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While the effects of light as a zeitgeber are well known, the way the effects are modulated by features of the sleep-wake system still remains to be studied in detail.
A mathematical model for disturbance and recovery of the human circadian system is presented. The model combines a circadian oscillator and a sleep-wake switch that includes the effects of orexin. By means of simulations, we characterize the period-locking zone of the model, where a stable 24-hour circadian rhythm exists, and the occurrence of circadian disruption due to both insufficient light and imbalance in orexin. We also investigate how daily bright light treatments of short duration can recover the normal circadian rhythm.
It is found that the system exhibits continuous phase advance/delay at lower/higher orexin levels. Bright light treatment simulations disclose two optimal time windows, corresponding to morning and evening light treatments. Among the two, the morning light treatment is found effective in a wider range of parameter values, with shorter recovery time.
This approach offers a systematic way to determine the conditions under which circadian disruption occurs, and to evaluate the effects of light treatment. In particular, it could potentially offer a way to optimize light treatments for patients with circadian disruption, e.g., sleep and mood disorders, in clinical settings.
Circadian rhythms indicate a variety of biological oscillations which occur in living organisms with a period of approximately 24 h [1]. In mammals, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) located in the hypothalamus is the central pacemaker for circadian rhythms [2]. The SCN has a self-sustained, endogenous near-24 h period and gives cues to various functions of the body, acting as the master clock of the brain. In particular, the SCN is involved in the timing of the sleep-wake cycle, and applies increasing sleep pressure as the clock approaches subjective night [3]. The evolutionary advantage of the circadian pacemaker is its ability to allow the body to anticipate periodic events of the environment. The SCN thus adjusts its phase in response to the environment and is entrained to the daily cycle. The primary environmental cue that influences the phase of the SCN is the light-dark cycle. The retinohypothalamic tract transmits information on light intensity to the SCN [4, 5]. With daily adequate exposure to light, the entrained SCN ensures that we are active during the day and at rest during the night [6, 7]. The SCN along with the monoamine nucleus (MA), ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO), homeostatic regulators including adenosine, and orexenergic (ORX) neurons interact to consolidate a stable 24-h sleep-wake cycle [3, 811].
There are sleep disorders where circadian entrainment fails to occur [12]. When the entrainment fails, the SCN becomes desynchronized with the environment and the patient experiences drowsiness during the day and sleeplessness during the night. These sleep disorders often coincide with psychiatric disorders such as depression [13] or bipolar disorder [14], although the causal relation is not clear. To understand how the entrainment fails, one can conveniently consider a mathematical model and probe the mechanism via which circadian rhythm destabilization can occur in the model system. Indeed mathematical models for sleep-wake dynamics have long accompanied experimental discoveries [1517]. The Phillips-Robinson (PR) model [18, 19] bases the sleep-wake system on a flip-flop switch between mutually inhibiting nuclei [10]. The PR model accurately describes core qualitative aspects of sleep, and can be fit to various experimental observations quantitatively. There have been studies examining responses of the model to external impulses [20] and noise [21]. It has also been extended in several ways to account for various phenomena related to sleep, including sleep deprivation [22], caffeine [23], narcolepsy [24], and shift work [25].
In this study we present an extension of the PR model, incorporating the effects of both orexin and light. We show that an imbalanced orexin level as well as insufficient light leads to a loss of the period-locked stable limit cycle in the system and that their effects are interdependent. Such combined effects have not been probed in previous studies, which considered only one or the other: Fulcher et al. examined how orexin relates to narcolepsy [24], but did not explore the effects of orexin on the circadian rhythm. Postnova et al. developed a circadian oscillator model and applied it to a shift work setting, but without effects of orexin [25]. Here, to obtain a more complete picture of circadian entrainment, we use the combined model and study the conditions under which entrainment occurs. Simulating light treatment, we also quantify the intensity threshold at which the entrainment is restored, as well as what time window leads to optimal treatment.
Mathematical model description
The model used in the current study is based on the PR model [18]. The core of the model is the flip-flop switch which arises from two mutually inhibiting neuronal populations, the VLPO and the MA. The average cell body potentials of these groups are represented by dynamical variables V v and V m , respectively. In addition, we incorporate ORX neurons with cell potential V o , following the previous model study of narcolepsy [24]. The time evolution of the cell potentials is described by the coupled differential equations:
$$\begin{array}{*{20}l} \tau_{v} \frac{dV_{v}}{dt} &= -V_{v} + \nu_{vm} Q_{m} + \nu_{vh}H + \nu_{vc} C +A_{v} \\ \tau_{m} \frac{dV_{m}}{dt} &= -V_{m} + \nu_{mv} Q_{v} + \nu_{mo} Q_{o}+A_{m} \\ \tau_{o} \frac{dV_{o}}{dt} &= -V_{o} + \nu_{ov} Q_{v} + \nu_{oc} C + A_{o}, \end{array} $$
where τ j is the characteristic time of population j (=v,m.o) and ν ij (for i,j=v,m,o,c,h) measures the input from population j to i, with its sign indicating whether the connection is excitatory or inhibitory [26]. In general ν ij is proportional to the average number of synapses from neurons of population j to neurons of population i [27]. Specifically, ν mo is positive, reflecting the wake-promoting effect of orexin. The magnitude of ν mo , dubbed the orexin level, is interpreted to be the amount of orexin neurotransmitters in the brain.
The firing rate Q j of population j takes the form
$$ Q_{j} =\frac{Q_{\text{max}}}{1+\exp\left[(\Theta - V_{j})/\sigma\right]}, $$
where Qmax is the maximum firing rate, Θ the mean firing threshold, and \((\pi /\sqrt {3})\sigma \) the standard deviation of the firing threshold. In Eq. (1), A v , A m , and A o are constants while H and C denote the homeostatic sleep drive and the circadian sleep drive, respectively.
The homeostatic sleep drive H evolves according to
$$ \chi \frac{dH}{dt} = -H + \mu_{m} \frac{Q^{2}_{m}}{\eta_{h}+Q^{2}_{m}} $$
with the characteristic time χ, which indicates that H increases during wake (Q m large) and decreases during sleep (Q m close to zero). The second term on the right-hand side, where μ m and η h are appropriate constants, describes the saturation behavior of H for larger values of Q m [24].
The circadian rhythm has been modeled with a modified van der Pol oscillator that includes photic and non-photic influences [28]. This model has previously been combined with the PR model to model adaptation to shift work [25]. The equations for the circadian oscillator read
$$\begin{array}{*{20}l} \frac{1}{\Omega} \frac{dx}{dt} &= x_{c} + \gamma \left(\frac{1}{3}x + \frac{4}{3}x^{3} - \frac{256}{105} x^{7} \right) +B +N_{s} \\ \frac{1}{\Omega} \frac{dx_{c}}{dt} &= {qBx}_{c} - x \left(\delta^{2}+kB \right), \end{array} $$
which can be derived via the Liénard transformation of the Van der Pol equation [28]. Here x is the component of the circadian pacemaker that is directly related to the circadian sleep drive while x c is a complementary variable. Their ratio gives the circadian phase ϕ x according to tanϕ x =x/x c . The characteristic frequency Ω scales the equation to the 24-h period and γ is the stiffness constant of the oscillator while constants q and k modulate the strength of the resetting effect of light via B. Finally, δ measures the intrinsic period of the oscillator relative to 24 h. Here the intrinsic circadian period of 24.2 h [29] leads to the value δ=(24×3600)/(24.2×3600×0.997)=0.994, where the correction factor 0.997 accounts for the nonlinearity of the oscillator.
The sleep drive C is defined simply to be C=x while the photic and non-photic influences B and N s on the circadian oscillator are expressed as
$$\begin{array}{*{20}l} B &=G\alpha (1-n)(1-\epsilon x)(1-\epsilon x_{c}) \\ N_{s} &= \rho \left(\frac{1}{3}-s\right) \left[1-\tanh (rx)\right] \end{array} $$
where G, ε, and r are constants and n is the fraction of photoreceptor cells that are activated. The first one of Eq. 5 has been chosen to characterize the varying sensitivity of the circadian oscillator to light throughout a day. Here ρ is the rate constant while s is the state variable taking the value unity (s=1) for the waking state and zero (s=0) for the sleeping state. It thus reads \(s=\theta (V_{m} - V^{th}_{m})\), where θ is the Heavyside step function with the threshold mean MA potential \(V^{th}_{m} = -2\) mV above which the system is defined to be in the waking state.
The rate of conversion from the ready state to the activated one of photoreceptors depends on the light intensity I via α:
$$ \frac{dn}{dt} = \alpha (1-n) - \beta n $$
$$ \alpha = \alpha_{0} \left(\frac{I}{I_{0}} \right)^{p} \frac{I}{I + I_{1}}, $$
where β describes the rate of conversion from the activated state to the ready state. The form of α and constants α0, I0, I1, and p have been taken from [28] to fit the intensity response curve in high- and low-intensity ranges. Specifically, α increases with the light intensity in proportion to I3/2 at low intensities and to I1/2 at intensities much higher than I1. The light intensity I(t) affecting the photoreceptor cells is given by the environmental light \(\widetilde {I}(t)\) along with the gating effect:
$$ I(t) = s \widetilde{I}(t). $$
In this manner the photic driving force is gated by the sleep-wake state. Henceforth the tilde sign on \(\widetilde {I}\) will be omitted for simplicity.
Note that Eqs. (4) to (8) are not present in Fulcher et al. [24], which adopted a fixed sinusoidal function to model the sleep drive C. This was adequate in that study, given their purpose of modeling narcolepsy, a state of unstable sleep-wake patterns. The addition of a circadian oscillator here allows us to probe the effects of orexin on a different kind of instability, circadian disruption. The circadian oscillator model was developed to respond realistically to broad ranges of the light intensity and duration. In particular, it describes accurately the human phase-response curve to light[28]. We have found that the phase-response curve remains nearly unchanged in the integrated model, with the sleep-wake circuitry added.
The resulting sleep-wake model is illustrated schematically in Fig. 1, which exhibits the components of the model and interconnections between them. As given in the caption, pointed-ends represent excitatory connections between components whereas flat-ends represent inhibitory connections.
Fig. 1
Schematic diagram of the sleep-wake model exhibiting components and their interconnections. Pointed-ends represent excitatory connections, while flat-ends represent inhibitory connections
Nominal parameters and light input
The nominal parameters used are shown in Table 1. Parameters involving the sleep-wake switch and homeostatic sleep drive have been taken from [24] and those involving the circadian oscillator taken from [25]. We further adjust a few parameters to produce realistic results, e.g., χ=40 h to produce a stable 8-h daily sleep bout with the 24-h period.
Table 1 Nominal parameter values of the model
The environmental light is modeled as a simple square waveform:
$$ I(t) = \left\{\begin{array}{ll} I_{d}\ &\text{for}~~ 12\,\mathrm{h} -T_{d}/2 \leq t^{*} < 12\,\mathrm{h} +T_{d}/2 \\ I_{n}\ &\text{otherwise}, \end{array}\right. $$
where t is defined to be t modulo 24 h and corresponds to the day time. Accordingly, I(t) is given by a 24 h-periodic square function with T d hours of daylight of intensity I d and 24−T d hours of dim light of intensity I n . The dynamical equations are then periodic with period 24 h, corresponding to the 24-h day-night cycle. For our nominal parameter set, we use I d =600 lux, I n =150 lux, and T d =11 h (see Table 1).
Figure 2 exhibits the resulting dynamics of the model. Specifically, the time evolutions of seven dynamical variables: the fraction n of activated photoreceptor cells, circadian oscillator variables x and x c , sleep drive H, and cell potentials V v , V m , and V o of VLPO, MA, and ORX neurons, respectively, are plotted, together with the input light intensity I, during 48 h.
Fig. 2
Plot of model dynamics during 48 h for the nominal parameters in Table 1. The light input I (in units of lux), having a 24-h period, results in a stable 24-h sleep-wake cycle, as manifested by the behaviors of seven dynamical variables: n, x, x c , H as well as cell potentials V v , V m , and V o (in units of mV)
For a later purpose, we also remark that the circadian phase is related to the core body temperature (CBT) minimum via [28]
$$ t_{\text{CBT},i} = t_{\phi,i}+ t_{d}, $$
where tCBT,i is the time of the CBT minimum on the ith day and tϕ,i is the time at which the circadian phase takes the value ϕ x =−170.7° on the same day i. The time lag between the two is given by t d =0.97 h. The average phase shift between CBT minima of successive days is then defined to be
$$ \Delta \equiv \frac{1}{N-1}\sum_{i=1}^{N-1} \left[t_{\text{CBT},i{+}1} -t_{\text{CBT},i}\right], $$
where N is the total number of days of concern.
Period locking zone
We now study the dynamics of the model by means of simulations, employing the 4th-order Runge-Kutta method. Numerical integration of the equations describing the model with the nominal parameters in Table 1 results in a stable 24-h limit cycle, which is interpreted as successful light entrainment: The circadian oscillator is coupled well to the light Zeitgeber, via the term B in Eq. (4), and the circadian oscillator in turn fixes the sleep-wake cycle [Eq. (1)], so that sleep occurs during the dark phase and wake occurs during the light phase.
Performing simulations in the absence of light (I d =I n =0), we find that the system exhibits a limit cycle with a period of 24 h and 22 min. Hence if the strength of light is weakened, the intrinsic period of the system will overcome the effects of light and there will be a constant phase delay. The critical daylight intensity at which the stable state disappears corresponds to the period-locking bifurcation point.
On the other hand, when the orexin level ν mo is varied, this intrinsic period is altered by the change in the phase and length of the non-photic influence N s : A higher values of ν mo leads to a longer period. This is an alternate way in which stability can disappear.
We carry out simulations of the model using a range of values of ν mo and I d . To be specific, we sweep the ν mo - I d parameter space, and take values of ν mo ranging from 0.2 mV s to 0.35 mV s with increments of 0.0002 mV s and of I d from 150 to 16,000 lux with increments of 10 lux. For each pair of parameters, simulations have been performed for the duration of 60 weeks, of which the data for the first 20 weeks are discarded for equilibration. Accordingly, the average phase shift Δ in Eq. (11) is obtained via averaging over the last 40 weeks (i.e., N=280 days). The resulting heatmap plot of the phase shift Δ is given in Fig. 3a. The red region indicates the period-locked zone, where no phase shift arises (Δ=0).
Fig. 3
a Average shift Δ of the CBT minimum, obtained via simulations with T d =11 h, in the ν mo - I d parameter space. b Period-locking zone boundaries for two different values of T d . Points are marked for normal (circle), seasonal disorder (square), and non-seasonal disorder (triangle). The arrows indicate shifts from the normal state to the disordered states (see the text). Note that in simulations the leftward arrow (shift to seasonal disorder) is accompanied by a change in T d from 11 h to 9 h. The area enclosed in the the dotted box is enlarged in the inset
The boundaries of this zone are depicted in Fig. 3b for two different values of daytime duration T d . When the total exposure to bright light is low as in winter (T d =9 h), the stability region is observed to be reduced appreciably. On the other hand, extended duration of daytime (T d =11 h) tends to widen the stable region.
Figure 3 manifests that there are three routes to the loss of the 24-h period: (1) by decreasing the daytime duration T d , which shrinks the area of the period-locked zone; (2) by lowering the daylight intensity I d , which amounts to moving left on the ν mo - I d parameter plane; and (3) by changing ν mo , which corresponds to moving up or down on the parameter plane.
The sleep-wake system maintains a stable 24-h cycle by means of its phase-resetting response to light. When daylight is insufficient, the photic driving force is not enough for entrainment to occur. This is the case in routes (1) and (2) above. However, route (3) shows that an imbalance in orexinergic neurons can cause circadian disruption even when daylight is typically sufficient. The mechanism by which this occurs is due to the wake-promoting nature of ORX. When ν mo is increased, sleep and wake onset times are delayed with respect to the phase of the circadian oscillator. Due to the gating effects present in the photic drive B, this causes more light to enter the system at subjective night and less to enter in the subjective morning. The human phase response curve is such that morning light causes phase advance and evening light causes delay. In consequence the increase in ORX causes phase delay. Similar effects are observed when a constant excitatory stimulation term is added to ORX; this may be achieved simply by increasing the constant A o .
Diseased states and light treatment
The above results show that both lack of daylight and high orexin levels can cause destabilization in the timing of the onset of sleep. The former is thought to be the case in seasonal affective disorder while the latter is regarded as a possible mechanism for non-seasonal affective disorder. Here we examine the effects of light treatment on such diseased states.
We first simulate bright light treatment in the case of insufficient light, which consists in artificial exposure to strong white light for a short time (e.g., 1.5 h). Simulations begin in the limit cycle of the model with nominal parameters; then the daylight length T d and intensity I d are reduced linearly, from 11 to 9 h and from 600 to 520 lux, respectively. This is intended to simulate a rapid change into winter light conditions, inducing circadian phase shifts to become increasingly misaligned with the light input.
We then consider the treatment by applying light of intensity Itr in addition to the underlying (environmental) light in Eq. (9). During four days into full winter, light treatment is applied daily by taking Itr=10,000 lux for an hour and half each day. Light treatment protocols vary across studies; here the intensity and duration of light has been adopted from the study of light treatment as an antidepressant [30]. Treatment begins at time t0 of each day, which we set to 7 am unless stated otherwise. If the time tCBT of the CBT minimum drifts towards a stable time within an hour from its initial value, we consider the system to be recovered.
In winter simulations, the wake onset time is retarded under the winter conditions and becomes desynchronized with light in the absence of light treatment. When light treatment is applied, the wake onset is advanced from the delayed phase and settles into the value near its initial phase of 10 pm, indicating recovery.
Next, we simulate a diseased state under normal light circumstances, where the instability is caused by an abnormal value of ν mo . We see in Fig. 3 that there are two ways in which this can happen: one by a large value of ν mo , where sleep timing is constantly delayed, and the other by a low value of ν mo , where sleep is advanced. Here we illustrate the former case only.
Figure 4 presents the result of the non-seasonal case. Starting on day 10, we raise ν mo from 0.3 to 0.31 mV s, which lies above the stable zone in Fig. 3a, while keeping I d and T d in their nominal values. As in the seasonal case, stability is restored when light treatment is applied and the system returns to a normal sleep-wake cycle. Thus the model shows that light treatment has stabilizing effects even when the instability does not arise from the lack of environmental light.
Fig. 4
Daily sleep times (black lines) and CBT minima (colored dots) during simulations of light treatment on non-seasonal affective disorder. The orexin level is increased on day 7 (indicated by an arrow), causing instability. Starting on day 14 (indicated by another arrow), morning light treatment of 10,000 lux for 1.5 h daily is administered and maintained during the times labeled yellow, which causes a gradual return to the normal phase
Optimal light treatment times
We now explore how the efficacy of bright light treatment depends on the timing of treatment. Figure 5a demonstrates the sensitive dependence of the recovery time tr, i.e., the time duration of treatment required for a return to the initial phase, on the beginning time t0 of light treatment in the case of non-seasonal depression, for two values of ν mo . Note that in the case of ν mo =0.31 mV s, recovery occurs in the two limits of the treatment timing: one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. When ν mo =0.315 mV s, the recovery time for morning recovery is increased while afternoon recovery ceases to work.
Fig. 5
It is suggested in Fig. 5a that in the case of phase-delay instability, both morning and evening bright light treatments are effective although morning treatment will be efficacious in a larger range of parameters. To make clear the difference in the efficacy between morning and afternoon treatments, we select two representative values of t0 corresponding to morning (t0=7:00) and afternoon (t0=15:00) treatments. For each treatment time, we calculate the light treatment intensity Itr at which recovery occurs for varying orexin levels.
This leads to a phase diagram on the Itr- ν mo plane, which is shown in Fig. 5b. It is observed that for all values of ν mo , the required treatment intensity is much larger for afternoon treatment. It is also observed that the required treatment intensity Itr grows rapidly with ν mo . Specifically, at ν mo =0.32 mV s, the intensity Itr becomes unrealistically large, indicating that only morning treatment is feasible. As ν mo is increased further, e.g., to ν mo =0.34 mV s, this light treatment scheme becomes unfeasible at any intensity.
Effects of noise
Noise is an important aspect of a realistic biological system. Here we consider the effects of noise by modifying the VLPO and MA equations of Eq. (1) in the following way:
$$\begin{array}{*{20}l} \tau_{v} \frac{dV_{v}}{dt} & = -V_{v} + \nu_{vm} Q_{m} + \nu_{vh}H + \nu_{vc} C +A_{v} + D \xi_{v}(t), \\ \tau_{m} \frac{dV_{m}}{dt}& = -V_{m} + \nu_{mv} Q_{v} + \nu_{mo} Q_{o}+A_{m} + D \xi_{m}(t), \end{array} $$
where the added terms ξ j (j=v,m) are Gaussian white noise characterized by 〈ξ j (t)〉=0 and 〈ξ j (t)ξ j (t)〉=δ(tt) with noise strength D. Following existing studies [24, 31], we choose not to add noise to the ORX equation; we expect that doing so would bring additional noise in the MA neurons and not affect significantly the results.
Starting from the periodic solution, we perform simulations for 90 days, so as for the circadian system to settle possibly into its new equilibrium. We then simulate additional 40 days and observe whether circadian phase shifts occur. This process is repeated 50 times with new random seeds. Initially, the noise level is taken to be D=0.01 mV, and the entire process is repeated with D increased in increments of 0.01 mV.
Figure 6a shows the distribution of the CBT minimum time tCBT,i over the last 40 days of simulations for the range of D considered. It is observed that the circadian phase shifts to earlier timings as the noise level is increased. Moreover, noise tends to provoke the CBT timing (specified by tCBT,i) to spread: For instance, the standard deviation of tCBT,i takes the value of about 7 min at D=0.1 mV. When the noise level is low (D<0.21 mV), the system settles into a new equilibrium within 90 days and the distribution of tCBT,i does not change significantly over the next 40 days. In other words, periodicity, albeit fluctuating, is preserved. At D=0.21 mV, however, there appears a slight advance, which, for D>0.21 mV, increases substantially; this indicates that circadian disruption occurs at D=0.21±0.01 mV. When D is increased further to the order of 1 mV, noise dominates the sleep-wake switch and drives the system to switch erratically between sleep and wake.
Fig. 6
a Core body temperature minimum time tCBT,i versus noise level D, obtained from simulations. The averages and standard deviations are plotted for the 90th, 110th, and 130th days (blue, green, orange) for D=0.01 mV to 0.25 mV. b Light treatment simulations for ν mo =0.33 mV s, treatment time t0=7:00, and I tr =10,000 lux, in the presence of noise D=0.1mV. As in the case without noise, recovery to the normal phase is observed
Due to the phase advance effect described above, we expect the stability landscape of Fig. 3a to change with the introduction of noise. Setting D=0.1 mV, we perform simulations with ν mo varied about its nominal value in increments of 0.001 mV s, and find that circadian entrainment occurs in the range 0.244 mV s≤ν mo ≤0.321 mV s, below/above which continuous phase advance/delay is observed. This range is to be compared with that in the absence of noise (D=0 mV), namely, 0.229 mV s≤ν mo ≤0.305 mV s. Such a shift of the stability region toward higher orexin levels indicates that the addition of noise offsets some of the phase-delaying effects of orexin. Finally, we simulate morning bright light treatment with D=0.1 mV, ν mo =0.33 mV s, t0=7:00, and I tr =10,000 lux, to find that the system undergoes recovery to the normal phase [see Fig. 6b].
The results of the integrated sleep-wake model provides a mathematical basis for many results established as to circadian entrainment. For example, many blind individuals experience a cyclic sleep disorder: They experience normal sleep-wake behavior for days to weeks at one time, followed by difficulty in sleeping at night and staying awake during the day for a period of time. Observation of such patients discloses that they experience continuous phase delay [32, 33]. Such patients are not entrained to light because they lack stimulation via the retinohypothalamic tract. Assuming nominal parameters otherwise, we should expect behavior corresponding to the upper left-most region in Fig. 3a, which does indicate continuous phase delay.
In sighted individuals, failure of entrainment results in non-24-h sleep-wake syndrome, similar to the above case. On the other hand, there are cases where the circadian phase is period-locked but at an abnormal time. This is the case in delayed sleep phase syndrome or advanced sleep phase syndrome, where the patient has a 24-h circadian rhythm but with a phase significantly late or early relative to the socially acceptable time. Namely, the system locates on the right of the curves in Fig. 3, but has a late or early phase due to an abnormal orexin level or inadequate exposure to light. Previous studies reported that delayed sleep phase syndrome arises in both circadian and sleep homeostatic systems [34]; our model offers a way to examine the interplay of those contributions, and although this issue is not explicitly explored in this study, it should be explored in the future.
Circadian rhythm disruption is known to be important in seasonal affective disorder, where change in the intensity and duration of light exposure is involved [13, 35]. In our model, we have seen that this corresponds to moving to the left on the parameter plane of Fig. 3b and shrinking the period-locking curve. The restoration of entrainment via bright light treatment as seen in our model is a possible mechanism behind the reported efficacy of bright light treatment as an antidepressant in seasonal affective disorder [35, 36]. Note here that lack of light exposure is not the only cause of circadian instability and that there is there is also evidence for the effectiveness of the bright light therapy in treatment of nonseasonal mood disorders [37, 38]. Relatedly, ORX neurons are implicated both in sleep disorders and in mood disorders [39]; our model study has shown that circadian disruption is a channel through which these effects may occur.
Our results thus demonstrate two different channels through which circadian disruption can occur: lack of light and orexin imbalance. Moreover, it shows that bright light treatment can be effective in restoring a normal circadian rhythm in both cases. In the case of orexin imbalance, Fig. 5 shows that the there are two time windows during which bright light treatment is effective, with morning treatment being effective for a wider range of circumstances. This result is consistent with the fact that morning bright light treatment is generally more effective than evening treatment in clinical studies. For example, Avery et al. [40] studied changes in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) scores after bright light treatment in winter depression, and found that morning treatment resulted in significantly higher remission rates compared with evening treatment. With refinement, our approach can be used to predict the efficacy of bright light treatment in specific circumstances and to guide practical applications. In that regard, it would be desirable to have more rigorous fitting to experimental results, based on, e.g., systematic investigation of the noise effects on entrainment conditions and the efficacy of bright light treatment.
A model study was presented investigating circadian entrainment, disruption, and recovery. This study is the first attempt at a combined framework that models the effects of light and orexin on the entrainments. The approach provides a way to determine the conditions under which circadian disruption occurs, to evaluate the effects of light treatment, and to identify optimal treatment times. Light treatment methods could be costly, and it would be desirable to determine specifically the optimal time of day and the required intensity of light in applying the therapy. The results are consistent with light treatment data, and make a first step towards useful methodology for light treatment determination. To determine optimal light treatment for actual patients using this model, one needs to calibrate various parameters more precisely and to take individual variations into consideration; this is left for future study.
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This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea through the Basic Science Research Program [Grant Number 2016R1D1A1A09917318]. The funding body has played no role in the design of the study or writing of the manuscript.
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All data for reproducing this study are available in the main text and Table.
Author information
SHK performed the simulations. SG guided simulations. KH designed the model. JWK conceived of the study. MYC supervised the research. All authors contributed to analyzing the data and writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Correspondence to Jong Won Kim.
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Kim, S., Goh, S., Han, K. et al. Numerical study of entrainment of the human circadian system and recovery by light treatment. Theor Biol Med Model 15, 5 (2018).
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• Mathematical model of sleep
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What is Athlete’s Foot (Tinea Pedis)?
Also known as tinea pedis, athlete’s foot is a fungal infection of the foot. The fungi associated with this condition grow in warm, damp places and live on dead tissue surrounding the toenails, hair and outer layers of the skin. There are three different types of athlete’s foot. Interdigital athlete’s foot is the most common form, occurring between the smallest two toes and occasionally spreading to the sole. Moccasin athlete’s foot begins on the sole of the foot and spreads to the side of the foot. Vesicular athlete’s foot is the least common type and presents itself as blisters on the bottom of the foot.
Fungal Infection (Tinea) Service Photo1
What is Ringworm (Tinea Corporis)?
Ringworm, also known as tinea corporis, is a fungal skin infection. While this condition is most common in children, it can affect people of all ages, as well as pets. Ringworm grows in warm, moist areas such as swimming pools and locker rooms. Individuals typically catch ringworm through contact with people, pets or items contaminated with the fungus. Ringworm can appear anywhere on the body.
Fungal Infection (Tinea) Service Photo2
How are they treated?
Athlete’s Foot
Treatment for athlete’s foot varies depending on the severity of the condition. Regardless of the severity, the feet must stay clean and dry to prevent the growth of additional fungi. Mild cases of athlete’s foot are often treated with topical medications, while oral medications may be necessary for more severe cases.
Most cases of ringworm can be treated with over-the-counter creams. Persistent cases may require prescription pills to clear the infection. Patients being treated for ringworm can continue day-to-day activities with no limitations. The exact course of treatment depends on each patient’s individual condition and medical history.
Fungal Infection (Tinea) Service Photo3
Althete’s Foot
Symptoms of athlete’s foot include itching, burning, peeling, redness, blistering and/or cracking of the skin on the feet. Patients experiencing these symptoms should contact their dermatologist to ensure that proper care is received.
Ringworm typically causes a red, itchy rash. Despite its name, ringworm does not always present itself as rings. If you think you have signs of a rash, contact your dermatologist.
Fungal Infection (Tinea) Service Photo4
Athlete’s Foot
To diagnose athlete’s foot, your dermatologist will take a scraping of skin from the affected area and examine it under a microscope. This will determine whether a fungal infection is causing your symptoms
To diagnose ringworm, your dermatologist will take a scraping of the rash and examine it under a microscope. This will determine whether ringworm is causing your red, itchy skin.
Fungal Infection (Tinea) Service Photo5
Athlete’s Foot
• Wear footwear in public locker or shower areas
• Wash your feet daily
• Dry your feet thoroughly after showering
• Wear shoes that give your feet room to breathe
• Completely dry your body after bathing or showering, making sure you dry your feet last
• Wear adequate footwear in public shower and locker areas
• Change socks and underwear daily
• Refrain from sharing towels, sheets or clothing with others
Fungal Infection (Tinea) Service Photo6 |
Linux and Unix systems use inode numbers, instead of file names, to identify files. In other words, files names are simply aliases of inode numbers used for the convenience of identification. When you open a file, the process involved in the system is as follows:
1. The system locates the inode number that corresponds to the file name.
2. The system retrieves inode information using this inode number.
3. The system locates the block where the file data is stored based on the inode information, and then reads the data.
Because every file must have an inode, a potential issue is that all of the inodes of a hard disk may be already used even before this disk is not completely full. In such case, it is not possible to create a new file on the hard disk. Therefore, the purpose of the inode usage metric is to monitor inode usage to manage and avoid issues like the preceding one.
To learn more about inode usage, you can use the following commands:
• To view the total number of inodes for each hard disk partition and the number already used, you can use df -i.
• To view the size of each inode node, you can use sudo dumpe2fs -h /dev/hda | grep "Inode size". |
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Oxymercuration reaction
The oxymercuration reaction is an electrophilic addition organic reaction that transforms an alkene into a neutral alcohol. In oxymercuration, the alkene reacts with mercuric acetate (AcO-Hg-OAc) in aqueous solution to yield the addition of an acetoxymercuri (HgOAc) group and a hydroxy (OH) group across the double bond. Carbocations are not formed in this process and thus rearrangements are not observed. The reaction follows Markovnikov's rule (the hydroxy group will always be added to the more substituted carbon) and it is an anti addition (the two groups will be trans to each other).
Oxymercuration followed by demercuration is called an oxymercuration-reduction reaction. This reaction, which is almost always done in practice instead of oxymercuration, is treated at the conclusion of the article.
Oxymercuration can be fully described in three steps(the whole process is sometimes called deoxymercuration), which is illustrated in stepwise fashion to the right. In the first step, the nucleophilic double bond attacks the mercury ion, ejecting an acetoxy group. The electron pair on the mercury ion in turn attacks a carbon on the double bond, forming a mercurinium ion in which the mercury atom bears a positive charge. The electrons in the highest occupied molecular orbital of the double bond are donated to mercury's empty dz2 orbital and the electrons in mercury's dxz orbital are donated in the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the double bond.
In the second step, the nucleophilic water molecule attacks the more substituted carbon, liberating the electrons participating in its bond with mercury. The electrons collapse to the mercury ion and neutralizes it. The oxygen in the water molecule now bears a positive charge.
In the third step, the negatively charged acetoxy ion that was expelled in the first step attacks a hydrogen of the water group, forming the waste product HOAc. The two electrons participating in the bond between oxygen and the attacked hydrogen collapse into the oxygen, neutralizing its charge and creating the final alcohol product.
Regioselectivity and stereochemistry
Oxymercuration is very regioselective and is a textbook Markovnikov reaction; ruling out extreme cases, the water nucleophile will always preferentially attack the more substituted carbon, depositing the resultant hydroxy group there. This phenomenon is explained by examining the three resonance structures of the mercurinium ion formed at the end of the step one.
By inspection of these structures, it is seen that the positive charge of the mercury atom will sometimes reside on the more substituted carbon (approximately 4% of the time). This forms a temporary tertiary carbocation, which is a very reactive electrophile. The nucleophile will attack the mercurinium ion at this time. Therefore, the nucleophile attacks the more substituted carbon because it retains more positive character than the lesser substituted carbon.
Stereochemically, oxymercuration is an anti addition. As illustrated by the second step, the nucleophile cannot attack the carbon from the same face as the mercury ion because of steric hindrance. There is simply insufficient room on that face of the molecule to accommodate both a mercury ion and the attacking nucleophile. Therefore, when free rotation is impossible, the hydroxy and acetoxymercuri groups will always be trans to each other.
In practice, the mercury adduct product created by the oxymercuration reaction is almost always treated with sodium borohydride (NaBH4) in aqueous base in a reaction called demercuration. In demercuration, the acetoxymercuri group is replaced with a hydrogen in a stereochemically insensitive reaction. The combination of oxymercuration followed immediately by demercuration is called an oxymercuration-reduction reaction.
Therefore, the oxymercuration-reduction reaction is the net addition of water across the double bond. Any stereochemistry set up by the oxymercuration step is scrambled by the demercuration step, so that the hydrogen and hydroxy group may be cis or trans from each other. Oxymercuration-reduction is a popular laboratory technique to create a "clean" alcohol (the acetoxymercuri group left over from the oxymercuration reaction is often undesirable).
See also
1. ^ Bordwell, Frederick G.; Douglass, Miriam L. "Reduction of Alkylmercuric Hydroxides by Sodium Borohydride.", Journal of the American Chemical Society (1966), 88, pg 993-999.
• Loudon, Marc G. (2002). "Addition Reactions of Alkenes.", Organic Chemistry, Fourth Edition, Oxford University Press, 165-168.
• McGraw-Hill Higher Education (2000). Oxymercuration-Demercuration of Alkenes.
• Schleifenbaum, Andreas (2001). "Oxymercuration.", Reaktionen, Reagenzien und Prinzipien.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Oxymercuration_reaction". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia. |
Toxic Forest Fires and COVID-19 Could be a Deadly Combination in Southeast Asia
A group of students and a teacher under a haze filled sky
A teacher helps a student with a face mask to protect against smog caused by Indonesian forest fires in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on June 23, 2013. © Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty
Every summer since the 1990s, toxic smog has descended over Southeast Asian countries, as dangerous fumes from raging tropical forest and peatland fires in Indonesia spill over into Malaysia and Singapore. However, this year, the smog and the COVID-19 pandemic could pose a double crisis, as experts say that air pollution could exacerbate the number of coronavirus deaths.
While the area consumed by fires so far this year pales in comparison to 2019, the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan—the country’s third largest—has already declared a state of emergency lasting from July 1 until September 28, after provincial authorities identified more than 700 active fires since the start of the year. If Indonesian authorities do not succeed in controlling the fires in Central Kalimantan, the Malaysian Meteorological Department expects the seasonal cross-border haze to hit the country again this year in August or September. Meanwhile, Indonesia already has one of the highest death rates from the pandemic in Asia, and cases continue to rise.
The hazardous haze is no accident. Every year the region suffocates from fires, which are frequently used by companies and farmers to clear forest and peatland to prepare land for oil palm plantations. Peatland fires cause carbon-rich soils to burn for days or weeks, even smoldering underground and re-emerging away from the initial source. This makes these fires difficult to extinguish, unpredictable and uncontrollable.
The fires are visible from outer space, and last year, photos of the annual fires in Indonesia turning the sky blood red went viral. But these fires aren’t just an eyesore; they’re also an environmental and public health emergency that forces tens of millions of people to inhale toxic fumes for months on end. In 2015, wildfire smoke consumed 2 million hectares of forest, exposed 69 million people to unhealthy levels of smog and is estimated to have caused over 100,000 premature deaths in that year alone. Smog from Indonesia even reached the island of Guam, more than 2,000 miles away. The 2015 episode also burned and killed endangered orangutans and destroyed so much of their habitat that scientists estimated that it could wipe out a third of the remaining wild population. Moreover, the fires were a climate catastrophe: 2015 Indonesian haze emissions outstripped the entire US economy’s emissions for 38 out of 56 days in a row.
Indonesia is now the world’s largest producer of palm oil, which is rapidly becoming a go-to source of biofuel in Asia, used to generate petrol for running automobiles and machinery. It is one of Southeast Asia’s biggest exports, supplying this essential commodity to the United States, Europe, and the region’s economic giants, China and India. The majority of consumers in countries that import the commodity may not even be aware of the ubiquity of palm oil as a household item. It is found in half of what the average American shopper takes home from the supermarket, from cookies to lipstick to cleaning fluids—like in the popular brand Palmolive—to cooking oil used to fry doughnuts and other foods.
Forest and peatland fires, especially in Indonesia, have continued to reach alarming levels, despite policies implemented by Indonesian President Joko Widodo in 2015 aimed at addressing deforestation and poor peatland management. While Indonesia and Malaysia have banned the use of fire, agribusiness producers face few consequences as a result of ignoring these laws. Corruption, weak law enforcement, unequal access to justice for impacted communities, political finger pointing between Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, and a lack of transparency surrounding the supply chain in the plantation sector also lead to there being a predictable and deadly fire and haze crisis every year. The decades-old practice of illegal land grabbing means that indigenous communities continue to fight the encroachment of industries, including the palm oil industry, on their customary lands. There is concern that continued exposure to smog could put indigenous populations, who often have limited access to health services such as COVID-19 testing, and live in communities where infections can spread rapidly, particularly at risk. Now, reallocation of disaster preparedness funds for the COVID-19 pandemic also may result in diminished resources being put toward controlling forest fires and haze.
The exploitation of the rainforests to grow palm oil and other agricultural crops is a major economic driver in the region. Indonesia has already announced plans to clear over two million acres of peatland in Borneo to implement a mega ‘rice plan’. The government of Indonesia is aggressively driving demand for domestic palm oil biodiesel by currently mandating a state biodiesel blend of 30 percent palm oil, which it plans to increase to 100 percent over the next few years. To this end, it is subsidizing palm oil biodiesel producers, and in July 2020, provided $195 million in subsidies to the industry as part of the COVID economic recovery plan. What’s more, there is no requirement that companies receiving the subsidies adhere to environmental practices nor even to the state’s own no burning law. In fact, one company that is heavily subsidized by the government for palm oil biodiesel production is Tunas Baru Lampung Tbk, which, according to a recent analysis, had the second most fires on its plantation areas of any palm oil company in 2019.
Even in the midst of the pandemic, the Indonesian government is intent on passing a controversial omnibus law that gives sweeping powers to the executive branch, strips labor protections, and weakens environmental safeguards and review processes in the name of economic growth. The draft bill would reduce penalties for environmental offences and allow the central government to issue forest use permits, making it even harder for indigenous and frontline communities to monitor and influence decision-making around forest use. Notably, the bill would strip companies of legal liability for fires on their plantation areas, removing a key deterrent to burning and disincentivizing firefighting and prevention.
Like the fires that have devastated Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, the blazes in Indonesia have far-reaching, transboundary, and even global consequences. The fires destroy irreplaceable ecological resources and biodiversity, as well as cause tens and thousands of unnecessary deaths and respiratory illnesses, a figure that is likely to balloon due to COVID-19. Unless the government and industrial agri-businesses are forced to change course, the Indonesian fires will continue to be another manufactured disaster—tragic in both its scale and its evitability.
Etelle Higonnet is a senior campaign director at Mighty Earth, where she leads investigations in the field, high-level government advocacy, corporate engagement, and campaigns. She works with media and civil society coalitions to expose deforestation in companies’ supply chains and build pressure for major corporate reforms.
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Action Briefs
We learn a lot from the business community and want to share that with you in our Action Briefs that highlight business trends and their impact on the workplace and curriculum.
Sustainable development--meeting the needs of the present without compromising resources for the future--is a topic being grappled with daily by business and industry. Last month’s Action Brief explored shifting factors in energy supply and demand, while this month’s brief dives into how businesses are working to reduce their carbon footprint and what factors impact their progress/willingness to get onboard. As our good friend Kermit says, it’s not easy being green.
Business Implications
Businesses are taking innovative measures to implement renewable energy sources and/or reduce their carbon footprint. Many companies are purchasing carbon offsets and renewable energy credits for this purpose. Other efforts include:
• Recycling—metals, petroleum products, paper products, plastic
• Repurposing—furniture, décor, food waste, rain water
• Reusing—packaging, containers, operating-room instruments
• Installing—occupancy monitors in HVAC and electrical systems; efficient light sources, fixtures, appliances, and controls; vehicle recharging stations; rooftop solar panels; watering stations to refill reusable water bottles; LEED certified buildings, green roofs
• Monitoring—suppliers’ sourcing, production, shipping, and transporting activities
• Reducing—amount of packaging materials used, weight/volume of products, total reliance on nonrenewable energy sources, use of hazardous materials, energy used in production processes, waste going into landfills and water supplies
• Producing/Selling—environmentally friendly products
• Partnering—with other entities focused on green energy
• Utilizing—SMART manufacturing techniques, LEED criteria for building upgrades, Greenhouse Accounting methods to track greenhouse emissions and offsets, renewable energy sources, locally grown foods, natural lighting, local supply chains
• Encouraging—consumers to re-use hotel sheets and towels; employees to take steps to curb energy consumption; and use of bicycles, shuttles, and public transportation for commuting
Green construction is having a positive effect on the economy and will continue to do so as demand grows. Green building programs are largely responsible for the $134 billion annually being taken home by 2.3 million U.S. workers. LEED certified and other green buildings can be costlier to build than traditional construction (some experts estimate a $3-$5 per foot increase or much more, depending on added green features), but the higher initial cost is associated with greater energy and cost savings throughout the life of the building.
The Morgan Processing and Distribution Center (part of the United States Postal Service) in New York City sports a 2.5-acre green roof which cost about $30 per square foot to install-- twice as much as a traditional roof. The roof’s lifespan, however, will be about 50 years (twice as long as the roof it replaced). The green roof, along with other energy saving measures implemented at the center, help save the postal service over $1 million per year. Cost recovery, in this situation, could likely occur in three to five years.
While the initial costs can still be prohibitive for building or going green, other factors impacting the “greening” of businesses include:
• Concern about reliability of renewable energy sources
• Concern that energy efficiency processes might compromise overall business operations and therefore the bottom line
• A perception that the changes made in one business might not make a difference to the overall environment
• Inability to pinpoint carbon outputs and track waste streams accurately in order to assess potential effectiveness of efforts to be energy efficient
• Confusion about environmental claims
• Costs associated with changing and adjusting production processes
• Concern about willingness of customers to pay more for green products
Greenwashing—the act of marketing a product as more environmentally friendly than it actually is—has become a major concern. In response, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) developed the Green Guides, designed to help businesses market their products more accurately, but they are not enforceable by law. The FTC can, and does, pursue false or misleading environmental claims made by companies under Section 5 of the FTC Act: 15 (Unfair methods of competition unlawful; prevention). Still, confusion over terms like eco-friendly, recyclable, green, biodegradable, and earth-friendly are rampant. Some consumers are giving up their green efforts completely due to the complexities. In short, businesses need to substantiate the environmental claims that they make about their products or risk consumer--and sometimes legal-- backlash.
Classroom Implications
Understanding the technological, political, and economic systems that drive energy is a life-long learning process. A good place to start is by having students compare various types of renewable energy as explained by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory:
Ask students to discuss carbon neutrality in business operations. They could consider the following:
• What are the challenges businesses may face in becoming carbon neutral or offsetting carbon emissions? Are these challenges different for smaller vs. larger companies?
• What are some of the ways businesses can move towards carbon neutrality?
• Is there a moral obligation for businesses to become carbon neutral?
How are other countries addressing energy issues both from a business and community perspective? These two resources will help broaden students’ global perspective on energy use:
Is it possible for politics and conflicting business interests to influence energy choices? See this article about what a group of students ran into as they attempted to make their school more environmentally friendly:
Ask students to identify local use of environmental marketing and pinpoint potential incidents of greenwashing. This resource will help students better understand greenwashing and some of the enforcement actions taken by the FTC:
The potential impact of shale on natural resource availability in the U.S. and abroad is unknown but potentially a game-changer. Heightened focus on the preservation of global resources for future generations plays a role in the energy debate. As energy resources are explored, and utilized in different ways, companies have to deal with the resulting supply-chain issues. This month’s Action Brief looks at shifting factors in energy supply and demand, and some of the resulting economic effects.
Business Implications
Greater availability of domestic energy resources has drastically changed the face of gas and oil production in the United States. The “shale revolution” is reshaping the country’s dialogue about energy strengths and weaknesses, especially now with record amounts of propane and other natural gas liquids being exported. Other countries with shale resources are also working to extract gas and tight oil, but access to fresh water reserves used in the process can present a challenge in many parts of the world. Coal plants and other traditional energy operations are closing or laying off massive numbers of workers as they go out of business or restructure to support alternative energy’s processing and delivery.
Companies in the renewable energy sector are also experiencing their own viability issues. Many companies are struggling to stay financially solvent while facing funding issues and other business challenges not unusual for start-ups. Government subsidies are potentially on the chopping block which adds to eroding confidence in many companies. While renewable energy is relatively low-cost, and growing in use, many companies are coming up short with funding to support new and growing infrastructures.
The boom in natural gas and oil holds many potential benefits, such as less dependence on foreign resources, increased manufacturing, more choices and lower prices for consumers, and maybe even cleaner air. Disadvantages are:
• Potential contamination of water and other natural resource supplies due to fracking and wastewater disposal
• Fracking induced earthquakes
• Loss of jobs and revenue in traditional and new alternative renewable energy source sectors
Much to the dismay of environmentalists, the shale boom may have somewhat slowed a shift toward the use of products that utilize renewable energy sources. As an example, many consumers are passing up hybrid vehicles for conventional gasoline-only models. Surprisingly, even some consumers who had switched to hybrids are going back to fuel-only powered vehicles. Lower gasoline prices mean a longer break-even time for consumers purchasing hybrids. Guessing that the price of gasoline will rise again, automakers are ramping up production of traditional vehicles, but not putting hybrids on the shelf just yet.
While hybrid car sales may have taken a recent hit, studies show that more than 50 percent of consumers from across the globe are willing to pay more for products from companies committed to making an environmental impact. As consumers become more savvy about sustainability issues, many companies are strengthening their green appeal in the following ways:
• Incorporating more areas of relevance to customers’ lifestyles
• Encouraging customers to live sustainably beyond that particular product
• Understanding what social and environmental issues their customers are concerned about and continuing to address those concerns in product development
• Demonstrating credible environmental impact (proof) based on product sustainability
How are these companies and others walking the walk? Look for next month’s Action Brief when we explore how companies are working to reduce their carbon footprint and the obstacles they are facing in doing so.
Classroom Implications
Understanding the different types of energy and basic cost implications of use can be crucial for students as they enter into the energy debate and understand the impacts on business:
• Help students become energy literate by accessing information and lessons on this website:
• Explore energy related issues with students such as:
• How are decisions made regarding energy use—what are the main drivers?
• How do varying energy sources impact the economy and the environment?
• How do energy policies vary in different states/countries?
• How do energy prices and the process of importing/exporting affect our economy?
• How are businesses impacted by fluctuations in energy costs, and what are some of the techniques used in mitigating those variations?
• Ask students to identify local business efforts to sustain energy. What resistance has been encountered? What support has been provided? Discuss community benefits that have resulted.
Businesses are striving to provide competitive pay and benefit packages to employees, even as the cost of doing so keeps rising. Employers struggle to pass on these additional costs in the price of their products/services or by reducing profits shared with shareholders and employees. This month’s Action Brief looks at how both businesses and employees are dealing with these challenges.
Workplace Implications
The pressure to bolster wages is increasing as fewer workers with the skills needed for the jobs available are giving workers more wage leverage. Layoffs continue in the energy, computer and retail industries and job creation remains very low. Unemployment remains relatively constant as more workers retire or drop out of the labor market without substantial growth in the number of jobs for those that are entering the labor force for the first time or trying to reenter the workforce. Companies are also trying to balance increasing minimum wages in some states, and the new overtime pay rules scheduled to take effect December 1, 2016. These regulations though costly to all employers, will be particularly hard on the retail, restaurant and non-profit industries who have not been able to afford to pay higher wages because of tight profit margins or trying to hold down costs in order to provide more charitable services. Once again, businesses will likely pass these costs on to consumers via higher prices, reductions in profit sharing, or cuts in charitable services provided.
The new overtime regulations will directly affect 4.2 million workers and will cost employers about $1.5 billion a year which equals about 0.03% of total pay in the U.S. Small businesses, likely to feel the most financially burdened if the order does go into effect, are struggling with how to comply in the most cost-effective ways. Some options include:
• Tight restrictions and close monitoring of overtime hours
• Hiring additional staff to relieve overtime burden
• Increasing salaries above the threshold for overtime pay
A main concern of the revision is the potential curbing of opportunities for employees to show extra dedication to their work by putting in extra hours. It may also be troublesome for workers who have earned the exemption status in the past and may now go back to non-exempt status and be required to clock in and out to track their time again.
The passage of the Affordable Care Act brought the possibility of healthcare coverage to millions of Americans where there previously was none. But the cost of insurance premiums has continued to rise substantially, placing a strain on both businesses and employees. Some insurance companies are electing not to provide medical insurance through the government exchanges in some states. Many companies have moved to the provision of high-deductible healthcare plans or eliminated spousal and family coverage to be able to incur the increasing medical costs to provide coverage for their workers. Some companies are providing Consumer Driven Health Plans that give employees more information about the cost and quality of services for each particular provider. This allows greater flexibility in choosing providers and facilities from which to receive services along with more specific information about costs.
Companies have also begun incentivizing employees towards better health as a way of controlling spiraling costs. Financial incentives, other rewards, or lowered insurance premiums are offered to employees in some companies who:
• Complete personal health-risk surveys
• Take action to improve their health, such as participating in diabetes management or fitness programs
• Provide documentation of improved health biometrics (e.g., lower blood pressure or cholesterol levels)
Some companies use penalties rather than rewards to motivate workers. In Houston, city employees are required to complete a personal health assessment in order to avoid a $25 a month surcharge on medical contributions. Some employers are not hiring, or they are charging more to provide medical coverage to employees and family members who are smokers or users of tobacco.
Programs such as this have advantages and disadvantages. Pros may include healthier, more productive employees, and lower healthcare costs. Cons may include a lack of employee motivation for further improvement beyond the reward, taxes on incentives and rewards, and penalties that can damage employee morale. Some see the programs as potentially discriminatory with rewards or penalties or having to spend time participating in alternative programs based on an individual’s weight or other physical indicators that may not be within their own control.
Employees continue to want the three core benefits of medical coverage, retirement plan contributions and vacation/paid time off. Some businesses are using other creative solutions as they work to provide stronger benefit packages including:
• Onsite fitness facilities, or memberships to offsite fitness clubs
• Paid volunteer opportunities
• Pet-friendly work environments
• Financial counseling
Classroom Implications
Helping students understand costs related to benefits will begin to aid their understanding of some of the tough choices employers face as they design benefit packages.
Benefits frequently take a backseat to pay when a job offer is considered. Ask students to consider what benefits will be most important to them as they enter the workforce. Challenge them to think about and list reasons why they should evaluate benefits just as carefully as pay. The following article can help students consider the many aspects of benefits and their overall worth as part of a compensation package:
Have students research various company benefit plans. Ask them to compare the advantages and disadvantages of each.
It’s no secret that political, social, and economic polarizations are growing at home and abroad. This month’s Action Brief highlights how polarization helps to define and shape the business world.
Business Implications
Individuals holding all conservative or all liberal political views have doubled in the last decade. Political polarization in the U.S. is increased by the loss of middle-wage jobs to foreign countries. In areas hit hard by these job losses, political views swing to the right or to the left depending on the reason for the job losses. In addition, growing minority and socially concerned populations help sway the election of politicians representing the far left or the far right based on the issue. Increasing partisan legislators can result in a slow-down of the legislative activity needed for businesses to operate and thrive.
As job and economic polarization increase and the middle class shrinks, sales of goods are affected. While high-end retailers are seeing sales surge, many retailers geared toward the middle class are struggling to stay open. Retail establishments with actual stores are also closing because of the trend to buy items on-line. The same trend is playing out in the restaurant industry with higher end restaurants thriving, while foot traffic at mid-tier establishments has decreased. Businesses in every retail sector are reevaluating their markets based on economic polarization.
