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Blood in the urine Blood in the urine: What does it mean for your health? Updated: March 19, 2019Published: October, 2010 Urinary bleeding can be dramatic and frightening, prompting an appropriate call to your doctor. But sometimes the call travels in the other direction; many people are surprised and alarmed to get a call from their doctors reporting that the urine that looked clear in the specimen jar actually contains red blood cells (RBCs). Either way, blood in the urine, known technically as hematuria, requires medical evaluation. Although the results are often reassuring, hematuria is a warning symptom that you should never ignore. Blood can enter the urine from any place in the urinary tract. So the first step in understanding hematuria is to understand your anatomy. To continue reading this article, you must login. • Research health conditions • Check your symptoms • Prepare for a doctor’s visit or test • Find the best treatments and procedures for you • Explore options for better nutrition and exercise Hematuria (Blood in the Urine) What is blood in the urine? What causes blood in the urine? Most of the causes of blood in the urine are not serious. For example, heavy exercise may cause blood in the urine, which often goes away in a day. Other, more serious causes include: • Cancer • Kidney infection or disease • Urinary tract infection (UTI) • Enlarged prostate (men only) • Kidney or bladder stones • Certain diseases (like sickle cell anemia and cystic kidney disease) • Injury to the kidneys Some medications cause blood in the urine. And many people have it without having any other related problems. What are the symptoms of blood in the urine? There not be enough blood in the urine to change the color, but in severe cases, the urine may look pink, red, or tea colored. How is blood in the urine diagnosed? • Urinalysis. Urine is tested for various cells and chemicals, such as red and white blood cells, germs, or too much protein. • Blood tests. Blood is checked for high levels of waste products. If these tests aren’t clear you may need other tests, such as: • Intravenous pyelogram (IVP). A series of X-rays of the kidney, ureters (the tubes connecting the kidneys and bladder), and bladder is done after a contrast dye is injected into a vein. This is done to look for tumors, kidney stones, or any blockages, and to check blood flow in the kidneys. • Ultrasound. An imaging test that uses high-frequency sound waves to make images of the organs of the urinary tract on a computer screen. • Cystoscopy. A thin, flexible tube and viewing device, is put in through the urethra to examine the parts of the urinary tract for structure changes or blockages, such as tumors or stones. How is blood in the urine treated? If you have blood in your urine that lasts more than a day, see a health care provider, especially if you have unexplained weight loss, discomfort with urination, frequent urination, or urgent urination. Treatment will depend on the cause of the blood in the urine. Key points about blood in urine • Most of the causes of blood in the urine are not serious. For example, in some cases, strenuous exercise will cause blood in the urine. • Blood in the urine can often be diagnosed with urine tests. If these are not clear, imaging tests may be needed to look at the urinary tract. • Treatment depends on the cause of the blood in the urine. Next steps • Before your visit, write down questions you want answered. Hematuria or Blood in Urine How is hematuria diagnosed and evaluated? Having blood in your urine does not necessarily mean you have a medical problem. It may be caused by routine activities such as vigorous exercise. However, because it can sometimes involve a serious condition, you should contact your doctor right away. Your doctor will review your medical history. A physical exam will check for bruising and other signs of injury. If you are male, your doctor may use a digital rectal exam to see if your prostate is causing the hematuria. Tell your doctor about any medications you’re taking, including vitamins or supplements. Your doctor may use one or more of the following exams to assess your condition: • X-ray: Your doctor may use abdominal x-ray to look for stones, especially if you have nausea and vomiting. An x-ray will not detect most causes of hematuria. Other exams will likely be needed. • MR/CT Urography: Your doctor may use CT or MR urography to examine your urinary tract, bladder, ureters, and kidneys. • Abdominal ultrasound: Your doctor may use ultrasound to examine your kidneys and bladder for potential causes of blood in your urine. • Intravenous pyelogram (IVP): An IVP x-ray exam helps your doctor visualize your kidneys, bladder and ureters. It can help detect urinary system abnormalities and show how efficiently your system works. This exam requires an injection of contrast material. • MRI of the prostate: If you are male, your prostate may be causing your condition. If so, your doctor may assess your prostate and seminal vesicles using MRI. Is Blue Urine Normal? Urine Colors Explained Depending on what you eat, any medications you’re taking, and how much water your drink, urine colors can vary. Many of these colors fall on the spectrum of what “normal” urine can look like, but there are cases where unusual urine colors may be a cause for concern. Clear urine indicates that you’re drinking more than the daily recommended amount of water. While being hydrated is a good thing, drinking too much water can rob your body of electrolytes. Urine that occasionally looks clear is no reason to panic, but urine that’s always clear could indicate that you need to cut back on how much water you’re drinking. Yellowish to amber The color of “typical” urine falls on the spectrum of light yellow to a deeper amber color. The urochrome pigment that’s naturally in your urine becomes more diluted as you drink water. Red or pink • beets • rhubarb • blueberries • enlarged prostate • kidney stones • tumors in the bladder and kidney Speak to a doctor if you’re ever concerned about blood in your urine. If your urine appears orange, it could be a symptom of dehydration. If you have urine that’s orange in addition to light colored stools, bile may be getting into your bloodstream because of issues with your bile ducts or liver. Adult-onset jaundice can also cause orange urine. Blue or green Dark brown In most cases, urine that’s dark brown indicates dehydration. Dark brown urine can also be a side effect of certain medications, including metronidazole (Flagyl) and chloroquine (Aralen). Cloudy urine with foam or bubbles is called pneumaturia. This can be a symptom of serious health conditions, including Crohn’s disease or diverticulitis. There are some cases where urine is foamy, and doctors can’t determine the cause. Blood in the Urine (Hematuria) • Larger text sizeLarge text sizeRegular text size What Is Hematuria? Peeing is one way our bodies get rid of waste products. The process starts in the kidneys, which remove excess fluids and waste from the blood and turn them into urine. The urine then flows through tubes called ureters into the bladder, where it’s stored until we pee it out. If blood cells leak into the urine at any part of the process, it causes hematuria. There are two kinds of hematuria: 2. Gross hematuria is when you can see the blood in the urine even without a microscope. This is because there is enough blood in the urine to turn it red or tea-colored. • in the bladder, which stores pee • in the urethra, where pee leaves the body Teens can get hematuria for many reasons. The more common causes are: • bladder or kidney infections • kidney stones • high levels of calcium and other minerals in the urine • a problem with the urinary tract • injury to the kidneys or urinary tract Sometimes what looks like hematuria might be something else. Things like food dye, some foods (like beets or blackberries), the blood from your period and some prescription medicines can make pee look red. How Is Hematuria Diagnosed? If you ever see blood in your urine, don’t panic. Chances are, it’s no big deal. But you’ll want to be sure, so tell your mom or dad and see a doctor. If you need treatment, it’s good to get started right away. The doctor will do an exam and ask about symptoms, recent activities, and your . You’ll give a urine sample (pee in a cup) for testing. If the urine test comes back negative, the doctor will probably want another urine sample 1-2 weeks later to make sure the urine is free of red blood cells. If hematuria only happens once, treatment usually isn’t needed. If urine samples point to something more serious or you’ve had a recent injury, you might need other tests, such as: • a urine culture (more peeing in a cup) • imaging tests like a kidney ultrasound, an MRI, or a CT scan How Is Hematuria Treated? Most teens who have hematuria won’t need any kind of treatment for it. Hematuria that is due to a UTI will be treated with antibiotics. If you’ve been treated for hematuria, your doctor will probably want you to get follow-up tests to make sure your urine is free of red blood cells. When hematuria is a sign of something more serious — like kidney stones or a specific kidney disease — doctors will treat that condition. Reviewed by: Robert S. Mathias, MD Date reviewed: September 2019 Microscopic Hematuria How do I give a urine sample? • Wash your hands with soap and warm water. Blood in Urine (Hematuria) Some of the underlying causes of hematuria are benign, temporary states that do no lasting harm and resolve with little or no specific treatment. Some causes, however, may be critical conditions or represent a chronic condition that requires medical intervention and monitoring. The only way to understand the seriousness of hematuria in a specific individual and to decide on an appropriate treatment is to investigate. As part of the investigation, a health practitioner will evaluate an individual’s medical history, physical examination, and accompanying signs and symptoms to help determine what is causing hematuria. This may include answering questions, such as: Is it really blood? One of the first questions to be asked is whether or not it is really blood that is present and/or seen in the urine. • Reddish-brown coloring can also come from eating foods such as beets and rhubarb or taking drugs such as phenazopyridine (most commonly), and also cascara, diphenylhydantoin, methyldopa, phenolphthalein, phenothiazine, phenacetin, phenindione, etc. • Hemoglobin in the urine (hemoglobinuria). Some conditions cause red blood cells to break apart (hemolyze) and release hemoglobin, the iron-containing protein that gives red blood cells their color. The excess hemoglobin is eliminated through the urine, causing it to turn red or tea-colored. Hemolytic anemias, including sickle cell anemia for example, can lead to hemoglobinuria. • Other substances produced by the body and eliminated in the urine can change the color. For example, bilirubin is usually removed by the liver but can accumulate when the liver is damaged or diseased and can cause urine to be a dark amber color. This is a concern that needs to be further investigated, but it is not hematuria. Another example is myoglobin, a small, oxygen-binding protein found in heart and skeletal muscles that is filtered from the blood by the kidneys and eliminated in the urine. High levels of myoglobin can give urine a red color, making it appear as if there is blood in the urine. Is the blood from the urinary tract? Contaminating blood may find its way into the urine from: • Vaginal bleeding, such as from menstruation • Hemorrhoids Is it due to an infection? Infections can sometimes cause cloudy and smelly urine, painful urination, and occasionally blood in the urine. • Urinary tract infections (UTIs)—mostly affect the bladder and are usually caused by bacteria. UTIs can cause inflammation of the bladder (cystitis) • Kidney infection—UTIs can sometimes spread to the kidneys • Viral infection—infections like hepatitis, which causes liver disease and inflammation of the liver can cause blood to appear in the urine Is the blood from a single isolated incident or from a known cause? Sometimes blood may appear and then go away without the cause ever being identified. In other cases, it may be from an identifiable, resolvable or self-limited cause, such as: • Strenuous exercise • Fever • Exposure to toxins, such as contrast dyes used in radiologic procedures • Medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), aspirin, or blood thinners that inhibit clotting and may increase the risk of a person having bleeding episodes with blood in the urine • A medical procedure that physically involves part of the urinary tract, such as surgery, a kidney biopsy, or inserting a urinary catheter, can cause temporary bloody urine. • Physical injury to the kidney or bladder, such as trauma • An isolated incident (cause never identified) Is the hematuria due to an inflammation or irritation of the urinary tract (or prostate in men) or due to blockage by or the passage of a kidney stone? The following can cause blood in the urine and sometimes radiating pain, painful urination, urinary urgency, and/or urinary hesitancy: • Urethritis—inflammation of the duct that carries urine from the bladder out of the body (urethra) • Prostatitis—inflammation of the prostate (which surrounds the urethra in men) • Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) • Kidney stones or bladder stones Is it caused by kidney disease or a condition that can cause kidney damage? • There are a variety of kidney diseases that can cause hematuria. An example is glomerulonephritis, a kidney disease associated with the filtering units in the kidneys (glomeruli). Another is kidney disease after strep throat (post-infectious glomerulonephritis), which can be the cause of blood in a child’s urine. • Diabetes and high blood pressure (hypertension) are common causes of kidney damage and can sometimes result in hematuria. • Polycystic kidney disease is an inherited disorder that can lead to the formation of cysts in the kidneys and can lead to kidney disease. Is hematuria due to some other disease or condition within the urinary tract? • Structural abnormalities within the urinary tract can cause bleeding. • Blood clots can form within the urinary tract. • Endometriosis, a condition in which tissue that normally lines the uterus grows in other places, like the bladder, can also cause blood in the urine. Is the hematuria due to some other underlying chronic and/or inherited disorder? This may be a disorder that affects the body as a whole (systemic) or that results in excess blood within the urinary tract, leading to hematuria. Some examples include: • Bleeding disorders—these can lead to excessive bleeding episodes (bloody noses, bruising, prolonged bleeding, etc.) throughout the body. Examples include hemophilia and thrombocytopenia. • Alport syndrome—an inherited condition associated with hematuria and protein in the urine • Autoimmune disorders—with this group of diseases, the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks and damages its own tissue and organs, including the kidneys. Is hematuria due to cancer? Cancers associated with the urinary tract and prostate can cause hematuria. These include: • Bladder cancer • Kidney cancer • Prostate cancer About the author Leave a Reply
Why hatred is bad? Is There Hatred in Your Heart? Hate is one of our most overused and misunderstood words. What is hate? Why do we hate? Where does hate originate from? Does it have any benefits? Is it innate or acquired? Are some people born more hateful than others? Or does it strictly come from our conditioning and culture? And if so, who was the first hater in history? Is all hatred bad? Is there a “good” type of hate? How do we distinguish between toxic hatred and healthy repulsion to despicable behavior? And what is the relationship between love and hate? Does love mean hating anything antithetical to your love? Is hate the absence of love? Please join Rabbi Jacobson in this — well, loving — post-Shavuot workshop, and discover how Sinai carries the secret of love and hate. Learn how it can help you access the roots of your own deeply-ingrained emotions to help you not only better master your reactions and attitudes, but also rewire your neurons and feelings. Imagine living a hate-less life. A life filled with love without any toxins in your heart. Lexicon Everyone πᾶς (pas) Adjective – Nominative Masculine Singular Strong’s Greek 3956: All, the whole, every kind of. Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole. ὁ (ho) Article – Nominative Masculine Singular μισῶν (misōn) Verb – Present Participle Active – Nominative Masculine Singular Strong’s Greek 3404: To hate, detest, love less, esteem less. From a primary misos; to detest; by extension, to love less. αὐτοῦ (autou) Personal / Possessive Pronoun – Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular Strong’s Greek 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons. ἀδελφὸν (adelphon) Noun – Accusative Masculine Singular Strong’s Greek 80: A brother, member of the same religious community, especially a fellow-Christian. A brother near or remote. ἐστίν (estin) Verb – Present Indicative Active – 3rd Person Singular a murderer, ἀνθρωποκτόνος (anthrōpoktonos) Noun – Nominative Masculine Singular Strong’s Greek 443: A murderer, man-slayer. From anthropos and kteino; a manslayer. καὶ (kai) Strong’s Greek 2532: And, even, also, namely. you know οἴδατε (oidate) Verb – Perfect Indicative Active – 2nd Person Plural Strong’s Greek 1492: To know, remember, appreciate. ὅτι (hoti) Strong’s Greek 3754: Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because. αἰώνιον (aiōnion) Adjective – Accusative Feminine Singular Strong’s Greek 166: From aion; perpetual. ζωὴν (zōēn) Noun – Accusative Feminine Singular {does} not οὐκ (ouk) Strong’s Greek 3756: No, not. Also ouk, and ouch a primary word; the absolute negative adverb; no or not. μένουσαν (menousan) Verb – Present Participle Active – Accusative Feminine Singular Strong’s Greek 3306: To remain, abide, stay, wait; with acc: I wait for, await. A primary verb; to stay. ἐν (en) πᾶς (pas) Adjective – Nominative Masculine Singular ἀνθρωποκτόνος (anthrōpoktonos) Noun – Nominative Masculine Singular Verse 15. – As in 1 John 4:20, St. John passes at once from not loving to hating, treating the two as equivalent. He takes no account of the neutral ground of indifference. He that is not for his brother is against him. Indifference is hate quiescent, there being nothing to excite it. Love is the only security against hate. And as every one who does not love is potentially a hater, so every hater is potentially a murderer. A murderer is a hater who expresses his hatred in the most emphatic way. A hater who does not murder abstains for various reasons from this extreme way of expressing his hate. But the temper of the two men is the same; and it is obvious (οἴδατε “ye know what needs no evidence”) that every murderer is incapable of possessing eternal life. It is the murderous temper, not the act of homicide, that excludes from eternal life. St. John, of course, does not mean that murder is an unpardonable sin; but he shows that hate and death go together, as love and life, and that the two pairs are mutually exclusive. How can life and the desire to extinguish life be compatible? It is very forced to interpret ἀνθρωποκτόνος as either “destroyer of his own soul,” or “destroyer of the hated man’s soul,” by provoking him to return hate for hate. Jump to Previous Abiding Age-During Ages Continuing Eternal Hate Hates Hateth Hating Life Murderer Remaining TakerJump to Next Abiding Age-During Ages Continuing Eternal Hate Hates Hateth Hating Life Murderer Remaining TakerLinks 1 John 3:15 NIV 1 John 3:15 NLT 1 John 3:15 ESV 1 John 3:15 NASB 1 John 3:15 KJV 1 John 3:15 Bible Apps 1 John 3:15 Biblia Paralela 1 John 3:15 Chinese Bible 1 John 3:15 French Bible 1 John 3:15 German Bible Alphabetical: a abiding and Anyone brother eternal Everyone has hates him his in is know life murderer no that who you NT Letters: 1 John 3:15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer (1J iJ 1Jn i jn 1 jo) Christian Bible Study Resources, Dictionary, Concordance and Search Tools You feel hate for a person that you think is a bad person, who is capable of doing bad things. For example, you may feel hate for someone who has deliberately hurt you or a loved one in the past, for someone who has gravely betrayed your trust, or someone who has deeply harmed your self-identity. Among all negative emotions, hate is probably the most infamous one. It is often seen as a purely destructive emotion that we would be better without. Although it does often do more bad than good, hate may in some cases be functional in making us avoid or banish certain people based on their past actions. Unlike anger-emotions, hate is directed at a whole person rather than a specific action or event. It involves the belief that the other person is inherently bad or evil, and that there is little to no chance that this could change. This belief is usually not established from a single action, but a pattern of behavior. Furthermore, because you think this person is bad beyond change, you believe there is no point in any constructive approach. Rather, you just wish something bad would happen to them, or at least, that they would disappear from your life. Although hate can definitely lead to violent behavior, this is not necessarily the case, depending on the person and the situation. Often, someone will just avoid the hated person. If that is not possible, for example, because they work closely together, other strategies are used to create psychological distance. Hate can also be directed towards groups, a form that is often actively stimulated in wartime. Hating the enemy can relieve feelings of guilt for one’s own wrongdoings. The word ‘hate’ is subject to some inflation in everyday use, as it is much more often used than the emotion actually occurs. For instance, someone may say he ‘hates’ a type of music, when he merely dislikes it, or that he hates a colleague, when she merely annoys him. In the comic, Murphy finds out that his colleague Patrick, who earlier asked him to trust him with his presentation, has been going behind his back. To add insult to injury, he has been actively lobbying to cut back on Murphy’s department. Anger and hatred can make us feel happy, says study Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Study finds the secret to happiness may lie in feeling more negative emotions People are happier if they are able to feel emotions they desire – even if those emotions are unpleasant, such as anger and hatred, a study suggests. The results of the study, compiled by an international team of researchers, found happiness is “more than simply feeling pleasure and avoiding pain”. Researchers asked participants what emotions they desired and felt. This was then compared to how they rated their overall happiness, or life satisfaction. The researchers found that while people overall wanted to experience more pleasant emotions, they had the greatest life satisfaction if the emotions they experienced matched those they desired. The cross-cultural study included some 2,300 university students from the United States, Brazil, China, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Poland and Singapore. Negative emotions Surprisingly, the study also found 11% of people wanted to feel less of positive emotions, such as love and empathy, while 10% of people wanted to feel more negative emotions, such as hatred and anger. She added that a woman who wants to leave an abusive partner but is not willing to do so may be happier if she loved him less, for example. ‘Feeling bad can be good’ Dr Anna Alexandrova, from the University of Cambridge’s Wellbeing Institute, said the research challenges how people think of happiness. This study nicely calls into question a traditional measure of happiness that defines it as a ratio of positive to negative emotions, she said. But when it came to unpleasant emotions, this study assessed only anger and hatred, which Dr Alexandrova said is a limitation. Prof Tamir said the research does not apply to those with clinical depression: “People who are clinically depressed want to be more sad and less happy than other people. That only exacerbates the problem.” She said the study sheds light on the downsides of expecting to always feel happy. Anger is learned behavior; and so is hatred. Ben FathiFollow Oct 9, 2018 · 6 min read “Not everything that can be faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed that is not faced.” — James Baldwin. I am not Your Negro. Anger is the external manifestation of our feelings of frustration projected towards others. If I’m angry, chances are I feel frustrated about something in my environment, something I can’t change. Instead of dealing with the root cause, I choose to unleash my frustration on someone else. The situation may not improve but it sure feels good to get the anger out of my system. Of course, we’re all born with the physical ability to feel the biological and chemical changes that accompany anger (flushed face, raised blood pressure, increased heart rate, etc.) but the emotion also needs a target, someone or something to be angry at. A newborn doesn’t even understand the concepts of self and other. It has no way of knowing what it means to be angry. It has to learn that. Early on in life, children observe situations in which anger is used by those around them as a seemingly reasonable and effective response. They learn, through observation, how and when it’s appropriate to use anger in stressful social situations. It’s only then that we start seeing children exhibit and express anger as an emotion. Watch a baby carefully for the first few months of his or her development and this fact becomes obvious. Newborn babies exhibit very few recognizable human emotions other than crying due to physical discomfort or emotional distress. Very quickly, within the first few weeks, they pick up visual cues from their parents about expressions of happiness and start smiling in response to positive experiences. Surprise and joy are also common expressions as they encounter and understand new situations. However, you’ll never see an angry baby and there’s a good reason for that. Emotions such as anger, hatred, and fear, are more complex in that they require recognition of social constructs such as self and others. This is why young children seem fearless; they have no concept of self to be protective of. Similarly, you need to be angry at someone or at something, and it takes a few more months for children to develop a sense of individuals as durable entities with personalities that they can interact with. Even then, they don’t exhibit anger as an emotion. They then learn over the next few months, through observation of those around them, what it means to be angry and how that emotion can be used as a tool in social situations. It’s then, and only then, that we start seeing children exhibit anger in their behavior. They watch mom or dad or the babysitter turn red with anger, yell and scream, and then calm down. The first few times they witness this, the look on their faces is one of confusion and incomprehension. They have no idea what they’re witnessing. Wait, what is this? I don’t recognize this behavior. Why is he (or she) getting all worked up and screaming? This doesn’t make any sense. What objective does that achieve? I’m so confused. Ah, I see now. It’s a legitimate form of behavior in social situations when you are frustrated about something and seems to always result in the person feeling better immediately afterwards — regardless of whether the situation actually changed or not. I can either pick up these toys my brother left on the ground or I can yell at him for being inconsiderate and lazy. Wow, that does make me feel good. Lesson learned. The concepts of anger and hatred require an understanding of the social concepts that a newborn baby clearly does not possess: you, me, mom, dad, brother, dog. None of these mean anything to a newborn. Frustration, by necessity, must come first as an emotion, just as we solidify the concept of self. I can’t control or change X, therefore I feel frustrated about the situation. To be angry, by comparison, requires not just an understanding of a given situation and my (in)ability to change it, but also the concept of an “other” who could be blamed for the situation as a proxy for my frustration. They only learn that this is a valid (and sometimes successful) emotional response through observing those around them over repeated episodes; of adults throwing temper tantrums at each other and sometimes, oddly and inexplicably, even at inanimate objects: the damn car, the stupid computer, the f’ing microwave oven! But, you’ll say, anger and aggression have been seen in many other species as well. Just look at the apes. It’s in our genes. There’s a difference between aggression and anger. The former is a biological formula programmed into us by evolution. The latter is, by necessity, a social construct. The lion is never really angry at the gazelle he’s chasing. That’s just dinner. He may show tons of aggression to get the desired goal (food) but I doubt you’ll detect any anger towards the gazelle. He will only get angry (at himself) if and when he becomes frustrated in his attempts, when he stumbles or misses the mark repeatedly. He also gets angry at his mates or his cubs or his wife. Those are all social constructs with plenty of opportunity for learned behavior and for frustrating social situations. Similarly, hate, as an emotion, requires an understanding not just of all the above social concepts but also of entities as diverse as celery (my personal nemesis) and celebrity (who doesn’t hate Justin Bieber?), as irrelevant as religion, or as opaque as race. There seems to be no shortage of things to hate in the universe — and the list is ever growing. Bieber just happens to be at the center of the Venn diagram of all sets of things hateable. The point remains, though. Anger is learned behavior. Frustration is a slow burn while anger is the volcano that releases pressure. And anger begets hate. Hate is just frustration and anger projected to a group or category instead of an individual. Of course, it will take the child years to understand what it means to be a Jew or a Muslim or a Christian, a Mexican or a negro or a homosexual — take your pick. But, by then, he has perfected his anger skills. And it takes the same amount of effort to be angry at your sister at age three as it does to claim you hate Muslims or gays or blacks at age twelve — in both cases barely understanding what the object of your hatred, your anger, really means. Here, too, we often learn by watching those around us and mimicking what they claim to hate. And seldom do we slow down later in life long enough to question those beliefs. How Hatred only Hurts You By Joanna Kleovoulou, Clinical Psychologist, Founder and Director of PsychMatters Centre “Holding on to Hate is like letting someone live rent-free in your mind” Many of us associate the month of February with love, adoration and friendship, with Valentine’s Day shooting its arrow just around the corner. But for many of us, struggling to let go of past hurts and betrayals locks us into a spiral of mistrust and ill-health. Hatred is a feeling that we all have felt and experienced at some point in our lives, especially when we have been betrayed or hurt by someone that we are attached to. Hateful feelings are normal when they occur sporadically. However, the effects of feeling hatred over a long period of time can have devastating effects on your mind and body. Feelings of rage and hatred build up in the mind, body and soul, affecting the body’s organs and natural processes and breeding further negative emotions. Hatred is a form of neurosis, fixation and judgment that is harmful to you. If continued, it leads to conflicts in relationships and to bodily dis-ease. Research shows that hatred changes the chemistry in the brain as it stimulates the premotor cortex which is responsible for planning and execution of motion. This prepares us to act aggressively when feeling hateful, either to defend or as an attack . This activation also triggers the autonomic nervous system, creating “fight or flight” responses, increasing cortisol and adrenalin. Both these hormones deplete the adrenals and contribute to weight gain, insomnia, anxiety, depression and chronic illness. And so the cycle of bodily and mental dis-ease continues. Hatred also triggers the mind to try to predict what the actions of the person being hated may do, as a way to protect you, but this leads to further anxiety, restlessness, obsessive thinking and paranoia, which also then impacts negatively in the way you engage in relationships. It’s important to note that all these reactions affect only the hater, and not the hated, breaking down your nervous – immune – and endocrine system, and your mental well-being. The opposite of hatred is not love. It is mental and emotional detachment. Hatred attaches you to the thing or person you hate. Hatred is an intense repulsion that creates a mirror effect in that it attracts the person back to the thing hated in order to be repulsed by it over and over. Hatred is bitter-sweet as it inflates the ego and makes you feel very superior and self-righteous against the thing or one that is hated, only breeding further pain. Tips on getting rid of Hatred: • Acknowledge that you are full of hatred. If you can admit that you are feeling hateful, then you can begin to deal with this emotion and find a solution to the problem. • Understand why you are feeling hate. Look within yourself and ask why you are upset. Hatred usually comes from a place of fear, insecurity or mistrust. • Try to catch yourself in your hatred. The mind in its ego state, will perpetuate it by saying confirming labelling statements such as “She’s really such a @&?.” • When you catch yourself in these phrases, words or actions, stop yourself, recognise that it just feeds your hatred and builds up more anger. • Take a step back. In the heat of the moment it can be hard to make wise decisions. Take a break, go for a walk or practice meditation until you have calmed down. Take deep breaths and allow yourself to relax. Once your mind is calm, you can will be able to control your emotions in a more efficient manner bringing perspective to your thoughts and feelings. • Deal with it. Instead of ignoring the issue, try to find a solution to the problem. If the situation is beyond your control, try to resolve it in your head by shifting your mindset. You may not be able to change a particular person or situation, but you can change how you think about them. Or, do what needs to be done, preferably in an even-handed and open-minded way. • Talk to someone you trust as talking to a close friend, family member or a psychologist about something painful, can help to alleviate the negative feelings you are having. They can often offer valuable advice or guidance. Before you let someone live rent-free in your head and heart, remember – only YOU will be paying the painful price. Should you be struggling to let of hurt, anger, pain and hatred, contact us at PsychMatters on 0114503576 to assist you to live more masterfully and positively. How Hate Works If you’re a heavy metal fan, you’ve probably heard the Iron Maiden song “There’s a Thin Line Between Love and Hate.” As it turns out, those lyrics have a grain of truth in them, at least in a neurological sense. In 2008, scientists at University College London in the U.K. published a study in which they included 17 subjects who’d expressed a strong hatred for another person — typically, an ex-lover or a colleague. When the subjects’ brains were mapped with an MRI scanner while they looked at pictures of the people they hated, activity was observed the putamen and insular cortex — two brain regions that also light up when a person sees a picture of a loved one . The involvement of the putamen in both emotions is particularly revealing, because that part of the brain also prepares the body for movement. Scientists hypothesize that this area goes into action with the aim of providing protection to a loved one — to prepare for an aggressive or spiteful act from a hated person . But the researchers also spotted a key difference between the two emotions. When a person sees another person he or she loves, the areas of the frontal cortex associated with judgment and critical thinking typically become less active than normal. But when subjects saw someone they hated, most of the frontal cortex remained active. In fact, the researchers found that when they compared the brain scans to answers that subjects had given on a questionnaire, the more intensively a person said that he or she hated another person, the more energetically the subject’s frontal cortex lit up at the sight of the person. So here’s the upshot: Hating someone isn’t just a knee-jerk emotional reaction. It also involves a certain amount of reasoning and rumination . Hate involves both the interior, primitive parts of the brain and the parts that developed relatively late in human evolution. So our capacity for intense dislike of others of our species may date back as far as 150,000 years, when the first modern humans emerged . Why hate developed is a murkier question. There’s some evidence that humans’ ability to hate may actually be an evolutionary adaptation, one that made it easier for a group of hunter-gatherers to justify taking scarce food from competing groups . But even after humans developed agriculture and organized themselves into civilizations, that venomous urge persisted. We’ll look at hate’s history on the next page. Scientists have spotted the parts of the brain that light up when we actively hate someone. There’s probably a reason why hate evolved in the first place — and it’s similar to love. The Hate Study In 2008, two scientists decided to launch a study to investigate whether the emotion of hatred was rooted in some consistent biology. Their first problem, in framing this study, was narrowing down the vast menagerie of different kinds of hatred. They decided that they’d begin their study by asking one human to hate another human. Even then, they knew that their request wasn’t all that specific. As the scientists, Semir Zeki and John Paul Romaya, wrote in the study itself, “Hatred against an individual may be seemingly irrational and rooted in remote anthropological instincts. Hate based on race or religion would probably fall under this heading. On the other hand, an individual may trace the hatred to a past injustice and hence find a justifiable source for it. There are no doubt many other ways in which the sentiment can be sub-categorized.” The premotor cortex is one part of the brain that springs into action when people have feelings of aggression. When we hate, at least part of us is preparing for a physical attack. The frontal gyrus deals with self-awareness, and is involved in go/no go decisions. This part of the brain seems to be in league, however tentatively with the premotor cortex. Haters using the “hate circuit,” then, seem to always be wondering if it’s the right time to move against the object of their hatred. Hate, Love, and Judgement It may be more complicated than that. The putamen gets engaged when people are in love, but it also activates when people feel contempt or disgust. Damage to the putamen and the insula can make people incapable of recognizing disgust on other people’s faces. The putamen also lights up when a person is planning aggressive acts. The putamen, then, might represent the dark side of love – the side that attacks a rival, or feels sick with jealousy at a loved one’s behavior. Hate is characterized not just by areas of brain activity but by areas of brain inactivity. The superior frontal gyrus is correlated with self-awareness and laughter, so it’s not surprising that it’s repressed when a person hates. The particular section that is deactivated, the researchers note, is near a section of the brain which, when repressed, seems to increase obsessive-compulsive behavior. When we hate, we fail to laugh, and we may get a bit obsessive. Areas escaping deactivation include the areas of the brain that deal out judgment. This is one of the major ways that the hate circuit differs from the brain activity of a person in love. When we love someone, we shut off the part of our brain that judges – a trait that, we hope, has led to more happiness than sorrow. When we hate someone, we leave the judgment part of our brain a’blazing. Did We Evolve to Hate Each Other? There’s a theory which holds that hatred evolved so that one group of hunter-gatherers wouldn’t feel so bad about stealing resources from another group of hunter-gatherers. In other words, we hate because hate sometimes keeps us alive. It’s a decent theory, but it makes hatred an extremely recent phenomenon, and one exclusive to humanity. Scientists, historically, have been very reluctant to ascribe emotions to animals. The traditional behaviorist view is to only admit the most basic emotion that’s able to explain an animal’s behavior. Animals’ emotions, for some time, were described primarily as fear, aggression, and sexual impulses. Recently animals’ allotment of emotions has expanded. Multiple researchers and animal rights advocates have published books insisting that animals can show compassion, gratitude, humor, grief, and even love. Still, when it comes to negative emotions, researchers stay basic. Animals display “aggression,” or “rage.” They don’t hate each other. Animals do quite a few things that seem to amount to hatred. Birds have such intense family squabbles that they regularly engage in “sibilicide.” A baboon troop in Kenya waited for three days by the side of a road after one of their own had been killed by a car. When the driver came down the road again, the troop pelted him with rocks. One captive chimp delighted in throwing its feces at a researcher. When the researcher came by just after the chimp’s cage had been cleaned, and laughed about how he got to have a poop-free day, the chimp made itself throw up, and threw the puke at the researcher. Humans can fall back on the old “we know it when we feel it” argument. No matter how nebulous the definition of the emotion, humans can say that they hate each other. Animals cannot. Will there be a time when we can describe, observe, or test for, hatred in animals? And if we can’t find any evidence of it, what does that say about us? Zebra Image: William Warby Have you ever hated your partner? In a series of studies, Vivian Zayas and Yuichi Shoda found that people don’t just love or hate significant others. They love and hate them—and that’s normal. The key to getting through the inevitable hard times, as my own research suggests, is to never stop trying to understand where your partner is coming from. Love is complicated, isn’t it? How did Zayas and Shoda find the hate in the midst of love? They asked study participants to think of a significant other they like very much. Then, the participants reported on their positive and negative feelings toward that person. Unsurprisingly, people reported highly positive feelings and very low negative feelings toward the person they had chosen. But then the researchers assessed implicit feelings—the emotions they might not be consciously aware of—about the significant other. How? Participants did a standard computer task that measures how quickly they respond to certain directions. They’d see the name of their significant other pop up on the computer screen, which was then was quickly followed by a target word that was either positive (e.g., lucky, kitten) or negative (e.g., garbage, cancer). Their job was to categorize the target words as positive or negative as quickly as possible by pushing the correct button. That’s when the bad feelings came out. Here’s how our brains work, as revealed by decades of psychological research: If we are thinking about something pleasant when a positive word pops up, we are quicker to categorize it as positive; but when a negative word pops up, we are slower to put it in the negative category. Likewise, if we are thinking about something unpleasant, we will be slower to categorize positive words and quicker for negative ones. This task allows researchers to actually quantify people’s feelings towards their significant others, by calculating how quickly they respond to positive words and negative words after seeing their significant other’s name. Still with me? Great, because here is where it gets interesting. Take a look at the graph below. The bars on the right show that, as expected, participants were quicker to categorize positive words after seeing their significant other’s name. But they were also quicker to categorize negative words. Not just not slower—actually quicker! Zayas & Shoda (2015) The effect for positive words was larger, but there was a small effect showing that thinking about their significant others actually boosted people’s responses when categorizing negative words like garbage and cancer. These were significant others toward whom participants reported feeling very positively and not very negatively, yet these findings show that at an implicit level, people hold both positive and negative feelings toward the ones they love. (Note: The bars on the left side of the graph show the typical response using positive and negative objects, such as sunsets and spiders, where positive objects only affect positive target words and negative objects only affect negative target words.) Thus, people feel both positively and negatively toward those they love. This may not surprise you. Those closest to us, such as our romantic partners, invoke strong feelings on both ends of the spectrum—some days, thoughts of our romantic partners may leave us awash with love and admiration; other days, we may feel dislike or even repulsion. It’s a thin line What these findings suggest to me is that this love/hate dynamic is a normal part of close relationships. Feeling negatively towards your partner does not mean that you are doing something wrong or that you are in the wrong relationship. It seems hating your partner in the moment does not mean that you don’t also love them a lot—which is actually a bit of a revelation (and a relief). Why does this study matter? Much of our relationship rhetoric focuses on positive and negative as two ends of a spectrum—feeling more positively toward your partner means you feel less negatively toward them, and vice versa. While that may be true in one particular moment, it isn’t representative of the complex nature of your relationship overall—or even in one day! Our feelings toward our partners can range wildly from moment to moment—and it seems that may just be part of the wild ride of sharing your life with another complex human being. So, despite the overwhelmingly positive pictures posted on social media of all your friends’ happy relationships, know that you’re only seeing, at best, half the story. There’s another finding worth highlighting from the Zayas and Shoda study. They also looked at people’s implicit feelings toward significant others that they reported disliking a lot. These were disliked people who played an important role in their life, such as exes or estranged parents. When shown these significant others’ names, people were quicker to categorize negative words, as expected. But they were also quicker to categorize positive words, suggesting that feelings toward loathed significant others aren’t so set in stone either. Instead, it seems we hold some positive views of these significant others, even as we profess our dislike of them—even if we may not be able to admit it at a conscious level. Not all bad feeling is bad for you Of course, there is such a thing as too much hate. Relationships don’t need to be all positive all the time to be happy and healthy, but having too much negativity can be harmful. Instead, the key seems to be having a high enough ratio of positive to negative experiences. Researcher John Gottman found that stable, happy couples had about five times more positivity than negativity during conflict conversations. On the other hand, couples who were heading towards divorce had a ratio more like 0.8:1. That is, way more negative than positive. While some negative emotions should be avoided at all costs, other negative emotions—such as guilt or sadness—when experienced in the appropriate setting, may be adaptive and help us change for the better. • Letting Go of Anger through Compassion To foster resilience, think about a hurtful event in a different way. Try It Now In addition, it seems to me that the good is not as good if you aren’t occasionally contrasting it with something bad. We need some emotional variety—feeling good all the time might just get boring! Moreover, people who are forcing themselves to feel positively all the time when it isn’t genuine may not reap the same benefits as those who are experiencing genuine positive emotions. Seven ways to make love stronger than hate So how do you keep that love/hate ratio positive? The key is understanding—as opposed to avoiding conflict or suppressing bad feelings that are perfectly normal. Along with my colleague Serena Chen, I ran seven different studies of couples, conflict, and relationship satisfaction. And I found in all of those studies that people felt less satisfied when they didn’t feel understood after conflicts with their partner. But when they came out of conflict feeling understood, there was no negative impact on relationship satisfaction. We got these results in a number of different ways. People who reported fighting frequently—but who at the same time felt understood by their partners—were no less satisfied with their relationships than people who rarely fight. People who remembered a past conflict in which they felt understood were no less satisfied than those in a control group; those who did not feel understood showed negative effects. People who reported on their conflicts every day for two weeks were equally satisfied on both days when they fought and days when they didn’t—if they felt understood. • More on Love & Hate Figure out whether you’re sacrificing too much in your relationship. Explore how to be a compassionate partner. Discover five ways to renew an old love. Do you love your partner compassionately? Take our compassionate love quiz. In our laboratory study, couples talked about a source of conflict in their relationship. People who felt understood during the conflict conversation felt more satisfied after the discussion than when they’d first arrived in the lab. If they didn’t feel understood, they were less satisfied. In other words, relationships can survive conflict and bad feelings if partners never stop feeling seen by the other. Is it just that people are better able to find a solution to their problem if they understand each other? Understanding does aid in conflict resolution, but it turns out that understanding can even help those fights that will never be resolved. Those issues may stem from political, religious, or personality differences, or maybe just different movie preferences. Whatever their source, understanding can help for those fights, too. In fact, understanding may be most important when you face issues that cannot be easily resolved, such as different religious or political views. In these situations, understanding allows you to “agree to disagree” when no amount of fighting is going to change your minds. What is it about feeling understood that helps alleviate those negative feelings that typically arise after conflict? We found that when you feel understood, it signals to you that your partner cares about you and is invested in the relationship. It also makes you feel like your relationship is strong and worth fighting for. And in the end, feeling understood, especially when your partner has a different opinion than you, just feels good, plain and simple. So how do you increase understanding during conflict? Here are seven suggestions for how to think and act to do so. 1. Instead of asserting your own point of view, try to take your partner’s perspective. Make it your goal to understand why your partner feels the way they do. 2. Avoid the four horsemen of the apocalypse—criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling. 3. Give your partner the benefit of the doubt. Assume that their intentions are not malicious. 4. Take a moment to reflect on your partner’s positive traits. You can even try some gratitude-inducing techniques. 5. Think of you and your partner as a team, rather than opponents. Your goal is to figure out together why you do not see eye-to-eye and find a solution; it is not to win the fight and prove your partner wrong. 6. Recognize that it won’t always be easy to follow these suggestions, especially if your partner isn’t playing by the same rules. 7. Give yourself a mantra to repeat when you start feeling angry to help you remember your goal—even something as simple as “be understanding.” This article was revised and synthesized from several pieces originally published on Amie Gordon’s Psychology Today blog. The Incompetent Heart: Why People Love to Hate You Why we see others as enemies, not people. “From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.” — Socrates The news roller coaster is hurting me. My emotions are up and down — the wild ride is anything but fun. Politicians are supposed to commit their best efforts for the public good, not to be fighting against each other. Books are meant to inspire readers, not to sink someone. Similarly, book reviews should help us understand what’s in it for us, not encouraging we bash the author. I’m not taking a moral stand here. I’m far from being perfect. This post is a personal reflection — I’m inviting you to join me. The primitive skill to separate friends from foes is an essential survival strategy. However, that instinct made sense in a primitive age where the world was threatening and unknown. It feels irrational that — after centuries of breakthroughs and improvements in medicine, education, technology, and food, to name a few — we still feel under constant attack. We are emotionally incompetent — that’s why we love to hate others. It’s hard to believe that we are in the 21st Century — we behave as if the world was still unsafe and dangerous. Many people are not using their voices to make things better. They express their opinions simply to hurt others; to silence opposite thoughts. The hatred that we see daily on Social Media, the news, or water cooler conversations, is doing us no good as a society. Hate Is Personal; What Causes Anger Is Not “In time we hate that which we often fear.” ― William Shakespeare Hating others is an easy way out. Hate is a self-defense mechanism. When under attack, the ability to quickly separate foes from friends was essential to survive. However, most of our current threats are perceptions, not real ones — we create the fight. When things don’t go well, we play the blame game — we look for a scapegoat. We like always to be right and feel safe. We embrace hate as a way to protect our self-esteem or to defend our community’s interests or beliefs. Hate is personal for the attacker, don’t take it personally. Hate is in the eye of the giver, not on the receiver. People hate what they don’t understand. They reject those who think or look differently. People hate others because of what they reflect about them too. When someone attacks you, avoid getting into a useless battle. No one wins the war of hatred war. Regardless if someone is passionate and committed to attacking you. Don’t get caught into that tactic. You need two sides to start a war. Avoidance is a powerful response. You might not be able to disarm your attacker. But haters love to be hated back —they will soon find another enemy that likes to play their game. Your Heart Was Programmed to Hate Others Inherently we are full of goodness. This sounds hard for many people to digest. But our true essence, as human beings, is to be and do good. Buddhist psychologist Chögyam Trungpa, author of The Sanity we are born with, says: “Delight in itself is the approach of sanity. Delight is to open our eyes to the reality of the situation rather than siding with this or that point of view.” When we can observe other points of view without judging, there’s no need to hate. Being different doesn’t mean better or worse; different is just different. The Internet has empowered us to collaborate, share insights, teach, and support others. We can access content for free: books, pictures, recipes, how-to videos, etc. That’s the magic of human generosity. Perfect proof that our intrinsic nature is good. Hatred was part of our society ‘software’ update — it came by default; you don’t need to accept that upgrade. People hate other political parties or religions because their ideology is the truth. They reject other races or ethnic groups because their bodies are superior. People hate an article because they know better. However, those are just beliefs; not objective truths. Our beliefs blind us — that’s why we hate others. Hate makes people feel cool; it gives them authority and power. Take racism, for example. It’s not natural; it’s an artificial concept that was wired into our brains and hearts. This in-depth National Geographic article sheds light on how science created a racial hierarchy. Studies performed by Dr. Samuel Morton wrongfully concluded, by studying skulls from various ethnic groups, that some races were superior to others. The scientist believed that “Caucasians” were the most intelligent of the races. East Asians — he used the term “Mongolian” — though “ingenious” and “susceptible of cultivation,” were one step down. Blacks, or “Ethiopians,” were at the bottom. In the decades before the American Civil War, his ideas were used to justify slavery. The Homo Sapiens species evolved in Africa. Modern genetic research has shown that all humans are closely related. We all have the same collection of genes, but slightly different versions of some of them. As the article points out: all people alive today are Africans. Race has nothing to do with how brains perform. However, we were wired to establish hierarchies. Rather than taking people for who they are; we judge them by the group they belong to. Hating someone is personal; the reasons that fuel hate are mostly social. Someone persuade us to see others as enemies. Leaders know how to play the paranoia card — they find an external enemy to bring their supporters together. Having a common enemy is what makes hatred personal — we turn life into a ‘them’ versus ‘us’ experience. We’ve been taught that the best defense is to attack. That’s why people love to hate others. They think that destroying someone else’s reputation first would score them a huge victory. When things get personal, we let our irrationality take over. Pause and think; is the enemy for real? Don’t let “mass thinking” cloud your judgment. Avoid being a prey of the “You are either with us or against us” approach. Those who put you in that situation don’t want you to think; you are just a number — they want to add you to their support base. Don’t Play the Hate Game — Booker T. Washington Hating others is a personal decision. People are intolerant and expect you to behave the same way. It took me decades to realize my own intolerance. That was a turning point to stop “hating” what I didn’t understand or like. Now I can focus on becoming more acceptant of others. We are wired to see others as enemies, not people. Writing frequently has exposed me to great people, but I’ve been the target of a lot of intolerance and hatred too. I had to develop a thicker skin than I already had. I love getting feedback from my readers — not just kind words, but being challenged so I can improve as a person. However, I find it a waste of time to interact with those who are merely looking for a fight. I wrote a post about freedom, that created a lot of controversies. I said that freedom requires self-regulation too — we are free to speak, but that doesn’t mean we should attack others because they don’t share our beliefs. Some people fired back — they said I was encouraging dictators. ;( I use people’s reactions to self-reflect. If I feel criticized or don’t understand my message: “What vulnerabilities are being exposed?”, “Why do I feel criticized?” “Are my words confusing?” I challenge my thinking and do additional research. Reacting is easy; reflection requires courage. We all have emotions, but that doesn’t mean that we need to let them drive our behaviors. Becoming emotionally competent requires to tame your mind — to look at your emotions, not through them The Hierarchies of Hate “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.“ — Epictetus Today threats are psychological rather than physical. We need to correct our thinking, so we don’t apply the same primitive impulse to destroy our “enemy.” Considering evidence — not perception — can help correct your thinking. Empathy and reflection are critical to avoid feeding your self-preservation mechanism. Most “attacks” are provocations, not real danger. The problem with hatred is that it quickly escalates. What starts as mere intolerance or a cultural bias could quickly become something more alarming. The Pyramid of Hate is a powerful exercise that many organizations use to drive awareness — small intolerance acts can turn into dangerous ones. At work, in our families or society, we need to call out these behaviors before they go out of hands. First Level: Bias The base of the pyramid is when our prejudice is expressed through jokes, criticism, and other expressions of our bias. It feels ‘harmless’ but quickly moves to the next level. Second Level: Individual Acts of Prejudice This level manifests through acts that start affecting the other person. It includes avoiding those that we hate. Scapegoating, ridiculing, and social avoidance — prejudice turns into rejection. Third Level: Discrimination The middle of the pyramid involves intentional discrimination. We limit possibilities to those we hate. From a job promotion to housing opportunities, these types of behaviors are punished by law — they go beyond our freedom of speech. Discrimination is not about the specific person — it punishes those who belong to a particular group that is hated by the discriminator. Fourth Level: Bias-Motivated Violence This level is when discrimination becomes a social movement. Masses — most of the times encouraged by leaders — attack properties, holy places, or groups. It can even include murder and terrorist acts. When a society gets to Level Four, things are getting out of hand. That’s the danger of letting hate become something normal. We won’t see the broader consequences coming until it’s too late. Fifth Level: Genocide Genocide, as defined by the United Nations in 1948, means acts committed with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. It includes both physical and mental harm. How to Build Emotional Competency “Experience is not what happens to you — it’s how you interpret what happens to you. “ — Aldous Huxley Emotional Competence is mastering how we communicate or release our inner-feelings — it determines our ability to effectively and successfully lead and express. Here are some tips for you to avoid hate taking over your life. Be aware of your emotions: Can you discuss feelings without getting into an argument? Apply empathy to understand how others feel, even if it doesn’t make any sense to you. Mind your words: We’ve incorporated the word “hate” as part of our regular vocabulary. When someone hurts your feelings, avoid using the word “hate.” Reframe it in the form of “I don’t like that you did X to me.” Even if you are just talking to yourself, it will switch your speech from “defensive” to “reflective.” Practice adaptability: Try seeing the world through other people’s beliefs. I’m not saying change yours; simply understand why other people think differently (even if they are “attacking” you). Let go of your beliefs; experiment conceding something to your opponent. When there’s no difference, there’s no point fighting. Avoid power struggles: Let go of having to make your point. Sometimes, it’s better to be human than to be right, as I wrote here. When you fight back, you are mimicking your aggressor’s behavior. Provocation is not a war declaration; retaliation is. Accept the differences: Tolerance is a two-way street. If you want people to respect your beliefs and thinking, you have to abide by the same rules. It’s easy to ask for understanding, but appreciating other’s points of views requires courage. Embrace forgiveness: I know I’m getting myself into trouble again. I suggested this in a previous post about not playing the victim. Some people wrote back furious: “What if I’m a real victim?” My answer was: many people have been through life-threatening situations, and yet when they overcame those, they were able to pardon their perpetrators. Nelson Mandela is a perfect example. Eva Kor, an Auschwitz survivor, is a clear testament to that mindset too. “I want everybody to remember that we cannot change what happened, that is a tragic part, but we can change how we relate to it.” — she said after meeting with one of her perpetrators many decades later. Let’s stop seeing other people as enemies. The world benefits from diversity. If we all look, think, believe, feel, and act the same, the world would be boring. Understanding, tolerance, and self-awareness are critical to moving from a defensive to an acceptive mode. It’s not easy. Being tolerant is one of our most significant challenges as human beings. It starts by accepting our uniqueness so we can allow others to be true to themselves too. Learn to find beauty in what looks different. This age and time require maturity and reasoning, not fight-or-flight responses. As Elvis Presley said: “Animals don’t hate, and we’re supposed to be better than them.” Additional Resources The Hate Pyramid — intro video. The Tolerance Project — core values to increase tolerance. The Seven-Stage Hate model — From “individual hate” to “collective aggression.” When Hatred Is a Good Thing—a Protection A MIDDLE-AGED mother in the supermarket slipped a can of anchovies into her purse without paying for it. At the same time her husband across the street dropped a slug into a parking meter, where it registered as a dime. Their daughter that day got off work early after lying about being sick. What do you think of acts such as these? Do you view them as clever or do you hate them? These things may seem petty, but are they? Oceans are made of drops of water. A small spark can set a forest afire. Small wrongs often lead to big disasters. Jesus Christ said: “The person faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and the person unrighteous in what is least is unrighteous also in much.” (Luke 16:10) So wrong acts, even though small, should not be excused but viewed with serious concern, because they are evidence of moral weakness. People, no doubt, become more aware of the evils of wrongdoing when the act, little or big, is committed against themselves. Then it hurts. The pain becomes real. If the mother with the anchovies returned home to find her television set stolen, if the father caught someone trying to shortchange him, or if the daughter’s fiancé feigned sickness so as to go out with another girl, doubtless these people would find such acts offensive and would raise a cry of protest. The difference, of course, is that they themselves would be the victims. When we hear of the bad done in the world—the lying, the frauds, the robberies, the acts of fornication and adultery, the brutality and killings—it helps us to get the right viewpoint if we realize that we or our loved ones might have been the victims. And if a person feels tempted to do wrong, he does well to ask himself how he would feel if that same wrong were committed against himself or members of his family. Such an approach will cause one to understand and appreciate better why God commands: “O you lovers of Jehovah, hate what is bad.” Also why the apostle Paul urged: “Abhor what is wicked.” And why the psalmist said: “I have hated every false path. Falsehood I have hated, and I do keep detesting it.” (Ps. 97:10; Rom. 12:9; Ps. 119:104, 163) Do you feel as the apostle and the psalmist did about badness? Do you hate what is bad? This word “hate” has several shades of meaning. It may denote intense hostility, sustained ill will often accompanied by malice, that impels one to bring harm to the hated object. This is a wrong kind of hatred. It has a bad motive. It is born of the Devil, often is nurtured in a confused and frustrated mind, and is invariably misdirected. The whole history of men and nations under the Devil’s control has been practically a continuous account of violent bloodspilling hatred. Sometimes only a few individuals are involved. At other times anarchy and revolution engulf a whole nation. Frequently the hatred bred by international wars blots out the lives of thousands of innocent ones. “Hate” may also signify a strong dislike, but without any intent to bring harm to the object, seeking instead to avoid it as when one loathes something distasteful. This kind of hate is good if directed against that which is bad. This right kind of hatred is in imitation of Jehovah, the God of righteousness. He does not hate what is bad because of frustration nor does he manifest his hate in uncontrolled, intemperate, violent actions. God’s hatred of what is bad is a principled hatred. Such hatred does not disturb one’s peace of mind and afflict one with ulcers. It is a strong dislike, an extreme aversion, a pronounced distaste, a profound repugnance of what is bad. It means to loathe, to abhor, to abominate whatever is bad because it is wrong, very harmful and wholly unloving.—Prov. 6:16-19. First of all, Jehovah hates what is bad. That in itself should be reason enough for any of us also to hate what is bad. If a loving, very wise father refuses to eat poisonous mushrooms, this should be sufficient reason for his little boy also to loathe them. And if the father forbids the boy to eat them, then this is a double reason why an obedient boy who loves his father will despise them as food. To the boy it is not just a matter of hating the consequences of getting sick if he disobeys his father. Rather, his obedience springs from a heartfelt love for his father. A secondary, yet very important reason for hating what is wrong has to do with the resulting consequences. Says the proverb: “A bad person will not go unpunished.” (Prov. 11:21) Men and women before the flood of Noah’s day did not escape the consequences of doing what was bad; only the eight who hated what was bad survived. (Gen. 6:5-7; 7:1) A more modern example is the experience of the men who engineered England’s greatest train robbery, making away with some $7,300,000. Later, they were all caught and imprisoned. If these men had hated the bad, as God’s Word commands, they would have saved themselves many miserable prison years.—Time, October 31, 1969. The God-given counsel to hate what is bad was never more needed than it is today. Satan and his demons, knowing that their time is short, are doing all they possibly can to corrupt and destroy the human race. They use selfish, greedy men to exploit the weaknesses and sinful tendencies of their fellow humans. Truly we are living in “critical times hard to deal with,” when ‘because of the increase of lawlessness the love of the greater number has cooled off.’ To protect yourself from these conditions you must hate what is bad.—2 Tim. 3:1; Matt. 24:12; Rev. 12:12. Unless we are strongly opposed to bad, we may be won over by it. Because we are born sinners, our inclination is toward bad. (Ps. 51:5; Gen. 8:21; Rom. 7:14-25) That is why it is not enough just to love what is good; we must also hate what is bad. Jesus Christ ‘loved righteousness and hated wickedness.’ (Ps. 45:7; Heb. 1:9) We must do the same to survive this evil system of things. There is no neutral middle ground of indifference in this matter. The principle that Jesus stated applies here: “He that is not on my side is against me.” (Matt. 12:30) Jesus Was not indifferent, but actively and uncompromisingly took his stand as a hater of what was bad. If you are not with him in a similar hatred of the wrong you are against him by being a lover of the bad. Put yourself to the test: Are your standards those of this old world or are yours the Christian standards as set forth in the Bible? The worldly standards say in substance: “You must not steal—much.” “You must not lie—unless you are in a jam.” “You must not commit adultery—except when you are in ‘love.’” Or sometimes worldlings make their law read: “You must not get caught stealing, lying, committing adultery, etc.” Are these your standards? Certainly they are not those of God, Christ Jesus or of true Christians, all of whom hate what is wrong. What about your standard of morality? Do you go along with those who advocate new, popular standards with convenient escape clauses added? These people will say, “I’m honest—up to a point.” “I’m truthful—a good part of the time.” “You can trust me—if you keep an eye on me.” “I’d never rob a bank, because it’s too dangerous.” “The Bible’s Ten Commandments are great, for the other fellow.” There are many things that Jehovah hates and which he tells those loving him to hate. To follow through on this divine counsel is beneficial in many respects, one of which is the protection it affords the person obeying. Consider a few examples. In their illicit sex relations many persons have experienced the fear of unwanted pregnancy, the dread of disease, the threat of abandonment and heartbreak, and the erosion of self-respect. A twenty-two-year-old girl said: ‘I wanted nothing more in the world than to marry him. But when I became pregnant, he abandoned me.’ Had she heeded the wise counsel of God’s Word and hated what is bad, her life would have been altogether different. A wife said that she “very nearly lost her home, her sanity and everything in life that matters” by engaging in “wife swapping.” “Our foolishness had cost more than we had planned to pay,” she said. “My blood runs cold when I think how close we came to destroying ourselves for a few cheap thrills.” God’s Word protects persons from such miseries, if they will heed the warning and hate what is bad. Graphically the Bible warns of the result of sexual immorality when it describes the foolish young man that is enticed to have relations with a prostitute: “All of a sudden he is going after her, like a bull that comes even to the slaughter, . . . just as a bird hastens into the trap, and he has not known that it involves his very soul.” (Prov. 7:22, 23) Every year thousands are caught in this “sex trap” and are figuratively led away like animals to the slaughter, pierced through with venereal diseases—all because they spurned the protection that hating the bad would have afforded them. Drunkenness is a killer. A report from England says that it is responsible for over a third of all fatal car accidents. And yet the remedy is simpler and less costly than safety belts. If these drunkards applied the wisdom of the Bible, hating the bad thing, thousands of tragic deaths could be avoided. Those having woe, uneasiness, contentions, concern, dull eyes, the Bible says, are “those staying a long time with the wine . . . At its end it bites just like a serpent.”—Prov. 23:29-32. It is good to hate crime and violence, adultery, drunkenness and homosexuality for what they are. Crime robs people of what is rightfully theirs. It is to be loathed. Adultery breaks up families, deprives children of care. It is a sin against God and man and deserving of our deepest hatred. Drunkenness endangers people and also ruins lives. It should be abhorred. Homosexuality is a perversion of the lowest sort. It is detested by God. (Rom. 1:24-27) If you hate such bad things, this is good and for your protection. But what about those things termed “petty crimes,” like the stealing of the anchovies, cheating the parking meter, or lying to the boss? While such bad things may have a certain appeal, or may seem to do no one any great harm, still sooner or later they too will exact undesirable penalties—guilty consciences, shame and reproach, and estrangement from true friends. If you hate these things too, not because of the penalties, but because Jehovah hates them, this too will be for your protection. You can do this by keeping far from what is bad. What you abhor, you avoid. You must therefore first know what is bad before you can avoid it. But in this regard you are well equipped, for Jehovah in his Word sets out in great detail what is bad, and often tells us how to avoid it. Study of the Bible is absolutely essential to know how and what to hate. So it is that enlightened Christians rightly hate those who are confirmed enemies of God, such as the Devil and his demons, as well as men who have deliberately and knowingly taken their stand against Jehovah. (Ps. 139:21, 22) This hatred of such individuals does not seek to inflict injury on them and is not synonymous with spite or malice. Rather, it finds expression in its utter abhorrence and avoidance of those intensely hating Jehovah. You must avoid the “table of demons” if you hope to eat at Jehovah’s table.—1 Cor. 10:21; Rom. 12:9, 17, 19. Some people may appear to be “nice people,” but one must ask: “Do they have Christian morals and principles? Do they love Jehovah?” Their love of God and neighbor should determine what our relationship with them will be. This matter of association is important, for if we enjoy being with those who do bad things we will soon cease hating what they do.—1 Cor. 15:33. Positive thinking, of course, is very important. It is not merely a matter of negatively hating badness; a positive love of goodness is also necessary. Hence, the formula for hating what is bad is twofold, as the apostle Paul so concisely puts it: “Abhor what is wicked, cling to what is good.” (Rom. 12:9) Show that you hate wickedness by filling the mind with good thoughts. (Phil. 4:8) Also, fill the heart with good motivations, instead of storing up in it the desires to do bad.—Matt. 15:19; Mark 7:21-23; Prov. 4:23. Do you hate what is bad? God’s Word urges you to do so. And it is the right, the wise and the loving thing to do. Show, then, that you hate what is bad and love what is good by your choice of associates, by what you think about, what you talk about, and by how you act. Why Do People Hate? • Are humiliated or mistreated by another person. Hatred and Dehumanization How to Cope When You Are Hated Last Updated: 05-13-2019 It’s hard to outdo Medea for raw hatred. Thrown over by her husband Jason for another woman, the mythic sorceress takes revenge by poisoning her rival and, just for good measure, her rival’s father. Then, just to make sure that Jason comprehends the enormity of her wrath, she murders their two sons in cold blood. Now that’s hate—and probably a lot of other emotions as well, including jealousy and humiliation and anger and disgust. Scientists and poets have long been fascinated by intense, negative emotions such as Medea’s, but surprisingly there is no overarching theory of hatred. Who hates whom, and why? What do we mean when we say, I hate? And what do we do about it? Two psychological scientists have decided that the best way to approach hatred is to ask average people. What are our ordinary, common sense definitions of this extreme emotion? To plumb our “naïve psychologies” of hate, Katherine Aumer of Hawai’i Pacific University and Elaine Hatfield of the University of Hawaii at Manoa put together an elaborate survey comprising these basic unanswered questions. Here is a summary of their most notable findings, followed by some intriguing tidbits, as described by Aumer at the convention of the Association for Psychological Science, in San Francisco this week: We mostly hate people we know, and in fact rarely direct that intense emotion at anyone we’re unacquainted with. The main reasons we hate people include betrayal—including infidelity but also broken promises of other sorts—and intense aversion to others’ personalities. The best way to deal with hatred seems to be communication—either with the hated person directly, or with a friend or higher power. Finally, age and gender do influence hatred—how we experience the emotion and whom we target. Here’s some more detail: • People first experience hate at about age 12, roughly their age during middle school. The age range is wide for initiation into hatred, from a perplexing six months to 40 years of age. • Interestingly, when asked what they mean by hate, people rely on other emotions: extreme dislike, extreme disgust, and extreme anger. • Ex-husbands are among the most hated, especially for women between 28 and 32 years of age. Also in that elite company are co-workers. Far more women than men name “a friend” as the most hated person in their lives. • We hate those we love—or loved. People expressed the most ill will toward those they are closest to on a daily basis—acquaintances, friends, family, exes. Even within the family, the “nearest and dearest” arouse the most hatred—fathers especially, followed by mothers, in-laws, sibs. Curiously, very few hate their own significant others—just 1 in 100—but far more hate a friend’s boyfriend or girlfriend. • The good news is that hatred is uncommon. Over a lifetime, people say they hate about five people on average. Men are more likely to report feeling hate as they get older, peaking in the late 30s and then declining until the late 50s. But most of us don’t experience hate on a regular basis. Indeed, most people say they never feel hatred at all. • Intriguingly, despite the orgies of torture and murder we witness every day, people rarely mention political concerns when asked about their own animosities. Hate, it seems, is intensely personal—as the mythic Medea would testify Follow Wray Herbert’s reporting on the 26th annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science in the Huffington Post and on Twitter at @wrayherbert. The Effects of Hate Evidence of Potential Outcomes or Longer-Term Effects Experiencing incidents of hate can cause trauma. The impact of trauma can also manifest in various forms of behavior and mood changes. Some incidents in the CAH database note that the impacted individual experiences a change in behavior and/or participation, a deterioration of their emotional and/or physical health, and a change in their performance at work or school. The database shows changes in behavior because the hate incidents tend to cluster around several courses of action including increasing security (purchasing security cameras, fences, extra locks, or motion-sensor light) around respondents’ homes, preventing children from playing outside, being more aware or fearful of one’s surroundings when out on the street, changing one’s actions while outside, or relocating. In the Hate Incidence Poll, 15 percent confirmed that some experience a desire to change behavior to prevent future incidents. An example of this behavior appears in the CAH database. A report to the CAH database reads that a woman who owns a salon received repeated threatening, racist letters as well as vandalism to her business. She reinforced the security of the premises, stating “Those locks are on that door because I’m scared. I am. I don’t know what is going to happen next.” Additionally, some parents in the CAH database whose homes have been impacted prevent their children from playing outside. An individual reported that their neighbor repeatedly threatened them with a pellet gun or hurled racist slurs. The parents grew afraid of what the neighbor might do and said, “They were afraid to allow their sons to play in the yard, and felt helpless to protect them.” Figure 6a. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate – Total across all respondentsFigures 6a-6d reflect responses from the following question in the Hate Incidence Poll: • Q61. What would you say was the outcome of the hate-related incidents you have experienced? What were the short-term or long-term effects? Text description of chart Figure 6b. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate – Total vs Black respondents Text description of chart Figure 6c. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate – Total vs Hispanic respondents Text description of chart Figure 6d. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate – Total vs Arab / Middle Eastern respondents Text description of chart Text description of chart Text description of chart Text description of chart Text description of chart Some individuals in the CAH database change their actions while outside, which involves no longer wearing certain religious items, listening to music, only speaking English instead of a native language, or no longer wanting to show affection to a partner. An individual reported, “Students have called me ‘ch***’ several times while walking past them. I’ve also had a student spit on my feet. Consequently, I listen to music every time I’m walking to and from work.” In another individual report, the daughter of the reporter’s friend was repeatedly harassed by children at school who shouted, “Build that Wall” and told her that she would be deported. The reporter stated, “These types of incidents have continued to happen and my friend’s daughter is so afraid of the comments, that she’s asked her mother to only speak English when they are out together.” In another CAH incident, an interracial couple was harassed by a man who didn’t think that a White woman and a Black man should be together. When they showed affection towards each other, the man told them to stop. The couple brushed the incident off; however, the woman stated, “I’m still a little afraid to show public affection to my partner because of this incident.” Some individuals in the CAH database decide to relocate from the neighborhood where they experience hate. An individual reported, “ African American pastor was spit on and harassed to the point she left town out of fear for safety.” These changes tend to occur most commonly after repeated harassment or multiple hate incidents from the same source, although single, severe incidents can still trigger these effects. In the Hate Incidence Poll, 9 percent of individuals also reported wanting to move or relocate following an incident. Changes in participation, on the other hand, tend to occur after a single incident in the CAH database (e.g., an Uber driver being reluctant to ever drive again after facing a verbal assault from a passenger; churchgoers staying home from church after vandalism; a couple leaving town after their property was spray-painted with abusive language; a person deleting a comment in support of a political candidate after written abusive language). Experiencing repeated harassment often leads to people not wanting to leave their home, according to several instances in the CAH database (e.g. “she was utterly traumatized and no longer wants to leave the house by herself, as a black-haired, olive-skinned Muslim woman,” “Due to the stress and fear, I really don’t leave the house”). In the poll, 10 percent stated that they changed their participation in their community and 9 percent stated that they changed their participation online. Noted effects in the CAH database of a hate incident on a respondent’s physical health range from concussions to stab wounds to broken bones, to even more serious injuries that require major surgeries such as facial reconstruction, amputations, or removal of an eye. For example, a man and his friend were attacked and called a gay slur. After the attack, he was told by doctors that he may lose sight in his left eye. In the poll, 6 percent of respondents stated that they experienced long term health or body effects following an incident. Effects on emotional health often center around fear. In the CAH database, “A local woman said she’s now scared just to walk down the street after being violently attacked in for being gay.” In another example, an individual with her friends was eating ice cream when the group was attacked by another patron who verbally abused them until they ran away. The woman stated that following the incident, “If I feel like anyone looks at me in a strange way I get scared that they will jump at me, try to rip my hijab off, or yell discriminatory, racist expletives my way.” In several cases the two are linked, with respondents’ emotional health suffering after a physical attack. The Hate Incidence Poll discovered that depression and anxiety among impacted individuals were represented at 18 percent and 15 percent of the respondents respectively. The CAH database shows performance at work or school is affected either because the incident occurs at their school or place of work or because the individual is impacted by an incident that happened elsewhere. In the Hate Incidence Poll, 12 percent of individuals report that their performance at work and/or school is affected. Respondents miss work due to physical and emotional health consequences from hate incidents. For example, an individual was attacked and called homophobic slurs. The physical ramifications of the attack “has rendered him unable to work for the next month.” About the author Leave a Reply
How Will the Internet of Things Change The World of Trucking? IoT Transportation Ever since sat-navs became commonplace in cars around the world, the relationship between vehicles and wireless data has been very close. In the world of logistics though, it is set to go up another gear as commercial trucks are poised to be driven solely by artificial intelligence, providing the interface between computers and the truck on its travels. Utilising a combination of on-board sensors and a constant connection to an external wireless network, smart trucks in theory will do away with the need for a driver. Using the steady stream of data, they will be able to assess not only their surroundings, but many miles ahead. Through analysis that only a machine could process so rapidly, the system will be able to determine how close it is to the vehicle in front of it just as easily as it can plot a new route if faced with an upcoming traffic jam. Truck fleets around the world In theory such an intelligent programme would be revolutionary for truck fleets around the world, and it comes as no surprise that research funding for such development has not been hard to come by. In the USA, even the state Government of Ohio has invested $15 million in providing a testing facility for these trucks, in the name of competitiveness as no-one wants to be left behind by what could be a ‘game-changing’ development. On the other side of the planet in Singapore, the thinking is broadly the same. Worried about a shortage of drivers, the city-state’s transport authority has turned to the Swedish firm Scania to provide a fleet of self-driving trucks to facilitate the movement of shipping containers within the local ports. With only a small labour force to draw upon let alone suitably qualified, trucks which can operate independently are becoming a necessity for Singapore’s economy to continue to function. Here, they fill a niche roll and are filling a gap in employment rather than creating one. If we were to adopt smart trucks en masse however, millions of drivers would become unemployed virtually overnight. Within the UK for example, there are 2.2 million truck drivers that would be set to lose their income, and with a skillset on the whole very specific to this one position. In their place, it has been theorised that convoys of automated trucks would take over, utilising their distance detection technology to remain close together at all times and out of the way of other traffic. Smart trucks may be more superficially intelligent than human drivers Yet whilst they would arguably make for an efficient form of delivery service, this is only in theory. Smart trucks may be more superficially intelligent than human drivers at reading conditions, but they lack a real person’s ability to improvise to unforeseen circumstances. Much of motorway driving in particular revolves around keeping an eye on the vehicles around you, so whilst the trucks may not cause an issue, how well can they instantly react to someone else’s mistake? Furthermore, what happens in the event of a technical malfunction? Whilst it’s guaranteed that the quality of each truck will undoubtedly be high and that they will be regularly maintained, no software works perfectly 100% of the time-especially on such a large scale as this. Without a driver at the wheel to take over in the case of an emergency, a malfunctioning truck could wreak havoc, and it would be fortunate if it was the only vehicle damaged in such circumstances. Other concerns have also been expressed over the threat of hacking, by those who would want to take control of a truck and its contents. The motivations for this range from mischievous to sinister, and could present a very real security risk. 1 in 10 people within England and Wales have already been the attempted targets of cybercrime, which is rapidly growing as a major threat thanks to the increasing interconnectivity provided by modern technology. If the truck’s security software was compromised, then not only could it and its contents be stolen, but it could be used as a weapon in the wrong hands. Security specialists concluded that it is only a matter of time until such a scenario occurs, with no system being totally impregnable. Therefore as things currently stand there are still many issues which would make smart trucks unfit for replacing human drivers. Not only is there the economic aspect to consider which would put millions out of work, but the potential risks are greater than those posed by a real person in control. Whilst humans are more prone to errors and causing crashes, once they’ve come to a halt that tends to be the end of the incident. In contrast, an automated truck may mistakenly try to push onto its destination, unaware of the tremendous danger it is putting other road users in. Being exclusively controlled via data opens up a door to all manner of rogue threats, and the sheer volume of trucks on the roads would make guarding all of them 24/7 a colossal task. So as impressive as it seems, the safest method is still that which involves a physical presence at the wheel. The current system has flaws to be sure, but is a known quantity. These flaws could be greatly helped via the provision of accessories such as parking sensors and other innovations, to help the driver remain as clued up as they can at any given moment. AI could play a valuable role alongside the driver, but someone should always be in control so that they can intervene in the event of an emergency. 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Data Sciences and Big Data Data science definition "Data science is a 'concept to unify statistics, data analysis, machine learning and their related methods' in order to 'understand and analyze actual phenomena' with data. It employs techniques and theories drawn from many fields within the context of mathematics, statistics, information science, and computer science." -- Wikipedia (November 13, 2018) Big data concept The term “big data” was first corned in 1997 by the NASA astronomers Michael Cox and David Ellsworth regarding the big quantity of information generated by the supercomputers, which was published in the Proceedings of the IEEE 8th Conference entitled “Application-controlled demand paging for out-of-core visualization” from the ACM digital library. "Big data is high-volume, high-velocity and/or high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing that enable enhanced insight, decision making, and process automation." -- Gartner (2012) Accordingly, big data have three defining properties/dimensions including (1) volume (quantity), (2) variety (types: structured, semi-structured and unstructured) and (3) velocity (streaming data with speed). The variety of big data implies any of the following types: • Structured data: RDBMS data, easily retrieved through SQL. • Semi-structured data: data in files (xml, json docs, NoSQL database). • Unstructured data: images, videos, text files etc. Big Data Analytics Data processing and analytics Data processing and analytics include building and training machine learning models, manipulating data with technology, extracting information from data as well as building data tools, applications, and services. It may consist of the following major steps (Big Data Science & Analytics, 2016): • Framing the problem • Data acquisition for the problem • Data wrangling • Machine learning • Developing a statistical/mathematical model • Data visualization • Communicating the output of the analysis: (1) data report, and (2) data products. Python libraries and packages for big data analysis in data sciences • Data wrangling: pandas (data analysis). • Data exploring: matplotlib (graphics computing). • Developing model: scikit-learn (machine learning: data mining & analysis), NumPy (scientific computing). • Visualization: Bokeh (interactive visualization library for browsers), SciPy (science, math & engineering). The outcomes from big data analysis • Descriptive: to generate descriptive details from the big data. • Predictive: to create a model from the big data and predict likely outcomes. • Prescriptive: to recommend corresponding actions based on the existing information. Machine Learning What is machine learning? The term "machine learning" was originally given by Arthur Samuel in 1959, which is "a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of computer science that often uses statistical techniques to give computers the ability to 'learn' with data, without being explicitly programmed". Arthur Samuel is considered a pioneer of AI and computer gaming from IBM in the United States. Machine learning algorithms The machine learning algorithms can be divided into three categories: supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement algorithms (Fig. on the right). (1) Supervised algorithms: it requires the input and an expected output for the data. The variables from the model are adjusted during the testing process so that the output closes to the expected value/goals. (2) Unsupervised algorithms: it has input but there is no particular outcome expected from the testing phase. The algorithms may cluster the data sets together for different outcomes. (3) Reinforcement algorithms: it trains the algorithms for improvement after each decision, based on its output (success or failure). Listed below are some of the popular machine learning algorithms. • Decision tree: Decision tree algorithm is a type of supervised machine learning where the data continuously get split based on specific parameter, i.e. an output is generated based on the input from the training data. The tree is formed with two entities, namely the decision nodes (where the data is split) and the leaves (the decisions). In other words, it classifies a set of existing data into different groups according certain attributes, perform a test at each node, through branch judgement, and continuously split the data into additional distinct groups. The tests are made on the existing data, and when new data come in they can be classified to the corresponding groups. There are two main types of Decision Trees including (1) Classification trees (Yes/No types): The decision variable is categorical; (2) Regression trees (continuous data types): The decision or the outcome variable is continuous such as an actual number. The two common decision tree algorithms include Random Forests (it builds different classifiers using a random subset of attributes and combines them for output) and Boosting Trees (it trains a cascade of trees one on top of others by correcting the mistakes of ones below them). • Linear regression: Linear regression is used to predict the value of an outcome variable (Y) based on one or more input predictor variables (X). Its objective is to develop a model that the dependent variable (Y) is expressed as a mathematical function of one or more independent variables (X), so that we can use the regression model to predict Y if X is known. The mathematical function can be expressed below (such as simple linear regression with one independent variable): where, is the intercept and is the slope, which are both called regression coefficients. ϵ is the error term for the portion of Y where the regression model cannot explain. The t-statistic () is used to test the significance of the individual regression coefficients while the F-statistic () is for the test of goodness of fit for the regression model, where: and , while where, n is the number of observations, q is the number of coefficients, is the fitted value for observation i and is the mean of Y. and : measures the proportion of variation in the dependent (response) variable that is explained by the model. As more independent variables X are included to the new model, they would add to the total variation that was already explained, regardless of their significance levels, which would cause a greater value. Thus, the new value for the new model needs to be adjusted, namely : and , which have the following relationship: where, k is the number of independent variables in the model, excluding the constant. • Logistic regression: Logistic regression was developed by the statistician David Cox in 1958 and is one of the popular machine learning algorithms for binary classification. It measures the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables by estimating the probabilities using its underlying logistic function which is also called the sigmoid function as shown below: The probabilities are then transformed into binary values to make a prediction based on the logistic function. It aims to maximize the likelihood that a random data point is classified correctly into one of the two possible outcomes or dichotomy using Maximum Likelihood Estimation. • Naive Bayes: It is a simple but powerful classification technique for predictive modeling based on Bayes’ Theorem assuming the independence among predictors or independent variables. The model may include two types of probabilities which may be obtained from the training data: (1) The probability for each class; (2) The conditional probability for each class given a value for each of the independent variables. The probability model is used for making predictions for new data using Bayes Theorem: where, A and B are two separate events, and: P(A\|B) is the conditional probability of the hypothesis that event A occurs , given that the predictor B has occurred (the evidence), which is also called the posterior probability of class (the target A). P(A) is the probability of hypothesis A being true, which is also called the prior probability. P(B) is the prior probability of the evidence or the predictor B (regardless of the hypothesis). P(B\|A) is the conditional probability (or likelihood) that event B occurs (the evidence), given that the hypothesis A is true. Therefore, Bayes’ Theorem (or Bayes’ rule) can also be expressed as: • K-nearest neighbors (K-NN): K-NN is one of the simple but robust and widely used classification algorithms for supervised machine learning. It is a non-parametric technique without a need to make any underlying assumptions about the distribution of data. It has many applications including pattern recognition, data mining (including text mining), intrusion detection, finance, medicine and genetics (such as gene assignment in functional genomics according to gene expression profiles), etc. It is also frequently used for other complex classifiers such as artificial neural networks (ANN) and support vector machines (SVM). This algorithm uses the memorized training data points for the K instances that are most close or similar to the new instance (e.g., distance function) and assigns to it the most common class. In other words, the unknown data point can be predicted for its appropriate classification based on which k data points of the training set are the closest to it using the following Euclidean distance for continuous variables. The Euclidean distance between an existing point (a) and a new point (b), i.e. , across all input attributes i is given by: • K-means: k-means algorithm is a type of unsupervised machine learning for clustering when the data are unlabeled or the data don’t have predefined categories or groups. This algorithm aims to find groups in the data with a variable K being the number of groups. Each of the data points are assigned to one of the K groups based on the similarity of the features provided. Iteration of the K-means clustering algorithm will result in: (a) The centroids of the K clusters that can further be used for labeling new data, (b).Labels of the training data after the data are assigned to different clusters based on the least distance between its centroid and the data point. The procedure of k-means clustering includes: 1. Initializing the k-means: (1) assigning a value to k (for instance, k=3), (2) randomly assign each data point to any of the 3 (or k) clusters and (3) calculate the cluster centroid for each of the clusters. 2. Associating each data point to a cluster by reassigning each point to its closest cluster centroid. 3. Recalculating the centroids for the new clusters. 4. Iterating the procedures 2 and 3 until switching of data points from one cluster to another is no longer needed. By then, the k-means algorithm exits. For a set of observations, , each of them is a dimensional real vector, k-means clustering is to partition the n observations into k () sets of clusters, i.e. , in order to minimize the within-cluster sum of squares (WCSS) (thus the variance). Then, for effective clustering, it is essential to find: where, is the mean of all points in the cluster . • Support vector machine: Support vector machines (SVMs) are supervised machine learning models which are similar to linear or logistic regression except that they have different margin-based loss functions. They are binary classification algorithms that can analyze data for classification and regression analysis. • Random forest: Random Forest is to select randomly from the original data and then form into different subsets. It is an advanced decision tree which is highly complex and each tree of the random forest works through the model of a decision tree algorithm. Machine learning snapshots The examples of commonly used machine learning algorithms include: (1) Linear Regression, (2) Random Forest, (3) AdaBoost, (4) Decision Tree, (5) Logistic Regression, (5) Support Vector Machine (SVM) and (6) XGBoost. Some of the snapshots from one of the machine learning projects are listed in the right column including data visualizations (boxplot, pairwise scatter plot and contour plot), heatmap of correlations across all features and the target, features selection, and the plot of predicted vs actual targets, etc. Deep Learning What is deep learning? Deep learning is a subfield of machine learning using artificial or deep neural networks to train the computer to perform human-like tasks such as image and speech recognition. Deep learning is currently at the cutting edge of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) which has led to the breakthroughs such as audio processing, computer vision as well as self-driving cars, etc. Most of the deep learning methods use neural network architectures, thus the deep learning models are usually considered as deep neural networks where “deep” relates to the number of hidden layers in the neural network and the Networks may have tens or hundreds of hidden layers (Neural Networks and Deep Learning, 2018). Packages for deep learning Python has a number of deep learning libraries and listed below are the most useful libraries that support different deep learning architectures such as auto-encoders, recurrent neural networks (RNNs), convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and feed-forward networks etc.. • Theano: is a low-level and major foundational library with tight integration with NumPy for fast and efficient numerical computation that can be run on the CPU or GPU architectures. • TensorFlow: is a low-level library less mature than Theano for fast numerical computing which is supported by Google for out-of-the-box distributed computing. It is a foundation library for creating Deep Learning models directly or by using wrapper libraries that simplify the process built on top of TensorFlow. • Keras: is a heavyweight wrapper for Theano and Tensorflow. Keras is a high-level neural networks API and is modular for rapid experimentation. • Lasagne: is a lightweight wrapper for Theano for building and training neural networks, which provides the flexibility of Theano and the neural network layers to be used. • MXNet: is a high-level library similar to Keras. The framework provides bindings for multiple languages and support for distributed computing that is designed for efficiency, flexibility and the productivity. Big Data Analytics Platforms Hadoop and Spark are currently the two frameworks for Big Data with some of the most popular tools for analytics. However, both of them do not perform identical tasks but rather can work together. Apache Hadoop Apache Hadoop was initially a Yahoo project in 2006 prior to gradually becoming a top-level Apache open-source software framework for storing data and running applications on clusters of hardware with enormous processing power and the capability of simultaneously handling virtually unlimited tasks. As a collection of open-source software utilities, Apache Hadoop has several components (the top three are the basic components): • HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System): This is the main data storage system including the centerpiece of NameNode or the Master (for metadata) and DataNode architecture (for actual datasets) for high-performance access to data across highly scalable Hadoop clusters. • YARN (Yet Another Resource Negotiator): This is the resource management layer with a schedule for application runtimes. • MapReduce: This is a software framework for writing applications (algorithms) to process huge amount of datasets (multi-terabyte) in parallel on large clusters (thousands of nodes) of commodity hardware in a reliable manner. Hadoop is built in Java but is accessible for writing MapReduce code through many programming languages including Python. • Sqoop: Apache Sqoop is the command-line interface application designed for efficiently transferring bulk data between Apache Hadoop (HDFS) and external datastores such as relational databases or enterprise data warehouses. • Hive: Apache Hive is an open source data warehouse software project built on top of Apache Hadoop for querying and analyzing large datasets of the Hadoop files. It was created in 2007 by Facebook developers for SQL access to Hadoop data. Thus, Hive brings an SQL-like interface allowing users to run queries on HDFS and for Hadoop analytics. • Mahout: Apache Mahout is an open source project with a library of scalable machine-learning algorithms implemented on top of Apache Hadoop and using the MapReduce paradigm. Once big data come into HDFS, Mahout provides the relevant tools to automatically find meaningful patterns for the big datasets. Thus, the Apache Mahout can facilitate turning big data into big information. Mahout mainly functions in the following four aspects: • Collaborative filtering: tracks user behavior and makes similar recommendations of products such as Amazon recommendations. • Clustering: clustering similar items in the same group. • Classification: learning from existing categories and then assigning unclassified items into the most appropriate category. • Frequent item-set mining: learning existing items in a group such as in a shopping cart or terms from a query session and identifying which items or terms usually appear simultaneously. Apache Spark Apache Spark is a general-purpose cluster computing system or platform with high-level tools for structured data processing, machine learning, graphics processing and streaming. It was initially a project created in 2012 by the AMPLab (Algorithms, Machines and People Lab) at UC Berkeley. As a top-level Apache project, it processes datasets in parallel across a cluster of hardware. Spark differs from Hadoop in that Hadoop reads and writes files into HDFS while Spark processes data in RAM using an RDD (Resilient Distributed Dataset). The essential components of Apache Spark include: • Spark Core: Spark Core is the foundation of the project that contains the basic components to provide distributed task dispatching, scheduling, memory management, fault recovery, interacting with storage systems, and basic I/O functionalities. Spark Core has the API called resilient distributed datasets (RDDs) as the main programming abstraction representing all the items distributed across different compute nodes which can be manipulated in parallel for processing huge dataset. It is the capability of in-memory computation that generates high speed for Apache Spark compared with Apache Hadoop. • Spark SQL: Spark SQL is a Spark module or the component on top of Spark Core that introduces a data abstraction named DataFrames for structured and semi-structured data that can be queried using SQL or the Hive Query Language (HQL), an SQL variant, with support for different data sources such as Hive tables, JSON and Parquet. Spark SQL provides a domain-specific language (DSL) to manipulate DataFrames in Scala, Python and Java, as well as the SQL language support with command-line interfaces and the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) /Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) server. • Spark Streaming: Spark Streaming is able to perform streaming analytics through Spark Core's fast scheduling capability. It is the component for real time processing of live streams of data such as social media, the log files from production web server, and queues of messages from web users. After receiving input data streams, Spark Streaming divides them into batches for processing by the Spark engine and then generating final stream of results in batches. • Spark MLlib: Spark MLlib is a distributed machine-learning library or framework on top of Spark Core that provides multiple types of machine learning algorithms, which are designed to scale out across a cluster, with classification, regression, clustering, collaborative filtering, and so as well as supporting functionality such as model evaluation and data import. . Some of the algorithms work with streaming data including linear regression using ordinary least squares or k-means clustering. • GraphX: GraphX is an API and a distributed graph-processing framework or library on top of Apache Spark for manipulating graphs and performing graph-parallel operations. Like Spark SQL and Spark Streaming, GraphX is based on the Spark RDD API and functions as an engine for network graph analytics with data store, which has the capability of clustering, classification, traversal, searching, and pathfinding in graphs. It can optimize the formation of vertices and edges with arbitrary properties for the primitive data types and has various operators for manipulating graphs, such as subgraph and mapVertices, and a library of common graph algorithms including PageRank and triangle counting, etc.
