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What the peer-reviewed science says about shale gas The objective of this post is to review what the peer-reviewed scientific data say about shale gas extraction and its environmental impacts. I have put together a list of peer-reviewed science journal articles related to shale gas environmental effects, and have added some comments on the results obtained by the researchers (If anyone knows of any that are not listed below, please forward to me). The numbers in parentheses below refer to the scientific citation with the same number. Let’s look at what the science says with respect to some of the major environmental issues: 1. Contamination of groundwater by extracted methane. Methane is the largest component of natural gas; other hydrocarbon gases, such as ethane and propane, are generally removed from natural gas during the purification process. Because it is a potent greenhouse-gas, methane releases into the atmosphere have long been a concern. More recently, methane contamination of groundwater used for drinking has become an issue, due to the potential of hydraulic fracturing technologies that allow methane to escape from deep reserves and potentially mix with groundwater reservoirs. In two widely-reported studies (11, 15), researchers at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment found high levels of gas from thermogenic (i.e. likely from deep gas reserves) sources in a number of drinking water wells that were located less than 1 km from gas well sites, mainly located in Pennsylvania. Groundwater samples taken further way from gas wells has significantly lower levels of methane, and the methane in those latter sites was a mix of thermogenic and biogenic (i.e. likely from shallow gas reserves adjacent to groundwater) methane. However, the authors reported that methane was found in 85% (15) and 82% (11), respectively, of all water samples taken from houses in the research areas. In other words, the research took place in an area where biogenic and likely thermogenic methane already were common contaminants, and the nearby presence of gas wells increased methane concentration in the water supplies of houses close to those wells. Methane is known to be naturally present in drinking water in different locations in North America, including NB. Those are the regions that would seem to be the most likely to see increased methane levels in drinking water, when the gas wells are close by. In other areas, the likelihood of gas leaking into groundwater may be related to the geology of the region. Houses less than 1 km from gas wells also had propane and ethane contaminants, presumably from the same natural deep underground sources that provided the higher levels of methane. These two studies suggest that if gas wells are located 1 km or more from the house, the chances increased contamination by methane are fairly low. The authors of the 2013 study (11) concluded that the source of the higher levels of methane, propane and ethane was probably faulty well casing construction that resulted in gas leaks into water. In other words, the problem was not the hydraulic fracturing process itself, but poor well construction. Davies (4), Saba and Orzechowski (18) and Schon (19) criticized Osborn (15) for characterizing the additional methane as resulting from hydrofracturing and emphasized that the most likely cause, faulty well-casing, was not inherently related to hydraulic fracturing technology. If correct, that sounds like a fixable problem, provided there is sufficient monitoring to detect the leaks. Finally, I’d note that the Jackson (11) article reported that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued 90 violations in 2010 and 119 violations in 2011 for faulty casing and cementing of gas wells. That points out the need for careful and vigorous monitoring of gas wells by independent agencies, although, to keep things in perspective, it is worth noting that by 2011 there were over 8000 gas wells in Pennsylvania. Jackson (11) also recommended extensive pre-drilling data collection on groundwater quality and public disclosure of same. It follows that public agencies would need to have the resources to oversee or carry out those tasks. 1. Contamination by fluids used in hydraulic fracturing In the 2011 study referred to above, Osborn (15) did not detect drinking water contamination by hydraulic fracturing fluids. Data showing contamination of drinking water from fracking fluids are hard to find in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. The United States EPA, in 2011, reported contamination of groundwater in Wyoming by such fluids. The EPA test wells were drilled near domestic water wells where residents had complained about water quality for several years and those wells were within a few hundred metres of gas wells. The EPA has tried without apparent success to develop a peer-review evaluation of the methods and data used in that study. The area in question has had intensive gas drilling for decades, using both conventional and hydraulic fracturing techniques, and the reported contamination may or may not be due to the latter technology. Waste pits from oil and gas drilling activities and containing various contaminants are found in the area. It sounds like some errors were made in site selection and those errors resulted in data that cannot be conclusively linked to hydraulic fracturing. Some have mischaracterized the EPA results and claimed that the EPA could not reproduce the results showing contamination. In fact, repeated sampling has shown detectable levels of contamination, and those contaminants might indeed be the cause of the odour, taste and possible health effects reported by residents at the Wyoming site. The problem encountered by the EPA in connecting their results to hydraulic fracturing seems to be site selection. The EPA chose sites where groundwater contamination may have occurred from causes other than hydraulic fracturing, and consequently the EPA cannot properly test the hypothesis that fluids used in fracturing are responsible for the contaminants found in ground water. It is important that sites selected for study of contamination be areas where traditional oil and gas exploration and drilling have not been done, in order to separate the effects of past practices from new practices. Additionally, you would prefer a site where baseline data are available, in order to separate out naturally-occurring problems or other ‘human-induced’ problems from those caused by gas development. It is clear from the Wyoming example that the oil and gas industry does not exactly have a stellar track record with respect to environmental stewardship, and that proper regulation and monitoring are required to reduce risk. However, the Wyoming case does not help much either way with respect to the impact of hydraulic fracturing on groundwater contamination. The data presented in these two studies from Duke University on the other hand suggest that water wells 1 km or more from gas well sites are not likely to become contaminated with methane and that fluid contamination from hydraulic fracturing is unlikely. Properly constructed and monitored gas wells might reduce that distance even further, but differing geologies might affect gas migration. 1. Surface water contamination Olmstead (14) found higher levels of contaminants (they used chloride as a ‘marker’ for contaminants and found increases of approx 10% per treatment facility) in surface water (rivers, streams) samples collected downstream from fracking fluid water treatment facilities, compared to samples from control locations. The presence of gas wells upstream increased (5% per 18 additional well pads) the amount of total dissolved solids downstream, but this appeared to be related to land-clearing or other actions related to construction of the gas wells rather than fracking fluid contamination per se. These data suggest that water treatment facilities may be releasing contaminants into watersheds. Contaminants are also released into watersheds by domestic water treatment facilities, but proper regulation and monitoring can be used to maintain drinking water standards. There have also been reports in the media of spills of fluids causing surface water contamination. Rozell (17) used a risk analysis procedure to determine that leaks and spills during wastewater disposal posed a large threat to drinking water supplies. It sounds reasonable, therefore, to require independent and transparent monitoring of surface waters near water treatment facilities, and that contamination levels in treated water be regulated to meet at least drinking water standards. It is also important to note that water discharged from municipal sewage treatment plants is not free of contaminants; there is a difference between a water source that is free of contaminants and one that meets water drinking standards. 1. Methane leaks into atmosphere Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and increased methane emissions into the atmosphere will certainly contribute to global warming. There is a great deal of concern about release of methane from thawing Arctic permafrost for that very reason. When used as a fuel in power generation, natural gas (NG) releases fewer CO2 emissions than coal or oil. Low prices for NG, following the expansion in supply resulting from hydraulic fracturing, have led to replacement of coal by NG in power generation in some parts of the US. Greenhouse-gas emissions have fallen slightly in the US and that decline might be a consequence of the switch from coal and oil to NG. That would seem to suggest benefits where shale gas replaces ‘dirtier’ fuels such as coal or oil for power generation. A report by Howarth (9) caused alarm as it suggested that large amounts of methane might be escaping from natural gas wells. They calculated that, largely because of these methane emissions, the GHG ‘footprint’ of shale gas might be greater than that of coal. Howarth et al’s calculations were based largely on an EPA report. However, the EPA has now issued a revised report that significantly reduces the amounts of methane they expect to be released from shale gas wells [EPA (2011a) Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990–2009. April 14, 2011. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC]. Jiang (12) also calculated GHG emissions related to shale gas extraction (methane leakage, flaring/venting of gas from wells during flow testing, and CO2 emissions related to operation of diesel equipment at well sites). They concluded, in contrast to Howarth (9), that shale gas had a lower GHG footprint than coal, when used for electricity generation. Cathles (2, 3) also concluded that shale gas would provide marked reductions in GHG emissions if it replaced coal and oil as an energy source. Cathles (2) stress that, while methane is a potent GHG, it persists in the atmosphere for about 20 years, while CO2 emissions from coal and oil consumption persist for hundreds of years. Even with leakage from gas wells, they concluded that the use of gas is vastly less damaging in terms of global warming than coal and oil. Howarth (10) responded in 2012 with a defense of their position. The different conclusions appear to be based largely on whether one believes we should look at the impacts of emissions over a decadal or 100 year time scale. Both groups of authors agree that more independent data on methane emissions are needed. Interestingly, the Cathles group and the Howarth group are both based at Cornell University in upstate New York – I can imagine the ‘angry words’ during coffee breaks! For a commentary on this dispute, see here. If a company is in the business of selling methane (i.e. natural gas), you’d think they would try to reduce any leakage as much as possible. After all, loss of gas by venting into the atmosphere is a potential loss of profit – they have already invested in the well, so would they tolerate such a loss? Of course, the higher the value of the gas, the greater will be their interest in capturing as much of it as possible. By contrast, when gas is cheap, the cost of capture might be greater than the value of the gas. It’s true that the oil industry may at times vent off large amounts of gas in order to secure the more valuable oil from underground reserves, but the shale gas industry is in the gas business. According to the EPA, the industry has made significant strides in reducing emissions of methane from wells. That, plus the reduction in GHG emissions in the US referred to above, would suggest Howarth’s calculations are off the mark. Lu (20) found that CO2 emissions fell between 2008 and 2009 in the US and attributed that decline to a switch in the use of gas for coal in power generation. Indeed, other scientific publications (2, 3, 12) have claimed that the methane emissions from shale gas wells, and their impacts, are small enough that the use of this gas results in a net reduction in GHG emissions, where the shale gas replaces coal or oil in power generation. The weight of the evidence appears to support the use of natural gas as a transition fuel. 1. Seismic events It has been claimed that earthquakes may be triggered by hydraulic fracturing technologies. The word ‘earthquake’ tends to conjure up visions of massive seismic events resulting in large amounts of destruction and loss of life. It’s helpful to consider that most earthquakes are minor seismic events and cause no discernible damage. While most earthquakes are natural events, minor man-made events can occur as a result of blasting (road construction, mining). The force or magnitude of an earthquake is measured on a logarithmic scale: those below a magnitude of 5 rarely cause damage; those below a magnitude of 3 (i.e. 100 times less intense) are rarely felt, although they will be recorded on the seismographs used to record earthquake events. Earthquakes Canada provides data on earthquakes occurring in Canada and New Brunswick earthquake information can be found here also. For example, in 2012 there were 91 earthquakes recorded in the New Brunswick region (because regions are defined by longitude and latitude, the NB region also includes parts of Maine, PEI and Nova Scotia. You can adjust the settings provided by Earthquakes Canada to expand or reduce the area to be reported on.). Of the 91, 89 had a magnitude of 2 or less. Only 31 of the 91 were reported by members of the public. Many of these were from the earthquake ‘swarm’ that occurred in the Macadam area. In 2013, 19 events were recorded from January through June. Seventeen of those were magnitude 2 or less. So earthquakes are not uncommon, but very few earthquakes in New Brunswick cause damage. If you check the Earthquakes Canada site you can see for yourself whether or not seismic testing for shale gas over the past couple of years has resulted in an increase in the number of recorded quakes in New Brunswick. Can hydraulic fracturing cause earthquakes? The scientific evidence suggests that either fracturing itself or wastewater injection may induce small earthquakes, but there does not seem to be evidence that these are normally damaging to infrastructure or the environment (13). For example, Holland (7) concluded that hydraulic fracturing of an oil well in Oklahoma triggered earthquakes. A series of 116 earthquakes resulted. These occurred from 17-23 January 2011 with no other similar earthquakes identified at other times prior to or post-hydraulic fracturing. In other words, the earthquakes ended when the fracking stopped. The identified earthquakes ranged in magnitude from 0.6 to 2.9, with only 16 of 116 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or greater. Very minor earthquakes such as these would not be expected to cause damage and none was reported. Brodsky and Lajoie (1) found a good correlation between the volume of fracturing fluids injected or extracted from a well and seismic activity in California. In this case, the objective of fracturing was not to obtain shale gas but to develop geothermal energy sources. As the fracturing continued over a series of decades, the number of earthquakes per amount of fracturing activity appeared to decline. That might suggest a limit in earthquake activity in response to fracturing, but, again, that might depend upon the geology of the region. Ellsworth (5) noted that earthquakes induced by fracturing appear to be mainly minor events, but cautioned that deep injection of wastewater might result in larger earthquakes. He noted that wastewater injection was the likely cause of major quakes in the U.S. in 2011 and 2012, in particular the 5.6 Magnitude quake that struck Oklahoma and destroyed several homes. Horton (8) found similar swarms of seismic events in Kansas that were apparently associated with wastewater injection. It is possible therefore that wastewater injection, as opposed to fracturing itself, might pose a particular hazard. Ellsworth suggested increased monitoring, especially near wastewater injection sites. Van der Elst (6) reached similar conclusions, noting that fracturing seismic activity in a region increased the likelihood that the region might be hit by larger earthquakes originating at remote locations. Again, that might be dependent upon local geology; increased monitoring at well-injection sites was recommended. Overall, there does seem to be a relationship between the deep injection of wastewater and seismic activity. For the most part, that activity does not appear to be dangerous, but there are some reports suggesting that these minor events might make a region more susceptible to quakes that originate elsewhere. That possibility needs further investigation and, again, underlies the need for transparent and public monitoring. Literature cited: 1. Brodsky, E. and Lajoie, L. 2013. Anthropogenic Seismicity Rates and Operational Parameters at the Salton Sea Geothermal Field. Science 1239213 (Published online 11 July 2013) [DOI:10.1126/science.1239213] 1. Cathles, L., Brown, L., Taam, M., and Hunter, A.2012. A commentary on ‘The greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas in shale formations’ by R.W. Howarth, R. Santoro, and Anthony Ingraffea,” Climatic Change 113, no. 2: 525-535. 1. Cathles, L. M. 2012. Assessing the greenhouse impact of natural gas. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 13: 1525-2027 doi 10.1029/2012GC004032 1. Davies, R. 2011. Methane contamination of drinking water caused by hydraulic fracturing remains unproven. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 37: E871. 1. Ellsworth, W.L. 2013. Injection-Induced Earthquakes. Science (July 12) Vol.341 (6142) doi: 10.1126/science.1225942 1. van der Elst, NJ; Savage, HM; Keranen, KM,; Abers, GA.2013. Enhanced remote earthquake triggering at fluid-injection sites in the midwestern United States. Science (Jul 12) 341(6142):164-167. doi:10.1126/science.1238948. 1. Holland, A. 2013. Earthquakes triggered by hydraulic fracturing in south-central Oklahoma. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 103(3):1784-1792 1. Horton, S. 2012. Disposal of Hydrofracking Waste Fluid by Injection into Subsurface Aquifers Triggers Earthquake Swarm in Central Arkansas with Potential for Damaging Earthquake. Seismological Research Letters, March/April 2012, v. 83, p. 250-260, doi:10.1785/gssrl.83.2.250. 1. Howarth, RW., Santoro, R., and Ingraffea, A. 2011. Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations. Climatic Change 106, no. 4 : 679-690 1. Howarth, RW., Santoro, R., and Ingraffea, A. 2012. Venting and leaking of methane from shale gas development: response to Cathles et al. Climatic Change 113, no. 2 : 537-549 1. Jackson, R., Vengosh, A., Darrah, T., Warner, N., Down, A., Poreda, R., Osborn, S., Zhao, K., and Karr, J. 2013. Increased stray gas abundance in a subset of drinking water wells near Marcellus shale gas extraction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 28: 11250-11255. 1. Jiang, M., Griffin, WM., Hendrickson,C., Jaramillo, P., VanBriesen, J., and Venkatesh, A. 2011. Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of Marcellus shale gas, Environmental Research Letters 6, no. 3. 034014. 1. National Research Council. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies . Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2012. 1. Olmstead, S., Muehlenbachs, L., Shih, J-S., Chu, Z., and Krupnick, A. 2013. Shale gas development impacts on surface water quality in Pennsylvania. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 13: 4962-4967. 1. Osborn, S., Vengosh, A., Warner, N., and Jackson, R. 2011. Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 20: 8172-8176 1. Park, A. 2012. Shale Gas in New Brunswick: Promise, Threat, or Opportunity? Journal of New Brunswick Studies / Revue d’études sur le Nouveau-Brunswick, North America, 3, Dec. 2012. Available at: <http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/JNBS/article/view/20081/23218>. Date accessed: 19 Jul. 2013. 1. Rozell, D. J. and Reaven, S. J. (2012), Water Pollution Risk Associated with Natural Gas Extraction from the Marcellus Shale. Risk Analysis 32: 1382–1393. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2011.01757.x 1. Saba, T., and Orzechowski, M. 2011. Lack of data to support a relationship between methane contamination of drinking water wells and hydraulic fracturing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 37: E663. 1. Schon, S. 2011. Hydraulic fracturing not responsible for methane migration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 37: E664. 1. Xi Lu, Salovaara, J. , McElroy, M. 2012. Implications of the Recent Reductions in Natural Gas Prices for Emissions of CO2 from the US Power Sector. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2012,46 (5), pp 3014–3021 DOI: 10.1021/es203750k Facebooktwitterby feather
If You Read One Article About Entertainment, Read This One A Guide to Music Theory Music concept, many would argue, is definitely an essential part of actively playing any musical instrument. Still, when once looks at many of the different piano tutorials out about the market and also online, they do not necessarily look for a mere reference to the principle. The idea and examine of music is 1 of the most essential elements to the regarding the art form. This particular article is in defense associated with theory lessons, rather than basic monotonous instruction of the piano or computer keyboard. If you were to go to your local music coaching store plus randomly choose out a set of piano classes, you’d become shocked to see that will music concept is the very small part of the subject matter. Granted, the training are about learning the particular piano, but there are still fundamental things a single needs to learn in order to help their understanding associated with how piano (or any) music works. The idea that one can basically figure out how to play the key pad plus pay little interest in order to concepts of consonance, dissonance, and more superior subject areas of harmonization will be terrible. There can end up being simply no real mastery associated with any kind of musical instrument when there is not attention paid to is actually basic fundamental theory. The Knowledge of how audio functions (in time, space and on this emotions) is vital knowledge when a single desires to offer originality to the fine art. Practical and Helpful Tips: Music What you can also find usually are lessons that focus exclusively how to learn piano by simply hearing by way of a series of different tricks to miss over studying theory so a single could apply rules several get years in order to understand. This could end up being regarded a cop-out in one way. For example, these people by pass over reading linen songs, when that is an essential skill for almost any music performer. The Ultimate Guide to Options Further, folks who decline to learn music concept will be a servant to their shortcomings as musicians. How may one start to transpose songs and play in several keys if they do not really know exactly how this is usually done appropriately? Music theory instruction could do this particular. It starts up the whole new world of possibilities when this comes to playing any kind of instrument. One more argument with regard to including songs theory lessons in any music training courses is usually that this can help with the opportunity to improvise. Even though many contemporary genres of music perform not include factors of improvisation, there is certainly something in order to be said about getting the capability to perform so. That can help in formula, live overall performance and several other areas of enjoying. So that is very clear that any kind of musical coaching that does not firmly and thoroughly inspire study regarding theory in music, is not complete. Is actually a great essential portion of being able to play audio.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 Can Eating Organic Help You Get Thin? Photo by James Farmer Obesogens. A strange sounding new word the government is using to describe the chemicals that are making us fat So what are these mysterious obesogens they're referring to? A September 2011 report, put out by the government, reveals that they are Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals. Frederick Vom Saal PhD says that, "Obesogens are thought to act by hijacking the regulatory systems that control body weight". This system is our endocrine system which regulates our sleep, mood, sexual development, growth and development, hunger, stress, and metabolism. Pretty important stuff. These chemicals are disturbing the delicate balance of our endocrine system causing all sorts of physical issues including weight gain, or the inability to lose weight. It is possible that developmental exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, (EDCs) or other chemicals plays a role in the development of diabetes and childhood obesity. WeighingIn short these chemicals can cause diabetes, obesity, increase the number of fat cells, change how much calories your body can burn at rest, alter your energy levels, and mess with whether you feel hungry or not. We should look into how we get these chemicals into our bodies. The answer lies in both our food supply and environment. In food these obesogens are in the form of pesticides. A 2006 study of 23 children showed a very hopeful response to children who were switched to an organic diet. We conclude that organic diets provide a protective mechanism against OP (which are endocrine disrupting chemicals called organophosphorus pesticides) pesticide exposure in young children whose diets regularly consist of fresh fruits and vegetables, fruit juices, and wheat-containing items. Such protection is dramatic and immediate. (source- OP description and emphasis are mine) So they are telling us that if we buy foods that are organic, then it greatly reduces the amount of exposure we have to these disrupting chemicals. In as little as 5 days of being on an organic diet the children had reduced the amount pesticide chemicals in their bodies to barely detectable, or non- detectable levels! That's some very good news. In an ideal world I'd buy everything organic, but when working with a budget we have to strategize a bit. My easy guide for buying organic is that if we eat the skin of it (including cucumbers, potatoes, carrots, etc.) then I buy it organic. If we won't eat the skin of it, like kiwi, then I only buy organic if it's comparable in price to the non-organic. Don't avoid buying fruits and vegetables because of the chemicals, as these are foods your body very much needs to stay healthy. The study also refers to chemicals on wheat and in fruit juice. These items can easily be purchased organic as well. I usually pay $3.29 for a 1 lb. loaf of organic sprouted grain bread, which has loads more nutrition than regular wheat bread. As far as environmental exposure goes you can reduce your intake of these chemicals by never heating food in plastic containers, and don't buy food in cans unless they say "BPA free". Plastic wrapped meat in the grocery store can be another source, depending on the type of plastic wrap they use. This is a different kind of plastic wrap than what you probably use at home. To avoid exposure ask your supermarket if the wrap they use is made from PVC's. foodEat meats that are very lean, including lean fish like wild caught salmon. Ideally, eat meats that are pasture raised on organic feed, which are safe to eat a little fattier as well. Eliminate EDC's (endocrine disrupting chemicals) from tap water by filtering it with a carbon filter, like Brita or PUR, or a Berkey filter. If using the carbon filter you will want to add trace minerals back to the water. A dropper bottle can be purchased at health food stores or online. If using a Berkery (which I have an LOVE) you don't need to add the trace minerals because it does a crazy good job of filtering the water, while leaving in the trace minerals. Enjoy getting leaner, while you also get healthier! Other articles you may like: No comments:
ROSA & JOSEPHA BLAZEK – The Bohemian Twins ROSA & JOSEPHA BLAZEK - The conjoined Twins The conjoined sisters Rosa and Josepha Blažek were born in Skrejšov, Bohemia on January 20, 1878. The two were pygopagus – joined at the posterior. They shared tissue and cartilage but were also joined at a thoracic vertebra. It was that delicate fusion that negated any possibility of separation and when their mother took them to Paris at the age of thirteen, doctors told her just that. It was in Paris were the twins began their career in professional exhibition. Depending what story you believe, until that point their mother was either adamantly against displaying her daughters for profit or limited their publicity to local fairs. But the twins themselves saw Paris as an opportunity to get out of their tiny village. They found a manager, learned to sing and play the xylophone, and began drawing crowds. Like many conjoined performers, much was made of their differences in personality and tastes. Rosa was considered the sharper of the two. She was witty and talkative while Josepha was introverted. Physically Rosa was the more dominant of the two sisters. Josepha was slightly more deformed than her sister, with her left leg being substantially shorter than her right. In matters of promotion the pair was heavily sexualized and posters for their appearance at the Theatre Imperial de la Gaiete featured with bared midriffs and tight corsets. As a result the public conjectured on their sexual activity and the complications their physical condition posed. The Blažek sisters were famous in the 1890’s as they toured Europe. They eventually become quite skilled on the violin and stunned crowds with their enthusiastic duets. But, by the turn of the twentieth century, their popularity quickly evaporated due to poor management and overexposure. Their obscurity was shattered in 1909 when Rosa claimed to be pregnant. Controversy spread like wildfire and rekindled their celebrity. To the public, the idea of such a liaison was bewildering. Although the twins had separate vaginae, their physical proximity seemingly made any tryst a ménage à trois. The newspapers filled with rumour laced articles. Some believed the twins were sex crazed harlots; others depicted Josepha as an unwilling victim. Rosa claimed she had only had intercourse once and she refused to name the father. There was much speculation that their manager was the father and legend has it he gave the girls 95,000 marks for three years to keep the duo quiet. Regardless of the paternity, on April 16 1910 ‘Little Franz’ entered the picture. As Franz grew, he joined the twins’ travelling show as ‘The Son of Two Mothers’ and with their newfound celebrity the three of them left Europe and appeared in the united states, previously only visiting America during the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The twins set their sights on vaudeville and established a base in Chicago but their dream of the American stage was cut short when Rosa fell ill with influenza. As Rosa recovered, Josepha became sick and her illness soon overcame her. Doctors were uncertain of the diagnosis and shortly after being admitted into Chicago’s West End Hospital on March 22, 1922, Rosa fell into a coma. A brother, Frank, appeared out of nowhere and once Rosa also succumbed to a coma Frank spoke for the sisters. Newspapers disagree on the final days of the Blažek twins. Some claim Frank would not allow any attempt at surgical separation and others claimed Rosa was adamant about remaining joined or just as adamant about being separated. All newspapers agreed that Frank was a gold digger who only had his eye on their fortune. Josepha Blažek died on March 30, 1922. Rosa followed her twelve minutes later. With their death, another media frenzy began around who was entitled to their fortune. Soon after they were laid to rest, the matter was a moot point. It was discovered that the pair only had a savings of $400 between them. Even today, much controversy exists regarding the origins of Franz. Many historians and authors believe that the boy was nothing more than a well timed publicity stunt. While an autopsy confirmed that the two had separate uteri, it fails to mention any evidence of pregnancy. In fact, any evidence points to the contrary. In addition, stories of the paternity of Franz changed during the time the boy toured. At one point it was claimed that the baby boy was named after his father, a soldier named Franz Dvorak. It was claimed that Rosa married the soldier shortly before his death in 1917. But there is no record of the marriage, nor did the man ever appear publicly with his family. It was likely a story engineered to evoke sympathy and further attendance. It is known that Franz did spend time in an orphanage, and some believe that is where the boy originated from in the first place. The fate of Franz is currently unknown as he disappeared into history following the death of the Blažek twins.
SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips What Is Science Olympiad? A Complete Guide to Winning Posted by Christine Sarikas \| Jan 16, 2016 12:00:00 PM Are you interested in joining your school’s Science Olympiad team or are already a member and want to learn how to become a better competitor? This is the guide for you! I was on Science Olympiad for six years in middle school and high school. Four of those years my team went to Nationals, and I eventually became team captain and placed first in the nation in one of my events, so I know all the ins and outs of this competition. I’ll go over everything you need to know about what Science Olympiad is, what team members do, how competitions work, and how you can be a standout competitor. What Is Science Olympiad? Science Olympiad is a team competition activity for middle school (referred to by Science Olympiad as Division B) and high school (referred to as Division C) students. This guide will focus primarily on high school Science Olympiad teams although most of this information is true for both Division B and C. There are currently over 7,000 Science Olympiad teams across the country. A school’s team has up to 15 members who will compete at Regional, State, and National competitions. Teams can also have alternate members, although those members won’t compete except in special circumstances (learn more about alternate members in the next section). Division C has 23 different events that cover nearly every area of science, from earth science to cell biology to robotics and more. Each competition will have every event. Team members are usually assigned three or four events (typically only experienced members will get four events). Most events have two people working on them, although for some events you are allowed to have three members on the event. Science Olympiad team members often meet throughout the entire academic year. A team is usually assembled in the fall and competitions are held in the spring. If more than 15 people at a school want to join Science Olympiad, the school will often hold tryouts, similar to sports teams. Candidates will typically take science tests and the 15 students who score the highest will make the team. Read on to learn what members do once they join the team. What Do Members of Science Olympiad Do? Science Olympiad members spend most of their time preparing for their events. You will have to meet regularly for each of your 3-4 events to do well in competitions. Each event will have its own meeting time when you will work with your teammate(s) for that event as well as the event coach (usually a teacher but can also be a parent or other adult who knows the subject). For example, you could meet for your Forensics event Mondays after school, Experimental Design Thursdays after school, and Wright Stuff on Saturday afternoons. Each school creates a different meeting schedule, but many schools, particularly if they have a history of performing well or are trying to strengthen their team, will have a meeting once a week for each event. This can make Science Olympiad a significant time commitment, similar to a sport, except that it often lasts most of the year. Alternate Team Members Alternates are often members who didn’t quite make the official team but are still allowed to attend meetings and help the team prepare. Many students are alternates for a year before they join the team, and that year of preparation can help them gain a lot of knowledge on Science Olympiad and specific events. An alternate will only officially compete if a team member drops out or can’t make it to a specific competition. However, some competitions have special events that are only open to alternate team members. These events don’t affect a team’s final rank or score, but they give alternates a chance to become familiar with competitions and see how they compare to alternates from different schools. At some schools, alternates help with all events while at other schools they only focus on a few events, similar to team members. Science Olympiad Events As mentioned above, Division C has 23 different events, which you can view here. You can click on each event to get more information about it. At most schools, each team member will make a list of the top events they’d like to have, and the head coach will assign events. Members who have been on the team longer usually get first pick, and most members keep all or most of their events the same from year to year. The events are organized broadly by topic, such as life science, technology, and chemistry. This is useful if you are looking to sign up for events that match your specific interest. For example, if you are interested in biology, you may want to join the Cell Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, and/or Invasive Species events. However, there is another important distinction to be aware of. Most events can be sorted into one of two categories: study events and building events. These aren’t official terms, but a lot of schools use them, and they can be very helpful when you are trying to figure out which events to participate in. Study events are somewhat similar to preparing for a school science class. As the name suggests, they involve a lot of studying books and articles in order to prepare, and competitions often involve completing a written test. Some study events include Anatomy and Physiology, Dynamic Planet, and Astronomy. Building events, on the other hand, are more hands-on and require participants to spend more time creating something than book studying. The creation can be a glider, protein model, or something else. For some building events, students spend the entire year creating whatever it is they need for the event, while for other events you are required to do the building from start to finish at the competition. Some building events include Wright Stuff, Bridge Building, and Protein Modeling. Both categories can be interesting and teach you a lot. To learn more about how to choose the best events for you, scroll down to the section “How Can You Excel at Science Olympiad?” How Do Science Olympiad Competitions Work? Competitions are the main purpose of Science Olympiad; they are why you’re doing all that studying and preparation! Competitions are often held on college campuses, and the whole team (along with coaches) will travel to them to participate. Smaller competitions, such as Invitationals and Regionals, often last only a day, but State and National competitions usually take place over an entire weekend. Different events compete throughout the day; your team will be given a schedule several weeks ahead of time, so you know when your individual event competitions take place. For most events, members for that event from all schools will compete at the same time, although for some building events teams compete one at a time throughout the day. Your team will be assigned a homeroom, and when you’re not competing, you can prepare for your other events, relax, or meet people from other schools. Award ceremonies are held at the end of the day on the last day of competition. Medals are awarded to the top teams in each event, and all-around awards are also given to the schools that had the highest scores when all event scores are combined. Reminder: teams advance to different competition levels together. That means that, even if you get first place in all your Regional events, you will not advance to State unless your team did well enough overall to advance. There are four levels of Science Olympiad competitions, and I explain each in more depth below. The purpose of an Invitational competition is to help teams get more preparation; the results don’t affect future competitions or how far your team will advance. A high school will often organize an Invitational and invite other nearby schools to compete. They will be very similar to actual competitions. Invitationals are a great way for you and your team to get more competition experience and see how well you are doing compared to other teams. If you are on a team that is new or would like to improve its competition results, talk to the teacher in charge of Science Olympiad and suggest the team attend an invitational or host their own. Unlike other competition levels, a school can compete in multiple Invitationals during the year. Invitationals are held before the actual competitions, often in the late fall or early winter. Regional competitions are organized by state. The number of Regional competitions a state has is determined by both how large the state is and how many Science Olympiad teams the state has. Some states have two regional competitions, while others can have a dozen or more. (Some states with very few teams don’t have Regionals. Instead, participants go directly to the State competition.) The top schools advance to the State competition. The number of schools that advance varies by each competition. Some send the top two schools; others can send six or more teams to State. Regionals are typically held in February or March. Each state will have one State competition. The caliber of the teams is often significantly higher than it was at Regionals, so be prepared for that. The top 1-2 teams will advance to Nationals, out of often 20 or more teams competing. State competitions are typically held in early-mid April. This is the highest level of competition. If you and your team have made it this far, congratulations! The National competition takes place at a different college campus each year, so you may have to miss a few days of school so your team can travel there and back. Nationals can be a lot of fun because you get to explore a college campus, meet people from all over the country, and there is no pressure like there is at State to advance to the next round. Nationals are usually held in May, and the awards ceremony often has a prominent scientist as the keynote speaker. What Are the Benefits of Science Olympiad? Now that you know the basics of Science Olympiad, why should you consider joining it? Read on to learn about some of the top reasons to participate. Benefit #1: You Can Get Advanced Scientific Knowledge As a member of Science Olympiad, you can get very advanced scientific knowledge in certain subjects. Team members often use college-level textbooks and other learning materials in order to become experts on the subjects their events cover. When I was in Science Olympiad, one of my events was Dynamic Planet, which focuses on a different earth science topic each year. My first year the topic was glaciers, and by the end of the year, my partner and I had studied so much that we knew more about glaciers than probably anyone except people who studied them for a living. Gaining such advanced knowledge in a particular area of science can give you a huge head start if you plan on studying that subject in college. Even if your events don’t directly relate to your career goals (I did not become a glaciologist), the practice you get at studying a subject at a high level will help you when you enroll in college and have more rigorous classes. I know I felt much more prepared than many of my peers when I first enrolled in college science classes because I had a lot of practice in studying, researching, and understanding complex scientific ideas. If you prepare enough for your Science Olympiad events, you could end up as smart as this guy. Benefit #2: You Can Gain Research and Writing Skills Another potential benefit of Science Olympiad is that, by preparing for your events, you can greatly improve your writing and research skills. Almost every event requires some research, and the study events especially will give you great practice in researching scientific topics. Some of the events that require the most writing include Write It Do It and Experimental Design. Even if you don’t end up studying science in college, research and writing skills are two of the most important skills you can have if you want to do well in school. You’ll likely end up using them no matter what subject you major in, and if you’ve already developed these skills in Science Olympiad, you’ll be that much more prepared compared to your classmates. I personally believe that Experimental Design is one of the most useful events to do. Although I initially didn’t think its description sounded very interesting, I was placed in Experimental Design my first year in Science Olympiad and ended up competing in it all six years. In Experimental Design you quickly design, conduct, and write up a small scientific experiment. My two partners and I did a practice experiment almost weekly, and after six years of this, I felt like I could design a scientific experiment in my sleep. This was a huge advantage when I started college and took scientific lab classes. While my peers struggled to understand how to set up an experiment and write up the results, I already had years of practice. If you plan on doing any sort of research in the future, I’d highly recommend this event. Benefit #3: It's Impressive to Include on Your College Applications Colleges like to see applicants with extracurricular activities, and Science Olympiad can be a great one to include. First, as mentioned above, participating in Science Olympiad will give you the opportunity to learn about multiple areas of science and develop research and writing skills. If you’re planning on majoring in science, this will be an even bigger bonus because participating in Science Olympiad will show schools that you’re interested enough in science to want to learn more about it outside of class. Colleges want to admit students who are passionate about the subjects they plan on studying and majoring in. If you do well, you may also get awards, which you can include on your applications. There are many opportunities for awards at each competition level, and receiving an award further shows colleges that you’re knowledgeable about science and can apply yourself in your extracurriculars. Finally, Science Olympiad also requires a lot of teamwork. You will use teamwork all the time, as you and your partners work out the best ways to do well in events. Because college also requires a lot of teamwork and team players often get along with their peers better, colleges like to see applicants who can show they have experience with teamwork and working well with others. Benefit #4: There's a Chance to Win Scholarships If you and your team are Science Olympiad standouts, there is a chance for you to win (sometimes very large) college scholarships. Sometimes at State competitions but often at Nationals, students who place top in their event will be awarded a college scholarship. These scholarships are often specifically for the school that is hosting the event (so if the National competition is at the University of Illinois, the scholarship will often only be usable if you attend the University of Illinois); however, some can be used at any college or university. Especially in Division C, these scholarships can be very generous. At many National competitions, the hosting school will offer students who place first in one of their events a sizable scholarship, and some even offer free tuition for all four years. This can save you tens of thousands of dollars and reduce your college costs dramatically. Doing well in Science Olympiad can win you a lot of money for college. What Are the Drawbacks to Science Olympiad? In spite of its benefits, there are also potential drawbacks to Science Olympiad. The first is that Science Olympiad can be a significant time commitment. Many teams have their members meet several times a week throughout the majority of the school year, and you will also have to spend several of your weekends at competitions. This can be challenging to do if you are already trying to find time for other activities. A second potential drawback is that Science Olympiad may not be particularly enjoyable if you aren't interested in science. While some events focus more on other subjects like math and engineering, it's likely that at least one of your events will have a heavy science focus. If you don't like science, this could make it very boring to prepare for your events. Third, it's quite difficult and rare to win scholarships at Science Olympiad. Out of the tens of thousands of students who compete, only a handful will end up winning scholarships. This drawback is true for many activities, but it's important to keep in mind if one of the main reasons you're joining Science Olympiad is in the hope of winning some money for college. How Can You Excel at Science Olympiad? Science Olympiad is a team event, and how far you advance in competitions will depend not only on you but also your teammates and coaches. While you can’t control what they do, you can take it upon yourself to excel at your events. This can help you win awards at competitions and motivate your teammates to give their best effort as well. Follow the below tips to become a great Science Olympiad competitor. Tip #1: Choose Events That Play to Your Strengths Picking your events wisely is key to how well you do in Science Olympiad and how much you enjoy it. While you may not have complete control over which events you do, especially for your first year on the team, you usually can submit your top choices for consideration. There are two major things to think about when choosing events: 1. Which areas of science do you enjoy the most or want to learn more about? As mentioned above, Science Olympiad events cover many areas, so you have some choice over what topics you’d like to focus on. If you’re planning on being pre-med, maybe you want to do the Cell Biology and Anatomy & Physiology events. If you’ve always been interesting in engineering and aviation, Wright Stuff may be a great event for you. 2. Would you prefer study events, building events, or a combination of both? Preparing for a study event can be very different from preparing for a building event. Study events often include more reading and writing, and the amount of time you have to spend on them remains relatively consistent throughout the year. Building events are more hands-on and may require you to spend a lot of time on them (say an entire weekend) in order to get something right, and then not much time for a few weeks after that. Think about which types of events you’d prefer and be best at. Students who want to continue to study a particular subject in college and prefer a consistent practice schedule may prefer study events, while those who prefer to be more active and don’t mind spending time tinkering to get the project exactly right may do better with building events. It’s also very common for students to do a mixture of both events. I mostly did study events, but when I took on a fourth event I chose a building event, and I really enjoyed the change of pace. Also, don’t worry if you don’t get your top events right away. My first year on the team I didn’t get a single event I requested, and I still managed to enjoy myself and do well. Tip #2: Be Prepared to Put in the Time You can be certain that the teams that do best at Regionals and State and move on to Nationals meet about once a week for each of their events. Even if you’re getting great grades in your science classes, you likely won’t do well in Science Olympiad if you don’t study specifically for your events, since most events ask questions on specialized topics or require you to use specific skills. Doing well in your events requires regular meetings for each of your events, and you should be prepared to set aside this time when you join. Set up regular meeting times with your partners and coaches soon after you know which events you have. It may seem like Regionals is a long way away at the beginning of the school year, but starting your preparation early will help you feel more confident and reduce the need to cram right before competitions. If you want to be a stand-out competitor, be prepared to put in enough preparation time before competitions. Tip #3: Be Ready on Competition Day Competitions are when you get to show off all your hard work. Here are some tips to make sure these days go smoothly: • Know exactly where and when each of your event competitions are. • Get there early so you can set up your materials and be calm and ready when the timer starts. • Make sure you bring along all the recommended and required materials for each event (there is usually a list given out before competitions that lets you know what to bring for each event). • If you feel like something was scored incorrectly (and this does happen occasionally), tell your coach and have them talk to one of the supervisors immediately. The sooner this happens (ideally before the awards ceremony), the better chance you have of it being resolved in your favor. Science Olympiad competitions are a way to meet new people and show your knowledge and skills. As long as you choose your events wisely, prepare for your event throughout the year, and are ready on competition day, you have an excellent shot at doing well in your events and possibly winning awards and scholarships. Good luck! What's Next? Thinking about other science-related activities to participate in? Check out our complete guide to competing in science fair. Want to learn about other impressive extracurricular activities? Read our guide to see four examples of outstanding extracurriculars that are sure to impress colleges. Compare Prep Methods Raise Your ACT Score by 4 Points (Free Download) Christine Sarikas About the Author Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT 100% Privacy. No spam ever. Twitter and Google+ Ask a Question Below
Blog 1 Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s core idea was regarding gender inequality. This was very influential for feminists and is still relevant to this day. Women were almost programmed and set up in society as inferior to men due to the fact that in a traditional family the man was the breadwinner and the woman was the stay at home mother. The structure of this family is inherently exploitative because the economic compensation of women bears absolutely no relation to her labor. Regardless of the amount of work that is put in the home, the wife’s social and economic standing comes from her husband. Society has molded and given us a preconceived notion of what is right and what is wrong in regards to gender roles and gender inequality. We see pink and blue at baby showers, girl toys and boy toys at the toy store, and mothers take their daughter’s to ballet class and their son’s to karate. In this day and age, there have been many strides to shy away from the prominent gender differences. In the media for instance, many television shows have successful women in white-collar jobs. There has also been television shows and movies in which there was a “Mr. Mom” who did the regular daily duties that are said to be “maternal” and the woman was out making the money to support the family. When my brother and I were growing up my father stayed home with us, picked us up from school, and took us to after school activities. My mother was the parent who worked full-time yet still was the one to cook and clean and ensure we were always content in every way possible. Who is really to judge which role should be played by which parent? Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Battlefield Memories Mark 15:33-39 On the once bloody battlefield at Saratoga there stands a towering obelisk. A 155-foot-high monument commemorative of that decisive struggle where the British made their last stand over two centuries ago. It is a solemn and sober moment as visitors stand on that windswept hill, savoring that slice of national history. In the distance are the stately Adirondacks and the Taconics. The monument gives mute testimony to those heroes of yesteryear who refused to bow the knee to England. About its base are four deep niches, and in each niche appears the name of one of the American generals who commanded there. Above the names stand giant bronze figures on horseback . . . as famous today as in the day they shouted their commands. You can almost hear their voices. In the first stands Horatio Gates; in the second, Philip John Schuyler; and in the third, Daniel Morgan. But the niche on the fourth side is strangely vacant. The name appears, but the soldier is absent. Conspicuously absent. As one reads the name, the mind rushes on to the foggy banks of the Hudson where the man sold his soul and forfeited the right to be remembered. How the mighty are fallen! The brigadier general who once commanded West Point, the major general who distinguished himself at battles along Lake Champlain, Mohawk Valley Quebec, and Saratoga, committed treason and died a synonym of disgrace—the infamous Benedict Arnold. There is another empty niche, far more famous and in sharp contrast to that monument in the state of New York. It, too, stands in memory of a battle, but not the kind fought with guns and bayonets. This niche is actually a tomb . . . a place that once held a body, in fact, the most significant body that ever housed a human soul. The tomb was borrowed, appropriately, and “used” for only a few hours. But in perfect fulfillment of Scripture, it enveloped the dead Messiah. Deep in the silence of night, against all odds and in mockery of strong-armed soldiers, that victim became the Victor. “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes.” Or, as Charles Wesley wrote of that Easter-morning miracle: Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia! Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia! Death in vain forbids Him rise, Alleluia! Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia! The bloody battlefield paled into a misty memory as the tomb opened its jaws for all to enter. Death could not keep its prey . . . He tore the bars away . . . He came back from beyond. Every year the empty niche makes its own bold proclamation. Etched into the stone is a Name that is above every name, the gentle Conqueror, the King of Kings, the sovereign Lord. On Easter Sunday we shall again visit that historic battleground. We won’t find Him there on a cross or standing tall as a bronzed statue. For “He is not here . . . He has risen, just as He said” (Matthew 28:6). Let’s meet at the monument and let’s think about Him. And reflect on His victory. And remember His Name as we worship near that windswept hill called Calvary. from Chuck Swindoll’s Daily Devotional
Forensic Applications of Mass Spectroscopy Home > Preview The flashcards below were created by user bkkrafft on FreezingBlue Flashcards. 1. Name some of the forensic applications of mass spectroscopy. • Drug Analysis (cocaine, hash, LSD) • Toxicology (poisons, alcohol, mace) • Arson (petroleum, alcohol based ignitable liquids) • Explosives (nitro-substituted benzenes, TATP) • Trace Analysis (polymers, adhesives, general unknowns) 2. What is a mass spectrometer? An analytical instrument which creates charged particles from molecules, separate ions, and detect ions. 3. A mass spectrometer separates ions according to which ratio? mass to charge (m/z) 4. What are the 2 gas-phase methods of ionization? • Electron Impact • Chemical Ionization 5. What are the 2 spray methods of ionization? • Electrospray • Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization 6. What are the 2 desorption methods of ionization? • Fast Atom Bombardment • Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization 7. How is the molecular ion formed in electron-impact? it is the result of a high energy electron colliding with a molecule forcing the loss of an electron from the molecule 8. T/F: Molecular ions may degrade further to smaller fragment ions as a result of residual energy from the electron impact process. 9. ______ of the filament in the source causes the emission f electrons which are accelerated towards the anode in the ______ ______ ionization technique. • Heating • electron impact 10. Name some of the advantages of electron impact. • Well-established • Fragmentation libraries exist • Interface to GC • Non-Polar Samples 11. Name some of the disadvantages of Electron Impact. • Parent Identification • Need volatile sample • Need thermal sample • Low mass compounds (<1000 amu) 12. Define radicals 13. Define neutrals a particle that has neither positive nor negative electric charge; a net electric charge of zero 14. Define cations an ion or group of ions having a positive charge and characteristically moving toward the negative electrode in electrolysis; even electron species 15. Define radical ion a charged compound that has an unpaired electron; it may be either a radical cation or radical anion; odd electron species 16. What is the most common and simplest fragmentation? bond cleavage resulting in neutral radicals and a cation 17. What is the less common fragmentation type? An even-electron neutral is lost and results in odd-electron radical cation fragment ion 18. What is heteroatom participation? the presence of a functional group containing a heteroatom (N, S, O, X) can alter the fragmentation pattern 19. Between what 2 things do the ion molecule reactions occur in chemical ionization? • ionized reagent gas molecules • volatile analyte neutral molecules 20. In positive ion mode of chemical ionization, is a proton added or subtracted? 21. What are the advantages of the chemical ionization technique? • parent ion presence • interface to GC 22. What are the disadvantages of the chemical ionization technique? • no fragment library • need volatile sample • need thermal stability • low mass compounds (<1000 amu) 23. What is the nitrogen rule? Ions without N atoms or those with an even number of N atoms have an even numbered mass, and the majority of the fragment ions have odd masses. Ions with an odd number of N atoms have an odd numbered mass and the majority of the fragment ions have even masses. 24. T/F: The presence of bromine or chlorine in a molecule or ion are not easily detected by the intensity ratios of ions differing by 2 amu. False! They can be easily detected by the intensity ratios differing by 2 amu. 25. What 2 ions are included in the 50:50 mixture of bromine? 79Br and 81Br 26. What 2 ions are included in the 75:25 mixture of chlorine? 35Cl and 37Cl Card Set Information Forensic Applications of Mass Spectroscopy 2010-12-01 04:35:05 Forensic Chemistry Mass Spectroscopy Show Answers: What would you like to do? Home > Flashcards > Print Preview