Political and economic polarizations in other countries also affect American business operations overseas. Risks can include potential take-over by a hostile government, financial and economic insecurity of consumers, potential repatriation of earnings, security of workers and consumers and even obstruction of normal day-to-day business operations.
Americans are also more polarized around social issues. Businesses are increasingly willing to take a stand on these topics even at the risk of alienating some customers. LGBTQ issues are currently front and center. Target announced last month that it would allow staff and customers to choose restrooms and fitting rooms consistent with their gender identities. While this move increased the notion of Target as a partner in social justice for some people, others used the stance as a reason to boycott Target.
Before taking positions that may disaffect some customers, companies should consider what-if scenarios to lessen the unanticipated fallout to their brand and bottom line. Social media can escalate polarizing issues in a matter of hours. So, businesses should pay attention to feedback, but not react too quickly as sentiments on social media can quickly shift.
Implications for Students
Students can learn about different types of polarization by studying issues and case examples that affect businesses today such as climate change, trade agreements, political leaning of press and media,healthcare reform, and same-sex marriage. Studying how and why these issues can be divisive and how they impact businesses differently will help students see that the outcomes of polarization are hard to predict up front. A good case example is found in this article about Old Navy’s recent advertisement featuring an interracial couple:
Helping students make the connection between common behaviors that can create polarization on a personal level (e.g., viewing opposing opinions as threats) and a system-wide level, can be beneficial. Asking them to identify social media posts made by themselves or others that are or could be polarizing is a good way to emphasize the power of one person to be either a builder of bridges or walls. Students should be reminded that regardless of their views on a particular issue, they can still treat those with differing views with respect and dignity. They can foster understanding by communicating rationally and debating or protesting the issues without violence.
Business Implications
Classroom Implications
As technology continues to evolve and play a primary role in business, cyber-crime will continue to pose threats to the safety of intellectual property and other data housed online. The global data-breach cost is projected to be more than $2 trillion by 2019. This month’s Action Brief examines the threats to intellectual property as businesses maximize the value of sharing information online while minimizing intellectual property risks and losses.
Workplace Implications
Cyber-attacks can be very sophisticated, reaping huge financial rewards for the perpetrators and potentially bringing businesses to a standstill. But, damage can also be done unwittingly by careless employees or by a single person with a grudge. Organizations must prepare an offense that puts them in a position to minimize the destruction from either type of attack.
Cyber-attacks from outside the United States are pervasive and costly. Executives across our nation are pushing the government to be more proactive in working specifically with China to minimize those data breaches. Most likely, every major U.S. company has had its online information pilfered by Chinese hackers.
On the flipside, American and European officials recently agreed on a new transatlantic data transfer deal. The EU-US Privacy Shield will govern access to people’s digital data as the data move back and forth across the Atlantic. European Work Counsels are also strengthening security measures around employee personal identifiable information coming into the United States in response to less rigid privacy protections in the U.S.
Ransomware is the latest emerging cyber-threat that businesses are encountering. Attackers hijack company online information until a specified amount (i.e., the ransom) is paid to release the data. A southern California hospital recently paid $17K in bit coins to regain its patient information. Although its records were released to them, there’s no guarantee that businesses will get their data back-- even when they pay the ransom.
Not all cyber-crimes are committed behind closed shades. Some companies utilize competitive intelligence in the field to track employees of rival companies to gain information by swiping a cell phone or by gaining visual access to a laptop screen. Many businesses now prohibit smart phone photographs of white boards containing company information out of fear that the photographed information will be stolen by a competitor.
A disgruntled CTO has admitted to sabotaging his former company’s business portal, bringing operations to a standstill and effectively shutting down the business. He was upset with the founder/CEO’s decision to decline a purchase offer that would have benefited the CTO. The founder used his 401k and his children’s college funds to rebuild the business from scratch.
The music and motion picture industries are working to harness online piracy. Since there may be no way to completely stop illegal downloading, some industry representatives are trying to find ways to capitalize on the growth in popularity potentially created by free access to creative works.
Besides tightening security, some companies are taking a vigilante approach to cyber-thieves by attempting to steal their information back from perpetrators. Some companies use a “honeypot” approach, planting enticing documents on their servers that, when opened, will provide a trail for identification of the hacker. One approach even activates the computer camera of the thief to enable exact identification.
Best practices for the prevention of threats to intellectual property include:
• A dedicated information security team who works company-wide to implement a comprehensive data protection plan
• Frequent enterprise-wide assessment
• Security awareness training for employees
• Strict password and system access policies
• Layered defenses against remote attacks
• Open communication throughout the company regarding real or perceived threats to data
• Secure backup and recovery processes
• Refrain from using flash drives to transport data
Classroom Implications
Work with students in the cyber-security area can begin with a self-evaluation of their own online security risks. Scanning their personal social media pages and social media circles to identify potential risks is a good place to start. Pinpointing risks on a personal level can then feed into thinking about the hindrance of attacks on a larger scale. Students should also be safeguarding their data by keeping their personal devices (e.g., phones, iPads) secure at all times. They should follow industry recommendations for password protection on these devices.
As a group, students could also study examples of data breaches on a larger scale, identify the consequences, and discuss how the attacks could have been prevented. Following a news story of a data leak or breach over a several months will help sensitize students to the fall-outs of a cyber-attack. Examining different types of positions within a company and how people in those positions may present risks to a company can also be eye-opening.
A good case study in this area can be found here.
Business Trend
As consumers grow more health savvy, their demand for local, natural, and organic food choices continues to increase. In addition, these same consumers are learning more about where their food is coming from, and they are disenchanted with the ways our current food system is taxing environmental and social structures. This month’s trend explores how business practices are changing in response to these demands and realities, in hopes of providing consumers with the foods they want within a sustainable food system.
Workplace Implications
The interdependency of environmental, social, and economic systems involved in the food supply are complex and not always easily navigated. Close collaboration all along the food supply chain is vital in creating sustainability, especially when the focus is on unprocessed, fresh, or natural food products which have a shorter shelf-life than their preserved counterparts.
The organic and farm-to-table movements have been major players in sustainability efforts. While organic food has become widely accessible in grocery store aisles, it can be costly, presenting a barrier for many consumers. The farm-to-table movement, however, which emphasizes locally grown food choices, (e.g., farmers markets) have proven, in many cases to be a more affordable choice. Still, challenges exist in cost-effective sustainable food production, and businesses are charged with meeting demands of stakeholders and consumers in both areas.
Proactive businesses are making changes, both major and minor, that align them more closely with sustainable models. Among them are:
• Adopting the value of sustainability as part of their company mission
• Closer management of supply-chain efficiencies
• Sourcing from, and partnering with, local smallholders and suppliers
• Increased attention to carbon footprints
• Developing and utilizing packaging that is reusable, recyclable, and/or biodegradable
• Implementing employee and consumer education regarding sustainable food production and delivery practices
Many production processes can be complicated by evolving definitions of sustainability and growing government regulations that can shift based on locale, discouraging some companies from participating in the movement entirely. However, as consumers continue to influence the market, participation will be harder and harder to avoid.
Lastly, companies are asking themselves: How are we doing? Are we making a difference? Efforts to increase sustainability need to be tracked using metrics that can indicate the level of progress towards more sustainable operations.
Implications for students
Students can benefit from studying and learning about real-world examples of food growth, production, and distribution from beginning to end. This would include the source of raw materials, land and agricultural issues, supply-chain management, transportation and delivery logistics, processing and manufacturing, packaging, marketing, pricing, and consumer consumption habits. Choosing a food item at the point of sale, and tracing it back to the point of origin would prove eye-opening.
In addition, students could be asked to consider the following in an effort to emphasize company and individual roles in food sustainability:
• How does what we eat affect our health and our environment?
• What challenges do we face in becoming more sustainable?
• How can we provide more food more sustainably?
• How can we contribute to a more sustainable food system?
Government oversight, in the form of environmental regulations, has the potential to make our world cleaner and greener. The innovation and new technologies necessary to meet the requirements of the regulations can also stimulate our economy in the form of new businesses. However, existing businesses must still figure out how to comply with the regulations and meet stakeholder financial expectations simultaneously. This month’s trend looks at how businesses are being affected, and how their processes are changing in response to increased environmental government regulations.
Globalization has led to an increase in consumer demand for products, but has also placed stress on the environment due to increased production, and transportation of goods. As consumer demands increase, so do national and international regulations governing how businesses produce, package, transport goods, and dispose of waste. As a result of these regulations, businesses modify their processes, products, construction materials, physical layouts and designs, product packaging, and supply chains, etc. While these changes may result in increased efficiencies, they can also mean added costs and production times which can strain some organizations.
The cost of compliance affects businesses differently. Small businesses often take the hardest hit since often there is less room for absorption of compliance costs and fewer staffing resources to help interpret regulations. For larger companies, the costs may be easier to absorb, but managing compliance in a widespread business environment with multiple partners and delivery channels can prove challenging.
Many business owners are implementing environmental management systems (EMS) in an effort to meet or exceed government regulations. The implementation of an EMS can help foster the deep understanding of government regulations necessary for compliance. An EMS can also help employees become more aware of environmental issues, and help convince consumers that they are purchasing goods and products from a green company.
Businesses successful in compliance report a number of helpful strategies including knowledge of regulations and a commitment to compliance, careful selection of suppliers and partners who are also committed to compliance, flexibility and readiness to adjust processes, transparency, and willingness to experiment and innovate.
Implications for Students
Students should have some exposure to environmental threats posed by products and businesses as well as the legislation enacted to address those concerns such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Farm Bill, etc. Instructors need to address the ways that these regulations impact businesses differently based on the type of business and its products and processes. To put these differences in context, teachers can have students interact with their business mentors/partners to determine regulatory impact on local businesses.
Educators can help students understand the importance of compliance by looking at case examples of how companies fulfill the regulations. Presenting case studies about disasters, both manufactured and natural which have had far reaching, negative consequences can be helpful as well. Looking at how compliance helps or hurts businesses in the short and long-term will assist students as they learn to look at success as a process rather than just a moment-in-time.
Business Trend
Businesses today are increasingly exposed to a wide range of risks which, if realized, can result in significant harm to their reputations and their bottom lines. This month’s trend focuses on the risk of loss and the damages that can be incurred, and sometimes amplified, through social media channels.
Workplace Implications
Heightened competition, an increased regulatory environment, lean operations, and information availability are all contributing to the high risk environment that is business today. Natural disasters, equipment outages, failed ventures or partnerships, and data breeches can all cause ripples throughout supply chains. Often, the risk is realized through the actions of a single employee or customer. The rapid spread of information on social media, promulgated by the wide use of hand-held devices used for recording and sharing, creates a further hazard which companies must face.
Mismanagement of social media outlets by employees can jeopardize a company brand and undermine carefully constructed reputations. Last year, a restaurant chain suffered a public-relations setback at the hands of an employee who posted personal information about a customer on Facebook. The company made matters worse by deleting negative comments and blocking users from its Facebook page as the story spread. Customers and commenters quickly became outraged.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations offer opportunities for major damage to individuals and healthcare organizations. A healthcare provider acted quickly to fire an employee who posted a picture on Facebook of the backside of a patient receiving treatment in the emergency room. Employees who commented on or “liked” the post were also reportedly fired. Subsequently, the healthcare provider was sued by a physician who commented on the post but felt she was wrongfully terminated.
Even educational institutions are not immune to the perils of employee missteps. A university was embroiled in racial controversy this past fall, a professor was filmed trying to physically force a photographer from a demonstration scene. She now faces potential assault charges. Footage of the incident captured live, quickly went viral, and both the professor and the university were quickly tried and condemned by the public based on footage that lasted just over a minute.
Businesses need to fully evaluate and understand the risk of loss they face from within and outside their ranks. Written policies and procedures and ongoing training that specifically address appropriate employee communication (i.e., who can share what with whom) should be mandated. A comprehensive risk management plan, which includes prevention measures, provisions for whistleblowers, and response procedures is vital.
In addition, businesses need to make sure employees understand that they represent the company brand even when they are posting on their own personal social media profiles. Sometimes, the best examples of judicious behavior in this area can come from company executives, as they post on their own personal social profiles, in ways that are mindful of the company brand.
Classroom Implications
Students need to fully understand how to evaluate current and emerging risk factors in business. Looking at real-life examples of business losses will help the learning process. Students should brainstorm about strategies that could have prevented losses in the examples presented and discuss mitigation approaches. Students need to understand that when they work for a company, they become the company’s brand ambassadors. Actions they take in their personal and work lives reflects on the companies for which they work. In addition, instructors need to help students realize how violations of personal information, especially from a healthcare perspective, can affect victims. Allowing students to hear first-hand from affected individuals could have a lasting impact on students and help sensitize the future workforce to the importance of these issues.
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New Titanic CGI Shows How The Legendary Ship Sank To The Bottom Of The Ocean! The Biggest Accident Shown In Every Detail!
Technology has advanced a lot in the last 100 years. Thanks to it, some of the greatest mysteries and events can be explained with amazing attention to detail. The video we have for you today shows us how the legendary ship Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean! This event took place way back in 1912, and instead of reenacting the tragedy, nowadays we can just use computers to give us all the information we need.
To make things even better, the creator of this Titanic CGI is James Cameron, who was also the director of the epic film we have all seen. The CGI begins right after the Titanic ship starts to turn in order to avoid the infamous iceberg. Going at a speed of 22 knots (or 25mph), the ship side swipes the iceberg and damages its body. Because of this hit, the famous ship sank and it resulted in one of the biggest accidents of the 20th century!
After the Titanic CGI shows how the ship hit the iceberg, it continues in accelerated time. You can clearly see how the first 5 compartments flood. The amount of water inside the compartments caused the front part of the ship to slowly sink in the water! One of the funnels collapsed at the base, and it caused the Titanic to sink even faster! To make things even worse, after the funnels collapsed, the stern of the ship started going up, and the ship eventually broke in two parts!
Afterwards, this Titanic CGI shows how both parts of the ship fell to the bottom of the ocean floor. Most of us have seen the movie, and know about this great tragedy where unfortunately thousands of people lost their lives. This Titanic CGI however, covers all the little details from the accident that weren`t covered in the movie and hopefully it will help in prevention of tragedies like this one.
So, if the Titanic was the largest ship in its era, check out this video showing you the biggest ship today! |
How You Should Care for Someone with Lewy Body Dementia
Lewy body dementia, or LBD, is the second most common type of progressive dementia in the world next to Alzheimer's disease dementia. LBD primarily affects people with older age (above 50 or more), although younger people may also have it.
What Is Lewy Body Dementia?
Lewy Body Dementia is a neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by the deposition of an abnormal protein called alpha-synuclein in the brain. These proteins are known as Lewy bodies and are capable of causing chemical changes in the brain leading to problems with movement, thinking, behavior, and mood.
What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Lewy Body Dementia?
The signs of LBD are an abnormal gait and walking difficulties, confused facial expressions, loss of vigor, slow voice, tremors, lack of coordination, changes in handwriting, and spastic muscles. The patients fall often and are unable to perform their daily-life activities.
The major symptoms of Lewy body dementia include forgetfulness and absent state of mind, changes in mood and sleeping patterns, reduced social interactions, dizziness, inability to focus, anxiety and irritability, delusions and even hallucinations. The patients may act abnormally in different situations and speak things that make no sense. The disease causes a gradual decline in the mental abilities of the patients.
What Are the Causes of Lewy Body Dementia?
Even though the exact cause is still unknown, scientists have found that the deposition of Lewy bodies in the brain is linked with the loss of specific neurons in the brain that produces two important neurotransmitters, namely acetylcholine, and dopamine. Acetylcholine is responsible for memory and learning processes, whereas dopamine controls the mood, behavior, movement, cognition, and sleep of a person.
What Is the Treatment for Lewy Body Dementia?
While it is impossible to prevent or cure LBD right now, some symptoms may improve with treatment. A complete treatment plan for LBD involves medications, different types of therapies, and counseling.
There are certain medications for Lewy body dementia that help improve memory, such as anti-parkinsonian drugs and anti-depressants. Medications are also given to help the patient with sleep, constipation, nausea and urinary incontinence, etc. In addition to these, providing suitable equipment to the patient for making their everyday tasks easier and giving social support to them is also essential.
Caring for Someone with Lewy Body Dementia
During the early stages of LBD, it is easier to care for the loved ones. However, as time progresses, the symptoms aggravate and become more challenging to manage. As a result, caregivers start to experience stress and find it difficult to take care of their loved ones. Caregivers may even become disheartened as they have to face challenging situations in their personal life. In such situations, opting for a care provider for your loved ones is a necessary step to take.
If you are looking for an in-home caregiver for your loved one with Lewy body dementia, contact us today. Our care-takers are experienced and highly trained professionals, knowing how to deal with and care for a patient with LBD.
Dementia Patients
Newport Home Care
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Haunted Islands
Greece has had a particular fascination for Anglo-American anthropologists in this century, especially since World War II. Foreign visitors usually fall in love with what Henry Miller called “one’s own divine image reflected in a thousand dazzling facets.” But it is the modern culture of villages, whether on the mainland or the islands, that has appealed most to formal and informal students of the country. Charles Stewart’s richly evocative exploration of a village on the Cycladic island of Naxos is the latest in a series of distinguished studies of Greece by anthropologists writing in English—one thinks of the work of Ernestine Friedl, John Campbell, Juliet du Boulay, and Michael Herzfeld—each of which helps to define the country’s complexities by way of the changing customs and traditions of rural Greece.
What makes contemporary Greece especially complex is the variety of its historical legacies, placed as it is at the borders of Europe on the west and Asia Minor on the east. Every Greek who goes to school has to contend with the country’s classical past. Until recently students were fed doses of difficult classical texts and required to translate them while often barely comprehending them. This boring system—along with the artificially created classicist language called katharévousa—was the product of the early founding fathers of the modern state who felt they had to compensate for Greece’s never having had a renaissance remotely comparable to that of its European neighbors. Instead, the Greeks were subject to foreign occupation, almost four centuries of it under the Ottoman Empire, from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 onward. And after Greece’s war of independence in the early nineteenth century, one great power after another dominated its political life.
The Greek sense of national identity survived these influences not so much through the effort to resurrect the country’s classical heritage as through the presence of the Byzantine religious tradition embodied in the architecture, rites, and cultural conventions of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The major contribution of Charles Stewart’s study is the evidence he provides of the essential link between the demons that have had an important part in modern village life and the traditional demons in the Greek Orthodox cosmology. He shows that the demons of folk imagination and the Orthodox Christian culture have much in common, including parallel characteristics and rituals; and he explains how these demons and the Devil merge in stories from rural life.
The demons of the folk tradition, known generically as exotiká, are legion, and they come in many unnatural shapes, often half animal and half human; among them are mermaids called gorgónes, beautiful female lámies with hooves of a cow and a goat, and goblins called kallikántzaroi with tails and horns, whose lame, baldheaded leader is monstrously endowed. As the Greek name suggests, these demons are regarded as things “outside or beyond,” and they normally inhabit mountains and springs and caves at a safe distance from the village—they are “outsiders” in space and spirit.
The exotiká can be benevolent at…
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American Routes: Racial Palimpsests and the Transformation of Race
American Routes
Angel Adams Parham’s book American Routes: Racial Palimpsests and the Transformation of Race (Oxford, 2017, available in hardcover and as an ebook from many vendors) is an exciting work that makes a novel and important contribution to our understanding of race in the US. The “racial palimpsest” idea is that different racial systems layer over each other and can coexist as different groups struggle over their identity and position in society. Parham’s case is the refugees who fled the revolution in St. Domingue (present-day Haiti) and joined the Louisiana Creoles between 1791 and 1810. This migration almost doubled the population and left New Orleans blacker, more African, and with a larger proportion of free people of color. New Orleans and Louisiana had been governed first by the Spanish and then the French and had operated with a tri-partite racial system that permitted open relations between free people of color and whites and the accumulation of wealth by free people of color; allowed mixed-race offspring to inherit; treated whiteness as a matter of appearance and status, not purity; and both provided more possibilities for slaves to become free and permitted slaves more freedom to congregate than the Anglo-American system. When the United States acquired Louisiana in 1803, this French racial system was viewed as dangerous by the white Anglo-Americans and the two systems came into confrontation.
Angel Adams Parham
Parham shows how the French-speaking Creoles maintained their separate racial system for several generations even as the [white] Anglo-Americans sought to destroy it. Her focus is on Louisiana, but she does mention that St. Domingue refugees also went to cities along the eastern coast of the US, including Baltimore, where they were rapidly assimilated into the racial structures of the Anglo-American system. It was only in Louisiana that they were a large enough group to remain separate. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, when whites were mobilizing in Louisiana (and elsewhere) to re-subordinate black people, white Creoles were viewed with suspicion of being not purely white and were essentially forced to choose to be either white or Creole. White Creole identity almost completely disappeared from the public view and was kept alive only in family stories and some rural communities. Many families “passed” and cut themselves off from their family history and relatives. Creoles of color, many of whom were phenotypically white, maintained their Creole identity as neither black nor white by forming insular communities. Then, in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, Creoles of color faced a new identity crisis, and many chose to define themselves as Afro-Creole or black Creole, while others passed into white and others continued to maintain challenges to the binary racial system, often referencing Latinos.
Parham’s book is a major piece of scholarship. It draws on historical archival research, in-depth interviews, oral histories, and participant observation at Creole meetings. She traces Creoles and their interactions with Anglo-American racial systems across two hundred years. Chapter 1 sets the context by comparing the history of the Latin American and French Creole racial systems with the Anglo American racial system. Chapter 2 focuses on St. Domingue before and after the Haitian revolution, including a discussion of racial conflicts that pit often-wealthy free people of color against poorer whites. She argues that free people of color initially agitated for their own rights and equality with whites but later came to ally them with the enslaved majority. After the revolution, both white and colored slaveholders escaped with their slaves, first to Cuba, and then to Louisiana.
Chapter 3 traces the experiences of white Creoles in Louisiana in the 19th Century and how their customs, including their intimacies with free people of color, were challenged by Anglo-Americans. It documents how a white Creole identity was challenged and ultimately defeated in post-Reconstruction politics. Chapter 4 traces the 19th Century history of Creoles of color. It documents the ways Creoles of color challenged the assumptions of the binary system, including their debates with DuBois about the state of Southern black people. It also shows how Creoles of color simultaneously argued for their distinctiveness from Anglo-Blacks and supported full equality for the former slaves, including rejecting proposals to define anyone who was no more than ¼ black to be white. Parham specifically calls attention to the importance of Creoles of color in the 19th Century civil rights struggles, including not only Plessy, who was Creole, but the Creole Cometé des Citoyens, which was the organizational base of the civil rights campaign in Louisiana. Parham also argues that Creoles in the US were internationalists who engaged a global Francophone public and saw themselves as part of a larger struggle for rights occurring throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.
Chapter 5 centers on oral histories with white Creoles, including some who were raised knowing their Creole family history and others who only learned of it in family history research. She shows how those who maintained Creole identity were generally in rural areas or kept it as family legend but not a public identity, while many white Creoles passed into Anglo-white. The families that passed typically cut themselves off from family history and even living relatives. Parham cites cases of descendants of major Creole activists from the 19th Century who had no idea of who their ancestors were. She also shows that newspapers treat white Creoles entirely as historical while Creoles of color are treated as living today. Chapter 6 is based on oral histories and interviews with Creoles of color. Many of these families have maintained a distinct Creole identity, especially in rural areas. These families often kept their children away from both black and white people. Many others came to identify as black in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, even those who are phenotypically white. Others who are descended from Creoles of color are in families that have recently passed as white and are keeping a family secret, not wanting to discuss their family history.
Chapter 7 is the conclusion, in which Parham reiterates the importance of palimpsests and competing racial systems and how this is different from the current debates about how the US racial system is responding to Latin American and other immigrants. She stresses the importance of the dynamics of racial systems and the competition between them as people struggle to define their place in society. She also emphasizes that these dynamics and struggles play out differently in different places depending both on the mix of groups in a place and the history of the place. She argues, I believe correctly, that the palimpsest concept is an important corrective to theories of immigrant assimilation, even segmented assimilation theory, in its overt recognition of race and its theorizing of struggles between racial systems, not just immigrants’ assimilation into a static racial system. She argues that treating European immigrants as the theoretical baseline has made it impossible to provide an adequate theorizing of race and immigration. She argues that the Creole case and the concept of racial palimpsests are necessary correctives for understanding racial construction and reconstruction in the current period. She argues that Miami, parts of New York City, and Los Angeles are places where Latin/Caribbean racial systems are being superimposed over the binary Anglo-American system. She also calls attention to the specific history of Miami, Los Angeles, and other areas of the South West where the older Spanish racial system never entirely disappeared and the Anglo-American system was never hegemonic.
Parham does not do everything. Her empirical focus is Louisiana, the Caribbean, and racial definitions involving mixtures of European and African ancestry. She ignores indigenous people and Asians entirely and does not directly reference the annexation of northern Mexico as another place where palimpsests would clearly be present. But I find the racial palimpsest concept and its attendant idea that people struggle over racial systems themselves, not just over their place in a particular system, and the idea that racial systems can be in competition, to be exciting and promising as tools for understanding the ongoing social construction of race.
This is a wonderful book. Graduate students here at Madison who read it for a course in comparative historical methods thought it was one of the best books they read. The book is a major undertaking that Parham began as her “second” post-PhD project and worked on for years as a labor of love until it was really done. Its scholarship is wide-ranging, meticulous and deep. It sheds light on many important aspects of US history that have not been previously seen. It is beautifully written. Its theoretical argument is fresh and important.
Angel Adams Parham is an associate professor of sociology at Loyola University of New Orleans.
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The View From Here
Bullying is a widespread problem that has often been ridiculed or silenced in the past. This is due in part to its very nature, which silences those affected, making them feel unworthy of help and as if they’re to blame. The media’s silence on the issue is one hurdle that has been somewhat overcome. It’s a step in the right direction, but media coverage of bullying isn’t always helpful and is sometimes poorly executed.
The website lists some common pitfalls made by press coverage of bullying. These include both overstating and sensationalizing the problem as well as oversimplifying it. Misinformation and thoughtless coverage do more harm than good. As an issue that people continue to be damaged by every day, bullying must be treated with and written about with sensitivity and accuracy.
Mass media is often shown in its worst light when highlighting sensitive topics. The fine line between news and entertainment is often blurred in these cases. Topics such as bullying and abuse, things that have been issues for some time and are just recently getting media attention, are handled with the same amount of thought and consideration as the plot of a Hollywood action film.
Sensationalizing and simplifying the prevalence and effects of bullying is an insult to those affected. Overstating the problem normalizes it while also creating a hysteria surrounding it that interferes with developing clear solutions. Suggesting that suicide is an inevitable result of bullying and oversimplifying the motives of bullies to suggest they’re simple villains creates an irrational panic that makes the problem seem insurmountable when solutions need to focus on the far more intricate reality of the issue and real-life scenarios.
As a whole, the media is often slow to develop sensitivity, considering hysteria is more likely to increase profits. However, people can keep this in mind and take media coverage with a grain of salt. One of the most effective things we can do to combat the problem is to treat it with sensitivity in interpersonal situations. People as a whole can try to avoid some of the media pitfalls in their personal attitudes toward bullying. Each situation is complex and different, and experiences for all parties involved vary widely. It’s an issue that stems from a variety of problems and has different effects for each person involved. |
JSP/Servlet Web應用程序中的XSS預防
如何在JSP/Servlet Web應用程序中防止XSS攻擊？
XSS can be prevented in JSP by using JSTL tag or fn:escapeXml() EL function when (re)displaying user-controlled input. This includes request parameters, headers, cookies, URL, body, etc. Anything which you extract from the request object. Also the user-controlled input from previous requests which is stored in a database needs to be escaped during redisplaying.
<input name="foo" value="${fn:escapeXml(param.foo)}">
This will escape characters which may malform the rendered HTML such as <, >, ", ' and & into HTML/XML entities such as <, >, ", ' and &.
Note that you don't need to escape them in the Java (Servlet) code, since they are harmless over there. Some may opt to escape them during request processing (as you do in Servlet or Filter) instead of response processing (as you do in JSP), but this way you may risk that the data unnecessarily get double-escaped (e.g. & becomes & instead of & and ultimately the enduser would see & being presented), or that the DB-stored data becomes unportable (e.g. when exporting data to JSON, CSV, XLS, PDF, etc which doesn't require HTML-escaping at all). You'll also lose social control because you don't know anymore what the user has actually filled in. You'd as being a site admin really like to know which users/IPs are trying to perform XSS, so that you can easily track them and take actions accordingly. Escaping during request processing should only and only be used as latest resort when you really need to fix a train wreck of a badly developed legacy web application in the shortest time as possible. Still, you should ultimately rewrite your JSP files to become XSS-safe.
If you'd like to redisplay user-controlled input as HTML wherein you would like to allow only a specific subset of HTML tags like , , , etc, then you need to sanitize the input by a whitelist. You can use a HTML parser like Jsoup for this. But, much better is to introduce a human friendly markup language such as Markdown (also used here on Stack Overflow). Then you can use a Markdown parser like CommonMark for this. It has also builtin HTML sanitizing capabilities. See also I'm looking for a Java HTML encoder.
服務器端關於數據庫的唯一問題是 SQL註入預防。您需要確保在SQL或JPQL查詢中永遠不會直接串聯用戶控制的輸入，並且您一直在使用參數化查詢。在JDBC術語中，這意味著您應該使用 PreparedStatement 而不是 Statement 。在JPA術語中，使用 <�代碼>查詢</代碼>
另一種方法是從JSP/Servlet遷移到Java EE的MVC框架 JSF 。它已在所有地方內置了XSS（和CSRF！）預防。另請參閱 JSF中的CSRF，XSS和SQL註入攻擊預防</一>。
轉載註明原文： JSP/Servlet Web應用程序中的XSS預防 |
Sadhana Chatushtaya
Definition - What does Sadhana Chatushtaya mean?
Sadhana chatushtaya are a sequence of steps or means of practice that are outlined in the teachings of Vedanta and Jnana Yoga. They must be cultivated on the path to self-realization, and form the foundation for deeper understanding and development.
There are four “pillars of knowledge” that make up the steps of sadhana chatushtaya, and they include six virtues, or shatsampat. All require the practitioner to bring an attitude of patience and intellectual curiosity to their spiritual practice.
Yogapedia explains Sadhana Chatushtaya
The four means of practice of sadhana chatushtaya are as follows:
1. Discrimination or viveka - this describes the cultivation of the ability to discern between what it real and what is not real, as well as between what is the self and what is not the self. This is also an integral principle of the classical yoga philosophy outlined in the Yoga Sutras.
2. Non-attachment or vairagya - once the practitioner has discrimination they can reduce their attractions and aversions, helping them to become more dispassionate.
3. Six virtues or shatsampat - these attitudes and areas of mental training are cultivated in order to bring equilibrium to the mind and emotions. They are tranquility, training of the senses, withdrawal, forbearance, faith and focus. Together these allow the mind to enter deeper states of contemplation and meditation.
4. Longing or mumukshutva -this is the great desire for enlightenment and liberation which eventually subsumes all other more superficial desires.
Through following the sadhana chatushtaya, practitioners build a solid foundation from which they can better follow the Jnana Yoga practices of listening to teachings, reflecting on teachings and deeply meditating on their principles.
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The 1890’s was a very interesting period of cartridge development. The Italians were effectively the first to consider the 6,5mm as a viable military calibre. One of the chief designers was Luigi Scotti, Chief Inspector of the Pirotecnica di Bologna. He was instrumental in the design of the M91 cartridge during the 1890-92 trials. The early cases were rimmed but taking note of the rimless designs by German and Belgian manufacturers, adopted the rimless case which became the M91 cartridge. The work did by the Italians with their various case designs gave rise to nearly all the other 6,5mm military cases developed during this period.
A version of the M1890 case was adopted by Mannlicher, which became the 6,5x53R model M93 Romanian/M95 Dutch Mannlicher. This in turn led to a rimless version, namely the 6,5x54 Mannlicher Schoenauer. The Germans, who had submitted trial rifles in 1890-91 to the Italian Trials committee and had been experimenting with small calibres for military rifles, came out with the 6,5x55 model M94 Swedish Mauser, based on the M88 case design. The 6,5x54SR Daudetau case was designed in 1894-95, on a variation of an earlier Nagant Freres case. This later developed into the 7.62x54R Nagant. In a joint German/Portuguese development, Mauser developed the 6.5x58 Portuguese in 1904, again on the M88 base. Even the Japanese adopted their version of the 6.5mm in 1897 with the 6.5x50 Arisaka Type 30.
The first cartridges were called M91 and had a flat base and used a two based powder developed by Nobel, namely Ballistite with a wad of cotton wool. This gave some problems regarding throat erosion and the Italians devised their own powder, namely Solenite in 1896. From the introduction of Solenite the headstamp included an ‘X’ at the 9 o’clock position indicating the use of Solenite, which leads to the assumption that Ballistite was also still used during this period. Solenite was similar to Filite and Cordite, but the nitro-glycerine content being reduced to 33 per cent, with a corresponding increase in the nitrocellulose content. The method of manufacture of Solenite was similar to that of cordite. Capua Arsenal used the ‘X’ until 1911 and until around 1909 by the Bologna Arsenal. The design also changed in 1895 with the introduction of a recessed/grooved base and the headstamp was done in relief. The last major change happened in 1907 when the bullet was made with a groove near the base to facilitate crimping.
The headstamp system used by the Government Arsenals bore the initials of the head inspector at 12o’clock, with the arsenal and the date at the 6 o’clock position. At this stage, many of the inspectors’ names are still not known, and there were rumours that the Italian Government still regards this information as “classified”. The main arsenals were at Capua, Bologna and Turin, although it is possible that Turin did not produce any Carcano ammunition.
M91 Carcano ammunition was originally made without neck crimping (1892-95). Field experience showed problems with the primer leakages, leading to the adoption of the recessed base with the relief headstamp in a large circular groove in the head. This groove acts as a self-sealing crimp on the moment of firing and added hardness to the head, removing the risk of primer pocket expansion. A slight bolt face redesign made sure that the inner primer ring was "swaged" on the impact of firing, thus improving the gas seal between head and primer cup. It was also found that soldiers "improved" their ammunition by adding or subtracting powder from the cartridges and also that bullets moved in cases under recoil or under the vibration of horse drawn wagons during field transport. Thus, with the other improvements in the M1895 cartridge (or M91/95 as occasionally shown on packets), three triangular deep stab crimps were introduced, as well as a wide crimping cannelure on the bullet (no serrations).
This was standard practice up to the late 1930’s, when several of the commercial makers (SMI and BPD) commenced using the "neck cone" or crimp method, as there had been found during WW I and then during the Abyssinian war, that a lot of cases cracked at the crimp position (either from over stressed brass or age) so with the introduction of Gilding Metal jackets (original M91 jackets were CN), the mouth crimp was introduced as well (around 1939-40). Mouth crimping dies were easier to make than stab crimp dies and "punches". The standard Ball projectile for the M91 and M91/95 cartridge was always the 162gr round nose as described. After WW 1, some experiments with Spitzer AP and Special ammo was trialled, but no suitable projectile was developed and as of 1938, the new spitser 7,35 cartridge had been introduced. With the onset of war, any "experimentation" was out of the question, and so the Italians persevered with the 6,5mm--162 grain RN cylindrical projectile.
Carcano M1891 Carbine
Bologna and Capua were the two arsenals used in the manufacture of 6.5 Carcano ammunition. The headstamps used the initials of the inspector at the 12 o’clock position and the arsenal and date at the 6 o’clock position. To this day, many of the inspectors’ names are not know for a variety of reasons namely, records were destroyed during the war, or the Italian Government still has not released the names of these persons. The headstamp variations below show the inspectors that were employed at the Bologna and Capua arsenals. The style was that the last name was first.
An X on the 9 o’clock position indicated that the round was loaded with Solenite
A star on the 9 o’clock position indicates a proof load.
Headstamp variations on Bologna Arsenal cartridges.
B.P is assumed to be Pietro Boschesi
C.A were the initials for Alfredo Cavalli
FP is unknown at this stage
RM were the initials for Mario Rubino
TM is unknown at this stage
TR is unknown at this stage
Headstamp variations on Capua Arsenal cartridges
A.A were the initials for Aldamo Aldo
B.P is assumed to be Pietro Boschesi. Also known on Bologna arsenal
C.A were the initials for Alfredo Cavalli
ES is unknown at this stage
FP is unknown at this stage
L.N were the initials for Nicola Leggiadore
P.V were the initials for Vincenzo Pascarello
SA is unknown at this stage
SG is unknown at this stage
TR is unknown at this stage
ZG were the initials for Gaetano Zangari
Early M91 blank with flat base
Same as the M91 blank, except for the grooved base.
M91/1910 used the same case and loading as the M91/95, but with hollow poplar wood bullet, and stained.
The specimen below is the MAGISTRI Machine gun blank. Uses a corrugated brass foil that was loaded with a lead/graphite mixture.
First version was a normal case with a small cone crimp with felt disk wad.
The grenade-launching device attached to the right side of the short rifle made specifically for its use was the Modello 91/28 Tromboncino, also called Moschetto Modello 91 TS.
Carcano Modello 91/28
The M91 was the first model for gallery practice, adopted in October 1913. Used a standard brass case with a steel tube insert at the base and was loaded with the 4x18R propulsive blank and a lead bullet or ‘cappellozzo’ which means ‘top hat’ that resembles the lead bullet. The Cartuccia per Tiro Ridotto was based on the Austrian ‘Conus’ principle.
Box picture from 2017 ECRA Show, Walenstadt Switserland
This load was used primarily in shooting clubs (ITALIAN NATIONAL SHOOTING ASSOCIATION) as well as open air troop manoeuvres. The bullet is shorter than a standard ball load. The internal structure of the neck was modified to accept this smaller bullet and the bullet was filled with lead and compressed sand with a small lead tip visible. After WW1 the tips were painted green for identification.
The M91/95 was filled with a aluminium cylinder and lead balls.
The M37 was a simplification on the M91/95 with a different construction, whereby the aluminium and lead pellets were replaced by lead powder and sand. Early cartridges were CN but it was replaced in 1940 with GM jackets.
Utilised a 250gr. bullet inserted deeply in the case so that the total OAL is equal to a normal load. The bullet consisted of a brass tube with three longitudinal slits containing 5 lead cylinders that were bisected. Upon exiting the barrel, the slits disintegrate and the lead cylinders dispersed like a shot load. Later versions did not have the CN tip.
The earlier versions used a brass sheet with four longitudinal grooves with the primer replaced by a leather disk. The later M1909 versions replaced the leather disk with a wooden dowel that ran through the length of the case, with the tip shaped like a bullet, keeping the grooves.
Used a spitser bullet with steel core.
Presumably used during WW1 against planes and airships. Red tip.
Bullet variations on Bologna and Capua ammunition. All specimens shown at 200% scale
1. Blank M91/95
2. - 4. Blank M91/1910
5. Magistri M/G Blank
6. M39 Gallery
7. Frangible/Gallery CN with exposed lead tip
8. Frangible/Gallery CN Green tipped for identification
9. M91/95 Frangible
10. M91/95 Frangible
11. M1937 Magistri Frangible, CN
12. M1937 Magistri Frangible GM
13. Guard/Anti-Riot with CN tip
14. Guard/Anti-Riot
15. - 17. Dummy Loadings
18. Armour Piercing
19. Tracer
20. CN
21. GMCS
Carcano M38 Rifle
Carcano M38 Cavalry Carbine
The company was founded in 1912 by Senator Giovanni Bombrini and Senator Leopoldo Parodi Delfino.
Dummy cartridge using a wooden dowel insert. The production of laquered steel cases started late in 1941, before the capitulation to Germany in September 1943 after which it was made under German control in the occupied areas both for Wehrmacht use as well as the Republican troops.
This cartridge is the M.37 Frangible, or "Magistri". Consists of a GM cap with 2 lead cylinders together with compressed sand.
Società Italiana Generale per Munizioni ed Armi (SIGMA) of Bologna, which was a subcontractor of Pirotecnico di Bologna, or Bologna Ammunition Factory. This company was established in Casaralta on November 6, 1915 and closed in 1919.
Variations on the SMI headstamp
The stars on the 2nd and 3rd specimens are for proof loadings, however these WW1 loaded cartridges may in fact be ordinary ball loadings, as the cases might have been used because of war demands.
1. CN Bullet
2. Wood Blank, Headstamp SMI 915. Base had 4 slits added
3. Wood Dummy, Headstamp SMI 927, utilised a wooden dowel insert
4. Gallery Frangible. Cartridge had a projection in the neck to facilitate the shorter bullet. Would have been used by the Italian National Shooting Association. Lead core with compressed sand filling and coloured green for identification.
5. GMCS Bullet, unknown why it was stained black
6. Ordinary GMCS
7. Ordinary GMCS, with laquered steel case.
Case was stamped 'HEGE 6.5 Caro:' - this is to comply with German regulations.
Grenade blank
Example of box with loading clip. Headstamp is SMI 937.
Contract loading by Hirtenberg Austria for Italy. Note the two different case neck crimpings.
These blanks were packed in paper boxes/packets in the same way that it was done for normal Austrian "Knallpatrone" for the 7,62x51 NATO. There are 40 rounds packed in thin brownish paper bags, imprinted with "Suedsteirische Metallindustrie (adress) 40 Knallpatronen 7,62x51. Above the imprint it was stamped "Italienische" and in most cases the lettering for 7,62x51 was blackened out by an ink-roller so that only the section reading ‘40 Knallpatronen’ can be seen. Because so few of these blanks were manufactured for the Carcano, it was not deemed necessary to print packets specifically for it. There are a number of calibers produced by the Suedsteirische Metallindustrie (Assmann). The dimensions on most of them are not exactly the same as normal manufactured ammunition, but are still functional. (Information courtesy: Peter Petrusic/IAA Forum).
In the 1950's, the Italian Government decided to check and refurbish their WWII weapons inventory, many of them being still in use with the Italian Army and the Police. This is the reason that we find several obsolete WW1 calibers, such as the 6.5mm Carcano and the 8mm Breda were still being manufactured, or at least available from cartridge manufacturers’ catalogues some 10 years after the war had ended. Most of the weapons checked were in good serviceable condition, but in contrast the ammunition stocks were getting too old and unreliable. It was decided to order a goodly amount of 6,5mm Carcano rounds from the USA. Later on, when Italy joined NATO, their weapons had to be standardized to NATO specifications, so the old rifles and carbines were sold off as surplus and the cartridge contracts reduced and the quantities that had already arrived in Italy being sent back to the USA and Canada to be sold off as surplus.
The white 20-round cardboard 6,5mm Carcano ammunition boxes were mostly sold in the US west and Midwest gunshops. They had been made by the WESTERN CARTRIDGE Co., division of Olin industries Inc., at East Alton, Illinois and four lots of one million rounds each were manufactured in 1954. These cartridges are well known to collectors, with their 'WCC 6.5 mm‘ headstamp (see above), brass case, flat brass primer with a red primer annulus and a round tipped 144 grain gilding metal jacketed lead core bullet, featuring a knurled -neck cannelure. All the stories about an alleged order from the Warren Commission for a new manufacture of this ammunition, to test the murder weapon are pure fabrication, as good quantities of the exact lots bought by Lee Oswald were easily available. On trial tests, approximately 200 rounds were fired by various government agencies and 700 more by Dr. John K. Lattimer M.D. and his collaborators in an extremely interesting study published in the WOUND BALLISTIC REVIEW (International Wound Ballistic Association) Vol.2, No2, 1995. (ECRA newsletter 369-23 Feb 1996)
Carcano M1941 Rifle |
Labeling Innovations from Weber
Changes coming for food date coding and labeling
Posted by Margaret O'Leary
Jun 6, 2016 12:12:26 PM
Sell-by-date-label.jpgConfusion over "Best By", “Use By” and "Sell By" dates has contributed to massive amounts of food waste in the US. This confusion stems from conflicting understanding of dates safety and quality meaning. Consumers are likely to throw away food that is passed the date that's labeled on the package even if it's just a sell by date and/or is perfectly safe to eat.
To combat this, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree introduced legislation to standardize food date labeling. This legislation was just proposed so we don’t know yet if it will become law, however, food powerhouse manufacturers like Nestle and Campbell Soup were present with Blumenthal and Pingree to show support for this change.
As mentioned in Packaging World,The Food Date Labeling Act aims to reduce consumer confusion, simplify regulatory compliance for companies, and cut supply-chain and consumer waste of food and money. The bill establishes a uniform national system for date labeling that clearly distinguishes between foods that bear a label indicating peak quality from foods that bear a label indicating they may become unsafe to consume past the date. This bill would also ensure that food is allowed to be sold or donated after its quality date, and educate consumers about the meaning of new labels so that they can make better economic and safety decisions.”
In the meantime, what do these current labels mean?
Best-By dates tell the consumer when the food is likely not going to be at its ideal quality. That doesn't necessarily mean it's not safe to eat.
Use-By dates are similar to “best by” dates. They communicate a date when the food manufacturer has determined the quality of the food has reduced. Again, it doesn’t mean the food is unsafe to eat, just that it might not taste as good.
Sell-By dates tell the retailer when to remove the item from the shelf. What causes confusion for the customer is the cutoff they should have for consuming the product. Do they have two days beyond that date? Is it safe to eat it a week after that sell by date passes?
When “best by” and “sell by” dates are understood as “not safe to eat by” dates, you can see where food waste becomes an issue. The proposed legislation aims to reduce this confusion as well as increasing consumer awareness of when food has gone bad.
Make Coding Your Packaging Easy
If you are a food manufacturer, there are a few ways you can add these dates to your packaging. The least practical way is to include the date in the original artwork and have it printed on press. If you choose to do that, it’s because you know that all the products you’re packaging will have the same “best by” date. That can be tricky to plan out and could leave you with either too many obsolete labels or not enough. Variably printed dates and codes can be added on press, but again, there are big drawbacks. You could end up with more inventory than you need of a certain date and you’ll need to pre-plan the labels in more detail than if you were coding on the spot.
The two most common ways to add a date code to your packaging or label is with a thermal transfer / direct thermal printer or a continuous ink jet printer.
If you’re going to add variable information to you label like weight, flavor, ingredients, you can add a date code to the label as you print that information. Whether you are applying food labels by hand from a stand-alone printer or with a label printer-applicator, the date code can be programmed using labeling software like Legitronic.
Best-By-Bottle-Date-Coding.jpgThe most practical way to add a date code to your product is with a continuous ink jet printer.
Date Coding with Continuous Ink Jet Printers
The most popular use of CIJ coders is date coding. Instead of being limited to printing on the label, you can apply ink directly to the bottle, box, clamshell and more. Ink jet can be applied to nearly any substrate you can think of so you don’t have to worry about changes from glass to aluminum or corrugate boxes to plastic containers.
Let’s say your packaging line is filling and packing hot sauce bottles. As the empty bottle goes through many stages of filling, capping, and labeling, you can easily add a BestCode ink jet system to your line so as the bottles fly by on the conveyor, a date code is applied seamlessly.
Changing the date is easy too. With a 10.4” LCD touch screen, your packaging operators can make updates to the “best if used by” dates.
Talk to a Weber BestCode expert to learn about date coding with BestCode Continuous Ink Jet Systems. Weber can help you determine the best food labeling option for your container and operation.
Get help with date coding from a BestCode expert
Topics: Food Labels, CIJ
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St. Lawrence bridge under construction
40. St. Lawrence bridge
Built from 1885 to 1887 by Dominion Bridge Co. and designed by engineer C. Shaler Smith, the St. Lawrence bridge met the needs of Canadian Pacific to break down the monopoly enjoyed by the Grand Trunk Railway, the owner of the Victoria bridge, the only one that spanned the river between the island of Montréal and the South Shore, until then. The St. Lawrence bridge therefore made it possible for trains to come and go between Lachine and Kahnawake.
In 1890, the new Highlands train station welcomed the local clientele. In 1906, a new railway, built on the south side of the Lachine Canal, linked the Highlands district to Montréal. Between 1910 and 1913, the St. Lawrence bridge doubled its tracks. In 1978, passenger service came to a halt at LaSalle train station, before resuming in 2000, between Montréal, Delson and Candiac. |
Many signature schemes use forking lemma to prove security, like scheme in here.In short, that goes through a reduction technique which called oracle-replay attack to solve the difficult algorithmic problem, requiring two rounds of simulation for $\mathcal{F}$ to obtain two valid signature pairs $(m,r,e,s)$ and $(m,r,e',s')$,where $r$ is a "commitment", $e = H(m||r)$,$s$ and $s'$ is related to $m$, $r$ and $e$. But how to ensure the forger $\mathcal{F}$ will output the same message $m$ and $r$ ,since they may select randomly in each simulation?
see also [PS00] David Pointcheval and Jacques Stern. Security arguments for digital signatures and blind signatures. Journal of Cryptology, 2000.
We use the fact that forger $\mathcal{F}$ is nothing else but a Turing machine with some random tape. And since $\mathcal{F}$ is in our possession, we can choose the tape. Therefore, we can rerun $\mathcal{F}$ with the same tape, and behavior of $\mathcal{F}$ will be just the same (until the point where the oracle will return different value and desired "forking" occurs).
| improve this answer | |
• $\begingroup$ if we see forger as a Turing machine, is the security argument reliable, or it is proved security in ideal world? Since in the simulation forger behaviors extremely different from which in practical and we may cannot make "forking" in real world $\endgroup$ – Laura Apr 3 '19 at 11:38
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$\begingroup$ Right, we always prove security only in some "ideal" model. Regarding this model, the assumption about a Turing machine is pretty reasonable, so the proof (or, if you prefer, argument) is reliable. Btw, all the computational complexity theory is based mainly on Turing model, including even the Discrete Log Problem assumption. $\endgroup$ – Mikhail Koipish Apr 4 '19 at 6:34
The forger $F$ is a probabilistic Turing machine, i.e., a deterministic Turing machine with a random tape, but reusing the same random tape only cannot generate the same $(m,r)$.
In the simulation, the "outside" adversary $A$ (against some hard problem) runs $F$ in a black-box way and controls its random tape which contains fair random bits. For each $F$ execution, $A$ samples the random tape $r_F$ for $F$ and the random coins $r_H$ for answering random oracle $H$ queries. Note that for each sampled random tape, $A$ runs $F$ twice. In the second run, $A$ rewinds $F$ to the point where $H(m,r)$ was queried and then answers it with an independent random value $e'$. Because $A$ uses the same random tape $r_F$ and the same front portion (prior to answering $H(m,r)$) of $r_H$, $F$'s behaviour until querying $H(m,r)$ is fully determined and therefore will generate the same $(m,r)$.
| improve this answer | |
• $\begingroup$ So, in this two simulations, forger $F$ is given by the same random tape, while the message m , "commitment " r is determined by this randomness, so m and r are the same. Can i think in this way ? Is "random tape" here given by simulation means as the randomness given by the challenger when interacting with the forger in the attack environment ? $\endgroup$ – Laura Apr 5 '19 at 3:12
• $\begingroup$ @Laura To get the same (m,r), $A$ needs to fix both the same random tape used for $F$'s execution and the same random coins for answering queries (before $H(m,r)$) to the random oracle $H$. In the real world execution, the challenger only interacts with the forger and never determines its randomness. In the simulation, you can think $A$ pretends to be the challenger but has strong power, e.g., rewinding the forger. $\endgroup$ – Shan Chen Apr 5 '19 at 3:32
• $\begingroup$ I see, then in this simulation, all things are the same except the answering queries from $H$(after $H(m,r)$)).And is the power that reduction A could fix the same random tape for adversary in this simulation also can be used reasonably used in other reduction proof? $\endgroup$ – Laura Apr 5 '19 at 4:02
• $\begingroup$ @Laura Yes. Actually, in other reduction proofs, if you don't use forking lemma, then maybe not necessary to fix the same random tape for two executions. The "outside" $A$ still samples the random tape for the "inside" probabilistic black-box algorithm, but for each execution $A$ samples an independent random tape for it. This is useful in the sense that you can now view the "inside" algorithm as a deterministic algorithm running according to the tape. $\endgroup$ – Shan Chen Apr 5 '19 at 4:08
• $\begingroup$ For every run, $A$ samples an independent random tape for forger, looks like the same as in the real world execution forger, run with the random tape by itself (both of them are in random distribution). So why we need $A$ to do that (samples an independent random tape for forger) or are there advantages when we view the "inside" algorithm as a deterministic algorithm? $\endgroup$ – Laura Apr 5 '19 at 4:28
Your Answer
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Integral to the core vision of Mathspace is to be able to provide the right help at the right time for every student. One way we strive to do this is the way that students do their work on Mathspace.
Students can either type in their answers if on a browser, or handwrite their answers using an iPad or Android tablet.
This is what the student workbook looks like:
1. This is where students enter in their work. In particular, students will be marked on every intermediate step they enter, not just the final answer. Please click here to understand the types of working that Mathspace accepts.
If your students need help in answering the question, they can use the buttons on the right for penalty free help - using these buttons won't penalise them at all.
