil could lay claim to the promise of equal citizenship. May 28, 1866 Howard proposes a citizenship clause All persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside. . . No person shall . . . hold any office . . . who, having previously taken an oath . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same. . . The obligations of the United States incurred in suppressing insurrection, or in defense of the Union or for payment of bounties or pensions incident thereto, shall remain inviolate. Jun 12, 1866 14th Amendment Final Text Section One: All persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. . . Section Two: Representatives shall be apportioned . . . Section Three: No person shall . . . hold any office . . . Section Four: The validity of the public debt . . . Section Five: The Congress shall have power to enforce.
The Basic Income: Universally A Bad Idea Gonzales, Allen, Reporter Email This Story The Basic Income: Universally A Bad Idea Universal healthcare has been a long debated topic in American politics. The new emerging government universal program is guaranteed income. The name is self explanatory, and is officially known as the Universal Basic Income. The plan of UBI is a type of social security that guarantees a certain amount of money to every citizen within a given governed population, without having to pass a test or fulfill a work requirement. The recipients of UBI include everyone from the poor to the top 1% of rich people. Every UBI plan can be different in terms of amount or design. This economic policy is nothing new being introduced. However it would be new to implement full scale for a nation. Supporters of UBI hope it is capable to eliminate poverty and lift American standards higher to the trickle up economy. One person whose goal is to implement UBI in the United States of America is Andrew Yang, an Asian American entrepreneur and business owner. Yang is currently a political candidate running as a Democrat in the 2020 presidential primary. His entire campaign is focused on implementing UBI, and his plan is called the Freedom Dividend. The plan is a set of guaranteed payments of $1,000 per month, or $12,000 per year, to all U.S. citizens over the age of 18, no questions asked. Andrew Yang’s political punchlines are “The Great Displacement” and the introduction of the “4th Industrial Revolution.” Only a UBI is anticipated to prevent a predicted economic collapse from the negative effects of automation taking away jobs, which supposedly causes a self inflicted national brain drain. Based on statistics from the World Economic Forum, UBI is the worst response to automation because it will prevent nothing. The WEF estimates in the Future of Jobs Report that in 2022 automation will create 58 million more jobs than they will displace. UBI will be a preventative measure for nothing. Technological progress has always disrupted economies globally since the 1st Industrial Revolution. For example, the United States Department of Agriculture reports that 90% of total U.S. jobs during the late 1700s were farm related. Since then, in the 21st century, it has been a dramatic decline to 2.6% of farm related jobs in the U.S. During this time period other industries raised like auto, oil, and healthcare. From historical and present data, it’s safe to assume that automation is nothing to worry about but rather gladly welcoming because it means the world is technologically advancing. Alaska is the only state in the U.S. with a guaranteed income plan which is called the Alaska Permanent Fund. On the off chance that the U.S. accomplishes a bill to begin a UBI policy, it will open up a cycle of nationally corrupt elections like Alaska recently experienced with its Permanent Fund. Republican Governor, Mike Dunleavy won the 2018 midterm election for Alaska campaigning on a promise of awarding a $3,000 dividend each month for Alaskans. $3,000 was the largest amount ever offered, in comparison to $2,702 in 2015. Then during the summer of 2019 he backtracks his campaign promise and only delivers $1,600 to Alaskans, who voted on him for his promise. What Alaska experienced was state legalized campaign bribery because politicians can just inflate the dividend amount to gain more supporters. Theoretically, if UBI was nationally implemented the politician in an election who offered the most money during election season will win. Recently starting in 2017 and ending in late 2018, Finland had run a 2 year experiment testing the outcomes of a basic income. The program gave 2,000 unemployed recipients $635 a month, with no restrictions in comparison to welfare. The program was created to accomplish an incentive for recipients to find work and lift themselves from poverty. Unfortunately this case did not occur; the study found that recipients of UBI were not encouraged to look for work with a guaranteed income, but it did increase a sense of well being because recipients received money not earned. The recipients of UBI were then compared to normal welfare recipients who both worked an average of 49 days. UBI accomplished nothing better than what welfare does. Imagine a full scale UBI system that included awarding the same amount of money to the top 1% percent like Andrew Yang’s plan. Universal Basic Income is, universally, a bad idea that will corrupt the American political system and make the top 1% more malicious. Corporations could use this plan against the working class and reduce salaries to compensate for the guaranteed income they receive from the government. There are other factors to include like the dramatic chance of inflation occurring, which makes UBI and it’s currency useless, meaning everyone is poorer. To fund UBI is another question to ask. Bridgewater estimates it will cost the U.S. government 3.8 trillion a year to fund. What social programs are at risk of being cut when a basic income is implemented? It seems that Universal Basic Income is not so basic. Americans must make sure to read the fine print of the bill before rewriting America’s social contract. Andrew Yang, 2020 presidential candidate in proposal of the Freedom Dividend, holding a political campaign sign at a Los Angeles rally to display the amount of money his plan will give to each citizen per month in the United States. Alaska Permanent Fund amounts given to citizens since the beginning of the program, fluctuation occurs to adjust for budget cuts/increases and inflation.
Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner)/The Nightingale From Wikisource Jump to navigation Jump to search IN China, you know, the emperor is a Chinaman, and all those he has about him are Chinamen. The story I am going to tell you happened many years ago, but just on that account it is worth hearing, before it is forgotten. The emperor's palace was the most magnificent in the world, built entirely of the finest porcelain. It was very costly, but so fragile that it would hardly stand being touched, so one had to be careful. In the garden were to be seen the most wonderful flowers; to the most beautiful of them were fastened silver bells, which tinkled all the time, so that no one should pass by without noticing the flowers. Indeed, everything in the emperor's garden was cleverly thought out; and it was so big that the gardener himself did not know where it ended. If you kept on walking, you came to a most beautiful forest, with lofty trees and deep lakes. The forest went right down to the deep blue sea; great ships could sail right in under its branches, and in these lived a nightingale, which sang so exquisitely that even the poor fisherman, who had so many other things to attend to, would rest on his oars and listen to him when he went out at night to pull in his nets. "How beautiful it is!" he would say; but he had to look after his nets, and forgot the bird. Yet, when he was singing again next night, and the fisherman came there, he said the same thing: "How beautiful it is!" Visitors came from all parts of the world to the emperor's city, and admired it, as well as the palace and the garden; but when they came to hear the nightingale, they all said: "He is the best of all!" And on their return home they spoke of all they had seen, and the learned wrote many books about the city, the palace, and the garden, but they did not forget the nightingale, which they praised beyond everything; and those who could write poetry wrote the most beautiful poems, all about the nightingale in the forest by the deep blue sea. These books went all over the world, and at last some of them reached the emperor. He sat in his golden chair and read and read; every moment he nodded his approval, for it pleased him to read the splendid descriptions of the city, the palace, and the garden. "But the nightingale is the best of all!" said the books. "What's this?" said the emperor, "the nightingale! I don't know anything at all about him! Is there such a bird in my empire, and, fancy! in my garden, too. I have never heard of him. To think one has to find out such things from books." And so he called his chamberlain, who was such a grand personage that when any one inferior to himself in rank ventured to speak to him or ask him a question, he only answered "P," and that really did not mean anything. "There is, I hear, a most remarkable bird here, called a nightingale!" said the emperor; "they say he is the best thing in my great empire. Why have I never been told anything about him?" "I have never heard him mentioned before," said the chamberlain; "he has never been presented at court!" "It is my wish that he shall appear here this evening and sing before me!" said the emperor. "It seems the whole world knows what I possess, and I know nothing about him!" "I have never heard him mentioned before," said the chamberlain; "I shall look for him, I shall find him!" But where was he to be found? The chamberlain ran up and down all the staircases, through the halls and corridors; not one of those he met had heard of the nightingale; and the chamberlain ran back to the emperor again, and said it must all be a fable, invented by those who wrote the book. "Your Imperial Majesty must not believe all that is written. It is fiction, or what is called the black art!" "But the book in which I have read it," said the emperor, "has been sent me by the great and mighty Emperor of Japan, and it cannot therefore be a falsehood. I will hear the nightingale! He must be here this evening! He shall have my most gracious patronage. And if he does not come, the whole of the court shall have their stomachs punched after they have had their supper!" "Tsing-pe!" said the chamberlain, and again he ran up and down all the staircases, and through all the halls and corridors; and half the court ran after him, for they did not like the idea of having their stomachs punched. And inquiries were made right and left after the wonderful nightingale which all the world knew of, but of which the court knew nothing. At last they came across a poor little girl in the kitchen. She said: "Oh, yes! the nightingale! I know him well. How he can sing! Every evening they let me take home some leavings from the table for my poor sick mother, who lives down by the shore; and when I feel tired on my way back, and rest in the forest, I hear the nightingale sing. He brings tears to my eyes; it is just as if my mother was kissing me!" "My little kitchen-maid," said the chamberlain, "I will get you a permanent place in the kitchen, and permission to see the emperor eat, if only you can take us to the nightingale. He has been commanded to appear at court this evening." And so they all set out for the forest, where the nightingale used to sing, and half the court went with them. As they walked along a cow began lowing. "Ah!" said one of the courtiers, "there he is! What wonderful strength for such a small creature to possess! I have certainly heard him before!" "No, that's the cows lowing!" said the little kitchen-maid. "We are still far from the place." Some frogs now began croaking in a pool. "Beautiful!" said the palacedean; "now I hear him; it sounds just like tiny church bells!" "No, that's the frogs!" said the little kitchen-maid. "But I think we shall soon hear him!" just then the nightingale began to sing. "There he is!" said the little girl. "Listen, listen! and there he sits!" and she pointed at a little gray bird up among the branches. "Is it possible? "said the chamberlain; "I never imagined he would be like that! How common he looks! He must have lost his color at seeing so many grand folks here!" "Little nightingale!" cried the little kitchen-maid quite loudly, "our gracious emperor would like so much to hear you sing before him." "With the greatest pleasure!" said the nightingale, and began to sing in good earnest. "It sounds like crystal bells," said the chamberlain; "and how he does use his little throat! It is most remarkable that we have never heard him before. He will be a great success at court!" "Shall I sing once more before the emperor?" said the nightingale, believing that the emperor was present. "My excellent little nightingale!" said the chamberlain, "I have great pleasure in commanding you to appear at a court festival this evening, where you shall enchant his Imperial Majesty with your charming singing!" "It sounds best in the greenwood," said the nightingale; but he was quite willing to go when he heard that the emperor wished it. At the palace everything had been polished and smartened up. The walls and floors, which were all of porcelain, shone in the light of many thousands of golden lamps. The most beautiful flowers with tinkling bells were placed along the corridors; there was such a running to and fro, and such a draught, that all the bells were set tinkling, until at last one could not hear one's self speak. In the middle of the great hall, where the emperor sat, a golden perch had been fixed, and on this the nightingale was to sit. The whole court was present, and the little kitchen-maid had got permission to stand behind the door, for she was now a real kitchen-maid by title. All were dressed in their best finery, and all were looking at the little gray bird, at which the emperor was nodding his head. And the nightingale sang so beautifully that tears came into the emperor's eyes, and rolled down his cheeks, and then the nightingale sang still more beautifully; his song went straight to every one's heart, and the emperor was so happy, and said that the nightingale should have his golden slipper to wear round his neck. But the nightingale declined the honor with thanks; he had already received sufficient reward. "I have seen tears in the emperor's eyes," the nightingale said; "that is the greatest reward you can give me. An emperor's tears possess wonderful virtue. Heaven knows I have been sufficiently rewarded!" And so he sang again with his sweet, blessed voice. "That's the most lovely coquetry I know of!" said the ladies all around; and so they took water in their mouths so that they might make a warbling sound when anybody spoke to them, believing that they also were nightingales; even the footmen and chamber-maids made it known that they too were satisfied—and that is saying a great deal, for they are the most difficult of all to please. Yes, the nightingale was indeed a great success. He was now to remain at court, to have his own cage, with liberty to take a walk twice a day, and once at night. He had twelve footmen to attend upon him, all of whom had a silk ribbon which was fastened to his leg, and which they all held tightly. There was no pleasure at all in that kind of outing. The whole city was talking of the wonderful bird, and when two of the inhabitants met, one would merely say "Nightin—," and the other "gale," and then they sighed and understood each other. Yes, the children of eleven buttermen were named after him, but not one of them could sing a note. One day a large parcel arrived for the emperor, and on the outside was written: "Nightingale." "Here we have a new book about our celebrated bird!" said the emperor; but it was not a book, it was a small mechanical toy, which lay in a box—an artificial nightingale, which had been made to look exactly like the living one, but was set with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. As soon as the artificial bird had been wound up, it began to sing one of the songs of the real bird, while the tail moved up and down, sparkling with silver and gold. Around its neck hung a small ribbon on which was written: The Emperor of Japan's nightingale is poor compared with the Emperor of China's." "It is beautitul!" exclaimed all; and he who had brought the artificial bird received at once the title ot "Imperial Nightingale-Carrier-in-Chief." "Now they must sing together! What a duet it will be!" And so they had to sing together; but they did not get on well, for the real nightingale sang in his own way, while the artificial bird was dependent upon its barrels. "It's not its fault," said the musical director; "it keeps time beautifully, and sings quite in my style." So the artificial bird was to sing alone. It had just as much success as the real bird, and then it was so much prettier to look at; it glittered like diamond bracelets and brooches. It sang the same piece thirty-three times over, and still it was not tired; the audience would have liked to hear it from the beginning again, but the emperor thought that the living nightingale ought also to sing a little—but where was he? Nobody had noticed that he had flown out through the open window, away into his green forest. "But what's the meaning of this?" said the emperor; and all the courtiers began abusing the nightingale, saying he was a most ungrateful creature. "But we have the best bird after all!" they said; and so the artificial bird had to sing again, and they heard the same piece tor the thirty-fourth time, but still they did not know it, for it was rather difficult to learn, and the musical director was loud in his praises of the bird; nay, he even protested that it was better than the real nightingale, not only as regards its attire, and its many beautiful diamonds, but also with regard to its internal arrangements. "For you must know, ladies and gentlemen, and, above all, your Imperial Majesty, that with the real nightingale you carr never be sure of what is coming; but with the artificial bird everything has been arranged beforehand. So what is coming, will come, and nothing else. Everything can be accounted for; it may be ripped open and will show what human thought and skill can do; you may see how the barrels are placed, how they are worked, and how one thing is the result of another." "That's exactly what we have been thinking!" they all said. And the musical director got permission to show the bird to the people on the following Sunday. "They should also hear it sing," said the emperor. And they heard it, and were as pleased as if they had got too merry on strong tea, for that's quite Chinese, you know. They all exclaimed, "Oh!" and held up their forefingers and nodded their heads; but the poor fisherman, who had heard the real nightingale, said: "It sounds pretty enough, and it is very like the other; but there 's something wanting, I can't tell exactly what!" The real nightingale was banished from the land. The artificial bird was placed on a silk cushion close to the emperor's bed; all the presents which it had received, the gold and the precious stones, lay round about it, and its title had been raised to "Singer of the Imperial Toilet-table," to rank number One on the left side, for the emperor considered that the side nearest the heart was of most importance—for even an emperor has his heart on the left side. And the musical director wrote five-and-twenty volumes about the artificial bird; they were very learned and long, and full of the most difficult Chinese words, and everybody said that they had read them and understood them, for otherwise they would, of course, have been stupid, and would then have had their stomachs punched. In this way a whole year passed by; the emperor, the court, and all the other Chinamen knew by heart every little note in the artificial bird's song, but just on that account they liked it best; they could now join in the song themselves, which they did. The boys in the street sang " Ze-ze-ze! Cluck-cluck-cluck!" and the emperor sang the same.—Yes, it was really delightful! But one evening, when the artificial bird was singing its best, and the emperor lay in bed listening to it, something inside the bird went "pop"; a spring had broken, and, "whir-r-r," round went all the wheels, and then the music stopped. The emperor jumped out of bed at once and called for his physician; but how could he be of any help? Then they fetched the watchmaker, and after a great deal of talking and a long and careful examination he got the bird into something like order, but he said it must not be used so much, for the pinions were so worn—and it was not possible to put in new ones — that one could not be sure of the music. This caused a great deal of sorrow in the land. Only once a year did they venture to let the artificial bird sing, and that was almost too often; but then the musical director made a little speech, full of difficult words, and said it was just as good as ever—and so it was, of course, just as good as ever. Five years had passed, when the whole of the country was threatened with a very great affliction, for the people were really fond of their emperor, and now he was ill, and it was said he was not expected to live. A new emperor had already been chosen, and the people stood outside in the street and asked the chamberlain how it fared with their emperor. "P!" he said, and shook his head. The emperor lay pale and cold in his large and gorgeous bed. .AH the court thought he was dead, and every one ran off to greet the new emperor; the footmen rushed out to gossip about it, and the chamber-maids gave a great coffee-party at the palace. All the floors of the halls and the corridors had been covered with carpets, so that no footsteps should be heard, and therefore it was so silent, so quiet there. But the emperor was not dead yet; pale and stiff he lay in his splendid bed, with the long velvet curtains and the heavy golden tassels; high above, a window stood open and the moon shone in upon the emperor and the artificial bird. The poor emperor could scarcely breathe; he felt as if some one was sitting on his chest. He opened his eyes, and then he saw it was Death, who was sitting on his chest and had put on his golden crown, and held in one hand the emperor's golden saber and in the other his gorgeous banner, while round about were strange faces peering forth from among the folds of the large velvet bed-curtains; some of them were horrible, others kind and gentle-looking—they were the emperor's evil and good deeds, which were looking at him, now that Death sat over his heart. "Do you remember that?" whispered one after the other. "Do you remember that?" And then they told him of so many things that the perspiration stood out on his brow. "That I never knew!" said the emperor. "Music, music! The big Chinese drum!" he cried, "so that I may not hear all they say! " And they went on, while Death sat nodding just like a Chinaman to everything they said. "Music, music!" cried the emperor. "You blessed, little golden bird! Sing, do sing! I have given vou gold and precious things, I have myself hung my golden slipper round your neck. Sing, do sing!" But the bird remained silent; there was no one to wind it up, and it could not sing until this was done; but Death kept on staring at the emperor with his great hollow eyes, and everything was so still, so terribly quiet around them. Suddenly the most lovely song was heard close to the window; it was the little, living nightingale, which sat outside on a branch; he had heard of the emperor's illness, and had therefore come to sing to him of life and hope; and as he sang the specters grew paler and paler, the blood began to course more and more rapidly through the emperor's weak body, and Death himself listened and said: "Go on, you little nightingale, go on!" "Yes, if you will give me that splendid golden saber! Yes, if you will give me that costly banner! Will you give me the emperor's crown?" And Death gave each of the precious things for a song, and still the nightingale went on singing. He sang of the quiet churchyard, where the white roses grow, where the elder-tree perfumes the air, and where the fresh grass is moistened by the tears of those left behind; then Death began to long for his garden, and floated like a cold white mist out through the window. "Thanks, thanks!" said the emperor. "You heavenly little bird, I knew you well! I banished you from land and realm, and yet you have driven away with your song the horrible visions from my bed, and Death from my heart! How shall I reward you?" "You have rewarded me!" said the nightingale. "I drew tears from your eyes the first time I sang before you; I shall never forget that! Those are the jewels that bring joy to a singer's heart; but go to sleep now, and grow well and strong. I will sing to you." And he sang—and the emperor fell into a sweet sleep; so gentle and refreshing was that sleep. The sun was shining in through the windows at him, when he awoke hale and hearty; none of his servants had as yet returned, for they thought he was dead, but the nightingale still sat and sang. "You must stay with me always!" said the emperor. "You shall only sing when you please, and the artificial bird I will break into a thousand pieces." "Do not do that!" said the nightingale. "It has done what it could. Keep it as before. I cannot settle down and live in the palace; let me come when I like; I will then sit on the branch outside the window in the evenings and sing to you, so that you can be happy and be inspired with fruitful thoughts. I will sing to you about those who are happy and about those who suffer; I will sing about the good and the evil around you which are kept hidden from you, for the little song-bird flies far around to the poor fisherman, to the peasant's roof, to every one, far away from you and your court. I love your heart better than your crown, and yet the crown has a fragrance of sanctity about it!—I will come, I will sing to you!—But one thing you must promise me." "Everything!" said the emperor, as he stood there in his imperial robes, which he had himself put on, pressing the golden saber to his heart. "One thing I beg of you! Do not tell any one that you have a little bird that tells you everything, and then all will go still better with you!" And then the nightingale flew away. The servants came in to look after the dead emperor—yes, there they stood, and the emperor said: "Good morning!"
