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Lymphoma Cancer Cancer » Lymphoma Cancer Lymphoma cancer is one of the common forms of cancer and is the 5th most common cancer in the United States. Men are more prone to the disease as compared to women and the disease occurs mainly in the adults. According to WHO (World Health Organization) report, there are around 43 various kinds of lymphoma. Nature of the disease Lymphoma Cancer Lymphoma cancer mainly develops in the lymph nodes and damages the live lymphatic cells. The cancer may develop in various areas such as lymph glands, tonsils, spleen, adenoids, thymus and bone marrow. Lymph cells are also known as white blood cells (WBC) and play an important role in smooth functioning of the body organs. Their main function is to develop a strong immunity system for the body. Their presence in the blood and lymph nodes is considerable and vital. Lymphatic system also plays an important role in returning the fluids generated by the tissues to the blood stream. Basically, the lymphatic system carries fluid called lymph that contains the WBC. Hence, it plays a vital part in preventing your body from getting infected and makes you immune to viral attack. Lymphatic cells also play a vital role in curbing the abnormal cells right in their precancerous stage. Cancer in the lymphatic system is very dangerous as it attacks the main protective shield of the body. Disorders in the body' immunity system may also lead to many other disorders other than the cancer of lymphoma and make the victim more prone to other types of infections or even cancers. Lymphocytes or the lymph cells are of two different kinds as T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes and are also called as T cells and B cells respectively. T cells perform the important function of killing pathogens while the B cells are the main antibody producers. These cells also remember the nature and kind of the infected cells they kill and hunt them down instantly if they recur. This is how the body's immunity develops. Lymphoma cancer starts with the invasion of healthy tissues by the cancerous cells. The malignant cells target mainly the tissues present in the lymphatic system of the body and prevent them from carrying out their basic functions. Tissues play an important role in providing oxygen and blood to various parts of the body and play a vital role in cell-development mechanism. After attacking the tissues, these malignant cells bring about an abnormal division and growth of cells. This abnormal growth leads to excessive unnecessary cells and prevents the normal cells from dying naturally. Thus, a lump of dead and inactive cells is formed that finally leads to a tumor. The tumor develops primarily in the lymphatic system and spreads to other areas at a later stage. The tumor can be benign or cancerous. Benign tumors are generally non-destructive and do not indulge in invading tissues. They do not spread and have very less chances of recurrence. The cancerous tumors are the man troublemakers and damage the healthy tissues and adjacent cells. They spread to other areas through the lymph nodes and bloodstream and can recur even if treated in the past. Cancer of the lymphoma is of two main types as Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin. Thomas Hodgkin was the first to describe the disease and hence, the cancer is named after him. Nodular sclerosing Hodgkin is the most general form of Hodgkin lymphoma. Presence of a unique cell called the Reed-Sternberg cell is an important indicator of Hodgkin lymphoma. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma spreads faster than the Hodgkin's lymphoma and covers a wide variety of the cancer of lymphomas. How to tackle the disease? Lymphoma cancer can be treated completely and safely with minimum side effects if detected in the initial stages. The cancer is more common in people above 55 years of age though some cases have also been detected among youngsters. The risk of getting prone to the disease increases with age. Also, people infected with hepatitis B or C are more prone to the cancer. As the cancer develops in the cells maintaining immunity system of the body, a weak immunity system is one of the major causes of the disorder. Helicobacter pylori and Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is also an indirect but important cause of the disease. People infected by Epstein-Barr virus or celiac disease are also at risk. Previous treatment for cancer may benefit the cancerous cells to develop quickly. Smoking, tobacco chewing and excess consumption of alcohol is not a direct cause of the disease but must be avoided. Any one of these habits may lead to severe damage to tissues and make them less resistive to the invasion by malignant cells. Family history of the disease is another main disadvantage. A strong immunity system is necessary to prevent form being infected from the cancer of the lymphoma. Strong immunity also helps in fighting the disease with ease and prevents the cancerous cells from developing faster. Regular consumption of fresh vegetables, salads and fruits is advantageous to keep your immunity intact. Regular exercise will benefit in increasing the resistance power of the body and prevent abnormal cell-growth. Swelling is the infected area is the most important indication of the presence of cancerous cells. You must consult a physician if the swelling is uncommon. You may or may not experience pains in the infected areas. Unexpected weight loss, frequent fevers, sweating at nights and inactiveness need urgent attention. Cancer of the lymphoma do not show any significant symptoms related directly to the disease. Hence, you need to go through a thorough medical examination if you experience any of the above symptoms. Lymphoma cancer is curable if detected in time. Many techniques like the biopsy, magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI scan), computed tomography scan (CT scan), X-rays, lymphangiogram, gallium scan and positron emission tomography scan (PET scan) are used to examine body internally. Cancer of the lymphoma may also lead to blood cancer and should not be taken lightly. Cancer Articles!
Mourning Man's Inhumanity Toward Man It was 65 years ago, as World War II shuddered to an end in the European theatre, that the Allies began liberating the Nazi death camps. In recognition of that particularly shameful period in world history, Congress established the Days of Remembrance as the nation's annual commemoration of the Holocaust in the United States, beginning in 1982. This year, Holocaust Remembrance Days began Sunday, April 11. The internationally recognized date comes from the Hebrew calendar and corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on that calendar. Each year it marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, where an outnumbered and out-armed remnant of Jews resisted for a time the Germans' attempts to transport them out of the Polish city to Nazi extermination camps (Grossaktion). I have had the sobering privilege of touring the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. To visit the Holocaust Museum is to be changed in important and painful ways. To see, hear and feel the horror of man's inhumanity to his fellow human beings is to experience in a new and deeper way in one's soul and spirit the biblical truth that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). It was this same response - magnified greatly by his personal witness of the carnage - that compelled Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, to urge members of Congress and others to travel to Germany to see for themselves the unrestrained brutality of man against man evidenced in the country's concentration camps. Ohrdruf, a subcamp of one of the largest death concentration camps, Buchenwald, was the first active Nazi camp liberated by U.S. troops. When the soldiers of the 4th Armored Division entered Ohrdruf on April 4, 1945, they discovered piles of bodies, many of them partially incinerated - a failed attempt by retreating German soldiers to cover their crimes. On April 12, Eisenhower visited the camp with Gens. George S. Patton and Omar Bradley. After his visit, Eisenhower directed a cable be sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington which read in part: The Holocaust Museum memorializes the 6 million Jews and 5 million others who were murdered in the Nazi death camps strewn across the Third Reich. How could this educated, most scientifically advanced nation of its time have sunk to such monstrous barbarity? To answer that question is to understand perhaps the Holocaust's greatest and most terrifying lesson - that its explanation lies not in some flaw in the German character but in the human character in its fallen, sinful state. That such sickening barbarism broke out in Germany magnifies the fact that culture, education and scientific expertise do not inoculate societies against mind-numbing evil. Germany was the most scientifically, technologically, educationally and culturally advanced culture in the world - and all that did was make their barbarism more heinous and more efficient once they severed themselves from Judeo-Christian absolutes and descended into Nazi tyranny. Education and scientific expertise are no inoculation against the darkness of the human heart. The most extreme case of national idolatry or self-worship in modern times is Germany under Nazism. Germany largely abandoned its historic understanding of God many, many years earlier. Many of the late 19th and early 20th century theologically liberal Bible scholars were Germans. As the German people's confidence in the God of Scripture eroded, they began to worship themselves. They became their own god, presuming they were a master race, with disastrous consequences for themselves and for the whole world. The complicity of large numbers of German church leaders and ordinary German church members in the horror of what transpired in Germany under National Socialism (Nazism) between 1933 and 1945 should serve as a sobering warning and a timeless cautionary tale of what can happen when Christians of any era, confession or nationality lose their Christocentric focus of authority. The dark tragedy of German Christianity under Hitler underscores dramatically what can happen when Christians allow their religious faith to be eviscerated by liberal theology or elevate their nationalism to the level of idolatry. Unfettered by an orthodox and genuine faith in Christ, human beings are capable of horrific, if not unimaginable, deeds of evil against other men, evidence of the corruption of human nature (Ephesians 4:18-19). We must resolve to remember the ugly lessons of the Holocaust and to do everything in our power to insure that such savagery never take place unchecked again. Yet remembrance without commitment to action in the present is inadequate. We must commit afresh to raise our voices against anti-Semitism wherever and whenever it occurs. Jesus commands us to love our neighbors (Matthew 22:39). In God's sight there is neither Jew nor Gentile, enslaved or free, male or female, for we are "all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Each human being is of unique and inestimable value to God. Indeed, anti-Semitism is perhaps the most irrational of prejudices for followers of Jesus, Himself a Jew. We must commit to express our deep condolences to our Jewish friends in their time of grief and personal loss, as the bitter memory of the Holocaust is forever etched on the Jewish psyche. And we express our solidarity with them, resolving to do all within our power to ensure such mayhem and bloodshed will never happen again, anywhere, to anyone. We must commit to preach on the scriptural lesson of the unique dignity and worth of all human beings, regardless of race or creed, promising to teach our children that every person is crafted in the image of God, deserving love and respect. We must commit ourselves to never forgot and to never remain silent when the lives of innocent human beings are threatened.
502 – More on tilings In class I mentioned without proof that there is a finite set of squares with which we can tile the plane, but not periodically. Hao Wang was the first to study the question of whether there are such tilings. He conjectured that the answer was not. In 1966, his student Robert Berger disproved the conjecture. He explained how tiles could be used to code the workings of a formalized computer (a Turing machine), in a way that one could solve recursively the Halting Problem if it were the case that any set that tiles can do so periodically. Since it is a well-known result from computability theory that the halting problem cannot be solved recursively, it follows that Wang’s conjecture is false. Examining the tiling given by Berger, one finds that he requires 20426 tiles to do his coding. The number has been substantially reduced since. I believe the currently known smallest set of tiles that can only cover the plane aperiodically has size 13. It was exhibited by Karel Culik II in his paper An aperiodic set of 13 Wang tiles, Discrete Mathematics 160 (1996), 245-251. The Wikipedia entry on Wang tiles displays his example. Once again, the proof of aperiodicity uses the halting problem. (I would be curious to know of improved bounds.) Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s %d bloggers like this:
Grendel, Narrative and Identity Myth or History I recently visited Rome for a couple of weeks for work but had a look around at the weekend. The relics of ancient Rome are truly amazing and one can quite understand why the Romans are given a special place in history. Whilst there I read a novel named Grendel by John Gardner. This is the story of Beowolf but from the monster’s perspective. Grendel watches the tribal human and sees that the tribes attack and kill each other. He sees the theft and the murder and thinks it appalling. Then a new musicians and singer arrives amongst the biggest tribe and Grendel listens along with the people to the beautiful songs of courage and heroism. Grendel is confused. Grendel has seen the killing and the theft yet the way the singer tells the story it sounds beautiful and noble. The singer’s version seems to be true yet Grendel knows that it cannot be. This chimed in with a thought I had. I was sitting in my hotel room after work one day watching an Italian TV channel. It appeared to be a film. People talked, people got into cars and drove and talked, people got out of cars and fired guns at each other. People went into a houses and talked. I understood nothing. It occurred to me how much of our reality is speech to provide a narrative for events. Without the speech the film made very little sense. Perhaps this could be said of our lives in a similar way to the tribes that Grendel observed. I get up, I go to work, I sit at a desk, I get into a car, I drive, I arrive home. But we humans seem to need a narrative to make sense of the world. We need a story to justify what we do. Each time we fight wars we are murdering people yet we over lay the reality of this with a story of great heroism. Heroes or Murderers? And perhaps our identity is bound up with the narrative. The Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland are more or less identical in many ways. They are far more similar to each other than they are to Chinese or West Indians. Yet they feel themselves to be very different and it seems to me that this difference can only be understood by considering their history. Not necessarily the history of each individual but the history of the tribe with which they identify. Poor Grendel had no tribe and had to make up his own narrative. “Poor Grednel had an accident, so may you all.” Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Harpo Marx From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Harpo Marx Harpo Marx.jpg Harpo Marx in 1931 Born Adolph Marx (1888-11-23)November 23, 1888 Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S. Died September 28, 1964(1964-09-28) (aged 75) Los Angeles, California, U.S. Occupation Actor, mime, musician Years active 1910–1963 Height 5 ft 5 1/2 in (1.66 m) Spouse(s) Susan Fleming (m. 1936) Children 4 (adopted) Parent(s) Minnie Schönberg Sam "Frenchie" Marx Arthur Marx (born Adolph Marx; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964), known professionally as Harpo Marx, was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and musician, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Groucho Marx and Chico Marx, Harpo's comic style was visual, being an example of both clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish blonde wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate). He frequently used props such as a horn cane, made up of a lead pipe, tape, and a bulbhorn, and he played the harp in most of his films. Early life and career[edit] Harpo was born on November 23, 1888 in Manhattan, New York City. He grew up in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue. The turn-of-the-century tenement that Harpo later called (in his memoir Harpo Speaks!) "the first real home I can remember" was populated with European immigrants, mostly artisans – which even included a glass blower. Just across the street were the oldest brownstones in the area, owned by people like David L. Loew and William Orth. Harpo's parents were Sam Marx (called "Frenchie" throughout his life) and his wife, Minnie Schoenberg Marx. Minnie's brother was Al Shean. Marx's family was Jewish. His mother was from East Frisia in Germany, and his father was a native of Alsace in France and worked as a tailor.[1][2] Harpo received little formal education and left grade school at age eight (mainly due to bullying)[3] during his second attempt to pass the second grade. He began to work, gaining employment in numerous odd jobs alongside his brother Chico to contribute to the family income, including selling newspapers, working in a butcher shop, and as an errand office boy.[4] In January 1910, Harpo joined two of his brothers, Julius (later "Groucho") and Milton (later "Gummo"), to form "The Three Nightingales", later changed to simply "The Marx Brothers". Multiple stories—most unsubstantiated—exist to explain Harpo's evolution as the "silent" character in the brothers' act. In his memoir, Groucho wrote that Harpo simply wasn't very good at memorizing dialogue, and thus was ideal for the role of the "dunce who couldn't speak", a common character in vaudeville acts of the time.[5] Harpo gained his stage name during a card game at the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg, Illinois. The dealer (Art Fisher) called him "Harpo" because he played the harp.[3][6] He learned how to hold it properly from a picture of an angel playing a harp that he saw in a five-and-dime. No one in town knew how to play the harp, so Harpo tuned it as best he could, starting with one basic note and tuning it from there. Three years later he found out he had tuned it incorrectly, but he could not have tuned it properly; if he had, the strings would have broken each night. Harpo's method placed much less tension on the strings.[citation needed] Although he played this way for the rest of his life, he did try to learn how to play correctly, and he spent considerable money hiring the best teachers. They spent their time listening to him, fascinated by the way he played.[3] In the autobiography Harpo Speaks (1961), he recounts how Chico found him jobs playing piano to accompany silent movies. Unlike Chico, Harpo could play only two songs on the piano, "Waltz Me Around Again, Willie" and "Love Me and the World Is Mine," but he adapted this small repertoire in different tempos to suit the action on the screen. He was also seen playing a portion of Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C# minor" in A Day at the Races and chords on the piano in A Night at the Opera, in such a way that the piano sounded much like a harp, as a prelude to actually playing the harp in that scene. Harpo had changed his name from Adolph to Arthur by 1911. This was due primarily to his dislike for the name Adolph (as a child, he was routinely called "Ahdie" instead). The name change may have also happened because of the similarity between Harpo's name and Adolph Marks, a prominent show business attorney in Chicago.[7] Urban legends stating that the name change came about during World War I due to anti-German sentiment in the US, or during World War II because of the stigma that Adolf Hitler imposed on the name, are groundless.[8] In film[edit] Harpo Marx playing the harp His first screen appearance was in the film Humor Risk (1921), with his brothers, although according to Groucho, it was only screened once and then lost. Four years later, Harpo appeared without his brothers in Too Many Kisses, four years before the brothers' first released film, The Cocoanuts (1929). In Too Many Kisses, Harpo spoke the only line he would ever speak on-camera in a movie: "You sure you can't move?"[9] (said to the film's tied-up hero before punching him). Fittingly, it was a silent movie, and the audience saw only his lips move and the line on a title card. Harpo was often cast as Chico's eccentric partner-in-crime, whom he would often help by playing charades to tell of Groucho's problem, and/or annoy by giving Chico his leg. From top: Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Zeppo, ca. 1931 Harpo became known for prop-laden sight gags, in particular the seemingly infinite number of odd things stored in his topcoat's oversized pockets. In the film Horse Feathers (1932), Groucho, referring to an impossible situation, tells Harpo that he cannot "burn the candle at both ends." Harpo immediately produces from within his coat pocket a lit candle burning at both ends. In the same film, a homeless man on the street asks Harpo for money for a cup of coffee, and he subsequently produces a steaming cup, complete with saucer, from inside his coat. In Duck Soup, he produces a lit blowtorch to light a cigar. As author Joe Adamson put in his book, Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo, "The president of the college has been shouted down by a mute." Harpo often used facial expressions and mime to get his point across. One of his facial expressions, which he used in every Marx Brothers film and stage play, beginning with Fun in Hi Skule, was known as "the Gookie." Harpo created it by mimicking the expression of Mr. Gehrke, a New York tobacconist who would make a similar face while concentrating on rolling cigars.[3][10] Harpo further distinguished his character by wearing a "fright wig". Early in his career it was dyed pink, as evidenced by color film posters of the time and by allusions to it in films, with character names such as "Pinky" in Duck Soup. It tended to show as blonde on-screen due to the black-and-white film stock at the time. Over time, he darkened the pink to more of a reddish color, again alluded to in films with character names such as "Rusty". His non-speaking in his early films was occasionally referred to by the other Marx Brothers, who were careful to imply that his character's not speaking was a choice rather than a disability. They would make joking reference to this part of his act. For example, in Animal Crackers his character was ironically dubbed "The Professor". In The Cocoanuts, this exchange occurred: • Groucho: "Who is this?" • Chico: "Dat's-a my partner, but he no speak." • Groucho: "Oh, that's your silent partner!" In other media[edit] Harpo and Chico Marx in "The Incredible Jewelry Robbery" (1959) Marx as the "mechanical man" in "A Silent Panic" (1960) In 1933, following U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union, he spent six weeks in Moscow as a performer and goodwill ambassador.[3] His tour was a huge success. Harpo's name was transliterated into Russian, using the Cyrillic alphabet, as ХАРПО МАРКС, and was billed as such during his Soviet Union appearances. Harpo, having no knowledge of Russian, pronounced it as 'Exapno Mapcase'. At that time Harpo and the Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov became friends and even performed a routine on stage together.[11] During this time he served as a secret courier; delivering communiques to and from the US embassy in Moscow at the request of Ambassador William Christian Bullitt, Jr., smuggling the messages in and out of Russia by taping a sealed envelope to his leg beneath his trousers, an event described in David Fromkin's 1995 book In the Time of the Americans.[12][13] In Harpo Speaks, Marx describes his relief at making it out of the Soviet Union, recalling how "I pulled up my pants, ripped off the tape, unwound the straps, handed over the dispatches from Ambassador Bullitt, and gave my leg its first scratch in ten days."[14] The Russia trip was later memorialized in a bizarre science fiction novella, The Foreign Hand Tie by Randall Garrett, a tale of telepathic spies which is full of references to the Marx Brothers and their films.[15] (The title itself is a Marx-like pun on the dual ideas of a "foreign hand" and a style of neckwear known as a "four-in-hand tie.") In 1936, he was one of a number of performers and celebrities to appear as caricatures in the Walt Disney Production of Mickey's Polo Team. Harpo was part of a team of polo-playing movie stars which included Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. His mount was an ostrich. Walt Disney would later have Harpo (with Groucho and Chico) appear as one of King Cole's "Fiddlers Three" in the Silly Symphony Mother Goose Goes Hollywood. Harpo was also caricatured in Sock-A-Bye Baby (1934), an early episode of the Popeye cartoon series created by Fleischer Studios. Harpo is playing the harp, and wakes up Popeye's baby, and then Popeye kills him. (After Popeye hits him, a halo appears over his head and he floats to the sky.) Friz Freleng's 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon The Coo-Coo Nut Grove featuring animal versions of assorted celebrities, caricatures Harpo as a bird with a red beak. When he first appears, he is chasing a woman, but the woman later turns out to be Groucho. Harpo also took an interest in painting, and a few of his works can be seen in his autobiography. In the book, Marx tells a story about how he tried to paint a nude female model, but froze up because he simply did not know how to paint properly. The model took pity on him, however, showing him a few basic strokes with a brush, until finally Harpo (fully clothed) took the model's place as the subject and the naked woman painted his portrait.[16] In 1955, Harpo made an appearance on the sitcom I Love Lucy, in which he and Lucille Ball re-enacted the famous mirror scene from the Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup (1933).[17] In this scene, they are both supposed to be Harpo, not Groucho; he stays the same and she is dressed as him. About this time, he also appeared on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. Harpo recorded an album of harp music for RCA Victor (Harp by Harpo, 1952) and two for Mercury Records (Harpo in Hi-Fi, 1957; Harpo at Work, 1958). Harpo and Chico played a television anthology episode of General Electric Theater entitled "The Incredible Jewelry Robbery" entirely in pantomime in 1959, with a brief surprise appearance by Groucho at the end. Harpo made television appearances in the 1960s. In 1960, he appeared with Ernest Truex in an episode of The DuPont Show with June Allyson entitled "A Silent Panic". He played a deaf-mute who, as a "mechanical man" in a department store window, witnessed a gangland murder. In 1961, he made guest appearances on The Today Show, Play Your Hunch, Candid Camera, I've Got a Secret, Here's Hollywood, Art Linkletter's House Party, Groucho's quiz show You Bet Your Life, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Your Surprise Package. In November 1961 he guest-starred with Carol Burnett in an installment of The DuPont Show of the Week entitled "The Wonderful World of Toys". The show was filmed in Central Park and featured Marx playing "Autumn Leaves" on the harp. Other stars appearing in the episode included Eva Gabor, Audrey Meadows, Mitch Miller and Milton Berle. A visit to the set inspired poet Robert Lowell to compose a poem about Marx. Harpo's two final television appearances came less than a month apart in late 1962. He portrayed a guardian angel on CBS's The Red Skelton Show on September 25. He guest starred as himself on October 20 in the episode "Musicale" of ABC's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a sitcom starring Fess Parker, based on the 1939 Frank Capra film.[18] Personal life[edit] Harpo Marx and three of his children wearing Harpo wigs in Los Angeles, 1954 Harpo married actress Susan Fleming on September 28, 1936. The wedding became public knowledge after President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent the couple a telegram of congratulations the following month.[19] Harpo's marriage, like Gummo's, was lifelong. (Groucho was divorced three times, Zeppo twice, Chico once.) The couple adopted four children: Bill, Alex, Jimmy, and Minnie. When he was asked by George Burns in 1948 how many children he planned to adopt, he answered, "I’d like to adopt as many children as I have windows in my house. So when I leave for work, I want a kid in every window, waving goodbye."[20] Harpo was good friends with theater critic Alexander Woollcott, and became a regular member of the Algonquin Round Table. He once said his main contribution was to be the audience for the quips of other members. In their play The Man Who Came to Dinner, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart based the character of "Banjo" on Harpo. Harpo later played the role in Los Angeles opposite Woolcott, who had inspired the character of Sheridan Whiteside.[21] The Marx Brothers (clockwise: Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx) by Yousuf Karsh in 1948. In 1961 Harpo published his autobiography, Harpo Speaks. Because he never spoke a word in character, many believed he actually was mute. In fact, radio and TV news recordings of his voice can be found on the Internet, in documentaries, and on bonus materials of Marx Brothers DVDs. A reporter who interviewed him in the early 1930s wrote that "he [Harpo]... had a deep and distinguished voice, like a professional announcer", and like his brothers, spoke with a New York accent his entire life.[22] According to those who personally knew him, Harpo's voice was much deeper than Groucho's, but it also sounded very similar to Chico's. His son, Bill, recalled that in private Harpo had a very deep and mature soft-spoken voice, but that he was "not verbose" like the other Marx brothers; Harpo preferred listening and learning from others.[23] Harpo's final public appearance came on January 19, 1963 with singer/comedian Allan Sherman. Sherman burst into tears when Harpo announced his retirement from the entertainment business. Comedian Steve Allen, who was in the audience, remembered that Harpo spoke for several minutes about his career, and how he would miss it all, and repeatedly interrupted Sherman when he tried to speak. The audience found it charmingly ironic, Allen said, that Harpo, who had never before spoken on stage or screen, "wouldn't shut up!"[24] Harpo, an avid croquet player, was inducted into the Croquet Hall of Fame in 1979.[25] Harpo Marx died on September 28, 1964 (his and his wife, Susan's, 28th wedding anniversary), at age 75 in a West Los Angeles hospital one day after undergoing heart surgery.[26] Harpo's death was said to have hit the surviving Marx brothers very hard. Groucho's son Arthur Marx, who attended the funeral with most of the Marx family, later said that Harpo's funeral was the only time in his life that he ever saw his father cry. In his will, Harpo Marx donated his trademark harp to the State of Israel.[10] His remains were cremated, and his ashes were scattered at a golf course in Rancho Mirage, California. Harpo is most known for his signature outfit: trench coat with over-large pockets, red wig (he switched to a blonde one for every film after The Cocoanuts), top hat, and a comical horn heard in his movies. He was also well known for playing the harp, though he could not read music. Outside the professional harp community, he remains one of the best "ambassadors for the harp" the world has known. In time, his talent earned him an international reputation as he performed in movies as well as in stage shows around the globe.[27] Film portrayal[edit] Marx was portrayed by the actor J.M. Henry in the film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.[29] Theatrical portrayals[edit] Marx was portrayed by actor Daniel Fortus in the Broadway production of Minnie's Boys, a Broadway musical that ran for 64 performances at the Imperial Theatre from March to May 1970.[30]The show focused on the early days of the Marx Brothers' act and the importance of their mother Minnie's strong hand in guiding and molding them into a successful vaudeville and film comedy team. Actress Patricia Lopez played Harpo in a send-up of Hollywood movie making, the 1980 Broadway production, "A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine," for which she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. He was also portrayed by Les Marsden in Groucho: A Life in Revue, which appeared off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. The show ran for 264 performances from October 1986 through May 1987. References in music[edit] Jonathan Richman references Harpo in his song When Harpo Played His Harp. Lemon Demon references Harpo Marx in the song Vow of Silence. Phoebe Snow's Harpo's Blues (1975) was written about "a guy in a band who became Harpo Marx... he wouldn't talk, and his eyes would roll around... "[31] • 1952 Harp By Harpo • 1957 Harpo in Hi-Fi • 1958 Harpo At Work! • 1961 Harpo Speaks! • 2000 Harpo Speaks ...About New York (the first two chapters of the above, repackaged) 1. ^ La famille paternelle des Marx Brothers (in French) 2. ^ "Mrs. Minnie Marx. Mother of Four Marx Brothers, Musical Comedy Stars, Dies.". New York Times. September 16, 1929. p. 21. Retrieved 2016-08-09. 3. ^ a b c d e Marx, Harpo; Rowland Barber (1988). Harpo Speaks!. New York, N.Y.: Limelight Editions. ISBN 0-87910-036-2. 4. ^ Marx 1961, pp. 17–19 5. ^ Marx, Groucho (1959). Groucho And Me. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80666-7, p. 46. 6. ^ Mitchell 1996, p. 169 7. ^ Bader, Robert S. (2016). Four of the Three Musketeers. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-8101-3416-4. 8. ^ Mikkelson, Barbara and David (2007-08-09). "Lane Kibe". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2008-01-01. 9. ^ http://www.marx-brothers.org/watching/film/Too_Many_Kisses.htm 10. ^ a b Mitchell, Glenn (2003). The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia. London: Reynolds & Hearn. ISBN 1-905287-11-9. 11. ^ Current Biography 1941, pp 518–20. 12. ^ Staff. "At Our Best", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 30, 1995. Accessed July 29, 2009. 13. ^ Staff. "Was Harpo Marx The Silent Spy Who Stole Soviet Secrets?", Europe Intelligence Wire, December 28, 2002. Accessed July 29, 2009. 14. ^ Marx 1961, p. 336. 15. ^ Randall Garrett, The Foreign Hand Tie. Originally appeared in Analog science fiction magazine, December 1961. Entire text available for free downlonad online, page found 2011-01-01. 16. ^ Marx 1961, pp. 204–205. 17. ^ I Love Lucy: Lucy and Harpo Marx on IMDb 18. ^ Hickey, Matthew (May–June 1996). "TV's Silent Panic: Harpo Marx & the Golden Age of Television". Filmfax magazine. pp. 64–69. 19. ^ "Harpo Marx Weds - Marriage to Susan Fleming Is Revealed In Wire to Roosevelt". New York Times. Associated Press. November 5, 1936. p. 34. Retrieved 15 August 2016. 20. ^ Cathy Amerling. "HarpoMarx.net". HarpoMarx.net. Retrieved 2013-09-20. 21. ^ Batistick, Mike. "The Man Who Came to Bubby's: Nathan Lane Takes on Critics", The New York Observer, 2000-07-23. 22. ^ Hear, for instance, these audio recordings. 23. ^ Clodfelter, Tim (2014-08-17). "Marx Brothers featured in new DVD release". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved 2014-09-02. 24. ^ Colvin, R. Remembering Harpo: His Life and Legacy. American Harp Journal, Winter 2009, Vol. 22, Issue 2, p.36. 25. ^ "United States Croquet Hall of Fame", United States Croquet Association, retrieved February 19, 2016 26. ^ "Harpo Marx, the Silent Comedian, Is Dead at 70". New York Times. Associated Press. September 29, 1964. p. 1. Retrieved 15 August 2016. 27. ^ "Remembering Harpo: His Life and Legacy". Scribd.com. Retrieved 2013-09-20. 28. ^ "Palm Springs Walk of Stars by date dedicated" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-09-20. 29. ^ Internet Movie Database entry for Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle 30. ^ "Minnie's Boys". ibdb.com. 31. ^ Palmer, Robert (April 26, 2011). "Phoebe Snow Finds the Suburbs of the Soul". rollingstone.com. 32. ^ http://www.harposplace.com/Character/CharacterFilm.php • Adamson, Joe (1973). Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A Celebration of the Marx Brothers. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-21458-6 • Marx, Harpo (1961). Harpo Speaks. New York: B. Geis Associates; New York: Limelight Editions, 1985. ISBN 0-879-10036-2 • Mitchell, Glenn (1996). The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0-713-47838-1 • Koestenbaum, Wayne (2012). The Anatomy of Harpo Marx. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26900-2 • Fix, Charlene (2013) Harpo Marx asTrickster. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publishers Inc. ISBN 978-0-786-47147-8 External links[edit]
The Roller Coaster Relationship between Science and Religion When I think of the relationship between the church and science, I automatically think of a roller coaster ride. There were bumpy and unpleasant parts to their relationship in the past but there were also times where the collaboration was amazing. One big creaky and difficult part of the ride was when the scientific revolution was beginning. During this time, the church had great power and science was building up its importance, thus marking an important time in the relationship between religion and science. A passenger of the roller coaster at this time was Galileo Galilei an incredibly smart astronomer and mathematician whose work still influences scientific discussions today. During his time (late 16th century to early 17th century), Galileo professed many scientific theories and among them was heliocentrism, which states that the Earth and all other planets revolve around the sun. The Catholic Church did not agree with Galileo for they believed God had created the universe for humanity and thus must be at the center of it. I learned about Galileo’s personal life through the very well written historical memoir Galileo’s Daughter. There I saw a man who suffered because his life’s work conflicted with his religious beliefs. Galileo was seen as a heretic, his works were banned and he was put in house arrest for the rest of his life. The leaders of his religious institution denied him of any affiliation with the church. Yet he still believed in God and in his teachings. This was an incredibly difficult time because the relationship between religion and science strained scientist’s relationships with the church. This is a piece that was created by the cosmographer, Andreas Cellarius, to represent the Copernican system aka the heliocentric view of the universe. It can be found in his atlas the Harmonia Macrocosmica. The Catholic Church also had a bumpy ride when the theory of evolution is announced in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Charles Darwin introduced the theory of evolution. Darwin studied various species and concluded that all plants and animals (including humans) were created through an evolutionary process. Many Catholic leaders disagreed with Darwin because his theory was presumed to go against Holy Scripture and implied materialistic behavior. At this time, science had become more prevalent in the world, which could explain why many Catholic clergy offered theistic views of Darwinism. The conservative members of the Church disagreed with the different interpretations of Darwinism. This was an especially difficult time because many people believed in Darwinism but Darwinism also created a social interpretation. In the U.S. Catholic immigrants were seen as “less fit” or “less evolved” and thus were not treated humanely. Some groups even tried to sterilize these unfit immigrants. It was a difficult time for the church because many of the lay people agreed with the science behind evolution but at the same time the science caused social harm to the church’s followers. This piece is named The Evolution of Man. It was created by Octavio Ocampo, a surrealist Mexican painter. I love his work! He is able to create a piece within a piece within a piece and so on. The more you look at his work the more mesmerized you become. Currently, the Catholic Church is in the exciting part of the roller coaster. The church is agreeing with modern science to raise awareness about the environment’s health. Last year, Pope Francis the first delivered the Laudato Si Encyclical. This Encyclical preaches “the care of our common home”. Many environmental scientists have warned that the environment has been incredibly mistreated by humanity. Some of the pressing issues scientists are concerned about are that climate change is getting worse, deforestation is increasing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, coastlines are sinking, to name a few. The Pope wrote this encyclical to address the issues scientists have raised about climate change through a theological perspective. Pope Francis explains “Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.”(Francis 217) It is truly beautiful that the Pope reminds us that God made our universe not as a pool of resources but rather as a community that must work in harmony. The Pope wants the environment to be stable and taken care of because it is our common home. Also, the population that is the most affected by environmental mistreatment is the poor. Pope Francis emphasizes that as Christians we must care for the most vulnerable and for God’s creation. Pope Francis is siding with science. Their relationship is stronger than ever on this issue because they both want humanity to work together and combat the injustice of environmental mistreatment. st francis + animals.jpg Pope Francis is the first Pope to name himself after St. Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis chose this name because St. Francis was an advocate for the poor and loved animals. St. Francis is the patron saint of animals and ecology. The name suits him perfectly! Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Tag Archives: what caused the civil war? Why Are We Still Arguing Over This? (or: It Wasn’t Just Slavery, Now Stop It!) Currier & Ives political cartoon, 1864 (Library of Congress) Growing up on the border of Virginia and North Carolina, I learned quite a bit about the Civil War, most of it revolving around the mantra: “The South will rise again!” and the notion of Northern aggression. But why it fell in the first place is a question that not one of my peers who proudly attached Confederate flags to their trucks could answer with full confidence. “It was slavery!” they would exclaim, “The Northerners wanted to take away the backbone of our economy!” Funnily enough, most of these proud Sons of the Confederacy were Northern transplants with parents in the military stationed at Norfolk or Oceana. Nevertheless, it isn’t just in sweet old Chesapeake (boasting proximity to the famous Battle of Ironclads in 1862) that slavery was the accepted answer for why the Civil War happened. In his article entitled “What Caused the Civil War?” Edward Ayers explains why, as a society, we accept the most simple and sensible answer as legitimate. He then explores the truly multifaceted answer of what really caused the Civil War and why it happened when it did. Ayers begins the piece with recapping a scene from The Simpsons where a character is asked to answer the question of what caused the Civil War. He begins to explain it in detail, but is interrupted and asked to just say slavery. With the use of this cultural staple, Ayers reiterates his point that we know the Civil War was caused by more than just slavery, but we’ve accepted it because there are so many correct answers, but slavery is the easiest for us to understand. Ayers addresses the difficulty in reaching a consensus on a comprehensive answer by exploring two different schools of thought: fundamentalist and revisionist. The fundamentalists hold strongly onto the driving force of slavery as the cause of the Civil War and that such a conflict was inevitable (132). Revisionists, however, focus on other facets of Antebellum society such as the fragmentation of the Democratic Party (and thus the true two-party system) and the election of anti-slavery Abraham Lincoln as President as some major events leading to the tipping point. Both of these groups are correct, but not correct enough. Walt Handelsman, 2000 Ayers presents the case that the Civil War was a result of many different issues – all intertwined. Slavery was “the most profound [problem] the nation has ever faced’ (134), as it encompassed so many other facets of Antebellum society. In order to understand the causes of the Civil War, one must study history from that time’s perspective, not a modern one. Ayers calls this “deep contingency” (143) and emphasizes the necessity of understanding Antebellum society as a whole in order to truly know what caused the Civil War. One cannot simply answer the question of “what caused the Civil War?” especially with just one phrase such as “slavery” or “states rights”. As Ayers says, “History does not fit on a bumper sticker” (143). Tagged , , , , , ,
Recently, we have discussed the shift to secrecy to radical transparency. I usually think of large corporations and brands to be transparent and authentic, but what about the government. Government can be transparent and authentic? Government has also made the transition to new social media communication. During the presidential election of 2004, Howard Dean did one right thing before his infamous “Whoo!” that destroyed his campaign. Dean was one of the first to use social media tools in the political arena to communicate to the American people. This opened a huge advantage on the blogosphere by communicating his ideas to the masses. Social media plays an important part in the realm of politics, more than we think. Below is a video that explains the how new social media has impacted politics. Today, the use of social media outlets has become normal in politics, especially elections. President Obama has mastered the art of communicating through social media tools like Facebook, Tweeter, and his campaign blog. I mean President Obama does have the most popular Facebook profile with 5,998,801 supporters. He just might have this “social media thing” down. President Obama has brought Web 2.0 into the White House. With the nickname White House 2.0, transparency and authenticity have become key concepts to the new administration. Ellen Miller, executive director of Sunlight Foundation, discusses how government should be open and governments’ responsibility. Below are some of her suggestions about government use of social media. This idea of a transparent and authentic government relates back to the core beliefs of the social contract, where the government and citizens have a mutual relationship to inform and education the people on issues of politics. It’s our civic duty to stay educated on political issues but government has to supply the venue to enlighten the people.
What to expect in the next education pull out Our world is shrinking - what happens on one side of the globe really does affect what happens on the other. Yet most school curriculums have failed to take global concerns seriously, particularly as they affect the land, the oceans, and space. Three Monitor writers, talking with experts in their fields, offer ideas for what may be taught in schools throughout the world. They take bold new leaps forward; they provide the sort of information that can help scholars and curriculum developers begin the necessary adjustments at appropriate academic levels. Watch for their stories in a special education pullout section Monday, Dec. 7 , 1981.
Skip to main content - Smaller Text \| + Larger Text Signs And Symptoms of Menopause While menopause can happen to women anytime after 40 years of age, it usually occurs in healthy women when she is around 51 years of age. Women who smoke and are underweight experience menopause earlier than women who are overweight. What is menopause? Menopause means "cessation of menstruation" or when a woman has no menstrual periods for more than a year, indicating that she is no longer fertile. It occurs in most women around the age of 50, unless loss of the ovaries due to illness or injury causes it to occur earlier. In some women it occurs as early as age 40. Menopause before age 40 is considered premature menopause and occurs in about 1% of all women. The term "menopause" is commonly used to describe the period of time leading up to "actual" menopause. The symptoms associated with menopause are caused by decreased levels of estrogen and other hormones. Each woman is born with a limited number of egg cells in the ovaries. As the number of egg cells nears depletion, the amount of estrogen and other hormones produced by the ovaries diminishes. There are many natural methods available today and we will take a look at some of them. But first, what is menopause and what are the symptoms? What are the symptoms of menopause? Some women experience no symptoms, other than irregular periods for several months preceding actual menopause. Most women experience hot flashes and/or night sweats. Some women have mood swings, trouble sleeping and vaginal dryness. Many women have bladder control problems. Other symptoms may include fatigue, headache, depression, irritability, heart palpitations, joint and muscle pain. Some women have decreased sex drive, are less easily aroused or less sensitive. Some experience discomfort during sex, sometimes due to vaginal dryness or to a thinning of vaginal tissue. Others enjoy sex more, once pregnancy concerns have passed. One of the most commonly known are the hot flashes. These are nothing but regular rise in the body temperature. It starts during the perimenopausal years and sometimes last for two years or more. Its intensity can vary from one woman to the other. During a hot flash a woman may go through increased palpitations. This in turn causes her to sweat. At night she literally wakes up "breaking into sweat". Night sweats can even cause a woman to change her nightclothes or even bed sheets. The other very common menopausal symptoms are dryness of the vagina, and thinning of the skin around vagina and urethra. This symptom is particularly distressing as it leads to painful intercourse, vaginal and urinary tract infections. A reduction in sexual urge and desire is also not uncommon. Menopause means a change in the hormone levels in your body. This can have an impact on hair too. Hair loss on the scalp, growth of small stubs of hair on the chin or cheeks are common symptoms which many women go through. With the loosening of the pelvic muscles, women run a risk of the uterus, bladder, urethra or even rectum descending into the vaginal area. Menopause has an effect on the heart too. Many cardiac problems, including dizziness, palpitations, irregularity of heart beat are common symptoms. It is also presumed that menopausal women are at risk of some psychological problems too. But researchers have found that these women do not suffer any more than non-menopausal women when it comes to depression, stress, anxiety or anger. In fact, psychologists are of the opinion that change in estrogen levels, aging process, change in life's roles, etc contribute to an increased level of mental problems for the menopausal woman. Women are unique, thus menopause and its symptoms are unique among women. What is perimenopause? Before "the change" occurs, you will go through a phase called "Peri-Menopause." During this time it is normal to have very heavy menstrual cycles, mood swings and depression. The herb, "Liferoot," is a good treatment that helps eliminate hot flashes and alleviates those heavy periods. If you are experiencing depression, try taking Gingko or St. John's Wort to help improve your mood, stress and anxiety. While menopause can happen to women anytime after 40 years of age, it usually occurs in healthy women when she is around 51 years of age. Women who smoke and are underweight experience menopause earlier than women who are overweight. Usually women follow the same age as their mother, when it comes to menopause. Premature menopause can occur to women before they reach 40, which could be due to smoking, exposure to radiation, consumption of chemotherapeutic drugs which reduces blood supply to ovaries. Surgical menopause happens when one or both ovaries are removed or the pelvic region has undergone some radiation. Also see PMS symptoms Hot Flashes or Flushes One of the wisest things to do to cope with hot flashes is wear clothes in layers - so that you can take them off one by one, as soon as they start. Some foods are conducive to trigger hot flashes like, spicy foods, alcohol, hot beverages like tea, coffee and cocoa. As soon as you experience hot flashes coming in, drink a glass of cold water or fruit juice. A reduction of stress levels can help reduce the onset of hot flashes too. Try and use cotton wherever possible, like lingerie, clothing and bed sheets. Cotton lets your skin breathe. Keep an ice pack or a thermos of chilled water within easy reach, when you go to bed, in case you need it to manage night sweats. If possible keep a record of the hot flashes episodes so that your doctor can find out a pattern in its occurrences, if any and locate the reasons which trigger it. Relief for Hot Flashes Almost eighty percent of menopausal women experience hot flashes (referred to in the United Kingdom as hot flushes) due to hormonal changes. Hot flashes are one of the most common menopausal symptoms. Hot flashes can be relatively mild a sudden flush of heat usually around your face and neck. Or, they can be extreme with heavy sweating, heart palpitations and with your face turning bright red. They can wake you up throughout the night causing you to be fatigued during the day. Some women wake up at night so soaked in sweat that they must change their sleeping attire. Hot flashes also put a strain on the body as the body first heats up and then must cool down. Many doctors believe that once your body adapts to the lack of estrogen and the hormonal changes the hot flashes will disappear. This is true but it may take five to ten years for your body to adapt. If you are not willing to wait that long, try some of the following natural remedies. Vitamin E helps to regulate our bodys temperature. It also has a stabilizing effect on estrogen levels. Try 400 IU (mg.) of vitamin E twice a day. If that doesn't work you may have to increase your dosage to 400 IU three times a day. Vitamin E works very well in reducing hot flashes. It might not get rid of them entirely but it will significantly reduce the frequency and intensity of hot flashes. If you have any health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or a heart condition check with a physician before taking vitamin E or any of the other herbal remedies. Exercise will help hot flashes. A study showed that sedentary women were twice as likely to have hot flashes as women who exercised. Stress has been known to contribute to hot flashes. Exercise improves your sleep and helps you to cope with stress. Best of all exercise helps to regulate your hormones. Evening primrose oil will also help to reduce your hot flashes. Many herbs are effective in minimizing hot flashes. Black cohosh, dong quai, chasteberry, and red clover can be found in various combinations at health food stores. These herbs will help you with many menopausal symptoms. Topical progesterone cream made from wild yam and rubbed onto the skin has been shown to give relief from hot flashes. About 1 to 3 grams of Vitamin C and bioflavonoids per day have proven helpful. For many years, hormone replacement therapy was the treatment of choice for menopause and its symptoms. Concerns over long term health risks have many doctors and their patients considering alternatives, particularly when decreasing levels of estrogen are bothersome at an early age. The herb black cohosh is one of the most commonly suggested remedies for hot flashes and night sweats, but a number of other herbs, vitamins and plant components may be helpful as well. Lifestyle and dietary changes have helped many women deal with menopause and its symptoms. Proper nutrition is a must in eliminating hot flashes. Studies have shown that hypoglycemia is prevalent in women who experience hot flashes. Eliminate all sugar, alcohol and refined carbohydrates from your diet. Start a healtlhy diet plan. Most bothersome symptoms can be minimized and reduced with some natural products and healthy diet changes. Try them before resorting to drugs. Menopause and Weight Gain When you have not had your menstrual periods for more than a year, you are considered to be post-menopausal. To be able to cope better with menopause, try and find a support group to discuss and share your problems with other women. The problems will not disappear, but you will find someone to share your problems with. Depression is another possible outcome of menopause. Old memories, the empty-nest syndrome, death of a spouse - are all trigger points of mental ill health. If you suffer from depression over a long period of time, consulting a doctor helps. The doctor can then put you on to a therapist or medication to help you tide over the crises. What is Andropause? Oftentimes referred to as male menopause, the term Andropause can be extremely misleading. It is most often used to describe a decrease in the production of the hormones dehydroepiandrosterone and testosterone, as well as the consequences of that decrease, namely the decrease of Leydig cells (cells that secrete testosterone and are closely related to nerves). The term is also misleading in that it is used to depict the equivalent of menopause in males. The complete shutting down of the reproductive system only occurs in females. There is also an ongoing controversy as to whether Andropause should be considered a normal state of transition like menopause or a disorder. Andropause as a state typically entails the following physiological aspects: depression, fatigue, hot flushes, impaired memory, inability to concentrate, loss of libido and potency, nervousness, and sweating. What will I receive? 2. Ocrevus for Relapsing-Remitting MS Approved in Canada 4. Folding Portable Wheelchair Scale With Ramp
How to judge the Heat sink Performance of a LED lamps How to judge the Heat sink Performance of a LED lamps? inspect illumination changes within 30 minutes. (An illumination measurement in 30 minute) To judge whether heat sink performance of a LED lamp is good or not, the most direct method is to measure the temperature of led chips when the lamp is on whose technical term is “junction temperature”, and obviously it is only a theory. Maybe someone says advanced technology for heat sink performance analysis through numerical technique is a good method. But for the junction temperature is hidden when the finished lamp was made. That is why we have to collect so many measurements to help judge the heatsink quality of lamps. As we cannot directly measure the junction temperature, is there an indirect methods which can tell the junction temperature?Fortunately, when LED junction temperature rise, the luminous flux will decline.So, if we can measure the flux of the lamp in the same location, we can know the change of the junction temperature. The particular instruction is: 1. Choose a place which without external light interference, had better be in the evening, turn off the other lights. 2. Measure the illumination lux in a location, write down the reading as the “cold illumination”. 3. Keep the position of lamps and illuminometer unchanged, lamps keep on working too. 4. Write down the data of the illuminometer after half an hour, as the “Hot illumination” 5. If the two numbers are near, in a range about 10 ~ 15%, then the heat sink of lamp is good. 6. If the two Numbers are far greater than 20%, then the heat sink of this lamp should be improved. Pic 1. The difference of the junction temperature by the indirect measurement of “An illumination measurement in 30 minute.” But what is the reasonable range of an illumination decline? That could only be depends on the performance of the LED chips. A scope of application in “An illumination measurement in 30 minute.” We enumerate the “luminous flux vs junction temperature” change curve of several commonly used chip, and from the curve, we can know how many lumen flux decline, and indirectly know junction temperature rose to how many degrees Celsius. Pic 2. OSRAM S5(3030) chip, Luminous flux decreased by 20% when at 25 °C, junction temperature has more than 120°C Pic 3. OSRAM S8(5050) chip, Luminous flux decreased by 20% when at 25 °C, junction temperature has more than 120 ℃ OSRAM E5(5630) chip, Luminous flux decreased by 20% when at 25 °C, junction temperature has more than 140 °C Pic. LuminusSensus Serieschiip, Luminous flux decreased by 15% when at 25 °C, junction temperature has more than 105°C Pic.5. LuminusSensus Serieschiip, Luminous flux decreased by 15% when at 25 °C, junction temperature has more than 105°C From the pictures above, it can tel, if the Luminous Flux decrease by 20%, the junction temperature was already over the tolerate range. And the heatsink system is definitely unqualified. OSLON SSL 80 chip Pic. 6 OSLON SSL 80 chip OSLON Square 1-5w chip [PDF], when the junction temperature was raised from 25℃ to 45℃, the illumination flux was raised. And then reached to 120℃, the heatsink performance only declined about 10%. So to this chip, when adopt this measurement way, the change rate should be only 5~8%. Summary for performance judgement of the heatsink of led lamps: • Thermal conductivity, heat dissipation are very important to LED • The key point is junction temperature • Suggest to “An illumination measurement in 30 minute.” • The reasonable change scope is based on the temperature curve of the chip what is G9 bulb What Is a G9 Bulb? G9 Light bulbs for home pageWith the passage of time, every aspect of our life has improved, thanks in large to newer technologies. Appliances, gadgets and other devices have made life more convenient and much more efficient. There are devices that have been largely neglected in this rapid progress; one of them is the bulb. They have remained the same throughout the decades, their shapes and functions have remained similar for all these years; this was true, until G9 bulbs were introduced. G9 Bulbs You may be wondering ‘what is a G9 bulb?’ the right answer to this question would be, ‘G9s are the bulbs of the future’. When you first look at a G9’s design, you may immediately think that it is something right out of science fiction as it does not look like any kind of light source at all. These halogen creations are completely different than traditional lights, both in looks and in functionality. They do not have the common screw-in base; instead, the G9s have two looped metal prongs for accessing electricity. There is one similarity that G9s have with classic lights; they are available in different wattage options, just like the bulbs of old. G9s can easily be recognized because of their out-of-the-box shapes and the lack of ‘Edison’ sockets. The prongs of a G9 halogen bulb can only be fixed in a standard halogen fixture. The investment you make in swapping the traditional sockets to halogen sockets will eventually help you cut your electricity bill significantly. The Advantages The most prominent benefit of using G9s is that they are highly energy efficient. They utilize a mix of processes that consume very little electricity, but deliver the same amount of light. Another benefit of using G9s is their longevity; a G9 can last much longer than a traditional bulb. They come in varying sizes, so they can be used in any kind of setting. They can be used in lamps and wall sockets in your home, and the larger G9s can be used in industrial settings as well. Inner Workings G9 bulbs are commonly made up of a tungsten filament and a halogen based fill gas. The tungsten in them lasts longer because of the presence of halogen gases. G9s are also available in LED alternatives; these are even more energy efficient and cost effective than their halogen counterparts. The whole process of halogen cycle requires G9s to reach the temperature of 121 centigrade. So, they are very hot and must not be touched after being used. But this risk is mitigated when you buy a LED version of a G9 instead. The G9 halogen bulbs are most commonly used in consumer appliances, which require smaller lights. They are also ideal for accent lighting and are often used in lamps and desk lights. Whether you select a halogen G9 or a LED G9, you will be getting an energy efficient, long lasting and affordable alternative to traditional light sources. Now that you know what a G9 bulb is, you may be thinking about switching to it; all you have to do is find the right place to buy G9 bulbs. The halogen bulbs like led g4 12v are an excellent option for people who are looking to cut down their electricity bills. Before replacing your bulbs, it is highly advisable to consult the right vendors through online forums and sites. Article Source: Why Choose Our G4 12V LED Lamps There is no denying the fact that more and more customers are shifting towards LED lamps because of the obvious advantages associated with it. They are extremely environment friendly and are also very energy efficient. We are a reputed manufacturer of G4 12V LED lamps. Our lamps are used across many applications and it is common to see them being used on boats and also in homes. Our LED lamp has some unique features and specialties that makes it better when compared to quite a few other brands. Quality Illumination There is no denying the fact that our lamps provides quality illumination which gets spread evenly in the cabin. When customers are in the high seas on the boat in the night, the last thing that they would want is not being able to see the controls properly. However, those who have installed our LED lamps have reasons to be happy about the illumination and brightness. Warming up is a problem with many conventional lamps and other types of halogen lamps. This problem can easily be overcome when they decide to go in for our LED lamps. The well defined lighting is there for all to see and one cannot miss the obvious difference in brightness and spread of light. Your Old Fixtures Will Work Well Another big reason why more numbers of people go in for our G4 12V LED lamps is because the old fixtures are good enough. Customers need not spend money on new fixtures and fittings. The existing sockets are suitable and no new hardware is required. So certainly is a win-win situation for our valued customers. They also will not be spending on new hardware and fittings and at the same time they will be saving quite a lot of money on energy bills, even when travelling in a boat. The battery life will increase quite significantly and when our LED lamps are used in homes, the energy bills will also get reduced significantly. . They Are Cooler And Emit Lesser Heat Another common problem with other lighting systems is that they generate lot of heat. These lights become very uncomfortable during summer seasons. This problem can easily be overcome when one decides to go in for our G4 lights. The lower generation of heat also increases the efficiency of the light and therefore it emits much brighter light when compared to conventional halogen and fluorescent lights. Hence when all the above points are taken into account, there is no denying the fact that our G4 LED lights are a much better option when one looks at efficiency, durability, brightness or affordability as a total package. So, just call us and we would be able to provide more information about our quality LED lamps. Why should you use G9 light bulb? The G9 light bulbs are used in households that are looking for low power consuming lighting solution for their home. They are also used extensively as down light or spotlight bulbs in offices and other commercial places because they are durable and reduce utility bills. These heavy-duty bulbs are exquisite products that are designed to sprinkle a harm-free and bright light. These lambs are manufactured using latest technology so you get technologically advanced products that don’t require frequent replacement. This lighting solution is considered an ideal replacement for traditional halogen bulbs that emit heat and consume more power. The main advantage of these bulbs is that they are cheaper than the ordinary halogen bulbs. Another feature that differentiates it from ordinary halogen bulbs is that you can adjust the light of the bulb. In areas where low light is required, you can reduce the light emitted by the bulb by making it dimmable. This feature makes this product an ideal choice for most households. Why should you use G9 light bulbs? Like any other LED lighting solution, the main benefit of using these bulbs is to reduce lighting cost. Also, if you are looking for durable and heavy duty products that emit low heat, this product is your only option. Most ordinary bulbs are designed for either indoor or outdoor use. However, when you buy G9 light bulbs, you can use them for both indoor and outdoor lighting purpose. The UV rays emitted by some ordinary lambs can harm our body. If you are looking for products with little or no UV emission, you should opt for G9 led bulbs. Also, the risks of fires are reduced as G9 LED bulbs emit low heat. Why buy from Us? The range of G9 Light bulbs available here at Enkonn can easily replace your existing halogen bulbs. So, you don’t have to change your fitting to accommodate our product. Just fix our product in the existing fitting and enjoy the comforts of a problem-free product. Our bulbs are manufactured using latest technology which makes them more durable than other products available in the market. Also, our products consume low energy when compared to your ordinary halogen bulbs. This can help you save hundreds of dollars every month. If you are still uncertain about the product you should buy, contact our customer support team. Our friendly support team is always ready to help you select the right product for your home or office. E14 Light Bulb: LED vs Halogen vs Incandescent The extensive selection of light bulbs available today can be quite overwhelming. LED bulbs have gained popularity not only because of the current technology it holds, but for its high performance and energy saving qualities. It has been even more enhanced by being made affordable, making it a purchase of truly great value, such as what we offer. You surely want to get the most practical in terms of energy efficiency, cost, and of course, what’s best for your family. Enkonn E14 light bulbs are suitable for family use and brings a lot of benefits and convenience within the home. It also works great around the office or business establishments for good, high-quality lighting. LED vs Halogen vs Incandescent Halogen bulbs, like LEDs, are also widely recognized, however, the question arises as to how eco friendly it is and how long it holds up to your standards. Most probably, you have halogen lamps at home and notice that it could get pretty hot during use even in just short periods of time. To top it off, halogens could be in need of replacements almost regularly. Hence, it is preferable to have them replaced with E14 15W LED bulbs which are environmentally friendly, energy and cost-efficient at the same time, allowing you to save incredibly up to 90% of electric lighting bills. These types of bulbs produce very little heat which also helps elicit a cooler atmosphere at home yet still have nicely lit areas with a more natural-looking light. It is highly adaptable too, making it suitable for any room in the house for a lovely ambiance in a glowing home interior. It is often used as decorative fittings, chandeliers, and spotlights. Our 30W LED lamps are the best alternatives to incandescent bulbs with a significantly longer lifespan, eliminating frequent replacements while maintaining its brightness for long term use. Both E14 15W and 30W lamps would fit fairly easily onto your existing light fixtures and are guaranteed durable, stable and reliable. Enkonn ensures your safety with certified 15W E14 LED halogen replacements and 30W E14 light bulbs that are non-hazardous. Switching to our LED bulbs prove to be a wise investment that will serve its purpose well for years to come. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us for inquiries and we’ll be happy to help you sort everything out on lighting concerns, whether at home or at your business. Rest assured that you will be provided with the best products that will meet your needs. What Makes A G4 LED Bulb The Perfect Replacement For A Halogen Bi-Pin G4 Base Bulb? 12-Volt Halogen Bi-Pin G4 Base bulbs have long been touted as functional lights that offer considerable energy savings. No doubt, the sparking white light that these halogen capsules produce tends to be ideal for landscape and task lighting. However, ultimately they are still halogen bulbs, which means that they operate at a very high temperature producing lots of heat and they still eat up electricity. Fortunately, both these problems can be solved by replacing all halogen G4 lighting with a G4 LED bulb. What Is A G4 Base LED Bulb? They happen to be compact sized light-emitting diode lamps that deliver significant energy savings. They are the ideal replacement for halogen lights currently being used in decorative lighting fixtures, such as accent, landscape, pendant and under-cabinet lighting. These low-voltage lights work with electronic transformers and magnetic transformers, while their beam output tends to be omnidirectional as a result of which a consistent, pleasing light is delivered. Light-emitting diode Bi-Pin G4 Base lamps have some unique characteristics and features that distinguish them from standard LED light sources. Inside standard light-emitting diode lamps, there tend to be two separate pins, which are known as the anode and cathode. Inside G4 Base lighting, there is always a 4 millimeter distance between the anode and the cathode, which is the reason that they are referred to as “G4” lights. The “G” refers to the UV-resistant glass material that these lights are made from and the “4” refers to the 4 millimeter distance. Hence, light rays are exerted by them, which do not cause any harm to the human eyes. These Bi-Pin G4 Base lighting ideal for numerous different uses, including downlights, decorative functions, landscape lighting and pendant fixtures. While they consume less energy and are small in size, their output tends to be relatively much brighter and higher, which makes them quite suitable for displays and signage. They can also work well in places where concealed lighting needs to be used and under cabinets. They are also perfect for applications where a battery source is providing power for lighting. The potential applications of these lights are endless, such as: = Boats & RVs = Desk lamps = Display case lighting = Garden lights = Puck lights = Under cabinet lighting These Bi-Pin G4 Base lamps can be used to replace 10-20W halogen light sources, and in comparison, 80% less energy is consumed by them, i.e. they consume merely 2.5W of power. They also come with a guarantee that they will continue to provide reliable service for years and years to come. After all, they can last for an incredibly long time, up to 50,000 hours. Modern day light-emitting diode Bi-Pin G4 Base lighting is available in a wide variety of input voltages and they are tested with a myriad of different power supply types. Moreover, they also happen to be TUV safety listed. Along with all of the above, Bi-Pin G4 Base LEDs also happen to be affordable and they also help reduce carbon footprint. Hence, if you have Bi-Pin G4 Base halogens installed at your home or workplace, you should get all of them replaced with an LED G4 bulb. 6 Right Ways to Replace G4 halogen with G4 LED capsule The G4 lamps are types of the bi-pin or two-pin standard, defined by the international Electro technical Commission (IEC). These types of lamps have two pins at the input. The number 4 in the name indicates the center-to-center distance between two pins, which is 4mm in this type. The alphabet G is used to indicate that the original model of G4 lamp had glass used in it. Why is it Right to Replace G4 halogen Bulbs with G4 LED capsules? First, they save a lot of electricity because they operate on much lower power than the halogen bulbs. They are brighter and produce negligible amount of heat as compared to them. Moreover, the average life of a G4 LED capsule is 30000 hours, which is ten times more than the halogen bulb. They have no toxic chemicals like mercury or Barium, thus pose no threat to human health. Skipping the right practices during the replacement of halogen lights with G4 LED 12v lights result in problems. The common issues are Flickering, proper function or permanent damage to the LED light. Here are some right ways that should be considered when the replacement is being done. • The Right Voltage A G4 LED capsule is a low power device with a usual operating voltage of 12 volts DC. Some companies also manufacture G4 LEDs that operate on 12 Volts AC. While the mains voltage around the world is 220-240 volts, you cannot directly connect the G4 led with the main voltage. • The Right Transformer You would need a transformer to reduce the mains voltage down to 12 volts. There are two types of transformers available in the market. One is the electromagnetic transformer and the other is electronic. Electronic transformers are preferred due to their efficiency and low cost. • The compatibility While replacing 12v halogen lights with G4 LED 12v, it is important to check the compatibility of the G4 LED lights with the lighting fixtures. As mentioned before, most of the G4 LEDs operate on DC voltage, so they will need a different power supply or transformer to operate. While all the halogen lights operate on AC, it is very important to check the compatibility of the fixture with the LED light. Both should be Wither AC or DC, but never different. • The Right Power It is important to check the power rating of the fixture where the halogen lights were installed. A 20-Watts halogen bulb would normally be replaced by 2-4 Watts of G4 LED. • The Right size The size of the fixture should always be measured prior to the purchase of LED lights. • The Right Model As mentioned earlier, LED lights are available in both AC and DC voltages. If you want to replace only the lights and not the fixture, you have to bring the G4 LED 12v in AC. However, it is highly recommended that both the fixtures and the lights should be replaced to maximize the long-term benefits of the replacements. Resource Box It is always recommended to do a bit of research to know which G4 LED 12v capsule is best for your home. Online forums and manufacturer’s sites are best sources of reliable information. G4 LED lights are trending nowadays due to their cost efficiency, reliability and many other benefits. This article highlights the right ways to follow while replacing G4 halogen lights with G4 LED lights. 4 Suggestions For Improving Performance of Heat Radiation for LED Lighting The lifespan of a LED lighting depends greatly on the amount of heat level, by virtue making of advancement of the heat level is one the vital technologies. However there are complex issues when it comes to solving of problems related to heat generated by the cheap over the heat sink, and that of cooling the entire body. The issues should be addressed in a proper way to increase the performance and efficiency of the LED lighting. For this case the power of the LED lamp is necessary to consider the heat problem and on the other hand the power LED is needed for cooling purpose. Power LED therefore means an operating current which is greater than 100mA. According to the United States ASSIST Union, there are two types of LED; 2.1V and 3.3V with 210mw and 330mw respectively. By considering the thermal problems of the LED lighting, we are able to increase its lifespan. This therefore calls for a device that is able to spread the heat experienced. In trying to handle this issue of thermal problem, certain parameters have been designed in order to reduce heat resistance and the temperature rise at the junction. This parameters include the thermal parameters and the heat dissipation parameters. 10w g4 halogen replacements-2Thermal resistance is a way of controlling the temperature difference between two state points on an external device in order to produce a steady flow of power across it. As reported by China technologies, the best thermal resistors at the moment for LED power is 10W followed by 5W and lastly 3W in that order. These thermal resistors helps to increase the life reliability. Junction temperatures is the temperature between the semiconductors found on the LED device. It is normally reflected when the device is able to withstand the temperature. Improving the heat resistance has created plans targeting the United States SSL. Introducing Chip and Phosphor resistors to the temperature junction will basically increase the reliability of a device. The resistors comes in two i.e. phosphor 150 and phosphor 130. These helps to reduce the requirements needed for heat dissipation. We have various types of temperature rise. These include the shell-environmental temperature which refers to a device set of temperature (it allows the LED lighting to be measured in terms of hot spot) and the environment temperature difference (it is done on the luminaire level from a distance of 5m from the source of light). This is a direct measurement of temperature difference and the cooling degree between the LED devices. Experimentally, it has been found that if the ambient temperature of the device is 30 and the bulb is 60 then the temperature should remain the same. Raising too high the temperature of the devices will reduce the functionality of the light source therefore reducing it lifespan. There are two technologies which came into existence due to the development of the LED lighting products. First, the single-tube flux is needed to be increased to a higher current density. This process causes the chip to generate a lot of heat which requires cooling to be done on the LED device. Second, this concerns the structure of the package, when the power of the light source is increasing then it requires more power on the LED chip which is mounted together. The types of structures include the COB structure and the modular lamps. These therefore produce more heat which require more effective devices for cooling and the necessity to handle the new matters which give rise to dissipation of much heat. If not considered very carefully it may greatly affect the performance of the LED lamps hence reducing its life. This therefore means that when a new structure is introduced a perfect set of package should be used together for effective performance to be attained. Considering this precaution will help to increase the functionality of the lamp. Delivery by airCurrently, in accordance to various types of lamps, research shows that the overall efficiency of lamps is only 50 percent. The reason for the low percentage in efficiency is because of lack of proper devices to reduce the amount of heat produced by the lamps. A lot of power is produced which in turn produce a lot of heat thus lowering the effectiveness of the lamp. These therefore means that more sophisticated technology on led performance should be put in place to handle this issue. Another cause affecting the performance of the lamp is the modular lighting and high current density. These will create points with higher concentration of heat and to avoid this requires proper dissipation of heat. Consider the following suggestions for heat level improvement 1. Embrace the new technologies and new structures by use of chips. At the temperature junction, the LED chips will resist the temperature hence less heat is dissipated. 2. Consider using the new technology and new package of structures for devices. This comes with high thermal conductivity, high resistance of heat, phosphor blend, and has new material which comprises of an adhesive between the metal. To meet the above features you have to use a thermal resistance of 10/ W or less. 3. Use a material with good thermal conductivity to reduce heat up. In this way the ventilation channels should be designed and spread as soon as possible so that the heat required for heat up should not exceed 30. Also consider the use of modular lighting as it helps in reducing the level of heat dissipated. 4. Use heat pipes to drive away the excess heat dissipated. This means you should put into consideration the cost of designing it. Furthermore, the design of LED lighting should be made using good thermal conductivity materials with good lighting requirements. This helps the LED lighting to be more efficient, improve the heat level, and have good appearance. Some reports shows that using nanomaterials coated radiator, can improve the thermal performance by 30 percent. In the design of LED lighting, good mechanical properties and tightness should be considered for better results. The required temperature for dust radiator should be relatively small and should be around 30 for lamps.
