text
stringlengths 144
682k
|
|---|
Kamis, 24 Mei 2012
RPP Bahasa Inggris Kelas X Semester 2 (11.2)
1. Satuan Pendidikan : SMA ISLAM PB. SOEDIRMAN BEKASI I
2. Mata Pelajaran : BAHASA INGGRIS
4. Standar Kompetensi
Membaca: Memahami makna teks fungsional pendek dan esei sederhana berbentuk narrative, descriptive dan news item dalam konteks kehidupan sehari-hari dan untuk mengakses ilmu pengetahuan
5. Kompetensi Dasar
Merespon makna dan langkah-langkah retorika dalam esei sederhana secara akurat, lancar dan berterima dalam konteks kehidupan sehari-hari dan untuk mengakses ilmu pengetahuan dalam teks berbentuk narrative, descriptive, dan news item
Indikator 1: Mengidentifikasi main idea dari teks yang didengar
Indikator 2: Mengidentifikasi tokoh dari cerita yang didengar
Indikator 3: Mengidentifikasi kejadian dalam teks yang didengar
Indikator 4: Mengidentifikasi ciri-ciri dari benda/orang yang dideskripsikan
Indikator 5: Mengidentifikasi inti berita yang didengar
Indikator 6: Mengidentifikasi sumber berita yang didengar
6. Alokasi Waktu : 2 Jam Pelajaran X 40 menit (2 x Pertemuan)
7. Materi Pembelajaran
Pertemuan 1:
Text Organization
• Complication: a crisis arises (pengembangan konfllik)
• Re-orientation: (optional).
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features:
• Focus on specific and usually individualized participants.
• Use of Relational Processes and Mental Processes.
• Use of temporal conjunctions and temporal Circumstances.
• Use of past tense.
The communicative Purpose
To Describe a particular person, place or thing
The generic structure
Identification : Identifies phenomenon to be described
Description : Describe parts, qualities, characteristics.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features:
Focus on specific participants
Use of attributive and indentifying processes
Frequent use of Epithets and classifiers in nominal groups.
Use of simple present
News Item
The communicative Purpose:
The Generic Structure:
Newsworthy (s) : recount the event in summary form
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features:
Short, telegraphic information about story capture headline.
Use of material processes to retell the event
Use of projecting verbal processes in sources stage.
Focus on circumstances.
Brave Boy Found Alive After Two Days at Sea
Newsworthy (s) :
Background event (s)
Adapted from The Jakarta Post, 31 December 2004
8. Tujuan Pembelajaran
Pertemuan 1:
§ Siswa mengidentifikasi jenis teks, ciri dan bentuk retorika dari teks narrative
§ Siswa mengidentifikasi main idea, tokoh, kejadian dari teks narrative.
Pertemuan 2 :
§ Siswa mengidentifikasi jenis teks, ciri dan bentuk retorika dari teks descriptive.
§ Siswa mengidenfikasi ciri-ciri benda/orang yang dideskripsikan
§ Siswa mengidentifikasi jenis teks, ciri dan bentuk retorika dari teks news item.
§ Siswa mengidenfikasi inti berita dan sumber berita yang didengar
9. Metode Pembelajaran
Pertemuan 1: Presentasi
Pertemuan 2: Presentasi
10. Kegiatan Pembelajaran
Pertemuan 1:
1. Pendahuluan
1. Siswa menjawab salam dari guru
2. Siswa menyimak tujuan pembelajaran,pentingnya pembelajaran, dan persiapan siswa untuk belajar
3. Siswa terbagi dalam beberapa kelompok. Siswa yang dapat menentukan jenis teks, dengan benar mendapatkan nilai
4. Siswa menambahkan contoh bentuk-bentuk teks yang lain
2. Kegiatan Inti
1. Siswa membaca nyaring teks narrative
2. Siswa mengidentifikasikan makna kata dan kalimat dalam teks
3. Siswa mengidentifikasikan langkah-langkah terotika dari teks
4. Siswa mengidentifikasikan komplikasi dari teks
5. Siswa mendiskusikan berbagi aspek dari teks seperti isi dan struktur secara berkelompok
6. Siswa berlatih menggunakan simple past untuk menyatakan peristiwa
3. Penutup
1 Siswa menyimpulkan materi pembelajaran dengan bimbingan guru
2 Guru memberikan tugas rumah kepada siswa (tindak lanjut)
Pertemuan 2:
1. Pendahuluan
1. Siswa menjawab salam dari guru
4. Siswa menambahkan contoh bentuk-bentuk teks yang lain
2. Kegiatan Inti
1 Siswa membaca nyaring teks descriptive dan news item
2 Siswa mengidentifikasikan proses kejadian sebuah peristiwa
3 Siswa mengidentifikasikan langkah-langkah terotika dari teks
4 Siswa mendiskusikan berbagi aspek dari teks seperti isi dan struktur secara berkelompok
5 Siswa berlatih menggunakan simple present - passive untuk menyatakan peristiwa
3. Penutup
1. Siswa menyimpulkan materi pembelajaran dengan bimbingan guru
2. Guru memberikan tugas rumah kepada siswa (tindak lanjut)
11. Penilaian
a. Indikator, teknik dan bentuk
Pertemuan 1
Mengidentifikasi tujuan dari teks yang dibaca
Pertemuan 2
Mengidentifikasi retorika teks dan tenses dari teks fungsional
· Menentukan tujuan, retorika dan ciri tenses dalam teks
· Presentasi
b. Instrument penilaian
Read the text loudly and correctly!
Blue-Tongue Lizard and his wife camped near a swamp long ago. One day Blue-Tongue Lizard went to get some food, and while he was down at the swamp, he left his wife sitting under a shady tree. He had not been gone very long when Taipan the Snake passed by Blue-Tongue Lizard’s camp. Taipan saw Blue-Tongue Lizard’s wife sitting under the tree, and he decided he would steal her away from Blue-Tongue Lizard. He made her come with him and together they ran a long way away.
Taipan the Snake did not know that Black Bird had been watching him, and as soon as he ran away with Blue-Tongue Lizard’s wife, Black Bird began singing out to Blue-Tongue Lizard. ‘Your wife is gone, Taipan has taken her away’, he cried. Blue-Tongue Lizard was still at the swamp getting food when he heard Black Bird’s call. He went back to the shady tree where he had left his wife and saw she was gone. He put down his bag which was full of food and made a fire. He cooked his food and after he had finished eating it, he went to get his spears.
He found they had all been broken by Taipan. Then he found the tracks of his wife and Taipan, and he followed them. Blue-Tongue Lizard followed their tracks until he came to a tree in which a freshly killed emu had been hung. It had been killed by Taipan and left there to be eaten that night. Blue-Tongue Lizard knew that Taipan and his wife must be nearby and he soon found them near a river. When Taipan saw Blue-Tongue Lizard he ran to get his spears but Blue-Tongue Lizard had already broken them.
‘We can fight with our teeth’, said Blue-Tongue Lizard. Taipan agreed and the two of them fought wildly, each of them trying to get a hold of the other. Until finally Blue-Tongue Lizard caught hold of Taipan’s body in his powerful jaws, and bit him in half. With Taipan the Snake dead, Blue-Tongue took back his wife and together they returned to the swamp.
· Text Narrative
· Retorika Orientation>Evaluation> Complication> Resolution>Re-orientation.
· Comparative I think.....but.....
· Past tense went, was, left......
· Purpose To amuse, entertain and to deal with actual or vicarious experience in different ways
c. Score penilaian
· Jika tujuan benar, retorika benar, tenses benar Score 100
· Jka tujuan benar, retorika benar tetapi tenses salah Score 90
· Jika tujuan benar, retorika dan tenses salah Score 80
· Jika tujuan salah tetapi retorika dan tenses salah Score 70
· Jika tujuan, retorika dan tenses salah Score 60
12. Sumber dan bahan ajar
1. Modul bahasa Inggris,
2. Buku pegangan guru X Platinum
3. Linked to the world 1, Yudhistirs, F.A. Soeprapto, 2006
13. Evaluasi
· Ulangan Harian
· Quiz
· UTS
· UAS
Mengetahui, Bekasi, 25 Januari 2012
Kepala Sekolah Guru Mata Pelajaran
Ir. H. Kusnaedi, MM Andrian S.Pd
NRP. NRP. 040817
Soon the rabbit took the lion a hill and, not going to near herself, pointed to a well from a distance, and said, “He is down there, in the well.”
1. What do you thing of the animal on the well?
a. The image of the lion himself.
b. An intolerable braggart.
c. A stronger animal.
d. Another lion.
e. His neighbor.
2. The lion was proud of his…
a. hair
b. eyes
c. teeth
d. paws
e. strength
3. What can we learn from the story?
a. Be a good neighbor.
b. Don’t be so arrogant.
c. We must help each other.
d. An enemy can be a good friend.
e. A friend in need is a friend indeed.
4. What is the type of the text above?
a. Report
b. Descriptive
c. Narrative
d. Recount
e. Procedure
5. The generic structure of the text is…….
a. Orientation > Complication > Resolution > Re-Orientation
b. Orientation > Events > Re- Orientation
c. General Classification > Description
d. Identification > Description
e. Newsworthy Events > Background Events > Sources
Gua Tabuhan is a lively unique cave
In the cave Nyi (Mrs) Kamiyem and Ki (Mr) Padmo sit on a stone. Nyi Kamityem will sing a song and Ki Padmo will beat the drum. Joining them are people called Wiyogo which are drummers and other gamelan musicians.
Many tourists go to this cave. Maybe you are interested in going there too. But you don’t know where it is. Gua Tabuhan is located near Pacitan in east java. It is situated in a lime hill called Tapan, in Tabuhan, Wareng village. The route is easy. Along the road there is beautiful tropical scenery to enjoy-rice fields, coconut palms and birds.
gua tabuhan did not use to welcome visitor. According to kartowiryo (90), village elder, gua tabuhan used to be a hiding place for robbers. it was believed to be a sacred place. No one dared go inside. However, wedana (chief of a district) kertodiprojo, went to the cave to find out what was wrong. He found out that the cave was inhabited by the annoying evil spirits. The people chased the spirits away.
Inside the cave there is a plain. Big stone which is believed to be the prayer mat of pangeran diponogoro, one of the Indonesia heroes who fought against the Dutch. It is said that pangeran diponegoro used to seclude himself in the cave. Some people now use the place for meditation.
Besides the cave, watukarang, a beach nearby, is good to visit. By the way, want different souvenirs ? You can find them in donorodjo village where agate craftsman work. So, have a nice journey.
6. Where is goa tabuhan located?
1. near pacitan in east java
2. near watukarang beach
3. in donoradjo village
4. in the village of gabuhan
5. near pacitan in west java
7. What did kertodiprojo find out inside the cave?
a. agates craftsman work
b. annoying evil spirits
c. many robbers
d. the drink and food peddlers
e. nyi kamiyem and ki padmo
8. What do people need to enter the cave?
a. light and local peddlers
b. local musicians and agate craftsman
c. chief of district and local guide
d. local guide and lights
e. lights and village elder
9. Which statement is true according to the text?
1. to reach wareng village the visitor get troubles
4. there is only one tourist resort around wareng village
5. pangeran diponegoro secluded himself outside the cave
1. a very hard stone
2. a hollow place in the side of hill
3. keep apart from others
4. place on which Muslim kneel when praying
5. strike something with a hard blow
Tornado Wreaks Havoc in Semarang
Residents assess the damage after a tornado damages 150 houses in the district of Tembalag in Semarang, Central Java late on Saturday afternoon.
Three people were injured and at least five of the houses in the Sendangguwo and Tandang neighborhoods were destroyed, while many others were seriously damaged as the tornado ripped off their roofs. Thoirin aka Jayeng, 40, a resident whose house was leveled at the Sendang Asri housing complex, said the winds hit about 4 p.m.
“I saw this black wind coming and becoming pointed into a funnel. It suddenly approached and hit my house,” he said.
Tohirin’s wife, two children and mother-in law were in the kitchen at the time when the tornado known locally as “Ulur-ulur” passed over their home, destroying the guest and bedrooms.
The disaster also destroyed the walls of four neighboring houses.
Many other homes in the area lost their roofs and residents and neighbors had started rebuilding on Sunday.
Semarang Mayor Sukawi Sutarip and his wife, Sinto Sukawi, visited the scene on Sunday, accompanied by senior officials.
Taken from The Jakarta Post, December 20, 2004
11. How many houses were destroyed by the tornado in the Sendangguwo and Tandang neighborhoods?
a. less than five houses
b. more than ten houses
c. five houses or more
d. exactly five houses
e. three houses
12. The tornado hit the district ______.
1. at dawn
2. in the morning
3. in the afternoon
4. in the evening
5. at midnight
13. Which parts of Tohirin’s house were destroyed?
1. the kitchen and guestroom
2. the guest rooms and the bathroom
3. the bedrooms and the kitchen
4. the guest and bedrooms
5. the livingroom and the bedrooms
14. Who rebuilt the damaged homes?
1. the residents
2. the residents and neighbors
3. the Tembalang District head
4. the mayor of Semarang
5. the mayoral spokesman
15. Who is Sukawi Sutarip?
1. A resident of the District of Tembalang
2. Tohirin’s neighbor
3. A victim of the disaster
4. a villager of Sendangguwo
5. The mayor of Semarang
16. Who went to see the scene of disaster on Sunday?
1. Sukawi Sutarip
2. Sukawi Sutarip and his wife
3. Dayat
4. Sukawi Sutarip, his wife and senior officials
5. Achyani
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar
|
Friday, June 26, 2009
Flipping Bias
Here's something that should make perfect sense, but most people don't believe. There's no such thing as a biased coin - only a biased toss, if there's a catch. No, not "but there's a catch," literally "if" there's a catch preventing the coin from bouncing or rolling and there is no rotational spin on the flat axis of the coin. The summary of the explanation can be found in Teaching Statisitics by Gelman and Nolan.
"But," you might say, "what if the coin's center of gravity is closer to the head side?" or "what if one edge is heavier?" or "what if it's slightly concave like a frisbee?" Still, the coin is not the source of any bias that results. As long as the coin does not bounce or roll after it lands, it has an equal chance of heads and tails (I've never observed a coin landing vertically on its edge but I won't completely rule it out!). Just think, a coin tossed with only "flipping" momentum spends 50% of it's time heads up, and 50% of it's time heads down. No bounce, no roll, no spin, no bias.
E.T. Jaynes is Professor of Physics (and, as it turns out teaches statistics to physics students) at Washington University in St. Louis. To illustrate, he used a pickle jar (to view this you need GSView for free or some other postscript file, *.ps, viewer), which is top-heavy and concave. Tossing it 100 times without spin, bounce or roll, he got results (p=0.54) that were not statistically different from 0.5 (z = 0.04/sqrt(0.5^2/100) = 0.8 --> P(z>0.8) = 0.424). He also tossed it to favor tails (allowing it to roll) and to favor heads (by appling rotational spin to it). When it was tossed in a way that made it roll, heads came up zero out of 100 trials, and when it was tossed with rotational spin, it came up heads 99 times.
So, the moral of the story is this. I've discussed before the notion of bias in flipping one versus two discs to determine the pull preceding an ultimate game. This tells us that the disc (uneven as it might be) is not biased unless the tosser applies bias. If the bias in the tosses is the same, then even is a dominant choice, even if the direction of the bias is unknown (but it should be known if you see the toss - will it spin or roll?). This can be proven as long as you know that the area of a square is more than the area of a rectangle with equal perimeter, i.e. it can be shown that p^2 + (1-p)^2 >= 2p(1-p), with equality only at p = 0.5. However, that point is now moot. If the tosser is not manipulating the toss, any single flip (heads or tails) and any double flip (odd or even) has "fair odds."
I'm convinced. Hope you are too.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Government's Net Worth?
This got me thinking:
US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through
What exactly is the net worth of the US Government? Yes, the deficit/debt are large, and should be reduced, but how much is the stuff lying around that belongs to the public (land, fighter jets, buildings, etc.) worth? Anyone know of a place to try to get a ballpark for this information?
Monday, June 22, 2009
The Income Distribution Argument
I'd like to propose that the main hubub about health care is about distribution of income, i.e. a shift in the burden of health care from a "benefits received" principle to a "ability to pay" principle. To make any sort of shift like this you have to accept the principle that health care has certain characteristics attributable to a public good (something whose provision is non-excludable and benefits us all) or a merit good (something worth making more universially accessible). These premises are debatable, but I won't deal with them. Let's just suppose that we shift from fully individual, private-paid to fully public-paid (this is, of course not the change that would really be taking place because our current system is not fully private-pay, and no proposal on the table is fully public-pay).
There's not much reason to believe that the financial costs will be too much higher in public-pay as they are in a private-pay system, at least not per-person. But a private, free-market system tells me that if I want 10,000 dollars of benefit, I pay 10,000 (actually, since these contracts are not usually "actuarially fair" it would be more like paying 10000 and getting 8 or 9 thousand). Same goes for everyone else. This is a very "fair" stystem in terms of "benefits received," i.e. what you put in is what you get out.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who don't have the dough for 10,000 of health insurance, and there might not be a lower-priced option they can afford. Besides, if there is, it might not cover a lot of things or have a really high deductible (in fact the deductible might be so high that if they ever got so sick that their costs ever required insurance, it might put those same folks into bankruptcy - 68 percent of all individual bankruptcies are heath care related - anyway, so why bother!). This adds to the dimensions of adverse selection and moral hazard typical to the insurance market. Another "fairness" metric is a person's "ability to pay." If a good has "merit" qualities, and some folks cannot afford even a minimal level of it then what you pay is could be indexed to what you earn. Everyone gets 10000 in benefits, but a rich person pays 15000 or more, and a poor person pays a 5-6000. But is it "fair?" Yes, in a manner of speaking, because if we agree that everyone "should" have 10000 in basic coverage, then we wouldn't expect a person earning just 15000 a year to pay 10000 of it to for health insurance. (N.B. At moments like this I almost wish I remembered the game-theory formal notational definitions of "fair" and "envy-free," as well as the proofs for why Walrasian (free-market) equilibria do not generally exhibit this property....almost.)
Here's where I think the income distribution question slips in. Basically, the fight is this: Republicans represent rich folks, and Democrats represent poor folks. Making health care universal will necessitate a higher burden on richer folksto provide a benefit for poorer folks who cannot afford it. The poorest already get medicaid. Median wages have fallen over the last 9 years. Private health care costs are rising. Households view health care as a necessity. Somthing's gotta give. I suspect that if the Bush economic record were more favorable to the middle quintile of the income distribution then the "get costs under control" rhetoric would have been more effective, but rising health costs coupled with falling middle-class incomes means most people are wise enough to know that cutting costs around the edges won't do much. So, let's look at a couple of the proposals:
1. Sort of the two-tiered "keep what you want if you like it" option. People happy with their stuff now get to keep it but you still pay a percentage of your income into the public system. Of course, they will have to help pay for the publicly funded option, so their costs will either go up, or their coverage will change (by moving into the public pool). Poor people could get covered even if they cannot pay for it themselves, or can only afford a small portion of the burden. This would be a little like the education system, which, of course, is not perfect either.
2. Fully public "single-payer" system. This abandons the private option, and everyone receives the same basic plan. However, payment is based on a percentage of your income, thus shifting the payment burden up the income distribution even farther.
3. "Tax Credits." Rich folks love this option. Being able to deduct health care from their taxable income is great for them for two reasons: one, they all purchase health care anyway; and two, they pay a higher marginal tax on the income they get to deduct. This option would actually be MORE regressive than the current system (and if you think the revenues to make up for the "credit" are growing on trees you're crazy!). Good God, if you believed the republicans you'd think that tax cuts are could discover a cure for AIDS and build moon colonies, but guess what? They won't insure more people.
4. Stay with what we have and try to curb costs. Either way cost-efficiency needs to be addressed. Pulling more people into the pool for normal coverage might cut some costs per-person, but might increase costs in the aggregate, so this might not be such a bad thing.
Unless you believe that health care is a merit good, there will probably continue to be 12-15% of the population uninsured, and a growing percentage who are underinsured.
|
07 May 2006
Blindly Following the Prophet
“You shouldn’t just do what the prophet says without studying it out in your mind and searching for a confirmation that it is right. To do otherwise is blind obedience.”
What is wrong with this statement?
Consider two examples:
Example 1
In 2 Kings 5, Naaman comes to the prophet to be cured of leprosy. He is given unimpressive instructions which, after some hesitation, he nevertheless follows. Upon complying, Naaman is healed.
Example 2
Adam, in Moses 5, is commanded by the Lord to offer sacrifices. He doesn’t understand the commandment, but observes it anyway. When questioned by an angel, Adam confesses his ignorance and the angel (and the Holy Ghost, see vs. 9) explains the commandment to him.
The first example is relevant to our question and the second is not. In both cases, the central character is naive until after obeying. The difference is that Naaman is being asked to follow the prophet, whereas Adam is following the Lord directly. The statement in dispute is admonishing people to follow Adam’s example: get your commandments directly from the Lord. Naaman’s story, however, is opposed to such a view.
What does Naaman’s story teach about blind obedience?
Robert C. Oaks suggests an alternative to the term “blind obedience.”
Remember that Naaman sought the prophet’s help, and then wanted to reject it. He must have had some reasons to seek the prophet, but those were forgotten in the face of undesired counsel. Naaman acquiesced once the absurdity of his decision was pointed out to him (vs. 13).
Consider the plea by N Eldon Tanner, “Let us listen to the prophet’s voice and follow him, not blindly but by faith” (“The Priesthood and Its Presidency,” Ensign, Jan. 1973, 100). Naaman’s obedience was not blind or—to translate the metaphor—uninformed. Rather, we could make the argument that his initial defiance was irrational, but his subsequent obedience showed careful thought and consideration.
I suggest a slightly different phrase than that proposed above by Oaks. I call this “faithful obedience,” where faith here describes a loyalty to a prior witness. The source has been tested before and found trustworthy, so it is unnecessary to test the source again.
I would correct the statement at the beginning of this post, in this way:
“You should do what the prophet says because you have already searched for and received a confirmation that he is a prophet. To do otherwise is blind to your own faith.”
How often does a prophet fully foresee the outcome of the commandments he is giving? Is this “blind prophesying”?
Aaron said...
Faith is the substance of things not seen... Among other things faith is confirmed belief. I follow the prophet because I know he is the prophet, that question has been answered, I am no longer blind.
I don't think a prophet is blindly prophesying when he gives direction he doesn't know the outcome to. He has already proven his faith in the source of the information.
BrianJ said...
See this related post, The Thinking Has Been Done.
Robert C. said...
Great post Brian (sorry for just barely noticing it!). I added a link and summary to this at the wiki here--I hope I didn't misrepresent the main ideas in my very brief summary.
|
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Cebes on Reincarnation
Cebes' theory of the soul from Plato's Phaedo:
Monday, June 26, 2017
Socrates on the Elements
Regarding Plato's Timaeus, the translator Benjamin Jowett could write, "Of all the writings of Plato the Timaeus is the most obscure and repulsive to the modern reader, and has nevertheless had the greatest influence over the ancient and mediaeval world." Here Socrates explains the composition of the classical elements.
I was wrong in imagining that all the four elements could be generated into and out of one another. For as they are formed, three of them from the triangle which has the sides unequal, the fourth from the triangle which has equal sides, three can be resolved into one another, but the fourth cannot be resolved into them nor they into it. So much for their passage into one another: I must now speak of their construction. From the triangle of which the hypotenuse is twice the lesser side the three first regular solids are formed—first, the equilateral pyramid or tetrahedron; secondly, the octahedron; thirdly, the icosahedron; and from the isosceles triangle is formed the cube. And there is a fifth figure (which is made out of twelve pentagons), the dodecahedron—this God used as a model for the twelvefold division of the Zodiac.
Let us now assign the geometrical forms to their respective elements. The cube is the most stable of them because resting on a quadrangular plane surface, and composed of isosceles triangles. To the earth then, which is the most stable of bodies and the most easily modelled of them, may be assigned the form of a cube; and the remaining forms to the other elements,—to fire the pyramid, to air the octahedron, and to water the icosahedron,—according to their degrees of lightness or heaviness or power, or want of power, of penetration. The single particles of any of the elements are not seen by reason of their smallness; they only become visible when collected. The ratios of their motions, numbers, and other properties, are ordered by the God, who harmonized them as far as necessity permitted...
What makes fire burn? The fineness of the sides, the sharpness of the angles, the smallness of the particles, the quickness of the motion. Moreover, the pyramid, which is the figure of fire, is more cutting than any other. The feeling of cold is produced by the larger particles of moisture outside the body trying to eject the smaller ones in the body which they compress. The struggle which arises between elements thus unnaturally brought together causes shivering. That is hard to which the flesh yields, and soft which yields to the flesh, and these two terms are also relative to one another. The yielding matter is that which has the slenderest base, whereas that which has a rectangular base is compact and repellent...
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Mutant Bastards!
My good and highly talented friend B.J. Johnson (a.k.a. BigFella Games) has just released his own game product: Mutant Bastards, a lovingly detailed mashup of Gamma World and Wild West ideas some 20 years in the making. I played some of this a few years back, and I must say that B.J.'s capacity for world- and character-building is simply top-notch. And he's also an A+-grade fantasy and science fiction artist. (My top experience in video games is probably getting his art back from unit descriptions I'd designed and having my socks blown off with wondrous delight every time.)
Downloadable version is up on DriveThruRPG now. Print version mere days away as I write this. Check it out!
Monday, June 19, 2017
The FBI's TSR Files
1983-4: Cocaine Trafficking
1995: Unabomber Investigation
Monday, June 12, 2017
Thief Weapons Through the Ages
Looking at the OED house rules recently, my friend Paul S. and I realized that we had a stark difference of opinion in what weapons are customarily allotted to thief characters. This was a result of him coming from the direction of the Moldvay B/X set, and me coming more from the Gygax AD&D game. I didn't realize previously how much thief weapons vary by edition of the game. Here's a look:
Some notes:
• * The first appearance of the thief class in Original D&D Supplement I mentions only that "Thieves can employ magic daggers and magic swords but none of the other magical weaponry." Thus proficiency with any non-magical types is technically undefined, and can be interpreted in different ways. Compare to OD&D Vol-1 which likewise only refers to magical weapons in any of the class descriptions, which everyone agrees is identical to the nonmagical weapons they can use (e.g., for clerics, "all non-edged magical weapons (no arrows!)"). Thus the AD&D branch (Gygax) tends to interpret this restrictively, while the Basic D&D line (Holmes) assumes no restriction to thieves on any nonmagical weapons.
• ** The weapons in 1E are all one-handed only (e.g., bastard and two-handed swords are explicitly prohibited in a footnote).
• *** Note the addition of the shortbow to 1E. The 1E Unearthed Arcana also presents a thief-acrobat "split-class", with all the weapons of a thief, plus lasso and staff.
• **** The 2E weapons list is effectively identical to the 1E UA thief-acrobat class.
• ***** The 3.5 list is expressed as "all simple weapons, plus the hand crossbow, rapier, sap, shortbow, and short sword".
In particular, the thing that's really jamming me up in OED is the question of what missile weapons to permit to thief characters. To my eye it seems like a very big switch that Gygax made from 1E to UA in allowing them use of the shortbow. Thieves with slings very much appear like the urban thieves' guild members in the stories of Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser (and of course Gygaxian thieves are very explicitly restricted to bases in cities only). Interestingly in Gygax's first novel, "Saga of Old City" starring Gord the Rogue, that figure picks up the thief-acrobat split-class and use of the crossbow while venturing with the Roma-like Rhennee people, among other rule-breaking advantages noted in the Afterword (p. 350). These are specifically noted as heavy crossbows in the text (Ch. 10, p. 92, 95). I've gone back-and-forth about the strategic and thematic pros and cons of giving thieves access to bows and/or crossbows many times.
Here's a matrix of missile weapons allowed to thieves by edition (note that advancing columns are synonymous with historical weapons that are easier to learn, as seen earlier):
In short: Thief weapons in Original D&D Sup-I is really undefined. Every other edition gives them the sling (with the anomalous exception of 3.0). The Basic line always gave all bows & crossbows to thieves (by virtue of Holmes "use all weapons" interpretation, although later versions gave only one-handed melee weapons). The AD&D line starting with Gygax's 1E Unearthed Arcana always gave them shortbows (never long) and at least the exotic Drowish hand crossbows. Note that the AD&D rule seems reverse to the real-life observation that slings, bows, and crossbows are progressively easier to use (whereas Gygax gives them sequentially stricter prohibitions; note also that most groups of D&D men like bandits and buccaneers are using crossbows even if they lack self bows).
I went so far as to ask this question on the Facebook 1E AD&D group and got a large number of responses (N = 166, not including joke responses). Of course we would expect the responses to be biased in the direction of 1E AD&D. That said, there was more variation than I expected; a significant number of people prefer the Basic or 3E approaches (about 30 people for each of those). If we tally options for missile weapons, mostly following the 1E UA tradition, it seems like a majority of people like their thieves to have access to slings and shortbows, but apparently not crossbows (again, something that seems historically backward). Zero people selected the strict interpretation of the OD&D Sup-I rule.
Thinking specifically about the thief missile weapons, let me ruminate on the possible advantages to their permissive use. In each case it is of course valuable for thieves to use missile weapons, which leverages their high Dexterity, and offsets their weakness in melee combat:
• Slings Only: Looks most like the earliest Gygaxian take on the subject. Conjures images of Lankhmar's Thieves' Guild minions. Emphasizes the role of thieves as being almost uniquely city-oriented (as per Gygaxian works), with weapons that are easy to carry and hide. If given stats equivalent to bows, emphasizes the exotically-skilled status of thieves.
• Slings & Crossbows: Realistically observes that crossbows are easy to learn. Allows thieves to hide among groups of bandits or buccaneers using crossbows. Encourages some in-game usage of otherwise slow-firing crossbows, since thieves would not have access to bows (although if the sling dominates the crossbow, then perhaps this would not be seen anyway).
• Slings, Bows, and Crossbows: Matches every version of D&D except Gygax's 1E and (arguably) 0E. Makes it even easier for thieves to disguise themselves as archers. Opens up more possibilities for thieves in wilderness adventures (for example, participating in archery tournaments). Encourages use of the thief class for outdoorsy-outlaw types like Robin Hood, William Tell, Adam Bell, Palnatoki, etc. (link); even though official D&D write-ups of such figures in Dragon magazine always made them high-level fighters.
So at first glance that looks like 3 advantages for the slings & crossbow idea; and 4 advantages each to either "slings only" or "all missile weapons". What are your thoughts on that?
P.S.: Paul S. is running several games next weekend at the Origins Game Fair, using the OED house rules, and he's arguably the best DM I've ever experienced in running any RPG. If you're at Origins and you have an open slot, I'd recommend that you look for his games!
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Everything in Moderation
Monday, June 5, 2017
Advantage and Disadvantage
D&D 5th Edition has this featured new mechanic called "Advantage and Disadvantage" and I don't like it. In fact, this alone is pretty much capable of making me look not much further into 5E. In case you're living in a cave: "Advantage" lets you roll twice and take the better d20 in a variety of circumstances; "Disadvantage" makes you roll twice and take the worse d20. (To me this brings to mind the mechanic for the "Luck" superpower in FASERIP Marvel Super Heroes).
But I did wonder as to the exact probability distribution. There a couple of sites that have done this in the past, but for some reason they made it look like some big complicated analysis was involved. Hint: It's close to the most basic thing you can do with probability; if this was surprising for you, spend an afternoon reading the start of a chapter on probability. For disadvantage it's P^2 and for advantage it's 1-(1-P)^2, where P is the base probability of success (because of the complement rule for "not", and the multiplying rule for "and"). The results:
The obvious thing is that the mechanic is nonlinear. It gives a near-negligible change at the far ends, equivalent to a +1 bonus on a d20; or up to a +5 bonus in the middle for targets of 10-12 (symmetric penalties for disadvantage). This essential nonlinearity makes it hard for a DM to gauge its effect in a particular situation, because it scales up and then down depending on the original success target. Probability analyses are made more complicated in the design stage. In the middle, +5 is a rather huge level of bonus (arguably too large) by D&D standards.
In fact, this unpredictable up-and-down scaling is exactly why early RPG designers wanted to get away from rolling two dice (e.g., 2d6) and start using d20's, with their linear probability distribution, in the first place. To quote Jon Peterson in Playing at the World (section
Gygax surely knew, as we can ascertain from the previous section, that the probability distribution for pairs of dice favors sums in the middle disproportionately; thus, the accuracy dice for Chainmail are far more likely to roll a 7 than a 12. The resulting bell curve creates all sorts of anomalies when you aim to roll over a given number; for example, a modifier that adds or subtracts 1 from the sum of throws can skew the results by different percentages depending on what the dice yield. Designers can scale the requirements to hit a target accordingly, but the subtle differences in likelihood may not be apparent to the players themselves. Unfortunately, with only six-sided dice as implements of chance, the options available to designers are limited... Modifiers to the roll of a d20, as opposed to the bell curve of 2d6, have a much more predictable result on the probabilities associated with event resolution.
|
Home » Diseases and Conditions » Burning Eyes
Burning Eyes
Burning eyes are characterized by a burning feeling and irritation of the eyes which may also be accompanied with itching, tearing or discharge from the eyes. It is generally a symptom of another existing condition.
Eye is a visual organ and a highly complex and specialized structure that transmits visual data to the cerebral cortex. The eyeballs and its other structures are situated and protected in round bony hollows called the orbits. The orbit is a space that can be potentially filled with fluid, blood and air due to its proximity to the sinuses and blood vessels. Individuals have their own unique eye feature structured symmetrical in size and position.
Burning eyes may occur with symptoms such as itchiness, dryness or watery. It may also appear bloodshot and may also have discharge. The symptoms of burning eyes may also occur with nasal symptom such as runny nose, post nasal drip, sneezing and congestion. Burning eyes may also occur along with other serious condition that may indicate other health problem and may also need immediate medical attention. These symptoms may include bleeding eyes, blurred or double vision, perception of flashing lights and floating objects or spots.
Burning Eyes Causes
The condition of burning eyes has many possible causes. The most common factor affecting burning eyes is exposure to environment or environmental pollutants. These environmental factors may include:
1. Exposure to chemical irritants
2. Dusty wind
3. Smog and cigarette smoke especially second hand smoke
4. Extremes of cold and hot air
5. Bright light exposure or sun exposure
Allergic reaction is also a factor in causing burning eyes and these include:
1. Pollen
2. Mold exposure
3. Shampoo
4. Household cleaning solvents
5. Cosmetic products
6. Pet dander
Burning eyes may also be caused or accompanied by infections and other inflammatory process such as upper respiratory infections or the common cold and flu. Inflammation of the eye surface can also give burning eyes.
Associated Symptoms
The eyes are subject to many conditions which may be primary or secondary to other disorders. The conditions may be preventable and controllable with early detection and treatment.
Red burning eyes
Red burning eyes affects the sclera or the white part of the eye when it becomes dilated and irritated. It is a very uncomfortable condition that is sometimes associated with pain. It is not a serious condition and can be easily treated. The condition of red burning eyes however, may need medical attention if it persists for more than two weeks with associated severe pain, visual disturbance and sensitivity towards bright reflection or lights.
Red burning eyes may occur as a result of extreme dry air, sun exposure, foreign objects, allergy and infection or any other form of trauma that affects the eye. One common cause is coughing which can lead to subconjunctival hemorrhage.
Itchy burning eyes
The eye is a moist surface making it prone to allergies and irritations when it comes into contact with environmental pollution and air. Irritation and allergies can cause itchy burning eye as its reaction. Allergic reaction is the most common cause for itchy burning eyes and it becomes more irritated when rubbed.
Allergic conjunctivitis is the condition of allergic reaction of the eye as it involved the conjunctiva. Blepharitis is a chronic inflammation of the eyelid that can cause itchy burning eyes. Dry eye can also cause itchiness as it is a condition of deficiency in tears production of the lacrimal glands. Itchy burning eyes are commonly treated with antihistamine to block the release of histamine. Over the counter eye drops containing antihistamine and decongestant can also help relieve itchy burning eye.
Dry burning eyes
Dry eye is the result of insufficiency in producing tears of the lacrimal glands. Tears are essential in keeping the eyes moist and in rinsing away debris and other particles from the environmental factor. The occurrence of dry eye can interfere with the quality of life and can hamper daily activities.
Aging is of the common cause of dry itchy eye as tear production decreases overtime. Environmental conditions such as strong wind, cigarette smoke, dust, air-condition and heat can attribute to dry eye.
Watery burning eyes
Tears protect the eyes from infection by washing eye dust and other particles that may come in contact with the eye. It also provides nourishment and lubrication. It normally drains into the nose through the ducts in the corner of the eyes. But there are some who are suffering from excessive tear production.
Excessive tear production may cause watery burning eye. The common cost of watery burning eye is allergen and irritants. Such allergen may be from pollen and dust while irritants may be from chemical fumes and cigarette smoke.
Leave a Reply
© 2015 Healthosphere.com. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy
|
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
What is Monopoly?
A monopoly (from Hellenic µ???? mónos ("unparalleled" or "lonesome") and p??e?? poleîn ("to cozen")) exists when a limited individual or endeavour is the only bourgeois of a primary artefact (this contrasts with a monopsony which relates to a lonesome entitys controller of a market to acquire a good or pairing, and with oligopoly which consists of a few entities high an industry). Monopolies are thusly characterized by a want of efficient competition to exhibit the good or maintenance, a deficiency of viable relief artifact, and the existence above the stables marginal toll that leads to a utmost monopoly gain. The verb hold or control refers to the outgrowth by which a set gains the knowledge to mention prices or eliminate competitors. In economics, a monopoly is a unary marketer. In law, a monopoly is a performing entity that has evidential industry cognition, that is, the index to burster too performing may plant tally the noesis to create prices in a lilliputian industry (or industry).
A monopoly is great from a monopsony, in which there is exclusive one purchaser of a product or coupling; a monopoly may also love monopsony control of a sphere of a activity. Likewise, a monopoly should be eminent from a cartel (a alter of oligopoly), in which several providers act unitedly to number services, prices or occasion of artefact. Monopolies, monopsonies and oligopolies are all situations such that one or a few of the entities screw marketplace country and thus interact with their customers (monopoly), suppliers (monopsony) and the other companies (oligopoly) in slipway that going marketplace interactions perverted by integrating.
In umteen jurisdictions, competition laws moderate monopolies. Holding a supreme state or a monopoly of a industry is ofttimes not misappropriated in itself, withal convinced categories of activity can be considered opprobrious and thence incur valid sanctions when line is ascendent. A government-granted monopoly or judicial monopoly, by oppositeness, is legal by the land, ofttimes to cater an incentive to install in a venturous move or enrich a domestic diversion unit. Patents, copyrights, and trademarks are sometimes victimised as examples of government-granted monopolies. The regime may also unnecessary the mull of direction structures, which directly concerns normative aspects of efficient rivalry, and provides the groundwork for topics much as postindustrial disposal and economics of conception. There are digit standard types of industry structures by conventional system analysis: perfect competition, monopolistic contention, oligopoly and monopoly. A monopoly is a system in which a unary bourgeois produces and sells a assumption product. If there is a single merchant in a destined industry and there are not any familiar substitutes for the creation, then the marketplace structure is that of a "unpolluted monopoly". Sometimes, there are some sellers in an business and/or there survive numerous finishing, the main results from this theory compare price-fixing methods across market structures, examine the outcome of a positive plaything on upbeat, and vary technological/demand assumptions in rule to set the consequences for an nonobjective expose of elite. Most efficient textbooks follow the practice of carefully explaining the perfect competition pose, mainly because of its usefulness to realise "departures" from it (the so-called tense rivalry models).
The boundaries of what constitutes a market and what doesnt are applicable distinctions to piss in efficient reasoning. In a pervasive counterbalance context, a close during Oct 2009 in Moscow is a diverse good from grapes oversubscribed during October 2009 in New Dynasty). Most studies of mart artefact alter a small their definition of a unspoilt, allowing for much malleability at the identification of substitute-goods. Hence, one can grow an economic analysis of the industry of grapes in Empire, for instance, which is not a market in the exact sense of broad equipoise theory monopoly. Author : Wikipedia
|
Subscribe by Email
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Scenarios in which to use automated testing - when to use automated versus manual testing
In a previous post (What is Automated Testing), I had talked about what is automated testing, and what are the benefits of automated testings. In this post, I will explain about some of the scenarios in which the use of automated testing is more likely (and beneficial). This is also part of the discussion about where to use manual testing versus where to use automated testing.
- There is a tremendous benefit to using automated software where the work is repetitive and follow a certain pre-defined set of cases. Consider the case where a team is working on a set of features for a new version of the product. The team needs to also ensure that earlier released features continue to work and are not impacted by any changes in code in other parts of the application. This can be done through the process of automating the test cases for these features, so that the testing happens automatically every time a new build is released.
- When a large number of test cases have to be carried out in a fixed time frame, then these can be done through automation. Automation will typically execute a large number of test cases in a much shorter time frame than manual testing.
- Allows load testing. When you need to simulate situations where there are a large number of users load testing the system, automation can help to a great deal in such cases. For applications that are seeking to evaluate their performance under stress conditions, automation is necessary.
- Testing with a large number of different inputs. Suppose there is a software that takes inputs from the user, and produces an output. In such cases, the testing for the input cases would need to consider a range of different inputs, including acceptable values and a range of unacceptable values. These are done far better through automation testing, since doing this manually involves a lot of effort.
- Automated testing can be tweaked to do a number of tests that would be difficult for people otherwise. For example, during the course of a normal product development cycle, thousands of files can be touched, and it is impossible to test all the changes on a regular basis, especially for stuff such as security errors (and there can be many types of checks that the development team would want to do)
And there can be more benefits, would love to hear more from people who use automated testing ..
No comments:
Facebook activity
|
How To Choose A Compressed Air System For Food Production
Posted on: 12 November 2014
People often think of an air compressor as something that's used in an automotive repair shop to quickly fill tires or clean off engines, but in truth a compressed air system can be used in a number of different industries including food production. Bakeries, beverage makers, and other food production facilities can find that a good compressed air system can help their facility in a number of ways, but they need to choose the right system and maintain it properly. Consider a few tips in this regard.
1. Know when to choose a contact air compressor system.
A contact air compressor system is one that is used so the compressed air comes into contact with food, and this system may need to be the most sensitive. As an example, bakeries often use a contact air compressor system to blow crumbs off of loaves of bread and other products as they make their way down the production line.
This type of air compressor system should typically run at 15 pounds of pressure per square inch, or PSI. This can be adjusted according to the product but when choosing this type of compressor system, be sure it can adjust to this low of a pressure so you don't damage your delicate foodstuffs.
2. Know when to choose a noncontact air compressor.
This type of air compressor is used when the air does not come into contact with the food and will need to be chosen according to its use. As an example, a bakery may use a noncontact air compressor to open plastic bags and keep them open so that loaves of bread can be easily inserted as they come down the production line. Other such packaging is also typically opened by noncontact air compressors during the last stage of production. Noncontact air compressors might also be used to rinse out mixers and other equipment after they've been washed.
The PSI available for these will vary according to the package or other use. These too may need a very low PSI if being used for delicate plastic packaging, but for rinsing, the highest PSI should be available in order to properly clean microscopic contaminants and ensure that mixers are dry and ready for use.
3. Know how to maintain your air compressor for the food industry.
For the food industry, air compressors need to be maintained with food-grade lubricants so that they too do not introduce contaminants into the foodstuffs. This is true even with noncontact air compressor systems, like those at Compressed Air Systems, as these work with products that will come into contact with the end product. When purchasing an air compressor system, ensure that you choose one that can be maintained with food-grade lubricants.
|
Asking Your Primary Child “What Did You Do Today?” by Kari Ewert-Krocker, Primary Teacher
Oftentimes, when I get off of work, my husband Nate will ask “How was your day?” Sometimes, I particularly enjoy sharing how things went: an anecdote from the classroom, new work that I’ve introduced. There can be particular joy in offering insight into the way I spend 1/3 of each day.
Still, other times I see him, and when he asks, I say “Fine,” and then move the conversation on to other things. Maybe how his day went, or how we will spend our evening. Sometimes about what good articles he’s read that day, or if there were any good stories on NPR. Sometimes we just cherish a quiet car ride together, listening to our baby, William, babble in the backseat. I have already had my day at work, and now I just want to enjoy my family.
It is the same for children. When they see their parents at the end of a busy day, sometimes they may have things to share–something that happened with a friend, a new lesson. But many times, having had a long morning, often filled with a variety of activities, they don’t want to talk about it. They have had that part of their day, and now it is over. They may even not remember large parts of their day. What happened in the past is the past. They are so excited to be reunited that what happened during the day seems unimportant.
When pressured for information, sometimes the children will make things up, seeking to fulfill what is being requested of them easily so they can move on to the next step. Sometimes, they will clam up, not wanting to speak at all. They may say “I did nothing today.” or “I don’t know.” Instead of insisting on an answer (would you do this in conversation with an adult?), ask once, and then move on. Talk about what you are going to do in the afternoon. Talk about what you did that day. Talk about the song that is playing on the radio. Talk about what you will do for dinner that night.
Share easy and comfortable conversation with your child, being sure to leave space and time for them to think and participate in the conversation. Don’t make the conversation a barrier they must pass before whatever they do next–rather, let the conversation be a part of the flow. Take their cues, and close the conversation when they seem finished. As with all things, I encourage you to follow YOUR child.
Once you take the pressure of sharing off, you may find that you are hearing more, just by virtue of letting it come up naturally. For me, this often happens in the evening hours, right after dinner or just before bed. For some, (particularly older) children, the sharing may come more naturally. For others, it may be some time before they want to or are even able to divulge the entire content of their day to you. Be patient. It will come.
|
What does people of the book mean?
Assalaamu Alaikum
what does/ who is people of the book mean?
Wa Alaikum as Salaam,
The people of the book literally refers to all those people of the past to whom a heavenly revealed scripture was given. So those who have been given scriptures via the prophets like Ibraheem (SA), Dawood (SA), Sulaiman (SA) and other prophets, would fall into this category, based on the literal meaning of the phrase ‘people of the book’. However, in the context of the Holy Quran and Ahadith of the Prophet (SAS), and generally in Islamic literature, the phrase ‘the people of the book’ (or Ahlul kitaab) refers to the Jews and Christians.
And Allah knows best,
Mufti Waseem Khan
|
Effects of Alcohol on Bipolar Disorder
It has been well documented that bipolar disorder and alcoholism commonly co-occur. The feelings of depression and anxiety associated with bipolar can be a factor that leads to alcoholism. People with bipolar disorder may use alcohol or other drugs to self medicate these feelings, especially in instances where the person has not been diagnosed. However, alcohol makes the symptoms of bipolar disorder worse. Anyone who shows symptoms of bipolar disorder should seek the advice of medical professionals.
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a mental disorder that causes extreme mood swings between depression and mania. Depression is generally characterized by a lack of energy and motivation, and mania consists of periods of high energy, unusual thought patterns and sometimes psychosis. Those afflicted with bipolar disorder tend to have episodes where these two feelings can appear in their most extreme forms. These episodes can last days, weeks or even months.
Alcoholism is characterized by a strong dependency on alcoholic substances. Alcoholics continue to drink despite health problems and social consequences. Many believe it to be a disease or at the least an addiction because of genetic factors. It is said that 9 percent of the general population is predisposed to developing alcoholism based on genetics. Alcoholism can lead to serious health problems such as cirrhosis of the liver and heart disease. It has also been known to cause sexual dysfunction.
There have been many documented cases where alcoholism and bipolar disorder are concurrent. Some experts believe that manic depressives have a tendency to use alcohol or other drugs to cope with their depression. This is especially common among those who have not been diagnosed and are not taking any medications specifically for bipolar disorder. Alcohol can make the symptoms of bipolar worse and should be avoided by those afflicted with the disease.
It is never a good idea to combine alcohol with medications for bipolar or any other mental disorder. The medications can increase the effects of the alcohol causing severely impaired judgment, dizziness and uncontrollable urination. Medications for bipolar disorder include variations of lithium carbonate, carbamazepine and sodium valproate. It is recommended that use of alcohol be limited if not stopped with all of these medications.
Bipolar disorder is a genetic disease of the brain and cannot be prevented, but it can be controlled. Obviously people who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder should not drink in excess if at all. The true worry is with people who have bipolar disorder and have not been diagnosed.
Related Searches
Promoted By Zergnet
You May Also Like
Related Searches
Check It Out
This Is the Beauty Routine of a Yelp Sales Manager
Submit Your Work!
|
Nobel Prize Winners
The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS ( 20:03 :35 ): I move:
That this council—
1. Acknowledges the Centenary of the 1915 Nobel Prize awarded to father and son recipients, William Bragg and Lawrence Bragg; and
2. Recognises, with appreciation, their contribution to science and their connection to the state of South Australia.
It is an honour to move this motion to acknowledge the father and son team of William and Lawrence Bragg at the time of the centenary of the 1915 Nobel Prize and also recognise their contribution to science in South Australia and around the world.
I note that the member for Bragg in another place, Vickie Chapman MP, has given notice of a similar motion in the House of Assembly. Having contributed significantly to South Australia, the Braggs were honoured with the naming of the electorate (served by Ms Chapman) after them. The member for Bragg will speak again on this matter in the House of Assembly in November.
William Bragg was born in England in 1862 and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduating with first-class honours in 1885, he emigrated to South Australia in 1886 and became Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Adelaide. He married Gwendoline Todd in 1889 and their son, William Lawrence, was born in Adelaide in 1890.
Lawrence studied at St Peter's College and then started at the University of Adelaide at the age of 16, studying chemistry, maths and physics. The family returned to England in 1908, when Lawrence graduated university and William was appointed Cavendish Chair of Physics at the University of Leeds. In 1914, at the age of just 24, Lawrence was appointed fellow and lecturer in natural sciences at Trinity College, and that same year was awarded the Barnard Medal. Sadly, it was around this time that William's other son, Robert, was killed in the Gallipoli campaign.
William and Lawrence began work together in 1913-14 and made significant contributions to the science world. Together, they founded a new branch of science: the analysis of crystal structure by means of x-rays. This was named Bragg's Law, a law which makes it possible to calculate the positions of atoms from within a crystal by using the x-ray to shoot light into the crystal and see how that light reflects off the crystal surface. William and Lawrence were jointly awarded the Nobel prize in 1915 as a result of their work, and to this day Lawrence remains the youngest ever Nobel laureate in physics.
During the First World War, William was put in charge of research on the detection and measurement of underwater sounds in the use of locating submarines. In 1917, William was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 1920 he was knighted. The Order of Merit followed in 1931.
Lawrence eventually moved to the University of Manchester after being appointed as Langworthy Professor of Physics in 1919. During both World Wars he worked on sound-ranging methods for locating enemy guns. He also worked in the study of proteins, aiding Francis Crick and James D. Watson in their discovery of the structure of DNA. Lawrence was knighted in 1941, received the Copley Medal, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1921, he married Alice Jenny, with whom he had two daughters and two sons.
In 2014, I was fortunate enough to travel to the University of Manchester to meet with some eminent suicide prevention researchers who are based there. While walking through the grounds, because I was a little bit early, I was surprised to find a static tribute in the grounds dedicated to the father and son scientists from Adelaide. This was part of a series of tributes to people connected to the University of Manchester who had been awarded the Nobel prize. I was pleased to learn recently from the University of Manchester that another plaque dedicated to the Braggs will be unveiled at that university in November.
Currently, in Adelaide, there is a bust of Lawrence Bragg placed on North Terrace outside the University of Adelaide and I am pleased to say that on 2 December, to celebrate the centenary of the awarding of the Nobel prize, a bronze bust of William will be placed on North Terrace to accompany the one of Lawrence. The Braggs remain significant figures in South Australian history as well as international history, and I look forward to the celebration of the upcoming centenary of their award. I advise members that I intend to seek a vote on this motion on Wednesday 18 November. I commend the motion to the council.
Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. G.A. Kandelaars .
|
22Feb 2017
Making the Electronics for a 24GHz Doppler Motion Sensor
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how tiny that sensor is !
The Doppler Effect
Doppler effect
I'm sure you're quite familiar with the Doppler effect: you send an RF signal at a given frequency to a target, and if this object/person is moving the reflected signal's frequency will be shifted. This is the reason why a fire truck's siren has a higher pitch when the truck is going towards you than when it is going away.
The CDM324 / IPM165 Motion Sensor
While the HB100 is using a 10.525GHz frequency, this new module uses 24.125GHz! This has the main advantage of being compatible with European regulations (ETSI #300 400) and having good penetration in dry materials. Moreover, as the main frequency is higher the patch antennas are smaller, hence the tiny 25x25x6mm module.
This motion sensor can easily be purchased on eBay under the name CDM324. Oddly enough, looking for "cdm324" on your favorite search engine won't bring any interesting results.
I therefore spent several hours tracing the origins of this tiny sensor. I finally arrived to the conclusion that it likely is a clone of the InnoSenT IPM 165, which is itself very similar to the AP96 from Agilsense.
Specification-wise, the CDM324 antenna pattern is slightly narrower than the HB100's: 80° azimuth and 32° elevation versus 80° azimuth and 40° elevation. The Radiated Power (EIRP) is more or less the same: 16dBm vs 15dBm. Finally, the advertised power consumption is identical to the HB100's: up to 40mA @ 5V.
Finding the Right Amplification Circuit
Now that I had traced the origins of this CDM324, I could find its recommended amplifier schematics.
The one you see above comes from InnoSenT. It consists in 2 cascaded inverting band pass filter circuits:
You'll however notice that the op-amp positive input in our suggested schematics is tied to vcc/2, allowing us to have a centered amplification output as well.
From the formulas above, we can compute the circuit total gain and cutoff frequencies. I'll spare you the maths, the suggested amplification is 1018 (60dB) and a band pass filter from 3.4Hz to 1.06kHz.
The InnoSenT application note allows us to put these frequencies in context:
The high cutoff frequency is therefore set for a 24km/h or 15.4m/h speed. However, this isn't exactly true as the filter cutoff slope isn't vertical. Here's the simulated amplification output generated using LTspice:
You may therefore be able to measure much higher speeds if the moving object is close to the sensor.
Amplification Circuit from Chinese Sellers
This is the (very low resolution) recommended amplification circuit that you will find online.
Simulating it leads to raising eyebrows:
Many many things are odd with this recommended amplification circuit:
- No high pass filter on the second amplifier (remember, the cutoff slope in the first amplifier stage isn't vertical)
- I don't see any reason for that 1nF capacitor when the high pass filter is done using the first op-amp
- Amplification on the first stage is 510 while the amplification on the second stage is 100
- Which leads to a total gain of 51000 (94dB)
- ... while the LM258 has a gain bandwidth product of 1MHz!
The last point is crucial. Given the first amplification stage has a gain of 510, this means there's only 1.96kHz of bandwith "left" inside the LM258. As the cutoff slope isn't vertical, this means that the LM258 isn't the right op-amp for the job! For example, at 10kHz the amplification is 3162, which is a GBW product of 31.6MHz!
Chosen Amplification Circuit
After lots of experimentation and performance comparisons with my previous HB100 module, you can see above the final amplification circuit I chose.
- As you can imagine, it is based on the manufacturer's
- Each amplification stage has a gain of 125.5
- Total gain is therefore 15758 (84dB)
- Cutoff frequencies are 3.4Hz and 999Hz (< 1 km/h or m/h and 22.7km/h / 14.5m/h respectively)
Not so surprisingly the total gain is quite close to the one I had set on the HB100 (12100) and I'm fairly sure I could have set the same one. It was simply more convenient to choose the same resistors & capacitors values in my circuit.
As with my previous HB100 amplification circuit, I chose the OPA2365 operational amplifier. It has a 50MHz Gain Bandwidth product, which is more than the 15758*(84dB-3dB) = 11.2MHz product at the high cutoff frequency point.
Final Schematics
You can see above the final schematics:
- FB1 is here to filter the power supply noise
- the voltage at the C10/R11 node is proportional to the amount of reflected RF energy
- Q1 allows pulse mode operation: you may power on/off the CDM324 using the module nEN pin
- U2 is a simple comparator that will transform our amplified output to a neat square wave:
In the scope capture above the yellow trace is the amplified output while the pink one is the comparator's output.
Using a comparator is a simple way to 'extract' the amplified output main frequency but I'm quite sure running an FFT on that signal would be quite interesting!
Assembled PCB
Here's what the assembled PCB looks like! It has the same size as the CDM324 (25x25mm) and uses a 3pins header to connect with the sensor. 0805 passive components were chosen to make the soldering job easier.
Please do not pay attention to the silkscreen as some values have changed since then: have a look at the end of this article to download all the source files.
3D Printed Holder
The HB100 doppler module had 4 connectors at each corner to solder my 'backpack PCB' to.
Unfortunately the CDM324 only offers a single 3 pins connection, which is why I designed and 3D printed a neat assembly holder: the CDM324 with its amplification circuit simply slide in it!
The Sensors in Action & Sample Code
Here's the video of the HB100 and CDM324 working side by side!
I'm guessing that if you were to use such a module you'd definitely like some sample code.
Below is some arduino code that will output the detected speed in your favorite terminal:
// Below: pin number for FOUT
#define PIN_NUMBER 4
// Below: number of samples for averaging
#define AVERAGE 4
// Below: define to use serial output with python script
unsigned int doppler_div = 44;
unsigned int samples[AVERAGE];
unsigned int x;
void setup() {
void loop() {
pulseIn(PIN_NUMBER, HIGH);
unsigned int pulse_length = 0;
for (x = 0; x < AVERAGE; x++)
pulse_length = pulseIn(PIN_NUMBER, HIGH);
pulse_length += pulseIn(PIN_NUMBER, LOW);
samples[x] = pulse_length;
// Check for consistency
bool samples_ok = true;
unsigned int nbPulsesTime = samples[0];
for (x = 1; x < AVERAGE; x++)
nbPulsesTime += samples[x];
if ((samples[x] > samples[0] * 2) || (samples[x] < samples[0] / 2))
samples_ok = false;
if (samples_ok)
unsigned int Ttime = nbPulsesTime / AVERAGE;
unsigned int Freq = 1000000 / Ttime;
#ifdef PYTHON_OUTPUT
Serial.print("Hz : ");
#ifndef PYTHON_OUTPUT
Text written in serial terminals is so small though... why not print it bigger using ASCII art?
Simply define PYTHON_OUTPUT in the script above, install python on your computer, run "pip install pyfiglet pyserial" and use that awesome little python script (don't forget to replace COM3 with your COM port):
from pyfiglet import *
import serial
import os
ser = serial.Serial('COM3', 115200)
while True:
speed = ord(ser.read())
print(figlet_format(" ",font="clb8x10"))
print(figlet_format(str(speed)+" km/h",font="clb8x10"))
Want to Make or Buy One?
Here's the GitHub repository I made for this project: https://github.com/limpkin/cdm324_backpack.
If you're interested by this module and don't want to produce it by yourself, you may buy it from my store here.
You may also purchase my cheaper HB100 module there.
1. On Thursday, March 30 2017, 02:23 by Masoud
Excellent write up, research and explanation. Thanks a lot.
2. On Friday, March 31 2017, 16:51 by carlos
Very nice! And very nice productfor sale as well. One question: have you thought of making the cut off frequency higher so it can measure up to 100 km/h or more? What problems wou!d that pose?
3. On Friday, March 31 2017, 20:05 by limpkin
@carlos : Thanks! I actually thought of doing so, but figured that this sensor is mostly used as a presence sensor or for "standard" uses. But in theory I don't see why it wouldn't be able to measure higher speeds. You may however pickup some noise.
4. On Sunday, April 2 2017, 04:29 by Frank
Just wondered- is doing something like building a photogate for characterizing ammunition way out of the question? Velocities can easily exceed 2000 mph, so things happen quickly- but commercial radars for this run $500+. Thanks.
5. On Sunday, April 2 2017, 16:58 by limpkin
@Frank : photogates are indeed the best choice in that case. Having dealt with high frequency circuits before, I'd say that $500 isn't such a terrible price.
6. On Wednesday, April 5 2017, 06:04 by JBeale
Nice description. Do you think this could reliably detect if someone was walking or running down the hall, vs no one there? In other words, any good way to determine what is "background noise" and what is not?
7. On Wednesday, April 5 2017, 14:51 by limpkin
@JBeale : Yes! It's actually quite easy: you just need to make sure VOUT is at a reasonably high level :)
8. On Thursday, April 6 2017, 06:05 by adz
See you this creation, really very powerful, I as an electronic enthusiast, but also want to do a play, but did not find your antenna file, the antenna with HB100 can? Thank you!
9. On Thursday, April 6 2017, 10:06 by solipso
The output comparartor should have been set up with some hysteresis to act as a Schmitt trigger in order to cancel spurious switching in zero-crossing range.
Other than that, nice circuit.
10. On Thursday, April 6 2017, 19:51 by DS
Great little module and write-up - thanks for that.
One question I had, similar to the HB100 module, is about range. On your HB100 thread many asked the same question. We've tested the HB100 and found the detection range is at best 50 to 100cm. Beyond 1m there is not much detection sensitivity.
Have you found the same? Datasheets state 25 feet or 8m. Does this newer module have better range? Seems like these are meant for only close-up detection.
11. On Friday, April 7 2017, 07:47 by limpkin
@solipso : actually if you look at the circuit, the comparison voltage isn't set at vcc/2!
12. On Friday, April 7 2017, 07:47 by limpkin
@adz : the cdm324 must be bought on ebay or similar!
13. On Friday, April 7 2017, 07:48 by limpkin
@DS : It really depends on the amplification you add and its environment. If there's only one thing moving, you can easily get 8m range.
14. On Saturday, April 8 2017, 08:13 by gss
Fantastic tech write up.
Turning this around, could this unit be used as a ground speed sensor when mounted on a vehicle?
15. On Saturday, April 8 2017, 22:13 by limpkin
@gss : thanks! I guess so... it's just a matter of frame of reference after all
16. On Tuesday, April 11 2017, 09:48 by Simon
Have you any idea what the detection range of this sensor is? Thanks
17. On Tuesday, April 11 2017, 13:26 by limpkin
@Simon : it highly depends on the moving object! but at least 7 meters i'd say
18. On Sunday, April 23 2017, 11:25 by korban
Why do you need diode D1?
19. On Friday, May 5 2017, 02:16 by Peter King
I am new to electronics, but I think, I understood this article. Thank you very much for spending your time for this article.
But there are two questions:
1. MOS_P is a PNP mosfet, right? Which model did you use?
2. What model exactly is FILTER, you have used?
I was not able to find a item list on GitHub.
Thank you for your answer.
20. On Wednesday, May 10 2017, 17:00 by limpkin
@Peter King it is a P mosfet, have a look at the bom on the repository: https://github.com/limpkin/cdm324_backpack/blob/master/BoM.xlsx
21. On Thursday, May 18 2017, 03:35 by Dave
Nice sensor and and interesting write up. For lower power consumption would it feasible to pulse nEN (say at 5Hz with a 25% duty cycle), or would there be some settling time issues? The application I have in mind is more the characterisation of a moving object (combining speed and amount of returned signal) rather than an accurate absolute speed measurement.
22. On Saturday, May 27 2017, 21:36 by limpkin
@Dave : That's actually what nEN is for! :)
23. On Tuesday, June 6 2017, 21:04 by Ar1s
Nice work limpkin!
I'm currently looking for a module that I could use to measure the speed of cars passing by the street in front of my house. I suspect some of them are very fast (> 130km/h at night). Is there any luck with your device? I suspect I'll have to go with laser range finders but the ones I could find are for professional use and quite expensive.
24. On Friday, June 23 2017, 21:24 by limpkin
@Ar1s : you may have some luck by changing the high pass filter yes.
25. On Tuesday, July 4 2017, 01:26 by pumper_nickel
@gss any luck with using it as a ground speed sensor? having difficulty making it work reading the road moving past/on an angle. only really seems to detect objects moving directly away/toward it
This post's comments feed
Add a comment
Comments can be formatted using a simple wiki syntax.