Also found in: Dictionary, Wikipedia. a realistic trend in late 19th-century Italian literature, music, and fine arts that strove to reflect the social and psychological conflicts of the contemporary national historical reality of a unified Italy, which had entered upon the path of capitalist development. In literature verismo was subject to the contradictory influence of E. Zola’s theory of naturalism, the critical realism of French and Russian literature, and the ideas of the Italian socialist movement. The national originality of verismo lies in its profound sympathy for the oppressed working people, whose life (for the most part, that of peasants and poor people from the provinces) formed the basic content of the novels and short stories of the theoreticians of verismo—G. Verga, L. Capuana, D. Ciampoli, R. Fucini, M. Serao, and others. The verists introduced the language of the common people into literature, making extensive use of dialects; they also created a theater reflecting everyday life (the comedies of G. Rovetta and G. Giacosa); and they introduced a new content into poetry (L. Stecchetti, pseudonym of O. Guerrini, and A. Boito). Nevertheless, the verists failed to see the social potential for eliminating social injustice; hence their works were filled with motifs of doom and an overexaggeration of the role of physiology. The best traditions of verismo have been developed by modern, progressive Italian literature. In music verismo became famous in operatic works. The social motifs characteristic of the literature of verismo were seldom developed in these operas. For the heroes of their works the composers chose rural folk, poor city dwellers, and representatives of bohemianism, and they concentrated on the drama of these characters’ personal lives, based for the most part on clashes over love affairs. The first examples of veristic opera were P. Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana (produced 1890) and R. Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (produced 1892). More important achievements in operatic verismo were reached in the creative work of G. Puccini (for example, Manon Lescaut, produced 1893; La Bohème, produced 1896; Tosca, produced 1900; Madama Butterfly, produced 1904; and The Girl of the Golden West, produced 1910). The success of these veristic works was due to their theatrical effectiveness and melodically expressive music, which underscored the emotionality. Nevertheless, naturalistic tendencies, a melodramatic approach, a superficial, illusory quality, overexaggerated expression, and a predilection for monotonous melodization of the recitatives detracted from the fullness of the characterizations. Tendencies related to verismo existed in France (operas by A. Bruno and G. Charpentier’s Louise), Germany (E. d’Albert’s opera Tiefland) and other countries. In the fine arts verismo was characterized by an interest in the lives of peasants and workers and significant sociocritical tendencies, but also by a pessimistic, at times passively naturalistic, acceptance of reality (the painters F. P. Michetti and G. Pellizza da Volpedo and the sculptors V. Vela and V. Gemito, for example). In Russian translation: Ital’ianskie novelly: 1869-1914. [Foreword by B. G. Reizov.] Moscow-Leningrad, 1960. Gramsci, A. Letteratura e vita nazionale. Turin, 1950. Marzot, G. “Il verismo.” In Questioni e correnti di storia letteraria. Milan, 1949. Salinari, C. Storia popolare della letteratura italiana, vol. 3. Rome, 1962. Rinaldi, M. Musica e verismo. Rome, 1932. De Logu, G. Pittura italiana dell’ottocento. Bergamo [1955]. References in periodicals archive ? Janacek was a contemporary of the crucial verismo composers, and the operas that struck him deeply include mostly verismo works. It has been characterized as verismo opera and is frequently discussed in the context of late 19th century aesthetics. A finales de febrero, un tribunal para menores dicto sentencia condenatoria a cuatro ninos de Chihuahua, Valeria, Alma Leticia, Irving y Jesus David, que en mayo del ano pasado "jugaron a los secuestradores" con tal verismo que mataron a su amigo Christopher, apodado el Negrito. Through the style of verismo, or the Italian literary version of naturalism, De Roberto depicts the general flaws of humankind, particularly humankind raised to believe in its innate superiority. Respighi was a contemporary of the Italian verismo composers--Mascagni, Leoncavallo and Puccini--and he completed eight operas himself (none of which survives in the standard repertory) as well as a dozen other minor vocal works. Adami Giuseppe, crisi postunitaria, frammentismo espressionista, Il tabarro, maschilita, maschilita egemone/maschilita subalterna, opera e gender, opera e men's studies, paesaggio sonoro, Puccini Giacomo, Tozzi Federigo, Verismo, virilismo Ross, who spends extended periods in Italy honing his art, calls his particular style of painting "American Verismo," using an approach that blends abstraction and realism. Verismo is worth supporting as he takes a big step up in trip in the Best Odds Guaranteed At Coral Median Auction Maiden Stakes. Next to the petition were some of Starbucks' latest designer offerings--an $8.95 cinnamon-colored coffee mug, "Made in Thailand," and a $9.95 glossy gray one, "Made in China." Then there was the shiny new "Verismo System by Starbucks," priced at $149 and billed as both "Swiss Engineered" and "Made in China." Using pods, the Verismo System makes espressos, lattes, and regular coffee, light or bold. The company also continues to expand in the at-home single cup coffee market with its Verismo machines that were introduced in September, priced at $199 or $399 for the high-end model that fit the K-cup single-serving coffee packs. In September, Starbucks jumped on the single-cup machine bandwagon with a product of its own: Verismo. The machine - a premium-positioned product that uses exclusively designed pods to make coffee, lattes and more - produces drip coffee from coffee pods, espresso shots from espresso pods, and hot milk from milk pods. Starting from 23 November 2012 through 26 November 2012, Starbucks' customers who purchase the Verismo System by Starbucks at participating stores, and select specialty retailers throughout the US will receive Starbucks Gold level status and all of the year-round rewards that come with it.
New measure of county-level GDP gives insight into local-level U.S. economic growth Local Area Gross Domestic Product allows policymakers and economists to examine local-level economic conditions. Since the 1930s and ‘40s, the United States has primarily relied on Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, as the main measure of economic growth and activity. For decades, analysts viewed the upturns and downturns of the GDP growth rate as a reflection of our overall economic well-being. But recent trends in income inequality have enabled the fruits of economic activity to accrue at the top of the income ladder, causing GDP as a measure of the economy to become less and less a reflection of the economy for everyday people. In short, people in the bottom 90 percent of the income distribution are no longer experiencing the same growth as those in the top 10 percent. Making GDP a more useful metric may require peeling it apart and looking at the data more closely. On December 12, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis released a new measure of economic growth that does just this—Local Area Gross Domestic Product. LAGDP is an estimate of GDP at the county level between the years of 2001—2018. This measure allows policymakers and economists alike to examine local-level economic conditions and responses to economic shocks and recovery. The new data measurement shows that private-sector industries across the nation have experienced growth since the end of the Great Recession in mid-2009, yet most of this growth is concentrated in the West Coast states and parts of the Midwest. States such as Nevada, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Wyoming have seen a significant number of counties contract in economic output since the recession. (See Figure 1.) Figure 1 One of the benefits of this new LAGDP measure is that it provides an industry-specific breakdown that shows us how 34 different industries contribute to local economies. The tech industry, for example, contributed a substantial amount to local economies in the major cities of states such as California, Colorado, New York, and Massachusetts since 2001. (See Figure 2.) Figure 2 Using the data, trends in the manufacturing industry and how manufacturing has contributed to GDP pre- and post-Great Recession are also now more trackable. Looking at the data since 2001, manufacturing output increased overall, but clusters of counties on the East Coast and the Midwest suffered contractions. Although overall manufacturing output in North Carolina increased, many counties experienced heavy declines over the past 17 years. (See Figure 3.) Figure 3 The new measure gives an insight into the geographic distribution of our nation’s economic activity, but it also highlights just how unequally distributed GDP is. When looking at real GDP (after accounting for inflation) at the county level, LAGDP shows that 20 percent of the nation’s economic growth is concentrated in 11 counties, including the cities of Los Angeles, New York, and Harris, Texas. At the other end of the spectrum, the new data show that 20 percent of GDP is contributed by approximately 2,700 counties with the lowest economic activity. Aggregated GDP measures are not able to paint the picture that 2,700 counties contribute as much to the nation’s economy as 11 of the largest counties in America. (See Figure 4.) Figure 4 These comparisons don’t mean that workers are more productive in Los Angeles than elsewhere, since the new measurement doesn’t account for population size, which means LAGDP doesn’t capture the overall well-being of families in each county. For instance, Los Angeles contributed 3.8 percent of the national GDP, but LAGDP doesn’t show that approximately 15 percent of its residents are living in poverty. But the data highlights just how vast the urban-rural divide is and how concentrated our economic activity is. In order to provide a clear picture to policymakers about how the economy works for households at all levels of the income spectrum, we need more disaggregated growth and income data. On its own, the new LAGDP measure has the potential to widen our understanding of the impact industries have on regional economies. Combining this data with disaggregated national income data would facilitate the study of the effects of and relationships between industry growth and income inequality at such levels. Equitable Growth’s GDP 2.0 project, which proposes that the Bureau of Economic Analysis extend the National Income and Product Accounts to assess national income distribution, is a further step toward better understanding who prospers when the economy grows. In the hands of local policymakers, these tools can guide efficient resource allocation, economic development and investment strategies, and opportunities for growth. Connect with us! Get in Touch
Explorations In Math Imagine if… the only time an elementary aged child was encouraged to read was during the 45 minutes of reading class time in school. Would he be a strong reader and lover of books by the time he reached high school? Imagine if… the only time a child was invited to do math was during the math period in school. Would she really love and understand math by the time she was in high school. Would she ever dream of a math based career such as engineering, architecture or financial analysis? Parents absolutely have the ability to affect their child’s math accomplishment simply by engaging in math activities and discussions at home. It’s up to you to surround your child in a positive math environment so that they may reach their full math potential. How do you feel about math? As a parent, your feelings about math will surely have an impact on how your children perceive and value mathematics, as well as how they view themselves as mathematicians. Take a moment to ask yourself these questions: • Did you like math in school? • Do you think everyone can learn math? • Do you believe girls are just as good at math as boys? • Do you think of math as important and useful in everyday life? • Do you believe that most jobs today require math skills? • How are your attitudes about math impacting your child’s attitudes? There are two very important math goals for all students: 1) they learn to value mathematics and 2) they become confident in their ability to do mathematics. Learning a math skill alone is not enough. Parents can help children develop a “can do” disposition toward math by nurturing their natural curiosity and providing support and encouragement.
Bilingualized Dictionaries with Special Reference to the Chinese EFL Context Yuzhen Chen As a type of dictionary with huge popularity among EFL learners in China, the bilingualized dictionary (BLD) deserves more academic and pedagogical attention than it receives nowadays. This article gives an overview of the BLD within the framework of dictionary research, including dictionary history, dictionary typology, dictionary criticism and dictionary use. It first traces, with a special reference to the Chinese EFL context, the origin and historical development of this type of dictionary, and then proposes several approaches to its classification. The strengths and weaknesses of the BLD are evaluated and its role in language pedagogy discussed, followed by an extensive review of the empirical studies of BLD use. Finally, further areas of BLD research are also suggested. It is hoped that such an overview would kindle more research interest in BLDs which is relevant to language pedagogy, dictionary use instruction and lexicographic practices. lexicography, bilingualized dictionaries, monolingual dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, origin, historical development, dictionary typology, dictionary criticism, dictionary use, chinese efl context Full Text: • There are currently no refbacks. Creative Commons License CC BY 4.0 SUNJournals Help
Reposting: Confused by pixels, resolution, and DPI? posted in: Tutorials \| 0 pixels10x10I’m reposting this blog from a couple years ago because I there is so much confusion when it comes to digital image size and thought it could be helpful. When it comes to digital pictures, are you confused by pixels, DPI, and resolution? You’re not alone! I’m pretty much just a point-and-shoot photographer. I like to assume my end result is going to be great. After all, it looks great on the 2″ screen of my camera. But honestly, just about anything is going to look pretty good at that size. The problem is when I need to view or print out that image bigger — much bigger. Let me try to explain why. First, a few definitions. Simply put, a pixel is just one unit or one “building block” of a single color. A pixel can’t be divided any smaller. pixels10x10gridPixel resolution is when I start putting a bunch of those building blocks side by side and stacking them on top of each other. For instance, if I have an image that is 10 pixels wide by 10 pixels high, that would be like if I took 10 squares and lined them up in a row right next to each other, and then I stacked rows on top until it was 10 rows high. In this illustration, I’ve superimposed a 10 x 10 grid over the image to simulate the pixels. This next diagram illustrates why pixels are important. As you can see, more pixels mean I have more information to work with. More information means I have a lot more detail. Curves will be smoother. Lines and edges will be clearer. Compare the 10 x 10 image above with the 25 x 25 image. Immediately the circles become more apparent because there are a lot more pixels that are being used to describe those circles, but the edges are still jagged. The 50 x 50 image is even more clear, and so on. When you have more pixels, the image quality will be better. If you’re using digital images to create quilts, in most cases, you will do yourself huge favor by using a high quality image that is made up of lot of pixels. As a side note, did you notice how some of the pixels in the images above are different tonal values? That’s called anti-aliasing. It’s a way to make the jagged edges seem smoother by placing an “in between” color along the edges. pixels-antialiasingThe left side of this diagram shows the continuous curved shape with a 10 x 10 grid superimposed over it. Since pixels can’t be divided into smaller units, the right side shows how that curved shape would be interpreted if it was converted into an image that was 10 pixels by 10 pixels. pixels-antialiasing3So, where the curved edge would have gone across one of the pixels, it puts in a value that is a mix of the white and the purple. The square marked “1A” has more white than purple, so in “1B” it is interpreted as a light purple value. In the square marked “2A”, there is more purple than white, so the “2B” square is interpreted as a medium-dark value. Another confusing term is DPI, or dots per inch. For our purposes, there are two issues to consider. One consideration is how an image appears on a computer monitor. In the case of monitors, it is more accurate to call this pixels per inch or PPI. While there are variations and user preferences, let’s assume that an average computer monitor displays 72 pixels per inch. So if you have a picture that is 400 pixels by 600 pixels, that image would be about 5-1/2″ wide by 8-1/3″ high on the computer screen (400 divided by 72 and 600 divided by 72). The second consideration is how an image would be printed. For a printer, dots per inch literally refers to how many tiny dots of ink is printed in one inch. If a printer is set to print 300 dots per inch, then an image that is 400 pixels by 600 pixels will be 1-1/3″ by 2″ when printed (when printed at 100%). However, if the printer is set to print 600 dots per inch, then that same image will be only half that size when printed at 100%. For quilters using the technique that I teach in my Making Faces DVD, they need to print out their image 8″ wide. If their image is only 400 pixels wide, then that means there are only 50 pixels that can be printed per inch (400 divided by 8). That is very low resolution for a printed image. It can’t provide a lot of valuable details. Here’s another way to look at it. In the first column, I have three versions of the same image. The first image is 600 x 600 pixels, the second is 300 x 300 pixels, and the last is 100 x 100 pixels. If each of these is printed on a 300 dpi printer at 100%, the first image would be 2″ square, the second would be 1″ square, and the last would only be 1/3″ square. The second column shows what happens if I want to force each of those images to be 2″ when printed out on a 300 dpi printer. For the 600 x 600 image, each pixel can be represented by just one dot of ink. For the 300 x 300 image, each pixel would have to be printed twice as big to print the image so it is 2″ by 2″, so it would take four dots (2 wide by 2 high) of ink to represent each digital pixel. For the 100 x 100 image, it would take 36 drops of ink (6 wide by 6 high) to represent each pixel so that the printed image is 2″ by 2″. Can you see why it gets so distorted when you have a low resolution image? That’s not too bad so far, but for my “Making Faces” technique, we are printing out our images 8″ wide. That’s what the right hand column shows. When a 600 x 600 pixel image is printed 8″ wide, you have 75 pixels that get stretched out over each inch, but when you get down to the 100 x 100 pixel image, there are only 12.5 pixels that you are trying to stretch over each inch. Yikes! Not good. So much detail gets lost when you are trying to work with low resolution images! As much as you may like one of those images, unless you are very confident with your artistic abilities, it may very well be worth your while to search for a higher resolution image to work with. It may just save you a lot of headache, and you will probably like your end result much better.
How to Install Python on Linux ? How to Install Python 3 on CentOS 1. CentOS 2. Login as an administrator on the terminal 3. Yum must be configured on the system. Installation includes following steps. Install IUS community Repository In order to install Python 3.6 on CentOS, we need to first install IUS community repository which provides extra packages for Enterprise Linux. Execute the following command to install IUS community repository. CentOS How to Install Python 3 on CentOS Install Python 3 Execute the following command to install python 3.6 on CentOS. CentOS How to Install Python 3 on CentOS 1 Also Read : How to install python on windows Verify Python To verify if we have installed correct version of python, we just need to type python3.6 -V on the terminal. The command will show the version installed which is 3.6.4 in my case. CentOS How to Install Python 3 on CentOS 2 Working on Python’s script mode Just type python3.6 on the terminal to enter the Python’s script mode. We can execute the python statements on this shell. Since, python 2 is by default installed on CentOS, hence typing python on the terminal takes us to the python2 shell, hence we have to type python3.6 to work on the desired python shell. CentOS How to Install Python 3 on CentOS 3 Execute the valid python statements which get interpreted and show the desired output on the terminal as shown below. CentOS How to Install Python 3 on CentOS 4 Hence, we have installed and get started with Python 3. How to install Python on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS? To install python3, just type the following command in the terminal and it will be installed automatically. Python Installation Update the APT Repository Install Python Verify Python When we type python it shows default installed python that is 2.7. For Python3 type the following command, then it will show the other version as well. Well, on the basis of these commands, we can test application for both Python versions. Also Read How to Install python on Mac We found several sites describing how to get zypper to install the latest version of Python, but they seemed problematic or outdated. We did not manage to get any of them to work successfully, so we fell back to building Python from source. To do that, you will need to install the development tools, which can be done in YaST (via the menus) or by using zypper: Fedora has a roadmap to switch to Python 3 as the default Python published here. It indicates that the current version and the next few versions will all ship with Python 2 as the default, but Python 3 will be installed. If the python3 installed on your version is not 3.6, you can use the following command to install it:
Back to top Pretrial Release and Probation: What is the Same and What is Different? Accession Number: 033085 Media Type: According to those who study evidence-based teaching methods, comparing and contrasting two different objects, persons, or even fields and disciplines, such as pretrial release and probation, can have one of the greatest effects on learning. Indeed, comparing and contrasting is considered to be one of the earliest ways that we humans begin learning (going back to how we identify things in early childhood) and makes the best use of elements necessary for all effective learning methods, each of which allows us to form relationships between constructs through reasoning. In sum, comparing and contrasting is highly valuable. Nevertheless, there are three prerequisites to any compare and contrast exercise. Extra Information Publication Year: 76 pages National Institute of Corrections (NIC) (Washington, DC) Part of the following Packages:
Pseudorandom Number Generator PySkein contains a PRNG designed according to the Skein specification and based on Skein-512 by default. It is implemented in Python as a subclass of the standard library’s random.Random class and can therefore be used in the same way. The seed may be given as a bytes object: >>> import skein >>> r = skein.Random(b"some seed value") >>> r.random() or any other hashable object - in which case random.Random is used internally to derive a bytes seed: >>> skein.Random(12345).random() The same happens when no seed is given, so that the initial state is then derived from a suitable system source of randomness (like /dev/urandom or the time): >>> r = skein.Random() >>> r.random() You may also directly read bytes or bits from the random stream: >>> r = skein.Random(b"seed") >>> r.getrandbits(4) All other methods of skein.Random are based on random(). For their documentation please refer to the Python documentation. Previous topic Threefish block cipher Next topic Skein Stream Cipher This Page
The Crucible Essay Research Paper Three distinct • Просмотров 67 • Скачиваний 4 • Размер файла 13 The Crucible Essay, Research Paper Three distinct social factions formed among the characters in The Crucible by the end of the first act. In terms of the trails, these groups consisted of the prosecutors, the judges, and the defendants. However, many other factors came in to play, extending the legal factions to cover distinct social groups. In fact, social standing is what bound the different sides of the case. The prosecutors were a group of women not yet twenty. These girls seem to have a history of spite and vengefulness. As is evident by the end of the book, these women also have a talent for acting. Abigail Williams was the ringleader of this group. In the time period that this story took place, women this age were powerless. These women found that by pretending to have been victimized by the Devil, they could have anyone persecuted with the point of a finger. Thus, the accusations concocted by these girls served to empower them as well as giving them an easy way of enacting revenge for the wrongs they felt they had been done. These women were manipulators and they had the judges wrapped around their fingers. Aside from the social disadvantages that these women had in common, they were held together by a friendship remnant from childhood. The judges were largely a group of self-righteous outsiders. In court they held the theory that a defendant was guilty until proven innocent. They claimed to be the ‘ultimate Christians.’ In turn, they took the liberty of judging the piety of the townspeople and persecuting those who failed the test. A sort of hierarchy was formed among the judges, at the top of which was Danforth, and at the bottom of which lay the priests. Danforth proved to be very naive and became a tool for the prosecutors. This group was held together by the belief that it was acting out God’s will. The defendants were the tragedy of the play. Throughout the book, they were forced to prove their innocence as they were always presumed guilty. The townspeople (less those mentioned in the other groups) fell into this category. These were the people that people today would tend to associate with. Proctor symbolized these people’s fears: in the end of the story he was to be killed for a factitious crime. These people were held together by their common sense and decency. They were merely doing whatever they could to save themselves and their neighbors. Those who were accused of “contracting with the Devil” were forced to choose between their lives and their reputations (if they lied in court). Years of living together in peace as neighbors are what united this group. These groups continued to become more distinct while the ties among those in the groups become stronger. The three groups had very different outcomes at the end of the book. The prosecutors accomplished their goal of gaining a sense of power. The judges felt very self-righteous for the thought that they had defeated the Devil. The only losers were the defendants. From the beginning of the play, their goal was to return to their normal lives. This was not possible for any of them, for those who survived were scarred forever by the terrible injustices that took place in Salem.
Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. I picked up a pocket guide to The Charter which speaks about Human Dignity, Equality and Freedom. It was promoting the state government where I live in Victoria, Australia Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities 2006. There are 27 sections of the charter covering from freedom of expression to cultural rights. The title of this blog is a slogan I created about two and a half years ago to explain the ethos of Interculturalism where the rights of all human beings are respected. I also created an Interculturalism Facebook group for people to express examples that they came across , here’s the link : Interculturalism if you wish to join us. Human rights are a subject that a lot of well known people have spoken on and I had many to choose my 15 examples from, lets begin our journey. 1. Unfortunately where I live in Australia we have been doing this for several years by detaining people in concentration camp conditions on off shore facilities. The fact that some staff refer to people by their boat number and not their name speaks very loudly that human rights do not exist in these facilities. Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth. – Abraham Lincoln, the last independent nominee elected as the president of the United States. Unfortunately some countries seem to have forgotten this. BQ_OLD_IE = true; 3. A member of the German Greens party Volker Beck is an outspoken supporter of gay rights and recompense for families persecuted by the Nazi’s. In 2006, Beck sponsored an anti-discrimination act in civil law and at the workplace, outlawing discrimination based on race, ethnic origin, sex, sexual identity, religion, age, and disability. 4. Anyone can be a champion of human rights, politicians, TV personalities, You. 5. The youngest Nobel Prize winner Malala is afraid of no one in her quest for equal rights, especially through the right to education. Peter Tosh sang a great song about this in the 70’s : Equal Rights and Justice. 6. Gandhi freed a nation from the oppression of the British Empirical rule but never gave up his belief that humankind was fundamentally good, dirty drops do not spoil the masses of great human beings out there. 7. I have the entire speech made by Martin Luther King, now so do you : I have a dream. Listen to this when you need to be inspired. 8. Sometimes I think it’s sad that we need to have a day to remind us of this. I look forward to the day it is no longer required. 9. Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist, humanitarian, and an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved families and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped abolitionist John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harper’s Ferry, and in the post-war era was an active participant in the struggle for women’s suffrage. This song demonstrates what Harriet did beautifully : I’ll Fly Away. 10. Remember that curiosity and joy that babies have, everything is a gift in life. Why do we train them to forget this? Love is all you need and underlies all emotions. 11. What if everybody was Perfect. Pink thinks so: Perfect. 12. If you know another you can not really hate. 13. As Homer would say Doh!! YMCA. 15. This is a struggle worth getting up for. As the Warriors of Love the Beatles sang back in the day: All you need is love. And as Arudhati Roy stated: Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. They are the rights of all people on our beloved planet, we have just forgotten and became focused on other crazy things such as war, profit and other such hedonistic pastimes. Lets give it up for Lent or Ramadan. Namaste until next time my dear friends. 1 thought on “Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. 1. I wholeheartedly agree with the quote you have included from Ghandi, ‘you must not lose faith in humanity’. It is the nature of mass media that we pretty much only hear the bad news. We mustn’t forget the millions of people who are loving and caring and longing for a peaceful outcome. I really like the quote from Aradhati Roy – another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.’ Beautiful. Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s
Location: Oinofyta, Greece Global Issue If You Can Read This On a hot June afternoon in Greece, Miriam takes a train from Oinofyta to Athens with two other friends to apply to attend Greek school later in the summer. After their appointment, they separate when the friends decide to go visit family members living in another refugee camp outside of Athens. But Miriam left her six-year-old boy taking care of his younger brother at their camp in Oinofyta, so she needs to make it back “home” before dark. She knows her way to the train station. But when she arrives amid the bustle of people coming and going in transit, she freezes in front of the long row of platforms. She has to go back, but she has no idea which train to take. Miriam is 22 years old and even though she has acquired an uncommon array of skills over the course of a childhood spent in a country at war, they are of no use to her now. Shepherding, narrowly escaping the Taliban, navigating the migrant trail to Western Europe — none of these experiences will help her find out which train to take, or how to ask anybody for directions. Miriam has never opened a book or held a pen. But now that the Greek government has opened a small quota for refugees to attend school, she’s taking on the biggest challenge of her life: wanting to learn how to write, read, and speak a new language in a strange land. But today she only applied to become a student. She still doesn’t know how to write, read, or speak Greek or English. Puzzling over the line of platforms, Miriam begins to cry. Every so often, someone offers her food or money, but their gestures only confuse her more. Literacy can be both the key to and the barrier against personal wellbeing and success. Imagine trying to learn a second language when you can’t even read or write in your first. This is the reality for over 3.5 million registered refugees worldwide. And even though governments understand that literacy is absolutely vital to refugees’ integration, work, and independence (as well as their ability to plan a future in their host countries), the current “one size fits all” approach is not helping. If someone who has never in her life held a pen finds herself sitting in a classroom next to someone with a university degree who can already speak English, what chance does she stand of keeping up? Governments and NGOs label refugees with the same word and create the same “solution” for all of them, without considering that they have unimaginably diverse backgrounds, particular challenges, and needs. There are refugees who were educated back home and who would say it’s easy to learn the language of their host country, because they know how to read books, navigate the internet, watch videos, and listen to music. But there are millions of others who are attending classes yet still use an interpreter or a friend just to help them get through their days. Some of them want to learn how to write and read in another language so they can go to college and create a better future for themselves. Others just want to become literate so they can go to the doctor on their own. Some simply want to have enough privacy to read their own letters. illustration of woman on train platform with illegible signs Illustration: Rune Fisker This is why Miriam wants to enroll in school in Athens, but she doesn’t yet know that she is facing an uphill battle, and that she will be sitting next to other students who are already literate and who know how to speak Greek and English. Refugees are not mainstream students and cannot be treated as such. Their diverse educational experiences and learning styles should not be disregarded. The issue demands a different type of innovation to fill in the gap. Efforts to open refugee quota in existing schools or having grassroots organizations open temporary classrooms in refugee camps does not come close to sufficing. None of these stopgap measures make use of technology or the internet to meet the needs of this market niche. Using mobile phones, laptops, and tablets allows people to learn and to access information and material at anytime, anywhere. As entrepreneurs, as innovators, as anyone capable of reading a sentence, we need to wake up to this huge market opportunity. The ability to pack thousands of different educational resources into a single device would support diverse learning styles and avoid perpetuating assumptions about the educational history of students who are refugees. Language learning, teacher training, support networks, and the wealth of information on the internet, such as news channels, films, lectures, educational games and online libraries, can all make literacy accessible for refugees. Such solutions would also lower costs for governments and NGOs that are currently investing resources in very unstable camps and communities. Imagine if, as Miriam stands on the platform, frightened and confused, she could use her own phone to communicate with people around her or to find out which train to get on to go back to her boys? Instead, to escape from the situation she created at the station, she’ll jump on the next train that opens the doors in front of her and travel in the wrong direction, towards the airport. Luckily, she’ll run into two English women who know enough Dari to direct her home. But her experience is one lived out by refugees hundreds of thousands of times daily, to many less fortunate ends. As entrepreneurs, as innovators, as anyone capable of reading a sentence, we need to wake up to this huge market opportunity and make strides towards improving resources and methods of education provided for refugees. There are sixty million people hungry to use a product that we have yet to create. Whoever among us overturns this market failure will empower refugees to rebuild their lives, and ultimately, to regain their dignity in this world. Leticia Gonzalez-Reyes Author Leticia Gonzalez-Reyes Chief Impact Officer & Co-Founder at 109 World, managing the daily operations of the organization and its global charitable initiatives. More by Leticia Gonzalez-Reyes
The Basics on Serverless Stack A Serverless Stack feels like an intense topic, especially for a person who is a noob and who would like to be more involved in the technical aspect of the web. It is not ‘rocket science’ people. It is indeed a beginner-friendly concept. Making yourself aware of the concept is not going to get you killed so let us learn what the big deal about this topic is and various things related to what we call a ‘“Serverless Stack”. Also, this is no full-Stack coding Bootcamp online program or anything of that sort. You will just get to understand the topic. Let’s go! Serverless functions have the possibility to intimidate you but if you learn it correctly, it simplifies the whole organizational process. Serverless is an innovative way of developing applications. The major portion of the heavy-lifting of your app occurs in the frontend whereas cloud services deal with usual backend facets like writing values to a database. This implies minimal writing of code upfront and enables rookies to build powerful apps in a more efficient way, contrary to the orthodox monolith way. A Stack includes a function and an object store. The function controls the object store when it is activated. The Stack comprises a function that activates itself upon the submission of an e-mail address on a newsletter sign-up form feature of a website. The function stores the details in a table called Signup after grabbing the contents from the sign-up forms. It is also equipped with a function termed, LogErrors which documents the wrong parts. The Serverless consists of small applications that are created to do particular things and it is most likely to be a part of a larger application. The operational overhead is majorly dealt with by the Serverless platform in case of Serverless and this is the place where your code lives. Almost everything except for the actual code writing is controlled by the platform when it comes to a function on AWS Lambda. They could launch say, an operating system to play the code in your function upon activation led by an event. They could also eliminate that OS when its utilization is finished. Serverless is typically faster to use and operate than employing a bunch of microservices. It can also make it economical and simple for deployment and functioning, according to the demand of your application. There are servers behind Serverless programs unlike what the name suggests, in the same way, the cloud includes various individual servers. Serverless enables developers and mainly the rookie section of the developers’ community, to develop and deploy applications in a simplified manner with minimal code that implies a decrease in the learning curve, as a whole. This is perfectly apt for the beginners and this why there are being preferred by many. If all the above said sentences sound like mumbo-jumbo to you, then fear not. This is exactly why aTeamIndia is available to help you. If you are looking to develop using Serverless Stack but do not want to know the technicalities, go for aTeamIndia! Leave a Reply
This is one of several blogs about patenting an invention. 1. Are there different kinds of patents? Yes. A utility patent can protect a process, a machine, an article of manufacture, or a composition of matter. Most patents are utility patents, but there are two other kinds of patents: design patents, which protect ornamental designs, and plant patents, which protect new varieties of asexually reproduced plants. Other kinds of intellectual property include copyrights, which protect writings and works of art; trademarks, which protect brands; and trade secrets, which protect valuable secret information relating to a product or service. 1. How can I determine if someone else has already patented my idea? You can never be sure… And frankly, this is a question you should raise with your patent attorney. It’s an issue that involves several interconnected concepts that depend on your specific situation. But remember: if you decide to find out what other people have invented or described, you must disclose to the PTO every relevant thing you find. Failure to disclose known and relevant prior art can result in a patent being rendered unenforceable and therefore worthless. 1. Who should be named as an inventor? An inventor is someone who actually contributes to the conception and/or realization of an invention. Some people contribute more than others, which means inventorship can sometimes become a contested issue. If you have questions about inventorship, you should talk to a patent attorney. 1. Who owns a patent? By default, inventors jointly own the patents covering their inventions. Most inventors either explicitly assign their ownership rights to their employers, or they are obligated by an employment agreement to do so. If the inventors have assigned their rights, then the assignee (for example, the employer) owns any resulting patent. If you have any questions about ownership, you should talk to a patent attorney. 1. How long can I wait before I apply for a patent? The U.S. is a first-to-file country. This means the longer you wait, the more you risk someone else filing a patent on the same idea you came up with. One key thing to remember: As soon as you go public, either by a sale or by describing your invention in a public setting, a 1-year clock will start. If you do not file a patent application within 1 year of going public, you will lose your right to file, period. If you have any doubt about whether a given action might constitute a public disclosure, you should talk to a patent attorney immediately. 1. If I can keep my invention a secret, should I still get a patent? The quid pro quo for getting a patent – which gives you a right to exclude everyone else from making, selling, or using your invention for 20 years – is public disclosure. You must teach “one of ordinary skill in the art” how to make and use your invention. If you can keep your invention secret, and if others cannot easily figure out how your invention works by reverse-engineering it, etc., it may make sense not to patent your invention and keep it a trade secret; but you really have to keep it secret. 1. Final Thoughts. Always talk to a patent attorney when you are thinking about filing a patent application. The benefits of receiving good personalized advice to fit your situation can be priceless.
Marketplaces Bradley Hearn By Manish Chowdhary (Cahoot) How Some Marketplace Sellers Are Getting Ahead Through Co-opetition Some say it’s ludicrous; some say it’s genius. Despite everything happening with marketplaces and logistics, could it be that the only way to get ahead is to actually collaborate with your biggest competitors? Here we’ll take a closer look at a historical example of how setting your differences aside can make everyone better off. Marketplaces: A tough business that keeps getting tougher It came out of nowhere. There was nothing you could do to stop it. And it changed the online retail landscape forever: fast and free shipping expectations. But shipping isn’t free — it’s eating your margins. And you don’t really have a choice if you want to compete. To remain competitive, Walmart and other retailers are also focusing on 2-day shipping options. Adding to that, everyone took a haircut on Jan. 27 this year when USPS introduced zone-based pricing and raised First Class and Priority Mail rates, a month after FedEx and UPS also introduced rate increases. With more sellers online than ever before, more states collecting online sales tax, carriers and marketplaces increasing fees… It’s a never-ending struggle. Nonetheless, customers have now come to expect fast, free shipping. Retailers that can ship faster AND ship for less will WIN. With all these things happening, one might wonder if a solution exists that allows marketplace sellers to achieve more with less competition. Co-opetition: How Collaboration Between Competitors Yields More Co-opetition is the cooperation between competing companies with similar interests to gain massive advantage. It has proven to be successful in the past, even in ancient times. Here are three ways businesses have benefited from co-opetition in history: 1. Co-opetition for Risk Management One of the earliest examples of co-opetition is the collective loans used by ancient Romans. In the third century, Rome was booming with trade and wealth could be gained from lending money to merchant ship expeditions. However, lenders took the risk of losing all their money if the ships they funded sank. Enter Cato, a landlord with big ideas. He proposed an association of 50 merchants with 50 ships, with money lent to the group rather than an individual. The association would reduce risk for the lenders, as the merchants had to check on each other and sometimes bail each other out to ensure they would complete their voyages and therefore stabilize their ability to receive credit for future journeys. The merchants who competed in selling their wares had to work together to keep access to funding. This method of risk management was also applied by the Nobel Prize-winning Grameen Bank that provides microloans for poor worker/entrepreneur communities in Bangladesh with no collateral. The bank provides loans to groups of people living in the same community or working in the same trade (e.g., making bamboo stools) and this community keeps each of its members accountable to maintain credit payment. 2. Co-opetition for Synergies, the Best of Both Worlds Competitors collaborate with each other to create the best of both worlds at a reasonable price, like Apple’s decision to use Samsung components in their phones. In the logistics industry, we have seen the collaboration between UPS and USPS. It works because, despite being competitors, these companies have differing strengths. USPS has the best “last mile” connectivity, literally touching every doorstep in the US every day. They are the experts in handling small packages efficiently. UPS and FedEx, on the other hand, have highly automated distribution hubs optimized for large package deliveries over long distances. When they come together, it’s a win-win situation for carriers (lowering costs) and merchants (lowering shipping rates). 3. Co-opetition for Scale Many companies big and small have collaborated with their competitors to achieve scale and produce offerings they otherwise couldn’t provide on their own. Take a look at Star Alliance and its introduction of airline code-sharing, a program in which competing airlines work together to fill up planes on less-crowded routes so they can operate these routes more profitably. It works on a smaller scale too — California Dairies worked together to invest in shared advertising campaigns and microbreweries in the Porto Alegre region of Brazil, home to more than 300 breweries, and formed an association for collective purchasing and distribution. Now Is the Time for Marketplace Sellers to Collaborate With historical examples of co-opetition in many different industries, the time for marketplace sellers to collaborate might be approaching. A few limited instances of this happening are coming to light through knowledge-sharing on seller forums or regional merchant groups and they appear to be most helpful for sellers just starting out and learning ways to scale their business. For shipping, however, no such alliance existed until recently, when Cahoot established a worldwide peer-to-peer shipping network. Imagine, as an example, two log truck drivers hauling the same type of lumber and passing each other on the freeway. Doesn’t that make you think about the possibilities to collaborate to send the same item to the closest customer? Wasting time and resources is exactly what Cahoot is trying to eliminate via co-opetition. Meet Cahoot: The World’s First Peer-to-Peer Shipping Network Cahoot uses strategic co-opetition to connect the most highly-rated online retailers, organizing them into a network of trusted shipping partners that ship orders for one another using their existing product catalogs and inventory, effectively creating the world’s largest virtual fulfillment network. It enables sellers to cut down the distance their wares have to travel, saving time by up to two days and shipping costs by up to 40%. Now, through our new partnership with ChannelAdvisor, you can take advantage of Cahoot’s network to collaborate and get ahead like the other marketplace sellers that are already on the platform. To learn more, click here Blog post by Manish Chowdhary, founder and CEO of Cahoot. Cahoot’s innovative network taps an alliance of top-rated merchants to fulfill orders (for each other) faster and at a lower cost than anything else out there. Manish has founded multiple industry-leading companies, first starting from his dorm room at the University of Bridgeport, where he earned his B.S. in computer engineering. Manish’s specialties include e-commerce strategy, business methods innovation, supply chain and logistics optimization. He has been featured in The New York Times, Internet Retailer and many other leading publications.