Thursday, September 01, 2011 In Forex, the term “Fundamental analysis” refers to observing the latest global economic news / financial situation and knowing how this might affect the direction of the currency markets, then applying this knowledge into actually buying or selling a particular currency pair, if the right conditions have been met. Obviously each country has their own important news, so if you’re a fundamentals forex trader, you’ll need to be aware and up to speed with the different information/details/data coming out of certain countries. Many news announcements have fixed dates and times of when they’re going to be released. Of course there are also spontaneous announcements which affect the markets, such as a bank going bust, or a merging between two major corporations, etc… For the fixed news announcements, you can see what date and time each one will be released (on the internet). The above figure is an example of a timetable of news releases for the first week of the month of March, 2009. As you can see, each country has their own news, specific to them. Some of these are not really important, others are. The more important each news release is, the more of an effect it will have on the market. In this section, we are going to take a look at some of the most important news releases from a handful of countries. USA – Non-Farm Payroll (Employment Change) Let’s take the USA’s job market as an example, and how this affects the US Dollar. The Non-Farm Payroll tell us the change in the number of employed people in the United States during the previous month, excluding the farming industry (hence the non-farm prefix). This vital bit of news is released once a month, (usually on the first Friday of each month.) Even though nobody knows what figure that change will be, that doesn’t prevent industry experts making an educated guess as to what the figure will turn out to be. This educated guess is known as the “expected figure” or “forecasted figure”. If the actual figure released is greater than what’s expected, then it means that there are less people out of work, which can only be good news for the country as a whole. Thus, if the country is doing better than expected in terms of (un)employment, this in turn means it’s good for the countries currency, and will invest into the US Dollar. Hence the US Dollar will gain strength. If the actual figure that’s released is less than the forecasted figure, then this is bad news, and the US Dollar will weaken. And in fact, if you observe for example, the USD/JPY chart during the news announcement, you’ll see immediate reaction to this news release, and price will either go up or down considerably, depending on the actual figure in relation to the expected figure. To demonstrate what I mean, here is what happened in October 2008. The above timetable shows which important news announcements are coming out of which countries on Friday the 3rd of October, 2008. So as we can see, we have the Non-Farm Employment Change coming out of the USA (the USD simply means that this news affects the US Dollar) at 8.30am Eastern Time. So now, let’s take a look at the figures. The actual and forecast. The forecasted figure is on the right hand column, and as soon as the actual figure is released, it’s displayed on the 2nd column from the right. So, as you can see, the figure was forecast to be -100K, but unfortunately it turned out to be -159K. This is bad news for the economy, because it means there are more people out of work than expected, hence the US Dollar would decrease in strength. And that is exactly what happened. If you look at the chart below, you’ll see the market was heading up before the announcement, but then as soon as the actual NFP Employment figure was released (point 1), look what happened. There was an immediate downturn and the US Dollar became weaker. Before the announcement, the USD/JPY was trading at approximately 106.10, but after the NFP figure was released, within a matter of minutes, it was already down below 105.00. (Remember, currencies are ALWAYS traded as pairs, which is why we’re looking at the USD/JPY. We can also look at GBP/USD, EUR/USD, USD/CHF and others, as long as the USD is one of the currencies in the pairing, because the USA’s NFP release affects the US Dollar) This kind of rapid movement often occurs with many of the major news releases, and the NFP is a very good economic indicator of the employment rate and overall strength of the labor market. It represents all business employees (excluding general government employees), private household employees, and employees of nonprofit organizations, accounting for about 80% of the workers who contribute to GDP. In fact, the Non Farm Payroll is the most important economic piece of data that comes out of the USA every single month. UK – Retail Sales In short, the Retail Sales news release reflects the change in the total value of inflation-adjusted sales at the retail level. It’s a monthly measurement of all goods sold by retailers based on a sampling of retail stores of different types and sizes. Indeed, it's the primary gauge of consumer spending, which accounts for a majority of overall economic activity; which is why it’s often taken as an indicator of consumer confidence. If we look at the timetable, we’ll see that the Retail Sales announcement for the GBP (£ - Great British Pound), was due to be released on November 20th 2008, at 5.30am Eastern Time. Although it might seem early (or late depending on how you look at it), remember, Forex is a 24 hour market, and it’s actually 9.30am in the UK. As you can see, the forecast was -0.9, but the actual was 0.1, better than expected, so this is good news for the United Kingdom. Let’s see how this news announcement affected the Great British Pound, i.e. the UK market. We have a GBP/USD chart below, after the actual figure was released, the Pound became stronger, and increased by a decent number of pips. (Remember, currencies are ALWAYS traded as pairs. We can also look at GBP/JPY, GBP/CAD, EUR/GBP, and others, as long as the GBP is one of the currencies in the pairing, because the UK Retail Sales affects the UK Pound). You’ll notice that after the market went up by around 80 pips, it then decided to come back down by around 50 pips, only to bounce back up again. This coming back down and bouncing up again is known as a retracement. How does a trader profit from this type of movement in the market? Well, although it is possible, it’s actually not as easy as it looks. Firstly, not all movement are as clean as this, there can be a lot of choppiness. Secondly, you have to be really quick to enter the market if you want to capitalize on these kinds of moves. However, these types of trades are for advanced traders, and it’s safer to let things settle down a little, analyse the market, and then make a decision on whether you want to enter at all. A major news release can affect the market for hours and days; you don’t necessarily need to enter immediately after the news release. Further Fundamentals This is just a glimpse of the fundamentals world in FX. There are many other reports, known and unknown, that affect a country’s currency. The forex fundamentals trader highlights and measures factors that determine the essential value of any given country’s currency strength, such as the general economic and political environment, and including any that affect supply and demand. Fundamental analysis entails the examination of macroeconomic indicators, asset markets and political considerations when evaluating a nation's currency in terms of another. Macroeconomic indicators include figures such as growth rates; as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), interest rates, inflation, unemployment (such as the NFP we looked at above), money supply, foreign exchange reserves and productivity. Asset markets comprise stocks, bonds and real estate. Political considerations impact the level of confidence in a nation's government, the climate of stability and level of certainty. In simple terms, fundamental analysis focuses on financial and economic theories, as well as political developments to determine why, when and where prices will move in the market. One clear point of distinction between fundamental and technical analysis is that fundamental analysis studies the causes of market movements, while technical analysis studies the effects of market movements. All of the news reports, economic data and political events that come out about a country are used by investors to gain an idea of market sentiment. This of course changes over time due to many factors, including economic growth and financial strength. Fundamental traders look at all of this information to evaluate a country's currency. Traders generally fall into two camps. Technical and fundamental. Naturally, technical traders think they have an edge over their fundamental counterparts, and vice versa. Which methods you choose are entirely your choice, they’re both very profitable methods of trading. Having said that, they’re not mutually exclusive, and many traders do apply both. In fact, applying both is definitely the wise thing to do. Do you like this post? Post a Comment Related Posts with Thumbnails
Architecture of Cambodia The period of Angkor is the period from approximately the latter half of the 8th century A.D. to the first half of the 15th century. If precise dates are required, the beginning may be set in 802 A.D., when the Khmer King Jayavarman II pronounced himself universal monarch (chakravartin) and declared independence from Java, and the end may be set in 1431 A.D., when Thai invaders from the kingdom of Ayutthaya sacked Angkor and caused the Khmer elite to migrate to Phnom Penh. In any study of Angkorian architecture, the emphasis is necessarily on religious architecture, since the only remaining Angkorian buildings are religious in nature. During the period of Angkor, only temples and other religious buildings were constructed of stone. Non-religious buildings such as dwellings were constructed of perishable materials such as wood, and as such have not survived. The religious architecture of Angkor has characteristic structures, elements, and motifs, which are identified in the glossary below. Since a number of different architectural styles succeeded one another during the Angkorean period, not all of these features were equally in evidence throughout the period. Indeed, scholars have recurred to the presence or absence of such features as one source of evidence for dating the remains. Scholars have worked to develop a periodization of Angkorian architectural styles. The following periods and styles may be distinguished. Each is named for a particular temple regarded as paradigmatic for the style. [The periodization of Angkorian architecture presented here is based on that of Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", pp.30-31.] * Preah Ko Style (877-886 A.D.): Hariharalaya was the first capital city of the Khmer empire located in the area of Angkor; its ruins are in the area now called Roluos some fifteen kilometers southeast of the modern city of Siem Reap. The earliest surviving temple of Hariharalaya is Preah Ko; the others are Bakong and Lolei. The temples of the Preah Ko style are known for their small brick towers and for the great beauty and delicacy of their lintels. * Bakheng Style (889-923): Bakheng was the first temple mountain constructed in the area of Angkor proper north of Siem Reap. It was the state temple of King Yasovarman, who built his capital of Yasodharapura around it. Located on a hill (phnom), it is currently one of the most endangered of the monuments, having become a favorite perch for tourists eager to witness a glorious sundown at Angkor. * Koh Ker Style (921-944) * Pre Rup Style (944-968): Under King Rajendravarman, the Angkorian Khmer built the temples of Pre Rup, East Mebon and Phimeanakas. Their common style is named after the state temple mountain of Pre Rup. * Banteay Srei Style (967-1000): Banteay Srei is the only major Angkorian temple constructed not by a monarch, but by a courtier. It is known for its small scale and the extreme refinement of its decorative carvings, including several famous narrative bas-reliefs dealing with scenes from Indian mythology. * Khleang Style (968-1010) * Baphuon Style (1050-1080): Baphuon, the massive temple mountain of King Udayadityavarman II was apparently the temple that most impressed the Chinese traveller Zhou Daguan, who visited Angkor toward the end of the 13th century. Its unique relief carvings have a naive dynamic quality that contrast with the rigidity of the figures typical of some other periods. As of 2008, Baphuon is under restoration and cannot currently be appreciated in its full magnificence. * Classical or Angkor Wat Style (1080-1175): Angkor Wat, the temple and perhaps the mausoleum of King Suryavarman II, is the greatest of the Angkorian temples and defines what has come to be known as the classical style of Angkorian architecture. Other temples in this style are Banteay Samre and Thommanon in the area of Angkor, and Phimai in modern Thailand. * Baroque or Bayon Style (1181-1243): In the final quarter of the 12th century, King Jayavarman VII freed the country of Angkor from occupation by an invasionary force from Champa. Thereafter, he began a massive program of monumental construction, paradigmatic for which was the state temple called the Bayon. The king's other foundations participated in the style of the Bayon, and included Ta Prohm, Preah Khan, Angkor Thom, and Banteay Chmar. Though grandiose in plan and elaborately decorated, the temples exhibit a hurriedness of construction that contrasts with the perfection of Angkor Wat. * Post Bayon Style (1243-1431): Following the period of frantic construction under Jayavarman VII, Angkorian architecture entered the period of its decline. The 13th century Terrace of the Leper King is known for its dynamic relief sculptures of demon kings, dancers, and nagas. Angkorian builders used brick, sandstone, laterite and wood as their materials. The ruins that remain are of brick, sandstone and laterite, the wood elements having been lost to decay and other destructive processes. The earliest Angkorian temples were made entirely of brick. Good examples are the temple towers of Preah Ko, Lolei and Bakong at Hariharalaya. Decorations were usually carved into a stucco applied to the brick, rather than into the brick itself. [Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", p.27.] Angkor's neighbor state of Champa was also the home to numerous brick temples that are similar in style to those of Angkor. The most extensive ruins are at My Son in Vietnam. A Cham story tells of the time that the two countries settled an armed conflict by means of a tower-building contest proposed by the Cham King Po Klaung Garai. While the Khmer built a standard brick tower, Po Klaung Garai directed his people to build an impressive replica of paper and wood. In the end, the Cham replica was more impressive than the real brick tower of the Khmer, and the Cham won the contest. [Ngô Vǎn Doanh, "Champa: Ancient Towers", p.232.] The only stone used by Angkorian builders was sandstone, obtained from the Kulen mountains. Since its obtainment was considerably more expensive than that of brick, sandstone only gradually came into use, and at first was used for particular elements such as door frames. The 10th century temple of Ta Keo is the first Angkorian temple to be constructed more or less entirely from Sandstone. [Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", p.26.] Angkorian builders used laterite, a clay that is soft when taken from the ground but that hardens when exposed to the sun, for foundations and other hidden parts of buildings. Because the surface of laterite is uneven, it was not suitable for decorative carvings, unless first dressed with stucco. Laterite was more commonly used in the Khmer provinces than at Angkor itself. [Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", p.29.] Central sanctuary The central sanctuary of an Angkorian temple was home to the temple's primary deity, the one to whom the site was dedicated: typically Shiva or Vishnu in the case of a Hindu temple, Buddha or a bodhisattva in the case of a Buddhist temple. The deity was represented by a statue (or in the case of Shiva, most commonly by a linga). Since the temple was not considered a place of worship for use by the population at large, but rather a home for the deity, the sanctuary needed only to be large enough to hold the statue or linga; it was never more than a few metres across. [Coedès, "Pour mieux comprendre Angkor", p.91.] Its importance was instead conveyed by the height of the tower ("prasat") rising above it, by its location at the centre of the temple, and by the greater decoration on its walls. Symbolically, the sanctuary represented Mount Meru, the legendary home of the Hindu gods. [See Glaize, "Monuments of the Angkor Group", pp.26 ff.] Khmer temples were typically enclosed by a concentric series of walls, with the central sanctuary in the middle; this arrangement represented the mountain ranges surrounding Mount Meru, the mythical home of the gods. Enclosures are the spaces between these walls, and between the innermost wall and the temple itself. By modern convention, enclosures are numbered from the centre outwards. The walls defining the enclosures of Khmer temples are frequently lined by galleries, while passage through the walls is by way of gopuras located at the cardinal points. [Glaize, "Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.27.] A gallery is a passageway running along the wall of an enclosure or along the axis of a temple, often open to one or both sides. Historically, the form of the gallery evolved during the 10th century from the increasingly long hallways which had earlier been used to surround the central sanctuary of a temple. During the period of Angkor Wat in the first half of the 12th century, additional half galleries on one side were introduced to buttress the structure of the temple. A gopura is an entrance building. At Angkor, passage through the enclosure walls surrounding a temple compound is frequently accomplished by means of an impressive gopura, rather than just an aperture in the wall or a doorway. Enclosures surrounding a temple are often constructed with a gopura at each of the four cardinal points. In plan, gopuras are usually cross-shaped and elongated along the axis of the enclosure wall; if the wall is constructed with an accompanying gallery, the gallery is sometimes connected to the arms of the gopura. Many Angkorian gopuras have a tower at the centre of the cross. The lintels and pediments are often decorated, and guardian figures (dvarapalas) are often placed or carved on either side of the doorways. Hall of Dancers A Hall of Dancers is a structure of a type found in certain late 12th century temples constructed under King Jayavarman VII: Ta Prohm, Preah Khan, Banteay Kdei and Banteay Chhmar. It is a rectangular building elongated along the temple's east axis and divided into four courtyards by galleries. Formerly it had a roof made of perishable materials; now only the stone walls remain. The pillars of the galleries are decorated with carved designs of dancing apsaras; hence scholars have suggested that the hall itself may have been used for dancing. House of Fire House of Fire, or "Dharmasala", is the name given to a type of building found only in temples constructed during the reign of late 12th century monarch Jayavarman VII: Preah Khan, Ta Prohm and Banteay Chhmar. A House of Fire has thick walls, a tower at the west end and south-facing windows. [Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", p.172.] Scholars theorize that the House of Fire functioned as a "rest house with fire" for travellers. An inscription at Preah Khan tells of 121 such rest houses lining the highways into Angkor. The Chinese traveller Zhou Daguan expressed his admiration for these rest houses when he visited Angkor in 1296 A.D. [Coedès, "Pour mieux comprendre Angkor", p.197f.] Another theory is that the House of Fire had a religious function as the repository the sacred flame used in sacred ceremonies. Structures conventionally known as "libraries" are a common feature of Khmer temple architecture, but their true purpose remains unknown. Most likely they functioned broadly as religious shrines rather than strictly as repositories of manuscripts. Freestanding buildings, they were normally placed in pairs on either side of the entrance to an enclosure, opening to the west. [Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", p.30.] rah and baray Srahs and barays were reservoirs, generally created by excavation and embankment respectively. It is not clear whether the significance of these reservoirs was religious, agricultural, or a combination of the two. The two largest reservoirs at Angkor were the West Baray and the East Baray, located on either side of Angkor Thom. The East Baray is now dry. The West Mebon is an 11th century temple standing at the center of the West Baray; the East Mebon a 10th century temple standing at the center of the East Baray. [Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", p.161, 188.] The baray associated with Preah Khan is the Jayataka, in the middle of which stands the 12th century temple of Neak Pean. Scholars have speculated that the Jayataka represents the Himalayan lake of Anavatapta, known for its miraculous healing powers. [Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", p.178.] Temple mountain The dominant scheme for the construction of state temples in the Angkorian period was that of the Temple Mountain, an architectural representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hindu mythology. [Glaize, "The Monuments of Angkor", p.24.] The style was influenced by Indian temple architecture. Enclosures represented the mountain chains surrounding Mount Meru, while a moat represented the ocean. The temple itself took shape as a pyramid of several levels, and the home of the gods was represented by the elevated sanctuary at the center of the temple. The first great Temple Mountain was the Bakong, a five-level pyramid dedicated in 881 A.D. by King Indravarman I. [Jessup, "Art & Architecture of Cambodia", pp.73 ff.] Other Khmer Temple Mountains include Baphuon, Pre Rup, Ta Keo and most notably Angkor Wat. Bas-reliefs are individual figures, groups of figures, or entire scenes cut into stone walls, not as drawings but as sculpted images projecting from a background. Sculpture in bas-relief is distinguished from sculpture in haut-relief, in that the latter projects farther from the background, in some cases almost detaching itself from it. The Angkorian Khmer preferred to work in bas-relief, while their neighbors the Cham were partial to haut-relief. Narrative bas-reliefs are bas-reliefs depicting stories from mythology or history. Until about the 11th century A.D., the Angkorian Khmer confined their narrative bas-reliefs to the space on the tympana above doorways. The most famous early narrative bas-reliefs are those on the tympana at the 10th century temple of Banteay Srei, depicting scenes from Hindu mythology as well as scenes from the great works of Indian literature, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. By the 12th century, however, the Angkorian artists were covering entire walls with narrative scenes in bas-relief. At Angkor Wat, the external gallery wall is covered with some 12,000 or 13,000 square meters of such scenes, some of them historical, some mythological. Similarly, the outer gallery at the Bayon contains extensive bas-reliefs documenting the everyday life of the medieval Khmer as well as historical events from the reign of King Jayavarman VII. [Glaize, "Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.36.] The following is a listing of the motifs illustrated in some of the more famous Angkorian narrative bas-reliefs: * bas-reliefs in the tympana at Banteay Srei (10th century) the duel of the monkey princes Vali and Sugriva, and the intervention of the human hero Rama on behalf of the latter the duel of Bhima and Duryodhana at the Battle of Kurukshetra the Rakshasa king Ravana shaking Mount Kailasa, upon which sit Shiva and his shakti Kama firing an arrow at Shiva as the latter sits on Mount Kailasa ** the burning of Khandava Forest by Agni and Indra's attempt to extinguish the flames * bas-reliefs on the walls of the outer gallery at Angkor Wat (mid-12th century) the Battle of Lanka between the Rakshasas and the vanaras or monkeys the court and procession of King Suryavarman II, the builder of Angkor Wat the Battle of Kurukshetra between Pandavas and Kauravas the judgment of Yama and the tortures of Hell the Churning of the Ocean of Milk a battle between devas and asuras a battle between Vishnu and a force of asuras the conflict between Krishna and the asura Bana ** the story of the monkey princes Vali and Sugriva * bas-reliefs on the walls of the outer and inner galleries at the Bayon (late 12th century) battles on land and sea between Khmer and Cham troops scenes from the everyday life of Angkor civil strife among the Khmer the legend of the Leper King the worship of Shiva groups of dancing apsaras Blind door and window Angkorean shrines frequently opened in only one direction, typically to the East. The other three sides featured fake or blind doors to maintain symmetry. Blind windows were often used along otherwise blank walls. [Glaize, "Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.40.] Colonettes were narrow decorative columns that that served as supports for the beams and lintels above doorways or windows. Depending on the period, they were round, rectangular, or octagonal in shape. Colonettes were often circled with molded rings and decorated with carved leaves. [Glaize, "Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.38.] Angkorian engineers tended to use the corbel arch in order to construct rooms, passageways and openings in buildings. A corbel arch is constructed by adding layers of stones to the walls on either side of an opening, with each successive layer projecting further towards the centre than the one supporting it from below, until the two sides meet in the middle. The corbel arch is structurally weaker than the true arch, of which the Angkorian engineers appear to have been ignorant. The use of corbelling prevented the Angkorian engineers from constructing large openings or spaces in buildings roofed with stone, and made such buildings particularly prone to collapse once they were no longer maintained. These difficulties did not, of course, exist for buildings constructed with stone walls surmounted by a light wooden roof. The problem of preventing the collapse of corbelled structures at Angkor remains a serious one for modern conservation.Glaize, "Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.32.] Lintel, pediment, and tympanum A lintel is a horizontal beam connecting two vertical columns between which runs a door or passageway. Because the Angkorean Khmer lacked the ability to construct a true arch, they constructed their passageways using lintels or corbelling. A pediment is a roughly triangular structure above a lintel. A tympanum is the decorated surface of a pediment. The styles employed by Angkorean artists in the decoration of lintels evolved over time, as a result, the study of lintels has proven a useful guide to the dating of temples. Some scholars have endeavored to develop a periodization of lintel styles. [See, for example, Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", pp.32-35.] The most beautiful Angkorean lintels are thought to be those of the Preah Ko style from the late 9th century. [Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", pp.32-33.] Common motifs in the decoration of lintels include the kala, the naga and the makara, as well as various forms of vegetation. [Glaize, "The Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.40.] Also frequently depicted are the Hindu gods associated with the four cardinal directions, with the identity of the god depicted on a given lintel or pediment depending on the direction faced by that element. Indra, the god of the sky, is associated with East; Yama, the god of judgment and Hell, with South; Varuna, the god of the ocean, with West; and Kubera, god of wealth, with North. [Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor", p.20.] Angkorean stairs are notoriously steep. Frequently, the length of the riser exceeds that of the tread, producing an angle of ascent somewhere between 45 and 70 degrees. The reasons for this peculiarity appear to be both religious and monumental. From the religious perspective, a steep stairway can be interpreted as a "stairway to heaven," the realm of the gods. "From the monumental point of view," according to Angkor-scholar Maurice Glaize, "the advantage is clear - the square of the base not having to spread in surface area, the entire building rises to its zenith with a particular thrust." Apsara and devata Apsaras, divine nymphs or celestial dancing girls, are characters from Indian mythology. Their origin is explained in the story of the churning of the Ocean of Milk, or samudra manthan, found in the great epic Mahabharata. Other stories in the Mahabharata detail the exploits of individual apsaras, who were often used by the gods as agents to persuade or seduce mythological demons, heroes and ascetics. The widespread use of apsaras as a motif for decorating the walls and pillars of temples and other religious buildings, however, was a Khmer innovation. In modern descriptions of Angkorian temples, the term "apsara" is sometimes used to refer not only to dancers but also to other minor female deities, though minor female deities who are depicted standing about rather than dancing are more commonly called "devatas." [See Rovedo. "Images of the Gods", p.200ff.] Apsaras and devatas are ubiquitous at Angkor, but are most common in the foundations of the 12th century. Depictions of true (dancing) apsaras are found, for example, in the Hall of Dancers at Preah Khan, in the pillars that line the passageways through the outer gallery of the Bayon, and in the famous bas-relief of Angkor Wat depicting the churning of the Ocean of Milk. The largest population of devatas (around 2,000) is at Angkor Wat, where they appear individually and in groups. [See Glaize, "Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.37.] Dvarapalas are human or demonic temple guardians, generally armed with lances and clubs. They are presented either as a stone statues or as relief carvings in the walls of temples and other buildings, generally close to entrances or passageways. Their function is to protect the temples. Dvarapalas may be seen, for example, at Preah Ko, Lolei, Banteay Srei, Preah Khan and Banteay Kdei. [Glaize, "Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.37.] Gajasimha and Reachisey The gajasimha is a mythical animal with the body of a lion and the head of an elephant. At Angkor, it is portrayed as a guardian of temples and as a mount for some warriors. The gajasimha may be found at Banteay Srei and at the temples belonging to the Roluos group. The reachisey is another mythical animal, similar to the gajasimha, with the head of a lion, a short elephantine trunk, and the scaly body of a dragon. It occurs at Angkor Wat in the epic bas reliefs of the outer gallery. [Rovedo, "Images of the Gods", pp.211-212.] Garuda is a divine being that is part man and part bird. He is the lord of birds, the mythologial enemy of nagas, and the battle steed of Vishnu. Depictions of Garuda at Angkor number in the thousands, and though Indian in inspiration exhibit a style that is uniquely Khmer.Rovedo, "Images of the Gods", p.177.] They may be classified as follows: * As part of a narrative bas relief, Garuda is shown as the battle steed of Vishnu or Krishna, bearing the god on his shoulders, and simultaneously fighting against the god's enemies. Numerous such images of Garuda may be observed in the outer gallery of Angkor Wat. * Garuda serves as an atlas supporting a superstructure, as in the bas relief at Angkor Wat that depicts heaven and hell. Garudas and stylized mythological lions are the most common atlas figures at Angkor. * Garuda is depicted in the pose of a victor, often dominating a naga, as in the gigantic relief sculptures on the outer wall of Preah Khan. In this context, Garuda symblizes the military power of the Khmer kings and their victories over their enemies. Not coincidentally, the city of Preah Khan was built on the site of King Jayavarman VII's victory over invaders from Champa. * In free-standing naga sculptures, such as in naga bridges and balustrades, Garuda is often depicted in relief against the fan of naga heads. The relationship between Garuda and the naga heads is ambiguous in these sculptures: it may be one of cooperation, or it may again be one of domination of the naga by Garuda. In the ancient religion of the Vedas, Indra the sky-god reigned supreme. In the medieval Hinduism of Angkor, however, he had no religious status, and served only as a decorative motif in architecture. Indra is associated with the East; since Angkorian temples typically open to the East, his image is sometimes encountered on lintels and pediments facing that direction. Typically, he is mounted on the three-headed elephant Airavata and holds his trusty weapon, the thunderbolt or vajra. The numerous adventures of Indra documented in Hindu epic Mahabharata are not depicted at Angkor. The kala is a ferocious monster symbolic of time in its all-devouring aspect and associated with the destructive side of the god Siva. [Glaize, "Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.39.] In Khmer temple architecture, the kala serves as a common decorative element on lintels, tympana and walls, where it is depicted as a monstrous head with a large upper jaw lined by large carnivorous teeth, but with no lower jaw. Some kalas are shown disgorging vine-like plants, and some serve as the base for other figures. Scholars have speculated that the origin of the kala as a decorative element in Khmer temple architecture may be found in an earlier period when the skulls of human victims were incorporated into buildings as a kind of protective magic. Such skulls tended to lose their lower jaws when the ligaments holding them together dried out. Thus, the kalas of Angkor may represent the Khmer civilization's adoption into its decorative iconography of elements derived from long forgotten primitive antecedents. [Rovedo, "Images of the Gods", p.209.] Scenes from the life of Krishna, a mythological hero and avatar of the god Vishnu, are common in the relief carvings decorating Angkorian temples, and unknown in Angkorian sculpture in the round. The literary sources for these scenes are the Mahabharata, the Harivamsa, and the Bhagavata Purana. [See Rovedo, "Images of the Gods", pp.76 ff.] The following are some of the most important Angkorian depictions of the life of Krishna: * A series of bas reliefs at the 11th century temple pyramid called Baphuon depicts scenes of the birth and childhood of Krishna. [Rovedo, "Images of the Gods", p.76.] * Numerous bas reliefs in various temples show Krishna subduing the naga Kaliya. In Angkorian depictions, Krishna is shown effortlessly stepping on and pushing down his opponent's multiple heads. [Rovedo, "Images of the Gods", p.79] * Also common is the depiction of Krishna as he lifts Mount Govardhana with one hand in order to provide the cowherds with shelter from the deluge caused by Indra. [Rovedo, "Images of the Gods", p.80.] * Krishna is frequently depicted killing or subduing various demons, including his evil uncle Kamsa. [Rovedo, "Images of the Gods", p.91.] An extensive bas relief in the outer gallery of Angkor Wat depicts Krishna's battle with the asura Bana. In battle, Krishna is shown riding on the shoulders of Garuda, the traditional mount of Vishnu. * In some scenes, Krishna is depicted in his role as charioteer, advisor and protector of Arjuna, the hero of the Mahabharata. A well-known bas relief from the 10th century temple of Banteay Srei depicts the Krishna and Arjuna helping Agni to burn down Khandava forest. The linga is a phallic post or cylinder symbolic of the god Siva and of creative power. [Glaize, "Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.16.] As a religious symbol, the function of the linga is primarily that of worship and ritual, and only secondarily that of decoration. In the Khmer empire, certain lingas were erected as symbols of the king himself, and were housed in royal temples in order to express the king's consubstantiality with Siva. [Coedès, "Pour mieux comprendre Angkor", p.60.] The lingas that survive from the Angkorean period are generally made of polished stone. The lingas of the Angkorian period are of several different types. * Some lingas are implanted in flat square base called a yoni, symbolic of the womb. * On the surface of some lingas is engraved the face of Siva. Such lingas are called mukhalingas. * Some lingas are segmented into three parts: a square base symbolic of Brahma, an octagonal middle section symbolic of Vishnu, and a round tip symbolic of Shiva. A makara is a mythical sea monster with the body of a serpent, the trunk of an elephant, and a head that can have features reminiscent of a lion, a crocodile, or a dragon. In Khmer temple architecture, the motif of the makara is generally part of a decorative carving on a lintel, tympanum, or wall. Often the makara is depicted with some other creature, such as a lion or serpent, emerging from its gaping maw. The makara is a central motif in the design of the famously beautiful lintels of the Roluos group of temples: Preah Ko, Bakong, and Lolei. At Banteay Srei, carvings of makaras disgorging other monsters may be observed on many of the corners of the buildings. Mythical serpents, or nagas, represent an important motif in Khmer architecture as well as in free-standing sculpture. They are frequently depicted as having multiple heads, always uneven in number, arranged in a fan. Each head has a flared hood, in the manner of a cobra. Nagas are frequently depicted in Angkorian lintels. The composition of such lintels characteristically consists in a dominant image at the center of a rectangle, from which issue swirling elements that reach to the far ends of the rectangle. These swirling elements may take shape as either vinelike vegetation or as the bodies of nagas. Some such nagas are depicted wearing crowns, and others are depicted serving as mounts for human riders. To the Angkorian Khmer, nagas were symbols of water and figured in the myths of origin for the Khmer people, who were said to be descended from the union of an Indian Brahman and a serpent princess from Cambodia. [Glaize, "The Monuments of Angkor", p.1.] Nagas were also characters in other well-known legends and stories depicted in Khmer art, such as the churning of the Ocean of Milk, the legend of the Leper King as depicted in the bas-reliefs of the Bayon, and the story of Mucalinda, the serpent king who protected the Buddha from the elements. [Glaize, "The Monuments of the Angkor Group", p.43.] Naga Bridge Naga bridges are causeways or true bridges lined by stone balustrades shaped as nagas. In some Angkorian naga-bridges, as for example those located at the entrances to 12th century city of Angkor Thom, the naga-shaped balustrades are supported not by simple posts but by stone statues of gigantic warriors. These giants are the devas and asuras who used the naga king Vasuki in order to the churn the Ocean of Milk in quest of the amrita or elixir of immortality. The story of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk or samudra manthan has its source in Indian mythology. A quincunx is a spatial arrangement of five elements, with four elements placed as the corners of a square and the fifth placed in the center. The five peaks of Mount Meru were taken to exhibit this arrangement, and Khmer temples was arranged accordingly in order to convey a symbolic identification with the sacred mountain. The five brick towers of the 10th century temple known as East Mebon, for example, are arranged in the shape of a quincunx. The quincunx also appears elsewhere in designs of the Angkorian period, as in the riverbed carvings of Kbal Spean. Most temples at Angkor are dedicated to Shiva. In general, the Angkorian Khmer represented and worshipped Shiva in the form of a lingam, though they also fashioned anthropomorphic statues of the god. Anthropomorphic representations are also found in Angkorian bas reliefs. A famous tympanum from Banteay Srei depicts Shiva sitting on Mount Kailasa with his consort, while the demon king Ravana shakes the mountain from below. At Angkor Wat and Bayon, Shiva is depicted as a bearded ascetic. His attributes include the mystical eye in the middle of his forehead, the trident, and the rosary. His vahana or mount is the bull Nandi. Angkorian representations of Vishnu include anthropomorphic representations of the god himself, as well as representations of his incarnations or avatars, especially Krishna and Rama. Depictions of Vishnu are prominent at Angkor Wat, the 12th century temple that was originally dedicated to Vishnu. Bas reliefs depict Vishna battling with against asura opponents, or riding on the shoulders of his vahana or mount, the gigantic bird-man Garuda. Vishnu's attributes include the discus, the conch shell, the baton, and the orb. Ordinary housing ee also * Angkor * Khmer sculpture Coedès, George. "Pour mieux comprendre Angkor". Hanoi: Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient, 1943. Freeman, Michael and Jacques, Claude. "Ancient Angkor". Bangkok: River Books, 1999. ISBN 0-8348-0426-3. Glaize, Maurice. "The Monuments of the Angkor Group". 1944. A translation from the original French into English is available online at [] . Jessup, Helen Ibbitson. "Art & Architecture of Cambodia". London: Thames & Hudson, 2004. Ngô Vǎn Doanh, "Champa:Ancient Towers". Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers, 2006. Rovedo, Vittorio. "Images of the Gods: Khmer Mythology in Cambodia, Laos & Thailand". Bangkok: River Books, 2005. Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Look at other dictionaries: • Culture of Cambodia — Traditional Khmer dance The culture of Cambodia has had a rich and varied history dating back many centuries, and has been heavily influenced by India.[1] Throughout Cambodia s long history, a major source of inspiration was from religion.… … Wikipedia • Outline of Cambodia — T … Wikipedia • Cinema of Cambodia — Southeast Asian cinema Cinema of Burma Cinema of Cambodia Cinema of Indonesia Cinema of Malaysia Cinema of the Philippines Cinema of Singapore … Wikipedia • Music of Cambodia — Music of Southeast Asia Brunei Cambodia … Wikipedia • List of Cambodia-related articles — Articles (arranged alphabetically) related to Cambodia and Cambodian culture include:0 9‎2003 Phnom Penh riots Anti Thai riots over Angkor WatAACLEDA Bank privately owned bank based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. ‎ADHOC human rights organisation,… … Wikipedia • Visual arts of Cambodia — The history of visual arts in Cambodia stretches back centuries to ancient crafts; Khmer art reached its peak during the Angkor period. Traditional Cambodian arts and crafts include textiles, non textile weaving, silversmithing, stone carving,… … Wikipedia • National Museum of Cambodia — Entrance to the National Museum Established 1920s Location Phnom Penh, Cambodia Type … Wikipedia • Cambodia — Infobox Country native name = Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea Royaume du Cambodge conventional long name = Kingdom of Cambodia common name = Cambodia symbol type = Royal Arms national motto = Nation, Religion, King national anthem = Nokoreach… … Wikipedia • Cambodia — /kam boh dee euh/, n. a republic in SE Asia: formerly part of French Indochina. 11,163,861; 69,866 sq. mi. (180,953 sq. km). Cap.: Phnom Penh. Formerly, People s Republic of Kampuchea, Khmer Republic. * * Cambodia Introduction Cambodia… … Universalium Share the article and excerpts Direct link Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”
Perovskite quantum dots gain stability © luvqs Perovskite quantum dots gain stability Scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, have built a new type of inorganic nanocomposite that makes perovskite quantum dots stable against air exposure, sunlight, heat and water. Quantum dots are nanometre-sized, semiconducting materials whose small size gives them optical properties. Using quantum dots from perovskites has already shown promise for solar panels, LEDs and laser technologies. However, perovskite quantum dots have issues with stability against air, heat, light and water. EPFL scientists have now succeeded in building perovskite quantum dot films with a technique that helps them overcome these weaknesses. The new approach to stabilise the perovskite quantum dots was developed in the lab of Raffaella Buonsanti at EPFL Valais Wallis. The innovation of this study, developed by Anna Loiudice and PhD student Seryio Saris, lies in a technique called atomic layer deposition (ALD), which is commonly used to fabricate ultra-thin films with high uniformity in their structure. ALD was used to encapsulate the perovskite quantum dots with an amorphous alumina matrix, which acts as a gas and ion diffusion barrier thus making the quantum dots more robust against air, light, heat and moisture. The team used an array of characterisation techniques to monitor the nucleation and growth process of the alumina matrix on the quantum dot surface. Loiudice said: “By addressing the stability challenge of perovskite quantum dots, this work is expected to greatly impact the field by enabling fundamental optoelectronic studies, which require the samples to be stable during the measurements, in addition to increase the durability of devices based on this new class of quantum dots.” The work is published in Angewandte Chemie.
Economic Collapse DVD Regathering Of Israel 3 Foods that Your Diet Cannot Do Without! 1.) Spinach Why are BPA's so Bad? BPA Overview In recent years, there have been concerns over the amount of BPA in consumer plastics. This compound, also called Bisphenol A, was suspected to cause serious health problems. This public hysteria of BPA was fueled by studies in which researches showed adverse health problems, including cancer, in animals injected with large quantities. Since then, Wal-Mart has stopped carrying all products with BPA; Nalgene, Playtex, and other plastic makers have stopped using it in their products. Though people avoid BPA, many have little understanding of the chemical itself and how it is poisonous to the body. Understanding BPA and Its Uses Bisphenol A is a polar, organic molecule that has no color and is a solid at room temperature. With two phenol rings, the molecular structure contains 15 carbon atoms and 2 oxygen atoms. Chemical engineers use it as chemical reagents and building blocks to develop other complex organic products, such as polycarbonate chains. Companies have used these BPA-based polycarbonate chains to construct plastics since the 1960s, when the BPA methodology was first incorporated. BPA was a gold standard throughout the 1990s as a source to create plastic. It provided durable, high quality plastic that could be both clear and very cheap, which are qualities coveted by plastic manufacturers. The chemical is found in many household items (Read More....) The Secrets of Spaghetti Sauce Italian Grandmothers Will Not Tell You Nothing makes for a fantastic Italian dish the way a good spaghetti sauce does. While you can make a competent spaghetti sauce by following a recipe, have you noticed that there’s something just a little different about the way an expert does it? If you are curious about how to give your tomato sauce that extra bit of zing that Italian grandmothers brag about, there are some secrets that you need to be aware of! Start With Whole Tomatoes　 Despite the fact that tomatoes are a New World fruit, they have been a staple of Italian cuisine for countless years. If you want to make a really wonderful tomato sauce, always start with whole tomatoes. Chop them roughly and place them in a pot filled with water. While some people love the texture offered by tomato skin, others prefer to remove the skin before cooking. Tomato sauce made without tomato skin is smoother and slightly silky. The key to remember is that you cannot cook the tomatoes too much. Always keep water in the pot so that the tomatoes do not burn. Good Ingredients You should always use high-quality ingredients when you want a high-quality product. Start with fresh (Read More....) 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It doesn’t matter if you’re eating cherries by the handful or drinking tart cherry juice, consuming this fruit has been shown to help reduce inflammation. Regularly consuming cherries helps relieve pains associated with arthritis and reduce swelling in muscles after hard workouts, reducing the amount of recovery time needed. 2. They are high in (Read More....) Food for Thought: A Nutritional Guide to Better Cognitive Ability Part of the reason why the human brain became so smart in the first place was that people acquired much greater access to nutrients than what was available in the past. The human brain needs a large number of nutrients to function at its best in the short-term and the consumption of certain foods can also help the human brain become even more powerful in the long-run. Even better is how certain foods can reduce the degeneration of the human brain that many people mistakenly see as being inevitable. Neurodegenerative disorders can be slowed down or even reversed with the right nutrition. Stay Hydrated Water is the most important requirement for keeping the brain healthy. A dehydrated brain is not able to transport minerals as efficiently and will slowly deteriorate as a result. Of course, most people are not severely dehydrated, but even a little dehydration can make the brain function worse. Fight Oxidative Stress On the Brain with Antioxidants One of the biggest threats to the brain is oxidative stress and some researchers believe that oxidative stress is one of the leading causes of an aging (Read More....)
Study finds drinking could help improve memory Featured Study finds drinking could help improve memory Image: The Telegraph While many drink to forget their troubles, new evidence says your afternoon bev is actually helping you to better remember all that stuff that drove you to drink in the first place. Researchers gave study participants, a group of 88 social drinkers, a word-learning task. One group was allowed to imbibe up to four drinks, while the other was told to go cold turkey. The next day, participants were asked to complete the same task. Shockingly enough, those that got tipsy the day before were the ones that remembered more of the information. "Our research not only showed that those who drank alcohol did better when repeating the word-learning task, but that this effect was stronger among those who drank more," Prof.Celia Morgan, the leading researcher, noted. So how exactly does this phenomenon work? While most research suggest alcohol blocks the formation of new memories, which in most cases is true, the authors of the new study say by drinking much smaller amounts, it has the opposite effect. "The causes of this effect are not fully understood, but the leading explanation is that alcohol blocks the learning of new information and therefore the brain has more resources available to lay down other recently learned information into long-term memory," Morgan told the Medical Xpress. Along with the word-learning task, the participants, all aged between 18 and 53, underwent a second task that involved looking at images on a screen. In this instance, the task was conducted right after the alcohol was consumed. This time, there was nonsignificant difference between those who ditched the drink and others who didn’t. However, despite their positive findings, researchers at the University of Exeter say their study, published inScientific Reports, should not overshadow the harmful consequences that come along with overindulging in alcohol. Though not the first of its kind, this study was the first instance in which the experiment was conducted outside a laboratory setting. (PNA-Sputnik) back to top Sign up to keep in touch! Check out our Privacy Policy & Terms of use You can unsubscribe from email list at any time
Exploring Surnames, DNA & Genealogy in The Low Countries Maarten Larmuseau - Exploring Surnames, DNA & Genealogy in The Low Countries Published on Apr 27, 2015 There is limited knowledge on the biological relatedness between citizens and on the demographic dynamics within villages, towns and cities in pre-17th-century Western Europe. By combining Y-chromosomal genotypes, in-depth genealogies and surname data in a strict genetic genealogical approach, it has been possible to gain insights into the genetic diversity and the relatedness among indigenous paternal lineages within six Flemish communities at the time of surname adoption between 14th-15th century. Since these communities have been selected based on differences in geography and historical development, the genetic results provide relevant information in historical sciences, demography, forensic genetics and genealogy. Dr. Maarten Larmuseau, evolutionary geneticist, University of Leuven - Dr. Maarten Larmuseau is a senior postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium). He is an evolutionary geneticist interested in the interaction between genetics, evolution and history in humans and animals. Currently he is making use of genetic genealogical tools within forensic, historical and human sociobiological research. His research in e.g. historical cuckoldry rates, the false identification of relics attributed to French kings, and the detection of forgotten historical migration events in the 16th century is well known by both academics and the broad public. There is limited knowledge on the biological relatedness between citizens and on the demographical dynamics within villages, towns and cities in pre-17th century Western Europe. By combining Y-chromosomal genotypes, in-depth genealogies and surname data in a strict genetic genealogical approach, it is possible to provide insights into the genetic diversity and the relatedness between indigenous paternal lineages within a particular community at the time of the surname adoption. To obtain these insights, six Flemish communities were selected in this study based on the differences in geography and historical development. After rigorous selection of appropriate DNA donors, low relatedness between Y chromosomes of different surnames was found within each community, although there is co-occurrence of these surnames in each community since the start of the surname adoption between the 14th and 15th century. Next, the high communal diversity in Y-chromosomal lineages was comparable with the regional diversity across Flanders at that time. Moreover, clinal distributions of particular Y-chromosomal lineages between the communities were observed according to the clinal distributions earlier observed across the Flemish regions and Western Europe. No significant indication for genetic differences between communities with distinct historical development was found in the analysis. These genetic results provide relevant information for studies in historical sciences, archaeology, forensic genetics and genealogy. Jews and Democrats (vs. "elite WASPs" and Republicans) For example, only 5 of 159 donors from the all-gentile California Club in Los Angeles gave to Democrats in 1968. The situation was the same at two similar clubs for which I had membership lists at the time, the Pacific Union in San Francisco, where only 5 of 89 donors gave to Democrats, and the Detroit Club in Detroit, where 5 of 110 gave to Democrats. From C. Wright Mills disciple G. William Domhoff's The Power Elite and the State: How Policy Is Made in America: Ferguson and Rogers not only miss the role of the South and its allies during the New Deal, they are blind to the great importance of Jewish contributors to the Democrats in every large city and at the national level since the 1960s. The material base of the party is now in a religious group that gives primarily to Democrats whatever the donor's particular business sector may happen to be. In this section I am going to marshall evidence to show that Ferguson and Rogers mistake religion for business sector in explaining Mondale's 1984 contributions. But several caveats must be registered before proceeding in order to head off potential misunderstandings. First, the only reason Jewish donors are so important to the Democrats is that most of the rich, northern gentiles have defected to the Republicans. Second, there is no mystery as to why most wealthy Jews remain Democrats, as I confirmed for myself in interviews with major Jewish donors in 1970 and 1971 (Domhoff, 1972). Not only are their family roots in the Democrats, and their community values more sympathetic toward helping the poor (Fuchs, 1956; Lipset and Raab, 1984), but they fear antisemitic Christians as well. As long as there is a fanatical evangelical and reactionary right in the Republican party, it is likely that the Jews will remain Democrats (cf. Isaacs, 1974; Cohen, 1989). Third, Jews remain Democrats in part because they do not fully trust rich gentiles. After all, those upstanding Episcopalians and Presbyterians have kept Jews out of upper-class social clubs in most cities until very recently, if any change has been made at all (Baltzell, 1964; Zweigenhaft and Domhoff, 1982). Finally, it needs to be said that not all Jewish donors give to Democrats. Twenty to 30 percent may give to Republicans in a typical election, and an even higher percentage in an atypical election where the Democratic nominee is perceived as anti-Israel, tolerant of antisemitism, or identified with the evangelical right-wing. [. . .] New England self-perception circa 1950 Related: New England self-perception circa 1810 James Truslow Adams, the "American dream", and America as "A Nation of Immigrants": nothing to do with New Englanders What the man behind the ‘American Dream’ really meant WE All FEEL drawn to the “American Dream.” For millions, immigrants especially, the phrase has evoked the full promise of the United States. What it means exactly, though, has shifted significantly over the years, and that accordion-like expansiveness has only increased its usefulness. The man credited with first crafting the “American Dream” had, in some ways, lived it out himself. James Truslow Adams’s story was not one of rags to riches, but he did reinvent himself mid-career, becoming a writer after an unfulfilling stint in finance. Ironically, however, Adams’s new life landed the inventor of an all-inclusive phrase as a specialist in a very cloistered niche, the Colonial history of New England, for most of his writing years. There he seemed a familiar type: the antique New Englander writing about New England antiquity. That was not a type normally given to wild-eyed celebrations of immigration, especially in the 1920s. At the time, the trial of Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti had awakened intense local controversy, admissions quotas were widely in place at local universities, and prominent Bostonians dominated a national organization, the Immigration Restriction League, whose purpose was all too clear from its name. But Adams routinely defied expectations. Indeed, this seeming Yankee was not a Yankee at all, but a Brooklynite — with a Venezuelan grandmother to boot. As Adams wrote his acclaimed histories of New England, he did it in a way that subtly recast the familiar story, teasing out democratic elements that were not always in the earlier versions. Adams's father was half Southern (his family was from Maryland and Virginia, and unrelated to the presidential family) and half Venezuelan. His mother was born in New York, and her ancestors appear to be mid-Atlantic (including some French and with no New England ancestry that I was able to identify). In the 1920s, Adams circled back to the beginnings of America’s global might, which he located in the first settlement of New England. The time and place were well known, but he found a way to enliven them, with some emphasis on the backsliders who did not fit squarely into the Harvard-centric version of New England’s past. Specifically, he did not disparage Rhode Island and New Hampshire — as so many earlier historians had — and even found much to praise there, including a higher level of religious freedom and a strong democratic ethos that often resisted Boston’s demands. His approach would eventually be called social history, and find favor later in the 20th century, even if he was a bit too rarefied to be completely at home with the raffish elements he celebrated. Adams’s books were a critical and popular success. In 1921, he won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Founding of New England,” the first in a trilogy of New England histories. He never strayed far from this region, eventually moving to Southport, Conn., and creating some confusion by writing about the Adams family, to which he was not related. But his own family was interesting enough, particularly the fact that his father was born in Caracas. That strand of DNA must have helped. Unlike some peers, he saw economic and social factors as essential to the story and disdained the traditional emphasis on Puritans fleeing persecution. In other words, he saw the earliest New Englanders as immigrants, seeking their version of the American Dream. He created a precedent for the New England historians to come who would celebrate immigration as vital to the American experience — Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr., Oscar Handlin, Bernard Bailyn, and John F. Kennedy, among others. Of the immigration-celebrating "New England" historians mentioned, three are Jews and one is an Irish Catholic whose seminal contribution to American immigration history, commissioned by the ADL, was ghostwritten by one Myer Feldman, in cooperation with "Arthur Mann, a historian supplied by the Anti-Defamation League." Update: Steve Sailer has an article on "Benjamin Franklin’s American Dream". Franklin's vision for America was dead opposite the ADL's: Hodgson explains Ben Franklin’s American Dream: Living in the mid-eighteenth century, [Franklin] had a vision of a middle-class society that was necessarily one in which the majority owned and worked their own lands. . . . His dream was of a prosperous and middle-class America, peopled largely by the English, that spanned a continent and confidently assumed a preeminent place among nations. In 1964, four decades after mass immigration had been shut down, the country looked rather like Franklin’s vision. But the mechanisms Franklin had identified as crucial to American happiness have been increasingly forgotten during the ensuing Nation of Immigrants nostalgiafest. Near Eastern admixture in Tuscany: signal of Etruscans, or medieval slaves? Something I never see mentioned in these papers attempting to make inferences about the origins of Etruscans based on genetic variation in modern Tuscans: Until recently, slaves have been invisible in the literature on medieval Tuscany, leading scholars to overlook them as a means of contact with the east. Historians abandoned this assumption when Giulio Prunai and Iris Origo documented the importation of hundreds of slaves to the region, conclusively demonstrating that the institution was widespread in medieval Tuscany. [Michael P. Kucher. The Water Supply System of Siena, Italy: The Medieval Roots of the Modern Networked Cities.] Introduction. Among the unfamiliar minor episodes of history - those shadowy backwaters which so often repay exploration - there is one that is little known even by students of mediaeval Florence: the story of the slaves brought to Tuscany from the Black Sea and from Africa, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, who came to form no inconsiderable proportion of the Florentine population. A traveller arriving in Tuscany at this time might well have been startled by the appearance of the serving-maids and grooms of the Florentine ladies. Mostly small and squat, with yellow skins, black hair, high cheek-bones and dark slanting eyes, many of them deeply marked by smallpox and by scars or tattooed patterns on their faces, they certainly seemed to belong to a different race from the Florentine. Sometimes, too, a lady would be attended by a negro, or by a taller, fair-haired woman, white-skinned, but also unmistakably foreign; and if the traveller had friends in one of the Florentine palazzi and went to call, he found several other exotic figures there, too: swarthy or yellow little girls of eleven or twelve, and sometimes a small Moorish boy, acting as nursemaids or playmates for the little Florentine merchant-princes. All these were slaves: most of them Tartars, but some also Russian, Circassian or Greek, Moorish or Ethiopian. Every prosperous noble or merchant had at least two or three of them; many had more. Even a notary's wife, or a small shopkeeper's, would have at least one, and it was far from uncommon to find one among the possessions of a priest or nun. [. . .] Where had they all come from? Who were they? And - we may add - what was the part they played in the domestic life of Tuscany? The answer to these questions forms a curious story. It may be pieced together from deeds of sale and enfranchisements and wills, from the ledgers of foundling hospitals, from the bills of lading of trading-ships, from court records and judgments and city stat- utes, from private letters and diaries and account-books. Out of all these docu- ments a picture emerges of a whole underworld of alien, uprooted creatures - the "displaced persons" of their time. Sometimes a few of them succeeded in escaping from servitude - but often only to form the dregs of the predatory population of outlaws who lived by robbery on the Tuscan roads, or who swelled the crowd during bread riots or political tumults. And by far the greater number of them remained (often even after enfranchisement), in their masters' houses, the necessary background of every domestic scene, speaking a curious half-in- comprehensible jargon, waiting at every table, listening at every door, and mingling (as to this, the records leave us no doubt) their blood with that of their Tuscan hosts. Domestici hostes, domestic enemies - that was Petrarch's name for these inmates of every household, so alien and yet so close, and the author of a treatise of domestic economy in Sicily, Caggio, held the same opinion. "We have," he wrote, "as many enemies as we have slaves." The interest of this forgotten episode of history is a double one - social and ethnical. On the one hand it is curious to discover that Florentine society during the last centuries of the Middle Ages depended, even if to a lesser degree than that of Athens and Rome, on services of men who were un-free. Beneath the co- operative associations of the guilds - the Arti Maggiori e Minori - beneath even the oppressed, hungry rabble of the popolo minuto, the Tuscan cities held another class- made up of men and women without human or legal rights, without families of their own, without any recognized ties between them, with- out even a name, save that given to them by their master: the slaves. Moreover, and perhaps this is the most interesting point- they came to form a sufficiently large proportion of the population to affect, by this strong alien infiltration, the Tuscan stock- and, perhaps, the Tuscan character. Many widely different strains had already contributed to the formation of the Tuscan people: Etruscan, Roman, Lombard, Frankish. And now there came this new blood from the East and, later on, from Africa - vigorous and vital, di genteferigna.* From the cities it spread - since slaves, as we shall see, were kept even in remote country villages - throughout the whole of Tuscany. We may see their features in many of the pictures of the time. To this day, if you watch a group of children squatting in a semicircle in the dust of a village street, their voices and hands upraised in the old Mediterranean game of morra, you will some- times see among them the crisp black curls, the dark skin and flashing eyes of an Arab boy, or the high cheek-bones and slanting eyes of a little Tartar. [Iris Origo. The Domestic Enemy: The Eastern Slaves in Tuscany in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Speculum / Volume 30 / Issue 03 / July 1955, pp 321-366.] Reply to Peter Frost (part 5): anthropology as the science of race In discussing the history of anthropology, Sarich and Miele (in Race: The Reality of Human Differences) find it useful to: highlight three critical junctures in which science, politics, and personality interacted: the disputes between Ernst Haeckel and Rudolf Virchow, between Franz Boas and Madison Grant, and finally between Carleton Coon and Ashley Montagu. Of the two cases that played out in America, both involve race-denialist Jewish immigrants opposing "northeastern WASPs" with colonial roots (Coon's ancestry is 3/4 colonial New England and 1/4 Cornish; all of Grant's ancestors were in America before 1790, at least half of Grant's ancestry can be traced back to New England). Darwinism in Britain, whether in the early days or today, has focused on individuals, with groups emerging from them. British evolutionism has always had the shopkeeper’s sober obsession with keeping a good set of books. In Germany, however, Darwin ism took on a collectivist, romantic tone. There the great apostle of Darwin, Ernst Haeckel (1834-1913), imbued the theory of natural selection with the spirit of German Romanticism. [. . .] Haeckel and all he came to champion were opposed by his former professor, the distinguished biologist Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902). The conflict between them was both personal and political. The two men were polar opposites in appearance, ancestry, and tempera ment. Haeckel was tall, blond, German in name and appearance, with a strong love of the out-of-doors, and a generalist looking for one grand theory to account for everything. Virchow, whose name and appearance betrayed a Slavic ancestry, was a detail man and a pedantic laboratory taskmaster. Haeckel was charismatic and developed a huge, almost religious following; Virchow was respected, even feared, but rarely liked. Haeckel was a strong supporter of the German Volk and Reich; Virchow was a radical advocate of social reform who fought at the barricades in the revolution of 1848. Virchow was a member of the German Progressive Party and opposed Bismarck’s policies. The Iron Chancellor, having already dispatched or intimidated earlier opponents with saber or pistol, challenged the professor to a duel. Virchow declined— unless they agreed to fight with scalpels. [. . .] Between 1863 and Virchow’s death in 1902, Haeckel and his former professor clashed at scientific conferences and in print. Haeckel’s evolutionism was progressive, moving from lower to higher forms. Without any physical evidence, Haeckel went out on a limb and predicted fossil hunters would soon discover a creature he dubbed Pithecanthropus, the ape-man or missing link. Inspired by Haeckel’s prediction, one of his disciples, Eugène Dubois, found the fossil he termed Pithecanthropus erectus (now classified as Homo erectus) in Java in 1891. For Virchow this finding entailed pointless speculation. He rejected the fossils, saying they were the result of pathological degeneration. As his repugnance grew at what he saw as the associations and implications of monism, Virchow came to reject evolution altogether. Any change in individuals or species that could be observed rather than hypothesized, he argued, was evidence of degeneration, not progress. [. . .] When Galton died in 1911, eugenics was widely accepted not only in Britain and Germany but in the United States as well. Raymond Pearl, professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University (then a supporter of eugenics but later an opponent), noted that by 1912, “eugenics was catching on to an extraordinary degree with radical and conservative alike.” [. . .] At the start of the twentieth century, most American anthropologists came from wealthy Brahmin families and were educated at Harvard University. They were solidly in the eugenics camp, agreeing with Galton on both individual and race differences. And then, as one author put it, Along Came Boas. His name is hardly a household word, but it is no exaggeration to say that Franz Boas (1858-1942) remade American anthropology in his own image. Through the works of his students Margaret Mead (Coming of Age in Samoa and Sex and Temperament in Three Societies), Ruth Benedict (Patterns of Culture), and Ashley Montagu (innumerable titles, especially the countless editions of Man’s Most Dangerous Myth), Boas would have more effect on American intellectual thought than Darwin did. For generations, hardly anyone graduated from an American college or university with out having read at least one of these books. They all drew their inspiration from Boas’s The Mind of Primitive Man. Franz Boas came from a German Jewish home, steeped in the “sentiment of the barricades” of the 1848 revolutions that swept across Europe. He originally obtained his doctorate in physics but later turned to geography. After fieldwork with the Greenland Es kimos, he took up anthropology— Virchow’s brand, not Haeckel’s. Virchow, in the words of one biographer, “had perhaps the greatest influence on Boas.” [. . .] Appointed chairman of the department at Columbia University in 1899, Boas transformed anthropology from the leisure study of a few well-to-do WASPs into a highly credentialed discipline that pumped out Ph.D.’s. By 1915 his students had a two-thirds con trolling majority on the executive board of the American Anthropological Association. In 1919, Boas could boast that “most of the anthropological work done at the present time in the United States” came from his former students at Columbia. By 1926 they headed every major department of anthropology in America. Before Boas, anthropology was the study of race. After Boas, anthropology in America became the study of culture, defined as “personality writ large,” [. . .] Like his mentor Virchow, Boas was skeptical of evolutionary explanations, genetic or cultural. He even entertained a sympa thy for Lamarckism. What turned him into the godfather of cultural determinism in America, however, was the growing popular appeal and political power of the eugenics and anti-immigration movements. [. . .] Franz Boas was a dark-haired Jewish immigrant from a leftist milieu, educated at German universities steeped in the ideals of the Enlightenment. Madison Grant, an archetypal Nordic, was a lawyer turned amateur biologist and a pillar of America’s WASP establishment. Grant claimed that his fellow American Nordics were committing racial suicide, allowing themselves to be “el bowed out” of their own land by ruthless, self-interested Jewish immigrants, who were behind the campaign to discredit racial re search. Yogi Berra’s words would have been apt: “It was déjà vu all over again.” Haeckel’s monism had driven Virchow from skepti cism into rejecting biological evolution. Nativist, proeugenic, elitist tracts such as Grant’s drove Boas from skepticism into re jecting the evolutionary perspective on culture and even linguis tics (which he had earlier advocated). In his book In Search of Human Nature (1991), which is subti tled The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought, Degler concluded that Boas’s substitution of cultural for genetic determinism was not the result of a disinterested, scientific inquiry into a vexed if controversial ques tion. Instead, his idea derived from an ideological commitment that began in his early life and academic experiences in Europe and continued in America to shape his professional outlook. To assert that point is not to say that he fudged or manufactured his evidence against the racial interpretation—for there is no sign of that. But, by the same token, there is no doubt that he had a deep interest in collecting evidence and designing arguments that would rebut or refute an ideological outlook— racism—which he considered restrictive upon individuals and undesirable for society. Coon vs. Montagu: The Boasians were outsiders. Papa Franz and many of his students were Jews, though “the preponderance of Jewish intellectuals in the early years of Boasian anthropology and the Jewish identities of anthropologists in subsequent generations has been downplayed in standard histories of the discipline.” Some, like Boas himself, were immigrants to boot. Montagu was born Israel Ehrenberg in the working-class East End district of London, England. He was so leery of anti-Semitism (“If you’re brought up as a Jew, you know that all non-Jews are anti-Semitic . . . It’s a good working hypothesis”) that he reinvented himself as Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu from London’s well-to-do West End financial district, complete with a posh public school accent. When he came to the United States, Montagu played the role of the British headmaster, lecturing American audiences before a receptive media on the foolishness of their prejudices. Later he dropped the hyphen and became simply Ashley Montagu. Mead and Benedict could point to WASP pedigrees as pure as Madison Grant’s, but Mead was bisexual and Benedict a lesbian. At that time, those sexual orientations were far more stigmatized than they are today. Their sexual preferences are relevant, be cause developing a critique of traditional American values was as much a part of the Boasian program in anthropology as was their attack on eugenics and nativism. [. . .] Whatever their individual origin, the Boasians felt deeply estranged from mainstream American society and the male WASP elites they were displacing in anthropology. Gene Weltfish, an other student of Boas, epitomized this sense of alienation when she said she felt that her generation had only three choices— go live in Paris, sell The Daily Worker (the U.S. Communist Party newspaper) on street corners, or study anthropology at Columbia. [. . .] According to Degler, “Boas almost single-handedly developed in America the concept of culture, which, like a powerful solvent, would in time expunge race from the literature of social science.” In fact, Boas achieved his goal only with help, including a great deal from a most unwelcome source— Hitler and the Holocaust. After World War II, “race” and “eugenics” became very dirty words. The University of London’s Department of Eugenics changed its name to the Department of Genetics; the Eugenics Society became the Galton Institute; the Annals of Eugenics was renamed the Annals of Human Genetics; and Eugenics Quarterly became Social Biology. In 1949 the United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organi zation (UNESCO) was called upon to adopt “a program of dissemi nating scientific facts designed to remove what is generally known as racial prejudice.” For the drafter of the first UNESCO statement, Ashley Montagu, this was an opportunity to deny the reality of race. The preliminary match in anthropology’s fight over race was Virchow versus Haeckel. Then there was Boas versus Madison Grant. The final match in anthropology’s dispute went the distance. It was almost as lengthy as the names of its participants— Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu versus Carleton Stevens Coon. Again there was a personal element to the clash. Coon was from a New England family that could trace its roots to colonial times and before that to Cornwall, ancestral home of the leg endary King Arthur. Coon was quite proud of his ancestry. Those sympathetic to Coon believed his personal dislike of Montagu was because he thought everyone else should dislike him as well. Why the need to pass oneself off as something one is not? Mon tagu, as already noted, had his “good working hypothesis” about non-Jews and anti-Semitism. [. . .] Coon believed that race was a central issue and his job as an anthropologist was to study race; Montagu felt his was to banish race to the periphery and replace it with the concept of “ethnic group.” He began his effort to have the word “race” replaced by “ethnic group” in his 1942 book, Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race. When he was selected to draft the initial (1950) UNESCO Statement on Race, Montagu was given a plat form from which to present his view to a much larger, non-academic audience. [. . .] In his autobiography, Adventures and Discoveries, Coon ex plained how younger members wanted a special meeting at the 1961 AAPA convention, supposedly to discuss new business but in fact to censure Putnam’s book. [. . .] Coon asked for a show of hands on how many attendees present had read the book they were about to censure. Only one. Then he asked how many had even heard about it before the ses sion. Only a few. Nonetheless, the resolution condemning Race and Reason passed. In Coon’s words, “The Communists did not need to fight us. They could rot us from within. I could see it all as in a horrid dream.” (Remember, this was 1961 when both the Cold War and the civil rights movement were at their peaks.) He refused to have his name appear on the resolution as president of AAPA and resigned. Reply to Peter Frost (part 4): Grant vs. Boas From Jonathan Spiro's Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant: Nordic and Anti-Nordic The lifelong hostility between Madison Grant and Franz Boas was the personification if not the core of the nature-nurture debate in the United States. Grant was the prophet of scientific racism and, in Ellsworth Huntington’s phrase, the perennial “cheer leader of the Nordics in America.” Boas, on the other hand, devoted a lifetime to counteracting “the vicious, pseudo scientific activity of so-called scientists” who belittled nurture and pro- moted “this Nordic nonsense.” [. . .] But Franz Boas (1858–1942) was the antithesis of Madison Grant. Whereas Grant was the scion of an aristocratic American family and displayed all the attitudes and prejudices implied by such a heritage, Boas was the product of an upper-middle-class German household in which, as he put it, “the ideals of the revolution of 1848 were a living force.” His progressive Jewish parents raised him with a firm belief in the dignity of the individual and the equipotentiality of all humans. As such, during his four-decade reign at Columbia University as the world’s most famous anthropologist, Boas preached with increasing vigor and confidence against racial prejudice, and consciously and actively worked to thwart the dangerous influence of Grant (“that charlatan”) and his disciples. 3 Boas rejected Grant’s division of mankind into biologically distinct and hierarchical subspecies. He challenged not only the superiority but the very existence of the Nordic race. And he denied that there was any correlation between the physical characteristics of a population and its mental or moral traits. The latter, he asserted, were created by the “culture” in which an individual was raised, not his or her germ plasm. Where Grant proclaimed that man was a mammal like any other and that anthropology ought to be a branch of zoology, Boas took the opposite tack and, in the words of Elazar Barkan, “divorced the biological from the cultural study of humankind.” In sum, Boas categorically rejected every tenet of Grant’s scientific racism and actively opposed every facet of Grant’s eugenic program. Of course, it was clear to Grant that the root of Boas’s hostility lay in the fact that he was a Jew, and Grant explained to Maxwell Perkins that Boas “naturally does not take stock in [my version of] anthropology which relegates him and his race to the inferior position that they have occupied throughout recorded history.” Reply to Peter Frost (part 2): Boas was a product of German(-Jewish) culture, not American culture The version of history in which Franz Boas was a dispassionate purveyor of real talk who picked up anti-racism from "liberal WASPs" is of course wholly Peter Frost's own invention. This scenario finds no support outside of Frost's imagination. Boas's agenda remained consistent over his entire career, and it's not an agenda he picked up in America. Boas was born in Germany, studied anthropology in Germany, brought his fully-formed worldview with him from Germany, and continued to identify with Germany throughout his life. This paper (Leonard Glick, Types Distinct from Our Own: Franz Boas on Jewish Identity and Assimilation. American Anthropologist, 84: 545–565.) provides some background on the world Boas was born into (including discussion of Jewish emancipation, the German reaction, the 1848 revolutions, etc.) and how this background affected Boas. For a problem of such magnitude, he continued, there could be only one solution: “Israel must renounce its ambition to become the master of Germany.” The Jews should accept at once the inescapable necessity that their influence in German life be curbed and abridged through strict quotas in every public sector, and through reorganization of the nation’s economic structure. “Either we succeed in this,” he concluded, “and Germany will rise again, or the cancer from which we suffer will spread further. In that event our whole future is threatened and the German spirit will become Judaized” (ibid.:287). The impact of this speech on Berlin political life was “extraordinary,” says Massing, and for the next five or six years the so-called Berlin movement, led by Stoecker and with anti-Jewish agitation as its definitive characteristic, “kept the capital in a turmoil” (ibid.:30; Boehlich 1965). In 1881 Stoecker was elected to the Reichstag as representative for Siegen, the constituency immediately adjacent to Minden, and retained this position for many years. He was also by then representative for Minden to the Prussian Diet and is said by one German historian to have been “at that time one of the most popular men in Minden- Ravensberg” (Herzig 1973:125; Pulzer 1964:99). His opponent in the Reichstag election was Rudolf Virchow, the distinguished physical anthropologist and progressive politician with whom Boas soon afterward established close ties. Stoecker distributed an election-eve pamphlet describing Virchow as a defender of Jewish usurers. Moreover, he continued, the Progressives (left liberals) were calling Virchow “the representative of culture,” but “I do not want any culture that is not Germanic and Christian” (Massing 1949:41). [. . .] It was in this troubled social environment that Franz Boas grew to young adulthood. Clyde Kluckhohn and Olaf Prufer, writing on his “formative years,” have something to say about the intellectual life of the period but make no mention of Volkish ideology. They do note that anti-Semitism was an important problem for Boas: “The letters from Kiel,” they remark, “are particularly full of accounts of unpleasant activities among the student body, and of gross personal behavior” (1959:10-11). Commenting on the same period, A. L. Kroeber says that the “non-intellectual aspects” of Boas’s university life “may be presumed to have been warm and rich,” but he also notes that Boas left with “several deep facial scars from sabre cuts received in duelling.” He then refers, somewhat ambiguously, to Boas’s self-identification as being of the “Mosaic confession” and to a story about a fight and duel following an anti-Semitic insult (1943:7-8). 5 Stocking states explicitly that the duels were “fought over anti-Semitic remarks” (1979:33). Nor was it "liberal WASPs" Boas primarily affiliated himself with in America. His immediate solution to the question of religious identification, to the extent that he accepted this as a question, was to become a member of the Society for Ethical Culture, founded in New York City by Felix Adler, an educator, social activist, and later professor of political and social ethics at Columbia. Adler was the son of the rabbi of the most prestigious Reform congregation in the country, Temple Emanu-El of New York. It was anticipated that he would succeed his father in the same pulpit, but at age 22 he delivered a guest sermon, entitled “The Judaism of the Future,” which permanently eliminated that prospect. Judaism, along with all other formal creeds, was on the verge of extinction, he declared, and the only proper course was abandonment of religious particularism in favor of a humanistic faith embracing all humanity: “... we discard the narrow spirit of exclusion, and loudly proclaim that Judaism was not given to the Jews alone, but that its destiny is to embrace in one great moral state the whole family of men…” (Radest 1969: 17; emphasis in original). This was, in fact, wholly within the spirit of Reform Judaism, although Adler carried the argument a step further by inviting eve[r]yone to join. In his lecture inaugurating the Ethical Culture movement, delivered in 1876, Adler proposed “to entirely exclude prayer and every form of ritual,” and declared his primary allegiance to “freedom of thought” as the “sacred right of every individual man” (ibid. :27 -28). The organization prospered and achieved something of a reputation for service in the interests of social reform and humanitarian ideals. The membership was heavily and probably predominantly composed of cultivated German Jews, for whom it gave organizational legitimation to the very same values that Boas summarized as “the ideals of the revolution of 1848,” and it is quite apparent why it appealed to him. 8 Although he does not appear to have been deeply engaged with the Society’s program, he did travel to London in 1911 to deliver a lecture on “Instability of Human Types” at a Universal Races Congress, sponsored by the Society, which brought together Asians, Africans, and Europeans for what may have been the first such effort to achieve genuine cross-cultural exchange on a formal level (Radest 1969:93-94). "Fair housing" as a Jewish issue Nathaniel Weyl asserts: Another case of the Jewish voters cutting off their own noses was the vote in 1964 on various state and city "public accommodations" ordinances. These measures restricted or totally abolished the right of house and apartment owners to refuse to sell or rent on the basis of race. The purpose was to enable Negroes to move into previously white residential areas. Since residential discrimination against Jews had become pretty much of a dead letter, the Jewish interest was identical with that of the other whites. While Weyl is no doubt correct that as an objective matter the impact of residential discrimination on Jews in 1960s America was negligible, this did not stop Jews from viewing the fight against freedom of association as a "Jewish issue". As perceived by Jews, Jewish interests were hardly "identical with those of the other whites". In confronting housing discrimination [. . .], Jews navigated the difficult terrain of determining how an issue might be a Jewish one even when Jews were not always directly involved in it. A 1960 investigation revealing that Jews, among other minorities, had been systematically handicapped in their ability to purchase homes in the Grosse Pointe suburbs of Detroit stood out for Jewish leaders as the exception that proved the rule: in only very few cases did Jews face housing discrimination. A NCRAC report from 1960 explained, "All of us are cognizant . . . that discrimination against Jews in housing is trivial in comparison with discrimination against Negroes; that it is an irritant and an affront to Jews, whereas it is a deprivation as well as a deep indignity to Negroes." Jewish leaders, the report admonished, should not concern themselves with the "occasional Judenrein [Jew-free, a term used by the Nazi regime] apartment houses or neighborhoods, but with those festering and unresolved problems created by the persistence of racial housing segregation in the cities and suburbs." A few years later, NCRAC "took some gratification in the fact that Jewish organizations and individuals are prominently represented in citizens' fair housing bodies." To liberal Jewish leaders, fair housing was a Jewish issue. [Lila Corwin Berman. Metropolitan Jews: Politics, Race, and Religion in Postwar Detroit] The Grosse Pointe Gross Point System In the Spring of 1960 as a result of a court case, the realtors association of very affluent suburban Grosse Pointe (the association brought together realtors from all the Grosse Pointes--Farms, Woods, etc.), just to the northeast of the city of Detroit, was "exposed." [. . .] Under the system a realtor would find a potential purchaser for a home. Then a private investigator would be hired to make a report on the person. The report would be given to a committee of three brokers and they would take information from the report and use it to assign points to the buyer. Points would be given for matters such as the "extent to which" the buyer was "Americanized," along with his "general standing." This included references to the "swarthiness of appearance," "friends," "dress," "religion," "education," "use of grammar," and "accent." Norman C. Thomas writes: "The screening process was not required for persons of Northern European ancestry, e.g., Anglo-Saxons, Germans, French, Scandinavians, etc. Out of a maximum 100 points, Poles had to score 55 to pass, Southern Europeans 65, and Jews 85. Negroes and Orientals were not eligible for consideration, their disqualification being automatic." Grosse Pointe in MI The Grosse Pointe area was well-known for the point system, in which those deemed undesirable (non-Protestants, Eastern Europeans, etc.) had to amass more points in order to purchase a home. Realtors and the Grosse Pointe Property Owner's Association would sometimes hire private detectives, who would find answers to various questions, including "Appearances - swarthy, slightly swarthy, or not at all?" and "Accents - pronounced, medium, slight, not at all?" The maximum score for the survey was 100, with most prospective residents needing a score of 50. However, according to Michigan Attorney General Paul Adams, "a Pole is expected to have five additional points. An Italian, Yugoslav, Greek, Syrian, Lebanese, Armenian, Maltese, Rumanian, or other southern European is required to have 15 additional points. A Jew is required to have 35 additional points and his points are more difficult to achieve because of penalties in a special marking system for Jews. Orientals and Negroes are not considered at all." In 1960, William E. Bufalino Jr., a Jewish attorney from Detroit, sued the city for libel because he was branded "swarthy" and denied a home. The state of Michigan ordered the suburb to abandon the system within 30 days. However, there is some indication that it persisted officially until 1961, and possibly unofficially after that. "'The most desirable neighborhood for the raising of children, according to these Grosse Pointe real estate dealers and brokers,' Rabbi [Leon] Fram said, 'is one in which the children shall never see a Negro except in the role of a porter or a shoe shine boy, never encounter any human being who believes in a faith other than Christianity, never hear a foreign accent.' He quoted the minister of a Grosse Pointe church as stating that 'Jesus Christ could never qualify for residence in Grosse Pointe.'" -"Klan Standards Prevail in G.P., Rabbi Charges", Detroit News, 14 May 1960 James Loewen on "sundown towns": The practice of exclusion was usually quite open. Hundreds of towns posted signs. The Academy Award-winning movie of 1947, Gentleman's Agreement, was about the method by which Darien, Connecticut, one of the most prestigious suburbs of New York City, kept out Jews, and that publicity hardly ended the practice. In the 1960s, some residents of Edina, Minnesota, the most prestigious suburb of Minneapolis, boasted that their community had, as they put it, "Not one Negro and not one Jew." [In Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic edited by Charles A. Gallagher, Cameron D. Lippard] The Jew in American Politics (part 8): Jewish Voting Behavior: 1932-1967 Elsewhere in the book, Weyl is keen to point out that "only" on the order of 1% of American Jews were card-carrying members of the Communist Party. Here he acknowledges 15-20% of Jews supported the Communist-endorsed Henry A. Wallace in the 1948 election ("The raison d'etre of this third-party movement was to obtain continuing American support of the Soviet Union and American acquiescence in continuing Soviet aggression"). Other than that, we see the familiar pattern of Jews bloc-voting for Democratic candidates. We also get to hear more about how the Jewish fight against freedom of association was purely the result of misguided universalism ('Another case of the Jewish voters cutting off their own noses was the vote in 1964 on various state and city "public accommodations" ordinances. These measures restricted or totally abolished the right of house and apartment owners to refuse to sell or rent on the basis of race. The purpose was to enable Negroes to move into previously white residential areas. Since residential discrimination against Jews had become pretty much of a dead letter, the Jewish interest was identical with that of the other whites. [. . .] In Detroit some Jewish districts voted ten-to-one against a homeowners' rights ordinance designed to permit landlords to sell or rent at their discretion. In Los Angeles, Jewish districts voted two-to-one against Proposition 14, a very similar measure, which was approved by California voters as a whole by a two-thirds majority.'). Since residential discrimination against Jews had diminished by this time, it's obviously impossible Jews maintained an overblown concern with suppressing freedom of association out of perceived self-interest. The Jew in American Politics (part 7): Socialism, Communism and the Far Left "The alien nature of American Communism was revealed by the complaint of its leader, Charles Ruthenberg, that in 1920 it didn't have five speakers able to present its case in the English language." The Jew in American Politics (part 4): abolitionism, utopian socialism, and anti-Semitism Nathaniel Weyl, a Jewish Communist turned anti-Communist, is eager to persuade his Jewish (or, if we're being realistic, mostly non-Jewish) readers that the true interests of Jews lie with conservatism and that Jewish leftism is not motivated by Jewish pursuit of self-interest -- thus the focus on highlighting "anti-Semitism" on the left wherever possible and the emphasis on Karl Marx as a self-hating Jew. But the following section is of interest mostly because it correctly situates American experiments in utopian socialism like Brook Farm (one of Moldbug's favorite "proofs" that leftism is really New England Puritanism) in their European context. The Jew in American Politics (part 3): 1848ers Arrival of the German Jews A rapid expansion of population in Germany during the decades of peace following the Napoleonic wars resulted in mass emigration to America. Schedules of vessels departing for the United States were posted even in the most humble German towns and villages. The exodus was so immense that, in the course of barely two weeks, four thousand people left the small state of Baden alone. German Jews were part of this trek. They were subject to the same forces of overpopulation and economic need as their Christian neighbors. They had the additional goad of rampant discrimination, inability to get licenses as craftsmen and an atmosphere poisoned by anti-Semitism. [. . .] The emigration was immensely accelerated by the crushing defeat of the liberal 1848 revolutions in Europe and the triumph of reaction. Up to 100,000 German Jews came to the United States in the twelve years between that event and the Civil War. Jews had taken a prominent part in the leadership of the 1848 uprisings and a large majority of European Jewry had sympathized with them. Thus, Daniele Manin, a Catholic of Jewish ancestry, was the outstanding leader of the Venetian rising of 1848 and two Jews were members of the Cabinet of the short-lived Weimar Republic of that time. The Prussian National Assembly which proclaimed the new liberal constitution of 1848 had several Jews as members and elected one of them, Raphael Kosch, as its vice president. The more important Frankfurt parliament had at one time a Jewish president and a Jewish vice president. In Breslau, Berlin, Mainz, Worms, Cracow and Vienna, Jews were prominent in the 1848 struggle as military leaders, politicians and newspaper editors. In the last category was Karl Marx, the Jew-hating son of an apostate Jew. The Hungarian National Army under Louis Kossuth had no fewer than 20,000 enlisted Jewish soldiers in its ranks.l7 When the revolution was stifled throughout Europe, its Jewish and non-Jewish adherents turned increasingly toward the United States. Hence, the massive Jewish emigration of the 1840's and 1850's was politically selective. The Jew in American Politics (part 2): 1820s-1840s "a substantial majority" of the 15,000 or so American Jews supported the Van Buren Administration--that of probably the most radical President in American history prior to the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Jew in American Politics (part 1) Mencius Moldbug notoriously attempted to blame native-born American elites for the leftism/radicalism of his co-ethnics: As for the Jews, being no suckers, they realized that they should assimilate into the most socially prestigious branch of the American tradition - the progressives. Again: done. If you find the above excuse clever rather than hilariously inept, I encourage you to work on correcting your lack of basic knowledge of American and Jewish history. As a start, some excerpts from Nathaniel Weyl's 1968 book The Jew in American Politics (a shorter excerpt was posted here): Problem and Paradox American Jewish political behavior is an anomaly and a contradiction. The American Jewish community is overwhelmingly middle class and upper middle class. American Jews are more highly educated than any other national or religious group in the U.S. population. They are concentrated in entrepreneurial, professional, scientific and aesthetically creative occupations. Their income is much higher than the national average. Their contribution to the economic, political and creative leadership of the nation is much greater than their numerical strength would indicate. Yet in their political attitudes, they are overwhelmingly liberal-to-radical and this despite the general rule of political behavior that the higher a group stands in status, income and education, the more it tends to prefer a conservative to a liberal philosophy. Thus, despite the fact that the intellectual community in the United States has in recent years tended to be preponderantly liberal, a majority of college graduates has consistently supported the Republican Party and taken a conservative stance on most controversial domestic issues. This was partially confirmed, as far as education is concerned, in the wake of Senator Goldwater's 1964 presidential defeat one that gave the Republican Party a smaller proportion of the total popular vote than it had obtained in any of the previous six presidential contests. Even after this massive setback, one segment of the population remained loyal to the GOP according to the evidence of public opinion polls. That last steadfast group was the college-bred, the element which William James considered the only true American aristocracy. Two years later, a Gallup Poll revealed that 59% of the college-trained had supported Republican candidates in the 1966 elections as against 4l% who voted Democratic. By contrast of those with less than a grade-school education, 6l% backed Democratic, and only 39% Republican, candidates. The Republicans had the support of 58% of the business and professional voters, 52% of the white-collar workers and 50% of the farmers, but only 39% of the manual workers.l A positive correlation apparently exists between wealth, income education and status, on the one hand, and conservatism, on the other. [. . .] Jewish Liberalism: the Allinsmith Study Evidently we are dealing with a political phenomenon that is unique and not explicable in the standard terms of public opinion analysis. The aberrant political behavior of American Jewry has deep roots in the religious, economic and political history of the Jewish people. It is related to their centuries-long struggle to find institutions and socioeconomic forces which would give them equality of opportunity and security from the specter of persecution which has so often haunted them. This aspect of the political behavior of American Jews is not, I believe, realistically related to their experience in the United States. Attitudes have been absorbed from their heritage in Czarist Russia, from their relationship to the revolutionary movements against Czarism and, more recently, from the holocaust which European Jewry suffered under the Nazis. A Jewish syndrome has arisen in America and elsewhere, which magnifies minor slights and injuries from conservative groups, while largely overlooking the global threat to Israel and to Western civilization posed by Soviet and Chinese Communism and by the strident, racist nationalisms of the new, impoverished states of the Asian and African world. Above all, Jews in general have refused to recognize themselves as an elite group with an immense stake in the existing social order and a great political role to play in the orderly evolution of the world toward the institutions of Western civilization, institutions which have alone thus far given man both order and freedom. Peter Frost has previously claimed: He's now back with more of this: Barbara Ehrenreich: a more representative example of the non-"ethnic" element of our present elites than Garry Trudeau Ehrenreich, one of Peter Dreier's "Fifty Most Influential Progressives of the Twentieth Century", is the daughter of upwardly mobile, working class parents (her father was a copper miner who ended up a corporate executive). While, owing to heritable factors, we expect present elites will on average have forebears who are at least slightly above average in social status, the vast majority of their ancestors a generation or two ago were relatively unremarkable middle or working class people. The far-from-perfect heritability of social status and the fact that middle and working class people greatly outnumbered elites means there would have been significant upward social mobility in any case; but the massive expansion in the ranks of the college educated and white collar workers over the past century, along with mass immigration, means the overwhelming majority of present US elites have no special connection to the 19th-century or earlier American upper class. Even if we limit ourselves to the non-"ethnic" elements among present leftist elites, I have no doubt Ehrenreich is much more typical than Trudeau. An acquaintance was telling me about the joys of rediscovering her ethnic and religious heritage. "I know exactly what my ancestors were doing 2,000 years ago," she said, eyes gleaming with enthusiasm, "and I can do the same things now." Then she leaned forward and inquired politely, "And what is your ethnic background, if I may ask?" "None," I said, that being the first word in line to get out of my mouth. Well, not "none," I backtracked. Scottish, English, Irish--that was something, I supposed. Too much Irish to qualify as a WASP; too much of the hated English to warrant a "kiss Me, I'm Irish" button; plus there are a number of dead ends in the family tree due to adoptions, missing records, failing memories and the like. I was blushing by this time. Did "none" mean I was rejecting my heritage out of Anglo-Celtic self-hate? Or was I revealing a hidden ethnic chauvinism in which the Britannically derived served as a kind of neutral standard compared with the ethnic "others"? Throughout the 60's and 70's, I watched one group after another--African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans--stand up and proudly reclaim their roots while I just sank back ever deeper into my seat. All this excitement over ethnicity stemmed, I uneasily sensed, from a past in which their ancestors had been trampled upon by my ancestors, or at least by people who looked very much like them. In addition, it had begun to seem almost un-American not to have some sort of hyphen at hand, linking one to more venerable times and locales. But the truth is, I was raised with none. We'd eaten ethnic foods in my childhood home, but these were all borrowed, like the pasties, or Cornish meat pies, my father had picked up from his fellow miners in Butte, Montana. If my mother had one rule, it was militant ecumenism in all matters of food and experience. "Try new things," she would say, meaning anything from sweetbreads to clams, with an emphasis on the "new." As a child, I briefly nourished a craving for tradition and roots. I immersed myself in the works of Sir Walter Scott. I pretended to believe that the bagpipe was a musical instrument. I was fascinated to learn from a grandmother that we were descended from certain Highland clans and longed for a pleated skirt in one of their distinctive tartans. But in Ivanhoe, it was the dark-eyed "Jewess" Rebecca I identified with, not the flaxen-haired bimbo Rowena. As for clans: Why not call them "tribes," those bands of half-clad peasants and warriors whose idea of cuisine was stuffed sheep gut washed down with whisky? And then there was the sting of Disraeli's remark--which I came across in my early teens--to the effect that his ancestors had been leading orderly, literate lives when my ancestors were still rampaging through the Highlands daubing themselves with blue paint. Motherhood put the screws on me, ethnicity-wise. I had hoped that by marrying a man of Eastern European-Jewish ancestry I would acquire for my descendants the ethnic genes that my own forebears so sadly lacked. At one point, I even subjected the children to a Seder of my own design, including a little talk about the flight from Egypt and its relevance to modern social issues. But the kids insisted on buttering their matzohs and snickering through my talk. "Give me a break, Mom," the older one said. "You don't even believe in God." [. . .] But, then, on the fumes of Manischewitz, a great insight took form in my mind. It was true, as the kids said, that I didn't "believe in God." But this could be taken as something very different from an accusation--a reminder of a genuine heritage. My parents had not believed in God either, nor had my grandparents or any other progenitors going back to the great-great level. They had become disillusioned with Christianity generations ago--just as, on the in-law side, my children's other ancestors had shaken off their Orthodox Judaism. This insight did not exactly furnish me with an "identity," but it was at least something to work with: we are the kind of people, I realized--whatever our distant ancestors' religions--who do not believe, who do not carry on traditions, who do not do things just because someone has done them before. [. . .] In my parents' general view, new things were better than old, and the very fact that some ritual had been performed in the past was a good reason for abandoning it now. Because what was the past, as our forebears knew it? Nothing but poverty, superstition and grief. "Think for yourself," Dad used to say. "Always ask why." In fact, this may have been the ideal cultural heritage for my particular ethnic strain--bounced as it was from the Highlands of Scotland across the sea, out to the Rockies, down into the mines and finally spewed out into high-tech, suburban America. What better philosophy, for a race of migrants, than "Think for yourself"? What better maxim, for people whose whole world was rudely inverted every 30 years or so, than "Try new things"? The more tradition-minded, the newly enthusiastic celebrants of Purim and Kwanzaa and Solstice, may see little point to survival if the survivors carry no cultural freight--religion, for example, or ethnic tradition. To which I would say that skepticism, curiosity and wide-eyed ecumenical tolerance are also worthy elements of the human tradition and are at least as old as such notions as "Serbian" or "Croatian," "Scottish" or "Jewish." I make no claims for my personal line of progenitors except that they remained loyal to the values that may have induced all of our ancestors, long, long, long ago, to climb down from the trees and make their way into the open plains. People have different interests and different dispositions. The "values" Ehrenreich belatedly claims as her cultural inheritance are subject to significant genetic influence. Though a range of political opinion has existed within every class throughout recent American and European history, traditional elites tended to favor the right, out of self-interest and likely also because some of the biologically-influenced traits associated with political conservatism favored entry into and retention in the elite. We now have whole segments of the elite where entry among non-"ethnics" is restricted to those who actively forsake their group and traditionalism. This does not favor "elite WASPs", but people who are genetically predisposed in that direction and relatively rootless to begin with. I have to talk about my family a little bit. There is a reason in my case why the constant linkage of God, family, and flag is upsetting to me, and it has to do with the history of my particular family. I am a fourth-generation atheist. My freethinking ancestors were not members of the "liberal elite" who are always getting bashed for being anti-religious, who are so hated by the current conservative elite. My atheist ancestors were miners, railroad workers, farmers, farm workers. Once they had been religious people, many of them Catholics. The story is told that my great-grandmother, a Montana farmwoman named Mamie O'Laughlin, sent for a priest when her father was dying. The priest did not want to be bothered. (This is western Montana, the late 19th century, the trip would have been dangerous.) And he sent back a message to Mamie that he would come but only if she would pay him a fee of $25, which was a huge sum in those days and way beyond the means of my great-grandmother. So her father died without the consolation, whatever it may have been, of the sacrament. [. . .] At one time there were dozens of freethought newspapers published throughout the United States. The freethought movement was very much connected to movements for social change of different kinds. In the Northeast, the freethought movement was linked to the working men's movement of the early 1800s, which was a progenitor of the trade union movement. In the West it flourished among miners and other low-paid working people who were drawn to the Wobblies and other unions at the early part of this century. [. . .] But this is not how it worked in my family. My dad was a really hardline atheist. I am not as hardline as he is. He used to read us Ingersoll on Sunday mornings--that was family quality time. He really believed some of the things, I later found out, that it says in the bible; like that we shall be judged by the way we treat "the least amongst us." He believed that, because he had been one of those "least amongst us" in his life. [. . .] Here's a strange story from my great-grandfather John Howes whose earliest rebellion against religion--I am slightly embarassed to say--was to pee in the holy water before Easter service when he was a young Catholic boy in Canada. Garry Trudeau: weak, sensitive boy traumatized by prep school, not a product of "old money liberalism" The Myth of Old Money Liberalism Haidt on moral foundations 1/2 Haidt on moral foundations 2/2 The liberal progress narrative and moral foundations "No Irish Need Apply": A Myth of Victimization Journal of Social History 36.2 (2002) 405-429 "No Irish Need Apply": A Myth of Victimization Richard Jensen Retired Professor of History, University of Illinois, Chicago NW European (30/50) Jewish (7/50) Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) (3 of 51) Sidney Hillman (1887–1946) (17 of 51) Saul Alinsky (1909–72) (22 of 51) Betty Friedan (1921–2006) (38 of 51) Harvey Milk (1930–78) (41 of 51) Black (11/50) Paul Robeson (1898–1976) (21 of 51) Ella Baker (1903–86) (25 of 51) Jackie Robinson (1919–72) (27 of 51) Thurgood Marshall (1908–93) (29 of 51) Bayard Rustin (1912–87) (32 of 51) Malcolm X (1925–65) (37 of 51) Muhammad Ali (1942–) (46 of 51) Hispanic (1/50) Cesar Chavez (1927–93) (40 of 51) Arab (1/50) Ralph Nader (1934–) (42 of 51) NW European (4/11) Jewish (6/11) Black (1/11)
Your DNA controls everything about you, and small changes in it can lead to really big changes in things like strength and speed. Here, Hank Green talks about three genetic mutations that allow certain people to have superhuman abilities. [Scroll down for video] 1. Mutation in the gene MSTN – Gives you huge boost in muscle mass and strength without doing any of extra strenuous workouts Different molecules affect how your muscle tissue grows, including your skeletal muscles. And myostatin – (a protein) – is one of these molecules, and it’s put together from the instructions in a gene known as MSTN. Myostatin limits muscles growth, and it ensures your muscles do not grow too large. However, one mutation in the MSTN gene changes the way the gene’s instructions are used to make myostatin – either causing the gene to stop making myostatin molecules or to stop making proteins that work. Without myostatin, your muscle tissues will grow bigger and divide way more than usual – giving you a huge boost in muscle mass and even more strength without doing any of vigorous workouts. Moreover, this mutation has also been found to cause myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy, a condition where people (and even children) can look like extra-ripped bodybuilders; and it doesn’t even cause any health problems in affected individuals. 2. Mutation in the gene ACTN3 – Boosts muscle endurance, giving you bursts of power and speed You have a gene called ACTN3 (aka the sports gene), and there’s a protein in skeletal muscles called alpha-actinin-3, which is encoded by it. Alpha-actinin-3 controls fast-twitch muscle fibers – muscle cells that have quick contraction times and give you bursts of force. They help you sprint really fast. Well, if we all have this gene, why can’t we all sprint like Usain Bolt? Turns out, most of us have a loss-of-function mutation in the ACTN3 gene, so we don’t have working alpha-actinin-3 proteins. Researchers say some elite sprinters and power athletes have at least one functional copy of this gene. 3. Mutation in the gene LRP5 – Increases bone strength and bone becomes practically unbreakable Gene LRP5 regulates bone mineral density, and is known to be a part of the Wnt signaling pathway – a signalling pathway that affects the way cells and tissue develop. A mutation in this gene cause the protein “low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5” to kickstart certain signaling pathways on your bone cells, making them grow denser and bulkier—conditions that are generally called osteosclerosis and hyperostosis. Anyone with this mutation don’t have to worry about breaking an arm or fracturing their skull as sometimes the mutation causes the bone to become practically unbreakable. Also, the same type of mutation can cause “too much hyperostosis”, which can lead to really severe forms of bone growth, like where your skull puts pressure on your brain, or your bones pinch your nerves, explains Hank in the video. 5 thoughts on “These 3 Genetic Mutations Can Transform Ordinary People Into Superhumans What Do You Think?