They posted on the same topic
Trackback URL : http://www.limpkin.fr/index.php?trackback/214
|
- Victor Hugo. French poet and writer. 1802 – 1885
Historians may look back on these current days with fascination. We may be living through the beginning of one of the biggest paradigm shifts in modern human history. The way the world actually thinks about money and stored value might be changing in a tidal wave of recognition. This article will define what a paradigm is and what a paradigm shift looks like. Perhaps we may understand how to prepare and perhaps benefit from the embryonic beginnings of what may one day be seen as a titanic shift. The idea sparking this sea of change came from humble beginnings but has spread like wildfire accompanied by the necessary controversy one might expect from a monumental paradigm shift of understanding. One may seek learning opportunities from a rich history of previous major paradigm shifts and ponder the reasons for why some people flourished while others withered. As the cycles of paradigm shifts are recognizable and repeatable, this article intends to bring new understanding and context to the events now taking place. Those with the early grasp may draw from the lessons in history to prepare and anticipate the events as they unfold and perhaps discover an opportunity for profit.
What is a paradigm?
In effort to understand the world and events surrounding us, humans classify and categorize their own version of reality into a framework of reality we refer to as a paradigm, also known as a model. We draw ’cause and effect’ relationships and begin to correlate groups of related information into patterns to bring understanding to our lives. In the discipline of science it has become known as the Scientific Model. Over time, cultures, trade groups, religions, etc. will espouse teaching that view and establish a consensus for a view of reality. This can sometimes lead to rivalries between different camps interpreting the world in different ways. This process runs the risk of reinforcing incorrect judgement and opinions that can side-track generations and go unnoticed because of the negative pile-on effects of groupthink. The human natural tendency is to form into a hierarchy whose leaders determine “the official line” for the group. Once this is established, any person, or observable fact which might throw into question the belief of the paradigm will be seen as irrelevant, or even willfully ignored in their group. One’s paradigm becomes the lens from where they view the world. Observation of the same data may be interpreted vastly different depending on the lens of those viewing it. girl witch The portrait above has been used in case studies about perception including research included in Stephen R Covey’s bestselling reference book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. The first classroom students were were told to see the portrait of a young woman, after which the picture above was shown to them for a few seconds. Then another group of people were separately told beforehand about the portrait of an old lady facing to the left. They too were allowed to view the picture for only a few seconds. Through simple power of suggestion, the definition of which figure they should find was already given to them. This act gave them bias – to only find and agree to what they were told they were seeing. When they were finally allowed to gather as one group, each group was instructed to explain to the other group who the picture represented. Except for a few exceptions, many disagreements broke out, sometimes loudly, as each camp was convinced they alone were correct. This example showed the dramatic difference people defend over only a difference of opinion created in just a few seconds. Covey went on to explain how we don’t see the world how it is in reality, but how we see ourselves projected into the world. We also project our backgrounds, education and customs into the paradigm and expect those around us will see the same thing.
What is a paradigm shift?
Thomas S. Kuhn, a noted scientist and author discovered a startling pattern that showed all of major scientific and technological breakthroughs don’t happen on a predictable linear scale as was previously assumed. They happen with sudden insights, explosion of thought and eureka moments. He challenged the entire scientific discovery process in his highly influential landmark book entitled “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”, which was originally printed in 1962. The ideas espoused in this book triggered a worldwide reassessment which took into account several scholarly fields such as history, philosophy, sociology, and scientific knowledge. Paradigm shifts tear down the established models and completely rewrite the rules. These shifts are often unbelievable to the establishment at the top hierarchy of the previous model. The pattern emerges showing many of those leaders nearest the top of the hierarchy, who also have the most to lose in a paradigm shift, tend to fight the changes the most.
All the significant breakthroughs were “BREAK-WITHs” old ways of thinking.
-Thomas Kubn. author of “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”
Thomas Kuhn’s work with Structure of Scientific Revolutions outlined five major phases of a paradigm change. For the purposes of this article, we substitute the term “scientific” to mean economic, or monetary theory. This article goes on to give scenarios of how these phases might be applied to the paradigm change bitcoin is filling.
1. Pre-paradigm period. Economic data is available but unorganized. There is little cohesion or organization for value for trade. Stateless bartering is the norm. Few records are kept and simple currencies are created.
2. Normal science. Data is gathered into patterns which can be predictable and repeatable. Trends emerge. Cause and effect are demonstrated. The first paradigm is created and general understanding among ‘experts’ is agreed. Schools of economic theory are formed. Governmental economic planning and central bank policy guidance begin to enforce.
3. Model Drift. Basic belief and understandings of the model begin to break down. Unemployment numbers rise, banks begin to fail. The law of unintended consequences result when overly broad central decisions are made for complex systems. Today, government economic experts make regular ad-hoc adjustments for headline reports including the calculation of inflation and the method of which to calculate unemployment. They change the underlying definitions to make the data match the results rather than measuring data and coming up with different theories or models. This results in a patchwork of quiet adjustments in attempt to keep the current paradigm relevant. Yet it continues to drift. ParadigmChange_KuhnCycle4. Period of Crisis. Breakdowns in predictive models happen. In economics and currencies – we see unpredicted anomalies. Hyperinflation, financial bubbles, housing crashes, rising unemployment, and government budget shortfalls are all unexpected consequences resulting in a growing sense of something being fundamentally wrong. Without this necessary crisis phase there may not be need to evaluate and recognize that a new paradigm is even possible. 5. Revolution. One paradigm is replaced by another believed to be better or more accurate. There will be “teams” that develop and divisions into their own camps that may be so different that they can’t agree even on the language terms and lens from which they view and speak of the data. In past paradigm changes there was little neutral ground to be found. Perhaps the concept of a complimentary currency system that combined current national currencies with a digital currency that is nation-less and trust-less and a strict creation limit will be favored. The unemployed, unbanked, and underrepresented population living in the margins of society see their hand held currencies becoming increasingly worthless. While the money printing press just keeps pumping out more of the same, the new paradigm needs might reach a tipping point. At one point, critical mass may develop and the floodgates open to people ‘opting in” to the new paradigm. People may simply ignore the old one as it becomes irrelevant. There aren’t many weeping over the loss of dial up modems to connect to the internet.
What does this have to do with bitcoin?
In many ways bitcoin is a complete break with the old ways. The fundamental principles are vastly different. It is a break with previous paradigms and rewrites money creation, protection, transfer, record keeping, validation, trust, privacy, and nation-created monopoly function. Many times throughout history it takes a crisis to completely motivate people to move from one paradigm to the other. With worldwide record deficits and money printing happening globally show we are in unprecedented times with the old paradigm of economics. New money is pushed to the banks without customer demand for it so banks invest it in alternative non productive places and segment bubbles form. When these bubbles eventually pop, the central banks take no responsibility for the ensuing trauma that displaces jobs and homes. In the world’s largest single economy, the US money printing continues to accelerate while record budget shortfalls and unprecedented levels of debt and politicians and officials can’t balance the budget. Even new all-time highs in tax collection can’t keep up with spending in the US. Nobody seems to know or can predict how this will end on a global level. We’ve seen this happen ad infinitum from countries ruining their economies and their citizens’ life-savings through hyperinflation and retirement confiscation. One might ask if we’ve already begun the crisis phase where one perception of reality literally falls apart and the other opposing paradigm wins by default? This cycle for the scenario plays out repeatedly in history – as Thomas Kuhn indicates in his book, citing several examples.
Money creation – as a currency
Old Paradigm: Created by central banks and lent to their respective governments based on supply and demand. It requires trust in the government to get it right to know how much currency is needed, but can be heavily influenced by politics and the human frailties. Politicians often mean well but often “paper over” problems by just printing more money to make bad financial decisions less obvious. It’s the hidden tax of inflation that benefits a government in the short-term with the ability to print its own money to pay for immediate needs, but at the expense of its population whose standard of living decreases with the then less valuable resulting currency. The resulting paradigm indicates that currencies created in this manner eventually becomes worthless.
New Paradigm: Money is also created through a mathematical formula which forces it to be restricted and predictable. Changes can be allowed and the code can evolve to meet new needs but it must meet the approval of the network through majority consensus which is in effect, the democratization of money. The most popular digital currency, bitcoin, has a guaranteed declining rate of creation. With limited supply, usefulness and expected demand increase, experts predict the price will likely increase over time.
As a nation-less currency:
Old Paradigm: Money as paper fiat currency’s value lessons over time. If you would have taken $50,000 of US dollars and $50,000 in gold in 1970 and buried them in two different boxes, which of the two would buy you more goods? Your paper money would only buy you about $8,200 (inflation calculator found here). Yet gold was about $36.00 per ounce in 1970 and today’s purchase value is $1,860,000. This indicates the US dollar, when compared to its predecessor form of money (gold), shows the value has declined on average 9.4% each year. Any country can easily print as much currency as they want to shuffle to another country for trade – but it is essentially passing pretty pieces of paper to each other (or the equivalent ones and zeros through a computer). The value is backed up by the reputation and economic prosperity of the nation which prints it. The government forces value by insisting their citizens pay taxes back in the currency.
New paradigm: It was estimated in February 2014 there are only about 1.2 million people own any bitcoin worldwide. There are numerous intrinsic economic qualities which make it unlike any currency created before. As it gains acceptance and understanding the network effect for the idea whose time has come may create greater confidence. With regular everyday use, the expectation could be set where it will buy the same amount of goods or services on any particular day as it did the previous day. This expectation and regular heavy use may create a monetary “flywheel” with enough momentum it could become difficult to stop. With worldwide acceptance and not belonging to any country, some are now asking if it’s possible if this new paradigm could result in a new world reserve currency to work in a complimentary function to national currencies.
As a payment network
Old paradigm: The banking system has become enriched and one of the most powerful industries in the world. The mechanisms they use for the intra-bank money transfers is a closed system ensuring it retains the right to keep those rails private and profitable. Banks tend to charge fees almost every time money changes hands or simple columns in a ledger. Money became a tool for surveillance through the same networks with government pressure.
New paradigm: Digital currencies also act as the pay and the payment networks themselves. As transactions are simply verifiable data exchanges and they work on the open internet, on an open ledger without centralization or private books to keep. There are low fees, or no fees depending on the speed of the transaction. There is no need for a bank or company at all to transfer money on the payment network.
How our paradigm is shifting
Where are we now? The World Bank, Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund, Bank of International Settlements, and most recently, the BRIC nations have all sounded the alarm bells: it seems that we have been in a period of crisis for years. Governments have been printing money faster and trying to devalue their own money so they can export their goods to other countries in what has become a perverse competition some people call a “race to the bottom”. Financial experts explain the consequence hurts wages, jobs, livelihood, and standards of living. The mix of conditions might all be ingredients for a worldwide fundamental shift in the concept of value and money, how it is created, transferred, and earned. Banning and fighting digital currency technology may prove futile in the long run. Those who adapt first to new paradigms often benefit most. We do not know yet where this experiment will lead… perhaps as a ‘co-currency’ to act as a monetary shock absorber or throttle. Maybe it’s used as a monetary backup plan or simply a trusted and efficient payment transfer mechanism. Perhaps digital currencies with limited supply might offset infinite money creation to bring stability and confidence as the two work side-by-side in a complimentary “yin and yang” relationship. One might imagine supplementing various national currencies with a common thread possibly underlining all of them. It’s doubtful that the world today would be aware of the potential boundaries of the new digital economy we are entering. Perhaps the new paradigm matches to the early days of the discovery of electricity and its potential. Early electricity pioneers such as Ben Franklin would likely have no conception of how far what began as a parlor trick using static electricity would become the basis from which the entire world would one day function. We might expect tragedies as well as triumphs, as history has given proof of major paradigm shift creating victims (deaths from electricity electrocution during experimentation), and air travel (countless early pilots) among just a few. Perhaps Victor Hugo’s powerful prophetic observations will apply again as the world comes to grips with the monetary revolution starting with the paradigm shift already in process. Perhaps this statement by Victor Hugo can give pause to those about to enter “crisis mode” and give hope and the possibility of prosperity for those preparing for a revolutionary stage of the cycle.
The post Bitcoin to Earth: Don’t Look Now, but your Paradigm is Shifting appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.
Related posts
|
viernes, 31 de agosto de 2012
The Beggining of the War: The Gleiwitz Incident
The Gleiwitz incident was a Nazi Forces, which in that moment were acting like if they were Poles, attack on August 31 in 1939. It was against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz the eve of World War II. This was part of the several actions in the Operation Himmler, a series of unconventional operations by the SS in order to make propaganda about Nazism at the outbreak of the war.
The objective was to create the impression that there was a Polish aggression against Germany and in that way justify the subsequent invasion of Poland. Most of the information known about the Gleiwitz incident is because of Alfred Naujocks testimony, where he states that he organized the incident under the order from Reinhard Heydrich and Heincrich Muller that was the chief of Gestapo.
The night of August 31, a small group of Germans that were dressed as if they were from Poland seized the Gleiwitz station and broadcast a little anti-German message in Polish. Germans wanted like it seems that the attack and the broadcast were because of those “anti-German Polish saboteurs”. But to make it more convincing, Germans brought Franciszeck Honiok that was a German Silesian who was known as a man that sympathizes a lot with the Poles. Days before, he was arrested by the Gestapo. They dress him as a saboteur and then killed him with a lethal injection, then make him gunshot wounds and left him dead at the scene so he looks like he was killed during the attack.
The Gleiwitz incident is part of a large operation. It wasn’t only one attack, because there were other incidents orchestrated by the SS forces along the Polish. German Border, such as the House torching in the Polish Corridor and the spurious propaganda output. There were a total of 21 attacks all categorized as part of the Operation Himmler, all with the intensions of making people think that Poland was going against them. Also months before this, Germans started to publish in their newspapers messages from politicians, such as Adolf Hitler, accusing Polish authorities of organizing operations to harm the German people that lived there. The next day of Gleiwitz, Germany started the Fall Weiss operation (invasion of poland), initiatinf the WW2
Is incredible how Germans were so preparated and intelligent in a way, to create this big and datiled plan in order to invade Poland. Its a really shocking how people can be so determinated to reach their goals, people thirsty of power that could do anything, to the point they killed people. And this is what the war is about. How the idea of one men can make a revolution all around the world, the extermination of a million of inocent families, the destruction of many countries, and the beggining of one of the worst mistakes humans may have been commited: the World War II.
Mariana Flores
Valeria Otarola
The beggining of the End: Cause of D-Day
The D- Day Invasion of Normandy laid a beachhead for the Allies on the Front of Europe. This battle was the most important battle in the Western Front because was a way of being closer to the Nazi defeat. D- Day is referred to the paratrooper operations that happened in June 6 of 1945 in Normandy.
To understand the D- Day it’s important to talk about the context to know what expectative and reasons had the allies to invade Normandy. Russia had signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, and the two countries invaded Poland. That’s how the war started. The British and French people were indignant with this situation and declared the war to Germany. Germany advanced with big steps among Europe, invading France and the Low Countries too. Hitler wanted to invade the Low Countries because he wanted to get around the Maginot line, which was a huge fortification that stretches the whole distance of the German-French border. This was a big surprise for the French Army and they had to accept the defeat. Also the British army that was trying to help France had to retreat, this was embarrassing for Britain and the country now wanted to invade France to and with that obligate Germany to move on. But this was not the only problem…
In December 7 of 1941, Japan attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. The attack caused the declaration of war and the entry of United States in WW2. Three days after, Germany and Italy declared war to USA, which had a really strong army. It was so strong that the country defeat Germans in North Africa and also invaded Italy for 2 years with the help of Britain.
On June 4, 1944, two days before D-Day, the allies captured Rome and Germany immediately started a plan to invade Russia, naming the operation: Operation Barbarossa. However the Russians didn’t permit it making a counterattack, but the problem was that USSR did not want to fight alone against the German Army so they asked British and American armies for help. The two countries accepted the call and immediately started the plan to liberate Western Europe with the code-named Operation Overlord, and their first step was Normandy.
Before the Allies could think how to release the invasion they needed a supreme commander. The three countries argued about this during months and finally Roosevelt took the decision to choose General Dwight Eisenhower as the Supreme Commander.
German commander did expect and invasion but the disadvantage is that they didn’t know when and where. Everybody think of a different place and they couldn’t prepare for anything because the problem was where they put their army if the invasion could be in many different places. The Plan for Normandy was very complicated; there were naval and aerial bombardment, paratroopers that were dropped behind the enemy lines, five beaches for landing, etc. America would take place in Omaha and Utah, and the British in Sword and Gold. The day of the invasion started with really bad weather conditions, buy Eisenhower however, decided to take the risk.
And these are the causes of why America, Britain and Russia decided to invade Normandy. They needed to stop the pressure that Germany was putting in France. The D-Day and the Operation Overlord were a big victory for the countries and had a great effect on the outcomes of the war. This time the Allies were determinate to succeed and it’s good they did it because if they could fail the operation, maybe their morale could go down and they would be weaker. The D-Day Invasion of Normandy have been a great part in the World History and the beginning of the end.
Mariana Flores
Operation Little Saturn
The Battle of Stalingrad is considered by many experts and historians to have been the turning point in World War Two in Europe. After the Germans bust intent to get Moscow, the Sixth Army was order to take Stalingrad because this city had all the products Russia needed to survive, without them a big crisis will appear. Also because Stalingrad was Russia’s center of communications in the south as well as being a center for manufacturing, after attacking this city, they would attack Moscow again. From a strategic point of view it would have been imprudent to have left a major city unconquered in your rear as they advanced.
The Battle for Stalingrad was fought during the winter of 1942 to 1943. That was an advantage for the Russian army because the Germans suits were not prepare for a cold climate. In September 1942, the German commander of the Sixth Army, General Paulus, assisted by the Fourth Panzer Army, advanced on the city of Stalingrad. His primary task was to secure the oil fields in the Caucasus and to do this, Paulus was ordered by Hitler to take Stalingrad. The Germans final target was to have been Baku.
Operation Saturn, also known as Operation Little Saturn, was a Red Army operation on the Eastern Front of World War II that led to battles in the northern Caucasus and Donets Basin regions of the Soviet Union from December 1942 to February 1943. The success of this operation during the Battle of Stalingrad was launched on November 19 of 1942 and trapped over 300,000 troops of General Friedrich Paulus's German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army in Stalingrad. To exploit this victory, the Soviet general staff planned a winter campaign of continuous and highly ambitious offensive operations, codenamed "Saturn". Later Joseph Stalin reduced his ambitious plans - due to his initial huge losses attacking the Axis troops - to a relatively small campaign codenamed "Operation Little Saturn".
After the defeat of the Romanian Army around Stalingrad and the successful encirclement of the German Sixth Army, Stalin started a counter-offensive nicknamed "Operation Little Saturn" in order to enlarge the area controlled by the Soviet Army in eastern Ukraine until Kharkov and Rostov.
The first stage was unleashed at December of 1942, an attempt to cut off the German Army in the Caucasus that had to be rapidly revised when General Erich von Manstein launched Operation Winter Storm on 12 December in an attempt to relieve the trapped armies at Stalingrad. While General Rodion Malinovsky's blocked the German advance on Stalingrad, the Operation Little Saturn was launched on 16 December.
With the relief column under threat of encirclement, Manstein had no choice but to retreat back to Kotelnikovo on 29 December, leaving the encircled Germans at Stalingrad to their fate. Of the 250,000 soldiers encircled 90,000 survived to be taken prisoner. Only 5,000 lived to return to Germany.
The second stage of operations started on 13 January of 1943 with an attack by four armies of General Golikov's Voronezh Front that encircled and destroyed the Hungarian Second Army near Svoboda on the Don. As a consequence the Hungarian Second Army, as most other Axis armies ceased to represent a meaningful fighting force, in fact the German Sixth Army, encircled in Stalingrad, was destroyed on February 2 of 1943.
On January 13 of 1943, the Soviets launched their second stage of Operation Saturn, where four armies of Soviet General Filipp Golikov's Voronezh Front attacked, encircled, and destroyed the Hungarian Second Army near Svoboda on the Don to the northwest of the Italians.
Although the Alpini corps was ordered to hold the front at all costs, preparations for a general retreat began on January 15. On the evening of January 17, the commanding officer of the corps General Gabriele Nasci finally ordered the full retreat.
At this point the Julia and Cuneense divisions were already heavily decimated and only the Tridentina division was still capable of conducting effective combat operations.
Lucia Valdivia
Arianne Velez
Plan West
During the time Józef Piłsudski was the dictator of Poland, most of Polish planning concentrated on contingences in case of a possible attack from the East. It was only after Piłsudski's death in 1935 that the new Polish government and military reevaluated the situation and decided that the current Polish plan for a Polish-German war, dating from the mid-1920s (Plan "S"), was inadequate and needed to be revised.
Designed in the late 1930s, Plan Zachód (Plan West) was a military plan of the Polish Army of the Second Polish Republic, for defense against invasion from Nazi Germany.
Poland's most valuable natural resources, industry and population were located along the western border in Eastern Upper Silesia. The fact that none of Poland's allies had specifically guaranteed Polish borders or territorial integrity certainly did not help in easing Polish concerns.
The plan of operations took into account, first of all, the numerical and material superiority of the enemy and, consequently, assumed the defensive character of Polish operations. The Polish intentions were: the defense of the western regions judged as indispensable for waging the war, the taking advantage of the propitious conditions for counterblows by reserve units, the avoidance of being smashed before the beginning of Allied operations in the West and the making of decisions depending of the existing situation. The operational plan had not been elaborated in detail and concerned only the first stage of operations.
Polish Infantry
In addition, the French and British expected the war to develop into trench much like World War I. The Polish government was not notified of this strategy and based all of its defense plans on promises of quick relief by their Western allies.
Victims of German air raid
Consequently, Polish defeats during the German invasion came as a shock to the civilian population. Lacking training for such a disaster, the civilian population panicked and retreated east, spreading chaos, lowering troop morale and making road transportation for Polish troops very difficult
Valeria Otarola
The Battle of Salingrad: Operation Uranus
In October 1942, German forces had reached the Volga, and the Soviet generals Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy and Georgy Zhukov, both responsible for the strategic plan in all the Stalingrad territory, concentrated big masses of Soviet forces in the siege of Stalingrad. The German northern flank was particularly vulnerable to any attack, since it was defended by the allied axis and these that were the Italian, Hungarian, and Romanian forces suffered from inferior training, poor equipment, and lack of morale and hopes when compared with their German counterparts.
This weakness from the axis was well known and exploited by the Soviets, who preferred to battle against troops that weren’t German when was possible so they had more chance to defeat, just as the British preferred attacking Italian troops, instead of German ones in North Africa. The Soviet’s plan was to keep maintaining the Germans down in the city, then punch through the overstretched and weakly defended German flanks and surround the Germans inside the Stalingrad area. During the preparations for the attack, Marshal Zhukov himself visited the front, which was rare for such a high-ranking general. This master operation was code-named “Uranus” and launched by the hand with Operation Mars, which was directed at Army Group Center. The plan was similar to Zhukov’s victory at Khalkin Gol three years before, where he had destroyed an important division of the Japanese army.
On November 19, the Red Army of Soviets unleashed Uranus. The attacking Soviet unit forces under the command of Gen. Nikolay Vatutin consisted of three complete armies, , including a total of 18 infantry divisions, eight tank brigades, two motorized brigades, six cavalry divisions and one anti-tank brigade. The preparations for the attack could be heard by the Romanians, who continued to push for reinforcements, but once again they ended being rejected. When the Romanian Third army which defended the northern flank of German Sixth Army was finally spread, outnumbered and poorly equipped, was shattered by the Soviets.
On November 20, a second Soviet attack by two armies was launched to the south of Stalingrad, against flanks defended by the Romanian IV Corps. The Romanian forces, made up primarily of infantry, were defeated almost immediately. Soviet forces raced west in a pincer movement, and met two days later in a place near the town of Kalach, sealing the ring around Stalingrad. The Russians later reconstructed the link up for use as propaganda, and the piece of footage made famous around the entire world. We can say Operation Uranus was a master operation, wll prepared, where the Red Army knew how to explote and use the overwhelming resources to smash down the German flanks of the 6th Army that were weakly defended by the axis, and also encircled it into the Stalingrad pocket. During battle preparations, Stavka, employed empleado maskirovka for hiding his intentios, one facet that would turn into a distinguished hallmark of future attack operations, as would the huge artillery preparations which opened the offensive and the far greater superiority in manpower and material which were employed to ensure its success. Finally, Hitler's refusal to release forces from Stalingrad and allow 6th Army freedom of movement to meet the threat, added to Paulus's reluctance to take independent action, sealed 6th Army's fate.
Lucia Valdivia
Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japaneesse navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor. It all happened in Hawaii at the morning of December 7, 1941, when many people at Pearl Harbor were at leisure. They were completely unaware that an attack was imminent. . The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia.
The base was attacked by Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. The 8 U.S. Navy battleships were damaged half of them being sunk. Of these eight damaged, two were raised and six battleships returned to service later in the war.
The Japanese also sank three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded. The power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building were not attacked. Americans were destroyed in a question of minutes.
By the other side the Japanese losses were not as much as much as in the U.S.A, only 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.
American people were totally shocked. This event is very important because after this attack americans will decide to enter to World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. The United States had clandestine support from Britain (for example the Neutrality Patrol) then they join to the allies and fight against Germany and Japan.
There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. But, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy" and a feeling of reveange to Japan that they will later put in action.
Arianne Velez
The Last Battle: The Consequences
The battle of Berlin was one of the last battles in World War 2. It was between Germany and the USSR. Stalin was determined to defeat Nazism this time. So he, with the Red Army, decided to invade Berlin where Hitler was. It was a really difficult and devastating battle, and although the Red Army was bigger in number, Germans were focused in being loyal to Hitler, as their phrase: Heil Hitler. That’s why it was very laborious for Stalin to win, and his army had to fight house by house, murdering also innocent people.
The cause why Germans where defeated was because of the lack of ammonisation and troops. In April 30, the USSR entered to the centre of Berlin and Adolf Hitler after he marries Eva Braun, suicide with his recent wife. His last words ordered that Admiral Karl Donitz converted in the new Reich president and Joseph Goebbels to be the new chancellor of Germany, but Joseph suicide with all his family and all the war responsibility lay in Karl Donitz. Finally, in May 8 of 1945, Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Soviet Union, ending that way, the battle. The USSR lost tanks exceeded all the estimates due to the effective German use of the Panzerfaust(a cheap anti tank weapon), which was not enough to stop the armoured advance on the capital. That shows that they fight and give all their effort and capacities until they couldn’t, and explains how big was their feeling of pride for being a Nazi and having that ideology.
Berlin suffered a lot of serious damage, especially in Reichstag (were Hitler was staying), and also Moltke and Alezanderplatz. The USSR count approximately 155 000 people dead and 250 000 that were sick or wounded. And Germans had 45 000 dead, that included civil people that were not necessarily soldiers. A lot of Nazis escape leaving German civilians to their fate and sometimes this people only know when the Red Army was coming when there was too late to escape. The soldiers in that moment showed that in a way they weren’t loyal to their people, they were loyal to Hitler and the Nazi ideology in particular.
One famous characteristic about the Russian invasion in Germany were the aggressive and massive violations committed against German women as a “punishment” for the war. An idea that wasn’t right because it wasn’t their fault in a way. As a consequence, 2 000 000 women were sexually assaulted, and 10 000 of them suicide right after. It was a catastrophe; USSR had gotten out of control. And was very bad of their part because they had won that time, they invaded Berlin and defeated Hitler, but they wanted revenge and they were exceeded with these poor women.
Berlin was in a big chaos. The USSR wasn´t happy with only distroying Germany and their revenge was terrible and devastating, and of course what germany did was bad but that is not an excuse for acting like that . Also the city was extremely destroyed and altough it was not the only one in bad conditions, its situation was horrible. Now the question is, What would happen next? How can Germany recuperate now? What would happen with the allies? There would be a second treaty and a pay from germany?...
There are a lot of questions and doubts to resolve but the truth is that, after 6 years, the war was FINALLY over
Mariana Flores
|
I am an educator and neuroscientist, who studies how the brain learns to read and what happens when a young brain can’t learn to read easily, as in the childhood learning challenge, developmental dyslexia. Yet, despite this knowledge, I was unprepared to realise that my first son, Ben, was dyslexic.
He was five years old when I put all the pieces together, and I wept as soundlessly and deeply as every other parent. I wept not because of his dyslexia, which I understood very well, but because I knew the long, difficult road Ben faced in an educational system ill-prepared then to meet his needs. That was the first thing I did 16 years and eight schools ago.
The second thing was to concentrate my work on ways to help our society understand two huge things: first, the complex, unnatural miracle that takes place every time a brain learns to read; and second, the fact that many children with dyslexia have a different brain organisation – one that poises them for greatness in many areas; but makes them inefficient at learning written language.
Helping every child meet his or her potential, not only children with challenges, is the underlying goal of this letter, my new book Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, and the work of my entire field.
Many things help each of these three areas develop, and parents and loved ones can foster them all. The most important contribution appears deceptively simple: speaking and reading to your child from infancy onwards. Children who spend the first five years of their lives exposed to a great deal of oral language with others (and not from a television or other media) and listening to a great many books being read to them enter kindergarten with advantages that prepare them to read.
In one well-known study, children in more privileged language- and book-rich environments heard 32m more spoken words than children raised in disadvantaged environments. It was not economic poverty, but “linguistic poverty” that put these children at profound risk for failure before they entered the kindergarten door.
In dyslexia, the reasons for reading difficulties aren’t that simple, or as easy to prevent. Somewhere between five and seven years of age, most young brains are readied to become their own ringmasters and bring all their knowledge about letters, sounds and words together to read. For children learning the alphabet, they must learn that a particular sound corresponds to a particular letter, which in English isn’t always as straightforward as in other languages. Thus, programmes that emphasise the principles of phoneme awareness and decoding (that is, systematic phonics programmes) represent an important foundation for all children first learning to read. There are, of course, other linguistic areas that must also be emphasised, including vocabulary knowledge, familiarity with how words work grammatically, and also knowledge about the smallest units of meaning in English, called morphemes.
Ideally, our children need all of these emphases when learning to read. In dyslexia, many children have particular difficulties distinguishing the phonemes or sounds within words. That makes it very difficult for them to learn the rules for which particular letters go with which sounds. Other children with dyslexia aren’t able to acquire the speed necessary to get the different parts in the reading system together; they never learn to read fast or fluently enough to comprehend what they read.
Brain imaging studies are beginning to suggest that these difficulties may emerge in part because many children with dyslexia are endowed with a very strong right hemisphere that they use to read. In most people the left hemisphere is largely used in reading. The right hemisphere, which is involved in many spatial, artistic, and creative functions, is, however, very inefficient for reading, which would explain why it takes so long to learn to read. If this research proves correct, it also helps explain why so many great, creative figures have a history of dyslexia: artists like Picasso, Gaudi, and Rodin; writers like Yeats and Agatha Christie; and entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, and Michael Heseltine.
The problem is that no one tells children or their parents, teachers, and classmates that some of the world’s most creative and brilliant minds had similar difficulties learning to read. Most children with dyslexia do not easily learn to read, spell, or write, and they believe this means they must be “dumb” (their classmates’ description), or “lazy” (what many parents think) or “not working up to their potential” (many teachers’ description).
Not all children with dyslexia have extraordinary talents, but everyone has a unique potential that is being daily whittled away by this lack of understanding.
Maryanne Wolf is the director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University.
‘Proust and the Squid’ is a great read. I commend it to you.
|
Landmark with a rich history
It has been standing here for more than 350 years - an age to be proud of, even for a venerable landmark. Hamburg’s main church the Saint Michaelis has been part of the city now for so long and it is affectionately called the “Michel”. And it has experienced quite a lot: fairy-tale weddings, state funerals and the first female pastor of the St. Michaelis parish. Further, the church is a favorite attraction of those visiting Hamburg, for plenty of good reasons. To begin with there is the Baroque architecture, which invites you to look and linger. And once you have gotten to know a few of the anecdotes around the Michel you then begin to see the church with different eyes.
For example, only few know what the church has to do with a megaphone: Hans Georg Sonnin, one of the architects invented one so he could instruct his builders in lofty heights. And this was just one of the ingenious ideas he had while reconstructing the church between 1750 and 1786. What you need to know is the Michel, as we know it today, was build on the ruins of another church that burnt to the ground after being struck by lightning. For the new construction to proceed rapidly, Sonnin invented a lifting mechanism that made it possible to carry away pieces of the ruins as a whole instead of stone for stone. The tower itself was finally completed 24 years later and was for the seafarers, who essentially shaped life in Hamburg, the first and last thing they saw of their city.
Yet it isn’t exactly this church that characterizes the city today: in 1906 while working on the roof truss there was again a severe fire and the Michel had to be rebuilt in the years following albeit the same as before. And it is still impressive to this very day. That is true for the radiant white interior with the golden ornamentation as well as for the façade.
It is the little stories on the side that make the Michel’s history really lively. Did you know, for example, that the church was almost turned into horse stables? That was 1811 when Hamburg was occupied by the French and the idea could only be averted because wealthy merchants arranged for the necessary stalls for the French soldiers elsewhere.
|
Posted by: Satheesh Kumar Muthu | December 1, 2008
A Tale of Tenali Ramakrishna
Tenali Ramakrishna popularly known as Tenali Rama was a court poet of Krishnadeva Raya of the Vijayanagara empire.He was known for his wit and impressive poetry written in the Telugu language.Ramakrishna was called a Vikata Kavi and he was one of the Astadiggajas of the Vijayanagara court.He was also a great scholar of several languages that included Telugu,Marathi,Tamil, and Kannada.
Ramakrishna was born in a village in Andhra State during the early part of the sixteenth century. He lost his father when he was very young. He was a very carefree child. From morning till night he was in the company of naughty boys. One day, Ramakrishna met a sadhu who advised him to pray Mother Kali. Ramakrishna did as advised and as soon as he completed the repetition of the mantra eleven crore and eleven times, Mother Kalika appeared. She had a thousand faces and looked terrifying. On seeing the Goddess Ramakrishna touched her feet and then burst into laughter. This aroused Kalika Devi’s curiosity. She ordered him to explain what made him laugh. “Divine Mother! When we catch cold, we feel that two hands are insufficient to wipe our only nose. If, you catch cold will your two hands be enough to wipe your thousand noses? This thought made me laugh. Forgive me, I have been impudent.” So saying, Ramakrishna again fell at her feet and stood up. The smile and the sense of humor of the boy pleased Kalika Devi. She blessed him to attain fame as a great jester and make people laugh. So he mastered all learnings and became famous as the great humorist, the comic poet Ramakrishna. This is a popular story about Tenali Ramakrishna. Following is one of the comic incidents which took place in the Vijayanagara empire.
The Last Wish – Mango Fruit
The news spread like wildfire in the kingdom that Rayalu was dolingout golden mangoes to Brahmins in the memory of his mother. Brahmins from all over the empire started flooding into the capital to accept the golden mango from the King. Day in and out, long queues were always seen only to add people to its tail.
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s
%d bloggers like this:
|
Bai giai chi tiet mon anh khối d1 2013
Published on
Published in: Education
Bai giai chi tiet mon anh khối d1 2013
1. 1. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 1 ĐỀ THI TUYỂN SINH ĐẠI HỌC NĂM 2013 MÔN THI: ANH VĂN; Khối D Thời gian làm bài: 90 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề Mã đề thi 637 ĐỀ THI GỒM 80 CÂU (TỪ QUESTION 1 ĐẾN QUESTION 80) Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions. Thí sinh nhớ đọc đề cho kỹ không là bị nhầm (phần chữ màu đỏ ~ gần nghĩa với) Question 1: Many scientists agree that global warming poses great threats to all species on Earth. A. annoyances: nỗi phiền muộn B. risks (n): những mối đe dọa ~ threats C. irritations: tình trạng cáu gắt D. fears: nỗi sợ hãi Question 2: The works of such men as the English philosophers John Locke and Thomas Hobbes helped pave the way for academic freedom in the modern sense. A. initiate (v): khởi đầu, mở đường cho, khởi xướng ~ pave the way for (idiom) B. lighten: thắp sáng, soi sáng C. terminate: kết thúc, hoàn thành, chấm dứt D. prevent: ngăn cản, cản trở Question 3: E-cash cards are the main means of all transactions in a cashless society. A. cash-free (adj): không dùng tiền mặt (chỉ dùng thẻ ATM hay thẻ tín dụng) ~ cashless B. cash-starved (adj): thiếu nguồn cung tiền (ám chỉ hoạt động của chính phủ) C. cash-strapped (adj) ~ cash-starved ~ without enough money D. cash-in-hand (adj) ~ trả bằng tiền mặt Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the other three in the position of the primary stress in each of the following questions. Question 4: A. hesitation / hezɪˈteɪʃn / B. economics /iːkəˈnɒmɪks/ C. calculation /kælkjuˈleɪʃn/ D. curriculum /kəˈrɪkjələm/ Question 5: A. constructive /kənˈstrʌktɪv/ B. national/ ˈnæʃnəl/ C. essential / ɪˈsenʃl/ D. commercial/ kəˈmɜːʃl/ Question 6:
2. 2. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 2 A. cancel /ˈkænsl/ B. remove /rɪˈmuːv/ C. copy /ˈkɒpi/ D. notice /ˈnəʊtɪs/ Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word (s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions. Thí sinh nhớ đọc đề cho kỹ không là bị nhầm (phần chữ màu đỏ ~ trái nghĩa với) Question 7: Population growth rates vary among regions and even among countries within the same region. A. fluctuate (v): dao động B. stay unchanged: không thay đổi # vary: thay đổi, biến đổi C. restrain: ngăn cản, kiềm chế D. remain unstable: không ổn định Question 8: In some countries, the disease burden could be prevented through environmental improvements. A. something to suffer: gánh chịu một cái gì đó (xấu) B. something sad: một chuyện buồn C. something to entertain: giải trí cái gì đó (vui) => bẫy ở câu này D. something enjoyable: một điều thú vị # burden: gánh nặng Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions. Question 9: A. invent /ɪnˈvent/ B. tennis /ˈtenɪs/ C. medicine /ˈmedɪsn/ D. species /ˈspiːʃiːz/ Question 10: A. particular /pəˈtɪkjələ(r)/ B. superstar /ˈsuːpəstɑː(r)/ C. part /pɑːt/ D. harvest /ˈhɑːvɪst/ Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to the sentence given in each of the following questions. Question 11: “I would be grateful if you could send me further details of the job,” he said to me => Anh ta nói với tôi: “Tôi rất biết ơn nếu bạn gửi thêm thông tin về công việc đó cho tôi.” => vẫn chưa gửi. A. He politely asked me to send him further details of the job. => Anh ta lịch sự nhờ tôi gửi thêm chi tiết công việc.
3. 3. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 3 B. He thanked me for sending him further details of the job. => bẫy ở câu này => Anh ta cám ơn tôi vì đã gửi thêm chi tiết công việc cho anh ta. C. He flattered me because I sent him further details of the job. => Anh ta nịnh tôi bởi vì tôi đã gửi thêm chi tiết công việc cho anh ta. D. He felt great because further details of the job had been sent to him. => Anh ta cảm thấy hạnh phúc khi có người gửi thêm chi tiết công việc cho anh ta. Question 12: “Why don’t we wear sunglasses?” our grandpa would say when we went out on bright sunny days. => “Tại sao chúng ta không đeo kính râm nhỉ?” Ông chúng tôi đã đề nghị như thế khi đi ngoài nắng. A. Our grandpa asked us why we did not wear sunglasses when going out on bright sunny days. => Ông chúng tôi yêu cầu tại sao chúng tôi không đeo kính râm khi đi ngoài nắng => bẫy ở câu này B. Our grandpa reminded us of going out with sunglasses on bright sunny days. => Ông chúng tôi nhắc chúng tôi nhớ đeo kính râm khi đi ngoài nắng. C. Our grandpa would warn us against wearing sunglasses on bright sunny days. => Ông chúng tôi cảnh cáo chúng tôi không được đeo kính râm khi đi ngoài nắng. D. Our grandpa used to suggest wearing sunglasses when we went out on bright sunny days. => Ông chúng tôi từng đề nghị chúng tôi đeo kính râm khi đi ngoài nắng.) Question 13: David was narrowly defeated and blew his own chance of becoming a champion. => David đã bị đánh bại suýt xao và bỏ lỡ cơ hội trở thành nhà vô địch.) A. But for his title as the former champion, David would not have defeated his rivals. => Là một cựu vô địch, David vẫn không đánh bại được đối thủ của mình.) B. As a result of his narrow defeat, David did not win the championship. => Kết thúc trận thua suýt xao, David đã không dành được quán quân.) C. Losing the championship came as a terrible blow to David. => Để tuột khỏi chức vô địch là một điều bất hạnh khủng khiếp đối với David.) D. In spite of the narrow defeat, David won the championship. => Mặc dầu thua suýt xao, David vẫn dành ngôi quán quân.) => bẫy ở câu này Question 14: People say that Mr. Goldman gave nearly a million pounds to charity last year. => Người ta nói rằng năm ngoái ông Goldman đã làm từ thiện gần 1 triệu bảng Anh. A. Nearly a million pounds was said to have been given to charity by Mr. Goldman last year. B. Mr. Goldman was said to have given nearly a million pounds to charity last year. C. Mr. Goldman is said to have given nearly a million pounds to charity last year. D. Nearly a million pounds is said to be given to charity by Mr. Goldman last year. => bẫy ở câu này => Đây là dạng bị động của những động từ chỉ ý kiến (say/think/believe/know/find/report…) xem phần cuối, mục số 6 của link này: phan-2b.html Question 15: I am sure he did not know that his brother graduated with flying colors. => Tôi tin chắc hắn không biết rằng anh trai hắn đã tốt nghiệp với điểm số khá cao. A. He cannot have known that his brother graduated with very high marks. => Chắc là hắn không biết anh trai hắn đã tốt nghiệp với điểm số khá cao. B. He may not know that his brother is flying gradually up in a colorful balloon.
4. 4. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 4 => Hắn có thể không biết anh trai hắn thường bay lên bằng kinh khí cầu đầy đủ màu sắc. C. That his brother graduated with flying colors must have been appreciated by him. =>bẫy ở câu này => Việc anh trai hắn tốt nghiệp với điểm số khá cao có thể khiến hắn thầm cảm ơn. D. He should not have been envious of his brother’s achievement. => Có lẽ hắn không nên đố kỵ với thành tựu của anh trai hắn. CHÚ Ý: must/may/might/can/could/should/will/would + have + p.p He must have done ~ in my opinion or according to the evidence, he surely did it. He might have done ~ it is possible that he did it; he had the option of doing it. He can have done ~ maybe he did it; it was possible for him to do it. He could have done ~ it was possible for him to do it; he has the option of doing it. He should have done ~ it was a good idea for him to do it; it was the right thing to do. See more here: Question 16: If you had stuck to what we originally agreed on, everything would have been fine. => Nếu bạn cứ làm theo những gì mà chúng ta đã đồng thuận thì mọi việc đã ổn rồi. A. If you had not kept to what was originally agreed on, everything would have been fine. => Nếu bạn không làm theo những gì mà chúng ta đã đồng thuận thì mọi việc đã ổn rồi. => bẫy ở câu này B. As you fulfilled the original contract, things went wrong. => Khi bạn đã hoàn thành bổn phận được qui định trong hợp đồng thì mọi việc đã sai. C. Things went wrong because you violated our original agreement. => Mọi việc đã sai vì bạn đã vi phạm hợp đồng. (ĐK loại 3 nên câu gốc phải ở dạng quá khứ) D. If you had changed our original agreement, everything would have been fine. => Nếu bạn thay đổi hợp đồng thì mọi thứ đã ổn rồi. Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to choose the word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 17 to 26. In “Cerealizing America”, Scott Bruce and Bill Crawford remark that the cereal industry uses 816 million pounds of sugar per year. Americans buy 2.7 billion packages of breakfast cereal each year. If (17)______ end to end, the empty cereal boxes from one year’s consumption would (18) ______ to the moon and back. One point three (1.3) million advertisements for cereal are broadcast on American television every year at a(n) (19) ______ of $762 million for airtime. Only automobile manufacturers spend more money on television advertising than the makers of breakfast cereal. (20) ______ of the boxed cereals found in supermarkets contain large amounts of sugar and some contain more than 50% sugar. Cereal manufacturers are very clever in their marketing, making many cereals appear much healthier than they really are by “fortifying” them with vitamins and minerals. Oh, (21) ______ - you now have vitamin-fortified sugar! Before you eat any cereal, read the ingredient list and see how (22) ______ sugar appears on the ingredient list. Then check the “Nutrition facts” panel. There are actually only a small handful of national commercially-branded cereals that are made (23) ______ whole grains and are sugar-free. If you shop at a health food store instead of your local supermarket, you (24) ______ to find a healthy, whole grain, sugar-free (or very low sugar) cereal. But (25) ______! Some of the health food store boxed cereals are sweetened with fruit juice or fructose.
5. 5. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 5 Although this may be an improvement (26) ______ refined white sugar, this can really skyrocket the calories. From “Foods That Burn Fat, Foods That Turn to Fat” by Tom Ventulo New words: Cereal industry: ngành công nghiệp ngũ cốc End to end ~ in a line, with the ends touching: nằm theo hàng sát nhau To the moon and back (idiom) ~ a whole lot: bao la, vô tận Airtime ~ the amount of time that is given to a particular subject on radio or television: thời gian quảng cáo, thời gian phát sóng. Fortify sth with sth ~ to increase the strength or quality of food or drink by adding something to it: làm tăng thêm, làm cho vững chắc. Vitamin-fortified sugar ~ sugar fortified with vitamin: lượng đường giàu vitamin. Handful of sth/sb ~ a small number of people or things: một ít người hoặc vật. Sugar-free (adj) ~ without sugar: không đường Sweeten sth (v) ~ to make food or drinks taste sweeter by adding more sugar: làm ngọt Refined (adj) ~ made pure by having other substances taken out of it: tinh khiết, nguyên chất Skyrocket (v) ~ to rise quickly to a very high level: tăng nhanh chóng Question 17: A. to lay: đặt, để, xếp B. laying C. lay D. laid (If laid end to end: nếu được xếp thành hàng) Question 18: A. reach: chạm đến, đạt đến B. prolong; kéo dài, nối dài C. stretch (stretch to the moon and back: trãi dài đến vô tận) D. contact: tiếp xúc Question 19: A. charge: tiền phải trả B. average: trung bình C. cost: chi phí, giá D. expense: phụ phí Question 20: A. Most (determiner): hầu hết B. Mostly (adv) ~ mainly, generally: chủ yếu, nói chung C. Almost (adv) ~ not quite: hầu như D. Furthermost (adj) ~ located at the greatest distance from sth: ở đằng xa Question 21: A. charming (adj) duyên dáng
6. 6. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 6 B. lovely (adj): dễ thương C. gorgeous (adj): lộng lẫy D. beautiful (adj): đẹp Question 22: A. tall B. large C. high D. many Question 23: A. by B. from C. at D. in Question 24: A. are more likelier B. are much more likely: nhiều khả năng C. would be able D. could more or less Question 25: A. see through: xem kỹ B. keep alert: thông báo C. watch out ~ be aware ~ used to warn sb about sth dangerous: cẩn trọng D. look up: tra cứu Question 26: A. at B. from C. with D. on (improvement in/on/to sth): tốt hơn, khá hơn, cải tiến hơn. Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 27 to 36. New surveys suggest that the technological tools we use to make our lives easier are killing our leisure time. (Question 28) We are working longer hours, taking fewer and shorter vacations (and when we do go away, we take our cell phones, PDAs, and laptops along). And, we are more stressed than ever as increased use of e-mail, voice mail, cell phones, and the Internet is destroying any idea of privacy and leisure. Since the Industrial Revolution, people have assumed that new labor-saving devices would free them from the burdens of the workplace and give them more time to grow intellectually, creatively, and
7. 7. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 7 socially – exploring the arts, keeping up with current events, spending more time with friends and family, and even just ‘goofing off’. But here we are at the start of the 21st century, enjoying one of the greatest technological boom times in human history, and nothing could be further from the truth. The very tools that were supposed to liberate us have bound us to our work and study in ways that were inconceivable just a few years ago. It would seem that technology almost never does what we expect. In ‘the old days’, the lines between work and leisure time were markedly clearer. (Question 31) People left their offices at a predictable time, were often completely disconnected from and out of touch with their jobs as they traveled to and from work, and were off-duty once they were home. That is no longer true. In today’s highly competitive job market, employers demand increased productivity, expecting workers to put in longer hours and to keep in touch almost constantly via fax, cell phones, e- mail, or other communication’s devices. As a result, employees feel the need to check in on what is going on at the office, even on days off. (Question 32) They feel pressured to work after hours just to catch up on everything they have to do. Workers work harder and longer, change their work tasks more frequently, and have more and more reasons to worry about job security. Bosses, colleagues, family members, lovers, and friends expect instant responses to voice mail and e-mail messages. Even college students have become bound to their desks by an environment in which faculty, friends, and other members of the college community increasingly do their work online. Studies of time spent on instant messaging services would probably show staggering use. This is not what technology was supposed to be doing for us. New technologies, from genetic research to the Internet, offer all sorts of benefits and opportunities. (Question 29) But, when new tools make life more difficult and stressful rather than easier and more meaningful – and we are, as a society, barely conscious of it – then something has gone seriously awry, both with our expectations for technology and our understanding of how it should benefit us. From “Summit 1” by Joan Saslow & Allen Ascher New words: To goof off ~ to spend your time doing nothing, especially when you should be working: rãnh rỗi, không làm gì. Technological boom times: thời đại bùng nổ công nghệ Inconceivable (adj) ~ impossible to imagine or believe: kì lạ, phi thường Off-duty (adj) ~ not at work: không làm việc Keep in touch: giữ liên lạc Day off: ngày nghỉ Staggering (adj) ~ so great, shocking or surprising that it is difficult to believe: làm choáng người. To be conscious of sth ~ aware of sth ~ noticing sth: nhận thức rõ, thấy rõ. Awry (adj): không như ý At a predictable time: thời gian biết trước (để làm gì đó) Question 27: According to the first three paragraphs, technological tools that were designed to make our lives easier______. => Theo 3 đoạn đầu, các công cụ tân tiến được thiết kế để làm cho cuộc sống chúng ta dễ dàng hơn__.)
8. 8. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 8 A. have brought us complete happiness (toàn mang lại hạnh phúc cho chúng ta) B. have fully met our expectations (đáp ứng đầy đủ những gì chúng ta mong muốn) C. have not interfered with our privacy (không can thiệp vào sự riêng tư của chúng ta) D. have turned out to do us more harm than good (chứng minh cho ta thấy hại nhiều hơn lợi) Question 28: Which of the following is NOT true about technological tools, according to new surveys? =>Theo những thăm dò mới đây, câu nào không đúng khi nói đến công cụ tân tiến? A. They make our life more stressful. (Nó làm cho cuộc sống chúng ta căng thẳng hơn) B. They bring more leisure to our life. (Nó cho chúng ta có nhiều thời gian rãnh hơn) C. They are used even during vacations. (Nó được tận dụng ngay cả khi bạn đang đi nghỉ mát) D. They are being increasingly used. ( Nó ngày càng được tận dụng nhiều hơn) Question 29: Which of the following is true, according to the passage? => Theo đoạn văn này thì câu nào sau đây đúng? A. People have more opportunities to get access to technological applications. => Mọi người có nhiều cơ hội tiếp cận các ứng dụng tân tiến hơn. B. Employees were supposed to make technology do what they expected. => Nhân viên được cho là điều khiển công nghệ làm theo những gì mình muốn. C. People now enjoy greater freedom thanks to the technological boom. => Hiện nay mọi người rảnh rang hơn nhờ vào việc bùng nổ công nghệ. D. Students used to have to study more about technological advances. => Sinh viên từng phải nghiên cứu thêm về sự tân tiến của công nghệ. Question 30: The word “inconceivable” in the passage is closest in meaning to”______”. A. unforgettable (không thể quên được) B. unimaginable (không thể tin được) C. predictable (có thể đoán được) D. foreseeable (có thể biết trước được) Question 31: With the phrase “at a predictable time”, the author implies that______. => Với cụm từ “at a predictable time’, tác giả ám chỉ rằng_________. A. people had to predict the time they were allowed to leave offices => Mọi người phải dự đoán thời gian họ được phép rời văn phòng. B. people wanted to be completely disconnected from their work => Mọi người muốn cắt đứt liên lạc hoàn toàn với công việc của họ. C. people were unable to foresee their working hours => Mọi người không thể biết trước được giờ làm việc của họ. D. people used to have more time and privacy after work => Mọi người từng có thời gian và sự riêng tư sau giờ làm. Question 32: It can be inferred from the fourth paragraph that______. => Có thể rút ra từ đoạn văn số 4 rằng_________. A. it is compulsory that employees go to the office, even on days off => Bắt buộc nhân viên phải đi làm, ngay cả ngày nghỉ. B. employees have more freedom to decide what time they start and finish work
9. 9. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 9 => Nhân viên tự do quyết định thời gian mà họ bắt đầu và kết thúc công việc. C. employers are more demanding and have efficient means to monitor employees => Người sử dụng lao động khắt khe hơn và có nhiều phương tiện hiêu quả để giám sát nhân viên hơn. D. life is more relaxing with cell phones and other technological devices => Cuộc sống thoải mái hơn khi có điện thoại di động và các thiết bị công nghệ khác. Question 33: The word “They” in the fourth paragraph refers to______. A. employers B. employees C. workers D. tasks Question 34: Which of the following could be the main idea of the fifth paragraph? => Câu nào sau đây có thể làm ý chính cho đoạn văn số 5? A. New technological applications are wise entertainment choices of our modern time. => Các ứng dụng công nghệ mới là những lựa chọn giải trí khôn ngoan trong thời hiện đại của chúng ta. B. The coming of new technological advances has spoiled family and social relationships. => Việc ra đời của công nghệ tân tiến đã làm hỏng gia đình và các mối quan hệ xã hội. C. New technological advances have added more stress to daily life. => Sự phát triển của công nghệ tân tiến đã tạo thêm áp lực cho cuộc sống hàng ngày. D. New technological advances have reduced work performance. => Sự phát triển của công nghệ tân tiến đã làm giảm hiệu suất công việc. Question 35: This passage has probably been taken from______. => Đoạn văn này có thể được rút ra từ________. A. a science review (một tạp chí khoa học) B. a political journal (một tạp chí chính trị) C. an advertisement (một quảng cáo) D. a fashion magazine (một tạp chí thời trang) Question 36: Which of the following could best serve as the title of the passage? => Câu nào sau đây có thể phù hợp nhất để làm tiêu đề cho đoạn văn? A. Expectations and Plain Reality (Những mong muốn và thực tại giản đơn) B. Benefits of Technology (Lợi ích của công nghệ) C. Research on the Roles of Computers (Nghiên cứu về vai trò của máy tính) D. Changes at the Workplace (Sự thay đổi ở sở làm) Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer in each of the following questions. Question 37: We all agree that she is _____ student in our class. A. the cleverest (so sánh nhất: the + short adj + est/ the most + long adj) B. a more clever (sai cấu trúc) C. cleverest (thiếu mạo từ “the”)
10. 10. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 10 D. most clever (sai cấu trúc) Question 38: Standing on the tip of the cape, _____. => (câu trên là dạng rút gọn của câu sau: When/if we stand on the tip of the cape, we can see____) A. people have seen a lighthouse far away B. a lighthouse can see from the distance C. we can see the lighthouse in the distance D. lies a lighthouse in the middle of the sea Question 39: The boat was sailing north when a terrible storm _____. A. broke (mộ hành động đang xảy ra trong quá, có một hành động khác xen vào) B. would break C. had broken D. was breaking Question 40: _____ John Kennedy was elected president; he was the youngest American President ever. A. Before (trước khi) B. As long as (miễn là) C. When (khi) D. While (trong khi) Question 41: Only one of our gifted students _____ to participate in the final competition. A. has been chosen (dạng bị động trong đó chủ từ là số ít) B. have been chosen C. were choosing D. chosen Question 42: The pool should not be made so deep _____ small children can be safe there. A. so as to (+V) B. though (+ clause: phản nghĩa) C. if (+ clause: không phù hợp nghĩa) D. so that (+ clause) Question 43: I am sorry I have no time at present to _____ detail of our plan. A. bring in: đưa vào B. come in: đi vào C. take into: đưa vào D. go into ~ to begin to do sth or behave in a particular way: phát thảo Question 44: Tom: “_____” Mike: “I won’t say no!” (Dĩ nhiên rồi) A. Mike, do you know where the scissors are? B. What about playing badminton this afternoon? (Chiều nay chơi cầu lông chứ?) C. How are things with you, Mike?
11. 11. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 11 D. What’s your favorite, tea or coffee? Question 45: As a millionaire who liked to show off her wealth, Mrs. Smith paid _____ we asked. A. four time much as B. four time much than C. four times as much as (gấp 4 lần hơn chúng tôi yêu cầu) D. four time as many as Question 46: The Lake District, _____ was made a national park in 1951, attracts a large number of tourists every year. A. that (không dùng sau dấu phẩy) B. what (không phù hợp) C. where (không phù hợp) D. which (đại từ quan hệ thay thế cho The Lake District đóng vai trò chủ từ) Question 47: He _____ us but he was short of money at that time. A. might help B. would help C. can help D. could have helped (xem phần giải thích Modal verbs màu đỏ ở câu 15) Question 48: Michael looked deeply hurt and surprised when _____. A. scolding B. scolded (câu này ở quá khứ, nó là dạng rút gọn của “when he was scolded.” C. having scolded D. to scold Question 49: The packages ______ so that it would be easier to carry them. A. are tied altogether (sai thì) B. are tied in a bundle (sai thì) C. were tied together (đúng thì, đúng nghĩa) D. were tied in a knot (đúng thì nhưng sai nghĩa) Question 50: In spite of her abilities, Laura has been _____ overlooked for promotion. A. repetitive B. repeatedly (cần một trạng từ xen giữa, cấu trúc: has/have/had been + adv + p.p) C. repetition D. repeat Question 51: The examination was not very difficult, but it was _____ long. A. too much B. so much C. much too (cấu trúc: much too + adj: quá) D. very much Question 52: She asked me ______ I was looking at. A. if
12. 12. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 12 B. what (câu tường thuật gián tiếp của: “What were you looking at?” asked she.) C. when D. why Question 53: Education in many countries is compulsory _____ the age of 16. A. for B. forwards C. until (hợp nghĩa: bắt buộc cho đến tuổi 16) D. when Question 54: We must push the piano to the corner of the hall to _____ our party tonight. A. give place to ~ be succeeded or replaced by (được thực hiện thành công hay được thay thế bởi) B. make room for (có chỗ trống cho) C. take up room to (chiếm chỗ) D. make place for (tạo một chỗ cho + youth/kids… (nghĩa bóng: ý muốn nói tạo không gian giải trí cho giới trẻ…) Question 55: Stephanie: “Oh, no! I left my book at home. Can I share yours?” Scott:”_____” A. No, thanks. B. Yes, I do too C. No, not at all! D. Yes, sure! Question 56: There has been a great increase in retail sales, _____? A. isn’t it B. isn’t there C. doesn’t it D. hasn’t there (câu hỏi đuôi của động từ ở thì hiện tại hoàn thành) Question 57: Long ago, women were _____ to vote in political elections. A. prevented (from doing sth) B. banned ~ to forbid sth from being or happening C. forbidden ~ to refuse allow it D. stopped (from doing sth) Question 58: Regular exercise and good diet will bring _____ fitness and health. A. about ~ to make sth happen: dẫn đến B. from: mang lại từ… C. to ~ persuade sb to agree to sth: thuyết phục D. up ~ to care for a child: nuôi nấng Question 59: _____ his brother, Mike is active and friendly. A. Dislike ~ to not like sb or sth: Không thích B. Liking: thích C. Alike (adj) ~ very similar: rất giống D. Unlike (prep) ~ different from a particular person or thing: không giống (chọn vì cần một giới từ)
13. 13. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 13 Question 60: _____ one of the most beautiful forms of performance art, ballet is a combination of dance and mime performed to music. A. Considered (Dạng bị động rút gọn, giống câu 80 mã đề 475 môn Anh khối A1-2013) B. Being considering C. Considering D. To consider Question 61:_____ has been a topic of continual geological research. A. If the continents formed B. The continents formed C. how the continents were formed (mệnh đề bị động làm chủ từ) D. How did the continents form Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions. Question 62: When precipitation occurs, some of it evaporates, some run off the surface it strikes, and some sinking in to the ground.=> sinks Question 63: A warming printed on a makeshift lifebuoy says: “This is not a life-saving device. Children should be accompany by their parents.”=> accompanied Question 64: Of all the art-related reference and research library in North American, that of the Meltropolitan Museum of Art in New York city is among the largest and most complete. => libaries Question 65: Different fourteen crops were grown 8,600 years ago by some of the world’s earliest farmer. => Fourteen different Question 66: Globally and internationally, the 1990’s stood out as the warmest decade in the history of weather records. => Globally Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 67 to 76. Very few people, groups, or governments oppose globalization in its entirety. Instead, critics of globalization believe aspects of the way globalization operates should be changed. The debate over globalization is about what the best rules are for governing the global economy so that its advantages can grow while its problems can be solved. (Question 75) On one side of this debate are those who stress the benefits of removing barriers to international trade and investment, allowing capital to be allocated more efficiently and giving consumers greater freedom of choice.(Question 67) With free-market globalization, investment funds can move unimpeded from the rich countries to the developing countries. Consumers can benefit from cheaper products because reduced taxes make goods produced at low cost from faraway places cheaper to buy. (Question 68) Producers of goods gain by selling to a wider market. More competition keeps sellers on their toes and allows ideas and new technology to spread and benefit others.
14. 14. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 14 On the other side of the debate are critics who see neo-liberal policies as producing greater poverty, inequality, social conflict, cultural destruction, and environmental damage. They say that the most developed nations – the United States, Germany, and Japan – succeeded not because of free trade but because of protectionism and subsidies. (Question 71) They argue that the more recently successful economies of South Korea, Taiwan, and China all had strong state-led development strategies that did not follow neo-liberalism. These critics think that government encouragement of “infant industries” – that is, industries that are just beginning to develop – enables a country to become internationally competitive. (Question 73) Furthermore, those who criticize the Washington Consensus suggest that the inflow and outflow of money from speculative investors must be limited to prevent bubbles. These bubbles are characterized by the rapid inflow of foreign funds that bid up domestic stock markets and property values. When the economy cannot sustain such expectation, the bubbles burst as investors panic and pull their money out of the country. Protests by what is called the anti-globalization movement are seldom directed against globalization itself but rather against abuses that harm the rights of workers and the environment. The question raised by nongovernmental organizations and protesters at WTO and IMF gatherings is whether globalization will result in a rise of living standards or a race to the bottom as competition takes the form of lowering living standards and undermining environmental regulations. One of the key problems of the 21st century will be determining to what extent markets should be regulated to promote fair competition, honest dealing, and fair distribution of public goods on a global scale. (Question 76) From “Globalization” by Tabb, William K., Microsoft ® Student 2009 [DVD] Question 67: It is stated in the passage that ______. A. the protests of globalization are directed against globalization itself B. the United States, Germany, and Japan succeeded in helping infant industries C. suppoters of globalization stress the benefits of removing trade barriers D. critics of globalization say that the successful economies are all in Asia Question 68: Supporters of free-market globalization point out that ______. A. consumers can benefit from cheaper products B. there will be less competition among producers C. taxes that are paid on goods will be increased D. investment will be allocated only to rich countries Question 69: The word “allocated” in the passage mostly means “_____”. A. removed B. solved C. offered D. distributed Question 70: The phrase “keeps sellers on their toes” in the passage mostly means “_____”. A. Makes sellers responsive to any changes B. allows sellers to stand on their own feet C. forces sellers to go bare-footed D. prevents sellers from selling new products Question 71: According to critics of globalization, several developed countries have become rich because of ____. A. their neo-liberal policies B. their help to developing countries
15. 15. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 15 C. their prevention of bubbles D. their protectionism and subsidies Question 72: The word “undermining” in the passage mostly means “_____”. A. observing B. making more effective C. making less effective D. obeying Question 73: Infant industries mentioned in the passage are _____. A. successful economies B. young companies C. development strategies D. young industries Question 74: Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage? A. Critics believe the way globalization operates should be changed. B. The anti-globalization movement was set up to end globalization. C. Some Asian countries had strong state-led economic strategies. D. Hardly anyone disapproves of globalization in its entirety. Question 75: The debate over globalization is about how_____. A. to use neo-liberal policies for the benefit of the rich countries B. to govern the global economy for the benefit of the community C. to spread ideas and strategies for globalization D. to terminate globalization in its entirely Question 76: The author seems to be _____ globalization that helps promote economy and raise living standards globally. A. supportive of B. indifferent to C. pessimistic about D. opposed to Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best joins each of the following pairs of sentences in each of the following questions. Question 77: We spend about one-third of our lives sleeping. We know relatively little about sleep. A. We know relatively little about sleep; as a result, we spend about one-third of our lives sleeping. B. Despite spending about one-third of our lives sleeping, we know relatively little about sleep. C. We shall know more about sleep if we spend more than one-third of our lives sleeping. D. We spend about one-third of our lives sleeping so that we know relatively little about sleep. Question 78: He was successful because he was determined to pursue personal goals. He was not talented. A. His determination to pursue personal goals made him successful and talented. B. It was his determination to pursue personal goals, not talent, that contributed to his success. C. His success lay in his natural ability, not in his determination to pursue personal goals. D. In addition to his determination, his talent ensured his success in pursuing his goals. Question 79: Overeating is a cause of several deadly diseases. Physical inactivity is another cause of several deadly diseases. A. Both overeating and physical inactivity result from several deadly diseases. B. Apart from physical activities, eating too much also contributes to several deadly diseases.