28-November-2018, min readtime MyEtherWallet: hacked or not? On 24 April, between 13:05 and 14:55 hrs Dutch time, hackers carried out an attack with the aim of stealing cryptocurrency. The website https://www.myetherwallet.com/ was the victim of a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijack, whereby users of this website inadvertently visited a copy of the website, which was hosted on a server in Russia. Unsuspecting users who made a transaction here with their private key were robbed by the hackers. It appears that 215 Ethereum (around EUR 122,000) was stolen in this way. In order to be able to understand how this happened, we actually need to go back to basics. How does the internet work and how does it manage to deliver my data packages to the correct recipient? In order to ensure, on a worldwide scale, that your data arrives at the correct location, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is used. This comprises the routers of the internet. The sender and recipient addresses are the IP addresses. The BGP network needs to know which servers are responsible for which IP ranges. BGP hijack: how the internet works Agreements are made on a worldwide basis about who has control over which IP ranges. The people responsible then advertise these IP ranges to each other, so that it becomes clear to which server the data must be sent. This is the core of the internet, which stems from the time when it was a small network where everyone knew each other and everyone trusted each other. Since the backbone of the internet still works in this way, it provides possibilities for a hacker to advertise using an IP range of another party, whereby data packages arrive at the hacker. Despite this, it is not a simple matter to carry out such an attack. During the aforementioned hack, an attacker advertised the fact that he could set up a connection to a series of IP addresses that actually belong to Amazon. These IP addresses were used in part as Domain Name System for many of Amazon’s clients, including www.myetherwallet.com. In order to understand how the hackers were able to take advantage of this BGP hijack, it is useful to know how we go from www.myetherwallet.com to an IP address. What is DNS? When we go on the internet, we do that by means of requesting a host name, for example www.computest.nl. Since the communication takes place on an IP basis, the host name must first be converted into an IP address. This is achieved by means of the Domain Name System, or DNS. As user, you ask the server which IP address is associated with a particular host name. The user then connects with the IP address that is given in answer by the DNS server. The MyEtherWallet hack In this case, the hacker advertised that he had the route to an IP range belonging to Amazon. The server which www.myetherwallet.com converted to an IP address was also included within this range. If a user wants to go to www.myetherwallet.com, then he or she will first be referred to a server of Amazon in order to request the associated IP address (DNS). Since the hacker says that this specific server is from Amazon, then the hacker will answer with an IP address which is under his or her management. And hence the unsuspecting user arrives at a website belonging to the hacker. The hacker had hosted a website at this IP address, which had the identical look and feel of the genuine MyEtherWallet application, whereby it was impossible for users to distinguish that from the genuine website. Users did, however, receive a warning in the browser that the SSL certificate was not right. The SSL certificate was signed by an unreliable source and modern browsers provide users with a warning about this. Despite this warning, it was still possible for users to continue once they had clicked off the announcement. In this case, the user arrived at a copy of www.myetherwallet.com, and if he or she used his or her private key in order to make a transaction, that was forwarded to the hacker. This gave the hacker full access to the user’s wallet and the hacker could then steal all of the available cryptocurrency. In what way could the hack have been prevented? During the BGP hijack, as well as shortly afterwards, MyEtherWallet was given the full blame. However, MyEtherWallet could not have prevented this hack in the sense that the hackers did not make use of any vulnerabilities in the MyEtherWallet application. The fact that the checks on advertising IP ranges for BGP are limited was an important factor in this attack. At various points in the chain of advertising the Amazon IP ranges, through to the DNS request for the IP address of www.myetherwallet.com, checks could have been carried out that might have stopped the attack. That is not a standard part of BGP, however, which means that this system is still conducted mainly on the basis of trust. The end user could also have protected himself or herself better by paying attention to the SSL error report provided by the browser. Such warnings are given for a reason, and particularly when it involves money, possibly a great deal of money, it is important that the end user is especially careful. Cryptocurrency attractive to hackers Hackers are always thinking up new ways of carrying out attacks which are aimed at stealing cryptocurrency. A great deal of money is involved in this market nowadays and there is little control over that, which of course makes it an attractive target. Therefore, it remains very important that companies involved in this area give plenty of attention to the quality and security of their product. And it goes without saying, end users must be aware of the dangers and fully understand the risks involved in trading with cryptocurrency. Our hackers
Early markers of chronic disease in people with autism and their caregivers Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are an urgent global mental health problem with an estimated prevalence ~ 1%, concerning 52 million cases and 7.7 million disability adjusted life years1,2. Having an ASD, can give chronic distress during the life course, as shown in small scale studies3,4. People with ASD experience often additional physical complaints and disease5,6,7. Children with ASD displayed 40% more obesity than their peers without ASD, also 94% of the children with ASD had comorbidities, compared to 17% in their peers without ASD5. Comorbidity consisted for example of CNS anomalies, diabetes, epilepsy, bowel disease and schizophrenia5 being precursors of chronic disease in adulthood. However, as systematically reviewed in Muskens et al, the compared studies were of limited to quality due to their study design, and limited systematic diagnostic assessment6. Adults with ASD had more diagnoses of hyperlipidemia, constipation and epilepsy than controls but were less likely to have medication for these diseases than people without ASD in the control group5. Next to cohort studies in which adults with ASD report medical complaints, diverse approaches have been taken to taken to describe the relation between ASD and cancer risk8,9,10. Etiological studies into causes of ASD revealed overlapping genes with risk of cancer as for example the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway. Epidemiological studies displayed that people with ASD seem to have an increased risk for cancer8, specifically concerning ovarian and CNS cancers (neurofibromatosis). Thus, ASD, and at least autistic disorder as specified in the follow-up of the Global Burden of Disease Study, coincides with excess mortality in especially people between 45 and 54 years of age11. Several studies suggest that not ASD itself but comorbid medical disorders and intellectual disability determine this increased mortality12. Comorbid medical conditions resulting in increased mortality comprised respiratory, cardiac and epileptic events12. In summary, medical comorbidity in children and adults with ASD is abundant. However, it is unknown whether there are early markers of these chronic diseases in adults with ASD. Caregivers of children with ASD, defined as adults giving the primary parental care for the child, experience 4-7 times increased distress compared to caregivers of typically developing children resulting in physical and mental problems13–18. Parenting stress was especially associated with externalizing problem behavior in youth with ASD (reviewed in 19). Caregiver distress is a main theme in patient-care of children with ASD as their distress level affects the distress level in the child and vice versa20. In addition to the synergy between caregiver and child distress, caregiver distress may also lead to other health issues such as increased risk of chronic disease in the caregiver which may also result in adverse effects on the child. This bidirectional relation between family environment and child behavior has not only been established by psychological studies, but also by cortisol expression studies in caregivers21–26. Extremely elevated cortisol levels (e.g. in Cushing’s syndrome) are leading to abdominal obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and depression27–29. Maternal caregivers of children with ASD are known for lower hair cortisol levels, greater reward-related eating and worse metabolic function compared to mothers of typically developing children30. Mothers of children with ASD have a 50% higher risk of death, especially by cancer (HR 1.54) compared to non-ASD mothers31. Maternal mortality is hypothesized to be increased due to pre-existing mental and physical disease, and lower self-care due to the care for their child31. Surprisingly, although studies evaluating distress levels in caregivers of children with ASD are already present from at least the 1990s onwards32, explicit physical and mental care for caregivers is not for granted in everyday clinical practice. Besides the absence of regular physical care for caregivers, also early markers of chronic disease are unknown. year of approval • University Medical Center Groningen • Parnassia Psychiatric Institute primary applicant • Hoek, HW
Tag Archives: Menashe The Difference between “Jew” and “Hebrew” This week’s parasha is named after Korach, the rebellious cousin of Moses. Korach felt he had been unfairly slighted. Moses had apparently made himself like a king over the people, then appointed his brother Aaron as high priest. The final straw was appointing another cousin, the younger Elitzaphan, as chief of the Kohatites, a clan of Levites of which Korach was an elder. Where was Korach’s honour? Korach’s co-conspirators were Datan and Aviram, leaders of the tribe of Reuben. They, too, felt like they’d been dealt a bad hand. After all, Reuben was the eldest son of Jacob, and as the firstborn among the tribes, should have been awarded the priesthood. The Sages explain that Reuben indeed should have held the priesthood. Not only that, but as the firstborn, he should have also been the king. Reuben, however, had failed in preventing the sale of Joseph, and had also committed the unforgivable sin of “mounting his father’s bed”. For this latter crime especially, and for being “unstable like water”, Jacob declared that Reuben would “not excel” or live up to being “my first fruit, excelling in dignity, excelling in power” (Genesis 49:3-4). Instead, the status of “firstborn” was awarded to Joseph, who had taken on the mantle of leadership and saved his entire family in a time of terrible drought. Jacob made Joseph the firstborn, and thus gave Joseph a double portion among the Tribes and in the land of Israel. He put Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Menashe in place of his own firsts Reuben and Shimon (Genesis 48:5). Meanwhile, the excellence of “dignity”—the priesthood—went to the third-born son, Levi, and the excellence of power—royalty—went to the fourth son, Judah. (The second-born Shimon was skipped over because he, too, had greatly disappointed his father in slaughtering the people of Shechem, as well as spearheading the attempt to get rid of Joseph.) Levi merited to hold the priesthood because the Levites were the only ones not to participate in the Golden Calf incident (Exodus 32:26). The Book of Jubilees (ch. 32) adds a further reason: Jacob had promised to God that he would tithe everything God gave him (Genesis 28:22), and everything included his children. Jacob thus lined up his sons, and counted them from the youngest up. The tenth son, the tithe, was Levi (who was the third-oldest, or “tenth-youngest”, of the twelve). And so, Levi was designated for the priesthood, to the service of God. Judah merited the royal line for his honesty and repentance—particularly for the sale of Joseph, and for the incident with Tamar. He further established his leadership in taking the reins to safely secure the return of Benjamin. The name Yehudah comes from the root which means “to acknowledge” and “to be thankful”. Judah acknowledged his sins and purified himself of them. Ultimately, all Jews would be Yehudim, the people who are dedicated to repentance and the acknowledgement and recognition of Godliness in the world. Much of a Jew’s life is centered on prayers and blessings, thanking God every moment of the day, with berakhot recited before just about every action. The title Yehudi is therefore highly appropriate to describe this people. Yet, it is not the only title. Long before Yehudi, this people was known as Ivri, “Hebrew”, and then Israel. What is the meaning of these parallel names? Hebrew: Ethnicity or Social Class? The first time we see the term “Hebrew” is in Genesis 14:13, where Abraham (then still called Abram) is called HaIvri. The meaning is unclear. The Sages offer a number of interpretations. The plain meaning of the word seems to mean “who passes” or “who is from the other side”. It may refer to the fact that Abraham migrated from Ur to Charan, and then from Charan to the Holy Land. Or, it may be a metaphorical title, for Abraham “stood apart” from everyone else. While the world was worshipping idols and living immorally, Abraham was “on the other side”, preaching monotheism and righteousness. An alternate approach is genealogical: Ever was the name of a great-grandson of Noah. Noah’s son Shem had a son named Arpachshad, who had a son named Shelach, who had a son named Ever (see Genesis 11). In turn, Ever was an ancestor of Abraham (Ever-Peleg-Reu-Serug-Nachor-Terach-Abraham). Thus, Abraham was called an Ivri because he was from the greater clan of Ever’s descendants. This must have been a powerful group of people recognized across the region, as attested to by Genesis 10:21, which makes sure to point out that Shem was the ancestor of “all the children of Ever”. Amazingly, archaeological evidence supports this very notion. “Habiru” in ancient cuneiform From the 18th century BCE, all the way until the 12th century BCE, historical texts across the Middle East speak of people known as “Habiru” or “Apiru”. The Sumerians described them as saggasu, “destroyers”, while other Mesopotamian and Egyptian texts describe them as mercenary warriors, slaves, rebels, nomads, or outlaws. Today, historians agree that “Habiru” refers to a social class of people that were somehow rejected or outcast from greater society. These were unwanted people that did not “fit in”. That would explain why Genesis 43:32 tells us that Joseph ate apart from the Egyptians, because “the Egyptians did not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that was an abomination to the Egyptians.” One of the “Habiru” described in Egyptian texts are the “Shasu YHW” (Egyptian hieroglyphs above), literally “nomads of Hashem”. Scholars believe this is the earliest historical reference to the Tetragrammaton, God’s Ineffable Name, YHWH. Defining “Hebrew” as an unwanted, migrating social class also solves a number of other issues. For example, Exodus 21:2 introduces the laws of an eved Ivri, “a Hebrew slave”. When many people read this passage, they are naturally disturbed, for it is unthinkable that God would permit a Jew to purchase another Jew as a slave. Yet, the Torah doesn’t say that this is a Jew at all, but an Ivri which, as we have seen, may refer to other outcasts from an inferior social class. The Habiru are often described as slaves or servants in the historical records of neighbouring peoples, so it appears that the Torah is actually speaking of these non-Jewish “Hebrews” that existed at the time. Regardless, the Torah shows a great deal of compassion for these wanderers, and sets limits for the length of their servitude (six years), while ensuring that they live in humane conditions. Rebels and Mystics Though he was certainly no slave or brigand, Abraham was undoubtedly a “rebel” in the eyes of the majority. To them, he was a “criminal”, too, as we read in the Midrash describing his arrest and trial by Nimrod the Babylonian king. Abraham spent much of his life wandering from one place to another, so the description of “nomad” works. So does “warrior”, for we read of Abraham’s triumphant military victory over an unstoppable confederation of four kings that devastated the entire region (Genesis 14). There is no doubt, then, that Abraham would have been classified as a “Habiru” in his day. His descendants carried on the title. By the turn of the 1st millennium BCE, it seems that all the other Ivrim across the region had mostly disappeared, and only the descendants of Abraham, now known as the Israelites, remained. The term “Hebrew”, therefore, became synonymous with “Israelite” and later with Yehudi, “Judahite” or “Jew”. (This is probably why later commentators simply assumed that the Torah was speaking about Jewish slaves in the Exodus 21 passage discussed above.) To this day, in many cultures and languages the term for a “Jew” is still “Hebrew”. In Russian it is yivrei, in Italian it is ebreo, and in Greek evraios. In other cultures, meanwhile, “Hebrew” is used to denote the language of the Jews. It is Hebrew in English, hebräisch in German, hébreu in French. In fact, another rabbinic theory for the origins of the term Ivri is that it refers specifically to the language. In Jewish tradition, Hebrew is lashon hakodesh, “the Holy Tongue” through which God created the universe when He spoke it into existence. The language contains those mystical powers, and because the wicked people of the Tower of Babel generation abused it, their tongues were confounded in the Great Dispersion. At that point, God divided the peoples into seventy new ethnicities, each with its own language, giving rise to the multitude of languages and dialects we have today. A possible language tree to unify all of the world’s major tongues, based on the work of Stanford University Professor Joseph Greenberg. (Credit: angmohdan.com) Hebrew did not disappear, though. It was retained by the two most righteous people of the time: Shem and Ever. According to tradition, they had built the first yeshiva, an academy of higher learning. Abraham had visited them there, and Jacob spent some fourteen years studying at their school. The Holy Tongue was preserved, and Jacob (who was renamed Israel) taught it to his children, and onwards it continued until it became the language of the Israelites. Alternatively (or concurrently), Abraham learned the Hebrew language from his righteous grandfather Nachor, the great-grandson of Ever. We read of the elder Nachor (not to be confused with Nachor the brother of Abraham) that he had an uncharacteristically short lifespan for that time period (Genesis 11:24-25). This is likely because God took him away so that he wouldn’t have to live through the Great Dispersion. (Nachor would have died around the Hebrew year 1996, which is when the Dispersion occurred. The Sages similarly state that God took the righteous Methuselah, the longest-living person in the Torah, right before the Flood.) Interestingly, we don’t see much of an association between the Hebrew language and the Hebrew people in the Tanakh. Instead, the language of the Jews is called, appropriately, Yehudit, as we read in II Kings 18:26-28, Isaiah 36:11-13, Nechemiah 13:24, and II Chronicles 32:18. The term Yehudit may be referring specifically to the dialect of Hebrew spoken by the southern people of Judah, which was naturally different than the dialect used in the northern Kingdom of Israel. Israel and Jeshurun The evidence leads us to believe that “Hebrew” was a wider social class in ancient times, and our ancestors identified themselves (or were identified by others) as “Hebrew”. This was the case until Jacob’s time. He was renamed Israel, and his children began to be referred to as Israelites, bnei Israel, literally the “children of Israel”. The twelve sons gave rise to an entire nation of people called Israel. The Torah tells us that Jacob was named “Israel” because “he struggled with God, and with men, and prevailed” (Genesis 32:29). Jewish history really is little more than a long struggle of Israel with other nations, and with our God. We stray from His ways so He incites the nations against us to remind us who we are. Thankfully, throughout these difficult centuries, we have prevailed. Within each Jew is a deep yearning to connect to Hashem, hinted to in the name Israel (ישראל), a conjunction of Yashar-El (ישר-אל), “straight to God”. This is similar to yet another name for the people of Israel that is used in the Tanakh: Yeshurun. In one place, Moses is described as “king of Yeshurun” (Deuteronomy 33:5), and in another God declares: “Fear not, Jacob my servant; Yeshurun, whom I have chosen.” (Isaiah 44:2) Yeshurun literally means “upright one”. This is what Israel is supposed to be, and why God chose us to begin with. “Israel” and “Yeshurun” have the same three-letter root, and many believe these terms were once interchangeable. The Talmud (Yoma 73b) states that upon the choshen mishpat—the special breastplate of the High Priest that contained a unique stone for each of the Twelve Tribes—was engraved not Shivtei Israel, “tribes of Israel”, but Shivtei Yeshurun, “tribes of Yeshurun”. What is a Jew? By the middle of the 1st millenium BCE, only the kingdom of the tribe of Judah remained. Countless refugees from the other eleven tribes migrated to Judah and intermingled with the people there. Then, Judah itself was destroyed, and everyone was exiled to Babylon. By the time they returned to the Holy Land—now the Persian province of Judah—the people were simply known as Yehudim, “Judahites”, or Jews. Whatever tribal origins they had were soon forgotten. Only the Levites (and Kohanim) held on to their tribal affiliation since it was necessary for priestly service. As already touched on previously, it was no accident that it was particularly the name of Yehuda that survived. After all, the purpose of the Jewish people is to spread knowledge of God, and within the name Yehuda, יהודה, is the Ineffable Name of God itself. This name, like the people that carry it, is meant to be a vehicle for Godliness. Perhaps this is why the term Yehudi, or Jew is today associated most with the religion of the people (Judaism). Hebrew, meanwhile, is associated with the language, or sometimes the culture. Not surprisingly, early Zionists wanted to detach themselves from the title of “Jew”, and only use the term “Hebrew”. Reform Jews, too, wanted to be called “Hebrews”. In fact, the main body of Reform in America was always called the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. It was only renamed the “Union for Reform Judaism” in 2003! All of this begs the question: what is a Jew? What is Judaism? Is it a religion? An ethnicity or culture? A people bound by some common history or language? By the land of Israel, or by the State of Israel? It cannot be a religion, for many Jews want absolutely nothing to do with religion. There are plenty who proudly identify as atheists and as Jews at the same time. We are certainly not a culture or ethnicity, either, for Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Mizrachi Jews, Ethiopian Jews, all have very different customs, traditions, and skin colours. Over the centuries, these groups have experienced very different histories, too, and have even developed dozens of other non-Hebrew Judaic languages (Yiddish, Ladino, Bukharian, and Krymchak are but a few examples). So, what is a Jew? Rabbi Moshe Zeldman offers one terrific answer. He says that, despite the thousands of years that have passed, we are all still bnei Israel, the children of Israel, and that makes us a family. Every member of a family has his or her own unique identity and appearance, and some members of a family may be more religious than others. Family members can live in distant places, far apart from each other, and go through very different experiences. New members can marry into a family, or be adopted, and every family, of course, has its issues and conflicts. But at the end of the day, a family is strongly bound by much more than just blood, and comes together when it really matters. And this is precisely what Moses told Korach and his supporters in this week’s parasha. Rashi (on Numbers 16:6) quotes Moses’ response: Among each of the other nations, there are multiple sects and multiple priests, and they do not gather in one house. But we have none other than one God, one Ark, one Torah, one altar, and one High Priest… There is something particularly singular about the Jewish people. We are one house. We are a family. Let’s act like one. Mysteries of the Twelve Tribes and the Borders of Israel In this week’s parasha, Shoftim, we read about the six “cities of refuge” that God commanded the Israelites to establish. These cities were places where an inadvertent murderer could take refuge. The Torah gives an example: two people are chopping trees when the axe of one suddenly breaks, flinging the sharp end and killing the other person accidentally. It is understandable that the victim’s family might want to take revenge and pursue the inadvertent murderer. The Torah states that the inadvertent murderer should flee to the nearest city of refuge, where the victim’s family has no right to pursue him, and where he will be protected by Levites. Six Cities of Refuge Six Cities of Refuge Of the six refuge cities, three were on the west side of the Jordan River – within the proper borders of the Holy Land – and three on the east side of the Jordan, where the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Menashe settled. The Arizal explains that this allowed Moses to fulfil an important mitzvah – after all, Moses himself was an inadvertent murderer! Back in Egypt, he had accidentally killed the Egyptian officer who was senselessly beating an Israelite slave. The Arizal states that Moses only wished to defend the Jew, but ended up killing the Egyptian inadvertently. While Moses was forbidden from entering the Holy Land, he was permitted to traverse the territories on the east side of the Jordan, so by establishing cities of refuge there, Moses could finally fulfil the mitzvah of an inadvertent murderer. Tribal Border of Israel Tribal Borders of Israel A bigger question one might ask is why were the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Menashe settled outside of the Holy Land to begin with? The Torah tells us the simple meaning: the Reubenites and Gadites liked the land on the east side of the Jordan, and were more than happy to settle there. Moses wanted half the tribe of Menashe to join them, perhaps to keep an eye on them to make sure they fulfil their vow in helping the rest of the Israelites conquer and settle the Holy Land. Of course, nothing in the Torah is without its deeper meaning. If Reuben, Gad, and half of Menashe were settled outside of the land, there must be a good spiritual reason for it. The Arizal gives us some incredible mystical insights into the matter. Conception in Holiness After seven years of hard labour, Jacob was ready to marry his beloved Rachel. Instead, his father-in-law Laban tricked him by having him marry Leah. That night, Leah conceived. However, the whole time Jacob thought he was with Rachel! Thus, Reuben was conceived through trickery and deception, bringing a certain spiritual stain upon him. Later on, Reuben “mounted the bed” of his father (Genesis 35:22, 49:4), and apparently slept with Jacob’s wife Bilhah (originally Rachel’s maidservant). Therefore, Reuben lost his status as the firstborn son. Instead, the firstborn status went to Joseph, who was meant to be the firstborn all along since Jacob intended to marry Rachel. In Torah law, the firstborn receives a double portion from his father’s inheritance, and so, Joseph had two tribes – and two territories – issue from him, that of Menashe and Ephraim. After Reuben’s birth, Jacob and Leah had Shimon, Levi, and Judah. These three were conceived in holiness, without any deception. At this point, Rachel was still childless so she suggested that Jacob use her maidservant Bilhah as a surrogate. Bilhah had two children: Dan and Naftali. Now it was Leah’s turn to be jealous. Seeing that she stopped having children, Leah gave her own maidservant Zilpah to Jacob as a surrogate. Zilpah conceived and Leah called the child Gad. Peculiarly, the Torah states that Leah named him thus from the word bagad. This word literally means “traitor”. To avoid negative connotations, the word is traditionally split in two and read as ba gad, “luck has come”. But the Torah makes no such division. In fact, Rashi comments here that Leah said bagad because she felt like Jacob had cheated on her! Perhaps she regretted giving her maidservant to her beloved husband. twelvetribesmosaicThe Arizal goes further, pointing out another deception based on a careful reading of the verses. The night that Gad was conceived, Jacob was supposed to be with Leah. Instead, Leah wanted children so badly that she secretly had Zilpah go in her place! Jacob was deceived yet again. This child, too, would have a spiritual stain upon him, like Reuben. Zilpah went on to have one more child, Asher. The Arizal says that this name (אשר) is an anagram of rosh (ראש), “head”, since this time Jacob was in his right mind and had the correct intentions. After this, Leah would have two more sons conceived in holiness, and Rachel would have her own two. Of the twelve sons, we see that two came into the world through deceit, and carried a certain spiritual defect. Thus, these two tribes – Reuben and Gad – were ultimately excluded from settling in the Holy Land. What about the half-territory of Menashe? Spiritual Genetics Menashe was the firstborn son of Joseph. The Torah tells us that Joseph was married in Egypt to a woman named Osnat (Asenath), the daughter of an Egyptian priest. To solve the mystery of Menashe’s territory, we need to delve further into Osnat’s origins. The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni, Beresheet 134) fills in the missing details. After Leah had six sons, she had a seventh child, a daughter named Dinah. When Jacob returned to the Holy Land after twenty years with Laban, he settled in Shechem, and Dinah went out to meet “the daughters of the land” (Genesis 34:1). A young man named Shechem (not to be confused with the city of the same name) seduced Dinah and raped her. In their rage, Dinah’s two older brothers Shimon and Levi slaughtered Shechem and his compatriots. Jacob was not very happy with his violent sons, and for this reason, neither Shimon nor Levi would inherit complete territories in the Holy Land. Instead, each tribe received a number of cities interspersed among the territories of their fellow tribes. Meanwhile, Dinah had conceived a child with Shechem. A daughter was born, which Shimon and Levi wanted to get rid of as well. To protect her, Jacob wrote a certain Divine Name on a piece of gold and tied it around her neck when she was abandoned (or fled). The girl hid in a bush, hence her name Osnat, which comes from the root s’neh, “bush”. The angel Michael (or in other versions, Gabriel) saved the girl and brought her to Egypt, to be raised by an Egyptian priest, Potiphar (or Poti-Phera), and his barren wife (named Zuleikha, according to Sefer HaYashar). Joseph met Osnat while working as a servant in the priest’s home. He knew he was meant to marry her because of the Divine Name on her special golden necklace. The Arizal explains that Osnat’s spiritual make-up contained a holy portion (from Dinah) and an unholy portion (from Shechem). Joseph’s spiritual make-up, from Jacob and Rachel, was entirely holy. In conceiving Ephraim, Osnat’s holy portion combined with Joseph’s holy portion; in conceiving Menashe, however, it was Osnat’s unholy part that combined with Joseph’s, making their firstborn half pure and half impure. For this reason, half of the tribe of Menashe was inside the borders of the Holy Land, and half was outside! In this way, the Arizal gives us a beautiful explanation of why Reuben, Gad, and half of Menashe were excluded from the Holy Land. Of course, when Mashiach comes and all of the spiritual rectifications are complete, the borders of the Holy Land will expand “from the Nile to the Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18), or from the Red Sea to the Euphrates (Exodus 23:31), and the territories of Reuben, Gad, and all of Menashe will indeed be part of the Holy Land. May we merit to see this day soon. The Stones, Symbols, and Flags of the Twelve Tribes of Israel Bamidbar is the fourth book of the Torah, and the name of its first parasha. It is known in English as “Numbers”, since it begins with a detailed census of the Jewish population in the wilderness. We are given a description of how the nation was organized in their camps: the tribes of Yehuda, Issachar, and Zevulun were positioned towards the East; Reuven, Shimon, and Gad to the South; Ephraim, Menashe, and Binyamin to the West; and Dan, Asher, and Naphtali to the North. The Levites and kohanim were in the centre. We are told that each of the tribes had their own flag, just as in a large military formation. What did these flags look like? Which colours did they bear, and what symbols graced them? Modern Rendition of the Choshen, the High Priest's Breastplate Modern Rendition of the Choshen, the High Priest’s Breastplate In an intriguing passage, the Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:7) provides a summary of the flags’ appearance. It begins by telling us that the colours of the flags corresponded to the colours of the stones that were on the Choshen (or Breastplate) of the High Priest. The High Priest was commanded to wear a special breastplate that had twelve precious stones, one for each of the twelve tribes. Each stone had a symbolic meaning unique to that particular tribe. Jasmine flower Jasmine flower Reuven’s was the odem, a ruby, and so his flag was red. The symbol on the flag was the duda’im, flowers that Reuven had picked for his mother Leah (Genesis 30:14). It was on account of these flowers that Leah went on to have three more children. Duda’im is often translated as “mandrakes”, though according to Rashi they were of the Jasmine plant. Shimon had the pitdah, probably topaz, and his flag was green. The symbol upon the flag was an image of the city of Shechem. This is in memory of the episode where Shimon (together with his younger brother Levi) took up swords to decimate the Shechem population after the abduction and rape of their sister Dinah (Genesis 34). Levi’s was bareket, possibly an emerald or onyx, and the flag had three bands of colours: white, black, and red. Upon the flag was an image of the Urim V’Tumim, the mystical objects kept within the High Priest’s breastplate that were apparently used for communication with the Divine. Modern-day Coat of Arms of Jerusalem, with the Lion of Judah Yehuda had nofech, a stone more difficult to identify, with different opinions holding that it was either red, green, or blue. The Midrash here describes the flag as blue like the skies. Emblazoned upon it was the image of a lion. Before his passing, Jacob blessed each of his twelve sons, and in his blessing, he described Yehuda as a lion (Genesis 49:9). The lion would later become associated with the Davidic dynasty of kings (which hails from the tribe of Yehuda), and with the seat of their throne in Jerusalem, a city that goes by a number of names, including Ariel (“God’s lion”). Issachar’s was a sapphire (or lapis lazuli) stone, and his flag was of a very dark blue colour. Upon it was the image of the sun and moon. The Midrash explains why, citing I Chronicles 12:33, which describes the people of Issachar as being wise in astronomical and chronological matters. Zevulun had a yahalom, today’s Hebrew word for diamond, though there may be other possibilities. Zevulun’s flag was white, and bore a depiction of a ship, again based on Jacob’s blessing to the tribe to be successful sea-going merchants, and live along the Israeli coastline (Genesis 49:13). Dan had leshem, amber, with a flag of a sapphire-like colour (despite the fact that amber is typically golden-red). Upon the flag was the symbol of a snake, once more based on Jacob’s blessing (v. 17). Likewise, Gad’s flag bore the image of a military camp (v. 19), on a black and white background, based on Gad’s stone of shevo, a black agate or obsidian. Amethyst, the Greek root of which is literally "not intoxicating" Amethyst, the Greek root of which is literally “not intoxicating” Naphtali had achlamah, the purple amethyst. His flag was of a similar colour, described by the Midrash as pure wine that isn’t too strong. It is interesting that the Midrash should compare it to wine, since amethyst was believed in ancient times to keep one sober and prevent drunkenness. Upon the flag was an image of a gazelle, also from Jacob’s blessing (v. 21). Asher’s stone of tarshish is certainly the least identifiable of the dozen. Opinions range from chrysolite and coal to flint and hyacinth. The Midrash doesn’t help in clarifying the matter, describing the flag as similar to the colour of an expensive jewel stone worn by women. Whatever the case, the image upon the flag was that of an olive tree, since Jacob blessed Asher with fatty riches and delicacies (v. 20). In the encampment, the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe were counted separately. On the breastplate, however, they were counted as one, under the banner of their father Yosef. This is because Ephraim and Menashe were not Jacob’s sons, but his grandsons, and on his deathbed, Jacob elevated their status to that of his own sons. Thus, we always maintain that there are twelve tribes: if we include the priestly Levites in the count, then Ephraim and Menashe are combined into one, Yosef, to ensure twelve. If we do not include the Levites since, after all, they are in a different class (and did not inherit any land for that matter), Ephraim and Menashe are counted independently of each other. The stone of Yosef was shoham, which also has a number of opinions to its identity. The Midrash tells us that the flag was black, which supports the suggestion that shoham is malachite, a stone that has dark green and black colours. Ephraim’s black flag had a bull depicted on it. This is drawn from Moses’ final blessing to the tribes of Yosef (Deuteronomy 33:17), which the Midrash quotes. (Jacob’s blessing also mentions the word for a bull, but it is translated differently there.) The Midrash also tells us that the bull represents Joshua, who was of the tribe of Ephraim. Based on the same verse in Moses’ blessing, Menashe’s black flag had a re’em, a horned animal sometimes translated as a unicorn, or perhaps an ox or even a rhinoceros. Again, the Midrash points out that this represented the Biblical judge Gideon, who was of the tribe of Menashe. Last but not least, Binyamin’s flag famously depicted a wolf, based on Jacob’s description (Genesis 49:27). The stone of Binyamin was the yashfe, another unidentified one. The Midrash tells us that Binyamin’s flag had a mix of the colours of all the other tribal flags. This is likely due to the fact that Binyamin was the beloved little brother of the family, and all of his older siblings, though sometimes at odds with one another, always united to protect him. It is said that this is the reason why the Holy of Holies in the Temple was specifically in the territory of Binyamin (while the rest of the Temple was in the land of Yehuda), since the whole nation put aside their differences and united as one when it came to the smallest of their brothers.