Philosophy Lexicon of Arguments Author Item Excerpt Meta data Books on Amazon V 145 Definition Stalnaker-conditional/Lewis: A>C (pointed) is true iff the least possible change that makes A true also makes C true - (least possible revision). Lewis: the probability of Stalnaker-conditionals are usually not equal to the conditional probability. V 146 Stalnaker-conditional/Truth conditions/Lewis: T(A>C)) WA(C) if A is possible. V 148 Conditional/Credibility/Belief/Stalnaker: in order to decide whether to believe a conditional: 1) add an antecedent to the set of beliefs - 2) minimal corrections for consistency - 3) decide whether the consequent is true - LewisVsStalnaker: that is just conditionalization and not representation. Indicative conditional/assertibility/probability/Jackson/Lewis: the discrepancy between the assertibility of P (C I A) and the probability of the truth of P (A>C) lies with one or the other Grice implicature. - The right of access to this implicature must depart from the premise that the conditional has the truth conditions of the (truth-functional) A>C (horseshoe) - (Lewis pro). - Implicature: E.g. "here you are right" (but mostly you are wrong). V 154 Indicative conditional/Lewis: is a truth-functional conditional that conventionally implies robustness (insensitivity to new information) in terms of the antecedent - hence the probability of both conditionals must be high - therefore the assertibility of the indicative conditional comes with the corresponding conditional probability. - maxim: "assert the stronger one". D. Lewis Die Identität von Körper und Geist Frankfurt 1989 D. Lewis Konventionen Berlin 1975 D. Lewis Philosophical Papers Bd I New York Oxford 1983 D. Lewis Philosophical Papers Bd II New York Oxford 1986 LwCl I Cl. I. Lewis > Counter arguments against Lewis > Counter arguments in relation to Conditional ... Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2017-09-22
Dismiss Notice Dismiss Notice Join Physics Forums Today! Home Work question 1. Sep 19, 2008 #1 A frictionless plane is 10.0 m long and inclined at 35.0°. A sled starts at the bottom with an initial speed of 5.00 m/s up the incline. When the sled reaches the point at which it momentarily stops, a second sled is released from the top of the incline with an initial speed vi. Both sleds reach the bottom of the incline at the same moment. (b) Determine the initial speed of the second sled. I would give you an equation I had a clue of what to do if someone can lead me in the right direction with an equation or something I just dont know what to do at all. 2. jcsd 3. Sep 19, 2008 #2 User Avatar Homework Helper Welcome to PF. If you need equations look here: 4. Sep 19, 2008 #3 Thank you very much that helped a lot I have another question now. A 1000 kg car is pulling a 275 kg trailer. Together, the car and trailer have an acceleration of 2.28 m/s2 in the forward direction. Neglecting frictional forces on the trailer, determine the following (including sign). (a) the net force on the car (b) the net force on the trailer (c) the force exerted by the trailer on the car (d) the resultant force exerted by the car on the road direction ° measured from the left of vertically downwards I have the answer to A B and C they were easy just cant get D. 5. Sep 19, 2008 #4 Nvm I have figured out the problem. Similar Discussions: Home Work question 1. Home Work question (Replies: 3)
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES University of San Carlos School of Engineering School of Mechanical Engineering Internal Combustion Engines Alvaro Avila THE USE OF GASEOUS FUEL IN A DIESEL ENGINE, ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES GENERAL OBJECTIVE To know the performance of Internal Combustion Engines by gaseous fuel, as wel l as analyze the advantages and disadvantages that brings the gas fuel use, chec k the operation of the through parts of a MCI. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of gaseous fuel. An economic evaluation of gaseous fuel. the process for use a Be aware of the global energy situation. nd applications of gas fuels. GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES GAS DIESEL ENGINES Gaseous fuels are called hydrocarbons to natural and manufactured exclusively fo r use as fuel, and those obtained as a byproduct in certain industrial processes and can be harvested for fuel. The composition of these varies depending on the origin of the same, but the components can be classified can be classified into combustible gases (CO, H2, (HC)) and other gases (N2, CO2, O2). Gaseous fuels a re classified as natural gas fuels Gaseous fuels manufactured We want to know the percentage of components that make up the gas. These are use d to the same procedures as for the analysis of combustion gases. There is anoth er classification of gaseous fuels with respect to their degree of interchangeab ility. This allows us to classify families gaseous fuels, which are three: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. FEATURES AND BENEFITS OF GASEOUS FUELS The calorific value, one of the most important properties of a fuel, is expresse d for gaseous fuels per unit volume in normal conditions. The calorific value wi ll vary greatly depending on the type of gas that we are driving, and therefore, depending on the components of the fuel we're driving. Non-combustible componen ts of a fuel will lower the heat efficiency of combustion. However, despite this Get an overview of the properties a , sometimes a GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES lower quality fuel but is a byproduct of an industrial process may be more advan tageous financially. We recall that there are two kinds of calorific value: Calorific value, which is released to perform the combustion of a unit volume of gas Calorific Value, which is the same as above, but without taking into accoun t the heat of condensation of water produced in combustion. Calorific units are kcal/m3; Btu/ft3, Cal / L The unit volume can be: Nm3: Under normal conditions: Volume measured PN: 1 atm TN: 0 º C Sm3: In standard conditi ons: Volume measured PS : 1 atm TS: 15.6 º C To express the energy released in c ombustion is used TERMS ENDS = 2500 cal for calculating the calorific value of g aseous fuel is necessary to know the composition of the (corporción components). Knowing the heats of combustion of the individual components is relatively simp le to calculate the calorific value of fuel: Another important property of fuel is the specific heat. It is defined as the am ount of heat required for the unit mass of gas increases its temperature 1 ° C. Units are cal / g º C; Kcal / kg º C Btu / lb ° F. But the truth is that with in creasing temperature there is a dilation, is therefore defined the following spe cific heats at constant volume specific heat (Cv) Specific heat at constant pr essure (Cp) GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Cv is less than Cp, because you have to take into account the expansion work to be performed. There is a relationship between these two values: Cp / Cv Monatomi c Gas: 1.67 diatomic gas: 1.40 triatomic Gas: 1.33 Another property of gaseous f uels is the viscosity. As the temperature increases the viscosity. There are two types of viscosities, kinematics and dynamics. Another property of gaseous fuel s is the index of WABBA (W). Also corrected WABBA index, defined as the ratio be tween the PCS and the root of the relative density: The index takes into account fixed WABBA hydrocarbons heavier than CH4, CO2 and other: Wc = K1 · K2 · W K1 and K2 depend on the family of fuel and CO2 content, CO and O2.Also the effect of hydrocarbons heavier than methane A useful feature of gaseous fuel is called combustion potential, which is defined as follows: a: factor characteristic of the flame speed GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Another important feature of fuels is their interchangeability. It is said that two gases are interchangeable when distributed under the same pressure on the sa me network and without regulatory changes produce the same results of combustion (the same heat flux) and the flame has the same identical position and the same behavior as well. It is impossible in reality that two gases are interchangeabl e to 100%, what is that actually looks almost be interchangeable. There are some diagrams of exchanges in which one can quickly see if a gas is interchangeable with another (Delbourg diagrams) COMBUSTION OF A FUEL GAS In the combustion of a gaseous fuel is easy to deduce that the mixing with the o xidant is performed in an easy manner. The manner in which combustion takes plac e basically is the same as for a solid or liquid fuel. Is still used, in general , the air as oxidizer, but sometimes uses oxygen. It is necessary in this case t he use of burners, which is where it will produce the fuel mixture combustion. C ombustion is rapid but not instantaneous. Time is needed to facilitate the react ion mixture. Combustion is, as we know, an oxidation reaction. The flame is the source of heat for this reaction. In any combustion process are three conditions that must be met: 1) To which can be initiated and propagate combustion, it is necessary that both the fuel and oxidizer are mixed in certain proportion and th e temperature of the mixture is higher than locally flashpoint 2) To maintain co mbustion must occur to products originating from the combustion to evacuate as t hey occur The power of the oxidizer and fuel is such that the conditions laid down so far (1) GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 3) For the combustion takes place in good condition must be satisfied that: The air used in combustion is that corresponding to complete combustion without exce ss air = air minimal air used There should be a given turbulence and a certain time FEATURES OF THE COMBUSTION OF GASES Ignition temperature: ignition temperature is the lowest temperature that can be initiated and propagated at a point of combustion air mixture gas. The self-ign ition of a gas-air mixture occurs about 650-700 º C. Flammability Limits: We u nderstand these as percentages of air and gas which have a mixture of both so yo u can start and spread the combustion of the mixture. It is usually expressed as a percentage of combustible gas in the mixture. Both the excess fuel and oxidiz ers are harmful to the combustion outside the flammability limits Burning velocity: The speed of propagation of a stable flame PARAMETERS OF INTEREST IN THE COMBUSTION OF GASES: THEORETICAL AIR POWER COMBURÍ VORO O The amount of air necessary to ensure the combustion of 1 m of gas. Usually expr essed in normal m3 of gas normal aire/m3 3 CAN SMOKE (SMOKE OR COMBUSTION GASES) GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Joint Products in gas obtained in the combustion process. This is the volume exp ressed in C / N combustion gases obtained in the complete combustion of 1 Nm3 of gas associated with a quantity of air equal to the theoretical. Can be distingu ished: dry Smokes: Not water vapor wet Smoke: Considered the water vapor They are expressed in normal gas humos/Nm3 nm2 CONTENTS OF EXCESS AIR A theoretical combustion air is impossible, so it is necessary in practice an ex cess of air, which is regulated by the rate of supply (which is the rate of exce ss air or something similar). Could be incomplete combustion, unburned gas to al ways (will never appear unburned solids). THEORETICAL TEMPERATURE COMBUSTION That temperature combustion products reach if all the heat generated in the samp le could be used in heating. This is impossible for heat losses in the installat ion. Enriching the oxygen content is possible to increase the current temperatur e of combustion to a certain limit. The hardware of the combustion gases are fue l burners. The burner is the body designed to produce the flame.It does this by connecting the necessary amounts of air and gas to the combustion takes place. The burner should regulate a number of areas, including: The air-gas mixture. It is adequate at all times flows of air and gas flame stab ility Dimensions and shape of the flame. This is done to adjust the flame to the combustion site. Radiation power of the flame at a given time GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES The burners can be classified by the number or type of fuel with which they work , or also by the mode of operation. NUMBER OR TYPE Multigas: Work types of fuel, fuels (liquid pe OF FUEL with various gases at once Mixed: They can work with different but not both simultaneously March: They burn both gas and other or solid) March alternative: They can only burn a given fuel ty OPERATING MODE Atmosphere: They have called short, low pressure, air enters the place with some fans Pressure: Pressure of up to 3 atm Boca Radiant: The entrance of the mixing is carried out through a nozzle of a sp ecial refractory material is heated to incandescence during operation, which fac ilitates the combustion of gases. COMBUSTION CALCULATIONS GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES The combustion calculations are similar to those already seen. The calculations are to be provided in volume. If you're burning a gas mixture, each has an indep endent equation. ADVANTAGES OF GASEOUS FUELS Easy to handle and transport via pipelines have no ashes or foreign matter from the combustion control is much easier, allowing us to maintain the temperature o f combustion even with variable demands Ability to regulate the furnace atmosphe re to get us as reducing atmospheres Possible appropriate heat regenerative and recuperative gas, thus raising the temperature of combustion, and therefore, inc reasing the thermal efficiency. Come or tend to come from low-quality solid fuel s, so we can give better use of such fuels is possible to determine its exact co mposition, making it possible to determine its calorific value quite well. With the same heat transfer, the flame that produces a gaseous fuel is shorter than t hat creates a solid or a liquid fuel. GASIFICATION OF SOLID FUELS Gasification is the conversion of carbonaceous material in any gas through the r eaction of O2 incandescent coal, water vapor, CO, SO2. This causes us a set of p roducts in state gas composition and properties depend on the nature of the gasi fying agent that we are using in the process. The gasifying agent is going to co nstrain the use of the product as fuel or gas as feedstock in other chemical pro cess above. In principle all are suitable for gasifying coal. Aerating are usual ly products that have no use in coke ovens. We are interested in processes where combustible gas is obtained. GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES GASIFICATION WITH WATER VAPOR Thus we get gas or water gas blue (this name is because of the color of the flam e, blue, characteristic of the combustion of CO). The main reaction that takes p lace is: C (S) + H2O + 30 Kcal This is an endothermic reaction has a blue gas ca lorific value of 2580/2670 kcal/m3 to PTS (standard temperature and pressure) Th is represents 60-80 % of coal PCS. The yield from gasification is defined as the ratio between the PC and PCS gas coal which proceeds, ie CO + H2 The gas is used as fuel water is often more advantageous than direct coal combus tion. Using water gas is obtained: Improve the mixture fuel / oxidizer, thus improving control of combustion, and a lso does that for complete combustion is required additional air fewer higher te mperatures are obtained, because the heat generated is used much better We can p reheat the fuel and oxidizer while no SO2 in the combustion ash or unburned No s olid DETAILS BELOW ARE SOME OF THE "PRO" AND "AGAINST" THE DIESEL ENGINES GAS VS. Fuel consumption (Diesel Advantage) GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES There is more energy (BTU) in terms of calorific value on a gallon of diesel fue l in a cubic meter of gas. In other words, a diesel engine produces more power w ith less fuel than a gas engine.Results may vary but typically is between 12-75 % of fuel economy using diesel fuel. In addition, by design, diesel engines cons ume less fuel in "empty" about a 1 / 3 part vs gas. Initial Cost: Advantage Gas diesel engines they are designed and built a very robust (heavier and more robus t) eg cylindrical walls thicker, more robust block etc., and this usually means an increase in cost. Durability: Advantage diesel The diesel engine should be mu ch more robustly built to withstand / support the cylindrical compression ratios , temperature, etc.. Short Term Maintenance (Advantage) Gas Oil Changes in diese l engines are more expensive due to the capacity of the sump and filter life siz e (bigger). In addition, fuel filters and water separators must be changed more frequently. There are also aware that diesel engines do not require "tune up" as required by gas engines. One need only quote the price of an injection pump to realize the costs they are. Again, preventive maintenance plays a very important ! Long Term Maintenance (Advantage) Diesel Diesel engines typically they are des igned to work much longer hours and under adverse conditions, before requiring a n overhaul. We must also keep in mind that any negligence on the level of preven tive maintenance on a diesel engine will be in a much higher cost in terms of co rrective repair vs a gas engine. Note: The diesel engine tends to be more "Bullo us" that the gas engine, especially operating in a vacuum. Power in terms of dis placement "cc" Advantage: Difficult to quantify ..... Example, usually the large r or heavier the load factor (at low rpm), the diesel engine tends to be higher. Gas engines usually have more power in "peak" but this requires operation at hi gh engine speeds (rpm) and they are designed to operate in this way for long per iods. Diesel engines do not require work at higher revs to produce its maximum p ower "peak" and therefore if they are designed to GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES operate during periods of time resulting in a higher life. Inertia in terms of a ssimilating "blocks" load: Advantage Diesel This is a very important point. Gene rator sets powered by a gas engine will not have enough mass / stability in view of its very light physical construction (manufacturing), and therefore can not assimilate "block load" treated as diesel engines. The latter causes serious pro blems of stability / instability on doing a "block" engine load. The proof is th at if you submit two sets of similar capacity (kVA) to a load block, notice that the gas engine tends to take more than the diesel engine in the process of assi milation of charge. In short, the diesel engine is ideal for this application du e to very robust diseòo and construction of it. Cold Temperature: Advantage Gas When the temperature drops (especially sub-zero) some delay in starting diesel e ngines. Equipping a diesel engine with a block heater (block heater) helps allev iate this problem. However, depending on where you placed this engine can be a b it difficult to find a power source to maintain the heater energized. Gas Diesel engines are so called because they work like heavy oil diesel, or com pressed air only, fuel injected near TDC, at the end of the compression stroke, and depends solely on compressed air temperature to ignite the auxiliary fuel an d thus produce the ignition of gaseous fuel. These engines were the first high-c ompression gas-fired, but have been displaced by later types (mixed and spark) t hat are simpler and cheaper. One of the main models of diesel gas market is a tw o-stroke engine Nordberg, the composition and general characteristics, such as c ompression pressure are equal to those of heavy oil Nordberg engine two times. I ts individual elements are: a gas compressor three-stage gas pressure rises to t he injection pump for each cylinder that drives the auxiliary fuel,injection va lves that admit both gas and heavy oil in each cylinder and a hydraulic mechanis m that opens the injection valves at the right time and varies the separation of these under the control of the regulator should be defined as the amount of gas needed to drag the load. GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES The gas compressor is automatically controlled to supply gas to approximately 77 lb/in2. This gas reaches the injection valve mounted in the cylinder head from the storage bottle, after passing through a chiller and compressor. For each cyl inder there is an auxiliary fuel pump that delivers a small fixed amount of heav y oil to each of the injection valves. When a fuel valve opens, fuel is opened, the auxiliary fuel is blown by compressed gas cylinder, which is pre-compressed air to about 35 kp / cm2 and 540 ° C. This causes the ignition temperature and g as combustion also stabilizes it. A pump drive, led by the camshaft is connected through a pipe with an actuator mounted on the cylinder head, which synchronize s the opening of the injection valve and also controls the separation of the val ve. The controller varies the amount of hydraulic fluid that comes in every race drive pump, regulating the separation of the injection valve and the amount of gas injected. The amount of auxiliary fuel necessary to ignite and stabilize the combustion mixture is about 5% of the total full load of fuel, power calorífico .m measure in the performance of these fuel gas diesel engines in terms of calor ific gas and auxiliary fuel consumed per unit of useful power is approximately e qual to that which is working with heavy oil. However, the price is higher than the engine of a diesel power, given the existence of gas compressor, the hydraul ic operating mechanism and the additional liquid fuel pumps, hence the adaptatio n of a conventional diesel gas operation only is interesting for large engines. Fuel switching to switch from gas to consume consume heavy oil requires several hours. GASEOUS FUELS Both dual-fuel engines as the ignition work profitably with many types of gaseou s fuels and, in general, these fuels can be grouped into three broad classes: na tural gas Artificial Gases GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Gas Recovery These three classes differ not only their properties but what is important in its commercial availability. NATURAL GAS Natural gas is a more ideal fuel. Can be found in commercial quantities in many countries and distributes dare extensive pipeline network. It is not known natur al gas, but is often found associated with oil. Natural gas is odorless and colo r has a variable composition, depending on their origin, but methane is always m ore important as a component with 75% and 90%. The gas from a certain area usual ly contains sulfur as hydrogen sulfide, a highly corrosive compound, of a gas of this type is said to be a sulfur gas and also a working gas. GAS RECOVERY The gases are produced as byproduct during the manufacture of other substances a re called recovery gases such as well-known bottled fuel, butane and propane are easily liquefied at low pressure. They are also by-products are relatively chea p. GAS FUEL SUPPLY The system of gas fuel is an installation that brings the gas supply to the need s and specifications of the gas engine. It is vital for the proper functioning o f the motor, which removes fluid and liquid, said supply pressure and remove sol id impurities that can drag the gas. This system takes the gas supplied by the d istribution network, separate compounds that come in liquid, regulated line pres sure to supply adequate engine governor GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES It consists of a gas-liquid separator, a gas regulator and gas filter. The liqui d separator consists simply of a cylindrical plate inside where the inlet gas sh ocks, making coalesce liquid droplets carried by the gas and deposited on the in side, this action is favored by increasing the residence time of fluid and inclu ding changes in the direction of flow.Liquid separation is performed by expansi on and change of direction of flow in a container, decreasing the fluid kinetic energy when it collides with plates on their way, leaving the gas under the acti on of gravity as long as possible. This tortuous path and the residence time, it makes drops of liquid remain in the plates and opt for the action of gravity. T he separated liquid drain out through the bottom and can be manually or automati cally. The gas regulator has a membrane exposed on one side to a reference press ure (usually atmospheric pressure) and the action of a spring whose tension can be adjusted from outside by turning a screw cap and the other at the upstream pr essure through a hole. The gas pressure which is to regulate, enters through an orifice, according to the volume will provide and on which acts a shutter lever connected by a membrane. The operation of pressure regulator can be summarized as follows: if the upstrea m gas pressure regulator is increased, it is transmitted through a hole in the m embrane, pushing it up, with this action and through its lever system, the shutt er closes off the gas, which reduces the gas pressure, the spring pressure on th e membrane, it reacts by pushing down restoring balance and reopening the hole, with these actions will be able to maintain the gas pressure GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES constant. The regulator using a mechanical membrane, and obturator antagonistic spring, maintains, raises or lowers the inlet pressure, conditioning is required by the carburetor of the engine. If the supply pressure is too high, you could use two pressure regulators of different ranks, connected in series, depending o n the application, before entering the carburetor. The system works well if the gas at the end of it, no liquid carryover and has the required pressure for the next step. To place under this system, I must ensure that the gas intake valve i s open the same, the liquid separator that is well drained and the gas regulator is adjusted to the required outlet pressure. If the system malfunctions we can see at the exit of a wet gas separator with high carryover of liquid or to take the pressure regulator output value is outside the range specified for it. To re move the liquid into the system: it must serve the same, draining all the fluids accumulated in the bottom of the separator. Regulation of gas pressure: the reg ulators can be adjusted to the desired pressure by placing a pressure gauge at t he outlet for a continuous reading, while pressure is regulated by adjusting the spring tension acting on the membrane. A common fault in the pressure regulator s is the rupture of the membrane. Safety precautions must be extreme because the system contains a fuel, so for any job in any of its components must be isolate d from the power supply of gas, vent gas pressure inside and drain fluids Joined also by any cause should be made hot work anywhere in this circuit. Regarding t he environment, we will be careful to collect all liquid drains and vents to tre at than other circuits is recirculated gas treatment. Gaseous Fuel System (GFS) The Gaseous Fuel System (GFS) enables operators of diesel engines to reduce thei r operating costs and reduce emissions by substituting diesel fuel GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES gas. The GFS system is comprised of proprietary technologies that allow the gas engine operation using percentages between 50% -70% of the total fuel required. Converted to gas engines have a behavior similar to diesel engines in terms of p ower, performance and efficiency. A key feature of the GFS system is its ability to change the fuel type without interrupting the operation of the vehicle. The conversion to gas does not require any internal modification to the engine, and can usually be done in a matter of hours. The GFS system is compatible with CNG and LNG storage. Applications: Urban and Municipal Buses, trucks, garbage trucks , dump trucks, locomotives, cranes, Construction Equipment, Mining Equipment, Tu gs. Advantages: Reduction in operating costs. If required, the vehicle can o perate 100% diesel. Reduced cost vs. gas combustion engines. Compatible with CNG and LNG storage. All high pressure components approved by CSA and UL list ed. Natural gas is supplied to the engine at atmospheric pressure. Reducing the risk of over supply of fuel. The concentration of gas in the engine combus tion air is less than 3%. The mixture is not explosive or flammable until they are compressed into the combustion chamber. Systems CNG / LNG has an excellen t safety record. The savings is based on the price differential between CNG / LNG and diesel. Differential high result in quick return. Application of hig h consumption result in greater savings. Installation Requirements: 8-10 man-h ours. No special tools required. It may require some mounting brackets. GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES The implementation can be done on the road or dynamometer. Dimensions: Model S eries I Series II Series III Series IV Series Kilowatt (kW) Up to 150 300 350-60 0 350-1100 1200-3000 Power (HP) Up to 200 Up to 400 450-800 850-1400 1600-4000 GFS KIT Train of Diesel Fuel Gas Control Air-Gas Mixer Electroni c Control Wiring Harness CNG Level Display Optional Status Indicator System Inst allation Manual GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Performance: GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES DIESEL FUEL SUPPLIES GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Generators powered by diesel engine are generally designed to operate with ASTM D975 diesel fuel number 2. Perhaps another type of fuel to function during a sho rt-term quality and physical characteristics in Table 1. Diesel generators consume about 0.07 gal / hr (0.26 L / hr) of fuel per kW of to tal load range based on its range of emergency. For example an emergency generat or will consume 70 KW 100 gal / hr of fuel, there are considerable differences i n the capabilities of the engines from the manufacturers. In mechanical pumps th ere are many limitations on most engines, many facilities that require remote ma in tanks also require intermediate tanks. GAS FUEL SUPPLY Gas generators (also called ignition generators) can use natural gas r both. The dual systems with natural gas as primary fuel and LP gas can be used in seismic risk areas and where there is concern that a nt can disrupt the functioning of the public gas grid. Regardless of ed, the main factors in the installation and successful operation of m are GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES The gas supplied to the generator must be of acceptable quality. The gas supply mu st have enough pressure. The generator must supply gas in sufficient volume to support its operation, to LP suction