16. 16. Lê Quốc Bảo Page 16 C. Not only overeating but also physical inactivity may lead to several deadly diseases. D. Overeating and physical inactivity are caused by several deadly diseases. Question 80: I did not arrive in time. I was not able to see her off. A. I did not go there, so I could not see her off B. She had left because I was not on time C. I arrived very late to say goodbye to her D. I was not early enough to see her off. Mời các bạn tham gia thảo luận Tiếng Anh tại:
|
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
What Caused the Civil War, aka Causes of the Civil War
What Caused the Civil War?
The most controversial question regarding the conflict that claimed more than 620,000 Americans is: what caused the Civil War?
The Civil War caused more than 620,000 deaths, which was 2% of the U.S. population. The conflict produced more deaths than all previous U.S. wars combined. Even a brief introduction to the U.S. Civil War will prompt the student to ask, why was the Civil War fought? There are, however, two dominant positions: 1) slavery caused the Civil War, or 2) states' rights caused the Civil War.
In law, in debate, and in history we should view every subject in context and strive to examine as many facts as possible before arriving at any conclusion. When there are numerous facts available, it is prudent to avoid one or two documents or statements to support one's bias. Speculation and conjecture should be avoided, while the witnesses and their respective testimonies should be admitted and examined.
A quick overview is to reference the question to its era and participants. On one hand, we have the position that slavery was the only cause of the Civil War. On the other hand, we have the position that states' rights caused the Civil War. The argument for states' rights, as derived from the Tenth Amendment, includes the right for the state to secede from the Union. Secession was a direct challenge of state government verses national government. The Tenth Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution, was ratified on December 15, 1791, and it states that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The major participants during the Civil War were the state governments, the national government, and the president, so we will begin by discussing and defining the roles and responsibilities of each participant.
Who is the final arbiter when there are differences, disagreements, and conflicts between state governments and federal government?
The United States Supreme Court is the final arbiter in interpreting the U.S. Constitution and which law or government action violated it.
The Constitution established the Supreme Court as the highest court in the United States. The authority of the Court originates from Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
One of the Supreme Court’s most important responsibilities is to decide cases that raise questions of constitutional interpretation. The Court decides if a law or government action violates the Constitution. This is known as judicial review and enables the Court to invalidate both federal and state laws when they conflict with the Constitution. Since the Supreme Court stands as the ultimate authority in constitutional interpretation, its decisions can be changed only by another Supreme Court decision or by a constitutional amendment.
Judicial review puts the Supreme Court in a pivotal role in the American political system, making it the referee in disputes among various branches of the Federal, as well as state governments, and as the ultimate authority for many of the most important issues in the country.
The Supreme Court exercises complete authority over the federal courts, but it has only limited power over state courts. The Court has the final word on cases heard by federal courts, and it writes procedures that these courts must follow. All federal courts must abide by the Supreme Court’s interpretation of federal laws and the Constitution of the United States. The Supreme Court’s interpretations of federal law and the Constitution also apply to the state courts, but the Court cannot interpret state law or issues arising under state constitutions, and it does not supervise state court operations. See also What Caused the Civil War?
No comments:
Post a Comment
|
13 October 2015
Welsh Bridges: 5. Barmouth Bridge
This is described as the longest estuarial bridge in Wales, and it's certainly the longest timber bridge in Britain, being a total of 731m long. It has carried the Cambrian coast railway across the mouth of the Mawddach Estuary, between Barmouth and Fairbourne, since 1867. There are 113 timber spans, comprising braced wooden trestles, and five metal truss spans at the northern end.
Originally, an opening span was included of so-called "cock-and-draw" construction, which reportedly took some 37 minutes for two men to open. This was replaced by Cleveland Bridge in 1900 with the present arrangement. The timber trestles have been entirely replaced at least once in their history, and were most recently refurbished by Network Rail the early 1980s.
The metal spans are an interesting arrangement. There are two bowstring trusses, which at first glance appear identical. However, one is a simply-supported span, and the other is a swing bridge supported from its centre on a pivot pier. Closer examination reveals that the swing span has vertical members above its pier which are not present on the other span, as you would expect, and I expect the detailed build-up of steel sections is also different.
The bridge has clearly not opened for some time (there's a photo of it open here). The opening mechanisms are in a state of considerable disrepair, and the rails across the bridge are now continuous across the span joints.
Only a single rail track passes over the bridge. The bulkhead rails are supported from longitudinal baulk timbers, which are held at the correct spacing by a series of metal struts and ties. Metal cleats hold the timbers in position on the main timber decking. On the metal spans, short lengths of longitudinal timber sit within "bath-tubs" in the metal bridge deck.
A timber footway passes along the eastern edge of the viaduct. This is a very pleasant walk, with fine views of the Mawddach estuary, but also a vital link between Fairbourne and Barmouth. There is an occasional passenger ferry between the two towns, but after the rail viaduct, the next crossing upstream is the toll bridge at Penmaenpool, which is only open during the daytime, and beyond that, the road bridge near Dolgellau.
A toll was levied on the footway since the early twentieth century, but this has recently been abolished.
At the south end, the footway slopes steeply up to the nearby highway, and Barmouth residents have established a campaign for a better footway connection.
The timber parts of the bridge are in fair condition, although there are a number of holes in the trackside decking which have been covered over with metal or GRP plates. From below, isolated areas of rotted or damaged timber can be seen, and metal fixings are severely rusted, as is only to be expected in a tidal estuary.
The condition of the metal spans is of greater concern, being extremely poor with little or no worthwhile protective treatment, and extensive corrosion. Network Rail have plans for a full refurbishment of the metal elements, which appears to be long overdue. This is not a busy railway line, and it must be difficult to justify the expense that properly maintaining this type of bridge should entail.
Walking over the bridge, it's hard not to speculate about the possibility of building a highway bridge nearby. When the Penmaenpool toll bridge is closed, the highway journey between Barmouth and Fairbourne takes about 17 miles, and even when its open it's still 14 miles. As the crow flies, the actual distance is only 2 miles, so a highway bridge would be of considerable benefit both to local residents, and to others passing north and south along the coastline. It would be an expensive endeavour, due to the need for lengthy highway improvements approaching from the south, and potential conflict with Barmouth harbour at the north end.
Meanwhile, the local council, which essentially "rents" the walkway from Network Rail for £30,000 per year, is under severe pressure to reduce costs and is considering closing the footpath. It's hard to argue that it should be more of a priority than many other hard-pressed council services, but unsurprisingly there is a great deal of opposition to closure, including an online petition with over 40,000 signatures.
I think this is a lovely bridge, of great engineering, historic and social value, and it would be a shame to see it closed or not maintained. It's not far from the site of Pont Briwet, another timber viaduct which, despite its Listed status, was recently demolished and replaced with a new concrete bridge. It would be a terrible shame for Barmouth Bridge to ever follow suit.
Further information:
1 comment:
Alf Perry said...
In the 1970's I was an graduate engineer in the bridge office at Paddington. British Rail were proposing to close the Cambrian Coast line citing the deterioration of Barmouth Viaduct as a particular reason (gribble worm). One of my then colleagues challenged the decision and went to do a survey and a remedial strategy in his spare time which undercut the estimates sufficient to reverse the decision. He was the late Chris Wallis (son of Barnes Wallis). He was also instrumental in saving the waiting room at Slough and fought against demolition of the Severn Tunnel beam engine pumps at Sudbrook which were lost. He got the sack because of Barmouth and went on to develop a successful business as a millwright.
|
Category Helicopter Test and Evaluation
AFCS failures
Fig. 7.18 Pitch series actuator runaway – test data.
[1] undercarriage type – wheeled or skidded;
• available stroke in undercarriage – main and tail/nose;
• tail boom strength;
• field of view;
• rotor inertia.
[3] Pressure altitude;
• Elapsed time;
• Indicated airspeed;
• Fuel state;
Failure cueing
Engineering an effective engine failure warning in a multi-engine installation can be a difficult task. Some systems are triggered by low oil pressure as the engine-driven pump slows down but these systems often suffer from significant delays. Another approach is to compare the power output of the engines and trigger the warning if the difference exceeds a threshold value. This type of system can be problematic if the power-sharing characteristics of the engine governors are not well matched. Sudden engine failures
As is the case with single-engine machines the aim of sudden engine failure testing in forward flight is to establish the intervention time available and to check that there are no handling implications. Testing in the low speed flight regime is also required to establish the aircraft performance and to determine the optimum techniques for landing or achieving a safe flight condition. The intervention time is established using rotor speed as the controlling parameter in much the same manner as for total power loss testing. In a multi-engine installation the rotor speed decay rate will be clearly much slower, however, an incremental approach is equally important. The same range of parameters will affect this rate of decay as for the single-engine helicopter discussed in Section 2.12. In addition the acceleration characteristics of the functioning engine will have an effect as the faster the engine acceleration the slower the NR decay will be. As described before sudden engine failures should be made in level flight starting at VMP and then progressing to selected speeds throughout the flight envelope. It may also be necessary to conduct failures at the combination of speed and power normally used for climbing flight.
The most critical area for powerplant failures and hence for testing is in the hover and low speed regime. Here the testing is used to establish the techniques for conducting flyaways and vertical or forward rejects. Advice to operational crews is given in the form of a height/velocity diagram in the same way as is done for single-engine aircraft. Figure 7.14 shows an example of an avoid curve that has been produced as a result of this type of testing. The diagram is divided into four zones defined by height and airspeed. The important area is Zone 3: in this zone the aircraft is not able to perform a flyaway and a safe vertical or forward reject is also not possible. It should be remembered that the avoid curve may be sized on the assumption that at the boundary
Fig. 7.14 Height/velocity diagram for a multi-engine helicopter.
a given level of aircraft damage may occur. The combination of height and speed from which a vertical or forward reject is possible depends mainly on the rotor decay characteristics for the test conditions and the energy-absorbing properties of the undercarriage. During the tests the rate of descent is kept within the undercarriage design limits and the minimum NR is noted. The results are often compared with the predictions of any model used as part of the planning and risk assessment so that the model may be used to generate the advice given to operational crews.
For flyaway testing a model can be used to determine the optimum technique to be used to minimize height loss and one of the aims of the test programme is to establish if the technique is easy and repeatable to fly. If no model is available or the manufacturer fails to recommend a technique then a variety of flyaway profiles will have to be tried to establish the best method. The difficulty of flying any proposed technique must be borne in mind as the operational pilot will not be expecting a failure and will not be as adept or practised as the test pilot(s) conducting the trial. Accurate trends and therefore meaningful predictions can only be made if the chosen technique is flown consistently. At some point, however, it is often necessary to conduct testing to determine the sensitivity of the avoid curve data to a non-optimum technique.
Once the flyaway technique has been established testing starts by determining that the specified intervention time is achievable in the hover. For this the aircraft is hovered well clear of the ground and the flyaway profile practised. Initially the engine failure is coupled with a simultaneous flyaway. Then the intervention time is gradually increased by the pilot reacting to the failure at lower values of rotor speed (NR1). Once the NR1 that equates to the required intervention time has been found it is used for the remainder of the hover flyaway testing. The total height loss suffered between the failure and the achievement of a safe flight condition is recorded as this can be used in defining the initial height AGL for the tests nearer the ground. It has been found from personal experience that the height loss during a flyaway is affected to a large extent by the initial hover height. The stronger visual cues to pitch attitude and RoD at lower heights assist the pilot in flying the manoeuvre and so help to reduce the height loss. To find the height loss near the ground the hover height used is reduced incrementally until consistent results are achieved with realistic visual cues. Typically a minimum height of 50 feet AGL is set for the recovery and the failure height set to ensure this limit is respected.
There are a number of risk reduction measures that are taken with this type of testing. As already stated an accurate predictive model reduces the chances of unpleasant surprises. Where possible two crew members are carried and the flight monitored by telemetry. It is worth noting again that for hydro-mechanical fuel control systems experience has shown that if cockpit controls are used to ‘top’ an engine, airframe vibration can cause the control to move. For this reason the power output of the ‘good’ (non-failed) engine requires careful monitoring to ensure that the settings remain unchanged. This can be achieved by reviewing the telemetry traces immediately after each test to check that when the maximum available power was demanded the torque, engine speed, and temperature figures did not drift from those seen on the previous test point. Risk to the aircraft and crew can also be mitigated if there is a procedure for rapidly restoring the engine under test and the ‘failed’ engine to full performance if needed. This may involve detailed discussions with the manufacturer and could lead to a non-standard engine handling methodology. Of equal importance is to have a single command such as ‘Abort!’ which can be issued by any member of the crew, or the observer in telemetry, to restore the engines and achieve a safe flight condition. Finally if cockpit controls have been used to limit an engine then the nonflying crew member keeps his or her hands on the relevant engine controls at all times.
OEI testing for civil procedures is in many respects the same as for military requirements, however, the aims of the test programme are slightly different and this is particularly true for the take-off and landing phases of flight. In military operations it is accepted that the aircraft may spend periods where an engine failure would place the aircraft at risk. The results of testing are therefore used to determine the level of risk for a typical mission. In addition information is produced which lets the operational pilot know where the risk lies (the height/velocity diagram) and which techniques can be used to avoid or minimize damage if a failure does occur. The military pilot can then make an informed judgement on how the aircraft should be operated. Civil operations have a different philosophy. When operating to JAR-29 Category A requirements [7.11] there is an intention that passengers are not placed at significant risk in the event of any failure including the powerplants. The overall aim of the civil OEI test programme then is to determine the boundaries of safe operation. This is achieved by establishing limiting combinations of AUM and density altitude at which passenger safety is assured provided the pilot performs the reject or flyaway in the prescribed manner. The estimation must include a suitable delay time to account for pilot recognition of a failure of the most critical engine (JAR-29.55 and 29.77). It
Fig. 7.15 Normal take-off – JAR Category A requirements.
Fig. 7.16 Engine failure during take-off – JAR Category A procedures.
is worth examining the way that civil operators deal with the two most critical flight phases – take-off and landing.
Figure 7.15 shows a typical technique for conducting a normal take-off under Category A conditions. From a low IGE hover, with the height set such that following an engine failure the aircraft could descend vertically at a rate below the limit for the landing gear, the pilot applies take-off power and starts a climbing acceleration. The take-off decision point (TDP) is usually reached when the aircraft is slightly higher and has positive airspeed indications, typically 30 KIAS. The TDP is defined as the first point from which a continued take-off is assured and the last point from which a rejected take-off is assured within a specified distance (JAR-29.55). Different take-off techniques are often prescribed for different scenarios: short runways, confined areas or helipads and it is common practice for a manufacturer to specify a reduction in the maximum permitted AUM and HD as the take-off area gets smaller and more congested. Once the TDP has been passed the aircraft is accelerated to take-off safety speed (ETOss) and then on to the speed for best rate of climb (Vy).
Figure 7.16 shows a typical flight path for an engine failure before or at the TDP and for a failure after the TDP in VFR conditions. In the first case an aborted takeoff is performed by reducing speed and landing on. For a failure after the TDP the aircraft is quickly accelerated to achieve VTOSS. This speed is then held until the height has increased to at least 200 ft (JAR-29.59) before the speed is increased to Vy.
The approach to landing is treated in a similar way. In Fig. 7.17 flight paths for an engine failure either side of the landing decision point (LDP) are depicted. The LDP is the last point in the approach and landing path from which a baulked landing can be performed (JAR-29.77). During the aborted approach the aircraft may not descend below 35 ft at any time.
For both take-off and landing under Category A flight the civilian pilot is required
Fig. 7.17 Engine failure during landing – JAR Category A procedures.
to consult the aircraft flight manual to determine the aircraft performance. As indicated above the information is likely to include:
• maximum permissible take-off and landing weights;
• rate of climb with one engine inoperative;
• the acceleration/stop distance;
• distance to clear a 50 ft obstacle with an engine failure at the TDP;
• landing distance for an engine failure after the LDP.
The aim of civilian OEI testing is to determine the optimum technique and combination of heights AGL and speeds for conducting these take-offs and landings. In addition the helicopter performance will be noted so that the appropriate information regarding maximum weights can be presented in the flight manual. The test procedures used are closely related to those that have already been covered, however, a more detailed examination of the techniques used to determine the TDP is worthwhile.
For establishing the TDP the critical engine is ‘failed’ at a height and speed which allows the 35 ft minimum height to be respected easily. The height and speed are then incrementally reduced until either the TDP predicted by a model is reached or the minimum 35 ft ground clearance is just achieved. It is worth reiterating the ‘golden rule’ that only one parameter should be varied at a time. The next stage is to conduct a series of aborted take-offs starting at low height and speed and incrementally working towards the TDP established from the previous tests. It is mandated (JAR – 29.55) that the TDP is easily recognizable by the pilot in terms of height and/or speed. Using speed alone can often be problematical due to the poor performance of most pitot systems at low speeds.
Engine failures in multi-engine helicopters Conduct of the test programme
A great deal of preparation is needed before the trials programme can start. A detailed knowledge of the engines and transmission system is essential. This should allow appropriate testing without unnecessary damage to the aircraft and powerplants. It may be necessary to approach the engine and airframe manufacturers for concessions to the normal limitations. Some thought has to be given to planning how the power failure is to be simulated and, most importantly, how the power output of the engine (or engines) which is not being ‘failed’ is restricted so that it is representative of a minimum specification engine. For hydro-mechanical fuel control systems this may be achieved by manually restricting the fuel flow using the normal engine controls in the cockpit or it may require modifications to the engine governing system itself. With FADEC systems it is often necessary for the manufacturer to provide a software ‘patch’ which causes the engine to operate at minimum specification power. Whichever way the required power output is achieved, trials risk is minimized if there is a method of rapidly restoring the power to its maximum value. It is vital to monitor the power output of the ‘good’ engine during the trial, particularly during the flyaway/vertical reject phase as it has been known for vibration to cause the cockpit controls to drift and reduce the available power.
The choice of which engine to ‘fail’ is an interesting question. During OEI testing on the triple engined Westland/Agusta EH 101 the choice was between the No. 1 and No. 3 engines as the central No. 2 engine suffered an extra 2% installation power loss in the hover under sea-level-ISA conditions. The No. 1 engine was eventually chosen when it was discovered that there was a further power loss on the No. 2 engine as the No. 1 ran down through ground idle and its exhaust gases were ingested through the No. 2 engine intake. Post-failure performance and handling
The flight trials commence with an evaluation of the aircraft performance and handling with one engine inoperative (OEI). Initially one engine is throttled back in level flight at the speed for minimum power and the aircraft handling is checked. The next stage is to shut down one engine. This should take place at VMP just in case there is any effect on the power available from the other engine(s). The minimum and maximum speeds in level flight that can be sustained on the good engine(s) are found together with the maximum sustainable angle of bank. It may be necessary to conduct a full level flight performance test to determine the power required and fuel flow for a range of airspeeds. This information is then often incorporated into the performance manual for use by operational crews. Once the performance has been established a series of gentle manoeuvres is made to determine if there are any handling problems. This whole process is then repeated at higher altitudes. Engine re-lights
To achieve a successful engine start the mass flow of air through the compressor must be sufficient to achieve self-sustaining operation whilst preventing excessive turbine entry temperatures. At high altitudes the air density may be too low for a start to be achieved. This usually results in a re-light envelope that is smaller than the operational envelope of the helicopter. Since the air temperature affects density the re-light envelope is often expressed in terms of density altitude along with airspeed as this can affect conditions at the engine inlet. Testing of engine re-lights commences at low altitude and a mid-speed range and will then go on to expand the envelope in terms of density altitude and airspeed. In addition to establishing the envelope the testing also encompasses the effect that engine starting has on other aircraft systems. For example, the load on the electrical system may be such that the AFCS is affected or navigation equipment disrupted. Clearly if engine start is achieved using bleed air from another engine the effect of a start on the functioning engine requires assessment.
Engine-off landing tests
The aim of engine-off landing tests varies depending on the role of the aircraft. In the case of helicopters without a training role the aim is usually to prove that a safe landing is possible and to offer some advice in the aircrew manual. For aircraft with a training role where EOLs are likely to be commonplace a much more comprehensive series of tests is needed. The aim of these tests is usually to establish a box defined in terms of the airspeed and height at which the initial flare should be started. Within the box the handling qualities will be such that a student pilot can perform an EOL without undue skill; clearly the larger the box the more suitable the helicopter will be for teaching the skills required for engine-off landings.
The tests commence using the speed for minimum ROD in autorotation and a flare height determined from the powered recovery tests. Although the co-pilot makes a call at a pre-determined height on the radar altimeter, the responsibility for choosing when and how to perform the manoeuvre always rests with the handling pilot. The next point is then flown keeping the airspeed the same but changing the flare height. For each combination of speed and height the pilot rates the difficulty of the manoeuvre taking into account such things as predictability of the touchdown point, rotor speed control, proximity of the tail to the surface, touchdown speed and control margins. A series of these tests then allows construction of the box. At no stage is a point attempted that has a combination of an untried flare height and untried airspeed. Wind velocity, aircraft AUM and density altitude all affect the manoeuvre and therefore the power-off landings programme starts with the most favourable conditions and then moves incrementally to the least favourable. Avoid area testing
The final stage of a power-off assessment programme is to define the avoid curve, avoid area or height/velocity diagram. An example of the type of presentation commonly seen in aircrew manuals is shown in Fig. 7.13. An avoid area diagram shows the operational pilot the combinations of airspeed and height above the surface from which a total loss of power is unlikely to be survivable. Armed with this information the pilot can plan the aircraft’s flight path to minimize the time spent at risk inside the area. A number of assumptions are normally made in the construction of height/ velocity diagrams:
• The aircraft is in level flight or the hover at the moment of power loss.
• There is a total intervention delay time of 2 seconds.
• There is no wind and the surface is suitable for a landing.
It is common practice to present different charts for sea level and a higher density altitude (in the region of 5000 feet); similarly several charts can be produced to account for variations in aircraft AUM.
The height/velocity diagram can be divided into four areas indicated as 1 to 4 on Fig. 7.13. Area 1 is dictated by the height loss required to achieve an autorotative
Fig. 7.13 Typical height/velocity diagram.
state and to accelerate the aircraft to an airspeed where an effective flare can be made. In Area 2 around the knee of the curve, the aircraft will not develop steady autorotation nor will a significant increase in airspeed be possible. Here the pilot will only be able to level the pitch attitude and use the remaining energy in the rotor to cushion the landing. Area 3 is dictated by the energy-absorbing qualities of the undercarriage and the rotor inertia. Area 4 needs to be avoided to allow sufficient height for the pilot to perform a flare to reduce groundspeed.
Performing avoid area testing carries with it a high level of risk which is mitigated by using test pilots who are fully familiar with the power-off landing characteristics of the aircraft being tested. Of course the standard risk reduction method of approaching each test point incrementally is applied rigorously in these trials. Testing starts from a known and benign point, for example, 500 ft and 60 KIAS; the height is then kept constant and the speed reduced by a small amount (5 to 10 kts) and another failure is simulated. After each landing the pilot awards a difficulty rating or an HQR. This process is repeated using small reductions in airspeed until the test pilot judges that the difficulty of performing the landing is such that following a sudden engine failure an operational pilot would not be able to achieve a survivable touchdown. For the testing of the low height points in Areas 3 and 4 the airspeed is kept constant and the height is incrementally increased or decreased as appropriate. It is a strict rule that only one parameter is varied between one test point and the next; these parameters include airspeed, height, wind velocity and direction, density altitude, AUM, aircraft configuration, intervention time and finally the individual test pilot.
Entries into autorotation with delay times
A vital part of the test programme is to determine the delay time (intervention time) that is possible between an engine failure occurring and the pilot lowering the collective. As explained earlier the intervention time is made up from the rotorcraft response time and the pilot reaction time. The pilot reaction time to be applied is usually specified by the procuring authority but traditionally a total intervention time of two seconds has been used for helicopters suffering a total power failure in level flight. This may be thought of as a 0.5 s rotorcraft response time and an attentive hands-on pilot response time. Thus it should be possible for the pilot to move the controls up to two seconds after the engine failure has occurred without the rotor speed reducing below the minimum permitted value at any stage during the recovery. This type of testing is clearly high risk and is normally monitored using telemetry.
The following terms are used to enumerate the rotor decay (see Fig. 2.26 for a graphical representation):
NR0 = rotor speed at which power loss occurs
Fig. 7.12 Lever delay test data.
NR1 = rotor speed when pilot commences recovery action by lowering the collective NR2 = rotor speed when collective lowered fully NR3 = minimum NR achieved
NR4 = a nominal value related to the normal autorotative rotor speed (once NR has increased to this value it is assumed that the entry phase of the autorotation has been completed)
Tests start with a simultaneous ‘throttle chop’ and lever lowering from VMP in level or descending flight. The minimum rotor speed achieved is noted and from this the total rotor speed drop is calculated (NR0 — NR3). A delay time is then introduced by allowing the rotor speed to fall to a pre-determined value (NR1) before the collective is lowered, as shown in Fig. 7.12.
The *Nr is calculated again (*NR = NR1 — NR3) before a new NR1 is selected for the next point. This process is repeated using incremental reductions in NR1 until the minimum permitted rotor speed is achieved on the underswing, a handling difficulty is experienced, or the specified intervention time is met. As discussed in Section 2.12 the values of NR1 and NR3 are plotted to allow the trend to be monitored and thus the minimum rotor speed to be predicted for the next test point. It is important to note that a valid trend will only be established if a consistent technique is used every time; for example, yaw on engine failure is corrected immediately, the same rate of collective lever lowering is used and the airspeed is adjusted only after NR4 is reached. A check is made on the consistency of each lever lowering by noting and comparing the minimum value of normal acceleration achieved.
After the initial tests have been completed at VMP the airspeed is varied to determine the effect that this has on the intervention delay time. At higher speeds the aircraft is flared as the collective is lowered to reduce the rotor speed loss. At lower airspeeds the aircraft is accelerated to the minimum rate of descent airspeed once rotor speed has recovered. In all cases information is gathered to assist the test team in conducting avoid area tests subsequently. Thus the height loss involved in regaining the nominal autorotative rotor speed (NR4) and minimum RoD airspeed is noted. For the highspeed cases the height loss during the intervention time and the height gain possible during the flare are needed. On a full test programme of new rotorcraft further tests may be required to explore the effects of density altitude, AUM and initial power setting.
Recovery to powered flight
Ultimately any autorotation that does not result in an engine-off landing will require a recovery to powered flight. The aircraft characteristics during this phase of flight will be heavily dependent on the engine and rotor governing system. Any tendency of the engine to surge as the throttle is advanced or as the collective is raised will clearly add to the difficulty of the manoeuvre. Of particular interest is the height loss involved during the recovery, as this will affect the usefulness of the aircraft in performing realistic practice forced landing (PFL) profiles. The cross-coupling associated with rapid recoveries to powered flight may be significant and will give an idea of the difficulties that may be encountered during the engine-off landing phase. Tests commence at a safe altitude with recoveries from flight idle glide. It should be remembered that the recovery from flight idle glide is a common operational manoeuvre following rapid descents and not just associated with a temporary power loss. Entry into autorotation
Once the aircraft characteristics in steady autorotation have been investigated, rapid entries into autorotative flight are evaluated. These tests should start with gentle entries into flight idle glide (throttle(s) in the flight position) and then progress incrementally onto rapid entries into autorotation (throttle(s) retarded). Tests are conducted closed loop and are made initially at VMP in level flight. Eventually the full speed range is checked in addition to climbing and descending flight. Information is gathered on the control movements required to counter the cross-coupling effects associated with rapid collective lever lowering. An assessment is also made of the adequacy of the remaining control margin to cater with more aggressive entries perhaps associated with a surprised operational pilot who is not expecting a total power failure! The margins available in steady autorotation will already be known but the dynamic situation of rapid entries can create problems with the aft cyclic margin (particularly at high speeds) and the pedal margin (particularly at low speeds). The transient overswing properties of the rotor governing system are also important for FIG entries especially if the pilot is required to raise the collective lever again to control a rapid increase in rotor speed. Once experience has been gained of rapid entries with the pitch attitude held constant further tests are conducted to investigate entries with a nose-up flare simulating the high-speed/low-level engine failure recovery actions.
Total loss of power
For obvious reasons it is always necessary to test the characteristics of a helicopter following a complete loss of power. The amount of testing required depends on the likelihood of such a complete loss occurring and also on the role of the aircraft. Clearly single-engine helicopters are more likely to find themselves in this condition than multi-engine ones and require extensive testing, however, it is still necessary to demonstrate that any rotorcraft can enter autorotation and perform a power-off landing. It has been known for twin-engined helicopters to run out of fuel. Equally in the event of tail rotor drive failure it is common practice to shut down all the powerplants. If the aircraft is being procured for the training role that involves entries into autorotation and engine-off landings then its qualities during power-off manoeuvres are of particular importance. Conduct of the test programme
The testing of flight regimes associated with total loss of power clearly carries with it a significant degree of risk. To mitigate this risk the test programme is usually structured in such a way that before an area of testing is attempted all the preparatory tests have been completed. Thus tests start by investigating flight idle glide before going on to autorotation. The aircraft characteristics in FIG are assessed before rapid entries into descending flight and recovery to climbing flight are made. Of course the completion of engine and rotor governing tests such as engine acceleration, transient overswing and combustion stability are a prerequisite. Once the full range of FIG and autorotative tests has been performed the engine-off landing tests are conducted before going on to look at in-flight relights. Autorotation and flight idle glide
The behaviour of the aircraft in autorotation is the first area to investigate and this involves the two main areas of handling and performance. Turning first to handling tests the flight control positions in trimmed autorotative flight are documented at a range of airspeeds. Of particular note is the pedal margin available at low speed, which may not be adequate to ensure yaw control during the engine-off landing (EOL) particularly if it involves a gusty crosswind. The aft cyclic margin is another area that has proved unsatisfactory on some helicopters being insufficient to allow adequate manoeuvrability in the flare. The behaviour of the rotor is also investigated to determine how easy it is for the pilot to control rotor speed and also how often intervention by the pilot will be needed to respect limits. The cues to high and low Nr , together with the effectiveness of any warning devices are evaluated. Manoeuvres that are representative of those a pilot would make during the approach to a forced landing are conducted to ensure that adequate control is available and that the workload required to manage rotor speed is not excessive. This usually involves determining the effect on the rotor speed of a range of gentle manoeuvres such as turns, flares and bunts. Areas of particular interest are the handling qualities at low values of rotor speed where problems with control margins and effectiveness are more likely. Clearly all low rotor speed testing is approached with great care.
Typical autorotative performance testing involves a measurement of the rate of descent and distance covered with various combinations of airspeed and rotor speed. From these results recommendations are made to the operational pilot concerning the airspeed for minimum rate of descent and the combination of airspeed and rotor speed that gives the maximum range. Pressure errors are often significant during autorotation and are documented as they can significantly increase the difficulty of manoeuvring the aircraft during a forced landing. For example, a pilot will attempt to maintain a set airspeed such as VMP when manoeuvring in autorotation, however, if he is unaware of the presence of large ASI PEs he may make unnecessarily large pitch attitude changes as he attempts to keep the indicated airspeed under control. Much of the performance information gained here is employed later in the trials programme for determining the initial airspeed for testing engine-off landings and for estimating the height loss during re-light tests.
Applying a control parameter
Employing a method that allows incremental increases in the intervention time ensures the safe conduct of this type of trial. The most obvious way to do this is to introduce a small time delay between the failure being initiated and the pilot taking recovery action, with the delay time being increased gradually until specification compliance is achieved or an aircraft limit (or test limitation) is approached. In practice, however, it is extremely difficult to use time as the means of controlling the test. This is due to the inevitable inaccuracies that are generated by the neuro-muscular lag inherent in an observer calling actions on a stopwatch and the pilot reacting. It should also be remembered that there might not be a linear relationship between time and aircraft reaction; a small increase in intervention time may have a dramatic effect on the aircraft flight path.
A better and safer approach is to use a controlling parameter which can be presented more easily to the pilot and which is more directly related to the state of the aircraft. Consider a trial to check that a single engine helicopter can successfully establish autorotation following an engine failure with a specified intervention time. In this case the test pilot will primarily be interested in the value and rate of change of rotor speed so this should be chosen as the controlling parameter. The intervention time can then be increased gradually by initiating recovery at incrementally lower values of NR. Likewise for a trial evaluating AFCS pitch lane runaways, aircraft pitch attitude may be the most appropriate controlling parameter. Whichever parameter is used the methodology is the same; small increments are chosen initially with the aim of obtaining trend information. The test team need to establish the relationship between changes to the value of the controlling parameter at the point where the pilot takes recovery action using the flight controls and the value of any parameter which approaches a limiting condition during the recovery. Once a trend has been established informed predictions can be made about the effect of any increases in delay time and the test can progress, usually in reducing increments, to specification compliance or a limit. It is obvious from the above that the control parameter must be presented to the test pilot in such a way that precise values can be seen. This then may require the installation of specific test instrumentation. Living with the failure
As part of the trials planning process it will be necessary to agree with the aircraft operator the requirements that the aircraft will have to meet following a system failure. For example, a failure which leaves an aircraft controllable but very difficult to fly may be acceptable if the aircraft will only be required to recover to base in these circumstances. However, if the requirement is to continue and complete the mission then the same post-failure characteristics may be unacceptable.
Where systems are multiplexed, a failure of one system may have no direct effect on the capabilities of the aircraft, however the loss of redundancy and the possibility of further failures is always considered. This often requires the definition of a post-failure operational flight envelope (OFE) that may be considerably more restricted than the normal OFE. The considerations here are the probability of a subsequent failure and the effect it would have on the aircraft or crew. Loss of the remaining hydraulic system in a duplex installation is an example of a subsequent failure that has such serious implications that the post-failure OFE is usually restricted to landing as soon as it is safe to do so. In many other cases restrictions on speeds and heights or a warning to aircrew on the effects of subsequent failures may suffice. With failures of an engine in multi-engine aircraft the performance available OEI is determined and published for aircrew use.
Reacting to the failure
There are a number of factors that will affect the time it takes a pilot to react to a failure. These include the characteristics of any warning system installed, the reaction of the aircraft itself, the arousal state of the pilot and the proximity of his or her hands to the relevant control. When testing the effect of failures, the establishment of realistic pilot intervention times is crucial and most assessing authorities have developed a set of rules regarding the way in which these times are constructed. The following definitions are taken from Ministry of Defence Standard 00-970 [7.2] which divides the intervention time into rotorcraft response time and pilot response time. Rotorcraft response time
The rotorcraft response time covers the time between the failure occurring and the pilot becoming aware of it. This time will depend on the characteristics of the rotorcraft, on the nature of the failure and in particular on the characteristics of any associated warning. For example, in the case of an audio tone indicating engine failure the response time is equal to the time it takes this to activate. If there is no warning then the pilot may only become alerted to the failure by a change in the flight path. This is usually the case for runaways of the AFCS where the rotorcraft response time is determined by the time it takes for the aircraft to achieve an angular rate of 3 degrees per second about any axis or a change in acceleration of 0.2g along any axis [7.2]. The rate is increased to 5 degrees per second and the acceleration to 0.25g for passive flight phases where the pilot is less involved in controlling the aircraft. Although the pilot may be alerted by other changes, in noise or vibration levels for example, they are usually harder to define and are not often used as the basis for specification compliance. In situations where the failure cues are not easily defined it is often necessary to conduct no notice failures during simulated mission tasks to determine the rotorcraft response time. Pilot response time
The pilot response time is defined as the time between the pilot being made aware that there has been a failure and recovery action being initiated via the controls. The pilot response time is further divided into the decision time and the reaction time. The decision time varies depending on the level of involvement in the flying task while the reaction time is dependent purely on whether or not the pilot’s hands are on or off the flight controls. Table 7.1 shows the pilot response time criteria taken from 00-970 [7.2].
Table 7.1 Definition of pilot response times [7.2].
Flight segment (pilot attention level)
Decision time (s)
Reaction time (s)
Pilot response time (s)
Attentive Hands-on
Attentive Hands-off
Passive Hands-on
Passive Hands-off
The flight phases associated with the decision time have precise definitions:
• Active flight. The pilot is using the flight controls continuously to maintain or change the flight path of the aircraft.
• Attentive flight. The pilot has to pay particular attention to flight control for short periods. This may involve making occasional adjustments to the flight path using the flight controls, for example, during instrument flight. Alternatively it may involve monitoring the actions of the flight control system closely, such as during an automatic approach to the hover.
• Passive flight. This covers long periods of flight during which the pilot need only give a minimal amount of attention to controlling the flight path or monitoring the AFCS; for example, during instrument flight with autopilot holds engaged.
The attentive and passive phases of flight may then be further divided into hands-on and hands-off depending on whether or not the pilot would normally be grasping the flight controls. Deciding which flight phase should be used when conducting failure testing is clearly very important, as it will directly affect the decision time and therefore the entire intervention time. From the point of view of the manufacturer it is preferable to have the specification compliance testing conducted against the shortest possible decision time, as the aircraft is more likely to be satisfactory. For the test pilot, however, the only consideration is to ensure that the decision time which is used accurately reflects the way that operational pilots would fly the aircraft. Thus if he knows from his operational experience that pilots normally engage the radar altimeter height hold when flying low level over the sea, leaving the flight controls unattended for substantial periods, then clearly the passive hands-off criterion should be used.
Once the appropriate flight phase has been chosen, testing is conducted to determine if the aircraft can be recovered safely at the end of the total intervention time.
Planning for failures
Before flight testing can take place a significant amount of preparation and planning is required. A failure modes, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) will have been conducted to determine the probability of component failure and the effect of these failures on the system as a whole. It is then the job of the test team to evaluate the ultimate consequence of these system failures in the role. As part of this process, or in parallel to it, the test team will gain their detailed system knowledge. As a result of the FMECA it may be necessary to have specialized equipment designed and built to inject failures if the normal cockpit controls cannot be used to achieve this. It may also be necessary to approach the manufacturer for clearance to conduct certain tests and to provide more generous limitations. The difficulty of the anticipated recovery manoeuvre(s) will affect the requirement for crew training so these are defined at the planning stage and simulator time booked if appropriate.
7.6.1 Alerting the pilot
Specification documents (such as Ministry of Defence Standard 00-970 [7.2]) stipulate that for all failures that can affect the operation of an aircraft some means of alerting the crew must be provided. These documents also lay down the characteristics of the warnings, for example, the colours to be used and viewing arcs. Warnings can take the form of audio tones, flashing attention-getters and captions, either individually or in combinations. The first stage when assessing any warning is to determine if it performs its primary function, in other words, does it warn the pilot? Since the attention-getting quality of any warning is its most important feature it is assessed under an extensive range of environmental and mission conditions. The appropriateness of the level of warning provided is also considered for any failure state. Clearly the more serious the potential outcome of a failure the stronger the attention-getting qualities of the associated warning must be. Thus major emergencies such as engine fires or low hydraulic pressure are normally indicated to the crew with audio tones and red captions. An excess of these captions and audio signals is counter-productive and therefore the cockpit assessment will determine if they are only used when the crew must act immediately to ensure the aircraft’s safety.
Of course warnings are not restricted to the alerting of failure states, they are also used to indicate to the pilot that the aircraft is approaching or exceeding the flight envelope; the most common parameters being structural limits, torque and rotor speed. The assessment of flight envelope warnings concentrates on the four key areas of accuracy, clarity, utility and reliability. Dealing first with accuracy it is obvious that an inaccurate warning is of little use, but it is sometimes not realized that an inaccurate warning can be worse than no warning at all. Take the example of a high rotor speed audio warning which is set at a level that is below the maximum permitted NR. In this situation pilots may rely on the audio system and may not control rotor speed until the alert is heard. An inaccurate or unreliable warning could have serious consequences in this situation. Turning to clarity, any alerting system must provide an unambiguous message to the pilot that will direct him or her to react correctly. Audio warnings associated with low rotor speed or engine failure and high NR are particularly important in this respect, as an incorrect reaction by the pilot will usually exacerbate the problem. Utility is a measure of the usefulness of an alerting system in helping the pilot to respect the flight envelope limitations and whilst permitting exploitation of the full potential of the aircraft. Whilst an alerting system that tells the pilot he has already exceeded a limit may be useful to the ground crew in directing their post-flight rectification activities, it has little utility as far as the pilot is concerned. Similarly a system which is triggered very close to the limiting value may not provide an adequate margin to prevent an exceedence during dynamic situations. Well-designed warning systems can have high utility, such as those that assist the pilot in maintaining the optimum rotor speed during a single engine flyaway without having to monitor the cockpit gauge. In other words an alerting system should provide cues to the pilot on the proximity of the limit and thus allow him to ‘fly the buffet’. Although most warnings and alerts are visual or aural there are tactile systems in operation as well; the Bell 430, for example, employs a collective lever shaker to alert the pilot to high values of torque. Clearly a warning or alerting system must be very reliable and not give spurious alerts otherwise crews will quickly lose confidence in it and eventually choose to ignore it.
The assessment of alerting systems has obvious dangers particularly where it is necessary to go to the flight envelope limit to activate the warning. An incremental approach is vital and the use of telemetry with careful monitoring of trends is commonplace. This may be a situation where more generous limits can be sought from the manufacturer during the trials planning stage. Alternatively it may be possible to adjust the warning to activate at an artificial value although this is not without hazard as the modification may invalidate the assessment especially if it involves recompiling software.
Alerting the pilot to failures of non-critical systems is often an area that is poorly engineered and this can have serious consequences. Failures of sensors that feed the flight instruments, navigation system or flight control system fall into this category. During the assessment of the aircraft it will be necessary to determine if the crew is warned adequately about the degradation caused by such failures. For example, if the compass reverts to a directional gyro mode on failure which reduces its accuracy; this should be indicated clearly to the crew.
|
Cancers Caused By Cigarette-Part 5
- Hair - Thin
According to the chemical toxins in cigarette smoke can damage the DNA in the hair follicles and generate cell - damaging free radicals hair . As a result , smokers tend to have thin hair and graying faster than nonsmokers . Men who smoke have twice the chance of hair loss than nonsmokers
- Flabby - Stomach
Smoking is an appetite suppressant and people who smoke have a lower body weight than non-smokers . However , a 2009 study in the Netherlands found that smokers have a deeper fat than nonsmokers .This fat can accumulate in your midsection , ultimately increasing the risk of other diseases such as diabetes .
and the most annoying is the blind following of passive smokers get wrinkles untu risk bleak dull and others mentioned above ...
- Body - Odor .And it's no secret cigarettes smoked will make the body and the mouth becomes smelly . The smell of cigarette smoke embedded in the body and also out of the mouth when bercakap2 for some people this can be very cloying . Then is it not strange , if the poison is still just complete suck ...
D. ( Being addict of cigarrets ) So a murderer and selfish human being .The most annoying of these is smoking hobby , can penghisapnya menjad killer of people around him without his knowing it . cekidot ;
Quote:When the pain from unhealthy behavior , it is a natural thing . But what about for people who are sick , as a result of the actions of others ? It's an unfair thing . Similarly, the case for people who are forced to inhale cigarette smoke from people smoking around him .
Inhaling secondhand smoke is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes alone . Even the dangers of secondhand smoke to be borne tripling of the dangers of active smokers .
Diseases that can be suffered by second-hand smoke is not better than active smokers . They become susceptible to cancer , heart disease , lung and other deadly diseases . They were surrounded by cigarette smoke will die sooner than those who live with cleaner air . And the death rate increased by 15 % higher .
From a study of 1,263 lung cancer patients who never smoked , it appears that they are to secondhand smoke in the home increases the risk of lung cancer by 18 % . When this happens in a long time , 30 years , the risk increased to 23 % . When exposure to secondhand smoke in the workplace or social life , the risk of lung cancer will increase to 16 % was when last long , up to 20 years , the risk will increase again to 27 % .
The concentration of harmful substances in the body greater secondhand smoke because the toxins are inhaled through cigarette smoke is not filtered active smokers . While cigarette poisons in the body filtered through the end of the active smoker of cigarettes smoked . " However, the concentration of active smokers toxins could increase if active smokers inhale smoke again that he exhales "
Toxins produced by the largest cigarette smoke billowing from the tip cigarettes were not smoked . Because the smoke produced by the burning of tobacco that is not perfect ..
|
Thursday, August 7, 2014
High Fidelity Teaching: Understanding the Significance of Stereotype Threat in Mathematics
Engagement is an essential element to learning. Why is it so difficult to engage some learners --especially in mathematics? This interactive session will focus on strategies for engaging all learners for optimal learning with special consideration given to ‘stereotype threat’ and ‘fixed mindset’ as potential barriers to engagement in mathematics, particularly for diverse learners.
Why do students not engage with mathematics in the U.S.? Many explanations exist:
• Students just don't care and/or aren't motivated
• Parents don't care
• Students lack ability
• Poor teaching methods in schools/universities
• Foundational knowledge is lacking
I provide an alternative to the common themes above: Stereotype Threat and explore the following:
• What is Stereotype Threat Theory?
• Fascinating research
• Who is affected?
• What are the effects of Stereotype Threat?
• What can we do about it?
Here is the link to my presentation for Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2014:
|
Northanger Abbey
It can be difficult for a reader to imagine the setting and fully understand the history of the locations in a novel when it is not presented in a visual method. When a novel takes place in a real-life setting, it can be mapped and better understood using Google Maps. Using Google Maps as a tool, Catherine Morland’s journey through Bath to Northanger Abbey can be more easily followed, and the relationships between locations and landmarks can be better understood. I would argue that Google Maps can make an otherwise complicated, confusing novel much more engaging and accessible. The process of mapping Northanger Abbey is somewhat complex and requires a close reading, but I have outlined the process as I created the map. I also briefly researched the history of some of the landmarks mentioned in the novel, which adds a cultural understanding and reasoning to the many travels throughout the work as well.
In order to make the map more readable, I used different colored markers and created a walking path. The two most general locations that Catherine visits – Fullerton and Bath – are labelled with a green marker. Any specific locations that Catherine visits, either within Bath or along her journey to Northanger Abbey, are marked in blue. Her walking path through and around Bath to Perry France is also drawn in blue. Although it is obviously not exact, it does connect the places she visited together. Finally, the locations that are mentioned in the novel that Catherine does not actually visit are marked in red in order to provide locational context for the other landmarks. For example, Fullerton was said to be in vicinity to a town called Salisbury, so I marked Salisbury in red to provide that locational context. It is also interesting to see just how far places like Clifton and Blaise Castle were from Bath considering Catherine and her group attempted to travel to them but had to turn back since they were too far away.
Catherine Morland grew up in the rural England town of Fullerton in Hampshire. At the beginning of the novel, the Allens invite her to spend six weeks in Bath. Because Fullerton and Bath are major locations in the novel, I mapped them with green markers. Most sources I looked into claimed that Fullerton was not a real location; however, I managed to find it in Google Maps in vicinity to another town mentioned in the novel, Salisbury, so I mapped them both. Although Fullerton was probably not a real location, the fact that it is located near Salisbury on Google Maps was good enough for me. It can be considered a rough guess.
Jane Austen is clearly familiar with the town of Bath because it is where most of the “excitement” of the novel takes place. Although Austen invented several locations for the novel, almost all of the locations visited in Bath are real.
It is stated upon Catherine’s arrival in Bath that she settled into a hotel on Pulteney Street. Since this is a specific location within Bath, I mapped the street with a blue marker. The Allens later took Catherine to the Upper Bath Assembly Rooms. In the late 1700’s, the Assembly Rooms were important to Bath society and did include a ballroom and several concert rooms. When no one asked her to dance, Catherine attended another dance at the Lower Assembly Rooms, which is where she meets Henry Tilney. I managed to locate the Bath Assembly Rooms and marked them in blue; however, there is no distinction on Google Maps between the upper and lower assembly rooms. Her route from Pulteney Street to the Bath Assembly Rooms is connected with a rough blue line.
The day after, Catherine travelled to the Pump Room in hopes of seeing Henry again; however, instead of seeing him she was introduced to Isabella Thorpe. The Pump Room was at its most prominent in the late 1700’s, so it is fitting that Catherine visited the Pump Room considering the novel takes place in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century. The Pump Room was used as a meeting place for the upper class where people would come to drink mineral waters and visit with each other. It is marked in blue and connected with a blue line to the Bath Assembly Rooms.
One morning, Catherine and Isabella leave the Pump Room together, following two young men in the direction of the Thorpe’s lodgings. A minute or so later they stop at Cheap Street, which was known for being difficult to cross. I have Cheap Street marked and connected to the Pump Room. It is then that they find John Thorpe, Isabella’s brother, driving a carriage. He and Catherine’s brother James have just arrived in Bath from Tetbury. Tetbury is marked in red and unconnected to the other locations because although it is a real location talked about in the novel, Catherine does not visit it.
The day after meeting up on Cheap Street, Catherine, James, and the Thorpes take a drive out of town together, heading for Claverton Down, which is marked in blue and connected to Cheap Street. Claverton Down is a suburb of Bath, so the trip would have been relatively short. This is a journey that Jane Austen incorporated into the novel for seemingly little reason. It is clear that she enjoyed writing about places that she knew quite well and may have added these small side trips for the fun of it.
Later on, Catherine is pressured into taking another trip with James and the Thorpes to Clifton. Catherine was looking forward to seeing Henry again, but John Thorpe convinces her that the Tiilneys had already left town. While trying to convince Catherine to join them, John mentions visiting Blaise Castle, which gets her excited. He tells her that it is the oldest castle in the kingdom with dozens of towers and galleries. Upon investigating this castle, I discovered that it is not a castle at all, so John was only teasing her during this exchange. I mapped both Clifton and Blaise Castle in red because the group never arrived at either location. It surprised me to see just how far these two locations were from Bath, so it really is not a surprise that the group never reached them considering they were travelling at such a slow rate.
The four travelers turn back an hour into their trip to Clifton because of how late it is. They had barely traveled seven miles with at least eight more to go, according to James. It was never stated where exactly they stopped and turned around, but according to the novel they were “werewithin view of the town of Keynsham,” so I placed a marker on Keynsham directly, which is about halfway between Bath and Clifton. At the beginning of their journey, Catherine had caught sight of Henry and his sister Eleanor walking down Argyle Street. I placed a blue marker on Argyle Street but did not connect it with a path since I was unsure when exactly this interaction occurred in relation to the journey. She was unable to make John stop the carriage and let her out, so she went to their lodgings on Milsom Street to explain why she did not meet up with them. Milson Street is located between the Bath Assembly Rooms and the Pump Room, which was probably why Catherine met Henry at the assembly rooms and was hoping to see him again at the Pump Room. I can assume that the walk between these two locations was relatively short.
The evening after the journey, Catherine met Henry Tilney at the theater and explained what had happened, and several days later she travelled with Henry and Eleanor to Beechen Cliff, which is a hill overlooking Bath. I created a walking path between Beechen Cliff and the general area of Bath that Catherine had been visiting. It is on this hill, looking down at the city of Bath, that Catherine rejects the city as unworthy.
Catherine and the Tilneys then leave Bath on their journey to Northanger Abbey. While travelling to Northanger Abbey, they stop for a time at the town of Petty France. I’ve drawn a line from Bath to the area where I believe Petty France to have been. There were several locations called “Petty France” in the United Kingdom, but I chose the one closest to Bath because – according to the sources I read – the Petty France talked about in Northanger Abbey was located in Avon.
The last location I mapped was the city of Salisbury. The marker is red because Catherine never visited this city. It was, however, referred to by Catherine and talked about by Henry as well, so I decided to include it in the map. Catherine stated that it was in vicinity to her hometown of Fullerton, so it backs up the validity of the map considering the two locations are near each other in Google Maps as well.
I was unable to discover whether or not Northanger Abbey was a real location, but I doubt that it was, and I was unable to find anything like it using Google Maps. It may have been based on a real location; however, I left it out of my map for the sake of undermining its accuracy. When Catherine is sent away by Henry’s father, she travels all the way back to Fullerton. Since Northanger Abbey is not a real location, I drew a line from Petty France to where I believe Fullerton to have been. The line is obviously not accurate, but it is roughly representative of the journey in the novel coming around full-circle. Catherine journeyed from Fullerton to Bath to Northanger Abbey and back to Fullerton again, which is visually representative of her character development and the novel’s overall coming-of-age plot. Even though she ended up where she started, her life was dramatically altered, especially considering she ended up with the man she coincidentally met during her travels in Bath – Henry. Visually seeing this journey in Google Maps helped make my second reading of the novel much more successful than my first.
By using Google Maps to map Catherine Morland’s journey in Northanger Abbey, I was able to garner a better understanding and appreciation for the novel as a whole. Prior to mapping the novel, my knowledge of the setting was very limited. It seemed as if Jane Austen was bombarding the reader with locations and expecting them to understand how they correlated with one another. It was also hard to get through the novel at times because I had trouble following the setting, which Northanger Abbey seems to rely upon quite a bit. After mapping each location that Catherine visited, I was able to visually see what roads she might have walked down, how long it may have taken her, and how far away the locations were that she did not visit. Her journey from Bath to Petty France was particularly long, which makes me wonder exactly how much farther Northanger Abbey would have been. Mapping the novel also helped me to enjoy it more. Without having had any historical or locational background prior to my first reading of Northanger Abbey, I had trouble envisioning the setting and understanding what the characters were talking about in terms of locations; however, by seeing it visually, I found it easier to focus on the story since the setting was already in my mind. It also helped me to visualize the overall progression of the plot and all of the locational information that was being thrown at me by the author.
The relationship between reading and visually seeing real places helps to enhance the reading experience overall. Even though Northanger Abbey is a work of fiction, the fact that the real-world locations mentioned in the novel can be mapped out visually gives a sense of realism to the novel, allowing the reader to connect it to the real world. There is always more than one way of reading a novel, and one of them includes making a map to aid in the visual experience. This form of data visualization incorporates digital media into the simple art of reading a novel, therefore combining a more modern method of reading with one that has been around long before the technological age.
|
A Film Primer
The majority of plastic films are made from low density (LDPE), linear low density (LLDPE) polyethylene, and high density polyethylene (HDPE) resins.
Recent advances in resin technology has allowed the production of additional grades of polyethylene, especially LLDPE, with enhanced performance characteristics. New processes, such as the use of metallocene catalysts, are improving properties of linear polyethylene and polypropylene through precise control of molecular weight and composition.
Non polyethylene resins constitute the remainder of plastic film types found in the marketplace. Polypropylene (PP), polyvinylchloride (PVC), and nylon resins comprise the bulk of these other film types. Increasingly, certain multi-ply or co-extruded films are used in specialty applications (specialty bags, some bubble wrap, etc.) that seek to combine performance attributes of two or more resins for a specific application.
Tips for Identifying Film and Resin Types
Techniques for identifying film resin types include evaluating clarity, stretch and strength properties, feel and flexibility, and even burning characteristics. Testing burning characteristics should be done outdoors with extreme caution, using a small sample, burning only one corner with a lighter or match. Each resin and its identifying characteristics are described below:
Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)
LDPE was the first commercial polyethylene, and remains widely used in the production of custom bags for durable goods and other products. LDPE is increasingly yielding market share to LLDPE, an enhanced variation of the same resin, and specialty blends.
Common LDPE Film Identifiers
Unpigmented films have high clarity
Burn test: smells like a candle
will strand when pulled in molten state
Moderate stretch & strength characteristics
In addition to film applications, LDPE is found in film-related products, including packing foams and bubble wrap materials.
Medium Density Polyethylene (MDPE)
This is a variation on the production of low-density polyethylene, using a similar process. This resin is commonly used as a low-cost alternative to other resins in film applications where strength is not required.
Common MDPE Film Identifiers
Unpigmented films have moderate clarity
Burn test: smells like a candle
will strand when pulled in molten state
Poor stretch & strength characteristics
Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE)
Linear low-density polyethylene was developed in 1978. It is an attractive alternative to LDPE because its production process is less costly than high-pressure processes used to produce standard low-density resins. Its improved stretch and strength characteristics, relative to LDPE, have led to increased usein things like stretch wrap and bags.
Common LLDPE Film Identifiers
Unpigmented films have moderate clarity
Slightly tacky feel to the touch
Burn test: smells like a candle
will strand when pulled in molten state
Very good stretch & strength
High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
HDPE, a common resin used in the production of a variety of rigid container plastics, plays an important role in certain film applications. Produced predominantly by low-pressure processes, it is relatively cost-competitive with LLDPE, and offers improved strength, making it the preferred choice for grocery and merchandise sack manufacturing.
Common HDPE Film Identifiers
Unpigmented films have some opacity
Crinkles to the touch
Burn test: smells like a candle
will not strand when pulled in molten state
Moderate stretch - high strength Unpigmented LLDPE (Stretch
Polypropylene (PP)
Polypropylene has the lowest density of any common thermoplastic, but has good strength properties. Commonlyused in heavy gauge woven bags or tarps.
Common PP Film Identifiers
Common resin in heavy gauge woven bags or tarps
Burn test: distinct sweet wood odor
A type of PP used increasingly in film production is oriented polypropylene (OPP). OPP is produced by stretching the film while it is hot, to improve strength by orienting the molecules. OPP can be used to produce low-cost films with good clarity. These films are difficult to discern from PE films, except by texture and burn testing.
Common OPP Film Identifiers
Unpigmented films have high clarity
Common resin in garment bags
Burn test: distinct rosewood odor
Fairly stiff, crinkles to touch, tends to return to original
Co-extruded Recyclable Films
There are a variety of niche film products where two or more of the resins described above are combined to yield a film product with enhanced properties for a specific application. Most often, this involves the combination of LDPE and HDPE. In such applications, HDPE contributes strength, while LDPE provides a smooth, flexible surface with high printability.
Common applications include:
-- Woven Lumber Wraps - woven HDPE tapes, laminated with LDPE film: woven texture is apparent, but
surface is smooth; often different color on opposite sides.
-- Mailing pouches, and bank bags - HDPE and LDPE layers laminated: typically different color on opposite sides, relatively stiff feel.
Identifying Limited and Non-Recyclable Films
Cross-linked Polyethylene
Cross-linked polyethylene films are films which have been altered on a molecular level in order to significantly improve their strength. The e-beam or chemical processes required to create cross-linked films are expensive, thereby limiting the number of applications where such films are found. Unfortunately, cross-linked films are also non-recyclable, because they cannot be re-melted. These can sometimes be replaced by other polyethylene films with strength-enhancing additives.
Common Crosslink Film Identifiers
No stretch - very high strength - difficult to tear.
Crinkles to touch
Yellowish hue when crumpled.
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) / Polyvinyladene (PVDC)
Vinyl films are common in food contact applications, especially frozen foods, because of their low oxygen permeability and strong cold temperature properties.
Vinyl is sometimes laminated to lower cost LDPE films to achieve combined attributes. Vinyl films are recyclable, but due to contamination problems associated with common uses and its specialized recycling lines required, recycling is not cost-effective at this time. A common PVDC wrap is the Saran® brand food wrap.
Nylon Web and Cast Nylon Films
Nylon films are also somewhat common in food contact applications requiring stronger packaging, such as soup pouches or seafood packaging. Nylon films may also be found laminated to LDPE films, and also offer low oxygen and odor permeability and strong cold temperature properties.
Common Nylon Film Identifiers
Check with mfr. on all food contact films
Typically thick, high-strength films
Cast Polystyrene (PS) Films
These films are found in a small number of niche applications, and represent a very small fraction of the overall film stream, and are only recyclable in specialty programs. They are used in applications such as carrier sheets for other manufacturing materials. Because they are much crisper (less flexible) than most other plastic films, they may be classified as rigid sheet rather than films, and fairly readily identifiable.
|
Reap the rewards of hosting a year-long student
Be a host family for an international student for the school year and take advantage of the learning experience for both the host families and the students.
Michigan 4-H International Exchange programs acknowledge hosting as an educational opportunity not only for the student experiencing a new culture but also for the host family and host siblings. The program focuses on life skill development including problem solving, self-confidence building, flexibility in new situations, communication, responsibility, respect, understanding and tolerating others, decision making and adjusting to others’ needs. Hosting a youth gives the entire family the opportunity to build on their life skills.
Once the host family has dealt with the initial introduction of the youth to the family, school and community, they then have to make some adjustments themselves as school starts. They have to adjust to one more individual’s needs as they make plans for the family. They may have one more high school student to fit into the family sports schedule, homework time, family chores and family social calendar events and activities.
Host families talk about the changes that happen to them as a family. As they plan out their everyday routine, they start to question how they spend their time. With a new person in the family, they question the TV programs they watch, how much time a week they eat as a family or how are they take part in community activities. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter are examples of times that host families start paying attention to their own culture and many families make a special effort during these times to show their student how their own cultural traditions have developed.
As host families process their experience, after the tearful good-byes and getting used to a home that’s quieter and less cheerful, they see that their lives have become richer and deeper. They have gained an understanding of people who are different in culture, language, thoughts, values and beliefs, and yet have found common ground and a way to communicate. They have grown their family not only by the one individual they hosted, but they’ve seasoned their world view of all peoples of the world.
For more information on Michigan 4-H International Exchange programs, visit the Michigan 4-H website.
Related Articles
|
Article Text
S10-5 Using carex for the global burden of disease- occupational exposures
1. Tim Driscoll
1. School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Introduction Burden of cancer methods rely on estimates of the prevalence of exposure to relevant carcinogens.
Methods CAREX has been the primary source of information on the prevalence of occupational exposure to various carcinogens. CAREX reflects exposure in the early 1990s in Developed regions, particularly Western Europe. Information is based on industry. Separate information by gender and age is not available. The information reflects the prevalence of exposure - there is no information on level of exposure.
Results Advantages of CAREX for burden of diseases studies include that the study used sound methodology; covered most countries in Western Europe and included some data from North America; the information has already been collected; and the time period covered is appropriate given latency considerations.
Use of CAREX for burden estimates also raises significant challenges, particularly in developing countries. In terms of geographic variation, the information was not collected from Developing countries and there are few data to indicate the extent to which the prevalence (and level) of exposure is similar for the same type of industry in different countries. In the Global Burden of Disease study, attempts to address these issues have involved using the same CAREX prevalence for all regions but adjusting the relative proportion of people exposed to ‘High’ levels of exposure and ‘Low” levels of exposure. This approach has merit but there are limited data in the literature to guide the relative proportions that should be used. General issues include that exposure is likely to be more homogenous within an occupation rather than an industry; and exposures are probably more common/higher for males compared to females within the same industry.
Discussion and conclusion Improvements in the estimates of the prevalence and level of exposure to occupational carcinogens would usefully contribute to improvements in burden of disease estimates.
Statistics from
Request permissions
|
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
1. The 1916 Battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of the First World War, with more than one million casualties, and also one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The Allied forces attempted to break through the German lines along a 25-mile (40 km) front north and south of the River Somme in northern France. One purpose of the battle was to draw German forces away from the Battle of Verdun; however, by its end the losses on the Somme had exceeded those at Verdun. While Verdun would bite deep in the national consciousness of France for generations, the Somme would have the same effect on generations of Britons. The battle is best remembered for its first day, 1 July 1916, on which the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead — the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army to this day.
