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How to Grow Tomatoes Tomatoes are true berries - a simple fruit having seeds and pulp produced from a single ovary. They are available in huge number of varieties that vary in size, color, vegetation period etc. They are commonly grown in small and home gardens and consumed mostly fresh (salads) and in various dishes. how to grow tomatoes Since tomatoes are not the easiest plants to grow, if you decide to grow them, be sure to know: - how to select and prepare the soil for planting, - how to select tomato varieties that suit your soil, position and needs, - how to maintain tomato plants in order to achieve higher yields and good quality of the tomatoes. Soil Preparation and Fertilization It is very important where tomatoes are planted in the garden. To grow and produce well, tomatoes need at least six to eight hours of sun a day. Positions with full sun are the best, especially in northern, more colder climates. Tomatoes doesn't like cold and late spring frost can kill the plants - regardless if you grow them directly from the seeds, by transplanting small plants, or in the containers and pots, be sure that tomatoes are always protected from frost - wait till at least two weeks after your local last frost day and only then move them permanently outside. If you grow tomato plants for transplanting and/or in the pots, it is good practice to gradually expose young tomato plants to the full sun and little bit colder air - this will strengthen the plants and prepare them for outside conditions. Tomato roots do well in well-drained, nutrient rich, slightly acidic (pH 6 - 6.7) and moist soil. They don't like soggy soils, while too sandy soils don't retain moisture and nutrients well. Soil preparation can start in autumn, before soil is frozen, but early in the spring is not to late to make good tomato soil. If you have heavy clay soil, add some sand and plenty of organic matter in the form of aged manure (or manure in pellets) and some compost/humus or similar. Also, add some balanced NPK fertilizer 10:10:10 or 15:15:15 and till the soil at least 25-30 cm (10-12 inches) deep. Personally, I prefer manure in the form of fully dried pellets, but if you do have really heavy soil, aged manure is somewhat better. Organic matter and sand help with water drainage, while NPK fertilizer and organic matter feed the plants. If you have light, sandy soil, add aged manure or manure in pellets (or both) and compost/humus. They will help the soil to retain moisture and nutrients and will feed the plants. Also, adding balanced NPK fertilizers is highly recommended to improve the plants' growth. how to grow tomatoesWhen transplanting the plants on the permanent position, the easiest method for small gardens is planting the tomato plants in the individual holes - make 15cm (6 inches) hole, add some more (10-15g - one third to one half of an ounce) of NPK fertilizer and a handful of compost/humus, mix little bit everything and plant the tomato. If you live in colder regions - make a deep furrow (30cm, one foot), fill it halfway (15cm, 6 inches) with aged animal manure, compost/humus and some balanced NPK fertilizer. Cover it with 7-8cm (3 inches) of soil and in the remaining 7-8cm plant the tomatoes. Decomposing manure/humus/compost will produce some heat and warm the roots, but also feed the plants for longer period of time. This is very important if you prefer to transplant tomatoes early and to grow indeterminate varieties. If support is required (stakes, cages etc), position them right away, to avoid any later damage to the roots. Since determinate varieties have relatively short vegetation period, if the soil is prepared well, subsequent fertilization is not required. However, indeterminate varieties can grow for a long time and can become huge - some up to 10 feet. When first flowers and tomatoes appear, feel free to add 10-15g of NPK fertilizer with lower nitrogen level (for example 5-10-10 or 10-15-15), per plant, every month (depending on the plants' density, variety, soil type etc). Tomatoes like nitrogen and with too much nitrogen, they will grow tall, but also weak and prone to various diseases. Having more potassium and phosphorous ensures plenty of healthy tomato fruits. Watering Tomato Plants Constant watering of tomato plants is very important - tomato plants require 2-5cm (1-2 inches) of water per week. To avoid any damage to the fruits, especially during summer heat, watering should be done on a daily basis or one should use dripping system. Without moisture, calcium and other nutrients often become unavailable to the plants, leading to reduced growth and in the end, reduced crops. Soil Mulching how-to-grow-tomatoes-3Mulching can prevent or decrease moisture loss and can help in keeping the soil warm during colder days. Moisture fluctuations can lead to damaged plants and especially damaged fruits, while having 'warm feet' promotes higher yield and strong plants (phosphorous intake is highly decreased if roots are cold). Also, good mulch decreases amount of weeds and prevents fruit from touching the soil - fruit rot. The best mulch is organic one. It includes materials like compost, straw, newspaper, shredded leaves, grass clippings, sawdust, wood chips etc. As this materials decompose, they add organic material to the top of the soil. This is also very important for both heavy and sandy soils - few years of mulching and crop rotation and such soils will improve their quality significantly. Tomato Types and Varieties There are numerous types and varieties of tomato plants. Choose tomato plants according to your needs and preferences, but also feel free to experiment a little bit. Common tomato types that can be found in home and small gardens are: beefsteak tomatoes beef tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, plum tomatoes, coctail tomatoes, campari tomatoes, plum tomatoes, patio tomatoes, black tomatoes etc. Most popular tomato varieties are: San Marzano, Roma, Brandywine, Better Boy, Black Cherry, Sun Gold, Early Girl, Homestead etc. Planting the Tomato Plants Tomatoes can be planted into the pots and containers, grow bags, raised beds, or directly into the garden soil. One of the most underestimated, but very important factor, is distance between the tomato plants in the rows and distance between the rows. unripe tomatoes 1Tomato spacing depends on tomato plant type and variety (determinate/indeterminate, large/small/dwarf plant etc), local climate, growing soil, watering, available nutrients and sunlight and the list continues. If you are not sure about the proper plant spacing, it is better to leave somewhat larger room between plants, than to 'over-plant' your garden. With enough room around the plants, tomatoes will have more sunlight, more room for root ball, there will be less competition for water and nutrients, disease outbreaks will be easier to control etc. For more information about required space for tomato plants, check Tomato Plant Spacing 101: How to Calculate the Optimal Spaces article on 'Everything Backyard' site - link opens in the new window, recommended not only for beginners. Tomatoes should be planted into prepared soil, early in the morning or late in the evening, if possible. After planting, add support (tomato cages or poles) right away, and water the plants with the stale water. Caring for Tomato Plants Tomato plants are not the easiest plants to grow and care for, but in most cases, with little effort they will reward you with great tasting tomatoes. Beside regular watering and fertilization, most of the tomato plants require some sort of support in order to grow vertically - tomato stakes/poles, tomato cages, vertical wires/lines, wooden or metal fence etc. Tying tomato plants to support keeps plants away from the soil, prevents fruit rot, prevents damage to the plants due to bad weather (wind, for example) etc. Removing side shoots from tomato plants is not required in some varieties, but in most cases it is something that must be done. Leaving one or two lower side shoots and growing them on separate poles, can sometimes increase crop harvest, but it requires skill and good timing - it is perhaps easier to grow two plants, relatively close to each other, than to grow one plant with main stem and some side shoots. Pest and diseases can be great problems when growing tomatoes. Aphids, flea beetles, leafminers, stink bugs, spider mites, fruitworms etc. threaten tomatoes in may ways. They damage the foliage, but real damage may result either from their feeding on the fruit (fruit is in most cases inedible) or by spreading various diseases. In home garden, it is normal to have 'some' bugs and strong and healthy tomato plants can cope with few pests - most of them (at least larger ones) can be removed by hand. In the case of stronger attack, one has to use insecticides - try to use organic insecticides according to the instructions and be sure to mark the date when you used them (just to be sure). Tomato diseases are spread through the soil, infected tools, animals, water supply, gardeners etc. Most of the diseases are not fatal, especially if discovered early and treated accordingly. It is very important to monitor plants almost on a daily basis and reacts quickly. If you live in the area where tomato diseases are common problem, act preemptively and treat your plants. Personally, I mix copper based with sulfur based fungicides (both soluble in water) and treat plants with mild solution several times before first tomatoes start to ripen. This, choosing more resilient varieties and crop rotation is usually more than enough to keep the tomatoes healthy - some might disagree with this practice, but in wet and humid seasons, this helps a lot ... Note: if tomato plant is lost, remove it from the garden and burn it. In order to prolong harvesting season, grow indeterminate tomato varieties, but also grow several different varieties. Personally, I like to vary my salads from yellow/red/black cherry tomatoes to large beefsteak tomatoes. Also, since most of our neighbors prefer heirloom varieties, we often exchange seeds. In the end, we grow 2-5 plants of each variety - cherries are mostly in hanging baskets, while big indeterminate varieties are in the garden, on permanent locations, well protected from wind, pets and kids. Other varieties are somewhere in between :) open-pollinated-heirloom-hybrid-tomatoes-mWhen growing tomatoes and other berries and plants in general, terms like open-pollinated, heirloom and hybrid seeds and varieties are commonly mentioned. But, what is actually the difference between those three? roma-tomatoes-mRoma tomatoes are variety of plum tomato. They are egg or pear-shaped, red tomatoes, although there are also golden Roma tomato varieties. Roma tomatoes are open-pollinated tomatoes, but generally not considered as the heirloom tomatoes. Roma tomatoes grow 3-4 feet (0.90 - 1.20 m) tall and produce large crops. tomato types and varietiesThere are numerous types and varieties of tomato plants. san-marzano-tomato-mSan Marzano is a variety of plum tomato, with thinner, elongated and more pointed, meaty fruits than Roma tomatoes. San Marzano's taste is stronger, sweeter and less acidic, considered by many people to be bittersweet. A indeterminate, heirloom plant. how-to-ripen-green-tomatoes-1mGreen tomatoes can be stored green for a long time and ripen indoors easily. Such tomatoes are not as tasty as red tomatoes ripen on the plant in the garden, but they still taste much better than tomatoes found in supermarkets. growing-tomatoes-in-pots-1mTomatoes are easily grown in pots, containers and hanging baskets, both indoors and outdoors. When grown indoors, tomatoes spend their entire vegetation period protected from strong winds, sudden drops of temperatures and rainstorms, and can provide gardener with steady supply of tomatoes year long. Growing tomatoes in pots and containers outdoors, plants can spend some time indoors and when danger of late frosts is gone, pots and containers can be positioned on permanent outdoor location. Recommend This Page Search 'Mad About Berries'
In Scents and Colours After the first VOC ships came back with their freight, inhabitants living close to the warehouses could smell the unknown exotic fragrances. People passing by thought they had landed in countries in the Far East or they complained about the stale air of spices which gave them a headache. Chicken coup Pepper, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg were unknown luxurious goods. In the first days of the VOC people would pay the same amount for a small parcel of pepper as they had to pay for a chicken coup. This is where the Dutch expression ‘peperduur’ (as expensive as pepper) came from. In that period pepper grains were a trading currency. Anyone who travelled through Europe and didn’t want to carry a lot of gold or silver with them sowed the popular trading good in the seam of their clothing. Spices were used as medicine, cosmetics and to enhance the taste of food. Spices and porcelain Above all spices were luxurious goods. Everyone who wanted to spoil their guests or wanted to prove their prosperity would put food on the table which was spiced with eastern flavours. Nutmeg and pepper were the champagne and caviar of the Golden Ages. Besides that porcelain became fashionable. Marco Polo already told about the extremely thin but strong porcelain from the east which people in Europe weren’t able to make, because of the simple reason that the raw material needed, Kaolin wasn’t known yet. An auction in Amsterdam for porcelain which came from a captured Portuguese ship, became an unknown success and was named Carague porcelain (named after the type of ship), which later was changed to Kraak porcelain. It became a fashion to have at least some porcelain at home on show and if it was possible to fill a whole closet or cabinet with it. Furniture makers created specially-designed cabinets for the pottery. Cabinets were built for Chinese sets of temple porcelain. The Delft earthwork manufacturers tore their hair out at this unexpected competitor. It even lasted until the 18th century, before the secret of making porcelain was stumbled upon in Meissen. After the middle of the 17th century the importance of trade shifted from spices to textile, especially the colourful cottons and silk chintzes from India were the hype. In the Netherlands, they were used as curtains or worked into clothing. In the regional costumes from the Zaan or the Hindelopen chintz was widely used till the end. Coffee and elephants In the 17th century coffee and tea were very popular. A separate set of crockery was made for it. Coffee houses and tea rooms flourished. The tea came from China and was made by Chinese merchants, who were brought to Batavia. Coffee came from the Arabian world. The VOC set up an office in Mokka for the coffee trade. However, soon in 1707 it worked to bring coffee plants to Java, which launched the coffee plantations, as we know them. The series of products, in which the VOC traded, is almost endless and varies from tin, tea, tobacco and tamarind to olive oil, onyx, opium, and even elephants. On Ceylon, the Dutch people developed a trap, a kind of a huge hoop-net, with which elephants could be captured, without the animals damaging the bales of spices. A beautiful white elephant could fetch as much as 7000 Dutch gulden. Everywhere in Asia, the VOC had specialists who had enough knowledge of this business to not let themselves being misled with inferior silk, false gemstones and grains of sand between the peppercorns and all the other different tricks used. Stowing of freight caused much concern. Porcelain was for instance packed in tea chests to prevent breakages. On the inside those chests were covered with tinfoil to prevent the damp from entering. Textile and spices had to stay dry in every kind of weather. A quick shipment was literally worth gold, because how much quicker the spices were transported, the fresher they were and how much more they were worth. On the journey money chests were stored in the captain’s cabin, which contained enough coins to buy what was needed. Those VOC coins were the dollars in Asia, and you were able to trade the coins everywhere. Furthermore consumer goods were brought along for the settlements of the VOC, from paper and ink for the clerks to cannons, clothing, food, nails and all manner of items needed by the people there. To keep the balance in the ship, the holds were filled with ballast, sand and gravel, bricks, blue tiles and prefabricated natural stone for houses, churches and forts. text: Ruud Spruit translation: Frederieke Loth, RSG Enkhuizen, tto-junior
Andrea Tinker, professor of Social Gerontology at King's College, London recently published the results of research into the way that the changing age distribution of the population is affecting different generations. Her conclusion is that today's under 30s are the first generation who can expect lower living standards than their parents. In this writeup, I will present some British demographic statistics, and my own hypothesis as to the underlying reason for Professor Tinker's conclusion. • In 1999, about 20% of Britain's population was over 60. This is predicted to rise to 34% by 2050, with half that number over 80. • Fewer children are being born: 91 live births per 1000 women in 1961, dropping to only 55 in 2000. In the 25-29 age group, the drop is even more dramatic, from 178/1000 in 1961 to 95/1000 in 2000. • Between 1993 and 2000 the number of under-25s owning their own property has fallen from 21% to 19%. The number of 25-29 year olds living with parents rose from 18% in 1978 to 23% in 1998. • The number of 25-35 year olds living alone rose from 2% in 1973 to 12% in 2000. The average age of a first time house buyer is now 35. The average household income is GBP 24,000/year - the average mortgage exceeds GBP 140,000. • Tax relief on mortgages and grants for university education have been slashed. Professor Tinker believes that people born within the last 30-40 years face paying 1/3 of their lifetime's earnings in taxes just to support pensioners born before them. • In 1997, Gordon Brown started taxing pension funds. It is estimated that GBP 100 billion has already been siphoned off - money that belonged to current contributors. The principle of compound interest means that the people who suffer the most will be the most recent joiners. Meanwhile, MPs recently voted themselves a 20% boost in the pensions - funded by the taxpayer. It is clear that the trend is towards fewer taxpayers supporting more pensioners. I believe that this is no coincidence, rather that the generation(s) born since 1970 were systematically and deliberately set up by the policy makers of the so-called "baby boomer" generation. They set up a system for healthcare and pensions under which taxation is immediately paid out to recipients, rather than being invested for growth and the purchase of an annuity in a real pension system. They did this at a time when they knew that their own contributions would be minimal, given the population's age distribution at the time. Quite cynically, they decided that it would be easier to levy punitive taxation on their own children and grandchildren than invest for their own futures. The money they saved by doing so, they poured into the housing market, driving up prices and placing mortgages out of the reach of many first time buyers. This created massive inflation in property prices - almost 20%/year at present - which they benefitted immensely from, already being owners of at least one property. The state education system has been systematically wrecked. Grammar schools and the Assisted Places Scheme which sponsored children to attend fee-paying schools have been abolished, as the baby boomers further try to pull the ladder up after themselves. These same baby boomers, who once swore never to trust anyone over 30, are now in positions of responsibility and have carefully structured corporations to ensure that today's under 30s cannot enjoy privileges such as a job-for-life that the baby boomers enjoyed. They are scrapping defined-benefits pension schemes, after making sure that they got them for themselves, at the expense of those currently paying into employer's pension funds - us. We are also paying the price for their disasterous social experiments. Soaring crime rates and falling literacy rates originate in the pseudo-liberal ideals of the baby boomers, who knew that they would escape scot free while their children and grandchildren would pick up the pieces for them. Rather than being the unfortunate result of a well-intentioned experiment than didn't work out, it is indicative of the baby boomer's defining attitudes: firstly, that nothing matters to them more than instant gratification, and secondly that they will never have to face any consequences for their actions. What can we do? It may be too late; huge damage has already been done to the economic and social fabric of our country. The only hope is that when those of us born since 1970 are in power, that we use that power wisely: to ensure that not a penny of our our generation's money is wasted on or by those that came before us. Let them live on the pensions that they knowingly intended for us, with the standards of healthcare and accomodation that they intended for us, and let us invest our own money in our own future and our own children.
Iowa Mosquito Surveillance Looking behind the numbers contains various charts, but not all numbers are created equal. Depending on what dimensions you're looking at, data are represented in either a qualitative or quantitative way. Raw data Raw data means that we are displaying the absolute number of mosquitoes trapped at a given location at a given time. This makes sense when comparing different locations within a county. It is also logical to use this presentation method when showing a historical week-by-week histogram for a single year. It does not make sense to do this type of comparison between counties, which is why data are normalized as indicated below. Normalized data: Weekly Average The most important resolution in the database is the county level. In order to compare different counties, the data are normalized by dividing total numbers (raw data) by the number of individual trap locations within a county. The reason for this is that if County A has 5 trap-sites and County B has only 1, it would be easy to create the impression that A has more mosquitoes than B because there may have been more mosquitoes caught in 5 traps as opposed to 1. Therefore, to allow for cross-county comparisons, the raw data are always divided by the number of traps running. Normalized data: Trap Index The Trap Index (TI) is the standard representation for mosquito surveillance efforts. The TI accounts for the number of mosquitoes trapped, the duration of trapping and number of traps running (formula: # mosquitoes/(# traps x # nights running)). This is used to visualize the data when displayed on a yearly basis, because in a given year, the number of sites and duration of trapping can differ. Proportional data While constructing this website, it became clear that, per species, representing raw mosquito number data from year-year artificially inflated or deflated the abundance of a given species. In other words: if in year X there were twice as many individuals of species R compared to year Y, it becomes irrelevant if there were also twice as many individuals of species S. So that one can look critically at the abundance of a given species, year-year data now are represented in two ways: one way is the above-mentioned "raw data" format, and the alternative is a proportional representation that shows how the abundance of one species compares to the abundance of all species. On species pages, this view is referred to as Composition. Log-scaled data Because of the exponential relative increase in abundance of certain species in comparison with others, it was deemed more appropriate for visualization purposes that the data be log-scaled. An example of this data transformation type is seen in the species overview page.
on 27 July 2017 There is much to commend in Seven Days that Divide the World. For example, the author points out that “it was Galileo (who believed in the Bible) who was advancing a better scientific understanding of the universe. He was doing so, as we have seen, not only against the obscurantism of some churchmen, but (and first of all) against the resistance (and obscurantism) of the secular philosophers of his time, who, like the churchmen, were convinced disciples of Aristotle. Philosophers and scientists today also have need of humility in light of facts, even if those facts are being pointed out by a believer in God! Lack of belief in God is no more a guarantee of scientific orthodoxy than is belief in God. What is clear, concerning both Galileo’s time and ours, is that criticism of a reigning scientific paradigm is fraught with risk, no matter who engages in it” (p35). The author rejects the idea that Adam & Eve originated from a race of Neolithic farmers (pp71-74), a view that, astonishing though it is, is nevertheless common among old earth evangelicals. He argues that the Genesis creation account is not a modification of the Babylonian account, but that the opposite is far more likely to be true. He also argues for an early date for Genesis, and rejects the view that the two accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 contradict each other (pp122-127). Professor Lennox rejects deism and uniformitarianism (which is distinguishable from the concept of uniformity in nature’s operation). Likewise, he rejects the naturalistic origin of life. He holds that God’s creative activity was completed on day 6. Thereafter, he upholds the finished creation (pp160-161). He accepts the chronological sequence of the Genesis days. Although he rejects much of what is claimed in modern evolutionary biology, as is evident from God’s Undertaker, yet he seems to accept the gradual evolutionary development of living things (p55). Overall, the author demonstrates a much higher view of Scripture than the vast majority of old earth evangelicals. For that, I am grateful. Nevertheless, I do have a few bones to pick with the author, especially with regard to his handling of the issue of deep time. On p23 the author says “when we are dealing with a text that was produced in a culture distant from our own both in time and in geography, what we think the natural meaning is may not have been the natural meaning for those to whom the text was originally addressed.” True enough, but how can we possibly determine what the text meant to the original readers, who died several thousand years ago? The best one could do would be to consult the views of today’s orthodox Jewish theologians, who are at least proximate in culture if not in time. I have not found evidence from the book that the author has done that. It would certainly be helpful to know how orthodox Jewish theologians of today interpret the Genesis days. 2 Peter 3:8 is commonly used to justify the day-age interpretation of Genesis 1. It seems obvious to me that Peter is there conveying the idea that God is not restricted by time and duration as we are, not that a day equates to a thousand years. To use this text to justify the day-age theory seems to me to be rather contrived. In any case, those who employ the day-age argument as a means to harmonise with an old universe would have to take each Genesis day to mean, not just a thousand years, but a few billion! This strained interpretation is lessened in the Lennox model, but not by much. The creation days, or at least the creation week, would still span a total of 4.5 billion years. Suggestions by ancient authorities like Augustine that the days do not mean literal 24-hour days stems from their belief in instanteous creation, so it is not valid to infer that they held an old earth/universe view. Those who held the day-age theory might have done. Augustine, on the other hand, held firmly to a young earth (YE) view. In chapter 10 of City of God he criticises “those highly mendacious documents which profess to give the history of many thousand years, though, reckoning by the sacred writings, we find that not 6000 years have yet passed.”1 An annotation explains that “Augustin here follows the chronology of Eusebius, who reckons 5611 years from the Creation to the taking of Rome by the Goths; adopting the Septuagint version of the Patriarchal ages.” Chapter 40 of City of God expresses a similar sentiment: “For as it is not yet six thousand years since the first man, who is called Adam, are not those to be ridiculed rather than refuted who try to persuade us of anything regarding a space of time so different from, and contrary to, the ascertained truth?”2. Given that Augustine questioned the 24-hour day, yet held a YE view, it is not unreasonable to suppose that many (most?) other ancient authorities did the same. I am not myself familiar with the works of the ancient authors, and therefore refrain from further comment. But creationist Jonathan Sarfati3, using documented quotes of Josephus, Basil, Ambrose, Lactantius, and Irenaeus, challenges the claim that these authors rejected a 24-hour interpretation of Genesis 1. Sarfati also provides a quote from Origen, which shows his belief in a YE. The onus is therefore on Professor Lennox to provide documented quotes from those who held an old earth view. Even in the case of those ancient authors who held the day-age theory, would they really have countenanced the view that a day could be interpreted to mean billions of years? I hardly think so. Indeed, can Lennox himself (who does take the Bible seriously) justify so extreme a hermeneutical approach? The Professor suggest a 3-part structure to Genesis 1:1 - 2:3 (p48 + p52f). He claims that “day 1 begins in verse 3 and not in verse 1” (p52), and justifies it on textual grounds. “This implies that “the beginning” of Genesis 1:1 did not necessarily take place on day 1 as is frequently assumed. The initial creation took place before day 1, but Genesis does not tell us how long before. This means that the question of the age of the earth (and of the universe) is a separate question from the interpretation of the days ... quite apart from any scientific considerations, the text of Genesis 1:1, in separating the beginning from day 1, leaves the age of the universe indeterminate.” “It would therefore be possible to believe that the days of Genesis are twenty-four hour days (of one earth week) and to believe that the universe is very ancient.” (p53). So in the beginning, God did not create the universe instantly, but caused it to evolve over a period of about 9 billion years, up to day 1 when he started to create the earth. But wouldn’t the evolution of the universe have produced, not just the gas clouds followed by the galaxies and stars, but also the solar system and the earth? It seems somewhat contrived to exclude the earth (and possibly the solar system?) from that evolutionary development. The Professor further suggests that “the six creation days could well have been days of normal length, spaced out at intervals over the entire period of time that God took to complete his work. The outworking of the potential of each creative fiat would occupy an unspecified period of time after that particular creation day” (p55). So God’s creation commands only initiated the process, which then took unspecified periods of time to evolve. He does not explain how he views the sudden appearance of novel body plans. Did these come about on each creation day, or during the unspecified period of time after that particular creation day? In any case, I cannot take seriously the assertion that this strained interpretation is not influenced by the modern scientific concensus! Lennox sees a problem with day 4 (pp58-59), i.e. the phrase “evening and morning” deos not make sense because the sun had not been created, and we know nothing about another light source. Yet Genesis 1:4-5 clearly says that on day 1 God created light, and divided the light from the darkness. Hence “evening and morning” makes perfect sense to me. In order to persuade readers that the sophistry commonly employed by old earth evangelicals is not an attempt to harmonise Scripture with the scientific concensus (pp60-61), the author claims a parallel situation arose half a millenium ago. Some church authorities took the foundations and pillars of the earth (Ps 104:5, 1Sam 2:8) to mean a fixed earth, instead of allowing the science of their day to guide their interpretation. I fail to see any parallel. If those church authorities had applied the principle of interpretating Scripture with Scripture (e.g. God hangs the earth upon nothing, Job 26:7) they would have realised that the pillars and foundations are to be interpreted as metaphors. This nullifies the claim that the metaphorical interpretation “relies on (new) scientific knowledge”. It does not. On the creation of the sun, moon and stars on day 4, Professor Lennox says: “It is, surely, the purpose of the sun, moon, and stars that is being emphasised in day 4, not how and when they came into being” (p105). Allowing, for the sake of argument, that this is true, it still does not imply that they were not created on day 4. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive. One common objection to the day-age, old earth view involves the question of animal suffering prior to the Fall. In order to avoid this problem, The author raises the possibility that the Fall of the human race was preceded by a fall in the animal kingdom, and quotes C. S. Lewis for support (pp82-84). I am puzzled by this. It seems to me that a “fall” in the animal kingdom would presuppose moral awareness and responsibility on the part of animals. But surely animal behaviour is driven by instinct, not guided by moral sensibility. The earlier “fall” must surely have occurred in the angelic realm, and has nothing to do with the animals. Satan can possess an animal, just as easily as he can possess a human being. In spite of disclaimers, my overall impression is that the ultimate reason for resorting to the kind of sophistry so common among old earth evangelicals is their belief that the secular concensus must be right regarding the question of age, rather than a true conviction that Genesis 1 really is compatible with such vast time scales. This herd instinct is so strong that they never bother to invest the time and energy to investigate the technical literature produced by YE creationists (YECs) on this issue.They simply assume it must be wrong! This leads me to, respectfully, ask the Professor whether he has made any serious attempt to research the scientific thinking of YECs on the question of deep time. Has he, for example, consulted the detailed research done by scientists at the Institute for Creation Research, i.e. “Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth”? This was published in two volumes in 2000 and 2005 respectively, totalling nearly 1,500 pages, and available as a free download. Has he consulted geologist Andrew Snelling’s two-volume work, “Earth’s Catastrophic Past”, published in two volumes in 2009 and totalling 1,100 pages? Has he read anything from the Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism, or the Journal of Creation, or the Answers Research Journal (the last is freely available online)? If the answer is no, then on what grounds did he exclude the YE view from discussion in his book? Instead of interacting with the scientific model that creationists have constructed, Lennox contents himself with quoting the (totally unrepresentative) view of Paul Nelson, while ignoring the views of the vast majority of informed YECs. Many scientists who are now YECs have testified to the fact that they came from either a theistic evolutionist or an atheistic background, and came to embrace the YE view for scientific reasons. Of course, questions and anomalies arise within the YE model, and there is discussion and debate between YECs who are working at resolving them. Anomalies arise in any widely encompassing scientific model, and most certainly in evolutionary cosmology. Professor Lennox is evidently convinced about the validity of the establishment view on cosmology. Yet John Barrow & Frank Tipler quote G.F.R. Ellis as follows: We are unable to obtain a model of the Universe without some specifically cosmological assumptions which are completely unverifiable.4 Below is an extract from a Scientific American profile on George Ellis: People need to be aware that there is a range of models that could explain the observations", Ellis argues. "For instance, I can construct you a spherically symmetrical universe with earth at its centre, and you cannot disprove it based on observations." Ellis has published a paper on this. "You can only exclude it on philosophical grounds. In my view there is absolutely nothing wrong in that. What I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide that.5 The effect of this philosophical straitjacket is illustrated by the recent experience of physicist John Hartnett:6 in early 2013 I published a cosmology paper in a special journal7, where I found that using a finite bounded expanding universe, with a unique centre and an edge, one could describe the observed large-scale structure of the universe very well. And one could do so without including ‘dark energy’ or ‘dark matter’, the fudge factors assumed in the standard big bang model. Soon I received a call from my university’s publicity department who wanted to write a press release on it. She asked me what I felt was important about the paper. I told her that the paper was consistent with the notion that our galaxy could be located in a privileged location in the universe. This was contrary to the oft quoted cosmological principle which states that there are no privileged locations - that our location is purely random and the universe has no centre or edge. My paper suggested that that is not necessarily so. Once she understood what I was saying, her facial expression told me everything. She said: “I don’t think we can do anything with this.” I never heard from her again. I had published the science, passing secular peer-review, but the real story could not be told because it was contrary to the one the establishment promoted. Modern day cosmology has developed a good ‘story’. The general public know it very well. ... The system adheres to the usual script. If you don’t depart from that you can get out your message. But if you suggest something different - for example, that our galaxy is in a special location in the universe - the response is deafening silence. You, the author, will be ignored. But those who accept the standard paradigm - the big bang story - won’t have any problem getting their message out. I have to say that Professor Lennox’s confidence that ideologically driven evolutionary scientists “are prepared to modify their theories if evidence warrants it” (p86) is somewhat naive. Yes, they would modify individual theories held within their given paradigm, but they would never compromise on their evolution + deep time paradigm. That is non-negotiable. It is sacrosanct. It is the scientific equivalent of political correctness. And that is the intractable problem facing creationists when it comes to discussing the question of deep time. The Professor is surely aware of this? Let me end by saying that, having previously read three of the author’s other books, I have come to develop a great respect for the Professor. Although I do not accept the central thesis of Seven Days, and am somewhat disappointed by the book as a whole, my high regard for him as a champion for the Christian faith has not in any way diminished. I wish him God’s blessing. 1. Can be accessed at Christian Classics Ethereal Library website 2. Christian Classics Ethereal Library website 3. Refuting Compromise, Master Books, 2004, pp110-116. 4. The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, Oxford University Press, 1988, p434. 5. W. Wayt Gibbs, “Thinking Globally, Acting Universally”, Scientific American Oct. 1995, p29. 6. Creation Magazine vol.39 no.2, 2017, p48. 7. Hartnett, J.G., “A valid finite bounded expanding Carmelian universe without dark matter”, Int. J. Theoretical Physics 52(12):4360-4366, 2013. on 8 May 2017 Very interesting & clear discussion of the Genesis account in the bible Presents a strong case for the Conservative old earth creationist view Doesn't engage though with the young earth views specifically, just seems to dismisses them as ignoring the evidence. So one would need to look elsewhere to find their arguments for ayoung earth on 1 August 2017 Great short book dealing with the issues of the creation. Easy to read and makes me want to read more from the same Author 0Comment\|Was this review helpful to you?YesNoReport abuse TOP 1000 REVIEWERon 20 October 2011 John C Lennox is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. His first three books focused on the arguments of the New Atheist's. Now he looks at the Genesis account of creation, using the lens of both science and theology. I am an old earth creationist and I adopt the framework view on Gen 1 which Lennox discusses. He has five chapters and five appendices. 1. But does it move? A Lesson from history. 2. But does it move? A lesson from scripture. 3. But is it old? The days of creation. 4. Human beings: a special creation? 5. The message of Genesis 1 A. A brief background to Genesis. B. The cosmic temple view C. The beginning according to Genesis and science. D. Two accounts of creation? E. Theistic evolution and the God of the gaps. The book is also endorsed by Alvin Plantinga, Ravi Zacharias and Paul Copan among others. This book will suit Christians who have a science background and/or have an interest in science and religion. NB. Appendix E has an extended discussion on theistic evolution. I would regard myself as a theist evolutionist and Lennox discusses this issue at length. He does refer to Paul Davies, Dennis Alexander and Francis Collins. His analysis on theistic evolution is worth the price of this book. Appendix B. On the cosmic temple view on Gen 1-3, i.e. it is God's sanctuary. I think that there is some truth to this, in that Rev 21-22 shows the New Jerusalem as a place in which God dwells. The parallels with Eden should be obvious. on 4 August 2017 As a follower and supporter of John's books and lectures, I though this was a very weak side-step. He attempts to rescue Genesis 1 by wanting to have his cake and eat it. He tries to appease the old/young earthers. His sleight of hand has him stating that the 7 days were literal 24-hour days young earth creationists will smile) and then pulling the rug away by stating that the periods between the 24-hours were millions of years. So, we have 24-hours (day 1), then millions of years, then 24-hours (day 2), then millions of years. The creative act took the 6 days but not concurrently. Poor science and dishonest hermeneutics, Shame on you, John. 0Comment\|Was this review helpful to you?YesNoReport abuse on 5 January 2012 This is my third John Lennox book, which I am reviewing on Amazon. Having read a few of his books before I find myself more familiar with his overall ideas. I'll summarise my comments on the same shortly. First it might be useful to give you a brief outline of what the book actually considers. Considering each chapter in turn: 1) Begins by considering the whole historical argument (Galileo affair) of whether the earth revolves around the sun or whether the sun revolves around the earth. 2) Carrying on from chapter 1 - John then assesses how the bible was used back then to confirm the so called `scientific view' that the sun travelled around the earth (it was more a philosophical argument than scientific - it wasn't religious). He then argues that this was making the bible say something it was not intended to say and warns people against making the mistake in future (evolution vs old earth arguments) because if it the arguments are proved wrong they'll make the bible look stupid. 3) Looks at the whole 6 day creation account and basically comes to the conclusion that the days, in actual reality, are indeterminate. He notes that on day 1 there was no sun - hence day itself was indistinguishable. He then considers the young vs old earth arguments and rejects both. He says that what Genesis intends to say is that there is a chronological order of events, i.e. that life/the universe is logical and moves towards a goal - i.e. a degree of telos. 4) Moving slightly away from the 6 day controversy, John considers the whole `special creation of humanity' issue. The upshot of this chapter is that whilst man maybe related to other creatures, but he is not other creatures and therefore remains separate from them. In short this chapter disputes the reductionist views to man as just another animal. 5) What's the point of genesis then? - So far we know that it shows us that the universe is logical, has order and that man is far more than just an animal - nothing special so far. So John says, the basic up shot of the Genesis story is that God exists (metaphysical starting point). As can be seen, each act of creation begins: `and God said' - therefore God must exist in order to say what he has said. So the upshot of Genesis is to proclaim that God exists, that he created the universe and has endowed it with the properties necessary for life to begin (i.e. the fine tuning argument). 6) Considers the argument that Genesis is just another prehistoric mythology trying to give an account of how life and the universe began (i.e. the primitive science argument Dawkins loves so much). However, John disputes this and says that actually mythologies usually have the universe starting from a God or being of some kind dying and the universe coming out of that event. Genesis holds no such similarity in that it proclaims that God created a natural-logical universe, which is completely separate from God and in turn is not God. 7) Considers the cosmic temple model in which Genesis is used as a form of science. Basically John rejects this - this chapter basically looked at or responded to other people's thoughts and comments on Genesis. 8) Really short chapter on Genesis and Science. Basically says that Genesis agrees that the universe was created by an act of God. It supports the ex-nihilo model of creation and says that this agrees with Big Bang Cosmology. One has to raise a question how long this will last if Roger Penrose's idea of the recycled universe begins to hold sway, which so far it hasn't. 9) Considers Genesis 1 vs Genesis 2. It basically argues that the two are not contrary but instead tell different stories with different focuses. As both are stories with points to convey they cannot be used as strict science, as the same would be illogical. The story of Genesis 1 is detailed above and the story is Genesis 2 is that man was an intended outcome of the whole creative process. 10) Is an assessment of Francis Collin's and C.S.Lewis' ideas regarding Theistic Evolution. It basically defines what this is and how it works, in principle. It argues that the current problems are not with evolution as a concept but rather with natural selection, which is used as an all encompassing paradigm. He does however say that God's special intervention may have been involved in the creation of life, and perhaps nudged humanity on its way (special creation of humanity). However, how he does this he doesn't know or say. Is this a God of the Gaps - he argues not and that we should beware of an Evolution in the Gaps counter issue. So what to give the book? I wanted to give it 3 stars, but that seems a little low after writing this review and rethinking about what the book actually said. So, I'm going to give it 4 stars, but really I wanted to give it 3 and a half. Why? Well, the book read severely disjointedly. It's basically a bash against 6 day creationists and how their story is simply not science (I've got a Masters in Theology, this hardly comes as a surprise to me). It then looked at other peoples work and made random comments on the same. In this respect it felt like a massive pat on the back of other like minded authors, but saying: good job guys but don't forget X also. The logical progression of the book just didn't seem to be there. Apart from the first 2 chapters every other chapter was basically just an essay on a specific point in question. Look, I might be being a little too severe on the book. Perhaps I know too much about the topic for this book to be useful. Perhaps the writing style of this specific book just didn't do it for me. Nevertheless, if you don't have a similar degree of knowledge on the topic to me and fancy a read on the whole creation issue and why 6 day creationism is simply false, and how Genesis can be read in other ways - then perhaps this book would be a good book for you. If you're over read on the topic then this book is highly unlikely to say anything that Alister McGrath and Francis Collins haven't already said in their respective books. on 9 August 2013 As a Christian I often consider this topic and am not sure what to believe. Scientists want one version, theologians another. This is a clear explanation and from a theologian scientist. Excellent! TOP 1000 REVIEWERon 30 December 2013 In the introduction to this book John Lennox describes how he once met a brilliant professor of literature from a country where it was not easy to discuss the Bible publically. The professor was intrigued that John Lennox was a scientist who believed the Bible and very politely asked a question: "We were taught at school that the Bible starts with a very silly unscientific story of how the world was made in seven days. What do you have to say about that as a scientist?" John Lennox goes on to say that this book is written for people like her, who have been putting off even considering the Christian faith for this kind of reason. It is also written for many convinced Christians who are disturbed by the controversy and by the fact that those who take the Bible seriously do not agree on the interpretation of the creation account. The first chapter draws lessons from history and looks at the challenge that the scientific theory put forward by Galileo that the earth was moving posed to the generally accepted biblical view of the sixteenth century. The second chapter looks at some principles of biblical interpretation and applies them to the controversy. The third chapter looks more at the seven days and how they can be considered. In doing this the author carefully analyses the different ways that the creation account is interpreted, as well as considering the views of the church fathers. The conclusion is that the biblical text is probably far more nuanced than we usually consider it to be. The forth chapter considers the place of humans in the creation account and more particularly the fall and the resulting entry of death. It becomes increasingly clear that we need to pay careful attention to what the biblical text actually says rather than what we think or even presume that it says. The fifth and final chapter considers what the message of creation is, particularly from a New Testament perspective. It considers something of what God is like; that he is the Light and that he creates by his Word. It also contains some thoughts on the Sabbath day. There are also some appendices including: cultural and literary background to Genesis; the cosmic temple view and theistic evolution. The latter contains the only disappointing part of the book in my opinion. Having spent a considerable time carefully discussing the possible interpretation of the biblical text in order to establish that an old earth as accepted by scientists is completely in accord with what the Bible says, John Lennox very quickly dismisses evolution without the same careful analysis. His approach to this element of the controversy is in marked contrast to the rest of the book. The book is in general well written and readable. It is much easier reading than John Lennox's book God's Undertaker and I would highly recommend it. Indeed I have lent it to several people already. on 3 October 2011 This book focuses on the creation account given in the early part of the book of Genesis and seeks to interpret it treating the text as authoritative scripture. Professor John Lennox makes the case for allowing scientific knowledge to influence this, where different interpretations are possible. To illustrate this he spends a couple of chapters covering the historic case of how opinion changed to accept that the earth is not fixed in space and that this is consistent with scripture even though many people initially thought not. He then goes on to explain different models of how Genesis has been interpreted and to argue which view fits both science and the biblical text the best. He argues for old earth creationism with progressive literal 24 hour creation days separated by long periods in between. On these days he sees God as providing information and energy to get life started and cause major changes followed by periods of micro-evolution with human beings created as an act of special creation. His position therefore seems to be one of 'intelligent design.' He then goes on to give the theological message of Genesis 1. The main part of the book is then followed by 5 annexes covering some issues in more detail. The book is short and concise at 192 pages (smaller pages then normal) including the annexes and is easy to read and clear. In my opinion he certainly says a lot of wise and insightful things and I think most people would learn something from reading his book. However, I wasn't convinced by some of his arguments. One of the key problems with his interpretation is Origen's observation that the Sun was created/made on day 4. This is a problem for 'days' 1 to 3. As Henri Blocher points out in his book 'In the beginning' (p45-46) 'made' should not be changed into revealed just to fit an interpretive scheme when the Hebrew of Genesis has a perfectly good word for appear. Also, God commands the land to produce all the different types of plants and animals (1:11-12, 24). God empowers the land to do all this and this fits well with the modern theory of evolution (See John Hartley, 'New International Biblical Commentary - Genesis', p57). So the Genesis text seems to be consistent with macro as well as micro evolution by unthinking material process. Perhaps God had already supplied the 'information' required? Lennox does not explain how his model accommodates the several mass extinctions throughout the history of life on earth or the fact that most species are extinct. In stating a case for a special creation of human beings he does not explain what causes humans to have fossilized genes or why retroviruses are inserted at specific places in the human genome which are at the same place as lower life forms. Perhaps this is too much to expect in a short book like this. For those who wish to read more widely on this subject I recommend Denis Alexander's 'Creation or Evolution - do we have to choose' and Henri Blocher's book 'In the Beginning' (first 2 Chapters) both of which I learned a lot from. In summary, Professor Lennox's book is well worth reading but I'd recommend reading some other books on this subject as well and then critically reflecting on what you have read. on 10 August 2013 I'm usually great fan of John Lennox, but like many Protestants he proposes here an interpretation of the Genesis 1 creation story that seeks to rescue the 24-hour day creation steps to accommodate Intelligent Design type staged inputs of divine intelligence to account for the development of life, but in a way that does not compromise science's aging of earth and the universe. This is anthropomorphic, as God's fiats are issued from eternity and so he needs zero hours for his creative acts. Also, the anthropic principle means that the first three days need no such input except at Big Bang. Lennox fails to even mention the best interpretation of Genesis 1, viz. a creation event sequence deliberately fitted in to the framework of the Jewish week to hallow that week and the Sabbath Day, an argument supported by the fact that the Jewish week was required long before the creation story was written and by the fact that eight divine fiats are squeezed into six days. Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers Please enter a question. Need customer service? Click here Sponsored Links (What is this?)
Private Foundation vs Public Charity Private foundation Private foundations are non-governmental and nonprofit organizations, whereby it delegates the management of its principal fund to its own trustees or directors. The aim of private foundations is usually to aid charitable or educational activities for the greater good of the public. While private foundations may be in charitable and nonprofit nature, they do not qualify as public charities. Distributions are made in the form of grants or gifts to other non-profit organizations. The source of the fund usually derived from a single source, such as an individual, family or even a corporation. A private foundation does not source its fund from the public. There are two common types of private foundations; private nonoperating foundations and private operating foundations. • Private non-operating foundation This is the more common type of private foundation, where it grants money to other charitable organizations and does not directly perform its own charitable programs or services. One example of this is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (the world’s largest charitable foundation) founded by the co-founder of Microsoft, aimed to enhance healthcare, reduce extreme poverty, expand educational opportunities and grant wider access to information technology. • Private operating foundation A private operating foundation distributes and uses the bulk of its income to provide charitable services to its own programs. An example of this is the J. Paul Getty Trust (also known as The Getty Foundation). It is the world’s wealthiest art institution, with an estimated 1.6 million visitors per year. The trust operates as one of the most frequently visited museums in the US. It provides grants and training to other museums and art institutions, with the aim of advancing the greater understanding and preservation of visual arts. Other related links: Public charity One primary difference between public charity and a private foundation is the source of the funding. The funds of a public charity are usually derived from contributions from the general public, government, grants from individuals or even from private foundations. Donations or contributions to public charities are often fully tax deductible. Public charity typically has broad public support and commonly networks and supports other public charities. The mission of such public charities is similar to private foundations, where it is often ranging from curbing poverty, advancing educational level to medical researchers for the greater good.
All Subjects All Types Permitted Use Stream and Download 5 Favorites Greek Guide to Greatness: Religion \| The Greeks Most Americans believe in a higher power, as did the Greeks, but they saw their Gods in a very different light. To them, Gods were involved in all human affairs from the weather, the sea, wisdom—there was no part of life that wasn't a religious experience. The Greeks would commune with the Oracle at Delphi to predict the future. Superstition and ritual became entwined with government, so there was no separation of church and state. You must be logged in to use this feature Need an account? Register Now
Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! Bar magnet entering a solenoid 1. Apr 25, 2010 #1 I've attached a diagram of a bar magnet being plunged into a solenoid. I'd like someone to explain the direction of the current please. Why do both arrows indicating current move upwards? Using the right hand grip rule i understand the north pole being in the position it's in. I get a little confused when using the letters. But I know that the north represents the current flows in an anti- clockwise direction and the south clockwise. So I can understand why the arrow moves upward where the north pole is but why does it move upward at the south? Shouldn't it move downward to complete the circuit? Got this diagram in class. Attached Files: 2. jcsd 3. Apr 26, 2010 #2 The diagram is incorrect. It looks like a mistake in the direction arrow on the right. It should be pointing downwards. Everything else is fine. The diagram shows Lenz's Law; and shows the current in the coil producing a magnetic field that opposes the north pole of the magnet moving towards the left end of the coil. If you were to move the magnet away from the left end of the coil, the current would move in the opposite direction in the coil. 4. Apr 26, 2010 #3 Thank you for helping. So moving the magnet away causes the current to flow in the opposite direction...I get it. What if I had a 2nd coil in place of the magnet? The 1st coil would induce a current in the 2nd. By Lenz's law they would oppose each other. If the circuit of the first coil is just opened, Would the direction of the current in the 2nd coil still flow in opposition? This is what I'm thinking: If the cct is just opened then the current in the cct would instantly fall to zero. Although no current is flowing, wouldn't there be a change in flux? I was thinking that this flux change would then induce an e.m.f in the 2nd coil and the induced e.m.f would be in the same direction as the current. But then I'm not sure because the other part of Lenz's law states that the induced e.m.f opposes the flux change causing it if an induced current flows...and no current flows in the 1st. So what happens to the current in the 2nd coil? 5. Apr 26, 2010 #4 If you replaced the magnet by another coil, then you could produce the same effect in the right hand coil in a number of ways. The important thing about Lenz's Law is that it says that the current in the right coil will create a magnetic field that will try to oppose the change in the left coil. You could: a) arrange that the left coil has a N pole at its right end nearest the other coil, keep the current steady, but actually move the left coil towards the other one. The right coil would not know the difference between the N pole produced by the magnet, and the one just produced by the left coil. The result would be the right coil getting an induced current that creates a N pole that opposes the N pole it sees arriving from the left. b) Keep the left coil stationary but slowly increase the current in it so that the N pole grows at its right end nearest the other coil. The right coil "sees" the growing N pole and gets an induced current that produces a N pole at its left end to oppose the one "arriving" from the other coil. The key is that what the right coil does is always designed to oppose any change in the magnetic field it sees. In both cases above, the change is a growing N pole at the left end of the right hand coil. In both cases, the right hand coil produces a N pole at its left end. The direction the current flows in the right coil depends on the way the coils are wound. Clockwise produces a S pole. Anti(counter) clockwise produces a N. 6. Apr 26, 2010 #5 ok so i understand the effect of the growing north pole (on the right end) of the left coil-->inducing a current in the right coil which in turn produces the north pole (on the left end) to oppose that of the left coil.- as indicated by Lenz's law. what I still don't catch is shutting off the current altogether in the left coil (breaking the cct). How does this affect the current in the right coil as soon as the cct of the left coil is opened? Also if the current in the left coil slowly decreases does this mean the current in the right coil would gradually reverse itself? meaning the effect of the North pole decreases eventually becoming a south? i.e when the current reaches 0 in the left coil. 7. Apr 27, 2010 #6 (Same setup as before) When you reduce (or switch off) the current in the left coil, the effect is one of a disappearing N pole. The N pole that is at the right end of the left coil gets weaker. This is exactly the same (as far as the right coil is concerned) as moving the bar magnet with its N pole away from that end. The current induced in the right coil is opposite this time. The right coil reacts to an increasing N pole (magnetic field) by inducing a N pole at its left end. It reacts to a decreasing N pole by inducing a S pole at its left end. I always used to picture this as the right coil trying to stop the left coil from moving. N repels N but S attracts N. 8. Apr 27, 2010 #7 Thank you for helping i understand alot better now:approve: 9. Jan 23, 2012 #8 on similar lines, i have a doubt. i have a permanent magnet that moves due to current that is applied to the solenoid. based on the polarity due to the current ofcourse. Say it attracts. now since the bar magnet is moving with some acceleration towards the coil, there would be a change in the magnetic flux and this wud lead to a back emf or eddy current. How do i calculate this current. emf = -N (dB/dT)A A is the area of the magnet N is the number of coils my problem is tht i cannot calculate the dB/dT accurately. because i cannot calculate the force with which it gets attracted accurately. Please let mek now if u have ne suggestion. Similar Discussions: Bar magnet entering a solenoid 1. Bar Magnet (Replies: 2) 2. Solenoid and A Magnet (Replies: 3)
Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! Help with movable joint parts 1. Feb 7, 2016 #1 I want to make a simple slider crank mechanism. I don't know what type of bolts or whatever is used for movable arms. I've heard online so far that using a carage bolt and nylon lock nut will work, but I bet there's probably other ways to make a movable joint. Something more secure. I'm sure they don't use Nylon lock nuts with carriage bolts with robotic arms. I want to make a shaker. It's not for school if you can clearly see by my DOB, and profile image. 2. jcsd 3. Feb 7, 2016 #2 you might want to look into "Shoulder bolts" to start with.. they're hardened and ground to precise tolerances otherwise, depending on if you're doubling up some of the arms, you can use a sleeve over a carriage bolt with washers on each side.. for nuts, Nylon locking nuts are a good start, but perhaps castle nuts with cotter pins or 'stover nuts' which are specifically designed for heavy shock and vibration loads. 4. Feb 7, 2016 #3 Excellent, thanks for help Rx7. Much appreciated.
Dismiss Notice Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! Help with our research topic: Electrical Conductivity 1. Aug 19, 2016 #1 • Member advised to use the homework template and show their own efforts. my research is about "The effectiveness of different basic substances on the Eletrical conductivity" and i need " significance of the study " 1) who are the beneficiaries and what benefits will they get ? Please help im a highschool student struggling with my research Last edited by a moderator: Aug 25, 2016 2. jcsd 3. Aug 19, 2016 #2 User Avatar Science Advisor What have you found so far? Do you understand Ohms law? The electric power formula? Can you explain in your own words what conductivity is? Can you think of where it's important? Hint: Think about getting electrical power from a remote hydro dam to a city, if the conductivity of the lines were increased, the power lost between the city and dam would _______, and so the city dwellers monthly power bill would (or should) _____. (insert 'increase' or 'decrease' in the blanks.) 4. Aug 22, 2016 #3 Since silver and gold are excellent conductors, why aren't they generally used for current carrying applications? You might do an internet search to discuss differences between common conductors like copper and aluminum. Have something to add? Draft saved Draft deleted Similar Discussions: Help with our research topic: Electrical Conductivity 1. Research Topic help (Replies: 2) 2. Electrical conduction (Replies: 2) 3. Help with Conductance (Replies: 2)
Dismiss Notice Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! Intensity of periodic sound waves 1. Oct 2, 2006 #1 User Avatar Gold Member The problem is this: A firework charge is detonated many meters above the ground. At a distance of 400m from the explosion, the acoustic pressure reaches a maximum of 10.0 N/m2. Assume that the speed of sound is constant at 343 m/s throughout the atmosphere over the region considered, that the ground absorbs all the sound falling on it, and that the air absorbs sound energy as described by the rate 7.0 dB/km. What is the sound level (dB) at 4.00km from the explosion? I know that [itex]\beta = 10 log \left \frac{I}{I_0} \right [/itex] and that [itex]I=\frac{P}{A}=\frac{1}{2} p v w^2 {s^2_{max}}[/itex] where p is the density of air, v is the speed of sound, w is the angular frequency and smax is the amplitude of the position function s(x,t)=smaxcos(kx-wt). but I am having trouble correctly solving for I, and so I can't get the book answer of B=65.6 dB. Any help is appreciated. Note: the equation I obtained for this problem taking into account the damping of the sound in air is: [itex]\beta = 10 log \frac{I}{I_0}+br[/itex] where b=-7 dB/km and r=4.0km is the distance from the explosion. Last edited: Oct 2, 2006 2. jcsd 3. Oct 2, 2006 #2 User Avatar Gold Member Basically, I'm not sure how to use the acoustic pressure or ground damping in the problem. 4. Oct 2, 2006 #3 User Avatar Staff: Mentor [itex]\beta = 20 log \left \frac{P}{P_0} \right [/itex] and the ground absorption means no reverberation or reflection, so one only need to be concerned with acoustic pressure. Is there an example of how to use the energy loss rate (db/km)? One is given two distances, 0.4 km and 4.0 km, and the acoustic pressure at 0.4 km. 5. Oct 2, 2006 #4 User Avatar Gold Member What reference pressure should I use in that equation? If the acoustic pressure at 0.4km is 10, then at 4.0km it will be 1. It doesn't say how to use the energy loss rate, so I guessed. Now that I look at it, it doesn't look right. Any ideas? Similar Discussions: Intensity of periodic sound waves
Click on the menu below to revise one of the elements covered in the show Chris the Comma Commas have many uses. some of the most common uses are separating items in lists, preceding conjunctions, surrounding additional information and separating a subordinate and a main clause. Comma Quiz Test your knowledge of semicolons in this fun and interactive quiz. 1. What is a comma? A foreign language A type of soft drink A punctuation mark 2. What does an comma look like? 3. What is the job of a comma? It has several jobs: one of which is to separate items in lists To prevent people talking with their mouths full To make cereal taste nice 4. Which of the following should include a comma? There is only one. Will this ever end? I need eggs grass and vinegar. 5. Look at the following sentence: Steve Adrian and Sally went to the pictures. Where should the apostrophe go? After ‘to’ After ‘Steve’ After ‘pictures’ Score = Correct answers: Buy the album on iTunes Business Information: Company number - 06990962 VAT Reg - 978 170187 Public Liability Insurance cover for £1,000,000 Our mission is to raise attainment through entertainment. We aim to please in everything we do and will go out of our way to provide outstanding customer service. Contact us to see how we can help you improve your pupils' literacy skills. Mission Statement: Raising attainment through entertainment. Learning through laughter. Stacks Image p9336_n31 Barrie McDermid Barrie is an English teacher, musician exam marker, husband and father. He believes that learning is better when it's fun.