How to Write an Autobiography in 31 Steps How to Write an Autobiography in 31 Steps If you're thinking about writing an autobiography, then you've come to the right place. In this article, we will be telling you all about how to write an autobiography - breaking it down and helping you along with the process. 1. How to Write an Autobiography So you want to know how to write an autobiography? First off, let's start with what an autobiography is. Put simply, a biography is a book written about someone's life. It includes all elements of their life, particularly featuring any significant events that took place. The word 'autobiography' is made up of the two Greek words 'autos' and 'bios', meaning self and life. Put them together and you get a book that is a mix of who you are, and the life you have lived. 2. Memoir vs. Autobiography Before you start any kind of writing process, it is important to know what kind of a book it is you are wanting to write. There is no way to know how to write an autobiography if you can't distinguish the two. Memoir and autobiography are often plumped into the same genre, because they are both about someone's life. But they are two genres of their own. So here's the difference: It's pretty simple - if the book is about the person's entire life - it's an autobiography; if it's about one or two events, themes or memories within their life, it's a memoir. Knowing the difference will save you time and energy. It will also help you to shape and plan your book (if that's your style). You can always change your mind and switch genres, but at least you will know what you are doing and how both of them work. Whichever you choose will change a lot about your book - particularly the content you choose to include and the structure of the entire piece. Memoir is the perfect platform to share your personal life experience, and you don't have to share every other significant moment of your life. (A wise decision if only one really interesting thing has happened to you during your lifetime.) Writing an autobiography is much different. While they are both to do with the author's life, biography is more to do with what happened throughout your life. That means all significant events from birth 'till now. If you set out to write a biography and it turns into a memoir, this is not a problem. The problem is when you don't know what you're doing at all. This leads to confusion in the writing process. And a lack of professionalism outside of it. 3. Read A great way to learn how to write an autobiography is to read. A lot. Reading other autobiographies will give you an idea of which direction to go in and how this genre is structured. It can also help you to develop your style and tone of voice, and to pinpoint which writing techniques you find most effective. All good tools to have in your writing toolbox. Here are a few examples of autobiographies you might want to read: • My Autobiography, Charlie Chaplin (1964) • The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin • Long walk to freedom, Nelson Mandela • The story of my experiments with truth, Mahatma Gandhi • The story of my life, Helen Keller • The autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, Malcolm X • An Autobiography, Agatha Christie (1965)) • The confessions of St. Augustine, Augustine of Hippo • Scar tissue, Anthony Kiedis, Larry Sloman • Open: An Autobiography, Andre Agassi • Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi • Autobiography of a yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda 4. When to Write an Autobiography Experience and youth. Photograph by Ivette Ivens. Source: Cellini (1500-1571) wrote one of the finest autobiographies of the renaissance. He stated: Knowing how to write an autobiography can have a lot to do with your life experiences. This fact brings into question the age of the reader. Many biographies are written later on in life, when experience has been gathered and there are many exciting moments to draw from. But this isn't always the case. If you are a younger writer and feel that your life has been sufficiently fantastic, or you feel a growing desire to get down all of the details of your childhood days, there is no rule that says you can't. So don't let others' perceptions stop you. Twenty-one-year-old Edouard Louis, for example, published a hugely successful fictional autobiography (aka an autofiction), The end of Eddy about his childhood and adolescence. So it is possible. Sorry Cellini. That said, an older, more experienced writer may have an easier time writing an autobiography, simply because they have more material to draw from. 5. Theme Like memoir, autobiographies tend to center around a theme, even though you are including many life events. That is because people tend to also be themed, in a way. Want to know how to start an autobiography? Thinking about theme can be a useful way in. If you are a professional dancer, and that is the passion of your life, it makes sense that your book would also center around the theme of dancing and how you reached that success. If you are ghostwriting for a celebrity, naturally they will be famous for something in particular. The main theme, of course, is the person's life. But that is not enough to sustain interest across time. So bear in mind a secondary theme that ties it all together. If your theme or themes are relatable, then that will stand you in good stead. If you are not writing a glitzy celeb autobiography, then having a very relatable and original theme is more likely to find a readership than any other. Be careful not to choose and manufacture your theme, however. If you are meant to write an autobiography, you will likely already feel compelled to write about your life. So try not to put too much thought into it. Just keep it in mind, as it will keep you on track. 6. How to Pick a Theme How to start an autobiography? One way is to pick a theme. And stick to it. One way of picking a theme is to choose an aspect of your personality that you feel is awesome and make that your sole focus. Maybe you're great at maths, for example. Perhaps you made it to the world championships on mathematics or something. That would be a story worth telling. Another is to look at your philosophy in life and make that the focal point of your book. Showing your values throughout the book can inspire and uplift the reader as it can show a good example of a life well-lived. It also reveals quite clearly who you are as a person, without you having to explicitly spell it out. A third would be to consider the things that are most important to you in your life and to make a reference to these as you work your way through each significant event mentioned in your book. (This works especially well if you are writing an autobiography for those who know you.) 7. Exceptions You might also be wanting to know how to write an autobiography, because you want to share your story with your family. This is an admirable reason to write a story. It means that your family will always have a special connection to you through story, no matter what. It also means that generations to come will have that link to their own past and history. From that sense, everybody should write one! This kind of story can even be compiled as an oral history of your families' history and lives, which makes for an extremely personal keepsake. Autobiographies are sometimes written in short form, as essays for college assignments. This is a similar exercise to writing a full book, but in a condensed format. Another form of autobiography is as an autofiction. This book is based mostly upon autobiographical content, but is also a work of fiction. This is an easy way of avoiding any concerns you might have about privacy. If you are wanting to distance yourself a little and take more control over the content, then this may be the way to go. You can also consider other formats, such as writing an autobiographical graphic novel, which has the essence of cool written all over it. If you are an artist or have a passion for strong visuals, this is something to consider. 8. How to Plan “Look for the times when your life changed the most, and when you changed the most, those are the times of peak drama in your life.” Janice Erlbaum, The Autobiographer’s Handbook An excellent practice when learning how to start an autobiography, is to begin by writing out all of the significant events in your life. These could be anything; from graduating college, to losing your virginity, to being born. Whatever you think is most important and noteworthy, write it down. You can later play with the order of events if you like, to shake things up a little bit, but for now, just get anything and everything you can think of written down. When considering how to write an autobiography, it seems to be the most natural of all genres to plan. This is because within it's very construction there is a presumption of what it will be about: events in your life. From this sense, it is already set up for you. In some ways, this makes writing a lot easier. On the other hand, the risk that easy planning poses, is boredom. For the reader or yourself. The challenge then becomes, how to make these life events interesting and stand out. But we'll get to that a bit later on... Nb If you are a pantser (someone who likes to write by the seat of your pants) then you might want to skip this step. In all likelihood you have something in mind to write about, so just start there. 9. Writing Schedule A schedule helps you to get things done. You will know what works best for you after trying a few things out. You could try planning out how much you are going to write by the hour (i.e. I will write for an hour a day, every weekday) or by word count (I will write 500 words a day). Be realistic and don't overwhelm yourself. If you are too overambitious, you may find you end up not writing at all. Otherwise, you could aim to write a certain section of the book per week or month if that works better for you. Because autobiography is so clearly and easily arranged into story beats (was born, had first pimple, dyed hair red etc.) organizing your writing by these events works for almost all writers, even if you are not a fan of planning. Ask yourself the question, what's the minimum I could manage on a regular basis? And be honest. Everyone has their own writing style, including the way they schedule (or don't schedule) their writing habits. So don't ever let anyone tell you how you should be writing. It's up to you. 10. How to Start an Autobiography The blank page. Source: Well, now you have a list of important events in your life, starting to write should be pretty straight forward. If you don't like planning, it's even simpler, just pinpoint a significant moment in time and get to work! If you have a plan, all you need to do is start writing out a first draft of each event. Next up we have a few tips and tricks to get you started. 11. Go Digging While figuring out how to write an autobiography, you will want to have everything you are writing as fresh and vivid in your mind as possible. This clarity will translate onto the page and give your readers a strong impression of each moment. To do this, you will be wanting to dig out any old photos of you and whomever you might be writing about, and begin filing things away for each chapter or section of the book. You also might find it beneficial to interview anyone who remembers what happened. This can bring a new light on old events. Try using a recorder or dictaphone and typing up the best bits once you're done. 12. Fill Up Your Senses A good way to get into the moment before a writing session is to surround yourself with the materials relating to that particular event. Look at photos or listen to recordings from around that time, and jot down any thoughts you might have about them. You may also want to listen to some music from the time. If you have any old clothes or keepsakes from the person, you will also want them to be around or near as you write. Listen to any interviews about the time or the characters before writing. 13. Write a letter If you're struggling to start writing, you can try writing a letter to yourself or to other members of the family from the time. This is a very personal way of connecting with the past. Remembering your connection to your characters will help your writing to flow more easily and mean you have material to draw from before you even start writing. 14. Emotions Writing about certain life events is likely to be emotional. Say you had a car crash when you were younger, or had to deal with some maltreatment of some kind, this will impact your writing, and how you feel about it. It can be a difficult balance. You need to care enough about your subject matter to write it. But you don't want your emotions to take over to the point where style and the content of your book suffers. While feeling impassioned by your writing, it is also important to be able to step back and take a second look at your viewpoint. This may take several rewrites to get right. If you are finding it difficult, then consider writing out as many different viewpoints of the event as you possibly can. This will open up how you see it and may even lead to an inspiring revelation for both you and your book. 15. New Insights One of the benefits of learning how to write an autobiography, is that, as you develop as a writer, new insights will likely occur. So while emotions can run high, it is good to know that writing about anything difficult that has happened in your life can help you psychologically. Dr. James Pennebaker, a professor at Austin Texas university discovered that students who wrote for just fifteen minutes a day over three days about difficult or emotional experiences had a better level of wellbeing. He found that going through the process was upsetting for them, but it was the new insights the students discovered through the process of writing, that led to their improved levels of psychological health. 16. Take Care As with memoir, if you feel that it is too much to write any subject matter, always take a break and come back to it (or not). Your mental health and general wellbeing are always more important than a book. 17. Know Your Why Make sure that you don't add in topics or incidents simply to vent about them. Instead, get all your feelings out about it during your first draft, and then start with a fresh perspective. If your writing is only about venting, it will not interest the reader. You may come across as petty or whiny. Instead, you will want to make sure you can see the benefit of sharing your experiences with people. When you truly know how to write an autobiography, it should empower and enlighten people and help them connect to your story, rather than reading like an unfinished diary entry. It is perfectly acceptable for it to start out that way. But by the end of your writing process, you should be confident in the purpose of why you are writing your book, and what kind of impact it will have on its readers. Knowing why you are writing will keep you on the right track, and help you like a compass in the storm, when you are lost. 18. Tone of Voice An important aspect of telling your story will be your narrative style and tone of voice. This completely depends upon who you are writing for and the purpose of your book. If you are writing for your grandchildren, for example, you may use more simplistic language. If you are writing for a broader audience, then you may use a more neutral tone. Writing for friends? You might want to use more familial or colloquial terms. This also depends a lot on what kind of person you are, and you will want your attitude and personality to be reflected in your writing. This should happen naturally, but don't be afraid to write as if you are talking or to use a recording device and write up your account of each chapter afterwards. Pro tip: Relax. You won't find your tone of voice by constantly thinking about how you might come across. Just write as you think and your natural expression will do the rest. 19. First or Third Person? You can experiment with viewpoint as you go along, but once you have chosen, you will be wanting to stick with it. Third person gives us the feeling it has been written by someone else. So, if you are employing a ghostwriter or are working on a fictional work, then this is a good way to go. First person is the generally accepted viewpoint for most autobiographies, because it is your story, and you are the one writing it. 20. Conflict As you recall the people in your life, adding in any conflicts, even if they are comical, will add to the richness of the book. Conflict drives drama, intrigue and interest. And that's what you want, if you want your book read, that is. 21. Story Arc The hero's journey. Source: One of the most critical components of how to write an autobiography is story arc. Like most genres of story, autobiography is no exception and will need some sort of an all-encompassing story arc. This is one of the main challenges you may face while writing this kind of book. It simply can't be a long list of events and then an ending. They have to all meld together cohesively in order to have some sort of an impact on your reader. A story arc gives writers a structure, in which our main character aims to do something, and then either manages (or doesn't) to achieve it. There are normally many obstacles in the protagonist's way, and they must overcome them. Simply put, our main character must get from A to B. And you will need to decide at some point, what your start and end points in the story will be. This ties into your overall message in the book. The great thing about autobiography is that it basically tells your reader who you are as a person. You can start by making a note of your core beliefs and who you feel you are as a person before you begin. But don't be surprised if, as you write, you reveal a value you hold that you had never especially acknowledged. This is a true gift to the reader, to leave them with your wisdom or knowledge. Your philosophy can play a big role in the book, as it has likely led you to make certain decisions and can be featured and interlaced with certain events when your process of decision making was integral to the direction of your life. 22. Comedy and Funny Anecdotes While you don't want to overdo it on the comedy (unless it is a comedic autobiography, in which case, carry on!) a little comic relief can work wonders in this genre. It can lighten the mood and even make sad moments even more poignant. Funny stories specific to your family can add to the color of your characters, so they don't fall flat. 23. Where to Begin? Think about when you might want to start your story. The logical point to start is from birth, but as your writing evolves over time, you may change your mind. You may want to add some perspective about your life from before you were even born. Your heritage may also be a large influence on who you are as a person today. Once you have written a full first draft, you can consider changing around the order. Editing in this way can make for a more dynamic and varied read. If placed in the right way, you can even add in a plot twist or add to the suspense of your book. 24. Consider Your Reader Don't rest on your laurels. This can especially be a risk if you are writing only for friends or family. Just because someone knows you, it doesn't mean your story will automatically become interesting to them. It will likely make it more interesting than if you were a random passerby, true. But this is not something to take for granted. This point can be ignored during the first draft, but as you begin to develop your story, it becomes an implicit part of the process. If you are wanting your book to sell, this becomes even more important as the reader's interest and word of mouth can mean the difference between a book being put down or another sale. 25. How to Make Events More Colorful Once you have written the thing, you will want to make sure that it is an interesting read. Even if you are writing just for friends and family, they will want to be excited by your life. And surely, that is why you are writing this in the first place?! So a few tips to make sure that each story beat pops with color is to: • 1. Keep a notebook with you at all times for when you remember particular details about a person or place. Details will always give your story more originality and color. • 2. Show don't tell - this is always relevant to any kind of writing and autobiography is no exception. Try adding in things you saw, smelt, tasted or touched within the scene. Avoid making a statement and describe what happened in the moment, instead. • 3. Add metaphor or simile- when describing a character or a vivid memory, don't just describe how it looked on the surface. Unless this is not at all your writing style, you can enjoy emphasizing how something made you feel through descriptions that include metaphor. (use ext link for how to use metaphor) For example, 'she was as fit as a fiddle'. • 4. Avoid common descriptive words - words such as 'nice' and 'good' should be considered with great caution once you have reached the third draft of your book. 26. Consider Your Reader An important part of knowing how to write an autobiography, is having an awareness of the reader throughout the entire manuscript. This is not only a book for you. So don't rest on your laurels. 27. Length Many new writers are tempted to leave in every detail of their life. But longer doesn't always equal better - often it means that you simply haven't cut out the parts that aren't needed. So make sure you have your ego in check - don't make your book too long just for the sake of it. Just because it's interesting to you, does not mean every reader will want to know about it - family and friends included. The average autobiography is around 75,000 words long. Much shorter than 60,000 and you might want to find other sources to write about, and any longer than 100,000, you might want to cut it down a bit. 28. Consider Privacy/Confidentiality Much like memoir, autobiography includes characters who are real people. This means that some might be negatively affected by your work. So make sure to talk to those involved and to have an attorney at hand, just in case. If you are unsure about leaving in their real name, it is best to give their character a pseudonym. 29. Editing Both editing your book and getting it proofread will make or break it. That means that you will want to find a professional editor to work with, who knows what she or he is doing. Ideally, you will want to find someone who is experienced in editing autobiography or memoir. Check that you have similar values and that you are both clear on what you are going to be working on, before you start. 30. Proofreading Make sure that all your hard work shows. You can have a strong storyline and everything else in place, but if there's a typo on the front cover, there is no way you will be taken seriously. So, ask friends to check over your manuscript, or better yet, employ a few proofreaders to check it over for you. Don't use the same editor to proofread, as they will find it more challenging to spot minute mistakes by the time they have reread the story more than once. A fresh pair of eyes will likely do a better job. 31. Autobiographies on the Shelf The autobiographies in our bookshops today, you will notice, are mostly written by celebrities. This is because they often have interesting lives that we want to read about. They include incidents that we could never have access to otherwise, in our day to day lives. And that's what makes them so appealing. Most people are not so interested in other's lives, unless they have done something extraordinary. So if you're thinking of writing something purely to try and get it sold, then you might want to rethink the genre you are writing in. We're not saying it doesn't happen that unknown authors sell a lot of autobiographies. It does. It's just a lot less likely. But don't dismay, this is only a problem if that is the only reason you are writing your book. If it is because you feel impassioned to do so, then that is all the reason you need. If it is for your friends and family to read, then you need not worry about big sales or landing a large publisher. It is so easy to self-publish these days on a relatively small budget, that you are pretty much guaranteed to achieve your aim. If you are looking for a book deal, then you might be hard pushed, if you can't say your life has an original element to it at all. If this is the case, consider writing a memoir, instead. There are many more memoirs written by ordinary people with extraordinary stories, than autobiographies. Because people love to hear about how ordinary people overcame the odds. No matter what your reason, if you believe in your book enough to start writing the first page, then don't let anyone stop you from writing the book inside of you. So there you have it. Hopefully you will now feel confident about how to write an autobiography and ready to start. All it takes, is putting pen to paper. Published in Book Writing Tagged in Leave a Reply Your email address will not be published.