2. The Battle of Verdun, fought from 21 February to 19 December 1916 around the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in northeast France, was one of the most important battles in World War I on the Western Front. The battle was fought between the German and French armies.
3. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was the peace treaty which officially ended World War I between the Allied and Central Powers and the German Empire. After six months of negotiations, which took place at the Paris Peace Conference, the treaty was signed as a follow-up to the armistice signed in November 11th, 1918 in the Compiègne Forest (which had put an end to the actual fighting). Although there were many provisions in the treaty, one of the more important and recognized provisions required Germany to accept full responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-247, make reparations to certain countries that had formed the Allies.
4. The Brusilov Offensive was the greatest Russian feat of arms during World War I, and among the most lethal battles in world history. It was a major offensive against the armies of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front, launched on June 4, 1916 and lasting until early August. It took place in what today is Ukraine, in the general vicinity of the towns of Lemberg, Kovel, and Lutsk. The offensive was named after the Russian commander in charge of the Southwestern Front, Aleksei Brusilov.
5. The Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 was a decisive engagement between the Russian Empire and the German Empire in the first days of The Great War, fought by the Russian First and Second Armies and the German Eighth Army between August 17 and September 2, 1914. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army.
6. The Battle of Arras was an offensive during World War I by forces of the British Empire between 9 April and 16 May 1917. British, Canadian, and Australian troops attacked German trenches near the French city of Arras.
7. The Armenian Genocide — also known as the Armenian Holocaust, "Great Calamity" (Մեծ Եղեռն) or the Armenian Massacre — refers to the forced mass evacuation and related deaths of hundreds of thousands to over a million Armenians, during the government of the Young Turks from 1915 to 1917 in the Ottoman Empire.
8. The Battle of Jutland (Battle of the Skagerrak); was the largest naval battle of World War I, and the only full-scale clash of battleships in that war.
9. The First Battle of the Marne (also known as the Miracle of the Marne) was a World War I battle fought from September 5 to September 12, 1914. It was a Franco-British victory against the German army under German Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger.
10. The Battle of Gallipoli (sometimes referred to as the first D-Day) took place on the Turkish peninsula of Gallipoli from April 1915 to January 1916 during the First World War. A joint British and French operation was mounted in order to eventually capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul). The attempt failed, with heavy casualties on both sides.
Blog Archive
|
Ideas for a Fun and Productive Summer With Your Children
by Lois Breneman
Go to the library and check out a bagful of books for each child and read to them every day. This is a special time of closeness and it will help them to enjoy reading more themselves. If your child struggles with reading, get a good phonics program, and help him develop good reading skills. Give a small spiral notebook to each child to record each book (maybe just the thicker ones) he reads by himself, along with the date. He will be glad someday that he did.
Choose appropriate scripture verses for you children to learn during the summer. If they are teens, let them choose their own. Navigators has small folders especially for scripture memory verses or the verses can be written out on index cards to carry with you. Now is a good time for your children (and you) to just review the many scriptures already learned from previous years. I learned a lot of verses especially as a child, and to review them now (including the references) is very helpful.
Another good way to brush up on scripture review is to record five to ten verses and play the recording every night before bedtime. In the case of young children, this would be great to play just before nap time or a quiet time (as mentioned below).
Help your children to develop their abilities and find their talents. Ask each child to choose several creative skills (with your assistance) to learn this summer. It may be sewing, cross-stitch, making mirrors, pillows or other crafts, wood working, wood carving (if old enough to handle a knife), drawing, painting, singing, playing a musical instrument, typing, writing poetry, writing short children's stories, rubber stamping, or a variety of skills. Help your child find books on the subject and read up on it. Many skills can be learned simply by following instructions in books. Or if you or your husband can teach that skill--great! If not, find a teacher for him or even learn the skill with your child. Another possibility is to swap skills with a friend---maybe she or her husband could teach your child how to do wood carving and you teach her child how to do cross-stitch. If your children are very young, give them an art lesson at least one day each week, and possibly a simple cooking lesson another day (maybe with a friend).
Cooking is something everyone should learn, whether young or old, male or female. I taught my children how to cook, as far back as when they had to stand on a chair to see the countertop. Now our two grown sons both enjoy cooking, as well as our daughter, who is a registered dietitian, but it is never too late to start teaching this practical skill. Check out some cookbooks specifically for children or use the ones you have, and give your children cooking lessons. Start with the basics. Give them a small notebook to list all the things they make during the summer. (It could be a section in the notebook mentioned above.) After they learn some basics, teach them how to plan and cook a family meal. A child of 10 - 12 should be able to make a complete simple meal, with a little help. Start with scrambled eggs, baked potatoes, hamburgers, rice, cooked fresh vegetables, muffins, quick bread, cookies, simple sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, deviled eggs, French toast, pizza, etc. Then go to omelets, cakes with icing, casseroles, scalloped potatoes, waffles, yeast bread, and planning an entire meal.
If you enjoy crafts, cooking (and children), want to earn a little money for the summer and are able to handle it, pass the word around that you are going to give children's craft or cooking lessons during the summer for a fee. Many mothers would jump at the chance to have their child learn cooking by someone other than herself, which is a shame, but that would be better than not learning at all. Keep the classes small. If summer time is too busy, you may want to teach classes after school hours one day a week or just once a month.
Make up a chart for each child, and include a devotional quiet time, several jobs in the home, as well as reading, scripture memory/review, creative things, and a service for someone else. Plan a reward system. If your child cannot read, draw a picture chart and give him stars or happy faces to paste when he does a job. For making the bed, draw a bed, etc., and don't expect a perfect job at an early age.
Have an hour of quiet for all of the children and for mom, possibly just after lunch, no matter what their ages. This can be time spent reading the Bible and praying, as well as reading other books, doing cross-stitch, or napping, but everyone must be quiet. Elisabeth Elliot's daughter, Valerie Shepherd, said how she requires this of her eight children every day. When our children gave up naps, I also required them to be quiet in their bedrooms reading or resting for an hour. It was good for the children and it helped my sanity, if nothing else!
This summer is a good time to review manners with your children, teaching them conversational manners as well as telephone, mealtime, neighborhood, church, shopping, company and car manners and writing thank you notes.
The book of Proverbs, plus the rest of the Bible as well as good common sense and a good book on manners are good guides. Get them involved with little skits, demonstrating the wrong way, as well as the right way for various situations. If you are doing this during family devotions, cover only one topic in a session. Of course, parents need to be on their toes as they teach and model good manners all day long, not just in a sit-down session. However, this has its place too, where both the mother and the father sit down with the children and talk about the proper way to act in specific situations.
from Kidsolutions with Samamtha
Kids love dirt and parents love free food, right? What better reason to plant a garden. If gardening is introduced as "fun" (parents, weeding is NOT a good way to teach gardening to munchkins) then kids are more likely to stay interested. Tools don't have to be an expense either. My favorite all purpose hand tool is an old silver serving spoon. It is great for digging, weeding, planting seeds and flowers and spooning fertilizer around plant bases. So, turn the T.V. off, put on a hat, grab some seeds and Let's Garden!
Ever watch your cat go berserk over a new catnip toy? Well, now you can grow your own catnip and make your own cat toys. Your cat will be in heaven!
What you need:
* packet of catnip seeds or 3-4 catnip starts from your nursery
* garden soil (either space in your garden or a pot filled with potting soil)
* an old sock (child's) that has lost it's mate * felt or fabric scraps (pink preferably)
* plastic milk jug (cleaned)
* needle and thread
* black embroidery
* floss
First, plant your seeds or starts in a pot or garden spot. Make sure it gets lots of sun. Keep moist. Let the catnip grow until you see a tiny flower appear. Pull the entire plant out of the ground (you can plant more now) and tie bundles of catnip upside down with a rubber band until completely dried. Be sure to hang the catnip high or your cat will get it down! Dry until crunchy. Break off the roots and discard. Now, cut the toe off of your lonely sock right where the heel starts. Cut a teardrop piece of plastic from your milk jug that fits into the toe of your sock. This will help shape your mouse. Stick the plastic teardrop into your sock, pointy end first. Fill your sock with the dried catnip. Pinch the end of your sock and sew shut with the black embroidery floss. It should be all scrunched up now. Tie your floss in a knot leaving about 3 inches of floss at the end. This is your tail. Sew little ears on the mouse with the pink fabric. Sew and knot the black embroidery thread into the nose, making whiskers. Now, give this sweet, little gift to your feline friend. It's sure to make them Purrrrrr.
Nothing says "summer" like fresh cucumbers from the garden. You can also grow them vertically in a pot if you live in an apartment. Let them climb up wooden poles or chicken wire. As your cucumbers start to grow, show the kids a time honored trick... the cuke in a bottle.
What you'll need:
* cucumber seeds or 3-4 cucumber starts
* garden soil or pot and potting soil
* 12oz or plastic liter soda bottle with cap
* vinegar
Plant your seeds or start in a sunny area and keep watered. When the tiny cucumbers appear, choose one at the base of the plant (it needs to be shadier so the cuke won't cook in the sun). Carefully slip the baby cucumber into the plastic bottle. Save your bottle cap, don't lose it! Keep your bottle partially shaded with newspaper or burlap. When the cucumber fills the bottle, snip the stem. Fill your bottle with vinegar (this will make it last longer) and put on the cap. Keep it in your fridge. Don't try to eat it, it is just for show and tell. Bring it out to amaze your friends and family and they'll ask "How did you DO that?"
Remember how you used to love to find a quiet "secret spot" when you were a kid? A place to think or read or share time with a friend? Bean pole teepees are a great way to grow delicious green beans AND provide your child with a little, shady, summertime fort.
What you'll need:
*8 - 6 foot or longer wooden garden stakes
*package of pole bean seeds
*(Kentucky Wonders work great)
*garden twine
*patch of ground
Take four of the garden stakes and pound into the ground in a large circle. Bring the tops of the stakes together and bind with twine. This should resemble a teepee. Plant bean seeds according to package directions but leave a portion between two of the stakes unplanted. This will leave a "door" into the teepee without crushing the beans. Repeat this with the other four stakes about 4 feet away. Keep the seeds moist until they germinate. Help train the beans to climb by wrapping them around the stakes. Soon you will have a cool, leafy and delicious place to visit on a hot, summer day.
Short on time and space? How about growing a salad in a pot?
What you need:
* large plastic or clay pot with drainage holes
* potting soil
* lettuce seeds or starts
* tomato starts
*cucumber seeds or starts
* 2 - 4 foot garden stakes
* twine
Put your pot in a sunny spot and fill with soil. Pound both of your garden stakes into the back portion of the pot. Plant your cucumber seeds or starts at the base of one stake and your tomato plant at the base of the other. They will climb them vertically if you help them with a bit of twine. Plant your lettuce seeds or plants in the rest of the soil. Go ahead and crowd them in, it will look really neat and give you more lettuce to work with. The cucumber and tomato will continue to produce all summer. When your lettuce is gone, plant more and keep it going. Keep your pot nice and moist. Don't let it dry out. Now you will have fresh salad fixin's whenever you want. (Planting herbs in a pot works well too. Try herbs like sweet basil, chives, thyme and parsley.)
We all love to watch butterflies flutter by. Did you know that these beautiful insects have favorite flowers from which to sip? It's true. Here are a list of favorite flowers a butterfly would list if they could:
*Butterfly Flowers: Aster~Butterfly Bush ~ Butterfly Weed ~ Black-eyed Susans ~ Carrot ~ Coreopsis ~ Daylily ~ Dill ~ Goldenrod ~ Hibiscus ~ Lavendar ~ Lilac ~ Marigold ~ Milkweed ~ Purple Coneflower ~ Rosemary ~ Verbena ~ Yarrow
You can easily turn this into an educational way to teach the family about the different types of butterflies. Just get a butterfly identification book, plant your flowers and watch the magic.
*The Butterfly Book : An Easy Guide to Butterfly Gardening, Identification, and Behavior (or find others in the library).
Make a beautiful picture with a paper towel by dunking it into colored water?
What you'll need:
*4 jar lids or small custard cups
* 1 large bowl
* food coloring
*white paper towel or paper dinner napkin
* 1 large paper sack
1. Pour some water into each of the 4 jar lids. Add about 10 drops of food coloring to each lid of water.
2. Fold the paper towel into several layers. Thoroughly dampen the folded paper towel into the large bowl with the clear water. Squeeze out most of the water. Flatten the towel, keeping it folded.
3.. Dip 1 corner into 1 of the colors. Watch as the colored water soaks into the paper towel. Repeat with the 3 remaining corners and 3 colors. Carefully unfold the wet paper towel. Lay it on the paper sack. Let dry.
You can create paper towel masterpieces with any colors you like. Then, when your artwork dries, hang it in a window. It also makes pretty wrapping paper for a small present. Or use the artwork to fix popcorn bundles for a party. Place popped corn in the middle of the paper towel, bring ends up and tie the top.
What you'll need:
*small glass jar with tight lid
*cooking oil
*food coloring
Add water to the jar until it is half full. Pour in enough cooking oil to almost fill the jar. Add several drops of food coloring. Screw the lid on tightly and let your children shake the jar. Be careful of the glass jar, that it doesn't break. A clear plastic jar should also work. Notice how the oil and water separate into colorful squiggly designs. Now have them move the jar slowly back and forth.
Make a bubble machine out of an empty margarine container.
What you'll need:
*paring knife
*1 empty margarine tub container
* drinking straw
*12 cup water
*1 tblsp. dishwashing liquid
1. With adult help, cut a small round hole in one side of the margarine lid for the bubbles to come out. Then cut a small X on the opposite side for the straw to fit into.
2. Add the water and liquid soap to the margarine tub. With straw, stir to mix well. Put the lid on. Place the straw into the X. Blow through the straw to make bubbles.
3. Always remember to BLOW through the straw. Do not suck, or you will taste the bubble solution!
What you'll need:
*1 empty half-pint milk or juice carton
*One 2 1/2 x 12 inch piece of construction paper
*Crayons or markers
*Potting soil
*Parakeet or budgie seed
1. Thoroughly rinse out carton. Open unopened flap of carton. With adult help and working from the opened end of carton, use scissors to cut down 2 opposite corners just to the ridge. Then, 1 side at a time, fold top inside the carton. Cover the outside of carton with piece of construction paper. Fasten with tape.
2. Use crayons to draw a face on the side of your paper-covered carton.
3. Fill the carton with potting soil. Add enough water to make thick mud. Sprinkle the seed on the top of the soil.
4. Place your garden near a sunny window. Water garden when it is almost dry. In a few days, your seeds will sprout. Within 2 - 3 weeks, your garden will need a haircut. Use your scissors to snip the green "hair" straight across the top. Or trim it into a point. Each time your
garden's "hair" grows back, you can give it a new look with a different haircut.
This colorful gelatin mixture makes a great homemade rainbow. It's quick and easy to make and your children will enjoy squishing the cold brightly colored unflavored gelatin together. For an additional activity, take the Rainbow Goop out of the plastic bag and use it as finger-painting material.
What you'll need:
*One 1-quart heavy duty ziploc plastic bag
*Rainbow Goop
*Masking tape
Rainbow Goop
3/4 cup water
1 package unflavored gelatin
3 custard cups or bowls
Food coloring -- red, yellow and blue
1. In a small saucepan stir together water and gelatin. Let stand for 5 minutes to soften gelatin.
2. Cook and stir over low heat about 3 minutes or until gelatin dissolves. Remove from heat.
3. Divide the mixture evenly among 3 custard cups (about 1/4 cup each). Add 3 - 5 drops red food coloring to 1 of the custard cups. Stir well to mix.
4. Repeat with remaining gelatin with the yellow and blue food coloring.
5. Chill in the refrigerator 5 minutes or until partially set, stirring mixture during chilling.
6. Open plastic bag. Use a spoon to put all 3 colors of Rainbow Goop inside the plastic bag in rows.
7. Close the bag. Now open it just a little and push out all the air. CLose the bag again. Seal the top with masking tape. Now squeeze the bag gently with both hands to mix the colors into a beautiful rainbow. Watch how the pretty colors mix together and new colors appear. Yellow and red make orange. Yellow and blue make green. Blue and red make purple. What are the colors in your bag?
Have you ever made a mud pie and baked it in the sun? Your grandparents may have done that, but why not try mud pies the old fashioned way yourself sometime? This "mud pie" bakes in the oven though.
What you'll need:
*1-cup liquid measuring cup
*dry measuring cups
*measuring spoons
*1-gallon heavy duty ziploc bag
*table fork *8x8x2 inch baking pan
*hot pads
*1 1/2 cups flour
*1 cup sugar
*1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
*1 teaspoon baking soda
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1/3 cup cooking oil
*1 tablespoon vinegar
*1 teaspoon vanilla
*1 cup water
1. Wash hands. With adult help, get out all the things you will need. In the plastic bag, place the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, soda and salt. Seal the bag and shake to mix. Put the flour into the ungreased 8 inch square baking pan.
2. Use a table fork to make a hole in the middle of the flour mixture. In the 1-cup liquid measuring cup, measure the oil. Add the vinegar and vanilla. Pour the oil mixture into the hole. In the same measuring cup, measure the water and pour into the hole.
3. Use a table fork to stir together all ingredients. With adult help, bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Use hot pads to remove pan from oven. Cool in the pan. If desired, top a piece of cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and a maraschino cherry. Serves 12.
by Terri Wilson
I found several 10x13 picture mats on clearance at a craft store. I couldn't resist but didn't know what to do with them. I ended up sponge painting one of them to match my kitchen colors and stenciled "Artwork by Hannah" (my four-year-old) at the top of one of them. I glued a magnet in each of the four inside corners on the back. Now when my daughter draws a new masterpiece we stick it up on the fridge and it's easily changed when the next one comes along. We also made these as gifts for the grandparents and we try to mail them new pictures at least once a month.
Tip #2 for artwork... because I don't have room to store every piece of my children's artwork I needed a way to save the memory without the paper. I homeschool and my older daughter has a lot of artwork she'd like to save. I used bulletin board border strips and created a large bulletin board area on our schoolroom wall. All of my daughter's artwork (that is capable of being hung up) is hung up on this board. At the end of the month I have my daughter stand by the board and I take her picture. I've got 9 pictures from the last school year where I can not only see her artistic progress, but also her physical growth as she gets taller. I can save the important pieces (like the first time she wrote her name by herself), but I no longer have to save everything.
You could save the most special works of art in a covered box or in notebooks, with the child's name and date on each piece. I have a box of each child's drawings and artwork, stored under the living room sofa -- it's amazing how a skirted sofa can expand your storage space! A small round table with a long tablecloth is another hidden storage spot. The coat closet shelves are a good place to store baby books and photo albums. You might want to think of having your photos and certain things readily accessible in case of a fire, so they could be grabbed on your way out the door, if are in immediate danger. A small chair or bench nearby would be helpful in reaching the higher shelves in your coat closet. If your closet has only one shelf, most likely another one can be added to use all of the empty space and expand your storage efficiency. ~~ Lois
|
What Is Beta Carotene?
Smal bowl of shredded carrots.
Smal bowl of shredded carrots. (Image: pheigin/iStock/Getty Images)
If you’ve ever wanted to know what makes carrots and sweet potatoes orange, you can thank beta carotene. This carotenoid not only gives yellow and orange fruits and vegetables their rich color, it’s also an antioxidant that helps protect your body from chronic diseases. Your body also turns beta carotene into vitamin A, which you need for eye and skin health and proper immune function.
Discovering Carotenoids
Carotenoids are yellow, orange and red pigments made by plants. Beta carotene is one of the most common carotenoids in the North American diet, along with alpha carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin and lycopene. It was also one of the first carotenoids to be measured in food and in the blood. Diets high in carotenoids are associated with a reduced risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer.
Provitamin A Carotenoids
Specifically, beta carotene is classified as a provitamin A carotenoid because your body can convert it into vitamin A. Vitamin A is essential for good eye health. It also helps keep your skin healthy and your immune system strong. In large amounts, vitamin A can be toxic, but since your body only produces as much vitamin A from beta carotene as it needs, there is no risk of toxicity from consuming large amounts of beta carotene.
Beta Carotene as an Antioxidant
Beta carotene is also categorized as an antioxidant. Antioxidants help protect the body from free radicals – unstable molecules that can damage the cells. Over time, this damage, called oxidation, can lead to heart disease, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration or other neurological disorders. People who eat four or more servings of fruits and vegetables containing beta carotene each day have a reduced risk of developing heart disease and cancer.
Food Sources
You can easily pick out beta-carotene-rich foods by looking for those with a deep orange hue, such as carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and cantaloupe. Dark leafy greens, like spinach, collard greens, turnip greens and dandelion greens, are also an excellent source of the carotenoid.
Related Searches
Promoted By Zergnet
You May Also Like
Related Searches
Check It Out
This Is the Beauty Routine of a Yelp Sales Manager
Submit Your Work!
|
Adult and Juvenile Defendants and Confessions
Nearly 5 decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court in Miranda v Arizona explained that police interrogations involve “inherently compelling pressures which work to undermine the individual’s will to resist and to compel him to speak where he would not otherwise do so freely.”
Police officers use what is called the Reid Technique, which teaches a 9-step interrogation (or what they call “an interview”) method to extract confessions. It involves isolating the suspect during which the officer repeatedly challenges claims of innocence by accusing the suspect of lying and exuding confidence in the suspect’s guilt. Then, when the suspect feels trapped, the interrogator offers confession as a way out minimizing the suspected act and indicating benefits of confessing outweighed by the cost of maintaining innocence. It’s a predictable formula.
The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that these tactics can be so psychologically powerful as to elicit false confessions at “a frighteningly high rate.”
Miranda rights only need be advised prior to custodial interrogation. For 5 decades, courts have argued repetitively what is “custody” and what is “interrogation.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized in a case called JDB v North Carolina, that children are much more vulnerable during interrogations. In fact, the Reid Technique supports this position.
If you have thought or heard another say that false-confessions don’t exist or occur, the studies and law are full of well accepted and objectively proven examples to the contrary.
Plus, the Michigan Rules of Evidence permit police officers and others to take the stand and testify to hearsay statements that allegedly come from the defendant. However, there is no requirement to record the interrogations, to obtain sworn statements, or demonstrate to the court the exact questions and tactics employed to elicit the alleged statements, let alone the exact words of the supposed confession.
If you or a loved one is being questioned or asked to come in for an interview, consider taking an attorney to protect your rights.
|
We are not alone. Or at least we hope we're not. It would be a little dull and rather sad to be on the only planet in the universe with any life on it.
So we search for others. And the big hope remains with our near neighbours on Mars.
And now enough ice has been discovered at the Martian south pole to cover the entire planet with 11 metres of water, scientists have revealed.
The buried ice was found by a ground-penetrating radar aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter.
Scientists estimated the total volume of ice to be 1.6 million cubic kilometres - an even larger quantity than the 1.2 million cubic kilometres discovered at the north pole.
Reflections from the radar indicated a composition of almost pure water ice.
Until now, attention has been mostly focused on the northern polar region on Mars, which consists almost entirely of water ice.
The discovery of a vast ice deposit at the south pole goes some way to explaining what happened to the surface water scientists believe Mars possessed in its distant past.
Either the water must have ended up buried at the poles, or evaporated into space.
The large amount of ice found at the north pole was still far too little to account for all the water the planet once had.
The new study, published today in the journal Science, was carried out by a joint European and US team led by Dr Jeff Plaut, from the California Institute of Technology at Pasadena.
The scientists used the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (Marsis) instrument on Mars Express to fire penetrating radar signals to a depth of more than 3.7 kilometres below the planet's surface.
They wrote, 'The reflected power indicates minimal attenuation of the signal, suggesting a composition of nearly pure water ice.
'The total volume is estimated to be equivalent to a global water layer approximately 11 metres thick.'
Tracing the base of the ice deposits revealed a set of buried depressions within 300 kilometres of the pole that may represent past impact craters.
|
:: Donate now ::
Email this articleEmail this article
Print this pagePrintable page
Email the editor
Lesbian, gay, bi and trans pride series, part 8
Capitalism shakes the branches
By Leslie Feinberg
As city life and capitalist industrialization were shaking up family and sexual relations for Russian male workers, women also felt their impact.
Historian Dan Healy wrote, "Same-sex relations between women in tsarist and early Soviet Russia reflected the general transformation of women's roles and opportunities. For increasing numbers of women, the ties of the patriarchal village were loosening and breaking, and as with migrant men in the city, links to family ... were not always sufficient to maintain traditional forms of surveillance, including the monitoring of sexual behavior." ("Homosexual Desire")
While capitalism shook the branches of this rooted patriarchal system, it left the trunk intact.
Russian women were still weighed down with the burden of patriarchal family relations that served the class interests of the semi-feudal, semi-imperialist state.
Laura Engelstein writes, "Imperial Russian law established a system of power within the family at least as autocratic as the one governing the operation of the state: the husband wielded absolute authority over the wife, and the father entirely dominated the children. Women could not leave their households or undertake paid employment without the formal permission of father or husband, who controlled their access to the necessary official papers. No law protected women against physical abuse short of severe bodily injury.
"No formal grounds existed for legal separation; divorce, for which adultery constituted one of the few legitimate reasons, could be obtained only after elaborate and humiliating (or duplicitous) procedures; annulment was a rare and arduous attainment. No one of any age, male or female, could marry without the permission of parents or other appropriate authorities. By ancient custom, women had the legal right to maintain their own property after marriage, but they suffered severe disadvantages when it came to inheriting family wealth." ("Fin-de-Siècle Russia")
Nadezhda Krupskaya, a Bolshevik leader and author of the pre-revolutionary pamphlet "The Woman Worker," described company housing at the Thornton Broadcloth Mill, which, like much of Russian industry, was foreign-owned. Workers lived in "a huge building with an endless number of rooms, the partitions not up to the ceiling. ... The din was ear-splitting. The walls were green with damp. There were two families in each of the rooms, which were not large. ... They dried their laundry in the room, and it was so stifling the oil-lamps sputtered. ... Dormitory rooms were terribly crowded. ... The working day was incredibly long (12-14 hours at the textile mills). We saw some of the women workers lying on the cots in exhaustion, their faces in their pillows." ("Soviet Women")
Urban living also left its mark on the lives of male workers. "The rapid expansion of Russia's industrial base was accomplished by large numbers of male workers living in cities where there was neither space nor money for the replication of peasant marriage and family patterns," Healey wrote. "In tsarist Moscow, working men in the sexually active younger age groups outnumbered women, and they were crowded together in accommodations precluding any possibility of starting families or of bringing a wife and children from the village to join them." ("Homosexual Desire")
As peasants were pulled towards the vortex of urbanization in search of jobs, "A significant proportion of these newcomers stayed only temporarily or seasonally; many left wives and families behind in the village," Healey notes. "Others settled and became the basis of an urban proletariat in St. Peters burg, Moscow, and a handful of other centers. Urban workers' hous ing was crow ded. A huge proportion lived in barracks, flophouses, or shared rooms and even shared beds; a significant percentage lived in employers' households and workshops.
"Men found opportunities for sexual expression with each other in Russia's industrializing centers. As they exploited these new possibilities, they transformed Russian masculinity's traditional patterns of mutual male eros." ("Homosexual Desire")
That same-sex Eros--including, in some instances, lesbian love--was expres sed eloquently in the literature and arts produced in the late 19th century by the radicalized intelligentsia that was funded and flourished in the battle of the rising bourgeoisie and their imperialist backers against feudalism.
This articulation of the love that was finally speaking out in its own name flowered after the easing of censorship of books and periodicals following the 1905 Revolution against Tsar Nicholas II.
Two currents in women's struggle
The emancipation of women and the overall struggle for sexual liberation are closely tied, in particular because sexual subjugation in general is historically a key weapon of patriarchal domination.
That connection was visible in the late 19th century as revolutionary activists established collective living spaces. These political revolutionaries, writes Mandel, "established communes in the largest cities that were, particularly for women, places of refuge for runaways from the patriarchalism of smaller towns or family estates."
Mandel describes this collective living and the gender expression that was its hallmark in his own words, perhaps limited by his own concepts: "The members of the communes shared money, food, and possessions. The women particularly expressed their contempt for existing society by violating its rules of dress. They wore their hair straight, their clothing severe and comfortable, glasses whenever they needed them, and particularly violated convention by smoking. A unisex effect was striven for, not in the wearing of trousers, which was unthinkable, but in the abandonment of everything that made for femininity and for regarding women as sex objects." ("Soviet Women")
Between 1905 and 1917, two clear currents emerged in Russia that vied for leadership in the women's movement. One was socialist, seeking nothing less than the complete liberation of all workers and peasants from class domination. The other was a feminist grouping that was more middle- and upper-class in its composition and political orientation. It focused its struggle on the right to vote--an important bourgeois democratic demand.
In December 1908, for example, the feminists organized a Russia-wide congress in which more than 1,000 delegates took part. Only 45 working women were present and not one single woman from the peasantry--the class that represented Russia's vast majority of laborers.
The revolutionary women's current looked very different. In 1913, the Bolsheviks organized an important first celebration in Russia of Inter national Women's Day. Their organizing was in sharp distinction to a January congress on women's education convened by liberal intellectuals to which only a few women workers had been invited.
The Bolsheviks knew that in the repressive political climate of that year, the police would not issue a permit for a demonstration. So they secured the Grain Exchange for a "learned symposium." On the day of the event, March 8, the federal police--who were present at all meetings and could end any gathering at a whim--filled the first two rows in the hall.
The speakers at the Bolshevik-organized event were all women--working women. One of the leading voices at the meeting was a 25-year-old weaver who had been a member of her union executive board for six years. The weaver described the class composition and mood of the event: "No matter how poor the working women were, on 'their day,' the first holiday of women in Russia, they put on the very best they had, and the packed hall looked like a meadow in May from the brightness of the colors. ... [The police] didn't succeed in spoiling our holiday, although every speaker had to get her most private thoughts across to the audience as though breaking through the alert silence of the first rows." ("Soviet Women")
The outbreak of the inter-imperialist World War I in 1914 illuminated the bourgeois political foundation of those who identified with the feminist current. According to Richard Stites, a researcher in Denmark, "The feminists were rhapsodic about the great possibilities of serving the [Russian] fatherland and, in return, gathering political dividends for themselves. They showed no subtlety in connecting their 'sacrifices' to eventual payment in the coin of women's suffrage." ("Soviet Women")
Stites notes it was not well-to-do movement women who did most of the sacrificing during WWI. It was the women and men of the laboring classes who sacrificed.
And women workers paid with their sweat in toil, too. The percentage of women workers in factories had reached 30 percent of the total when the war broke out.
By 1917, as the imperialist war brought hunger and want, death and disability, thousands of women in the St. Petersburg needle trade walked out on strike, marching through the streets demanding "peace, bread and land." Male workers joined them, swelling the ranks of protest to 90,000.
That strike broke out on March 8--International Women's Day--and it was the first shot of the anti-capitalist Russian Revolution.
Capitalism's historical task
Capitalism in Russia, like feudalism, relied on the patriarchal family structures as economic units. The rule of capital accumulation created its own super-structure of law, religion, politics and education to justify the inequality of its economic base. And it enforced this economic and social injustice with brutal state repression.
World War I--an outgrowth of capitalism's drive to expand its relentless search for profits beyond its own border--was also having a profound impact on patriarchal family relations. The war uprooted millions of peasants and workers in Russia and elsewhere, disrupting planting and harvesting, production and family reproduction.
This clash of imperialist titans over who would steal the land, labor and resources of colonized peoples only profited the imperial victors. The war was slaughtering tens of millions of laborers and oppressed peoples, and exacerbating the super-exploitation and suffering of peoples caught in the grip of colonialism.
Capitalism, in relation to feudalism, was a progressive force in that it was a superior economic system--a qualitative leap in human productivity. Capitalism eradicated much of the medievalism of feudal autocracy with its need for science and technological advance. Capitalism socialized the artisan's individual tools, forging them into massive means of production. It galvanized a working class.
But the social relationship of capital--of exploiter and exploited--is a brutal one for workers and oppressed peoples.
And capitalism in Russia was too weak and too subordinated to the existing imperialist countries to even fulfill its bourgeois democratic promises to the masses. The brief liberal capitalist regime ushered in by the February 1917 Revolution solved none of their problems. It couldn't get out of the war that was killing the workers and peasants because the ruling class had imperial ambitions. It couldn't distribute the land to the peasants. And it couldn't meet the most elementary demands of the workers. Thus, the Bolshevik slogan of "Bread, land and peace" won the masses over to the need for a second revolution.
And this revolution in October 1917 created a workers' state that began the work of uprooting the entire trunk of ruling-class economic structures. It was no accident that one of the first acts of the Bolshevik government was to abolish the tsarist anti-gay and anti-woman laws.
Next: Bolshevik Revolution advances women's and gay rights.
Laura Engelstein: "The Keys to Happiness: Sex and the Search for Modernity in Fin-de-Siècle Russia." Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992.
Healey, Dan. "Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia: The Regulation of Sexual and Gender Dissent." Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Healey, Dan. "The Disappearance of the Russian Queen, or How the Soviet Closet Was Born." Russian Masculinities in History and Culture. New York: Palgrave, 2002.
Mandel, William M. "Soviet Women." Garden City: Anchor Books, 1975.
Worobec, Christine D. "Masculinity in Late-Imperial Russian Peasant Society." Russian Masculinities in History and Culture. New York: Palgrave, 2002.
Reprinted from the July 22, 2004, issue of Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted under a Creative Commons License.
Email: [email protected]
Subscribe to WW by Email: [email protected]
Donate to support pro-labor, anti-war news.
|
Could Public Health Benefits Make Combating Climate Change Free?
The bit of nonsense excerpted below is actually fairly typical of medical writing. They seem incapable of looking at the bottom line. They exult over a beneficial effect of something and ignore other effects that may more than cancel out the benefit. In this case it may be true that some parasites would spread more widely with global warming but the big seasonal killer is winter not summer -- so if winters became milder many deaths would be avoided at that time. And winter deaths show a considerable excess over summer deaths so the health benefits of a warmer world would be large
South Africa—Former entomologist Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum of the World Health Organization worries about nosebleeds more than the average person. That's because he's one of the estimated 12 million people worldwide afflicted with leishmaniasis—a potentially fatal parasitic disease characterized most often by lesions on the skin and/or mucus membranes—caused by the bite of a sandfly.
As the team leader for climate change and health at WHO and an environmental epidemiologist, Campbell-Lendrum is also in a position to worry more about how global warming is going to affect such so-called vector-borne diseases. "Is climate change going to bring malaria back to the U.S. and Europe? It's not," he asserts. "Climate change is eroding the environmental determinants of health: water, food, increasing disease," he says. Already WHO research suggests that current warming of global average temperatures of just under one degree Celsius is responsible for an additional 150,000 deaths per year, largely due to agricultural failures and diarrheal disease in developing countries. "All the inputs are on the conservative side," says Campbell-Lendrum, who helped come up with the number.
As a result, WHO—and a consortium of other public health organizations—declared climate change to be among the most pressing emerging health issues in the world at the recent climate negotiations here in South Africa. Consider some of the changes that are already taking place: extreme heat waves, such as the one in Europe in 2003 that killed 46,000 people; changes in bacterial diseases due to water contamination and a quickening of bacterial growth rates in warmer temperatures; worsening levels of ground-level ozone, otherwise known as smog, which is responsible for worsening asthma and heart attacks (among other health effects); changes in pollen making allergies worse; changes in vector-borne diseases; as well as droughts, floods and other forms of extreme weather such as the 12 natural disasters in the U.S. this year that caused at least $1 billion in damage.
1 comment:
1. "but the big seasonal killer is winter not summer".....
Not in countries that have the highest fatality rates. I don't think many people die of the cold in sub-saharan africa.
|
Prepared Statements in MariaDB 10.2
• A prepared statement is prepared from a literal string or a user variable. A literal string cannot contain variables. A user variable exists at a session level, so again, there is a risk to overwrite something. Especially if you always call the variable @sql, because a lot of people tends to do so.
• Prepared statements are verbose. You need to run 3 different statements (PREPARE, EXECUTE, DEALLOCATE PREPARE) just to execute a dynamic SQL statement.
First, let me say that the first problem is not solved. I hope it will be solved in a future version, so it will be easier to distribute stored procedures libraries. After all, MariaDB 10.3 will have several improvements to stored procedures.
The second problem is solved in 10.2. You can pass any SQL expression (or, at least, all expressions I tested) to PREPARE. Including a local variable, which means that there will be no conflicts with variables declared by the user. For example:
PREPARE stmt FROM v_query;
But this example is verbose. It demonstrates what I stated above: you need at least 3 statements just to execute a dynamic query. But MariaDB 10.2 solves this problem introducing EXECUTE IMMEDIATE, which is basically a shortcut:
As you can see, we don’t need PREPARE or DEALLOCATE PREPARE if we use EXECUTE IMMEDIATE. This is nice to have in stored procedures, but is not useful outside of procedures, because the prepared statement is always reprepared, even if we executed it before.
2 thoughts on “Prepared Statements in MariaDB 10.2
1. Please elaborate on your first two items. @sql can clobber something outside the SP, but not vice versa. v_query is redeclared in the single-threaded session, so what difference does it make?
• Hi Rick, I’m not sure I understand your question. Basically, the problem I’m pointing is that there aren’t namespaces. If you write something reusable, you shouldn’t make assumptions on what happens before and after your procedure is invoked. So overwriting stmt is dangerous, in 10.2 you can use EXECUTE IMMEDIATE. Overwriting @sql is also dangerous, fortunately in 10.2 one can use v_query instead, which is local.
Leave a comment
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s
|
In February 1943, Kerouac fleshes out on paper what his new writing will eventually encompass. He wants to exceed narrative constraints using a writing craft beyond his means. Though he is in agreement with his country’s desire to squash Fascism, he criticizes Modernism’s pussyfooting of social issues. He feels it disguises the truth behind symbolistic writing. Besides, equality for all through politics is insincere at best. Kerouac feels that to preserve independence of spirit, he must retain skepticism and practice caution. His thoughts lie with the Universal Brotherhood whom espouses similar sentiments. He, like they, seeks to explore the nature of man and his relation to the universe. Kerouac is reminded of Socrates’s tale of ill-fated Hypatia whom yearns to break down the wall of exclusiveness dividing races and nations and is yet torn part by an angry mob for her beliefs.
Well before most attribute Kerouac’s immersion into Buddhism in 1953, he is alerted to Buddha’s lesson that the paths of right and wrong are open to all. The truest path for mankind, Kerouac firmly believes, is the “Brotherhood.” It is a spirit of helpfulness springing effortlessly from his heart. It renders to those in need. Where Kerouac champions self-reliance in 1939 to 1942 (writing in a journal at one point about his “Moor of Myself”), he now realizes its discordance with the true harmony of the Brotherhood. This is The Sea is My Brother’s underlying message, bridging Whitmanic camraderie to intellectualism. Before, Kerouac treasured his independent spirit. He now yearns for a Brotherhood that usurps societal constraints that seeks to shackle the Universal spirit. Kerouac, on February 15, 1943, vowed to never “heed” to any; to stay true to his path.
March 15, 1943: Kerouac advises Sebastian Sampas that though they, as the Brotherhood should “stick together,” they mustn’t become dependent on each other. Kerouac realizes that what he specifically (and his group of Lowell friends, the Young Prometheans generally) discovered thus far (Kerouac had just turned twenty-one years old) was an “awakening of social conscience.” He realizes that his views differ from Sampas, a young ill-fated theatre student serving time on the European front as an army medic. Kerouac, at the moment (March 1943) has amassed 35,000 words on The Sea Is My Brother. He writes feverishly, night and day, determined to finish the book “before the Navy gets me.”
Kerouac intends address his passion for glory and life. The polarities he experienced, to his detriment and advantage, are present too; where he finds peace, he is also plagued by a simmering restlessness. Where he suffers ennui, he also endures a feverish facility for life. His desires by night, morning and afternoons are present in equal abundance. There is never enough time. He ‘burns his candles at both ends,’ as the saying goes. He expends his youth solely for creation experiencing what one scholar describes of Kerouac’s literary hero Thomas Wolfe, a “Faustian sickness.” Despite stacking odds, a world war, the draft board, drinking binges and women… all are bottom-tiered to the act of writing. He is labeled crazy, irresponsible, foolish, deluded and petty-minded. But he is in fact proud to the extent that he self-pens press squibs from The New York Herald-Tribune, the New Yorker and The New York Times, each calling The Sea Is My Brother the authentic work of a young Melville-like scribe, drawing comparisons to Keats, Shelley and even Beethoven. The Sea Is My Brother, Kerouac imagines, is the greatest book of its time, certainly of his generation of writers, and perhaps the most potently poetic stirring tome since Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.
On March 21, he is alone in his family’s Crawford Street house in Pawtucketville, Lowell. It is 4 A.M. on a Sunday. He writes to Sebastian. In a few hours he’ll kneel with the faithful at the very same church he will determine the meaning of “beat” in later years. But for now he is awed by the hushed stillness of a home formerly bustling with activity. He feels the ghosts of those he loves, an exasperating sorrow smothering him into a fit of weeping. He thinks of his mother, and others like her embodying the far-flung stars of humanity. He sees it so clearly that he begins to understand it.
It breaks his heart and he cries.
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s
|
Stuff for Seniors
Homeworks, Projects, etc.
Physics: Problem Set 3 July 9, 2008
Filed under: Homeworks — seniorsass @ 10:03 pm
Tags: , , ,
Answers available here.
Last name, First name
Year & Section
Problem Set
Free Fall
1. A stone that is initially at rest is dropped from the top of a building. It falls for 5.0 s before hitting the ground. How tall is the building?
2. At what velocity should a stone be thrown downward from a cliff 120 m high to reach the ground in 4.0 s?
3. How high will a body rise that is projected vertically upward with a speed of 100 ft/s? How long will it take for the body to reach maximum height?
4. How high an arrow will be 7s after being shot at 50 m/s?
5. A balloon which is ascending at the rate of 12 m/s is 80 m above the ground when a stone is dropped. How long a time is required for the stone to reach the ground?
6. A building is 50 m tall. A jealous lover wishes to drop a tomato from the top of the building onto the head of his girlfriend’s suitor. If the suitor walks at a speed 1.0 m/s, how many meters should the suitor be from the position below the tomato when it is dropped?
7. A person in a hot air balloon that is 25.0 m above the ground and descending at 2.5 m/s drops a bag of ballast. How much does a 2.0 m tall crew member standing below the balloon have to jump out of the way of the falling ballast?
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s
|
Positive Influence of Hip-Hop - Essay Example
Only on StudentShare
Extract of sample
Positive Influence of Hip-Hop
This music generally educated and shed light on issues that related or affected life for example violence through promoting a message of peace among the Americans. Hip- hop was used as a means of passing grievances and also by people who wanted to raise their views to the public. Some hip- hop songs tried to show the seriousness and effects of using drugs and it also spread communal messages across the country to inform people on what was happening in the ghetto life. In addition, hip-hop music has been a means of expression of the minority. Its main aim is to raise voices for the youths alienated and show that they also have positive impacts in helping the community. Moreover, those people who are mistreated silently and they have no-one whom they can share their problems with are considered by the hip- hop music. In addition, graffiti which is also associated with this genre of music renders a means of unconventional means expression. Hip hop also encourages its listeners who are mostly youth to never give up in life and to push on and they will succeed in spite of the problems they are facing. ...
Download paper
Hip - hop music can be defined as means of musical countenance and a way living-culture-which was started by African- American and Latino societies. It is the most popular music type in American modern society but it started being liked in the1970s. This music has been associated with inclination to violence and aggression irrespective of the fact that some hip- hop music are meant to pass a positive messages such as those relating to religion, people’s living conditions and politics…
Author : dickensnewell
Related Essays
Hip Hop: A Contemporary Business Model from the UK
Unlike the US, the UK hip hop industry was founded at the beginning of 1980’s and was cross racial, (Oliver & Leffel, 2006, P 48). The reason for this racial mixture was because contrary to the US, ethnic groups in Britain were not segregated and even in regions that had predominantly non white individuals, there were other ethnicities which facilitated cultural exchanges that formed part of the hip hop genre. Even with its development, major record labels in the UK shied away from the genre and successful artists in this industry were those who moved to America like Slick Rick, while...
28 pages (7028 words) Dissertation
How does hip hop music affect black youth?
This "How does hip hop music affect black youth?" outlines the connection between listening to hip-hop music and teenagers behaviour. Rap is an integral component of the African oral and musical traditions. Rap artists have emerged as the modern orators, the present-day Black icons (Rose, 1999). The non-violent anti-establishment rhetoric of 1960s, has been swapped by the powerful defiant, hate-driven, aggressive, anti-establishment rhetoric of rap icons, which provide contentment for the 1990s generation of Black youth (Rose, 1999). This often rebellious rhetoric speaks to the social,...
22 pages (5522 words) Essay
Hip hop
It was very entertaining using dictionaries to write rhymes and rapping about science and issues that affected the society.Hip hop is made up of four basic elements: DJing,MCing, Breakdancing and Aerosol Art (Graffiti).AfrikaBambaatana, popularly known as ‘Godfather of Hip-hop,’ pioneered the first artistic battles that incorporated the four elements of hip-hop as a tactic in substituting violent disputes. Discussion In the recent times, gangster rap has grown to become mainstream and thus influencing children so much that they don’t have interest in listening to hip-hop that fails to...
6 pages (1506 words) Essay
The effects Hip Hop have a society, money, and cars today.
They formed the DJ Africa Bambaataa, a hip hop collective and later the Zulu Nation. Since its emergence from Bronx, hip hop style has spread to the urban and remote communities throughout the world. There are four collective elements of hip hop, comprising; hip hop dance, rapping, graffiti arts and Deejaying. Rapping This is the primary ingredient of hip hop music. It comprises spoken and rhyming chanted lyrics. It is different from spoken word poetry in that it gets synchronized in time to a beat. There are different types of rap; the old school rap (1979-1984) characterized by...
6 pages (1506 words) Research Paper
Hip-hop in Colombia
It was labelled as an art form related to the poor and the uneducated owing to such features. But, hip-hop is a beautiful art form which talks about the miseries of the downtrodden and serve as stage for oppressed communities to voice their concern. What began as a music practice common among the economically underprivileged groups like the Latino's and the African-American's transcended into an art form, without national boundaries in a very short time.
4 pages (1004 words) Essay
Hip Hop Event Review
This is the house where he launched his first album in 1963. In this program, Otis Sallid’s direction basically allows the different choreographers use their innovation and do their job. They might end up producing something extraordinary using effectively the remarkably multitalented dancers of Philadanco. The choreography of Mr. Sallid is like a “harmless fun”(Seibert, 2010). Amid those a couple of Soul Train Dance parties linking the vernacular steps which was invented as well as mixed and matched by Brown. According to the review of Seibert (2013), in this performance Sallid’s...
4 pages (1004 words) Essay
Is Hip Hop a Culture?
It started with house parties at the home of Clive Campbell, or DJ Kool Herc, as he is known, a figure that is widely associated as "the father of Hip Hop" (Hess, 2007). Overtime, the parties became more frequent, attendance grew and the movement spread across the borough. The pioneering stage of Hip Hop was developing at these parties, with Jamaican-inspired events such as impromptu toasting or loud, boastful poetry reading about current events and hardships the main highlights of the soirees. The location of the inception of Hip Hop, and the period in modern American history in which this...
7 pages (1757 words) Essay
|
The Great American Bengal Mystery
Why do American sports love Bengal tigers?
Well, what is a Bengal tiger?
The scientific name of the cat is Panthera tigris tigris, and people also know it as the “Royal Bengal tiger.” The animal lives primarily in India, but Bengal tigers also inhabit countries to the north and east. The World Wildlife Foundation estimates that there are fewer than 2,500 Bengal tigers left in the wild; poaching and climate change threaten the survival of the species. The foundation states the cats can grow ten feet long and weigh 550 pounds. The tiger is named for Bengal, a region in northeast India, whose denizens speak Bengali.
Now, how did this tiger become associated with US athletics? Let’s look at the largest sports organization that bears its name: the Cincinnati Bengals.
It’s easy to figure out why the NFL franchise selected the Bengals as its moniker. They are actually the second team in the Queen City to use the name “Bengals.” The first Bengals entered the world of sports in 1937, under the ownership of Queen City Athletics, Ltd. It was the team’s first coach and general manager, Hal Pennington, who came up with the name for the franchise. According to a 2008 article from, this is the story Pennington would give:
“I was in my mom’s kitchen one day,” he told a reporter in 1967, “and on their stove there was a picture of this tiger with the name Bengal above it. I guess it was a trademark or something. Anyway, the tiger in the picture was so animated it inspired me. I figured Bengals would be a good name for the team.”
The team lasted for five seasons, surviving a few league collapses but ultimately folding because of America’s entrance into the Second World War.
In 1967, Paul Brown acquired the expansion rights to a new franchise in Cincinnati and wanted to give his squad “a link with past professional football in Cincinnati.”
(We won’t look into why he never chose, from previous Cincinnati teams, the Celts, Reds, Models, or Blades.)Bengal Stove
So, there you have it. In 2014, there is a professional football team that is named after an antique stove. Here’s a picture of one of them; I couldn’t find of any with a tiger emblem.
But America’s love affair with the Bengal goes back further and we’ll need to go to college to learn more about this. There are three universities who have gone above and beyond to show their devotion to this particular cat: Princeton, LSU, and Memphis.
Princeton University has been associated with the tiger since 1880. When the school started to identify specifically with the Bengal tiger remains a mystery. Penn State suggests Princeton’s connection with the Bengal tiger dates back to at least 1907, when at a game in Princeton, the baseball “team were shown a statue of Princeton’s famous Bengal tiger as an indication of the merciless treatment they could expect to encounter on the field.” In 1923, a father of one of the football players sent the university a Bengal tiger cub after a hunting expedition in India.
When a Princeton graduate took over Idaho State University athletics in 1921, he gave his teams the “Bengals” name.
Louisiana State University has had a live Bengal tiger mascot ever since 1936. The current iteration is Mike VI. LSU adopted the “Tigers” nickname in 1896 to commemorate a Confederate volunteer company. Louisiana State isn’t the only school along the Mississippi River with a live Bengal. Beginning in 1972, the University of Memphis has kept one as well.
Memphis mascot, Tom III
Two more southeastern schools have also thrown their support behind the breed. The University of Missouri’s mascot, Truman, is a Bengal tiger. When developing its paw print logo, Clemson University used a Bengal tiger’s foot, but it is unknown why the Field Museum chose this particular subspecies.
Lastly, there is a Detroit Tigers blog called Motor City Bengals.
Yes, Bengal tigers are ferocious beasts, but they aren’t the largest subspecies of tiger. The largest is the Siberian tiger, which is also known as the Amur tiger. There are also Indochinese (Corbett’s), Malayan, South-China, and Sumatran tigers, as well as the extinct Caspian, Javan, and Bali tigers. So why isn’t the NFL franchise the Cincinnati Siberians? What makes the Bengal tiger so special to all these athletic departments?
No other tiger has a rolodex as great as the Bengal’s and there is no specified reason why Western cultures are attached to these creatures. One hunch is that it has to do with the British exploits in India. Maybe the most famous depiction of a tiger at the time was Shere Khan, the antagonist from Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 work Jungle Book.
The Bengal tiger and US athletics have been intertwined for more than one hundred years. The Cincinnati NFL franchise has a peculiar backstory to its nickname. Collegiate affiliations with the cat are more mysterious. And for some reason, the Bengal trumps other tiger subspecies with its appearances in American sports.
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s
|
How To Redact Sensitive Data In PDF Tax Documents
Performing Manual Calculations
Paying income taxes can be a real nightmare for some, but we all pay taxes in one form or another. For example, when you work at your job to make money, taxes are deducted from your pay. Also, when you make purchases at stores, some percentage of the cost you pay goes towards sales tax. The same thing goes for owning property — you pay property taxes. But, how did income taxes all start?
Introduced in 1861 in the United States of America, the legal status of income taxes was unclear until 1913 when the constitution of the United States was ratified. From that time, the era of modern income tax system began. However, the resulting income tax system has changed a lot since 1913.
Among the many the things that changed, was the date for submitting your taxes. This day was originally on March 1, but in 1955 it was moved to April 15, and it has remained that day ever since then. If April 15 falls on a weekend, such as this year, or a civic holiday, the deadline is extended to the next working day.
This is why on April 18 you’ll hear everyone groaning about filing their taxes. Why? Because every year before that day, everyone has to report their income to the IRS by filling out any number of unique, complex, and special tax forms. You need to inform the IRS of all the income you’ve received in the previous fiscal year. And since paying your taxes is a civic duty, you’re obliged to do it.
And this is where the IRS steps in. The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) can audit any organization’s or individual’s accounts and financial data to ensure information is reported correctly. The data needs to follow certain tax laws so the IRS can verify that the reported amounts are correct.
What Do You Need To Provide?
If they need to look into your tax return, the IRS will send you a request for the specific tax documents and forms they’ll need. To speed up and enhance the IRS examination process, an electronic information management system was introduced. Getting those accounting records in the electronic format provides numerous advantages, such as:
• Reduced stress since taxpayers won’t have to print up every single file as everything is provided and filed electronically.
• Decreasing the number of items included in a document and follow-up requests as everything is already sent.
• Increasing efficiency, speed and effectiveness of the examiner’s analysis of your records.
How To Organize Your Documents
File Folder Case
The tricky part, though, is how to properly organizing your own records and books. With a good organization system, for example, that categorizes by year and type of income or expense, you’ll speed up the IRS examination process and possibly prevent any errors or misunderstandings.
When you have a large amount of PDF tax file information you need to send that have details which you don’t need to share, you can remove that data by redacting it. Sometimes people make the mistake of trying to cover up information like a social security number or other information they feel aren’t related to an IRS audit by using different, makeshift methods, which can quickly lead to a redaction fail.
The only way to properly redact a PDF document is with a redaction tool that can be found in comprehensive PDF software. Such tools don’t just cover up your text, numbers and images, it essentially replaces the selected content with a different type of redaction fill. And this is where Able2Extract’s redaction feature can step in and save your time and your nerves.
What Is PDF Redaction?
Redaction is the process of permanently removing any PDF content (text, numbers, images) from your PDF documents. This is one of the safest ways you can secure your highly sensitive information within the document itself that no one else need to see. PDF redaction will replace a word, a line of text, or even whole section of a paragraph, with a black area or a custom colored box. With this feature, Able2Extract Professional 11 will help you prevent your confidential data from being viewed.
How To Redact With Able2Extract
You can easily blackout anything you know that isn’t necessary for anyone requesting your tax information and create a redacted tax return. In just 3 clicks you can quickly change the look of your PDF tax documents.
Step 1
Open your PDF document by clicking on the “Open” icon. You can open both native or scanned (image) PDF documents.
Open PDF Toolbar Command
Step 2
Click on the “Edit” button to open all editing features.
Edit PDF Toolbar Command
Step 3
Use this editing panel on the right and select a Reduction tool. By clicking on the icon in order to complete the operations, click on the page and drag the selection rectangle.
Selecting PDF Redaction Button
You will redact right within the PDF viewing window.
Redacting Tax Information
After you redact your data, by clicking on the area, you can choose several options to customize your secured content:
• Change the fill color
• Make various outline adjustments
• Rotate your data
Options For Redacting PDF Data
Able2Extract’s redaction tool cannot blackout the lines that make up a table or border, but rest assured that any text, numbers, and graphics will be completely removed.
Customized PDF Text Redaction
In the end, the redaction tool in Able2Extract Professional can be a true lifesaver for people who work with various financial reports and different documents, regardless of profession or industry. Just by following these steps, you’ll always know that your information will be safe if the IRS knocks on your door.
|
How fast can a polar bear run?
Quick Answer
A polar bear can run 18.6 miles per hour. It is the slowest of the bear species but is ranked as the largest land carnivore in the world, which may account for its lack of speed.
Continue Reading
Full Answer
Located in the areas of the Arctic Circle, the average polar bear is almost 8 feet long and weighs over 1,400 pounds. They are born on land but spend much of their time at sea on the ice. Their strength lies not in their speed but in their sense of smell. Their sense of smell is so keen they can detect a seal from 40 miles away.
Learn more about Polar Bears
Related Questions
|
Summary: A marvellous faith was not the only virtue possessed by the Centurion whose slave was healed by Christ.
Study Tools
We find our chapter beginning with the close of that sermon. Verse 1, “He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum.”
We have seen that Jesus had made the fishing village of Capernaum His home-base, if you will. This is the place He stays at while ministering in Galilee.
Verse 3 tells us that, upon Jesus’ arrival in Capernaum, He was met by “some Jewish elders.” Now, the term “elders” does not refer to a group of senior citizens. Luke is referring to the religious leaders of the local synagogue. (The office of elder or overseer in the Church is patterned after the office of elder in the old Jewish synagogue.)
These “Jewish elders” of the Capernaum synagogue are on a mission as they confront Jesus. They have been sent to Jesus to persuade Him to perform an act of compassion. They want Jesus to save the life of a person who is near death.
We have here the beginning of a marvelous tale.
You see, the story begins with “a certain centurion.” A centurion is a military officer of the Roman Army, corresponding to our captain. All of Palestine - including Galilee and Judea - was under Roman military government at this time. The Roman headquarters was in Caesarea but there were bands of soldiers stationed in every town of significant size. The reason why there were soldiers stationed throughout the cities is to maintain Roman control. To make sure that the Jews would not rebel.
Our centurion probably commanded a company of soldiers here at Capernaum or just outside Capernaum on the road to the nearby city of Tiberius, where Herod Antipas had his palace.
This centurion owned at least one slave. His slave “was sick and about to die.” Matthew 8:6 tells us that the slave was “lying paralyzed at home, suffering great pain."
Now according to Roman law, a master had complete control of the life of their slave. A slave-owner had the right to kill his slave. Moreover, it was pretty much expected that a slave master would kill his slave if the slave became seriously ill or injured to the point where the slave could not perform their responsibilities. A slave was of no more value than a mule or an ox.
But, the centurion in our story was unusual.
Our centurion shows himself to be different than the average Roman in his attitude toward his slave. It says that this slave “was highly regarded” by the master. The Greek word rendered “highly regarded” means to be held in honor, to be prized, to be considered precious or dear.” This word is used, in 1 Peter 2:4, to describe how precious the Father considers Jesus.
Even though he was a slave, he was dear to the centurion. Even though there was a huge gap in social status, the centurion held his slave in honor.
As Christians, Philippians 2:3 directs us to be different than the average individual. It says, “with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.”
Talk about it...
Nobody has commented yet. Be the first!
Join the discussion
|
1. The Real
Throughout the history of western philosophy, the "Mind-Body Problem" has been defined in many ways. Perhaps this is because the only tool that philosophy really has is the ability to re-organise thought. One definition could be: the divergence between a materialist and an idealist view of experience. We could talk immediately of "objective" and "subjective"--and later we will-- but the problem with these terms is their bias. In our materialist culture, we tend to identify objective with real. We also have a genetic investment in the real as representing survival (Freud's Reality Principle). The subjective, on the other hand, tends to be pejoratively identified with the imaginary and the merely personal, private, or interior.
The Mind-Body Problem is the confusion that arises from thinking of the subject (mind) as a subtle object (body). For instance, a memory is an "object" of consciousness, enticing us to wonder what sort of object it is, compared to the event it is a memory of. How does a mental image of a chair compare to the chair itself, and how do they interact?
Realism holds that the physical world presented to us in experience as out there, solid, and real, is what truly exists. The body, as a component of that physical reality, is the part of us that is "objectively" real. Through interactions with the nervous system, the world outside the body impinges upon it, initiating complex material reactions within the body's brain, leading to objectively observable behaviour but also to subjective experience. In the materialist view it seems that events in the world, the body and the brain must cause our "interior" experience, which is non-material while somehow a byproduct of material events. It is this sense of an interior, non-physical realm we call subjective that gives rise to the M.B.P. For, how can the physical and the non-physical interact causally? In a materialist perspective, what place is there for a non-physical realm at all? We are tempted to imagine the subjective as occupying a pseudo-material existence along side the physical, and try to ponder the interactions between them. (Isn't this how we conceive the "soul", or the "subtle bodies" of metaphysics-- as quasi-physical entities subtler than physical matter?)
In contrast, idealist world-views hold that the material world is not real, but a creation of the mind. Causality is reversed-- and with it responsibility. For it is not physical reality which causes experience "in the mind", but the mind which causes the appearance of a physical reality "out there". Mind becomes primary and causative, matter becomes secondary and illusory.
Both the materialism of science and the idealism of spiritual traditions have sought the eternal and changeless beyond the realm of experience, but have pursued diverging strategies. Science looks for unifying principles behind the diversity of sensory experience by eliminating the subject of that experience as irrelevant. Spiritual idealism holds that the one underlying principle is the subject-- consciousness, the "I", the Self. From such a perspective, the M.B.P is no longer a philosophical problem (a "category mistake"), but a rather a spiritual one-- a question of mistaken identity. We erroneously think we are the body, identifying with its perspectives and priorities. And from the body's point of view, there is an external reality which holds sovereignty over its priorities, since the body's very existence is part of that reality and contingent upon processes within it. Hence the widespread belief in our culture that mind is at the mercy of the brain, an organ of the body, which is a function of the world. Idealism reverses this sequence: mind invents the world, including the body and its brain. Perhaps philosophical maturity is simply learning to live with the incompatibility of these perspectives, passing to a subtler stance which is not committed dogmatically to either one, but which can use both as appropriate footholds.
With this preamble, consider that the realness we associate with physical objects might be a category of the mind, such as Kant held space and time to be. Consider it a quality with which mind imbues sensory experience, because mind is programmed to serve the body's need to survive and maintain itself in a zone of well-being.
The organism is in constant exchange with the rest of the physical world. Each creature receives impressions from the world which it is the job of its brain to interpret in such a fashion as to allow the creature's success in a "game" of survival. Natural selection has guaranteed that by definition only those organisms exist which play this game successfully.
Now, a game is a structured activity within a playing space or field, with playing pieces and rules. Chess and Monopoly are examples. So are algebra and geometry, business and economics, computer software and hardware, human relationships, and just about anything you can think of that involves ordered, structured, describable activity. In the game of survival (or natural selection), the playing piece is the organism and the field is the environment. The rules are numerous (perhaps infinite), including the laws of physics, chemistry, and genetics. And there are many levels of rules, including what might be called the logic of the organism. To use a computer metaphor, how is it programmed? The algorithms by which it operates are the rules governing its behaviour, which are its strategies in the game of survival. In a computer game, some software is embodied in the circuitry of the hardware. So with the brain/body, its "logic" is partially hard wired in the neurology and chemistry of the organism. Whereas a human programmer created the design of the machine, eons of cumulative genetic experience (trial and error) created the capacity of the organism to play the game of life.
The brain is an organ of survival, and some creatures rely more heavily on it than others. The big-brained creatures tend to be visually and acoustically well-developed. What these two senses have in common is space. They are about spatial orientation and therefore movement-- the movement of pursuit and evasion, the hunter and the hunted. The concept of space also implies the independent existence of distinct objects-- and therefore ideas of objectivity and the material reality of the world.
Of course, we take for granted that the world simply is as our big brains depict. We believe that the space we perceive is real, that the objects in it are real, and so forth, without questioning what "real" means-- or what "meaning" means, for that matter. But perhaps the automatic 3-D realness of perception is itself a survival strategy, like physical pain. Have you ever wondered why pain "hurts"? The hurting is the way we experience the mind's judgment (and alarm!) that the body's tissues are sustaining damage. When you think about it, our physical existence cannot be free from pain, because it is the alert of pain that has allowed us to survive. And the realness with which the mind imbues physical reality is the way we subjectively experience the mind's judgment that the playing field of the world is a very serious place for the body. It is an expression of our belief that the world holds over us the power of life and death, pleasure and pain. It expresses our earnest engagement in the game of survival. Like pain, the sense of reality is functional. We are here to think casually about all this only because we take the Reality Principle (as Freud called it) seriously enough to have survived.
|
Musjids of the World Series: 2
The Musjid serves as the focal point of any Muslim community and is the most important structure to Muslims.