Mobile Blood Pressure - Technology Overview Blood pressure measurement is a critical vital sign measured during health care screening, acute care and for chronic conditions. Increasingly, blood pressure is measured out of the office at home, in pharmacies, schools, ambulances and emergency transport vehicles. Telehealth platforms encompass multiple solutions for episodic “spot” blood pressure measurement as well as monitoring. Common applications include home health, remote monitoring, ambulatory blood pressure monitors and units part of a broader package (expensive telehealth software solutions, home hubs, cloud services, etc.). The mobile solutions discussed here include consumer-based BP monitors that automatically inflate and measure and record data that can be transmitted via Internet to a software package or personal health record. The units are relatively inexpensive (<$200) and can be purchased by the consumer without a prescription or physician oversight. Units were not considered if they required purchase of a larger software package or required leasing. Each unit is small enough to pack in a backpack or suitcase. Blood-pressure instruments are standard equipment in telemedicine programs, in both store-and-forward and live video applications. As the technology has advanced from bulb and stethoscope measurements to digital readouts, so have the innovations in remote-monitoring equipment for patient use. There are variations in the basic components based on each manufacturer’s design, discussed in more detail below. Cuff and Inflation In the past, blood pressure measurement has relied on the physical measurement of liquid mercury as part of a hand inflated sphygmomanometer in order to measure arterial blood pressure readings. Now, increasingly for convenience and safety blood pressure measurement has moved to other analog and digital techniques. This review of consumer-based devices includes recent innovations in cuff, inflation mechanism, overall design and software interface. The cuff of a blood pressure gauge inflates to restrict arterial blood flow with air pressure, and measures the maximum and minimum output pressure (systolic and diastolic) of the heart. Digital home care devices utilize the wrist (radial artery) or the upper arm (brachial artery) to measure blood pressure. Consumer-based devices have long used a hand squeeze bulb to inflate the cuff. Now, self-inflating models are available and the units that integrate with software are only available with the self-inflating mechanism. Of the four models identified, two have the inflation pump attached to the cuff and two have a separate station with an air tube attached to the cuff. The blood-pressure cuffs utilize a curved/spring type wrap or a metal loop cinch bar that wraps and attaches with a Velcro wrap. The newest innovation in mobile blood pressure devices is the use of the iPhone (iPad) and application to display the numerical readings. Two of the blood pressure devices do not include a built-in display, but instead, utilize the iPhone (iPad) to show the numbers. Mobile blood-pressure devices come with either a display attached to the cuff, or will display readings on the base station or the mobile device itself (laptop, iPhone, etc.). When the cuff inflates and measurements are in progress, an operational indicator shows that the device is functioning correctly. When the reading is complete, the monitor will display the blood pressure and pulse results. Some devices are also designed to detect irregular heart rhythm, and come with a programmable alarm to notify the patient if dangerous physiological changes occur. The font size of the number displays is variable, which should be considered for patients with poor vision. Also consider if screen glare might cause the user difficulty, as the screens tend to vary in surface reflection. In the future, it would be useful for manufacturers to design units that will recite results out loud for patients with decreased eyesight. Power Supply The amount of battery power necessary for mobile blood pressure monitors will vary from vendor to vendor. Some units use conventional AA or AAA batteries, while others have internal rechargeable batteries and a power plug. Factors to consider are the replacement cost of disposable batteries and the stability of the local power source when choosing a device for home care. It seems that each of the units considered has adequate power to measure hundreds of blood pressure measurements before battery replacement is an issue. Data Storage and Communication Mobile blood pressure monitors eliminate the need for hand-written logbooks, improve data accuracy, and eliminate falsified readings. These units come with user-friendly software interfaces that need to be installed as separate applications on an iPhone (iPad) or laptop. Some of these integrate with a personal health record (PHR) such as Microsoft Health Vault. All of the units discussed include software integration that documents, records, tracks and graphically displays the blood pressure readings.
Skip to main content The Assault of Love: On Caravaggio's Annunciation 1 Jn. 4:18 To be chosen, to be favored over another—would not such an honor bring about great pleasure and delight? Not everybody, to be sure, is privileged to be selected. To be chosen means to be paradoxically distinguished from other equally tenable possibilities. No decision takes place if the best choice is already obvious because of its own merits and consequently the lack of it in others. All that is needed is to observe, weigh, and compare, and by elimination, as in a beauty pageant, the queen is distinguished from the hypothetically less beautiful, the supposedly undeserving. Whence the smiles and tears of the victor as she is crowned and adorned with flowers, bathing in confetti: she was chosen among others, because of her charm, beauty, intelligence, her body, or by whatever standards which, definitely, were already determined before she or any other candidate even appeared. Like Cinderella’s glass slipper, to be chosen in this commonplace sense is to be able to fit best to the fixed measurements defined in advance. Thus what is chosen is at bottom never him or her who was chosen, but only the measurements themselves. The chosen is paradoxically never chosen; it only masks predetermined criteria, becomes only an instance or example, a trivial model. That it was him or her who was chosen in the end becomes a matter of great indifference. To think the phenomenon of being chosen radically, the standards by which choices are made must disappear. And to set aside predetermined categories or criteria would mean having to suspend rationality which alone decides on the standards for selection. There is something arbitrary when it comes to the most important choices and decisions we make: reasons cannot be supplied to explain why this was selected and not the other. Nor is there any need to explain one’s self. As in the case when I choose to love this one person among many equally (or more) beautiful possible lovers, I cannot give any explanation to justify my choice without betraying the beloved or lying to myself. It is her whom I love without a reason, without a why. I choose her not because of this or that incentive, not because she successfully passes my requirements and possesses all the “qualities,” as we say, that I look for in a lover—ultimately I know without being able to explicate it that I choose her because I choose her. The irrational or tautological character of our fundamental choices receives its determination obviously not from the office of the intellect but from the ridiculous play of our freedom which both requires it and makes it possible. Reasons fail or disappear when it is already a matter of love. Love is free inasmuch as it can choose to love without reason—even in spite of it. One consequence of the absurdity of freedom and love is that both are rarely understood. And of things we do not understand, we at times flee in terror. So it happens that I can shock and upset the one that I choose to love when I first confess my desire for her. Unable to give an account for my choice, offering nothing else than a promise and a hope, I place my beloved in an impossible situation, that of having to face the question my sudden confession of love posed, a question she perhaps neither saw coming nor wanted to answer. The absurd and unforeseen arrival of love, never asked for and usually undeserved, assails us with questions rather than with confetti, and instead of all those pretty smiles and the exhilaration we thought being chosen would bring, it happens that in the wake of the announcement of love we shake in fear and trembling. Why me?—when it could have been anyone else easily. Caravaggio, Annunciation, 1608–10 Oil on wood transferred to canvas, 1121⁄4 x 803⁄4 in. (285 x 205 cm) Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy While receiving presents in different occasions is initially and for the most part pleasing to us, there are instances, too, when we experience dread upon the arrival of an unexplained, even mysterious gift. Luke tells us that when Gabriel announced to Mary that she was favored by God, her first response to the angel was one of neither excitement nor gratitude, but of great fear. Mary, the gospel says, was perplexed when the archangel addressed her thus: “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you” (Lk. 1:28). Confused, she wondered what the greeting meant and why she had earned God’s favor. This virgin from Nazareth, this young lady of simple birth and state, betrothed to a carpenter of no greater distinction—why and by what ways did she please the omnipotent God? What could that even possibly mean, to be favored by the God who watches over all things and peers into all the hearts of men? Why was she, who was neither wealthy nor a queen, chosen and not another? Above all: Why did God choose her to be the mother of His son who will be the King of kings? Gabriel does not ease her confusion; he explains nothing. Her fright before winged messenger, her perplexity in being chosen to be the mother of the Savior, and her bewilderment as to how she will conceive him, all these, we are to imagine, left Mary stupefied. And Gabriel confirms Mary’s dread by saying in the plainest of words: “Do not be afraid, Mary” (Lk. 1:30). Little else is said to describe the first moments of Mary’s reception of the archangel’s thundering announcement, one which, it is easy to suppose, produced in her so many powerful and confusing emotions. We are left to imagine the intricacies of those deep passions simplified and abridged by the bare words we are left with. What we lack, we have to provide. It is up to us to portray the unseen faces of the persons in scripture, to paint the moods and atmospheres of events long past. To relive or to revive the irretrievable, to give appearance to what is invisible or hidden, that is the chief duty and high claim of the painter. Religious art receives its meaning and purpose in showing us what has been scantly written. In paintings we come face to face with the angel or demon, the saint or the sinner, the cross and the garden, events in Christ’s life from his birth to his death. Face to face: the page is given a new vocabulary by the painter, a language no longer for the mind to understand and divine, but an embodied vocabulary of shapes and substances, colors and shades, faces and even emotions—the language of sight. The painter gives to us what the writer could not, that is, the gift of vision. The painter fulfills our all too human desire to see what cannot or can no longer be seen. What is more, the philosopher Jean-Luc Marion says that authentic paintings, unlike representations or copies of natural objects, are wholly new phenomena: the painter gives birth to the unseen as well as to the unforeseen. The painter is the magus who delivers the gift of seeing new appearances. “And to see is to receive, since to appear is to give (itself) to be seen” (Marion). It is the painter we turn to when the writer lacks or fails to stir up emotions or inspire. Unlike most other Annunciations in art, Caravaggio’s Annunciation, considered as his last great altarpiece before the end of his short but tumultuous life, marks the terror and surprise of the archangel’s visit. We shall be guided by this particular painting to see what could have happened to Mary on that fateful day. If the story starts with Gabriel, so too must the description begin with him. Most other Annunciations show Gabriels very much unlike Caravaggio’s: they often come in regal dress and with golden halos above their heads, with handsome faces and peaceful countenances. Caravaggio’s Gabriel is no archangel but a cupid, a boy that as one writer remarked was plucked out from the chaotic streets of Malta and Rome and forced to wear a pair of dark wings. (It was characteristic of Caravaggio to employ people from the streets he roamed day and night as models. He was accused, probably correctly, of using a prostitute as a model for the virgin in his The Death of Mary.) The boy’s face is barely seen. The shadow of his right shoulder dims his face, coloring it almost red, leaving only traces of his eyelids and nose exposed to the viewer; the rest that we see is his ruffled hair. Below Gabriel’s feet, a cloud not of heaven but of smoke supports him as he bends to an almost horizontal position well above the virgin. His posture and distance from Mary are also distinct from most depictions. Works by the other masters (Rubens, Botticelli, da Vinci, Angelico, Fouquet, Lippi, among others) show Gabriel either kneeling or bowing, some at a great distance from Mary, or assuming a plane lower than hers, in homage to his future Queen. Caravaggio’s has just entered the frame, as in a blitz, from the unseen window on the left which lets in the little light that enters the gloomy room. (Caravaggio distinctively painted most of his backgrounds black.) He hovers well above Mary, yet close to her, and his extended right arm collapses the distance even further. Having just rushed into the scene, with a dark face and a cloud of dust and smoke delivering him, his forefinger so close to her—what was this virgin to think of this boy-angel: Was he herald or executioner? What were the lilies for? There are various opinions regarding Mary’s posture and what the expression on her face means. Was her pose one of humility, subservience, or of fear—or did it speak of experiencing all those emotions at the same time? Kings and queens are respected because we both honor them and fear them. The virgin’s eyes are neither open nor half-open as in most other paintings, and are here closed in the way that we seal our eyes when we think. If she appears pensive, even lost to the scene, it is because she contemplates what is to become of her fate—that everything shall change from now on. It is always the surprise, the shock which startles: she was not ready for this, and no one will ever be, no one can ever prepare for being called, favored, and loved. Her austere surroundings confirm how she was startled by the angel and his announcement: the bed at the back is unmade, the wooden chair behind her tells us that she probably had been sitting when the angel rushed in, a bread basket and an untidy piece of cloth lie on the floor. The lady of the house was unprepared for what will be the most significant visit in her life. The darkness of the room alone was not ready for that surge of light. Called and sent forth by God to fulfill His promise, Mary is the first apostle who had to abandon the modest life and world she hitherto knew and deliver the living bread which was to nourish mankind. If Caravaggio paints an unflattering Annunciation, it is because the places where the greatest moments of our lives come to pass are not always flattering. Caravaggio’s radical point of view of life, which remains scandalous to some today, came nowhere else than from his harsh surroundings. His was a world of taverns and drunkards, gamblers and cardsharps, beggars, fortunetellers and prostitutes, duelists and criminals. (He was convicted of stabbing a man after a heated argument over a bet in a tennis game.) He made his art imitate life to bring both life to art and art to life. Life however is not pretty. The fruits in his early still life were rarely appetizing. Many of the pieces of fruit in his Bacchus are rotting, and in his Basket of Fruit a worm-eaten apple cannot be missed. That a number of patrons and cardinals who commissioned him to make altarpieces eventually rejected his paintings—with unpleasant portrayals of saints, the Virgin, and even of Christ—is not surprising at all. So if we are to understand Caravaggio’s unique portrayal of the Annunciation, we need to go back to the world of the story it belongs to and inaugurates. In its barest form, the Nativity story is the timeless narrative of a lady who, refused a suitable place to stay in with her companion, gave birth in a stable of oxen. But the often forgotten part of this story, overshadowed by the majestic arrival of kings from the east and the spectacular star which guided them, is where the story all began—there, in Mary’s humble abode of unmade beds and wooden chairs, unwashed cloths and bread baskets lying on the floor. The story of our salvation begins with that implausible event when one unremarkable woman from one unremarkable place was remarkably chosen without her knowing why and without her being prepared. That woman says Yes, and her life, and ours, will be forever changed. But to be chosen, to be favored—that is not enough. When love announces itself, you must first respond. A decision must be made. Shall I doubt the love offered to me, remain in disbelief, knowing I do not deserve it?—One always finds ways to excuse one’s self when it comes to love. I can say that I am not yet ready, or that I am unworthy. I can also refuse the gift because I simply cannot understand it. It happens also that the arrival of love simply terrifies us, leaving us afraid to love and be loved.—Or shall I receive the gift, dare my fate, and make that heartrending wager of love? If we are to learn anything from the Annunciation, it is that the greatest decisions we make ultimately come down to a decision between fear and love. Mary teaches us the great lesson that love overcomes fear and perplexity and makes us richer and more beautiful than we are. “Let it be done to me according your word” (Lk. 1:38): Mary’s fiat tells me that love begins by pronouncing that virginal Yes to the one who first chose to love no one other than me, undeserving and unprepared I may be. December 24, 2011 1. Anonymous1/06/2012 isa sa mga pinaka mapangahas na pamamaraang ginagamit sa larangan ng conservation ng mga paintings ay ang paglilipat ng support, sa kaso ng likhang sining na ito ni Caravaggio, mula sa wooden panel patungo sa tela o canvas. Sa Pilipinas, wala pa akong nalalaman na matagumpay na nakagawa na ng ganitong teknik sa alinman sa iilang Conservation Laboratories sa Pilipinas. 2. Maraming bahagi ng pinta ang nasira na, at kinailangan ng mabusising retouching at reconstruction upang mabuo muli. Ang pinakamaayos na bahagi na natira ay ang anghel--na interesante kung iisipin. Salamat, kaibigan. 3. Mapalad ka Santo at nakita mo na ito ng personal. Sana, isang araw ay magkaroon din ako ng pagkakataong magawa ang mabusising prosesong ito sa laboratoryo. Subalit kung iisipin, bibihira lamang ang mga panel paintings dito sa Pilipinas, at karaniwan ay gumamit ang mga pintor ng mga sadyang matitibay na kahoy, kaya't walang nangangailangan ng dagliang paglilipat ng paint layer. Ano nga kaya ang ibig ipahiwatig ng pangyayaring, tanging ang imahe lamang ng anghel na tagapagbalita ang nanatiling maayos matapos ang pagkakalipat? 4. Kaibigang Rommel, Marahil dahil hindi na lamang si Maria ang binibisita ng anghel na may dalang mabuting balita na tayo'y iniibig ng Diyos, kundi tayong lahat: na sinumang tao ay inaanyayahan ng Diyos upang magtiwala sa kanya at sabihin ang banal na Oo. Dahil magiging walang saysay ang himala ng Fiat ng Ina kung ang bawat isa'y mananatili sa yungib ng Hindi. Bagamat hindi naman tayo magsisilang ng Anak ng Ama, ang bawat isa ay may tawag na hangarin ang hangad ng ama. At ang unang hakbang ay ang tumayo sa harap ng anghel--palitan ang kinalalagyan ni Maria sa nasirang pininita ni Caravaggio--upang tanggapin ang pagdating ng dakilang anghel na ipapahayag ang saloobin ng Diyos para sa atin. Interesante, kaibigan, makipag-usap sa isang marunong sa mga likhang sining gaya mo. Ikaw ang mapalad. Ako'y taga-tingin at taga-isip lamang--laging mula sa malayo, kaya laging matabang. 1. Iyan marahil ang pinakamalaking dahilan kung bakit ganuon na lamang ang paghanga at pagdadakila ng marami sa atin kay Maria, sapagkat walang pag aalinlangan niyang ibinigay ang kanyang pagsang ayon sa isang malaking planong ni wala man lamang siyang nalalaman, isang desisyong makailang beses na magbibigay ng maluwalhating kaligayahan ngunit sa isang banda'y dudurog at tulad ng propesiya ng banal na si Simeon ay parang balaraw na tatarak sa kanyang puso. Para sa akin, ang mga likhang sining ay mas mainam na minamasdan sa malayo, dahil mas nakikita ang dulot ng pagsasama sama ng mga kulay at anyo kaysa sa malapitan. Hindi naman nangangailangan ng maka pawis-dugong pagmumuni muni upang malaman kung ano ang nais ipahiwatig ng isang likhang sining, ang ngiting mamumutawi sa iyong mga labi, o pagkainis, o maari ding kurot sa pusong iyong mararamdaman sa unang pagkakakita sa isang likha ang siyang kahulugan nito. 5. Narining ko iyang payo na iyan pagdating sa pagmamasid sa mga likhang sinang, at wari ko'y mabuting payo iyan. Ang iba kasi ay may paghangad na "makita" and nakikita ng iba, lalo na ang mga nakatagong kahulugan na pinag-uusapan o madaling mapalitaw ng mga dalubhasa. Kaya naman nagiging mahirap para sa isang baguhan, gaya ko, na "makapasok" sa dialogo. Kasi ang gagaling na nila, kay talas ng mga mata. Naging tulong sa akin, maliban sa payo na aking nabanggit, ang pagbubukas lamang ng isip na inuutos ng penomenolohikal na metodo. Sinasabi nito na iantala muna natin, o isantabi, ang mga paunang hatol tungkol sa esensya at eksistensya ng mga nagpapakita, sa sandaling ito, ng mga likhang sining--mga tanong na ano ba talaga ito, ano ang "mensahe" ng pintor, at tunay ba ito?--at hayaan lamang magpakita ang mula sa sarili nito'y nais magpakita. Maaring mayroon kang makita, maaaring wala. At kung wala, hindi ito nangangailangang maging kakulangan sa iyong bahagi: baka nagtatago lang ang Meron. Maaari kang maghintay, o maaari kang lumisan. Baka hindi para sa iyo, gaya ng pag-ibig na wala sa ibang tao, ang pinta na iyong nasilayan. Kaya kurot man iyan, lungkot, pagkamangha at kahit pagkabagot sa isang pinta--ang lahat ng iyan ay isang atitud pa rin natin sa nagpapamalas ng sarili nito. Magpasalamat na lamang tayo na, sa unang banda, at mayroong nagpakita. Buti pa ang pinta. Kasi kadalasan mas mahilig magtago ang taon at sinasadya ito. Ang banal na aral ng isang likhang sining ay ito: gaya ng katotohanan, nais nitong magpakita sa kaluwalhatian nito--at walang humpay itong magpapakita dahil, bukod sa ito ang tungkulin nito, wala rin itong magagawa kundi magpakita sa hubad na pagkapako nito. Salamat, kaibigan. Post a Comment Popular posts from this blog The Fields of Amorsolo [Payapang Daigdig] Written by Pat Nogoy, S.J. Payapang Daigdig Felipe de Leon, Sr. Kay hinhin ng hangin Waring umiibig Sa kapayapaan Ng buong daigdig Payapang panahon Ay diwa ng buhay Biyaya ng Diyos Sa sangkatauhan Pati mga tala Sa bughaw na langit The gift delivers Being/being Jean Luc Marion There is something about the night. Without Why (The Rose) II Kingship belongs to the child. Heraclitus, Fragment 52
Speaking at the Cambridge Union debating society, Prof Dawkins argued that religion hindered scientific endeavour by "peddling false explanations". Dr Rowan Williams offered a counter argument, saying religion undoubtedly had a place in the 21st century and the issue was not whether it should exist, but what our attitude towards it should be. He added that modern attitudes towards human rights had their foundations in religious traditions. The pair were part of a debate on the proposition "religion has no place in the 21st Century" in front of an audience of about 800, who packed the famous 200-year-old university debating club's chambers. Early in his address, Prof Dawkins made a provocative comparison between Christian and Islamic traditions, describing himself as a "cultural Anglican". "I'm grateful, by the way, to be a cultural Anglican when you think of the competition," he added. "If I were a cultural Muslim, I would have something to say about that faith's appalling attitude to women and various other moral points." Stressing that his central concern was simply whether religion was true, he summed up his argument, by describing religion as a "cop-out". He added: "It is a betrayal of the intellect, a betrayal of all that's best about what makes us human. It's a phony substitute for an explanation, which seems to answer the question until you examine it and realise that it does no such thing." In his address, Lord Williams said: "Religion has always been a matter of community building, a matter of building relations of compassion, fellow-feeling and, dare I say it, inclusion. The notion that religious commitment can be purely a private matter is one that runs against the grain of religious history." Lord Williams added that respect for human life and equality was inherent in all organised religion. "The very concept of human rights has profound religious roots," he added. "The convention of human rights would not be what it is were it not for the history of philosophical religious debate."
Explore our categories Painful Boils 19years old Prakash was suffering from large boils on face and recurrent painful boils with oozing of pus in the armpits since 6months. He started going to the gym 6months ago and use to wear dry fit clothes while exercising. He sweats profusely when he exercises. He says that after he started gym, he started to get these boils in the armpits. He went to a municipal hospital and was examined by a skin specialist. He was told that he suffered of Cystic Acne on face and Hydradenitis Suppurativa in armpits. He was given antibiotics and some powders to apply externally to prevent sweat. But it would be better till he was taking medicine and it would recur as soon as the efficacy of the conventional medicine would become less. Then he resorted to homoeopathic treatment and after complete case study he was given homeopathic medicines. The boils had subsided in a month’s time. He continued the treatment for 11months and there was no recurrence of the problem. A boil is an infection of the skin or the hair follicle, it is a painful sore filled with pus. In most cases boils are caused by Staphylococcus bacteria. Ingrown hair, plugged sweat glands or an injury to the skin- all of these can promote the growth of staphylococcus leading to boils. In addition, certain diseases or medications can also trigger recurrent boils. There are three major types of boils: • Cystic acne: Deep seated boils that occur on the face. • Hydradenitis Suppurativa: Painful boils in the armpits, due to infected sweat glands. • Pilonidal Cysts: Deep seated boils, occurring in the cleft between the buttocks. Boils usually start as a localized, painful and hard eruption. In a couple of days it becomes larger, softer and more painful and fills up with pus. Then it develops a ‘head’ which drains off pus by itself or needs to be drained out. The most common areas where boils develop are the face, armpits, shoulders, buttocks and back. When the infection is severe, the person with boils may develop fever and swollen lymphnodes. In recurrent boils, your doctor may need to investigate you for diabetes, or reduced immunity triggered by other diseases or medications. Homoeopathy for Boils Homoeopathy has excellent treatment for Hydradenitis Suppurativa unlike conventional medicines which has only antibiotics, powders and surgery as last option. Homoeopathic medicines given in any case of boils helps to treat the ailment as well as it prevents the recurrence of boils. Homoeopathy can save a person from undergoing surgical draining of boils. Homeopathic treatment is painless unlike surgery in conventional treatment. Homoeopathy has zero side effects. Diabetics can safely take homoeopathic treatment for boils and can be rest assured that they would never have to go through painful non-healing wound phase. Do It Yourself Apply warm compresses and soak the boil in warm water. Keep a wash cloth in warm water and use it to squeeze out the surplus moisture. This will decrease the pain and help draw the pus to the surface. When the boil starts draining, wash it with a mild antibacterial soap until all the pus is gone. Continue to wash the infected area 2-3 times a day and use warm compresses until the wound heals. Do not the boil with a needle. This may only worsen the infection. Speak to your doctor when the boil does not drain out, or if you have fever with boils- more so, if you are a diabetic or have a heart disease. Wearing cotton clothes will help to soak sweat better. Ill-fitting tight dry-fit clothes increase chances of developing Wash your face wild mild facewash to prevent excess oil which could lead to super added infections. Get our latest articles delivered to your inbox Subscribe to our blog and get our latest updates. Forgot Password email id not registered with us sms SMS - Clinic details to invalid no Thank you for registering for our newsletter.
Steroid Hearing Loss in Dogs Dogs can suffer from hearing loss just like people can, and certain drugs may contribute to deafness. Dogs can suffer from hearing loss just like people can, and certain drugs may contribute to deafness. (Image: little watchdog image by Brenda Carson from Steroids are used to treat certain autoimmune symptoms and related ailments in dogs. Anti-inflammatory steroids are commonly used to treat joint and tissue inflammation or arthritis, as well as certain skin conditions. While steroids can be effective in helping your dog feel better, there are several potential side effects from the medicine's use in canines. How Steroids Are Administered Steroids for dogs are typically administered orally as a tablet, on skin directly as a cream or ointment or as ear drops. If your dog is being prescribed a steroid for a condition, ask about its side effects and whether there is the potential for hearing loss or deafness. Hearing loss can sometimes occur from damage occurring in the ear canal or inner ear. Make sure a veterinarian explains a particular medicine's benefits and risks so you can make an informed decision. Hearing Loss as a Side Effect Hearing loss from an infection and/or use of certain medications can occur, though in some cases it is temporary and will be restored over time. In other cases, the medication will actually cause permanent hearing loss, and in extreme cases, deafness. Some steroid medications can cause side effects that include an unhealthy coat, diarrhea, vomiting, weight gain and elevated liver enzymes, but hearing loss is not typically associated with the use of steroids in dogs. Using certain drugs that are inserted directly into the ears can lead to hearing loss, so ask about potential side effects of any such medications. How Long Hearing Loss May Be Experienced If your dog experiences hearing loss while being treated with steroids, check with your pet's veterinarian immediately. Sometimes, hearing loss can be associated with other symptoms or ailments, such as an ear infection, and is considered only a temporary condition. If the inner ear canal or other parts of the ear are injured, whether as a result of a disease, an ailment or drugs that are applied to the ears, hearing loss can be permanent. Other Side Effects of Steroids Steroids can cause various side effects in your pet, so make sure you find out from your veterinarian what to look for while your dog is taking them. Digestive issues, excessive thirst and panting, skin problems, degeneration of muscles and behavioral changes are possible consequences of steroid use. At the same time, steroids can improve your pet's quality of life and may be the best course of treatment. Many side effects noted occur after longer-term, continued use and not as a result of short-term treatment. Other Reasons for Hearing Loss Steroid use may not actually have anything to do with a dog's hearing loss, but if you detect your pet is struggling ask a veterinarian to check your dog's symptoms to see if a more effective treatment plan should be considered. Prolonged steroid use an sometimes lead to renal failure or diabetes and develop into hearing loss. If your dog is older, hearing and vision loss may be unrelated symptoms that are a function of his age and not drugs. Related Searches Promoted By Zergnet You May Also Like Related Searches Check It Out How to Make an Elevated Dog Feeder Submit Your Work!
Cancer is one ailment, which cause due to the various reason and in various parts of the body that can occur at any time. Most cancers have the possibility to have an effect on each organ in the body. Most commonly, it occurs due to the daily lifestyle trouble or improper being. Widespread Kinds of Most cancers Over one thousand cases are usually been diagnosed every year, with increased young people possessing cancer than previously. The nearly all widespread forms of cancers determined by regularity regarding prognosis are: Types of Cancer is categorize according to the body parts Body Cancer: bone marrow cause due to the cell increase in bone that provide rise to crimson body cells, white-colored body cellular material, and also platelets will often grow to be cancerous. These malignancies are the leukemia disease as well as lymphoma. Leukemia and Lymphoma Bone Cancer: Navicular bone cancers are often a relatively uncommon sort of cancer malignancy that will influence both children and adults, yet mainly has an effect on youngsters along with adolescence. Numerous kinds of bone tissue cancer; nevertheless, the mainly general varieties tend to be: Ewing’s Sarcoma and Osteosarcoma Brain Cancers: Brain tumors can be cancerous as well as not cancerous (non-cancerous). That they affects on both kids and matured people. Dangerous human brain cancers do not typically spread at night brain. Even so, other kinds of cancer have the skill to extend towards the mind. Kinds of mind cancer malignancy consist of: adult brain tumor and Cerebral astrocytoma/Malignant glioma in childhood Breast cancer: Breast cancer is a type of type of cancer in which influences women and a smaller amount frequently, males. More than Two hundred, females tend to be informed they have breast cancers in the us each year. Forms of breast cancer include it is unlimited to: inflammatory breast cancer and paget’s disease of the nipple Digestive Cancers: This is the wide sort of cancer malignancy, which influences from the esophagus to the butt. Each kind is actually certain and possesses its own signs, brings about, along with remedies. Small Intestine Cancer and Stomach (Gastric) Cancer Eye Cancer: Such as various other parts in the body, your eye area is prone to cancer malignancy too. Attention cancer malignancy could affect to all generation. Melanoma, Intraocular and Retinoblastoma Gynecologic cancer: This specific set of cancer malignancy varieties customize the bodily parts of the women the reproductive system. Specific oncologists called gynecologic oncologists generally appropriate for managing gynecologic cancer. Ovarian Cancer and Vaginal Cancer
Zika Virus: Rising Epidemic Image result for images of mosquitoes Lately in the news we’ve been hearing about how the Zika Virus is on the rise, and that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is working effortlessly to keep this contained. But, what do we really know about this virus? What are the major effects of this virus? Should we be concerned? Below are a few things to keep in mind when encounter the number one killer in America. We first know that this virus causes microcephaly in pregnant women, which is the baby being born with an abnormally small head. But is this the only thing this virus causes? Well, for starters, a simple mosquito bite won’t just send you to the hospital. For the most part you swat it away, and then scratch at the site. The reason it is itchy is because the saliva from the mosquito bite causes it to itch. They use an anesthetic to bite you, so you don’t feel it at first. This allows them to feed off you freely. But what other symptoms does this virus have. If you have thoroughly done your research, then you would know that this virus mimicks symptoms of the flu. It causes fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, body aches and so forth. But, one has to ask when getting bit by a mosquito is the Zika Virus the only thing I should be worried about? If we take a look at all the diseases associated with this killing machine, one would ask why does the media focus so much on just this one virus. I’ll tell you why. It’s because as with a lot of viruses, this virus didn’t originate in the U.S., so scientist and doctors knew very little about this virus. Not only that, it was only being transmitted to those traveling outside of the country. So why is there no vaccine for something like this? Simple, enough research and cases of this virus must be spread throughout the United States before measures of this multitude take place. Right now, there are only 43 confirmed cases of the Zika Virus in the United States and they are currently in Florida. Image result for images of mosquitoes So, now that raises the question of whether or not this virus is on the rise to becoming the next epidemic. If I had to guess, I’d say over the next few months, states in the South will feel this virus hard. Why only in the south you say? Most of the people coming back with this virus have gone to countries like Brazil, and what better state in the U.S., closer to bring the virus back to? That’s right you guessed it, Florida. The good old Sunshine State. Now that’s not to say that the mosquitos won’t travel, but as of now, they are pretty much confined to the Florida. Image result for images of mosquitoes In order to protect yourself from the threat of mosquitos, remove any and all stagnant water. This is breeding grounds for mosquitos. Mosquitos usually feed around dusk or late in the evening, so if at all possible, try to be in the house or get some bug repellent to keep them at bay. I know in the summer months, the last thing you want to wear are jeans or pants, but this is also another method of preventing bites. If you are spending the day outside, try to steer clear of perfume. This attracts them. I also urge you to read the labels on the back of your lotion bottles. Some lotions contains ingredients in bug repellent and may repel the mosquitos inadvertently. You can also contact your local bug control and see when they come out and spray for mosquitos. Remember, if you start to feel sick or weak after a mosquito bite, please go to your local emergency room and get evaluated immediately. While the Zika Virus is the main concern from mosquitos right now, you should be aware that mosquitos can transmit HIV/AIDs, and Hepatitis C as these a blood born illnesses. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Illustration showing Cassini scanning Titan During the flyby, Cassini will attempt to study the elevations of Titan’s smaller methane lakes — maybe even measuring their depth and composition. So Long, and Thanks for All the Science Cassini’s 127th and final close flyby of Titan marks the end of Cassini’s Ring-Grazing Orbits and sets the stage for the mission’s Grand Finale. This final close flyby of Titan provides Cassini with its longest-duration RADAR observation to look for changes in Titan’s methane lakes and seas, as well as its first attempt to study the depth and composition of Titan’s smaller lakes. The RADAR instrument will also take its final look at Titan’s “magic island.” During the RADAR observation, Cassini’s Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) will collect its final samples of ions and neutral particles around Titan. Combined with Cassini’s previous INMS observations, this one will help scientists understand how the densities of these diffuse gas particles in Titan's uppermost atmosphere change over time. Cassini’s Magnetometer (MAG) instrument will then explore the northern sector of Titan’s magnetic tail; Titan doesn’t produce a detectable magnetic field itself, but it has a tail-like structure (or magnetotail) resulting from the moon’s ionosphere interaction with the excited gas in Saturn’s magnetosphere. This north polar flyby is the last opportunity, and one of the best of the entire mission, for Cassini to make such an observation. The spacecraft’s visible light camera, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS), will acquire its final global-scale and regional-scale mosaics of the mission over Titan’s leading hemisphere, at mid-southern latitudes, including the intriguing basin region called Hotei Regio. Last but certainly not least, Cassini will also use Titan’s gravity as a pivot point to change the shape of the spacecraft’s orbit. The flyby will shrink the orbit slightly, so that instead of flying just outside of the rings as it did during the Ring-Grazing Orbits, the spacecraft's path will shoot through the narrow space between Saturn’s upper atmosphere and its rings. No spacecraft has traveled through that region before. Cassini will repeat the dive 22 times, about every seven days, in the mission’s Grand Finale. Cassini’s change in trajectory will also be ballistic at that point, like a cannonball after it's fired -- even if controllers made no further course adjustments, Cassini is still fated to enter Saturn’s atmosphere Sept. 15 for the end of the mission. Titan T-126 Flyby Date: April 22, 2017 Altitude: 608 miles (979 km) Speed (relative to Titan): 13,000 mph (5.8 km/sec)
Mid-Semester Project Jarod Hoogland Figure & Ground Although a basic concept, many artists create art which causes the user to perceive figure and ground in different ways within the same piece. Most art works draw the watcher to a focal point, resting against a backdrop. When an artwork has multiple focal points which can be understood as both the subject and the backdrop, the artist is intentionally utilizing figure & ground flipping. In this promotional poster for Brave, artist Michael Depippo has two figures, the girl and the bear. Each figure, however, can only be fully understood using the elements of the other figure as its ground. Figure & Ground: A concept poster by Michael Depippo Patterns within artwork can create an illusion of shape and texture while avoiding hard edges. In Klimt’s Baby Cradle, the figure is enveloped in a pile of multi patterned blankets, and while the blankets are ill-defined, its easily understood based on the layers of pattern. The patterns also created a sense of texture, that the blankets are crumpled twisted and stacked. Pattern: Baby Cradle by Gustav Klimt Frame & Surface The choice of surface for artist now is primarily an aesthetic choice, where earlier artists may have had to choose based on durability and patron choice. An artist will also choose to frame their primary subject within an aspect ratio, placing the central figure against the ground in a deliberate way. Many artists utilize the Fibonacci or golden spiral, a logarithmic expansion that expands based on partitions of thirds. Cape Cod Morning by Edward Hopper utilizes two Fibonacci Spirals. The window frame represents the first focal point of the composition. Within the window frame, the leaning women becomes a secondary focal point. Each falls within a Fibonacci spiral measured against their enclosed space. Frame & Surface: Cape Cod Morning by Edward Hopper Texture in a work of art is often a product of the medium, but can be an intentional aspect of the art. Excess paint, added material (cloth, hair, etc) adds an additional level of depth and content to art. Alaskan artist Sonya Kelliher-Combs often utiliezes human hair within her art, mixed into the paint and among the changing shades of color. A piece by Sonya Kelliher-Combs Mark & Line Many artists will create artwork which relies on simple markings, shadings, mono-tones to convey their ideas. Without the complexities of paint and other mediums, and artist can focus on their intent and drive more meaning into the delicate (or not) of their marked art. In Seaside Resort by Paul Klee, the use of soft colors, loose lines and simple structures conveys a sense of peace and idealism. This resort is portrayed as simple, light hearted, but full of color and life. Paul Klee, 'Seaside Resort in the South of France' The Grid The use of grid or symmetrical lines can convey a sense of imposed structure, order or constraint. Many artists depict this grid, then actively work outside of the lines or disrupt the machine work in some way to convey a break from imposed order. In ‘C’, Bridget Riley shows a simple array of dots. However, with slight variations throughout the piece, the artist conveys a wave or flow, and if viewed a different way, irregular bulges. It feels very disorderly, within an ordered matrix, and doesn’t feel like there’s any singular pattern being conveyed. Bridget Riley, 'C Report Abuse
This content is not yet available over encrypted connections. John F. Kennedy Liberal Democrat John F. Kennedy Liberal Democrat Source: U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy in 1960 Wednesday, July 2, 2014 The Book Archives: Richard Brookhiser- Social and Financial Power in America: How Anglo Europeans Created America It was true Anglo Saxon British-Americans essentially built America and at the very least led to the creation of the building of America. Now you could easily make an excellent case they built America off of African slave labor. And that the African slaves really built America as slaves to the Europeans who settled the country. Which is true but the Anglo-Saxons the first Americans who weren't Indian created the freedoms that we all enjoy as Americans today. Which is the United States Constitution and for that they deserve a lot of credit.
Japan's Meltdown Reveals Weaknesses in U.S. Nuclear Power Last Updated Mar 14, 2011 6:25 PM EDT The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan has exposed a weakness at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, where operators are struggling to stabilize three reactors and prevent a meltdown. In short, the back-up system -- the kind of thing you want your neighborhood nuclear reactor to have -- is vulnerable. Unfortunately, for the nuclear power industry and companies like General Electric, this couldn't have come at a worse time. U.S. lawmakers hoping to make a renewed push for nuclear energy will likely be met with apprehension and fear -- some of it justified. Politicians spent the weekend backtracking on their commitments to the nuclear industry, including Sen. Joe Lieberman, who told CBS' Face the Nation that the U.S. should put the brakes on a nuclear power plant building revival for now. Lieberman's caution isn't unfounded. Of the 104 nuclear power plants in the U.S., about 30 of them are built according to designs similar to the Fukushima plant, the FT noted. A flaw exposed It's not that the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station operated by Tokyo Electric Power failed. The reactor automatically shut down -- as it should -- after the earthquake hit. The problem stems more from the tsunami. Even after a plant shuts down, it continues to produce huge amounts of heat that must be dissipated by the emergency cooling system. To generate electricity safely in a nuclear power plant, there must be an outside electrical source to run the pumps that keep cooling water circulating through the system. That outside source is the area's electrical grid, which was badly damaged by the tsunami. Ah, but they have a back up plan! Which also failed. The Los Angeles Times explains the ensuing and ironic situation: All reactors have diesel emergency generators to provide backup electricity, but apparently those at Fukushima No. 1 were damaged by the tsunami and are inoperable. The reactor also has backup batteries to take over in such an event, and authorities were able to bring those on line and restore the flow of coolant after less than an hour. But those batteries have a life no more than about eight hours, according to nuclear expert Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear, an organization working to "free the world from nuclear power and nuclear weapons." Another back up plan fails As of Monday, Tokyo Electric is now pumping sea water into the reactor in hopes of cooling the fuel rods and preventing a large release of radiation into the atmosphere. That they are using sea water is a testament to their desperation. Once sea water is pumped into a reactor it will no longer be able to produce electricity. But at the No. 2 reactor even the sea water strategy didn't work. The pump used to flood the reactor with sea water ran out of fuel, the NYT reported. The water level inside the reactor has fallen and exposed fuel rods at its core. Regardless of whether operators are able to keep the cooling systems functioning, the damage to the pro-nuclear effort has already been done. Preventing a meltdown is essentially a numbers game, and one most folks would care not to play. In short, when your electrical grid fails, your back-up diesel generators fail and your batteries have a short life, timing is absolutely critical. If power to the cooling supply is interrupted the coolant could boil off in as little as an hour. Photo of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station from Tokyo Electric Power
Wednesday, July 17, 2013 7/17 The Mammoth Site This is a non-profit organization that operates a long-term dig in a site where at least 61 mammoths have been discovered. The land was sold at cost to create the non-profit after it was determined that this site, which was supposed to be a housing development, was a valuable archeological site. Way back about 27,000 years ago, a sinkhole from a collapsed limestone cave filled up with water to create a pond with steep sides. Mammoths, mostly the Columbian mammoths, slid down the sides to get a drink and then could not get out again. This occurred actually over thousands of years as the pond eventually filled up with silt that covered the dead animals. Eventually, it became a mudhole where mammoths and other animals used it to cool off, packing down the mud into the old sinkhole. Eventually the soft limestone surrounding the mudhole weathered away, leaving the denser mud. When a bulldozer started preparing the ground for development, mammoth bones and teeth were discovered. Drill holes have determined that there are 65 feet of bones, while only the top 25 feet have been excavated. Nearly all the bones have been left in place, so you can see the positions of the dead animals. A building was built around the site to preserve it and allow research to continue with the University of South Dakota and volunteer groups. It is really a neat place. All of the bones are from 20-35 year-old males, with the assumption being that like elephants, the females and young were in herds and knew better than to drink from the pond. These next two photos show the most complete mammoth skeletons found. On the wall, you can see the relative size of the various types of mammoths and modern elephants. There is a small exhibit hall next door where they have reconstructed some of the mammoths and an example of a dwelling constructed entirely of mammoth bones and skin, as has been found in northern Europe. And finally, as I left, I noticed outside the sifting area where they put all of the dirt that has come from digging so they can sift it for tiny bones and plant material. I really enjoyed this place and bought a few booklets in the gift shop. I don't mind buying things when the organization is non-profit. Oh, and you can sign up for educational programs here, lasting from a day to a week or more! 1 comment: 1. Never been here. This is very interesting. Also I really enjoyed you Utube video of the bison.