systems, the tank size and temperature als o affect this requirement. QUALITY OF FUEL GAS Gaseous fuels are a mixture of different hydrocarbons such as methane, ethane, p ropane and butane, other gaseous elements like oxygen and nitrogen, vaporized wa ter and various contaminants, some of which are potentially harmful to the engin e over time. The quality of fuel is based on the amount of energy per unit volum e and the amount of energy per unit volume and the amount of pollutants in. ENERGY CONTENT One of the most important features in the gas generator is used in a heat value. The fuel value describes how much energy is stored in a specific volume of fuel . The gas has a lower heating value (LHV) and a heat value (HHV). The value of h eat available to do the work in an engine after the water has vaporized fuel. If the low heat value of fuel is too low, even if a sufficient volume of fuel to t he engine, the engine can not maintain total power output because there is insuf ficient energy in the engine into mechanical energy convertidla if the LHV is be low 905 BTU/ft3 the engine could not produce power in a standard ambient tempera ture conditions. Each engine may have slightly deferential performance character istics based on the type of fuel supplied, due to compression deference, and if the engine is normally aspirated or turbo charged. NATURAL GAS LINE GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES The most common fuel for generators is called "natural gas line." In the United StatesDry natural gas line has specific qualities based on federal requirements in other countries the natural gas line may vary in content, and its characteri stics should be checked before use with a generator. The U.S. natural gas is a c ompound pro mescal 98% methane and 2% of hydrocarbons such as butane and propane . GAS FIELD The composition of natural gas field varies considerably by region and continent . Careful analysis is required before using natural gas field may have heavier h or LP gas o as a backup natural eve the fuel us a gas syste ydrocarbons such as pentane, hexane and heptane derratear which require motor ou tput. They may also have components such as sulfur. PROPANE (LPG) Propane is available in two grades on commercial or special use. The commercial propane is used where high volatility is required. Not all spark ignition engine s operate acceptably with the fuel due to its volatility. The special use propan e also known as HD, is a mixture of 95% propane and other gases such as butane t hat allow better performance through reduced volatility. The propane fuel specia l use conforms to the ASTM 1835 for special use propane. CONTAMINANTS The most damaging pollutants in gaseous fuels are sulfur and water vapor. Water vapor is harmful because it can cause burning uncontrolled pre-ignition or other effects that can damage the engine vapor or liquid droplets must be eliminated from the fuel before entering this with one of "dry filter" that Note the fuel s ystem pressure regulator before the primary fuel. Sulfur causes corrosion and se rious damage to the engine in very short periods of time, the effects of the dam age of sulfur can be counteracted by the use of certain high-ash lubricants. GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES CONCLUSIONS In discussing the benefits of gas fuel gases are obtained as a byproduct durin g the manufacture of other substances are called recovery gases among which are butane and propane which are easily liquefied at low pressure. They are also byproducts are relatively cheap. In discussing the benefits we also find the fol lowing features. Easy to handle and transport via pipeline No ashes or forei gn matter present The combustion control is much easier, allowing us to mainta in the temperature of combustion even with variable demands They come or tend to come from low-quality solid fuels therefore allows us to give better use such fuels GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES BIBLIOGRAPHY Diesel and gas engines high compression Author Edgar J. Kates, W.E. Contributor Luck W.E. Luck Published by Academic Press, 1982. Liquid Cooled Generators, Application Manual. Commins 2004 Power Generation. GFS Corporation 1363 Shotgun Road Weston, FL 33 www.gfs 20T ecnicos/ 20T ecnicos/ http://es.wik strial / motor-gas73658.html 82200412594.pdf GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES RECOMMENDATIONS Whether continuous or intermittent, diesel engines require maintenance if they are to perform as expected. During the life of an engine, fuel represents about 75% of total operating costs. Moreover, if fuel quality is not maintained, can cause premature engine failure or decreased performance. Often overlooked t he desirability and status of diesel fuel as a matter of maintenance. Know You r Fuel Quality Never add gasoline or diesel fuel alcohol any reason. Doing so will damage the fuel injection system. The diesel fuel is more prone to oxidation than the gasoline. Never stay in storage for more than 12 months. If the coolant level drops to a point where the air is drawn into the cooling jackets, cooling capaci ty is reduced, resulting in serious mechanical damage, including cavitation corr osion. Always check the coolant level. ANNEXES GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Gas engine Waukesha Engine 1160 kW / 4830 kW Gas engine (Caterpillar) Supercharged gas engine (Perkins) Diesel fuel specifications GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Minimum size of hose and tube GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Allowable maximum rates for Motor Fuels Allowable maximum rates Constituents Before Derratear Gas Engines Turbochargers Typical Gaseous Fuel System GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Minimum size of LPG tank (50% full) required to maintain the specified range 5 P SIG suction and expected minimum winter temperature GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES GLOSSARY Gaseous Fuel: Gaseous fuels are called hydrocarbons to natural and manufactured exclusively for use as fuel, and those obtained as a byproduct in certain indust rial processes that can be harnessed as fuels. Specific Heat: Specific heat, or more formally the specific heat capacity of a s ubstance is a quantity GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES physics that indicates the ability of a material to store energy as heat inside. CNG: Compressed natural gas is a fuel for vehicular use that, because economic a nd environmentally clean, is essentially natural gas stored at high pressures, t ypically between 200 and 250 bar, according to the regulations of each country. LNG: Liquefied natural gas is natural gas that has been processed to be transpor ted in liquid form. It is the best alternative to monetize reserves in remote pl aces, where it is not economical to carry the gas to market directly either by p ipeline or power generation. Diesel: It is a liquid whitish or greenish and density of 850 kg per cubic meter , which consists mainly of paraffins and used mainly as fuel for diesel engines and heating. Natural Gas: Natural gas is a mixture of gases commonly found in fossil deposits , Gas Recovery: obtained as a byproduct during the manufacture of other substances are known as gas recovery well known such as bottled fuel, butane and propane Liquefied Petroleum Gas: liquefied petroleum gas is a mixture of condensable gas es present in the natural gas or dissolved in oil. LPG component, but environmen tal temperature and pressure are gases, they are easy to condense, hence its nam e. In practice, one can say that LPG is a mixture of propane and butane. Flammability Limits: air and gas rates that have a mixture of both so you can st art and spread the combustion of the mixture. GROUP # 1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Fuel system gas: is a facility that brings the gas supply to the needs and speci fications of the gas engine. Ignition temperature: the minimum temperature that can be initiated and propagat ed at a point of combustion air mixture gas. Burning velocity: The speed of propagation of a stable flame GROUP # 1 Sign up to vote on this title UsefulNot useful
Why Can’t We Be Reasonable? Here I try, however imperfectly, to honor the Thomistic practice of putting one’s opponent’s argument as strongly as one is able, in order to make sure you are arguing legitimately and fairly, and not merely against a straw man: Understanding Horses True understanding must always take place in context. Thus, for a biologist, understanding horses, say, requires more than understanding how a horse works biochemically and biomechanically, but must include how he interacts with his environment and the herd. Further, a particular horse needs to be seen as representative of a species that has developed over time. So a biological understanding of horses must needs include the Big Picture: how horses fit into evolutionary history (so to speak), into its herd, into its lineage, and into its environment. Trying to understand horse without context would be like trying to understand horses by analysis of a chunk of horse meat. Ultimately, the best understanding of horses comes within the largest possible context – as parts of the whole of life over time. In practice, everything we know about horses starts from particulars. As we add more context, the particulars don’t go away, but rather become seen in a new light. Sometimes, things we thought we were sure of turn out, in the larger context, to be wrong – and that’s a good thing, we’ve corrected an error based on better, more all encompassing knowledge. With me so far? Now, with people this process becomes very interesting. All the things just said about horses apply to people as well, but, because we think about things in a way that animals don’t, yet further issues arise. What is the context for human thought? It appears that progress over time is human thought’s defining characteristic. Certainly, if one looks around today, the physical products of human thought are much advanced from what we hear our ancestors used to have. And political and social thinking has improved as well, bringing us representative democracy and social services unknown in the past. So we would expect human thought to change over time – and to get better. But we have yet to describe the context, the environment, of human thought. Let’s call it History. History is best understood as the record of advances in thought. Not necessarily smooth or consistent advances, but the overall trend seems to be moving from less insightful and sophisticated thinking to more. When we look around us, we see we are at the apex of human thought, as evidenced by the huge advances made in the physical world, such that 7 billion people can be easily fed, housed and clothed, the majority of dreaded disease have been banished, and that countries in which these things originate are the most humane and civilized that have ever been. What kind of an environment would produce such appearances? An environment with a bias toward progress. (Note: Hegel placed the source of that bias squarely on the Spirit, which is God except insofar as it’s not. Marx kept the bias, but removed any purposeful source for it. It is just the nature of things that things get better somehow. It is this latter belief that is central to virtually all modern thought.) Now History, which under our new understanding is the record of how this environmental bias toward progress has brought about advances in human thought over time, shows that there are fits and starts – progress is made when people become aware of and embrace new thinking. Certain people, perhaps gropingly at first, then more pointedly as the new thinking becomes more clear, are the heroes of this process, bringing new ideas into the world in such a way that more and more people become aware of them and embrace them. This is most clearly how progress is made. Insofar as this new thinking is truly new, it may be impossible to understand under the older, less advanced thinking that holds the field while the new thinking is being promulgated. Progress, in this sense, is embracing the new thinking not because it is understandable within the context of old thinking, but precisely because such new thinking defies and defeats old thinking (or, if we’re more sophisticated Hegelians, subsumes and suspends the old and its contradiction in a new synthesis). When that happens, those who cling to the old thinking are simply incapable of understanding the new thinking. It’s not that they are unreasonable, exactly, it’s that what they think of as reasonable is wrong, superseded and obviated by a new way of thinking. This inability to reason with those stuck in old thinking is a key and unavoidable feature of the largest context within which all human thought takes place. Therefore, those of us who are enlightened properly refuse to spend any effort reasoning with those who are on the wrong side of history – what would be the point? Until they embrace the new understanding, we would merely be talking past them, with no hope of persuading them. Better to keep pushing the new thinking by whatever means are necessary – that is the only path to progress. It is not we who have discarded our opponents, after all, but History. Well? Does that seem an accurate and fair exposition? How can I improve it? Author: Joseph Moore 2 thoughts on “Why Can’t We Be Reasonable?” Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Jump to content BrainDen.com - Brain Teasers • 0 Sign in to follow this unreality 1 Consider a 5x3 rectangle- it is 5 unit squares wide and 3 unit squares tall, thus made up of 15 little squares. If you shade the outside squares, the border squares, 12 squares are shaded, with 3 in the middle left unshaded. Can you make rectangle with its border squares shaded so that the number of shaded squares equals the number of squares in the center? If so, how many rectangles (including squares) like that can you make? What are the dimensions of those rectangles? If you think for a bit, you will realize that the formula for the amount of squares on the edge of a rectangle is: border squares shaded = 2x+2y-4 (the -4 to eliminate the 4 overlapped corner squares) where x and y are the dimensions of the rectangle A guy was having a paper written in English translated into French. He got the assistance of a French translator named Jacques. At the bottom of the paper was the following: (written in French of course) "Much thanks to my friend Jacques for translating the above paper into French." and then: "More thanks to my friend Jacques for translating the above sentence into French." and then: At first glance, this would have to continue forever, for proper thanks to be due. But it doesn't need too... it can (and does) end right there. Why? no hint, this is easy. Use your brain Share this post Link to post Share on other sites 26 answers to this question • 0 unreality 1 Yep, and to brhan: there are number bases based off of irrational numbers, but they're kind of complicated lol. My favorite is phinary, just cuz the Golden Ratio (and fibonacci numbers) are so amazing anyway, how I would mathematically solve #3 if I didnt already know the answer: 10101 in base x is, in other words: x0 + x2 + x4 in base 10 1 + x2 + x4 in base 10 changing 273 from base x+6 into base 10 is also easy: 2(x+6)log(100) + 7(x+6)log(10) + 3(x+6)log(1) 2(x+6)2 + 7(x+6)1 + 3 now that they are both in base 10, they can equal each other: 1 + x2 + x4 = 2(x+6)2 + 7(x+6)1 + 3 subtract 1 from both sides (x+6)2 is (x+6)(x+6), which is x2+12x+36, all multiplied by 2 is 2x2+24x+72 7(x+6)1 is 7x+42 x2 + x4 = 2x2+24x+72 + 7x + 42 + 2 now we have a ton of like terms on the right side to merge: x2 + x4 = 2x2 + 31x + 116 subtract x2 from both sides x4 = x2 + 31x + 116 subtract x4 0 = -x4 + x2 + 31x + 116 0 = x4 - x2 - 31x - 116 0 = (x-4)(x3+4x2+12x+17) From there, what can easily turn that into 0. The clear answer is 4, cuz 4-4=0, which would negate the rest of it. If you try that, 10101 in base 4 is 273 in base 10 (4+6) I believe this was brhan's method. This is the mathematical/algebraic way to do it. The logic way to do it, which is probably what I would have really done, is: * x+6 cant be 7 or smaller, cuz a 7 appears in the number so it would carry over as a 10 if x+6 was 7 or lower. Therefore x+6 is 8 or more * which means x is 2 or more * x+6 could be more than 10, but no symbols were used in 273 so we're not sure if x+6>10 yet, though it's unlikely, since no symbols were used in 273, so it's not showing the part of the base, and what symbols would you use, letters..? To see if that's an option, figure out if x was higher than 4 and see if that's a possible solution. However if x was higher than 4, for example 5, than 1+5^2+5^4 = 651 in base 10, or, in base 11, 542, already much too big than 273 * so our range is x=2 or 3 or 4 * if x was 2, simple binary, then x^4+x^2+x^0 is 16+4+1 = 21 in base 10, which is (16=20)+5 = 25 in base 8 (8=x+6 if was x was 2). Clearly 25 is much less than 273. * I could try x=3, but I can already see that 1+9 is 10 in base 10, or 11 in base 9, so 3^4 would have to be 262 in base 9, but I know that 3^4 is 9^2 and 9^2 is 81 in base 10- which is very cleanly 100 in base 9. 100+11=111 in base 9, not 273. Not even close. So I dont even need to check base 3 fully * the only thing left is x=4 * 1+16+256 is 273. Yay! The number! But wait- dont you have to convert it to base 10, so it will change sinking feeling But not! Because if x is 4, than x+6 is 10. 273 is in both base 10 and base x+6. Therefore x=4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Create an account or sign in to comment You need to be a member in order to leave a comment Create an account Register a new account Sign in Already have an account? Sign in here. Sign In Now Sign in to follow this • Recently Browsing 0 members No registered users viewing this page.
Learning from Video Games to Increase Athletic Engagement The childhood obesity epidemic and children’s general physical inactivity are well-documented. Often, we scapegoat technology, and specifically video games and smart phones, for these problems. Adults wonder why a child prefers to play a football game on a video screen rather than playing football. When I was young, if I did not not have practice, I chose between homework, a limited number of cable television channels, shooting baskets in my front yard by myself or with neighbors or swimming. I shot and played for hours. Of my options, shooting baskets and playing against my neighbors provided the most engaging experience. Today, video games, social networking, smart phones, texting and more provide more engaging environments. Rather than curse these technological advances, we need to learn from them to figure out why children choose these activities rather than more physical pursuits. In her paper “Datorspelande som bildning och kultur” (Computer Gaming as Education and Culture), Carin Falkner writes: “We play in order to distance ourselves from everyday life. Games and playing are not serious and this is the reason we play.” Sports inherently feature this same distance from everyday life and lack of seriousness, but we increasingly ignore the playfulness of sports and emphasize the competitiveness. For safety reasons, few parents allow their children to walk to a park or play in the street. Children stay close to or inside their house. To replace spontaneous, neighborhood play, we have created more and more structured sporting opportunities, and we increasingly change our attitude toward youth sports. Falkner writes about video games and play: There is a serious content in games and the person playing must disregard the seriousness of the outside world and enter the seriousness of the game…Playing has no serious or externally determined objectives. Playing entails a time of freedom from decision-making, and the decisions which must be made when playing the game involve no risks outside the game Falkner describes the attraction of games or play, and youth sports feature the same serious content without outside risks. However, as youth sports grow more organized, structured and competitive, they often involve the similar stress and seriousness of everyday live. In studies of children who quit sports, the top reasons reflect an over-seriousness or an inappropriate seriousness for the child’s age and maturity: performance pressure, not enough playing time, boring drills and negative coaching. Children play sports for the friendships, challenge, learning and fun, but organized leagues often ignore, limit or eliminate many of these things. Video games provide the same engagement that adults received from playing sports without the negatives. When I was young, I never thought about performance pressure, playing time or boring drills because I had nothing better to do. Today, children have something better to do. For today’s children, choices are plentiful. In an article titled “Engage me or Enrage me,” Mark Prensky compares a child’s life outside the school day (choices) with his school life. He writes: In school, though, kids don’t have the “don’t buy” option. Rather than being empowered to choose what they want (“Two hundred channels! Products made just for you!”) and to see what interests them (“Log on! The entire world is at your fingertips!”) and to create their own personalized identity (“Download your own ring tone! Fill your iPod with precisely the music you want!”), as they are in the rest of their lives, in school, they must eat what they are served. Structured, adult-initiated leagues tend to mirror school without its “Don’t buy” option rather than a child’s daily life which is filled with engaging products fighting for one’s interest. Rather than vilify video games, we need to examine our leagues and re-introduce more play for play’s sake. Because most children have never organized their own games, as they start pee-wee leagues when they are four and have “play dates,” they do not know how to create pickup games. The reason that adults drive by open fields or courts with few if any children engaged in pickup games is because children lack the experience initiating these activities. Their only self-initiated activities are video games, which is part of their appeal. With younger athletes, leagues should mimic these ideas of play and games rather than creating the over-competitive, pre-professional atmosphere that dominates many leagues and tournaments. Coaches can create an environment of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose, as explained by Dan Pink in Drive. If players feel like they have some control (the don’t buy option); feel as though they are learning new things and improving (like ascending levels in a video game); and feel like the practice or drill or team has meaning, they will be motivated to continue. Video games are naturally autonomous because they are self-initiated; parents do not stand over their sons telling them who to shoot or which way to turn as with many parents and coaches in sports leagues. Children can choose when to start and stop. Most games have multiple lives to keep the game moving, and include multiple levels to challenge the gamer. What if coaches asked players to plan practice or drills? What if a coach created skill levels for the players to climb? What if children could decide when to end a drill or practice activity? The purpose of video games is simple: fun. Gamers play for the challenge, the diversion and the social engagement, the same reasons that many adults played or play sports. To increase physical activity, we need to re-kindle this sense of fun and challenge in our practices. Are players learning new things? Are the skills too simplistic? Sometimes, just re-naming a drill adds to its enjoyment: naming a move after a famous player makes a boring drill into a challenge to be like an NBA star. We need to remember that winning rarely determines the child’s enjoyment. Children are used to multiple lives; they know they have another game tomorrow or next week. Instead, for most pre-teens, they want to master something new more than they care about winning or losing. Would different skill challenges provide a mastery challenge to engage players? Finally, children are constantly connected. Sports are a social activity. Many children play sports to be with or make friends. However, many coaches quickly quiet players or squash socializing. I coached with one woman who gave the team ten minutes to stretch at the beginning of practice, and she did not care about the stretching. She used the time as a buffer between life and practice for the players to catch up, gossip and connect before starting practice for real. Is that such a bad thing? The prevailing sentiment is that today’s youth has a short attention span. However, most acknowledge that these children with short attention spans spend hours in front of a video game without moving, which certainly contradicts the short attention span. Instead, one might argue that children have a selective attention span, and this is influenced by their techno-savvy and the available choices. To engage children in more physical activity, leagues, coaches and parents should embrace the same characteristics that attract children to video games. By Brian McCormick Author, Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development Director of Coaching, Playmakers Basketball Development League 4 thoughts on “Learning from Video Games to Increase Athletic Engagement Leave a Reply
Thursday, November 4, 2010 Postcard Friendship Friday - Pure Corn The Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota Today in History: Native Americans presented Christopher Columbus with a gift of corn (aka maize) on November 5, 1492. He handed it off to Orville Redenbacher who set it too close to the campfire. The rest is history. The word corn comes from the Old English word for grain which was used to describe wheat, barley and rye long before corn became known to the rest of the world. But first - back to the back of the postcard: The postmark is difficult to see, but appears to be October 4, 1909 which makes it 101 years, 1 month and one day old today. There's some symmetry to that, don't you think? While looking for picture postcards of ears or fields of corn I came across this treasure: The Corn Palace built in 1892 to celebrate the excellent soil and corn crops in South Dakota. All of the decoration and artwork on this building are made of corn. The upkeep runs about 130,000 a year. About the same as me. More information about this interesting and corny monument can be found HERE. It's still open to the public and is used for events. Bully! What do I have to do with corn? Postcard message: "Well, Mabel, I heard the band that plays for President (Theodore) Roosevelt at the White House. I sit and listened at it for 3 hours in the Palice. This Palice is made of corn. It is a wonderful sight to see. Am well, Anne" The Corn Palace as it looks today American Maize is a cereal grass and has been grown as a food crop in Mezoamerica since prehistoric times. A drawing of the corn plant showing both the male and female flowers. Between 1250 and 1700 the growing of corn spread across the Continent, and after the Europeans arrived corn was introduced to Europe and is grown there as well. Indian Corn The common word for maize became "corn", or sweet corn. Corn is a grain, but sweet corn is considered a fruit because of the high sugar content. Corning, the term for preserving meat, (as in corned beef, yum) has to do with the grainy texture of the salt mixture used to brine meats. It also refers to granulated snow (corn snow) and a grain-like seed or fruit such as a peppercorn. And let us not forget "corny" jokes: A French fry walked into a bar and ordered a drink. The Bartender said: Sorry, we don't serve food here. Candy Corn Cornucopia and a corn on your toe have nothing to do with this type of corn. These words come from the Latin word, cornu, for "horn" A cornice around the edges of your ceiling is from the Old French meaning wreath. Corniferous trees - well, that's not spelled correctly - it's coniferous. The lovely blue cornflower got the name because it grew as a weed in corn (wheat and barley) fields in the UK. Seeds were brought to North America both on purpose as flower seeds and by mistake as seed a crop contaminant and soon spread across the Continent. It was the favorite flower of John F. Kennedy and JFK Jr. wore them as a boutonniere at his wedding to honor his father. CorningWare is named after the city where it was first produced: Corning, New York which is named for Erastus Corning. The original design on CorningWare was the little cornflower design for which it is known. Cornflower reflecting the sky. Far too pretty to be just a weed. Please stop by Beth's The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more Postcard Friendship Friday Corn - I mean fun! Tricia McWhorter said... What a fun post! I love the corn palace! Cynthia Pittmann said... So true, Cynthia, cornflower is more than a weed! Fun post! Informative and entertaining. We don't get that colorful corn in Puerto Rico unless it's imported. It must be a United States "thing"...all the beautiful fall details...pumpkins that are round and orange, red leaves, gourdes, either, though I saw them on my recent trip to Michigan. What fun memories. Thanks for sharing@ Lyneen said... GREAT POST... love all the corny info... very entertaining. I think there is more to corn than we know! Snap said... Wonderful corny post. Happy PFF! Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said... I'm amazed at the Corn Palace, that it's lasted at all. Birds don't eat it? Mice? Amazing. Bob of Holland said... Amazingly informative post. Loved it, including the corny joke. Let your train of thoughts drive on. Happy PFF. viridian said... Muse et al: the corn decoration is changed every year. I don't know if they have problems with birds or mice. I have visited the corn palace. A county fair was happening outside and a polka dancing competition was happening inside the palace. true story!! Funoldhag said... What a fun and corny post! Never heard of the Corn Palace but it is awesome. You have a way with words. Carol Dorincard said... Hello, Cynthia, wordsmith emeritus! You know I was born in Transilvania, Romania, right? :) L. D. Burgus said... I visited the palace in 1957. It was the end of the season and the birds were allowed to enjoy it all. I had a candy corn DOT today. It wasn't as good as real candy corn. Great post.