Whats New in The Wellnes Corner 1088 Know-About-The-Hazards-Of-Hypervitaminosis Know About The Hazards Of Hypervitaminosis Know About The Hazards Of Hypervitaminosis Many of you know about the Vitamin benefits and its role in the body. You also sometimes feel the requirement of some vitamins like vitamin A, E, D, and C to improve your overall health. There are certain vital things too, which you should be aware off when you plan to consume specific vitamin or a mineral. Let's look into some of the important fat soluble vitamins that can pose danger to health, as it is difficult to be excreted out of the body. Vitamin A Vitamin A is needed for night vision, immune system function, healthy growth etc. Vitamin A toxicity is known as hypervitaminosis A and may occur after taking excessive amounts of vitamin A for a long time. Symptoms of too much vitamin A include fatigue, suppressed appetite, nausea, dizziness, headache and dry skin. In severe cases, excess vitamin A may cause liver damage. Vitamin D Vitamin D is used for treating weak bones (osteoporosis), bone pain and bone loss in people with a condition called hyperparathyroidism. Vitamin D toxicity usually results from taking an excessive amount of vitamin D supplements and not from the diet or too much sun exposure. The main reason for vitamin D toxicity is due to buildup of calcium in your blood, causing symptoms like vomiting, frequent urination, weight loss, poor appetite, kidney problems, confusion etc. Vitamin E Vitamin E is used for treating and preventing diseases like cardio vascular problems, diabetes, skin, pregnancy etc. When excess of Vitamin E builds up in the body it can cause muscle weakness, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, diarrhea, blurred vision and risk of bleeding. Some research suggests that high doses might increase the chance of death and possibly cause other serious side effects. Vitamin K Vitamin K is an essential nutrient for the blood clotting and the healthy bone mineralization. Those with kidney, liver or heart disease or those taking certain synthetic forms of vitamin K may be at risk for side effects of excessive vitamin K consumption. Vitamin K intake may worsen bleeding in those with liver disease and interfere with dialysis in those with kidney disease. Make sure that any Vitamin supplements you consume should be only after the physicians' advice and also check with your Dietitians to avail their requirements from natural sources. You have 250 characters left. Nice information!! 4 Months ago
India is a country which is quite infamous for its sanitation and cleanliness. The chaotic waste management system and urban planning is responsible for the overflowing gutters and scattered waste. The common man has to suffer a lot because of this mismanagement. To add to the poor sanitary conditions, the population load is increasing each day. This has resulted in slums and poverty. The poor and unhealthy living is the primary cause for many health disorders.
Science Competition Autumn Term 18th December 2015 Science Competition Winter 2015: Design an animal that can survive the extreme cold. This term, the first science competition was to design an animal that can survive the extreme cold. There were numerous entries with brilliant designs. It made it very hard for Miss Yaroslaw to pick the winners! There were fluffy animals, different designs of birds and creatures made up with parts from lots of different animals. Runners Up: Sean Magahy, KS2 Milly Payne, KS2 Alyssa Sheldrake, KS2 Sophie Cage, KS2 Keira Tomlinson, KS1 Winners: KS2: Jenna Rose Palmer with a Marmatheet Bear KS1: Rose Price with a Sonepnopeengsoocoep Winners could choose from a variety of prizes. Jenna Rose chose a plane that always returns to you. Rose chose a Sky launcher which you shoot up into the sky and it flies back down with lights. Runners up received a certificate and some sweets. The winning entries are on display in the entrance hall, so make sure you have a look when you next come in! Other entries are displayed in the KS2 corridor. Watch out for the next competition coming Easter 2016!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 The Lyrebird Is a Real-Life Mockingjay by Sara N. In the Hunger Games series, the Mockingjay plays an important symbolic role. The bird, a hybrid of mockingbirds and jabberjays, is able to mimic the songs that it hears from other birds and from humans, and it's no spoiler to say that in the books, the little bird becomes an important symbol for the rebellion. Imagine my surprise, then, when I read an NPR article describing an Australian bird that is also a gifted mimic. Check out this amazing video of a lyrebird: It's nice to know that if Australia is ever torn asunder and the citizens are put under the control of a violent and oppressive Capitol that forces their children to fight to the death in an ultra-bloody televised game, the people will have a symbol of hope to rally them when a leader finally rises. In the meantime, they can enjoy the sounds of avian hammer noises! So if a lyrebird got loose in your house, what kind of noises would it start making? I'm pretty sure mine would be imitating the TiVo "ba-doop ba-doop" sound within the hour. Pin It 1 comment: 1. The lyrebird would most likely imitate the sound of someone saying, "Lilly, no! Bad girl!" because the resident kitten in the S. household is also the resident troublemaker and she embraces that role wholeheartedly.
Disinformation in International Relations: How Important Is It? In: Security and Human Rights This article explores the relevance of disinformation in international relations. It discusses the nature of information manipulation, ways to counter disinformation, and possibilities for international organizations, including the osce, to initiate confidence-building measures. The article suggests that although disinformation becomes an increasingly salient aspect of global politics, its security impact should not be overstated. As in domestic politics, international disinformation parasites on existing divisions and concerns, which it exploits rather than creates. This should not be trivialized. Disinformation is disruptive and it further deteriorates the overall international context. But as yet it is not a significant security challenge, and it does not change the international balance of power. 1 Introduction1 ‘Information has been weaponized, and disinformation has become an incisive instrument of state policy’, according to a recent ‘White Paper’ by the US Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff that singles out the role of information in international relations.2 The report specifies how in relations among states information and disinformation have not only fundamentally changed (‘weaponized’) but have also become much more critical (‘incisive’). A recent Oxford University inventory of organized information manipulation compares 28 countries that engage in these information activities.3 Among these countries is Russia. Allegedly, few other countries are as deeply involved in ‘information warfare’ as Vladimir Putin’s Russia is. There are good reasons to focus on Russia’s international information manipulation, but there is even more reason to emphasize that Russia is far from the only country that engages in these activities. Information manipulation has become a global phenomenon, a prominent instrument in the strategic foreign policy toolkit of a great deal of governments, at bilateral, regional and global levels. This contribution will take a closer look at the impact of disinformation on relations between states, especially within the area of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (osce), and among its member states. Is the manipulation of information as novel and as threatening as the US White Paper and an impressive array of other publications suggest? Literally hundreds of studies on disinformation generally and on information manipulation by Russia specifically have been published during the last few years, by academic institutions, think tanks and international governmental organizations. But how important is disinformation really? And if it is as significant as many suggest, how to effectively counter it? How have national governments and international organizations, including the osce, responded to the threat? States seem to have relatively effectively dealt with earlier technological challenges, nuclear weapons included. Will they also be able to tame the potentially subversive impact of information and communication technology? 2 Disinformation in International Relations Disinformation in the context of international relations concerns the deliberate spread of false or unbalanced information by foreign states (or relevant non-state actors4) with the primary objective to confuse and mislead, to sow disagreement and discord among parts of the population in other countries. The disinforming state’s goal is to strategically benefit from other government decisions which results from these disagreements, and to ultimately increase one’s own relative international influence. In international relations, disinformation or information manipulation is an instrument of foreign policy. All other aspects of information manipulation, among other things disinformation aimed at domestic audiences, by independent non-state actors, or for commercial or amusement purposes, are left undiscussed in this contribution. Disinformation as an instrument of foreign policy can be part of a much larger, much more dangerous complex of international state-led activities in cyber-sphere, including cyber-attacks, hacking and other subversive activities that are often shared under the rather confusing notion of ‘hybrid warfare’.5 Hybrid warfare refers to the full spectrum of war activities, with the exception of full-scale military conflict. War comes with disinformation; but disinformation is not necessarily war. This contribution discusses disinformation only. Other aspects of hybrid warfare are left undiscussed. Disinformation is an age-old aspect of foreign policy and warfare. But it is different today. It is technology, more than intent or content that makes disinformation today rather unlike earlier forms of international information manipulation. Disinformation is not limited to, but it proliferates especially via social media. This largely determines its speed, its reach, and its impact. The basic technique of international disinformation is well-known. Computational systems incentivize and automate media content in ways that result in broader, but also in more focused circulation. Commercial incentives can lead to further spread of unverified and fabricated stories of a political relevance. Hackers, trolls, honey-pots, bots, fake accounts on digital networks, fake grassroots user groups (astroturf) and all other ‘actors’ in the digital sphere flood social media are involved in spreading biased and fake messages and other manipulated information content.6 When state-actors are involved in any of these activities, and when the manipulation of information is deliberately aimed at foreign audiences, we refer to disinformation as an aspect of international relations. Disinformation by foreign states and relevant non-state actors is routinely presented as a major threat to Western democracies and to the international institutions which they built.7 Awareness of the danger of information manipulation for political purposes rose sharply after repeated foreign interferences into the domestic policy process of Western countries, especially during election campaigns. The most notorious cases are the American presidential elections (2016), Brexit (2016), the referendum in the Netherlands on the EU Association Agreement with Ukraine (2016), and the attempted intervention in the French presidential elections in 2017, including the ‘Macron Leaks’. A series of incidents in other European countries (and from other parts of the globe), especially in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine (the unofficial epicentre of international information manipulation) and the Baltic States, added to the international alarm. And there is an additional reason why disinformation is widely considered as a danger to democracy, and that is the current state of democracy itself. Political polarization, declining trust in the institutions of representative democracy, the rise of strongmen politics—the potential impact of disinformation adds to the widespread feeling that liberal democracy is under pressure. Even though it is not difficult to imagine that disinformation may serve the foreign policy interests of states (as it has always done), it is far from easy to identify and expose it. Information manipulation campaigns often combine elements of disinformation with misinformation (information that is unintentionally inaccurate) and truthful information.8 It proves difficult to trace the origins, the source, of a given piece of disinformation, and it is even more problematic to establish the political actors and intentions behind it, the ‘attribution’-factor. But especially in relations among states the attribution issue is crucial. If origin and intent can be suspected but not proven, and this appears to be the case in many instances, responses that go beyond purely defensive measures are problematic, because they will inevitably increase rather than reduce international tension. Disinformation in relations among states is not the preserve of any country or political order in particular, and neither is it a typically modern or novel phenomenon. In a recent report Freedom House 9 registered two simultaneous, and probably not unrelated trends: a decline in internet freedom (China being the worst abuser for the third consecutive year) and an increase in disinformation activities. Among the 65 countries surveyed, more than thirty states engaged in disinformation and influencing activities within and beyond their own borders. Disinformation played a role in elections in at least eighteen states.10 Democracies usually have a full range of checks and balances, which are largely absent among authoritarian governments. These checks and balances neither protect democracies against disinformation, nor do they prevent them from engaging in international disinformation activities. But they do make it more difficult to hide disinformation campaigns or to repress public discussion. One may therefore reasonably assume that the manipulation of information for foreign policy purposes is particularly pertinent in the case of non-democratic, authoritarian regimes. In this context there is no other country that attracts as much attention as Russia does. The European Commission, which considers disinformation as ‘a major challenge’ for Europe,11 identifies Europe’s major non-democratic power, Russia, as the ‘greatest threat’. The Commission defines Russia’s disinformation campaigns as ‘systematic, well-resourced, and on a different scale to other countries’.12 Many researchers and institutions share the Commission’s interpretation. Russia is singled out as the main perpetrator in what is often perceived as an international information war, aimed at influencing and undermining the domestic political processes in multiple countries.13 Consequently, Russia’s international disinformation activities have been widely studied and they are relatively well-documented.14 If one takes as an indication this large number of recent governmental, think tank and academic publications on disinformation, and the range of institutions that have been set up to detect and counter it, disinformation may seem to be an exceptionally powerful phenomenon. The fact that it proves nearly always impossible to measure the impact of disinformation on a target state’s domestic or foreign policies, makes this fixation, especially with the manipulation of information by Russia, all the more remarkable. But perhaps it is precisely this aspect of political uncertainty, in combination with the rapidly evolving and for many difficult to grasp high-tech dimension of disinformation, that makes it such an intriguing and widely-discussed issue. But does this massive interest in international disinformation campaigns warrant its actual significance? Disinformation is not an end in itself; it is supposed to serve a larger political objective. Concretely, in the case of Russia, through provoking changes in the behaviour of other states, disinformation is expected to influence the ‘correlation of forces’ into Russia’s advantage. Russia seeks a strategic benefit through the international manipulation of information. Is there reason to believe that the Kremlin actually meets its ambitions? Can we realistically establish the weight and effectiveness of Russian information manipulation in international relations today? 3 Disinformation and Russia’s Foreign Policy Although Russian disinformation activities seem especially tangible in its neighbouring countries, where minority groups can be relatively easily reached, Russian-language media is plentiful, and powerful (non) state organizations are active as potential proxies (Ukraine, the Baltic States), no single case is better documented than Russia’s interference in the American presidential elections of 2016.15 Disinformation activities that can be credibly traced back to Russia, are almost automatically linked to the country’s political leadership. In other words, in the case of Russia, information manipulation is almost routinely interpreted as political disinformation. It is seen as part of the country’s strategy to undermine the political process in Western democracies and to influence these democracies’ external relations. There is no doubt that Russia-related activities in the sphere of information manipulation are vast. This is credibly shown by the large number of publications and web sites that aim to map out, debunk and counteract these efforts.16 But how effective is the manipulation of information from Russia? As do most governments, the Russian leadership considers information as an important aspect of international relations and geopolitical competition. Ideas and beliefs are seen as key features of global politics and, in line with the realist interpretations of international relations, ideational influence is believed to support material power, and vice versa. Russia’s recent security doctrines all refer to the increasing relevance of information in international relations. After a brief flirt with democratic and political-economic liberal values during the early Yeltsin years, from the mid-1990s the critical part of the Russian leadership perceived the spread of these norms, values and their related political institutions as a threat to Russia. During the first two decades after the Cold War, the West reigned supreme in this global ideational competition, and Russia took a mostly defensive posture. Today, Russia rides on the anti-liberal wave that it helped to initiate, and it self-confidently works to weaken the Western, Anglo-Saxon dominance in the global sphere of information. Official doctrines show both the defensive and the offensive dimensions of Russia’s information strategy. The country’s recently adopted doctrine on information security (December 2016) emphasizes the detrimental impact of information manipulation on international security and stability, and on Russia itself. It talks about ‘a growing information pressure on the population of Russia (…), with the aim to erode Russian traditional spiritual and moral values’.17 This becomes all the more acute, the doctrine critically argues, because Russia’s own information industry depends so much on foreign technology.18 Russia’s latest Military Doctrine (2014) takes a more bellicose position. It presents information and communication as important features of ‘modern warfare’. Russia must engage in this war, the doctrine asserts, for defensive and for offensive purposes.19 For the Russian leadership, disinformation has become a matter of established policy. It is a relatively simple, increasingly precise, and comparatively inexpensive method to reach important strategic goals. There is much to win politically, and little to lose. Peter Pomerantsev and Michael Weiss20 suggest that Russia’s influence through disinformation can be considered as concentrical: Moscow can generate chaos in Ukraine, destabilization in the Baltic States (part of a larger effort to influence and protect the perceived interests of Russian-speaking people in former Soviet republics), political influence in Eastern Europe, confusion in Western Europe, and distraction in the United States. Information manipulation by the Russian state has been characterized as part of a ‘sophisticated set of gray zone tactics of “asymmetric balancing” through which Russia pursues its strategic ends within relatively limited means.’21 The notions of asymmetry and balancing are key. They explain the apparent discrepancy between Russia’s relatively limited ‘objective’ power instruments and the global influence which it allegedly pursues. In 2018 Russia’s gdp in current US dollars was less than one-tenth of the size of the economy of the US or the European Union.22 In that same year, the United States spent ten times more on defence than Russia did, and its defence budget accounted for a lesser share of gdp than Russia’s military expenditures.23 In other words, and this may sound rather counter-intuitively, the use of disinformation as a foreign policy tool by Russia, is a high-tech, poor man’s strategy. Many observers emphasize the difference between propaganda from the Soviet period and disinformation today. Russia’s current foreign information strategy is mostly interpreted as negative. Russia’s aim is not so much to preach and convert through the dissemination of its own points of view, its own ideas and ideologies (as it did in communist times), but to confuse and weaken, through the spread of biased, false or simply as much ‘information’ as possible. This distinction seems only partly right. True, Russia’s prevailing idea is to confuse, rather than to convert. But if Russia exercises influence beyond its borders, it is probably not only because of ‘negative’ propaganda or disinformation only. There is a new dimension to Russia’s international appeal. For the first time in decades, the country exercises soft power in the West.24 Russian interference in electoral processes or its more general attempts to influence political developments in Western countries benefit from the fact that local political forces are evidently sympathetic to Russia, to its leadership, and to the political values and ideas that it claims to stand for. Western political actors are willing to listen to Russia, and to cooperate with it.25 Putin has successfully brand-named Russia as a conservative bastion against the excessive political, economic and cultural liberalism of the West. People recognize and appreciate in Russia what they dislike, hate or miss in their own societies. In that sense, the perceptions of Russia tell us more about ourselves, than about Russia. It is the latest variant of an age-old tradition: Russia as the counter-image of the West.26 Russia exercises soft power, and not just among some countries of the Former Soviet Union, but also in the West. This makes it even more difficult to neatly distinguish between disinformation and other forms of manipulation on the one hand and public relations, public diplomacy and even political affinity on the other. Vladimir Putin’s blend of nationalist, conservative, anti-globalist, anti-liberal, anti-Western elitist, and anti-immigration discourse strikes as rather opportunistic for a politician who until relatively recently prided himself as pragmatic and non-ideological, but it seems to work. It proves relatively effective among his own citizens and it works among parts of the population in Europe and elsewhere. Various political parties from the ‘left’ and from the ‘right’ in the countries of the European Union embrace (some of) the political values that Russia has come to propagate. Russia, or rather the policies of the Russian leadership, are seen in a positive light by a substantial minority of Europeans and Americans. A recent publication gauged this segment of Europe’s party-political landscape as ‘non-mainstream but significant’.27 Most of Russia’s friends in Europe belonged to the political fringe. But the fringes of politics in Europe are moving, and they have become increasingly fluid. Russia sympathizers come in many shapes and forms. The Russlandversteher in Germany belong to the more moderate variant. They are driven by a combination of historical guilt and responsibility and a strong sense of their country’s special position towards Russia (geopolitically and economically). There are Russlandversteher in all of Germany’s political parties, and in most European countries—individuals and parties who believe that it is in the security interest of Europe to find ways to cooperate with Russia, rather than to continue to antagonize it.28 They share some international interests with the Russian leadership, without feeling much affinity with its ideological world outlook. It is of importance to distinguish the Russia sympathizers from Russia’s friends. The latter are a relatively new phenomenon (since Moscow-loyal communists became extinct): political parties that share ideological affinity with Russia and that use their relations with the Kremlin to further their own political ambitions. But the list is growing: Front National, the Freedom Party of Austria, Orban’s fidesz party, Salvini’s Lega, and quite a few more.29 The relative prominence of Russia’s friends in Europe is a nuisance for those who disagree with their ideas, but as yet, they do not represent a serious threat to Europe’s political mainstream. And if they ever will, which is not inconceivable, it will not be because they enjoy the ideological and occasionally the financial support of the Kremlin, but because they represent the perceived interests of a significant part of their countries’ electorates. Russia has political friends in Europe, but in terms of soft power projection it still has a long way to go. A recent 25-country poll by the Pew Research Center finds that 70 percent of the respondents believe that Russia plays a more (42 percent) or as important role (28 percent) in world politics today compared to ten years ago; while only 34 percent express a favourable view of Russia generally (54 percent negative). Confidence in Putin is even lower: 26 percent positive against 63 percent negative.30 With or without Putin, Russia’s global reputation is still relatively poor. Many may appreciate Russia as a counterweight to an arrogant, overbearing West; few however admire it for either its own socioeconomic or political domestic order. Russia may be a friend, but it is not a model. 4 How to Counter Disinformation? To effectively counter international disinformation, one needs to first recognize it, then to identify its origins and to prove intent, and finally to effectively neutralize it. Every step of the process is problematic. Obviously, given that international disinformation is mostly aimed at exploiting existing rifts and tensions, the most effective political counter-strategy would be to take away the causes of these problems. Otherwise, there is no silver bullet for countering international disinformation. In the end we will need to learn to live with it. More targeted responses to disinformation fall into four non-mutually exclusive categories.31 Responses can be primarily ‘educational’, making people more resilient to disinformation. They can be ‘protective’, using high-tech means to detect and counter disinformation.32 They can be ‘repressive’, using technologies to block the manipulation of information. And they can be ‘political’, trying to reach a sense of understanding among states on the subversive impact that disinformation may have on international trust and security, and therefore aiming to find ways to ‘tame’ it, for example through the development of confidence-building measures (cbms). The educational approach aims to raise information awareness and to debunk information manipulation through a combination of increasing media literacy, fact-checking, defining standards of information accuracy, and promoting a clear, coherent, entertaining and convincing counter-narrative. Education is the least offensive response, perhaps also the most effective one, but unfortunately, it is also the most difficult and time-consuming answer to disinformation. Disinformation exploits existing differences in target societies. Given that lack of trust in media and government is arguably one of the major reasons why people become more susceptible to disinformation, media campaigns by governments and other initiatives by (semi-)official institutions, such as labels, indexes and rankings that are supposed to distinguish reliable media from untrustworthy ones, may not be particularly effective. Governments and other political actors are often party to the differences that they attempt to address. One may expect that those groups that are vulnerable to foreign disinformation cannot be easily reached and convinced by their national governments, and probably less so by international organizations, including the European Union. Many people actively seek the type of information that governmental counter-strategies attempt to neutralize. This type of counter-strategies may therefore actually increase the attractiveness of extreme and heavily biased information. Disinformation seem especially effective, where and when political opinions are already polarized. Disinformation confirms rather than challenges pre-existing ideas—a phenomenon known as ‘confirmation bias’. The manipulation of information strengthens the echo chamber effect of beliefs and ideas. A significant number of citizens seek no access to other forms of knowledge and information, and prefer to continue to live in their own ‘alternative reality’.33 Partially depending on the actual threat perception, national governments have taken a range of specific measures; they have established a plethora of networks, working groups, task forces, strategic communication units and other institutions. Some governments have issued legal acts and codes of practices concerning disinformation; others have taken steps to engage social media platforms in co-regulatory activities.34 In the context of international relations, the response by international organizations is particularly relevant, and in this realm the European Union has clearly taken the lead. ‘(T)o gain a more comprehensive, regular and reliable picture of Russia’s disinformation campaign’ is the main objective of the European Union’s East StratCom Task Force, established in 2015 on the initiative of the European Council. The Task Force arguably is the EU’s most important initiative in its counter-disinformation efforts, especially also in the countries of the Eastern Partnership.35 A few dozen of full-time and seconded staff and an army of volunteers scour the internet for disinformation messages and related content, and feed into the Task Force’s website and its weekly Disinformation Review.36 The European Council in December 2018 commended the work done by the Task Force and especially the uncovering of ‘numerous disinformation narratives’ by the Russian Federation. nato and EU largely overlap in membership and in threat perception, and so do their responsive measures against disinformation. In its Action Plan Against Disinformation the European Commission mentions nato