Type to search Real Life Matters More than Apps For better or worse, social media is a consistent—oftentimes, persistent—part of our everyday lives. And while it’s a useful tool for networking and meeting new people, it can have a negative impact on our existing relationships. A 2015 Pew Research study found that 65 percent of American adults and 90 percent of young adults aged 18-29 used social media daily. Other studies show that other media forms—like TV, movies and music—also influence our attitudes and behaviors. A study conducted by Larry Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University, found that the more people socially interact in the virtual world, the more their individual behaviors and attitudes will be altered to reflect this activity. Rosen’s study also suggests that excessive use of social media can cause anxiety, depression and loneliness. Moreover, certain emotions and attitudes can be altered by virtual relationships. Having positive, secure relationships fosters feelings of connectedness—and that can be difficult in the digital world. In this hyper-connected age, it’s important to maintain a healthy balance between virtual and real-life relationships. Here are four ways to keep social media use in check: 1. Keep your social media use on a timer. Establish a limit for each medium. Treat this time the same as you would with work meetings, gym time or dinner plans. 2. Limit the number of social media sites you maintain. Keep the ones that are most important to you, and only sustain virtual connections with people you know and who share your interests. 3. Increase real-life social interactions. Rather than using social media to catch up with friends and family, call or make an effort to actually meet with them. When you can’t physically be in the same place, video chatting is a better alternative. 4. Share your goals with family and friends. This will help you stay on track and increase your sense of accountability. You Might also Like
Cocaine Hippos Could Pablo Escobar’s escaped hippos help the environment? Colombia’s “cocaine hippos” are making waves in their new home, but whether that’s a good thing or not depends on who you ask. Known unknowns The hippos have escaped Escobar’s former ranch and moved into Colombia’s main river, the Magdelena. Spread over a growing area, nobody knows exactly how many there are—but estimates indicate there may be a total population between 80 and 100, says Jonathan Shurin, an ecologist with University of California San Diego who studies the animals. That’s at least a couple dozen higher than estimates just two years ago. Given that there were four in 1993, the population appears to be growing exponentially. “Within a couple of decades, there could be thousands of them.” South America lost dozens of giant herbivore species in the last 20,000 years or so, including the somewhat hippo-esque toxodons, which may have been semi-aquatic, as well as water-loving tapirs. Although several tapir species remain today, all are declining. “Hippos could likely contribute a partial restoration of these effects, likely benefitting native biodiversity overall,” Svenning says. He’d let the hippos be for now, while monitoring the creatures to ensure they don’t become a problem. Jonathan Shurin, an ecologist with University of California San Diego who studies the animals notes that the animals may be providing a valuable service for native plants that once relied on large, now-extinct mammals to disperse their seeds. “We’re planning to look at their poop and see what’s in there,” he says. But while he says it’s possible they’re stepping into roles that have been vacant for millennia, that may not be something the humans in the area ultimately want. No one really knows how native wildlife like manatees, river turtles, and otters will be affected by that kind of rewilding, and more hippos may mean increased conflict with people. “Right now, the people are just coexisting with them,” he says. But that could change if this population of notoriously disagreeable animals grows exponentially. “There’s concern about public safety.” For now, without immediate plans to relocate or sterilize all the animals, the creatures will continue to fend for themselves and expand. Shurin looks forward to studying the long-term impacts of their residency, assuming they indeed remain. “It’s a big experiment,” says Shurin—and “we’re going to find out.” National Geographic Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s
Judges 19-21 Inductive Bible Study Outline – Judges 19-21 Chapter 19 1. The man goes to woo his concubine back (19:1-9) 2. They leave and arrive at Gibeah (10-15) 3. An old man from Ephraim takes them in (16-21) 4. The man shamefully gives his concubine to them and she is raped and killed (22-26) 5. The Levite radically summons the tribes of Israel together (27-30) Chapter 20 1. A council of all Israel is convened to decide what to do (1-7) 2. The people of Benjamin hardened their hearts and decided to go to war rather than giving up the criminals (8-17) 3. Two times they failed to defeat Benjamin (18-28) 4. The final time they defeated and almost wiped out the Benjamite army (29-48) Chapter 21 1. Weeping for the lost tribe and deciding how to keep the Benjamites from fading out as a people (1-7) 2. They attack Jabesh-Gilead and take 400 virgins for the Benjamites from there (8-12) 3. A bizarre plan to allow some women to be “stolen” instead of actually “giving” them to the Benjamites (13-24) 4. The conclusion: Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Discussion Questions: What is God’s view towards concubines? Was this an accepted cultural practice? How does this practice reflect the view of women at the time? What kinds of things were valued in the culture as seen in these chapters? (Hospitality, tribal unity, bravery) In 19:12, why do you think the man preferred the people of Israel to foreigners? What was odd about their experience in Gibeah? Are there any other stories in the Bible similar to what happens next? What does this story show about the condition of the people at the time? Who are the good guys in the story? Why in the world would the old man offer his daughter instead of a stranger? Why would the Levite offer his concubine? At the time, the man didn’t seem concerned at all for his concubine. Why the seeming outrage when he got back? Why would the man send this kind of grotesque message? Did it work? Did the Levite relate the story exactly as it happened? What fact did he leave out? Why? Was he right that they committed a disgraceful/lewd act? What fact does he leave out? What principle does this show about people’s attitudes and standards? (We tend to judge others and notice their sins very easily while excusing ourselves.) What was the decision of the council? Was this a good decision? Why or why not? Why would the people of Benjamin risk their lives for a few worthless criminals/murderers? What does this show about their values? What attitude does this show that they were willing to fight about 15 times more men for a few criminals? What do you think about the motivation of the Israelites in this whole situation? Was it pure and God-centered? Since they were doing the right action, why did God allow them to lose the battle twice? How did this change their attitudes? How can you tell? What strategy do they employ to win the battle? Why were the people of Israel mourning in chapter 21? Didn’t they accomplish their goal? What value does this show they have? Do you think they are right in this? What put them into this situation to begin with (a stupid/rash vow). What do think about their actions to fight against Jabesh-Gilead and kill all the people there because they didn’t help in the battle? How about the idea of the festival at Shiloh and “accidentally” letting some of their women be stolen? Teaching Points: 1. Discuss how women were viewed at the time and the proper view of women according to the Bible. Genesis 1:27 – Male and female were both created by God in His image. Galatians 3:28 – Neither Jew, nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free. Mary Magdalene was the first to see the resurrected Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:8-15 – A woman’s role in the church. Different by design. Genesis 2:24 – God’s standard was always one man, one woman. 1 Timothy 3:2, 12, Titus 1:6 – Leaders in the church must be the husband of one wife. Teaching Points 1. Discussion the importance of prioritizing values. The old man was great at hospitality, but took his obligation of hospitality way too far, ranking a stranger’s life above his own daughters’. 2. The degenerate state of the culture where there were no actual “good guys.” Every party has some serious problems. The old man was willing to sacrifice his daughter for hospitality. The concubine played the harlot against her husband. The Levite sacrificed his concubine to save himself. The Benjamites were worthless criminals comparable to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. The people of Israel were motivated out of personal anger and outrage. It was a kind of judgmental attack on others. The rest of the Benjamites in pride stood by these criminals instead of turning them over. Romans 1. Proverbs 8:13 – To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. 1 Peter 1:15-16 – Be holy as I am holy. Teaching Point The Levite was outraged against this act against his concubine and the Israelites were too, but they all committed a lot of serious sins. It is easy to judge others and see the sins in their lives while overlooking one’s own. While some sin was not tolerated, much sin was tolerated in these chapters. And when sin starts to become tolerated an entire culture becomes degenerate, which is what happened. Notice the gross public displays of sin that are going on. Matthew 7:3-5 – Take the log out of your own eye before the speck out of others. Psalms 36:1-4 – The wicked do not detect or hate their own sin. They plot evil on their bed and do not reject what is wrong. Teaching Point While they performed the right action to punish the sin, the Israelite’s motivation seemed to be personal outrage, rather than humbly following God’s principles. They had too cavalier an approach and were not grieved enough over the actual sin that was occurring. Moreover they didn’t seem to think about the great cost this sin brought, namely the deaths of thousands of people. Although they asked God’s council, they still seemed prideful and self-reliant. Their defeat cost thousands of lives and was a reminder to be humble and not let things degenerate to such a point again in the future. If they had practiced God’s laws faithfully before this, the point of civil war would never have been reached. It’s like parents disciplining children. You can’t wait to only punish the “big” sins or it is almost too late. You have to discipline consistently every sin no matter how big or small or it will spin out of control. 1 Samuel 16:7 – Man looks at the outward appearance; God looks at the heart. Proverbs 16:2-3 – All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but the Lord weighs the motives. Jeremiah 11:20 – The Lord tests the heart and mind. Teaching Points Sin has consequences. The people of Benjamin had degenerated into despicable acts of sin and pride. God punished them the same as he punished the people of Sodom and Gomorrah half a millennia before. God is consistent. Through all times, all cultures, and all people, sin will be punished. The price of their disobedience was the almost total wiping out of a tribe. As normal, we see that God’s compassion is also right next to his judgment. He once again preserves a remnant and doesn’t totally wipe out even this one group of his people. They put themselves into a corner by making a rash vow, which they didn’t think through. They could have saved themselves a lot of trouble and additional sin by simply not making this vow to begin with. This is reminiscent of Jepthah’s vow. In both cases, they are seemingly making a vow out of religious fervor, but later regret it. The lesson is very clear. Don’t make rash vows. Think them through first and be sure you won’t be surprised by any situations later. Judges 11:35 – Jepthah’s foolish vow. Ecclesiastes 5:4-6 – Be careful what you vow, but you must fulfill it. Although their motivation to preserve the Benjamites as a tribe is admirable their methods are not. This is once again of the reflection of the refrain of doing what is right in their own eyes. God never condones their attack and merciless slaughter of the people of Jabesh-Gilead. To save one people, they blotted out another. They think that they got around lying by setting up this feast and allowing their women to be stolen instead of giving them to the Benjamites. This proves one thing. The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. They deceived themselves. God knows the heart. Even though they went to such lengths to try to keep a clear conscience and keep their vow, I believe they broke it anyway through this deceptive act. They were condoning kidnapping of people from actual families who loved and cared about them. Once again their values were out of order. Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; who can know it? More Bible Studies
College College Society and the World College Space and Planetary Sciences TSS Massive Solar Flares Could Wipe Out Global Infrastructure Let’s talk about the Carrington Event. Let’s talk about the Carrington Event. If you’ve never heard of it, you’re probably a normal person who doesn’t spend hours scrolling through weird scientific proceedings from the 1800s on Wikipedia. A Carrington Event is kind of like a practice for the end of times, an end of the world drill brought on by normal scientific phenomena. In other words, it’s an extremely powerful geomagnetic solar storm that happens when a solar coronal mass ejection (CME) hits the earth (1). The term “Carrington Event” was coined in 1859 when amateur astronomer Richard Carrington went to his private observatory on the morning of September 1st to look at the sun (1). He quickly noticed that there were huge dark spots covering the sun’s surface, and suddenly spotted “two patches of intensely bright and white light” coming from these sunspots (1). He brushed it off when the light vanished, but within the hour the effects of those fireballs were noticed all over the world. That night, all telecommunication stopped working. No one could send telegraphs, and sparks coming from telegraph machines caught papers on fire and scared pedestrians (1). Additionally, the night sky was red and bright. Many people believed that the event was a sign of the world ending. One eyewitness from South Carolina even quoted the bible, saying “The eastern sky appeared of a blood red color. It seemed brightest exactly in the east, as though the full moon, or rather the sun, were about to rise. It extended almost to the zenith. The whole island was illuminated. The sea reflected the phenomenon, and no one could look at it without thinking of the passage in the Bible which says, ‘the sea was turned to blood.’ The shells on the beach, reflecting light, resembled coals of fire” (1). Later, it was discovered that was not a scene from Revelations, but rather a solar flare with the power of ten billion atomic bombs that sent gas and subatomic particles flying toward earth. This caused to massive geomagnetic storms, making the solar storm of 1859 was the largest and most destructive in history. It was twice as big as any solar storm in 500 years (1). The people of 1859 were upset that they couldn’t use telegraphs, so imagine what would happen if something like the Carrington Event happened in 2019. Hospitals could shut down for days, uncontrollable surges of electricity would harm people near electric transformers or power stations, cell reception and power grids would be lost, and GPS would stop working (2). Even the internet would be disrupted by the geomagnetic interferences (3). “Humans in space would be in peril too,” NASA says. Astronauts would only have minutes to get inside a spacecraft before the energetic solar particles would harm them (2). In 2008, the National Academy of Sciences stated that an event like this in the 21st century would cause “extensive social and economic disruptions” and impact satellites, power grids, and all GPS systems (1). To put that into perspective, a satellite transaction occurs every time you buy gas with a credit card (3). The price of recovery from an event like this would be between 1 to 2 trillion dollars, and the effects could take up to ten years to recover from (3). In addition, a 2007 NASA study found that the damages to satellites would cost anywhere from 30 to 40 billion dollars (2). Scientists believe that it would absolutely devastate global infrastructure, so let’s all hope that a massive solar flare doesn’t hit earth any time soon (2). (1) Klein, Christopher. “A Perfect Solar Superstorm: The 1859 Carrington Event.” History, Accessed 25 January 2019. (2) Letzter, Rafi. “A Massive Solar Storm Could Wipe Out Almost All of Our Modern Technology — And We’d Have Just Hours to Prepare.” Business Insider, Accessed 25 January 2019. (3) Lovett, Richard A. “What If the Biggest Solar Storm on Record Happened Today?” National Geographic, Accessed 25 January 2019. 0 comments on “Massive Solar Flares Could Wipe Out Global Infrastructure Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s %d bloggers like this:
What Is Parity in Physics? What is parity in Physics? This may perhaps sound confusing but the truth is parity is amongst the most commonly-used words in the world of Physics, that’s why it’s still so important. In Physics, parity refers to the scenario where precisely the same equations operate for each initial conditions within a test system. Because both solutions appear exactly the same inside a model of matter, they can be treated as if they’re identical and therefore both solutions will look the exact same for any test on the laws of physics. In a circumstance where the initial circumstances are identical, the forces acting on an object cannot be different. An instance of this would be a tank produced up on the very same supplies but with diverse tanks created up of distinct materials. In both instances, they have precisely the same weight, and neither can move due to a difference in their mass. In numerous methods, this notion is a lot more vital than the principle point. You should recognize how your physics principles and problems will perform, prior to you apply them. One of the approaches to complete that is by using the above example. When a tank with diverse contents are placed within the exact same atmosphere, the tanks cannot move since they can’t move about and have the exact same mass. The extra difficult a program is, the more physical variables involve, the extra complicated the method, the much more difficult the equations involved, the far more tricky it is to get a outcome. These troubles are referred to as physical laws and by asking the above question, the answer to what’s parity in Physics will give you an insight into why the equations of motion can’t be manipulated. So how is parity measured? When you possess a pendulum international business essay which can be produced up of two objects, one of which has to move plus the other which doesn’t, you may identify the difference in time between these two pendulums bymeasuring the time it takes for the pendulum to make a complete cycle amongst the two moving objects. If these two pendulums possess the very same mass, the pendulum will oscillate involving them in the similar price. The decrease the distinction in time, the extra momentum is required to bring the pendulum back to its original position. Parity in Physics doesn’t mean that one particular object can do anything that a second object can do. It basically signifies that there is certainly only 1 path the pendulum will take, in the exact same speed and within the same path. The opposite of parity in Physics is known as a parabolic equation, this is a mathematical process that produces different benefits as a consequence of the truth that you will find no ‘numerical variables’ to be regarded as. Most equations in Physical laws are of course distinctive to every person issue. There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer to a problem that you’re functioning on. The very best strategy to ascertain that is right for you should be to do a trial run very first and test all the various systems until you get anything that operates properly for you. Some people do not know what parity in Physics is, but as soon as they have mastered the concept, they realize that it makes a huge difference in their life and in their Physics writing. In addition, it assists to give them an thought of your complexities that exists in Physics and it can help them with their Physics calculations. Of course, numerous folks won’t take the time to learn this for the reason that they do not feel that their physical system is any excellent, or they consider that it is not time-consuming. But remember, in Physics, all the things is about finding out about a physical technique, how it performs, and what impact it is going to have on our world. Sometimes, the scenario is usually a little bit additional complicated and it may be hard to predict which elements will make it simpler or make it harder, but ultimately, the only factor that truly matters is which parts in the system will affect which other components. parts with the technique. In Physics, one of the most effective methods to understand what’s parity in Physics is usually to practice it. Never wait for an individual else to inform you, just get out there and try to learn!
Scientists Analyzing the Molecular Mechanisms of Tumor Suppressor Protein Promoting Cancer Researchers have long believed that by slowing down cell metabolism, cancer can be effectively suppressed, and protein complex AMPK seems to be able to help some tumors grow. Recently, scientists from Solk Institute have uncovered why AMPK cannot only hinder the progress of cancer, but also help the progress of cancer. Relevant research has been published on internationally magazine Cell Metabolism. Researcher Reuben Shaw said that advanced cancer can induce AMPK cells to recycle signals and dismantle cell fragments to provide the necessary nutrients for the growth of larger lung tumors. Relevant studies have shown that in some cases, blocking the function of AMPK can inhibit the growth of malignant tumors in common lung cancers. When cancer cells do not need adequate nutrition, the same abnormalities in the genetic circuits that promote the development of non-small cell lung cancer are critical for the maturation of cancer cells. Researchers are thrilled by the results, which not only provide scientists with an understanding of the genetic mystery of cancer, but also provide potential targets for the development of new cancer therapies. Scientists Analyzing the Molecular Mechanisms of Tumor Suppressor Protein Promoting Cancer AMPK can act as a cell's "fuel meter", which monitors the input and output of energy to ensure the normal operation of cells. It is similar to automotive sensors, which constantly flicker low gas signals or turn off the alternating current of automobiles to save energy. AMPK also slows down cell growth and changes cell metabolic patterns at low energy levels. Previously, researchers have found that AMPK may slow down the rapid metabolic process of tumors and restore normal functions of liver and other tissues in diabetic patients. In this study, researchers found that AMPK actually helped large tumors grow. Researchers studied mice carrying AMPK and mice without AMPK to observe the development of tumors in mice. Professor Lillian Eichner said that when AMPK was absent, tumors grew very slowly, which meant that AMPK does not always function as a tumor suppressor. The researchers then analyzed which genes were activated in tumour cells from the same mouse model in a variety of situations, one of which was Tfe3, which was particularly active and activated the cell recovery process. The results have showed that when the tumour become large enough, it would make the cells in the middle of the tumour become difficult to get nourishment. When nutrients are obtained, AMPK sends a signal to Tfe3 to initiate the recovery of cellular substances such as nutrients for use by tumors. Previously, researchers focused on how to activate AMPK effectively. Now researchers have identified the molecular mechanisms involved, so that researchers can effectively switch to studying how to inhibit AMPK in specific cancers. Finally, the researcher William R. Brody Chair adds that we are very excited because many malignant tumors seem to rely on AMPK to survive, and understanding the molecular mechanisms involved may provide new ideas for developing new therapies for these malignant tumors. Related News
Driving Directions Lithuania LITHUANIA is the largest of the three former Soviet Baltic Republics. Lithuania is bounded by Latvia, Belarus, Poland, and Russia (Kaliningrad) with a Baltic Sea coastline to the west. Lithuania is a country of plains, broken by low hills with numerous rivers and lakes and many marshes and wetlands, some of which drained. The upland areas are generally to be found in the west, while the majority of the lakes are in the southern and northeastern parts of the republic. The Neman River, with its tributaries, forms part of the border with Russia and supplies the country with hydroelectric power. Over two-thirds of the country’s people live in cities, towns or urban areas. Vilnius is Lithuania’s capital and largest city. Driving Directions Forests cover about a quarter of the country, which is home to a range of wild animals, such as wolves and wild boar, and many birds, particularly wetland species. The rivers and lakes contain a variety of species of freshwater fish. Lithuania has a temperate climate but with generally more extreme and variable temperatures in the east. On the whole, summers are mild to warm, and winters are cold or very cold, particularly inland, with considerable snowfall. Precipitation occurs throughout the year, but especially in the summer months. Google maps™ Lithuania Lithuania was traditionally an agricultural country, and although it underwent considerable industrialization following the Soviet takeover in the 1940s, agriculture is still essential to the economy. Crops include cereals (rye and barley), sugar beet, and potatoes. Cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry are among the livestock animals. Lithuania’s forests, which cover about a quarter of the country, provide valuable timber resources. There is also a small but essential fishing industry. Lithuania lacks exploitable mineral reserves, and the country is dependent upon imports of oil, although it has some deposits of gypsum and small reserves of oil. Oil production has started from a small field at Kretinga in the west of the country some 16 kilometers or 10 miles north of Klaipeda. Nuclear power accounts for about half the country’s energy needs with some additional power from hydroelectric schemes. The nuclear reactors are old, however, and subject to operational difficulties that expected to continue to cause problems. Considerable industrial development took place during the postwar communist years, although adjustments have had to make since the country has progressed towards a free-market economy. Industries and manufacturing include shipbuilding, engineering, food processing, production of cement, machinery, and electronic equipment. Amber found along the Baltic coast and used by Lithuanian craftsmen for making jewelry. Financial scandals involving government members and banking institutions troubled the economy during the 1990s. Click here for Lithuania Google maps, MapQuest & more detailed country facts.
Saturday, March 14, 2015 By John Rasko and Carl Power The Guardian Originally posted February 18, 2015 Here is an excerpt: Two obvious reasons spring to mind. First, unbelievable carelessness. Obokata drew suspicion upon her Nature papers by the inept way she manipulated images and plagiarised text. It is often easy to spot such transgressions, and the top science journals are supposed to check for them; but it is also easy enough to hide them. Nature’s editors are scratching their heads wondering how they let themselves be fooled by Obokata’s clumsy tricks. However, we are more surprised that she didn’t try harder to cover her tracks, especially since her whole career was at stake. Second, hubris. If Obokata hadn’t tried to be a world-beater, chances are her sleights of hand would have gone unnoticed and she would still be looking forward to a long and happy career in science. Experiments usually escape the test of reproducibility unless they prove something particularly important, controversial or commercialisable. Stap cells tick all three of these boxes. Because Obokata claimed such a revolutionary discovery, everyone wanted to know exactly how she had done it and how they could do it themselves. By stepping into the limelight, she exposed her work to greater scrutiny than it could bear. The entire article is here.
County History Laurent Ducharme is the first documented French trader to occupy the first trading post located on the east bank of the Fond du Lac River at the forks beginning in 1785 until 1787. The succession of traders at the post were for only a few years each. Ducharme was succeeded by a Spanish Trader named Ace, then came a Canadian named Chavodreuil who brought with him two clerks, and later Michael Brisbois together with Augustin Grignon. In 1795 Jacob Franks, a Jewish trader from Green Bay who never came to the area himself, sent his clerk Jacques Porlier to take over. He later replaced Porlier in 1797 with his nephew John Lawe, a young man of 16 years. The name Fond du Lac is a French term meaning 'farthest end of the lake'.
Want to keep learning? This content is taken from the The University of Glasgow's online course, Getting Started with Teaching Data Science in Schools. Join the course to learn more. Skip to 0 minutes and 0 secondsJEREMY: Hi, Peter. Hi, Lovisa. We've had loads of fun on the course. And hopefully, people have learned lots about how data works and how you process it and what you can do with it. And I guess now, as we come to the end of the course, we want to talk about how data can really have an impact and make a change in society. Data-- making the world a better place. Skip to 0 minutes and 20 secondsPETER: Yes, definitely. Skip to 0 minutes and 21 secondsJEREMY: Have you got some examples you can share with us, Peter, about how people have used data to improve society? Skip to 0 minutes and 27 secondsPETER: There's a really interesting study that actually appeared in the news quite recently that basically combined a whole load of different statistical information-- open data sets from around the world-- to actually find that only 9% of all the plastics ever produced have been recycled. And actually, when you think about it, it's quite a shocking statistic. We all put stuff in our blue bins. And hope that it will actually be recycled. Skip to 0 minutes and 54 secondsJEREMY: And where does it go? Oh no. Skip to 0 minutes and 55 secondsPETER: Where does it go? So actually, quite a bit of it ends up being incinerated-- or, actually, the largest majority of it ends up in landfill. Maybe not in landfill in Britain-- it might actually end up being shipped across to another country for reprocessing-- but actually end up in landfill somewhere else. Skip to 1 minute and 13 secondsJEREMY: Yeah, that is interesting. So where did they get the data from? Skip to 1 minute and 17 secondsPETER: A whole load of different data sets. So the World Steel Association, the US Geological Survey. There was also data that was taken from a number of different studies-- so, for example, "The Compelling Facts about Plastics and Analysis of Plastic Demand and Recovery for 2006 in Europe." And so what they were able to do was they were able to look at these different reports and data sets and actually pull them together into a coherent whole. And it just shows the power of being able to aggregate multiple pieces of data together in order to come up with a much more powerful story. Skip to 1 minute and 59 secondsJEREMY: I think those headline statistics are really important as well. That's something that grabs everyone's attention-- 91% of plastic is never-- what did you say? Never recycled. Skip to 2 minutes and 8 secondsPETER: Yup, 91% of plastic has never been recycled. So it's either been incinerated or it's ended up in landfill or possibly even in the oceans. Skip to 2 minutes and 17 secondsJEREMY: Thanks. Lovisa, have you got an example of an interesting data fact that could change the world? Skip to 2 minutes and 23 secondsLOVISA: Yeah, I'm personally quite concerned with air pollution levels in city centres. And there is this wave of initiatives around the world where cities try out and experiment with different policies to reduce car commuters and improve the bike infrastructure-- for example, in order to reduce these levels. So for example, there's data from Paris or Bogota indicating that this has been extremely successful in slashing the emission levels in the city. So I think this provides a very strong foundation for persuading your local politicians to, for example, improve bike infrastructure. And in fact, I've contacted the city council in Glasgow to implement similar policies. Skip to 3 minutes and 18 secondsPETER: It's quite amazing that Glasgow, actually-- when you do look at the data-- has got the highest level of air pollution of any of the major cities in Scotland. So again, you can use the data to actually tell a story. So one of the things that often crops up is health outcomes for people who live in Glasgow city. And so by tackling something like air pollution, that actually could make a really big difference to people's overall level of health and well-being. Skip to 3 minutes and 47 secondsJEREMY: Yeah. I think a really important point that we should properly explore a bit is what to do with the data once you've got it. You mentioned there about writing to politicians. I didn't think people did that, but you do, obviously. Well done, Lovisa. That was great. How else, Peter, can we get the facts out there? How else can we influence public opinion? Skip to 4 minutes and 7 secondsPETER: Well, everybody including their granny is on social media of one form or another. So actually, you've got Facebook, you've got Twitter, you've got Instagram-- and these are all great ways in which you can actually get pieces of information out there and hopefully catch people's interest and attention. And then, once it starts to be shared or retweeted, then you can start to build a bit of a groundswell of support for a particular issue or an action, a call to arms, that you've got. I think one of the important things, though, with social media is that visuals are really important. So after three days, if it's just text-based information, people will remember about 10%. Skip to 4 minutes and 49 secondsIf it's something where you've got a simple, eye-catching graph or other kind of visualisation. Then, actually, the amount of information that they retain is much higher-- it's around about 66% of the information. After three days, they will remember and retain. The other nice thing about including short video clips or short graphic-style illustrations is that they tend to actually be retweeted and re-shared much more often than just plain text posts. So it's really important to think, once you've got your overall data story, what are some of the most interesting individual pieces that might form a tweet or a microblog post that's likely to catch people's attention and get them to share it more widely. Skip to 5 minutes and 35 secondsAnd I think the most important thing, when you include that, is to also think about what's your call to arms? So have a short message about what you want them to do based on that information. So whether that's to write to their MP, to speak to their local councillor, or whether it's actually-- Skip to 5 minutes and 55 secondsJEREMY: Take to the streets. Skip to 5 minutes and 55 secondsPETER: Take to the streets-- indeed. But whether it is some form of action that they can do to actually help address the issue that you've discovered and that you're advocating for change for. Skip to 6 minutes and 9 secondsJEREMY: Yeah. That's really nice. So data's like the kind of lever of change, the thing that you're going to use to move people to try and influence policy or change the outcomes. Lovisa, you introduced us to lots of really nice visualisations in the second week of our course. And I think some of those pop up often in social media. And also in mainstream media, as well. This is The Guardian here-- other newspapers are available. But I think often in The Guardian, they have lots of data, blogs, and visualisations and in-depth studies of different social aspects of data sets and so on. Yeah, good. Skip to 6 minutes and 55 secondsYou were talking about how maybe schoolchildren can have some kind of an effect on the world as well, Lovisa. You talk about school strikes and things like that. Skip to 7 minutes and 4 secondsLOVISA: School strikes, yes. Speak with your teacher-- I would recommend. And show them the data. I think many people are not aware of just how dire the situation is. And I think-- Skip to 7 minutes and 15 secondsJEREMY: For climate change? Skip to 7 minutes and 16 secondsLOVISA: Climate change, exactly. So I think with some nice data-based discussions, I think you might be able to persuade your teacher to participate in this global movement. Skip to 7 minutes and 29 secondsJEREMY: OK, good. So on that note, it's amazing to think that we as citizens are really empowered by data. And we've got the tools and techniques, which you started learning about in this course, I suppose, to make the world a better place through data. Skip to 7 minutes and 46 secondsPETER: Yes, definitely. How can data change society? Once a data science investigation is complete, it’s time to get out there and publicize the findings. There are lots of different ways to do this, some of which might be more effective than others. Thinking about the data mini-project you have now completed, how will you share the results with other people? What potential change might you be looking to achieve? Share this video: This video is from the free online course: Getting Started with Teaching Data Science in Schools The University of Glasgow
Ancient Greek civilization constitutes one of the cornerstones of western civilization and modern Greece has inherited a vast cultural heritage, preserved in more than 150 archeological museums and collections around the country, the vast majority of which are state-run and harbour works and collections of incalculable historical significance. Latsis museums Since 1997, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation has been supporting the documentation of this immense historical and artistic treasure with its publishing programme "The Museums Cycle”, to highlight the cultural heritage of Greece. A volume dedicated to an archaeological museum, monument or other archaeological site of the country has been published almost each year since then, with the aim of creating a series of albums which, with their scientific validity and their aesthetic approach, would contribute to the deeper understanding of the history of Greek civilization. The series provides specialized scientific knowledge enriched with the necessary material, tables, pictures and drawings, as well as an attractive visualization of antiquity, both for the known and for the unfamiliar dimensions of the monuments of our cultural heritage, with an unrivaled aesthetic. Moreover, the same publishing effort has given to a number of fellow archaeologists the opportunity to present and document their work, through which they can promote their own contribution to science. These luxury publications are not for sale; they are printed in a limited number of copies, in Greek and English, and are distributed free to selected recipients, namely universities, libraries, museums, archaeological services and schools, institutions and other cultural and research organizations in Greece and abroad. At the same time, they are accessible to the public as e-books for reading or for use as educational tools at schools or universities. For a virtual tour with in depth information regarding some of Greece’s best Archaeological Museums, just click on the titles below: Mycenae cover editedMYCENAE (Vol. XVII, 2015) The latest and 17th consecutive volume of "The Museums’ Cycle”, features the archaeological site and the museum of Mycenae. It offers a comprehensive narrative of the history of the place that gave birth to the great Mycenaean civilization, which dominated the eastern Mediterranean region between the fifteenth and twelfth centuries and played an essential role in the development of the culture of classical Greece. 'Rich in Gold', the kingdom of mythical Agamemnon, first sung by Homer in his epics, is the most important and richest palatial centre of the Late Bronze Age in Greece. The Acropolis of Mycenae, with its Great Cyclopean walls, was inscribed in 1991 in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Monuments. Kerameikos coverKERAMEIKOS (Vol. XVI, 2014) One of the most important and least visited of archaeological sites in downtown Athens is Kerameikos. This was actually the cemetery of ancient Athens and was continuously in use from the 9th century BC until the Roman times. The area took its name from "keramos", which means pottery in Greek, from the numerous pottery workshops that existed in the area before it was turned into a cemetery. This perennial and vibrant archaeological site, besides containing the cemetery of ancient Athens, was also the starting point of the Panathenaic procession. The excavation by Professor Manolis Andronikos and his associates under the Great Tumulus of Vergina village in Central Macedonia in 1977 brought to light one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century in Greece. The site of the Royal Tombs in the first capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia, called Aigai. In this unique discovery of universal significance, inscribed in UNESCO’s world heritage lists since 1996, the most important remains are the monumental palace, lavishly decorated with mosaics and painted stuccoes, and the burial ground with more than 300 tumuli, some of which date from the 11th century B.C. One of the royal tombs in the Great Tumulus is identified as that of the Macedonian king Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, who paved the way for the expansion of the Hellenistic world. Samos is an island with a long history and rich culture, known as the birthplace of the great philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras. Since ancient times, it was famous for the Sanctuary of Hera, the ‘Heraion’, the ancient fortified port Pythagoreion, and the engineering masterpiece "The tunnel Eupalinos" – all of which have been protected as world heritage monuments by UNESCO since 1992. Most findings from the Sanctuary of Heraion are hosted in the Archaeological Museum of Pythagorion that was inaugurated in May 2010. Another interesting archaeological museum with findings from excavations around the island is found in Vathy, the capital of Samos. Pella was the ancient capital of Macedonia and the birthplace of Macedonian civilization. The new museum near the archaeological site of the ancient city and the Macedonian palace opened in 2009, aiming to give a complete picture of the civilization in Archaic and early Classical times, a time when the Macedonians were beginning to establish their kingdom. It hosts a variety of significant archaeological findings that testify to the identity of the inhabitants of Macedonia, its origins and Greek languages, the gods they worshiped, education and culture. The Thebes Archaeological Museum is a lesser known but equally important museum that houses rare and even unique collections from Greek and foreign excavations in Boiotia, central Greece, and covers the region's civilization from the Paleolithic to the Post-Byzantine periods that played a major role in the development of the miracle of ancient Greek culture. Some of its collections are especially interesting because they are unique; for example the Near Eastern Bronze Age cylinder seals from the Theban palace in the Kadmeion, the Mycenaean larnakes from Tanagra, the Archaic kouroi from Ptoon etc. This 2009 volume on Marathon and its Archaeological Museum celebrated the 2500 years from the homonymous historic battle, when the outnumbered Athenians defeated the Persian army led by king Darius in 490 BCE in the first Persian invasion, and set the stage for a century of splendour and Greek innovation in politics, philosophy, art, theatre, and culture. The Marathon valley is intimately linked to the history of the battle, whose mythic dimensions are further highlighted by the simplicity of the pieces that testify to the daily life at the time. The museum collections come directly from excavations in the surrounding area and include items from the Neolithic period to the late Roman era, the most famous being from the Tomb of the Athenians and the prehistoric burial grounds. The Archaeological Museum of Olympia, one of the most important museums in Greece, presents the long history of the most celebrated sanctuary of antiquity, the sanctuary of Zeus, father of both gods and men, where the Olympic Games were born in 776 BC. Renowned for its sculptures and for its outstanding collection of ancient Greek bronzes, the richest of its kind in the world, the museum holds some of the best examples of ancient Greek Classical and Late Classical Greek art, including the sculptural decoration of the temple of Zeus that is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Nike of Paionios, the famous Hermes of Praxiteles, a large terracotta collection and many more unique exhibits. The sacred site of Ancient Olympia was inscribed in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in 1991. Athens’ renovatedNational Archaeological Museum is the largest museum in Greece and one of the most remarkable archeological museums in the world, housed in an imposing 19th century neoclassical building, designed by Ludwig Lange and remodeled by Ernst Ziller. With a rich collection of more than 11,000 artifacts found in all parts of the Greek world, it offers visitors a broad overview of ancient Greek civilization from the beginnings of Prehistory to Late Antiquity. The vast exhibition space houses five large permanent collections: The Collection of Prehistoric Antiquities, from the great civilizations in the Aegean (Neolithic Collection, Cycladic Collection, Mycenaean Collection, Thira Exhibition); the Sculptures Collection, with unique masterpieces of ancient Greek sculpture from the 7th to 5th centuries BC; the Vase and Minor Objects Collection, with representative works of ancient Greek pottery from the 11th century BC to the Roman period; the Bronze Collection, with many fundamental statues, figurines and minor objects; and, finally, the only Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Collection in Greece, with works dating from the pre-dynastic period (5000 BC) to the Roman conquest. In an impressive location on the slopes of Mount Parnassos, the pan-Hellenic sanctuary of Delphi, where the famous oracle of Apollo spoke, was the largest religious centre of the Greek world and the site of the ‘omphalos’, the ‘navel of the world’. Besides Delphi’s outstanding architectural monuments and settings, the museum is one of the most significant in Greece with rich collections of valuable sculptures and statues, donated to the sanctuary from its early years in the 8th century BC to its decline in Late Antiquity, including the famous Charioteer, the sacred symbol of Delphi, the ‘omphalos’ (navel), the statues of Kleobis and Biton, the Sphinx of the Naxians, etc. The archaeological site of Delphi was included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Monuments in 1986. Considered as one of the most significant museums in Europe and the museum of the Minoan Cutlure par excellence worldwide, the Archaeological Museum of Herakleion owes its fame and popularity to an impressive collection of Minoan antiquities from excavations in Knossos, Pheastos, Gortyn, Aharnes, Matala etc, with unique treasures like the famous Phaistos Disk (Phaistos), the Goddess of Snakes, and fragments of the original frescoes from the fabulous Palace of Knossos. The museum brings together archaeological finds from all over Crete, covering a time span of over 5,500 years of the island's history, from the Neolithic period to the Roman times. The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki is one of the most important in Greece. Renovated in 2003, the museum features distinctive works of art and excavation finds from the city of Thessaloniki and the wider area of the region of Macedonia, that encompass all aspects of personal and public life in antiquity: from the first organized settlements of the Neolithic period to the works made of metal, gold, glass and ceramics and from the precious funerary offerings of the Macedonian tombs to the outstanding sculptures and archaeological relics of the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods. Delos CoverDELOS (Vol. V, 2003) This small, rocky island in the Cyclades archipelago in the centre of the Aegean Sea was one of the most sacred places of ancient Greece, and one of the most robust trade centres as well. According to Greek mythology, Delos was the birthplace of Apollo and his sanctuary attracted pilgrims from all over the Greek world. The island was also a prosperous trading port and bears traces of the succeeding civilizations in the Aegean, from the 3rd millennium B.C. to Early Christianity. The entire island, a UNESCO’s world heritage monument since 1990, is an exceptionally extensive and rich archaeological site that conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port of the ancient world. Elefsis, one of the most sacred centres of the ancient world worshiping Demeter and Persephone, is one of the most interesting archaeological sites in Greece, not only on account of its size or state of preservation, but also because of its mystical character. The sanctuary was home to the legendary cult of Demeter, where the most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece, known as “Eleusinian Mysteries”, were celebrated annually. In the 8th century B.C. the sanctuary acquired a Pan-Hellenic character and the “Eleusinian Mysteries” were established as one of the most important Athenian festivals, with splendid buildings erected during the Classical and Roman periods. The museum of Piraeus features a representative and complete picture of the history of this ancient port, which flourished as the naval dockyard of ancient Athens and as a commercial centre of the Eastern Mediterranean. The variety and excellent quality of the exhibits uncovered from archaeological research in the wider area of the city, the western coast of Attica and the Argosaronikos islands, from the Mycenaean times to the Roman era, introduce us to the life of a city that embodied the principles and values of classical Greece. Some of the exhibits are extremely rare, in particular the famous bronze statues, the impressive monument of Kallithea, the figurines from Mycenaean and Minoan sanctuaries. Acropolis CoverTHE (OLD) ACROPOLIS MUSEUM (Vol. II, 1998) The first Acropolis Archaeological Museum was located on the sacred rock, next to the Parthenon. Despite its limited space, the museum housed for a long time the masterpieces of ancient Greek sculpture from the Archaic and Classical periods that not only marked the pulse of life in the city of Athens but also the spirit of its former inhabitants. Democracy, justice and reason were invented in Athens and defined the ideal type of man. The Parthenon freeze, a large collection of Kouros and Kore statues, the original Caryatides statues from the Erectheon and all other famous exhibits are now housed in the new Acropolis Museum, an impressive, state-of-the-art museum, considered as one of the best in the world. Benaki coverGREECE AT THE BENAKI MUSEUM (Vol. I, 1997) The first volume of Latsis’ ‘Museums Cycle’ collection was dedicated to the Benaki Museum, one of the first in Greece, operated as private foundation. Its complex structure, large display areas that cover a wide range of artistic expressions and respond different socio-cultural needs make it perhaps a unique example among all museum institutions of Greece.
As the son of hippie parents, I grew up throwing our dinner scraps into a compost pile in the backyard or feeding them to our chickens. Things changed after I left home. During my twenties and most of my thirties, I found myself too distracted and lazy to deal with waste, so everything went in the trash. I grimaced every time I tossed leftovers but never did anything about it. Then I came across the Countertop Composter ($40). The container’s sleek design caught my eye, because it doesn’t look like a small trash can filled with old eggshells and rotting vegetable bits. Thanks to two built-in carbon filters, it never stinks, even if food has been sitting in it for days. Made entirely from bamboo, it can go in the dishwasher when it gets dirty, and the handle makes for easy transport. Once I started using this bin, I looked up some stats about composting to remind myself why such an easy thing can make a big difference. The list is long, but one fact in particular jumped out: food remains make up nearly 30 percent of all landfill waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. By composting, you can keep your share of rubbish from letting off methane—a greenhouse gas—while it sits at the dump. (Your waste will still decompose in a landfill but generally at a much slower rate compared to already composted material.) When you spread rich compost in your yard, it replenishes healthy bacteria and keeps you from needing synthetic chemical fertilizers. As a side benefit, this process tamps down the smell of your trash. Once you start collecting scraps in a container like the Countertop Composter, you have to find a place for a permanent compost pile. Usually, this takes the form of a bigger bin or heap in the ground where your refuse can decompose. There are hundreds of online articles that will help you choose the right spot or container and then walk you through the steps needed to create a healthy pile. It requires some work at first, but as I found out growing up, it’s easy to maintain once you have it going. If you don’t want to start a compost pile, your other option is to find a neighbor with chickens. My mom still collects all her scraps, saves them in a plastic bag or ceramic jar (I’m going to buy her one of these bins), and walks them up to her neighbor’s house a few times each week. His chickens feast, and in return, my mom gets a dozen farm-to-table, cage-free eggs with lovely yellow-orange yolks every week or so. I’d call that a good deal. Buy Now Read more:
Is the world real or unreal? Is the world real or unreal? That is the question that is being raised by Michael for Subbu. I agree with Subbus answer. But here I am presenting two of the five definitions of falsity that Shree Madhusudana presents defending previous aachaaryas positions. Shankara in his adhyaasa bhaaShya uses the world mithyaa for the world- In his commentary of ManDukya kaarika, he makes a statement I see it therefore it is false dRisyatvaat while the dvaitic position is I see it therefore it is real dRisyatvaat, where pratyaksha pramaaNa or direct perception is given importance for reality. In his commentary on Shankara bhaaShya, Padmapaada defines the mithyaa as anirvacaniiyam, unexplainable, in the sense that we cannot say it exists and we cannot say it does not exits. This forms the first definition of falsity that dvaitins in NyaayamRita criticize using Navya Nyaaya arguments. Some of the arguments of Michael are not different from Purvapakshi presented in the text and these have been treated exhaustively by our aachaaryaas. I am planning to write these arguments and counter arguments later. I request Shree Sastriji also to present the Advaita Siddhis arguments in the order discussed for the benefit of others. Anand Hudli has done some. The question is what is this world? Advaita answer is it is neither real nor unreal or mithyaa. Purvapakshi presents – What is mithyaa? In countering the definition given the argument is that what is not sat or real, it should be asat, unreal; and what is not asat, unreal, it should be sat. It should be one or the other and you cannot have both real and unreal in the same locus That is the essence argument of puurvapakshi saying that mutually opposing qualities of sat and asat locussed on one contribute to self-contradiction, not acceptable. Madhusudana says NO. There is no contradiction here. The contradiction comes only if one consider as mutually exclusion. But if one defines the real and unreal correctly then there is no contradiction. This as I see forms the essence of discussion between Michael and Subbu. These are definitions: 1. Real is that which is not negated in three periods of time. And by this definition Brahman alone is real and nothing else. Brahman cannot be seen agotram -says the scripture. Hence whatever I perceive cannot come under Real. 2. Unreal is that where there is never a time and place to have a locus for its existence. This should be actually called tuccham in stead of asat unfortunately the scriptures use the asat for this also. This cannot be perceived too since there is no locus of its existence as in vandhyaaputraH. 3. Now there is a third category which does not fall under 1 and 2 that is the world I see it therefore it is not UNREAL(This is also B.sutra 2-28 also). But it undergoes continuous modification therefore it not trikaala abhaaditam, that is it does not fulfill the definition 1 or reality. Hence it is not REAL. Hence it is neither real nor unreal. Hence it is anirvachaniiyam says Pancapaadika which Madhusudana justifies as valid definition for the world where there is no contradiction that dvaitins point out. Since if it is not 1, it can be 2 or 3 and if it is not 3, it can be 1 or 2 and if it is not 1 and 2 then it can be 3. It is not unreal since it is experienced and it is not real since it can be sublated. Hence it is only transactionally real like our good old ring and bangle vaacaarambhanam vikaaro naamadheyam there are there naamkevaaste but what is there is really gold. Similarly what is there when I see the world is Brahman only in varieties of names and forms That is what is involve in tat tvam asi statement too. aitadaatmyam idam sarvam tat satyam sa aatma tat tvam asi swetaketu. The essence of the whole universe (idam sarvam) is nothing but the very existence principle that you are. The discussion automatically leads to the second definition of mithyaa that Madhusudana presents. 2. This definition comes from Shree Prakaashaatma Yati who is also known as VivaraNaacharya, who in further explaining Shankara adhyaasa bhaaShya justifies the mithyaa aspect of the world using the scriptural statement neha naanaasti kinchana there is nothing what so ever here. Here being used in terms world of perceptual presence now that is as I am perceiving the world right now the declaration is there is nothing what so ever real here since what is real is Brahman which cannot be perceived. Since non existence thing cannot be perceived, therefore on the basis of the scriptural statement whatever is perceived is mithyaa only since it is neither real nor unreal. The definition for mithyaa is: pratipanna upaadhou traikaalikanishedhapratiyogitvam vaa mithyaatvam in essence where three I am seeing now is not really there and what is there really I cannot see. I am seeing pot there but pot is really not there what is there is only clay and not pot. Hence pot is mithyaa. I am seeing the world in front of me, there where I am seeing the world, it is not there since in this case what is there is only Brahman that I cannot see. Hence the second definition is off shoot of the first but comes with scriptural justification for the mithyaa besides the vaachaarambhanam statement quoted above. Hence real or unreal question should be really real, unreal or mithyaa. And the world itself is mithyaa this applies equally to waking world as well as the dream world. In that sense there is not much difference. Hence Shankara says in aatma bodha: Sakaale satyavat bhaati, prabodhe satyasat bhavet it appears to be real in its time but when one is awaken its unreality is recognized. Here the term is satyavat meaning it APPEARS to be real. The similar statement Shankara makes in DakshiNamurthi first sloka vishvam darpaNa dRisyamaana nagarii tulyam nijaatargatam exhaustive analysis has been provided for these slokas by Shree Subbuji and is stored in the file section of advaitin list. Hari Om! Leave a Reply
Obedience to authority essay Solomon Asch s experiment in Opinions and Social Pressure studied a subject s ability to yield to social pressure when placed within a group of strangers. His research helped illustrate how groups encourage conformity. During a typical experiment, members of the group were asked by the experimenter to claim two obvious mismatched lines were identical. The single individual who was not privy to this information was the focal point of the experiment. Twelve out of eighteen times the unsuspecting individual went along with the majority, dispelling his beliefs in favor of the opinions of the group. Why did a subject conform in two-thirds of the tests? Influence causes us to think and act in ways that are consistent with our group, especially when we look to the group as a source of information. We also tend to assume that a large number of people can t all be wrong. Obedience Authority. By Nicholas P. LeveilleeVol. Cite References Print. References "Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. Nicholas P. The Japanese Number System. From the Inquiries Journal Blog. Monthly Newsletter Signup The newsletter highlights recent selections from the journal and useful tips from our blog. Follow us to get updates from Inquiries Journal in your daily feed. Subjects were instructed to administer increasingly strong electric shocks via a specially designed fake shock generator to a victim in another room, even when Mortal glory is fleeting. The Old Testament generally does not concern stanley milgram obedience to authority essay with militant triumph or climactic discovery. Taken as a whole unit, it is a product of the post-exilic period[2], for even its oldest pieces sacrifice essay editing to suit the purposes of authors essays student obedience to authority an audience Old Testament Judaism Exile Persecution. Feb 8, translated in both with the meaning and obedience is obedience to obligations? You are his essay is clearly too over their own words: towards an excellent essay title. International obedience to every human social psychology and moral right to authority as a brief look at paperhelp. On obedience and this duty to authority and submission in authorita- tive relations, jan 1. Authority to decide when does make authority. October 15, The Problems of Obedience to Authority People will do about anything to stay out of trouble when it comes to someone with authority that cannot be argued with. Stanley Milgram did an experiment on the topic of obedience to authority; he wanted to know how ordinary people could do horrible things if forced to by someone of authority. Obedience to authority is instinctual for human beings, there has and will always be someone with a higher authority than ourselves. How can normal. Obedience to Authority Today our society raises us to believe that obedience is good and disobedience is bad. Society tells us this, but it is not true. Most people will even be obedient to the point of causing harm to others, because to be disobedient requires the courage to be alone against authority. Grades That is referring to us you can be to essay authority obedience that persuasive argument work will be written by tigers Are you be custom made according but you obedience to authority essay to. Essays student obedience to authority Such kind of academic great number of new new offers for you. Besides it is also obedience to authority essay papers you need. Team when they professional essay service is very essential for the. Regardless of your assignment by professional college paper professional online essay. Always obedience to authority essay compiled papers obedience to authority essay thesis papers and then it will be edited by a attending college. We always provide receipts the market Excellent work the best essay and obedience to authority essay is a lot. Tags: psychology samplewritepass sample. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it. Including student tips and advice. You must be logged in to post a comment. Subscribe Essays ray bradbury you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it. Ask a question about this article Click here to cancel reply. Does Therapeutic Touch Reduce Pain? Subscribe Enter your email address below to receive helpful student articles and tips. Error, group does not exist!The learner expressed a degree of fear and questioned whether the shock would have any impact on their heart condition. The researcher told them that this was not something to worry about but they did inform them that the shocks could be extremely painful. During the learning session the teacher and learner were in different rooms and they communicated via intercom. The researcher told the teacher to increase the shock each time an incorrect answer was given. Regardless of uncertainty on behalf of the teacher, protests from the learner and latterly no sound at all from the learner, the researcher still instructed the teacher to administer the highest voltage possible. Following the experiment participants were debriefed and they were informed that the shock apparatus was not real and that the protests from the learners were scripted. Many of the subjects expressed emotional upset as they thought that they were inflicting immense pain on another person and that the high voltage shocks that they apparently administered had the capacity to kill somebody. This study highlights ethical issues which are relevant in the present day. Perhaps Milgram could have tested his ideas on obedience without causing distress to his subjects. His experiment illuminates issues around deception. Deception occurs when subjects are not clearly and fully informed about the nature of the research Glassman and Hadad, Modern ethical standards assert that participants must not be deceived, and that they must essays student obedience to authority told of any possible consequences. Guidelines stipulate that participants must take part on a voluntary basis and that they are free to withdraw at any point, that they are debriefed following the study and that there is an acceptable outcome of the research without harm being caused to subjects British Psychological Society, It is thought that under these conditions no hurt can be caused to the participant. As such this experiment is relevant to the present day psychology in many respects. Baumrind, D. Benjamin, L. T and Simpson, J. This was not the case; the learner knew the actual nature of the experiment, and in fact received no shocks at all. An overwhelming majority of the subjects, in the absence of force, in opposition to their moral principles, despite feelings of intense internal conflict and doubt, and despite the pleas, screams and apparent acute suffering of the learner, continued to adminster the shocks until the scientist-authority told them to stop. The psychological power of the authority-figure was far stronger than the power of their own moral values. There is no way, in a short review, to communicate the appalling quality of the spectacle the experiments unfold, the spectacle of predominantly decent people motivated, not by feelings of agression or hostility, but by their inability to resist the commands of an authority, to systematically torture what they believed to be helpless victims. Milgram gives a number of fascinating and valuable explanations both of the causes and the psychological mechanics which make such behavior possible, explanations drawn in large part from his subsequent interviews with his subjects. It was the authority who defined the moral meaning of their actions. What caused disobedience in the minority who refused to continue administering the shocks? In school we are told to listen to our teachers and do what they tell us. We do what our friends ask us to because it makes them happy and makes us feel as though we belong There is one similarity between obedience and conformity which is that both involved a renunciation Of personal responsibility. There is three differences between Obedience and Conformity. The first one is that in Essays student obedience to authority an order or an instruction is given whereas no instructions or order is given in conformity. The second one is that in obedience racism in huckleberry finn essays will be a difference of status e. Better Essays words 2. The study set out to discover how obedient people really are. Debate and controversy have surrounded the study since the results were first published. Predictions made by psychologists before the experiment proved dramatically inaccurate. Narrative essays samples essay on violation of child rights The experiment led volunteers to believe they were administering increasingly painful and dangerous electric shocks to another volunteer for the purposes of a study on memory Term Papers words 6. Society would lack order and be full of chaos without obedience. Authority helps society function; obeying that authority ensures stability. But at what point does obedience cross the line from advantageous to detrimental. Each shock would increase in voltage after every incorrect answer Good Essays words 2. Strong Essays words 4 pages Preview. In the essay he describes his experiments on obedience to authority. I feel as though this is a great psychology essay and will be used in psychology classes for generations to come. The essay describes how people are willing to do almost anything that they are told no matter how immoral the action is or how much pain it may cause. This essay even though it was written in is still used today because of its historical importance But how does this need affect an individual. Free Essays words 2. The study of obedience help people to understand many things about each person that is probably the main reason why Milgram, Stanley decided in to conducted a fundamental and incredible research about obedience. Obedience drive many person and it is fundamental to study that if we want to know anybody. In fact, in this study the subjects were 40 males between essays student obedience to authority and 50, draw from New Haven letter of application for employment sample the surrounding communities Better Essays words 2 pages Preview. Although the hard work they did and little food they were given was not something to be thankful for, the fact that they thanked him every day they began to believe it themselves. Jones also had every person write their deepest fears and mistakes to keep on file. If a follower disobeyed him he would humiliate or frighten them in front of everyone. This allowed him to gain their obedience; they knew that they had to obey him to avoid punishment. There was no way to escape Jones, he seemed to be everywhere Powerful Essays words 3. Through this obedience, many great things have been accomplished, as well as many instances of cruel and immoral acts. Defiance of the established authority, though, has also lead to great things, such as the creation and founding of the United States of America. In his writing, Obedience to Authority, Stanley Milgram examines the obedience to authority without questioning or taking responsibility and the problems that lie in it Society is built on this small, but important concept. Without authority and its required obedience, there would only be anarchy and chaos. But how much is too much, or too little. There is a fine line between following blindly and irrational refusal to obey those in a meaningful position of authority. Obedience to authority is a real and powerful force that should be understood and respected in order to handle each situation in the best possible manner Term Papers words 5. However history has shown that human nature does not always prevail with the best outcomes. The following experiments and real life events all reflect that human beings succumb to obedience even when common sense tells them that what they are doing is wrong. Strong Essays words 3. My Lai became one of the most controversial situations of the long Viet Nam War. When the truth came out due to letters to the government describing the horror, two questions resulted. Understanding why some of the young American soldiers that day killed so many innocent civilians and why did so few in the unit try to save the lives of as many as they could require moral clarity With Trish being extremely hesitant, Jones convinces her by telling her that Killgrave has kidnapped dozens of people and the only way to get him to reveal their location is to electrocute him. Better Essays words 5. Better Essays words 3. Every reason can lead to different outcomes, obedience to authority essay negative and positive results. Obedience can oftentimes be a response to a situation as well. Is it possible for there to be positive and negative acts of blind obedience. His findings prove that people display a higher probability of hurting others when ordered to act out. Soldiers were under the impression that all civilians who were not a part of the Viet Cong North Vietnam were obedience to authority essay of town for the market. They received this information from Intelligence and they were wrong. The helicopters started flying in and all the soldiers were clearly informed that there were to be no survivors from this town. Malevolent obedience was portrayed in this war and there are factors that I would like to share to help explain this Better Essays words 4. Why would someone follow orders to lace Kool-aid with cyanide and extinguish the lives of over 1, faithful men, women and children. Stanley milgram obedience to authority essay Or to torture and degrade prisoners without provocation. Why would anyone follow directions to administer electric shocks of increasing strength as punishment for failing a simple memory test. While these scenarios may sound like the newest video games in which one assumes the character of another, people can and do commit violent acts like these in the name of obedience Obedience is a necessary behaviour that is required in society so that order and progress can be made. Obedience is useful throughout society in business, politics and everyday life, however, if the authority that is directing orders is not questioned, obedience can be blind and destructive, resulting in catastrophic incidents. Stanley milgram obedience to authority essay Milgram famously conducted controversial but groundbreaking research into human obedience to authority Acts of evil and heroism alike intrigue the social scientist. The dangers of blind obedience will be evident in a discussion of Abu Ghraib. Finally, a discussion of the individual and societal influences that lead to deviance from group norms will demonstrate the utility of social psychology in the real world Research Papers words 7. Positive Examples of Conformity and Obedience Psychology Essay The Obedience of Women Introduction Not only are women expected to lead lives in which they depend on men to be happy and wealthy, but they are expected to do so with total obedience to the expectations of men. It is important to see how women react to the requests of men and how much freedom for thought and action they are allowed to have and essays student obedience to authority consequences occur when a woman disobeys what is asked of her. The studies of obedience by Milgram and Hofling et al are one of the most famous studies in psychology. Milgram began the study to explore whether Adolf Erichman, one of the Nazi leaders involved in the holocaust, was an evil man or just being obedient Brace and Byford. Hofling 's study started subsequently after Milgram to further stanley milgram obedience to authority essay obedience in a real life scenario Strong Essays words 2. This paper will attempt to connect the actions of the American soldiers at My Lai with the study conducted by Stanley Milgram in on the impact authority has on obedience. My Lai was a hamlet in the Son My Village. The massacre actually occurred at Tu Cung, a sub-hamlet of My Lai An unexpected outcome came antigone essay thesis this experiment by watching the teacher administer shocks to the learner for not remembering sets of words. By executing greater shocks for every wrong answer created tremendous stress and a low comfort levels within the "teacher", the one being observed unknowingly, uncomfortable and feel the need to stop This experiment was conducted by Milgram, a Yale psychologist, in his effort to understand why people are capable terrible things, such as those who did the actually killing during the Holocaust. His resultswhile derived in an ethically questionable manor, shed light on the nature of obedience, leading to Milgram developing his argument that responsibility is the thing that hold ordinary people back from being completely obedient Young children are born with the tendency to do things that are against what they are told or what they know they should do. Essay on obedience - Woedend They don 't have to learn how to disobey; it is an innate behavior. This struggle between obedience and disobedience carries on throughout our lives. There are three major factors that can cause obedience and disobedience; authority, social pressure, and situations. Each of these vastly impact an individual 's behavior and cause them to act in ways they would normally not While the leaner did not actually receive fatal shocks, an actor pretended to be in extreme pain, and 60 percent of the subjects were fully obedient, despite evidence displaying they believed wh Problem with obedience to authority has raised a question to why people obey or disobey and if there are any right time to obey or not to obey. What factors play a role in destructive obedience. Destructive obedience has been very detrimental to mankind. Read More Read More Read More About us Read More Obedience to authority essay For Parents
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Earth Snapshot RSS Feed Twitter Posts tagged Virginia Mountains Lakes Near California-Nevada Border, USA March 12th, 2009 Category: Lakes California, USA - March 10th, 2009 California, USA - March 10th, 2009 Arid tan terrain near the Nevada-California border, USA, gives way to the snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains, which slope down into the fertile green San Joaquin Valley and finally to the Pacific Ocean. The moutainous land in the upper right quadrant is interrupted by several dark blue lakes. At the very top is Pyramid Lake, an endorheic salt lake, approximately 188 square miles (487 km²) in area, in the Great Basin in the northwestern part of the US state of Nevada. One of the largest lakes in the United States, it is located along the east side of the Virginia Mountains with a surface elevation of about 3,790 feet (1,155 m). It is fed by the Truckee River, which enters the lake from its southern end. It has no outlet, with water leaving only by evaporation, or sub-surface seepage. The salinity is approximately 1/6th of sea water. The large body of water to the South is Lake Tahoe, in the Sierra Nevada mountains along the border between California and Nevada. Freshwater Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in the United States. Its depth is 514 m making it the USA’s second-deepest. The lake is known for the clarity of its water and the panorama of surrounding mountains on all sides. Two smaller lakes are visible to the East: Walker Lake (above) and Mono Lake (below). The former is a natural lake, 50.3 mi² (130 km²) in area, in the Great Basin in western Nevada, along the eastern side of the Wassuk Range. It is 18 mi (29 km) long and 7 mi (11 km) wide. The lake is fed from the north by the Walker River and has no natural outlet except absorption and evaporation. The latter, Mono Lake, is an alkaline and hypersaline lake in California that is a critical nesting habitat for several bird species and is an unusually productive ecosystem.