Ivan Pavlov Ivan Pavlov Ivan Pavlov discovered classical conditioning in Russia over 100 years ago. He also won the Nobel Prize, the Oscar of science, for his work on the digestive system. Even though Pavlov was a physiologist, he has a permanent place in psychology because he discovered classical conditioning, a form of learning that brought about Behaviorism — a school of thought that dominated psychology in the early 1900s. Behaviorists believe that people learn behavior through experience. Classical conditioning is also known as Pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning. It’s all the same. Classical conditioning is the popular one, so we’ll stick to that term. Classical conditioning refers to the linking of a previously neutral, unobtrusive item with another item that elicits a physiological response. Because of the linking, either item can subsequently produce that physiological response. I think we need an example here. Abstract definitions make my head spin. Let’s say you’re watching the Oscars. Of course, the expensive gowns and uncomfortable onstage banter captivate you, but suddenly you’re quite thirsty. You rush to the kitchen to quickly grab some milk from the back corner of the fridge, and in no time, you’re back in front of the television to witness Jared Leto walking onto the stage to accept his best-supporting Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club. His long ombre locks captivate you. You’ve never seen a better example of ombre hair on a man or a woman. Suddenly, he’s in front of the microphone and talking about his mother. You swipe away a tear because you’re a sap for a good mother story. With tearless eyes, you refocus on Jared Leto’s face, hair, red bow tie … and now you’re gagging! The milk that you had just downed was sour! Disgustingly sour. You collapse to the floor clutching your ribs as your insides make their way out. Jared Leto Jared Leto accepting his Oscar. A week later, you’re waiting for Jared Leto to come out on stage with his band 30 Seconds to Mars. The man is so talented. Oscar Winner. Lead Vocalist. What can’t he do? The crowd’s volume increases with Leto’s entrance onto the stage. You strain your neck around the too tall man to get a glimpse of Jared Leto. Ahh, there he is and his ombre hair, face, strut … and your insides are churning … and you’re trying with all your might to suppress the bile and vomit threatening to make their way out. What is happening?? Jared Leto Singing Jared Leto singing. Classical conditioning, honey. In our example, you had a bad, bad physiological response to sour milk while watching Jared Leto accept his Oscar. During that event, your brain formed a link between the sour milk and Jared Leto. Now, either Jared Leto or sour milk can elicit the unsettled stomach and vomit response. Ahh. Classical conditioning. Now, I’ll introduce some technical mumbo-jumbo. Skip this section if you hate lingo (like me, ironically enough). Unconditioned stimulus: This is the item that naturally elicits a biological response. In our example, the unconditioned stimulus is the sour milk. Unconditioned response: This term refers to the automatic and natural response to an unconditioned stimulus. This would be the vomit resulting from drinking sour milk in our example. Conditioned stimulus: The conditioned stimulus is the previously neutral item that your brain links with an unconditioned stimulus. Jared Leto (thanks for being a good sport!) is the conditioned stimulus in our example. Conditioned response: The conditioned response is the reaction elicited by a previously neutral item: the vomit at the concert. In our example, conditioning or learning occurred during one experience (during Oscar night!). This is known as one-trial learning. One-trial learning does occur (especially for food poisoning!), but most of the time it takes multiple experiences to form a conditioned response. Picture Attribution Ivan Pavlov: Wikimedia Commons Jared Leto accepting his Oscar: Jared Leto Facebook Jared Leto singing: Jared Leto Facebook
The Analyst™ Comprehensive diagnosis of your symptoms Search treatments and conditions Pharyngitis may be caused caused by a viral infection (90% of cases) or by a bacterium (10%). If caused by the group A streptococcus, it is called "strep throat". The chronic form can be caused by a continuing infection of the sinuses, lungs or mouth, or by constant irritation from smoking, breathing heavily polluted air, food allergies or consuming too much alcohol, or by swallowing substances that scald, corrode or scratch the throat. Pharyngitis is a common illness. Even strep throat is usually a self-limiting disease. Controlled trials show that clinical recovery is similar in cases with and without the use of antibiotics. The "streptophobia" associated with the risk of rheumatic fever and post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis is probably unwarranted today, although proper care is still important. Epidemiological surveys demonstrate a correlation between vitamin C deficiency and the development of post-streptococcal consequences. Rheumatic fever is virtually nonexistent in the tropics where vitamin C intake is higher; 18% of children in high risk groups have subnormal serum vitamin C levels. Signs, symptoms & indicators of Pharyngitis: Symptoms - Head - Mouth/Oral (Frequent) raw throat Symptoms - Metabolic Having a slight/having a moderate/having a high fever Conditions that suggest Pharyngitis: Skin-Hair-Nails Erythema Nodosum Strep throat can cause Erythema Nodosum Risk factors for Pharyngitis: Allergy Allergy / Intolerance to Foods (Hidden) The ear, nose, and throat are common target organs for food allergens. Congestion or inflammation of the nose (rhinitis), sinuses (sinusitis), and throat (pharyngitis) may be due to airborne irritants and allergens, but food allergy may be the undiagnosed cause of these common problems. Environment / Toxicity Mercury Toxicity / Amalgam Illness STD Gonorrhea Gonorrhea may cause an infection of the mouth. An oral infection normally produces no symptoms, but in some cases a sore throat will be experienced. Mycoplasma Infection Lyme Disease Pharyngitis suggests the following may be present: Cell Salts Cell Salt, Kali Mur Need Pharyngitis can lead to: Skin-Hair-Nails Erythema Nodosum Strep throat can cause Erythema Nodosum Recommendations for Pharyngitis: Action See a Doctor at Earliest Opportunity Propolis / Bee Products Propolis has proven effective in helping to deal with a wide variety of infections including sore throat. [Doroshenko, P. N. (1978, 1981, 1990) (U.S.S.R.)] Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) Coneflower (Echinacea purpura) To promote the spread of colonies, streptococci secrete large amounts of hyaluronidase. This enzyme is inhibited by echinacea and prevents tissue invasion by the bacteria. Echinacea also promotes increased phagocytosis and natural killer cell activity. Physical contact is required, so gargling or topical application is best. Frankincense (Boswellia carteri) Wayne McCarthy, N.D., a naturopathic physician in Waikoloa, Hawaii, believes frankincense works wonders on a sore throat. He recommends mixing 2-3 drops of frankincense tincture with saliva in the back of the throat and then swallowing. "I found it to be so effective for throats that I just never want to be without it," he says. Slippery Elm (Ulmus rubra) For coating and soothing irritated or inflamed mucous membranes add 1 tablespoon of dried slippery elm per cup of hot water. Alternatively, mix 1 tablespoon of liquid extract in 8 ounces of hot water and drink up to 3 cups daily. Slippery elm lozenges are also available. Sugars Avoidance / Reduction Sugars have a depressive effect on the immune system. Reduced Calorie Consumption The old adage of drinking plenty of fluids, restricting food intake and getting plenty of rest often helps the immune system overcome a sore throat. Colloidal Silver Oxygen / Oxidative Therapies Ozone / Oxidative Therapy Physical Medicine Gargling with very warm salt water hourly can ease the pain and reduce the duration of a sore throat. Sometimes it works so well that people forget to continue gargling after the first couple of times and the sore throat returns. Use at least 1/2 teaspoon salt per cup of water. The water should be no hotter than your immersed finger is able to tolerate. Other uses of water for pharyngitis are mentioned in the discussion of the Treatment - Hydrotherapy. Steam / Spray Treatments Weak or unproven link Strong or generally accepted link Proven definite or direct link May do some good Likely to help Highly recommended Allergen: A substance that is capable of producing an allergic response in the body. Erythema Nodosum: Acute inflammation of skin with red nodules. Rhinitis: Inflammation of the nasal mucous membrane.
Friday, September 14, 2007 Creating song slides in Propresenter Putting a song into slides has never been easier. When you are using propresenter it is as easy as finding the song either from a pre-formatted CCLI layout (if it is available) or by googling it and doing a select copy to clipboard action. either way you can use a text editor to double check your layout and make corrections before implementing the 'create presentation from clipboard' function. The best benefit I can tell you about in previewing the song, is that it is easier to edit raw data then formatted and laid out into individual slides data. Ok lets get started then, Find the song that you want to put into your data base and select the whole song from the title on down to the very last period and use the " + C" combination to copy the data and open up your text editor and paste it there. Now if you are certain the layout is already good, you can skip this part and from the propresenter menu do the edit drop down and select create presentation from clipboard function and at every carriage return a new slide will be created till you reach the end of the data on the clipboard. If one of your lines is too long the words are going to be cramped in the slide and you will need to duplicate the slide and edit both so that you have 2 slides instead on one cramped slide. This is the reason behind using the text editor to view and change the layout before you create the presentation. From you text editor run the song through an mp3 player unless you already are familiar with the song (which is why I always attend the band practice and set up the shows then) While the song is playing listen for the breaks and see if the breaks align up with the end of the lines that you are reading if the rest in the song doesn't line up with the layout in the text editor, select the break point with your mouse so your curser is blinking at the rest and hit the enter key. This creates the carriage return mark that propresenter looks at when dividing the song into slides. when all of the carriage returns line up, then you can do a "Apple A" to select all and then copy it to the clipboard and then from propresenter select the edit drop-down from the menu and select create presentation from clipboard. The first sentence on the document becomes the title for the song and also the first slide. If the title is different, double click the title to open its edit properties up and type the new one in. Drag the newly created song out of the data base and into the playlist and look over the slides again you can now edit some more to make the presentation user friendly. To make your song presentation easier to use bu your operator, I color code the verses in Blue and the choruses in red, but you can use your own color schemes so while holding down the apple key, select every slide in verse 1 and right click (ctrl click for single button mice) and select color and a drop down of colors appear and select you color. all the slides information panels now will turn that color. go to the first slide and select it and right click and using the drop down select the label and click on the appropriate title for the group either verse chorus, etc. if it is not in the list create a title by using the other. once you have your slides formatted it is now time to view the background elements for your slides to find one appropriate for the song. We use .mov's and have animations created and saved as a QuickTime file play as our background elements and we use the ones that play at as close to the same tempo as the song. So far this is the basics for a good presentation. Make sure that your dual monitors on you Mac are not set to Mirror, use the 800 x 600 settings as that is the recommended setting for propresenter and lets see how it looks. If you need some good animations to play for the background elements you can go to Free stock footage .com browse through their large collection of animations and etc, download the low res ones for free and if you like them they sell high resolutions for about $25.00 each. but as far as 800 x 600 resolutions are concerned, they look good using the low res ones. Once you start building up you data base with songs that you use on a regular basis, just search for them using the search function just below the data bases index and as you type letters out for the title, songs that don't meet the search disappear from the index making it easier for you to find the song you want. Then if it is not their, go out and get it and go through the create presentation steps that I have laid out above. Enjoy using the program, It is one of the best if not the best for displaying songs and just about anything else that can be done in a .mov format. Speaking of movies, you can clear your text, hook up a sound link into your audio out port and play anything through your propresenter that is a .mov ( the .mpg's work too but quick time file are superior to mpegs.) so from the + at the bottom of the backgrounds section, browse for your QuickTime file and make sure you have it saved locally from the network onto your desktop or somewhere easy to find. Network connection are slow usually and if the network goes down during the service, you lose your file if you haven't downloaded it to the desktop. Create a backgrounds play list and apple drag (hold the apple key down and drag using the mouse) the backgrounds into your playlist. They show up in the list and can be moved or even deleted without affecting your master library because these icons are merely shortcuts to the actual files. I usually line up my backgrounds in the order I need them so that I can just go from left to right down the list until the service has finished. You can use your keynote program to create movies as well. We use a pre-service slide show before and after service to keep our members informed on up coming events and to remind them of the different services offered and to shut their electronic devices while the service is in progress. one the keynote slides are laid out, set them up with preset times and them use the file drop down and select export, click on the QuickTime icon, loop option to create a looping movie. This i now place as the first background in my propresenter backgrounds playlist that I have created. I also have taken the logo for the church and the announcement slides and also have put those in the backgrounds playlist and then I organize them by the order that they are needed which usually is determined by the pastor in charge of the service layout and had a program sheet with the layout for the service mapped on it. Click on your pre-service .mov and you are up and running. when the first song is getting ready to be played by the band select the clear all from the propresenter menu above the slides layout section and select the first song in your playlist. It doesn't show up on the screen until you select a slide from the I usually start a background movie first then the first song slide as the singer hits the first word in the song. and so on till you are done. If you like using multiple backgrounds in your songs you can scroll to the next background by using the apple key and the arrow facing the direction you want to go to get to the next background. and that background will start playing. This is a great benefit to keeping your songs looking great. Post a Comment
The Lady Wants to Fly The Lady Wants to Fly Nov 2nd, 2015 4 min read Theodore R. Bromund, Ph.D. Senior Research Fellow in Anglo-American Relations In the Second World War, flying in a Boeing B-17—the iconic Flying Fortress—was dangerous beyond belief. Of the 12,731 bombers produced between 1937 and 1945, 4,754 were lost or written off in the course of operations, a loss rate of 37 percent. Ten Americans, the B-17’s standard crew, risked death on every mission. To fly in the plane is to remember that, and them. But what was a horror in 1943 is an honor today, for only 10 flying B-17s remain—1 in Britain, the other 9 in the United States. Of these, the finest, the most nearly fully original, is Yankee Lady, restored and owned by the Yankee Air Museum in Willow Run, Michigan, 35 miles west of Detroit. In late September, I joined a crew of seven museum volunteers for a roundtrip flight to London, Ontario. Though I’ve done my share of flying, I know nothing at all about how airplanes actually fly: Commercial aviation today hides as many of the realities of flight from passengers as possible. We don’t appreciate this. We look at the sleek drawings of the future of aviation from the 1950s and wonder—as we sit squashed in steerage-class—why the promised glamour never arrived. But if you climb into a B-17, you will see that we are living in that glamorous future after all. The Flying Fort makes no effort to hide reality. In my mind, the B-17 is a massive plane, and in its day, it was. But by today’s standards, it is small, dark, cramped, and narrow: The catwalk through the bomb bay is barely a foot wide. It took me a minute to crawl and scramble into the bombardier’s seat at the front, and I wasn’t on fire or being shot at. I tried unsuccessfully not to think of what it would be like to be trapped in that cubbyhole if German flak hit and you were ordered to bail out. I am not a nervous flier, though I don’t usually enjoy it much either. The bombardier’s seat is just 10 feet off the ground, and it’s surrounded by a plexiglass bubble: There is no closing a window shade and ignoring the reality of what is going on. Nor is it possible to escape the noise: The four 1,200-horsepower piston engines, props spinning feet away from you, produce an honest mechanical roar that makes conversation impossible and shouting pointless. That roar testifies to the dedication of the volunteers who restored Yankee Lady. The work took 40,000 man-hours, and every hour of flight now requires 8 to 15 hours of maintenance. The B-17 had an expected service life of only 300 hours, but in a lifetime of coastal patrol, crop spraying, and fighting forest fires that began in July 1945, Lady has exceeded that many times over. The remarkable thing, though, is that, despite her long, tough life, Lady flies like a dream. Takeoff is wonderful, especially if you are seated up front with the runway blurring below your feet. In a jet, there is a definite moment when the plane pitches up. But takeoff speed in a B-17 is a mere 110 miles per hour, which on a broad runway is not perceptibly faster than cruising on the interstate. And because the B-17 climbs slowly, there is no distinct moment of wheels up. Leaving the ground is no cause for nerves. It is effortless and natural. The Lady wants to fly. As an unpressurized plane, the B-17 can’t go above 10,000 feet unless you use oxygen, and though Lady has a top speed of 285 miles per hour, the museum crew flies low and slow. This limits the strain on the engines and enhances the dreamlike quality of the flight. The tremendous racket of those engines, and the mid-pitched rush of air, should shatter the dream, but all the noise is strangely yet utterly divorced from the sensation of flight. You sail over the land. Over Germany in 1943, of course, it would have been anything but a sail. The Fortress was named for effect, not accuracy: It was made to shoot down enemy fighters on its way to its target, not to be invulnerable to their fire. But our pilot, John C. Rule—a retired Delta captain—says it remains a pleasure to fly. Its only quirk is its big tail that catches crosswinds easily. But when controlled by skilled hands, that sensation is strangely enjoyable, a gentle drift through the sky. After we arrived in London—there is nothing like coming in to land when you are suspended in a bubble and can see the airstrip five miles away—and participated in an air show, we flew home to Willow Run. Overhead, I saw jet contrails. I didn’t want to trade places. In London, I’d asked one of the crew—Dave Wright, a sprightly 85-year-old—what kind of passengers fly in the Lady. Often, Wright chuckled, it was a husband whose wife had paid for 30 minutes in the air as his birthday present. It could be a frustrating gift, because the husband usually scrambled out of the plane with a smile on his face. It was wonderful, he’d say to his wife—but he couldn’t explain why. I had the same smile. It comes partly from the wonder evoked by any flying machine. Mostly it comes from the ease with which the B-17 rises and goes about its business. And then there’s the sense of history, and thus our gratitude to the plane, to the volunteers who restored it, and to the veterans who flew it. Yankee Lady has seen a lot of sacrifice. As I said farewell to Wright, he remarked, “We’ve got to keep her flying for many more years. She’s got a lot left to teach us.” -Ted R. Bromund is the senior research fellow in Anglo-American relations at the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. This piece originally appeared in The Weekly Standard More on This Issue
Sulphite Allergy Sulphites and Asthma Sufferers The subject of food additives is of great interest to all those who are concerned about what is being done to our food during processing. There is increasing evidence that sulphite use and consequently sulphite allergy is on the rise. Sulphite allergy is dangerous to those who suffer from asthma, particularly childhood asthma. Food additives are found in virtually all foodstuffs today. Attempts to meet consumer expectations have seen a rise in the use of substances which will preserve the life, improve the taste, brighten the colour, and improve the texture of processed foods. Additives are also used to thicken and to prevent separation of fats and water. Sulphites have been used since time immemorial for the preservation of food. The Greeks and Romans used sulphites as a preservative in wine. Almost all wine today contains some sulphites. However it was not until the 1880s the Australian and South American beef producers began using sulphites in beef products shipped to England. With the growth of processed foods in the 20th century, sulphites began to make their appearance in many processed products. Sulphites are derived from coal tar. Sulphite based products include sulphur dioxide, sodium sulphite, sodium bisulphite, sodium metabisulphite, potassium metabisulphite, potassium sulphite, and potassium bisulphite. The sulphite group of additives is used to sterilise food containers, as antimicrobial preservatives, antioxidants, firming agents and bleaching agents. Those who suffer from asthma can be particularly sensitive to sulphites, with sulphur dioxide being potentially fatal. Intolerance to sulphites may manifest as headaches, gastric irritation, liver toxicity, nausea, irritable bowel syndrome, skin rashes and swelling, behavioural problems, and diarrhoea. Sulphites destroy thiamine (Vitamin B1). Meats, cereals and dairy foods are significant sources of thiamine. Because of this factor, in 1959 USA placed a total ban on the use of sulphites in meats. Sulphites have been shown to trigger asthma attacks in some people. Interestingly, since banning sulphites in 1959, the USA now has a lower asthma rate than any other developed English speaking country. The well publicised ‘salad bar deaths’ of the 1970s and 80s occurred as a result of eating salads sprayed with sulphites. Use of sulphites in this way was banned in the USA in 1986. Amazon Price: $7.95 $4.69 Buy Now (price as of Sep 17, 2016) This volume is formatted alphabetically by ingredient with easy-to-understand tables. Additives found in health and beauty products are also documented. In Australia, thiamine deficiency is relatively common in pet dogs and cats, due to pet meat being treated with sulphites. Research in Australia in 1984 found 65% of asthmatic children were sensitive to sulphites. Food additives assessed for use within the European Union are given an ‘E (Europe) number’. Australian additives have the same numbers but without the E prefix. Sulphites are covered by the numbers 220 to 228. E224 potassium metabisulphite is often used in wine-making as an antimicrobial preservative. Additive 220 is a suspected mutagen (interferes with DNA). In America the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for controlling labelling of foods. Additives may be listed as ‘Generally recognised as safe’ or GRAS. Sulphites are not always mentioned in the labelling. Many processed foods including cookies, snacks, fruit flavoured breakfast cereals, muesli bars, ice-cream, yoghurt and confectionary contain sulphites but the additive may not be listed on the label. It is often present in processed deli meats, cordials, pickled products, dried tree fruits (such as apricots, peaches, pears and apples) and jams. Dates, figs, prunes and sultanas may be sulphite free. Wines, beers and ciders almost all contain sulphites. Sulphites at lower levels than 10ppm are not required to be listed on packaging but small amounts all add up to unacceptable levels for those sensitive to sulphites. Luckily fresh fruit and vegetables are sulphite free. Eating fresh food as much as possible will reduce your intake of sulphites and you will be all the better for it.