2. Students can ask for hints that are relevant to the step that they are on. The orange dot means that there is a new hint available. There are sometimes two hints - in these cases, the first hint gets the student to think conceptually about the way they should be thinking, and the second hint tells the student more explicitly how they should be constructing their next step.
3. In some questions, students can watch a video demonstration of a similar question, but with different numbers. These videos take a step-by-step approach, ensuring that the concept is taught as well as the steps.
4. Students can also refer to the lesson attached to the question. This is a popup, so that students can easily swap between the lesson and the question.
5. If the student is still unsure how to proceed with the question, they can ask for the Next Step, at which they can then often continue working. This will cause the student to lose marks on this question - but if they can complete the question without further Next Steps, they can still get partial credit.
6. If your students have any issues with the question (for example, if they think that the supplied answer is incorrect), they can give feedback. Questions with high volume of feedback are reviewed individually and amended where necessary. Please note that students will not receive individual responses to submitted feedback.
These are the main features available to the students in the Workbook - for more peripheral features, please see Student Workbook Part 2: More Features.
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Estella and Miss Havisham throughout the story had a lot of downs. However, they are not close to each other because all they do is yell at each other. Estella is the only child of Molly and Abel Magwitch. Miss. Havisham had adopted Estella only because to get revenge on men. Miss. Havisham wanted to make Estella strong so she could not have emotions for love or heartbreak. Miss. Havisham and Estella never had a good life because something was holding Estella back from going out into the real world and finding true love but Miss. Havisham was getting in Estella’s way of being free to do what she wants, not to be forced not to love others and be cold- hearted towards others. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Miss. Havisham trained Estella into being a cruel cold hearted young lady that has potential to become a nice wife for a man someday but Miss. Havisham is holding her back and not letting her explore the real world. Miss Havisham over the years has trained Estella into becoming cold hearted but beautiful and Pip knew that from the start. Even though Estella is Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter she has made Estella into a demon to not love men. There was something about Miss Havisham that Pip couldn’t figure out. ” She came back, with some bread and meat and a little mug of beer. She put the mug down on the stones of the yard, and gave me the bread and meat without looking at me, as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace.” (Dickens 108) This goes to show how Estella treated young boys and how Miss Havisham uses Estella to get revenge on boys. Because of Miss Havisham she made beautiful Estella into a mean and fiesty girl. Estella tells Pip that she doesn’t have a heart because she does have emotions for some people throughout the story. “I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the success, take all the failure, in short, take me.” (282) Estella is blaming Miss Havisham in this tone of voice because she is very embarrassed for how she was acting towards Pip. And at this point in the story Miss Havisham now thinks that Estella is thankless because she won’t write letters or even talk to her anymore because she is finally starting to figure out what is going on. At this point, Miss Havisham is very confused on what is going on with Estella, her head is spinning because she is wondering what snapped in Estella’s head to make her act the way she is. Estella knows she can love and have emotions for others but with Miss Havisham in the way it is nearly impossible to say, “I don’t want to be mean and cold hearted!” kind of thing. “You stock and stone! You cold, cold heart.” (541) Estella was confused on what is going on with Miss Havisham. In all, Estella has an attitude towards the rude Miss Havisham; now she thinks Estella is betraying her at this point in the story. Estella was concerned because she never saw her adoptive mother be so mad and raising her voice. “Did I never give her love!” (542) Estella at this point in the story is done with her adoptive mother Miss Havisham because all Estella did for a long time just sat on a stool getting taught by Miss Havisham. Now it gets real when Estella finds out that Miss Havisham was teaching her false teachings and how Estella was sometimes disrespectful to Miss Havisham. Estella needs to act nicer to Miss Havisham. When time has passed more, Estella was close to going away from Miss Havisham and going out in the world and explore what’s really out there. Pip found Estella sitting near Miss Havisham. However, Miss Havisham’s attitude towards Estella did not change at all. “I must be taken as I have been made.” (545) In addition to Estella not respecting Miss Havisham, she is quite upset at Estella and shows her love. This is when Estella finds out who she is meant to be. She is blaming this all on Miss Havisham. Only reason why Miss Havisham is doing this is because she was dumped on her wedding day and ever since that day she hated boys so she raised a daughter to become someone who has no feelings towards people which could affect her in the future if she decides to go out in the world and explore. “At least I was no party to the compact.” (542) When Miss Havisham raised her adoptive daughter Estella, she had bought some nice things like jewelry and Estella does not know that Miss Havisham is looking for something in return. Some days Miss Havisham wanted to make it up to Estella but Estella did not want to believe it. She knew Estella would like it and she did but she did not get anything back in return which is sad. Estella should say sorry for this but she has reasons for not saying sorry. In the past she has been abused by Miss Havisham and so now in the story she would start to ignore her letters because she knew what was going on so she stopped. Sometimes in our lives we can make mistakes that could change things forever. Because if Miss Havisham wasn’t so mean and heartless like she raised Estella, Pip and Estella would be together. Pip knew what was going on with Miss Havisham and Estella the whole time, he wanted to help Estella but Miss Havisham wouldn’t let him near her sometimes throughout the story because she did not want Estella to change or become an enemy of her and wanted to make her like herself and Estella would not like it at all.
I'm Erica!
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Stacking Theory for Systems Design
Jesper L. Andersen
Feb 12, 2017 · 9 min read
In the recent years, I have adopted a method for system design, which I think yields good results. For a lack of better word, I overloaded “stack” yet again, and use it as a metaphor for this design.
As everything else, it isn’t a silver bullet. There are other designs, equally good, with other trade-offs. I come with an Erlang background, so of course my designs are going to be influenced by its design. I do think the methods are widely applicable however, so you could easily use them in your preferred programming language. In order to make some things clear, first a little bit of Erlang terminology from a top-down perspective:
• An Erlang release comprises the Erlang runtime system — containing the interpreter, garbage collector and built-in parts — the standard libraries you need, and your own code modules. A release is completely self-contained, and requires no outside libraries in order to be able to run. Essentially, it is almost its own “docker-container”.
• Inside the Erlang release, we have applications which are either from the standard system: kernel, stdlib, crypto, …, or they are your own applications. When building a release, the release manager figures out what dependencies there are among the applications you wish to run, and it makes sure to include all of them.
• Each application consists of processes, where each process sits somewhere in a supervision tree. A process in Erlang terminology is a point of concurrent execution: they operate independently of each other and communicates via message passing. If you have more than one physical core, they can execute in parallel in the system.
• The code a process runs resides in a module. A single process can run code from many modules, and the same module can be run from many processes. Modules are roughly “static” components insofar they exist at the time the programmer writes them, and are included in applications. A process is “dynamic” in the sense that it exists at runtime, executing code in the modules.
• In Erlang systems, processes also defines the boundary of isolation. The state of a process cannot be scrutinized outside that process[0], so the only way to interact with a process is to send it a message and wait for a reply.
Modes of operation
When you boot up your Erlang system, it goes through several modes of operation:
First, the runtime is executed. It starts booting an init-sequence. This sequence of initialization begins by loading all modules into the system. This avoids accidentally missing some module later on.
Once every module is loaded, we go through and configure each application and start them up. Configuration at this level usually stops the system if there is anything wrong. Configuration errors are human errors and aborting is often better than trying to cope with a mistake in configuration.
At this point, the system is operational.
However, there is more to it than that. The above is what I tend to call the baseline of the system. Nothing is wrong with the system, but rather than claim the it is operational, I like to cut operational behavior into a “stack”.
The baseline is level 0 in the stack, and now we try to move the system upwards in the stack by adding another level. It is important to stress that transitioning is a best effort method. We make an attempt at increasing the operational level of the system, but if we can’t we stay put at the current level.
We could for instance introduce a database connection pool into our system. At level 0, we start up the pool and we spawn proxy-processes for each connection worker. But we don’t try to connect at level 0. All we can guarantee in the baseline is that the system is up and running. Not that it is able to carry out service for clients. Connections to the database is a transition to level 1. We periodically try to connect and once we have a connection, we proceed at a higher operational level. If we don’t get a database connection for a while, we log that fact and we might raise an alarm in the system in order to tell devops something is amiss.
The key is that had we made level 0 assume connectivity to the database, our system would be far less flexible. Should it suddenly experience an intermittent and transient network error, there is no level below the baseline, so we must terminate the system as a whole. By “stacking” service, we can go back to level 0 and start best-effort transitions to level 1 again. This structure is a ratchet-mechanism in Erlang systems: once at a higher level, we continue operating there. Errors lead to the fault-tolerance handling acting upon the system. It moves our operating level down — by resetting and restarting the affected processes — and continues operation at the lower level.
Note how this is safe: The state in which we have no database connectivity is a stable state from which we can try establishing one. If an error occurs, the internal state of a single database connection is very complex to model, and trying to recover from such a state is insanely complicated. So we terminate the connection and reset it to a known good state: “not connected at all”.
Our system, once at level 1, will then transition to level 2. At level 2 it may connect to our Message Queue broker. The same thing applies as with the database connection: we make a best-effort at getting there and an error will just reset us to level 1: We have the database connection, but need the broker connection.
And once at level 2, we try to go to level 3: enable the Cowboy web server’s listen port. At this point, we can assume level 1 and 2, so the systems underlying parts must be operational, and hence we can give service to the outside world. This is where we introduce a load-balancer callback into our service, and we tell the load-balancer we are able to give service. At this point, we are entered into the service pool in the load-balancer and the system operates nominally.
An error at level 3 in a single process shouldn’t give rise to a total system failure and reset. Many errors are transient and intermittent. Erlang’s fault tolerance principles defines a policy for the threshold at which we deem operation at level 3 a failure due to too many errors in a too short timespan. The solution, of course, is to gradually try resetting more and more of the the web servers internals until the fault is removed. Or in worst case, reset to a lower operating level in the stack.
Once you have a leveled stack of operation, stopping the service becomes easy: stop it by going down in levels. First, you remove the listen socket so no more requests enter the system. Then you drain the requests that are currently operating at level 3. Then you move to level 2. Then 1, and then 0 at which point you can terminate the system.
A common mistake is to botch the close-down procedure of a system. My test is usually to load the system and then try to terminate it while it is loaded. Often you see crashing and burning in the close-down phase. And the requests that are currently running fails in non-standard ways. This is a problem in the modern world where we use elastic computing. Machines are added and removed all the time automatically as load requires, so we can’t have this happening. In some situations, the load balancer can be coerced to participate in the close-down procedure which helps since it can drain connections. But that isn’t always the case.
Another test: say I start the system in a development environment where it has no connectivity to any system it needs: databases, central logging, metrics, brokers, and so on. If the system fails to boot due to a network connectivity problem, chances are that it will fail to boot in production. A system assuming the presence of other systems has an unwritten dependency chain. You have to boot your production systems in a certain order or things will not work. This is often bounds for trouble.
Furthermore, suppose you decide to move a database to another address. One advantage of a stacked design is that you can often add another database pool to the system without it being there yet. It allows you to deploy your system first, and then await the presence of the new database cluster. Once there, your system picks it up automatically and starts using it. By building systems where at least one of the systems are able to handle transitions in the infrastructure, you build systems that are far easier to manage. We often use this trick: add a new RESTful endpoint, deploy it to production and then start using it. This avoids us having to coordinate a client launch where the approval committee of Apple might prove to be a problem. Extending this trick to your infrastructure is nice. Support both versions of a protocol at the same time, so you don’t have to decide when to move from one to the other, but can put that onus on a later decision-maker.
In development, stacked designs are also very nice. You may not need to start a centralized logger og a metrics gatherer while you are developing the system. And if you need to test something on metrics or logging, a simple invocation of netcat (The nc(1) tool) suffices. Again, this helps production. You just lost your metrics server. It shouldn’t coordinate with your main service and take it down as well.
Cloud environments are notoriously flaky. We have weekly disconnects among services, and small disruptions are common. You need to build your systems such that they can tolerate a small amount of noise. Stacked designs are excellent at tolerating noise. If for instance you just lost a single database connection from the pool, you can just pick another and try replenishing the lost connection. If you just lost all of them, it is back to level 0.
Another advantage of tolerating small amounts of noise is that you can often tolerate larger amounts too! If the connection error rate is 1:1,000,000 and suddenly rises to 1:1,000, then your system can cope with it. Had you picked an absolute path where everything has to be entirely correct all the time, you just made a reboot and failure a thousand times more likely. It will hurt your service.
Use an alarm handler! Erlang has one built in where you can set and clear alarms. If you’ve had no connection to the outside world for, say, 15 seconds, you can raise the alarm. In turn, your system is going to tell the world that there is a problem, rather than having some poor devops person figure out what is wrong by themselves. A system saying: I’m broken because I have no connection to the database and thus I can’t give service, is far better than one that is rolling around in a reboot/restart loop all the time.
Stacked design, one level up
Finally, the stacked design doesn’t stop with the service/system itself. Use it one level up in your architecture as well. It is far better to deploy machines by starting with an empty machine and configuring it, installing software and starting it. Contrast with mutation of an existing machine. By rebuilding your environment, you essentially build your whole data center from scratch every time. It makes sure you are safe even if most of the system gets hosed.
When errors occur, find what you can: core dumps, Erlang crashdump files, log files and so on. Ship it elsewhere. Then wipe the machine and build a new one to take over. This allows post-mortem analysis of the error, while keeping your system operational. Post-mortem analysis is paramount if you want stable systems. You need to distinguish between an error which is benign and due to a rare event chain, and errors which needs programmers to fix them. This can only be done by analyzing errors as they occur. Note that some benign errors in a system must never be fixed. Fixing certain errors requires so much change in the code base, that the changes poses a greater risk than the benign error itself! So unless you can find a more elegant approach to the problem, don’t fix them.
Also, don’t make ordering assumptions in your architecture. Most of us operate in environments where errors occur. When they do, they break our ordering assumptions about what is running and what is not. So build your systems to cope with this. In a stacked design, as long as there is always one stack that can increase in level, the system will eventually “un-tilt” itself. This is especially important in micro-service architectures, where the dependencies tend to be so complex nobody has actually tested all possible interactions.
Finally, stacked designs can cover for bad system designs. As long as some of your systems can cope with failure, you can often have them be the saving grace in the architecture. By deploying some systems able to cope with trouble, you can avoid total failure. Nygard’s “Circuit Breaker” pattern comes in handy here in your software.
[0] Save for debugging calls.
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A Look at Tobacco and Alcohol Portrayals in Film
Parents often wonder how much their children’s media consumption affects their behavior. The answer might not be what they want to hear. It turns out that media consumption plays a large part in shaping children’s actions and behaviors.
Several studies performed in Germany and the United States have indicated that television programs and films show significant amounts of substance abuse, and that those portrayals have a direct influence on children and adolescents.
Alcohol rehab centers in places like Los Angeles often deal with the consequences of substance abuse. An individual’s tendency towards alcoholism or smoking often starts at home, in front of the TV.
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What is a Quality-Adjusted Life Year?
The Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) is a measure developed by health economists to measure and compare the benefits of healthcare interventions for cost effectiveness analyses relied on to allocate health care. The theoretical underpinning of the QALY is that quality of life can be measured and distilled down to a single number. There are serious ethical concerns with how QALYs are developed and ultimately used. For example, it is well known that QALYs fall short in measuring health preferences for patients with chronic diseases and disabilities. QALYs place greater value on years lived in full health, or on interventions that prevent loss of perfect health while discounting gains in health for individuals with chronic illnesses.
How Do I Make A Difference?
Your voice is needed to inform decision makers about outcomes that matter to patients and people with disabilities, as well as the value of your health and your loved ones. Researchers are actively assessing the value of treatments using quality-adjusted-life-years (QALYs) and similar discriminatory metrics. Payers, in turn, use these assessments to decide what treatments are covered. Stay informed about upcoming value assessments and access resources to help you be engaged.
Sign the “Don’t Discriminate on Care” Petition Today!
What is International Reference Pricing?
International Reference Pricing is a policy that has been proposed by both the Trump Administration and the House of Representatives in the form of H.R. 3. It would allow the United States government to determine what other foreign governments are paying for pharmaceuticals and then use that information to influence or set the price of these products within the United States.
Patients and people with disabilities are concerned about this policy, as most of the countries that would be reference rely on QALY-based value assessments to determine price and coverage of treatments. The implication of this is that many drugs available in the United States are not available or drastically delayed in foreign countries. We are concerned that importing these pricing systems would lead to the same access challenges within the United States.
What is a Value Assessment?
A Value Assessment is a tool used to determine the “value” of a healthcare intervention. Traditional value assessments tend to be QALY-based cost-effectiveness analyses (CEA). These assessments are designed to determine whether the benefits of a treatment are worth the cost. Frequently these analyses omit outcomes that matter to patients, failing to capture “value” to the patient and focusing on “value” to the payer. There are new models being developed that are actively working to be more patient-centric. Organizations doing this work include PAVE and the Innovation and Value Initiative.
What Is ICER?
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is a private research organization that conducts cost-effectiveness assessments of medicines and health care services. Health insurers and policy-makers use these assessments to guide decisions that impact patient access, which is concerning to the patient and disability community, as their research fails them in multiple ways.
ICER conducts cost effectiveness studies for insurers using the cost-per-QALY methodology. Quality-adjusted life years, or QALYs, is a metric commonly used to determine the value of a health care treatment. To calculate a QALY, you must assign a value to a person’s life. Because the value assigned to seniors, the chronically ill, or people with disabilities is lower than that of a young, healthy person, QALYs could lead policymakers and payers to conclude the treatments for seniors, patients with chronic conditions or people with disabilities are not worth covering.
Click here to provide patient input. Click here to view the topics and deadlines.
How Do Value Assessments Impact Me?
As policymakers and health insurers are looking to bring down the cost of healthcare, they are frequently turning to value assessments as a method to determine which treatments are worth paying for and which are not. The problem with this is that traditional value assessments are ill-equipped to determine which treatments are providing value to individual patients, as they were designed as an instrument to make broad, population wide decisions. Relying on value assessments to make payment and coverage determinations can lead to patients experiencing delays and barriers to access for needed treatments. |
how isp works
An ISP Technician can handle a variety of jobs relating to telecommunications equipment. They’re an essential part of every enterprise, as there’s no telling when issues may crop up. The sooner a problem is fixed, the sooner your business can get back to working efficiently.
As the world is now heavily dependent on telecommunications technologies, there’s almost no way of preventing a fault from happening at some point. The main issue is that this can be potentially catastrophic for a business organization. If something as simple as a data cable becomes faulty, this could shut down the entire business network, making it impossible to do any work.
This is where ISP Technicians come into play as their wide range of skills makes them the perfect candidate for any job relating to telecommunication issues.
Technicians will need to work flexible hours. Importantly, they must possess excellent written and verbal communication skills.
They should be prepared to work manually, which would involve stooping, crawling, bending at the waist and knees, climbing towers, lifting weights of up to 50 pounds, standing for long periods of time, working in all types of weather conditions, etc.
how isp works
Job Description
ISP Technicians install, test, boost, maintain, and fix various telecommunications equipment, such as satellite, voice, data, and network, at telecom sites, Carrier POPs, and companies’ facilities, among others. They resolve issues promptly by logging into switches and by following instructions from the networks operation center (NOC) or a senior engineer. |
Drukarnia 606
Coating - a covering that is applied to the surface of an object, usually referred to as the substrate. In many cases coatings are applied to improve surface properties of the substrate, such as appearance, adhesion, wetability, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and scratch resistance. In other cases, in particular in printing processes and semiconductor device fabrication (where the substrate is a wafer), the coating forms an essential part of the finished product.
Lakier UV - Drukarnia 606
Coating and printing processes involve the application of a thin film of functional material to a substrate, such as paper, fabric, film, foil or sheet stock. This article discusses what is frequently termed 'roll-to-roll' or 'web-based' coating. A roll of substrate, when wound through the coating machine, is typically called a web.
Coatings may be applied as liquids, gases or solids. Coatings can be measured and tested for proper opacity and film thickness by using a drawdown card.
free prestaphop templates free prestaphop templates |
Why did people die for the Church in the Middle Ages? Download the decision-making game here: 1 The Crusades Game
How important was John Ball in causing the Peasants Revolt of 1381? Download the lesson here: 1 The Peasants Revolt
Was James I a ‘relative failure’ as a ruler of England? Download the decision-making game here: James I game
Was Guy Fawkes framed in the Gunpowder Plot? Download the resources for this whole-class trial here: Guy Fawkes Trial Courtroom Script and Guy Fawkes Trial Witness Profiles
Did pirates have parrots and bury treasure? Download the lesson resources here: Pirates Lesson and Pirate Code
The Age of Discovery Game. Download the decision-making game here: Age of Discovery Game
How did the fortunes of the British change during World War I? This change and continuity enquiry is based on the key battles of World War I. Links within the PowerPoint allow the student to toggle between the main map, illustrating where the battle took place, and information about that battle. The resource could be used as the lesson below describes, or, if access allows, pupils could access the file at home and therefore homework could be set using the resource. Download the resource and accompanying lesson plan here: Fortunes of British in Battle LESSON; and World War I Battles
Why is World War I worth knowing? (Including Knowledge Hopscotch): Download the instructions here: Why is World War I worth knowing
RAF 100: RAF 100 Lessons
How effective was the 1848 Public Health Act? Download the monopoly board here: Public Health Act Knowledge Monopoly
Why did Tsarist Russia collapse into revolution? Download the decision-making game resources here: Russia Collapse Game and Russia Game Instructions and Russia Game Score Sheet and Russia Game News Flashes and Results and Russia Game Action Cards
Historical Association Annual Conference, Bristol, May 2015: ‘Narrative writing: no longer an ‘underrated skill’. Download the presentation here: Narrative HA Conference 2015 PHL
SHP Summer Conference, Leeds, July 2016: ‘Towards a knowledge-rich curriculum: a variety of practical activities to help pupils understand the value of precise factual knowledge’. Download the presentation and resource pack here: SHP Workshop 2016 and SHP Workshop Worth Activities Pack
CPD event: How to effectively teach historical interpretations, Bristol, May 2017: ‘Avoiding determinism and embracing agency: supporting sixth form students in making judgements about an historian’s selection of evidence’. Download the presentation here: EH Carr and Agency in Interpretations
Why self-testing is effective? A short, picture-based explanation for students: What Makes Effective Revision
Remote Learning: recommendations for myself (April 2020): Remote learning April 2020 |
Writing the character flaw
By Sydney Smith. This post first appeared on ThreeKookaburras and is used with permission.
When the protagonist has a character flaw that prevents them from getting what they want, the story deepens and becomes more richly layered.This character flaw can be called the internal antagonist. It drives the protagonist to act against their own best interests, while also blinding them to that fact. For example, in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth wants more than anything to see her sister Jane married to Mr Bingley. She does everything she can to promote the match, within the limits imposed by the social conventions of the time.
When Mr Bingley (pictured in the BBC production) leaves the neighbourhood, with no prospect of returning in the near future, according to his jealous, conniving sister, Elizabeth sends Jane to London to make every effort to enter the Bingley social circle.
By doing so Jane will meet him again and strengthen their relationship. But Miss Bingley won’t let Jane past the front door. Jane is forced to go back to Longbourn, disappointed.
Elizabeth doesn’t realise, until it’s too late, that the most decisive action she could have taken in furthering the match would have been to be nice to Mr Darcy and get him on her side. But she was blinded by her prejudice against him, and that prevented her from taking such a step.
Mr Darcy is also blinded by his character flaw, or internal antagonist. That is his pride. He finds himself attracted to Elizabeth, but his pride tells him she would be a poor match. Her station in life is inferior to his own; she has no money, no important connections, nothing of a worldly nature that would make a marriage between them advantageous to himself and the Darcy family. He finds he can’t suppress his feelings for her, and at last, he proposes marriage.
But his pride drives him to do it in an insulting way. He talks about her social inferiority, and how rational judgment argued against the match. It’s hardly surprising that she turns him down. He doesn’t realise his pride was preventing him from getting what he wanted, until she told him so. Why on earth would she want to marry a man who, out of pride, had destroyed the relationship between Bingley and Jane? Now each must work to correct their character flaws. Only when they meet each other as equals, emotionally and morally, can they get what they want.
In Jane Austen, just about every character comes with their internal antagonist. Caroline Bingley’s internal antagonist is her jealousy. She wants Darcy for herself, but her jealousy drives her to disparage Elizabeth to him, thus driving him further away. Mrs Bennet’s flaw is her vulgarity. She wants to see Jane married to Mr Bingley, but her vulgarity so offends Darcy, who pulls out all the stops to prevent the match.
Every time a character opens their mouth, out spills their character flaw. One of the differences between the good guys and everyone else in Austen’s fiction is that the good guys are able to recognise their character flaw and correct it. Mrs Bennet remains vulgar to the very end, Miss Bingley remains jealous, Mr Wickham remains a lying psychopath and so on. Only Elizabeth and Darcy have what it takes to change and grow.
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Can a Person Die from Depression? A Dangerous Fact
Can a person die from depression?
Unlike physical diseases, depression does not kill people directly. However, the psychological problems that it caused can lead to physical illness which in turn causes death if not treated.
The reason why some deaths are associated with depression is that depression, in most cases, triggers suicide. If depression strikes, a person may feel helpless and loses hope. It triggers negative thoughts that make a person think that he/she is worthless and must die.
With the recorded number of deaths associated with suicide, approximately half of it is caused by depression. The problem of this psychological issue is that it is not only hard to treat but also difficult to notice.
The cure may always emanate from the patient. If a person does not want to be cured, then mental health professionals can do nothing.
Suicide is an extreme outcome. But apart from that, depression can also cause several health problems. In fact, most depressed people also develop heart disease. When psychological and biological ailments combined, a person is at greater risk.
Depression is also associated with poor focus, attention, memory, and life choices. This is because a depressed person is incapable of making a sound decision. As a result, he/she makes a lot of mistakes.
Shortcomings from poor decisions may, in turn, contribute to depression. A person may not be able to function well in his/her daily routine resulting in lousy performance in many aspects of life.
How many people have depression in the world?
Around the world, there are more than 300 million depressed people. And it is also one of the leading causes of diseases including but not limited to heart disease.
Depression is more prevalent among women than men. But in reality, depression can strike anyone.
Is depression treatable?
Depression is treatable. There hundreds of ways to treat this condition. Most of the time, the treatment is a combination of antidepressants and psychotherapy.
The only challenge is that most depressed people donât want the world knows that they are depressed. They tend to hide their true feelings or emotions. They act like healthy people. But deep inside they have that emptiness that hunts them for years.
If a person is willing to seek help, he/she will be cured. If you are one of those people who ask help, you will be healed.
Detaching depression from yourself does not always need health professionals. If you have a mild version of depression, there is a high chance that you can deal with it on your own.
There are many ways you can do to lessen or kill depression before it hurts you. But I do not recommend the techniques that I am going to share with you if you are experiencing severe depression. In that case, find professional help immediately.
Self-help strategies to combat depression
As mentioned, there are many things that can make a person depressed. Fortunately, there are also many ways or strategies you can use to combat depression.
The good news is that all of these techniques are free. You donât have to spend money to feel better. Here are some of the things you can do:
1. Have a pet
Cuddling a pet can increase your happiness level. Yes, you read it right. It is called the pet effect. Many studies had found that having a pet at home can make pet owners happy.
It does not matter whether it is a cat, dog, or other domesticated animals. Experiencing attachment with any of those animals can increase onesâ well-being.
2. Listen or dance to your favorite music
Since the dawn of man, music has been playing an important role. Our ancestors fell in love with the harmony of sounds that bind them together.
But why is that so? Well, one of the reasons is that music can change a personâs emotional state. Depending on the genre, music can make you sad or happy.
Obviously, to feel better, choose a piece of music that uplifts the soul.
3. Maintain a regular exercise schedule
A physical exercise will not only strengthen your physical features but also improve your mental health. Studies in the past had found that an exercise can increase neurochemical levels responsible for increasing mood.
Physical exercise does not always mean going to the gym and lift weights. A simple 30-minute walk will do. Just spend a few minutes of your day to walk or jog.
4. Make more friends
Establishing wider and good interpersonal connections will not only make you a better person but a person with a better state of mind.
Make more friends right where you are. It could be your classmates, your co-workers, or neighbors. Talk to them. Share your experiences and burdens. Depression starts when those negative emotions from negative experiences are confined inside.
Talking is one of the best ways to ease depression. In fact, when you go to mental health professionals, they will just talk and let you share the things that bother you. This happens most of the time.
5. Revisit your hobby
A hobby can be a great idea to keep your mind preoccupied. Revisit your passion. Sure enough, you have something you enjoy doing. What is it? It could be painting, drawing, writing, or whatever.
Studies show that doing a hobby relaxes the mind. This is a great way to detach yourself from depression. The best part? It is free.
6. Talk to a friend
Sadness worsens if you are alone than with somebody. In fact, most suicide incidents happen when depressed people left alone.
Whenever you feel depressed, the best way to escape that feeling of emptiness is having someone to talk to. Call a friend or family member. This way alleviates the sadness.
So, can a person die from depression? Depression itself is not like a physical disease that deteriorates the body. But depression affects the mind.
Once psychological health is at stake, it surely affects the body. Depression lessens the personâs ability to make a rational decision.
As a result, depressed people sometimes turn to suicide as an instant solution to the problem. An example of an indirect effect of depression.
But one should be reminded that depression, much like any diseases, can be healed. With the help of mental health professionals, the healing process can speed up.
I hope that the tips I shared with you here help loosen you up. But for extreme cases, I suggest that you consult with the health professionals. |
Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-e in Edo, 1700-1900
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Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period (1615–1868) were the products of a highly commercialised and competitive publishing industry. Their content was inspired by the vibrant popular culture that flourished in Edo (Tokyo). At any given time scores of publishers competed for the services of the leading artists of the day. Publishers and artists displayed tremendous ingenuity in finding ways to sustain demand for prints and to to circumvent the restrictions placed upon them by government censorship.
Japanese woodblock prints have long been appreciated in the West for their graphic qualities but their content has not always been fully understood. In recent years, publications by scholars in Japan, Europe and the United States have made possible a more subtle appreciation of the imagery encountered in them. This book draws upon this recent scholarship to explain how those who first purchased these prints would have read them. Through stunning new photography of both well-known and rarely published works in the collection of the British Museum, including many recent acquisitions, the author explores how and why such prints were made, providing a fascinating introduction to a much-loved but littleunderstood art form.
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Essay On Salem Witch Trials
1326 Words6 Pages
Castillo Juan Mr. Hartshorn English III CP 31 March 2014 Salem Witch Trials The Salem witch trials, an event in colonial Massachusetts between 1692-1693 occurred in present day Danvers, Massachusetts, once known as Salem Village. This paper will validate Salem’s witch trials having a very immense influence on the U.S. today; such as the trial’s religious, philosophical, political, and ethical impact on our nation today. Life in Salem Village was harsh, farming was difficult, an epidemic of smallpox was killing families, and all misfortunes were seen as the Devil's work. Puritan lifestyle was a strong influence for the trials; they had a strong belief in the devil and witchcraft and made up a great number of the Massachusetts population. Salem was divided into two parts, Salem Village and Salem Town. Residents from both living areas were abundantly different. The people of Salem Village were commonly pauper farmers at a disadvantage by living in rocky terrain while those living in Salem town were mostly wealthy merchants. Residents of Salem Town relied on farmers for food and collected tax from their village. Salem Village desperately tried to gain independence from Salem Town for many years yet there was no separation between the dyad. Farmers of Salem Village believed the Salem Townspeople quality of character endangered their Puritan values. Tension grew worse once Salem Village chose Reverend Samuel Parris as their new minister. Parris was a flinty Puritan that discredited Salem Town’s prosperity as the work of the Devil. It's probable that jealousy played a major role in the witch trials, most accused lived near Salem Town, and Reverend Parris was a zealous supporter of the witch trials with a deep hatred for residents of... ... middle of paper ... time. The pain brought upon the witch trials doubtlessly opened some eyes for the inhabitants and ended several superstitions for them. Our government today is no longer controlled by ridiculous fables of mythology; our country now has legitimate justice because of the innocent victims of the witch trials. My research paper not only proved the Salem Witch Trials significance to our justice system but its positive effect on our people’s lack of empathy. The witch trials ruined lives but saved people today from future agony; the event culturally influenced people of Pagan ancestry to become open with their religion and gave several writers inspiration to write stories based off the Salem Witch Trials. Most Christian based churches today no longer follow the old belief of witchcraft, because of the Salem witch trials no similar tragedies can transpire ever again.
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Essay Essay
391 Words2 Pages
Graydon Morris Critique: After reviewing the Shakespeare essay, the author does a good job at states their main point and making it very clear to the readers. However, I found the essay hard to follow because of the structure of the essay and how the author expressed their back up points. I knew after reading the first paragraph that the essay would need some editing. The author starts off strong by explaining Shakespeare’s early education but then jumps right into his/her thesis statement. You should never state your thesis in the form of a question; instead make it a general statement. Another problem within the opening paragraph was the three main points. It was hard to determine what his/her main points were because of the way they were introduced. The main points should be laid out so that the reader can determine what each body paragraph will be about without even having to read them. The body paragraphs were not as hard to follow but the author should have indented each paragraph indicating he/she is ready to move onto a new topic. The research the author used to back up his/her main points within each body paragraph gave me the feeling that the work was rushed and quickly put together. The author has way too much information about one point. They should have found one piece of information and simply related it to the main point. In the concluding paragraph, the author does a good job summarizing the body paragraphs but still has too much information creating run on sentences. The author makes strong points throughout the essay but needs help organizing and putting together the information so that everything flows properly. ISP Novel The novel I chose for the ISP is “The Outsiders”, by S.E. Hinton. I have begun to read the novel and I am already very intrigued with the story. The book is about a young fourteen-year-old boy named Ponyboy Curtis who lives
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Largest “depleted galaxy” holds clues to how it formed
New model of merging galaxies better explains missing stars and visible star clumps
Artist’s impression of a flare from a star partly behind a black hole
James Josephides, Swinburne University of Technology
The largest “depleted galaxy” ever observed apparently did not form according to the most popular model.
The galaxy, designated 2MASX J17222717+3207571, is remarkable for its size (a total stellar mass of 4.44 trillion solar masses) and for the stars missing from its core (175 billion solar masses). By comparison, the Milky Way tips the cosmic scale at a meager 60 billion solar masses.
Astronomers call a galactic core “depleted” when the mass density of stars in its core does not follow the progression set by the outer part of the galaxy. The density of stars in most galaxies increases smoothly from the outer edge to the center. Astronomers can plot the actual progression in a galaxy and compare it with the expected, smooth progression. In some galaxies, the actual number of stars in the central bulge falls short of what is expected.
Depleted cores show up in only a small percentage of galaxies, but they are fairly common in very large galaxies, according to Alister Graham, a professor of astronomy at Swinburne University of Technology’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. “It’s only galaxies with a spheroidal distribution of stars more massive than about 200 billion solar masses. As a general rule, this excludes all spiral galaxies.”
After a close inspection of what was thought to be the largest depleted galaxy core last year and finding that the initial analysis was mistaken, Graham and Paolo Bonfini, from Centro de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica in Mexico, decided to take a closer look at the next two largest depleted galaxies.
Graham and Bonfini, who was the lead author, published their results in the Sept. 23, 2016, Astrophysical Journal (Vol. 829, No. 81, “The Quest for the Largest Depleted Galaxy Core: Supermassive Black Hole Binaries And Stalled Infalling Satellites”;
The smaller of the two galaxies, designated 2MASX J09194427+5622012, appears to have formed by the merger of two similar-size smaller galaxies. Each of the two merging galaxies had a supermassive black hole at its center. As the two cores merged into each other, some of the stars were flung out, the way an Earth spacecraft gains speed as it slingshots around a gas giant planet such as Jupiter.
“Some stars may be kicked right out of the galaxy,” says Graham, “while others now orbit in the middle and outer regions of the galaxy.”
Galaxy ’012 apparently formed through the “binary black hole scouring scenario,” a widely accepted model for how galaxies merge and form depleted cores.
The revelation came from the bigger depleted galaxy, which shows no evidence of containing a supermassive black hole. Galaxy ’571 has a core that is evenly distributed with stars — except for a handful of dense knots of stars near the core’s edge.
“When this model was first introduced, the cores it produced were so large, and the central mass deficits so great, that it was considered excessive,” says Graham. “Nothing so big had ever been observed. But that all changed with 2MASX J17222717+3207571 (‘571), which perfectly matches the unusually large, constant-density core seen in the simulations.”
Hubble Space Telescope image of the giant galaxy 2MASX J17222717+3207571, showing several semidigested galaxies around its heavily depleted core
NASA, ESA, Paolo Bonfini
The pudding scenario
The pair of supermassive black holes dominate the action in what astronomers call the “scouring scenario,” slinging normal stars aside as they plunge toward each other. Imagine a rock falling into a swimming pool of water.
Without the black holes, a tightly bound star core being drawn into a uniformly distributed star core is more like a chunk of chocolate sinking into a pool of warm pudding. Astronomers refer to the idea more precisely as the “stalled perturber scenario.”
The pudding metaphor has limitations, of course. For example, around the edges of the tightly bound core, individual stars exchange kinetic energy with the surrounding stars, some of which are ejected.
The core of galaxy ’571 may have started life with a typical undepleted density peak in the middle, but when it started swallowing its small satellite galaxies, its core density started to even out.
“The inner stellar density gradient in the big galaxy is eroded away as the satellites sink in,” explains Graham. “The satellites sink (their orbital energy is reduced) while the centrally located stars of the big galaxy are ejected out (their orbital energy increases). Once the core has a constant density, the satellites’ in-fall is stalled; they loiter at the boundary of this core for a very long time.”
Numerical confirmation
Graham and Bonfini ran computer simulations and found that the structure of the core of galaxy ’571 is consistent with a large galaxy with a roughly constant-density core and no supermassive black hole swallowing a much smaller galaxy with a tightly bound core but also without a supermassive black hole.
“It is hard to know exactly the history of mergers and activity for any one galaxy,” but the stalled perturber scenario remains a valid idea, according to Christopher Conselice, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham in the U.K. Conselice was not involved in Bonfini and Graham’s study. “The arguments they give are fairly solid, but the other possibilities still remain. More data is needed, and especially more simulations need to be carried out to interpret what we observe.”
Located at the center of a cluster containing hundreds of galaxies, galaxy ’571 continues to grow by swallowing the smaller galaxies around it, says Graham. The remnants of the dense cores of five of those swallowed galaxies can be seen in images of galaxy ’571. They hover near the edge of galaxy ’571’s core as monuments to their past life.
“For a couple of decades now, SMBHs [supermassive black holes] have been the go-to bad boy when people observe the damaged cores of galaxies,” says Graham. “While they are undoubtedly guilty of many of these crimes, some of the damage may have resulted from poor satellite galaxies that have been captured. I already have plans to revisit images of some 100 nearby galaxies known to have damaged cores and look for possible (previously overlooked or ignored) remnants of semidigested galaxies.”
Allen Zeyher is a freelance writer in the Chicago area.
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Observing the night sky is a fun and easy activity that anyone can do, but getting started can be daunting for beginners.
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Dictionary > Glycosidase
noun, plural: glycosidases
(biochemistry) An enzyme catalyzing the hydrolysis of a glycoside
Glycosidases are enzymes that assist in the hydrolysis of glycosides. They are capable of cleaving the glycosidic bonds such as those in cellulose and hemicellulose.
An example of glycosidases is the lysozyme. Lysozymes are capable of destroying the baceterial cell walls, particularly the gram-positive bacteria. Bacterial cell wall is made up of peptidoglycan of N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetylglycosamine linked by glycosidic bonds. A damaged cell wall of bacteria makes them lose their cell shape and rigidity. They become vulnerable to the adverse effects of turgor pressure caused by high concentration of proteins and molecules inside the cell relative to the external environment. Apart from the anti-bacterial activity, glycosidases are also involved in other natural metabolic activities, such as trimming mannosidases in N-linked glycoprotein biosynthesis. In prokaryotes, particularly E. coli, glycosidases are involved in the regulation of the lac operon. In most eukaryotes, glycosidases are located inside the endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, and lysosomes. They also occur in the intestinal tract and in saliva wherein they act on lactose, starch, sucrose, trehalose, etc.
Other examples of glycosidases are lactase, O-GlcNAcase, amylase, hyaluronidase, sucrose, and maltase.
• glycoside hydrolase
• glycosyl hydrolase
See also:
• lysozyme
• hydrolysis
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The Theory of Business Enterprises Part 6: Government as an Arm of Business
The international policies of the US government are organized around the needs of businessmen, according to Thorstein Veblen, in the same way the legal system was organized to protect their interests and not those of the common people.
… [W]ith the sanction of the great body of the people, even including those who have no pecuniary interests to serve in the matter, constitutional government has, in the main, become a department of the business organization and is guided by the advice of the business men. Chapter 8.
He explains that in the US and elsewhere, protecting business interests meant the use of force to enable businessmen to make profits safely in foreign lands. It meant using the military to obtain favorable terms of trade, at least as favorable as those awarded to other nations. Diplomacy, says Veblen, must be backed up by displays of force, especially among the “outlying regions of the earth”, where the uncivilized people live. They like their own ways aren’t used to doing business like the civilized nations. They must be forced to follow the rules. And the outcome is unusually high profits. We now think of this as the bad old age of imperialism.
The problem is that if US businessmen can make extraordinary profits, then so can those of other “civilizing powers”, and therefore armaments are also useful in fending off other nations that want to civilize the barbarians. That leads to massive increases in armaments, what we would call an arms race.
He concludes that as military power increases, it shifts from its role in protecting the interests of businessmen and becomes a driver of national purpose. The initial impetus of militarization was business interests, but Veblen predicts that it will turn into something else:
The objective end of protracted warlike endeavor necessarily shifts from business advantage to dynastic ascendancy and courtly honor.
Military armaments become instruments of national purpose, and businessmen see that as an opportunity for profit. They are equally happy to serve any of the potential warring nations, as long as it’s profitable, “… whereby an equable and comprehensive exhaustion of the several communities … is greatly facilitated.” That sounds a lot like World War I.
Reflections on Chapter 8
The idea that voters routinely elect businessmen to lead government and expect business representatives to play a major role in formulating policy is as true today as it was when Veblen wrote. A number of businessmen hold governorships, including Rick Scott of Florida, Rick Snyder of Michigan, and Bruce Rauner of Illinois. Each of them preaches that government should be run like a business, and that means poisoning the water of Flint to save money, ignoring climate change as Miami sinks, and refusing to negotiate with the legislature at the risk of wrecking the entire state. State legislatures are full of car dealers, funeral home directors and other small businessmen, and they are notoriously responsive to the arguments and cash of the business class including such representative groups as ALEC and the US Chamber of Commerce. There are plenty of these wreckers in Congress as well. Respect for businessmen has reached the Presidency with the the nomination of Trump, who isn’t really a businessman but plays one on TV.
The idea that the role of government is the protection of business interests at home and abroad is still applicable today. There is an unbroken chain of politicians and judges devoted to protecting the interests of businesses at preposterous levels, as in the Lochner case, and efforts to return to that level of harshness towards workers. The Republican party generally stands for cutting taxes on the rich, destroying the regulatory structure and cutting social spending while increasing privatization of government services.
Here’s how the Green Party leader Jill Stein described US foreign policy in an interview by Brad Friedman of Bradblog, posted at Salon.
Or foreign policy. The guys running the show in the Democratic Party are basically the funders, and that’s predatory banks and fossil fuel bandits and war profiteers and the insurance companies, and that’s what we get.
That’s even more true of the Republicans. It sure seems like a good explanation of US overt and covert intrusions in the South and Latin America and many other places around the globe. Veblen shows that this policy has been followed since the late 1800s.
And finally, there are plenty of examples of US companies doing business with our putative enemies, such as Halliburton with Iran and the Koch family with the Nazis.
The neoliberal program is the political project of both parties. There is the economics side and the national security side. The point of the economics stuff is to confuse people about the nature of the economy, and to use that confusion to make maximum profits. The goal of the national security side is to support businesses and to keep US citizens under control. There is bipartisan support for our interventions all over the globe, and for use of military power to control other nations. There is bipartisan support for use of market solutions to social problems instead of direct intervention with strict legislation and enforement. There is bipartisan support for government spying on people, and for use of a wide range of punishments including incarceration, drug tests for aid recipients, and for economic insecurity, hunger and fear of job loss to control the populace and keep the workers disciplined. Veblen describes the way this program looked in his day, and whatever progress has been made on these issues is under assault.
The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 3: Superfluous Capital and Superfluous People
Previous posts in this series:
The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 1: Introduction.
The Origins of Totalitarianism Part 2: Antisemitism
The Origins of Totalitarianism: Interlude on the Tea Party
In Part 2 of The Origins of Totalitarianism Arendt discusses the history of European Imperialism, primarily focused on England, France and Germany.
“Expansion is everything,” said Cecil Rhodes, and fell into despair, for every night he saw overhead “these stars … these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could.” He had discovered the moving principle of the new, the imperialist …); and yet in a flash of wisdom Rhodes recognized at the same moment its inherent insanity and its contradiction to the human condition. Naturally, neither insight nor sadness changed his policies. P. 124, fn omitted.
The driving force of imperialism the search for profits, The people pushing it were the bourgeoisie, the principal capitalists. Until the 1870s, the bourgeoisie were content to leave politics to others, and focus on manufacturing and infrastructure in the home country. Politicians were generally wary of the push into foreign countries.
Beginning in the 1870s as the money invested in foreign lands increased, the risks to the bourgeoisie and their money increased, as nations expropriated their assets or refused to cooperate, or threw them out. The bourgeoisie liked the enormous profits of these investments, but were not interested in taking the risks. They demanded that the nation-state provide the armed forces necessary to protect their profits, and the nation-states complied. Arendt says that this demand for intervention was its assertion of control of the government. She dates the Imperialist period to 1889-1914.
The goal of imperialism was neither assimilation nor integration.
Expansion as a permanent and supreme aim of politics is the central political idea of imperialism. Since it implies neither temporary looting nor the more lasting assimilation of conquest, it is an entirely new concept …. [T]his concept is not really political at all, but has its origin in the realm of business speculation, where expansion meant the permanent broadening of industrial production and economic transactions characteristic of the nineteenth century. production of goods to be used and consumed. P. 125-6.
The goal was to impose a system of capitalist production on the conquered territories for the enrichment of the capitalists. The power behind this drive for expansion was superfluous capital.
Imperialist expansion had been touched off by a curious kind of economic crisis, the overproduction of capital and the emergence of “superfluous” money, the result of oversaving, which could no longer find productive investment within the national borders.
The money was superfluous in the sense that it had no utility within the nation-states. There were no profitable investments that could absorb it, and there was little to purchase with it. The newly rich wanted income from their wealth even though neither the money nor the investments would provide anything of value to the nation-state or its citizens. They invested their money abroad and the nation-state protected their investments at enormous cost to the rest of their citizens. Arendt calls the bourgeoisie parasites.
Superfluous capital is not the only problem with unrestrained capitalism.
Older than the superfluous wealth was another by-product of capitalist production: the human debris that every crisis, following invariably upon each period of industrial growth, eliminated permanently from producing society. Men who had become permanently idle were as superfluous to the community as the owners of superfluous wealth. That they were an actual menace to society had been recognized throughout the nineteenth century and their export had helped to populate the dominions of Canada and Australia as well as the United States. P. 150.
Arendt calls these superfluous people the mob. They are not the same as the nascent working class, but were the people who could not find work at all, whether because of disability or some personal defect or just plain bad luck. The mob included refuse from all social classes. Polanyi refers to this as well. There were the working people, and everyone else. The impoverished and the unemployed able-bodied people were both in this group.
Imperialism provided a partial solution to the problem of superfluous men. They could be pushed into the armies and navies needed to protect the wealth of the rich, and they could be used as supervisors and workers in the mines and factories and on the transport ships carrying the investments of the capitalists and the products of those investments.
The mob of the mid to late 1800s is similar to the “masses” that emerged after WWI.
The relationship between the bourgeois-dominated class society and the masses which emerged from its breakdown is not the same as the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the mob which was a by-product of capitalist production. The masses share with the mob only one characteristic, namely, that both stand outside all social ramifications and normal political representation. The masses do not inherit, as the mob does (albeit in a perverted form) the standards and attitudes of the dominating class, but reflect and somehow pervert the standards and attitudes toward public affairs of all classes. The standards of the mass man were determined not only and not even primarily by the specific class to which he had once belonged, but rather by all-pervasive influences and convictions which were tacitly and inarticulately shared by all classes of society alike. P. 314.
The rich, with their superfluous and restless capital, demand profits with no responsibility to the society from which the wealth sprang. The constant movement of capitalism, generated by that demand, destroys the lives of superfluous people, who have no place in that society, and feel no obligation to it. The nihilism that infected the mob and the masses eventually infected the bourgeoisie, destroying any remaining social values. This destructive combination was fertile ground for the rise of the Nazis. |
Reverse image search by Google
Reverse image search was introduced by Google in 2011 and it gave us a new way to search images on the internet. Reverse image search allows you to search for an image by just uploading it. It also offers a new way to search where all your images have been copied on the internet.
How does Reverse image search work
Google uses an algorithm to search images on the internet. Reverse image search basically is a search without any keywords or search terms. First you visit the following URL
Reverse image search
Click on the camera icon to go for Reverse image search. For a normal image search just type the search word in the text box. This means that Google is using the same interface for a text based image search and an image based image search.
Reverse image search has the option of uploading an image or searching an image by URL.
reverse image search
Testing Reverse image search
We have recently uploaded a few images on a couple of websites, including google maps. Lets see if the image shows up in the search.
This is the post in question
National Rose Garden, New Delhi
This post has a featured image so will search both the featured image and one of the images in the post.
First we will add the URL in the search box.
insert URL thetimelock
The first result was disappointing as Google could not even search its own maps.
uploaded image
Here is the same image already there on Google Maps.
The second search yielded some encouraging results.
second Search
Final Word
Reverse image search is still an algorithm. Its effectiveness depends on how well it has been written. There is no doubt that Google has given us a good image searching tool and there will be lots of improvements in days to come. Also do remember that because of the nature of the tool, it is available only on the desktop version of any browser. Though there are a few work arounds available.
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The Obama Administration's announcement that the United States will accept 10,000 more of the 4 million-plus Syrians who have fled civil war and brutal dictatorship in their country has predictably been met here with nativist sentiment, supported by craven politicians but not by reality.
The refugee crisis offers the United States the opportunity not just to provide a home to displaced civilians, but also to advance its economic interests.
The United States will increase the number of refugees it accepts overall to 100,000 -- less than one one-thousandth of the nation's population -- by 2017, up from 70,000 today. That's a small gesture toward helping to absorb the millions of people who are fleeing religious violence and ethnic cleansing in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
It's the least the Obama Administration could do, given the scale of the problem -- which has been called the world's greatest refugee crisis since World War II -- and the commitments of other Western countries.
It's unlikely that a surge of immigration even larger than what the United States has committed to would harm the nation's economy. If earlier waves of refugees, such as Jewish immigration in the 20th century, are any indicator, immigrants who are eager to prove themselves and contribute to the economy create more value than they take.
-- The (Toledo) Blade |
Dazbog, Slavic God of the Sun
Scythian kurgan anthropomorphic stone sculptures in Izyum, Eastern Ukraine
Scythian kurgan anthropomorphic stone sculptures in Izyum, Eastern Ukraine.
aquatarkus / Getty Images Plus
Dazbog (spelled Dahzbog, Dzbog, or Dazhd'bog) is said to have been the god of the sun in the pre-Christian Slavic culture, who drove across the sky in a golden chariot drawn by fire-breathing horses—which sounds just a bit too much like ancient Greek, raising doubt among scholars about his true origins.
Key Takeaways: Dazbog
• Alternate Spellings: Daždbog, Dzbog, Dazbog, Dazhbog, Dazhdbog, Dabog, Dajbog, Dadzbóg, Dadzbóg, Dazhbog, Dazh'bog and Dazhd'bog
• Equivalents: Khors (Iranian), Helios (Greek), Mithra (Iranian), Lucifer (Christian)
• Culture/Country: Pre-Christian Slavic mythology
• Primary Sources: John Malalas, The Song of Igor's Campaign, Kievan Rus pantheon of Vladimir I
• Realms and Powers: God of the sun, happiness, destiny, and justice; later supreme deity
• Family: Son of Svarog, brother of fire god Svarozhich, husband of Mesyats (the moon), father of the Zoryi and Zvezdy
Dazbog in Slavic Mythology
Dazbog was the Slavic sun god, a role that is common to many Indo-European people, and there is ample evidence that there was a sun cult in the pre-Christian tribes of central Europe. His name means "day god" or "giving god," to different scholars—"Bog" is generally accepted to mean "god," but Daz means either "day" or "giving."
The primary tale about Dazbog is that he resided in the east, in a land of everlasting summer and plenty, in a palace made of gold. The morning and evening auroras, known collectively as Zorya, were his daughters. In the morning, Zorya opened the palace gates to allow Dazbog to leave the palace and begin his daily journey across the sky; in the evening, Zorya closed the gates after the sun returned in the evening.