Al-Musjid al-Haraam
(the Sacred Mosque) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, is the largest Musjid in the world. It surrounds the Ka’ba. The current structure covers 356,800m² and can hold 4 million worshippers. There are 500 marble columns, air conditioning and escalators. Built by Abraham alaihis salaam, it has been rebuilt and renovated several times.
Al-Musjid an-Nabawi
(the Mosque of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Originally built by Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, it encloses his
resting place. It has been renovated several times. The most famous feature is the green dome over the area where the grave of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is located. It was built in 1817 and painted green in 1839. The Musjid can hold half a million worshippers.
Al-Musjid al-Aqsa
(the Farthest Mosque) in Jerusalem, Palestine. Built by Umar radhiallahu anhu, the Musjid is within the complex which also houses the Dome of the Rock. This complex is on the site of the Musjid built by Prophet Solomon alaihis salaam, and was the first Qibla of Islam. The Musjid can hold 5,000 people while the whole complex can hold hundreds of thousands.
Mezquita de Córdoba
(Mosque of Cordoba) is now a cathedral in Spain. It was the most magnificent of the more than 1,000 Musjids in the city and was at one time the second largest Musjid in the Muslim world. It has giant arches, with over 1,000 columns of jasper, onyx, marble and granite.
Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
in Muscat, Oman was opened in 2001. It covers 416,000m² and can hold 6,500 worshippers inside with another 13,500 on the outer paved ground. It had the world’s largest one piece prayer carpet (1,700 million knots, weighing 21 tons) and the largest chandelier until the Sheikh Zayed Musjid in Abu Dhabi was built.
|
Image Formats
24 Jan 2015
This post is meant as a resource for helping to decide how best to send images for posting on websites. There are usually three possible options: lossly bitmaps, lossless bitmaps and vector graphics. The right decision is usually a compromise between a high-quality image that gives a clean, sharp presentation to the user, and a small file-size so a user doesn't get bored while waiting for your website to load all of the 2MB images. Using the right image formats will result in a website that loads quickly and has a consistent, sharp layout.
Image type Format Example Extension Min Resolution (pixels)
Photograph Lossy bitmap .jpg .jpeg Landscape: 750×464
Portrait: 350×475
Logos and other flat graphics Vector graphics (preferred) .svg .ai .eps N/A
Lossless bitmap .png .tiff .gif .bmp Context dependent
I design a few websites in my spare time, namely the Kalamazoo ACS local section and an ACS regional meeting. This post is aimed at contributors for these organizations.
Raster vs Vector Graphics
Image formats basically store information as a series of 1's and 0's on a computer's hard-drive. Two mains schemes are available. Raster graphics, also known as bitmaps, divide the image into a series of discrete picture elements, or “pixels”, and assign each one a number that represents its color. Deciding how many pixels to use (“resolution”) determines how small each pixel is. Any details that are smaller than the size of one individual pixel are lost. A higher resolution saves more detail but results in larger file-sizes and thus slower page loading times. When submitting images for publication, higher resolutions are generally better; I can always remove detail but I can't add it back in once it's gone.
Vector graphics, on the other hand, describe the image as being made up of various shapes, or “vectors”. A clock-face might be described as a black circle with a specific thickness; another slightly smaller circle filled with white; and various straight black lines of different lengths. The advantage here is that all the details of the image are captured perfectly. As a result, the image can be scaled to any size with no loss of quality. The catch is that the image has to be designed and saved as a vector graphic using something like Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator. A vector graphic can be converted into a raster graphic but a raster graphic cannot be converted back into a vector graphic. For this reason, please send me vector graphics if possible.
Example image showing the difference between vector graphics and raster (bitmap) graphics.
Photographs vs. Graphics (Lossy vs Lossless)
Not all raster graphics are created equal. As discussed earlier, storing a higher level of detail requires higher resolutions and so results in larger file-sizes. Techniques have been developed that compress the image into a smaller file-size; these are known as compression algorithms. They can be devided into two categories; lossy compression makes permanent changes to the image, while lossless algorithms do not. The trade-off is that lossy compression can achieve smaller file-sizes.
The JPEG standard divides the image into 8 pixel square sections and converts each section to a series of frequency components. A full explanation can be found on wikipedia. This process introduces some artifacts into the image and so it is an example of lossy compression. In photographs, these artifacts are generally not noticeable and the benefits in file-size reduction are significant. In flat graphics (logos, etc.), these artifacts become noticeable and file-sizes are usually not much better than lossless alogirithms, like PNG. A lossless image can be converted to JPEG but I cannot go the otherway around without a considerable amount of work. Please submit logos and similar graphics using PNG or another lossless format; photographs can be sent as JPEG files.
JGLCRM logo using lossless compression (top) and lossy JPEG compression (bottom) using a quality factor of 5 for emphasis. Notice the artifacts along the color edges.
|
Some Legacies of Robbins' An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science
This paper criticizes three Robbinsian positions still often found in modern economics: (1) the methodology of intuitively obvious assumptions; (2) treating facts as illustrations rather than as tests of theoretical propositions; (3) assuming that theory provides universally applicable generalizations independent of the characteristics of individual economies and so are independent of specific historical processes. Two corollaries of point (3) are that theory cannot assist in explaining unique historical events such as the emergence of sustained growth in the West and that economists need not interest themselves in the details of the technologies that produce the nation's wealth.
Lionel Robbins was a great human being. He accepted and lived by liberal values. He was appalled by events in Europe, particularly Nazi Germany, and he did his best to help refugees from that terror. Among other things, he did a great deal both emotionally and financially for a colleague of ours who had spent much of the war in a German concentration camp and was the only one of his family to escape the gas chambers.
He espoused the importance of a rational approach to problems and of the power of economics to assist in it. Asking himself about the value of his subject, he wrote:
Surely it consists in just this, that, when we are faced with a choice between ultimates, it enables us to choose with full awareness of the implications of what we are choosing. Faced with the problem of deciding between this and that, we are not entitled to look to Economics for the ultimate decision … But, to be completely rational, we must know what it is we prefer. We must be aware of the implications of the alternatives. For rationality in choice is nothing more and nothing less than choice with compete awareness of the alternatives rejected. And it is just here that Economics acquires its practical significance. It can make clear to us the implications of the different ends we may choose. It makes it possible for us to will with knowledge of what it is we are willing. It makes it possible for us to select a system of ends which are mutually consistent with each other (Robbins 1935, p. 152).
I first encountered Robbins' essay as an undergraduate in 1949. I was mightily impressed and learned much from it. But I balked when I came to his discussion of the place of facts in economics. I read: ‘The propositions of economic theory, like all scientific theory, are obviously deductions from a series of postulates. And the chief of these postulates are all assumptions involving in some way simple and indisputable facts of experience’ (Robbins 1935, p. 78, emphasis added). ‘If the premises relate to reality the deductions from them must have a similar point of reference’ (p. 104).
I read and re-read this material and said to myself: this cannot be right; facts derived from empirical observation must be more important to the development of theory than to act as ex post illustrations of what we already know to be true.
Some four years later, I entered the LSE as a PhD student and attended Lionel Robbins' great Wednesday afternoon seminar. In an age of increasing specialization, this seminar was a breath of fresh air. Everything in economics was grist for Robbins' mill. At the beginning of each year, Lionel would ask around to see what were thought to be the most important new ideas in the subject and then make them seminar topics. Sometimes we had a different topic each week, and at other times, as with Patinkin'sMoney Interest and Prices (1956), we spent a whole term on one publication. The sense of being Renaissance people interested in any and every topic in our subject was exhilarating.
As the weeks passed, however, Lionel's expressions of the then prevailing methodology described above revived my interest in his essay. As the theories we discussed in the Wednesday seminar became based on increasingly complex and less intuitively obvious assumptions, we found ourselves frustrated by the inconclusiveness of arguments concerning their intuitive plausibility. A group of us who were thinking along the same lines formed the LSE staff seminar on Methodology Measurement and Testing in Economics that became known as the M2T seminar. We talked to philosophers of science such as Joseph Agassi and, a bit later on, Imre Lakatos (who became a good friend of mine). Agassi introduced us to Popper, and under his influence we came to reject the Robbinsian methodology and accept the position that economic theories were to be judged by the ability of their predictions to stand up to empirical testing. We disagreed with Friedman's (1953) argument that only predictions were to be tested against evidence, and held that if a theory's predictions pass test in spite of being derived from assumed relations that were empirically false (such as all demand curves have positive slopes), we learn by asking: why? (To discuss this matter fully requires distinguishing among the various uses of assumptions in economic theory. I have discussed the issue of empirical relevance of assumptions in some detail in Lipsey 2001.)
From 1960 to 1963, I wrote An Introduction to Positive Economics which was designed to promote the methodology of testing as opposed to the Robbinsian methodology of intuitively obvious assumptions. The book had an immediate impact and went through five reprints in the four-year life of its first edition.1
While there is much that I could say in praise of Robbins' essay, given the space constraints, I must concentrate on my criticisms. Here I want to take up three issues that I think pose serious problems, all of which have modern manifestations: the methodology of intuitively obvious assumptions, the relegation of facts to be illustrations of theoretical propositions rather than as tests of their validity, and the belief in the general applicability of economic theory without the need for specific context. It would take someone better versed in the history of economic thought than I to determine where Robbins stood in the chain that leads from the first statement of each of these ideas to their modern manifestations. There can be little doubt, however, that Robbins was an important link in their transmission to modern economists, both where he was initiator and where he was such a superb popularizer that he helped to make many of them the conventional wisdom of economics for generations to come.
At the outset of his essay, Robbins states his main thesis that the ‘generalizations’ of economic theory are both certain and empirically relevant: ‘The efforts of economists over the last hundred and fifty years have resulted in the establishment of a body of generalizations whose substantial accuracy and importance are open to question only by the ignorant or the perverse’ (Robbins 1935, p. 1). Lest we have any doubt about their relevance: ‘It is a characteristic of scientific generalizations that they refer to reality’ (p. 104). Lest we have any doubt about their certainty: ‘our belief in these propositions is as complete as belief based upon any number of controlled experiments’ (p. 75).
What is hard to believe for modern economists looking back from today's vantage point is that we really did spend the bulk of our time discussing the plausibility of the assumptions of the theories we were attempting to assess. Lest one thinks we were some local backwater, I can attest as London secretary from 1954 to 1957 of the Oxford–Cambridge–London joint economics seminar, where graduate students and junior staff in the three universities met to hear papers and exchange views, that the Robbinsian methodology was dominant. So when we switched from the Robbinsian to the Popperian methodology, we made a sea change in how we approached our subject.
The view that economics can be about the world and yet be based on intuitively obvious assumptions pervaded much of economics long after Robbins wrote. For example, much economic theorizing of both a positive and normative sort was, and still is, based on the twin assumptions that technology and tastes are given and that the latter can be expressed by a utility function in which the goods and services an individual consumes are the only arguments. The first is typically thought to be an assumption of mere convenience although it is not innocuous because when technology is assumed to be endogenous, as it undoubtedly is in the real world, many comparative static results are altered, some even reversed. (For elaboration on this, see Lipsey et al. 2005, ch. 2; Lipsey 2007a, p. 335.) The second assumption was long thought by many (most?) economists to be intuitively self-evident. Only in the last decade or so has it been called into question. Sen's (2000) capabilities approach was an elegant redirection away from this assumption, and further research as summarized by Layard (2005) showed that it could be seriously challenged on empirical grounds. Hence the strong advice given, then and now, about policy measures required to increase economic welfare were, and still are, based on a very shaky foundation. (I have discussed this in much more detail in Lipsey 2007a.)
Another assumption that I think most of us took as self-evident, that ‘bygones are forever bygones’, was discussed at length by Robbins (1935, p. 52). This is an important normative proposition for those who wish to maximize something. But as Robbins would have it, as a self-evident assumption on which to base positive predictions about behaviour, current research has shown it to be flawed. People's behaviour often reveals them to be acting as if bygones do matter. (For examples, see Tversky and Kahneman 1992 and Kahneman and Thaler 2006; for another general critique of Robbins' a priorism, see Blaug 1992, pp. 76–9.)
Having taken his position on the truth of assumptions and predictions, Robbins had to come to terms with the place of factual observations in economics, and he outlined what he saw as their three main uses. First, as ‘… a check on the applicability to given situations of different types of theoretical constructions’ (Robbins 1935, p. 116). For example, did something offsetting occur that violated the ceteris paribus assumption? Second, behaviour, and hence the applicability of a particular theory, may depend on second-order assumptions such as institutional constraints on what can be done. Thus the facts may suggest ‘auxiliary postulates’ that are needed. For example, regulatory constraints on banking behaviour require amendments to the predictions from the theory of unregulated bank behaviour. Third, factual observations may expose ‘… areas where pure theory needs to be reformulated and extended. They bring to light new problems’ (p. 118). The meaning of ‘extended’ seems clear enough: issues that current theory has not investigated are revealed. But ‘reformulated’ sounds suspiciously like using empirical studies to reveal the need to amend the theory. Unfortunately, the example that Robbins gives covers extension to new areas but not the reformulation of existing theories, so we cannot be sure what he intended here. (I do not find the discussion of this point on pp. 118–20 altogether clear, so it is possible that I have not quite grasped what Robbins intended, but I think I am approximately on track here.) In summary: ‘Realistic studies may suggest the problem to be solved. They may test the range of applicability of the answer when it is forthcoming. They may suggest assumptions for further theoretical elaboration. But it is theory and theory alone which is capable of supplying the solution’ (p. 120, emphasis added).
Not only are facts not to be used to test theories, measurements of aggregates are typically irrelevant to theory. For example: ‘Estimates of the social income may have a quite definite meaning for monetary theory. But beyond this they have only conventional significance’ (Robbins 1935, p. 57). Later, Robbins asks: ‘Ought we not to wish to be in a position to give numerical values to the scales of valuation, to establish quantitative laws of demand and supply?’ (p. 107). He then goes on to argue that with demand elasticity ‘…there is no reason to suppose that uniformities are to be discovered’. Thus such measurements taken at a particular time and place have no ‘…permanent significance—save as Economic History’ (p. 109, emphasis in original). I do not read this passage—as do some—as a warning that specific measurements taken at one time and place cannot necessarily be generalized to other times and places. Instead, I take Robbins to mean that the truths of economics are all about the signs of changes, such that all demand curves have negative slopes, and not about magnitudes, such as measured values of the income and price elasticities of most foodstuffs fall as incomes rise, going well below unity in high income countries. I criticized this position in the first edition of An Introduction to Positive Economics (Lipsey 1963, pp. 158–61) on three grounds. First, even if a priori reasoning suggests that a particular relation will not stay constant over time, only empirical observation can establish if this is so. Second, it is important to know just how stable or unstable any relation is. For example, if demand curves shifted in location and slope drastically and capriciously over short periods of time, none of the comparative statics of price theory and their policy applications would be of much use. Third, even if there are substantial variations in the relation under consideration, only empirical observations can show if these variations appear random, in which case we have done everything we can by way of explanation, or systematic, in which case the presence of an as-yet-unobserved causal variable is suggested.
In the early days of the M2T seminar, I think we were naïve enough to believe that one theory replaced another in the history of the subject when evidence that conflicted with the incumbent could be better explained by the challenger. Soon, however, we came to accept Imre Lakatos's more subtle view of how scientific paradigms are related to evidence and how one replaces the other. (I have stated my current understanding of this issue in Lipsey 2000.) Although naïve falsification is open to serious criticism, and although cases where theories have been rejected due to tests of their predictions are not common in economics, two Popperian methodological messages seem to stand up and to be something that all students of economics should be taught. First, economic theories that are consistent with all possible states of the world are empirically empty and, as such, they tell us nothing about the real world whose behaviour we seek to understand and predict. They may be very general devices that can be used as receptacles for further empirically-based assumptions that specify lower-level theories that are not empirically empty, but their usefulness depends on this being so. Second, even if direct tests of theories that do have empirical content are not all that frequent, such theories are in principle testable by looking for the observations that they rule out. (As Popper stressed, these are statements about the logic of scientific statements, not necessarily about the process by which scientific advance occurs.)
In arguing this view in the article ‘Positive economics’ in the forthcoming revision of The New Palgrave Dictionary, I put it this way:
First, if an economic theory is to be about the real world, it must be possible to imagine observations that would conflict with it. If conflicting observations cannot even be imagined, the theory is compatible with all states of the world and hence empirically empty. A great advance in making theory more relevant would be achieved if today's editors insisted that each author state what factual observations would conflict with his or her theory, and, if there were none, to state the theory's purpose. Second, a new theory should be compatible with (‘explain’) some existing facts and suggest some new one(s). (Lipsey 2009)
Instead, all too many articles follow the Robbinsian use of facts as mere illustrations of the applicability of theory. The ‘test’ then is: ‘Can the theory or model be made to track already known facts?’ In doing this, the authors are applying what Popper criticized as ‘sunrise tests’: predicting what we already know and nothing else. From this we learn something about the ingenuity and technical skills of the authors, but not much more.
The Robbinsian view on the relative unimportance of facts as controls on theorizing persists in a surprising amount of modern economics. The approach gives rise to what I call ‘internally driven research programmes’ (IDRPs), programmes that are driven by attempts to understand problems created by the programmes' models rather than problems arising from empirical observations related to the models. An IDRP often begins with a factual question. Typically, a simple model is developed yielding strong answers. Investigators then ask if these predictions would stand up if we altered the model to make it more realistic. What, for example, if we went from one, to two, to three sectors? What if we made saving endogenous rather than exogenous? What if we let technology change in response to the market signals? And so on. If empirical observations are used in the programme's later stages, the question is usually of the sunrise variety: ‘Can the model be made to track the data?’ Many of the fads and fashions that sweep economics are aspects of internally driven research programmes. I am not arguing that internally driven programmes never produce interesting results, only saying that the probability of their producing new empirically relevant results is quite low (even when the models are made to track already known data).
In Lipsey (2001) I gave a number of illustrations, the most dramatic being the burst of theorizing concerning economic growth that started in the 1940s and ran to about 1970. Harrod and Domar produced the then-famous knife edge result of a completely unstable growth path. Concern over this disturbing result was allayed by Solow's famous neoclassical growth model in which the absence of a fixed capital/output ratio produced a stable, balanced growth path. Solow's work led in two directions. One was the empirically-based growth accounting exercise that looked for the sources of the residual that Solow had attributed to technical change—and that turned out to be due to a much more complex set of influences than just technical change. The other was the theoretical investigation of growth models. This second direction produced an IDRP as the profession embarked on a 15-year bout of balanced growth research. At the end of it all, Amartya Sen had this to say:
The policy issues related to economic growth are numerous and intricate. … While the logical aspects involved in these exercises are much better understood now than they used to be, perhaps the weakest link in the chain is the set of empirical theories of growth that underlie the logical exercises. Possible improvement of policies towards growth that could be achieved through a better understanding of the actual process of growth remains substantially unexplored. It is partly a measure of the complexity of economic growth that the phenomenon of growth should remain, after three decades of intensive intellectual study, such an enigma. It is, however, also a reflection of our sense of values, particularly of the preoccupation with the brain-twisters. Part of the difficulty arises undoubtedly from the fact that the selection of topics for work in growth economics is guided much more by logical curiosity than by a taste for relevance. The character of the subject owes much to this fact. (Sen 1970, p. 33, emphasis added)
Reviewing the same literature at a much later date, I put the same point this way: ‘internally generated questions produce [only] internally directed answers’ (Lipsey 2001, p. 181). (For another example, this time with respect to the effects of rent control, see Lind 2007; for more general discussion of the issue, see Goldfarb and Ratner 2009.)
What I call ‘externally driven research programmes’ (EDRPs) contrast sharply with IDRPs. These are programmes that are driven by, and constrained by, observed facts. The growth accounting search to explain the Solow residual is one good example. Another is the evolution of theories concerning monetary and fiscal policy through the long set of debates between Keynesians and old-fashioned monetarists that raged through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The conclusion can be dated at 1980 when the Keynesian James Tobin joined the monetarist David Laidler in a debate that was subsequently published in the Economic Journal (Tobin 1981; Laidler 1981). Tobin and Laidler disagreed on some matters of judgment about speeds of reaction and the precise slopes of some curves. They revealed, however, no discernible differences of underlying models or of fundamental assessment of what were the key relations that governed the economy's behaviour and what were the key policy conclusions regarding fiscal and monetary policy. This 30-year debate generated much heat in its time, but the end result was much light. Empirical evidence was amassed about such things as the income and the interest elasticities of the demand for money, and wage and price flexibility. The extreme position of each of the two schools was moderated in the light of the accumulating evidence, until their differences were slight compared with their agreements.2
Absence of context-specificity is a pervasive characteristic of much modern economics. I discuss it in four parts, raising issues on which economists are still strongly divided.
Universally applicable generalizations
Robbins was certainly a major link in the chain of How Economists Forgot History (Hodgson 2002). Economists once actively discussed what Hodgson calls historical specificity, but which my co-authors and I prefer to call context-specificity: there is a trade-off between the generality of a theory and its empirical content. Robbins clearly lies at one extreme in this issue. He argues that the generalizations of economics are universal, applying to all times and all places. For example (Robbins 1935, p. 80): ‘It has sometimes been asserted that the generalizations of Economics are essentially “historico-relative” in character, that their validity is limited to certain historical conditions, and that outside these they have no relevance to the analysis of social phenomena. This view is a dangerous misapprehension.’ The reason, of course, is that in Robbins' view the main assumptions of economics are not historical relative.
This takes a very strong line on a debate that still rages among economists, both explicitly and implicitly. There are many illustrations of the non-Robbinsian side, of which the following are only a few examples.
• The preference functions that drive behaviour do appear to vary across societies, at least to some extent. For example, Michael Porter (1990) has noted the differences in risk-taking behaviour among business persons in societies such as in Japan and Germany, where business failure is regarded with strong disapproval, and societies such as in the USA, where a failure or two on the road to final success is taken as acceptable, even normal. For some applications, therefore, the preference functions need to be specific to certain geographical and/or historical circumstances.
• The serious problems encountered in the rush to marketize the former USSR's command economy stemmed partly from a view that economic theory of markets showed them working as long as all impediments were removed, irrespective of institutions and other factors that are not modelled in canonical neoclassical market theory, but which distinguish one economy from another. Appropriate policies for marketizing a command economy, therefore, depend on the specific national context of such things as existing institutions, learned behavioural modes, and levels of development.
• The IMF and World Bank's one-size-fits-all view on correct economic policy for all times and places, as enshrined in the policy of ‘structural reform’, has proven to be a failure, at least where it has gone beyond removing the most extreme non-market policies. This is now recognized even by those two institutions, and the discredited view is being replaced by an understanding that different policies may be relevant for the different conditions facing various developing nations. (For examples, see Griffiths 2003; Hira 2007; Rodrik 2006; Stiglitz 2002.)
One of the reasons why many neoclassical economists hated second best theory3 is because it showed that since a ‘distortion-free economy’ is an impossibility, all policy advice has to take place in second best situations where context specificity is all important. Because different societies face different ‘distortions,’ making second best improvements depends on the specifics of each set of market conditions. For example, removing ‘distorting’ subsidies on a poor country's production of a product heavily subsidized by the USA may eliminate the local industry, add to unemployment, and accentuate balance of payments problems. (I have dealt with these issues in more detail in Lipsey 2007a.)
No economic analysis of historical processes
At one point in his analysis, Robbins asks (1935, p. 131): ‘can we not frame a complete theory of economic development?’ Having answered in the negative, he goes on to argue (p. 133): ‘Nor are the prospects improved when we turn to the sphere of technical change and invention. … What technique of analysis could predict the trends of inventions leading on the one hand to the coming of the railway, on the other to the internal combustion engine?’
Robbins' negative answer is partly because he recognized comparative statics as the only valid tool of economic theorizing and could not see this dealing with dynamic issues of economic growth and technical change. Of course, modern macro-growth models with either exogenous or endogenous technical change do theorize about economic development, even if they cannot deal with such specific questions as the coming of the railways or the invention of the internal combustion engine.
Even among modern growth theorists, however, a major difference in approach reveals a conflict between Robbinsian universal applicability and non-Robbinsian context-specificity. Growth theories that use an aggregate production function, with either exogenous or endogenous technical change, are devoid of detailed specifications of technology—which usually appears as a scalar either premultiplying the aggregate production function or as a variable in that function—of institutions, or of anything else that distinguishes one economy from another. Thus they yield the universal prediction that when certain basic conditions are fulfilled with respect to such things as saving and investment, growth will inevitably follow in all countries.
The few existing formal growth models that use a more structured representation of technology are either explicitly or implicitly context-specific. For example, after presenting our three-sector model of sustained GPT-driven growth with endogenous technological change, my colleagues and I conclude:
Our models implicitly assume the institutional circumstances that underpin modern market economies, such as private property, limited liability, and the rule of law. They also assume the specific institutions involved in the West's invention of how to invent … [that] made the West's growth process self-sustaining. … Because of their structure, they apply only to countries whose growth depends to a significant extent on developing from their own resources new technologies, both fundamental and derivative. Thus, they are not meant to apply to countries whose growth processes are more or less completely driven by the diffusion of technologies developed elsewhere. Nor are they meant to apply to those whose GDPs are currently static and who seek conditions that would allow them to begin a period of sustained growth.
All these qualifications illustrate once again the issue of historical specificity: the richer the explanatory power of a theory and the more predictions that it makes, the more restricted is its range of applicability in both time and space. Finally, we observe that there is no single ‘correct’ way to make the historical specificity trade-off. All growth processes have things in common, and to deal with these, very general theories are helpful. But all growth processes also have many aspects that are more specific in time and place. To deal with these, and, therefore, to get to deeper levels of explanation requires less generality and more specificity. (Lipsey et al. 2005, p. 467)
Explaining the emergence of sustained growth
The conflict between Robbinsian generality and historical specificity can also be seen in a big way in theories of how the West turned the episodic growth of earlier eras into the sustained growth that was initiated by the two Industrial Revolutions. The highly popular unified growth theories (UGTs) that were introduced some time ago by Galor and Weil (2000) are fully in the Robbinsian tradition. They model an economy developing from a long period of extensive growth in which all increases in output are taken up by increases in population, through a transition period, and then into a modern period of intensive growth in which the rate of population growth falls well below the rate of output growth. UGT models are general, containing nothing that would distinguish one economy from another. As a result, they predict that any country could have endogenously generated its own industrial revolution and the resulting transition to sustained growth; all that was needed was a sufficient passage of time.
In contrast, most economic historians argue that local conditions were important in generating the West's Industrial Revolution and the sustained growth that it ushered in. There is debate about the proximate causes, but most of these are to be found in things that distinguished the West from the rest—i.e. they are context-specific.4 My co-authors and I emphasize Western science as an obvious necessary condition for the Second Industrial Revolution in the later part of the nineteenth century—a body of knowledge that was absent everywhere outside of the West. Somewhat more controversially, we argue that Western science in the form of Newtonian mechanics, was a necessary condition for the First Industrial Revolution—a body of knowledge that was also absent outside of Europe and best established in Britain.
No interest in technological details
Robbins forcefully argued what is still a commonly accepted view about the irrelevance of any detailed knowledge of technologies for understanding the growth process. ‘The technique of cotton manufacture, as such, is no part of the subject-matter of Economics …’ (Robbins 1935, p. 33). ‘Economists are not interested in technique as such’ (pp. 37–8). ‘The precise shape of the early steam engine and the physical principles upon which it rested are no concern of the economic historian as economic historian—although economic historians in the past have sometimes displayed a quite inordinate interest in such matters’ (p. 41).
This is still a common view, so most students and many theorists of economic growth do not see any need to have the kind of knowledge found, for example, in Usher'sA History of Mechanical Inventions (1988 [1929]) (which is the book I suspect Robbins had in mind in labelling such interest ‘inordinate’). The opposing view is that technical change lies at the heart of long-term economic growth and that to understand such growth sufficiently to develop policies to influence its magnitude and direction requires a detailed knowledge of technologies and of how they change, such as is found in the writings of Nathan Rosenberg and Alfred Chandler Jr (see, for example, Rosenberg 1982, 1994; Chandler 1977, 2001).
Here are just two examples of this non-Robbinsian view. We argue in Bekar and Lipsey (2004) and Lipsey et al. (2005) that the transition to sustained growth brought about by the two Industrial Revolutions was to a great extent the result of the culmination of three trajectories of technological advance that combined scientific and technological developments over several centuries. The first was the steam engine, whose modern trajectory began in the sixteenth century with investigations into the nature of steam and of vacuums and culminated with the development of the high-pressure engine at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The second was automated textile machinery, whose research programme was charted and begun by Leonardo di Vinci late in the fifteenth century and culminated when the centuries-long trajectory of inventions and improvements produced machines that it paid to transfer from cottages to proto-factories in latter part of the eighteenth century. The third was electricity, whose modern development began with the publication of Gilbert's De Magnete in 1600. This put the West decisively ahead of China in understanding magnetism and electricity, by making it a science rather than a piecemeal collection of individual observations. (For a full discussion, see Pumfrey 2002.) The trajectory evolved through countless discoveries and applications, and culminated in the invention of the dynamo in 1867, which ushered in the electronic age in which we are still living. We describe these three critical trajectories in detail in Lipsey et al. (2005): for mechanized textile machinery (pp. 243–4), for the steam engine (pp. 249–52) and for electricity (pp. 254–5). To understand them fully, why, how, and when, they occurred, why they did not occur outside of the West, and why they turned episodic into sustained growth, one needs to know a lot about technologies, including much of what is in Usher's great book.
For a second example, Vernon Ruttan (2006) has argued that recent changes in US institutions make it increasingly difficult for the USA to develop new general-purpose technologies (GPTs), which are the main engine of long-term growth. One cannot assess the strength of his argument, or its policy implications if it is true, unless one knows a lot about the technical details of GPTs—not just the kind of abstract models that are found in Helpman (1998), useful though they are; one needs to know the engineering details of GPTs and how they evolve over decades to become highly efficient and universally used for multiple purposes. (For a discussion of Ruttan's argument, see Lipsey 2007b.)
Although most modern economists would reject Robbins belief that economic theory can develop propositions that are simultaneously certain and empirically relevant, many accept, either explicitly or implicitly, other of Robbins' beliefs, some of which I have criticized in this paper. Many assumptions, such as maximizing behaviour, are treated as self-evident propositions on which theory can be safely erected. Facts are often used to illustrate rather than test theories, as when tracking known facts is the only test that a new theory or model is asked to pass. Some theoretical propositions are taken as universally correct in the absence of any context-specificity, such as that removing a ‘market distortion’ will inevitably increase efficiently and/or economic welfare. Theories of growth devoid of any characteristics that would distinguish one economy from another are often thought to be satisfactory and generally applicable, as for example is the case with unified growth theories (UGTs) and those models of growth that are based on a neoclassical aggregate production function with either exogenous or endogenous technical change. Debates about the causes of, and policies to affect, long-term growth driven by technical change are often thought capable of being dealt with satisfactorily without any knowledge of the details of either the nature of technologies or the processes by which they change.
This paper was originally presented at the conference to mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of Lionel Robbins' An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science at the London School of Economics, 10–11 December 2007.
1. 1. The successor to this book, now called Economics, by Lipsey and Chrystal (2007), is currently in its 11th UK edition. The American adaptation was first published in 1966 as Economics by Lipsey and Steiner, and is now in its 13th US edition authored by Lipsey, Ragan and Storer. How much credit the first few editions of Positive Economics should get for replacing the Robbinsian methodology with a more empirically oriented one in the UK is for others to judge. But within a decade or so after its publication, the old methodology had disappeared so completely that students found it hard to believe that serious economists assessed theories by arguing about the intuitive plausibility of their assumptions. As the proportion of the population attending university rose slowly but steadily over the years, the sophistication of first-year textbooks was steadily reduced. As a result, the long anti-Robbinsian first chapter on methodology, and the chapters entitled ‘Criticisms and tests’ that ended each section, were progressively simplified and finally eliminated.
2. 2. Just as that apparently satisfactory situation was being reached, a challenge arose in the form of the more basic critique of the Keynesian–monetarist synthesis, made by the new classical economists led by Robert Lucas. Although this new classical macroeconomics dominates modern advanced macro textbooks, Keynesian income-flow models still dominate the analysis of practical policy problems by central banks and departments of finance, and these utilize much of the knowledge amassed during this long Keynesian Monetarist debate. I have discussed and assessed these developments in more detail in Lipsey (2000, pp. 69–80).
3. 3. As Lionel said to me over lunch shortly after our original second best article had been published: ‘But my dear Dick, it is so nihilistic!’
4. 4. One exception is Kenneth Pomeranz (2000), who argues that there was at least one other country, China, that could have endogenously generated its own industrial revolution and sustained growth. Our reasons for dissenting from this view are spelled out in detail in Lipsey et al. (2005, Chapter 8).
|
Ad Absurdum Fri, 21 Apr 2017 04:17:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Circle of 5ths Fri, 21 Apr 2017 04:14:38 +0000 Continue reading Circle of 5ths]]> There is a lot of bad information floating around out there.
The age-old myth about Pythagoras and inventing the circle of 5ths comes from a old story about him hearing blacksmith’s hammers producing harmonic frequency ratios in proportion to their masses, which is wrong, because hammer heads vibrate irregularly, unlike strings which vibrate regularly( at integer ratios). He may discovered the phenomenon with strings, however.
The thing to note about Pythagoras is that the earliest mention of him is by Cicero over 500 years after Pythagoras’ death. That would be like me being the first authoritative source on something from the early 1500’s, and being cited for it in the year 4017.
The origins of the diatonic scale stretch back into prehistory. Most cultures’s music incorporate something like it or the pentatonic scale. These distance between the steps in these scales come directly from the harmonic series, and it is very natural if you are inventing music for the first time to sing something like one of these scales. Some animals (bird songs for example) will make noises at intervals of octaves 5ths or major 3rds.
The diatonic scale existed without the other 5 notes or any other notion of keys up all through ancient Greece and Rome and all through the Medieval period. Most of their music had simple simple harmony and they either sang or played solo, or when they made music together they sang in unison or octaves, and eventually 5ths.
But as somewhere after the 11th century when music notation began to take shape it became possible for people to play and sing in large groups and to have different parts with complex harmonies and counterpoint. Instrumental groups had to tune their instruments to one another and singers had defined vocal ranges. As they started building pipe organs pitches became quasi fixed. Until the Renaissance transposing music into a different key had the singular function of fitting to a singer’s vocal range.
With no notion of accidentals yet, musicians used modes instead of keys for tonal-like effects. There was an authentic mode and a plagal mode for C through A (no locrian or hypolocrian because tritone) which determined whether you ended on I or IV.
Eventually near the beginning of the renaissance some clever folks figured our that you could transpose these modes to star on any note, if you just added half steps in between the existing 7 notes. There’s a lovly treatise on it called Dodecachordon written in 1547 by Heinrich Glarean id you feel like reading a butt-load of Latin. Eventually they learned that playing a melody in a mode, and then playing that melody on the note a 5th above the original mode’s tonic sounded good and strong so they called it modulating to the dominant key, which was now possible because of the addition of those 5 other notes.
The actual circle of 5ths didn’t show up until the 1670s in a treatise called Grammatika by Nikolai Diletskii and from here on music theory begins to take on familiar form, although things like functional harmony don’t show up like we know them today, until the 18th and 19th centuries with people like Jean-Philippe Rameau and later Hugo Riemann.
Until the mid 19th century all tuning of all instruments in practice was done by ear. There was no objective was to measure pitch until after the industrial revolution. The cent is directly related to the system of equal temperement and is a 1/100th of a perfectly equally tempered semitone. Equal temperment is a compromise in tuning that makes it possible to play in all the keys without re-tuning keyboard instrument. Cents do not exist until the 1830s.
There is a great video on early music temperaments here by Early Music Sources:
This is the type of instrument they were building to get around the comma issue.
On this keyboard the circle of 5ths wraps around 3 times before coming back to the original note. But the 3rds are more in tune in all keys(and you have 8 different types of 3rds including major and minor).
Maybe I’ll make some videos on all of this some day.
]]> 0
Mare Imbrium Sun, 30 Oct 2016 16:50:05 +0000 … Introducing a new piece for oboe and two violins.
Mare Imbrium
]]> 0
Tragedy at Sea Mon, 24 Oct 2016 01:45:36 +0000 Continue reading Tragedy at Sea]]> Editors Note: My great-grandfather Errold H. Scott (1906-1988) typed this story about the sinking of the schooner Portland in 1898. It is told through the eyes of his father Charles A. Scott who is my great-great-grandfather. I have transcribed the story exactly as it appears on the original typewritten page, with the exception of two or three typographical corrections. There is no date on the original document indicating when it was written, but I have been unable to find any indication that it was ever published before. As such the following story is being published as public domain material and may not be copyrighted.
In the year 1898 my dad, Charles A. Scott was a seaman, working on his father’s vessel and was 18 years of age at the time. They were delivering a load of stone from Stonington, Maine and would unload at Boston, Mass. It had been a long trip but finally they arrived a short distance approaching Boston harbor. A soft snow had started to flutter down and the flakes were thickening as my grandfather came midship and called to my dad who was checking the port light which had been giving trouble. The light would sometimes black out at the most unexpected times. My dad told him that the light was functioning perfectly. However as he looked to the port light again the light blacked out. He went forward immediately and relit the lamp and at thus minute a blast came out of the snow storm, in a second the schooner Portland appeared off their port bow. The ship kept bearing to the starboard side showing that she had sighted them through the snow. As she passed about 50 feet away, you could make out and see the young men on the stern of the boat waving and shouting to them.
Soon the Portland was blocked out by a blanket of snow. My dad mentioned that his father said “Where do you suppose he thinks he’s going in a storm like this”. Leaving the scene of the Portland they proceeded into Boston harbor, and although they dropped anchor the ship kept dragging anchor until my father gave the order to let the cage anchor go and this held fast. A number of ships were making for the harbor and by the time they had entered, the storm had increased so that some of them were having difficulty holding their ships by anchor and the storm carried them to the other end of the bay where they went ashore. About three o’clock in the morning the storm peaked right over the harbor and it was difficult to keep the waves from breaking over the aft cabin, water and snow running down the stairway and seeping right onto the stove in the galley. They were up at daylight and could see the ships that had gone ashore in the night before. The stove in the galley which had been covered with salt-water was in a terrible shape and was covered in rust.
A ship ready to leave the harbor slowed down and came on side and gave them the news that the Portland and two other ships were lost. She must have gone down somewhere near The Graves as bodies were washing ashore near this section. A large number of people that night and it was thought at first the captain would not leave Boston, but he had a call from Portland telling him it was clear in that area so he decided to leave for Portland. Among the passengers that were aboard that night was Oren Hooper and his grandson, the owner of Hooper and Son Furniture Store, which was located on middle near free street. They had been to Boston and he had taken his grandson along. Oren Hooper’s son was the father of the boy.
This tragic event will go down in history as one of the great sea-disasters of our time.
]]> 0
Crap. What am I doing with this site?! Wed, 28 Sep 2016 00:41:04 +0000 Continue reading Crap. What am I doing with this site?!]]> Well I started the “essays” section of the site as a place for things that were roughly nonfiction, somewhat philosophical, and definitely not a blog. But honestly that’s a bit arrogant of me, and as the muse of philosophical nonfiction hasn’t payed me a visit in a while, I thought I’d turn this into something that’s still not a blog (I don’t have a blog), but which is a bit more blogish in nature.
What am I doing with this site. Ad Absurdum publishing? What the hell’s that. What do you publish? Are you a publishing company? No, and no. I had all sorts of stuff that I wanted to publish…. Until I made it easy and created this stupid website.
There’ll probably be some activity over on N7275 Aerospace within a few months or so…maybe. I’ve got a couple of projects I’d like to work on, but there are some writing projects that need to get finished first.
I may put up a music section too, but I need to figure out how to do it making the PHP/SQL too obscene. If the database system I come up with works well for the music, I’ll use it to publish some of my short fiction here as well.
Check out this piece I wrote for Piano/Organ:
It’s pretty cool. More to follow.
]]> 0
How to Write a Story Fri, 18 Mar 2016 02:22:23 +0000 Continue reading How to Write a Story]]> 1. Introduction
It should be obvious that a thoroughly formulaic approach to any form of art would be absurd. And I’m sure even this will draw its critics and detractors. So let me get this out of the way forthwith: if it don’t work for you, don’t take my my advice. I mean that will the utmost respect to people who have their own system.
There’s a sea of bad writing advice out there and I’d hate to contribute to it. It ranges from condemnation of semicolons and adverbs to don’t worldbuild to worldbuild a lot. And, while there’s certainly wisdom in all of it, it’s rarely the golden ticket to secucess that amature writers would like it to be. To my earlier point, this is not “How you should write a story”. I’m not telling you that this is the only way to write a story or the only way to write well. What do I know anyway; I’ve never published a book, just a few essays here and there. I don’t like every author’s writing, why should I like every author’s writing advice. Honestly, I’ve found better advice in just-published authors and in editors than I have in the well-published authors.
A few other things I’d like to get out of the way before we delve headlong into the remainder of this essay.
Word count is a metric I use often, and will use often through this piece. There are error bars on word count. For example, one could write an 80,000 word novel and a 90,000 word novel, and have them both be good, publishable, readable, and convey the same amount of information. The difference between the two works is “in the noise”. However, it’s a very different case between 400 word flash fiction, and 400,000 word tome. The latter two are fundamentally different things. This is important. If you want to write a story, you need to understand what it is fundamentally. Word count is a great way to quantify this in the planning stage because it allows you to do two things, predict how long something will take to write, and, more importantly, how long it will it will take to read.
If you want people to read your writing, it must be something that people want to read. This should be so obvious as to be syllogistic. The less-discussed side of this is that, as an artist, sometimes you have to say things that that people don’t want to hear. Your job as an artist is to get people to want to read something you think they need to hear, but which you don’t think they would listen to if presented unartistically. Aside: If you were looking for a meaning or a purpose for art, look no further.
2. The Idea
Some people outline, some people don’t. If your method doesn’t involve outlining, that’s fine. But know that you will do orders of magnitude more work in terms of rewriting many iterations of the story. If this works for you, and you’re able to write a publishworthy story, than stop here. What you’re doing is working. If however you’re trying the no-outline method and giving up on every story you write between 1,000 and 10,000 words, then read on.
This method posits the idea as the basis for a story. A story idea is the shortest anecdotal version of a story you want to tell. It is a premise upon which to build an argument. It is a basis upon which to justify the telling. Don’t misunderstand me, not all stories need to be allegorical (at least, intentionally and explicitly; we can revisit the unintention and the implicit in a discussion of the value of art). The idea is “what the story is about”. The idea is the writing prompt you’d write if you wanted someone else to be able to write your story for you.
Ideas should be easy. They should be the easiest part of the writing process. You don’t necessarily need a great idea to write a great story. So where do ideas come from? Your life and other art you’ve seen, generally. What do you like; what do you hate; what do you want; what do you value; what have you done; what do you want to do; what have you seen others do; who’s your favorite character, and why. Make a damn list. It doesn’t have to be a full-on manifesto, but it should be what you’re about. If you don’t have something to say, find something. Even if it’s something that’s already been said, say it better. Free writing can help. Essaying on a nonfiction topic can too. Don’t wait until you have something to say it; find something to say.
My ideas are usually begin in the form:
“Bob wanted to buy bread from the baker, but couldn’t.”
There’s ten goddamn words folks, it don’t get more simpler than that. It isn’t brilliant. It isn’t profound but it makes you ask why. The answers to this question will come from “what you’re about”. Justify your premise. You can do it in 100 or 100,000 words, it just depends on how you want to answer. People like to say that the story is about the conflict. I disagree. I think a story is about the premise; conflict is about justifying the premise.
3. The Outline
Like I said previously, I think you need an outline. This is an effort that will take on the order of months to years to complete. If you can charge head-long into other projects of this magnitude, stay on task, complete them on time, and produce a decent product at the end, like I said, read no further.
The outlining process requires knowledge of information quantity and structure. The reason to outline is the same reason that books have chapters, and chapters will often have scenes. You and the people who will read your writing need big pieces of information broken down into manageable pieces of information. The complexity of your outline will depend upon the scope of the process.
The basis of my story structure is the scene. My scenes are typically 1000 to 2500 words long. Character creation is also important at this point as well. Character and scene creation can feel a bit chicken-and-egg, and that’s okay. The outlining process should undergo several revisions just like the story. A scene description will usually include: who’s in the scene, where it takes place, what it accomplishes with respect to the premise of the story.
Flash fiction stories will often take place in only one scene. Short stories will often take place over the course of several scenes. Novels and novelæ are larger and will often bundle several scenes into chapters. Don’t lose sight of the general direction toward the resolution of the premise of the story as you move up in hierarchy. It’s okay if a scene or five take a detour from the premise (one could imagine a literal detour in a travelogue). Detours can add conflict if the scene acknowledges it, and can thus serve to justify the premise.
As you put scenes together, start assembling them into an arc. Know what gets pared with what. Spacing your detours appropriately will allow you to manage your reader’s attention span so they don’t get bored or confused with your story.
4. Writing
I usually start writing with the first scene. It usually wasn’t the first scene outlined, but writing the scenes in the order they will appear is a great way to prevent huge amounts of rewriting. Writing itself is something you can only get good at by doing it, whether that be in the form of storytelling, essaying, peer-reviewed articles, or writing technical manuals. Treat the outline and the premise dynamically while writing. Make changes where it suits you.
After you’re done with your first draft, make a summary of it. This will essentially be an outline for your second draft, and will be much easier to tweak than the whole body of text. Repeat the rewriting process until you have something publishworthy.
5. Final Notes
I wrote this guide for myself. If it works for you than please use it. I see a lot of people struggle with writing, and I’d love to be a help to someone. Writing your own how-to guide might help.
]]> 0
New Site Mon, 14 Mar 2016 20:10:00 +0000 Continue reading New Site]]> The new site is online at
I’ve added a wiki for my fictional world Lek at Lek is an experiment in worldbuilding and philosophy. I’ll be posting essays, short stories, and philosophy here. The wiki is a long, ongoing process. Expect this to be more formal, and the wiki to have a more casual tone.
The goal is to update weekly; we’ll see how that goes.
]]> 0
WHY I STILL FIGHT Mon, 14 Mar 2016 17:00:12 +0000 Continue reading WHY I STILL FIGHT]]> It would be very easy not to write this.It would be very easy not to say what needs to be said. It would be all too easy, and indeed it is too easy for far too many people, to pretend reality doesn’t exist and hide their heads from all that is.
But there is hope, for if there weren’t I would not write this here today, for there are those like you and I. There are those whom Nietzsche called the “free spirits”. They are those who are the questioners, the seekers of knowledge, and the eschewers of dogma. It is for this reason that I shall refrain from ever telling the reader what one should do—or create philosophical dogma.
This is not a rejection of objective reality. It is a recognition of the nature of philosophy per se. Philosophy means “The love of wisdom”. To love wisdom is to judge as a value, with all that one is, the unending pursuit of the knowledge of that which one does not know.
Philosophy is the fight against dogma and superstition and prejudice. The philosophical battle is not winnable. To win the fight is a logical impossibility; “to win philosophy ” is the ultimate contradiction of terms. To win is to reach the ultimate state of. To reach the ultimate state of loving wisdom—to reach the ultimate state of the pursuit of the knowledge of all that which one does not know—is to know of all unknown things. Syllogistically, to know all unknowns is to know all. And to judge oneself as knowing all—to judge oneself by an irrational standard of a non-existent state of perfection—is to love wisdom the least.
One may choose to fight the philosophical battle, or one may choose not to. One may chose to maintain one’s mental and physical health, and fight until the last breath against the inevitable forces of death and decay, or one may choose not to. One is free to choose by the freedom of their will to fight or not to fight in either case
To choose not to maintain one’s health is to choose not to maintain one’s existence; it is to decide that one is not fit to exist within reality(which is to choose not to exist per se). If chooses not to value wisdom and to reproach all but dogma and prejudice, than one has decided that reality—all that is—is not fit for them to exist within. They are one and the same.
Reality exists; I exist. Those are a priori. I have decided that we are fit for one another.
And that is why I still fight.
]]> 0
|
Caribbean Food A Little History
The Arawak, Carib, and Taino Indians were the first inhabitants of the Caribbean islands. These first inhabitants occupied the present day islands of British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Their daily diet consisted of vegetables and fruits such as papaw, yams, guavas, and cassava. The Taino started the process of cooking meat and fish in large clay pots.
The Arawaks are the first people known to make a grate of thin green wood strips on which they slowly cooked meat, allowing it to be enhanced by the flavor of the wood. This grate was called a barbacoa, and the word we know today as barbeque is taken from this early Indian cooking method.
The Carib Indians added more spice to their food with hot pepper sauces, and also added lemon and lime juice to their meat and fish recipes. The Caribs are said to have made the first pepper pot stew. No recipes exist since every time the Indians made the dish, they would always add new ingredients. The Carib had a big impact on early Caribbean history, and the Caribbean sea was named after this tribe.
Then the Caribbean became a crossroads for the world . . .
Once the Europeans brought Africans slaves into the region, the slaves diet consisted mostly of food the slave owners did not want to eat. So the slaves had to be inventive, and they blended their traditional African foods with staples found on the islands. The Africans introduced okra, callaloo, fish cakes, saltfish, ackee, pudding and souse, mangos, and the list goes on.
Most present day Caribbean island locals eat a present diet that is reflective of the main ingredients of original early African dishes, and includes cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, bananas and corn meal.
African men were hunters in their homeland, and often away from home for long periods of time. They would cook spicy pork over hot coals, and this tradition was refined by the early slaves in Jamaica. The technique is known today as “jerk” cooking , and the secret involves a slow meat cooking process. Jamaica is famous for jerk chicken and pork, and you’ll find jerk all over the island.
After slavery was abolished, the Europeans went to India and China for labor, and more cooking styles were introduced. Much of the Indian cooking culture remains alive and well in the Caribbean of today with the introduction of curried meats and curry powder. Indians call it kari podi, and we have come to know this pungent flavor as curry.
The Chinese introduced rice, which is always a staple in home cooked island meals. The Chinese also introduced mustard, and the early Portuguese sailors introduced the popular codfish.
Most visitors to the Caribbean have no idea that the fruit trees and fruits so familiar to the islands were introduced by the early Spanish explorers. The fruit trees and fruits brought from Spain include orange, lime, ginger, plantains, figs, date palms, sugar cane, grapes, tamarinds and coconuts.
Even the Polynesian islands play an important role in Caribbean cooking. Most of us remember the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty”, but do not know that particular ship carried breadfruit, which was loaded on board from the islands of Tahiti and Timor. In the movie the crew took over the ship, forced the captain into a small boat to fend on his own, and they threw the breadfruit, which they considered “strange fruit” overboard. Another ship was more successful in bringing breadfruit from Polynesia to Jamaica and the St Vincent and the Grenadines. Breadfruit is a staple diet in the current day Caribbean
America is responsible for introducing beans, corn, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and chili pepper to the Caribbean. In fact these particular foods had never been seen in Asia, Europe or Africa, so America actually introduced these foods the rest of the world via the Caribbean.
So it’s no wonder Caribbean cooking is so rich and creative with the flavors of Africa, India, and China, along with Spanish, Danish, Portuguese, French and British influences. Food served in the Caribbean islands have been influenced by the cultures of the world, but each island adds its own special flavor and cooking technique.
Delicious Caribbean Food Recipes
Caribbean food recipes are very interesting to me because they are usually a blend of European, African and Asian ingredients. Caribbean food history is intricately linked to the slave trade, and as a result, many foods were transplanted to the Caribbean Islands for the African slaves. With time, slavery was abolished, and instead, indentured servants from India and China were transported to the Caribbeans for additional labor. The end result is that many traditional Caribbean foods have influences from countries all over the world.
A typical West Indian dish may include steamed fish with rice and beans. The side dishes may include callaloo, fritters, or breadfruit. Of course the fish comes from the warm waters of the Caribbean sea. However, the rice is originally from China, the red kidney beans are from South America, the callaloo is originally from west Africa, fritters are made with flour from the Middle East, and breadfruit is originally from the Pacific Islands.
“All about food…!”
Steamed fish
The main thing I like about traditional Cayman food is its freshness. When I have steamed fish at a local Kitchen, it has literally been caught that morning, lightly seasoned, and prepared to perfection. My husband and I were regulars at the Heritage Kitchen when we lived in West Bay. The food is delicious, but always in short supply. If you didn’t arrive just when the restaurant opened, you would likely not be able to order their fresh catch of the day. To prepare steamed fish, wash the fish in lime and then season it with salt and pepper to your taste. Heat coconut oil in a pan. Add the fish and cook it on both sides until it is golden brown. Add a sliced onion, a little water, and seasoning pepper. Cook on low heat for a few minutes until done.
Rice and Beans
Probably the first traditional Grand Cayman food I had was Rice and Beans. This is a dish that I originally tasted at one of the many local Grand Cayman restaurants and kitchens. Usually, Caribbean cooks like to play around with this dish until they make it their own creation. I’ve had it many different ways, but I think the best recipe is Rice and Beans – Cayman Style. To start, soak the beans overnight. Cook the beans until they are tender (about an hour). Drain the beans and save the bean water, it should be about 3 cups. You may need to add more water to get to 3 cups. In another pot, boil previously saved bean water, salt, black pepper, thyme, onion, and seasoning pepper. Add previously boiled beans and coconut milk and let everything come to a boil. Add the rice. Make sure there is about 1/2 inch of water over the rice and beans. When the pot starts to boil again, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until all of the water is absorbed.
This is a dish that I’ve only had in my home. My adventurous husband became curious about breadfruit and asked one of his Jamaican clients how to prepare it. It turned out to be very simple. First place the whole breadfruit in the oven for about an hour. This step is necessary so that you can easily cut the fruit. At this point you can eat the fruit by itself, soak it in butter, or eat it as a side dish to a meal. Another option, is to fry it up for just a couple of minutes on top of the stove. This is what we did the the result was scrumptious. After frying, it tastes a bit like potato, but with an interesting texture.
These traditional Caribbean food recipes are delicious and easy to make. If you use all fresh ingredients, then you are assured of a tasty Caribbean meal that you can easily make in your own home. If you are here visiting the Cayman Islands, I highly recommend one of the many local restaurants and Kitchens. Each one has its own specialty that will have you going back for more.
|
Vermilion Rockfish
Family: Scorpaenidae (Scorpionfishes)
Genus and Species:
Sebastes miniatus
Description: The body of the vermilion rockfish is moderately deep and compressed. The upper profile of the head is some what curved; the mouth is large, with the lower jaw slightly projecting. The color is bright red on the body and fins; many with black and gray mottling on back and sides. On fish shorter than 12 inches, the mottling is much more apparent and the fins are often edged with black. The yelloweye and canary rockfishes are similar in appearance to the vermilion, but the bottom of the yelloweye and canary’s lower jaws are scaleless and feels smooth to the touch. The vermilion rockfish has scales on the bottom of the lower jaw which make it rough to the touch.
Range: Vermilion rockfish occur from San Benito Islands, Baja California, to Vancouver Island, Canada. They are generally caught over rocky bottoms at depths of 100 to 500 feet, although they have been taken from depths as great as 900 feet.
Natural History: The free swimming young of the vermilion rockfish feed primarily upon shrimp-like organisms, while the larger, bottom-living adults feed almost exclusively upon fishes, squid and octopus. Most fishes that are eaten are other smaller kinds of rockfish. Vermilion rockfish appear to mature and spawn for the first time when they are 3 or 4 years old. As with all other rockfish, fertilization is internal and they give birth to living young. A vermilion rockfish that was 20 inches long was estimated to contain 282,000 eggs. By this measure a 30 incher might contain as many as 500,000 eggs. The principal reproductive period lasts from December through March.
Fishing Information: Because a good rockfish “hole” often will yield a dozen or more kinds of rockfishes on any given day, it has been said that rockfish fishing is colorful, interesting, productive, and mysterious. Vermilion rockfish usually are found in the bag of “red” rockfish taken from one of these “holes.” The same rig, bait, and technique used for bocaccio works for vermilion rockfish. Again a lot of rebaiting time can be saved by using a tough, difficult to steal bait such as a piece of squid or salted mackerel.
Other Common Names: red snapper, red rock cod.
Largest Recorded: 30 inches; no weight recorded; however, they attain a weight of at least 15 pounds.
Habitat: Deep Rocky Environment
About the Author
|
Posted in ECS 310
Who Inspires You?
Albert Einstein is one of the most intelligent individuals in history. He is mostly known for the kind of knowledge that is valued by a high IQ rating. However, this is not why I value him so much. Not only was he bright with traditional ideals of intelligence, he was wise. I have quoted Einstein many times in my own teaching philosophy and other areas of personal interest. He has so much perspective on the ways people can learn and the power students have over their own learning.
Through this quote, Einstein makes my vision for education possible. I believe the shift of teachers going from “deliverers of information” to “creators of optimum learning environments” is critical to the future of the classroom. In past classrooms, a teacher designing the environment based on the students needs and interests would be unheard of, or at least very uncommon. Today the classrooms are better, but we aren’t all there yet. Of course it took us years to get to a certain point, it will take many more to go back.
Posted in ECS 310
Aboriginal Knowledge and Mathematics
This is a question I have had to take some time to reflect on. Firstly because the last time I completed a math class was in grade ten. Grade ten was almost eight years ago for me, so it has been tough to look back on.
When I was in elementary to middle school I honestly cannot recall too much of what I learnt in math. My strongest memory of math in my younger years was how much I struggled with word problems. I was a strong reader, I read chapter books by grade three, however the sequence of the problems in written form was hard for me to transfer into numbers. I have always been a very visual learner. I was not ever offered an alternative way to do a word problem or a visual aide so Im not sure if that classifies as oppressive or not?
In high school there were three levels of math. A30 which was the easiest and minimum for most programs in university, B30 and C30 which was a little harder but required for programs such as medicine and science, and finally, calculus which speaks for itself in difficulty. However, a stigma I developed at the time was that those who did calculus would move on to be quite successful financially in our western society. I believed this because of how much talk of university, medicine, engineering and science surrounded calculus. In my western culture, these were the jobs that had high salaries and high salaries were a measure of success.
I cannot speak much on oppression and discrimination in the math classroom for me. It is also something I’m not sure I feel comfortable fully expressing on a public blog.
I was not ever much of a fan of math after middle school and I had so much going on in high school with my personal life that it was hard to engage in the subject I enjoyed least.
When I transferred high schools I had a teacher who was incredibly passionate about math. He worked so hard to instill an understanding and love for math in his students. With him as my guide I was able to pull my math marks from nearly failing to excelling.As a teenager I felt like a lot of my teachers had given up on me, but he pushed me and gave me the confidence I needed to get through the class.
Posted in ECS 310
Why teach Treaties?
This week we were asked to respond to a brief email sent by a student to their teacher asking for treaty resources and struggling to find them or have support in searching for them due to the demographics of the school.
2. What does it mean for the curriculum and you that “We are all treaty people”?
I have to be blunt, is this even a question? This year I attended TreatyEd. Camp at the University of Regina hosted by the UR STARS team. This was one fo the most educational and rich experiences I have had relating to learning more about treaty thus far. One phrase I took from this was from Noel Star Blanket, an elder who spoke in one of the sessions. He spoke about a classroom teacher who had been teaching treaty and indigenous knowledge to her students.
The students protested a frequently appearing question; Why do we have to learn about THEM? Her response: Because they had to learn about US.
Bravo and back flips to this teacher. To me this question is bewildering to ask because my perspective supports the idea of FNMI education to ALL students. Aside from this quote, Canada was existent before the settlers. Canada was not empty, it was not an uninhabited land that was reclaimed and built by our fore fathers. The history is so much more than that. As a student in elementary to high school I did not learn this. I learnt that settlers were “heros”. They came and settled the uncivilized Canada in a “peaceful” way.
In grade eleven I read books such as April Raintree that brought to light the opression and racism that indigenous people face everyday. I learnt a bit about residential schools so I thought I had an idea of what our real history was at this point.
In my first year of university, I was thrown into the depths of the consequences western history has had on minority groups. My professor introduced us to the “Blue Eyes” experiment by Jane Elliot. I will be honest when I say I was fuelled with anger. Reflecting on the thoughts and feelings I had at this time, I did not truly understand racism. I understood race as a combination of social class, color, and job status, give or take a few elements depending on who you are.
When I took my second year of education classes I was again faced with addressing racism in the form of “checking my privilege”. I remember vividly struggling with “white guilt” and the ideas that minorities are just as racist as white people. It was incredibly hard for me to understand “white privelge”. Once I understood this concept, I was overwhelmed with anxiety promoting fleets of guilt and shame associated with my race. Near the end of the same class we were given a task, to move from a place of guilt into a place of action. We can blame, we can be sad, we can be angry, but what good is it all without action? I now understood the system that I have been born into, the events that were clouded with images of “white saviours”. The prying question was.. “Just how exactly will I move to action?”
Here are a few things I came up with:
• Addressing racism and misconcpetions about others made by “the oppresser”
• Addressing my own racism whether it is an intended or unintended act or thought
• Recognizing my privelge and my place in the system of race as power
• Teaching treaties
Based on my personal calls to action against opression and racism, I have found that TreatyEd. is how we move from guilt to action. It is our responsibility as educators to teach about the promises of the treaties; What happened before, during, and after. What the treaties mean and how they have or have not been fulfilled, and how to move forward and live up to the sharing of land as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the river flows. Excluding non-indigneous people to this call to action is not an option. We are all treaty people and this is part of our Canadian history. There are no objections to teaching about the wars of the world, slavery, or the holocaust in the curriculum, so why is there resistence with this?
My grade ten history teacher told me, “We learn about history so we can learn from our mistakes of the past”. Treaties are part of our history and also our world today, we need to learn about them and from them.
Posted in ECS 310
Learning From Place
This week in ECS210
we were asked to read: Learning from Place: A Return to Traditional Mushkegowuk Ways of Knowing by J.Restoule, S.Gruner and E.Metatawabin (2013) and answer the following:
The neat thing about this article is how the trip goes beyond making the youth personally responsible. While they go on the trip to re-learn their relationship with the land, they also discuss and address the political issues related to government and land management in their area.
I have always said that western people have much to learn from the indigenous people. As a white person I am greedy. I take from the earth more than I give. I wear clothes that require tons of water and other resources that use fossil fuels to produce. I wear jewellery that is potentially harvested through slavery, poorly paid workers, and environmental distruction and polltuion.
Today we are faced with an environmental and societel emergency yet we continue to extract resources from the earth and hope the earth will still be there for us when things run out. The indigenous perspective is completely opposite to what our western society has built and I think they are on to something.
This week I taught a lesson with the consideration of place using an indigenous perspective. I am working in a middle school classroom teaching science. We are currently learning about ecosystems and eventually working towards an inquiry project related to human impact on the environment.
When I began planning my lesson the first thing I considered was how can I incorporate indigenous knowledge into this lesson? I asked myself this because first I believe education on indigenous perspectives is important to do, second because my class is dominantly indigneous and third because when you think of place in regards to ecosystems, we are in grasslands on Treaty 4 territory.
I consulted with elders for sacred, locally grown herbs and resources on Cree teaching. I also had hunting friends contribute animal artifacts such as deer sheds as well. I taught the lesson using the context of the Cree worldview flowchart adapted by Elder Judy Bear.
As a health major in the secondary program, I see multiple opportunities to incorporate indigenous knowledge into the classroom using the curriculum. For example, when teaching students health of self I would do this by using the four dimensions of the medicine wheel.
Posted in ECS 310
What does it mean to be a good student?
Here is a question I hear often and dread. Many times I’ve heard, “Think of your ideal classroom”, “Think of your ideal student”, when I am asked this I cringe.
The image of an ideal student holds a standard against all other students. According to Kumashiro and many societal norms, the good student speaks when spoken to, remains seated during class, works silently on their assignments, asks zero questions, and challenges nothing. Some might say this is their dream classroom. Some might go as far to say that this is their biggest goal as a teacher; to have a classroom that is silent and complies. When I think of this ideal standard I envision something like the image below.