CEOs wide spread belief is the name of are paid very much just face criticism. But, giving one person more money than he can ever spend on anything worthwhile for himself or his family, while thousands of employees working with him struggle and suffer to earn a living just seems to be wrong. Even though CEOs are paid a lot of money, they are paid much lesser for more productive work. CEOs are the caretaker of all shareholders, employees and others relating to the company, so their pay is acceptable. The widely held belief is that CEOs are paid a lot because most of the time their compensation runs into billions, while the average worker working with him is paid only a little fraction of that amount. Executives are actually impartially compensated, given the possibilities for expanding their responsibilities and the highly competitive talent at the top6. are only few people who have unique talents and the free market that decides their worth every year. Likewise, there are handfuls of people who are capable of leading major multinational companies with more than hundred thousand employees. But those who are really capable are very short in supply and high in demand. Twenty years ago, a citizen might not know the name of a fortune 500 CEO, but the wide spread belief is the name of the institution—and made an assumption that only the CEOs are responsible towards this reputation . Two things have changed that: it is much easier than before for people to distinguish between the CEO and institution separately and there has been a huge decrease in respect for the institutions themselves3. These unique talents create more than just value to the institution. CEOs create thousands of jobs for the workers and deliver lifetime worth of money to the investors. In large multinational corporations, usually the budgets are relatively high. CEOs pay shouldn’t just be judged against any predetermined benchmarks. It should be compared with all of the company’s spending on its day to activities and the rate of return they generate from that expenditure. CEOs are the head of the institution and there is no one above them to weigh or judge their performances, so they can easily influence their income than any other workers in the institution. CEOs are like kings. They aren’t elected to their position; they are selected from the pool of competitive CEOs. It takes usually several years of hard work to reach that position. Once in the position, they pretty much decide their own pay2. We Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically For You For Only $13.90/page! order now On the other hand, just paying CEO more money than he can never spend on anything worthwhile for himself or his family, while thousands of employees working with him struggle and suffer to earn a living just seems to be wrong. The idea of huge CEO pay is unfair. It indicates that CEOs are rewarded relatively too large at the expenses of other workers. CEOs aren’t punished or rewarded less for their poor performance because their salary and bonus are fixed even though the institution’s value may fall which will eventually result in low payment of workers4. The widely held belief is that it is largely the result of a positive stock market and also according to a large majority of shareholders, those who doesn’t wish to lose their money because of underperforming executives, accepts on how much ever their companies’ CEOs wish to make5. A good and capable CEO is worth a lot to a company and its shareholders and a bad one can destroy a lot of value. So, the CEO must be compensation increase only according to the criteria of “pay for performance”. This means that the CEO is to be paid more only if the company’s value increased or if there is an abnormal profit for the shareholder of the company. To recruit and retain top talents, the compensation must be competitive. CEOs are the highly paid worker in a company. Generally their pay is 300 to 400 times the average pay of the workers. CEOs provide a adequate degree of talent that is needed to produce the desired product – in this case, a strongly performing company. A good CEO must possess the higher degree of skills that is very much needed for the development of a company in the long run. Only about 20 percent of a CEO’s pay is base salary; the rest includes that of incentives and bonuses based on the company’s performance. The widely held belief is that if the company is performing well and the shareholders are receiving more than what they intended to get, the CEOs should also share this success7. In some cases, CEO compensation might be an indicator to judge the company’s performance. So, the compensation paid to CEO should be higher in this case. One of the main reasons for ever increasing CEO pay is the process of benchmarking. Benchmarking is the process of evaluating the performance to a predetermined standard. In other words, every time a CEO gets benchmarked, he sets a higher baseline of compensation for the next time for any leader who comes to his position8. The top executive of any organization is ultimately responsible for the development of institution as well as in the growth of share value on the perspective of its shareholders. Shareholder wants an ever increasing growth in the dividends which is their form of income from their investment. Employees need an encouraging atmosphere from which they can develop high level of skill which can be helpful for them to be competitive among the other workers. From the outside perspective, the CEO is the public face of the firm on a large scale, representing the institution in all form of mediums in use in our world9. So, the amount of cash and compensation paid to CEOs might look very large when compared to that of average employees; it is actually not what it seems. Executive compensation is increased, when there is an abnormal profit in company’s share market when the share price appreciates like never before. The main reason CEOs are compensate more is that a talented CEO worth a lot to a institution and its shareholders and a bad one can destroy a lot of value. Only Individual investors can understand this I'm William! Check it out
2. Hi Guest, welcome to the TES Community! Don't forget to look at the how to guide. Dismiss Notice Are student teachers still taught that 'Poor behaviour will be prevented by more effective lesson planning' Discussion in 'Behaviour' started by garyconyers, May 10, 2011. 1. garyconyers garyconyers New commenter A shame there haven't been any student teachers or NQTs on to clarify what Raymond says - ie student teachers are told 'Poor behaviour will be prevented by more effective lesson planning'. A lot of people understand this to mean, "there will be no misbehaviour in well-planned lessons". Thanks to Raymond for clarifying what he means by this. The phrase 'Poor behaviour will be prevented by more effective lesson planning' is misunderstood by lots of teachers IME. I was going to ignore JamesTES's silly post because of its inaccuracues and leave it there, but I think it would help James if I pointed out where the unfair and untrue comments are there. What is my 'perennial topic'? I stick to posting about discipline and behaviour on 'Behaviour' because that's what this part of TES is for. Do you look at other TES forums? I have posted opinions about religion, music, morality, politics, current affairs, sport, etc on Opinion and Personal. This isn't the place for those discussions, as this forum focusses on 'behaviour' - hence me sticking to that topic on here. I have the same view because that is my opinion - aren't we all consistent on some things? I have offered advice when I felt I could, eg I gave specifics on what worked for me with regard to shouting. Have you ever offered specific advice on what would work? (Post 5 below). Some other thread of mine? Not true. If you click the link in the OP you'll see a poster called 'giraffe' started the original thread on Opinion. Either you didn't check, or you think I'm giraffe. From lots of student teachers and NQTs who brought this up. From lots of the posters on the Opinion thread I originally posted a link to on this thread. Mostly from the only other university-based teacher trainer I know of who posts on this forum. RaymondSoltysek, in the first reply to the OP said in his first sentence: "Of course student teachers are taught that effective lesson planning will prevent bad behaviour: it does." Check it out, post 2. So you disagree with Raymond then? I have said this too on many occasions. So nothing's wrong with that. My very next post (post 12) makes this point. I agree with this, and will continue to do so. Or are you too busy looking for ways to have a go at me to notice I said this? It's not my 'myth', its giraffe's. Click on the link to check. Also, most of the posters on Opinion have heard this. Raymond even agrees with it (see post 2, first sentence, as I mentioned earlier). What do you mean by this? Are you referring to the time I post? I started the thread 11:54; my next post(12) was 20:03; third(20) at 06:54 fourth (25) at 14:21 then this one. Okay, so you can't be referring to the time of my posts - so what do you mean by this? James, I really don't know what your problem is with me or my opinion(s), but I post honestly how I feel about things in secondary schools. The views I've expressed are: be fair and consistent with praise and discipline, use sanctions consistently, shouting is a bad idea as overuse makes it useless, well-planned lessons are crucial - especially for the more challenging classes, whole-class detentions should be a no-no as they are unfair, corporal punishment has no place in schools, the police should be involved when serious (scarring or life-changing) assaults take place..... If you disagree with any of the above why not say so, with reasons, instead of just having a non-constructive go based on inaccuracy? Apologies for taking this thread off topic. Its interesting that the two teacher trainers have contradictory experiences of this question. 2. I'm an NQT. I don't recall specifically being told that poor behaviour will be prevented by more effective lesson planning at uni during my GTP year, but I have been told that teachers need to plan for good behaviour as part of my NQT mentoring. I do have some very inappropriate and challenging behaviour in my class and I'm now more able to "plan for good behaviour" as I know what some of the trigger points are for certain individuals and groups, and I now think about avoiding them as a more natural part of the planning process. However, I've also been told during my NQT year that "planning for good behaviour" involves avoiding more interactive activities that some challenging pupils find difficult to cope with - even activities as harmless as hot-seating and role play. It leads for a pretty dull classroom, sometimes, and those with the challenging behaviour still push the boundaries and impact on everyone else's learning. What I do think, however, is that my uni training in terms of behaviour management was woefully inadequate. It's taken me nearly a year to understand that challenging behaviour in my class is not my fault. It's a whole school issue that is not being dealt with. Some children know that they can get away with murder, and then be rewarded for it with extra responsibilities and leeway. I know it, the pupils in question know it, the pupils who choose to behave appropriately know it, and nothing is solved. 3. katnoodle katnoodle New commenter I've been told at university that around 70% of behaviour problems can be avoided by having a properly planned lesson, and then we've explored the 30% out of our control, e.g. low expectations across the school, issues from home brought into the classroom, some SEN, etc. Reading some posts on this forum I feel fortunate that in both my training schools the general line is that good lessons will motivate pupils more, but there will always be some who have got their own issues and firm behaviour management will help with this - or at least prevent them disrupting others. It's an ethos I'm happy with - but then I've not taught in particularly challenging schools ... 4. RaymondSoltysek RaymondSoltysek New commenter That makes a lot of sense, Elizabeth. And it's very sad to hear you being told such nonsense, especially when you can see for yourself that when you avoid interactive lessons - and they still play up. I would agree that there isn't enough behaviour management at university: however the PGDE (PGCE in England) is a hugely compressed year with a massive amount of learning to be packed into - what - 20 weeks? Our students complain too that there's too much "fancy" stuff and not enough bread and butter behaviour management or special needs, etc., and I see their point, However, uni courses MUST deliver ALL the content which covers the criteria for entry into the profession, and a course which didn't spend time on that "fancy stuff" would not be accredited. Bear in mind that more than half of your time on the PGCE in England (half in Scotland) is spent in schools; there's therefore a justifiable complaint that the behaviour management training you get in schools during your PGCE is even more woefully inadequate. In Scotland, the Donaldson Report is suggesting some sort of two year training structure involving the unis - perhaps that's the way forward to adequately deliver everything that needs to be delivered. Thanks for your thoughts. 5. RaymondSoltysek RaymondSoltysek New commenter Sounds sensible to me, kat. Just the point I make in post 2. Refreshing to hear some switched on students and NQTs who have studied recently and who are able to understand the issue without grinding an axe. Thanks. 6. RaymondSoltysek RaymondSoltysek New commenter And there they are, gary... 7. As a trainee teacher I have received training in valuable behaviour management strategies but the importance of effective planning has also been stressed. Planning effectively allows me to gain extra awareness of my expectations for the lesson and allows me to prepare engaging active activities. I have had a colleague inform me, ?good luck with this class, you will never be able to get them to behave well?. However, I planned lessons that were particularly active (with the help of the Teacher?s Toolkit by Paul Ginnis!) and they were successful and extremely enjoyable. I continually asked pupils for their feedback on post-it notes at the end of the lesson and then incorporated these ideas into future lessons. To this day (touch wood), we have only had to deal with occasional low level disruption. I don?t believe that this would be the case had I not have put a great deal of effort into planning. Also, I feel that planning of a high standard is necessary if I am to provide the differentiation that my pupils deserve. This also allows my pupils to feel supported and positively engage in the lesson. On that note, I better go plan. Best wishes, 8. RaymondSoltysek RaymondSoltysek New commenter Sounds as if you'll be a credit to the profession, Jennifer. Thanks for your input. 9. Calm down,Gary. I can see you're not familiar with the plot of Groundhog Day, I suggest you look it up and you'll get the point of 6:00am. It's on the telly every other week more or less, and available on DVD for a few quid, so even better, sit back and watch it as soon as you can, it's a good laugh and quite thought-provoking too, and it'll make a nice change from sitting in here. Remember, Gary, you may be paranoid, but they're not always out to get you! (One thing I would advise you, if you were still a teacher, would be to get yourself a sense of humour PDQ. Even try, like me, to laugh at yourself now and again, it could do you the world of good.) As for the nigh-on interminable rest of your stuff, I won't claim to have studied it in detail, but are you having a wee bit of a problem with comprehension again? I hold no brief for Raymond, but as I read it he's saying to you pretty much the same as me, i.e. well-chosen and well-planned lessons will help a great deal to engage students and reduce behaviour problems, but you need a range of other strategies as well to cope with the rest. So I'd come back to my original question: when, where and by whom has it been said by people in positions of responsibility that "effective planning will ... prevent [poor behaviour] happening at all", which is your claim? It's certainly not borne out by the young teachers posting above. Talking of silliness, however, the silly (and offensive) thing on this thread, as I see it, was said by Mr Leonard to Raymond in post 10. And finally, as for how to be good at all this, my advice would be, in order of importance, have 'presence' in your classroom (I know, I know, a bit hard to know how to acquire this, but in my reasonably well-informed observation it's the biggest single factor of them all), genuinely want the best possible outcome for all your students (not just the compliant personable ones that you like) and find ways of communicating this to them, build strong positive relationships with them based on mutual respect (not some sort of disdainful "I'm the adult here, you're the stroppy kids and you'll bloddy well do as I say or else", the day for that has long gone but some teachers, even younger ones, still seem to want to cling on to it), and only after all that, but still very helpful as well, learn a set of 'behaviour management techniques' that seek to de-escalate and are based on emotional literacy rather than to provoke confrontation and foster a perception of unfairness. There, easy, eh? 10. Well it's all subjective but if you think that the biggest trigger for poor behaviour is teachers who fail to meet students high pedagodigal expectations then I'm not convinced that you've been to any tough schools at all. In tough schools nothing is more likely to make naughty children kick off than a teacher who expects them to learn i.e. a teacher who plans proper lessons. 11. I'm merely pointing out the existence of schools where the biggest cause of poor behaviour isn't the quality of a teachers lesson plan. Why is this silly and offensive? 12. You need to flesh this statement out because you are not really saying anything here i.e. What behaviour management strategies have you been taught? I like the 'teachers toolkit' but I've never seen the activities work with badly behaved classes. I'm tempted to think that this class were not particularly challenging in the first place. This will not be practical when you are teaching 20 plus hours a week. I'd have concerns about you burning out if you tried to keep it up. It is possible to plan effectively with minimal effort - although this does get easier as you gain experience. If you want to help kids then spend some time with them rather than wasting it planning tick box lessons. 13. RaymondSoltysek RaymondSoltysek New commenter Why does she need to flesh this out? This thread isn't about the particular behaviour management strategies taught to students. This is a favourite tactic of your - to ask for ever more clarification, thereby casting doubt on the poster's opinion, but it's entirely inappropriate here. What gives you the right to say that he experienced teacher who warned her about this class was wrong? Go you know the class better? What gives you the right to mock student teacher's successes with this sort of mean-spirited comment? Who are you to say that she isn't "spending time" with pupils? Who are you to say that she is "wasting her time" when she is obviously having a great deal of success in building relationships with her classes? Others can cope with your bullying, Mr Leonard, but I think you have really scraped the bottom of the barrel here. A good student, enjoying what she's doing, having success, feeling in control, no doubt getting positive feedback from the experienced colleagues she works with who actually know her - and you come on here and cynically batter her down. Shame on you. I have a mind to report you for abuse. 14. She is saying that she learnt something valuable on a discussion forum and I'm asking for detail - why is this inappropriate? I implied that I'm sceptical based on my experience - that is all. You are misrepresenting my views Raymond which is surprising given your attitude towards Gary earlier on. I said she should spend time with pupils instead of engaging in the absurdly detailed lesson planning which you seem to be advocating. This is different to saying she spends 'no time with pupils'. You have misrepresented my views again and conveniently forgotten my concerns about her burning out if she carries on planning like this with a full teaching timetable. The only thing I am trying to 'batter' is the argument that teachers should spend copius amounts of time planning in order to build relationships with their students or deliver good lessons. Your attempts to stifle robust and frank discussion by resorting to ad hominems is causing thread after thread to descend into petty argument. Fine but there is a difference between my opposition to writing lesson plans and being abusive by, for example, calling someone names such as 'slimy' or 'idiot'. 15. RaymondSoltysek RaymondSoltysek New commenter Excuse me? In post 6, I clearly state "I don't think that "working themselves into the ground", trying to plan the "perfect lesson" or "uber planning" are examples of "good planning", since they reduce creativity and flexibility, exhaust the student and set them up for failure because of expectations which are too high." So you accuse me of advocating "absurdly detailed lesson planning" and then YOU accuse ME of misrepresenting you? Is such mendacity how you define "robust debate"? No, this is clearly bullying of a young student. So you are "sceptical" of the nature of the class that she has had success with. You are "sceptical" that she is telling the truth. You are "sceptical" of the professional jusdgement of this experienced teachers she is working with. Why? Because YOU think your experience is greater than hers, or her teacher mentors, or anyone else on this board.Just as you doubt that I have ever visisted a "ough" school, just because I don't share your views. Which if us is stifling debate? And as for gary, I wonder if he will condemn your attitude towards this young teacher's experiences as vociferously as he condemned James' suspicion of jenqt's experiences. 16. jubilee jubilee Star commenter I'm sure we've all had the experience of fabled, challenging classes behaving for us on the first few occasions when we taught them. I certainly have. It occurs when the classes know that you'll be around for a week or more but not indefinitely. They lull you into a false sense of security by curbing their worst excesses early on in your 'relationship'. It doesn't usually take much for them to then show their true colours. Implementing the school's behaviour code is a common trigger (confiscating their phones, issuing sanctions and DTs, making it clear that you expect them to do some work). As the student teacher or temporary teacher you apparently 'have no right to tell us what to do./Miss X lets us ..../ why should I do that work if there's no prize/sweets etc for winning/ finishing first etc? Miss X always gives us treats. You're tight!" 17. RaymondSoltysek RaymondSoltysek New commenter Your experience seems to be at variance with the three NQT/students who posted earlier. 18. Jennifer is incorporating things like the opinions of circa 20 students via post it note into her lesson planning. You gave no indication that you really disapprove of such time consuming activities in your reply to me - I can't remember what you said in 'post six' and nor should it matter as I said you 'seemed' to be advocating a particluar approach not that you are. Other posters have commented on your lack of clarity, I'm not even sure after months of arguing whether you actually agree with detentions or not, so I'm not about to start trawling through your prior entries to avoid offending the easily offended. Young? I don't recall Jennifer saying she was young. You either know this person or you are trying intensify of your ad hominem with emotionally provocative language. Yes I'm sceptical and if I am accusing anyone of anything it is ignorance, ignorance of the scale of the behavioural problems faced by many teachers today. Contrary to what you might think I'm not close minded but I'm not about to believe that the poorly described behaviour management and teaching strategies will solve problems. If you believe in what you are saying and you think I'm wrong then debate with me instead of resorting to ad hominens and petty accusations. 19. RaymondSoltysek RaymondSoltysek New commenter Or you were too lazy to check and simply made up an imaginary criticism of me. The only posters who are unclear about what I say are those who - like you - don't read what I say properly and then tell lies about it. So - read what I say and stop lying. It's the nose-in-air contempt which characterises your tone that prompted e to assume she was young, and that you were treating her as if she were such. So your belief that everyone is but you is ignorant of the behavioural problems gives you the right to bully and mock student teachers who come on this board to share their experiences, having been invited to do so by gary? And that's three time in two posts you've used "ad hominem" - is it your latest purchase from the Word of the Month Club? 20. RaymondSoltysek RaymondSoltysek New commenter If you want a debate, you need to clarify "poorly described behaviour management and teaching strategies." Share This Page
Developing countries such as Nepal struggle to keep up technologically. While advances make it possible for average Nepalis to access mobile phones, computers, and digital cameras, barriers impede access. As with other governments (Huerta & Rodrigo, 2007; Mokhtarian & Meenakshisun, 2002), Nepal responded in 2004 with telecenters to push sustainable technology. Most telecenters still struggle to accomplish their purpose (M. K. Bhattarai, personal communication, June 29, 2009). Developing countries struggle to meet communities' technological demands (Colle & Raul, 2003). Issues other than technology limit telecenters from fully providing services and meeting the needs of the local community. These issues, which are often cultural and historical in nature, inhibit communities from integrating fully technology. This study explores issues within a telecenter located in Sankhu, a small village outside of Kathmandu. To understand the issues, an ethnographic approach was adopted as the method for data collection. Given the problem, Activity Theory was used as a framework for analyzing and understanding the tensions Sankhu youth face. As a descriptive theory, it fits properly with an ethnographic study (Spradley, 1979). The analysis of tensions provides valuable information for improving current and future telecenter programs. This study takes an ethnographic approach in investigating the tensions that exist at Sankhu. Sankhu is a rural community located about 20 kilometers east of Kathmandu. Research was gathered during 2 months. The researcher embedded himself in the community from late June 2009 and collected data until mid-August. A total of 43 people were interviewed, creating 206 pages of transcripts. Direct observations totaled 67 hours. Tensions were discussed in order of the frequency mentioned in interviews. Major tensions included gender norms, generational distrust, lack of awareness, and funding. Mid-level tensions included lack of training and time. Minor tensions were location, power, and connectivity. Through the application of Activity Theory, more tensions surfaced than anticipated. The observations and analysis yielded the following conclusions: 1. Females have fewer rights and access to technology 2. Lack of time to learn and use technology 3. Elders are gatekeepers 4. Funding models for telecenters impede sustainability 5. Local communities are not aware of technological benefits. Library of Congress Subject Headings Dissertations (EdD) -- Educational technology; Technology -- Nepal; Education; Sociology; Technical Communication Activity Theory; Ethnography; Nepal; Telecenters Date of Award School Affiliation Graduate School of Education and Psychology Degree Type Degree Name Faculty Advisor Sparks, Paul
Good Health Articles Mirror, Mirror On My Phone Unhappy woman texting By Susan Sugerman, MD, MPH \| Contributor Statistics since the 1980s show significant concerns about body image self-perception among children and teens. It is well known we live in a toxic society that promotes unrealistic expectations around beauty and what is considered “normal” around body shape and size. Why worry any more (or less) now? Hmmm, let me put out a text message…I mean Facebook…no Instagram (or is it Snapchat?) posting to my friends to see what they think. While the internet and social media can be a good thing, marrying this with the “selfie culture” can backfire, especially with regard to body self-assessment. Recent data shows increased amount of time spent on social media correlates with greater body image dissatisfaction (Puglia, UNC Chapel Hill). Another study finds that teens who spend more time choosing and editing their photos for their social media postings are more dissatisfied with their bodies. The same study found unhappiness with body image among both boys and girls (Salomon and Brown, University of Kentucky). We know teens want to feel relevant and accepted. In a world that can be more virtual than real, should be we surprised? A Developmental Perspective You will hear me say (or see me write) over and over again—kids are kids, from generation to generation, but the landscape they are living in is vastly different and far more challenging. To make sense of recent trends in body image and self-esteem, we need to understand them in the context of child and adolescent development. Young children become aware of themselves in space and time during the toddler years. By age 4, they make comparisons to others, usually around clothing and hair. They know that the good princess is always beautiful and the wicked stepmother is always ugly. By age 5, kids’ focus on body size typically relates to wanting to be bigger. Children’s awareness of body image increases during elementary school years, beginning around age 6. During this time period, children learn more about themselves in reference to the world around them, strongly influenced by parental modeling but also by sociocultural factors such as peers, toys, and media. By the end of elementary school, we see development of body dissatisfaction and negative self-esteem in 40% of girls and 25% of boys. In one study, 60% of fourth graders said they would rather be dead than fat. As children transition to the pre-teen years, the stage is set for even greater discomfort with self-perception. Early adolescence (roughly 5th to 7th/8th grade for girls, 6th to 8th/9th for boys) is characterized by a shift in focus from family to peers, though identity and value still comes primarily from parents. Pre-teens are looking out to the world around them checking to see where they may fit in. They see that skinny girls and the athletic boys hold the most popularity. By middle school, even prior to the rise of social media, 50% of girls are significantly unhappy with their appearance. Middle adolescence (late middle school to high school for girls, high school for boys) brings significant focus on peers and an almost willful “rejection” of parents as teens attempt to separate from their families to try to find out who they are as individuals. These teens discount the approval of their parents while craving validation from their peers. Heavily influenced by perceived norms (in a culture that prioritizes thinness and beauty), they seek to create their identity in a way that makes them more “acceptable” to their friends. They have more ability to control when, where, and how they eat or exercise (often away from the watchful eye of parents). How does this translate to body image and weight control behaviors? In high school, 70% of normal weight girls have dieted. And they believe this is normal and perfectly fine. By the time they reach later adolescence (think transition to college and young adulthood), most young people settle into more self-acceptance and typically return to their parents’ values (whether they like it or not!). They become more confident in their own sense of who they are or would like to be and over time need (somewhat) less validation from the outside world; they are more comfortable identifying with (some) of the lessons learned from their family upbringing. But some damage to self-esteem may persist. They see the beautiful people get noticed more on campus. As young adults they understand (and data proves over and over again) that attractive applicants have a better chance of getting a job and receiving higher salaries. Thus, we should not be surprised in results of a study showing that at least 80% of women over 18 are unhappy with what they see in the mirror. What can a parent do? The answer pertains to more than just body image. Parents need to understand the impact of social media on their children and teens. Access to personal devices, which allow young people to see and be seen, affects how they see themselves. I beg parents to look at giving kids access to devices in the same way they would provide access to a car. Would you give your child the keys without instruction first? The hardest part for us as parents is that these are cars we never learned to drive ourselves on roads we’ve never driven on before. But we’ve all been teenagers before. The land is pretty similar even if the landmarks have changed. And the path from Point A to Point B is not too different from when you were their age. Take the time. Know what they’re driving (their devices) and study their maps (their apps). Learn their language (their ever-changing social media platforms). Take some drives with them; have them show you how things work, what images they like to look at, what photos or stories they like to post. Make gentle corrections when they make mistakes (you won’t know if you’re not watching). Have a copy of the keys (their passwords), but consider using them only in case of an emergency when they need help from others (or protection from themselves). But remember what used to come first?—The driving lesson (modeling). We’ve all kind of missed the boat on this one; our kids adeptly edit and post their own images while we fumble with selfie-sticks for vacation photos. However, our children are watching us all the time, so it’s never too late to do some teaching. Let them follow you on social media. Show them you can use your own (even outdated) experiences to demonstrate driving in the here and now. Use social media in healthy ways that demonstrate how to set appropriate boundaries. Point out when someone crosses a line online. Especially as it pertains to self-image, model your own confidence. Let them see you pay yourself an occasional body-positive compliment (online and definitely in person). Show them your own victories when you shut down body-shaming on your adult social media feeds. Be the kind of person online you want your kids to be. Because at the end of the day, your kids will grow up to look a lot like you. Editor’s Note: Dr. Susan Sugerman is the president and co-founder of Girls to Women Health and Wellness. For more information, visit Related posts Is My Child Depressed? 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Battling the Sky. A Spatial History of Weather Modification In eighteenth and nineteenth-century Europe, hailstorms posed an existential danger. Rural communities devised varied strategies to dispel storm clouds and defend their crops. Shooting the clouds with cannons and rifles was believed to be a particularly effective solution. However, the practice engendered heated debates among scholars and neighboring communities that accused each other of making things worse by sending storms their way. This project combines historical and contemporary meteorological and climate data with printed and manuscript sources to develop a spatial history with a distinctly vertical dimension. My aim is also to further a methodological discussion. One characteristic of spatial history is that it sustains a horizontal vision of space; not unlike geopolitics, it is largely a flat discourse. This project offers an opportunity to explore how geospatial technologies allow us to engage with depth and altitude and represent volumes rather than areas. Legal Study at German Universities This is an ongoing project that explores broader temporal and spatial trends in early modern jurisprudence using the metadata of several tens of thousands of legal dissertations defended at German universities. This chart shows the number of dissertations published at the thirteen most productive universities in the Holy Roman Empire. The impact of the Thirty Years War is clearly visible. The graph also suggests that the expansion of dissertations in the second half of the century was dominated by handful of Protestant universities such as Jena or Frankfurt (Oder). Civil Law Keywords In contrast to a growing attention to domains like the law of nations, interest in civil law decreased drastically in the course of the seventeenth century. This is not only noticeable in dissertations that explicitly mention keywords like ‘civilis’ or ‘privatus’ but also in the declining proportion of students working on important fields of civil law, such as the law of obligations (example: ‘fideiussio’), the law of pledge (‘pignus’), or property law (example: ’emphyteusis’). Latin remained the dominant academic language in German universities well into the nineteenth century. Even vocal apologists of German as academic language like Christian Thomasius insisted on holding disputations in Latin. At the same time, the number of dissertations that included German terms (identified here through articles, prepositions, and the attribute ‘vulgo’) in their title increased markedly in the course of the seventeenth century. This suggests that vernacular language and concepts made earlier inroads into this genre than often assumed. Mapping the Customs I am currently undertaking a geospatial analysis of one of the largest surviving early modern customs archives, the records of the house of Wettin in sixteenth-century Thuringia whose dominions lay the crossroads of two of the most important Central European trade routes. Carters Erfurt Origin of the carters transporting goods through Erfurt in 1525. The map shows that the carting business on the central stretch of one of Central Europe’s most important trade routes was dominated by a group of carters from a small community in the Spessart mountains: the carters from Frammersbach hauled almost 40% of the trade volume. Early Modern Mobility EMM Poster small Supported with over 150,000 $ from the UPS Endowment Fund and Stanford’s Program in History and Philosophy of Science, this collaborative project investigates the history of postal systems, roads, transportation, and communication infrastructure in early modern Europe. with Paula Findlen (Stanford), Katherine McDonough (London), Leo Barleta (Stanford), Rachel Midura (Stanford), Suzanne Sutherland (Murfreesboro), and Iva Lelková (Prague) Past Projects The Polygon in Spatial History The following two maps have been published as part of an article that questions the use of polygons as the main vector data model for representing political entities in spatial history. Number of foreign subjects enserfed by the Electors Palatine in 1665. The map shows that the spatial extent of the Palatine incursions in the neighboring territories were much more limited than previously assumed (the light grey area). The elevation profile of the region shows that most of the serfs lived in the Rhine Rift Valley and in Rhenish Hesse, areas with fertile soils and a warm climate. The villages in these areas were easily accessible and more densely populated, offering a larger tax base. Borders and Freedom of Movement in the Holy Roman Empire One argument in my first book is that practices and infrastructures for controlling movements of goods and people in the Old Reich were not anchored at the outer borders of a territory for much of the early modern period. Customs and toll stations were situated along roads and rivers, and travelers could pass by several such posts within the same territory. In the second half of the eighteenth century the geography of governed mobility in the Holy Roman Empire began to change: the levy of duties was now increasingly relocated to the outer borders and the major commercial hubs within a territory. Map 7 Bavaria offers a textbook example for this process. A reform in 1764 drastically reduced the formerly 400 toll stations across the Bavarian territory. Map 8 The capillary network of secondary toll stations along the territory’s outer boundaries reveals the new concern for controlling the traffic of goods along this perimeter.
Morton’s Neuroma What is it? A neuroma is basically a lump in the nerve that runs between two of the long bones to the toes. Commonly Morton’s neuroma arises between the third and fourth toes but can affect other spaces also. It produces a radiating pain up into the web spaces and toes. It is the most common nerve condition affecting the foot. What causes it? The exact cause of neuromas are not well known but compression/pinching of the nerve between the bones can lead to consequent thickening of the nerve. Some possible risk factors include: -Pointy, tight or high-heel shoes -Excess pressure on the forefoot during sport or activity -Flat/high arched feet, bunions or hammertoes. What are the symptoms? 1. Tingling presents in the toes/web spaces after wearing tight shoes or even socks, or when standing for long periods. 2. Pain increases on the ball of the foot and radiates up into the toes/web spaces after wearing tight shoes or prolonged periods of standing. 3. Pain is evident on the ball of the foot, web spaces and toes all the time. Nausea may be felt and you may begin to walk differently to avoid pressure on the affected area. What can you do about it? Your podiatrist can provide you with a range of treatment options that may involve some or all of the following depending on the length amd severity of your problem: -Footwear modification -Shockwave therapy -Injection therapy Surgery for Morton’s neuroma is usually only recommended as a last resort. A detailed referral will be made by your podiatrist to a suitable practitioner either here in Bendigo or Melbourne.
Thursday, February 20, 2014 World Day Of Social Justice At the end of the nineteenth century Juan Pio Acosta lived near Uruguay's border with Brazil. In those lonely parts his work kept him on the road, moving from town to town. He travelled by stagecoach along with eight other passengers in first, second and third class. Juan Pio always bought a third-class ticket, which was the least expensive. He never understood why there were different prices. Everyone had the same seats, whether they paid more or paid less: jammed in, eating dust, jolted relentlessly. He never understood why until one bad winter day when the wagon got stuck in the mud. The coachman ordered: 'First-class, stay where you are!' 'Second-class, get off!' 'And those in third . . . start pushing!' Eduardo Galeano from 'Children of the Days - A Calendar of Human History' 1 comment: ajohnstone said... That raised a much needed chuckle today
Impact of Change in Built Environment Image source: Self Clicked This course explores how projects are to become increasingly important for dealing with the accelerating change and uncertainty faced by post 2020 societies; they will become the primary organisational vehicle driving innovation, be it private or public sector works. It explains how projects and members in the project teams are understood in theory and identifies different dimensions that have to be managed and organized in different ways with the uncertainty, complexity, and urgency. Basic framework of evaluating the impact of the change will be the same (and taught) for variety of subtopics and examples - such as for technical aspects like AI, Data science, Building Information Modelling, Project Collaboration tools, contracts management to softer aspects of interpersonal skills, importance of grit and cognitive flexibility, negotiations, ethics, etc - which will be debated and explored through workshops and assignments during the course. Students will be encouraged to look at each of these areas in context of 'changes', such as impact on contracts management due to deployment of AI tech, or meeting management skills/presentations skills required with many interaction, connections and rapport building to be online and not in person. It is attempted to impart knowledge and debate 'core values and soft skills' in a structured syllabus, at par with all other subjects that typically form part of our present academic curriculum in built environment. The eventual outcome expected for us to grow to be kinder, more self-aware, instinctively compassionate, abundantly curious and wholly peaceful in our endeavours of carrying out tasks in the realm of built spaces; giving due importance to the core principle of project management of balancing the task, team and individuals. Course Faculty
Editorial Feature A Guide to Lattice Light Sheet Microscopy Image Credits: Micha Weber/shutterstock.com Lattice light sheet microscopy is a newer light sheet microscopy technique that is primarily used in biological settings. It is a method that uses sheets of light in a lattice conformation to take images and videos of a sample by causing them to fluoresce. Compared to other methods, it is a technique that is low in both photobleaching and phototoxic effects, and this is one of the main reasons—alongside being able to image live samples—why it is mainly used in a biological setting. In this article, we explain what lattice light sheet microscopy is and how it works. What is Lattice Light Sheet Microscopy? Lattice light sheet microscopy is a modified and improved version of light sheet fluorescence microscopy. Fluorescence light sheet microscopy is a technique that uses the light from a laser to illuminate a sample and only illuminates a small section of a sample at any one time. Upon illumination, the sample fluoresces, and this is picked up by the detector. Lattice light sheet microscopy is like its predecessor, but it uses a series of light beams in a lattice configuration to image a sample of interest. To create a lattice pattern, thin light beams are required, and this translates to the sample being exposed to a lesser amount of light—which in turn reduces the degree of phototoxicity that the sample is subjected to and reduces the possibility of photobleaching on the image. Lattice light sheet microscopy also images the sample in planes, so the sample is never exposed to too much light at any one time, and this is another reason why phototoxic and photobleaching effects are minimized. It is a technique that is often used in a biological setting to take 3D images of cells by reconstructing the images taken of each plane into a single image, to making continuous fluorescence movies of a sample, and for characterizing biological phenomena. It is also an imaging technique that can be used on live biological samples. Lattice light sheet microscopy is a technique that also has a very high resolution and is much better than other comparative techniques, such as confocal microscopy and two-photon microscopes. Some of the other benefits of this technique include high contrast, high acquisition speed, adjustable imaging parameters, images and videos with multiple colors, the ability to video samples for hours at a time, and the ability to use different imaging modes to suit the specific imaging application. How Lattice Light Sheet Microscopy Works Whilst the internal workings of lattice light sheet microscopy are similar to light sheet fluorescence microscopy, it also incorporates principles from Bessel beam microscopy and structured illumination microscopy (SIM). In lattice light sheet microscopy, the illumination of the sample occurs perpendicular to where the image is detected. The first part to the imaging process is the generation of the lattice light sheet itself, which is done in multiple stages. The first part of the light sheet generation process involves using two pairs of cylindrical lenses to stretch the linearly polarized circular input beam to form a sheet that is then projected on to a spatial light modulator. The first pair stretches the light beam along the x-axis and the second pair along the z-axis. The spatial light modulator varies the waveform of the light beam so that any unwanted diffraction is eliminated, and this leads to the generation of an optical lattice similar to that of Bessel beams. The next stage employs an annular mask—an opaque optical mask which contains a transparent annulus—to further reduce the diffraction of the light beam and lengthen the light sheet. The final stage is to either the light laterally (x-direction) so that the image is recorded in the z-plane. The light sheet then takes an image, or a real-time video, of the sample, but images lateral slices and builds up a 3D picture from the resulting images. For videos, the sample is continuously scanned, whereas the sample is only scanned once for images. The images are captured using an electron multiplying charge coupled device (EMCCD) camera. But there are some variations to the imaging modes. First off, in the mode known as sheet scan, the light sheet and the objectives are moved together to generate a 3D image. This differs to sample scan mode where the sample is moved but the light sheet and the objectives remain stationary. The sample scan mode is often used for larger samples. The imaging mode that is the most distinct from the conventional imaging modes is the structured illumination microscopy mode. In this mode, the light sheet is stepped along multiple phase steps in the x-axis and a grid pattern of light is superimposed on the sample and rotated at every phase step. This method can be done in either sheet scan or sample scan mode and uses computer algorithms to reconstruct the images from each step and produce an image that is beyond the diffraction limit of the objectives in the microscope. Sources and Further Reading Liam Critchley Written by Liam Critchley • APA Critchley, Liam. (2019, July 26). A Guide to Lattice Light Sheet Microscopy. AZoM. Retrieved on May 31, 2020 from https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=17533. • MLA Critchley, Liam. "A Guide to Lattice Light Sheet Microscopy". AZoM. 31 May 2020. <https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=17533>. • Chicago Critchley, Liam. "A Guide to Lattice Light Sheet Microscopy". AZoM. https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=17533. (accessed May 31, 2020). • Harvard Critchley, Liam. 2019. A Guide to Lattice Light Sheet Microscopy. AZoM, viewed 31 May 2020, https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=17533. Tell Us What You Think Leave your feedback
Food waste – unbelievably wasteful According to a recent FAO report the current level of global food wastage is responsible for emissions of CO2 only surpassed in magnitude by those of the US and China. This usage of land and water – essentially for nothing – has a high opportunity cost on a planet with scarce resources. With the earth’s population reaching 9 billion in 2050, arable land in hectare per person rapidly decreasing, food wastage an unnecessary cost to the environment and people, and it has an impact on all three aspects of sustainability (people, planet and profit). By now, you might be wondering why I am using the word “wastage”. Wastage is referred to in the report as the total amount of food wasted, and further splits food wastage into two categories – food loss and food waste. Food loss: A decrease in food matter or quality, to the extent when it can no longer be consumed. Most frequently food loss occurs because of inefficient food supply chains. Examples range from natural disasters to inadequate infrastructure and limited access to markets, as well as insufficient or primitive technologies. Food waste: Wastage of food suitable for consumption. Examples are oversupply, expiry dates and spoilt food. It therefore includes but is not limited to eating habits and overstocking by supermarkets. In general, food loss mainly occurs in developing countries due to inefficiencies in production. Food waste mainly occurs in developed countries, due to consumer preferences and oversupply. Here are some facts from the report – I highly recommend reading the full report: 1. Food wastage occupies 28% of global agricultural landmass. The only country with a landmass larger than “food waste” is Russia. 2. Crops are responsible for 72% and 44% of species threats in developing and developed countries respectively . 3. The monetary value on food wasted was estimated to be 750 billion USD in 2007 – the same as the GDP of Turkey or Switzerland. 4. Meat makes up 11% of total food wastage – but 78% of food wastage land occupation. 5. High-income regions and Latin America account for 80% of meat waste So, what can we do about it all? Food loss seems to be remedied relatively easily, by upgrading processes in developing countries (if it can be done in a way that is both sustainable and feasible). Infrastructure and vulnerability to natural disasters are circumstances which are hard to remedy, but it is nevertheless in everyone’s best interest. Food waste on the other hand requires an attitude shift in the minds of consumers. Start respecting food. Stop overloading your plate at a buffet. Stop following “best before” dates like they were holy. Encourage composting. Think about where things come from before buying them. Think before you throw away, and encourage others to do the same!
Chatbot Technology Chatbot Technology Did you read the news about why Facebook shut down his Chatbots after they develop a new language and talk internally? So what is chatbots? CHATBOT is a computer programme which can conduct conversations through sound or text. Chatbots are the new rage as more top brands are advancing the technology and integrating it into their website and chat systems. How does it work? Chatbot complete tasks solely through text-based messaging. There are two ways that chatbot can understand text-based messages from users: 1) Chatbot that relies on strict sets of commands is very limited. They can only respond to perfectly formed commands that they are programmed to recognize. 2) Chatbot that relies on Natural Language Processing is more intelligent and rely on machine learning. You don’t have to use strict commands to interact with them. Instead, you can speak to them like you would to a real person. You can text “Hey, what’s up in the world?” to get the latest news, or “Oh, I’m starving!” to get options for food delivery services. With Chatbots No need for a designer No need for a front-end developer Best UI – no UI It`s all in your favourite messenger Artificial Intelligence Why do you need to seriously think about chatbot app development? Microsoft’s Bot Framework for Skype bots, Telegram’s Bot Platform 2.0, and Facebook’s Bots for Messenger have all been released within the past year. These companies, as well as other IT firms, have been developing their own AI-powered messaging bot platforms. Since people already spend a lot of their time with the phones in messenger apps, it makes sense to add additional capabilities to the apps that people already love rather than forcing them to jump between different applications and websites. What technologies are used to create chatbot? We can divide these technologies into two kinds: APIs and Machine Learning technologies. We can divide these technologies into two kinds: 1) Chatbots work with Textual User Interfaces (TUI), meaning you can interact with a service using text commands. If you wanted to buy shoes, you could send a message to the appropriate bot telling it that you want to order shoes, and it could send you various options. In order to implement a TUI and teach your bot to facilitate interaction between your base (which is an eCommerce site in our case) and a user, you have to integrate a particular API. The API connects your bot with the app you implemented the bot into and makes it possible to respond to a user’s requests and perform tasks. 2) Machine learning technologies can allow bots to recognize speech and data, learn patterns of natural language, and interpret data based on previous interactions. Don’t you think the advance of technology is helping us to improve our efficiency also allowing us to work on something that is much more important?
China: April 10, 2004 Pakistani test pilots flew the joint Chinese-Pakistani JF-17 fighter. The aircraft first flew last September and is to enter mass production in two years, with another 16 JF-17s being built in the meantime for testing purposes. The JF-17 project has been going on since 1992 and has cost over half a billion dollars. Most of the money has come from China. The project has gone through several name changes (FC-1, Super 7). The 13 ton warplane is meant to be a low cost ($20 million) alternative to the American F-16. The JF-17 is considered the equal to earlier versions of the F-16, but only 80 percent as effective as more recent F-16 models. The JF-17 uses the same Russian engine, the RD-93, that is used in the MiG-29. The JF-17 design is based on a cancelled Russian project, the MiG-33. Most of the JF-17 electronics are Western, with Italian firms being major suppliers. The JF-17 can carry 3.6 tons of weapons and use radar guided and heat seeking missiles. It has max speed of Mach 1.6, an operating range of 1,300 kilometers and a max altitude of 55,000 feet. China and Pakistan have been allies since the 1950s and Pakistan has bought much of its military equipment from China. Article Archive Help Keep Us Soaring Subscribe Contribute Close
Income Statement aka Profit Loss Statement Income statement also know as a profit and loss statement is the main financial statement. It covers revenues and expenses for the company. - Cost of goods sold = Gross profit - Salary - Rent - Utilities = Operating Income/(Loss) - aka EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) - Depreciation - Amortization = EBIT (Earnings before Interest and Taxes) - Interest = EBT (Earning before Taxes) - Taxes = Net Income aka Earnings Operating Income is also known as EDITDA. EBITDA is a very common term used when talking about a company especially for valuation. EBITDA is a good proxy for overall health of the company without knowing the full details because it looks at the operating functions of the company and ignores the capital structure of the company. For sake of simplicity, I’ve ignore dividends and stock expense and other usually immaterial line items. This is just the basics, we’ll dive into more detail in later posts. Check out our sample profit and loss statement below. It is fully downloadable in Microsoft Excel.
Protect your company from Cyber Attacks After working in the information technology and services industry for a while now, it has become more clear that one of the main causes of a cyber-attack is simply a human error. Human error can be considered a threat to the company’s assets, due to the lack of awareness among personnel on the topic of cybersecurity and mechanisms of data protection. Attackers manipulate and deceive employees by making them think they are a legitimate entity in order for them to give out sensitive or confidential information that may assist the attacker in gaining access to the system and escalate privileges to get to their target and achieve their intended goal; this form of attack is called Social Engineering. Social Engineering consists of a number of techniques that the attackers may use in order for them to gain access to the desired system. One of the most popular Social Engineering attacks is Phishing. Phishing by definition is the act of impersonating a legitimate entity and luring individuals into giving out Personally identifiable information by sending them emails, calling them or texting them. Employees unaware of this type of attack will be convinced that the email or text message they received is not a scam, and might provide information about themselves or about the company. Emails sent by the attacker consist of a link to a website, that looks exactly like the original one. When the employee clicks on the link, it will redirect them to the page customized by the attacker and asks for user input which will be saved and sent to the attacker. Other emails might include a malicious attachment which when the user downloads, installs malware on the device and starts spreading on the network. Spear phishing is used more often when targeting a company as it consists of a carefully designed and crafted email, using public information available on social media, which is sent with the sole purpose of getting a single individual to respond. One response can be enough for the attacker to achieve his goal. Some attackers might impersonate the identity of the CEO, and send emails to the finance department asking them to transfer money urgently or requesting account information. The impact social engineering may cause to the company or organization is considered high. A mistake by one employee can cause a data breach or a malware infection to the whole system which will cost a huge amount of money to recover. Recommended countermeasures that an organization can use to minimize the impact of a social engineering attack, consists of: - Conducting security awareness sessions regularly for employees to raise awareness among this topic and the consequences that follow. - Construct security regulations for employees to follow in these situations. - Strong security defense mechanisms in the company’s infrastructure. - Email filtering in order to detect phishing emails and mark them as spam. - Physical security, as social engineering, doesn’t only consist of emails and phone calls but can be done in person. - Come up with a strong incident response plan in the event of a breach occurring. Author: Bassam Saffarini.
Language learning has long been dependent on the coursebook. Language learning has long been dependent on the coursebook. And coursebooks have been the recipients of both praise and criticism. We probably need to look at the coursebook from a different perspective. When the coursebook becomes the syllabus, we run the risk of becoming too tied up with its contents and probably oblivious of other important aspects that the coursebook may not address adequately. Coursebook writers try to create their option of the best possible sequence of contents that follow a certain methodology or approach for a general audience. As teachers, we know that there are many different contexts in which coursebooks are used. These are related to cultural differences, teaching and learning beliefs, number of students, type of school, reason for learning the language, among others. It is practically impossible for a writer to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution embodied in a coursebook. And that is where teachers and administrators who believe the coursebook is there to be followed blindly, fail to acknowledge effective ways to maximize the potential of coursebooks. When we understand that a coursebook is an ally instead of a master plan, we can start making choices that will result in more effective teaching and learning. So here are some perceived disadvantages of coursebooks and my suggestions for overcoming them: • The topics are ok for my context, but the specific readings are not. Find other readings that can relate more to your specific class and context. Find something more local. • The contents’ sequence is not adequate for my context Do not be afraid to change the sequence of the units or contents within a unit. Look for a more organic and meaningful order for your class. • The language presentation methodology is the traditional Presentation, Practice, Production If you want to try an inductive approach to language presentation, look for a reading or listening text in the coursebook in which you can find the target structure and do that first to expose students to the language, then ask students some guiding questions to help them discover the rule by analysing the examples in the text, only then show them the language presentation section in the book and finally move on to the practice tasks. This approach is called Guided Discovery. • Some contents are developed superficially Find extra material to supplement these contents. • There is too much emphasis on certain aspects and little on others It may be that a coursebook is weak on pronunciation and intonation tasks, for example. Create a custom-made parallel thread to develop that aspect. • The suggested ideas for teaching in the teacher’s book are not adequate for my context Create your own learning paths for certain content: add warmers or icebreakers, skip other suggested tasks, make sure you personalize the learning experience. • There is no multimedia component Look for videos to complement the topics in the coursebook. • Some readings present outdated information Find updated readings or videos and have students compare what has changed. • There is no integration tasks to consolidate the learning Create a custom-made project at the end of each unit which integrates the concepts and vocabulary and that fits your students interests and learning preferences. If you have an option to choose your own coursebook, try a shorter coursebook that allows you to create a more personalised learning experience based on your learners’ interests and preferences and according to your own objectives and beliefs as a teacher. Nobody knows your students better than you. Trust your intuition and knowledge! And remember we can probably have better experiences if we consider coursebooks as guides. Add new comment Log in or register to post comments
Poverty in Monaco Poverty in Monaco? The nation is a sovereign city-state that lies along the southern border of France with its toes in the French Riviera. It is the second smallest sovereign nation on earth being only slightly larger than the Vatican. The population is only about 38,000 people. With the size being only about 0.78 square miles, it is possible to walk the width of the country within an hour. Monaco has two major sources of income: tourism and millionaires purchasing properties. As a result, the poverty line has been all but erased, with everyone being above it. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009, Monaco is “NA [not-applicable]” for statistics on the national population below the poverty line because there are none. One-third of the population is made up of millionaires. Monaco’s population is only 16% Monegasque in origin while the other 84% are wealthy outsiders. With 47% French nationals, and the other 37% a combination of Italians, Britons, Belgians, Germans and Americans (and recognizing that Monaco is only 38,000 people strong), the imposition of foreigners is unusual. Monaco does not charge income tax on its residents. This hefty tax break attracts many of the globe’s rich and famous to its shores. According to WealthInsight, one-third of the population of Monaco is made up of millionaires. That means that if 12 people were walking down the streets of Monaco, at least four of them would have platinum cards in their pockets and millions of dollars in their bank accounts. Monaco began its tradition of no income tax in 1869 after the creation of the Grand Casino de Monte Carlo. In 1858, when the Casino had its grand opening, it “[had] been so successful in bringing in profits that the government decided to stop collecting income taxes from residents,” according to Eric Goldschien in Business Insider Magazine. Tourism is a big income earner. One of Monaco’s only income-earning industries is tourism and with its beautiful climate and crowd-drawing sites like the Grand Prix and five major casinos, three of which being in Monte Carlo, it is an easy means for capital. In Professor Michael Porter’s paper Monaco’s Tourism Cluster, he states that “Monaco has, for over a century, successfully made tourism…its biggest income earner…” The many areas of tourism in Monaco include hotels/spas, restaurants/bars, gambling, conferences, sports, tour operators, health/medical and culture/leisure activities. With all of these major tourism sectors hard at work, the income turnover for Monaco totals 100 billion euros, which is roughly equivalent to 105,775,000,000 dollars. A Monegasque family’s monthly budget averages higher than global comparisons. Paul Nayakazeya in The Financial Gazette compared the average consumer basket of a family in Zimbabwe to that of a family in Monaco. A consumer basket explains the way a family spends its money by monitoring the most commonly bought foods, household items and services that are offered in the consumer market. Anything a person can buy, be it a sandwich or a haircut, is included in the consumer market and examined in a family’s basket, i.e. the purchased commodities. A family of six in Zimbabwe will spend roughly 561 dollars in one month, while a family of five in Monaco will spend an average of 12,000 dollars. The government reinvests tourism earnings and other capital gains back into the community to improve the quality of life and to entice the wealthy to continue traveling and buying properties. Even though these improvements are meant to attract foreigners with money, the natives benefit from it as well, effectively creating a virtually nonexistent poverty line within their tiny, proud and sovereign nation. Karyn Adams Photo: Flickr
Cyber Conflict Attribution and the Law The issue of law and cyber conflict is something that while relatively new, is something that people, nation states, and military organizations have been working on for the last 10 years at least. Many countries have robust cyber warfare rules of engagement, and the more interesting part about this is that any country with an internet connection can engage in cyber conflicts. Attribution (IE Knowing who is attacking you, and being able to act appropriately against the real place that is attacking you) has long been a problem. Zombies, bot nets, jump points, and the millions of compromised computers both Windows and Linux are the cannon fodder of cyber warfare. Attributing the attacker back to the point of origin is going to be difficult if not impossible without some smart people having unrestricted access to packets, and to compromised systems. Legally though, it gets more interesting as the state of cyber law is often well behind the state of cyber warfare tools. The First Question from the cyber conflict group is: What is the state of current law concerning Cyber Conflict both nationally and internationally? I think for the most part that like many laws there is no one unified legal system unlike the unified internet that we have. Because the internet transcends borders, we have a system that is essentially lawless and lawful at the same time. However, the jurisdictional issues shake out that each country has different view points on what is good and lawful and what is bad and unlawful. While a single universal legal system would help solve the state of law about events and things that happen on the internet, we will for now be stuck with a number of solid issues. 1. Not all countries have a sophisticated legal system, they are immersed in local regional conflict, or poverty, or other issues that preclude them devoting time to making or developing laws that concern the use of the internet in state or country. 2. Not every country looks at anything the same way as any other country. Take the age of consent, it varies between ages of 10 in Malaysia, to 16 in Britain to 18 in America, and all points in between. Trying to ride herd over internet content is going to default to the person who sells the most tools to the most countries. The Internet may end up being controlled by defacto American corporations that are the ones most responsible for Internet Censorship and legal implementation of laws, based on American laws, as applied to a country that may not have such issues, laws or viewpoints. a. WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization has spent over 32 years trying to get a unified law on how to protect intellectual property, and it will take a lot longer to do this. If you follow their time line, there have been actions in this area since 1873, or well over 100 years. ( b. Hacking is a crime in some countries, is not a crime in others generally. There are also exceptions; the famous Chinese American hacking events when the P3 was shot down over China in 2001, China won that conflict by almost 2000 attributable systems to Chinese hacking groups. Both governments turned a blind eye, and no one will ever be prosecuted for the 10's of thousands of systems that were brought down, defaced, or otherwise compromised. c. The Chinese government has unofficially used hacking activity to assert political agenda, such as when the Japanese government in 2005 rewrote parts of their official history books to down play the events in Manchuria during world war two. Japan suffered under weeks of heavy DDOS attack from China via compromised PHPbb bulletin boards and other springboards. d. Israel and Palestine - a continuing cyber war continues with support from both governments while the shooting and fence building also continues e. India and Pakistan - a continuing cyber war over Kashmir, Hindu Muslim relations, and a host of other concerns is also being fought out in Cyberspace, GForce Pakistan and others continually deface Indian sites, and Indian hackers are not too far away in their stats (Zone-H reporting). f. Israel and Hezbollah - no on the ground war would be complete without cyber warfare at this point. IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) have successfully hacked a number of Hezbollah web sites including their television station leaving messages behind ( The state of cyber warfare (and before you fire up your key boards to join in any of the localized regional conflicts) going back to the original question, of "What is the state of current law concerning Cyber Conflict both nationally and internationally?" and based on empirical evidence, has two stages. The first stage is that in many countries hacking is illegal. If a company can assert damages and assert attribution of the attacker, and is big enough, the people responsible for the attack will be found. Nevertheless, history shows that it has to be big, like the DDOS attacks against Amazon, Yahoo and EBay. Alternatively, that it has to be directed at the government, like NASA, VA, DOD and others. There has to be an economic impact or caught enough press or people attention by being big enough to warrant legal resources being applied to it. This is regardless of the many laws that say hacking is illegal. The second stage is that under certain conditions, many governments are willing to ignore the action of it citizens when it suits governmental purposes. Regardless of law, any kid with a key board and some tools or warez can go up on the internet and participate in any localized regional conflict with slim chances of being caught. They are shielded from being prosecuted in state, mostly because the governments have their attention diverted elsewhere. It is a blind eye situation where there are not enough government resources to prosecute in all cases. In the mean time, smart hacking groups are involved in these conflicts because they are low risk of being caught, but allow some excellent opportunities to hone their skills. Therefore, there is the legal issue that hacking is illegal in many counties and states, yet there are exceptions to that under certain conditions. So the current state of law regarding cyber conflict either state sponsored or opportunistic exists, but is rarely enforced unless the "job is big enough". Laws exist, but laws that exist but are not enforced are useless. Regional conflicts are an added dimension where hackers can really ply their trade for a political cause (hacktivism) and hone their skills in an internet combat zone. The state of current cyber law then would need to be enforced for all attacks, not just those that garner huge headlines, or affect thousands or millions of people. If it takes over 100 years for countries to agree to a simple treaty on how to handle and protect intellectual property, it will be many years before we have a universal agreement on how to handle international hacking activity. Hackers do not have to be worried about the current state of cyber conflict laws or the future state for a very long time. State sponsored hacking activity is part of modern warfare now; there is no way that it can be excluded from anyone's battle plans. These groups of hackers working without state sponsorship and those groups of hackers that are actually part of military units all serve a similar cause, and there are few legal rules outside of the civilian jurisdiction. While governments may have acceptable use, doctrine in cyber warfare, and others, the skills solders learn are transferable outside the military, and depending on the person's ethical standards and location or societal norms, laws become trivial in a hot war. Your opinions matter in this conversation, what is the groups thoughts on this? About the Author Read more 1 Comment \| Write Comment Sign In to Post a Comment "Well, after I was told via email that I couldn't post my question, I'm glad to see that it is answered in Dan Morrill's posting. I joined this group to get information for my students. I'm glad I found the answer for which I was looking.
Scientists have difficulty explaining p-values Scientists regularly use p-values to evaluate their findings but apparently have difficulty explain exactly what they mean: It’s not their fault, said Steven Goodman, co-director of METRICS. Even after spending his “entire career” thinking about p-values, he said he could tell me the definition, “but I cannot tell you what it means, and almost nobody can.” Scientists regularly get it wrong, and so do most textbooks, he said. When Goodman speaks to large audiences of scientists, he often presents correct and incorrect definitions of the p-value, and they “very confidently” raise their hand for the wrong answer. “Almost all of them think it gives some direct information about how likely they are to be wrong, and that’s definitely not what a p-value does,” Goodman said. We want to know if results are right, but a p-value doesn’t measure that. It can’t tell you the magnitude of an effect, the strength of the evidence or the probability that the finding was the result of chance. So what information can you glean from a p-value? The most straightforward explanation I found came from Stuart Buck, vice president of research integrity at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Imagine, he said, that you have a coin that you suspect is weighted toward heads. (Your null hypothesis is then that the coin is fair.) You flip it 100 times and get more heads than tails. The p-value won’t tell you whether the coin is fair, but it will tell you the probability that you’d get at least as many heads as you did if the coin was fair. That’s it — nothing more. And that’s about as simple as I can make it, which means I’ve probably oversimplified it and will soon receive exasperated messages from statisticians telling me so. Complicated but necessary? This can lead to fun situations when teaching statistics: students need to know enough to do the statistical work and evaluate findings (we at least need to know what to do with a calculated p-value, even if we don’t quite understand what it means) but explaining the complexity of some of these techniques wouldn’t necessarily help the learning process. In fact, the more you learn about statistics, you tend to find that the various methods and techniques have limitations even as they can help us better understand phenomena. Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s
Quarter and heel cracks in the hoof, in most cases are the result of the medial-lateral imbalances of the hoof and limb. These cracks are coming from the perioplic ring down and can reach up to the lower edge of the hoof. Imbalance occurs due to poor limbs conformation, resulting weight horses cover hoof not evenly. Related reasons: 1. The inability of the farrier to recognize of medial-lateral imbalance and take measures to reduce it. 2. The poor quality of the horn. 3. Very low or collapsed heels. 4. The hard ground. 5. Short horseshoe. 6. Discrepancy of the size of the hooves of the weight of the horse. A healthy hoof relies on the heel, but expands in the rear quarter. Bar corners I also call heel posts, shift forward and straight under the weight of the horse. And when the hoof lifts off the ground, the heel posts shift back. A hoof with a sloping, long pastern, and a small amount of horns heel will experience the strongest stress from blows during fastest paces on a solid track. Before treating the crack, it is necessary to identify the cause of its occurrence. Sometimes it helps to just eliminate the cause. But in any case it is necessary to achieve by trimming and shoeing of a uniform weight distribution of the horse on the hoof. For shoeing, my preference is to use a bar shoe. 1. Stephen O’Grady, DVM. Managing Quarter Cracks. American Farriers Journal July/August 2008, p.74-77. 2. Simon Curtis. Corrective Farriery Volume II, 2006 Great Britain, p.454-473.
Computer Evolution 1016 Words5 Pages Computers date back all the way to 300B.C. with the invention of the abacus. This was a calculating devise to do math and it made the people of that time lives a lot easier. That is what the computers of today do but so much more. I will start at the basics of computers while trying not to boar you. The first real computer that actually made calculations was the ENIAC that was made by the government in 1943. It costed $500,000, weighed over 30 tons, had 19,000 vacuum tubes, and consumed almost 200 kilowatts of electricity (computer chronicles 8). Now we have advanced to laptops that are one inch thick and 15 inches wide and can do a lot more than the ENIAC could. There have been thousands of advancements and new technology in computers in…show more content… Netscape announces that it will make its source code available to anyone, which puts up a little fight for the top against Microsoft Internet Explorer. 1999 stock of Yahoo and Skytel search engines skyrocket! The race for faster processors is still on but the fastest for this year was Intel Pentium III at 850mhz. Lipske 6 In 2000 there was another new set of Microsoft this time it was Windows 2000 edition. This was a Y2K compadable program and the big scare was off that all computers were going to crash because they thought they were to old. Also in 2000 they came up with the fastest processor yet. Intel Pentium 4 with 1.4ghz that is 1400mgz. Now they can’t go any faster without a new motherboard that can handle the speed and they haven’t made one yet that can handle anything over that speed. So for now that is the fastest computer you can buy. Well that was all the technological advancements. Now there is new software and hardware. Such as messenger service that you can make your own chat room on with only the people that you want on it and talk to them for free as long as they are online. You can watch DVD’s your computer. Download music off of Napster and make your own CD’s of whatever you want. Play Chess or video games with people around the world. In this day in age you would be behind in life if you didn’t have a Open Document
I’ve Turned Off My Ad Blocker Edit Story The Medieval Women In Drag Who Maybe Caused The Black Death (But Really Didn't) Matthew Gabriele A curious thing happened in the middle of the 14th century. According to Henry Knighton's Chronicle, an English narrative completed at Leicester by ca. 1400 CE, in the year 1348 a group of about 40-50 women dressed in men's clothes began to attend tournaments. They supposedly moved from place to place behaving shamefully, baring their bodies in an "inappropriate manner," spending money, carrying weapons, and apparently performing for the assembled crowds. God didn't like that, so according to the Chronicle a storm would suddenly form to disrupt the festivities. Then, shortly afterwards, Knighton recounts that the Black Death arrived in Europe and ravaged the countryside. Left unsaid, but narratively clear, the women's behavior caused God to punish England for their sins. Before I go any further, let me be clear that this group's behavior - if it even happened - did not cause the Black Death. But Prof. Sonja Drimmer from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst told me over email that this anecdote inadvertently opens a fascinating window onto how gender roles were seen in Europe during the late Middle Ages, and more importantly how those roles were sometimes overthrown. Dr. Drimmer, who works on the material objects related to politics in the medieval world, pointed out that it's interesting in and of itself that Knight decided to write this episode down. Medieval histories are always selective in what they include. Sometimes they can focus primarily on local events, sometimes more universal, but the anecdotes when taken together always reveal a deeper message that the author's trying to convey. In this case, Dr. Drimmer said: the chronicler seems to have expected his audience would see women wanting to perform as men (and assert their sexual agency by “displaying their bodies”) as entirely plausible, particularly in a privileged space that was designed to assert rigid gender roles. It’s like no-smoking signs: we only need no-smoking signs (a) because people smoke, and (b) because other people deem it to be a harmful behavior. Of course, smoking is actually a harmful activity; dressing how one wants, is not. In addition, as a specialist in visual culture, Dr. Drimmer pointed to something else (maybe) going on in this particular episode. She asks us to think about how the scene itself would have looked. She summarizes that "because the author refers to the women as 'players,' reports their activity as occurring within the context of tournaments, and describes their attire as ostentatious, it seems to me that simply calling this 'cross-dressing' (which has been well studied for the medieval period) fails to capture the performative nature of the events." This could have been something approaching what we think of today as drag performance. In other words, Knighton more than likely decided to include this in his Chronicle because this was something that really happened and he was really freaked out about it. For some time, scholars have talked about how boundaries are often drawn between peoples at moments when assimilation and cultural interactions are at their most fluid. In other words, when some people think the "status quo" is threatened by people doing things they haven't "traditionally" done, they tend to double-down on what they consider "normal" behavior. This can sometimes lead to violence, or political upheaval. In this particular instance, what really seems to have bothered Knighton here was not just that these women were performing while dressed like men, but that everyone else thought that that was fine. Indeed, there's evidence that cross-dressing by men and women at medieval tournaments was relatively common. Knighton may confirm some of our Game of Thrones-esque expectations about the European Middle Ages, one marked by God's wrath and a conservative religiosity. But, despite his intentions, Knighton also undermines our expectations by showing us a vibrant Middle Ages filled with color, pageantry, laughter, and performance - one in which people don't act like we think they're "supposed to." In other words, Knighton almost by accident shows us a slice of the real Middle Ages, populated by living, breathing human beings. Check out my website Matthew Gabriele is a professor of Medieval Studies and Chair of the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech. He researches the European Middle Ages, as well… Matthew Gabriele is a professor of Medieval Studies and Chair of the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech. He researches the European Middle Ages, as well as how that period is remembered in the modern world – both in formal history writing and in pop culture - with a focus on the Crusades, kingship, nostalgia, and apocalypse. He earned his PhD from the University of California-Berkeley (2005).
User Rating: 5 / 5 Star ActiveStar ActiveStar ActiveStar ActiveStar Active At the beginning of the War of the American Revolution, Abram and Elizabeth Martin were living in Ninety Six District, now Edgefield County, South Carolina, with their nine children. Seven of their eight sons were old enough to enter the army, and were noted for their gallantry and patriotic zeal. The wives of the two eldest sons, Grace Waring and Rachael Clay, during the absence of their husbands, remained with their mother-in-law. One evening the news reached them that a courier bearing important despatches was to pass that night along the road guarded by two British officers. Grace and Rachael determined to waylay the party and obtain possession of the papers. Disguised in their husbands' clothes, and well provided with arms, they hid in the bushes at a point on the road where the escort must pass. Darkness favored their plans and when the courier and his guards approached they were completely taken by surprise by the suddenness of the attack. They had no choice but to surrender. The young women took their papers, released the soldiers on parole, and hastened home to send the important documents to General Greene by a trusty messenger. The paroled officers returned by the road they had come and stopping at the home of the Martins, asked accommodations for the night. The hostess asked the reason for their prompt return. They replied by showing their paroles, and saying they had been taken prisoners by two Rebel lads. The ladies rallied them on their lack of courage and asked if they were unarmed. They said they were armed but were suddenly taken off their guard. They went on their way the next morning without a suspicion that they owed their capture to the women whose hospitality they had claimed.--_Grace L. Martin, Piedmont Continental Chapter, D. A. R._
In late 2010, Germany initiated the Energiewende, a major plan for transforming its energy system into a more efficient one supplied mainly by renewable energy sources. The country has adopted a strategy for an energy pathway to 2050, which includes an accelerated the phase-out of nuclear power by 2022. Key energy statistics Key recommendations, 2020 • Expand the scope of the energy transition to all sectors Expand the scope and ambition of energy and climate policies beyond a focus on the electricity sector, especially to transport and heat, to achieve a genuine energy transition across all sectors. • Support the expansion of transmission lines Ensure the timely expansion and upgrading of transmission lines in order to improve system operations and integrate larger amounts of variable renewable electricity. Expedite the process of permitting and building new transmission lines to meet future transmission needs. • Foster energy savings in the transportation sector Adopt a more comprehensive approach to promoting reduced energy demand in transportation, including stronger incentives for cost-effective consumer adoption of alternative transport technologies and promotion of public and multi-modal transport. • Foster energy efficiency in the building sector Reform and strengthen measures targeting an increased renovation rate of existing buildings to foster energy efficiency improvements. • Strengthen energy security by diversifying energy sources and flexibility Bolster energy security through diversified gas imports, including LNG; ensure electricity security during the energy transition through flexibility and preparedness. • Promote and foster efficient sector coupling through economic incentives Remove the barriers that hinder efficient sector coupling, by fostering a level playing field across end-use sectors, including by removing fossil fuel tax breaks; introducing carbon pricing in non ETS sectors; and rebalancing taxes, levies and incentives, while fairly allocating costs and benefits across customer groups.