Wednesday, 30 April 2014 History According to the 16th-century Portuguese historian Emanuel Godinho de Erédia, the site of the old city of Malacca was named after the Myrobalans, fruit-bearing trees along the banks of a river called Airlele (Ayer Leleh). The Airlele river was said to originate from Buquet China (present-day Bukit Cina). Eredia cited that the city was founded by Permicuri (i.e. Parameswara) the first King of Malacca in 1411. The capture of Malacca Further information: Capture of Malacca (1511) The news of Malacca's wealth attracted the attention of Manuel I, King of Portugal and he sent Admiral Diogo Lopes de Sequeira to find Malacca, to make a trade compact with its ruler as Portugal's representative east of India. The first European to reach Malacca and Southeast Asia, Sequeira arrived in Malacca in 1509. Although he was initially well received by Sultan Mahmud Shah trouble however quickly ensued.[1] The general feeling of rivalry between Islam and Christianity was invoked by a group of Goa Muslims in the sultan's court after the Portuguese had captured Goa.[2] The international Muslim trading community convinced Mahmud that the Portuguese were a grave threat. Mahmud subsequently captured several of his men, killed others and attempted to attack the four Portuguese ships, although they escaped. As the Portuguese had found in India, conquest would be the only way they could establish themselves in Malacca.[1] In April 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque set sail from Goa to Malacca with a force of some 1200 men and seventeen or eighteen ships.[1] The Viceroy made a number of demands—one of which was for permission to build a fortress as a Portuguese trading post near the city.[2] The Sultan refused all the demands. Conflict was unavoidable, and after 40 days of fighting, Malacca fell to the Portuguese on 24 August. A bitter dispute between Sultan Mahmud and his son Sultan Ahmad also weighed down the Malaccan side.[1] Following the defeat of the Malacca Sultanate in 15 August 1511 in the capture of Malacca, Afonso de Albuquerque sought to erect a permanent form of fortification in anticipation of the counterattacks by Sultan Mahmud. A fortress was designed and constructed encompassing a hill, lining the edge of the sea shore, on the south east of the river mouth, on the former site of the Sultan's palace. Albuquerque remained in Malacca until November 1511 preparing its defences against any Malay counterattack.[1] Sultan Mahmud Shah was forced to flee Malacca. A Portuguese port in a hostile region As the first base of European Christian trading kingdom in Southeast Asia, it was surrounded by numerous emerging native Muslim states. Also, with hostile initial contact with the local Malay policy, Portuguese Malacca faced severe hostility. They endure years of battles started by Malay sultans who wanted to get rid of the Portuguese and reclaim their land. The Sultan made several attempts to retake the capital. He rallied the support from his ally the Sultanate of Demak in Java who, in 1511, agreed to send naval forces to assist. Led by Pati Unus, the Sultan of Demak, the combined Malay–Java efforts failed and were fruitless. The Portuguese retaliated and forced the sultan to flee to Pahang. Later, the sultan sailed to Bintan Island and established a new capital there. With a base established, the sultan rallied the disarrayed Malay forces and organized several attacks and blockades against the Portuguese's position. Frequent raids on Malacca caused the Portuguese severe hardship. In 1521 the second Demak campaign to assist the Malay Sultan to retake Malacca was launched, however once again failed with the cost of the Demak Sultan's life. He was later remembered as Pangeran Sabrang Lor or the Prince who crossed (the Java Sea) to North (Malay Peninsula). The raids helped convince the Portuguese that the exiled sultan's forces must be silenced. A number of attempts were made to suppress the Malay forces, but it wasn't until 1526 that the Portuguese finally razed Bintan to the ground. The sultan then retreated to Kampar in Riau, Sumatra where he died two years later. He left behind two sons named Muzaffar Shah and Alauddin Riayat Shah II. Muzaffar Shah was invited by the people in the north of the peninsula to become their ruler, establishing the Sultanate of Perak. Meanwhile, Mahmud's other son, Alauddin succeeded his father and made a new capital in the south. His realm was the Johor Sultanate, the successor of Malacca. Several attempts to remove Malacca from Portuguese rule were made by the Sultan of Johor. A request sent to Java, in 1550, resulted in Queen Kalinyamat, the regent of Jepara, sending 4,000 soldiers in 40 ships to meet the Johor sultan's request to take Malacca. The Jepara troops later joined forces with the Malay alliance and manage to rally around 200 warships. The combined forces attacked from the north and captured most of Malacca, but the Portuguese managed to retaliate and force back the invading forces. Malay alliance troops were thrown back to the sea, while the Jepara troops remained on shore. Only after their leaders were slain were the Jepara troops withdrawn. The battle continued on the beach and in the sea and killed more than 2,000 Jepara soldiers. A storm stranded two Jepara ships on the shore of Malacca, and they fell prey to the Portuguese. Fewer than half of the Jepara soldiers managed to leave Malacca. In 1567, Prince Husain Ali I Riayat Syah from the Sultanate of Aceh launched a naval attack to oust the Portuguese from Malacca, but this once again ended in failure. In 1574 a combined attack from Aceh Sultanate and Javanese Jepara tried again to capture Malacca from the Portuguese, but ended in failure due to poor coordination. Competition from other ports such as Johor saw Asian traders bypass Malacca and the city began to decline as a trading port.[3] Rather than achieving their ambition of dominating it, the Portuguese had fundamentally disrupted the organisation of the Asian trade network. Rather than a centralised port of exchange of Asian wealth exchange, or a Malay state to police the Strait of Malacca that made it safe for commercial traffic, trade was now scattered over a number of ports amongst bitter warfare in the Straits.[3] Chinese military retaliation against Portugal The Malay Malacca Sultanate was a tributary state and ally to Ming Dynasty China. When Portugal conquered Malacca in 1511, the Chinese responded with violent force against the Portuguese. Following the attack, the Chinese refused to accept a Portuguese embassy.[4] The Chinese Imperial Government imprisoned and executed multiple Portuguese diplomatic envoys after torturing them in Guangzhou. A Malaccan envoy had informed the Chinese of the Portuguese seizure of Malacca, which the Chinese responded to with hostility toward the Portuguese. The Malaccan envoy told the Chinese of the deception the Portuguese used, disguising plans for conquering territory as mere trading activities, and told his tale of deprivations at the hands of the Portuguese.[5] Malacca was under Chinese protection and the Portuguese invasion angered the Chinese.[6] Due to the Malaccan Sultan lodging a complaint against the Portuguese invasion to the Chinese Emperor, the Portuguese were greeted with hostility from the Chinese when they arrived in China.[7] The Sultan's complaint caused "a great deal of trouble" to Portuguese in China.[8] The Chinese were very "unwelcoming" to the Portuguese.[9] The Malaccan Sultan, based in Bintan after fleeing Malacca, sent a message to the Chinese, which combined with Portuguese banditry and violent activity in China, led the Chinese authorities to execute 23 Portuguese and torture the rest of them in jails. After the Portuguese set up posts for trading in China and committed piratical activities and raids in China, the Chinese responded with the complete extermination of the Portuguese in Ningbo and Quanzhou[10] Pires, a Portuguese trade envoy, was among those who died in the Chinese dungeons.[11] Chinese boycott and counterattacks Chinese traders boycotted Malacca after it fell under Portuguese control, some Chinese in Java assisted in Muslim attempts to reconquer the city from Portugal using ships. The Java Chinese participation in retaking Malacca was recorded in "The Malay Annals of Semarang and Cerbon"[12] trading the Chinese did business with Malays and Javanese instead of the Portuguese.[13] Dutch conquest and the end of Portuguese Malacca Further information: Battle of Malacca (1641) In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company (Dutch: Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC) began contesting Portuguese power in the East. At that time, the Portuguese had transformed Malacca into an impregnable fortress, the Fortaleza de Malaca, controlling access to the sea lanes of the Straits of Malacca and the spice trade there. The Dutch started by launching small incursions and skirmishes against the Portuguese. The first serious attempt was the siege of Malacca in 1606 by the third VOC fleet from Holland with eleven ships, led by Admiral Cornelis Matelief de Jonge that lead to the naval battle of Cape Rachado. Although the Dutch were routed, the Portuguese fleet of Martim Afonso de Castro, the Viceroy of Goa; suffered heavier casualties and the battle rallied the forces of the Sultanate of Johor in an alliance with the Dutch and later on with the Aceh Sultanate. In early 17th century, the Sultanate of Aceh grew into a regional power with formidable naval force and regarded Portuguese Malacca as potential threat. In 1629, Iskandar Muda of Aceh Sultanate sent several hundred ships to attack Malacca, but the mission was a devastating failure. According to Portuguese sources, all of his ships were destroyed along with 19,000 men. The Dutch with their local allies assaulted and finally wrested Malacca from the Portuguese in January 1641. This combined Dutch-Johor-Aceh efforts effectively destroyed the last bastion of Portuguese power, reducing their influence in the archipelago. The Dutch settled in the city as Dutch Malacca, however the Dutch had no intention to make Malacca their main base, and concentrated on building Batavia (today Jakarta) as their headquarters in the orient instead. The Portuguese ports in spice producing area of Mollucas also fell to the Dutch in following years, with the last Portuguese colony remained and confined only in Portuguese Timor until 20th century. Fortaleza de Malaca The early core of the fortress system was a quadrilateral tower called Fortaleza de Malaca. Measurement was given as 10 fathoms per side with a height of 40 fathoms. It was constructed at the foot of the fortress hill, next to the sea. To its east was constructed a circular wall of mortar and stone with a well in the middle of the enclosure. Over the years, constructions began to fully fortify the fortress hill. The pentagonal system began at the farthest point of the cape near south east of the river mouth, towards the west of the Fortaleza. At this point two ramparts were built at right angles to each other lining the shores. The one running northward toward the river mouth was 130 fathoms in length to the bastion of São Pedro while the other one ran for 75 fathoms to the east, curving inshore, ending at the gate and bastion of Santiago. From the bastion of São Pedro the rampart turned north east 150 fathoms past the Custom House Terrace gateway ending at the northernmost point of the fortress, the bastion of São Domingos. From the gateway of São Domingos, an earth rampart ran south-easterly for 100 fathoms ending at the bastion of the Madre de Deus. From here, beginning at the gate of Santo António, past the bastion of the Virgins, the rampart ended at the gateway of Santiago. Overall the city enclosure was 655 fathoms and 10 palms (short) of a fathom. Gateways Four gateways were built for the city; Porta de Santiago The gateway of the Custom House Terrace Porta de São Domingos Porta de Santo António Of these four gateways only two were in common use and open to traffic, the Gate of Santo António linking to the suburb of Yler and the western gate at the Custom House Terrace, giving access to Tranqueira and its bazaar. Destruction Present day Porta de Santiago. After almost 300 years of existence, in 1806, the British, unwilling to maintain the fortress and wary of letting other European powers taking control of it, ordered its slow destruction. The fort was almost totally demolished but for the timely intervention of Sir Stamford Raffles visiting Malacca in 1810. The only remnants of the earliest Portuguese fortress in Southeast Asia is the Porta de Santiago, now known as the A Famosa. Malacca Town during the Portuguese Era Outside of the fortified town center lie the three suburbs of Malacca. The suburb of Upe (Upih), generally known as Tranqueira (modern day Tengkera) from the rampart of the fortress. The other two suburb were Yler (Hilir) or Tanjonpacer (Tanjung Pasir) and the suburb of Sabba. Tranqueira Tranqueira was the most important suburb of Malacca. The suburb was rectangular in shape, with a northern walled boundary, the straits of Malacca to the south and the river of Malacca (Rio de Malaca) and the fortaleza's wall to the east. It was the main residential quarters of the city. However, in war, the residence of the quarters would be evacuated to the fortress. Tranqueira was divided into a further two parishes, São Tomé and São Estêvão. The parish of S.Tomé was called Campon Chelim (Malay: Kampung Keling). It was described that this area was populated by the Chelis of Choromandel. The other suburb of São Estêvão was also called Campon China (Kampung Cina). Erédia described the houses as made of timber but roofed by tiles. A stone bridge with sentry crosses the river Malacca to provide access to the Malacca Fortress via the eastern Custome House Terrace. The center of trade of the city was also located in Tranqueira near the beach on the mouth of the river called the Bazaar of the Jaos (Jowo/Jawa i.e. Javanese). In the present day, this part of the city is called Tengkera. Yler The district of Yler (Hilir) roughly covered Buquet China (Bukit Cina) and the south-eastern coastal area. The Well of Buquet China was one of the most important water sources for the community. Notable landmarks included the Church of the Madre De Deus and the Convent of the Capuchins of São Francisco. Other notable landmarks included Buquetpiatto (Bukit Piatu). The boundaries of this unwalled suburb were said to extend as far as Buquetpipi and Tanjonpacer. Tanjonpacer (Malay: Tanjung Pasir) was later renamed Ujong Pasir. A community descended from Portuguese settlers is still located here in present day Malacca. However, this suburb of Yler is now known as Banda Hilir. Modern land reclamations (for the purpose of building the commercial district of Melaka Raya) have, however, denied Banda Hilir the access to the sea that it formerly had. Sabba The houses of this suburb were built along the edges of the river. Some of the original Muslim Malay inhabitants of Malacca lived in the swamps of Nypeiras tree, where they were known to make Nypa (Nipah) wine by distillation for trade. This suburb was considered the most rural, being a transition to the Malacca hinterland, where timber and charcoal traffic passed through into the city. Several Christian parishes also lay outside the city along the river; São Lázaro, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Hope. While Muslim Malays inhabited the farmlands deeper into the hinterland. In later periods of Dutch, British and modern day Malacca, the name of Sabba was made obsolete. However, its area encompassed parts of what is now Banda Kaba, Bunga Raya and Kampung Jawa; and the modern city center of Malacca Portuguese Immigration The Portuguese also shipped over many Orfas del Rei to Portuguese colonies overseas in Africa and India, and also to Portuguese Malacca. Orfas del Rei literally translates to "Orphans of the King", and they were Portuguese girl orphans sent to overseas colonies to marry either Portuguese settlers or natives with high status. Portuguese administration of Malacca Malacca was administered by a Governor (a Captain-Major), who was appointed for a term of three-years, as well as a Bishop and church dignitaries representing the Episcopal See, municipal officers, Royal Officials for finance and justice and a local native Bendahara to administer the native Muslims and foreigners under the Portuguese jurisdiction. Flag Portugal (1640).svg Captains-Major of Malacca (1512–1641) Captains-major From Until Rui de Brito Patalim 1512 1514 Jorge de Albuquerque (1st time) 1514 1516 Jorge de Brito 1516 1517 Nuno Vaz Pereira 1517 1518 Afonso Lopes da Costa 1518 1519 Garcia de Sá (1st time) 1519 1521 Jorge de Albuquerque (2nd time) 1521 1525 Pero de Mascarenhas 1525 1526 Jorge Cabral 1526 1528 Pero de Faria 1528 1529 No comments: Post a Comment
Search tips Search criteria Nat Rev Genet. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 October 13. Published in final edited form as: PMCID: PMC3192332 Dynamic interactions between transposable elements and their hosts Transposable elements (TEs) have a unique ability to mobilize to new genomic locations and the major advance of next-generation DNA sequencing has provided insights into the dynamic relationship between TEs and their hosts. It now is clear that TEs have adopted diverse strategies – such as specific integration sites or patterns of activity - to thrive in host environments that are replete with mechanisms – such as small RNAs or epigenetic marks - to combat their amplification. Emerging evidence suggests that TE mobilization might sometimes benefit host genomes by enhancing genetic diversity, but TEs are also implicated in diseases such as cancer. Here, we discuss recent findings about how, where, and when TEs insert in diverse organisms. Subject categories: Evolutionary Biology, Genomics, Epigenetics, genomic instability, small RNAs Through her pioneering work in maize, Barbara McClintock was the first to realize that eukaryotic genomes are not static entities and contain transposable elements (TEs) that have the ability to move from one chromosomal location to another1. It now is clear that virtually all organisms harbor TEs that have amplified in copy number over evolutionary time via DNA or RNA intermediates. On occasion, TEs sporadically have been co-opted by the host to perform critical cellular functions(e.g., 25). However, most TEs likely are finely tuned genomic parasites that mobilize to ensure their own survival69. The genomic revolution, coupled with new DNA sequencing technologies, now provides an unprecedented wealth of data documenting TE content and mobility in a broad array of organisms. In multi-cellular eukaryotes, TEs must mobilize within gametes or during early development to be transmitted to future generations. In humans, there are at least 65 documented cases of diseases resulting from de novo TE insertions; these events account for approximately 1/1000 spontaneous cases of disease in humans5, 10. Indeed, new genomic technologies combined with cell culture based experiments have demonstrated that active TEs are more prevalent in the human population than previously appreciated1118. A growing body of evidence further suggests that mammalian TE integration occurs during early development1921. In addition, studies of neurogenesis and some forms of cancer have raised the intriguing possibility that TE activity may impact the biology of certain somatic cells12, 2224. It is likely that we only have observed the tip of the iceberg and still are underestimating the contribution of TE-mediated events to inter-and intra-individual structural variation in mammalian genomes. TE mobility poses a serious challenge to host fitness. Paradoxically, TE insertions that are harmful to the host jeopardize TE survival. Thus, many TEs have evolved highly specific targeting mechanisms that direct their integration to genomic “safe havens,” thereby minimizing their damage to the host(e.g., 2529, and references mentioned below). Nevertheless, host genomes have evolved potent restriction mechanisms, such as the methylation of TE DNA sequences and the expression of small RNAs or cytidine deaminases, to restrict TE activity in the germline and perhaps somatic cells(e.g., 3033, and references mentioned below). Interestingly, a growing number of examples suggest that TEs may become activated under certain environmental conditions, such as stress. Stress has been shown to induce TE transcription or integration, or redirect TE integration to alternative target sites3438. These findings are consistent with Barbara McClintock’s hypothesis that environmental challenges may induce transposition, and that transposition, in turn, may create genetic diversity to overcome threats to host survival39. We begin this review with a brief description of the types of TEs and their modes of mobility. We then describe the latest understanding of TE integration mechanisms and how the host defends against these attacks. Finally, we discuss exciting new research that suggests TE mobility may impact the biology of somatic cells. From the growing understanding of target site selection to the discovery of new active TE copies in human populations, it is clear that the field of transposon biology continues to yield new insights about genome biology. The diversity and abundance of transposons Mobilization mechanisms TEs mobilize by remarkably diverse replication strategies (Table 1 and Figure 1)40. Many DNA transposons mobilize by a non-replicative “cut and paste” mechanism, whereby an element-encoded enzyme, the transposase, recognizes sequences at or near TE inverted terminal repeats to “cut” the TE from its existing genomic location and then acts to “paste” the excised DNA into a new genomic location (Fig. 1a)41. Figure 1 The diverse mechanisms of transposon mobilization Table 1 Classes of transposable elements and their mobility mechanisms Retrotransposons mobilize via the reverse transcription of an RNA intermediate; however, different types of retrotransposons carry out this process by distinct mechanisms (see Fig. 1b and c). Long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons4244 (Fig. 1b) and non-LTR retrotransposons45 (Fig. 1c) use element-encoded enzymes to mediate their mobility. In addition, the endonuclease and reverse transcriptase activities of non-LTR retrotransposons also play a central role in mobilizing non-autonomous Short INterspersed Elements (SINEs)4648, certain classes of non-coding RNAs4952, and messenger RNAs, which can result in the formation of processed pseudogenes53, 54. Transposon activity across species Examples of DNA TEs include Tn5 and Tn7 of E. coli55, 56, P elements of Drosophila57, and Tc1 elements of C. elegans58. Though they thrive in prokaryotes and simpler eukaryotes, DNA TE activity appears to be extinct in most mammals, which fuelled speculation that DNA TEs play a limited role in the ongoing evolution of mammalian genomes59. However, recent studies suggest that DNA TEs, namely non-autonomous hobo/Activator/TAM (nhAT transposons and helitrons), are active in certain bat species6062. Thus, these studies highlight how new DNA sequencing technologies can facilitate fundamental discoveries about the impact of different TE families on genome evolution and serve as a cautionary note against deriving general conclusions regarding TE activity from relatively few “reference” sequences. LTR-retrotransposons are particularly abundant in eukaryotes. For example, Drosophila contains approximately 20 distinct families of LTR-retrotransposons that comprise ~1% of the genome63, while maize contains ~400 families of LTR-retrotransposons that comprise ~ 75% of the genome64, 65. In addition, the mouse genome contains multiple active LTR-retrotransposon families. Indeed, the ongoing retrotransposition of both autonomous LTR-retrotransposons and their non-autonomous derivatives is estimated to account for approximately ~10–12 percent of sporadic mutations in mouse66. By comparison, there appears to be little LTR-retrotransposon activity in human genomes59; however, a small number of human endogenous retroviruses are polymorphic with respect to presence/absence at a given genomic location, suggesting that they have retrotransposed relatively recently in human evolution67. Non-LTR retrotransposons are widespread among eukaryotes, but have been especially prolific in mammalian genomes. For example, L1 elements and the non-autonomous SINEs that they mobilize (e.g., Alu and SINE-R/VNTR/Alu (SVA) sequences)47, 48, comprise approximately 30% of human genomic DNA sequence59. Furthermore, recent research using a combination of transposon display68, 69, second-generation DNA sequencing12, 1517 and analyses of genomic DNA sequences from the Human Structural Variation project13, 7072, the 1000 genomes project18, 73, 74, and clinical cohorts14, have revealed that L1 presence/absence dimorphisms, as well as non-allelic recombination between L1 and Alu elements, account for an appreciable proportion of the inter-individual structural variation observed among humans and continue to have a profound effect on the human genome (see ref. 5 for a detailed review). The diverse patterns of integration sites Transposons exhibit a remarkable diversity of integration behaviors. Some TEs preferentially integrate into gene-dense regions of the genome, others target regions such as heterochromatin, telomeres, or ribosomal DNA arrays, and some appear to insert throughout the genome. Below, we describe several examples of TE integration and what is known about how TEs target specific sites in genomic DNA. Integration into gene rich regions Many TEs integrate into gene rich regions although they use mechanisms that prevent the disruption of open reading frames (ORFs). An extreme example is the E. coli Tn7 DNA TE. Tn7 encodes a sequence specific DNA binding protein, TnsD, which mediates integration into a specific position in the host chromosome, termed attnTn7, and thereby avoids damaging the host genome75, 76. A second targeting protein, TnsE, can alter Tn7 target preference by directing integration to plasmid DNAs that are transferred between E. coli by conjugation77 or to double strand breaks and DNA structures formed during DNA replication78. By comparison, the Drosophila P element avoids disrupting ORFs by integrating within the 500 bp upstream of transcription start sites of genes79. However, the mechanism by which P-elements target these sites requires elucidation. Certain non-LTR retrotransposons encode endonucleases that target specific sites in genomic DNA. For example, the R1 and R2 elements of insects encode sequence-specific endonucleases that cleave at specific positions within the 28S rDNA locus to initiate target-primed reverse transcription (TPRT)28, 45. However, these endonucleases operate by distinct mechanisms. R1 encodes an endonuclease that shares sequence similarity to an apurinic/apyrimidinic (APE) DNA repair endonuclease80, 81, whereas R2 encodes a type II-S restriction endonuclease82. Thus, these elements apparently have evolved convergent mechanisms to integrate into ribosomal DNA arrays. LTR-retrotransposons also have evolved strategies to integrate into gene rich regions, while ensuring minimal damage to their hosts. For example, the Ty1 and Ty3 retrotransposons of S. cerevisiae specifically target gene-free windows located immediately upstream of RNA polymerase III transcribed genes, such as tRNAs25, 27, 83, 84; Ty3 is directed to integration sites 2 or 3 bp upstream of such genes by transcription factors TFIIIB and TFIIIC (Fig. 2a)85, 86. However, in the case of the SNR6 gene, which does not depend on TFIIIC for its expression, the TFIIIB factors Brf1 and TBP are sufficient to direct Ty3 integration87, 88. Figure 2 Mechanisms that position integration Ty1 integrates into a ~700 bp window upstream of tRNA genes with a periodicity of 80 bp (Fig. 2b)27, 89. Although the factors that direct Ty1 to tRNA genes remain unknown, the unusual periodicity of integration depends on the amino-terminal domain of Bdp1, another TFIIIB factor90. The ability to integrate upstream of RNA polymerase III transcribed genes also can regulate host and TE gene expression. For example, Ty1 and Ty3 insertions can stimulate the transcription of downstream RNA polymerase III transcribed genes and transcription of the RNA polymerase III target genes can reciprocate by repressing Ty1 transcription91, 92. Clearly, determining how Ty1 target integration sites and exploring how integration alters gene regulation remain areas for future study. The ability to target RNA polymerase III transcribed genes is not peculiar to LTR-retrotransposons. For example, the Dictyostelium discoideum non-LTR retrotransposon DRE (also known as TRE-5A) preferentially inserts ~48bp upstream of tRNA genes, whereas the retrotransposon Tdd3 (also known as TRE-3A) inserts downstream of tRNA genes29, 93. Indeed, experimental evidence suggests that the TRE-5A ORF1-encoded protein directly interacts with subunits of TFIIIB to direct its integration to tRNA genes94. The Schizosaccharomyces pombe retrotransposon, Tf1, preferentially integrates into the promoters of RNA polymerase II transcribed genes and provides another example of how TEs target gene-rich regions9597 (Fig. 2c). Tf1 integration has been studied by examining integration into promoters contained within extrachromosomal replicating plasmids26. For example, the fbp1 promoter is induced when the activating transcription factor Atf1p binds to an eight base pair upstream activating sequence (UAS1)98. Tf1 integration generally occurs 30 bp and 40 bp downstream of UAS1; however, mutating six nucleotides of UAS1 or deleting the Atf1p gene26 disrupts Tf1 integration specificity, causing integration to occur throughout the plasmid. Although cells lacking Atf1p show little reduction in the overall Tf1 retrotransposition frequency99, the above data, as well as the finding that Atf1p forms a complex with Tf1 IN, indicate that specific transcription factors such as Atf1p can play a critical role in directing Tf1 integration to a specific target site. Notably, experiments conducted with a synthetic promoter revealed that RNA polymerase II transcription is not sufficient to target Tf1 integration99. The development of second-generation sequencing technology recently has allowed the in vivo examination of Tf1 integration sites en masse. Characterization of 73,125 Tf1 integration events from four independent experiments revealed a highly reproducible pattern — approximately 95% of integration events are clustered upstream of ORFs96. Interestingly, the most frequently targeted promoters are associated with genes that are induced by environmental stressors. The targeting of genes that respond to stress, coupled with the ability of Tf1 to induce the expression of adjacent genes26, suggests that Tf1 integration has the potential to improve survival of specific cells that are exposed to environmental stress. Likewise, the transcription of Tf2, another LTR-retrotransposon in S. pombe, is induced by oxidative and osmotic stress or by growth in low oxygen34, 100. Clearly, understanding the consequences of stress-induced retrotransposition will yield insights about how TE mobility can lead to genetic diversity, which may affect the ability of an organism to cope with stress. Finally, certain retroviruses, which are descended from LTR-retrotransposons101, also exhibit preferential integration in gene rich regions. For example, human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) preferentially integrates into RNA polymerase II transcribed genes, whereas murine leukemia virus shows a strong integration preference near transcriptional start sites102104. Structural and biochemical data demonstrate that HIV-1 IN interacts with the cellular lens epithelium-derived growth factor (LEDGF/p75) host factor, and there is evidence that this interaction plays an important role in proviral DNA integration105, 106. Integration into heterochromatin Some TEs target heterochromatic sequences that contain relatively few genes. For example, chromoviruses, which are related to Ty3/Gypsy LTR-retrotransposons, reside in heterochromatin of eukaryotes from fungi to vertebrates107. They contain a chromodomain near the carboxyl-terminus of IN that is related to HP1, a heterochromatin protein that binds to histone H3 methylated at lysine 9107. Furthermore, chromovirus chromodomains fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP) co-localize with heterochromatin108, suggesting that the chromodomain plays a principal role in directing integration. Indeed, fusion of one such chromodomain to the carboxyl-terminus of Tf1 IN directs integration of this TE to heterochromatin108. The Ty5 LTR-retrotransposon also targets gene poor regions in S. cerevisiae. Approximately 90% of Ty5 integration events occur within the silent mating type loci or near silent heterochromatin at telomeres (Fig. 2d)109111. Genetic and biochemical experiments indicate that a nine amino acid targeting domain (TD) in the Ty5 integrase (IN) carboxyl-terminus directly binds to a structural component of heterochromatin, Sir4p, to target integration35, 112, 113. Moreover, fusing Sir4p to the DNA binding domain of the LexA repressor protein causes Ty5 integration to be redirected to Lex A binding sites114. Thus, the Ty5 TD, by interacting with Sir4p, directs integration to heterochromatin. Interestingly, genetic and biochemical evidence indicate that the Ty5 TD evolved its interaction with Sir4p by mimicking residues in a host factor, Esc1p, that binds to the same amino acids of Sir4p115. Although the ability of Ty5 IN to target heterochromatin suggests that the TE dictates target site integration, there also are indications that TE-host interactions can alter Ty5 target-site preference. Mass spectroscopy revealed that phosphorylation of the integrase TD at S1095 is critical for binding Sir4p35 and mutating S1095 redirects integration to expressed regions of the genome. Although the host-encoded kinase has not been identified, studies using a phospho-specific antibody indicate that stressors, such as nitrogen deprivation, can down-regulate S1095 phosphorylation35. Thus, stress conditions may alter the phosphorylation state of Ty5 IN, thereby redirecting Ty5 integration specificity. This elegant example provides a plausible mechanism for how stress can alter transposon mobilization in a manner that might provide an advantage for the host. It remains to be determined whether retargeting Ty5 to gene rich regions benefits Ty5 by allowing newly retrotransposed copies to reside in permissive expression contexts or benefits the host by generating genetic diversity, offering the potential to adapt to stress. Integration into Telomeres Some TEs exclusively integrate at or near telomeric ends. For example, the Het-A, TART, and TAHRE non-LTR retrotransposons comprise the ends of Drosophila chromosomes and likely substitute for the function of telomerase in maintaining chromosome end integrity2, 116, 117. The SART1 and TRAS1 non-LTR retrotransposons may have a similar role in Bombyx mori118. The proteins encoded by TART, TAHRE, SART1, and TRAS1 have a Apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP)-like endonuclease domain118, 119 and it is likely that the SART1 and TRAS1 endonuclease proteins direct their integration into telomeric repeats118; however, the functional role of the putative endonuclease domain in TART and TAHRE remains unknown. Excitingly, recent studies have revealed that certain retrotransposons can target telomeric sequences for integration. For example, by an alternative endonuclease-independent retrotransposition mechanism, human L1 retrotransposons containing missense mutations in the L1 EN active site can integrate at endogenous DNA lesions and dysfunctional telomeres in Chinese Hamster Ovary cell lines that are deficient for factors important in the non-homologous end-joining pathway of DNA repair as well as p53 function120, 121. Similarly, members of the Penelope clade of retrotransposons, which encode an RT that lacks an obvious endonuclease domain, reside at telomeres in organisms from four eukaryotic kingdoms122. The RNAs encoded by these terminal Penelope elements also contain sequences that are complementary to telomeric DNA sequences, suggesting that base pairing between the TE RNA and single stranded telomeric DNA is critical for integration. Interestingly, both of the above cases can be considered as a type of RNA-mediated DNA repair that appears curiously similar to the mechanism used by telomerase120, 122. Future studies should elucidate whether host factors are critical for the localization of these retrotransposons to DNA lesions and/or chromosomal termini. Dispersed patterns of integration In contrast to elegant mechanisms that target integration of some TEs into specific regions of the genome, other TEs appear to lack target site specificity. For example, L1s and the non-autonomous elements they mobilize are interspersed throughout the genome59. Indeed, ~30% of engineered human L1 retrotransposition events in cultured cells, and a similar proportion of recently discovered full-length, dimorphic human-specific L1s, are near or within the introns of genes13, 50, 123, 124. Since protein-coding genes constitute ~40% of the human genome125, 126, these findings suggest a lack of robust mechanisms employed by L1s or the host to prevent L1 retrotransposition into genes. The interspersed nature of L1 and Alu sequences probably reflects the fact that the L1 endonuclease has relatively weak target-site specificity, preferentially cleaving the sequence 5’-TTTT/A-3’ (and variants of that sequence), to initiate TPRT80, 121, 127, 128. Interestingly, while “young” Alu and L1 insertions exhibit similar interspersed integration patterns, cytogenetic studies and examination of the human genome reference sequence revealed that evolutionarily “older” L1s and Alus show distinct genomic distributions59, 129. Older L1s preferentially reside in gene-poor AT-rich sequences, whereas older Alus are preferentially reside in gene-rich GC-rich regions of the genome59. The distinct distributions of older L1s and Alus likely result from post-integration selective processes that have operated on the genome for millions of years59. However, how these skewed distributions arose remains a mystery. Some researchers have suggested that Alus may possibly play an advantageous, albeit undefined, role in gene-rich regions of the genome59. Others have suggested that L1 retrotransposition events into genic regions may exert a greater fitness cost to the host than Alu insertions130. If so, negative selection would lead to the removal of detrimental L1 alleles from the population. Consistent with this hypothesis, data suggest that evolutionary recent human full-length L1s insertions are detrimental to the host131, 132, whereas in vitro studies have revealed that L1s contain cis-acting sequences that can reduce gene expression133, 134. Clearly, further studies are needed to explain how the distributions of L1 and Alu have diverged over evolutionary time. Despite their interspersed distribution, a small body of evidence suggests that there may be preferred, albeit rare, L1 integration sites. For example, independent L1-mediated retrotransposon insertions at the same nucleotide position in the BTK gene (i.e., an SVA and an Alu element) have resulted in two sporadic cases of X-linked agammaglobulinemia135. Similarly, independent L1 and Alu insertions associated with colorectal and desmoid tumors, respectively, have occurred at the same nucleotide position in the APC gene22, 135, 136, whereas two independent Alu insertions at the same nucleotide position in the Factor IX gene have caused hemophilia B135, 137. Thus, it would not be surprising to find that chromatin structure and accessibility impact L1-mediated retrotransposon target preference138. How the host defends against transposons Although many TEs have evolved mechanisms to limit genome damage, TE integration still poses a potential threat to the host. Thus, it is not surprising that host organisms have evolved a diverse array of mechanisms to combat TE activity. However, the host must be able to discriminate TE sequences from host genes to accomplish this feat. Below, we discuss mechanistic strategies employed by the host to restrict TE mobilization. DNA methylation Cytosine methylation (5-methylcytosine) is an important DNA modification in eukaryotes with genomes larger than 5×108 bp, which includes vertebrates, flowering plants, and some fungi. The majority of cytosine methylation in plants and mammals, and almost all cytosine methylation in Neurospora crassa, occurs within repetitive elements and is correlated with the transcriptional repression of retrotransposons in somatic and germline cells139, 140. Experiments in mammals and plants demonstrate that global demethylation of genomic DNA strongly reactivates TE transcription141144. For example, deletion of DNA cytosine-5-methyltransferase 3-like gene (Dnmt3L) in mice leads to loss of de novo cytosine methylation of both LTR and non-LTR retrotransposons, reactivation of transposable element expression in spermocytes and spermatogonia, and meiotic catastrophe in male germ cells145. Determining whether TE mobilization directly is responsible for the meiotic defects requires further study. Moreover, recent data demonstrates that inactivation of cytosine methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana causes a burst of retrotransposon and DNA TE activity and results in substantial increases in TE copy number144. Thus, epigenetic mechanisms act to control the expression, and perhaps mobility of various TEs. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that DNA methylation inhibits TE transcription. Patterns of DNA methylation are established during gametogenesis and are mediated by Dnmt3a and the non-catalytic paralog, Dnmt3L, in mammals, but how TEs are recognized as methylation substrates requires further study146. By comparison, during plant development, small 24 nt RNAs target paralogous DNA sequences that share high levels of homology (such as TEs) for cytosine methylation. The mechanism of RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) is not fully understood, but it appears to require the canonical RNA interference (RNAi) machinery (see below and Fig. 3), the DNA methyltransferase DRM2, and two plant specific RNA polymerases, Pol IV and Pol V146. Figure 3 The degradation of transposon mRNA by RNAi Small RNAs inhibit TEs Small RNA-based mechanisms (including, endogenous small interfering RNAs (endo-siRNAs) and Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs)), also act to defend eukaryotic cells against TEs. The mechanisms by which these small RNAs are generated and how they inhibit TEs remain an active area of investigation in various model organisms. Mechanistic details regarding these processes can be found in many outstanding reviews on this topic(e.g., 30, 147152); here we briefly summarize common themes that have emerged from the above studies. Endo-siRNAs have the potential to inhibit TE mobility through the post-transcriptional disruption of transposon mRNA. For example, double-strand “trigger” RNAs (ds-RNAs) can be derived from the complementary inverted terminal repeats in DNA transposons, from structured mRNA transcripts, or from overlapping regions contained within convergent transcription units30, 147, 148, 153. The resultant ds-RNAs then can be processed into ~21–24 nt endo-siRNAs by members of the Dicer family of proteins (Fig. 3a)30, 154. These endo-siRNAs are loaded onto an Argonaute protein, and the “passenger” RNA strand (typically the sense strand of a TE) is degraded. The remaining complex of a single stranded RNA and Argonaute is called the RNA-Induced Silencing Complex (RISC); the RNA directs RISC to complementary sequences in target mRNAs, leading to their post-transcriptional degradation. Importantly, the RNAi machinery has the capability to inhibit any TE that generates a ds-RNA “trigger” that can serve as a substrate for the RNAi machinery. By a different mechanism, piRNAs can be generated from genomic loci encoding long precursor RNAs that contain the remnants of different families of TEs151. In general, processing of these precursor RNAs leads to the production of a mature ~24–35 nt piRNAs (Fig 3b). A subfamily of Argonaute proteins, known as the Piwi clade of proteins, predominantly binds mature antisense piRNAs and directs them to complementary sequences in TE mRNA. An endonuclease activity associated with the Piwi protein cleaves the TE mRNA to release a sense strand piRNA, which can interact with other Piwi clade proteins. Binding of this complex to the original piRNA precursor RNA then reiterates this amplification cycle by a “ping-pong” mechanism151, 155. In addition to this type of mechanism that restricts TE mobility in the germline, recent studies suggest that specialized piRNA pathways, which do not operate via a ping-pong mechanism, might restrict somatic TE activity32, 155157. Examples of TEs that are controlled by small RNA-based mechanisms include Tc1 transposons in C. elegans, and P elements in Drosophila153, 158. Also, 21nt small interfering RNAs (siRNA) derived from the Athila family LTR-retrotransposons in the vegetative nucleus of the pollen grains in Arabidopsis thaliana are delivered to the sperm cells to inhibit expression of transposons that, in principle, could mobilize in the germline159. Small RNA based mechanisms also may be critical for silencing mammalian L1s. For example, an antisense promoter located within the human L1 5’UTR allows the production of an antisense RNA that, in principle, could base pair with sense strand L1 mRNA to establish a ds-RNA substrate for Dicer160. Furthermore, mouse mutants lacking the murine Piwi family proteins MILI or MIWI2 exhibit a loss of L1 and intracisternal A particle (IAP) LTR-retrotransposon DNA methylation,; this loss correlates with their transcriptional activation in male germ cells161. Similarly, mice lacking a MILI interacting protein, Tudor containing protein-1, exhibit a similar loss of L1 DNA methylation and a reactivation of L1 expression162. Finally, mouse mutants lacking the non-canonical Maelstrom protein, a component of the nuage complex that may be important for small RNA biogenesis, exhibit de-repression of L1 transcription, an increase of L1 ribonucleoprotein particle intermediates in spermatids, and a chromosomal synapsis defect during male meiosis163. Together, the above examples provide compelling data that small RNA-based pathways likely act to control the expression of certain TEs in the mammalian germline. Finally, it is noteworthy that other antisense RNA-based mechanisms may be involved in TE silencing. For example, antisense transcripts from S. cerevisiae Ty1 elements reduce Ty1 IN and RT protein levels by a post-translational mechanism; this leads to inhibition of Ty1 mobility and thus controls Ty1 copy number164. Since S. cerevisiae lacks RNAi machinery, these results suggest that genomes have evolved other RNA-dependent strategies to tame TEs. Cytosine deaminases and DNA repair factors restrict TEs Proteins involved in nucleic acid metabolism and/or DNA repair can also restrict TE mobility. For example, members of the APOBEC3 family of cytidine deaminases can restrict the retrotransposition of a various retroviruses and LTR and non-LTR retrotransposons33. For retroviruses and LTR-retrotransposons, APOBEC3 proteins generally deaminate cytidines during the first strand cDNA synthesis, which leads to either cDNA degradation or the integration of a mutated provirus. The mechanisms by which certain APOBEC3 proteins restrict non-LTR retrotransposons require elucidation. Similarly, over-expression of the 3’-repair exonuclease 1 (Trex1) gene, mutations in which cause Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome, can inhibit L1 and IAP retrotransposition in cultured cell assays165, 166, but the mechanism of Trex1-mediated TE repression requires elucidation. Other mechanisms are also likely to restrict the mobility of non-LTR retrotransposons. For example, the overwhelming majority of L1 elements in mammalian genomes are 5’ truncated and are essentially “dead on arrival” because they cannot synthesize proteins critical for retrotransposition167. It has been proposed that 5’ truncation may be due to the low processivity of the L1-encoded reverse transcriptase. However, recent work on the reverse transcriptase encoded by the R2 non-LTR retrotransposon of Bombyx mori demonstrated that this enzyme is more processive than the reverse transcriptases encoded by retroviruses168. Alternatively, L1 5’ truncation might result if host factors cause the dissociation of the L1 reverse transcriptase from the nascent cDNA and/or degrade the L1 mRNA during integration. In this scenario, to generate a full-length insertion the L1 RT would need to complete integration before the TPRT intermediate is recognized as DNA damage by the host50, 169. Indeed, proteins involved in the non-homologous end-joining pathway of DNA repair seem to act to restrict the retrotransposition of a zebrafish LINE-2 element in DT40 chicken cells170, whereas members of DNA excision repair pathway (that is, ERCC1/XPF1) might restrict L1 retrotransposition in cultured human cells171. Finally, in addition to recognizing the L1 integration intermediate as a form of DNA damage, recent data suggests that retrotransposition indicator cassettes delivered by engineered L1s in human embryonic carcinoma cell lines can be epigenetically silenced during or immediately after their integration into genomic DNA172. Given that L1 is an ancient “stowaway” in mammalian genomes, it is likely that the host has evolved multiple mechanisms to combat L1 mobility at discrete steps in the retrotransposition pathway, and that some of these mechanisms operate in a context dependent manner. Clearly, continued studies will reveal new and more diverse host mechanisms to restrict TE mobility. Developmental triggers of transposition Despite mechanisms to combat TE mobility, TEs continue to thrive in many host genomes. Thus, TEs must have evolved ways to either overwhelm or counteract these host defenses. TEs must mobilize in germ cells or during early development to ensure their survival (Figure 4). However, some TEs can mobilize in somatic cells, providing a potential mechanism to generate intra-individual genetic variation. Figure 4 Timing of transposition Transposition in the germ line or during early development Drosophila P elements provide one of the best-studied cases of cell type specific transposition173. P element transposition occurs when females lacking P elements (the M cytotype) mate with males carrying P elements (the P cytotype); P element mobilization can cause hybrid dysgenesis in the offspring. In the reciprocal cross, eggs from P cytotype females produce a repressor protein and piRNAs that inhibit P element transposition57, 158. The repressor is an alternatively spliced truncated form of the transposase. Importantly, the repressor not only controls which crosses produce germline integration, but also inhibits transposition in the soma. The Drosophila gypsy element is another example of a TE that exhibits tissue specific control174, 175. Gypsy transcription is induced in somatic follicle cells that surround the oocyte. The TE mRNA assembles into virus-like particles that are thought to traffic to the oocyte to carry out transposition. It remains unclear whether the transfer of gypsy virus-like particles to the oocyte occurs via an enveloped particle (similar to retroviruses) or by a form of endocytosis. However, the Flamenco locus encodes piRNAs that silence gypsy elements in follicle cells, thereby preventing the spread of these TEs to the surrounding germ cells155. Relatively little is known about the developmental timing of L1 retrotransposition in mammals. The sheer numbers of L1 and Alu retrotransposons that populate mammalian genomes provide prima facie evidence that they mobilize in the germline. Various studies, using endogenous and engineered L1s, provide strong experimental evidence to back this assertion. For example, full-length mouse L1 RNA and the mouse L1 ORF1-encoded protein are co-expressed in leptotene and zygotene spermatocytes during meiotic prophase176. In addition, the mouse ORF1 protein is expressed in the cytoplasm during specific stages of development in oocytes177. Similarly, human oocytes express L1 RNA and support the retrotransposition of an engineered human L1178. Finally, transgenic mouse experiments demonstrated that an engineered human L1 retrotransposon, whose expression is driven from a heterologous pPol II promoter, can retrotranspose in male germ cells179. Unexpectedly, a growing body of experimental evidence suggests that L1 retrotransposition also might occur frequently during early development (Figure 4) (also reviewed in ref. 5). For example, human embryonic stem cells can express L1 RNA and ORF1 protein, and accommodate the retrotransposition of engineered L1s, albeit at lower levels than in other types of transformed human cells19, 180. In addition, studies of a male patient with X-linked choroideremia revealed that his mother had mosaicism for the mutagenic L1 insertion in both germline and somatic tissues20. Thus, the initial retrotransposition event must have occurred during early embryogenesis in the mother. Finally, recent transgenic experiments conducted in rats and mice led to the conclusion that most L1 retrotransposition occurs during early embryogenesis and that most of the resultant events are not heritable21. Intriguingly, these data suggest that L1 ribonucleoprotein particles can be deposited into zygotes by either the sperm or egg to undergo retrotransposition during early development, thereby providing a possible mechanism to generate somatic mosaicism and intra-individual genetic variation (see below). Somatic transposition Classical experiments in maize revealed that DNA TE activity in somatic tissues could lead to variegated corn color phenotypes1, 181. Since that time, somatic TE events also have been reported in other organisms. For example, it is well established that Tc1 transposition in the Bergerac strain of C. elegans preferentially occurs in somatic cells182. Similarly, a recent study has revealed that somatic transposition of a DNA TE (Hatvine1-rrm) into the promoter region of the VvTFL1A gene of the grapevine cultivar Carnigan affects the grapevine branching pattern and size of fruit clusters183. Also, a mutagenic L1 insertion was identified in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene in tumor tissue, but not in the surrounding tissue, of a patient with colon cancer, suggesting a role for the insertion in cancer development22. Together with the transgenic L1 experiments (discussed above), these findings establish that somatic TE mobility can lead to phenotypic changes in the host. Intriguingly, several lines of evidence suggest that somatic L1 retrotransposition may also occur in the mammalian nervous system (also reviewed in ref. 5). First, an engineered human L1 can retrotranspose in neurogenic zones of the brain in transgenic mice24 when its expression is driven by a promoter contained within its native 5’ UTR184. Second, engineered human L1s can retrotranspose in cultured rat neuronal progenitor cells (NPCs), human embryonic stem cell-derived NPCs, and at low levels in human fetal derived NPCs23, 24. Third, sensitive multiplex quantitative PCR experiments suggest a modest increase in L1 copy number in post mortem brain tissue, when compared to heart and liver tissue derived from the same individual23. Finally, retrotransposition of an engineered human L1 is elevated in a mouse model of Rett syndrome (a neurodevelopmental disorder), and induced pluripotent stem cells derived from Rett syndrome patients exhibit an increase in L1 DNA copy number when compared to normal controls, suggesting a potential increase in endogenous L1 retrotransposition185. The above studies strongly suggest that certain neuronal cells may be permissive for L1 retrotransposition. However, additional research is needed to truly understand the impact of L1 retrotransposition in the brain. For example, recent advances in DNA sequencing technology should provide a means to directly test whether L1 DNA copy number changes detected in quantitative PCR experiments represent actual de novo endogenous retrotransposition events or result from other forms of genomic instability reported in neurons186, 187. Similarly, it remains unclear whether endogenous L1 retrotransposition events represent a type of “genomic noise” or whether they have any functional impact on neuronal development. Finally, it remains a mystery why neuronal cells may accommodate L1 retrotransposition at apparently higher levels than other somatic cells. Nonetheless, these studies have unveiled a new area of investigation that surely will be the subject of future work. Deregulated L1 retrotransposition in cancer cells A growing body of evidence suggests that L1 retrotransposition may become deregulated in certain cancers. For example, early studies revealed that hypomethylation of the L1 promoter is correlated with increased L1 expression and/or the production of the L1 ORF1-encoded protein in certain tumors188190. Moreover, engineered human L1s readily retrotranspose in a variety of transformed human and mouse cell lines, but generally show lower levels of retrotransposition activity in “normal” human cells such as fibroblasts(e.g.,11, 191, 192). Consistent with this, recent findings using second-generation DNA sequencing revealed a total of 9 de novo L1 retrotransposition events in 6 of 20 examined non-small cell lung tumors12. Intriguingly, the tumors containing the new L1 insertions also exhibited a specific genome-wide hypomethylation signature, which is consistent with the notion that altering the epigenome can create a permissive environment for L1 expression and/or retrotransposition, and perhaps the retrotransposition of other classes of non-LTR retrotransposons. Clearly, further innovations in DNA sequencing of heterogeneous cell populations will be critical to reveal patterns of TE activity in diverse tumors. The challenge then will be to determine whether all these TE insertions are “passenger” mutations that are a consequence of the altered cellular milieu of cancer cells or whether some act as “drivers” to promote tumorigenesis. Closing Remarks It is undeniable that TEs have played important roles in structuring genomes and generating genetic diversity. By understanding how, when, and where TEs integrate, and how the host responds to this ever-present threat, we will unveil the dynamic forces that shape our genomes. Indeed, we are now able to critically evaluate the McClintock doctrine and future experiments should allow valuable insight into whether the increases in TE transcription caused by environmental stress lead to higher levels of TE integration, and whether these insertions impact host phenotypes and/or survival. It remains a curiosity why sequences without any apparent purpose continue to thrive in genomes. What is clear is that an understanding of TE biology is necessary to understand genome biology. It is intriguing to speculate that some phenotypic differences among organisms and/or between individuals are due to the effects of TEs. These speculations require rigorous experimental tests. However, the coming years should be an exciting time for TE biology. At a glance summary • Many TEs employ highly specific mechanisms to direct integration to sites in the host genome that lack coding information. This minimizes damage to the host genome that occurs during integration. • High throughput sequencing allows the identification of a saturated map of targeted integration sites in S. pombe. • Host organisms have evolved a diverse array of mechanisms to combat TE activity. Examples include DNA methylation of TEs, siRNA based degradation of TE mRNA, and APOBEC mediated cytosine deamination of TE sequences. • Studies of diverse human populations revealed significantly higher numbers of active L1 elements than exist in the human genome reference sequence. • Recent experiments unexpectedly discovered TE integration in somatic cells. These include insertions of L1 in non-small cell lung tumors. Several lines of evidence suggest that somatic L1 retrotransposition may also occur in the mammalian nervous system. We thank Dr. John Kim, Dr. José Garcia-Perez, and members of the Moran lab for critical reading of the manuscript. H.L. was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. H.L. received additional support from the Intramural AIDS Targeted Antiviral Program. J.V.M. was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (GM060518 and GM082970). J.V.M. also is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A terminal repeated sequence present at the ends of LTR-retrotransposons. The LTR contains cis-acting sequences that allow the transcription and polyadenylation of retrotransposon mRNA. The LTRs also play critical roles in the reverse transcription of LTR-retrotransposon mRNA. Virus-like particles (VLPs) A cytoplasmic particle that comprises LTR-retrotransposon mRNA, the LTR-retrotransposon-encoded proteins, and host factors that are required for reverse transcription of LTR-retrotransposon mRNA. LTR-retrotransposon mRNA is reverse transcribed into a double stranded cDNA within VLPs. Long Interspersed Element (LINE) A family of autonomous non-LTR retrotransposons that mobilize by retrotransposition. Short Interspersed Elements A family of non-autonomous retrotransposons that require functional protein(s) encoded by LINE elements to mediate their retrotransposition. LINE-1 or L1 An abundant family of autonomous non-LTR retrotransposons in mammalian genomes. In humans, L1 elements comprise roughly 17% of genomic DNA. The vast majority of L1s are inactive; however, it is estimated that an average human genome contains ~80–100 active elements (reviewed in ref. 5). Alu elements (Alus) An abundant class of SINEs that comprise ~10% of human genomic DNA. Alu elements require the endonuclease and reverse transcriptase activities contained within the L1 ORF2-encoded protein to mediate their mobility. Some Alu elements remain active in the human genome. SINE-R—VNTR—Alu (SVA) elements A composite non-autonomous retrotransposon that also requires the L1 encoded proteins to mediate its mobility. SVA elements are less abundant than Alu elements, although certain families of SVA elements remain active in the human genome. Target-site primed reverse transcription (TPRT) The mechanism of mobility generally employed by LINEs and SINEs. An endonuclease encoded by the LINE nicks genomic DNA to expose a 3’ hydroxyl residue at the target site that can be used as a primer to initiate the reverse transcription of the retrotransposon RNA by a LINE-encoded reverse transcriptase. RNA-directed DNA methylation A pathway in which 24 nt small RNAs interact with a de novo methyltransferase to mediate the methylation and transcriptional silencing of homologous genomic loci in plants. A family of RNAse III proteins that possess an endonuclease activity that can process double strand “trigger” RNAs into small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) A family of small (~21–24 nt) RNAs that are generated from double-strand “trigger” RNAs by Dicer-dependent and Dicer-independent mechanisms. These small RNAs bind Argonaute proteins and guide the resultant complex to complementary mRNAs in a cell to mediate their post-transcriptional destruction. Argonaute proteins The proteins that mediate the small RNA-induced silencing processes. Argonaute proteins bind small RNAs and are the defining component of the RNA Induced Silencing Complex (RISC). The small RNAs guide Argonaute proteins to target mRNAs to mediate post-transcriptional degradation and/or translational silencing. Argonaute proteins possess a single strand RNA binding domain (PAZ) and a ribonuclease domain (Piwi). Piwi proteins A specialized class of Argonaute proteins that interact with piRNAs to mediate transposable element silencing. Members include: Piwi, Aubergine, and Argonaute 3 in Drosophila; MIWI1, MIWI2 and MILI in mice, and HIWI1, HIW12, HIWI3, and HILI in humans. Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNA) cluster A genomic DNA locus that encodes piRNA precursor RNAs. Many piRNA clusters contain sense and anti-sense sequences derived from mobile genetic elements. An example of a piRNA cluster is the Flamenco locus of Drosophila. Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) A family of small (~24–35 nt) RNAs that are processed from piRNA precursor mRNAs. The mature piRNAs interact with specialized Argonaute proteins (from the Piwi clade), to mediate RNA silencing. Hybrid dysgenesis A syndrome, which includes sterility, induced by the mobilization of P elements in crosses between females lacking P elements (the M cytotype) and males containing P elements (the P cytotype). X-linked choroideremia A recessive degenerative retinal disease. Desmoid tumor A soft tissue tumor that can arise in the abdomen as well as other parts of the body. Desmoid tumors generally are benign and grow slowly. Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome A rare, autosomal recessive genetic disorder that leads to brain dysfunction as well as other symptoms. The early onset form of the disease can be caused by mutations in the Trex1 gene and is usually fatal. Henry L. Levin heads the Section on Eukaryotic Transposable Elements in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley with Dr. Howard Schachman and completed postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with Dr. Jef Boeke. Over the past 18 years Levin’s studies of LTR retrotransposons in fission yeast have identified mechanistic details of particle formation, reverse transcription, and integration. Recently, work in the Levin lab has focused on the mechanisms that control the position of integration. John V. Moran currently is the Gilbert S. 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What is ectropion? Ectropion occurs when eyelid, usually lower lid turns outward and does not normally oppose the eye globe. This may result in discomfort, unsightly appearance, tearing but more importantly may lead to excessive eye drying out and result in corneal damage. What causes ectropion? Ectropion most commonly caused by age related degenerative changes in eyelid, when eyelid tissue loses elasticity and stretches out. However ectropion may be also caused by lack of nerve supply to the eyelid muscles (such as in patient with history of stroke), eyelid scar/mass or skin cancer. How is ectropion treated? Treatment of ectropion is usually surgical. Procedure is done on an outpatient basis and exact procedure depends on severity and the underlying cause. Usually the tendon and the muscle are tighten causing the lid to lay properly on the eye. In mild ectropion using artificial tears or gel to lubricate the eye may help symptoms and improve corneal health. Particularly it is important to use gel or thicker eye drops at bed time. Importantly excessive eyelid rubbing may contribute to ectropion development. This one must wipe eyes carefully up and towards the nose and avoid rubbing the eyes.
The rise of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has taken the concept Internet of Things (IoT) from concept to commercial reality. The biggest reason for the proliferation of BLE has been its presence in smartphones, tablets and off-late, laptops too. This is where BLE has the advantage over previous proprietary protocols which required custom hardware, usually a USB dongle or an integrated radio, to complete the other end of the wireless communication. This, amongst other reasons like power consumption and standards-based software has caused BLE to become the de-facto choice for IoT applications. The most popular IoT applications have so far been seen in wearable electronics (e.g. the Jawbone Up), where a device gathers sensor data, runs complex algorithms to extract meaningful information, then transmits this information to a mobile device. Similar concepts are now being adopted by home appliances and sensor modules to convert ordinary homes into smart homes. Examples of such appliances include smart coffee makers that brew coffee of your choice and have it ready as you're ready to leave in the morning, or smart lighting control systems that detect your presence in the room and turn lights on or off automatically. One challenge with the current implementation of the BLE standard is its limited network topology. In systems such as smart homes where you may have multiple nodes (sensors and light switches in many locations), each node has to be individually controlled by a common central device, usually a mobile phone. In this article, we take a look at one novel approach as a solution to this limitation. Consider a smart home system with multiple nodes. Each node has a sensor interface, a light control unit, and a BLE communication unit. The sensor interface can detect human presence and ambient light levels. The light control unit can turn lights on or off and also control the colour temperature and intensity of the lights. The communication unit implements the BLE protocol to talk with the other nodes in the smart home system. Figure 1 shows a high-level block diagram of the smart home system. EDNAOL 2016MAY27 TA 01Fig1Figure 1: Smart home system – block diagram. In this smart home system, all nodes communicate over a mesh network – each working as a master or a slave in a time-multiplexed manner. Each node implements the following functionality: Sensor Interface: Each node implements interfaces for a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. The signals from these sensors are conditioned using an amplifier then digitized using an ADC. The digitized signals are then used for the LED control functionality and for communication with other nodes in the system. Light Control Unit: The measured signals are processed by an MCU and converted into the control information for the light's colour temperature and intensity. The control unit can adjust the light's colour temperature and intensity based on the ambient light levels and the time of day (from an RTC), or based on the user's input received via an app running on a BLE-enabled mobile phone. BLE Communication: In this system BLE serves two purposes. First, it provides a way for a mobile phone to control the lights on the node. In this case the node operate as GAP Peripheral and receives control information from the phone, which is the GAP Central. In the second case, BLE provides a mechanism for the node to control other nodes in the smart home system. During this, the node changes it role to operate as the GAP Central so it can send control information to the other nodes. Figure 2 shows a high-level BLE mesh implementation for the smart home system. EDNAOL 2016MAY27 TA 01Fig2 Figure 2: BLE interface. Dynamically Changing BLE GAP Roles: In this application, all nodes operate as GAP Peripherals (slaves) and try to establish a BLE connection with the GAP Central (master). Once a node receives control information from the GAP Central or it detects motion from the PIR sensors, it changes its role to a GAP Central and establishes connections with the other nodes in the system to forward the information onwards. By doing so, the other nodes do not need direct control information from the mobile phone, but instead can receive this same information from a nearby node. Due to the wide range of functionalities required in this application, one would typically need a multi-chip solution. Using multiple chips not only increases the BOM cost but also increases the PCB size, which is critical for space-constrained applications such as these. Cypress' PSoC 4 BLE solution is a perfect fit for such applications. This solution provides BLE communication, which can not only work as both the GAP Peripheral and GAP Central, but also dynamically switch between the two GAP roles. Additionally, PSoC 4 BLE includes programmable analogue blocks to create custom sensor interfaces and programmable digital blocks to implement control units – all of which can be used to design a true single-chip solution. This approach provides an economical solution by integrating the BOM and reducing PCB size, while also providing modularity by using the same chip to implement different functionalities for different nodes. Figure 3 shows the implementation of the Smart Light Controller using PSoC 4 BLE. EDNAOL 2016MAY27 TA 01Fig3Figure 3: Smart light control application—PSoC 4 BLE solution. This device not only implements all three of the above mentioned system features (sensor interface, light control unit, BLE communication), but also makes the implementation easy by providing the BLE Component, that creates BLE GAP Central and GAP Peripheral products in minutes. Cypress application note AN91162 provides information on implementing BLE-compatible Profiles for such custom applications that are not supported by the BLE Standard-Adopted Profiles from the Bluetooth SIG. BLE has played a key role in making the IoT successful and has become the de-facto standard for IoT applications. It is not only used for wearable applications but is also proving to be a useful standard for home automation applications. BLE's current limitations in network topologies can be overcome by using novel approaches such as dynamic reconfiguration of GAP roles between Central and Peripheral. Cypress' PSoC 4 BLE provides a solution that integrates all requirements for IoT applications while also making it very easy-to-implement by providing free software tools, low-cost development kits and hundreds of design examples to get you started with. About the authors Pushek Madaan is Senior Marketing Engineer at Cypress. Gagan Luthra is Product Marketing Manager at Cypress.
gher- (1) Look up gher- at Dictionary.com Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to grasp, enclose." It forms all or part of: Asgard; carol; choir; choral; chorale; choric; chorister; chorus; cohort; cortege; court; courteous; courtesan; courtesy; courtier; curtilage; curtsy; garden; garth; gird; girdle; girt; girth; -grad; hangar; Hilda; Hildegard; Hortense; horticulture; jardiniere; kindergarten; Midgard; orchard; Terpsichore; Utgard; yard (n.1) "patch of ground around a house." It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit ghra- "house;" Albanian garth "hedge;" Greek khortos "pasture;" Phrygian -gordum "town;" Latin hortus "garden;" Old Irish gort "field," Breton garz "enclosure, garden;" Old English gyrdan "to gird," geard "fenced enclosure, garden," German Garten "garden." Lithuanian gardas "pen, enclosure," Old Church Slavonic gradu "town, city," and Russian gorod, -grad "town, city" belong to this group, but linguists dispute whether they are independent developments or borrowings from Germanic.
• Share to Facebook • Twitter • Email • Print Rat Feeding Rats are easy-to-please eaters, but don't provide a bottomless food bowl The Humane Society of the United States How much is enough? Commercial food: A small bowl of lab blocks (they look like pellets but are larger) once a day, supplemented by treats as described below, will be enough. Pregnant and nursing rats may need supplemental calories. Treats: About one tablespoon of vegetables and fruits per day. For example, a small amount of greens plus a floret of broccoli, a slice of apple, or a strawberry (or an equivalent amount of other appropriate treats). Give treats in small quantities to reduce waste and decrease the amount of time you spend looking for spoiled produce in your rat's cage. Hard treats: Hard treats like small dog biscuits or branches from fruit-bearing trees can be offered once a week to keep your rat's teeth in good condition. Time to eat Rats are nocturnal, meaning they're most active at night. This is a good time to feed them since they're likely to be awake and alert. Rats should have continual access to food and water, so don't skip meals. But if you notice stashes of food throughout the cage, there's a good chance you’re overfeeding your rat and should cut back on the portion size. Serving it up Selecting a food dish for your rat isn't complicated, but there are a few factors to keep in mind. • Provide a separate dish for fresh produce to prevent your rat's dry chow from becoming a soggy (and unappetizing) mess. • Place the food bowl in an area of the cage that's far away from your rat's bathroom area.
The Lighter Side of Accumulators (.PDF Download) “Lightweighting” is a term used to describe a method of combining advanced technologies to manufacture similar, much lighter components. This concept is familiar to the auto industry, which has been manufacturing automobiles of all sizes that weigh a fraction of their predecessors. With Federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards requiring an increase in fuel economy and lower CO2 and NOx emissions for consumer vehicles and light trucks by the year 2025, reg Register to view the full article
PEJ Tube Placement PEJ tube insertion is sometimes undertaken to bypass the stomach. It can be used to improve nutrition prior to surgery or occasionally as an alternative to stent insertion in those undergoing other forms of gastric cancer therapy such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy. It is usually a temporary procedure to allow feeding, although can last for many months before needing replacement if at all. PEJ Tube Select A Topic: How Is It Inserted? - the procedure explained Are There Any Risks With This? - what are they and how will it affect me? After Insertion Care - important things to know following PEJ tube insertion How is It Removed? - when you no longer need it Leave A Comment How Is IT Inserted? PEJ Tube Placement This is normally inserted by an endoscopist with the aid of an assistant. You are "prepped" for an endoscopy in a similar way to a diagnostic test. In the endoscopy room or theatre, you will be sedated and the endoscope will then be inserted through your mouth as far as the stomach. An area of will then be identified for your PEJ placement. This is usually achieved by trans-illuminating the lining with the endoscope light which can be seen permeating from your abdominal wall. The assistant will clean your skin with antiseptic or iodine and drape the area. You will then be given a local anesthetic in to the skin where it is to be placed. A cut is made in your skin, no more than a centimetre usually through which a needle is passed deep and in to the wall. Once the needle passes in to your stomach, the endoscopist will see this on their screen. The assistant will then pass a wire down through the needle in to the cavity. The endoscopist can grab this wire with forceps or a snare. Once grabbed, the endoscope is removed and the wire pulled back with it until it protrudes from your mouth. The assistant will then tie it on to the wire, which is then introduced down in to the stomach by pulling on the wire at the skin end. The PEJ at this stage has a tapered point on it, allowing easy passage through the skin and out to the external world. The tube is prevented from coming through the stomach completely by a button, bumper or balloon which fits neatly to the inner lining. This is then cut to the required length and connectors placed. There are no sutures or stiches required for this procedure. Once the gastric part of the is in place, an extension tube is passed through this. The endoscopist then grabs this with a pair of endoscopic forceps, passing it through the exit of the stomach (pylorus) and in to the small bowel where is then advanced to the jejunum. The extension attaches to the gastric introducer and the procedure is then complete. Are There Risks In PEJ Tube Placement? Yes, there are small risks to this procedure. Like any operation there are risks from the sedation, from introducing infection, damaging organs in the area and inducing bleeding. Fortunately these aren't that common, but do ask the person doing your procedure what their complication rate is. After Insertion Care Once placed you will normally not use it for 2-4 hours. After this, water can be passed in to the tube. I normally advise 30 ml of water an hour for 4 hours. As long as you are comfortable, feeding can commence. This is a special artificial feed and will be guided by your dietician or nutrition team. Removal Of THE Feeding Tube In many circumstances, a PEJ will remain in place long-term. It may be removed and replaced if it perishes or if it is used as a method of feeding prior to curative surgery. The removal is very straightforward in most cases. This can be removed endoscopically or manually. The technique depends on the type inserted, but usually involves cleaning the skin around the insertion point, clipping the PEJ tube and then applying pressure to pull the bumper from the stomach (i.e pulling it away from the skin). Some require deflation of the inner bumper by cutting the surrounding or use of a syringe. If the inner bumper or balloon (the 'donut ring') is buried in the lining, commonly referred to as a 'burried bumper', it will need to be removed endoscopically. The endoscopist can carefully cut the inner lining with a 'needle knife' or similar Why Not Discuss Further On: Return To Top of Page
Wednesday, 17 February 2016 Ethical research policy and formal proposal procedures The Hippocratic Oath: a standard for ethics in professional behaviour Patrick Comerford, Church of Ireland Theological Institute, 17 February 2016, 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. When most of us think of ethics, we think of rules that help us to distinguish between right and wrong. Can you give me some examples? 1, The Ten Commandments tell us how to treat others: Do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not covet your neighbours goods … 2, The Golden Rule tells us to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” 3, Medical practitioners are bound by the Hippocratic Oath, which says: “First of all, do no harm.” Quite often, these rules are the most common way of defining ethics. They offer norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Most people acquire a sense of right and wrong as children, so that we grow up thinking many moral standards are simple common sense. But we know, of course, that common sense is not very common. Most people recognise some common ethical norms but interpret, apply, and balance them in different ways in light of their own values and life experiences. For example, two people could agree that murder is wrong but disagree about the morality of abortion because we have different understandings of what it is to be a human being. Because so many of our ethical standards are rule based, we often confused ethics and legality. It is a common plea from politicians who are caught in corruption scandals: “I did nothing illegal.” Not “I did nothing wrong,” but “I did nothing that broke the law.” They think less about shame and embarrassment and more about fines, sentences and jail terms. Ethical norms tend to be much more difficult to define and to implement than laws. Examples may include: An action may be legal but unethical or illegal but ethical. Can you give me some examples? In the 20th century, many social reformers called on people to disobey laws that were immoral or unjust laws. 1, Mahatma Gandhi in the demand for Indian independence. 2, Martin Luther King and others who struggled against legalised segregation and racism in the United States. 3, Desmond Tutu and other campaigners against apartheid in South Africa. 4, The women at Greenham Common. Professional ethics: Many different disciplines, institutions, and professions have standards of behaviour that suit their particular aims and goals. These standards also help members of the discipline to co-ordinate their actions or activities and to establish public trust in the discipline. For instance, ethical standards govern conduct in medicine, law, architecture, business and the clergy. What ethical standards apply to priests and clergy? Examples may include: 1, The ‘seal of confession’ 2, Domestic and child abuse at home. 3, Pastoral care or intervention. 4, Sexual boundaries. 5, Political views. 6, Drug abuse, alcohol abuse, talk of suicide. 7, Disclosure to the media … “whistle-blowing” versus breach of confidentiality. 8, Mission and evangelism during the course of research. Ethics and research Ethical norms also serve the aims or goals of research and apply to people who conduct scholarly research or other scholarly or creative activities. There are several reasons why it is important to adhere to ethical norms during the course of your research. 1, Norms promote the aims of research, such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of error. For example, prohibitions against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research data promote the truth and minimise error. 2, Since research often involves co-operation and co-ordination between different people in different disciplines and institutions, ethical standards promote values essential to collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness. For example, many ethical norms in research, such as guidelines for authorship, copyright, data sharing policies and confidentiality rules, are designed to protect intellectual property interests and to encourage collaboration. Most researchers want to receive credit for their contributions and do not want to have their ideas stolen or disclosed prematurely. 3, Many of the ethical norms help to ensure that researchers are accountable. 4, Ethical norms in research help to build public support for research. People are more likely to co-operate with a research project if they can trust the quality and integrity of research. 5, Many of the norms of research promote a variety of other important moral and social values. Ethical lapses in research can significantly harm the subjects, students, and the public. Ethical questions to discuss: One of the questions you are likely to be asked by your external examiner is about the ethical questions raised by and during your research. Apart from the ethical questions raised by your dissertation topic, you may also consider these issues: 1, Confidentiality: identifying someone you have interviewed 2, Confidentiality: using material collected during pastoral visits. 3, Protect confidential communications, such as papers you read, personal and personnel records you have access to, professional secrets. 4, What about anecdotal information? 5, Honesty: How do you deal with opinions you do not agree with? 6, Honesty: how do you handle material or findings that go against your expectations. 7, Fabricating data, including hiding data collected. 8, Data protection: how to record interviews, how to label it, where to store it. 9, Keeping records: dating, storing, access. 10, Deception. 11, Plagiarism: respect Intellectual Property; honour patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property; do not use unpublished data, methods, or results without permission; give proper acknowledgement or credit for all contributions to research. Never plagiarise. 12, How do you demonstrate accountability: to the Church, your placement parish, your sponsoring bishop, your fellow students, staff at CITI? 13, How do I avoid discrimination on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, social class or background, or other factors not related to competence and integrity? Working methods: 1, Respect people: minimise harms and risks and maximise benefits; respect human dignity, privacy, and autonomy; take special precautions with vulnerable people; strive to distribute the benefits and burdens of research fairly. 2, Strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, expert testimony, and other aspects of research where objectivity is expected or required. 3, Avoid or be aware of bias or self-deception. 4, Disclose personal or financial interests that may affect your research. 5, Avoid careless errors and negligence. 6, Carefully and critically examine your own work and the work of your peers. 8, Be open: share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. 9, Be open: to criticism and new ideas. 10, Maintain and improve your own professional competence and expertise through a commitment to lifelong education and learning. 11, Ethics and the law: know and obey the relevant laws. Some advice: 1, Honestly report data, results, methods and procedures, and publication status. 2, Do not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data. 3, Do not deceive colleagues, staff, or the public. 4, Keep your promises and agreements. 5, Act with sincerity. 6, Strive for consistency of thought and action. Some guiding principles: 1, Voluntary participation. 2, Informed consent. 3, Avoiding risk of harm. 4, Respect confidentiality and privacy. 5, Be aware, including legal limits. Further reading: A Shamoo and D Resnik, Responsible Conduct of Research (New York: Oxford University Press, 3rd ed, 2015). Appendix 1: The Hippocratic Oath: (Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. These notes were prepared for a seminar with MTh students in Year Ii on writing and research skills on 17 February 2016. No comments:
Travel Assistance Device (TAD) to Help Transit Riders - Deployment to transit agencies Document Type Publication Date Subject Area place - north america, technology - geographic information systems, mode - bus, mode - rail, policy - disability, planning - education, mode - paratransit global positioning systems, assistive technologies, travel assistance device (TAD), mobile phone, cellular phone, mobile navigation device, travel training, mobility training The ability to travel where and when one desires is a basic requirement for independent living that most people take for granted. To travel independently, a transit rider practices at least 23 skills including finding the route, arriving at the correct stop on time, and determining when to exit at destination. Travel trainers who provide one-on-one instruction on public transportation, report that recognizing a landmark near the desired bus stop, requesting a stop at the proper time, and exiting the bus at the destination stop are among the most challenging skills to master for individuals with cognitive disabilities. Parents/guardians are often reluctant to encourage the use of fixed-route transit due to their own hesitations about a person's abilities and well being. Prior studies by the research team developed the Travel Assistance Device (TAD) mobile phone software application that addresses these challenges and supplements the trainer’s instruction. TAD provides various informational prompts including the audio messages “Get ready” and “Pull the cord now!” and vibrates to alert the rider to pull the stop cord. These prompts are delivered to the rider in real-time as he or she rides the bus using the embedded global positioning system (GPS) technology in off-the-shelf cell phones.
A Beginner’s Guide to Fat Share it: A Beginner’s Guide to Fat Are you (still) afraid of fat? Don’t be. For decades, we’ve been advised to steer clear from fat because it was thought to cause weight gain. Luckily, the nutrition world is waking up and realizing that fat plays an important role in every healthy, balanced diet. Learn about the basics of fat, and find out how fat affects your weight goals. fat basics subhead A gram-for-gram comparison of fat versus carbs and protein shows: At 9 calories per gram, fat is the most calorie-dense of all the macronutrients. It makes sense, since one of the biggest roles of fat is energy storage (just in case we need it). It’s hard for most of us to appreciate, but fat actually helps our bodies function correctly in several ways: Fat plays a protective role for cells because it’s an important component of every cell’s membrane or “wall,” which protects against invaders. Fat protects your organs by cushioning them from the impact of everyday living. You also need certain fats to build and maintain a healthy brain, which is about 60% fat in composition! For day-to-day activities, fat is the main type of fuel our bodies burn for energy. Generally, during activity where your heart rate is less than 70% of its maximal rate, fat serves as your body’s primary source of fuel. Interested in learning more? Check out how to use heart rate training. Fat aids the release of CCK, a gut hormone that helps you feel more satiated after a meal. Pairing high-fat foods with high-carb foods helps prevent a rapid spike in blood sugar. How? Fat slows down digestion and the rate at which sugars from carbs enter the bloodstream. For more basic facts on fat, check out Nutrition 101: Fats. determine fat needs subhead The Institute of Medicine (IOM) suggests that fat make up 20-35% of total calories in your diet, but you can certainly eat more or less depending on your goals. The MyFitnessPal app automatically allots 30% of calories to fat—of course, you can tailor this to meet your needs. To determine your fat needs in grams: • Step 1: Decide what percentage of your calories you want to come from fat. Choose a 20%, 25%, 30% or 35% fat diet. Convert this number into a decimal (for example, 30% is 0.3). • Step 2: Multiply your “Total Calorie Goal” (your calorie goal given by the MyFitnessPal app) by the decimal value. This gives you the number of calories from fat. • Step 3: Divide the number of calories from fat by 9 to get the grams of fat. Does this match your fat goal in the app? tip 1 fat understanding fat subhead Fat is found in a wide variety of foods, either as naturally occurring or as added fat during processing and cooking. Naturally occurring fats tend to be found in dairy (think cheese, yogurt, milk), meat and fish, nuts and seeds, oil and fatty fruits (think avocado, olive). Added fats tend to be found in processed and packaged goods. Of course, not all fats are created equal when it comes to health, so here’s a brief run-down of the common fats found in food: It’s solid at room temperature and mostly comes from animal sources like meat, particularly red meat, and dairy. Certain plants and their oil are high in saturated fat, such as coconut and palm. Virtually all major health organizations advise us to eat less saturated fat since it raises LDL cholesterol, a risk factor for heart disease. This is why the MyFitnessPal app sets your saturated fat limit at less than 10% of total calories. Most trans fat found in food are synthetically made by taking liquid unsaturated fat and blasting it with hydrogen so that it resembles solid saturated fat. Why? Because this makes it more shelf stable, easier to cook with, and allows manufacturers to replace saturated fat in their products. Sadly, this backfired, as evidence revealed that trans fat are one of the worst things for your ticker. Not only did trans fat increase LDL (bad) cholesterol, but it also decreased HDL (good) cholesterol. For this transgression, the MyFitnessPal app sets your trans fat goal at 0 grams per day. tip 2 fat They’re what we think of when we say “healthy” fats because they don’t carry the same risk for heart disease as saturated and trans fat. Generally, MUFA and PUFA are found in high-fat, plant-based foods (avocado, nuts, seeds, olives) and fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel). The fat in these foods are liquid at room temperature, and we’re advised to eat them in place of saturated fat. While they’re technically polyunsaturated fats, the omegas deserve a separate call-out since our bodies cannot produce them. Both omega-6 and omega-3 fats play important roles in regulating our immune systems. Omega-3 fat plays an essential role in developing our vision and nervous systems. Adequate intake for adults range from 12-17 grams per day for omega-6 fats and 1.1-1.6 grams per day for omega-3 fats. We easily get enough omega-6 fats from the foods we eat because soybean, safflower and corn oil are abundant in our food supply. Omega-3 fats are harder to come by since they’re mostly found in fatty fish; this is partly why we’re advised to eat more seafood by the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. enjoy fats subhead Meat and dairy can certainly have a role in any balanced diet, but they shouldn’t make up the majority of your intake. Enjoy them in moderation along with plenty of whole grains, veggies and fruits. Eating fats along with foods that are rich in fat-soluble vitamins and minerals allows your body to better absorb them. A good example: Use high-fat salad dressing to maximize your absorption of the vitamins and minerals from the veggies in your salad. Most of the fat in our diets supply us with plenty of omega-6 fats, but we should be getting a better balance between omega-6 and omega-3. Both fats play a role in keeping inflammation in check, so it’s important that we get a good ratio of the two. Different cooking oils provide varying amounts of saturated fat, MUFA and PUFA, plus they impart different flavors and aroma to your food. To get the maximum benefit in a budget-savvy way, purchase olive oil (for low-heat cooking) and canola oil (for high-heat cooking. Olive oil provides valuable MUFA and omega-6 fats, but canola also has a decent amount of omega-3 fats. Learn more by reading cooking oils decoded. List of healthy fats you can grab quickly at the grocery store. Food (per serving)CaloriesTotal Fat (g)MUFA (g)PUFA (g) Almond (1oz)1641494 Cashew (1oz)1571272 Walnut (1oz)18518313 Peanut Butter (2tbsp)1881674 Cheese (1oz)1151020 Yogurt (170g)104310 Dark Chocolate (1oz)1641130 Avocado (1/2 fruit)16014102 Quick list of foods naturally high in omega-3 fatty acids. Food (per serving)CaloriesTotal Fat (g)Omega-3 Fats (g) Flaxseed oil (1tbsp)120147.3 Chia seeds (1oz)13895.1 Walnuts (1oz)185182.6 Salmon (4oz)203122 Ground flaxseed (2 tbsp)6093.2 Sardines (4oz)236131.6 Tofu (1/2 cup)7830.6 how body uses fat subhead Having a certain amount of fat on board is crucial for life—so much so that our bodies have figured out a way to make fat even if we eat almost no fat at all! Excess carbs and protein can both be converted into fat and stored as energy, or used in some of the important functions we mentioned above in Fat Basics. Not surprisingly, significant fat breakdown occurs when your body runs on a calorie deficit. In a healthy adult, calorie deficits occur mainly by restricting calories consumed or by undergoing a tough workout. When this happens, your body taps into its own fat stores, breaking them down for energy through a process called “beta oxidation.” This process requires glucose, which can come from carbohydrates or protein, and is most efficient when you’re mildly restricting calories. Not only does the body burn fat during calorie deficits, but it also burns fat during normal day-to-day activities. Fat is the primary source of fuel when you engage in low-intensity movements, from sitting in front of the computer to walking the dog. The body does this so it can spare glucose (the good stuff!) for your brain and red blood cells. fat tip 3 fat myths subhead Your body stores fat mainly from excess calories. If a calorie excess is available, even if those calories are from carbs or protein, your body is fully capable of turning them into fat for storage. Your body burns a combination of carbs, fat and protein. At rest and during low-intensity exercise (e.g. exercising at less than 70% maximal heart rate), fat is the fuel of choice. Your body’s fuel of choice shifts to carbs when you exercise harder—at a moderately intense pace and beyond. Contrary to what the label might tell you, low-fat and nonfat versions of foods tend to contain more fillers and additives to make up for missing flavor. A common additive is, unsurprisingly, sugar (or any one of its 44 cousins). How do you fit fat into your weight-loss or gain routine? Share your comments below. • Ryan most of us who join this site are considered ‘advanced’ when it comes to the topic of fat…am i right? • james pogrebetsky I came on here to post about how this article was all wrong. Turns out, I’m very biased and was expecting yet another hatchet job against fat. What can I say, I jumped the gun, based on the 95% of articles I see that fear fat in all forms. Congrats on actually putting the truth out there! • Northwoods Dan Pretty solid article. Nice to see fat not demonized. I do wish the “non-link” between saturated fat and mortality was discussed a bit more. Just because saturated fat raises LDL does not mean that we should choose canola, a very modern oil. Even so, I think this article was well balanced and a welcome departure from 1980s think. • Russ the Muss Love your articles Trinh Le I have learnt a lot since I started reading them. I now better understand how my body functions and what you explained is exactly my own experience with my body weight. Don’t know about the lower intensity workout being a better fat burner though as HIIT works well too. • Ingrid Rampton Hi, my name is Ingrid, I have been overweight before and managed to loose 65 kg back in 2006, I felt really great, my son had beaten brain cancer in 2005 and my reasoning was, if he can beat cancer I can beat my weight issues. And I did. Until his relapse in 2009, and then his passing in 2011, left me devastated, as I am an emotional eater I didn’t care. I thought what’s the point. If I join him all the better. This needless to say is not working for me anymore, nor would Jordan want me to. I’ve just been diagnosed with fatty filtrated liver and gastritis, I need to loose weight and excersize, due to my chronic degenerative disease in my lower back and severe arthritis in my right foot excersize is not an option at the moment. I am 130 kg and wondered if I can loose some weight first then excersize when I’m a little lighter. And due to fatty liver do I need to reduce all fats? Please help me to help myself. I’ve done this to myself but wish to reverse it, if at all possible. Thank you in advance. • nikki I’m truly sorry for your loss, I just lost my close father in law to the same thing 3 weeks ago. One thing is yes you can lose weight at first with diet alone, but its going to take a while… So be prepared for that. Starting with diet (not fad diet, a lifetime diet) is a great place to start to get back into things. Besides, you can’t out exercise a bad diet! However, there are exercises you can do right now even with pain and physical limitations. Go on YouTube and look for videos for seated exercise for beginners. You really should do at least some exercise as it will make you feel better quickly and help JumpStart your weight loss! I hope this helps and good luck on your journey! • B1ue52 As others have mentioned, it is refreshing to see an article not demonising fat. Nothing winds me up more than hearing people talk about how fat makes you fat and they choose all the low fat options rammed full of sugar. I enjoyed the article and it’s message. However, I too would also like to see saturated fats talked about a little more in an exercise context. Whilst we know that saturated fats are a precursor to cholesterol, we also know that cholesterol, in turn, is a precursor to testosterone production. So when saturated fat is combined with resistance based exercise, not only to we largely negate the adverse effects of fat = cholesterol, we achieve a natural increase in something we all, men and women alike, need in spades when trying to alter our body compositions. I would like to see this explained more for the masses. I personally am currently on a long term cutting cycle after 2 years off training due to injury. My fat intake is 45% of my macro profile and I avoid only trans fats. Whilst running a 600Kcal deficit based on 45% fat, 40% protein and 15% carbs and training hard 4 times per week I am making great fat loss gains and retaining muscle without an issue. Fats for me are a godsend – My dietary intake of all foods is very regimented on a weekly basis as I find it easier this way. I bulk make my lunches and dinners for an entire week. I inject my fat content by making sauces, usually dairy based to liven up my heavily protein based recipes. It makes everything so much more tasty and palatable when you are eating the same thing day on day. If you exercise hard, then I don’t think the 35% cap advice should be adhered to. Great article and breath of fresh air – Hopefully bit by bit articles like this can begin to undo the world of BS the various agencies, manufacturers and governments have created over recent decades. I am a firm believer that the low fat, high fruit recommendations that have been touted in that time are a huge contributory factor in todays obesity epidemic. Please follow up this article with more on the dangers of low fat foods, high sugar content, the sugar alternatives that let manufacturers get away with lying about sugar content and evils of fructose and BS products like Special K!! 🙂 • Nice to read a beginner’s guide – a lot of people still don’t understand that our body needs fat! • Bruce Spencer Well, it depends. Plenty of people see a rise of LDL and HDL with a diet high in saturated fat. What most people see is “OMG, MY LDL AND TOTAL CHOLESTEROL IS OFF THE CHARTS!” . what they fail to realize is their Triglycerides have went down and their HDL have went up. So their HDL to Triglyceride ratio has improved. Next they don’t know what the partical breakdown of their LDL is. Eating high amounts of saturated fat typically causes a rise in large fluffy LDL particles which have been shown to not be a problem with clogging arteries like the small dense LDL particles are. So it is true for some (maybe even most) humans that eating a lot of saturated fat will raise your LDL, but its not necessarily a bad thing.
Older Workers Without Jobs Face Longest Time Out of Work After reaching record highs month after month, the typical length of time a jobless worker in the United States has been unemployed finally fell in April, to “only” 38.3 weeks. But the outlook is looking bleaker for the nation’s older workers. Sure, older workers are much less likely to be unemployed than their younger counterparts. Here’s a look at unemployment rates by age: DESCRIPTIONSource: Bureau of Labor Statistics Note: The figures are presented as a 12-month moving average because not all age groups had seasonally-adjusted data available. As you can see, the older you are, the less likely you are to be unemployed. The unemployment rate for people over age 65 is about 6.5 percent, taken on a 12-month moving average. The unemployment rate for teenagers is nearly four times that. DESCRIPTIONSource: Bureau of Labor Statistics Note: The figures are presented as a 12-month moving average to adjust for seasonality. The average jobless person over age 65 has been looking for work for 43.9 weeks. For someone between the ages of 55 and 64, the typical duration is 44.6 weeks, just a few weeks shy of a year. The average unemployment spells for both of these groups are at record highs. The average teenager, on the other hand, has been looking for less than half that time, at 19.9 weeks. Why are older workers more likely to be stuck in a seemingly eternal jobless limbo? Some of it has to do with the fact that younger workers are more likely to drop out of the labor force entirely if they are unable to find a job after weeks of searching. Some young workers may go back to school, and some may move in with their parents. Wherever they end up, if they’ve dropped out of the labor force, they’re no longer technically counted as unemployed. Additionally, older workers are more likely to have been laid off from industries in structural decline. Before the Great Recession, these industries — like manufacturing and newspapers — had probably been trying to shrink through attrition, meaning that they hired fewer young people to replace retiring workers, meaning offices and factories got gradually older. As the economy soured, these employers started resorting to more layoffs. Now their former employees are structurally displaced, and probably less likely to go back to school for retraining or to move across the country where the job market may be better. After all, older workers are more likely to own their own homes, and so are less mobile. Finally there is the possibility of age discrimination. Nearly every out-of-work American over the age of 45 I’ve spoken with has complained that prejudice is keeping him or her from getting a job. Age discrimination is hard to prove, especially since employers are unlikely to inform applicants that age factored into the hiring decision. (Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, young people — and whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, women and men — also all seem to think that prejudice explains why they’re out of work.) In any case these long durations of unemployment for older workers are particularly troubling, since the longer workers are out of the work the less employable they become. Lengthening spells of joblessness therefore do not bode well for the country’s ability to ever get displaced older workers back into gainful employment. When we talk about the scarring effect of unemployment, we’re usually referring to the scars on young people’s careers. But there is also much to worry about the permanent damage that joblessness can wreak on older workers, many of whom feel they’re being summarily kicked out of the labor force.