Depiction of Dazbog. Max presnyakov / Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
Appearance and Reputation
Dazbog is said to ride across the sky in a golden chariot drawn by fire-breathing horses who are white, gold, silver, or diamonds. In some tales, the horses are beautiful and white with golden wings, and sunlight comes from the solar fire shield Dazbog always carries with him. At night, Dazbog wanders the sky from east to west, crossing the great ocean with a boat pulled by geese, wild ducks, and swans.
In some tales, Dazbog starts out in the morning as a young, strong man but by the evening he is a red-faced, bloated elderly gentleman; he is reborn every morning. He represents fertility, male power, and in "The Song of Igor's Campaign" he is mentioned as the grandfather of the Slavs.
Dazbog is said to be the son of the sky god Savrog, and the brother to Svarozhich, the fire god. He is married to the moon Mesyats in some tales (Mesyat is sometimes male and sometimes married to the Zevyi), and his children include the Zoryi and the Zevyi.
The Zoryi are two or three siblings who open the gates to Dazbog's palace; the two Zevyi are responsible for tending to the horses. In some stories, the Zevyi sisters are conflated with the single goddess of light Zorya.
Pre-Christian Aspect
Pre-Christian Slavic mythology has very little extant documentation, and the existing tales captured by ethnologists and historians come from multiple modern countries and have many different variations. Scholars are divided about the role of Dazbog to the pre-Christians.
Dazbog was one of the six gods selected by the Kievan Rus' leader Vladimir the Great (ruled 980–1015) as the main pantheon of Slavic culture, but his role as the sun god has been questioned by historians Judith Kalik and Alexander Uchitel. The major source for the assignation of the name of Dazbog with the sun god is the Russian translation of the sixth-century Byzantine monk John Malalas (491–578). Malalas included a story about the Greek gods Helios and Hephaistos ruling Egypt, and the Russian translator replaced the names with Dazbog and Svarog.
There's no doubt that there was a solar cult in pre-Christian Slavic mythology, and there is no doubt that there was a Dazbog, who was among the idols erected by the Rus leader Vladimir the Great in the late 10th century. Kalik and Uchitel argue that to the Slavic pre-Christians, Dazbog was a god of unknown powers, and the unnamed solar deity was the head of a cult. Other historians and ethnologists do not agree.
• Dixon-Kennedy, Mike. "Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend." Santa Barbara CA: ABC-CLIO, 1998. Print.
• Dragnea, Mihai. "Slavic and Greek-Roman Mythology, Comparative Mythology." Brukenthalia: Romanian Cultural History Review 3 (2007): 20–27. Print.
• Kalik, Judith, and Alexander Uchitel. "Slavic Gods and Heroes." London: Routledge, 2019. Print.
• Lurker, Manfred. "A Dictionary of Gods, Goddesses, Devils and Demons." London: Routledge, 1987. Print.
• Ralston, W.R.S. "The Songs of the Russian People, as Illustrative of Slavonic Mythology and Russian Social Life." London: Ellis & Green, 1872. Print.
• Zaroff, Roman. "Organized Pagan Cult in Kievan Rus’. The Invention of Foreign Elite or Evolution of Local Tradition?" Studia Mythologica Slavica (1999). Print. |
Continuous Improvement
A hallmark of successful strategic evaluation system is the ability to iterate and improve the system over time. After the initial implementation, a district must remain committed to assessing and improving the system based on evaluation data and feedback from educators and leaders. This requires a district to create a process for continuous improvement that is clear to all stakeholders. Through this process, feedback and data should continuously inform improvements and adjustments.
A district can obtain feedback and identify areas for improvement through methods that include focus groups, surveys, collaborative committees/panels and stakeholder meetings. In addition to feedback from educators, it is important for the district to understand the impact and efficacy of the system based on data. Districts should regularly review data to identify schools where student achievement scores and observation ratings are not aligned. This information should be used to make necessary system-level adjustments as well as inform where additional training and support may be needed. The ongoing analysis of evaluation data can also help mitigate for potential bias in observations. If district resources are limited, an outside partner, such as a university or a consulting organization, can provide additional capacity to solicit and incorporate feedback. |
perplexus dot info
Home > Just Math
• What are the numbers on the marbles ?
See The Solution Submitted by Avin
Rating: 4.2500 (4 votes)
re(2): No Subject | Comment 5 of 33 |
(In reply to re: No Subject by ajosin)
I don't accept your premisses (a) and (b), as obvious as they appear. But let me come back to that. First, let's look at the paradox of the original problem, that I think people are ignoring:
Suppose you have an observer who is watching a person put 10 marbles in a bag, and taking out 1, over and over, etc., as described in the original problem, but he can't see the labels on the balls. Can he, or can he not say how many balls are left at the end of the minute? If he watches a person following procedure A (that supposedly leaves the bag empty) or procedure B (that supposedly leaves the bag with an infinite number of marbles in it), HE CAN'T SEE ANY DIFFERENCE, at any point. Furthermore, if he yells, "STOP" at any given point in time before the one-minute mark, both procedures will result in the exact same number of balls in the bag at that point. So how can the two suddenly become so wildly different in that final infinitesimal time interval just before the one-minute mark??
Now, let's go back to your case (b): "Start with {1,2,3,4,...} and take away {1,2,3,4,...}. You are left with nothing." And let's put those numbers on marbles again. You start by putting all the marbles in the bag. {1,2,3,4...etc.} I then take the bag and place all the odd-numbered marbles in a secret pouch inside the bag. That leaves all the even-numbered marbles in plain sight (although still inside the bag). {2,4,6,8...etc.} I erase and renumber those marbles with exactly half their values--now they're numbered {1,2,3,4...}. I give the bag back to you, and you take out the marbles numbered {1,2,3,4...}, that are in plain sight. Are there zero marbles left? No. I can now show you that there are still an infinite number of marbles {1,3,5,7...} in the bag, that I hid in the secret pouch. Yet, you put in marbles labeled with all the positive integers and took out a set labeled exactly the same way. And I didn't add any marbles with what I did.
So, no...I don't agree that (b) necessarily leaves you with nothing. And by a similar argument, I don't agree with (a) either. You can't subtract infinite sets and get any consistent, reasonable answer.
Posted by Ken Haley on 2005-06-23 04:34:30
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Philip II of France
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Philip II of France
Philip II
Seal of Philip II
King of France
Senior king1190 - 14 July 1223
SuccessorLouis VIII
King of the Franks
Senior king18 September 1180 - 1190
Junior king1 November 1179 - 18 September 1180
Coronation1 November 1179
PredecessorLouis VII
Born21 August 1165
Gonesse, France
Died14 July 1223(1223-07-14) (aged 57)
Mantes-la-Jolie, France
SpouseIsabella of Hainault
(m. 1180, d. 1190)
Ingeborg of Denmark
(m. 1193 & 1200, wid. 1223)
Agnes of Merania
(m. 1196, an. 1200)
full list...
FatherLouis VII, King of The Franks
MotherAdela of Champagne
Philip II (21 August 1165 - 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (French: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French monarch to style himself "King of France". The son of King Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne, he was originally nicknamed Dieudonné (God-given) because he was a first son and born late in his father's life.[1] Philip was given the epithet "Augustus" by the chronicler Rigord for having extended the crown lands of France so remarkably.
After decades of conflicts with the House of Plantagenet, Philip succeeded in putting an end to the Angevin Empire by defeating a coalition of his rivals at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. This victory would have a lasting impact on western European politics: the authority of the French king became unchallenged, while the English King John was forced by his barons to assent to Magna Carta and deal with a rebellion against him aided by Philip's son Prince Louis, the First Barons' War. The military actions surrounding the Albigensian Crusade helped prepare the expansion of France southward. Philip did not participate directly in these actions, but he allowed his vassals and knights to help carry them out.
Philip transformed France from a small feudal state into the most prosperous and powerful country in Europe.[2] He checked the power of the nobles and helped the towns free themselves from seigneurial authority, granting privileges and liberties to the emergent bourgeoisie. He built a great wall around Paris ("the Wall of Philip II Augustus"), re-organized the French government and brought financial stability to his country.
Early years
Isabelle, Philip's first wife
(by the "Maître de Rambures" [fr], c. 1450-1475)
Philip was born in Gonesse on 21 August 1165. King Louis VII intended to make his son Philip co-ruler with him as soon as possible, in accordance with the traditions of the House of Capet, but these plans were delayed when Philip, at the age of thirteen, was separated from his companions during a royal hunt and became lost in the Forest of Compiègne. He spent much of the following night attempting to find his way out, but to no avail. Exhausted by cold, hunger and fatigue, he was eventually discovered by a peasant carrying a charcoal burner, but his exposure to the elements meant he soon contracted a dangerously high fever. His father went on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Thomas Becket to pray for Philip's recovery and was told that his son had indeed recovered. However, on his way back to Paris, the king suffered a stroke.
In declining health, Louis VII had his 14-year-old son crowned and anointed as king at Reims on 1 November 1179 by Archbishop William of the White Hands. He was married on 28 April 1180 to Isabelle of Hainaut, the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut, and Margaret I, Countess of Flanders, who brought the County of Artois as her dowry. From the time of his coronation, all real power was transferred to Philip, as his father slowly descended into senility. The great nobles were discontented with Philip's advantageous marriage, while his mother and four uncles, all of whom exercised enormous influence over Louis, were extremely unhappy with his attainment of the throne, which caused a diminution of their power. Eventually, Louis died on 18 September 1180.
Consolidation of the royal demesne
The coronation of Philip II Augustus
(from the Grandes Chroniques de France, c. 1332-1350)
While the royal demesne had increased under Philip I and Louis VI, it had diminished slightly under Louis VII. In April 1182, partially to enrich the French crown, Philip expelled all Jews from the demesne and confiscated their goods. Philip's eldest son Louis was born on 5 September 1187 and inherited the County of Artois in 1190, when his mother Isabelle died. The main source of funding for Philip's army was from the royal demesne. In times of conflict, he could immediately call up 250 knights, 250 horse sergeants, 100 mounted crossbowmen, 133 crossbowmen on foot, 2,000 foot sergeants, and 300 mercenaries.[3] Towards the end of his reign, the king could muster some 3,000 knights, 9,000 sergeants, 6,000 urban militiamen, and thousands of foot sergeants.[4] Using his increased revenues, Philip was the first Capetian king to build a French navy actively. By 1215, his fleet could carry a total of 7,000 men. Within two years, his fleet included 10 large ships and many smaller ones.[5]
Expulsion of Jews
Reversing his father's toleration and protection of Jews, Philip in 1180 ordered French Jews to be stripped of their valuables, ransomed and converted to Christianity on pain of further taxation.[6] He expelled them from the royal demesne in July 1182 and had Jewish houses in Paris demolished to make way for the Les Halles market.[6] The measures were profitable in the short-term, the ransoms alone bringing in 15,000 marks and enriching Christians at the expense of Jews.[6] Ninety-nine Jews were burned alive in Brie-Comte-Robert.[7] In 1198 Philip allowed Jews to return.[7]
Wars with his vassals
In 1181, Philip began a war with Philip, Count of Flanders, over the Vermandois, which King Philip claimed as his wife's dowry and the Count was unwilling to give up. Finally the Count of Flanders invaded France, ravaging the whole district between the Somme and the Oise before penetrating as far as Dammartin. Notified of Philip's impending approach with 2,000 knights, he turned around and headed back to Flanders.[8] Philip chased him, and the two armies confronted each other near Amiens. By this stage, Philip had managed to counter the ambitions of the count by breaking his alliances with Henry I, Duke of Brabant, and Philip of Heinsberg, Archbishop of Cologne. This, together with an uncertain outcome were he to engage the French in battle, forced the Count to conclude a peace. In July 1185, the Treaty of Boves left the disputed territory partitioned, with Amiénois, Artois, and numerous other places passing to the king, and the remainder, with the county of Vermandois proper, left provisionally to the Count of Flanders.[9] It was during this time that Philip II was nicknamed "Augustus" by the monk Rigord for augmenting French lands.[10]
Meanwhile, in 1184, Stephen I, Count of Sancerre and his Brabançon mercenaries ravaged the Orléanais. Philip defeated him with the aid of the Confrères de la Paix.
War with Henry II
Philip also began to wage war with King Henry II of England, who was also Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine in France. The death of Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King, in June 1183, began a dispute over the dowry of Philip's widowed sister Margaret. Philip insisted that the dowry should be returned to France as the marriage did not produce any children, per the betrothal agreement. The two kings would hold conferences at the foot of an elm tree near Gisors, which was so positioned that it would overshadow each monarch's territory, but to no avail. Philip pushed the case further when King Béla III of Hungary asked for the widow's hand in marriage, and thus her dowry had to be returned, to which Henry finally agreed.
Remains of the Wall of Philip II Augustus built around Paris before he went to the Crusades. The segment pictured here is found in the rue des Jardins-Saint-Paul.
The death in 1186 of Henry's fourth son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, began a new round of disputes, as Henry insisted that he retain the guardianship of the duchy for his unborn grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany. Philip, as Henry's liege lord, objected, stating that he should be the rightful guardian until the birth of the child. Philip then raised the issue of his other sister, Alys, Countess of Vexin, and her delayed betrothal to Henry's son Richard I of England, nicknamed Richard the Lionheart.
With these grievances, two years of combat followed (1186-1188), but the situation remained unchanged. Philip initially allied with Henry's young sons Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland, who were in rebellion against their father. Philip II launched an attack on Berry in the summer of 1187, but in June made a truce with Henry, which left Issoudun in his hands and also granted him Fréteval in Vendômois.[9] Though the truce was for two years, Philip found grounds for resuming hostilities in the summer of 1188. He skilfully exploited the estrangement between Henry and Richard, and Richard did homage to him voluntarily at Bonsmoulins in November 1188.[9]
In 1189, Henry's health was failing. Richard openly joined forces with Philip to drive Henry into submission. They chased him from Le Mans to Saumur, losing Tours in the process, before forcing him to acknowledge Richard as his heir. Finally, by the Treaty of Azay-le-Rideau (4 July 1189), Henry was forced to renew his own homage, confirm the cession of Issoudun to Philip (along with Graçay), and renounce his claim to suzerainty over Auvergne.[9] Henry died two days later. His death, and the news of the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin, diverted attention from the Franco-English war.
The Angevin kings of England (the line of rulers to which Henry II belonged), were Philip's most powerful and dangerous vassals as Dukes of Normandy and Aquitaine and Counts of Anjou. Philip made it his life's work to destroy Angevin power in France. One of his most effective tools was to befriend all of Henry's sons and use them to foment rebellion against their father. He maintained friendships with Henry the Young King and Geoffrey II until their deaths. Indeed, at the funeral of Geoffrey, he was so overcome with grief that he had to be forcibly restrained from casting himself into the grave. He broke off his friendships with Henry's younger sons Richard and John as each acceded to the English throne.
Third Crusade
Philip (centre) and King Richard I of England accepting the keys to Acre
(illumination on parchment, c. 1375-1380, from the Grandes Chroniques de France in the Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Philip travelled to the Holy Land to participate in the Third Crusade of 1189-1192 with King Richard I of England and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. His army left Vézelay on 4 July 1190.[11] At first, the French and English crusaders travelled together, but the armies split at Lyon, after Richard decided to go by sea from Marseille, whereas Philip took the overland route through the Alps to Genoa.[12] The French and English armies were reunited in Messina, where they wintered together.[13] On 30 March 1191, the French set sail for the Holy Land and on 20 April Philip arrived at Acre, which was already under siege by a lesser contingent of crusaders, and he started to construct siege equipment before Richard arrived on 8 June.[14] By the time Acre surrendered on 12 July, Philip was severely ill with dysentery, which reduced his zeal. Ties with Richard were further strained after the latter acted in a haughty manner after Acre fell to the crusaders.
More importantly, the siege of Acre resulted in the death of Philip, Count of Flanders, who held the county of Vermandois proper. His death threatened to derail the Treaty of Gisors that Philip had orchestrated to isolate the powerful Blois-Champagne faction. Philip decided to return to France to settle the issue of succession in Flanders, a decision that displeased Richard, who said, "It is a shame and a disgrace on my lord if he goes away without having finished the business that brought him hither. But still, if he finds himself in bad health, or is afraid lest he should die here, his will be done."[This quote needs a citation] On 31 July 1191, the French army of 10,000 men (along with 5,000 silver marks to pay the soldiers) remained in Outremer under the command of Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy. Philip and his cousin Peter of Courtenay, Count of Nevers, made their way to Genoa and from there returned to France. The decision to return was also fuelled by the realisation that with Richard campaigning in the Holy Land, English possessions in northern France would be open to attack. After Richard's delayed return home, war between England and France would ensue over possession of English-controlled territories.
Conflict with England, Flanders and the Holy Roman Empire
Conflict with King Richard the Lionheart, 1191-1199
The immediate cause of Philip's conflict with Richard the Lionheart stemmed from Richard's decision to break his betrothal with Phillip's sister Alys at Messina in 1191.[15] Some of Alys's dowry that had been given over to Richard during their engagement was part of the territory of Vexin. This should have reverted to Philip upon the end of the betrothal, but Philip, to prevent the collapse of the Crusade, agreed that this territory was to remain in Richard's hands and would be inherited by his male descendants. Should Richard die without an heir, the territory would return to Philip, and if Philip died without an heir, those lands would be considered a part of Normandy.[15]
Returning to France in late 1191, Phillip began plotting to find a way to have those territories restored to him. He was in a difficult situation, as he had taken an oath not to attack Richard's lands while he was away on crusade. The Third Crusade ordained territory was under the protection of the Church in any event. Philip had unsuccessfully asked Pope Celestine III to release him from his oath, so he was forced to build his own casus belli.
On 20 January 1192, Philip met with William FitzRalph, Richard's seneschal of Normandy. Presenting some documents purporting to be from Richard, Philip claimed that the English king had agreed at Messina to hand disputed lands over to France. Not having heard anything directly from their sovereign, FitzRalph and the Norman barons rejected Philip's claim to Vexin.[15] Philip at this time also began spreading rumors about Richard's action in the east to discredit the English king in the eyes of his subjects. Among the stories Philip invented included Richard involved in treacherous communication with Saladin, alleging he had conspired to cause the fall of Gaza, Jaffa, and Ashkelon, and that he had participated in the murder of Conrad of Montferrat. Finally, Philip made contact with Prince John, Richard's brother, whom he convinced to join the conspiracy to overthrow the legitimate king of England.
At the start of 1193, Prince John visited Philip in Paris, where he paid homage for Richard's continental lands. When word reached Philip that Richard had finished crusading and had been captured on his way back from the Holy Land, he promptly invaded Vexin. His first target was the fortress of Gisors, commanded by Gilbert de Vascoeuil, which surrendered without putting up a struggle.[16] Philip then penetrated deep into Normandy, reaching as far as Dieppe. To keep the duplicitous John on his side, Philip entrusted him with the defence of the town of Évreux. Meanwhile, Philip was joined by Count Baldwin of Flanders, and together they laid siege to Rouen, the ducal capital of Normandy. Here, Philip's advance was halted by a defense led by the Earl of Leicester.[16] Unable to penetrate this defense, Philip moved on.
At Mantes on 9 July 1193, Philip came to terms with Richard's ministers, who agreed that Philip could keep his gains and would be given some extra territories if he ceased all further aggressive actions in Normandy, along with the condition that Philip would hand back the captured territory if Richard would pay homage.[16] To prevent Richard from spoiling their plans, Philip and John attempted to bribe Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI in order to keep the English king captive for a little while longer. Henry refused, and Richard was released from captivity on 4 February 1194. By 13 March Richard had returned to England, and by 12 May he had set sail for Normandy with some 300 ships, eager to engage Philip in war.[16]
Philip had spent this time consolidating his territorial gains and by now controlled much of Normandy east of the Seine, while remaining within striking distance of Rouen. His next objective was the castle of Verneuil,[17] which had withstood an earlier siege. Once Richard arrived at Barfleur, he soon marched towards Verneuil. As his forces neared the castle, Philip, who had been unable to break through, decided to strike camp. Leaving a large force behind to prosecute the siege, he moved off towards Évreux, which Prince John had handed over to his brother to prove his loyalty.[17] Philip retook the town and sacked it, but during this time, his forces at Verneuil abandoned the siege, and Richard entered the castle unopposed on 30 May. Throughout June, while Philip's campaign ground to a halt in the north, Richard was taking a number of important fortresses to the south. Philip, eager to relieve the pressure off his allies in the south, marched to confront Richard's forces at Vendôme. Refusing to risk everything in a major battle, Philip retreated, only to have his rear guard caught at Fréteval on 3 July. This turned into a general encounter in which Philip barely managed to avoid capture as his army was put to flight.[17] Fleeing back to Normandy, Philip avenged himself on the English by attacking the forces of Prince John and the Earl of Arundel, seizing their baggage train.[17] By now both sides were tiring, and they agreed to the temporary Truce of Tillières.[18]
War continually raged during 1195, when Philip once again besieged Verneuil. Richard arrived to discuss the situation face to face. During negotiations, Philip secretly continued his operations against Verneuil; when Richard found out, he left, swearing revenge.[17] Philip now pressed his advantage in northeastern Normandy, where he conducted a raid at Dieppe, burning the English ships in the harbor while repulsing an attack by Richard at the same time. Philip now marched southward into the Berry region. His primary objective was the fortress of Issoudun, which had just been captured by Richard's mercenary commander, Mercadier. The French king took the town and was besieging the castle when Richard stormed through French lines and made his way in to reinforce the garrison, while at the same time another army was approaching Philip's supply lines. Philip called off his attack, and another truce was agreed.[17]
The war slowly turned against Philip over the course of the next three years. Political and military conditions seemed promising at the start of 1196 when Richard's nephew Arthur I, Duke of Brittany ended up in Philip's hands, and he won the Siege of Aumale, but Philip's good fortune did not last. Richard won over a key ally, Baldwin of Flanders, in 1197. Then, in 1198, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI died. His successor was to be Otto IV, Richard's nephew, who put additional pressure on Philip.[19] Finally, many Norman lords were switching sides and returning to Richard's camp. This was the state of affairs when Philip launched his campaign of 1198 with an attack on Vexin. He was pushed back and then had to deal with the Flemish invasion of Artois.
Philip soon planned a new offensive, launching raids into Normandy and again targeting Évreux. Richard countered Philip's thrust with a counterattack in Vexin, while Mercadier led a raid on Abbeville. The upshot was that by autumn 1198, Richard had regained almost all that had been lost in 1193.[19] In desperate circumstances, Philip offered a truce so that discussions could begin towards a more permanent peace, with the offer that he would return all of the territories except for Gisors.
In mid-January 1199, the two kings met for a final meeting, Richard standing on the deck of a boat, Philip standing on the banks of the Seine River.[20] Shouting terms at each other, they could not reach agreement on the terms of a permanent truce, but they did agree to further mediation, which resulted in a five-year truce that held. Later in 1199, Richard was killed during a siege involving one of his vassals.
Conflict with King John, 1200-1206
In May 1200, Philip signed the Treaty of Le Goulet with Richard's successor John Lackland. The treaty was meant to bring peace to Normandy by settling the issue of its much-reduced boundaries. The terms of John's vassalage were not only for Normandy, but also for Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. John agreed to heavy terms, including the abandonment of all the English possessions in Berry and 20,000 marks of silver, while Philip in turn recognised John as king of England, formally abandoning Arthur of Brittany's candidacy, whom he had hitherto supported, recognising instead John's suzerainty over the Duchy of Brittany. To seal the treaty, a marriage between Blanche of Castile, John's niece, and Louis the Lion, Philip's son, was contracted.
Territorial conquests of Philip II
This agreement did not bring warfare to an end in France, however, since John's mismanagement of Aquitaine led the province to erupt in rebellion later in 1200, a disturbance that Philip secretly encouraged. To disguise his ambitions, Philip invited John to a conference at Andely and then entertained him at Paris, and both times he committed to complying with the treaty. In 1202, disaffected patrons petitioned the French king to summon John to answer their charges in his capacity as John's feudal lord in France. John refused to appear, so Philip again took up Arthur of Brittany's claims to the English throne and betrothed his six-year-old daughter Marie. In riposte John crossed over into Normandy. His forces soon captured Arthur, and in 1203, the young man disappeared, with most people believing that John had had him murdered. The outcry over Arthur's fate saw an increase in local opposition to John, which Philip used to his advantage. He took the offensive and, apart from a five-month siege of Andely, swept all before him. After Andely surrendered, John fled to England. By the end of 1204, most of Normandy and the Angevin lands, including much of Aquitaine, had fallen into Philip's hands.
What Philip had gained through victory in war, he sought to confirm by legal means. Philip, again acting as John's liege lord over his French lands, summoned him to appear before the Court of the Twelve Peers of France to answer for the murder of Arthur of Brittany. John requested safe conduct, but Philip only agreed to allow him to come in peace, while providing for his return only if it were allowed to after the judgment of his peers. Not willing to risk his life on such a guarantee, John refused to appear, so Philip summarily dispossessed the English of all lands. Pushed by his barons, John eventually launched an invasion of northern France in 1206. He disembarked with his army at La Rochelle during one of Philip's absences, but the campaign was a disaster. After backing out of a conference that he himself had demanded, John eventually bargained at Thouars for a two-year truce, the price of which was his agreement to the chief provisions of the judgment of the Court of Peers, including a loss of his patrimony.
Alliances against Philip, 1208-1213
denier tournois coin of Philip II
In 1208, Philip of Swabia, the successful candidate to assume the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, was assassinated. As a result, the imperial crown was given to his rival Otto IV, the nephew of King John. Otto, prior to his accession, had promised to help John recover his lost possessions in France, but circumstances prevented him from making good on his promise. By 1212, both John and Otto were engaged in power struggles against Pope Innocent III: John over his refusal to accept the papal nomination for the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Otto over his attempt to strip Frederick II, King of the Germans (and later Holy Roman Emperor), of his Sicilian crown. Philip decided to take advantage of this situation, first in Germany, where he aided German noble rebellion in support of the young Frederick. John immediately threw England's weight behind Otto, and Philip now saw his chance to launch a successful invasion of England.
In order to secure the cooperation of all his vassals in his plans for the invasion, Philip denounced John as an enemy of the Church, thereby justifying his attack as motivated solely by religious scruples. He summoned an assembly of French barons at Soissons, which was well attended with the exception of Ferdinand, Count of Flanders. Ferdinand refused to attend, still angry over the loss of the towns of Aire and Saint-Omer that had been captured by Philip's son Louis the Lion. He would not participate in any campaign until restored to all ancient lands.
Philip was eager to prove his loyalty to Rome and thus secure papal support for his planned invasion, announced at Soissons a reconciliation with his estranged wife Ingeborg of Denmark, which the popes had been promoting. The barons fully supported his plan, and they all gathered their forces and prepared to join with Philip at the agreed rendezvous. Through all of this, Philip remained in constant communication with Pandulf Verraccio, the papal legate, who was encouraging Philip to pursue his objective. Verraccio however was also holding secret discussions with King John. Advising the English king of his precarious predicament, he persuaded John to abandon his opposition to papal investiture and agreed to accept the papal legate's decision in any ecclesiastical disputes as final. In return, the pope agreed to accept the Kingdom of England and the Lordship of Ireland as papal fiefs, which John would rule as the pope's vassal, and for which John would do homage to the pope.
No sooner had the treaty between John and the pope been ratified in May 1213 than Verraccio announced to Philip that he would have to abandon his expedition against John, since to attack a faithful vassal of the Holy See would constitute a mortal sin. Philip argued in vain that his plans had been drawn up with the consent of Rome, that his expedition was in support of papal authority that he only undertook on the understanding that he would gain a plenary indulgence; he had spent a fortune preparing for the expedition. The papal legate remained unmoved, but Verraccio did suggest an alternative. The Count of Flanders had denied Philip's right to declare war on England while King John was still excommunicated, and that his disobedience needed to be punished. Philip eagerly accepted the advice, and quickly marched at the head of his troops into the territory of Flanders.
Battle of Bouvines, 1214
Philip II unhorsed at the Battle of Bouvines
(from the Chronica Majora, c. 1250 by Matthew Paris)
The French fleet proceeded first to Gravelines and then to the port of Damme. Meanwhile, the army marched by Cassel, Ypres, and Bruges before laying siege to Ghent. Hardly had the siege begun when Philip learned that the English fleet had captured a number of his ships at Damme and that the rest were so closely blockaded in its harbor that it was impossible for them to escape. He ordered the fleet to be burned to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.[21]
The destruction of the French fleet had once again raised John's hopes, so he began preparing for an invasion of France and a reconquest of his lost provinces. The English barons were initially unenthusiastic about the expedition, which delayed his departure, so it was not until February 1214 that he disembarked at La Rochelle. John was to advance from the Loire, while his ally Otto IV made a simultaneous attack from Flanders, together with the Count of Flanders. The three armies did not coordinate their efforts effectively. It was not until John had been disappointed in his hope for an easy victory after being driven from Roche-au-Moine and had retreated to his transports that the Imperial Army, with Otto at its head, assembled in the Low Countries.
Philip II's victory at Bouvines
(from the Grandes Chroniques de France, c. 1350-1375)
On 27 July 1214, the opposing armies suddenly discovered that they were in close proximity to one another, on the banks of a little tributary of the River Lys, near the bridge at Bouvines. It being a Sunday, Philip did not expect the allied army to attack, as it was considered unholy to fight on the Sabbath.[22] Philip's army numbered some 7,000, while the allied forces possessed around 9,000 troops.[23] The armies clashed at what became known as the Battle of Bouvines. Philip was unhorsed by the Flemish pikemen in the heat of battle, and were it not for his mail armor he would have probably been killed.[24] When Otto was carried off the field by his wounded and terrified horse, and the Count of Flanders was severely wounded and taken prisoner, the Flemish and Imperial troops saw that the battle was lost, turned, and fled the field.[25] The French did not pursue.[26]
Philip returned to Paris triumphant, marching his captive prisoners behind him in a long procession, as his grateful subjects came out to greet the victorious king. In the aftermath of the battle, Otto retreated to his castle of Harzburg and was soon overthrown as Holy Roman Emperor, to be replaced by Frederick II. Count Ferdinand remained imprisoned following his defeat, while King John's attempt to rebuild the Angevin Empire ended in complete failure.[26]
Philip's decisive victory was crucial in shaping Western European politics in both England and France.[26] In England, the defeated John was so weakened that he was soon required to submit to the demands of his barons and sign Magna Carta, which limited the power of the crown and established the basis for common law. In France, the battle was instrumental in forming the strong central monarchy that would characterise its rule until the first French Revolution.
Marital problems
After the early death of Isabella of Hainaut in childbirth in 1190, Philip decided to marry again. On 15 August 1193, he married Ingeborg, daughter of King Valdemar I of Denmark.[27] She was renamed Isambour, and Stephen of Tournai described her as "very kind, young of age but old of wisdom." Phillip, however, discovered on their wedding night that she had terribly bad breath,[28] and he refused to allow her to be crowned queen. Ingeborg protested at this treatment; his response was to confine her to a convent. He then asked Pope Celestine III for an annulment on the grounds of non-consummation. Philip had not reckoned with Isambour, however; she insisted that the marriage had been consummated, and that she was his wife and the rightful queen of France. The Franco-Danish churchman William of Paris intervened on the side of Ingeborg, drawing up a genealogy of the Danish kings to disprove the alleged impediment of consanguinity.
In the meantime, Philip had sought a new bride. Initial agreement had been reached for him to marry Margaret of Geneva, daughter of William I, Count of Geneva, but the young bride's journey to Paris was interrupted by Thomas, Count of Savoy, who kidnapped Philip's intended new queen and married her instead,[29] claiming that Philip was already bound in marriage. Philip finally achieved a third marriage in June 1196, when he was married to Agnes of Merania from Dalmatia.[30] Their children were Marie and Philip, Count of Clermont, and, by marriage, Count of Boulogne.[30]
Pope Innocent III declared Philip Augustus' marriage to Agnes of Merania null and void, as he was still married to Ingeborg.[30] He ordered the king to part from Agnes, and when he did not, the pope placed France under an interdict in 1199. This continued until 7 September 1200.[31] Due to pressure from the pope and from Ingeborg's brother King Valdemar II of Denmark, Philip finally took Isambour back as his wife in 1201, but it would not be until 1213 that she would be recognized at court as queen.[32]
Appearance and personality
The only known description of Philip describes him as
a handsome, strapping fellow, bald but with a cheerful face of ruddy complexion, and a temperament much inclined towards good-living, wine, and women. He was generous to his friends, stingy towards those who displeased him, well-versed in the art of stratagem, orthodox in belief, prudent and stubborn in his resolves. He made judgements with great speed and exactitude. Fortune's favorite, fearful for his life, easily excited and easily placated, he was very tough with powerful men who resisted him, and took pleasure in provoking discord among them. Never, however, did he cause an adversary to die in prison. He liked to employ humble men, to be the subduer of the proud, the defender of the Church, and feeder of the poor".[33]
Later years
Will of Philip II, September 1222
When Pope Innocent III called for a crusade against the "Albigensians," or Cathars, in Languedoc in 1208, Philip did nothing to support it, though he did not stop his nobles from joining in.[40] The war against the Cathars did not end until 1244, when their last strongholds were finally captured. The fruits of the victory, the submission of the south of France to the crown, were to be reaped by Philip's son Louis VIII and grandson Louis IX.[41] From 1216 to 1222, Philip also arbitrated in the War of the Succession of Champagne and finally helped the military efforts of Eudes III, Duke of Burgundy, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II to bring it to an end.
Philip II Augustus played a significant role in one of the greatest centuries of innovation in construction and education in France. With Paris as his capital, he had the main thoroughfares paved,[42] built a central market, Les Halles,[43] continued the construction begun in 1163 of Notre-Dame de Paris, constructed the Louvre as a fortress, and gave a charter to the University of Paris in 1200.[44] Under his guidance, Paris became the first city of teachers the medieval world knew. In 1224, the French poet Henry d'Andeli wrote of the great wine tasting competition that Philip II Augustus commissioned, the Battle of the Wines.
Philip II fell ill in September 1222 and had a will made, but carried on with his itinerary. Hot weather the next summer worsened his fever, but a brief remission prompted him to travel to Paris on 13 July 1223, against the advice of his physician. He died en route the next day, in Mantes-la-Jolie, at the age of 58. His body was carried to Paris on a bier.[45] He was interred in the Basilica of St Denis in the presence of his son and successor by Isabella of Hainaut, Louis VIII, as well as his illegitimate son Philip I, Count of Boulogne and John of Brienne, the King of Jerusalem.[46][47]
Portrayal in fiction
A 19th-century portrait by Louis-Félix Amiel
Sir Walter Scott's novel The Talisman, depicts deceit and disunity among the leaders of the Third Crusade, including Philip, Richard I of England, and Leopold V of Austria.
In King Richard and the Crusaders (1954), a film based on Scott's The Talisman, King Philip, portrayed by Henry Corden, conspires with Conrad of Montferrat (Michael Pate) against Richard the Lionheart (George Sanders).[48] In the 1935 Cecil B. DeMille film The Crusades, he was portrayed by C. Henry Gordon.
1. ^ Cullum, P.; Lewis, K., eds. (2004). Holiness and Masculinity in the Middle Ages. Religion and Culture in the Middle Ages. University of Wales Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-7083-1894-2. Retrieved 2012. [...] Philip Augustus 'Dieudonné', [...] as this epithet demonstrates, was thought to have been given to Louis VII by God, because Louis had been married three times and had to wait many years for the birth of a son.
2. ^ Tucker, Spencer C., ed. (31 August 2019). Middle East Conflicts from Ancient Egypt to the 21st Century: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection. 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 999. ISBN 9781440853524. Retrieved 2020.
3. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 252.
4. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 280.
5. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 242.
6. ^ a b c Bradbury 1997, p. 53.
7. ^ a b Bradbury 1997, p. 266.
8. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 245.
10. ^ Baldwin 1991, p. 3
11. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 80.
12. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 81.
13. ^ Bradbury 1997, pp. 81-86.
14. ^ Bradbury 1997, pp. 87-90.
15. ^ a b c Rees (2006), p. 1
17. ^ a b c d e f Rees (2006), p. 3
18. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 118.
20. ^ Rees (2006), p. 5
21. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 243.
22. ^ Morris (2015), p. 234
23. ^ Verbruggen 1997, pp. 245-247.
24. ^ Verbruggen 1997, pp. 252-253.
25. ^ Verbruggen 1997, p. 253.
26. ^ a b c Verbruggen 1997, p. 255.
27. ^ Bradbury 1997, pp. 177-178.
28. ^ Backman, Clifford. The Worlds of Medieval Europe.
29. ^ Cox 1974, pp. 9-10.
30. ^ a b c Bradbury 1997, p. 183.
31. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 184.
32. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 185.
33. ^ Horne (2004), p. 25
34. ^ Bradbury 1997, pp. 55-56.
35. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 177.
36. ^ M. A. Pollock, Scotland, England and France After the Loss of Normandy, 1204-1296, (The Boydell Press, 2015), 53.
37. ^ Charles T. Wood, The French Apanages and the Capetian Monarchy: 1224-1328, (Harvard University Press, 1966), 9.
38. ^ Jim Bradbury, Philip Augustus:King of France 1180-1223, (Addison Wesley Longman Limited, 1998), 185.
42. ^ Randall Fegley, The Golden Spurs of Kortrijk: How the Knights of France Fell to the Foot Soldiers of Flanders, 64-65.
43. ^ Randall Fegley, The Golden Spurs of Kortrijk: How the Knights of France Fell to the Foot Soldiers of Flanders, (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2002), 63.
44. ^ Randall Fegley, The Golden Spurs of Kortrijk: How the Knights of France Fell to the Foot Soldiers of Flanders, 62.
45. ^ Bradbury 1997, pp. 331-332.
46. ^ Bradbury 1997, p. 332.
47. ^ John W. Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of French Royal Power in the Middle Ages, (University of California Press, 1986), 389.
48. ^ "King Richard and the Crusaders" – via www.imdb.com.
Further reading
External links
Philip II of France
Born: 21 August 1165 Died: 14 July 1223
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Louis VII
King of the Franks
(King of France)
1179 - 1223
with Louis VII as senior king (1179-1180)
Succeeded by
Louis VIII
Music Scenes |
Five Ways to Spark Flexible Thinking and Courage in Math Class…and Beyond
April 22, 2019 |
By Courtney Dickinson
What if math was a place where kids’ problem solving and deep thinking skills could come alive, and a place where they grow in their confidence and adaptability?
Mathematics learning at school can be authentically engaging, and it is the perfect place for students to take on the much sought after “growth mindset.” Rather than focusing on “getting the right answer,” math class can be an incredible place to bring about flexible thinking skills.
How can we, as educators, make this happen for every student?
1. Create an atmosphere of growth
Most students think about school as a place where they “show what they know” rather than as a place where they “show that they can learn.” As educators, though, we need to change that paradigm. We need to model and show that we make mistakes, and give them room to make mistakes.
Historically, math is a place where there is “one right answer.” The risk, here, is that students can easily fall into a habit of thinking that the goal is solely to “get all the answers right,” and that there is only one way to get there.
Math class is a particularly compelling time, each day, when the concept of a being in a growth mindset can be consciously taught, and modeled. What if the primary purpose of a math test is to determine what is next best to focus on and teach and practice in class — as the teacher — rather than to “judge” a student as being smart enough or good enough or better or worse than their peers? Speed and intelligence, after all, are not the same things. Yet the typical framework of timed math tests makes it seem like they are.
Additionally, we should seriously consider de-coupling how we give credit around understanding concepts and solving problems as very different from being accountable to bring in assignments and turn in homework; mathematical and conceptual problem solving and conceptual thinking skills are not the same things as good organization and executive functioning skills.
They would give extra credit for students who have more than one way to solve a problem. And maybe, just maybe, they’d give multiple ways kids could show mastery of concepts — via projects they make, or video descriptions and tutorials they create. . .having options beyond just a “timed” test. And what if we gave guidance for how long it “should” take but we gave everyone extra time for an assessment, so they are focused on solving math problems and showing what they can do rather than focusing on their stress and anxiety about a clock?
Additionally, Instead of focusing on “right” and “wrong” we should instead focus on giving students chances to engage in challenging and applications-based math material — concurrently learning math while readily showing what they don’t know, and while showing that they can improve and learn and grow. What if they got “points” for demonstrating “growth mindset” in math class by the comments they make, the mistakes they make public, by sharing their struggles and points of confusion out loud, by asking for help?
1. Encourage flexible thinking
There is always more than one way to solve every problem. A key part of fluency is not just knowing a fact but also knowing how to think about solving a problem most efficiently, and picking the best strategy to get there. Students get to engage deeply in a way that fits their capacity, and experience the authentic satisfaction which comes from trying hard, figuring things out, balancing that equation just right, and solving a problem. That kind of intellectual satisfaction creates an appetite for trying new and more challenging things. When habits of flexible thinking start to hatch, they can be generalized to other areas of learning and life.
1. Make it relevant to the real world
Students learn more authentically when things are relevant — when they matter for a real world need or situation, or connect deeply to something the student cares about. Relevance ups the ante, supporting the student to try harder and do the work, which results in better learning. It is a snowball effect of a virtuous cycle of acquiring new habits of mind, new skills, and new commitment to make impact because of awareness about why the learning matters and what difference it can make. An example? Young elementary students practice their math facts as part of a “store” they set up one day in school, at lunch, perhaps a bake sale fundraiser for the school PTO. Students of all ages buy goods from their youngest school mates, and students ages 5-7 get copious practice adding and subtracting while making change, making profits, and making friends. The real-world facets of this are further increased if a teacher frames this unit more broadly within the context of a service learning project in which students share information and education their school mates in a persuasive, compelling way, and hand out brochures about their cause — perhaps advocating for school-wide adoption of “Meatless Monday” – -concurrent with their cookie sale campaign? In this case, perhaps the funds raised go towards a relevant non profit they’ve researched and chosen as a class? When learning becomes linked across disciplines and to real world problems kids have chosen as important to them, the urgency to learn new skills and the sense of meaning in the learning changes in fundamental ways.
1. Have an individual learning plan for every child; ideally, math groups are ability based.
What if, in school, each child’s growth was compared with where they started at the start of the year, with goals for growth that fit defined by what they are ready to learn — rather than by a fixed set of learning objectives determined by their age or a textbook? What if we actually evaluate and wrap goals around students which truly fit them, regardless of their grade designation? What if part of their learning plan including their unique needs and learning profile, as well as their interests, so that math problems and challenges can be set in a context that matters to them? The invitation? Test kids to the ceiling of what they know. And engage them where they are, even if what they are capable of does not align with age expectations.
Ideally, in order to best optimize this for math, schools would organize math classes by ability, not age.
Students should have the runway at school to show what they know, what they can do, and what they are ready next to learn. When a school year starts with a series of math problem-solving exercises, offered up in an encouraging way with adults who observe and coach them along, kids can — sometimes for the first time — show what their potential is!
And this, then, can correlate with placement in math classes which honor their capacities and needs, instead of just placing students into math programs based upon their age. Ability-based math classes become feasible through a simple scheduling framework of holding math classes at the same time across multiple classrooms and, ideally, multiple grades. Teachers can then define groups which fit the students’ capabilities, placing students in the right level and right learning style/approach to best suit them in what they are ready to learn.
In this type of math school schedule and framework, new possibilities open up for math experiences for all kids. These kinds of experiences then generate a new sense of self and new capabilities which far surpass math alone, and inform the adults they will become!
1. Recognize courage
Some students feel anxious about being exposed for what they don’t know. Or are perfectionistic. Or don’t like math. We want math class — and application of mathematical concepts within any project or situation — to be times when kids try it out, even if they are nervous, or not feeling confident, or identify as if they don’t like it or aren’t good at it. This is brave. This can and should be supported, honored, and encouraged!
The way to support this is not through timed tests, where speed is valued over thoughtful problem-solving. It is not through a “points off” mindset, but rather through a setting where math is useful, contextual, and woven into imaginative scenarios. The most progressive teacher might also considering giving some sort of credit or at the least praise for students who share the mistakes they make, publicly, for all to learn.
To get the best out of all students and foster more girls into STEM fields, we should move the emphasis away from math being timed, corrected, and graded. Instead, we need to shift into a new zone where students feel coached, excited to show what they can figure out and why it matters, and encouraged to share where they are stuck so they can keep learning.
Students will model after a teachers’ example, and can become freed up from “getting it right” or tapping into a perfectionistic and rigid way of thinking, and instead start to engage as a “learner” rather than a “knower.” Additionally, when teachers unleash kids to try lots of different ways to solve problems, kids become more invested to figure it out and to define which tools best suit them. This approach sets them up for discussions about mathematical ideas. Practicing this approach enables more people to come up with a pathway to solve a problem; it opens’ students’ perspectives and gives us a concrete way to see that — as is true in all things — there are lots of ways to solve every problem. Math class can, then, pattern a new way of engaging in the world – a place and time where kids try things out even if they don’t work, and a place where lots of different points of views and approaches are respected and heard. Math, then, surprisingly, can be a place where every student can find their voice. And this can be a pattern that they can keep and grow in all aspects of their lives. |
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"One of the key concepts for understanding man's urge to heroism is the idea of "narcissism." As Erich Fromm has so well reminded us, this idea is one of Freud's great and lasting contributions. Freud discovered that each of us repeats the tragedy of the mythical Greek Narcissus: we are hopelessly absorbed with ourselves. If we care about anyone it is usually ourselves first of all. As Aristotle somewhere put it: luck is when the guy next to you gets hit with the arrow [ Rhetoric (Aristotle) ]. Twenty-five hundred years of history have not changed man's basic narcissism; most of the time, for most of us, this is still a workable definition of luck. It is one of the meaner aspects of narcissism that we feel that practically everyone is expendable except ourselves. We should feel prepared, as Emerson once put it, to recreate the whole world out of ourselves even if no one else existed." --The Denial of Death (1973) by Ernest Becker
Related e
Kunstformen der Natur (1904) by Ernst Haeckel
Kunstformen der Natur (1904) by Ernst Haeckel
Narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's idealised self image and attributes. The term originated from Greek mythology, where the young Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water. Narcissism is a concept in psychoanalytic theory, which was popularly introduced in Sigmund Freud's essay On Narcissism (1914). The American Psychiatric Association has listed the classification narcissistic personality disorder in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) since 1968, drawing on the historical concept of megalomania.
Narcissism is also considered a social or cultural problem. It is a factor in trait theory used in various self-report inventories of personality such as the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory. It is one of the three dark triadic personality traits (the others being psychopathy and Machiavellianism). Except in the sense of primary narcissism or healthy self-love, narcissism is usually considered a problem in a person's or group's relationships with self and others. Narcissism is not the same as egocentrism.
See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Narcissism" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on original research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
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In language, text is something that contains words to express something. The term usually has broader meaning.
In linguistics text enters at least two types of contrasts. One is that between system and text, system being understood as the ability of the speakers to communicate using verbal signs, and text being understood as the product of this ability. The other is between text, understood as written text, and speech, spoken text.
In literary theory a text is the object being studied, whether it be a novel, a poem, a film, an Censored page, or anything else with a linguistic component. The term came into use with the rise of cultural studies, and the corresponding broadening of what it was one could talk about when talking about literature.
In Mobile phone communication a text is a short digital message between devices. Also known as short message service
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Last updated: 02-07-2005 07:31:44
Last updated: 02-22-2005 01:16:43 |
Zenga Studios
"...Zenga [is} the word the Japanese use to describe painting and calligraphy by Zen monks from 1600 to the present. The works were created neither "for art's sake" nor at the bidding of wealthy patrons, but rather to aid meditation and to lead toward enlightenment. Zenga is a form of teaching: in painting, the most common subjects are Zen masters and exemplars of the past...The style of the brushwork, unlike that of almost all other religious art, is dramatically bold, seemingly impetuous, and bluntly immediate in effect. The translation from mind and spirit to paper was spontaneous. These works distill the essence of the Zen experience into strokes of the brush: the intensity of meditation is palpable in the few lines used to render the fierce scowl of a Zen patriarch; the logic-destroying potential of a zen riddle (koan) becomes visible in the dancing movement of roughly brushed calligraphy. Zenga is thus the outward expression of the inner lives of Zen monks." The Art of Zen, Stephen Addiss, Harry Abrams, NY 1989.
LINK to Stephen Addiss' site(s) here
LINK to some of Hakuin's art on some site...
"[Zenga]...where incompetence is a virtue, and clumsiness, rather than grace is the aim...naively childlike but with distortions only an adult mind could impose." |
Physicists discover surprisingly complex states emerging out of simple synchronized networks
…Synchronized oscillations were first noted as far back as the 1600s, when the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, known for discovering the Saturnian moon Titan, noted that two pendulum clocks hung from a common support would eventually come to tick in unison. Through the centuries, mathematicians and other scientists have come up with various ways to explain the strange phenomenon, seen also in heart and brain cells, fireflies, clouds of cold atoms, the circadian rhythms of animals, and many other systems.
Continue reading…
Something along these lines must be happening in human communications systems, from the smallest—a single human brain/body—to the largest, the entire planet.
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We know animals can recognize proximate causes. For example, if animal A hits animal B and injures it then usually animal B is able to associate animal A with his injury. From our everyday experience with pets and other animals we know that. What about distal causes? Proximate causes are not always the most appropriate causes, sometimes distal causes are more appropriate to identify the responsible agents. Let's modify the previous hypothetical example by bringing another animal, animal C: Animal C pushes animal B so that animal A hits animal B and injures it. If animal B is capable of recognizing distal causes, it'll associate animal C with his injury (not animal B which is the proximate cause of the injury).
• $\begingroup$ I don't know about your example, but would you consider a bird using a piece of bread to lure fish a distal cause? So if the fish looks for more bread it knows its to eat fish. $\endgroup$ – Cell Mar 8 '19 at 12:35
• $\begingroup$ @Cell but it doesn't show that the bird is consciously doing that. the behavior you mentioned can be hard-wired in the bird brain so the bird can carry out that behavior without having the general cognitive capability of recognizing distal causes. $\endgroup$ – Ahmed Abdullah Mar 8 '19 at 12:40
• $\begingroup$ How can using bread (a human invention) as lure be hard-wired? Or putting off eating the bread for immediate nourishment for bigger gains? $\endgroup$ – Cell Mar 8 '19 at 13:00
• $\begingroup$ @Cell Actual baiting behavior can be specific hard-wired adaptation and the fish may develop the flexibility to use x,y,z as baits . I am not entirely dismissing it as a possible answer to my question. If the fish does it out of its general intelligence then of course it qualifies as "recognition of distal causes". Is there any evidence that it's not hardwired behavior? $\endgroup$ – Ahmed Abdullah Mar 8 '19 at 13:13
• 1
$\begingroup$ What about when my dog brings me his leash to push me to take him out? Dogs do recognize distal causes. $\endgroup$ – alec_djinn Mar 8 '19 at 14:56
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Who is Zheng He, and Why Should My Child Learn About Him?
First off – how do you even pronounce “Zheng He”?! It took me a while to get it. At VIPKID I am certified to teach 24 different types of curriculum. TWENTY FOUR. I like the variety and got bored teaching the same lessons on repeat when I first started. But the problem that arises with teaching 24 different curriculums, is that sometimes I will get halfway into a lesson I didn’t prep for when I realize I am relying on the student to explain to me details of whatever person, process, or grammar structure we are talking about. Like, who the heck knows what a schwa sound is?! I do! Now. After five lessons of relying on the answer key without being able to give explanations, I finally figured it out.
Something similar happened the first few times I had lessons discussing the explorations of Zheng He. I found myself pronouncing his name differently every time until I finally had a regular student I get along with really well tell it to me in Chinese. It helps to know that sometimes it is also written as “Cheng Ho” or “Jung Ho”. Zheng He uses a schwa sound! The e’s both sound like “uh”.
Anyway, none of that is probably very interesting. So let’s talk about the real giraffe in the room.
Samples of Expedition Zheng He and the Giraffe.
Scroll to the end of the post or click for purchase.
Zheng He and the Giraffe
Zheng He was born to Muslim parents and inspired to explore the world by his father and grandfather, who both made the Mecca. But, when he was young, his father was killed and Zheng He was captured and enslaved by the Prince of Yan. Under the prince, Zheng He received an education and got the prince’s trust. He even helped coordinate a plan for the Prince to claim the throne, further improving his standing with the royal family.
Eventually, he became the captain of a HUGE fleet. We’re talking over 60 treasure ships and tens of thousands of men in his crew. He finally was able to explore the world for his country. He traded all kinds of goods and on one voyage brought back the first ever…you guessed it.. GIRAFFE that China had ever seen. The people were so confused at the animal that they believed it was actually a mythical creature, called a qilin. Isn’t that a fun piece of history! I love it so much!
But really, think about all the new things we discover all the time and just can’t wrap our heads around, like the Peacock Mantis Shrimp. It’s not a peacock, mantis, or shrimp, but it looks like all three and has capabilities that just blew scientists minds away, so they just called it after what they already knew.
Why Should My Child Learn About Him?
Children do this same thing all the time. They bring giraffes home and call them qilins. They discover something new and describe it to you by comparing it to things they already know. My son, for instance, LOVES alligators. And usually it’s a safe assumption if he tells you that he sees an alligator, it’s actually just a log or something else with an alligator shape.