and the Group of 7 as its ‘key partners’ in the effort to combat the manipulation of information and to protect the democratic system.37 It is difficult though to get a clear picture of the level of international coordination and synchronization. The Strategic Communication Excellence Centre (StratCom CoE, in Riga) is nato’s flagship organization, whose activities seem more offensive but otherwise not essentially different from what the EU’s StratCom Task Force is doing.38 The Council of Europe and the osce are less active in the international effort to counter disinformation than nato and especially the EU. The Council of Europe commissioned a highly informative study on ‘information disorder’39 and its Parliamentary Assembly expressed concern over the increase in online media disinformation campaigns,40 but like the osce it tends to approach information manipulation primarily as a challenge to the freedom of information, rather than as a destabilizing aspect of relations among states. The osce is an all-European organization, concerned with human rights and international security, which includes the membership of the United States and Russia. At first glance, it would be an ideal institution to address the issue of disinformation and to develop common responsive strategies and cbms. In practice though, the composition of the osce, consisting of states with widely diverging rule of law practices, and with Russia as one of its most prominent members, and its modus operandi, heavily dependent on political consensus, make the organization rather powerless.41 osce documents on international disinformation are few, and they are not always very specific, but there are significant exceptions, especially in the sphere of cbms. A key osce document on disinformation is the 2015 ‘non-paper’, brought out together with other international organizations. The paper expresses the ambition to ‘facilitate’ the member states ‘in formulating national and international law and policy’ with regard to the spread of ‘propaganda’ (especially linked with the conflict in Ukraine).42 In this and other documents,43 the osce approaches disinformation primarily from a domestic human rights perspective (the freedom of information), rather than from an international political one. The osce does refer to the international risks of information manipulation, but in very general terms and without blaming individual states. The joint paper expresses the opinion that the dissemination of information which is based on ‘vague and ambiguous ideas’ is incompatible with international standards on freedom of expression, and that state actors should abstain from doing it.44 The osce and its partner organizations recommend the application of international human rights standards to disinformation, and advocate to include European and international jurisprudence and standards ‘to secure the effective exercise of freedom of expression’. The application of these principles and standards are not so much aimed against the international manipulation of information, but against restrictions of media pluralism and the freedom of expression by predatory governments in individual countries. Disinformation in international relations is essentially reduced to propaganda for war and hatred, which allegedly challenges ‘the very foundations of the osce principle of comprehensive security in Europe’. In a 2019 document on countering disinformation, the osce Representative on Freedom of the Media reiterates the argument. The representative calls upon member states ‘to abolish general prohibitions on the dissemination of information based on vague and ambiguous ideas, including “false news” or “non-objective information”, as ‘incompatible with international standards [emphasis in original]’.45 Also from 2019 are recommendations by the osce High Commissioner on National Minorities on refraining from disinformation specifically with regard to national or ethnic minorities. This is especially relevant because minorities’ issue are often at stake in disinformation efforts.46 There is much to be said for the emphasis that the osce and other international organizations put on the freedom of information and expression as key principles in the counter-disinformation effort. It is far from obvious that the principle of the freedom of expression always takes precedence over protection against (foreign) disinformation. The aim for democratic governments remains to fight disinformation without unduly limiting essential freedoms. A recent report commissioned by the European Parliament expressed exactly this challenge, arguing that the restrictive measures against disinformation content ‘may pose a greater harm to democracy than disinformation itself’.47 The answer is a proportional, liberal, participatory and context-specific response to disinformation.48 But again, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Counter-acting interference in presidential elections in the United States or France or disinformation campaigns in Germany and the Netherlands demands a different response from resisting Russia’s intervention in its neighbouring countries, which have a weaker democratic infrastructure, are in a more vulnerable position towards Russia, and which often house significant Russian-language minorities (‘compatriots’ in the Kremlin-jargon), who prefer to consume Russian state-controlled media. 5 Is Disinformation a Security Issue? How relevant is disinformation among states? Is disinformation a security issue? A simple reference to history does not suffice. True, disinformation is of all times. States, ruling elites and their servants have always engaged in activities to confuse, divide, attract and engage other peoples in order to increase their own power and influence. However, the historical analogy works only to a certain extent. The intentions of foreign actors may not have changed fundamentally, but the means at their disposal have. The essential novel, and potentially most threatening aspect of disinformation today is its rapidly developing technology, in combination with the large number of potential users. Technology defines the unprecedented breadth, width and depth of disinformation. It makes disinformation much faster, much more sophisticated, and much more difficult to distinguish from information that has no intention to mislead. The number of (potential) users and initiators of disinformation has grown massively. It gives an unprecedentedly ‘popular’ dimension to what has always been an elitist political game, foreign policy and the relations among states. In the context of security, disinformation can have domestic and international repercussions. It potentially affects the stability of the domestic order as well as international relations. The allegedly disruptive effect of disinformation on the institutions and procedures of democracy has attracted most attention, its international effects less so. During the first three years of its existence, the EU Task Force asserts to have detected, catalogued and analysed over 4,500 cases of disinformation from the Russian Federation.49 The figures are impressive, but the effects remain uncertain. Effectiveness concerns impact, which implies causation, or the credible linkage between disinformation, political behaviour and political outcome. This is more easily assumed than it can be proven. There is no evidence that disinformation campaigns have critically influenced the outcome of elections.50 It is impossible to argue with certainty that Donald Trump would not have been elected or that the Brexit vote would not have been won without Russian interference. It is near impossible to isolate the effect of external interference from the domestic influences that seek the same effect. The opposite claim, that international disinformation has no or little real political impact, seems equally flawed. Still, in the field of international disinformation it is easier to demonstrate failure than success. If one can reasonably assert that foreign state actors were engaged in the manipulation of information, one can then compare these actors’ preferences with the actual political outcome. This should give a clear indication of how successful the foreign disinformation strategy was. The election of Emmanuel Macron as president of France serves as an example. The Kremlin did little to hide that Marine le Pen was its favourite candidate, after the conservative François Fillon had decided to leave the race. The defeat of Le Pen and the election of Macron indicate that in this specific instance, Russia’s digital creativities did not have the desired political effect. The potential influence of disinformation largely depends on its level of sophistication and on the context in which it is used. New technologies create new opportunities. Developments in audio and video seem particularly challenging. Deep-fakes, including deep-fakes of real-time news items, have the potential to ignite great trouble. Before anyone even had the time to expose their fallaciousness, deep-fakes may have already ignited major disturbances. The hypothetical examples given in a recent piece on ‘post-truth geopolitics’51 appear alarmingly real: possible fake videos that show an American general in Afghanistan burning a Koran, an Israeli prime-minister contemplating an attack on Iran, or a French president covertly admitting corruption. The possibilities are endless; the consequences are uncertain. Context seems particularly important though. No country, no society is impervious to the political consequences of disinformation. But the level of vulnerability differs, depending on domestic circumstances. Polarized societies are more susceptible to political manipulation of information than less divided ones. Foreign disinformation may have a greater impact on elections in winner-take-all electoral systems than in multi-party ones where government rests on coalition-building. Countries that host significant minority diasporas are more vulnerable to interference by foreign states than more homogeneous countries. Disinformation seems at most a soft security challenge.52 The domestic and international effects of disinformation are causally related. Misleading, confusing and dividing the population in other countries may be an objective in and of itself, but for disinformation to have serious international consequences, manipulated ideas among significant parts of the population need to be translated into state policies, which reflect the foreign policy ambitions of the disinforming state. It is not impossible. Brexit is a political event of great strategic importance. It undermines the global position of the European Union; it favours its competitors. Brexit has strategic effects, in terms of international alignment and balance of power. The point however is that there is no compelling evidence that the Brexit vote was decisively manipulated from abroad. To the extent that it can be reasonably assumed, information manipulation did not have a fundamental impact on foreign policies by ‘disinformed’ governments. As in domestic politics, disinformation in international relations parasites on existing divisions and concerns. Information manipulation has not created these differences, it exploits them. This should not be trivialized. It is disruptive and it further deteriorates the overall international sphere. But it is not a significant security challenge per se, and it does not change the international power balance. 6 Conclusion: cbms and International Disinformation Even though the strategic effects of disinformation may have been ‘exaggerated’,53 there is ample reason to take the international manipulation of information seriously, and to try to counter it. The effect of disinformation cannot be measured (only) by the extent to which it reaches its ultimate aim, the disinforming country’s strategic position. Practically all counter-measures proposed or taken by European governments and international organizations focus on the protection and resilience against disinformation, and not so much on ways how to deal with its underlying causes, whether within or between states. There is no meaningful discourse on international talks, negotiations, agreements, or cbms in the field of disinformation; discussions that do exist in the sphere of cyber conflict more generally. The European Parliament explicitly criticized Russia for ‘exploiting the absence of a legal international framework in areas such as cybersecurity and the lack of accountability in media regulation’,54 but as yet, it has not been able to develop any meaningful initiatives of its own. Paradoxically, perhaps ironically, it was Russia that in February 2019 asked the osce Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media to provide a comparative analysis of ‘legislative norms and practices in the sphere of countering the spread of false information’, in order to feed further discussion on the issue among the osce member states.55 In its doctrine on information security Russia deplores the absence of international legal norms that may regulate relations between states in the information sphere. It is part of the reason, as the doctrine formulates it, why it proves so difficult to build an ‘international information security system’ which protects states’ (including Russia’s) information sovereignty and helps to create strategic stability.56 It is difficult to start a meaningful discourse on the international manipulation of information, as long as no state admits to be engaged in disinformation. cbms were introduced when adversaries continued to disagree and to distrust each other, but also recognized the need to limit the potential for conflict and escalation. The ‘exemplar’, the bench-mark for all subsequent cbms was the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, Helsinki, Finland.57 However, cbms in the sphere of international information seem far more challenging than in the field of military security. The difficulties to define the parameters of disinformation, the speed of technological developments, and the need to involve relevant non-state actors, including powerful private firms as Facebook, Google and Twitter, makes the cbm’s effort unprecedentedly complex. That is no reason though not to exploit the possibilities, and international governmental organizations like the osce could take further initiatives. In the field of disinformation, or in the cyber domain generally, it seems naïve, if not dangerous, to rely on technological solutions only. Technology is part of the answer, not the answer. Principally, disinformation is a political issue. The most effective way to deal with disinformation is to eliminate the deeper tensions and divisions in societies that it aims to exploit. This is a herculean task though, that goes far beyond the issue of disinformation only. The same goes for disinformation as a foreign policy goal. It asks for political counter-measures. The technology is here to stay, and so is the competition between states. If we take these for granted, there are few other options but to focus on mitigating political strategies, including the elaboration of cbms. Interestingly, already in 2013, before disinformation became the hot issue which it is today, the Permanent Council of the osce agreed on a decision to step up efforts to address the international security dimensions of the use of information and communication technologies (the notion of ‘disinformation’ was not mentioned). It also decided to work on a range of voluntary cbms to enhance understanding and cooperation, and to reduce the risk of conflict. The eleven measures focused on a common understanding of key concepts and definitions, through the exchange of national views and terminology related to information and communication technology and its potential threat to international stability. States should work towards a commitment to consult and cooperate in order to reduce the risk of misperception and to facilitate communication and dialogue. And finally, member states agreed on the osce becoming the principal hub of the confidence-building effort.58 In 2016 the Permanent Council of the osce revisited the issue. The Council reiterated the cbms that were first adopted in December 2013, and added five additional ones.59 Given that the international environment had meanwhile drastically deteriorated, partially also because of alleged international disinformation campaigns by Russia, the lack of any meaningful progress is perhaps less remarkable than the fact that the Council discussed the issue at all again. The dialogue on cbms in the information sphere is still in its infant stage. The focus is on defining the issue, exchanging ideas, on first steps towards consultation and possible cooperation. Follow-up measures which may eventually lead to normative or legal restraints on the behaviour of states are still far away, but they are not inconceivable. Fear of uncertain consequences, reputation costs and domestic pressure as a result of the internalization of international norms may lead states and relevant private businesses to accept restraints on their policies, Joseph S. Nye speculates on international relations in the cyber sphere.60 There is no reason to believe that these considerations would not also apply to the politics of international information. Throughout history, states and societies have been quite effective in learning to cope with the highly disruptive effects of technology.61 1I am thankful to Max Bader for giving me access to his extensive electronic data base on international information manipulation. 2M. Severin, ‘Russian Activities in Africa (Continued)’, in United States Department of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff, Russian Strategic Intentions. A Strategic Multilayer Assessment (sma) White Pape, (Washington, DC, May 2019), 70–71, https://nsiteam.com/sma-white-paper-russian-strategic-intentions/. (All websites referred to in this article were retrieved in May–June 2019.) 3S. Bradshaw and Ph. N. Howard, Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation, University of Oxford, Working Paper no. 2017.12, https://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/troops-trolls-and-trouble-makers-a-global-inventory-of-organized-social-media-manipulation/#iLightbox[gallery1587]/0. 4There are two types of non-state entities active in the field of international disinformation: independent, non-state affiliated organizations that act out of political and ideological beliefs (isis, Al-Qaeda being the most well-known examples) and private or semi-private, sometimes commercial organizations that openly or covertly work for the state. 5For a sober analysis of hybrid power and warfare, especially in the case of Russia, read M. Galeotti, ‘Hybrid, Ambiguous, and non-linear? How New is Russia’s “New Way of War?”, Small Wars and Insurgencies, 27, 2016, 2, 282–301, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2015.1129170. For an excellent introduction on the transforming nature of ‘cyber space’ on international relations, see L. Kello, The Virtual Weapon and International Order, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2017. 6J.A. Tucker, et al., Social media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation: A Review of the Scientific Literature, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Menlo Park, Ca., March 2018, https://hewlett.org/library/social-media-political-polarization-political-disinformation-review-scientific-literature/ gives a well-informed overview of these disinformation tactics and their potential impact on democratic policy processes. 7The link between disinformation and the weakening of democratic society is not undisputed, but still frequently mentioned in major studies on international disinformation. See especially: Tucker, op. cit. and J.-B. Jeangène Vilmer, et al., Information Manipulation: A Challenge for Our Democracies, Report by the Policy Planning Staff (caps) of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Institute for Strategic Research (irsem) of the Ministry of Armed Force, Paris, August 2018. 8C. Jack, Lexicon of Lies: Terms for Problematic Information, Data and Society Research Institute, New York, September 2017. 9Freedom House, Freedom on the Net 2017. Manipulating Social media to Undermine Democracy, N.p., n.d., https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2017. 10See the contribution by Max Bader to this issue of Security and Human Rights. 11European Commission, Joint Communication to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Tackling Online Disinformation: A European Approach. Brussels, 26.04.2018, com(2018) 236 final, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52018DC0236&from=EN. 12European Commission, Joint Communication to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Action Plan Against Disinformation. Brussels, 5.12.2018, join(2018). 36 Final, https://eeas.europa.eu/sites/eeas/files/action_plan_against_disinformation.pdf. 13A major French study on disinformation assert that its interlocutors among European authorities attribute 80 percent of foreign influencing efforts in Europe to Russia (Jeangène Vilmer, op. cit., p. 49). See also the contribution to this special issue by Uladzidlau Belavusau on disinformation and memory laws in Poland and Ukraine, two target countries for Russian disinformation campaigns. 14There is a huge amount of studies on Russia’s alleged disinformation activities. Especially informative are: T.C. Helmus et al., Russian Social Media Influence. Understanding Russian Propaganda in Eastern Europe, Santa Monica, Calif., rand Corporation, 2018; Jeangène Vilmer, op. cit.; et al.; P. Pomerantsev and M. Weiss, The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information, Culture, and Money: A Special Report Presented by the Interpreter, a Project of the Institute of Modern Russia, Institute of Modern Russia, 2014, https://imrussia.org/media/pdf/Research/Michael_Weiss_and_Peter_Pomerantsev__The_Menace_of_Unreality.pdf. 15Special Counselor Robert Muller did not find evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign team and representatives of the Russian government, but his investigations confirmed that Russia interfered in the 2016 American presidential elections in a ‘sweeping and systemic fashion’, by stealing and disseminating personal emails and by widely spreading disinformation. See R.S., Muller, iii, Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election. Washington, D.C., March 2019, p. 9, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5955118-The-Mueller-Report.html. 16See footnote 14. 19 Voennaia Doktrina Rossiiskoi Federatsii, Rossiiskaia Gazeta, December 30, 2014, https://rg.ru/2014/12/30/doktrina-dok.html. 20Pomerantsev and Weiss, op. cit., p. 24. 21R. Person, ‘Russian Grand Strategy in the 21st Century’, in United States Department of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff, Russian Strategic Intentions, A Strategic Multilayer Assessment (sma) White Paper, Washington, DC, May 2019, https://nsiteam.com/sma-white-paper-russian-strategic-intentions/, p. 7. 23 sipri, Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2018, Stockholm, April 2019, https://sipri.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/fs_1904_milex_2018_0.pdf. 24My argument is not that international disinformation or information manipulation is a form of soft power; my argument is that the level of attractiveness that Russia enjoys make some Europeans more susceptible to the country’s disinformation campaigns than they would otherwise be. 25In recent years, the Freedom Party in Austria and the League in Italy signed cooperation agreements with the Kremlin-dominated ‘United Russia’ party. 26Read the impressive and still topical study by M. Malia, Russia under Western Eyes: From the Bronze Horseman to the Lenin Mausoleum, Cambridge, Mass., Belknap / Harvard University Press, 1999. 27St. Braghiroli and A. Makarychev, ‘Russia and its Supporters in Europe: Trans-ideology à la carte?’, in Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 16: 2, 213 (doi: 10. 1080/14683857.2016.1156343). For Russia’s proxy groups in the former Soviet Union, especially Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, where Russia’s influence, through hard and soft power means, is generally stronger: O. Lutsevych, Agents of the Russian World. Proxy Groups in the Contested Neighbourhood, Research Paper, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House, London, 2016. 28I could well imagine that this feeling grows, now that trust in the leadership of the United States among Europeans seems under increasing pressure. I am not aware though of recent figures that causally link the two political sentiments: distrust in the United States and rapprochement towards Russia. 29Braghiroli and Makarychev, op. cit. 30 Image of Putin, Russia Suffers Internationally, Pew Research Center, Global Attitudes and Trends, December 6, 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2018/12/06/image-of-putin-russia-suffers-internationally/. 31Particularly informative literature on possible counter-strategies: Jeangène Vilmer, op. cit.; A Multi-dimensional Approach to Disinformation. Report of the Independent High-Level Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation, March 2018, https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/final-report-high-level-expert-group-fake-news-and-online-disinformation, commissioned by the European Commission. 32See the contribution on artificial intelligence and disinformation by Katarina Kertysova, with Eline Chivot in this issue. 33The quote comes from St. Lewandosky, U. Ecker, and J. Cook, ‘Beyond Misinformation’: Understanding and Coping With the “Post-Truth” Era’, in Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6, 2017, 4, p. 360. I am not sure if ‘alternative reality’ applies only to the part of the population that is particularly susceptible to disinformation or that it applies to other groups in society as well. Other publications qualify the echo chamber effect of social media use (see C. Wardle and H. Derakhshan, Information Disorder: Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy Making, Council of Europe report dgi (2017), Strasbourg, October 2017, https://rm.coe.int/information-disorder-toward-an-interdisciplinary-framework-for-researc/168076277c). 34For the wide variety of national responses, see: Disinformation and Propaganda—Impact on the Functioning of the Rule of Law in the EU and its Member States. Brussels: Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, Directorate General for Internal Policies of the Union, February 2019 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2019/608864/IPOL_STU(2019)608864_EN.pdf ; M. Hellman and Ch. Wagnsson, ‘How can European States Respond to Russian Information Warfare? An Analytical Framework’, European Security, 26, 2017, 2, 153–170 (doi: 10.1080/09662839.2017.1294162). The European approach to tackling disinformation essentially aggregates this variety of initiatives (See ‘EU-Wide Code of Practice on Disinformation’ (Brussels, September 2018). For the link to this code: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/code-practice-disinformation). 35Related initiatives by the European Union are the ‘Hybrid Fusion Cell’ and the ‘European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats’, set up by The Joint Communication on Countering Hybrid Threats within the European External Action Service. The EU considers disinformation campaigns as potential vehicles for hybrid threats. See European Commission, 5.12.2018. join(2018), op. cit. 36Information from the website of StratCom’s host institution, the European External Action Service, https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/2116/-questions-and-answers-about-the-east-stratcom-task-force_en. 37European Commission, Joint Communication to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Region, op. cit. 38See the website of nato StratCom coe (https://www.stratcomcoe.org). 39Wardle and Derakhshan, op. cit. 41Indicative is the exchange of complaints by the United States and Russia missions to the osce on Russia’s alleged spread of disinformation in the Western Balkans. (United States Mission to the osce. Response to Russian Disinformation About Interference in Macedonia (PC.DEL/1422/18/Rev.1. 16 November 2018), https://www.osce.org/permanent-council/403991?download=true). 42 Propaganda and Freedom of the Media. osce. The Representative on Freedom of the Media. Vienna, 2015, https://www.osce.org/fom/203926?download=true. 43See also osce. The Representative on Freedom of the Media, International Standards and Comparative National Approaches to Countering Disinformation in the Context of Freedom of the Media, Vienna, March 2019, https://www.osce.org/representative-on-freedom-of-media/424451?download=true. 44Special rapporteurs of the Organization of American States, United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, osce, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Joint Declaration of Freedom of Expression and ‘Fake News’, Disinformation and Propaganda, FOM.GAL/3/17, 3 March 2017 https://www.osce.org/fom/302796?download=true. 45 osce. The Representative on Freedom of the Media, International Standards and Comparative National Approaches, op. cit. 46 osce, High Commissioner on National Minorities, The Tallin Guidelines on National Minorities and the Media in the Digital Age & Explanatory Note. The Hague, February 2019, https://www.osce.org/hcnm/tallinn-guidelines?download=true. 47 Disinformation and Propaganda, op. cit. 48Jeangène Vilmer, op. cit., p. 13 49European Commission, 5.12.2018. join(2018), op. cit. 50See also A. Shekhovtsov, Russian Interference, And Where to Find It, European Platform for Democratic Elections, Berlin, n.d., EPDE_bookA5_Rusinterf_EN_DO2.pdf. 51R. Chesney and D. Citron, ‘Deepfake and the New Disinformation War: The Coming Age of Post-Truth Geopolitics’, in Foreign Affairs, January / February 2019, pp. 147–155. 52I refer to disinformation only, not to other cyber-related activities, including cyber-attacks, stealing information and related criminal acts, or cyber-activities in the military sphere. 53A. Lanoszka, ‘Disinformation in International Politics’, in European Journal of International Security, April 2019, 1 (doi: 10.1017/eis.2019.6). 54European Parliament, EU Strategic Communication to Counteract Anti- EU Propaganda by Third Parties, 23 November 2016 (2016/2030(ini)), http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-8-2016-0290_EN.pdf. 56 Doktrina Informatsionnoi Bezopasnosti Rossiiskoi Federatsii, op. cit. 57E.D. Borghard and S.W. Lonergan, ‘Confidence Building Measures for the Cyber Domain’, in Strategic Studies Quarterly, Fall 2018, pp. 10–49. 58 osce Permanent Council, Decision No. 1106, Initial Set of osce Confidence-Building Measures to Reduce the Risks of Conflict Stemming from the Use of Information and Communication Technologies, PC.DEC/1106. 3 December 2013, https://www.osce.org/pc/109168?download=true. 59 osce Permanent Council, Decision No. 1202. osce Confidence-Building Measures to Reduce the Risks of Conflict Stemming from the Use of Information and Communication Technologies. PC.DEC/1202, 10 March 2016, https://www.osce.org/pc/227281?download=true. 60J.S. Nye, Normative Restraints on Cyber Conflict, Harvard Kennedy School / Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Cambridge Mass., August 2018, https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/files/publication/Nye%20Normative%20Restraints%20Final.pdf.