Homeless Teens, Hopeless Scenes Nicole RejerNicole Rejer is a freshman psychology major. In a city as affluent as San Francisco, it can be easy to forget that homelessness is a big issue. We can see it on the streets, the buses, almost everywhere we go. There simply are not enough jobs that pay enough, and many people cannot make a living wage that will allow them to live comfortably. An SFGate article published in 2014 says there are enough homeless children in the San Francisco Unified School District to fill over 70 classrooms. The homeless population is very stigmatized in this city, and this leads to neglect of the younger homeless population as well. They don’t have the same support from adults and are struggling to meet their most basic needs. In a study conducted by University of California, Berkeley, a research team followed over 200 young people, ages 15 to 24, throughout six years. Eleven of those kids passed away, and the researchers concluded that youth living on San Francisco’s streets are 10 times more likely to die than their peers. This is absolutely absurd, but a very sad reality. Most homeless youth are often neglected or abused by their families, and the streets are often the last resort for homeless teens to end up, sometimes even being safer than their actual homes. Needless to say, homelessness can have a draining effect on anyone’s psyche, but it is the homeless youth population that will suffer the most in the long run. They are still developing physically, mentally, and emotionally, and without their basic needs, all development is stunted. Furthermore, the streets bring youth in very close contact with violence, drugs, and gang life–all factors that make it much harder for these teenagers to return to a normal life. Even if they stay in school, how are they expected to focus on mundane subjects such as algebra and US history when they cannot even figure out where their next meal will come from, or where they will sleep at night? Homelessness is a difficult problem to solve, and in a big city like San Francisco, a feat that seems almost impossible. It is true that the city has been struggling with this issue for the last couple of decades. However, it is not something that we can choose to continuously ignore, especially with such statistics. If this city cares at all about its future generations, they will need to do something about this issue soon. No matter how the city chooses to accomplish it, every child and teenager should be given the opportunity to obtain housing, food, clothing, and a quality education. There should be more outreach from different organizations that will go into the streets and help these young people by offering them different programs such as drug and alcohol abuse recovery programs, counseling for abuse and family issues, and tutoring to help get teens caught up in school. Provide them with whatever they want and need. A challenge? Yes, for sure. Is it worth it? 100%. It is immoral and unthinkable to allow a minor sleep out in the cold and not get a chance at being successful. We need to do everything we can to help. Please enter your comment! Please enter your name here
Dismiss Notice Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! Sketching a triple integral 1. Feb 27, 2013 #1 Here is the question along with the solution and sketch. I think the sketch is wrong because the projection in the xy plane shows a rectangular box. I don't think it is a rectangular box because you can solve for an equation relating x and y. You know that y = 1-z and x = 1-z^2, so you can solve for some equation with x and y by eliminated z. Which gets you x = -(y-1)^2 + 1 for the relationship in the xy plane and it is clearly not a rectangle...? 2. jcsd 3. Feb 28, 2013 #2 User Avatar Staff Emeritus Science Advisor That last equation is, of course, x= y(2- y) but it is the projection of the boundary of the y= 1- z and x= 1- z^2, NOT the base itself. The sketch is correct. Have something to add? Draft saved Draft deleted Similar Discussions: Sketching a triple integral 1. Triple Integral (Replies: 7) 2. Triple Integral (Replies: 3) 3. Triple integral (Replies: 5) 4. Triple Integral (Replies: 9) 5. Triple Integral (Replies: 6)
Children are traumatised As the violent conflict in Syria continues into its sixth year, children have already suffered too much. Fighting has forced families to flee their homes, sometimes spending weeks making the dangerous journey to safe camps, facing snipers and landmines on the way. In protected camps outside Raqqa city, as many as 39,000 refugees have turned up in one day, often empty handed and with hungry and sick kids. Young children have been exposed to extreme violence and they're traumatised. They don't play, run or laugh like normal children. They don't engage with anyone. They look lost, weak and exhausted. Today there is no place worse in the world to be a child, than in Syria. 2016 was the worst year on record for Syria's children 2016 scarred Syrian children for life. Along with millions of children being displaced from their homes, last year at least 652 children lost their lives in the conflict, many of whom were close to their school at the time. In eastern Aleppo, doctors funded by UNICEF ran out of medicine and were forced to decide which children would live or die. More than 850 children were recruited to fight in the conflict. The suffering Syria children endured last year is unimaginable. How is UNICEF helping children in Syria? Every single day, UNICEF is reaching children in Syria with life saving support. As one of the few humanitarian agencies operating inside Syria, we are also helping refugee families in surrounding countries, including Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt. We're delivering billions of litres of fresh water every day, and providing children across the country with food, medicine, safe places to shelter from the fighting, and giving them the chance to learn in child-friendly spaces. Last year, with the support of our generous donors, we provided 700,000 children with warm clothes and blankets to survive the harsh winter, and immunised 3.5 million children against polio, ensuring the country remained polio-free. We reached over 3 million children with textbooks, stationary and school bags to allow them to continue their education, and rehabilitated over 400 schools that had been damaged by the fighting. We couldn't reach these vulnerable children without your help. Every dollar you donate makes a difference in their lives. Donate Now Fares' Story Syria 6 Years On - Fares and classmates 9 year old Fares was out of school, supporting his mother and younger brother by selling beans and waterpipe in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, when UNICEF found him. He desperately wanted to attend school, but his family's financial situation prevented him from doing so. "Register me in any school you want", he told UNICEF when we interviewed him, "I’d like to become an engineer or a doctor." Fares' story mirrors those of hundreds of thousands of Syrian children and the barriers they face in getting an education. But thanks to UNICEF donors who are helping to provide educational support and learning materials for children in Lebanon, Fares is now in school and learning to read and write for the first time in his life. How can I help children? UNICEF is one of the few organisations working for children inside Syria and in surrounding countries. As the conflict continues into it's sixth year, children desperately need clean drinking water, therapeutic food, warm blankets, medicine, vaccines and counselling services for the trauma they've experienced. You can be a part of saving these young lives by making a donation that helps provide urgent supplies to children who need it most. Page last updated: 20 Jul 2017 3:39pm Open Lightbox
Eliminating Negative Feedback Generates Positive Results August 22, 1986\|By Hans Fantel, New York Times News Service. Audio has its seasonal aspects, and late August is the time when new components first appear in the shops, there to await the return of high-fi fans from their summer vacations. A sampling of these early arrivals confirms that audio has reached a developmental plateau so high that basic advances are becoming rare. There are lots of clever innovations but few bold departures. Even so, at least one new development transcends mere gadgeteering: It is the elimination of a design principle known as negative feedback. A curious history lies in back of this. For decades, negative feedback was considered a good thing altogether, and nobody wanted to get rid of it. Developed some 60 years ago by Bell Laboratories to reduce distortion on long- distance phone calls, feedback circuits of this kind later served the same purpose in audio amplifiers and played an important role in the rise of high fidelity. But the advantages gained in this way are not without unwelcome side effects. These are quite subtle and went unnoticed for decades. But as sound technology grew more refined, the side effects of feedback became detectable to the ear in the form of a barely perceptible blurring at the sharp onset of percussive sounds. The deleterious effects of negative feedback were discovered and investigated in the late 1970s by Dr. Matti Otala, a professor of electronics at the University of Oulu in Finland. He noticed that some amplifiers that did poorly on lab measurements actually sounded better than nominally superior models. Then he traced these discrepancies to the hitherto unsuspected side effects of feedback circuits. Taking a hint from Otala`s findings (and retaining him as a consultant), Harman-Kardon, an American company with a penchant for venturesome engineering, introduced a line of amplifiers with sharply reduced feedback. Now, the Norwegian firm of Tandberg has taken this approach a step farther. In fact, the company took it to its logical limit and managed to cut negative feedback to zero. The new zero-feedback Tandberg TPA-3016 amplifier represents a benchmark in audio design--massive and magnificent. Its 65-pound heft is as impressive as the rest of its specifications, and it delivers 220 watts per channel of scrupulously purified audio signal. Every possible refinement in the choice of materials and physical layout complements the advanced theoretical concept, and this no-compromise model may well prove to be the ultimate amplifier--if there is such a thing. At $3,295, it ought to. Few design innovations occupy such exalted planes of theory and execution, but some are nevertheless useful, effective and convenient. A case in point is the so-called play-trim circuit in NAD`s new Model 6155 cassette deck ($348). Its purpose is to optimize frequency response in playing cassettes recorded on other tape decks, which of course includes all commercially prerecorded cassettes.
Tag Archives: Sheldon Coin Grading Scale What is Coin Grading? Loupe-triplet-30x-0aCoin grading is the process of determining a coin’s value. Grading depends on a few things. First, how well the coin was originally struck. Second, how well the metal has been preserved and last, how much wear and damage the coin has suffered since it was minted. Coin grading can be difficult for beginners. Here are the basics of coin grading: 70-Point Grading Scale The Sheldon Coin Grading Scale is a 70-point grading scale used to determine a coin’s quality. A slightly modified form of the Sheldon Scale is used today by all the major coin companies, including the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) and Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS). The 70-point grading scale ranges from a grade of Poor (P-1) to Perfect Mint State (MS-70). Over time, coins vary in degrees of “wear” from circulation. Therefore, coin grades are based primarily on eye appeal, quality of luster and/or toning. Circulated Coins Circulated coins are those that have been used in daily commerce and have some wear from person-to-person handling. Once a coin enters general circulation, it immediately begins to show signs of wear. Luckily, circulated coins are the easiest to find and grade. Circulated coins are graded as follows: good, very good, fine, very fine, extra fine, and about uncirculated. Uncirculated Coins Coins that have never been in circulation are referred to as uncirculated coins. These coins may have been stored in their original mint sealed bags or in wrapped rolls. As a result, they display no wear from general circulation. Uncirculated coins have great quality and scarcity, which means they’re high value. Most uncirculated coins range from MS-60 to MS-70. For most, it takes years of experience to become an expert at grading uncirculated coins. Proof Coins A proof coin is stuck using a special minting process, which removes any and all imperfections. You will never see proof coins in circulation. They have a mirror-like finish and are inspected to rigid standards. Proof coins are only handled with gloves or tongs before they are specially packed for collectors. For this reasons, proof coins are worth much more than their face value. Gary Dyner is the owner of Great American Coin Company. Connect with him on
Digestive system facts kids - buzzle, You can refer to the below digestive system diagram, for better understanding. now let us look at the basic structure and functioning of this system - from the food. Build--body: digestive system - gameup - brainpop., In this free online science interactive game, students learn about the organs and organ substructures within the digestive system.. ø #1 human anatomy physiology ø \| learn, Award winning human anatomy and physiology home study course - for practitioners, students, medical professionals,paramedics & academia. Human body muscle diagram, A fully labelled human body muscle diagram. 4 fantastic large size (a4) labeled human body muscular system pictures download, print photocopy. http://www.human-body-facts.com/human-body-muscle-diagram.html Diagram digestive system explanation , Diagram digestive system explanation working. digestive system helps breaking complex food simpler forms. diagram . http://www.buzzle.com/articles/diagram-of-the-digestive-system.html Human anatomy chart - pictures human anatomy body, Tissues human body chart : human bone structure. immune system cells diagram. endocrine system hormones functions chart. pancreas anatomy diagram. http://humananatomychart.us/
A wetland in Southeast Iraq thought to be the biblical Garden of Eden and almost completely drained during Saddam Hussein’s rule, has become a UNESCO world heritage site, Iraqi authorities said. Fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the marshlands of Mesopotamia are spawning grounds for Gulf fisheries and home to bird species such as the sacred Ibis. They also provided a resting spot for thousands of wild fowl migrating between Siberia and Africa. Saddam Hussein, who accused the region’s Marsh Arab inhabitants of treachery during the 1980-1988 war with Iran, dammed and drained the marshes in the 1990s to flush out rebels hiding in the reeds. After his overthrow by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, locals wrecked many of the dams to let water rush back in, and foreign environmental agencies helped breathe life back into the marshes. The marshes, which covered 9,000 square kilometres in the 1970s, shrunk to just 760 sq km by 2002 before regaining some 40 per cent of the original area by 2005. Iraq said it aimed to recover a total of 6,000 square kilometres. Vast, remote and bordering Iran, the marshes had been used in recent years for drugs and arms smuggling, receiving stolen goods and keeping hostages for ransom. The Marsh Arabs had lived in the wetlands for millennia, but are on the fringes of Iraqi society. A study put their population at 400,000 in the 1950s, but several hundred thousand fled Saddam’s repression or became economic migrants. Estimates of the numbers returning varied wildly, as many Marsh Arabs were illiterate and had struggled to find work outside the marshes. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday praised UNESCO’s decision, which he said“coincides with the consecutive military victories in the war against’’ Islamic State. The militant group, which had been pushed back from about half the territory it seized in 2014, controlled some of the world’s richest archaeological sites in northern Iraq Author: Cerebral Lemon
Want to Make Climate Impacts More Relatable? Start With Water ecoWhen an issue is as big and abstract as climate change, how can we make it easier for people to grasp? One of the best ways is to point to local impacts and tell personal stories that help people visualize how climate change is impacting people right now. And whether it’s a flood caused by torrential rain, storm surge from a hurricane, rising sea levels, or a years-long drought, one thing many climate impacts have in common is water. Wherever people live in the United States, they can almost certainly point to a drought, wildfire, or severe weather event that affected them or people they know. While we often think of impacts in terms of damaged homes and businesses, ruined crops, or washed-out roads, the impacts go beyond that. As a new report from the World Bank points out, climate change also affects water availability and quality. For example, rising seas are causing the salinization of the aquifers that supply South Florida with its drinking water. Food security is also an issue. Changes in rainfall patterns can affect crop production, leading to spikes in the price of food and potential food shortages. Food may even become less nutritious if climate change continues to worsen. A 2014 Harvard University study found that when staple crops like wheat and rice are grown with high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, they contain lower levels of zinc, iron, and other essential minerals, as well as diminished levels of protein. Then, there are the mental health impacts of climate change. Floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other severe weather events create stress and anxiety when they are happening, for obvious reasons. But the psychological effects can linger after the danger is gone. People often feel a sense of vulnerability, hopelessness, or mourning for what’s been lost. Severe weather events can also lead to displacement, if people can’t return home and must set up new lives and find jobs elsewhere. Drought creates its own form of anxiety, because it’s hard to know whether a dry spell is temporary or the beginning of a longer phase. Uncertainty coupled with the impacts of drought on crops, livestock, and other forms of livelihood can lead to depression. (You can learn more about the psychological effects of climate change in the upcoming webinar, Climate Changes Mental Health.) There is good news, though – the fact that these impacts are all around us make them very relatable. Bringing up a recent, local flood or severe storm is a good way to help a friend or family member see the how their own lives are already being affected by climate change. If they remember getting sticker shock over the record-high price of beef last year, you can tie that to the epic drought in Texas. Once you’ve helped them understand the link, you can shift the conversation topic to solutions. As the World Bank report went on to say, though the potential impacts of climate change on water availability could be severe, better water management can substantially limit these adverse affects. Utilities, communities, and governments have a huge opportunity to incorporate climate change planning into their operations and conservation efforts. This will require strong, far-reaching policies, but that’s where we can make a difference. You and your friend, colleague, or family member can advocate for and support smart water management and other resilience efforts, as well as climate solutions that help fight climate change at the source, such as clean energy, good public transit, and better fuel efficiency. The key to communicating about climate is bringing the large and abstract down to a personal level. At its core, climate change is about our water and air, the two things most elemental to human life. What could be more personal, or more important? Leave a Reply
Saturday, January 28, 2017 Power Set Algorithm - Iterative The power set of a set S is the set of all subsets of S including the empty set and S itself. For example, the power set of {1, 2, 3} is {{}, {1}, {2}, {3}, {1, 2}, {1, 3}, {2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}}. Previously, I wrote about how you can generate the power set using a recursive algorithm. This time I'll show you how to use iteration. Recall, that when we are generating a set for the power set, each element can either be in the set or out of the set. In other words, each set can be represented in binary form, where 1 means that the element is in the set and 0 means that it is not. For example, given a set {a, b, c}, the binary string 101 would represent {a, c}. Generating the power set just comes down to generating all numbers from 0 to 2^n (since there are 2^n possible subsets) and converting the binary representation of the number into the set! Here is the algorithm: public static <E> List<List<E>> powerSet(final List<E> list) { final List<List<E>> result = new ArrayList<>(); final int numSubSets = 1 << list.size(); // 2^n for (int i = 0; i < numSubSets; i++) { final List<E> subSet = new ArrayList<>(); int index = 0; for (int j = i; j > 0; j >>= 1) { // keep shifting right if ((j & 1) == 1) { // check last bit return result; Sunday, January 22, 2017 Java 8: Top N elements from a stream This post shows how you can sort a stream in reverse order and then select the top N elements. This is quite common in financial systems. For example, let's say that you have a list of currency exchange rate movements and you want to see the top 5 largest movements. You can do this using Java 8 Streams as shown below: import static java.util.Comparator.; import static; // list of currency exchange rate percentage moves final List<Currency> currencies = Arrays.asList( new Currency("EUR/USD", 0.37), new Currency("USD/JPY", -0.21), new Currency("GBP/USD", 0.27), new Currency("AUD/USD", -0.08), new Currency("USD/CAD", 0.02), new Currency("USD/CHF", -0.46), new Currency("EUR/JPY", 0.16), new Currency("EUR/GBP", 0.13), new Currency("USD/HKD", 0.0), new Currency("EUR/CHF", 0.05), new Currency("USD/KRW", -0.71) .sorted(comparing(Currency::getMove, comparing(Math::abs)).reversed()) The result is: Currency [ccy=USD/KRW, move=-0.71] Currency [ccy=USD/CHF, move=-0.46] Currency [ccy=EUR/USD, move=0.37] Currency [ccy=GBP/USD, move=0.27] Currency [ccy=USD/JPY, move=-0.21] The two argument Comparator.comparing method easily allows us to compare currency moves on absolute value. Sunday, January 01, 2017 in 2016 Happy 2017, everyone! In keeping with tradition, here's one last look back at in 2016. During 2016, I posted 20 new entries on I am also thrilled that I have more readers from all over the world! Thanks for reading and especially for giving feedback. Top 5 posts of 2016: Related posts:
Page semi-protected From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Coordinates: 31°41′56″N 35°18′23″E / 31.69889°N 35.30639°E / 31.69889; 35.30639 Map which shows Judea (south of Samaria and the Galilee) Judea or Judæa (/ˈd.ə/;[1] from Hebrew: יהודה‎‎, Standard Yəhuda, Tiberian Yəhûḏāh, Greek: Ἰουδαία, Ioudaía; Latin: Iūdaea, Arabic: يهودا‎‎, Yahudia) is the ancient Hebrew and Israelite biblical, the exonymic Roman/English, and the modern-day name of the mountainous southern part of Canaan-Israel. The name originates from the Hebrew name "Yehudah", a son of the Jewish patriarch Jacob/Israel, and Yehudah's progeny forming the biblical Israelite tribe of Judah (Yehudah) and later the associated Kingdom of Judah, which the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia dates from 934 until 586 BCE.[2] The name of the region continued to be incorporated through the Babylonian conquest, Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods as Yehud, Yehud Medinata, Hasmonean Judea, and consequently Herodian Judea and Roman Judea, respectively. As a consequence of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in 135 CE the region was renamed and merged with Roman Syria to form Syria Palaestina by the victorious Roman Emperor Hadrian. A large part of Judea was included in Jordanian West Bank between 1948 and 1967 (i.e., the "West Bank" of the Kingdom of Jordan).[3][4] The term Judea as a geographical term was revived by the Israeli government in the 20th century as part of the Israeli administrative district name Judea and Samaria Area for the territory generally referred to as the West Bank.[5] The name Judea is a Greek and Roman adaptation of the name "Judah", which originally encompassed the territory of the Israelite tribe of that name and later of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. Nimrud Tablet K.3751, dated c.733 BCE, is the earliest known record of the name Judah (written in Assyrian cuneiform as Yaudaya or KUR.ia-ú-da-a-a). Judea was sometimes used as the name for the entire region, including parts beyond the river Jordan.[6] In 200 CE Sextus Julius Africanus, cited by Eusebius (Church History 1.7.14), described "Nazara" (Nazareth) as a village in Judea.[7] "Judea" was the name used by English-speakers until the Jordanian occupation of the area in 1948.[citation needed] Jordan called the area ad-difa’a al-gharbiya (translated into English as the "West Bank").[8] "Yehuda" is the Hebrew term used for the area in modern Israel since the region was captured and occupied by Israel in 1967.[9] Historical boundaries The classical Roman-Jewish historian Josephus wrote: In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies the village Anuath, which is also named Borceos. This is the northern boundary of Judea. The southern parts of Judea, if they be measured lengthways, are bounded by a village adjoining to the confines of Arabia; the Jews that dwell there call it Jordan. However, its breadth is extended from the river Jordan to Joppa. The city Jerusalem is situated in the very middle; on which account some have, with sagacity enough, called that city the Navel of the country. Nor indeed is Judea destitute of such delights as come from the sea, since its maritime places extend as far as Ptolemais: it was parted into eleven portions, of which the royal city Jerusalem was the supreme, and presided over all the neighboring country, as the head does over the body. As to the other cities that were inferior to it, they presided over their several toparchies; Gophna was the second of those cities, and next to that Acrabatta, after them Thamna, and Lydda, and Emmaus, and Pella, and Idumea, and Engaddi, and Herodium, and Jericho; and after them came Jamnia and Joppa, as presiding over the neighboring people; and besides these there was the region of Gamala, and Gaulonitis, and Batanea, and Trachonitis, which are also parts of the kingdom of Agrippa. This [last] country begins at Mount Libanus, and the fountains of Jordan, and reaches breadthways to the lake of Tiberias; and in length is extended from a village called Arpha, as far as Julias. Its inhabitants are a mixture of Jews and Syrians. And thus have I, with all possible brevity, described the country of Judea, and those that lie round about it.[10] Mediterranean oak and terebinth woodland in the Valley of Elah, southwestern Judea. Judea is a mountainous region, part of which is considered a desert. It varies greatly in height, rising to an altitude of 1,020 m (3,346 ft) in the south at Mount Hebron, 30 km (19 mi) southwest of Jerusalem, and descending to as much as 400 m (1,312 ft) below sea level in the east of the region. It also varies in rainfall, starting with about 400–500 millimetres (16–20 in) in the western hills, rising to 600 millimetres (24 in) around western Jerusalem (in central Judea), falling back to 400 millimetres (16 in) in eastern Jerusalem and dropping to around 100 mm in the eastern parts, due to a rainshadow effect (this is the Judean desert). The climate, accordingly, moves between Mediterranean in the west and desert climate in the east, with a strip of steppe climate in the middle. Major urban areas in the region include Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Gush Etzion, Jericho and Hebron.[11] Geographers divide Judea into several regions: the Hebron hills, the Jerusalem saddle, the Bethel hills and the Judean desert east of Jerusalem, which descends in a series of steps to the Dead Sea. The hills are distinct for their anticline structure. In ancient times the hills were forested, and the Bible records agriculture and sheep farming being practiced in the area. Animals are still grazed today, with shepherds moving them between the low ground to the hilltops as summer approaches, while the slopes are still layered with centuries-old stone terracing. The Jewish Revolt against the Romans ended in the devastation of vast areas of the Judaean countryside.[12] Mount Hazor marks the geographical boundary between Samaria to its north and Judea to its south. Early Iron Age Map of the southern Levant, c.830s BCE. Kingdom of Judah The early history of Judah is uncertain; the Biblical account states that the Kingdom of Judah, along with the Northern Kingdom, was a successor to a united Kingdom of Israel, but modern scholarship generally holds that the united monarchy is ahistorical.[13][14][15][16] Regardless, the Northern Kingdom was conquered into the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE. The Kingdom of Judah remained nominally independent, but paid tribute to the Assyrian Empire from 715 and throughout the first half of the 7th century BCE, regaining its independence as the Assyrian Empire declined after 640 BCE, but after 609 again fell under the sway of imperial rule, this time paying tribute at first to the Egyptians and after 601 BCE to the Neo-Babylonian Empire, until 586 BCE, when it was finally conquered by Babylonia. Judea is central to much of the narrative of the Torah, with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob said to have been buried at Hebron in the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Persian and Hellenistic periods Hasmonean Kingdom at its greatest extent under Salome Alexandra The Babylonian Empire fell to the conquests of Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE.[17] Judea remained under Persian rule until the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, eventually falling under the rule of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire until the revolt of Judas Maccabeus resulted in the Hasmonean dynasty of Kings who ruled in Judea for over a century.[18] Roman conquest Judea lost its independence to the Romans in the 1st century BCE, by becoming first a tributary kingdom, then a province, of the Roman Empire. The Romans had allied themselves to the Maccabees and interfered again in 63 BCE, at the end of the Third Mithridatic War, when the proconsul Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great") stayed behind to make the area secure for Rome, including his siege of Jerusalem in 63 BCE. Queen Alexandra Salome had recently died, and a civil war broke out between her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. Pompeius restored Hyrcanus but political rule passed to the Herodian family who ruled as client kings. In 6 CE, Judea came under direct Roman rule as the southern part of the province of Iudaea, although Jews living in the province still maintained some form of independence and could judge offenders by their own laws, including capital offences, until c. 28 CE.[19] The Province of Judea, during the late 2nd Temple period was also divided into five conclaves, or administrative districts: 1) Jerusalem (ירושלם), 2) Gadara (גדרה), 3) Amathus (עמתו), 4) Jericho (יריחו), 5) Sepphoris (צפורין).[20] Eventually, the Jewish population rose against Roman rule in 66 CE in a revolt that was unsuccessful. Jerusalem was besieged in 70 CE and much of the population was killed or enslaved.[21] Bar Kokhba revolt Again 70 years later, the Jewish population revolted under the leadership of Simon bar Kokhba and established the last Kingdom of Israel, which lasted three years, before the Romans managed to conquer the province for good, at a high cost in terms of manpower and expense. After the defeat of Bar Kokhba (132–135 CE) the Roman Emperor Hadrian was determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea, and renamed it Syria Palaestina. Until that time the area had been called "province of Judea" (Roman Judea) by the Romans.[22] At the same time, he changed the name of the city of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. The Romans killed many Jews and sold many more into slavery; many Jews departed into the Jewish diaspora, but there was never a complete Jewish abandonment of the area, and Jews have been an important (and sometimes persecuted) minority in Judea since that time.[23] Byzantine period 5th-century CE: Byzantine provinces of Palaestina I (Philistia, Judea and Samaria) and Palaestina II (Galilee and Perea) The Byzantines redrew the borders of the Land of Palestine. The various Roman provinces (Syria Palaestina, Samaria, Galilee, and Peraea) were reorganized into three diocese of Palaestina, reverting to the name first used by Greek historian Herodotus in the mid-5th century BCE: Palaestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia or Salutaris (First, Second, and Third Palestine), part of the Diocese of the East.[24][25] Palaestina Prima consisted of Judea, Samaria, the Paralia, and Peraea with the governor residing in Caesarea. Palaestina Secunda consisted of the Galilee, the lower Jezreel Valley, the regions east of Galilee, and the western part of the former Decapolis with the seat of government at Scythopolis. Palaestina Tertia included the Negev, southern Jordan—once part of Arabia—and most of Sinai with Petra as the usual residence of the governor. Palestina Tertia was also known as Palaestina Salutaris.[24][26] According to historian H.H. Ben-Sasson,[27] this reorganisation took place under Diocletian (284–305), although other scholars suggest this change occurred later in 390.[citation needed] See also 2. ^ "Judah, Kingdom of". Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2014-04-10. 3. ^ A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – Mark A. Tessler – Google Books. Retrieved 2012-12-31. 4. ^ 5. ^ Neil Caplan (19 September 2011). The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories. John Wiley & Sons. p. 8. ISBN 978-1405175395. 6. ^ Studies in Palestinian Geography, Prof. S.J. Riggs, Auburn Theological Seminary, 1894, JSTOR The Biblical World 7. ^ "A few of the careful, however, having obtained private records of their own, either by remembering the names or by getting them in some other way from the registers, pride themselves on preserving the memory of their noble extraction. Among these are those already mentioned, called Desposyni, on account of their connection with the family of the Saviour. Coming from Nazara and Cochaba, villages of Judea, into other parts of the world, they drew the aforesaid genealogy from memory and from the book of daily records as faithfully as possible." (Eusebius Pamphili, Church History, Book I, Chapter VII,§ 14) 8. ^ "This Side of the River Jordan; On Language," Philologos, September 22, 2010, Forward. 9. ^ "Judaea". Britannica. Retrieved 2012-12-31. 10. ^ "Ancient History Sourcebook: Josephus (37 – after 93 CE): Galilee, Samaria, and Judea in the First Century CE". Retrieved 2012-12-31. 11. ^ "Picturesque Palestine I: Jerusalem, Judah, Ephraim". Retrieved 2012-12-31. 12. ^ "Unlikely A Tale of Two Conquests: The Unlikely Numismatic Association Between the Fall of New France (AD 1760) and the Fall of Judaea (AD 70)". Retrieved 2012-12-31. 13. ^ Kuhrt, Amiele (1995). The Ancient Near East. Routledge. p. 438. ISBN 978-0415167628. 14. ^ Finkelstein, Israel, and Silberman, Neil Asher, The Bible Unearthed : Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, Simon & Schuster, 2002. ISBN 0-684-86912-8 15. ^ 16. ^ Thompson, Thomas L., 1999, The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past, Jonathan Cape, London, ISBN 978-0-224-03977-2 p. 207 17. ^ "The Persians". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 2009-06-09. 18. ^ "The Hasmonean Dynasty". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 2009-06-09. 19. ^ Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 8b; ibid, Sanhedrin 41a 20. ^ Josephus, Antiquities Book 14, chapter 5, verse 4 21. ^ "Roman Rule". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 2009-06-09. 22. ^ "The Name "Palestine"". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 2010-08-16. 23. ^ "Shimon Bar-Kokhba". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 2009-06-09. 24. ^ a b Shahin (2005), p. 8 25. ^ Thomas A. Idniopulos (1998). "Weathered by Miracles: A History of Palestine From Bonaparte and Muhammad Ali to Ben-Gurion and the Mufti". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-11. 26. ^ "Roman Arabia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2007-08-11. 27. ^ H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976, ISBN 0-674-39731-2, p. 351 External links Retrieved from "" This content was retrieved from Wikipedia : This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article "Judea"; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA
The Basic Principles Of i ct scan May 17, 2017 As you sit in the medical professional's office, you might observe pamphlets on all sorts of different problems and treatments. You may likewise come across details on diagnostic testing such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Computed Tomography, CT Scan and Ultrasound. What do these words indicate? Do you actually need to have these tests done? When seeing a podiatric physician for the first time, they usually take x-rays. Weather condition you have toe discomfort or ankle pain, an x-ray can provide the medical professional important details. Given that medical professionals are human, they can not see what is taking place inside of your body. X-rays are a rather low-cost way to take a glance beneath the skin and screen for any problems. Typically, x-rays inform the medical professional enough to verify a diagnosis and treatment plan but at some point the x-ray can not offer a clear diagnosis. The doctor should then buy some advanced studies. Computed Tomography (CT scan) is a more advanced form of conventional x-ray. A CT scan takes digital technology and combines it with x-ray to develop cross sectional pictures of the body or foot. Imagine cutting your foot with an egg slicer and having the ability to imagine the bones and soft tissue layer by layer. This is exactly what is finished with a CT scan. This permits the physician to more specifically take a look at the size and area of the issue or issue. With a much better understanding of the issue, the doctor can then much better treat the problem. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a popular diagnostic test. Rather than utilizing x-rays, MRI utilizes a magnetic field and radiofrequencies to produce images of the body. Unlike x-rays or CT scans, MRIs do not discharge any radiation. A MRI is typically utilized to evaluate soft tissue injuries or believed problems. Because the MRI functions via a magnet there are some limitations for patients with pacemakers, artificial valves or other foreign artifacts in the body. Ultrasound is an incredibly popular diagnostic test due to the fact that it is genuine time imaging. This implies that the test can be performed in the workplace and the outcomes are seen immediately. The gadget looks much like the ultrasound used on pregnant women however they are not quite the exact same. Ultrasound utilized on the foot is done at a different frequency to better capture the structures in the foot instead of the uterus. In basic the ultrasound sends sound waves that, depending upon the tissue, get absorbed or recovered to the probe. The details gathered from the hand held probe is changed into an image on the computer system. There are many other tests available, these are the 3 most popular sophisticated imaging test used by podiatric doctors. Keep in mind that your foot is connected to your body. There are several pathologies that can develop. Everything from a growth to a neuroma can appear in the foot. It is necessary that a podiatric doctor fully assesses every condition to eliminate some really severe conditions. These tests likewise help to evaluate the seriousness of typical conditions which leads to better suited treatment. Go Back Blog Search Blog Archive There are currently no blog comments.
Adjective "bankings" definition and examples Definitions and examples The business conducted or services offered by a bank. 1. 'IIB Bank provides a wide range of banking services, including corporate and business banking, private banking and treasury and capital markets services.' 2. 'National Irish Bank's student account offers free banking and an interest-free overdraft where the limit can be agreed with the bank.' 3. 'All the banks provide free daily banking for their teenage and student accounts.' 4. 'The Bank of Scotland, whose merger with Halifax should be approved by shareholders in July, became the first bank to offer free banking for life to UK small businesses last year.' 5. 'The government has yet to propose its final details, but the accounts should offer all basic banking services without giving access to credit.' 6. 'Government and education will emerge on the technology horizon and banking and financial services will continue their strong run.' 7. 'This year's package for all other students continues to offer free banking over the phone, online or in their student branch.' 8. 'In this area, scale can be the route to failure - because commercial and business banking is about relationships and good service.' 9. 'In America, mortgage lending is against the asset, not the person, and the bargain is more like asset financing than personal banking.' 10. 'Typical perks include preferential mortgages and personal loans, free banking, a pension fund, overtime, bonuses and share options.' An embankment or artificial bank. 1. 'Using radio tracking we discovered that signal crayfish were crossing woodland and climbing quite steep bankings which makes eradication extremely difficult.' 2. '‘In Spain I was in sixth gear on a very fast bit of road when the rear of the car just slid wide and touched the banking,’ says McRae.' 3. 'Modifications to five of the hazards were necessary due the conditions as rain drenched the muddy bankings.' 4. 'That's where the weeping (water seepage) was, but the banking there is different than any other track.' 5. '‘We bought the house here about two years ago and have spent about £10,000 landscaping the banking,’ she said.' 6. '‘It seems she was playing near to a stream when she tumbled about 20 feet down the banking,’ said PC Andy Bradley.' 7. 'Zinnia pointed out something moving on the banking.' 8. 'Pedestrians took their lives in their hands running the tree-lined gauntlet, forced to scramble up steep bankings if two vehicles met on the narrow stretch.' 9. 'The track flattens out in a hurry - the banking leaves you totally - and this makes the car almost want to move and change lanes on its own.' 10. 'If you turn the wheels hard left and lock the brakes down - particularly at Daytona and Talladega, where the banking is so steep - the car will end up in the infield.' More definitions 1. the business carried on by a bank or a banker. 2. banking as a profession. More examples(as adjective) "units can be bankings." "sources can be bankings." "shares can be bankings."
Wednesday, October 11, 2006 Home of the Armadillo The Donkey— Presidential candidate Andrew Jackson was the first Democrat ever to be associated with the donkey symbol. His opponents during the election of 1828 tried to label him a "jackass" for his populist beliefs and slogan, "Let the people rule." Jackson was entertained by the notion and ended up using it to his advantage on his campaign posters. But cartoonist Thomas Nast is credited with making the donkey the recognized symbol of the Democratic Party. It first appeared in a cartoon in Harper's Weekly in 1870, and was supposed to represent an anti-Civil War faction. But the public was immediately taken by it and by 1880 it had already become the unofficial symbol of the party. The Elephant— Political cartoonist Thomas Nast was also responsible for the Republican Party elephant. In a cartoon that appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1874, Nast drew a donkey clothed in lion's skin, scaring away all the animals at the zoo. One of those animals, the elephant, was labeled "The Republican Vote." That's all it took for the elephant to become associated with the Republican Party. The above info came from The Armadillo-Pastor Brent Thomas was responsible for the Redneck Party Armadillo. Living in the great state of Texas created a soft spot in his heart for the beloved state animal of Texas. So he combined the elephant of the Republican party with the donkey of the Democratic party and came up with the symbol for the Redneck Party. In the short two year period of living "Deep in the Heart of Texas", he became a huge fan of Gary P. Nunn's "London Homesick Blues" (from which his deep love for the armadillo grew) and then began listening to various other Texas music artists over his once beloved jazz. 1 comment: Amber said... FUNNY! Like it!
Friday, August 10, 2007 Early Man in India Did Early Man Originate in India Times of India May 30 2007. When I read the title I had a sinking feeling that this was one of the articles which pushed the "India is the origin of everything" agenda. And I was right: "It may provide new clues to the history of mankind. A recent discovery by a city scientist working for the Anthropological Survey of India (ANSI) has strengthened the theory that the early man could have originated in India. It also hints at the possibility that central India might have been the hotbed of human evolution." Apart from the use of quaint language "hotbed of human evolution" a term more appropriate in a sentence like " 36 Chowrangee Lane was the hotbed of Marxist revolutionary thinking", the article amazes with its mix of brazen theorizing and leaps of faith. The ANSI found a human femur (thigh bone) in Madhya Pradesh. It may or may not be about 50,000 years old. It may or may not be that of Homo erectus. But without confirmation of the age or taxonomic status of the fossil, the survey scientist Dr. Gangopadhyay announced that this will cause a radical change in our theories of where modern "man" presumably Homo Sapiens evolved. According to him this fossil along with a genetic signature common to peoples of the Indian subcontinent called M haplogroup is strong evidence that Homo sapiens originated in India and not Africa. [A genetic haplogroup is a small section of the genome with a unique set of genetic variations which is inherited as a unit. One such set of genetic variations termed M is commonly found in Indians and has been established not using fossils but by analyzing modern populations of humans (Homo sapiens) from different continents. Populations in different continents are characterized by other unique haplogroups]. How has Dr.Gangopadhyay come to this conclusion? I can only guess that his thinking is along the lines; since homo erectus is considered to be the ancestral species to homo sapiens and since the fossil shows the (possible) existence of erectus in India and since the M haplogroup is quite old (around 50 -80 thousand years), homo sapiens evolved from the homo erectus populations in India and then migrated elsewhere. A little history first. All scientists, even patriotic Indians readily accept that Homo erectus an earlier hominid species originated in Africa and migrated to Europe, Middle East, South and south east Asia more than 1 million years ago. Stone tools as old as 1.2 million years ago imply the presence of erectus in India, in the Narmada basin. Dr.Gangopadhyay is saying that this erectus population in India evolved into modern humans. A rival and mainstream theory is that erectus populations in Africa evolved into modern humans. The problem here is the nature of the data. The fossil record of erectus in India is sparse, only one confirmed specimen from the Narmada basin. The tool record however does indicate the presence of Homo erectus as early as about 1.2 million years ago. ,That along with the genetic profiles of modern Indians, only inform us of the presence of the two species in a particular location, but not whether one species evolved in to the other. But data informing us of where modern humans originated does exist. A comparison of mitochondrial DNA from populations all over the world has revealed that African populations are genetically the most variable and that this genetic variability decreases in populations further away from Africa. This strongly implies that modern humans originated in Africa and were resident there for a long enough time to evolve substantial genetic variability. They then migrated out of Africa in small groups. Current fossil and genetic evidence suggests around 50,000 to 70,000 years ago. In these small migrating populations genetic variability can be reduced when versions of genes are lost due to random genetic drift. The Indian continent was a recipient of one of the earliest such migrations. The M haplogroup then evolved over a period of time in the populations of the Indian subcontinent. More sophisticated genetic analysis has recently shown that there may have been later smaller migrations of Homo sapiens from Asia to Africa but that doesn't mean humans originated in India. This genetic data is complimented by a study of variability of skull shapes. The pattern of variability mirrors the genetic data, i.e. more variability of skull shape in Africa and then diminishing variability away from Africa. There are other pieces of evidence in support of the African origin of humans. The earliest fossils (about 150,000 years old) of anatomically modern humans are found in Africa. Then there is the earliest evidence of ornamentation, small shells crafted into beads (80,000 years old) implying modern human behaviour. The totality of evidence support an African origin. This article encapsulates the sorry state Indian science finds itself in. There is the media. Clueless about the science, not bothering to ask critical questions and too lazy to be doing any background research. And then the spectacle of a senior scientist shooting his mouth off with no regard to the reliability of the evidence in hand. "This is indeed an important discovery for the organisation and the research would be taken up further," mentioned the deputy director of ANSI, Nagpur, Dr M B Sharma. The latest incarnation of "India is the fountainhead" of every possible human achievement, in this case genesis itself. 1. While I would no longer conclude based on this article that Humans originated in India, I do have some reservations on the Out of Africa theory. For one Africa until recently (300 years ago) was left almost intact to nature and therefore there is a greater chance of finding fossils. India on the other hand has seen civilizations rise and fall, has been densely populated and its history goes down countless layers of soil due to numerous generations of agriculture and civilization. Linguistically no language shows a closer link to the Proto-Indo European language as Sanskrit. While I do have my misgivings on the origin of Humanity in India I do believe that Afghanistan might have been one such candidate location. 2. There's a smallish book worth reading called "The Journey of Man", by Spencer Wells". He talks all about the haplogroups and all the migrations that they indicate. Our origins seem almost certainly African. One factor that may make finding fossil and artifact evidence for early man in India is the rise in sea levels over the last 100000 years. Some areas of India are 100s of kilometers smaller than earlier times. There is lots of evidence that early migrations followed the sea shores all the way to Australia and much physical evidence may be underwater. 3. BTW, ASI is generally regarded as Archaeological Survey of India and ANSI is Anthrapological Survey of India. 4. thanks Bernard for pointing that out.. have fixed it
Tuesday, January 03, 2017 Equality (Tim) All of us are equal (Human Rights Part 3; Part 2 - Life, Liberty, & Security; Part 1 - Free Speech The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1 states, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” And then article 2 goes on to make reference to specific criteria for discrimination such as gender and race. Which brings me to the burning question of our age. Why is there still so much racism in this world? Why are ‘racial’ categories so hard-coded into our thinking, and why is it so hard for people to accept that race is really just a construct. It’s a man-made category without a firm biological basis. Sceptical? Think you can define racial characteristics? Try this thought experiment. Line up everyone in the whole world and order them from the darkest skin tone to the lightest. Now show me the point where one race ends and another begins. Of course this is an extreme example, and most people would remind me of the common sense reality that everyone can tell who’s black and who’s white in their real lived experience. Can you, though? During the dark days of Apartheid, every South African had to be classified as black, white, coloured or Asian. Unfortunately for the racist architects of Apartheid, biology isn’t that simple, and it was not uncommon for so-called coloured people to be reclassified as white, or vice-versa based on an arbitrary standard like the infamous pencil test. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil_test_(South_Africa) Ukuguqula lbatyi (the pencil test) by Kemang Wa Lehulere Stories of racial confusion abound. Consider how a person who self-identifies as coloured in South Africa might be called black in America, and vice-versa. How would a Fijian be identified in America? How would an Inuit have been classified under Apartheid? To me the most ridiculous racial category of all is ‘Asian’. That means Russians, Turks, Kazakhs, Mongolians, Japanese, Afghans, Indians and Taiwanese Aborigines are all the same ‘race’. Clearly, this is absurd, and so the argument in favour of racism is that you would need more fine-grained distinctions. But how much more fine-grained? From an outsider’s perspective, Indian people might look like a unified race, clearly distinct from other Asian peoples like the Chinese. But, from a closer perspective, it could be argued that North Indians (who mostly speak Indo-European languages) are racially distinct from South Indians (who mostly speak Dravidian languages). And so on, ad nauseam. Finally, there is the argument from genetics. Genetics can prove the reality of race, even when we can’t see it, right? Well, yes and no. One of the most persistent and pernicious racial divisions in the world today is the distinction that is drawn between the black ‘race’ and the white ‘race’. The crux of this binary distinction is that all whites are of European descent and all blacks are of African descent. Unfortunately for the racists, genetics explodes the idea that there is a simple binary distinction between two homogeneous groups. There is no simple binary because there is more genetic diversity within Africa than in the rest of the world combined. Racism isn’t just lazy thinking that splits humanity into false and superficial categories; it’s also lazy thinking that lumps genetically disparate groups of people into categories which confirm pre-existing biases. And that goes a long way to answering the riddle. Why does racism persist? Ultimately it’s just lazy thinking. And if we want to challenge racism, we all have to give up any kind of lazy stereotyping. We have to treat every individual as an individual and always resist the temptation to split or to lump, because humanity is far too complex, wonderful and beautiful to allow such lazy categorisation. Post a Comment
Search This Blog Sunday, November 15, 2009 Do Swiftlets Attack Other Colony Members !!! Many of us do not realised that swiftlet lives in colonies. Each colony can be as little as 4-10 or as big as a few hundreds. Each colony will have a leader and the leader will determine the colony's breeding behaviour and hunting areas. If you observe the way the nests are being made in your BH there is a kind of grouping. Each colony member will prefer to build their nests closed to each other. The nest grouping will be divided by some empty nesting areas. You will be surprised to know that when those birds return home they do enter the entrance hole colony by colony. These colonies will grow in numbers and eventually when they are big in numbers they do tend to be aggressive to the other fellows who are not from the same colony. If by then the nesting areas encroached into the smaller colonies group, the larger group will eventually takes over the territories. This will normally happen if the width of the nesting planks are the same. The only way to prevent those larger colonies not to attack the other group is to build a kind of colony dividers. Colony divider is nothing more then a wider nesting plank, example your current plank width is 6 inches, a colony divider can consist of two planks that are made into one ie 12 inches. Remember if you do nothing to prevent the harassment of the smaller colonies, they will either move away from the larger groups but there is a possibilities that they might move out of your BH and occupy your neighbor's BH. When do you think you need to build these colony dividers? Many house owners already have them installed. Some, due to those cement beams, the dividers comes automatically. Those who are in need to look into installing these colony dividers will be those whose BH are large and the ceiling areas are with not many ceiling beams. You first count the numbers of colonies on the nesting planks. Normally the group will flocked closed to each other. The next colony will be on their own with empty nesting areas dividing them. Once the colony reaches 25 nests each, the time is right to look into constructing those colony dividers. Note: The two sketches are just examples. They are not necessary if your BH is new or with no signs of any colonies. Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia. No comments:
Basic PHP setup with Xampp Server Step by Step.. First You need to have few things in order to start learning PHP PHP is server side scripting language which runs only on server there are are two servers we need in order to start with PHP we will be using Xampp server which used very comman in industry. 1.Apache Server for Hosting the PHP website(Scripts) 2.MySQL database(PhpMyAdmin) 3.Subline Text(IDE) You can use any IDE but sublineText is light weight and easy to handle its pretty simple to use. STEP 1: install Xampp server after installing start the Apache server and phpmyadmin STEP 2: Open and Start Apache and MySql server. Note:- Sometimes it will not start because if the port is not available like Skype takes the same port which Apache needs port:80 so at that time check NetStat cmd to check the availability of port in your computer. STEP 3: once you start all server just goto install location of xampp where you will find htdocs Floder which will be your Hosting Space there you can store your files and later your can run then by calling server name and file address. STEP 4: Create Simple PHP file to add two number which will give you result in browser. $one = “10”; $two = “20”; $Result = $one + $two; echo $Result; STEP 5 : need to Create Database and run following code to insert data into database. Create DataBase with the name Demo and create table total(ID , Total) fields. refer video to create Database and Tables… $mysqli = new mysqli($DB_HOST, $DB_USER, $DB_PASS, $DB_NAME); /* check connection */ if (mysqli_connect_errno()) { printf("Connect failed: %s\n", mysqli_connect_error()); $mysqli->query("SET NAMES 'utf8'"); $sql="INSERT into 'total' ('id', 'total') values ('$result')"; Hope this will help those who have any problem they can post Queries in the comment section…
Saturday, March 14, 2009 Professor Plum, in the Library, with the Lead Pipe We’re all familiar with that title reference, yes? Even if you never played as a kid (or a semi-drunken college student), you’ve probably seen or heard about it. Clue is the classic mystery game, where you have to determine the murder weapon, the scene of the crime, and (of course) the killer. A game of Clue isn’t much of a mystery, however. It’s more of a puzzle you just need to solve though the process of elimination. We never find out why the good professor felt the need to cave in Mr. Boddy’s skull. Was it an act of revenge, long-overdue justice, or just a heated argument that boiled over into violence? Similarly, Plum never offers any sort of defense or alibi. He just ends up being the only person who can’t account for his location at the time of the murder, so we cart him off to life behind bars. Motives and alibis are what really separate a mystery from a puzzle. They’re the human element that makes things either a little more complicated or a lot more difficult, depending on your point of view. The motive is why someone does what they do-- the personal reasons behind the action. Why does the Monster (sometimes called Adam) kill Victor Frankenstein’s bride-to-be? Why does Lando betray Han? Why does Romeo kill Tybalt? If you really think about it, though, most characterization comes down to motives. Knowing why someone’s doing something—anything, not just criminal acts-- tells you a bit about them. We learn a lot about the good Doctor Jones simply because of his desire to go looking for the Ark of the Covenant, but also because he mocks the ideas behind the fabled treasure. You can ask these sort of questions about most great characters. Why is it so important to Atticus Finch that Tom Robinson receive a fair trial? Why is young Edmond Dantes so determined to escape from prison? Why does Dot keep hitting Yakko with that hammer when he’s not looking? You can even look at motives in a negative light to help define characters. Not why characters do something, but why didn’t they do something else? Sometimes people make difficult, troublesome decisions that are going to cause problems, and that can tell your audience something about them as well. Why won’t Nick Andros abandon Tom Cullen (M-O-O-N spells Tom) so he can travel faster to Denver? Why doesn’t Louis turn Rick over to the Nazis for shooting Major Strasse? Why won’t Prince Hal acknowledge his friendship with Falstaff? Motives don’t need to be big, elaborate things, mind you. “Bob doesn’t want to get beaten up,” is a perfectly acceptable motive. So is “Beatrice wants to sleep with Larry” or “Pinky is hungry.” Not everyone has to be hiding a dark secret, keeping themselves out of the electric chair, or protecting the Holy Grail. The real failure comes when characters do things not for their motives but for the writer’s. If you ever look at a character action and the reasoning behind it is “because X needs to do Y,” that’s false motivation. The writer is looking forward in the story rather than back at character development. And character development is where all your motivation is going to come from. Now, in mystery stories, the alibi often walks right alongside the motive. Simply put, the alibi is the reason you couldn’t’ve done the crime, even if you had a reason to. It’s contradictory evidence. We know Miss Scarlet was in the greenhouse and Colonel Mustard can’t lift anything over his head since the war, so they’re off the hook for Boddy’s murder. We may find out later Scarlet was in the bedroom with Mrs. White and Mustard’s medical records were faked, but that just makes the mystery a little juicer. In fact, alibis make most stories a little more tasty, because keeping something hidden makes other characters (and the audience) think twice. It’s when you want to deceive your audience and keep a little something from them to improve the story. Most romances wouldn’t be as interesting if at least one of the two parties involved wasn’t completely denying an attraction. Stu Redman must die in that ravine, because none of his friends ever see him again. And there’s no way those robots can do anything wrong, because the Three Laws will keep them on the straight-and-narrow path every time, right? Note that in many of these examples, the writer isn’t even lying to the audience. If the reader chooses to interpret things a certain way (a wrong way), that’s hardly our fault is it? Well, okay, it is, but we’re doing it for a good reason. The key thing is, none of these alibis are cheats. There’s a good reason none of Stu’s friends ever see him again. The robots really are following the Three Laws (as best as their little positronic brains can, anyway). And, come on, who’s really going to admit they’re attracted to a guy like Chuck, right? So, even if crime doesn’t pay, you can still get something useful out of it. If your characters always have honest motives, they’ll be real. If they always have compelling alibis, they’ll be interesting. Next week, since it’s been brought it up once or thrice, we’re going to talk about the rules. To be more specific, we’re going to talk about being the exception to the rule, because that’s what most folks are more interested in. Until then, get yourself motivated and go write. No comments: Post a Comment
Enter your Email Address: Delivered by FeedBurner To get posts delivered to your Email 28 December 2010 Software Design Puzzle #6 - Design A Dictionary Think about a dictionary now and kind of things that you will do with a dictionary. Normally a dictionary will have simple operations of add, delete, edit and search words. Being a software dictionary, won't it be good that it suggests you list of words based on the words you type. For example, when you type "sim", it should display first "N" closest match with the prefix supplied. I don't need to emphasize that the first word should be the exact match (if any) and then followed by list of words that matches closely. Assume that you have many data store in which the words are stored (database, XML file, txt file, CSV file etc). It is enough to perform the search/auto-suggestion on the data in local database. If the user is willing, the user can also hear the word through audio and for doing that you have to contact a remote web service that gives a audio file for a specific word. You can also assume that there exists a audio file for every word in the database. Can you design the application, come up with set of classes, assign responsibilities to the classes and a brief architectural diagram too. Put your design patterns knowledge in action :-)
Blessed John Francis Burte and Companions (d. 1792; d. 1794) These priests were victims of the French Revolution. Though their martyrdom spans a period of several years, they stand together in the Church’s memory because they all gave their lives for the same principle. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1791) required all priests to take an oath which amounted to a denial of the faith. Each of these men refused and was executed. John Francis Burté became a Franciscan at 16 and after ordination taught theology to the young friars. Later he was guardian of the large Conventual friary in Paris until he was arrested and held in the convent of the Carmelites. Appolinaris of Posat was born in 1739 in Switzerland. He joined the Capuchins and acquired a reputation as an excellent preacher, confessor and instructor of clerics. Sent to the East as a missionary, he was in Paris studying Oriental languages when the French Revolution began. Refusing the oath, he was swiftly arrested and detained in the Carmelite convent. Severin Girault, a member of the Third Order Regular, was a chaplain for a group of sisters in Paris. Imprisoned with the others, he was the first to die in the slaughter at the convent. These three plus 182 others—including several bishops and many religious and diocesan priests—were massacred at the Carmelite house in Paris on September 2, 1792. They were beatified in 1926. John Baptist Triquerie, born in 1737, entered the Conventual Franciscans. He was chaplain and confessor of Poor Clare monasteries in three cities before he was arrested for refusing to take the oath. He and 13 diocesan priests were guillotined in Laval on January 21, 1794. He was beatified in 1955.
Setting up a chroot for Android development Let’s say you want to build Android. This is not an unreasonable thing to want to do; around here, the most common reason for doing this is to get easy access to debug symbols in system libraries. However, Android only really supports building on a very specific distribution of Linux, and that is normally the LTS release of Ubuntu (currently 10.04 “Lucid”). Luckily, it’s relatively easy to set up a chroot in Linux to build in, such that you don’t need to maintain a completely separate installation of Linux if you want to run, say, Ubuntu 11.10 instead. First you need to install schroot and debootstrap: sudo apt-get install schroot debootstrap schroot is a tool to allow you to easily run a command or a login shell within a chroot that you have previously set up. debootstrap is a Debian tool to bootstrap a Debian (and by extension, Ubuntu) release inside a directory which can then be used as a chroot. Once you have those installed, fire up your favourite text editor and append something similar to the following to your /etc/schroot/schroot.conf file: description=Ubuntu Lucid Now, you need to actually create the chroot. To do this, you need to use debootstrap. In this case, I’m going to create a Lucid chroot: sudo debootstrap --arch amd64 lucid /var/chroot/lucid The first argument here specifies the CPU architecture you want to install in the chroot (typically either i386 or amd64), the second is the distribution codename used in the repositories, the third is the directory in which to install the chroot and finally the last argument is the mirror you wish to use to download the Debian packages from for installing. This will take a little while but once it’s done you can simply run the following: schroot -c lucid If all goes well, you’ll be greeted with a friendly and informative prompt thus: You can then, inside this shell, follow the instructions for building and flashing Android yourself without any trouble. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing here that should be Debian (or Debian derivative) specific, so hopefully if you’re running a different distribution, so long as you can get hold of debootstrap and schroot you should be fine. (Update 2012/03/29 – correct the Lucid version number) 2 thoughts on “Setting up a chroot for Android development Leave a Reply
France to create virtual copy of threatened cave paintings Posted By: Ani Subscribe to Oneindia News London, Feb 26 (ANI): Expert divers have teamed up with top scientists in France to create a complete virtual copy of unique cave paintings threatened by rising Mediterranean waters. The Cosquer caves have almost 200 stunning prehistoric paintings that can only be reached by diving deep into the Mediterranean off the coast of Marseilles. Henri Cosquer, a local diver, discovered the caves in 1985. To reach them he had to swim 37m down to the undersea cave entrance off the calanques outside Marseilles, then along a 175m tunnel, which eventually rose above sea level, reports the Telegraph. To his amazement, once in the open air he found dozens of pristine paintings between 18,000 to 27,000 years old. These included land-dwelling animals such as wild horses, ibex and bison, but also sea animals such as seal, giant penguins and what appear to be auks and jellyfish. There were also 55 ancient handprints, many with fingers mysteriously missing. At the time, hunters could enter the caves on foot, but melting glaciers subsequently flooded the entrance with water. Cosquer only made his discovery public after three divers perished in the tunnel to the caves in 1991, when authorities welded an iron door into concrete slabs to block the cave mouth. With new scientific research suggesting that the Mediterranean is rising, the unique site is under threat of being completely submerged. Already, four fifths of the Paleolithic caves are now underwater. Luc Vannel, one of the scientists leading the mission said, "The cave is in danger of one day being squashed as flat as a pancake. Already the water is washing the colours away." So this month, the culture minister announced it had begun mapping the caves using the same ultra-precise laser 3D imaging techniques used to chart the walls of Lascaux in the Dordogne-the world's best-preserved cave painting site. (ANI) Please Wait while comments are loading...
Brain structure & function Spinal cord projections to the cerebellum in the mouse. PMID 25009313 The projections from the spinal cord to the cerebellar cortex were studied using retrograde neuronal tracers. Thus far, no study has shown the detailed topographic mapping of the projections from the spinal neuron clusters to the cerebellar cortex regions for experimental animals, and there are no studies for the mouse. Tracers Fluoro-Gold and cholera toxin B were injected into circumscribed regions of the cerebellar cortex, and retrogradely labeled spinal cord neurons were mapped throughout the spinal cord. Spinal projections to the cerebellar cortex were mainly from five neuronal columns--central cervical nucleus, dorsal nucleus, lumbar and sacral precerebellar nuclei, and lumbar border precerebellar cells--and from scattered neurons located in the deep dorsal horn and laminae 6-8. The spinocerebellar projections to the cortex were mainly to the vermis. All five precerebellar cell columns projected to both anterior and posterior parts of the cerebellar cortex. Results of this study provide an amendment to the known rostral and caudal boundaries of the precerebellar cell columns in the mouse. Scattered precerebellar neurons in the most caudal deep dorsal horn and laminae 6-8 projected exclusively to the anterior part of the cerebellar cortex. In this study, no labeled spinal neurons were found to project to the lobules 6 and 7 of the cerebellar vermis, the flocculus, and the paraflocculus. Spinocerebellar neurons were located bilaterally, but the majority of the projections were contralateral for the central cervical nucleus, and ipsilateral for the remaining spinal precerebellar neuronal clusters.
Navigate Up Sign In Our Patron Our patron,StBenedict2.jpg St Benedict, was also known as Benedict of Nursia; Founder of Western Monasticism. St Benedict was born c. 480, orn c. 480, in Nursia, Umbria, Italy of Roman nobility. His name means 'blessed'. He is the twin brother of Saint Scholastica. He studied in Rome but was dismayed by the lack of discipline and the lackadasical attitude of his fellow students. He fled to the mountains near Subiaco, living as a hermit in a cave for three years. His virtues caused an abbey to request him to lead them. He founded the monastery at Monte Cassino, where he wrote the Rule of his order. His discipline was such that an attempt was made on his life; some monks tried to poison him, but he blessed the cup and rendered it harmless. He returned to his cave, but continued to attract followers, and eventually established twelve monasteries. At one point there were over 40,000 monasteries guided by the Benedictine Rule. A summation of the Rule: "Pray and work". St Benedict died 21 March 547 of a fever while in prayer at Monte Cassino, Italy and he was buried beneath the high altar there in the same tomb as Saint Scholastica.
Forgot your password? Science Hardware Technology Breakthrough May Revolutionize Microchip Patterning 62 Stony Stevenson writes "US research engineers claim to have developed a low-cost technique that allows them to create ultra-small grooves on microchips as easily as 'making a sandwich'. The simple, low-cost technique results in the self-formation of periodic lines, or gratings, separated by as little as 60nm, or less than one ten-thousandth of a millimetre. From the article: 'The new 'fracture-induced structuring' process starts when a thin polymer film is painted onto a rigid plate, such as a silicon wafer. A second plate is then placed on top, creating a polymer 'sandwich' that is heated to ensure adhesion. Finally, the two plates are prised apart. As the film fractures, it automatically breaks into two complementary sets of nanoscale gratings, one on each plate. The distance between the lines, called the period, is four times the film thickness.'" Breakthrough May Revolutionize Microchip Patterning Comments Filter: • Re:hmm (Score:4, Insightful) by cyfer2000 ( 548592 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @12:18PM (#20452577) Journal The selling point of this "new" technology is "low cost". The lithography at sub 100nm is getting extreme pricey. • Re:hmm (Score:3, Insightful) by 2.7182 ( 819680 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @12:34PM (#20452685) Additionally, there are so many announcements like this that you have to see it on the market to believe it. • by heinousjay ( 683506 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @12:49PM (#20452805) Journal What are you going to wait out, exactly? Are you an executive at a chip-producing firm with the power to decide to use this? • Re:hmm (Score:3, Insightful) by MindKata ( 957167 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @12:55PM (#20452835) Journal I agree the cost is high (for the FABs) but more to the point, while this is an interesting new manufacturing method, its not likely to be such a big advance, (for the chip industry) as the title to this news implies. Also I think that around about 2011, they are talking about having production 32nm fabrication. So within about 4 years from now, 32nm is going to seem very small, compared with this relatively large 60nm groves in the chip. Where this technology sounds potentially very useful, is in maybe applications like sensors. As its nano-scale patterns can be applied to large surface areas. That could potentially be very interesting. • by Alwin Henseler ( 640539 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @01:13PM (#20453041) The lithography at sub 100nm is getting extreme pricey. Well 'pricey' is a relative term... if you're talking about the setup-cost for a factory that produces IC wafers, then yes you're talking enormous investments before the first wafers run of the production line with decent yields. But from an end-user point of view, you can buy a $50 CPU or memory module these days that may contain several hundred million transistors. Something equivalent being non-existent or 10 times more expensive a few years back... I'm wondering more about practical applications, and how long they will take to hit the market. For regular structures, all sorts of semiconductor memory comes to mind. Cheap flash memory? Affordable solid state drives with capacities equal or bigger than magnetic disks? For such applications production errors may not matter much. If the process is cheap, add enough redundant memory cells, decent bad cell/sector management, and the end result could be very useful. Anyway, looks very promising. We'll see what comes of it...