This is actually my absolute favorite part of his current development, because he really speaks so, so well. But in the instances I don’t understand what he’s saying, he pauses so thoughtfully and comes up with a different way to explain his thoughts. He can change trajectory from “the car honked at you” (where I couldn’t understand his pronunciation of “honked”) to “the car said BEEPBEEP”. And suddenly I knew exactly what he was talking about! It blows my mind every time to think that a little boy can do that, but full grown adults and professors often can’t.
In this activity, children will meet a new penpal named Baobao, who will tell them all about the qilin that Zheng He has brought to China on his ship! Baobao will use some similes to describe the unfamiliar creature, and children will use the activity pages to respond to Baobao’s letter to tell him the animal is actually a giraffe! It’s perfect for littles that love to get mail (who doesn’t?!), and also to work on making big connections.
Expedition of Zheng He and the Giraffe
Learn about the famous world traveler, Zheng He, and the first time a giraffe stepped foot into China!
What’s Included:
• Detailed Ideas/Instructions for 3 Expeditions worth hours of fun!
• 2 Letters from a Chinese penpal, named Baobao, who will tell the children about Zheng He and the giraffe! Perfect for children who love mail!
• Connect the dots and Matching activities to help children test their understanding of the letters and respond to Baobao
• STEAM ideas for boat building just like Zheng He
• Coloring Page
How Can I Help My Toddler To Have Healthy Food Habits?
I’ve said it a hundred times lately that I’m so excited, and out of all the projects I’ve been working on, this is the one that just has me PUMPED! Seriously. So excited!
Like any toddler, mine goes through roller coasters where for weeks we fight through 90 minute dinners just to have him take five bites, and then last week, he ate his weight each day of whatever we gave him. But it was in those weeks where he wasn’t eating that I tried desperately to explain to him why he needed to eat dinner before dessert, or why I wouldn’t let him snack before lunch, or why he couldn’t have a spoonful of brown sugar straight out of the packaging. Sometimes those things all happen. Regularly, even. Don’t judge. But in my house they can only happen if he also eats what we have prepared for him to be healthy. Or just if I’m desperate. The odds are usually in his favor. I’m not alone on that, right?
But how the heck do you explain to an irrational small human why they get it sometimes, but not now? After a lot of thought, I think I’ve got some suggestions, aaaand some awesomely applicable resources/games to help! If you’d like to purchase this 40+ page Expedition of Chinese Food, you can keep reading/scroll to the end, or click on any image to go to the China Shop.
What should I say when my child demands dessert/snacks before meals?
I’m no expert, but I’m pretty proud of the explanation I’ve come up with during quarantine:
Oh, I can’t wait to eat ice cream tonight, if that’s what you want to do! BUT. If we eat too much sugar, it’ll make our bellies hurt. So we need to eat more fruits and vegetables than sugar. Can you eat a lot more fruits and vegetables tonight before we have a little dessert tonight?
I mean, that’s a pretty soundly scientific explanation for a two year old, right? It keeps in line with the food pyramid, and also doesn’t deprive them of a healthy love of sweet food. Win-win, I’d say!
It’s all about Yin and Yang and having that balance, right? So I went a step further and did an activity that illustrates exactly that!
How do I encourage them to CHOOSE a healthy diet?
I’m a full grown woman – old enough to have two babies, at least – and I still am 5000x more likely to get excited and dive in to a pretty plate of totally new food, than one that I have eaten 50 times and know is good, but is just, well, colorless. Afredo, chicken and rice mixes, rice and beans. You can’t go wrong with any of them. But to me, they’re last picks because – apparently – I’m mentally a toddler about food. I want a RAINBOW on my plate. Luckily, that also happens to be a pretty guaranteed way to get a variety of nutrients.
You’ve maybe heard of the rainbow diet – try to eat as many colors of the rainbow as you can at each meal. Really, it’s pretty brilliant. It’s also a ridiculously simplified branch off of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) or Chinese Food Therapy. If you don’t know anything about TCM, the theories are based on food being used to heal and enable the body. We can all get on board with that, right? I believe that’s exactly what food’s purpose is. But TCM takes it way further and break down foods and people by colors, tastes, target organs and even seasons to help keep people healthy. It’s old, and the details are scientifically outdated, I know. Still, I decided to use it as my model to encourage having a variety of foods on my son’s plate each day, because colors, tastes, body parts and seasons are right up a toddler’s alley. You can see how I approach it with the Food is the Best Medicine Lesson. Try it for yourself!
Expedition of Chinese Food
40+ pages of activities directed toward helping your child better understand their body's relationship with food and encourage them to eat healthy, all based on Chinese food practices.
6 Easy-to-Follow Expeditions of Food and the Body with Discussion Prompts and Activity Instructions/Ideas to lead you through every page
A list of Additional Resources – Books and Videos – with links to purchase and/or access for free
Bonus Activity Ideas
A pretend play Chinese Restaurant setup with all the pieces needed |
Are you allergic or intolerant? Or have lousy digestion? The confusion clarified!
So you cannot eat certain foods, or your children cannot. Or you and your children have the same food issues. But how do you know if you are allergic or intolerant? And why are your symptoms becoming worse with age?
Allergies have become a modern epidemic, so many children and adults now suffer from singular or multiple allergies, but sometimes they actually have multiple food intolerances and not in actual fact allergies, or may have a mix of both.
Some people find that foods, which they ate with great enjoyment in their youth – or for most of their lives, suddenly cause them to become incredibly sick.
For mothers of small children, sending them to playgroup or a friend’s place can be a stressful experience which involves packing an Anaphylaxis pen in their children’s bags. Some children’s allergic responses to certain foods or animals is so drastic that it can cause certain death.
Are children becoming more sensitive, or is it the quality of our foods? Are our immune systems more delicate, or as parents, are we not allowing our children to develop natural defences through the clean world we live in?
As adults, are we just not eating enough foods to strengthen our immune systems, or are we too stressed all of the time? Therefore putting a strain on our digestive system? Or is it due to genetics?
What are the symptoms of an allergy?
Food allergies arise from a sensitivity to natural chemical compounds in food. Food allergies are commonly found in people whose family members have allergies, suggesting a genetic or a hereditary factor may play a role in the development of food allergies.
Food allergies develop after you are exposed to a food protein that your body thinks is harmful. The first time you eat the food containing the protein, your immune system will respond by creating a specific disease-fighting antibody called immunoglobulin E or IgE. The next time you eat the food, it triggers the release of IgE antibodies and other chemicals, including histamine, in an effort to expel the protein “invader” from your body. Histamine is a powerful chemical that can affect the respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, skin or cardiovascular system.
The allergy symptoms you have depend on where in the body the histamine is released. If it is released in the ears, nose and throat, you may have an itchy nose and mouth, or trouble breathing or swallowing. If histamine is released in the skin, you may develop hives or a rash. If histamine is released in the gastrointestinal tract, you likely will develop stomach pains, cramps or diarrhoea. It is not uncommon to experience a combination of symptoms as you eat the food and digest it.
Symptoms of a food allergy can range from mild to severe, and the amount of food necessary to trigger a reaction will vary from person to person. Symptoms of a food allergy may include:
• Rash or hives
• Nausea
• Cramping stomach pain
• Diarrhoea
• Itchy skin
• Shortness of breath
• Chest pain
• Swelling of the airways to the lungs
• The worst symptom can be Anaphylaxis, which is a very serious and potentially fatal allergic reaction that involves a sudden drop in blood pressure, loss of consciousness and body system failure. Thank goodness for the invention of the Anaphylactic pen!
What are the symptoms of food Intolerance?
Food intolerances are much more common than food allergies. If left undiagnosed, they are just as harmful to the body over a long period of time as food allergies are. Although not an immune response, but a digestive response, food intolerances occur when there is something in the food that irritates the digestive system, or it cannot properly digest or break it down. The slow ongoing damage to the intestinal tract – which science is finding out is the basis to all our good or ill health, will cause our immune systems to struggle, and cause us to have chronic health issues.
To diagnose what food you are intolerant to can be challenging, as the onset of symptoms is usually slower and may be delayed by many hours after eating the offending food. The symptoms may also last for several hours or several days.
There are many factors that may contribute to food intolerance. In some cases such as with lactose or milk intolerance, the person lacks the enzymes necessary, to properly digest certain proteins found in food. Also common are intolerances to some chemical ingredients added to food to provide colour, enhance taste and protect against the growth of bacteria. These ingredients include various dyes and monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavour enhancer.
Substances called sulphites, which may occur naturally as in red wine, or may be added to prevent the growth of mould in some foods, also are a source of intolerance for some people. Salicylates are a group of plant chemicals found naturally in many fruits, vegetables, nuts, coffee, juices, beer and wine. Aspirin also is a compound of the salicylate family.
Although only 1 percent of the population is Celiac, there is a belief that at least 45% of the population today is intolerant to gluten, which is found in wheat, rye and barley as well as oats grown in wheat fields. Why this is the case is another blog post!
Unlike a food allergy, which hits fast and hard, food intolerance is more chronic, less acute and often more difficult to diagnose than a food allergy. Symptoms vary greatly. They can include:
• General symptoms– fatigue, joint pains, dark circles under the eyes, night sweats
• Gastrointestinal symptoms– mouth ulcers, bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, intermittent diarrhoea and/or constipation, irritable bowel syndrome
• Skin symptoms– rashes, eczema
• Respiratory tract symptoms– nasal congestion, sinusitis, cough, asthma
• Other chronic conditions – reoccurring cystitis, thrush, migraines.
Food intolerances can also be linked to gaining unwanted weight. Foods with dairy and sugar can cause unhealthy bacterial overgrowth and produce toxins that trigger inflammation and swelling of the intestines, thus preventing normal digestion and causing weight gain. You can gain up to 13 kilos a year due to a food intolerance.
You can eliminate chronic symptoms and the suffering they cause by identifying and eliminating offending foods and ingredients from your diet. But it is not always easy to identify the offending food because so often the effects of food intolerances are delayed. Keep a food diary for a month, also mentioning when you have health of stomach issues, this should show you a pattern which should help you track down the offending food or foods.
Food allergies affect about 1% of adults and 7 % of children, although some children outgrow their allergies. Food intolerances are much more common. In fact, nearly everyone at one time has had an unpleasant reaction to something they ate. Gluten and lactose intolerance is growing every year by 10%
By taking a few simple steps can help you prevent the symptoms associated with a food intolerance.
• Learn which foods in which amounts cause you to have symptoms.
• When you dine out, ask your server about how your meal will be prepared. Some meals may contain foods you cannot tolerate, and that may not be evident from the description on the menu.
• When dining out, always start a meal with a digestive enzyme which is available from a chemist or a health food store selling natural practitioner prescription medications over the counter.
With food allergies, always carry an anaphylactic pen, and do not feel embarrassed to discuss every meal you eat before ordering.
The one question I have not covered is the why food we ate as children now gives us all the symptoms of someone who is intolerant to those same foods. There are a few possibilities for that.
One – our digestive enzymes decrease as we get older, making it harder for our digestion to digest some foods. Certain foods such as red meat, are hard work for most people’s digestive system if not slow-cooked. When young, we get over it, when older, it causes us grief. A digestive enzyme, which can be purchased over the counter (no script required) from any good pharmacy, taken with each and every meal should help you. Also, some kindness to your body please, maybe that huge milkshake which was not a good idea at 20 is definitely a tragic idea at 50!
Two – you have become intolerant to the food, because of the above. Or unfortunately, so many foods, unless you choose to eat only organic, are over-processed, or grown in such a way that they are devoid of their natural enzymes which our bodies need to help digest them (but that is another blog post!).
Three – are you just not eating a diet that supports good digestion? A diet high in vegetables and legumes supports our digestion and intestinal system. Large quantities of greens assist our gut to produce healthy flora. Sugar, alcohol, antibiotics, coffee and stress are all killers of these microscopic bacteria.
These bacteria are called Probiotics, they do a multitude of functions you can’t live without. These friendly bacteria are a major part of our immune system and we need them desperately. Probiotics to a person with bowel problems is like giving a fireman water to put out the fire. You’ve got to have it. Water is the other must. 95% of people are dehydrated just like they are fibre deficient. To assist the gut to flush out all of our dead waste, which can also cause indigestion, we need to drink adequate amounts of clean purified water (not tap water as the chlorine and fluoride kills the friendly bacteria)
If you are eating carefully, consciously making sure you are doing everything right, yet still really struggling with your allergies or food intolerances, Homeopathy, if prescribed by a well- trained practitioner or holistic doctor has been known to completely cure allergies and intolerances with time and patience, definitely worth a try!
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The History of the Grand Army of the Republic Organization (G.A.R.)
decorative leaves
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), Marines and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Springfield, Illinois, and grew to include hundreds of “posts” (local community units) across the nation (predominantly in the North, but also a few in the South and West). It was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member, Albert Woolson (1850–1956) of Duluth, Minnesota.
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Video Examples of Best Practices for Tutorials
Remember to Focus on Student Needs
The key to a successful tutorial is focusing on what the student needs to learn instead of what the mentor wants to teach. The student establishes the direction of the session and the mentor has to be ready with whatever explanation is called for. The mentor also has to be able to read between the lines and understand the roots of a student’s question whose answer may be based in grammatical concepts not covered by the actual lesson.
Be Prepared!
Preparation for the mentoring session involves complete preparation of the material the student has covered but it must go further as mentors need to consider what questions could evolve as a result of the material assigned. Unlike in the conversation session, the language of interchange can be the target language, English, or a mixture of both. |
1. Brushing those gnashers
When brushing, spit don’t rinse as the residues of toothpaste are what prevents the decay. Electric toothbrushes are more effective than a manual. If you do use a manual use a soft bristled one doing small circles, pointing the bristles into the gum at a 45 degree angle, spend 3 minutes twice daily. Avoid brushing for 30 minutes to an hour after eating anything acidic, like fruit juice, as the enamel is weaker and more likely to be thinned or damaged if you do brush.
(Simone Kelly, Smile Right Dental Practice)
2. Swilling with mouthwash
A common mistake is to use mouthwash after brushing. Mouthwash has a lower level of fluoride than toothpaste so if you do use it straight after brushing, you’re essentially washing away the fluoride you need from the toothpaste. Not so good. You can still use a mouthwash but try to do this when you get home from work or after lunch instead and opt for an alcohol free one.
(Simone Kelly, Smile Right Dental Practice)
3. Don't forget flossing
When done properly, flossing really does help to control plaque, keep gums healthy and maintain good mouth hygiene by removing any food that gets caught in between teeth. Try to floss once a day in the evening, interdental brushes like Tepe are a good option and some people find them easier to use than floss. Your dentist or hygienist can advise you on the best option for you.
(Simone Kelly, Smile Right Dental Practice)
It is a myth that the amount of sugar in your diet relates to the likelihood you will develop cavities. It is in fact the number of times that eat sugar throughout the day. Reducing these sugar attacks will help to minimise your risk of developing cavities. Try sticking to 5-7 sugar attacks in the day (breakfast, lunch, dinner and two other times).
(Dr Mihir Shah, Battersea Park Dental)
If you do need to snack, try nuts, lightly salted popcorn or fresh fruit. Try to avoid juices, fizzy drinks, chewy or sticky sugary snacks altogether. If you’re looking for a change from water, there are loads of sugar-free alternatives around so give them a go.
(Simone Kelly, Smile Right Dental Practice)
Eating and drinking almost always increases the acid levels in your mouth. If the pH level drops below the critical level (pH5.5) your teeth can start to dissolve (or demineralise). Your body’s natural response is to decrease acid levels back to the ‘safe zone’. This usually takes 20-30 mins but having xylitol mints or gum helps to speed up this process and means your teeth are more quickly back in the ‘safe zone’. Plus, the additional saliva which will be produced contains calcium and phosphates which helps remineralise your teeth thus strengthening your enamel. Bonus.
(Dr Mihir Shah, Battersea Park Dental)
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The Influence of Nonverbal Language on Mediation
Abridged version in English of the original
Mediation is a process that assigns meaning through the discourse of the disputants whereby signals that are verbally sent become rare indicators to dig for full communication. If reading nonverbal language was not taken into account, we would lose approximately 93% of the total information conveyed by someone; for this reason, it is necessary to know the most recurrent gestures to, thus, foster mediators’ communication skills in order to substantially improve their discourse and understanding.
This paper focuses on arguing why nonverbal language is crucial for the mediation process on the basis of the analysis of the theoretical framework of the matter and its implications for mediation.
Keywords: Paralanguage, Kinesic, Kinesics, Proxemics, FACS (Face Action Coding System)
This is an abridged version in English of the original in Spanish published by Revista de Mediación. This translation is offered as a courtesy of Revista de Mediación to its English-speaking readers.
To reference this article, please cite it as follows: López Viera, L. (2015). La influencia del lenguaje no verbal en la mediación. Revista de Mediación, 8, 2, e6 (8 páginas)
Nonverbal language, also known as kinesics, is, in Julius Fast’s words: “…the science based on nonverbal communication patterns” (2005). In his research, Albert Mehrabian (1972) argues that the nonverbal element accounts for 55% of the communication process, 38% corresponds to voice (intonation, delay, pace…) and only 7% pertains to verbal or articulated language. Therefore, we can underline that nonverbal language has a great impact on how we relate to each other, becoming a main pillar for mediation as the latter is based on a communication process made up by verbal and nonverbal messages.
If reading nonverbal language were not taken into account, we would lose approximately 93% of the total information conveyed by a person; it is therefore necessary to know the most recurrent gestures to, thus, foster mediators communication skills to substantially improve their discourse. According to Suares (2004), quality communication might be a necessary tool to get to the root of a conflict and, in turn, bad communication might be, per se, a cause for conflicts.
A mediator’s training and information should be focused on both words and gestures in order to determine a full message, to understand it and to put it into a context, given that an isolated gesture does not express relevant pieces of information. From all the above, the aim of this paper is to focus on arguing why nonverbal language is crucial for the mediation process.
An analysis of nonverbal language was carried out, studying the variables that can impact communication, focusing on the skills mediators should have and the repercussions on important moments in the mediation process such as welcoming, a moment of emotional blunting or conflict escalation. These generate the nonverbal skills mediators usually resort to and use when facing these situations, in order to profoundly understand the origin of the emotions expressed by the body.
Theoretical Framework
According to Pease (2010), communication is a process that gives meaning to the signals sent by a person, which requires a transmitter and a receiver. However, Cabrera and Pelayo (2002) affirm that people understand each other not only by speaking. Communication has some elements that require a broader view, necessary to understand our discourse and the discourse of the other people. In addition to intentionality, we constantly transmit and manifest emotions with our body gestures, even when we are silent, given that we speak with our body too. According to Albaladejo (2007) it is an unaware process. However, knowing how it works can help us to perfection and control it thanks to training, thus, favoring our communication skills as mediators and managing to create a relaxed environment at the mediation table.
Human beings, hence, face constant ups and downs of verbal and nonverbal signals, and these two processes are a whole within the communication framework, revealing at the same time codes and feelings, remembering that the way we move our hands, we walk or we look might be determining to generate a trust environment for the disputants.
In addition to the interactive approach presented by the above mentioned authors, Suares provides a definition that summarizes and unifies the content presented, arguing that communication “exists between two or more human beings who interact through the digital and analogic components of communication; and this takes place within a context” (Suares, 2003, p. 80).
This definition greatly impacts the nonverbal component as a support of an articulated discourse, which falls into the category of analogic components, i.e., all those pieces of information conveyed by gestures, as compared to the digital component which consists in the expression of words both oral and written.
Nonverbal language can be reflected on different parts of our body (eyes, face micro-expressions, hand movements, body posture, tone, delays, pace, etc.) which turns out to be consistent with the verbal process on occasions or it can convey contradictory or contrary messages in other occasions as we reveal with our body how we really feel even if we try to nuance emotions with words. Under these circumstances, nonverbally transmitted information will prevail due to the impact and the weight it has on the verbal discourse.
To sum up, and using the words of authors Fornés and Rodríguez-Escalona (2008):
Concerning human communication, a three-fold basic structure has been identified: language-paralanguage-kinesics. What we say (verbal language, the words), how we say this (paralanguage, all modifications of the voice and types of voice, plus the many quasi-lexical independent emotions) and how we move (kinesics) (pp. 12-13).
Mediation is a process whereby meaning is assigned through the discourse of those in the mediation process; however, the signals they verbally send are indicators that hardly help to deepening full communication, as the pieces that remain to be understood are the paralanguage components, i.e., all the elements that impact the voice, like the tone, the sound, whether the verbal message is broken by emotions, etc. On the other hand, body gestures, like the movement of our hands, the position of our eyebrows or where we look at. Nonverbal language can be reflected on every part of our body and it indicates if there is consistency with articulated language.
Emotions and Gestures
To know what emotion is present in a mediation session we can read gestures. Gestures related to universal emotions have a common element in all persons, which determines a pattern for its identification; this is useful in the mediation process because through emotional expression we are able to identify gestures slips, these actions that are a contradiction between what is said and what is shown, for instance, nodding while saying no. Nonverbal language prevails when facing this contradiction situation.
For the sake of mediation, it could be useful to record mediation sessions in order to view them and analyze the emotions expressed against the micro-expressions disputants show, following the FACS parameters (Face Action Coding System) established by Ekman and Friesen (1978) which enables to categorize face expressions based on the muscle movement involved.
Body Language and Personality
Visual aspects determine our image, our way of being and the way in which the disputants create an image of us. According to James (2003) they are as follow: facial expression, body language and cleanliness.
It is important to know the somatotype and the image conveyed by people with different physiques, as according to James (2008) only four seconds are enough for disputants to create their own impression about us; therefore, nonverbal language and our personality should be in harmony. We have perception biases that might mark our first impression and affect our objectivity as practitioners. An example of this is when we associate fatness to helpless people, muscles to vitality and optimism, and thinness to disease.
Nonverbal Language in Mediation
Kinesics considers different nonverbal elements to be strategic for the mediation process. Mediators have two main communication processes to perform their role:
– Verbal Language: it is formed by the various techniques and strategies specific to mediation (legitimating, paraphrasing, reformulating, questioning…)
– Nonverbal Language: all those pieces of information that complement dialogue and that reveal that verbal language is credible and transparent. According to Davis: “The visible part of a message is, at least, as important as the audible one” (Davis, 2010, p. 19). These are crucial in the mediation process to not only know the gestural signals of the disputants but also to enrich the skills of practitioners.
Mediators must know these nonverbal communication elements to be able to identify them and the read what emotions disputants express, what are the contradictions beyond verbal communication. They might easily lead to alternative stories based on these contradictions, they might be a guide to identify what feelings are involved in the conflict and they might help to legitimize them.
The fashion or guide to identify signals are: analyzing the proximity of disputants, analyzing gestural slips (nodding while saying yes), aspects related to submission or dominance for example who comes in first in the mediation room, who chooses a seat first, who starts talking, whether they look at each other when they talk, if they seek approval of their partners, if they appear relaxed or tight (crossed arms, frowning, tightened fist, tightened lips…), if the behavior vis-à-vis the mediators is calmed or challenging. We should also be aware of the cultural influence and the biases we might have.
This analysis allows us to identify and train ourselves as mediators on the skills necessary for full, efficient and coherent communication. For example, where we should be looking at, until what part of the body we should raise our hands to express ourselves, what is the most appropriate position or how to introduce ourselves to the disputants when we first meet, if kiss them or shake hands, if we keep a smiling or a neutral expression, if we train our voice to lead them and calm them, if we keep equally looking at the parties, if we seat facing the two of them or only facing one of them (which generates confrontation), if the table is a glass table that allows us to analyze the nonverbal language of the lower body, which is normally missed at the mediation table (we never know if the disputants touch their legs or even if they have involuntary tics or anxiety signals); all these are elements that influence and determine the degree of trust that we convey, on the one hand, and that we can detect in the disputants, on the other hand.
This paper explains mediators skills divided into four main blocks: facial expression (look, eyebrows, nose and mouth to express universal emotions), body language (voice, paralanguage, proxemics, types of gestures and somatotype), clothing or garments of the mediator, and cleanliness. That is, an analysis of the communication discourses including verbal and nonverbal language.
This paper provides an approach to the study of nonverbal language, its theories and believes and its position in society. Advances occurred in the field of kinesics have been presented according to several authors, and their implications for the world of mediation.
Throughout the paper the initial skills to be acquired by mediators were explained. That is, the analysis of communication discourses including verbal and nonverbal language.
It allowed us to know the theories, believes and values about nonverbal language and we were able to learn, through different authors, about advances occurred in the emerging field of kinesics that could be exploited by the field of mediation.
Albaladejo, M. (2007). La comunicación más allá de las palabras. Barcelona, España: Graó.
Armas, M. (2009). Mediación y resolución de conflictos. Gran Canaria, España: Servicio de publicaciones y difusión científica de la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Cabrera, A. y Pelayo, N. (2002). Lenguaje y comunicación: Conceptos básicos, aspectos teóricos generales, características, estructura, naturaleza y funciones del lenguaje y la comunicación. Caracas, Venezuela: El nacional.
Calvo, A., García, I. y Pérez, R. (2013). Expresión corporal. Una práctica de intervención que permite encontrar un lenguaje propio mediante el estudio y la profundización del empleo del cuerpo. Recuperado de:
Darwin, C. (1984). La expresión de las emociones en los animales y en el hombre. Madrid, España: Alianza.
Davis, F. (2010). La comunicación no verbal. Madrid, España: Alianza.
Descamps, M. (2010). El lenguaje del cuerpo y la comunicación corporal. Barcelona, España: Biblioteca Deusto de desarrollo personal.
Ekman, P. (2005). Como detectar mentiras. Barcelona, España: Paidós.
Ekman, P. (2004). ¿Qué dice ese gesto? Barcelona, España: Integral.
Ekman,P. y Friesen,W. (1978): The facial action coding system (FACS). Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Fast, J. (2005). El lenguaje del cuerpo. Barcelona, España: Kairós.
Fornés, A. y Rodríguez-Escalona, M. (2008). El porqué de nuestros gestos. Barcelona, España: Bolsillo Octaedro.
Givens, D. (2000). El lenguaje de la seducción. Barcelona, España: Amat.
Gladwell, M. (2005). Inteligencia Intuitiva. Madrid, España: Punto de lectura.
Glass, L. (2003). Sé lo que estás pensando. Barcelona, España: Paidós.
Grijalvo, F., y Pellejero, J. (2008). Entrenamiento en Habilidades Sociales. Gran Canaria, España: Servicios de publicaciones y difusiones científicas.
James, J. (2008). The Body language bible. British, England: Vermilion.
James, J. (2003). El Lenguaje corporal. Proyectar una imagen positiva. Barcelona, España: Paidós plural.
Jobs, S. (2012). La sabiduría empresarial de Steve Jobs: 250 citas del innovador que cambió el mundo. Madrid: La esfera de los libros.
Kruk (1997). Mediation and Conflict Resolution in Social Work and the Human Service. Chicago: Nelson Hall.
Mehrabian, A. (1972). Nonverbal Communication. Mishawaka, U.S.A: Walter de Gruyter Inc.
Pease, A. (2010). Comunicación no verbal. El Lenguaje del Cuerpo. Barcelona, España: Amat.
Pease, A., y Pease, B. (2006). El lenguaje del cuerpo. Como interpretar a los demás a través de sus gestos. Barcelona, España: Amat.
Poyatos, F. (1994). La comunicación no Verbal. Madrid, España: Istmo.
Rebel, G. (1995). El Lenguaje corporal. Madrid, España: Edaf Psicología y Autoayuda.
Ripol, A. (2011). Estrategia de mediación en asuntos familiares. Madrid, España: Instituto complutense de mediación y gestión de conflictos.
Suares, M. (2003). Mediando en sistemas familiares. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Paidós.
Suares, M. (2004). Mediación. Conducción de disputas, comunicación y técnica. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Paidós.
What is Revista de Mediación
What articles are accepted
How to submit papers
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By Guest Author 15/07/2020 1
I would like to know how much difference we could make to our commitment under the Paris Agreement and our total greenhouse gas emissions if we removed all cows and sheep from the country and grew plants in their place (hemp, wheat, oats etc). Surely we could easily become carbon neutral if we removed all livestock? How much more oxygen would be produced from plants growing instead? How would this offset our emissions? And what if we returned the land the animals were on to native forests or even pine plantations?
Sebastian Leuzinger, Auckland University of Technology
This is an interesting question and gives me the opportunity for some nice – albeit partly unrealistic – model calculations. Before I start, just two comments regarding the question itself.
Oxygen concentrations have been relatively stable at around 21% of the air we breathe for millions of years. This will not change markedly even if carbon dioxide emissions increase for years to come. Carbon dioxide concentrations, even in the most pessimistic emissions scenarios, will only get to around 0.1% of the atmosphere, hardly affecting the air’s oxygen content.
Secondly, grazing animals like cows and sheep emit methane — and that’s what harms the climate, not the grassland itself. Hemp or wheat plantations would have a similar capacity to take up carbon dioxide as grassland. But growing trees is what makes the difference.
Here’s a back-of-the-envelope calculation to work out how New Zealand’s carbon balance would change if all livestock were removed and all agricultural land converted to forest.
If New Zealand stopped farming cows and sheep, it would remove methane emissions. Heath Johnson/Shutterstock
Converting pasture to trees
This would remove all methane emissions from grazing animals (about 40 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year).
New Zealand has about 10 million hectares of grassland. Let us assume that mature native bush or mature pine forests store the equivalent of roughly 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare.
If it takes 250 years to grow mature native forests on all former agricultural land, this would lock away 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide within that time span, offsetting our carbon dioxide emissions (energy, waste and other smaller sources) during the 250 years of regrowth. Because pine forest grows faster, we would overcompensate for our emissions until the forest matures (allow 50 years for this), creating a net carbon sink.
Note these calculations are based on extremely crude assumptions, such as linear growth, absence of fire and other disturbances, constant emissions (our population will increase, and so will emissions), ignorance of soil processes, and many more.
If agricultural land was used to grow crops, we would save the 40 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted by livestock in the form of methane, but we would not store a substantial amount of carbon per hectare.
Steps towards a carbon-neutral New Zealand
How should we interpret this rough estimate? First, we must acknowledge even with our best intentions, we still need to eat, and converting all agricultural land to forest would leave us importing food from overseas — certainly not great for the global carbon budget.
Second, it shows if livestock numbers were at least reduced, and we all turned to a more plant-based diet, we could reduce our emissions substantially. The effect would be similar to reforesting large parts of the country.
Third, this example also shows that eventually, be it after 250 years in the case of growing native forests, or after about 50 years in the case of pine forests, our net carbon emissions would be positive again. As the forests mature, carbon stores are gradually replenished and our emissions would no longer be compensated. Mature forests eventually become carbon neutral.
Even though the above calculations are coarse, this shows that a realistic (and quick) way to a carbon-neutral New Zealand will likely involve three steps: reduction of emissions (both in the agricultural and energy sectors), reforestation (both native bush and fast-growing exotics), and a move to a more plant-based diet.The Conversation
Sebastian Leuzinger, Professor, Auckland University of Technology
One Response to “What if we took all farm animals off the land and planted crops and trees instead?”
• Professor Leuzinger, you have a basic part of your reasoning completely wrong. Biogenic methane is a flow gas. It is emitted by animals as part of the plant digestive process. Methane molecules degrade to Carbon Dioxide in approximately 12 years. Carbon Dioxide is then consumed by forage plants in the photosynthesis process and used to build proteins, carbohydrates, and cellulose in the plant. The plants are then eaten by animals completing a cycle. As long as animal numbers are stable the actual global warming from animals’ methane emissions is ZERO. In New Zealand sheep and beef cattle have reduced significantly since 1990, but dairy cow numbers have increased markedly leading to a small net warming effect. There are many reports from around the world that careful grazing of animals will actually increase the carbon stocks in the soil achieving the same result as tree planting. Widespread tree planting puts off the need in the short term to fundamentally change the use of fossil fuels. In addition New Zealand meat and dairy produce has the lowest carbon footprint globally for meat and dairy products. If New Zealand’s current animal production were to be produced elsewhere emissions from animals globally will increase. The net effect of covering New Zealand in pinetrees may well end up with a net global increase in warming effect. |
Search for "Criminal Code"
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The 1969 Amendment and the (De)criminalization of Homosexuality
From the earliest days of colonization to 1969, sodomy laws made sex between men illegal in Canada. In addition, a law enacted in 1892 made “gross indecency” between men illegal. This included anything that indicated same-sex attraction, including simple touching, dancing and kissing. The law was extended to women in 1953. In 1969, however, sodomy and gross indecency laws were changed, making such acts legal under some circumstances. The parties involved had to be 21 years of age or older and conduct their affairs in private. Sodomy and gross indecency remained illegal outside of the home or if three or more individuals were involved or present. Thus, Canada’s Criminal Code continued to equate homosexuality with criminal behaviour under many circumstances.
Abortion in Canada
Abortion is the premature ending of a pregnancy. Inducing an abortion was a crime in Canada until 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the abortion law as unconstitutional. Since then, abortion has been legal at any stage in a woman's pregnancy, and is publicly funded as a medical procedure under the Canada Health Act. However, access to abortion services differs across the country, and abortion remains one of the most divisive political issues of our time.
Elizabeth Fry Society
The Elizabeth Fry Society is a not-for-profit social service agency that provides support for women and girls involved in the Canadian justice system. The Society provides a range of services to women who are criminalized and to women who are at risk of being criminalized. It works to reduce the impact of criminalization, to provide equal opportunities for women in the justice system and to empower marginalized women. |
Local laws, such as local animal control ordinances, are part of a city and/or county code. Ordinances often include sections on animal cruelty, ownership, at-large regulations, mandatory spay/neuter, and cat licensing. For community cats, the inclusion or omission of just a few words in these laws can be the difference between life and death. Many local laws are punitive. We seek to change them into positive laws that save animals and meet the needs of cats, caregivers, owners, and the community at large. Here are some of the most common sections of local laws that commonly affect cats.
Animal Cruelty
These laws should apply to all cats, not just owned, family animals.
Local ordinances that protect community cats differentiate between owners and caretakers, and they recognize that community cat caretakers are Good Samaritans using their own time and money to care for community cats. Provisions that define someone as an owner for feeding, harboring, or keeping an animal discourage well-meaning people from caring for cats and participating in Trap-Neuter-Return because they fear the costs and legal consequences associated with owning the cats.
At-large Regulations
Often known as “leash laws,” these regulations prohibit cats from being loose in the community. Leash laws are incompatible with Trap-Neuter-Return, because community cats are by nature free-roaming, and they don’t have an owner whose property they can stay on.
Mandatory Spay/Neuter
Although often well-meaning, mandatory spay/neuter does not increase the amount of spay/neuter taking place in a community. In addition to not providing resources that make it easier for people to meet this requirement, mandatory spay/neuter does not help community cats because they have no owner. Punitive in design, owned cats can be impounded and stiff penalties made so that owners cannot reclaim their companions. As a result, more animals are in the shelter system and quite often killed, instead of working with individuals to match the needs of animals with community resources.
Cat Licensing
Licensing requirements are often a death sentence for community cats because they typically require that any cat not displaying a license tag be impounded. It’s not safe, or practical, for community cats who have been through Trap-Neuter-Return to wear collars for these tags, so they are vulnerable. For community cats, an eartip signifies that they’ve been spayed/neutered and vaccinated. Owned cats, even those who live primarily indoors, are at risk of being impounded if they slip outside and are not wearing a collar and license. Licensing fees are often money for general funds and not applied to save or to spay or neuter animals, which demonstrates the failure of cat licensing measures.
Increasingly, communities are passing local ordinances with positive, proactive language related to Trap-Neuter-Return or Shelter-Neuter-Return. These ordinances write into law protections for community cats and their caretakers and explicitly endorse Trap-Neuter-Return. For model ordinances and examples of communities leading the way for humane care, read more about how Alley Cat Allies is creating community change.
Cat Licensing: A License to Kill
Guide to Local Government: Animal Control
Harmful Laws That Push Cats into Shelters
Help with Ordinances
How to Find Laws That Relate to Cats
Know Your Rights: How to Talk to Animal Control
Ordinance Drafting Guidelines
Sample Ordinance: Baltimore
Sample Ordinance: Washington, DC |
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Sodium bisulfate
Sodium bisulfate
Systematic name sodium hydrogen sulfate
Other names sodium bisulfate
sodium acid sulfate
Molecular formula NaHSO4
Molar mass 120.06 g/mol (anhydrous)
138.07 g/mol (monohydrate)
Appearance white solid
CAS number [7681-38-1]
Density 2.742 g/cm3 (anhydrous)
Solubility (water)
50 g / 100 ml (0°C) (of anhydrous)
100 g / 100ml (100°C) (of anhydrous)
Melting point 58.5°C (monohydrate)
>315°C (anhydrous) w some decomp
Boiling point decomposes to Na2S2O7
pKa (25°C) 1.9
Crystal structure triclinic (anhydrous)
monoclinic (monohydrate)
Except where noted otherwise, data are given for
Infobox disclaimer and references
Sodium bisulfate, also sodium hydrogen sulfate, has the chemical formula NaHSO4.
Sodium bisulfate is produced by two methods. One method involves mixing stoichiometric quantities of sodium hydroxide and sulfuric acid which react to form sodium bisulfate and water.
NaOH + H2SO4 → NaHSO4 + H2O
A second production method involves reacting sodium chloride (salt) and sulfuric acid at elevated temperatures to produce sodium bisulfate and hydrogen chloride gas.
NaCl + H2SO4 → NaHSO4 + HCl
The liquid sodium bisulfate is sprayed and cooled so that it forms a solid bead. The hydrogen chloride gas is dissolved in water to produce hydrochloric acid as a useful byproduct of the reaction.
Descriptive Chemistry
The product of commerce is anhydrous. The only producer in the USA, Jones Hamilton Company, uses the Sulfuric Acid/Sodium Chloride process, which produces anhydrous product.
Solutions of sodium bisulfate are acid, with a 1M solution having pH of 1.4. In some applications, such solutions can be used instead of sulfuric acid solution. For example, from a solution of sodium bisulfate and sodium acetate it is possible to distill acetic acid. Sodium bisulfate solutions will also liberate CO2 from most carbonates.
The anhydrous form is hygroscopic. Its melting point is poorly defined because it begins to decompose into sodium pyrosulfate and water before it reaches its melting points.
Sodium bisulfate behaves, to some degree, as if it were a complex of sodium sulfate with sulfuric acid. This is evident if either the anhydrous form or the monohydrate come in contact with ethanol, which causes them to separate into those two components. [1]
• Household cleaners, Sani-Flush, for example (roughly 45%)
• Silver pickling
• To reduce alkalinity and pH in swimming pools
• In pet foods[1]
• As a preservative for soil samples in analytical laboratory analysis
1. ^ Merck Index of Chemicals and Drugs, 9th ed. monograph 8330
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sodium_bisulfate". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia. |
Quantum computing holds the potential to one-day resolve some of the world’s most intricate and pressing conundrums. With the science and technology industry at the forefront of the global battle to defeat COVID-19, for example, it has played a part in discovering viable solutions, not just in the short term but for future pandemics. However, quantum computing is bound to force major changes to the cybersecurity landscape.
About the author
Rodney Joffe, SVP, senior technologist and Fellow, Neustar.
While quantum computing is still in its relative stages of infancy, it’s rapid evolution means it will soon overtake technologies we’ve previously relied on, including high performance cloud computing.
This is why numerous tech giants such as IBM, Google, Amazon and Microsoft have entered the race to achieve what has been coined ‘quantum supremacy’: the competition to build the first fully-functioning and practical quantum computer. Microsoft, for instance, just announced that its quantum computing platform, Azure Quantum, is now available in limited preview.
Advancements such as these, however, have resulted in experts debating how the power of quantum will affect the cybersecurity landscape. Research from the Neustar International Security Council (NISC) recently revealed that almost a quarter of security professionals are already experimenting with quantum computing strategies, worried that it will outpace the development of existing security technologies.
These concerns are, in fact, extremely valid and require urgent action. Looking ahead, laying the foundations for rebuilding our current overarching cybersecurity approach – including our algorithms, strategies and systems – should be a key priority.
Endless possibilities
Across our most critical industries, quantum computing has the promise to solve what would have previously been described as unsolvable or existential problems.
When it comes to medical development, it has the potential to simulate how drugs will react. This reduces the risk during the commonly used trial and error method, and saves computational chemists both time and money. Already, researchers at Penn State University have announced that they are exploring how machine learning and quantum physics can be used to discover possible treatments for COVID-19.
In addition, Accenture recently published a paper with biotechnology innovator Biogen, which found that as quantum computers become more available, drug discovery will accelerate significantly, allowing scientists to compare much larger molecules.
Drug discovery is not the only area quantum computing will improve. Much has been reported about the technology’s potential to beat climate change in the future. The World Economic Forum recently outlined how, by simulating large complex molecules, it will potentially be able to create new ones for carbon capture.
What’s more, last year, Google and NASA sparked frenzy within the technology community when together they revealed quantum computers hold the capability to compute in three minutes what would usually take supercomputers 10,000 years. While this feat is still years away, it is this level of power that cybersecurity professionals need to begin planning for.
Cracking encryption
At present, the cybersecurity industry depends on encryption to safeguard devices and personal data. In theory, encryption is possible to crack. In practice, however, it is impossible and would take a colossal amount of time to do so, over timescales of trillions of years.
Cryptography can be categorized in two ways: symmetric and asymmetric cryptography. In symmetric schemes, the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt data. In asymmetric schemes – also known as public key – there is a publicly shared key for encryption and a private key for decryption. Built on complex mathematical calculations, these are crafted for a fundamental purpose: to be so complicated that they would take classical computers too long and use too much computational power to be solved.
However, encryption’s time as a viable solution is limited. Neustar’s research revealed that nearly three quarters (75%) of cybersecurity professionals expect advances in quantum technology to beat current technologies, such as encryption, within the next five years. Its ability to break encryption techniques such as private key poses a major challenge to the cybersecurity industry. In the wrong hands, it could be used to launch a cyberattack on an unprecedented scale.
Reimagining cybersecurity
Given quantum’s ability to crack problems we’ve specifically created to be “unsolvable” at an unrivaled pace, there is a crucial need to create new public key schemes that are resistant to quantum technology. Even though a quantum computer capable of beating encryption is approximately ten years away, quantum-proof encryption needs to be implemented before then.
Planning for quantum requires a careful consideration of its progress. Luckily, most organisations have quantum computing on their radar. In fact, 74% of cybersecurity professionals have admitted to paying close attention to the technology’s development.
Businesses are also required to take note of all encrypted data and make sure it is surrounded by 24/7 monitoring and threat intelligence tools, alongside robust processes. There needs to be a recognition that even though it is impossible for this data to be decrypted currently, advances in quantum computing will mean that it will be vulnerable in future.
The current global pandemic has taught us that we need science and technology more than ever to guide us through challenging times and produce the innovations that will see us benefit in the long run.
The sheer power and uncertainty of quantum should not be viewed negatively – in fact, 87% of CISOs, CSOs, CTOs and security directors admitted that they are excited about the potential positive impact it will have. Quantum computing is part of the future, and the cybersecurity industry has to prepare early for its impact if they wish to reap the benefits.
Source Article |
Medieval Warfare
Medieval warfare covers the period from the Norman conquest through to the use of gunpowder weapons.
Warfare was based very much on the armoured cavalryman and sees the construction of significant landscape features such as castles and cathedrals. The importance of warfare to society was embedded in the feudal system which flourished at this time. |
Simple, common factor in success against Covid-19 in Asia
Covid-19’s Achilles heel appears to be an exquisite sensitivity to Rapid Case Contact Management, even after it has established large outbreaks, write Philip Hill and James Ussher of the University of Otago.
Most infectious diseases have an Achilles heel, the secret is to find it. The question is, if we don’t have a drug or a vaccine for Covid-19, is there something else we can do to beat it?
Some people estimate that, without any intervention, 50 percent of the Chinese population might have developed Covid-19, and if we use a 1 percent case fatality ratio, then the expected number of deaths would have been 7 million. Instead, there have been fewer than the reported 3500 deaths across 1.4 billion people. This occurred in the absence of any effective drug or any vaccine. Therefore, something they did in China must have exposed an Achilles heel of the virus.
As researchers we are trained to observe and carefully interpret multiple lines of evidence when analysing a health problem. In the current situation, evidence is accumulating rapidly. We can use health statistics describing what happened within China, comparing Hubei with the rest of the country. We can then compare these experiences with what happened in other Asian countries that have been successful in containing the virus. We can also draw conclusions from what is happening in Europe and the United States. Finally, we can attempt to reconcile this information with our evolving understanding of the properties of the virus and how they are different to the SARS coronavirus and to Influenza.
There are three key conclusions we can draw from the health statistics. First, we can conclude from Hubei and Italy that not acting quickly and limiting activities to simply diagnosing and managing cases is potentially disastrous. Second, we can conclude from South Korea that even quite large outbreaks with community transmission can be brought under control. Third, when we look at the various measures employed by Asian countries who have been successful, there is one common intervention that stands out - it is called Rapid Case Contact Management. This is simply rapid early diagnosis of as many cases as possible and rapid early isolation of all their contacts. It doesn’t even need to be 100 percent perfect.
There are two key properties of the virus in relation to other viruses that are relevant to this discussion. First, evidence is accumulating that this coronavirus has an important difference to the SARS coronavirus– it has peak transmissibility very early after the development of symptoms, whereas the SARS virus didn’t reach peak transmissibility for several days after symptoms developed. This means that a strategy limited to just diagnosing cases leaves it too late to stop ongoing transmission of the Covid-19 virus. Secondly, it is becoming clear the Covid-19 virus is not as efficient a pathogen as Influenza in terms of time to causing disease – it takes on average 5 or 6 days for it to start causing symptoms. This means that there is a bigger window of opportunity to find all the contacts of the case and isolate them. These two key properties could explain why Rapid Case Contact Management is such a powerful tool to combat Covid-19.
Covid-19’s Achilles heel appears to be an exquisite sensitivity to Rapid Case Contact Management, even after it has established large outbreaks. This ties in with what we are learning about the properties of the virus. Influenza pandemic plans use Rapid Case Contact Management early and move to case diagnosis and management only (abandoning contact tracing and isolation) soon after community transmission of the virus has been established.
Evidence from Asia and the particular properties of the Covid-19 virus suggest this would be disastrous for New Zealand. In New Zealand we have some of the best public health practitioners in the world, who do case contact management of infectious diseases all the time. What is required, apart from increasing capacity and sensitivity to diagnose Covid-19, is an urgent, large expansion of our case contact management workforce. There are various ways to expand this workforce – including, for example, very fast (1 -2 days) training of people for this specific task under supervision, including possibly our own nursing and medical students. We have the opportunity to activate such a plan now before our current workforce becomes overwhelmed.
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Is Eating Chocolate Good For Your Body?
Is Eating Chocolate Good For Your Body
Chocolate is must be the most loved eatable “thing” since it invented. It’s may be many people’s favorite but there are some evidence to be believed that it is unhealthy if you eat too much. Oh the other hand, there are some scientific researches. According them, eating chocolate makes you feel better both physically and emotionally. So here you can find some details about the issue that we can explain in different point of view.
There is a research about eating chocolate at Harvard University in the U.S.A. worked on 8.000 men for 65 years. In this study, there is a result that people who eat chocolate lived a year longer than people who didn’t eat chocolate. According the research, raw material of cocoa contains antioxidants which material to prevent of harmful cholesterol. This material is also know a protector against cancer. So, now we scientifically have knowledge about chocolate can fight against cancer. Furthermore, it contain sugar too that can be reduce stress if it consume reasonable amount.
In light of all this, we all know that chocolate makes feel better who consume it. Also, there are one more interesting result too that the smell of chocolate can make slow down brain waves. That is making the consumer feel calm. Most of chocolate consumer things it so pleasurable , that is also true because when you eat chocolate, brain release endorphins in the brain . This is a resistant technique of brain against the pain.
There are many nutritionists says that chocolate does not make you fat. People always blame every single food gives them weight. So there are an enormous fact that if you do not eat more calories than you burn, you will not get fat. Chocolate has a quite low glyceamic index which means gives high energy but it does not rise blood sugar too quickly. This is makes it a great energy source. Furthermore, chocolate contains chromium which helps control blood sugar because it is engaged in making glucose available in the body.
One other scientific research at Rhode Island University gives a another interesting result. People who can not drink milk that contain lactose can drink with cacao. Our body need this digest lactose , the sugar found in the milk. So, added one and a half teaspoon cocoa in a cup of milk makes it drinkable for who may effect badly from it.
Chocolate also boosts the appetite for who need to put some more weight on. But it is not ideal if you are on a diet for lost weight. There are some sickness like anorexia nervosa that can be cut peoples appetite. Eating chocolate can be helpful at this type of problems to solve.
Chocolate is tasty, delightful, healthy and also nutritious. A 50 gr bar of chocolate contains; 1,2 mg of iron and 45 mg magnesium and also 50 gr milky chocolate contains; 110 mg calcium. It is look quite good energy resource but a average person should eat seven bars to get advised daily portion of these minerals.
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Raw Milk
cowNoseIt’s no doubt that Virginians want to be happy and healthy! There are tons of ways to go about living a healthier lifestyle, including incorporating nutritious, healthy foods. With that, you may have been thinking of incorporating raw or unpasteurized milk into your diet. We are happy you are here and doing your research!
There is much conflict over the “raw milk revolution” and at VDH we want to assist the people of Virginia in maintaining a healthy lifestyle with a minimal amount of risk to their well-being. Our goal is to keep the risk of contamination in milk low to ensure the people of the Commonwealth are safely drinking one of the most popular beverages nature offers. Read below for responses to a few common questions and assumptions:
“Pasteurization kills all of the nutrients and enzymes present in raw milk.”
While heating of any food or beverage may inactivate some enzymes and reduce some nutrients, many studies have shown that pasteurization of milk does not significantly change its nutritional value. You will still get the same health benefits of drinking pasteurized milk as you would with raw milk without the risk of vomiting, diarrhea, or kidney disease.
Fun Fact: Milk is known to pack some major nutrient benefits like calcium, potassium, and Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps absorb calcium, promotes bone health, aids in immune system functioning, improves cognitive functioning, and may reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease; however, it is not naturally present in raw milk in significant amounts. You can get Vitamin D from sunlight, certain foods, and fortified milk.
“Many people drank raw milk growing up and never got sick.”
If you’ve been doing your research on raw milk, you have definitely heard this and it’s definitely true for some. However, the thing with milk is that no single batch will have the same potential for germs, and it’s extremely unpredictable as to how each person’s body will react to contaminates present in the milk. Some people grow up living on a farm and drinking raw milk “straight from the teat”, and they most likely have a higher immune response to common microbes found in milk. Bacteria that are in low concentrations while on the farm have the potential to rapidly grow during transport to your house and into your cup. Many factors play into milk safety, and pasteurization is really the only way to ensure your safety. Just remember: you NEVER know what germs are in raw milk, what concentration they are in, or how YOUR body will react to them.
“Raw milk CURES diseases like asthma, cancer, heart disease, and allergies.”
There is no scientific evidence that backs up these claims. Consuming a healthier diet overall can reduce the likelihood of getting various illnesses and may improve preexisting diseases. Pasteurized milk will help attain these results just as much as raw milk.
“Pasteurization CAUSES diseases like asthma, cancer, heart disease, and allergies.”
Pasteurization itself has not been linked to cause any sort of disease or harm. The process of pasteurization is just done by HEATING the milk; NO chemicals or substances are added that would harm the consumer’s body.
“People with lactose intolerance can consume raw milk without the troubles they would experience with pasteurized milk.”
Every person has different dietary needs, and what works for one person will not necessarily work for another. All milk, whether raw or pasteurized, contains lactose (the enzyme people have an allergy against), and pasteurization doesn’t change the quantity or characterization of lactose in milk. If you are lactose intolerant (or even interested in better health), there are alternative milks you can try like soy, rice, almond, or coconut.
Those sickened in raw milk outbreaks were 13 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who became ill from pasteurized milk during an outbreak.
“It is safe for me and my family to begin consuming raw milk.”
NO. Realize that the risk of drinking raw milk far outweighs any reward you could obtain from consuming it. There are a plethora of bacteria that could cause harm to you and your family, including: Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, or Listeria. Young children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems have a greater chance of getting ill from drinking raw milk. This doesn’t mean that anyone else is any less susceptible to the dangers of raw milk, but it certainly means to steer clear of serving it to your children, as kids are naturally the most common consumers of milk products. The dangers of raw milk range from gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach cramps to more serious problems including kidney failure, chronic illnesses, paralysis, and possibly death. We will say it again: THE RISK IS NOT WORTH THE “REWARD”.
“I know my farmer and I’ve seen his healthy cows.”
Farmers markets and eating locally are all the rage… and for good reason! There are Virginia farmers currently producing safe pasteurized milk and who you may already know! However, producing raw milk for sale is not a smart public health idea for Virginians. Even the healthiest, well (grass) fed, “organic” cows can carry disease and bacteria without ever knowing it from their appearance. The best of sanitary conditions cannot provide assurance that milk is free of contaminates. Raw milk production on a large scale increases the risk that sanitary practices become even more convoluted and dirty. Even if rigorous sampling is conducted, too many variables have the potential to come into play before the “shelf life” of raw milk reaches you. You never know what your cup of milk has in it when it hasn’t been through proper processing.
“Milk-borne illnesses only occur in raw milk.”