• Join over 1.2 million students every month • Accelerate your learning by 29% • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month Who Was Responsible For The First World War? Extracts from this document... Who Was Responsible For The First World War? Who caused the deaths of over 20,000,000 people? Was it a single, callous, malicious person? Was it a group of these people or a country that caused the Great War? Or could it have been a system or policy at that time? Who caused the events that inspired the Jewish poet Isaac Rosenburg to write the poem 'Dead Man's Dump' in 1917? 'The wheels lurched over sprawled dead But pained them not, though their bones crunched; Their shut mouths made no moan. They lie there huddled, friend and foeman, Man born of man, and born of woman; And shells go crying over them From night till night and now.' Private Isaac Rosenburg, 22311, was killed on April 1st, 1918, at dawn while on night patrol. Just another of the 20,000,000 then. France had completely resented Germany for years. The Franco-Prussian War began in July 1870 as a result of a dispute between France and Prussia, the main German State. All the other German states joined Prussia, and the conflict became one between France and Germany. The war ended with the Treaty of Frankfurt, which was signed on May 10, 1871. The treaty provided that France would give most of Alsace and part of Lorraine (parts of West France) ...read more. Southeast Europe is known as The Balkans. For centuries, the powerful Turks had ruled it, but when their empire began to fall apart in the 19th century, the Austro-Hungarian Empire swooped in and took much of the Balkans for itself. Only Bosnia, Albania and Montenegro were still ruled by the Turks and four countries gained independence - Greece, Rumania, Bulgaria and Serbia. Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. The Russians started to get very friendly with the people in the Balkans, persuading them to rebel against Turkish rule with a theory called Panslavism. Many Russians were Eastern Orthodox Christian Slavs, and the people in the Balkans were too. The Russians told them that they would help them if they tried to gain independence from Turkish rule, but they were actually manipulating these people for their own gain. Russia wanted the Dardanelles, a narrow strip of sea which connected the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, because all of their Northern ports were frozen in winter, and the Dardanelles provided a route into the ocean. Turkey still controlled the Dardanelles at this time, but if the Slavic people of the Balkans rebelled, Turkey would weaken and Russia would have a chance to gain control of the Dardanelles. This angered Austria, as they hated Serbia, now on friendly terms with Russia. ...read more. They intended to invade using the Schlieffen Plan - they would attack France going through Belgium, and deal with Russia after an easy surprise victory over France. However, this was not going to work. Belgium was a neutral country, but Britain wanted to help them when the strong German forces invaded them. Britain's entry into the war was on August 4th, 1914. The First World War was already in motion. In conclusion, I have found that no one person was to blame for one of the worst wars in human history. Many countries contributed to the tension and hatred surrounding the pre-war years, but more to blame, in my opinion, were certain systems. Imperialism, nationalism and the alliance system all greatly contributed to this tension and Gavrillo Princip's act simply pushed everyone over the edge. Even if he had been stopped, war would have probably still broken out - war was imminent before the assassination, not directly after it. Unfortunately, mankind did not learn from the First World War, but hopefully if we look back, war can be avoided in the future for good. And as the poet Wilfred Owen wrote in 'Dulce et Decorum Est': "My friend; you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori"* Sarah Watson The last two lines of this poem mean 'It is a good and fitting thing to die for your country'. ...read more. The above preview is unformatted text Found what you're looking for? • Start learning 29% faster today • 150,000+ documents available • Just £6.99 a month Not the one? Search for your essay title... • Join over 1.2 million students every month • Accelerate your learning by 29% • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month See related essaysSee related essays Related AS and A Level International History, 1945-1991 essays At the Town Hall, the Archduke's party decided to change the route and go straight back along Appel Quay. But as everyone got back into their cars, no one remembered to tell the driver of the change of plan. Also treaties of the post war world further separated the two super powers of the world for the decades to follow. The waging of hot wars through other countries also strengthened Cold War hatred.(1) The first of the cold war tensions arose out of W.W.II conferences between the Soviet Union, America and, Great Britain. 1. To What extent was Germany Responsible for the outbreak of World War One? to the tensions that led to it but it is essential to also consider the part Germany played. The blank cheque and Schlieffen plan meant that Germany knowingly transformed a localised conflict into war on a vast scale. Whilst discussing the issue of causation it must be remembered that Austria, Another approach to the First World War is to argue that it was inevitable and that no country actually set out to start it. War had been avoided in 1908,1911 and 1913 but this served only to contribute to the tension that existed in Europe. This view is one of the targets of said critique and has meant that globalisation and modernisation is on a direct collision course with Islam in the 21st Century. However the image of a simplistic split between the modern West and traditionalist Islam is not always well founded. 2. Attlee's Gov was responsible for initiating much of the change that shaped post war ... The Gov was unlucky in that the takeover was followed by the severest winter for decades, creating a demand for fuel which could not be met. Foreign Policy Brit's position in 1945, had massive prestige, having fought largest against Hitler, but massive debts to match. 2. The Fall of Classical Greece The Athenians lost nearly 15 per cent of their hoplite army16. The Athenians received another severe blow when they tried to regain Amphipolis, an important ally that had recently surrendered to Sparta. Thucydides was sent to save the city but arrived too late. • Over 160,000 pieces of student written work • Annotated by experienced teachers • Ideas and feedback to improve your own work
Thursday, June 21, 2007 Time complexity and Space complexity of algorithms I had just downloaded the SAP Memory Analyser and was impressed with its performance. More information on this tool can be found here. Going thru their wiki, I read how they had taken pains to make critical operations have a time complexity of O(1). Time complexity and Space complexity are terms used when dealing with algorithms. If the input size (problem size) for a algorithm increases, then how does it affect the time taken for the algorithm to complete and how how much more memory does it take? If the time consumed by the algorithm is independant of the input size then the algorithm is said to be a complexity of O(1); i.e. a constant-time method. If the time taken is linear then it is known as linear-time method - O(n). More information can be found at the following links:
September 30th, 2013 Need-to-Know: Government Shutdown! Political negotiations over the government’s budget in Washington, D.C., are at a standstill, with Republicans in Congress threatening to shut down the government unless President Barack Obama agrees to defund the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as “Obamacare”. But what exactly is a government shutdown and how does it happen? Here’s your need-to-know guide. A government shutdown happens when the government’s budget for day-to-day operations expires, and the President and Congress have not yet agreed on a way to continue funding. If they can’t agree on a budget, they can pass a continuing resolution, which is a temporary measure that continues funding the government at normal levels. As Dylan Matthews of The Washington Post put it, a continuing resolution says to the federal government, “Keep on spending like you’ve been spending till we can actually come to some agreement on how much you should be spending.” This graphic from the National Priorities Project breaks down the budget passage process as much as possible: via National Priorities Project This time around, the continuing resolution that has been funding the government since March 28 expires on September 30. If the President and Congress can’t agree on what to do, the government will shut down. Currently, the disagreement on the budget is over the Affordable Care Act. Some Republicans in Congress say that will not vote for any budget unless the President signs a bill that defunds the ACA, something he would never do. Has this happened before? Yes, the government has shut down before, most recently in 1995 and 1996 when President Clinton and then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich could not reach an agreement on funding to social services. What happens during a government shutdown? When the government shuts down, all “non-essential” federal employees have to stay home, national parks, museums and monuments close, and anyone relying on government services like unemployment and veteran’s benefits or government loans could see their payments delayed or cut. But not everyone has to stay home. The president, Congress, FAA air traffic controllers and employees, “deemed to perform emergency work involving saving lives or protecting property, including military service, law enforcement, or direct provision of medical care,” continue to work. For more on the shutdown, watch this segment from the PBS NewsHour. Submit Your Student Voice RSS Content Tooltip of RSS content 3
EU Law Monday, July 6, 2015 Planet Way-stations SOCT Paper 100 Planet Way-stations Here we post some information that has recently been requested regarding planet Way-stations. Some of this information is taken from the old Zerubian Mysteries (1999). Enjoy! Planet Way-stations are and have been a reality. What is a "way-station"? A Way-station is defined as a planetary camp where extraterrestrials live and watch, monitor & view our planet Earth. This mostly involved moons or planet satellites. However, there have been two planets in our solar system where more permanent way-stations have been set up. One old way-station resided on Mars and another was located on Pluto. ~ Actually Pluto is what we call an "artificial planet" in that it was not originally a part of our solar system but was in fact brought into orbit by the Universal Grid Stabilizers many thousands of years ago to be a station for many of the Good Keepers from all the ET classes. Currently some of our solar system moons are being used. ~ Because of Human increase in space technology most of the extraterrestrial monitoring is now done through space ships. Particularly the Anohean Mother Ship is being used for all monitoring. However, some satellite way-stations are still operative. ET’s are still periodically landing on other planets within our solar system for routine checks and updates. ~ As a matter of fact there are Anoh’ite probes monitoring Mars even today. They are watching our progress. ~ Many events of ancient past have helped shape the movement and direction of all extraterrestrials within our time frequency. ~ We believe that our entire universe contains distorted mere images or reflections of more perfectly constructed cosmic laws. We believe that these distortions invaded our entire system early on due to a space war between higher beings that used weapons of mass destruction. The party which started the war lost. Many of these beings were cast down to our planet, and other areas of our local space. ~ Many of the past way-stations were destroyed during this battle. Some physical remnants of the past still can be found on the surface of Mars and Pluto. Though Pluto was never directly affected by the KT event. Pluto has been protected by the Keepers for thousands of years and quite frankly they are upset at Humans for getting a little too close to this monitoring probe. They feel that Humans are not consciously advanced enough to visit such sacred places. Be that as it may, most Humans are advancing technologically and waning consciously. ~ If we want to know when the angelic rebellion occurred all we have to do is find the time of the dinosaurs destruction. We now know that this angelic "super war" broke out around 65 million years ago. When war broke out in heaven Lucifer [Set-on] and his angelic horde left their physical bodies and tried to war with God [the Keepers] in heaven. They were eventually cast back down to our planet and they left four giant craters when cast down. One of the last of these craters can be found in the state of Arizona. ~ Many of the Good Keepers retreated to Pluto after the war was over. They organized teams that would begin to closely monitor our planet from Pluto. These Keepers became known as the Plutonians and stayed mostly stationary; they no longer traveled on the Mother Ship, the Anohean. ~ When the rebel Keepers were cast down [restricted to certain space zones] much of our planet was destroyed including the dinosaurs. The earth became covered with dark clouds and many things died. Modern scientists refer to this time as "the KT event". ~ So now the angelic host that had fallen lost their capability to take back their regular glorified physical bodies so instead God [through Logos] began to create a host of animal like creatures that they became stuck in. Simply put, these angels were placed in physical bodies which resembled ape like creatures. They could stay invisible and get by but they missed their first glorified bodies so they tried out all sorts of animal like creatures. This was the beginning of their punishment. Even today some of these rebel Keepers are known as the "reptilians". ~ Even though our planet had become infected with sin because of the angelic rebellion God [the Logos] still had much in store for our planet. God would use this very planet to continue to fulfill His will of creating children for Himself. Please understand that sin created not only moral distortion but also physical distortion. God’s perfect laws had become distorted due to the angelic rebellion. Even today we live in a "fallen matrix". God allowed enough beauty to remain here that we may see Him through it all. ~ More Information about the Keepers & Way-stations The Good Keepers deal with "Cosmic Harmony"; they are truly the intense workers for Divine Intelligence. Harmony is the keynote to the universe. Even though our present system of things holds many distortions both physical distortions and moral distortions we still have some harmony at work here. This is very important to understand. If it were not for the work of the Keepers all would be lost. The Keepers also serve our planet as glorified teachers and they are guides to the better path in all situations. ~ They help conduct humans into higher comprehensions of worship and service. They conduct all of their business within the realm of higher laws. They are given instruction from the Highest source. We do not even begin to pretend to fully understand their power and ultimate purpose. We do know that they direct all extraterrestrial affairs. We could even call them the "power directors" of the Universe. They have all knowledge regarding material creatures and are the regulators of the physical realm. ~ We must not think that the Keepers are "calling every shot" or forcing their will on others. They are not! They allow for creatures to make their own choices and decisions. In a sense we control our own destiny. We can learn and evolve or we can destroy ourselves. There is no other option. ~ The two most advanced of the ET groups of course are the Keepers and the Adramelechs [Bad Keepers]. These types were directly created to be "watchers" of the entire universal creation of the Logos. The other types of ET’s had a start much like our own. They were created by divinely guided evolution. All evolutions are guided by the higher groups. Many regular ET types are studying the creation much like we are to get a fuller grasp of Divine Intelligence. Because these other groups live in the fallen matrix they have distortions of reality just as we do. Some have not so good intentions much like some humans have bad intentions. ~ Many call the extraterrestrials today "the visitors". ~ Please understand that some of these lower classes of ET’s are biological beings and have no power to interface with mind channels like the spiritual Keepers and Adramelechs do. Remember, scientific knowledge differs from one lower group to another. ~ Many of the other groups are located on planet way-stations of their own. Some groups have jumped from moons to planets as needed for their survival. Many reside on large mother-ships which basically constitute ‘moving planets’ or ‘cosmic mobile homes’. ~ The intentions of the lower groups are not all the same. Each group has a limited "free will" just as we humans have a "limited" free will. Our wills are limited in that all of us from the lower life forms are under the Cosmic Direction in accord with the will of ultimate Divine Intelligence. In other words, what we would all call GOD has the last word. There are rules to the game. ~ The proper understanding of the Christian Bible gives us a blueprint of the Divine will for our planet….our planet we call Earth. The Bible states that before this planet is destroyed an "elect" group of humans will be chosen, those who have accepted the Jesus Upgrade. Those who have Holy Spirit [Divine Mind] operative in them will go beyond and become ELAH’s. The phrase "elah" is an acronym which spells out "evolutionary level above human". ~ I hope that this has helped SOCT students come to a better understanding of the Keepers and the subject of Way-stations. ~ New Pluto revelations continue to confirm Eric's Anohite Testimony Planet Way Stations UFO's spotted near Pluto Structures of Pluto *The Anoh'ite Pluto Cover Up? Popular Posts 1. Youtube friends sent us: There is an alien spaceship base on moon. The moon alien space station can be seen from down here with a 300mm zoom lens on our 6d canon camera. This Alien Space Base On the moon is pretty scary but I'm sure if they had mal-intent they would have already done something about it. alien spaceship, base, or alien the moon is really behaving strangely lately. moon aliens could be the reason why there have been massive degree deviations in the moons normal patter. The spacestation could be moving or the moon being could be waking up from some
Oliver Cromwell: Hero or Villain Essay by yykytJunior High, 8th gradeA-, February 2008 download word file, 4 pages 5.0 Downloaded 18 times Oliver Cromwell is one of those heroic figures who contributed their entire lives to take back the tradition of England, which was damaged by King Charles I. Cromwell however isn't a typical hero- in actually many people would even consider him to be a villain. Cromwell is a controversial figure who still has people wondering. Even now, people are still arguing his place in history- hero or villain?Ever since Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England there have been different views to whether he was a hero or a villain. Many years ago historians considered Cromwell to be a great leader. But some present historians believe that Cromwell is an inhuman monster because of the way he had slaughtered the Irish. When Cromwell had guided his new model army to victory over King Charles's royalists everyone in England was confused and worried about what would happen to an England without a monarchy. In England there was a triangle that showed who had more power. At the top there was god, and then there would be gods chosen one, the king. After that there would be the noblemen then the gentry then the yeomen and then the peasants. But now that the king had gone everyone was thinking that the whole feudal system would collapse. Noblemen started to worry as they thought they would lose all of heir property. But right down at the bottom of the feudal system, the peasants, were jumping for joy as they thought that the feudal system would be scrapped and that they wouldn't have to be slave no more. Everyone was saying that the world is going to turn upside down. People started to form different groups. There was a group called the Diggers who believed that everyone ha a right to share the farmland.
Expendures and Revenues A financial examination of any business is crucial to the success of that business. Not only is the financial examination crucial for a business, but also so is the terms and conditions of how the business is run. The following article will discuss the financial outlook and the variety of what makes a corporation a success. The following will also cover the variety of tools that may be used as well as the revenues and expenditures that federal, state, and local agencies may use. Importance: First, to grasp the financial outlook, individuals must first grasp what a budget is and why budgets are used. Each individual wants more money, but to achieve this, individuals needs to make the correct financial decisions that will benefit him or her in the end. No matter what the corporation is, there has to be a budget guideline, and if there is a budget guideline, maintaining the budget should be relatively easy. Technically, a budget is an outline of how and when money will be spent, usually by the individual of a corporation who directly deals with the financial aspect. Like personal budgets, budgets for corporations let the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) know where the money is going how often and what it is used on. If there is no budget, there could be a financial shortfall, and there would be no way of pinpointing where the shortfall is coming from. Need essay sample on "Expendures and Revenues" ? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you for only $12.90/page A budget is used and followed, there should be no shortfalls and checks and balances should be right at even each time. In some cases, if there is a shortfall, the money has to be made up somewhere, and so the best way to come up with the money is to raise the taxes (state tax, property tax, and even sales tax). Two very important words will be discussed in this article are revenue and expenditure. Not only are these two words crucial for a corporate budget, but also they are also crucial for a personal budget as well. An expenditure is money set aside or taken out for a precise job, whereas revenue is money brought into the fund either from donations or by a precise job that has been done. Obviously a budget is crucial for the success of anyone or a corporation. As a community, all citizens are not only faced with their own personal budget, but also the budget of the city in which one lives (Smith & Lynch, 2004). No matter what stage one is at, each stage has its own budget to follow (federal, state, and local). When there are items that need taken care of, the community should be notified (usually by a city meeting) about what needs to be done, how much it will cost, where the money will come out of, and if the citizens will feel the full effect with a raise in taxes (University of Phoenix, 2012). If the money is there to use, the item(s) are put to a vote for the community to decide on. Majority the vote wins, regardless if the outcome is not what needs to take place. What is a Budget As stated above, a budget is an outline of how and when money will be spent. Not only will the budget illustrate outgoing money but also any incoming money that will be generated and put toward future use (Wise Geek, 2012-2013) . Why is a Budget Required A budget is required for one main reason, to illustrate any incoming and outgoing money that could be used in other areas. When a budget is used and followed in the correct manner, shortfalls should not be found, and if so, there is lack of supervision somewhere. Not only do budgets show where money is going but also who is using the money and if there is any kind of financial abuse going on (Wise Geek, 2012-2013). Public Budgets Budgets for federal, state, and local agencies are usually made public, and this is so the community can observe if money is being spent wisely. Revenue is money brought into a corporation, and when money is brought into a corporation, the budget(s) can grow and more items needed can be obtained and used for the intended purpose (Smith & Lynch, 2004). Tools Used: One of the most commonly used and powerful words would be ratio. Ratios are used daily and not just in reference to budgets and money. If there are two corporations (sister companies), ratios are used to compare the intake and output of money and what can be done to tighten the reigns and may be spend a little less. Ratio is also important do determine quarterly earnings from products, and if the corporation were within the budget if outgoing money (FMS, 2012.). Federal Government Revenues The federal government generates money by collecting on individuals who owe money to the government. Not only does the government generate money this way but also by taxing individuals paychecks. When individuals file taxes, this is the number on way the federal government gets the money owed to them. State Government Revenues The state government is a little like the federal government in the way that there is a tax to be collected. When one files, there is a federal and state tax, and this also is the number on way that the state government gets that money owed to them. Not only is this way achievable, but also there are all sorts of license purchased daily, monthly, and yearly, and this also generates a large amount of state revenue. Local Government Revenues Local governments get their money in a little different fashion. The local government cannot just take a tax return, so instead, money is generated by raising property tax, sales tax, and other taxes on goods and merchandise (FMS, 2012). Financial Decisions In lieu of financial decisions, there are numerous ways that these decisions can be made, and there is no decision made easily (FMS, 2012.). An expenditure is a set amount of money to be set aside for a precise job. Believe it or not, there are more expenditures within the federal, state, and local government one knows. When there is an individual who gets ADC or food stamps. Money has to be generated somewhere, and so there is a set amount of money for each individual who gets food stamps or ADC to where the budget, is including the millions of dollars handed out to these individuals. Alternatives to the above problems and issues can be taken care of, but that is a financial task all in its own. The federal, state, and local government are the financial backbone to how the communities are run, and whether or not communities will succeed or fail. To have a true budget, there are a number of obstacles to be followed. First, to have expenditures, there has to be some sort of revenue. If there is no money being generated, there surely cannot be money going out, and if this is still taking place, the corporation or individual is not going to stay above water for to long. Budgets are what gain money and success for large corporations. If there is no budget, there is no way there can be any success. Expenditures and revenue take place daily and sometimes the federal government will step in and take what is theirs, and other times the government will wait. The money that we have circulating within our country, some will end up in the hands of the community while the rest will continue to flow in and out of places. Haven't found the Essay You Want? Get your custom essay sample For Only $13/page
103 terms Hearing and balance The 3 parts of the ear Inner, outer and middle The parts of the ear involved with hearing Outer and middle Hearing and equillibrium Receptors for hearing and balance respond to separate stimuli, are activated independently Components of the Outer Ear Auricle (pinna) External auditory canal Tympanic Membrane (eardrum) Auricle is composed of The helix (rim) Lobule (earlobe) External auditory canal short, curved tube filled with ceruminous glands This is the thin connective tissue membrane that vibrates in response to sound Tympanic membrane Transfers sound energy to the middle ear ossicles Tympanic membrane Boundary between outer and middle ears Tympanic membrane Small, air filled, mucosa-line cavity Middle ear The tympanic cavity (middle ear) is flanked laterally by what? By the tympanic membrane The tympanic cavity (middle ear) is flanked medially by what? Oval and round windows Pharyngotympanic tube Connects the middle ear to the nasopharynx Function of the pharyngotympanic tube Equalizes pressure in the middle ear cavity with the external air pressure The 3 bones of the tympanic cavity, lateral to medial. 1) Malleus 2) Incus 3) Stapes Tensor Tympani is suppled by which nerve Stapedius supplied by which nerve Function of the small bones in the tympanic cavity Transmits vibratory motion of the tympanic membrane to the OVAL window dampened by the tensor tympani and stapedius muscles. How to remember the 3 bones of the tympanic cavity Lateral to Medial you never miss NIS Bony labrynth part of the inner ear. Tortuous channels worming their way through the temporal bone. Contains the vestibule, the cochlea and the semicircular canals. What is the bony labrynth filled with? Filled with PERILYMPH What is Perilymph very low in Very low in potassium Membranous labrinyth Par of inner ear. Series of membranous sacs within the bony labyrinth. What is the membranous labyrinth filled with? Filled with potassium rich fluid ENDOLYMPH spiral, conical bony chamber where does the cochlea extend from extends from the anterior vestibule What does the cochlea coil around coils around a bony pillar called the MODIOLUS Cochlea contains the cochlear duct, which ends at the cochlear apex. The Organ of Corti is in what The cochlea 3 chambers of the cochlea 1) Scala Vestibuli 2) Scala Media (cochlear duct 3)Scala tympani Which of the 3 chambers of the cochlea contain the hearing receptor? scala media Scala tympani terminates at the round window Scalas tympani and vestibuli are both filled with The scala tympani and vestibuli are continuous with eachother via the the helicotrema Scala media is filled with The "floor" of the cochlear duct is composed of the bony spiral lamina and the basilar membrane which supports the organ of corti Cochlear branch of which nerve runs from the organ of corti to the brain? Sound vibrations beat against what membrane the tympanic membrane How the tympanic membrane works Pushes the ossicles, which presses fluids in the inner ear against the oval and round windows The movement of what sets up shearing forces that pull on mechanosensitive hair cells tympanic membrane The route of sound to the inner ear: Outer Ear Pinnea, external auditory canal, tympanic membrane The route of sound to the inner ear: Middle ear Malleus, incus and stapes to the oval window The route of sound to the inner ear: Inner Ear Scalas vestibuli and tympani to the cochlear duct. Mechanically gated ion channels are found where found where the hair meets the cell Transmission of sound to the inner ear needs stimulation of the organ of corti and generation of impulses in the cochlear nerve Audible sound waves penetrate through the cochlear duct. Vibrate the basilar membrane The audible sound waves excites specific hair cells according to what According to the FREQUENCY of sound This is composed of supporting cells and outer and inner hair cells The Organ of Corti In the organ of corti, afferent fibers of the cochlear nerve attach to the base of hair cells In the organ of corti, the stereocilia (hairs) touch the tectorial membrane during the bending of stereocilia, when it opens MECHANICALLY GATED ion channels found where the stereocilia meet the hair cell. Bending stereocilia causes causes a graded potential and the release of a neurotransmitter: termed Mechanotransduction The neurotransmitter released by mechanotransduction causes cochlear fibers to transmit impulses to the brain, where sound is perceived Impulses from the cochlea pass via the spiral ganglion to the cochlear nuclei Impulses from the cochlear nuclei are sent to the superior olivary nucleus. Inferior colliculus (auditory reflex center) Pitch is perceived by The primary auditory cortex cochlear nuclei Loudness is perceived by Varying thresholds of cochlear cells the number of cells stimulated 4 types of deafness 1) conduction deafness 2) Sensorineural deafness 3) Tinnitus 4) Meniere's syndrome Conduction deafness something hampers sound conduction to the fluids of the inner ear (e.g., impacted earwax, perforated eardrum, osteosclerosis of the ossicles) Sensorineural Deafness More common. Results from damage to the neural structures at any point from the cochlear hair cells to the auditory cortical cells Ringing or clicking sound in the ears in the absence of auditory stimuli Meniere's Syndrome Labyrinth disorder that affects the cochlea and the semicircular canals, causing vertigo, nausea and vomiting. Also Progressive hearing loss. 2 parts of a balance vestibule 1) saccule 2) utricle The saccule and the utricle each contain each contain a macula (sensory receptor) Vestibular receptors monitor static equillibrium Vestibular receptors respond to gravity and changes in the position of the head What is the maculae The sensory receptors for static equillibrium Maculae contain contain supporting cells and hair cells Each hair cell of the maculae has has stereocilia and kinocilium embedded in the otolithic membrane Otholithic Membrane Jellylike mass studded with tinny CaCO3 stones called Otoliths Utricular hairs respond to horizontal movement Saccular hairs respond to vertical movement Otolithic movement in the direction of kinocilia: depolarizes vestibular nerve fibers increases the number of action potentials generated Otolithic movement in the opposite direction: Hyperpolarizes vestibular nerve fibers Reduces the rate of impulse propagation DO the vestibular neurons have a constant signal? Stereocilia move TOWARDS the kinocilium and what happens and the signal increases in frequency (depolarization) compared to the normal tonic level Stereocilia move AWAY from the kinocilium and what happens and the signal decreases in frequency (hyperpolarization) compared to the normal tonic level. Semiciruclar canals cover three planes of space (x,y,z) Single swollen end of each canal in the semicircular canals Where is the crista ampullaris (equilibrium receptors)? In the ampulla Semicircular canal receptors respond to what angular movements of the head (Dynamic Equillibrium) Each crista contains what Has support cells and hair cells that extend into a gel-like mass called the cupula Vestibular nerve fibers innervate what innervate hair cells Cristae respond to changes in what changes in velocity of rotatory movements of the head Directional bending of hair cells in the cristae causes: 1) depolarizations, and rapid impulses reach the brain at a faster rate 2) Hyperpolarizations and fewer impulses reach the brain. What is the result of the directional bending of hair cells in the cristae result is that the brain is informed of rotational movements of the head Horizontal control Depolarization occurs in the SAME direction as the head movement. (Left head turn produces depolarization in the LEFT horizontal canal) Anterior and Posterior Canals Depolarization occurs in the OPPOSITE direction as the head movement (FORWARD head tilt produces depolarization of the POSTERIOR canals) Components of the Vestibule Saccule and Urticle Receptor of the Vestibule Dampening element of the Vestibule Otolithic membrane Modality of the Vestibule Static equilibrium Components of the Semicircular canals Anterior canal Horizontal (lateral) canal Posterior canal Receptor of the semicurcular canals crista ampullaris Dampening element of the semicurcular canals Modality of the semicurcular canals Dynamic equilibrium Push-Pull system When both Ampulla are working together One side excited and the other inhibited Visual-Vestibular Conflict Ordinarily the head movement implied by the visual and vestibular signals are equal but there can be conflict resulting in a) motion sickness b) vertigo Motion sickness Nausea and vomiting. Occurs when the visual and vestibular signals are unequal A perception of head motion when the head is still. Part of motion sickness Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) One of the most common causes of vertigo. Otoliths from the utricle dislodge and float into the posterior canal, causing interference with cupula function.