Now, if you haven’t heard of Indian residential schools you may not be familiar with what this image means to me. If this is the case, I would urge you to do some research on one of Canada’s darkest eras in history. For some, this may seem extreme or dark that this is what comes to my mind when I think of “the ideal student”, but here they are. Neatly in rows, looking forward, hands on their desks. No disruptions, no questions asked. Sitting in their seats silently, and petrified with fear.
If my students are silent, compliant, and never challenging, I am worried for them. Silence means the students are not learning anything new or are taking a role similar to a machine or computer. They simply take in the information and file it into folders back in their mind, spit it out onto an exam down the road, and forget most of it in a summer.
In Chapter 2 of Kumashiro, there is a student who challenges the teacher in saying that she had no intentions of letting the students facilitate their own learning. He claimed she was pushing them towards her idea of the right answer. I cheered for this individual because he was so keen that he could pin point what he was missing out on in his education. On the flip side, I had a prof. tell me about a teacher he had observed at the back of a classroom last year. He commented on how taken back he was by the class being completely compliant and silent for the teacher. I felt my heart break when I heard him say that. These two situations and how I reacted to them really speak to who I am as an educator.
If students are held to the standard of the common ideal student, it instantly makes active students who are eager to answer, dying to move around, or yearning to socialize with their peers “the bad student”. Too often students are seen as disruptive and incapable of learning because they do not fit the mold of the ideal student every teacher seeks.
I believe every student learns in different ways. Students do not behave for no reason. All behaviour is purposeful in the classroom and I believe it is my job as a teacher to understand why the behaviour is happening and figure out what I can do to work with it. A student who is constantly talking in class may need a job assigned to them that gives them a sense of power and responsibility. The student who is constantly out of their desk may need a brain break or a short walk down the hall, etc.
Students cannot be fit into a box. They must be able to live outside the box and be who they are rather than what someone wants them to be. Only when we let students be who they are and learn at the same time will we have learning that looks like the image below.
|
Basj Basj - 9 months ago 56
C Question
Why does this simple loop crash?
The following code crashes when compiled with MS VC 2013 Express (Windows 7, 64 bit computer):
#include <iostream>
#define N 1000*1000
int main()
float x[N];
int i;
x[i] = (float) (rand() + 1) / RAND_MAX;
What is wrong? Is it a memory problem?
Answer Source
You're basically trying to allocate an array of 1000000 elements, which is simply too big. It's just too huge for programs stack space.
Result: Stack overflow.
Side effect: Undefined behavior, crash.
Solution: Allocate that array in heap. Take a pointer, allocate memory using memory allocator function and you may be able to get it going.
Though arrays are not pointers but for most of the cases, a replacement like (in C)
float * x = malloc(N * (sizeof *x)); // for simplicity, omitting obligatory free,
// success check, stdlib inclusion etc.
would work.
That said, the actual solution would be, re-plan the program design, normally you should not be needing an array that large, try to make the design more modular and process in parts, as and when required.
|
Post 11: Western Influence and Muslim Youth
1. What struggles are unique to Muslim youth in Europe? In what forms does Muslim youth identity manifest itself in Europe? What role does discrimination play in the formation of Muslim youth identities?
Throughout history, the Muslim population in Europe has been mistreated. Because there are so many differences between Eastern and Western cultures, assimilating to the cultural norms in Europe have been difficult for many Muslims. At the same point, the need to assimilate is part of the problem. This feeling is not only felt by adults, but also Muslim youth. Both demographics feel an overarching theme of ostracization and being ousted by peers. Adults often feel the effects of this discrimination when searching for a job, and children will too. Muslim youth often find it hard to fit in at school and aren’t accepted by their peers. Both groups are highly affected by the radical terrorists that kill in the name of Islam. Though this group is very small in comparison to the size of the entire religious population, it’s radicalness draws attention and assumptions from outsiders. Another problem Muslim youth experience is being alienated. It seems they find it hard to balance being European while also being Muslim. With Christianity being the major religion in Europe, Muslim youth have to work harder to find places to worship and practice their religion compared to Christians by way of the number of churches compared to mosques. The various factors of discrimination, alienation and more do not make being a Muslim youth in Europe easy.
2. In what ways has the influence of Western experiences on Malaysian Muslims been contradictory? How can this be applied to Muslims worldwide?
Because Western and Eastern cultures draw so many differences, the influence of Western influences have led some Muslims to go to extremes in order to make the difference between “me and them” even more clear. So, they draw a divide between their values and conduct from that of the Western world. The finding for this idea with Malaysian Muslims is that their experiences in the West radicalized their previously held beliefs, rather than led to assimilation. Because of the difficulties discussed earlier that Muslims in Western cultures find themselves subjected to, many Malaysian Muslims radicalized their beliefs in order to defend their values more aggressively. This can extend to Muslims worldwide that find Western cultures hampering to their own culture. To feel less threatened by Western ideals, some Muslims choose to radicalize their beliefs and keep the Western culture in the West.
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s
|
• Home /
• / How Wisdom Teeth Are Connected To Organs In The Body
How Wisdom Teeth Are Connected To Organs In The Body
By Staff Curator / September 10, 2015
wisdom teeth info
More proof of just how important our wisdom teeth actually are to our overall health. Why do we believe they need to be removed?
by (collective-evolution.com) – Years ago, if you went to a physician for suspected heart disease, the last thing they would have thought to do was refer you to a gum specialist. These days, however, things have changed, as science continues to shed light on the connection between these two seemingly disconnected regions of the body. (source) The same goes for pregnancy, diabetes, and a number of other conditions.
In the past five years alone, interest in possible links between mouth/tooth health and body health has skyrocketed. Truth is, your oral health is far more important than you might have realized, and we are becoming increasingly aware of the connection between the body and the mouth, teeth, and gums.
What conditions could be linked to oral health? (We encourage you to look for more sources, as they are abundant.)
Endocarditis – An infection of the inner lining of your heart. This can happen when germs and bacteria from your mouth spread throughout your bloodstream and attach themselves to damaged areas of your heart. (source)(source)
Cardiovascular disease – As mentioned in the first paragraph, research shows that heart disease, clogged arteries, and stroke might be associated with a decline in oral health. (source)
Diabetes – Studies have shown that gum disease is more frequent and severe among people who have diabetes. Research also shows that people who have gum disease have a harder time controlling their blood sugar levels. (source)(source)
HIV/AIDS – Oral problems like mucosal lesions are more common in people who have HIV/AIDS. (source)
Alzheimer’s disease – Tooth loss before the age of 35 could be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. (source)
These are just a few of many health conditions linked with oral health.
“Physicians are taking a more holistic approach to their patients’ overall health.” – Sally Cram, DDS, PC, consumer advisor for the American Dental Association.
Meridian Dentistry
This is a belief a growing number of dentists share these days, and with all the connections emerging between mouth and overall body health, it’s not hard to see why. That’s not the only reason, meridian dentistry stems from ancient Chinese culture. They, among others, believed that there is an overall energy distribution system throughout the body where “qi” or “life force energy” flows throughout the body. The individual meridians are often described as vessels that carry, hold, or transport this life force energy, as well as blood and other body fluids around the body, almost like a circulatory system.
This is exactly why we are seeing a growing number of dentists offering a holistic type of practice which utilizes these methods for treating patients. A simple Google search would suffice to show you that.
HERE are some links to scholarly articles regarding this ancient system. The general consensus seems to be that your teeth are very important, as they are connected to various organs throughout your body. Tooth health, according to this system, and to some modern day science, plays a much larger role in the maintenance of overall wellness than we previously thought. According to the meridian system, poor tooth health might equate to poor organ health and blockages of energy flow.
Below is a chart that shows you how it’s all connected.
Wisdom Teeth
There is a lot of information out there regarding the removal of wisdom teeth, and many people are starting to question its merits, particularly when recommended as a routine precautionary measure. Many experts seem to agree that there is little evidence to support removing wisdom teeth which are not causing any pain or discomfort.
For example, a report by dentist Jay Friedman in the American Journal of Public Health reveals that 67 percent or more of preventative wisdom teeth removals are unnecessary. The article explains that most of the pain and illness surrounding wisdom teeth are not caused by the teeth themselves, but rather the symptoms which arise from their surgical removal., which some number in the many, long lasting and permanent.(source)
The Cochrane Library released a review, led by Theodorus (Dirk) G. Mettes of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands, which outlines how so-called impacted wisdom teeth have the potential to cause a host of problems, including swelling or ulceration of the gums around these teeth, cysts or tumors, and damage, decay, or disease in the second molars. However, many people can go their entire lives without these teeth causing any problems. (source)
Basically, we don’t really know enough, and remove them mostly based on the temporary discomfort and pain that they cause. But according to the meridian system, wisdom teeth play a very important role in overall body health.
Why Do These Teachings Resonate With So Many People?
There are a number of reasons, one is the fact that much of what has been written in ancient eastern philosophy, mysticism, and more, has also been expressed by various cultures throughout human history. Another factor to consider is that many of these teachings have been verified by modern day science, quantum physics being just one great example. What we perceive as our physical material world is really not physical or material at all (read more about that here) – far from it. This has been proven time and time again by multiple Nobel Prize winning physicists (among many other scientists around the world), yet it was known and described in various ancient texts long before such ‘official’ validation.
Another great example is meditation. It’s only recently that science has identified the various health benefits associated with it, yet again, various ancient texts already described them. A couple of examples could be…
Read the complete article here.
1 comment
Leave a comment:
|
Sentence Examples with the word Ulnar
The flexor digitorum sublimis muscle arises fleshy from the long elastic band which extends from the inner humeral condyle along the ventral surface of the ulna to the ulnar carpal bone, over which the tendon runs to insert itself on the radial anterior side of the first phalanx of the second digit.
Similarly the hypothenar muscles for the little finger underlie the three ulnar marginal mountains, the sizes of which depend on their development and on the prominence of the pisiform bone.
View more
Above this knob is often present an ectepicondylar process whence arise the tendons of the ulnar and radial flexors.
R', u', Radial and ulnar carpal bones; with the three digits I., II., III.
The wing of the bird is folded in a unique way, namely, the radius parallel with the humerus, and the whole wrist and hand with their ulnar side against the ulna; upper and forearm in a state of supination, the hand in that of strong abduction.
|
Wednesday, 7 August 2013
Nucleosynthesis- Making the Elements
The recipe for the making of the elements reads like a cookbook. In the first 3 minutes following the universe's fiery birth, very little was produced during big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) due to some nuclear anomalies; there are no stable mass-5 or mass-8 nuclides making it almost impossible make anything other than 2H, 3He, 4He and 7Li (which is difficult to produce in abundance). Let's see how the light elements were initially synthesised. Firstly, a neutron coalesces with 1H to produce a deutron (2H) and a gamma ray; the deutron acts as a bottleneck for the rest of fusion events. Since a free neutron is highly unstable (half life of ~10 min) it decays into a proton and electron antineutrino; so you end up with around half the neutrons you started off with (which get captured into nuclei). 3He is produced when a proton is captured onto a deutron, which is converted to 4He via either neutron capture or a reaction where the deutron tosses in its neutron to the 3He and gives up its proton. In the another set of reactions, neutron capture by a deutron to produce 3He (a triton) gets converted to a 4He via either proton capture or a reaction in which a deutron gives up its proton and frees a neutron. That's pretty much hat was produced during BBN, aside from the fact that 7Li was made in minuscule amounts via the combination of 4He and 3H (in lows baryon density) or through the fusion of 4He and 3He to produce 7Be which was then fused with an electron neutrino. However, WMAP data seems to agree with theoretical calculations of 2H and 4He but not for 7Li (the prediction for lithium is about three times higher than actually observed). The 'lithium problem' may be addressed by short-lived hypothetical particles called axions which bind to nuclei; assuming it was negatively charged, the axion would reduce the Coulomb barrier between particles as the universe cooled to a certain point, hence triggering a revival of nucleosynthesis. So now that hydrogen, helium and a little bit of lithium were produced via BBN, the rest of the elements from carbon to lead and even as far as thorium and uranium were synthesised by nuclear reactions in stars.
Stellar nucleosynthesis begins with the initial stage of hydrogen burning, where hydrogen is converted to helium. In each of the 3 pp (proton-proton) chains 4 protons undergo fusion to form a 4He nucleus. In the pp-I branch, 6 protons actually go into the chain but only 2 remain in the final reaction with the 4He nucleus (so the net number of protons consumed is 4). The pp-II branch, the final reaction produces 2 4He nuclei, but one of them is put in to restart the chain (net number is 1). While the pp-III branch begins with 7Be (4He nucleus and 3 protons), so the proton that enters the chain makes one net 4He nucleus when 8Be decays. The CNO (carbon/nitrogen/oxygen) cycle is used for hydrogen burning in more massive stars and uses 12C as a catalyst. Next, the triple alpha and alpha processes of helium burning are rather simple; 2 4He are fused to form 8Be, 8Be is fused with 4He to produce 12C and 12C combines with 4He to make 16O. Hoyle discovered a resonance (an excited energy level) in the carbon nucleus of 7.7 MeV, to compensate for the instability of 8Be (which lives for 10^-16 secs). Subsequent nuclear reactions involve silicon burning following oxygen burning; the temperature is high enough so photons can interact with 28Si to make 24Mg and a 4He nucleus. Other photons can interact with 24Mg to make 20Ne and 4He nuclei, moreover, the light 4He nuclei can be captured by other 28Si to make 32S followed by 36Ar (very simplified); so nuclei around nickel and iron are products of silicon burning.
But the picture of nucleosynthesis is not complete without a mechanism for making the elements heavier than iron and nickel. Most of which are produced via the s-process (slow neutron capture) and r-process (rapid neutron capture); the s-process happens during helium burning and makes around half the nuclei heavier than iron. Such a process continues until it encounters the closed shells of the nucleons, which makes it difficult to capture an additional neutron. The s-process peaks in element abundance at barium, lead and strontium but the heaviest element made is 209Bi; attempt to add an another neutron and it undergoes beta decay to 210Po, releasing a 4He nucleus and ending up at 206Pb. The favoured site for the r-process is core-collapse supernovae, as a star cools, the seed nuclei form nuclides all the way up to uranium and plutonium and beyond.
No comments:
Post a Comment
|
Musjids of the World Series: Part Five
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, was first a Christian cathedral, the largest in the world for a thousand years. In 1453, Istanbul was conquered by the Ottoman Muslims. At that time, the church was dilapidated and Sultan Mehmed II ordered it cleaned and converted to a Musjid. The mihrab, minbar, and 4 minarets were added under the Ottomans. For 500 years the principal Musjid of Istanbul, Hagia Sophia served as a model for many Ottoman Musjids. Sultan Mahmud I restored it in 1739 and added a Madresa, soup kitchen and library. In 1935, Kemal Attaturk converted into a museum which it remains today.
Huaisheng Musjid, Guangzhou, China also known as Lighthouse Musjid, is one of the oldest in China. The minaret is 10m tall and served as a beacon for boats. According to old manuscripts the Musjid was built by Abi Waqqas t uncle of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, on his first Islamic mission to China in the 630’s. The Musjid was rebuilt in 1350 and 1695.
Badshahi Musjid, Lahore, Pakistan was built in 1673 by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. It can hold 55,000 worshippers and is the second largest Musjid in Pakistan. It was the largest in the world for a while. Under Sikh rule it was damaged and used as a stable for the army's horses. The British used it for cannon and gun practice and demolished part of it. Repairs from 1939-60 brought it to its original condition. Qari Abdul Basit recited here and Sheikh Sudais, Imam of Makkah, led prayers in 2007. A museum was added, containing relics of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and his family.
|
Virtual Wheelchair Interface Ramp - Press Release
Virtual Wheelchair Interface Ramp: A Change in Perspective
I. Introduction
The purpose of the Virtual Wheelchair project is to provide an interface between a user in a wheelchair and a computer. This interface takes the form of a ramp. The user rolls up the ramp until the wheels of the wheelchair are positioned and lowered into two sets of rollers. Optical encoders and an interface box translate the motion of the wheels to the computer, allowing wheelchair navigation through a computer generated environment.
Custom software, including navigation code specifically for wheelchairs, was designed by Brian Duggan at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. This software uses the Performer libraries by Silicon Graphics. Models are created by Jason Ditmars with Maya and imported directly into Performer via a custom tri-file loader. The interface ramp -- made of steel, diamond plate, expanded metal, and electronic devices -- was constructed in Los Angeles by Ronen Mintz and Jason Ditmars. The ramp can be used by both physically challenged persons in their own variety of wheelchairs (electric or manual), as well as by others in a standard wheelchair (provided on site).
II. Concept
The wheelchair was chosen not only for its commonly understood operation, but also for its symbolic representation. In operation, many people find difficulty using a Trackball, 6D Tracker, or Mouse to navigate virtual space, resulting in a frustrating experience. The wheelchair, by contrast, is a navigational device that everyone already understands. It enables movement through this new spatial terrain in a more familiar way. The wheelchair alone represents mobility for the physically challenged. As an interface, it becomes a metaphor for a new kind of mobility that exists in cyberspace and other computer-generated spaces, where the limitations of the body are left behind.
By making an interface specifically for wheelchairs, the experience is accessible to the entire public. This interface is excellent for public shows or public spaces such as conventions or museums. People who are bound to wheelchairs become the expert navigators -- able to maneuver around the space with ease. People who are not bound to wheelchairs are asked to engage the experience by using a common wheelchair provided on site. Even children and senior citizens, who are not necessarily experienced with computers, have been able to quickly adapt to this intuitive form of navigation.
III. Interface
The ramp consists of four main parts and is adjustable to various lengths. The full interface consists of a five foot front ramp, a three foot middle platform, and a three foot back ramp. It is a total length of 11 feet, at a maximum height of 7 1/2 inches. The front ramp can be made steeper and shorter, giving a total length of 9 feet. A minimum space arrangement can be made by using the front ramp for both entrance and exit, bringing the total length down to 6 feet.
Only one person is required to assist a user in boarding the interface ramp. Once users roll up to the middle platform, they are easily lowered into position by an extension lever. At this point, motorized wheelchairs are ready to go. Manual wheelchairs can be locked into an adjustable device that lifts some of the weight off of the rollers so that the wheels are easier to spin. Once the experience is finished, the assistant raises and locks the wheels back to the level of the platform surface and the user can roll forward and coast down the ramp.
To spice things up a bit, we added a lever/joystick that lets the user fly up into the virtual sky, affording a wonderful birds-eye-view of the buildings of various shapes and colors. A button box allows for selection between FAST and SLOW navigation speed. FAST is commonly used for electric wheelchairs that have more precise wheel movements, while SLOW is more representative of real-world navigation for manual wheelchairs.
IV. Future
The next stage of the project is to incorporate force-feedback motors into the ramp. These motors will be used to reflect real-world gravity and friction. Thus, if you are on a virtual hill, the wheels of your wheelchair will begin to coast forwards. To stop yourself, you will have to brake the wheels with your hands, just as you would in the real world. With this system installed, we believe the wheelchair ramp will be one of the most submersive physical interfaces to date.
V. Shows and Awards
Butler Institute of American Art
, Youngstown, OH -- Mar.19-Aug.19, 2000
Permanent Display at the San Diego Supercomputer VisLab, La Jolla, CA -- 1995-1998
Siggraph '95 Interactive Communities (w/ Cityspace) -- Aug. 1995
Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
Supercomputing '95 (w/ Cityspace) -- Dec. 1995
San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA
Nominated by the Discovery Channel for the 1995 "Invention of the Year"
Honorary Mention for Interactive Arts 1996 from Prix ARS Electronica
This project has received generous support from:
Silicon Graphics, Inc.
The San Diego Supercomputer Center
ACM Siggraph
Stereographics RealD
|
Choosing a laptop AC adapter replacement is fairly easy, but it is important to understand a few terms to ensure you get the proper replacement that is fully compatible with your laptop model. Using an incompatible adapter could cause damage to both the adapter and to your laptop, so it is imperative that you take a moment to understand the main points that differentiate laptop AC adapters.
An AC adapter converts the AC (alternating current) power coming from a wall outlet into DC (direct current) power that the laptop requires. Virtually all AC adapters will support the correct AC current, so the focus should be on finding an adapter that provides the proper DC current for your laptop’s model.
If you look on the original laptop AC adapter for your laptop you will see a number of specifications for the voltage, polarity, etc. for this adapter. You can sometimes find this information on the laptop itself as well. Look on the sticker at the bottom of the laptop for this info. Sometimes this information is also listed near the DC jack where the AC adapter is plugged into the machine. This will often read something like “DC18V 5A (MAX)”.
The first important number is the voltage. Common voltages are 15V, 16V, 18V, 19V, 20V, 22V, and 24V. The second most important number is the amperage, or amps. Common amp ratings are 6A, 5.6A, 4.7A, 4.5A, and 3.8A. It is important that both of these numbers match to ensure compatibility. Both of these numbers work together to produce the overall wattage of the adapter, which is the voltage multiplied by the amperage. So an 18.5 Volt 4.1 Amp HP AC adapter would end up with a rating of 75 Watts.
Another specific marking is the tip polarity which can be found on the brick portion of the adapter. This is a symbol with a + and – sign and a graphic indicating whether the tip or ring are positive or negative. If the positive circle is connected to the small center dot, for example, the adapter has a positive polarity, meaning that the tip is positive and the barrel is negative. Make sure the polarity of the AC adapter matches the laptop; most laptop AC adapters are center positive.
The last important factor of an AC adapter is the size of the tip. If the tip is too small or too large, it will not fit the connection point on your laptop. The tip is most often expressed as a measurement, such as the 6.3mm x 3.0mm tip used on some common Toshiba laptop AC adapters. Generally if you use your model number or the original part number you should not have to be concerned with the tip size.
To simplify the process, you may consider using an online parts supplier which can help you find compatible parts for your laptop model. Armed with the information above, however, you can make a very informed decision and know the part you are purchasing is compatible with your laptop.
|
Thursday, December 24, 2009
The Scripture and The Word of God; are these terms interchangeable? Part II
In the last post…we looked at what Jesus said in the four gospels about scripture, the law and prophets and, the word of God; Specifically, his definition of the term word of God in Luke 8:11. Let’s move on to how the Book of Acts uses the phrase word of God.
First, the phrase is used in twelve verses. And, when you read the verses in context, in each of them, the phrase only makes sense when the meaning of the phrase is gospel. In other words, if you try to replace the phrase with scripture it does not make sense but, if you replace the phrase with the gospel, it is obvious that gospel was the intended meaning. And yet, to the average evangelical, the first connotative meaning attached to the phrase is scripture. Here are a few examples of the apostolic meaning:
In the above verse, the clause, they spoke the gospel with boldness makes perfect sense but it does not make sense to say that they were speaking the scripture with boldness because all of the Jews spoke the scripture and it did not take boldness to speak the scripture. They memorized scripture from the time that they were small children on.
Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. (Act 6:7)
In Acts six they were only speaking to Jews because the Gentiles were not included in the evangelizing until Acts chapter 10 so, when you read Acts 6:7, it only makes sense when you see the word of God as the gospel….the gospel spread and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem …and conversely it would not make sense to say that the scripture spread
Here are all of the scripture passages that have the phrase the word of God in them in the book of Acts: (Act_4:31; Act_6:2; Act_6:7; Act_8:14; Act_11:1; Act_12:24; Act_13:5; Act_13:7; Act_13:44; Act_13:46; Act_17:13; Act_18:11;) In each of them, the only term that makes sense when substituted, is the gospel. Using the word scripture will not work in any of them. Check it out for yourself.
By the same token, the word scripture is used seven times in the book of acts to describe what was written their sacred scripture and, the Law… or, the Law and the Prophets… are mentioned in 20 verses. It is clear that the apostles and, contemporaries of Jesus saw the difference between the scripture and the word of God. As we move forward with this blog, it will become obvious that the first century saints never referred to the scripture as the word of God.
Again you may ask, “so what?”
Well, for one thing, you should ask yourself “why did they make the distinction and how did we end up changing this meaning?” We will provide an answer in the long run as these posts develop but for now, please check out closely what has been written so far. As always, I would love your comments as this goes forward.
1. Scripture? Gospel? Although there may be a difference between the two, the Bible, Old and New Testament, I still believe is the word of God. No I am not sure why the first century saints made the distinction or how the change came about; but I am looking forward to finding out.
1. AW,
Could it be biblio-idolatry? Far too many worship the bible instead of the God of the bible. Also, when the word of God is the gospel and Jesus it gives the bible a redemptive purpose. When it is the Word of God you get such a variety of interpretations that it leads to 30.000+ denomination which is where we are today. Many of those denominations to not fellowship with each other or think that the other has salvation.
2. You know that is the unfortunate thing about humans; we are always trying to worship a tangible thing. We just have to be able to see with our human eyes. Why can't we be guided by our spiritual eyes, and as you stated worship God. We can do this if we get to know Him a lot more intimately.
2. Not by bread alone but by "every word"...
The New, "Politically Correct"
|
Join Airways—Intercept Radials
It’s quite simple, really. Although there is no place in the Air Traffic Procedures manual (FAAH 7110.65), which specifically states that “join airways—intercept radials/localizers/courses/bearings” is the approved application, you will see many examples of phraseology which include the words “join” and “intercept”. In every case, “join” is only used in conjunction with the word “airway” and “intercept” is only used with the words “radial”, “course”, “localizer”, or “bearing”. In no case is there any cross contamination of those examples.
If you understand what is meant by that plethora of words, you will understand why there is no ambiguity. First, the latter group of words (radial, course, localizer, bearing) describe a “line” in space. As you may remember from high school geometry, a line is a series of points, and points are infinitely small—they have no dimension. They can be represented by a needle on the instrument panel, but it’s that representation which has dimension, not the line.
Airways, on the other hand, whether Victor (low altitude) or Jet (high altitude) are made up of, by definition, the radial (of a VOR) plus four miles either side of the defining radial which is called protected airspace. If you are given a clearance to “join” an airway, you are to fly to the defining radial and intercept it, but you are afforded separation as soon as you cross the four mile boundary. In other words, the airway has dimension (width), and you are established within its confines as soon as you are within it, even if you haven’t quite reached the radial which defines it. I don’t want to quibble about the various RNAV types of navigation—the bulk of the air navigation system is still made up of airways defined by VORs and their radials. The definition of an airway as including protected airspace still applies, regardless of how the pilot navigates it.
In simple terms, therefore, “join” means to be gathered within an airway. Since none of the other route definitions imply any dimension, they cannot be joined—one can only “intercept” them.
Addendum: When posting this page as a proof in some internet discussion boards, there were some (ignorant) detractors, no doubt abusers of the principals above, who tried to make the claim that, “those are just examples. They aren’t the direction for application”. Sigh. Okay, lets put this another way, there is no place in the ATP where proper phraseology is specified anywhere but in the examples. It’s mind numbingly tiresome trying to keep up with gadflies. It’s like Whack-a-Mole.
©2016 The WebButcher
All Rights Reserved
Site design by Rod PetersonThe Webbutcher
Last updated: 13 November 2016
|
New Delhi
India is simply too large, complex and diverse really to be thought of as one place. Its history is equally diverse and has been written about in numerous excellent books. If there are two books which get close to doing justice to India then they are John Keay’s ‘A History of India’ and ‘Raj; The Making and Unmaking of British India’ by Lawrence James. If you want to get a glimpse of India as it was and how it became the country it is today then read both books before setting foot in this incredible country.
Most history books start with the Indus Valley Civilisation which flourished between 3,300 – 1,300 B.C. They move on to the Vedic Civilisation, Mahajanapadas (600-300 B.C.), the Magadha Empire and the influx of Persian and Greek conquests, including Alexander the Great.
There were many more empires and dynasties in different parts of the sub-continent before the Rashtrakuta Empire (753 – 982 A.D) in the west, Pala Empire (750 – 1199 A.D.) in the north and west, Chola Dynasty (300s B.C. – 1279 A.D.) in the south and east and Western Chalukya Empire (973 – 1189 A.D.) in the mid-west.
Islam invaded from the west in the 12th to 16th Centuries, bringing in a rich additional culture and clash of religions as modern India portrays with Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Muslims and, with the first Europeans, Christianity.
The first Christians to arrive were Portuguese in the person of explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498. The Dutch very quickly followed with the British not far behind. In 1617 the British established the British East India Company which had morphed into the Raj by 1858. The heavy hand of the British East India Company and then the Raj soon led to mutinies and rebellions with the first major rebellion in 1857.
In 1885 the Indian National Congress (INC) was founded and by 1900 had reached across all of India but it failed to win Muslim support. In 1906 the All India Muslim League was formed and by the 1920s Mahatma Gandhi had encouraged the independence movement to start a non-cooperation movement.
With the Second World War the country was split; there were those who opposed getting involved on the side of the British, but many more did and the British Indian Army eventually numbered around 2.5 million men. After the war, the weakened United Kingdom and the rise of American power, Communism and the Cold War meant that independence was going to happen sooner or later.
On 3rd June 1947 the last British Governor-General of India, Viscount Louis Mountbatten announced the partition of British India into India and Pakistan; on 14th August 1947 Pakistan became an independent state and on 15th August 1947 it was the turn of India. What took place over the next few weeks was reprehensible; as Muslims fled to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs fled to India; more than 12 million people found themselves on the move. Religious violence took place on a massive scale with an estimated 100,000 women raped and possibly as many as one million people murdered. Both sides were equally guilty but ultimately it was the hasty partitioning and withdrawal of the British that created the environment for hate and violence.
Indian National Congress (INC) leader Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India on 15th August 1947 and he was to remain in office until 1964 as the INC dominated politics in the early years of independent India. Mahatma Gandhi, who was the moral leader of India chose not to accept office. A new constitution was passed in 1950 which made India a secular and a democratic state.
In 1947 India went to war with Pakistan for the first of a number of wars over the next few years (also in 1965, 1971 and 1999) and in 1962 a border dispute escalated into war with China.
In the post-independence India many people held varying and violent views including religious, caste and Naxalist violence. Many of those problems remain in modern India.
One nationalist who had opposed the doctrine of non-violence assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on 30th January 1948. At Gandhi’s funeral the nation mourned; “The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere.”
The same words were used when Jawaharlal Nehru died suddenly of a heart attack on 27th May 1964. In a few short years the moral and intellectual compasses of India had been torn away from the new state.
Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded Nehru as Prime Minister but Indira Gandhi, Nehru’s daughter, took over as Prime Minister in 1967 (and leader of the Indian National Congress) and remained in office until 1977. The Indian national Congress won its fourth election in a row in 1967, but with a reduced majority of 283 of the 520 seats in the Lok Sabha or lower chamber.
Indira Gandhi moved towards a Socialist doctrine over the next few years and, as a result, caused a split in the party. Nevertheless the majority were with her and she won a decisive victory in 1971 taking 352 of the 518 seats in the Lok Sabha. Soon after India became embroiled in the Bangladesh Liberation War which resulted in the independence of East Pakistan (after independence it became Bangladesh).
By this time the economic and social problems of India were growing and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi became more authoritarian. Opposition to her rule grew and galvanised under the leadership of Jaya Prakash Narayan. By 1975 strikes and violence forced the Prime Minister to declare a state of emergency, suspend civil liberties and abandon elections. Accusations of corruption increased and Indira Gandhi’s son Sanjay was singled out.
An election was finally called in 1977 and Indira Gandhi’s Congress suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of a coalition of opposition parties contesting the elections under the Janata Party (People’s Party) title. The Janata Party won 295 of the 542 seats in the Lok Sabha and Congress was reduced to 154 seats. But any broad coalition struggles to stay united for very long and the new government was no exception. By 1979 the coalition was crumbling and in 1980 Indira Gandhi and her Congress (I) Alliance (made up of five parties) won 374 seats.
On 31st October 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards assassinated her, many believe because of the attack by the Indian Army on the Golden Temple at Amritsar in the June of that year when many Sikhs were killed and the temple desecrated. The ensuing anti-Sikh riots resulted in some 8,000 deaths and many more badly injured.
Congress chose Rajiv Gandhi, Indira’s oldest son to be the next Prime Minister. Parliament was dissolved and Congress won the 1984 election with a majority of 404 seats in the 515 seat parliament. Rajiv Gandhi instigated many reforms but the so called Bofors Scandal implicated many senior government officials in corruption allegations.
Rajiv and Congress won the most seats in 1989, down to 197 seats, but it was V.P Singh and the Janata Dal party with 143 seats and it’s National Front Coalition that formed the government. The government lasted just a few months and after further attempts to form minority governments, fresh elections were held in June 1991.
Congress was back on top with 244 of the 545 seats in the Lok Sabha, but on 21st May 1991 but whilst campaigning in Tamil Nadu Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a female LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) suicide bomber.
P. V. Narasimha Rao became the new Prime Minister and India entered a period of economic liberalisation and reform, which opened the Indian economy to global trade and investment. On the political scene this was also a period when many new parties, based largely on the states, were formed; India was about to enter an age of coalition governments.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu Nationalist party, had been formed in 1980 and steadily grew in influence. In the 1996 elections it finally achieved success and emerged as the largest single party with 161 seats in the 545 seat lower chamber. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee managed to form a coalition which lasted less than two weeks and it fell to the Janata Dal to form a 14 party coalition called the United Front; it lasted just about a year.
In 1998 fresh elections were held and this time the BJP took 182 seats. Again they formed a government in coalition with a number of other parties but again the government collapsed in late 1998 and fresh elections were held in 1999.
Clearly something had to change. The big parties decided to set up pre-election coalitions with a myriad of smaller state parties to fight the elections. The 1999 election was to be the first of these alliances and the BJPs National Democratic Alliance (NDA) consisting of 14 parties won the day with 270 seats in the 545 seat Lok Sabha. The Indian National Congress managed just 114 seats.
Despite a string of natural disasters and corruption scandals the NDA government was a success; the economy grew rapidly, there was political stability and the prospect of peace with Pakistan.
It was therefore with great surprise when Congress and its newly formed 14 party United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won the election of 2004 with 275 seats against the NDAs 185 seats. Congress built on that success and managed to draw in more small parties to form a government of 335 members.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi (Rajiv Gandhi’s Italian born widow) declined the role of prime minister and instead asked former Finance Minister and respected economist Manmohan Singh to fill the role (he also became the first Sikh and non-Hindu to hold the post). India continued its golden period of growth and the middle class expanded rapidly as many more skilled professionals entered the scientific and information technology sectors.
So many people had benefitted from the economic growth that it was little surprise that the UPA won the 2009 general election with 262 seats in the 543 seat Lok Sabha. Again more little parties joined after the election and the UPA was eventually 322 seats strong.
All good things eventually unravel, and the UPA government found itself losing support as the economy slowed. Corruption once more raised its ugly head and the country has faced the spread of Naxal groups (Maoist Communists) committing outrages across the east and north east of the country. There has also been a rash of scandals including Coalgate and the 2G spectrum scam which have tarnished the government’s reputation. They in turn have led to the India Against Corruption Movement and the creation of a new political party, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Congress has lost support in the Lok Sabha which has made the passing of legislation almost impossible as the BJP and its allies ground the parliamentary process to a halt.
The next few years will decide if India is governable or not. With the rise of the small state based parties and the weakening of the national parties pre-election coalitions can evaporate quickly after an election. The states are growing in strength but without a strong federal core India faces new political challenges.
The President is elected by an electoral college consisting of elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the legislatures of the states for a five-year term with no term limits.
The bicameral parliament consists of the Council of States or Rajya Sabha which has no more than 250 members up to 12 of whom are appointed by the President whilst the remainder are chosen by the elected members of the state and territorial assemblies. Members serve six year terms. The People’s Assembly or Lok Sabha (lower chamber) has 545 seats of whom 543 members are elected by popular vote and 2 are appointed by the President. Members serve five year terms.
The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2016 places India at joint 79th out of 176 countries with a CPI 2016 score of 40 (where 100 is least corrupt).
|
Portosystemic Shunt
*The Basics*
A porto-systemic shunt is an abnormal vessel that allows blood to bypass the liver. As a result the blood
Mode of inheritance:
Age of onset:
Under one (1) year of age.
Portosystemic shunting is a term used to describe abnormal blood flow between the liver and the body.
The liver is responsible for detoxifying the body, metabolizing nutrients and eliminating drugs. When the
body’s blood flow bypasses the liver, as is the case with portosystemic shunts (PSS), a multitude of signs
may appear.
There are two types of shunting: intra hepatic (the vein is within the liver) and extra hepatic (not
attached). Since congenital shunts are believed to be hereditary, dog breeders need to be aware of early
signs of liver disease so that potential carriers of the problem can be identified and eliminated from the
breeding program.
In an affected dog the liver is not getting an adequate blood supply and this causes the dog to be smaller
than normal. The liver is also not able to properly rid itself of all the toxins that it does manage to take in
through the capillary system. Protein is the major culprit. Dogs with liver shunt are not able to assimilate
the protein from food. Therefore most often the shunt is found because the dog suffers seizures from the
build-up of toxins.
Clinical signs of PSS are generally noticed before 1 year of age however, it is not uncommon for
symptoms to appear at around 2 years of age.
Warning signs are: head pressing, thin and/or poorly grown (small) dogs, depression, vomiting, ataxia,
aimless walking or compulsive pacing, circling, disorientation (weaving and bobbing) and apparent
blindness. Seizures are another possible sign of this problem. Uncharacteristic aggression can also be a
sign. All these symptoms may be multiple or singular to this disease.
Animals that are showing signs of liver disease should have a complete blood count, serum chemistry
screen, and urinalysis performed. If the test results are suggestive of a liver disorder, the animal's bile
acids should be measured.
Bile acids are considered to be the most sensitive screening test for portosystemic shunts. Two (2) blood
samples are drawn, the first after a twelve (12) hour fast, the second sample is drawn 2 hours after a high
protein meal. Elevation of bile acids (especially the second sample) is highly suggestive of a
portosystemic shunt (rather than any other cause of liver disease). These patients should have the
diagnosis of PSS confirmed.
Diagnostic tests include radiographs, ultrasonography and intravenous portovenography.
Portovenography involves anesthetizing the patient, injecting radio opaque dye intravenously, and taking
radiographs of the liver as the dye is circulating through the liver vasculature.
Treatment of choice is surgery to tie off the abnormal vessel or to place a metal band around it so it is
eventually occluded.( Ameroid Constrictor)
Portosystemic Shunts
Info and animated diagram
The University of Tennesee Portosystemic Shunts
Dr. Karen Tobias
Liver Shunt Info
Liver Disease Signs Symptoms and Diagnosis
Blood Chemistry Levels Normal Ranges for Dogs
Understanding your Dogs Blood Work
bred dogs).
the genetic diseases in their particular breed).
The Biewer has the potential to have the same genetic defects as the Yorkshire Terrier. There
has been now more than 5 documented Liver Shunt Biewers imported into America from
Mind you... that is the Liver Shunt Biewers that we KNOW OF.
As in any breed the need for strict breeding practices is paramount. Honesty, integrity and
ethical breeding practices ensures the health and longevity of our beloved breeds.
One of my very good friends acquired one of these liver shunt babies from a breeder in
Germany that promised her 2 healthy Biewers.
All reputable breeders should have their vets preform a Liver profile done. Good breeders will
supply buyers with proof of those tests. The heartache of having a Liver Shunt baby will break
your heart not to mention your saving account. A simple blood test given to your pup before
you buy it will give you peace of mind. Make sure you ask for it! Bile Acid tests at the age of
12 weeks are not definitive....Liver enzymes will show a problem enough that a breeder can
hold that pup and Bile Acid test when age appropriate.
Below you will see very graphic pictures of a precious Biewer pup having a liver shunt surgery.
Sadly, YES... this is my friends supposedly healthy pup.
Breeders ....
Test all pups and breeding pairs. If you have a liver shunt pup don't hide it under the rug. Be
forthcoming with information so that we can stop the lines that carry the gene. Any breeder
can have a Liver Shunt pup. It's what we do afterwards that counts.
We are the protectors of the breed... it is up to US!
So far Cattia has done wonderfully and has turned into a beautiful girl thanks
to my friend having saved her life. Isn't it a shame her breeder did not spend
the $100.00 on the Liver enzyme test? Instead he sent her here sick and dying.
My friends dreams for her are gone... as well as a lot of her savings. She will
never be the lovely show girl she was meant to be. She lives in the arms of a
very proud and greatful mom!
This is Cattia...
Below there is a link to her and
her breeders story... read it!
Dr. Sharon Center’s talk on PSVA and MVD
February, 2007
Current information regarding the heritability of PSVA and MVD substantiated that they
are related abnormalities, they are congenital, and are consistent with an ancient genetic
mutation that occurred as small dog breeds were evolving (because so many breeds are
The first thing to consider is that we are in the process of discovering the underlying genetic
cause and hoping to develop a useful test to help eliminate these traits: Don’t do anything
Some dogs with PSVA may drink a lot of water, eat abnormal substances, drool, do head
pressing, have a cholesterol less than 150 mg/dl and microcytic (small red blood cells).
However, not all dogs with PSVA or MVD have symptoms or are ill; in fact up to 20% of
PSVA dogs may be asymptomatic which has resulted in some of these dogs being used for
Unlike dogs with PSVA, dogs with MVD usually do not manifest clinical signs, are not ill,
and do not require medical or dietary treatments.
The only test that is reliable for PSVA screening is bile acid testing because ammonia is so
labile. -Blood ammonia is not a good or reliable indicator of PSVA or MVD (lots of false
positives and the blood ammonia samples are very unstable). Ammonia measurements must
be evaluated immediately, cannot be frozen, and environmental variables can vastly alter
results. Ammonia measurements cannot be done using samples mailed to a laboratory.
Ammonia challenge with administration of ammonium chloride given orally or per rectum
optimizes the use of ammonia as a diagnostic test for shunting but can cause
encephalopathic signs. In contrast, serum bile acids are stable, can be mailed, can be
measured after extended refrigeration or sample freezing. A recent veterinary clinical
publication touted the use of ammonia to detect shunts over bile acids; the study was biased
by several confounding factors and compared ammonia concentrations only to fasting bile
acids: DO NOT USE SINGLE BILE ACID VALUES to rule out shunting- that has
long been established by rigorous investigation in our hospital and published in 5 peer
reviewed scientific manuscripts.
Serum bile acids should be collected Before and 2-hours After a meal (this serves as a
provocative challenge initiating bile acid release from the gallbladder, intestinal
reabsorption, passage into the portal vein to the liver, and rapid liver extraction from the
portal blood). The term Postprandial refers to the after meal sample. Dogs DO NOTneed
to be fasted for 12-hours to conduct this test. The important issue is to test BEFORE and 2-
Hrs after FEEDING to fully evaluate the dogs ability to extract bile acids from the portal
circulation. Spilling of portal blood contents into the systemic blood is reflected by finding
high Serum Bile Acid values > 25 umol/L in a sample collected from a leg vein or jugular
About 15-20% of dogs have a higher fasting than post-prandial bile acid values so using a
random bile acid sample or a single bile acid sample is not optimal. ALWAYS: USE
The cut-off for abnormal results used by Dr. Center fasting AND for Postpprandial values
is greater than or equal to 25 micromole/L (normal dogs do not have bile acid values > 15
micromole/L at either interval). To avoid calling normal outliers abnormal, an indisputable
cutoff was mathematically determined based on samples from hundreds of healthy dogs and
dogs with liver disease in Dr. Center’s laboratory.
Both PSVA and MVD dogs have increased serum bile acid values; BUT you can’t tell if a
dog has PSVA or MVD based on bile acid results alone. It is true that dogs with PSVA
often have at least one bile acid value > 200 umol/L, but not always. Some MVD dogs can
develop bile acids at high as 200 umol/L also.
The bile acid test is very reliable but the red blood cells MUST be separated from plasma
(the clear part of blood) before they are sent to lab for analysis (centrifuged or spun to allow
plasma separation from blood cells). Results can be falsely abnormal if the bile acid samples
are lipemic (lots of fat IF the fat is not adequately removed by the laboratory analyzing the
sample) or if hemolysis (burst red blood cells, makes the plasma red) occurs. The red color
interferes with the color of the end point dye in the bile acid test. A clinician can tell if the
sample is hemolyzed when they centrifuge the sample to separate the red blood cells from
the plasma. If it is hemolyzed they should collect another sample. Drawing blood with a
vacutainer needle into a vacutainer (suction of the tube facilitates the collection) may be too
traumatic for some red blood cells augmenting hemolysis. Using a syringe and needle or
syringe and butterfly needle appears to collect the best samples. After the blood is collected,
the needle should be removed from the syringe and the top removed from the vacutainer so
that the blood may be gently transferred to the vial. Results of the bile acid test should
state if the samples were lipemic or if hemolysis occurred. In this case, the tests should be
Most dogs with PSVA will have Ammonia Biurate Crystals in their urine detected if 3
urine samples collected at different intervals are evaluated. Urine from these dogs has a
peculiar light orange-brown color observed if the dogs urinate on a white surface. The color
is derived from the gold-brown color of the tiny ammonium biurate crystals. A laboratory
technician can check for these crystals on a sample of urine. MVD dogs will not have Urine-
Ammonia Biurate Crystalluria so when the crystals are found you likely have a shunt in a
Cairn Terrier. Unfortunately, any cause of severe liver disease can lead to the development
of multiple portosystemic shunts and ammonium biurate crystalluria. Thus, in older dogs
where finding the crystals is a new event, we will need to make sure what the underlying
cause is. Ultrasound and liver biopsy may be necessary.
If a dog has elevated bile acid values (either fasting or postprandial), determination of
Protein C activity can help differentiate between PSVA and MVD (local vet can collect a
citrate anticoagulated blood sample, separate the plasma for mailing, and send it to Cornell
for analysis). This sample collected in a special citrate anticoagulated vial. Specifics of the
test can be clarified by calling the Cornell Diagnostic Laboratory at 607-253-3900; the test is
conducted by the Comparative Hematology / Coagulation Laboratory [Dr. Marjory Brooks].
MVD dogs usually are not ill and do not require a special diet. Rarely, some of these dogs
have had a problem with drug metabolism (e.g. antihistamines, certain anesthetics)
Pursuing an asymptomatic dog with high bile acids and normal Protein C can result in
costly and invasive testing; thus some MVD dogs are subjected to rigorous evaluations that
may not be practically useful. Most of these dogs require no treatment yet often, a diet
modification and even antioxidants are sometimes recommended. In most cases, these are
unnecessary for the MVD dog based on Dr. Center’s extensive experience with MVD.
In the very large pedigree of Cairn Terrier’s studied so far (>600 dogs) there is a 31%
affectation rate of vascular malformations INCLUDING dogs with PSVA and dogs with
MVD. Our data and linkage analyses support that these disorders represent two
manifestations of the same genetic trait.
PSVA dogs should not be bred until we gather more information on the genetic basis of the
disorder. We do not know yet whether MVD represents a heterozygous situation or just a
less severe trait manifestation. It is too early to start culling all dogs with high bile acids-
read the next paragraph to convince yourself why this may be ineffectual:.
We know that some parents with normal bile acids have produced dogs with PSVA and
MVD. Since we believe that PSVA and MVD represent disorders of angiogenesis, it is
quite possible that not all dogs carrying the trait will have liver or portal vein involvement.
Consider for example, that we have documented dogs with vascular malformations between
the spleen and vena cava that have not influenced portal venous blood flow and thus did not
cause high bile acid values. So, the trait may exist in some dogs with normal bile acid
values. We also have some evidence that we may only see a subset of dogs with PSVA; we
suspect there are embryonic deaths in severely affected dogs likely related to abnormal
vasculature involving the placenta.
At present we recommend that all Cairn puppies undergo paired bile acid tests before they
are adopted into homes (15 weeks or so). Why? Because you do not want a veterinarian to
surprisingly find high bile acids when a dog is presented for illness. This results in
aggressive testing that may include an expensive abdominal ultrasound and even a liver
biopsy in a dog with MVD- consider for example a dog presented for vomiting after eating
garbage. A high bile acid test would implicate the liver as being severely affected, and the
clinician would be obligated to inform the client that the liver should be investigated. If they
already knew the dog had high bile acids as a pup, consistent with MVD, then the medical
investigations would be judiciously focused on the vomiting.
Liver Portosytemic Vascular Anomaly (PSVA)
Microvascular Dyplasia (MVD)
This new information was added on
February 21, 2008
|
Sex education and birth control
The change in attitude to chastity and pre-marital sex has led to a rapid increase in adolescent pregnancy in the developed world. One survey in the United States showed that half of sexually active adolescents did not use contraception on the last occasion they had intercourse. Several hundred thousand teenagers obtain abortions for unwanted pregnancies every year in the United States.
A reason for many unwanted pregnancies is that adolescents experiment with sex to find out what it is like, or they want to feel ‘grown up’ and sophisticated. Sex education is often not widespread enough to warn them of the potential dangers. The withdrawal method of contraception (coitus interruptus), often used by teenagers, is risky; to be effective to some extent, those practising it need to know the details of the menstrual cycle, which most do not. The chance of pregnancy is high with this technique. Some sperm may leak out before the boy reaches orgasm, resulting in pregnancy. Despite the inadequacy of much current sex education , the use of contraceptives among girls of mid to late adolescence is becoming widespread, the Pill being the commonest form. Controversy exists over prescribing the Pill, because sexual problems. Others believe excessive masturbation leads to bodily weakness, lack of concentration and mental decay. Masturbation is sometimes said to be a sign of immaturity, but people who are sexually well adjusted and mature may also indulge in it.
Another form of physical sexual stimulation, which stops short of intercourse, is ‘petting’. The North American term is now widely accepted. Among adolescents petting is common, particularly when both or one of the partners is a virgin, and does not intend to have full sexual intercourse. Light petting usually involves passionate kissing and limited touching of the partner’s body. Certain zones may be forbidden, such as the breasts or genitals. ‘Heavy’ petting involves kissing, caressing of the genitals and breast stimulation; the clitoris may be stimulated to orgasm or the penis to ejaculation. Petting has an important role in the development of sexual behaviour, since it allows boys and girls to explore each other’s bodies and to communicate sexually. It is also a means of enjoying sexual pleasure without full intercourse.
Pre-marital intercourse
Although masturbation and petting are often accepted activities, sexual intercourse between adolescents can give cause for concern to parents and to the young people themselves. Pre-marital sex of any form can be distressing to those families who hold firm beliefs that there should be no sex before marriage. Other parents may have a set of values formed when sexual intercourse before marriage was totally unacceptable but petting was allowed. The attitude towards sexual relations among adolescents has changed dramatically in the last 25 years. The move came in the 1960s, and sexual intercourse between adolescents is more common now than before. The average girl loses her virginity at the age of 19; fewer than 6 in 100 women remain virgins until they marry. It is considered by many to be important for parents to come to terms with this change in values so as not to alienate their children. Parents, it is said, should make sure their children understand about birth control and where to get contraceptives. The consequences of ignorance of the ‘facts of life’ among adolescents can include unwanted pregnancies, requests for abortion, and crisis-torn families. According to law in most countries, there is a minimum age before which sexual intercourse is illegal. These laws are intended to protect children and young adolescents from the consequences of an act they may not fully understand.
In Western societies, however, older teenagers on the whole regard sexual intercourse as normal social behaviour.
Doctors sometimes have to decide whether to prescribe it for an adolescent girl. Many doctors, on religious or moral grounds, still will not prescribe the Pill. There is also the problem of how old a girl must be: should the doctor prescribe it for a 13-year-old whom he thinks too immature to understand the consequences of taking it, and he considers too young to have a sexual relationship? Or should the doctor prescribe it to prevent this young girl getting pregnant because she is probably going to have sex anyway? These dilemmas have prompted much public debate, along with whether doctors should tell, or have to tell, parents that their daughter is on the Pill. Ignorance about the use of the Pill may result in an unwanted pregnancy. Girls have been known to take two Pills in a day if they forgot one the day before. This does not work; the instructions for the several types of Pill have to be strictly followed. Evidence that some forms of the Pill may be harmful has led many girls to consider different forms of contraception. The intra-uterine device, inserted by a doctor, prevents pregnancy occurring but may have various side-effects.
Another contraceptive device is the diaphragm or Dutch cap, a thin rubber dome that the girl covers in spermicidal jelly and inserts in her vagina to cover the cervix completely before sex. A doctor should show a girl how to fit the appliance.
Sheaths (condoms) are another form of barrier contraceptive. Adolescent boys are known to dislike using sheaths, often because they are too embarrassed to buy them or are ignorant of their use. Sheaths should be used with some spermicidal cream in case they burst during intercourse.
From the girl’s point of view, it is safer to use a contraceptive rather than rely on a boy who is probably less concerned about the consequences of unprotected sex than she is.
|
The right set of lights can improve one’s chances of catching big fish. But unlike hunting, red lights are rarely used by professional anglers in the water. Instead, white and green are heavily utilized, in favor of their ability to attract zooplankton and small fish close to the boat. If lured properly, underwater lighting entice large fish to feed around the target area.
Why White and Green?
Plankton are naturally drawn to white and green light colors, due to their urge to reproduce under such conditions. Out of the two light colors, green is preferred because it can penetrate the water deeper than white bands. At lower depths, green also appears clearer. This reduces the gap between predatory fish – usually lurking much deeper underwater – and small baitfish. Other lights, such as blue, are unattractive to plankton in fresh water. By comparison, blue light is noticeably effective in saltwater.
When catching large fish, one must cast the line below the group of zooplankton near the surface. Predatory fish are known to observe prey from a distance before striking. Even with green light, large fish rarely swim very close to the surface, as the creatures are not attracted to the green light – only to plankton and baitfish.
Types of Boat Lights for Fishing
There are several types of boat lights for fishing. Traditionally, floating luminaries were extremely popular options for anglers. However, the lights attracted insects around the surface of the target area. To prevent luring insects close to the boat, individuals began using submersible LED fishing lights.
For reliability in the water, the luminaries are typically waterproof, low voltage and battery powered for portability. A small weight attached to the unit pushes the underwater lighting below the surface, at roughly 2-3 feet. It is common practice to install a few lights around the vessel, as opposed to using one, powerful luminary pointed directly down at the water.
Share Button
Boat lights are a crucial element within any water vehicle today. If a boat does not have good lighting you never know what could happen and in recent years there has been a demand for LED. LED lights are amazing and they can add a touch of elegance and safety to your boat. Yet, there are still many who do not believe they need LED lights; so why are these lights a necessity? Read on to find out why you should consider buying LED lights for your boat today.
You Can Light the Boat Better
How important is proper lighting when being onboard a boat? If the boat isn’t sufficiently lit someone could trip and fall overboard hurting them seriously in the process. Do you really want that? Of course you don’t and it’s not necessary either; marine LED lights can be the ideal solution to avoid any such dangers. You can use these no matter the boat or the size and as many as you like can be used to light the boat sufficiently also. Essentially, you can keep the boat safe for all passengers and ensure people out in the water can spot you too. It’s safer when fishing as well as having a relaxing evening on the boat.
LED Lights for Boats Are Cost-Effective and Easy To Install
Boat lights don’t have to be as costly as you would think. LED are great because they can be more affordable which is great. What is more, they last a long time so you are going to be spending less money in the long term which is perfect. If you don’t have the money to constantly spend on new boat lights, LED are ideal. You can even find the LED’s are far easier to install, especially in boats. This is why more and more boat owners choose these lights and in a way they are far more convenient. Installing can be handled in an effective manner and you really shouldn’t run into too much trouble either.
Good for the Environment and Safe to Use
Why use more energy when you can save energy? With LED, you have the ability to save anything up to eighty percent of energy allowing you to effectively help the planet. When you reduce the amount of energy being used, even with LED lights for boats you are doing your part for the environment. What is more, these last a long time so they aren’t going to short-circuit on you within a few days. LED is even safe to use which is great for those who are worried about the safety aspect for themselves and their families. A lot of people love these lights and you cannot blame them; they are safer than traditional bulbs and far more convenient too.
Keep Your Seafaring Adventures Safe
Safety is a top priority when it comes to boating. If you do not have the proper safety equipment and don’t take the necessary precautions, anything can happen. What is more, if the boat doesn’t have proper lighting you can run into a lot of trouble too. That is why it has become very much important to install proper lighting. LED are excellent options and they can be safer and more convenient also. Use marine LED lights and ensure your boat is safe.
Check out this link for more ideas:
Share Button
LED Boat Cabinet Lights
Not all LED boat lights are used for navigation. Inside ships and vessels, luminaries are used to illuminate control rooms, cabins, hallways, lobbies and panels. In most cases, lights found inside boats are different from ones installed in the exterior, due to its applications.
For example, LED boat cabinet lights that are installed in enclosures are not as bright and could be more compact than large navigation lights on the side of the vessel.
Please visit Larson Electronics website to purchase online.
Cabinet Lighting and Motion Sensors
LED boat cabinet lights serve very important purposes for operators. The lights can be found inside critical control rooms and enclosures that house switches or navigational components. They can be mounted vertically or horizontally, depending on the configuration of the controls. Tool-less mounting features are steadily becoming the standard for cabinet lights. Such options allow operators to position the luminary seamlessly without risk of damaging the unit and the surface.
Furthermore, some cabinets on ships are used to store equipment. During emergencies, the crew needs to be able to sift through the compartment quickly and accurately, which can be supported by LED cabinet lights.
To help ships cut down on energy consumption, one could install motion sensors to go with the lighting system. The advantages of this component are numerous. Operators would not have to activate the light manually, greatly reducing time spent tinkering with the cabinet and other equipment. For storage units, crew members carrying heavy tools would not have to reach for a switch to deactivate the light on the way out.
Choosing the Right Color Temperature
To improve distinction, operators may apply specific color temperature settings in cabinet lights. For enclosures that house green/blue colored switches or items, day white color temperature ratings between 6,000K and 7,000K are recommended. This range can help such colors stand out more. For general lighting requirements in cabinets, a color temperature range of 4,000K and 4,500K may be applied. This range is useful for enclosures that contain a variety of colors. For individuals who are unsure about color temperature requirements, the latter setting may be used.
For large enclosures, LED boat cabinet lights with daisy chain features should be installed in the location. This can help create uniform illumination inside the cabinet. Using one, extremely bright light is not a suitable replacement for daisy chain lighting systems. The effects of a dominant light source typically includes blinding and glare – elements that could cause headaches and misinterpretation of gauges or controls.
Share Button
This article is sponsored by Larson Electronics. Boat navigation lights serve very important purposes out in the ocean. In addition to looking great, they also provide navigational benefits and guidance. This is a very important part of their application, as numerous marine regulators, such as the US Coast Guard, have specific guidelines surrounding the type of lights certain boats should have (colors and configuration) during operation.
This article explores these requirements, which are critical aspects to boating safety.led boat navigation lights
Boat Sizes and Light Configurations
Generally speaking, sailing boats must have a green light that shines 112.5 degrees aft (ahead) on the starboard side, while the port side should emit a red light. This is also applicable to power boats. For power boats under 40 feet, a white light is needed at the center that shines in both directions or all-around (360 degrees). This requirement applies to boats that are anchored, indicating its status in the water. During the day, a black anchor ball is used to indicate the same status. Boats that are less than seven meters in length do not have to follow anchorage guidelines.
Manual-powered (oar driven) vessels have the option to use sail boat lighting guidelines or a lantern. Mast head lights must be white. They should be installed at the pole, over the side lights, encompassing 112.5 degrees on both sides. Most guidelines vary, depending on the size of the boat. For example, a boat that measures less than 65.7 feet could use one bicolor luminary, instead of separate red and green side lights. Additionally, sail boats that measure less than 65.7 feet could use a tri-color unit to combine side and stern light functionality.
Because of this, it is recommended to setup LED boat navigation lights based on the type and size of the vessel. Furthermore, the location of the water you intend on deploying the boat may also dictate such configurations and practices.
Why LEDs?
LEDs are optimal lighting technologies for navigation lights. The units are extremely compact, making them suitable for installations in tight spaces. Their compact and sturdy form factor can withstand vibrations associated rough waters and constant contact with docks or large debris in the water.
LED boat navigation lights also require less maintenance and repair, compared to their outdated alternatives. This can help reduce operational costs for individuals or businesses that are frequently on the water. To conclude, LEDs are ideal options for navigation lighting systems on boats, due to their resilient and durable features.
Share Button
Share Button
1. Check your equipment and stuff must a consideration.
1. Prepare your boat.
Share Button
Running Lights
Graph Lights
Strip Lighting
Lodge, Deck and Thru Hull Lights
Share Button
|
1984 by George Orwell
Essay by Anonymous UserCollege, UndergraduateA+, March 1997
download word file, 2 pages 3.0
Downloaded 100 times
ironically, it parallels present day society in the U.S. in many ways. Yet at the same time,
the novel falls short---certain prophecies have yet to come true.
The story 1984 predicted many truths about present day society,
truths such as illegal prostitution, brainwashing, and personal identification were
predictions expressed in the book that have come true today. In the story, prostitution was
newspeak, thought criminals spoke about the crimes they committed. The most popular
crime was engaging in sexual activities with a prostitute. Now we wouldn't be tortured for
it today but we can serve jail time for soliciting with a prostitute.
Another example in the book was the prediction of brainwashing.
The truth is that today people are being brainwashed constantly and some times they don't
even know it.
For example people are always being brainwashed into buying a certain
product by advertisements on the televisions or by subliminal messages. Winston was
brainwashed into conforming to the normal society by loving Big Brother. The
brainwashing in the book might be a little exaggerated but it is still the same concept.
Yet another example is how people are tagged with numbers.
People today are identified by a social security number same as in 1984. Many of Orwells
predictions became true but many didn't.
Despite the truths, there were many untruths prevalent in 1984.
Many concepts expressed in the book such as banned sex, thought police, food shortages
from the past were all predictions that never became true. Orwell made the prediction that
sex would be illegal in the year 1984. In the story Winston and Julia were caught having
sex and...
|
Wise Owl Wise Owl - 11 months ago 44
C Question
Why is char a = 65 less portable than char a = 'A'
I've just asked this question What is the reason for the double negation -(-n)? where the answerer mentions in a comment that
char a = 'A';
is more portable than
char a = 65;
Why is this? Surely they are exactly the same?
Answer Source
A is represented by 65 in ASCII; but that doesn't mean that every character system will represent it by 65.