This is certainly not true! There have been cases of various outbreaks in milk that has undergone pasteurization and was deemed “safe to drink.” Milk can make someone sick in a variety of ways, including through poor sanitation practices, improper temperature holding, and selling of milk past its expiration date. Improper temperature control allows bacteria that causes milk to spoil to flourish and grow. However, while contamination may happen in both pasteurized and unpasteurized milk, the likelihood of raw milk causing illness is far greater than that of pasteurized milk. The CDC estimates that at this time, less than 1% of the population of the United States drinks raw milk. In states where the sale of raw milk is legal, numbers of milk-related illness outbreaks are higher.
“Drinking raw milk is the only way to improve the health of my family.”
False! There are so many other (and much less risky!) ways to increase the overall health of your family members. Take a look at our VDH Prevention and Health Promotion page for tips and programs in Virginia. You could also check out USDA’s MyPlate, FoodSafety.gov recalls, and the plethora of CDC healthy living information. You’re making the right step in bettering your health and doing your RESEARCH!
During 2006-2013:
• 99 outbreaks from unpasteurized milk products
• 995 were ill
• 77 hospitalizations
• 79% of all outbreaks reported were from states that allow the sale of raw milk
• 69 outbreaks in legal states
• 14 outbreaks in illegal states
• Outbreaks increase as more states allow the sale of raw milk |
Here’s why all dentists should be appreciated as real doctors
why all dentists should be appreciated as real doctors
tooth extarction
We all know that mouth is the gateway of our whole body, so we have to take proper care of our mouth. And, to prevent any disease in our mouth, we should take help from a dentist. Many people don’t realize the importance of mouth health and equally don’t prefer to visit a dentist. On the other hand, there are some people who think dentists are not doctors. They just clean out their teeth.
Remember, this concept is wrong. Dentists are doctors and they play a vital role in keeping us healthy.
What is dentistry and what is the role of a dentist?
To understand the dentists are more than a tooth doctor, we should understand what dentistry is first.
Remember, dentistry is a diagnosis and treatment to maintain complete oral health. It has a vital impact on our whole body and entire health.
And, a dentist who provides us health care related to oral problems. A dentist diagnoses a patient who has a dental problem that provides effective treatment and prevents the problem from further occurring to ensure the overall health of the patient.
To provide dental treatment, a person has to complete the full tenure of doctor schooling. After that, the dentist has to choose one specialization to become a specialist in certain treatment-related to dentistry.
Types of dentistry and dentists
Many people don’t even know that there are many types of dentists who provide different types of treatments. In fact, there are many types of dental and oral problems that should be cured by a specialist dentist just like other doctors play the role of a specialist to treat other health problems.
Here you go:
Orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics – This special dentistry focuses on the alignment of the teeth and dental postures. Patients who have problems with jaw and facial structure should consider orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedic treatment.
Periodontics – This dentistry helps patients to get rid of the advanced level of gum disease. It focuses on treating inflammatory diseases that affect the gum line and its supporting structures and bones. Periodontist helps us to avoid tooth extract circumstances. A periodontist can give you the total cure to avoid tooth extraction circumstances.
Prosthodontics (implants) – This dentistry helps patients who have already lost teeth and need implants to survive. In Prosthodontics treatment, you can get new dentures with the actual teeth shape of yours.
Endodontics (root canals) – This dentistry deals with dental pulp and tissues surrounding the teeth area. Under this treatment, the patient can go through a treatment called root canal treatment, which treats the soft pulp tissue inside the tooth. An endodontist can help you to pro=vide proper root canal treatment to get complete oral health.
Oral and maxillofacial (including pathology, radiology, and surgery) – This dentistry deals with surgery related to mouth disease. Under this treatment, you can get treatment related to defects in the mouth, injuries in mouth, jaws, and face. Maxillofacial surgeons help people who experience dental injuries, facial pain, misaligned jaws or have wisdom teeth that need to be removed through surgery.
Pediatric dentistry – Babies’ and kids’ mouth health should be provided by a pediatric dentist. Under this dentistry, your baby and kids can get complete oral health care to prevent other health issues.
Why people should visit the dentist from time to time
1. So, it is clear that dental peoples should be dealt with properly care. And the people who provide dental treatment are true sense doctors. Here’s why you should visit your dentist from time to time.
2. You should visit your dentist to ensure that there is no dental issue.
3. The visiting dentist can help you to fight against any tooth and gum related problems like tooth decay, gum problem or gingivitis, periodontitis, and receded gum.
4. If you are on a regular dental visit, you can avoid halitosis or bad bread that comes from gum disease or other oral issues.
5. A dentist can guide you to understand the proper way to brush, floss, and clean your mouth.
6. Once you start visiting your dentist, you will get good oral health, which helps to enhance your confidence by giving you a bright smile and flawless set of teeth.
7. By ensuring your good oral health with the help of a dentist, you can avoid other health issues, like high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease that often occurs due to bad mouth health.
8. Dental visits and practicing good oral care can help you enjoy healthy gum and teeth for a longer time in your life.
9. You can enjoy the taste and every bite of your food when you have good teeth.
10. If you have a wrong or defect in the jawline and facial structure, you can rectify this and get back a normal smile and facial structure from a proper dental specialist.
11. Visiting a dentist is recommended when you are suffering a pain related to wisdom teeth. Ignoring this condition can invite other health issues related to the nerve.
12. Visiting a pediatric dentist is recommended for every newbie parent to ensure their child’s mouth health. So that the child can enjoy a good oral health life for a long time.
So, if you have an idea that dentists are just doctors, then rectified it. Dentists are doctors and they play a very important role in our life to prevent many major health issues. So, next time when you feel irritated, redness and bleeding gum, don’t forget to visit your dentist. Also, you should follow all the instructions given by the dentist and revisit the dentist to ensure healthy gum and good teeth. |
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Word List
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:04 pm
by logan
New feature: you can now browse a list of every word (5-25 letters long) in every source indexed by Genealogy Indexer, by clicking on the "Words" link in the top right or going directly to You can browse by letter (Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew) or enter a word in the search box there to jump to that part of the word list. When viewing the word list, you can click on any word to search all sources for that word (with the default search options).
But why would you want to do this, you might wonder, when you can already search everything? Since the search engine relies on OCR, there are inaccuracies, and browsing the word list can help you find words that probably match your search term except for OCR errors. The most common OCR errors will be caught by the "OCR-Adjusted" search option, but you can sometimes find other OCR errors in the word list.
As a by-product of creating this word browser, the following link syntax will now work: will browse the word list starting at the word WOLOWELSKI will search all sources with the default search options for the word WOLOWELSKI
The list currently contains a little over 9 million distinct words, 5-25 letters long. Some of these words might appear thousands of times in the sources, some only once. Because of our focus on directories, most of the words are proper nouns or (abbreviations of) occupations. |
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Title: Post-communism
Author: World Heritage Encyclopedia
Language: English
Subject: Democratic Party of the Left, Colonization, Communism, Ex-communist, New Europe (political expression)
Publisher: World Heritage Encyclopedia
Post-communism is the period of political and economic transformation or "transition" in former communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economies.
The policies of most communist parties in both Eastern and Western Europe had been governed by the example of the Soviet Union. In most of the countries in Eastern Europe, following the fall of communist-led governments in 1989, the communist parties split in two factions: a reformist Social Democratic party and a new, less reform-oriented Communist Party. The newly created Social Democratic parties were generally larger and more powerful than the remaining communist parties; only in Russia, Moldova, and the Czech Republic did the Communist Party remain a significant force.
The ex-communist social democrats gained increasing popularity when the transition to capitalism began to cause economic problems such as poverty and unemployment. Nearly all of them won national elections in their respective countries at least once in the past 15 years.
In western Europe, many of the self-styled communist political parties reacted by changing their policies to a more moderate and less radical course. In countries such as Italy and Germany, post-communism is marked by the increased influence of their existing Social Democrats. The anti-Soviet communist parties in western Europe (e.g., the Trotskyist parties), who felt that the fall of the Soviet Union vindicated their views and predictions, did not particularly prosper from it—in fact, some became less radical as well.
Several communist states had undergone economic reforms from a planned economy towards a more market-oriented economy in the 1980s. The post-communist economic transition was much more abrupt and aimed at creating fully capitalist economies.
All the countries concerned have abandoned the traditional tools of communist economic control, and moved more or less successfully toward free market systems.[1] Although some (including Lewis) stress the beneficial effect of multinational investment, the reforms had important negative consequences that are still unfolding.
Average standards of living registered a catastrophic fall in the early 1990s in many parts of the former Comecon—most notably in the former Soviet Union—and began to rise again only toward the end of the decade. Some populations are still poorer today than they were in 1989 (e.g., Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia). Others have bounced back considerably beyond that threshold however (e.g., Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic), and some, such as Poland, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, underwent an economic boom (see Baltic Tiger), although all have suffered from the 2009 recession.
Economic trends associated with post-communism include [2]
See also
2. ^ Tilcsik, A. (2010). "From ritual to reality: Demography, ideology, and decoupling in a post-communist government agency." Academy of Management Journal, 53(6), 1474-1498. Abstract
External links
• Parties and Elections in Europe
• Dangerous Assumptions in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Daniel Nelson, July/August 2000.
• Transitions Online: News coverage of Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union
• Communism: A Love Affair?: Russians Nostalgic for Soviet Social Services by The Global Post
• Gerald M. Easter, )Cornell University Press, 2012Capital, Coercion, and Post-Communist States,( ISBN 978-0801-4782-46
|
South Australia, renewable energy | See Renewable energy.
‘Giant wind turbines owned by Neoen, a French company, loom over the dusty red scrubland outside Jamestown, north of Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia. The world’s biggest lithium-ion battery sits a stone’s throw away. Elon Musk, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, installed it [in 2017] through his company, Tesla, to store energy from the turbines and feed it back to the grid when other supplies run short. About 100km to the west, across the Spencer Gulf, Sanjeev Gupta, a British billionaire, is building solar and pumped-storage hydropower plants to revive a failed steelworks at Whyalla that he bought six months ago. With just 7% of Australia’s population, South Australia has become a testing ground for a political argument about how hard the government should push to replace fossil fuels with cleaner energy. The rest of Australia, too, is paying more attention than it normally would. The last coal-fired power station in South Australia closed two years ago. While the bigger eastern states still rely on coal for most of their electricity, South Australia now gets almost half of its power from wind and solar, the highest proportion in the country. (The rest comes mainly from gas.)’ – Source: ‘The power and the furore’, The Economist, March 10 2018, p51). |
Maintaining Blood Sugar Level.
Blood sugar
Blood sugar
“Balancing blood sugar levels is important in maintaining long lasting energy throughout your day. When we consume carbohydrates, our body converts this into sugar to get energy. However we are able to control our blood sugar levels by eating the right types of carbohydrates, focusing on proper portion sizes, and eating properly combining macronutrients.
Why is it important to control blood sugar spikes?
When our blood sugar levels get too high or they happen too frequently throughout the day we may feel fatigued, experience sweet cravings, insulin resistance, an increase in appetite and a hard time with weight loss.
Consuming carbohydrates is beneficial as it can provide the body with energy, however our bodies only need a small amount of glucose. When we consume too much glucose, our bodies store this versus using it for energy. We don’t need to cut carbohydrates out of our diets. We just need to ensure we are eating whole foods and combining our carbohydrates with protein and fat.
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Aging is genetic … or is it? A Theory of Aging explored
Be Vibrant
or a very long time our ideas about aging have been tinged with a sense of inevitability … the belief that our genes determine how we will look and feel as we age. And what is worse … that there is nothing that we can do about it.
Just like planned obsolescence in computers, the genetic control theory tells us that our bodies are designed to break down as we head towards death. It basically claims that our DNA has a self-destruct button built into its core.
It is a grim scenario, yet one which most people have accepted for many years … with little complaint, and more importantly, little action.
So how much of the idea that aging is defined by our genetics is true?
The short answer is: not as much as we previously thought. Science tells us that only about 20-30% of our aging is genetically programmed. This leaves a whopping 70-80% up to other factors … most of which we can control.
Aging hand that snips the genetic code
While arguments exist about why and how the aging process occurs, scientists do agree that it is a combination of genetic and environmental factors and our own behavior that sets off and accelerates the aging process.
In general, it is assumed in the Genetic Aging Theory that the way we age and how long we live is genetically determined.
The idea is that we are born with a certain DNA that we have inherited from our mother and father and that this DNA defines how well and how long we live and when we die.
So basically, whatever way our parents (and grandparents) aged and how long they live, will be more or less the same for us.
Yet if genetics, your DNA, is so powerful in determining when we die, how can we explain the different lifespans of identical twins?
By looking at twins – who share the same DNA – we suddenly see how powerful we can be in controlling both how long and how well we live.
In very famous research, studies of identical twins show that environmental factors are exceedingly important.
If you would subscribe purely to the Genetic Control Theory, identical twins should … of course … look quite similar throughout their life and die at roughly the same time no matter what their lifestyle. Right? They do have the same DNA after all.
If we do really have a time bomb lurking in our genes, it should go off at the same time for twins whose genetic makeup is exactly the same.
Yet, it doesn’t.
The twin who eats, exercises and doesn’t smoke will not only look younger but also normally outlive the one who doesn’t … often by a wide margin.
This is irrefutable proof that how we treat our bodies greatly affects our lifespan.
Twins show that we are not defined by our genes only
Just having a certain DNA does not mean though that it is actually activated or, as researchers say, the genes are not expressed. It is to a large extent in your hand if and how your genes are expressed.
What about maximum lifespan?
Genetics do kick in though when we talk about the maximum lifespan, the longevity of a human … so how old you can potentially get.
At this moment it is assumed to be roughly 120/125 when we look at the human race. This will differ a bit from person to person depending on your personal DNA.
A few more recent theories say that we might be able to live up to 150.
Aging researcher Aubrey de Grey even claims that the first person to live up to 1 000 years is already born.
That might not be happening in the way we understand natural aging at this moment but scientists are working on ways to extend lifespan. And they have already succeeded in animal testing on roundworms, fruit flies and mice.
Can we control how we age?
There is one agreement though where scientists have by now found a common ground:
How we age throughout our life is greatly down to what we put in our bodies, how we control our stress, and how physically fit we are.
Therefore, it is clearly time to move past the old way of thinking that we are a victim of our genes and that these genes ‚decide‘ how we age and when we die.
While your DNA might set a maximum lifespan, what happens within that lifespan is a great deal more down to YOU and the way you live your life than was previously thought.
In another post, we look at the Free Radical Theory of Aging – and I will tell you how you can possibly combat one of the greatest aging and disease triggers through diet.
Ines O'Donovan, PhD
Join me on
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Cloud Computing
The Basics of Cloud Computing
How Does Cloud Computing Work?
Cloud Computing provides a simple way to access servers, storage, databases and a broad set of application services over the Internet. Cloud Computing providers such as, Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, own and maintain the network-connected hardware required for these application services, while you provision and use what you need via a web application.
Six Advantages and Benefits of Cloud Computing
Trade capital expense for variable expense
Instead of having to invest heavily in data centers and servers before you know how you’re going to use them, you can use cloud computing and only pay when you consume computing resources, and only pay for how much you consume.
Benefit from massive economies of scale
By using cloud computing, you can achieve a lower variable cost than you can get on your own. Because usage from hundreds of thousands of customers are aggregated in the cloud, cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web Services can achieve higher economies of scale which translates into lower pay as you go prices.
Stop guessing capacity
Increase speed and agility
Stop spending money on running and maintaining data centers
Go global in minutes
With Cloud Computing, you can easily deploy your application in multiple regions around the world with just a few clicks. This means you can provide a lower latency and better experience for your customers simply and at minimal cost. At JLS Tech we can assist you with Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services or Rackspace for your cloud computing needs! |
Emperor Kōmei facts for kids
Kids Encyclopedia Facts
The Komei Emperor (born Osahito,July 1831) was the head of state of Japan from 1846 until his sudden death in 1867. He was succeeded by his son Emperor Meiji who regained the power that had long been held by the Tokugawa shogunate,which began to crumble during the Komei reign.
Images for kids
Emperor Kōmei Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia. |
Latria is defined as that worship which is due only to God, unlike other forms of veneration (such as to the Virgin Mary or Saints) which is called Dulia and Hyperdulia. All three, I think, are forms of Adoratio.
Regarding Latria, it comes from the Greek Latreia (λατρεία), which means service and worship. In the Greek authors it could mean any service for hire (see Thayer's Greek Lexicon and LS), but came to mean the exclusive service/worship of God, being used to reference this in the Bible as mentioned by St. Augustine in De Civitas Dei (Book X, Ch. 1), where he also mentions Proskynesis - seemingly the first attempt in canon to differentiate between worship and veneration.
St. Jerome addressed this issue by saying "We do not adore, I will not say the relics of the martyrs, but either the sun or the moon or even the angels - that is to say with the worship of latria - but we honor the martyrs' relics, so that thereby we give honor to Him Whose martyrs they are." And St. Thomas Aquinas hammers out the issue most thoroughly in Summa Theologae, writing "Wherefore dulia, which pays due service to a human lord, is a distinct virtue from latria, which pays due service to the Lordship of God. It is, moreover, a species of observance, because by observance we honor all those who excel in dignity, while dulia properly speaking is the reverence of servants for their master, dulia being the Greek for servitude".
Adoration in Classical Rome "was primarily an act of homage or worship, which, among the Romans, was performed by raising the hand to the mouth, kissing it and then waving it in the direction of the adored object." First done to gods, it was later done to emperors "by bowing or kneeling, laying hold of the imperial robe, and presently withdrawing the hand and pressing it to the lips, or by putting the royal robe itself to the lips." This is detailed nicely in A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, but LS doesn't have much to say about Adoratio, but the Catholic Encyclopedia does.
Which word should I use when saying "Worship is only for God"? Adoratio or Latria?
My problem with Adoratio is that it seems to me to contain the meanings of Dulia and Hyperdulia within it, as well as Latria, so to say 'Adoratio' is only for God would be technically incorrect (as far as Catholic Doctrine is concerned at least), since Dulia and Hyperdulia are for Saints and Mary.
And my problem with Latria is just that the statement "Latria is only for God" seems redundant since that fact is contained within the meaning of the word Latria itself. It is true, but it is more like a dictionary definition of the word then a moral/theological statement.
As for other options, it is St. Augustine himself in the above linked chapter where he complains about cultus (see LS), stating that "This cannot so well be called simply cultus, for in that case it would not seem to be due exclusively to God; for the same word is applied to the respect we pay either to the memory or the living presence of men."
Cicero defines Religio as "Cultus Deorum" ("the cultivation of the gods", De Natura Deorum 2.8 and 1.117). But Augustine is not satisfied with Religio either, writing "yet, as not only the uneducated, but also the best instructed, use the word religion to express human ties, and relationships, and affinities, it would inevitably introduce ambiguity to use this word in discussing the worship of God, unable as we are to say that religion is nothing else than the worship of God, without contradicting the common usage which applies this word to the observance of social relationships."
Update: I have found the motto Deum Solum Adorabis used on coins by Hesse (with a photograph and more details here). So in the Holy Roman Empire at least one might use Adorabis, the second-person singular future active indicative of adōrō.
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Civil Liberties in American Colonies ACLU 1939 Part 1
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04 septiembre, 2019 Por American Civil Liberties Union
This pamphlet is published to bring before the the American public the the issues of democratic rights in our island territories for the the purpose of arousing support for remedial legislation in Congress.
31 Union Square West, New York City
February, 1939
10 cents
Since 1898 the following territories have come under the Stars and Stripes:
In the Pacific
Date Anexed
How Obtained
Sq. Miles
Philippine Islands
Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
American Samoa
Wake and Midway
In the Caribbean
Puerto Rico
Spanish-American War
Virgin Islands
Total Area And Population
Population given for Philippines is estimate as of 1936; for Hawaii, estimate as of 1937; Guam, a Navy Department count in 1937; Samoa, 1938; Wake and Midway, 1936. Puerto Rico, census of 1935; Virgin Islands, census of 1930.
This pamphlet is limited to the portions of the American overseas “empire” where American officials control native populations of different racial or cultural heritage.
The Canal Zone and Alaska are not covered because the dominant populations of these areas are American and the problems of civil liberty are much the same as in the United States proper.
The American Civil Liberties Union first published in 1933 a pamphlet “Civil Liberties in American Colonies” of which this is a revision brought up to 1938. In those five years conditions have changed for the better in our relation to the Philippines and the Virgin Islands; for the worse in relation to Puerto Rico; and remain in the same deplorable state in relation to Guam and Samoa. Hawaii’s status has been too firmly fixed as part of the United States to be affected by a colonial policy, or lack of it.
This pamphlet sets forth the essential facts in recent years and suggests the remedies obviously needed. The aid of interested readers of this pamphlet is solicited.
The Union acknowledges with appreciation the services of Alfred H. Sinks of New York as compiler and editor of this material.
Civil Liberties in American Colonies
At the conclusion of the Spanish-American war in 1898 the United States found itself suddenly, for the first time in its history, the ruler of overseas colonial possessions entailing responsibilities for which it was utterly unprepared. No constitutional or legal provision existed either for extending our form of government to possessions or for establishing a colonial policy.
The fact that these possessions were inhabited by non-English speaking peoples of diverse background was an obstacle to incorporating them as states or territories of the Union. The record made by forty years of administration is not a commendable one. The promise to prepare these peoples for independent, democratic self-government has remained largely unfulfilled.
Conflict between the American rulers and the black, brown or white native peoples arises from an attitude of superiority. No better evidence of it can be cited than the imposition of the English language on children in the schools, the employment of American teachers particularly in the higher grades, and the adoption of the traditional American school education, regardless of students’ practical needs.
Exploitation of natural resources and of commerce by American interests has intensified political control and made difficult for native workers and peasants the organization of their own forces. The benefits of American rule are largely confined to measures of sanitation, health and road-building.
The forms of government adopted for the colonies have varied, partly because of the differing needs of different peoples, largely for reasons of political expediency. Hawaii, where a group of Americans had control of the country before annexation, became an incorporated Territory, and its inhabitants became citizens of the United States. The Philippines were regarded as a temporary possession, to be fitted for self-government, and citizenship was not extended to their people. Puerto Rico has the anomalous status of a Territory “organized but not incorporated” as a part of the United States. Its inhabitants are United States citizens.
All the colonies are governed by officials appointed from Washington, with the exception of the Philippines where a High Commissioner represents the United States during the period of a Commonwealth Government until 1945, when independence is presumably to go into effect. In all the colonies including -the Philippines the judicial system is under the ultimate control of the United States Supreme Court. Only the two colonies with territorial status, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, have delegates in the United States Congress, with a voice in matters affecting the territories but no vote.
Since the settlement of the status of the Philippines by the Independence Act of 1934, Puerto Rico presents the most acute problem in its relation to the United States. Either independence, statehood, or greater self-government are demanded by all the political parties. The extreme nationalist movement, bitterly opposed to American rule, is the object of constant repression.
Of the smaller colonies, the Virgin Islands have benefited greatly by the passage by Congress in 1936 of an act establishing a civil government, extending the franchise, and guaranteeing civil liberties. The natives became American citizens in 1929. Samoa and Guam, however, remain under dictatorial rule by the Navy Department without even a status defined by Congress. The inhabitants are not American citizens.
Certain countries not covered in this pamphlet can, broadly speaking, be considered part of America’s colonial empire. United States intervention in the internal politics of Cuba, especially support of the dictatorship of Machado up to August, 1933, has resulted in a chaotic state of affairs in which democratic rights have become insecure. United States marines were not withdrawn from Haiti and the Dominican Republic until 1934. The present dictators of those countries took office and consolidated their power under the protection of American intervention. Furthermore the United States still exerts a large measure of control through collection of the customs of those countries, through powerful American “advisors,” and through the influence of American citizens with large economic interests.
Maintenance of civil liberties in the colonies is essential to political or economic reforms of any sort. Only by organization and agitation can natives express their desires and needs. Achievement of this depends not only on freedom of speech, press and assemblage, but also on the forms of American control, which limit political participation.
The conflicts over the efforts to suppress native protests and aspirations are numerous and complicated. The Civil Liberties Union has acted as best it could at long distance by aiding native organizations to secure their political and civil rights and by bringing pressure to bear on Congress, and is continuing to do so.
The steps which should now be taken to extend civil rights in the colonies are:
1. To permit Puerto Ricans to vote on genuine independence or on statehood.
2. To change the present administration in Puerto Rico by appointing officials who will permit the free exercise of civil rights, and extend self-government.
3. To adopt forms of civil government for Samoa and Guam to replace naval rule, with citizenship for the natives.
4. To substitute as rapidly as practicable school instruction in native languages for instruction in English-in Puerto Rico, Guam and Samoa.
5. To combat any pressure in the United States to weaken the terms of independence for the Philippines, or to extend its realization beyond 1946. To secure for the Philippine Commonwealth American advisers of progressive mind.
6. To extend native participation and responsibility in the government of the Virgin Islands.
7. To permit Hawaii to vote on changing its territorial status to statehood.
Puerto Rico
The mountainous island of Puerto Rico, roughly rectangular in shape, is about 35 miles wide (from north to south) and 95 miles long, with an area about two-thirds that of Connecticut. It holds a population of about 1,800,000, with a density of 529 persons to the square mile, one of the most crowded areas in the world. Although its economy is almost entirely agricultural, the tillable land per person is only seven-tenths of an acre. Extreme poverty is the result, aggravated by exploitation by American sugar interests. The people are three-fourths of Spanish descent; about one-fourth are mulatto or Negroes. The dominant religion is Roman Catholic.
The form of government is determined by the so-called Jones Act of 1917, as amended in 1927. The act granted universal manhood suffrage and American citizenship to all who signified their desire to become citizens. Suffrage was extended to women by the legislature in 1929.
The legislature consists of a Senate of 19 members and a House of Representatives of 39 members, both elected by direct popular vote. The Governor, the Attorney-General, the Auditor, and the Commissioner of Education are appointed by the President of the United States with the approval of the United States Senate. The heads of the four other executive departments-Interior, Agriculture and Commerce, Labor, and Health-are appointed by the Governor. The five justices of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President of the United States. Appeals from the Supreme Court go to the United States courts.
Thus, while the legislature is in native hands, the executive and judicial branches are controlled from Washington. In spite of a liberal organic act and Bill of Rights, the degree of self- government and civil liberties enjoyed by Puerto Ricans depends on the inclination of the particular administration in office.
In the field of education, the United States has what is generally considered a highly commendable record. Since the island was acquired from Spain in 1898 some 2,200 schools have been established.
The Ponce Massacre Puerto Rican police firing on parading Nationalists at Ponce, March 21, 1937. Exhibit No. 2 in the Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Civil Rights in Puerto Rico.
From 80 per cent, illiteracy had been reduced to 35 per cent by 1936. Free, compulsory public education is the law, but the system is able to take care only of about 45 percent of the children of school age. A university of excellent academic standing enlists about 5,000 students.
This excellent record is considerably compromised by com- pelling students to carry on their studies in English, a foreign language. For three centuries the language of the country has been Spanish. The use of English is justly regarded by Puerto Ricans as an arrogant attempt to uproot their own cultural traditions. Over-zealous Anglicizers have even attempted to teach the Spanish classics in the English language! The compulsory use of English is among the American policies which serves to intensify anti-American feeling and to heighten the desire of Puerto Ricans for political independence.
The Independence Movement
The repeated suppressions of civil rights that have in recent years marked the administration of Puerto Rico have all been aimed at the movement for political independence, which has been strong both under Spanish and American rule.
Revolutionary struggle against Spain began as far back as 1811, the year in which Venezuela declared her independence. Armed revolutionary uprisings took place repeatedly. The best remembered is that of 1868, known as the G&o de Lares, when the revolutionaries declared the “Republic of Puerto Rico.” It is ironical that the revolutionary flag of Puerto Rican independence is of a design obviously inspired by the flag of the United States.
In 1898, in the war with Spain, the independence forces helped to bring about the victory of the United States, although Spain had decreed autonomy for Puerto Rico in 1897. One group in Puerto Rico regarded an American victory as promising early independence, while others felt that freedom had already been assured by Spain.
The movement for independence continued under American rule. For years it was a cardinal principle of the Unionist Party, under the leadership of Luis Muñoz y Rivera. In 1922 a second and more extreme party sprang up, devoted to the winning of independence, known as the Nationalist Party. The movement for greater independence has characterized all Puerto Rican parties. Those which did not demand complete independence urged statehood. At present complete independence is the aim of the Liberal and the Nationalist Parties; while statehood is the aim of the Republican Party. The Socialist Party, which with the Republican, controls the island legislature, is not committed on future political status.
The struggle for independence is rooted in economic distress, due to a near-monopoly of the land and industry by American interests. It seems hopeless to most Puerto Ricans to break that monopoly while absentee owners are protected by a colonial government. The result has been in recent years a resurgence of the independence movement on a much more militant footing. The Nationalist Party, reconstituted during the depression, sees in- dependence as a right and a necessity, and advocates revolutionary means for attaining it. Though small in number and extreme in tactics, it expresses a wide sentiment, formulated by the other parties in more cautious and conciliatory form.
Civil Liberties
Flagrant violations of civil rights were few until recent years. In 1931, the Unionist Party was barred from the ballot by the Puerto Rican Supreme Court, and strong reasons support the charge that it was due to the party’s campaign for independence. In the same year the late Senator Antonio Barcelo, leader of the Unionists, was refused use of the radio in New York City to broadcast a pro-independence speech, and in San Juan the Radio Corporation refused to carry the speeches of Unionists and Nationalists. At the University of Puerto Rico students were expelled for signing a manifesto calling for Puerto Rican independence.
These incidents of 193 1 have since paled into insignificance compared with the suppression under the quasi-military regime of the present governor, Major General Blanton Winship, U.S.A., retired (he is in his 70th year), who took office in February, 1934. Appointed as a non-political administrator, he has aroused almost universal political opposition.
Under his administration freedom of speech and assembly have repeatedly been denied, teachers have been summarily discharged or disciplined for their views, violence by the militarized police has resulted in deaths and in injuries running into the hundreds. Courts of law have been used as instruments to support American colonial rule. Suppression has aroused violence by extremist youths among the Nationalists, who have attempted acts of assassination and in two instances killed an American official.
The first serious incident occurred late in 1935 when four Nationalists and a bystander were killed and a policeman seriously wounded in a fracas arising when Nationalists in an automobile approached a student meeting at the University of Puerto Rico with the alleged purpose of disrupting it. The meeting had been called to protest alleged slanders on the students in a radio ad- dress by Dr. Albizu Campos, leader of the Nationalists. At the funeral of the four young men Dr. Albizu Campos called for vengeance on the deaths, declaring, according to reliable reports, that the life of “one continental oppressor” should be forfeited for each man killed.
In February, 1936, Chief of Police Francis E. Riggs was shot and killed by Elias Beauchamp, a young Nationalist. The police arrested Beauchamp and a companion, Hiram Rosado, on the spot, and killed them a few hours later in the police station for “attempting to seize arms.” Had the two young men been allowed to come to trial, doubtless public sentiment in Puerto Rico would have been solidly With the administration, for Col. Riggs was popular. But the police killing aroused public indignation. A public funeral was given the two Nationalists and was attended by thousands of people. Beauchamp and Rosado came to be regarded as martyrs.
As American citizens, the Puerto Ricans had been in the habit of celebrating the Fourth of July as a patriotic holiday. In 1936, however, thousands participated in demonstrations against celebration of the holiday. In the midst of the agitation following the death of Col. Riggs and his assassins, the administration caused a bill for a vote on independence to be introduced in Congress, apparently in an effort to bring the movement to a head. It was couched in such terms, however, as to be bitterly opposed in
Puerto Rico on the ground that it would fasten American economic control on the island tighter than ever. The proposal was dropped and never came to a vote.
Prosecution of the Nationalists
The government then proceeded to try the leaders of the Nationalist Party, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, its chairman, and seven others, for a seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States. It was clearly shown by the indictment that the intention was to try Albizu and the others as accomplices in the assassination of Col. Riggs. By making the charge sedition, however, the authorities were able to bring the case in the federal court, where they controlled the machinery more completely than in the insular court.
The American Civil Liberties Union at once opposed the prosecution on the grounds that the charge of sedition against the United States was a paradox, when Puerto Rico had been virtually offered a vote on independence, and that the men were being tried for their political beliefs. The Union insisted that if the defendants were to be connected with the assassination, they should be tried in the insular courts. But the government was determined on a conviction to curb the Nationalists.
The first jury arrived at no verdict and the case was retried. The second jury included ten Americans and only two Puerto Ricans. On the basis of utterances and printed matter the jury brought in a verdict of guilty, and the defendants were sentenced to from six to ten years in the federal penitentiary at Atlanta where they are now serving.
The case was carried by the Nationalist Party to the Circuit Court of Appeals at Boston, where the American Civil Liberties Union joined the defense, filing a brief amicus curiae. The Court of Appeals sustained the convictions on February 12, 1937. An effort was then made to get the United States Supreme Court to review, the American Civil Liberties Union aiding. The Court refused the appeal. The prisoners decline to apply for pardons on the ground that they cannot as opponents of American rule ask a favor of their oppressors. A petition for pardon on their behalf will be submitted to the President by the American Civil Liberties Union and others.
After the conviction of the Nationalist leaders suppression of civil rights became more severe. Nationalists and their sympathizers were denied permits to hold meetings and parades. In one instance troops surrounded a church and denied entrance to thousands of Puerto Ricans who had come to attend mass in celebration of a patriotic holiday. Where permits for meetings were granted, speakers were told in advance what they might and might not say.
The Ponce Massacre
The most spectacular and tragic of the clashes between the independence movement and the authorities took place in the city of Ponce on Palm Sunday (March 21)) 1937. Some members of the Nationalist Party had applied to the Mayor for a permit to hold a parade and demonstration. The permit was granted, but on the day set the Mayor under pressure by the Governor revoked it. The chief of insular police himself went to Ponce for the purpose of influencing the mayor. The pretext used was that the parade was to be in reality a movement of military forces. The basis for this fantasy was the fact that the uniformed Nationalist organization grandiloquently entitled the “Army of Liberation,” was to participate in the parade.
When notice that the permit had been withdrawn was given, the paraders had already gathered, many of them being from out of town. The uniformed cadets, together with a contingent of girls dressed as Red Cross nurses formed a line in the street outside the Nationalist headquarters, to the number of about 80 or 90. A crowd had gathered to watch the start of the parade. Facing the line of young Nationalists were between 150 and 200 heavily armed police. At about three o’clock the leader ordered the parade to move. As the first steps were taken, a shot rang out. It has not been established whether the first shot was fired by a policeman or came from among the spectators. It is definitely established that it did not come from the parading Nationalists. It was immediately followed by a withering fire from the police. The police had blocked off the street in both directions so that escape was impossible. By the time the firing stopped, 20 people had been killed or fatally wounded, including two policemen. and between 150 and 200 not fatally wounded.
At once conflicting reports of the event began to fly about the island. The police version charged the Nationalists with armed resistance. The Nationalists, denying they had any arms, accused the police of a wanton massacre to enforce their order against parading. Impartial Puerto Ricans decided to set up a commission to investigate the tragedy and invited the Civil Liberties Union to name its chairman. The Puerto Ricans named were:
Emilio S. Belaval, president of the Atheneum of San Juan. Mariano Acosta Velarde, president of the San Juan Bar Association. Fulgencio Pinero, president of the Teachers Association. Manuel Diaz Garcia, past president of the Medical Association. Francisco M. Zeno, editor of “La Correspondencia,” San Juan. Antonio Ayuso Valdivieso, editor of “El Impartial,” San Juan. José Dávila Ricci, of the editorial staff of “El Mundo.”
The American Civil Liberties Union sent its general counsel, Arthur Garfield Hays, to act as chairman. After a series of hearings with scores of witnesses, the Commission unanimously reported its findings at a public meeting in San Juan attended by 10,000 people. It found that the “Ponce Massacre was due to the denial by the police of the civil rights of citizens to parade and assemble,” and that “this denial was ordered by the Governor of Puerto Rico.” The policemen killed, the Commission found, were shot by police cross-fire.
The report aroused popular hostility to the administration, which sought to counter it by discrediting the commission, attacking the American Civil Liberties Union as “red” and insisting on its version of armed resistance to the police. The report was promptly published in pamphlet form and widely distributed.
Reprisals were visited on witnesses before the Commission and on independence sympathizers. Señora Inez Mendoza de Palacios, a high school teacher with a long and honorable record was dis- charged for testimony given before the Hays commission against the educational effects of the compulsory use of English in the schools. Two high school teachers, Irving Geldman and Samuel D. Freeman, were dropped after it was found they entertained too liberal views. Frederick Sackett, Jaime Ben&, George War- reck, and Lewis C. Richardson of the University of Puerto Rico were denied ppointments for the summer term, 1937, for their pro-independence views. Richardson was let out altogether.
Eleven Nationalist leaders were indicted for the killing of the policemen. Their case came to trial in September 1937 and dragged along until mid-December, ending in a mistrial. Tried again, all the Nationalists were acquitted. Two policemen indicted also for murder of the paraders were later tried and acquitted.
Following the Ponce incident, Nationalists have engaged in attempted assassination of American officials-once shooting at Judge Robert A. Cooper, the judge who presided at the Albizu Campos trial, and once at Governor Winship. One of the governor's aides was killed. The assailants were arrested, tried and convicted.
The aftermath of the Ponce trials and the Nationalist acts of revenge has been persistent repression, not only of meetings and political activity but of sympathizers with the independence movement. Through control by the government of almost all the jobs open to educated Puerto Ricans, reprisals against teachers and public employees have been easy. A Labor Department employe was forced to resign for working on a committee for the defense of Albizu Campos. The organizers of the Puerto Rican Association for Civil Liberties, formed after the inquiry into the Ponce massacre, have been attacked and harassed into impotence.
The commission which investigated the Ponce affair, called “The Commission of Inquiry on Civil Rights in Puerto Rico,” expressed the following conclusions: T
“Civil liberties have been repeatedly denied during the last nine months by order of Governor Blanton Winship. He has failed to recognize the right of free speech and assemblage. Force has been threatened toward those who would exercise these rights. “The Regulation of the University of Puerto Rico, pas.& September 26, 1936, is designed to curb academic freedom and should be cancelled.
“The people demand and have a right to free speech, free assemblage and to petition by parade for a redress of grievances.
The Commission is hopeful that governor winship will make public a proclamation of his willingness to abide by constitutional guarantees.
“The commission does not want this report to be interpreted to mean that civil liberties are dead in Puerto Rico. The mere fact that this commission has held public meetings both in Ponce and San Juan, is an indication to the contrary. There has been a free press; there have not been prosecutions for criminal libel. The claim of discrimination in work because of men’s views is not sustained by evidence, although suspicion is still there. We feel the evidence indicates that, in many instances, the people are unduly suspicious. One usually finds what he looks for, and perhaps less cynicism would be helpful. Civil rights are never dead until they die in the hearts of the people. Governments do not make liberty; the people do.”
American prestige in Puerto Rico is now at its lowest. The policies of the present administration have given weight to all the accusations of “Yankee imperialism” that have been made against the United States. Thus instead of crushing the independence movement these policies have fanned the flames of hatred and suspicion and intensified the desire to be free of American domination. All over Latin America, Puerto Rico is held up as an example of colonial misrule so obvious as to challenge the good faith of the “good neighbor” policy, while in Puerto Rico itself, disillusionment with American professions of liberty and democracy has grown apace.
The American Civil Liberties Union has organized a Committee for Fair Play to Puerto Rico with Oswald Garrison Villard as Chairman, Prof. William L. Nunn as Vice-chairman, and Earl P. Hanson as Secretary.
The Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands lie about fifty miles east of Puerto Rico. They comprise the islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John, together with about fifty smaller islands, most of which are uninhabited. Ninety-five per cent of the population of 22,000 are Negroes, described in a Congressional report as the “most intelligent Negro population in the world.” Since the census of 1930 some 5,000 Puerto Ricans have come to the islands. Both natives and Puerto Ricans are engaged chiefly in the sugar industry, and in shipping at the port of St. Thomas. Economic conditions have been constantly so-bad that President Hoover referred to the islands as “our poor house.”
English is spoken by all but two per cent of the people. Free public education is in effect, with instruction through high school, and with scholarships at the University of Puerto Rico and American universities. The percentage of illiteracy is trifling.
After purchasing the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917 for 25 million dollars as a military measure, Congress ignored them. The old Danish law continued under naval governors. In 1927 American citizenship was extended to the Islanders. In 1931 a civilian governor was installed.
After persistent agitation Congress finally adopted in 1936 an “organic act” giving Virgin Islanders a new form of government, abolishing property restrictions on suffrage and guaranteeing civil liberties. The organic act contains an ample bill of rights, according to citizens in the Virgin Islands virtually the same civil liberties as in the United States. Written in large measure by the present governor, Lawrence W. Cramer, formerly of the faculty of Columbia University, the act extends the vote to all citizens over 21 years of age able to read and write. Two Municipal Councils function on the islands of St. Thomas and St. Croix.
While local self-government is greatly extended, control remains solidly in the hands of the Federal government. The President appoints the Governor and the Government Secretary. The Secretary of the Interior appoints the Attorney-General, the Administrator for St. Croix “and such other executive and administrative officers as may, in his discretion, be required.” All salaried officers and employees of the municipal governments are appointed by the Governor. Acts of the councils (or of the legislative assembly, comprising both councils in joint session) are subject to veto by the governor, and on appeal from him, by the President, or by Congress.
In the judicial department, the President appoints a judge and district attorney for the District Court of the Virgin Islands, while other court officials are appointed by the Attorney-General. Appeals from the courts of the island are to the federal courts in the United States.
Civil Liberties
The present situation in the Virgin Islands is in pleasing contrast to the status of colonial civil liberty elsewhere. The present judge of the District Court is William H. Hastie of Washington, D. C., a brilliant Negro jurist and a former editor of the Harvard Law Review. The District Attorney is James Bough, a native Virgin Islander and a graduate of Columbia Law School. Governor Cramer is a liberal, keenly alive to the issues of civil liberties. The conflict between American officials and the natives, acute for years under naval rule and even later, has largely disappeared under the new form of government and a liberal administration.
But the organic act gives no guarantee that the present favorable state of affairs will continue. The act leaves so much authority to Washington, so little to the Islands that a less liberal administration might easily suppress civil liberties and negate the work of the native governing bodies. Even under the present liberal administration a larger share of the government jobs might well be held by natives as a training in what should be constantly increasing self-government.
Commonwealth of The Philippines
The vast archipelago that comprises the Philippine Islands includes over 7,000 separate islands and stretches over a thousand miles from north to south. Its area is two and a half times as large as Pennsylvania, and its population of more than 13 million is greater than the State of New York. The population is nine-tenths of the Malay race. There is a considerable admixture of Chinese. Many Filipinos, especially those living in cities, have a mixed Spanish-Malay ancestry. Several thousand Americans engage in commerce, trading, and the professions. Few are left in governmental service. Most of the retail business is carried on by Chinese, with an increasing percentage of the goods coming from Japan.
Eight distinct languages and 87 dialects are spoken. The dominant language is Tagalog. Literacy is about 60 per cent, while approximately one-third of the population reads or understands English, the only common language since the decline of Spanish. About two-thirds of the population are claimed by the Roman Catholic Church. An Independent Catholic Church claims a following of 4,000,000. Missionary work is carried on by several Protestant denominations. Several hundred thousand Moros are Mohammedans, and an even larger number of Indonesian mountain people, the original natives, are pagans.
The present government of the Philippine Islands is based on a Constitution adopted by plebiscite in 1935, in accordance with the terms of the Independence Act (Tydings-McDuffie) signed by President Roosevelt on March 24, 1934. It provides for a transitional commonwealth status to apply until 1945, when the Philippines are to become independent of the United States. Under the Commonwealth the government of the United States still exercises a large measure of control over Philippine affairs.
Legislation definitely fixing the date of independence is apparently the fulfilment of the implied promise, generally accepted when the Philippines were acquired from Spain in 1898, that the islands would be granted their independence after a period of tutelage. This promise was restated in the Organic Act of 1916. The avowed policy of the United States has always been to prc pare the Filipinos for successful self-government.
However, since the passage of the Independence Act, fresh debates have arisen over the date and terms of Philippine independence. The proximity of Japan to the islands has always been one determining factor in our policy, and the campaign of Japan to further extend its power has raised some doubts as to the probable fate of an independent Philippine state. Economic difficulties and internal problems have arisen under the Commonwealth further to complicate the issue. At the same time there has been strong pressure to advance the date of independence. Thus there is still a strong likelihood that the terms of the Independence Act may be changed.
The act provides for continued rrec trade relations between the Philippines and the United States, but imposes quotas on imports from the islands, making all imports above the stipulated limits subject to the regular duty. It gives the Philippines, how- ever, the right to impose export taxes on goods shipped to the United States. It imposes a limit of 50 persons a year on Filipinos desiring to emigrate to the United States.
The Constitution adopted in fulfilment of the Act is on its face .a progressive document. But it has not proven so in important phases of its application. It places the executive, legislative, and judicial powers in native hands, but with important restrictions. .Though the supreme court is appointed by the President of the Philippines, cases involving constitutional questions may be carried to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Civil Liberties
Since 1902 the Filipinos have enjoyed on paper virtually the same civil rights as American citizens. These were assured by a section of the organic act of 1902 which was reenacted as a part of the Jones Act of 1916. They are again reaffirmed by the present Constitution. In general, up to the present decade freedom of speech, assembly and the press have been reasonably well maintained. The only important exceptions occurred in 1907, when an old Spanish sedition law was reenacted for the purpose of suppressing the independence movement, and in the period 1921-1926 ーboth times under the administration of Leonard Wood.
In the present decade, however, both under the commonwealth and prior administrations, there have been repeated suppressions of civil rights to a degree not exceeded anywhere in our colonies. The dominant Nacionalista Party, under the leadership of President Manuel Quezon, has used quasi-fascist methods to suppress opposition, so that political control is tightly held by this one group. Even the right of democratic election was abrogated in 1937 when it was deemed an election might prove embarrassing, to the party in power!
Issues of civil liberties have become numerous enough under the commonwealth government to arouse the formation of a Civil Liberties Union of the Philippines, wholly under Philippine auspices. In a platform which covers economic objectives as well,. these purposes in relation to civil liberties are set forth as:
“To favor the adoption of a native national language with Tagalog as a basis.
“To defend political democracy. Any move by a political officer or body that might tend towards (a) the concentration of political power; (b) the strengthening of military power for any purpose other than to prepare against foreign invasion; and (c) the emasculation of the people’s instrumentalities in opposing die-- tatorship, will be scrutinized and resisted, for this might be but veiled attempts to crush democracy and establish a form of dictatorship.
“To defend the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, especially the freedom of association, the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of religion and the- right of assembly and petition. Any move that will destroy the substance of these rights, leaving but the empty form, will be- fought to the limit. The right of every citizen to criticize any act- which may affect him or any other man, provided the criticism does not call for or insinuate the use of violent methods in order to attain the objective of the criticism, is here considered as of the, essence of Civil Liberty.”
Military Conscription
General Douglas MacArthur, retiring Chief of Staff of the U. S. Army, was detailed by President Roosevelt to act as military adviser to the Philippine government. In June, 1936, General Macarthur made public an ambitious defense plan for the Philippines. The plan called for a naval fleet of 50 to 100 vessels, an air force of 250 planes, and a potential armed force of 1,200,000 men, mostly trained reservists. Along the lines laid down in the plan, the Philippine government passed the National Defense Act.
On the assumption that the Philippines are really to become independent and might have to repel a foreign invader, the conscription act would give them a sizeable army for defense. But the issue of Philippine independence is not by any means settled. It is claimed, in fact, that the conscription act itself will make independence impossible, since the Philippines will not be able to finance such a large military establishment without aid from the United States. If the Philippines should remain under American control after 1945, our government will have what is substantially an army of “sepoys” or colonial troops.
Furthermore; instead of insuring genuine Philippine independence, in the hands of an administration like the present, there is reason to fear that such an army would become an instrument for the further suppression of the Filipino people. The present regime needs. only such an army to become a virtual military oligarchy.
The lack of democracy and the denial of constitutional civil rights that characterize the Commonwealth government, aided and abetted by its American “advisers,” is ominous. Such a regime contradicts the avowed aim of the United States government to prepare the Filipinos for democratic self-government. But the practices under the commonwealth—still under the influence and to a great extent under control of the United States-are setting a pattern for independent government after 1945. Assuming that the terms of the Independence Act are to be carried out, the Filipinos are being prepared not for democratic self-rule, but for a military and possibly fascist dictatorship.
End of Part 1
Part 2 wil be published soon.
Escrito por
American Civil Liberties Union
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History, Russia, Top Stories, World Affairs
Putin at the World Holocaust Forum
Earlier this month, some 10 days after the World Holocaust Forum held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem to commemorate the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz, the museum issued an unusual apology for a film presentation that contained “inaccuracies” and “created an unbalanced impression”—by, among other things, memory-holing the 1939 division of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and the Soviet occupation of the Baltics in 1940.
The apology letter, signed by Professor Dan Michman of Yad Vashem’s International Institute of Holocaust Research and published in Haaretz, referred to this assault on historical facts as a “regrettable mishap.” But the presentation was actually part of a much bigger problem: the degree to which the forum was turned into a showcase for Russian President Vladimir Putin, his revisionist history, and his friendship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The January 23rd forum—funded mostly by Russian Jewish billionaire, European Jewish Congress president, and Putin ally Moshe Kantor, and organized in partnership with the Israeli government—more or less channeled the Kremlin propaganda narrative of World War II, in which Soviet Russia was virtually the single-handed victor over the Nazis and rescuer of the Jews. There was no mention of Soviet collusion with Nazi Germany in 1939–1940 under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, or of Soviet war crimes such as the massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and elite professionals—including, by the way, about 900 Jews—at the Katyn Forest.
No one questions the importance of the Soviet Union’s role in the defeat of Nazi Germany after 1941. Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz and were the first witnesses to its horrors. But nor is there any serious dispute about the darker side of the USSR’s role in World War II. In his prime-slot forum speech, Putin not only asserted that it was the “Soviet people” who “liberated Europe from Nazism”; he also attempted to position Russia, in seamless succession to the Soviet Union, as having a special role in Holocaust remembrance. (Along the way, he made the blatantly false claim that about 40 percent of Jews murdered in the Holocaust were Soviet citizens, which quickly drew protests from historians: The actual figure is estimated at 15 to 25 percent.)
What Putin conveniently left out is the Soviet regime’s long record of covering up and minimizing the genocide of Jews in order to keep the focus on Nazi war crimes against the Soviet people—as well as Stalin’s persecution and murder of Jewish anti-Nazi activists in the postwar years. At first, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet leadership was anxious to mobilize prominent Jews—particularly cultural and intellectual figures—for propaganda purposes to win foreign support for its war effort and its alliance with Western democracies. In August 1941, two dozen Soviet Jewish writers, journalists, and artists, led by actor and theater director Solomon Mikhoels, issued an appeal to Jewish communities around the world to support the Soviet Union in its fight against Germany. (As the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe notes, “To allow Jews to appeal to their fellow Jews was an extraordinary step for the Kremlin.”) They formed the core of the Jewish Antifascist Committee (JAC), officially created in April 1942. In 1943, Mikhoels and fellow JAC member poet Itzik Feffer went on a seven-month tour of the United States, Mexico, Canada, and England; they met with Jewish leaders as well as renowned public figures such as Albert Einstein, Marc Chagall and Charlie Chaplin, headlined a rally of 50,000 in New York, and raised millions of dollars in aid.
But as the war drew to a close, with Soviet forces victorious and Western alliances secured, the Jewish “antifascists” had outlived their usefulness—and their work to collect evidence of the Nazis’ targeted extermination of Jews was met with barely disguised hostility. The Soviet leadership’s attitude toward this issue can be gleaned from the fact that the Soviet special report on the “monstrous crimes in Oświęcim” (Auschwitz), issued on May 8th, 1945, did not contain a single mention of Jews. It referred to Auschwitz as a “camp for the extermination of captive Soviet people” and described the victims as “citizens of the Soviet Union, Poland, France, Belgium, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Rumania and other countries.”
When the JAC completed the “Black Book” documenting German atrocities against Jews on Soviet territory, compiled by journalists Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman, the volume was reluctantly approved for publication in early 1946 after revisions to ensure that it followed the party line. But before a single copy could be printed, it was banned for “grave political errors,” and the typeset galleys were destroyed. (The book did appear in English in New York the same year; its first Russian-language edition was published in Israel in 1980.) Meanwhile, the Ministry of State Security, or MGB—the KGB’s predecessor—was sending reports to Communist Party leadership accusing JAC of “bourgeois nationalism” and contacts with foreign intelligence.
JAC was disbanded in November 1948; Mikhoels had been murdered by MGB agents several months earlier, his death officially blamed on a hit-and-run accident. There soon followed a massive anti-Semitic campaign against “rootless cosmopolitans.” This coincided with the Soviet leadership’s reversal of its initially friendly stance toward the new state of Israel, a turnabout due to several factors—from Israel’s pro-American position and failure to embrace Soviet-style socialism to suspicions of disloyalty among Soviet Jews, particularly after tens of thousands turned out to see Israeli envoy Golda Meir on her visit to Moscow’s Choral Synagogue. (Meir’s request to Stalin to permit Jewish emigration to Israel added more fuel to the fire: no one could seek to exit the workers’ paradise.)