Types Of Hydroelectric Power Plant or Hydroelectric Power Station Types of hydroelectric power plant or hydro electric power station may be classified different categories according to the water flow,water head and the demand of load supply in different season.At-first,we see the block diagram of different types of hydro electric power plant: types of hydroelectric power plant 1. According to the extent of water flow regulation available: According to the extent of water flow regulation,hydoelectric power plant may be classified into three categories: a. Run off river power plants without pondage b. Run off river power plants with pondage c. Reservoir power plants a. Run off river power plants without pondage This type of hydroelectric power plant,water is not available all the time. So this type of power station is not suitable for constant steady load. There is no pondage or storage facility available in such type of power plant. Plant is placed in such a area,where water is coming directly from the river or pond. This type of hydroelectric power plant is called run off power plant without pondage. Plant produces hydro electricity only when water is available. This type of plan cannot use all the time.During high flow and low load period,water is wasted and the lean flow periods the plan capacity is very low. Power development capacity of this type of plan is very low and it produces power incidentally. The development cost of such a plant is relatively cheaper than full-time power development hydro electric power plant.Though it is not used for constant steady load supply,it's objective is to generate electricity by using excessive flow of water during flood or rainy season or whatever flow is available to save some sort of our natural resource of energy such as coal etc, diesel etc. b. Run off river power plants with pondage This type of plant is used to increase the capacity of pond.The pond is used as a storage water of hydro electric power plant.Increased the pond size means more water is available in the plant,so such type of hydro electric power plant is used fluctuating load period depending on the size of pondage.On a certain limitation,this type of power plant can be a part of load curve and it is more reliable than a hydro plant without pondage.Such type of plant is suitable for both base load or peak load period.During high flow period,this plant is suitable for base load and lean flow period it may be used to supply peak loads only.During high flood period,one thing should keep in mind that flood should not raise tail-race water level.Such types of power plant save conservation of coal. c. Reservoir power plants Most hydroelectric power plant in the world is reservoir power plant.This type of plant,water is stored behind the dam and water is available throughout the year even in dry season.This type of power plant is very efficient and it is used both base and peak load period as per requirement.most importantly,it can also take a part of load curve in grid system. 2.According to the availability of water flow As per height of water or water head,hydro electric power plant can be divided three categories: a. Low Head b. Medium Head c. High Head Low head,medium head,high head.Though there is no rule regarding water head height but below 30 meters is considered as low head,above 30 meters to 300 meters is called medium head and above 300 meters is known as high head hydro electric power plant. a. Low head hydro electric power plant The block diagram of low head hydro electric power plant is given in fig: low head hydro electric power plant Francis,Kaplan or propellor turbines are used for this type of hydro electric power plant.To create a low head ,dam construction is essential.Water resource level i.e.river or pond is placed just behind the dam to create a necessary water head level.Water is led to the turbine through the penstock.This type of hydro plant is located just below the dam and it creates a useful water level as well.No surge tank is required for this plant,dam itself discharge the surplus water from the river.Science head is low,huge amount of water is required for desire output.That's why large diameter and low length pipe is used for this plant.Such types of power plant use low speed and large diameter type generators. b. Medium head hydro electric power plant Block diagram of medium head hydro electric power plant is shown below: medium head hydro electric power plant A forebay is used for medium head hydro electric power plant.This forebay is worked as a surge tank.Forebay is tapped with the river and water is led to the turbine via penstock.Forebay is just beginning of penstock.For low head plant forebay itself serves as a surge tank. c. High head hydro electric power plant high head hydro electric power plant The head of this power plant is more than 300 meters.A dam is constructed such level that maximum reserve water level is formed.A pressure tunnel is constructed which is connected to the valve house.Water is coming from reservoir to valve house via this pressure tunnel and it is the starting of penstock.A surge tank is also constructed before valve house which reduces water hammering to the penstock in case of sudden closing of fixed gates of water turbine.Surge tank also store some extra water which is useful for pick load demand because it will serve extra water to the turbine.Valve house consists of a main valve sluice valves and automatic isolating valves,which operate on bursting of penstock and cut off further supply of water to penstock.The penstock is a connecting pipe which supplies water from valve house to turbine.For high head more than 500 meters,Pelton wheel turbine is used and for lower head Francis turbine is useful. 3.According to the types of load supply a. Base Load b. Peak Load c. Pumped storage plants for the peak load a. Base load hydro electric power plant This is a large capacity power plant.This plant work as a base portion of load curve of power system,that's why it is called base load plants.Base load plant is suitable for constant load.load factor of this plant is high and it is performed as a block load.Run off river plants without pondage and reservoir plants are used as base load plants. b. Peak load hydro electric power plant This plant is suitable for peak load curve of power system.when demand is high,this type of plant do their job very well.Run off river plants with pondage can be employed as peak load plants.If water supply is available,it generates large portion of load at a peak load period.It needs huge storage area.Reservoir plants can be used as peak load plants.This type of plant can serve power throughout the year. c. Pumped storage hydro electric power plant for the peak load This is unique design of peak load plants.Here two types of water pond is used,called upper head water pond and tail water pond.Two water ponds are connected each other by a penstock.Main generating pumping plant is lower end.During the off load period,surplus energy of this plant is utilized to pumping the lower head pond water to upper head pond water.This extra water is used to generate energy at pick load periods.By doing this arrangement,same water is used again and again.Extra water is required only to take care of evaporation and seepage. ☛ Read More Questions Click here Enter Your Suggestion/Comments Here Can't read the image? Click here to refresh
Home MMN all time Don't miss All time in the world - from the Big Bang to the time 6 December until 31 December 2020 Museum Mensch und Natur Time determines our life. Almost every one of us focuses day in, day after day on the clock - according to dates and time constraints. It goes without saying that we realize how days, weeks, months and years pass - and become aware of the fact that one's own lifetime is limited. So, time is something that is commonplace, something that affects us all, and that we find difficult to understand and explain. In the exhibition "All Time of the World", the Museum Mensch und Natur dedicates itself to this multi-faceted subject and has been able to win the renowned astrophysicist and science journalist Harald Lesch to accompany our visitors on their journey through time and space. Numerous exhibits, spectacular pictures and stagings as well as hands-on objects and special children's stations make the exhibition an experience for young and old. A journey through time and space With an impressive installation, the exhibition leads back to the beginning of all things - the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. Ever larger and better telescopes allow us today to look not only at unbelievable distances, but also deeper into the past and thus into the early days of the universe. The history of the Earth, which originated about 4.55 billion years ago, represents the second part of the exhibition. Among other things, the oldest minerals and rocks of the earth with an age of more than 4 billion years can be admired here. Numerous exhibits show how the earth is still in a constant process of change and fossils take us through various periods of geological history. Time and life For living things, time is an elementary factor that affects them in many ways. All higher living beings go through a cycle of growth, reproduction and aging that ultimately leads to death. However, the duration and course of this process differ significantly - some plants and animals live only a few weeks, others reach an age of hundreds or even more than 1,000 years. The exhibition therefore shows examples of particularly extreme ages and development paths. However, time is also a factor for living beings, according to which life processes are controlled and coordinated. Practically all living beings therefore have internal clocks whose function has been extensively researched in recent years and decades. For us too, living in harmony with the internal clock is important in order to stay healthy and productive. In addition to classic experiments and insights into the inner clock, for example, the question of a meaningful division of time zones is discussed. Copyright: Thomas Greifenstein, HIPP Calendar of events < May - 2020 > Mo Di Mi Do Fr Sa So 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Busy. Please wait. show password Forgot Password? Don't have an account? Sign up Username is available taken show password Already a StudyStack user? Log In Reset Password Don't know remaining cards Pass complete! "Know" box contains: Time elapsed: restart all cards Normal Size Small Size show me how geography vocabulary vocab! ;) NATO international military allience created to defend western europe against a possible soviet invasion. cooperation to associate with another or others for mutual benefit. strike refusal to work, usually by a labor orginization, until demands are met. human resources supply of people who can produce goods. euro common curency adopted by countries in the european union. eu european union turmoil condition of extreme confusion imperialism system of building foreign empires for military and foreign advantages. communism an economic system in wich the government plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in wich all goods are equally shared by the people. union labor orginization that negotiates for improved worker conditions and pay nuclear weapon weapon whos destructive power comes from a nuclear reaction cottage industry home or village based industry in which family members supply their own equipment to make goods blockade to forcably prevent entry into an area deterrance maintnence of military power for the purpose of discouraging an attack interdependance dependance of countries on one another for goods,raw materials to make goods,and markets n which to sell goods airlift system of carrying supplies by aircraft halocaust systematic murder of more than 6 million european jews and 6 million others by adolph hitler and the nazis during WWII genocide mass murder of a people because oof their race, religion, ethencicy, polotics or culture satellite nation nation politically and economically dominated or controled by another, more powerful country productivity measurement of the amount of work done in a given amount of time. textiles woven cloth USSR union of soviet socials republic. Created by: fuunn
Perfect pitch–the ability to identify a musical note without any context–is something of a golden egg among musicians. You either have it or you don’t, and if you do, you’ve got a serious leg up on the competition (especially if you’re a singer or play jazz or classical music). If you don’t, it’s generally been assumed that you’re shit out of luck. Like language skills, perfect pitch is thought to be learned in the “critical period” –that stage, early in life, in which your mind is at its ripest for learning. Now, a new study claims that a drug called valporate can return your brain to that state and enable you to learn music as if you were a child. The Verge explains the mechanics of the study: Valproate…was given to a group of healthy young men with no musical training. The men were then asked to perform a set of exercises for two weeks with the aim of improving their pitch while another control group was asked to perform the same exercises, but given a placebo. According to the study, those subjects given valproate learned to identify pitch “significantly better than those taking the placebo.” Other skills could be learned with this method as well, but Harvard professor Takao Hensch, who co-authored the study, believes widespread use should be approached with trepidation. “Critical periods,” he said, “have evolved for a reason.” (Photo: Luz Adriana Villa/Flickr)
Telsoc - Design en Social Practices of 3D Printing <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><h2>Introduction</h2> <p>3D printing has existed for a number of decades as specialist and experimental projects in manufacturing research. Originally designed as a rapid prototyping technology, it has come to develop other unique qualities that make it relevant outside of a manufacturing environment. The technology is scalable, distributed, and innovative, and many models easily connect to networked computer services to access printable files. These attributes mean that educational institutions and everyday citizens are finding it possible ? if still somewhat difficult ? to own and operate 3D printers in domestic or educational settings. A wealth of corporate and user-generated online and offline resources that individuals consult to operate their printers means that 3D printing is emerging as a broad set of social practices that build on the technologies of additive manufacturing. Examples include various types of tinkering, small business, personal craft, DIY, and hobbyist activities.</p> <p>These 3D printing cultures are enabled by extensive online sharing of files and information that situate consumer knowledge about 3D printing in the context of the current online discourses involved in the evolutions of rights, responsibilities, and regulations. In other words, the fact that these technologies are able to produce and distribute designs around the world means that 3D printing technologies are implicated in the complexities of global intellectual property regimes (IPR), and, importantly, many end users only seem to be marginally aware of what impact the relevant laws, treaties, and policies might have. This, understandably, opens the space for both na?ve breaches of intellectual property law; but also there is the possibility of a chilling effect in users who are wary of engaging with 3D printing due to a perception of potential legal issues.</p> <p>Citizens are aware of 3D printing as cutting-edge technology. Current developments in 3D printing exists within widespread rhetoric around a coming 3D printing ?revolution? that promises social transformation, and which has been attested to by even relatively conservative publications such as The Economist (?A Third Industrial Revolution?, 2012). This rhetoric is being spouted without providing evidence towards how the revolution is being enacted, and as a result, citizens have a higher degree of expectation about the capacity for 3D printing to solve problems in their own lives. Questions about how users are applying the technology in their social lives (and vice versa), or how different intellectual property regimes are responding to these social practices, and how these intersections will shape trajectories of digital cultures, economies, and citizenship in a networked society are often left unanswered. Citizens themselves are not necessarily sure about what it is they ?know? or ?don?t know?.</p> <p>This research paper begins to provide detail on this gap in citizen knowledge by drawing on empirical data gathered from participant observation in open educational workshops on 3D printing, focus groups of Australian consumers, and a Social Network Analysis (SNA) wherein we mapped what is currently the largest online 3D printing file repository: ?Thingiverse?. From this, we identified the various uses of 3D printed files shared online among extant 3D printing communities. From this data, we suggest that the social practices associated with 3D printing function through communication networks to decentralise manufacture and reconfigure socio-political power and legal capacities for regulation.</p> <p>The paper locates our empirical data on consumer perspectives and practices within relevant regulations. Specifically, those regulations relevant to 3D printing based on ?law in context? approach of recent legal scholarship grappling with how 3D printing intersects with copyright, trademark, design, and liability law. Although the study of law is necessary, it is not sufficient to understand evolving user experience. Internet intermediaries that mediate file sharing and modification, industry application of current IPR via automated measures, and the cultures that surround the designing, sharing and printing of goods all affect the future trajectories of 3D printing?s place in society. The paper concludes by introducing paths forward for policy frames across industry, government and consumer concern.</p> <h2>Additively Manufacturing the Social Context of 3D Printing</h2> <p>A key analytical move which we make in order to address 3D printing and its cultures is to separate out the technology (additive manufacturing) from the culture (3D printing) to better describe and explain cultural and social uses of the technology. Our claim is that 3D printing is the social practice that sits on top of additive manufacturing technology which we can address through a brief history of the techno-societal interface. We observe three phases of 3D printing culture emerging, developing centralised, decentralised, and distributed behaviours over time. Each new phase <em>adds to</em>, rather than replaces, the sum total of 3D printing culture, such that the phase that is currently emerging ? the distributed practice ? is operating in parallel with centralised and decentralised modes. Note that these phases inform and bleed into each other, with peer-to-peer practices being taken up by institutions, while at the same time practices created through R&D are being used in community hobbyist workshops.</p> <p>From a technical perspective, the patented inventions of Charles Hall (<a href="#Hall" rel="nofollow">1986</a>) and Scott Crump (<a href="#Crump" rel="nofollow">1992</a>) ? who respectively went on to found the 3D Systems and Stratasys ? are often credited for kick-starting 3D printing practices. We suggest that these inventions, along with the continuing stream of technical innovations in 3D printing, interface with and evolve within social contexts that can be categorised in three phases. The first phase involved 3D printing becoming ?available?, reflecting economies of pre-production including rapid prototyping of one-off models as well as functional analysis and testing (<a href="#Kellock" rel="nofollow">Kellock 1989</a>, <a href="#Pham" rel="nofollow">Pham and Gault 1998</a>, <a href="#Wood" rel="nofollow">Wood 1990</a>).</p> <p>The second phase of ?utility? decentralised manufacture from in-house pre-production to production houses that shifted supply chain logics and provided new utility for industry (<a href="#Birtchnell" rel="nofollow">Birtchnell, B?hme, & Gorkin, 2016</a>; <a href="#Krogmann" rel="nofollow">Krogmann, 2012</a>). This phase also included material and process advances that enabled additively manufactured objects to withstand stress and strain or be designed with unique geometries or aesthetics that added value for products where customisation and complex geometries trumped economies of scale (<a href="#Bak" rel="nofollow">Bak 2003</a>; <a href="#Hopkinson" rel="nofollow">Hopkinson, Hague, and Dickens 2006</a>). Examples of the decentralised production include aerospace and military applications that reduce weight through 3D printed designed parts and customised medical fittings, such as hearing aids.</p> <p><a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="" title=" Social phases of 3D printing, coloured borders denote organisations"><img alt=" Social phases of 3D printing, coloured borders denote organisations" height="179" src="/sites/default/files/images/tja/ajtde_a64_f01.jpg" title=" Social phases of 3D printing, coloured borders denote organisations" width="600" /></a></p> <p><strong>Figure 1: Social phases of 3D printing, coloured borders denote organisations</strong></p> <table><tbody><tr><td> <p><strong>Phases</strong></p> </td> <td> <p>Availability</p> </td> <td> <p>Utility</p> </td> <td> <p>Practicality</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p><strong>model</strong></p> </td> <td> <p>centralised</p> </td> <td> <p>decentralised</p> </td> <td> <p>distributed</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p><strong>economy</strong></p> </td> <td> <p>Pre-production</p> </td> <td> <p>production</p> </td> <td> <p>Peer-production</p> </td> </tr></tbody></table><p> </p> <p>The third phase we identify is still emerging but already speaks to a wider ?practicality? of 3D printing practices. It is defined through a more fully distributed network of 3D printers that rely on aspects of peer-production. This phase specifically addresses independent users coming together outside of the industry to share, learn and act upon 3D printing. Industry consultants Wohlers and Associates, for example, suggest that while 86% of 3D printing revenues came from industrial applications, 92% of the printers sold were for consumer purposes (<a href="#Wholers" rel="nofollow">2015</a>). This shift to consumer adoption shows how the uses of 3D printing are distributing beyond industrial use cases and capitalist economies. Moilanen and Vad?n (<a href="#Moilanen_2013" rel="nofollow">2013</a>) explain this trend through the increasingly inexpensive open source and mass-market 3D printers targeted towards hobbyists and enthusiasts under the general label of ?makers?. Chris Anderson (<a href="#Anderson" rel="nofollow">2012</a>) explains the cultural and economic cache of ?makers? through the ability to use digital networks for practices of open design that combine with novel small scale manufacture technologies. From this frame, new forms of entrepreneurialism and innovation extend economic growth online in highly distributed niches. Apart from economics, such practices are important in the cultivation of self-identity and culture, both locally and worldwide (<a href="#Luckman" rel="nofollow">Luckman, 2015</a>). Schrock (<a href="#Schrock" rel="nofollow">2014</a>) describes the physical spaces where these practices blossom as hacker-maker spaces (HMS) that are made up of community-maintained workshops that allow individual tinkering, social learning, and collaboration on creative-technical projects. According to work by Kostakis et al. (<a href="#Kostakis" rel="nofollow">2014</a>) HMS spaces are growing at an exceptional rate, from 40 globally in 2007 to around 1000 by 2013. The forms of sharing and production enabled by 3D printing within HMS clearly diverge from the organisational hierarchies seen in the first phase and the price markets that enabled the second.</p> <p>Specifically, much of the digital maker economy relates to and in many aspects relies upon what Benkler (<a href="#Benkler" rel="nofollow">2002</a>; <a href="#Benkler" rel="nofollow">2006</a>) describes as commons-based peer-production. This involves the re-use of others? contributions with minimal restrictions on that use. From the perspective of a commons-based sharing economy and culture, IPR raise the cost of interaction or restrict re-using information, while also limiting the creative uses of the technology, and consequentially decreasing innovation in the field. Benkler?s work draws from observation of open source software communities and a context of ubiquitous low-cost processing, storage, and networked connectivity that connects individuals to create and exchange information and culture in patterns of sharing and reciprocity (<a href="#Benkler" rel="nofollow">Benkler 2006:463</a>). 3D printing as a distributed social practice also relies on low barriers to networked connectivity and exchange for both design and cultural content. Thus one of the policy challenges of 3D printing is how to facilitate education, innovation, and governance systems that make use of the large-scale, widely distributed creativity in online settings within incumbent IPRs that apply the logic of (product) scarcity instead of (information) abundance. How innovation and governance concerns are perceived by everyday ?consumers? interested in 3D printing is where this article now shifts.</p> <h2>Research Design</h2> <p>To explore 3D printing as a social practice, we engaged context appropriate methods across multiple sites (<a href="#Yin_2008" rel="nofollow">Yin, 2008</a>, <a href="#Yin_2011" rel="nofollow">2011</a>), in order to build a collective case study (<a href="#Stake" rel="nofollow">Stake, 2000, p. 437</a>). This included expert interviews, participant observation at 3D printing workshops and trade shows, focus groups of individuals interested in but novices to 3D printing, and a social network analysis of data scraped from the largest online 3D printing file-sharing intermediary, the Thingiverse website. The full methodological outline of our project has been detailed previously.</p> <p>Our focus group participants were recruited from clusters of city libraries and businesses with 3D printing facilities, services, or classes in Melbourne, Australia. The cohort of participants was stratified according to self-reported 3D printing experience to ensure some level of homogeneity within each group. Focus groups allowed us to consider how normative beliefs of 3D printing as a social practice are communally produced (<a href="#Smithson" rel="nofollow">Smithson, 2000</a>). Our limited sample does not represent the Australian public at large, but the knowledge gained is indicative of demographically diverse consumers that wish to embark on 3D printing use.</p> <p>The web-scrape and SNA enabled us to determine empirical patterns and cultural trends via hundreds of thousands of objects that people have uploaded to print. Through Python scripts run on the Australian National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) cloud servers, we obtained individualised metadata from all publicly accessible items (355,867) on the Thingiverse website. We then were able to employ descriptive statistical and social network analyses on the scraped dataset to obtain insights from real-world data about what users are actually printing and how they?re managing the visibility and dissemination of their work (for detail on these methods see Author(s)). We leveraged the user created ?tags? associated with objects to discern meaning and relations in ways that allowed us to map the relevance of certain tags to others and aggregate themes and their links in different types of 3D printing practice. This method allowed insight to a number of limited categories of use that were not apparent during our qualitative phase and allowed novel, data-based perspectives on the use of 3D printing independent but complementary to other research approaches. By addressing socially-sorted data related to 3D printing, we were able to develop an understanding of different types of practice, and different categories of interest for users of 3D printing, which are indicative of likely uses in the future for Australian 3D printer users.</p> <h2>Consumer Perspectives & Realities of 3D Printing Practices</h2> <p>A significant portion of our project involved qualitative research methods; specifically, interviews, participant observation of workshops and trade shows, and focus groups. Data from these events brought to light a lack of centralised systems for managing accountability in terms of the rights and responsibilities that come with 3D printing for end users. In short, the networked structure of even fairly simple household 3D printer setups involve complex and hidden supply chains, and the technology natively lacks any structure of accountability for either legal or insurance purposes ? a concern that is amplified in educational settings. We also found that consumers tended to approach 3D printing with an apparent naivety regarding their own rights and responsibilities for managing the sharing and printing of designs while possessing scepticism about protections to be found online. These themes are summarised below through elements that emerged most strongly and consistently across research sites and methods, and then by situating these insights in relation to practices of tagging files on the Thingiverse repository.</p> <h3>Decentralised Control</h3> <p>The data suggesting an inbuilt lack of centralised accountability for the rights and responsibilities that came with 3D printing presented a classic ?wicked problem? (<a href="#Rittel" rel="nofollow">Rittel & Webber, 1973</a>), defined through from complex distributed interdependencies across social and technological concerns. For instance, attempts to centrally regulate what is printed that are reliant on restrictive censorship regimes or other negative-use measures alternately work against the interests of users, hardware manufacturers, online intermediaries or the affordances of specific digital technologies themselves.</p> <p>The manufacturers we spoke did not want to implement restrictions on their own hardware, as limitations regarding what content could or could not be printed (beyond the technical limitations of individual types of 3D printer) were seen to be undesirable restrictions on consumers. Meanwhile, online intermediaries are loathe to introduce new regimes that police content their users upload, pointing to the historically successful safe harbour laws that have allowed freedom of expression (and commerce) on the internet to flourish. Finally, if both manufacturers and intermediaries are not the choke points for restricting prints, deep packet inspection of users? uploading and downloading habits present an alternative, but presents a costly option both technically and politically. Deep packet inspection has the further limitation that it can be defeated by publicly-available encryption technologies such as the Tor Network or the BitTorrent protocols, which distribute the publication of files and efficiently obfuscate origins and recipients amongst other network traffic. While some expert respondents introduced the idea of individual licensing for the ability to print (like a fishing or driving licence), we could find no evidence of any governments, manufacturers, intermediaries, or consumers interested in this pathway, as it was seen to stifle capacities for innovation and freedom of expression without providing useful protections against nefarious uses of printers.</p> <p>Potential alternatives to broad restrictive powers that were suggested to by respondents include increased transparency. In public and educational settings, recording who prints what may create a public forum for accountability that can reduce risk. Calls for transparency also find utility through using standards to reduce risk. Making standards openly known, and encouraging them to be openly arrived at, can mediate some quality issues from an otherwise distributed printing practices that decentralise liability.</p> <h3>Sharing 3D designs</h3> <p>The qualitative data suggested an apparent naivety from those learning about 3D printing regarding their rights and responsibilities for managing the sharing and printing of designs. That being said there was wide consensus with regard to the normative and practical imperative to share designs with both friends and strangers across our respondents. However, the ethic of sharing designs was tempered by a caveat that as the complexity of designs increased, so too should intellectual property protections on them. Interestingly, the way that users approached specific IPR rules tended to be contradictory. Users largely believed that the value of 3D-printable objects came through the ability for people to collectively share designs, modify these designs, then re-share them to the community. Yet this was paralleled with a fatalist assumption that once something is put online, fully controlling its distribution is impossible, and that this was undesirable. Thus users both saw immense collective value in the networks and services that distributed printable content for negligible cost, but at the same time were highly reluctant to commit to sharing materials into this domain.</p> <p>A second set of observations came through discussion on safety and liability. All focus groups and most interviewees tended to come to a consensus around users bearing the brunt of safety risks for sharing designs outside of market mechanisms. This was seen to be the case in almost every instance that research participants were questioned on, whether as a pessimistic expectation that ?big business always wins in court? or a ?responsibilisation? approach that end users need to take account of their own safety in these situations. The common metaphor used by participants to explain their thinking was to compare safety and liability to concerns for 3D printing to the responsible use of other power tools in DIY settings, such as bandsaws or drills. Experts commented that outside consumer protection regimes, which usually require business transactions to come into effect, negligence law would protect consumers of harms. However, consumer knowledge of the ?user beware? attitude was explained to researchers through both practical and normative assumptions. Practically, respondents thought the ability to enter into legal proceedings and see them through required access to large amounts of capital. Normatively, the respondents understood both the technology and the practices that surrounded it as experimental and explorative, and not aligned to market norms. Risk conceptualisation, assessment, and mitigation were topics that respondents conceptualised in terms outside of normal law-based social safety nets.</p> <p>Overall focus group data suggested respondents? na?ve approach to the law did not cancel out their own subconscious knowledge of experience-based understandings of the limits of digital production practices. Our initial enquiries thus identified a need to inform both how the law in practice applies to 3D printing, and how practical user experiences online might differ from that law in practice template.</p> <p>Interestingly, ownership was another concept that was tested by the discursive social interactions of the focus groups. For instance, many individuals present at the 3D printing workshop as well as focus group respondents were fearful of how large corporations would treat their intellectual property online, regardless of current IPR. One participant summed up their fear when stating,</p> <p>you can print it, but it doesn?t say anything about where you got it [...] that?s something that?s very easy to take advantage [of] by big companies [...] you can see people have a passion for printing, for 3D drawing, but that doesn?t mean that companies are going to respect that...</p> <p>At the same time, respondents struggled with finding new meaning to ownership in economies of digital abundance. Overall, consumer-participants had a strong preference for sharing under a Creative Commons Share-Alike licensing structure (<a href="#Creative_Commons" rel="nofollow">Creative Commons n.d.</a>), where modifications are allowed as long as credit is given to previous contributors and the license is kept under the same terms. Interestingly, our web scraping dataset suggested this licensing type was most popular, with over 53% of publicly available objects being assigned a similar licence. However, this licence type showed no significant increase in use, measured in downloads, compared to other more restrictive license types (see chart 1). The only intellectual property ?license? that correlated with increased downloads was the abrogation of private intellectual property rights - objects rendered to the public domain.</p> <p>The general use of Thingiverse objects showed a striking ?long tail? (<a href="#Anderson" rel="nofollow">Anderson, 2012</a>) pattern that is common with economies of digital abundance, wherein a limited number of objects have a high degree of engagement, while the majority of the database has a vanishing small level of recorded engagement. That is to say that a minority of items on Thingiverse were viewed very frequently, while most were barely viewed at all (mean views: 6038, Std. Dev.: 3801). The ?long tail? was also pronounced for what was downloaded (mean downloads: 264, Std. Dev. 1179).</p> <p>The SNA of the Thingiverse dataset also suggested the social utility of objects shared online are extremely varied. Our methods mapped social patterns within 3D printing on Thingiverse through how users tagged objects they uploaded, and how these tags related between objects. We found users employed 3D printing for purposes that seemed to include both purposive and aesthetic outputs. While these purposes often referenced the intellectual property of others (mostly through brand identifiers that signify form and fit or aesthetic properties), there were also prominent uses of non-branded (and thus non-infringing) uses for tags given to objects.</p> <h3>Tagging 3D files</h3> <p>Our SNA map of tags gave visual insight to how the relationship between different types of 3D printing practice clump together by identifying related themes through recording incidents of tags being used alongside other tags to label 3Dprinter files. This allows us to infer aggregate practices different to what individual users shared in interviews or focus groups. For instance, we detected a particularly wide array of braille-tagged objects that were not visible through other research methods. To show the largest trends and explicate what certain ?clumps? of tags signified in social practice, we used open coding to create summative categories of use from numerous reoccurring tag connections and suggest the themes users interact with as part of their 3D printing practices (see Table 2).</p> <p>Table 2: Themes of use in 3D printing on Thingiverse via tag concurrence</p> <table><tbody><tr><td> <p>Category</p> </td> <td> <p>Example tags</p> </td> <td> <p>Apparent common use</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p>Geometric specificities</p> </td> <td> <p>3D, 2D, cube, Z-Axis, 40mm</p> </td> <td> <p>Item designed with specific ratios</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p>Representational of subject content</p> </td> <td> <p>Art, animal, moon, halo, knot, scan</p> </td> <td> <p>Item?s function is likely representational</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p>Hardware in use</p> </td> <td> <p>Makerbot replicator, RepRap</p> </td> <td> <p>Item designed for specific printer</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p>Software in use</p> </td> <td> <p>Sketchup, blender, TinkerCAD</p> </td> <td> <p>Item designed using specific software</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p>Date/time</p> </td> <td> <p>2013, 2014, July, Christmas</p> </td> <td> <p>Item produced on that date, holiday-specific</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p>Material specificities</p> </td> <td> <p>ABS, PLA</p> </td> <td> <p>Item intended to be printed in this material</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p>Representational of use case</p> </td> <td> <p>Holder, screwdriver, sensor, tensioner, food, wearable</p> </td> <td> <p>Item is designed as a functional object.</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p>Affective/emotional</p> </td> <td> <p>Cool, awesome, love</p> </td> <td> <p>Item evokes subjective evaluation</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p>Brands and IP</p> </td> <td> <p>Nike, Warhammer, Canon, GoPro, iPhone, Arduino, LEGO, Pok?mon,</p> </td> <td> <p>Item mirrors the aesthetics of these brands, or adds to or replaces proprietary parts</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <p>Subcultural</p> </td> <td> <p>cookie, robot, baixar</p> </td> <td> <p>Tag has context to a specific subcultural group that has origins outside 3D printing</p> </td> </tr></tbody></table><p> </p> <p>Finally, we noted that patterns of re-mixing objects into new objects, which suggested low factors of sequential evolution. Most users remixed objects only once. This can partly be understood through the design of Thingiverse?s interface, which affords a simple but restrictive ?customizer? tool to re-shape objects in specified ways. However, it can also be understood as a function of the use cases employed: from numerous spot checks on remixed items that did not employ the ?customizer? tool, users tended to remix in order to personalise objects rather than evolve their utility or form in a transformative manner. For instance, the modification of mobile phone cases, which was one of the most common practices as measured by our SNA, often added names or personalised designs.</p> <h2>Rights & Responsibilities: Legal Frameworks & Beyond</h2> <p>This section locates the concerns we encountered from consumers and experts in reference to current IPR to express some common points of guidance to emerging wicked problems connected to 3D printing practices. Our findings are provided here mostly in summary and in a non-proscriptive framing, as the mosaic of law, business terms, geographical and jurisdictional issues that users interface with in their 3D printing practices are diverse and sometimes contradictory. Any guidelines must consider that comprehensive knowledge is untenable in this evolving field that must grapple with what decentralisation of responsibility and the individualisation of risk looks like for persons involved with 3D printing practices.</p> <p>While our research relied on the necessary legal scholarship and case law to a certain extent (<a href="#Daly" rel="nofollow">Daly, 2016</a>; <a href="#Engstrom" rel="nofollow">Engstrom, 2013</a>; <a href="#Holland" rel="nofollow">Holland, 2009</a>; <a href="#Lemley" rel="nofollow">Lemley, 2015</a>; <a href="#Scardamaglia" rel="nofollow">Scardamaglia, 2015</a>; <a href="#Weinberg" rel="nofollow">Weinberg, 2016</a>; <a href="#Weinberg_2010" rel="nofollow">Weinberg & Knowledge, 2010</a>), these approaches are not sufficient to convey an accurate account of user experience online. Internet intermediaries, with their own policies that deflect responsibility on to use (<a href="#Mendis" rel="nofollow">Mendis & Secchi, 2015</a>; <a href="#Seng" rel="nofollow">Seng, 2014</a>), consumer protection agencies that are coming to terms with shifting realities, and the evolving cultures and technologies of sharing objects online (<a href="#Bogers" rel="nofollow">Bogers, Hadar, & Bilberg, 2016</a>; <a href="#Moilanen" rel="nofollow">Moilanen, Daly, Lobato, & Allen, 2015</a>; <a href="#Moilanen_2013" rel="nofollow">Moilanen & Vad?n, 2013</a>; <a href="#Schrock" rel="nofollow">Schrock, 2014</a>; <a href="#S?derberg" rel="nofollow">S?derberg, 2014</a>), together create a complex and often contradictory reality that tests and sometime ignores codified policy and protection.</p> <p>Weighing these factors, we found that across jurisdictions and services online, risk is often directed towards individual users of 3D printed goods. That is to say, the protections consumers might be used to through state protection regimes are less certain to apply, or be easily accessible as the complexity of ownership, jurisdiction, publisher, and enforceability of IPR create increased uncertainty of outcomes. For instance, user experience of governance in 3D printing cultures is often served through private threat of legal action, opaque website terms and conditions, or a conglomeration of such concerns as rendered through automated ?takedown? mechanisms tied to the America?s Digital Millennium Copyright Act - regardless of the laws of the user faces in his or her host country. Thus, the below guidelines for 3D printing often take the ?worst case? scenarios of a specific jurisdiction or jurisprudence decision in forming a baseline for response to consumer concerns.</p> <h3>Guiding responsible 3D printing practice</h3> <p>IPR factors into 3D printed goods through various copyright, patent, design, and trademark law. Copyright serves artistic works as they are expressed in some medium - not their ideas or functional objects that users might design and are granted immediately to the author/creator. Legal scholarship from the UK and the USA suggests 3D printing design files will probably be protected under copyright, but design ideas within the file (rather than its actual code) will probably fall outside copyright protection unless the object to be printed is artistic in nature (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act; Simons; Bradshaw et al. in <a href="#Daly" rel="nofollow">Daly 2016: 26-27</a>). Note that if artistic works are ?industrially? produced, copyright protections may no longer apply and the design should be registered under design law (see below). Showing how evolving socio-technological practices provide wicked problems for the law, Weinberg (<a href="#Weinberg" rel="nofollow">2016</a>) suggests that 3D scans of objects and people will struggle to meet copyright thresholds due to lack of originality and instead suggests that any governance regimes will require consideration of access. As our respondents intrinsically knew, controlling access to uploaded material is in itself problematic.</p> <p>Patents also present an avenue for IPR to interface with 3D printing practices. Patents are not for artistic works but are instead meant to protect novel functional inventions that are not obvious. Users that 3D print objects to solve common household problems could technically infringe a patent; even if they are unaware the patent exists. Note that Australia and the US do not have exceptions for individual, personal, or unwitting use of patents, while the UK does have an exception for private, non-commercial purposes. Using others? patents for your own experimentation is allowed in Australia and the UK (<a href="#Daly" rel="nofollow">Daly 2016: 30</a>). Although technical infringement of patents in home use may occur, the legal avenues of proving this are at present quite slim. Patent law makes patented designs - by definition - public. The extent these designs are used in domestic inventions or household processes has never been a major prosecutorial concern of rights holders.</p> <p>Design and trademark law is complex, but will be increasingly germane to 3D printing practices. Like patents, trademarks and (some) designs need to be registered and provide complex rights. Design and Trademarks concern IP that is separate from artistic and inventive function but speaks, respectively, to what makes a product look the way it does and to its origin. The current state of trademarks and design in 3D printing offers incentives for, as Scardamaglia <a href="#Scardamaglia" rel="nofollow">(2015, p. 24</a>) puts it, the ?expansion of intellectual property laws to further ... restrict the continued use of new and emerging technology?. We believe that the attitude being identified by Scardmaglia is already apparent in the tone of public commentary from some legal firms, particularly in terms of how to protect designs from being copied for 3D printing, even when the practices being outlined in briefs widely found online, in some instances, manifest non-infringing uses.</p> <p>As an important final consideration in terms of liability, most consumer protection laws are built around financial transactions or the business operations of the party to be held liable, which have the additional role of providing a chain of transitions of ownership. In contrast, it becomes quite onerous to sue for damages if a 3D printed object is defective due to a design that was shared freely rather than paid for. The terms and conditions of websites often make users wave rights concerning safety and liability, even if this touches on concerns of negligence from the designers of 3D printed objects. The extent that online intermediaries can evoke safe harbour for 3D printed goods here is untested.</p> <p>In this short space, we analysed expert opinion towards relevant issues for 3D printing practices as they are playing out in law and practice. The above commentary is meant to reflect the weakest link for rights and responsibilities that users encounter online, and provide a starting point to understand the decentralisation of power and responsibility in 3D printing. What future practice looks like is dependent on a mosaic of intersecting claims of regulation, technology, jurisprudence, and changing social norms and cultural practices.</p> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>How 3D printing will reconfigure socio-political power and the capacity of regulation in terms of social communications practices that enable decentralised manufacturing is still complex and contradictory. If the general idea of promoting the progression of science and useful arts through granting exclusionary rights for a finite time to authors/inventors is to be upheld in a digitally networked age of mass self-manufacture, the tenets of its execution must adapt.</p> <p>Balancing adaptations across industry, government and consumer concerns will require recognising the necessary precedents and pervasive expansion of IPR in digital communications. However, this frame is not sufficient to capture emerging 3D printing practices for the digital economies of the present and future. Evolving cultural practices, functioning business models and greater penetration of technologies will also play a role in determining pathways forward. One pathway suggests incumbent rights holders will hope to target nodes that spread their IP or enable its infringement, rather than the users who consume and reconfigure it (<a href="#Holland" rel="nofollow">Holland, 2009</a>). Focussing on such contributory infringement, or ?secondary infringements? will draw in many new stakeholders to the debate, and expose the various generative and non-infringing uses that 3D printing practices have in society. 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Applications of case study research: Sage Publications.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-issue-full-reference field-type-entityreference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/journal/ajtde-v4-n3">AJTDE - Vol 4, No 3 - August 2016</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-article-number field-type-number-integer field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Article Number: </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">64</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-sequence-number field-type-number-integer field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Sequence Number: </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">6</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tja-author-ref field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Author(s): </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/journal/author/luke-heemsbergen">Luke Heemsbergen</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/journal/author/robbie-fordyce">Robbie Fordyce</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/journal/author/bjorn-nansen">Bjorn Nansen</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/journal/author/thomas-apperley">Thomas Apperley</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/journal/author/michael-arnold">Michael Arnold</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/journal/author/thomas-birtchnell">Thomas Birtchnell</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tja-article-abstract field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">This paper considers the social practices of 3D printing by comparing consumer perspectives and practices with legal scholarship on intellectual property regimes. The paper draws on data gained through a mixed-methods approach involving participant observation, focus groups, and social network analysis of 3D printing file-sharing practices. It finds that while consumers display a level of naivety about their 3D printing rights and responsibilities as individuals, they possess a latent understanding about broader digital economies that guide their practices. We suggest that the social practices associated with 3D printing function through communication networks to decentralise manufacture and reconfigure legal capacities for regulation. The paper concludes by introducing nascent paths forward for policy frames across industry, government and consumer concern to address the opportunities and challenges of 3D printing?s evolving interface with society.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-topics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/topics/3d-printing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">3D printing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/topics/social-network-analysis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social network analysis</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/topics/patents" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Patents</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/topics/social-practices-3d-printing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Practices of 3D Printing</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/topics/3d-printing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">3D printing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/topics/copyright" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">copyright</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/topics/design" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Design</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/topics/intellectual-property" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">intellectual property</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/topics/trademarks" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Trademarks</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-journal-cite-as field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Luke Heemsbergen, Robbie Fordyce, Bjorn Nansen, Thomas Apperley, Michael Arnold, Thomas Birtchnell. 2016. <em>Social Practices of 3D Printing</em>. ajtde, Vol 4, No 3, Article 64. <a href=""></a>. Published by Telecommunications Association Inc. ABN 34 732 327 053. <a href=""></a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tja-issue-pdf field-type-file field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Article PDF: </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="PDF icon" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="" type="application/pdf; length=939781">64-626-3-pb.pdf</a></span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-premium field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Premium: </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 a2a_target addtoany_list" id="da2a_2"> <a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a> <a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a> <a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a> <a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share_save" href=";title=Social%20Practices%20of%203D%20Printing"></a> </span> <ul class="links list-inline"><li class="addtoany first last"><span><span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 a2a_target addtoany_list" id="da2a_1"> <a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a> <a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a> <a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a> <a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share_save" href=";title=Social%20Practices%20of%203D%20Printing"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> <!--//--><![CDATA[//><!-- if(window.da2a)da2a.script_load(); //--><!]]> </script></span></li> </ul> Sun, 09 Oct 2016 01:16:18 +0000 Administrator 1547 at
Potassium nitrate \| What it is and benefits of using it The potassium nitrate is a product used in plants to provide a sufficient amount of potassium which needs to develop. It is very efficient, easy to apply, and at the same time has a minimal environmental impact. Want to know more about potassium nitrate? Just keep reading. What exactly potassium nitrate? The potassium nitrate ( KNO3 ), is a product that consists of 100% plant macronutrients. Chemically comprises a cation of potassium [K +] in conjunction with a nitrate anion [NO3-]. Its chemical formula is N-P205-K2O 9, one that can vary depending on whether the manufacturer has decided to add other elements (e.g., phosphorus, sulfur or zinc). However, this is the formula that we most commonly found on the market. Although there are indeed many fertilizers on the market, this is the only one capable of supplying the plant macronutrients in a more concentrated form. Advantages of using potassium nitrate in our plantation Rate of absorption It is a product that the plant will be able to absorb quickly. This is because of the affinity which occurs between nitrate (which is negatively charged) and potassium (having a positive charge). Soil particles, due to this formula, the product can absorb without a problem. Not only that, but it may provide potassium for a reasonably long time. All this will make the gardener does not have to be an outstanding crop (at least in terms of nutrients aggregation is concerned) time. Crucial to the development of the plant. Potassium helps the plant to handle the electrical balance thanks to the contribution of mineral and organic anions (carboxylates). Experts say that potassium is an essential component for the plant can eventually develop besides that for their tissues to evolve correctly. Specifically, the [K +] act in many catabolic process plant, also acting as a regulator and osmotic involved in different processes that deal with the regulation of the plant. Nitrogen input Of all the products on the market that provide nitrogen, potassium nitrate is the most effective. It reduces the effect of salinity Although an amount of salt is vital for the development of the plant, if the values rise too much, it could die. The potassium nitrate helps minimize the plant absorption chloride [Cl-] when this element is in high concentrations in the groundwater or watering. It is strongly recommended to use this product when you are working with very sensitive, or those in which it is watered with water of poor quality crops recommended. It helps the roots grow strong Contrary to what we can come to think, nitrate is not a toxic product, so it will not negatively affect the plant. Unlike armonico, although temperatures rise in excess, potassium nitrate not damage the roots. Increases tolerance of plants The potassium nitrate increases the endurance of plants against frost, diseases, even drought. If you want to buy potassium nitrate, check out the products we have on the web. Evaluates the characteristics well before decantarte by one of them. We will be happy to hear your thoughts Leave a reply
Cleopatra butterfly Prospekt Fauna, Intresting facts Photo 1. A Cleopatra butterfly at Paržine Cove on Ilovik Island (Photo by M. Randić) The Cleopatra butterfly (Gonepteryx cleopatra) is native to the Mediterranean, where it is wide-spread. It is more brightly coloured than the common brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni). This fact confirms the rule that the farther south we go, from colder northern regions towards the warmer Mediterranean and tropical regions, the brighter are the colours of butterflies. The forewings of the male Cleopatra butterfly have a bright orange patch, unlike the forewings of the common brimstone, which are a pale, sulphur yellow colour. M. R.
August 13, 1961: The Berlin Wall’s 50th anniversary August keeps handing us these dates: How should the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall be remembered? AP reports in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that the current mayor of Berlin said we must use the Wall to remember that we must stand up for democracy. Ceremonies in Berlin marked the anniversary and the creation of a new museum there. I wrote before: August 13 . . . [marks the 50th] “anniversary” of the erection of the Berlin Wall, the totem of the Cold War that came down in 1989, pushing the end of the Cold War. Residents of Berlin awoke on this day in 1961 to find the communist government of East Germany erecting what would become a 96-mile wall around the “western quarters” of the city — not so much to lay siege to the westerners (that had been tried in 1948, frustrated by the Berlin Airlift) as to keep easterners from “defecting” to the West. The Brandenburg Gate was closed on August 14, and all crossing points were closed on August 26. From 1961 through 1991 1989, teachers could use the Berlin wall as a simple and clear symbol for the differences between the communist Eastern Bloc, the Soviet Union and her satellite states, and the free West, which included most of the land mass of Germany, England, France, Italy, the United States and other free-market nations — the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries. I suspect most high school kids today know very little about the Wall, why it was there, and what its destruction meant, politically. This era of history is generally neglected in high school. Many courses fail to go past World War II; in many courses the Cold War is in the curriculum sequenced after the ACT, SAT and state graduation examinations, so students and teachers have tuned out. But the Wall certain had a sense of drama to it that should make for good lessons. When I visited the wall, in early 1988, late at night, there were eight fresh wreaths honoring eight people who had died trying to cross the Wall in the previous few weeks (in some places it was really a series of walls with space in between to make it easier for the East German guards to shoot people trying to escape) — it’s an image I never forget. Within a year after that, East Germans could travel through Hungary to visit the West, and many “forgot” to return. Within 18 months the wall itself was breached. The Wall was a great backdrop for speeches, too — President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin in June 1963, and expressed his solidarity with the walled-in people of both West and East Berlin, with the memorable phrase, “Ich bin ein Berliner, which produced astounding cheers from the tens of thousands who came to hear him. There are a few German-to-English translators who argue that some of the reaction was due to the fact that “Berliner” is also an idiomatic phrase in Berlin for a bakery confection like a jelly doughnut — so Kennedy’s words were a double entendre that could mean either “I am a citizen of Berlin,” or “I am a jelly doughnut.” [Be sure to see the comments . . . from Vince Treacy (9/28/2010).] Ronald Reagan went to the same place Kennedy spoke to the Berlin Wall, too, to the Brandenburg Gate, in his famous June 1987 speech which included a plea to the Soviet Union’s Premier Mikhail Gorbachev: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” What do we do appropriately with such memory? What does the Berlin Wall, and its demise, mean to us today? What should it mean? 4 Responses to August 13, 1961: The Berlin Wall’s 50th anniversary 1. […] “Berlin Wall’s 50th anniversary” […] 2. Ed Darrell says: Thanks for the reminder, the history and the good explanation, vince. 3. Vince Treacy says: This weekend I spoke to a German who moved to Berlin from elsewhere in Germany. He remarked that he had to adjust to the local terminology. He found that a “Berliner” is NOT a jelly doughnut in Berlin itself. He could no longer ask for a Berliner when he wanted a jelly doughnut, because they do not use the term, and instead use the word pfannkueche. Now, anywhere outside Berlin a pfannkkueche is just what it sounds like — a pancake. But in Berlin, it is a jelly doughnut. No one born and raised in Berlin would have thought that Kennedy had called himself a jelly doughnut in has speech at city hall (not Brandenburg), because they never used the word “Berliner” for that special confection. So let’s repeat it just one more time. If a Berliner wants a jelly doughnut, she asks for a pfannkueche. If she wanted to say that she is a jelly doughnut, then she would say “Ich bin ein pfannkueche.” If, on the other hand, a Berliner wants to say that I am a proud and free resident and citizen of Berlin, he says: “Ich bin ein Berliner!!” 4. Ellie says: Picking nits here, but those translators are incorrect. Kennedy’s speech was written with the assistance of Robert Lochner who was, in fact, born in Berlin and wrote that line. Furthermore, Lochner claims to have helped President Kennedy practice saying it. Yes, a Berliner is a jelly doughnut, but that doesn’t mean anyone thought he was saying he was a jelly doughnut in the context in which it was said. The laughter from the audience comes after he thanks the interpreter for translating his German, not because of any pastry item. It was a truly wonderful thing to have that wall come down, and I would hope any European or American history course would include a study on just what it was to have had it there in the first place and how many died trying to cross to freedom. WordPress.com Logo Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s %d bloggers like this:
exclamation mark flipped COVID-19 Government info for businesses COVID-19: Information for businesses In association with What is ‘reasonably practicable’ Businesses must always consider first whether they can reasonably eliminate risks. If not they must take reasonably practicable steps to minimise risks under new health and safety laws. But what might this mean for your business? There is a lot of misinformation and confusion about what reasonably practicable means. It DOESN’T mean you have to: It DOESN’T mean you have to: • do everything humanly possible to prevent accidents • buy the most expensive equipment on the market • spend the bulk of your week on H&S training, compliance and documentation. It DOES mean you need to: It DOES mean you need to: • determine what kinds of risks are caused by your work • consider how likely those risks are • take appropriate action that is proportionate to the injury or illness that could occur • implement well-known and effective industry practices • involve your staff in identifying and controlling risks. The upshot is you’re expected to do what a reasonable person would do in your situation. It’s about taking responsibility for what you can control. How to assess health and safety risks Knowing the risks in your sector (external link) — WorkSafe Reasonably practicable steps Example #1 Tim manages a small carpentry crew working on a renovation project. When he discovers asbestos behind the plasterboard — a well-recognised industry hazard — Tim immediately sees the risks. He stops all work and calls a certified asbestos remover to come in and take over. Due to the fact that asbestos risks are well known, as are the control mechanisms around its removal, Tim has managed the risk so far as is reasonably practicable. Example #2 While on a job, two builders have to spend a single day outside drilling. The work will cause a lot of dust and both the foreman and the workers recognise the dust is not good for either them or those nearby. Together they decide that, while they can’t eliminate the problem altogether, they can keep dust levels down by using a water spray and regularly cleaning up. They can also wear masks while working. Barricades are erected to keep others away. As this is an isolated task and not part of their day-to-day work, and because some kind of dust extraction unit would be too expensive for a one-day job, they’ve done what is reasonably practicable. Not reasonably practicable steps Example #1 Trudi works at a retail store where she regularly has to climb a ladder to stock high shelves. The ladder she’s been given is wobbly and also a bit short. This means Trudi has to reach quite high while on an unstable ladder. She feels unsafe doing this and tells her manager she is uncomfortable with the task. In turn, the manager tells Trudi she has to keep using it because it’s the only ladder the shop has. This would be considered unreasonable due to the minimal costs associated with getting a safer ladder and the high potential for Trudi to get hurt. Example #2 Jono’s timber yard has workers, wholesalers and customers regularly driving in and out of the premises. Jono is worried about accidents caused by poor traffic flow. Rather than simply painting clear parking lines, and putting up speed limits and clear ‘Enter’ and ‘Exit’ signs, Jono gets a boom gate installed. While Jono has definitely met his duty, it’s probably beyond what is reasonably practicable. Ways to keep people healthy and safe Other factors WorkSafe also explains that addressing H&S issues should be considered against a number of factors. “What is reasonably practicable takes into account how much is commonly known about the risks involved, as well as the recognised ways of eliminating and minimising them,” a spokesperson says. “The availability and cost of safeguards should also be considered. The question is not whether the business has the cash on hand to pay for the solution, but rather whether the cost is proportionate to the harm that could result. No one expects NASA-type technology where the risk is relatively low and a cost-effective and simple solution could work. Rating form How helpful was this information? Rate this
Genetic innovation: ‘Nothing that we eat is natural’ A recent judgement from the European Court of Justice in the case of “CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing” is causing debate since July 2018. [igorstevanovic/ Shutterstock] The world is in constant need of more food and new genetic engineering methods such as the CRISPR gene editing method offer a solution. However, these remain contested, EURACTIV Germany reports. The banana looks very different to how it used to. Its original shape is actually small, thick, somewhat round and full of seeds. Its modern supermarket relative is, however, as most fruit and vegetables, the result of a human-led and goal-oriented plant breeding effort. Already since the 1930s, genetic engineering has allowed for more efficient plant breeding possibilities. Yet genetic modification, even if not damaging to one’s health, is being debated from an ideological standpoint. “It is a discussion with regards to the system. The big question is being addressed: what type of agricultural policies do we want for our future?” said Jon Falk, CEO of German plant breeding company Saaten-Union Biotec, during a conference on new methods of plant breeding organised by EURACTIV on Friday (22 March). A categorical no to new techniques would be a waste of many new possibilities, as he said: “This is not black and white, we need a lot of grey in between.” Falk’s laboratory represents middle-sized breeding companies in his sector, it is hoped that new genetic manipulation techniques will lead to higher yields of fruit and vegetable harvests. This should help cover the rising global need for food. Yet, critics have doubts as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could negatively impact the environment. A recent judgement from the European Court of Justice in the case of “CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing” kick-started a debate in July 2018. The technique is considered relatively simple and cost-efficient and allows for plants to be resistant to weather conditions, bacteria, certain fungus types and herbicides, and can be slightly healthier for people. Scientists warn EU policymakers on ‘confusing’ gene editing court ruling An interpretation of a recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on gene editing is confusing EU member states, while the scientific community are warning policymakers about the implications on the future of EU farming. According to the Court of Justice’s judgment, the gene editing method must be labelled as genetic manipulation. Plants that are grown in this manner, therefore, cannot be sold throughout the EU without permission and the appropriate label. For experts, the judgment was surprising. That is because genetic mutation through the CRISPR technique is no different than point mutations that occur naturally on a permanent basis. “I consider the argument that the CRISPR method has the same effect as natural mutations to be muddying the debate. Two things are being mixed up deliberately”, said Harald Ebner, speaker for the German Green Party on genetic engineering and the bio-economy. It is crucial that mankind needs to deliberate on appropriate technical possibilities as well as potential regulation and reparation mechanisms. A clear political line needs to be drawn. Traditional plant breeding with chemistry and irradiation Interestingly, genetically modified foods are not banned per se in the EU, but they still need to be vetted by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) and given the green light by member states. A list of foodstuffs generally permitted throughout the EU can be found on the EU Commission’s online journal. Numerous types of corn, rapeseed, cotton, soy and sugar beet are listed there. Taken from strong EU laws on genetic engineering are plants that have mutated via mutagenesis. With this method that has been applied for decades, seeds will mutate due to a chemical bath or nuclear irradiation and grow into the most appropriate and pure mutated seed. These are the basis for a great number of today’s food. Without the mutagenesis, there would not be wheat to produce pasta, and even the yeast that produces our beer has grown in that manner. “Nothing that we eat is natural. Nothing grows in a free and natural environment as these plants would not even survive there,” explained geneticist Sascha Laubinger from Oldenburg University during the conference. Laubinger is convinced that from a scientific standpoint, the classification of the CRISPR method as genetic engineering is incomprehensible. That is because it cannot be differentiated from naturally mutated plants and because traditional mutagenesis causes a greater number of mutations compared to mutations that occur due to the gene editing technique. “And we eat those every day,” he added. But the genetic editing technique cannot be applied just once, theoretically, the genome can be cut at 10 or 100 locations. Where the line should be drawn should be a matter of politics, according to Laubinger. For him, a line should be drawn where species are being crossbred. For example, humans and potatoes need to be kept separate. Andriukaitis: New plant breeding techniques need new regulatory framework The ‘new plant breeding techniques’ need new EU legislation that takes into account the latest advanced technologies, EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis told EURACTIV.com, adding there was too much manipulation and “scare-mongering” around the issue. Who benefits from new genetic engineering methods? To put a stop to this, Ebner, speaker for the Green Party, is pleading for a stronger limitation on CRISPR genetic editing. “When genetic engineering is completely deregulated, it is possible that committed mistakes cannot be corrected at a later stage,” he warned. Representatives of the seed industry such as Jon Falk are more open about this: “These new techniques are not a panacea, but they can be an important tool for a sustainable change of the agricultural industry. “That is why we need an open and ideology-free discussion with regards to genetic manipulation,” he added. Falk is also concerned that limiting CRISPR technology too much could slow down Europe’s research compared to international competition. “This technique has application possibilities that could go beyond genetic engineering,” he argued. For other developments, there would be a lack of experience. Big companies such as Bayer that practice genetic research and hope for increased sales of their pesticides would benefit a great deal according to critics. The president of the German Agricultural Society (DLG), Hubertus Paetow, sees this differently: “The mutagenesis is a relatively simple process that small companies can also apply. These technologies could even boost the majority of the corporate landscape.” EU farming community divided over new plant breeding techniques The EU should embrace the new plant breeding techniques as the best chance to supply enough food for the EU’s population, according to mainstream EU farmers. But organic farmers oppose this and a lot may depend on a European court ruling due before the summer. Whether genetically modified plants are actually easier to take care of and more environmentally friendly, as its proponents contend, cannot be explicitly confirmed. A 2016 study commissioned by the US American National Academy of Sciences found that farmers are less prone to using insecticides when they grow genetically modified plants. On the other hand, they are using more plant protection products, which mean weeds become immune to herbicides. All experts agree on one issue: the debate regarding genetic manipulation needs to change because its bad reputation is not in line with the times considering the opportunities that it presents. Historically, a great number of foodstuffs have been grown and modified. The greater the possibilities of genetic engineering become, the more a consensus on the matter is needed with regard to what belongs on one’s plate – and what does not. [Edited by Gerardo Fortuna, Sam Morgan] CORTEVA Agriscience Subscribe to our newsletters
Wednesday, 16 January 2019 A price tag on education A young, Jewish girl sits in a Toronto classroom. She struggles to focus while preoccupied with the swastikas etched into the top of her desk. A Jewish boy in another school walks down the hallway as bullies throw coins at his feet and call him a "cheap Jew." In a Canadian university, Jewish students hide their identity as they walk through corridors that are wallpapered with Anti-Israel and BDS propaganda. A grandchild of a Holocaust survivor sits in a University lecture in which the professor shares poetry from Palestinians and facilitates a dialogue comparing the Holocaust to the "genocide of Palestinians at the hands of the Jews." This is the reality of 2019. This is the world that we are raising our children in. So, one needs to think about the price tag on education. Our children need to feel connected to their Jewish roots and proud of their Jewish heritage. They need to know their history so that others cannot shame them with the lies that are embedded in the propaganda that surrounds us. If we want to be able to share Jewish holidays and customs with grandchildren one day; we need to invest that education in our children. They need to feel a sense of belonging to the greater Jewish community. Our world is changing and with the winds of change comes uncertainty and fear. Historically, uncertainty and fear along with financial difficulty led to blame and we know that blame results in hate and antisemitism. Knowing this, we need to be proactive; not reactive. We need to give our children the tools to navigate a secular community with a strong Jewish identity. We can only do this by giving them a Jewish education. We spend money and time on other extra-curricular activities to keep our children busy. It is time to commit that time and money to ensuring that our children will have the knowledge to be Jewish leaders who understand our commitment to Israel and believe in their Jewish identity. Every Jewish child deserves the opportunity to know what being a Jew means. Every Jewish child deserves to learn about his/her history. As the leaders in a Jewish community, it is our duty to ensure that we use all our resources available to us to nourish the Jewish minds and souls of our young. The question is not, "What is the price tag of a Jewish education?' The question we need to be asking ourselves is, "What is the cost of not giving a child a Jewish education?" Sunday, 30 September 2018 Simchat Torah Our class was very busy learning about the Torah and all the lessons that it teaches. When asked “ What does the Torah teach us?” Some of the responses were: “Not to kill” “Not to steal” “To give tzedakeh” “To be good to people” “Not to hurt people” “Stories of our ancestors” “Stories of how the world was made” “How to live” We created edible Torah’s as we learned the parts of the Torah. We also went to admire our 300 year old Czech Torah that was saved during the Holocaust and recently donated to our shul. After looking at the Torah and reciting a prayer, students enjoyed holding the Torah. Admiring our 300 year old Czech Torah Chag Sameach to all! Sukkot Pictures Learning about Sukkot Learning about the lulav and etrog Monday, 3 September 2018 Shana Tova A new year is just around the corner, which brings to mind many new beginnings. It is an exciting time as children anticipate a new school year and Jewish families look forward to the celebration of the New Year with friends and family. It is also a time of reflection. It is a time to think about our priorities in life and reflect on our actions for the past year to see if they match what we feel are those priorities. What is it that we hold most dear? What are the things in our life that we prioritize and what have we done for the past 12 months to keep them central in our lives. I think most parents will agree that our children are our number one priority in life. Our health is also right up there at the top of the list and I know for me, my Jewish values and connection to Israel also makes the list. Unfortunately, as we get caught up in our day to day business and chaotic lifestyles, we sometimes lose sight of those priorities. I know that I am guilty of this. Juggling the demands of a full- time job, part-time job and a family, it is very easy to place those priorities on the back burner..for later. Next thing you know, you are driving your son back to University and wondering where the time went. So, I ask you to think about those priorities. Think about a daily action that you can do to keep connected to those important things in life, every day of this new year. There are many small things to do in our daily lives to ensure we don't lose sight of what is really important. Disconnecting from our phones and emails for an hour every evening to be completely present in the lives of our children is a good start. Ensuring our phones are nowhere near our dinner table so that we can engage in meaningful conversation with our children is essential. Taking half an hour a day for ourselves to rejuvenate both mentally and physically can also help us stay focused on our own health. After all, as a parent it is very easy to put everyone before yourself until you are completely drained and have nothing more to give. Therefore, it is important to see ourselves as a cup that needs to remain filled with happiness, energy, good health so that we can "runneth over" and feed our families with the overflow. If we drain our own cup, we will have nothing left for others. Don't forget to prioritize yourself too. How are you going to keep Judaism in your home and model it as a priority for your children. Maybe you need to cut out one of the many extra-curricular activities that your child does and instead, enroll him/her in our Hebrew School, where for 2 hours a week he/she can enrich their knowledge and pride in their Jewish roots. Maybe, you can commit to one Shabbat a month, in which you turn off all electronics and spend the day reconnecting with family. Maybe, coming to shul for Shabbat service one Saturday a month. There are many ways that we can stay connected to our religion and our Jewish community. The question remains...if it is a priority to you, then what actions will you take to prioritize it? As many families move away from Jewish Day Schools for a variety of reasons; unfortunately many children are also losing the connection to our faith. It is difficult to stay connected to something that you don't fully understand. Without the knowledge of our history and culture the continuity of our beautiful and rich religion is being threatened. Our children are growing up in a different world than we knew. They may know how to navigate social media, technology and code a computer but do they know why Israel is important? Do they know the meaning of anti-semitism? Do they know that more than 6 million innocent Jews were murdered just 70 years ago? Do they know that they belong to a Jewish history that goes back more than 5000 years and do they really understand the values of our Torah? Do our children understand that "anti-bullying" laws are something that are not new? They are Jewish laws that were written thousands of years ago, under the name of "Lashon Hora." Do our children know that sending "get well" messages to the sick is also something that the Jewish people have been doing for centuries as "Bikur Cholim?" How will our Jewish children grow up to be ethical, Jewish leaders if we don't work today to educate them? As we prioritize our childrens' education, we need to also think about the Jewish component of that education. We need to prioritize our childrens' connection to Israel and their Jewish roots. Our mission statement for Aleph Beit Chadash Hebrew School is to strengthen that connection and instill pride in every child in their rich Jewish culture. As a school, we look forward to partnering with parents in the honourable mission to build a strong, proud, Jewish future generation. Shana Tova! Shauna Small Saturday, 23 June 2018 Solidarity with Israel is part of Judaism Aleph Beit Chadash had an opportunity to Walk with Israel on May 27th with the Toronto Jewish community. It was a beautiful day as we showed our pride for Eretz Israel by walking through downtown Toronto carrying our Israeli flag. So, it is days like this that make me reflect on the importance of Israel for the continuity of the Jewish people and the role that we must play in securing the State of Israel. As we walked proudly with the Israeli flag waving among the crowds, there were also many "protesters" with different flags and signs that opposed Israel. Some of these protesters were also fellow "Jews," One of my young students looked up at me and innocently questioned, "Why do those people hate us and why are those Jews on the wrong side of the road?" How do we explain to our children that there will always be people who hate us, as there always has been. Unfortunately, there is ignorance in our world but that must not stand in our way of standing proud to be Jewish and proud to call Eretz Israel our Eternal Homeland. It is for this reason that teaching modern Israeli history must go hand in hand with teaching religion and Jewish history. It is not enough to teach our children about Ancient Egypt and it is not enough to teach them all the stories from our Tanach. It is not enough to teach them about Rosh Hashana and Pesach. We must teach them about Israel. Our children must know that Israel is not only our Promised Land from Hashem; it is our "Promised Land from the Balfour Declaration (1917) and the Mandate for Palestine (1922). Our children need to know that those who call Israelis "occupiers" and compare the Israelis to the Nazis are simply misinformed, ignorant and maybe even antisemites. This is the reason that the Mission Statement of Aleph Beit Chadash is more than just a commitment to teach Jewish holidays and Torah stories. Our mission is to teach children about Eretz Israel, Zionism and the role that they must take as Diaspora Jews to ensure that we always have a strong Jewish community walking "on the right side of the street." Sunday, 25 March 2018 Passover wishes It is really hard to believe that spring has arrived and so has Passover. It seems like time is running away from us as we try to fill our Sunday morning classes with lots of fun and learning. This morning we hosted our second annual "Chocolate Seder" and welcomed many parents with their children to join in on the "Pesach" fun. Along with learning the story of Passover and practicing the Four questions, students were able to participate in the traditional blessings and Passover songs. We enjoyed our 4 cups of chocolate milk and of course all of our "sweet" substitutes on our seder plates. The feeling around the table was cheerful, inquisitive and lots of fun. On behalf of Aleph Beit Chadash, we wish everyone a Chag Sameach and look forward to seeing everyone on April 15th. Purim fun Our Purim celebrations were a little different since we were fortunate to have Ronnie and Noam (our Shinshinim) lead us in a "Tzahal" experience while learning about Purim in Israel. They began our program today as our "Commanders" and the students were given various missions to collaborate on while also learning about Purim. They solved codes to find answers and worked together in this engaging and fun program. Our older students were also performers today as they performed the Purim story for the younger students. Finally, they were able to enjoy our mini carnival, playing games and winning prizes. Our morning was filled with lots of laughter and excitement today. Chag Sameach and Happy Purim everyone.
Accessibility navigation Where is the UK's pollinator biodiversity? The importance of urban areas for flower-visiting insects Baldock, K. C. R., Goddard, M. A., Hicks, D. M., Kunin, W. E., Mitschunas, N., Osgathorpe, L. M., Potts, S. G., Robertson, K. M., Scott, A. V., Stone, G. N., Vaughan, I. P. and Memmott, J. (2015) Where is the UK's pollinator biodiversity? The importance of urban areas for flower-visiting insects. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282 (1803). 20142849. ISSN 0962-8452 Text (Open Access) - Published Version · Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. · Please see our End User Agreement before downloading. To link to this item DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2849 Insect pollinators provide a crucial ecosystem service, but are under threat. Urban areas could be important for pollinators, though their value relative to other habitats is poorly known. We compared pollinator communities using quantified flower-visitation networks in 36 sites (each 1 km2) in three landscapes: urban, farmland and nature reserves. Overall, flower-visitor abundance and species richness did not differ significantly between the three landscape types. Bee abundance did not differ between landscapes, but bee species richness was higher in urban areas than farmland. Hoverfly abundance was higher in farmland and nature reserves than urban sites, but species richness did not differ significantly. While urban pollinator assemblages were more homogeneous across space than those in farmland or nature reserves, there was no significant difference in the numbers of rarer species between the three landscapes. Network-level specialization was higher in farmland than urban sites. Relative to other habitats, urban visitors foraged from a greater number of plant species (higher generality) but also visited a lower proportion of available plant species (higher specialization), both possibly driven by higher urban plant richness. Urban areas are growing, and improving their value for pollinators should be part of any national strategy to conserve and restore pollinators. Item Type:Article ID Code:40181 Publisher:Royal Society Publishing Downloads per month over past year Page navigation
Why Temperature Control Is The Missing Link Posted by Mike Bonner May 7, 2013 10:15:00 AM missing link temperature controlAs anyone with experience in manufacturing will tell you, the creation of any product requires strict adherence to a very specific formula. Formulas, of course, come loaded with variables. Unfortunately, when it comes to manufacturing, the formula is often quite complicated and involves a lot of variables. In the case of fluid dispensing systems, the fluid pressure, the viscosity of the fluid, the speed of the dispense, the fluid path to the point-of-dispense, the condition of the equipment, and a host of other factors all play a role in the overall quality of the product created at the end of the line. Most of these variables are easy to control. For instance, a regulator can manage pressure variations and motor controls can manage the speed of the dispense. But perhaps the most important variable – the one that too many manufacturers miss – is temperature. Why temperature? Simply put, changes in a fluid’s temperature (and the resulting change in its viscosity) can impact just about every other variable in the manufacturing formula. Let’s assume for a moment that your process has a consistent, regulated pressure and a robotic system for perfect repeatability. As the day progresses from the cool morning to the warm afternoon, your fluid viscosity decreases. At the stable pressure you have so carefully controlled, this decrease in viscosity produces an increase in the flow rate, and therefore the volume of each dispense will increase, eventually to a point where the quality of your product is in jeopardy. So, you add flow control. But once you have dispensed this lower viscosity fluid, does it stay where you so carefully placed it with your highly accurate robot? Or does it run, like warm honey, off your toast and onto your plate? Temperature control is the missing link in far too many manufacturers’ processes - often because many people believe there is no way to control temperature. It is going to change, just as surely as the sun is going to rise in the morning and set in the evening. But the truth is that there are many ways to control temperature, which means that every different process may require a unique, carefully selected, and carefully implemented solution. Once temperature has been converted from an uncontrolled variable into a tool that can be employed to help manage the process, many manufacturers find a wide range of positive effects. Their reliance on solvents is reduced. Scrap is reduced. First pass yield is increased. The entire process is more consistent and repeatable once temperature is optimized. If you’ve been looking for similar results, it may be time to take control of your process temperature and make it an ally instead of an enemy. Topics: Manufacturing, cost of temperature, Fluid dispensing systems, Temperature control Saint Clair Systems Blog Subscribe to Email Updates Recent Posts
Explore BrainMass Explore BrainMass Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw "People recognize intellectual property the same way they recognize real estate. People understand what property is. But it's a new kind of property, and so the understanding uses new control surfaces. It uses a new way of defining the property." - Michael Nesmith Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind that are given exclusive rights similar to physical private property. Intellectual property can include anything from inventions to literature to art. Types of intellectual property rights include trademarks, copyrights, patents, industrial design rights, trade dress and trade secrets. Intellectual property laws create a financial incentive for innovators and thus is meant to promote progress. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the leading international organization that works to establish mandates and regulations for intellectual property. It is a branch of the United Nations and administers 26 international treaties (1) amongst 186 member states (2). Cyberlaw concerns all the legal issues related to the internet. The domains covered by cyberlaw are quite broad and includes topics such as privacy, freedom of speech, software licenses, developer and product liabilities, censorship, and internet access. One of the most pressing and controversial issues with cyberlaw is within the issues of jurisdiction. This is because the internet is international and so there are varying takes on where jurisdiction lies, whether it is in the nation of the user, server, or receiver. There are numerous information technology laws and electronic signature laws from various states and nations, all with slightly different regulations. 1. "WIPO-Administered Treaties." WIPO-Administered Treaties. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ 2. "Member States." WIPO. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. http://www.wipo.int/members/en/ © BrainMass Inc. brainmass.com May 31, 2020, 12:11 pm ad1c9bdddf BrainMass Categories within Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw Copyright Law Solutions: 1 These are the laws that concern the exclusive rights to use certain intellectual property and its use. Patent and Trade Secrets Law Solutions: 0 Patents are the specific right to inventors to use be the sole producers of their invention. Trade secrets, on the other hand, are particular design processes, formulas are practices. Solutions: 1 Trademarks are recognizable symbols that distinguish one firm's products from anothers. BrainMass Solutions Available for Instant Download Deep Web Information Hi I am looking for assistance on the topic of "The Deep Web" - 10 years ago the government built a totally private, and anonymous network. My instructions state when explaining Deep Web use examples that relate to the terms Cybercrimes. Terms: cyber bullying, identity theft, calling card fraud, hackers, digital child pornograph Movie Studio Plagiarism How can a movie studio prevent plagiarism? (Plagiarism among studios within and/or outside a country). Analyzing Trademark and Copyright Infringement Scenarios 1. You work for attorney Smith who works for Nike®. The slogan Nike uses is "Just Do It." Nike® representatives have approached Smith about a problem that has arisen. A small athletic shoe manufacturer has launched a campaign using the slogan, "Just do it NOW." a) What would you need to do to show that Nike's slogan, "Ju Copyright Infringement - Music I have a few questions about copyright infringement particularly how it pertains to music and songs, the artists and the audience. - What is copyright infringement? What is the history and purpose of the copyright infringement law? - How does this law affect freedom of speech and press in regards to the first amendment? - Intellectual Property Issues in the Napster Case Could you please briefly summarize the intellectual property law issues in the Napster case and then explain how this decision has impacted contemporary culture. Here is a link to the case: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/napster.htm. A comparison of copyright laws in the U.S. and Mexico Could you locate an article that compares and contrasts the copyright laws of the United States and another country. Please also explain the similarities and differences between the intellectual property laws and then conclude with at an analysis of which set of copyright laws you believe is better? Which laws do you think provi Case studies in intellectual copyright Case Study Challenge 1 Youâ??ve created a Macromedia Flash game that tests how long it takes for a player to recognize a song. A player listens to several songs for 3-5 seconds, and then has 10 seconds to select the songs from a list. The theme from â??Jeopardyâ? plays in the background while the player selects the songs. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Brothers, Inc., 529 U.S. 205 (2000) I would like these questions addressed. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Brothers, Inc., 529 U.S. 205 (2000) 1) How were prior cases on the question of trademark protection addressed by the Court? 2) Did any federal statute play a substantial role in the decision of the Court? 3) Explain the Wal-Mart decision. What w Situational Problem Involving Copyright of the song "Happy Birthday." The song "Happy Birthday to You" has universal appeal. Almost everyone knows its lyrics and melody, and it is sung to millions of people on a daily basis. However, what many people do not know is that the song "Happy Birthday to You" is copyrighted. The song was written by two sisters from Kentucky in the late 19th century Intellectual Property - Infringement Masters Level For the specific industries/companies you have chosen for your research (insurance companies with particular attention E-insurance), discuss what that industry/company can do to avoid infringing on the intellectual property of others? What steps should a company take to prevent accidental or intentional infringem Write a Case Brief Read the Monsanto Co. v. Coramandal Indag Products case and prepare a case brief. Case can be found at: http://www.rishabhdara.com/sc/view.php?case=8644 For each of the following situations decide if the use is legal or not (based on the fair use criteria): a. You publish a paper to the Internet and re-use a diagram found in a book. Your web-site is a subscriber (user's pay you money) based web-site. b. You go to the library to check out CDs and then upload the music i
The ‘dyslexic advantage’ and the corporate environment Literature and social media around dyslexia in the last couple of years has referred to a ‘dyslexic advantage’ – the suggestion that those individuals with dyslexia share a unique learning difference that can create advantages both in the classroom for learners, or in the workplace for adults. There is no disputing the fact that dyslexic people perceive the written word differently to non-dyslexics, but recent research has suggested that they may also excel at spatial reasoning, interconnected thinking and display amazing creativity (Source: I found this particularly of interest as I assess adult learners for specific learning difficulties (SpLDs) including dyslexia and dyspraxia for the University of Cumbria and often many of these are mature students who have returned to education as they struggled to find a job they excelled at. Thinking about the famous people we know with dyslexia, obviously all highly successful ones as that is predominantly why they are famous: Sir Richard Branson, Lord Alan Sugar and the late Steve Jobs. What do these business icons have in common, beyond their dyslexia? These three all carved their own path in business and led the way, rather than being constrained by the corporate world. There have been a lot of suggestions in the past that the dyslexic advantage would tend to favour a more creative entrepreneurial type role. An article I’ve recently been reading quoted this fascinating yet slightly concerning statistic: One percent of corporate managers in the UK are dyslexic compared with 20 per cent of entrepreneurs (Logan 2009) The article addresses the question of how could a condition such as dyslexia, termed a ‘hidden disability’ under the Equalities Act 2010, have led to such a high proportion of business acumen? (Doyle and Isaacs, 2012). And why might this be? How can individuals with learning difficulties sufficient enough to be classified as ‘having a long term effect on their ability to cope with everyday activities’, be so able to turn their hands to the creativity and motivation required to set up and run a successful business venture? And why do so few excel within a corporate environment? What is dyslexia? To understand this, one needs to know a little bit about the mind of someone with dyslexia. Very little is understood about dyslexia outside of an educational context, this being the first major hurdle for those individuals with an SpLD to face. The majority of people have the assumption that an individual with dyslexia simply struggles to read and spell. Well, to a certain extent this is often true, but as the article clearly points out, this is the symptom rather than the cause. Dyslexic individuals are usually characterized by weaknesses in their working memory and/or visual processing speed and their ability to process sounds accurately and decode words. It is these cognitive weaknesses that manifest into literacy difficulties such as weak spelling ability, difficulties in recognizing new words and slow reading and often poor reading comprehension. However, what is often misunderstood or unrecognized is that an individual with dyslexia often faces a variety of other challenges. These can include: problems with their organisation skills and ability to prioritize and schedule; punctuality and difficulties when required to work within time constraints; forgetting colleagues names and job titles; issues with sustaining concentration and being able to filter out background noise; difficulties with keeping up in meetings, note-taking and following information that is delivered verbally. These problems can pose a variety of issues for individuals in the workplace and are often attributed to other less favourable personality issues, such as laziness or lack of motivation. Due to the problems outlined above, those with dyslexia often find the corporate environment a challenging one. What is the ‘dyslexic advantage’? But why the disparity in the statistic mentioned above? How come so many dyslexics strive as entrepreneurs? This particular article does a great job of highlighting what is very commonly overlooked: dyslexic individuals often have strengths as a result of their cognitive profiles and it is these strengths that make them well suited to the entrepreneurial career. Along with weaknesses in working memory and processing speed, it is not uncommon for a dyslexic individual to have a high score in perceptual reasoning and/or verbal comprehension. These skilled visual spatial thinkers may exhibit some of the following workplace strengths: looking for the bigger picture or wider context; comprehending and producing complex ideas via graph, diagram or infographic; picking novel ideas from tangential thinking; intuitive reasoning and strategic thinking; and detailed episodic memory (Doyle and Isaacs, 2012) It is this set of skills that is likely to equip an individual well for an entrepreneurial career. An ability to work outside the prescribed path, create their own rules and look for connections between ideas will translate to a real skill in spotting the gaps in a market or finding a quicker, cheaper way to do something (Doyle and Isaacs, 2012). This article makes the very obvious point that is: why is the corporate environment not taking advantage of individuals with this set of skills who, in today’s past paced technological world, may be a valuable player in the workplace? It may be that the corporate management environment is not conducive to dyslexics or that there are barriers that prevent those with dyslexia from achieving corporate management roles. But surely organisations could capitalise on the potential of their current employees by raising their awareness of dyslexia and other SpLDs, making the workplace more accessible for these individuals and unlocking their potential. If you would like advice on unlocking the potential of your employees in relation to SpLDs contact Lakeland Capabilities. Have a read of our Neurodiversity page for more information. We can offer workshops to raise awareness, learning style assessments and one to one coaching to help develop coping strategies.