Dollman, Francis Thomas (1812-99) Francis Thomas Dollman was born in 1812 and articled to Augustus Charles Pugin from 1827 to 1832. He was renowned for his skill as a draughtsman and assisted Pugin with the plates for ”Examples of Gothic Architecture’. In 1833 he then moved to the office of George Basevi where he remained for twelve years until his death in 1845. He commenced independent practice in London in 1846, and was best known for his books, which followed the A C Pugin format, beginning with ‘Examples of Ancient Pulpits in England’, 1848. He was elected ARIBA on 4 January 1846 with the influential backing of G G Scott, Benjamin Ferrey, Sydney Smirke and C C Nelson, and was librarian of the RIBA from 1863 to 1886. He was briefly in partnership with William Taprell Allen, from February 1874 to December 1878. Dollman died on 26 December 1899.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 An International Role for Canada In many countries around the world the primary problem countries have is with problems of a functional civil society and a strong sense of social capital between people. This is an issue that is being addressed in many places around the world by the Open Society Institute. Canada could take a much bigger role in this all over the world. Canada is globally acknowledged a boring country. In this context boring means a country with or no significant problems within the civil society. This boring aspect of Canada is something we could, and should, be exporting to the rest of the world where there are problems with conflict and corruption. If Canada were to seek out countries that have problems with systemic corruption, tribal conflicts, or a lack of a state that the public trusts, it could focus on this countries to help build a sense of what a civil society looks and feels like. Some things Canada could do: 1. Allow people to come to Canada for advanced education such as at the MPA or MBA level. Have military train at the Royal Military College. Train police in Canada as well. 2. Have civil servant exchanges, having mid to senior level Canadian provincial civil servants go and work abroad in another countries civil service and have people from there work in a provincial civil service here. The exchange will show people in the other countries that there are fair and uncorrupted ways of doing things. 3. Work closely with the business sector in these countries and allow the chance to do more business in Canada if they adhere to certain ethical standards. 4. Have a Canada House in each major city and use this promote Canadian values of fairness and transparency. It is through modeling of a different of doing things that change will come about. Most corrupt systems are self perpetuating as it is the reality that people live within. Change will take time, but all good change takes time. The change will take as long as it takes for the old guard in a country leave the centre stage. In the former communist countries of eastern Europe the ones that have done the best are the ones that have the strongest civil societies and this often means the younger people in charge. Post a Comment
Tag Archives: science Isaac Newton Dies Noted as one of the greatest scientific minds of the 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643 in Woolsthorpe, England (although some sources say his actual birthday was on Christmas Day in 1642). He attended Cambridge University in 1661, which was where he truly honed his interest in the fields of mathematics, optics, physics and astronomy. In 1687, Newton published ‘Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica’ (‘Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy’), which is widely regarded as the most influential book on physics. This is where he highlights his Universal Law of Gravitation, which he allegedly discovered when an apple fell on his head from an apple tree. Newton’s scientific peers held him in extremely high esteem; he was elected the president of the Royal Society in 1703 and knighted in 1705. According to most reports, Sir Isaac Newton died on March 31, 1727, although some accounts say that he died on March 20 of the same year. Sources: Biography, BBC Read full storyComments { 0 } National Science Fiction Day We celebrate National Science Fiction Day on January 2 to honor the birthday of Isaac Asimov. Asimov is considered one of the “Big Three” science fiction writers of his time, and his more than 500 works of fact and fiction span all ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System. Today is a day to celebrate the beloved genre of science fiction. Take some time today to sit down with a science fiction novel, or have a science fiction movie marathon. If you are a true sci-fi geek, you may even spend your day building a robot or hovercraft! Sources: Wikipedia, ScienceFictionFantasyHorror.com Read full storyComments { 0 }
Stalk rots are one of the most significant set of diseases on corn. These diseases are insidious, and often growers are unaware of their effects until harvest. Low levels of stalk rot occur in nearly every corn field, and severity and incidence varies from year to year. Stalk rots can cause breakage and lodging of stalks and plant death. In many cases the internal tissues of the stalk, or pith is compromised. Initial symptoms of stalk rots are noticed by premature wilting and ear drop. As the disease progresses stalks senescence rapidly, turning brown to gray. Stalk rots decay the central pith, which weakens the stalk. One can envision a healthy stalk being a solid rod of plant tissue. A rotted stalk is no more than a tube with decaying pith loosely packed inside. Several factors determine the effects of stalk rots. Some corn hybrids are more susceptible to stalk rots than others. Factors that limit photosynthesis, such as foliar disease, cloud cover, insect damage, and planting density can significantly impact stalk rot. In addition, cob size, kernel number, and moisture availability play roles in the severity and incidence of stalk rots. The aforementioned factors likely impact the carbon budget of corn plants. When plants grow they produce carbohydrates via photosynthesis. These carbohydrates are used to support the basic physiological properties of plant cells and organ development. During ear development carbohydrates are preferably allocated to support grain fill. If carbohydrate demands during grain fill are not met by photosynthesis (i.e. foliage is damaged or levels of photosynthesis are reduced) then stored carbohydrates, located in the roots and stalks, are utilized for this purpose. Preferential allocation from roots and stalks limits the performance of cells in these organs, increasing their susceptibility to stalk rotting pathogens. For this reason many of the stalk rotting pathogens are opportunistic, and caused by whatever organism happens to be in the vicinity when plant senescence occurs. Research indicates that fertility can have significant impacts on stalk rots. Although there is a great deal of variability in the literature in regards to the effects of nutrients on specific stalk rots, there is evidence that stalk rot increases if nutrients, particularly nitrogen, are lost during the growing season. Management of stalk rot should include the use of: 1) hybrids with resistance to stalk rot pathogens and/or high ratings of stalk strength and stay green characteristics; 2) a balanced fertility program based on the environment, population, and hybrid; 3) programs to control foliar diseases and insects; 4) irrigation to avoid drought stress. Fields can be scouted for stalk rot before harvest by scouting 10 sites for every 10 acres of the field. At each site pinch the base of ten plants to assess stalk integrity. Alternatively, push plants 30-40 degrees from vertical. If more than 10-15% of tested plants in a field show lodging potential (i.e. easily pinched or fall over using push test) schedule that field for early harvest. Identification of Stalk Rots There are a few common stalk rots in Delaware. Characteristics of these stalk rots are listed below. External symptoms Internal symptoms Anthracnose stalk rot Colletotrichum graminicola Black shiny areas covering outer stalk. Typically located near base of plant Lower nodes contain macerated pith. Tan to brown discoloration Extended periods of hot, cloudy, humid weather Diplodia stalk rot Stenocarpella maydis Small black structures embedded within lower stalk Lower nodes contain macerated pith. Tan to brown discoloration Dry and warm conditions early in the season, followed by wet weather after silking Charcoal rot Macrophomina phaseolina Black pin head or smaller structures peppered throughout macerated pith. Tend to be located near soil line. Hot, dry conditions during grain fill Gibberella stalk rot Gibberella zeae Small, round, bluish/black structures attached superficially to nodes. Lower nodes contain macerated pith. Pink / red discoloration Fusarium stalk rot Fusarium moniliforme and others. White, fuzzy growth near nodes Lower nodes contain macerated pith. Pink / purple discoloration Bacterial stalk rot Erwinia chrysanthemi (bacterium) Sweet, foul odor. Watersoaking at internodes. Slimy rot of internal tissue Hot, wet early in the season
SQL Server Indexes A database index is similar to an index in a book – it is comprised of a lookup value, and a number identifier that corresponds to the row number in a table. In SQL Server, there are two kinds of indexes – clustered and non-clustered. Clustered Indexes require that the data in the table is physically sorted in the order of the index. Because the data in a table can be physically sorted only one way, there can be at most only one clustered index per table. Non clustered index do not require that data be physically sorted, so there can be more that one non-clustered index per table. In fact SQL Server allows up to 249 non-clustered indexes per table. Because data is not physically sorted, range searches using a non clustered index are not very efficient. The command for creating an index in T-SQL is CREATE [ UNIQUE ] [ CLUSTERED \| NONCLUSTERED ] INDEX index_name ON { table \| view } ( column [ ASC \| DESC ] [ ,...n ] ) [ WITH < index_option > [ ,...n] ] [ ON filegroup ] < index_option > :: = { PAD_INDEX \| FILLFACTOR = fillfactor \| IGNORE_DUP_KEY \| DROP_EXISTING \| STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE \| SORT_IN_TEMPDB } PAD_INDEX specifies the percentage of space left free on the non-leaf levels of the index. FILLFACTOR specifies the percentage to fill the leaf pages. SORT_IN_TEMPDB specifies that intermediate results of the sort will be stored in tempdb. This increases disk space requirement but affects speed index creation. STATISTICS_NO_RECOMPUTE tells the system not to automatically update index statistics. Of course, indexes can also be created and managed using the Enterprise Manager. They can be created using the Create Index Wizard, from the Database Diagram, or by modifying fields in the Table Designer. There is a trade off with indexes. While they speed up execution of queries immensely, there is overhead associated with them. They consume additional disk space, and require additional time to update themselves whenever data is updated or appended to a table. When loading large amounts of data it may pay to drop the index prior to the loading, then recreate the index after the new records have been appended to the table. Indexes can be dropped using the Table Designed, or by using the DROP INDEX command. Indexes can also become fragmented. To defrag an index, either drop and recreate the index, or issue the command dbcc indexdefrag. Information on SQL. This is a useful resource that discusses the history and the main features of SQL. Tutorial: Oracle/January 16, 2007 insightful tutorial on Oracle/SQL and their interfacing with Microsoft Access Reports. Computer Consultants: Database Development Computer Programming: Web Site Services Computer Programming: Custom Software Computer Consulting: IT Consulting Paladin Consultants, LLC Home Page Computer Consulting: Contact Us
search this website :: Economy, Mining The mining industry, long an important factor in the social and economic growth of Australia, continues to hold great promise for the future development of the country. The gold discoveries of the 1850s were responsible for the first big wave of free immigration and for the settlement of some inland areas. The mining sector has expanded significantly since the 1970s, with major discoveries of iron ore, petroleum, coal, and natural gas. Today, Australia is self-sufficient in most minerals of economic significance, and in several cases is among the world's leading producers. The minerals industry in general is the country's largest export earner, and the country is a leading supplier of mineral resources to international markets. Australia boasts the world's largest known recoverable resources of lead, mineral sands, tantalum, uranium, silver, and zinc. It is ranked in the world's top six countries for recoverable deposits of black and brown coal, cobalt, copper, diamonds, gold, iron ore, manganese ore, and nickel. This natural bounty reflects both Australia's geological diversity and its comparatively recent exploitation of these resources. Western Australia traditionally has the largest share by value of total national mineral production, especially of the metallic minerals. Australia is the world's largest producer of both gem or near-gem and industrial-grade diamonds, producing about two-fifths of the global total. Production of gem-quality diamonds was 12,014,000 carats in 2000. Much of it came from the giant Argyle Diamond Mine in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The main export destinations in the late 1990s were Belgium and Luxembourg (which constitute a single trading entity) and the United Kingdom. Of the metallic minerals, gold and iron ore are the most significant. Australia accounted for some 13 percent of the world's gold production in 1998, placing it third in the world rankings after South Africa and the United States. About three-fourths of the nation's output (296,410 kg/653,500 lb in 2000) is mined in Western Australia, notably near Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Most of the gold is exported to Singapore, Japan, Switzerland, and Hong Kong. About 96 percent of Australia's iron-ore production also takes place in Western Australia, chiefly in the Pilbara region. Iron-ore reserves also exist at Iron Knob in South Australia; on Cockatoo Island in Yampi Sound off Western Australia; in northwestern Tasmania; and in Gippsland, Victoria. Almost all of the iron ore is exported, mainly to Japan; Australia is now Japan's major supplier of iron ore. Other markets include China, Germany, South Korea, and Taiwan. In the late 1990s Australia was the world's largest producer and second largest exporter of bauxite; it was the largest producer and exporter of alumina and the third largest exporter of aluminum. Japan was the main export market for aluminum. The major bauxite mines are located south of Perth in Western Australia and in the Northern Territory on the Gove Peninsula. Important uranium mines are located in the Northern Territory (Ranger, Jabiluka, and Koongarra mines in the Alligator Rivers Region), Kintyre and Yeelirie in Western Australia, and at Olympic Dam in South Australia. Olympic Dam's uranium-gold-silver deposit is described as the world's largest deposit of low-cost uranium. All but a tiny fraction of Australia's uranium is exported. In the late 1990s coal was the country's top export earner. The main market was Japan. Coal mining is heavily concentrated in New South Wales and Queensland. Mostly bituminous coal is mined, but hard, or black, coal (anthracite) is also found. The lignite, or brown coal, industry is located in Victoria, where this lower grade of coal is used to produce electricity. Other major minerals in Australia include nickel, mined near Kalgoorlie-Boulder; copper, mined at Mount Lyell in Tasmania, Mount Isa in Queensland, and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory; zinc, mined at Broken Hill in New South Wales; and manganese, mined at Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory. Titanium and zircon are recovered from the beach sands of southern Queensland, New South Wales, and Western Australia. Queensland, New South Wales, and Tasmania are the main tin-producing states, and tungsten concentrates are mined on King Island in the Bass Strait. Significant petroleum deposits have been exploited in Bass Strait, Barrow Island, and southern Queensland. Total production of petroleum in 1999 was 228 million barrels. Natural gas is also extracted, with annual production of 31.1 billion cu m (1,100 billion cu ft). search this website ::
09/12/2013 05:37 pm ET Updated Nov 12, 2013 How Is Technology Affecting Your Family? My son is entering his last year of graduate school. When he was a freshman in college, Facebook was brand new. You could only get an account if you had a college address as a way to connect to others in your classes and campus. That was just eight years ago. Think about how technology has expanded and evolved in such a short time. It's a new phenomenon that many of us weren't taught how to manage as children because it didn't exist. As a parent, sometimes it's hard to know how to handle technology in our own lives, yet alone the lives of our children. What are the benefits? What are the costs? When is it too much? There are no easy answers. And no one answer is right for everyone. Some things to consider: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and others who helped create major technological advances did not grow up in an electronics age. Colleges and corporations are reporting that many of the young people who have grown up in a tech-savvy world do not have the same level of emotional skills of those 10 or more years ago. Inappropriate use of electronics (sexting, cyber-bullying, posting of photos/videos that a child might later regret, etc.) is on the rise even at the elementary age level and developmentally, children are unable to comprehend long-term effects of digital footprints lasting forever. Research is being done on the addictive aspects of checking our electronics incessantly and obsessions with video games. According to a study on media influence done by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 8-18-year-olds spend over seven hours a day using entertainment media. That's over 50 hours per week! And when they're involved with screen time they're not exercising, meeting with friends, talking with family or negotiating in-person relationships. Many are gaining weight, easily distracted and finding it hard to read the subtle signs in developing and maintaining relationships. In fact, they're often mentally absent when sitting with a group of friends or family. And it's not only our kids. How many times have we pulled out our cell phones when having dinner to check that important email or text that just chimed in? And how many of us have sat in a restaurant with a companion who has "checked out" to tend to his electronic device? How much time is spent capturing a moment digitally versus experiencing what is taking place? Or investing energy documenting children's lives on social media versus investing in the relationship? Often, parents tell us they feel technology is taking over their family and/or children's lives, but they don't know when enough is enough, or what they can do to control it. Since there is no perfect answer or specific line to draw, we suggest parents engage in one of the core principles our organization was founded on: be intentional. Pay attention. Ask questions. Monitor the outcome of your choices and make changes when you don't like what you see. Here are some questions to consider: • Are you comfortable with the amount of time your child spends on electronics? • Do you understand the capabilities of all the devices your child uses, know how to view past usage and monitor how time with the device is being spent? • How much of your child's learning opportunities come from electronics vs. experiential experiences? • Are other areas of your child's development (physical, emotional, social) being neglected because of electronic usage? • Is electronic usage limiting your child's exploration into other aspects of life? • Is family time and/or communication interrupted or non-existent because everyone prefers electronic engagement? • Are you aware of how screen time is affecting your child, is there a marked change in mood, aggressiveness or withdrawal? • What kind of messages are you sending your child about using electronics? • If you're not happy with what you're seeing, what small steps could you take to manage screen time for your family? If you decide that it's time to limit your child's screen time, here are some options to consider: • Have a basket at the front door in which your kids can deposit their phones until homework is done and dinner is over. • Require that all electronics be turned in at bedtime so that there isn't the temptation to chat or play games instead of getting a good night's rest. • Keep TV's and computers in the public areas of your home. • Become computer literate in order to monitor usage and block inappropriate sites. • Bookmark your child's favorite sites to avoid "surfing". • Teach Internet safety, especially about never revealing personal information. • Talk about the pro's and con's of electronic interaction and how choices (impulsive or without considering long-term effects) can impact our lives. • Use this as a teaching opportunity to help your child learn to set limits, understand wants versus needs and develop self-control. • Make television or movie viewing a family event and talk about what you've watched and how it intersects with your family values. • Limit your own screen time and take every opportunity to engage your child in conversation. Unfortunately this isn't a topic you visit once and you're done. You might find the right balance for this stage of your child's life, but it's easy to slip into unwanted patterns if you don't stay intentional along the way. Consider marking your calendar for a few months from now and reevaluate how you're feeling about these topics again. Then continue that process on a regular basis to ensure that you're still happy with the balance as your child grows and technology continues to advance. You can contact Jan or Rosemary at
Wednesday, 12 November 2008 Composition Essay Writing Write a composition on any one of the following. (a) Riding on a bicycle on a country road with your friends, you hear the announcement that a person wearing a red shirt and blue trousers has stolen a bicycle and has disappeared with it. After some time you see a person wearing a red shirt and blue trousers riding desperately on a bicycle. Your friends suggest to follow him. Give an account of your reactions and any subsequent adventures. (b) Give an account of either a religious festival or an important social occasion at which you were present. , (c) Write an account of an event which has happened during the last year, and which you feel has affected the destiny of your country. (d) An evening walk, looked forward to with enthusiasm, turns out to be a disaster. Write a real or imaginary account of such an occurrence. (e) Write about an incident which shows that pride can bring disaster. 1. Very good essay topics but a sample essay on each of the essays also should be given for guidance and how to go about it. 2. It is amazing that many students lack the basic realizing and understanding of how to compose an outstanding paper within a short period of time. Any academic writing is a form of art, so it requires you to stick to main rules and have a personal writing strategy. term papers
A member of the parsley family, cumin is an aromatic, bitter, and flavorful spice with an abundant oil content. Cumin seeds are sold either whole or ground, and are available in three different varieties: black, amber, or white. Amber-colored cumin is the most frequently sold variation and is a popular culinary ingredient across the globe. The spice is most commonly used in Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Mexican cuisines, partially because it is a main ingredient in curry powder, a ubiquitous culinary condiment in the aforementioned areas of the world. peanutsRecently, both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued an “allergy alert” to those allergic to peanuts and peanut products, as certain shipments of cumin products tested positive for undeclared peanut protein. While ground cumin is typically sold on its own, it is also found in spice mixes or kits, such as taco seasoning packets, and is often used sparingly in most meat and poultry dishes, as well as chilies and soups. As most “finished” food products are likely to contain ground cumin, and thus peanut protein, those who are allergic to peanuts should use caution when purchasing these items. However, according to foodsafety.gov, food products made before 2014 are not thought to be affected. Peanut allergy, of course, is a certain type of food allergy to peanuts. Peanut allergies are among the most common types of food allergies, invoking symptoms that are often severe and fatal. Those afflicted with a peanut allergy are often advised to abstain from both peanuts and peanut-related products and to closely examine available information such as food labels and advertising messages. FoodAllergy.org states that allergies to peanut products appear to be increasing dramatically. Statistics attained from the website note that the number of American children diagnosed with a peanut-related allergy tripled between the years 1997 and 2008. The United Kingdom and Canada also reported a marked increase in peanut allergies in children. Peanut allergies are primarily chronic (lifelong) in duration, although approximately 20 percent of children diagnosed with a peanut allergy become immune at some point in their lifetime. Siblings of an allergic individual are more prone to be allergic themselves, leading experts to determine that these allergies are potentially genetic. peanutIndividuals allergic to cumin should be cautioned as well. During an allergic reaction to cumin, the body reacts to profilin, a protein in the spice. Interactions involving both cumin and cumin seeds cause the immune system to respond by stimulating the production of immunoglobulin E, a histamine and antibody. It is this interaction that causes the subsequent physiological symptoms often experienced in cumin as well as peanut-related allergies. People who are allergic to cumin and peanut-inclusive products often develop a type of skin rash, which is usually obtained through physical contact with the food item. The afflicted may experience a variety of symptoms, including tingly mouth, as well as itching of the lips, mouth, or tongue. It is also common for allergic individuals to experience physiological symptoms such as abdominal cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. In severe cases, anaphylaxis, or swelling of the throat, may cause a sudden drop in blood pressure and/or an episodic instance of a weak and rapid pulse, which is classified as a medical emergency. Medical professionals recommend that individuals who suspect cumin as a potential allergen consult with their physician, who may prescribe a skin or blood test to determine the root cause of an allergic reaction. In a skin test, the allergen is injected under the skin, and if the individual is allergic a rash will develop at the injection site. In a blood test, the blood is studied for the presence of antibodies, which are produced during an allergic reaction. Treatment of cumin allergies often involves the use of corticosteroids or antihistamines, both of which are designated toward relieving related symptoms. If the allergy is related to hay fever, alternative treatments include allergy shots or immunotherapy. Those stricken with anaphylaxis are often advised to carry an epinephrine auto-injector, which can be injected in the thigh during the initial signs of an allergic reaction. As with most other medical conditions, cumin and peanut allergic reactions are preventable. Medical professionals recommend that individuals with a cumin or peanut allergy avoid the consumption of cumin, spices, and other foods that may potentially stimulate symptoms of the allergy, especially in light of the recent cross-contamination of cumin and peanuts. With that in mind, professionals strongly recommend the evaluation and analysis of ingredients in certain types of foods, particularly store-bought items and restaurant-made meals.
Given a list of words, find the absolute minimum distance between two words. • 0 example input: ["a", "b", "c", "a", "d"] example output: min_distance("a", "c") = 1 "c" is in index 2 and "a" is in index 0 and 3. \|3 - 2\| = 1 • 3 I guess it's the same as the "Shortest Word Distance" problem, I have a solution here:, hope that helps. • 0 Here's my solution in python: def distCal(str1,str2): arr = ['the','world','is','xxx','so','yyu','so','fhgf','so','big'] i = 0 while (i <= len(arr)): if (str1 in arr) and (str2 in arr): x = arr.index(str1) + 1 y = arr.index(str2) + 1 print(str1,"is at:",x, str2,"is at:",y) print("Not in list") return print("distance :", y - x) • 0 @DWu39 The direct answer to the question is to iterate and find the minimum distance which runs in linear time O(N) where N is the number of words. A variant of the problem is to solve it in sub-linear time ( < O(N)). To solve this, we can create a map of word vs its list of indices in the original string (or string array of words). Then upon each findMinDistance(word1, word2), you have get the indices list of word1 and word2 in the map and find the minimum difference in the two lists. In other words, the original problem is reduced to solve a sub-problem: Given two arrays of integers, find the minimum difference. In our case, this will yield sub-linear time (< O(N)). This variant of the solution is useful in scenarios of repeated use of findMinDistance. • 0 JavaScript O(n) function findMinimumWordDistance(words, wordA, wordB) { var wordAIndex = null; var wordBIndex = null; var minDinstance = null; for (var i = 0, length = words.length; i < length; i++ ) { if (words[i] === wordA) { wordAIndex = i; if (words[i] === wordB) { wordBIndex = i; if ( wordAIndex !== null && wordBIndex !== null ) { var distance = Math.abs(wordAIndex - wordBIndex); if(minDinstance === null \|\| minDinstance > distance) { minDinstance = distance; return minDinstance; • 0 @VivekRagunathan not necessarily. If we're given a long list that contains a small variation of words, each word's "index list" will have O(n) elements and, therefore, looking for a min between two arrays that have O(n) elements will cost O(n) time to process. • 0 is the distance between two words A and B is sum ( abs( ai - bi) ) for 0 <= i < len(A) + sum( bj ) for len(A) <= j < len(B) for len(A) <= len(B) ? • 0 words = ['a','b','c','a','d','e','b','f','a'] def min_dis(word1,word2,word_list): dist1 = list() dist2 = list() dist = list() for i,j in enumerate(words): if j == word1: elif j == word2: dist = [abs(x -y) for x in dist1 for y in dist2] return min(dist) Log in to reply
Friday, December 19, 2008 Weather Serpents & Las Vegas Snow Storms Oh my goodness! Snow causes travel delays in Las Vegas! The pretty map on the right was created by Weather Underground. As you see the cold weather is bleeding down from the North... displacing the warmer and more stable wind and temperature cycles. Planetary Weather Maps reveal (in shadow form) the magnetic serpents circling the Earth. During times of stability the magnetic currents maintain elemental cycles from which all of nature grows. Animals, plants, insects, bees, trees, birds, sea creatures and humans depend on these cycles for water and nourishment, for food production, safe living zones and breeding cycles for all living things. Jet Stream maps reveal ancient mythological magnetic serpents holding the Earth's natural weather systems together. In some way, these Dragon Lines are the weather systems. Should the Northern Midlatitude Jet Stream (serpents) collapse, colder winter weather bleeds into Southern regions not used to such cold weather patterns. As the warmer currents bleed into cooler regions, areas used to colder temperatures radiate (experience) warmer climate cycles. Cycles bringing change and transformation onto the Earth are not new. These are very ancient cycles. The current cycle is not so severe that it would turn the Carribean into Antarctica... However, changes to Earth's weather cycles are severe enough to cause food production problems, water resource problems, severe flooding, droughts, sea-level rise, increased volcanic activity, increased earthquakes, temperature rises, ice storms and sudden powerful blanket snow storms. The question is, how do we deal with this unfolding reality? Fear, panic and selfish behaviour will not create a balanced approach at a time where people have to cooperate and work together to meet the challenges ahead. The changing cycles challenge is - cooperate and survive or divide and fracture. These cycles herald a time in which mankind can heal their inner psychic and psychological behaviour. Friday, December 05, 2008 Planetary Economics - The Art of Compassion The economic turmoil facing society in 2008, 2009 until 2014 - is a small part of a greater planetary evolution whose beginning will alter our lives over the next 100 years. The real problem is that people around the world are looking at life (issues, and problems) in a very limited way, through media prescribed (vision limiting) bi-focal lenses. The economic bifocals are necessary when individuals begin to exhibit symptoms of blurring and panic when faced with economic meltdown of a crumbling archaic system. Media bifocals correct this panic by limiting the depth of perception of the crumbling columns and falling roof. Therefore a large block of collapsing masonry seems like a harmless fly until it hits the observer, at which point perception becomes irrelevant. The physical brain is designed to correlate and act on information close to the observer and simultaneously be aware of what is happening at a distance. In humans this ability operates mostly on automatic pilot. Humans are not aware that the mind is processing information beyond the point of their myopic focus at any given moment. Animals and birds are fine examples of the art of immediate observation both near and far. A blackbird or sparrow searches for its food locally, and yet remain aware of predators at a distance. A hare or a field mouse may forage for food at the edge of a wood, and yet the hare or the mouse are aware of movements that indicate the approach of a hawk, a fox or a cat. Humans have the same ability to see far and near in the same moment, but these far/near observation skills are eclipsed by desire to focus exclusively on the ego, appearance, what we WANT and the game/power struggle of what we GET for ourselves. Humans have become very self-centred. This activity on a global scale has led to the current economic crisis. One aspect of the crisis is a total lack of awareness of where our food comes from, or what food really is. The ego is rarely aware of the world around it, of cosmos, the stars and planets, and of the earth itself. Growing populations consume at growing rates, with little thought to the planetary implications of this behaviour. Multiply a billion times the consumption of paper, wood, metals, water, food, textiles, fuel and land... and a billion adds to a billion more. Taking off the myopic lens, what is it we are consuming? Where do these resources come from? As economies increase in wealth, what is the resources base of this increase in wealth? It is the planet itself. As the disaster approached (from afar), social myopia did not see it coming because no one was paying attention. The most ancient rules of behaviour begin with: If you do not care for the planet, you do not care for yourself. That is a very simple rule to follow, ensuring wealth for our grandchildren. In the myopic world, what is wealth? Wealth has come to mean indulgence, get what you can fast, take care of yourself, walk all over other people (if you have to), and always have more than your competitors. The structures this type of behaviour creates are crumbling and falling apart. As the masonry falls onto the wealth seekers in the temple, crushing them with a force equal to the selfishness they carry... no one looks up to see who created this mess. All of mankind shares this planet with the trees, fish, animals, birds and insects. Currently, we take without giving. When individuals look outside of the ego-field they see their own reflection looking back at them as they destroy the earth. If one looks a bit further, the individual sees that as they destroy the earth they are destroying their own future, the future of their children, and are certainly destroying the future of their grandchildren. Growing populations cannot consume depleted resources at growing rates. Economics is a rational term for human behaviour. Buying silk or spices is the economic behaviour of consuming the earth's resources. Buying oil is a human (economic) behaviour based on certain needs. Alternatively, if the sands of the Sahara contained some power to fuel the worlds demand for energy, then emptying the desert of its sands would be an economic activity as a result of human behaviour. The corrective healing for ego-driven-myopia, is to be aware of and see the world around us. Go for a walk in the park (if one still exists), walk across the fields or through the woods, and pay attention to the planetary provider of resources. Observe the animals and birds seeking to exist amid the concrete of towns and cities. Be aware of the weeds and plants growing at the side of the road. Paying attention to the physical surroundings far and near (there are stars and planets above our heads), beings us back in touch with the reality that surrounds us - and on which we depend. To the soul, a fleeting moment of compassion, is the gold of the spirit. The Alchemical gold created by the ancients: The Art of Compassion. The ending of Ego. Being grateful to the planet for sustaining us, is the art of seeing far while observing what is near. Canada 2020 - Three Separate Zones The world is currently watching Canada struggle for its life, as Conservatives seek to power their way through a series of breakdowns, leading to the inevitable separation of the country into three independent zones or Federations. The French speaking persona of Canada can no more live in harmony with the English speaking persona than can Paris and London. These personae have different developments, different ways of viewing the world and are currently incompatible with one another. It will take two generations before they begin to trust each other. The third persona, the Native American, is incompatible with both the English and the French personae... and this will eventually lead to a third power zone. At the start all three zones will be loosely described as the Canadian Federation. In the beginning of the breakup, the vying powers will pretend there exists some level of cooperation, in order to maintain a more cohesive presence to the world at large. However, the reality (at home) will be the antithesis of the face they present to the onlooking world. As with archaic authoritarian regimes, the confrontation could become ugly. There is also the future possibility that leaders emerge who understand that cooperation and mutual respect is a more elegant way to deal with the inevitable. Looking into the eyes of tomorrow, understanding that we are the future now... The change is forming in the consciousness of these very different cultural personae. At first it takes form in the psychic field, and gradually it begins to take form in the physical world. As long as people respect each other, this expression of a different view is as valid as any other, and it has a right to grow in the earth and be what it is. Between 2009 and 2016 many unusual events will lead to the breakup of the present Canadian system, establishing balance by 2020. Severe storms and unusual swings in weather patterns foster local cooperation and search for solutions (survival). As events demand an immediate response, intelligent people will not wait for the lumbering moves (considerations) of a central governing hierarchy - who have little or no understanding of local needs. (Apply the same rule across the planet). By 2020 earth changes and changes in the way the human mind perceives reality, will lead to the creation of a distinct French speaking zone, an English speaking zone and a Native American zone. Are you surprised that the Native people will reclaim some of the land their grandfathers emerged from? Out of respect, and out of thanks for future guidance and help, all parties will agree on an independent sovereign zone for the Native peoples of North America. Their spiritual wisdom and connection to the land will be essential to the survival of all who live through these times of trial. Our minds, our psyche are an integral part of the land. Our minds, in balance, are a part of nature - a part of the weather and the earth. In sad contrast to North America, The Highlands of Scotland (whose wise people were wiped off the face of the earth) will face extreme out-of-balance weather cycles. It will be 100 to 200 years before the ancient connections are reactivated there. All people living on the earth now are not isolated from the wisdom of the past, the future and the wisdom of the earth. We are one cycle in many cycles, but we have to live in honour and respect each other. Differences of perception do not make us enemies, they make us a diverse and beautiful ecological element of the blue planet, and of cosmos.
Talk:Dominant minority From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search White Americans during the mid 19th century[edit] I periodically look at this article and every time I do, I notice that someone has deleted the section on White Americans in the south as a dominant minority. I assume that whoever keeps removing it must be disputing that African Americans outnumbered White Americans in certain Southern states, since no one can reasonably argue against the political and legal superiority held by White Americans during this time. African Americans did in fact make up a majority of the population in several states (Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina), and this time I added a link from the US Census bureau to prove it ( African Americans had been historically concentrated in the South and did not begin moving into other areas (mostly Northeastern and Midwestern cities) until the Great Migration in the early 20th century. When they did this, their population became diluted across several regions and eventually White Southerners in those states regained their majority status. In Louisiana, African Americans made up an absolute majority or a plurality until the 20th century. And in Mississippi and South Carolina, African Americans were the undisputed majority until at least 1930. As a result, White Americans were a minority of the population, yet retained all political power after the end of Reconstruction. Therefore, White Americans from the South from the mid 19th to the early 20th centuries do in fact belong on this page as a dominant minority. Removed biased sentence[edit] > For instance, Nelson Mandela gained his immense popularity after years of resistance against the apartheid government of South Africa; some militant members of the dominant minority (Afrikaners) reacted to his democratic ascent with anti-civilian terrorism, by setting off car bombs at polling stations during the election that brought him to power. While this may be factually accurate, it is deceptive. The words "resistance" was used when referring to acts by the ANC. Most objective viewers would label it as "terrorism", e.g.: Less people died than during the isolated instances of white resistance than compared to ANC terrorism. (More people actually died during ANC-IFP clashes, i.e. black-on-black violence) — Preceding unsigned comment added by (talk) 02:51, 13 July 2013 (UTC) African Americans as dominant minority in the US[edit] I don't really understand why, but African-Americans are listed as a dominant minority. This is clearly not the case so I am removing them from the list. If someone believes this can be justified please cite you sources. Snake666 (talk) 21:04, 7 March 2009 (UTC) I agree with You, but I do, however, understand why they were added. Because of Barack Obama. (talk) 02:45, 15 June 2013 (UTC) Obama is a Mulatto, and thus not definitive of a black american. (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 00:18, 27 February 2014 (UTC) Before another Vote for Deletion:[edit] Just to note that I decided to be bold. So, do bite the newcomers. That is all. El_C Nah, it's good! Terrapin 19:08, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC) • Thanks, appreciated. Sadly though, that is not the point. The VfD was implemented in a discourtious fashion. It was my firt day on WP, no one bothered informing me of it. It was slipped under my nose, and the vote was concluded before I even found out it took place. Now that is not a welcoming reception to a newcomer on his or her first day on Wikipedia. El_C Added a {{Limitedgeographicscope}} tag. Lots of countries have been dominated by a minority, but the article discussing only two of them. A complete article should discuss examples such as the Fulani in medieval northwest Africa and the Manchus in Qing China. - Nat Krause 03:51, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC) This is a good point. Such examples deserve to be discussed in this article. I suggest that White minority rule, currently a link to this article, be turned into an article in its own right. The case of the whites in southernmost Africa was quite different from that of the Manchus in Qing China, who became so assimilated to the Han majority that by the end of the dynasty there was virtually no cultural or linguistic substance to a separate Manchu identity. The whites in South Africa and "Rhodesia" had no intention of assimilating culturally or otherwise to any Black population, and they certainly did not become Black themselves. Shorne 12:53, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC) In both South Africa and Rhodesia, majority rule was brought about through violent upheavals. Wait a minute. While the ANC was certainly a violent organization (indeed, described by many as a terrorist organization), and while the pressure its violence put on the white government may have contributed to the collapse of apartheid, it seems to me that larger factors in apartheid's collapse were international financial, political and moral pressures, as well as changing attitudes among South African whites. Hasn't that been a major source of praise for the new South Africa, that the transition was peaceful and that there was no violent revolution? Similarly, Rhodesia's white minority government, rather than having been dislodged by force of arms, decided to end its economic and political isolation, and peacefully handed over power after being promised that whites would receive protectively disproportionate representation in the legislature and respect for their private property. LeoO3 04:26, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC) • Partly agree. While it's valid to describe Rhodesia's Second Chimurenga as a "violent upheaval" (thousands killed in action during a military struggle that lasted 15 years and destroyed the economy), SA is questionable. MK and Poqo bombs didn't bring about the end of apartheid - sanctions did. Humansdorpie 15:04, 1 August 2005 (UTC) Types of dominant minority[edit] • I have always seen the term "dominant minority" to refer to ethnic, racial or religious groups rather than to political ones. As such, i think the references to the rise of the Nazis and to electoral politics in Tony Blair's constituency should probably be removed. What do people think? Also, virtually all societies have a dominant class normally called an aristocracy or the bourgeois or the upper-class. The unusual thing about some societies (like South Africa) is that there is also a racial minority that is dominant. This is unusual and, as i said above, i think it is cases like that for which the term 'dominant minority' can most usefully be applied to. Vino s 17:03, 29 August 2005 (UTC) • On the market dominant minority discussion, merging with this page was suggested. It seems valid that the idea of a market dominant minority could be considered a special case of a dominant minority and included here -- M0llusk 15:46, 29 June 2006 (UTC) Merge to dominant minority[edit] Could be under a separate section, but AFAISI its a good idea to integrate. -St\|eve 21:17, 2 October 2005 (UTC) An effort should be undertaken to determine 1) are minoritarianism and dominant minority actually terms describing the same thing?, and if so, 2) Which one is the prevailing naming for such a thing? That said, at this time, I would prefer having two articles that point to each other, and clarify what the differences are in these terms--I have a strong feeling they're not exactly the same thing. — Stevie is the man! Talk \| Work 02:33, 5 October 2005 (UTC) I believe the two are sufficiently different to merit their own aricles, although some sort of "See also" section probably wouldn't be amiss. nae'blis (talk) 21:03, 12 October 2005 (UTC) Whites in SA[edit] I see that the link to Whites in South Africa is redirected to Afrikaners. I think that there should be a own article about whites in SA. And why the afrikaners? The Afrikaners are not the only whites in SA? The is also Anglo-Africans... �Dr.Poison 21:25, 27 April 2006 (UTC) That should be corrected. It is impossible to understand South African cultural circumstance without understanding that Afrikaners have tended to be poor and have little interest in commerce relative to groups of mostly British Anglo-African English speakers who dominate commerce. -- M0llusk 19:21, 19 August 2006 (UTC) That is not true. Anglo Africans are a minority of the white population in South Africa anyway, and Afrikaans people are NOT poor and bad businessmen. —Preceding unsigned comment added by (talk) 09:13, 14 July 2010 (UTC) Indians in Fiji should not be on the list[edit] They are the majority in Fiji also they don't really fit the criteria for an elite since qoute the wiki article on Fiji Commodore Frank Bainimarama refused to hold elections by 2010, elections that the Commonwealth of Nations had demanded after the 2006 coup. He states a need for more time to end a voting system that heavily favours ethnic Fijians at the expense of the multi-ethnic minorities. Critics claim that he has suspended the constitution and was responsible for human rights violations by arresting and detaining opponents.[31][32] — Preceding unsigned comment added by (talk) 15:45, 7 July 2011 (UTC) why no talk about Jews[edit] they run all Muslim countries by owning banks and media!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by (talk) 13:59, 21 May 2012 (UTC) Seriously though, why no mention of Jews as the dominant minority in Europe and the United States? (talk) 03:58, 12 July 2012 (UTC) I have added it. Jews have influence far beyond their proportion as a population. Did you know, for example, that over half of Democrat campaign contributions come from Jews?Winston S Smith (talk) 20:23, 15 September 2013 (UTC) Catholics and Mormons are overrepresented too. That doesn't make them a dominant majority. Dominant minority is more when a minority group has (or had) nearly exclusive access to political power to the exclusion of the majority group. Like Whites in South Africa and Hawaii, or Jews in the West Bank. EvergreenFir (talk) 23:03, 6 October 2013 (UTC) No group is over represented to the degree that Jews are. The problem is that the definition of the word contradicts itself. The first sentence of the definition completely contradicts the second sentence. If the first sentence is used for the definition, then the Chinese in Southeast Asia, a commonly cited example, would not apply. If the second sentence were used, then the Jews would apply. It says the second sentence is "most commonly used" so I would add a reference to the Jews but I don't want to be accused of edit warring. Someone else should do it for me.Winston S Smith (talk) 03:56, 10 October 2013 (UTC) No sources?[edit] Where are the reliable sources for the list of supposed dominant minorities? — Preceding unsigned comment added by (talk) 17:14, 6 February 2013 (UTC) Jews in the USSR[edit] This seems blatantly untrue. Ethnic Russians were the leading political figures in the USSR, both from its foundation and during its seven decades of existence. This seems to harken back to old tropes about Bolshevism being a Jewish plot; it is also unsourced. I am removing it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by (talk) 11:00, 30 July 2013 (UTC) WASP reference[edit] Why are WASPs listed as the dominant minority in the United States? It's ridiculous, just ask our Black president, Catholic vice president, Supreme Court with no protestants on it, Catholic speaker of the House, ect. The sources cited are from the 60s and 70s, they are outdated. This should be removed. Two Tune (talk) 19:26, 5 December 2014 (UTC) The term "Austrians" at the time of both the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary referred very specifically to the people of Upper-Austria, Lower-Austria, and the Greater Vienna Capital Region. People from Tyrol, Voralburg, Styria, and various others like the Transylvanian-Saxons referred to themselves as "Germans", in fact this was the most common name for this ethnic group until after Austrian independence from the Allies during the Cold War the Austrians began to see themselves as "a separate ethnic group/people", even though many Austrians still regard themselves as "Germans" today. -- (talk) 15:28, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
Aphid Outbreaks and Pesticide Applications The soybean aphid outbreaks were memorable because it was hard to miss the presence of the aerial applicator airplanes. Although Iowa is a heavy agricultural area with a long history of pesticide use, the added visibility of the aerial applicators caused a real uneasiness among the people who live here as they wondered what was sprayed and if they were exposed to something unusual. When I looked at the decline of the Poweshiek skipper I wondered if somehow pesticide applications to control soybean aphids were to blame. The problem with that idea is that pesticides, including insecticides, have been used for over 50 years in Iowa, and generally it is thought that pesticides are used more safely now than back then, the pesticide residues don’t hang around as long as in the past, and the Poweshiek skipper did survive the first 35 or 40 years of pesticide use with apparently no problems. I tried to get some pesticide use information, to compare what was sprayed in 2001 or especially 2003 (the year of the largest soybean aphid outbreak) with other years, and my conclusion was that what information that was available was not good enough. In 2003, 2.9 million acres of soybeans were treated for soybean aphids. That is about 8% of the total land mass of Iowa. However, there were counties where either aphids or total number of soybean acres were more concentrated. In some of the northern counties of Iowa the percent of the total land mass where pesticides were applied to control aphids was closer to 30%. Consider how insecticides kill aphids. First of all, they kill a broad spectrum of insects—they don’t just kill aphids. They kill butterflies or their caterpillars as well. Secondly, they must do more than kill on contact—if you miss the aphid with the spray, the active ingredient in the spray must be still able to kill the aphid. So the pesticide evaporates, and the gas is taken up by the respiratory system of the aphid, killing it. (There can be other routes of exposure, but the pesticides used on an emergency basis for aphid control mostly work this way.) So if there is a vapor concentration in the soybean field that is strong enough to kill all aphids within that field, what happens when the wind blows or the vapors disperse? If a third of the landscape is sprayed with the insecticide, will it still be strong enough to kill other, non-target insects when it spreads to the remaining 2/3? Or if 10% of the landscape is sprayed, is it still strong enough to kill insects on the remaining 90%? When a pesticide applicator applies a pesticide with the wind blowing, and some of the spray gets somewhere it was not intended to go, the result is called “spray drift.” This generally happens due to the carelessness of the applicator, and may be a violation of the law. When a pesticide applicator applies it in accordance with the label requirements, and vapors arise from the application area they can spread to areas not intended to be treated. The result is called “vapor drift”, and is usually not considered to be due to carelessness, nor against the law. We don’t know what wiped out the Poweshiek skipper in Iowa and Minnesota. We certainly cannot rule out vapor drift, especially from the application of pesticides to control soybean aphids. In fact, vapor drift is a fairly strong candidate. About the roused bear Nature photographer from central Iowa. This entry was posted in insects, oarisma poweshiek and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink. One Response to Aphid Outbreaks and Pesticide Applications 1. Finn Holding says: You raise a very important point. But who woud fund the studies to investigate such phenomena? It won’t be the government, nor the farmers, and it certainly won’t be the chemical producers. Inefficient aerial application of such toxic chemicals seems little short of lunacy. And I wonder how effective it really is at killing the target species. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
A recent article published by distinguished gifted education scholar David Lubinski of Vanderbilt University, “From Terman to today: A century of findings on intellectual precocity,” serves as an excellent resource for parents, students, and educators who are interested in the findings of two major longitudinal studies of the gifted which roughly span the last century, and more broadly the historical progression of research on the gifted. Here are brief descriptions of the longitudinal studies: Lewis Terman’s Genetic Studies of Genius: Launched in the early 1920’s and included over 1,500 adolescents identified in the top 1% of general intellectual ability. Julian Stanley’s longitudinal Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY): Launched in the early 1970’s, now co-directed by Camilla P. Benbow and David Lubinski, and included over 5,000 adolescents identified in the top 1% of general intellectual ability. The level and pattern of abilities matter Terman’s study showed that top 1% individuals tended to be quite successful overall. SMPY findings also showed that top 1% individuals are quite successful then documented that more ability matters even within that highly select 1% and that one’s pattern of math, verbal, and spatial abilities over and above their general ability matters in the prediction of multiple educational, occupational and creative outcomes. Ability level: SMPY findings have demonstrated that even within the top 1% of ability, more ability matters. Therefore the idea that beyond a certain ability threshold, say an IQ of 120, more ability doesn’t matter has been shown to be false. Ability pattern: SMPY extended the findings of Terman by showing that in addition to general ability level, an individual’s level and pattern of math, verbal, and spatial ability all played an important role in the prediction of later outcomes. For example, individuals with relatively higher verbal compared to math/spatial talents tend to end up in humanities professions, whereas individuals with relatively higher math/spatial compared to verbal talents tend to end up in STEM professions. Interests and values matter Measured interests and values of gifted youth also predict later outcomes over and above ability level and pattern. Theoretical (the discovery of truth: empiricism, intellectualism), Economic (that which is useful: resourceful, practical affairs), Aesthetic (form and harmony: grace, artistry in life), Social (love of people: altruism, sympathy, caring), Political (power in all realms: influence, leadership), and Religious (unity of life: comprehension of life’s meaning, holiness) values and their pattern all helped improve prediction of later outcomes. Educational stimulation and hours devoted to talent development matters Both the Terman study and SMPY study showed that advanced educational stimulation matters for gifted individuals to fully develop their talent and actualize their intellectual potential. One study from SMPY showed that grade skipping is a highly effective intervention on later achievement, and another study showed that it may not necessarily be one specific intervention that matters for the development of gifted youth but rather the right mix and intensity of interventions—the appropriate educational dosage—to keep them intellectually stimulated and engaged. Additionally, findings from SMPY have also shown that the willingness to work long hours varies greatly among the gifted population and thus is also likely connected to long-term development of expertise. In general, gifted youth grow up to be highly accomplished and well-adjusted adults In 1916, the predominant view of the gifted child was “early to ripe, early to rot,” including the idea that gifted kids were physically weak and emotionally unstable. However, Terman’s findings by the 1930’s had already shown this to be incorrect. Findings from SMPY indicate that, broadly, gifted youth grow up to be highly accomplished adults, achieving doctorates, a higher income, patents, publications, university tenure and other creative achievements at very high rates relative to the general population. Gifted youth also grow up to be no different from their same age peers in terms of reported broad life satisfaction regarding personal and family life. Of course, this review of the research and highlights of key findings is based on gifted students overall, and the individual path through life for each gifted student is certainly not average but unique. However, these broad findings can be useful in understanding what longitudinal research across the last 100 years has demonstrated and should be known by parents, students, and educators who hope to help gifted youth develop to their fullest. Lubinski, D. (2016). From Terman to today: A century of findings on intellectual precocity. Review of Educational Research, 86, 900-944. You are reading Finding the Next Einstein The Demise of the “Big Picture Thinker” in Psychology? The importance of retaining breadth in a research culture focused on depth Three New Findings on Intelligence and Giftedness A few new research findings on human intelligence. Does Chess Instruction Improve Math Ability? Chess instruction does not appear to improve math problem-solving ability
Mother Goddess The worship of a mother goddess as the source of life and fertility has prehistoric roots, but the transformation of that deity into a Great goddess of cosmic powers was achieved with the composition of the Devi Mahatmya (Glory of the goddess), a text of the fifth to sixth century, when worship of the female principle took on dramatic new dimensions. The goddess is not only the mysterious source of life,she is the very soil, all-creating and all consuming. The divine and anti-divine forces. Etymologically Durga's name means "Beyond Reach". She is thus an echo of the woman warrior's fierce virginal autonomy. In this context Kali is considered the 'forceful' form of the great goddess Durga. Kali is represented as a Black woman with four arms; in one hand she has a sword, in another the head of the demon she has slain, with the other two she is encouraging her worshippers. For earrings she has two dead bodies and wears a necklace of skulls ; her only clothing is a girdle made of dead men's hands, and her tongue protrudes from her mouth. Her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are besmeared with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the breast of her husband. A devotee poet says: She appears black because She is viewed from a distance; but when intimately known She is no longer so. and you will find that it has no colour. The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance, but when you go near and take it in your hand, you find that it is colourless."...Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836-86) She is full-breasted; her motherhood is a ceaseless creation. Her disheveled hair forms a curtain of illusion, the fabric of space - time which organizes matter out of the chaotic sea of quantum-foam. Her garland of fifty human heads, each representing one of the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, symbolizes the repository of knowledge and wisdom. Another symbolic but controversial aspect of Kali is her proximity to the cremation ground: O Kali, Thou art fond of cremation grounds; so I have turned my heart into one That thou, a resident of cremation grounds, may dance there unceasingly. fire of a funeral pyre is burning there; that Thou may come. Come, dancing to the tune of music; Prasada waits With his eyes closed...Ramprasad (1718-75) Kali's dwelling place, the cremation ground denotes a place where the five elements (Sanskrit: pancha mahabhuta) are dissolved. Kali dwells where dissolution takes place. In terms of devotion and worship, this denotes the dissolving of attachments, anger, lust, and other binding emotions, feelings, and ideas. The heart of the devotee is where this burning takes place, and it is in the heart that Kali dwells. The devotee makes her image in his heart and under her influence burns away all limitations and ignorance in the cremation fires. This inner cremation fire in the heart is the fire of knowledge, (Sanskrit: gyanagni), which Kali bestows. Kali is a particularly appropriate image for conveying the idea of the world as the play of the gods. The spontaneous, effortless, dizzying creativity of the divine reflex is conveyed in her wild appearance.Insofar as kali is identified with the phenomenal world,she presents a picture of that world that underlies its ephemeral and unpredictable nature. In her mad dancing, disheveled hair, and eerie howl there is made present the hint of a world reeling, careening out of control. The world is created and destroyed in Kali's wild dancing, and the truth of redemption lies in man's awareness that he is invited to take part in that dance,to yield to the frenzied beat of the Mother's dance of life and death. In Thy delirious joy Thou dancest, clapping Thy hands together! Thou art the Mover of all that move, and we are but Thy helpless toys...Ramakrishna Paramhans Kali and her attendants dance to rhythms pounded out by Shiva (Lord of destruction) and his animal-headed attendants who dwell in the Himalayas. Associated with chaos and uncontrollable destruction, Kali's own retinue brandishes swords and holds aloft skull cups from which they drink the blood that intoxicates them. Kali,like Shiva,has a third eye,but in all other respects the two are distinguished from one another. In contrast to Shiva's sweet expression, plump body, and ash white complexion,dark kali's emaciated limbs,angular gestures,and fierce grimace convey a wild intensity. Her loose hair, skull garland, and tiger wrap whip around her body as she stomps and claps to the rhythm of the dance. Many stories describe Kali's dance with Shiva as one that "threatens to destroy the world" by its savage power. When Shiva asks his wife Parvati to destroy this demon,she enters Shiva's body & transforms herself from the poison that is stored in his throat. She emerges from Shiva as Kali, ferocious in appearance, and with the help of her flesh eating retinue attacks and defeats the demon. Kali however became so intoxicated by the blood lust of battle that her aroused fury and wild hunger threatened to destroy the whole world. She continued her ferocious rampage until Shiva manifested himself as an infant and lay crying in the midst of the corpse-strewn field. Kali, deceived by Shiva's power of illusion, became calm as she suckled the baby. When evening approached, Shiva performed the dance of creation (tandava) to please the goddess .Delighted with the dance, Kali and her attendants joined in. This terrific and poignant imagery starkly reveals the nature of Kali as the DivineMother. Ramaprasad expresses his feelings thus: Behold my Mother playing with Shiva, lost in an ecstasy of joy!Drunk with a draught of celestial wine,She reels, and yet does not fall.Erect She stands on Shiva's bosom,and the earth Trembles under Her tread;She and Her Lord are mad with frenzy,casting Aside all fear and shame... Ramprasad (1718-75) Go to Top Untitled Document Pooja & Events Aavani Moolam 31.08.2017 - Thursday Sri Vinayagar Chathurthi 25.08.2017 - Friday 21.08.2017 - Sunday Sani Pradosham 19.08.2017 - Saturday Untitled Document New Temple Untitled Document Untitled Document Untitled Document All Rights Reserved by Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple Refulgence Inc Pte Ltd
Question: What Is The Purpose Of A Class That Combines Different Grades? Education - Q&A April 9, 1995 Answer: Classes with children from different grades let teachers work with students based on their individual abilities, not their ages, educators say. In Orange County, about 15 to 20 elementary schools have chosen to create multigrade classrooms where students from different grades are taught together, said Roy Eldridge, associate superintendent of elementary education. Teachers try different combinations, such as a combined class of children in kindergarten to second grade. Typically, the children stay with the same teacher for two to three years, Eldridge said. ''It cuts down on the lock-step progression that you have from grade level to grade level,'' he said. Orange County began using the approach five to six years ago. Multigrade grouping has become popu- lar again nationally after being an educational fad in the 1960s. It also can be traced back to the beginning of education in America when one-room schoolhouses lumped all students together. The approach forces teachers to work with children individually, Eldridge said. Students are graded based on how far they advance individually. The hardest part is educating parents, who worry that their child will be held back or pushed ahead too fast. Parents can find out more about what researchers have concluded on America Online. Type the keywords, ''Nea Public,'' and click on the educational database icon. There's a report, Ungraded Primary Education, that was published by the National Education Association. It's a compilation of studies. Studies, the report said, show cases of individual student progress, but don't prove that students do significantly better than peers in traditional classes. The report also cites less tangible advantages, such as students feeling better about school. Teachers report that students do better socially and learn from each other because they're at such different levels. In Seminole County multigrade classrooms are less common but the concept appears to be catching on. At Forest City Elementary, about 50 fourth-graders and fifth-graders spend part of their school days together, working on certain projects. At Keeth Elementary, about 50 first-graders and second-graders work together part of the time. Keeth Principal James Neville said parents choose whether they want their children in such classes, which typically work at an accelerated pace. Keeth probably will try the same approach with a group of third-graders and fourth-graders next year. Other elementary schools, including Midway and Pine Crest, are considering multigrade classes for some students as well. Orlando Sentinel Articles
Tumblelog by Soup.io Newer posts are loading. You are at the newest post. Click here to check if anything new just came in. Wood Burning Stoves Evolving Through Years Wood burning stoves day back to the 19th century when such primary heating devices were used to maintain the insides of properties cozy and comfortable throughout the winter. Early models include a great metal designed that's typically made of material or cast iron using a grate inside. The modern models come provided with oxygen controls which can be adjusted towards the exterior climate. Several units also serve as multi fuel stoves that can employ various kinds of powers to create heat. The products demand a ventilation system by which the recent gas made because of combustion of the gasoline may be produced. The first wood burning stove was manufactured in 1642 within the United States of America that has been actually before the Franklin stove happened. However, the first castiron style of wood burning stoves had an open-front with stunning resemblance using a normal brick fireplace. The range received huge endorsement available in the market due to its fuel-efficiency which produced having houses warm a relatively inexpensive choice. However, unlike the multi fuel ranges of today, the earlier styles developed less temperature, and hence, less smoking. However, considering that it was created about the fireplace product, the stove had outstanding flow and heat functions. With time, the models have cut down from bulky, eye-sore units to slender, small and elegant products that blend with ease with the d©cor of contemporary houses. The wood burning ranges of today are just a far more efficient and chic types of the ancient Franklin designs. The devices were manufactured to release less smoking and were equipped with correct ventilation to ensure that users just take pleasure in the convenience of temperature from the products. Soon the multifuel ranges were introduced to create in mobility for the application. These devices were mechanical to perform on coal, charcoal, peats not to mention, timber central heating manchester. The devices come fitted using a removable ash container plus a grate so the ash generated through burning could be disposed from time to time. Through the 19Th-Century, the multi fuel ranges were loved through the countries of Europe, Ireland, UK, etc., with those containing dual boilers for better warming. The devices were built to heat or cook. Although fuels such as wood pellets no longer remain to be a preferred energy choice for wood burning stoves because of the scarcity of peat in a few parts of the entire world and difficulty involved with establishing the applying, the fat and energy have already been introduced as new forms of fuels because the 20th century. As a result of environmental factors, the stoves currently produced are manufactured amazingly gasoline-efficient, useful and swift in action. The four-legged, freestanding models of ranges currently sold on the market will be the most recently introduced line of cooking stoves. You should use them to cook plenty of dishes in very little time. However, if you're concerned about the pollutant release, the releases are minimal and also the gasoline is handled through filters as a way to assure environment friendliness. Don't be the product, buy the product!
Find the word definition Seah can refer to: Seah (unit) The se'ah or seah is a unit of dry measure of ancient origin used in Halakha (Jewish law), which equals one third of an ephah, or bath. Its size in modern units varies widely according to the criteria used for defining it. According to Herbert G. May, chief editor of two classic Bible-related reference books, the bath may be archaeologically determined to have been about 5.75 gallons (22 liters) from a study of jar remains marked 'bath' and 'royal bath' from Tell Beit Mirsim. Since the bath unit has been established to be 22 litres, 1 se'ah would equal 7.33 litres or 7.33dm. In the context of a mikveh, a se'ah can be about twice as much in order to accommodate even the most stringent rabbinical ruling on immersion. A mikveh must, according to the classical regulations, contain enough water to cover the entire body of an average-sized person; based on a mikveh with the dimensions of 3 cubits deep, 1 cubit wide, and 1 cubit long, the necessary volume of water was estimated as being 40 se'ah of water. The exact volume referred to by a seah is debated, and classical rabbinical literature specifies only that it is enough to fit 144 eggs; most Orthodox Jews use the stringent ruling of the Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, according to which one seah is 14.3 litres, and therefore a mikveh must contain approximately 575 litres . This volume of water could be topped up with water from any source, but if there were less than 40 seahs of water in the mikveh, then the addition of 3 or more pints of water from an unnatural source would render the mikveh unfit for use, regardless of whether water from a natural source was then added to make up 40 seahs from a natural source; a mikveh rendered unfit for use in this way would need to be completely drained away and refilled from scratch. The Collaborative International Dictionary Seah \Se"ah\, n. A Jewish dry measure containing one third of an ephah. n. A Jewish dry measure, one third of an ephah.