If you write
char a = 65;
then you're implicitly assuming that the system will be using ASCII. That's less portable than writing
char a = 'A';
which doesn't make that assumption.
|
AskDefine | Define drawn
Dictionary Definition
1 a gully that is shallower than a ravine
2 an entertainer who attracts large audiences; "he was the biggest drawing card they had" [syn: drawing card, attraction, attractor, attracter]
3 the finish of a contest in which the score is tied and the winner is undecided; "the game ended in a draw"; "their record was 3 wins, 6 losses and a tie" [syn: standoff, tie]
4 anything (straws or pebbles etc.) taken or chosen at random; "the luck of the draw"; "they drew lots for it" [syn: lot]
6 a golf shot that curves to the left for a right-handed golfer; "he tooks lessons to cure his hooking" [syn: hook, hooking]
7 (American football) the quarterback moves back as if to pass and then hands the ball to the fullback who is running toward the line of scrimmage [syn: draw play]
8 poker in which a player can discard cards and receive substitutes from the dealer; "he played only draw and stud" [syn: draw poker]
9 the act of drawing or hauling something; "the haul up the hill went very slowly" [syn: haul, haulage]
1 cause to move along the ground by pulling; "draw a wagon"; "pull a sled" [syn: pull, force] [ant: push]
2 get or derive; "He drew great benefits from his membership in the association" [syn: reap]
3 make a mark or lines on a surface; "draw a line"; "trace the outline of a figure in the sand" [syn: trace, line, describe, delineate]
5 bring, take, or pull out of a container or from under a cover; "draw a weapon"; "pull out a gun"; "The mugger pulled a knife on his victim" [syn: pull, pull out, get out, take out]
7 take liquid out of a container or well; "She drew water from the barrel" [syn: take out]
8 give a description of; "He drew an elaborate plan of attack" [syn: describe, depict]
11 suck in or take (air); "draw a deep breath"; "draw on a cigarette" [syn: puff, drag]
12 move or go steadily or gradually; "The ship drew near the shore"
13 remove (a commodity) from (a supply source); "She drew $2,000 from the account"; "The doctors drew medical supplies from the hospital's emergency bank" [syn: withdraw, take out, draw off] [ant: deposit]
14 choose at random; "draw a card"; "cast lots" [syn: cast]
15 in baseball: earn or achieve a base by being walked by the pitcher; "He drew a base on balls" [syn: get]
17 cause to flow; "The nurse drew blood"
19 engage in drawing; "He spent the day drawing in the garden"
21 allow a draft; "This chimney draws very well"
22 require a specified depth for floating; "This boat draws 70 inches"
23 pull (a person) apart with four horses tied to his extremities, so as to execute him; "in the old days, people were drawn and quartered for certain crimes" [syn: quarter, draw and quarter]
25 direct toward itself or oneself by means of some psychological power or physical attributes; "Her good looks attract the stares of many men"; "The ad pulled in many potential customers"; "This pianist pulls huge crowds"; "The store owner was happy that the ad drew in many new customers" [syn: attract, pull, pull in, draw in] [ant: repel]
26 thread on or as if on a string; "string pearls on a string"; "the child drew glass beads on a string"; "thread dried cranberries" [syn: string, thread]
27 pull back the sling of (a bow); "The archers were drawing their bows" [syn: pull back]
28 guide or pass over something; "He ran his eyes over her body"; "She ran her fingers along the carved figurine"; "He drew her hair through his fingers" [syn: guide, run, pass]
29 finish a game with an equal number of points, goals, etc.; "The teams drew a tie" [syn: tie]
30 contract; "The material drew after it was washed in hot water"
32 steep; pass through a strainer; "draw pulp from the fruit"
33 remove the entrails of; "draw a chicken" [syn: disembowel, eviscerate]
35 cause to localize at one point; "Draw blood and pus" [also: drew, drawn]drawn adj
1 showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering; "looking careworn as she bent over her mending"; "her face was drawn and haggard from sleeplessness"; "that raddled but still noble face"; "shocked to see the worn look of his handsome young face"- Charles Dickens [syn: careworn, haggard, raddled, worn]
3 represented in a drawing
4 having the curtains or draperies closed or pulled shut; "the drawn draperies kept direct sunlight from fading the rug"
5 used of vehicles pulled forward (often used in combination); "horse-drawn vehicles"drawn See draw
User Contributed Dictionary
1. past participle of draw
Extensive Definition
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was the penalty once ordained in England for the crime of high treason. It is considered by many to be the epitome of cruel punishment, and was reserved only for this most serious crime, which was deemed more heinous than murder and other capital offences. It was applied only to male criminals. Women found guilty of treason in England were sentenced to be burnt at the stake, a punishment abolished in 1790.
Until 1814, the full punishment for the crime of treason was to be hanged, drawn and quartered in that the condemned prisoner would be:
1. Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution. (This is one possible meaning of drawn.)
2. Hanged by the neck for a short time or until almost dead. (hanged).
3. Disembowelled and emasculated and the genitalia and entrails burned before the condemned's eyes (This is another meaning of drawn — see the reference to the Oxford English Dictionary below.)
4. Beheaded and the body divided into four parts (quartered).
There is confusion among modern historians about whether "drawing" referred to the dragging to the place of execution or the disembowelling, but since two different words are used in the official documents detailing the trial of William Wallace ("detrahatur" for drawing as a method of transport, and "devaletur" for disembowelment), there is no doubt that the subjects of the punishment were disembowelled.
Judges delivering sentence at the Old Bailey also seemed to have had some confusion over the term "drawn", and some sentences are summarized as "Drawn, Hanged and Quartered". Nevertheless, the sentence was often recorded quite explicitly. For example, the record of the trial of Thomas Wallcot, John Rouse, William Hone and William Blake for offences against the king, on 12 July, 1683 concludes as follows:
The Oxford English Dictionary notes both meanings of drawn: "To draw out the viscera or intestines of ... a traitor or other criminal after hanging)" and "To drag (a criminal) at a horse's tail, or on a hurdle or the like, to the place of execution". It states that "In many cases of executions it is uncertain [which of these senses of drawn] is meant. The presumption is that where drawn is mentioned after hanged, the sense is [the second meaning]."
H. Thomas Milhorn claims that hanging, drawing and quartering was first used against William Maurice, who was convicted of piracy in 1241. This would make Henry III the first practitioner.
The punishment was more famously and verifiably employed by King Edward I ("Longshanks") in his efforts to bring Wales, Scotland, and Ireland under English rule.
In 1283, it was inflicted on the Welsh prince Dafydd ap Gruffydd in Shrewsbury. Dafydd had been a hostage in the English court in his youth, growing up with Edward and for several years fought alongside Edward against his brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the Prince of Wales. Llywelyn had won recognition of the title, "Prince of Wales", from Edward's father King Henry III, and both Edward and his father had been imprisoned by Llywelyn's ally, Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester, in 1264.
Edward's enmity towards Llywelyn ran deep. When Dafydd returned to the side of his brother and attacked the English Hawarden Castle, Edward saw this as both a personal betrayal and a military setback and hence his punishment of Dafydd was specifically designed to be harsher than any previous form of capital punishment. The punishment was part of an overarching strategy to eliminate Welsh independence. Edward built an "iron ring" of castles in Wales and had Dafydd's young sons incarcerated for life in Bristol Castle and daughters sent to a nunnery in England, whilst having his own son, Edward II, assume the title Prince of Wales. Dafydd's head joined that of his brother Llywelyn (killed in a skirmish months earlier) on top of the Tower of London, where the skulls were still visible many years later. His quartered body parts were sent to four English towns for display.
William Wallace
Two decades later, on 23 August 1305, Sir William Wallace was the next person to be hanged, drawn and quartered, which occurred as a result of Edward I's Scottish wars. This established the precedent as the ultimate penalty for treason against the English crown. Both Dafydd ap Gruffydd and William Wallace asserted at their trials that they were not traitors for having fought in defence of Wales and Scotland against foreign invaders. Wallace, unlike his Welsh counterpart, had never fought for Edward before fighting against him.
Cornish leaders An Gof and Thomas Flamank
The leaders of the first Cornish Uprising of 1497, Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank, were hanged, drawn and quartered on 27 June 1497 at Tyburn, London.
Tudor era
In an attempt to intimidate the Roman Catholic clergy into taking the Oath of Supremacy, Henry VIII ordered that John Houghton, the prior of the London Charterhouse, be hanged, drawn and quartered, along with two other Carthusians. Henry also famously condemned Francis Dereham to this form of execution for being one of Catherine Howard's lovers. Dereham and the King's good friend Thomas Culpeper were both executed shortly before Catherine herself, but Culpeper was spared the cruel punishment and was instead beheaded. Sir Thomas More, who was found guilty of high treason under the Treason Act of 1534, was spared this punishment; Henry commuted the execution to one by beheading.
In the aftermath of the Babington Plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I and replace her on the throne with Mary Queen of Scots, the conspirators were condemned to this method of execution in September 1586. On hearing of the appalling agony to which the first seven condemned were subjected while being butchered on the scaffold, Elizabeth ordered that the remaining conspirators, who were to be dispatched on the following day, should be left hanging until they were dead. Other Elizabethans who were executed in this way include Elizabeth's own physician, Dr. Rodrigo Lopez, a Portuguese Jew who was convicted of conspiring against her in 1594, and the Jesuit Edmund Campion.
Stuart era
Other notable deaths from the punishment include Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot to assassinate James I in 1605. Fawkes, though weakened by torture, cheated the executioners. When he was to be hanged until almost dead, he jumped from the gallows, so his neck broke and he died. A co-conspirator, Robert Keyes, had attempted the same trick, but the rope broke, so he was drawn fully conscious. Henry Garnet was executed on 3 May 1606 at St. Paul's. His crime was to be the confessor of several members of the Gunpowder Plot. Many spectators thought that his sentence was too severe. Antonia Fraser writes:
Under the Commonwealth, while convicted traitors were seemingly spared this gruesome execution, St John Southworth, being a priest, was prosecuted under the Elizabethan anti-priest legislation which prescribed the sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering. He was hanged but spared the drawing and quartering.
Over six days in October of 1660, after the Restoration of Charles II, nine of those convicted of the regicide of Charles I in 1649 were executed in London in this manner. Those executed were: Thomas Harrison, John Jones, Adrian Scroope, John Carew, Thomas Scot, Gregory Clement, Daniel Axtel, Hugh Peters, and John Cooke. Three more regicides suffered the same fate within two years: John Okey, John Barkstead and Miles Corbet. Additionally, the corpses of Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton were disinterred and hanged, drawn and quartered in posthumous executions for their involvement in the regicide.
Only a few months later on January 6, 1661, about fifty Fifth Monarchists, headed by a wine-cooper named Thomas Venner, made an effort to attain possession of London in the name of "King Jesus". Most of the fifty were either killed or taken prisoner, and on January 19 and 21, Venner and ten others were hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason.
In October 1663 twenty-six men were arrested, imprisoned, and tried in York for their participation in The Farnley Wood Plot. Twenty three hanged, drawn and quartered in York, but three rebels escaped from prison only to be recaptured in Leeds early the next year where they were then executed in a similar manner.
In 1676, Joshua Tefft was executed by this method at Smith's Castle in Wickford, Rhode Island. He was an English colonist who fought on the side of the Narragansett during the Great Swamp Fight battle of King Philip's War. He may be the only person ever hanged, drawn and quartered in North America. Metacomet, leader of the Narragansett, was himself beheaded and quartered, but not hanged, after his death.
Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh and the Catholic primate of Ireland, was arrested in 1681 and transported to Newgate Prison, London, where he was convicted of treason. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, the last Catholic to be executed for his faith in England. He was beatified in 1920 and was canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI. His head is preserved for viewing as a relic in St. Peter's Church in Drogheda, while the rest of his body rests in Downside Abbey, near Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset.
If there was a large rebellion against the Crown, only a few of the ringleaders would be hanged, drawn and quartered; most would either be hanged, sent to penal colonies, or pardoned. The Bloody Assizes of Judge Jeffreys after the Monmouth Rebellion is a notorious post Civil War English example, but in the aftermath of rebellions in Ireland and Scotland punishment was often just as ruthless.
From the eighteenth century
During the American War of Independence (1775 – 1783), notable captured colonists, such as signers of the American Declaration of Independence, were theoretically subject to being hanged, drawn and quartered as traitors to the King. Those taken in arms (military) were treated as prisoners of war.
The penultimate use of the sentence in England was against the French spy François Henri de la Motte, who was convicted of treason on 23 July 1781. The last occasion was on 24 August 1782 against Scottish spy David Tyrie in Portsmouth for carrying on a treasonable correspondence with the French (using information passed to him from officials high in the British government). A contemporary account in the Hampshire Chronicle describes his being hanged for 22 minutes, following which he was beheaded and his heart cut out and burned. He was then emasculated, quartered, and his body parts put into a coffin and buried in the pebbles at the seaside. The same account claims that, immediately after his burial, sailors dug the coffin up and cut the body into a thousand pieces, each taking a piece as a souvenir to their shipmates. Little else is known of his life.
British courts continued to apply the sentence in Dublin, in Ireland. The last execution was of Robert Emmet on September 20, 1803, who was hanged and then beheaded once dead. Emmet led a failed uprising against British rule earlier that year. Edward Marcus Despard and his six accomplices were sentenced to hanging, drawing and quartering for allegedly plotting to assassinate George III but their sentence was commuted to simple hanging and beheading.
In 1817, the three leaders of the Pentrich Rising, convicted of high treason, suffered hanging and beheading only.
In 1820, Arthur Thistlewood and other participants in the Cato Street Conspiracy were condemned to this punishment, though the court record shows that the drawing and quartering was omitted from the completion of the sentence. The sentence was passed on the Irish rebel leader William Smith O'Brien in 1848 but commuted to transportation.
In Lower Canada (now Quebec), David McLane was hanged, drawn and quartered on 21 July 1797 for treason; however, Hangman Ward let McLane hang for 28 minutes. This ensured he was not alive to suffer the disembowling, decapitation and quartering part of the sentence. Ignace Vailliancourt was "hanged, dissected and anatomized" on 7 March 1803 for murder; however, part of the sentence was that his body "be delivered to Dr. Charles Blake for dissection", so this was likely not a true drawing and quartering. During the War of 1812, in May 1814 at Ancaster, Upper Canada (now Ontario), Attorney General John Beverley Robinson orchestrated a show trial to discourage any tendencies to join with the American side in the war because many residents of Upper Canada were immigrants from the American Colonies or closely related to Americans. The judges indicted 71 traitors and sentenced 17 to be hanged, drawn and quartered. They finally pardoned nine, hanged eight and quartered none.
Details of the crime
The crime of treason, or offences against the crown is often thought of in terms of attempted regicides, such as Guy Fawkes and others mentioned above. However, the crime was interpreted at different periods of English history to include a variety of acts which, at the time, were deemed to threaten the constitutional authority of the monarchy.
For example, on 12 December 1674, William Burnet was condemned to this punishment for offences against the king: namely that he "had often endeavoured to reconcile divers of his Majesties Protestant subjects to the Romish Church, and had actually perverted several to embrace the Roman Catholique Religion, and assert and maintain the Popes supremacy." In other words, he had come to England and attempted to convert Protestants to Catholicism. In a similar vein, John Morgan was also sentenced to this punishment on 30 April 1679, for having received orders from the See of Rome, and coming to England: there being "very good Evidence that proved he was a Priest, and had said Mass".
On the same day in 1679, two other people were found guilty of offences against the king, at the Old Bailey. In this case, they had been "Coyning and Counterfeiting". Again, they were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. In a similar case on 15 October 1690, Thomas Rogers and Anne Rogers were tried for "Clipping 40 pieces of Silver" (in other words, clipping the edges off silver coins). Thomas Rogers was hanged, drawn and quartered and Anne Rogers was burnt alive.
Similar, lesser punishments for treason
Men convicted of the lesser crime of petty treason were dragged to the place of execution and hanged until dead, but not subsequently dismembered. Women convicted of treason or petty treason were burnt at the stake.
Class distinctions in its application
In Britain, this penalty was usually reserved for commoners, including knights. Noble traitors were beheaded, a much less painful punishment, at first by sword and in later years by axe. The different treatment of lords and commoners was clear after the Cornish Rebellion of 1497: lowly-born Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, while their fellow rebellion leader Lord Audley was beheaded at Tower Hill.
This class distinction was brought out in a House of Commons debate of 1680, with regard to the Warrant of Execution of Lord Stafford, which had condemned him to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. Sir William Jones is quoted as saying "Death is the substance of the Judgment; the manner of it is but a circumstance.... No man can show me an example of a Nobleman that has been quartered for High-Treason: They have been only beheaded". The House then resolved that "Execution be done upon Lord Stafford, by severing his Head from his Body".
Religious considerations
Dismemberment of the body after death was seen by many contemporaries as a way of punishing the traitor beyond the grave. In western European Christian countries, it was ordinarily considered contrary to the dignity of the human body to mutilate it. This may be linked to the contemporary Christian belief in bodily resurrection on the Day of Judgement. A Parliamentary Act from the reign of Henry VIII stipulated that only the corpses of executed murderers could be used for dissection. Being thus dismembered was viewed as an extra punishment not suitable for others. There are cases on record where murderers would try to plead guilty to another capital offence so that, although they would be hanged, their body would be buried whole and not be dissected.
Attitudes towards this issue changed very slowly in Britain and were not manifested in law until the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832. Respect for the dead is still a sensitive issue in Britain as can be seen by the furor over the "Alder Hey organs scandal" when the organs of deceased children were kept without their parents' informed consent.
Eyewitness accounts
An account is provided by the diary of Samuel Pepys for Saturday 13 October 1660, in which he describes his attendance at the execution of Major-General Thomas Harrison for regicide. The complete diary entry for the day, given below, illustrates the matter-of-fact way in which the execution is treated by Pepys:
At 26-27 Great Tower Street, Tower Hill, London, there is a pub called "The Hung Drawn and Quartered". On the wall is the incorrect quotation from Samuel Pepys, shown above. The pub is close to the site of several executions, but not to Charing Cross.
Mentions in fiction
Shakespeare's play Henry V features the discovery of the Southampton Plot to kill King Henry V before he sailed to France. Two of the conspirators (Henry, Lord Scroop of Masham, and Richard, Earl of Cambridge) were nobles and were beheaded; Thomas Grey, Knight of Northumberland, was drawn and quartered.
In Robin Hobb's "realist" fantasy novels The Farseer Trilogy and The Tawny Man Trilogy, villagers accused of being able to talk to animals are hanged, quartered, and burned.
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities also refers to Charles Darnay possibly being drawn and quartered as a punishment if he was convicted of treason.
The historical execution of the regicide Robert-François Damiens, including quartering using horses, drew prominent late-20th-century attention:
In the 1995 film Braveheart, William Wallace, portrayed by Mel Gibson, is depicted being drawn, quartered and beheaded in 1305 for his role in the Scottish rebellion against Edward I.
In Jimmy Carter's 2003 novel The Hornet's Nest rebellious American colonists are arrested by the Crown and tried for and convicted of treason. They are sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, but the sentence is never carried out.
In the 3-part British television documentary Tales From the Tower (2002), the hanging, drawing and quartering of Anthony Babington and several of his co-conspiritors is graphically re-enacted for the segment titled Spies and Traitors.
In the 2004 film National Treasure, protagonist Ben Gates mentions the act as being the punishment for signers of the Declaration of Independence.
The 2006 mini-series Elizabeth I featured graphic scenes depicting the hanging, drawing and quartering of conspirators against the Queen.
In the Showtime series The Tudors, one of Anne Boleyn's accused lovers, Mark Smeaton is graphically quartered.
French quartering
In France, the traditional punishment for regicide (whether attempted or completed) under the ancien régime (known in French as écartèlement) is often described as "quartering", though it in fact has little to do with the English punishment. The process was as follows: the regicide offender would be first tortured with red-hot pincers, then the hand with which the crime was committed would be burnt, with sulphur, molten lead, wax, and boiling oil poured into the wounds. The quartering would be accomplished by the attachment of the condemned's limbs to horses, who would then tear them away from the body. Finally, the often still-living torso would be burnt. Notable examples include:
These executions were carried out (along with most others under the ancien régime) in the Place de Grève.
Gérard's execution took place on the market square in Delft, the Netherlands.
drawn in German: Drawing and quartering
drawn in French: Hanged, drawn and quartered
drawn in Italian: Squartamento
drawn in Dutch: vierendelen
drawn in Japanese: 首吊り・内臓抉り・四つ裂きの刑
drawn in Norwegian: Hengning, trekking og kvartering
drawn in Polish: Powieszenie i poćwiartowanie
drawn in Russian: Четвертование
drawn in Finnish: Hirtetty, revitty ja paloiteltu
drawn in Swedish: Hängning, dragning och fyrdelning
drawn in Ukrainian: Четвертування
drawn in Chinese: 車裂
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
alike, at par, au pair, careworn, commensurate, dragged out, drawn out, elongated, equal, equalized, even, even stephen, exhausted, extended, fatigued, fifty-fifty, haggard, half-and-half, hollow-eyed, knotted, lengthened, level, like, nip and tuck, on a footing, on a level, on a par, on even ground, par, pinched, prolongated, prolonged, proportionate, protracted, pulled, quits, ravaged, spun out, square, stalemated, straggling, strained, stretched, stretched out, strung out, taut, tense, tied, tight, tired, tired-eyed, tired-faced, tired-looking, wan, weary-looking, worn, worn out
Privacy Policy, About Us, Terms and Conditions, Contact Us
Material from Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Dict
Valid HTML 4.01 Strict, Valid CSS Level 2.1
|
Advance Mathematics 800-1500
Advance mathematics and inventor of algebraBold experiments and unique innovations in the field of mathematics were carried out by Muslim mathematicians who developed this science to an exceptionally high degree. Their contributions stretched from the end of the eighth(8th) century to about the middle of the fifteenth(15th) century. Al-Kharizmi was the inventor of Al-gebra (Algebra)
The regions from which the “Muslim mathematicians” came was centred on Iran/Iraq but varied with military conquest during the period. At its greatest extent it stretched to the west through Turkey and North Africa to include most of Spain(Andulusia), and to the east as far as the borders of China.
Algebra may be said to have been invented by the Greeks, but according to Oelsner, “it was confined to furnishing amusement for the plays of the goblet”. Muslims developed it and applied it to higher purposes. Thus, the first great Muslim mathematician, the Muslim Al-Khawarizmi, invented the subject of algebra (al-Jabr), which gave mathematics a whole new dimension and development path so much broader in concept than before.
Al-Khawarizmi also introduced a method similar to long division to extract the square root (jithr) of a number. He was the first to introduce the concept of mal (power) for the squared unknown variable. He perfected and developed the geometric representations of quadratic equations having two variables, e.g the circle, ellipse, parabola and hyperbola (conic sections) etc. Al-Khawarizmi’s work, in Latin translation, brought the Arabic numerals along with the mathematics to Europe, through Spain (Andulusia) The word “algorithm” is derived from his name.
They have also shown remarkable progress in mathematical geography.
Your thoughts...
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s
|
Posts Tagged ‘native fruits of south Florida’
Shipwrecked on the Florida Coast in 1696
March 10, 2017
During September of 1696 an hurricane wrecked the Reformation on the shore near the present day town of Jupiter, Florida. The Reformation was a small sailing vessel carrying Jonathan Dickinson and his household along with the crew of mariners. Dickinson was a Quaker merchant in the process of moving from Jamaica to the new colony of Pennsylvania. His household included his wife, infant son, 8 African-American slaves, and an Indian servant girl. They were captured by the hostile Jobeses Indians shortly after salvaging their belongings on the beach. Spain claimed Florida during this time period, and the Indians were subservient to the Spanish. Although Spain had signed a peace treaty with England, the Indians never got the message, and they thought they were at war with the British or “Nickaleers” as they called them. Dickinson’s party considered it wise to pose as Spanish, and this may have saved their lives. The Indians were suspicious of Dickinson’s true identity but afraid to commit an atrocity against their Spanish masters. Nevertheless, the Indians stole everything they had, literally stripping the clothes off their backs. The Indians constantly threatened to kill them and offered little food, giving them 3 meals a week. Eventually, Dickinson convinced a chief to let them walk north toward St. Augustine. They traveled naked, exposed to hot days, cold nights and storms; while subsisting on a starvation diet. After 2 months Spanish soldiers discovered the party and helped them make it the rest of the way to St. Augustine but not before Dickinson’s cousin (probably weakened by malaria) and 2 of his servants died. They were well treated by the Spanish who then assisted them to Charleston, South Carolina by providing boats, soldiers, Indian guides, and supplies. Dickinson kept a journal of this ordeal and later published it.
Image result for map of east florida from Jupiter, Florida
An hurricane wrecked the ship carrying Jonathan Dickinson and his family in 1696 near Jupiter, Florida. The traveled on foot and in canoes from Jupiter to St. Augustine before they received real help. The Indians they met provided little aid and threatened to kill them.
The Jobeses Indians did not practice agriculture. Their diet consisted of fish, shellfish, and wild plant foods. Dried palmetto berries were an important subsistence item, but members of Dickinson’s party had a hard time adjusting to them. Dickinson described the taste as resembling “rotten blue cheese.” Despite their starving condition, many in his party spit them out and just couldn’t keep them down. They did find coco plums and sea grapes more palatable. Coco plums are a tropical fruit native to south Florida and the West Indies. The seed is also edible, reportedly tasting like almonds. Sea grapes are another tropical fruit, though I have seen them as far north as Harbor Island, South Carolina (far outside their official range.) They are not real grapes–the plant is a member of the buckwheat family. Dickinson doesn’t mention prickly pears (Opuntia sp.), but this is a common species in the region exploited by the Indians as well.
Image result for coco plum
Coco plums (Chrisobalanus icaco). This was 1 of the “berries” Jonathan Dickinson and family had to eat to survive. They found these more palatable than Carolina palmetto berries.
Image result for Carolina palmetto fruit
Palmetto berries were an important staple item in the Indian diet on the east coast of Florida. The shipwrecked crew had a hard time tolerating them, even though they were starving.
Image result for Sea grapes
Sea grapes (Cocoloba uvifera). This species is not closely related to real grapes but are in the buckwheat family. These were also more palatable for the shipwrecked crew than palmetto berries.
The storm surge of the hurricane that wrecked the ship stranded fish for a mile on the beach. Dickinson’s party gathered as many as they could before they spoiled. After this, they depended upon the Indians for fish and clams. Some of the Indians were excellent spear fishers in the surf, and others caught them from canoes at night, using torch lights that attracted the fish. Dickinson doesn’t specify what kind of fish the Indians gave them with the exception of 1 entry which mentions drum, probably red drum (Scianops ocellatus). This is the species nearly wiped out by the blackened redfish craze of the 1980s.
Image result for red drum
Red drum. Although they often ate fish on their journey, this is the only species specifically mentioned in Jonathan Dickinson’s journal.
Dickinson’s party didn’t come across cultivated fields until they almost reached St. Augustine. Here, they found a field of “pompions.” Pumpkins don’t grow well in Florida. Instead, these were probably a variety of winter squash. The Indians who lived north of St. Augustine on the Georgia and South Carolina coast did practice agriculture. On Dickinson’s journey from St. Augustine to Charleston they were well supplied with corn, beans (which he mistakenly calls “peas”), squash, and unspecified herbs. They were even able to procure garlic and hot pepper to season the corn and beans.
Dickinson barely mentions the wildlife they encountered. He saw bear tracks “and the marks of other beasts” in the sand near an inlet. When they traveled by sail between St. Augustine and Charleston, they often stopped for the night or a few days on the sea islands. Deer and wild hogs abounded on these islands and their Indian guides hunted them and provided meat for everybody. There were plenty of rabbits on 1 island but they didn’t stay long enough to hunt them.
Dickinson’s party had to traverse many natural communities between their shipwreck and Charleston such as beach, scrub pine, pine flatwoods and savannah, maritime forests, cypress swamps, mangroves, salt marshes, and ocean inlets. Florida named a state park in honor of Jonathan Dickinson near the site of their shipwreck, and many of these natural communities are represented there.
Dickinson, Jonathan
Jonathan Dickinson’s Journal or God’s Protecting Providence
Florida Classics Library 1985
|
Examination of declination anomalies within a well-controlled chronologic framework can permit precise delineation of the progression of a tectonic rotation. In the past, declination anomalies from numerous spatially separated and individually dated localities have been synthesized in order to define regional, progressive rotations. Rarely, however, have magneto-stratigraphic data from a single locality been used successfully to chronicle a sequential rotation that resulted from movement along a nearby fault. Magnetostratigraphic studies from the El Paso basin in southern California reveal progressively smaller amounts of counterclockwise rotation for strata dated between 11 and 7 Ma. Two tests indicate that this is a temporally controlled, rather than a spatially controlled, rotation. This rotation is interpreted to have resulted from sinistral shear along the Garlock fault. As such, it appears to delimit the initiation of Miocene movement along the western segment of this major strike-slip fault.
You do not currently have access to this article.
|
5 Cultural Facts You Should Know About The UAE
There are many interesting facts about the United Arab Emirates that we share daily via our twitter account. Here are five basic ones:
1. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates, which united on December 2, 1971. They are Abu Dhabi (the capital), Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Qaiwain.
2. The UAE is an Arab country, a state member of the League of Arab States and also a member of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Arabic is the official language, yet English is widely used.
3. The UAE is a predominantly Muslim country. Islam is the basis of the UAE’s culture, political system and way of life, yet it is also multi-cultural and tolerant towards other religions. Everyone is free to practice their own religion and UAE’s residents observe the various festive occasions such as Eid, Christmas and Diwali.
4. There are over 200 different nationalities residing in the UAE making it one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. Over the last decade, the country’s population has increased from 3.4 million in 2001 to an estimated 8.2 million in 2011. Mostly due to immigration, UAE also ranks among the highest in the world in terms of population growth.
5. Emirati clothing is an important part of the history and heritage of the UAE and is a source of pride. Men in the UAE wear a white cloak ‘kandura’ which is also called a ‘dishdash’ or a ‘thawb’ in other GCC countries. It is also similar to the desert clothes used in North Africa. The women in UAE wear a long flowing black gown known as the ‘abaya.’ The abaya is actually an elegant piece of attire used to cover the female’s clothing. It can range from plain, practical discreet designs similar to the ones worn in the past to more modern, elaborate and colorful ones with intricate designs.
To know more about UAE culture and traditions visit SMCCU which runs a variety of programs:
Leave a comment
Filed under News
Leave a Reply
WordPress.com Logo
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s
|
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Van GoghVincent Willem van Gogh March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died at the age of 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still.
The most comprehensive primary source for the understanding of van Gogh as an artist is the collection of letters between him and his younger brother, art dealer Theo van Gogh. They lay the foundation for most of what is known about the thoughts and beliefs of the artist. Theo provided his brother with both financial and emotional support. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of van Gogh’s thoughts and theories of art, is recorded in the hundreds of letters they exchanged between 1872 and 1890: more than 600 from Vincent to Theo and 40 from Theo to Vincent.
Although many are undated, art historians have generally been able to put them in chronological order. Problems remain, mainly in dating those from Arles although it is known that during that period, van Gogh wrote 200 letters to friends in Dutch, French and English. The period when Vincent lived in Paris is the most difficult for historians to analyze because the brothers lived together and had no need to correspond.
In addition to letters to and from Theo, other surviving documents include those to Van Rappard, Émile Bernard, van Gogh’s sister Wil and her friend Line Kruysse. The letters were first annotated in 1913 by Theo’s widow Johanna van Gogh-Bonger who explained that she published them with ‘trepidation’ because she did not want the drama in the artist’s life to overshadow his work. Van Gogh himself was an avid reader of other artists’ biographies and expected their lives to be in keeping with the character of their art.
Comments are closed.
|
A Step Forward for Cheap Space Flight
Elon Musk annouces a small but critical success in reusable rocket boosters.
A SpaceX rocket takes off on a 2012 mission for NASA.
National Journal
Add to Briefcase
Brian Resnick
April 25, 2014, 9:59 a.m.
Rocket launches to space are very, very expensive. And a lot of that expense is wasted as the rocket boosters burn up in the atmosphere as they return to the ground. Elon Musk, via his commercial-spaceflight company SpaceX, wants to change the math of space travel. The company took a step toward that goal last week with a test launch of a reusable rocket booster that, after detaching from the main cargo capsule, is designed to gently land back on Earth.
During a Friday press conference, Musk announced that the recent soft-landing test of SpaceX’s reusable rocket was a sort-of success. He said that while SpaceX’s data indicate that the rocket landed in the ocean vertically, with a velocity of zero (meaning it was a soft, upright landing), the booster was lost to a storm and 15-foot waves.
“That’s a huge milestone for SpaceX and the space industry,” Musk said. “No one has ever soft-landed a liquid rocket boost stage before.”
He continued, “If we can recover the stage intact and relaunch it, the potential is there for a truly revolutionary impact in space-transport costs. The cost of propellant is actually only about .3 percent the cost of the rocket, the mission…. There’s potential there for a 100-fold improvement for the cost of access to space.”
Musk said Space X will continue it’s goal of landing a reusable rocket booster on land with the accuracy of a landing helicopter. The current test, he said, landed “within a few miles of the target,” though “in this case, we were just trying to get the rocket to get at zero velocity over the water.” He hopes to land a booster back to Cape Canaveral by the end of the year.
The launch booster, Musk says, can cost as much as 70 percent of the cost of any launch. So recovering them is essential to making commercial spaceflight affordable.
Here is an animation of what the landing should look like.
Welcome to National Journal!
|
Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
Join Physics Forums Today!
Electric field strength between two points.
1. Aug 1, 2012 #1
Find the electric field strength at point P, which is located midway between charges A and B. The charges are separated by 20 cm. The first charge has a charge of 20 micro coulombs. The second charge has a charge of -30 micro coulombs.
2. Relevant equations
Electric field strength E=Kq/r K is coulomb's constant 9x10 raised to the ninth power. Q is charge. Ris distance from charge.
3. The attempt at a solution
I'm not sure where to start. You need the charge at point P to use Coulomb's law.
2. jcsd
3. Aug 1, 2012 #2
You don't need the charge at the point P. As you well said, the formula for electric Field is E=kQ/R. Only one charge appears there and it is the charge that produces the field.
You are probably confused with Coulomb's law that says the force excerted by a charge Q on a charge q is F=kqQ/R. Since F=q E then E=kQ/R. So you don't need to know the charge at the point P.
4. Aug 2, 2012 #3
Ok so then what do i plug into the equation?
5. Aug 2, 2012 #4
You have two sources of the field. You can determine the field generated by each one. But you need to know the combined field at a given point. How could you do that?
6. Aug 2, 2012 #5
So i get the field of both and combine them?
7. Aug 2, 2012 #6
Yes, but the field is directional. You need to take this into account when you combine!
8. Aug 2, 2012 #7
Thank you!
|
Arts, Culture & Media
Are African immigrants African American?
This story is a part of
Global Nation
This story is a part of
Global Nation
A few weeks ago, Hana Baba, a radio reporter for KALW in San Francisco, posted an article in the Global Nation Exchange Facebook group that triggered a long discussion about racial identity in the US.
Player utilities
Do African immigrants in the US identify as Black? African American? Do they hyphenate, e.g. Nigerian-American?
The identity crisis is all too familiar to Peres Owino, a Kenyan American film director based in California. Growing up in Kenya, she read only a small paragraph about the enslavement of Africans in school.
"Bound: Africans vs African Americans, Silent Sibling Rivaliry" will be released digitally later this year on iTunes and Google Play.
Courtesy of Peres Owino
"It was the first time I was introduced to the idea of enslaved Africans — this was, like, in 11th grade history," Owino says. "I was curious about this part of our history, and after studying a lot of it, I came to the United States and my one thing I wanted to do was to really engage African Americans."
But Owino says one man she talked to told her that he was not "African," rather "African American." Owino was told "that my people sold him," she remembers.
That struck a chord with Owino, who used this experience as the spark for her documentary, "Bound: African vs. African American." The film brings together African Americans and Africans in a dialogue about how they identify, their misconceptions of one another and what this means in a country that calls itself a melting pot.
While studying at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Owino says African immigrants and African Americans were often grouped into the same "black" organization, and healthy dialogues were the result. "Of course, when you come out of that university context and out into the real world, then the problem is more magnified," she says.
Owino says her film exposes a lack of education among both African immigrants and African Americans.
"One of the things we noticed — which I thought was very sad, but I also thought was very eye opening — was the fact that we did not know each other's history," Owino says. "Growing up in Kenya, we learned the European history because of the colonialism aspect, but we never seriously learned the history of African people outside of Africa."
She sees similar gaps in how African Americans view and learn about Africans. "You come here to the United States and you have this very little understanding of colonialism and what happened on the continent of Africa," Owino says. "You'd have statements like 'Why are Africans so poor? There's no development. What's wrong with you people?' And then to have these two groups of people, in one room, for us to understand our historical experience — you could almost see the lightbulbs going off."
The film will be released later this year, and Owino has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award for her work. But in the meantime, how do you identify? Take our poll and see how others have responded below.
Most African immigrants in the US who answered an informal poll call themselves "African" or a label based on their nationality, such as "Kenyan American."
Most African immigrants in the US who answered an informal poll call themselves "African" or a label based on their nationality, such as "Kenyan American." Here are the first 200 responses.
|
Tooth Decay Prevention
Tooth decay is a progressive disease caused by the interaction of bacteria that naturally occur on the teeth and sugars in the everyday diet. Sugar causes a reaction in the bacteria, which then produce acids that break down the mineral in teeth, forming a cavity. Dentists remove the decay and fill the tooth using a variety of fillings, restoring the tooth to a healthy state. Nerve damage can result from severe decay and may require a crown (a crown is like a large filling that can cap a tooth, making it stronger or covering it for protection). Avoiding unnecessary decay simply requires strict adherence to a dental hygiene regimen: brushing and flossing twice a day, regular dental checkups, diet control, and fluoride treatment. Practicing good hygiene avoids unhealthy teeth and costly treatment.
Fluoride is a substance that helps teeth become stronger and resistant to decay. Regularly drinking water treated with fluoride and brushing and flossing every day ensures significantly fewer cavities. Dentists can evaluate the level of fluoride in a primary drinking water source and recommend fluoride supplements (usually in tablets or drops), if necessary.
Oral Cancer Screening
Each year over 30,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with oral cancer. The disease kills more than 8,000 Americans annually. As with many other types of cancer, oral lesions that are detected early offer a better chance for successful treatment, making oral cancer detection one more reason to visit South Coast Dentistry in Aliso Viejo regularly. We take the time to carefully evaluate the oral conditions present in your mouth and throat as well as your neck to screen for any abnormalities. We are able to take biopsies if necessary or to refer you to the appropriate specialist when needed.
The Caries Management Program (CMP)
Many people think having cavities is just a part of life, but it doesn’t have to be. New research and new products offer the possibility of a future without decay. We have a strong commitment to prevention at South Coast Dentistry. Teeth are meant to last a lifetime and we help our patients achieve this through the Caries Management Program, a preventative program designed for each of our patients. It is a systematic approach designed to recognize individual susceptibility, reduce bacteria, and control other factors that cause dental decay. The CMP has been highly effective to minimize the risk of developing caries for our higher-risk patients and has been successful in teaching other patients not at a high risk how to stay that way.
Dental Caries
Dental caries or dental decay is an infectious and transmissible disease that is associated with high levels of bacteria. Streptococcus mutans (SM) and Lactobacillus (secondarily) (LB) are the bacteria that cause tooth decay. These bacteria utilize refined sugar and produce acid that destroys enamel and underlying dentin (the outer and inner layers of teeth). This process usually does not elicit sensitivity until it reaches the pulp or nerve of the tooth. At this point of infection, a root canal procedure may be necessary.
|
Printer Friendly
Pig intestine yields versatile tissue graft.
First, there were chitlins. Then, butchers started packaging sausage in the strong but thin casing of pig intestine. Now, tissue engineers are fashioning the proverbial silk purse out of a sow's gut by using a diaphanous inner layer of pig intestine to make tissue grants for replacing worn-out blood vessels, ligaments and bladders. Their aim: an off-the-shelf graft that can serve as spare parts for any patient, regardless of tissue type.
Veterinarian-physician Stephen F. Badylak and his colleagues at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., have isolated a tissue film the thickness of two human hairs that they can transplant successfully into many other species, including dogs and moneys. Badylak told a symposium on tissue engineering last week that his team has transplanted the material into more than 600 animals of various species without any signs of immune rejection. The session was part of the Keystone (Colo.) Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology.
The researchers call the material SIS, for small intestinal mucosa. Much like the film of jelly between two layers of a jellyroll cake, SIS lies between the outer, muscular intestinal surface and the layer of finger-like villi lining the intenstine's inner wall. It consists mainly of collagen, the connective tissue that holds most organs together.
Badylak and his colleagues have a cheap and plantiful supply of SIS from their local slaughterhouse. "It's very similar to what they use for sausage casings," he says. After meticulously scraping off the inner and outer intestinal layers, the researchers place the resulting SIS in a bottle of antibiotic-laced saline solution and store it in a refrigerator, where it keeps for more than a month.
Because of SIS' ability to resist blood clots, the Purdue group first used it in dogs to replace the aorta, the largest artery in most animals. Remarkably, they found that the opaque-white material dissolved over two months and was replaced by the dogs' own blood vessel tissue, a phenomenon that tissue engineers call remodeling. Several of the dogs have lived four or five years since their transplants and have aortas indistinguishable from those of nongrafted dogs, Badylak says.
Following the success of the aorta transplants, Badylak's group tested SIS in dogs as a replacement for the vena cava, the largest vein in most animals' bodies. Unlike arteries, which carry high-pressure blood away from the heart, veins carry blood under lower pressure toward the heart and do not require a layer of smooth muscle to give them extra strength. The SIS vena cava graft adapted to form muscle-less vein tissue, Badylak's group discovered.
Encouraged by SIS' potential, Badylak's team then used the material to replace canine knee ligaments and Achilles tendons. Within weeks, the SIS became fully developed ligament and tendon tissue, they found. Moreover, a tunnel drilled in the dogs' leg bones to accommodate the knee ligaments closed around and fused with the new tissue.
The group hopes to test SIS grants in humans "within a couple of years," Badylak says. He predicts that orthopedic applications will come first, because of the lack of an adequate number of donor ligaments and tendons from humans. He and his co-workers recently began testing injections of minced SIS as a means to shore up the muscles of leaky bladders. They also plan to see if SIS will promote would healing when used as a skin grant. However, Badylak says, "I don't want to oversell this material ... we still don't know how it works."
Eugene Bell, a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, calls SIS "extremely promising" as a universal tissue graft. "We are just beginning to probe the regenerative capacities of the human organism," he asserts. Synthetic materials have been "singularly ineffective" as tissue replacements, he says, because they do not serve as templates for the host to regenerate his or her own tissue and are sometimes subject to immune-system attack.
COPYRIGHT 1992 Science Service, Inc.
Article Details
Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Author:Ezzell, Carol
Publication:Science News
Date:Apr 18, 1992
Previous Article:Spying new quasar class, peering at M32.
Next Article:Calcite on the edge of growth, dissolution.
Related Articles
Scared of trichinosis? Check with ELISA.
Speeding up wound healing the EGF way.
Camouflaged grafts elude immune detection.
Pigs make human pigment.
Cartilage grafts grown in lab dishes.
Cholera toxin fights autoimmune disease.
Tissue recipients are free of pig virus.
Collagen transplant replaces rabbit artery.
Pig-cell grafts ease symptoms of Parkinson's.
Probiotic benefits receive boost from studies.
|
Zoo's Man-made Rain Forest A Natural Beauty
December 20, 1992|By Bob Downing Akron (ohio) Beacon Journal
It's not easy to mimic Mother Nature, but with a little help from the Larson Co., it can be done.
Artists for the Arizona company have created an elaborate, handmade, all-but-real-to-the-eye environment in the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's $30 million RainForest building.
''What you see is concrete, fiberglass and epoxy,'' says senior zoo curator Don Kuenzer, ''but you'd swear it's real.''
The Larson artists built breathtaking South American and Indonesian rain-forest habitats of artificial trees and rocks to showcase more than 600 animals representing 118 different species - and that doesn't count the insects - and 7,000 live flowers, trees and shrubs of 360 varieties.
Visitors to the two-story domed building, which opened Nov. 19, enter an 85-degree, humid environment surrounded by lush greenery. They hear the sounds of the rain forest and can even experience a tropical thunderstorm - complete with fog, rain, thunder and lightning - every 20 minutes without getting wet.
The attractions include a troop of orangutans tromping on a 26-foot-high tree, giant butterflies, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, sloths, marmosets, tamarins, the South American tapir, the capybara, ocelots, small-clawed otters, fishing cats, rare clouded leopards and 300 reptiles and amphibians of 50 species.
There are leaf-cutter ants visible in below-ground chambers and a 30-foot-high butterfly tree.
Fifteen species of birds of the Amazon - from the colorful scarlet ibis to boat-billed herons to sunbitterns and roseate spoonbills - are housed in a walk-through aviary.
Orchids, bromeliads, ferns, vines and epiphytes bloom from a hydroponic-fed two-story plant wall. The plants flower throughout the year, creating an ever-changing exhibit.
Visitors can even peek through microscopes to view a rain forest's microscopic wonders.
Yet the two-acre RainForest's biggest wonder might just be that the exhibit is opening at all, in light of its highly publicized past troubles.
Former zoo officials had said the facility could be built for $4 million and would open in 1988. But the costs soared, and zoo officials and outside consultants departed amid allegations of financial mismanagement. The plans were revamped.
Zoo officials say RainForest's past problems are just that: part of the past. What's left today is something that is, in the words of zoo director Steve Taylor, ''very classy.''
Except for the animals, insects and small plants, just about everything inside the RainForest building's rose-tinted glass is artificial - even the mud.
The top priorities of the Larson Co., which previously created habitats for the Bronx and Omaha zoos, were to design and build the best containment areas for the RainForest's animals with the best possible sight lines for visitors.
Korey Kruckmeyer, project manager for the company, says making an artificial environment look as real as possible is a demanding process that takes a lot of time and work.
Consider how you make a tree:
Workers start with a column of steel mesh from 20 to 40 feet high. Then a yellow epoxy mixture with the consistency of a cookie dough is spread over the mesh. More layers of latex are added.
An artist painstakingly etches the cracks and scratches found in the bark of the desired species. Another artist presses a textured pad of rubber against the epoxy to create the feel of real bark. Then the tree is painted realistic colors.
For RainForest, the Larson Co. designed and created 67 of these artificial trees and logs, representing 31 tropical species, and nearly 2,000 feet of artificial vine (wire or cable surrounded by nylon rope covered by latex layers.)
Each man-made tree cost from $2,000 to more than $100,000, depending on its size, foliage, bark and texture, Kruckmeyer says.
Then there were the rocks. RainForest has 30,000 square feet of boulders, caves and pools; a 24-foot-high limestone cliff with water cascading over it and even the ruins of a Mayan temple.
The rock work starts with a crew of three or four. Liquid latex is brushed onto a real rock - limestone outcroppings in Arizona and Tennessee were used for RainForest - between layers of cheesecloth. Then a covering coat of polyurethane foam is sprayed on. After the latex dries, workers peel it off, producing a mold with the exact contours of the rock.
What is then needed to physically build the rocks are a steel frame, fiberglass, polystyrene foam, a net covering and layers of sprayed concrete (from 4 to 6 inches thick). The artists come in armed with plaster trowels, tire brushes and even dental tools to carve in the final details.
Some of RainForest's rocks were built in Arizona and shipped to Ohio, while others were built in Cleveland.
In addition to creating the rocks and trees, Larson artists painted nearly 9,800 square feet of murals on walls to strengthen the building's rain-forest motif.
Why go to such efforts? Why not use real trees and rocks?
Orlando Sentinel Articles
|
By this we understand a very malignant, frequently fatal expression of malaria , the chief symptom of which consists in an extraordinary cooling of the surface of the body during the hot stage. This is very probably the result of a vascular paralysis in the internal organs, producing a threatening diminution of blood pressure and a stasis that proclaims itself in the form of a general cyanosis.
The disease picture is as follows: During the hot stage, in fact, usually at its beginning,* the arterial tension sinks unexpectedly; the pulse becomes easily compressible and eventually disappears. The eyes are sunken and surrounded by a black ring; the pupils dilated. The face is wrinkled and presents a Hippocratic expression. The sensorium is unaffected. The lips are cyanotic; likewise the tongue, which also becomes cold. The surface of the skin is unpleasantly cool; in fact, feels like marble, and is covered with a cold sweat. The pulse is increased in frequency; the breathing is superficial and hastened. The rectal temperature is usually elevated; the axillary, about 38°.
The subjective complaints of the patient are limited, as a rule, to a feeling of extreme fatigue in all the limbs, though he sometimes also complains of a burning internal heat. It is remarkable that the patients do not feel the coldness of the body surface. They never complain of cold, and differentiate the algor from the chill. In the latter case the skin temperature is objectively little or not at all below the normal, yet the patients complain of cold; while in the algid stage the skin is ice cold and the patient complains either not at all or of an internal burning. The patients are usually uninterested and do not suspect the danger hanging over them. The condition may be fatal in a few hours, and may be protracted twelve hours or even longer.
The prognosis is decidedly unfavorable, though some cases of recovery have been reported.
The condition occurs in intermittent as well as subcontinued fevers, though we must add the algor itself never intermits. When it once appears, it terminates either in recovery or death.
The algor is frequently secondary to severe participation of the gastro intestinal tract (further details later), though it occurs, too, as an independent symptom. In the latter case it is in all probability the result of the action of the toxin on the vasomotor centers. Proceeding from this assumption, we will consider the pure algid formunder the cerebral pernicious fevers. Laveran observed the following case of algid pernicious:
* According to Torti, the algor occurs in the cold stage and is nothing else than its prolongation ". . . cum Frigus quoddam mortiferum incipienti Paroxysmo jungitur quod non, ut assolet in Benignis, paulatim evanescit, ut illud sensim calor excipiat; sed protrahitur, et protrahitur," etc.
B., aged twenty three, soldier, was brought into the hospital at Con stantine, July 27, 1882, 11 p. m. He had been employed as a gardener, and had suffered from fever several times. He appeared at the hospital on July 27, on account of a recurrence which, at the time, showed nothing at all suspicious of perniciousness. The battalion physician ordered 1 gm. quinin sulphate in pills. The same evening his condition became suddenly worse and he was brought at once to the hospital. On admission he was extremely weak, yet in possession of his senses. He sighed deeply from time to time, but when asked how he felt, complained only of weakness and prostration. The extremities were cold, the pulse quite rapid, and impalpable in the radial artery. It was 120 in the carotids. The heart beat was rapid and feeble; respirations hurried, but deep.
The rump was warm to the feel. The temperature was not taken. Pupils were dilated. Secessus involuntarii urinarum. Subcutaneous injection of 1.50 quinin; frictions, sinapisms, warm drinks. The algor progressed rapidly.
July 28, 3.30 a. m. : The death agony. Half an hour later the end.
The autopsy showed the signs of a severe malaria . In the blood of the organs enormous numbers of parasites were found.
Syncopal Pernicious
Closely connected with the algid form, though rarer, the syncopal likewise depends on a diminution of blood pressure. The patient falls into a deep faint on the slightest effort, as, for instance, the act of sitting him up straight, or, as Torti mentions, of turning him from one side to the other, or even a personal attempt on his own part to raise his hand.
These patients also show the subjective and objective symptoms of extreme weakness; the pulse is small, easily compressible, rapid; the forehead and neck are covered with a light sweat.
Torti affirms that the intermission after such a paroxysm may be quite bearable, yet woe to the physician who believes himself in security and omits the necessary medication. The next attack may prove fatal, and the reproach which Hippocrates once made be applicable: "Medicus non intellexit; puella mortua est."
Diaphoretic Pernicious
This belongs also to the group of algid forms. It is characterized by symptoms of collapse, and, in addition, an excessive secretion of sweat, from which it receives its name. The profuse perspiration occurs sometimes at the beginning of the warm stage, and may then give rise to the error that the paroxysm was short; or it may appear at the close of the paroxysm.
Torti, who passed through a severe attack of diaphoretic pernicious fever himself, describes the condition in the following words:
" Fraudulentior est ea febris, quae nullo prsecedente pravitatis indicio Aegrum invadit more solito cum horroro, rigore, et frigore cui succedit calor, et statim sudor aliquantulum praecox, qui equidem februm videtur primo aspectu alleviare, sed revera post ilium potius intenditur febris, quam remittitur; immo eo fortior videtur fieri, quo copiosior est sudor. At ille not est terminus occulta? fraudis, hinc enim potius longitudo morbi significatur, quam mors. Quod pejus est, frigefit paulatim sudor, et in diaphoreticum sensim degenerat. Sudat perpetuo segrotans, et deffluit undequaque frigido sudor perfusus; sicque perpetuo algens, et sudans sicut cera liquatur, dissolvitur et deficit. Pulsus celer est, minutus, ac debilis, respiratio fit anhelesa, et frequens, dissipantur spiritus, et viryus universaliter languet. Mens sola lucidissima est, et sentit homo, se paulatim mori. Nisi autem hoc ilia ipsa accessione succedat, in proxime futuram tantum protrahitur" (Lib. iii, Cap. i).
|
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Seed Balls for Dry and Arid Areas
We (105 children, my colleagues and me) were trying many methods to see some plants grow in the commonlands of Chittoor and Ananthapur but in dry and semi-arid areas where rainfall is highly unpredictable, this made the survival of planted sapling a TOUGH job.
Recently we tried a very old method for re-vegetation, Seedball distribution.
What is a seed ball?
Story of seed balls
The seed ball method has been working for centuries. The earliest records of aerial reforestation date back from 1930. In this period, planes were used to distribute seeds over certain inaccessible mountains in Honolulu after forest fires. Seed bombing is also widely used in Africa; where they are put in barren or simply grassy areas. Natural farming pioneer Masanobu Fukuoka has experimented with them.
What is it for?
Seed balls are useful for seeding dry, thin and compacted soils and for reclaiming derelict ground. Seed balls are particularly useful in dry and arid areas where rainfall is highly unpredictable. Most seeds are very light and there is risk of them being blown away by the wind, making them unsuitable for launching long distances.
How does if help?
When sufficient rain has permeated the clay, the seeds inside sprout and are aided by the nutrients and beneficial soil microbes surrounding them. Seeds will remain dormant until their environmental needs are met with these factors: water, correct temperature and a good position to grow in.
Most seeds are light and there is risk of some of them being blown away by the wind. The compost offers nutrients for the seeds to germinate and grow strong during their infancy (seedling stage) and the clay binds the seed balls, making it hard enough not to break when it hits the ground. Seed balls have use in nearly any region where plants can grow: for reseeding ecosystems into areas of man-made deserts, avoiding seed eating insects and animals and protecting seeds until rains fall to soak the clay ball and stimulate the seeds. Seeds contained in such balls then germinate in ideal conditions for each climate/region. It is ultimately one of ways the seeds get dispersed.
Download the .ppt that we used for training from this link-
See this shot clip made with pictures of us (only children)-
Monday, June 1, 2015
A page for forest fire
1. This video show the destruction of my home texas.-
2. Video shot by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shows how quickly a wildfire is moving through Bastrop State Park. At least two-thirds of the 6,000 acre park have burned. (Sept. 6)-
3. Camera captures video and temperature as a high-intensity crown fire rolls through. From the International Crown Fire Modeling Experiments in the Northwest Territories. (2000)-
4.An overview of the International Crown Fire Modeling Experiments in Canada's Northwest Territories. (1997)-
5. An overgrown canyon goes up in a firestorm as firefighters pull out in this major brush fire in Southern California. There is little they can do to save homes nestled amongst old timber growth without proper brush clearance. We stay as homes burn. Listen to the hiss of propane tanks and the pop of live ammo going off towards the end of the clip.-
6. Malibu goes up yet again in this most recent incident (11-24-07). Footage shows homes burning as residents and firefighters do what they can to save what has not yet taken off. Additional footage shows fire advancing through upper Latigo Canyon in fuel strands that have not burned in 50 years...This is not footage that was taken off the television - this is footage that was shot right from the firelines by the poster.-
7. 9-11-2013 A grass/ bushfire started on bringelly rd and travelled fast towards Camden valley way . the fire was stopped by helicopters and also the hard work of fire rescue and the rfs-
8. Night scenes of a forest fire with huge flames. Watch the vehicle lights of Hellenic Firefight Service as flames approaching them. Listen to the terrible "noise" a forest fire is making.-
9. Here is three hours of a crackling log fire in high quality sound. Its a blazing hot one for all my fellow pyros out there. Use headphones if you want to hear the holophonics of this soundscape. I will be posting more soundscapes soon, thanks and enjoy.-
Professor. Hitesh V. Bhatt
Professor. Hitesh V. Bhatt
|
3 TYPES OF DIABETES - Healthy Lifestyle
Tuesday, 31 December 2013
The actual pancreas, a big gland, is liable for manufacturing sufficient of the hormone referred to as insulin to be certain that glucose inside the blood stream can pass straight into the cells exactly in which it's required. Individuals with diabetes possess a pancreas which is not able to supply sufficient insulin, or none in the least, that leads to higher levels of glucose inside the blood stream when eating. This extra glucose is passed from the physique through urine. Though one's body is obtaining sufficient glucose with the correct diet, due to the malfunctioning pancreas one's body is unable to apply it, and it's expelled coming from the physique.
Diabetes is really a serious disease which will develop complications which will eventually result in a premature death assuming individual does not suffer from other life-threatening illnesses. There will be 3 primary kinds of diabetes so we can look into all 3 in remainder of the post. The actual 3 kinds of diabetes are kind 1 diabetes, kind 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.
Kind 1 diabetes, typically mentioned as insulin dependent or juvenile on-set diabetes. Like the name implies, the actual sufferer will require to bring insulin once or more than once each day to survive. Is is an autoimmune disease which truly turns against one's body and rather than attacking cells which lead to infection, it truly attacks the actual cells inside the pancreas which are liable for manufacturing insulin, namely, the actual beta cells. Otherwise diagnosed early and handled instantly a sufferer can laps into your diabetic ketoacidosis or what's commonly referred to as a diabetic coma.
Kind 1 diabetes typically develops in youngsters and young adults, however is likewise proficient at creating in adults of all ages. 5 to 10 % of all diabetes cases inside the USA are kind 1 particular.
It isn't recognized precisely how or what elements can lead to or result in kind 1 diabetes creating in somebody, however scientists suspect which genetic and environmental elements may play a neighborhood, probably additionally as well as viruses. Symptoms can usually develop more than a fairly brief time period and can also embrace extreme fatigue and blurred eyesight, weight reduction and an elevated appetite. Additionally an elevated got to urinate.
Kind 2 diabetes, typically referred to as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or adult-onset diabetes. This is actually the most typical sort of diabetes, and it is diagnosed in ninety to 95 % of all diabetes sufferers, and chiefly these in older age.
Kind 2 diabetes typically occurs in these that are overweight. That's concerning eighty % of kind 2 sufferers. Some other contributing elements which will additionally present themselves in exception to becoming overweight are lack of during exercise, a household history of diabetes, impaired glucose metabolism and sure ethnic teams will also be in risk for example american from African, Native American, Hispanic/Latino and Asian ethnic teams.
Gestational diabetes : this sort of diabetes is diagnosed in ladies while pregnant (inside the later stages of pregnancy) and could be found in ladies who present many of the contributing elements found in people who suffer from kind 1 and 2 diabetes. Gestational diabetes is caused by pregnancy-related hormones or low levels of insulin production. It isn't uncommon for ladies not to present along with any symptoms. Typically ladies that are overweight and maybe have a history of diabetes with their family. Additionally a lot of frequently occurs in African, Hispanic, Latino and Native Americans. There's a shut link in among symptoms of gestational diabetes and people along with kind 2 diabetes.
Of all pregnant ladies inside the USA, someplace in among 3 and 8 % can suffer from gestational diabetes. It must be managed to lower the chance of the actual baby suffering complications. 5 to 10 % of girls who present along with gestational diabetes will also be diagnosed along with kind 2 diabetes. 20 to Fifty % of these who do not have an elevated risk of creating diabetes in subsequent 5 to 10 many a long time.
Post a Comment
|
21 Mar 2010
Children Emotional Problems
Like adults children have many different ways to react to their emotional problems. Nevertheless, unlike adults they are unable to tell us they have an emotional problem and need help.
It is our work as responsible and loving adults to be alert to their signals and help them understand their needs providing, if necessary, the specialized and technical help available in the society.
Many times we tend to rapidly criticize and think that this or that child has no manners, knows no rules and respects no one when so many times those are the only ways that small person has learned to express her or his difficulties and or emotional problems.
1. I read what you wrote Alexandra, and clearly children don't came with instruction books has we usually say... but we have to find a way to understand them...
2. It's quite difficult to be a parent. Freud used to say that it was one of the "impossible" missions.
Anyway, I tend to think that children need understanding but also rules. Without them they feel lost and we are certainly not doing our job, which is to help them to grow up.
3. Rules are certainly important when raising a child!
But thinking that many manifestations that sometimes children show are due to lack of rules, manners or other such things is a dangerous and terrible simplification that can have consequences on the development of that child. He or she can end up on develop serious psychopathology and cognitive and social problems that could have been avoided if parents and educators had been more sensitive to that child way of telling "I need help! I am not doing well by myself!"...
That was what I meant to say anyway...
4. Children are an amazing amount of ingenuity, sincerity and need... Your last sentence in your comment "child way of telling -I need help! I am not doing well by myself", is exactly why rules are essential for children.
Showing children that there are rules is showing them how far they can go, from when they are supposed to ask for help, and also, rules are a perfect basic ground for them to climb from. Rules are covered with love from attention that the parent/caregiver gives them. In every relationship there are rules, and it shows proximity, security, and gives children and people in general a sense of how far they can go.
Rules are made for us to survive, and that is why they are so important for children. Children with no rules, with facilitating parents tend to be unstable, unruly, unhappy, restless.
Rules are a form of affection and love.
Children with "no manners, no rules and no respect" are usually unhappy children because they feel very lost.
5. This comment has been removed by the author.
6. I will repeat myself:
Rules are certainly important when raising a child!
The post wasn't about rules and wasn't CERTAINLY trying to say that we shouldn't give rules to our children....
On the contrary it was trying to alert people of the importance to understand that SOMETIMES when a child is more agitated, aggressive or ignoring some rule it is not because that child doesn't knows the rules on that particular situation but because that's the only way that that child can express to the surrounding adults that he/she is not feeling well and that he/she need help...
The BIG difference is that us (adults) SOMETIMES are able to understand that we are not doing well and that we are not being able to handle with that situation by ourselves. So we go and reach out for help and meet a psychologist, psychiatrist and so on.... Children in their condition of children: one small human being still developing and learning many many things even about theirselves, are unable to do the same. So they will go and express their dispair, suffering and need in the different ways they know or can...
Like adults who express their emotional problems in different pathologies, children show different manifestations....
And it is our jobs as loving adults to be ATTENTIVE ALERT and SENSITIVE to those signs of our children in order to be able to give them the help they so desperatley are asking for....
7. Thank you for your reply, I am afraid I was commenting not so much about your post and your comment, but it was much more a reflexion of my own meditation about how and why it is important to explain the existence of rules to parents.
I'm sorry that I didn´t take the time to explain this before.
It is a problem I have to deal with regularly, and your post led me to think about this again. I am currently with a problem in hands concerning a badly behaved boy, who at the same time is very shy when called to speak out loud or to show others his work.
You are right of course, children express their dispairs and suffering in the different ways they know, and it important for us to be attentive and alert.
8. What a lively discussion! Good.
It seems children and their education raise more enthousiasm and comments than bleak topics like depression and the like. One can guess why. Maybe it's not a bad thing at all. Greetings, you all!
There was an error in this gadget
There was an error in this gadget
|
Monday, September 17, 2012
The Pros and Cons of Modern Music Technology for the Composer
Tools have have advanced drastically in the past decade than any other time period in history for composing music. There once a time that a working composer had only their piano, writing materials and music paper. Since the early 1990s MIDI sequencing and music notation software have become a major part of composing tools for the working composer.
In the last decade music software, such as Logic Pro, have come into the market. The software makes it very easy for a composer to work. They can use MIDI Software instruments to compose and attach to a MIDI keyboard controller. A film composer can add video to the software. Applications have time codes installed so when the video is added the composer can view and synchronize the music to the video. With the use of the MIDI Controller, composers can create musical phrases to MIDI sounds that are similar to orchestral instruments. After this part is done, the music can be exported as Standard MIDI files and imported into a music notation application. At this point, the composer can now create music that will be prepared for live performance of the music. This process has aided many composers to do their work fast and easy.
Logic Pro includes a collection of precomposed audio and MIDI files known as loops. They are short musical phrases that can be put together to create a musical composition. Many feel that this is cheating and that the composer is not actually composing. The concept of composing is in general taking preexisting knowledge and putting them together, much like taking these loops and putting them together to create music. In many respects, these loops can be an aid and tool for the composer. These loops also when put into the software are put nicely into a key and time signature. Therefore a piece of music can quickly sound good. The benefits of these loops can be a tool or aid in constructing musical compositions.
This then leads to the cons of the technology. Anyone who has no musical background can buy Logic Pro and put all these loops together and create musical compositions. Many have claimed to be composers. This has become a growing problem in the musical world. Many people who have no training and background in the structure of musical composition are trying to become composers. One needs to remember that these loops are only there as a tool, NOT a replacement of musical training. Musical training includes the knowledge of music theory, musical form and structure, knowing how to create a musical phrase and putting them together to create an organized sense of continuity. The only way to be able to have this ability is to have musical training, either at an accredited college/ university or private training. Many of those who have no musical background are trying to compete and “land the same gigs” as the composer who has studied and build their craft for many years. At the end it can be seen from the results of the musical composition. If the music is created in traditional harmony with no concept of what has occurred in music in the past 100 years then it will be transparent that the musical composition is resting and living in the past with no evolution. Ignoring how music has evolved since 1900 and creating music with traditional harmony (which is how music is created in the loops) means that the composer has not done their job in understanding the development of musical composition.