In the general persecution of Jews, former members and staffers of the JAC were especially hard hit: over a hundred were arrested, and more than a dozen, including Feffer, were executed in 1952. Prominent Jewish doctors were accused of deliberately murdering patients; even the Jewish wife of Politburo member Vyacheslav Molotov, Polina Zhemchuzhina, was arrested as a “Zionist agent.” There were rumors of a planned mass deportation of Soviet Jews to the “Jewish Autonomous Republic” in Siberia (ostensibly to save them from the wrath of the people).
Stalin’s death in March 1953 brought a halt to the Soviet war on Jews, but Soviet virtual silence about the Holocaust continued. There was no commemoration, for example, of the massacre at Babi Yar, the site near Kyiv where some 33,000 Jews were slaughtered in two days in September 1941 (an event mentioned in Putin’s speech). In 1961, Yevgeny Yevtushenko briefly broke this silence with his poem “Babi Yar,” published in the weekly Literary Gazette; it explicitly identified the victims as Jews and described the murders as part of the long history of anti-Semitic violence. In response, the poet was viciously trashed in the Soviet press for fomenting ethnic division, and the editor who had accepted and printed the poem was fired “for insufficient vigilance.” At a meeting with writers and artists, then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev himself assailed the author for his ideological lapse. While Yevtushenko eventually found his way back into the regime’s good graces, “Babi Yar” was not included in any of the Soviet-era editions of his poetry except for one three-volume collection. (Incidentally, the poem’s opening line—“No monument stands over Babi Yar”—remained true until the fall of the Soviet Union. The first memorials on the site were built in an independent Ukraine.)
All that history was missing from Putin’s speech. So was the well-known role of Soviet propaganda in fomenting anti-Jewish vitriol—under the guise of “anti-Zionism”—from the late-1960s to the mid-1980s. Putin did, however, find the time to take swipes at ex-Soviet republics that currently refuse to march to Russia’s orders—Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia—by pointedly noting their populations’ complicity in the Nazi slaughter of Jews. (Nazi collaboration in Russia and in mostly Russia-friendly Belarus got a pass.) He may have also subtly taunted Poland by referencing the Nazi massacre at the Belarusian village of Khatyn—a name almost identical to Katyn. Many historians believe the Soviets deliberately amplified the Khatyn tragedy in the late-1960s because of the name similarity, in the hope that the confusion would distract from the matter of Katyn.
For Putin, such distortions and lies are business as usual. But abetting them was a shameful moment for the Israeli government—especially since, as Times of Israel editor David Horovitz noted, the Kremlin strongman was clearly “the dominant presence” at the January 23 event. Before the start of the forum, Putin was greeted on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who offered his personal thanks for the Soviet Army’s liberation of Auschwitz. He was the star speaker at the inauguration of a memorial to victims of the German siege of Leningrad, with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Netanyahu at his side. Then, arriving slightly late at the forum itself, he was introduced and escorted to his seat by Rivlin. He got, as Russian Jewish commentator Ilya Milshtein wrote on the independent Russian website Grani.ru, “a Tsar’s welcome.”
The indecency of this spectacle was compounded by the fact that Putin was allowed to posture as the savior of Kremlin hostage Naama Issachar, whom he pardoned after his trip. (The 26-year-old Israeli, arrested during a brief layover at a Moscow airport over a few grams of marijuana in her checked luggage to which she did not even have access on Russian soil, had received a draconian seven-year sentence; her release apparently involved Israeli concessions in a dispute over a valuable religious site, the Alexander Courtyard in Jerusalem.) Writing about Putin’s moment as “the Tsar-liberator of the Jewish people” in a blogpost widely reprinted in the Russian-language Israeli press, Ukrainian Jewish journalist Vitaly Portnikov called it “an abomination.” Strong language, perhaps. But the fact that Putin’s self-congratulatory spin was allowed to color an event commemorating the dead of the Holocaust deserves no less.
Netanyahu has long courted anti-liberal leaders, from Putin to Hungary’s Viktor Orban to Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, who are willing to support Israel in the face of growing antagonism from liberal democracies. One may sympathize with this quest, at least if one believes—as I do—that the current efforts to isolate Israel are unjust and rife with double standards. But the scandal at the World Holocaust Forum is a reminder that fraternizing with authoritarians has its price.
Cathy Young is a Russian-born American journalist and author. Follow her on Twitter at @CathyYoung63
Featured image en.kremlin.ru
1. Are we supposed to want Russian history to focus on the atrocities they’ve committed to the neglect of any positive contributions?
Don’t we call that oikophobia when western progressives do this?
2. In this age of virtue-signalling and moral hand-wringing, it’s important to remember that a necessary function of international diplomacy is the maintenance of cordial relations, irrespective of differences in policy and outlook. The history of the Royal Families in flying the flag for Britain and the Commonwealth, for example, has often seemed like a veritable Rogues Gallery of Dictators and Military Juntas.
One thing to remember when thinking about Israel is that in the lead up to the Second World War, as the persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi Regime became increasingly apparent, only Britain and America increased their quotas of international refugees- the rest of Europe and the World simply didn’t want to know. In an era when anti-Zionist sentiment is on the rise, and the intolerance of the Left-led BDS movement is becoming more prevalent in Western countries, isn’t it understandable that Israel would want to cement friendly diplomatic relations wherever is can?
In particular, Israel is probably intent on securing as many permanent members of the United Nations Security Council as friends as it can.
3. What Putin did at the memorial may be disgusting but is hardly surprising; Putin acts like that all the time. What is really disgusting is that the Prime Minister of Israel would allow the use of an event dedicated commemorating the profound suffering of the Jewish people for such blatant political ends.
I like this text from a liberal Jewess living in the USA.
It’s nice to blame Bibi for moral impropriety, if you are living out of the range of Hamas and Iran rockets. And it’s nice to be ready to express sympathy for the suffering Palestinians, and then to express a deep concern about the atomic bomb in Iran’s hands.
I only want to remind readers that she wants to be morally pure, and the Israelis want to survive. These are slightly different things.
PS. And anyway, Naama Issachar returned home. If for this we have to read ten more such righteous posts, we will endure it.
5. I imagine they are getting a little tired of it as well.
6. This article is a slap at Netanyahu for letting politics soil the World Holocaust Forum with Putin’s self-interested posturing. Did you even read the article, or is the word “Holocaust” sufficient to summon word vomit about those terrible Joooos?
7. Nice catch.
Also, what planet do you have to be on to think Israelis consider themselves perpetual victims? As a national identity I can’t think of a people more committed to seriously fucking you up if you try to victimize them in any way.
8. Does the author include the EU in this calculation? By my estimation the EU is not very democratic and is becoming less so. Maybe Israel is faced with existential threats and will deal with any sympathetic government, authoritarian or otherwise.
9. I agree with you. The further away someone is from Israel, the more they seem to feel like an expert in assessing and easily solving the problems in this region. This certainly applies to other issues as well, but in relation to Israel the number of such “experts” seems to be particularly large.
10. In Newfoundland there’s an expression describing individuals who may not see eye to eye on much, but by necessity have learned to work constructively with one another. They’re called bad friends.
I was reading this article on Wikipedia, and it struck me that the term might apply to the Russian/Israeli relationship. I found it interesting, though I am in no position to vouch for its accuracy.
11. Bitch, please. I don’t live under a rock.
12. I quoted one sentence and wrote a sentence of my own.
The context is all yours, friend.
An equity/diversity statement has nothing to do with competency at ones teaching job. If it does then show me the statistical evidence to prove it and I’ll get on board.
The truth is that it’s a purity test, just like the anti BDS statement, designed to cull ideological out group people from a professional setting. It’s legal in private business (not sure I agree with that) and should be illegal in government/public settings.
13. All right, let’s try it in context. Do you have data to support this claim? Do you have colleagues who have submitted ones that were not up to par and still gotten jobs?
Or, if you looked and people would be willing to be honest with you, did people write what they knew they needed to say in order have a chance of getting the job? Because i do not believe that this is a harmless exercise with no wrong answer. If I said I did not believe in equity, but in equal opportunity, I am willing to bet that my resume would suddenly not be good enough for the job.
Or, to sum it up more concisely…
14. I can clip the whole thing next time To make you feel better. It wouldn’t change what I responded with at all. The entirety of your statement doesn’t add anything but an unrelated analogy.
And for the record, since you couldn’t show that a diversity and equity statement had any effect on job performance, I was no longer talking to you… I was talking about you. There’s a difference. Just like none of the items on your list…
Are ideological beliefs systems that require adherence, its different in that it’s just another useless analogy.
Edit: For fucks sake, you were the one who linked to the anti bds statement article. You think signing or writing an anti bds statement is an indicator of job performance or quality of candidate? I sure don’t.
15. Why are you consistently being dishonest and making false analogies on this subject? That link is not an example of a “political oath”, unless you consider loyalty to an entire country without mention of political preference or ideology a “political oath”… They’re asking for loyalty to the country and state within which the college resides. That’s so generic I laughed when I saw that an idiot resigned rather than sign it. That’s like working at a toilet paper company and refusing to sign a pledge that two ply is better than one.
You’re not making a good case here. Equity and inclusion as taught is limited in an open course by who signs up and attends the class. A mentor ship role where diversity carries more weight than merit is far more harmful IMO. If advancing a student based on their sex, sexuality, or race is more (or any part of) a factor than their competence, creativity, or intelligence, then a mentor/professor has more of a chance to do damage than in a less intimate setting like a 100 student classroom.
FTR, any oath for purposes of employment besides a promise to diligence and loyalty to the company itself…overbearing and silly.
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Artificial Intelligence in the healthcare sector provides a great new transformational force that will bring about improvements for diverse clinical specialities as well as hospital operations. Some major changes are certainly required in the healthcare industry as there are innumerable opportunities for leveraging technology for deploying effective and precise interventions for patient care at the correct time. It may be chronic diseases, cancer, radiology or other emerging and rapidly spreading infectious diseases like HIV, SARS and Ebola.
AI provides several benefits over clinical and traditional analytic decision-making techniques. With this learning algorithms will be more accurate and detailed that will allow a medical practitioner to make unprecedented insight for diagnosis, treatment along with patient care. Below are some of the benefits of AI for healthcare.
Virtual Health Assistant
VHA can be of help to patients in several ways, the main being to constantly remind dementia patients to take their prescribed medicines. Virtual health assistants can also prescribe diet restrictions along with giving advice for treatments of common medical ailments.
Strengthen Your Technical Skills
A strong and robust team is the backbone of a thriving digital agency that has the knack of offering personalized experience along with the best quality service. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of your employees and then upskill them in the best possible manner. Providing in-house and online training will be able to fill the tech gap among the organization.
Investing in Best Tools & Resources
As marketing in the present times is constantly driven by technology and data, ad agencies should invest in the right tools. It is then possible to study customer insights thus helping to create a scalable and customizable customer experience. Google Analytics is a great tool that can help in marketing and making strategic business decisions. Measuring KPIs for clients and observing changes and progress will prove to be a good tool especially for a growing business.
Quick & Accurate Diagnosis
Artificial Intelligence can be used for better and improved diagnosis. Medical Image diagnosis, when aided with AI, can be used to read x-rays and CT scans allowing doctors to make an accurate and fast diagnosis. This would not be otherwise possible as sending samples to labs for analysis hinders early treatment.
AI will make the next generation radiology tools possible that are more detailed and precise that can enable replacing tissue samples.
Human Errors are considerably Reduced as Humans & Machines Work in Coordination
A doctor’s job can be quite strenuous and exhausting as they have to take care of several patients at the same time. AI can assist doctors being a human spell checker by eliminating errors thus relieving them of tasks that can be time consuming and monotonous.
AI can support the needs of healthcare providers by simplifying and speeding up workflows. It is more like humans and machines working together by augmenting clinical acumen to unimaginable heights.
Reduces Costs
With AI technology a patient can connect with a doctor without visiting a clinic or hospital. This will certainly reduce costs. AI assistant will assist patients by providing online care through online medical records.
Treatment Plans
The capability to design treatment plans is another great benefit of AI. Doctors can collect information about patients and then go further and record diagnosis, conduct tests, provide prescriptions and also supply billing information. Furthermore, physicians are in a position to administer personalized treatment plans by searching public databases that provide them with information about countless doctors and patients cases.
Wearables and Other Devices to Monitor Health
Consumers have access to various devices fitted with sensors like smartphones with step trackers and wearables through which they can collect their health data. Collecting and analyzing data got through these wearables and supplementing it with information provided by a patient through apps offer a distinctive perspective for individual health.
Artificial Intelligence thus has the possibility to have a positive influence on both doctors and patients as far as healthcare is concerned. |
Should kids wear sunglasses?
13 reasons why children should wear sunglasses
While 73% of adults wear sunglasses, only 30% of kids wear sunglasses. Here’s 13 good reasons of why kids should wear sunglasses, especially with the lifestyle we lead on the Northern Beaches!
1. The lens of the child’s eye transmits about 70 percent more UV than the adult eye.
3. Kids under 10 are at a higher risk for both skin and eye damage, as their skin and eyes are more fragile.
4. Children are outdoors much more than adults, so it is likely that over 1/2 of their life exposure to the sun will occur within the first 20 years of their life.
5. Very bright sunlight – reflected off sand, snow, water or the pavement, can cause immediate damage to the cornea.
6. Kids look up more, which means they are often looking into the sun.
7. It is up to adults to train their kids on the damages sun can do. Like wearing seatbelts, not touching hot stoves… Children can be taught about sunglasses, but only if they have sunglasses.
8. When children’s eyes get sunburned, unless it is severe, they will not feel the pain as they do with the skin. The warning signs are not so obvious.
9. The long-term effects of sunburned eyes are cumulative and not reversible. Research shows cataract, pterygiums, macular degeneration and melanomas of older age begin with childhood UV and blue light exposure.
10. Hats only protect from above, not below, where reflected UV from water, sand or concrete can do a lot of damage.
11. With ozone depletion occurring as much as 12 percent per year in certain parts of the world, our children are at greater risk of UV than we were growing up.
12. The variety of sunglasses for kids makes them easy and comfortable to wear. Quality sunglasses offer 100 percent UV and blue light protection,
13. Sunglasses are cool … and fun! |
Bilingualism doesn't hamper language abilities of children with autism
November, 2011
Two studies demonstrate that language development in young children with ASD is the same in those raised in a multilingual environment as in those raised with only one language.
Bilingual parents of children with autism spectrum disorder often decide to speak only one language around their child because of advice from child development professionals who believe that exposure to two languages might further limit the child’s communication skills. Two recent studies challenge that assumption.
One study tested the vocabulary size of 14 bilingual (English-Mandarin/Cantonese) and 14 English-monolingual young children with ASD (aged 3-6). Bilingual children had a larger total vocabulary than monolingual children. When translation equivalents (two words in each language with the same meaning) were counted only once, the vocabularies of both bilingual and monolingual children were not significantly different. Both groups had equivalent scores on all but one measure of language and vocabulary, including English production vocabulary, conceptual production vocabulary, and vocabulary comprehension.
The second Canadian study found similar results in a slightly larger group of children (45 bilingual and 30 monolingual children with an average age of around 5). Languages covered were diverse: French, English, Chinese, Farsi, Hebrew, Italian, Romanian, Spanish and Tamil. Bilingual children were divided into those who were exposed to both languages from infancy, and those who were exposed later (the cut-off was 12 months, but in general changes in the language environment occurred much later: on average, children in the former group were bilingually-exposed for the first 25 months; children in the latter group were monolingually-exposed for the first 31 months). Eleven children were trilingual. In order not to introduce sampler bias, non-verbal children were not excluded — seven participants spoke fewer than 10 words, of whom two were nonverbal.
There were no significant differences between the three groups at a language level, although monolingual and bilingual children exposed from infancy consistently scored higher than bilingual children exposed from a later age. Also, children exposed to two or more languages from infancy scored significantly higher than both groups on social interaction, and those exposed later were worst of the three groups. These differences probably reflect various social variables underlying the different language experiences.
The main reason for the belief that autistic children are better not ‘burdened’ with an additional language is because of their language difficulties. These studies are not saying that a child with ASD raised in two languages will be equally fluent with both. In the second study, second language vocabularies were much smaller than their dominant language vocabularies. But that’s not the point. Whether or not there is any general cognitive advantage in bilingualism for this group, as there is for normally-developing children, remains to be determined. But there is a clear message that parents of ASD children can take on board: if your family is bilingual, relax and enjoy interacting with your ASD child in your language of choice.
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A customer asked us, “What is the difference between a 2-way and a 3-way speaker?” and we said...
Difference between a 2-way & 3-way speaker
Among popular types of speaker systems, 2-way and 3-way speakers are the most common ones in the AV landscape. Both of them have various degrees of sound waves, from highs to lows that can result in more precise and fuller sound experiences. However, speakers belonging to each category are equipped with a unique set of features. Let’s get into the details.
What are 2-way and 3-way speakers?
(We might sound a little obvious here but we are simplifying the concept for beginners) A 2-way loudspeaker has two speakers in it, each of them is meant to provide a separate frequency selection, usually high and low. Whereas, if the conversation is about a 3- way loudspeaker, it contains three speakers, wherein each loudspeaker is meant to deliver separate frequency ranges; high, mid-range and low. This gives you a basic idea about the audio spectrum that each category offers.
3 Way Speaker
A 2-way speaker has two types of drivers which are known as a woofer and tweeter. The woofer is a speaker built exclusively for low-frequency sounds, while the tweeter is designed for high-frequency sounds. A 3-way speaker generates sound from three individual devices known as the mid-range, woofer and tweeter drivers. Each of these owns its specific efficiency in a wide range of sound frequencies. Due to the ability to get optimized to run in a certain range, this type of speaker can produce much clearer, fuller, and more precise sound than ever! Are you getting a little hint of what suits your needs? Not much? Okay, we have some more meat for you!
Which way to go? 2-way or 3-way?
It is very natural for a human mind to suspect that, since a 3-way speaker has an extra speaker involved, it’s more probable to sound better than a 2-way system. But, let us fill you in on a secret. The reality is – it depends. Although it makes sense that splitting up the job between three instead of two speakers should provide better sound reproduction, you have to take into account several other factors.
You need to consider:
• How well the crossover is set up? (Note: In order to split the audible frequency range between different speakers, crossovers are used. An optimal crossover setup contributes a lot to the overall sound quality)
• What is the quality of the components that are involved?
• What is the design of the cabinet and how are the speakers matched to each other?
There have been times where a high-quality 2-way system has completely outperformed a mediocre 3-way system. This is one of the major reasons why we would like you to consider the application you will be using them on.
For more details on how 3-way speakers are different than 2-way speakers, we’ve got a video for you
Major differences between the 2-way and 3-way speakers
If you opt to go ahead with 2-way speakers, you are in for some balanced sound (which feels really beautiful by the way!). We’ve got customers telling us that a balanced sound is like an organic and lively one due to the balance between one tweeter and another woofer driver. It’s made for music with less bass. If you’re a lover of lower bass music, your confusion ends right here! We already told you it sounds soothing, didn’t we? And if it makes any difference to you, these are far easier to install as they usually come with fewer cables to be connected.
If rock, R&B and similar kinds of music excite your soul, then you should probably hurry to get a 3-way speaker. It is designed specifically to aim at the lows as precisely as possible. An added advantage in case of 3-way speakers is its capability to offer customisation options. You can easily customize the entire frequency filter as needed to make your speaker sound like YOU!
So which way are you going?
Before reading this post, you were wondering what exactly 2-way and 3-way speakers are. Now that you know the answer, you are aware that selecting between these types of speakers is just a matter of one’s preference!
For instance, if you’re fond of music with less bass, a couple of 2-way speakers is the best deal! On the other hand, if the bass helps you make all way through every day, we recommend going ahead with 3-way speakers. Well, the final choice is yours, so we advise you to consider every aspect, starting from your budget to your specifications regarding the acoustic demands. Get the one that serves you best.
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Kymberly Grosso
Kymberly Grosso
Autism in Real Life
10 Tips for Making Middle School Work for Kids With Autism
A time of maturity, growth, and independence.
Posted Apr 16, 2012
Last night, my 8th grader successfully participated in his middle school's musical production. This was the third year that he was in the musical, but for the first time, he had a speaking role. I cried the first night, feeling so grateful that my son had this extraordinary opportunity. I never take his accomplishments for granted; he worked so hard to get where he is. I was also thankful that my son has many great teachers who understand autism and who know how to help include our special needs kids in academics and extracurricular activities.
Three years ago when we began our transition meetings, I lamented over every little decision, afraid of what loomed in middle school. Let's face it, for many of us who do not have autism, we have mixed memories of that tumultuous time in our young lives. Therefore, as a parent, even when we have a neurotypical child, it can often be nerve-wracking transitioning from grade to grade, let alone from elementary to middle school.
As the end of 8th grade draws near, the lesson I learned is that middle school can be a wonderful experience for a child with autism. I also learned that even in the best school, things will never be 100 percent perfect all of the time: You may still have occurrences when a certain teacher does not follow the IEP or conflict arises for your son or daughter. But overall, some middle schools are doing inclusion well for kids with autism and consequently, the kids are thriving.
Looking back on the past three years, I wanted to document the critical factors that seemed to make a difference in my son’s experience. Some of these factors parents can influence, and some are more difficult. I can personally attest to the difficulty of rolling the ball uphill, so to speak, when it comes to implementing change in schools. But if we start to identify what is working well, perhaps we can start to advocate and change schools so that they work for kids with autism instead of against them.
Here are ten tips for making middle school work for kids with autism.
1. School Culture and Leadership
In my opinion, leadership is the number one factor in determining whether any school on any level can successfully teach children with autism. Whether the focus is anti-bullying, scheduling, or autism education, the principal and vice principals drive how well staff will follow these initiatives as well as the general culture towards inclusion.
Unfortunately, this is not something a parent can control, but it is a factor you can be aware of as your child moves into another school. If a principal lacks understanding of autism, this is a red flag. It will make things all the more difficult for you and your child. Conversely, when a principal gets autism, the results can be amazing and culture change follows: teachers follow IEPs, children with special needs are not just included but welcomed in every activity and sports, and leadership takes a proactive role in helping your child succeed.
2. Leveling Academic Subjects According to Ability, Not Diagnosis
This subject is one of my pet peeves. Too often, educators and even parents are tempted to put our children in lower levels when they really just need to be in the “correct” level, whatever that may be. What I have learned as a parent is that even though there are some rules schools use to level, leveling can be quite subjective.
Frequently, autistic kids have splinter skills, so leveling can actually be a great way to best meet their needs. I would encourage parents to analyze every single subject and then select the level your child can best learn. Do not make a broad stroke of the brush and assume a child should be on one level for all subjects. For example, my son is in high math and science levels but still has learning support reading. Yet, when we made the jump from 5th to 6th grade, the 5th-grade teacher wanted to put my son in a lower level because she did not want to “stress him out.” Eventually in 7th grade, we were able to bump him up a level to high math. Looking back on it, this was the wrong move. As parents, we should have insisted they put him in the correct level from the very beginning.
Our children should be encouraged to excel in the subjects they are good at and supported with accommodations and services in order to help them grow. Now that my son is in 8th grade, he is still excelling in math and science. Although he tolerates English and is making progress, it is not his interest area.
3. Knowledgeable Case Management
Many kids with IEPs are assigned a case manager whose task it is to coordinate with regular education teachers, make sure the IEP is being followed, own the IEP document on the school's end, etc. It is critical that the person who is assigned to this task has a solid understanding of autism. It can make a huge difference in how the IEP is created, implemented, and how they assist regular education teachers so they understand our children, accommodations, etc.
For example, my son's case manager attends the regular education team meetings and often helps regular education teachers understand autism, how it affects the children, and how to implement adaptations. While many regular education teachers have some knowledge about autism, having a case manager who is a specialist in autism helps both the student and the teachers come up with quick, reasonable solutions to issues kids may be having and help them succeed in the regular classroom.
4. Attention to Program Modifications and Specially Designed Instructions
While the entire IEP is important, it is worth mentioning that SDIs are critical to helping a child learn by providing individual adaptations, accommodations or modifications. Does a child require a study guide three days prior to tests? Does he or she need testing in a quiet, alternative environment? Does a child require that their homework is adapted so that the workload is more manageable?
These are just a few examples of Specially Designed Instructions (SDIs) that could mean the difference between a child melting down in frustration or a child successfully learning in an inclusive environment. Also, having the right SDIs can allow a child to succeed and learn in a higher level class.
Keep in mind that in middle school, your child will be exposed to lots of different teachers during the course of the day and even over the week. While it is critical that the SDIs are well documented in the IEP, it is a good idea to write a brief email to teachers that sums up your child's strengths and weaknesses, SDIs, what you want teachers to know about your child, etc. Parents certainly hope that all teachers read the IEP, but it is good to create a quick summary letter in the beginning of the year in case it does not happen.
5. Think Technology
In middle school, there is a lot more writing and note-taking. So if you have a child with fine motor skill difficulty, now is the time to look for technological solutions. The upside about the timing in middle school is that our children often become more mature and able to handle the responsibility of caring for the technology. Even if they cannot, the teacher or personal care assistant (PCA) can be responsible for moving the technology from class to class.
The addition of a netbook was a game-changer in my son's educational career, allowing him to independently take notes almost overnight. He literally went from having to rely on the PCA/teacher for note taking and dictation of long writing assignments to doing all writing himself within one week. Before the netbook, he did have access to a computer written into his IEP, but it was not as accessible as it needed to be, and it required that he move from his seat to another part of the classroom.
With a netbook, he is able to do all his work, where ever and whenever he needs to do it. His writing capabilities have increased as well as his independence and self-esteem. While this is only one example of how technology can change a child's life, it points out that the IEP team should always be looking at ways to incorporate technology to make a child's learning more effective and easier, thereby reducing frustration and potential behaviors.
6. Positive Behavior Support
If a child has “behaviors that impede his/her learning or the learning of others,” the behavior box in the IEP should be checked, and the child should receive an updated functional behavior assessment as well as an updated positive behavior support plan that reflects the middle school environment. Middle school is a totally different environment than elementary school in that children generally switch classrooms throughout the day as opposed to learning in one class by one teacher. So many teachers will need to understand the positive behavior support plan.
As a parent of a child with autism, I know how critical schedules and sensory breaks are to helping my child self-regulate. In my opinion, sensory should be considered/evaluated for autistic kids and written into the IEP, if applicable. Access to the right kind of sensory can make all the difference in the world to our kids: help them regulate, calm, focus. If the school does not mention it during the IEP meeting, ask and make sure it is considered.
7. Bullying
Bullying in school is a very serious issue for special needs children. Luckily, my son has not experienced bullying in middle school. The reason I believe that he was spared is partly luck but also more importantly, the school administration and teachers take bullying very seriously. It has been my impression that there is no messing around in the school when it comes to this issue. If bullying is suspected, it is swiftly dealt with by an adult.
My take as a parent is that a strong anti-bully stance is more a cultural factor within a school rather than some kind of a policy mandate from the powers-that-be higher up in the district. Again, if a school has a strong principal who understands autism and lets it be known that bullying will not be tolerated, the cultural shift makes its way down to the teacher, students, and parents.
8. Lunch
Okay, let's admit it...lunch can be noisy. It is noisy in elementary school, and it will be noisy in middle school. The only difference in our middle school is that the kids get to choose where they want to sit. For some kids, lunch can be torture; listening to all that noise frays their nerves. So how and where lunch is eaten should be a topic for a middle school child's IEP meeting.
What are the alternatives to sitting in the noisy cafeteria? They are as varied as the creative ways the IEP team is willing to think outside the box. Our school offers both library time and a few lunchtime clubs as another place to do lunch. For kids who want to stay at lunch, teachers have creatively found tables in the cafeteria where noise is minimized. Another thing we successfully tried in 6th grade was leaving a little early from lunch to get sensory to help him regroup. As far as seating, teachers can take an active (rather than passive) role assigning the child to a table with his friends or if he doesn't have friends, find a willing buddy who will let him or her sit at their table.
The point of this item is that parents should bring up this topic at the IEP meeting and discuss any potential issues. It is amazing how you can help a child's learning by making their lunch a pleasurable experience. If the child has a pleasant, non-stressful lunch, he or she is better able to think for the rest of the day and spend more time learning and thinking about school subjects.
9. Consider Chorus/Band and After School Activities
In middle school, it's never too late to join the band or chorus. In addition to the studies that show that kids who participate in a music program do better academically, autistic children often get a chance to participate in a structured group activity, generalize social skills they may have learned, and create friendships and acquaintances based on a shared interest.
My son has been playing drums since 4th grade, and it has been a wonderful experience. I have written about this topic a few times, given the positive outcomes. While my son has not created close friendships in band, he has learned how to work well within a large group, the concert band, and how to work within a small group, the drummers. Last fall, my son did the unthinkable; he participated with the 8th graders in the high school marching band. He wore earplugs, so he could cope with the noise, and he loved it. He was so excited about the experience that he told me that he wants to do marching band in high school.
In the end, participating in music has given my son a creative outlet, which he will have with him for entire life. He enjoys performing and belonging to a group and has learned to be appreciative of others who play music.
Chess Club? Science Club? Video Game Club? Art club? Why is this important? At the end of the day, our kids need a place where they can do something fun, that they enjoy. It also gives them an opportunity to create friendships and relationships based on a shared interest.
For example, my son may have trouble initiating a conversation, but put him in video club, and he can talk about video games, anime and YouTube videos until the sun goes down. The most important thing about after school activities, in my opinion, though, is that he gets to do something fun at school, creating a positive experience at school where he has the opportunity to interact with peers.
10. Create a Friendship Group
At my son’s school, they created several social events that work well for our kids. First, they have a monthly game/movie night where all kids, autistic and neurotypical, gather to have fun. Secondly, we started a Best Buddies Chapter, which is now part of the game/movie night. Best Buddies also includes other activities such as charity work. Best Buddies is an organization that collaborates with students to create friendships by pairing up neurotypical children with children who have intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. It is a wonderful experience for both the neurotypical and autistic kids. My son has formed a tight bond with his buddy who is his personal peer angel, in my opinion. She will ask him to sit with her at lunch, talk to him in the hallway, and most of all, accepts him for exactly who he is.
Parents can take an active role in creating friendship groups as well. In addition, to supporting school activities, my friends and I actively get our kids with autism together outside of school. So whether the kids are bowling or going to a movie, we work hard to help them have fun outside of school.
Sometimes our kids aren’t able to coordinate or communicate with each other, so we (the parents) arrange the activity based on their preference. Sometimes, we coach our kids to text or call each other to get the social event set up. Middle school can be a great time to help our kids spread their wings and experience independence. Tyler and many of his autistic friends learned how to go to the movies by themselves over the past year. It has been a wonderful experience.
Closing Thoughts
The aforementioned suggestions for making middle school work are just that, suggestions. I am sure there are other great suggestions that parents and adult autistics have for making middle school work, and it would be great for you to share them in the comments.
The bottom line for parents is that middle school can be an extremely positive experience. Sure, it can be a time of growing pains and tween angst, but it can also be a time of maturity, growth, and independence. Moreover, parents can help their kids get there by knowing how to advocate and assist our kids in enjoying friendships.
Now that my son is at the very end of middle school, I feel like these 10 things were critical for making his experience positive. His experiences and friendships from middle school will carry over to high school. And perhaps in another few years, I will be writing about what works there too.
"Don’t underestimate persons with autism, try to understand." —Joell
Best Buddies
Specially Designed Instructions for Educators: IEP Modification/Adaptations/Support Checklist
Making Inclusion Work for Children with Autism
Helping Teachers to Get to Know Your Kid |
Learn British English with Anastassia
Exciting Adventures in the English Language and Culture
Month: May 2020
Very or absolutely? Expressing degree with adjectives
Why is it OK to say This house is very big but not This house is very enormous?
Well, there are two types of adjectives – gradable and non-gradable.
Image by Wynn Pointaux from Pixabay
Gradable adjectives refer to qualities that have different degrees. For example, big, cold, tasty, tall, boring and pretty are all gradable adjectives because something can be a bit / rather / slightly / extremely big etc.
Non-gradable adjectives describe qualities of extreme or absolute nature. As enormous already means ‘very big’, why would you use another very to emphasise it?
Now, with gradable adjectives we use grading adverbs such as a bit, slightly, hugely, extremely and very.
I’m a bit tired.
This film is hugely popular.
It’s extremely cold in Antarctica.
She’s very angry.
With non-gradable adjectives we use non-grading adverbs such as absolutely, completely, perfectly, simply, almost and mainly.
I’m completely exhausted.
His plan is simply unthinkable.
It’s absolutely freezing today!
She was absolutely furious.
Now, there’s one particular phrase which is perfectly grammatical but annoys me a lot when I hear people say it. It’s very beautiful. The problem here is, I guess, a simultaneous use of two extremely overused words. With so many synonyms and near-synonyms available, it’s really easy to add variety to your speech. Please pick and choose!
It’s absolutely/truly/simply/incredibly/stunningly/unbelievably beautiful.
It’s nice/pretty/attractive/lovely/gorgeous/stunning/charming.
Hope you’ve found this post useful.
Want to speak English like a native? Then consider taking online lessons with me!
Ad lib: two tiny words with a lot of meaning
Ad lib is one of my favourite borrowings, as it says in just two tiny words what English needs a whole sentence to express.
Ad lib (also ad-lib) derives from the Latin ad libitum, meaning ‘to (one’s) pleasure, as much as one likes’, and was originally used to indicate the points within a piece of sheet music or theatrical script where performers could exercise unrestrained freedom of self-expression.
Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
Now we use this phrase as a synonym of the verb improvise, that is to mean ‘to speak or perform in public without preparation’.
I had to ad-lib as I’d forgotten my lines.
He ad-libbed his way through the entire speech.
Ad lib can also act as
• an adjective: Ann had always been much better at writing than speaking, so when asked to give an ad-lib speech she was completely paralysed with fear.
• an adverb: He spoke ad lib.
• and a noun: I’m sorry to say this but your ad-libs sounded anything but spontaneous.
15 ways to say someone is stupid
Unfortunately, every now and then we all have to deal with people, things and situations that lack thought and/or judgment. To describe them in English, you’d probably use the words silly and stupid.
Staying focused will help you avoid making silly mistakes in the test.
He soon realised that spending all his savings on a new car was a stupid idea.
There’s nothing wrong with these two adjectives but the wonder of English is that more often than not it has loads of alternative ways of expressing the same idea, and lack of intelligence is no exception.
Image by Prawny from Pixabay
Let’s start with some nouns (please note they’re all informal). We’ve got quite a few for silly/stupid people – take your pick!
1. silly billy
used – often quite affectionately – when someone’s done something stupid
You silly billy! Why didn’t you ask me before you tried to reinstall Windows?! You’ve lost everything!
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Colour Idioms: Black
Image by Alexas Fotos from Pixabay
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
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Iranian Situation
Russian troops on the move! Turkey would fight to the last man! United States would back Iran! People talk of another war! Let us try to explain a little of this action of Russian. In order to get a good understanding of the Russian moves, the reader should familiarize himself with the map of the Middle East. Russia desires here to bring her in direct conflict with Iran and Turkey but it may be said at once that it is more than a dispute among these three; it rather boils down to a direct clash between two powers–Great Britain and Russia–for both of these seek control in the Middle East or roughly speaking, the area between the following bodies of water: Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea. A glance at the map tells us that this area has strategic value for it is somewhat of a “bridge” between Europe and Asia and it was used for just that during World War II for in 1942 the British, American, and Soviet troops moved into Iran for the purpose of opening and protecting a supply route for lease-lend material from the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea to Russia. According to agreement Russian troops took the northern part (Azerbaijan), the province that revolted and is now under Russian domination, while American and British troops were stationed in southern Iran and all three powers agreed to have all troops leave six months after the war, that date being March 2. The U. S. left early. Great Britain shortly before the dead line, but Russia did not leave and refuses to leave, so she did not live up to the treaty terms.
Naturally the Iranian government charges that Russia encouraged the rebellion in Azerbaijan and became very much provoked when the Russian troops prevented the Iranian troops from entering in order to stop the revolt. Russia justifies her action in northern Iran by saying the people there are related to the people living in southern Russian and that the people were also kept in a backward condition so that the revolt was but a natural outcome of this situation.
Probably the most important reason for Russian moves in Iran is her desire to obtain oil. Iran is a great producer of oil and has given Great Britain a lion’s share of the output. Russia claims this to be rank favoritism for why should she not receive an equal amount of oil? Many observers think that this desire for oil is at the bottom of the Russian moves and even suggest that if Great Britain would share Iranian oil with Russia, it would quickly relieve the situation. However, Iran finds two great powers competing for her valuable resource-two powers interfering with her affairs.
Turkey also fears Russia, stating rather openly that Russia is after territory. Why? The answer is the Dardanelles’ Straits thru which Russian ships must pass in order to go from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Russia feels that she is cut off the sea! Turkey has held these straits for a long time and controls the passage of ships thru them today. In wartime Turkey has the right to close the straits to war-ships belonging to nations at war and she may close them to all ships if she thinks she herself is in danger. Russia demands a larger share in the control of these straits. Turkey fears Russia will grab some territory for this purpose.
Therefore, the Russian situation in the Middle East includes her aim to get an outlet in the south, influence here equal to that of Britain, equal share of resources, and a piece of Turkish territory or bases near the Dardanelles or both to protect her water route to the Mediterranean Sea.
The land of 400 million people, is asking for independence from Great Britain. There are 260 million Hindus and 295 Moslems, both asking for independence. The difficulty comes in the fact that these two groups openly hate each other. The Moslems especially, fear the Hindus and anticipate war when independence is granted to India. How can England satisfy both groups? One would not expect her to free India with millions opposing each other and yet Great Britain has expressed her willingness to grant India her independence. Could this be true under present situations? There must be strings attached to such an expression for anyone knows that to grant India her independence now would mean to open up a Civil war there among the millions and millions of Indians. England would certainly not allow this. Besides, India is having one of the worst famines in history which probably will cost the lives of five to ten million people this year. England will first have to work out a plan wherein these opposing groups settle their differences before becoming independent. |
Controlling pests is an ongoing battle that all homeowners must struggle through. However, the importance of eco-friendly pest control is something that all homeowners should be aware of. Harmful pesticides can do serious damage to the environment, an environment which humans are a part of. Therefore, in order to ensure your own safety as well, it is important to use eco-friendly pest control at all times.
Health Issues: Harmful pesticides that are not eco-friendly can cause a staggering amount of health issues to humans. Some of these hazards include headaches, irritation, cancer, and even birth defects. The strong chemicals used in non-ecofriendly pest controls are often more harmful to you than to the pests themselves. Comparatively, eco-friendly pest control carefully considers health affects and limits exposure to harmful toxins.
Pesticide Pollution: Using traditional pesticides rather than an eco-friendly form of pest control does not only damage bodies, but also can cause serious damage to the earth. Pesticides can seep into soil, water, and air and spread to various different ecosystems. Therefore, using eco-friendly forms of pest control is a much better alternative.
Organic Biopesticides: Organic biopesticides use natural organisms to combat pests and curb destruction to your property. Introduction to a select few positive organisms can help boost an ecosystem’s resistance to harmful organisms, much like a vaccine introduces a small amount of virus into the body so that the body becomes adjusted.
Plants: Certain plants, such as mint, basil, lavender, and other herbs, are effective pest controls that not only deter pests, but also do not harm the environment. By planting these herbs throughout your yard, you can benefit from harvesting the herbs, attracting good insects, and effectively controlling pests. This is important because rather than becoming a harm to your health or to the earth, it actually can offer benefits as well.
Season Your Window Sills: If you’re concerned about pests entering your house, a simple and eco-friendly way to halt pests is to season your window sills. It might sound a bit ridiculous, but certain spices such as paprika, salt, and turmeric can help keep invading pests out of your home. You can also leave bagged cinnamon or cloves around other places inside your house as well. This method is non-toxic and safe in case a child or beloved pet stumbles upon the pest control.
Other Forms of Eco-Friendly Pest Control: There are a variety of different non-harmful ways that you can help protect yourself and the environment by opting not to use dangerous pesticides. Some easy preventative ways to control pests are to put away food in tightly sealed containers, improve drainage, routinely check for nests, and use spring-loaded trash cans, among others.
The importance of using eco-friendly pest control is something that all homeowners should be considerate of when managing pests on their property. It is essential to protect your property against pests, but not at the cost of your health or harming the environment. Bug Off Pest Control is a pest control company providing high-quality and eco-friendly services. We are committed to safely removing insects and rodents from your home or business. Call us at 956-782-7378 anytime. |
Sonya Cestra
Emily Carr Secondary School (Vaughan, On)
Eliminating Plastic Waste
Jeb Berrier, BagIt (Movie)
Plastic Pollution: The Issue
Single use plastics typically have a lifespan of less than a day yet they will remain on our planet almost forever. Toronto consumes an estimated 100 million plastic bottles a year, 35% of which are not recycled (York University par. 3). Many plastic bottles still end up in landfills, or worse, as litter in forests, lakes and oceans. At Emily Carr Secondary School alone, approximately 82 percent of students consume at least one plastic water bottle a week. Most of these plastic bottles are not disposed of properly as one would hope, but left in garbage bins, classrooms and even in the middle of the hallways. The ignorance that students display towards how their plastic bottles are produced and what happens after the bottles are used is reason enough to implement a plastic reduction campaign at ECSS. Although plastic bottles are a very small and specific component of plastic pollution, it is also an issue of significant magnitude within the community, In addition to this, it is a reasonable goal to target plastic water bottle pollution at Emily Carr which is why it should be the first step in introducing students to a more sustainable way of living. Using sustainable practises and ensuring the availability of resources is a responsibility we owe to future generations. Society can only sustain our growing populations for so long if we continue to pollute the atmosphere with fossil fuels to make plastic bottles is ridiculous when in it much simpler and cheaper to ddrink tap water.
Taking measures at Emily Carr Secondary School, such as installing water bottle filling stations and educating students on plastic pollution, will ensure that an effort is made to reduce plastic waste.
sonya cestra
Running the Campaign
In a typical high school in Woodbridge it can be expected that one in two students in every classroom is carrying a plastic beverage container with them, or has at least used one that day. If every Emily Carr student purchased one plastic water bottle each week, the number of plastic bottles would exceed sixty thousand. This estimate represents the best possible situation, as it operates under the assumption that students only consume one water bottle per week, and ignores the existence of other plastic beverage containers. All the while, it is safe to assume that the water fountains located in the school remain relatively untouched. Unfortunately, one is more likely to find students spitting their gum in the water fountains than drinking from them, because 39 percent of students refuse to use the fountains based on the belief that the water is unsanitary. In order to change student perception of the water available to them at school, we must change the method of delivery so that it appeals to the student body. Installing a water bottle filling station at Emily Carr would provide a new incentive for drinking the fountain water what with its sleeker design. The first filling station to be installed would be located in front on the gymnasium where it will receive optimal use from phys. ed. students. The station is equipped with a water fountain from which students can drink from and a filling station to fill water bottles. The component that makes this technology unique is the counter that tracks the number of plastic bottles diverted from landfills, which will serve to acknowledge students of their efforts to make environmentally conscious decisions. In addition to the filling station, other aspects of the campaign would include providing students with a reusable water bottle, and continuing this tradition for the new generations of grade nine students. Over the past couple years, the number of grade nine students entering Emily Carr had only increased. By providing a large group of students with reusable beverage containers, we would give the impression of a school that enforces a sustainable lifestyle. This would encourage students to do the same, and have a domino effect on the community. Currently, over eight hundred and twenty five plastic bottles were collected by Emily Carr students and caretaking staff to show the extent of plastic bottle pollution created. What is more significant is that this only represents a fraction of plastic bottles used by students. After the filling station is installed, another round of plastic bottle collection will take place in order to track our school’s progress and examine what aspects of the campaign must be improved upon. The key to this campaign is that it will be ongoing and will not be complete by the end of the school year. By distributing reusable water bottles to current and new generations of Emily Carr students, the issue will be fresh in the students’ minds and will ensure that they consider the impacts of plastic pollution. By continuously assessing the schools progress in reducing plastic pollution and informing the students, we will inspire cooperation in the initiative as well, therefore educating the students on easy changes they can make to their lifestyles.
Inspiring Long Lasting Change
Water bottle filling stations have been installed at schools within the York Region District School Board such as Bill Crothers, Milliken Mills and Tommy Douglas Secondary Schools. In order not to be left behind in the pursuit of improving the sustainability of student habits and communicating the importance of environmental issues, it is essential that Emily Carr acts accordingly. However, despite the leaps and bounds made by other schools in reducing plastic pollution, there has not been a visible change. At Milliken Mills High School, caretaking staff has not noticed any reduction of plastic water bottle waste created by students and at Tommy Douglas, just as many students carry plastic water bottles as at Emily Carr. This does not mean that the water bottle filling stations should be considered a waste; one filling station at Tommy Douglas Secondary School sees more use than all the water fountains at Emily Carr combined. What should be assessed when examining the success of other high schools in eliminating plastic waste is that no other measures were taken to educate students. In order to improve upon the practices of other schools, it is imperative that any plastic reduction campaign operate on multiple levels. If the 74 percent of students who are already willing to drink tap water would use reusable water bottles instead of paying 2000 times more for bottled water (“The Story of Bottled Water”), Emily Carr would see a visible change in plastic waste reduction.
Works Cited
Bottled Water Facts. Richmond Hill: York University, 2015. PDF.
The Story of Bottled Water. Perf. Annie Leonard. The Story of Stuff. Free Range Studios, 22 Mar. 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. |
# Introduction to the SDT The SDT (Smart Device Template) is an initiative from HGI to find consensus amongst various SDOs and industry alliances to derive a common approach for device modelling. HGI and partners have the approach to agree on a set of automation commands, following a common syntax, which are sufficient to model most home appliance functions. At the time of writing, every software developed for home gateways or internet-of-things gateways needs to be capable of using various different protocols (ZigBee, UPnP, EchonetLite, DECT ULE, etc) to interact with a range of devices designed for the home environment. This adds extreme overheads in integrating, checking and updating code. The purpose of SDT is to describe devices and device services in a way which is independent of the LAN technology, in a format which is convenient and reliable for integration in modern code (Java, C/C++, ...). The key goals of the SDT are: (1) keep it simple, especially for manufacturers to contribute device information; (2) modularity for functions and device types; (3) make it easy for developers to create unified APIs; (4) be independent of underlying home-area network technologies; (4) enable extendibility of the system in place without service interruption; (5) allow a pass-through mechanism to enable use of proprietary or technology-specific functions. In general a description of device (or complex appliance) behaviour can be made in many ways, with various kinds of constraints: 1. no constraints (e.g. using OWL 2.0 or even more "flexibly" RDF) 2. moderate constraints (e.g. using XML and a related extensible XSD template) 3. strict constraints (typical for a device certified to interoperate with a specific LAN protocol) HGI chose to use the approach "moderate constraints" (XSD based) because for software development it offers ease of use and a good compromise. In particular, if there are few or no constraints on control parameters then few automatic checks can be made to detect if the software parameters are appropriate for each device integrated. XML and XSD languages were chosen because they are familiar to many developers, can be parsed with common software tools, and can still be created and interpreted by humans if necessary. HGI believes that Device information models based on XML and extensible XSD need some guidelines. If every possible feature of every existing LAN technology and appliance were allowed to be described in any formally correct way, then the results would be a modern Babel, no better than today's system of widely different and wildly competing automation protocols. Therefore HGI proposes to recommend a certain structure (template) for the information model(s), but to allow extensions. Naturally, the more industry consensus is achieved for a single recommended template, the greater the utility for software developers (and users). The SDT approach is to define re-usable basic functions (or services), labelled "ModuleClass" in the figure below, which can represent the typical functions found in many home automation systems, such as "on/off", "dim a lamp", "receive events from binary sensor", "read data from sensor", etc. Each ModuleClass is composed of a (small) number of actions, datapoint read/write operations, or asynchronous events. For example, an "on/off" ModuleClass would consist perhaps of just one Action, but a "ReadKeypad" Action might have a number of possible events, each with some data value and (usually) a sequence-ID or timestamp start/stop to indicate when and how long each key was pressed.  **SmartHome Device Template (XSD) for a generic device (simplification)** The SDT represents the device models introduced in the above figure by using an XSD schema to allow formal checking of compliance for XML device descriptions of specific appliances. The modularity goal in the XSD schema is achieved with re-usable XSD fragments ("ModuleClass" in the figure). Complex devices or appliances can then be described by an appropriate set or collection of the agreed XSD fragments (ModuleClasses), as indicated in the figure, which also shows an optional DeviceInfo XSD fragment to allow noting of static information such as device manufacturer name, device firmware version, etc etc. HGI has discussed with many SDOs to validate these concepts. SDT is designed to take into account the list of "services" compiled by the SAREF project (https://sites.google.com/site/smartappliancesproject/home). The SDT supports the use of a set of templates for generic devices or appliances (e.g. for a dimmable lamp, a basic washing machine, etc, which would be specific instances of the "Device" object , which form the basis of APIs used by application developers. These templates can also be referenced by manufacturers creating XML documents to describe their specific products. For example, the SDT enables specification of a generic washing machine template, with on/off, set-wash-temperature, pause and a few other commands, which could be referenced by a manufacturer as the schema for a XML description of a basic model washing machine. The SDT allows for vendor-specific additional commands (ModuleClasses) to suit specific product types. The interoperability benefits can potentially partially be obtained even without a fully complete interoperability of the SDT. For example, the most common functions can be modeled with SDT, and more particular functions can be modeled with technology-specific, proprietary, or seldom-used aspects. Various details about the recommended structure for SDTs are described in the next sections. The key point to keep in mind is that HGI sought a compromise between, at the one extreme, complete flexibility (which could describe any device, of any complexity) and, at the other extreme, a rigid structure which could be 100% validated and lead to validated software APIs. ## Definitions This section provides an overview about the SDT 3.0 definitions and element hierarchy. Terms to be described in detail in this section are: | Term | Definition | |------|------------| |Domain | Unique name, or "wrapper" which acts like a namespace, set by the organization creating the SDT, allowing reference to a package of definitions for the contained ModuleClasses and device definitions. Can be referenced when extending ModuleClasses. It has two possible uses: to select the scope of a technology domain, or to set the scope of a use case domain (like Home, SmartGrid, etc) | | Device | Physical, addressable, identifiable appliance/sensor/actuator. | | Sub-Device | A device (usually one of several) which may be embedded in a Device and/or is addressed via another Device. | | ModuleClass | Specification of a single service with one or more service methods, the involved abstracted data model and related events. The expectation is that each separate service which may be used in many kinds of Devices (like PowerON/OFF, Open/Close, ...) will be described by a ModuleClass which can be re-used in many Device definitions. | | Module | Instantiation of a ModuleClass for a specific Device or SubDevice| **Definitions of SDT Elements.** A major decision, facilitating validation of code and signalling, was to describe services (functionality) of devices in terms of ModuleClasses made up of combinations of three kinds of elements: 1. DataPoints which are aspects of the Device that can be read/written, 2. Actions which consist of more complex sequences of operations; 3. Events which can be signalled ("published") by devices asynchronously. This ModuleClass structure is shown in the figure below and is a major part of the SDT which is illustrated in detail in the following figure:  **UML description of device functionality in terms of Actions, DataPoints and Events** ## How should SDT work? The basic concept is that a manufacturer, organisation or global SDO would define its preferred Smart Device Template, in XML, specified by and based on an XSD. Using that XSD, manufacturers or indeed hobbyists could "describe" existing or new devices by means of XML files, specifying the capabilities and the parameters needed to control the devices. Assuming that the XML files conform to the specified XSD and to some guidelines described in this document, software developers could readily create APIs able to "parse" the XML-descriptions of devices and (assuming the underlying LAN technology of the device is supported by the software/hardware environment in the gateway) operate the equipment. The key to making software reliably interoperate with various technologies is to define in the SDT a finite and convenient to use number of functions (which is the decision of the SDO which are commonly used and can therefore be reliably re-used in software for one type of device or another. For the convenience of users and developers, it would also be possible to collect the device descriptions of common "modules" (types of) appliances so that the operations of "a generic air-conditioner" could be agreed and re-used often, adapting descriptions of special models with just some special features added as local extensions. Agreeing on the definition of "a generic XYZ appliance" is rather time-consuming, so such "repository" may not become standardised, however the basic approach has huge benefits even if such an archive (also known as a "hierarchical ontology") is never formally agreed. ## Related aspects which are out of scope of the SDT The SDT defines the structure of all compliant XML descriptions. Each XML description of a specific device is definable at the time of manufacture of the device and can therefore only contain "static" information: (a) manufacturer data in the form of documentation elements and properties, (b) device capability information detailing the firmware operations and types/meanings of input/output variables. NOT directly part of this work is a related but separate aspect of every gateway software development: a "device abstraction layer" which can translate between (1) software APIs written based on a particular SDT and (2) the "commands" expected by several different LAN protocols and their hardware controllers. Programmers developing a "device abstraction layer" for software in a gateway need to create run-time representations of all the recognized devices, their operations and their actual states. This internal "information model" needs to be updated in real time as the devices and the users interact. Programmers may be tempted to use the SDT structure to organize their real-time information model, adding additional information elements for the current state of each device, for some kind of "history" of commands sent/acknowledged, the user etc. The above is an efficient approach BUT it must be clear that the real-time state information and history of events, etc, can NOT be represented in a pre-defined SDT and in the XML giving specific details for a device. --- Click [here](SDT_Components.md) for detailed documentation about SDT. |
Less and Less Resources Deployed
Taking less material to produce more energy.