December 11, 2006 - Speech: Ethics, Values and College Athletics Clifton R. Wharton, Jr., Co-Chair, Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics is pleased to jointly sponsor this "presidential conversation" on how to improve integration of student athletes into the college or university. This is a worthy goal, but I see it as only one part of a broader set of issues and questions. Perceptions and Myths My reaction is based upon certain perceptions and myths about college athletics. Let me give you two. (1) Today, in many institutions big-time sports (football, basketball) are more than "subsidiary enterprises". In too many cases, coaches and the athletes function in their own separate world within the Academy. They have become virtually independent adjuncts whose role and impact upon the Academy has grown enormously, despite its smaller proportion of an institution's total budgets. ( 2) Most universities, their leaders, boards, alumni, students, and fans have fully bought into major myths about college athletics. Some examples are - college athletics makes a "profit" and keeps athletic budgets in the "black;" it increases quality and number of applicants and improves fund-raising; or it is the best way for economically disadvantaged students to acquire a higher education and helps create greater "diversity" on the campus. Most of these views are untrue or only partially true. All have become justifications for the status quo preventing or obstructing needed reforms. I have chosen another the issue which I believe is critical, whether the college or university is Division I-A and may well be present to a lesser degree in the other divisions. The issue is the relationship between values, ethics and athletics, and its impact upon the potential or likelihood for reform. The Academy has traditionally played a vital role in the maintenance and transmission of desirable values and ethical standards for itself and for the entire student body. I believe that today this role and transmission seems to have been seriously eroded. Ethics, Values and College Athletics Ethics are a set of values that represent the moral ideals or standards of an individual or organization. A Code of Ethics or Code of Conduct is a guide specifying required behaviors for users in their day-to-day actions and decision making. It is meant to clarify an organization's mission, values and principles, linking them with standards of conduct. Let me repeat my remarks to the student athlete summit which the Knight Commission convened in January 30 this year. "Values determine personal and societal goals by influencing interpersonal behavior and by controlling what we do and how we do it. Although abstract and often unconscious, values determine what is required of people, what is forbidden, what is praised and rewarded, and what is censured and punished. These can be judged either positively or negatively. "Is it wrong to cheat? Is it wrong to kill another human being? Is it wrong to lie to your parents or relatives? To lie to close friends and neighbors? Is it good to honor one's parents and ancestors? Is it good to be religious? What importance is placed on justice and rule of law? Values give meaning to the total culture of a society, and influence individual behavior and group interaction on a daily basis. "Colleges and universities also have special values which give answers to such questions as: Is published research truthfully performed and accurately reported? How is plagiarism dealt with? Does research follow the accepted canons of verification, testing, replication and transparency? Does a professor give honest grades to students or are some given preferential treatment? Do students cheat on their exams or papers? Does a university president maintain his or her integrity under the pressure of outside forces that would adversely impact the institution?" Intercollegiate athletics, as a subset of the Academy, also has ethical/values questions. I will deliberately choose those which tend to compare the value behavior outside the university and those within the Ivy walls. What is the difference between a "booster" who cheats by providing secret benefits to recruit a prize student athlete who helps a team to become a winner, and a corporate CEO who encourages back-dating of stock options to raise the level of compensation for his corporate "team"? Or do both believe that "winning is everything"? What is the difference between a college coach who turns his head over steroid use among his players and a professional league commissioner who does the same thing - all in the name of top performance to satisfy the fans? What is the difference between the stratospheric salaries paid to super-star college coaches -- whose reputations are partially built upon student athletes whose allowed financial "payment" is their equivalent of a "minimum wage" - and the corporate CEOs compensation? In both cases, there is a gap between the top and the average "worker" - and the gap is growing. A recent analysis revealed that the average corporate chief executive last year earned $11.8 million -- or 431 times the pay of the average non-professional worker, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, that's up from a 301-to-1 ratio a year earlier. In college football, USA Today1 reported last month that 42 of the 119 coaches made $1 M or more compared with only 5 in 1999. Are the college head coach salaries reflective of true academic values? Are universities part of the corporate world, or the entertainment business, or the education "business?" Bill Friday's recent Op-Ed2 has decried college athletic "entertainment" as antithetical to the founding mission of higher education. What is the difference between corporations which, in the pursuit of an improved bottom line, out-source their high labor cost by casting off U.S. employees, on the one hand, and universities which "cast off" their workers, i.e., student athletes, especially in football and basketball, who do not make it to the professional ranks, on the other? Let me cite some numbers from the NCAA's 1982-99 Participation Statistics Report: • Of the 12,600 NCAA senior student athletes in football, only 250 were drafted - 2.0 %. What happened to the other 98 % -- the 12,350 former student athletes? • Of the 3,500 NCAA senior student athletes in basketball, only 44 were drafted - 1.3%. What happened to the other 98.7% -- the 3,456 former student athletes? Note that if these statistics had only been the major "powers," the percentages would have been somewhat higher, since more student athletes are drafted from those conferences. Is this situation fulfilling the purpose of higher education for these "students"? Are they truly student athletes or merely "make believe" or pseudo-students whose sole goal is winning a lucrative a professional slot, not an education? If so, why do colleges and universities allow or even encourage this practice? I know the quick rejoinders - but I'll wager that when you narrow the numbers down to the 1-A conferences and further break them down by race, the data will be even more stark. I realize that much of what I have described is primarily found in "big time" athletics and largely in football and basketball, but I suspect that there are growing elements of these issues in the other divisions. The Shulman-Bowen-Mellon data clearly shows it is burgeoning. Professor Barbara Fried's analysis, which was distributed to us, reflects the commonalities well. In thinking about all this, I inevitably shifted to four broader questions: 1. Has the Academy itself abandoned its own ethics and values and, if so, why? Three examples. (A) Earlier this month, a NY Times3 story reported that graduate student at the Columbia University journalism school had cheated. It was a pass/fail open book exam in a course - on ethics! (B) When university trustees insist upon circumventing a president in the selection or firing of a coach thereby directly violating their own rules and by-laws, what ethical message does that convey to students and the faculty? ( C) This morning, the Inside Higher Education web site reported on three different news stories this weekend describing the academic compromises universities made in the name of athletic success. 2. Are the negative ethical situations in college athletics merely a reflection of the same forces manifest in the wider society? And if so, what are the implications for efforts to make major reforms to correct unethical and immoral behavior in college athletics? When society as a whole is experiencing extensive instances of negative ethics, how can college athletics be insulated? 3. Given the negative ethics in the larger national environment, can basic structural reform in intercollegiate athletics ever be successfully achieved? Certainly not by an individual institution, nor by an individual conference. Can it be done collectively? The recent NCAA Presidents Task Force was such an important attempt, but will it be enough to overcome the forces I have described? There has been change and reform, but I still come back to the point I raised at the first meeting of the Knight Commission 15 years ago: - "Reform of college athletics can never be fully achieved through unilateral disarmament. Only multi-lateral disarmament will work." After 15 years of effort, though, I confess there are days when I feel like Sisyphus of Greek mythology. 4. Lastly, can today's focus on improving the treatment of student athletes and their integration into the university be an intelligent and useful starting point? When I was a doctoral student in economics at Chicago some 50 years ago, we were often told that asking the right question was crtitcal in the pursuit of the best answer. So, I look forward to our dialogue today and hope that my questions may help stimulate some good answers. Dr. Wharton has been a Black pioneer in four different fields - philanthropy, foreign economic d1evelopment, higher education, and business. He is the former Chairman and CEO of TIAA-CREF, the world's largest pension fund with assets of $260 billion. He thereby became the first Black to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Among his previous pioneering positions are President of Michigan State University (1970-78) the first Black to head a predominantly white major university; Chancellor of the State University of New York System (1978-87), this nation's largest university system with 64 campuses; and trustee then Chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation (1970-87). The son of a career Foreign Service Officer and Ambassador, Dr. Wharton has served six presidents in foreign policy advisory posts and most recently in 1993 was appointed by President Clinton as Deputy Secretary, the second highest post in the U.S. Department of State. Dr. Wharton's first 22 year philanthropic career began in Latin America with Nelson Rockefeller. Subsequently, he was resident in Southeast Asia from 1958 to 1964 representing a foundation headed by John D. Rockefeller 3rd. During this period he also supervised the foundation's programs in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, as well as taught economics at the University of Malaya. Dr. Wharton has been chairman of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development, U.S. AID (1976-83), co-Chairman, Commission on Security and Economic Assistance, and served on the Presidential Commission on World Hunger and the Presidential Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. Among his former corporate directorships are Ford Motor Company, Time Warner, Equitable Life, Tenneco, Inc., Federated Department Stores, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), New York Stock Exchange, Harcourt General, TIAA-CREF, and Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. His extensive non-profit trusteeships have ranged from the Council on Foreign Relations to the Committee for Economic Development (CED). Dr. Wharton is currently co-chairman of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and is a trustee of the Clark Foundation, the Bassett Hospital (Cooperstown, NY), and the New York State Historical Association. He holds a BA honors degree in history from Harvard, an MA from the School of Advanced International Studies of John Hopkins University, a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, and has been awarded 62 honorary doctorates. In 1970 he was named Boston Latin School Man of the Year and in 1994, he received the American Council on Education Distinguished Service Award for Lifetime Achievement. 1"Million-dollar coaches move into mainstream," USA Today, November 16, 2006. 2William C. Friday, "To Teach or To Win?", Charlotte Observer, November 30, 2006. 3Karen Arenson, "Cheating on an Ethics Test? It's ‘Topic A' at Columbia," New York Times, December 1, 2006.
cvdv32mrq's version from 2017-06-19 08:43 Question Answer Anabolic'building up’ forming new bonds, larger molecules Catabolic‘breaking down’ to smaller molecules Main Energy Form Body Can UseATP When ATP (adenosine triphosphate) loses a phosphate group to become ADP (adenosine diphosphate), energy is released which can be used immediately as needed In what organelle do most of the reactions of cellular respiration occurmitochondria, 2 Waste product of cellular respirationcarbon dioxide, water aerobic metabolism Metabolism in the presence of oxygen. anaerobic metabolism Metabolism in the absence of oxygen. What molecule is glucose converted to in glycolysisPyruvate, no oxygen needed, produce minimal ATP If NO oxygen available what molecule pyruvate converted toLactate is formed (cannot be sustained) If HAS oxygen available what molecule pyruvate converted toAcetyl CoA is formed Citric Acid Cycleacetyl CoA combines with a four-carbon sugar called oxaloacetate to form the six- carbon sugar citrate what other high energy molecules are produce in the Citric Acid CycleGTP The Electron Transport Chainseries of oxidation (loss of electrons) and reduction (gain of electrons) reactions. As bonds are broken, energy is released, and captured by 30+ molecules of ATP How is the glycerol molecule used to make ATP after it have been removed from the triglycerideconverted into glucose or pyruvate Beta-OxidationThe fatty acid molecule is broken down, bit by bit, into two carbon molecules What happens to the glucose, amino acids and fatty acids that are not used for energy in the bodyGlucose – Forms glycogen • Small energy reserve in the muscle/liver – Forms fatty acids, stored in fat tissue (minor process)Fatty Acids – Stored in fat tissue – May also be used to help form cell membranes, regulatory moleculesAmino Acids – Used to synthesize body proteins (ex. Muscle, enzymes….) – May also be converted into fatty acids, stored in fat tissue Recent badges
Chest (Period) Chest (Period) A chest is a wooden box with a hinged lid, often banded in metal and locked, used for the storage of valuables. Mundane heralds blazon it a “coffer” or “coffer box”; one Society armory blazons it a “casket”. It’s a period charge, found in the arms of William Cope (d.1513), cofferer to Henry VII [DBA2 215]. The chest’s lid is closed by default; in Society armory, it’s typically depicted affronty, but period examples (e.g. Bossewell, 1572 [III.16]) show it slightly in trian aspect, as in the illustration. In Italian armory, there is also the cassa, “strongbox”, drawn as an unadorned rectangular metal box in trian aspect; it’s found in the canting arms of da Cassan, mid-15th C. [Triv 121]. For related charges, see Ark of the Covenant, coffin. The Keeper of the Regalia for the Prince of the Sun bears: Azure, on a chest argent a fireball sable enflamed proper. Oriana of Xylina bears: Gules, a blonde mermaid proper crowned with a pearled coronet Or maintaining a wooden casket proper and a mirror argent, a chief wavy Or fretty sable. This entry was posted on December 18, 2013, in . Bookmark the permalink.
It Costs $3 for Every $1 that the Government Benefits Someone Government benefits are basically an inefficient and overpriced way for society to make government do the charity we all should do. How much do government benefits cost? According to one economist, they cost three times the benefits bestowed on the recipients. The Washington Free Beacon reports this under an incredibly positive headline, “Federal Debt Held by the Public Totals $107,000 Per Household.” I say it is positive because a friend of mind did some counting and says that, if you account for all the real debt, it gets closer to $2 million! The report, titled “Washington’s Largest Monument: Government Debt,” suggests that growing debt, which has doubled over the past seven years, poses a burden on future taxpayers and could lead to a financial crisis. One economist says that “it costs taxpayers $3 to provide a benefit worth $1 to recipients.” It isn’t just the Cato Institute that is warning of a crisis. The Congressional Budget Office is telling us the same thing. The distortions go far beyond reducing work incentives and savings. Government debt actually siphons savings into immediate consumption. In a free society, people would borrow money in order to do things with that money that would make a future revenue stream that would allow them to pay the debt with interest. So entrepreneurs would, for example, borrow money to build a railroad that would make travel cheaper between two points. Then the people who bought bonds from the entrepreneur would get paid back because he didn’t use the money for immediate consumption, but in order to make something that would help people in the future. The government offers interest rates as if loaning it money (i.e. buying treasuries, etc) is also an investment opportunity. But most of the government’s money is spent on immediate consumption. The ability to pay back the loan rests not on capital development but on future taxes. Basically, the government competes with other businesses to attract lenders, but it doesn’t actually use the money to increase wealth in society. Rather than building wealth for the future, it creates a financial money pit.
Hen Being Fed A farmer’s choice on what to feed their animals is governed by many factors, such as the age of the animal. They may also consider the price, availability, and nutrient value of various animal feed options. Modern feeds consist of carefully selected ingredients to provide the best nutritional value for your animals. Let us look at the types of animal feeds commonly used on a farm. There are three primary forms of roughages: dry roughages, pastures, and silages. The two basic types of roughages are grass and legumes. Grasses are higher in fibre and dry matter while legumes have a high content of minerals, proteins, and vitamins. Getting quality roughages for your horses reduces the number of concentrates needed and gives them sufficient supply of vitamins and minerals. Concentrates are energy-rich foods. They include cereal grains, such as corn, barley, wheat, oats and sorghum, as well as their by-products. Rice and wheat bran are an excellent source of niacin and thiamine. They should comprise 25% or less of the concentrate ration. Cereals are the primary energy source for ruminants. Mixed Feeds Mixed feeds may have a high or low protein or fibre content or may have equal rations. You should give horses that are growing mixed feeds that have a higher content of protein to increase the speed at which their muscles develop. If your horses are already grown, and you would wish them to stay lean, then you should opt for mixed feeds with a higher fibre content. As a farmer, make sure you give your animals the best nutrient value within your budget. Take your time to conduct a background check on different suppliers and choose one with proven records of accomplishment.
Low Countries The Low Countries is a coastal region of Western Europe that consists of the nations of the Netherlands, Belgium, and parts of France, Germany, and Luxembourg. The region stretches from Gravelines and Dunkirk in France to the southwest to German East Frisia in the northeast and Luxembourg and French Thionville in the southeast. The region was famous for its trade and its guild system during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with guilds and councils encouraging the free flow of goods and craftsmen in the region and governing cities. The region was once almost entirely ruled by the House of Habsburg as the "Habsburg Netherlands" and the "Seventeen Provinces" from the 16th to 18th centuries, but the Dutch Revolt and the expansion of France would lead to the dissolution of both. Today, the countries are closely related through European Union membership and historical ties, and they prove to be a mixture of Flemish/Dutch, French, and German cultures. Ad blocker interference detected!
Atlas Obscura is Hiring! Join us in pursuit of wonder. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania America's Oldest Operating Theater In the early 1800s, an operating theater was quite literally that—a combination of surgical operating room and stage theater, complete with an unruly audience of young doctors, nervous “performers,” and physical comedy. Students crowded into the seats to see how a particular surgery was performed, or just for an afternoon show. Antiseptics, anesthesia, and any sense of a patient’s privacy had yet to be invented. In the days before medical anesthesia, the primary tool of the surgeon was the speed at which they could detach limb from trunk. Patients were generously given a choice of opium, liquor, or a knock on the head with a mallet to render them unconscious. Within the walls of Philadelphia’s modern Pennsylvania Hospital is the original hospital, founded in 1751 by Ben Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond. The Pine building, in addition to having a beautiful medical library (featuring 13,000 books and a series of plaster anatomical casts) holds the famous theater. Built in 1804 and used until 1868, the operating theater was the first of its kind in America. The building of the amphitheater helped formalize surgery and turn it into a recognized medical discipline. Of course, you still wouldn’t want to have been the one on the table in 1804. “Opium, whiskey, or mallet?” Know Before You Go The grounds are open and the historical buildings may be viewed from outside, but all exterior doors are locked: visitors must check in through the modern hospital's main entrance on 8th Street. The theater can only be visited on work days. Edit Place
How to Grow Tomatillos Views: 13163 \| Last Update: 2009-02-04 How to Grow Tomatillos - Provided by eHow Growing tomatillos is very similar to growing tomatoes, as a cage or trellis is required for the vine to climb, they are started by the seed in warm soil, and they thrive in full, hot sun. Grow a tomatillo vine to use in cooking with helpful advice from... View Video Transcript About this Author Yolanda Vanveen Video Transcript Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen, and in this segment we're going to learn all about how to grow tomatillos or tomatillos. It's a beautiful plant that's related to tomatoes that's used in all types of Mexican foods. It's one of my favorite foods. Now, tomatillos are grown just like tomatoes would be grown, and you start em' by seeds. And so, you wait until the last frost is gone; at least two weeks to a month after the last frost, and you just start em' by seed about two inches deep. And they'll grow a vine just like a tomato does. Put em' on a tomato cage, up against a fence, or onto some string, and just wrap em' on there, and they'll grow all summer long. And then, they'll produce these little green; they look about the size of a cherry tomato, but they're green and they have veins through em, and as soon as they look full and ripe you pull em' off and you can use em'. And they're used in salsas or in jellies; in all different types of Mexican recipes, and they taste really good. There's even a juice that they make from it that tastes really good; just like candy. And they'll grow all summer through the fall. You just keep picking the tomatillos off. And in the fall the vine'll start dying back when it gets cold at night, and you can just chop em' down to the ground, and either let em' mulch themselves or just let em' die and compost what's remaining, and just start em' in the spring again. Just start em' by seed, or sometimes you can buy em' in a container already growing, and just transplant em'. And so, they like full hot, all day sun, especially if you live in the coast or a little bit inland. If you live in a really hot climate they can handle a little bit of shade as well. So, grow tomatillos just like you would a tomato. Put em' in good organic soil, compost, and make sure they have something to grab onto, and then cut or pick the tomatillos off as they're ripe. And you can grow em' yourself and enjoy them in all of your Mexican dishes.
Climate change,population and urban growth have all contributed to stresses in the UK water infrastructure. Since 2008 Rainwater Harvesting Ltd have been developing systems to reuse rainwater within the domestic environment. Over the past year the engineers and designers have focussed on a Sustainable Water Management System. RainActiv combines the benefits of rainwater harvesting for non-potable applications with controlled release of attenuated water into the network. The concept is simple but the design is innovative. The outcome is an effective,affordable decentralised water management system with shared ownership between the agencies,authorities,developers and consumers. How Does RainActiv Achieve This? Rainwater is collected off the roof,filtered and stored in an underground tank. Without light or temperature variance’s the water stays cool and fresh. It is then pumped back into the house for toilets,washing machines and outside use. RainWater Harvesting Ltd have developed WRAS approved mains back up systems which make the systems simple to operate and install. Both direct and gravity fed systems are available. The RainActiv Sustainable Drainage Element (SDE) is calculated assuming that the rainwater capacity is full. The secondary tank volume has a calculated capacity which allows further rainwater to be collected. The design team use sophisticated software to ensure that critical storm duration criteria are met. At the SDE level the water is directed to the overflow but at a controlled rate and therefore not overloading the system. RainWater Harvesting are exhibiting at Ecobuild Stand S4100 and Homebuilding and Renovating Show F152 during March This slideshow requires JavaScript. Visit Website:
Charles and Roberts' balloon, 1783 Charles and Roberts' balloon, 1783 C028/9761 Rights Managed Request low-res file 530 pixels on longest edge, unwatermarked Request/Download high-res file Uncompressed file size: 50.5MB Downloadable file size: 4.8MB Price image Pricing Please login to use the price calculator Caption: Charles and Robert's balloon. Illustration of the first hydrogen balloon designed by French balloonist Jacques Charles (1746-1823) and the Robert brothers (Anne-Jean Robert, 1758-1820; Nicolas-Louis Robert, 1760-1820). They launched their balloon on 27 August 1783 from the Champ-de-Mars (now the site of the Eiffel tower). A large crowd of onlookers observed with excitement and chased the unmanned balloon 21 kilometres to its point of landing in the village of Gonesse. When the designers reached the balloon they found local villagers had attacked it with a knife and pitchforks. Among the crowd who watched the ascent was Benjamin Franklin. He realised its potential, and when later asked what use was such a balloon he replied 'well, what use is a baby?'. This engraving, by Andrew Bell (1726-1809), is part of Plate 314 from the third edition (1797-1803) of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica'. Keywords: 1700s, 1783, 18th century, aeronaut, aerostation, anne-jean robert, artwork, aviation, aviator, balloon, balloonist, brothers, champ de mars, early, encyclopaedia britannica, first, france, french, history, human, hydrogen, illustration, inventor, jacques charles, nicolas-louis robert, people, person, pioneer, robert, roberts, technological, technology, transport, transportation
Dynamic Content on a Website Sometimes you have to show a lot of content to the user, but don’t want to create multiple pages for each of the object. For example, if you were a shopkeeper or a baker or cook. You might not want to create a seperate page for cake.html, cookie.html, chicken-soup.html. That is pretty sick right? That’s where you use the Query Strings or the Url Data. You just append a data to your URL, and on the server-side, you use that data from the URL, and change the content on the web page. That would be just like, changing the switch from ON to OFF. Let’s continue our example. If you were the developer of your website for your bakery. You might have to write the code in each of the page. And at the same time, you might to make a new page if your bakery gets a new item. Then your file system would have been like: 1. Default.html (or index.html) 2. About.html 3. Contact.html 4. Order.html 5. Cake.html 6. Cookie.html 7. Apple-pie.html 8. Juice.html 9. …etc But, you can reduce this to just one page. Yes! Lets change the File System to this: 1. Default.html (or index.html) 2. About.html 3. Contact.html 4. Order.html 5. Item.html 6. …etc If you’re using ASP.NET Web Pages, that we’re using since the beginning. Then you can try this code out, you will find it really simple, handy and amazing. The example URL would be like: http://www.example.com/item/item-id-or-item-name var item = UrlData[0]; /* get the urldata / var content = ""; if(item == "somevalue") { content = "Cakes are good!"; } else if (item == "someothervalue") { content = "Cookies are fresh!"; Now, I will explain the code, the code takes the URL data of the page, you must keep a note that the content placed infront of the page name can be accessed. In the example we had: Then I used the ASP.NET to get the first part, note the [0] first parameter after the page name. And then used an if else block to show the dynamic content depending on the item-name. Lets do this code with out own example: var item = UrlData[0]; var action = UrlData[1]; / notice the paramter */ var response = ""; var content = ""; if(item == "cake") { content = "Cakes are good for birthday party!"; @if(action == "purchase") { <a href="buy-item/@item">CHECK OUT</a> } else { <a href="item/@item/purchaase">PURCHASE THIS</a> This is a sample, you can see that the code would execute and would check for the URL, and inside the URL it would change the content of the Website. You can have as many URL parameters as much you want and they are better to read too. You can add actions, such as feedback, purchase, contact email sent etc. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Monday, August 1, 2016 Why Sexual Education Is Necessary To Primary Prevention Sexual Education Should Be Mandatory Sexual education of children is essential to the prevention of sexual abuse, before it can happen. This also applies to sexual assault. I believe that sexual education should be required of all children in every country in an age-appropriate format. But I am sure that saying that much may have shocked you, and you may wonder what the reasons I have are. Say What? Let us begin with defining what sexual education means. Sexual education is the educating of children about the topics and mechanics involved in sex and sexuality, but that is not all that it is. Sexual education means teaching children about safe sex practices, about consent, and about sexual boundaries. It also means teaching children that if they are having an issue of a sexual nature, they can get help for it. Let me expand what I mean by that. If a child has been the victim of sexual abuse or assault, it means that the child hears they can get help and they can tell someone. They may not even realize that what was done to them was abusive. If a child has sexual thoughts towards someone else that they would like to act out, but have no idea how to go about that, they might seek help if they know they can. Some have no idea that is even an option. It also means that if someone is wrestling with pedophilia, or a sexual attraction to children, they hear the message that there is help and they do not have to face it alone. You see, sexual education does not just mean teaching children about sex. Facing reality, they will find out about sex eventually. As rational human beings, we would prefer that they do not find out by watching pornography and getting an unrealistic idea of what sex is. Right? Guidance Versus No Guidance So… what happens when a child starts having sexual feelings, but they have no guidance for them? We know that there is age-appropriate and age-inappropriate sexual behavior, and we know that it is possible for children to sexually abuse other children. In the absence of knowing what to do with sexual feelings, or unwanted sexual advances, or sexual issues and struggles, they will do what children often do: Experiment. Sometimes, that experimentation is expected and does not harm other children. But sometimes, the other child is traumatized by such experimentation. It is obviously beneficial for children to have guidance so that they learn what is and is not socially acceptable, and so that they can avoid harming someone else. Sexual education is essential to preventing child sexual abuse for that reason. Everyone Makes It Political Sexual education is a political topic for many, because there are differing approaches to sexual education. Some want abstinence education, or trying to teach children that they should abstain from sex before marriage. Some want comprehensive sexual education, or teaching children everything from the mechanics, boundaries, and expectations around sex to the physical health aspects of the risk of STD’s, AIDS/HIV, and safe sex. Others want to teach children about LGBTQ issues, so that children who have attractions to their same sex have resources to utilize, support groups to go to, or someplace to go to know they are not alone. Let me cut through the political messes on this issue and ask you a simple question… If sexual education is not taught in school, and you are a parent, are you willing to honestly answer every question your child has about sex? Are you capable of having that conversation in a professional, calm atmosphere, without freaking out because it is your child asking the questions? Do you have what it takes to ensure that your child does not walk away with the message that sex is inherently wrong or evil? I ask that because many parents struggle with how to have those conversations, because of how emotionally involved they are and because they may not know what to say or how to teach their children what they need to know about sex. They may have no idea what their child even needs to know about sex, or why they need to know it. Sexual education should not be a political issue. Part of being human for the vast majority of humanity is having sexual feelings, just as the vast majority of humanity needs a job, shelter, food, clothing, etc. We teach children about these things, but we sometimes expect them to just figure the sex aspect out on their own. That is a dangerous expectation for reasons I have already outlined. It is also possible for children to commit crimes because they do not know that what they did is a crime. Sexual education can teach children not only the parts about sex that make us squirm, it can teach them ethics of how to behave so that they do not harm others, or themselves, through sexual behavior. Putting Facts First Rather than making the issue political, we should go where the facts go. Are there studies that look at which kinds of sexual education are more effective at teaching body safety? Are there studies that look at the sexual behaviors of children with differing kinds of sexual education? Are the results of some forms of education more advantageous compared to others? These are the kinds of questions we should be asking, for the sake of our children. I am not going to propose studies or link you to any. Go Google it. Go find out the information. Explore the topic. I have no idea what political background you, dear reader, may be coming from. But let me explain mine: My father is a republican, and my mother does not care about politics. We never discussed politics much in our house. I formed my own ideas. I am neither a democrat or a republican. There are issues that I find to be important, and I vote on those issues and choose the candidate I prefer based on that. I do not believe it is rational or sane to stick to a particular political platform. I suppose it is possible I just insulted someone, but my point is that sticking to a particular ideology is fallacious because it can all too easily lead us to conclusions that are not based on facts. On issues involving crime, when we form ideas based solely on ideology and not on the facts of varying approaches, we can enable more crime to happen through negligence. That is not in anyone’s best interests, particularly where children are concerned. Child sexual abuse is an epidemic that demands that the facts be placed above ideology, religion, political party platform, or opinions. We cannot prevent child sexual abuse before it happens by only doing what we think is best. We must consult facts, studies, and experts on the subjects involved so that the best course of action to protect children is taken. I hope you can see better my perspective, and the perspective of primary prevention, on why sexual education is necessary. I hope you have the time to research what works and what does not work, and I hope that children are important enough to you that you are willing to put aside your own ideas and look at the facts. Sexual abuse and sexual assault cannot be adequately prevented if the facts do not matter. No comments: Post a Comment
FDA Pulls Antibacterial Soaps Five Reasons Why You Should Probably Stop Using Antibacterial Soap By Joseph Stromberg smithsonianmag.com January 3, 2014 About 75 percent of liquid antibacterial soaps and 30 percent of bars use a chemical called triclosan as an active ingredient. The drug, which was originally used strictly in hospital settings, was adopted by manufacturers of soaps and other home products during the 1990s, eventually ballooning into an industry that’s worth an estimated $1 billion. Apart from soap, we’ve begun putting the chemical in wipes, hand gelscutting boards, mattress pads and all sorts of home items as we try our best to eradicate any trace of bacteria from our environment. Bottom line: Manufacturers have until 2016 to do so, or pull their products from the shelves. But we’re here to tell you that you probably shouldn’t wait that long to stop using antibacterial soaps. Here’s our rundown of five reasons why that’s the case: “I suspect there are a lot of consumers who assume that by using an antibacterial soap product, they are protecting themselves from illness, protecting their families,” Sandra Kweder, deputy director of the FDA’s drug center, told the AP. “But we don’t have any evidence that that is really the case over simple soap and water.” Manufacturers say they do have evidence of triclosan’s superior efficacy, but the disagreement stems from the use of different sorts of testing methods. Tests that strictly measure the number of bacteria on a person’s hands after use do show that soaps with triclosan kill slightly more bacteria than conventional ones. 2. Antibacterial soaps have the potential to create antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The reason that the FDA is making manufacturers prove these products’ efficacy is because of a range of possible health risks associated with triclosan, and bacterial resistance is first on the list. Heavy use of antibiotics can cause resistance, which results from a small subset of a bacteria population with a random mutation that allows it to survive exposure to the chemical. If that chemical is used frequently enough, it’ll kill other bacteria, but allow this resistant subset to proliferate. If this happens on a broad enough scale, it can essentially render that chemical useless against the strain of bacteria. This is currently a huge problem in medicine—the World Health Organization calls it a “threat to global health security.” Some bacteria species (most notably, MRSA) have even acquired resistance to several different drugs, complicating efforts to control and treat infections as they spread. Health officials say that further research is needed before we can say that triclosan is fueling resistance, but several studies have hinted at the possibility. &lt;img src=”http://thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com//filer/f4/06/f406ff53-15e7-4223-8f7c-0e49f3c475a5/soap_bar.jpg__800x450_q85_crop_upscale.jpg” alt=”” These same effects haven’t yet been found in humans, but the FDA calls the animal studies “a concern”—and notes that, given the minimal benefits of long-term triclosan use, it’s likely not worth the risk. 4. The soaps might lead to other health problems, too. There’s evidence that children with prolonged exposure to triclosan have a higher chance of developing allergies, including peanut allergies and hay fever. Scientists speculate that this could be a result of reduced exposure to bacteria, which could be necessary for proper immune system functioning and development. What Should You Do? One is a non-antibiotic hand sanitizer, like Purell, which don’t contain any triclosan and simply kill both bacteria and viruses with good old-fashioned alcohol. Because the effectiveness of hand-washing depends on how long you wash for, a quick squirt of sanitizer might be more effective when time is limited. Outside of hospitals, though, the CDC recommends the time-tested advice you probably heard as a child: wash your hands with conventional soap and water. That’s because while alcohol from hand sanitizer kills bacteria, it doesn’t actually remove dirt or anything else you may have touched. But a simple hand wash should do the trick. The water doesn’t need to be hot, and you’re best off scrubbing for about 30 seconds to get properly clean. Published in: on January 14, 2014 at 11:22 am Leave a Comment The URI to TrackBack this entry is: https://disdelight.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/fda-pulls-antibacterial-soaps/trackback/ RSS feed for comments on this post. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s %d bloggers like this:
Open main menu Wikibooks β Delphi is both an object oriented programming language (OOP) and an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Published by the Embarcadero company (formerly CodeGear and more formerly Borland), Delphi is an alternative to language such as Visual Basic offering development with both rapidity and good quality. However, nowadays most companies prefer more modern languages such as Java or C#. It originated from the Pascal language, which then became Object Pascal (pascal with objects support). Delphi is Object Pascal running on Windows and Kylix is Object Pascal running on Linux. Table of ContentsEdit See alsoEdit Wikibook Development Stages Sparse text Developing text Maturing text Developed text Comprehensive text
Elaboration on two known issues in the context of finding an automated approach Each post marked with “known” in the title is about the known results and concerns my notes, many of the notes are not thoroughly checked and the solutions are non-rigorous. In this post, we are going to start with the problems, have informal look a these as well as the surroundings of the problems and then try to elaborate on a potentially interesting direction in problem solving. The key point would be to use multi-variable approach, ie. the conversion of the variables of the original task to a multivariable task, then introduce strategies that would just take advantage of contraction search and then involve 2nd price auction problem solvers bidding for their chance, which would finally lead to more structured problem solving. This post is very informal and remains part of my internal analysis of certain problems and the reader might find it difficult to read. cos1 irrational As many of you know the answer to the problem, I will make a short introduction as how to handle problems in a generic way. What we currently know is that we will be dealing with a function. Will we be analyzing its values or only one value? We will be analyzing its values in general unless we notice something special about the given value for an argument equal to 1. Here, we are dealing with a known function and students know that the cosine function has also irrational values. Assuming that we will not pursue the path claiming that argument 1 is in some way special, we will focus on taking a closer look at more values of the cosine function. Knowing that will focus on more values of the cosine function, lets think what to do next. Here we have the case that we know much about the function itself, in generic cases that is not the case and we should learn more about the function. That is indeed the very first thing as might show us that, for instance, argument 1 is a special case. Here, we don’t claim it. As we know that cosine function has irrational values, we might try to build a chain of implications based on the character of the cosine function to connect cos1 with cos30, value of which is irrational. If that were possible, we could be able to prove the task. Let us now assume that \cos 1 be rational as we know that . From the character of the cosine function we have that \cos(2x)=2\cos(x)^2-1, which leads to a conclusion that cos2 is also rational. Knowing that \cos (n+1)+\cos (n-1)=2\cos n\cos 1, we will see that for n=2 we could find a rational value of cos3. Iterating that, we could find a rational value of cos30, which leads to contradiction, making our claim false, q.e.d. What we managed to do was to find the chain of implications based on the character of the cosine function to show that if rationality of cos1 depends on rationality of cos30. But, why did we choose this solution? Lets take a closer look at the problem again. We have a special case. If we don’t say it is special indeed, we must know how to connect values of cos30 and cos1. In the same time, we don’t know if cos1,cos2,…,cos89 are rational or not. If we were not able to connect these two values, we would have to find something special about cos1. Reductio ad absurdum, as is, is an assumption of the opposite so what matters is using it is to find the place where the logical chain leads to contradiction with the very assumption. So, before diving into the line of the proof, we need to be able to tell how we could be able to find the contradiction. A good example of this is a proof of irrationality of \pi or e. In the first proof, (for the sake of contradiction) we assumme \pi =\frac{p}{q}, , where p, q are comprime integers. And then we consider I_n =\int_0^{p/q}\frac{x^n(p-qx)^n}{n!}\sin x dx, n\in N , showing that I_n is an integer, I_n \ge 1 and converges to 0, which is a contradiction. In the second proof, for any natural integer n, we have e =\sum_{k=0}^n\frac {1}{k!}+\int_0^1\frac{(1-t)^n}{n!}e^t dt and for any n, 0 < \int_0^1\frac{(1-t)^n}{n!}e^t dt <\frac {3}{(n+1)!}. .To conclude, in both cases we made assumptions of the opposite as we had a strategy of finding a contradiction during the analysis of the function (another presentation of the same value) that takes advantage of the element in question, namely either \pi or e. Having that in mind, before diving into the very line of contradiction, we should think as how to embed the element in question into the environment in which we feel more comfortable, i.e. in one where we could foresee potential contradictions. To find the contradiction, we just analyze different aspects of the function in the given environment. Prove that ab+cd is not a prime as an example of looking at the same thing from different perspectives Let a, b, c, d be integers with a>b>c>d>0. Suppose that ac+bd =k(b+d+a-c) k \in Z. Prove that ab+cd is not prime. Before going further with the proof, I will address a couple of issues. Firstly, we don’t know what’s the most crucial elements of a certain task. Even if such does not exist, the more we know about the problem, the more likely it is that a reasonably interesting solution or new theory will be created. New perspective enable different decomposition of the problem and a new decomposition allows new attack strategies. To increase the amount of information we know about a specific problem we are going to use computers for gathering information and deduction. In the long run the computers will also be used even more for deduction, thus the need to redefine the position of humans shows up in the horizon. Secondly, in our task, we do have a certain equation we got used to, thus the very first idea for many is to re-arrange it. That, combined with the fact that the equation contains additional parameter, results in a vision that we are going to be dealing with a proof with multiple cases. Still, such proofs are rarely elegant as instead of the logical chain those represent a set of “if” clauses handled with smaller chains. For the automated theorem proving such an approach would have the potential to give good results due to computational capabilities of computers whilst won’t due to the fact that heuristics is often enough for computers to assume associations without the need for a legitimate rigorous proof. Those rigorous proofs are still required for the sake of development of strategies thinking whilst it is often the case that computers might take advantage of assumptions, which in certain cases turn into reductio ad absurdium. For problems in the area of automated theorem proving or computational complexity automation of conjecturing the assumptions cuts the domain of definition effectively enough to enable further heuristics. Given a certain degree of pure iteration we face the very useful assumptions and a decision tree with certain branches handled with proofs by contradiction (those branches are pruned later on). Lets now get back to our initial question. Firstly, in our task there are many trivial cases, those will be omitted in the analysis. We notice that the number we will be checking for primarility is a sum. We don’t have any tools for verification of sums for primarility. I have made a proposition of research in the field of number spectral analysis and the R-sequence, but here omitted. So, for now, we don’t have any method for verification of primility of a sum of two numbers. Now, another set of words from the given task: “not prime”. To show that an integer is not prime, we need to show that it has more than one divisor, i.e. its number of divisors belongs to a set \{2,3,4,5,…$\}$. Lets now assume the number in question is prime. We then have ab+cd=(a+d)c+(b-a)a=m(a+d,b-c) m\in N. For m=1, we have that ab+cd=(a+d,b-c) < a+d, which contradicts with the assumption. For a case (a+d,b-c)=1, we have b+d+a-c\|ac+bd, i.e. there exists p such that ac+bd=p(b+d+a-c). Also, ac+bd=(a+d)b-(b-c)a=p(b+d+a-c)=p(a+d)-(b-c)p, thus (p-b)(a+d)=(a+p)(b-c). From the assumption for this case, (a+d,b-c)=1, we have a+p=(a+d)k \rightarrow b-p=k(b-c) \rightarrow a+b=k(a+b+d-c). We also see that if k=1 then c=d, which is a contradiction again. And, for k\ge 2 we have that a+b\ge 2(a+b+d-c) \rightarrow 2c\ge a+b+2d , which again is a contradiction. Given that we fulfilled all the cases, we are done. From a perspective of automated theorem proving, we would have many special cases and verification of contradictions. So, a computer could do our thing here and this was the reason why I chose this task here. Another thing is to try to understand what what equation might mean. Geometrically, if we have the sum of two fields (a carrot per one lattice point) the same as the field from the RHS, ie. the multiplication, we already see that the LHSes field could be shown as 2d field in integers. And knowing that this equation is true, we have to prove that yet another sum of two fields can also be shown in 2d (it is enough not being prime means that it has at least 2 divisors, i.e. having two divisors is already enough). And now, knowing the result from the proof with many special cases, we already know the answer, thus based on that might try to judge notice geometrical connections. These could be used for looking at such proofs from yet another perspective, for instance, seeing p_1p_2 as a field of a rectangle. Like in the example of a rectange with a and b is arbitrarily cut into n squares with sides x_{1},...,x_{n}, where we need to show that \frac{x_{i}}{a}\in Q and \frac{x_{i}}{b}\in Q for all i\in\{1,..., n\}. At first sight we see that it is interesting result connecting geometry and numbers. The generally known solution to this task is to express the intersections in the square tilting as a grid and then use a basis of the set of lengths of the squares as representation for constructing two lemmas regarding the grid structure to finally be able to deduce the answer to the question while counting as area of the rectangle by adding all the squares from the grid. The point Now, if we take a closer look at both issues, we notice that for building long-way implications regarding and- at the same time- keeping the argument quite self-contained, it might be an effective approach to introduce more varaibles that describe somehow differently the known definition and then look for potential contradictions. In the case of cos1, it was relatively easier than in the case of either \pi or e. Still, in the general case we would have a situation quite similar to the case of the latter, also in many variables. Combining that with visual representation that would be described by the newly introduced variables would give us a chance to deal with the problem twofold, i.e. by visually “noticing” contradictions (using a finite computational resource, either our head or a computer) or through finding the contradictions as indicated in the first examples and many known results. That combined with a more computational approach to set theorz would let us use finiatary formulations of infinitiary statements and quite a different approach to mathematical objects (one is more finitary than the other, oracles) and that could be used for automated problem solving using the problem decomposition (from the examples), contradiction search as well as convex optimization for minimizing time of the task being solved. So, for yet another problem, we would introduce a model based new variables that would describe the known facts and in the same time might allow contradiction search. Such a multi-variable approach would also allow more effective problem handling using a computer. Then, we would have different problem solving strategies ready based on different problem decomposition. The strategies would bid based on the decomposition of the problem as not all might have enough resources to work simulataneously and would bid truthful values to ensure dominant strategy of k-th price auction, taking into consideration resources required. Then, we’d let the winner work first trying to look for contradictions based on the pre-programmed knowledge. The ideas to do that would be used we can derive from these examples, ie. to deduce the most trivial knowledge about the character of two sides of equalities of a specific problem. Also, regarding the relative construction of geometrical objects so that would could decompose such problems too or decompose other problems into such problems so that our human brain would also be more likely to assist in finding vulnerable points. It would be crucial to note that as of now human brains are better at finding patterns than the computes due to the fact that the knowledge based on numerous senses is, by default, way more strucutred and the patterns are likely more blurred, ie. the comparision of two extensive branches of a tree are less accurate but give useful hints and approximations. Such approximations could be used to build the problem solving strategy before launching the contradiction search process due to the parameter space. About misha This entry was posted in Mathematics. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Summary and Analysis: Grit by Angela Duckworth • von FlashBooks Book Summaries • Sprecher: Dean Bokhari • 0 Std. 43 Min. • ungekürztes Hörbuch This is a book summary on Grit by Angela Duckworth. In this must-listen book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, students, educators, athletes, and business people - both seasoned and new - that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent, but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls "grit". Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of "genius", Duckworth, now a celebrated researcher and professor, describes her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not "genius", but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance. Among Grit's most valuable insights: Why any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal How grit can be learned, regardless of IQ or circumstances How lifelong interest is triggered How much of optimal practice is suffering and how much ecstasy Which is better for your child - a warm embrace or high stand Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen: Für diesen Titel gibt es noch keine Hörerrezensionen. Weitere Infos zum Hörbuch • Erscheinungsdatum: 23.05.2016 • Verlag: FlashBooks Book Summaries
This is a pair of scissors, with two holes ready for your fingers to go into. The bladder indicate to cut things. The holes are referred to as affordances, allowing fingers to be inserted. They are also referred to as signifiers, indicating where the fingers are to go to (Norman, 2013). Signifiers identify clearly how people discover possibilities: signifiers are signs, noticeable signals of what can be done (Norman, 2013). The different sizes of the holes give constraints to the limitation of the number of fingers to be inserted: a big hole suggests several fingers whereas a small hole suggests only one finger (Norman, 2013). The mapping between holes and fingers suggests the set of possible operations, and is signified and constrained by the holes (Norman, 2013). Furthermore, the operation is insensitive to finger placement in which the scissors will still work if you use the wrong fingers but it is not as comfortably (Norman, 2013). Norman, D. A. (2013). The design of everyday things. New York: Basic Books. Hair dryer As you can see from the picture of a hair dryer above, it reminds you of how important its existence to humankind. It can get your hair done drying in a span of a few minutes instead of waiting for it to air-dry which can take up about an hour. How amazing is this product? The rectangular button-like thing affords the level of temperature by pushing up or down one or two levels. The relationship between a physical object and a person can be referred to as affordance (Norman, 2013). An affordance solely revolves around a relationship between the properties of an object and the capabilities of the agent that cause them to occur in a particular way, resulting how the object could possibly be used (Norman, 2013). The qualities of the object and the abilities of the agent that are interacting are working together as one to have the presence of an affordance (Norman, 2013). People acknowledge that by pushing the rectangular button-like thing indicates the level of temperature when drying hair. Sometimes I want it cold, sometimes I want it hot. Water heater has increasingly become an essential household item in our lives. What are the chances of people wanting their need to be met, which in this case, shower with varying temperature. Water heater seems like the solution to the aforementioned need. Human-centered design (HCD) is an approach that prioritizes human needs, capabilities, and behavior first, then proceeds to design so as to accommodate those needs, capabilities, and ways of behaving (Norman, 2013). It is a human-centered design as human needs such as showering with hot or cold temperature are considered and put into work. Water heater is a good design as it also includes good communication, which in this case from machine to person, showing people what actions are possible, what is happening, and what is about to happen (Norman, 2013). There are signifiers on the water heater, telling that their needs are going to be met by just simply pressing, clicking, or pushing. beep means it is time to stop your car. Vehicles’ parking sensors produce beep sound as an information to alert drivers when it detects object from the back. This happens when drivers reverse their vehicle during a situation such as parking. The beep sound produced acts as a signifier for people when it comes to parking. The beep sound alerts drivers from running into objects, and sometimes it can be people too. As such, accidents can be avoided with parking sensors equipped in vehicles. Sound should be visible in the sense that it will signal something about the actions that are being taken place and also actions that matter to the users (Norman, 2013). Sound tells us about things that are out of reach by our eyes, and it does so while our eyes are occupied elsewhere therefore it is as essential as visual information (Norman, 2013). This is a fairly good design as not only does it bring convenience but also ensure drivers’ safety.
Log in with your email address username. [Series] Breastfeeding in the 21st century: epidemiology, mechanisms, and lifelong effect The importance of breastfeeding in low-income and middle-income countries is well recognised, but less consensus exists about its importance in high-income countries. In low-income and middle-income countries, only 37% of children younger than 6 months of age are exclusively breastfed. With few exceptions, breastfeeding duration is shorter in high-income countries than in those that are resource-poor. Our meta-analyses indicate protection against child infections and malocclusion, increases in intelligence, and probable reductions in overweight and diabetes.
Reflecting on the Paris climate agreement, one year later One year ago, world leaders from 195 countries adopted the Paris climate agreement, a plan to reduce CO2 emissions and slow the impact of global climate change. Ford Foundation program officers reflect on the progress made this year, the roles of business and indigenous land rights in combating climate change, and how countries are moving from planning to implementation. Indigenous peoples and forest communities take center stage David Kaimowitz, director, Climate Change and Natural Resources From the Sioux protesters at Standing Rock, North Dakota to the global #GuardiansOfTheForest campaign, indigenous activists have been at the forefront of global climate efforts since the Paris Agreement was negotiated last year. They have been calling on governments and companies to help them protect their forestlands, and to keep fossil fuels in the ground. These activists have gained prominent global allies, including Pope Francis, Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, UN leaders Ban Ki-moon and Helen Clark, actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Alec Baldwin, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, business leader Paul Polman, and philanthropists Laurene Powell Jobs and Alexander Soros. These prominent figures have all spoken out about the importance of protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and communities. People are starting to wake up to the fact that everyone benefits when indigenous communities protect rivers, fields, and forests—because it helps slow global climate change. Scientific studies released this year by prestigious think tanks like the World Resources Institute (WRI), the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC), Rights and Resources (RRI), and Resources for the Future (RFF) show this is not just talk. These studies show that rural communities manage a large share of tropical forests—and the carbon they store—and that strengthening community land rights is a significant and cost-effective approach to addressing climate change. Sadly, despite progress over the past year, indigenous climate defenders continue to pay a serious price for their efforts to protect their lands. Nine months ago, Berta Cáceres, an environmentalist and Lenca leader, was killed by armed intruders after years of defending the forests and rivers of Intibucá, Honduras. Last month, North Dakotan police beat hundreds of indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock. These are not isolated incidents: Global Witness has documented the murder of scores of rural environmentalists in Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, and elsewhere. In recent months, many people have worried that policy makers in the United States and elsewhere will back down on their commitments to combating climate change. But indigenous leaders are not deterred. They have resisted efforts by companies, governments and others to destroy their cultures and steal their lands for over 500 years. In the wake of the Paris Agreement, they will continue to protect nature, and work to ensure that oil and gas companies stop drilling on their lands and destroying their rivers. They will continue to fight. So should we. Business’s integral but behind-the-scenes role in the Paris Agreement Graham Macmillan, senior program officer, Inclusive Economies Last year, the world saw three global frameworks established and adopted that could lead our planet to a stronger, more inclusive, and more sustainable future. The Financing for Development Conference, the Sustainable Development Summit, and COP21 were all milestones in their own right, but together they underscore the importance of adopting frameworks that integrate climate, people, and financial capital considerations. All three emphasize the urgency of adopting more sustainable behavior. I had the privilege of being in Paris a year ago and I felt that sense of urgency. On a tight deadline, the French government and the United Nations managed to balance myriad national self-interests with the global interest—a feat well worth celebrating, and enforcing. World leaders like Tony deBrum, a climate change negotiator from the Marshall Islands, and Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, played an extraordinary role in COP21. And while the business sector did not have an official role in the negotiations, it will continue to play an instrumental role in implementation. For businesses and investors, the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), serve as a road map for implementing the Paris Agreement. The INDCs lay out each country’s plan for investing in and supporting the intended goals over the next 20-30 years. Many of these efforts will be driven by energy, transportation, and industrial policy, so for companies large and small, traditional and innovative, the INDCs are integral to planning and building up resources. As we’ve seen before, once new business models are adopted and executed to support sustainable behavior, finance will follow. A year after Paris, I remain encouraged and inspired by what the agreement achieved and built for the future. Beyond the Parisians’ ability to host the world only weeks after suffering devastating terror attacks, I was privileged to witness the establishment of a new global and sustainable business framework that will attract trillions of dollars of investment. While there are certainly challenges ahead, this important new framework will help shift capital to supporting innovative behavior that is forward-looking and creates value. And that will make a real difference in enabling progress on this critical issue. More important than ever Penny Davies, program officer, Equitable Development This time last year I was in Paris when countries agreed to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. It was a momentous occasion. Since then the question burning in my mind has been, Have countries been stepping up action to limit global climate change, or are they stepping back? The responses of many countries suggest they understand that action is more important than ever. So far 112 governments have publicly registered their national contributions with the UN, statements that lay out what each will do to tackle climate change. And the market conditions favor them. The declining costs of renewable solar and wind power, as well as battery storage, are a hopeful sign that the market shard of clean energy will increase, helping countries reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels. But in order to reach the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement, we need to do more than stem new CO2 emissions. We also need to remove the CO2 pollution already in the atmosphere. Tropical forests and other natural carbon “sinks” are critical for doing this. Because indigenous peoples have an essential role in protecting these forests, securing land tenure for indigenous communities is a way to reduce existing CO2 pollution and fight climate change. It’s also cost effective. To help, we need to support indigenous peoples and local communities across the world as they press for policies that strengthen their rights to their land. Unfortunately, progress is slow: Only a fraction of the world’s many forest countries are committed to including recognition of indigenous and community land rights as part of their nationally determined climate contributions under the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, scaling up this climate solution on the ground will require connecting hard-to-reach local community organizations with hard-to-tap expertise and public funding. As the first and only institution exclusively focused on securing collective rights to land and forests—and designed to respond quickly to community needs—the Tenure Facility, a new project of the Rights and Resources Initiative, is a potential game changer. I look forward to seeing its impact in 2017 and beyond.
Inventor of the mouse, Doug Engelbart, dies The Washington Post Doug Engelbart, a computer science visionary who was credited with inventing the mouse, the now-ubiquitous device that first allowed people to navigate virtual desktops with clicks and taps, died Tuesday at his home in Atherton, California. He was 88. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, where he had been a fellow since 2005, confirmed the death. At a time when computers were the size of Buicks and ran on punch cards, Engelbart led a team of researchers who conceived seminal ideas that helped build the modern computer industry and allowed the machines to become a staple of work and home life. “With his help, the computer has become a friendly servant rather than a stern taskmaster,” the noted economist Lester Thurow said in 1997. In addition to the mouse, Engelbart and his colleagues developed the concept of digital work spaces, now called windows, hypertext to conjoin digital files, and shared-screen teleconferencing. In 2000, Engelbart received the National Medal of Technology, America’s highest award in that field. “More than any other person,” the citation read, “he created the personal computing component of the computer revolution.” Perhaps no better illustration can be found of Engelbart’s egalitarian and utilitarian vision for the computer than his landmark 1962 paper, “Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework.” In it, he described an architect drafting on a computer screen: “He sits at a working station that has a visual display screen some three feet on a side; this is his working surface, and is controlled by a computer (his ‘clerk’) with which he can communicate by means of a small keyboard and various other devices.” Engelbart began work on another futuristic concept, the mouse, in 1964 after he built an $80,000 monitor and figured he needed a device to interact with the screen. He had served in the navy during World War II as a radar operator and recalled using a light pen — a type of stylus fitted with a photocell — to control a cathode-ray tube, the technology that powered radar systems and early televisions. He theorized that a similar setup would work for the computer monitor. Officially, the device was called the “X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System,” but Engelbart’s lab dubbed it the “mouse” for its tail-like cord. “We thought that when it had escaped out to the world it would have a more dignified name,” Engelbart said later. “But it didn’t.” Engelbart was not impressed with Apple’s adjustments to his invention, which originally had three buttons (Linux and other Unix-like systems still do).
PHACE Syndrome Also known as: PHACES syndrome What is PHACE Syndrome? PHACES syndrome is a term used to describe a special type of hemangioma that usually covers a segmental area of the body and is associated with other anomalies that include malformations in the posterior area of the brain, cerebral or neck blood vessels anomalies, cardiac anomalies, eye abnormalities and sternum or abdominal clefting. When a patient is found to have a hemangioma that covers a special area of the body this type of syndrome is suspected and studies that include: This page was last updated on: 1/10/2017 7:57:20 AM From the Newsdesk To Top
Anchor bolts Anchor bolts are bolts set into concrete with the threaded end sticking out (cast-in-place). Structures or frames can then be easily screwed to the concrete after it is set. They are generally considered the best way to attach structures to concrete, but can be a lot of work to install. You can buy special bolts with a hook on one end (that goes in the concrete) but any galvanized bolt will do the job. The bolts should be set at least 50mm into the concrete and the length of the bolt you need sticking out will depend on what you plan to screw down with it. For example if you are using 50mm by 50mm framing timber your bolt should be at least 125mm long (50mm in the concrete and 75mm sticking up). There are other types of anchor bolts that do not need to be case in place but require drilling into concrete, ask your local hardware store for advice. A bargeboard is a board (usually timber) fastened to the end of a roof to add strength and hide the ends of the roofing material (e.g. tiles or corrugated iron). Bargeboards can be both functional and decorative, adding character to a building. Effective coverage Effective coverage refers to the length a material will span, or area it will cover, once overlaps are taken into account. For example, a sheet of corrugated iron may be 900mm wide but once each edge is overlapped with the neighboring sheet it may only cover 850mm. In this case its effective coverage would be 850mm. Flush means to make straight or level with. In building and woodworking, something is flush when it is nether protruding nor embedded in a surface. For example, if a screw is driven into timber so that the head is level with the surface of the timber then it is flush. A paling is a length of timber usually fixed in an upright position on a fence. The terms paling, batten and picket are sometimes used interchangeably, although pailings are typically larger and wider. The sod is the top layer of a typical soil structure, usually consisting of grass, top soil, and the root structure. The sod is usually between 20-30mm thick and can generally be removed in clumps due to the binding provided by the grasses' root structure.