Stormwater Systems Help Curb the Water Pollution Caused by Snowmelt “Many use stormwater chambers to store and treat runoff water, but there are concerns as to how much water they can hold, how well they can clean it, and how much the overall maintenance costs are. Fortunately, established companies like HydroLogic Solutions, Inc. have created a top-notch stormwater system called StormChamber® to help control water pollution. For urban dwellers, rivers and oceans may be the last thing on their mind. However, snowmelt and stormwater runoff pollution not only threatens water bodies, but people as well. Fortunately, local governments can rely on industry-leading stormwater systems to ensure that water is properly filtered and treated before they reach bodies of water.” Tags: , , , , 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:
Networks and Organizations – Elements of Social Interaction (SOC) by Tarry Ahuja, MD Questions about the lecture My Notes • Required. Save Cancel Learning Material 2 • PDF Slides ElementsOfSocialInteraction SocialInteractions.pdf • PDF Download Lecture Overview Report mistake 00:00 Now, let’s talk about Networks. 00:03 I think that’s really relevant today because of that term we throw around social network and the social network. 00:10 And what I’m referring to here is a web of relationships when includes direct links and indirect links. 00:16 So let’s step away from Facebook and your smartphone, we’re talking about in the real world, we also have a social network. 00:24 Direct links refers to “Hey, I sit next to this girl Sally at work. 00:30 And she's a co-worker. And I have a direct link to her”. 00:34 So if Sally sells coffee mugs on the sides, she makes her own custom coffee mugs. 00:40 And somebody says to you,” Hey, I’m looking for a great coffee mug”. 00:43 “You know what, I sit next to Sally. She makes coffee mugs. I can get you a coffee mug.” Okay, so there is two parts of this example: First, I have a direct to a link to a girl named Sally, who makes amazing coffee mugs. 00:55 So that’s my part of my social network. 00:57 If I have questions about mugs or I want to talk to her about mugs, I can reach out, I’m connected, there's a direct link. 01:03 My friend who’s looking for a coffee mug needs to get one and he's going through me. 01:08 So I’m his direct link. But the Sally girl is an indirect link to my friend. 01:15 And say introduce them after the transaction they talk through email. 01:18 Now, they have become linked. 01:20 So this my friend has expanded his social network. 01:23 He now knows the girl Sally who makes mugs, right? And he's increased his social network. 01:28 And now let’s go back to the smartphone. Let’s look and say Facebook. 01:32 And Facebook is all about that social network. And you have a friend, And that friend has another friend. In the way Facebook has set up it says, “You may also know” and it shows sort of the friends that your friend has. 01:44 And you might say, “Hey, yeah I actually remember meeting Dave through my friend Sally. 01:50 Maybe I’ll make Dave my friend”. 01:52 Now is Dave a tight direct friend of yours? No, but you’ve made a link. 01:56 And it increased your social network. 01:57 Now, one thing to consider is that networks can range in size. 02:01 Just like, I have illustrated here. 02:02 And as you go farther out from the core network, it becomes weaker. 02:07 But at the same time, it increases your power. And it can be powerful because now you have fingers and all parts of this pot. 02:17 So to my cup example, my friend who wanted the cup before me and before we interact to Sally. 02:25 The only we can go get a cup was to go the store and pay for cup. 02:28 Now, he's able to get a custom cup handmade from Sally. 02:32 And there's an increase in his network, there's an increase in the social network, and he's increase the range of his linkages, okay. 02:42 Let’s take a look at now Organizations. 02:45 This is sort of another form of a network. It is a type of group. 02:50 So it’s a large, more impersonal group that comes together to pursue particular activities and meet goals. 02:55 So I think the easiest one for us to grasp and for you and me to grasp would be say a company. 02:59 And a company… let’s look at Apple, they make IPhone. 03:03 Apple is a large group that whose purpose is to make phones, right? So they do things in a way in order to achieve that. 03:12 You can have an organization like the Boys and Girls Clubs of North America. 03:17 You can have Alcohol’s Anonymous. You can have any different group of individuals that come together to pursue a particular activity and to achieve a certain goal. 03:27 So the problem… not a problem with groups. 03:30 So one of the property of groups they tend to be a little bit more complex in your standard groups. 03:34 So organizations a little bit more complicated than a group of friends. 03:37 They tend to have a hierarchy or so hierarchal structure. And they do this for a couple of reasons. 03:43 One, is to create that structure and to create order. 03:47 The second is to increase and improve the efficiency. 03:50 So if you have and you think of assembly line. 03:55 An assembly line is probably the simplest hierarchal structure you can have. 03:59 And that one person does something and it fits to the next and so on and so on. 04:02 And the end result is a common goal of making a car, okay. 04:06 Now, they did this the idea of creating an assembly line was to increase efficiency saying, “You do one job. You do one job well. You can make it go very very quickly. 04:16 And it goes onto the next person.” Increase efficiency, you have good primaries around when your job role is. 04:22 And there's a clear end goal. 04:24 The other really interesting characteristic of an organization is that, kind of sad to say, but you are replaceable. 04:32 So if your job is to put this pen in this hole and move it on to the next person. 04:38 Doing this motion is fairly straightforward. 04:41 If you get sick or you get fired or you quit, it’s not impossible to find somebody to come in and to do that exact role. 04:49 as supposed to trying to find somebody who does a little bit of everything, okay. 04:54 So we’re going to get into three different types of organizations. 04:57 and then we’re going to get into a couple of the topics related to organizations. 05:00 First is something as Utilitarian. 05:03 Members get paid for the efforts and they have a shared goal. 05:06 So business the examples I just gave you being in a university, Where they’re not getting paid but the reward for their effort let’s say a diploma. 05:14 So when you get into medical school and you’re part of this utilitarian organization, You’re not getting money from the university. 05:22 You get for better it’s the opposite, you’re giving them money but you’re getting this magical piece of paper that allows you to become a member for life. 05:29 And if you have a Normative groups. 05:31 This are we motivate membership based on morally relevant goals. 05:37 So things like MADD which is Mothers Against Drunk Driving, religious groups. 05:41 You’re not getting paid. You’re not getting a piece of paper but you’re getting something out of it. 05:48 And they really want membership. And they usually tag it on at being slightly moral. 05:54 Having a moral goals so for Mothers Against Drunk Driving it so prevents drunk driving. 05:59 Religious groups is to follow whatever faith that’s being presented. 06:02 And the last one which hopefully doesn’t have and the most of you as a Coercive group. 06:06 This is what members really don’t have a choice of joining, going to prison I don’t think it get a lot of choice about wearing a handcuffs and digging ditches. 06:13 But they're still is a type of organization with the hierarchal structure and there's a goal. 06:18 The goal is social reform. The goal is to keep order, safety. 06:24 And the goal I think of the prisoner is to hopefully one day get out, right. About the Lecture The lecture Networks and Organizations – Elements of Social Interaction (SOC) by Tarry Ahuja, MD is from the course Social Interactions. Author of lecture Networks and Organizations – Elements of Social Interaction (SOC) Tarry Ahuja, MD Tarry Ahuja, MD Customer reviews 5,0 of 5 stars 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star
Groundwater access From Akvopedia Jump to: navigation, search English Français Español भारत മലയാളം தமிழ் 한국어 中國 Indonesia Japanese Rainwater (if given the chance to infiltrate) eventually becomes groundwater. Groundwater is advantageous to harvest as it is always accessible (in spite of the timing of the rainy season), has a high storage capacity with good water quality (usually), is resilient to inter-annual climate variability and has a low cost relative to alternative sources. However, the height of the water table depends on a lot of factors: type of soils or rock beneath the surface, nearby reservoirs or rivers, and frequency or overall total abstraction of water from populations nearby. Also consider the quality of the groundwater. Is it too salty or near an agricultural runoff or sewage water area? Locate the infiltration or abstraction points where the water is least likely to be affected by pollutants. Climate change considerations Climate change affects the precipitation and temperature dynamics on a global scale, and hence will impact upon the supply and demand for water of local communities. Enhancing water storage capacity, both above and below ground, is widely accepted as a coping strategy against hydrological shocks such as floods and droughts. Riverbed infiltration galleries small.jpg Springwater collection Subsurface harvesting systems small.jpg Small rotary machines small.jpg Jetting - Engine powered rotary jetting small.jpg Field experiences Akvorsr logo lite.png RSR Project 473 Project Water4Tomorrow Groundwater links
Covert United States foreign regime change actions From Wikipedia: The United States government has been involved in and assisted in the overthrow of foreign governments (more recently termed regime change) without the overt use of U.S. military force. Often, such operations are tasked to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Many of the governments targeted by the U.S. have been democratically elected, rather than authoritarian governments or military dictatorships. In many cases, the governments toppled were replaced by dictatorships, sometimes installed with assistance by the U.S. Regime change has been attempted through direct involvement of U.S. operatives, the funding and training of insurgency groups within these countries, anti-regime propaganda campaigns, coup d'états, and other, often illegal, activities usually conducted as operations by the CIA. The U.S. has also accomplished regime change by direct military action, such as following the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989 and the U.S.-led military invasion of Iraq in 2003. Some argue that non-transparent United States government agencies working in secret sometimes mislead or do not fully implement the decisions of elected civilian leaders and that this has been an important component of many such operations.[1] See Plausible deniability. Some contend that the US has supported more coups against democracies that it perceived as communist, or becoming communist.[1] Notwithstanding a history of U.S. covert actions to topple democratic governments and of installing authoritarian regimes in their places (see, e.g. Iran 1953, below), U.S. officials routinely express support for democracy as best supporting U.S. interests and as protecting human life and health.[2][3][4] Prior to World War II The Bolshevik revolution of 1917 was met with overt hostility from President Woodrow Wilson's administration. After withdrawing funding for Russia and opposing a British and French plan to include the Bolsheviks as allies against Germany in 1918, the United States extended its maritime blockade of Germany to include Soviet Russia and began covertly supporting Russian opposition factions.[5][6] In 1918, the Allied powers including the United States began a military intervention in the Russian Civil War. At the request of the British and French, the U.S. sent troops to the Russian port cities of Vladivostok and Archangelsk. President Wilson appointed General William S. Graves to lead the thousands of American troops at Vladivostok.[7][8] During the Cold War Communist states 1945-1989 The United States supported resistance movements and dissidents in the communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. One example is the counterespionage operations following the discovery of the Farewell dossier which some argue contributed to the fall of Stalinist.[9][10] The National Endowment for Democracy supported pro-capitalist movements in the communist states and has been accused of secretly supporting regime change, which it denies.[11][12][13] Many of the Eastern European states later turned to capitalism and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In addition to this the perceived threat of worldwide sometimes Soviet-sponsored revolutionary guerrilla movements—often involved in wars of national liberation—defined much of U.S. foreign policy in the Third World with regard to covert action and led to what could be considered as proxy wars between the United States and Soviet Union. Iran 1953 In 1953, the CIA worked with the United Kingdom to overthrow the democratically elected government of Iran led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh who had attempted to nationalize Iran's petroleum industry, threatening the profits of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Declassified CIA documents show that Britain was fearful of Iran's plans to nationalize its oil industry and pressed the U.S. to mount a joint operation to depose the prime minister and install a puppet regime.[14] In 1951 the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize the petroleum fields of the country.[14][15] The coup was led by CIA operative Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. (grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt). With help from British intelligence, the CIA planned, funded and implemented Operation Ajax.[16] In the months before the coup, the UK and U.S. imposed a boycott of the country, exerted other political pressures, and conducted a massive covert propaganda campaign to create the environment necessary for the coup. The CIA hired Iranian agents provocateurs who posed as communists, harassed religious leaders and staged the bombing of one cleric's home to turn the Islamic religious community against the government. For the U.S. audience, the CIA hoped to plant articles in U.S. newspapers saying that Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi's return to govern Iran resulted from a homegrown revolt against what was being represented to the U.S. public as a communist-leaning government. The CIA successfully used its contacts at the Associated Press to put on the newswire in the U.S. a statement from Tehran about royal decrees that the CIA itself had written.[14] The coup initially failed and the Shah fled the country. After four days of rioting, Shi'ite-sparked street protests backed by pro-Shah army units defeated Mossadeq's forces and the Shah returned to power.[17] After the coup, his rule was more autocratic, with little concern for democracy.[18][19] Supporters of the coup have argued that Mossadegh had become the de facto dictator of Iran, citing his dissolution of the Parliament and the Supreme Court, and his abolishment of free elections with a secret ballot, after he declared victory in a referendum where he claimed 99.9% of the vote.[20] Darioush Bayandor has argued that the CIA botched their coup attempt and that a popular uprising, instigated by top Shi'ite clerics such as Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi and Abol-Ghasem Kashani (who were certain that Mosaddegh was taking the nation toward religious indifference, and worried that he had banished the Shah), instigated street riots to return the Shah to power four days after the failed coup.[17] The CIA subsequently used the apparent success of their Iranian coup project to bolster their image in American government circles. They expanded their reach into other countries, taking a greater portion of American intelligence assets based on their record in Iran.[17] Tibet 1950s The CIA armed an anti-Communist insurgency for decades in order to oppose the invasion of Tibet by Chinese forces and the subsequent control of Tibet by China. The program had a record of almost unmitigated failure.[21] Guatemala 1954 The CIA participated in the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Guatemala led by Jacobo Arbenz.[22][23][24][25] Arbenz was elected without a secret ballot. He considered himself a communist and joined the Communist Party in 1957. His land reform, designed by the Communist Party, was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, which he then purged. His regime openly praised Stalin, relied on the communists for key decisions, and received arms from the Soviet bloc.[26] The CIA intervened because it feared that a communist dictatorship would become a Soviet beachhead in the Western Hemisphere,[27] and because it was protecting, among others, four hundred thousand acres of land the United Fruit Company had acquired, a Wall Street multinational company closely protected by CIA director Allan Dulles. Cuba 1959 The largest and most complicated coup effort, approved at White House level, was the Bay of Pigs operation. Under initiatives by the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations, CIA-trained Cuban anti-communist exiles and refugees to land in Cuba and attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Plans originally formed under Eisenhower were scaled back under Kennedy. The CIA made a number of attempts to assassinate Castro, often with White House approval, as in Operation Mongoose. Democratic Republic of the Congo 1960 In 1960, Belgium granted independence to its most prized territory, the Belgian Congo. A leader of the successful anti-colonial struggle, Patrice Émery Lumumba was elected to be the first prime minister of the country that following its independence from colonial rule had become known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[28] Soon after the election, during the Congo Crisis, the CIA and the Belgian government orchestrated a military coup to remove the Lumumba government from power. Lumumba was subsequently murdered in prison.[29] According to Humberto Fontova: Mad Mike, Rip and the Cubans made short work of the alternately Chinese-and Soviet-backed "Simbas" of Laurent Kabila, who were murdering, raping and munching (many were cannibals) their way through the defenseless Europeans still left in the recently abandoned Belgian colony. Forget Frank Church and the Clintonites. Ask the hundreds of Europeans rescued from butchery (literally!) by these men. You'll hear a different song, believe me. Kabila made Idi Amin look like Gandhi. Castro, itching to be rid of this nuisance, sent Che (code-named "Tatu") and a force of his rebel army "veterans" to help these cannibals. The Congolese reds, unfamiliar with Che's true record, accepted Tatu gratefully....Imagine the Germans atop Monte Cassino outnumbering and outgunning the Allies 10 to 1 in early ‘44. It was a defender's dream. Well, the brilliant Tatu and his comandantes had that very set-up in a place called Fizi-Baraka in Eastern Congo for their second clash with the mad dogs of imperialism. Mad Mike and his CIA allies sized the place up and attacked. Within one day the mighty Che's entire force was scrambling away in panic, throwing away their arms, running and screaming like old ladies with rats running up their legs.[30] Iraq 1963 In February 1963, the United States backed a coup against the government of Iraq headed by General Abd al-Karim Qasim, who five years earlier had deposed the Western-allied Iraqi monarchy. The US was concerned about the growing influence of Communist Iraqi government officials under his administration, as well as his threats to invade Kuwait, which almost caused a war between Iraq and England. While Qasim was actually killed by a firing squad of the Ba'ath party that overthrew him, there had been a separate CIA plan to incapacitate him. In their request, they said the target's death would not be unacceptable to them, but was not the principal objective: "We do not consciously seek subject's permanent removal from the scene; we also do not object should this complication develop." Washington immediately befriended the successor regime. "Almost certainly a gain for our side," Robert Komer, a National Security Council aide, wrote to President John F. Kennedy on the day of the takeover. That Komer wrote that memo to Kennedy, without spending any time on additional research, may suggest, but does not confirm, the National Security Council, a covert operations approval committee, or Kennedy knew of planning against Qasim. Although U.S. opposition to the Qassem regime is beyond dispute, some scholars have challenged the idea that the CIA played any direct role in his removal.[31] Brazil 1964 A democratically-elected government headed by President João Goulart was successfully overthrown by a CIA-supported coup in March 1964. On March 30, the American military attaché in Brazil, Colonel Vernon A. Walters, telegraphed the State Department. In that telegraph, he confirmed that Brazilian army generals, independently of the US, had committed themselves to acting against Goulart within a week of the meeting, but no date was set.[32] Declassified transcripts of communications between Lincoln Gordon and the U.S. government show that, predicting an all-out civil war, President Johnson authorized logistical materials to be in place to support the coup-side of the rebellion as part of U.S. Operation Brother Sam.[33] In 2001, Gordon published a book,Brazil's Second Chance: En Route Toward the First World, on Brazilian history since the military coup. In it, he denied a role in the coup. However, James N. Green, an American historian of Brazil, argued: "[Gordon] changed Brazil's history, for he....made it clear that, if the coup was advanced, the United States was going to recognize it immediately, which was fundamental [to the plotters]."[35] Columnist Arthur Krock accused Goulart of seeking to "prolong [his term] by removing the constitutional ban against consecutive presidential succession...What really happened was the failure of a bid for power, contrary to a fundamental principle of the Brazilian Constitution."[36] Republic of Ghana 1966 On 24 February 1966, Kwame Nkrumah, the President of Ghana, was overthrown in a military coup backed by the CIA while on a state visit to North Vietnam and China.[37][38][39][40][41] [42] A series of subsequent coups from 1966 to 1981 ended with the ascension to power of Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings in 1981. These changes resulted in the suspension of the constitution in 1981 and the banning of political parties. The economy suffered a severe decline soon after, and many Ghanaians migrated to other countries. Although most migrating Ghanaians went to Nigeria, the Nigerian government deported about a million Ghanaians back to Ghana in 1983. Iraq 1968 The leader of the new Baathist government, Salam Arif, died in 1966 and his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, not a Ba'athist, assumed the presidency.[43] Said K. Abuirsh alleges that in 1967, the government of Iraq was very close to giving concessions for the development of huge new oil fields in the country to France and the USSR. He suggested that Robert Anderson, former secretary of the treasury under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, secretly met with the Ba'ath Party and came to a negotiated agreement according to which both the oil field concessions and sulfur mined in the northern part of the country would go to United States companies if the Ba'ath again took power.[44] In 1968, the CIA allegedly backed the coup by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr of the Baath Party, bringing Saddam Hussein to the threshold of power.[43][44] The CIA deputy for the Middle East Archibald Roosevelt (grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and cousin of Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.) was quoted by former NSC official Roger Morris as saying, with regard to Iraqi Ba'ath Party officers on his payroll during the coups, "They're our boys, bought and paid for, but you always gotta remember that these people can't be trusted."[43] Former CIA Near East Division Chief James Chritchfield maintains that the CIA played no direct role in the 1963 coup, but that it viewed the Ba'ath Party favorably and offered support after they had taken over. He referred to the subsequent coups that brought Saddam to power as "counter-coups" that enabled the "radical" elements of the Party. "We did not identify a radical movement within the Ba'ath", he said. "That was our mistake--that surprised us."[45] The U.S. broke all relations with Iraq in 1967. After al-Bakr seized power in 1968, relations remained completely severed for 16 years and the U.S. made arms sales to Iraq illegal in a law passed by Congress. In June 1972, the Iraqi government nationalized the oil assets of British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, Compagnie Française des Petroles, Mobil Oil and Standard Oil of New Jersey.[46] Official CIA records do not indicate that the CIA supported the 1968 coup in Iraq.[31] David Wise, a Washington-based author who has written extensively about Cold War espionage, has disputed the notion that the CIA supported the 1968 coup, as has Middle East analyst James Phillips. According to a 2003 report by Common Dreams, "many experts, including foreign affairs scholars, say there is little to suggest U.S. involvement in Iraq in the 1960s", although it is widely acknowledged that the CIA worked to destabilize the Qassem regime in the early part of the decade.[31] Robert Dreyfuss, in his book Devil's Game, maintains that the Johnson administration actually opposed the 1968 coup and used the Shah's Iran as a counterpoint to the Ba'athist regime it established. A 2006 study concluded that the CIA's alleged role in the coup "cannot be considered historical" in the absence of more compelling evidence.[47] The Church Committee and Pike Committee investigations did not find any evidence of CIA involvement in Iraq outside of a handful of plots against Qasim in the early '60s. Chile 1973 The U.S. Government's hostility to the election of Socialist President Salvador Allende government was substantiated[48] in documents declassified during the Clinton administration; involving the CIA, which show that covert operatives were inserted in Chile, in order to prevent a Marxist government from arising and for the purpose of spreading anti-Allende propaganda.[49][50] While U.S. government hostility to the democratically-elected Allende government is unquestioned, the U.S. role in the coup itself remains a highly controversial matter. The CIA, as recounted in the Church Committee report, was involved in various plots designed to remove Allende and then let the Chileans vote in a new election where he would not be a candidate: It tried to buy off the Chilean Congress to prevent his appointment, attempted to have him exiled, worked to sway public opinion against him to prevent his election, tried to foil his political aspirations during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, and financed protests designed to bring the country to a stand-still and make him resign. Convinced that a conventional military uprising was still not possible in Chile, the CIA, acting with the approval of the 40 Committee—the body charged with overseeing covert actions abroad—devised what in effect was a constitutional coup. The most expeditious way to prevent Allende from assuming office was somehow to convince the Chilean congress to confirm Jorge Alessandri as the winner of the election. Once elected by the congress, Alessandri—a party to the plot through intermediaries—was prepared to resign his presidency within a matter of days so that new elections could be held. Nixon: Yeah. Kissinger: —and he lived for three weeks afterwards.[53] Afghanistan 1973-74 Roger Morris, writing in the Asia Times, argued that as early as 1973-74, the CIA began offering covert backing to radical Islamist rebels in Afghanistan premised on the claim that the authoritarian government headed by Mohammed Daoud Khan might prove a likely instrument of Soviet military aggression in South Asia. Morris argues that the Soviets had also shown no inclination to use the notoriously unruly Afghans and their army for any expansionist aim.[43] Morris claims that during this period U.S. foreign policy leaders saw the Soviets as always being "on the march." U.S. secret backing of the Islamist rebels ceased following an abortive uprising in 1975.[43] In 1974, the Islamists plotted a military coup, but Daoud's regime discovered the plot and imprisoned the leaders—at least those who did not escape to Pakistan. The following year, the Islamists attempted a failing uprising in the Panjshir Valley. Michael Rubin, of the Middle East Review of International Affairs, records only covert Pakistani support for the two failed coups against Daoud, without any apparent CIA role.[56] Rubin claims that the ISI had reason to fear the Afghan regime, noting that Daud had twice mobilized for war with Pakistan in the early sixties and that the Afghans were covertly arming separatist Pashtun rebels in the country.[57] Iraq 1973-75 The CIA colludes with the Shah of Iran to finance and arm Kurdish rebels in an attempt to overthrow al-Bakr. When Iran and Iraq sign a peace treaty in 1975, the support ceases. The Shah denies the Kurds refuge in Iran, even as many are slaughtered. The U.S. decides not to press the issue with the Shah.[58] "Covert action should not be confused with missionary work", declares Sec. of State Henry Kissinger.[59] Subsequently, Al-Bakr attempts in 1979 to demote the Vice-President, Saddam Hussein, to a position of relative obscurity. Saddam responds with a counter-coup, forcing al-Bakr to resign, conducting a ruthless purge of hundreds of Ba'athists and naming himself President. The American betrayal of the Kurds was investigated by the Pike Committee, which described it as cynical and self-serving.[58] It has been argued that it tarnished America's image with one of the most pro-Western groups in the Middle East.[60] Argentina 1976 The democratically elected government of Argentina headed by Isabel Martínez de Perón was successfully overthrown by a military putsch in March 1976. Eight days before the coup, Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, Chief of the Argentine Navy and a major coup plotter, turned to Ambassador Robert Hill, U.S. ambassador to Argentina, for help in getting a recommendation for an American public relations firm that would manage the Argentine coup leaders' propaganda campaign for the coup and for the crackdown against democracy and human rights activists that was to follow. Ambassador Hill stated that the United States government cannot interfere in such affairs and provided Admiral Massera with a list of reputable public relations firms maintained by the Embassy. Also, more than two months before the coup, senior coup plotters consulted with American officials in Argentina about the coup, and Ambassador Hill reported to Washington that he was encouraged that the military coup plotters were "aware of the problem" that their killings might cause and "are already focusing on ways to avoid letting human rights issues become an irritant in US-Argentine relations" by being pro-active with the preparation of the public relations operation.[61] U.S. planners were aware that the coup would be unlikely to succeed without murderous repression. Two days after the coup, Assistant Secretary for Latin America, William Rogers, advised Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that "we ought not at this moment rush out and embrace this new regime" because he expected significant repression to follow the coup. But Kissinger made his preferences clear: "Whatever chance they have, they will need a little encouragement… because I do want to encourage them. I don't want to give the sense that they're harassed by the United States."[62] Afghanistan 1978-1980s President Carter reacted with "open-mouthed shock" to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and began promptly arming the Afghan insurgents.[63] Vice-President Walter Mondale famously declared: "I cannot understand -- it just baffles me -- why the Soviets these last few years have behaved as they have. Maybe we have made some mistakes with them. Why did they have to build up all these arms? Why did they have to go into Afghanistan? Why can't they relax just a little bit about Eastern Europe? Why do they try every door to see if it is locked?"[64] The Soviets, several times shortly before the invasion, had staged conversations with the Afghan leadership suggesting that they had no desire to intervene, even as the Politburo was—with much hesitation—considering such an intervention. Though some have argued that US financial assistance to Afghan dissidents, including Islamists and other militants, prior to the invasion; along with a Soviet desire to protect the leftist Afghan government, helped convince the Soviets to intervene, the Soviets ironically brutally murdered the Afghan President and his son, replacing him with a puppet regime, immediately after the invasion for fear that the US had secretly been collaborating with him.[65] A 2002 study found that, in the wake of the Iranian Revolution, the United States had sought rapprochement with the Afghan government—a prospect that the USSR found unacceptable (especially as its own leverage over the regime was wearing thin). Thus, the Soviets intervened to preserve their influence in the country.[66] One of the CIA's longest and most expensive covert operations was the supplying of billions of dollars in arms to the Afghan mujahideen militants.[67] The CIA provided assistance to the fundamentalist insurgents through the Pakistani secret services, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in a program called Operation Cyclone. Somewhere between $2–$20 billion in U.S. funds were funneled into the country to train and equip troops with weapons. According to the "Progressive South Asia Exchange Net", claiming to cite an article in Le Nouvel Observateur, U.S. policy, unbeknownst even to the Mujahideen, was part of a larger strategy of aiming "to induce a Soviet military intervention."[68] The article includes a brief interview with Carter's National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, in which he is quoted as saying that the US provided aid to the mujahideen prior to the Soviet invasion in order to delibrately provoke one. Brzezinski himself has denied the accuracy of the interview.[69] According to Brzezinski, an NSC working group on Afghanistan wrote several reports on the deteriorating situation in 1979, but President Carter ignored them until the Soviet intervention destroyed his illusions. Brzezinski has stated that the US provided communications equipment and limited financial aid to the mujahideen prior to the "formal" invasion, but only in response to the Soviet deployment of forces to Afghanistan and the 1978 coup, and with the intention of preventing further Soviet encroachment in the region. Two declassified documents signed by Carter shortly before the invasion do authorize the provision "unilaterally or through third countries as appropriate support to the Afghan insurgents either in the form of cash or non-military supplies" and the "worldwide" distribution of "non-attributable propaganda" to "expose" the leftist Afghan government as "despotic and subservient to the Soviet Union" and to "publicize the efforts of the Afghan insurgents to regain their country's sovereignty", but the records also show that the provision of arms to the rebels did not begin until 1980.[70][71] The Soviet military invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 significantly damaged the already tenuous relationship between Secretary of State Vance and Brzezinski. Vance felt that Brzezinski's linkage of SALT to other Soviet activities and the MX, together with the growing domestic criticisms in the United States of the SALT II Accord, convinced Brezhnev to decide on military intervention in Afghanistan. Brzezinski, however, later recounted that he repeatedly advanced proposals on how to maintain Afghanistan's "independence" and deter a Soviet invasion but was frustrated by the Department of State's opposition. According to Eric Alterman of The Nation, Cyrus Vance's close aide Marshall Shulman "insists that the State Department worked hard to dissuade the Soviets from invading and would never have undertaken a program to encourage it" and President Carter has said it was definitely "not my intention" to inspire a Soviet invasion but to deter one.[72] Bob Gates, in his book Out Of The Shadows, wrote that Pakistan had actually been "pressuring" the United States for arms to aid the rebels for years, but that the Carter administration refused in the hope of finding a diplomatic solution to avoid war. Brzezinski seemed to have been in favor of the provision of arms to the rebels, while Vance's State Department, seeking a peaceful settlement, publicly accused Brzezinski of seeking to "revive" the Cold War. Gates, however, has questioned if the US financial aid did increase the chances of the Soviets intervening, writing that some CIA officers involved assumed that that was President Carter's intention. The Soviet invasion and occupation killed up to 2 million Afghans.[73] Brzezinski defended the arming of the rebels in response, saying that it "was quite important in hastening the end of the conflict", thereby saving the lives of thousands of Afghans, but "not in deciding the conflict, because actually the fact is that even though we helped the mujaheddin, they would have continued fighting without our help, because they were also getting a lot of money from the Persian Gulf and the Arab states, and they weren't going to quit. They didn't decide to fight because we urged them to. They're fighters, and they prefer to be independent. They just happen to have a curious complex: they don't like foreigners with guns in their country. And they were going to fight the Soviets. Giving them weapons was a very important forward step in defeating the Soviets, and that's all to the good as far as I'm concerned." When he was asked if he thought it was the right decision in retrospect (given the Taliban's subsequent rise to power), he said: "Which decision? For the Soviets to go in? The decision was the Soviets', and they went in. The Afghans would have resisted anyway, and they were resisting. I just told you: in my view, the Afghans would have prevailed in the end anyway, 'cause they had access to money, they had access to weapons, and they had the will to fight." The interviewer then asked: "So US support for the mujaheddin only begins after the Russians invade, not before?" Brzezinski replied: "With arms? Absolutely afterwards. No question about it. Show me some documents to the contrary."[74] Likewise; Charlie Wilson said: "The U.S. had nothing whatsoever to do with these people's decision to fight ... but we'll be damned by history if we let them fight with stones."[75] The 2007 movie Charlie Wilson's War celebrated Charlie Wilson's and the CIA's involvement in the repulsion of the USSR troops from Afghanistan. Representative Wilson was awarded the Honored College Award by the CIA for his involvement.[76] With US and other funding, the ISI armed and trained over 100,000 insurgents. On July 20, 1987, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country was announced pursuant to the negotiations that led to the Geneva Accords of 1988,[77] with the last Soviets leaving on February 15, 1989. The early foundations of al-Qaida were built in part on relationships and weaponry that came from the billions of dollars in U.S. support for the Afghan mujahadin during the war to expel Soviet forces from that country.[78] The initial bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the attack on the USS Cole, and the attacks of September 11 were all allegedly linked to individuals and groups that at one time were armed and trained by the United States and/or its allies.[79] Iran 1980 Alleged U.S. green light for Saddam The Iranian Shah meeting with President Jimmy Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1977. According to Kenneth R. Timmerman, the "Islamic revolution in Iran upset the entire strategic equation in the region. America's principal ally in the Persian Gulf, the Shah, was swept aside overnight, and no one else on the horizon could replace him as the guarantor of U.S. interests in the region."[80] Biographer Said K. Aburish, author of Saddam Hussein: The Politics Of Revenge, says the Iraqi dictator made a visit to Amman in the year 1979, before the Iran–Iraq War, where he met with King Hussein and, very possibly, three agents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Aburish says there is "considerable evidence that he discussed his plans to invade Iran with the CIA agents."[83][84] Timmerman records American officials meeting only with King Hussein on precisely the same date, noting this "top-secret negotiating session was Brzezinski's idea." He quotes National Security Council staff member and former aide Gary G. Sick:[80] According to Zbigniew Brzezinski's memoir, the United States initially took a largely neutral position on the Iran–Iraq War, with some minor exceptions. First, the U.S. acted in an attempt to prevent the confrontation from widening, largely in order to prevent additional disruption to world oil supplies and to honor U.S. security assurances to Saudi Arabia. As a result, the U.S. reacted to Soviet troop movements on the border of Iran by informing the Soviet Union that they would defend Iran in the event of Soviet invasion. The U.S. also acted to defend Saudi Arabia, and lobbied the surrounding states not to become involved in the war. Brzezinski characterizes this recognition of the Middle East as a vital strategic region on a par with Western Europe and the Far East as a fundamental shift in U.S. strategic policy.[85] Second, the United States explored whether the Iran–Iraq War would offer leverage with which to resolve the Iranian Hostage Crisis. In this regard, the Carter administration explored the use of both "carrots", by suggesting that they might offer military assistance to Iran upon release of the hostages, and "sticks", by discouraging Israeli military assistance to Iran and suggesting that they might offer military assistance to Iraq if the Iranians did not release the hostages. Third, as the war progressed, freedom of navigation, especially at the Strait of Hormuz, was deemed a critical priority.[85] Effort to destabilize through war During the war, the US covertly worked to destabilize both Iran and Iraq. By 1982, the war's momentum had shifted to Iran, which was threatening Basra, Iraq's second largest city. According to a 1995 affidavit by Reagan National Security Council staffer Howard Teicher, "In the Spring of 1982, Iraq teetered on the brink of losing its war with Iran.... In June, 1982, President Reagan decided that the United States... would do whatever was necessary and legal to prevent Iraq from losing the war with Iran." Donald Rumsfeld, Ronald Reagan's special envoy, meeting Saddam Hussein on 19–20 December 1983 to buttress ties and cooperation. But by 1985, the US was working to contain the Iraqis. A May 1985 CIA memo to Director Casey said, "Our tilt to Iraq was timely when Iraq was against the ropes and the Islamic revolution was on a roll. The time may now have to come to tilt back...." [86] In September 1986, Reagan official Oliver North promised Iran that the US could "bring our influence to bear with certain friendly Arab nations" to oust the Hussein regime.[86] Earlier, in February 1986, while these secret discussions were taking place, Iran scored a major victory by capturing Iraq's Fao Peninsula. The New York Times (1/19/87) reported that Iraqi officials believed that their defeat at Fao "was due to faulty U.S. intelligence." Iraq detected Iranian troop movements, the Iraqi official said, but the U.S. "kept on telling us that the Iranian attack was not aimed against Fao."[86] When Iraq intentionally attacked the USS Stark, however, the US did not punish Iraq. From 24 July 1987 - 26 September 1988, the U.S. Navy launched Operation Earnest Will, in which the US escorted and protected Kuwaiti oil tankers from Iranian attacks, at Kuwait's request.[87] Operation Earnest Will was the largest naval convoy operation undertaken by the US since World War II and constituted a policy of "neutral intervention", calculated to be delterious to Iran but officially maintaining the US policy of neutrality.[88] Between 1987 and 1988, the US engaged in a secret effort to spy on Iran with aircraft, in what was called Operation Eager Glacier.Operation Prime Chance was a U.S. naval operation from August 1987 until June 1989, said by the U.S. to be in response to the mining of the U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti oil tanker Bridgeton. Operation Nimble Archer was the U.S. naval attack on October 19, 1987 on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf. The attack, claimed by the U.S. to be response to Iran's October 16, 1987 attack with a Silkworm missile on the MV Sea Isle City, a Kuwaiti oil tanker reflagged as a U.S. vessel at anchor off Kuwait. On April 18, 1988, the US launched Operation Praying Mantis, claimed by the U.S. to be in response to the mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts. By the end of the operation the American fleet had damaged Iranian naval and intelligence facilities on two inoperable oil platforms in the Persian Gulf, and sunk at least three armed Iranian speedboats, one Iranian frigate and one fast attack gunboat. One other Iranian frigate was damaged in the operation.[89] This American operation is credited with forcing Iran to agree to a ceasefire with Iraq.[90] Also, the US-supported People's Mujahedin of Iran invaded Iran from its base in Iraq shortly after the end of the Iraq-Iran war in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Iran. Nicaragua 1981-1990 From 1981-90, the CIA planted mines in civilian harbors and sunk civilian ships in an attempt to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The U.S. also armed and trained the Contra guerrilla insurgency to destabilize the Nicaraguan government. Destabilization through CIA assets In 1983 the CIA created a group of "Unilaterally Controlled Latino Assets" (UCLAs), whose task was to "sabotage ports, refineries, boats and bridges, and try to make it look like the contras had done it."[91] In January 1984, these UCLA's carried out the operation for which they would be best known, the last straw that led to the ratifying of the Boland Amendment, the mining of several Nicaraguan harbors, which sank several Nicaraguan boats, damaged at least five foreign vessels, and brought an avalanche of international condemnation down on the United States. [92] Arming the Contras North's mugshot taken after his arrest The Contras, based in neighboring Honduras, waged a guerrilla war of insurgency in an effort to topple the government of Nicaragua and to seize power. The Contras' form of warfare was "one of consistent and bloody abuse of human rights, of murder, torture, mutilation, rape, arson, destruction and kidnapping."[93][94] The "Contras systematically engage in violent abuses... so prevalent that these may be said to be their principal means of waging war."[95] A Human Rights Watch report found that the Contras were guilty of targeting health care clinics and health care workers for assassination; kidnapping civilians; torturing and executing civilians, including children, who were captured in combat; raping women; indiscriminately attacking civilians and civilian homes; seizing civilian property; and burning civilian houses in captured towns.[96] The Boland Amendment made it illegal under U.S. law to provide arms to the Contra militants. Nevertheless, the Reagan administration continued to arm and fund the Contras by hatching the Iran-Contra plan, pursuant to which the U.S. secretly sold arms to Iran in violation of U.S. law in exchange for cash used by the U.S. to supply arms to the Contras in violation of the Boland Amendment, was planned and executed by a number of senior Reagan officials, including National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, Deputy National Security Adviser Admiral John Poindexter, Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, National Security Council staffer Col. Oliver North and others. When the public somehow learned of this, it became known as the Iran-Contra scandal. The U.S argued that:[97] The United States initially provided substantial economic assistance to the Sandinista-dominated regime. We were largely instrumental in the OAS action delegitimizing the Somoza regime and laying the groundwork for installation for the new junta. Later, when the Sandinista role in the Salvadoran conflict became clear, we sought through a combination of private diplomatic contacts and suspension of assistance to convince Nicaragua to halt its subversion. Later still, economic measures and further diplomatic efforts were employed to try to effect changes in Sandinista behavior. Nicaragua's neighbors have asked for assistance against Nicaraguan aggression, and the United States has responded. Those countries have repeatedly and publicly made clear that they consider themselves to be the victims of aggression from Nicaragua, and that they desire United States assistance in meeting both subversive attacks and the conventional threat posed by the relatively immense Nicaraguan Armed Forces. The Sandinista government headed by Daniel Ortega won decisively in the 1984 Nicaraguan elections, which Western observers called free and fair.[98] The national elections of 1984 were conducted during a state of emergency necessitated by the war fought against the Contras insurgents and the CIA-orchestrated bombings. Many political prisoners were still held as it took place, and none of the main opposition parties participated due to what they claimed were threats and persecution from the government. The 1984 election was for posts subordinate to the Sandinista Directorate, a body "no more subject to approval by vote than the Central Committee of the Communist Party is in countries of the East Bloc."[99] The U.S. continued to pressure the government by illegally arming the Contras insurgency. On October 5, 1985 the Sandinistas broadened the state of emergency begun in 1982 and suspended many more civil rights. A new regulation also forced any organization outside of the government to first submit any statement it wanted to make public to the censorsip bureau for prior censorship.[100] As the Contras' insurgency continued, funded by US aid, the Sandinistas struggled to maintain power. They were overthrown in 1990, when they ended the SOE and held an election that all the main opposition parties competed in. According to the satirist P.J. O'Rourke, the Sandinistas were forced to agree to the elections by the US and the Contras, and lost them despite "the unfair advantages of using state resources for party ends, the Sandinista control of the transit system that prevented UNO supporters from attending rallies, the Sandinista domination of the army that forced soldiers to vote for Ortega and the Sandinista bureaucracy keeping $3.3 million of U.S. campaign aid from getting to UNO while Daniel Ortega spent millions donated by overseas people and millions and millions more from the Nicaraguan treasury."[101] El Salvador 1980-92 In the Salvadoran Civil War between the military-led government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or umbrella organization of five left-wing militias; the US supported the Salvadoran military government.[102][103] America also supported the centrist Christian Democrats, who were targets of death squads. The security forces were split between reformists and right-wing extremists, who used death squads to stop political and economic change. The Carter Administration repeatedly intervened to prevent right-wing coups. The Reagan Administration repeatedly threatened aid suspensions to halt right-wing atrocities. As a result, the death squads made plans to kill the American Ambassador.[104] After years of bloody fighting; the rebels were forced, in part due to US involvement, to concede defeat. The US then threatened to cut off aid to the Salvadoran regime unless it made democratic reforms, which might have let the rebels regroup. The regime accepted. As a result; a new Constitution was promulgated, the Armed Forces regulated, a "civilian" police force established, the FMLN metamorphosed from a guerrilla army to a political party that competed in free and fair elections, and an amnesty law was legislated in 1993.[105] El Salvador is today a prosperous and democratic nation. In 2002, a BBC article about President George W. Bush's visit to El Salvador reported that "U.S. officials say that President George H.W. Bush's policies set the stage for peace, turning El Salvador into a democratic success story."[106] Cambodia 1980-95 The Reagan Administration sought to apply the Reagan Doctrine of aiding anti-Soviet resistance movements abroad to Cambodia, which was under Vietnamese occupation following the Cambodian genocide carried out by the Communist Khmer Rouge. The Vietnamese had installed a Communist dictatorship led by a Khmer Rouge dissident. According to R. J. Rummel; the Vietnamese invasion, occupation, puppet regime, ongoing guerrilla warfare, and ensuing famine killed 1.2 million Cambodians in addition to the roughly 2 million who had been killed by the Khmer Rouge.[107] Ironically; the largest resistance movement fighting Cambodia's communist government was largely made up of members of the former Khmer Rouge regime, whose human rights record was among the worst of the 20th century. Therefore; Reagan authorized the provision of aid to a smaller Cambodian resistance movement, a coalition called the Khmer People's National Liberation Front, known as the KPNLF and then run by Son Sann; in an effort to force an end to the Vietnamese occupation. Eventually, the Vietnamese withdrew, and Cambodia's Communist regime fell.[108] Later, US troops, in concert with UN forces, invaded Cambodia and held free elections.[109] Angola 1980s Cuban military intervention in support of the communist MPLA dictatorship in Angola led to decades of civil war that cost 1 million lives.[110] The Reagan administration offered covert aid to a group of anti-Communist rebels led by Jonas Savimbi, called UNITA, whose insurgency forced an end to the Cuban occupation. Dr, Peter Hammond, a Christian missionary who lived in Angola at the time, recalled: "There were over 50,000 Cuban troops in the country. The Communists had attacked and destroyed many churches. MiG-23s and Mi-24 Hind helicopter gun ships were terrorising villagers in Angola. I documented numerous atrocities, including the strafing of villages, schools and churches. In 1986, I remember hearing Ronald Reagan's speech – carried on the BBC Africa service – by short wave radio: "We are going to send stinger missiles to the UNITA Freedom Fighters in Angola!" Those who were listening to the SW radio with me looked at one another in stunned amazement. After a long silence as we wondered if our ears had actually heard what we thought we heard, one of us said: "That would be nice!" We scarcely dared believe that it would happen. But it did. Not long afterwards the stinger missiles began to arrive in UNITA controlled Free Angola. Soviet aircraft were shot down. The bombing and strafing of villagers, schools and churches came to an end. Without any doubt, Ronald Reagan's policies saved many tens of thousands of lives in Angola."[111] Philippines 1986 The United States had for many decades coddled the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, even as his regime abused human rights and his wife Imelda Marcos plundered their country of billions of dollars. The U.S. support was based on the U.S. military's desire of Philippine territory for its naval bases. But some American presidents, such a Ronald Reagan, were genuinely fond of Marcos, calling him a "freedom fighter."[112] Notwithstanding the history of U.S. support, when his grip on power was slipping, the US, for fear that the former ally had become a liability, played a significant role in pressuirng Marcos to step down and in the peaceful transition to democracy in the Philippines.[112][113] Since the end of the Cold War Iraq 1992-1995 According to former U.S. intelligence officials interviewed by The New York Times, the CIA orchestrated a bomb and sabotage campaign between 1992 and 1995 in Iraq via one of the insurgent organizations, the Iraqi National Accord, led by Iyad Allawi. The campaign had no apparent effect in toppling Saddam Hussein's rule.[114] According to the Iraqi government at the time, and former CIA officer Robert Baer, the bombing campaign against Baghdad included both government and civilian targets. According to this former CIA official, the civilian targets included a movie theater and a bombing of a school bus and schoolchildren were killed. No public records of the secret bombing campaign are known to exist, and the former U.S. officials said their recollections were in many cases sketchy, and in some cases contradictory. "But whether the bombings actually killed any civilians could not be confirmed because, as a former CIA official said, the United States had no significant intelligence sources in Iraq then." The Iraqi government at the time claimed that the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties. In 1996, Amneh al-Khadami, who described himself as the chief bomb maker for the Iraqi National Accord, recorded a videotape in which he talked of the bombing campaign and complained that he was being shortchanged money and supplies. Two former intelligence officers confirmed the existence of the videotape. Mr. Khadami said that "we blew up a car, and we were supposed to get $2,000" but got only $1,000, as reported in 1997 by the British newspaper The Independent, which had obtained a copy of the videotape.[114] The campaign was directed by CIA asset Dr. Iyad Allawi,[115] later installed as interim prime minister by the U.S.-led coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003. Guatemala 1993 In 1993 the CIA helped in overthrowing Jorge Serrano Elías. Jorge then attempted a self-coup, suspended the constitution, dissolved Congress and the Supreme Court, and imposed censorship. He was replaced by Ramiro de León Carpio.[116] Serbia 2000 The United States is alleged to have made secret effort to topple the socialist Slobodan Milošević in Serbia during and after the events of the Kosovo War. The 5 October Revolution removed Milošević and installed a pro-western government which permitted the extradition of Milosevic and other war crime suspects.[117][118] Venezuela 2002 In 2002, Washington is claimed to have approved and supported a coup against the Venezuelan government. Senior officials, including Special Envoy to Latin America Otto Reich and convicted Iran-contra figure and George W. Bush "democracy 'czar'" Elliott Abrams, were allegedly part of the plot.[119] Top coup plotters, including Pedro Carmona, the man installed during the coup as the new president, began visits to the White House months before the coup and continued until weeks before the putsch. The plotters were received at the White House by the man President George W. Bush tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America, Special Envoy Otto Reich.[119] It has been claimed by Venezuelan news sources that Reich was the U.S. mastermind of the coup.[120] Former U.S. Navy intelligence officer Wayne Madsen, told the British newspaper the Guardian that American military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to explore the possibility of a coup. "I first heard of Lieutenant Colonel James Rogers [the assistant military attaché now based at the U.S. embassy in Caracas] going down there last June [2001] to set the ground", Mr. Madsen reported, adding: "Some of our counter-narcotics agents were also involved." He claims the U.S. Navy assisted with signals intelligence as the coup played out and helped by jamming communications for the Venezuelan military, focusing on jamming communications to and from the diplomatic missions in Caracas. The U.S. embassy dismissed the allegations as "ridiculous".[121] The U.S. also funded opposition groups in the year leading up to the coup, channeling hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to U.S. and Venezuelan groups opposed to President Hugo Chávez, including the labor group whose protests sparked off the coup. The funds were provided by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED),[121] a nonprofit organization whose roots, according to an article in Slate trace back to the late 1960s when the public learned of CIA machinations to covertly fund parties and activists opposing the Soviets. Congress created the NED in 1983 which disburses money to pro-democracy groups around the globe and do so openly.[122] The State Department is now examining whether one or more recipients of the NED money may have actively plotted against the Venezuelan government.[121] Bush Administration officials and anonymous sources acknowledged meeting with some of the planners of the coup in the several weeks prior to April 11, but have strongly denied encouraging the coup itself, saying that they insisted on constitutional means.[123] Because of allegations, Sen. Christopher Dodd requested a review of U.S. activities leading up to and during the coup attempt. A U.S. State Department Office of Inspector General report found no "wrongdoing" by U.S. officials either in the State Department or in the U.S. Embassy.[124] Haiti 2004 The insurgency against the government of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was allegedly supported by the United States, and Aristide claims he was physically removed from the country by U.S. personnel against his wishes.[125][126][127][128] Palestinian Authority, 2006-present After winning Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, Hamas and Fatah formed the Palestinan authority national unity government in 2007, headed by Ismail Haniya. In June 2007 Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip [129] and removed Fatah officials. The ICRC estimated that at least 118 people were killed and more than 550 wounded during the fighting in the week up to June 15.[130] In May 2007, US officials promised to continue funding a $84 million aid package aimed at improving the fighting ability of the Abbas Presidential Guard loyal to Fatah. The US insisted that all of its aid to the Presidential Guard is "nonlethal", consisting of training, uniforms, and supplies, as well as paying for better infrastructure at Gaza's borders. "The situation has gotten to be quite dire in Gaza, we have a situation of lawlessness and outright chaos", he said. "This chaotic situation is why the [US] is focused on [helping] the legal, legitimate security forces in our effort to reestablish law and order.", said Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, who was overseeing the US program.[131][132][133][134] In the April 2008 the journalist David Rose suggested that the United States collaborated with the Palestinian Authority and Israel to attempt a coup on Hamas, and Hamas pre-empted the coup.[135] Hamas Foreign Minister Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar has echoed this view, and called the arming of Fatah by the United States an "American coup d'état".[136] Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by many Western nations. Somalia 2006-2007 Although the United States has had an ongoing interest in Somalia for decades, in early 2006 the CIA began a program of funding a coalition of anti-Islamic warlords.[137] This involved the support of CIA case workers operating out of the Nairobi, Kenya office funneling payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism. As the power balance shifted towards this alliance, the CIA program backfired and the militias of the Islamic Court Union (ICU) gained control of the country. Although the ICU was locally supported for having restored a relative level of peace[138] to the volatile region after having defeated the CIA-funded Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism in the Second Battle of Mogadishu, concerns about the growth and popular support for an Islamic country during the United States' War on Terror led to a new approach of the intervention of CIA, the United States military and Ethiopia's dominantly Christian government. In late December 2006 a United States-trained[139] and funded Ethiopian military force attacked militias of the ICU in a series of battles known as the War in Somalia. The use of the Ethiopian Army was seen by the United States as awkward, but necessary way to prevent Somalia from being ruled by an Islamic government unsympathetic to American interests. In December 2006 State Department officials were issued internal guidelines and talking points such as "The press must not be allowed to make this about Ethiopia, or Ethiopia violating the territorial integrity of Somalia...."[137] Because of Ethiopia's known human rights abuses such as the massacre of 193 protesters after the 2005 presidential elections, there is conflict between the strategic interest Ethiopia's army and leadership provides in the War on Terror and the human rights this war is allegedly addressing. This conflict has manifested itself in the United States Congress where the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007, calls for the millions of foreign aid to Ethiopia only be delivered if there are significant improvements in the democracy and human rights in that country. The Bush Administration and Samuel Assefa, Ethiopia's ambassador to the US were strongly opposed to the bill.[140] Iran 2001-present President Bush secretly authorized the CIA to undertake black operations against Iran in an effort to topple the Iranian government. The Black Ops include a U.S. propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilize the government, and disrupting the Iranian economy by manipulating the country's currency and its international financial transactions.[141] The United States began to target Iran and several other Muslim countries for regime change starting at least in 2001. The book War and Decision written by Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith quotes a high level government policy memorandum written after September 11, 2001, stating that the United States should "[c]apitalize on our strong suit, which is not finding a few hundred terrorists in caves in Afghanistan, but in the vastness of our military and humanitarian resources, which can strengthen the opposition forces in terrorist-supporting states."[142] The memorandum outlined a list of military actions to be undertaken against some of these states. Undersecretary Feith and Gen. Wesley Clark confirmed that Iran is on this list. An article in the New York Times in 2005 said that the Bush administration was expanding efforts to influence Iran's internal politics with aid for opposition and pro-democracy groups abroad and longer broadcasts criticizing the Iranian government. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns said the administration was "taking a page from the playbook" on Ukraine and Georgia. Un-named administration officials were reported as saying the State Department was also studying dozens of proposals for spending $3 million in the coming year "for the benefit of Iranians living inside Iran" including broadcast activities, Internet programs and "working with people inside Iran" on advancing political activities there.[143] In 2006, the United States congress passed the Iran Freedom and Support Act which directed $10 million towards groups opposed to the Iranian Government. In 2007, ABC news reported that U.S. president George W. Bush had authorized a $400 million CIA covert operation to destabilize Iran.[144] Jundullah militants ABC News and the Telegraph (UK) reported, citing U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources, that U.S. officials have been secretly encouraging and advising a Pakistani Balochi militant group named Jundullah that is responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran.[141] The Jundullah militants "stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera", This militant group is led by a youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, sometimes known as "Regi." The U.S. provides no direct funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "presidential finding" as well as congressional oversight. Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to Abd el Malik Regi through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Persian Gulf states. A CIA spokesperson said "the account of alleged CIA action is false", and reiterated that the U.S. provides no funding of the Jundullah group.[145] Regi and Jundullah are also suspected of being associated with al Qaida, a charge that the group has denied. Jundullah "is a vicious Salafi organization whose followers attended the same madrassas as the Taliban and Pakistani extremists," according to Professor Vali Nasr, "They are suspected of having links to Al Qaeda and they are also thought to be tied to the drug culture."[146] Regi "used to fight with the Taliban. He's part drug smuggler, part Taliban, part Sunni activist", said Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant who recently met with Pakistani officials and tribal members. "Regi is essentially commanding a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera", Debat said. Most recently, Jundullah took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard riding on a bus in the Iranian city of Zahedan.[145] Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan Another claimed US proxy inside Iran has been the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK). The New Yorker reported in November 2006 that a U.S. government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon civilian leadership leaked the news of secret US support for PEJAK for operations inside Iran, stating that the group had been given "a list of targets inside Iran of interest to the U.S.".[147] People's Mujahedin of Iran People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران Sāzmān-e Mojāhedin-e Khalq-e Irān Another terrorist group protected by the United States government that operates out of Iraq is the People's Mujahedin of Iran, PMOI, known also as the Mujahedeen-e Khalq or MEK. PMOI is dedicated to the overthrow of the Iranian regime and is accused of orchestrating a series of bombings inside Iran, including one attack that left the current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, partially paralyzed.[148][149] Since 1997, the U.S. has listed the PMOI as a terrorist organization. "They're terrorists only when we consider them terrorists. They might be terrorists in everybody else's books . . . . It was a strange group of people and the leadership was extremely cruel and extremely vicious." said Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell.[148] See also Further reading External links 05.12.2011. 08:27 Get Our Newsletter * Email Address: * Pref Format: * security code: Email marketing More Videos Secret America End of Liberty [1:14:00] Solar Flares 911 Revisited New World Order Aaron Russo MAD AS HELL [1:23:00] Global Warming Financial Crisis North American Union 2012 Enlightenment\|Doom? pophis Hit Earth in 2029? [4:21] Copyright © 2010-2011, TheWebGuy \| Login
2011. Vol.2, No.6, 574-578 Copyright © 2011 SciRes. DOI:10.4236/psych.2011.26088 Are Gender Differences in Empathy Due to Differences in Emotional Reactivity? Linda Rueckert, Brandon Branch, Tiffany Doan Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, USA. Received May 17th, 2011; revised June 21st, 2011; accepted July 29th, 2011. The purpose of this study was to determine whether gender differences in empathy reflect differences in self- rated emotion, and whether they are influenced by the nature of the target of the empathy (friend or enemy). 24 men and 36 women were asked to rate how much happiness, sadness, and anger they would feel if each of ten scenarios happened to themselves, and how they would feel if it happened to a friend or enemy. Overall, women rated themselves as feeling more happiness and sadness than men, whether the event happened to themselves, or to a friend or enemy. This suggests gender differences in self-reported empathy may be due to differences in general emotional responsiveness. An empathy score was computed by subtracting, for each scenario, the rating for the other person from the rating for self. Women showed a greater difference between friend and enemy than Keywords: Empathy, Sex Differences, Emotion Are Gender Differences in Empathy Due to Differences in Emotional Reactivity? In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in studies addressing empathy, the ability to feel and understand the thoughts and emotions of others. This has likely been driven at least in part by the growing field of social neuroscience and technological advances that allow us to study the neural basis of empathy to a much greater extent than was possible before. The most common method of measuring empathy is self- report questionnaires (e.g. Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004; Davis, 1983; Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972). One of the most robust and reliable results obtained from self-report studies is a gender difference, with women reporting greater empathy than men (e.g. Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004; Davis, 1983; Eisenberg & Lennon, 1983; Mehrabian, Young, & Sato, 1988; Rueckert & Naybar, 2008). However, this female superiority has not been found as often using other measures of empathy that are presumably more objective, leading Eisenberg and Lennon (1983) to suggest that the differences found using self-report may be due, at least in part, to demand characteris- tics. Evidence for demand characteristics have also been re- ported by oth ers (Ickes, Gesn, & Graham, 2000). Nevertheless, there have been a few studies that reported similar gender differences using more objective measures. Dimberg and Lundquist (1990) found that women showed greater facial mimicry, as measured by electromyogram, to photos of emotional faces. Chapman, Baron-Cohen, Auyeung, Knickmeyer, Taylor, & Hackett (2006) reported a negative correlation between fetal testosterone levels and empathy in children age 6 to 8. In an event-related potential study, Fuku- shima and Hiraki (2006) found that women, but not men, ex- hibited medial-frontal negativity when their opponent in a game experienced a loss. Men exhibited this response only when they themselves experienced the loss. Until very recently there were no neuroimaging studies of gender differences in empathy. In fact, a recent meta-analysis of fMRI studies of empathy for pain found no evidence for overall gender differences (Lamm, Decety, & Singer, 2011). However, some studies have found significant gender differ- ences under specific conditions. For example, Singer, Seymour, O’Doherty, Stephan, Dolan, & Frith (2006) used functional MRI to measure brain activity while participants received mild electric shocks or witnessed a confederate receiving a similar shock. They manipulated participants’ feelings toward the con- federates by having them play a “prisoner dilemma” type of game. One of the confederates played the game fairly and the other played unfairly. They found that both men and women showed bilateral activation in pain-related areas of the brain (anterior insula and anterior cingulate) when they received a shock, and when they witnessed a “fair” confederate receive a shock. However, only women showed this activation when the “unfair” confederate was shocked. Results reported by Cheng, Chen, Lin, Chou, and Decety (2010) also support the idea that empathic responses may differ based on the target of the empa- thy. They found greater activation in the insula and anterior cingulate when participants saw hands and feet in painful posi- tions and were asked to imagine that the picture depicted a loved one, compared to when they were asked to imagine that it depicted a stranger. However, they did not examine gender Many psychologists differentiate between emotional empa- thy, or the tendency to feel the same emotion as another person, and cognitive empathy, which is the knowledge and under- standing of another person’s thoughts and emotions, without necessarily feeling the same emotion (similar to “theory of mind”). An empathy scale developed by Davis (1983) yields separate scores for emotional empathy (labeled “emotional concern”) and cognitive empathy (labled as “perspective tak- ing”), and some studies have suggested that the gender differ- ence may be limited to the emotional concern scale (Derntl et al., 2010). In the same study, Derntl et al. (2010) found that women showed greater activation than men in several brain regions, including the amygdala, across a number of empa- thy-related emotional judgment tasks. Interestingly, they found this sex difference in the brain despite equal performance by women and men on the tasks. Schulte-Rüther, Markowitsch, Shah, Fink, & Piefke (2008) found that women showed greater activation in the right inferior frontal cortex and superior tem- poral sulcus, while men showed greater activation of the left temporoparietal junction, when rating their own and others’ emotion. They interpreted this as greater emotional engagement on the part of their female participants. Rueckert and Naybar (2008) utilized a chimeric faces task (Levy, Heller, Banich, & Burton, 1983) to assess activation of the right cerebral hemisphere in normal participants. Although there were no differences in asymmetry found for the chimeric faces task, they found that right hemisphere activation corre- lated with self-reported empathy for women, but not for men. This suggests that women are more likely than men to recruit similar brain regions for empathy and for judgment of emo- tional expression. Although most self-report scales do not differentiate between cognitive and emotional empathy, an examination of the items on these questionnaires suggests that they may assess predomi- nantly emotional empathy. Furthermore, most of the items tend to focus on negative emotions, such as sadness (e.g. “It makes me sad to see a lonely stranger in a group”; Mehrabian & Ep- stein, 1972). If, as has been suggested by a number of studies (e.g. Allen & Markiewicz Haccoun, 1976; Blier & Blier-Wilson, 1989) women tend to report higher levels of emotion than men, it’s possible that what appears to be a gender difference in em- pathy is actually a difference in reported level of emotion. For example, a high rating to a statement such as “It makes me sad to see a lonely stranger in a group”, would result in a higher empathy score, although it could simply be due to a greater tendency to experience or report sadness in general. The purpose of the present study was to examine gender dif- ferences in empathy in greater detail. Specifically, we sought to determine whether the difference might be due to levels of re- ported emotion. To do this we developed a new empathy scale that measured participants’ self-reported emotion for events that occurred to themselves, as well as to other people. Because previous studies have suggested that empathy in men and women may vary depending upon the relationship between themselves and the target, we also varied this relationship. Par- ticipants were asked to rate how they would feel if the event happened to a good friend, and well as how they would feel if it happened to some one they did not like. There were 60 participants (36 women and 24 men) who ranged in age from 19 to 47, with a mean age of 24.5 years. The mean age for women (24.8 years) did not differ from the mean age for men (24 years). All participants signed an Informed Consent form that was approved by the Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) Institutional Review Board. In addition to the Informed Consent form and a short demo- graphics form, all participants completed the following ques- Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1983). This questionnaire consists of 28 statements that inquire about the thoughts and feelings of individuals in a variety of situations. It is a self-report questionnaire consisting of four 7-item subscales, each of which assesses a specific aspect of empathy. Scores for each item can range from 0 to 4, with a higher score indicating a greater level of empathy. The The Perspective-Taking (PT) subscale assesses an understanding of the point of view of oth- ers (cognitive empathy). The Fantasy (FS) subscale assesses a physiological arousal to a filmed depiction of fictitious charac- ters in movies, plays and books. The Empathetic Concern (EC) subscale assesses concern and sympathy for other people (emo- tional empathy). The Personal Distress (PD) subscale assesses feelings of personal anxiety in reaction to the emotions of oth- ers in tense social settings. The maximum score for each sub- scale is 28. NEIU Empathy Scale. This scale was developed specifi- cally for this study. It is comprised of ten scenarios (see Ap- pendix). Participants are first asked to read through the scenar- ios and rate on a Likert scale from 1 to 5 the extent to which they would feel each of three emotions (happy, sad, and angry; 1 = no emotion, 5 = extreme emotion). The scenarios were created with the expectation that they would yield an approxi- mately equal number of happy, sad, and angry responses. After rating how they would feel for all ten scenarios, par- ticipants were asked to go through all ten scenarios again and rate how they (the participant) would feel if each of the scenar- ios happened to their best friend (of the same gender) and to an enemy, or a person they do not like (of the same gender). Some of the scenarios were chosen with the expectation that they might be likely to yield different emotions depending on whether they happen to a friend or to an enemy (i.e. getting a ticket for parking in a handicapped space). All participants were first asked to rate how they would feel if the scenario happened to themselves. Half of them were then asked about the friend, follo wed by enemy , and the oth er half were asked about enemy followed by friend. After filling out the Informed Consent and demographics forms, participants were asked to fill out the IRI, followed by the NEIU Empathy Scale (half the participants filled them out in the opposite order). An ANOVA was conducted with gender as a be- tween-subjects variable and subscale (EC, PT, PD, FS) as a repeated measure. There was a main effect of gender, F(1.58) = 7.37, p = .009, η2 = .11. Men (M = 15.48, 95% CI[14.28, 16.67]) scored lower than women (M = 17.20, 95% CI[16.5, 17.90]). This was modified by a trend toward a gender by subscale in- teraction, F(3.174) = 2.49, p = .062, η2 = .056. Simple main effects post-hocs showed that the gender difference was sig- nificant only for EC (p = .001), and marginally significant for PD (p = .1). NEIU Empathy Scale A composite score for each of the three emotions (happy, sad, angry) was calculated for each participant under each condition (self, friend, enemy). Ratings were first analyzed to determine whether there were any differences in the strength of emotion reported by men and women. An ANOVA was conducted with gender as a between-subjects variable. Person (self, friend or enemy) and emotion (happy, sad, angry) were repeated meas- ures. There was a main effect of person, F(2.116) = 39.84, p < .001, η2 = .41. Tukey’s HSD post-hoc analyses showed that emotional ratings for self were significantly higher than ratings for either friend or enemy (p < .05). There was also a main effect of emotion, F(2.116) = 8.30, p < .001, η2 = .12, that was modified by a person by emotion interaction, F(4.232) = 23.47, p < .001, η2 = .29. Simple effects post-hoc analyses revealed that the main effect of person was significant only for sad and angry (p < .001; see Figure 1). There was also a trend toward an emotion by gender interaction F(2.116) = 2.57, p = .08, η2 = .04. due to the fact that women gave higher ratings than men only for happy and sad (see Figure 2). Empathy scores were calculated by identifying the predomi- nant emotion for each participant in each of the ten scenarios. The predominant emotion was defined as the one that received the highest rating for the self. The friend empathy score is the difference between the rating given to the predominant emotion for self for that particular scenario, and the rating given to the friend for the same emotion on the same scenario. A composite friend empathy score was calculated by adding the difference scores for all ten scenarios. Thus, a higher score indicates a greater difference between the rating given to the self and the rating given to the friend, and therefore less empathy. Enemy empathy scores were calculated in the same manner using rat- ings given to the enemy. For this analysis the data was dis- carded for the four men and four women who rated only one emotion for each scenario. Spearman-Brown split-half reliabil- ity coefficients were at an acceptable level (r = .80 for both friend and enem y em p athy scores). An ANOVA was calculated with these empathy scores as the dependent variable. Gender was a between-subjects variable Happy SadAngry Figure 1. Mean ratings for each of the three emotions given to the self, friend, and enemy on the NEIU scale. Happy SadAngry Wome n Figure 2. Mean ratings given by men and women for each of the three emotions on the NEIU scale. Error bars indicate the standard error for the gen- der difference, pooled across emotions. and person (friend or enemy) was a repeated measure. There was a main effect of person, F(1.58) = 117.12, p < .001, η2 = .67. Empathy scores were lower (indicating greater empathy) for friends (M = 10.51, 95% CI[8.51, 12.52]) than for enemies (M = 22.80, 95% CI[20.44, 25.16]). This was modified by a gender by person interaction, F(1.58) = 9.22, p = .004, η2 = .14. Figure 3 shows that, although both men and women showed greater empathy toward their friends than their enemies, the difference was greater for women. Relationship between Scales Neither empathy scores nor raw ratings on the NEIU scale correlated significantly with any of the four subscales of the IRI after a Bonferonni correction was applied. Ratings on the NEIU scale did correlate with each other: Overall ratings for self cor- related with both friend (r = .77, p < .001) and enemy ratings (r = .62, p < .001). These correlations were also significant within each gender (women: rself,enemy = .63, rself,friend = .72; men: rself,enemy = .69, rself,friend = .82, all ps <. 001) Item analysis. Detailed statistics for each of the ten scenar- ios (mean ratings for men and women for each item, etc.) can be found online at These results provide some limited support for gender dif- ferences in empathy but suggest that these differences are not ubiquitous, but, rather tend to occur under specific conditions. While we did replicate the common finding that women score higher on the IRI, the difference was only significant for EC (and marginally significant for PD). This is congruent with some previous studies that utilized the IRI (Derntl et al., 2010; Yang, Decety, Lee, Chen, & Cheng, 2008). This result suggests that the gender difference may be limited to emotional empathy, and raises the possibility that it is due to differences in emo- tional reactivity. That possibility is also supported by the fact that, on the NEIU empathy scale, women reported that they would feel greater happiness and sadness when the scenario happened to themselves, as well as when it happened to others. This finding replicates others who have found that women re- port more intense ratings of happiness and sadness than men, but report less or equal levels of anger (Allen & Markiewicz Haccoun, 1976; Blier & Blier-Wilson, 1989). The results of this study suggest that gender differences in empathy may reflect, at least in part, differences in emotional Friend Enemy Wome n Figure 3. Mean empathy scores (difference in ratings given to the self and other person) for friend and enemy on the NEIU scale. Error bars indicate the standard error for the gender difference. Note that a greater differ- ence indicates less empathy. reactivity. This inference is also supported by the significant correlation between participants’ ratings for themselves and for other people. However, in the empathy analyses overall ratings of emotional level were controlled on the NEIU scale by sub- tracting the emotional rating for others (friend and enemy) from that given for the self. Analyses of these scores did not show an overall gender difference in empathy, but revealed that women’s level of empathy is more affected by the relationship they have with the other person; they showed somewhat greater empathy levels toward friends, but lower levels towards ene- mies. Although this result has not been reported before, it is congruent with results from studies of helping behavior. In a meta-analysis of studies measuring people’s willingness to help in real-life situations Eagly and Crowly (1986) found that men were actually significantly more likely to provide aid than women. However, they pointed out that the vast majority of these studies involved providing help to a stranger, which women may find somewhat threatening. Some more recent studies have found no gender difference in less threatening situations (e.g. Reysen & Ganz, 2006) or a tendency for women to give more help when the person receiving the help is a friend (George, Carroll, Kersnick & Calderon, 1998). The gender difference in empathy toward friends and ene- mies found in the present study appears to be at odds with re- sults reported by Singer et al. (2006). Using fMRI, they found that women and men showed an equally strong empathic re- sponse in pain-related areas of the brain when they saw a “fair” confederate receive shocks. However, only women showed this response when they watched a confederate they believed had played a game unfairly receive shocks. There are numerous methodological differences between the two studies. In the study by Singer et al. both the fair and unfair confederate were unknown to the subjects. In the present study subjects were asked to think of a person who was known to them that they considered a friend or enemy. Thus, they actually had some type of relationship and previous interaction with the target. It is also possible that the vicarious experience of pain differs from empathy experienced in more complex emotional situa- Most previous studies of empathy have not specified the tar- get of the empathy, but have instead assessed it toward some generalized “other” person. The results of the present study suggest that the nature of the person to be empathized with is an important variable to consider. These results and those of other recent studies suggest that gender differences in empathy are more variable and context-dependent than has been suggested by the highly consistent results reported in earlier studies util- izing self-report. (For further discussion of contextual variables that may affect empathy, see de Vignemont & Singer, 2006). Scores on self-report measures may reflect demand characteris- tics and willingness to admit to feelings of sadness, in addition to empathy. Of course, other measures of empathy also have limitations to their internal and external validity. A better un- derstanding of empathy in general, and gender differences in particular, will require the utilization of a variety of methods under a variety of conditions. Allen, J. G., & Haccoun, D. M. (1976). Sex differences in emotionality: A multidimensional approach. Human Relations, 29, 711-722. Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The Empathy quotient: An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Journal of Autism and Develop- mental Disorders, 34, 163-175. Blier, M. J., & Blier-Wilson, L. A. (1989). Gender differences in self-rated emoti onal expressiveness. Sex Roles, 21, 287-295. from the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” test. Social Neuroscience, 1, 135-148. Cheng, Y., Chen, C., Lin, C., Chou, K., & Decety, J. (2010). Love hurts: an fMRI study. Neuroimage, 51, 923-929. Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 113-126. and why? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 435-441. Derntl, B., Finkelmeyer, A., Eickhoff, S., Kellermann, T., Falkenberg, D., Schneider, F., & Habel, U. (2010). Multidimensional assess- ment of empathic abilities: Neural correlates and gender differences. Psychoneuoendocrinology, 35, 67-82. Dimberg, U., & Lundquist, L. (1990). Gender differences in facial reactions to facial expressions. Biological Psychology, 30, 151-159. Eagly, A. H., & Crowley, M. (1986). Gender and helping behavior: A meta-analytic review of the social psychological literature. Psycho- logical Bulletin, 100, 283-308. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.100.3.283 Eisenberg, N., & Lennon, R. (1983). Sex differences in empathy and related capacities. Psychological Bulletin 94, 100-131. Fukushima, H., & Hiraki, K. (2006). Perceiving an opponent’s loss: gender-related differences in the medial-frontal negativity. Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience, 1, 149-157. George, D., Carroll, P., Kersnick, R., & Calderon, K. (1998). Gen- der-related patterns of helping among friends. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 685-704. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1998.tb00185.x Ickes, W., Gesn, P. R., & Graham, T. (2000). Gender differences in empathic accuracy: Differential ability or differential motivation? Personal Relationships, 7, 95-109. common and distinct neural networks associated with directly ex- perienced pain and empathy for pain. NeuroImage, 54, 2492-2502. Levy, J., Heller, W., Banich, M.T., & Burton, L.A. (1983). Asymmetry of perception in free viewing of chimeric faces. Brain and Cognition, 2, 404-419. doi:10.1016/0278-2626(83)90021-0 Journal of Personality, 40, 525-543. Mehrabian, A., Young, A. L., & Sato, S. (1988). Emotional empathy and associated individual differences. Current Psychology: Research & Reviews, 7, 221-240. doi:10.1007/BF02686670 Reysen, S. & Ganz, E. (2006). Gender differences in helping in six U.S. cities. North American Journal of Psychology, 8, 63-68. Rueckert, L., & Naybar, N. (2008). Gender differences in empathy: The role of the right hemisphere. Brain and Cognition, 67, 162-167. Schulte-Rüther, M., Markowitsch, H. J., Shah, N. J., Fink, G. R., & Piefke, M. (2008). Gender differences in brain networks supporting empathy. NeuroImage, 42, 393-403. the perceived fairness of ot h e rs. Nature, 439, 466-469. Yang, C., Decety, J., Lee, S., Chen, C., & Cheng, Y. (2009). Gender differences in the mu rhythm during empathy for pain: An electro- encephalographic study. Brain Research, 1251, 176-184. NEIU Emotional Response Questionnaire The following 10 scenarios are to be used with each of the next 3 answer sheets. Please read the instructions at the top of each answer sheet carefully, because they are all different. 1) You won $5,000 in the lottery. 2) You bought a brand new pair of shoes two days ago. To- day it started pouring rain as you were walking to the store and your shoes were ruined. 3) Your favorite team is going to the playoffs. You’ve got tickets. However, you can’t get off work, and so will not be able to go. 4) You put money in to a vending machine to buy a candy bar, but the machine is broken so you lose your money. 5) You put money in to a vending machine to buy a candy bar. The machine malfunctions and gives you your money back, as well as giving you the candy bar. 6) You go to the grocery store to buy just one item. But you can’t find any place to park legally, so you park in the handi- capped space. When you come back 10 minutes later you have received a parking ticket. 7) You’ve been waiting in line for an hour to get tickets to a movie you really want to see. Just as you get up to the ticket window, they announce that they are sold out. 8) You’re driving to work and you’re late, so you start driving very fast. You accidentally run over a squirrel and kill 9) You tried out for a city-wide talent show and made it to the top five finalists. 10) As you’re walking down the street a car drives by very fast through a puddle and splashes water all over you.
Reptile refuges are real rarity From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1999: Tens of thousands of former pet reptiles are abandoned each year in the U.S. and Canada–and ANIMAL PEOPLE files indicate the numbers are rapidly rising. Yet the number of sanctuaries able to give reptiles quality care can just about be counted on the fingers of one hand. Apart from the Rainforest Reptile Refuge, ANIMAL PEOPLE has identified only two other sanctuaries which either specialize in reptiles or have reptile experts on staff: Wildlife Waystation, of Angeles National Forest, California, which mainly handles mammals and birds but also has a reptile house; and Star Inc., of Culver City, California, whose storefront facilities reportedly resemble Rainforest Reptile Refuge. A few others focus on mammals and birds but also keep some reptiles, notably Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation and Primarily Primates, both near San Antonio, Texas. Otherwise, herpetological rescue is left to individual members of local herpetological societies. Rescue networks are usually not in close touch with animal control agencies and humane societies. The public tends to be unaware of them. One can hardly criticize individual rescuers for lying low, as more reptiles are dumped than any one person could handle, and thefts of reptiles are increasingly common, due to a misplaced belief that they can be sold for big money. In truth, only the healthiest reptiles of the rarest species have resale value. For most legal dealers, the money is not in the animals but in the paraphernalia needed to keep them. Rainforest Reptile Refuge From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1999: SURREY, B.C.–So, you think reptiles are not interactive? You haven’t been to the Rainforest Reptile Refuge, a mile north of the truck crossing from Blaine, Washington, to Surrey, British Columbia. Little faces are pressed against the glass of a warm and spacious herpaterrarium as Christine and Clarence Schramm make their rounds. The animals could watch them from hiding places. The Schramms make sure teach animal has a hiding place, to provide a sense of security. Instead, most come to the fronts of their habitats, displaying themselves as conspicuously as they can. The soft-shelled turtles crane their telescoping necks. Snakes try to elevate their heads on branches that will put them at eye level. Only a few multi-colored tarantulas hide, yet position themselves so as to see Christine Schramm, especially. “Joe Clark!” she chirps into the large iguana enclosure. “Joe Clark!” Several sleepy green iguanas raise their heads, then lower them again. Only Joe Clark remains attentive. He’s the one with a missing piece of jawbone, giving him the chinless look of the former Progressive-Conservative prime minister of Canada–who reputedly liked animals. “I wouldn’t name an animal after Pierre Trudeau or Brian Mulroney or Jean Chretien,” Christine says, “but Joe Clark seemed worthy.” As Clark was only in office briefly between terms of Pierre Trudeau, who was prime minister for 18 years, his reputation was unblemished by the others’ defense and revival of the Atlantic Canada seal hunt. “Reptiles wouldn’t hunt seals,” Christine notes. “If they did, it would be to eat, not sell their pelts and penises.” Because of his jaw injury, Joe Clark the green iguana is hand-fed, ahead of the others. Lately, Joe Clark has taken to trying to cadge double rations by pretending, after the rest are fed, that he was forgotten. From the back of the former convenience store occupied by the Rainforest Reptile Refuge comes crashing and thrashing. “That’s caimans wrestling,” Christine says. “Boys will be boys. STOP IT!” The wrestling stops as abruptly as it started. The most culpable caiman stands high on his legs in an aggressive posture, apart from the rest, watching Christine like a class clown who is about to be scolded, who knows he’s broken the rules but isn’t quite ashamed of himself because doing it was so much fun. The other caimans watch like a room full of children looking to see if the clown gets sent to the principal’s office. The naughty caiman gets his scolding along with a tail jerk, and promptly lowers himself into the normal caiman squat. ANIMAL PEOPLE has visited some of the best-reputed reptile facilities in the world, from the Bronx Zoo to the California Academy of the Sciences. Few have more species–or individuals–than the Rainforest Reptile Refuge, whose animals include abandoned pets, exotics found by police, and even former zoo specimens. We’ve met the occasional interactive reptile before, usually an iguana. Two iguanas have actually qualified for inclusion in the ANIMAL PEOPLE log of animals who do heroic deeds on behalf of other species–Goliath, who woke Donald Wright of Tucson, Arizona, from a near-fatal sleep apnea attack with her claws, and another, nameless, who reportedly took the steering wheel on June 13, 1997, after an alleged drunk driver passed out on U.S. 19 near Clearwater, Florida, and guided the vehicle safely to the side of the road. Never, though, have we seen or heard of a whole reptile house full of creatures who enjoy interaction–and get it. Christine and Clarence Schramm talk to the Rainforest Reptile Refuge residents. So do their volunteers. And so do the cast-off parrots, an assortment including a sulphur-crested cockatoo, a blue-and-gold macaw, an African grey, and a couple of mismatched conures, each with a small vocabulary and a hard-luck story involving separation from beloved mates, the death or disability of a human caretaker, and depressed self-mutilation that destroyed their market value in the booming parrot business. The parrots look and act a bit like a pirate crew–raucous, disreputable with self-plucked feathers missing, quick to remind any intrusive visitor that their hooked beaks can pinch off a finger or an ear. Then the blue-and-gold hops onto an extended arm and swaggers like a captain on a quarter-deck. The African gray inspects the troops, meandering through the refuge. “Hello!” says the macaw. Dogs, cats too The animals are gentle with each other. Christine tells of the time the iguanas ripped down a wall overnight. In the morning she found a snake amid the iguana pile, with one of the three resident cats sleeping comfortably on top of all of them. The cats and two friendly watch-mutts came as starved abandonees. There are other mammals, notably an ailing African hedgehog. Mostly, though, the Rainforest Reptile Refuge takes creatures no other local shelter handles. “People buy reptiles because they think they are easy to care for,” Christine scoffs. “They’re not. They’re as much trouble as a dog or a cat. Then the owners find out the truth, and drop them off here or just dump them,” often sick from neglect. An exotic dancer surrendered a python, for instance, who was dying from an untreated skin disease. Rough handling during the dance routine may have aggravated it. Iguanas often arrive with burns from heat lamps. Many reptiles come with metabolic bone disease, due to poor diets. Dealers, the Schramms find, are often as ignorant of proper reptile care as casual buyers. Judy Stone of Animal Advocates of British Columbia helped them obtain 14 reptiles, five cockatiels, and Maxine the blue-and-gold macaw from the abandoned collection of a bankrupt pet store. All arrived with severe physical problems. That reminded Christine of how they got their first caiman. “To amuse his customers,” she explains, “a pet store owner would squirt a baby caiman with a water pistol. Trapped in a small aquarium, the caiman had nowhere to hide. All she could do was hiss and whip her tail.” Christine confronted the owner– who tried to sell her the caiman. When she refused to pay him, he gave the caiman to her. The caiman, named Carmen, is still a Rainforest Reptile Refuge resident. The Rainforest Reptile Refuge receives about 300 animals per year, but the census remains around 400 in care because so many of the new arrivals can’t be saved. It was perhaps more a Freudian slip than a typographical error that Christine called the organization the “Rainforest Reptile Refuse Society” in a recent newsletter: most of the animals have been treated like refuse by someone, and a few were literally plucked out of trash cans. They don’t have any alligators from sewers–yet, they laugh. All the newcomers are quarantined before being introduced to others of their species in the display areas. Twice Clarence has suffered salmonella poisoning from being splashed while changing sick turtles’ water. Both Clarence and Christine have often been bitten by animals who didn’t yet know they were among friends. But only one Rainforest Reptile Refuge animal, an elderly snake, is venomous. “The bites hurt,” admits Clarence. “But we know nothing here will kill us.” Christine and Clarence Schramm routinely handle only the few reptiles who really seem to enjoy petting. Vistors are welcome, a few days a week, but never have direct contact with the reptiles and are allowed near the parrots only if the parrots seem to invite the opportunity. The Schramms attribute some of the Rainforest Reptile Refuge animals’ interactivity to the animals’ having been pets. The rest, they claim, is just a matter of most people not knowing reptile nature. The Schramms have studied animal behavior together for 14 years, specializing in reptiles as a matter of responding to need. Both come originally from southeastern British Columbia, but Clarence initially sought his fortune in Alberta. He volunteered as a reptile caretaker at the Calgary and Edmonton zoos. He objected to the treatment of animals as “specimens,” rather than individuals. When he left, the Calgary Zoo gave him two “surplus” iguanas who were not rated much chance for long life. They became the first Rainforest Reptile Refuge animals. They still live there. Christine grew up on a dairy farm in the Okanagan valley. As she became more sensitive to animal suffering, she developed a profound distaste for the dairy industry. Both Christine and Clarence are longtime vegans. They married with a shared goal of “doing something to help animals.” They traveled to Africa to observe big mammals and birds. Back home, though, they could see that reptiles were the animals most in need of their care. They started the Rainforest Reptile Refuge in a two-bedroom apartment, in 1986, then expanded to their present rented location in 1992. They live on site, in a travel trailer. Clarence provides most of the cash flow as a gardener for the past 10 years at a nearby nursery. His gardening skill is also evident about the Rainforest Reptile Refuge grounds. Christine–who has never been paid–is the more-than-fulltime curator, assisted by a few volunteers, including students who participate as part of a work experience program. Together, the Rainforest Reptile Refuge personnel put in about 12,000 unpaid hours per year. Donations still fall short of fully covering the heat, the food, and veterinary care. Tours by school groups and youth organizations are welcomed mainly as a chance to educate the public, not as a source of revenue, though young visitors account for some sales of toy reptiles and t-shirts. Celebrity help consists mostly of donations of autographed photos from sympathetic athletes, which are auctioned via the Rainforest Reptile Refuge web site (at >><<). Renowned orangutan advocate Birute Galdikas visited once, however, with her children Jane and Fred. “They were in Vancouver and saw a softshell turtle dying a slow death, waiting to be made into turtle soup,” the Rainforest Reptile Refuge newsletter recounted. “Gal-dikas rescued the turtle and brought it to us.” [Contact the Rainforest Reptile Refuge c/o POB 3505, Blaine, WA 98231; 605-538-1711 or 605-536-1791; or by e-mail at >><<.]