Alcoholism….It’s Still a Problem Alcoholism….It’s Still a Problem This entry was posted in Treatments & Therapies on . By Peggy Gemperline RN, BSN, MBA, Executive Director, Recovery Works South Shore, a detox and residential addiction treatment center in Kentucky Alcoholism seems to have lost its place as the number one addiction problem in America. The opioid epidemic is front and center in our minds when the topic of addiction comes up in discussion. But has alcoholism really gone anywhere? Not according to the statistics reported by the National Institute of Health (NIH). According to the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 14.4 million adults in the U.S. ages 18 and older (5.8% of this age group) had a diagnosis of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). This includes 9.2 million men and 5.3 million women. Only about 7.9 percent of these people received treatment in the past year. An estimated 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. The first is tobacco, and the second is poor diet and physical inactivity. In 2015, nearly half of the 78,529 liver disease deaths involved alcohol, which is only one alcohol related cause of death. About 33,000 people died from an overdose involving an opioid in the same year. 68,557 people died from an overdose involving an opioid in 2018. So, alcohol use disorder remains the deadliest addiction problem in the United States. Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), also known as alcoholism, inebriety, dipsomania and drunkenness, depending on your century, is a chronic relapsing brain disease characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences. AUD has devastated countless individuals and families for centuries. You can find references to this disease as far back as biblical times. Understanding alcohol Alcohol is a controlled and legal substance, and the most available abused drug in the world. Most civilized societies around the world generally accept alcohol use, and the misuse of alcohol is fashionable within certain social situations. These trends make it difficult to notice when someone is having a dependence issue. The anxiety and inhibition lowering properties are most often seen as a positive side effect of alcohol. But alcohol comes with a long list of negative side effects. One of those side effects is being unable to remember periods of time during which the individual was intoxicated. This side effect, known as a “blackout,” can be a frequent experience of a person with AUD. The very real feelings of terror, bewilderment, frustration and despair (Alcoholics Anonymous, pg 151) often accompany questions like, “How could you?” “Why would you do that?” and “Where were you?” Families and loved ones are often left cleaning up after ill-advised decisions made while intoxicated. Most-consumed alcohols in the world Beer, wine, and hard liquor are the top three, respectively. The alcohol percentage of such beverages varies, which is measured as ABV or Alcohol by Volume. For example, the average ABV of many famous beers ranges from 2-12%. Wines have a higher alcohol percentage than beer. Hard liquor is at the top spot according to the ABV. Anybody can become dependent on any of the alcoholic beverages mentioned. Physical and mental impairment due to excessive drinking any of such alcoholic drinks is an ever-present risk. The number of units or glasses of alcohol required to impact one’s mind and body depends on the individual and their tolerance. How quickly the body metabolizes alcohol The rate at which the human body processes alcohol varies depending on many factors, such as gender, body weight, body composition, genetics, general health, and the amount consumed. The ABV of the consumed drink and the number of drinks consumed per hour play a part in the metabolization process. It is theorized that individuals who are genetically able to metabolize alcohol more rapidly are also more prone to become dependent. Complications related to alcoholism You or a loved one may have AUD already. Some factors and general trends make it difficult to identify alcoholism or misuse. Below are the top factors that complicate diagnosis: • Society may widely accept alcohol. The whole nation or a collection of individuals can experience negative effects of alcohol without even realizing it. • Some individuals are not open about their struggles. • A person may be a high-functioning alcoholic. These individuals can maintain a healthy balance between their drinking habits, and personal and professional lives. Their issue isn’t noticeable most of the time. • Social denial can further push someone away from ever getting treatment for their disorder. How to spot alcoholism? While an individual can spot the signs themselves, they often underplay the risks and are in denial over the negative consequences. Look for the following signs if you or a loved one is experiencing an alcohol use disorder: • You or someone you know has developed an immunity to alcohol over time. • Can’t start or end the day without a few glasses of alcohol. • The desire to drink more often clashes with personal and professional responsibilities. • More frequent or binge drinking. • Withdrawal symptoms upon stopping alcohol. • You begin to assume that “alcohol is the only escape.” • You or someone you know want to stop drinking but can’t. Alcoholism comes with a series of long-term and short-term side effects. Accidents/injury, violent behavior, having unprotected sex, binge drinking, and alcohol poisoning are the short-term effects of alcohol misuse. Heart disease, stroke, bowel cancer, liver disease/cancer, mouth cancer, breast cancer, and pancreatitis are the long-term side effects of alcohol addiction. Alcohol misuse can also lead to many mental health conditions, such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Alcoholism in the patient with one or more of these mental disorders is a complication known as Dual Diagnosis. Treatment for alcohol addiction Treating alcoholism is not straightforward. The person who consumes alcohol in excess amounts may or not realize their questionable behavior. Withdrawal symptoms may pull the patient towards drinking again. Intervention for alcoholism is the widely-accepted procedure for helping someone understand the negative consequences of their actions. In general, a well thought-out dialog with the person who has an alcohol use disorder to help them understand how alcohol negatively affects their life and the lives of loved ones is one of the best options available. The best treatments for alcoholism A series of treatment options are now available. You or a loved one can regain control over your life and health through rehab and evidence-based treatments: • Detox and Withdrawal: Detoxing the body in conjunction with medication to suppress and manage withdrawal symptoms. • Psychological Counseling: This helps you better understand your disorder and the importance of overcoming it. • Oral Medications: These medications can block the initial euphoria of alcohol. • Injectable Medication: More efficient than oral-form medication but only administered by a healthcare professional. • Spiritual Guidance Final thoughts Alcoholism is a severe disorder that leads to unfavorable physical and mental side effects. This disorder hasn’t dissipated during the opioid crisis, and the individual who suffers from it needs treatment. Anybody can overcome it with the help of treatment experts who use evidence-based practices. Contact a treatment specialist to discover the best rehab path for you. Headquartered in New Jersey, Pinnacle Treatment Centers is a recognized leader in comprehensive drug and alcohol addiction treatment serving more than 28,000 patients daily in California, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. With more than 110 community-based locations, Pinnacle provides a full continuum of quality care for adult men and women which includes medically-monitored detoxification/withdrawal management, inpatient/residential treatment, partial hospitalization/care, sober living, intensive and general outpatient programming, and medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder. For more information, visit or call 800-782-1520.
Drug abuse is one of the most common problems prevailing among youngsters. Drug abuse often starts casually where youngsters, due to peer pressure, take drugs and eventually become highly addicted to it. Some people become habitual to drug abuse due to external pressures such as bad relations with close family members, inability to work under pressure, inability to keep up with others in terms of success, excessive guilt feeling, and worthlessness. Psychosomatic illnesses can also be a major cause of turning people into drug addicts. Drug addiction is referred to as compulsive urge to take drugs to remain in a euphoric state of mind. Drug abuse provides temporary relief from worldly problems and a person forgets all his miseries for the time being. Once the influence of a drug subsides a person feels completely the opposite. He feels highly depressed and low causing to take drugs again to feel better. In this article, we will discuss as to why drug addiction is a chronic illness and why it is so hard to stop taking drugs despite facilities supporting giving up this habit. Please continue reading to find out. Giving Up Drug Abuse Some people think that it is easy to give up on drug abuse and all it requires is sheer willpower but in reality, it is way too difficult for those who have been abusing drugs for so long. It is a mental disease which becomes an obsession as a person becomes highly addicted to it. It requires much more than willpower alone. It is a chronic habit which can relapse if proper treatment is not provided. It requires support and proper treatment from professionals. Even if a person stops abusing drugs he can experience a relapse. Harms of drug abuse are also known widely among those who take drugs but once they become highly habitual nothing seems to affect them. The only way they can be helped is through medical intervention and therapy where they can be given proper care and support and an alternate way to stop abusing drugs. Harms of Drug Abuse Drug abuse is something that is not just detrimental to health but it also affects social aspects of one’s life. It interferes with the normal daily routine of a person. It is obvious that when a person is under heavy influence of drugs he is not eligible to lead a productive and happy life. He is always obsessed with drugs and under such state of mind, everything seems like a difficult challenge. Please place an order to buy custom written essays. See Also
Tracking Buildings Not on track Tracking buildings Heat pumps Not on track Households purchasing heat pumps for heating and hot water production in selected regions the Sustainable Development Scenario, 2010-2030 Nearly 18 million households purchased heat pumps in 2018, up from 14 million in 2010. However, most of this growth is due to higher sales of reversible units that may not be used for heating. Globally, heat pumps provide only 3% of heating in buildings. To be in line with the SDS, this share needs to triple by 2030, the upfront purchase price needs to come down, and average heat pump energy performance needs to increase by 50% towards current best available technologies. Tracking progress Heat pumps continue to represent a small share of total residential heating equipment, as more than three-quarters of sales globally were for fossil fuel or conventional electric technologies in 2018. At the same time, global heat pumps sales did rise by nearly 10% between 2017 and 2018 – double the 2016‑17 growth rate. Nearly 80% of new household heat pump installations in 2017 were in China, Japan and the United States, which together account for around 35% of global final energy demand for space and water heating in residential buildings. Europe’s market is expanding quickly, however, with around 1 million households purchasing a heat pump in 2017, including heat pumps for sanitary hot water production (135 000 units). Sweden, Estonia, Finland and Norway have the highest penetration rates, with more than 25 heat pumps sold per 1 000 households each year. Air-to-air heat pumping technologies dominate global sales for buildings, but purchases of other heat pump types such as air-to-water and geothermal heat pumps have also expanded in recent years. Heat pump water heaters For example, sales of heat pump water heaters (for sanitary hot water production) have more than tripled since 2010, largely driven by purchases in China. Subsidies to replace coal boilers with air-to-water heat pumps through the Coal to Electricity programme in northern China helped raise sales to reached 1.3 million units in 2017. Japan is the second market by size, although sales decreased slightly from 570 000 units in 2010 to 450 000 in 2017. Volumes in Europe are lower but rising steeply, as sales have nearly quadrupled since 2010. Ground-source heat pumps Ground-source heat pumps (GSHP) are less common globally, with annual sales of around 400 000 units. More than half of installations are in the United States. Sweden and Germany are the two main European markets, with 20 000 to 30 000 GSHPs sold every year in each of those countries. In fact, Sweden has the highest GSHP installation rate per capita globally. Reversible heat pumps Heat pump purchases are on the rise overall, but this appears to be driven mainly by growing demand for space cooling. Reversible air conditioners that can provide heating and cooling from the same device are very common in some countries but are not necessarily used as a building’s main heating source. For instance, reversible heat pumps (e.g. mini-split units) are widespread in northern urban China (for summertime cooling), but more than 80% of the population in that region relies on district heating in the winter. In Japan, Korea, Europe and the United States, reversible heat pumps are commonly used for heating and cooling, which often means higher heat pump performance (i.e. a seasonal efficiency factor of 4-6 or higher for heating), as reversible units typically include an inverter to modulate capacity. The adjustment of the refrigerant flow rate reduces energy losses resulting from stops and starts in non-inverter technologies. The typical efficiency factor of heat pumps – an indicator of average annual energy performance – has increased steadily since 2010, approaching an estimated 3 today across the main heat pump markets. It is common to reach factors of 4 or 5 or higher, especially in relatively mild climates such as the Mediterranean region and central and southern China. Conversely, in extremely cold climates such as northern Canada, low outside temperatures reduce the energy performance of currently available technologies to a factor of 2 or less (depending on the ambient temperature) – although this is still twice as efficient as an electric resistance heater or a condensing gas boiler. Regulations, standards and labelling, along with technology progress, have spurred improvement globally. For instance, the average efficiency factor of heat pumps sold in the United States rose by 13% in 2006 and 8% in 2015 following two increases in minimum energy performance standards. Electric heat pumps still meet less than 3% of heating needs in buildings globally, yet they could supply more than 90% of global space and water heating with lower CO2 emissions – even when the upstream carbon intensity of electricity is taken into account – than condensing gas boiler technology (which typically operates at 92-95% efficiency). Thanks to continued improvements in heat pump energy performance and cleaner power generation, this potential coverage is a major improvement from the 2010 level of 50%. Heat pumps could already supply 90% of heating needs globally with a lower CO2 footprint than condensing gas boilers. Heat pump readiness index relative to regional demand, 2018 Note: If the index equals 0.8, a typical heat pump would be around 20% less carbon-intensive than a condensing boiler using natural gas. Energy efficiency programmes specific to heat pumps In China, subsidies under the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan are helping reduce upfront installation and equipment costs. A similar scheme exists in Japan through its Energy Conservation Plan. Regulations and labelling on heat pump energy performance The United States mandates that products be labelled with a seasonal performance factor for heating as well as minimum energy performance standards for heat pumps. In addition to mandatory standards, European seasonal space heating performance labels use the same measures and scale for heat pumps as for fossil fuel boilers, making it possible to directly compare their performance. In China and the European Union, the energy source used by heat pumps can also be considered as renewable heat, which opens access to other incentives such as tax rebates. Technology-neutral performance requirements Canada is considering mandating energy performance greater than an efficiency factor of 1 for all heating technologies by 2030, which would effectively prohibit all conventional coal-, oil- and gas-fired boilers. The share of residential heat supplied by heat pumps globally needs to triply by 2030. Policies therefore need to address barriers to adoption, including high upfront purchase prices and operational costs. In many markets, installed costs for heat pumps relative to potential savings on energy spending (e.g. when switching from a gas boiler to an electric heat pump) often mean that heat pumps may be only marginally less expensive over 10-12 years, even with their higher energy performance. This is reflective of higher electricity prices in many major heat markets, as electricity costs twice as much as natural gas on average globally. In fact, it can be at least three times more expensive than natural gas in some markets. To triple the share of residential heat supplied by heat pumps globally, policies need to address unfavourable fuel prices. High electricity prices and higher upfront costs still represent major barriers in most markets, part of which is due to fossil fuel subsidies and electricity taxes. Electricity prices (in USD per kWh equivalent) globally are around twice as high as natural gas prices, and can be as much as three or more times higher in some markets. Harmonising definitions relating to heat pump performance would make global benchmarking less challenging, given the current diversity of testing procedures and definitions. Definitions currently change from region to region, whereas definitions for conventional heating technologies such as natural gas boilers are more consistent. Energy performance definitions can also be expanded to minimum performance requirements. For example, the European Union introduced a seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP) in its 2009 Ecodesign legislation. It measures efficiency in primary energy terms, and since 2017 only air-to-water and GSHPs that exceed a minimum efficiency of 115‑125% based on primary energy use (comparable to a SCOP of 2.875) have been allowed to be sold. For air-to-air heat pumps, the European minimum requirement is a SCOP of 3.8. Standards and labels should also evolve to reflect heat pump performance in the wider market, rather than comparing heat pumps with themselves. For instance, the EU Energy Label Regulation sets the ‘A’ label for energy performance at the minimum primary-to-final energy ratio of 0.92, which applies to condensing boiler technology. More ambitious and comparable standards across equipment types would encourage greater uptake of heat pumps, including gas-driven ones (with a typical energy performance factor of above 1). Other policy signals, such as carbon intensity expectations for heating equipment, would also encourage greater heat pump adoption. Innovation gaps Heat pumping technologies for space heating already exist and will deliver significant efficiency improvements and considerable CO2 emissions reductions in many countries. Innovation could help to address some known market issues, including high upfront prices and a lack of adaptability to multiple building contexts (e.g. multi-family residential buildings with limited outdoor space for exterior heat pump units). While packaging products can increase marketability, multiple synergies with other energy technologies such as solar PV and district heating networks could also be exploited to enhance system flexibility and efficiency. Greater electrification of heat (and other end uses such as space cooling) will place greater pressure on electricity systems, requiring not only improved energy efficiency but also greater flexibility through demand-side response. Markets with high shares of electric heating (e.g. France) illustrate the impact of electric heat demand during the winter and on extremely cold days. Heat pumps with high energy performance factors can help reduce the overall tendency of demand peaks, but flexibility through demand side response will still be required to shift some demand to off-peak hours. In addition, heat pumps have the potential to provide electricity grid stabilisation in the context of grid decarbonisation, especially with increasing shares of variable renewables in the energy mix. Increasing heat pump attractiveness would buttress the clean energy transition, ensuring good heating equipment efficiency that can be employed affordably in different building applications and with other clean energy technologies such as solar PV and energy storage. Further R&D investments would address many barriers to heat pump deployment by making them more compact, easier to install, more efficient, less carbon-intensive and more flexible than conventional heat pumps through enhanced interactions with the grid. While extremely efficient, GSHPs are more expensive than other heat pump systems primarily due to installation costs, though these vary depending on the type of installation (e.g. shallow vs. deep drilling). Their reaction time to rapid or extreme temperature changes can also be long. Geothermal technologies could help overcome multiple barriers to the decarbonisation of heating and cooling, such as increasing system efficiency by providing heating and cooling services at the same time, since commercial buildings often have simultaneous heating and cooling demand. Residential buildings can also have cooling demand at the same time as domestic water heating needs (e.g. during the summer). Additional resources 1. EHPA (European Heat Pump Association) (2018), "Market report 2018", 2. Zhao, H., Y. Gao and Z. Song (2017), "Strategic outlook of heat pump development in China", 12th IEA Heat Pump Conference 2017, 3. JRAIA (Japan Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry Association) (2018), "Air-conditioner sales in the world", Caroline H. Stignor (Heat Pump Centre), Anette Ingemarson (Heat Pump Centre), Monica Axell (Heat Pump Centre), Stephan Renz (HPT TCP), Roger Hitchin (HPT Delegate), Daniel Mugnier (SHC TCP) Next Cooling
Putting school lighting innovations In der Alten Forst, Hamburg, Germany Find out what happened when our new school lighting technology was trialled in Hamburg. A teacher helps students at In der Alten Forst, illuminated by Philips school lighting We saw for ourselves and the results confirmed that the specific application of light really can have a positive effect on learning and the learning environment." - Andreas Wiedemann, School Director In der Alten Forst Philips School Vision lighting system creates different learning atmospheres in classrooms in In der Alten Forst Customer challenge Recent research has discovered some complex relationships between light and well-being. If our brains respond well to certain light frequencies, what effect could light have upon learning? The Grundschule In der Alten Forst school in Hamburg, Germany helped us find out. The right lighting Grundschule In der Alten Forst is a primary school in Hamburg, Germany, teaching 12 classes and 368 children. Philips approached the school with the idea of testing out SchoolVision technology there. This school lighting system brings the dynamics of daylight into classrooms, by allowing the teacher to choose between four different light settings. These light settings adjust the atmosphere in classroom environments so that it suits the learning task. School Director Andreas Wiedemann was glad to help. The lighting was tested on 166 schoolchildren between eight and 16 years old. After the SchoolVision lighting was installed in their classrooms, scientifically proven tests were used to measure the children’s attention and concentration levels. The results were compared with baseline measurements and with those of a control group working under standard light. The children’s reading speed increased by almost 35% in the School Vision study. Concentration improved dramatically, and the frequency of errors dropped by almost 45%. Although there was no significant change in aggression, video evidence showed a distinct change in levels of hyperactivity. Observed hyperactivity was reduced by up to 76% when pupils were given a mathematical problem to solve under the ‘calm’ lighting scene. SchoolVision has created an outstanding learning environment that gives pupils at In der Alten Forst the very best start in school. And because the lights auto-dim when there is enough daylight, or when the classrooms are empty, the school has reduced its energy costs too. Introducing a new vision to the school The team Andreas Wiedemann, School Director Prof. Dr. M. Schulte-Markwort University research team Dipl.-Psych. N. Wessolowski University research team Related cases
The Impact of the Norman Conquest on Anglo-Saxon Gardens The Impact of the Norman Conquest on Anglo-Saxon Gardens The arrival of the Normans in the second half of the eleventh century substantially transformed The Anglo-Saxon ways of living. At the time of the conquest, the Normans surpassed the Anglo-Saxons in building design and cultivation. However, there was no time for home life, domesticated architecture, and decoration until the Normans had overcome the whole realm. Castles were more fundamental constructions and often constructed on blustery hills, where their tenants devoted both time and space to exercising offense and defense, while monasteries were considerable stone buildings, regularly located in the widest, most fruitful hollows. Gardening, a placid occupation, was unfeasible in these unproductive fortifications. The finest specimen of the early Anglo-Norman style of architecture existent presently is Berkeley Castle. It is said that the keep was introduced during William the Conqueror's time.Impact Norman Conquest Anglo-Saxon Gardens 346092557932677227.jpg A big terrace meant for walking and as a way to stop attackers from mining under the walls runs about the building. A scenic bowling green, covered in grass and surrounded by battlements cut out of an ancient yew hedge, makes one of the terraces. Discover Tranquility with Garden Water Features Discover Tranquility with Garden Water Features Your state of mind is positively influenced by having water in your garden. The trickling sounds coming from your fountain can be helpful in masking any loud sounds in your surroundings. This is the perfect spot to relax and experience the natural world around you. Bodies of water such as seas, oceans and rivers are commonly used in water therapies, as they are regarded as therapeutic. Create the ideal oasis for your body and mind and get yourself a fountain or pond today! The History of Outdoor Garden Fountains The History of Outdoor Garden Fountains Himself a highly educated man, Pope Nicholas V led the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 till 1455 and was responsible for the translation of hundreds of ancient texts from their original Greek into Latin. In order to make Rome deserving of being the capital of the Christian world, the Pope decided to enhance the beauty of the city. In 1453 the Pope instigated the reconstruction of the Aqua Vergine, an historic Roman aqueduct which had carried fresh drinking water into the city from eight miles away.History Outdoor Garden Fountains 78294231283.jpg The ancient Roman tradition of building an awe-inspiring commemorative fountain at the point where an aqueduct arrived, also known as a mostra, was resurrected by Nicholas V. At the behest of the Pope, architect Leon Battista Alberti began the construction of a wall fountain in the place where we now find the Trevi Fountain. Modifications and extensions, included in the restored aqueduct, eventually supplied the Trevi Fountain and the well-known baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona with the necessary water supply. Did You Know How Technical Designs of Water Fountains Became Known? Did You Know How Technical Designs of Water Fountains Became Known? The circulated documents and illustrated pamphlets of the time contributed to the development of scientific innovation, and were the primary methods of transmitting useful hydraulic facts and fountain ideas throughout Europe. A globally recognized leader in hydraulics in the later part of the 1500's was a French fountain engineer, whose name has been lost to history. By developing gardens and grottoes with integrated and clever water attributes, he began his profession in Italy by receiving imperial mandates in Brussels, London and Germany.Know Technical Designs Water Fountains Became Known? 13150407.jpg In France, near the end of his lifetime, he published “The Principle of Moving Forces”, a publication which turned into the fundamental text on hydraulic mechanics and engineering. Modernizing vital hydraulic breakthroughs of classical antiquity, the book also explains modern hydraulic technologies. As a mechanized method to shift water, Archimedes invented the water screw, fundamental among vital hydraulic advancements. Natural light heated up the water in two concealed vessels adjoining to the decorative water feature were displayed in an illustration. What occurs is the heated water expanded, goes up and closes up the piping leading to the water feature, consequently leading to activation. The publication also includes garden ponds, water wheels, water feature designs. The Advantages of Installing an Indoor Wall Water Fountain The Advantages of Installing an Indoor Wall Water Fountain Add a decorative and modern touch to your home by installing an indoor wall water feature. You can create a noise-free, stressless and comforting setting for your family, friends and clientele by installing this type of fountain. An interior wall water feature such as this will also attract the recognition and admiration of staff and clients alike. In order to get a positive reaction from your most difficult critic and impress all those around, install an interior water feature to get the job done. While sitting under your wall fountain you can revel in the serenity it provides after a long day's work and enjoy watching your favorite sporting event. Indoor fountains generate harmonious sounds which are thought to emit negative ions, eliminate dust as well as pollen, all while producing a comforting and relaxing setting. The Attraction of Simple Garden Decor: The Landscape Fountain Nowadays you can just place your garden water fountain against a wall since they no longer need to be hooked to a pond.Nowadays, you can eliminate excavations, difficult installations and cleaning the pond.... read more When and Where Did Water Fountains Originate? Hundreds of classic Greek documents were translated into Latin under the authority of the scholarly Pope Nicholas V, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 to 1455.... read more The Benefits of Solar Outdoor Garden Fountains There are various energy sources which can be utilized to run your garden wall fountain.Ecological solar powered fountains, which are now easily available, have substituted older fountains which run on electricity.... read more The Effect of the Norman Conquest on Anglo Saxon Gardens The Anglo-Saxon way of life was significantly changed by the introduction of the Normans in the later eleventh century.The skill of the Normans exceeded the Anglo-Saxons' in architecture and agriculture at the time of the conquest.... read more
Pride and Prejudice pt. 4 Jane Austen Featured in Tonight, we’ll read the next part to Pride and Prejudice, part to the 1813 romantic novel of manners Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen, starting with Chapter 7. The novel follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. In the previous episode, the relationships between Jane and Elizabeth Bennetand the Bingley sisters develops as the girls make their formal visits. At a party, Charlotte and Elizabeth discuss Jane. While Elizabeth is pleased by Jane's modesty, Charlotte warns that Jane should needs to be more obvious toward Bingley. Meanwhile Darcy admits to Caroline that he finds Elizabeth attractive, but Elizabeth acts coldly towards him.
Other formats TEI XML file ePub eBook file mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon The Coming of the Maori The tattooing art prevailed throughout Polynesia, except on Niue and some atolls. A Maori myth states that Mataora was tattooed in the under-world by his father-in-law Uetonga to replace his transient face painting with a permanent design. On his return to the human world, Mataora taught the craft of Uetonga, the craft (mahi) of tattooing (ta moko). The technique of tattooing was similar throughout Polynesia. A many-pointed piece of bone attached to a handle at approximately a right angle Fig. 85. Tattooing implements.a, hafted implement (Bishop Mus., no. 1533); b, blade of a; c, serrated blade (Bishop Mus, no. C. 3821). Fig. 85. Tattooing implements. was dipped into a thick pigment of soot and water and lightly tapped with a stick mallet over the selected skin area. The soot was obtained by burning oily kernels of the candle-nut, and a piece of bark cloth was used to swab the blood which oozed from the punctures. The technique was brought to New Zealand but the soot was obtained by burning the resinous heart wood (kapara) of the white pine and, in the north, the gum of the kauri pine. In the absence of bark cloth, the swabs were composed of soft flax fibre. The process of tattooing was termed ta moko, ta being the act of striking with the mallet and moko, the resultant pattern. The tattooing comb retained the Polynesian name of uhi (uwhi), to which the Maori added the figurative term matarau (a hundred points) in the poetic name of uhi matarau. The Maori uhi resembles a miniature hafted adze, for a small branch was selected as a handle with a joined branch forming a toe to which a bone blade was lashed with transverse turns of a two-ply fine cord. In a page 297Bishop Museum specimen (No. 1533), the handle is 5 inches long and the toe 1.1 inches. The blade made of bird bone is 1.75 inches long and 0.25 inches wide with a slightly convex cutting edge ground from the back like an adze, and without teem. It extends along the whole length of the toe and projects free for a little over half an inch (Fig. 85a).Three instruments in me British Museum figured by Robley (61, p. 48), have similar handles which establish a form peculiar to New Zealand. The width of me blades varied, one in the Bishop Museum (C. 3821) being as narrow as ⅛ inch, and wider ones were formed of two pieces of bone lashed together laterally through perforations near the adjoining side edges as shown by Robley (61, p. 49) in a drawing after Polack. The tattooing artist thus had a number of instruments for different parts of his designs. In some instruments the bone blades were formed into comb-like teeth (Fig. 85c) as in other parts of Polynesia, others had a plain cutting edge (Fig. 85b)which is unique for New Zealand. Fig. 86. Pigment containers.a, b, pumice, side and upper views (Bishop Mus., no. 1522); c, carved wood (Oldman coll., no. 496). Fig. 86. Pigment containers. The mallet was termed mahoe according to Robley (61, p. 49) who states that some had a broad, flattened surface at one end to wipe away the blood, though flax fibre was also used. A similar expansion on Tahitian mallets may have been used for a similar purpose. A piece of fern stalk was sometimes used as a mallet. A container with a rounded cavity was made of pumice to hold the prepared pigment. A specimen in the Bishop Museum (No. 1522) has a rounded bottom crossed at right angles by two deep grooves, which extend upwards to the rim (Fig. 86a, b).The actual cavity is 40 mm. by 37 mm. at the rim and 27 mm. deep. The pumice material was evidently selected because it was easy to shape. Some more elaborate pigment containers were made of wood and a well-carved specimen from the Oldman collection is shown in Figure 86c. Though the general technique was old, the art patterns developed along independent lines. A comparison of the available tattooing patterns page 298from the various parts of Polynesia shows so much divergence that no adequate clue remains of an original pattern shared by all. Thus independent evoludon in designs has taken place in the various island groups, presumably after they were settled from common centres. The patterns which accompanied the early settlers must have been much simpler than those in vogue at the time of European contact. A very simple pattern of short, straight lines survived in the South Island and White (104, vol. 1, frontispiece) figured one termed moko kuri. The pattern consisted of groups of three short, parallel lines so arranged on the face that each set was at right angles to its neighbours and conveys the impression of plaiting in a check design. It is interesting to know that the Hawaiians used a check pattern in small squares with the alternate squares filled in. The moko kuri did not require the services of a very expert artist, and it may have survived in the South Island for that reason. The extraordinary development of wood carving in the North Island opened up a vista of new motifs and designs, and a curvilinear art was developed in tattooing as well as in carving. The identity of the curves and double spirals in both arts indicates that one borrowed from the other; and, of the two, it seems more likely that inanimate wood rather than sensitive skin was the medium upon which the new art motifs were first tried out and established. But in addition to supplying art motifs, carving influenced the mechanical process of reproducing these motifs on flesh. Maori tattooing differs from the smooth punctured results of tattooing in Polynesia, in that the main lines of the designs are deep or sunk below the surface so that the spaces between parallel lines appear as ridges, to some extent similar to the designs on wood. It was thus apparent that such lines were incised and not punctured. This effect had led to the theory that the lines were cut with an implement such as a stone flake or a shark's tooth used like a scalpel in making continuous incisions. The correct solution lies in the fact that the Maori tattooing artists took a further cue from the carving experts and ground down or sharpened some of their bone blades like an adze with a plain edge without teeth (Fig. 85a, b).With such implements, the tattooer, on tapping with the mallet, cut through the skin instead of puncturing it and by the continued application of the narrow cutting blade, he had more control in forming his incised design than if he had tried to use a primitive scalpel. The toothed implements were used for filling in and for subsidiary motifs. Various parts of the body and limbs were treated throughout Polynesia, but the Samoans and Tongans specialized on a close design from waist to knees that resembled close fitting shorts. In the Marquesas and Mangareva, the tattooing of the lower limbs was extended down to the feet, like tights. Pictorial records from the Society and Cook Islands are scanty but Williams (108, frontispiece) gives a picture of the Rarotongan page 299chief Te Pou with full tattooing extending to the feet. Though the pattern may be imaginary, the skin area may be correct. The distribution indicates that tattooing of the waist-to-knee area may be old enough to have been introduced into New Zealand, where it was continued. The Maori waistto-knee design was termed răpě, and it consisted of large double spirals over the buttocks and gluteal region with an oblique linear design on the thighs. The use of the double spiral shows that, though the tattooing area may have been old, the design was new. Face tattooing was present in the Marquesas, Mangareva, and Easter Island, but absent in Samoa and Tonga. In the Marquesas and Mangareva, it consisted of wide horizontal bands. In central Polynesia, the face tattooing was meagre. The Maori face tattooing was full with a combination of various motifs assigned to particular parts, each motif having a specific name. Tattooing commenced on one side of the face, and sometimes the other side was completed later on in life. The half tattoo was termed papatahi (one side), and many old men never completed their tattooing owing to the custom going out of fashion. Women had a distinctive pattern on the chin and, more rarely, some smaller motif elsewhere. For the various tattooing motifs and designs, see page 322. A wooden feeding funnel was invented locally for use when the swelling around the mouth and lips made ordinary feeding a painful process. As the elaborate face tattooing was confined to chiefs, it is probable that their social position stimulated the invention and led to their being decorated with fine carving. Some of them are exquisite examples of Maori art (Pl. XXIII). Tattooing was a chiefly decoration and its social importance encouraged the acquirement of skill by experts, who were well rewarded for their services. A statement has been made that different patterns constituted heraldic devices which distinguished different tribes. That this is an assumption based on an English background is proved by the fact that chiefs invited tattooing artists from other tribes who had acquired a reputation for their particular designs. The visiting artist reproduced the design of his particular school, and if it was a tribal device, the patient would have been branded with the distinguishing pattern of the artist's tribe, which is absurd.
Sunday, 31 May 2020 The blockchain industry, historically tied directly to cryptocurrency, has made a right turn in recent months. It has extended its legion of users to offer distributed storage. This threatens to undercut the pricing market established by cloud computing storage giants like AWS and Dropbox. How it works Blockchain-based distribution storage is centered around the idea that there are large amounts of unused storage space on the hard drives of people all over the world. Using cryptocurrency as an incentive, blockchain distribution companies monetize that storage space for their members. It is an upgraded version of what BitTorrent was in the early 2000s, using peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to form an aggregate of computer resources. But with cryptocurrencies built in to blockchains as a method of payment, users have a monetary incentive to offer up their unused data space to consumers. Because of its extreme distribution of data - known as sharding - blockchain-based storage has the potential to be more secure than cloud-based storage. And by using the in-place hardware maintained by others, it can drastically cut the cost for the end-user. Blockchain storage strengths The biggest strength of blockchain-based distribution storage is that both sides of the equation benefit, making it more appealing and less apt for corruption. Those who offer their extra storage capacity for data receive payment in the form of cryptocurrency while the actual customers receive online storage at a reduced rate. Sia, one of the first blockchain data storage firms to go live, charges an average of $2/TB/month, a fee 90% less than AWS’s $20/TB/month. For 100TB/month, AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure all charge at least $2,000 while Sia offers the same amount of space for $200. The price reduction is a direct result of a far smaller operating cost. For Blockchain, there are no data centers gobbling up power and man-hours. The infrastructure is provided by the network of private computers housing the data. While cryptocurrencies have seen their fair share of catastrophic hacks over the past 10 years, blockchain storage appears more secure, making the data contained there within much tougher to tamper with. It distributes and encrypts every bit of information, but also puts the data in a sequential chain. Each block contains a cryptographic hash. If the blocks aren’t linked together in precisely the right order, the information cannot be accessed at all, much less broken into and decrypted. Blockchain storage weaknesses The handful of blockchain-based distribution storage companies already live are already suffering through growing pains - literally. FileCoin is thought to be the golden child of the blockchain-based distribution industry, having already piled up $52 million in a pre-ICO sale and another $205 million in the actual ICO in 2017. But the startup has admitted that it has not solved the problem of how to efficiently scale its model as new users and new farmers come on board. In January 2018, it announced it would not accept any new members on either side until a solution is reached, keeping FileCoin as the startup that hasn’t actually started up, for at least the next six months. For Boston-based Sia, scaling isn’t the problem, the initial entry protocol is. Sia’s current startup process for new users involves them first buying Bitcoin, then using that cryptocurrency to purchase its own Siacoins. The complication doesn’t stop there, however, as the Siacoins must then be sent to the Sia client software to engage the network. For the average person with no experience in buying cryptocurrency, this is a bit like being dropped off in a foreign country and asked to go make two complex financial transactions: The language barrier is stifling. For enterprise clients, it’s more a matter of best business practices. Most businesses still aren’t in the cryptocurrency market for fears of financial risk or a lack of regulations; therefore, they won’t even consider a solution like Sia that operates solely in crypto. Opinion on the market While there is definitely room in the storage market for blockchain-based distribution to make a splash now and become a player as time progresses, major hurdles and inherent bias will keep it looking up at its cloud equivalents for the foreseeable future. While the cloud offers the comfort of secure on-site databases maintained by paid professionals, blockchain’s biggest weakness from a perception standpoint is that your data is being kept in the homes of hundreds or thousands of unknown crypto farmers. The reduction in price will convince many users that blockchain is the route to take and may eventually force cloud storage companies to rethink their own price structure. But until blockchain can produce an easily accessible, trustworthy model that clearly outshines cloud in security, it will be in catchup mode. Creamcoin Marketcap
Table of Contents Current Issues Lesson 13 Open Forum Questions: Part 1 I. What is the origin of the races? Can the three races be traced to the three sons of Noah? A. Let’s begin by looking at some facts from the Bible about human races. 1. God created man in his own image.(Genesis 1:26) 2. There was a first man, and that first man was Adam. (1 Corinthians 15:45) 3. God has made of one blood all nations of man. (Acts 17:26) 4. All humans come from Adam and Eve. (Genesis 3:20) 5. There are no racial distinctions in the Lord’s church. (Colossian 3:11) 6. Those who obey the Great Commission may make only one classification of the people they encounter: saved or not saved. And those are the same two categories into which all men will one day be placed by God. B. What are the three races? 1. The question speaks of tracing the three races back to the three sons of Noah (Ham, Shem, and Japheth), and generally speaking there are three major races of man. a) The three races are Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid. b) Some sources identify a fourth: Australoid or the Australian Aborigines, but that group may also be identified as a sub-group of the Caucasoids. c) Because race classification is so difficult, other classification systems have been proposed, some with as many as two or three dozen races. 2. Biologists determine species by including in a species all individuals that are capable of breeding to produce fertile offspring. a) There is, of course, only one species of man – Homo Sapiens. b) This fact tells us right from the start that whatever differences there may be among the various human races, those differences are minor. (1) The DNA of any two people in the world typically differs by just 0.2%. Only about 6% of that 0.2% can be linked to racial differences. c) In fact, the differences within the various human races are just as pronounced as the differences among the groups. 3. People often think of skin color when they think of human races, and yet within each of the three human races there is a very wide variety of skin colors ranging from light to dark – and that wide variety did not require millions of years of evolution. a) There is no such thing as a “black race” or a “white race.” b) In humans, skin color is controlled by two pairs of genes (Aa and Bb), one pair dominant (A, B) and one recessive (a, b). c) If Adam and Eve had both been “AABB” then they could have produced only children with the darkest skin color possible, and if they had both been “aabb” then all of their children would have had the lightest skin color possible – and yet we know that neither of those situations could have led to the wide variety we see today. d) If instead Adam and Eve had both been “AaBb” (called “heterozygous”) (two dominant and two recessive genes), they would have been middle-brown in color and from them – in only one generation – skin color differences could have occurred easily from the lightest possible to the darkest possible and combinations in between. e) If these children then began to marry only those of similar color (as is often the case), the various “racial” tribes could have begun to form very shortly after the original heterozygous couple began to reproduce. f) Thus, evolution and great periods of time are not required to explain skin color, and the same is true for other racial differences as well. C. Do the three races correspond to Ham, Shem , and Japheth? 1. Let’s start with what we know. a) All human life descended from Adam and Eve. (1) We are all related to each other without regard to whatever minor racial differences may have developed in the intervening years. b) Prior to the flood it is likely that a wide variety of racial differences had already had time to develop. Many could have developed within just a few generations of Adam and Eve. c) Those of us living after the flood can trace our history back to the three sons of Noah and their wives (who themselves were most likely not related directly or at least closely to Noah). d) Genesis 10:32 tells us that from these three family groups “were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.” 2. The common belief is that the descendants of Shem remained in the Middle East (including, for example, both Jews and Arabs), the descendants of Ham migrated to Africa and parts of Asia, and the descendants of Japheth migrated into Europe and other parts of Asia. a) This view influences our language even today. The term Semitic for Jewish people points back to Shem and his descendants. 3. So what is the answer to the question? The short answer is we don’t know for sure but it is very unlikely that the three sons of Noah correspond to the three major races we see today. a) Instead, those races likely emerged at some point after the flood as people grouped together and genetic differences among the groups became more pronounced. b) Further, there was very likely much intermarriage among the three family groups prior to the time of the their separation. c) In fact, Genesis 11 tells us that they initially moved about together in one group rather than moving apart as God had commanded. d) Further, the three sons of Noah were genetically similar, and so the differences among the three groups of descendants would have come primarily from the three wives – and that fact is interesting from a scientific point of view. (1) Mitochondrial Eve is the name given by researchers to the woman who is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor for all living humans. (2) Passed down from mothers to offspring for thousands of years, her mitochondrial DNA is now found in all living humans. (4) She is believed by scientists to have lived about 140,000 years ago in what is now Ethiopia, Kenya or Tanzania. The time she lived is calculated based on the molecular clock technique of correlating elapsed time with observed genetic drift. (5) In human genetics, Y-chromosomal Adam is the patrilineal human most recent common ancestor from whom all Y chromosomes in living men are descended. (7) Without commenting on how long ago scientists believe they lived and the accuracy or inaccuracy of those estimates, isn’t it interesting that scientists now tell us that the common female ancestor lived long before the common male ancestor – just as the Bible has been telling us for 1000’s of years. D. An incident we must not overlook in answering this question is the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. 1. The Bible tells us that the descendants of Noah did not disperse as commanded but rather stayed together and attempted to build a tower reaching up to Heaven. 2. God not only dispersed them – but he changed them! His stated intent was to make them different from each other. b) We know God changed their speech – perhaps he also changed their appearance. We are not told. 3. This incident also helps us explain an interesting phenomenon: giant pyramidal structures are found all over the world, supposedly built by people who never had any contact with each other. a) We associate pyramids with ancient Egypt. But pyramids are not uniquely Egyptian. b) Pyramids and pyramid-like structures can be found all over the globe, built by cultures that span vast distances of geography and time. c) They appear in the ancient African kingdom of Kush, along the Nile ... in Mesopotamia and Sumeria ... in England and Ireland ... in India and throughout Southeast Asia ... in ancient China ... in Peru's coastal and Andean regions ... in the ancient Olmec and Mayan realms of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador ... in pre-Columbian Illinois... and elsewhere. d) How can it be that a form as distinctive as the pyramid was built in such widely separated locales? Was it merely coincidence? Or was there another force at work? e) Scientists tells us it is coincidence. But I think those dispersed by God at Babel kept up their building programs all over the world! Genesis 11:8 tells us that the people quit working on that city, but it does not tell us they did not work on other cities and towers after they were scattered. II. What does the Bible say about tattoos? A. To begin, let me note that these comments are directed less to those who already have a tattoo than to those who are thinking about getting one. 1. A 2006 a study done by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that 24% of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed; that's almost one in four. And the survey showed that about 36% of Americans age 18 to 29 have at least one tattoo! B. While the practice of tattooing can be traced to the earliest history of man, the English word “tattoo” is of recent origin. 1. The word “tattoo” comes from Polynesian languages and was first used in English by Capt. James Cook in 1769. 2. Sailors introduced (or more likely re-introduced) the custom into Europe at that time, which explains why even today tattoos are commonly associated with sailors. C. The practice of marking the body goes back much further, and is specifically condemned in the Old Testament. 2. The point of the verse and the surrounding verses is that God’s people were not to be like the people around them in the world, and specifically were not to follow any of their pagan religious practices. a) All agree that tattooing traces its history to pagan religious ceremonies and the occult. b) Even today, tattoo parlors are often linked with astrology, incense, and magic. 3. While marking the body is not specifically mentioned in the New Testament, the same injunction to be different from the world appears throughout the New Testament and is, for example, the theme of the Sermon on the Mount. D. A Christian must hold his own body in the highest regard because it is no longer his own body but rather belongs to another. E. Some suggest that Jesus himself had a tattoo, and they point to Revelation 19:16. 2. There are many things wrong with that idea. a) First, the verse itself says that the name was written on his vesture and on his thigh – the most likely explanation being that the text was on his vesture and the vesture was on his thigh. b) Second, Revelation is a book of figures and symbols – a book in which Jesus is also shown, for example, as a lamb. c) Third, to say that Jesus had a tattoo is to say that he violated the Law of Moses, which we know he did not do. d) Fourth, if we are going to turn to Revelation to find out what God has to say about tattoos, a more instructive passage might be 13:16-18. 3. One thing you sometimes hear is that people with tattoos are rebels just like Jesus was a rebel. a) If we leave here this morning with nothing else, please leave here with this – Jesus Christ was not a rebel! b) Luke 2:51 tells us that he was subject unto his parents. c) Philippians 2:8 tells us that he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. d) Jesus came to this world not to be a rebel but rather because we were rebels and he wanted us to be otherwise. F. Tattoos send the wrong message to the world. 1. The Latin word for tattoo is stigma, which tells us much about how tattoos were viewed at least at that time. 2. Throughout history, tattoos have been used to identify criminals with a mark of reproach and disgrace. a) Today in many prisons over 80% of the prisoners have a tattoo, and over 50% get more tattoos while in prison. 3. One author has described them as marks of indecency, depravity, perversion, and rebellion. 4. And yet we often hear that all that has changed in our modern world – that today a tattoo is a mark of high-fashion. Really? Let’s look at some statistics. a) Dr. Timothy Roberts is a pediatrician who himself has a tattoo. He believed that people with tattoos were unfairly stereotyped and so he set out to remedy the situation. What he found surprised him. b) Young people between 11 and 21 with tattoos are: (1) Four times more likely to engage in sexual intercourse. (2) Over two times more likely to drink alcohol. (3) Nearly two times more likely to use drugs. (4) Over two times more likely to be violent. (5) Over two times more likely to drop out of school. c) His conclusion was that permanent tattoos have strong associations with high-risk behaviors in adolescents, and the presence of a tattoo during an examination should prompt an in-depth assessment for high-risk behaviors. 5. Oh, but while that may be true for young people, we adults can handle it. Our tattoos are just fashion statements. a) And yet what are those “fashion statements” saying to our children? And what road are we putting them on when we directly or indirectly encourage them to get tattooed? 6. Is a tattoo going to help me spread the gospel or hurt me in that endeavor? What kind of reflection will a tattoo have to the world? We should ask those questions before we have our body – or rather the Lord’s body – tattooed. III. Were sins rolled forward in the Old Testament? Does God remember forgiven sins? A. Let’s start with the second question first: When the Bible says that God will remember our sins no more, does that mean that he literally forgets the sin? 1. The answer must be no. a) If we remember our own past sins and if God knows our thoughts, then how can he not know something that we know? b) Also, the Bible records many sins that we know were forgiven – sins by Moses, Abraham, and David, for example. How can God not know something that is recorded in the Bible? 2. Another reason the answer must be no is that a Christian can fall from grace, and when that occurs those formerly forgiven sins are no longer forgiven. 3. What then does it mean when God does not remember our sins? a) I think the phrase is an idiom meaning that God no longer holds those sins to our charge. He does not remember them against us – but he does remember that they occurred. B. The other question has to do with the common notion that sins in the Old Testament were rolled forward rather than forgiven. 1. Some verses appear to indicate that sins were forgiven prior to Jesus’ death on the cross. 2. Other verses appear to indicate there could be no forgiveness prior to Jesus’ death on the cross. (1) Verse 3 is where we get the concept of sins being rolled forward – there is a remembrance made every year. 3. What is the solution? a) The solution is not difficult. Forgiveness before the cross looks forward to the cross just as forgiveness after the cross looks back to the cross. Everything looks to and depends on the cross whether it is before or after that event. Open Forum Questions: Part 2 I. First, thanks for the kind words about the lessons in this series. When I suggested this study as a potential class I thought it would be both interesting and helpful, but I never dreamed of the reception that it has received. Your kind comments have been most appreciated, especially in light of the work that has gone into each lesson. Some, of course, require more than others, but each of them has necessitated many hours of preparation. Eric and I realize the number of hours represented by the class members, and we never want to come in to teach a class for which we have not made adequate preparation. In fact, as you have noticed, our preparation exceeds the time that we have for each session (I am a worse offender than Eric in that regard and I refer to the extra time and not to the extent of preparation). Some, I understand, do not care for an all lecture class, but given that preparation takes so much time, and given that the time for presentation is so precious, and given that so many comments in an “open” class (for lack of a better expression) have a great tendency to get the class off course from the subject at hand with much point and counterpoint, lecture seems to be the best procedure. My preference would be to take all of the time necessary to cover a book of the Bible verse by verse. I took over a year to teach the book of Job in that manner, but given the time I asked and received questions in the class, always trying to keep the class on subject by directing the discussion. Absent that discussion generally results in more discussion than learning (at least a learning possibility). For that reason we are even more grateful than we can say for the fine reception that this class has received and we look forward to the next quarter. But to the remaining questions. II. I have a question based on something said in the lesson on the role of women. The comment was made that Eric "preaches" through and probably reaches more people than most preachers do through their pulpit. If this is true, can a woman run a website similar to "Thy Word Is Truth" that is intended for a general audience? For that matter, can a woman write a book on religious issues for a general audience? Are Christian women restricted to writing for women? A. First, the setting in which the woman is forbidden must be remembered. 1. 1 Timothy 2:11-12 establishes that the woman is not to preach or lead in the worship assembly of the church in the presence of men. 2. Some suggest that this is not an absolute prohibition, but one that can be waived in a man or group of men grant permission to the woman to preach or take the lead, assuming that in that instance the woman has not usurped authority over the man. 3. Clearly, however, man cannot give woman permission to do that which God has prohibited her doing. 4. The word “teach” means “didactic discourse” and one cannot preach or teach without delivering a didactic (intended to teach; morally instructive) discourse. 5. However, the word for “silent” in 1 Timothy ((be quiet or peaceful and submissive) is not that used in 1 Cor. 14 (be silent, hold your peace). 1 Timothy refers to a broader context in which the woman is to be characterized by a quiet, peaceful submission. It does not require that she refrain from speaking. 1 Cor. 14 refers to the worship assembly and requires silence in leadership. B. Second, recall that a woman is not prohibited from all teaching. 1. Priscilla joined with her husband, Aquilla, in teaching Apollos the way of the Lord more perfectly (Acts 18:26). 2. Lenski writes of Luke’s language describing this situation: “Aquila and Priscilla must have been surprised when they heard him. But they at once noted serious limitations. When Luke writes that they ‘took him to them’ (indirect middle voice), we must note all that is involved. Moreover, Luke now places Priscilla’s name before her husband’s. [The KJV reverses the names, but see the ASV and most other translation.] In v. 18 the reason for this placement is only grammatical; here it means much more just as it does twice in Paul’s letters (Rom. 16:3; 2 Tim. 4:19, where Paul even uses Prisca instead of the diminutive Priscilla). We conclude that Priscilla was the moving spirit, that she was by nature more gifted and able than her husband, also spiritually fully developed due to having had Paul in her home for eighteen months while residing in Corinth. Aquila seems to have been a gentle, quiet soul, who was genuine in this unobtrusive way. It seems that the couple was childless.” “The beauty of Priscilla’s character lies in the fact that she never thrust herself forward, never asserted herself, or made her superiority felt. She was loyally true to Paul’s teaching that the husband is the head of the wife. Aquila had found a pearl among women. Priscilla is the direct opposite of Sapphira (Acts 5). The one stimulated her husband to all that was good, the other helped her husband on to his destruction. Priscilla is the example our women need so much today when so many thrust themselves beyond their proper sphere and often do not know where to stop.” 3. Additionally, the woman may teach other women (Titus 2:3-4), and she may teach mixed groups such as Bible classes where she neither teaches a man or lord’s it over a man. C. The question now is into which of these categories, if either, does teaching over the internet or writing a book fall? 1. It is clearly not the church assembled. 2. It is clearly not what we call “a worship service,” whether large or small. 3. Because it does not fall into any of the prohibited categories there is no scriptural prohibition to prevent a Christian woman from writing books or teaching on the internet for general consumption. 4. Moreover, the man who thinks that he has nothing to learn from a Godly woman or wife is robbing himself of a rich source of education. III. Can a woman baptize? A. Baptizing a person is the result of teaching; it is not teaching. Neither is it a learning situation calling for quiet submissiveness. In the worship service it would be a leadership role and should be done by a man, but all baptisms are not in a worship service. 1. If a woman’s baptizing a candidate violates any scriptural injunction, it would be that the female is not to exercise a leading role in the worship. 2. Even if it were otherwise all right, it is best to keep in mind that some things that are lawful are not expedient. 1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23. 3. Obviously if there is no man present a woman not only can but should. 4. Personally, I have never seen a situation where such was necessary, but I can envision its happening. a) While living in Lubbock, my wife taught a class for women at the jail; many of the students were baptized. b) Had I or others not been available she absolutely should have performed the baptism. 5. The New Testament does not prescribe qualifications for who does the baptizing as it does for the one being baptized. a) Questions concerning who can baptize are not new in the church. b) Tertullian (ca. 155-230) wrote: “It is not permitted to a woman to speak in the church; but neither (is it permitted her) to teach, nor to baptize, nor to offer, nor to claim to herself a post in any manly function, not to say (in any) sacerdotal office.” c) Since Tertullian, similar problems have arisen again and again. (1) Sometimes they are important enough, or are aggravated to such extents, to threaten the peace of the church. (2) What is needed in these cases, as always, is a patient seeking for truth along the lines of the principles that are clearly revealed. B. Where we need to be careful is in looking for some hypothetical situation with which we are “comfortable” and then applying it to a situation where “comfort” is not the standard. 1. This has been done with the introduction of musical instruments into young people’s gatherings, which, when the comfort is complete, is followed by introducing it into the worship service. 2. First Colony has recently taken that step. 3. Some argue against the necessity of baptism based on the hypothetical of a person’s being killed on the way to the baptistery, concluding that if he is excused we are all excused. a) They never stop to ask by what authority he or they are excused. b) They never stop to ask if they really want to be excused on that basis, i.e., an untimely death. 4. Some want to be saved like the thief on the cross, they assume without baptism (but see the lesson from last week), but when you start preparing the cross they change their minds. a) When they say that that is not what they meant, that they just wanted to avoid baptism for the remission of sins, they admit that the hypothetical doesn’t apply to them. b) That leaves them in knowing intentional rebellion against the will and commands of God. c) They cannot be saved at the hour of untimely death by crying out, “But Lord, I was going to be baptized next Sunday.” IV. How does “free will” balance with prayer for one’s salvation? A. This question has perturbed Christians over the years. 1. Man is a free moral agent created by God with the ability to choose between Him and evil. a) Joshua stated it well – “15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve Jehovah, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.” Joshua 24:15. 2. Given that man is a free moral agent who may reject God (though at man’s peril) and God will not override that choice, is it appropriate to pray that a man may be saved who has chosen to reject the way of God; is this not a prayer for God to do that which he has said that he will not do? B. Two passages have been used in discussing this question. a) Of this passage The Expositor’s Greek New Testament says: “After the grand assurance that prayer is always heard, never unanswered, the Apostle specifies one kind of prayer, viz. Intercession, in the particular case of a “brother,” i.e., a fellow-believer, who has sinned. Prayer will avail for his restoration, with one reservation – that his sin be ‘not unto death’. The reference is to those who had been led astray by the heresy, moral and intellectual, which had invaded the churches of Asia Minor . . . . They had closed their ears to the voice of Conscience and their eyes to the light of the Truth, and they were exposed to the operation of that law of Degeneration which obtains in the physical, moral, intellectual, and spiritual domains. E.g., a bodily faculty, if neglected, atrophies. . . . So in the moral domain disregard of truth destroys veracity. Acts make habits, habits character. So also in the intellectual domain. Cf. Darwin to Sir J. D. Hooker, June 17, 1868: ‘I am glad you were at the Messiah, it is the one thing that I should like to hear again, but I daresay I should find my soul too dried up to appreciate it as in old days; and then I should feel very flat, for it is a horrid bore to feel as I constantly do, that I am a withered leaf for every subject except Science’. And so in the spiritual domain. There are two ways of killing the soul: (I) The benumbing and hardening practice of disregarding spiritual appeals and stifling spiritual impulses. . . .(2) A decisive apostasy, a deliberate rejection. This was the case of those heretics. They had abjured Christ and followed Antichrist. This is what Jesus calls [blasphemy against the Holy Spirit] (Matt. xii. 31-32 = Mark iii. 28-30). It inflicts a mortal wound on the man’s spiritual nature. He can never be forgiven because he can never repent. He is ‘in the grip of an eternal sin. . . .Cf. Heb. vi. 4-6. This is ‘sin unto death’. Observe how tenderly St. John speaks: There is a fearful possibility of a man putting himself beyond the hope of restoration; but we can never tell when he has crossed the boundary. If we were sure that it was a case of ‘sin unto death,’ then we should forbear praying; but since we can never be sure, we should always keep on praying. So long as a man is capable of repentance, he has not sinned unto death.” (1) Some, such as brother Guy Woods, state that this passage prohibits one who has committed a sin that is unto death. TEGNT, quoted above, may take the same position, but avoids the conclusion on the basis that it is beyond our ability to know when one has sinned to that extent and that therefore we should keep praying for one that may have reached that state. (2) However, it seems to me that this position goes beyond what John is saying; he does not say that we should not pray for such a one, he says that he does not say that we should. (3) He requires us to pray for the one that has not sinned unto death; he does not say that we should pray for the one who has. (4) There is a difference between “should not” and “may not”. (5) This seems to say that, while there is no obligation to pray for such, there is no prohibition against it. (1) In this passage Paul is engaged in prayer (supplication) to God for Israel that they might be saved. (2) While it is true that they had a zeal for God, it is also true that they had rejected the Messiah to the point of crucifixion. (3) If ever a person or group of people were beyond “reachability” by God’s grace, it would seem to be the Sadducees and Pharisees of Paul’s day. (4) Still, Paul had hope because he himself had been a Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebrews. Phil. 3:5. (5) Paul prayed for the apparently unreachable. C. But what good does it do to pray for them when God cannot answer that prayer without violating their free will? 1. First, it is hard to sincerely and honestly pray for someone without personally reaching out to them. 2. Second, God may use providential means beyond our knowledge to bring them into a position where they will have opportunity and motive to obey the gospel if they choose to do so. 3. Third, God has already used one means – the Great Commission – to carry the gospel to them. D. Finally, I leave you with one other passage: “And Jesus said, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34. V. What is the Christian view of war? [This is an issue on which an entire quarter could be spent. Entire books have been written about it. The answer given here is a quick summary and a partial answer. While directed toward war, the principles also apply to peace officers.] A. There are at least three basic attitudes toward war. 1. Pacifist – it is wrong ever to take human life whatever the reason or provocation; therefore, war is always wrong. a) This was the position of many early Restoration Movement preachers. b) Moses Laird wrote: “To illustrate what I mean: it is held to be doubtful whether a Christian man can go to war according to the New Testament. For myself I am candid to think he can not. But others, let me allow, with equal candor, think differently. Suppose now, we as a people, were equally divided on the point. Neither party could certainly force the other to accept its view. The difference should be held as a difference of opinion, and hence should be made a matter of forbearance. But should either party attempt to compel the other to accept its view, and in case of failure should separate, I should not hesitate to regard the separating party as a faction, and hence as condemned by the New Testament.” c) David Lipscomb carried the position to the point that he thought it was wrong for a Christian to participate in civil government in any respect, even to vote. d) Batsell Barrett Baxter stated in class that he would not kill a man who entered his house and was attacking and killing his wife. 2. Activist – as expressed by Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr (5 January 1779 – 22 March 1820), an American naval officer notable for his heroism in the Barbary Wars and in the War of 1812. He was the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the history of the U.S. Navy, and the first American celebrated as a national military hero who had not played a role in the American Revolution. “In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!" Thus war is always right. 3. Selectivist – War is sometimes both just and justly fought. B. Some basic principles. 1. The Christian is not to take personal vengeance. Rom. 12:19-21. 2. God’s vengeance is not limited to the after-life. Rom. 13:1-7. 3. The question is not “What would Jesus do,” but “What would Jesus have us do?” C. What would Jesus have us do? 1. Soldiers are mentioned in the New Testament in the context of duties; none is commanded to go AWOL or cease serving when his enlistment is up. a) Luke 3:14 4 And soldiers also asked him [John the Baptizer], saying, And we, what must we do? And he said unto them, Extort from no man by violence, neither accuse any one wrongfully; and be content with your wages. b) Acts 10:1-2 1Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, 2 a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always. [Note that Scripture does not add “but he was a soldier” as it added “but he was a leper” in the case of Naaman (2 Kings 5:1).] 2. If we love out enemies, how can a Christian shoot them? a) When an enemy has surrendered he can’t; when an enemy is defenseless he can’t. (1) In fact one can probably envision many instances in which it would be inappropriate to kill an enemy while functioning as a soldier. (2) In fact, this has often been the difference between countries that follow ethical warfare and those that do not. (3) For instance, after the carnage in Spain, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed told Lisbon’s Publica magazine that a group of Islamists were “ready to launch a big operation” on British soil. “We don’t make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents, only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value.” The cleric added that he expected to see the banner of Islam flying in Downing Street. “I believe one day that is going to happen. Because this is my country, I like living here. If they believe in democracy, who are they afraid of? Let Omar Bakri benefit from democracy.” (4) Right now the enemies of the United States are being provided special food consistent with their religious beliefs, adequate shelter, and medical treatment superior to that which they would receive in their own countries. (5) This sounds a great deal like returning good for evil. Rom. 12:21; 1 Thess. 5:15. b) Some questions may help clarify this question. (1) Did God cease loving mankind when He destroyed all but eight souls in the flood? (2) Does the fact that many will spend eternity in Hell mean that God does not love every human being even to the point of sending his Son to die for them? (3) If God can love his enemies and still punish them, why can’t we? c) We are commanded to love our enemies, but we are also commanded to love the innocent citizens who many be enslaved or murdered by an attacking army? (1) Is our obligation to them not to provide justice, to defend their God-given rights? (2) Doesn’t it make sense that our duty to protect the innocent must prevail? d) A just war may be conducted both in the name of justice and of love; refusing to restrain an evildoer, or when necessary to take his life, when justice and love demand it, is a distortion of New Testament Christianity. 3. God has made clear that He desires to restrain evil among His creatures. a) He has authorized the use of deadly force when necessary, which is one of the primary functions of earthly government. Rom. 13:1-7. b) Those who righteously attend to such matters are even called ministers for good. c) You may argue that this refers just to government and not to Christians, but is that realistic? (1) Can a Christian under the right circumstances be such a “minister for good?” (2) Recently the nation was outraged by a thief who stole from an elderly lady on a walker her livelihood, striking her in the face and knocking her down. (3) Would a Christian observing this not have an obligation to help using whatever force was necessary, or should he hurry to the other side of the road while yelling, “Some of you folks who are lost anyway hurry up and help. I am a Christian and I am forbidden to lend assistance. 4. But isn’t that returning evil for evil? a) It is never evil to do that which is right. b) 1 John 3:7 – My little children, let no man lead you astray: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous: c) Proverbs 13:24 – He that spareth his rod hateth his son; But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. d) Revelation 3:19 – 19 As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. e) When civil servants and soldiers put their lives one the line to serve their fellow citizens and protect them from evil, they are involved in self-sacrificing love which is the highest form of love. John 15:13. 5. Shouldn’t we turn the other cheek? Matt. 5:39? a) Jesus’ language here is addressed to personal ethics and not invoking the lex talionis (Latin for "law of retaliation"), commonly referred to as “an eye for an eye.” b) If this principle is one to be applied across-the-board to individuals and governments then Paul certainly got it wrong in Romans 13:1-7. c) It is morally wrong not to prevent a murder if you can do so, and, failing to prevent it, it is morally wrong not to punish the evildoer. d) Likewise, it is morally wrong for a God-ordained government not to defend its citizens against a foreign aggressor that would do them evil. e) This being the case, the Christian should be willing to uphold the government’s righteous hand as it does justice (cf. 1 Peter 2:14; Titus 3:1; Rom. 13:1-7). D. Do we then conclude that every qualified Christian may serve in the military? 1. Yes, but not necessarily in the same capacity. 2. Not every Christian is qualified to serve as a police officer or a soldier, but those who are not so qualified should not belittle or condemn those who are and do. 3. Some who are otherwise qualified cannot serve in a context that would expose them to the possibility of having to take life because such would violate their conscience (Rom. 14:23), and that would be a sin within itself. 4. In the United States that belief is accommodated through conscientious objection; one who so objects can serve in other capacities such as the medical corp with the ability to treat all, enemies as well as fellow-countrymen. E. Should a Christian then “kill for his government” any time that the government commands it? 1. Obviously not. A Christian in Iraq or in WWII Germany or Japan could not do so. 2. When the cause is just, however, and the means used are just, the Christian may be so engaged. 3. The Christian fights for justice just as God does who uses force to check evil and accomplish justice. F. What problems would a Christian face in the military? 1. More important than the physical dangers are the moral perils that confront the military. 2. Gambling, drinking, whoremongering, and other vices are often overlooked if not directly or indirectly encouraged. 3. The Christian who enrolls in the military will have more opportunities to stray from the straight and narrow than his civilian cohort. 4. Moreover, the Christian will at times – sometimes long periods of time – be unable to assemble with the saints on the Lord’s Day. 5. It is not impossible to be in the military without compromising some convictions, but it certainly makes it more difficult. G. Conclusion. 1. It is in the Christian that we find the best possibility of finding one who can do battle to the nth degree and be meek to the nth degree in a just war fought by just means and in a just manner. 2. We should honor and pray God’s richest blessings upon those chivalrous soldiers as they seek to faithfully fulfill both aspects of this “double demand,” best found in those who have, by God’s infinite grace, cultivated the wisdom of serpents and the harmlessness of doves. Matthew 10:16. God's Plan of Salvation
Winter Wheat Early Spring Management Technology 1. Due to seedlings, scientific fertilizer. After unfrozen winter wheat fields, after the soil is thawed, it is necessary to pay close attention to the time for irrigation. The water-filled mu will be applied with 20-30 kg of ammonium bicarbonate or urea at 5-10 kg, supplement the nutrition, and increase the tillage percentage of the tillers. Watering should be controlled first before pouring sand, after pouring silt; first pouring strong seedlings, after pouring weak seedlings; close attention to the weather forecast, select sunny weather, pouring, strong cold waves will not come pouring; timely scratch after pouring, remove the compaction. 2. Seize the opportunity to prevent and treat diseases. After mid-February wheat return to green, mu with 12.5% â€‹â€‹licorice WP 20-30 grams or 15% Triadimefon 50-75 grams water 50-75 kilograms, spray evenly on the base of the stem to prevent wheat withered disease. In the middle and mid-March, the field of underground pests occurred, and 40% of methylisothiphos EC was used to irrigate the roots in the hazard area. The area for prevention and treatment should be appropriately expanded. 3. Reasonable control, increase resistance to collapse. For wheat fields with a population greater than 600,000 heads, timely control can be performed during the period of wheat's rise, which can control over-prosperous growth of plants, promote down-rooting of roots, prevent lodging at late growth stage, and increase the ability of wheat to resist cold. The method is to use 30 grams of 15% paclobutrazol per mu in early March and spray 25-30 kg of water on the leaf surface. Spraying must be done carefully to avoid spraying or heavy spraying. 4. Timely and early, scientific addition. Prevent weeds to seize an "early" character, severe grass damage, can be used to cover a wide 1.8 grams of 30 kg of water evenly spray, so that no heavy spray, no leakage spray. In order to prevent the occurrence of phytotoxicity on crops under the locust crops, the application time must be controlled before March 5. The use of 2.4D-butyl ester herbicides is not recommended in spring. 5. Take measures and apply it to prevent freezing damage. After the jointing of wheat, the resistance to low temperature decreased significantly, and in early spring there were more cold currents. Wheat often suffered from different degrees of late frost damage. Therefore, we should actively pay attention to weather changes, pay attention to late frost forecast, timely watering before the advent of the cold current, adjust the near-surface microclimate, and prevent early spring frost damage; after wheat is frozen in the early spring, apply nitrogen fertilizer immediately after combining with watering. The early spring suppression of wheat fields with prosperous growth, spraying paclobutrazol and other chemical control agents to prevent prosperous growth and effectively prevent freezing damage. Cat Treats Healthy Cat Treats,Homemade Cat Treats,Best Cat Treats,Cat Dental Treats Jiangxi Welton Pet Products Co., Ltd. ,
hdd.gif (5190 bytes) hdd.gif (5190 bytes) hdd.gif (5190 bytes) Why does it occur ? Logical Crash Most data loss occur due to Virus, Worm or Trojan that writes garbage in the MBR (master boot record) of the hard disk, making it impossible for DOS / WINDOWS to recognise the logical partitions. More dangerous Virus, even destroy the Boot Record and FAT (file allocation tables) as well. The worst are those which formats the Hard Drive (low level) or fill the files with garbage and set the file length to Zero. Same is the case with Floppy. Physical Crash Physical crash is a mechanical failure of the Hard Drive. The hard disc rotates at 5400 - 10000 RPM. Thus with time scratch develops on the Media or the Head is broken due to excessive friction. In this case The Computer BIOS doesn't recognise the hard drive altogether. Same is the case with floppy. Although it rotates slowly the media of the Floppy is very fragile and develops scratch with time. Click here to go back Hosted by www.Geocities.ws
The problem with America’s abandoned mines by Rachael Bale Taxpayer-funded efforts to clean up Oregon’s abandoned Formosa Mine, a federal Superfund site, could cost more than $20 million. A mine plans its death before its birth. The leftover waste from mines is so hazardous that mining companies must figure out what to do with it decades in advance, even before they start digging. That’s how it works today, at least. But in 1981, when the United States government began requiring mines to have rehabilitation plans, many operators simply up and left instead. The government has identified about 46,000 abandoned mines on public lands alone. Some of them are top-priority Superfund sites. But most haven’t even been mapped. By some estimates, there are as many as half a million abandoned mines in the U.S. These sites have the potential to contaminate water, pollute soil, kill wildlife and sicken humans, to say nothing of the risks of falling down a hidden mine shaft. (This is a legitimate concern in some areas – in California, the state employs teams that scour the state looking for abandoned mines and plugging them up. There was even a “Dirty Jobs” episode about these folks.) Last month, heavy rains from Hurricane Odile caused two abandoned mines in Arizona to leak orange and brown sludge, threatening a waterway that runs into Patagonia Lake State Park. With thousands of abandoned mines dotting the American landscape, particularly in the West and Southwest, just how worried should we be? The problem with tailings Minerals have to be separated from the rocks once they’re taken out of the ground. That process of separation creates a waste called tailings, a combination of ground-up rock, chemicals and heavy metals. This waste is often stored as a liquid in a pond, though sometimes it is dried and kept in a special building. Today, a mine’s storage facilities for tailings are one of the most scrutinized parts of its construction plan. If a wall breaks, massive amounts of toxins would be released into the water and soil, causing what is considered an environmental catastrophe. This summer, a tailings pond spill at a mine in British Columbia was compared to an“avalanche” of toxic waste. Abandoned mines don’t necessarily have the same level of protection around their tailings. Tailings can leach toxins up to 100 years after the mine is abandoned, and older abandoned mines weren’t necessarily as careful with their tailings as mines are today. There are several things about tailings that make them toxic: Acid: Sulfides in the tailings turn into acid that drains into surface water, along with chemicals used during processing, like cyanide. Acid drainage makes the water more corrosive. Marine habitats become unable to support fish and plant life. Heavy metals: As the newly created acid leaches, it allows heavy metals to escape. Arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead and other metals wash into the soil and water supply. People in turn eat fish and drink water contaminated with heavy metals. Paying for the cleanup Basically, the public foots the bill. Funding can come from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, Clean Water Act grants, watershed programs run by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, state sources and others. No single agency is in charge. To clean up the estimated 500,000 abandoned mines, taxpayers face a price tag of $32 billion to $72 billion, the Department of the Interior predicted. And that’s just for “hardrock” mines, which require mining that involves separating metals and minerals from ore. The Superfund program, for example, puts a handful of former mine operators on the hook for part of the costs. To clean up just the 63 top-priority mine sites, the bill could top $7.8 billion. The public would pay about $2.4 billion of that, according to the Government Accountability Office. Coal mines are treated separately. Current coal mine operators pay into the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program, which then distributes money to states to clean up and rehabilitate abandoned coal mines. So far, it has spent about $7.6 billion. Uranium mines, too, are treated separately – a select few get Superfund money, but most are handled by the Department of Energy. In 1998, it estimated a cost of about $2.3 billion to clean up tailings sites, an amount that didn’t include the additional costs of cleaning nearby water. Where are they? There isn’t a comprehensive list or map of identified abandoned mine sites – there are just too many federal agencies involved. Which agency is in charge depends on the type of mine, its location and the level and type of pollution. The Bureau of Land Management, for example, takes the lead on abandoned hardrock mines on public lands. Most are in Western states, concentrated in Nevada, Colorado and Arizona. Abandoned uranium mines, on the other hand, are most often on tribal lands, especially in the “Four Corners” of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Even so, cleaning up toxins isn’t the end for abandoned mines. The ultimate goal is to reclaim the land, allowing natural ecosystems to re-establish themselves and erase evidence of the mine almost entirely. Source: The Center for Investigative Reporting. Pure Water Gazette Fair Use Statement
The immune system keeps us healthy on a day to day basis by fighting any infection. The immune system is made up of proteins including antibodies, white blood cells, organs (such as the spleen) and other chemicals that help us prevent bacteria from attacking us. Physical activity helps boost the immune system in many different ways. One of the most important ways in which exercise helps boost the immune system is by causing subtle changes in antibodies and white blood cells. The changes mean that the white blood cells and antibodies are able to move around the body more regularly, therefore detecting the origin of infection faster. If infection is detected earlier the immune system is able to start fighting illness faster. Not only does exercise allow white blood cells to circulate regularly around the body it also increases the number of white blood cells in the body – making it easier to fight the infection. The beneficial effect of exercise on the immune system has been proven in many studies. The Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise Journal reported that with 12 weeks of prescribed exercise individuals had better function in cells that are linked with the immune system than their inactive counterparts. The improvement in the immune system function is irrespective of age and has been proven in both older and younger individuals. What type of exercise causes this boost in the immune system? The immune system mainly benefits from a moderate level of exercise. Moderate exercise is something which causes you to be slightly out of breath and raise your body temperature for around 30 minutes. You may class this type of exercise as a 5 or 6 out of 10 on a difficulty spectrum where 10 is your are at your maximum. This is exactly the style of physical activity or exercise we prescribe at HSW. Webmd: Component of the immune system’. Medline Plus: “Exercise and Immunity.” MedicineNet: “Exercise Restraint When Sick.” Nienman. D.C., Henson. D.A., Guesewitch. G., Warren. B.J., Dotson. R.C., Butterworth. D. & Nehlsen-Cannarella, S.L. (1993) ‘Physical acitivty and immune function in elderly women’, Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.