Flag of the Week: Tanzania Author name Danielle Ngo Tanzania is a presidential constitutional republic country in Eastern Africa, located within the African Great Lakes region. The country has a population of 51.82 million and total area of 967,303 square kilometers, making it a bit more than twice the size of California. Although Tanzania’s capital city is Dodoma, its previous capital city, Dar es Salaam, is the country’s largest city and leading commercial center. Tanzania is also home to Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. There are no de jure official languages in Tanzania, but the national language is Swahili and a common language for government use and higher education is English. Tanzania is the most linguistically diverse country in East Africa with over 100 different languages spoken across the country. Around 90% of Tanzanians speak a local language as their first language and Swahili as their second language, but more young children are speaking Swahili in recent years as a first language in urban areas. This decline in use of smaller languages in Tanzania can be attributed in part to the widespread use and promotion of Swahili as a unifying language among the country’s various ethnic groups. Tanzania has set aside approximately 38% of its land area as protected areas for conservation. The country has 16 national parks and various game and forests reserves. Its Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a recognized World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and is home to approximately 25,000 large animals, such as the black rhinoceros and the Masai lions. Although wildlife conservation has been the prerogative of the government, in recent years, the Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) has been working to reincorporate the local community in conservation efforts aimed at contributing to the local economies. Fun fact: The lions in Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park can climb trees! Sources: Wikipedia, sevennaturalwonders.org
Biopsy of skin Author: Dr Tom Middelburg, MD PhD, Dermatologist, Canterbury District Health Board, New Zealand, September 2016. What is a skin biopsy? A skin biopsy is the removal of a sample of skin. It is usually undertaken using a local anaesthetic injection into the skin to numb the area. The injection stings transiently. After the procedure, a suture or dressing may be applied to the site of the biopsy. Why have a skin biopsy? A skin biopsy may be deemed necessary as part of the diagnostic process. The additional information obtained from the biopsy can help identify diagnostic clues that are invisible to the naked eye. Types of skin biopsy Punch biopsy The punch biopsy is generally the most useful type of biopsy. It is quick to perform, convenient, and only produces a small wound. It creates a full thickness sample of skin that allows the pathologist to get a good overview of the epidermis, dermis, and most of the time, the subcutis also. A disposable skin biopsy punch is used, which has a round stainless steel blade ranging from 2–6 mm in diameter. The 3 and 4 mm punches are the most common sizes used. The clinician holds the instrument perpendicular to the anaesthetized skin and rotates it to pierce the skin. Using a forceps and scissors the skin sample is subsequently removed. A suture may be used to close a punch biopsy wound or help control bleeding. If the wound is small, it may heal adequately without it. Shave biopsy As a shave biopsy does not include the full thickness of the skin, the drawback of such a biopsy is that it may be difficult for a pathologist to rule out or identify invasive disease. A scoop biopsy is a deep form of shave biopsy, used to remove a skin lesion such as a benign mole by "scooping" it out. It is also called “saucerisation” or “tangential excision”. Because of the increased depth, this type of shave biopsy may lead to more extensive scarring if left to heal by secondary intention. In some cases, it may require stitches afterwards. A skin curette may be used to scrape off a superficial skin lesion, such as a seborrhoeic keratosis. Some of the curettings are sent for histopathology. These samples are not suitable for determining if a lesion has been completely removed. Incisional biopsy Incisional biopsies refer to removal of a larger and generally deeper ellipse of skin, using a scalpel blade. Stitches are usually required after an incisional biopsy. This type of biopsy may be useful to provide a better overview for the pathologist, which can improve diagnostic accuracy. It can also be useful when deeper layers or tissue are believed to be involved in the disease process (eg, subcutaneous fat or medium-sized blood vessels). Excision biopsy Excision biopsy refers to complete removal of a skin lesion, such as a skin cancer in which a margin of surrounding skin is taken to improve chances of complete removal. Smaller lesions are most often removed using a scalpel blade as an ellipse, with primary closure using sutures. Larger excisions may be repaired using a skin flap (moving adjacent skin to cover the wound) or graft (skin taken from another site to patch the wound). Choosing the type of and site for a biopsy It is crucial that the site of a biopsy is chosen carefully, or the pathological diagnosis could be incorrect or misleading. Here are a few guidelines to help find the best site, some general advice and pitfalls to avoid, depending on the type of skin lesion. For suspected skin cancer: For most inflammatory skin diseases: For ulcers, erosions and blisters: Completing the request form The clinician should ensure the pathology request form includes basic patient information (including age and identification details), the site and type of biopsy, and time and date. Left and right are best written out in full to avoid mistakes In addition to this, it is crucial for the pathologist to be provided with clinical information and a range of possible diagnoses. For best clinicopathological correlation clinical information should include a description of the duration, symptoms and a dermatologic description. The sample pot should be labelled with patient identification details, the body site of the biopsy, time and date, and checked against the request form for consistency. When multiple biopsies are taken roman numbers are best used to match the request forms with their corresponding sample pots. What happens to the biopsy sample? Most skin biopsies are placed in formalin in a small pot and are sent to the lab for paraffin fixation, processing and histopathological examination. Complications of skin biopsy Skin biopsy is usually straightforward and complications are uncommon. As a general rule, the larger the skin sample removed, the higher the chance of complications. The following complications might occur. Bacterial wound infection affects about 1–5% of excisional biopsies. It is however extremely uncommon in small punch, shave or incisional biopsies. Ulcerated or crusted skin lesions, site of biopsy, patient characteristics such as diabetes, older age, or use of immunosuppressive medicines may contribute to increased risk of infection. Nerve injury The blade may cut a superficial sensory nerve causing pain or numbness. This is most likely to occur where the skin is thin, for example on the face or back of hand. Risk of motor nerve impairment is extremely rare, but can occur during skin cancer surgery in facial danger zones. These include the temporal, marginal mandibular, zygomatic branches of the facial nerve and the spinal accessory nerve (at Erb's point). It is usual for a biopsy site to form a significant permanent scar. Some body sites such as the centre of the chest are prone to develop excessive or hypertrophic scars. This is also more common in Afro-Caribbean skin types. Persistence or recurrence of the skin lesion Many biopsies are deliberately partial and only intended for diagnostic purposes. In excisional biopsies there is a risk of not removing the full lesion, which may recur later. Anaesthetic problems Allergies to local anaesthetics are a possibility but are also extremely rare. A vasovagal reaction is more common, which may cause the patient to faint and potentially hurt him or herself. Palpitations are another side effect which are related to the adrenalin commonly present in the local anaesthetic. Wound breakdown This is an uncommon complication of sutured wounds. It is more likely to occur in body sites where there is a lot of tension of the scar (eg, chest, back), immediately after suture removal, or as a result of infection. Avoidance of exercise, use of strappings and dissolvable sutures may help prevent this. Obtaining the results of the biopsy It usually takes about one or two weeks to obtain the result from the pathology laboratory, but can sometimes take longer if special stains or second opinions are required. The pathologist describes what is observed under light microscopy in several sections of the biopsy sample, and either makes a diagnosis or assists in differentiating between the suggested range of clinical diagnoses. Clinicopathological correlation Skin diseases and conditions can at times be very difficult to diagnose accurately. In those cases the clinical and histopathological findings combined form a more complete picture to make a correct diagnosis. This is called the clinicopathological correlation. Many organisations hold regular multidisciplinary meetings (MDMs) at which clinical information, clinical photographs, and pathology slides are reviewed by a team of experts to determine the best diagnosis and treatment for the patient. Related information Email Newsletter Would you like to receive DermNet updates by email? Submit your images We're seeking high-quality photos of skin diseases. Skin lesion photography Subscribe to our mailing list * indicates required DermNet NZ Newsletter
Mon July 30, 2012 By: Renu Mariam John what is magnetic inclination and how is it measured ? Expert Reply Tue July 31, 2012 Magnetic dip or magnetic inclination is the angle made by a compass needle with the horizontal at any point on the Earth's surface. Positive values of inclination indicate that the field is pointing downward, into the Earth, at the point of measurement. The value can be measured with an instrument called "dip circle". Home Work Help
Nursing General Information The nursing field is one of the few areas of the economy that continues to grow. For anyone wanting to become a nurse you must have a plan. Naturally, you will need an education to both enter and to advance in the field. How to become a nurse the easy way is a road map to achieve your goal. There are several ways to start a nursing career. Some start out as a nurse’s assistant. This route lets you earn income while at the same time gaining practical experience as they work their way up. Others will go to school so they can start out as a registered nurse. You must be a high school graduate or posses a GED. To start off as a nurse’s assistant you need to earn a Certified Nurses Assistant certificate. The program takes 6 to 12 weeks to complete. This course teaches the basics, like how to draw blood and take vital signs from a patient. Nursing assistants can become orderlies or home health aides. There is an ongoing need for nurse’s aides in hospitals and nursing homes. The next progressive step is the LPN or Licensed Practical Nurse. The demand for LPNs is huge. To become a LPN you must enroll in a one year program either at a vocational school or a local college. The course of study involves both classroom and real hands on training. Once this education is completed the LPN must pass an exam issued by your state to become certified. The next step is to become a Registered Nurse or RN. There are two types of RN education programs. The AND program earns you an associates degree, and the BSN awards a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. Once you have reached the LPN level of nursing there are several ways to become a RN. One common method is to continue working as a LPN and enroll in an online nursing degree program. If you have acquired enough college credits it is feasible that you could become a RN in 12 to 18 months. Following this course of action allows you to obtain your hands on training at the hospital you currently are employed with. Some people do prefer the traditional college classroom method of learning. However, following this path might force you to put your nursing career on hold until you have obtained the degree. This because of the rotating shifts that most hospital nurses are required to work. Once your BSN goal has been realized there is no need to halt your education. Some nurses become specialized. Others become anesthesiologists or nurse practitioners. The options are many for the enthusiastic Registered Nurse. The fact is there are more job openings than the current pool of nurses can fill. This has made a nursing career more lucrative than ever before. Hospitals need good nurses to assist their doctor’s care for their patients. People are living longer these days so this need for qualified nurses will continue. If you are currently a LPN you can continue your education with an Internet based degree program, and become a Registered Nurse.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013 Tooth Extractions A tooth extraction is one of the most distressing dental procedures. A tooth extraction is taking the tooth out of its socket. A dentist will pull the tooth out of the bone. If tooth decay causes your tooth to become cracked or damaged, the tooth might need to be removed. Your dentist will probably try to repair it with a filling or crown; however, in some cases, the tooth is beyond repair, so it needs to be extracted. In addition, you might require tooth extraction if you have too many teeth in one area, and your mouth is too crowded. The permanent teeth come in before your baby teeth fall out, so the baby teeth need to be removed or other problems can occur. If you need braces, some teeth might need to be eliminated to make room for the teeth to become straight. In some instances, individuals who are receiving cancer drugs could develop teeth problems. Radiation or chemotherapy could cause infection in a tooth because the drugs make the immune system weaker. If your teeth become infected, they need to be removed. One of the most common types of teeth that need to be extracted is wisdom teeth. These teeth can cause pain, or they can become decayed. Sometimes they get impacted in the jaw, which can irritate the gums. Pain and swelling usually occurs, so the tooth needs to be removed. When your dentist to evaluate your teeth, they will take an x-ray to decide the best way to eliminate the tooth. Before the procedure, he will ask you about your medical and dental history and if you are allergic to any medications. In some cases, antibiotics will be prescribed before the surgery to eliminate the risk of an infection. The extraction might be able to be a simple extraction, or it might require a surgical extraction. A simple extraction is a tooth that is visible in the mouth. The dentist will loosen the tooth and then take it out using forceps. An injection is usually used to numb the area, and it is a simple procedure. A surgical extraction is a more difficult procedure. A tooth might be cracked or broken, or it might not be visible yet. The dentist will need to make an incision in your gums to remove the tooth. In some cases, the tooth will need to be cut in half, or some of the bone surrounding the tooth needs to be removed. The dentist might want to give you anesthesia through your vein, or they will give you general anesthesia. Having problems with your teeth can be a traumatic experience. If you need a tooth extracted, contact us. We will make the procedure as painless as possible, so you can get the damaged tooth out of your mouth and the pain will be gone. A Family Dental Care Center: Dr. Seth Rosen 2030 West Main St. Jeffersonville, PA 19403 Tuesday, July 16, 2013 How To Take Care of Your Dentures A lot of care and money goes into your dentures, so it’s a good idea to take care of them as much as you can. However, some people simply don’t know how to properly care for their dentures. You can keep your dentures as nice as the day you got them as long as you follow some key denture care tips. General Cleaning Dentures should be cleaned on a daily basis to help remove plaque and bacteria buildup from your dentures. Remember, just because they’re not your real teeth doesn’t mean that they don’t need to be clean. Dentures can still get stained and look dirty. In addition, keeping that plaque and bacteria out of your mouth can keep you from getting sick. To clean your dentures, gently remove them from your mouth and rinse them off. After they’ve been rinsed, gently brush them with a soft bristled toothbrush. It’s better to use a denture cleaning solution to clean them over toothpaste as toothpaste might be too abrasive for your dentures. Scrub them in the same manner that you’d regularly brush your teeth. Brush in tiny circles and remember to scrub the back of the teeth. It’s also a good idea to take this opportunity to gently brush your tongue and gums to prevent bacteria buildup. In addition to brushing them every day, it’s a good idea to rinse them off after every meal to avoid having food staying on your teeth for too long. Food that stays on your teeth for too long can stick to your teeth and harden. In addition, it may leave stains. Handle with Care Dentures are strong, but they will break if dropped or accidentally crushed. When you’re handling your dentures, use a soft towel to handle them and keep a firm grip on them at all times. It’s also a good idea to not leave your dentures in any place where they could accidentally be knocked off, taken or crushed. When your dentures are not in your mouth, they should either be in a soft towel in your hands or in their proper storage place. Dentures need moisture in order to ensure that they don’t dry out. Dry dentures can warp and lose their custom shape. If your dentures warp, they might not be able to fit properly in your mouth anymore, which may cause sores on your lips or gums. If they warp too much, you may have to buy new dentures. Dentures should be stored in a glass or bowl of denture solution or water to prevent them from drying out. If you use water, ensure that the water is cool not hot. Some people believe it’s a good idea to use hot water for denture storage to kill bacteria, but it’s bad for them to soak in it for extended periods of time. The heat could cause the dentures to warp just like hot water in the dishwasher causes some plastic dishes to warp. Safe Places Keep your dentures out of reach from pets and children. Pets can easily damage dentures and dogs have been known to chew on them and eat them. Children may accidentally break or damage them by mistaking them for a toy. It’s also a good idea to not leave your dentures in a paper towel after cleaning them to avoid having someone accidentally mistaking them for garbage and throwing them away. Denture care is not much more different from regular dental care. Just remember to be careful with them and clean them on a regular basis to ensure that they stay clean and undamaged for as long as they can. A Family Dental Care Center 2030 West Main St. Jeffersonville, PA 19403 Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Maintaining Your Teeth Implants Teeth implants are a modern tooth restoration option, which can be used to replace a single tooth, a range of missing teeth, or a full set of teeth. Commonly also referred to as dental implants, teeth implants are small screws made of titanium, which can act as substitutes for the root portion of natural teeth. Dental implants are fitted into the jawbone, after the drilling of a tiny hole. During the healing period, bone grows around the dental implants, effectively fusing with them, which enables prosthetic teeth to be later anchored to them. Prosthetic teeth are usually made of porcelain, which together with an abutment, are attached to the teeth implants, once the healing process has progressed sufficiently. Looking after your new dental implants The long term success of teeth implants depends largely on proper dental care and maintenance. Dental implants are known for their longevity, and can last an entire lifetime, if properly cared for. They require the same care as a patient’s natural teeth, including brushing, flossing and regular dental check-ups. Failure to maintain good dental care can result in the dental implants not lasting as long as they potentially could due to the development of complications. Below are some tips for taking care of dental implants: • Practice good dental hygiene: Dentists often tell patients to brush their teeth regularly. Once teeth implants are placed, it becomes even more important to practice proper dental hygiene to prevent bacterial infections. Such infections might weaken the gums and cause the jawbone to recede, which may result in the dental implants coming loose or falling off. • Regular visits to your dentist: Individuals with teeth implants should visit their dentist at least twice a year, about five months apart. At these visits, the implants should be checked, to ensure that they remain in good condition. • Avoid smoking: Smoking is known to negatively affect the blood flow around the gums and teeth, which impairs healing, and increases the potential for bone loss. A Family Dental Care Center: Dr. Seth Rosen 2030 West Main St. Jeffersonville, PA 19403
window spacer Here are summary facts and figures on the Amazon rainforest. You can use the material for your homework, but please respect our copyright and "Fair Use" rules! (Ask a grown-up if you're not sure what this means.) Be sure to credit Jungle Photos with any help you get from these pages. When you credit your resources it shows your teacher that you have done lots of research. Please write Jungle Photos Amazon if you'd like to see particular facts and figures. Click below for the facts and figures: Amazon Rainforest, River and Drainage Basin Vital Statistics Location: The Amazon rainforest lies within an area comprising about one-third of the South American continent, defined by the watershed (drainage area) of the Amazon River. It occupies a region in the northern portion of the continent, from central Brazil and Bolivia up to the northern coasts of Venezuela and the Guyanas to Central America. Size: The Amazon River basin is the world's largest drainage basin (watershed), measuring 2,375,000 square miles (6,151,000 square kilometers), about 40% of the South American continent. Compared with other regions, this is about four-fifths the size of Australia, over three-quarters the size of the continental United States, or 25 times the size of the United Kingdom. From west to east, the river basin measures approximately 3,600 kilometers (2,240 miles, the distance from Los Angeles to Washington DC York is 2,300 miles) west to east and 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) north to south. Area covered by water: 110,000 square kilometers (dry season) to 350,000 square kilometers (flood season) Elevation: Most of the Amazon River basin upon an extremely flat alluvial plain, less than 100 meters (328 feet) above sea level. the highest point within the biome (tropical rainforest) is Neblina peak (3,040 meters; 9,974 feet) in northern Brazil. (Higher regions transition into different habitat types.) Location: The Amazon River flows west to east across South America, approximately along the equator Source: Nevado Mismi in the Andes mountains of Peru, 190 kilometers (120 miles) from the Pacific Ocean (elevation 5,200 meters; 17,000 feet) Mouth: mid-Atlantic coast of northeast Brazil Length: 6,437 kilometers (4,000 miles) Navigable length: ocean steamers (+ 3000 tons) to Manaus (1,600 km; 1,000 miles) small ocean vessels (< 3,000 tons) to Iquitos (3,700 km; 2,300 miles) small riverboats to Achual (4,480 km; 2,786 miles) small boats to the Pongo de Manseriche, just above Achual Point during flood season the total length of navigable waterway throughout the river basin can exceed 2 million kilometers. Max depth: 100 meters (300 feet) Max width: about 2 to 10 kilometers (1 to 6 miles) Width at mouth (of the delta): 300 miles Flow rate: 184,000 cubic meters (6.5 million cubic feet) per second in the rainy season Flooding: Depth varies plus or minus 40 feet due to annual floods Tidal bore: Depth varies plus or minus 12 feet (3.7 m high) to about 800 km (500 miles) upstream (locally called pororoca) Longest tributary: 3,379 km, Rio Purus, Peru to Brazil Biggest blackwater river: Rio Negro Proportional areas of rainforest in each country: Brazil = 62.4%, Peru = 16.3%, Bolivia = 12.0%, Colombia = 6.3%, Ecuador = 2.1% Click for pie-chart of proportional areas of rainforest in each country Temperature: 70° to 90°F during the day, 60° to 70°F at night (Mountainous areas on the edge of the Amazon Basin can be considerably cooler.) Rainfall: 70 to 100 inches of rain yearly (e.g., Los Angeles = 7 inches per year. London = 30 inches per year) Cloud cover: 40% average Rate of destruction: 18,000 square kilometers per year on average since 1990 in Brazil alone. Click here for a graph of deforestation in Brazil Total area now clearcut: 500,000 square kilometers (about a fifth of the total area) Extinction rate: an average of 137 species per day (50,000 per year) Threats: slash and burn farming, ranching, logging, mining, urbanization, road-bulding Economic value of one hectare of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon* (RAN) Sustainably managed for fruit, latex, and timber harvest: $6,820 per year Commercial timber harvest (unsustainable): $1,000 Cattle pasture: $148 Total population: 20 million people Urban population: 50 to 60% Employment: farming and ranching (about 20%), gold mining and prospecting, rubber tapping, fishing, hunting/gathering, oil industry, lumber industry, tourism and service industries Ethnicity today: 400 different ethnic groups; 1.5 million people Ethnicity before arrival of Europeans: 2,000 groups, 7 million people Percentage of tribes with less than 1,000 people: 75% Number of languages and dialects: about 200 Earliest settlements: 15 to 10,000 B.P. (this figure is disputed) First exploration by Europeans: 1500 Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (Spanish) First full-length voyage: 1540-41; Francisco de Orellana (Spanish) First full-length voyage upstream: 1637-38; Pedro Teixeira (Portuguese) Coming soon! Fast facts on animals, biodiversity, endangered species and plants, medicinal plants, uses of plants and animals, how to help save the Amazon. Top of page Back to students resources © Jungle Photos 2000-2014 window spacer