Dornblaser on the role of government, September, 1922 The best form of government is the most perfect form of cooperation. A government approaches perfection as it offers to each subject conditions which enable him to exercise to the best advantage all his power and ability to cooperate in securing the highest degree of prosperity for the nation. The prosperity of a nation is measured by the prosperity of the individuals that compose the nation, not by the increase in wealth. The citizen can best cooperate to secure the prosperity of the nation by doing those things which contribute to his own prosperity, provided his prosperity is not secured by appropriating or infringing upon the prosperity of some other subject that is cooperating to secure the same end. If the prosperity of one citizen is secured by appropriating the prosperity of some other citizen, it does not add to the prosperity of the nation because the good is counterbalanced by the bad. If the prosperity of one is secured by appropriating the prosperity of more than one other citizen, it detracts from the prosperity of the nation just in proportion to the number of those whose prosperity has been appropriated or destroyed. When a government appropriates more of the wealth of the individual than is necessary for an economic administration of governmental affairs, it is tyranny and oppression; but when a government grants a franchise to a citizen or an association of citizens which enables them to lay tribute upon the balance of its subjects, it becomes a party to a crime. A good government should represent upon terms of equality and justice the whole people. It can not do so when it takes a portion of the people into partnership to assist in conducting the business of government. It does take them into such partnership every time it grants a franchise to exercise any of the attributes of sovereignty. From all these truisms, self-evident facts that are unanswerable, the conclusion if reached that it is the duty of good and just governments to protect man in the enjoyment of the fruits of his labor and his inalienable rights, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” that a government fails to perform this duty when it grants franchises, or establishes laws or customs which enable a portion of its citizens to prosper at the expense of any or all other portions. When a government so fails to perform it’s whole duty, and the prosperous portion is small in number as compared to the number of those who are robbed by their appropriations and exactions, it indicates a degree of national decadence which must speedily be fatal to any but a government of force. A government of force is one in which the wealthy are interested in government by the cession of profitable franchise which induce them to contribute enough to the support of the administration of affairs to enable the government to employ for pay a sufficient number of the people as soldiers, to control the masses by force. A glance at the condition of this country today in the light of these facts and considerations should alarm every patriotic citizen, because of the rapid strides made in the last 40 years toward a government of force. The question may well be asked, “is there no way to prevent it; no way to stop the use of the powers of the government by the few to enrich themselves. Stop this headlong stride towards the destruction of true democracy and the substitution of a government of force?” Yes, there is one, and only one way. No help can be had from those who profit by the evil. Even the lowly Jesus while upon the earth advocating reform in words of ultimate truth, in the capacity of both God and man found deaf ears upon the officials and those who profited by the then conditions, etc. He was forced to turn to those “whose cup of happiness was not running over”. It has been the same from that day to this. Relief must come from those who have paid tribute in this country to enrich a comparative few; far beyond the most sanguine dreams of ancient kings. They are the industrious honest, frugal producers who labor in the field, mine, shop, factory and everywhere that honest effort can wring a reward from the forces of nature. These are they which have cut down the forests, opened the road and paved the way for the spread of civilization into the wilderness. These are they which have dotted the nation with schools, churches and factories and have filled them. These are they which in times of war march boldly to the front and save the country from the foe without and within and avert all impending dangers both in times of peace and war and feed a clothe the world and pay the debt. There are they whom God looks upon in compassion and love and whom the government, since they are its main-stay and support, both in times of war and peace, should guarantee equal rights and equal chances before the laws. These are they that have been robbed by a contraction of the volume of money while they were in debt, because the reduction in the price of their products has made it take several times as much labor to pay the old debts. There are they that have been robbed every year by the contraction of the currency at the crop handling season, which forced a great decline in the price of products at the time in which they were compelled to sell, and which, taken as an average for fifty years has been a discrimination against them of over fifty percent. These are they that have to dig deep and often to raise money enough to meet taxes and pay the $300,000,000,000 debt now hanging over our government and pay toll to the 20,000 new millionaires that were created by the war. Yes you good, conservatives, who love order and hate disorder that I am appealing to, yes to intelligent men and women who are of good will. I hold that order can be restored and firmly established throughout the nation and the world. I have no appeal to make to the rabble, to the unthinking, unreasoning mob, which I hold and have always held, in pity. Today, everywhere, disorder exists, which, unless intelligently checked, will grow beyond control and inevitably lead to disaster. I belong to that people who once started right, go on and on, to success. Once a Farmers Union Member, always one. Let’s go. Truly yours, O.F. Dornblaser From the archives of Tom Giessel, Larned, Kansas Note: Mr. Dornblaser was an original Farmers Union member. He lived until 94 years of age and was still attending Farmers Union meetings and recruiting new members at 92. This entry was posted in Daily News. Bookmark the permalink.
Sunday, January 23, 2011 The History of Tai Chi and Health-Part III: Tai Chi’s Use for Health Promotion When Mao Zedong took power of China in 1949, he outlawed all traditional practices, including TCM, Tai Chi, and Qigong, and viewed them as superstitious (Chen, 2004). However, during health reforms Mao and his advisors began to see Traditional Chinese Medicine, including Tai Chi and Qigong, as an opportunity to aid in primary healthcare (Xu, 2010). Mao saw individual physical fitness as a sign of a strong nation. Qigong and Tai Chi fit into his vision of active masses, and his efforts in primary care inspired much of the Alma Ata conference in 1978 (Janes, 1999; Xu, 2010). Because Mao was a modernist who believed in science, a tremendous research effort began to explore Tai Chi and Qigong. Thus, Tai Chi and Qigong had to prove not to be merely a mystical superstition through using tools of scientific observation, which at that time were mainly large case studies (Kaptchuk, 2000; Xu, 2010). Today in North America, Tai Chi has a variable and intense research history. It has been used and studied as an intervention on AIDS patients, haemophiliacs and just about every type of disease imaginable. One search on Google Scholar using the search term “Tai Chi” yielded 24,700 hits, and a search of the Cochrane Library website brought up reviews on Tai Chi and hypertension, headaches, depression, rheumatoid arthritis, fall reduction, and dementia. One of the first influential studies on Tai Chi in the US was in 1996, when a team of researchers received funding from the National Institutes of Health to study Tai Chi and fall reduction (Wolf et al., 1996). There have been many studies replicating its efficacy in fall reduction, and it is included in many recommended guidelines for that purpose, including those issued by the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology (CSEP, 2008), the US Department of Health and Human Services (US DHHS, 2008) and the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA, 1999). Not many studies have been conducted on exploring its potential use in primary prevention, meaning preventing disease before people get a disease. I think this lack of research has to do with many preconceived notions people have linking Tai Chi with elderly people or because it is slow. Also, there is some controversy in exercise science fields as to how much of a role VO2max plays in prevention of cardiovascular disease. Recently, there has been some research that suggests musculo-skeletal strength plays a larger role than previously thought. If that is the case Tai Chi can maybe a good exercise for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Next The History of Tai Chi and Health-Part IV: Tai Chi and Chronic Disease Thursday, January 20, 2011 The History of Tai Chi and Health-Part II: The origin of Tai Chi The origins of Tai Chi are rooted in mythical Chinese culture. The Chinese credit the celebrated hero Zhang San Feng with the creation of Tai Chi. Legend has it that he observed a hawk attacking a snake. As the battle between the two animals ensued, the snake repeatedly used relaxed evasive movements to elude the aggressive attacks of the hawk. Finally, the exhausted and frustrated hawk flew away. There are several versions, using different birds, but this is the basic myth (Frank, 2003). However, the true origins of Tai Chi are in dispute. The first historical record shows Tai Chi was developed in the 17th century in Chen Village (Yang, 2010). Later, Tai Chi was passed on to Yang Lu Chan, who developed the Yang style, which is now the most popular and most researched. Yang Lu Chan’s grandson Yang Cheng Fu became the inheritor of the Yang tradition. He defined Tai Chi as “the art of concealing hardness within softness, like a needle in cotton” and asserted that “its technique, physiology, and mechanics all involve considerable philosophic principles” (Wile, 1983, p.3). He popularized Tai Chi for the masses and distinguished two levels, the civil and the martial (Wile, 1983). The civil is the “essence” and can be used for development of health, which is referred to as a type of gong, or practice or skill. In this way it falls under the umbrella of Qigong, a type of Qi-based exercise that literally means the practice (gong) of moving life’s vital energy (Qi) (Cohen, 1997). The martial is the “function,” which has the civil in mind but can be used for self-defense (Wile, 1983). Traditionally, Tai Chi is often taught in this martial manner, in which learning the form is not an end unto itself but a first step in which the basics are internalized. Then, after a year or so, the student learns push hands and sword practice. Thus, Tai Chi is a martial art that contains within it self-healing principles intertwined in martial movements. As Tai Chi has developed through the centuries and through various schools of practice, it has become not one specific set of movements but can be practiced in different forms. Empty hand forms are usually the main focus of most Tai Chi classes. “Long forms” contain many more movements than “short forms,” which are not traditional but are modified to ease the learning curve. Different traditional styles are descended from the Chen but have evolved as various families transformed them, including the Yang, Wu, Sun, and Li styles. The variability of forms and intensities of physical activity among them is one of the challenges in understanding Tai Chi. This infusion of healing movements with martial movements signifies Tai Chi as a unique exercise. Many people compare it to Yoga but it is quite different because of this martial aspect. I know of many people who study Tai Chi solely for martial practices but predominantly Tai Chi is a healing exercise. This is especially the case in the US, where so many combative styles are promoted. Tai Chi has a comparative advantage in that it offers a mindfulness Qi-based exercise. The next post will explore Tai Chi’s involvement in Health Promotion Monday, January 17, 2011 The History of Tai Chi and Health-Part I: Tai Chi and Traditional Chinese Medicine This series of blog posts will be in 5 parts. Hopefully providing a broad and in-depth picture of Tai Chi. For the first installment of The History of Tai Chi, we must explore its connection to traditional Chinese medicine or TCM. Tai Chi is part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), both of which are indigenous practices from China. Because these holistic approaches are rooted in a time when doctors did not have today’s powerful medical and technological tools at their disposal, physicians tended to treat the whole person and the environment around them (Cohen, 1997; Kaptchuk, 2000). TCM, born thousands of years ago, epitomizes this approach (Hong, 2004; Kaptchuk, 2000). Health systems of that era were radically different from today, with no medical technology to speak of; secondary and tertiary prevention was not as efficient or effective. Consequently, people who lived prior to the advent of modern medicine had to be resourceful and devise systems of primary prevention, which were essential for survival. At the basis of the TCM system stands Qi, which is often translated as a fundamental form of vital energy that animates all living things (Yang, 2009). Some scholars explain Qi’s place in Chinese thought as “a formless ‘reality,’ which, though not graspable by the senses, is immanent in all things” (Xu, 2010, p. 967). This belief in Qi is also essential to Tai Chi, which shares many principles with TCM and has been integrated into the TCM system. Both Tai Chi and TCM are rooted in the Chinese philosophy called Taoism, which is based on intense observations of patterns in nature, such as the movement of water, wind, and rocks. Early Taoists developed treatises on longevity, hygiene, and immortality, and these ideas fuel much of Chinese culture. Feng Shui, dietetics, martial arts, painting, and TCM all use the same paradigm or explanatory model of how the universe works (Kaptchuk, 2000; Kohn, 1993; March, 1968). The individual is but a microcosm of the universe, and to achieve harmony or happiness, one should align himself or herself with Qi to stay in harmony with the melding of energy and matter (Kaptchuk, 2000). If an individual becomes un-aligned or a blockage occurs, then disharmony can fester and “dis-ease” or disease will result (Yang, 2009). Taoism is represented graphically by the icon known in the west as the “yin-yang” symbol, which illustrates a balanced interrelationship of opposites—for example, night and day, and hot and cold, etc. (Frank, 2003; Kaptchuk, 2000). Embedded in its Taoist roots, Tai Chi literally means “grand ultimate point,” (Yang, 2008) the point of balance in the yin-yang. The oldest known writing that discusses yin-yang theory is the “I Ching,” or “The Book of Changes,” which describes the natural ebb and flow of energy in the universe and how that effects change, written during the Bronze Age, 1100 B.C. (Hong, 2004) (Yang, 2010). Tai Chi’s main aim, to harmonize or align oneself with Qi, was summed up by the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu in the 4th century B.C.: “Set your body straight, see everything as one, and natural harmony will be with you“ (Lan, 2002, p.217). Next post will explore the beginnings of Tai Chi. Thursday, January 13, 2011 Alton Brown and the Science Behind Salt For a few years in late 1990’s, I worked in a kitchen gadget store in Seattle. We made many product recommendations to our customers, and of all the celebrity chefs we touted, Alton Brown received the highest ratings. Unfortunately, he chose to use his celebrity status and reputation against the public health campaign for salt reduction. Alton Brown is a successful author, television show chef, and TV show presenter who writes and produces many cooking shows on the Food Network. Brown’s main show, “Good Eats,” presents him as a culinary expert, and his television work has made him a very influential person in the food industry. That is why I was shocked and disappointed to see Brown adding his unique touch of comedy and science to the promotion of salt, sponsored by Cargill, a multinational corporation that produces salt and other food products. Cargill and many others in the processed food industry have been battling public health and its salt reduction campaigns since the 1970’s Cargill’s latest crusade to promote salt includes an interactive website dedicated to Brown’s pitch: The website features Brown as a tour guide/lecturer at Salt 101 Labs. In an extremely formal environment that screams power, he spouts about 10 facts about salt, such as “salt is goood!” “salt is a necessary component to the natural functioning of cells,” “sodium chloride, NaCl, is a compound all humans need to survive,” and “whoever controls salt is in power, and in my home it is me; I control the salt.” The message is clear, salt is not only tasty, but it is also good for you, life sustaining, and powerful. There are also interactive games where, for example, you can move Brown’s arm to season a meal with salt. After viewing the intro, the user can click to enter the “lab” or the “kitchen.” Both links present authoritative information about salt with a bias towards using more. Brown is in his element explaining technical details to viewers. He excels at explaining the science of food, such as human taste, the chemical make-up of salt, and why it is so effective at enhancing flavor. The scientific facts sound reasonable and non-controversial, and it is unlikely there are factual errors in the science Brown presents. The real problem with the videos is not inaccuracies in scientific reporting but what information is omitted. In fact, there is only one potentially negative comment about salt: putting salt on snails will kill them because they are mostly made of water. The one potentially redeemable aspect of the video is that they do recommend sea salt—Diamond Crystal sea salt to be precise—because sea salt has less sodium than regular salt. But this is still without much value because of the excessive promotion of adding salt to food. While it is true that salt is necessary for sustaining life, the missing pieces of information are that humans only need a tiny amount (1,200 to 1,500 milligrams per day) and that excess salt consumption (above 2,300 mg per day) is strongly associated with serious health risks like hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and stomach cancer Cardiovascular disease is the number-one killer globally, and hypertension is one of the strongest predictors of CVD mortality. Brown’s salt industry presentation does damage to the health initiatives trying to reduce mortality. There is no doubt that we as humans have cultivated a salt craving. Much of the world’s population consumes salt in quantities of greater than 6,000 milligrams per day, with Eastern European and Asian countries averaging higher than 12,000 milligrams per day. In 2004, the average Canadian daily salt consumption was 7,800 milligrams. Observational studies going back to the 60’s, conducted on indigenous peoples where salt consumption is low have shown that hypertension, the leading cause of CVD mortality, is extremely low there as well, making them a low-risk population. These groups of people had salt intake levels hovering around 1,000 milligrams per day. Companies like Cargill make their money by “adding value” to food, which means they process it for the consumer. Processed foods account for 70% of the salt in the Canadian diet. For example, the label on a pack of Oreo cookies states that one serving (three cookies) has 160mg of sodium, which is 1/14th of the maximum recommended amount. To further encourage people to put additional salt on chocolate covered cookies and ice cream—a recipe proposed by Brown in the video--is nothing short of dangerous to public health. Such companies have an incentive to promote salt content in foods, and consumers have built a taste for it. The taste for salt can be reduced, but it can be difficult to change, so any doubt cast on the evidence or authoritative messages proclaiming that salt sustains life make it that much harder for public health practitioners to protect consumers. The exact pathogenesis of salt is not known, and that leads to the doubt exploited by industry. That is why an etiological understanding of salt’s effect in humans is an important step in regulating the processed food industry. Thus far, the most accepted explanation is that excess sodium in the human system can lead to decreased sodium excretion and water retention. This increases plasma volume and increases vascular tone and contractility, which increases blood pressure, resulting in hypertension. The Salt 101 video portrays salt as healthful, nourishing, and empowering. By combining Brown’s comedic genius with the persuasive potential of social media, Cargill seduces viewers to ignore those charged with protecting the public health. (References available upon request)
20 Science Questions Answered Shawn Otto, a member of a science oriented organization, sciencedebate.org, has written twenty questions regarding scientific topics that affect our nation’s future and the organization sent the list to the four main Presidential candidates with the request that the candidates complete the questions as few scientific topics were discussed in the debates so far. I’ll give it a go: 1. Remaining at the front of innovation is traditional for American values and essential for meeting the challenges of our changing climate, growing population and limited natural resources. Working towards shifting fossil fuel subsidies to renewable energy would support innovative research while helping reduce our carbon footprint and protect the future’s climate. Reducing college loan interest rates would help more students afford a university education. Funding career guidance programs to help guide students towards careers with more need for employees could also help guide them into fields with rapid innovation. Modifying immigration rules for specialized VISA workers could help promote hiring more U.S. citizens for STEM jobs instead of favoring lower paid H-1B VISA workers. [1] • [more education and less poverty has been associated with more individuals working creatively in artistic endeavors, 15] 2. Research and the investment in long-term research projects is essential for driving innovation. The infrastructure of the future will be built in the next few decades. Developing energy efficient solutions for the needs of the future is a priority for funding in addition to renewable energy development. Research into more sustainable and potentially healthier farming techniques is a priority because it impacts the health of citizens and the environment. Funding research to assess hazards of chemicals suspected to be harming the environment or individual health is also a priority. It is easier to not add toxins to the environment then it is to remove them once they have contaminated an area. Funding research into better hazardous waste containment or processing methods is also a priority. To have a safe future we need to protect the present and start building a safer future now. 3. Climate change is not only real but has been occurring at more rapid rates than expected. Worse storms and flooding and wild fires have been occurring. The next administration needs to make climate change part of every policy decision because it will impact most areas of life. Zoning and building permits should consider flood and fire risks and make changes based on the climate change predictions. Relocating groups of people from some areas into more weather friendly areas could be done gradually over time, before severe weather events occur, but it would take community support too. It might seem like an odd idea but building underground in hotter climates could provide air conditioned living arrangements for less cost to the environment. The future is going to be hotter, deadly hot in some areas, and having air conditioned living spaces will be required to protect health and life for the more fragile, sick, young, and elderly. Underground it is always about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, maximizing use of geothermal energy where the ground allows also is sensible. Investing in flood friendly housing and business development is a point on my platform. The future will be different so planning and building accordingly will help create jobs now and a safer future for our grandchildren later. Fossil fuel subsidies need to end or be modified so the company can only use the money for changing their company into a new renewable energy focused business and shutting down fossil fuel production and facilities safely or for hazardous waste storage and site clean up. I would need to study the topic of carbon taxing more before having an opinion on the value of that strategy for protecting the climate. 4. Biodiversity is associated with healthier species in the ecosystem. Healthier wildlife helps reduce risk of human infection from insect or animal borne diseases. Funding research into the long term risks and benefits of the agricultural herbicides and pesticides and other industrial chemicals in use would help identify which are too damaging for long term use and should be banned and/or identify ways to use them in smaller, safer amounts. Funding research into the risk of genetically modified genes spreading to weeds and how to reduce that problem from occurring needs to be done for the safety of the future environment. It is an ethical question, we are designing and patenting new forms of life in ways that are not possible with normal plant hybridization techniques. Funding a jobs program for teams to provide the hands on labor necessary to clear invasive plants and animals manually instead of with applications of harsh chemicals would support the economy in the present and help protect biodiversity into the future. 5. The security of the internet for individuals and the government is a priority that will only increase in importance as more devices and buildings become connected and therefore at risk for being hacked for information or for control of the device or building system. If a hacker can control a city’s street lights, water purification facilities, or voting machines, or a car’s steering controls then the hacker could feasibly create chaos and harm and possibly affect election results. Investing in continuing research and development in the area of cybersecurity is essential to remain ahead of the innovation curve in the world of hacking. Hiring white hat hackers to test systems for vulnerabilities is also an area worth continued funding into the future. As more medical records and medical equipment sensors are going online, cybersecurity has to be there in place first, and needs to be maintained by experts on a regular basis – which requires regulations to be in place for any businesses, or government agencies, which collect and store personal data. 6. Mental illness is very personally debilitating and economically also, at approximately $300 billion per year for the American public (per the National Institute of Mental Health’s estimate, information provided in the question). My platform for effective health care suggests a preventative whole health focused approach that would look for the underlying dysfunction and work to teach lifestyle changes to restore function and prevent the dysfunction from returning. Many mental illness symptoms can be related to a variety of nutrient deficiencies or imbalances. Studies or treatments that focus on one nutrient at a time are rarely going to be found helpful if the problem involves several nutrient deficiencies. Genetic differences that cause metabolic susceptibility for nutrient deficiencies to occur may also be an underlying cause. Some people may need high dose supplements of certain nutrients because their body is genetically unable to produce the needed chemical (nutrients are considered essential when all people need them because humans can’t produce the chemical and other chemicals are considered essential for certain populations such as the elderly when normal production of complex chemicals slows down or stops. Funding residential facilities for younger ages is also a need as more young people with autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders become adults with limited abilities to live on their own. Residential facilities for the elderly are not a good fit for younger residents as activities would be designed for the older residents abilities and interests. Prisons should not be the primary provider for those with mental illness in the U.S, not if we want to consider the nation fair and just. Prescription medications in use for mental illness need to be assessed for suicide and homicide risks in adults, teens, and children, and funding for research into more effective, and safer therapies should be a priority. Children and teens in foster care and on Medicaid need to be protected from the risks of their being forcibly over-medicated with potentially lethal prescriptions that can also cause significant weight gain, diabetes, and other negative health changes, which can sometimes be permanent. Funding research into the prevention of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders prenatally is also a priority. It would be much cheaper in human and economic costs to simply prevent the mental illness from occurring in the first place. 7. The energy portfolio of the U.S. does have significant impact on the economy and environment and foreign policy. Working towards energy independence is a goal affecting foreign policy, using fracking as the primary method however may be harming the environment. Making renewable wind, solar, and geothermal energy projects a priority and ending or changing fossil fuel subsidies to support a company’s transition into a renewable energy industry would be part of my energy strategy for the nation over the next four to eight years. Funding research into safer ways to store nuclear waste is a need as there is leaking barrels of hazardous waste waiting to be cleaned up, and use of thorium as an alternate nuclear source might be a cleaner source of nuclear energy for the future, but is still in research phases . 8. The ranking of American students in science and math performance has fallen compared to other nations. My administration would work towards assuring that all students including female and minority students have an equal opportunity to learn STEM topics by promoting a basic curriculum for all public undergraduate schools and charter or private undergraduate schools. All children should have an equal opportunity to learn what is considered to be standard information in science and technology. An equal opportunity however does not mean that all children will do equally well in the same areas of study. Students should be allowed to fail if that is their skill set and they should be guided towards classes that they can pass. And if that is just a basic life skills curriculum then they would at least have gained skills in caring for themselves and might not have also gained a sense of worthlessness and feeling a failure due to being pushed to pass tests and a curriculum they weren’t capable of passing. Other children who could read ahead of the class should be encouraged to do independent studies and advance their learning instead of having to fit in with the standardized testing goals. Homogenizing our students into average test takers has helped bring up the grades of the middle group but may be encouraging students who are struggling to pass to just drop out instead and it may be holding back the more gifted students who have to pretend to pay attention in a class that is paced too slowly for their learning needs. 9. Maintaining the public health system is just as important as improving it. Funding for preventative health care needs to be protected as mandates possibly rather than having to be put to vote periodically. My effective health care goals include expanding preventative health care education with group and individualized services. Research on the cost efficiency of preventative health care services in the past has found that money spent on preventative health guidance tends to save more money in acute care health care spending than the cost of the preventative care. Research into the effects of glyphosate on soil bacteria is needed as the herbicide was originally patented as an antibiotic and as it is being used in more areas it may be adding to the development of antibiotic resistant pathogens. Funding for research into more environmentally safe sanitizing products and use of pathogen resistant microbiome friendly cleansers is also a priority. Positive microbes cover surfaces in small amounts and can help protect against more dangerous ones. Providing fluoride treatments topically for children might be safer for the health of individuals across the lifespan and for the environment. Water fluoridation is an old policy that needs to be reevaluated. Vaccinations are important but the safety of all of the ingredients needs to be evaluated and an adverse reaction board needs to be in place that is responsive to all patients and others reporting an adverse reaction. Calcium chloride as an adjuvant in place of aluminum adjuvants should be considered as a safer replacement. Vaccinations have caused encephalitis which can then lead to symptoms similar to autism. Individualized nutrition guidance based on genetic structure could help prevent chronic illness and mental illness and help protect infants’ prenatal development and reduce the number of children who develop autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders. Nutrient deficiencies can leave the infant and mother less protected against developing autoimmune disease and less able to detoxify environmental toxins. 10. Without water there is no life. Ensuring access to safe clean water is a challenge that will continue to become more challenging as climate change increases the risk of uneven rainfall with increased risk of droughts and flooding. Evaluating and copying best practices from successful communities could help ensure access to safe water for more people. Preserving water with improved farming methods and regulating where farming can occur is already becoming more critical in areas of California as the drought there has continued for more than one growing season. Water intensive crops should not be grown in areas with limited water. Storage tanks for collecting rain water has helped some California growers get through times with less rainfall. Rainfall storage tanks could help communities and other businesses too. Bottled water companies need to be charged a business price for units of water taken from community water supplies as it is not standard residential or business use of the community resource. Funding for research and development of energy efficient water purifiers and desalinization units is also a priority as we look into a warmer future with more people needing to eat, drink, and bathe. In the present rehabilitation of aging water infrastructure could provide a few jobs and boost the current economy and help protect the future from following in the footsteps of Rome (the lead lined water pipes may have added to population wide ill health and the collapse of the civilization). 11. Nuclear power does not add to greenhouse gases but security of the hazardous waste is important from an environmental and military aspect. Thorium is an alternate fuel for nuclear power that might produce less hazardous waste and less radioactive material capable of being used in a weapon however technical difficulties with the process are still being addressed. The current nuclear power plants and nuclear waste sites already in existence are risks for radiation leaking. Health information from Chernobyl suggests that the risks of radiation poisoning are less of a risk over the long term than originally feared but are a health concern during the acute exposure phase of a nuclear incident. Thyroid cancer is a risk that can be reduced if adequate iodine is available within the body or during the acute phase of the nuclear radiation incident. Being iodine sufficient prior to a nuclear incident provides the most protection to the thyroid from the risks of radioactive iodine collecting in the organ. Ensuring iodine sufficiency for American citizens could help protect them in the unlikely event of a nuclear incident and could also help protect their health on a daily basis from the more common risks of hypothyroidism, obesity, depression, Type II diabetes, [2], breast and prostate cancer, having a child with autism, and other chronic health issues (iodine is really important throughout the body but is found in more quantity in the thyroid, pancreas, mammary and prostate glands, and other endocrine tissue). Advances in computer technology and environmental sensors should make the design of radiation monitoring equipment easy. The sensors would be placed in areas downwind of nuclear sites and readings would be sent to the internet and to a warning light, buzzer, or human whose job would be to monitor the sensor readings for any increase in radiation levels. 12. Agriculture needs to be returned to the small farmer and having patents on seeds needs to be a luxury that is a choice for a few farmers rather than an industry monopoly. Farmers have saved seeds from last year’s harvest to plant for next year’s crop for thousands of years. It is not traditional to patent seeds and require them to be purchased each growing season. Regulations need to protect individual farmers not just corporations who produce agribusiness products. The agribusiness products need to be evaluated for their long term impact on human and ecosystem health. If the business is in the business of producing food then the food ideally should be nourishment for humans and animals rather than being a substance that is adding to chronic illness risks. Soil health also needs to be monitored and protected and sensors are being developed with internet connections capable of sensing nitrogen levels for more precise application of fertilizers (excess fertilizers can cause more acidic wastes to runoff into the ocean). Agriculture industry workers are the ones most at risk for acute illness due to exposure to industrial chemicals. Should our food be raised in an environment that places it’s workers at acute risk of chemical injury? Or could our food be raised in more labor intensive but environmentally safe ways that create jobs? Farm subsidies need to be stopped or shifted to support more labor intensive vegetables and fruits rather than supporting big business commodity crops. A tax code with incentives for hiring more employees instead of supporting capital investments and depreciation of capital expenses could help the small organic farmer. Interplanting a few types of crops together can help reduce harmful weeds and pests without needing as many chemicals but the method is not possible with large scale planting or harvesting equipment. A mixture of large and small agribusinesses is likely needed for a future with an expanded population. Foraging animals can be raised in areas with soil that can’t support crops. Studies into viable diets for a larger population suggest that an omnivore diet with less meat than currently is common would be more sustainable than an all vegetarian diet because of the areas that could support foraging animals but not crops. Research and development of algae crops for human and animal consumption and other alternative protein sources (aka insects and cultured proteins) needs to continue as ocean health and fish industries may be adversely affected by climate change sooner than predicted. 13. Global threats that can cross international borders such as pandemic disease and climate change effects need to be met cooperatively by working with other nations, large corporations, and international non-profit organizations. Peace is more likely when a nation has enough food and water for its citizens. Rioting and civil war has occurred after drought conditions affected crops negatively. Pandemic disease is also more likely to occur in a population who is under-nourished and where there is inadequate sanitation facilities (running water and bathrooms). Helping nations improve infrastructure that supports sanitation facilities and agriculture may also be helping prevent pandemics and civil disturbances. Helping developing nations build infrastructure that is efficient and based on renewable energy could help reduce the carbon footprint of the developing nation and help prevent more severe climate change from occurring in the future. We only have one planet, if it goes down, it takes the rest of us with it (and vice versa, there’s many of us and our failures might take the planet down with us and a lot of the rest of the planet’s species too). 14. A government’s role in a society is different then that of a business. A business works to maximize its profits for its shareholders and remain in business for the sake of its customers and employees. A government needs to consider profitability, someone needs to pay the bills, but a government also needs to consider safety of the present and future and act as a steward of the land, a caretaker that is maintaining the present and building for future. Regulations for environmental standards and standards for doing business ideally need to be written in clear language with reasonable requirements that could be realistically implemented. Policies that are too stringent or are factually unrealistic need to be identified and rewritten with realistic achievable objectives. Regulations can only help protect us if they are being followed therefore they need to be well designed for effectiveness and efficiency and then jobs need to be funded for adequate numbers of inspectors to enforce the regulations. Realistic, achievable methods should be incorporated into the regulations rather than writing idealistic requirements that may be difficult or impossible for businesses to follow and which may not guarantee that the desired goal will be achieved. 15. My administration would support vaccine science by creating a stronger adverse reaction reporting system and funding research into assessing the long term health risks associated with the large number of vaccinations that are being given to American children. Fewer vaccinations given slightly later in life (not during the first six months of life when the infant’s immune system is not well developed) might be safer for children with an underlying susceptibility for autoimmune disease. Forcing all children to get vaccinations against minor illnesses may provide some herd immunity but it may also be causing encephalitis in a few susceptible children. Children with known allergies or autoimmune problems should be allowed to have their parents decline the full schedule of vaccinations. There are more than four times as many shots given to children now than children received in the 1970’s. Vaccinations are important but having good health in the first place is also important. Adequate sanitation and nutrition can help make a population less at risk to catching an infection during an epidemic. Funding for clean water infrastructure can help prevent a variety of diseases, not just the exotic ones. Funding for evaluating the use of calcium chloride as an adjuvant instead of aluminum is a priority to help protect the children with difficulty detoxifying heavy metals and possibly help prevent some children from developing neuro-developmental disorders. Between January and August of 2016 there have been 52 cases of measles reported. In 2015 there was a total of 189 cases of measles reported. [3] For perspective, not to say causal relationship but just to compare the size of the problems, in 2015 the rate of autism diagnosis was estimated to have reached 1 in 45 children. In 2012 it was 1 in 68, in 2000 it was 1 in 150. [4, 5] The 2015 rate of 1 in 45 children would suggest that roughly 448,919 of the children who were under five years old at the time of the 2010 census may have developed autism by now. [6] It is sad that 52 people had measles in 2016 so far but I find it more sad that 448, 919 children born between the year 2010 to 1996 may have gone on to develop autism spectrum disorder by now. Based on my reading of medical research the problem is related to deficiency of vitamin D or vitamin D enzymes, and deficiency of iodine, zinc, folate, magnesium, and possibly vitamin B 12 and B 6 and an excess of formaldehyde and other toxins (the herbicide glyphosate is known to inhibit vitamin D enzymes) or heavy metals such as aluminum, mercury or lead. Vaccinations are important but so is having a functioning and well nourished immune system. Excessive numbers of vaccinations may be over-activating the allergic portion of the immune system and leaving more children with allergies and more children and adults with autoimmune disorders. [7] Vaccinations are important but their use should be limited to the most dangerous diseases and allow children to get sick and recover naturally from milder illnesses such as chickenpox. The natural immunity derived from getting sick and recovering strengthens both the antigen/antibody portion of the immune system which vaccinations work to enhance and the white blood cells which are actually responsible for identifying and killing infected cells using the antigen/antibody system as a identifying label –> the antibody shows the white blood cell which are infected cells that need to be put to death by apoptosis with a little blast of energy from magnesium. 16. Space exploration and observation of the Earth from space is a priority for monitoring climate change measurements such as the melting of the glaciers and the healing of the hole in ozone caused by fluorocarbons. Space satellite information can also be helpful for monitoring other social changes and actions of groups of people. Estimates of poverty can be made based on the amount of light being produced by a community during night time hours. [8] Research and development of natural resources that might be able to be mined on the moon may become more of a priority as we move into a future with dwindling supplies of rare metals available on Earth. building communities on the moon or another planet seems unrealistic at this stage of our technological capabilities. 17. There is an opioid problem in this nation in part because there is an ineffective health care problem in this country and a food supply that may not be providing adequate amounts of specialized nutrients such as phospholipids and trace minerals such as magnesium, iodine, and selenium. Fewer people would have chronic pain if the underlying concern was identified and resolved rather than maintaining the patient on painkillers. Opioids don’t even work effectively for diabetic patients unless magnesium is given at the same time and giving the magnesium alone was also found to be an effective pain killer for diabetic patients. Recognizing that addiction can be based in genetic differences rather than ‘the moral failing of a weak-willed individual’ could also help. Adequate treatment for people with addiction problems is often not available because addiction treatment is often focused on making the patient withdraw without the medical support of a prescription that could reduce withdrawal symptoms. Treating people with addictions as someone with moral failings rather than as a person with genetic differences may not help them recover as well as admitting that the problem is physically based and is not just a mental choice. Naloxone given quickly within the time of an opioid overdose can save the patient’s life. Opioid overdoses have become more common because street drugs are being produced and sold as real opioid prescriptions but the strength of the street drug can be more potent and cause death rapidly due to overdoses. Opioids have become a gateway drug for heroin abuse. Heroin can be cheaper and easier for individuals to find on the black market than prescription pills, whether real or fake. Prescribing a dose of naloxone along with an opioid prescription has been suggested by medical doctors. [9] That wouldn’t help the people who got the too potent fake drug on the black market. Having the antidote drug, naloxone/Narcan, available in emergency vehicles and police stations has also been discussed. [10] There are genetic differences in the cannabinoid receptor system that are associated with addictions to a variety of substances including opioids and heroin. Changing the Schedule of marijuana from Schedule 1 to 3 or declassifying it altogether as a controlled substance could help reduce opioid deaths and opioid addictions. Early results from states that have approved medical marijuana have shown a reduced use of a variety of medications including prescription painkillers. [11, 12] If someone has a genetic defect that makes them unable to make phospholipids then they would be unable to make cannabinoids and would need an external source and might experience increased cravings for food, alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, or opioids, and possibly cocaine but there is less of association with that substance and genetic differences in the cannanbinoid system then for other commonly abused drugs. Is a genetic difference a sign of ‘moral failing,’ or a sign of a genetic difference and a need for individualized nutrient support? The second answer is my answer. 18. The health of the planet’s oceans is already threatened. Increased temperatures and ocean acidity is going to greatly impact fish species which are already threatened by overfishing. Scientists estimate that 90% of stocks are already fished at or beyond sustainable limits according to information provided in the question. Decades from now when the air is even warmer and the ocean is even more acidic we need to have already developed algae and other alternative protein sources because replenishing the numbers of over fished species may not be possible in the hotter more acidic ocean. Reducing our cumulative human carbon footprint would help protect the ocean from temperatures and acidity reaching even more elevated levels. Reducing the amount of acidic fertilizers used on farms and other landscapes would also help reduce the amount of acidic wastes washing off into the ocean or groundwater. Reducing the use of hydraulic fracturing methods could help reduce toxins from leaching into the ground water and reduce the amount of methane being allowed to inadvertently escape into the atmosphere. Regulations regarding which species of fish allowed to be caught and how many are necessary to help support the rebound of the species that have been more depleted. The bleaching of coral reefs is temperature related but acidity is also involved so modifying our use of acidic fertilizers might help reduce their impact on coastal regions of the ocean. Limiting activity in coral reef areas has helped some recover. Oil spills and heavy metals and other toxins and destructive fishing practices are all harmful to coral reefs. The ocean is like our life blood and like our kidneys for detoxifying the planet’s air and water supplies, what is harmful to us can be harmful to it. [13] Cleaning up the giant floating island of garbage is a priority — humans caused that, we can’t deny that fact, so we should accept our responsibility for cleaning it up. 19. The immigration regulations regarding H-1B Visas needs to be modified to reflect more accurate wages. Businesses are able to hire non-citizen university graduates for a $60,000 per year salary when they have a H-1B Visa. Citizens with a similar degree in this decade would expect a far larger starting salary so the H-1B Visa program requirements have not kept up with modern salaries and may be reducing the number of skilled jobs available to U.S. citizens. A minimal change would be to modify the language of the H-1B Visa to reflect standard starting salaries for technological jobs. Restricting immigration and deporting university student immigrants does not help innovation. Immigrant scholars help keep the U.S. at the edge of advances in technology. [14] A balance needs to be maintained between encouraging academic studies and employment opportunities for both citizens and immigrants. 20. My administration would help foster a culture of scientific transparency and accountability in government by encouraging and protecting employees who try to report concerns about questionable research or business practices (protect whistle blowers). Strengthening the adverse drug and vaccination reporting system would also help improve accountability of the FDA and pharmaceutical industries. Devising ways to use blockchain technology in clinical drug trials and other research studies could help make the data on which research is based more transparent, and less able to be modified or dropped from a study if the results didn’t match the desired goal of the company who provided funding for the study. Environmental and other business regulations would be based on best practices of the industry that had previously been found to work, in combination with recommendations from environmental scientists regarding unsafe chemicals or other issues needing limits or environmentally safe techniques. As pop quizzes go, that was an eight hour brain buster of a pop quiz. 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/us/large-companies-game-h-1b-visa-program-leaving-smaller-ones-in-the-cold.html?_r=0 2. http://www.worldhealth.net/forum/thread/99044/low-iodine-found-in-diabetics/?page=1 3. http://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html 4. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015/11/13/cdc-child-autism-rate-now-1-in-45-after-survey-method-changes 5. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html 7. Ken Tsumiyama, Yumi Miyazaki, Shunichi Shiozawa, Self-Organized Criticality Theory of Autoimmunity, (PLoS ONE 4(12): e8382. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008382, Dec 12, 2009) http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0008382 8. Charlotta Mellander, et. al., Night-Time Light Data: A Good Proxy Measure for Economic Activity?, PLoS One. 2015; 10(10): e0139779. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4619681/ 9. Pauline Anderson, Naloxone Prescribed With Every Opioid? , (March 7, 2016) Medscape.com, http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/859993 10. Brad Avery, The Cost of an Overdose, (May 21, 2016, Metrowest Daily News) http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/20160521/cost-of-overdose 11. http://www.newsweek.com/states-medical-marijuana-painkiller-deaths-drop-25-266577 12. http://www.natural.news/2016-01-27-opioid-related-deaths-decrease-by-25-percent-in-states-with-medical-marijuana-program.html 13. http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/resources/res_pdfs/ga-66/inputs/vietnam.pdf 14. Xueying Han, Will They Stay or Will They Go? International Graduate Students and Their Decisions to Stay or Leave the U.S. upon Graduation, PLoS One. 2015; 10(3): e0118183. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4356591/ 15. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/09/05/the-stunning-geographic-divide-in-american-creativity/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_wonkblog-creativity-815pm:homepage/story 20 Science Questions for the Presidential Candidates Answers are due by September 6th so the other candidates have a week yet to respond.
Spices have been a privilege of the rich in the past. Over time, spices became available to the rest of the population and some kind of them became key symbols of individual national cuisines. Spice trade during the last thousand years has greatly affected the mainstreaming of human civilization. Spices, in addition to gold and silk, were the subject of trade between East and West. They have influenced at discovering the oversea trips. They were the cause of the rise and fall of kingdoms, domination of the Spanish and the Portuguese world trade, but also the Dutch and the English. Most of the spices that are still used in the world, except exotic ones from the Orient, China and India, originated from Europe, mostly from the Mediterranean and southeastern parts of the continent. Spices had, in the middle but also at the beginning of the new century, an important economic and political role as oil today. Spice trade, especially those from Asia, was a very lucrative business; it contributed to the great wealth of mostly Arab states, and then the Italian city-states and colonial forces. Different nations use diferent spices. Nutrition of certain nations can not be imagined without the use of aromatic and hot spices, while their use in other nations is minimized. Spices give dishes a full and intense flavor and some beautify and ennoble the most ordinary dish with their color and appearance. A complete gastronomic pleasure but also certain healing effects can be achieved with proper selection of spices. Spices can be used in the daily diet for relief of health problems, especially for chronic diseases. Some spices have strong biological effects on the body and a knowledge of correspond-dose and frequency of application is essential, taking into account their possible therapeutic and toxic effects. Spices can positively affect the physical condition; some of them may intensify the blood circulation and warm up the body, some of them with their pleasant smell have an uplifting effect and some of them have a soothing effect on specific organs and nervous system.
Quebec's Quiet Revolution: What Is It? How Has It Changed Quebec's so Only available on StudyMode • Download(s) : 207 • Published : October 8, 1999 Open Document Text Preview Quebec's Quiet Revolution: What Is It? How Has It Changed Quebec's Society? How Has It Affected Confederation? The English-French relations have not always been easy. Each is always arguing and accusing the other of wrong doings. All this hatred and differences started in the past, and this Quiet revolution, right after a new Liberal government led by Jean Lesage came in 1960. Thus was the beginning of the Quiet Revolution. Lesage had an excellent team of cabinet ministers which included Rene Levesque. The Liberals promised to do two things during the Quiet Revolution; one was to improve economic and social standards for the people of Quebec, and the other was to win greater respect and recognition for all the French people of Canada. The Liberals started a program to take control of hydro-electric power companies. French-Canadian engineers from all over Canada returned to Quebec to work on the project. Slogans during these times were "we can do it" and "masters in our own homes". The government also started to replace programs the Church previously ran, which included hospital insurance, pension schemes and the beginning of Medi-Care. For these programs, the Quebec Liberals had to struggle with Ottawa for a larger share of the tax dollars. One of the greatest reforms was the modernization of the entire school system. The Church used to own the schools of Quebec. Most of the teachers were Priests, Nuns and Brothers. They provided a good education but Quebec needed more in business and technology. Lesage wanted a government-run school system that would provide Quebec with people in engineering, science, business and commerce. With the new freedom of expression, lots of books, plays and music about French culture were all developed in Quebec. French contemporary playwrights were very famous during that time. However, not all was going well in Quebec. The French-English relation was going bad. Many studies showed that French-... tracking img
Create a new file at the command line As far as I know, Windows lacks a utility like Unix’s touch to create a new empty file from the command line. However, you can use the copy utility to perform the same function, by copying from the NUL device to a new file : copy NUL EmptyFile.txt This should produce output indicating success: 1 file(s) copied. You can confirm the file now exists and is empty by inspecting the output of the dir utility. Use the following command to inspect the file: dir EmptyFile.txt The output confirms that the file was recently created (relative to the time of writing), and that it is zero bytes long: Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 9ACB-79DF Directory of C:UsersSco 01/07/2012 20:43 0 EmptyFile.txt 1 File(s) 0 bytes 0 Dir(s) 32,823,578,624 bytes free Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
From Dr. Mercola: Talking to strangers in the store, in your neighborhood or on your daily commute is often a challenge. Most of us grew up hearing our parents say we shouldn’t speak to strangers. This is an essential part of keeping your children safe, but it tends to isolate us as adults. Research demonstrates that face-to-face communication integrates non-verbal cues and involves better turn-taking behaviors, pivotal during social interactions. Unfortunately, our digital age isolates people. Even your social media accounts curate information so it doesn’t challenge your world view or expand your horizons. Self-proclaimed stranger enthusiast and author Kio Stark talks about how this lack of communication between strangers has evolved over time. In her popular book, “When Strangers Meet: How People You Don’t Know Can Transform You,” she identifies some of the social obstacles around talking to strangers, the benefits and a plan you can use to improve your opportunities. At Some Point, Everyone Is a Stranger In this short video, reporter for The Atlantic, Dr. James Hamblin, interviews Stark and demonstrates her techniques for learning how to talk with strangers. The reality is that at some point or another, everyone is a stranger. It isn’t until you start a conversation and get to know another person that you call them an acquaintance, and still more conversations later before they become a friend. However, talking to strangers is one of the more important things you can learn to do as an adult. Talking to strangers builds bridges between ordinary people who may not otherwise forge a connection. People of the opposite gender, different walks of life or different cultures hold a key to opening up to new ideas or making connections with old ones. As a child you may have been nervous around strangers as they represented a certain degree of danger. But, as an adult, … Continue Reading
The northern boundary between the Nubian (West African) and Somalian (East African) plates is marked by the existence of the East African Rift, which is the locus of roughly east-west stretching due to the separation of these plates. South of ∼20°S, any expression of deformation or seismicity due to the relative motion of these two presumably distinct plates vanishes or is extremely subtle, although the boundary must continue until it intersects another plate boundary. Until recently, there were no observational limits on the location of that intersection, and the recent limits were very broad, being thousands of kilometers wide. Here, from an analysis of the locations of the old edge of magnetic anomaly 5 (which is over 11 Ma seafloor), we show that the main locus of deformation between Nubia and Somalia near the Southwest Indian Ridge over the past 11 m.y. can be no wider than a few hundred kilometers, from ∼100 km west of the Du Toit Fracture Zone to ∼50 km east of the Andrew Bain Fracture Zone complex. Deformation is most likely concentrated along a closely spaced set of several fracture zones known collectively as the Andrew Bain Fracture Zone complex, which is only ∼100 km wide. The displacement along the Nubia-Somalia boundary over the past 11 m.y. is 23 km ± 6 km (95% confidence limits), indicating a displacement rate of 2 mm/yr, much slower than typical rates of seafloor spreading and subduction, but comparable to that along the Owen fracture zone and Dalrymple trough, which separate the Arabian plate from the Indian plate, and along the Azores-Gibraltar line, which separates the Eurasian plate from the Nubian plate. You do not currently have access to this article.
posted by . Is this an example of geo-politics. How would I summarize this because their is so many main points? Countries like Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa can enjoy thriving export sectors in fruit, wine, cereals, oils, and salmon thanks to the technologies developed for these prducts in temperate zones in the Northern Hempisphere. But the the tropical countries with their production of coffee, cocoa, sugar cane are left out of the modern technology club. The result is that the agricultural sector is much less dynamic in tropical areas than in temperate zones. Since unproductive agricultural workers can produce little more then what they require for personal subsistence rural areas remain sparsely populated have small poor markets and uffer from high transportation costs- which all hamper economic growth. • Geography - I'm not sure this is a political article. It's a geoeconomic story. • Geography - The defintion that I was given for geo-politics sates: the relationship between a country's geographic characteristics and conflict with other nations. • Geography - Where's the conflict? Respond to this Question First Name School Subject Your Answer Similar Questions 1. managerial economics BigBook is a monopolist book publishing company, which sells books in Australia and New Zealand. Assume there is a 1:1 exchange rate between Australia and New Zealand. The inverse demand equations for Australia and New Zealand are … 2. world geography what do australia and new zealand must import? 3. Business Choose one of the newly industrializing countries mentioned in the text (p. 102 International Business).The countries are Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Israel, and the United States. The term developing is … 4. geography The country in this region that is formed by two main islands is New Zealand Australia China Micronesia 5. World Geo which of the following natural hazards is not common to new zealand ability to produce goods in sufficient numbers to reduce the unit cost the first people to settle in new zealand wheat is australias most important export australia … 6. World Geo which country does not have territories in the pacific? 7. geography are Chile, Argentina, and Brazil the only countries that share a border with Bolivia and Paraguay? 8. 7th Grade Language Arts URRGEENT!!!! What was the first South American nation to receive independence? 9. Geography (Ms. Sue) 1). Which countries besides Spain sent settlers to South America? 10. Geography True or false ? - Australia's most important rivers the Murray and the darling flow across a vast plain that contains fertile farmland - New Zealand is made up of one major island with highlands,forests,lakes,and rugged mountains . More Similar Questions
The Prison Dog Project transforms the lives of many people February 14, 10:09 PM · The Prison Dog Project touches many lives The Prison Dog Project is a program that brings dogs with unsocial characteristics that render them inadaptable into correctional facilities to be trained by inmates. Started in 1981 by Dominican nun Sister Pauline Quinn, the program has been adopted throughout and outside the U.S. One of the reasons the program has been successful is it transforms the lives of many people and animals at once. It touches the lives of prison inmates and guards, people with disabilities, society as a whole and the dogs. Animals form a natural bridge between people that has affected the relationships between prison guards and inmates, inmates and the public and people with disabilities and society. Animals, especially dogs, break the ice and foster communication and connection. In the project, prisoners are responsible for the care and training of dogs to be good citizens or for service for training schools, people with disabilities or law enforcement. Prisoners learn skills such as dog training and grooming and earn money providing services to private dog owners. This income is used to train service dogs that go to people with disabilities free of charge. Some inmates become so expert that potential employers want to hire them upon release. The presence of dogs in prison has had therapeutic effects relieving tensions and reducing violence. The relationship between prison guards and prisoners is improved. The unconditional love from dogs has helped prisoners access long buried feelings and armored hearts. Prisoners speak of the reward of knowing they’re preparing the dog so it can pass its restorative effect on to a future owner. Prisoners get in touch with a sense of meaning and purpose doing something that regenerates them while also helping others. The Prison Dog Project decreases the waiting list for assistance dogs and helps people with disabilities get dogs faster, opening up accessibility and social contact. The dogs also help society connect with the disability community. The project helps society by redeeming and rehabilitating prisoners enabling them to become happier, healthier members of society. The prisoners learn or reclaim responsibility, tolerance, patience and other qualities beneficial to society. The project saves the lives of dogs that would otherwise be euthanized. They are given a second chance by being trained to be good citizens or for service and returned to society. The Prison Dog Project relies primarily on donations and supplies from the public in order to continue and expand. Newer Posts Older Posts Home
Thursday, October 9, 2008 The Sack of Cashel, September 1647 The Munster Mutiny On the 12th of June in 1647, Donough MacCarthy, the Viscount of Muskerry entered the camp of the Irish Confederate Munster army. The Viscount Muskerry was probably the most powerful Confederate leader in Munster and was known to be sympathetic to the powerful Irish Royalist Ormonde. At that time, the Munster army was commanded by Glamorgan, an English Catholic nobleman who had been granted command of the army by the Confederate Supreme council for reasons of political expediency. Glamorgan was not popular, partly because he was English but also because he lacked money to regularly pay the soldiers. Muskerry was unsatisfied with the direction the Irish Confederate Supreme Council was headed under the influence of Rinuccinni and realised that he was in a position to influence the army of Munster and thereby strengthen his hand. He won the army over within an hour. A ceremony was afterwards arranged in which Glamorgan handed over command to Muskerry but this was merely to save face. Muskerry desired to turn his full attention to the politics of the Irish Confederations supreme council, and so immediately after the ceremony, Muskerry resigned in favour of Theobald Taaffe, a nobleman who had joined the Irish Confederates but who was known to be sympathetic to Royalism. Unfortunately for the Confederates, Lord Taaffe would subsequently prove to be one of the more incompetent leaders to command an Irish army during the 1640s. Inchiquin's Offensive In April 1647 Murrough O'Brien, the Protestant Baron of Inchiquin replaced Philip Sydney, Lord Lisle as the Parliamentarian Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland as Sydney's one year appointment had by then expired. Because of his Gaelic background O'Brien was not trusted by many Parliamentarians, not least by Lord Lisle, however the latter had achieved little in his time as Lord-Lieutenant and as a result Inchiquin did not need to deal with any serious opposition by the English Parliament. O'Brien immediately embarked upon a vigorous summer offensive, rapidly capturing Dromana, Cappoquin and Dungarvan in County Waterford to the east. Raiding parties were dispatched northwards against the counties of Limerick and Clare, and Inchiquin next turned his attention to the bountiful County of Tipperary in central Munster. In early September, his forces quickly took the Castle of Cahir. This strong Tipperary castle was well positioned to become a base for the Cork Protestant army, and it was used to raid and devastate the surrounding countryside. The Munster army under Lord Taaffe did not make any serious effort to oppose Inchiquin, probably the result of the political scheming of Muskerry and other powerful Irish lords who hoped to keep the Munster army intact for their own ends. As such, Inchiquin was allowed to make a furthur push eastwards towards the town and ecclesiastical centre of Cashel. The Attack Inchiquin had already launched two minor raids against Cashel, and he now had the opportunity to launch a major assault. The Parliamentarian forces first stormed nearby Roche Castle, putting fifty warders to the sword. This attack terrified the local inhabitants of the region, some of whom fled to hiding places, while hundreds of others fled promptly to the rock of Cashel, a stronger place than the town itself. Lord Taaffe had placed six companies in the fortified churchyard that sat upon the rock, and considered the place defensible, though he did himself did not stay to put it to the test, leaving command to the Governor Lieutenant-Colonel Butler. The losses amongst the Parliamentarian soldiers were light. One contemporary states that as few as eight Parliamentarians were killed in the attack, apart from another hundred or so injured. The Sack In the end all the soldiers (save a single major) and most of the civilians on the Rock were killed by the attackers. The Bishop and Mayor of Cashel along with a few others survived by taking shelter in a secret hiding place. Apart from these a few women were spared, after being stripped of their clothes, and a small number of wealthy civilians were taken prisoner, but these were the exceptions. Overall, close to 1,000 were killed, amongst them Lieutenant-Colonel Butler. Theobald Stapleton, a clergyman who in 1639 published the first religious work in the Irish Gaelic language, was another prominent victim of the atrocity. Afterwards, a witness of the slaughter would record that the bodies in the churchyard were in piles five or six deep. The slaughter was followed by extensive plunder. There was much of value inside, for apart from pictures, chalices and vestments of the church, many of the slain civilians had also brought their valuables with them. The sword and mace of the mayor of Cashel, in addition to the coach of the Bishop were captured. The plunder was accompanied by acts of iconoclasm, with statues smashed and pictures defaced. The deserted town of Cashel was also torched. The atrocity at Cashel caused a deep impact in Ireland, as it was the worst single atrocity committed in Ireland since the start of fighting in 1641. Previously, the most infamous massacre amongst the Catholic population was that at Timolin in 1643, when 200 civilians were killed by Ormonde's army, but many more than this were killed at Cashel, and this atrocity was compounded by the fact that the Rock of Cashel was one of the chief holy places of Ireland. The political ramifications in the Irish confederation were also profound, serving to exacerbate the split between the Catholic party headed by Rinuccini and those sympathetic to the Royalist lord Ormonde. The former were enraged by the attack, and desired retribution against Inchiquin and his army, but the Ormondist faction saw the Sack of Cashel and a subsequent raid by Inchiquin's men into Kilkenny as evidence of the futility of defending Ireland without Royalist support. Taaffe was subsequently put under intense pressure by the Confederate leadership to engage Inchiquin, but when he did so at the battle of Knocknanauss in November of the same year the Munster army was destroyed. The divisions amongst the Confederates would subsequently exacerbate, leading to the brief but bloody Irish Confederate Civil War in 1648. Meehan, C.P (1882), Confederation of Kilkenny O'Brien, Ivar, Whitegate: Ballinakella (1991), Murrough the Burner Stevenson, David, Edinburgh: Donald (1980). Alasdair MacColla and the Highland problem in the seventeenth century Wednesday, October 1, 2008 The Siege of Charlemont, July-August 1650 Eastern Ulster The Siege of Charlemont took place in July - August 1650 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The fortress of Charlemont in County Armagh, in the north of Ireland, was besieged by Charles Coote’s Parliamentarian army, which was largely composed of soldiers of the New Model Army. The force led by Coote eventually took the town from its Irish defenders, but not before they suffered heavy losses, with some 5-600 Parliamentarian Soldiers being killed during the assault on the formidable citadel. In terms of the number of soldiers killed in battle, The Siege of Charlemont was the second bloodiest engagement fought by the Parliamentarians in Ireland, only surpassed by the Siege of Clonmel. Charlemont was the first stronghold to be captured in the Irish uprising of 1641, seized by a force led by Felim O'Neill within 24 hours of the outbreak of the rebellion. Built in 1602, the last year of the Nine Years War in Ireland, It was one of the most modern fortifications in Ireland and as such was one of the few strongholds in Northern Ireland to remain in Irish Confederate hands throughout the 1640s. At the end of 1649, after the storm of Drogheda, a force of New Model Army soldiers under Robert Venables moved into Ulster and linked up with Charles Coote's small army. The combined force conquered eastern Ulster easily, routing the Scottish Royalist Ulster army at Lisnagarvey in December. The only serious opposition to the Parliamentarian army came from Felim O'Neills Ulstermen, who launched a night attack on the Parliamentarian camp, though to little effect. At the end of 1649, the Irish Ulster army had been momentarily paralysed as a result of the death of Owen Roe O'Neill. In 1650 Heber MacMahon was chosen to lead the Ulster army, and by mid 1650 the force was once again active, pushing into Ulster and threatening the forces under Coote. MacMahon however was a bishop rather than a military man, and at the battle of Scarriffholis he led the Ulster army to its destruction. The only senior Irish commander to escape Scarriffhollis was Sir Felim O'Neill. Along with a small number of survivors, he fled to Charlemont Fort, the last remaining Irish stronghold in Ulster. Realising that the fort would be near impossible to capture without heavy artillery, Venables and Coote brought Siege Cannon and Mortars with their army when they commenced their attack in late July. The Commanders Charles Coote, who led the mostly English Ulster army, had a savage reputation- during the Parliamentarian offensive in Ulster in late 1649, he exhibited brutal behaviour, committing atrocities not only against Irish Catholics but also against any Scottish Protestants who resisted his advance. After his victory at Scarrifholis, he executed all the soldiers, regardless of rank, who had surrendered to the lower ranking Parliamentarian officers: Even Henry O'Neill, the son of Owen Roe, was put to death. This was considered to be a shocking atrocity, even by the standards of the time. As a Gaelic Irish Catholic, Phelim O'Neill had good enough reason to fear Coote, but O'Neill had also featured prominently in English Propaganda pamphlets during the 1640s as the author of a massacre of Protestants. He was thus hated by many Protestant soldiers in Ireland, and the army surrounding him would therefore be particularly vigilant. O'Neill did however have a few small points to his advantage. Firstly, the fortress at Charlemont was one of the most modern and toughest fortresses in Ireland. Secondly, Coote's reputation was by now well known, and no Irish Catholic would be mad enough to willingly surrender to him. The defenders of Charlement were thus well aware that they would have little hope of survival if the Parliamentarians captured the fortress. The fighting would invariably prove to be fierce. The Assault By early August, the Parliamentarians had managed to batter a breach in the fortifications. Coote then ordered his troops to cut approach trenches up to the walls. On the 8th of August the English prepared to launch a major assault. As the soldiers approached the walls, Coote observed from a safe distance, casually smoking tobacco . Felim O'Neill rallied the entire garrison as well the civilian inhabitants to mount a vigorous defence at the breach- even the women had armed themselves as best they could. The defence was in many respects a repeat of the defence of Clomnel in 1650: Hundreds of English soldiers were killed or maimed, the desperate defenders employing close range gunfire, clubbed muskets and potts of boiling urine to devastating effect. The Parliamentarian Colonel Venables, unlike Coote, fought in the thick of it with his soldiers, and only narrowly escaped with his life. After two hours of savage fighting, the attackers retreated from the breach and back to their lines. After this huge effort the garrison was however exhausted, and had used up almost all of its gunpowder and ammunition. As a result, on August 14 O'Neill requested terms of surrender. Sir Phelim O'Neill demanded hostages from Coote before he would negotiate the surrender. The terms that O'Neill obtained were that he and his men would march out with bag and baggage after their wounds had healed, and proceed to a port where Coote would have ship waiting to carry them overseas. (ftnte Manning pg225) These were a remarkably generous set of terms from Coote: He probably had no other option, for by now few would be willing to surrender to Coote unless under extraordinary conditions were offered. The fighting at Charlemont was one of the bloodiest conflicts to be fought in Ireland by the Parliamentarians. Although many more soldiers died at the siege of Limerick (1651-52), these deaths were mostly the result of disease. By contrast, almost all the 500 or more soldiers who died at Charlemont were killed in the attempted storm of the fort. Coote bore a great deal of responsibility for the massive casualties he suffered during the siege. Like other Irish Protestant commanders such as Roger Boyle in Cork, he had proven himself to be a ruthless commander on a number of occasions, executing any enemy who fell into his hands. As such, the Ulster Irish defenders were willing to fight to the death. Felim O'Neills defence of Charlemont, as well as his overall defence of Ulster in 1649-50, was vigorous, a contrast to his often incompetent handling of the early years of the Irish uprising. Although the terms of surrender allowed O'Neill to leave, he tried to remain in Ulster, and was eventually executed. The fall of the stronghold was another blow to the reputation of Ormond, the overall Royalist commander of the Irish forces. In September the Irish bishops excommunicated any Catholic serving Ormond, and he left Ireland in December. From a Parliamentarian perspective, the fall of Charlemont completed the English conquest of Ulster and left Sir Charles Coote free to advance on Athlone, the passage to the province of Connacht. Scot-Wheeler, James (1999). Cromwell in Ireland, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. Manning, Roger (2006), An Apprenticeship in Arms: The Origins of the British Army 1585-1702, Oxford
Saturday, May 23, 2015 DNA of plants comprising ancient Roman pills sequenced Ok, this is a really cool article. Ancient Roman pills (from 140-120 BCE) managed to survive a shipwreck in a tin container. That's amazing. The sunken ship was found, and archaeologists preserved the finds from the ship. Cool, and amazing, really, but we're kinda used to it. The pills were found with tools used by ancient physicians, which leads archaeologists to suspect they, too, were medical supplies. Someone sequenced the DNA of the plants that the pills were made of. The article says that these are the only remains of ancient medicines that are known, and that this is the first time ancient medicines have been analyzed via DNA sequencing, to find out what they were made of. Cool, and amazing. The pills were made of common garden plants, like carrots, radishes, celery, yarrow............... No comments:
Umut Gurkan 2014, Turkey He has designed a biochip to predict pain crises in sickle cell anemia and monitor the treatment A single mutation in the gene that produces hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen to the tissues of the body, causes the sickle cell anemia affecting 3 million people worldwide. These individuals suffer intense pain crises caused by the changing shape of a group of red blood cells,: these cells become elongated and sticky, and clog the capillaries used to transport them. As a result, the oxygen is not delivered to the tissues, causing pain, damage to the organs, skin ulcers and in some cases leading to blindness, or even life-threatening complications like acute chest syndrome and cardiac arrest. All these complications are well known by Umut Gürkan, a young Turkish biomedical engineer who is trying to develop a technology to alleviate the suffering of these patients and to better understand their condition. Sickle cell anemia is the most common type of inherited blood disease. Furthermore, according to Gürkan, it affects areas with lower resources disproportionally. 'In Africa 800 babies are born with this disease every day, and more than half of them die during childhood due to the lack of early diagnosis and treatment," says the young man, who is currently an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University (USA). The duration, intensity and frequency of the painful episodes sickle cell anemia patients suffer vary per individual and are very difficult to predict using current methods. These crises can occur more than six or seven times a year and can last for a few hours or up to two weeks. Normally those who suffer these episodes need to be hospitalized and treated with supplementary oxygen and a medicine called hydroxyurea which will reduces blockage in the blood vessels. According to Gurkan, while this medicine has been effective in reducing the frequency of these episodes in approximately half of the patients with sickle cell anemia, there is still no treatment capable of eliminating them completely. In fact, the main complication for doctors is that it is difficult to anticipate when these painful episodes will occur or when are they will remit. Conventional blood tests do not provide useful information in this regard since they measure the number of blood cells and their volume but do not provide data regarding the shape of blood cells nor whether they have become stickier. The doctors can only confirm that the treatment is effective once the pain begins to subside, and cannot determine when the next acute episode may occur.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008 Day 1's Discussion Evaluating Arguments: “What do you mean?” & “Why think that?” Synopsis: A basic theory of argument analysis is developed that focuses on identifying clear and precise conclusions and premises and adding assumed, but unstated, premises when needed. To help overcome emotional and disengaged responses to moral questions it can be useful to consider some arguments about historical moral issues. Such issues can be useful for developing (or reminding ourselves of) some general skills in moral reasoning. Typically, we are emotionally, religiously and financially distanced from these issues and common beliefs, feelings, attitudes and behavior are generally better than they used to be: some moral progress has occurred. Many of our predecessors found these to be “controversial issues” but, fortunately, we can now see the faults with these arguments; it is partially for this reason that these issues are no longer controversial. Here are three (extremely simplified) arguments that were made and much debated throughout history (and, in some parts of the world, still are): About slavery: “Slavery is morally right because slave owners benefit from slave labor.” About women: “It’s morally wrong to allow women to get a higher education because women are such emotional beings that reasoning and abstract thought are quite difficult for them.” About animals: Since animals are not rational, it’s morally permissible to raise them to be eaten.” We would think poorly of anyone who makes claims about slavery and women like these above, but one “respectable” thing about them is that they are arguing for their views. They are not just asserting their conclusions: they are attempting to give reasons and, from an intellectual point of view, this is preferable to giving no reasons at all. But their arguments are unsound because at least one premise is false (and we have good reason to believe this) or the premises do not make a chain of reasoning that leads us to the conclusion. Three core “logical skills” help us see exactly why this is so. Skills like these may seem obvious to many academic philosophers (who teach them), but – as the discussion below shows – they are not obvious to everyone. This fact and their potential for contributing to moral progress justify presenting them here. Two logical skills are readily seen with the argument about women. The stated conclusion of the argument is this: (C1) “It’s morally wrong to allow women to get a higher education.” (Premises and conclusions will often be numbered to more efficiently discuss them). We should notice that this conclusion is imprecise: the number of women mentioned is unclear and so we do not exactly know what the argument’s advocate means when he says what he says. He is claiming either: (C2) “It’s morally wrong to allow some women to get a higher education,” (C3) “It’s morally wrong to allow any (i.e., all) women to get a higher education.” If (C2) is what’s being said, we might rightly ask, “Which women?” since perhaps there are (for whatever reason) some women (and some men?) who should not be allowed an education and so (C2) is true. Historically, however, the advocate of this argument has conclusion (C3) in mind, that “no women should be able to get an education.” Thus, a first logical skill for identifying and evaluating moral arguments is the following: The stated reason, or premise, in favor of this made-precise conclusion (C3) is that: (P1) “Women are such emotional beings that reasoning and abstract thought are quite difficult for them.” This claim again is imprecise, between an “all” and “some” understanding of the claim. If the claim is this: (P2) All women are such emotional beings that reasoning and abstract thought are quite difficult for them.” This can be shown false by finding at least one (“unemotional”) woman who is capable of reasoning and thinking abstractly. The premise then must be this: (P3) Some women are such emotional beings that reasoning and abstract thought are quite difficult for them.” We could grant that (P3) is true: some women are like this (as are some men!). But how would this truth give any rational support for the argument’s intended conclusion (C3) that “it’s morally wrong to allow any (i.e., all) women to get a higher education”? How would some women’s “emotionality” justify restricting educational opportunities for all women? And even if all women are so “emotional” and have such difficulty with “abstract thought,” why would that justify denying any women the opportunity to better themselves through education? There must be some unstated premise linking the made-precise premise (P3) to the made-precise conclusion (C3) that answers these questions. Premises that offer these logical connections need to be general, universal claims so we can see the basis for the assumption that the stated premise(s) leads to and supports the conclusion. This leads us to a second logical skill: Here this premise seems to be something like this: (P4) If doing some activity is quite difficult for some people, then nobody should have a chance to do that activity. (P4) and (P3) logically lead to (C3). But there is no good reason to think that (P4) is true. Sojourner Truth’s response to objections to women’s and African-American’s rights is relevant here: Thus, to summarize this argument’s faults: first, we do not know what exactly is being said when this argument is given because the stated premise and conclusion are imprecise. Once we make these claims precise, however, we see that one way of making the premise precise (the “all women” version) results in a false premise, which is enough for the argument to be unsound. The other way of making the premise precise (the “some women” version) is true but we can reasonably suspect that the unstated premise linking this to the conclusion is false, making the argument unsound again. The slavery example further illustrates the need for revealing assumed, unstated premises linking premises to conclusions. The made-precise conclusion, uttered by the slave-owner, “slavery is morally right” follows from the (true) premise “slave owners benefit from slave labor” only when an assumed, unstated general premise is added, something like: (P5) If one group benefits from the labor of another group, then it is right for the benefiting group to get those benefits. This premise asserts that the mere fact that some group gets some benefits automatically makes that practice or action right. But this premise is not true: successful bank robbers “benefit” from robbing banks; child-molesters and rapists might “benefit” from their actions too (they apparently enjoy doing this, which is a benefit to them). But these actions are not right and so the benefits people get do not automatically make them right. So this argument is not sound, as it too has a false premise, namely (P5). The non-historical argument in favor of eating animals illustrates a third logical skill. The stated conclusion is that: (C4) “It’s morally permissible to raise animals to be eaten.” And the stated premise is that: (P6) “Animals are not rational.” Both the premise and the conclusion are imprecise: is the person saying that all animals are not “rational,” or just some of them (if so, which ones?)? That it’s morally permissible to eat any animals or just some of them (again, if so, which ones?). This person probably means to be saying that all animals are not rational and that all animals are morally permissible to eat. But there clearly is an assumed, unstated general premise linking the premise to the conclusion, something like: (P7) If a being is not ‘rational’, then it is morally permissible to raise and to eat him or her. To evaluate this premise (as well as [P6] and other premises that might come from clarifying it), we need to use a third logical skill: Clarify the intended meaning of unclear or ambiguous words. The meaning of “rational” is not at all clear: we need to ask an advocate of this argument what he or she means by “rational.” Suppose he responds, as some biologists have in trying to defend harmful animal use, with the observation that animals do not publish academic articles.[2] Suppose he claims that a being is “rational” only if it does that. This suggests this premise: (P8) If a being is not ‘rational,’ i.e., she does not publish academic articles, then it is not morally wrong to raise her to be eaten. If this premise were true, then it would be morally permissible to raise human babies to eat them since they do not publish articles. So this premise has morally unacceptable implications, and animal experimentation advocates agree. Many other understandings of what it is to be “rational” would yield similar implications for human beings who are not “rational,” e.g., the severely mentally challenged, very old humans and many others. Thus, this argument is unsound. Through these case studies, three fundamental logical skills for identifying and evaluating arguments have been articulated. They amount to getting clear on what exactly people mean when they say things about moral issues and finding out why they think that, i.e., what their reasons are, including any unstated assumptions essential to their reasoning. “What do you mean?” and “Why think that?” are some of the most useful questions to ask, and patiently and carefully answer, in critical discussions of moral issues. These three logical skills are just the application of basic logic to ethics. The cases above confirm their value. They are generally useful for identifying and evaluating reasoning. Discussions of ethical issues would greatly improve if these skills were widely practiced. [1] Ain't I A Woman?” (1851). Widely reprinted. [2] McInerney, J.D., Morrison, A.R., and Schrock, J.R. “Reaction to ‘How we treat our relatives.’” The American Biology Teacher 66/4: 253-254, 2004
Previous: Brief History of the Productive Forces III. The Middle Ages 1. Serfs The principal sphere of production in the Middle Ages continued to be agriculture. However, the relations of production have changed: from slavery to serfdom. A serf differed from a slave in that s/he only partially "belonged" to the "seigneur". S/he had to give only a part of his labor, and its products, to seigneur. A serf could not be sold or killed in the same way as a slave, s/he had a right to own a family, and had a right to own some property. Seigneur-vassal relationship, i.e. one of personal dependence, was the principal one that existed in the Middle Ages, and this relationship reproduced itself at all levels of social hierarchy. 2. Artisan At latifundia artisans start to appear. First, they produce things specifically to order, then for a local market. When the Roman Empire falls, the artisans represent the most advanced sections of the serfs, who free themselves by running away from manor to the "burgh". In the burghs, or walled cities, they form numerous guilds, e.g. the shoemakers, the butchers, the traders, even the guild of beggars! 3. In the Middle Ages, the needs of the Church (but not only) were driving the development of the productive forces. For example, the Church had need of stained glass windows, while the lay barons had to content themselves with windows out of wooden boards. Representatives of the Church were rewriting and preserving of ancient manuscripts, teaching literacy at schools, practicing medicine, building and playing the pipe organs, etc. 4. In the Middle Ages, certain inventions were made that were immediately forbidden, as they were said to lead to unemployment, or production of fabric of worse quality, or simply sacrilege, e.g. imitation of God through invention of wings. Often, the inventors were killed in the most barbaric fashion. Similar kinds of objections are made today to such inventions as genetically-modified foods, e.g. that they lead to fattening of people, different diseases, etc. 5. Carrack 1565 A Portuguese carrack, depicted on a map of 1565 Raymond H. Merritt, in article "Technology", for Encarta 2004, writes: "The development of the deep keel, the triangular lateen sail for greater maneuverability, and the magnetic compass (in the 13th century) made sailing ships the most complex machines of the age". The deep keel and the triangular sail allow sail ships to sail against the wind. This makes possible "the Age of Discovery " and appearance of the trade capital. 6. Raymond H. Merritt continues: "The invention of the printing press (around 1450), in turn, set off a social revolution that is still in progress". Here we note: 1) technological invention sets off a social revolutions. 2) A social revolution, like technological revolution, does not end, but rather evolves continually. Revolutions are essentially permanent, involving both qualitative (revolutionary) and quantitative (evolutionary) changes. IV. The Industrial revolution: capitalist and transitional society 1. Midieval shop First, there is a shop of a Medieval master. Then, there is a simple enlargement of the shop, i.e. an increase in the number of workers working together under the guidance of one master. This is "cooperation". It's important to note: 1) that the shift is at first merely quantitative, 2) this leads to an increased cooperation between the workers in the same shop (Marx writes: "they start assisting each other, one doing one part of work, and another doing another part of work"). That means that a development of the productive forces involves not only a change in the objective basis of production (e.g. the tools of the artisan), but also changes in the forms organization for the purpose of production. There is a continuous interaction, or dialectic, between the objective side of the productive forces - the machine, the tools, etc. - and the subjective side of the productive forces - the manner in which humans organize for the purposes of production. 2. Marx says that cooperation is "when numerous laborers work together side by side, whether in one and the same process, or in different but connected processes". "The colossal effects of simple cooperation are to be seen in the gigantic structures of the ancient Asiatics, Egyptians, Etruscans, etc." As cooperation is necessary for modern material production, so it becomes necessary for modern intellectual and human production. 3. Manufacture After "cooperation" comes manufacturing, which lasts in England "from the middle of the XVI to the last third of the XVIII century". Manufacture is a form of cooperation basing itself on, and leading to, a greater division of labor. Due to specialization of labor: 1) pre-requisites are created for machine production; 2) the function of directing and controlling the production as a whole is more and more separated from the immediate production process. Let us note, that a change in the structure of organization of production process leads to creation of foundations for a whole different means of production. Thus, not only the means of production develop the relations of production, but the opposite is also true, and especially so in transitonal and socialist societies: the more advanced relations of production lead to development of the objective side of production. 4. In the heyday of manufacturing, some machinery exists, but it plays a subordinate part in the production process. Hence, we see that in each epoch both the past, present and future means of production, and relations of production, exist, but only one pair is dominant, and forms what we call "the mode of production ". 5. Development of division of labor leads to appearance of skilled and unskilled labor. At the same time develops separation of intellect from labor. Marx says: "This separation begins in simple co-operation, where the capitalist represents to the single workman the oneness and the will of the associated labor. It is developed in manufacture which cuts down the laborer into a detail laborer. It is completed in modern industry, which makes science a productive force distinct from labor and presses it into the service of capital". Thus, we see appearance of science as a productive force. It is not yet the dominant productive force. 6. Workers houses2 Large towns appear with the rise of the "manufactures". In England, this happened around XVIII century. Thus, living patterns change with changes in the forms of organization of labor. 7. After the period of "manufacture", we have machine production. What is a machine? The concept of a machine developed slowly, from the most primitive hand tools made of stone, to the mechanisms used in ancient Egypt to lift the large stones, to the watermill of the Middle Ages, one invention accumulating on top of another. Marx writes: "All fully developed machinery consists of three essentially different parts, the motor mechanism, the transmitting mechanism, and finally the tool or working machine". By this definition, a bike is a simple machine: the power of the human legs is transmitted by chain to the wheels. 8. The period of machine production marks the beginning of Industrial revolution. What is the Industrial revolution? Peter N. Stearns, in "Global Consequences of the Industrial Revolution" (Encarta 2004), writes: "Industrialization involves the mechanization of manufacturing and an increase in the importance of manufacturing in the overall economy. Typically, it occurs in economies previously dominated by agriculture and usually involves important changes in food production as well. Before the Industrial Revolution, goods were chiefly manufactured manually...". Hence, industrialization is replacement of society based on agriculture and manual production by society based on methods which involve machines. Food production declines in importance, as a sphere of overall productiony. Similarly today, we see a decline in importance of traditional "industries", such as metal work. It seems we're exiting "the Iron Age", as new, scientifically produced materials appear and replace iron and metal. However, that doesn't mean that we've exited the period of Industrial revolution, as we're relying more and more on machines for both material and intellectual production (e.g. computers). This is against all those who say that we're living in "post-industrial" society, e.g. American sociologist Daniel Bell. These people divide up the societies into: 1) "traditional societies" (thus putting in into one heap both Louis XVI and the Neanderthal man); 2) "the industrial society" (from the middle of XIX century); 3) and "post-industrial society" (from 1960's). According to this theory, in "post-industrial" society, information or "creative knowledge" dominates the production. 9. Steam engine The first period of Industrial revolution was based upon invention the "steam engine". The steam engine was invented by James Watt working in cooperation with advanced capitalist (Bolton) and workers. Here is what Marx has to say about the leaders of the Industrial revolution: "The inventions of Vaucanson (in 1780s, the French inventor of the industrial lathe), Arkwright, Watt, and others, were, however, practicable, only because those inventors found, ready to hand, a considerable number of skilled mechanical workmen, placed at their disposal by the manufacturing period... the invasion by machinery of fresh branches of production were dependent on the growth of a class of workmen, who, owing to the almost artistic nature of their employment, could increase their numbers only gradually, and not by leaps and bounds". Thus, a part of the leadership of the first phase of the Industrial revolution was due to workers, many of them mechanics, doing their jobs artistically. The other part of leadership belonged to bourgeoisie, as described by Marx in "The Communist Manifesto". It is for this reason we speak of "proletarian bourgeois revolution" in XIX century. In other words, revolution in methods of material production finds same protagonists in social revolution. Leaders in one type of revolution are also leaders in the other type - as a class, and sometimes even personally. 10. This logic should be applied by all thinking persons to modern times to see that "workers" are no longer leading the revolution in methods of production. "Proletariat" has long ago lost its revolutionary "élan" (leadership), both in the matter of production and in social revolution. This has important consequences for revolutionary strategy. 1) Many honest young Marxists go to the factories "to join the working class", "to be among the people", "not to rot at the university", etc. For example, a ukrainian worker activist, a Trotskyist, Oleg Dubrovsky, in a letter dated from 1999, writes: "The question of 'What is to be done practically?' - you're asking. Answer: go to the factories, be in immediate contact with workers, and strive towards enlightenment and again towards enlightenment: ideological, political, political-economic - circles, discussions, literature... Second, at the factories, help to initiate and create independent class organization - workers' trade unions, strike committees, etc. Third, get involved in all class struggles, giving them a more organized, radical and widespread character. This is the main thing". Thus, we see that honest Marxists who, however, remained in their conception of development of productive forces in late XIX - early XX century, lead younger comrades towards getting involved in factories. However, this leads only towards disorganization of socialist forces, their disappointment and confusion, as the young comrades do not find a responsive ground for their agitation. 2) If a person really wants to understand social revolution, s/he must first study the revolution in methods of production, or revolution of the productive forces. In what direction are they moving, and which class of people leads this movement? Thus, dialectical approach to the study of productive forces involves understanding a revolutionary protagonist. 11. Science and technology constantly interact to develop each other. E.g. development of a gadget for measuring temperature in 1650, by Drebbel (a Dutchman), and development of the concept of heat by a Scottish professor Black in 1760 were necessary for invention of steam engine by Watt in 1777. As Condorcet wrote in 1794, constant interaction of industry and sciences upon each other leads to the constant improvement of condition in which human race lives. 12. Application of science leads to automation of production, so that the role of a man is finally reduced to watching over the production process and controlling it. But here is a hypothesis: the greater the automation of production, the greater is the role of science in the process, hence, the less we can speak of "proletariat as the vanguard". Hence, the role of "vanguard" passes to scientific cadres. And this is both true for material production and social revolution. 13. "Theoretical knowledge" is knowledge only potentially. When knowledge is manifested in action, it is "actual knowledge". This is the main productive force of modernity. That means it is not simply "scientific" cadres who are the vanguard, but those who do not merely THINK, but also DO. Nicola Tesla is one example of such scientist. 14. Steam2 The steam engine finds its first application in mining, and then in textile industry. Then, the steam engine is applied to a variety of spheres, the most famous, perhaps, being a steam ship, and a steam locomotive. Such technology meant that feudal separatism, e.g. a customs office every couple of kilometers, could not last. Today, we see that national boundaries are being overcome through air transportation and Internet. Unification of the world society on global scale is a necessary tendency. 15. Industrial revolution involves a large growth of population. Peter N. Stearns writes: "Increased food production in Europe in the first stage of its agricultural transformation—particularly the growing reliance on the potato, imported from the Americas in the 1500s—generated massive population growth. Western Europe’s population rose between 50 and 100 percent between 1730 and 1800". We may suppose that population dynamic is an indicator of development of productive forces in general. Thus, a decrease in population, as in the republics of the former USSR, coincides with destruction of the main productive forces. 16. According to book "Cyber Marx", published in 1999, capitalism has three distinctive phases, marked by 3 major developments in productive forces. The first one is the steam-driven machinery (around 1840's), the second is electric and internal combustion engines (starting in 1890's), and the last one is the nuclear power and "information technologies" (starting in 1940's). The three stages of capitalism, corresponding to each, are: 1) market capitalism; 2) monopoly capitalism; 3) "late capitalism". 17. Wright2 Internal combustion engine was an innovation based upon the steam engine. The internal combustion engine is much more efficient than the steam engine, since the fuel is not used to make steam first, and afterward to do some work, but immediately is injected into a cylinder, where it burns up and produces work. Almost immediately, the new kind of engine made the automobile and airplane possible. The first airplane of brothers Wright flew in December 1903. 18. Electrical power has a very interesting history. We read that a book by J. Priestley (1733-1804) "on the history and modern state of knowledge of electricity, published in 1767, has made a big impression and was a cause of accepting him as a member of the 'Royal London Society'". First we notice the date: 1767. That is more than 100 years in advance of the time when electricity has become a a factor in industry. Second, basing ourseleves on research in electricity, we notice that the algorythm of knowing a subject appears to be the following: 1) formulation of a question, or a subject; 2) a study of the history of the subject; 3) a study of its current state; 4) an experimental study of the subject (e.g. Franklin's kite). 19. Electricity2 Electrical power centralizes the source of energy much more than steam power. Electricity is produced at electrical power stations, central to each region, whereas steam power was provided locally for each factory. 20. Further progress in development of productive forces deals with discovery of nuclear energy and development of transistor, which is at the heart of information technologies. This will be discussed in the next part. But here, we would like to point to summarize the main effects of industrialization, up to the first half of XX century: 1) increase in productivity of labor; 2) development of monopolies; 3) colonization of the world by world's leading industrial countries; 4) imperialism and two imperialist world wars; 5) appearance of non-capitalist, transitional states, as result of these wars; 6) women join social workforce, and hence "women liberation" movement. Next: the information revolution Ad blocker interference detected!