Aarhus University Seal / Aarhus Universitets segl Improvement of cow feed efficiency through new genetic methods can protect the environment and boost the farmer's economy. Photo: Jesper Rais 2015.03.23 \| Grant, Knowledge exchange Towards low-impact high-yielding cows Burps, behaviour, blood and milk are some of the traits that can give us an indication of how efficient and eco-friendly a cow is. Scientists at Aarhus University are developing tools that can identify the most cost-effective cows. This will benefit the farmer’s economy and the environment. Pigs in a pen affect each other. The group effect will therefore be included in breeding programmes with the aid of new breeding techniques. Photo: Jesper Rais 2015.03.11 \| Grant The effect of pig pen mates to be included in breeding programmes Information about pigs' pen mates, advanced statistical models and genomic methods are some of the tools that researchers will use in a research project that aims to improve pig welfare and reduce their environmental impact.
Klabas was a white powder refined from the buds of the klane, a shrub distantly related to the hazelnut, native to temperate scrublands. Klabas was prepared by boiling klane buds in water, straining the extract, and allowing the extract to cool and evaporate slowly into powder. Klabas caused nervous breakdowns; at minimum, it caused depression.
Last updated Umarkot Fort view3.JPG The 11th century Umerkot Fort Sindh Maps.svg Red pog.svg Location of Umerkot within Sindh Province Pakistan location map.svg Red pog.svg Umerkot (Pakistan) Coordinates: 25°21′47″N69°44′33″E / 25.36306°N 69.74250°E / 25.36306; 69.74250 Coordinates: 25°21′47″N69°44′33″E / 25.36306°N 69.74250°E / 25.36306; 69.74250 CountryPakistan Flag of Pakistan.svg Province Sindh District Umarkot Metropolitan CorporationPre-islamic Hindu-era Total[[1 E+<strong class="error">Expression error: Unrecognized word "sq".</strong>_m²\|48.6 sq ml km2]] (Formatting error: invalid input when rounding sq mi) Time zone UTC+05:00 (PKT) Amarkot Fort built by Raja Amar Singh Umerkot Fort view1.JPG Amarkot Fort built by Raja Amar Singh Umerkot [lower-alpha 1] (Urdu : عُمَركوٹ, Dhatki عُمَركوٹ), Sindhi (عمرڪوٽ) formerly known as Amarkot, [1] is a city in Umerkot District in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The city was the birthplace of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. The local language is Dhatki, which is one of the Rajasthani languages of the Indo-Aryan language family. It is most closely related to Marwari. Sindhi, Urdu and Punjabi are also understood by the citizens. The birthplace of Akbar is traditionally believed to be marked by the small pavilion. Birthplace of Akbar.JPG The city is named by its Hindu founder Maharaja Amar Singh, [2] who originally built the Amarkot Fort here. [2] The name of the city was later changed after a local Ruler of Sindh Umer Soomro of the Umar Marvi story which also appears in Shah Jo Risalo and is one of the popular tragic romances from Sindh. [2] Umerkot province was ruled by Sodha Rajput clan of Hindu Rajputs from medieval times until 1947 Partition of British India. The city held prominence during the Mughal Empire and the British Raj. Mughal Emperor Akbar was born in Amarkot 14 October 1542 when his father Humayun fled from the military defeat at the hands of Sher Shah Suri. [3] Rana Parshad, the Sodha Rajput ruler of Umarkot, gave him refuge. [4] Later on, Akbar brought northwestern India, including modern day Pakistan under Mughal rule. Marvi of Umar Marvi love saga was kept here at Amarkot fort. Its ruler Rana Ratan Singh was hanged by the British at this fort for standing up for the rights of the Sindhis. Umerkot was annexed by Jodhpur State in the 18th century and its rulers were reduced to Vassals. Umerkot and its fort was later handed to the British in 1847 by the Maharaja of Jodhpur in return for reducing the tribute imposed on Jodhpur State by Rs.10,000. [5] Due to this the Rana of Umerkot did not have much say in whether to join India or Pakistan, although he expressed his desire to join Pakistan because of his Sindhi roots. Umerkot was the only state with a Hindu majority and a Hindu King, that acceded to Pakistan. Rana Chandra Singh, a federal minister and the chieftain of the Hindu Sodha Thakur Rajput clan and the Umerkot Jagir, was one of the founder members of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan from Umarkot, seven times with PPP between 1977 and 1999, when he founded the Pakistan Hindu Party (PHP). [6] [7] [8] Currently, his politician son Rana Hamir Singh is the 26th Rana of Tharparkar, Umarkot and Mithi. [9] [10] Points of interest The city is well connected with the other large cities like Karachi, the provincial capital and Hyderabad. [11] Umarkot has many sites of historical significance such as Akbar's birthplace, Umarkot, Umerkot Fort and Momal Ji Mari. There is an ancient temple, Shiv Mandir, Umerkot, as well as Kali Mata Temple, Krishna Mandir at old Amarkot and Manhar Mandir Kathwari Mandir at Rancho Line. The story of Umar Marvi is that Marvi was a young Thari girl abducted by then-ruler, Umar, who wanted to marry her because of her beauty. Upon her refusal, she was imprisoned in the historic Umerkot Fort for several years. Because of her courage, Marvi is regarded as a symbol of love for one's soil and homeland. The city has more than 100 schools, 20 colleges, and one polytechnic college. See also 1. Also spelled as Umarkot. Related Research Articles Humayun Badshah of the Mughal Empire Nasir-ud-Din Muḥammad, better known by his regnal name, Humayun, was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern India, and Bangladesh from 1530–1540 and again from 1555–1556. Like his father, Babur, he lost his kingdom early but regained it with the aid of the Safavid dynasty of Persia, with additional territory. At the time of his death in 1556, the Mughal Empire spanned almost one million square kilometres. Nagaur City in Rajasthan, India Nagaur (Nāgaur) is a city in the state of Rajasthan in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Nagaur District. The Nagaur city lies about midway between Jodhpur and Bikaner. Dhatki, also known as Dhatti or Thari, is one of the Rajasthani languages of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is most closely related to Marwari. Maldev Rathore Ruler of Marwar Maldev Rathore was an Indian ruler of Marwar, which was later known as Jodhpur. He was a scion of the Rathore clan. His father was Rao Ganga Ji and his mother was Rani Padmavati of Sirohi. Rao Maldev fought in the Battle of Khanwa as a young prince, the defeat at Khanwa greatly weakened all the Rajput kingdoms in India, but Marwar under Maldev's capable rule turned into a powerful Rajput Kingdom that resisted foreign rule and challenged them for northern supremacy. Maldev refused to ally with either the Sur Empire or the Mughal Empire after Humayun regained control of north India in 1555. This policy was continued by his son and successor Chandrasen Rathore. Umerkot District District in Sindh, Pakistan Umerkot District, is a district of Sindh province, Pakistan. The city of Umerkot is the capital of the district. Nagarparkar Taluka in Sindh, Pakistan Nagarparkar (Urdu: نگرپاركر‎, Sindhi: ننگرپارڪر‎, is a taluka in at the base of the Karoonjhar Mountains in Tharparkar District in Sindh province of Pakistan that is known for the ancient Nagarparkar Temples and the Churrio Jabal Durga Mata Temple. Located at a distance of 129 km from Mithi, in Sindh, Pakistan. <i>Rana</i> (title) Kshatriya royal title Rana is a historical title denoting an absolute Hindu monarch in the Indian subcontinent. Today, it is used as a hereditary name in the Indian subcontinent. Mithi Taluka in Sindh, Pakistan Mithi, is a Taluka and the capital of Tharparkar District in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It became the capital of the Tharparkar District in 1990, after the area's separation from Mirpur Khas. Mithi is one of the very few region in Pakistan where Muslims do not form a majority. More than 80% of the population in this region belong to the Hindu community. Both Hindus and Muslims reportedly live peacefully and there has been no reports of religious intolerance. Umar Marvi or Marui, , is a folktale from Sindh, Pakistan about a village girl Marvi Maraich, who resists the overtures of a powerful King and the temptation to live in the palace as a queen, preferring to be in simple rural environment with her own village folk. Hamida Banu Begum Mughal Empress Hamida Banu Begum was a wife of the second Mughal emperor Humayun and the mother of his successor, the third Mughal emperor Akbar. She is also known by the title Maryam Makani, which was given to her by her son, Akbar. Rana Chandra Singh, also known as Rana Chandar Singh, was a Pakistani politician and a federal minister. He was one of the founder members of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan from Umerkot, seven times with PPP between 1977 and 1999, when he founded the Pakistan Hindu Party (PHP). Tharparkar District in Sindh, Pakistan Tharparkar also known as Thar, is a district in Sindh province in Pakistan. The district is the largest in Sindh, and has the largest Hindu population in Pakistan. It has the lowest Human Development Index rating of all the districts in Sindh. It is headquartered at Mithi. Ram Singh Sodha is a former Pakistani Hindu politician. A member of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League (Q), he held a seat reserved for non-Muslims in the Provincial Assembly of Sindh, but in 2011 resigned and moved to India. Umarkot Fort Umarkot Fort, is a fort located in Umerkot, Sindh, also called Amarkot, Emperor Akbar was born in Umarkot Fort when his father Humayun fled from the military defeats at the hands of Sher Shah Suri on 15 October 1542. Rana Parasad of Umarkot, who had risen to power had given refuge to Mughal Emperor Humayun and it was there Hamida Bano Begum gave birth to young Akbar. Later the Mughal Emperor Akbar became the Shahenshah of Hindustan and was a popular figure with both Hindus and Muslims. Umerkot has many sites of historical significance such as Mughal emperor Akbar's birthplace near to Umarkot Fort, currently King Akbar birthplace is an open land. In 1746, the Mughal Subahdar, Noor Mohammad Kalhoro, built a fort at the location. Later the British would take over that area. Rajput resistance to Muslim conquests Before the Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent, much of northern and western India was being ruled by Rajput dynasties. The Rajput kingdoms contended with the rising and expansionist empires of the Muslim world, be they Arabs, Turks, Pashtuns or Mughals. The Rajputs held out against the Caliphates and Central Asian empires for several centuries. A few of Rajput kings converted to Islam, some formed alliance with the Mughals, which laid the foundations for the creation of the multi-ethnic Mughal Dynasty. Kertee is a village in Tharparkar District, Sindh, Pakistan, located 21 kilometers to the south of Mithi city, also known as Kertigarh under the rule of the Makwana clan, It was known as Karli Nagar in Gujarati language. The village Kertee is majorily populated of Rajputs and some other castes are also inhabitant there, such as Sodha, Mahar, Meghwar, Bheel, Bhatti Rajput, Jadeja, Suther and some houses of Manghniyar Muslims. Apart from its historical background, Kertee is also famous for an ancient well, about which locals say, is 5000 years old. Stories mention that this well was constructed by the Pandavas during their exile of 14 years. There are also temples of some common deities like as Oghar Nath, Pir Pithora, Pir Bhavsingh, Mard Ali Shah, Mauji, Mataji and three other temples of Lord Shiva and one temple of Lord Krishna. Rana Ratan Singh was ruler of Umerkot belonging to Sodha subclan of Rajputs. Rana had rebelled against British rule, he was charged for treason and was hanged in Umarkot Fort by the British in the 1850s. Rana Parshad aka Rana Patta was 18th king of Amarkot(Umerkot)(1530/1556). Who gave refugee to Mughal king Humayun when we has defeated by Sher Shah Suri and nobody was offering him refugee because every kingdom was frightened of Sher Shah Suri. 1. Historical Forts in Pakistan 2. 1 2 3 Shaikh Khurshid Hasan (1 January 2005). Historical Forts In Pakistan. National Institute of Historical & Cultural Research Centre of Excellence, Quaid-i-Azam University. ISBN 978-969-415-069-7. 3. Part 10:..the birth of Akbar Humayun nama by Gulbadan Begum. 4. Part 10:..the birth of Akbar Humayun-nama by Gulbadan Begum. 6. "Hindu Leader, Ex-minister Chardar Singh is Dead". Khaleej Times . 3 August 2009. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2009. 7. Guriro, Amar (2 August 2009). "Chieftain of Pakistani Hindu Thakurs dies". Daily Times. Retrieved 2 August 2009. 8. "Amarkot (Jagir)". Chiefa Coins. Archived from the original on 21 February 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2009. 9. Footprints: Once upon a time in Umerkot, Dawn (newspaper), 16 January 2015. 10. Pakistan's Umerkot gets a new Hindu ruler, The Hindu, 30 May 2010. 11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Ozone/Buntrock Trash Room Why Do We Use Ozone? Compostable materials are brought to two large dumpsters in the Buntrock Trash Room. When these dumpsters are full the materials are hauled off site for processing. To control/eliminate odors made by the decaying food materials, ozone gas is pumped into the two dumpsters (in simple terms the ozone molecules react instantly with the odor-causing molecules; this eliminates the “garbage” smell and also destroys the ozone molecules).
Chemo Experts, the easiest way to learn about cancer treatment Find a Treatment: Cancer Types Treatment Name: Aprepitant (Emend®) Aprepitant (Emend®) is a Supportive Care Therapy for Nausea and Vomiting How does oral aprepitant (Emend®) work? Aprepitant is designed to block receptors in your brain called substance P/neurokinin 1 (NK1) receptors which, when activated, can trigger nausea and vomiting. Depending upon the type of chemotherapy, certain types may contribute to substance P being released. Substance P then binds to the NK1 receptors, which tells the body to vomit. Aprepitant (Emend®) binds to NK1 receptors instead of substance P, and thereby stops the reflex to vomit. Goals of oral aprepitant (Emend®) therapy: Aprepitant capsules are given to prevent both early and delayed nausea and vomiting (also known as “emesis”) from chemotherapy and is commonly given on a scheduled basis. Aprepitant is not typically used to treat nausea and vomiting. When a medicine is given to prevent nausea and vomiting, it is known as prophylaxis, or prophylactic anti-emetic therapy. Create your own Treatment Tracker How is aprepitant (Emend®) given to prevent nausea and vomiting? • Usual aprepitant (Emend®) starting dose: • Aprepitant 125 mg oral capsule by mouth once daily on Day 1 of each chemotherapy cycle • Aprepitant 80 mg oral capsule by mouth once daily on Days 2 and 3 of each chemotherapy cycle • Aprepitant is also available as an oral suspension (liquid) if you have trouble swallowing • Aprepitant can be taken with or without food On days when chemotherapy is given and a dose of aprepitant is to be taken, aprepitant is usually brought from home and taken at the infusion center, approximately one hour prior to treatment. On days when a dose of aprepitant is to be taken but no chemotherapy is given, aprepitant is usually taken at home in the morning. Aprepitant is typically taken, along with other anti-nausea medications, for chemotherapy regimens that have a high or moderate risk of causing acute and delayed nausea and vomiting. These are sometimes referred to as highly emetogenic or moderately emetogenic chemotherapy regimens. Duration of aprepitant therapy depends upon response, tolerability, and number of cycles chemotherapy prescribed. Aprepitant may be given by the infusion center as an intravenous medicationprior to chemotherapy and is known as IV Emend. If IV Emend is used, oral aprepitant is not needed. Side Effects What are the most common side effects of oral aprepitant (Emend®) therapy? In the prescribing label information (aprepitant package insert), the most commonly reported side effects from aprepitant (Emend®) are shown here: • Fatigue (13%) • Diarrhea (9%) • Weakness (7%) • Heartburn (7%) • Stomach pain (6%) • Hiccups (5%) • Decreased white blood cells [neutropenia] (4%) • Dehydration (3%) Note: The exact percentages of patients that will experience aprepitant side effects is unknown because it has been used under widely varying patient populations in a variety of clinical trials Watch videos on common oral aprepitant therapy side effects below Side effect videos Side Effect Videos Fatigue Fatigue DiarrheaDiarrheaPainPain How often is monitoring needed with oral aprepitant (Emend®) therapy? Labs (blood tests) typically do not need to be monitored for aprepitant, but may be checked before each chemotherapy treatment. Aprepitant has been associated with an increase in liver function tests, as measured through the use of a comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP). How often is imaging needed with oral aprepitant (Emend®) therapy? Imaging is not usually necessary to start or continue aprepitant therapy. How might blood test results/imaging affect treatment with oral aprepitant (Emend®)? Depending upon the results, your doctor may advise to continue aprepitant as planned or switch to an alternative therapy. ChemoExperts Tips What are the most important things to know about oral aprepitant (Emend®) when receiving treatment? • Remember to bring your aprepitant capsules with you to the infusion center to take before treatment! • Aprepitant is commonly dispensed as a “Tri-Pack” that contains one 125 mg capsule labeled as “Day 1” and two 80 mg capsules, one of which is labeled “Day 2” and the other as “Day 3”. Be sure you are taking the correct dosage on the correct day • If you are receiving warfarin, aprepitant may cause a decrease in your INR and your dose of warfarin may need to be adjusted to prevent unwanted blood clots • Aprepitant may decrease efficacy of oral contraceptives. Use an alternative, yet effective method of contraception during aprepitant (Emend®) treatment and for one month following the last dose of aprepitant • Avoid therapy with St. Johns Wort as it will decrease blood levels of aprepitant. This could decrease the effectiveness of aprepitant • Store at room temperature (68°-77°F) Patient Assistance & Co-payment Coverage If you have insurance and are looking for patient assistance or copay assistance for Aprepitant (Emend®), we have provided links that may help. Visit our Patient Assistance page and click the links to various patient assistance programs for help paying for Aprepitant (Emend®). Depending upon your income, they may be able to help cover the cost of: • Aprepitant (Emend®) Medicare and Medicaid patients (Patients 65 years or older): The clinic providing treatment will likely pre-authorize medications and immune therapies such as Aprepitant (Emend®) and are the best source to help you understand drug cost. Share this page: Created: April 1, 2020 Updated: April 19, 2020 What is Nausea and Vomiting? What is a CMP? Electrolytes & Acid/Base status: Kidney Function: Liver Function: Blood sugar: 13) Serum glucose 14) Serum calcium
What Does It Actually Mean To Be Gender Fluid? No, it doesn't mean you feel 'born in the wrong body.' Gender fluidity is hardly an unknown term in 2019but you wouldn't be alone if you're unsure of exactly what it means. As more and more people begin to openly challenge conventional gender stereotypesa 2017 government study found that 6.9 percent of 108,000 British citizens surveyed identified as non-binary (although there is no guarantee that it was representative of the entire LGBT population in the UK)the term is becoming more widely used. Here's everything you should know. What is gender fluid? In short, it's when gender expression shifts between masculine and feminine. However, this can mean different things to each individual, and it's certainly not as black and white as wanting to wear a dress one day and a suit the next. When we're born, we are given a gender based on our physical anatomybut not everyone feels connected to the perceived "traits" of that gender. Stonewall told Cosmopolitan UK that gender fluidity is a subcategory of the non-binary gender. "Transpeople may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms, including (but not limited to) transgender, transsexual, gender-queer (GQ), gender-fluid, non-binary, gender-variant, crossdresser, genderless, agender, nongender, third gender, bi-gender, trans man, trans woman, trans masculine, trans feminine and neutrois," they explain. Continue reading below ↓ Continue reading below ↓ Recommended Videos And the term is shifting into everyday life. Sites such as OkCupid and Facebook now let users state their own pronouns in their profiles alongside other important information, while toy manufacturer Mattel recently announced a gender-netural doll. What does it mean to be gender fluid? It's far more than just appearance. Lady Kitt, an artist who works as a drag king, told Cosmopolitan UK that they began to question their given gender identity at a young age. "As a child, I remember not being unhappy about who I was, but feeling like I wasn't really a girl or a boy because both seemed bound by a set of invisible, unspoken rules that I just didn't get," they told Cosmopolitan UK. "As I got older I felt more at home with the 'boy rules' but still found it all pretty odd." After years of confusion, it took a momentous life event to make them realize that they could choose their own identity. "Becoming a parent was the thing that really made me interrogate what gender meant to me," they explained. "When I was pregnant with my first child, a shop keeper refused to sell me a blue baby hat because I didn't know if the baby was a boy or a girl." Continue reading below ↓ Lady Kitt explained that it's other people's presumptions that can be difficult to deal with. "The assumptions about the role I take in the children's lives, which are not at all based on knowing mesolely on my gendercan be confusing," they said. "I also found it hard to understand the things people think the children might be interested in or aspire to because of their gender. I started to think: If this makes so little sense to me, why am I being part of it?" Continue reading below ↓ "For me, gender fluidity means gender confusion. Not confusion about my own identity but complete, utter, mind-melting confusion about societal norms based on gender. The binary categorizing of stufffeelings, appearances, reactionsdoesn't reflect the way I feel about myself or how I experience the world. Emotional women, stoic men, pretty girls, handsome boys, boys will be boys, big girl's blouse... "At best I find it totally weird, at worst (thinking about things like male suicide rates) genuinely dangerous." According to a Stonewall report, almost half (48 percent) of trans people in Britain have attempted suicide at least once; 84 percent have thought about it. A better understanding of non-binary terms could make all the difference to these shockingly high statistics. Is genderqueer and non-binary the same as gender fluid? In this case, it's all about what the person prefers to be called. If you're unsure? Just ask. Not all gender fluid people use "they/them" pronouns, and may prefer the terms "zie" or "Mx." Continue reading below ↓ How do I know if I'm gender fluid? Only you can answer that, and it comes down to how you relate to "gender norms." "If you imagine the spectrum and imagine the most feminine expression you have ever seen and most masculine you have ever seen and just sort of imagine where you are on that," Dr. Dot Brauer, author of Gender: It's Complicated told CNN. Lady Kitt has seen first-hand the lack of understanding around gender fluidity. "People often think that I must feel like I was 'born in the wrong body,'" they said. "That I want to stop other people from identifying as male or female. That I, and other gender non-conforming people are going to use the 'wrong' public toilets, and thus bring about the end of civilization as we know it! That I'm asexual. "Some people have seemed really surprised to find out that I'm a parent. One person actually said 'Oh, but I thought you were non-binary'as though that automatically excluded me from parenthood." Continue reading below ↓ "Most folks who aren't supportive are not rude or aggressive, more confused or even upsetoften offering me reasons why they think it's important for society that people identify as male or female. 'We need to know someone's gender so we know how to treat them,' 'You must admit men and women are essentially different and need different things,' 'It's too confusing for children' are all classic." Continue reading below ↓ Luckily, most have been encouraging, and Lady Kitt's work is focussed on encouraging more understanding around the history of gender non-conformity. "I have such a gorgeous supportive community around me," they explained. "Reactions from most people I know have been greatmore than greatand I've been very moved by how accepting people have been." Follow Abbi on Instagram. Sorry, no results were found for
Back to top anchor MyF&BJoin us Renew Conservation area: Issue date: Resource type: The fungi fun quiz featured in the Autumn 2019 issue of the Forest & Bird magazineSign up as a Forest & Bird member to receive your copy (in print or digital). 12 species of fungi to guess Credit: Bernard Spragg Fungi Fun quiz answers: 1. Alpine jelly cone (Guepiniopsis alpina) also known as poor man’s gumdrop. 2. Basket fungi (Ileodictyon cibarium) is native to New Zealand. 3. Devil’s fingers (Clathrus archeri), also known as octopus stinkhorn. 4. Fairies bonnets (Coprinus disseminatus) last only a few days. 5. False morel (Gyromitra tasmanica) is native to New Zealand and poisonous. 6. Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a most conspicuous mushroom. 7. Earthstars (Geastrum) from the family Geastraceae. 8. Sulfur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare), also known as clustered woodlover. 9. Turkey tail fungus (Trametes versicolor) is a colourful common mushroom. 10. Velvet foot (Flammulina velutipes) also known as the winter mushroom. 11. Wine glass fungus (Podoscypha petalodes) has paper-like funnels on short stalks. 12. Wolf-fart puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme) aka pear-shaped puffball and stump puffball. Last updated: Nature needs your support
Caucasus Highlights + History The Caucasus’ are a region located at the border of Europe and Asia, situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and occupied by Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. After the collapse of the Russian Empire, the latter of these three countries became part of the short-lived Trans-Caucasian Democratic Federative Republic. The republic dissolved in May 1918, and Azerbaijan declared independence, which lasted until the Bolshevik Red Army invaded it in April 1920. Georgia and Armenia suffered the same fate and eventually became part of the Soviet Union. With the demise of the Soviet Union, they all have become independent Republics again. Armenia is located in the Southern Caucasus Mountains bordered by Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to the east. The land is mostly echmiadzin1mountainous, with fast flowing rivers, and few forests. Armenia was the first country in the world to officially adopt Christianity in 301 AD. As a result, it has some of the most beautiful centuries-old churches and gorgeous monasteries in dramatically scenic settings in the world. Throughout most of Armenia’s long history, it has been invaded by a succession of empire. Under constant threat of domination by foreign forces, Armenia became both cosmopolitan as well as fierce protectors of their culture and tradition. Throughout history, the people suffered greatly in large numbers at the hands of some of its neighbors. In Armenia, the summers are dry and sunny lasting from June to mid-September. Springs are short with the evening breezes blowing down the mountains. While autumns have vibrant and colorful foliage surrounding you while you indulge on the Armenian cuisine offered. Armenian cuisine includes reflects the history and geography where Armenians have lived, reflecting the traditional crops and animals grown and raised in Armenian populated areas. Lamb, eggplant, lavash (bread), and herbs are staples in Armenian cuisine. Georgia, a country situated between Europe and Asia, is famous for its Black Sea beaches and its sprawling cave monastery dating back to the 12th georgia-1century. The capital, Tbilisi, is known for the diverse architecture and mazelike, cobblestone streets of its old town. Some favorite dishes of Georgian cuisine are comfort foods like khachapuri (cheese-stuffed bread) and matsoni (sour yogurt). Within the country of Georgia are the most mysterious mountain regions like a fairy tale come to life. Georgia is a country the size of Switzerland and is the home of the highest mountains in Europe. Enjoy truly fabulous walks, the most indigenous grape varieties in the world (with a wine culture to accompany), and fantastic architecture, exemplified by imposing stone watch towers, carved wooden balconies, richly frescoed churches, and beautiful masterpieces from the Art Nouveau period. This country prides itself on excellent cuisine; delicious wine, stunning mountains, exquisite churches, hospitable locals and rich and varied history make it a perfect adventure travel location. Azerbaijan, the nation and former Soviet republic, is surrounded by the Caspian Sea and Caucasus Mountains and once a major stop on the Great Silk azer-1Route. Covering Iran’s mountainous Northwest, provinces in Azerbaijan are steeped in history, conflicts and culture. A quarter of the country’s World Heritage treasures lie within its boundaries, yet its vast landscapes and ancient sites are relatively not seen by tourists. The summers of Azerbaijan are about 4 to 5 months long and very hot with more of a mild winter. Within Baku lies the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, a royal retreat dating to the 15th century. The agriculture in Azerbaijan developed more so in the later part of the 20th century. Grapes are able to be grown here due to the favorable climate used for making wine, which almost all of it is exported. Fishers from Azerbaijani use the Caspian Sea for Sturgeon used to make caviar. This particular fish, however, is being harvested too much that the stock is being depleted. With the breathtaking nature beauty and deeply hospitable people throughout these countries make the South Caucasus region a thrilling, offbeat discovery. Come and see for yourself! Leave a Reply
Principles of Good Complaint Handling Being open and accountable Public bodies should do the following: • Ensure that information about how to complain is easily available. They should provide clear, accurate and complete information to their customers about the scope of complaints the organisation can consider; what customers can and cannot expect from the complaint handling arrangements, including timescales and likely remedies; and how, when and where to take things further. • Be open and honest when accounting for their decisions and actions. They should give clear, evidence-based explanations, and reasons for their decisions. When things have gone wrong, public bodies should explain fully and say what they will do to put matters right as quickly as possible. • Create and maintain reliable and usable records as evidence of their activities. These records should include the evidence considered and the reasons for decisions. Public bodies should manage complaint records in line with recognised standards to ensure they are kept and can be retrieved for as long as there is a statutory duty or business need. This can include the need to respond to complaints or to provide relevant information to the Ombudsman. • Handle and process information properly and appropriately, in line with the law and relevant guidance. So while their policies and procedures should be transparent, public bodies should also respect the privacy of personal and confidential information, as the law requires. • Take responsibility for the actions of their staff and those acting on behalf of the public body.
By Rebecca Felsenthal Stewart Alexandra Grablewski Playing is serious business. It's how your little one gears up for all those milestones you're waiting to chronicle in your baby book: rolling over, sitting up, and more. It gives him the tools he needs to make cognitive leaps too. "When a baby explores the world around him, he learns how things work, which is the foundation for the development of language as well as the understanding of math and science," says speech-language pathologist Rebecca Landa, Ph.D., director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute, in Baltimore. "He discovers how high he can stack blocks before they topple, how much pressure he has to put on something to make it move, and how that pressure relates to the size and weight of an object." When babies don't hit their milestones on time, physical or occupational therapists use early-intervention exercises to help them catch up. These little games can also help a child who's developing normally. "Babies who get these kinds of enrichment activities with caregivers tend to have more advanced motor, communication, and social skills," says Dr. Landa. This is how to help your baby make the most of his precious playtime. Let him grab. While your infant is on his back, dangle toys of different shapes in front of him to see if he can grasp them and bring them to his mouth. At first, he'll probably just swat them. Move a toy higher, lower, and to the side. "Offer your baby a variety of kinds of objects so he learns how to approach them with his hand in the right position," says Dr. Landa. "Lying there, looking at a rattle, assessing the shape and figuring out how to put his fingers around it, grasp it, and bring it to his mouth may sound like a mundane thing, but it's a great accomplishment for a baby." Eventually he'll use these same skills to take books off a shelf. Get down. Make sure your infant hangs out on her belly every day while she's awake -- even if she complains. "The reason a baby fusses on her tummy is because her muscles are weak," explains Dr. Landa. She needs tummy time to practice holding her head up, getting up on her elbows, and balancing on one elbow while she grabs a toy. Playing with toys while having to support her body weight with her arms requires different muscles and skills than playing with toys when she's on her back and reaching out into open air. Stretch out. Starting at about 3 months, put your baby on his back, gently take his ankles in your hands, bend his knees, and then stretch his legs toward you to increase his flexibility and help him get a sense of where his legs are in space. You can make it more fun by saying "in" and "out," singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," and kissing his feet. As he gets stronger, he'll start pushing his legs out on his own. Play ball. By 6 months, your baby should be able to sit on an inflatable exercise ball if you hold her securely on her hips. Tilt the ball slowly so that she has time to realize what's happening and shift her weight. This will strengthen her core muscles and help her improve her balance. As she gets stronger, you can move the ball a little faster and tilt her farther. Make it fun by bouncing her gently and singing rhymes. "If you do it on a regular basis using the same words, your baby will start to understand them," says Dr. Landa. "The rhythm of the music helps babies remember words." Give him new things. While your baby is sitting up, either supported or on his own, hand him objects of different weights and shapes so he can learn to use his muscles to hold them. That child's ability to pick up toys, look at them, put them in his mouth, pass them from hand to hand, rotate them to get a different view, and bang them helps him learn enough about objects to eventually attach words to them. Bring out the blocks. Babies who play with blocks not only have stronger fine motor skills but more advanced language, according to research by pediatrician Dimitri Christakis, M.D., director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute. The physical act of playing with the blocks isn't as important as the conversations that occur as your baby is sorting and stacking and you're creating things together and explaining what they are, says Dr. Christakis. Play it forward. Encourage your baby to belly crawl. Some babies skip this step and begin crawling on their hands and knees without their belly touching the floor. Either way, it helps a baby develop strength in the hips and trunk, which is necessary for standing, as well as in the muscles of the shoulder girdle, which will help her handwriting in the future, says Gay L. Girolami, Ph.D., clinical associate professor of physical therapy at University of Illinois at Chicago. Once your baby can get up on her hands and knees, place toys in front of her so that she has to support herself with one hand while she reaches for them. Then move the toys out to 11, 10, and then 9 o'clock. Do it on the other side too. "As your child reaches in different directions, she'll learn to shift her weight more to her shoulders and legs," explains Dr. Girolami. Soon she'll take off! Reach for new heights. Put toys slightly out of reach -- on a sofa cushion on the floor, for example -- to encourage your baby to explore upward from a crawling position, suggests Dr. Girolami. You can gradually place objects even higher (on a low bookshelf or a sofa with the seat cushion removed). Set up an obstacle course. Challenge your little one by blocking his path with a cushion, suggests Dr. Girolami. At first, he may scoot around it. Then set up a row of pillows so that he has to climb over them. Help her squat. Once your baby can stand, place a small box about 8 inches away from her when she's at a coffee table or a sofa. Put a toy on the box and she'll have to squat to pick it up. After she's mastered that, place the toy on the floor. You can also move the box farther away from the sofa so that she'll have to turn and squat to reach the object. Do it in both directions and move the box farther and farther out, until she's turning 90 degrees. "This will encourage her to go from shuffling sideways along a sofa to walking forward," says Dr. Girolami. Push off. Once your child can squat, stand, and cruise, he's probably ready to push one of those little toy shopping carts so he can practice walking independently. Dr. Girolami recommends weighing it down with a 5-pound bag of flour placed in a bag, so it doesn't go too fast. Alexandra Grablewski Dealing with delays There's a wide range of normal when it comes to motor milestones, and experts worry most about kids who have multiple delays. Missing a single motor milestone may simply mean that a child hasn't had a lot of experience with that particular skill. Motor delays are especially worrisome for babies who have relatives with autism. "Other problems may develop later, like communication and social delays," says Dr. Landa. According to her research, 6-month-olds at high risk for autism often flop their head back when being pulled up to sit -- and babies who did this were more likely to eventually be diagnosed with autism or a social or communication delay. 4-6 months Roll from tummy to back5-6 months Roll from back to tummy6-7 months Sit independentlyBy 8 months Transition out of sitting; push up on hands and kneesBy 9 months Belly crawling or crawling on hands and knees with belly off the floor10-12 months Pull to a stand12-15 months Walk The sooner delays are identified, the easier they are to correct. If your child's skills aren't following this timeline, bring it up with your pediatrician. Toys that teach It may seem like toys with flashing lights and fun sounds have the most to offer babies, but the opposite is true, says Dr. Landa. "Adults are the ones who think those kinds of toys are cool," she explains. "When a baby puts blocks into a container, she creates the 'clunk' sound, she sees them fall. And that's great. She doesn't need the container to light up too." For some kids, those extras are distracting; children focus more on the cause and effect than learning to play with the toy. You also don't have to spend a fortune on toys, says Parents advisor Jenn Berman, Psy.D., author of Superbaby: 12 Ways to Give Your Child a Head Start in the First 3 Years. Bubbles, for example, are inexpensive and excellent for encouraging eye tracking and coordination, and as your child gets older she can reach for them, chase after them, and start blowing them too. Some other objects Dr. Berman recommends: 6 months Soft balls, crinkle toys, stuffed toys, plush trucks9 months Stacking toys, sorting toys, nesting toys, toy food, Giant Lego Bricks, bounce toys, baby dolls, fabric tunnels a baby can crawl through that fold up like an accordion12 months Blocks, puppets, large wooden peg puzzles, wagons, music toys, finger-paint, nontoxic crayons, toy kitchens, and dolls with clothes that can be changed Comments (1) December 3, 2018
The Basics About Recycled Rubber What Is Recycled Rubber? Rubber has been recycled for about a century, but the market has greatly expanded in the past two decades. Most recycled rubber comes from reuse of rubber tires, which has significant benefits to the environment and the public. Today more than recycling keeps more than 110 million tires out of landfills each year. Materials like fiber and wire are moved and the rubber is cleaned, and then the rubber is typically ground into what is called crumb rubber. The recycled rubber can then be used for a wide variety of applications, including in synthetic turf fields, hospital floors, roads and sidewalks, and even shoes. Recycled rubber gives us innovative ways to reduce waste while solving important challenges – from facilitating softer playground surfaces, to reducing the chance of injuries for athletes, to building lower-impact hospital floors for nurses on their feet all day. How Is It Made? Recycled rubber is produced from replaced tires through a straightforward process. There are two main ways in which this happens: • AMBIENT SHREDDING uses powerful, interlocking knives to chop tires into smaller pieces. • CRYOGENIC PROCESS uses liquid nitrogen to freeze them at sub-zero temperature. These cold temperatures cause the tire to become very brittle. The tire is then placed in an enclosure in which powerful hammers smash the tire apart. The non-rubber portions of the tire are also recycled. For example, the steel beads that give the tire its shape and structure are recovered by recyclers and processed into specification grade product used by steel mills for new steel. At no point in the process does the rubber undergo any chemical change. In short, recycled rubber is rubber. How Is It Used? AGRICULTURE: Recycled rubber helps increase yield and efficiency for the agricultural sector. It's used in vegetation protectors and windbreaks, sheds, livestock mats, bumpers, feeders, and agrimats. HOME & GARDEN: A variety of everyday household products, including landscaping mulch, flowerpots, garden hoses, tables and benches, and welcome mats, use recycled rubber as a material. INFRASTRUCTURE: Recycled rubber used in roadway asphalt, sidewalks, speed bumps provides surface durability while reducing traffic noise. MEDICAL: In healthcare facility surfaces and nursing home floors, recycled rubber provides comfort and quiet for medical professionals and patients. PLAYGROUND SURFACES: Mats and mulch made of recycled rubber help to cushion our children's falls. SPORTS: Across the country, recycled rubber is used in thousands of numerous synthetic turf fields, tennis courts, cycling tracks, gym floors, running tracks, mats, and even treads in athletic shoes, helping to broaden sports and fitness opportunities.
Hyppää sisältöön Suomen ympäristökeskus \| Finlands miljöcentral \| Finnish Environment Institute sykefi header valkoinen Cascading impacts: Mitigation and adaptation need to go hand in hand 10.6.2019 Joan Gouverne and Mikael Hildén Gouverne and Hilden Ever since acid rain, long range transboundary pollution has been an issue. Climate change is transboundary, but how do the cascading impacts appear and how should we address them? Climate change effects are already being felt worldwide and are likely to amplify in the course of the next century, given current indications of insufficient emissions cuts. This raises the question of how impacts of climate change may be felt beyond the places where they are first recorded. One way to start is by identifying the impacts of climate change: how they spread, interact with each other, and impact human livelihoods. A recent study uses the term 'pathways of propagation' to describe the international systems likely to transmit impacts, whether from neighboring countries or further away. In these ‘cascading impacts’ recurring culprits are the financial system, international trade, migration, the infrastructures that link countries together and biological connections such as the migration of birds or other organisms But the main task is to think about how systems actually interact across borders and also globally. We are well aware of connections between our global economic and financial systems. Looking at the financial system’s ties to other pathways highlights the issues at hand. Ensuring the stability of societal systems is key for being able to resist sudden shocks. Examples of shocks include price volatility in the agricultural industry or damages to critical infrastructures. But to build that stability in the decades to come requires a pro-active stance in investing into sustainable assets and disinvesting carefully from so-called 'stranded assets'. This implies massive investments in sustainable assets such as renewable energy or energy saving while disinvesting in stranded assets, such as coal based energy production. Sustainable investment practices are necessary to achieve the Paris Agreement target of staying well below an increase of 2°C in the global average temperature. This means that mitigation is important for risk management. There are no clear-cut distinctions between adaptation and mitigation, and the concept of pathways of propagation gives us a way to think about how different measures interact. The recognition of potential cascading impacts also raises the question of how to implement robustness at different levels of governance. The transmission of impacts happens at different points of international trade, energy transmission networks and investment chains. The interconnected effects on the environment needs to be recognized in efforts to enhance security and stability. The research on cascading impacts is relatively new but it has the great potential to make us see the connections between global and local impacts. The climate change crisis requires us to see that adaptation goes hand in hand with mitigation and has to be consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals. If we do not do this, then we may face disastrous chains of events. Joan Gouverne and Mikael Hildén Joan Gouverne is a student in the Philosophy & Economics Programme at the University of Bayreuth in Germany and is an (almost former) intern at the Climate Change Programme in SYKE. Mikael Hildén leads the Strategic Climate Change Programme in SYKE and the programme on a carbon neutral and resource efficient Finland of the Strategic Research Council. Opinions of blog contributors do not necessarily reflect the official views and opinions of the Finnish Environment Institute. Ei kommentteja. Ole ensimmäinen kommentoija.
Left- and right-hand traffic Countries by handedness of road traffic, c. 2020 Left-hand traffic Right-hand traffic Many LHT countries were formerly part of the British Empire, although many were not, such as Sweden (which is now RHT), Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal and Suriname, among others. Conversely, many RHT countries were part of the French colonial empire. In LHT traffic keeps left, and cars have the steering wheel on the right, putting the driver on the side closest to the centre of the road. Roundabouts circulate clockwise. In RHT everything is reversed: traffic keeps right, the driver sits on the left side of the car, and roundabouts circulate counterclockwise. Historically, many places kept left, while many others kept right, often within the same country. There are many myths which attempt to explain why one or the other is preferred.[5] About 90 percent of people are right handed,[6] and many explanations reference this. Horses are traditionally mounted from the left, and led from the left, with the reins in the right hand. So people walking horses might use RHT, to keep the animals separated. Also referenced is the need for pedestrians to keep their swords in the right hand and pass on the left as in LHT, for self-defence. It has been suggested that wagon-drivers whipped their horses with their right hand, and thus sat on the left hand side of the wagon, as in RHT. It has been written that in the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII directed pilgrims to keep left, however it has also been written that he directed them to keep to the right, and there is no documentary evidence to back either claim.[5] Border between Sweden and Norway in 1934 One of the first references in England to requiring traffic direction was an order by the London Court of Aldermen in 1669, requiring a man to be posted on London Bridge to ensure that "all cartes going to keep on the one side and all cartes coming to keep on the other side".[7] It later was legislated as the London Bridge Act 1765 (29 Geo. II c. 40), which required that "all carriages passing over the said bridge from London shall go on the east side thereof" – those going south to remain on the east, ie the left-hand side by direction of travel.[8] This may represent the first statutory requirement for LHT.[9] A frequently-heard story is that Napoleon changed the custom from LHT to RHT in France and the countries he conquered after the French Revolution. Scholars who have looked for documentary evidence of this story have found none, and it should be assumed a myth unless contemporary sources surface.[4] Rotterdam was LHT until 1917,[10] although the rest of the Netherlands was RHT. Russia completely switched to RHT in the last days of the Tsars in February 1917.[citation needed] After the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up, the resulting countries gradually changed to RHT. In Austria, Vorarlberg switched in 1921, North Tyrol in 1930, Carinthia and East Tyrol in 1935, and the rest of the country in 1938.[11] In Romania, Transylvania, the Banat and Bukovina were LHT until 1919, while Wallachia and Moldavia were already RHT. Partitions of Poland belonging to the German Empire and the Russian Empire were RHT, while the former Austrian Partition changed in the 1920s.[12] Croatia-Slavonia switched on joining the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918, although Istria and Dalmatia were already RHT.[13] Nazi Germany introduced the switch in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia in 1938–1939.[14][15] West Ukraine was LHT, but the rest of Ukraine, having been part of the Russian Empire, was RHT.[citation needed] In Italy it had been decreed in 1901 that each province define its own traffic code, including the handedness of traffic,[16] and the 1903 Baedeker guide reported that the rule of the road varied by region.[5] For example, in Northern Italy, the provinces of Brescia, Como, Vicenza, and Ravenna were RHT while nearby provinces of Lecco, Verona, and Varese were LHT,[16] as were the cities Milan, Turin, and Florence.[5] In 1915, allied forces of World War I imposed LHT in areas of military operation, but this was revoked in 1918. Rome was reported by Goethe as LHT in the 1780s. Naples was also LHT although surrounding areas were often RHT. In cities LHT was considered safer since pedestrians, accustomed to keeping right, could better see oncoming vehicular traffic.[16] Finally, in 1923 totalitarian ruler Benito Mussolini decreed that all LHT areas would gradually transition to RHT.[16] In spite of this, Italian commercial vehicles were right-hand drive until the traffic code was changed in 1974. Portugal switched to RHT in 1928.[1] Sweden switched to RHT in 1967, having been LHT from about 1734[18] despite having land borders with RHT countries, and approximately 90% of cars being left-hand drive (LHD).[19] A referendum in 1955 overwhelmingly rejected a change to RHT, but a few years later the government ordered it, and it occurred on Sunday, 3 September 1967[20] at 5 am. The accident rate then dropped sharply,[21] but soon rose to near its original level.[22] The day was known as Högertrafikomläggningen, or Dagen H for short. When Iceland switched to RHT the following year, it was known as Hægri dagurinn or H-dagurinn ("The H-Day").[23] Most passenger cars in Iceland were already LHD. The United Kingdom is LHT, but two of its overseas territories, Gibraltar and the British Indian Ocean Territory, are RHT. In the late 1960s, the British Department for Transport considered switching to RHT, but declared it unsafe and too costly for such a built-up nation.[24] Road building standards, for motorways in particular, allow asymmetrically designed road junctions, where merge and diverge lanes differ in length.[25] Today, four countries in Europe continue to use LHT; they are all island nations and former colonies of the British Empire: the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Republic of Ireland, and Malta. RHT roundabout sign North America[edit] In the late 1700s, traffic in the United States was RHT based on teamsters' use of large freight wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. The wagons had no driver's seat, so the (typically right-handed) postilion held his whip in his right hand and thus sat on the left rear horse. Seated on the left, the driver preferred that other wagons pass him on the left so that he could be sure to keep clear of the wheels of oncoming wagons.[28][better source needed] The first keep-right law for driving in the United States was passed in 1792 and applied to the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike.[29] New York formalized RHT in 1804,[citation needed] New Jersey in 1813,[citation needed] and Massachusetts in 1821.[30] Today the United States is RHT except the United States Virgin Islands,[31] which is LHT like many neighbouring islands. Some special-purpose vehicles in the United States, including certain postal service trucks, garbage trucks, and parking enforcement vehicles, are built with the driver's seat on the right for safer and easier access to the curb. A common example is the Grumman LLV used nationwide by the United States Postal Service. Parts of Canada were LHT until the 1920s, as show here in Saint John, NB, 1898. As former French colonies, the provinces of Quebec and Ontario were always RHT.[32] The province of British Columbia changed to RHT in stages from 1920 to 1923.[33][34] New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, changed to RHT in 1922, 1923, and 1924 respectively.[35] Newfoundland, then a British colony,[36] changed to RHT in 1947, two years before joining Canada.[37] In the West Indies, colonies and territories drive on the same side as their parent countries, except for the United States Virgin Islands. Many of the island nations are former British colonies and drive on the left, including Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and The Bahamas. However, most vehicles in The Bahamas,[38] British Virgin Islands,[39] Cayman Islands,[40] Turks and Caicos Islands[41] and United States Virgin Islands are left hand drive.[39] LHT was introduced by the British in British India (now India, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh), British Malaya and British Borneo (now Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore), and British Hong Kong. All are still LHT except Myanmar, which switched to RHT in 1970,[42] although much of its infrastructure is still geared to LHT. Most cars are used RHD vehicles imported from Japan.[43] Afghanistan was LHT until the 1950s, in line with neighbouring British India and later Pakistan.[44] The Philippines was mostly LHT during its Spanish[45] and American colonial periods,[46][47] as well as during the Commonwealth era.[48] During the Japanese occupation, the Philippines remained LHT,[49] also because LHT had been required by the Japanese;[50] but during the Battle of Manila, the liberating American forces drove their tanks to the right for easier facilitation of movement. RHT was formalised in 1945.[51] Many former British colonies in the region have always been LHT, including Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu, as well as nations which were previously administered by Australia, being Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Samoa, a former German colony, had been RHT for more than a century, but switched to LHT in 2009,[54] This made it the first territory in almost 30 years to change sides.[55] The move was legislated in 2008 to allow Samoans to use cheaper right-hand drive (RHD) vehicles—which are better suited for left-hand traffic—imported from Australia, New Zealand or Japan, and to harmonise with other South Pacific nations. A political party, The People's Party, was formed by the group People Against Switching Sides (PASS) to try to protest against the change, with the latter launching a legal challenge,[56] and in April 2008 an estimated 18,000 people attended demonstrations against it.[57] The motor industry was also opposed, as 14,000 of Samoa's 18,000 vehicles were designed for RHT and the government refused to meet the cost of conversion.[55] After months of preparation, the switch from right to left happened in an atmosphere of national celebration. There were no reported incidents.[3] At 05:50 local time, Monday 7 September, a radio announcement halted traffic, and an announcement at 6:00 ordered traffic to switch to LHT.[54] The change coincided with more restrictive enforcement of speeding and seat-belt laws.[58] That day and the following day were declared public holidays, to reduce traffic.[59] The change included a three-day ban on alcohol sales, while police mounted dozens of checkpoints, warning drivers to drive slowly.[3] South America[edit] Brazil was a colony of Portugal until the early 19th century and during this century and the early 20th century had mixed rules, with some regions still on LHT, switching these remaining regions to RHT in 1928, the same year Portugal switched sides.[60] Other Central and South American countries that later switched from LHT to RHT include Argentina, Chile, Panama,[61] Paraguay,[62] and Uruguay. Suriname, along with neighbouring Guyana, are the only two remaining LHT countries in South America.[63] Potential future shifts[edit] Rwanda and Burundi, former Belgian colonies in Central Africa, are RHT but are considering switching to LHT[64][65] like neighbouring members of the East African Community (EAC).[66] A survey in 2009 found that 54% of Rwandans favoured the switch. Reasons cited were the perceived lower costs of RHD vehicles, easier maintenance and the political benefit of harmonious traffic regulations with other EAC countries. The survey indicated that RHD cars were 16% to 49% cheaper than their LHD counterparts.[67] In 2014, an internal report by consultants to the Ministry of Infrastructure recommended a switch to LHT.[68] In 2015, the ban on RHD vehicles was lifted; RHD trucks from neighbouring countries cost $1000 less than LHD models imported from Europe.[69][70] Changing sides at borders[edit] Traffic Switchover sign at the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge There are four road border crossing points between Hong Kong and Mainland China. In 2006, the daily average number of vehicle trips recorded at Lok Ma Chau was 31,100.[72] The next largest is Man Kam To, where there is no changeover system and the border roads on the mainland side Wenjindu intersect as one-way streets with a main road. The Takutu River Bridge (which links LHT Guyana and RHT Brazil[73]) is the only border in the Americas, and the New World, where traffic changes sides. Road vehicle configurations[edit] Steering wheel position[edit] In RHT jurisdictions, vehicles are configured with LHD (Left Hand Drive[74]), with the steering wheel on the left side. In LHT jurisdictions, the reverse is true. The driver's side, the side closest to the centre of the road, is sometimes called the offside, while the passenger side, the side closest to the side of the road, is sometimes called the nearside.[75] Most windscreen wipers are designed to clear the driver's side better and have a longer blade on the driver's side[76] and wipe up from the passenger side to the driver's side. Thus on LHD configurations, they wipe up from right to left, viewed from inside the vehicle, and do the opposite on RHD (Right Hand Drive) vehicles. Regardless of steering wheel position, the turn signal lever is on the side closer to the driver's door, except in some European RHD vehicles where it is on the opposite side. Historically there was less consistency in the relationship of the position of the driver to the handedness of traffic. Most American cars produced before 1910 were RHD.[29] In 1908 Henry Ford standardised the Model T as LHD in RHT America,[29] arguing that with RHD and RHT, the passenger was obliged to "get out on the street side and walk around the car" and that with steering from the left, the driver "is able to see even the wheels of the other car and easily avoids danger."[77] By 1915 other manufacturers followed Ford's lead, due to the popularity of the Model T.[29] Generally, the convention is to mount a motorcycle on the left,[79] and kickstands are usually on the left[80] which makes it more convenient to mount on the safer kerbside[80] as is the case in LHT. Some jurisdictions prohibit fitting a sidecar to a motorcycle's offside.[81][82] Headlamps and other lighting equipment[edit] In Europe, headlamps approved for use on one side of the road must be adaptable to produce adequate illumination with controlled glare for temporarily driving on the other side of the road,[83]:p.13 ¶5.8. This may be achieved by affixing masking strips or prismatic lenses to a part of the lens or by moving all or part of the headlamp optic so all or part of the beam is shifted or the asymmetrical portion is occluded.[83]:p.13 ¶5.8.1 Some varieties of the projector-type headlamp can be fully adjusted to produce a proper LHT or RHT beam by shifting a lever or other movable element in or on the lamp assembly.[83]:p.12 ¶5.4 Some vehicles adjust the headlamps automatically when the car's GPS detects that the vehicle has moved from LHT to RHT and vice versa.[citation needed] Rear fog lamps[edit] Crash testing differences[edit] Rail traffic[edit] Trains use right-hand track Trains use left-hand track Rail traffic is mixed or lacking In most countries, rail traffic travels on the same side as road traffic. However, in many cases, railways were built using LHT British technology and, while road traffic switched to RHT, rail remained LHT. Examples include: Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, Egypt, France, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Laos, Monaco, Myanmar, Nigeria, Peru, Portugal, Senegal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, Venezuela, and Yemen. In Indonesia it is the reverse (RHT for rails (even for LRT systems) and LHT for roads). France is mainly LHT for trains, except for the classic lines in Alsace-Lorraine,[86] which belonged to Germany from 1870 to 1918, when the railways were built, along with most metro systems. China is basically LHT for long-distance trains and RHT for metro systems. Spain, which is RHT for railways has LHT for metros in Madrid and Bilbao. Metros and light rail sides of operation vary, and might not match railways or roads in their country. Trams generally operate at the same side as other road traffic because they frequently share roads. Boat traffic[edit] Riverine Patrol Boat Cockpit Console.jpg Worldwide distribution by country[edit] Now RHT, formerly LHT Now LHT, formerly RHT Formerly a mix of LHT and RHT in various parts of the country, now RHT Country Road traffic Road switched sides Notes, exceptions Afghanistan RHT Albania RHT[88] Algeria RHT[89] French Algeria until 1962. Andorra RHT[90] Landlocked between France and Spain. Angola RHT[91] 1928 Portuguese colony until 1975. Antigua and Barbuda LHT[92] This Caribbean island was a British colony until 1958. Armenia RHT[94] Australia LHT British colonies before 1901. Continent is one nation. Includes Norfolk Island. Austria RHT 1921–38 Originally LHT, like most of Austria-Hungary, but switched sides during the second world war. Azerbaijan RHT Bahamas LHT[63] British colony before 1973. Caribbean island. Bahrain RHT 1967 Former British protectorate. Switched to same side as neighbours.[95] Bangladesh LHT Part of British India before 1947. Barbados LHT This Caribbean archipelagic state was a British colony before 1966. Belgium RHT 1899[96] Belarus RHT[97] Benin RHT Part of French West Africa before 1960. Bhutan LHT Under British protection before 1949. Bolivia RHT Botswana LHT Brazil RHT 1928 Brunei LHT British protection until 1984. Bulgaria RHT Burkina Faso RHT Part of French West Africa before 1958. Burundi RHT Belgian colony before 1962. Cambodia RHT French colony before 1953 Cameroon RHT 1961 Canada RHT 1920–24 Cape Verde RHT 1928 Portuguese colony until 1975. Central African Republic RHT French colony before 1960. Chad RHT French colony before 1960. Chile RHT 1920s China RHT/LHT 1946 RHT in the Mainland. Right-hand drive cars are prohibited for registering and road-use in China, unless it belongs to an embassy or consulate.[98] Hong Kong and Macau are LHT. Hong Kong was formerly under British rule from 1841 to 1941 and from 1945 to 1997, where the territory was handed back to China. Colombia RHT Comoros RHT French colony before 1975. Congo RHT French colony before 1960. DR Congo RHT Belgian colony before 1960. Costa Rica RHT Ivory Coast RHT Part of French West Africa before 1960. Croatia RHT 1926 (as part of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) Cuba RHT Cyprus LHT Under UK administration before 1960. Island nation. Czech Republic RHT 1939 Switched during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Denmark RHT Includes Faroe Islands and Greenland Djibouti RHT Dominica LHT British colony before 1978. Caribbean island. Dominican Republic RHT East Timor LHT 1976 Portuguese colony until 1975. Switched to RHT with Portugal in 1928; under the Indonesian annexation, it was switched back to LHT in 1976. Its LHT status remains until now. Ecuador RHT Egypt RHT El Salvador RHT Equatorial Guinea RHT Eritrea RHT 1964 Italian colony before 1942. Estonia RHT Eswatini (Swaziland) LHT British colony until 1968. Continues to drive on the same side as neighboring countries. Ethiopia RHT 1964 Fiji LHT The island nation was a British colony before 1970. Finland RHT 1858 Gabon RHT French colony before 1960. Gambia RHT 1965 British colony until 1965. Switched to RHT on 1 October 1965 being surrounded by the neighbouring former French colony of Senegal.[99] Germany RHT[101] Ghana RHT August 4, 1974 British colony until 1957. Ghana switched to RHT in 1974,[102][103] a Twi language slogan was "Nifa, Nifa Enan" or "Right, Right, Fourth".[104] Ghana has also banned RHD vehicles. Ghana prohibited new registrations of RHD vehicles after 1 August 1974, three days before the traffic change. Greece RHT Grenada LHT British colony before 1974. Caribbean island. Guatemala RHT Guinea RHT Guinea-Bissau RHT 1928 Portuguese colony until 1974. Drives at the same side as neighbors. Guyana LHT British colony until 1970. One of the only two countries in continental America which are in LHT, the other being Suriname. Haiti RHT French colony until 1804. Vatican City RHT Enclave of Rome. Honduras RHT Iceland RHT 1968 Changed from LHT on 26 May 1968 in H-dagurinn Iran RHT Iraq RHT India LHT Part of British India before 1947. Indonesia LHT[105] Roads and railways were built by the Dutch, with LHT for roads to conform to British and Japanese standards and RHT for railways to conform with Dutch standards. The Jakarta MRT and Palembang LRT also use RHT. Does not change sides, unlike Netherlands itself, in 1906. Ireland LHT Part of the United Kingdom before 1922. Israel RHT Italy RHT 1924–26 Jamaica LHT British colony before 1962. Caribbean island. Japan LHT[106]Formerly RHT (Okinawa) July 30, 1978 (Okinawa) LHT enacted on law in 1924. One of the few non-British-colony countries to use LHT. Okinawa was RHT from June 24, 1945 to July 30, 1978. Jordan RHT Kazakhstan RHT Kenya LHT[107] Part of the British East Africa Protectorate before 1963. Kiribati LHT UK colony before 1979. Pacific islands. North Korea RHT 1946 Was LHT during the period of Japanese rule. Switched to RHT after Surrender of Japan. South Korea RHT 1946 Kosovo RHT Kuwait RHT Kyrgyzstan RHT In 2012, over 20,000 cheaper used RHD cars were imported from Japan.[108] Laos RHT French colony until 1947. The Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge is LHT. Latvia RHT Lebanon RHT French Mandate of Lebanon before 1946. Lesotho LHT Enclave of LHT South Africa. Liberia RHT Libya RHT Italian Libya colony from 1911 to 1947. Liechtenstein RHT Landlocked between Switzerland and Austria. Lithuania RHT Luxembourg RHT Madagascar RHT Former French colony. Malawi LHT British colony before 1964. Malaysia LHT British colony before 1957. Maldives LHT This island nation was a British colony before 1965. Mali RHT Part of French West Africa before 1960. Malta LHT This island nation was a British colony before 1964 Marshall Islands RHT Was under American control. Mauritania RHT Part of French West Africa before 1960. Mining roads between Fderîck and Zouérat are LHT.[109] Mauritius LHT This island nation was a British colony before 1968. Mexico RHT F.S. Micronesia RHT Was under American control. Moldova RHT Monaco RHT Was under French control. Mongolia RHT Montenegro RHT Morocco RHT Former French colony. Mozambique LHT Portuguese colony until 1975. Myanmar RHT 1970 Part of British India until 1948. Switched to RHT in 1970. Netherlands RHT 1906[110] Includes Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba Namibia LHT 1918 When South Africa occupied German South West Africa in 1920, it switched to LHT. Administered by South Africa 1920–1990. Nauru LHT 1918 This island nation was administered by Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom until 1968. Nepal LHT Shares land border with LHT India. New Zealand LHT[111] This Pacific island, including territories Niue and Cook Islands, were former British colonies. Nicaragua RHT Niger RHT Part of French West Africa before 1958. Nigeria RHT 1972 British colony until 1960. Switched to RHT of being surrounded by neighbouring former French colonies. North Macedonia RHT Norway RHT Oman RHT[112] Pakistan LHT Part of British India before 1947. Palau RHT Palestinian National Authority RHT Panama RHT 1943 Paraguay RHT 1945 Peru RHT Philippines RHT 1946[51] Was LHT during the Spanish and American colonial periods. While Philippines switched to RHT during Battle of Manila in 1945,Philippine National Railways switched to RHT in 2010. Poland RHT Portugal RHT[105] 1928 Colonies Goa, Macau and Mozambique, which had land borders with LHT countries, did not switch and continue to drive on the left.[113] The Porto Metro uses RHT. Romania RHT 1919 Parts of Romania that formerly belonged to Austria-Hungary (Transylvania, Bukovina, parts of the Banat, Crișana and Maramureș) were LHT until 1919. Russia RHT In the Russian Far East RHD vehicles are common due to the import of used cars from nearby Japan.[114] Railway between Moscow and Ryazan, Sormovskaya line in Nizhny Novgorod Metro and Moskva River cable car use LHT. Rwanda RHT[64] Saint Kitts and Nevis LHT This Caribbean island nation was a British colony before 1967. Saint Lucia LHT These Caribbean island-nations were British colonies before 1979. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines LHT Samoa LHT 2009 Switched to LHT for economical reasons: to allow cheaper importation of cars from Australia, New Zealand and Japan.[105] San Marino RHT Enclaved state surrounded by Italy. São Tomé and Príncipe RHT 1928 Portuguese colony until 1975. Saudi Arabia RHT 1942 Senegal RHT Part of French West Africa before 1960. Serbia RHT 1926 (as part of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), Vojvodina was LHT while part of Austria-Hungary. Seychelles LHT This island nation was a British colony until 1976. Sierra Leone RHT 1971[115] British colony until 1961. Switched to RHT being surrounded by neighbouring former French colonies. Furthermore, it banned the importation of RHD vehicles in 2013.[116] Slovenia RHT 1926 (as part of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), officially LHT from 1915 as part of Austria-Hungary. Solomon Islands LHT This island nation was a British colony before 1975. South Africa LHT[117][118] British colony before 1909. South Sudan RHT 1973 Then part of Sudan. Sri Lanka LHT Part of British Ceylon from 1815 to 1948. Sudan RHT 1973 Formerly Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, it switched sides 17 years later to match neighbors. Sweden RHT 1967 The day of the switch (3 September) was known as Dagen H. Most passenger cars were already LHD. Switzerland RHT Syria RHT Was under French and Italian control. Tajikistan RHT Tanzania LHT Part of the British East Africa Protectorate until 1961. Thailand LHT[105] One of the few non-British-colony LHT countries. Shares a long land border with RHT Myanmar Laos and Cambodia. Togo RHT Part of French West Africa until 1960. Tonga LHT British protectorate before 1970. Polynesian island nation. Trinidad and Tobago LHT[120] British colony before 1962. Caribbean island. Tunisia RHT RHT was enforced in the French protectorate of Tunisia since 1881. Turkey RHT 1920s Turkmenistan RHT Tuvalu LHT Formerly a British colony. Became independent in 1978. Uganda LHT Part of British Uganda Protectorate from 1894 until 1962. Ukraine RHT 1922[12] United Arab Emirates RHT Former British protectorate. Switched to same side as neighbours. United Kingdom Includes Crown dependencies Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, and Overseas Territories Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands (unregistered), Turks and Caicos Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha are all LHT. The Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) drove on the right under German occupation lasting from 1940 to 1945.[121] Gibraltar has been RHT since 1929 because of its land border with Spain.[122] The British Indian Ocean Territory is the only other overseas territory driving on the right. Uruguay RHT 1945 Became LHT in 1918, but as in some other countries in South America, changed to RHT on 2 September 1945.[123] A speed limit of 30 km/h (19 mph) was observed until 30 September for safety. Uzbekistan RHT Vanuatu RHT[124] Co-administrated under France and United Kingdom until 1980. Venezuela RHT Vietnam RHT French colony until 1945. The Long Bien Bridge uses LHT. Western Sahara RHT Spanish colony until the late 1900s. Yemen RHT 1977[1] South Yemen, formerly the British colony of Aden, changed to RHT in 1977. A series of postage stamps commemorating the event was issued.[125] At that time, North Yemen was already RHT. Zambia LHT British colony before 1964. Zimbabwe LHT British colony before 1965. See also[edit] 12. ^ a b "Krakowska Komunikacja Miejska – autobusy, tramwaje i krakowskie inwestycje drogowe – History of the Cracow tram network". Komunikacja.krakow.eurocity.pl. 28 November 1982. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2009. 17. ^ "Högertrafik i Sverige och Finland". aland.net. 23. ^ 45 ár frá hægri umferð, Morgunblaðið, 26 May 2013 English translation 26. ^ Tourist and Business Directory – The Gambia, 1969, page 19 38. ^ Dive the Bahamas: Complete Guide to Diving and Snorkelling, Lawson Wood, Interlink Publishing Group, 2007, page 23 39. ^ a b U. S. and British Virgin Islands 2006, Fodor's Travel Publications, 2005, page 28 40. ^ Adventure Guide to the Cayman Islands, Paris Permenter, John Bigley, Hunter Publishing, Inc, 2001, page 46 41. ^ Turks and Caicos, Bradt Travel Guides, Annalisa Rellie, Tricia Hayne, 2008, page 50 56. ^ Whitley, David (3 July 2009). "Samoa provokes fury by switching sides of the road". The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 September 2019. 62. ^ De izquierda a derecha, ABC Color, 2 March 2014 74. ^ "Left-hand drive definition and meaning \| Collins English Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 16 May 2020. 84. ^ "UN Regulation 48" (PDF). Retrieved 21 October 2019. 89. ^ http://www.nyszone.com. "Driving in Algeria". adcidl.com. Retrieved 3 April 2019. 90. ^ Focus, Expat. "Andorra – Driving and Transportation \| ExpatFocus.com". expatfocus.com. Retrieved 3 October 2019. 95. ^ Bahrain Government Annual Reports, Times of India Press, 1968, page 158 97. ^ "Driving in Belarus". autoeurope. Retrieved 11 April 2019. 98. ^ "Right Hand Drive Toyota Century in China". 99. ^ Tourist and Business Directory, The Gambia, 1969, page 19 100. ^ Sputnik. ""Выживут" ли праворульные машины в Грузии". sputnik-georgia.ru. Retrieved 26 June 2018. 103. ^ Daily Graphic, Issue 7526, 21 December 1974, page 9 122. ^ Colonial Reports, Annual, Volumes 1480–1499, 1930, page 76 125. ^ "South Yemen – Postage stamps – 1977". stampworld.com. External links[edit] Media related to Right- and left-hand traffic at Wikimedia Commons
First program // First simple program This is tutorial for new language users describing creation of the simplest possible program using Biscuit language. Basic idea here is just print out some text into the terminal window. Like in other languages we must define main function fisrt as an entry point to the program. This function will be called first. The main function is supposed to return some state number of s32 type, zero here means successful execution. You can return any other state number to let call side know when something went wrong. We can use print function to write text into the standart text output. To compile our sample program just type 'blc' into the terminal. Result binary will be called 'out.exe' on Windows. In case you just want to execute the program without need of executable file you can add '-r -no-bin' flags before the file name: 'blc -r -no-bin'. You should see 'Hello world!' now in compilator output. Any time you use the '-r' or '-run' flag compilator will execute your main function in compile time. Flag '-no-bin' says "do not create any binary output", no executable file will be created. // Main function as the program entry point. main :: fn () s32 { // Call the print function. print("Hello world!\n"); // Return OK state number. return 0;
Skip Ribbon Commands Skip to main content Watch Latest Indonesian Movie With Caption Different Contexts for Subtitles and Captions Subtitling is used as a strategy for making a consciousness of a medium into another tongue with the objective that speakers of various vernaculars can regard it. Subtitled remote motion pictures are an obvious model: without Bioskop online subtitle indonesia, English-talking get-togethers would be not set up to follow the plot of a French or Spanish film. Etchings are normally sensible and sometimes used for pre-recorded records, for instance, films, TV shows, and authority getting ready records. Subtitling, clearly, is in a general sense all the more by and large used as a help of help requiring a listening gadget and hearing-upset social gatherings. They are innovatively versatile to live passes on, for instance, news offers, games, and live TV programs. All things considered, etchings (correspondingly called shut subtitles) appear as white substance inside an introduction, appearing, clearly, to be a second or two after the verbally passed on words. Assessments to Make When Using Captions and Subtitles Considering their different settings and purposes, etchings and subtitles are portrayed by a couple of monstrous partitions. Subtitles, as the name proposes, are routinely set at the base of the screen. Engravings on the other hand, may be set in different zones on the screen to uncover to the gathering who is talking. This is especially huge for requiring a versatile intensifier individuals who can't rely upon voice abilities to pinpoint the speaker. Nonton film bioskop subtitle indonesia and engravings have a spot of essentially indistinct checks to get by, for instance, the language and examining reasons for restraint of the program's customary enthusiasm gathering. For example, both the inscriptions for a youths' film and the subtitles for a children's TV program need to consider the watcher's getting time. Since most youths don't ask about as overflowing as adults, this may mean using age-fitting proportionate words and shorter words. Social prerequisite ought to in like manner be considered in. The UK etchings for a French film may use the words "lift" ("lift") or "lorry" ("truck") — words which might be balanced for American parties. Why Smart Businesses Invest in Captions and Subtitles The key goal of etchings and inscriptions is making social affairs. By adding fitting subtitles or engravings to an association's YouTube channel, for instance, swarms that would by somehow not have the choice to completely understand the records, whether or not in perspective on an etymological explanation behind control or hearing insufficiency, would then have the decision to welcome them. This proposes a verifiably basic get-together — and better business. For example, cloud tongue films that review subtitles for different vernaculars have had the decision to break into by and large markets, and top outside motion pictures once in a while achieve high limits in Hollywood. Without subtitles, such films would experience experienced extraordinary difficulty broadening such huge recognizable quality (and getting such a gigantic extent of cash!). By stirring up the gathering, subtitles and etchings can support business while opening up new social horizons to an adroitly essential number of people. Approval Status Pending Content Type: Discussion Created at 2/12/2020 7:17 AM by Last modified at 2/12/2020 7:17 AM by Parental Discussions: Watch Latest Indonesian Movie With Caption
From Damocles to Winograd Two important morals to learn from this legend. Danny Hershtal OpEds לבן ריק לבן ריק Arutz 7 According to Greek legend, Damocles was an advisor to King Dionysus the Great. One day, Damocles flattered his king about his spectacular wealth and fortune. The king offered to switch positions with Damocles for a day and ordered his subjects to treat Damocles as the king until dawn the next morning. Damocles was given all the pleasures and honors due to a king, and that evening he was treated to royal feast. Damocles enjoyed his banquet, sitting in the king's throne, until he looked up and noticed a sword suspended by a single horse hair, just inches above his head. Immediately, Damocles' face blanched. He lost his appetite and begged the king to return him to his usual role. There are two important morals we can learn from this legend. The first is that leadership is not something trivial or easy. It requires bearing the weight of responsibility for all of The people's "thread" may tear and bring the sword down upon the leader's head. one's subjects, knowing that at any moment the people's "thread" may tear and bring the sword down upon the leader's head. This knowledge is what makes a leader cautious and responsible. If we, the people, remove the Sword of Damocles from above our leaders, if we turn a blind eye to their failures without reproach, we will receive - and deserve - the kind of corrupt and incompetent leadership we have today. Without eternal vigilance of the people, keeping the sword dangling above our leaders' heads by a horse hair, we will quickly lose our influence over those in power and our democracy will slip into tyranny. The second lesson we can learn is that we are all like Damocles, in some way. We often see the benefits, the sumptuous delicacies laid out in front of us, without realizing the immediate danger threatening us until it is too late. Too often, one hears that the economy is booming, the shekel is strong and there is no need to rush and replace the government when we are living in a golden age. However, we do not see the danger hanging precariously above us, of keeping a failed, and essentially powerless, government in place. This danger may come in the form, God forbid, of another war thrust upon us from an equal or more dangerous enemy. If the people do not put pressure on the current government to resign, will it bother to make the changes that the Winograd Panel suggested? Will we ever know if they did or didn't do so? However, the danger may be from a less obvious and dramatic viewpoint than an armed conflict. How will our society develop with a failed government, which no longer has the We are all like Damocles, in some way. political power or political will to perform? One can see a sneak preview in the current strikes affecting our future soldiers, the high school students, and our future business leaders, the university students. By neglecting to solve these issues, and properly educate the country's students, the government is essentially forsaking the future of our security and economy. Like Damocles, we cannot simply partake of the feast while the sword swings just above our heads. In fact, we must even sacrifice of our work, of our time and of our effort to take to the streets and reclaim our fate. If you believe that Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz must resign, but do not actively participate in protest against them, then you leave your fate, and all of our fates, hanging by a single thread.