Search This Blog Friday, August 18, 2017 The Truth of Lies For 100 years after the Civil War, the American South was basically a one-party region. Every state consistently voted Democrat and only Democrat. It was Democrats in the state legislatures that passed Jim Crow laws. It was Democrats in the state governments that prevented blacks from voting. It was Democrats in local cities and towns that stood by as the Klan grew to power. It was Democrats who watched lynchings. It was Democrats who segregated the schools. Whenever the Democrats got into power nationally, they brought their practices with them. Woodrow Wilson was a progressive Democrat, but he was an unrepentant racist who segregated the US military and embraced the KKK. Franklin Roosevelt was a liberal icon, but he ordered all people of Japanese background to be rounded up and put in camps during World War II. Roosevelt didn't take any actions against immigrants from Germany or Italy, but children with a Japanese grandparent were put in camps. Only after World War II ended was there any movement among Democrats to step away from their racist practices. Harry Truman desegregated the armed forces, a move that so outraged racists in the Democrat party that they ran a Dixiecrat candidate against him in 1948 and almost cost him the election. When Republican Eisenhower won in 1952, there was a push for civil rights by the Republicans that was joined by some of the northern Democrats. The result was the civil rights act of 1957, the first major civil rights law. Eisenhower also supported the first efforts at desegregation after the Supreme Court outlawed the practice in 1957. In 1964 and 1965, another civil rights law was passed and the Voting Rights Act followed right after that. The opposition to the passage of these laws came almost completely from Southern Democrats. Republicans voted strongly in favor of passage. After the 1960s, the allegiance of the South to the Democrats ended. The national Democrats came up with a new plan: they decided to reinvent history. Suddenly, the Democrats portrayed themselves as the main supporters of civil rights and the Republicans were called racists. When Reagan was elected, there was a constant campaign of vilification against him. He was certainly no racist, but it didn't matter. The media joined in to support their party. Nothing was as it really was. Everything was "reinvented" through lies. A good example is how Bill Clinton was portrayed. Clinton got his start in politics working for Senator John McClellan of Arkansas. McClellan had been one who tried to filibuster the civil rights laws and the voting rights laws. He was a life-long segregationist, but Clinton jumped at the chance to work for him and considered him a mentor. No one ever mentioned that inconvenient fact when Clinton was in office. Instead, he was portrayed as "the first black president". It was a lie. Senator Byrd of West Virginia who had been a leader in the KKK was made the Senate leader by the Democrats. His racist leanings were buried by the media. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected. After that, not only were the Republicans falsely portrayed by the Democrats and media as racists during election campaigns, but any opposition to an Obama program was now due to racism. If Obama wanted taxes at X% and opponents want them at Y%, that argument was due to racism. Everything was racism. (Of course, it was just another lie, but that was the tactic the Democrats and media chose.) The problems with the Democrats' tactic were twofold. First, it didn't really work. Just think how badly Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" remark wounded her campaign. Even during the Obama years, it got to the point where calling someone or something racist became a joke. Because everything was racist, nothing was really racist. The second part of the problem is that many less observant people began to believe the lies. If you opposed a position taken by the national Democrats you must be racist. That makes you a bad person who needs to be crushed not just defeated. In other words, it spread hatred. And, of course, the biggest problem with hatred is that most people when exposed to hatred directed towards them respond in kind. The gulf between the two sides got angrier and larger. We cannot let America get dragged into this war of tribes. Diversity is fine. Tribalism is not. All of the phony charges and lies have to end. There are things that are more important than the political future of a few people; our country and our freedoms must be preserved. Right now, they are in more danger than at any time in the recent past. Thursday, August 17, 2017 Losing All Perspective CNN Style Last night I tuned in to CNN 11 times at random and found that every time that network was covering what President Trump had to say about the events in Charlottesville, Virginia. It seemed excessive to me, and I posted about it. Today brought some really important news stories from Spain. First there was a major and horrible terror attack in Barcelona that killed many people and wounded more. Then we learned that there had been a bomb which exploded last night in another town near Barcelona in what turned out to be a terrorist bomb factory. Fortunately, that blast only killed terrorists (or so it seems at this point.) Next there was a second terror attack in a city outside of Barcelona that was thwarted by police with four terrorists killed. ISIS claimed authorship of this spate of terror attacks. It was a major attack by ISIS in Western Europe. Because of this major news about the ISIS attacks in Spain, I decided to pop in at random on CNN again this evening. Between 7 and 10:15 pm, I tuned into CNN twelve times at random. On eleven of those times, the CNN show of the moment was discussing only one aspect or another of what the President had to say about Charlottesville or something connected to it. (One time, CNN was discussing the likelihood of the impeachment of the President and I am counting that among the eleven.) One time, when I tuned in, the CNN panel was discussing Charlottesville, but they broke into that discussion for a special report that there had been a second terror attack thwarted with four terrorists killed by police. The special report lasted about 90 seconds and then CNN returned to the discussion of what President Trump had to say about Charlottesville. I have to say that I was amazed. There was a major terror attack in Spain and it was being ignored. How could this be? I checked MSNBC to see how they were handling it. I only tuned in twice, but each time they were covering events in Spain. There was also major coverage of the attacks in Spain on Fox News. How could CNN just ignore a story like that for repetitive coverage of an old story. It reminded me of when that Malaysian airliner was lost and CNN had something like two weeks straight of non-stop coverage even though there was nothing new to say about it. They seem to have lost all perspective about what is important at CNN. Monumental Monuments I live in a town in Fairfield County Connecticut that really doesn't have too many statues or monuments outside of the cemeteries. There's a 9-11 monument commemorating the residents who died in the World Trade Center and on Flight 93 on that day. There's a plaque outside the old post office in memory of those who fought and died in World War I. There's a plaque dealing with the Revolutionary War and one for the Civil War. Maybe there are more, but if so, I don't know where (and I've lived here for over 30 years.) With the exception of the 9-11 memorial, I have no idea what any of these plaques and statues say. I only know the 9-11 one because I knew some of the people listed on it. The only point of my story is that I strongly believe that most people don't pay any attention to statues, plaques and monuments unless they were directly involved in what is being commemorated. New York City is nearby. As anyone who has ever been there can tell you, it is filled with statues and other commemorations of history. I lived in Manhattan for many years and worked there for more than a quarter of a century. As I think about it now, I cannot recall the details of a single statue in Manhattan except for the one of the dog in Central Park. My guess is that most people are like me and have no idea who is being depicted in the statues. (There is the Statue of Liberty, but that is not in Manhattan.) Suddenly, the nation finds itself in the midst of a campaign by the media and some others to get rid of a large number of these statues, memorials, plaques, and the like. Why? Most people don't support the removal of the statues; a poll taken yesterday showed that a large majority of Americans want the statues left in place. There's really no reason to get the country up in arms about things that are so meaningless. All that is happening is that the media is trying to divide us all into those "good" people who want the statues gone and those "racists" who want no change. It's a silly argument. No one really cares. If you were to stop 1000 people on the street in New York and ask them to identify any "offensive" statues in the city, most likely 999 couldn't even name one, and it might be 1000 out of 1000. The media/leftist campaign is completely phony. No one knows about the statues and, more important, no one cares about them. We have so many problems as a country that we ought to focus our attention on solving those problems rather than on wasting time on statues. Barcelona and CNN A few hours ago, when the first news of the Barcelona terror attack came in, I made a joke that CNN had not yet blamed the attack on President Trump. It was in poor taste, and I shouldn't have joked about such an awful event. Nevertheless, my joke turned out to be prescient. About a half hour after my post, CNN actually said on the air that Barcelona might be a "copy-cat" attack of Charlottesville. No kidding. CNN said that ISIS terrorists repeating the same sort of attack that they had used in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and elsewhere might just be copying the tactics used by the crazy thug in Charlottesville. Unbelievable! I wonder sometimes if the CNN people are just remarkably stupid or if they think the American public is totally witless. PayPal Stops Payment Processing For Some "Hate" groups The news is out today that PayPal will no longer process payments for certain groups described as "hate" groups. So is that legal? It's not a silly question, but rather a very serious one. Let's start with the law. Absent a special statute or regulation, a person is free to do business with or refuse to do business with anyone. That's why prior to the Civil Rights laws in the 1960's, it was perfectly legal to refuse to sell a home to an African American or to refuse to hire a Jew or a Hispanic. Congress passed a law that outlawed discrimination in many areas including discrimination in commerce based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. There are now further anti-discrimination laws which prohibit discrimination based upon sexual orientation, age, and other things in certain places. How does that work? Remember that pizza parlor that the media found that said it would not cater a gay wedding? There was no applicable law that barred discrimination against gays, so the pizza parlor violated no law with the policy. But what about internet service providers like PayPal? Can PayPal refuse service to a group whose politics it does not like? Is there a law which bars such refusal of service? That's a difficult question, even more difficult than the pizza parlor case. After all, if a gay couple wanted to hold a wedding in a pizza place (which would be strange enough), there were many other such places where they could go. On the other hand, if someone wants to process credit cards for internet transactions, PayPal is a necessary part of that effort. I haven't done all the research to see if there are applicable laws which would bar PayPal's new position. Certainly, there are arguments on both sides. I just don't know the proper answer. It does not seem to have ever been decided by a court. There's a second question with which we need to deal, though. Do we really want PayPal deciding who is and who is not a "hate" group? What if Pay Pal decides that the local mosque is a hate group because some of the people who pray there were arrested on terrorism charges? What if Pay Pal decides that a group called "Friends of the Islamic Republic of Iran" which sends food to the needy in that country is actually promoting terrorism and suspends dealing with the group? What if Pay Pal decides that the Jewish National Fund which works on reforestation in Israel by planting trees there is helping the "occupation" and there constitutes a hate group? What if Pay Pal decides that the ACLU provides help to criminals and terrorists and that such activities make it a hate group? Do we really want PayPal deciding who is and who is not a hate group? Don't get me wrong. I would like to see the Nazis and the KKK stamped out once and for all. I just think that we need to be more careful in allowing an organization like PayPal or Google to have the power to destroy a group just because it decides that the group is a hate group. In today's world of heated rhetoric, being called a hate group is not what it used to be. There are even organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center who seem to label everyone with whom they disagree a hate group of some sort. Terror Attack In Barcelona In a popular tourist site in Barcelona, Spain a van sped into a crowd of tourists and killed at least two. The driver has apparently fled the scene and is being chased by police. First reports call this an act of terrorism, just another in the long list of attacks across Europe in the past two years. It's a good reminder that rather than worrying about what statues are in place in some city in Kentucky, we would all do better to concern ourselves with beating the people who want to kill us all and destroy our nation and the entire Western world. In other news, CNN has not yet blamed the Barcelona attack on President Trump, but I am looking for the countdown clock the network will inevitably put up to measure the time until they do just that. UPDATE: There are now said to be 13 dead. The attack took place outside a kosher restaurant in Barcelona, so the terrorists may have been hoping to kill Jews. Two armed men are barricaded inside a bar nearby with hostages although it is not clear that these two include the driver of the van or if the events are related. It certainly seems likely that they are related, however. Wednesday, August 16, 2017 The End Of Any Pretense This evening between 6 and 11 o'clock, I checked in eleven different times, at random, on CNN. Each time I checked, someone on that network was busy denouncing President Trump as a racist, white supremacist or worse. One guy on CNN was reporting that Trump has racial hatred "in his soul". It was a disgusting display of completely Fake News. After all, President Trump has address the events in Charlottesville three times, and each time he has denounced violence, racism and bigotry. Nevertheless, CNN promotes the lie that Trump is a racist because he says that those on the left like Antifa were also to blame for the rioting in Charlottesville. He made clear that the Nazis, KKK and white suprmacists were to blame and he denounced them by name, but the President had the temerity to point out that Antifa thugs who beat people with clubs were also at fault, and for CNN that means he's a racist. There is no way that we can survive as America if the news media pumps out hatred, division and anger on a phony basis. Eventually, too many people will get upset and it will make things worse. No one ought to watch CNN ever. They can say what they want; it is their right. It is also the right of all Americans not to watch their garbage. Fantasy Mainland I just read a column on the CNN website by Frida Ghittis which begins with these words: President Donald Trump's combative defense of far-right protesters packs a nausea-inducing punch when you listen to it in Europe CNN wouldn't take a Trump political ad today because it said that the opinions in the ad were inaccurate. Nevertheless, it publishes an article on the same day in which the facts are outright false. There was no defense by Trump of far-right protesters. I know; I listened to each of Trump's statements/news conferences. Then I read the transcripts to make sure I did not miss any of what he said. Trump condemned the far-right protesters as vile and unacceptable. He denounced them. That's not an inaccurate opinion; it's just the facts. So when Frida Ghittis talks about a "combative defense" of these far-right protesters by Trump, she is not telling the truth. To be less judgmental, Ghittis is completely wrong factually in what she says. So why is it that CNN is living in a land of pure fantasy. It's not that Trump failed to condemn the far-right protesters that's the problem; rather, it's that Trump also denounced the far left counter-protesters who used Charlottesville as a place to commit physical violence against the "far-right protesters." That is an intolerable sin in the fantasy land inhabited by the mainstream media. In the real world, however, we have to deal with actual facts, not facts the way we want them to be. For eight years under Obama, actual facts were not much in vogue. ISIS was the jayvee team until their strength could no longer be denied. Syrian use of chemical weapons was a red-line, so the first 16 documented uses of those weapons by Assad were just denied by the White House until video of the victims writhing in agony as they died leaked out after the 17th attack. Benghazi was the result of a youtube video seen by fewer than 100 people even when Obama and Clinton knew in real time that it was actually a preplanned terrorist attack. Obamacare would lower premiums by $2500 per family and would let people keep their plans and doctors if they wanted. Democrats made no attempt to change the immigration laws when they had overwhelming and unstoppable control of Congress in 2009-2010, but it was due to Republican obstruction. Obama wanted to lower federal spending and fought to do so repeatedly (except that never happened.) These were all fantasies. Okay, let's be more honest: These were all lies told by the Democrats/media and Obama because the lies fit the narrative that helped the Democrats politically. The actual facts were just too harsh for the Democrats to deal with and the mainstream media fully complied in the effort. Our country was harmed in many ways by the refusal to deal with the real world. Right now, the media is still carrying out the propaganda effort rather than reporting the true facts. Just think of the non-stop criticism that President Trump got when he warned North Korea in no uncertain terms of terrible retaliation if the NK's were to attack Guam as threatened. Kim Jung Un has now walked back that threat; he wilted in the face of American resolve and possible counter-attack. The mainstream media won't even report on that. No one knows the future. It is filled with problems that will need to be solved. One thing is certain, however, we will never solve our problems if we follow the lead of the media and the Democrats and just lie about what they truly are. There's too much at stake; the lying has to stop. When Do Facts Matter? Do facts matter? If they do, when does that happen? These may sound like silly questions, but they have to be raised after watching the over the top reaction to events in Charlottesville and afterwards as well as to President Trump's comments. Do the facts regarding Charlottesville matter? They certainly should, but they really do not seem to. Yesterday, at his news conference, President Trump mentioned that there were left-wing thugs who started the melee in Virginia by charging into the crowd swinging clubs. That's not an opinion; it is a fact. One network seemed so surprised that Trump would mention this fact, that they did a "fact check" on their evening news and concluded to their surprise that Trump was actually correct in his statement. Then the same network went on to express outrage at Trump's comments. For the media, it seems, facts don't really matter. So when would facts matter? After the San Bernardino terror attack, the media kept telling us that there was no clear evidence of any direct tie between the husband and wife terrorists and ISIS or al Qaeda. They may have planned an attack; they may have been listening to lectures by ISIS clerics; they may have attacked innocent people at a Christmas party, but absent some direct tie between ISIS and the terrorists couple, it wasn't really a terror attack for certain. In that case, the media made facts hyper important. They ignored the bulk of the facts and focused on one missing ingredient. When it later turned out that evidence of a direct tie was uncovered, few in the media announced the story that the couple had indeed carried out a terror attack. When the antifa nearly burned down downtown Portland Oregon in a violent protest, the media did not focus on the violence as improper. After all, these were left wing protesters, so they must have been "driven" to violence. The facts were ignored. When there was zero evidence of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, the media focused on suppositions and assumption rather than facts. So when have facts actually mattered? It seems sadly that facts don't matter at all to the mainstream media. To be clear, this is not a justification of the white supremacist groups in Charlottesville. They are hateful and repugnant to everything that America stands for. The point, however, is that those counter protesters who came to Charlottesville to carry out violent acts are no better. We have laws that tell us when people can march and what they can say. Then we have methods for resolving disputes like whether or not to keep statues in place. No one, for any reason, gets to take the law into his or her own hands. In 1977, the American Nazi party organized a march through the town of Skokie, Illinois, an area outside Chicago that was home to thousands of Holocaust survivors. The town denied them the right to march. The case was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court which held that even the Nazis have the right to be heard under our Constitution. Skokie was order to grant a march permit. The point of the Skokie ruling was not that the Supreme Court favored Nazis. It was that the essence of America that sets us apart from so many other countries is that as Americans we have freedom. That includes the freedom of speech and of assembly. Throughout our history over a million soldiers have died to preserve those freedoms. We ought not decide now that politics is going to intervene and let one group silence another. The Nazis and the KKK, yes even them, have the right to say what they want, no matter how odious. On the other side, the antifa and other far leftists have the right to say what they want, no matter how odious. Neither side, however, has the right to use violence to silence the other. As a country, we have to make sure that people who want to speak can do so. The very essence of our country is at stake. CNN Could Have Problems In the next step in their anti-Trump crusade, CNN refused to carry an ad put out by the Trump campaign that featured the accomplishments of the President. CNN said it was "inaccurate". This give rise to 2 questions: 1. Why in the world is there a Trump campaign putting out ads already? 2. How can CNN refuse a political ad based upon their own opinion of "accuracy"? The answer is much the same to the two questions. The Trump ad says that it is listing accomplishments because the media doesn't want the American people to know the truth. At that point of referring to "the media" there is a couple of pictures of CNN anchors. The Trump ad is meant to cut through media bias to get Trump's version of the "truth" to the people, and CNN is insulted that it is accused of intentionally concealing that "truth". There's a problem here for CNN, however. The ad statement about the media is clearly a political opinion. A network like CNN cannot legally refuse a political ad because it does not like the opinion expressed so long as the opinion is not advocating violence or other criminal activity. CNN could easily have legal problems from this refusal to run the ad. Tuesday, August 15, 2017 They're Just Statues We're back to the drive by the left to remove "offensive" statues and memorials. It's another of those meaningless symbolic moves that are so important to the left and so ridiculous in reality. Tell me, does it matter that a statue of Robert E. Lee is standing on a pedestal somewhere in North Carolina? Whose life does it change? And who is helped by go to the trouble of pulling it down? The upset reminds me of what ISIS did in Syria and Iraq. In those countries, ISIS captured cities or towns that had ancient buildings left from 2500 years ago. Since these Assyrian or Babylonian ruins had statues of ancient gods or kings, ISIS had them destroyed as sacrilegious. A 2500 year old statue of an Assyrian king, a wondrous example of ancient history, was destroyed by ISIS because they thought it offensive to their views. About 15 years earlier, the Taliban in Afghanistan blew up enormous Buddhist monuments that had survived over 1000 years. Those monuments too were deemed offensive to the Taliban. And now we're back to deciding whether statues of Confederate leaders must be taken down. Also, memorials to Confederate war dead are on the chopping block. Can't we accept that the people depicted in these memorials lived in a different age? These are not inherently evil people; rather, they are people who lived at a time when societal views were quite different. Let me put it this way: there's a big difference between a memorial depicting Adolph Hitler and one in memory of Germans who died in World War II. Hitler was the epitome of evil and ought not be honored. The soldiers, however, gave their lives for their country. It's just not the same. If the survivors wanted to honor their fallen family members, it would be terrible to pull down such monuments. That is true whether or not there are people who suffered or whose families suffered at the hands of the Germans. The Confederacy is no different. The men who died for the South are just Americans who fought on the wrong side; they are not monsters. Remembering them is not an affront to anyone else. The truly saddest thing in this debate is that there really seem to be people who think that by erasing history, it changes history. It doesn't. The Civil War is long over. We know what happened. Every American knows what happened. That ought not change. A maniacal push to remove the history of that era is just insane. We need to focus instead on what is happening today. Why Is This Being Hidden? According to a report in the Wall Street Journal today, the North Koreans have "decided" not to launch missiles aimed at Guam. For the last two weeks or so, Kim Jung Un and the crazy crew in North Korea have been announcing that they were "considering" and "planning for" an attack on Guam. Guam, of course, is part of the USA and there are nearly 200,000 US citizens who live there as well as being home to major military bases. President Trump warned the NKs and Kim Jung Un that if they actually threatened Guam or any of the USA, there would be a swift and horrible response that make the NKs regret their actions. After a lot of shouting and screaming, however, it looks like Kim Jung Un has blinked and the NKs are backing down. What happened is that the President made clear in no uncertain terms that North Korea would be destroyed if it attacked Guam. That's a first in recent years. President Obama believed in what he called "strategic patience" and everyone else called "doing nothing". His motto was "speak softly and leave your stick at home." The North Koreans ignored him. President Bush was not much better on this account. He tried to negotiate with the NKs but got nothing at all from them. Things could change quickly, but so far, the Trump policy seems to be the only one that is having any effect on North Korea. This is a major success for President Trump, perhaps the biggest success he has had in office so far. So why is there almost no media coverage of North Korea backing down. The USA wins big and most people don't even know that it happened. How can it be? The answer is that it is more important to the mainstream media to injure or defeat President Trump than it is to report the news accurately or to even tell America of this big success. It's disgusting that big news like this doesn't make its way to most people because it doesn't fit the media's chosen narrative. The Smoking Gun After all the media attention to the death in Charlottesville when a crazy neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd, this was a message tweeted on Twitter: How does that tweet strike you? Is it racist? Clearly not since the majority of those 39 shootings in Chicago were of African Americans and the tweet asks why the media doesn't seem to care about those victims. Is it white supremacist? No, I don't see how you could twist it into that. Nevertheless, the media says that this is a smoking gun when it comes to showing that President Trump does not really denounce Nazis and the KKK or any white supremacist group. Seriously, that is the spin they put on the tweet. Why, you may ask. The answer is that the tweet came from a guy associated with the group they call the alt-right and the President (gasp) retweeted it. For those who do not know, retweeting just means sending something you see on Twitter to the people who follow you on that medium. It's important to note that retweeting is not either an endorsement or a denunciation of what gets sent. Trump saw the tweet (which was all over the place) and sent it off to his followers. For some in the media, that's unforgiveable. The truth is that this whole mess has just gone too far. It's getting ridiculous. Retweeting a tweet that says something we should all agree upon is hardly racism. Indeed, attacking the President for doing just that is delusional. But the delusions don't stop there. I just read that the Democrat congressmen who lead the congressional Black, Hispanic and Asian caucuses asked the President to fire his adviser Stephen Miller and others to show that there are no neo-Nazis in the White House. Miller is Jewish. The idea that these congressional morons would indicate that Miller is a Nazi is one of the worst things I've ever heard. But it's one of those days when the media and the Democrats are in full feeding frenzy mode. They want to smear anyone and everything associated with the President. There's no smoking gun. (and that's not the result of gun control.) There are no neo-Nazis in the White House. There's only the constant hatred and over-reaction from the Democrat/media complex towards Trump. At some point, that group is going to have to realize that they lost the election. America is not going to change its mind next time on the basis of non-stop hate. They are marching to oblivion and they don't even realize it. Monday, August 14, 2017 Only in Germany Today's exercise in the bizarre comes from the German city of Saarbrucken. A Syrian refugee in that city was found guilty after a trial of attempting to defraud ISIS out of about $180,000. The refugee told ISIS that he would use the money to buy explosives so as to carry out terror attacks in Germany. The refugee was also charged with attempted terrorism, but the court acquitted him on those charges since it believed his story that he had no intention of ever carrying out any attack. Think about that. ISIS is recognized, even in Germany, as the worst (or at least one of the worst) terrorist groups in the world. Nevertheless, the German authorities stepped in an prosecuted a Syrian refugee because he tried to get cash from ISIS under false pretenses. This is the rough equivalent of some drug dealer suing in federal court because one of his customers had failed to pay for the drugs that he got. It's amazing that a court would ever get involved in such a ridiculous situation. Some Very Good News According to reports today, congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana will be back at work in the House of Representatives after the current recess is over. Scalise was shot in a terror attack while he was at a baseball practice (for a charity event) in Virginia last Spring with other House Republicans. The shooter/terrorist was a left-wing nut job who came to DC looking for Republicans to kill (he had a list of targets found when his body was searched.) It's great that Scalise has recovered to the point where he can resume his duties. For a long time it was touch and go as to whether or not he would survive the attack. Let's thank God for his recovery. On a related subject, do any of you recall any Democrat leader condemning far left groups because this crazy guy attach the congressmen? I'm not talking about condemning the attack and the violence. I mean how many Democrat leaders do you remember condemning radical leftists by group name after the shooting? I don't recall that happening. Instead, they said something fairly similar to what President Trump said in his first response to the Charlottesville attack. Indeed, some of the same Democrats who couldn't bring themselves to condemn the groups on the left are now apoplectic because Trump didn't condemn specific groups that carried out Saturday's attack. A Test I just got a phone call from a computer. The call wasn't identified as being automated. Instead, when I answered it said "Susie?" (Actually, it used the name of my eldest daughter, but I thought I should leave her out of this.) I responded by saying "No." The voice laughed after a pause and said, "that's ok, I can talk to either of you." At that point, I got a pitch to give to a charity that was unknown to me. I decided to do a test. I waited until the machine stopped so that I could respond to the next question. At that point, is said to the machine in Russian something that translates roughly into "if you are afraid of wolves, don't go into the forest." It's an old Russian proverb, but it confused the machine. I got a reply saying, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Could you say that again?" I repeated the Russian saying and the machine then told me, "That's great. Can I send you a pledge envelope?" I just hung up. Now I know that you are probably wondering one of two things: 1) why did I waste the time to speak to the computer? or 2) If I speak Russian, does that mean that I colluded with regard to the 2016 election? The answer to the second question is easy: NO. The answer to the first is more difficult. Basically, I just wanted to see how the computer system would handle a completely non-responsive and unintelligible response. Time For A Little Soviet Nostalgia? In what has to be one of the most misguided articles ever, Ryan Cooper writes in The Week about what happened 100 years ago in the October revolution in Russia that gave rise to the Soviet Union and one of the greatest killing machines ever known to man. Cooper argues that there was nothing inherent in Marxism that caused the authoritarian nightmare of the Soviet state. No, the philosophy was basically decent at its core but got perverted by outside influences. I assume next week, Cooper will write about how Hitler and the Nazis were also just misguided people trying to get by in a troubled world. It amazes me that this kind of garbage can get written and PUBLISHED in a large media outlet. The USA had to fight for nearly 50 years to defeat the tyranny of Soviet Communism which enslaved millions around the world. People across Eastern Europe and a big swath of Asia lost their freedom, both economic and political. Millions were murdered. In the 1930's Stalin intentionally caused a famine in Ukraine that led to the death of nearly ten million people by starvation. At one time, there were more political prisoners in the Soviet gulags than the population of some of the smaller countries in Europe. This was not a good idea that went slightly astray; it was a murderous ideology that stood for total control by a single leader and his party with death being the consequence for opposition, even imagined opposition. So why would a progressive media outlet like The Week push this naïve, indeed dishonest view of Communism? I blame our education system. During the Cold War, there were constant reminders of the evils of Communism. The Cold War ended, however, nearly 30 years ago. That means that essentially every American under the age of 40 (and many older than that) has no first hand experience with the true nature of Communism. Our schools stopped teaching the truth about this totalitarian ideology. Instead, a few of the old "true believers" like Bernie Sanders and many young people who only know the propaganda about socialism/communism have come to accept an imaginary view of history. There are some who think that history is not worth knowing. That view is both idiotic and dangerous. We know (or we would know if we paid attention to history) that communism and socialism do not work. Each time these systems have been tried, they have failed. Sometimes the failures have been more spectacular than other times, but they have been failures nevertheless. Even today, a country like China which is nominally communist, is actually successful only because that communist economic system has been jettisoned in favor or a market based economic system. Only the authoritarian rule of the Party has been kept in China. That gives the Chinese a free market but absolutely no political freedom. We cannot stand by and watch the fools and the propagandists spread nonsense. Too many people do not know the truth. Too many people are gullible. Silence on this point is just a contribution to societal danger. Watching The Narrative Today I was struck by two stories today that seemed like excerpts from the mainstream media/Democrat narrative. The first is a column written by Juan Williams in which he says that President Trump should be thanking president Obama for leaving him such a strong economy. This story comes under the Democrat talking point that says that "Trump gets no credit for anything good." There is obviously some truth to what Williams has to say. A new president does not walk into the Oval Office and change the economy in five minutes. Still, it has now been almost seven months, and it is fair now to say that President Trump gets credit now for where the economy is, not 100%, but much credit. And President Trump did turn the economy in two major ways. First, he changed expectations which are now much better and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The best proof of this is the stock market. It has gone way up starting on the day after election day last November. After all those predictions about how electing Trump would tank the economy, the market spoke and expressed overwhelming happiness that Trump won. It has continued to go up ever since. Trump's second, and often overlooked, big help to the economy has been the removal of all sorts of needless regulations. Since taking office, the President has prevented or gotten rid of regulations that were stopping domestic energy development, slowing agricultural development and much, much more. This too has helped move the economy. The second story from the narrative is about the resignation of the CEO of drug company Merck from the President's Business Advisory Council. Merck's CEO supposedly resigned because he did not like Trump's response to what happened in Charlottesville. That's insane. Trump denounced hatred and bigotry that led to violence. He didn't call out the Nazis by name. That omission has led to all manner of criticism. Nevertheless, what the Merck CEO did is to act as if the President endorsed the hatred, something he clearly did not do. And why is that? It's part of the Democrat talking point that says that "Trump is a racist". That was a refrain often heard during the campaign even though it is not even remotely true. Somehow, it never stops though. We need to live in the real world if we are to succeed. I wish everyone understood this. Sunday, August 13, 2017 The Polls Melt Down Again A few months ago, the spread among the polls when it came to President Trump was -- to use a favorite word of the President's -- HUGE. Some polls had a majority approving of Trump's performance while others had big majorities disapproving. Then for the last month or two, most of that gap disappeared. Well, it's back, and in a big way. In the latest Gallup poll, voters disapprove of Trump's job performance by 23 points. In the latest Rasmussen poll, voters disapprove by a margin of 8 points. That difference of 15 percentage points is much more than statistical error. The margin of error in these polls is about +/-3.5%. That accounts for only 7 of the 15 points at most (and likely much less). So what is the difference? Some, if not all of it is sampling error. Rasmussen adjusts its results to get a sample group composed of the same mix of voters who actually cast a vote last November. To be clear, Rasmussen is guided by the self-identification of the voting public in 2016. Just because a Republican voted for Clinton, he or she is still counted as a Republican. Similarly, if a person calls themselves a Democrat but then voted for Trump, that person is counted as a Democrat. Gallup, on the other hand, does not adjust its numbers. That means that if it happens to oversample Democrats, there is nothing done to correct that mistake. Similarly, if Gallup gets responses from a disproportionate number of Republicans, no correction is made. These different methods used by the pollsters may account for much of the difference in the numbers. Given the different methodology used, which of the two polls is more accurate? That boils down to a simple question: has party identification changed much since November of 2016? In other words, has there been a tidal movement from one party to another? If not, then the Rasmussen method seems more accurate. If so, however, then Gallup may have picked up a swing that Rasmussen missed. How can we judge changes in party identification? One way is to look at actual voter registration. Across the USA, there has been a relative increase in the number of registered Republicans in 2017 compared to Democrats. There may be a lot of publicity from the #Resistance, but the voters actually registering or changing their party ID have been moving towards the GOP not the Dems. Given that the only concrete measure of party ID has gone in favor of the GOP, it seems highly unlikely that the Gallup poll numbers are accurate. Where Did they Get The Money? Iran's parliament voted today for a major increase in the country's spending on developing missiles and nuclear "research" (which is Iran's way of saying development of nuclear weapons.) Just a few years ago, Iran was hurting. Its economy was sputtering and it had little spare cash to spend on anything. Now, the Islamic Republic is rolling in money, or so it seems. If you wonder where they got the money for all these new weapon systems, the answer is simple. The USA gave it to the Iranians after Iran signed the agreement negotiated by president Obama. Iran supposedly is no longer building nukes, but that does make one wonder why they need all this new spending if they are no longer working on the project. Just as an aside, it's worth noting that during the voting in Teheran today, members of the Parliament were chanting "death to America!" Boy was Obama a bad president. This Is Not Supposed To Be A Political Rally It has been a bad weekend. First we had the morons at the White Power rally in Virginia marching by torchlight Friday night. I assume they hoped to look like one of those torch-lit Nazi rallies in the Germany of the 1930's. Instead, they managed to achieve the disdain of nearly everyone in America. Saturday, things got worse. There was another scheduled rally by the White Power crew and their neo-Nazi friends which brought out the crazies on the other side as well. There was some violence and the governor ordered the rally cancelled. Then some bozo decided to use his car to run into a crowd of people. He killed one and injured many others. Fortunately, the apparent culprit was caught and is under arrest. To make things worse, a police helicopter crashed and two were killed. So, in Charlottesville, we saw the extremists show themselves for what they truly are: angry, violent haters. That was bad enough. But then it got worse. Now we have the media and the politicians going nuts over condemning all or some of those who did these violent acts (fine) and then condemning each other over the amount of condemnation stated by other politicians. Really? Do we have to go there? Consider this: 1. When two Islamic terrorists shot and killed all those people in San Bernardino, California, many in the media and the political classes rushed to tell America that this mass murder was not an act by all Muslims, but rather the work of two "lone wolves"; it was the work of individuals. These same people then condemned others for even calling the mass murder Islamic terrorism. It's just Islamophobia, they told us. Now we have a young guy from Ohio who has been arrested for using his car for murder yesterday, and many of the same people are condemning not just him, but also President Trump and even all Republicans for what happened. Why was yesterday also not the work of individuals? 2. President Trump condemned the violence and hatred demonstrated in the Virginia attack. The media and some politicians immediately criticized him for not saying the right thing. Seriously, my own senator, Richard Blumenthal, condemned the President for not specifically condemning the groups at the rally. The worst thing about it is that Blumenthal didn't even know who had committed the car attack when he made his statement. Can't we just, for once, stop the politics. I think it's safe to say that more than 90% of this nation thinks what happened yesterday was repulsive. There's no real audience for the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, or antifas. The violent extremists on both sides are abhorred by essentially everyone. The only way for these groups to strengthen, however, is for them to sow the seeds of hatred among their fellow Americans. We need to stop that. We need to respect each other. We need to do that now! And to be clear, this is not a call for the end of political discourse. We can keep the rough and tumble of our usual politics. The anger, however, has to go. That also means that the false accusations that one's opponents are "haters" must go as well. Saturday, August 12, 2017 ISIS University It now seems pretty clear that the events in Charlottesville today where a driver plowed his car into a crowd with the result of one dead and a great many wounded was no accident. We haven't had an adjudication from a court, but the video and witnesses report that the car sped up prior to impact in order to cause the greatest damage possible to those in its path. ISIS should be proud today; it has taught its gruesome tactics to a new group of terrorists. The tactic of weaponizing vehicles is a relatively new terror tactic. It was perfected by ISIS with the best example of it being the massacre in France on Bastille Day when a truck killed over 80 people. The terrorists in Virginia, be they Nazis or Antifas, seemed to have learned the lesson well from ISIS. There's no need for guns or bombs; cars and trucks will do just fine. I wonder what's coming next. Will the neo-Nazis start holding public beheadings? Will the Antifas begin throwing those with whom it disagrees off buildings? All of these people are disgusting and horrible human beings. They need to stop. If not, they need to be stopped by the rest of us. What's Really Happening In Charlottesville I've seen some pictures of the demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia. I'm really not sure what is happening there, and there seems to be no source for good information available yet. Here's a good example. There are pictures online of a few Nazi flags being carried at the protest. I cannot tell from the pictures who the morons are who are actually carrying a Nazi flag. No self-respecting American should ever associate him or herself with such a symbol of hatred and mass murder. The problem is that I'm not sure if these are protesters promoting a pro-Nazi viewpoint or counter-protesters claiming that the protesters are Nazis. The weirdest thing about both the protesters and the counter-protesters is that they all seem like extremist nuts. That may be harsh, but again there is little coverage of what is actually happening which omits the hysteria of the extremists. Simply put, there is nothing wrong with a group of people protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. Lee may have fought for the Confederacy, but he was undeniably a great general and an honorable man of his day. No one ought be condemned for living in a world where slavery was commonplace. We should celebrate those who moved us past that evil rather than condemn those who did not. Nor is there anything wrong with a group of people launching a counter-protest to support the removal of the Lee statue. Their voices ought be heard as well. The key, however, is that there should be no violence by anyone. We know two people were injured today, but we still do not know by whom or why this happened. Probably the best thing would be if everyone just calmed down and tried to behave rationally. Cuttihg Through The Ignorance When it comes to economics, it's surprising how little many in the media understand. It's even more surprising how many in Congress don't understand. Let's look at a simple issue: what causes faster economic growth. 1. In the last few years, we've heard a number of items proposed to increase economic growth. President Obama once had an economic program that consisted of increasing the minimum wage, starting universal pre-K for children and increasing environmental regulations. The current Democrat plan for a "Better Deal" is not much different from that although they throw in a major government infrastructure program. President Trump is pushing tax reductions, especially for business, as well as major cuts in regulation, a huge infrastructure construction program and promotion of domestic energy production. None of these are guaranteed to work, but without a doubt, the Obama plan was guaranteed NOT to work and the current Democrat plan also has little chance for success. 2. The most important driver of economic growth is business investment. This is not a political position, but a statement of economic certainty. If you think about it, it should make sense to you. If a business invests a million dollars in a new facility, it will provide jobs and new economic activity not only from the construction but also from the ongoing use of that facility after it is completed. The profits made from the new facility will also provide cash for additional investments in the future. Raising the minimum wage, at best, means that a small portion of the population will have some additional cash to spend each week. That will help the economy, but at the same time the employer will have less to spend and invest. These tend to balance out. On top of this, the higher price put on labor makes the business less competitive and drive the employer to try to automate to reduce the need for labor. For the economy as a whole, it is a bust. Infrastructure construction by the government provides a one-time boost to the economy. Unlike business investment, however, it does not provide ongoing profit improvements to continue to help in the future. Consider the effect of rebuilding a bridge as an example. The traffic flowed over the bridge before the repair and after that work as well. It doesn't change the costs of nearby businesses. 3. The best way to get more business investment is to give those businesses an incentive to make such investments. The only things that do that are tax reductions or investment tax credits and the like. Cutting tax rates mean that the after tax return earned on an investment is increased, thereby making that investment more appealing. 4. Ending regulations that increase the cost of doing business also will bring more investments. First, the extra money left with the businesses when the regs are removed will be available for investment. Second, the absence of certain regs means that the total cost of the investment will be lowered and the investment again will be made more appealing. Without a doubt, the program of reducing taxes and regulations on business is most likely to produce increased economic growth. The analysis does not stop there. We need to look also at why faster economic growth is important. What are the benefits of increasing the rate of growth in the USA from under 2% to 3.5%? Some Democrats say that the only folks who benefit from that are the rich, but that just shows how little they understand the issue. Let's start with something near and dear to the Democrats, government spending. An extra 1.5% growth in the US economy means that during the first year, there will be about an additional quarter of a trillion dollars of goods and services produced in the USA. Since the government generally receives in revenue about 20% of GDP, this means an additional 50 billion dollars for the government. Then in the second year, there will be more additional growth, so the federal government will have an additional 100 billion in income. This will continue over time. It's not just the federal government that benefits, however. The extra quarter of a trillion dollars in the first year will need labor in order to be produced. Think how many extra jobs will be created just to produce this extra bit of goods and services. Then think how many people will get raises because their employers are now more profitable. Then think how many people will see their investments pay more dividends as the companies earn more. Since more than half the country owns stock either directly or through their retirement plans, this will affect a great many people. Then there's the increase in the overall strength of the American economy. For the last 100 years, the USA has been a world power because our economy has been so strong. Additional growth will maintain that strength. None of this is rocket science; it ought to be rather apparent to anyone who carefully considers the subject. Nevertheless, the amount of misinformation and ignorance on the subject of economics is appalling. We all need to make sure that our congressmen and senators understand that we are expecting them to enact a tax measure that will above all else promote economic growth. How Did We Get There In Afghanistan? Within a few days after the 9-11 attacks in 2001, the war in Afghanistan began. At first, the Northern Alliance took on the Taliban with the help of some American special forces troops and some US airpower. It didn't take long for the Northern Alliance to occupy Kabul and to take all of the country's major cities. The Taliban retreated into the countryside. At that point, the war was basically won. The USA could have withdrawn all of its forces (which really weren't many) and left the Afghans to control their own destiny. We didn't do that, however, because Osama bin Laden was thought to be still holed up in Tora Bora along the Afghan/Pakistani border. Nevertheless, we had a small force in Afghanistan and America was not engaged in much fighting in that country. Then came the 2008 election. Candidate Obama was running against the Iraq War. Since he did not want to seem like too much of a pacifist, he announced his view that Afghanistan was the "good war" while Iraq was the "bad war". Obama said that if elected, he would get out of Iraq but send many more troops to win the Afghan struggle once and for all. It was a stupid position then, and it remains a stupid position now. Iraq with its oil reserves and location in the heart of the Middle East's other oil powers has great strategic value. Afghanistan has a much lower strategic value. By election day in 2008, the USA had already essentially won in Iraq, so the task for the new president was to maintain that victory. In Afghanistan, there was not much fighting, but the tribal differences made a true victory there much more difficult. Nevertheless, after Obama won, he pulled the USA out of Iraq and announced a surge of forces into Afghanistan. Not long after Obama took office, America's troop levels in Afghanistan were over 100,000. The Obama surge in Afghanistan was a total failure. Casualties soared. Fighting did not end. Bin Laden was killed, but not in Afghanistan. Obama did not give his surge time to work; he announced the pull out of forces at the same time he announced the surge, so the Taliban knew all they had to do was wait. And that is what they did. Obama took US troop levels in Afghanistan down to under 10,000. At the same time, Taliban military strikes soared and much of the country went back under Taliban rule. Obama could have just announced a total pull out of US forces, but instead he continued to dwindle the number of soldiers and watched the military situation unravel. Obama was kicking the can down the road so that whoever followed him in office would have to deal with it. Now we have President Trump who has been in the midst of rethinking the nature of US involvement in Afghanistan. For the first time in a decade, there is a review in Washington of America's goals with regard to Afghanistan. We could just pull out. We could send more troops. Without question, it was time for a new look at a problem that clearly baffled Obama. I write all this because the new media line is that Trump is "losing" Afghanistan. That's silly. If anyone "lost" Afghanistan it was Obama. Indeed, hopefully President Trump will not feel compelled to keep US forces in that country because he might be labeled a "loser" by the media. There should be a final decision soon. The Official Media Take on Using the Military in Venezuela Reuters has put out a summary article about the meaning of President Trump's comments yesterday that there could be a military option in Venezuela. It's like a list of talking points for the mainstream media. Here's a summary: 1. Trump's comments were a major mistake that will only help Venezuelan dictator Maduro. Maduro can now position himself as the victim of US aggression. (Funny to think how he would do that, since the USA hasn't done anything yet.) 2. Congress hasn't authorized any action, and according to senator Sasse of Nebraska, it won't. 3. Trump took everyone by surprise with the comment since it was just a shoot from the hip moment. Of course, it was interesting to see the faces of the Secretary of State, UN Ambassador and National Security Adviser who were standing next to Trump when he made the "surprise" announcement. None of them had any facial reaction to this big "surprise". 4. America doesn't intervene in South America any more. We haven't done so since 1995. (Reuters doesn't say it, but that last intervention was ordered by Bill Clinton who sent troops to take down the Hatian government in a surprise move, not authorized by Congress, that the media loved.) 5. The President ignored how thinly stretched the US military already is. 6. Venezuela is prepared for a US invasion. Now imagine that Hillary had won the election and had said the same thing about Venezuela. Think how many of the six points made above would be said about Hillary's statement. Does the number ZERO sound about right? It does to me. Look, there is hardly anyone advocating for any major involvement by American troops in Venezuela. Still, we are watching that country melting down and moving towards civil war. In Syria, the civil war has killed half a million, wounded more and made nearly ten million homeless. All that could have been avoided had president Obama taken strong action at the start of the fighting. He chose not to act -- SURPRISE! If words and action by President Trump can prevent a similar cataclysm in Venezuela, shouldn't we discuss this on something other than a purely political basis? Friday, August 11, 2017 Another Press Conference President Trump just had a short press conference after meeting with Rex Tillerson, Nikki Haley and general McMaster in New Jersey. It's the President's third press availability in two days. It's given President Trump the ability to send his message to the people directly in a way that cannot be distorted much by the media. There's going to be a major formal press conference early next week as well. The President had much to say about the North Korean situation. Basically, he just repeated his position. In addition, however, the President addressed the problem of Venezuela and even said that there were military options for that country. It was funny to see the reactions to that statement. On Fox News, a reporter said that what President Trump said was not meant to indicate American troops being involved but rather possible American support for military action by the armed forces of Colombia and Brazil. On MSNBC, the statement was dismissed as crazed war-mongering by the President. On CNN, they brought in a former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to say that he had not heard anything about military action in Venezuela previously but that it was a bad idea. It was odd to hear him first say he knew nothing about what this would entail and then to opine that it would not work. One might validly ask, "what would not work." Forgetting the media reactions, there was not all that much news in the press conference. We just have to wait to see how everything develops going forward. You Have To Read This The Nation is a far left media outlet that is anything but a supporter of President Trump. That is why the new report in The Nation makes such a compelling read. According to the reporter, forensic examination done in connection with the hack of the DNC and the John Podesta email account in 2016 shows that it was NOT the Russians who hacked the system but rather someone on the inside who leaked the documents which were then formatted to give the appearance of a Russian hack. Think about that. We are in the second year of the Trump/Russia collusion investigations which are all based upon the supposed Russian hacking of the DNC. If there was no Russian hack of the DNC computers, then there surely wasn't any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The whole edifice of the investigation of nothing would come crashing down. The article in The Nation is long but worth reading if you have time. If not, here are two paragraphs that pretty much sum it all up. If this report turns out to be correct, then the country should stop watching the mainstream media and run all the Democrats out of office for participating in this massive fraud. Their Slip (Blue) Is Showing Most people have no idea what a "blue slip" is. Here's a hint: it's not a piece of clothing. The blue slip is a form sent to two senators when someone is nominated to be a federal judge. The home state senators get the form, and it is customary not to proceed with consideration of the nomination until both blue slips are returned to the judiciary committee marked approved. In other words, if President Trump appoints a new judge to the district court in Pennsylvania, the Senate will not consider the nominee until both senator Casey and Tomey send back approval via the blue slip. In practice, this is a quiet way for some senators to block judicial appointments. Blue slips are not required by law. They are not even part of the Senate rules, but rather are just a tradition. They did not even exist for the first 140 years of the USA. Moreover, since this practice first began 100 years ago, it has only been followed part of the time. The reason to look at blue slips now is that some of the Democrats in the Senate are trying to use this tradition to prevent approval of judges appointed by President Trump. For example, in Minnesota, the President appointed a judge who is currently on the Minnesota Supreme Court and who is widely perceived to be a first rate jurist. Senators Klobuchar and Franken, however, are not returning the blue slip so as to delay the approval of yet another Trump nominee. Since this is not an isolate example, we are quickly getting to the point where the Senate may stop considering the blue slips. Four years ago, the Senate Democrats overturned centuries of practice when they threw out the ability for there to be a filibuster of judicial nominees. Now that the Democrats are in the minority, they have lost their ability to stop nominations in that way. They should not be allowed to use the blue slips to replace the filibuster that they destroyed. Can't We Stop The Nonsense? President Trump issued a warning to the North Koreans with regard to their aggressive actions. By now you've surely heard it. In fact, you're likely to also have heard Trump's second message that the US military is "locked and loaded" to respond if the NK's launch an attack. This raises a major question, though. Why is the mainstream media focusing on the wisdom of what Trump said and using these warnings as a basis to attack the President? Why isn't more being said about what North Korea is doing? These are not idle questions. I've studied the Cuban Missile Crisis. There was major coverage of the confrontation, but almost none of that coverage dealt with the language that president Kennedy used in discussing US intentions. I've studied the coverage of the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. President Bush said that the invasion "will not stand". In other words, Bush told the Iraqis the USA was going to push them out of Kuwait. There was essentially no media criticism of Bush's statements. After 9-11, there was also essentially no media criticism of what the second president Bush had to say about the Islamic terrorists. So why is it that today the bulk of the coverage regarding Korea deals with the language used by President Trump? The confrontation with North Korea is a life or death situation for enormous numbers of people. Shouldn't the American people be kept informed as to what is happening rather than spending most of the time criticizing the language used by President Trump? How can it be that the media is just spending each day ignoring Kim Jung Un and worrying instead about Trump's words? It's time to stop the nonsense and focus on what is important. Retroactive Tax Cuts There's a series of articles in the last few days discussing whether or not the tax reforms about to be taken up by Congress ought to be made retroactive to the start of 2017. It would be nice to think that we could have tax cuts going back to last January, but it's far from the most important issue. I would prefer if the details of the proposed tax cuts were to be debated instead. Will there be a corporate tax cut and by how much? What corporate tax loopholes will be closed? Will there be a cut in capital gains taxes? What will happen to personal income tax deductions? There's more, but these, not the effective date, are the important matters on which to decide. Hopefully, there is an effort being made right now to get some of the Democrats on board for the tax reform bill. Even if the Democrats oppose the final bill by a margin of 90%-10%, that would be enough to assure passage. The USA strongly needs this tax bill. Let's hope that this time the GOP is focusing on getting it done and not on peripheral matters. CNN Gets Rid Of Jeffrey Lord In a rather bizarre move, CNN fired Jeffry Lord because of a tweet. For those of you who don't watch CNN, (I know that's essentially everyone), Lord is a strong Trump supporter who CNN trots out on eight or twelve person panels. Usually, Lord is the only person on the panel who states the administration viewpoint. When I've seen him -- which is admittedly not often -- he has done pretty well in these discussions. My guess is that it embarrassed the management at CNN to have one guy make the other seven or eleven look foolish. So now they got rid of Lord and can bring in someone else. In any event, Lord was fired because he tweeted "Sieg Heil" in response to a tweet from the head of the David Brock created group of ultra-liberal loons, Media Matters For America. For the last few days, Lord had been criticizing Media Matters as being fascist or Nazi in trying to organize a boycott of Fox News. Lord denounced Media Matters for fighting against free speech. CNN apparently had no problem with Media Matters being called Nazis or fascist. How could it? One has to wonder how many times President Trump has been called a Nazi or a fascist on CNN; it's certainly something that has happened often. Obviously, the couldn't fire Lord for saying what they often say themselves on the air. No, CNN waited for Lord to tweet a Nazi salute back to Media Matters. The meaning is obvious; Lord was calling the head of Media Matters a Nazi. So why is this any worse than just calling him a Nazi? It seems to me that CNN has embarrassed itself yet again. If the network wants to ban people from calling political opponents Nazis, that's fine. It seems rather stupid, but it is still fine. That rule, however, has to apply to everyone. It cannot be acceptable for the left to call President Trump a Nazi but not acceptable for someone on the right to call the head of Media Matters a Nazi. That's just stupid. Thursday, August 10, 2017 Did someone Drug the AP? The AP is out with a report tonight in which it questions the wisdom of America trying to shoot down North Korean missiles in the event that the NK's shoot a salvo towards Guam as they have threatened to do. This is such a bizarre report that I question if the reporter was drugged when he wrote it. Think about it. There are about 160,000 American citizens living on Guam. There are also some very strategic air bases located on the island. If North Korea launches missiles towards Guam, there is no way of knowing if those missiles have nuclear warheads. There is no way of knowing how many people they would kill if left to complete their flights. Possibly, a decision not to shoot down the missiles could lead to the deaths of over 100,000 Americans. But the AP still questions the wisdom of trying to shoot down the missiles? I'm not even going to try to discuss the reasoning (if you can call it that) used by the AP on the issue. The US armed forces cannot stand by and let a foreign power launch missiles that could kill over 100,000 Americans without trying to shoot those missiles down. Sure, the anti-missile system might not work, but that's no reason not to try to use it. Indeed, if the NK's launch a missile salvo towards Guam, I think it is time for the US to counterattack against the North Korean military. Even under international law, the NK attack would give the right to the US to defend itself and to counterattack. There's something wrong if a news agency like the AP could actually discuss having the USA absorb an attack like this and do nothing to try to stop it. Very Strange If True According to a lawyer who represents President Trump, the FBI raid on Paul Manaforts home resulted in the FBI taking documents that had been prepared for Manafort by his own attorney to help Manafort prepare for his testimony before a congressional committee that had been scheduled for the day of the search. This is a very strange development. In fact, if the claim is true, it could destroy the entire investigation by the special prosecutor. Any summary of evidence or other document prepared by Manafort's lawyer for his client is privileged as an attorney/client communication. The government is not allowed to seize privileged documents whether or not there is a search warrant issued. If the FBI took such privileged documents, then not only would those documents be barred from evidence at any future trial, but all evidence that could be tied to such a document would be barred unless the prosecutor could show that the government either already had the evidence prior to the seizure of the privileged document or that the evidence was obtained without the benefit of learning what was in the privileged document. The burden of showing that the evidence is not tainted by the privilege document falls on the government, and it is extremely hard to show that evidence obtained later was not gotten as the result of the illegal seizure of those documents. It was strange that the FBI came in the middle of the night to Manafort's home to execute the search. It was doubly strange that the FBI showed up on the day Manafort was to testify to Congress. The FBI had to know that Manafort might have documents prepared by his counsel and that such documents could present the FBI with a major problem. I really do not understand why the FBI took this action. It seems like a rookie mistake. There May Be A New War In Asia -- Between China and India The focus of the moment is North Korea, but there is another spot in Asia which may bring the next war, and it is an unlikely spot. It is a plateau along the border between China, India and Bhutan. China started road construction in the region about two months ago. India responded by sending troops to stop the work. India says the road was in Indian territory. China says that the Indian troops invaded Chinese territory where the road was being built. Both sides have taken further aggressive positions on the territorial dispute. Most recently, India ordered the residents of a nearby village to evacuate so as to be out of the way of any military conflict. It seems incomprehensible that there could be a war between the world's two most populous countries over a plateau in the Himalayas. Both sides have nuclear weapons. Both sides have huge armies. The plateau has no great value to either side other than as a symbol of national pride. There's no good reason for a war. Nevertheless, it seems possible that the situation will continue to deteriorate and India and China may soon be fighting. It was all that was missing from the world scene. Wednesday, August 9, 2017 Good News or Bad???? According to a report in the Miami Herald, thousands of "migrants" are illegally crossing the border from the USA into Canada and seeking asylum. These people apparently have chosen to seek asylum in Canada rather than risk deportation from the USA. The Canadian government has had to mobilize the armed forces to help prepare facilities to house the "migrants". Think about this for a moment. Let's assume that 50,000 people leave the USA this way and go to Canada. If these were established people with jobs in the USA, it's doubtful they would just sneak across the border into Canada. After all, the only people currently facing deportation in the USA are those with criminal records or whose cases have already been adjudicated and who have been ordered deported. Most likely, these are people who have been getting public assistance in one form or another. If that assistance is only costing $2000 per month, that means that the exit of the people saved the government about one and a quarter billion dollars per year. That's a lot of cash. One thing is certain: President Trump's words have motivated many illegal aliens to leave the USA. We already know that the number arriving here has fallen dramatically. Maybe in a few years, we will have a few million fewer illegals in this country. What A Load of Nonsense -- No Time For Time Time Magazine has a lengthy article out at the moment which makes the following point: researchers now say they can use a variety of approaches to show that climate change is all but certainly causing and worsening extreme weather events. The problem with the article is that it is based upon nothing. It's wrong. Indeed, it's demonstrably false. In the years around 2000 we were told repeatedly that global warming would cause more extreme weather events and that they would be more severe. In 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast, we were told that this was the start of the really bad times coming due to global warming. Then came the next dozen years. In all that time, there has not been a strong hurricane that hit the USA. It is the longest time span in recorded history without a major strike by a hurricane. We did have Tropical Storm Sandy that hit the Northeast, but that was not a more severe storm than in the past; it was just on a track and timed with high tides so that maximum damage was done. During this century, the number of tornados in the USA has been decreasing. So much for those extreme weather events. There have also been droughts, but statistically no more than usual. Floods, too, have fallen within the normal parameters in the USA. In other words, there has been no increase in extreme weather events. But Time is prepared to tell us that the opposite is true (when it isn't.) A good example of all this is Time's claim that rising ocean levels have been causing more coastal flooding. There's a problem with this too, however. Melting sea ice does not raise the oceans. Only melting ice on land would raise the ocean levels. We now know that ice in Antarctica has been increasing, not decreasing. In fact, satellite measurements show that more ice is being created at the South Pole than is melting elsewhere (mainly in Greenland.) There is no measurable rise in sea level over the last 20 years. There may be a change of an eighth of an inch depending on who is doing the measuring, but an extra eighth of an inch is not going to mean the difference between a terrible flood and a non-event. It's all nonsense. Time should know better. The Dishonest Discussion From the "Experts" So far today, I've read six articles by so called "experts" who are apoplectic that President Trump had the temerity to threaten North Korea with a reign of fire. These "experts" say that any threat of war is a terrible thing that a president ought never to do. President Trump should try instead to use diplomacy, they all say. Here's the problem with these "experts". They are not the ones who have to make the decision so they can ignore reality. That means that they can call for diplomacy with a country that clearly has no desire to negotiate with the USA. For the last 24 years, all discussions with North Korea have been in the nature of attempts by the NK's to stall any action by America while the NK nuclear and missile programs move forward. Each supposed agreement with the NK's has been violated in secret by that country, but the "experts" can still talk of the glories of negotiations. The President, however, has to deal with things as they really are, not as the experts want them to be. America has a basic choice to make. Are we prepared to live with a North Korea armed with nuclear missiles than can hit the USA? It's not a hard question to understand, although it is a quite difficult one to answer. If our answer is that we cannot accept a nuclear armed North Korea, then the likely outcome is war in Korea. That means hundreds of thousands, if not millions of casualties inflicted on mainly on North and South Korea as well as huge numbers of dead and wounded in Japan and among American servicemen and women. It's a horrible cost, but it is still less than the cost that a nuclear strike by the NK's on the USA would be. On the other hand, if we are prepared to accept a nuclear armed North Korea, then we can sit back and watch it happen. Remember, when president Obama signed the deal with Iran, he basically made the decision that the USA could live with an Islamic terrorist state armed with nukes. No matter how one dissects the JPOA signed with Iran, it does end with an Iranian state with missiles and nukes. Is a nuclear North Korea really any worse than a nuclear Iran? This is a very difficult decision for President Trump to make. In my opinion, he ought to call Congress back and seek authorization with a strike against North Korea if necessary. Even if the authority is not used, it will caution the North Koreans to be very careful what they do. It will also force Congress to take a position on dealing with the NK's. If Congress says no authority, then there will only be a strike if we ever detect the NK's about to launch an attack (or already having launched such an attack.) My guess is that Congress would grant the authority, but it would be up to them. The President would need to make the case but it seems that there is no lack of evidence here. FBI In Action The FBI executed a search warrant on Paul Manafort this morning. The news story has pushed North Korea off the front page because the mainstream media cannot resist paying attention to the sideshow rather than the main attraction. It's no big deal that the FBI searched his home. It would only be a big deal if the agents found something. But will they, or is this all for show? Think about it. Say what you want about Manafort, no one says he is stupid. If he really has something to hide, do you really think he has it stashed under the bed at home? The search is not a surprise. In fact, the only thing that is surprising is that after supposedly investigating Russia (which includes Manafort's supposed ties to Russia), no one had searched until now. Doubtless, Manafort has been expecting this visit for many months. He had more than enough time to cleanse his home of anything that might be used against him. Remember this: Manafort was fired by Trump about a year ago, before the general election campaign had begun. He has been the subject of investigation all that time, first in secret by Obama and then after the inauguration, by Congress and now the special prosecutor's office. In all that time, nothing has been found. My guess is that once again, nothing will be found. It's all a colossal waste of time. They're Hoping So Much There's another article today that illustrates just how much the left hates President Trump. It's an article in Slate that announces that "primary challenges" to the President "spell doom" for him. Think about that. We haven't even seen seven months of President Trump and Slate is already telling us that there will be primary challenges to him in 2020. Some of this is based upon phony stories that Vice President Pence is preparing such a challenge, something Pence has vigorously denied. There could be a primary challenge to Trump in 2020; who knows. The point, however, is that the author at Slate surely doesn't know if there will be such challenges. Nevertheless, based upon non-existent challenges which might or might not occur, the author is already predicting "doom" for Trump. It's a joke. It's a big joke. In fact, it's embarrassing. So why is this garbage written and then published? The answer is simple: it tells the leftist who read Slate that Trump will be defeated in the future. It unites them in hatred of all things Trump. Just think how these people will feel when Trump gets re-elected in 2020. I don't know how they will be able to deal with such a reality. Tuesday, August 8, 2017 It's So Predictable It's been quite a day in matters relating to North Korea. First came the news that the NKs have succeeded in making nuclear warheads small enough to fit on the tip of their missiles. Next, the President warned the NKs to stop making threats against the USA or they would be met with fire and ruin. Then, as quickly as possible, the North Korean leader announced that his country was considering an attack on Guam unless the USA stops its "warlike" behavior. To put it bluntly, the level of tension has been ratcheted up by two or three notches. We are not yet at the breaking point, but we are close. Right now, an inadvertent mistake could lead to war. Tonight, I wanted to see how the story was covered on cable news. First, I saw the coverage on Special Report on Fox News which is, by far, the best news program on the air. They covered the story pretty straight down the middle. They did bring in Gordon Chang for a discussion, so we got the usual hype from him, and he spoke before the threat to Guam had been announced. Most discussion and reporting centered on possible choices for US policy. I also saw coverage from CNN on Anderson Cooper's show. There, much of the discussion was strangely about the political impact of the crisis. Somehow, I thought the question of war was more important than how it might affect the next election, but not, I guess, on CNN. On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow had on guests who explained why President Trump is not well suited to handling this sort of crisis. Even the threat of war was just used as a backdrop for the endless anti-Trump propaganda machine. Now I did not watch all of these shows, so I may have just seen coverage at the wrong time, but I doubt it. The shows were so predictable. Guam ???? The North Korean news says that Kim Jung Un is having a plan developed to attack Guam and all the US military installations there. The NK statement came just a few hours after President Trump told Kim to stop making threats to the USA. If this were 100 years ago, it would be rather clear that North Korea was about to go to war with the USA and its allies. Back then, there were no nuclear bombs, but now there are and both sides have them. Could North Korea really mean it when they say that they are developing plans to attack Guam? Are they really that nuts? Sure, the NK's might be able to destroy most of South Korea and also to hit Japan. They might even get a shot or two at the USA and certainly could hit American bases in South Korea, Japan and, perhaps, elsewhere. The problem, however, for North Korea is that making that attack would result in the complete destruction of their entire country. The North Korean army might be able to hold its own for days or even weeks, but eventually it would be overwhelmed and the country destroyed. No doubt, the North Korean leadership would then be executed. So, are they really that nuts? It's hard to know what to believe. Prior to World War II, most Europeans believed that Hitler didn't really mean what he said about world domination. They thought he was just posturing for political advantage. After eighty million people were killed and much of the world destroyed, however, they realized that they should have taken Hitler at his word. He really was that nuts. This is the problem facing President Trump. He has to assume that Kim Jung Un means what he says. It's horrific, but there really is no other choice.