Stay up to date with Kitepower's progresses How does a Kitepower system work?
Enter Airborne Wind Energy
Imagine a source of renewable energy that utilises 90% less material, easier to setup, maintain and operate and able to generate the same if not an even greater output as any other non-conventional source of energy.. how? by tapping into higher altitudes, enter airborne wind energy!
“AWES (Airborne Wind Energy Systems) solutions do not use a tower but a drone or a flying wing tethered to the ground. The tether enables them to access stronger and more persistent winds at significantly higher altitudes as compared to traditional tower-based wind mills,” says Dr Roland Schmehl, Co-founder of Kitepower B.V. and Associate Professor at the Aerospace Engineering faculty of Delft University of Technology. Since early 2018, Kitepower is able to fully operate its system with only two engineers supervising the flight site. Efforts by the Kitepower engineering team are recently being carried on towards a fully unmanned automatic operation of the 100kW system deployed at the aerodrome of Valkenburg, the airfield which is hosting Kitepower’s advancements since day one, with the aim to achieve completely unmanned applications by the end of the year.
“Small scale systems generating power between 20 and 100 kilowatts can be transported by truck and can be installed in relatively shorter span of time as we do not need a foundation nor the need to erect a tower” adds Dr Schmehl.
Airborne Wind Energy Market Pros
While the benefits of renewable energy are vast, achieving scalable production ready systems and negotiating regulatory hurdles can present challenges, as they do with any emerging technology. This is why a concept like airborne wind energy is being sized up. Apart from engineering challenges, the AWES will also have to battle through a host of business hurdles, which demand robust power generation capabilities and low maintenance costs to rationalise the capital investments required for its deployment.
“Most of the demonstrated AWES projects have an operational time frame of not more than one day and our plan is to boost this to months and years. We also need to make AWES more reliable apart from addressing legislative challenges like using airspace together with aircraft,” comments Dr Schmehl. Kitepower is planning to beat the record for continuous electricity generation by flying 24/7 for a week during the upcoming winter.
With developing economies including China, India, Brazil registering a ballooning economic and industrial growth, the demand for unconventional and clean sources of energy is set to rise significantly in the coming years, particularly with the alarming levels of pollution in such regions. The benefits surely make AWES a great source of power generation it is now our responsibility to take advantage of it.
Johannes Peschel & Joep Breuer enjoying an automated flight operation in Valkenburg – June 2018 |
A brief history of cosmology
References (show)
1. D Basu, Early history of cosmology, Indian Sci. Cruiser 8 (1) (1994), 17-23.
2. J A Bennett, Cosmology and the magnetical philosophy, 1640-1680, J. Hist. Astronom. 12 (3) (1981), 165-177.
3. G Boas, A fourteenth-century cosmology, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 98 (1954), 50-59.
4. S Bochner, Mathematical background space in astronomy and cosmology, Vistas Astronom. 19 (2) (1975/76), 133-161.
5. P Duhem, Medieval cosmology : Theories of infinity, place, time, void, and the plurality of worlds (Chicago, IL, 1985).
6. G F R Ellis, The expanding universe : a history of cosmology from 1917 to 1960, in Einstein and the history of general relativity (Boston, MA, 1989), 367-431.
7. J V Field, Kepler's geometrical cosmology (Chicago, IL, 1988).
8. E Grant, Eccentrics and epicycles in medieval cosmology, in Mathematics and its applications to science and natural philosophy in the Middle Ages (Cambridge-New York, 1987), 189-214.
9. A Harder, The Copernican character of Einstein's cosmology, Ann. of Sci. 29 (1972), 339-347.
10. E R Harrison, Cosmology, the Science of the Universe (Cambridge, 1981).
11. M Hoskin, Stukeley's cosmology and the Newtonian origins of Olbers's paradox, J. Hist. Astronom. 16 (2) (1985), 77-112.
12. H W Jones, Leibniz' cosmology and Thomas White's 'Euclides physicus', Arch. Internat. Histoire Sci. 25 (97) (1975), 277-303.
13. P Kerszberg, On the alleged equivalence between Newtonian and relativistic cosmology, British J. Philos. Sci. 38 (3) (1987), 347-380.
14. P Kerszberg, La cosmologie de Copernic et les origines de la physique mathématique, Rev. Histoire Sci. Appl. 34 (1) (1981), 3-23.
15. A Koestler, The sleepwalkers : a history of man's changing vision of the universe (Harmondsworth, 1968).
16. R Kolb, Blind Watchers of the Sky (1996).
17. H Kragh, Cosmology between the wars : the Nernst-MacMillan alternative, J. Hist. Astronom. 26 (2) (1995), 93-115.
18. F J Ragep, Duhem, the Arabs, and the history of cosmology : Pierre Duhem: historian and philosopher of science I, Synthese 83 (2) (1990), 201-214.
19. G Saliba, Early Arabic critique of Ptolemaic cosmology: a ninth-century text on the motion of the celestial spheres, J. Hist. Astronom. 25 (2) (1994), 115-141.
20. F Selleri, Galileo and the falsification of Ptolemaic cosmology (Italian), Rend. Accad. Naz. Sci. XL Mem. Sci. Fis. Natur. (5) 14 (2) (1990), 37-52.
21. H Urbantke, Schrödinger and cosmology, in Studies in the history of general relativity (Boston, MA, 1992) 453-459.
Additional Resources (show)
Other pages about Cosmology:
1. The development of the 'black hole' concept
Written by David Wands, Portsmouth
Last Update March 1997 |
LAHORE (PR) - Dr SA Aziz Bukhari, Executive Member, Supreme Council of NPCIH Pakistan has said concept of tolerance is originated and gifted by Islam/and the Islamic civilisation which is borrowed by the western civilisation as well. He said the unanimous concept and definition of tolerance is “Control and stop himself /herself from negativism and overcome upon the negative thoughts, negative feelings and negative acts and retain himself always upon positivism”. In a message on International Day of Tolerance he said tolerance is a negation of extremism. “In a juristic view, tolerance is the only way to keep and maintain the balance of the system of everything of the universe, either of the society or amongst the organs of the state. It may be amongst the institutions of a government or amongst the segments of politics and amongst the sect for the religions, because, the tolerance is the only and only way & method, which provides and ensures guarantee of peace amongst the countries and the nations of the world.” |
Stonefly Larvae
There are hundreds of species in North America
There are several North American families in the order Plecoptera (stoneflies)
Stonefly larvae (also called nymphs or naiads) are aquatic, flattened, with 6 sprawling legs and with a segmented abdomen bearing 2 long antenna-like “tails” (cerci). The antennae on the head are long, too. Gills are tuftlike and usually positioned at the bases of the legs, on the underside of the body. Each foot has 2 claws.
Adults have two pairs of wings that are clear, membranous, and finely veined and rest closely down the back of the body, the forewings covering the hindwings. Antennae are threadlike and long. Colors are usually dull, dark, and drab brown, yellow, or sometimes green.
To identify the many different kinds of stoneflies, one must use a magnifying lens and note details of mouthparts, wing vein patterns, leg segments, cerci, gills, and more.
Key Identifiers
• Aquatic, flattened.
• Legs 6, sprawling, joined to middle part of body
• Abdomen segmented.
• The 2 antennae are long (2, 3, or more times as long as the head).
• Tip of abdomen has 2 long threadlike “tails” (cerci).
• Gills are tuftlike and positioned at the bases of the legs.
• No gills (feathery structures) on the rear half of the body.
• Each foot has 2 claws.
• Usually found in cool, clear streams.
Larva length: ½ to 1½ inches (varies with species; does not include appendages).
Photo of a stonefly naiad clinging to a rock underwater
Stonefly Naiad In Habitat
Photo of an adult stonefly on a leaf
Stonefly (Adult)
Adult stoneflies have two pairs of wings that are clear, membranous and finely veined. The wings rest closely down the back of the body, the forewings covering the hindwings. Antennae are threadlike and long.
Habitat and conservation
There are many types of stoneflies, which naturally live in different habitats. As nymphs, most inhabit clean, flowing streams, rivers, and springs, where the current is brisk. They usually creep under rocks and other submerged objects. Some species prefer lakes, ponds, and other quiet waters. Adults are poor fliers and usually stay close to water and in shady areas, such as the undersides of leaves or under bridges. Some species are nocturnal; many are attracted to artificial lights.
The food habits of the different species vary. Nymphs typically have mouthparts adapted for chewing, and many eat plant material. Others nymphs are carnivorous, eating smaller aquatic invertebrates. Many species of stoneflies lose the ability to eat when they undergo their final molt and become adults. Some species retain functioning mouthparts, however, and do eat as adults. Many of these eat algae or other plant material.
Distribution in Missouri
Nine Missouri stoneflies are Species of Conservation Concern and thus are vulnerable to becoming extirpated from our state. A “stonefly” is any insect in the order Plecoptera. An order is a category larger than a family. There are more than 3,000 species of stoneflies worldwide, and more than 650 in North America. Describing the characteristics of “stoneflies” is like describing all the “beetles.”
Life cycle
Depending on the species, stoneflies may live for 1 or 2 years underwater in the immature, larval form. When growth is complete, usually in the summer, the nymph crawls out of the water (often onto stones, hence the name), molts, and emerges as a winged adult. At this point, the mouthparts of many species are nonfunctioning, as the adults’ only function is to reproduce. Egg masses are usually deposited on the water’s surface. The adults die soon after reproducing.
Human connections
Most people are completely unaware that stoneflies exist, unless they happen to witness a large group of adult stoneflies congregating, usually near a stream. Many fly fishers, however, consider imitation stoneflies the lure of choice for trout and salmon.
Ecosystem connections
Stonefly larvae are a favorite food of many types of fish. Also, because they require clean, well-oxygenated water, their presence is a sign of good water quality. When stoneflies disappear from a stream where they used to live, it is a sign that something is wrong with the water. |
Manual drilling crew in action (photo: K. Danert, 2014)
by Dr Kerstin Danert, Skat Foundation
In Lagos, a city of over 17 million people, water demands are mainly being met from tapping the groundwater that lies beneath the city. Boreholes provide water directly at people’s homes or business premises. Borehole construction is being paid for by householders and businesses themselves. Water vendors, selling water in jerry cans or trucks are also prolific. Given the limited reach of the piped infrastructure, much of the water vended is likely to also originate from below ground. In fact, exploitation of the large, relatively shallow aquifers that lie below Lagos is one of the main reasons that the city can continue to grow at all.
Continue reading “Manually Drilled Wells: Providing water in Nigeria’s Megacity of Lagos and beyond”
Getting the basics right
Monrovia Water Point
So what is needed? The basics done well.
Mapping information flows in the Liberia WASH Sector with the NWSHPC
water services that last
By Stef Smits
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How three handpumps revolutionised Rural Water Supplies: the Afridev
1980 to 1990 was the International Decade of Water Supply and Sanitation and the greatest hand-pump project began.How Three Handpumps Revolutionised Rural Water Supply
As part of that UNDP and the World Bank established a joint Water & Sanitation Program (WSP, which still exists as part of the World Bank) and one of its flagship projects was the Hand-pump Project, led by Saul Arlosoroff, which rigorously tested all the hand-pumps around the world that they could get their hands on. Their final report “Community Water Supply: the Hand pump Option” (1987) is still the defining text in hand-pump literature.
The hand-pump project also defined Village Level Operation & Maintenance (VLOM), the concept of making hand-pumps easier to maintain by the users so that minor breakdowns could be repaired quickly. The India Mark II was not a VLOM pump because it required specialist tools and some skill and strength to make repairs to the pump cylinder down in the borehole. This was addressed through a design revision, imaginatively called the India Mark III. However the hand-pump team throught they could still do better and so two handpump design projects began.
Continue reading “How three handpumps revolutionised Rural Water Supplies: the Afridev”
How three handpumps revolutionised Rural Water Supplies: the India Mark II
How Three Handpumps Revolutionised Rural Water Supply1974: UNICEF reviewed their water supply programme in India. The results were shocking: of the tens of thousands of wells drilled over the previous seven years, 75% were not supplying water.
In the mid 1960s, drought ravaged India, and the Government of India asked UNICEF for help with improving access to water through borehole drilling. In the following years, the emergency drilling campaign evolved into a broader national programme to improve rural water supplies, but the attention was focused on the drilling and the boreholes. No one gave the hand-pumps that went on them much thought. That all changed in 1974.
Continue reading “How three handpumps revolutionised Rural Water Supplies: the India Mark II” |
After a few generations , famine forced the Israelites—the ancient Jews—to go down to Egypt where there was food . At first life was good there , but then a new pharaoh , or king , arose and enslaved the Israelites . The Bible teaches that God heard the Israelites’ cries and sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt . Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt , but died before reaching the Land of Israel . Joshua , the next leader , brought our ancestors into Israel . Bible Quiz Abraham and Sarah were not only the first Jews , they were the first Jews to live in the Land of Israel . But they weren’t the first to be born there . That honor goes to their son . Do you know his name ?
לצפייה מיטבית ורציפה בכותר |
Rare Large Jasper Nodule from the Carver Agate Field
Rare Large Jasper Nodule from the Carver Agate Field
This posting is more about geology than a pretty specimen.
Bear with me as I ‘get into the weeds’ to explain why this is rare and is the subject of this posting.
How nodules form
Gas bubbles in molten lava sometimes, after hardening, leave a bubble or void in the hardened lava which may fill with a silica solution.
The silica often creates banded agates or crystal lined voids in the center of the nodule which are called geodes.
What is rare and unusual in this large specimen, is that the nodule formed in the gas bubble is essentially jasper, not agate, quartz, or other crystals. While The Carver agate field has lots of jaspers, they are almost always formed separate from, and outside of, gas bubbles that have formed in the lava.
The process by which jasper would completely fill a large gas bubble is apparently uncommon. I have only found two large jasper-filled nodules in the last 10 years of exploration on The Carver Agate Field.
To illustrate this point, I would suggest that you look through the extensive photo galleries on the website which demonstrate it’s rarity in this agate field.
One Comment
1. I have found material like that on the old Woodward Ranch back in the 60’s and also some on Lajitas Mesa.
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Add a New Dimension to Your Solos by Using Four-Note Triad Cells
In virtually any musical idiom from the Western hemisphere, major and minor triads are a fundamental building block of melody. From children’s songs, to folk melodies, to European classical music, to Broadway show tunes and more, some of the most highly recognized and easily sung melodies are based upon the color and structure of the various inversions of major and minor triads.
And no less so in jazz. Whether you analyze an early Lester Young solo, or the latest Chris Potter solo, you’re going to find a fair amount of melodic material based upon these triads (though the approach both of these masters employed in using triads is markedly different from one another).
Major and minor triads have a strong tonal quality that lends itself to cogent sounding melodic statements. So if you know your major and minor triads in all their inversions, you already have a great amount of melodic material at your disposal when you improvise a jazz solo.
Triads and the Jazz Language
One of the defining ingredients of the bebop language is the use of diatonic melodic fragments in conjunction with chromatic passing tones. A good amount of these diatonic melodic fragments are, of course, based upon triads.
And in the modern jazz lexicon, the use of triads is prominent: triad pairs, stacked triads, triads with approach notes, enclosures and more.
I’d like to offer here an easy way for you to turn triads into jazz melodies: By converting major and minor triads into four-note melodic “cells”, then connecting these cells by half steps, you can find nearly endless amounts of freely moving jazz melodic ideas. Allow me to demonstrate.
In the example above, I show four different major triads in root position (C, F, Bb, Eb) moving in ascending perfect 4ths (around the circle of keys). I’ve labeled the first triad in relative scale degrees (root, 3rd and 5th of the scales from which they are formed). The other three triads in the example also follow this formula.
Now I’ll take this three-note triad pattern, and convert it into a four-note pattern simply by adding the 3rd of each triad a second time:
Notice here that the triads are now connected one to the other by the movement of a half step lower neighbor “leading tone”. So E is moving up to F; A is moving up to Bb; D is moving up to Eb. In other words, the 3rd of one triad is connecting to the root (the 1) of the following triad. If you were to play this pattern through all 12 keys, you’ll hear a flowing, cogent sounding melodic sequence. It is this connection of the triads by half-step leading tones that help give the line this quality.
In the example below, I present the same sequence of triads, but now converted into four-note cells that are connected by upper neighbor half-step leading tones:
Two things to notice here: First, there is a movement of two consecutive half-steps between each four-note cell. So in the first measure, G descends to F#, which then descends to F natural (the root of the next triad cell.) The second thing to notice is that the color of each triad has changed because of the altered fourth note. Specifically, each four-note cell is implying a Lydian tonality (because of the raised 4th). Yet if you play the line it doesn’t sound “Lydian” at all. Instead, it has more of the kind of chromatic quality associated with the bebop language.
It doesn’t matter whether the leading tones are diatonic (a note borrowed from the scale from which the triad is formed, as in the first example), or chromatic (as in the second example). All that matters is that the triads are connected via half steps. As you look at the examples throughout this article, you’ll notice that the fourth note of each four-note cell is determined by how one triad connects to the next by means of a half-step leading tone.
You can of course apply this technique to triads of all inversions. Below is the same chord sequence (major triads ascending in perfect 4ths) , but with a different inversion:
Now here is the sequence from above converted into four-note cells that are connected by lower neighbor leading tones:
In this example, the lowered 6th is being used to connect the 3rd of one triad to the next by a half step. And though the lowered 6th could imply an altered major sound (specifically, an Ab Maj7 +5 in the first four notes, for example) within the four-note cell itself, it actually functions sonically as a lowered 3rd of the following four-note cell (the Ab to A natural relative to the F triad, for example), lending a bluesy quality to the line. (Play through it a bit to hear.)
And here is the sequence with the triads now connected by upper neighbor leading tones:
You’ve probably noticed already that in this pattern, each four-note cell has now been converted into dominant 7th chords (C7, F7, Bb7, Eb7). If you play through this pattern, you’ll hear the familiar melodic quality of playing dominant 7ths “around the circle”.
You can take this “four-note cell conversion” technique and apply it to triads moving in any direction intervallically. Below are major triads ascending in major 2nds (C, to D, to E, to F#), connected by upper neighbor leading tones:
And of course you can also combine chord qualities. Below are major triads descending to minor triads (C major, to A minor, to F# major, to Eb minor) connected by lower neighbor leading tones:
Secondary Triads
Triads formed from each degree of a major or minor scale are sometimes referred to as “secondary triads”. Below are the secondary triads (in root position) of the ascending C major scale:
Lots of melodic material can be found by combining these triads in various ways. Each triad above is already a “four-note cell”, by virtue of the fact that the 3rd of each triad is repeated (1, 3, 5, 3). But when you convert these triads into four-note cells that connect to each other by half-step leading tones, you get lots of “jazz language” sounding melodic movement. Either with lower neighbor leading tones:
Or with upper neighbor leading tones:
As you can see from both examples above, some of the notes have been altered and others remain diatonic (because of the natural half-step voice leading within the scale itself).
This is a fairly simple and intuitive pattern that you can use to convert all of your major scales into jazz sounding melodic material. Here’s a pdf with this pattern put into all twelve keys for you to practice and get into your ears:
Ascending Secondary Triads in All Twelve Keys-pdf
Application Over ii-V7 Cycles
If you were to spend ample time exploring and practicing this “four-note triad cell” technique, you’d find lots of new ways to open up your playing over ii-V7 based chord progressions. Take a look at the example below:
Let’s make a brief analysis of this line: The basic concept is to apply minor triads moving in ascending perfect 4ths over the ii-V7 cycle. The first four-note cell is a B minor triad with an F natural that voice leads it to the E of the next cell (over the A7). The next cell is an E minor triad with a Bb that leads to the A of the next cell. So the B minor and E minor triads are consonant (upper extensions) to the chords, and have added momentum (tension) because of the chromatic passing tones. In the second measure, I use an A minor triad with an Eb that voice leads down to the D over the G7 chord. This D continues over the G7 as a D minor triad with an Ab, which then connects to the G in the third measure (the 5th of the Cmaj7). The rest of the pattern over the Cmaj7 is composed of secondary triads connected by leading tones. Besides having a few altered tensions (the Bb as the lowered 9th over the A7 chord; the Ab as the lowered 9th over the G7 chord), the line also has a flowing jazz quality because the diatonic elements (the triads) being connected by chromatic passing tones. Again, this is a staple ingredient in the jazz language. Play through this a few times and hear for yourself.
This pattern is simple, very basic sounding and familiar. If you’re fairly new to playing over chord changes, it demonstrates an easy way to construct melodic lines with a jazz flavor. Here’s a pdf of the above example in all twelve keys for you to practice and get in your ears:
Minor Triads Ascending in Perfect 4ths Over ii-V7 Cycles-pdf
And if you’re a more advanced player, you can find all kinds of new ways to connect triads over ii-V7 cycles using the same technique. Below is an example of a more sophisticated use of the four-note triad cell idea over the same cycle:
In this example, I’m using major triad cells descending in minor 2nds over the ii-V7 cycle to create a more harmonically dense sounding line.
Here’s a pdf of this pattern in all twelve keys:
Major Triads Descending in Minor 2nds Over ii-V7 Cycles-pdf
Further Explorations
You can take this simple idea as far as you like. By experimenting with constructing four-note triad cells and connecting them through their various inversions, moving intervallically in various ways, you’ll discover melodic material from the bebop language, all the way through to modern jazz sounds. By working this way, you’ll become a master of connecting melodic ideas through leading tones, which will add up to you creating long, flowing jazz melodies when you improvise. If you’d like to explore this concept deeply, I’ve composed a very comprehensive and methodical e-book that serves as a playable reference (a thesaurus, of sorts) of all the different ways triads can be converted into four-note melodic cells, and connected by leading tones. Click on the link below to find out more: |
Beating the Summer Slide
Summer is a time for kids to enjoy some unstructured fun, filled with fresh air and sunshine. But reading should always be part of the fun.
Researchers use the term “summer slide” to describe the loss of skills for kids who don’t read during the months when school is out. A Brookings Institute article cites a study showing that “Students’ achievement scores declined over summer vacation by one month’s worth of school-year learning.”
This can have a cumulative effect, with long-reaching effects on school success and beyond. A New York State Library research brief reports: “studies show that students who read more, read better; they also write better, spell better [and] have larger vocabularies.”
What can parents and caregivers do to help? A leading education news organization called EdSurge includes libraries on the list of ways to fight summer slide: “Make sure students and their families know how to access their public libraries and the resources that libraries provide, such as programming, knowledgeable librarians and multimedia resources.”
Libraries give kids and teens access to all kinds of reading and activities. In addition, CADL’s Summer Reading Challenge encourages them to read whatever they like, earning fun prizes as they go. We have tracks for toddlers through adults, so the whole family can join in. Learning activities like scavenger hunts and STEAM challenges add to the fun.
It’s all free—sign up today! |
Multisensory Reading
Kids learn through play. Parents in this Working Group will look at different activities and resources which are easy to create and get kids up and moving while they are learning to read. We'll incorporate strategies like how to incorporate music and movement into learning at any age.
Parents will have a place to ask questions, have discussions about reading instruction or any struggles their children experience. By the end of our 4-week Working Group, parents will be a bit more confident and more in love with teaching reading.
Length & Duration: Four 60-minute live, virtual meetings once a week
Girl Reading
Reading is about finding the meaning of what we are reading. It is so much more than just words on a page.
The question is how do we get our kids to that point and what are the best ways? Especially as homeschoolers, the resources seem to be a little less available.
There is strong evidence in research that shows how much multi-sensory learning can impact our kids and we know that all children are different and learn differently. They each have their own unique way.
This Working Group will share:
• Activities that involve all the senses which are quick and easy to make. They don’t require a lot of time nor resources and are activities that are versatile to use across any subject.
• Ways we can support each other. There is so much out there in reading instruction, but what does is actually all mean and how do we use it. This is a place to come with questions or worries to work together and find answers and what can best work for each child.
Sara du Toit
Sara du Toit
Sara's passion is teaching reading, especially with reading intervention. She holds a teaching degree in elementary education and was able to use that in a kindergarten class in Zimbabwe all the way up to 5th grade in North Carolina. Once she became a mom and stayed home with her kiddos, she began tutoring. Over the last ten years she has worked with kids one on one and helping them overcome their struggles with reading. Four years ago when her oldest child was entering first grade she started the journey of homeschooling and hasn’t looked back since. |
The heart its diseases and functions
every cell in the body. An artery carries blood out from the heart. A
10-13 ounces (300 to 350 grams). The rate which the heart pumps varies
depending on what your doing. When at rest the heart pumps more slowly.
When you run the heart rate increases to provide muscles and other tissues
with additional oxygen they need. The typical heart rate is 72 beats per
minute. Each beat gives out 2-3 ounces of blood pumped into the arterial
system. At this heart rate it beats about 104,000 times a day. The
Superior and Inferior are the biggest veins in the body.
The Superior is really the biggest. These veins have a lot of
carbon dioxide and have oxygen-poor blood. The aorta is the biggest
artery in the whole body. Which will be covered in the report. The
pulmonary vein takes the blood out of the heart and takes it to the
Today we will talk about many different parts of the heart:
The Three Layers of Muscle, Atriums, Ventricles, Systole and Diastole,
Treatments for the Heart, Valves, and many Diseases.
The Three Layers of Muscle
The heart has three layers of a muscular wall. A thin
layer of tissue, the pericardium covers the outside, and another layer,
the endocardium, lines the inside. The myocardium is the middle layer and
is the biggest of all. Myocardial Infarction is a disease later read
about in this report. The pericardium is a fibrous sac which is very
smooth lining. In the space space between the pericardium and epicardium
is a small amount of fluid. This fluid makes the movement of the heart
muscles smooth. Myocardium is the heart muscle itself.
The right atrium is a low pressure pump that moves blood into the
right ventricle through the tricuspid valve. The atria are the two upper
chambers of the heart. The right atrium receives blood from the veins
which is low in oxygen and high in carbon dioxide; this blood is then
transferred to the right lower chamber, or right ventricle, and is pumped
into the lungs.
The ventricle is a muscular chamber that pumps blood out of the heart
and into the circulatory system.
Right Ventricle
The right ventricle has a thicker and stronger muscular wall than
the right atrium. The right ventricle pumps the oxygen-poor blood through
the pulmonic valve into the lungs where blood gives up carbon dioxide it
has carried from tissues. At the same time blood absorbs oxygen. From
the lungs pumping action moves blood to a receiving chamber on the other
side of the heart. The left atrium, gently pumps the blood to the left
ventricle through the mitral valve.
Left Ventricle
The left ventricle gives a powerful pumping action
to send the oxygen enriched in blood into the aorta. The aorta is the
principal artery which subdivides and delivers the blood to the body's
tissues including brain, organs, and extremities.
Systole and Diastole
Systole is the contraction of the ventricles of the heart which
forces blood out. Diastole is the relaxation of ventricles to allow blood
to enter.
Treatments for the Heart
Angioplasty is a technique used to clear arteries that have become
blocked with fatty deposits. Angiography is used to x-ray the blood
In the heart there are two valves that prevent backflow of blood
two-piece mitral valve.
Congenital Disorders
Range of minor to serious congenital disorders are very evident at or
shortly after birth.
Ventricular Septal Defect
Ventricular Septal Defect is most common for heart malformation. An infant
born with a defect has an opening between the lower chambers (ventricles)
of its heart so there is an increased blood flow from the left side to the
right side because the left side has more pressure than right side. The
lungs at this state are under very high in pressure.
Treatment for this disease depends on it size of defect. About 30%-50% of
small defects close spontaneously during the first year of life.
Artrial Septal Defect
Atrial Septal defect is a opening which is high in the heart between the
upper chambers (atria). This disease is more common in female infants
than in male infants, and it often occurs with children who have Down
Disorders of Heart Rate and Rhythm
The control mechanism for heart rate involves electrical impulses. One
of the four chambers, right atrium, contains group cells called sinus
node. The sinus node acts as a pacemaker, which produces electrical
impulses that signal the muscle of the heart to expand and to contract
in the pumping cycle. The heart rate of a human can get up to 200 beats
a minute if you exert yourself. If something goes wrong with the sinus
node and normal pacing of heart is disturbed or bothered, one of a number
of rhythmic disorders can happen.
Too rapid or fast of a heartbeat is called tachycardia, and too slow of a
heartbeat is called bradycardia. The heart can also be affected by
tobacco or use of other drugs.
Heart Arrhythmias
Here are some signs of this disease: None, skipped heartbeats,
light-headedness, chest discomfort, and shortness of breath. If the
rhythm of heart beat is disturbed problem is arrhythmia. You maybe unaware
of the problem.
Heart Murmurs
Heart murmurs can be heard by a physician as a soft hissing sound
which follow the normal sounds of heart action. Heart murmurs can tell
you if that blood is leaking out through a valve and can signal a serious
heart problem. Heart murmurs can sometimes fix themselves.
Myocardial Infarction
Myocardial infarction is a disease of myocardium muscle in the heart.
Heart muscle and it's linings can get a disease for instance myocardial
infarction. You might not have done anything wrong even though, but it
still could happen. Myocardium gets blood from the coronary artery. When
not enough blood reaches the this muscle it is called myocardial
infarction. It is usually rare, but it can damage the heart muscle very
Here are some signs for this disease: short times of fast heartbeats,
breathlessness, weakness, chest pain, fainting, and fluid retention.
Fluid retention is also known as redema. Redema means swelling of body
tissues due to excessive fluid. When the muscle of the heart is damaged
or defective it could led to a disease known as cardiomyopathy. This
could happen by bacteria or enlargement of the wall.
Diseases and Disorders for Heart Valves
Each valve consists of 2 or 3 thin folds of tissues. When closed valve
prevents blood from flowing to the next chamber or from returning from
the previous one. When a valve opening is narrowed and flow through is
limited, the condition is stenosis. Each valve may be subject to stenosis
or obstruction. In some cases a valve will lose its shape or sag
(prolapse) or fail to close which causes a back flow of blood
(regurgitation) could also be caused by infection or congenital problems.
Tachycardia occurs normally during and after exercise or during stress
tachycardia occurs without apparent cause.The heart can beat as many as
240 times per minute in tachycardia. Tachycardia can be ended by lying
Vascular System and Diseases of It
The vascular system consists of blood vessels in the body.
The vessels become smaller as they extend farther from the heart.
The aorta delivers its flow to large arteries into smaller vessels.
Arterioles supply tiny capillaries which nourish tissues. Oxygen is
going from the capillaries to the tissues, and carbon dioxide from
tissues taken up into the capillaries. Arteries have to be strong as
well as flexible because of the pressure of the blood being pumped
through the venous system. Veins get bigger when they get closer to
the heart.
Disorders of Blood Vessels
A disease or a disorder for the blood vessels can be fatal.
Coronary Artery Disease
The coronary arteries supply and maintain the myocardium. Coronary
artery disease can cause a heart attack or hypertension when blood
vessels get small or filled up with cholesterol, scar tissue, or
calcium. Other problems can happen also. For instance disorders for the
heart valves or for the heart muscle and pericardium.
The heart is something you need every day you can't live with out it.
Exercise, eat a balanced diet, and always have checkups. People don't
think a checkup will really do anything, but believe it because it will.
You might not know you have something wrong with your heart or something
else in your body and then you might get ill. So, don't eat junky foods
too often. Keep your heart safe and healthy as long as you can.
Today I have talked about the heart and many other things as well such
as the diseases of the heart, the vascular system, and more.
This Concludes My Report
Source: Essay UK -
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Addictions and Acceptance Action Therapy
Addictions and Acceptance Action Therapy
Psychology has moved forward in leaps and bounds over recent years and our knowledge of how to treat addictions has advanced dramatically.
Many people suffering with addictions still gravitate towards 12-step programmes such as those used by Alcoholics Anonymous, Al Anon and others. These programmes, while somewhat dated, can be helpful and supportive for many. One limitation is that they depend on relinquishing control to a higher power, leaving those who cannot embrace such a concept seeking an alternative.
The biggest advance in therapy in recent years has been the development of acceptance-based approaches, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness and Acceptance Action Therapy (AAT). Acceptance-based approaches are changing the world of therapy, including addiction treatments.
People with addictions live in a state of resistance. They resist cravings. That leads them to act in ways driven by their cravings in an attempt to control them, by consuming whatever they’re craving. And that, in turn, reinforces the unconscious beliefs and programming driving the craving.
Practically all mind-based issues are created in the same way. Life events trigger conscious or unconscious beliefs that in turn drive uncomfortable feelings or unproductive desires. Those feelings or desires drive compensating behaviours, which in turn reinforce the beliefs and programming driving the feelings or desires.
A craving, while part physiological, is driven by an unconscious belief that we need whatever we’re craving. Consuming whatever we’re craving reinforces this belief. First the unconscious receives a message that we must need whatever we’re craving; otherwise, why would we be consuming it? Second, the craving subsides, as a result, confirming that the belief must be valid. And so the behaviour reinforces the belief and addictions develop.
Addictions are just one example. Anxiety-based issues such as phobias are generally triggered by a life event that generates an initial unconscious belief which in turn drives anxious feelings. This leads to avoidance, thereby reinforcing the unconscious beliefs driving the anxiety, which just gets worse. Depression is generally triggered by life events that generate negative unconscious beliefs driving depressed feelings. That is turn leads to withdrawal or isolation, which reinforces those unconscious beliefs and so the feelings just get worse. OCD is generally triggered by life events that generate an initial unconscious belief, such as relating to contamination or security risks. That in turn drives behaviour to reduce the perceived risk. The behaviour reinforces the unconscious belief eventually leading to compulsions to continue the behaviour and anxiety if the behaviour is removed.
The prime cure for all these issues, and many more, is to reverse the behaviour. This is one of the two key components of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). But this isn’t easy if the feelings, cravings or compulsions driving the behaviour are strong. The answer is learning to accept the feelings, cravings or compulsions and being willing to let them be there, for now.
The opposite of resistance is acceptance. Acceptance-based therapies encourage us to accept uncomfortable feelings rather than resist them. We’re then better able to cease unproductive behaviours that reinforce the problem. Through a combination of acceptance and breaking behaviour patterns, we can start to unwind the programming. And so we begin to gain a sense of control over our lives.
Acceptance Action Therapy (AAT) has powerful tools to enable us to accept uncomfortable feelings or unproductive desires. It initially focuses on two key facts about feelings, cravings and compulsions. First, they’re all harmless. We may be harmed by what we do as a result of these internal experiences. But the experiences themselves are harmless. Even feeling cold is harmless. The source of feeling cold can harm us. That source is ‘being cold’. Being cold can kill us. But the feeling is just a harmless messaging system from the body to the brain, to let the brain know there’s a problem.
The second key fact is that feelings, cravings and compulsions are bearable. The only exception is extreme pain, probably under torture. That level of pain isn’t bearable. The body and mind tend to break down under such extreme pain.
Knowing those two key facts about feelings or desires helps us to accept them (being willing to let them be there for now). And accepting them has three immediate benefits.
First, resisting uncomfortable feelings or unproductive desires immediately increases them. Resistance can make us anxious about feeling anxious or depressed about feeling depressed. Resistance makes cravings, compulsions, feeling cold and any other feeling or desire, feel worse. By contrast, accepting those feelings or desires immediately diminishes them.
The second consequence of accepting feelings and desires has already been mentioned. It enables us to activate a prime AAT tool called ‘Accept the Feeling, Choose the Action’, i.e. it enables us to repeatedly carry out an action opposite to whatever the feeling or desire is driving us to do. This stops us reinforcing the unconscious belief and programming driving the feeling or desire and instead unwinds them.
The third consequence is that accepting uncomfortable feelings or unproductive desires directly contributes to unwinding the unconscious programming driving those feelings or desires. This impact is less significant than the behavioural change, but it still contributes.
Acceptance Action Therapy (AAT), includes powerful techniques for training clients to accept feelings and adopt powerful actions. Acceptance action approaches have transformed the lives of many, including those suffering from addictions. Addictions of every kind, including alcohol and drugs, have been resolved using AAT.
Graham Price
Nicholas Conn / 1st August 2018/ Posted in: Expert Talk
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Clocking Off
by Esmerelda Weatherwax (April 2011)
The clocks went forward this weekend and I wish they hadn’t. I enjoy the spring mornings getting lighter and lighter. Now suddenly they are dark again and I will have to adjust my sleep pattern accordingly. And while the, as John Galsworthy put it, ‘artificially extended daylight’ is not too much of a trial in March; it is a real hardship to me in June when it is still light at my 10pm bedtime. The suggestion every year that we should stay on Central European time, and even move our clocks forward a second hour fills me with dread.
I want to make the case for the British Isles to stay on Greenwich Mean Time, which is the natural rhythm of these islands, all year.
Greenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It became the standard for time in the United Kingdom in 1848 at the time of the coming of the railways so that the timetable could be regulated to the second. Before that each church or town hall clock was set according to local observation of the sun’s movements which resulted in a 5 minute discrepancy between east and west coast. This is not much to affect everyday life, but was not precise enough for Victorian Railway engineers. Their successors, however, have a much more flexible attitude to time these days when it comes to calculating punctuality statistics of the modern train, but that’s another story.
British Summer Time came about during the First World War as a daylight saving exercise. The intention was to squeeze every last drop of labour out of the munitions workers before the bosses had to expend their profits on lighting the factories and workshops. In that it was so successful it was decided to keep the practice going after 1918, hence Galsworthy’s remark in 1929. During the Second World War the daylight saving was extended by another hour to Double Summer Time. A similar light regime was imposed on occupied Europe by the Germans; known as Berlin time it suited the longitude of central Germany, and the comfort of the occupied peoples was not a concern. Spain adopted the time under General Franco at the end of the Civil War in 1936. Some 70 other countries have introduced some type of daylight saving measure to suit, or not suit, their local conditions.
Just as they kept the innovation introduced after conquest by Napoleon of driving on the wrong side of the road, so the countries of Europe kept Berlin time, which was renamed Central European Time.
Great Britain experimented with running on GMT+1, which they called British Standard Time for three years (intended five) from 1969 to 1971. British Standard Time or BST was not to be confused with British Summer Time or BST. I was at school studying for my O-levels and A levels at the time. It was a thoroughly miserable period during those winters. I travelled to school in the dark and watched the sun rise from my desk. By the time I had finished for the day the sun was setting and I traveled home in the dark. Slice it and dice it how you will there are only 8 hours of daylight in southern England in winter. It wasn’t just miserable; accidents increased in the mornings. The experiment was such a failure, Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to end it two years early. But will the current enthusiasts for lighter evenings and the resultant dark mornings listen? No, they blame it on ‘Scottish farmers’ for being a minority refusing to move with the times. They insist that accidents fell during the period but that the figures were adjusted for the sake of the Scottish vote. I am among those who believe that any general fall in road accidents during that period can be attributed to new safety measures including the Breathalyserto to deter drunken driving (introduced two years earlier) and the beginning of seat belt requirements. Accidents directly attributable to dark and icy morning conditions increased.
Like me Philip Johnson remembers the failed experiment and he wrote about it in The Telegraph last year, making many points I agree with.
The latest pressure group for our adopting GMT+1 and GMT+2 call themselves Lighter Later. They insist that there are more deaths when the clocks go back in October to GMT than would be the case if they went back from GMT+2 to GMT+1. I found this rather interesting article from Aberceder this morning. It mentions the change to British Summer Time this weekend and then quotes some statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics database and the University of Michigan showing that in the mining industry from 1983-2006 there was 5.7 per cent more workplace injuries and 67.6 per cent more workdays missed due to injuries in the days following the change to British Summer Time but that there was no increase in accidents when the clocks go back and people get an extra hour's sleep.
Ben Plowden, director of Better Routes and Places at Transport for London has warned London’s teenagers to be careful this week. This is from the Haringey Independent.
TEENAGERS are being warned to take extra care on the capital's roads as tonight's clock change will cause darker mornings. Clocks will go forward by one hour at 1am on Sunday morning, and road safety campaigners say this can lead to an increase in accidents in the early-morning rush hour.
I cannot find this article on line now; I believe it has been removed or hidden behind the apartheid pay wall; but last October I read an article by one of the proponents of our adopting GMT+2. He described his childhood memory of double summertime, sitting on a hay-cart at 11 pm, it was way past his bedtime but he was happy.
And the reason he gives for it being a good idea is exactly why it is a very bad idea. Sleep.
Professor Francesco Cappuccio of the University Of Warwick Medical School is just one of the reputable practitioners who have written about the fact that we get on average 2 hours less sleep than our grandparents did 100 years ago. Most of the articles on the subject give modern lifestyles as the cause, such as staying up to play computer games and watch late night TV. Traveling greater distances to and from work meaning time at home with the family has to be snatched from somewhere. Stress and noise, as if our forefathers never had noisy factories on the doorstep or worries about where the next meal was coming from. All of these have a part to play. But no one, that I can find, has made the correlation between the change from a healthier sleep pattern 100 years ago and the daylight saving measures introduced in 1916, ie nearly 100 years ago.
The proponents of artificially extended evenings say we will be healthier, less obese, and safer and will spend less on fuel if only we embrace football and aerobics outdoors until 11pm. Then we are expected to go home, get to bed at say midnight, then get up at 6am (which is the average time to rise in London, and my husband is indeed average; I am later since retirement), shower and breakfast, ready for the journey to work all bright eyed and bushy tailed.
If someone has to rise at 6am for the commute to work then to get something approaching 8 hours sleep they need to be heading towards the bedroom by 10pm-ish. Even if they then spend some time reading, praying or discussing the condition of the ceiling with their spouse.
Lack of sleep is even more damaging for children. This is an article originally in the Guardian from the website of the Leith Academy in Edinburgh. The original has gone from the Guardian website as their copyright has expired. Of particular interest is the research of Dr Avi Sadeh at Tel Aviv University. It is not just children’s behaviour and temper that is affected; their young brains do not develop properly and they cannot take in what they are learning properly. Is our education system dumbed down, because our children are too tired to learn?
Lack of sleep is a cause of obesity, increased risk of heart attack and stroke (that is research from Warwick University again, this time working with the University of Naples), can lower the immune system and thus increase the risk of catching a cold (or maybe worse) and diabetes and bowel cancer. And those same hormonal changes that affect the risk of diabetes are believed to have an effect on appetite and thus obesity. As Dr Shahrad Taheri said here “It is important for people to realise there is more to obesity than just stuffing your face”.
Anecdotally I know many people who do not sleep so well in the summer. They have difficulty getting to sleep until after dark. Once asleep the dawn does not always have the effect of waking them up early. It does some, but as in winter there is nothing that can be done to change the amount of daylight.
Portugal, a country also on the westernmost edge of Europe, through which the Greenwich meridian runs also tried the Central European Time experiment a few years ago and like the UK in 1971 abandoned it. The only English language version of comments about the experiment made by Rui Agostinho, director of the Lisbon Astronomical Observatory, who sat on the Portuguese Government commission which decided to abandon the scheme are here in the Daily Mail.
Mr Agostinho said: ‘Politicians think they can simply change the local time by law, regardless of what the sun is doing. But the reality is all our lives are ruled by daylight and we strongly depend on the sun.
In 1992 the government here decided they wanted to have the same time as Brussels because of the European Union. They claimed business relations with Europe would improve. But the experience was very bad. Our commission sat in 1995 and every government ministry involved was in favour of changing back to British time.
‘The consumption of medication for stress and insomnia increased dramatically. People were not feeling well. Schoolchildren suffered extreme effects – in the winter they were starting school while the stars were still in the sky. They were not sleeping well enough and they were forced out of bed when it was dark.
‘The human body needs sunlight to help it wake up properly. People were driving while sleepy and kids were going to school when they were not ready to start learning.’
Mr Agostinho, who is also professor of physics at the University of Lisbon, added: ‘The number of road accidents increased and retail industry suffered because customers would not shop in the mornings as it was too dark and too cold. The data shows you don’t save money. Electricity consumption increased in the mornings because it was still dark.”
Spain is considering reverting to GMT after nearly 70 years of European Central Time. The Spanish government think Spain will be more productive if they abandon the afternoon siesta followed by a late evening meal and got to bed earlier. I don’t think they are taking sufficient account of the heat of a Spanish afternoon which was responsible for the development of the siesta but I expect they have the example of Portugal to look to.
I submit that many of the health problems associated with the early part of the 21st century in the UK are associated with lack of sleep and a policy of artificially extended lighter evenings will result in even greater sleep deprivation, which will worsen not improve our health.
The old saying, “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” may not be such an old wives tale after all.
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‘Living bricks’ that reproduce could cut construction’s carbon footprint (chemistry)
EXCERPTS: In a study that will appear Jan. 15 in the journal Matter, engineer Wil Srubar and his colleagues describe their strategy for using bacteria to develop building materials that live and multiply -- and might deliver a lower carbon footprint, to boot. "We already use biological materials in our buildings, like wood, but those materials are no longer alive" said Srubar [...] "We're asking: Why can't we keep them alive and have that biology do something beneficial, too?"
[...] the researchers say that their ability to keep their bacteria alive with a high success rate shows that living buildings might not be too far off in the future. Such structures could, one day, heal their own cracks, suck up dangerous toxins from the air or even glow on command. "The sky's the limit for our creativity," Srubar said.
[...] The technique capitalises on the process of biomineralisation, whereby living organisms produce minerals that can harden or stiffen tissue. The inspiration came in part from the limitations of self-healing concrete, itself a biomineralisation success story.
Here an inoculum of biomineralising bacteria is added to cement to heal cracks. However, the environment of cement is not conducive to biological growth. ‘We showed that you can obtain greater survivability of the bacteria if you rethink the environment that you put them in,’ explains Wil Srubar, part of the team at the Unviersity of Colorado, Boulder that came up with the bricks.
In this system bacteria are placed in an environment that is more conducive to growth and through the biomineralisation process they contribute to the structural formation of the material. According to Srubar, ‘the compressive strength and mechanical properties we achieved are on the order of a cementitious mortar, like what you would see between the bricks in your house’.
The other advantage to increased survivability is that the bricks can be exponentially manufactured. Just like cell division, a parent brick can be divided to produce two new bricks. Srubar and his team were able to repeat the process for three generations in a single week, obtaining eight bricks from the original parent. The process involves heating the divided bricks until they are a medium viscosity liquid–sand solution, adding new gel medium and simply allowing the bacteria to grow for roughly six hours. From here more sand is added and the cubes cooled and remolded to form new bricks.
The team’s challenge now is optimising the environment for the trade-off between the viability of the bacteria and structural capacity. [...] The team's cyanobacteria, for example, need humid conditions to survive -- something that's not possible in more arid regions of the world. So he and his team are working to engineer microbes that are more resistant to drying out so they remain alive and functional.
But the possibilities are big. Srubar imagines a future in which suppliers could mail out sacks filled with the desiccated ingredients for making living building materials. Just add water, and people on site could begin to grow and shape their own microbial homes. "Nature has figured out how to do a lot of things in a clever and efficient way," Srubar said. "We just need to pay more attention." (MORE - 1) ... (MORE - 2)
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Bioaccumulation is the gradual accumulation of substances, such as pesticides, or other chemicals in an organism. [1] Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a substance at a rate faster than that at which the substance is lost by catabolism and excretion. Thus, the longer the biological half-life of a toxic substance, the greater the risk of chronic poisoning, even if environmental levels of the toxin are not very high.[2] Bioaccumulation, for example in fish, can be predicted by models.[3][4] Hypotheses for molecular size cutoff criteria for use as bioaccumulation potential indicators are not supported by data.[5] Biotransformation can strongly modify bioaccumulation of chemicals in an organism.[6]
An example of poisoning in the workplace can be seen from the phrase "mad as a hatter" (18th and 19th century England). The process for stiffening the felt used in making hats more than a hundred years ago involved mercury, which forms organic species such as methylmercury, which is lipid-soluble, and tends to accumulate in the brain, resulting in mercury poisoning. Other lipid-soluble (fat-soluble) poisons include tetraethyllead compounds (the lead in leaded petrol), and DDT. These compounds are stored in the body's fat, and when the fatty tissues are used for energy, the compounds are released and cause acute poisoning.
Naturally produced toxins can also bioaccumulate. The marine algal blooms known as "red tides" can result in local filter-feeding organisms such as mussels and oysters becoming toxic; coral reef fish can be responsible for the poisoning known as ciguatera when they accumulate a toxin called ciguatoxin from reef algae.
Some animal species exhibit bioaccumulation as a mode of defense; by consuming toxic plants or animal prey, a species may accumulate the toxin, which then presents a deterrent to a potential predator. One example is the tobacco hornworm, which concentrates nicotine to a toxic level in its body as it consumes tobacco plants. Poisoning of small consumers can be passed along the food chain to affect the consumers later on. Other compounds that are not normally considered toxic can be accumulated to toxic levels in organisms. The classic example is of vitamin A, which becomes concentrated in carnivore livers of e.g. polar bears: as a pure carnivore that feeds on other carnivores (seals), they accumulate extremely large amounts of vitamin A in their livers. It was known by the native peoples of the Arctic that the livers of carnivores should not be eaten, but Arctic explorers have suffered Hypervitaminosis A from eating the livers of bears (and there has been at least one example of similar poisoning of Antarctic explorers eating husky dog livers). One notable example of this is the expedition of Sir Douglas Mawson, where his exploration companion died from eating the liver of one of their dogs.
Coastal fish (such as the smooth toadfish) and seabirds (such as the Atlantic puffin) are often monitored for heavy metal bioaccumulation.
See also
1. Alexander (1999). "Bioaccumulation, bioconcentration, biomagnification". Environmental Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. pp. 43–44. doi:10.1007/1-4020-4494-1_31. ISBN 978-0-412-74050-3.
3. Stadnicka, J; Schirmer, K; Ashauer, R (2012). Predicting Concentrations of Organic Chemicals in Fish by Using Toxicokinetic Models. Environ. Sci. Technol. doi:10.1021/es2043728
4. Otero-Muras, I; Franco-Uria, A; Alonso, A A; Balsa-Canto, E (2010). Dynamic multi-compartmental modelling of metal bioaccumulation in fish. Environ. Modell. Soft. DOI:10.1016/j.envsoft.2009.08.009
5. Jon Arnot et al. Molecular size cutoff criteria for screening bioaccumulation potential: Fact or fiction? DOI:10.1897/IEAM 2009-051.1. |
Korean, known in the language itself as Kugo, is the language of the Korean Peninsula in northeast Asia. In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) there are 20 million speakers and in the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) there are 42 million speakers. Korean is also spoken by almost 2 million people in China, mainly in provinces bordering North Korea. There are approximately half a million speakers in Japan and Russia, as well as significant numbers in the United States (over 600,000) with large communities on the west coast and in New York. Other communities are found in Singapore, Thailand, Guam, and Paraguay. The total number of speakers is 72 million (Grimes 1992).
Korean has been listed as a critical language by the American State Department because of our strategic business and security interests in the Korean-speaking world, as well as a heritage language due to the number of American citizens of Korean heritage. North Korea was declared a palpable threat in 2003 after they tested nuclear weapons despite the disapproval of the United Nations. South Korea is one of our largest East Asian trading partners. In 2007 the United States exported $$ 34,644.8million to South Korea, an amount on par with some of our English-speaking trade partners. This amount has increased by 582% since 1985. In 2007 the United States has imported $47,562.3 million in goods from these countries, an increase of 475% since 1985.
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Selye defined stress as: “Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand, whether it is caused by, or results in, pleasant or unpleasant conditions”
Selye identified three states of adaptation which a person goes through in their General Adaptation Syndrome in 1936. They are:
1. Alarm
2. Resistance
3. Exhaustion
These stages are associated with particular biological markers such as changes in hormone patterns and the production of “stress hormones,” and the gradual depletion of the body’s energy resources.
In the Alarm state the body recognizes a challenge or threat and goes into the “fight or flight” response. Stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol are both produced.
In the Resistance state the body attempts to adapt to a challenging situation which is persisting. The coping or adaptation requires physiological resources, which may eventually get depleted.
If the Exhaustion state occurs, the stressful challenge has persisted too long. The immune system is impaired, long term damage and illness may result.
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└ Whale Behaviour
Bubblenetting Print E-mail
This is a method of feeding that is quite extraordinary. The humpback whales dive beneath a school of fish, swimming in a circular pattern. Breathing out, they blow bubbles which form columns of air. These bubbles expand as they float towards the surface, forming a 'net' from which the fish do not escape. The whales continue to blow bubbles as they circle towards the surface, before opening their enormous mouths and engulfing the fish that they have trapped in their bubble net.
Video of whales breaching and pec slapping in Bermuda Print E-mail
North Atlantic humpbacks migrate over the open ocean each spring on their way from the breeding/mating grounds in the Caribbean to their feeding grounds up north. Here you can see five humpbacks in Bermuda still displaying the courting/mating behaviour as two challenging males breach and pec slap to attract the attention of a mother humpback with a calf and a primary escort.
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