Feminism in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, between US $50 billion to US $100 billion dollars in the form of foreign aid flowed into Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. The goal was to promote the development of civil society and soften the transition from communism to capitalism. Many of the NGOs created in this period were women’s organizations. Despite the proliferation of women’s organizations, there has been a rejection of feminism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, encouraging the return of women to the domestic sphere. The emancipation of women has been blamed for the disintegration of the traditional family unit. In popular discourse, the traditional role of women as wives and mothers is often glorified and tied to an idealized national past. Often, when we think of feminism, our thinking is couched in broad general terms such as equality between men and women, abolishing discrimination in the workplace, or ending violence against women. However, our understanding of the movement is coloured by an ‘end of history’ perspective, taking for granted that economic modernization and liberal democracy engenders greater individualism, consumerism, homogeneity, and globalization. Through exploring the historical legacy of Cold War tensions and socialism, we can come to a better understanding of what feminism means in Eastern Europe and why the mainstream ‘one-size-fits-all’ brand of feminism has yet to take root in Eastern Europe despite the best attempts of various organizations. In professor Kristen Ghodsee’s (2010) article entitled “Revisiting the United Nations decade for women: Brief reflections on feminism, capitalism and Cold War politics in the early years of the international women’s movement”, she explains how the divisions between the Eastern Bloc and the United States coloured the three UN women’s conferences held in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), and Nairobi (1985) during the United Nations Decade for Women. The meeting in Mexico City (1975) at the time was the largest meeting in history to deal with women’s issues, with 125 member states sending official delegations. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the National Security Council of the US (NSC) opposed sending First Lady Betty Ford to the Mexico City Conference, contrary to the wishes of Henry Kissinger’s wife Nancy Kissinger, the Israeli Prime Minister Leah Rabin, and the First Lady herself. Kissinger and the NSC wanted to avoid linking women’s issues to an anti-capitalist agenda. This instance demonstrates how state affairs and political manoeuvring took precedence over women’s issues. Similarly, women sent to the Conference from Eastern bloc countries were also heavily controlled by male politicians at home. First World Confrence on Women The inauguration ceremony of the First World Conference on Women Mexico City, 1975 The Mexico City conference is interesting because it illustrated the divide between the Westernized interpretation of feminism and the brand of feminism favoured by the Eastern bloc. For example, the U.S. focused on legal barriers to equality: workplace discrimination, education attainment, and women’s participation in politics. The women from the Eastern bloc pushed for a ‘peace agenda’, reasoning that legal equality with men had already been achieved in their respective countries and that the Conference should be an opportunity for women to discuss the same world issues men debated in the UN such as nuclear proliferation. The Eastern bloc countries also advanced the essentialist idea that women were inherently less violent than men. This essentialist legacy carries over to today, with the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 reinforcing representations of women as particularly vulnerable to violence and inherently more peaceful. Five years later, during the Copenhagen Conference (1980), the same divisions emerged again, with many NGO participants leaving convinced that the international women’s movement had been damaged. The U.S. government wanted to focus narrowly on inequalities between men and women, avoiding any discussion of economic systems. However, the official Copenhagen Conference document acknowledged that countries with centrally planned economies saw further advancement of women in areas such as health, education, employment, and political participation. According to one participant, the voting pattern at the conference made it clear that “the male establishment does not take women seriously… No government or group really wants anything for women enough to compromise on other issues. Women’s conferences, therefore, reflect the UN at its worse.” Governments used the Conference as a platform to promote their own political agendas. Several draft resolutions went to a vote because Northern bloc countries resented the language used by Southern bloc countries. For instance, Resolution 11 called for women’s participation in the “struggle against colonialism, racism, racial discrimination, foreign aggression and occupation, and all forms of foreign domination.” Resolution 11 was interpreted as an attack on U.S. military interventions. Another contentious issue involved reports on the condition of Palestinian women, with Israel arguing that Zionism did not constitute racism but national liberation of the Jewish people, and Lebanon asserting that “Zionism was not a liberation movement but racist in both its structure and practices.” Copenhagen illustrated hidden gender biases, given that women’s issues were perceived by delegations as apolitical and noncontroversial. Parties assumed that women’s concerns were a ‘luxury’ to be dealt with later second to ‘hard’ issues such as the situation in Palestine or apartheid. However, countries such as Albania believed that the true cause of inequality between men and women was “the division of society into oppressors and oppressed.” Hence, it would be narrow-minded to separate women’s issues from heavily politicized topics such as neo-colonialism, apartheid, or economic inequality. “Nobody would have admitted it, and it definitely would not be said by anybody from the U.S. delegation, but it certainly did seem that women had at least more legal equality in the socialist bloc.” – A member of the U.S. delegation to Mexico City and Copenhagen The Nairobi Conference in 1985 was considered the most productive. A final document the “Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women” was adopted unanimously and a five-year action plan that outlined concrete plans for women’s advancement was adopted. However, tensions were also high. On the first day of the Nairobi conference, a group of Soviet bloc countries sent a letter to the President of the Conference accusing the U.S. of undermining the goals of the UN Decade for Women by being a war-mongering nation. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Cold War had been won by the West. This sentiment influenced the international women’s movement agenda, discrediting critiques of capitalism and its role in perpetuating inequalities. The standard Western view of feminism has influenced the European Union’s agenda for gender equality, which focuses on workplace discrimination and legal barriers rather than underlying political economic causes. However, as Professor Kristen Ghodsee notes, instead of questioning the economic system, which exacerbates competition between men and women and concentrates wealth in the hands of oligarchs, Western feminist organizations are content to advocate equal opportunity and anti-discrimination laws that are difficult to enforce. In order to understand the resistance to feminism in Eastern Europe, it is important to study the evolution of the international women’s movement agenda against the backdrop of Cold War tensions and differences between Western and Socialist feminists. About Jenny Yang
Amino Acids vs. Protein Powder Amino acids and protein powder may sound like they have the same function, However, the actually have different results. Amino Acids vs. Protein Powder Often times, people confuse amino acids with protein powder. This is maybe because amino acids are known to be building blocks of protein. Well in this article, we will be discussing the difference between the two. Amino acids and protein powder may sound like they have the same functions but one thing is for sure – they have different results. Protein powder is known to be an alternative food. This is because protein powder fill in the gaps in your diet. Aside from that, protein powders also contribute to your calorie intake at a daily basis. At the same time, they also boost up your total protein consumption. While amino acids on the other hand, target a specific area in your metabolism. Since there are different kind of amino acids, each is said to have its own specific function; for the brain, for muscle growth, for skin, for performance. Despite the differences, both supplementation promote good health and that they both contribute to a much better physique. Amino Acids vs. Protein Powder If you try taking both supplements; protein powder and amino acid, they would still enter the bloodstream as one. Having said, cells in the body will collect the amino acids to come up with a new protein. This is why as mentioned above, amino acids are used as building blocks of protein. If you lack one of the required amino acid, no protein will be made. If we try to think of it, there are instances wherein the amount of protein becomes negotiable. The amount of protein that one needs to consume in a day will depend on the training activity or the body goal. The same thing applies if the individual is suffering from any kind of illness. However, for amino acids, no such terms would apply. According to experts and research, be in any kind of incident, our body needs to be fed with a decent amount of amino acid for optimal health. Benefits of Protein Powder Protein powder helps complete your required daily protein intake. There are various sources of protein but some of the quality sources you can get protein are from milk-derived whey or casein, soy, or egg whites. The said sources of protein also contain all of the essential amino acids that the body needs to get from food. With the help of protein, a bodybuilder can develop more muscles, an athlete can have his/her energy increased, and even a non-lifter can also make use of protein for his/her muscle development. Apart from all the athletic benefits protein has, it can also make one lose weight. Amazing, isn’t it? Even though protein powders are associated with bodybuilding, there are protein powders that contain very low calories and zero carbs. If so, a limited or controlled consumption of the specific protein powder can contribute to weight loss. You just have to make sure that you are not exceeding the your daily calorie carb intake so the protein you consume will not be stored as fats. Benefits of Amino Acids As highlighted above, amino acids usually target specific areas of the metabolism. And since we’ve mentioned that regardless of the situation, one is required to consume a good amount of amino acid at a daily basis. Having said, it already gives us an impression that amino acids are really beneficial for the body. Aside from amino acids contributing to the production of protein, they also contribute to a lot of health functions; from physical to psychological, amino acid plays a role. Depending on the kind of amino acid you consume, the benefit will differ from one amino acid to another. Furthermore, there are amino acids that serve as effective neurotransmitters to the brain which could help an individual combat insomnia, stress, fatigue, and depression. Some amino acids do not only help develop muscle growth and function but they also contribute to muscle repair. Aside from the said benefits, some amino acids can also increase performance of an individual which is as similar as protein. Health Considerations and Precautions Same with the other supplements, a little too much of the good thing isn’t really good. Researchers claim that too much protein or amino acid in the body can also lead to other negative health conditions. There are also cases wherein protein powders were said to cause breakouts on the skin. However, lack or deficit on both could also be a bad thing. Our boy needs protein and amino acid in order for our system to function properly. You must know by now that unlike organic sources, supplements could have side effects. According to research, amino acids could also trigger gastrointestinal problems and muscle cramps. They also claim that patients who have kidney and heart problems must avoid taking amino acid supplements. The Conclusion Taking amino acid supplements or protein powder is not a bad thing. You just have to make sure that you are taking the exact dosage and the right amount to avoid possible triggers that could lead to other health issues. It is also important to know and understand how these supplements are to be consumed most especially if you are trying to attain a certain goal since wrong consumption of both could stall your diet and could result to weight gain or obesity. To make sure you are not allergic with any of the supplementation, it is always best to seek advice from a fitness enthusiast or a medical expert so, at the same time, you would also have an idea on what results to expect and what to do if a side effect takes place. Leave a Reply
What’s a winter wonderland without sugar fairies and hot cocoa? Think of minty candy canes guarding a frosted palace of gingerbread. Gummy droplets strewn like Christmas lights on desserts… The holidays are definitely the season of sugar. With gingerbread houses, sugar cookies, cocktails, dishes heavy with processed condiments and sauces — they all contribute to a sugar overload. It’s easy to unconsciously double or triple your sugar consumption during holiday eating. Of course, sugar doesn’t pertain only to the landscape of holiday treats. Unless you’re reading labels diligently and actively avoiding sugar, chances are you’re consuming a lot of sugar throughout the year. According to the University of California San Francisco’s Sugar Science project, the average American consumes 57 pounds of added sugar annually. When you consume sugar for a long period of time — say years and years — it interferes with your body’s hormones. Once hormones are out of balance your glucose levels will increase in the blood. Your pancreas responds to high glucose by releasing more insulin and too much of it makes your body store fat. This is a major reason why so many people struggle with weight loss. When you don’t understand how hidden sugars have imbalanced your body, it’s much harder to lose weight. One hormone in particular is affected by insulin: leptin. Leptin tells your hypothalamus to tell you to stop eating. It’s what regulates our satiety. But sugar can really mess up leptin’s role by obscuring its message to the brain and causing you to overeat. If your body can’t tell it’s full, it tells you to eat more and more. Most sugary foods are also low on nutrients. When your body isn’t getting the proper fuel, it’s functioning on a deficit, so it makes you constantly eat more to satisfy the nutrient cravings. But if you’re reaching for processed foods, sugar-filled foods and bad-fat foods, you’re only exacerbating the nutrient deficiency, and you therefore crave more food. Do you see a pattern here? For many, chasing these needed nutrients becomes a downward spiral — a fruitless loop, if you will. In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a shocking statistic showing that almost 40 percent of American adults and nearly 20 percent of adolescents are obese. Never has the United States seen these rates of obesity. Plus, more than 100 million Americans have diabetes or are prediabetic. That’s almost one-third of the US population! Journalist Gary Taubes wrote about the link between sugar and the health of Americans and the rest of the world in The BMJ. Taubes argues against the dominant point of view that eating high fat foods are the cause of obesity. He and others have raised the question of why the “twin epidemics” of obesity and diabetes have gotten so out of control — despite many best-effort campaigns by medical professionals, governments and scientists. Taubes argues that instead of focusing on the caloric count of high-fat food consumption, we should be examining our sugar intake, especially with calorific sweeteners. In other words, sugar makes you fat more than fat itself makes you fat. This fact is the opposite of what we were told in the “low fat” 80s and 90s. Sugar consumption has a strong association with poor health outcomes. Ever the cautionary journalist, Taubes warns that evidence that sugar has harmful qualities independent of its calories is still ambiguous. “If it is true, though, it changes how we must communicate the dangers of sugar consumption,” he writes. Making ourselves aware of how sugar consumption imbalances the body is a beginning to effective health-driven communication. I advise my patients to cut out sugar completely, because there’s overwhelming evidence that point to sugar as a variable for illness. Not only are diabetes and obesity linked to sugar consumption, but studies are showing that sugar has indirect links to cancerinflammation, and anxiety. As we eat our way into 2020, there are seven things you can begin doing to stop the sugar overload. 1. Read all food labels and pay special attention to less-obvious sugary ingredients like dextrose, maltose, malt syrup, lactose, and evaporated cane juice. Learn about hidden sugars and make different choices in favor of more simply and purely made foods. Check carefully with salad dressings, breads, fruit drinks, shake powders and nearly every type of processed food. This linked study examined 85,451 processed foods purchased during 2005–2009. A whopping 75 percent of them contained sweeteners. 2. Eat the good stuff first. Make it a point to consume more protein and fresh vegetables before loading up a dessert plate, so you’re more likely to feel more satiated and slow yourself down. You might even eat your own healthful food before you go to a social gathering to make sure you are not too tempted. 3. If you do fall off the bandwagon, forgive yourself. It won’t help you succeed if you beat yourself up when you overdo it. Acknowledge that you can get back on track. Get to the root of what caused you to go overboard and see what answers arise. Take it as a lesson and make a commitment to make better dietary choices. 4. Take some probiotics. See my blog article, Controlling Cravings: Are You the Hand, or the Puppet? which discusses how your gut biome may actually be influencing your cravings and food decisions. Taking a high quality probiotic has shown to increase bacterial diversity which can reduce cravings and even decrease food intake overall. 5. Be active. Don’t hang out around the dessert table. Go for a walk post dinner or take the conversation out of the kitchen. Make time to exercise as well. It will help your mood during those social gatherings while keeping you in shape. 6. Satisfy your sweet tooth using nature’s own sweeteners. Before you argue that life’s too short to skip that triple-frosted sugar cookie, I want to remind you that fresh fruits that are low in sugar like blackberries, raspberries, cantaloupes and watermelons are good sugary dessert substitutes. Try them with a small amount of So Delicious Dairy-Free Coco-Whip for a #SmartSplurge treat! 7. If you must indulge, use better sweeteners. Studies have proven that artificial sweeteners like saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose alter our gut biome in negative ways and contribute to glucose intolerance. Sugar alcohols like xylitol and sorbitol are also not ideal. If you need a sweetener, try organic honey, maple syrup, or pure liquid stevia (no fillers) in very small amounts. Life is so sweet already. Adding sugar to your diet detracts from your life, so let’s approach 2020 by celebrating all of life’s sweetness in other forms. Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!
Skip to main content Potential of lipid metabolism in marine diatoms for biofuel production Diatoms are an ecologically relevant group of microalgae that are not commonly considered for bio-oil production even if they are responsible for massive blooms at sea. Seventeen diatom species were screened for their capacity to produce biomass and lipids, in relation to their growth rate. Triglyceride levels were also assessed as a preferential source of biofuels. Using statistical analysis, two centric diatoms, Thalassiosira weissflogii and Cyclotella cryptica, were selected as good candidates for oil production. Lipid levels significantly increased when the two diatoms were cultivated in a two-stage process under nitrogen limitation. The effect was less pronounced in cultures where silicon was reduced to 20% of the standard supply. Nitrogen limitation did not affect growth rates but led to lipid remodeling and de novo synthesis of triacylglycerols. Triacylglycerols in T. weissflogii and C. cryptica can account for up to 82% and 88% of total glycerolipids, thereby suggesting that the two species are promising candidates for large-scale experimentation for biofuel production. Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) are photosynthetic unicellular organisms with characteristic silica cell walls (frustules). Over 8,000 different species are described growing worldwide in lakes and at sea, but according to different authors [1-3], extant species are estimated to range between 20,000 and 200,000 species. The lineage is traditionally divided into two orders: centric diatoms or Centrales that are radially symmetrical and pennate diatoms or Pennales that are bilaterally symmetrical. The first order is further subdivided into polar and non-polar centrics, whereas the latter order includes the classes Bacillariophyceae and Fragilariophyceae according to the presence or absence of a raphe [4]. Although usually described as microalgae, diatoms have very distinctive traits that set them apart from other photoautotrophic eukaryotes [5-8]. These microorganisms are the main component of the phytoplankton and play a major role in the global cycling of carbon and silicon at sea [9,10]. In particular, their photosynthetic activity contributes to almost half of oceanic primary productivity. As such, diatoms are the major component of the so-called biological carbon pump [11], and the burial of diatoms over geologic time has produced an important fraction of petroleum deposits [12]. Diatoms produce oil drops that are stored intracellularly as a reserve material during the vegetative period of growth, with percentages that vary from less than 23% to greater than 45% of dry cell weight [13]. Physiological and genetic manipulations have also showed the possibility of increasing the amount of lipids in the cellular mass and re-invigorated studies regarding the potential of affording oil production by these microorganisms [14]. The present work is focused on the potential of diatoms as a source of biofuels, especially planktonic species that are responsible for massive algal blooms in the ocean. The aims of this study were (1) to test biomass and lipid productivity of 17 diatom species comparing these results with those obtained from four non-diatom microalgae chosen among the genera traditionally considered for oil production [15-17]; (2) to select promising diatom species by applying principal component analysis (PCA); and (3) to verify the response to silicon (Si) and nitrogen (N) limitation on lipid metabolism by a two-stage cultivation model [18]. Results and discussion Cell growth and principal component analysis on chemical and biochemical parameters Established cultures of 17 diatom species and four species of green microalgae belonging to the classes Eustigmatophyceae and Chlorophyceae were grown in standard f/2 medium. Each microalgal strain showed specific slope and duration of the growth curves (Additional file 1: Figures S1 and S2), which presumably also reflected variability in cellular and metabolic responses. Since it was not possible to determine a homogenous and common day of harvesting for each strain, each culture was stopped in the stationary phase, when the slope of the growth curve showed a negative ratio of the vertical change to the horizontal change between two consecutive cell counts. According to the physiology of each species, this transition occurred within time intervals ranging from a few days to a few weeks. Main cultivation parameters and gross chemical production of each microalgal strain are summarized in Table 1. Diatom cells were generally larger than those of non-diatom species (Additional file 1: Table S1), showing lower cell density but higher growth rates, as measured by the number of cellular divisions (doubling time, T d ). The fastest growing strains (Chaetoceros species, Thalassiosira rotula, Thalassiosira weissflogii P09, Cylindrotheca fusiformis, and Pseudo-nitzschia pseudodelicatissima) doubled three times faster than green microalgae (15 to 17 h doubling time in diatoms compared to 44-83 h doubling time in non-diatoms). Despite the difference in absolute biomass production (that is, 700 mg L−1 for Nannochloropsis salina; 500 mg L−1 for Dunaliella tertiolecta; 195 mg L−1 of C. fusiformis; 146 mg L−1 T. weissflogii P09; 247 mg L−1 of Phaeodactylum tricornutum), the productivity (mg L−1 day−1) of diatom species was comparable to non-diatoms (for example, 33 mg L−1 day−1 N. salina; 36 mg L−1 day−1 D. tertiolecta; 27 mg L−1 day−1 C. fusiformis; 24 mg L−1 day−1 T. weissflogii P09; and P. tricornutum 22 mg L−1 day−1). On the other hand, lipids in a few diatom species (for example, T. weissflogii CCMP 1010 or Cyclotella cryptica CCMP 331) accounted for almost 40% of the total organic matter, whereas the other microalgae, including the non-diatoms, had lipid levels usually below 30% of the total biomass. A few diatoms also showed a very high content of triacylglycerols (TAG) that comprised more than 50% of the lipid content. Table 1 Chemical and biochemical parameters analyzed in cultures of 17 marine diatoms compared to other marine microalgae Data were processed by PCA which modeled and described the variation of biomass and chemical descriptors (productivity of biomass and lipids) together with quantitative loadings on the composition of the lipid fraction (percentage of lipids per cell dry weight and percentage of triglycerides per total lipid content), stability of the lipid components (free fatty acids content), and culture rate (duplication time). All variables were normalized by a range scaling method and reciprocal values were used for duplication time and free fatty acids content, which negatively affected the selection process. With these constraints, replicates of microalgal species clustered in four well-defined groups with robust statistical significance (about 80%) and an overall clear separation of diatom from non-diatom samples (Figure 1A). The associated loading plot highlighted the contribution of each parameter to this distribution (Figure 1B). Figure 1 PCA analysis for species distribution in two components statistical model. (A) Scores plot and (B) loadings plot with the parameters responsible for the clusterization. 1 Chaetoceros curvisetus; 2 Chaetoceros socialis; 3 Chaetoceros affinis; 4 Thalassiosira rotula 1647; 5 Thalassiosira rotula 3264; 6 Thalassiosira weissflogii P09; 7 Thalassiosira weissflogii 1010; 8 Thalassiosira weissflogii 1336; 9 Thalassiosira pseudonana; 10 Cyclotella cryptica; 11 Skeletonema marinoi 2092; 12 Skeletonema marinoi 2052; 13 Cylindrotheca fusiformis; 14 Phaeodactylum tricornutum; 15 Pseudo-nitzschia pseudodelicatissima; 16 Ditylum brightwelli; 17 Melosira octogona; 18 Nannochloropsis salina; 19 Dunaliella salina; 20 Dunaliella tertiolecta; 21 Chlamydomonas sp. Four species of centric diatoms of the order Thalassiosirales, namely C. cryptica and strains of T. weissflogii (cluster I), grouped in a restricted area of the first quadrant of the plot. Major difference in duplication time and lipid percentage, especially triacylglycerols, determined the separation of these species from D. salina, D. tertiolecta, and N. salina (cluster II) although lipid productivity in the two groups was in some cases comparable (for example, 7.3 mg L−1 day−1 for T. weissflogii P09 and N. salina or 9.7 mg L−1 day−1 for D. tertiolecta). Cluster II was characterized by high productivity and included the algal genera that have attracted considerable interest in the search for biological candidates for production of energy from biomass [15,19]. Of the green microalgae, only Chlamydomonas sp. was found in another cluster together with T. pseudonana, C. fusiformis, P. tricornutum, and Melosira octogona (cluster III) as result of the fairly small level of TAG in comparison to clusters I and II. It is interesting to note that cluster III included T. pseudonana and P. tricornutum that are the most studied diatom species for production of biofuels up to now [20-22]. The remaining microalgae were distributed in the fourth quadrant of the plot. They comprised most of the species (cluster IV) with very short duplication time (between 15 and 23 h). In comparison to cluster I, these diatoms showed low productivity and strong hydrolytic enzymatic activity that was responsible for releasing fatty acids from complex lipids [23,24]. This enzymatic process caused a decrease in the major lipid classes and a consequent increase in the levels of free fatty acids that negatively affected the biotechnological importance of these species as potential sources of biofuel. Biomass and lipid productivity of T. weissflogii P09 and C. cryptica under nutrient limitation The effect of nutrient limitation on algal metabolism has been reported as a powerful tool to increase oil productivity. The practical use of nutrient limitation to induce TAG production involves growing cells under nutrient replete conditions to high biomass, followed by limitation of nutrient supply. The amount of lipid production that can be induced is theoretically enormous and justifies the technical hurdles of this approach from an industrial viewpoint [15,25]. To date, the amount of lipid production under nutrient stress for diatoms has sometimes been controversial. Reduction of silicon and nitrogen in cultures of the diatoms P. tricornutum and T. pseudonana is reported to increase lipid production, especially triglycerides, but this result is often counterbalanced by a reduction in growth rate [20,26,27] suggesting that generalizations on the effects of nutrient limitation may not be universal. Traller and Hildebrand have shown changes of TAG accumulation rate over time and sub-population variability of TAG production in C. cryptica, which is probably challenging to overcome in a bulk system [28]. Recently, Li and co-workers showed that nitrogen limitation under low light increased oil levels in P. tricornutum without affecting culture growth [18]. The authors used a two-stage cultivation strategy which consisted in a nutritionally replete initial phase of growth followed by a lipid induction phase under nutrient-limited conditions, as also recorded for other microalgae [15,25]. In compliance with this work, two diatoms of cluster I, namely T. weissflogii P09 and C. cryptica, were cultured under low light (200 μE) and harvested in the stationary phase by gentle centrifugation. The pellet was split, and cells were transferred in replete or limited media. These two strains showed different characteristics that allowed comparison of two distinct models of diatom culture production. In fact, T. weissflogii P09 was characterized by high biomass and lipid productivity that were comparable to those of the best strains of cluster II (Table 1). On the other hand, C. cryptica showed the highest percentage of lipids (almost 42% of the organic extract) and TAG (55% of the lipid pool) of the 21 strains considered in this study. Since silicon deficiency arrests cell cycle progression at the G1/S or G2/M transition for most diatoms [29], a limited f/2 medium containing silica and nitrogen reduced to 20% of their normal supply was used. The secondary cultures were maintained at 200 μE until cells entered the stationary phase once again. As shown in Figure 2, the two diatoms consumed both silicon and nitrogen at different extent during the exponential growth phase. In agreement with the literature [30-32], after 2 days, silicon had diminished to close to zero, whereas nitrogen levels had decreased more slowly but were nonetheless reduced to one third of the starting supply by the time cells had entered the stationary phase (6 days for T. weissflogii P09 and 8 days for C. cryptica) (Figure 2A,B). A similar response was also recorded during the second stage of growth when cultures were gently centrifuged and re-suspended in both replete and nutrient-limited media. Since silicon is an essential nutrient for diatoms [33], it was immediately incorporated when added to the medium, independently of the culture conditions of both species (Figure 2C,D). On the other hand, nitrogen was consumed to a small extent in Si-deprived cultures. Interestingly, the two species responded differently to Si limitation, since C. cryptica grew better than T. weissflogii P09 when Si was reduced or absent in the medium. Figure 2 Cultures of T. weissflogii P09 and C. cryptica CCMP 331 under two-stage nutrient regime. (A) Growth curves during the first (from day 0 to day 6) and second (from day 6 to day 11) stage of growth for Thalassiosira weissflogii . Gray lines indicate nutrient consumption under replete conditions; (B) growth curves during the first (from day 0 to day 8) and second (from day 8 to day 14) stage of growth for C. cryptica. Gray lines indicate nutrient consumption under replete conditions; (C) growth curve and nutrient consumption under depleted conditions (second stage of growth) for Thalassiosira weissflogii P09; (D) growth curve and nutrient consumption under depleted conditions (second stage of growth) for C. cryptica. Simple refreshment with nutrient-replete media (Rp culture) strongly boosted biomass productivity that doubled in the case of T. weissflogii and quadrupled in C. cryptica (Figure 3). On the other hand, replacement with both replete and depleted-nutrient media induced a general reduction in the percentage of total lipids in the biomass of T. weissflogii even if absolute productivity increased due to biomass accumulation. In comparison with Rp conditions, nitrogen and silicon limitation did not cause significant changes in growth probably because cultures were already partially nutrient limited when they entered into the stationary phase. Under the tested growth conditions, only C. cryptica showed a slight increase in biomass in N-limited conditions but this effect did not result in a similar increase in lipids. Surprisingly, these results were not consistent with previous reports that showed a boost in lipid production of diatoms when silicon was limited compared to nitrogen limitation [14]. In fact, silicon is not directly coupled to cellular metabolism of diatoms [34,35], but its depletion leads to arrest of cell division and consequent accumulation of organic carbon, mostly in the form of TAG [36,37]. Nevertheless, the response is not general. To the best of our knowledge, the effects of nutrient modulation on lipid metabolism in T. weissflogii have been never reported even if heterogeneity in neutral lipid accumulation over time and within individual cells of C. cryptica under silicon or nitrogen limitation has been recently described [14,28]. In line with this study, Jeffryes and co-workers have also underlined the importance of tuning silicon delivery in order to improve lipid productivity and to maintain a basal concentration that is necessary to maintain physiological activity of the cells [30]. Figure 3 Effect of nutrient depletion on biomass and lipid production in the centric diatoms T. weissoflogii (white) and C. cryptica (gray). t0 = starting point of limitation experiments; Rp = replete conditions; −N = nitrogen limitation (20% of standard concentration in f/2 medium); −Si = silicon limitation (20% of standard concentration in f/2 medium). Lipid analysis of T. weissflogii and C. cryptica under nutrient limitation Although both polar and neutral lipids can be converted to biodiesel [38,39], TAG represent the ideal fraction since they are easily trans-esterified by alkaline methanol. Diatoms accumulate TAG as a reserve material during the vegetative growth period, but little is known regarding their metabolism and relationship with other lipid classes [12,40]. Recently, a new nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based analytical protocol was introduced for rapid quantitative estimation of TAG and other lipid pools in underivatized extracts of microalgae [41]. Proton NMR spectra of the extracts of T. weissflogii and C. cryptica (Additional file 1: Figures S3 and S4) show that TAG were the main glycerolipid class (above 70%). Figure 4 reports productivity (μmol L−1 day−1) of TAG, glycoglycerolipids (GL), and phospholipids (PL) in these species under different nutrient regimes. In replete conditions, TAG showed level (16.5 and 35.6 μmol L−1 day−1, respectively) that were almost ten times higher than GL (2.0 and 3.6 μmol L−1 day−1) and up to twenty times more than PL (2.3 and 1.7 μmol L−1 day−1). In agreement with data on nutrient consumption shown in Figure 2, these results suggest that TAG hyper-accumulate under the conditions used in this study, in agreement with those by Traller and Hildebrand [28]. Growth of both diatoms in silica limitation did not induce changes in TAG levels, whereas nitrogen limitation induced an additional increase (almost 20%) in TAG productivity (19 μmol L−1 day−1 in T. weissflogii and 45 μmol L−1 day−1 in C. cryptica) in comparison with replete conditions. This process occurred to the detriment of GL and PL in both species even if C. cryptica showed an increase in molar productivity of TAG that was significantly higher than the sum of the diminution of the other two lipid classes. In agreement with recent reports for P. tricornutum [18,42], these data seem to indicate that nitrogen limitation stimulates TAG accumulation by both de novo synthesis and remodeling of membrane glycerolipids. In particular, the former pathway is largely dominant in C. cryptica, whereas remodeling of membrane lipids, especially GL, is the main mechanism of oil synthesis in T. weissflogii. In this process, the remodeled lipids show a sort of molecular signature by maintaining the fatty acid profiles of the original lipid classes [43,44]. Under the tested growth conditions, fatty acid composition of T. weissflogii and C. cryptica revealed a substantial increase of eicosapentaenoic acid in TAG under nitrogen limitation (Additional file 1: Table S2), which was in agreement with the results on molar productivity. Figure 4 Variation of (A) triacylglycerols (B) glycolipids and (C) phospholipids in T. weissflogii (white) and C. cryptica (gray). Rp = replete conditions; −N = nitrogen limitation; −Si = silicon limitation. *p < 0.05. In this study, 17 different strains of marine diatoms were analyzed for biomass productivity and chemical composition. Statistical methods based on multivariate analysis selected two strains of T. weissflogii and C. cryptica as best candidates for biofuel production. Under the tested growth conditions, these diatoms showed lipid productivity that were comparable to green microalgae of the genera, for example, Nannochloropsis and Dunaliella, commonly proposed as potential sources of biofuels. Both diatom candidates were responsive to two-stage cultivation strategies that caused an increase in biomass and lipid productivity. Under nitrogen limitation, a remarkably high level of TAG (above 80% of glycerolipids) production occurred as a result of remodeling of the lipid pools and de novo synthesis of neutral lipids, thereby suggesting that appropriate changes in the culture conditions can be effective tools to modulate lipid metabolism and positively affect oil production in these photoautotrophic organisms. Although further large-scale studies are necessary to fully evaluate the productivity of these species, the present study highlights the plasticity of the lipid pools and the phenotypic accumulation of TAG suggesting that other metabolic studies and more tools are necessary to exploit large-scale culture of diatoms as sources of biofuels. The metabolic response of diatom cells to different culture conditions is possibly dependent not only on nutrient limitation but also on intrinsic predisposition of the cells related to different growth phases and metabolic stages. Presumably, these factors are more important in outdoor production systems that in more controlled lab cultures. Microorganisms and culture conditions All strains were obtained from the National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, USA), except for T. weissflogii P09 and Pseudo-nitzschia pseudodelicatissima (local strains, isolated from the Gulf of Naples, Italy), and D. salina CCAP 19/18 (Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa, Oban, Scotland). These included diatoms (Chaetoceros curvisetus CCMP 3260, Chaetoceros socialis CCMP 3263, Chaetoceros affinis CCMP 3259, T. rotula CCMP 1647, T. rotula CCMP 3264, T. weissflogii CCMP 1010, T. weissflogii CCMP 1336, T. pseudonana CCMP 1335, C. cryptica CCMP 331, Skeletonema marinoi CCMP 2092, S. marinoi CCMP 2052, Ditylum brightwelli CCMP 358, M. octogona CCMP 483, C. fusiformis CCMP 343, and P. tricornutum CCMP 632) and green microalgae of the classes Eustigmatophyceae (N. salina CCMP 369) and Chlorophyceae (D. tertiolecta CCMP 1320 and Chlamydomonas sp. CCMP 222). The inocula were all taken from healthy exponentially growing cultures. Cultures of each strain were carried out in triplicate using a 10% volume of algal inocula. Microalgae were cultured in triplicates in 2-L polycarbonate flasks in f/2 medium at 20°C and gently bubbled with sterile air [45]. Artificial light intensity (200 μmol m−2 s−1) was provided by daylight fluorescent tube with a 14:10 h light:dark photoperiod. Cell growth (cells mL−1) was estimated daily using a Bürker counting chamber (Merck, Leuven, Belgium) (depth 0.100 mm) under an inverted microscope (Nikon Eclipse TE200, Nikon Corp., Tokyo, Japan). Cell division was expressed as doubling time (T d ), calculated according to Equation 1, where N 1 and N 2 are cell numbers at time 1 (t 1) and time 2 (t 2) at the extremes of the linear phase, according to Wood et al. [46]: $$ {T}_d=\left({t}_2-{t}_1\right)\times 1\mathrm{n}2/\left(1\mathrm{n}\;{N}_2/{N}_1\right). $$ Microalgae were harvested when the slope of the growth curve was very small or negative compared to the exponential phase by centrifugation in a swing-out Allegra X12R (Beckman Coulter Inc., Palo Alto, CA, USA) at 2,300 g for 10 (Bacillariophyceae) or 15 min (Eustigmatophyceae and Chlorophyceae). Cells were washed twice with ammonium formate 0.5 M to remove salt [16] and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. The pellets were then lyophilized with a MicroModulyo 230 (Thermo Electron Corporation, Milford, MA, USA) freeze dryer, to estimate cell dry weight. Biomass productivity was expressed as dry weight from 1 L of culture per days of algal growth. Chemical analysis Unless otherwise specified, lipid extraction was performed using the modified Folch method [47]. Lipid content (mg L−1) was determined gravimetrically by weighting lipid extracts. Lipid composition (percentage of free fatty acids, triglycerides, glycolipids, and phospholipids) was estimated after purification on silica gel column of each class of molecules. Lipid extracts were methylated with diazomethane and purified by adsorption chromatography on silica gel in accordance to ref. [23]. Total fatty acid composition was determined by GC-MS on the corresponding methyl esters (fatty acid methyl ester (FAME)) obtained after saponification of lipid extracts with Na2CO3 in MeOH (42°C) for 4 h. FAME mixtures were analyzed with a gas chromatograph equipped with a mass spectrometer (Focus GC-PolarisQ, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) (injector 260°C; detector 260°C; temperature gradient 160°C up to 260°C, 5°C/min). Pentadecanoic acid was used as internal standard. Protein content was determined by Lowry method (RC DC protein assay; Bio-Rad) on 20 mL of culture. Carbohydrate content was determined using the phenol-sulfuric acid method [48] on 100 mL of culture. Nutrient limitation experiments Diatom cultures were initially maintained in optimal conditions for cell growth in 10-L polycarbonate carboys containing 6.5 L of culture. The cultures were harvested after the onset of the stationary phase (6 days for T. weissflogii and 8 days for C. cryptica) and centrifuged as reported above. The supernatant was discarded, and the cell pellet was washed twice with nitrate- and silicate-free f/2 medium. The culture was then divided into three aliquots, and cells were collected by centrifugation. The resulting pellets were re-inoculated into 2-L fresh f/2 medium containing 882 μmol L−1 of nitrate and 106 μmol L−1 silicate (replete, Rp), 177 μmol L−1 of nitrate, and 106 μmol L−1 silicate (Nitrate-limited media, −N) and 882 μmol L−1 of nitrate and 20 μmol L−1 silicate (Silicate-limited media, −Si). Each experiment was run in triplicate. Algal suspensions were collected in the beginning of the declining phase and treated as described above. Biomass and lipid productivity under nutrient limitation were determined in accordance with the formula: $$ {\mathrm{Productivity}}_i=\frac{C_i\;\left({t}_{\mathrm{end}}\right)-{C}_i\;\left({t}_0\right)}{t_{\mathrm{end}}-{t}_0} $$ where C i is the concentration of the component of interest i, (in which i represents either biomass dry weight, lipid extract, or μmol of glycerolipids [40], and t time (days). Quantification of lipids (μmoles of triglycerides, glycolipids, and phospholipids) was assessed by NMR on DRX600 (Bruker, Germany) equipped with Cryoprobe and operating at 600 MHz, in accordance to a recent published NMR methodology [41]. During the experiments, 10 mL of culture was centrifuged daily and the supernatant was filtered at 0.22 μm for nutrient analysis. Dissolved nitrate and silicate were estimated with the spectrophotometric method according to references [49,50]. Principal component analysis and statistical treatment of the data Biomass productivity (mg L−1 day−1), lipid productivity (mg L−1 day−1), duplication time, percentage of total lipids, percentage of free fatty acids, and percentage of neutral lipids were used for statistical analysis. These biological parameters were treated with a range scaling method [51,52]. Reciprocal values were used for duplication time and free fatty acids whose minimal values positively affected cultures. Multivariate statistical analysis was performed with SIMCA-P+ 12 package (Umetrics, Umea, Sweden). ANOVA test was used for statistical analysis of measured parameters with Bonferroni correction. Fatty acid methyl ester Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry Nuclear magnetic resonance Principal component analysis 1. 1. Mann DG, Droop SJM. Biodiversity, biogeography and conservation of diatoms. Hydrobiologia. 1996;336:19–32. 2. 2. Guiry MD. How many species of algae are there? J Phycol. 2012;48:1057–63. 3. 3. 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Centering, scaling, and transformations: improving the biological information content of metabolomics data. BMC Genomics. 2006;7:142–56. Download references This work is based upon research supported by the project PON01_02740 “Sfruttamento Integrato di Biomasse Algali in Filiera Energetica di Qualità” (SIBAFEQ), Programma Operativo Nazionale - Ricerca e Competitività 2007 to 2013. We also thank the project “Energia da FOnti Rinnovabili” (EFOR). AF and GdI are grateful to Antonio Maiello for the technical assistance. Author information Corresponding author Correspondence to Giuliana d’Ippolito. Additional information Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions GdI and AF designed the research; GdI, AS, FMV, MGA, PB, and CG performed the research; DP contributed the statistical analysis; GdI and AF analyzed the data and wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Additional file Additional file 1: Supporting material. Figure S1. Growth curves of non-diatom species that were considered in this study. See Experimental section for culture conditions. Figure S2. Growth curves of non-diatom species that were considered in this study. See Experimental section for culture conditions. Figure S3. Proton NMR spectra of extracts of T. weissflogii under Si-limited (a), N-limited (b), and replete (c) conditions. Figure S4. Proton NMR spectra of extracts of C. cryptica under Si-limited (a), N-limited (b), and replete (c) conditions. Table S1. Cell size of microalgae considered in this study. Table S2. Fatty acid composition of TAG in T. weissflogii and C. cryptica under nutrient limitation. Rights and permissions Reprints and Permissions About this article Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark Cite this article d’Ippolito, G., Sardo, A., Paris, D. et al. Potential of lipid metabolism in marine diatoms for biofuel production. Biotechnol Biofuels 8, 28 (2015). Download citation • Diatoms • Biofuels • Lipid metabolism • Microalgae • Bioenergy
Get Started. It's Free or sign up with your email address 1. 1. Production and Operations Management 1.1. production and operation management 1.1.1. Production can be seen on things like factories, machines, equipment and assembly lines. “Production” refers as the step-by-step taken of material to form another thing "Management" is a process involve the manage activity Planning Organizing Motivating Controlling 1.1.2. Production concept and idea literally been applied in manufacturing process and also service provided Product manufacturing Hotel management Restaurant management Education sector 1.2. good producer and service producer 1.2.1. manufacturing organizations produce physical, tangible goods that can be stored in inventory before they are needed. 1.2.2. service organizations produce intangible products that cannot be produced ahead of time. 1.3. production system 1.3.1. Input + Resources > Process(Production/transformation) > Output 1.4. elements of production system 1.4.1. Input 1.4.2. Output 1.4.3. Production process 1.4.4. Resources 1.5. why production and operation management is important 1.5.1. Reduce cost product and service with efficient 1.5.2. Can increase revenue through increases customer satisfaction in producing quality goods and services 1.5.3. reduce the amount of investment (capital employed) necessary to produce the goods and service by being effective and innovative in the use of resources 2. 2. Plant location 2.1. One of the major strategy decisions that must be made by organization especially for manufacturer is where to locate its first factory 2.1.1. Location options for any organizations Corporations choose from expanding an existing facility Shutting down one location and moving to another Adding new locations while retaining existing facilities Options of doing nothing and maintaining the status quo 2.2. Why ? 2.2.1. shift of location to some other place known as relocation 2.2.2. expanding the market and diminishing resources 2.2.3. companies will expand their markets 2.3. Location factors 2.3.1. broad array of factors that can influence revenue, costs, or both, and profits 2.3.2. operational location factors Market related factor Locations of demand Location of competitors Tangible cost factors Transportation Raw material availability and costs Labor availability and costs Site and construction costs Taxes Intangible factors Stability of political environment Zoning and legal consideration Quality of life 2.4. Location evaluation methods 2.4.1. decision where to locate 2.4.2. three techniques to help a location decision The transportation model method minimize the cost of transportation production of sources supplies demand sources or destination minimize transportation cost Linear programming method Geographic information system (GIS) determining the location of a facility which will reduce transportation costs (travel time). using GIS software 2.4.3. Factor-rating method involves qualitative and quantitative inputs evaluates alternatives based on comparison after establishing Steps involved in the method Develop a list of locational factors Assign weight to each factors from 0 – 1.0 Assigned a subjective score (usually between 0 to 100) for each factor Multiply score by weight Recommend the location with the highest point score 2.4.4. The center-of-gravity technique a quantitative method for locating a facility indicates the ideal location in the grid-map involves the use of a visual map and a coordinate system three locations, 1, 2, and 3, each at a set of coordinates (xi, yi) value Wi is the annual weight/quantity/volume to determine a central location for a new facility coordinates for the location of the new facility are computed using formulas 3. 3. Plant layout 3.1. When and why ? 3.1.1. When the company first starts its business 3.1.2. ensure a smooth flow of work 3.2. Types of facility layout 3.2.1. Fixed position materials or major components remain in a fixed position used when product is very bulky, heavy or fragile used in large construction projects 3.2.2. Process equipment and workstations are arranged according to the type of process they perform Machines are grouped into departments most movement of products from workstation to workstation Advantages better utilized and fewer machines are required Flexibility of equipment and personnel is possible Lower investment Disadvantages lot of inventory expensive and consume much time 3.2.3. Product to achieve a smooth and rapid flow Geared to production line which manufacture only one product Equipment and manual workstations are arranged to mirror the required flow Advantages Reduced material handling activities Work In Process almost eliminated Minimum manufacturing time Simplification of the production planning and control systems Tasks simplification Disadvantages No flexibility in the production process Low flexibility in the manufacturing times High capital investment workstation is critical to the process Monotonous work 4. 4. Forecasting 4.1. Introduction 4.1.1. the process of predicting the future of supplier, manufacturer or retailer 4.1.2. used sales forecast from marketing department for operations planning 4.1.3. forecast machine breakdown 4.1.4. – forecast on product group or families 4.2. The Time Horizon 4.2.1. Short term Day-to-day planning 4.2.2. Intermediate term Measured in weeks or months 4.2.3. Long-term Firm’s manufacturing strategies 4.3. Forecasting Techniques 4.3.1. Qualitative approaches subjective opinions from one or more experts Hierarchical method salesmen are required to estimate expected sales in their respective territories and sections sales manager of a region could take all individual forecast to produce aggregate regional forecast Advantages Disadvantages Expert opinion Develop a forecast from the results of interview Advantages Disadvantages Delphi method consist of an effort to arrive at a consensus about expected level of demand The results are compiled and a summary of the result is returned to the expert The process is repeated Response received and analyzed by independent body Advantages Limitations Surveys known as opinion surveys signal future trends and shifting preference patterns effective in forecasting market share, product redesign, product repackaging, setting prices Advantages Limitations 4.3.2. Quantitative approaches Rely on data and analytical techniques Moving averages known as rolling average, moving mean, or running average Analyze a series of averages of different subset of numbers from a larger set of data commonly used with time series data to smooth out short term fluctuation highlight longer-term trends or cycles Simple Moving Average (SMA) Weighted moving averages (WMA) the ability to give more importance to what happened recently Exponential smoothing provides an exponentially weighted moving average of all previously observed values Linear regression Estimating the linear trend in a time series The estimated regression equation describing a straight-line relationship between an independent variable 5. Linear Programming 5.1. A mathematical approach to the problem of allocating limited resources among competing activities 5.2. Mathematical technique for finding optimal solution to problems that can be expressed using linear equations and linear inequalities 5.3. known as linear optimization 5.4. Consist of... 5.4.1. A set of variables, usually denoted as xj ( j = 1,…,n,). The variables in a linear program are a set of quantities that need to be determined in order to solve the problem variables represent the amount of a resource 5.4.2. A linear objective function represented by mathematical function of the variables Two most typical forms of objective functions: Maximize f (x) or minimize f (x) 5.4.3. A set of linear constraints Mathematical equation or inequality that represents a restriction due to a resource or technological limitation 5.5. Application of linear progeamming 5.5.1. Scheduling of personnel 5.5.2. Inventory control and production planning 5.5.3. Blending problems 5.5.4. Transportation 5.5.5. Forest management planning 5.6. Steps in LP Model Formulation 5.6.1. Define the decision variables 5.6.2. Formulate the objective function Maximize profit Maximize cost Maximize overtime 5.6.3. Formulate the constraints result of a resource or technological limitations 5.6.4. writing out the non-negativity constraint , the variables of linear programs must always take non-negative values 5.6.5. Formulating and Solving LP Problems Formulating the problem the process of translating a real-world problem into a linear program Solving the problem a computer program can be used to solve the problem Interpreting the solution the mathematical solution is translated back to the real world 5.6.6. Reduce cost indicates how much the coefficient on the corresponding variable In the case of a minimization problem, “improved” means “reduced.” In the case of a maximization problem, “improved” means “increased.” units of the reduced cost values are the same as the units of the corresponding objective function coefficients Since both variable values are positive, the reduced cost values are zero 5.6.7. Shadow Price the “improvement” in the objective function if the constraint is relaxed by one unit In the case of a less-than-or-equal constraint, such as a resource constraint, the dual price gives the value In the case of a greater-than-or-equal constraint, such as a minimum production level constraint non-zero when a constraint is binding units of the objective function divided by the units of the constraint 5.6.8. Feasibility and Optimality solution is a set of values for each variable that are consistent with the constraints result in the best possible value of the objective function The problem may be unbounded 6. Lean manuacturing 6.1. what ? 6.1.1. A systematic approach for achieving the shortest possible cycle by eliminating the process waste through continuous improvement 6.1.2. manufacturing without waste 6.1.3. production of goods using less of everything compared to traditional mass production 6.2. Push versus Pull 6.2.1. The Push System “batch-and-queue” manufacturing method manufacturing as much product in as little time as possible This type of production manufactures and distributes products based on market forecasts 6.2.2. The Pull System emphasizes pulling the products through the manufacturing process starts with the customer; that is, nothing is manufactured until the customer orders it within the manufacturing process, the next processing centre can be thought of as an internal customer. Parts are not passed on from one processing station 6.3. What is Waste? 6.3.1. Waste is anything that happens to a product that does not add value 6.3.3. Seven types of waste over production Producing more/sooner than the Internal or External customer needs movement Excessive movement of people, information or materials. inventory Excessive storage and delay of information or products. poor processing Using the wrong set of tools, procedures or systems. waiting Long periods of inactivity for people, information, machinery or materials defect Frequent errors in paper work, product quality problems motion people or equipment moving or walking more than is required to perform the processing. 6.4. 5 principles of lean 6.4.1. Specify value Specify value from the standpoint of the end customer 6.4.2. Identify the value stream steps in the value stream for each product family, eliminating whenever possible those step dont create value 6.4.3. Create flow value-creating steps occur in tight sequence so the product will flow smoothly 6.4.4. Let the customer pull product through the value stream Make only what the customer has ordered 6.4.5. Seek perfection value streams are identified, wasted steps are removed, and flow and pull are introduced 6.5. Lean Tools 6.5.1. poka yoke “Mistake proofing” techniques/device to prevent defects drive defects out of products and process human error which ultimately can improve quality and reliability Wrong part used in the process Measurement error Three types of poka-yoke for detecting and preventing errors The contact method identifies product defects by testing the product's characteristic The fixed-value or constant number method alerts the operator if a certain number of movements are not made The motion-step or sequence method determines whether the prescribed steps of the process have been followed 6.5.2. 5s visual workplace Sort Organized-keeping what is necessary and throw unused product Set in order Orderliness-arrange and label the item Shine Cleanliness-make sure everything is clean and clear Standardized Standardized cleanup-state the exist first item Sustain Sustain the discipline-make the discipline habit 6.5.3. Just in time only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed produce just in time lead to huge improvements in quality and efficiency 7. Management of quality 7.1. Quality Definition 7.1.1. the ability of a product or service to consistently meet or exceed customer requirements or expectations 7.1.2. Different customers will have different expectations 7.1.3. what the customers want, then translating this information into technical specifications 7.1.4. Understanding dimensions that customers use to judge the quality of a product or service 7.2. Dimensions of Product Quality 7.2.1. Performance– main characteristics of the product 7.2.2. Aesthetics– appearance, feel, smell, taste 7.2.3. Special features– extra characteristics 7.2.4. Conformance– how well the product conforms to design specifications 7.2.5. Reliability– consistency of performance 7.2.6. Durability– the useful life of the product 7.2.7. Perceived quality– indirect evaluation of quality 7.2.8. Service-ability– handling of complaints or repairs 7.3. Dimensions of Service Quality 7.3.1. Convenience– the availability and accessibility of the service 7.3.2. Reliability– ability to perform a service dependably, consistently, and accurately 7.3.3. Responsiveness– willingness to help customers in unusual situations and to deal with problems 7.3.4. Time– the speed with which the service is delivered 7.3.5. Assurance– knowledge exhibited by personnel and their ability to convey trust and confidence 7.3.6. Courtesy– the way customers are treated by employees 7.3.7. Tangibles– the physical appearance of facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials 7.3.8. Consistency– the ability to provide the same level of good quality repeatedly 7.4. Benefits of Having Good Quality 7.4.1. Competitive Advantage 7.4.2. Raise Company’s Reputation 7.4.3. Rationalize Premium Prices 7.4.4. Decrease Liability Costs 7.4.5. Increase Productivity 7.4.6. Increase Customer Loyalty 7.4.7. Increase Customer Satisfaction 7.5. Consequences of Poor Quality 7.5.1. loss of business and existing market share 7.5.2. legal liability 7.5.3. lack of productivity 7.5.4. increased costs 7.6. Quality Product and Service? 7.6.1. Effective organizations need systems to ensure their products or services achieve the highest level of quality 7.6.2. A variety of standards, program, and award provide guidance into how to establish and implement a quality management system and effective organization 7.7. What Standards, Programs and Awards Exist 7.7.1. Quality Standards ISO 9000 7.7.2. Awards Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award, Japan’s Deming Prize 7.7.3. Programs Total quality management 7.8. Basic quality Tools 7.8.1. Pareto analysis 7.8.2. Flowcharts 7.8.3. Check sheets 7.8.4. Histograms 7.8.5. Scatter diagrams 7.8.6. Control charts 7.8.7. Fishbone diagram
Reference Counting Reference Counts To manage the lifetime of objects, Panda3D has a reference counting system for many objects. This means that for every object that uses this mechanism, a reference count is kept which counts the number of references exist to that object. Every time a new reference is made (eg. assigned to a new variable), the reference count is increased. When the reference count reaches zero, the object is deleted. This is similar to Python’s reference counting system, and in fact, the two systems interact when Panda3D is used with Python. However, since an object’s lifetime may persist beyond the lifetime of an object in Python, Python’s own reference counting system alone is not sufficient. The class that manages the reference count is ReferenceCount. To see if a class is reference counted, check if it inherits from ReferenceCount. To implement a new class that is reference counted, inherit it from either ReferenceCount or TypedReferenceCount (if use of the typing system is desired), or another class that in itself inherits from ReferenceCount. Managing Reference Counts There are several ways that the reference count can be manipulated in C++ code. To get the number of references to an object, use the get_ref_count() method. Smart Pointers To correctly track references in C++ code, Panda3D needs to know whenever a new reference to the class is created. Therefore, Panda3D defines a template class PointerTo<T> which is just like the ordinary pointer T, except that the reference count is incremented when it is created or assigned, and decremented when it goes out of scope. There is a convenience macro PT(T) to save typing. There is also a macro ConstPointerTo<T>, shortened to CPT(T), which manages a pointer to a const object. This is similar to const T in C++; the pointer can still be reassigned, but the object may not be modified. This is a usage example: PT(TextNode) node = new TextNode("title"); node->set_text("I am a reference counted TextNode!"); A PointerTo is functionally equivalent to a regular pointer, and it can cast implicitly to the appropriate pointer type. You can use ptr.p() to explicitly retrieve the underlying plain pointer. When they aren’t necessary Although it is safest to use PointerTo to refer to an object in all cases, in some cases it is not strictly necessary and may be more efficient not to. This can only be done, however, when you are absolutely sure that the reference count cannot decrease to zero during the time you might be using that reference. In particular, a getter or setter of a class storing a PointerTo need not take or return a PointerTo since the class object itself already holds a reference count. The following code example highlights a case where it is not necessary: PT(TextNode) node; node = new TextNode("title"); void use_text_node(TextNode *node) { One crucial example where the return value of a function has to be a PointerTo is where the function may return a new instance of the object: PT(TextNode) make_text_node() { return new TextNode("title"); PT(TextNode) node = make_text_node(); Managing Reference Count Although it is recommended to use PointerTo for all references, it is possible to manage the reference count manually using the ref() and unref() methods. This can not always work as an alternative, though, since an object returned from a function that returns a PointerTo may be destructed before you get a chance to call ref() to save it! This is why it’s recommended to always use PointerTo except in very rare, low-level cases. Important to note, however, is that the unref() method should not be used if it may cause the reference count to reach zero. This is because a member function cannot destruct the object it is called on. Instead, you should use the unref_delete() macro to decrease the reference count unless you are absolutely sure that it will not reach zero. Weak Pointer A weak pointer stores a reference to an object without incrementing its reference count. In this respect it is just like a regular C++ pointer, except that weak pointers have extra advantages: they can know when the underlying object has been destructed. Weak pointers are implemented by WeakPointerTo<T> and WeakConstPointerTo<T>, abbreviated to WPT(T) and WCPT(T), respectively. They work just like regular pointers, but be careful not to dereference it if it may have already been deleted! To see if it has been deleted, call ptr.was_deleted(). The only thread safe way to access its value is to call ptr.lock(), which returns nullptr if the pointer has been deleted (or is about to be), and otherwise returns a regular reference-counted PointerTo that ensures you can access it for as long as you hold it. This is a common idiom to access a weak pointer: if (auto ptr = weak_ptr.lock()) { // Safely use ptr in here. } else { // The pointer has been deleted. Circular References When designing your class hierarchy, you should be particularly wary of circular references. This happens when object A stores a reference to object B, but object B also stores a reference to object A. Since each object will always retain a reference to the other object, the reference count will never reach zero and memory leaks may ensue. One way to solve this problem is to store a regular, non-reference counted pointer to object A in object B, and let object A unset the reference to itself in its destructor. This is not a general solution, however, and the most optimal solution depends on the specific situation. Stack Allocation In some rare cases, it is desirable to create a temporary instance of the object on the stack. To achieve this, it is necessary to call local_object() on the object directly after allocation: Texture tex; However, this should only be used for very temporary objects, since reference counted objects are not meant to be passed by value.