Climate Change The Stern Report The most comprehensive study of the economic impact of climate change was commissioned by the British government. It is know as the Stern Report after its principal author, the British economist Sir Nicholas Stern. The report's short executive summary makes the following assertions: • The cost of climate change is estimated to be 5% of global GDP each year • Reduced access to water • Lower food production (and hence higher food prices) • Health damage • "Environmental damage" • The cost of acting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is estimated to be 1% of GDP That is, if we choose to reduce greenhouse gas emissions the benefit is that the economy will be 5% larger than otherwise, at a cost of 1% of GDP. The report concludes that the world should act now because the benefit of doing so exceeds the cost. Who Will Pay? That cost of "1% of GDP" comes in the form of higher energy prices and lost jobs. Who will pay? Most people agree in principle that they'd like to reduce carbon emissions, but few are willing to pay more on their heating bill or see their job eliminated. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that those who get the benefits - residents of low-lying island groups like the Maldives and dry continents like Africa - are different from those who have to pay most of the costs - like US residents who would face higher heating bills. Brazil's president suggested that gringos should pay to avoid deforestation in the Amazon. He makes the point that Europe destroyed its own forests, so why should Brazilians not make a living from their own? A "cap and dividend" plan would distribute the money paid for emissions permits to the public. If everyone were paid an equal share, low-income people would receive more than they pay in higher energy costs. Note that there are many erroneous numbers floating around about the cost of cap and trade. As Paul Krugman shows in a blog post called "The Textbook Economics of Cap and Trade", the cost is the deadweight loss to the polluters. Most of the higher prices paid by polluters are returned to the government. Guess what? Eco-friendly stuff is more expensive! That should not be surprising to economics students. If it were the cheapest, we would be using it already. Technology to the Rescue? There are many proposed technology solutions to the climate change problem. One June 2008 news report described how combined heat and power plants could use heat produced in power generation that is often wasted. There is wind power generation in the United States!. This New York Times video on solar power says that there are huge technological challenges in increasing energy from solar power, and that a lot of government investment is needed. How Should we Change Incentives? The Wall St Journal reported in January 2009 that Exxon's CEO favors a carbon tax to reduce emissions. Others prefer a "cap and trade" approach. However, opponents have labeled this the "cap and tax" plan. The errors we make when judging risks makes us less sensitive to the risk of climate change that to a more tangible and immediate risk (such as a snake). How Much Should We Pay? How much should people pay for emitting carbon? It depends on a lot of things, but one big one is the discount rate. Carbon emissions now produce damage in the future. Different discount rates can change the number substantially, as this article shows. Carbon Offsets With the carbon offsets market, you can get paid for avoiding carbon emissions you otherwise would have made. That's why one company is giving away free energy-efficient light bulbs in Mexico. But there's something a little fishy about this: the subjectivity of "what I would have done otherwise." For example, I plan to install a large power-hungry refrigerator, but if you give me a subsidy I will install a more efficient refrigerator instead. Yet my power consumption has still increased. Are Businesses the Problem or the Solution According to Jared Diamond, businesses have an incentive to reduce environmental damage and many are doing so. Related News Articles April 23, 2008: Europe to build more coal-fired plants! April 26, 2008: NYT article on the pollution cost of shipping food. This article raises the issue but doesn't provide much data. Climate Change Legislation ABC news on climate change bill Subsidies for Alternative Energy Sources Alternative energy would not be "alternative" if it were cheaper than fossil fuels. Because it comes at a higher price, few will buy energy from alternative sources. So governments intervene in the market to make it cheaper, often using subsidies. However, subsidies are expensive, and when they disappear so do the alternative energy projects. The Ridiculous Idea of Food Miles See here. Carbon Tax Australia in 2011 is trying very hard to introduce a carbon tax, against substantial opposition. The legislation eventually passed, but was repealed in 2014 by a subsequent government. If eco-friendly Australia cannot sustain a cap-and-trade scheme to combat carbon emissions, what hope is there for the United States?
The Words From Fingers The entire universe lies within your ten fingers. Other than simple work, fingers are associated with Reiki, Palmistry, Language, Magic and so on. The fingers are our unique instrument of expression and sensation. The fingers on our hands are our great blessings. With our fingers we work, play, love, learn, communicate, heal, express our deepest feelings, build our civilizations and create our greatest works of art. Our fingers and our emotions are linked together in our literature, music, fine arts, and religious teachings. Most of the things, which we think we are able to do with our hands, are actually done with the help of the fingers. How do they do? All our finger movements are controlled by a tough set of fibers called tendons, which run like a system of pulley cords from finger, hand and wrist bones to the muscles that operate them according to Evan McLeod. Any sixth finger is considered as symbol of good luck. The thumb operating independently from the other four fingers is the busiest and most important of all the digits. Because of the thumb’s unique ability to cross over and link up with any one of the other fingers for a pinch, grab, we can get along with one thumb and one other finger, or even just the stump of another finger. The middle finger is the strongest, followed in order by the index finger, the fourth finger and the little finger. Fingers two and three are the fastest of the five. The little finger is the slowest, but teachers of music and typewriting to be the least receptive to training because of an innate strong weakness measure finger four. One finger cannot do much all by itself but when in a group they form a strong and powerful fist. "Unity is strength". I accept it. This is symbol of team spirit in management. They produce much more than what they would do if they worked individually. You hold the pen or the pencil with your fingers but in some cases you may write with the fingers too. Further, don’t you use your fingers writing on the sand on seashore? Got the buzz for Pat Boone’s song! - ‘Writing Love Letter in the Sand.’ A child learns to count with the help of fingers. Blind people read Braille with the help of their fingers. Who cannot talk to express themselves finer create alphabet for them. Communication with others with the help of fingers is known as dactylology. You press the buttons on mobile, in the lift and other instruments with your fingers. Any kind of work such as like sewing, typing and painting a picture, in whatever I do I use my fingers. You hear music with the help of your ear but the person play musical instruments with his fingers. The surgeon’s shill les in the dexterity of his fingers says Clifford Martis. Naming Fingers In language of Indian dance, fingers are well identified with names. Probably names are derived from Sanskrit and have own mythological stories. Finger >> In Sanskrit Thumb >> Angushta Index finger >> Tarjani Middle finger >> Madhyama Ring finger >> Anamika Little finger >> Kanishtika As thumb up is a sign of encouragement or victory, similarly, fingers are used for expressing various "Mudras" in traditional dances. A Mudra (Sanskrit word meaning sign or seal) is a gesture or position, usually of the hands, that locks and guides energy flow and reflexes to the brain. From the little finger to the thumb: each finger represents earth, metal, fire, wood, and water, respectively. The entire universe lies within your ten fingers and it is also said that there is an infinite number of Mudras although they are just 10. Mudras can be used both for meditation and healing. Reiki, Fingers and Mudras There is a lot of importance of fingers in Reiki. By pressing or squeezing the sides of the fingers, according to your needs, you can affect both the emotion and the corresponding organ. The thumb represents the element earth, the stomach and worry. The index finger represents the element metal, the lungs, the large intestine and the emotions depression, sadness and grief. The middle finger is the element fire, the heart, small intestine, circulatory and respiratory systems; the emotions are impatience and hastiness. The ring finger is the element wood and is connected to the liver, gall bladder, nervous system and corresponds to anger. The little finger corresponds to water, the kidneys and fear. Our fingers are the best and noblest is touching, feeling and caressing says Clifford Martis. We express love, care and concern with the help of our fingers! Palmistry & Fingers The shapes and sizes of fingers and nails are important aspects of palmistry. A long-fingered person is analytical and academic, liking to study things in detail. A person with markedly short fingers is very practical and intuitive, liking to go with their gut instinct. When the hands are in proportion it shows a balanced personality. 1. Forefinger represents confidence, ego, ambition and drive. 2. Middle finger represents discipline and balance. 3. Ring finger represents emotional expression and creativity. 4. Little finger represents communication. Fingers – The Language No doubts fingers have proved the work of lips too. Fingers have become voice for deaf, dumb and blind. Helen Keller said, "Once I knew only darkness and stillness... my life was without past or future... but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living." The utilization differs in every case. It depends on you. Either you play, write, sign, put on piano, get rhythm & sound or eat. Because you have different fingers! About Huntas Copyright @ 2007 Huntas \| Huntas! 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Jumat, 21 September 2012 White Water Benefits White Water Benefits White Water Benefits, Do you know how many benefits of drinking water for your body. But many are reluctant to drink water, or drink only when thirsty or after meals alone. Drink plenty of water is a good effort to maintain a healthy body. Then you should know what are the benefits of water for your body's health. Water is actually the largest component in the human body. Its content varies according to age. The water content in infants by 80 percent, 60 percent of adults and in the elderly or in over 65 years by 50 percent, Water is also an important nutrient for a healthy body because it acts as a solvent, catalyst, lubricant, regulating body temperature and provider of minerals and electrolytes. Therefore, the benefits of water to maintain the beauty you can also feel if you drink plenty of water, Water therapy can provide many benefits, especially to maintain your body's healt. Benefits oof water for health. 1. Maintaining body balance Medical facts showed that 60% of the human body consists of fluids. The functions of these fluids among others, to the process of digestion, absorption of nutrients in the body's blood circulation, transport of nutrients and maintain body temperature. So you can imagine if the body through lack of fluid intake. 2. Help control calories For those who've tried various ways of a healthy diet, will have heard of drinking water / water therapy as a way to lose weight. Water can be used as a substitute for high-calorie beverages that help the diet. 3. Help generate muscle The cells are not able to maintain the appropriate balance of fluids and electrolytes, will result in muscle fatigue. When the muscle cells do not have enough fluids, they will not function properly and the ability to decrease. 4. Creating glowing skin One way to keep the skin moist is to consume water. Drinking enough water not only keep the skin moist, so it does not look dry and dull, but it can also help get rid of toxins in the body so that the skin is always maintained his health. 5. Maintain kidney function Body fluids is a useful medium for transporting waste or waste to exit and enter the cell. The main toxins in the body is blood urea nitrogen, a type of fluid that can pass through the kidneys for processing and poured in the form of urine. When the body has enough fluids, urine will flow freely, clear and odor-free, and vice versa if the lack of water the concentration of urine, color and odor will be noticeable because the kidneys have to absorb the extra fluids to carry out its functions. No wonder if drinking a little water then people would be at risk of kidney stones. 6. Maintain bowel function Adequate fluid intake will make the food pass through the digestive tract can flow smoothly and prevent constipation. When you do not have enough liquid the colon will absorb water from the stool to maintain hydration so that it can cause a bowel movement. The benefits of water therapy will be felt if you run it, especially for those of you who are troubled with digestive problems. 7. Stay Slim With Water Trying to lose weight? Water increases your metabolism and helps you feel full. Replace the fiber-calorie drinks with water, and drink a glass before meals to help you feel more full. Drinking more water also helps boost metabolism. 8. To increase the energy in the body If you feel tired and exhausted, drink water. Dehydration makes you feel tired. Water helps the blood in transporting oxygen and other essential nutrients to the cells. If you are getting enough water, your heart also does not need to work harder to pump blood throughout your body. 9. lowering Stress 85% of your brain tissue is water. If you're dehydrated, both your body and your mind will be stressed. If you feel thirsty, you will experience a little dehydrated. To keep all of it, and prepare a glass of water on your desk or carry a drink bottle and drink it little by little on a regular basis. 10. Maintaining Skin Fine lines and wrinkles deeper when you're dehydrated. Water is your natural beauty cream. Drinking water hydrates skin cells and pick-up their back, making your face look younger. He also remove dirt and increases circulation and blood flow, making your face clean, clear and glowing. Happy Reading and hopefully Useful Another article maybe you like Caring For Natural Hair White Water Benefits Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Jesicca Rienzy 0 komentar: Posting Komentar
From RationalWiki Jump to: navigation, search Potentially edible! Food woo Fabulous food! Delectable diets! Bodacious bods! Salt is a compound consisting of a positively charged metal bonded with a negatively charged halogen (a covalent bond), which makes most salts soluble in liquids consisting of polar molecules (the most popular being water). The best known salt is sodium chloride (NaCl, common table salt). All salts taste salty, but some, such as arsenic or plutonium salts, are not recommended as table seasonings. Usage of salt[edit] Salt was legendarily used in ancient times (most notably in the case of Carthage) to destroy the usefulness of agricultural land once conquered - the crops would be burned to the ground and the soil "salted" to poison it. Essentially, this would be scorched earth turned up to 11. However, a gigantic amount of externally-applied salt is required to significantly poison even one acre of land, and even then soils that are well-drained and/or receive large amounts of rainfall will rapidly flush out the salt (Soil salination as a consequence of irrigation is a different phenomenon in which irrigation concentrates salts originally present in the subsoil into the topsoil). This is a costly proposition, because salt was in ancient times far more valuable than it is now. Why a conquering power would render agricultural land worthless to anyone, rather than claim it and exploit it for its own interests, is not within the scope of this article. However, the legend continues to be told, and as a result the phrase 'salt the soil' refers to to any attempt to extirpate something and prevent its recovery. Salt is used to melt snow and ice on roads and paths; various different salts have reasons making them better for this. This works because water with a salt solution has a lower freezing point; also the process of dissolving the salt releases some heat. The "ideal" ice melting product would be reasonably cheap, yield a very low freezing point when dissolved in water, have a high exothermic energy release while dissolving, and not be harmful to plants, concrete or road tar, and materials used in vehicles. For instance, potassium or nitrogen salts are less harmful (or even good) to neighboring plants, and calcium chloride is often used because it is a better "melter". The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States, signed by President Nixon, was called S.A.L.T.. Table salt[edit] The principal ingredient of table salt is pure sodium chloride (NaCl). It is typically mined (or evaporated), ground, purified (most of the time), packaged and shipped with not much changing. This section is about the food. Sometimes trace iodine is added to salt to allow for easier intake. Iodine deficiency can lead to intellectual or developmental disabilities so this addition is much like adding fluoride to water or (more accurately) vitamins to milk. Assuming you are not allergic, the addition of iodine is unlikely to be toxic before you succumb to the high enough sodium levels needed for iodine poisoning.[1] In some European countries (e.g. France, Germany, and Switzerland), fluoride is routinely added to table salt as an alternative to water fluoridation. Kosher salt[edit] Kosher salt comes in larger grains. That's really about it in terms of difference, apart from some small differences in how to cook with it. Now the salt in itself is not kosher (Judaism is silent on the issue of which salt to use), but larger grains which can be thrown away after covering meat with it are excellent to draw out any residual liquid/blood and blood certainly is not kosher. Hence the name. Sea salt[edit] Sea salt is produced by evaporating sea water. As a result, it contains more "contaminants" than mined salt, giving it a slightly different flavor. The grinding process is also slightly different which goes back to differences in how to cook with it. Roughly 30% of all salt currently sold for human consumption is sea salt. High blood pressure[edit] The human body needs salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) to survive, and while extremely rare in the developed world there are areas of the world, such as sub-Saharan West Africa, where salt deficiency is a common and very serious public health issue (as a result the salt pans in the Sahara provide one of the few actual uses for the land). That said, the body only needs a teeny tiny bit of it. Ingesting a lot of salt causes a temporary increase in blood pressure. If you already suffer from high blood pressure, this can make it worse. The Center for Science in the Public Interest advocates a severe, government-imposed restriction on the amount of added salt in processed and restaurant food. But then, they also advocate a tax on sugary drinks and a ban on trans fat, so they're pretty big on the whole nanny-state food thing all around. Various forms of woo[edit] See the main article on this topic: Salt woo Not content with just using it to improve dinner and occasionally ruin your enemies' soil, salt has been hijacked by a variety of woo-meisters and superstitions. A widespread folk tale is that throwing salt over your shoulder can be good luck, or a safeguard against bad luck. In Asian cultures, like in Korea and Japan, salt is used to keep away bad luck, evil spirits, or sometimes as a form of purification. It is often thrown at people, or in front of doors or temples. An example of this would be Sumo wrestling. Before every match, there would be salt thrown onto the ring for purification. On the more pseudoscientific side of things, salt has been touted as both a cure-all and the most evil substance one can ingest because of scary words like 'sodium'. A variety of quack medical treatments involving salt exist, from respiratory problems to the downright barmy, to 'special' properties being ascribed to pink Himalayan salt (aside from handily coming in block form and, um, being pink). See also[edit]
Make your own free website on Photon Torpedos If launched during warp flight the torpedo will continue at warp until the sustainer is exhausted. Torpedo range can be extended by utilizing the matter / antimatter warhead to power the sustainer, although this causes a corresponding loss of warhead yield. For a mid-range yield the torpedo can achieve ranges of some 3,500,000 kilometres at sublight speeds. The photon torpedo can be set to fly a ballistic trajectory, be steered by the launch vessel, can home in via its own guidance systems, or use a combination of these methods in a single flight The warhead of a photon torpedo can be removed and replaced by sensor packages or other equipment. Some advanced models are fitted with full warp drives for use as long range high speed probes - the Class VIII probe can cover 1.12 light years at Warp 9, while the Class IX probe can cover 2 light years at the same speed.
Study your flashcards anywhere! Download the official Cram app for free > • Shuffle Toggle On Toggle Off • Alphabetize Toggle On Toggle Off • Front First Toggle On Toggle Off • Both Sides Toggle On Toggle Off • Read Toggle On Toggle Off How to study your flashcards. H key: Show hint (3rd side).h key A key: Read text to speech.a key Play button Play button Click to flip 40 Cards in this Set • Front • Back Social problem Social condition that a segment of society views as harmful to members of society And in need of remedy(can be changed through social and political action) A particular angle of vision on social life “taken for granted” aspects Social stratification Society is divided into “strata”- each with its share of power, privilege and The meanings and ways of life that characterize a society Social structure Refers to the ways society is organized. prediction or educated guess about how one variable is related to another A set of interrelated propositions or principles designed to answer a question Or explain a particular phemonmenon. Constructionist view of Social Problems -Emphasizes the subjective nature of social problems -Social problems are problems because they are define as problems Realist view of Social Problems -Emphasize the objective natural of social problems -Even if a situation isn’t defined as real, it still has consequences Sociological Perspective Peter Berger- Sociology is justified by the belief that it is better to be conscious Than unconscious and consciousness is a condition of freedom Elements of Social Structure 1. Institutions 2. Social Groups 3. Statuses 4. Roles Elements of Culture 1. Beliefs 2. Values 3. Norms 4. Symbol 3 Aspects of Theory Attempt to make sense of some aspect of reality 2. Attempt to be efficient 3. Guide sociological analysis and research by providing specific hypothesis to study C. Wright Mills Sociological Imagination- defines sociology primarily as 1. A liberating perspective 2. A strategic vantage point for understanding human history, contemporary society, and our place within it 3. A form of self-consciousness that encourages reflexivity in our daily life 4. A starting point for examining the “intersection between biography and history” The sociological perspective understands the role of social forces in causing social change, but also appreciated the unique contribution of the individual. A theoretical perspective that sees “society as a system of interconnected parts That work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social Equilibrium for the whole -focuses on how the “parts” of society relate to one another, Manifest Function The main function of an institution Latent Function The secondary function, not primary reason for institution Social pathology Implies the society’s social problems are a function of sickness Social disorganization- Rapid social change results in normlessness Conflict theory Views society as composed of different groups and interests competing for power And resources Social stratification Society is divided into “stata” each with its share of power, privilege and resource Marx’s Conflict Theory Posited that society consists of two parts- the economic substructure (how work is organized) and Superstructure (Ideas of society) Symbolic Interactionism Emphasizes that human behavior is influenced by definitions and meanings that Are created and maintained through symbolic interaction with others -SI is interested in how individuals shape meaning and how that process of shaping meaning shapes the individual Stages of conducting research 1. Formulating a research question: 2. Review Literature 3. Formulate a hypothesis 4. Defining and measuring variables 5. Collecting data 6. Summarizing data 7. Testing hypothesis 8. Think about original problem in light of findings. General problems with health care 1. Degree of income inequality 2. System is cure oriented not prevention oriented 3. Individuals not taking responsibility for health 4. Lack of access 5. Fragmentation of health care 6. 3rd party system of payment 7. Cost of drugs 8. Complexity of health care system 9. Aging society Government health care organization 1. HMO 2. Managed Care 3. Medicare 4. Medicaid Epidemiological Transition 1. The age of Pestilence and Famine 2. Age of Receding Pandemics a. Ecobiological change b. Sociocultural and economic transition 3. Age of degenerative and “man-made” disease 4. Age of delayed degenerative disease ¼ not aware 70% new infections in men and the rest in women Leading cause of death worldwide, ages 15-59 20 million have died and 40 million are currently infected Growing Problem with Obesity -Obesity is associated with a host of other diseases and with diminished life Expectancy for the individual and a reduced life expectancy for the nation -2nd most significant cause of preventable death; tobacco is number one -BMI- body mass index (25-29) indicates about the percent overweight, while 30 is obese, 40 or greater is considered massively obese. Causes of Obesity 1. The McDonaldization of our foodways 2. FDA has always backed a meat-based diet 3. Dieting game (dietic fads) 4. Lack of exercise 5. Schools have dropped regular physical activity Cultural and Social Structure Factors explain drug use in our society 1. Society affluence- 2. Value placed on (pleasure) 3. High rate of poverty 4. Cultural acceptance of drugs 5. Young adults are not properly socialized to use drugs responsively 6. The availability of drugs 7. Social and Cultural integration Consequences of drug and alcohol abuse 1. Family costs- single biggest common trait of wife abuse; 2. Crime costs- deeply implicated in drug and alcohol use and abuse. 3. Economic costs 4. Health costs 5. Car accidents Governmental Approaches 1. Harm reduction- reducing the “cost” of use to the individual 2. Zero-tolerance- increase the “cost” of use through harsher penalties 3. Proposition 36- California law passed via referendum requiring first and second-time minor drug offenders receive treatment, therapy, family counseling rather than jail time Reduction of government control over certain drugs Removing penalties for certain drugs, along with promoting a medical as opposed to criminal approach to drugs Affirms the rights of adults to make an informed choice Directed toward nonusers or to experiments who are in the earliest stages Directed to those who have developed a pattern of regular or irregular use to prevent their moving to the next heavier stages 3 types of approaches -Information/knowledge education- based on the assumption that drug use results from lack of understanding of drugs and their dangers -Affective education- attempt to inculcate the right affect or emotion, attitude toward drugs and toward the self, such as self-esteem education -Social influence/skills education- teach students about the social influences that can affect drug choices, specially peers, media, family and to help people get along without the use of drugs
Traditional forms of organisation, Project Management Traditional forms of organisation Traditional forms of organisations were classified into five types based on the following differentiations. • Functional differentiation: A functional form of organisation is divided into functional subunits such as finance, marketing, production, human resource, research and development. The subunits are integrated by rules, procedures and coordinated plans. If a problem involves several functional units, the managers of all the affected subunits coordinate to resolve the issue. • Geographic differentiation: In this type organisations are subdivided according to location or region. This is done to cater to the needs of local customers, markets and so on. Functional differentiation is often retained within each geographic subunit. These sub units operate independently; integration between them is achieved through standardised accounting and reporting procedures. • Product differentiation: Organisations that produce various goods and services use product-based differentiation for example Virgin group is split into major sub-divisions , each division designs, manufactures and markets its own product line . Every subdivision has functional, geographic, or other forms of break down. • Customer differentiation: Organisations may also differentiate by customer type. For example, companies with large military sales often establish a separate division because federal requirements proposals, contracting and product specifications differ substantially from those for commercial customers. The level of integration between customer divisions depends on the degree of interdependency between their product lines. • Process differentiation: In this form, the bases for differentiation are some logical process or sequence of steps. Since they are sequentially related and problem in one area has an impact on the other, a higher level of integration is required among process-differentiated subunits. Posted Date: 9/28/2012 5:53:14 AM \| Location : United States Related Discussions:- Traditional forms of organisation, Assignment Help, Ask Question on Traditional forms of organisation, Get Answer, Expert's Help, Traditional forms of organisation Discussions Write discussion on Traditional forms of organisation Your posts are moderated Related Questions Organisational Structures The project organisational structure facilitates coordination and implementation of project activities. It should be designed to include the essential Process Planning Process planning is the systematic determination of method or process by which the product is to be manufactured economically and competitively within the limits Question 1) Describe any ten overall functions of the purchasing department Question 2) Describe any five principles of plant layout Question 3) Describe the any Problems associated with policies 1) Policies are liable to different interpretations since they allow discretion and are usually broad. If made specific they become rules and th Quantitative Layout Analysis - Travel Chart A basic tool that is primarily used to analyze the material handling cost or in certain cases number of moves in a process layout i Describe the roles of the sponsor. The sponsor’s role is to signify the organisation commissioning the project and to create the main business decisions relating this. The spon Illustrates the Project Evaluation and Review Techniques? PERT (Project Evaluation and Review Techniques): The technique of PERT helps provide better time evaluation for
Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha Language and plot structure The novel is known for its interesting use of language – Doyle uses a register that gives the reader the vivid impression of listening to a ten-year-old Irish boy from the 1960s. The novel is not divided into chapters but into small scenes which do not follow any chronological order. The plot structure of the novel is also unconventional, that of numerous vignettes. Despite the absence of a clear-cut plot (introduction, complication, climax, dénouement) one can still, with certain sensitivities in place, derive a perceptible passing of time as we witness, gradually, how Barrytown changes. The novel, chronicling Paddy's internal journey towards maturity, is a bildungsroman as it centres around the main character's development. Paddy's growing up is painfully bitter. While the beginning of the book is filled with playful antics, the growing antagonism between his parents and the breaking up of their marriage are evident as the novel moves on. What makes Paddy's rite of passage, as it were, all the more tragic is the fact that he does not choose his "journey of enlightenment and maturity", rather, he is robbed of it when his parents become estranged from one another.
Articles‎ > ‎ The Historical Dimension of Cultic Techniques Cultic Studies Journal, 1991, Volume 8, Number 1, pages 37-45 The Historical Dimension of Cultic Techniques of Persuasion and Control Lita Linzer Schwartz, Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University Ogontz Campus This article examines the use of persuasion and control techniques during various historical periods. Parallels are observed between both religious and political conversion campaigns, as well as between historical and modern cases. The importance of examining the real purposes behind the use of such control practices, especially in today's cults, is emphasized. The sociologist Thomas Robbins, in his book Cults, Converts and Charisma (1986), introduces his discussion of conversion techniques by stating: Persons who actually "live" their religion in a thorough and totalistic manner, particularly when marginal exotic groups and deviant perspectives are involved, are perceived as having undergone an unnatural metamorphosis. This perception engenders a compelling inquiry: how did they get this way? (p. 63) We might begin by asking the same question. Conversion incorporates a number of elements, the most notable of which are proselytization and commitment. It is the proselytization phase that uses persuasion, while control is exercised in both stages by cults [1] and other groups. These are not new techniques. Historical Uses of Persuasive Techniques If we look back at the Inquisition, the very persuasive technique used was "Convert or be burned!" Today's cults are much more subtle, at least initially. As far as control is concerned, totalitarian governments have long anticipated Orwell's 1984 by having family members spy upon one another and neighbors denounce neighbors for heretical or nonconformist thoughts, speech, and/or behavior. Instances of similar types of control can be found as well among the Jews of first-century Palestine (Hankoff, 1983) and in the rigidity of some European communities between then and the Reformation. If we look into American history, we can also find that among the Puritans, one conformed or was banished from colonial New England (Pattison & Ness, 1989). Even today, the Amish "shun" nonconformists, thereby maintaining the sect's [2] traditional beliefs and practices. Persuasion can be a long-term effort as it was with Theodore Ratisbonne in the early 19th century, when Abbe Bautain and others tried to convince Theodore of the correctness of their philosophy and theology. [3] Beginning in 1823, when Theodore took a course in philosophy with Bautain, the young man was gradually convinced that "Christian dogmas are the development, the application, the accomplishment of the announced truths of Judaism" (Ratisbonne, 1904, pp. 60-61). Some four years later he was converted to Catholicism and secretly baptized (Isser & Schwartz, 1988). Apart from the emotional problems that had led him to a search for the meaning of life and for "truth," this kind of step-by-step low-key persuasion typically leads to a deeper and more long-term commitment to the newly found answers. It is an approach used effectively by both the Church of Latter Day Saints (Stark & Bainbridge, 1980) and Jehovah's Witnesses -- both regarded as cults in their formative periods but which have since attained the status of sects. [4] Acceptance by the members of a new group and success as a functionary of the group -- be it religious or political -- reinforces the commitment. This type of effort, however, is far too slow for many proselytizers and missionaries. As a result, the emphasis shifts to isolation from the familiar and literally from the family, which might serve to dissuade the prospective convert from the desired change. (An aside: In August 1990, there were items in the newspaper that Boy George, who had been heavily involved in drugs, had become a member of the Hare Krishna movement, much to his family's relief. In the early years of the modern cult movements, many families felt this way. . .until their children were cut off from them.) In our study of a number of cases involving children and adolescents in the 19th and 20th centuries, Natalie Isser and I found that the youngsters were kept from their families in convents and seminaries and soon succumbed to the pressures applied by the adults in these settings to convert (1988). They were, for the most part, afraid of the unknown, afraid of being alone, and afraid of being abandoned as it appeared they had been by their parents. Involuntary conversions were and are most effective "with those who are the most vulnerable -- the young, the naive, the weak, and the neurotic" (Isser & Schwartz, 1988, p. 114). The cases we studied reflected these characteristics, from Edgardo Mortara, removed from his family in 1858 and kept apart from them from age 5 to late adolescence, to the Finaly brothers whose lives were saved during World War II by the directress of a municipal nursery in France, who refused to surrender them to their surviving families for eight years. [5] The isolation of these children from their families is analogous to and has the same effect as the separation from family and friends practiced by many cultic groups. Comparisons With Modern Uses It was a combination of the children's cases and those of several adults, including Theodore Ratisbonne and later the instantaneous and apparently "miraculous" conversion of his younger brother Alphonse in 1842, that led us to a more extensive study of conversion techniques used by the Chinese Communists during the Korean War and then by cults. What we found was that there were similarities and parallels between the historical cases and the modern ones. The major difference was in the "refinement" of the techniques.William Sargant, a British physician, studied the ancient Greeks to identify the techniques of persuasion and control used in the initiation rites of the religions of that era. In his description of how confessions were obtained in later periods, whether during the Inquisition, under the czarist police, or under Stalin and most of his successors, it is easy to perceive some parallels to the techniques used by cults: To elicit confessions, one must try to create feelings of anxiety and guilt, and induce states of mental conflict if these are not already present. Even if the accused person is genuinely guilty, the normal functioning of his brain must be disturbed so that judgment is impaired. If possible he must be made to feel a preference for punishment -- especially if combined with a hope of salvation when it is over -- rather than a continuation of the mental tension already present, or now being induced by the examiner. (Sargant, 1957, pp. 185-186) As we know, in some of the allegedly religious groups and in the so-called therapeutic groups such as est, self-criticism and even self-contempt are used as prerequisites to receiving the "salvation" or special "knowledge" held out as the reinforcement for membership and devotion to the group's precepts. Sargant's primary interest was in the physiological changes in the brain promoted by persistent tension, anxiety, and the frequently changing attitudes of the examiners. These led, he concluded, to greatly heightened suggestibility as well as physical debilitation and mental exhaustion. It might be noted that this approach is used regularly by police personnel in questioning suspects. (See Ofshe [1989] for a description of law-enforcement abuses.) We're all familiar (from television) with the starkly bare interrogation room that promotes tension and anxiety and with the "good cop, bad cop" team of questioners. The hope of salvation mentioned by Sargant was also the "carrot" used by such eminent preachers as Jonathan Edwards in colonial New England and John Wesley in 18th-century Britain -- after they had aroused anxiety, feelings of guilt, conflicting loyalties, and heightened group suggestibility. Again, this technique became familiar through the portrayal of "Elmer Gantry." In fact, Sargant asserted, the techniques used by the Communists in Russia and Korea could be better understood if these religious uses were studied. Of course, physical terror was used by these political groups in addition to the massive psychological assault, as the latter process alone would have been too slow to obtain control of hundreds of millions of people. Both Sargant and Joost Meerloo, author of The Rape of the Mind (1956), point out, moreover, that these techniques are also related to Pavlov's simple conditioning techniques. One might also cite the use of Skinner's operant conditioning theory. In both situations, reinforcement is heavily dependent upon the organism's behavior, with positive reinforcement (from a simple affirmative nod to the excessive "love bombing" employed by some cult members) given for all acceptable behavior and no reinforcement for contrary behavior. Sargant also quotes Richard Walker, author of China Under Communism, as identifying six steps in the training of party workers who will transmit the message between the party and the masses: 1. Training in an area isolated from family and friends; 2. Fatigue -- no opportunity for relaxation or reflection; 3. Tension; 4. Uncertainty -- related to those who didn't measure up; 5. Use of vicious language; 6. Seriousness of the process -- humor is forbidden (Sargant, 1957, pp. 165-166). Does this sound suspiciously like what happened to those recruited by many of the cults in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s? The first four steps certainly have been reported and documented by thousands of former cult devotees. To some extent, military drill instructors use modifications of these same techniques with new recruits in basic training. One ex-DI told me, for example, that a major message conveyed in the training course for DIs was that for the first two weeks no recruit can do anything correctly -- even if he makes his bed perfectly, exceeds the quota of push-ups, and so on. (You may recall seeing such scenes in the film "An Officer and a Gentleman.") Depersonalization, Deindividualization, and the Search for Happiness An essential part of cult indoctrination has been a kind of depersonalization, that is, breaking down one's persona or identity in order to create a new one in the image of the group and its leader. It's interesting to note how this was carried out by a Charles Manson as well as a Jim Jones (Lindholm, 1990) and also, in earlier generations, by some convents and seminaries with their novices. In the latter situations, however, novices usually not only entered an order voluntarily and with knowledge of what was to come, but also had the opportunity to withdraw if they found that they could not adapt to the strict religious life. According to Halperin, in discussing the meal served to potential recruits, "groups that place a great emphasis on denigrating individuality must inevitably create a food which denies individual taste" (1983, p. 227). The assumption of a common "uniform," as with the Hare Krishnas today, or the pooling of all clothing so that no individual is associated with a particular item that will make him or her stand out among the others, is another aspect of deindividualization. Another approach, one that may be traced back to some of the early followers of Jesus and other religious figures, is less threatening. It is, in fact, an appeal to the very human desire to be happy. Snow and Machalek (1982) describe the appeal: Two couples standing outside of a Los Angeles restaurant are asked by a neatly dressed Caucasian female if they have ever heard of "Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kya." They look at her as if to say, "What are you talking about?" Noting their confusion, the proselytizer asks if they want to be happy and fulfill their dreams. They respond that they are quite content. The proselytizer emphasizes that they could get whatever they want -- mentally, physically, or spiritually -- if only they chanted. She then indicates how chanting has provided her with greater meaning and purpose, enabled her to get better grades in school, and improved her relationship with her parents. Their response was still one of disinterest, so the proselytizer moves on in search of other prospects. (1982, p. 15) Perhaps the unique feature of this description is the readiness with which the proselytizer appeared to move on. As in any other field that utilizes essentially sales techniques, some practitioners are more persistent than others. Whether an itinerant salesman, a Hare Krishna devotee seeking donations, or one of today's street beggars, some will move on after one rebuff while others hang on hoping to change the target's mind through use of a new argument or simple repetition. We must consider as well the nature of the target. In times of stress and uncertainty, more people are amenable to persuasion by someone who appears to have "the answers," even if this means accepting an undue measure of control. On a national scale, we've seen this happen time and time again from the period of the Exodus to modern-day Iran. On the individual level, vulnerability to techniques of persuasion and control is particularly noted at several points in development -- late adolescence, early adulthood, and today in very late adulthood. These are the times in a person's life cycle of major change and numerous options. For those individuals who have not yet determined direction and who may not have experience in decision-making in an amorphous situation, the invitation to a solution that promises happiness and fulfillment is tempting indeed. Drawn in by the very effective persuasive techniques of the recruiters and the "already committed" and increasingly controlled by the practitioners of the organization, they, too, throw themselves into their new group in a "thorough and totalistic manner" with all the zeal of the Crusaders of old. Part of the attraction of cults (and other totalistic groups) may be their exclusivity: "Only we will be saved!" or "We have the solutions to the world's problems!" Another attraction, at least for social isolates, is the social network that is gained at once upon acceptance; yet, for the cult, it is also a means of controlling the new recruit's behavior. However, acceptance by the group is dependent on total commitment to the group's ideas and on the demonstration of such commitment by seeking to "reform," that is, proselytize, others. The refinement of the persuasive techniques, used without the physical terror imposed by an Inquisitor, a Stalin, a Hitler, or an Imam, is such that it would be envied by a Mary Kay distributor or a Madison Avenue advertising executive. In conclusion, let me suggest that most of the techniques used by cults are neither new nor exclusive to these groups. Throughout history religious leaders and orders, shamans in aboriginal and native tribes, charismatic political leaders, the military, and overzealous salesmen have used these techniques very effectively. Our concern is aroused when those using undue pressure, proselytization, and control practices do so for their own enhancement or to meet their own psychological needs rather than for the true benefit of the individuals being drawn in or for the society in which the techniques are used and the group functions. Thus, we cannot fault the techniques of persuasion and control (except the extreme forms) for they have been necessary at many points in history, but we can and should question the purposes for which they are employed. 1. Cult has been defined as "a group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control. . .designed to advance the goals of the group's leaders, to the actual or possible detriment of members, heir families, or the community. (Cultism: A Conference for Scholars and Policy Makers, 1986, pp. 119-120) 2. A sect is a religious group that is not characterized by the exploitative manipulation of cults and is usually an offshoot of a mainstream religion or has moved toward accommodation with the mainstream. Sects may originate as cults or sometimes deteriorate into cults. 3. Theodore Ratisbonne was an older son in a prominent Alsatian Jewish family. After his conversion to Catholicism, he founded the order of Notre Dame de Sion, dedicated to educating and converting Jewish girls. He was involved in some major scandals where Jewish girls were hidden from their families while he beguiled them into conversion. 4. The difference in status reflects a shift in perception of the group by the larger society as well as some modification of the group's accommodation to the laws of the larger society. 5. The Mortara boy had been secretly baptized by a Catholic servant and, under the laws of the Vatican States at that time, was taken from his Jewish family and raised in seminaries. He subsequently became a priest. The scandal of this event united Jewish communities across Europe and the United States in protest. Cultism: A conference for scholars and policy makers. (1986). Cultic Studies Journal, 3 (1), 117-134. Halperin, D.A. (1983). Group processes in cult affiliation and recruitment. In D.A. Halperin (Ed.), Psychodynamic perspectives on religion, sect and cult (pp. 223-234). Boston: John Wright, PSG Inc. Hankoff, L.D. (1983). Religious innovation in the Jewish revolt against Rome. In D.A. Halperin (Ed.), Psychodynamic perspectives on religion, sect and cult (pp. 1-30). Boston: John Wright, PSG Inc. Isser, N., & Schwartz, L.L. (1988). The history of conversion and contemporary cults. New York: Peter Lang. Lindholm, C. (1990). Charisma. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell. Meerloo, J.A.M. (1956). The rape of the mind. Cleveland: World Publishing. Ofshe, R. (1989). Coerced confessions: The logic of seemingly irrational action. Cultic Studies Journal, 6(1), 1-15. Pattison, E.M., & Ness, R.C. (1989). In M. Galanter (Ed.), Cults and new religious movements (pp. 43-83). Washington: American Psychiatric Association. Ratisbonne, M.T. (1904). Pere Marie-Theodore Ratisbonne, fondateur de la societe des pretres et de la congregation des religieuses de Notre-Dame de Sion, 2 vols. Paris. Robbins, T. (1988). Cults, converts and charisma. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Sargant, W. (1957). Battle for the mind. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Snow, D.A., & Machalek, R. (1982). On the presumed fragility of unconventional beliefs. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 21, 15-26. Stark, R., & Bainbridge, W.S. (1980). Networks of faith: Interpersonal bonds and recruitment to cults and sects. American Journal of Sociology, 85, 1376-1395. Lita Linzer Schwartz, Ph.D., is Professor of Educational Psychology at the Ogontz Campus of Pennsylvania State University. She has written numerous books and articles on cults and conversion. This paper was originally presented at the American Family Foundation annual meeting at Stony Point, NY, in September 1990.