Hidden Treasure of Grand Canyon In 1909 a subterranean city which was built with the precision of the Great Pyramid was found by G.E. Kincaid near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It was big enough to accommodate 50,000 people and mummified bodies found on the site were of oriental or possibly Egyptian origin, according to the expedition leader Professor S. A. Jordan. Numerous artifacts were found, including copper implements as hard as steel. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC has ensured these finds remain unknown to the public and no-one would have known about this discovery had it not been for two articles in a local newspaper, the Arizona Gazette, in April 5th 1909 with the title "Explorations in the Grand Canyon”. The Gazette claimed that the team had found a vast underground citadel within the Grand Canyon which was "not only the oldest archaeological discovery in the United States, but one of the most valuable in the world." The researcher and author, John Rhodes, claims to have located this site and he connects it with Sipapuni, the underground world from where the Hopi Indians claim to have originated. According to their legends, the Hopi once lived within the Earth and were fed and clothed by ‘ant people’, possibly the extraterrestrials known as the Greys. The Hopi refer to their ancestors as their ‘snake brothers’ and their most sacred of underground rituals is the snake dance. Kinkaid's narration of the discovery in the Gazette described how he made the discovery while traveling alone in a wooden boat down the Colorado River from Green River, Wyoming, to Yuma, looking for minerals. According to the article, about 42 miles up from the El Tovar Crystal canyon, (probably around Marble Canyon, in the area of the present-day Navajo Indian reservation), Kinkaid noticed "stains in the sedimentary formation about 2,000 feet above the river bed." He then, with great difficulty, made his way up the canyon wall to arrive at a small cave opening, which had steps leading down from it. Kinkaid then passed through the entrance, and at a cross chamber 100 feet from the entrance, he found a carved image of a cross-legged idol, which he thought resembled Buddha and was probably of Tibetan origin. Several hundred feet along the 12 foot wide passageway he discovered a crypt containing mummies, one of which he stood up and photographed by flashlight. There were numerous side passages, rooms, and various artifacts, including copper tools, urns, and cups of copper and gold, enamelled and glazed pottery vessels, engraved yellow stones strewn all over the floors, and an unknown grey metal resembling platinum. He also found hieroglyphics, which he believed were of an "Egyptian or Oriental type." Kinkaid surmised that more than 50,000 people could have been comfortably accommodated within the caverns. The newspaper mentioned that some of the artifacts had been shipped off to Washington, D.C., and that the Smithsonian Institute, under the direction of Prof. S.A. Jordan, was carefully investigating the citadel. The discoveries, they claimed, "almost conclusively prove that the race which inhabited this mysterious cavern was of oriental origin, possibly from Egypt, tracing back to Ramses." What is the truth behind this amazing story? Is there any other evidence apart from this isolated and anonymous newspaper article? If fact, there is a previous article in the same newspaper from March 12, 1909, also relating to G.E. Kinkaid. The article gives a short description of Kinkaid's trip down the Colorado and mentions "some interesting archaeological discoveries" being made, but nothing is indicated of the staggering nature of these finds. For some reason, the Arizona Gazette never followed up the story. After May 1909 there is complete silence on the subject until the article was rediscovered by ancient mysteries writer David Hatcher Childress and published in the conspiracy magazine Nexus in 1993. It subsequently found its way onto the Internet, and the Egyptians in the Grand Canyon story has now been used by hundreds of Websites. Most of these are merely reprints of Childress' Nexus article, and all derive from the original newspaper story. In fact, since 1909, no further evidence at all for truth of the claims has been added to the original source. In January 2000, researchers into the mystery contacted the Smithsonian Institution on the subject. They were told that over the years the Institution had received many inquiries about the 1909 newspaper article, but that its Department of Anthropology could find no mention in its files of a Professor Jordan, Kinkaid, or a lost Egyptian civilization in Arizona. Researchers did turn up mention of an archaeologist called Prof. S.A. Jordon, spelled with an o, not an a, but apparently he was European, not American. However, for some researchers this is proof that the entire discovery has been covered up. They point to the many unexplored caves, tunnels, and holes in the canyon and the fact that much of the area around where Kinkaid allegedly made his discovery is now government property and closed to the public. This is certainly true of the 400 foot deep Stanton's Cave, which, when excavated, was found to contain thousands of ancient Indian artifacts, and the remains of 10,000 year old giant California Condors. It is a significant archaeological and palaeontological site, and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This cave, along with others in the area, is now sealed of from the public with a huge steel gate. The sinister reason behind this? To protect the colony of Townsend's big-eared bats living in the cave from being disturbed by visitors. Another curious feature of the Grand Canyon-which appears to link it to the 1909 newspaper story-is the wide variety of oriental and Egyptian names given to many of its peaks and buttes, particularly in the area of Kinkaid's strange caverns. Around Ninety-four Mile Creek and Trinity Creek there are names such as Isis Temple, Tower of Set, Tower of Ra, Horus Temple, Osiris Temple, while in the Haunted Canyon area there are the Cheops Pyramid, the Buddha Cloister, Buddha Temple, Manu Temple, and Shiva Temple. Perhaps the mysterious origin of these names gives a clue to the location of Kinkaid's hidden treasure? Unfortunately, the explanation for these names is far more prosaic. It comes in the form of Clarence E. Dutton, Captain of Ordnance in the U.S. Army, whose most important work, The Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District, appeared in 1882. It was Dutton who, noting the similarities between the Grand Canyon peaks and some of the great architectural works of mankind, gave the Grand Canyon most of its exotic names. The remainder were named by Francois Matthes, a government cartographer, who in the spring of 1902 undertook the topographic mapping of the Grand Canyon for the U. S. Geological Survey. There is no mystery about this; most decent histories of the Grand Canyon (Frommer's Grand Canyon National Park and Stephen J. Pyne's How the Canyon Became Grand, for example) give these facts. Indeed, it is more than possible that the Egyptian and Indian place names of the Grand Canyon provided part of the inspiration for the Gazette article. But is the article anything other than a simple newspaper hoax, akin to that published in The Dallas Morning News, of April 19, 1897, telling of a UFO crash in Aurora, Texas? Many details of the 1909 article do suggest this. First of all, nobody has ever seen the photographs Kinkaid is alleged to have taken in the caverns or the artifacts he apparently retrieved. Surely, in more than 90 years someone would have seen them. Another problem is the lack of documentary evidence to back up the existence of either G.E. Kinkaid or Prof. S.A. Jordan. In addition, in the May 1909 article the Gazette refers to the Smithsonian as an Institute instead of an Institution (many Websites using the story have copied this error). It is surely fair to suggest that anyone employed by the Smithsonian would know the difference. A further error in the article is the statement that Kinkaid was "the first white child born in Idaho." In fact, this was Eliza Spalding, born at Lapwai on November 5, 1837, to Henry and Eliza Spalding. Hidden History: “Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowlodge, and Ancient Mysteries” by Brian Haughton; The Biggest Secret: “The Book that Will Change The World” by David Icke; Pic Source: 07:41 \| 0 komentar UFO Sightings in the 1800's In July 1868, residents of Copiago, Chile, observed an unidentified “aerial construction” fly overhead. It was described as having shiny scales and making a noise like a machine. A dramatic account from the summer of 1883 was published in the West German magazine, Der Stern. According to the report, “All the children and the teacher in the public elementary school at Segeberg, saw in the sky two fiery balls, the size of full moons, traveling side by side, not very swiftly, from north to south, on a clear and sunny day.” Despite the many sightings, most people still didn’t view UFOs as aliens from space. More popular explanations included angels, demons, or signs from God or the Devil. At this time, humans had still not learned how to fly, so the idea of space-travel and life on other planets hadn’t entered the public consciousness. It wouldn’t be until airplanes and rockets were invented in the early twentieth century that people began to seriously consider that UFOs might be creatures from other planets. Then in 1896, the United States experienced its first UFO wave when residents across northern California reported seeing an “airship” in the sky. The first sighting to gain widespread attention occurred on November 17, 1896. As reported in the Sacramento Bee: “Last evening between the hours of six and seven o’clock, in the year of our Lord 1896, a most startling exhibition was seen in the sky in this city of Sacramento. People standing on the sidewalks at certain points in the city between the hours stated, saw coming through the sky over the housetops what appeared to them to be merely an electric arc lamp propelled by some mysterious force. It came out of the east and sailed unevenly toward the southwest, dropping now nearer to the earth, and now suddenly rising into the air.” Several witnesses said they heard voices. Among the many witnesses was the daughter of the mayor of Sacramento. Over the next week, the mysterious airship continued to appear. Five days later, on November 22, 1896, dozens of passengers on an Oakland streetcar observed an object that looked like a “wingless cigar.” The object emitted beams of light and traveled slowly overhead. Again, the account became front-page news. Before long, the wave spread across the United States, with thousands of people reporting the strange zeppelin-like objects. In 1897 there were many reported over Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Illinois. The first sightings started on the night of April 5th in Omaha , Nebraska with more than a 100 people witnessing the appearance of a flying object approximately 12 foot long , sperical in shape, shiny with a steel like body. April 10th, further east, in Illinois, A Chicago newsstand dealer, Walter McCann, took a picture of one with his camera at Rogers Park. Here again , the 2 pictures revealed a elongated ovoid shape. The same day in Mount Carroll, Illinois, more witnesses reported seeing the same type of object and again describing it as elongated and ovoid shaped. The next night, in Minnesota, a cigar shaped crafted was spotted by R.G. Adams over Minneapolis, Minnesota. By April 12th, more reports had come in from Wisconsin. By April 14th, a cigar shaped craft was reported over Indiana. Continuing East, by the 19th, a similar type craft , described as approximately 180 feet long with red, white and green lights appeard in Cochransville, Ohio. Today, the mysterious airship wave remains unexplained. Some researchers believe that the sightings may have been the result of early undercover experiments with dirigibles, zeppelins, and other airships. And in fact, on November 3, 1897, timber merchant David Schwarz of the Austro-Hungarian Empire invented and successfully flew an airship. Other researchers have a stranger explanation for the airship mystery. They say that UFOs are actually putting on different masks for each culture, and may actually be some sort of interdimensional visitors and not extraterrestrials at all. The best evidence for this theory is the fact that UFOs do seem to appear different in each culture. For example, the many cases of fairies and elves in the medieval times may have been actual fairies and elves, actual aliens that people just thought were fairies or elves, or perhaps another mask worn by the interdimensional beings. Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena by Preston Dennett; 08:40 \| 0 komentar Lost Treasure of HMS Hampshire In mid-1916, HMS Hampshire (a Devonshire-class armoured cruiser of the Royal Navy) saw service during the First World War and was present at the battle of Jutland. Several days later she was sailing to Russia, carrying the Secretary of State for War, Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, when she is believed to have struck a mine laid by a German submarine. She sank with heavy loss of life, including Kitchener and his staff. Rumours later circulated of German spies and sabotage being involved in the sinking. Her wreck is listed under the Protection of Military Remains Act, though part was later illegally salvaged. A number of films were made exploring the circumstances of her loss. On 5 June 1916, Britain’s Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, set out on a highly secretive military mission to Russia, probably with the aim of stiffening the Tsar’s resolve and offering him support in maintaining the Anglo-Russian alliance. To reach St. Petersburg, Kitchener was to sail by warship through the dangerous waters to the north of Scotland and along the coast of Norway, well inside the Arctic Circle, then south past the Kola Peninsula of Russia and thorough the White Sea to the port of Archangel. A few days previously, on 31 May, the only major naval engagement of the war had been fought, when the British and German fleets met at the Battle of Jutland. This was an unexpected engagement, and proved indecisive, as both commanders exercised great caution. Nevertheless, the battle ended with the loss of three British battleships and one German. The news of the British losses was greeted with dismay at home, but the Battle of Jutland was not a total disaster, since the naval status quo was unaffected, and thereafter the blockade of Germany’s fleet in its North Sea bases was successfully maintained until the end of the war. A far greater shock to the nation, perhaps the most traumatic news of the war to date, was the announcement on 6 June that the cruiser HMS Hampshire had been sunk off the coast of the Orkney Islands and that Lord Kitchener had drowned. HMS Hampshire Although there now seems little doubt that what sank the HMS Hampshire was not sabotage, but a mine, and that what brought ship and mine into contact was not treachery, but incompetence, the suspicions were to linger. An air of mystery continued to surround both the Hampshire’s loss and the exact nature of Kitchener’s mission. Some years later the speculation extended to what else, apart from a national icon, the ship was carrying when it sank. For many there was a reason to believe that its cargo may have included a large consignment of gold. Lord Kitchener left London from King’s Cross station on the evening of Sunday, 4 June in the company of a small group of officials and servants. He was bound for Scapa Flow, in the Orkneys, the war base of the Grand Fleet, to which it had recently returned after the Battle of Jutland. He travelled by train overnight to Thurso, in the extreme north of Scotland, and crossed to Scapa Flow the following morning on the destroyer Royal Oak. He had lunch with Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, aboard the latter’s flagship the Iron Duke and then transferred to the cruiser HMS Hampshire, which had been designated some days before to make the voyage to Archangel. Already a fierce gale was blowing from the northeast. It was suggested to Kitchener that he might delay his voyage for twenty-four hours, but he refused to contemplate any delay. It was then that the British naval authorities made the first of a series of fatal blunders. In view of the gale they decided to re-route the Hampshire up the west coast of Orkney rather than up the east coast, which was the more usual route for warships. The reasoning was that the Hampshire would be able to make a better speed up the west coast which was on the lee side of the storm, and therefore be safer from attack by enemy submarine. But the decision was based on meteorological ignorance. The Hampshire had hardly put to sea before the storm swung round from northeast to northwest, as was common with this kind of cyclone. The Hampshire, with a top speed of twenty-two knots, was still able to make eighteen knots even in the adverse weather conditions. The two destroyers, Unity and Victor, that had been assigned to escort her, however, quickly fell behind. The Hampshire reduced its speed to 15 knots and headed in closer to land. But the destroyers continued to drop back. At 6.30 p.m. Captain Herbert Savill of the Hampshire signaled to the destroyers to return to port. If they could not keep up, their continuing was senseless. It was a fateful decision. At approximately 7.40 p.m. the Hampshire was about one and a half miles offshore between Marwick Head and the Brough of Birsay on the very northwest corner of the mainland of Orkney. This is one of the bleakest and most remote spots in the entire British Isles and even though it was summertime, it was still a bitterly cold grey evening. Suddenly and disturbingly, above the screaming of the gale, a loud explosion was heard from below amidships, in the vicinity of the boiler room. The ship immediately took on a sharp list to starboard. The electric lights went out. Hundreds of men found themselves trapped below deck. Many of the firemen and stokers were severely burned with scalding water. Others were injured by flying debris. Within twenty minutes the Hampshire had gone down bows first. The appalling weather and the speed of the sinking had made it impossible to get off any boats, though an unsuccessful attempt was made to launch the Captain’s galley. The only chance of survival was to cling to a Carley life-raft. Three of these were successfully launched but they were grossly overcrowded, about 70 men grimy hanging on to each raft. One by one, as it got dark, most of these men dropped off. Of the 662 people on board the Hampshire only twelve survived. None of these survivors was among the seven members of Kitchener’s mission. According to those who survived, Kitchener was last seen standing calmly on the bridge deck in the company of Captain Savill, making no apparent effort to save himself. A fortune-teller had once told him that he would die by water. The roll-call of fatalities made it one of the worst naval disaster of the war. No distress signal was transmitted by wireless from the sinking ship; not even a rocket was fired. Such omissions can only be explained as a result of the almost total paralysis that overtook the Hampshire from the moment of the explosion. But an islander called Joe Angus, a gunner in the Orkney Territorial Forces, noticed a cruiser in distress from his lookout at Birsay. He saw evidence of an explosion aft of the bridge. He immediately informed his corporal and urgent telegrams were dispatched to naval headquarters at Longhope. There was some confusion on the part of the observers about whether or not the ship was a cruiser or a battlecruiser, and the first telegraphic message did not include the information that the Hampshire had sunk. This, together with a certain pedantic concern for correct detail on the part of the senior officer at Longhope, Vice-Admiral Sir F.E. Brock, caused a delay in sending rescue craft until 9.45 p.m. There was also long-lasting bitterness among the islanders, over the fact that the naval authorities forbade them to launch the island’s own lifeboat to assist in the rescue. The Navy also issued instructions that all islanders remain indoors away from the cliffs in the vicinity of the disaster. The reason for this high-handed and insensitive behavior on the part of the Navy no doubt had something to do with establishing proper security for Kitchener and the members of his mission in the event of their being rescued. Certainly there were fears at the time among the naval authorities that the island had been infiltrated by Irish and German saboteurs. But the effect of the ban was counter-productive, in that those who were lucky enough to reach the shore alive were deprived of help in scaling the cliffs. This belated obsession with security thus probably only to increase the death toll. The reaction of the British nation to the death of Kitchener was one of stunned disbelief. Kitchener, more than any other single man, was identified as the leader of the British war effort. It was a terrible psychological blow, even though there were some high up in the government circles and the armed forces who were secretly relieved by his demise. A sizeable proportion of the population simply refused to believe that Kitchener was really dead. Rumours immediately began to proliferate about how he had been seen leaving the sinking ship in a dinghy or how a soldier in uniform had been seen coming ashore. The fact that Kitchener’s body was never recovered lent credence to the rumours. A tendency to mythologize rapidly overtook events and there was a strong beliefs among some of the more credulous sections of the population that Kitchener would one day return to lead his men again. Others accepted Kitchener’s death but looked around for someone to blame. The Irish were the obvious suspects, particularly because the Hampshire had been for a refit in Belfast a few months before it sank. Wild theories were elaborated about how time bombs had been fitted to the ship or stowaways were secreted somewhere deep in the ship’s holds. The idea of sabotage was later fuelled by the publication of a number of books in Germany after the end of the war. Written by acknowledges German spies, they all personally claimed credit for the sinking. The pressure became so intense that in 1926, ten years after the sinking, the government was forced to issue a White Paper, revealing the findings of an internal inquiry. The intention was to lay the entire Hampshire controversy to rest. Certain matters that had caused disquiet were cleared up. However the White Paper failed altogether to deal with the two most serious criticisms that could be leveled against the authorities. First, there had been a serious lack of security concerning Kitchener’s voyage. His impending mission had been openly discussed in most of the capitals of Europe from late May onwards, and it is almost certain that German intelligence would have picked up on it. Secondly, there was confusion regarding mine clearance in the area where the Hampshire went down (the details of which only fully emerged in 1959 with the publication of Donald McCormick’s excellent book on the subject, entitled Kitchener’s Death). On 26 May 1916, ten days before the Hampshire left, a German deciphering officer at the Neumunster listening station near Kiel picked up a coded message from a British destroyer to the Admiralty, stating that the route to the west of the Orkneys had been cleared of mines and was now safe for transit. The message was repeated three times. From this the Germans concluded that this route must have been designated for the passage of an important ship and included the area in their next minelaying sortie – previously they had ignored this route, used only by small unimportant merchant ships. On 28 May the U-75, under Commander Kurt Beitzen, was dispatched to lay mines on the west side of Orkney, which he successfully accomplished. The extraordinary thing about this episode is not only the woeful lapse in security, but that there is no record in British naval files of such signal ever having been made from a British destroyer to the Admiralty. Furthermore there is no record that this western route was swept free of mines on 26 May, and the decision to use it for the Hampshire was only taken at the last minute. It can only be concluded that the signal intercepted by the German listening station was a rogue signal sent out by Naval Intelligence Division under Admiral Hall deliberately to mislead the Germans. Admiral Hall was fond of such cat and mouse games with the enemy. It seems that in the aftermath of the Battle of Jutland, which took place on 31 May, this crucial piece of counter-intelligence games playing was not communicated to Admiral Jellicoe, and that the latter, in complete ignorance and because of the freak weather, then inadvertently directed the Hampshire into the trap that British Naval Intelligence had instigated as a diversionary tactic. This was incompetence on a grand scale. The White Paper did not put an end to the Hampshire scandal. But the next time the infamous cruiser hit the headlines of the world’s press it was in a different context entirely. An article in the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung in 1933 carried a report referring to the salvage of £10,000 in gold bars from the Hampshire’s strong room. Suddenly HMS Hampshire had been transformed from cause célèbre into a treasure ship. The British and American press picked up on the story and soon the furore of interest was such that the Admiralty was once again obliged to issue a statement. It claimed that it knew nothing of the salvage, but that HMS Hampshire remained the property of HM Government and could not be touched without the permission of HM Government. Some light was thrown on the mystery of the Hampshire treasure with the publication of a book called Unlocking Adventure by Charles Courtney in the early 1950s. Courtney described in some detail a highly secretive salvage attempt on HMS Hampshire in 1933 by a group of divers working off a ship called KSR out of Kiel under a Captain Brandt. According to Courtney, £60,000 worth of gold had been recovered when the salvage was aborted by a serious accident that resulted in one diver being killed and two thers being taken to hospital. Courtney claimed that there was in total £2 million worth of gold on board the Hampshire, and that the main purpose of Kitchener’s mission had been to provide the Tsar with this financial support. There are aspects of Courtney’s description which suggest a certain amount of romantic embellishment, particularly concerning the miraculously preserved dead bodies he claimed to have encountered within the hull of the Hampshire. It is questionable whether or not any diving operation could possibly have taken place, in view of the fierce currents that run in the area of Marwick Head. Even today, with all the improvements in diving technology, it would still be difficult and complex operation. However, Courtney does provide a wealth of circumstantial detail, much of which has the ring of truth. For example, the presence of a strange ship in the vicinity of Marwick Head during long periods of the summer of 1933 was corroborated by local observers on the island itself. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Courtney’s account, however is not the graphic description he provides of diving inside the wreck but the detail he gives about the group of international financiers who backed the operation. This group included both the German industrialist Krupp and the notorious arms dealer Basil Zaharoff. The problem with the Hampshire gold theory is that the government, the Bank of England and the Admiralty have all consistently denied any knowledge of gold being on board. One possible theory that has never been fully explored is that if there was gold on the Hampshire, it was not British gold at all, but privately owned Russian gold, held by the Romanov family in Britain, gold that was suddenly required in Russia in 1916 because of the state of emergency in which the Romanovs found themselves. One thing is certain. The Hampshire continues to exert an enduring fascination over treasure-hunters and shipwreck enthusiasts. Lost Treasure Ships of the Twentieth Century by Nigel Pickford; Pic Source: 06:32 \| 0 komentar Mysterious Disappearance of Lord Lucan The Lucan story began on the night of 7th November 1974 at 9.45pm with the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett, beaten to death in the basement of Lucan's London home. That night, a distressed and bloodstained woman burst into the bar of The Plumber’s Arms, Lower Belgrave Street, crying out for help. She said that she just escaped from being murdered and the murderer still in her house. She was Veronica Duncan the Countess of Lucan, who had fled from her home at number 46, leaving behind her three children. She was obviously the victim of a serious assault, soon afterward the police and an ambulance were called to the scene. When Lady Lucan was able to make a statement to the police she named her husband as her attacker and the murderer of Sandra Rivett. However there was no sign of Lord Lucan on the crime scene. Lord and Lady Lucan Lord Lucan or Richard John Bingham, (usually known as "John") the future 7th Earl of Lucan was born on 18th December 1934. He went to Eton where he discovered the great passion of his life - gambling. In 1953 he joined the Coldstream Guards, where he spent much of his off-duty time playing poker or visiting casinos. After leaving the Army he joined a Merchant Bank, but by now, gambling was his first priority. One night, after a substantial win at chemin-de-fer he decided to quit his job and become a professional gambler. His gambling nickname was "Lucky". Based on Mrs. Madelaine Floorman statement, who lived not far away from the Lucan's residence. She said, shortly after 10 pm she was awoken by someone pressing her doorbell insistently, but she decided to ignore it. Some time later, her phone rang. She was sure that the caller was Lord Lucan himself, he sounded distressed. After that, she went back to sleep. Next morning, some spots of what appeared to be blood were found on her doorstep. According to Susan Maxwell-Scott (one of Lord Lucan's friend), Lord Lucan had told her that he had been walking past the Lower Belgrave St house, and had peeped in through the basement window. He had seen someone struggling with his Lady Lucan in the basement kitchen. He let himself in through the front door and ran down the stairs. He slipped and fell in a pool of blood, and the man had run off. He had calmed Lady Lucan down and taken her upstairs to try and clean her up, but while he was in the bathroom she had run out of the house shouting "Murder!". He had panicked, realizing things looked very bad for him, and decided to get out. Lord Lucan then wrote two letters, both addressed to Bill Shand Kydd at his home in Bayswater. (They were posted the following day. The envelopes were found to have smears of blood on them. ) Mrs. Maxwell-Scott tried to persuade him to remain so they could go to the local police the next morning, but he said he had to "get back". He drove away. There has been no validated sighting of him since. Lucan's fate remains a fascinating mystery for the British public. Hundreds of reports of his presence in various countries around the world have been made following Rivett's murder, although none have been substantiated. Despite a police investigation and huge press interest, Lucan has not been found and is presumed dead. However, since his disappearance there have been dozens of alleged sightings of the peer in countries around the world. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20646721 ; 20:15 \| 1 komentar Arnold Paole 18:00 \| 0 komentar Dol Hareubang of Jeju Island Dol hareubangs are large mushroom-like statues found on Jeju Island off the southern tip of Korea. They are produced from 1763-1765, once stood outside the eastern, western, and southern gates of the Jeju City fortress and considered to be gods offering both fertility and protection against demons travelling between realities. The name dol hareubang derives from the Korean word for "stone" (dol 돌) plus the Jeju dialect word hareubang (하르방) meaning "grandfather" or "senior" (harabeoji [할아버지] in Standard Korean) and was coined in the mid-20th century. Dol hareubangs also called as tol harubangs, hareubangs, harubangs, other earlier names for the statues include beoksumeori, museongmok, useongmok. Beoksumeori, meaning shaman head, is used in the former area of Jeongui Hyeon (county), museongmok in Daejeong Hyeon and Jeongui Hyeon, and useongmok only in Jeju Hyeon. Dol Hareubang at Tamna Mokseokwon, Jeju Island The Dol Hareubangs are carved from porous basalt (volcanic rock) and range in size up to 3 metres high. The statues' faces feature grinning expressions and bulging eyes without pupils, a long, broad nose, and slight smile and their hands rest on their bellies, one slightly above the other. In sets of two, one will have a higher left hand and the other a higher right hand. The hat is commonly referred to as phallic or mushroom-like. There are three main theories as to the origin of Dol Hareubangs; either that they were introduced by visitors from the sea, that they are a counterpart to the jangseungs (totem poles) of mainland Korea, or that they spread with shamanic mushroom culture. The mushroom and its related imagery has had great importance in Korea, visible in ancient crowns, funeral urns, the Ship Jang Saeng Do (십장생도). The Dol Harubang are a form of political propaganda, representations of the sacred powers of the mushroom, its associated deity, and attesting to the power of the Shamans. According to Derrick Story (writer of The Digital Story.com) there's a lesser-known and fascinating tradition associated with these Dol Hareubangs or "stone grandfathers," as explained to him by a native Korean woman. She said that newly married women who wanted to conceive and have a boy, would rub the nose of the Dol hareubang. Statue at Kosenji Temple, Japan Interestingly, at Kosenji Temple in Kusatsu Onsen town (Gunma Prefecture), there is a very small statue that is almost identical to the dol hareubang or stone grandfather guardians of Jeju Island of South Korea. Whether this was a donation of a passing migrant from the area of Jeju Island, or that Kosenji Temple was established by Korean migrants, the idea of the connection is tantalizing. Pic Source: 06:22 \| 0 komentar Recent Post Recent Posts Widget Popular Posts
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 How to be fit, lose weight, and keep it off -- Part 2 This is the part 2 of a series of my thoughts and knowledge on fat loss. [Part 1, Part 2] Diet plays the main role in any fitness program. The main belief is: "A calorie is a calorie" Which means no matter what you take, be it fats, carbohydrates or proteins, they will eventually be the same. Well, it is both right and wrong. A calorie, by its simplest definition, is a unit of energy and is equivalent to 4.184 absolute J. Our body metabolise fats, carbohydrates and proteins differently. The energy yield from a gram of fatty acids is approximately 9 kcal (39 kJ), compared to 4 kcal/g (17 kJ/g) for proteins and carbohydrates. The composition of meals we eat is important: An example of French Fries French Fries are considered "poison" because they consists of mainly carbs and fats. Let us not consider the unhealthy trans-fat in French Fries yet. When the carbs enter your body, insulin is released. However, a major effect of insulin on fat is it prevents you from burning it. Imagine eating french fries: the carbs enter your body -> insulin levels rise -> fats from french fries is prevented from burning and stored. Essentially, this is going to add lots of energy into your body without you realising it! Adding protein into meal Amino acids are the building blocks of muscles in our body. Without it, we cannot function. There are a few advantages of ensuring there are some protein in your everyday meal. 1. It helps you to recover from workouts. 2. The body uses more energy to digest protein. 3. Protein supposedly helps to slow down the rate of digestion of carbs, lowering the insulin spike after meals. However, it is important to note that too much protein is also harmful. Urea is produced when excess protein is broken down into usable energy, giving more stress to the liver and kidneys. How much protein to take will depend on how much you have exercise, the nature, and the intensity of it. Effects of fibre in meal Roughage helps you in the following way: 1. Easier bowel movement. 2. Makes you feel fuller during meals. 3. Actually slows down your digestion, ensuring a more even release of energy from food 4. I have heard that it helps to reduce the amount of fats being absorbed by the body... Not so sure about it though. The easiest way to get fibre is from vegetables, fruits and wholemeal bread. Glycemic index What are the benefits of a low GI diet? 1. Low GI diets help people lose and control weight 2. Low GI diets increase the body's sensitivity to insulin 3. Low GI carbs improve diabetes control 4. Low GI carbs reduce the risk of heart disease 5. Low GI carbs reduce blood cholesterol levels 6. Low GI carbs can help you manage the symptoms of PCOS 7. Low GI carbs reduce hunger and keep you fuller for longer 8. Low GI carbs prolong physical endurance Eating too much high GI food helps can be detrimental to the body, and this is especially so for obese or sedentary people. However, it is still worth to note that high GI carbs help re-fuel carbohydrate stores after an intensive exercise. As we know, there are four types of fat: saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat and trans fat. It is however unnecessary to go too deep into details. Do we need fats in our diet? Yes! Fats have many important roles to play in the body: 1. Fat is the main energy store in the body. 2. Fat deposits act as a cushion for vital organs and help to insulate the body. 3. Fat is a carrier for the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, and helps in their absorption by the body. 4. Fat is a source of essential fatty acids, such as omega-3, which cannot be made in the body and must be obtained through food sources. Essential Fatty Acids Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that cannot be constructed within an organism from other components (generally all references are to humans) by any known chemical pathways; and therefore must be obtained from the diet. EFAs play a part in many metabolic processes, and there are evidences to suggest that low levels of essential fatty acids, or the wrong balance of types among the essential fatty acids, may be a factor in a number of illnesses. They are classified into omega-3 (ω-3) and omega-6 (ω-6). Some of the food sources of ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids are fish and shellfish, flaxseed (linseed), hemp oil, soya oil, canola (rapeseed) oil, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, leafy vegetables, and walnuts. Trans Fats Trans fat raises LDL-cholesterol ("bad" cholesterol) and reduces HDL-cholesterol ("good" cholesterol) in the body. As a result, trans fat increases the risk of developing heart disease. Our body does not require trans fat, so we should try to keep trans fat intake to a minimum. The main sources of trans fat in our diet are pastries, cakes, cookies, biscuits, commercially deep-fried foods as well as products containing vegetable shortening and hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. Do take note to consume less when indulging. No comments: Post a Comment Please Comment >>
Dead front?  What does “dead front” mean? While pulling conductors in existing conduits for new branch circuits into an existing panelboard, the safety director on a large account approached us. He was concerned about the possibility of contact with energized parts with just the interior cover on. We explained that no live parts were exposed because the dead front was on and we were working safely. If a panelboard has the interior trim installed and the outer trim off, you cannot see the bus bar and terminations. Is the interior trim considered the dead front?  No, the dead front in your case consists of more than one part and must be completely installed for the panelboard to be considered “dead front.” A load center typically has a one-piece dead front while a panelboard in a commercial occupancy is typically an assembly with one part over the circuit breakers, bus and terminations and a second part that completes the dead front by covering the wiring spaces completely.  Per the Article 100 definition, electrical equipment is considered to be “dead front” when there are no live parts exposed to a person on the operating side of the equipment. In your case, there were exposed energized parts as you installed conductors. It is important to understand that—without the complete dead front installed over an energized panelboard—there are exposed live parts.   The NEC definition for “exposed (as applied to live parts)” means that a person is capable of inadvertently touching live parts or approaching nearer than a safe distance. People working in the space in front of the panelboard could inadvertently come into contact with live parts. NFPA 70E provides prescriptive requirements for electrically safe work practices, including justification thresholds for energized work and safe work practices where people are exposed to energized conductors or circuit parts.  GFCI inside a cabinet?  The text in 210.8 has me confused. We have always provided ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protection for receptacles in cabinets below sinks. Does the door on the cabinet negate the need for GFCI protection? Receptacles below the sink are typically used for a fixed appliance but can be used in a commercial bar setting in a repair or maintenance situation. How about a long island in a dwelling unit with just one receptacle on the far end away from the receptacle installed under the sink? Homeowners may get creative and use the receptacle in the cabinet for countertop use.  The parent text in 210.8 was revised in the 2017 NEC revision cycle. It applies to all five first-level subdivisions in Section 210.8. GFCI protection is required for receptacles installed less than 6 feet from sinks. See list items 210.8(A)(7) for dwelling units and 210.8(B)(5) for other than dwelling units. The revised text provides prescriptive text that describes how to make the measurement. It is the shortest path the cord of an appliance connected to the receptacle would follow without piercing a floor, wall, ceiling or fixed barrier, or passing through a door, doorway or window. Where a sink is involved, measure from the top inside edge of the bowl of the sink.  It is typical to see a receptacle installed under or adjacent to a sink in a dwelling unit for appliances such as a garbage disposal. This means our measurement of the shortest path to the sink would be through an opening with a cabinet door. Therefore, GFCI protection is not required for the receptacle. However, if the appliance supplied by the receptacle is a dishwasher in a dwelling unit, first-level subdivision 210.8(D) would require GFCI protection. The existing requirements for receptacles on the kitchen countertop cover potential use of appliances. It would be unusual to see someone plug a portable appliance into an undercounter receptacle, but as you described, it is possible. Those performing maintenance or repair are required to be provided with GFCI protection by Section 590.6 and applicable OSHA regulations.  Meeting room receptacles  During the bid process for a renovation that is changing two floors of hotel rooms into meeting rooms, I had to inform the designer of new requirements in the NEC that mandate a given number of receptacles in meeting rooms. This is the first time I am using this requirement, and I am surprised the NEC permits it. This design issue should be left to the owner and the engineer. There also is a conflict within the requirement itself. Can the owner or designer choose wall receptacle placement, or do they have to be installed in strict compliance with 210.52(A)(1) through (A)(4)? Is a school room a meeting room?  New Section 210.71 requires a minimum number of receptacle outlets in meeting rooms that meet the prescriptive requirements of this section. Section 90.1 clearly states that the NEC is not intended as a design specification; its purpose is the practical safeguarding of people and property from hazards arising from the use of electricity. This new requirement recognizes serious hazards that are found in meeting rooms where participants bring electronic equipment, creating the need for extension cords running all over the meeting room.  This is not an example of the NEC stepping on the toes of a design engineer; it is simply mandating a minimum number of receptacles for safety-driven reasons. Section 210.71 applies only to meeting rooms that are 1,000 square feet or smaller. When determining the size of a room where there are movable partitions, the room size is determined based on the smallest size meeting room(s).   The informational notes (IN) that follow the parent text provide significant clarity. IN No. 1 explains that this requirement is intended to apply only to meeting rooms that are designed or intended for the gathering of seated occupants for such purposes as conferences, deliberations or similar purposes, where portable electronic equipment such as computers, projectors or similar equipment is likely to be used.  IN No. 2 provides examples of rooms that are not considered meeting rooms, such as auditoriums, school rooms and coffee shops.  The parent text in 210.71(B) clearly states that the designer or building owner can locate the receptacle outlets as needed. Sections 210.71(B)(1) for receptacle outlets in fixed walls and 210.71(B)(2) for floor receptacles are only used to determine the total number of required receptacles. As you pointed out, the text in 210.71(B)(1) needs to be revised for clarity.  Multimedia projector overhead  I have noticed that some multimedia projectors have a receptacle outlet provided below the ceiling to plug it in while others plug in above the ceiling. Where the ceiling is not a 300.22(C) space, is it permissible to plug in the projector to a receptacle outlet above the ceiling?  No, the attachment cord for plugging in a multimedia projector is a “power supply cord,” which is a flexible cord and under the scope of Article 400. See the informational note that follows the article scope in Section 400.1 that clarifies sections 400.10 and 400.12 apply to power supply cords.  Section 400.12 lists uses not permitted for flexible cords and flexible cables. List item 400.12(2) prohibits installation of flexible cords and cables through holes in walls, structural ceilings, suspended ceilings, dropped ceilings or floors. The classification of the space above the ceiling determines permitted wiring methods/materials and equipment. It does not play into the determination of flexible cords/cables through holes in suspended or dropped ceilings.  GFCI devices for portable use?  There are requirements in Article 590 that reference GFCI protection that is identified for portable use. This references cord sets and devices. What does “identified for portable use” mean?  The GFCI requirements that you are referring to are located in second-level subdivisions: 590.6(A)(1) for devices permitted in addition to GFCI protected receptacle outlets and 590.6(A)(3), which permits GFCI devices identified as portable to provide protection on older portable generators. These devices must be listed cord sets or devices that incorporate listed GFCI protection for personnel, and they must be identified for portable use, which means they are marked as such.  A standard GFCI receptacle is not identified for portable use. A listed GFCI cord set or device that is identified for portable use provides open neutral protection. A standard GFCI needs line voltage at 120 volts to sense current flow to ground and open. This means that when a standard GFCI loses the neutral connection to the device, it loses the ability to sense a fault, and it will allow current flow to ground without opening. A listed GFCI cord set or device that is identified for portable use will open immediately upon the loss of a neutral connection, providing open neutral protection.  The NEC requires the same level of GFCI protection in carnivals, circuses, fairs and similar events for all receptacles supplied by portable cords. See first-level subdivision 525.23(D).
Herbicides are chemical compounds that kill plants or inhibit their normal growth. Pesticides, however, are chemical agents used to kill pants or animals that are harmful to people. Both chemicals can help the production of health crops and a safer agricultural atmosphere. Included in this data set are hundreds of organic and inorganic herbicides and fungicides which combat a wide spectrum of unwanted plants and fungi. Parent Category: Patent Repository:
The controversy over whether to green-light the building of the Keystone XL pipeline to connect Canada’s tar sands with refiners on the Gulf coast may not be much in the news anymore, but it’s far from gone. A House Republican bill introduced yesterday would jumpstart the project if approved. While the Senate is likely to kill the bill, and Obama would refuse to sign it, the project itself has backing from unions and polls suggest most Americans are in favor. The XL controversy is not going away. The pipeline debate is often framed in terms of whether the jobs it will create justify its environmental risks. Let’s ignore those risks for the moment. Forget climate change. Forget leaks. Forget potential damage to streams and aquifers. Now does the pipeline make sense? Not much. First, the jobs: just how many are we talking about? Probably the most authoritative source of data in this regard is the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Keystone XL from the State Department, which tells us that building the pipeline and pump stations “would result in hiring approximately 5,000 to 6,000 workers over the three year construction period.” But after that, only 20 permanent employees would be needed to operate Keystone XL. Indeed, a Cornell University study has concluded that the project would kill more jobs than it created, partly as a result of higher oil prices. So the jobs argument is a red herring—especially in light of the news that roughly three times more jobs are created in the renewable energy industry than in the fossil fuel industry per dollar spent (according to research at the PERI Institute at UMASS Amherst). Profit is the understandable industry objective here, not jobs. More specifically, industry insiders acknowledge the goal of Keystone XL is to remove a glut of unrefined petroleum accumulating in Cushing, Oklahoma at the terminus of the current Midwest pipeline system. Because of that glut, US oil prices have for the past few years lingered around $15 per barrel lower than the international price. Bottom line: the industry wants Americans to pay more for oil. So why should we want the pipeline, if that’s the case? Now comes the geopolitical argument: because it offers the promise of a secure supply of oil. We’d rather import crude from Canada than Venezuela or the Middle East. Granted, Canadians are likely to remain dependable business partners for the foreseeable future. But tar sands oil is not the same as conventional petroleum. And this difference has practical, economic implications that trump geopolitics. When energy analysts measure and compare the qualities of differing energy sources, one of their key criteria is the ratio between the amount of energy invested in production and the amount of energy produced. For conventional oil, that ratio used to be in the range of 100 to 1—a spectacular energy profit that helped fuel the industrial boom of the 20th century. As the petroleum industry has chewed through the low-hanging fruit of easily accessed oil, that ratio has gradually fallen. With tar sands, the energy return on energy invested is an abysmal 5 to 1, according to analysis by Herweyer and Gupta. (For reference: anything below about 10 to 1 puts us back into the pre-industrial energy profit range.) Tar sands producers make money largely because they are using cheap natural gas as an energy input with which to make higher-priced syncrude. While the financials work as long as oil prices remain high, from an energy policy standpoint the exercise makes little sense. If all our energy sources had such a dismal return on energy investment we’d be producing much of our energy just to fuel the next increment of energy production; we’d have little left over to power cars, planes, and tractors. Because the easy oil is gone and prices are high, lower-grade resources (like tar sands) that were previously uneconomic are now profitable. Accountants who know nothing about energy analysis tell us this is a good thing because the quantity of low-grade fossil fuel resources is so immense. But as these make up a larger part of our energy mix, the overall quality of our energy declines. Jobs don’t justify the Keystone XL pipeline. It will raise fuel prices for Americans. And it further locks us into a future of declining energy quality and increasing cost. So, even ignoring environmental risks, the pipeline makes little sense. But we cannot afford to ignore those risks, as they imply real and enduring costs. As long as we delude ourselves that replacing depleting easy oil with expensive, low-quality bitumen is good energy policy, we succeed only in delaying the necessary transition to a viable future of energy conservation and renewables. Wouldn’t it be a wiser move from a cost, jobs, environmental, and energy security perspective to invest our money in needing less oil? But breaking up is hard to do. One place to start is to stop subsidizing TransCanada and the other oil companies who get billions of our tax dollars.
Ben van Lier: Blockchain: distributed transactions that will radically change the world The American mathematician and A.M. Turing Award winner Leslie Lamport is one of the founding fathers of distributed computing and distributed algorithms. Back in 1978, he defined distributed computing thus: “A distributed system consists of a collection of distinct processes which are spatially separated, and which communicate with each other by exchanging messages. A network of interconnected computers such as the ARPANET is a distributed system.” [1] In an age when there were no such things as the internet, the Internet of Things or advanced manufacturing, he worked on distributed algorithms that have helped make these developments possible. Without the trailblazing by this founding father of distributed computing, today's blockchain technology hype would have been unthinkable.
Guys, Gals, and Non-Binary Pals Happy Trans Visibility Day! blows party blower I’m like Darius: gasps of shock from the crowd From this vine: World Bipolar Day Today is World Bipolar Day, a day created to bring about awareness and show support for those suffering with the disorder. There are many myths and misconceptions when it comes to bipolar disorder, and it is often used in improper context. We say that someone who is moody is bipolar, and we say that the weather is bipolar when it constantly changes, but bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness that affects over 5 million adults and 2 million children each year. There are different types of mood disorders, such as bipolar I, bipolar II, rapid cycling bipolar, etc. I’ll run through the basics of those three as they are the most common. First is bipolar I, characterized by manic and depressive episodes. Mania consists of elevated energy levels, elevated mood, grandiose thoughts, poor judgement, reckless behavior, inability to concentrate, restlessness. It can cause auditory or visual hallucinations in some cases. Each person cycles at a different rate, some faster than other, and some periods last longer than others. No experience is the same. Bipolar II is categorized by hypomania and depressive episodes. Hypomania is very similar to mania, just less severe. However, it can be just as debilitating. The depressive episodes are relatively the same as bipolar I. Rapid cycling bipolar disorder can occur in those with bipolar I or bipolar II, and it causes moods to change at a more advanced pace. For some, it happens daily, for others a few times a month. Surprisingly, nearly 20% of individuals diagnosed as bipolar disorder are rapid cyclers. Now that I got the definitions out of the way, let’s discuss myths. Myth: Bipolar disorder is the same as mood swings. However, bipolar disorder is a chemical imbalance of the chemicals in one’s brain. They are more severe, longer lasting, and impede every day functioning. Myth: Mania is always happy. Unfortunately this is not the case. There are often mixed states, in which one experiences the elevated mood of mania (or hypomania) with the depressed thoughts. There is often irritability corresponding with mania, and sometimes agitation. Myth: Bipolar disorder is an excuse to act how you want when you want. This is a stigmatized assumption for those who wish to discount those with mental illness. Those with the disorder often have difficulty regulating their moods and the actions resulting from those moods. This is not voluntary, and can ruin many relationships be it familial, romantic, or platonic. Myth: There is no way to treat bipolar disorder. Although it is a lifelong condition, there are ways to regulate the disorder. This could be through medication, therapy, or a mix of the two. Managing bipolar disorder is not easy for those with the diagnosis as well as for those with a loved one who has a diagnosis. The best way to work through it is communication. Be open and honest about what you need, and be receptive to those who are expressing their needs. Be patient with yourself, and be patient with other people. Surround yourself with people who are understanding and kind, and don’t be too hard on yourself if you can’t control your emotions. Just know that you are not alone, and that each of your emotions are valid. – JB A Return to International Women’s Day Last year I praised Barack Obama’s outreach and empowerment. Things are different. Morale is low. Happy International Women’s Day. Screenshot 2017-03-06 at 9.25.58 PM And yet- And yet- Things to remember when engaging in political discourse on Facebook. 1. Clear out the clutter. 2. Pick your battles. There are some easy indicators of battles to stay away from: 3. Remain objective. 4. Leave the mess where it is. The Consistency of Self Worth It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this account, mostly due to the hectic nature of my life as a senior in college. However, I’m on break right now and in light of some recent events I want to discuss individual self-worth and how the opinions of others do not fluctuate that self worth. As a human, we all naturally have self-worth. We are taught both consciously and subconsciously from a young age that appearance has a lot to do with measuring this worth. Whether people find you attractive, whether you fit into the right clothes, whether you fit a certain stereotype. Although physical attributes are often evaluated, these evaluations have no impact on your actual self worth. For example, one person may find me attractive while another may not. Neither of those things makes me better or worse, because they don’t fluctuate your worth. A person has self-worth whether they have “desirable” characteristics or not, being physical or inner. What someone thinks of you has no bearing on your actual worth. What you look like outwardly has no bearing on your worth. We are taught that skinny is good, and that pretty is good, and that long hair is good, and that following gender norms is good. But if you don’t do those things or aren’t those things it doesn’t make your worth as an individual go down. Not being conventionally attractive or not being “skinny enough” insert eye roll here does not make you worth less. It is important to challenge these thoughts that are taught to us and consciously make an effort to judge the worth of a person less on appearances and more on characteristics that go beyond that. It’s unfortunately natural for us, even me, to immediately judge the worth of a person based on their looks. Pretty people get hired first, skinny people get complimented first, it’s the nature of our society today. However, those things don’t have any actual bearing. Looks fade and weight fluctuates, styles will change a million times in the next ten years. When you base your worth on your outward appearance you are bound to be disappointed because of the constant changing of beauty standards. That’s why it is important to begin evaluating people from a deeper level than what is on the surface. This includes yourself. Don’t let your physical appearance be your only way of feeling good. Don’t go the rest of your life hating what you look like or feeling less than because you don’t exactly fit the perfect stereotype of beautiful. Active ways to challenge this need to happen within yourself, but also outwardly. Start complimenting people on characteristics other than physical one’s. Do the same with yourself. It’s easy to equate a bad grade with a lack of self-worth, or someone calling you a “potato” with being worth less than someone who is traditionally beautiful. Make yourself aware that those factors have absolutely no impact on your worth, because it is constant and non-fluctuating. Make yourself aware of your accomplishments and achievements, and let those be your anchors to reality. It is more than easy to get swept up in appearance or someone else’s interpretation of you, but practice believing in the inflexibility of self-worth and it will go a long way. It’s perfectly ok to take pride in your outward appearance, I highly encourage that. Just not when it is the only factor being taken into account. Your beauty is not the absence of mine, just as my beauty is not the absence of your own. There are more ways than one to represent beauty, and there are more factors to self-worth than anything physical. Take the time to evaluate where your judgments come from and take time to be actively aware of the consistency of your own self worth. Donald Trump. So Donald. But it’s hard. It’s so hard. I’m making myself upset again.
When Was The Law Created? Torah Before Torah Have you ever wondered when God’s laws were established? Many teach that the law was created at Mt. Sinai under Moses’s leadership, however, a quick study will demonstrate that God’s law existed even before the foundation of the earth! Passover was taught more than 55 days before Torah was given. (Ex 12:1-12) Moses taught the people of Israel the laws and decrees of Yahweh before the Torah was given. (Exodus 18:16) Decrees and laws were given to Israel at the crossing of the Red Sea which was 40 days before the Torah was given. (Ex 15:22-26) The people of Israel were told to keep the Sabbath 2 weeks (16th day of Iyar) before the Torah was given (Ex 16:30) Joseph knew that adultery was sin 200 years before Torah was given (Gen 39:7-9) Judah kept the law of providing offspring for a deceased brother. When Onan disobeyed by spilling sperm Yahweh struck him dead. This would not be fair if Onan did not also already know this was a command 200 years before Torah was given. (Gen 38:6-10) Isaac told Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman 200 years before Torah. (Gen 28:1) Isaac was told that Abraham obeyed God and kept his requirements, commands, decrees and laws 200 years before Torah. (Gen 26:2-6) Abimelech knew that adultery was sin 300 years before Torah (Gen 20:3-7) The Amorites were informed of Torah and committed sin. It would not be fair for Yah to judge them if they had not been informed of Torah. (Gen 15:12-16) The men of Sodom were committing wicked acts and sinning against Yahweh more than 400 years before Torah was given. (Gen 13:13) Abraham and Lot both kept a Passover and knew that sodomy was sin more than 400 years before Torah. (Gen 19:2-7) Noah knew how to offer a burnt offering with a clean animal 1000 years before Torah. (Gen 8:18-21) The earth was guilty of “wickedness” and “evil” and was judged for it by the flood, yet Noah was “righteous” and “blameless” and found “favor” with Yah 1500 years before Torah. How could Yah judge the world for sin if they were not warned and taught Torah? (Gen 6:5-9) Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” 1500 years before Torah. (2 Peter 2:5) The First Passover Cain and Abel knew they were supposed to bring offerings to Yah at the dawn of time. Cain knew his offering was not correct because it was clearly indicated to him. Sin was an understood concept in the days of Cain and Abel. Sin is lawlessness. (Gen 4:1-7, 1 John 3:4) Abel was offering a Passover sacrifice! The Passover sacrifice is made at the place Yah chooses to make His name dwell. This is in keeping with Torah because Torah states we are to sacrifice where He chooses. During the time of the Tabernacle that spot moved every day. When they reached the Promised Land it was Jerusalem. Abel knew that the fat portions were for Yahweh. Abel also knew that a proper Passover offering must be a firstborn. What was wrong with Cain’s first fruit offering? First fruits offerings must occur AFTER the Passover sacrifice! (Exodus 12, Num 28:24) These were indeed the first fruits of any and all sacrifices to come, and serves a clear picture of the gospel. Now it IS possible that Cain had tried to offer leavened bread with Abel’s sacrifice. The context of Exodus 23 tells us that there are 3 yearly festivals that the males are to appear in Jerusalem to keep the feasts. Passover is one of these. In the context of this passage we see three things that relate to the Cain and Abel narrative. 1) Don’t offer anything leavened with the blood of his sacrifice. 2) Don’t let the fat of the feast remain until morning. – (At Passover we’re supposed to eat it all and burn the rest in the morning. This also implies that Abel ate the lamb. The common assumption is that they didn’t eat animals before the flood, but there is actually no command in scripture that restricts eating animals.) 3) The best of your first fruits of your ground you are to bring to Yahweh. Could it be that “in the course of time” (Gen 4:3) is referring to the appointed times that the males were to present themselves before Yahweh? Was this the impetus for Cain and Abel to keep the first Passover? Passover is the first feast of the year and is also what is required for causing His name to dwell in that place! (Deut 16:2) Back to Yeshua Cain represents us before we came to Yeshua. We desire to be accepted before Yahweh, yet we come to be ruled by sin. This is contrasted with the fact that in Yeshua we have victory over sin. (1 Cor 15:56-57) Just like Cain we have sinned and represent a people in rebellion to Yahweh and His Torah. The curse was upon us just as it was upon Cain. “And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.” –Gen 4:11 “from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation” –Luke 11:51 Now we see the connection with Zechariah who was stoned for practicing and teaching the Torah. Now we see the connection between Abel and Messiah Yeshua. Abel was clearly a foreshadowing and symbol of the Messiah! Cain slew Abel with a rock and Yah placed a mark on his forehead just as the Israelites put the blood on the doorpost to serve as a protection from the death angel. The blood of Abel represents the future blood of Messiah. Thank Yah that we have forgiveness of sins through Yeshua and can now share in the blessings and eternal inheritance!! Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Dismiss Notice Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! Resolving the electric force into x y components? 1. May 28, 2017 #1 A 64 microC charge is locate 30 cm to the left of a 16 micro C charge. What is the resultant force on a -12 micro C charge positioned exactly 50 mm below the 16 micro C charge? 2. Relevant equations coulomb law f=k*qq/(r^2),resultant force,resolve into x and y component. 3. The attempt at a solution the first three steps are straightforward first step using Pythagoras rule gives s=58.3 mm and theta = 59.0 degree the force b/w q1 and q2 using coulomb law i calculated F13 = 2033 N. similarly ,the force between q2 and q3, gives correctly F 23= 691 N. i am having trouble understanding these steps about resolving it into components.i need some revision here. Fx = 0- F13 cos 59.0 (where does the zero come from?) = -(2033 N) cos 59.0 which gives Fx = -1047 N Fy = F23 + F13 sin 59.00(why add force 23) = 691 N + (2033 N) sin 590 Fy = 2434 N i can do the rest. Attached Files: Last edited: May 28, 2017 2. jcsd 3. May 28, 2017 #2 also it says F13=2033 N ,59 degree north of West. F23=691 newton,Upward. I dont get how these directions come and what they mean in the answers. 4. May 28, 2017 #3 anyone help here.i am revising tons of questions and this is standing in the way or preventing me from proceeding . Thank you 5. May 28, 2017 #4 User Avatar Science Advisor Homework Helper Gold Member 2016 Award This is one of those threads where it all seems so straightforward that I might misunderstand where your difficulties lie, so bear with me. The 0 represents the x component of the force between q2 and q3. It looks like "F12" means the force exerted on q2 by 1, etc. In the y direction, you have both F23 and a component of F13. F13 acts along the hypotenuse of the triangle. As you calculated, that is at 59 degrees to the x axis; specifically, 59 degrees N of W. Unfortunately, if you make a second post to your own thread it no longer shows as "unanswered", so tends to take longer to get an answer. Better to edit your initial post. 6. May 28, 2017 #5 greatly appreciated. Have something to add? Draft saved Draft deleted Similar Discussions: Resolving the electric force into x y components?
Dismiss Notice Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! Right hand rule charged particle direction question 1. Oct 16, 2013 #1 1. Two charged particles are traveling in circular orbits with the same speed in a region of uniform magnetic field that is directed into the page, as shown. The magnitude of the charge on each particle is identical but the signs of the charges are unequal. Which one of the entries in the table below is correct? The correct answer is B I understand that the m1>m2 just by using the formula: r=mv/qB where I canceled the v and B and was left with m=r*q so b.c the m1 radius is bigger it has a larger mass 2. I don't understand how to find the sign of the charge. Using the right hand rule I know that the field is going into the page but where is the velocity going or the force? I can't figure out their directions. 2. jcsd 3. Oct 16, 2013 #2 Since both particles are moving on a circular path, there must be centripetal force. This force is given by: here ##q## is inclusive of charge. That means direction of force would also depend on sign of charge. You know the direction of every quantity, the sign of charge which is consistent with the direction of Force would be the required sign. I hope this clears out things!!! Edit: direction of force would be towards center (hence the term "centripetal") and direction of velocity is given in the diagram by arrow. Velocity is always tangential to its path and hence to the circle. 4. Oct 16, 2013 #3 Hi, I don't understand how to find the direction of force.. I don't know what way to point my fingers for the velocity. 5. Oct 16, 2013 #4 The direction of force is implicitly given, a body cannot move in circular path unless a force towards the center acts on it. You need to revise circle motion to understand why that is. you can always pick any point on the circle. The direction of velocity is tangent of the circle and it is indicated by arrow in the diagram. Find the direction of cross product. if it points towards the center then ##q## must be positive otherwise it will be negative. Have something to add? Draft saved Draft deleted Similar Discussions: Right hand rule charged particle direction question 1. Right hand rule question (Replies: 10)
Dismiss Notice Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! Simple Harmonic Motion Help Please 1. Dec 31, 2013 #1 I need help for the second part please. How do the oscillations being damped prevent them from being S.H.M. as well the other 2 points? I need an explanation so I can understand. The oscillations would still have the same time period eve if they are damped. Q+MS 2.png Low frequency due to mass/density (of spheres) Can someone please explain that to me as I don't understand it. Q+MS 3.png Isn't T supposed to be constant as it is independent of the amplitude theta, right? So surely as m increases T increases like the graph of y=√x? How does good suspension in a car help prevent resonance in the various parts of the car? Prevention of resonance: Damps oscillations (1) Fewer forced oscillations (1) Explanation of damping [e.g. in terms of energy transfers] (1) Max 2 For the last part, I understand that the suspension damps oscillations, but I'm not fully sure how there are fewer forced oscillations. Is it because that the damping causes the oscillations to die away quicker, so they stop quicker. Hence there are fewer forced oscillations? Q+MS 5.png I think the MS answer is wrong as I got k=1.40Nm^-1 using T=2π√(m/k). What did others get? THANKS SO MUCH!:biggrin: Last edited: Dec 31, 2013 2. jcsd 3. Jan 1, 2014 #2 Simon Bridge User Avatar Science Advisor Homework Helper Gold Member 2016 Award What do the letters "S.H.M." stand for? Does this describe damped harmonic motion? How does the mass density affect the movement? That equation makes some assumptions about the system - what if those assumptions do not hold? When the suspension is good - what do you want to happen to the oscillations? Think about situations where you experience good suspension. Nope - that would amount to "doing the work for you", which is not allowed. How did you get that answer? What was your reasoning? Have something to add? Draft saved Draft deleted Similar Discussions: Simple Harmonic Motion Help Please
Dismiss Notice Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! The partial derivative 1. Feb 22, 2015 #1 Find the partial derivative of ## w = xe^\frac {y}{z} ##. 2. Relevant equations 3. The attempt at a solution ## \frac{∂f}{∂x} = e^y/z ## ## \frac{∂f}{∂y} = \frac{xe^y/z}{z} ## ## \frac{∂f}{∂z} = (-yz^-2)(xe^yz^-1) ## Are theses correct? Thanks everyone. Last edited by a moderator: Feb 22, 2015 2. jcsd 3. Feb 22, 2015 #2 User Avatar Staff Emeritus Science Advisor Yes, they are- though poorly written. In Latex, to get more than one character in an exponent (or denominator or numerator, etc.) put them in "curly brackets"- { }. "e^{y/z}" gives [itex]e^{y/z}[/itex]. Even better would be "e^{\frac{y}{z}}" which gives [itex]e^{\frac{y}{z}}[/itex] 4. Feb 23, 2015 #3 Have something to add? Draft saved Draft deleted Similar Discussions: The partial derivative 1. Partial derivative (Replies: 11) 2. Partial derivative (Replies: 1) 3. Partial derivative (Replies: 2) 4. Partial derivatives (Replies: 1) 5. Partial derivative (Replies: 21)

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