Technology has certainly helped the composer in aide of composer, but with all positives are the negatives. I personally don’t think it’s going to be very challenging for the trained composer. It does not matter how much a software is used for composing, at the end, the knowledge and skill (or the lack of it) will show no matter how advanced technology continues to grow. If someone who has no musical background or training wants to become a composer they simply need to start at the beginning and work their way up instead of taking the quick and fast path. We all know that the quick and fast path never leads towards development of knowledge.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
John Williams: A Great American Composer of Film & Classical Music
Photo Credit:
For the past 4 decades, John Williams has been a household name as a composer for films. His music can be heard on the loved Star Wars Saga Series, Jaws, ET, Harry Potter, Memoirs of a Geisha, Superman, Munich, and many many others. However there is a larger picture that most are not aware about John Williams. He composes music of the Classical Genre (or Music for the Concert Stage; the true name of the genre).
John Williams is a classically trained and well rounded musician who studied at UCLA and the Juilliard School with a degree in Bachelor and Masters of Music respectively. He had gained much knowledge of music of all ages, which is the foundation of his musical output. He mainly studied piano, but went on to becoming a composer rather than a performer for the duration of his life’s work.
Most of his classical music are Concerti ranging from a Violin Concerto, a Flute Concerto, and several others. A noted concerto he composed is for the bassoon and orchestra, a commission for the New York Philharmonic for their 100 year anniversary. The musical composition is titled The Five Sacred Trees. It has five movements where the bassoon is represented by a different tree in each movement. The story is inspired by Robert Graves’ book The White Goddess, also a well known book among the Neo- Pagan Community. He composed a Cello Concerto for notable cellist Yo yo Ma and a Violin concerto called Treesong for Gil Shaham. Additionally, He composed solo violin and cello pieces for both these performers.
Williams is a true composer in the realms of American Music. Much of his works has the “American Sound” that was defined by Aaron Copland. Williams was the conductor for two of the recent Olympic journeys to the USA. He was commissioned to compose music for the events. One of which became the “official” music for the Olympics, Summon the Heroes for the Atlantic 1996 Summer Games and Call of the Champions for the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games. These also triggered several other “American Sounds” in his music including American Journey, Jubilee 350, and Celebrate Discovery. These were also composed in relation to the Olympic Games and can be heard in the two Olympic Sony Records Summon the Heroes and American Journey, both of which can be downloaded from iTunes.
Very recently, Williams was commissioned to compose music for Obama’s Inauguration. That morning, after Aretha Franklin’s amazing performance of the American Anthem, was the premiere of Air and Simple Gifts for Chamber Ensemble. Simple Gifts is an American Folk Song which has the “true” deep rich sounds of American music. The first time this folk song was used in a musical composition was by Aaron Copland in Appalachian Spring.
John Williams is a true American Composer. He is both an accomplished Film Composer and an accomplished composer of the music for the concert stage. The music mentioned in this blog are those that can be found on iTunes or at a local record store. There are still many others that he has composed that have never been recorded. When I was an undergraduate at Cal State Northridge one of my professors had found several scores to some compositions by Williams in the style of Schoenberg, a technique called the 12 tone row. It is not a surprise that Williams has composed and studied that style of music as he was trained not only in the university, but the university that Arnold Schoenberg himself taught. He will be one composer that will be among those remembered centuries from now. I would highly recommend for anyone to listen to his musical compositions for the concert stage. They are integrate and passionate, full of life and magic.
List of Musical Works
Summon the Heroes
The Olympic Spirit
Call of the Champions
American Journey
Happy Birthday Variations
Midway March
Olympic Fanfare and Theme
The Cowboys Overture
Liberty Fanfare
The Mission Theme (From NBC News)
The Star Spangled Banner
Song for World Peace
Jubilee 350
For New York (variations on a theme by Bernstein)
Sound the Bells
Hymn to New England
Celebrate Discovery
Violin Concerto
Flute Concerto
The Five Sacred Trees (Concerto for bassoon and Orchestra)
Treesong for violin and Orchestra
Cello Concerto
Elegy for Cello and Orchestra
Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra
Clarinet Concerto
Tango (Por Una Cabeza) for solo Violin and orchestra
Concerto for Horn and Orchestra
On Willows and Birches (Concerto for Harp and Orchestra)
Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra
Seven for Luck (Song Cycle)
Rosewood for Solo Cello
Air and Simple Gifts for Violin, Cello, Clarinet and Piano
Three pieces for Solo Cello
Duo Concertante for Violin and Viola
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Classical Music Vs. Film Music: The Differences Between the Two Art Forms
As a composer, I have been approached by many people for many years with the same questions regarding musical composition. These questions arise from lack of knowledge and misunderstanding. Not that it’s their fault, but rather they have never been given the knowledge. This I personally blame for the weakness of the modern Public Education System in this country. One question that has been asked many times by many is “What film has that composer done?” A composer does not have to be scoring for film to be a composer, but yet many think that modern classical music is film music so they totally feel that is the only place a composer does work. This is a myth to say the least. Another question that arises is “Why don’t you compose for films or why doesn’t that composer do film?” Many composers do not work in the film genre, thus they would not have anything to their credit.
The truth of the matter is that both Classical and Film music are totally different styles of music. Both are valid and both are an art form of their own. Classical Music includes a vast portion of genres including Symphonic works, Chamber Works, Concerti, and functional music (Religious Music, Opera, Ballet, Dance, and Theatre). Film Music is a type of functional music that stems and comes from Classical Music, as the composers of the Golden Age of Hollywood were actually classical composers.
A bit of history on Film Music. Max Steiner, sometimes I refer him as the Father of Film Music, invented the genre. He composed the very first original film soundtrack in 1933 for King Kong. He was a classically trained composer who happened to work in Hollywood. When “talkies” appeared in Hollywood he found that composing original music to the work was a crucial part of the overall form. He was the first of the composers to use a technique known as leitmotif, a recurring theme that represents a character, thing or event. This is a technique from Opera and noted to be used for the first time by Richard Wagner. Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a classical composer who has composed may Operas, became a film composer as well. He called Film Music as “An Opera without words.” This being said now let’s look at the differences between the two.
Classical Music, a poorly given title by the Record Industry, is music for the concert stage. It is music that stands on its own. The musical context is created for listening,enjoyment, and analysis. The concept of most of the music is a serious large form of thematic materials interwoven as an artistic expression, much like a painting. The musical composition is the themes, phrases, and melodic lines. The actual orchestration is a different element that the composer uses in order to express this musical composition. The orchestration can be for solo piano, small ensemble, or a large orchestra. No matter what the arrangement or genre holds, all of the work is done by one composer. There is no collaboration in the creation of the work. It is the sole art form of a single man or woman. There might be a musical phrase by another composer or a folk tune in the composition, but this is another part of the style of the music. It is where the composer takes a preexisting theme and creates something new out of it, an old technique that goes back to the Middle Ages. Therefore, classical music can be understood as the same thing as a painting or a sculpture of one artist.
It is a style of music that continues to be composed to this very day. Many feel it is a style that no longer exists or think that Film Music is the modern version of it. However, there are 1000’s of composers who continue to work in this genre, including many composers who create film music. Some classical composers have also composed in the Film Music genre as well. This is because there is such a subtle line of difference between the two, many composers who love musical art forms have worked in them.
Now let’s look at Film Music. Historically it stems from Classical Music. The first Film composers where Eurocentric in style. Over the decades it evolved into an art form of its own right. Anyone who feels that it is not an art form needs to reevaluate that Film is an art form and therefore the music composed for it is part of the package. Much like Classical Music, Film Scores have melodic lines that are orchestrated for a large ensemble or full orchestra. Since Hollywood Music has become a commodity like all other departments of film production, there is a composer who creates the melodies, thematic materials and phrases, then it is orchestrated or arranged by another musician or composer. Unlike Classical Music, it is collaborative work. Many times this is due to the fact of several reasons 1) The Composer does not have time to orchestrate or 2) The Composer does not know how to orchestrate. Whatever the reason is, the music is an artistic style and expression of several people working together. Yet one important element to remember is that many of the film composers may not be orchestrating the music but rather using “short hand” orchestration as to let the orchestrator know what they want. This again depends on the composer and the collaboration of others in the music department.
Anther important aspect to remember on Film Music is that it so not always the “genre” of classical music. Orchestral music does not mean it’s classical in style. Orchestral just means “larger than life” sound. You can orchestrate any genre of music, and many film music after the 1950’s has explored in different genres. Jazz and Rock style has been used in film music, therefore the orchestral music now is not the “classical” sound but the genre of the musical composition. As film music evolved so did the styles. The Classical style still remains in film music, but you can have any other styles. You can even orchestrate Rap Music to have the Orchestral sound.
So here are the reasons why both Classical Music and Film Music are not the same genre as many understand. They are both wonderful expressions of art. Both are different styles; Film music stemming from Classical but have their own right as artistic forms. We can’t judge one or the other and we can’t say a composer is a film composer when they say they are classical composers. We also can’t assume a film composer does not work in the classical genre. It is probably better to research into the credits of individual composers and see what they have composed. I bet that if Mozart was alive today he would be composing for films as much as working with Opera, Concerti, and Symphonic Works.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Careers in Music: They are real and important to our society
Music as a career has always had misconceptions and stereotypes. It has been known that music does not lead to a steady flow of income or a structured career for a living. However these are extreme misconceptions. My favorite expressions are “majoring in music, how the hell are you going to earn a living?” or “Well music is one of those jobs either you make it or you don’t.” Here is my ultimate favorite expression that is said after hearing a performance, “That was good but what about a real job?”
A career in music is not “let’s go and put a band together and get a record deal.” That is the “artistic” end of music, which can lead to something big or not, but ultimately that is not a career in music. A career in music is no different than any other career. You go to college with a major and then find a job in that field. Simple and easy. A degree in music can lead to many types of jobs that bring in a regular paycheck. Some of these jobs are an audio engineer, music librarian, music teacher, secondary school and college, music critic, and even to the administration of an arts organization.
Many of these jobs require a musical background. The website lists countless jobs in music. Where does this begin? It begins with music lessons and the choir and band in Elementary, Middle and High school. These classes are now getting cut from school. So where are we going to have trained professionals to record music in the studio? If you speak to any audio engineer they all have learned a musical instrument and have taken band in school. The foundation of the skills needed to do their work. Of course what does their work bring? It brings us music when we listen to the radio, watch a movie, go grocery shopping, and listen to music at the office. Imagine yourself at work and not listening to music all day or going to the grocery store and not hearing music. How about watching a motion picture that has no music? Well this will become a reality if we do not have music in schools. It’s just like taking away English or Math from school. They are taking away the chance for a good career for something that is required for the survival of human kind.
Now let’s take a look at other careers. Many of the music students who have decided to focus their attention on playing become performers. They get a regular job playing in an orchestra or in the studio. They go to it like any typical job. They perform on stage a symphonic work, not for the artistic reason, but fact they are trained musicians who do their job and bringing home the pay. The studio musician plays the music you listen to while watching Harry Potter and other motion pictures. I guess we’re no longer going to have motion pictures with music since the option of playing in band is no longer there. So let’s get use to it, turn the volume off of your film and turn on the close capture to read the script.
Performance is not the only career in music. There are tons of background jobs that require a music education. A composer can’t compose music unless he or she is musically trained. A songwriter can’t write the next hit song unless he or she knows how to play the piano. How about that wonderful musical Wicked and Beauty and the Best that everyone loved so much. A composer wrote the music and a lyricist wrote the words. A conductor directed it and the musicians performed the music while the singers sang on stage. All these jobs are stemmed from learning how to play a musical instrument in grade school. It does not happen over night. These are trained jobs and they do it as a job. They punch a time clock just like everyone else.
There is even a union for musicians. I know because I am in the union myself. My last job was being the librarian for an orchestra. It is a union position and requires a lot of musical training. The job is the second most important job of an orchestra. The librarian puts together the music for the concerts. They order, purchase, and rent the music from various publishers. Then they put them in the folders and place the bow markings as indicated by the principal string players in each part. Oh and sometimes re-orchestration is needed in order to fit the budget of the orchestra. Not many can do this; only a trained composer can do it. I don’t think anyone off the street can be a music librarian. Only someone who has learned to play a musical instrument the studied music in college can do such a job.
So do you think learning music from k- 12 should be optional or required? Why take away an education that can lead to a career? As to music being a real career, well let’s see. Is music an option in the survival of our race? Take one day out of your life and do not listen to music at all. Do not plug in your ipod, do not watch a movie, and do not listen to music on your drive home from work. See how that works out. Oh and remember to plug your ears when you are at the next football came when the band starts playing music. I don’t think many can do this. Music is a part of our lives and as long as the human race exists music will be a viable profession like Law, Medicine, and many other service oriented career.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The Many Uses of Garageband
If you are an owner of a Mac computer than you are an owner of the Garageband software. It is part of the iLife suite of software and is pre-installed when you purchase your iMac, Mac Mini, Macbook or Macbook Pro. Most people don’t use it stating that it’s a bit confusing or some just feel too intimidated by music software. It is, in reality, software that can be used by many people for many different purposes. It is a MIDI sequencer and an audio recording/ editing software all rolled up into one. It can be used by the professional musician, the amateur musician, a music student or for anyone who has a need to create simple audio recordings.
When I first bought a Mac that had it installed I actually ignored it myself. My computer usually has the high tech Pro Music software and felt that it is something that I did not have to use. However, one day about four years ago I opened it up and played around with it and realized that it was actually software I can use for many purposes. Over the years as it developed further I became very fond of Garageband. I used it for simple recordings, podcasts, and when I needed background music while I played the piano. I also found that it was great for the student so I started to teach how to use it. I want to explain some of the uses of Garageband and how it can be useful for the musician, the music student, and the average non-musician.
The software is a multi-rack recording studio and you can hook up a MIDI keyboard and audio microphones. With the MIDI keyboard you can create tracks of musical lines and assign them different musical instruments. The software already includes a library of musical instruments such as strings, guitars, keyboards, winds, percussion, and even sound effects. Apple also has available extra library of sounds and instruments that you can optionally install to add to the library. This then can be a great way for a musician to create background music while they are playing their instrument or singing. They can edit it and then create a CD or mp3 file that they can take with them to their gigs or performances.
There is also pre-programmed library of audio tracks of musical instruments. You can then set the parameters of different instruments and then record yourself playing or singing on another track. For example, let’s say you have been practicing the famous Bette Midler song The Rose. You can then set parameters of a track of drums, a bass line, and even a guitar. Then after editing and setting this up you then can create another empty audio track. Add a microphone and press the record button then record yourself while the background tracks are playing. You now have a recording of yourself just like in a professional studio.
There are several options of how you can add microphones. The first one is a bit expensive. An audio interface such as the MBox or M-Audio can be attached to the computer either USB or firewire. Then you can add XLR or RCA microphones to the audio interface. If you don’t want to or don’t have the budget to spend several hundred dollars on microphones then there are the other two options. You can add a USB or even an RCA microphone right into the computer. This uses the internal input and output scource of the computer for audio. It is less expensive and works just as good.
There are many other ways Garageband can be used. If you are one who creates podcasts, then this software is perfect. It has a pre-programmed wizard to set it up for you. All you need is a microphone and headphones. Then you record like a tape recorder. You can then add tracks of music or sound effects right from your itunes library. The software is smart sensitive and when there are spoken words the music will reduce in sound rather than you select or change parameters. Unlike the professional recording software, Gargeband will set this up for you.
Remember the good old days when you wanted to record and owned a tape recorder? Everyone owned one. Some used it to record voice notes while other used it to record interviews (such as journalists). You have this capability right there on your computer (if you have the Mac). Garageband works the same way. You also have a large advantage with Garageband, it can record multi- tracks so you can add several audio tracks. Then you can have music or sounds that you can import from your itunes library. A person recording their diary can add the song they are talking about or nature sounds for the person who is recording meditation/spoken words. Having Garageband on your Macbook with a simple USB microphone and small headphones anyone can travel and have a “digital” recorder with them all day long. Journalists can use it for their interviews, students can record class lectures, business meetings can be recorded, and Mom and Dad can record the first words of baby. The uses are endless and with many possibilities. By learning the simple operations of Garageband it can be a great tool for everyone.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The importance of a Music Education
The economy has been very challenging and in the last couple of years we have seen many budget cuts in government programs, arts organizations, and businesses. The worst situation has been the cuts to the education system, both secondary and post-secondary. In the last couple of weeks here in Los Angeles we have faced some real sad news. Hamilton Music Academy, a High School in the LAUSD dedicated to music education, is scheduled to close its doors. Hamilton has served the Los Angeles area for many years and to many generations of students who have been trained to move on to professional careers in music. With this school closing not only will many teachers be unemployed, but also students who want a serious music education will be denied their education.
This has not stopped there. Over the last few weeks LAUSD not only served pink slips to the teachers at Hamilton but also to many music programs in the district, including Walter Reed Middle School where the music teacher had created an orchestra for each grade level. This week many frustrated students even protested against the cutting of their program. Several schools had students walking out of their classes playing musical instruments in the hopes they will be heard over the cutting of their education.
Yes we do understand that the state has cut educational budgets, however there are other ways to remedy this rather than take away one of the most academic subjects in a student’s education. Music is not only an art, but also a math and language class. It builds the skills required to be successful in both of these subjects.
Let’s look at history for a moment. In the Middle Ages, Music was not considered an art form. Schools did not teach how to perform or compose for musical instruments, but rather they taught music theory. It was taught as part of the Mathematics. They learned the relationship of intervals of notes, the linear movements of notes, pitches, and harmonics among other theory topics. This was a very integral part of their studies and was considered to be very important. It was not until the Renaissance that music was finally considered an art form in the education system.
Nevertheless, in modern days when music is taught in schools they are taught how to read music, which are the basics of music theory. They are taught interval relationships, harmonies, and musical phrases, among other musical topics. This goes back to the mathematics portion of music, but also includes musical language and the “art” of creating music. This follows in line with language arts. A musical composition when created and performed is no different than reading a novel or writing an essay.
So looking at the big picture, Music is an important academic subject. It teaches the student the skill required to be successful in math and language arts. By taking away music, administration is creating more challenges for the Math and English teacher. If anything, perhaps the Math and English teacher is very thankful of the music teacher for helping build the skills needed for their classes. If anything music should not be an elective. It should be a required class at some level for all students from k-12. For the early development there needs to be general music with singing, movement, recorders, and percussion. For the later students, they should have at least two years of a chosen musical instrument. For the High School level, not only should they be allowed to either be in the band/ orchestra or choir with a music theory class, but also a music history class to enhance their education. Music needs to be a required subject. If this is done, then by the time students graduate High School they will have a good solid foundation for Math and English and be well prepared for College. It well also serve as an exciting part of their education because what kid does not like music?
It has already been proven that music is “a window into higher brain function.” Gordon Shaw, a physicist who taught at Irvine University, did a lot of research in these theories. He proved that “music enhances spatial- temporal reasoning and learning math, and is of scientific and educational relevance.” If anyone recalls about ten years or so there was a series of recordings called the Mozart Effect. These were created from Dr. Shaw’s research. The concept of listening to Mozart or to classical music from early childhood to the teen years of a child would help develop these functioning skills. If this research can only be taken seriously over money then the education system would have made better decisions.
Where is the future of children going if they are going to be denied a music education? What will happen to the future of musical performance if new students are not going to be trained? Without schools like Hamilton and strong music programs across the board not only will this country lack a music education but future performers for film scores, jazz bands, orchestras, and operas as well as other musical ensembles and bands. I hope that the “officials” will understand this with reasoning and bring back one of the most important subjects in education.
|
Mental Wellness & Insomnia
Mental health including brain function, mood and sleep. Sleep is one of the most overlooked areas of general wellness care for healthy aging and emotional well-being. It plays an important role in your physical health and is involved in healing and repair of your heart and blood vessels. Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke.
Insomnia or trouble sleeping, is a sleep disorder, is typically followed by functional impairment while awake. Insomnia can occur at any age, but it is particularly common in the elderly. Insomnia can be short term (up to three weeks) or long term (above 3–4 weeks); it can lead to memory problems, depression, irritability and an increased risk of heart disease and automobile related accidents.
Non pharmacological strategies provide long lasting improvements to insomnia and are recommended as a first line and long term strategy of management. The strategies include exercise, attention to sleep hygiene, stimulus control, behavioral interventions, sleep-restriction therapy, paradoxical intention, patient education and relaxation therapy
Pharmacological treatments have been used mainly to reduce symptoms in acute insomnia; their role in the management of chronic insomnia remains unclear. Many doctors do not recommend relying on prescription sleeping pills for long-term use. It is also important to identify and treat other medical conditions that may be contributing to insomnia, such as depression, breathing problems, and chronic pain.
|
Friday, August 5, 2011
Imagine More, Eat Less
Have you ever eaten too much of a favorite food only to get sick of it? That's called habituation. In psychology, habituation is defined as a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations.
New research is finding that you can accomplish the same thing even if you only imagine that you are eating it. The December, 2010 issue of the world's leading journal of scientific research (Science), published the findings of Dr. Carey Morewedge, an experimental psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and two of his colleagues.
In his report, he states that it was discovered that repeatedly imagining eating something lessens the desire to eat it. Fifty-one students who participated in the study were told to imagine themselves slowly eating M&Ms and also to imagine themselves inserting quarters into a laundry machine.
Half of them were to imagine eating 30 M&Ms and insert 3 quarters into a laundry machine and the other half were told to imagine eating 3 M&Ms and imagine inserting 30 quarters into a laundry machine. Afterwards, the students were given bowls of M&Ms and told to eat as much as they wanted.
The students who imagined eating 30, actually consumed only about 3 M&Ms and the students who imagined eating 3 M&Ms ate about 5 on the average. The study was also done with cheese cubes. And again, those who imagined eating 30 cubes of cheese ate less cheese when offered the real thing.
Dr. Morewedge suggests that this may be the reason why many diets fail. People who are overweight are encouraged to suppress their desire for foods they love and many times this does not work. But if a person was to imagine eating the foods they love from start to finish before they eat it in reality, this can somehow satisfy the brain's desire for this specific food.
In turn, this decreases the craving for it, causing them to actually eat less of it. Practicing this exercise before and between meals may offer an appetite suppressant effect when it comes time for mealtime. The best part about this little exercise is that it is free and it doesn't have any dangerous side effects. So, imagine for yourself your new diet.
No comments:
|
Improving businesses with better information management
By Nur Dirie Hersi Fursade, Ph.D.
This is the first of a two-part series that will discuss the development of knowledge and intelligence through business data. The goal of this article is to raise awareness and educate the Somali business community on the relationships between data, information, knowledge, decisions, and outcomes.
New opportunities are emerging in many areas and regions of Somalia after years of destruction and hopelessness. Telecom companies, stores, schools and universities, health centers, social clubs, and many other types of businesses are opening daily. During my recent trip to the country, however, I noticed that most of those businesses are not progressing well because of their inability to harness hidden assets and resources within their businesses. If they could identify and utilize key data, they would develop a greater understanding of their business and the steps required to move forward.
Data are pieces of facts with no meaning attached. As an example, let’s take a look at a small business that buys and sells jewelry. Assume the following four gold pieces in Figure 1 are some of the many gold items in the business inventory:
Figure 1: Some of the Gold Items in Store Inventory
The business owner wants to keep track of his/her assets, which in this case are gold pieces. The owner needs to be able to describe his stock in terms of price, carat, weight, and other relevant facts. In information management we call these descriptions data attributes. Attributes are what define the objects. Consider for instance the following values for the necklace:
Attribute Attribute Value
ID: 101
TYPE: Necklace
CARAT: 24
WEIGHT (in grams): 83
PRICE/GRAM: 42
MANUFACTURED: Dubai
We have defined six attributes, each with a corresponding value. And 101, Necklace, and 83 are examples of data. The data or values do not have meaning by themselves unless attached to an attribute. As an example, 83 does not have a meaning unless we look at its attribute, from which we can then deduce that it is the weight of the piece in grams.
Businesses generate large number of data during the operations of their activities. Identifying, capturing, collecting, and analyzing the most relevant attributes and corresponding data is critical to the success of any business. There are often thousands of objects and attributes involved in a business. Professionals known as data architects identify the most relevant objects and corresponding attributes and group them into separate tables. The collection of these objects and corresponding values is known as a database.
Business databases may contain from several to thousands of tables depending on the size and operations of the business, and tables may in turn have millions of rows of data. Specific software programs are required to build and maintain these databases. A one-person operation might simply use Microsoft Excel. Small businesses may need to use a database program such as Microsoft Access. Mid to large sized businesses will need multi-user database programs such as MySQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle, or IBM DB2.
After data is collected into a database, it must also be processed and converted into information before our minds can process it. Let us take the example of the data in the wristband of a hospital patient, as shown in Figure 3, which is obtained from a database. The sticker has the following data: Sticker#: 10021-090958-F-MOG-SOM
Figure 3: Patient in a Hospital
The sticker# is simply data with no rational meaning. Now let us process it in the hospital application software. We enter the code retrieved from the database into the hospital application software and generate an output similar to what is shown in Figure 4:
Figure 4: Patient Code Information OutputThe output values and corresponding attributes show that the patient is a female born in Mogadishu, Somalia on September 9, 1958, with the hospital ID 10021. The above example shows how the data you collect and store, known as raw data, is processed and converted into information. Figure 5 shows a sketch of this conversion process where data is converted into information.
Figure 5: Converting Data into Information
Suppose we have over 100,000 patients in the hospital database. Such data could be summarized and grouped by gender, birth location, and date of birth. This could then be correlated with other patient data in the database such as duration of hospitalization, type of diagnosis, doctors, nurses, prescriptions, medical lab results, etc. Health service providers would have a wealth of information about local health needs, through which they could develop and implement services for the community. This is a simple example of the role that data management could play in business development.
Due to the globalized nature of the world today, business owners and management regardless of their locations and business sizes need high quality information on their operating environment. This information must be relevant, valid, and reliable. Generating high quality information requires that businesses setup infrastructures to capture, collect, and analyze relevant business data in a proper and planned way.
Nur Dirie Hersi Fursade, Ph.D., Database Consultant.
|
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Writing collaboratively seems to come naturally to practitioners in fields that are viewed as being creative. We are all familiar with the writing teams who work for TV shows and movies. Those types of creative works are produced by two or more writers who brainstorm ideas, try out jokes on each other, or act out scenes to see what works.
Scientific writing, in contrast, is often performed alone or with coauthors inserting their text separately, in their offices, isolated from their colleagues. During graduate school, we typically go it alone—with some direction and input from an advisor (but rarely writing as a twosome). Many of us continue this tradition as we move into scientific careers, possibly under the impression that this is how it should be done. Although we may later work as part of a team of scientists to accomplish our projects, when it comes to putting the results and interpretation down on paper, we tend to work as individuals. Many scientists prefer solitary work, while others thrive on the exchange of ideas (brainstorming) and joint creation of a scientific article. Solitary behavior may be a result of male-dominated science, which has traditionally rewarded aggression, ambition, competition, and self-promotion--diametric to truly collaborative writing. Some might argue that multiple authors working separately--with one person later integrating the parts--is most efficient. But is that true or what is most desirable?
This post is about an alternative approach— “collabo-writing”, coined by three authors of a recent article in Academe: William Phillips, Charles Sweet, and Harold Blythe. These authors of “Collaborating on Writing” propose that there are numerous benefits, particularly increased productivity. Phillips et al. report that they have co-written and published more than seven hundred items, including “book and notes, traditional scholarship and commercial fiction” and attribute their productivity to collabo-writing. They offer some insight into why this approach is so effective and provide some suggestions for those interested in pursuing collaborative writing.
Some of the additional benefits Phillips et al. list for collabo-writing are: mentoring opportunities, professional development, and collegial networking. They argue (and this is my experience) that working closely with others to write an article sparks creativity and greatly increases development of new ideas. We’ve all experienced this phenomenon to some degree. I find that working with one or two other people is most stimulating, whereas interacting with larger groups is less effective. For a department or similar group, writing groups tend to increase the institution’s overall productivity. Usually, only a small percentage of a faculty is highly productive, so that having such individuals working with less productive scientists can lead to more publications overall. Junior scientists can greatly benefit from working side-by-side with a more experienced writer. For those seeking tenure (academia), permanent status (government), or partnership (consulting), help getting those first publications out can determine the course of their careers. This can also benefit the institution by promoting a collaborative, rather than competitive culture.
Another benefit, which is not always appreciated, is how collabo-writing can broaden your disciplinary knowledge through exposure to topics outside your immediate area of expertise. Brainstorming with a colleague to prepare a written document also increases your critical thinking skills and improves your ability to think on your feet.
A final benefit of collabo-writing is the opportunity to develop a professional network of colleagues. Some university faculty are actively promoting writing groups, especially among new faculty. Although typically not encouraged, developing a writing group during graduate school is a great way to get exposure to this approach—and could even lead to some pre-graduation publications and a post-graduation writing team. Jointly writing articles with fellow graduate students, e.g., for bulletins of scientific societies, for a popular magazine, or even a scientific review paper, is clearly a way to set yourself apart from the crowd.
My personal experience with true collabo-writing has been limited, but positive. Most of the writing was done jointly, with one person typing and the other dictating. These positions were switched frequently, and we periodically just sat and brainstormed or talked through an interpretation of the data. Bouncing ideas back and forth helped identify flaws or sparked interesting insights. Occasionally, we would work on something separately—preparing figures or compiling information for a table or conducting statistical analyses. But these activities were done side-by-side so that we could periodically discuss some particular point. Once there was a good draft, then one person would take the lead on finalizing the formatting and handling the correspondence with the journal. I described one of these collabo-writing efforts in a previous post.
Some Guidelines for Collabo-writing:
1. Find collaborators you respect (and trust). Starting out with your peers is probably the easiest, then try approaching someone senior whose work you admire.
2. Establish your roles early. In some cases, this may take some interaction to figure out who does what best.
3. Establish a goal and timeframe for meeting it.
4. Do some market research. For scientists, this means selecting the appropriate journal and finding out the journal requirements for length, formatting, etc.
5. Develop a “work alone-write together” rhythm. This pattern is similar to what I described above in my personal experience.
6. Deliberate practice will lead you into the flow. See previous post about what deliberate practice is.
7. Listen carefully to collaborators and take notes when they speak.
8. Seek to piggyback. Cooperation and building on others’ thoughts is preferable to trying to come up with the “best idea” of the group.
9. Subjugate your ego. Keep in mind that creating the best product is the goal, not who came up with the original idea.
10. Finish the play. Make sure someone takes the responsibility for submitting the article and seeing the publication through to the end.
11. Beware of the pitfalls. See list below:
No comments:
|
Google Creates New Maps to Track Natural Disasters
Internet search giant Google Inc. unveiled a new service via its Google Maps platform dedicated to track the path of natural disasters such as hurricane Irene that hit the eastern coast of the US this weekend.
Found at, the new disaster-tracking product developed by the Google Crisis Response wing which supplies online applications that aid relief efforts that follow a natural disaster or other major crisis.
For example, the map showed 3 to 5 days of forecasts regarding Irene’s possible paths, displayed evacuation routes, as well as detailed coverage on which areas in the east coast were likely to come under the wrath of this latest fury of nature. These maps can help people prepare for natural disasters before they strike.
Millions of residents of the eastern part of the country have been affected by hurricane Irene which reached wind speeds as deadly as 165 kmph.
Apart from the new maps, the Google team also developed a bunch of online tools such as the Person Finder, which can potentially play a crucial role in locating and reuniting thousands of victims affected by disasters such as earthquakes or hurricanes.
|
Open menu
Biotechnology News
The latest news about biotechnologies, biomechanics
synthetic biology, genomics, biomedical engineering...
Posted: May 31, 2016
Heme, a poisonous nutrient, tracked by 'Green Lantern' sensor
(Nanowerk News) A pinch of poison is good for a body, at least if it's heme.
In minuscule amounts, it works in cells as an essential catalyst called a cofactor and as a signaling molecule to trigger other processes. Now, for the first known time, researchers have tracked those activities inside of cells.
"Poor heme management can cause things like Alzheimer's, heart disease, and some types of cancers, so cells have to do a good job of managing how much heme is available," said Amit Reddi, a biochemist and assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "By having biosensors that can monitor heme in cells, we have this new window into how cells make this essential toxin available in carefully sparse concentrations," he said.
'Heme' as in 'hemoglobin'
People may recognize heme from its role at the core of hemoglobin, the component of red blood cells responsible for transporting oxygen. The ionic iron in the heme molecule is what the oxygen molecule sticks to.
But the researchers' results shatter that assumption.
They published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, on Monday, May, 30, 2016 (doi:10.1073/pnas.1523802113). Their research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Baker's Yeast Cell Lights up Green
Tailor-made ratiometric sensors make baker's yeast cells light up green, as Georgia Tech scientists use it to track the movements of the essential toxin heme. (Image: Rob Felt / Georgia Tech)
Potentially hazardous nutrient
The research team, led by Reddi and Hanna, designed a fluorescent sensor molecule to keep tabs on that. With heme at very low baseline levels, the sensor lit up bright green then as heme concentration increased, it caused the light to fade out.
Using the heme sensors, Georgia Tech graduate student Osiris Martinez-Guzman found an enzyme, GAPDH, known for its involvement in breaking down sugar, that the team observed helping buffer cellular labile heme (iron protoporphyrin IX), which got tied up in proteins, leaving only a limited amount free for biochemical reactions.
'Green Lantern' glow
"If you increase nitric oxide, you see the green glowing sensor dim as the heme becomes labile then the glow brightens back up over time as heme gets bound up again," Reddi said.
Not having a sensor was one reason labile heme has not been previously observed, so the Georgia Tech researchers used a ratiometric fluorescence approach to design one that could be described a little like the comic book superhero "Green Lantern."
As hemes are attracted to him like, say, fans, they become clutter, said Reddi, the paper's principal investigator. "He holds them in front of his green light, and they block it, making it appear dimmer."
"Ratiometric fluorescent techniques have been around for a while, but our technique is new, because it specifically senses heme," Reddi said. "We took a heme binding protein from bacteria and clipped it onto to green fluorescent protein."
The researchers used a blue laser to charge up the lamp part of the sensor protein pair like a glow-in-the-dark sticker, then it re-emitted the green light. "You see this green image disappearing and reappearing depending on how much heme is available," Reddi said. "You can see what's happening in real time."
Source: Georgia Institute of Technology
Subscribe to a free copy of one of our daily
Nanowerk Newsletter Email Digests
with a compilation of all of the day's news.
These articles might interest you as well:
|
Mysteries Behind the Names of these Wonderful Countries
Travelers named the nations they found utilizing a tiny bit of legend and a dash of superstition. Huge numbers of us know the interesting story of how Greenland and Iceland got their names. The Viking Floki Vildegarson named Iceland for its icy masses in the wake of affliction incident, while Erik the Red named Greenland for its rich valleys to urge his kinsmen to settle there, but then every nation’s atmosphere now appears to negate its beguiling name. Here are 10 different stories behind the naming of nations.
1. China: All under Heaven
The most crowded country on the planet has had various names. “China” itself was gotten from the Qin Dynasty (articulated “jaw”), built up by Qin Shi Huangdi, the First Emperor. In like manner, another name, “Cathay,” originated from the celebrated voyager Marco Polo, who alluded to northern China by such a name (and southern China as “Mangi”). Perusers may know about the aircraft Cathay Pacific, and its Marco Polo Club, select to “current Marco Polos”— long standing customers. Another name for China is “Zhongguo,” from the words Zhong (“focus”) and Guo (“nation”). Actually, it could be deciphered as “the focal nation,” however a more able interpretation would be “The Middle Kingdom.”
2. Armenia: The Family Tree
Armenia, which is gotten from the Old Persian dialect as “Armina,” has another name for itself: “Hayk,” after a relative of Noah said to have settled on those grounds close Mount Ararat. A much more total translation would refer to the nation as “The Land of Noah’s Great-Great-Grandson, Hayk.” In legend, Hayk left for an opportunity to help with building the Tower of Babel. Upon his arrival, his properties were infringed upon by a Babylonian ruler whom he murdered in the fight. Later on, the nation’s name was changed to Hayastan (the Persian addition ” stan” signifies “arrive”). Another legend recounts Armenia being gotten from “Aram” (“an incredible awesome grandson of Hayk’s extraordinary grandson”) who is considered by a few local people the precursor of all Armenians.
3. Nauru: A Pleasant Welcome, a Summer Destination
In any case, Nauru, the littlest republic in the whole world, likewise had a completely unique name got from the nearby word Anaoero. In the local Nauruan tongue, fundamentally not quite the same as Oceanic dialects, the term implies an activity—”I go to the shoreline.” It appears to be advocated—Nauru was, in reality, a travel goal known for lovely shorelines. In any case, as time went on, the economy took a descending dive. The nation even went into a concurrence with Australia to construct a detainment community for seaward preparing of refuge searchers.
4. Argentina: A Mountainous Wealth of Legends
De Solis found an estuary and named it “Blemish Dulce,” the “new ocean,” at that point cruised assist inland. There, the adventurer met with a merciless end near present-day Buenos Aires. Barbarians hacked him and his escort at that point ate them as whatever is left of the boats’ groups watched in an absolute stud.
His brother by marriage, Francisco de Torres, took charge of the campaign, which again met with extraordinary misfortune when he was wrecked. The locals in this new land were very neighborly—among the things they offered were flickering trimmings made with fine silver. Perceptions progressed toward becoming legends. Another wayfarer, Sebastian Cabot, years after the fact discovered survivors who let him know of the locals’ riches and a pile of silver (“Sierra de la Plata”). De Solis’ disclosure wound up noticeably known as the silver waterway (“Rio de la Plata”). As hundreds of years passed, voyagers looked for the legendary fortune without any result. The name stuck, in the long run turning into “the place that is known for silver,” Tierra (“Argentina” is another word for “silver).
5. Chile: A Spicy Dispute
Thanksgiving suppers are never total without a cut of turkey, the fowl that makes youthful personalities ask why it’s named after a nation. (The flying creature was before known as the “Turkey coq”— everything that originated from the delivery ports of Constantinople was apropos joined with that depiction, from “Turkey floor coverings” from Persia, to “Turkey flour” from India.) In any case, there’s Chile—gotten from the Mapuche word “Stew,” or “where the land closes.” Perhaps the local Mapuche strolled westbound from Argentina and discovered that the mainland finished at the Chilean shores disregarding the Pacific Ocean? Another conceivable inception is “cheele-cheele,” the Mapuche impersonation of a flying creature call. Whatever the case, Spanish conquistadors knew about these stories from the Incas. After touching base back in Europe, they called themselves “The Men of Chili.”
6. Spain: A History of Erroneous Names
Spaniards authored a few names for the terrains they found, which stuck until the point when present day times. One such case is another country in South America. In 1499, Spanish adventurer Alonso de Ojeda and a specific comrade named Amerigo Vespucci saw locals living in houses on stilts along the drift and waterways. They named the land Venezuela—the “Little Venice.”These lands had a large number of what they thought of as hyraxes (vixen mice), so they named it “I-shapan-im”— “Island of the Hyrax.” When the Romans came to control a great part of the European landmass they changed the name of this land to “Hispania.” Later, it was changed over into Spain.
7. Moldova: Man’s Best Friend
The Roman sovereign Dragos had been chasing a wisent, or a wild buffalo, for a long time. His allies, including a few chasing puppies, pursued the creature until the point when they were spent. Baffled that his quarry would get away, Dragos’ spirits were elevated when his most loved pooch Molda proceeded with the chase. Molda continued following the Buffalo’s fragrance until the point that man and man’s closest companion cornered the wild creature close to the banks of a stream.
8. Canada: Little Villages and Mostly Nothing at All
At the point when the French pilgrim Jacques Cartier cruised past the St. Lawrence River, his local aides commented this was the course to “Kanata”— a town. It was. Be that as it may, no local tribes called themselves the Kanata; it was essentially what they called grouped towns as they moved over the tremendous, blanketed wild. Cartier most likely misheard the term and called the land “Canada.” Another story, though less famous, includes the Spaniards yet again. The story recounts how the voyagers were searching for famous wealth in the Americas. When they discovered none, they called the place “aca nothing” or “ca nothing” (signifying “nothing here”). At the point when the French arrived years after the fact, locals yelled “aca nothing!” to let them know there was nothing of significance for the colonizers. The French, supposing it was the name of the nation, wound up calling it “Canada.”
9. Pakistan: The Country, the Acronym
“Pakistan,” in Urdu, signifies “Place where there is the Pure” (“Pak” signifies “unadulterated” and “- stan,” obviously, signifies “arrive”). Current Pakistan shaped on August 14, 1947, after the parceling of India. Be that as it may, the primary utilization of “Pakistan” comes 10 years prior, from Choudhry Ramat Ali, a Muslim patriot who supported a different Muslim state in the subcontinent. Ali distributed his “Now or Never” flyer on January 28, 1933, as an interest to the British government, composing of how 30 million Muslims longed for freedom. These natives were from the accompanying locales: Punjab, Afghan Province, Kashmir, Sind, and Baluchistan. Consolidating their letters gives the acronym “PAKSTAN.”
10. Czechoslovakia: The Hyphen War
A silly debate emerged after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, governed by the Communist administration throughout the previous 30 years, had fallen in “The Velvet Revolution,” a bloodless upset. Nearby government officials set to take a shot at what the new vote based system ought to be called. The primary thought was to drop “Communist.” The new country would be known as the “Czechoslovak Republic,” which had been one of its more established names. Be that as it may, Slovak lawmakers disliked the thought, feeling it lessened their significance. They needed a hyphen included, as it would symbolize an association.
• Article By :
Random Posts
Leave a Reply
|
Genetic Origins of Ashkenazi Jewish Pfeffers
Pfeffer means pepper in German. Variant spellings are Pfefer, Feffer and Feffer. It is not known how exactly my Pfefers got this name, but legend has it that it derives from a 17th-century German baron named Von Pfeufer/Pfeuer. The Cohens or prominent Jewish townsmen who worked for this baron were given the Pfeffer name. My family has always spelled it with one F, as records attest.
For other Pfeffers, perhaps their ancestors dealt with pepper as tradesmen. Some Pfeffers shortened their name from Pfefferman or Pfefferberg, but are not necessarily related. The Russian Peretz and Polish Pieprsz, which both mean pepper, were also likely not related, unless a Pfefer or a records clerk decided to change the surname (as happened with one family in Opole Lubelskie who later settled in Ostrowiec). The surname Pfeiffer/Fajfer is a completely different name and bears no relation whatsoever.
Since testing with and, I’ve found several (P)fef(f)ers who have also tested with these companies and who shared significant DNA with my brother and/or I. However, not all these Pfefers have the same ancestral origins and haplogroups as my Pfefers.
My Pfefers from Nowe Miasto and Ostrwoiec, Poland
My known distant cousin recently tested with one of these companies. He shares significant segments of DNA with me, but not with my brother. He and I have been estimated at 3rd to 5th cousins, and my brother does not even show up in his results. However, he is a relative, just my brother inherited less Pfefer DNA.
Before his results even came in, I suspected that his haplogroup would be J1 (also known as J-M267), shared by 20 per cent of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. Also, just like in my family, he was always told that his Pfeffers were Cohens. And my hunch was right: not only does his paternal line belong to haplogroup J1, but he was also confirmed a Cohen, as certain markers matched the Cohen Modal Haplogroup.
I’m 99% sure that if my closer male Pfefer relatives were to test, they will get the same result as this relative.
Pfefers from Moldova
A few months ago, I spoke with a female Pfefer from the US to see if there was a relation. Her Pfefer great-grandfather immigrated to the United States came from Moldova in the early 1900s. Her male Pfefer cousin did ancestral DNA testing and his paternal haplogroup is I-M223 (or I2a2a), which is not a Jewish haplogroup at all.
In fact, I-M223 originated in Northern Europe and is more common there. So a male may have converted to Judaism somewhere along this Moldovan Pfefer line. This male cousin did show up as related to me as 3rd to 5th cousin, but he also matches me maternally on the X chromosome (we share the same maternal line haplogroup), so the relation is likely not through our Pfefers.
Pfeffers from Galicia/Western Ukraine
A Pfeffer that distantly matches me on, whose origins are from Chorostkow, Nisko and Tarnapol, Galicia, has a haplogroup common to Native Americans and Eurasians: Q1b.
Another Pfefer whose ancestors hail from the Volhynia Province (Kowel, Rozhyshche, Lutsk) of Ukraine and have an oral tradition of being Levites, not Cohens, belong to haplogroup R-M198 (R1a1a), which is more common to Eastern, Central and Northern Europe and originated in Central Asia/Eurasia. R-M198 is also found in 50% of Levite Ashkenazi Jews.
Finally, the descendent of a Feffer from Verba, near Berezhany in the Ternopil province of Galicia, shares the same haplogroup as my known distant ancestor, mentioned further above: J-M267 or J1. Although this Pfefer and I are very distantly related and we also match maternally on the X Chromosome, it is likely that we share a common Pfefer ancestor who lived in the 18th century or earlier.
To sum up in a chart:
Name Geographic origin Paternal Haplogroup Haplogroup origin
Haplogroup common to
Pfefer (my line) Ostrowiec and Nowe Miasto, Poland J1/J-M267 (projected). Oral History of Cohen Caucasus/Anatolia Mediterranean Europe, Balkans, Middle East
20% of Jews.
Pfeffer (my known distant relative) Ostrowiec and Nowe Miasto, Poland J1/J-M267 with Cohen Modal Caucasus/Anatolia Mediterranean Europe, Balkans,
Middle East
20% of Jews
Pfefer Kishinev, Moldova I-M223/I2a2a Northern Europe British Isles, Scandinavia, Germany, Benelux, Eastern Europe
Pfeffer Nisko OR Chorostkow, Ternopil province, Galicia Q1b Central Asia Native Americans, Central Siberia, Central Asia. 5% of Ashkenazi Jews
Pfeffer (now spelled Feffer) Verba, near Berezhany in Ternopil province of Galicia J1/J-M267 Caucuses/Anatolia Mediterranean Europe, Balkans, Middle East
20% of Jews
Pfefer/Fefer (now spelled) Pepper Volhynia Province (Kowel, Rozhyshche, Lutsk) of Ukraine R-M198 (R1a1a) with Levite oral history Eurasia Mostly Eastern Europe, half of Ashkenazi Jewish Levites
If one male Pfeffer has a completely different haplogroup from another male Pfeffer (starting with a different letter), then they are most likely not related through the male Pfeffer line.
Finally, Two common Jewish male haplogroups are J1 and J2. If one Pfeffer is J1 and the other is J2, their shared paternal ancestor was a J, but that’s thousands of years ago!
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s
|
Page Rank or "PageRank", is a term that describes a link analysis algorithm, created by the founders of Google (back in 1995 as part of a research project at Stanford, with a finished prototype in 1998), which helps to determine a web page’s search engine rankings for a particular keyword search. PageRank is just one of many factors that Google relies on to rank results in their index, but is worth noting as important because Google uses this as the basis for all their online search tools/offerings.
Essentially, PageRank (PR) is a number, anywhere from 0 to 10, assigned to and spread out among a set of web documents. For example, if you have a website with 5 pages, your index (home) web page might have a PageRank of 6, while your sub pages may have a lesser PR of 3 or 4 (being a little less popular / less in-bound links). Some documents on your site may not even have page rank at all. Again, PR is spread out amongst the pages on your web site to help Google’s search spiders and index know which pages are the most important pages (on your site) to show in their search results for key word searches. PR helps to show which pages are the most relevant and which ones are not.
How do I check my site’s PageRank? You can download the "Google Toolbar" and install it into either your Internet Explorer or Firefox web browser. The Google Toolbar has a PageRank meter that you can check whenever you browse to a particular URL, very handy.
How is PageRank assigned on your website? PageRank relies on the democratic nature of the world wide web in that links to a given web page count as "votes" for that webpage, the more votes you get, the higher the PageRank and the better your chances of ranking high. So if web pages "B" and "C" both link to page "A" then page"A" has 2 votes. Likewise if page "A" points to page "B" then page "B" now has a vote from page "A". It is thought that links from other web sites pointing at your web page are generally weighted more than links from your own internal web pages pointing back at your web site. Again, the more links you have pointing to your web page, generally a higher PageRank number is assigned to that web page. Google also takes into account the quality of the incoming links to your pages (links that are coming from web sites /web pages that have similar content and or theme as your web page) and not just the quantity.
PageRank is also thought to be based on a logarithmic scale of somewhere between a base 5 or 6, so your PageRank goes up when you reach a certain link level/threshold. If you are not familiar with logs don’t worry, here is a tutorial, and I will try to spoon-feed this to you 😉 For example: if PR was using a logarithmic base of 5, your web page will reach a PageRank of 3 when you have X number of links at or greater than 125 and less than 625 (125 <= X < 625). In this case the lower limit of 125 comes from 5^3 = 125 links, while the upper limit 625 comes from 5^4 = 625 links. Do you see how having your X number of links between 125 and 625 will always result in a logarithmic value of no less than 3 but no greater than 3? Another example, if you had 300 back-links to your web page, then obviously 125 <= 300 < 625, so the log base 5 of 300 will give you a number of something like 3.5439 (rounded off), which is no less than 3 but no greater than 3. But what if your link count gets bumped up at equal to or greater than 625, say at 626? Then it is thought your PageRank will increase from 3 to 4, since the number 626 gives a logarithmic result of exactly 4.0009933414339, which is no less than 4 and no greater than 4 while using a base of 5 🙂
The NoFollow hyperlink tag attribute is a new industry standard recently adopted by all major search engines to help people redistribute PageRank within their websites, i.e. stoping PageRank leaks from important pages to less important pages. It was also created to combat spam within blogs to help stop PageRank from being injected into third party sites that aren’t relevant, such as spam blog commentators who leave their web site URLs on blog entries in hopes of creating instant back-links, and ultimatley higher PageRank, to their web sites.
Also of note: there are web pages that rank higher in search results than other web pages that have a much higher PageRank – so PR is not an end all solution to where your web page ranks on a particular key word query. Besides, it wouldn’t make sense to base search results on one factor or one majority factor alone, people could game the system with ease by creating many spam back-links, resulting in spam search results = no good. PR just happens to be a single factor in the grand ranking scheme that Google has laid out.
If you remember only one thing about this article, remember this: PR can be used to tell the search engines which pages on your site are more important than others, depending on the keyword search context given. Read up more about how to tweak your web site’s PageRank to your benefit.
Your email will not be published. Required fields are marked *
There are no comments yet.
Other posts you will enjoy...
Are You Using Content Curation as a Crutch?
Keeping Audiences in Mind When Developing Content Strategy
6 Steps To Building an Email Marketing Calendar
What’s the Right Length for an Email Newsletter?
|
Mommy is pushing 11-month-old Lily on a swing. Mommy announces that it’s time to go home for dinner. As she tries to take Lily out of the swing, Lily screeches and starts flailing her arms and kicking her legs. Rather than yelling or worrying about this behavior, Mommy will have more success getting Lily home if she acknowledges the fact that she understands why Lily is angry—Lily hates leaving the park and feels like she’ll die if she has to stop swinging right now.
Verbalizing acceptance of your child’s emotions is a key to helping her feel loved and understood. Acknowledging out loud her disappointment makes her feel heard and respected, which calms her down and reduces her need to protest physically. She understands that you value her feelings and knows she has gotten her message across. Acknowledgment is also a way of inviting cooperation. It doesn't mean she gets to stay at the park all day, but rather that you empathize with her frustration, and she doesn't have to keep protesting by fighting you. You can say, “I know it's hard for you to leave the park. You love it here.”
If your nine-year-old is mad because you won’t let her walk to school on her own, assure her that you respect her desire to do so, and her disappointment. You can say, “I know it's hard for you to wait until you’re older. You like to feel all grown up. But I need to keep you safe. We'll keep talking about it and help you to get ready.” This may not end the discussion, but it will help her feel better.
Parents often worry that acknowledging anger creates it, as if by saying, “I can see that you're angry,” they’re introducing the concept, or legitimizing it and encouraging it. But we can tell when a child is angry, and that is the time to acknowledge it. As with other emotions, when you acknowledge and accept anger, you also communicate that you love all the parts of your child. You convey that anger is a natural part of life, and is acceptable. This fosters his self-acceptance and self-love.
Another beautiful outcome of approaching your child in this way is that it assists the child toward a better self-understanding. In essence, you are teaching her the language of emotions. Children often experience a swirl of emotions inside and do not know what is happening. When you can label his emotions and attach it to a situation, for instance, “ You are angry because I said you couldn't go to the party, the child will feel calmer. The same is true for adults. Understanding that you are angry because of a specific comment that a coworker made and having your feelings acknowledged by someone in the environment, calms you down.
As the child grows he will internalize this way of working with emotions and handle life situations in a more effective way.
You are reading
How to Raise a Happy, Cooperative Child
Managing Parental Anger
Stay calm and protect your child's self-esteem
Helping Kids Who Bite
Young children are in the oral stage of development.
Acknowledging Children's Emotions
Verbalizing acceptance of your child’s emotions helps her feel understood.
|
What is an Animator?
• However, Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games (its not just drawing and art).
• Animation is closely related to filmmaking such as many of the Disney movies.
• filmmaking is extremely labor-intensive in animation, which means that most significant works require the collaboration of several animators. for instance, Monsters Inc. (one of disney latest animations) took 5 years to create because they put every tiny detail on the Characters such as hair.
how do they work? independently? as a team? why.
• An Animator must be able to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Animators must work independently to organize themselves, they must also work independently so that they can be contractors of their work.
• An Animator can obviously not make an entire movie by themselves, it would take years. So, they must also be able to work as part of a team, to share their ideas and take on roles to finish a project.
Animators must know how to work independently and as part of a team.
what is the education required?
• Most employers require animators to have a bachelor's degree in animation or related art field, as well as a professional portfolio.
• portfolios must be done prior to applying, students can take certifications and courses during high school and/or after to learn how to create a portfolio.
• Students typically take courses in drawing, 3D programming, computer graphics, video effects and graphic design during college or university.
• Degree programs may also provide training in sound and video editing, as well as kinematics (Physics).
Sheridan College, Oakville. Most and almost all of Disney animators are hired and hand picked from this College. They are the top Animation Institute in the world.
What skills do animators need?
• You'll need:
1. creativity and imagination.
2. drawing and modelling skills.
3. communication and presentation skills (to work as a team)
4. IT skills. (computer skills)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was one of Disney's earliest animations
what is the average salary?
What is the average annual salary for an Animator? How much does a Animator make?
• On average, an animator earns about $32.72 an hour, and they usually work about 35-40 hours a week.
• Every year they make about $68000, however this can vary on the type of Animator you are.
What type of company, organization or institution might someone in this profession work?
The most famous institution/ company would be Disney.
• Walt Disney Animation Studios, and it is headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
• it is an American animation studio that creates animated feature films, short films, and television specials for The Walt Disney Company.
Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California.
would you consider this to be a possible career in the future?
Ever since I was little, I've loved drawing and movies. Everyone I've showed my artwork to always says I can go far with what I love to do. But I'm a little stuck with schools and how upholding the job really is. So I really don't know right now but if I can get my anxiety under control I would love to try it.
Report Abuse
|
Hitler´s Rise Ben smith
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20th, 1899 in a small village called Braunau, in Austria. His family was slightly poor at the time and did not have much money. In his early years, he always thought of himself as someone who lost a lot, or had bad luck. For example, when he was only four years old, his father named Alois Hitler died of a lung hemorrhage. Around two years later in 1905, him and his mother moved to Vienna, where he acquired his anti-semitic beliefs.
Only 2 years later, in 1907 his mother, Klara, had felt incredibly painful stomach pain. She went to a see doctor to see what the problem was with her stomach. She needed immediate surgery to keep the stomach pain away. She did the surgery which didn't help her much, and she was still dealing with pain until her death on December 21st, 1907. This made Hitler furious at the doctor who told her to get the surgery. The doctor was also Jewish, and this started his hatred against the jews.
After his mothers death, he wanted to be an artist. He wanted to go to a school of arts, but sadly they rejected him from coming there because they thought his paintings were not the right type of art they wanted to see at this school. This also made Adolf think he was a loser. 7 years had passed, and in 1914-1918, he was a soldier for Germany in World War 1. When the Germans lost, he blamed it on Jews because he thought they did not help Germany in WW1.
After all of his losses, fails, and unlucky moments in life, he thought the world was unfair. He then met up with other people who had problems like him in the early 1920s, and started the Nazi party. His goal with the Nazi party was to overthrow the government in Munich, Germany. The party was beginning to get slightly popular in Munich, but the popularity fell when Hitler was arrested when he did a speech about it in Munich. Though when he got out, it began to rise more until almost all of Munich knew about it. Hitler was also becoming politically popular around Germany. Hitler than ran for president, but lost. this made Hitler and his supporters of the Nazi party furious, and then rose even more.
Then, on August 19th, 1934, Hitler was elected to be Chancellor of Germany. This meant he was in complete power, and almost all of Germanys population was a Nazi supporter. A year before this on March 20th, the Nazis opened the Dachau concentration camp. A concentration camp is a place where they tortured Jews, people with mental or physical disabilities, etc.
In 1939, World War 2 had started. At the start, Germany made allies with Italy and Japan and formed the Axis Powers. They started off in the lead and were one of the most powerful countrys from 1939-June 6th 1944. On June 6th 1944, the allied powers invaded Normandy, at Nazi-Occupied France.
As the allied powers were invading France and were close to Hitlers underground bunker, he and his wife committed suicide, and the Nazi party had come to an end. All concentration camps were liberated by the soviets. Over six million jews and others were killed in the camps. This was known as the holocaust, and was one of the most depressing times in 1900s.
EXTRA FACTS:Hitler's name might've been "Adolf Schnicklgruber" if his father didn't change his last name in 1877. A British soldier saved Hitlers life in WW1.
Works Cited
Report Abuse
|
Energy efficient construction in Ukraine
Ukraine is one of Europe's most wasteful nations when it comes to energy. Private homes are responsible for some 30 percent of the country's energy consumption, with windows that don't shut properly and radiators that can't be regulated. But a residential complex currently under construction in Kiev shows how much energy can be saved with modern energy-saving methods such as efficient insulation and solar panels. Commissioned by the International Climate Initiative, experts from the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) are advising the construction companies and contractors involved, and closely monitoring energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
07:15 minutes
Global Ideas
|
Growth promotion induced by herbivory has been frequently reported and termed overcompensation. Overcompensation in browsed plants ultimately results in enhanced development as compared to intact plants. This promotion of growth can suspiciously resemble the breaking of apical dominance. A complicating factor in the activation of axillary shoots following decapitation is nutrition. To investigate influences of decapitation, terminal stem apices were excised from plants in one of three ways: 1) at the middle of the first or basal internode, 2) at the middle of the second internode, and 3) immediately subjacent to the apex itself. Nutritional influences were examined by removing one of the two basal unifoliate leaves from one-half of the plants. Stem apex and leaf removal occurred when Phaseolus aureus plants were thirty days old. Plants were monitored for vegetative and reproductive development for the next two months. Axillary shoot formation was negligible in intact plants. Most axillary shoot elongation took place early in treated plants during the sixty day monitoring period. Treatment plants exhibited differences in: 1) axillary shoot number, 2) individual length of axillary shoots, 3) combined axillary shoot length per plant, and 4) the length of fruit-bearing axillaries. Intact and experimental plants revealed differences in above-ground height as well as pod length. However, pod mass was similar in control and treatment plant groups. Stem apex removal was considered more influential than leaf excision in the promotion of axillary shoot development.
Key words: Phaseolus aureus , apical dominance, axillary shoots, decapitation, overcompensation
|
Anger Management
If you’ve ever exploded with anger and regretted it shortly afterwards, or felt yourself simmering with resentment for days, you know how harmful these feelings can be. Anger can wreak havoc on relationships and have a destructive effect on one’s life. Recent medical research has also shown it to be linked to an increased likelihood of heart disease, stroke, cancer and the weakening of the immune system.
There are many effective techniques and approaches that can assist us in managing anger. Below is a four step strategy which I call the four C’s.
1. Calm down
Staying in control and calming down is a vital first stage when in an anger-provoking situations modern psychotherapy places much emphasis on techniques that help to reduce and release the pent up frustration associated with anger. Relaxing and breathing techniques are emphasised, as they have a physiological effect that calms the psyche and reduces stress levels. Writing down your feelings in the form of a letter which will never be sent, or a physical form of release such as exercise or walking, are also effective methods.
2. Contemplate
In the heat of the moment we often become irrational, blowing things out of proportion. Once we feel calmer, it is important to look rationally and objectively at the anger provoking situation. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) teaches that it is not the actual event that disturbs us, but our interpretation and internal response to it that causes us our emotional reaction. By cognitive thought restructuring – changing the way we think of the situation – we can change our emotional reaction. It is important to ask yourself if there are other, less hostile ways of seeing and interpreting the situation and to try to see things from the other person’s perspective. This includes trying to understand their attitudes, motivation and background.
Other therapeutic approaches emphasise becoming more aware of one’s own motivations. You may become angry with one person but really be angry with someone else or even yourself. This is known as transference. For example, someone who is angry with his boss but is afraid express it, may flare up at his wife or children instead. Anger may also be provoked when a comment touches upon or reminds one of a basic insecurity and feeling of vulnerability. When feeling threatened, it may be easier to become angry with another person than to acknowledge and face the real issue.
3. Change yourself
We have more control over ourselves and our own responses than we have over other people’s actions. We need to see if there is anything we can do ourselves to improve the situation or to prevent it from reoccurring. These may be simple lifestyle changes, such as getting more sleep, eating better or being more organised. On a deeper level, it may mean taking responsibility to deal with our insecurities and areas of sensitivity.
4. Communicate
When a person feels angry two responses are common: fight, (explode outwardly) or flight (retreat inwardly.) Learning to communicate one’s feelings in an open non confrontational way is an important skill
There is a valuable approach used in marital therapy and conflict resolution called ‘active listening’. Two people in conflict are encouraged to make statements that begin with “I”, focusing on what they feel rather than making accusing statements that begin with “You”. For example, “I felt bad when you came late” instead of “you never turn up on time”. The other person paraphrases the contents of the statement, which enables the speaker to feel understood and validated. In this way an empathetic environment is created where both sides can be understood and work to resolve their differences. This leads to consolation and ultimately forgiveness which releases the poisonous feelings associated with anger.
|
Introduction to Tk
As mentioned above, Tcl is designed to be extensible. The first and most basic Tcl extension is Tk, an X11 toolkit. Tk provides the same basic facilities that you may be familiar with from other X11 toolkits such as Athena and Motif, except that they are provided in the context of the Tcl language. There are C bindings too, but these are seldom needed—the vast majority of useful Tk applications can be coded using Tcl scripts.
If it has not become obvious already, it is worth noting at this point that Tcl is one example of a family of languages known generally as "Very High Level Languages", or VHLL's. Essentially a VHLL raises the level of programming to a very high level, allowing very short token streams to accomplish as much as would be required by many scores of the more primitive actions available in a basic HLL. Consider, for example, the basic "Hello World!" application written in Tcl/Tk.
#!/usr/local/bin/wish -f
button .hello -text "Hello World!" -command "destroy ."
pack .hello
That's it! That's all there is to it. If you have ever programmed X using a traditional toolkit such as Athena or Motif, you can appreciate how amazingly much more convenient this is. If not, you can either take our word for it that this is 20 times less code than you would need to use a standard toolkit, or you can go write the same program in one of the usual toolkits and see for yourself...
We cannot hope to provide a thorough introduction to Tk programming in this section. Instead, we will just say that immensely complex applications can be constructed merely by programming in exactly the way shown in the above script. By writing more complex scripts, and by utilizing the additional widgets provided by Tk, one can create beautiful, extensive user interfaces. Moreover, this can be done in a tiny fraction of the time it takes to do the same work in a conventional toolkit. Literally minutes versus days.
Tk provides widgets for labels, buttons, radio buttons, frames with or without borders, menubars, pull downs, toplevels, canvases, edit boxes, scroll bars, etc.
A look at the interface provided by the PLplot Tk driver should help give you a better idea of what you can do with this paradigm. Also check out some of the contributed Tcl/Tk packages available at harbor. There are high quality Tk interfaces to a great many familiar Unix utilities ranging from mail to info, to SQL, to news, etc. The list is endless and growing fast...
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.