Positive PCOS A positive and practical information resource on polycystic ovary syndrome How to manage fertility & menstrual issues in PCOS PCOS is one of the leading causes of female infertility Photo: Pixabay.com PCOS is one of the leading causes of female infertility. The primary reason for infertility in one-third of infertile couples is due to anovulation, which is when a woman doesn't ovulate. Ovulation is essential to get pregnant and PCOS is the most common cause of anovulation (1). PCOS can also cause other menstrual issues such as irregular or absent periods. Each woman with PCOS presents differently, however, and it's important to remember that lots do conceive and go on to have healthy pregnancies. What menstrual and fertility difficulties can a woman with PCOS experience? • Anovulation: Women with PCOS may not be ovulating due to hormonal imbalances caused by the condition. • Oligomenorrhea: Infrequent or irregular periods i.e. less than 9 periods a year, or an abnormal cycle which lasts less than 24 days or longer than 35 days with day 1 being the first day of your last period. • Amenorrhoea: Having previously had a period, they have stopped for at least 6 months. If you have irregular periods and are not trying to get pregnant currently you can skip to the next section here. Do you have PCOS and experiencing difficulty getting pregnant? The information below is provided to enable you to make informed decisions about treatment options to meet your needs and discuss with your medical practitioner/healthcare professional if you're experiencing difficulties conceiving. There are additional factors which may also influence a woman's chances of conceiving, such as age, and male fertility issues, which are not covered in this section. If you have any fertility concerns or specific queries, these should be discussed with a relevant medical professional. Ovulation: Firstly, if you have periods, are they regular? If they are, it's important to maximise your chances of conceiving by knowing when you're most fertile. Women typically ovulate once in every menstrual cycle. Luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) trigger the release of an egg from the ovarian follicle. The egg then travels down the fallopian tube where it may be fertilized by a sperm (2). Ovulation usually occurs around 12 to 14 days before your period starts. It is easier to calculate your most fertile times if you have a 28 day or regular menstrual cycle and the first day of your period is counted as day one. There are many ovulation calculators available online to work out your fertility window. However, women who have irregular cycles can find it hard using this method to work out when they're most fertile. You can learn to spot the signs that you are due to ovulate: • Change in cervical mucus: Throughout your cycle, cervical mucus changes texture and you are at your most fertile when it becomes clear, slippery and stretchy. The mucus protects and speeds the sperm up through the uterus and into the fallopian tubes to meet the egg. • Increased body temperature: You won't notice it yourself but a basal thermometer can detect a raised body temperature. You are most fertile 2-3 days before your temperature spikes so charting your body temperature can help detect a pattern to work out when you're likely to ovulate. • Ovulatory pain: Some women feel aching or twinges of pain in their lower abdomen when they ovulate. Monitor when you feel this ovulatory activity as it can indicate your fertility. • Ovulation prediction kits: These are available to buy and indicate which days of the month you are most likely to ovulate. Lifestyle modifications, such as diet and exercise, should be first line therapy in managing infertility and regulating your periods. Photo: Unsplash.com Diet and Exercise: Lifestyle modifications are absolutely key to improving reproductive health and function for both overweight and lean women with PCOS (5,9). Diet and exercise are also ways to treat symptoms without adverse effects and have been found to reduce the long term health risks associated with PCOS (2). No single diet has been proven to work however, a low glycemic one has been found to increase insulin sensitivity and improve ovulation (9). Eating a larger breakfast and smaller dinner has also been shown to increase ovulation. You can read more about PCOS & Nutrition and PCOS & Exercise here. Being obese or underweight can significantly impact your ability to get pregnant both naturally and with assistance (5,9). If you're overweight, losing as little as 5% of your total body weight can improve insulin sensitivity and restore ovulation. It is recommended that women make the appropriate lifestyle changes for 6 months to lose weight. In fact, achieving a Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 30 is advised before considering any ovarian stimulation drugs or medical intervention (3). You can work out your own BMI here. Conventional medicine: As mentioned previously, if a woman is overweight, changes to diet and exercise is recommended for 6 months to preferably achieve a BMI of less than 30 before any medical intervention is started (5,3). If this doesn't result in pregnancy, oral medications are the second-line treatment (9). The current medical treatment for anovulation caused by PCOS is a drug called clomifene. If ovulation isn't induced with clomifene alone, some literature suggests it should be combined with another insulin sensitising drug, metformin (3). However, metformin is no longer used routinely in the UK due to associated higher rates of miscarriage and being significantly less effective in treating anovulation than clomifene (5). If ovulation is not restored at this stage, another treatment that may be considered is laparoscopic ovarian drilling, a surgical treatment performed to trigger ovulation. For women who have been unable to conceive naturally or with other less invasive treatments, in-vitro fertilization (IVF) may also be explored under the guidance of a fertility specialist. Supplements: Used as an adjunct to maximise health, supplements are not a substitute for a healthy diet and lifestyle. There is some research supporting the use of supplements to help manage PCOS symptoms. For example, myo-inositol, a member of the B complex vitamin group, has been found to improve ovulatory function, menstrual regularity and insulin sensitivity (9). Omega-3 fish oil and vitamin D are associated with improved insulin resistance (9). It is recommended that women should take folic acid before and during pregnancy to reduce the risk of birth defects (2) or a prenatal vitamin for 3 months or more before trying to get pregnant (9). Speak with a medical or health professional to choose safe supplements which meet your individual needs. Fertility Foods: Further research is needed before definite recommendations can be made about a 'fertility diet' to improve your chances of getting pregnant. However, studies have indicated that certain foods may help. For example, reducing animal protein in your diet and eating vegetable sources instead, as well as eating plenty of fruit and vegetables (2). Acupuncture: Many women with fertility problems are looking for alternatives to medications typically offered in Western medical treatments (4). The efficacy of acupuncture is increasingly being demonstrated in research studies for its ability to stimulate ovulation, regulate the menstrual cycle and balance hormonal levels (6). It can work by normalising the production of luteinising hormone and follicle stimulating hormone which stimulate the ovaries to release an egg. Acupuncture has also been found to be a low-risk treatment with no increased risks of multiple pregnancy (6). Herbal Medicine: Used as an alternative to conventional medicine, or in combination with it, herbal medicine has been shown to help regulate periods for those with irregular or no periods, normalise hormonal imbalance and improve insulin sensitivity. For example, vitex agnus-castus is a herb that has been found to significantly improve female fertility and menstrual regularity (4, 7). Positive PCOS recommends taking advice from a qualified medical herbalist belonging to a professional body, such as The National Institute of Medical Herbalists in the UK. Experiencing difficulties getting pregnant can take its toll emotionally on some relationships. Photo: Unsplash.com Managing stress: You may have already received the well-meaning advice to, "Just relax, it will happen". Although it's not always as straightforward as that, stress can potentially interfere with conception. It's normal to experience some anxiety when experiencing difficulties getting pregnant but try to find time to do things that you find relaxing. Keep making plans in your life which don't revolve around conceiving and make time to look after yourself. Our thoughts and emotions have an impact on our bodies. For example, instead of focusing on your 'infertility', focus more positively on your 'fertility'. You can read more about positive affirmations and how they work here. Looking after your emotional health: Experiencing difficulties getting pregnant or having a healthy pregnancy can understandably be devastating and take its toll emotionally on a couple. Potential feelings of disappointment, shock, anger, sadness, guilt and isolation can all be normal responses when struggling to conceive. It's important that you look after your emotional wellbeing and have the appropriate support around you. There are online resources providing information, support and advice to women experiencing difficulty conceiving such as Resolve, the national US infertility association, and Infertility Network UK which is the UK's leading charity. Top of page Do you have irregular periods and are not trying to get pregnant currently? Diet: the impact of lifestyle and nutritional choices on PCOS symptoms, regardless of how much you weigh, should not be underestimated - the benefits are huge. A balanced and nutritious diet can alleviate, or even get rid of, PCOS symptoms. You can read more about PCOS & Nutrition here. Exercise: Found to reduce risk factors associated with the condition, such as insulin resistance, and improve overall health, exercise is strongly recommended for all women to help manage their PCOS. You can read more on why exercise is so important for women with PCOS here. Conventional medicine: The oral contraceptive pill is often used for women who are not trying to get pregnant to regulate their periods, reduce the risk of developing endometrial cancer, and to treat acne and excessive hair growth. There are concerns that the pill may actually aggravate insulin resistance and increase long-term risks of heart disease and diabetes. Further research examining the risks of women with PCOS taking the pill is needed as the amount of existing research is limited. Each woman's case needs to be treated individually with consideration of her risk factors for diabetes and heart disease (8), and discussed fully with a medical practitioner. Manage stress: Significant levels of stress can impact your menstrual cycle. Learn more about the effects of stress on your body and the link between our mind and bodies. Alternative therapies: Acupuncture and herbal medicine have both been shown to be effective in regulating periods. Supplements: Used as an adjunct to maximise health, supplements are not a substitute for a healthy diet and lifestyle. There is some research supporting the use of supplements to help manage PCOS symptoms: myo-inositol, a member of the B complex vitamin group has been found to improve ovulatory function, menstrual regularity and insulin sensitivity; omega-3 fish oil and vitamin D are associated with improved insulin resistance (9). Speak with a medical or health professional to choose safe supplements which meet your individual needs. Top of page 1: A.J.Polotsky & S. Houston. November 2009. Is there such a thing as a "fertility diet"? Contemporary ob/gyn. 37-42 2: M. Stankiewicz & R. Norman. 2006. Diagnosis and management of polycystic ovary syndrome: a practical guide. Drugs. 66 (7): 903-912 3: The Jean Hailes Foundation for Women’s Health on behalf of the PCOS Australian Alliance. 2011. Evidence-based guideline for the assessment and management of polycystic ovary syndrome. Copies available to download at www.jeanhailes.org.uk. Last accessed on 12/01/15 4: S. Arentz et al. 2014. Herbal medicine for the management of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and associated oligo/amenorrhoea and hyperandrogenism; a review of the laboratory evidence for effects with corroborative clinical findings. BMC Complementary & Alternative Medicine. 14: 511 5: A. Balen & A.J. Rutherford. 2007. Managing anovulatory infertility and polycystic ovary syndrome. British Medical Journal. 335: 663–666 6. D.C.E. Lim et al. 2011. Acupuncture for polycystic ovarian syndrome. Cochrane Database Systematic Review. 8: CD007689 7: P. Kantivan Goswani et al. 2012. Natural Remedies for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) : A Review. International Journal of Pharmaceutical & Phytopharmacological Research. 1 (6): 396-402 8: E. Diamanti-Kandarakis et al. 2003. A modern medical quandary: polycystic ovary syndrome, insulin resistance, and oral contraceptive pills. Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism. 88 (5): 1927-32 9: C.M. Bergh et al. 2016. Evidence-based management of infertility in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing. 45: 111–122 Top of page
Shell Scripts Shell scripts can be useful for writing small stuff like combining a few commands to pipes or doing a bit of „back ticking“. Even simple loops and if-conditions are possible. And if we want, it is almost a full programming language. A bit hard to tame, maybe, but quite a lot of stuff is possible. Those who like to know more about it may look into startup scripts of typical java software. Often a .bat and a .sh file are provided, where the right jvm is found, the classpath and the execution path and maybe some other environment are put together. In the end the .sh-file is quite a long and unreadable horror story and the .bat file is even much worse, because the cmd-language is just a lot more primitive and less capable and requires even worse hacks. There are ways to make shell scripts more readable, which by themselves are truly admirable, but I think that route is wrong. We can learn all the Shell functionalities and understand bit by bit even more complex shell scripts, but I think for non trivial shell scripts it is time to switch to real programming languages instead. Scripting languages, of course, for example Perl, Ruby, Python or Lua. We may still execute „shell commands“, that are actually programs in /bin, /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin where they are powerful and more concise than writing purely in that programming language. But a magic for putting together a classpath is much cleaner in Perl than in pure bash (or worse cmd/bat). This is of course another example of the Golden Hammer anti pattern. We should balance our tool box. Not add specific tools for making any minor task a bit easier on the expense of supporting one more tool, but keep a broad range of tools that in conjunction are very powerful. For example I would retire awk and sed and use either Perl or Ruby instead. We only have to keep them around because a lot of system tools that are just there still rely on them, but for a team I would deprecate awk and sed for new scripts or even for enhancing existing scripts. Bash would be ok only for small scripts, you can invent a line number or a maximum complexity, but for very short scripts I think bash is a legitimate tool. Switch to Perl, Perl6, Ruby or… when you encounter any of the following: • The scripts is getting kind of long (>= 100 lines) • You find yourself modularizing it with functions • You find yourself using non trivial perl, ruby, sed or awk within the script, for example regex-stuff • The script need interaction • The scripts needs arrays, numbers or other types • More than one or two trivial if-statements or loop-statements are needed • Database access is done by the script (SQL or NoSQL) • String encoding becomes relevant • Quoting levels become an issue This post was inspired by a similar post on the Isoblog by Kris. And the Shell Style Guide of Google is quite good especially in limiting the area where shell scripts are acceptable. Share Button Bring your own Device This issue is quite controversial and it applies to laptops, tablets and smart phones. Usually the „bringing“ is not really an issue, you can have anything in your bags and connect it via the mobile phone network as long as it does not absorb the working time. But usually this implies a bit more. There are some advantages in having company emails and calendar on a smart phone. This is convenient and useful. But there are some security concerns that should be taken serious. How is the calendar and the emails accessed? How confidential are the emails? Do they pass through servers that we do not trust? What happens, if a phone gets lost? This is an area, where security concerns are often not taken too serious, because it is cool for top manager to have such devices. And they can just override any worries and concerns, if they like. This can be compensated by being more restrictive in other areas. 😉 Anyway, the questions should be answered. In addition, the personal preferences for a certain type of phone are very strong. So the phone provided by the company might not be the one that the employee prefers, so there is a big desire to use the own phone or one that is similar to the own phone, which depends on the question of who pays the bills, how much of private telephony is allowed on the company phone and if there are work related calls to abusive times. Generally the desirable path is to accept this and to find ways to make this secure. The other issue is about the computer we work with. For some kind of jobs it is clear that the computer of the company is used, for example when selling railroad tickets or working in the post office or in a bank serving customers. It shows that more creative people and more IT-oriented people like to have more control on the computer they work with. We like to have hardware that is powerful enough to do the job. We like to be able to install software that helps us do our job. We like to use the OS and the software that we are skilled with. Sometimes it is already useful to be able to install this on the company computer or in a virtual computer within the company computer. Does the company allow this? It should, with some reasonable guidelines. Some companies allow their employees to use their own laptops instead. They might give some money to pay for this and expect a certain level of equipment for that. Or just allow the employees to buy a laptop with their own money and use it instead of the company computer. They will do so and happily spend the money, even though it is wrong and the company should pay it. But the pain of spending some of the own money is for many people less than the pain of having to use crappy company equipment. This rises the question of the network drive Q:, the outlook, MS-Word, MS-Excel,… Actually this is not so much an issue, at least for the group we are talking here. Or becoming less of an issue. Drive Q: can quite well be accessed from Linux, if the company policies allow it. But actually modern working patterns do not need this any more. We can use a Wiki, like MediaWiki or Confluence for documentation. This is actually a bit better in many cases and I would see a trend in this direction, at least for IT-oriented teams. Office-Formats and Email are more and more providing Web-Applications that can be used to work with them on Linux, for example. And MS-Office is already available for Linux, at least for Android, which is a Linux Variant. It might or might not come for Desktop Linux. LibreOffice is most of the time a useful replacement. Maybe better, maybe almost as good, depending on perspective… And there is always the possibility to have a virtual computer running MS-Windows for the absolutely mandatory MS-Windows-programs, if they actually exist. Such an image could be provided and maintained by the company instead of a company computer. It is better to let the people work. To allow them to use useful tools. To pay them for bringing their own laptop or to allow them to install what they want on the company laptop. I have seen people who quit their job because of issues like this. The whole expensive MS-Windows-oriented universe that has been built in companies for a lot of money proves to be obsolete in some areas. A Wiki, a source code repository, … these things can be accessed over the internet using ssh or https. They can be hosted by third parties, if we trust the third party. Or they can be hosted by the company itself. Some companies work with distributed teams… It is of course important to figure out a good security policy that allows working with „own“ devices and still provide a sufficient level of security. Maybe we just have to get used to other ways of working and to learn how to solve the problems that they bring us. In the end of the day we will see which companies are more successful. It depends on many factors, but the ability to provide a innovative and powerful IT and to have good people working there and actually getting stuff done is often an important factor. Share Button On all computers we have some concept of a tmp-directory. Typically it is /tmp on Linux- and Unix-systems and something like C:/TEMP plus some subdirectory in each users home directory on MS-Windows. In terms of software development this tends to be some dark area. Programs like to create some files there, store some stuff there and then maybe remove it, maybe not. And we do not know for sure, when we can delete these files and we actually do not want to care. Linux and Unix-Systems sometimes clear their tmp-directories on reboot, while providing an additional /var/tmp-directory, that survives reboot. Sometimes the tmp-directory is deducted from shared memory, so it is kind of a RAM-disk, but usually stored in the swap partition (or swap file) of our OS. Now this cleanup on reboot does not help too much, when we want to keep our system running for a long time. These days most computers are somehow dedicated. Either they are virtual computers that run exactly one server application or a set of closely related server applications. Or it is a mobile phone, tablet or desktop computer that is typically used by only one person. But still we should not forget that the system should allow being used by several applications and by several users. So sharing the same tmp-directory for everyone can cause some conflicts. The Unix- and Linux-family has a way of setting file permissions for the tmp-directory itself and for its entries that stop users from reading, changing or deleting each others files, but still there is some concurrency about using the namespace of this one directory, which is usually quite elegantly bypassed by each software by using smart naming or by having the OS create unique names. But I would not consider it ideal. On the other hand, sometimes we might actually want to use the tmp-directory to share something between users or between processes, where this one tmp-directory might come in handy. The approach of having a separate tmp-directory in each home directory and in a sub directory of each server application’s installation is tempting, because it separates name spaces, allows to disallow reading the directory entries by others and does not mix totally unrelated stuff in one directory. There is a drawback to this. We usually have different storage technologies. Some are optimized for reading, maybe even avoiding redundancy, because the system can be reinstalled. Some use sporadic writing, some are strictly read-only. And some use a lot of reading and writing. Some data is transient, some can be easily restored and some data needs to be stored redundantly to be safe. Depending on that we should aim to put it on Flash disks, or on a different RAID setup of hard disks. This is getting harder with virtualization, but eventually we can get to the point where virtual computers have disks of different characteristics, that are mapped to the appropriate hardware. So there is no real good answer to this question, but I think that a tmp-directory that is separate from the home directory, but specific to each user, would be the best approach. Will this change? Probably not so easily. But maybe in some distant future. Share Button Tablet Computers The idea of tablet computers is actually quite old and it has been tried a couple of times, at least up to prototypes. Probably a certain level of hardware and software was needed to make them both useful and affordable for enough people to become a mass product. This is actually a quite common thing. Some person, group or company has invented something really good, but they were not able to provide a sufficiently reliable, useful and affordable product to the market or just were not able to leave their home market efficiently. There are just a few examples for this, that I have observed. • Tilting trains have been tried in Germany, UK, Italy, Spain, Sweden Switzerland, Canada, France and Japan, in some countries several times. Many efforts become dead ends because the technology was not easily built in an affordable and reliable and maintainable way, so the mechanism was disabled or the trains were put out of service way too early. Italy actually made this technology work, but some of the train sets suffered serious deficiencies in quality, reliability and maintenance. Spain did the Talgo, which is less ambitious, because it uses gravity instead of an active mechanism and provides for a weaker effect. Sweden developed the X2000 trains, which seemed to work more or less well, but were quite expensive. But finally it seems that companies are able to produce good trains with this technology, like the relatively new Swiss ICN-trains. • A British company had produced trailer bikes for children already in the 1930s. They have one wheel and are attached to a parent’s bike. These were hard to get and they were almost unknown, even though the idea is great. In the 1990s German companies started to adopt the concept and actually produce them in good quality and sell them internationally, which was off course easier than 60 years earlier. They are now a common concept. • In the 1970s many bicycles had three speed hub gears. Derailleur gears already existed, but they were hard to use and fragile. For steeper roads it was possible to use a larger sprocket and to be able to climb slopes at the expense of lacking higher gears for flat sections. A British company produced a 5 speed hub gear, but it was extremely difficult to get and the quality was so poor that it would be almost half of the time in repair for a more active cyclist. Today we see mature hub gears with more than ten gears, but the derailleur technology has also become mature enough for the main stream. So there are several requirements to success. Another interesting aspect is that the actual usage might become different than anticipated. I understand that the tablet computers where sold as a „better replacement“ for PCs and Laptops in certain areas. I do not think that this is reasonable. Having a keyboard and a larger screen is usually better and it makes sense to transport a small or even a larger laptop. I have often had an external keyboard on top of the laptop, when I could afford to transport it and anticipated a heavy use. The netbook was so small that it did not hurt to have it in the luggage, but it was eventually hard to expand the memory and to get a replacement. A relatively small laptop still serves the purpose when a real computer is needed, but luggage is constrained. The tablet computer does have some features that make it worth having one on top of a good phone and different sizes of Laptops. I am using an Android tablet, which is the most common OS for tablets, but there are off course some others, which I do not know well enough to write about them. It is easier to switch between keyboard types. I am using the Cyrillic keyboard a lot and the computer with which I am writing this text has two external keyboards attached. I can switch with a key sequence, but this approach has its limitations. Probably buying a Laptop in Russia and just knowing the German keyboard without relying on the symbols on the keys would work for me. But the tablet makes this work with very little setup, while buying a physical Cyrillic keyboard in Switzerland is a bit harder, but still easy and buying a Laptop with Cyrillic keyboard layout does need some effort. When doing small stuff, mostly reading or even some smaller emails, this is much better than the phone, but it can be used in the train, in the park, anywhere, where it is possible to sit. A laptop requires some kind of a table to be reasonably useful. There are seats with tables in the train, but that is a matter of luck to get one. Finally we currently have a lot of Android Apps. They could be written for „normal“ desktop Linux as well or as web applications. Maybe that will happen. But currently some of them are available for Android, but not or not in a useful way for desktop Linux. This may change and it heavily depends on what we are actually using. But in my case it is true and it proved to be helpful to have the larger screen than on the Android phone. Concerning the SIM card, I actually went the extra mile in terms of higher price and more effort for buying it in order to get a SIM card slot. I have not used it very much, because the extra SIM card is kind of expensive, moving SIM cards between devices is inconveniant and using the Android phone as a WiFi-Router seems to work well enough. But maybe this is useful when travelling a lot with SIM-cards from many countries to use just all the slots in older and newer phones and tablets and to use the device with the currently preferred SIM card as the WiFi router for all the others. And finally it can be said that we can now buy fairly affordable good tablet computers. What I am missing is that tools from desktop Linux are usually not available on Android or only in a limited version. But the most common applications, a web browser and an email client are off course working on both… Share Button Running a Large Number of Servers These days we often have to run a large number of servers, and the times where we could afford to manually log into each one to do system administration tasks are mostly over. It turns out that there are always different approaches to deal with this. In most cases we are talking about virtual hosts, so we have a layer between via the visualization that can help us. We can have a number of master images and create virtual images from those even on demand in a matter of a minute. In case of MS-Windows it is an issue that they have some internal UUID as host-id which should be unique and which is heavily spread throughout the image, but this issue can be ignored if we do not worry about windows domains. Usually we do and I leave dealing with these issues to MS-Windows-experts. Talking about Linux, we only need to make sure that the network interface is unique, which it is if we use hardware and do not mess around with it, but it is not necessarily if we use visualization and virtual network devices. This issue needs to be addressed, but it is well supported by common visualization tools. Another point is the host name. This is not too hard, because we only need to change it in one or two places, which can easily be done by a script. We can mount the image and do the change. Now the image can contain a start-up script that discovers on boot that it is a fresh copy and uses its host-name to retrieve further setup from some server. And we just have to maintain there which host has which setup. These can be automated to a very high extent. Then we can for example request a certain number of servers with certain software and configuration via an web interface. This creates new host-names, stores the setup with these host-names in its setup table, creates the virtual images, deploys them on any available hardware server and once they have stared they retrieve their setup from the server. We can also have master images that already contain certain predefined setups so that this second step is only needed for minor adjustments. We have to assume that these exist. Yes, this is called cloud technology. If we keep the data somewhere else, these servers can be discarded and new ones can be created, so there is no need to do too complex stuff on them. Of course we want to run our software on them. So the day long procedure to install our software is not attractive any more. We need mechanisms that can be automated. Running real hardware is a bit more demanding and for larger servers that might even be justifiable, because they do a lot of work for us. Quite often it is possible to actually do mechanisms quite similar to the virtual world even on real hardware. It is possible to boot the machine from an USB-stick which copies fetches an image and copies it on disk. Again only the host-name needs to be provided and then the rest can be automated. Another approach is to initially boot via the network, which is an option that most of us rarely use, but which is supported by the hardware. For running a large server farm such a hardware and bios setting can just be initially the default and from there machines can install and reconfigure themselves. In this case we probably need to use the Ethernet-address of the network device as a key to our setup table and we need to know what Ethernet addresses are in use. It is a big deal to set up such an environment, but once it is running, it is tremendously efficient. Homogenous hardware is of course essential, maybe an small number of hardware setups, but not a new model with each delivery. It is not enough that the new hardware is named the same as the old one, it needs to be able to run the same images without manual customization. It is possible to have a small number of images, but having to supply already different images for different server setups multiplying there number with the number of the hardware setups can grow out of control, if one of the numbers or both become too large. Now we also have ways to actually access oure servers. there have been tools to run a shell just simultaneously on n hosts to do exactly the same at once. This is fine if they are exactly the same, but this is something we need to enforce or we need to accept that servers deviate. There are tools around to deal with these issues, but it is actually quite reasonable to do a script based approach. What we do is using ssh-key-exchange to make sure that we can log into the servers from some admin server without password. We can then define a subset of the set of our servers, which can be one, a couple, a large fraction, all or all with a few exceptions, for example. Then we distribute a script with scp to all the target machines in a loop. We run this on each target machine using ssh and parse the outputs to see which have been successful and which not. Here it is usually a good idea to have a farm of test servers to try this out first and then start on a small number of servers before running it on all of them. The big bang philosophy of applying a change twice a year on the whole server landscape is not really a good idea here, because we can loose all our servers if we make a mistake and this can be hard to recover, although still have the same tools and scripts even for that, unless we really screw things up. So in these scenarios software that supports the interfaces of the previous version for its communication partners is useful, because it allows to do a smooth migration. Just to give you a few hints: During some coffee break I suggested that Google has around a million servers. Even though there is no hard evidence for this, because this number seems to be confidential and only known to Google employees, I would say that this is a reasonable number. For sure they cannot afford a million system administrators. The whole processes needs to be very stream-lined. Or take the hosting provider where this site is running on. It is possible to have virtual web-hosts, in this case it is multiple sites running on the same virtual or physical machine sharing the same Apache instance with just different directories attached to different URL-patterns. This is available for very little money, again suggesting that they are tremendously efficient. Share Button Microsoft SQL Server will be available for Linux in 2017 Microsoft has officially announced that their database MS SQL Server will become available for Linux in 2017. I think the time has come for this. Since the departure of Steve Ballmer Microsoft has become a little bit less religous and more pragmatic. There are good reasons to be skeptical about companies like Microsoft and Oracle, but having more competition and more choice is a good thing. Maybe the database product from Oracle is slightly better than MS SQL Server, but there are very few projects where this difference really matters. So now we have three important relational DB products: DB2, Oracle, MS-SQL-Server, PostgreSQL and MariaDB (the successor of mySQL). When starting a new project with no specific constraints about the DB I would usually look at PostgreSQL first, because it is a feature rich and powerful open source database. Since database products are usually something that cannot reasonably be changed within one software system for decades this is a good thing, because we never know what the big companies want to do in such a long time scale. If the migration to another DB product is easy, then the software does not really make use of the power and the features of the DB. And it will not be easy anyway. There are a lot of cases where the combination of MS-SQL-Server with Linux will make a lot of sense. Since there are software systems that make use of this DB product, it gives the flexibility to run the DB on Linux servers. And maybe avoid an expensive migration to another DB product. As I already said it gives one more choice. In development environments where MS-products are commonly used, it gives one more combination. And eventually it will encourage Oracle and IBM a little bit to refrain from excessive price increases. Share Button How to make a scanned PDF smaller (Linux) When scanning a paper, it is possible to use a lot of parameters within xsane. The output format can be chosen also, for example PNG, JPG or PDF. The outcome may be a PDF-file that is way too big, easily more than 10 megabytes for a single page. It is quite easy to transform it to a smaller file: convert -density 200x200 -quality 60 -compress jpeg \ big-scanned-file.pdf compressed-scanned-file.pdf Unless you scan very often, it is easier to scan once with a relatively high resolution and then run this conversion with different values for quality and density rather than running the time consuming scan with different xsane settings. Share Button Chemnitzer Linux-Tage In the German city Chemnitz the conference „Chemnitzer Linux-Tage“ (Chemnitz Linux days) will take place from 2016-03-19 to 2016-03-20. * Informatik aktuell (German) * Wikipedia (German) * Offiical page (German) Share Button How to create ISO Date String It is a more and more common task that we need to have a date or maybe date with time as String. There are two reasonable ways to do this: * We may want the date formatted in the users Locale, whatever that is. * We want to use a generic date format, that is for a broader audience or for usage in data exchange formats, log files etc. The first issue is interesting, because it is not always trivial to teach the software to get the right locale and to use it properly… The mechanisms are there and they are often used correctly, but more often this is just working fine for the locale that the software developers where asked to support. So now the question is, how do we get the ISO-date of today in different environments. Linux/Unix-Shell (bash, tcsh, …) date "+%F" \def\dayiso{\ifcase\day \or 01\or 02\or 03\or 04\or 05\or 06\or 07\or 08\or 09\or 10\or% 1..10 11\or 12\or 13\or 14\or 15\or 16\or 17\or 18\or 19\or 20\or% 11..20 21\or 22\or 23\or 24\or 25\or 26\or 27\or 28\or 29\or 30\or% 21..30 \def\monthiso{\ifcase\month \or 01\or 02\or 03\or 04\or 05\or 06\or 07\or 08\or 09\or 10\or 11\or 12\fi} This can go into a file isodate.sty which can then be included by \include or \input Then using \todayiso in your TeX document will use the current date. To be more precise, it is the date when TeX or LaTeX is called to process the file. This is what I use for my paper letters. (From Fritz Zaucker, see his comment below): \usepackage{isodate} % load package \isodate % switch to ISO format \today % print date according to current format On Oracle Docs this function is documented. It can be chosen as a default using ALTER SESSION for the whole session. Or in SQL-developer it can be configured. Then it is ok to just call Btw. Oracle allows to add numbers to dates. These are days. Use fractions of a day to add hours or minutes. (From Fritz Zaucker, see his comment): select current_date; —> 2016-01-08 select now(); —> 2016-01-08 14:37:55.701079+01 In Emacs I like to have the current Date immediately: (defun insert-current-date () "inserts the current date" (let ((x (current-time-string))) (concat (substring x 20 24) (cdr (assoc (substring x 4 7) (let ((y (substring x 8 9))) (if (string= y " ") "0" y)) (substring x 9 10))))) (global-set-key [S-f5] 'insert-current-date) Pressing Shift-F5 will put the current date into the cursor position, mostly as if it had been typed. Emacs (better Variant) (From Thomas, see his comment below): (defun insert-current-date () "Insert current date." In Perl we can use a command line call perl -e 'use POSIX qw/strftime/;print strftime("%F", localtime()), "\n"' or to use it in larger programms use POSIX qw/strftime/; my $isodate_of_today = strftime("%F", localtime()); I am not sure, if this works on MS-Windows as well, but Linux-, Unix- and MacOS-X-users should see this working. If someone has tried it on Windows, I will be interested to hear about it… Maybe I will try it out myself… Perl 5 (second suggestion) (From Fritz Zaucker, see his comment below): perl -e 'use DateTime; use 5.10.0; say DateTime->now->strftime(„%F“);‘ Perl 6 (From Fritz Zaucker, see his comment below): This is even more elegant than Perl: ruby -e 'puts"%F")' will do it on the command line. Or if you like to use it in your Ruby program, just use d = s = d.strftime("%F") Btw. like in Oracle SQL it is possible add numbers to this. In case of Ruby, you are adding seconds. It is slightly confusing that Ruby has two different types, Date and Time. Not quite as confusing as Java, but still… Time is ok for this purpose. C on Linux / Posix / Unix main(int argc, char *argv) { char s[12]; time_t seconds_since_1970 = time(NULL); struct tm local; struct tm gmt; localtime_r(&seconds_since_1970, &local); gmtime_r(&seconds_since_1970, &gmt); size_t l1 = strftime(s, 11, "%Y-%m-%d", &local); printf("local:\t%s\n", s); size_t l2 = strftime(s, 11, "%Y-%m-%d", &gmt); printf("gmt:\t%s\n", s); This speeks for itself.. But if you like to know: time() gets the seconds since 1970 as some kind of integer. localtime_r or gmtime_r convert it into a structur, that has seconds, minutes etc as separate fields. stftime formats it. Depending on your C it is also possible to use %F. import java.util.Date import java.text.SimpleDateFormat val s : String = new SimpleDateFormat("YYYY-MM-dd").format(new Date()) This uses the ugly Java-7-libraries. We want to go to Java 8 or use Joda time and a wrapper for Scala. Java 7 import java.util.Date import java.text.SimpleDateFormat String s = new SimpleDateFormat("YYYY-MM-dd").format(new Date()); Please observe that SimpleDateFormat is not thread safe. So do one of the following: initialize it each time with new * make sure you run only single threaded, forever * use EJB and have the format as instance variable in a stateless session bean * protect it with synchronized * protect it with locks * make it a thread local variable In Java 8 or Java 7 with Joda time this is better. And the toString()-method should have ISO8601 as default, but off course including the time part. This is quite easy to achieve in many environments. I could provide more, but maybe I leave this to you in the comments section. What could be interesting: * better ways for the ones that I have provided * other databases * other editors (vim, sublime, eclipse, idea,…) * Office packages (Libreoffice and MS-Office) * C# * F# * Clojure * C on MS-Windows * Perl and Ruby on MS-Windows * Java 8 * Scala using better libraries than the Java-7-library for this * Java using better libraries than the Java-7-library for this * C++ * Python * Cobol * JavaScript * … If you provide a reasonable solution I will make it part of the article with a reference… See also Date Formats Share Button Changing of Keyboard Mappings with xmodmap xmodmap -pke > current-keyboard or by running for trying out the keys. Given setting as a Basis Special characters for Esperanto ĉ Ĉ ĝ Ĝ ĵ Ĵ ĥ Ĥ ŝ Ŝ ŭ Ŭ č Č ž Ž š Š This can be achieved easily: Create a file xmodmap -pke > .xmodmap-ori And a script $HOME/bin/orikb: xmodmap $HOME/.xmodmap-ori Now create a file using the following command keycode 39 = s S s S scircumflex Scircumflex keycode 42 = g G g G gcircumflex Gcircumflex keycode 43 = h H h H hcircumflex Hcircumflex keycode 44 = j J j J jcircumflex Jcircumflex keycode 54 = c C c C ccircumflex Ccircumflex keycode 30 = u U u U ubreve Ubreve Now create two scripts xmodmap $HOME/.xmodmap-esperanto xmodmap $HOME/.xmodmap-ori Do not forgot to do the for your scripts... 🙂 Other language specific characters In a similar way you can have other characters å and Å on the A, ë and Ë on the E ï and Ï on the I ø and Ø on the O æ and Æ on the Ä ÿ and Ÿ on the Y ñ and Ñ on the N < on the , > on the . \| on the - Remaining Issues Here is another approach: Share Button
Discrimination – 1 The Jews One of the most common forms of racism is anti-Semitism ie hatred of the Jews. What follows is a fairly objective overview of why there is such a deep prejudice against the Jews. Please note, it is not talking about Israel. Prejudice, it seems, is a standard fare of life. In his folksong entitled “National Brotherhood Week,” Tom Lehrer sings: Oh the Protestants hate the Catholics, and the Catholics hate the Protestants, and the Hindus hate the Muslims and everybody hates the Jews. In this 8-part seminar, we will examine the root reason for the world’s longest hatred. Causes versus Excuses – How Can We Tell the Difference? When we study any theory, it is important to distinguish between a “cause” and an “excuse.” The difference is not difficult to recognize: A child who is chronically late to school may say in his defense, “But I don’t have a watch. How do you expect me to get to school in time if I don’t have a watch?” The Six Common Reasons for anti-Semitism • Deicide: Jews are hated because they killed Jesus. The Economic Theory of Anti-Semitism Ancient Chinese Secret A True Story: One day the Chinese scientist commented to the Jew, “You know, ever since we first met I’ve been meaning to ask you a question: Why did you become a physicist? Why didn’t you just go into business?” “What kind of question is that?” \ the Jewish scientist replied. “I became a physicist because I wanted to be a physicist!” “But aren’t you Jewish?” the Chinese man persisted. “So what difference does that make?” “Well,” the Chinese scientist patiently explained, “there would be countless risks involved if I would go into business, but for you it’s risk-free!” “Forgive me, but I’m not following you,” said the Jew. “What sort of business is risk-free?” “For you – any business! Come on,” he said with a conspirational wink, “we all know you have the Organization behind you.” “Huh? What ‘organization’ are you talking about?” “Come on, everybody knows that all Jewish men get money from the Organization when they get married. That’s how all the Jews get started in business. There’s no risk involved, because if the business fails, the Organization buys out the debt and then funnels more start-up money to the Jew. This goes on until the fellow hits upon a business that prospers!” Applying the Litmus Test When the Nazis liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto, there were no Jewish businesses to destroy. In fact, the impoverished conditions there were appalling. The Jews in the ghetto could not have been thought of as “rich” by anyone’s standards, and yet the Nazis felt they had to be eliminated. The Fugu Plan The Japanese called their plan for Jewish settlement “The Fugu Plan.” The “fugu” is a highly poisonous blowfish. After the toxin-containing organs are painstakingly removed, it is used as a food in Japan, and is considered an exquisite delicacy. If it is not prepared carefully, however, its poison can be deadly. Whatever Happened to Jewish Power? If there is any truth to the notion that Jews control governments, why couldn’t those powerful Jews convince any country to accept the refugees who were struggling to escape the European inferno during the Holocaust? If “World Jewry” is so powerful and wields such political influence, surely at least one government would have agreed to take them in as refugees and allowed them to stay until the end of the war… Jews as Moneylenders In this same vein, many people say that anti-Semitism has been caused by the fact that Jews were money-lenders in many societies and supposedly extracted their “pound of flesh” from their non-Jewish compatriots. The Chosen People Theory Knowledge of Jewish “choseness” is undeniably widespread. Several years ago, the University of California conducted a study of anti-Semitism. Non-Jewish Americans were presented with 18 unfavorable statements about Jews, and asked whether they believed any of them. By far the most widely-held belief among those surveyed (59%) was that “Jews consider themselves to be G-d’s chosen people.” Let’s test whether this belief is indeed a legitimate cause of anti-Semitism – or whether it is merely another excuse. If Jewish “choseness” is in fact the cause of anti-Semitism, then hatred against the Jews should disappear when Jews drop the claim that they are chosen. Late in the 19th century, the Jews living in Germany and Austria collectively rejected their “choseness” and were assimilated by their host nation. In fact, they believed that the non-Jews among whom they lived were the true chosen people. “Berlin is our Jerusalem!” they loudly proclaimed. Gentile society was their social environment of choice, and Germany their beloved motherland. Did anti-Semitism disappear? We all know the tragic answer to that question. The Jews in Germany and Austria experienced the most vicious outpouring of anti-Semitic hatred in history. Precisely when Jews rejected their claim to “chosenness,” they suffered the most virulent forms of anti-Semitism. Clearly, the Chosen People Theory does not pass this litmus test. Other “Chosen” Peoples Another test of the Chosen People Theory is to see how humanity responds to other peoples who claim to be “chosen.” If the claim that Jews are chosen gives rise to anti-Semitism, then all groups who make similar claims of having been “chosen” should also become targets of persecution and hatred. Christianity and Islam represent two other major religious groups that claim to have been chosen. Christian theology accepts that G-d gave the Bible to the Jews and made the Jews His special messengers. However, it is the Christian belief that once the Jews rejected Jesus, the Christians became G-d’s new chosen people. Muslims likewise believe that the Jewish Bible is the word of G-d. However, Muslim theology claims that when Mohammad appeared on the scene, G-d made the Muslims His chosen people. If Christians and Muslims both claim that they are chosen, then why hasn’t this historically generated hatred against them? Indeed, nearly every nation on earth has at one time or another claimed to be chosen. Americans claimed Manifest Destiny – that their actions were divinely willed – when they annexed Texas and Alaska, against the wishes of the inhabitants of those areas. The Chinese chose to name their country China because the word means “center of the universe.” The name Japan means “source of the sun.” For Native Americans, the same word means both “human being” and “Indian” – implying that every non-Indian belongs to some subspecies. The Scapegoat Theory The Scapegoat Theory is cited frequently as a cause of anti-Semitism. Some historians use it to account for the emergence of German anti-Semitism in the late 1930s. Their reasoning is as follows: Hitler, like many totalitarian dictators before him, needed to divert blame for his nation’s problems by ascribing them to an innocent victim. He randomly selected the Jews as his scapegoat and launched a massive defamatory campaign to alienate them from mainstream German society. He succeeded in his efforts, and as a result, the overwhelming majority of Germans came to hate Jews. The Scapegoat Theory gives rise to a time-worn question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In other words, does a group become hated as a consequence of being singled out as a scapegoat, or is it selected as a scapegoat because it is hated? The first prerequisite for a prospective scapegoat is someone that the citizens of the country are willing to hate from the start. If we would attempt to divert attention from our own shortcomings by blaming a group that is not already hated by society, the people would not accept it. A fair portion of the population will demand to see evidence of the group’s guilt and refuse to let us off the hook. Imagine what would have happened if Adolf Hitler would have stood before one of those huge crowds in Nuremberg National Coliseum and declared: My fellow Germans, there is a group among us that is the scourge of humanity! They are dominating the German people and destroying our motherland! If Germany is to regain its esteemed status, these people must be persecuted and ultimately eliminated. Who are these people? They are the midgets among us! Because there is no preexisting hatred against midgets, people with freckles, or bicycle-riders, governments don’t try to scapegoat them. The Jews are chosen consistently as scapegoats because it is so easy to rile hatred against them. Jews are a people that everyone is more than happy to persecute. Therefore, the Scapegoat Theory is not the cause of anti-Semitism. Rather, anti-Semitism is what makes the Jews a convenient scapegoat target. If anything, the Scapegoat Theory is simply a barometer indicating the level of hatred that already exists against Jews in any given society. It reveals how much anti-Semitism is already present, waiting to be stirred up. The Scapegoat is obviously an excuse, not a reason. Deicide: The Killers-of-Jesus Theory Christians have long claimed that the Jews killed Jesus, and that is why they hate Jews. Is this the real cause for hatred? If it is, why were Christians not angry at Jews 2,000 years ago, at the time the Jews supposedly killed Jesus? Christian anti-Semitism did not begin until long after the death of Jesus. It was not until several centuries later that the Church fathers decided that Jews as a group should be persecuted because they “killed Jesus.” Bernard Blumenkranz, author of Jews and Christians in the Western World, documents that the intense and ongoing Christian persecution of the Jews did not truly begin until the advent of the Crusades – over 1,000 years after Jesus’ death! Furthermore, once Christian hatred for Jews got under way, it became worse with the passage of time. Logically, time should have eased the strong feelings, as all of us can attest to the fact that anger gradually decreases with time. Time has a way of healing all wounds. For example, in 1866, following the Civil War in America, a Northerner would have felt much tension if he had visited the South. Today, a visit to the Southern United States arouses no such emotions. Have you ever heard of a resident of New York feeling apprehensive about vacationing in Florida? The farther away one is from an event, the less rage one feels – provided the event is the actual cause of the rage! Therefore, if Christians hate Jews because they killed Jesus, that rage should have climaxed following Jesus’ death, and petered out during the two millennia since then. History indicates the very opposite pattern – there were no recorded incidents of anti-Semitism immediately after Jesus’ death, yet there were thousands of such incidents many centuries later. From this we see that Jesus’ death is not the cause of Christian anti-Semitism. Who Killed Jesus? According to the New Testament, it was only the Romans who killed Jesus. While Jews are mentioned as accomplices, the Gospels of Matthew, John and Mark all specifically state that the Romans killed Jesus. If the killing of Jesus is the cause of Christian hatred, why have only the Jewish accomplices been categorically persecuted? Christians should hate Romans at least as much as they hate Jews! Obviously, Jesus’ death is an excuse, not the reason for anti-Semitism. Jews are Different? But what happens when Jews shed their cultural differences and become genuine “insiders”? If the Outsider Theory is correct, then the solution to anti-Semitism should be assimilation. Anti-Semitism should decrease in ratio to the Jews’ ability to integrate into their host societies. Is this really what happens? In December 1789, during a discussion in the French National Assembly in which French Jews were granted equal rights, Count Stanislas de Clermont-Tonnere declared: “To the Jews as individuals, everything. To the Jews as a nation, nothing.” The Jews of Europe jumped at the opportunity to attain equality, hoping at long last to rid themselves of the “dislike of the unlike” phenomenon. They shed their foreign dress, shaved off their beards, and attended universities and theaters. They adopted the language, culture and styles of their non-Jewish neighbors, and intermarried with them. They purged their prayers of any mention of the return to Zion. In short, they became more French than the French. Jewish acceptance of this attitude widened. In Germany, Reform Jews declared, “Berlin is our Jerusalem; Germany is our Fatherland.” Having endured centuries of hatred, the Jews of Europe anticipated a warm welcome from their gentile neighbors. Shortly thereafter, Hitler’s rise to power once again pulled the rug out from under the Jews’ sense of security in their assimilationist approach. Nazism sent a strong message to Jews: We hate you, not because you’re different, but because you’re trying to become like us! We cannot allow you to infect the Aryan race with your inferior genes. The Racial Theory There is no distinguishing racial physical feature common only to Jews. Even the idea of a “Jewish nose” is a myth. Anti-Semites don’t hate only those Jews who have distinctively Jewish physical features; they hate all Jews. They hate Eastern European Jews; they hate Israeli, Russian and Yemenite Jews; they hate blond, blue-eyed Dutch Jews, as well as dark-skinned, Mediterranean Jews. Any Jew will do. Unique Hatred 3) Intensity ― hatred against the Jews is vented in a particularly virulent way. A group that is hated usually becomes the butt of ethnic jokes, and is subject to discrimination. Jews, on the other hand, are subject to attempts at genocide. The Chmelnicki pogroms, the Holocaust, and Iran’s nuclear threats are attempts to exterminate a people that represent just a tiny minority of the world’s population. • Jews are hated for being a lazy and inferior race ― but also for dominating the economy and taking over the world.• Jews are hated for stubbornly maintaining their separateness ― and, when they do assimilate ― for posing a threat to racial purity through intermarriages. Too Many Reasons Mean No Real Reason The “Six Reasons” don’t hold water ― they are excuses! What then is The Reason? Removing the Jewish Element from Anti-Semitism Almost without exception, the reasons for anti-Semitism offered by different scholars have nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Jews are Jewish (e.g. Jews are rich or they’re different). These reasons effectively “de-Judaize” anti-Semitism by equating it with any other common type of hatred. According to this attitude, the Holocaust ― the most systematic attempt to exterminate a people in the history of humanity ― had nothing to do with “Jewish” reasons. Jews simply happened to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. In his book Why the Jews?, Dennis Prager cites a glaring example of an attempt to sell the public on the idea that there is nothing Jewish about anti-Semitism. On April 11, 1944, demonstrating an uncanny wisdom that far surpassed her age, Anne Frank wrote in her diary: Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly until now? It is God Who has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, Who will raise us up again.Who knows ― it might even be our religion from which the world and all peoples learn good, and for that reason and that reason alone do we now suffer. We can never become just Netherlanders, or just English, or representatives of any other country for that matter. We will always remain Jews. Anne Frank made a point of stressing that Jews have something of special value to give to the world, and that is precisely what the world has resented in persecuting the Jews. Anne Frank identified anti-Semitism as a hatred of Jewishness, a loathing altogether different from the bigotry or racism that other peoples experience. Amazingly, when Anne Frank’s story was reconstructed by Lillian Hellman into a Broadway play, her words were completely changed. “Why are Jews hated?” asks Anne. “Well, one day it’s one group, and the next day another…” On Broadway, audiences were made to believe that Jews have been hated just as any other people has been hated. In other words, there is nothing Jewish about anti-Semitism. But what do anti-Semites themselves say about this topic? Hitler’s Straightforward Approach Scholars have made consistent attempts to prove that there is nothing uniquely Jewish that engenders Anti-Semitism. Let us see if comments from known Jew-haters reveal what they find so objectionable. One individual who had no use for the multitude of whitewashed explanations offered by scholars was Adolf Hitler, the man responsible for the most devastating scourge of anti-Semitism in the history of mankind. Hitler openly acknowledged the uniqueness of the Jews as a people. Hitler realized that Jews can never be successfully integrated with the rest of humanity, and he made it his objective to ensure that they never would be. Hitler’s form of anti-Semitism was not a means to an end; it was a goal in and of itself. The Nuremberg Laws, established in 1935, effectively disenfranchised and dismantled the Jewish community of Germany ― but this was not enough to satisfy Hitler. In the late 1930s, Germany was rebuilt and its morale restored, but Hitler’s eye remained trained on the Jews. Seven years after the Nuremberg Laws mangled and mutilated the Jews in body and spirit, the Final Solution was launched in the Wansee Conference of 1942. Hitler saw the Jews as something far more menacing than mere scapegoats; the Jewish nation was his mortal enemy, and so became his target for absolute destruction. Hitler viewed National Socialism as a new world order, a way to create mankind anew. How is this renewal of mankind to take place? Hitler declared: The struggle for world domination will be fought entirely between us ― between Germans and Jews. All else is facade and illusion. Behind England stands Israel, and behind France, and behind the United States. Even when we have driven the Jew out of Germany, he remains our world enemy. Why Did Hitler Target the Jews? Eliminating the Jews was the key to Hitler’s utopia. His driving ambition was to free the world from the shackles of conscience and morality; to turn the world away from monotheism. He fashioned his own brand of religion out of a philosophy based on indulging all of man’s basest desires. The “Hitler Youth” sang this song: We have no need for Christian virtue. Our leader is our savior. The pope and rabbi shall be gone. We shall be pagans once again. Hitler’s picture of the perfect world was a return to a state of jungle-type existence, where “might makes right.” He said: In a natural order, the classes are peoples superimposed on one another in strata, instead of living as neighbors. To this order we shall return as soon as the after-effects of liberalism have been removed. The only serious obstacle standing in Hitler’s way was the Jews. Hitler knew that it was the Jews who carried the message of one God ― of all men created equal; of love your neighbor; of helping the poor and the infirm. Hitler hated the message of the Jews because it was diametrically opposed his vision of what the world should be. He said: They refer to me as an uneducated barbarian,” Hitler said. “Yes we are barbarians. We want to be barbarians; it is an honored title to us. We shall rejuvenate the world. This world is near its end. Hitler told his people: In Every Jew’s Soul Hitler’s only real target was the Jews, because they were all that stood between him and success. So long as the Jews survived, Hitler could never triumph. The Jewishly-rooted concepts of God and morality had taken hold in the world, and Hitler knew that either his own ideologies or those of the Jews would prevail. The world would not abide both. Hitler said: Furthermore, Hitler knew that the Jewish threat to his ideals is embodied in every single Jew. He said: The Jewish spirit, Hitler explained, is the product of the Jewish person. Destroying their holy places alone would not be enough. In Hitler’s words: Even had there never existed a synagogue or a Jewish school or the Old Testament, the Jewish spirit would still exist and would exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning, and there is no Jew ― not a single one ― who does not personify it. The evil of Hitler lay not in his understanding of who the Jewish people are. His evil grew from his reactions to that understanding. Ironically, Hitler had a clearer understanding of who the Jewish people are, and what they have accomplished, than many Jews have today. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Past Tense Like there is only one present tense in Hungarian, there is only one past tense. The one past tense is to be translated with one of the four past tenses in English. Sometimes with the present perfect, which we’ll talk about much later. Not to be confused with the -t accusative ending attached to nouns! Here’s an example how you form the past tense: néz + -t + -em = néztem > I watched So the formula is: 3rd PS indefinite form + -t or -tt ending + personal suffix Verbs in the past tense can be divided into three groups: Group 1: Most verbs take the one -t past tense ending with no link vowel. néztem, féltünk, láttak, vacsoráztál… Group 2: -Monosyllabic verbs ending in -ít (hajítottam, merítettem) -Monosyllabic verbs in -t (kötöttem, futottam) -Verbs ending in two consonants (fejtettem, nyújtottam) take the double -tt past tense with a link vowel in all numbers/persons. Group 3: Some other verbs in need of a more detailed explanation. fogad, tagad, enged, szenved, téved, hív, szív, mond, küld, kezd, áll, száll, hull And of course, we’ll have to talk about those 16 irregular verbs. You shouldn’t worry about those three groups. Only regular and “exceptional” verbs belong to them. They’re not specifically verbs you can call irregular. So next time, indefinite conjugation in past tense. Bye now! 🙂 Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Monday, November 28, 2016 Another Piece of the Broken Government Puzzle J.P. McJefferson J.P. McJefferson There are many confusing explanations in response to this question, but it’s a simple matter of state votes vs. public or popular votes. When you vote for President, you are actually voting to determine how your state will vote for President — you are not voting directly for the President. Frankly, I could care less, how my state votes for the President, yet it is one of the primary reasons for the electoral college process. It’s all about big states vs. little states. The Founders had a fear that under the popular vote, the choice of President would always be decided by the largest, most populous States with little regard for the smaller ones. When they wrote the constitution, this was a big deal with the limitations of travel and communication. Obviously, a candidate could campaign in a few large states, save money, time and likely get elected. In today’s world, the process is totally meaningless and irrelevant and yet we continue to use the same antiquated process over 200 years after it was instituted. It has now led to two unprecedented Presidential elections in the last 16 years where the states elected George Bush and Donald Trump, but the public elected Al Gore and Hillary Clinton by over 500,000 and 2.23 million votes, respectively. Another reason for the electoral college process was to prevent a charismatic tyrant from fooling the public and attracting a majority of the popular vote. The Founders reasoned that the electoral college process would allow a more knowledgeable group of savy electors to override a misinformed public. As you might expect, there are various opinions on whether that “check and balance” actually works.
Communicate with other users in your terminal using “write” command If you are only user on a system this tutorial is not meant for you. However, you can learn from it. This tutorial is meant for the system admin who might need users information and need to communicate with users. System admin can actually do so using the Terminal with “write” utility. who: list users on system This utility simply list the users who is using the system. Remember, all the users who is using the system must be connected to a network with logged in date and time. w: list users on system(Detail information) This utility also list the logged in users with the the additional information on how long the user has been idle, how much computer processor time each user has used during login session and the commands each user are running. There’s a similar utility like “w” called “finger.” You need to install finger utility in your system. It is available in repository of all Linux systems. Write: send messages to logged in user of same system This is the utility that we are waiting for. Write sends a message to another logged in user. The syntax is: write username [terminal] The username is the username you want to communicate with. The terminal is optional which is the device name. You can display the user names and device names of logged in users by using who, w or finger commands. To establish the two way communications both the user should execute write command. To quit messaging hit “Ctrl+D”. By default, accepting messages are turned off for security reasons. You must allow other users to send you message. Use the following command: mesg y You can block messages using following command: mesg n Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Chemistry Thoughts: The Relationship Between Volume and Pressure The countdown has begun. It’s currently T minus 7 days till I head off to Berkeley, but today is exactly the day that my chemistry panic has set in! UC Berkeley has notoriously difficult classes but the course I’ve heard about the most by far has been Chemistry 1A/1AL. Of course this means that’s the exact course I have to take my first semester in order to satisfy some requirements for medical school and my actual major. On the bright side, I can get in a little review before I go to my first chemistry class so I don’t have a panic attack in the lecture hall, so here we go… Boyle Oh Boyle, This Is Going To Be Good! The most fundamental relationship between volume and pressure is illustrated through Boyle’s Law. The law is written down in several convertible forms, but we will consider it in the elementary format: pv = C p = pressure, v= volume, C= constant The reason I chose the format pv = C is that it clearly displays the inverse relationship that pressure and volume have with one another. In mathematics, an inverse equation is shown as y = k/x, where k is a constant. Similarly, if we take the formula for Boyle’s Law and manipulate it by dividing the constant C by volume v, we will get the equation p = C/v. It’s an inverse function! The inverse relationship means that if volume were to increase, pressure would decrease, and vice versa. Or, if pressure were to increase, volume would decrease, and once again vice versa! If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. Imagine a box that houses some gas, let’s say hydrogen. If we were to decrease the size of the box, meaning that we are decreasing the volume without changing the number of particles, then there is less space for the particles to move around without colliding. Pressure is determined by the number and force of collisions so more collisions from having less volume means greater pressure! Changing volume in the opposite direction would work as well. If we were to increase the size of the box, meaning that we are increasing the volume without changing the number of particles, then there is more space for the particles to move around without colliding. Less collisions therefore equates to less pressure overall! This is the basic point that Boyle’s Law makes but the applications, in my opinion, go so much farther than this. Hopefully if I understand this fundamental point, I’ll understand the math involved in Berkeley’s chemistry program! Thanks Charles Boyle! Chemistry Thoughts: Avogadro’s Law Lately I’ve been thinking about Avogadro’s Law (SPOILER ALERT: I am probably/definitely a nerd). When I was taking chemistry honors and AP Chem in high school I accepted Avogadro’s Law as a universal fact, the very definition of a law. There was so much more information in my textbooks that I needed to learn and I took the easy way out, not caring about understanding why any of the gas laws had to be fundamentally correct. In short, I left the proofs to geometry. Of course now that I’m a recently graduated high school senior with absolutely no summer homework and way too much time on my hands, I’ve been going back to things that I wish I had time to do when I was in high school: cooking, hanging out with friends, reading, LEARNING THE EXPLANATIONS BEHIND DIFFICULT CHEMISTRY CONCEPTS. And so, here we return to Avogadro’s Law. The definition of Avogadro’s Law is that equal volumes of gas, held at constant temperature and pressure, contain equal numbers of molecules. A superficial glance at this statement and I wholeheartedly agree! Equal volumes of gas must have equal numbers of molecules because…well…duh. A few minutes later and suddenly I’m thinking about molar mass and stoichiometry and the relationship between moles and volume and now I’ve opened up a massive black hole and I have no idea where I am or why there are 22.4 Liters of gas per one mole at standard pressure and temperature. Basically, I need help. Thank goodness for the internet because otherwise I would be sitting in my room for a week with marker stains on my face and crumpled up papers surrounding me, just trying to find an explanation for Avogadro’s Law. Without further ado, here is a concise look at Avogadro’s Law: Let’s assume that we have 1.00 Liter each of nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas in separate containers. We have also held both temperature and pressure constant in each of the containers. Hydrogen and nitrogen particles have different masses (1.01 g/mol H and 14.00 g/mol N) which means that they have different sizes, nitrogen being the larger atom. However, we will soon learn that size is independent of this particular concept. Pressure of a gas is determined by the average kinetic energy of gas particles and the number of particles present. The average kinetic energy in each container must be the same because the temperatures of the containers are the same. Average kinetic energy = (1/2)(m)(u²rms) *urms= root mean square speed The size of the particles doesn’t change the average kinetic energy of each container because smaller particles will move faster and larger particles will move more slowly, averaging out the kinetic energy. So, if kinetic energy is the same for each of the containers, the only difference that would change pressure is the number of particles. BUT we already established that the pressure is equal in both containers. Therefore, the number of molecules in each container must be equal as well! There we have it! The explanation is so much simpler than all the nonsensical thoughts and frustration that were building up in my head. Volume and the number of particles in a gas are directly proportional; that’s the main point of Avogadro’s Law. The trouble for me was understanding that the average kinetic energy wouldn’t change according to different-sized particles, unless temperature changed. Hopefully in two hours I’ll still feel that this explanation is simple. Creative Corner: One Word If there’s one thing I’ve learned from eighteen years of life, it’s that boredom can be to a fault. Here I am, slouched down on my parent’s leather-upholstered couch, staring at a blank computer screen that is adjusted for maximum brightness. There are a number of websites that I could easily search up and scroll through until a snazzy picture or article catches my eye and prompts me to click on the tempting link. I could just as easily remove myself from the couch and find something mildly productive to do, but I don’t. Please don’t get me wrong. I don’t in any way attempt to suggest that sheer boredom, strong enough to slay Argus, has led me to this degenerative state of mere existence. It is, in fact, a series of vaguely annoying events that has thrown me into a lack of being which I am halfheartedly pulling myself out of. You see, this year, which is coincidentally my senior year of high school, has allowed me to realize my supposedly deepest fears. I wouldn’t typically downplay my fears with the word “supposedly,” but I’ve entered into unemotional territory as of late and I feel that I can’t honestly state my fears without something of a qualifier to describe my intense lack of feeling. And really my only goal here is to be honest, if not with others then at least with myself. I may be a little naive due to the fact that I pictured senior year as one long episode of “Hannah Montana” or another equally picturesque high school sitcom. I would be riding around with people piled in the backseat of my car, going out to basketball games with my friends, picking up takeout on random school nights. The issue with my high school fantasy is that I left out the most important, fate-determining factor–myself. When you’re the type of person who worries over safety and legal responsibility for minors, you might not be the best driver to tote around a horde of wild teenagers in your mom’s beat up minivan. If you’re taking six advanced placement courses, you are more likely to be buried under sheets of math homework than getting takeout at ten at night. But if I have to hear the words “you did this to yourself” one more time, I just might burst. The issue with things is that I can’t say that I’m unhappy. I desperately seek an aching sadness that clings to my rib cage and pulls me inward, away from everyone and into a self-constructed cocoon. In a way, I feel that that type of emotional distress would be reasonable as everything I thought I was working towards has been swept cleanly away like it never existed in the first place. Picture a blackboard with differential equations and trigonometric identities haphazardly written across to suggest intense concentration and high levels of academics. I’m the clean slate next to the blackboard confused because my identity seems to have been misplaced without the possibility of blaming it on disorganization. My life is organized. One look in the mirror and I see a young girl with neatly combed brown hair, lips parted in a wide grin. There’s a splash of tiny blemishes across the cheeks, but there’s nothing inherently messy about them, despite their undesired presence. In fact, their symmetry is almost unnaturally perfect. A pert nose rests under a forehead that has remained unlined from youthful energy, despite the amount of stress that has been placed on the delicate shoulders that curve down into slim arms. Everything is as it should be. There’s still the big, bright eyes, opened wide with optimistic faith, the curious mind questioning what it is that life is all about. This person hasn’t changed on the outside, so what’s the distinction? I suppose that the distinction here isn’t even about myself. It’s about the unfavorable, though entirely irrelevant, events that have unfolded around me into an inescapable ring of fire. Maybe I’ve been singed. But I have this uncanny ability to consistently believe that even a third-degree burn can be healed. At this point, I’m still sitting on the couch, but I no longer feel a weighted opposition to all movement. I guess I’m just not bored anymore. Even my computer screen no longer bears the sickening whiteness of a blank monitor. Now there’s one word typed in the top search bar. And I only need one look to comprehend the dire importance of this word, “live.” Don’t Count Your Acceptances Before They’ve Come
Dismiss Notice Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! The ideal spring and simple harmonic motion 1. Jun 24, 2009 #1 A person who weighs 665 N steps onto a spring scale in the bathroom, and the spring compresses by 0.67 cm. (a) What is the spring constant? (b) What is the weight of another person who compresses the spring by 0.37 cm? 2. Relevant equations where T=period 3. The attempt at a solution 2. jcsd 3. Jun 24, 2009 #2 User Avatar Homework Helper Write in your units. So you basically want to to find F, for a given x and you know k. Just re-use the formula again. 4. Jun 24, 2009 #3 thanks, i did that but the answer for that part is still wrong and i cant figure out why 5. Jun 24, 2009 #4 User Avatar Homework Helper What is the given answer? 6. Jun 24, 2009 #5 there is none. its an online homework so they dont give answers untill after its due 7. Jun 24, 2009 #6 User Avatar Homework Helper Likely they want the answer in N/m, not N/cm Similar Discussions: The ideal spring and simple harmonic motion
Dismiss Notice Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! Thin Plates with Constant Density (Calculus II) 1. Oct 8, 2009 #1 Thank you in advance for the help! Find the center of mass of a thin plate of constant density (delta) covering the given region. The region bounded by the parabola y= x - x2 and the line y= -x 2. Relevant equations See attachment question 15 p1 3. The attempt at a solution See attachment question 15 p2 Attached Files: 2. jcsd 3. Oct 9, 2009 #2 I like your last solution on attachment 2 except... Integral from 0 to 2 (x-x^2-x) dx is not Int (2x - x^2) dx I think you just have an algebra mistake there. 4. Oct 10, 2009 #3 Thank you, well it was x-x^2-(-x). So, I added the double negative to the other x. Thats how I was able to get 2x. Are these forumulas a certified way to find the center of mass? Similar Discussions: Thin Plates with Constant Density (Calculus II) 1. Calculus II (Replies: 9)
Den Do temple Bac Ninh Den Do temple was built in 11th century in Dinh Bang, Tu So, Bac Ninh, northern Vietnam. According to Monk Ly Van Hanh, the place used to build that temple was a holy place that has 8 dragons come to visit. It is also said that in the past, near the temple, there used to have a forest and Tieu Tuong river flow around; due to the Feng Shui, Vietnamese people believe to build a temple there will bring the prosperity to the country. For many dynasty of Vietnamese feudal, Kings always took highly consideration in repairing and widening that temple. The temple also has the unique folk architecture of Vietnam. In 1952, the French took and destroyed the whole temple and it was not until 1989 that the temple was recovered but the total square was limited. The total square of Do temple is 31.250 m2 included 21 items. In the center of the temple, there is altar to worship King Ly and around this, it is the house of patriarch, front sanctuary, Phuong Dinh house, palanquin house… Do temple is an example for the architecture of temple and pagoda in the North of Vietnam. The first thing you can see when visiting that temple is the main gate with the image of 5 dragons carving on the top of the gate because dragon is the symbol for the power of King. Besides, Do temple is also a center of culture and history in the North of Vietnam. Each year, many people come here to worship and ask for good health, luckiness, prosperity… It then becomes a center of culture in the North of Vietnam. Den Do temple map Trips to Den Do temple
The First Martyr Scripture Reading Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people. Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and people from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and debated with Stephen, When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and he said, standing at the right hand of God.” and rushed upon him together. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 6:8-10, 7:54-59) Scripture Study Stephen’s discourse is the longest one given in Acts. It is a summary of the history of Israel, divided into three periods—of the Patriarchs (vv. 1–16), of Moses (vv. 17–43) and of the building of the temple (vv. 44–50). It ends with a short section (vv. 51–53) where he brings his argument together. One thing that stands out is that Stephen does not defend himself directly. He answers his accusers with a Christian vision of salvation history, in which the temple and the Law have already fulfilled their purpose. He tells them that he continues to respect the Mosaic Law and the temple, but that as a Christian his idea of God’s law is more universal and more profound, his concept of the temple more spiritual (for God can be worshipped anywhere in the world). This approach, which respects and perfects the religious values of Judaism (because it probes their true meaning and brings them to fulfillment), is reinforced by the way he presents the figure of Moses. Stephen shows Moses as a “type” of Christ: Christ is the new Moses. Small elucidations of the Greek text of the Old Testament help in this direction: expressions like “they refused” or “deliverer” (v. 35) are not applied to Moses in the books of the Old Testament, but they are used here to suggest Christ. The Israelites’ rebellious and aggressive treatment of Moses, who had a mission from God, is being repeated—much more seriously—in their rejection of the Gospel.[1] Scripture Reflection Martyrdom is a supreme act of bravery and of true prudence, but to the world it makes no sense. It is also an expression of humility, because a martyr does not act out of bravado or overweening self-confidence; he is a weak man like anyone else, but God’s grace gives him the strength he needs. Although martyrdom is something which happens rarely, it does show Christians what human nature can rise to if God gives it strength, and it establishes a standard, both real and symbolic, for the behavior of every disciple of Christ. [1] The Acts of the Apostles, The Navarre Bible (Dublin; New York: Four Courts Press; Scepter Publishers, 2005), 63–65.