I'm using masks to make collision detection in a game using pygame. The detection works well, but I have had problems with the behaviour after collision. In most games, the obstacles are vertical or horizontal, making easy manipulate the velocity of objects moving. So, if the object collide, there is just two options: cancel x component or cancel y component. In this way, the object stop the move only in the normal direction. But, my obstacles have any shape (not any, just rectangles and triangles) and direction, making things hard. Basically, I want to cancel the velocity component in the normal direction to obstacle in the collision point. Some help? • 1 \$\begingroup\$ I experimented with pixel-perfect terrain (similar to the Worms games) once and figured out a solution. However, it is rather complex and I'm not sure if it's really good, so I hesitate to post it as an answer. I more or less followed the tips that you can find in this article under the "Slopes" paragraph. \$\endgroup\$ – skrx Mar 11 '18 at 17:42 • \$\begingroup\$ Could you tell me about this other solution? Any idea is welcome :) \$\endgroup\$ – CFLS Mar 12 '18 at 15:20 So it appears as you are actually asking how to find the normal on an arbitrary pixel mask, this is actually simple. One method you might think of using, is to simply use the pixel mask pixel as a AABB collision. This can work, but has the unfortunate problem of potentially stoping your character from moving. If it is coarse enough though, you can merely treat it the same as you would with colliding against your boxes. enter image description here But you will run into issues where you collided and you get this result: enter image description here when what you probably wanted was this: enter image description here To solve this you need to use the pixel neighborhood in order to figure out the real "surface". for the intersected pixel, check the surrounding neighbor intersecting pixel, find the pixel which is the closest in direction to the colliding object impact direction vector (the negative of its velocity vector) and use the line created by these two points as the plane to create the normal from. To find out the normal for a line segment via the formula found here. Using this we can use the normal. here is a picture of what I'm talking about: enter image description here To use the normal, you will want to calculate the impulse on your colliding objects velocity with the surface normal, which will allow you to remove the part of your velocity which is normal to the surface. • \$\begingroup\$ I ended using rects for collisions and redesigning some obstacles. But, your answer is interesting and seems to be very good. It is very useful and I will use it soon. Thanks =D \$\endgroup\$ – CFLS Mar 31 '18 at 0:36 Your Answer
Lichen sclerosis Type of disease: Rare conditions Lichen sclerosus is a skin disorder that can affect men, women, or children, but is most common in women. It usually occurs on the vulva (the outer genitalia or sex organ) in women, but sometimes develops on the head of the penis in men. Occasionally, lichen sclerosus is seen on other parts of the body, especially the upper body, breasts, and upper arms. Other names for lichen sclerosus include kraurosis vulvae and hypoplastic dystrophy. Source: Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center (GARD), supported by ORDR-NCATS and NHGRI. Connect. Empower. Inspire.
Hello so on . Stem cell-these are the Hello dear Minister of Health, you asked me about using stem cells. Well, first we’ll figure out what a stem cell is (although I know that you all know it). The human body contains hundreds of different types of cells that are important to our health. These cells are responsible for daily support of our vital functions, such as heartbeat, brain function, kidney blood purification, replacement of our skin cells, and so on . Stem cell-these are the cells that many of the multicellular organisms have, they can self-renew, share and make new cells. Stem cells can take the form of any cell, it can become a cell of blood, nerve ?ell and many other. And usually the development of multicellular organisms begins with the division and multiplication of stem cells.The stem cell works as the foundation for our body.The first our stem cell is called zygito, after many cycles of division we have blood cells, nerve cells and many others. Ultimately, in our bodies of 220 different types of cells ! Due to stem cells, in the future our body is re-established. I know you can not wait to find out the answer to your question, but everything in order. We have two kinds of stem cells (I know that you know about it!). the first kind is ambryonic stem cell and second if we transplant a part of the body in which there will already be a stem cell this are adult tissues (although this is not quite the species, but the second way is for sure). In medicine, the second method is used more (I think so, because I think it’s more convenient, and I’ve heard more about it). The use of stem cells in the treatment of diseases is a certain milestone in medicine. These cells give more hope for curing diseases that seemed incurable yesterday. Many institutes now put emphasis on stem cells (like us). These cells have not yet come up with one narrow direction, which means that they have been opened many ways in medicine, this makes them very valuable, because potentially they can perform “repair” of damaged cells. The most important skill of stem cells for humans is the division and formation of other cells. In the last decade began to take fatty tissue to take stem cells. It is known that stem cells are very convenient to take from fatty tissues, they are very conveniently extracted and easily found in the body. We use stem cells to regenerate parts of the body and many honey agarics have been very successful. Here is a list of diseases that have already been resolved with the help of regeneration (that is, by replacing the stem cell). We Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically For You For Only $13.90/page! order now The liver Pulmonary diseases Nervous disorders Pancreatic pathologies Bones / cartilaginous But all the same I believe that the most important question in my esse for you is my dear friend, “Why do we need stem cells” (although I have almost answered this question already, well, now I will summarize everything). When we get injured or get sick, our cells also get damaged or die. When this happens, the stem cells are activated. Stem cells provide restoration of damaged tissues and replace old and dying cells. Thus, our stem cells support our health and prevent our premature aging. Stem cells, they are like our own army of microscopic doctors. After all the long explanations, I think you yourself can give yourself the answer … Okay it was a joke. The answer to you is very simple question-Of course to use. And I will now sort out all the pluses and nines of using stem cells. Let’s start with the pros. can expose damaged tissues and stimulate the processes of regeneration. is one of the most studied areas in this field. the future, it is calculated that on the axial of donor materials to create high-grade tissues and organs. in this, that it will not be necessary to search for the donor because there will be full compatibility of an organism and a body always. almost nothing will not be possible! least almost all diseases will be cured long storage to the data available to date, after 15 years of storage, umbilical cord stem cells completely retain their qualities. Cells taken from the spinal cord began to freeze earlier, and they are safely stored for 20-30 years. But these are only the first results – until now such studies have simply not been conducted. There is an opinion that in principle, with proper freezing and storage, cells can be stored indefinitely. can fight with incurable diseases. this end, a number of techniques have been introduced to support stem cell therapy, the next step is to develop approaches that would radically get rid of the some cases, they can be a panacea. So we do not promise full recovery of your brother dear Minister of Health cells can become cancer cells. body itself can not accept it. 3) Complexity of fetal cells. most active stem cells are fetal cells, but they can be obtained only from a 9-12-week embryo, and this is prohibited by law in most countries for moral and ethical reasons. yet we will have to wait until the medicine before this grows. do you see the dear health minister all the same pluses more than minuses. So I think the answer to your question will be yes (unless of course you agree) Yes, I imagine what a great “composition” I got. I hope you quickly read it. I also want to add that in every case there are minuses and spits, but usually there are more pluses (as my “essay” knitted) I hope you understand your question and I have not confused you anymore. Your cleverest I'm Garrett! Check it out
“How texts such as Ester Boserup’s Woman’s Role “How is gender portrayed in commercialised media?” is the question I will be scrutinising in this essay. Within the essay I will discuss the preconceived ideas surrounding gender stereotyping within the media, how differing from the established stereotypes can be seen as abnormal and how role models can be seen to both reinforce negative gender stereotypes or how they can challenge our preconceived ideas. My main focus for this discussion will be an advert released by Aptamil in 2017, which appears to depict a male child that is destined to become an engineer or rock climber, roles that require a high level of physical strength and intelligence. On the other hand, the female child is only seen to aspire to be a ballerina, a very fastidious industry to be successful in. The slogan “Their future starts today” implies that children are taught from a very young age to conform to gender architypes and find it hard to see beyond the box the media has created for them. Through analysing texts such as Ester Boserup’s Woman’s Role in Economic Development and Gendered (re)visions: Constructions of Gender in Audiovisual Media I will closely reflect on the extent of the media’s manipulation over gender identity and stereotyping and evaluate the effects it can have on people exposed to day to day advertisements. For centuries it has been widely believed by many cultures that women typically remain at home caring for children whilst men work and provide for the family through manual labour, leadership or political roles. If perusing a career, females have often been limited to jobs that are not particularly physically challenging and mainly part-time so as to allow for household duties. Over time the architypes have been challenged by various cultures, however some remain unchanged as this quote by Ester Boserup highlights. “In Iceland, for example, almost no one whereas in Egypt, almost everyone believes such as an ineffable truth (94.9%)” 1. It is obvious that the commercialised media has played a large role in supporting and therefore enforcing these preconceived ideas by targeting each gender with specialised products. A good example of this lies within electrical tool company, Black and Decker’s product advertisements. The hand-held steam cleaner is targeted towards women and the advert shows a woman in a maternal role, using the product to clean the house. Whereas, the power tool advert shows a father in a workshop, constructing a go cart for his son. (Black and Decker http://www.blackanddecker.co.uk/ ) This links directly back to the preconceived idea of men performing manual labour and women taking care of children and carrying out household chores, even in leisure time. Thus, suggesting that women find enjoyment in carrying out household tasks. The Advertising Standards Agency is to ban adverts display harmful gender stereotypes for being misleading, however the evidence to ban adverts depicting women carrying out household duties and men doing DIY is insufficient.2 We Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically For You For Only $13.90/page! order now The Aptamil advert supports the widely established trend of using colour to identify gender. Pink for girls, blue for boys. In Western cultures pink symbolises tenderness, romance and femininity, whereas blue represents stability, confidence and intelligence. These traits go hand in hand with the methods of branding used in commercial media, particularly for babies and young children. However, as highlighted in an article in The New York Times, the preference for each colour is not intrinsic and is in fact learned. “Girls’ preference for pink is learned, not innate; cognitive research suggests that all babies actually prefer blue. … It was around the age of two that girls began to select the pink toy more often than the blue one; at two and a half, the preference for pink became even more pronounced. Boys developed an aversion to the pink toy along the same timeline”.3 This suggests that exposure to the media in everyday life as a child is growing has a large subliminal effect on a child’s choice of colour. The commercial media has taken advantage of the fact that children find their identity through these colours to make products more personal in order to increase sales as they are targeting an impressible, young audience. “By the 1960s, marketing teams of children’s apparel and toys were largely responsible for the trend of gender-specific colours. The more specialised a product was, the higher the premium it could demand over its competition”.4 When using colours for advertising, cheerful and bright colours are used for younger children, with pastel palettes representing babies. Due to this, it can be argued that it is increasingly difficult to decide on colours to use that don’t connote the idea of femininity or masculinity. When analysing media coverage of gender, it is important to take in to account the question: What defines gender? The lines are often blurred between the meanings of terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. While ‘sex’ is a term based on the genitals a person has, ‘gender’ refers to the social and political aspects of this topic. Gender Spectrum website outlines the “complex interrelationship between three dimensions” that the term ‘gender’ is comprised of.5 It is how other people socialise with us due to our body and how we feel in our own body, how we psychologically identify as male, female or other and how we express ourselves to society. The intention of the Aptamil advert is to show how it’s product will give a child the best possible start in life to allow them to express themselves, through their identity and life aspirations. In the past, differing from gender roles or going against established identities was seen as abnormal, however, the idea of pushing boundaries has become more normal in recent years with the number of established and socially accepted normal genders increasing. There has also been a rise in the amount of people who believe they are gender fluid, a concept that involves the person switching between genders based on how they feel on a day to day basis. This creates an issue when it comes to clothing as fashion brands tend to stick to the basic misconception that there is only male and female. It is a risky business move for large companies to differ from the tried and tested advertising formats, however some big companies are beginning to push forward modern attitudes. For example, in 2015, US company, Target changed its ethics to remove gender specific labelling and remove stereotypical colours from its stores and went on to release a gender-neutral clothing line 2017. It was observed in Gendered (re)visions: Constructions of Gender in Audiovisual Media that “Today one can observe a tendency towards representing and ‘normalizing’ a wide range of identities and life styles”.6 This supports the idea of the growing number of accepted genders within society, and further enforces how boundaries are being pushed for society to become less gender discriminative. We can also see this trend within the workplace, as there is less stigma around women performing job roles previously typical to men and men undertaking roles previously targeting at women. This supports why the Aptamil advert negatively portrays gender Also present within the Aptamil advert is the idea that its visually portrayed beliefs conform to the socially accepted norms. In the past conformity has lead to a suppression of identity through the social belief that people should conform to the predetermined gender stereotypes. Commercialised media has played a large role in this, as a study featured on tes.com has discovered “Secondary aged respondents said that they were most commonly confronted by gender stereotypes on social media. Others said they came across them on TV, in film, and in magazines and newspapers.” 7 As all of these platforms heavily feature advertisements, this further enforces the idea that companies manipulate commercial media, to introduce a level of social brainwashing at an age when the audience is already looking at role models to help find their own identity. Through this, companies are able to effectively manipulate social viewpoints through the typical representations of girls as ballerinas, and boys as firemen or engineers. However, social media allows free expression for anyone and many people use this to find role models they can relate to. For example, male makeup artists and female bodybuilders. Throughout daytime television, adverts are predominantly targeted at stay at home mothers, with the intention to sell products relevant to their maternal roles. Products such as Aptamil Milk are broadcasted, as this is when they’ll be able to reach the largest amount of their demographic. This however can be seen as an indicator of the extent in which gender stereotypes have influenced the number of stay at home mothers. This is further exemplified through the heavy featuring of female housewives within the adverts shown, such as cleaning products, furniture and household appliances and childcare products. Despite being the receivers of these deceptive adverts, they are also unavoidably part of the problem through basic consumerism. This, in effect, means that they are passively supporting the views and portrayals shown, through the steady level of viewer figures. At the Cannes lions film festival in 2016, Unilever, along with other larger and influential companies such as Microsoft, Twitter, and Johnson & Johnson formed the ‘Unstereotype Alliance’, with the aim of eliminating stereotyped adverts until they “never see an ad that diminishes or limits the role of women in society” 8. This is a clear example of how larger companies are trying to band together to curb the amount of gender discriminative adverts. It is especially interesting to see Johnson & Johnson supporting this movement, as they target the same demographic, with similar products as Aptamil. This connotes the hope that smaller companies will realise that they’re potentially broadcasting out of date views within their advertising, and incite them to alter their marketing strategies to support the rise in gender identity. Another issue that arises with the idea of gender representation, is that of the influence of role models. This results in a long-term issue being created as, with families, the problematic ideologies could be passed down through generations, as a child would aspire to be like his parents, and so forth. If a parent had a job that was based on a gender specified stereotype, such as a parent being a builder, the child would likely want to follow in the parent’s footsteps. Gender representation in commercialised media is a concept that can invoke strong responses from the public. Through this, socially accepted norms are challenged and subsequently, viewpoints changed. What it means to be of a certain gender is a strong talking point that outlines the extent of gender representation within the media, and how its influence can mislead, and often pressure people into conforming to how the wider public portrays their particular gender. The idea of abnormality is also becoming less of a concern, due to the consistent rise in number of socially accepted identities. The Aptamil advert can be seen as a strong example of utilising stereotypes to portray a preconceived, and essentially biased stereotype that, in turn, manipulates the minds of the general public to strongly enforce the socially accepted ideas of what it means to be of a certain gender. Can adverts such as these be seen as repressing one’s ability to have their own unique identity, or do they provide inspiration to further break boundaries and establish more open and less restrictive social norms? I'm Garrett! Check it out
This day in history – December 12 December 12, 2008 The Mona Lisa was recovered Two years after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece The Mona Lisa is recovered inside Italian waiter Vincenzo Peruggia’s hotel room in Florence. Peruggia had previously worked at the Louvre and had participated in the heist with a group of accomplices dressed as Louvre janitors on the morning of August 21, 1911. Leonardo da Vinci, one of the great Italian Renaissance painters, completed The Mona Lisa, a portrait of the wife of wealthy Florentine citizen Francesco del Gioconda, in 1504. The painting, also known as La Gioconda, depicts the figure of a woman with an enigmatic facial expression that is both aloof and alluring, seated before a visionary landscape. After the recovery of The Mona Lisa, Peruggia was convicted in Italy of the robbery and spent just 14 months in jail. The Mona Lisa was eventually returned to the Louvre, where it remains today, exhibited behind bulletproof glass. It is arguably the most famous painting in the world and is seen by millions of visitors every year. Frank Sinatra was born Ol’ Blue Eyes whose real name is Francis Albert Sinatra is born in Hoboken, New Jersey on this very day. He is the son of an Italian fireman, Sinatra formed a singing quartet in his teens. My father loves his songs especially Strangers in the Night, New York New York and My Way. I still remember when I was still living in the province and younger, every Sunday of every week, he would tune in to this radio program with a segment called “Oldies but Goodies”. Songs from the past would be aired, some I know and some I only heard from there. I’m so amazed of how my father would know almost all of the songs and would sing to the tune. And when My Way (i’ve heard a lot of times that this song caused a lot of fight if not death to singers from videoke bars, hmmm… i wonder why?) would be played, my father with all his might would sing this song up to the very last note.
What is the benefit of inner / nested classes ? Search Interview Questions More than 3000 questions in repository. There are more than 900 unanswered questions. Click here and help us by providing the answer. Have a video suggestion. Click Correct / Improve and please let us know. Label / Company Label / Company / Text Java - Interview Questions and Answers Q1. What is the benefit of inner / nested classes ?Core Java Ans. You can put related classes together as a single logical group. Nested classes can access all class members of the enclosing class, which might be useful in certain cases. Nested classes are sometimes useful for specific purposes. For example, anonymous inner classes are useful for writing simpler event-handling code with AWT/Swing. Like Discuss Correct / Improve java nested classes inner classes oops classes Try 1 Question(s) Test Related Questions What is the difference between the following two code lines ? 1. new OuterClass().new InnerClass(); 2. new OuterClass.InnerClass(); What are the different types of inner classes ? What is the difference between inner class and sub class ? Which access specifier can be used with Class ? Difference between nested and inner classes ? Which of the following cannot be marked static ? Explain use of nested or inner classes ? Explain Static nested Classes ? Company Name: Questions Asked:

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