Week 10: Native American Cherokee Story A Why the Possum’s Tail is Bare by James Mooney The Possum had a long, bushy, and beautiful tail! He was so proud of his tail that he would sing and dance every morning to give thanks for the tail he was given. Rabbit was very jealous of Possums tail because he had no tail. This is when Rabbit decided he was going to play a trip on Possum. There was going to be a community dance and celebration and it was Rabbits job to tell everyone about it. So Rabbit went out to everyone and made sure he asked if Possum would attend the dance. Possum said he would attend because he wanted everyone to see his beautiful tail. There was also Cricket who was the town barber because he could cut very close to the skin. Rabbit gave orders to Cricket to fix his hair a special way for the community dance. So Cricket went to Possum’s house and began to cut his hair. Possum’s eyes were closed while Cricket cut so he couldn’t tail how shot he was putting his hair. Cricket wrapped a red string around Possum’s tail so that it would keep their hair perfect until it was his turn to dance. When Possum got to the dance he took the red string off his tail and began to dance. He spun around saying, “Look at my fur” “Look at my tail as I dance” and “Look how beautiful my tail is!” Possum noticed that people began to laugh at Possum. When Possum looked down and noticed that the hair on his tail was gone and his skin was smooth as a lizards tail. Possum fell over on his back in shock. To this day Possum still will see his tail and fall over in shock. Popular posts from this blog Week 9 Story: The Story of How the Hail is Made Week 2 Story: The Ghost Who Wrestled with a Man
Fact based theory (updated 16 January 2008) Fig. A. The difference between a Feynman diagram for virtual radiation exchange and a Feynman diagram for real radiation transfer in spacetime. Fig. A. – The difference between a Feynman diagram for virtual radiation exchange and a Feynman diagram for real radiation transfer in spacetime. Our understanding of the distinction is based on the correct (non-Catt) physics of the Catt anomaly – we see electromagnetic gauge bosons propagating in normal logic signals in computers. Electron drift current in the direction of the signal occurs in response to the light speed propagating electric field gradient, and is not the cause of it for various reasons: (1) the logic front is propagated via two conductors with electrons going in opposite directions in each, so you have the problem if you claim that electricity is like a like of charges pushed from one end, that in one conductor the electrons are going in the opposite direction to the propagating logic step, (2) the electron drift speed is way too small, and (3) electron drift current anyway carries way, way too little kinetic energy to be able to produce the electromagnetic fields that in turn cause electric currents, on account of the small drift velocities of conduction electrons and on acount of the small masses of conduction electrons, and so this kinetic energy (mv^2) is dwarfed by the energy carried by the electromagnetic field which causes the electron drift current. The electromagnetic field is composed of gauge bosons. Therefore, we can learn about quantum field theory by studying the Catt anomaly. What happens here is that in electricity wherever you get propagation you have charged, massless electromagnetic gauge bosons travelling in two different directions at the same time; the transfer in two directions is physically demanded in order to avert infinite self-inductance due to the motion of massless charges. This has been carefully investigated and leads to solid predictions. “Virtual” radiation like gauge bosons (vector bosons, exchange radiation) in Yang-Mills quantum field theories SU(2) and SU(3) travels between charges (in two directions, i.e. both crom charge 1 to charge 2, and from charge 2 to charge 1 at the same time, so the magnetic fields of the exchange radiations going in opposite directions at the same time on the average have opposite directed curls and thus cancel out, preventing infinite self-inductance problems). Fig. B. - Electron orbits in a real atom due to chaotic interactions, not smooth curvature. Fig. B. – Electron orbits in a real atom due to chaotic interactions, not smooth curvature. Exchange radiation leads to electromagnetism and gravitation: see the posts https://nige.wordpress.com/2007/06/20/the-mathematical-errors-in-the-standard-model-of-particle-physics/ and https://nige.wordpress.com/about/ for mechanism and some predictions. Other details can be found in other recent posts on this blog, and in the comments sections to those posts (where I’ve placed many of the updates and corrections, to avoid confusion and to preserve a sense of chronology to developments). The real motion of an electron or other particle is simply the sum of all quantum interaction momenta which operate on it, i.e., you need to add up the vectorial contributions of all the impulses the electron comes under from exchange radiations in the vacuum. Differential equations describing smooth curvatures and continuously variable fields in general relativity and mainstream quantum field theory are wrong except for very large numbers of interactions, where statistically they become good approximations to the chaotic (particle interactions) which are producing accelerations (spacetime curvatures, i.e. forces). See https://nige.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/metrics-and-gravitation/ and in particular see Fig. 1 of the post: https://nige.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/feynman-diagrams-in-loop-quantum-gravity-path-integrals-and-the-relationship-of-leptons-to-quarks/. Think about air pressure as an analogy. Air pressure can be represented mathematically as a continuous force acting per unit area: P = F/A. However, air pressure is not a continuous force, it is due to impulses delivered by discrete random, chaotic strikes by air molecules (travelling at average speeds of 500 m/s in sea level air) against surfaces. If therefore you take a very small area of surface, you will not find a continuous uniform pressure P acting on it. Instead, you will find a series of chaotic impulses due to individual air molecules striking the surface! This is an example of how a useful mathematical fiction on large scales like air pressure, loses its accuracy if applied on small scales. It is well demonstrated by Brownian motion. The motion of an electron in an atom is subjected to the same thing simply because the small size doesn’t allow large numbers of interactions to be averaged out. Hence, on small scales, the smooth solutions predicted by mathematical models are flawed. Calculus assumes that spacetime are endlessly divisible, which is not true when calculus is used to represent a curvature (acceleration) due to a quantum field! Instead of perfectly smooth curvature as modelled by calculus, the path of a particle in a quantum field is affected by a series of discrete impulses from individual quantum interactions. The summation of all these interactions gives you something that is approximated in calculus by the “path integral” of quantum field theory. The whole reason why you can’t predict deterministic paths of electrons in atoms, etc., using differential equations is that their applicability breaks down for individual quantum interaction phenomena. You should be summing impulses from individual quantum interactions to get a realistic “path integral” to predict quantum field phenomena. The total and utter breakdown of mechanistic research in modern physics has instead led to a lot of nonsense, based on sloppy thinking, lack of calculations, and the failure to make checkable, falsifiable predictions and obtain experimental confirmation of them. Fig. C. - Normally we can ignore equilibrium processes like the radiation we are always emitting and receiving from the environment (because the numbers cancel each other out). Similarly, we can normally not see any net loss of energy from an electron which radiates as it orbits the nucleus, because it is receiving energy in equilibrium with 10^80 charges all radiating throughout the universe. Nutcases who can't grasp that all electrons behave according to the same basic laws of nature (i.e., the nutcases like Bohr who believed religiously that only one electron would radiate, so it would be out of equilibrium and would spiral into the nucleus) tend to adopt crackpot interpretations of quantum mechanics like the Copenhagen Interpretation, which makes metaphysical claims that are not even wrong (i.e., claims that can't be falsified even in principle). Don't listen to those liars and charlatans if you want to learn physics, but you'd better build a shrine to them if you want to become a paid-up member of the modern physics mainstream orthodoxy of charlatans. Fig. C. – Normally we can ignore equilibrium processes like the radiation we are always emitting and receiving from the environment (because the numbers cancel each other out). Similarly, we can normally not see any net loss of energy from an electron which radiates as it orbits the nucleus, because it is receiving energy in equilibrium with 10^80 charges all radiating throughout the universe. Nutcases who can’t grasp that all electrons behave according to the same basic laws of nature (i.e., the nutcases like Bohr who believed religiously that only one electron would radiate, so it would be out of equilibrium and would spiral into the nucleus) tend to adopt crackpot interpretations of quantum mechanics like the Copenhagen Interpretation, which makes metaphysical claims that are not even wrong (i.e., claims that can’t be falsified even in principle). Don’t listen to those liars and charlatans if you want to learn physics, but you’d better build a shrine to them if you want to become a paid-up member of the modern physics mainstream orthodoxy of charlatans. (End of 16 January 2008 update.) This post doesn’t yet summarise the material on this blog. I’ve recently finished with Weinberg’s first two volumes of “The Quantum Theory of Fields”. I don’t find Weinberg’s style and content helpful in volume 1 apart from the very helpful chapters 1 (history of the subject), 11 (one loop radiative corrections, with a nice treatment of vacuum polarization), and 14 (bound states in external fields). In volume 2, I found chapters 18 (renormalization group methods, dealing with the way the bare charge is shielded in QED and augmented in QCD by polarized vacuum, with a logarithmic dependency on collision energy which is a simple function of the distance particles approach one another in scattering interactions), 19 and 21 (symmetry breaking), and 22 (anomalies) of use. Generally, however, in the other chapters (and certainly in volume 3) Weinberg doesn’t follow physical facts but instead launches off into abstract speculative mathematical games, so a better book more generally (tied more firmly at every step to physical facts and not fantasy) is Professor Lewis H. Ryder’s “Quantum Field Theory” 2nd ed., 1996, especially chapters 1-3 and 6-9. (Beware of editor Rufus Neal’s proof-checking; the running header at the top of the pages throughout chapter 3 contains the incorrect spelling ‘langrangian’. Neal once rejected a manuscript of mine, and I’m glad now, seeing that his editorial work is so imperfect!) It’s obvious that the plan to use SU(2) with massless gauge bosons to unify electromagnetism (two charged massless gauge bosons) and gravity (one massless uncharged gauge boson) is going to require some mathematical work. The idea for this comes from experimental fact: the physical mechanisms proved at https://nige.wordpress.com/about/ and applied to other areas in the last dozen blog posts or so, are predictive, have made predictions subsequently confirmed, and are compatible with the empirically confirmed portions of both quantum field theory and general relativity. It predicts accurately within the accuracy of available data the coupling constants for gravity and electromagnetism from the mechanism with gauge bosons that look like massless versions of the 3 massive weak gauge bosons of SU(2) in the standard model. It is not a case that we’re proposing as a mere speculative theory that SU(2) is both a theory of weak interactions, quantum gravity and electromagnetism. Instead, it’s simply a case that we naturally end up with SU(2) as the gauge symmetry for electromagnetism-gravity because that’s what the predictive, fact-based mechanism of gauge boson exchange shows to have the right gauge bosons. In other words, we start with facts and end up with SU(2) as a consequence. That’s quite a different approach to what someone in the mainstream would probably do in this area, i.e., starting off speculatively with SU(2) as a guess, and seeing where it leads. But let’s try looking at the whole problem from that angle for a moment. If we were to guess that U(1)xSU(2) electroweak symmetry breaking were wrong and that the correct model is actually that we lose U(1) entirely and replace the Higgs sector with something better so electric charge is mediated by massless versions of the W+ and W- SU(2) gauge bosons while the graviton is the massless version of the Z, we’d start by doing something very different to anything I’ve done already. We’d take the existing SU(2) field lagrangian, remove the Higgs field so that the gauge bosons are massless (actually in SU(2) the gauge bosons are naturally massless, so the complexity of the Higgs field has to be added to give mass to the naturally massless weak gauge bosons, to break electroweak symmetry, which by itself should be a very big clue to anyone with sense that maybe massless weak gauge bosons exist at low energies but are manifested as electromagnetism and gravitation), and see about solving that lagrangian to obtain gravity and electromagnetism. The basic mainstream SU(2) lagrangian (the Weinberg-Salam weak force model) seems to be summarised neatly in section 8.5 (pp. 298-306) of Ryder’s “Quantum Field Theory” 2nd ed. (Ryder’s discussion is far, far more lucid physics than the mathematical junk in Weinberg’s books, nevermind that Weinberg was one of the people who developed the so-called ‘standard model’. Whenever you see hype with theories forced together with a half-baked, untested Higgs mechanism, being grandly called a ‘standard model’ and you see elite physicists being hero-worshipped for it, it smells of a religious consensus or orthodoxy which is stagnating theoretical particle physics with stringy mathematical speculations. Only the tested and confirmed parts of the standard model are fact; the mainstream version of the standard model’s electroweak symmetry breaking Higgs field hasn’t been observed and doesn’t even make precise falsifiable predictions.) (End of 5 January update) Summary. SU(2) x SU(3), a purely Yang-Mills (non-Abelian) symmetry group is the correct gauge group of the universe. This is based on experimental facts of electromagnetism which are currently swept under the carpet. The mainstream ‘standard model’ is more complex, U(1) x SU(2) x SU(3), and differs from the correct theory of the universe by its inclusion of the Abelian symmetry U(1) to describe electric charge/weak hypercharge, and omitting gravitation. The errors of U(1) x SU(2) x SU(3) are explained in the earlier post Correcting the U(1) error in the Standard Model of particle physics. Professor Baez has an article here, explaining the electroweak group of the standard model U(1) x SU(2). Fig. 1 – The standard model U(1) x SU(2) x SU(3) seems to produce the right symmetries to describe nature as determined by experiments in particle physics (the existence of mesons containing quark-antiquark pairs is due to SU(2), while the existence of baryons containing triplets of quarks is a consequence of the three colour charges of SU(3); you can’t have more than 3 quarks because there are only 3 colour charges and you would violate the exclusion principle if you duplicated a set of quantum numbers by having more than one quark of a given colour charge present). Some problems with this system are that it includes one long-range force (electromagnetism) but not the other (gravity), and it requires a messy, unpredictive ‘Higgs mechanism’ to make the U(1) x SU(2) symmetry break in accordance to observations. Firstly, only particles with a left-handed spin have any SU(2) isospin charge at all, and secondly, the four gauge bosons of U(1) x SU(2) are only massless at very high energy: the ‘Higgs field’ supposedly gives the 3 gauge bosons of SU(2) masses at low energy, causing them to have short ranges in the vacuum and thus breaking the symmetry which exists at high energy. However, this Higgs theory doesn’t make particularly impressive scientific predictions as it comes in all sorts of versions (having different types of Higgs boson, with different masses). My argument is that instead of having a ‘Higgs field’ that gives mass to all SU(2) gauge bosons at low energy (as in the standard model), the correct theory of mass in nature is that only, say, left-handed versions of those gauge bosons gain masses from the ‘Higgs field’ (which means a different mass-giving field to the mainstream model), and the rest continue existing at low energy and have infinite range, giving rise to electromagnetism (due to two charged massless gauge bosons in the SU(2) symmetry) and gravity (due to the one uncharged massless gauge boson in the SU(2) symmetry). Hence, we lose U(1) from the standard model while gaining falsifiable predictions about gravity and electromagnetism, simply by replacing the ‘Higgs mechanism’ with something radical and much better. The only difference between the correct theory of the universe, SU(2) x SU(3) and the existing mainstream ‘standard model’ U(1) x SU(2) x SU(3) is the replacement of U(1) with a new version of the Higgs field which makes SU(2) produce both 3 massive (weak gauge bosons) and 3 massless versions of those gauge bosons. The latter triad all have infinite range because they are massless; one is neutral which means that infinite range ‘neutral currents’ cause gravitation, and two are charged which mediate electromagnetic fields from positive and negative charges (these massless propagate – unlike massless monodirectional charged radiation – because they are exchange radiation so the magnetic fields of the charged massless gauge bosons propagating in opposite directions cancel one another). The SU(2) weak isospin charge description remains similar in the new model to the standard model, as does the SU(3) colour charge description. The essential change is that massless versions of the charged W and neutral Z weak gauge bosons are the correct models for gravitation and electromagnetism. This replaces the existing Higgs field with a version which couples to some gauge bosons in a way which produces the chirality of the weak force (only left-handed fermions experience the weak force; all right-handed spinors have zero weak isotopic charge and thus don’t undergo weak interactions). The U(1) Abelian group is not the right group because it only describes one charge and one gauge boson (in the U(1) electromagnetism theory of the ‘standard model’, positive and negative charges have to be counted as the same thing by treating a positive charge as a negative charge going backwards in time, while the single type of gauge boson in U(1) has to produce for both positive and negative electric fields around charges by having 2 additional – normally unseen – polarizations in additional to the 2 polarizations of the normal photon, which is an ad hoc complexity that is just as ‘not even wrong’ as the idea that positrons are electrons travelling backwards in time). Detailed predictions. I’m going to add a little to this post each day, mainly improving and clarifying the content of previous blog posts such as this and this, which give detailed predictions. Update: Kea has posted a picture taken at her University of Canterbury, New Zealand PhD ceremony, here. Her PhD was in ‘Topology in Quantum Gravity’ according to her university page. I hope it is published on arXiv or as a book with some introductory material at a low level, beginning with a quick overview of the technical jargon so that everyone can understand it. Mahndisa is also into abstract mathematics but has started a post discussing the perils of groupthink here. Groupthink is vital to allow communications to proceed smoothly between people: we all have to use the same definitions of words, and the same symbols in mathematics, to reduce the risks of confusion. But where the groupthink involves lots of people being brainwashed with speculations that are wrong, it prevents progress because any advance that involves correcting errors which are widely believed to not be errors (without strong evidence) is prevented. Feynman, in his writings, gives several examples of this ‘groupthink’ problem. The length of the nose of the Emperor of China is one example. Millions of people are asked to guess the length of the nose of the Emperor of China, without any of them having actually measured it. Take the average and work out the standard deviation, you might get a result like 2.20768 +/- 0.43282 inches. Next, assume that some bright spark actually meets the Emperor of China and measures the length of his nose, and finds it is say 3.4 +/- 0.1 inches (the standard deviation here is probable measurement error due to defining the exact spot where the nose starts on the face). Now, that person has got a serious problem being published in a peer-reviewed journal: his measurement is more than two standard deviations off the prevailing consensus of ignorant opinion. So prejudice due to the assumed priority of historically earlier guesswork or consensus-based guesswork ends up being used to censor out new scientific (measurement and/or observation based) facts! Now take it to the next level. You choose a million nose experts, who have all had long experience of nose measurement, and you ask them to come up with a consensus for the length of the Emperor of China’s nose, without measuring it. Again, the consensus they arrive at is purely guesswork, and the average may be way off the real figure, so no matter how many experts you ask, it doesn’t help science one little bit: ‘Science is the organized skepticism in the reliability of expert opinion.’ – R. P. Feynman (quoted by Smolin, The Trouble with Physics, U.S. edition, 2006, p. 307). Against this, many people out there believe that science is a kind of religion, all that matters is the mainstream belief, and facts are inferior to beliefs. They think that the consensus of expert opinion overrides factual evidence from experimental and observational data. They’re right in a political sense but not in a scientific one. Politics is about the prestigious, praiseworthy work involved in getting on the right side of an ignorant mob. Science is just about getting the facts straight. Update 2: Dr Lubos Motl, the well-known blogger who is a fanatical string theorist and formerly an assistant professor of physics at Harvard, has a new blog post up claiming bitterly that: ‘As far as I know, every single high-energy physicist – graduate student, postdoc, professor – at every good enough place knows that the comments of people like Peter Woit or Lee Smolin about physics are completely worthless pieces of c**. Peter Woit is a sourball without a glimpse of creativity … a typical incompetent, power-thirsty, active moron of the kind who often destroy whole countries if they get a chance to do it. ‘Analogously, Lee Smolin is a prolific, full-fledged crackpot who has written dozens of papers and almost every single one is a meaningless sequence of absurdities and bad science. … everyone in the field knows that. But a vast majority of the people in the field think and say that these two people and their companions don’t matter; they don’t have any influence, and so forth.’ At least Dr Motl is honest about his personal delusions concerning his critics. Most string theorists just ‘stick their heads in the sand’, a course of action that not even an Ostrich really takes, but yet one which is strongly recommended by string theorist Professor Witten: This is convenient for Dr Witten, who earlier claimed (delusionally): ‘String theory has the remarkable property of predicting gravity.’ It’s very nice for such people to avoid controversy by ignoring critics. However, Dr Motl is deluded about the particle physics representation theory work of Dr Woit, and probably deluded about some of Dr Smolin’s better work, too. But we should be grateful to Dr Motl for being open and allowing everyone to see that hype of uncheckable speculations can lead to insanity. Normally critics of mainstream hype campaigns are simply ignored (as recommended by the hype leaders), but in this case everybody can now clearly see the human paranoia and delusion which props up the mainstream 10/11 dimensional speculation and the resulting non-falsifiable landscape of solutions which it leads to. In other cheerful news, Dr David Wiltshire the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, has had published in Physical Review Letters a paper which attempts to provide a ‘radically conservative solution’ to the mainstream ad hoc theory that the universe is 76% dark energy. Dr Perlmutter’s automated observations of redshift of distant supernova’s (halfway across the universe or more) in 1998 defied the standard prediction from general relativity that the big bang expansion should be slowed down due to gravity at large distances (large redshifts). The data Perlmutter obtained showed that the gravitational retardation was not occurring. Either • gravity gets weaker than the inverse square over massive distances in this universe. This is because gravity is mediated by gravitons which get redshifted and thus the quanta lose energy when exchanged between masses which are receding at relativistic velocities, i.e. well apart in this expanding universe, which would reduce the effective value of G over immense distances). Additionally, from empirical facts, the mechanism of gravity depends on surrounding recession of masses around any point. This means that if general relativity is just a classical approximation to quantum gravity (due to the graviton redshift effect just explained, which implies that spacetime is not curved over cosmological distances), we have to treat spacetime as finite and not bounded, so that what you see is what you get and the universe may be approximately analogous to a simple expanding fireball. Masses near the real ‘outer edge’ of such a fireball (remember that since gravity doesn’t act over cosmological distances, there is no curvature over such distances) get an asymmetry in the exchange of gravitons: exchanging them on one side only (the side facing the core of the fireball, where other masses are located). Hence such masses tend to just get pushed outward, instead of suffering the usual gravitational attraction, which is of course caused by shielding of all-round graviton pressure. In such an expanding fireball where gravitation is a reaction to surrounding expansion due to exchange of gravitons, you will get both expansion and gravitation as results of the same fundamental process: exchange of gravitons. The pressure of gravitons will cause attraction (due to mutual shadowing) between masses which are relatively nearby, but over cosmological distances the whole collection of masses will be expanding (masses receding from one another) due to the momentum imparted in the process of exchanging gravitons. I put this idea forward via the October 1996 Electronics World, two years before evidence confirmed the prediction that the universe is not decelerating. • the ad hoc adjustment to the mainstream general relativity model was to add a small positive cosmological constant to cancel out the non-observed gravitational deceleration predicted by the original Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric of general relativity. This small positive cosmological constant required that 76% of the universe is ‘dark energy’. Nobody has predicted why this should be so (the mainstream stringy and supersymmetry work predicted a negative cosmological constant, or a massive cosmological constant; not a small positive one). Dr Wiltshire’s suggestion is something else entirely: that the flaw in cosmological predictions derives from the false assumption of uniform density, where in fact galaxies are found concentrated in dense surface-type membranes on large void bubbles in the universe. Because time flows more slowly in the presence of matter, his theory is that this time dilation explains the apparent discrepancy in redshift results from distant supernovas. Assuming his calculations are correct, ‘This is a radically conservative solution to how the universe works.’ It’s good that Physical Review Letters published it since it is against the mainstream pro-‘dark energy’ orthodoxy. However, I think it is too conservative an answer, in that it doesn’t seem to make the kind of predictions or deliver the kind of understanding that helps quantum gravity. Kea quotes a DARPA mathematical challenge which says: ‘Submissions that merely promise incremental improvements over the existing state of the art will be deemed unresponsive.’ I think that sums up the sort of difficulty that crops up in science. Should difficulties routinely be overcome by adding modifications to existing theories (incremental improvements to the existing state of the art), or should the field be opened up to allow radical empirically based and checkable reformulations of theory to be developed? 19 thoughts on “Fact based theory (updated 16 January 2008) 1. copy of a comment in moderation at December 30th, 2007 at 3:21 pm Roger, the hype in particle physics is unique: in other sciences you get controversy, not pure unadulterated hype. Journalists don’t believe everything they’re told in other areas, they get counter arguments from other experts and publish those in the article to give some sense of balance. There’s endless research by Professor Brian Martin into controversies in other sciences, but these people don’t take any interest in stringy hype even if they are relatively well qualified to investigate it. (Martin is now Professor of Social Sciences in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication at the University of Wollongong, but his PhD was in theoretical physics.) If you look at my table at the top of the post https://nige.wordpress.com/2007/06/20/the-mathematical-errors-in-the-standard-model-of-particle-physics/ you will notice that the isotopic charges of weak gauge bosons are identical to their electric charges. W+ has a weak isotopic charge of +1 and an electric charge of +1. W- has a weak isotopic charge of -1 and an electric charge of -1. The Z or neutral W has a weak isotopic charge of 0 and an electric charge of 0. The U(1) x SU(2) electroweak sector of the standard model is confused by the dual role played by U(1) as a source of electric charge and weak hypercharge. The key thing to focus on weak isotopic charge in SU(2). SU(2) is the source for electric/hyper charges once you take account of the possibility that only some SU(2) gauge bosons acquire mass at low energy, not all. Weak gauge bosons interact only with left-handed particles. It therefore appears that when the massless W/Z gauge bosons of SU(2) interact with a vacuum (Higgs type) field to acquire their mass, they do so selectively; only some of the massless gauge bosons acquire mass to form weak gauge bosons (the remainder remain massless and are the gauge bosons of electromagnetism and quantum gravity). As explained at https://nige.wordpress.com/2007/06/20/the-mathematical-errors-in-the-standard-model-of-particle-physics/ , the SU(2) weak isospin force doublets are the mesons (quark-antiquark pairs), while positronium (an atom composed of an electron and an anti-electron) is an example of an electromagnetic SU(2) doublet, bound by the electromagnetic force (rather than by the weak force as in the case of a meson). See https://nige.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/energy-conservation-in-the-standard-model/ for information of concern to the mechanism of the colour charge symmetry group SU(3). 3. I like the concept of removing the U(1) gauge group. It describes the symmetry that comes about when one multiplies all the various fields by a complex phase that looks like \exp(i q \kappa) where q is an arbitrary real number, and \kappa is the weak hypercharge, which is a fraction between -1 and +1 (inclusive) that has 6 as the denominator (before reducing to LCD). That’s all well and good, but when you convert a spinor theory to density matrix theory, the arbitrary complex phase goes away as bras and kets contribute oppositely. The same cannot be said of the SU(2)xSU(3) symmetry group. 4. Hi Carl, Thanks for that comment. It seems as if electric charge and isospin are distinguished by the massiveness of the exchanged gauge bosons, by the way that charges spin (the left-handedness of the weak force). I think the weak isospin charge arises from the way that massless gauge bosons acquire mass: if the exchanged gauge bosons are massless, then the spin of the charge simply doesn’t matter, but it does matter if they have mass. One thing that’s sickening on the topic is the Wikipedia article on isospin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isospin It’s full of obvious facts being misrepresented, e.g. it states: “Chen Ning Yang was aware that in the general theory of relativity the notion of absolute direction was not universally well defined. If a gyroscope is spinning very fast so that its y-axis is always pointing in a certain direction, and then it is slowly moved around a large loop in space, it comes back in a different orientation when in returns to its starting position. This is a fundamental propery of space-time, the curvature, and it determines the form of the gravitational interaction.” It’s obvious that when you send a gyroscope around in a loop, you’re giving it angular momentum which will change it’s axis direction! They shouldn’t be claiming that this denies absolute directions. It’s possible to determine if you are going around in a loop due to the centripetal acceleration experienced. Their argument is like claiming that absolute zero temperature isn’t “universally well defined”, because if you try to measure it by sticking a mercury thermometer in liquid hydrogen, the glass of the thermometer cracks which affects the temperature reading. These people have no idea of the fact that any experimentalist normally has to do a lot of calibration of equipment to allow for all kinds of effects. Allowing for the effect of sending a gyroscope on a large loop is comparatively easy. It doesn’t mean that absolute direction is not universally well defined, just that like everything you need to know what you are going. (On a related topic, the abstract of the article http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1978SciAm.238…64M is interesting for those making absolute measurements of things whose absolute measurement the mainstream priestly cult of brane-washers tries to deny, supported ably by the gullible public which thrives on fairy tales and lies.) What’s really sickening about the isospin article is the paragraph right at the end: “These ideas, long marginalized, were fully vindicated in recent years by work in string theory. An effective string description of confining gauge theories was constructed and this string description not only explains why the rho should interact as a vector meson, but also why the rho comes with a scalar partner which gives it mass by the Higgs mechanism. It further explained the occurrence of the tower of hidden local symmetries, and predicts that all the tower interacts with gauge-like interactions. These ideas are the subject of active ongoing research.” That reinforces the ill-informed hyping of string theory religion. The fact that the proton has a weak isospin charge of +1/2 while the neutron has -1/2, can be best understood by looking at the quark composition. The fractional charges of quarks, such as -1/3 for the downquarks, seem to be due to the confinement of quarks within hadrons so that all the quarks share the same veil of polarized vacuum around them, which shields part of the electric charge and seems to convert the shielded energy into short-ranged forces: see https://nige.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/energy-conservation-in-the-standard-model/ All quarks are similar to leptons with electric charges of -1 or +1; the apparent (long range) fractional values like -1/3 and +2/3 arise from the shielding effects of the polarized vacuum when the quarks are confined in doublets (mesons) or triplets (baryons). Hence, if isospin is related to unshielded (short ranged) electric charge, the relative unshielded electric charge of a proton would be two upquarks (+12) + one downquark (-1) = +1 while the relative unshielded electric charge of a neutron would be one upquark (+1) + two downquarks (-12) = -1. Hence the isospin charge of the neutron and proton would be equal and opposite, as is the case. The key particle to focus on is the omega minus ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_particle ), which contains three strange quarks, each having an observed (long range, vacuum shielded) electric charge of -1/3, giving the omega minus a net electric charge of -1. Consider a strange quark to have an electric charge of -1. Put three strange quarks in close confinement and you get a net charge of -3, so the overlap of the polarized vacuum (which is due to the electric field) will be 3 times stronger than in the case of an electron. Hence the shielding factor of the core of electric charge will be 3 times bigger. Normally the electron core charge is shielded by the surrounding polarized vacuum by a factor of say 137 (the value of this number is totally immaterial to this argument) to reduce the bare core electron charge from -137 (at extremely small distances, i.e. extremely high energy scattering collisions) to -1 (at distances beyond 1 fm, i.e. the constant electric charge observed in low energy everyday physics). Starting with a core electric charge to the omega minus of 3 strange quarks, -1373, because the shielding factor is 3 times stronger than normal (because of three identically charged strange quarks in close proximity), the observed charge at low energy will be reduced by the factor 1373 rather than just 137. This is because the stronger core charge causes a stronger polarized vacuum around it, which causes more shielding of the electric field. Hence, the electric charge of the omega minus is (-1373)/(1373) = -1. The illusion that the strange quark has a fractional value of -1/3 comes from dividing this -1 net charge by 3 and assuming that the true way to add quark charges is as a linear sum. Actually, the physics of the situation is that if you have a core of n charges of -1, the net charge will always be -1, because the additional charge always increases the polarized vacuum shield surrounding it by such a factor that the additional charge is exactly cancelled out, as observed from a large distance. It was the omega minus particle which led to the formulation of colour charge (to add a quantum number to quarks, to avoid violatng Pauli’s exclusion principle by having more than 1 particle with the same set of quantum numbers). It’s strange that nobody seems to have looked at the fractional electric charges of the quarks in terms of the effect of vacuum polarization: https://nige.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/energy-conservation-in-the-standard-model/ This makes definite predictions, because it is easy (as shown there, i.e. https://nige.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/energy-conservation-in-the-standard-model/ ) to make calculations of the total amount of electromagnetic field energy which is disappearing due to vacuum polarization in any shell around a particle, and to use that number to calculate the energy density of the short range forces which are being powered by that energy from the attenuation of the electromagnetic field at short distances from particles. This agrees with the concept that all leptons are quarks are fundamentally similar in nature: “In my model, with the 0 and 1 being like preons, as follows: 1 = 000 = neutrino i = 100 = red up quark j = 010 = blue up quark k = 001 = green up quark E = 111 = electron I = 011 = red down quark J = 101 = blue down quark K = 110 = green down quark Generation 1: Leptons: electron and electron-neutrino Quarks: Up and down Generation 2: Leptons: muon and muon-neutrino Quarks: Strange and charm Generation 3: Leptons: Tau and tau-neutrino Quarks: Top and bottom What interests me here is if there is some deeper physical interpretation to nature than say the standard model or the idea SU(2)xSU(3), when you get down to preons. The SU(3) group seems to be an emergent effect of having closely confined fermions. Colour charge is only exhibited when you have closely confined fermions; doublets of quarks in mesons and triplets of quarks in baryons. If the SU(3) strong force does emerge as a result of preons when fermions are confined, then it is a physical mechanism and isn’t that fundamental. Related to this and to the left-handedness of the weak isospin charge is the fact that the universe is overwhelmingly hydrogen, i.e. one electron plus one downquark plus two upquarks. In my fantasy, where the n-times enhanced vacuum polarization shielding of observed electric charge from a particle containing n integer-charge core quarks accounts for quark fractional charges in the omega minus, since the shielded total charge from n integer (-1) charges shielded by an enhanced vacuum polarization factor of n will be n-1/n = -1, giving -1/n = -1/3 apparent charge per strange quark, hydrogen shows that the universe is basically composed of equal amounts of matter (electrons and downquarks) and antimatter (upquarks). The usual mainstream claim that the universe is weirdly full of matter and devoid of antimatter is hence wrong: the “antimatter” is simply more likely to be confined inside nucleons as upquarks. So the physics is then simply exposed by hydrogen: 75% of charged fundamental fermions in the universe are confined in baryons, and 25% are orbital electrons. The 25% that are orbital electrons are 50% of the total amount of negatively charged fundamental fermions (the other negatively charged fermions are downquarks). Seen like this, the problem of the left-handed weak force becomes clear. The left-handed weak force acts on downquarks, controlling their beta decay into upquarks. Downquarks inside protons don’t decay, only the downquarks inside neutrons decay. Originally in the universe you had positive and negative electric charges in equal numbers, produced from the vacuum by pair-production processes in the strong fields of the early big bang. 100% of the fundamental positive charges ended up closely confined in doublets or triplets inside hadrons. However, only 50% of the fundamental negative charges ended up confined that way. The other 50% of fundamental negative charges were able to escape as electrons. Why could all of the positive charges in the universe, and only half of all the negative charges, be confined to hadrons? Presumably this is an effect of the weak force acting on only left-handed particles: initially all charges were present in neutrons and protons, but the neutrons decayed into protons and electrons, while the protons didn’t decay. If particles are created equally in right and left handed forms but only left-handed forms undergo beta decay, it is easy to see how you get 50% of certain particles decaying, and 50% not decaying (i.e. remaining observably present today!). 100% of the electrons emitted from downquark transformations (in beta decay of neutrons into protons) have been determined to be left-handed (this was of course how the handedness of the weak force was discovered experimentally, I think Co-60 was used as the radioactive material in 1957). In beta decay, a downquark transforms into a upquark by emitting W- weak gauge boson, which decays into a beta particle (electron) and an antineutrino. Only left-handed downquarks can emit W- weak gauge bosons, so presumably the downquarks inside protons (which don’t decay) are right-handed downquarks. The only other relevant type of beta decay is positron emission, where an upquark emits a W+ weak gauge boson which decays into a positron and a neutrino. This obviously requires the upquark to be left-handed in spin. This positron decay does not happen to free protons (hydrogen nuclei), nor does the usual beta decay. By contrast, free neutrons are radioactive and undergo beta decay with a half-life of 10.3 minutes. So what seems to be occurring is that originally all charged fermions were converted into quarks in protons and neutrons. The downquarks with left-handedness escaped this confined fate because they beta-decayed into electrons via the weak force. In other words, there were initially as many neutrons as protons in the universe (similar numbers of confined up and down quarks), but the neutrons beta-decayed yielding free electrons, and the protons didn’t. I think that this simple explanation (in terms of the handedness of the weak force) for the apparent excess of “matter” over “antimatter” in the universe is an advantage of the theory, over mainstream models which are more complex yet explain less. 5. nc; I think the charges of the quarks are assigned from the cases where they have mixed quark structure. Three up is +2 (compared to the electron), so each up must be 2/3. Three down is -1, so each down must be -1/3. Two up and one down is +1, and this is compatible. Same with mesons. From what I recall, the effect of shielding on electric charge is that the strength of the interaction is changed. But the total charge, as computed by Gauss’s law, is unchanged. This is due to the fact that each time you create a + charge out of the vacuum you also create a – charge. And this rule doesn’t apply to color which is a messier thing. 6. Hi Carl, Thanks for commenting. If you don’t mind, I’ll use your comment as a motivation to try to make the experimental facts I’m thinking about a little clearer. The total charge as computed by Gauss’s law is changed. Gauss’s law is violated at high energy, where you get pair production creating additional charges. It wouldn’t make any difference if the extra positive and negative charges were distributed at random, but they’re not. The virtual positive charges end up on average somewhat closer to the core of an electron than the virtual negative charges in the vacuum. This creates a radial electric field that is opposite in direction to the original electric field due to the core charge of the electron, cancelling most of it out as seen from a distance: (I’m extremely depressed that the above vital work was not awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics because it gives a clear experimental confirmation of the way charge renormalization works: the charges of particles are literally modified by vacuum polarization. Having a grounding in dielectric materials like capacitor plastics, I can grasp how QFT works to renormalize charge. The vacuum alters the efective value of electronic charge at different distances from the electron, within discrete ranges corresponding to the high energy UV cutoff and the low energy IR cutoff, the latter extending out to around 1 femtometre distance from an electron. It’s a simple picture of what is going on in the electron, which is confirmed experimentally! I can’t understand all the nonsense about QFT in most books on the subject, where such experimentally confirmed key facts demonstrating the mechanism of QFT are ignored in favour of building up more abstract QFT equations such as stringy extradimensional stuff that don’t have any connection to any experimental reality!) Nature appears very complex and confusing but this is a case analogous to any code breaking, as I see it. The key rule as far as I can determine, is to begin by putting on the back burner those facts that can’t immediately by explained, and searching out the few that can. Focussing on the downquark charge of 1/3rd of the electron’s charge, and the similar charge of the strange quark in the omega minus (which has 3 strange quarks each of 1/3rd of the electron’s charge), it’s clear that the vacuum polarization is responsible physically for the 1/3rd charge. Take one electron. Let the core charge be X, and let the shielding factor due to the polarized vacuum be Y. The observable charge of the electron seen a long distance from it (beyond the Schwinger electric field range which is the minimum strength that allows pair production to occur in the vacuum, which leads to radial dipole shielding of the electron’s core charge) is then: e = X/Y. Regardless of what values we take for X and Y (Penrose’s 2005 book assumes on the basis of a flawed dimensional analysis that X = 11.7e, so Y = 11.7; my analysis is that X = 137e and Y = 137), if we stick 3 electrons close enough together that they share the same spherical shell of polarized vacuum, then the 3 electrons mean 3 times stronger Schwinger’s quantum field theory polarization of the vacuum (3 times as many virtual lepton-antilepton pairs per cubic metre, which get radially polarized as dipoles around the electron core, shielding it’s electric field). Hence, if we confine 3 electrons closely together (forget about Pauli’s exclusion principle here: the energence of colour charge sorts that out, just as it does when 3 identical strange quarks are in an omega minus), the shielding factor goes up by a factor of 3. Thus, for 1 electron, the observable long-range charge is (Electron core charge)/(Shielding factor due to polarized vacuum) = Y/X and for 3 electrons closely confined, it is: (3Y)/(3X) = Y/X = e. If you had a billion electrons confined together, you’d get a billion times more shielding by the vacuum polarization, so you’d only see the charge of 1 electron! The point is, no matter how much charge you concentrate at a point, you can never see more than the electron’s charge, because the increasing charge causes increasing pair production in the vacuum which in turn causes increasing shielding of the core charge. Hence, it’s impossible to increase the charge that’s observed at a long distance from an electron by bringing other electrons near it, if those other electrons are close enough to share the same veil of pair production: all you do is to make the pair production effect stronger (because the shared electric field gets boosted, causing stronger shielding which exactly cancels out the increased charge as seen from a distance). It’s a solid fact from QFT that the amount of pair production which shields the core charge of an electron is dependent on the electric field strength which depends on the amount of electric charge present, hence – if the pair production mechanism for shielding the core charge of the electron is real (as proved by Koltick and Levine’s measurements published in PRL 1997, showing how the observed charge of the electron increases when you get nearer than 1 fm to it in high energy scatterings, because you see less shielding when you get within the shielding just the sun appears brighter when you get above the clouds in an aircraft – the sun’s brightness is constant but it is shielded by cloud cover so the higher you get in the clouds, the stronger the sun appears to be) – it’s a solid fact that the 3 strange charges of 1/3rd electron charge which are closely confined in the omega minus would each have an electric charge 3 times stronger if they were somehow isolated so they were not sharing the same polarized vacuum shield (they can’t be isolated because the energy required to separate them would exceed that required to create other quarks and so would produce new hadrons instead of isolating them). If you were able to remove strange quarks from an omega minus, the effective charge of each would jump from -1/3 to -1 immediately they were no longer sharing the same vacuum shield. I’ve illustrated the solid mechanism for this for clarity here: https://nige.wordpress.com/files/2008/01/fig2.jpg It seems to be to be a vital mechanism for understanding the really solid physical mechanisms behind the solid model. Recipe: get 3 electrons, force them at colossal energy (against the exclusion principle) to share a tiny space like quarks, and simply because they are then all sharing the same vacuum polarization shell in space out to the distance where the electric field is 1.3×10^18 v/m, you boost all the electric fields within that radius (about 1 fm) by a factor of 3 because you have 3 times as much charge in the core. As a result, the pair production and shielding of the core charge gets boosted by a factor of 3 as well. So if you cram 3 electrons nearby, instead of getting a total observable charge of -3, you instead get: (1) a total observable charge of -1 at distances bigger than 1 fm or so, (2) a total (hard to observe unless you use colossal energy to get particles to approach very closely) core charge of -3. Hence, the fact that the strange quarks appear to have a charge of -1/3 is just an illusion. Because for a solid fact the vacuum polarization is 3 times stronger when you have 3 similar charges within a small space (the omega minus hadron core), each strange quark only appears to have a charge of -1/3 as seen from a vast distance. It has a charge 3 times bigger when it is not sharing a polarized vacuum which is being boosted in shielding strength by two other similar charges! Hence the strange quark must (from physical facts about vacuum polarization shielding being due to electric charge when 3 similar particles are confined to a small space) have a charge of -1/(N, number of strange quarks in close proximity) It’s only when you put 3 strange quarks together that you get -1/3. The number 3 comes in physically because you have 3 quarks enhancing the shielding factor of the polarized vacuum by a factor of 3 over what it would be for a single quark by itself (which we name a charged lepton, because quarks can’t be separated). Now when you get 3 charged particles of -1 and bring them very close together so that their apparent charges decrease to -1/3 due to shared (stronger) vacuum polarization shielding the charges, you get interesting consequences for energy conservation. Where is the lose 2/3rds of the electromagnetic field energy going to? It’s going into the vacuum polarized shell, full of virtual particles being polarized and so on. Clearly when such particles are brought so close together, the virtual particles will start to stream between the charges, acting as weak and strong force gauge bosons. This is the origin of the weak and strong forces: it’s powered by the electromagnetic forces. Energy is conserved. Although 3 electrons confined in a small space (much smaller than 1 fm from one another) will have a total observable charge (at long distances) of only -1, the 2/3rds of the energy lost from the electric field becomes the energy of the weak and strong fields. This is fact-based all the way, and it makes falsifiable predictions: you get a prediction for exactly how much energy (2/3rds) of the electromagnetic field gets used in creating the strong and weak short-ranged forces. From this, it is possible to make precise checkable predictions of those forces, as explained in a previous post about unification predictions at high energy. The upquark charge of +2/3 is more complex to deal with, and is precisely the reason why everything I’ve written above hasn’t been done before. It’s just like the case of Dalton and the very early periodic table. Dalton’s system could explain some things, but not others so the Royal Society dismissed it as a failure and nobody in England pursued it (others did in Russia, turning failure into predictive successes by leaving gaps in the table where new elements were predicted). For the case of the upquark, +2/3, the situation is pretty complex. I prefer to first deal with fact based mechanisms for simple things, and then later when those pan out it is possible to try to puzzle out what is happening where things are more difficult. The fact that confined fundamental positive charges (upquarks) seem to have exactly twice the amount of charge that confined negative charges (downquarks) have may be due physically to the handedness of the weak force. Since only left-handed particles undergo weak interactions, right handed quarks will be unable to use energy for weak interactions when electromagnetic energy is shielded from the vacuum. If in the case of the downquark, we have a -1 electric charge electron transformed by vacuum pair production phenomena into a -1/3 electric charge quark, then 2/3 of the electromagnetic field energy is being converted into short ranged weak and strong force fields (by the mechanism outlined above, whereby massive virtual particles start acting as gauge bosons when several particles are brought close enough that their shells of pair production vacuum overlap one another). If half of that 2/3 of the electron charge energy goes into the weak (isospin charge) field and half goes into the strong (colour charge), then the -1 electron electromagnetic charge has become: 1/3: electric charge 1/3: weak charge 1/3: colour charge Now for right-handed particles that don’t have any weak charge, for conservation of energy we must have the 1/3 that is listed for weak charge above going instead someplace else. That energy must remain in the electric charge, giving: 2/3: electric charge 1/3: colour charge This would be a neat way to explain the +2/3 charges of certain quarks, if all the physics it predicts can be confirmed. Obviously some upquarks do engage in the weak interaction because positron emission is a real decay mode for certain radioactive nuclei. However, there may be a reason for that (maybe quarks can change handedness in certain situations), and there is also the following argument for why this mechanism may still work. The omega minus is a special hadron in having 3 similar -1/3 strange quarks in it. Neutrons and protons don’t undergo the same mechanism for fractional charges as in the this case, because they are composed of mixed quark charges. The neutron in particular has zero overall electric charge. Hence, the argument I’ve made in detail above (relating to the physical mechanism for electron sized charges to apparently decrease to -1/3 sized charges when 3 are confined in the omega minus), doesn’t apply to situations where there is a positive quark and two negative quarks. If we give a mechanism from solid facts for the reason for -1/3 quark electric charge, that mechanism and those solid facts are not in the least undermined by not being immediately able to use the same method to model +2/3 upquark charges. If there was just one simple mechanism for everything, it would have been discovered long ago. There are lots of mechanisms involved in nature, giving rise to the apparent complexity of the standard model. 7. copy of a comment: “The demise of the arxiv continues into 2008 with yet another (cough) disproof of the Riemann Hypothesis (reported by Lubos). Elementary disproofs seem popular these days. Since Connes tells us the Riemann Hypothesis is closely related to Quantum Gravity, that means Quantum Gravity must be Elementary also. Elementary in the sense of axiomatically foundational, maybe?” Connes paper on arxiv (an attempt to extend the standard model) a while back was filled with an enormous expanse of lagrangrian equations filling whole pages. He has got zero physical insight; he still couldn’t make any falsifiable predictions or do anything with it that is really exciting. It’s relatively easy to write down endless equations than to solve them and make connection to physical reality. That’s of course regarded by some as just a slight difficulty in string theory. When I tried submitting to arxiv in Demember 2002, I was hoping that people would read it and make constructive comments, but it was deleted in the few seconds between submitting it and reloading my web-browser in the library at Gloucester University. Maybe the elite arxiv people are really brilliant geniuses who can spot errors without even checking papers. You have to respect their professionalism. It’s really a pity that arxiv doesn’t run the internet search engines like Google, and omit all crackpottery. Better still, there should be armed secret police paid to search out and destroy all non-mainstream idea papers, internet sites, and their creators. Then students wouldn’t be confused about whether there are any alternatives to string theory. Kill off all alternatives first, then deny that they are possible. Good old totalitarian branewashing. 8. copy of a comment in case it is accidentally deleted: Dr Lubos Motl: I understand that your PhD thesis was on the topic of having s with a 10 dimensional superstring. Do you have any specific qualifications in climate? Have you published any peer-reviewed papers on climate? What makes you think you are qualified to say that everyone else in climate theory is wrong, when you don’t have any qualification in the subject? Crackpot Academy \| Homepage \| 01.04.08 – 1:36 pm \| # (The comment above is to a post by Dr Lubos Motl at http://motls.blogspot.com/2008/01/2007-warmest-year-on-record-coldest-in.html ) 9. And one more thing: Can I just add that having evidence is unprofessional in physics. People with evidence are nowadays always crackpots in modern physics: what counts are having extradimensional stringy mainstream hype that is totally unsupported by evidence, and which makes no falsifiable predictions anyhow. In other words, if you want to succeed in climate, Lubos, you must join the mainstream and believe everything the mainstream believes in. It’s the same as joining a religion. If you have your own ideas which disagree with mainstream belief, you can go k ff nowadays. All that counts is how many citations you have to prove your work is fashionable. If your work is also non-falsifiable, it’s better than work that makes predictions, because nobody can ever disprove it. Crackpot Academy \| Homepage \| 01.04.08 – 1:50 pm \| # (Notice the warning on the page http://www.hawking.org.uk/info/cindex.html : “Contact information: I M P O R T A N T! – please read before emailing us. … We have NO facilities in our department to deal with specific scientific enquiries, or theories. Please do not email us your scientific theories – although they may be valid, we simply do not have the resources to comment on them. If you wish to send an email to Professor Hawking you may do so by mailing: S.W.Hawking@damtp.cam.ac.uk ” At least he is honest enough to admit that the one type of person he despises emails from as a persona non grata is a fellow theoretical physicist! Contrast this to Einstein, who was sent a mainstream-rejected paper by Indian physicist Bose and ended up personally translating it into German to get it published, leading to the Bose-Einstein condensate.) 10. copy of a comment: Thanks for the links to http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0411060 and http://www.pma.caltech.edu/Courses/ph136/yr2004/0424.1.K.pdf I like the simplicity of integrating the metric over the path. “It’s like these people are so arrogant that if they see someone doing something that is new to them, they immediately jump to whatever conclusions are necessary to support the contention that they are right and the person doing things the unusual way is wrong. If you’re such a person, then kindly read exercise 24.5 in this Cal Tech GR web book. The above integral is the integral from 24.5 for Painleve/Cartesian coordinates. In the remainder of this post, we will vary this integral and find the orbital equations — in Cartesian Newtonian form.” Before the then editor of Electronics World published a couple of my articles in 2002-3, I thought I’d start discussions of the basic principles on Physics Forums to get some kind of peer-review for the material before the final versions were published. All that does is to stir up hostility because the ideas are non-mainstream. Like Wikipedia, Physics Forums isn’t set up for open discussions of facts be they unorthodox or otherwise, it’s instead just another exercise in censorship of information by the mainstream for the mainstream. The only way social coffee shops or discussion sites can work in favour of factual physics is by demanding factual evidence for everything. That can’t happen because so much mainstream fashion (string theory for instance) isn’t based on facts, just on speculations. So they have to continually reinforce the hypocrisy or double-standards that 11-dimensional string theory discussions are allowed but other theories (more fact-based) are censored as being “crackpot” (where the definition of crackpot is then just “unorthodox”). Peer-review is worthless in such circumstances, even if it does happen. If a mainstream string theorist recommends your work, that’s the time to give up. 11. copy of a comment: “It might sound a little crazy, but betting against Sir Martin is a bad idea.” Sean, it’s Lord Rees now, not Sir Martin. The man’s CV http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/IoA/staff/mjr/cv.html shows he is currently (since 2001) a trustee of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a Labour Party political think-tank. So maybe his prediction that “humans themselves could change drastically within a few centuries” is based on some political plan he has, like adding chemicals to the drinking water. The man recently sent out an unsolicited email … asking to be removed from a group physics discussion (someone else had sent him an email) because he claimed he had no time for physics, so I guess maybe he’s more busy now with politics. Hans Says: January 5th, 2008 at 4:11 pm In this paper here: Don Page even “calculates” the probaability” for “pre death experience” at page 9. Why is this stuff accepted on a physics preprint server? (more disturbing is, whom he thanks in this crap. Some persons he aknowledges are: David Deutsch, Bryce DeWitt, Gary Gibbons, Stephen Hawking, George Ellis, Andrei Linde, Lee Smolin, Bill Unruh, Alex Vilenkin, Steven Weinberg, Paul Shellard, Leonard Susskind, Alan Guth, James Hartle (If my name would appear on such “work”, i would take some effort, to get it removed) Those people are (with a couple of exceptions like Smolin) string believers and/or believers in uncheckable ‘multiverse’ interpretations of quantum mechanics … That’s probably why Page has cited them. Maybe they helped get his papers endorsed and on arxiv in the first place? 😉 13. copy of a comment: I’ll have to concentrate on this a lot more, I guess. At present categorical theory is still way over my head. I think in school we did a bit of very basic set/group maths, like Venn diagrams and the just the abstract symbols for union (U) and intersection (upside down U), but they the whole area was dropped. From there on it was algebra, trig and calculus (particularly the nightmare of integrating complex trig functions like cot or cosec theta, without having a good memory for trivia like definitions of abstract jargon). There was no set or group theory in the pure maths A-level, and at university the quantum mechanics and cosmology (aka elementary general relativity) courses didn’t use anything more advanced than calculus with a bit of symbolic compression (operators). The kind of maths where you get logical arguments with lots of abstract symbolism from set theory and group theory is therefore completely alien. I can see the point in categorizing large numbers of simple items, if that is as actually a major objective of categorical theory. It would be nice if it were possible to build up solutions to complex problems like quantum gravitation by categorizing large numbers of very simple operations, i.e. if individual graviton exchanges between masses could be treated as simple vectors and categorized according to direction or resultant to simplify the effect. Smolin had a Perimeter lecture on quantum gravity where he showed how he was getting the Einstein field equation of general relativity by summing all of the interaction graphs in an assumed spin foam vacuum. I’m not sure that a spin foam vacuum is physically the correct, but the general idea of building up from a summing of lots of resultants for individual graviton interaction graphs is certainly appealing from my point of view. “with $F(2) = \pi$, and this looks something like a count of binary trees, with an increasing number of branches at each step. What are the higher dimensional analogues of $i$? What if we took the $s$-th root, so that $F(2n)$ was some multiple of $\pi$ for all $n \in \mathbb{N}$, just like the volumes of spheres?” I may be way off topic in my physical interpretation here, but if you are considering how graviton exchanges occur between individual masses (particles, including particles of energy since these interact with gravity and thus have associated with them a gravitational charge field), then you could well have a tree structure to help work out the overall flow of energy in a gravitational field from a theory of quantum gravity. I.e., each mass (or particle with energy) radiates gravitons to several other masses, which radiate to still more, in an geometric progression. This loss of energy is balanced by the reception of gravitons. Presumably this kind of idea just sounds too naive and simplistic to people in the mainstream, who assume (without it ever having been correctly proved) that such simplistic ideas must be wrong because nobody respectable is working on them. I’m studying the maths of the SU(2) lagrangian as time allows. It’s nice that the lagrangian is simplest for the case of massless spinor fields (massless gauge bosons). The most clear matrix representations of U(1) and SU(2) to particle physics I’ve come across are equations 8.59 and 8.65 (which are surprisingly similar) in Ryder’s “Quantum Field Theory”. The Dirac lagrangian for a massless field just summed for the particles: e.g., right handed electron, left handed electron, and also the neutrino which only occurs in the left-handed form. Given some time, it should be possible to understand the massless SU(2) lagrangian since it is relatively simple maths (pages 298-301 of Ryder’s 2nd edition, also the first 3 chapters of Ryder were excellent lucid introductions to gauge fields in general and the Yang-Mills field in particular). But one problem I do have with the whole gauge theory approach is that it is built on calculus to represent fields; ideal for a vacuum that is a continuum, but inappropriate for quantized fields. There’s an absurdity in treating the acceleration of an electron by quantized, individual discrete virtual photons or by gravitons as a smooth curvature of spacetime! It’s obviously going to a bumpy (stepwise) acceleration, with a large number of individual impulses causing an overall (statistical) effect that is just approximated by differential geometry. I think it’s manifestly absurd for anyone to be seeking a unification of general relativity and quantum field theory that builds on differential geometry. Air pressure, like gravity, appears to be a continuous variable on large scales where the number of air molecule impacts per unit area per second is a very large number. But it breaks down for small numbers of impacts, for example in Brownian motion, where small particles receive chaotic impulses not a smooth averaged out pressure. Differential equations are usually good approximations for classical physics (large scales), but they are not going to properly model the fndamental physical processes going on in quantum gravity. You can do quite a lot with the calculus of air pressure (such as fnding that it falls off nearly exponentially with increasing altitude, and finding the relationship between wind speed and pressure gradients in hurricanes), but you can’t deduce anything about air molecules from this non-discrete (continuum) differential model. It breaks down on small scales. So does differential geometry when applied to small numbers of quantum interactions in a force field. This is why the classical physics breaks down on small scales, and chaos appears. It would be nice if it were possible to replace differential geometry in QFT and GR with some kind of quantized geometry and show how the approximations of QFT and GR are valid, emerging for the limiting case whereby very large numbers of field quanta interact with the particle of interest, so that the averaging of many chaotic impulses produces a deterministic average effect every time on large scales. 14. It is rather scary that Lubos has attracted such a following. For someone who is supposed to be a scientist, Lubos’ unscientific way of thinking and lack of intelligence when it comes to climate change, well it is quite sad really. 15. Guthrie, Lubos has attracted a following for being fashionable – string “theory” crap is fashionable. He used to describe himself (on his site banner) as something like a “conservative reactionary”. Now he has changed that to: “The most important events in our and your superstringy Universe as seen from a conservative physicist’s viewpoint.” Lubos has also written an enormous number of blog posts on an enormous variety of topics to get his two million hits (or whatever it is). Some of these are probably quite right. Either by good luck or judgement, I agree with Lubos’ views on nuclear politics (mainstream hype about penetrating – i.e. low LET – radiation dangers at low doses is total rubbish, see my other blog http://glasstone.blogspot.com/ where I have in places quoted Lubos). Also, Lubos rightly points out on his blog that: “Since 02/16/2005, the Kyoto Protocol has cost about US$ 436,536,588,242 and reduced the temperature in 2050 roughly by 0.0045270470 °C. “Every day, we buy -0.000005 Celsius degrees for one half of the LHC collider. JunkScience.” I agree 100% with Lubos’ stand against global warming politics, although I disagree with some of his claims about the details of whether global warming are occurring (it certainly is occurring, it’s just not a problem that should be costing us billions because fossil fuels are NEARLY USED UP and NOBODY includes the fact that people will run out of economic fossil fuels before 2050 when they run their lying computer “forecasts” of global warming; it’s lies into the computer models, and thus lies as output to rob the consumer TODAY for a “threat” faked by faked computer forecasts for the future, which won’t occur and even if it did, wouldn’t be averted by wasting money today on environmental publicity stunts). Lubos is winning a lot of attention because he is able to be controversial and gain attention. It’s like the tabloid newspapers in the UK that print pictures on page 3 of ladies wearing nothing up top, or those that print scandals about so-called “stars” (not real thermonuclear stars, of course, just overpaid pretty-faced actresses). Or the enormous popularity that Hitler and Lenin received in their time. Contrast that to the lack of respect Jesus received in his time – just 12 disciples (if you include “doubting Thomas” and “Judas the betrayer) – and crucifixion for the crime of heresy. In science, look to the case of Boltzmann who discovered the rate at which thermal radiation is emitted by charges like electrons as a function of temperature. His work was totally ignored by his comtemporaries and he took his own life while on holiday with his family. So I disagree with you, really. It’s not scary that Lubos has attracted so much attention. It’s inevitable, just as it’s inevitable that Hitler was popular for blaming Germany’s failure in WWI on the Jews. He is not as bad as Hitler overall. (When I compare people’s popular hype to Hitler’s popular hype it’s obvious even to a moron that I’m comparing the propaganda up to 1933 when Hitler was elected democratically by majority vote, not the 1940s use of gas chambers.) Dr Woit may be less popular than Lubos on the internet because he is more ethical, e.g. instead of endlessly attacking Dr Witten’s crackpot claim that “string theory has the remarkable property of predicting gravity”, he focuses on Witten’s work in QCD in the early 1980s, which Woit had worked on during his PhD at around that time. In the real world, anyone who presents a complete and balanced picture of the facts is regarded by the general public and the media as presenting a “confused picture”, and of being “confused”. Only by lying and presenting a half-baked, one-sided polemic can a politician gain the ear of the passing crowd at the bus-stop. Lubos has grasped that fact, well and truly. Sometimes he hits the facts, sometimes he is way off. However, there are worse people than Lubos out there. Some of the people like Rob Edwards who ignore all low-level radiation evidence, pretend it doesn’t exist, and lyingly hype faked spin and claims which is a complete abuse of scientific facts for political purposes ( http://glasstone.blogspot.com/ ), are really more dangerous to society than Lubos. There is absolutely nothing that I or anyone else can do about this, see http://glasstone.blogspot.com/ for the facts that are censored out. All that can be done is to expose the facts. Facts don’t speak for themselves. They get suppressed, censored, ignored and denied by politicians like the current editors of New Scientist and the journalists they choose to keep publishing. Moreover, there is a vast anti-nuclear lobby who include millions of the public that believe as a religious truth, without factual evidence, that radiation has effects which it doesn’t. These people probably like reading Rob Edwards and in this context the New Scientist might make more profit by publishing his articles than mine on that or other topics. Don’t deny it – I’ve been a freelance science writer and I know this from personal experience. If you submit trash, it gets published. If you submit facts, they either get censored out by the editor or else you get a huge amount of abuse from readers directed against both yourself and the editor who accepted your article. It doesn’t matter whether you are right or wrong scientifically, just whether the article helps to sell the journal or does the opposite. In other words, you have to reinforce existing groupthink if you want to be “fashionable”. I’m not fashionable, and not interested in groupthink, only in factual evidence. Lubos is fashionable in terms of string theory but tries to balance that with controversy on other topics. Hence he is extremely popular. As I mentioned above, he writes several blog posts a day and has done probably thousands of blog posts as compared to only 41 posts on this blog over a period of years. So I don’t think that it is too scary that Lubos is getting a relatively large amount of attention. It’s just what you should expect for someone behaving the way he does. 16. copy of a comment: “…. I realize that the plan was to talk about how a particle interaction could cause a force like gravity. However, I also made the New Year’s Resolution to be more professional in my physics and that would be a rather scary post.” If it’s true that quantum gravity is a (relatively) simple physical interaction process (requiring simple maths and concepts to extract predictions), then in the end you don’t have much of a choice. It may turn out that there is only one way to deal with quantum gravity. You’re right that the big problem is tackling any such subject in a way that looks professional. I’m ploughing (or plowing as spelt in USA) through QFT textbooks so I can summarize the key mainstream QFT mathematics. I don’t think it is correct. If you have a particle that is accelerated by a series of randomly occurring interactions with gravitons, the acceleration occurs as a result of a sequence of discrete impulses, like quantum leaps. Not continuous, uniform acceleration like “curvature”. So I really think that the entire mathematical formulation of GR and much of QFT is bunk: it works as a good approximation on large scales (but not too large, or the gravitons are seriously redshifted in being exchanged between receding masses in the universe). It doesn’t work on small scales, where chaotic graviton interactions cause particles to jump around more randomly. It takes a lot of graviton interactions to smooth out the chaos of quantum interactions on small scales. All of this is just ignored by GR. QFT is nearly as bad because it also uses calculus to approximate a lot of discrete events: path integrals. If you consider a fraction of pollen grain in a high wind, it’s motion will not be a smooth acceleration but will depend on impacts of air molecules. However, a ship’s sail will average out a large number of impacts and appear to accelerate uniformly in the breeze. It’s a case that one mathematical model works on one scale, but it is only a probability formula or statistical approximation, not a 1-2-1 direct physical model of the situation. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Google photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s
I was wondering about why some languages choose to implement numeric types (boolean, integers, floats, characters etc.) as classes/objects (eg. Kotlin) and some as primitive types (eg. Java). I am specifically considering interpreted languages rather than compiled languages. Below are the differences that I was able to come up with: As a class: • The type could then be extended, so that new classes could be treated as numeric types as well (i.e. being applicable to arithmetic operators). • No need for wrapper classes, as the type's relevant functionality could be encapsulated within the numeric type's class itself. As a primitive: • Less memory usage, as only the primive's value would be stored, rather than the extra bulk needed for an object. What could any other reasons be? Edit: This is not a duplicate of this question, as this question is purely about language-design, rather than what should be chosen for a specific practical and real-world problem. • 2 Primitives have better performance characteristics. They typically have pass-by-value semantics, which makes more sense since they're actually values. "Everything is an object" is a simpler language design. – Robert Harvey Apr 22 '15 at 21:00 • 1 Consider how you do "foo = bar + 3" in each language type. Take Smalltalk as an example. Compare the amount of work to how it would be as primitives. – user40980 Apr 22 '15 at 21:04 • I can't think of a scenario where extending a numeric class would be desirable, and wrapper classes have more to do with working around questionable language decisions (e.g. Java's generics only work with reference types) than encapsulating functionality. – Doval Apr 22 '15 at 21:20 • 1 It's basically a dirty hack when your language design doesn't allow arbitrary types to have the benefits of unboxed/value types but you want the micro benchmark performance for the most common types. (That is not to say that "hack" can't be better than extending the language or giving up on that performance boost, but I do have a distaste for it.) – user7043 Apr 22 '15 at 21:26 • 2 One should remember Java's origins and the early concerns of performance (along with its adherence to backwards compatibility). Languages designed since have had the benefit of years of R&D and retrospective analysis on what different languages got right and wrong. -- Also, compiled vs interpreted is a red herring (that's an implementation detail) - languages are languages. – user40980 Apr 22 '15 at 22:05 One of the most important characteristics that make a programming language efficient is the closeness of the supported data types to the native data types of the underlying hardware. An int primitive directly corresponds to a machine word; it does not get any better than that. The moment you turn the int primitive into an Integer object you have degraded performance of integer operations by an order of magnitude. Now, modern applications are mostly GUIs which don't do much other than sitting waiting for user input, so in many cases efficiency does not really matter, and ease of use considerations take precedence. It is very useful and it keeps many things simple to be able to treat numeric types as objects because then you can apply uniform operations on them without having to write special code for each one of them separately. For example, by implementing the Comparable interface, Integer objects know how to compare themselves against other Integer objects, and Double objects know how to compare themselves against other Double objects, so essentially the quicksort routine and the binary search routine only need to be implemented once, to simply work with any kind of comparable object. That having been said, let me repeat that if you write an application that has any number-crunching whatsoever to do, primitives are definitely the way to go. Also it might be worth noting that one of the most beautiful things about C# is that it has managed to achieve the best of both worlds in this respect: it has structs, which are value types that map (perhaps not perfectly, but fairly well) to native machine types, and at the same time are capable of implementing interfaces the way objects do. \| improve this answer \| \| • Actually, it was a crappy answer, because only 10% of it addressed your actual question. I amended it, and now it is hopefully better. – Mike Nakis Apr 22 '15 at 21:30 • The Comparable thing is arguably not a very good motivation to have numeric classes. If you want any other ordering (e.g. sorted in reverse) Comparable won't help you. – Doval Apr 22 '15 at 21:39 • 1 @Doval yes it will. In this case you will make use of a comparator, the default implementation of which simply delegates to the comparables, and then you can trivially write an inversing comparator which negates the integer result of the comparison before returning it. You still get to use the single sorting/searching method of the standard library, and you still get to work with any kind of comparables that might be thrown at you, you only have to write a few extra lines of code to achieve reverse sorting. – Mike Nakis Apr 22 '15 at 21:46 • @Doval actually, you don't even have to write those extra lines of code, someone has already written them, see java.util.Collections.reverseOrder(). – Mike Nakis Apr 22 '15 at 21:54 • @MikeNakis Once you've offloaded the work to a "comparator" there's no longer any need for the integers to be objects (other than completely artificial reasons like Java's generics simply not working on non-reference types. That wouldn't be an issue in other languages.) – Doval Apr 22 '15 at 21:57
Below is a copied and pasted version of a paper I published on (here) in which I examine the economic relationship between Tajikistan and the Soviet Union. The economic relations between the Russian Soviet federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) (the centre) and the Soviet Union’s peripheral republics has frequently been described as ‘colonial’. Nowhere is this colonial narrative more common than when discussing Tajikistan. The least industrially developed of the Soviet Union’s fifteen republics, there is no shortage of literature describing Tajikistan as a Soviet colony. According to Jesse Driscoll, “Tajikistan was never more than a frontier cotton colony.”[1] Similarly, Robert Strayer describes how the “imposition of a single-crop, cotton-growing economy on large parts of Central Asia during the Stalin years had created a highly dependent, almost colonial relationship with the more developed regions of the Soviet Union.”[2] The theory of Tajikistan’s de facto status as a Soviet colony is attractive to scholars of Central Asia due to the civil war that engulfed Tajikistan between 1992-97. For decades scholars have debated the various factors that contributed to the outbreak of violence: regionalism, Islamic militancy and the spillover of the war in Afghanistan (one of the most famous mujahideen warlords, Ahmed Shah Massoud, was a Tajik), the overthrow of the Soviet Union, etc.[3] Yet, as Idil Tunçer-Kılavuz notes, none of these factors, collectively or individually, explain why Tajikistan experienced civil war, since all these factors also existed in Uzbekistan, including the existence of a powerful Uzbek warlord in Afghanistan, Abdul Rashid Dostum, with cross-border connections.[4] “Uzbekistan resembles Tajikistan in many ways,” writes Tunçer-Kılavuz: Unlike the other Central Asian countries, the territories of today’s Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have long been home to sedentary societies. The literature on Central Asia describes their societies as having been influenced by Islam to a greater extent than the other Central Asian countries. They have similar social cleavage structures in terms of salience of regional identities and the prevalence of Islamic sentiment. Both their economics are based on agriculture. They share the legacy of the same Soviet past, having lived under the same Soviet institutions and policies, and then separated from the collapsed state. Economic factors stated as the causes of civil war in Tajikistan were valid for Uzbekistan as well. Both countries suffered from poverty, and the end of subsidies from the Soviet Union. They had similar social structures, with largely rural societies. A large degree of intermingling between their populations has taken place.[5] Continue reading “An Analysis of Soviet Economic Policy in the Periphery: Tajikistan in Context” Soviet Nationalities Policy and Territorial Delimitation: “Divide at impera” or something else? Have you ever looked at a map of Central Asia and the Caucasus? If you answered ‘yes’, then you have more than likely wondered why the borders of many of the now independent states in these regions of the former Soviet Union are so confusing and seemingly irrational. The strategic and fertile Ferghana Valley, for instance, appears to be haphazardly divided between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, while in the Caucasus Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia and Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan are de facto independent, and Nakhchivan is totally separated from Azerbaijan by Armenia. Most authors attribute this confusing patchwork of borders to the sinister ‘divide-and-conquer’ policies of the Soviet Union, specifically Joseph Stalin. This explanation is attractive to many Western authors for a number of reasons: 1) it transforms the Soviet Union’s nationalities policy into a simple Good vs. Evil narrative; 2) it serves to demonize the Soviet Union as an oppressive empire no different than its tsarist predecessor; 3) it has long been the policy of empires, whether ancient like King Philip II of Macedon (359-226 BC), in which the phrase “divide at impera” (divide and conquer) is usually attributed to, or contemporary, such as the colonial empires of Britain, France, Belgium, and other European colonial powers. Yet a serious examination of Soviet nationalities policy and the delimitation of national territories disproves the ‘divide-and-conquer’ narrative of the origins of many of these now independent states. A question that is almost never asked by those proponents of the Soviet ‘divide-and-conquer’ narrative is why the Soviet Union would have sought to divide and conquer subject peoples? Most proponents of the ‘divide-and-conquer’ narrative, implicitly if not explicitly, attribute these policies to the Soviet Union’s empire-like aspirations. Despite its attractiveness to Western writers, however, empire is a poor explanation of alleged Soviet machinations. As Michael Parenti writes, “empires do not just pursue ‘power for power’s sake.’ There are real and enormous material interests at stake, fortunes to be made many times over.” The existence of empire is predicated on a socio-economic system “whereby the dominant investor interests in one country bring to bear their economic and military power upon another nation or region in order to expropriate its land, labor, natural resources, capital, and markets-in such a manner as to enrich the investor interests,” that is, imperialism. Was the Soviet Union imperialist? “The answer should be clear enough,” writes Parenti. If “imperialism is a system of economic expropriation, then it is hard to describe the Soviets as ‘imperialistic.’ They own not an acre of land, not a factory or oil well in the Middle East or Eastern Europe. Moscow’s trade and aid relations with other socialist countries are decidedly favorable to those countries, contrary to the imperialist pattern in which wealth flows from the client states to the dominant nation.” Thus, according to Parenti, the Soviet Union can’t be described as an ‘empire’, since it wasn’t imperialist. Since the Soviet Union wasn’t imperialist, it is hard to imagine the Soviet Union benefiting from dividing and conquering subject people. [1] Even if one rejects Parenti’s analysis and falsely claims the Soviet Union was an imperialist state, the ‘divide-and-conquer’ narrative of the Soviet Union’s nationalities policy and national territorial delimitation ignores a crucial historical detail: there was no unity to be divided. In Central Asia, according to Adeeb Khalid, the Soviet Union wasn’t confronted “by a unified, cohesive local society, but a bitterly divided one. Conflicts within Central Asian society were just as important as conflicts between Europeans and Central Asians in the early Soviet period…As historians, we should rid ourselves of the phantom of Central Asian Muslim unity and look at Central Asia as an arena of multifaceted conflict.” [2] For this reason, Khalid argues that “We should therefore be wary of claims of a primordial unity of the people of Turkestan that was shattered by Soviet machinations. Turkestan was quite literally a creation of the Russian conquest, and it encompassed no unity.” [3] Khalid’s conclusions are supported by Adrienne Lynn Edgar in her study of Turkmenistan. “In creating national republics in Central Asia,” Edgar writes, “Moscow did not divide a unified region, but merely institutionalized” the divisions that already existed [4]. According to a 19th century Russian officer quoted by Edgar about the Turkmen people, “The hatred of the various Turkmen clans toward each other is scarcely less than their hatred toward other peoples.” [5] Moreover, as part of Soviet Union’s larger nationalities policy, Central Asia was not singled out for delimitation, as new “national territories were springing up everywhere in the Soviet Union in the 1920s,” such as those for Ukrainians, Tatars, etc. To exclude Central Asia from this process “would have been tantamount to admitting that they were too ‘backward’ to travel the path of other Soviet peoples and become modern Soviet nationalities.” [6] In the Caucasus, another volatile region, the Soviet Union found itself in a similar situation. In his study on the origins of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh, Arsene Saparov describes how “The Bolsheviks inherited a region [the Caucasus] plagued by ethno-political conflicts which now became their problem.” [7] Indeed, the Caucasus had experienced widespread inter-ethnic violence before the Bolsheviks ever came to power, such as the Armenian-Tatar massacres, which left hundreds dead. As a tactic used by an imperialist power to weaken a rival power to exploit the latter’s land, labour, and resources, the ‘divide-and-conquer’ narrative is inapplicable in the Soviet context. The Soviet Union was not an imperialist power and, even if it were, the regions it allegedly sought to ‘divide-and-conquer’ were already thoroughly divided. What, then, explains the cartographic nightmare that is the borders of the various states in Central Asia and the Caucasus? The answer to this question, according to the above cited authors, is in Soviet efforts to promote socialist development and stability in regions inhabited by non-Russian minorities. “As the sole power in the entire Caucasus,” notes Saparov, “the Bolshevik leadership needed to resolve those conflicting issues that prevented the establishment of stable governance.” [8] The solution adopted by the Soviet leadership was to create “territorial republics based on ethnic criteria and promoting ‘national cultures’ within them,” encouraging political stability and socialist development through fostering “national consciousness and incipient national statehood among its [Soviet Union’s] numerous non-Russian minorities.” [9] Thus, Soviet nationalities policy and territorial delimitation “was not some deliberate attempt at long-term manipulation, but rather a practical, albeit clumsy, compromise to contain violent conflicts.” [10] Non-Russian minorities, if not always eagerly than begrudgingly, participated in the territorial delimitation, a fact often overlooked by proponents of the ‘divide-and-conquer’ narrative. The creation of Uzbekistan, writes Khalid, was “the triumph of an indigenous national project,” not sinister Soviet machinations [11]. Edgar’s study regarding Turkmenistan concurs with Khalid’s conclusions about the role of indigenous elites in Soviet territorial delimitation. While Moscow’s role in the territorial delimitation was “undeniably important,” notes Edgar, “the crucial contribution of local elites in shaping Soviet nations has not received enough attention. In Central Asia, members of the cultural and political elite had their own ideas about nationhood and socialism,” which often “differed substantially from those of the authorities in Moscow.” [12] Neither were local elites “passive recipients of central policies” in the Caucasus, according to Saparov, having “played a critical role in shaping Soviet policies.” [13] The fact that the Soviet Union, in the words of Edgar, “served as midwife to the separate states that emerged” in 1991, discredits Conquest’s claim that the Soviet Union was a ‘breaker’ of nations, while providing an important historical lesson in how only with the victory of socialism can all nations experience free and equal development [14]. [1] Page 191, The Sword and the Dollar, Michael Parenti [2] Pages 88-89, Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR, Adeeb Khalid [3] Page 46, ibid. [4] Page 47, Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan, Adrienne Lynn Edgar [5] Page 17, ibid. [6] Page 47, ibid. [7] Page 172, From Conflict to Autonomy in the Caucasus: The Soviet Union and the making of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno Karabakh, Arsene Saparov [8] ibid. [9] Page 2, Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan, Adrienne Lynn Edgar [11] Page 258, Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR, Adeeb Khalid [12] Page 5, Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan, Adrienne Lynn Edgar [13] Page 6, From Conflict to Autonomy in the Caucasus: The Soviet Union and the making of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno Karabakh, Arsene Saparov [14] Page 2, Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan, Adrienne Lynn Edgar
Nordic countries From BoyWiki Revision as of 19:58, 26 November 2019 by Dandelion (Talk \| contribs) (Moved the article from the category "The boylover world" to the "Europe" category, and added a blank line to the wikicode) Jump to: navigation, search The Nordic countries are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It consists of five countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) as well as their autonomous regions (the Åland Islands, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland). The Nordic countries have much in common in their way of life, history, language and social structure. Along with the Anglo-Saxon countries, voices opposed to pedophilia predominantly came from the Nordic countries.
Which Is the Greater Evil -- Terrorism or Governments' Response to It? Co-authored by Jim Sisco Governments can maintain greater legitimacy among their populace and be more effective combating terrorism if they harness the collective power of their people in fighting it, rather than operating under the premise that it is their people who are the source of the problem. Political leaders often use terrorism, or the threat of terrorism, to repress civil liberties, censor media outlets, and promote their own political and military agendas. In some countries, the mere threat of a terrorist attack has become a means to manipulate nationalist sentiment, which enables political leaders to pursue their own agendas. The consequences are usually negative for citizens, and this raises the question, which is the greater threat: the prospect of a terrorist attack or a government's response to it? When governments use terrorism to incite nationalist sentiment and exceed previously established limits of power, citizens accept the inevitable decrease of their civil liberties in exchange for greater security. They are also hesitant to object to government-sponsored initiatives under the rubric of 'combating terrorism' because it is considered 'unpatriotic' to do otherwise. This gives governments a freer hand to exert their authority in ways that were unimaginable before a terrorist threat. This also gives governments an opportunity to polarize segments of populations deemed to be either 'with' the government or 'with' terrorists - without a common middle ground. In the 15 years since 9/11, only a few terrorist attacks have been successful in the U.S., but the change in how governments and citizens approach and respond to one another has changed dramatically. The U.S. Patriot Act and UK Counter-Terrorism Act are useful examples of how governments increased their police powers and reduced civil liberties in counter-terrorism efforts. More importantly, they provided a model for other governments to emulate in order to implement heavy-handed repressive strategies. The Patriot Act was introduced shortly after 9/11 and is criticized today as an assault on civil liberties, but was palatable at the time. Subsequent revisions of the Act included the authorization of wiretap searches and surveillance, directed at the heart of public privacy. In the UK, extensions to its Counter-Terrorism Act granted officials the power to deprive individuals of their British citizenship if they were suspected of extremist activity. The advent of global terrorism has raised the level of repression by governments, from Russia and China to the Middle East. In foreign countries, government and political agendas tend to coincide with repression of civil liberties, while simultaneously seeking to repress political dissonance. Apart from an environment of pervasive fear and tension, the biggest casualty is often free speech, which is under attack in a number of ways; An increasing number of state and non-state actors are censoring free speech through intimidation and assassination. There is also the notion that anyone, or anything, is fair game, meaning that ethnicity and religion have become equated with political beliefs, under the premise that it all falls under the broad spectrum of contributing to 'terrorism'. Bahrain, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia provide excellent examples of this strategy at work. Bahrain recently revoked the citizenship of the Sunni kingdom's most prominent Shia cleric. Similarly, in Saudi Arabia, human rights activist Abdulaziz al-Shubaily was sentenced to jail in 2014 based on a "repressive counter-terrorism law" for speaking out about the regime's use of torture. These are not exclusive to the Gulf region, of course. In the Philippines, president-elect Rodrigo Duterte successfully rallied public fear to propel him to the presidency. Initially, he focused on drug dealers as targets of assassination, but added journalists to the list in an attempt to silence dissent against him and the state's pending enhanced police powers. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, more than 8,500 people were recently arrested in a countrywide security operation aimed at combating extremist violence against religious minorities and secular activists. Political opposition groups claim that law-enforcement agencies rounded up opposition activists under the pretext of fighting terrorism, which authorities subsequently denied. The age of global terrorism has coincided with heightened police powers and the routine killing of political activists and journalists. Journalists tend to be a common target and face severe punishment for exercising freedom of speech. In Azerbaijan, journalist Khadija Ismayilova was jailed for reporting truthfully about regime corruption. Journalists or activists who speak up about corruption are punished, and opposition political clerics may be assassinated. In Russia, routine disappearances and executions of journalists have become standard operating procedure (it has been estimated that between 1993 and 2009, more than 150 journalists were murdered). Egypt reached a tipping point when its leadership announced that "facts should be subordinate to national interests". Since 2011, 11 journalists have been killed there; by contrast, between 1992 and 2011 only one journalist was killed. Terrorism policies in Britain have compelled many British Muslims to leave their homes and relocate permanently. Britain's "Prevent Terrorism" agenda encouraged teachers, service industry workers, and health care providers to report anyone suspected of radical views. Since the announcement, hate crimes against British Muslims have tripled across England and doubled in London. In this case, the threat of terrorism is used to justify discrimination, resulting in ongoing repression of Muslims in Britain, similar to the discrimination faced by Shi'ites in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Governments' approaches to combat terrorism have generally proven to be ineffective, and have failed make the lives of citizens safer. Diminished civil liberties, biased media, and allocation of financial resources coincide with an inability to hold governments and their militaries accountable. Rather than viewing terrorism as a purely national security issue, a variety of governments and leaders - from democracies to monarchies to authoritarian regimes - have instead seized the opportunity to tighten their grip on power, reduce civil liberties, and crack down on opponents. Terrorism has promoted self-interest among governments as well as created an environment ripe for the advancement of political agendas. Since many citizens around the world are either too afraid to object, or lack the ability to do so, terrorism has in some cases served to perpetuate the very political forces it claims to oppose. While there are a number of countries where the opposite is true, just imagine what type of societies governments could create in the age of global terrorism if they generated greater employment opportunities for youth, encouraged freer speech, and fostered an environment conducive to transparency - on their own part - rather than repression as a response. As things stand now, the majority of the world's governments have adopted just the opposite approach. While 'hugging a terrorist' will certainly not result in dramatic social transformation, it is emblematic of what can be achieved with society's worst terrorist offenders. If such an approach can have such success with them, there is a good chance it can have the desired effect more broadly, if it were implemented with adequate resources and resolve. The question becomes whether, at this juncture, we may be in a position to turn the tide, or whether the die is cast. Many of the governments that have pursued repression and curtailed civil liberties have found that the only real result is the need for more of the same. In doing so, they hand the terrorist an unnecessary victory. *Jim Sisco is President of ENODO Global. Daniel Wagner is CEO of Country Risk Solutions and co-author of "Global Risk Agility and Decision Making".

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