A first concern is the effectiveness of carbon offset schemes. Increasing environmental awareness among companies and individuals has sparked an emerging and lucrative market in carbon credits based on a plethora of carbon reduction projects. But due to a shortage of verification, the impact of these actions may be questioned. Some practices are inherently flawed, such as preventing clearcutting of forests that would be preserved for conservation anyway, or selling credits for cleaner and more efficient production techniques that are introduced for economic reasons. Other practices fail because of insufficient scientific understanding of the system. For instance, (re)forestation in developing countries is one of the most popular offset schemes. Forests are a convenient method of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon. There are also several positive side effects. Many forests, in particular where native species are used, are a breeding ground for biodiversity. Forests may be planted on degraded areas and reduce erosion, and they may also provide a sustainable source of firewood and other environmental services for local inhabitants. But there are negative side effects too. Carbon offset schemes tend to focus on fast-growing trees, such as eucalyptus and pine, which are non-native and have a far lower environmental and biodiversity benefit than native species. Tree plantations also tend to consume more water than grasses and shrubs. On a global scale, tree plantations decrease streamflow by about 200 mm per year (roughly 50%). This may have serious impacts on the local water cycle. For instance, extensive parts of the Andean páramo have been forested with pine for carbon sequestration purposes. The páramo is an ecosystem that consists of extensive grasslands in the upper parts of the tropical Andes, and stores vast amounts of water in its soils, swamps and lakes. It provides many environmental functions, but the most important is water supply for the highland area, including major cities such as Bogotá, Columbia, and Quito, Ecuador. Forestation with pine reduces streamflow by about 70%. Since most of this reduction affects low flow conditions, the consequences for local water security are serious. What's more, the higher water consumption of pine may even result in a net carbon release to the atmosphere. Páramo wetlands store high amounts of organic carbon. This accumulation of organic matter is strongly linked to water saturation of the soils for large periods of the year. Dessication of the soils after forestation induces faster organic matter decomposition, which may offset carbon storage in the biomass above-ground. In Indonesia, the conversion of peat bogs into oil palm plantations has had similar effects. Forestation activities in the Andes now focus more on biodiversity and use indigenous species such as Polylepis. However, there is no scientific consensus about the historical vegetation patterns of the páramo. What is considered reforestation may well be forestation of valuable and original grassland ecosystems. And since the impact of those forests on the local water cycle is not well understood, care should be taken not to disrupt a delicate and valuable hydrological system. Even if such scientific questions are solved, significant concerns remain about the sustainability of carbon pools in forests. Forests capture most carbon early in their life cycle. The biomass of a mature forest is nearly stable, and organic carbon capture can only be maintained if carbon is transferred to another sink, such as the soil. As this is not always the case, organic carbon capture can only continue if both the current forest is maintained and ever more area is forested. Although this may seem preferable from an environmentalist viewpoint, it is not sustainable in the long term. This lack of sustainability points to the essence of the problem. Our current carbon footprint is too high, and the only long-term solution is to reduce carbon emissions, not to compensate them by carbon offset schemes. This is also why carbon offset schemes are opposed from an ethical viewpoint. They are considered as paying someone else for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and, as such, buying your way out of responsibility. And the schemes may distract attention from the real problem of how we reduce our own emissions. This is a double challenge for scientists. Finding new ways to decrease our society's greenhouse gas emissions is a major scientific challenge that merits our full attention. Considering whether the scientific value of a trip to the other end of the world outweighs the use of resources and the carbon footprint is a much more personal challenge.
Search This Blog Tuesday, February 10, 2009 A visitor to this blog has asked a straight forward question and I have tried to find an answer of sorts. I'm not a zoologist or biologist so I looked on the Internet for some ideas. I typed into Google the simple statement , evolution of wings.The first reference which appeared instantly was to a National Geographic magazine article which I think is a good starting point giving food for thought and which could lead on to a wider investigation on the question posed. So here are the first few paragraphs which develop into seven pages. I found it interesting enough to read it all and so I recommend it to anyone who is curious about how a fin can become a limb and can become a wing. Here is a link to the full article: A Fin is a Limb is a Wing How Evolution Fashioned its Masterworks By Carl Zimmer Photograph by Rosamond Purcell The father of evolution was a nervous parent. Few things worried Charles Darwin more than the challenge of explaining how nature's most complex structures, such as the eye, came to be. "The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder," he wrote to a friend in 1860. Today biologists are beginning to understand the origins of life's complexity—the exquisite optical mechanism of the eye, the masterly engineering of the arm, the architecture of a flower or a feather, the choreography that allows trillions of cells to cooperate in a single organism. The fundamental answer is clear: In one way or another, all these wonders evolved. "The basic idea of evolution is so elegant, so beautiful, so simple," says Howard Berg, a Harvard researcher who has spent much of the past 40 years studying one of the humbler examples of nature's complexity, the spinning tail of common bacteria. "The idea is simply that you fiddle around and you change something and then you ask, Does it improve my survival or not? And if it doesn't, then those individuals die and that idea goes away. And if it does, then those individuals succeed, and you keep fiddling around, improving. It's an enormously powerful technique."
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Concerning the Greek Verb As a student of the Greek language, I read and am taught things that make sense, but I often wonder: Was this really how the original speakers thought about their language? For instance, I am reading Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek by Constantine Campbell. He argues that Greek verbs do not have tense (past, present, future, perfect) contained in the words themselves. Only when the verbs are in a context that calls for tense do the verbs show tense. What the verbs do have is aspect, i.e. how the action is viewed, and remoteness, i.e. how close the viewer is to the action. While I am not trying to reproduce his book here and so this might not make much sense, it really does make a lot of linguistic sense to me. The scheme fits well. However, is this how the Greeks viewed their verbs? Well, at least according to one of their grammarians, Dionysios Thrax, not really. He says (my translation), "There are three times: present, past (having gone by), and future (about to be). The past has four different sections: imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, and aorist. There are three relationships between these: present to imperfect, perfect to pluperfect, aorist to future" (the original). He views the verbs more in terms of time (though, that last line is interesting...I might return to that sometime). The next question is whether or not the Greeks' own view is important. If someone calls all trees trees without recognizing the distinction between the different types of trees, he isn't completely wrong but he lacks the botanical sophistication to point the distinctions out. Or maybe a better example might be the difference between an interior decorator and a normal guy. To the normal guy there is just green, maybe a dark and a light green, but green nonetheless. To the interior decorator, though, there is forest green, jade green, emerald green, sea green (I am a normal guy; those were the only crayons I could think of). The interior decorator has an increased sophistication when dealing with colors. So maybe, the Ancient Greek grammarians lacked the needed sophistication to recognize what was truly occuring in their language. Maybe they only saw the verbs in context and, therefore, drew conclusions only from the context, which usually showed tense, but they did not have the linguistic sophistication that we have now to look at unaffected meanings. We have two views (there are other views out there as well). One uses modern linguistic tools to examine what authors have written and considers what might be occurring in the text. The other is looking at the language from within but without the current linguistic tools and discussions. Which is correct? Wickiser said... Silly Kyle, of course the Greeks broke down their language and made it way too complex. I think both may be on to something, just in different ways. I will leave it at that. Con Campbell said... Thanks for your thoughts Kyle. I think I would say that the fact of the matter is that we are not natural speakers of Ancient Greek. Of course, to a natural speaker, language is used intuitively and without self-conscious examination of what they're doing (except for the grammarians). But the point is that, unless we all start speaking Ancient Greek and become absolutely intuitive in that, then we need to be somewhat aware of what's going on in the language. Whether a natural speaker realizes it or not, every language is complex. matthew r malcolm said... Campbell makes a point that languages seem to have moved from spatial to temporal forms - so that, for example, modern Greek has true tenses (and in Koine Greek, the future tense-form appears to have genuinely encoded future temporal reference). Anyway, this seems like an interesting thought to me - and I was reminded of it this morning, when my daughter indicated "yesterday" by pointing backwards... This made me wonder: Are spatial concepts generally more fundamental than temporal concepts?
Paul Pillar Twists of History and Interests in Ukraine Imagine that the collapse of Soviet communism more than two decades ago had taken a different form than it did. It might have done so, if the dramatic and fast-moving events of 1991and key people who participated in them had taken a few different turns. Today we associate the collapse with the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. and its replacement by fifteen independent republics. But the break-up of that union did not need to be part of the failure and demise of the Leninist method of organizing politics, economics, and society that we came to know as Soviet communism. It is true that separatist sentiment had become by early 1991 a significant part of the growing political crisis in the Soviet Union, with the Baltic republics and Georgia making declarations of independence. Even then, however, the break-up of the union was by no means certain. The center was using military force to try to bring the Lithuanians back in line and Mikhail Gorbachev was supporting the adoption of a new charter, to replace one from 1922, aimed at mollifying sentiment in the non-Russian republics while preserving some sort of union. The career track of Boris Yeltsin had as much as anything else to do with the political shape events in the Soviet Union would take later in 1991. Yeltsin had risen to senior posts in the union power structure before having a falling out with Gorbachev and others in the Soviet regime. He happened to make his political comeback in the government of the Russian republic, and was elected president of that republic in mid-1991. Thus Yeltsin was in that position when he climbed atop a tank to face down the Soviet hardliners who attempted a coup in August while Gorbachev was vacationing at his dacha in Crimea. This meant that once the coup was defeated and Gorbachev's power waned as Yeltsin's waxed, power went from the union government to the Russian republic. Yeltsin scooped up union ministries and made them Russian ones, and when Gorbachev resigned as the last Soviet president later in the year there was barely a shell of a union government left. It is plausible to imagine a different scenario in which the government structures that emerged from the wreckage of the U.S.S.R. would have looked substantially different. Suppose Yeltsin had taken his defiant, tank-climbing action not as president of the Russian republic but as a reformist party chief of the Moscow region—a job he had once held, along with sitting on the politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Perhaps this would have meant significant power remaining at the level of a reconstituted union. Such speculation does not say anything about the relative likelihood of the scenario being posited, although the scenario can be the basis for a useful thought experiment if it is at least plausible. Nationalist sentiment in the constituent republics would always have been a significant factor to be reckoned with. Probably what is most implausible about any continued post-Soviet union would be inclusion of the Baltic republics. They alone among the republics of the U.S.S.R. had a history as independent states as recently as 1940. The United States and the West never recognized their annexation by Moscow, and the Baltics' westward orientation has always been strong. The relevant thought experiment worth doing is to ask: if some sort of union (even without the Baltic states) had endured, how would we in the United States have assessed the events back in the 1990s, and how would we see our interests in that part of the world today? There still would have been sufficient basis on which to say that the Cold War was over and that our side had “won” it. Moscow had already lost its Eastern European empire, and the Warsaw Pact was gone. Although there would not have been as distinctive a dissolution of the U.S.S.R. as in fact happened with the creation of 14 independent states plus the successor state of Russia, the collapse of Soviet communism and the Leninist system would still have been readily apparent. The collapse would have been memorialized in a new name for the union, because it no longer would be calling itself “Soviet” or “socialist”; the name picked for the new union charter that was being negotiated in Gorbachev's time was “Union of Sovereign States”. Creation of a bunch of new, completely independent, Eurasian nation-states was not intrinsic to winning the Cold War, any more than were the later divorce of Czechs and Slovaks or the break-up of Yugoslavia. George Kennan in his “X” article, the playbook for containment of the U.S.S.R., did not address the issue of nationalities or dissolution of the union. The article uses “Soviet” and “Russian” almost interchangeably. He left open a variety of possible successful outcomes of Cold War containment, stating that the self-destructive forces he perceived in the Soviet Union “must eventually find their outlet in either the breakup or the gradual mellowing of Soviet power.”
The Health Benefits of Eating Organic Food So, you've seen organic produce in the grocery store, organic labels on packaging, and heard about organic food on the news. What exactly does it mean to be USDA certified organic? Organically certified foods are grown without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, GMOs, radiation, or growth hormones as well as free from other unnatural growth methods. Alright, so does that mean organic foods are healthier? The Health Benefits of Eating Organic Food Foods grown organically have a higher nutritional value than foods that are not. Organically grown fruits and vegetables potentially contain 40% more antioxidants and organic milk potentially contains 90% more antioxidants according to a Newcastle University study. Not only do these foods have more nutrients, they also contain less chemicals. The chemicals often sprayed on crops are meant to kill other life forms, and while humans may not die from consuming them, these chemicals can still be very detrimental to our health. Non-Organic foods that were grown using radiation methods can change the chemistry of the food itself, potentially even promoting cancer. Foods that were not grown organically can be genetically modified, meaning that they are different than the food you are intending to buy. A genetically modified apple is structurally different than a non-genetically modified grown apple, and our bodies were not meant to process and run on genetically modified food. Yes, organic foods generally are more expensive than other foods. This is because organic farmers do not receive subsidies and organic farming is more labor intensive and time-consuming. Many people believe that organic foods taste better than other foods. I tend to agree, in part because non-organic foods can be grown with quantity and ship-ability in mind rather than taste. Something else to consider when deliberating between organic or not is the cost to the environment. Growing food with toxic chemicals creates runoff that can damage nearby water sources. When chemicals are used to grow food, the land can be harmed to the point of the soil becoming infertile. Not only produce can be labeled as organic. Animal products can gain the certification as well. Organic meat generally means that the animals were treated well, and ate higher quality feed in addition to being free to graze pastures. Often times, organic produce can be less appealing the eye. But don't let appearance fool you...try eating them before discounting them. You may find that you feel better and that the food actually tastes better. Investing in your health pays off in the short term and long term, and buying organically grown foods is a good way to do that. The Health Benefits of Eating Organic Food Ben Hirshberg Organic, Natural, Sustainable - What's the Difference? Current awareness of the importance of reducing our carbon footprint finds more consumers demanding Organic and Natural products. As a result, more designers and manufacturers are producing 'Green'. Manufacturers adhering to green practices are eliminating toxins from being introduced into the environment improving air quality; not contaminating our water and soil with post production runoff; and providing better quality products for our bodies and our health. Designers are searching for organic and natural materials to use in anything from clothing to home goods. Today's advertisements are laden with terms such as Organic, Natural and Sustainable. So what is the difference between each of these? Organic pertains to something that is derived from living organisms. Grown with natural rather than synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, consuming less energy and less fuel and emitting less toxic gases, organic products actually have a lower carbon footprint. Organic and natural clothing and accessories are made using raw materials such as organic cotton and organic wool. Organic cotton then refers to cotton produced without the use of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Production may include the use of fertilizers or pesticides that are plant or animal in origin. Organic wool must follow federal standards for organic livestock production. These standards include use of certified organic feeds, use of good management practices to maintain livestock health and adherence to the natural carrying capacity of grazing lands. Synthetic hormones, genetic engineering, synthetic pesticides, whether internal, external or on pastures, is prohibited. Natural, as the opposite of artificial, means existing in or formed by nature. Lanolin, for example, is a greasy yellow natural substance found on wool. Natural lanolin serves as a base for cosmetic products such as ointments and hand creams. Recent trends show a boom in the natural cosmetic and personal care products industry. Consumers are finding the availability of more products made from natural ingredients such as citrus, honey, flowers, herbs, natural oils and so on. To keep a production process organic manufacturers are using natural dyes for color in fabrics. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable in nature made from plant sources such as roots, berries, bark, leaves and wood, but can also be derived from clays and minerals. Organic, Natural, Sustainable - What's the Difference? Sustainable refers to something that can maintain its own viability in a short amount of time allowing for its continual use. Hemp is a quick growing robust plant that grows in diverse soil conditions. As one of the fastest growing plants in the world Hemp also has a high yield ratio - about ten tons a year per acre - and it requires no herbicides or pesticides to grow. Hemp Clothing has become very popular especially with recent eco-friendly processes that soften the fibers. Another popular sustainable material is Bamboo. Bamboo is a highly renewable grass used for anything from clothing to furniture and kitchenware. Bamboo is the fastest growing woody plant on the earth growing as much as 3 to 4 feet per day. Once planted and establish the intricate underground network of rhizomes keeps spreading making bamboo an extremely sustainable plant. Do your part to reduce our carbon footprint by finding clothing made from Organic Cotton or Organic Wool, personal care products comprised of Natural ingredients like essential oils or plant extracts and home products made from Sustainable materials such as bamboo. Organic, Natural, Sustainable - What's the Difference? is an e-commerce boutique that platforms 'one-stop-shopping' for fashionable organic and eco-friendly products for the entire family. Offered is the best collection of products made from organically grown cotton, bamboo, hemp, sustainable hardwoods and recycled materials. Products are representative of an environmentally friendly lifestyle and have been carefully selected from manufacturers who maintain green practices. Most products offered are made in the USA. Others are from organizations or manufacturers that globally support women. Furniture and home decor products range from chic home accessories to stylish furnishings constructed from organic or sustainable materials. Clothing includes fashions for men, women and children made from organic cotton, bamboo and hemp. Offered are personal care products without chemicals and preservatives, unique accessories, toys, gifts and pet products all made from organic, natural or recycled materials. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For additional information visit Organic Gelatin? Yes! Gelatin - what is it? Gelatin is pretty much translucent, tasteless and odorless and is commonly used in foods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The culinary gelatin is used mostly as a thickening or emulsifying agent and can be purchased in powder or sheet form. It can also be found in a host of prepared foods, from desserts, ice cream, jellies and yoghurt to cream cheese, marshmallows, gummy bears, aspic and margarine. Gelatin is a high-grade protein derived from animal collagen by a process known as hydrolysis. Typically it is made from bovine or pork products, specifically skin or bones. Less common, but important for a kosher or halal diet, is gelatin made from fish. Organic Gelatin? Yes! For a vegetarian diet try agar-agar, pectin, carrageen or gum arabic as alternative gelling agents. Nutritional Value & Health Benefits Gelatin contains 18 amino acids, of which 9 are essential for humans. It is an especially good source of the essential amino acid Lysine. And though it would be incomplete as a single protein source, gelatin makes a nutritious addition to your everyday diet. It contains no fat, cholesterol or carbohydrates, is free of any additives and easy to digest. An increasing number of studies suggest that gelatin not only promotes healthy hair and nails, but it may also improve bone and cartilage health. In particular 2 of the amino acids found in gelatin (Glycine and Proline) are needed to produce collagen, the primary component of connective tissues such as cartilage. Thanks to the Lysine, Gelatin also appears to be beneficial to athletes for muscle growth and metabolism. Quality Concerns - Go Organic! So, you are a conscious consumer, determined to avoid eggs from chicken factories and meats that are loaded with growth hormones and antibiotics; But what about the quality of the gelatin products on the market? In fact the quality varies greatly and is influenced by the filtration and purification processes during production. But more importantly the quality is determined by the initial ingredients used for the gelatin production. To end up with a high quality product you have to start out with high quality ingredients, in this case healthy animals, raised in a pure environment. If you are trying to avoid meat from inhumane mass production factories, it only makes sense to set the same standards for all other animal products and by-products. For a product such as gelatin to receive the organic certification, organic standards have to be followed from the start by the farm that raises the animals to the end of the production lines of the producer and packer. Since the supply of organic meats has been growing steadily, one could easily assume that organic gelatin would also be readily available - which has been true for some parts of Europe, but not for Canada and the US. Amazingly, it was not commercially available in North America until recently. It is very good news that this has changed: Certified Organic Gelatin is now commercially available under the brand name GoBIO!. You can purchase it online, at, but it is also starting to pop up in local health food stores and coops around Canada and hopefully soon in the US as well. There have been some concerns about gelatin derived from cow collagen, due to BSE, also known as 'mad cow disease'. Though studies have demonstrated that the gelatin production process destroys most of the BSE that may be present in the raw material, some concerns remain. This issue can easily be avoided by using exclusively pork based gelatin, such as the GoBIO! brand. Consumers, we now have a choice! We can feel good about jellin' away, reaping the health benefits while enjoying the characteristic jiggly consistency that only it has to offer. Organic Gelatin? Yes! To learn more about pork based Organic Gelatin go to Organic Vs Non-Organic The inspiration to write this entry came from an article that was published in a local newspaper. The article and paper is not important-all that is important is that the article tried to present information proving that organic food was not any different nutritionally than non-organic. The research from the article came from other papers that had already been written, through which researchers found the benefits of organic food to be insignificant for the "general public". Does that mean the benefits of organic food ARE significant for other populations? All in all, the article was trying to prove that organic food has no nutritional benefits over non-organic food. However, if you are eating organic food solely for increased nutritional benefit, you are missing the whole point of eating ORGANIC food! If you grow an apple organically, and you grow an apple "conventionally" - they will have roughly the same vitamin and mineral content, depending on when they were harvested. An apple, after all, is an apple. The entire purpose of eating organic is to support healthy practices and sustainable farming methods. The difference is that while the conventional apple is grown, the trees are sprayed with herbicides and pesticides to kill off any bug or bacteria that might hurt the tree or the apple, therefore jeopardizing the harvest. Once the apple starts growing, it is continually sprayed with pesticides so other animals do not eat the fruit. It is then picked before it completely ripens (read: before all of the nutrients and flavor fully develop) and sprayed with more preserving chemicals to deter ripening before the fruit gets to its final destination, which is many times thousands of miles from where it is grown. A significant amount of our environmental impact could be lessened if we all bought locally grown food. Finally, to make sure this chemicalized version of an apple looks good enough to eat, it is coated with wax to make it shine and to make sure the peel does not get any discoloration or blemishes. The wax holds the pesticides and herbicides even closer to the fruit and allows the full force of those chemicals to go into your body. Washing your produce can help with the amount of chemicals that you ingest, but can never remove them all. Here is a quick test. Take an apple that you bought at a supermarket and smell it, before you bite into it. Does it smell like an apple? Now buy an apple at a local farmers market and smell it before your first bite. You will be blown away at the wonderful fragrance the apple produces before the peel is even broken. Just imagine what your kitchen will smell like when you are cooking dinner with local organic produce! Organic Vs Non-Organic What was also surprising about this article was the fact that their research came from articles that were written over the last 50 years. Our food industry has undergone many changes in the past 50 years, most of which are just beginning to show their true effects with the increases in chronic diseases in our society. The developments for speed and efficiency of food production; pesticides to increase farm output; preservatives that are used to increase shelf life; all of these are taking a toll on the health of our nation. Our bodies are fantastic machines that can process and eliminate many toxins that invade our body, only if we are properly nourished and rested. However, when the body is put under constant "attack" by foreign contaminants, in addition to being malnourished and overworked, it can only maintain wellness for so long. Eventually, the foreign contaminants will overpower the bodies natural defenses and the body will become diseased. We are only just beginning to see the effects of our damaging farming practices, so conducting research on articles written 50 years ago, is not going to produce useful research. Scientists should be conducting research on the long terms effects of present day chemicals used in conventional farming methods. That is the information that should be presented to the general public, and then let the general public decide for themselves whether or not organic food has significant benefits. If this information about non-organic food is not frightening enough, much of our food supply has actually been tampered with on the molecular level so they become more resistant to bacteria. These foods are known as GMO or Genetically Modified Organisms, and rarely is this denoted on the label, in fact many of these foods do not even come with a label. For example, strawberries usually do not list the ingredients, so you would not see "made with GMO Strawberries" on the label. In these cases, from the seed, the food is starting off as something that is not natural, but rather man-made. We have invented amazing things in our history, but when it comes to replicating nature, we have fallen short, because nature is too complex. The full force of these choices has yet to be fully investigated. With all of these foreign contaminants in our food supply on a daily basis, ones that are meant to fight off viruses and bacteria, our own immune systems are becoming inadequate. We are creating a serious situation where the microbial world will continue to evolve and strengthen, but our immune systems will continue to weaken. Our only defense will be antibiotics that man can develop, leaving us with a completely reactive, rather than preventive, line of defense. Imagine a war against a living organism that can morph and adapt. It is not a pretty picture. Is it easy to eat all organic food? Absolutely not. In fact it is probably the most difficult practice that you could ever try to change, unless you live on your own farm. That, in and of itself, is part of our problem. Even if someone wants to improve their eating habits by going organic, they may not necessarily have the resources, due to availability and financial restraints. With the popularity of Whole Foods, eating organically has certainly become a lot easier and more accessible. However, the cost of organic grown produce versus McDonald's still hinders many from making the leap to an organic diet. My suggestion is to find a local organic farmers market from which you can buy all of your seasonal produce. The price can be slightly higher, but you can rest assured knowing that your money is being put to good use supporting local farming, not to mention, the short travel time of the food will make for a much longer shelf life in your home. You will notice an incredible difference in the taste and smell of the local food you are eating, making your meals that much more delicious. The lesson here is that one does not necessarily have to reject the "norm" and purposely go against the grain, but also does not have to accept everything as "fact". Not everything printed and reported in the news needs to be taken without question. If all you take away from this is permission to think and question what does not sit right with you, then this article will be considered a success. You have already heard to think before you speak, but also think before you act, cook and eat. Organic Vs Non-Organic Jan Michelle Filoso is an Holistic Health Counselor certified by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She also founded JanWellness, through which she provides one on one and group Holistic Health Counseling programs. Although Jan addresses many health and weight concerns within her practice, her main focus is on stress management and digestive disorders. Jan Michelle is also a Level 2 Reiki Practitioner and Certified Personal Fitness Trainer. Her mission is to bring optimal health and wellness to her community, making our country's current health crisis a thing of the past. Jan Michelle serves the NYC and surrounding areas. You can visit Jan Michelle's website at Jan Michelle works for Sati Life promoting the intenSati practice as developed by Patricia Moreno. IntenSati is a practice for your body, heart and mind. It is a program that trains you inside and out to live a life you love in a body you love. Find out more at The Organic Food If you'd really like to go organic, but are not too sure you can afford it on a consistent basis, you should look around for the best deals you can get on organic farm products. Organic food is not always a lot more expensive, you just need to look in the right places. With the growing number of people who buy organic food, options are also becoming more and more available. Organic products are now available at several of the major grocery chains, even warehouse operations are starting to offer more organic produce. Look for the "USDA Organic" label for organic foods that are USDA standards compliant. Make sure it's the USDA Organic label, and not just the "USDA" label. While organic foods will always be more expensive, the price difference at places like Wal-Mart and Costco is not too staggering, and your food bill may still fit your budget. While there are small local organic grocery stores, their prices for organic food are typically quite significantly more expensive. In some areas though, there are Trader Joe's or Whole Foods Market outlets that offer much better deals. Because they are organic chains, these stores offer endless organic options at great prices. At some Whole Foods Markets, you can even get bulk discounts. The Organic Food Another way to save money is by buying fruits and vegetables in season. The reason organic food is more expensive is that it is more difficult to grow. It is particularly difficult to grow out of season. Planning your monthly home menu around in season fruits and vegetables can save you a lot of money. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, never get more than you can consume in a few days. Another drawback of organic food, is that it doesn't keep as well; this is because no preservatives are used. When you find organic meat at a bargain price, you can stock up, just make sure you don't get more than you can fit into your freezer. If you don't have a house full of finicky eaters, and you don't have a problem with learning how to cook many different dishes, you can get a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) membership. It's a lot like getting a magazine subscription, for a certain amount, you will receive regular deliveries of in season fruits and vegetables. Like a magazine where you don't get to pick what articles you get, you won't get to pick the produce you get either. Another great source of organic food is farmer's markets. The prices can be prohibitive, but if you wait till closing hours to do your marketing, you'll find that many farmers drop their prices significantly. You might also consider growing your own food, you can start with cherry tomatoes and herbs, then work your way up to more complex foods later. When it comes to getting affordable organic food, the key to success is being resourceful and patient. Going organic does entail certain sacrifices, and you should be prepared to make them. The Organic Food For more financial advice from Sally, please visit her blog. What is Organic? The term "organic" is used to describe how agricultural foods are produced. It also is used to describe the methods of processing. The goal of growing organic foods is to improve the health of people and animals, as well as the soil and plants. Growing organic foods and using organic methods for processing them is considered low impact to our environment, and helps balance agricultural practices with the needs of nature. Farmers with certified organic land must never use chemicals that might pollute the air, water or food. Organic farmers use methods that respect the land and help nurture the animals who live on it. Instead of using chemicals to boost growth of plants and try to discourage pests from damaging crops, organic farmers use sustainable farming techniques including composting and crop rotation to improve the fertility of the soil, and non-toxic pest control methods like spraying vegetable oil on crops. To maintain the "certified organic" standing, farmers must not use any synthetic fertizers or dangerous or toxic pesticides and chemicals on the land for at least three years before certification and for anytime thereafter. Pesticides can linger in the environment long after they were applied to the land, so simply purchasing organic foods doesn't completely guarantee that the foods are 100% pesticide-free - but studies by Consumer Reports in 1998 have shown that organic fruits and vegetables had much lower-level pesticide residues, or none at all, when compared to those produced with conventional methods. What is Organic? Organic farmers do not use antibiotics or growth hormones which improves the health of people who consume the foods. Where as the non-organic methods of processing food often requires preservatives or irradiation to keep it fresh and edible, the organic methods maintain the integrity of the food without the use of preservatives or irradiation. Antibiotics lose their effectiveness for fighting disease and infection when used excessively or incorrectly. When farmers use antibiotics in healthy animals, and humans eat the animals or the milk cows produce for example, the effectiveness of those antibiotics in humans can actually be reduced. Organic farmers treat their animals' health without using hormones and antibiotics in order to improve human health through the food chain. Farmers who grow organic crops are also committed to the humane treatment of the animals that live on their land. For example, farms that have cows for milk allow cows to make milk according to their natural schedules. They provide their animals with organic feed, plenty of fresh air and access to pastures to graze. What is Organic? Tisha Kulak Tolar is a writer for, where she writes about bodybuilding, exercise, general health and fitness, nutrition and supplements.
Selasa, 25 September 2012 Some students has an opinion that writing is a difficult activity because it needs skills, but the other students say that writing is an interesting way for expressing feelings, ideas, critics, suggestions, and many others. There are some reasons why they don’t like writing than speaking. In speaking, may be we just need a confidence and some information without regarding words choices, grammar, punctuation and many other rules; but in writing, there are some aspects which are noticed, like as: words choices, punctuations, grammar and structure and many other rules in writing. Grammar in generally used to mean the structure of a language. By learning some aspects of grammar, we can probably learn to write sentences that are more mature and well-formed than we now write. In this paper, I give a title “Error analyzing in using conjunctions of the sentences” because I often find some mistakes which are made by my self and also my friends in using conjunctions. Therefore, I will analyze about the mistakes in using conjunctions in order that me and my friends can solve their mistake about using conjunctions. It is a small mistake but it has a big effect for conveying the information so that the purpose of our written can be understood by the readers well. Conjunctions extremely important words in our language because they express relationships between ideas, thus contributing to clarity smoothness in writing Most conjunctions are historically derived from other parts of speech, particularly from prepositions. Like prepositions, conjunctions are members of a small class that have no characteristic form. They function chiefly as non movable structure words that join such unit as parts of speech, phrases, or clauses. A conjunction is a coordinating when it connects two (or more) parts of a sentences that are equal in rank-that is, parts that have the same grammatical structure or that function so identically that they can be thought of as having the same grammatical structure. The great English writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge went so far as to say that “a good writer may be known by his pertinent use of connectives. And another great English writer, Thomas de Quincy, said “all fluent and effective composition depends on the connectives”. For constructing a good composition, it must be a parallelism of each sentence. When two or more sentences parts are joined by a coordinating conjunction, they are said to be in parallel structure, which means that every sentences of a composition are equal in rank and have a relationship from each other. In English structure, there are two main kinds of coordinating conjunctions, they are: coordinate conjunctions and subordinate conjunctions; and then will merge all two groups classify them according to the relationship they express between sentences or parts of sentences. Coordinate conjunctions join structural units that are equal grammatically. On the contrary, subordinate conjunctions will be taken up in detail later under the syntactic structures each one introduces. 1. Coordinate conjunction The coordinate conjunction joins structural units that are equal grammatically. The conjunction comes before the last unit and is grammatically independent of this unit. Units joined are labeled compound . Compound units may be classified according to the formal structure of the units (parts of speech, phrases, clauses) or according to the function of the units (subject, predicate, and object). Coordinate conjunctions covering: Yet Or Nor For Except for ‘for ‘and ‘so’, the coordinating conjunctions can connect virtually any kind of sentence parts, from single content word to independent clauses. This is one of the characteristics that make coordinating conjunction and conjunctive adverbs separate groups. Examples: In the house and on the roof Waiting patiently but not enjoying the delay Curious yet afraid Structural units joined by coordinate conjunctions Part of speech (single word) Conjunction and, or The old woman slipped and fell on the pavement (compound verb) A pronoun and a noun may be joined in the coordinate conjunctions, for example: Auxiliaries may also be joined by coordinate conjunctions, for example: We can and will succeed A comma after the last coordinate auxiliary is optional, depending on whether the user would pause in speech. Functional units joined by coordinate conjunctions Coordinate units consisting of parts of speech, phrases, or clauses may also be classified according to their function in the sentence Compound subjects How much she pays for her clothes or where she buys them does not interest her husband. (subject consists of noun clause) Compound predicates They went out for dinner but returned in time for their favorite television program. (predicate consists of verbs and modifiers) Compound objects He said that he was tired and that he was going to bed. (direct object consists of noun clauses) Compound modifiers Anyone who doesn’t like the new policy of this company and who would like to resign is free to do so. (modifier consist of adjective clauses) 2. Correlatives conjunctions Such paired conjunctions, called correlative conjunctions, serve to intensify the coordination. This correlative pair expresses addition, with greater emphasis placed on the second element. The correlatives are two-part coordinating conjunctions, as follows: Both… and Not only… but (also) Either…or (else) Neither… nor Not… but Not… nor Never… nor Whether… or These two-part conjunctions may join independent clauses or parts of sentences. Either you will apologize or I will bust your nose Punctuation with coordinate conjunctions Commas used with coordinate conjunctions appear only before the conjunctions. If only two words, two phrases, or two independent clauses are joined by a coordinate conjunction, no comma is used before the coordinate conjunctions. Examples: He said that he was very tired and that he was going home to rest. Sometimes, however, a comma may separate long dependent clauses. Example: Because he didn’t like to work in a tropical climate, and because he felt his abilities were not recognized by the company he worked for, he decided to look for a job in a colder climate. 3. Subordinate conjunctions A subordinate conjunction introduces a clause that depends on a main, or independent clause. It never separated from its clause by a comma. Like coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions express a relationship between two ideas. For reference, here is a list for the chief subordinating conjunctions. As if As soon as As though Fewer than if Inasmuch as In case In order that In that Less than Less… than More than More… than No matter how Now that once Provided (that) So (that) I have explained the types of conjunctions and their functions in compounding phrases, clauses and sentences. Now, I do like to explain some mistakes are often made by students in my class. Faulty parallelism is a mistake happens because students have not understood yet about compounding the parts of speech or the functions of the units (subject, predicate, object, modifier, or complement) in the sentences. In addition, students often do a faulty parallelism in their sentences because they cannot distinguish the function of the words in every sentence. Faulty parallelism occurs when different grammatical structures are used coordinately for the same grammatical functions. For instance: Nominal function Faulty parallelism I’m reading about the origin of the violin and how it developed through the ages. Correct to: I’m reading about the origin and development of the violin Faulty parallelism Swimming in the lake and to walk through the woods are his favorite pastimes. Correct to: Swimming in the lake and walking through the woods are his favorite pastimes. Or To swim in the lake and to walk through the woods are his favorite pastimes. Adjectival function Faulty parallelism Mary is tall, with blond hair, and who has blue eyes Correct to : Mary is tall, blond, and blue-eyed From the table above, we can conclude that faulty parallelism can be avoided by recognizing the functions of the words in the sentences. in the example of number one, there is a faulty parallelism because it is not a parallel Compounding phrases. "The origin of the violin" is the first object of the sentence and it is a noun phrase, and “how it developed through the ages" is the second object of the sentence belongs to a kind of clause. Therefore, in order to make it becomes a parallel we must change it through compounding phrases, so the correct sentence is "I’m reading about the origin and development of the violin”. Second the mistake which is often done by students is clauses not logically parallel- The boy was tall, dark, and very methodical. (The first two items refer to the boy’s appearance, the last item to one of his habits. Logical parallelism is required even with independent clauses that are joined coordinately. The example of clauses not logically parallel is clauses not logically parallel Mr. Jones is our neighbor and he has a large house. One way to eliminate such faulty coordination is to reduce one of the independent clauses. Therefore, the clauses above can be parallel- Mr. Jones, our neighbor, has a large house. However, the coordinate items must be arranged according to some logical principle. Thus we might have a climactic order (such as from less important to more important), a spacial order (such as from near to far), an order according to size (such as from small to large), or temporal order (such as from earlier to later. For instances: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. (Francis Bacon) (Climactic order) As a small boy, a grown man, and a senile invalid, he had always looked at the gloomy side of life. (temporal order). An awareness of parallelism is important not only for the negative purpose of lining up related ideas in similar grammatical forms. Such a use of “positive parallelism” is especially important in formal English; the parallel structures help the reader or listener to see the relationship between many complexities of thought that are being expressed. It is because nations tend to stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so slowly; it is because individuals have a capacity for better things that it moves at all. (George Gissling). Third, the mistake which is often done by student in using conjunction is punctuation. Commas used with coordinate conjunctions appear only before the conjunction. Commas may separate items representing the same part of speech, the same type of phrase, or the same type of clause. If only two words, two phrases, or two dependent clauses, no comma is used before the coordinate conjunction- men and women are welcome. If three or more items are coordinated, commas separate the items. However, a comma before the conjunction preceding the last item is optional. Besides that, generally, it is advisable to use a comma before the coordinate conjunctions for, in order to prevent misreading it as a preposition- the girl did all the shopping and cooking, for her mother was in the hospital. A semicolon may appear before a coordinate conjunction joining clauses if there is already internal punctuation within one or more of the clauses. There are two types of conjunctions, coordinate and subordinate. The coordinate conjunction join structural units are equal grammatically. On the contrary, subordinate conjunctions will be taken up in detail later under the syntactic structures each one introduces. Some mistakes are often done by student in using conjunctions in their composition are: faulty parallelism, clause not logically parallel, and error in using punctuation especially when a conjunction is used. I suggest you to read many grammar books because it can help you to write a good composition well. A good composition can’t be separated with structure, grammar, and other rules in writing, so we must notice all of that. 1. Azar, Betty schrampfer. 1989. Understanding and Using English Grammar. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 2. Frank, Marcella. 1972. Modern English a Practical Reference Guide. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 3. Thieven, Richard C, and Birtney, Robert C. 1964. Reading for Introductory Psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & world, Inc. 4. Whison, George E. and Julia M Burks. 1980. Let’s write English Revised Edition. New York: Litton Educational Publishing. 5. Wilis, Hulon.1976. Grammar and composition. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 0 komentar: Posting Komentar Arsip Blog
Cartoony Eyes Look at the eyes of your typical cartoon animal. More often than not they will not resemble those of the animal they are based upon. Instead, they have generic bright cartoony eyes placed forward on the head. These are vaguely humanlike with scleras, pupils, and sometimes colorful (often blue) irises. Sometimes the scleras will be a different colour, like yellow or green, (possibly to suggest 'wildness',) but since few animals other than humans have easily visible sclera at all, it's no more natural. The sclerae on cartoon animals (including cartoon humans) will usually be much more easily visible than on real vertebrate animals and even real humans. The reason, of course, is to humanize the critters and make their facial expressions readable. Of all animals, cats and snakes are most often exceptions to this rule, both having eerie green or yellow eyes with slit pupils. This absolutely has something to do with the Cats Are Mean and Reptiles Are Abhorrent tropes. This can look downright weird where animals with eyes that are even less human-like are concerned. Where have you ever seen insects with recognizable pupils outside of cartoondom? Other than praying mantises, which actually do seem to have pupils. A variant of this trope is to draw animals which would have sideways-facing eyes in real life, with frontally placed eyes. note This trope tends to be a Necessary Weasel, to the extent that it can be found in downplayed form even in classical realism paintings, for a couple of reasons: Firstly, it makes it easier to animate the animal(ish) character's eyes and facial expressions, and to convey their actual mood. The real-world facial expressions of horses, for instance, mostly involve subtle positioning of their ears and nostrils, with their eyes basically having various levels of "open" and "closed". To the uninitiated, this results in "angry" looking nearly identical to "happy", "scared", and "sees attractive lady horse". In many classical battlefield paintings, for instance, the freakishly exaggerated rolling eyes and furrowed eyebrows seen on horses are an intentional effort to avert the (seeming) Dissonant Serenity in the slightly widened eyes of a panicking or enraged warhorse. Secondly, it also helps avert a certain amount of the Uncanny Valley effect which can result from putting exaggerated expressions on the faces of many animals, particularly when seen from straight-on. Not employing this trope in such cases via things like Cheated Angles and adding eyebrow ridges to animals without them note can look, to put it in technical terms, "damned freaky". note This seems to be related to Toothy Bird and Feather Fingers, in that it is a relatively slight Anthropomorphic Shift. The thing is, the vast majority of vertebrate animals in real-life have eyes that contain roughly the same anatomy as a human's. They just look somewhat different due to different specializations. Some artists are of the opinion that their animal characters should have more realistic (within reason) eyes, as many animal eyes simply look beautiful and cool. See also Animal Eyes. Not to be confused with Sphere Eyes or Conjoined Eyes. As this is such an Omnipresent Trope, instead of listing every cartoon character ever, we will list the... Notable Aversions and Inversions • Averted, naturally, in the Watership Down film where the rabbits have realistic red eyes with oval-shaped pupils. And then played with in Efrafa where every rabbit has blue, almost-cartoony eyes, lending them a semi-Uncanny Valley look. • Averted in the Pixar film Brave, as horses and bears both lack visible sclerae. This is also used to indicate when Merida's mother Elinor is succumbing to her bear form's primal instincts, as her sclerae disappear whenever she goes feral. • One cover illustration of Rakkety Tam depicts Tam, an anthropomorphic squirrel, with a fairly realistic face shape and eyes. It's actually far creepier than the slightly more cartoony illustrations in the chapter-headings and on most of the other cover art, which show the animals with human-style eyes. Live-Action TV • Kermit the Frog has obviously cartoony eyes, but he has pupils more appropriate for an actual frog. Many other Muppet characters have eyes appropriate for their species — a few even use taxidermy eyes! Web Comics • Jay Naylor used to avert this with some dedication. His works have consciously leaned towards this trope recently. It used to be that his cat's eyes had their sclera (the "whites" of the eyes) be a solid color like blue or yellow, but now he does them with white sclera and more human-like eyes. The reason he gave for this was that it allowed him to show expression better, and that drawing them the other way was starting to creep him out. Western Animation • The Nick jr. CGI animated TV show, Peter Rabbit has animal characters with realistic or mostly realistic eyes for their respective species. However, unlike real owls, Old Brown is able to move his eyes. Strangest Cases Tabletop Games • The illustration of an umber hulk in the 1st and 3rd Edition D&D Monster Manuals shows it with one pair of large, wide-set insectile eyes, along with a smaller, close-set pair of cartoony eyes in between the bug-eyes. This actually turns out to be a clever effect, as attempting to "meet the gaze" of this sketch leaves your brain confused about which eyes are the "real" ones, much like in an optical illusion (vase or faces? bunny or duck?). Justified, in that the umber hulk's gaze in-game causes people to become confused. Western Animation • Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends let us find out what happens when you give characters realistic insect-like eyes and cute cartoony eyes at the same time. Greatly dissettling? Oh, you betcha. • Squidward in SpongeBob SquarePants has dark red pupils that are shaped like vertical bars. • Dug in Up has Cartoony Eyes with distinct scleras— but the other dogs' eyes are much closer to the look of actual dog eyes (with far less white). Real Life • Heidi the cross-eyed opossum had prominent sclerae from fat deposits in her eyes, as a result of being malnourished as a juvenile. While many find opossums to be the world's ugliest marsupial, she was considered adorable. Nonstandard Cases Comic Books • Stitch and all the other experiments in Lilo & Stitch and Lilo & Stitch: The Series have eyes with no visible sclera. Same with Captain Gantu and Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel. • The two exceptions for the experiments are Mr. Stenchy and Snafu, who play the Cartoony Eyes trope straight. • The Grand Councilwoman has black scleras. Video Games • Kirby has eyes shaped like black ovals with white highlights and dark blue irises, but no visible sclera. • Sonic the Hedgehog has one giant wrap-around eye split into two lobes, and his pupils are shaded three-dimensional objects. this is a throwback to the kind of cartoony eye that was almost standard back in the olden day of animation. They are the kind of eyes that Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse have, and since studios liked to Follow the Leader even back then... Western Animation • Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner from Animaniacs have eyes shaped like black ovals with white highlights, but no discernible sclera. Examples with Non-White Scleras • Renamon from Digimon Tamers has blue irises and black scleras. • Most of the male Baikins from Anpanman, to heighten their alien origins. Baikinman's are pink, Aoikinman's are light blue, Akakinman's are orange-red, and Mushibaikinman's are light yellow. Also from the show is Kurayamiman, to show off his supernatural side. He has pink scleras with large red pupils. • Lucifer from Cinderella has green irides and yellow scleras. • The lions from The Lion King franchise all have yellow scleras. Also, Pumbaa the warthog has light yellow scleras. • Jumba from Lilo & Stitch has light yellow sclerae. • Iago the parrot from Aladdin has yellow sclerae. • Kerchak in Tarzan has yellow sclerae, opposed to the other apes who have white sclerae. This makes him look a bit more savage than the other apes. • Cartoon lemurs often have yellow or orange sclerae. Western Animation • Donald Duck and almost all the other ducks in Classic Disney Shorts have blue scleras. Possibly to distinguish them from the white feathers that surround them. • Fifi La Fume and Shirly The Loon from Tiny Toon Adventures have blue scleras. • Pinky and the Brain from Animaniacs have blue scleras and pink secleras respectively. • Larry and Precious have green scleras, Billie has blue scleras, and Romy and Snowball have pink scleras. • That one white rabbit from "Of Nice and Men" with a black spot on its back has blue scleras, while the all-white rabbits from the same cartoon have red scleras. • Tom from Tom and Jerry has green irises and yellow scleras. • Lucky and Tripod of 101 Dalmatians: The Series have blue scleras, though the rest of the puppies have white. Spot, Lt. Pug, Sgt. Tibbs, and Mooch have yellow scleras. • Danger Mouse has eyes with mustard yellow sclera. As does Baron Greenback. • The cockroaches from Oggy and the Cockroaches. Marky's are reddish-pink, Dee Dee's are green, and Joey has one reddish-pink, one yellow. One that really stands out is Elvis, the main cockroaches' cousin, who has pink scleras paired with blue pupils. • Mixels has the Glowkies, who are themed around bioluminescence. Their sets have glow-in-the-dark eye pieces, and as such, their eyes in the cartoon have slightly yellowed sclerae. Real Life • Most primates other than humans have orange or light brown sclerae. Sideways-facing Eyed Animals with Forward-facing Eyes Examples Anime and Manga • Averted with the rabbits and parakeets in Chi's Sweet Home and Chi's New Address as they have eyes as laterally placed as that of their real life counterparts. • Marty, Melman, and Gloria from Madagascar • Donkey from Shrek • Roger Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit has eyes that not only face forward, but are also placed really close together. • Kaa in The Jungle Book goes through some sort of Anthropomorphic Shift between his first and second appearance. First he has sideway-facing eyes, appropriately for a snake, but in his second appearance he gets cartoony, forward-facing eyes. • The deer and rabbits in Bambi have cartoony eyes, but those that are placed on either side of their head, appropriately for deer and rabbits. • Dug (the dog) in Up is an extreme example - not only are his eyes facing forward, but they are also almost touching each other. The other dogs in the movie are more realistic looking, though their eyes face forward more than they should. Video Games Western Animation • Averted with a lot of, but not all, cartoon fish. • Looney Tunes: Bugs Bunny, Lola Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Buzz Buzzard (iffy, because he is a predator), Foghorn Leghorn, Road Runner, and Egghead. Not so much Henery Hawk though. • Buster Baxter and all the other animals on Arthur, both the human-type animals and the animal-type animals. • Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Donald Duck, and Chip 'n Dale from Classic Disney Shorts, although Donald's eyes were always a little farther apart (more noticeable in his early designs). Daisy's and Chip 'n Dale's eyes were always a little farther apart than Mickey's or Minnie's eyes too. • Buster, Babs and Binky Bunny (no relation), Plucky Duck, Hamton J. Pig, Fowlmouth, and Shirley the Loon from Tiny Toon Adventures are examples of this trope, but one animation style makes the characters look like they are averting the trope (e.g., the pilot episode, "A Looney Beginning"). • The My Little Pony series.
Planning and Execution for Probate and Estate Law What is an Estate? An estate is what is left of an individual's name or control at the time of their death, including assets and debts. To hand out what is left in an estate to those who are entitled to it a person's estate is administered in a process called probate. You can visit to know more about estate plan and their execution. It is during the probate process that the assets titled in the deceased's name are accounted for and transferred. The reason of a last will and testament is to give commands as to how a person wishes for their estate and belongings to be distributed. If a person dies without ever having a will or their will was proved is not legal, then the probate court distributes the estate according to that state's probate law. During the probate process, a person is selected by the probate court to administer the estate. This person is often referred to as an executrix. This person can either be nominated in the deceased's will to handle their estate matters, or in the nonappearance of a will, the court can hire whom they deem appropriate. It is the executor's duty to collect all essential information and documents so that the deceased's assets may be found, used to pay the remaining debts of the deceased, and the remainder of the assets distributed to the beneficiaries named in the will. Leave a Reply
Dental Fillings Have you ever put off having a dental procedure done because you were scared? If so, you are not alone. Many people avoid getting dental work done because they have a fear of the unknown. My goal in writing this article is to help you understand exactly what happens when you go to the dentist for a filling. I’ve broken the article up into three main sections: 1. A background on why fillings are necessary. 2. White or Silver? Choosing the right filling material for you. 3. A step-by-step procedure of what happens when you get a filling Why Fillings are Necessary First of all, let’s go back to the day you were born. As a newborn baby, there were no harmful bacteria inside of your mouth. As you grew older and became a toddler, bacteria found its way into your mouth. It could have happened when your mom kissed you or when you licked the floor as a baby. In any case, those bacteria have now set up a permanent residence inside of your mouth and you will have to deal with them for the rest of your life. These bacteria live on your teeth. Every time you eat something that they enjoy eating, such as candy, you provide food for them. Feeding these little creatures doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, but it is! After they eat, they produce a very strong acid that eats away at your teeth. If you don’t remove this sticky layer of bacteria (commonly known as plaque) by brushing and flossing, the bacteria will keep destroying a tiny amount of your tooth structure every day until you get a hole in your tooth. These holes are known by many names, such as tooth decay, cavities, and dental caries. You can learn more about dental plaque by reading the article What Every Human Needs to Know About Plaque. Our bodies have the amazing ability to repair injured structures. For example, when we break a bone, our body is able to heal the bone by creating new cells that glue the bone back together. Unfortunately, this isn’t true when it comes to our teeth. Although we do get two sets of teeth in our life, once a hole forms in a tooth, the body cannot repair it. Hundreds of years ago (before fillings existed), cavities eventually caused people so much pain that they would have the tooth removed. White or Silver? Choose the Right Filling Material for You There are a variety of different materials that can be used for filling teeth. In this article, I will only address the two most common filling materials, which are amalgam and composite resin. Composite resin fillings are more commonly known as white fillings, tooth-colored fillings, and direct veneers. They are made up of very tiny pieces of silica surrounded by a plastic resin usually composed of bis-GMA. Amalgam Fillings Composite Fillings Composite fillings are newer than amalgam fillings and are constantly improving. The composite resin is about the consistency of modeling clay. In order for the composite to harden, the dentist shines a bright blue light on it. Through a series of chemical reactions, the composite resin hardens into a very strong material that looks very much like a natural tooth. Which Filling Material Should You Get? Many people prefer to have white fillings because they are less noticeable. At my dental school we usually recommend amalgam fillings for the back teeth and composite resin fillings for the front teeth. In order to assist you in making an informed decision, here is a short list of eight factors to consider: 1 – Amalgam fillings are stronger than composite fillings. We recommend amalgam fillings on the back teeth because that is where the majority of the forces are when you bite down. Since amalgam is made of various metals, it is a very strong material. Composite resin fillings wear down faster than amalgam fillings and need to be replaced more often. 2 – Composite fillings are more expensive than amalgam fillings. At my dental school, we charge $88 for a large amalgam filling in a back tooth and $135 for a large composite filling in a back tooth. Our prices are usually about 50-70% the cost of private practice fees. If you’re on a tight budget, amalgam may be your best choice. 3 – Amalgam fillings last longer than composite fillings. I’m sure that with future technological advancements, composite fillings will probably last as long as amalgam fillings someday. But for right now, if you want your filling to last a long time, you should choose amalgam. To learn more about the duration of each type of filling you can read this post on my blog: Which Type of Filling Lasts Longer, White or Silver? 4 – Composite fillings are less noticeable than silver amalgam fillings. If you get an amalgam filling on a back tooth, most likely only you and your dentist will notice it. But if you don’t like seeing silver in your mouth at all, then a composite filling is probably the way to go. 5 – Amalgam fillings contain mercury. As I mentioned above, the mercury in the amalgam fillings gets incorporated into the filling. However, amalgam fillings do release extremely small amounts of mercury. The amount of mercury released is less than the amount of mercury you’d get from eating fish, but this does pose a problem for people with a mercury allergy. At a news conference on July 29, 2009, a dentist, Dr. Susan Runner of the FDA’s Division of Anesthesiology, General Hospital, Infection Control and Dental Devices stated the following about dental amalgam: “Patients are not at risk for long-term, mercury-related adverse health events.” She went on to add, “We’re not contraindicating dental amalgam in any patient group [other than those who have allergies].” To summarize, amalgam has been used for over 180 years without any major problems. The only absolute contraindication for an amalgam filling would be a mercury allergy. 6 – Composite fillings may leak out Bisphenol-A. Bisphenol-A is a chemical that can be toxic in large enough doses. Discussion of this issue is outside the scope of this article, but I will refer you to a page on the Bisphenol-A website and a news article about bisphenol-A. I will say that based on current evidence, the amount of bisphenol-A released from a filling is unlikely to cause any harm. 7 – Amalgam fillings require the dentist to remove healthy tooth structure. Since amalgam fillings don’t bond to the tooth like composite fillings, the dentist has to make the filling wider at the bottom than it is at the top so that the tooth will hold the filling in place. In order to do this, the dentist usually has to cut away healthy tooth structure. With composite fillings, the dentist can simply remove the decay and then place the filling without cutting away healthy tooth structure to retain the filling. 8 – Composite fillings shrink when they harden. Most composite fillings get somewhere between 2-5% smaller when they harden. Sometimes this can lead to gaps between the filling and the tooth which allow bacteria to enter and start a new cavity. Other times, when a large composite filling shrinks as it hardens, it can put stress on the tooth which results in increased sensitivity of the affected tooth. The effect of the shrinkage can be minimized if the dentist adds the composite in small, incremental layers. 9 – Composite fillings are more technique-sensitive. This means that the dentist has to pay close attention to detail when placing a composite filling. As you’ll find out below, there are more steps that your dentist must follow precisely when filling your tooth with a white filling. For example, if your dentist doesn’t properly prepare the tooth with an etching solution for a specific amount of time, or if they do, but some of your saliva gets onto the tooth after it is etched, the filling may not attach to the tooth tightly and could end up leaking and ultimately needing to be replaced after only a year or two. Most dentists have lots of experience doing white fillings and will do a good job. As long as they are following the steps mentioned below for the composite filling procedure, the filling should last you a long time. Hopefully the above section will help you figure out which type of filling will work best for you. Even if you are still uncertain, at least now you know what issues or concerns to further discuss with your dentist. The Steps Involved in Getting a Dental Filling Getting a Dental Filling Step 1 The first step when getting a filling is to make sure that you are comfortable throughout the procedure. Dentists usually do this by using an anesthetic. I’ve always found it interesting that dentists give an anesthetic to eliminate pain, yet getting “the shot” is usually a patient’s biggest fear. A local anesthetic temporarily interrupts communication between the tooth and the brain. We call it “sleepy juice” when dealing with kids because it puts the nerve “to sleep”. That way, if the tooth sends a pain signal, the anesthetic prevents the pain signal from reaching the brain – and you feel no pain as a result. Injections have a reputation for being painful, but the truth is that the amount of pain you experience during an injection will largely depend on the skills of your dentist. Dr. Stanley Malamed, author of Handbook of Local Anesthesia has stated, “Local anesthetic administration should not be painful. Every one of the local anesthetic techniques…may be done atraumatically…Several skills and attitudes are required of the drug administrator, the most important of which is probably empathy. If the administrator truly believes that local anesthetic injections do not have to be painful, then through a conscious or subconscious effort it is possible to make minor changes in technique that will lead to making formerly traumatic procedures less painful for the patient.” That statement echoes the Needle Phobia page here on Dental Fear Central. It says “You will need to find a dentist who truly believes that injections do not have to be painful.” That page also has many good tips for managing the fear of getting an injection. The first thing I do when numbing a patient for a filling is to dry the area where the injection will be given. I do this by lightly spraying air inside their mouth. Then, I put numbing gel (topical anesthetic) over the area. We dry the area first so that the numbing gel will soak in faster and deeper. After the numbing gel has had a minute or two to work, I then give the patient the local anesthetic. If the numbing gel has soaked in fairly well, the patient barely notices the injection. To recap, we give the patient numbing gel to make the injection a comfortable experience, and we give the injection to make removing the tooth decay a comfortable experience. Getting a Dental Filling Step 2: Getting Your Mouth Ready Once your mouth is numb, your dentist may use a couple of different materials to help make the filling procedure easier and more efficient. The first of these materials is known as a rubber dam. A rubber dam is simply a thin piece of rubber that goes over your mouth and around the teeth where the dentist will be working. You can read more about the rubber dam here. Some patients enjoy having the rubber dam on because it provides a barrier between the dental procedure and the person. When working with children, we call the rubber dam a tooth raincoat because it helps keep the mouth nice and dry while the tooth gets wet. Another tool your dentist might offer you is a bite block, which is a soft rubber triangle that can be inserted between your upper and lower teeth to prop your jaw open. During longer dental procedures, it may be difficult to continuously use your jaw muscles to hold open your mouth. A bite block props your mouth open, which keeps you from having to use your jaw muscles to keep your mouth open, thus relaxing them. A bite block can also keep you from closing your mouth during the procedure, which allows your dentist to work efficiently and get your filling finished as quickly as possible. Depending on where your filling is and on which material is used, your dentist may not elect to use a rubber dam or a bite block. For tooth-coloured fillings, it is especially important to keep the area dry so that the composite resin can properly bond to the tooth. This can be achieved by using a rubber dam. If you are getting a tooth-colored filling, this is usually the time when your dentist will hold many different colors of teeth next to yours to figure out which shade of filling material will be used. Once you’re numb and your mouth is ready, the dentist will begin to remove the portion of your tooth that was damaged due to tooth decay. Getting a Dental Filling Step 3: Removing the Tooth Decay Now that you’re ready for the procedure, the dentist will begin to remove the tooth decay. There are a number of tools that are used to clean out the decayed portion of the tooth. First, your dentist will probably use what is called a high-speed handpiece. You may be more familiar with its more common name, the dental drill. The high-speed handpiece sprays out a jet of water while the dentist works. It also emits a high-pitched whistling sound, which is where it gets the name of “Mr. Whistle” when we work with kids. Since you are already numb when the dentist uses the high-speed handpiece, you shouldn’t feel anything. It moves so fast that it glides through the tooth decay and whisks away the damaged tooth structure. While the dentist is using the high-speed handpiece, the dental assistant will be holding the high-volume suction in your mouth. The high-volume suction quickly removes the water from the high-speed handpiece and any debris from your tooth. You can think of it as a little vacuum cleaner, helping the dentist to remove the tooth decay from your mouth. Another suction you may encounter is the low-volume suction or saliva ejector. If you get some extra water in your mouth and don’t want to swallow it, the dentist or assistant can allow you to close your mouth around this smaller suction to remove any extra water that may be in your mouth. After the dentist has mostly finished removing the tooth decay, he or she will switch to the slow-speed handpiece to refine the preparation and help remove any remaining portions of decayed tooth. This handpiece is slower than the high-speed handpiece and does not emit a whistling sound. Because it is slower, you may feel a vibrating sensation in your tooth. This vibration is why we call the slow-speed handpiece “Mr. Bumpy” when working with kids. Finally, the dentist may choose to finish removing decay with some hand instruments. These are simply small, metal tools that the dentist can use to refine the area where the filling will be placed or to remove any remaining tooth decay. During the procedure of removing the tooth decay, the dentist will most likely use an air/water unit. This is a small attachment that can spray either air or water into your mouth. It is useful to rinse away any debris that is obstructing the dentist’s view of your tooth. Now that the damaged portion of your tooth is gone, the dentist will replace the missing tooth structure with a filling. Getting a Dental Filling Step 4: Replacing the Decayed Tooth with a Filling Next, the dentist will fill the tooth and make it look like a real tooth again so that you can use it to chew food and speak. Since the procedures for restoring a tooth with amalgam and composite differ somewhat, I have separated this portion into two separate sections. First I’ll talk about what happens when you get an amalgam filling; then I’ll talk about what happens when you get a composite filling. Getting an Amalgam Filling If your cavity is on the center of the biting surface of your tooth, then you can skip this paragraph! If your cavity is between two teeth, the dentist will place a metal band (called a matrix band) tightly around the tooth to help build the wall of the tooth back up. Your dentist will also place a wedge between the two teeth so that when the filling is completed the neighboring tooth and the new filling will touch together and prevent food from getting caught between the two teeth when you chew. Many times dentists place what are called bases or liners onto the exposed internal part of the tooth to help prevent the tooth from hurting after the filling is completed. Liners are placed to seal up the passageways that go to the nerve of the pulp. Once those are sealed, you shouldn’t have any sensitivity after the procedure. The liner that we use at my dental school is copalite cavity varnish. We dip a tiny brush into the varnish and paint it into the tooth. Then we spray some air on it to dry it. It does smell similar to the varnish that is often used on wood. Bases are used when the tooth decay is very close to the nerve of the tooth. The procedure is similar to applying a liner, but the base is a little bit thicker. Some bases can be air-dried and others need a dental curing light to be shined on them to harden. After the base or liner is placed, the dental assistant will mix up the amalgam. We use a machine that rotates a capsule of unmixed amalgam very fast. It does make a loud vibration noise. I’ve found that many patients turn around to see what’s going on when we mix the amalgam. It needs to go fast because the mercury is sealed in a plastic pouch and the machine has to break the mercury out of the pouch and mix it up with the other metals. Once the amalgam is mixed, the dentist uses an instrument called an amalgam carrier to place the amalgam inside of your tooth. Next, your dentist will push the amalgam down into the tooth to make sure it is tightly compacted and that there aren’t any empty spaces. This can make a funny noise that sounds similar to stepping on top of freshly-fallen snow. After the amalgam is compacted, the dentist will carve the amalgam to make it look like a tooth. When that is finished, your dentist will have you bite down on a thin sheet of carbon paper. This helps us to see if the filling is too high. The carbon paper rubs off onto the filling and shows the dentist where he or she needs to lower the filling. Once that’s done, I usually ask my patient if the filling feels alright. The only problem is they’re still numb, so it’s hard to tell. Getting a Composite Resin Filling There are several similarities between the process of receiving a composite resin filling and an amalgam filling. Just like when you get an amalgam filling that is on the edge of one tooth that touches another, the dentist will need to place a band around the tooth and a wedge between the two teeth. The main difference in this part is that the band is a clear band instead of metal. This allows the curing light (mentioned below) to shine through the band since the light can’t pass through metal. When placing a composite resin filling, the dentist will first put some acid, usually in the form of a blue gel, on the prepared tooth. This acid creates very tiny holes in the tooth which allow the composite resin to bond to the tooth. This also ensures that the filling doesn’t fall out. The dentist will then rinse the acid away. After that, your dentist will dry the tooth and place a tiny amount of priming and bonding agent to the tooth with a tiny brush. The priming and bonding agent helps form a strong bond between the tooth and the eventual filling. Curing a Composite Filling. Photo by: Conor LawlessNext the dentist will use the previously selected shade of composite resin filling material and put it inside of your tooth. Depending on the technique your dentist prefers, he or she will either squirt it directly into your tooth or put it on a small metal instrument used to place it in your tooth. After this, the dentist will make sure that the composite is evenly spread out in your tooth and that there are no air bubbles. Then the dentist will shine a bright blue light (similar to the one in the photo) on the composite which will harden it and make it very strong. This process is known as curing the composite. Since the light doesn’t penetrate the composite very deeply, your dentist may have to apply and cure multiple layers of composite if you had a deep cavity. You can learn more about curing lights here. After your dentist finishes filling the tooth he or she will have you bite on carbon paper to make sure the filling isn’t too high. If it is, then your dentist will lower the filling with a high-speed handpiece. Finally, if there are any rough spots on the filling, the dentist can use some mild abrasives to smooth the filling and to make it feel smooth to your tongue. What will your filling look like? If you’d like to see what an amalgam or composite filling looks like, take a look at the following article: What do Silver and White Fillings Look Like? How Do You Know If Your Filling is Too High? After the filling is finished, you may feel some sensitivity in your tooth for a few days. If the tooth starts feeling sensitive only when you bite down, you should go back and see your dentist as this could be a sign that your filling is too high. Your dentist will be able to check your bite again and then smooth down the filling using some specialized attachments to the high-speed handpiece. Since your dentist should only need to smooth down the filling and not your tooth, you won’t need to be numb for this. Congratulations — You’re Done! That’s all there is to getting a filling. Hopefully the procedure goes well and you’ll be as happy as the patient pictured below. Your Filling is Finished! Photo by Conor Lawless In conclusion, I want to mention something that many dentists fail to discuss with their patients: There is a reason that you needed a filling! You need to determine why you got a cavity in the first place, and decide how to fix it. There’s probably something you can do to prevent future cavities. Making changes to your diet and oral hygiene habits now can prevent the need for future fillings. Many people do not realize that it is the frequency of sugar intake, rather than the quantity, which can cause cavities. You can read more about this on Dental Fear Central’s How to prevent tooth decay page. Hopefully this article has helped to ease some of the fears you may have about getting a filling. Many people find that the actual experience is much better than they had anticipated. TomAbout the author: Tom is a third-year dental student in the northeastern United States. He enjoys chocolate ice cream, jogging, computers, sports, and fixing people’s teeth. He is the creator of the dental blog Oral Answers. Feel free to visit and get answers to your questions about dentistry.
IN PICTURES: 5 Money-Saving Shopping Tips 1. Savings Accounts Money in a savings account typically cannot be accessed through check-writing or ATMs. Interest rates for savings accounts are characteristically low; however, online banking does provide higher-yielding savings accounts. (Even with inflation fears, saving money is still sage advice in a recovering economy. Check out How Savings Are Saving The Economy.) 2. High-Yield Bank Accounts 3. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) Popular CD maturity periods are six-month, 1-year and 5-year. Any earned interest can be added to the CD if and when the CD matures and is renewed. (A CD ladder allows you to stagger your investments and take advantage of higher interest rates. Learn how in Save Smart With A CD Ladder.) 4. Money Market Funds Mutual funds, brokerage firms and many banks offer money market funds. Interest rates are not guaranteed so a bit of research can help find a money market fund that has a history of good performance. 5. Money Market Deposit Accounts Money market deposit accounts are offered by banks, and typically require a minimum initial deposit and balance, with a limited number of monthly transactions. Unlike money market funds, money market deposit accounts are FDIC insured. Penalties may be assessed if the required minimum balance is not maintained, or if the maximum number of monthly transactions is surpassed. The accounts typically offer lower interest rates than certificates of deposit, but the cash is more accessible. (Learn more about liquidity in Diving In To Financial Liquidity.) 6. Treasury Bills and Notes 7. Bonds A bond is a low-risk debt investment, similar to an I.O.U., which is issued by companies, municipalities, states and governments to fund projects. When you purchase a bond, you are lending money to one of these entities (known as the issuer). In exchange for the "loan", the bond issuer pays interest for the life of the bond, and returns the face value of the bond at maturity. Bonds are issued for a specific period at a fixed interest rate. Bottom Line Want to learn how to invest? Delivered twice a week, straight to your inbox.
Xenacanthus sharks Xenacanthus sharks E445/0302 Rights Managed Request low-res file 530 pixels on longest edge, unwatermarked Request/Download high-res file Uncompressed file size: 49.4MB Downloadable file size: 7.9MB Price image Pricing Please login to use the price calculator This image is part of the feature Sharks Caption: Xenacanthus sharks. Artwork of two Xenacanthus sharks swimming. This genus of prehistoric shark existed during the late Devonian through to the Triassic period (410-220 million years ago). This species lived in freshwater and had a long spine protruding from the back of their head. It had unusual double forked front teeth and a ribbon-like dorsal fin giving it an eel-like appearance. Shark skeletons are made of cartilage and do not fossilise well. Most shark fossils consist of teeth and fin parts. Keywords: 2, animal, animals, artwork, biological, biology, cartilaginous fish, dorsal fin, duo, early shark, eel-like, elasmobranchii, fauna, fish, ichthyology, illustration, nature, pair, palaeontology, paleontology, prehistoric, prehistoric fish, prehistoric shark, prehistory, primitive shark, shark, sharks, spine, swimming, two, under water, underwater, vertebrate, vertebrates, wildlife, xenacanthus, xenacanthus shark, zoological, zoology
Another dimension of this subtle and global sensing is a phenomenon called entrainment.¹⁵ Entrainment is the tendency of objects in close proximity to become interlocked and move in synchronicity. One reason that this occurs is that “nature seeks the most efficient energy state, and it takes less energy to pulse in cooperation than in opposition.”¹⁶ A frequently cited example of entrainment as it occurs in nature is the tendency of adjacent pendula, if released or activated at different times, to adjust their speed and amplitude so that they are soon moving in synchronicity. An interesting connection here exists between this description and the writings of Dr. Rolf on the advantages of an ordered body. It also suggests one common view of why Rolfing works. The reasoning is that since bodies prefer the most economical and efficient manner of movement and since one of Rolfing’s primary goals is to create economy of movement, then, once the body learns this more efficient pattern (in other words, once these patterns are entrained), the body will “choose” this more efficient mode of movement and will tend to return to it automatically. Keep Reading>>
What is Attack Tree Analysis? Attack trees allow threats against system security to be modeled concisely in a graphical format to create a security risk assessment. The effectiveness of cyber security, network security, banking system security, automotive cybersecurity, installation and personnel security may all be modeled using attack trees. With the increased risk of terrorist attacks on homeland security, hacking attacks on computer systems and computer-based fraud on banking systems, the AttackTree security analyzer is an invaluable tool to system designers and security personnel for security assessment. AttackTree provides a method to model and report the threats against a system in a graphical easy-to-understand manner. If we understand the ways in which a system can be attacked, we can develop countermeasures to prevent those attacks achieving their goal. In order for an attack to succeed, the attack has to be initiated and various barriers overcome by the attacker. There may be different ways in which an individual or team could mount an attack on a system and there may be different levels of defense against different types of attack. Attack trees provide a graphical representation of how attacks might succeed and allow a probabilistic analysis of which attacks are most likely to succeed. The methodology can also reveal the vulnerability of your system, under specified constraints. For example, what are the most probable ways in which an attack will succeed in its objective at a relatively low cost to the attacker? Using AttackTree to Model Threats AttackTree, through the use of attack tree models, allows the user to model the probability that different attacks will succeed. AttackTree also allows users to define indicators that quantify the cost of an attack, the operational difficulty in mounting the attack and any other relevant quantifiable measure that may be of interest. Questions such as ‘which attacks have the highest probability of success at a low cost to the attacker?’ or ‘which attacks have the highest probability of success with no special equipment required?’ can be answered using AttackTree. In AttackTree, different categories and levels of consequence may also be assigned to nodes in the attack tree. A successful attack may have financial, political, operational and safety consequences. A partially successful attack may have a different level of consequence to a totally successful attack. All these types of consequence measure may be modeled in AttackTree. Windows 10 Compatibility
Researchers probing potential power of meditation as therapy In the first study, the participants were adults between 55 and 90 with . Those who practiced MBSR for eight weeks had significantly improved functional connectivity in the brain’s network that is active during introspective thought such as retrieving memories, along with trends of less atrophy in the hippocampus (the area of the brain responsible for emotions, learning and memory) compared with the participants who received conventional care. These findings indicate that meditation may positively affect the areas of the brain most impacted by Alzheimer’s and thus may be capable of slowing the progress of the disease. “Both of these were pilot studies with small subject groups and additional research is needed, but I’m still very excited by the findings,” said Wells, who began both studies while completing fellowships at Harvard Medical School. “This type of meditation is a safe and relatively simple intervention, and if it can delay cognitive decline and help relieve migraines, it could contribute to improved quality of life for many of these individuals.” Another Wake Forest Baptist faculty member probing meditation’s effects and capabilities is Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy. In his research Zeidan has demonstrated that as little as three 20-minute training sessions in can reduce pain and everyday anxiety in healthy individuals with no previous meditation experience. And through the use of a special type of imaging that captures longer-duration brain processes more effectively than a standard MRI scan, he has identified the specific brain mechanisms involved. “In these studies we’ve been able to get a better sense of the brain regions associated with reducing pain and anxiety during meditation,” Zeidan said. “Basically, by having people meditate while their brains are being scanned we’ve been able to objectively verify what people like Buddhist monks have been reporting about meditation for thousands of years.” Zeidan and Wells are currently working together on two new research trials. One, led by Zeidan, will attempt to determine more precisely how mindfulness meditation reduces pain and improves health. The other, led by Wells, will further investigate her pilot study’s findings about meditation and migraines with a larger number of participants. “Our research shows that meditation produces robust effects in behavior and in the and may provide an effective way for people to substantially reduce their pain,” Zeidan said. “What we have to do now is continue to find out exactly how it works and what it involves.” Provided by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center Leave a Reply
The Electoral College It’s been more than two weeks since Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States of America and for the first time since Al Gore, a Democratic candidate in Hillary Clinton won the popularity and lost the election because of Electoral College vote so to speak. Now as a Filipino, I’m beginning to wonder what really is the Electoral College and why does it play a vital role in their election. From the US Constitution For starters I learned that the Electoral College is a system established by Article Two the United States constitution in their presidential election system to select their president and vice president, where citizens of the US in each state at a general election choose a slate of electors pledged to vote for a candidate. The Twelfth Amendment of their constitution however requires each elector to cast one vote for president and vice president. In each state and the District of Columbia, electors are chosen every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and then meet to cast ballots on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. The candidates who receive an absolute majority of electoral votes among the states are elected President and Vice President of the US when the Electoral College vote is certified the US Congress in January. As for the people involved in the process, there are 538 electors that corresponds to the 435 representatives in their congress, their 100 senators, and the three electors coming for the District of Columbia as mandated by their Twenty-third Amendment. For the simplest explanation, the Electoral College is the group of people assigned to oversee the election in the state they are designated and they get to decide the outcome with the electoral votes based from the population size of the state. The vote people made only serves as basis, and these electors could change your vote. The Bad Side of the Electoral College What I don’t like about the Electoral College is how candidates must campaign hard on the biggest states in the US during their campaign season leading to their election year. Because to secure most of these states and their electoral votes is how a candidate can win the Electoral College. Namely these states are California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan. You can even consider Virginia. Looking back on the recent US election, Donald Trump won the most of these states with its electoral votes. While Hillary Clinton only got California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. Which is why if you’re a candidate that only got a few of these big states like California, New York and New Jersey together with their traditional safe states that only has a single digit of electoral votes, you are surely to lose the election because your opponent garnered the most of the big states not only their traditional safe states. The opponent must have also campaigned hard enough to secure those states, most especially swing states like Florida and Ohio. As mentioned in the first subhead, these people could turn your votes around because they are the electors. If Only If the Electoral College of the United States is already that complicated for international spectators, it would be a lot harder if a country like the Philippines did adapt this system. Since my motherland is the first colony of the United States. If the election that elected President Rodrigo Duterte in power was an election that is decided by the Electoral College I am sure that he would still win the election and secure the whole of Mindanao. Most of the Visayas in Regions 6, 7, and 8. Northern Luzon which many Filipinos called “Solid North” especially in Ilocos Norte, even the National Capital Region. If only we have the Electoral College and the electoral map is set and parallel to the political map, Luzon would always be a big battleground during election year. The biggest electoral number of votes may have to come from the region with the biggest number of registered voters, not with how big a region is since we have rural areas. It could also be advantageous for some candidates because of the growing population of the Philippines. The downside of the Electoral College if it’s in the Philippine setting is having the multi-party system, because in the Philippines no one is a third-party candidate but only nuisance candidates. More important is there’s no bipartisan system the way it is with the United States of having the Republican and Democratic parties. It will also be harder to set a “magic number” like the America’s 270 electoral votes to determine the winner. The selection of electors in this kind of setup is even scary and you will never how situations like this can go bad since the Philippines will always have an election hotspot like Caloocan, Maguindanao, and Cotabato and these election hotspots don’t always intensify the national election but the local election intensifies it. Just Say It Before My Face Photo taken by Jannus Tristan Carreon I don’t want you to sugar coat it Just say it before my face. If you don’t like someone because their fat Just say it to their face. If you find me too skinny for you Just say it before my face. If you don’t want me around your turf, Just say it before my face. So I don’t have to waste time and money getting there in your head and in your face If you find me stupid, yell at me And tell it to my face. So you can satisfy your ego and tell everyone That I am as dumb as you think. But one day, I will show you my degree My middle finger and yell like rappers By saying in your face. If you really love the person Say it before their face. Hit or miss, you will never know. When someone tells you that they don’t like you And they tell it to you that you are too nice, Just face it. When all things fail, There’s always the mirror. Look at yourself and ask yourself, Is it my face? For Name’s Sake! Courtesy of TV5’s YouTube channel, tv5theeveningnews. Don’t you just hate it when the professor does not pronounce your name right on the first day of school? Or don’t you just hate it when your name is long that one part of your name only gets called by anyone you know? More important, don’t you just wish that you would have a common Filipino last name with a Hispanic touch like Blanco, Castillo, Castro, Chavez, Gonzales (sometimes with a letter Z), Guevara, Guerrero, Gutierrez, Flores, Fuentes, de la Cruz, Cruz, Reyes, Rivera, de los Reyes, Vergara or whatever last name that can be pronounced easily with a Hispanic descent. Most of the time we just let people like teachers like professors go on with pronouncing our name LIKE THAT because we’re too tired of correcting and telling them how it is really pronounced since the beginning of our lifetime. Sometimes I want to write the phonetic spelling of my last name for people to really understand but again I’m too tired. These are moments in school where you just want to call upon the spirit of your ancestors just to spook the living daylights out of the person mispronouncing or misspelling your name. You’re just lucky to have professors who would have the courtesy to momentarily pause and ask if they are pronouncing your name correctly. This is why some females can’t wait to get married so that their maiden names would be replaced by their future husband’s name. Can you just imagine Miss Universe Philippines 2011, Shamcey Supsup’s thoughts at the back of her head when she got married? When I was in third grade, I felt so low when my last name was cussed by some guy named Mendoza and I would always get his crap at the school bus regardless whether if we were going to school or going home from school. It really sucks to look back to those moments. I just hope he’s not in a relationship to a woman with a name that screeches when someone scratches a blackboard and when they get married I hope they don’t name their children with names that give an emphasis to the letter H like Dhaniel or Khatryn. During the latter years of my high school, I’m just lucky to have friends and teachers who really know how to pronounce my last name. When I got into college I’m more than lucky to have professors who really know how to nail it on the first day of class giving you that empowering moment. Sometimes if you have a friend with a foreign last name like a Filipino-American or Filipino-German friend. You would have a hard time pronouncing their last name that you would just call them by their nickname or first name. When it comes to my first name Enrique, I really don’t know if I’m lucky to be named after businessman Enrique Zobel de Ayala because it sounds good but as my parents would tell me, I am not named after the patriarch of the Ayala group but according to my father. The name Enrique means man of the house in which I have yet to live by since I’m not yet a family man. As for my last name Agcaoili, my ancestry is Ilocano but I barely visit Ilocos Norte and barely speak the dialect of my ancestors. One of the people I know who had a hard time with our last name is my father’s cousin and my uncle overseas because on the day of his son’s moving up day, the school’s photographer misspelled our family name by spelling AGIAOLI instead of AGCAOILI and as I type this, I begin to think how my uncle struggled to correct some of the people when he was growing up. Jayden Ace Couresy of Glen Agcaoili As for me, lucky for me back to the day of my high school graduation as I got my high school diploma I immediately checked if the school misspelled my last name and lucky for me they did not misspell my last name! I was ready to sue the school. My batch mate was also ready to sue the school if they misspelled his family name. I have attended baptisms in which I have seen and heard of names that are amusing and cringe worthy. In one baptism that I attended, I have seen a baby baptized by the name of CHRISTOPHER REEVE and I kid you not because I overheard the priest who blessed the kid joke to the parents saying, “Is this kid Superman?” In another baptism I have seen a baby baptized by the name of RIHANNA AVRIL. The mother must have been a fan of both Avril Lavigne and Rihanna. I can’t remember the most bizarre name that any parent could give to their child. But if there’s one name, it’s from what I read in Lourd de Veyra’s book one of “This Is A Crazy Planets” in which he mentioned that he has a friend who named their child Axl in honor of the Guns N’ Roses vocalist, Axl Rose who is born by the name of William Bailey. Another that he mentioned in his book was a friend who named their child STALIN which is deemed unacceptable for a first name by the Catholic Church because even before the start of World War II, Joseph Stalin of the USSR (present day Russia) has killed more people than Hitler. A moment in their history that historians called, The Great Purge. I have met and known people who have the most unconventional names that their nicknames are a far cry from their given name. I have also met someone with a name so colorful that you just have to control yourself from asking ‘why is your name like that?’ I know someone with a name so long that we just call her Nikki and her mom with a name so traditional we just call her Tita Mamu. Another person that I know with a nickname that is a far cry from his birth name is my uncle we call Tito Toti and his birth name is really Gonzalo and my cousin his son nicknamed Ian is also a far cry from his birth name Lemuel. I have met people with names so traditional that you just keep your mouth shut because it might just be a family tradition to pass on someone the elder’s name. Like in our family, the elders passed on the name Oscar beginning with my late great grandfather to his youngest son then passed on the Oscar that ended with my father. I have met someone with a name so old that I don’t know if his parents named him after Castro the revolutionary and Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s best friend or that other revolutionary who also donned a tobacco who jumped on EDSA then became president of the Philippines in 1992. The funniest story that I know with regard to first names being passed on is a family in the Visayas or Mindanao region with a last name that goes by the family name of Nueve which they pass on the name Enrique from Enrique I to VIII and by the time another masculine child was about to be born, again they named it Enrique. So the child goes by the name Enrique Nueve IX which is redundant by having the Spanish translation of the number nine next to the Roman numeral namesake. Some of those names are bound by tradition or fanaticism. I almost forgot about Eddie Gutierrez’s son named Elvis who keeps a low profile despite being the son of Monster Manager Annabelle Rama and brother of Ruffa, Richard and Raymond. It’s no secret in Philippine Entertainment and pop culture that Eddie Gutierrez is a big fan of Elvis Presley which is truly visible in his hairstyle from his younger days to portraying kingpin roles in the late ‘80s to the ‘90s and matapobre roles in soap operas. The funny thing about names for me is keeping a pattern for the children that they name. One example is a letter pattern where one couple will only name their child with one letter from the alphabet like the letter A like Arthur then the next child will be named Arnold. Another example is the letter R like the Santiago brothers namely Rowell, Randy and Raymart Santiago. Another thing that I find funny in names is children’s name that is a combination of their parents’ names. I wish I could give an example but that would mean expulsion if she gets to read this. Years from now, I don’t know if I will get married or not. I don’t even know who will be the lucky girl that’s going to marry me but if I do get married, I’m just going to invite a few friends and relatives. When it’s time for my wife to give birth, I would name my masculine child Rafael then if she gives birth to a baby girl, I would beg my wife to name that child Rafaella naming them after my favorite Ninja Turtle and the closest priest that I know that truly makes me feel at home in Letran. So for the women who are madly in love right now with the man they fell for, I hope you are not just going to marry the man in the future because you love them and you don’t care if he’s rich or not. Think of what will be your last name and yourwould be child or children. As for parents who are about to have their children, make sure their name is worth writing in their birth certificate and please don’t make it hard for the nurse, city registrar or NSO officer to spell your child’s name. Help them out and don’t make them assume the spelling of the child’s name.
Why Dogs Eat Poo: It’s More Common Than You Think! Yes, it’s fairly disgusting to talk about but not an entirely uncommon behavior to our canine friends. Eating poo (aka coprophagy) is actually an evolutionarily behavior designed to keep our pals healthy and safe from predators. Though our modern pups are domesticated and housebroken, they still have the deep, instinctive mentality of their wild ancestors. Below are some of the reasons your dog may appear to be going off the reservation. There’s usually a good reason for most strange behavior if you look closely enough! POOR DIET If a puppy or adult dog is eating a nutritionally deficient diet or is not being fed enough, it will instinctively seek out another food source. This often means feces in the yard or dog park. A dog’s digestive system is dependent on a specific mix of enzymes to break down carbohydrates, proteins and fats. There is some evidence that suggests that dog digestive systems haven’t quite caught up to modern diets that include less animal protein and far more carbohydrates and plant proteins. A lack of vitamin B may also be the culprit. NEW BORN PUPPIES If you have ever raised a litter of puppies, you’ll know that their mother will normally clean up after them by eating their feces. This is not only a sanitary solution, but an age-old survival mechanism. In the wild, predators hungry for a bit of puppy could locate the den simply by the scent of feces. It became necessary, then, for the mother to get rid of this evidence. Good canine mothers today do the same thing, even though those nasty predators are by and large no longer a threat. MULTI-DOG HOMES For households with multiple dogs there is often a pecking order of dominant and submissive roles. Submissive dogs will sometimes eat the stool of their dominant counterparts. Another, rather interesting phenomenon is when multiple dogs are in the same household and one gets sick, the healthy dog will sometimes eat the feces of the unhealthy dog. This may be an instinctual reaction to hide the weaker dog from “predators” much as a mother does with pups (see above). CLEANLINESS In over-covercrowded shelters, puppy mills or dirty kennels, dog feces can lie around for hours before being picked up. A curious puppy will often sniff around and then eat the feces, which still contains some scent of food. This behavior self-reinforces over time and when the puppy goes to a good home, the nasty habit often goes with them. CONVENIENT LITTER BOXES Did you know that some dogs adore the taste of cat poop? This is most likely due to feline food (and therefore feces) containing a higher percentage of meat than dog food, as well as flavourings different than what dogs are used to. Cat feces can be in a litter box or dispersed randomly outdoors; with the power of your dog’s nose, it’s nearly impossible to stop him from finding these delicious cat leavings. Locate litter boxes in areas your dog cannot access—either high up or inside a room with a door propped open only a few inches, allowing cat access, but not dog. To prevent coprophagy, keep your dog’s environment free of any waste and as clean as possible. Don’t leave your dog alone or in the yard for or any length of time, as he may eat his waste and self-reinforce this unwanted behavior. Take a careful look at their diet and feed them the highest quality food possible. While walking your dog, only let him sniff around in spots where you know there is no waste present. This means you decide when he gets to defecate or urinate! Lastly, if the problem persists make sure to see your veterinarian. Please help us improve our content by leaving a rating: No comments Leave a Reply
Updated: 04/26/2017 by Computer Hope Ghosting may refer to any of the following: 1.A ghost image is a permanent discoloration in a certain area on an electronic display; more specifically, those which use cathode ray tubes. See our burn in page for further information on this term. ghosting2. A ghost is a description of a person who has gone offline, yet appears as though they are still logged into chat or another service. When this occurs, the user will receive an error indicating they are already logged in upon attempting to rejoin, forcing them to wait for their account time out. 3. Ghosting is a form of cheating in online games where players are privileged to information they shouldn't have about another player's whereabouts, hand, etc. For example, in many first-person shooters, dead players may disclose the location of living players on the opposing team to their teammates. Another example would be watching a Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft player who is streaming on Twitch to discover what cards are in their hand. 4. When describing an LCD or flat-panel display, ghosting is used to describe an artifact caused by a slow response time. As the screen refreshes, the human eye still perceives the image previously displayed; causing a smearing or blurring visual effect. 5. When using Norton's Ghost, ghosting is the method of copying the complete hard drive contents to a CD or network drive. Once ghosted, this image can be distributed over several computers. Ghosting is commonly done in a corporate environment where the same operating system and corporate software needs to be installed on dozens of different computers. Related pages Burn in, Chat terms, Game terms, Mirror, Video terms
Product College starts on September 5. Apply now. In this extension, we'll learn about analytics and how to use data to improve our apps. Analytics is the measurement and interpretation of data. For our apps, we'll collect user data (what users do in our app) to understand user behavior (why they're doing it). Using these learnings, we can make better decisions to improve our app. Listed below, are some common examples of using analytics to improve your app. Example 1: 1. Analytics: Large number of users don't complete the signup flow. 2. Interpretation: The signup flow could be too long or confusing which is causing users to leave before completing the signup process. 3. Product Decision: Investigate more on which screen users are dropping off. Make changes to the signup flow so that more users complete the signup process. Example 2: 1. Analytics: Users don't come back to the app after their first use. 2. Interpretation: The app doesn't provide value to the user or the user doesn't understand the value proposition of the app. 3. Product Decisions: Add an onboarding tutorial to help users navigate the app on their first use. Create prompts so that the user takes key actions on their first use. In this extension, we'll explore key concepts in analytics, important metrics to track, how to track custom events and how to interpret data. There are many solutions for mobile analytics. Some of the most popular include Mixpanel, Amplitude, Fabric Answers, and Google Analytics. In this tutorial, we'll be using Google Analytics. Like the others, Google Analytics is a analytics tool that helps you track and analyze app data. However, it's super convenient for our situation because it's built into Firebase and is free! If you're using another analytics solution, you'll need to install a third-party SDK via CocoaPods. However since Google Analytics is already built into Firebase, we won't need to do anything to use it. If you are not using Firebase in your app, we recommend you use Fabric Answers to integrate analytics into your app. There is no need to install the entirity of Firebase just for analytics! Fabric has a really nice install guide here. Next, let's take a look at our Firebase Analytics Dashboard! Analytics Dashboard The Firebase console has a analytics dashboard that allows you to visualize and interpret your data. Firebase automatically tracks certain key events such as Active Users and Retention. Let's navigate to our analytics dashboard to take a look. Open your web browser of choice. Navigate to your Firebase project overview and select the Analytics tab on the left-hand navigation pane. Firebase Overview This is what your analytics dashboard will look like. Analytics Dashboard Don't worry if there's not much data there yet. This is normal since we haven't (and won't) launch Makestagram to the App Store. Before moving on to tracking custom events, let's take a look at the metrics Firebase automatically tracks for us. Active Users The first graph you'll notice is Active Users. It should look like this: Active Users This graph shows a general indicator of user engagement: daily active user (DAU), weekly active users (WAU) and monthly active users (MAU). • DAU: total unique users who have opened your app on the current day. • WAU: total unique users who have opened your app in the last week (previous 7 days.) • MAU: total unique users who have opened your app in the last month (previous 30 days.) Using your Active Users data, you can also calculate a metric called Stickiness. Stickiness is widely-used benchmark for app retention. Your DAU/MAU ratio represents the percentage of monthly active users that engage with your app every day. Although Stickiness is a useful metric, Firebase also provides cohort analysis for retention. We'll learn about this later. Average Revenue Next, we'll look at the Average Revenue metric. We won't be using this in Makestagram, but we'll go over it briefly incase you want to add in-app purchases to your app. • Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): total amount of in-app purchases divided by the total active users in the given time period. • Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU): total amount of in-app purchases divided by the number of paying users in the given time period. Before we move on, notice that each metric on the analytics dashboard has a (?) question mark by it's name. If you hover over the question mark, you can view more info about the corresponding metric. Metric Tooltip Audience and Attribution Tracking You'll notice that some of the metrics on your analytics dashboard contain info about how users discovered your app and insights about your demographics such as age and gender. To track and view this data, you'll need to enable the AdSupport framework in your project. Click here for instructions on adding the framework to enable these features. This information can be useful for understanding your user demographics for ads and marketing. Understanding your user will help you figure out which users need your app! The last metric we'll look in our analytics dashboard is retention. You should see a chart that looks like the following: Retention Graph Don't worry if you don't understand how to read this chart yet, we'll go over that next. The chart above is a cohort analysis. A cohort analysis separates users into cohorts, or groups, based on a common attribute. For our retention chart, users are put into a cohort based on their first use date. Each row (top to bottom) of the chart represents a new cohort. The date ranges on the left of the chart, represent each cohort's first use week. The columns (from left to right) represent the number of users that return each week following their first use. It's common for a smaller percentage of the initial cohort to return each week. With this chart, you can see how new features you implement change the retention of a new user. Retention is one of the most important metrics. If a user keeps coming back to your app, you can be fairly sure you've created some sort of value for the user. If your retention flattens out after a certain week, meaning that you've retained a certain percent of users, then you've achieved some level of product-market fit. For a great resource on understanding the importance of retention, you can watch this video. Additional Metrics There are many other metrics that can be tracked to measure app health and success. Success metrics, also know as key performance indicators (KPI), vary from market to market and app to app. When selecting KPI to quantifiably measure app health, you should think about what objectives are important for your app and brainstorm how you can map those objectives to hard metrics. A good place to start is often defining your value proposition and what a successful user journey looks like. Custom Event Tracking Now that we've learned a little about the events Firebase tracks automatically, we'll look at tracking our own custom events. We can track custom events using FirebaseAnalytics. First, to use the SDK, we'll need to add the corresponding import statement to the top of our source file: import FirebaseAnalytics Next, we can use the Analytics.logEvent(_:parameters:) class method to track a custom event. Here's an example of tracking a post being shared: Analytics.logEvent(AnalyticsEventShare, parameters: [AnalyticsParameterItemID: post.key, AnalyticsParameterContentType: "Post"]) You'll notice in the code snippet above, we name the event using one of Firebase's predefined analytics event names. Firebase has a list of predefined event names you can find here. For simple tracking, you can use the predefined event names and parameter names that Firebase has provided. Firebase has provided some documentation of events you might want to track for apps in different categories. You can find them by clicking here. You can also define custom event and parameter names using strings. For example, if we wanted to create an app-specific event for tracking when users create new posts, we could create log an event like so: Analytics.logEvent("create_post", parameters: [AnalyticsParameterItemID: post.key, "poster_uid": poster.uid]) Notice that we're using a custom event name create_post and a custom parameter name poster_uid. In both instances, we're able to create a custom name using strings. Be careful of typos when tracking events. It's a good idea to create your own event/parameter name constants to avoid stringly-typed code. What Should I Track? Firebase analytics allows you to track any custom events you want. But before you start adding custom events, it's best to think about what events should you track. Tracking too many events can clutter your dataset with incomplete or irrelevant information making it hard to display and interpret your data. Not tracking enough events can lead to incomplete information when trying to make product decisions. Similarly, tracking the wrong data can lead to incomplete information when trying to interpret data. To prevent us from any of these pitfalls, we want to think carefully about which events are important to our app and it's objectives. Each app is different, so the events that are tracked should be personalize per app. A couple helpful mental frameworks are: • think about your value proposition and what users would get from using your app • think about your app goals and any objectives you're trying to achieve Next, ask yourself: • How can you use event tracking to monitor whether you're successfully delivering your value proposition? • What KPI would define success for your app goals or objectives? As a catch all, it's also helpful to think about what questions you're trying to answer with your data. Start with the questions you want to answer and work back to what events or metrics would help clarify the answers to those questions. If you're interested in learning more about creating app objectives, check out the AARRR!!! Startup Metrics. For example, Makestagram is a photo sharing app that helps people share and connect over photos. Events we'd want to track are: • Following a User: Makestagram loses any value if you're not following any other users because your feed will be empty. We could create a custom event track the action of following a user. • Creating a Post: It's super important for people to share photos as it creates more content for other users and makes the current user more invested in the product. • Liking a Post: Find out if people are interacting with each other's content. Viewing Data Tracking events isn't helpful if you don't know how to view and interpret the data you've collected. Luckily, Firebase has tools that display your data. Open your web browser and navigate to your analytics dashboard. Analytics Dashboard Next, navigate on the top horizontal tab bar to Events. Events Tab Since we haven't tracked any custom events, you should see the following default events: Events Overview Here you can view all of the events that are being tracked in your app. Additionally, you can click on each event to view more information about the specific event. From the events overview, click on the event named session_start. Click on Event After clicking on a specific event, you should see more information about the event: Specific Event Info In this extension, you've learned about the basics of analytics and how to track your own custom events. Tracking custom events and monitoring your app's health with metrics will give you feedback on how users use your app. As you begin to build your own apps, make sure you take the time to think about your app goals and objectives. By applying what you've learned in this extension, you'll know what your users are doing and what features you can add to improve your user experience! 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Saturday, 26 August 2017 3 Short weeks Three short eventful weeks The second week brought with it a journey into the water world. We began our inquiry to learn about the precious resource - WATER Tuning In Day 1: We started our tuning in by using a pictorial provocation. Each table had a different picture and question to trigger the thinking of the students. Day 2: Each group was given a newspaper article related to the monsoon season. We read the newspaper and discussed - What is the newspaper reporter trying to tell us? How far do you think this article is true? * Do you agree with what the person is trying to say - Why or why not? * Write down one fact that you gathered from the article? To tune in to the theme of our unit - 'Sharing the Planet' and central idea - 'Water is one of the main natural resources and we must preserve it ', we took the water bottles of students away for the day. They were provided limited amount of water in a water dispenser. The water in the dispenser was the only water they had access to for the day. Some of their reactions and thoughts....... Mystery Text Quotes Technology is most certainly the future, so it would be best to introduce it to elementary children and get the familiar with programs and skills they will need in their near future. Using technology in the classroom also sparks interests withing the students, it's different than the teacher writing everything on the white board. Day 3: We looked at the video - Nature talkingPost the video we discusses what message was nature trying to give us. We then unfolded our central idea and the key concepts of our unit. Post the discussion we began wondering what were the things that we wanted to learn more about under this unit. Finding out To find out more about how the water is distributed on Earth we first found out what are the different forms of water on Earth. Sharing our ideas using the Think link share strategy. We were given QR codes and we went on different sites to find out the different forms of water. Sorting Out To assess the prior knowledge of capacity we began by estimating the amount of water the different containers can hold. We measured to see if our estimations were accurate. We took up measuring water to understand the connection between liter and milliliter. We took on the task of exploring how was the fresh water distributed on the Earth. We stated - If all the water on the Earth was equal to one liter, how much of fresh water is available to humans for use? We realized that of all the water present on the Earth, there is only 3% of fresh water that can be really used by humans. Do we really have all of the 3% of fresh water to use?????? We used our understanding of milliliter and liter to measure and experiment the different amounts of each form of water found on the Earth. Our findings We were posed with another essential question - How does this 3% of fresh water get distributed over the Earth. Before we dwelled further into this we did some experiments to understand the terms - Water cycle Stimulation game The students became water molecules and rotated between different station depending on the instruction son each station. This game made us realize that the same water molecule moves from one state to another. Post this we used the picture priority strategy to see what we had understood through the water cycle stimulation game. Take a peek at how we figured out the water cycle - Once we were familiar with these terms we were given a project to work on to understand the water cycle i.e. - How does water move ? Take a peek at our task here. Working hard to get the projects complete Using QR codes to gain access to sites Stay tuned for our presentations next week........ In language, we are learning to write reviews. We our working our way around the concept of Place value. To activate our previous understanding of place value we played the silent game. We are working with different manipulative and strategies to understand the connection of the value and place of the digit. B.U.I.L.D. time We created our accounts on Khan Academy. We will be using this to learn and make our understanding of math concepts stronger. This year we had a PYP elections to select a candidate to represent the PYP in the student council. We even got our fingers inked to ensure there was fair voting!!! Once we had our PYP representatives elected it was now time to vote for the EIS student council for 2017-18. Independence Day celebration We played a short quiz on Independence day to refresh ourselves about India. Our Independence day celebration began with Ms.Chantele our youngest staff member hoisting the flag. Some of our friends gave inspiring speeches in Hindi. Along with us some of our other friends from different grades too sang some patriotic songs to entice the spirit of freedom. a peek into into our performance - Our celebration ended with the felicitation of the Student council members. Our First class assembly We put up our first assembly of Grade 3. We began with going to all the PYP classrooms and read them stories based on different learner profile. Post the story we brainstormed the learner profile the story was about. Post the discussion we asked all the classes to put together a skit that showed how we display the learner profile at EIS. A sneak peek into some of the performances of the day - We would like to thank the entire PYP family for the whole hearted participation and success of our assembly.
Detect Cancer by Dog Sniff May be More Accurate Friday, February 11, 2011 Detect Cancer by Dog Sniff May be More Accurate In general, cancer does have a special smell that was possible even a doctor could smell it. But dogs are animals of the most expert in smell of a substance including cancer by smell from the feces of a patient suspected to have cancer. The ability of a dog to sniff out cancer has been demonstrated by a study at the University of Kyushu in Japan. The researchers used trained dogs to sniff 38 stool samples of patients and have revealed 37 cancer samples correctly. According to Dr Hideto Sonoda, one of the researchers, the dog has the advantage in the smell of certain chemical compounds as in cancer, so it is more accurate than human olfaction. It would be very helpful to know early-stage colon cancer that may not be done by today's modern medical equipment. Detect cancer naturally by dog sniff without modern equipment may be more accurate ,quickly and almost no cost at all. A dog will only require a few seconds to detect cancer. If there is a more easy and safe, why do we have to wait for modern medical equipment that can replace the function of a dog in detecting cancer? Totosgoodthings said... I have heard of this before and recently a neighbor's dog was licking a relatives neck who has a thyroid problem. It really bothered me and he has not been tested for cancer. I need to investigate this further. Thank you for posting the article.
Thursday, November 19, 2009 Battleplan is not the Art of War. Certainly it is not as poetic, insightful, or as comprehensive as Sun Tzu’s work. While many say the Art of War can be a great philosophy for both war and life in any age, the History Channel production, Battleplan, is still one of a kind for having clearly defined the steps of well known battle plans in the past 100 years. One episode is one battle plan: a specific approach for the defeat of the enemy or for the achievement of specific objectives. And for each battle plan there are two examples. If for example the attacker wants to use the navy, for that there is the episode Battle Fleet Action. Assault from the Air, is deploying ground troops through the air. Control of the Air, involves defeating the enemy air power first through one’s own air power. An Assault from the Sea is an amphibious assault like the Leyte Landings. Blitzkrieg, a term made popular by World War II Germany is a lightning approach to war, speed having the top priority. There is even an episode on guerilla war, with its most popular example in Vietnam. Each plan is explained in a thesis like approach which the narrator describes as requirements. But like in a thesis those requirements seem more like stages since they need to be answered in a specific order. Like in a thesis, each chapter or stage needs to be well thought out. Lining up the requirements are among others, Objectives, Means, Force Ratio, Intelligence, Follow Through, and Exit Strategy. The narration then goes about defining each in accordance to the situation at hand, arranged almost in a FAQ (frequently ask questions) manner. What is an objective? What do you need to look for in making an objective for planning, for example, an Assault from the Air? After defining and asking the questions for those requirements or to use some thesis writing parlance, chapters; the two examples for that battle plan are measured up to what is an ideal. Or if not explained in detail why it failed or succeeded or where it could have been improved. The big surprise for me in this series is the requirement of Force Ratio which is a comparative analysis between one’s enemy force and the enemy. It’s not all about numbers but can also include among others training and morale. I find it a surprise because even with a culture such as the military and in a war footing at that, some consideration still has to be made regarding the troops. Not necessarily for the sake of holding hands and being soft, it’s a war obviously; but the point I think is to leave no stone unturned. If the troops are not in the ideal physical and mental conditions it is still possible that any advantage in technology or numbers may be offset. It’s not always about rank and orders. It’s about planning meticulously every single detail. Honestly my dream documentary as far as war is concerned is about tactics especially those wars fought in antiquity by the likes of Caesar or Alexander, or as recent as Napoleon. I’ve been curious if armies did fight in neat formations like they do in diagrams of the ancient battles. While Battleplan is not anything like my dream war documentary, it is better in the sense that it is all about preparation and strategy. Indeed the series is not the Art of War but being direct to the point and having examples of real battles, it works really great in its own way.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 Answer #8 In the last review session before our final exam, our physiology teacher took pity on us. “Look,” she said, “if you don't know the answer to a question, the answer is 'connective tissue.'” Tendon, ligament, bone, cartilage, fat. And the syrupy “ground matter,” which I always think of as anatomy's version of the astrophysicist's “dark matter.” When schoolkids learn anatomy (if they ever learn anything so old-fashioned), they're given pictures of the body with the connective tissue tidied away, so they can see the real parts: heart, liver, kidneys, brain. The following pages will show you the circulatory system, the nervous system. Of all the varieties of connective tissue, the only one allowed a moment in the spotlight is the bones. Never, never will you see a nice plate of what the connective tissue looks like with all those messy organs and clots of epithelial tubing cleared out of the way. And so we go on: thinking of the body as a brain with its net of nerves, a heart with its net of arteries and veins, a skeleton with its net of muscles, a digestive system, some lungs – and (vaguely wave the hand) some “stuff.” Packing materials. A little sheathing, a little twine, a little lubricant. So Dave asks me, “viii. What kind of cartilage connects us to the stars?” What, indeed? Well, I can't tell you, but I can with fair confidence tell you some of its properties: 1) Its apparent disorganization will always cause systematic thinkers to avoid examining it (or sometimes, even seeing it.) 2) It will take an astonishing number of forms and bear extraordinary forces without losing its (difficult-to-define) integrity. 3) Throughout your life, your deepest pleasures and pains will come from the manipulations of this tissue. (To explain them you will make up stories in which suns and moons, brains and hearts, play heroic roles.) 4) Like certain other non-Newtonian fluids (such as silly putty), it is hard and brittle when cold and untouched, flexible and strong when warm and worked. So if you don't want it to break, you had better stroke and knead and warm it regularly. Given its extraordinary variety, this is not at all difficult to do: hugging people, shaking hands, throwing pots, writing poems, painting in watercolor or oils, writing poetry, giving or receiving massage, bird-watching, playing music or listening to it intently (live is more effective, but the attention is the important thing), cooking, listening to a child describe her dream last night, making love passionately – any of these methods will do. Others will suggest themselves to the reader. No comments:
[blockquote style=”1″][/blockquote]“We shape our buildings: thereafter they shape us’’ – Sir Winston Churchill Originally known as the ‘Salles des Capucines’, in the classier part of the 9th arrondissement, the Palais Garnier is unarguably the most famous opera house in the world. A crowning glory of the second empire, it is an exquisite example of the ‘Beaux Arts’ architectural style. It is an iconic symbol of the city and is as much an organic part of the French culture today as it is an historical monument reminiscent of an era bygone. Napoleon III, following an assassination attempt on his life in 1858, at the ‘Salle Le Peletier’, (the old opera house), resolved to build a new, more grandiose opera house that would be a true reflection of his new baroque taste. He declared a competition in 1860 to select the architect with the best vision for the 12,000 m2 site. Out of the 171 entrants, the unknown Charles Garnier’s plans were chosen, over the Empress Eugénie’s favourite architect Viollet-Le-Duc and the popular Charles Rohault de Fleury. Garnier had summarized his design with the Italian motto “Bramo assai, Poco Spero’’ (desire for much, hope for little). The design impressed with its clarity, logic, opulence and yet simplicity. He divided his plans into three distinguishable parts – the public spaces, the auditorium and the stage. However, Empress Eugénie was not convinced and remarked, “What is this? It’s not a style, its neither Louis Quatorze, nor Louis Quinze nor Louis Seize!” The young Garnier replied, “Why Madame, it’s Napoleon Trois.” After 15 years of construction that weathered many setbacks, like the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian war and the 1873 Paris fire, the Palais Garnier was inaugurated in 1875. The masterpiece of the architect came to life and it was a spectacle within a spectacle, a place for fêtes and fantasy among the super rich. It was so designed that when the wealthy alighted from their carriages and climbed up the opera house steps, they would be displayed in their full regalia. It was a place to see and be seen. The men dressed elegantly and the women in their most extravagant gowns and brilliant jewels would socialise in the richly decorated multiple foyers, the grand staircase of multicoloured marbles and the magnificent grand foyer, finally retiring to their private loges to dine and watch the performance in the horseshoe shaped auditorium that could seat 1,979. With its stage, second largest in Europe, the ceiling first painted by Jules Eugène Lenepveu and later by Marc Chagall, and the famous 7 ton bronze and crystal chandelier designed by Garnier, the Palais Garnier was and still is a visual feast. Part of its alluring charm is the mystery that surrounds it which inspired the 1910 gothic love story by Gaston Leroux, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. The discovery of an underground lake which held up the laying of the foundation, the incident of the counterweight from the chandelier falling and killing a member of the audience and the burying of 24 records in 1907 in the cellar were all true facts that featured in Leroux’s fictional novel and which have kept people intrigued and unsure where history ends and the real story of the phantom begins. Leroux’s claim on his deathbed that the phantom really existed has kept the opera house shrouded in mystery. The myth still lives on in various adaptations on screen and on stage. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ is a worldwide sensational success. Today, the Palais Garnier in all its magnificence stands proud with its doors open to all visitors and lovers of the arts and not just for the elite. As I have personally experienced, nothing beats the thrill of watching a ballet performance here. As the curtains fall and the auditorium fills with thundering applause, if you close your eyes for a moment, you can almost hear the sound of the horse carriages pulling up outside.
Appropedia needs your support - Please Donate Today Portal:Projects/Selected page/3 From Appropedia Jump to: navigation, search Yeast Cakes from Hops Yeasts for Baking. Generally when one mentions yeast, aromatic loaves of fresh homemade light bread come to mind. And so they should. Aside from acting as a leavening agent in bakery products, yeast is also the ingredient responsible for the tantalizing aroma that arises during baking. Though probably today the most commonly known and used are store-boughten packages of dried yeast, there are several other different kinds. The recipes that follow show two examples of different ways to make yeast--dry yeast cakes made from hops and an everlasting yeast "starter"--and also how the yeasts are used in making bread. The dry yeast cakes are made in part by boiling the blossoms of the hop vine. These flowers contain a fragrant yellowish oil called lupulin. The use of this oil as a preservative in beer and as a narcotic drug originated in Germany before Charlemagne. Since then its use has become wide spread and the vine cultivated in other nations, including America. The hop vine is related to the hemp and mulberry plants in the nettle family. The plant itself is twenty-five to thirty feet in length with rough lobed leaves and flowers that grow on catkin clusters. It is quite possible that many people in the Ozarks have never seen a hop vine, because although some Ozarkians have had limited success cultivating it, it grows best in sandy coastal regions.
The History of Buckworth in Cambridgeshire Historical notes about the town of Buckworth in Cambridgehsire. Buckworth parish covers an area of 2,023 acres of clay land, most of which is arable. The principal farms are Fuller's Lodge, Park Lodge, Brook Lodge, Black Lodge and Holly Lodge. The ground rises from a stream which forms the north-east boundary of the parish, where it is about 75 ft. above Ordnance datum, in a south-westerly direction towards Barham, where, on the boundary, it reaches 190 ft. The village is on the slope of the hill facing northeast and lies along the by-road from Alconbury Weston to Barham. The church is in the middle of the village and clustered round it are the Manor House to the east and the rectory and school to the west. The Buckworth Brickworks are near the eastern border of the parish. The nearest railway station used to be at Abbots Ripton and now one has to go to the main line station at Huntingdon. Place-names in the parish include Stone Hill, Bury Leys, Trouds Wall (Walk) and the Mill Wall (Walk) in 1712, and Great Hall Yard, Town Walk and Mount Pleasant in 1745. Victoria County History: Huntingdonshire ~ Printed 1932
Obesidad infantil Solo disponible en BuenasTareas • Páginas : 2 (257 palabras ) • Descarga(s) : 0 • Publicado : 8 de noviembre de 2011 Leer documento completo Vista previa del texto Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or wellbeing. As methods to determine body fat directly aredifficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on BMI. Due to the rising prevalence of obesity in children and its many adverse health effects it is beingrecognized as a serious public health concern. The term overweight rather than obese is often used in children as it is less stigmatizing 1.- Start small. Gradualchanges are easiest to incorporate into the daily routine and to maintain long term. Start by making a few small changes, such as turning off the TV duringdinner, switching from soda to skim milk or water, and taking a family walk after dinner once a week. 2.-Set goals. For example, your child's goal might be to eatfruit for afternoon snacks. Your goal might be to take a brisk walk three days a week. The family's goal might be to limit fast-food meals to once a month. 3.- Recognize triggers. Be prepared for situations that may tempt you to fall back to your old habits. 4. - Keep it positive. Focus on healthy lifestylechanges, rather than your child's appearance or a number on the scale. Remember, treating childhood obesity isn't a race. It takes time and dedication to replaceestablished behaviors with new, healthier behaviors. Instituto tecnológico Superior de Irapuato Student: Omar Ismael Murillo GutiérrezTeacher: Gonzalo Reyes Leparra Subject: English level 4 Career: Engineering Business Management Date: 20/10/2011 No. Ctrl: IS08111142 tracking img
Friday, March 20, 2015 A day we knew would happen A Day We Knew Would Happen Snow falling on a school playground, in Arizona! (Hint: They still went to school. No one was hurt.) 1:45 PM 3/20 - If you were a student or teacher in a Maryland school system today, chances are you had the unique experience of watching snow fall outside while IN CLASS. At least your teachers didn't ban you from looking at it, right? (Article from the UK Daily Mail about that earlier this year.) If you felt cheated out of a snow day just because snow was occurring during the business day, consider looking at it this way: Today was glimpse into the way life used to be, in Maryland and most other places. For decades until the early 2000s, in many parts of the country other than the south, it was rare for school to be canceled for minor amounts of snow. Forecasters and Advisors of our team remember times when roads would be snow-covered, traffic snarled, but the yellow buses moved about the region -- with the old-style chains on the tires. In suburban Philadelphia, a generally accepted rule among some of the township-based districts was that at least 4" had to be on the ground before there was even a consideration of school closing. Snowy walk to the bus stop (in Colorado) The author remembers many days like this. Photo credit: In the mid 1990's, as old time Baltimore County teachers may recall, one particularly snow-hardy Superintendent was famously reticent to cancel school, even when parking lots were unplowed and streets barely passable. He did acquiesce once in 1994, when heavy snow was burying the schools and roads alike -- legend has it that as buses arrived in parking lots to drop off students, administrators were out waving them away and telling drivers to take the kids back! I think our communication and public safety strategies have improved a tad since then. The difference that we grant is a major factor in weather hazard management is simply population growth: Millions more people reside in areas that were once farmland. More people means more roads and a larger scope of responsibility for the counties and states charged with maintaining those roads. But, for now, consider today a brief look into the way things once were as a matter of regular life. Snow fell. Kids went to school. Life went on. We recognize that since those days before the internet and social media, people frustrated with something a school district did or didn't do had only a couple options -- call the district, write a letter or attend a school board meeting. Then as now, there has always been the fourth option: Resiliency. Having once taught in non-air conditioned schools for many years, it was always nice when the school year ended on a Friday, so we all didn't have to trudge back in the humidity for one more day. This year, if we all can stay strong and resilient even when it's snowing during class, maybe-- just maybe you can avoid celebrating the first day of SUMMER... still in class. From a fellow Powderhound, Mr. Foot 1 comment: Julee said... I DID watch the snow falling in the school library courtyard today. A beautiful tranquil scene (if you didn't count the juncos fighting the cardinals for the bird seed that I had provided earlier in the morning). Several kids came in to eat their lunch the library and they watched the falling snow as well. Had a calming, contemplative effect on some of them. We have teachers who close their blinds when it snows because they think the kids get all riled up and don't pay attention, but I think that's sad. Snowfall is a rare and beautiful phenomenon that I think everyone should be able to enjoy while it lasts.

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