понедельник, 11 февраля 2013 г. Mammoth Ivory Netsuke The Seven Gods of Fortune The Japanese shichi (seven) fuku (luck) jin (beings) have been a popular group of deities since the Edo period. Pictures and sculptures of these gods are seen all over Japan, either alone or as a group, and often on their treasure ship (takara-bune). Each lucky god (fukunokami) has a name: Ebisu is the patron of fishermen and favours them with a good catch. He also ensures safe journeys for all seafarers since he himself arrived into Japan from the sea. In the countryside, he is considered a guardian of the rice fields and agriculture in general. Land merchants, caterers, farmers and other tradesmen have adopted Ebisu for prosperity in return for their hard work. All this makes him the most popular of the seven gods. Daikoku came to Japan from China in the 9th century, although originally he was an incarnation of Shivain in India, where he protected people against evil forces. In addition to giving a good harvest to farmers, he is another god that ensures prosperity and wealth in commerce and trade. He is also guardian for cooks and all kitchen workers. People who dream of financial riches tend to worship this god. Bishamon is a Buddhist deity from India and a protector of the righteous and a symbol of authority. He lives at the earth's core in the fourth layer of Mount Sumeru, protecting the northern quarter and the teaching seat of Buddha. He is one of Buddhism's 'Four Guardians' (shi-tenno) and carries a small 'treasure tower' or pagoda (tahoutou) in his left hand. Benten was an angel of one of the three major Indian goddesses, Sarasvati, the goddess of fine arts: music, painting, sculpture, dance and literature. These attributes help to soften the vulgarity of monetary wealth, and therefore this goddess is included in the group of seven. Although Sarasvati is a Hindu goddess, Benten came to Japan with Buddhism. Fukurokuju is from an old Taoist god who in turn is based on the old Chinese sage Lao Tzu who had kept archives for the imperial court in the Sung dynasty. He was renowned for performing miracles, particularly in the field of longevity and prosperity. Therefore he is the deity of wisdom, good luck, happiness, wealth, virility and longevity. He is thought to share his body with Jurojin. The rotund Hotei is the only member of the shichifukujin based on a mortal; an eccentric Chinese Zen monk called Pu-tai and thought to be the reincarnation of Maitreya (miroku Bosatsu), a Buddhist saint. Hotei, like Daikoku, is a god of abundance. He is also the god of laughter and the happiness you can achieve by being satisfied with what you have. He is the god of joy and satisfaction in trade, hence a Hotei statue is often positioned at the entrance of stores. Jurojin is a Taoist god from China and thought to inhabit the same body as Fukurokuju. He is the god of wealth, wisdom and happiness for our long lives. Jurojin's appearance is similar to Fukurokuju's: a smiling old man dressed as a Chinese sage, long white beard and an elongated bald head. He also has a staff with a scroll (makimono) attached, which contains a life study of the world and the secret of longevity. He is sometimes flanked by a stag or deer (shika) as his messenger, a tortoise (kame) or a crane (tsuru), all of which symbolize longevity. Shichifukujin are seen all over Japan; as stone statues, wood carvings, paintings, ice sculptures, and even acrylic stick-on nails (tsuketsume). The set of fake talons in this photo were seen in a Tokyo 'nail art studio' window during the first seven days of January; the best time of year to see Shichifukujin. Комментариев нет: Отправить комментарий
The last weeks of summer were unseasonably cold this year, but why are some Waltham trees' leaves changing colors or turning brown already? The cause has nothing to do with out-of-the-ordinary temperatures, and everything to do with a pair of diseases hitting invasive Norway maples, one of the more widespread trees in Boston-area suburbs, according to University of Massachusetts Extension School plant pathologist Nick Brazee. "[Norway maples] were heavily planted in municipalities in and around Boston after Dutch elm disease spread through," he said. "There wasn’t a lot of diversity in what could be purchased from nurseries at the time. Now, they are at an age where they look terrible." Add disease to the trees' already-ragged state and the impact of a disease becomes a lot more noticeable. Spots and cankers A disease called "tar spots" is causing the most visible damage, Brazee said. This disease creates large, black spots of dead tissue on the leaves of trees it infects. These spots grow progressively larger as the year wears on. The more problematic, but less visible disease is called maple anthracnose, Brazee said. "Anthracnose emerges in the spring, and attacks foliage and shoots as they’re developing. It attacks those parts, then it goes dormant during the summer and then reemerges once it’s cooler and wetter," he said. Compared to tar spots, the disease is active in trees much longer, causing more damage to leaves. Tell-tale signs of anthracnose include leaf spots, stem cankers and larger branch cankers, Brazee said. Both diseases received a boon earlier this year, thanks to the wet early summer, Brazee said. That allowed them to spread through the area much more effectively. Survive versus thrive Brazee said a disease's impact depends on what other problems a tree is dealing with. In the case of many urban trees--and particularly with street trees--more than just a few spots are hurting their ability to grow. "If trees are defoliated earlier in the season, they usually have the reserves to flush a new set of leaves later in the growing season," Brazee said. "[However] These diseases don’t exist in a vacuum. These urban trees have a host of other problems-mechanical injuries, salt damage, gypsy moths. These don’t kill otherwise-healthy trees." In Waltham's case, the unsightly splotches probably won't inflict any lasting damage on the city's urban forest or on its parks, according to city Tree Warden Kevin Thompson. "It seems to me that affected trees are less than 50 percent defoliated so photosynthesis continues. That is a good thing," Thompson wrote in an email to the News-Tribune. "Most trees will survive." "Residents concerned about trees on private property should provide adequate water in the early morning. Nighttime watering promotes fungal issues," he added. "Adequate water is one inch per week, which can be measured with a can--[a] tuna is good--and a ruler. Measure how long it takes to fill the can to a 1/2 inch under a sprinkler and use that amount of time twice a week. Fertilization may also be a good idea as well as a soil test to determine the need and pH of soil. Reputable contractors can provide services."
As painters, we've all, at one time or another, gotten involved in a work that turned out to be a nightmare, either in it's execution, or when finished...or BOTH. Whatever the case, hopefully it was something we could put behind us at the end of the day and not have plague us in our sleep as a TRUE nightmare. Of course dreams and nightmares HAVE been the subject of some painters' work, principally the Surrealists. However, about a 150 years before Salvador Dali ever painted the first of his hated bugs, or Rene Magritte ever logged the first steam engine out of a fireplace, an English artists probed "his worst nightmare" so to speak to a degree rivaling anything ever conjured up by the Surrealists. John Henry Fuseli was a highly educated Swiss minister, not a painter when he came to London in 1764 at the age of 23. Recognized as one of the city's intellectual leaders, he twice went to Italy where he studied the classics and absorbed all the wealth of knowledge the Italian Renaissance had to offer. Returning to London, he determined to make a career for himself as a painter, and although heavily influenced by Michelangelo, he seems to have developed something of a style of his won, illustrating literary works, Norse myths, Dante, Milton, and Shakespear. However his most expressive work seems to have come from his own psyche as in his The Nightmare, painted in 1781. In it Fuseli depicts a languidly recumbent female figure clad in a sleeping gown upon whom sits an ugly, hairy, creature known as an incubus, a folklore demon believed to rape women in their sleep. Entered into the 1780 Royal Academy exhibition, the painting tended to evoke nightmares for the London critics as well. One wrote that it "...ought to be destroyed", while Horace Walpole called it "...shockingly mad, mad, mad, madder than ever." Openly erotic, the painting, nonetheless was repeated in no less than SIX different versions. Each of which sold practically before the paint was dry. Commercial engravers loved it, and apparently so did the public. Print reproductions of it abounded. A hundred years later, one of them ended up framed and hanging in the office of Austrian psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud.
Learn more about Integral lattices have a deep connection to the objects in the LMFDB in that every lattice, $L$, has an associated theta series, $\Theta_L$, which is a holomorphic modular form of half-integral weight. Specifically, the theta series are a type of Siegel modular form, first introduced by Siegel in the 1930's [MR:0332663] . Later, in 1973, Shimura developed a partial correspondence lifting half-integral weight theta series to full integral weight series [MR:0332663] , allowing lattices to be studied using the full analytic machinery of modular forms. The Representation Problem The lattice $L$ with associated quadratic map $Q$, is said to represent an integer $n$ if the equation $Q(v)=n$ is solvable for $v$ in $L$. The representation problem, or the determination of the number of ways a certain integer can be represented by a given lattice, is one of the classical problems in integral lattices. To this end, the theta series is a valuable tool, in that the $n^{th}$ Fourier coefficients of $\Theta_L$ counts the number of representations of $n$ by $L$. Classically, sums of squares are one interesting class of lattices; the sums of two squares (, three squares ( and four squares ( all appear in the database. These lattices can all be considered as discrete subsets of Euclidean space, and their associated bilinear map is just the standard inner product. Originally studied by Euler, Legendre, Gauss, Lagrange and Jacobi, the number of ways an integer can be represented by sums of two, three or four squares is well known. In the 1920's, Hasse proved that an integer is represented by a quadratic form provided that it is represented locally by the form at every prime. In the case of indefinite lattices there is more or less an integral analogue of Hasse's result described by Hsai, Shao, and Xu in [MR:1604472] . In the definite case a direct integral analogue of Hasse's local-global result does not exists for lattices, although in several cases there is an asymptotic version a summary of these results is given by Schulze-Pillot in [MR:2060206] . Given the Siegel correspondence, many of the results in the preceding paragraph rely on a careful melding of the analytic machinery of theta series, and the algebraic techniques of lattices. Lattices and Codes There is also an important connection between lattices and codes described by Ebeling in [MR:1938666] . Given a finite commutative ring, $R$, a code, $C$, is an $R$-submodule of $R^n$. A code $C$ is related uniquely to a lattice $L_C$ via Construction A, described by Nebe, Rains, and Sloane in [MR:2209183] . Many of the concepts of lattices theory have analogues in coding theory, for example the theta series of a lattice is a modular form invariant under the action of a certain Siegel modular group, this corresponds directly to the weight enumerator of a code which is a polynomial invariant under the action of the so-called Clifford-Weil group. As an example, the 8-dimensional root lattice $E8$ ( corresponds to the well-known Hamming code, an error-correcting code over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_2$. In addition, the 24-dimensional Leech lattice ( corresponds to the Golay code.
Beanery Online Literary Magazine August 4, 2010 Post World War I Issues Many issues rose to the surface during the aftermath of World War I. This time span, from 1918 to 1929, was filled with chaos and conflict. Three of the most eminent problems, ranking from the worst to the least problematic, were the issues of labor, the “red scare”, and racial tensions. The most problematic issue after World War I was the unrest of the labor force. Labor problems reflect the unstableness of the economy, which clearly points out the weakness during this era. At the end of World War I, government agencies withdrew their control from the American economy, which released the restricted demands. While people hurried to buy goods which were rationed during the war, businesses increased the prices of their products. The result of this difference was swift inflation, or price increases, on the economy. An epidemic of strikes swept across the nation as a result of workers discontent with companies. Workers wanted higher pay from companies so they could keep up with the inflation, but the companies deemed it necessary not to increase wages of its employees to keep up with the sky-rocketing operating fees. The Seattle General Strike, which combined many industries in the surrounding location, took root in demand of higher wages and shorter hours. In the long run, the companies won and the employees returned back to work without any gains, but this occurrence sparked the insubordination of many companies. Next, the Boston police went on strike, but their absence led to the chaos of riots and uncontrolled crime. The National Guard was sent in so the disorder could be put to rest, but it was not too long before the strikers wanted their jobs back. The Governor at that time, Coolidge, refused them their jobs and replaced them with a new police force with his explanation that the there is never a good reason to strike against the safety of the public. One of the largest strikes in American history took place not too long after, this time taking place in the steel industry. About 350,000 steel workers, all across America, went on strike for higher pay, shorter hours, and the recognition of their unions. The steel company countered this, demanding that “loyal Americans” should return back to work, and rested the blame on the shoulders of alien radicals. African Americans and Mexicans filled the striker’s positions. The continued success of the industry without the workers on strike, eventually led to the strike’s overall collapse. Lessons were learned from all of these strikes, and labor unions of the future learned that organization would be the key for their future goals to be meant by employers. The next step down on the ladder of problematic issues was the chaos caused by the “Red Scare”, also known as the “Red Terror.” This issue was the fear of Communism, or a world revolution of anarchy. This fear was fueled by the many strikes which took place in the labor force. People thought that Communists were using strikes as footholds into their revolution with the Unites States. The United States tied unpatriotic acts with Communism, and worked hard in its methods of prevention. The FBI was created in an effort to squash the chaos and deport suspected immigrants and residents of foreign descent. Around 600 suspects of radical organizations, whether innocent or guilty of reported bomb raids, were deported on the grounds of suspicions. Unfair treatment and unjust accusations were aimed at immigrants and foreign citizens, leading to limits on immigration. America broke its principles of equal justice and liberty for its citizens during this time period. The third problem which Americans had to deal with in the aftermath of World War I was the issue of racial tensions. While this issue is a very bad one, racial issues were present in American since the beginning of slavery in the nation, so it was an ongoing problem, not a new one springing up from nowhere. The Ku Klux Clan was a reoccurrence during this time period, focusing on its prejudices against foreigners and communists. More groups were targeted on the basis of unjust hate and prejudices. Also, immediately following the war’s conclusion, American soldiers returning home needed to find jobs. Soldiers were frustrated at the competition for housing and jobs between them and the increased number of African Americans who migrated north during the war. This led to an outbreak of violence and many unjustifiable deaths and injuries because of the ignorance of racism and prejudice. Labor and economic unrest, the “Red Scare”, and racial tensions emerged as the top three problems during post-World War I in America. While each of these problems was just as problematic as the rest, their ranking is based on the harms created on a daily basis by each individual issue. Labor problems affect almost every aspect of living, because the economy regulates so many things regarding day-to-day life. Spontaneous events, such as the “Red Scare”, affect the mind set of Americans and narrow their minds by allowing prejudices to take root. Racial unrest, unlike the other two issues, was already an ongoing issue with little action being taken to halt its inhumanities, so it wasn’t a surprise, just a horrible issue which needed to be resolved. Post-War World I during 1918 through 1929 was a period of chaos and injustice. Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School (1957) Leave a Comment » No comments yet. RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. 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First blog post This is the post excerpt. Everything To Know About Atomic Clocks In this modern day, atomic clocks are the most precise device that is used to measure time and to be able to manipulate our busy schedules, we should be constantly reminded of every second gained or wasted. Believe it or not, our manufacturing, transportation, communication and several other technical functions is affected significantly by having atomic clocks in offices, homes or even public places. Well, you can find out more about atomic clocks here. We’ve swaggered away hours from the sand hourglass, sundials and even cuckoo clocks with cuckoo birds popping every hour or even the carved wooden grandfather clock that ticks in the hallway. Recent models of crystal quartz clock and even pendulum clocks were accurate but, it should be serviced on a regular basis. On the other hand, atomic clocks have changed the way people see time and are come in multiple designs and features which all depend on the manufacturer who created. Here’s a good read about atomic clocks, view it now. You can reset to US WWVB atomic clock when using a radio controlled atomic clock but the former has the ability to automatically adapt for daylight savings. In an effort to monitor indoor features for extra jumbo letters for checking the time from a distance or extra climate comfort, there are some wall clocks that come with extra features. The color and the design are secondary since the hallmark of a dependable and reliable atomic clock is that, it should not demand frequent setting while adjusting automatically to time changes. A number of these clocks have their time corrected regularly via signals that come from regional stations. A clock that is bought in the US will not work in Far East or Europe since these clocks contain chips that are made specifically to the region it is made. Another integral feature that you have to check in these clocks is the battery. Preference must be given to an electric clock because battery backup isn’t a long term proposition. Since technology has made huge advancements, it has made our lives to become more comfortable and easier. And it is through this particular technology why we now enjoy a more accurate way of telling the time. These atomic clocks are beautiful and complicated results of years of studies, scientific advancements and continued of knowing what it is down to second. For sure someday, there is going to be an even more accurate way to tell time that’ll emerge but until that day, atomic clocks will probably stay as the cutting edge means of time telling technology. Thus, if you are curious about time and want to be sure that you always have the most accurate, you may want to consider getting yourself an atomic clock.
Definition of lenticel in English: • ‘P occidentalis can develop adventitious roots and lenticels in response to flooding; however it appears to require aerated soils during the growing season.’ • ‘Corks are deliberately punched at right angles to the growth of the cork tree, so that any lenticels, occasional knots in the wood, remain transverse and the risk of possible leakage due to lenticels is minimized.’ • ‘This tissue probably aided photosynthetic gas exchange much like the lenticels of modern trees.’ Mid 19th century: from modern Latin lenticella, diminutive of Latin lens, lent- ‘lentil’.
Mules and Men #folktales #anthropology #hoodoo Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston can be a hilarious read at times, all while giving insight into 1930s Floridian black communities in the swamps. Yet, this collection can struggle because it ultimately doesn’t know how to be what it wants to be. Mules and Men started as a project handed down from Hurston’s college mentor, professor of anthropology Franz Boas. She was to travel and research folk tales for a book. Thus, Mules and Men is the result of what Hurston gathered from 1930-1932, but it wasn’t published until 1935. Hurston researched in her hometown, Eatonville, Florida, and nearby communities, and then later in New Orleans, that the material was a beast to put together. Thus, publishers couldn’t envision it as a book. mules and men In Part II, everything is through Hurston’s eyes. The hoodoo doctors and their customers she meets are all clearly filtered through her, whereas an anthropological text typically steps back and has the writer observing without being present. As a result, Part II reads more like the Zora Neale Hurston Instruction Manual of How-To Hoodoo. The writing style is almost entirely a list. Part II felt tacked on. hoodoo initiation Despite the separate feel to the book, it can be quite interesting. Part I: Folk Tales demonstrates “the dozens” at its best. The dozens is a game played in black communities in which participants try to best each other with lies or insults. In my review of Dust Tracks on a Road, I mentioned Hurston’s experiences with folks trying to out-insult each other. The insults get more creative, more humorous. Though the dozens seems mean at times, such as when a group argues over who has the darkest skin, it’s in good fun. In Part I of Mules and Men, the dozens appears all over, including scenes with people trying to lie to a group about who knows the ugliest person, who lived through the hottest day ever, and who has the best gun. One man tells his friends that he knew a man so ugly, “he didn’t die — he jus’ uglied away.” It’s the rhythm of the exchanges that’s best. Typically, one person tells their lie, for example, about who is ugliest, then another person tries to tell a better lie, starting by dismissing the previous lie: “Those men ya’ll been talkin’ ’bout wasn’t ugly at all. Those was pretty.” The liar proceeds to tell who they think is truly the ugliest and why. On and on it goes. The exchanges are hilarious, and the group laughs heartily along with the reader. zora boat Because Hurston wrote in first-person, I felt like I was reading an autobiography. There is a branch of anthropology co-created by Franz Boas called Participant Observation, which “entails active participation in the events, daily lives and special ceremonials, with an eye on observing the detail and meaning and then recording the event.” Perhaps this is what Hurston was doing. Mules and Men led me further down the rabbit hole when I contacted Ph.D. candidate Rebecca Mayus, who wrote to me that there are two ways to study a culture: The anthropologist is often an outsider looking into a culture, rather than a true participant in that culture. Some authors may choose to highlight their “otherness,” while others may not. . . . While [etic versus emic approaches to ethnography] aren’t specific to any single theoretical paradigm, they tend to be broadly employed to describe an ethnography style that privileges either the experience of the researcher/observer (etic) or the cultural participant/subject (emic). Some of the extra material in the book addresses my concerns about how close Hurston is to her work, though. First, a very short preface from her anthropology professor, Franz Boas, that is unnecessary. There’s a foreword by Arnold Rampersad that puts Hurston and her work in the context and discusses the integrity of Mules and Men from a research perspective, which I found helpful. Hurston includes an introduction that reiterates some of Rampersad’s section and is unnecessary. Finally, the work itself. Part I: Folk Tales is 172 pages, but Part II: Hoodoo is a mere 63 pages. These should have been two different books, in my opinion. zora drum.jpg Hurston includes a glossary and appendix for things like “Negro Songs with Music” and “Paraphernalia of Conjure.” In footnotes throughout the two Parts, Hurston writes, “See Appendix.” Uh, which page? I couldn’t follow based on clues. Then, we get a selected bibliography of Hurston’s works and works about her and a chronology of her life. zora and walker.jpg The book has an excerpt from Hurston’s biography. Finally, the text concludes with all the covers and synopses of her books. If you really want all sorts of information and tidbits, the extra materials will please you. I found a lot repeated, especially since I had already read Dust Tracks on a Road, but Alice Walker’s essay and Arnold Rampersad’s analysis/context were important pieces. *I read later that there is a branch of anthropology called “Participant Observation,” which is “a formal technique pioneered by Franz Boas (1852-1942) and Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942). 10 thoughts on “Mules and Men #folktales #anthropology #hoodoo Liked by 1 person Liked by 1 person Liked by 1 person Liked by 1 person Insert 2 Cents Here: You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
constituent unit, United Kingdom Constituent unit, United Kingdom Form of government1 Leading city Official language National religion Church of England Monetary unit pound sterling (£) (2011) 53,012,456 Total area (sq mi) Total area (sq km) • England political map Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. • The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, London, England. The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, London. Jose Fuste Raga/Corbis Outside the British Isles, England is often erroneously considered synonymous with the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and even with the entire United Kingdom. Despite the political, economic, and cultural legacy that has secured the perpetuation of its name, England no longer officially exists as a governmental or political unit—unlike Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which all have varying degrees of self-government in domestic affairs. It is rare for institutions to operate for England alone. Notable exceptions are the Church of England (Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, including Northern Ireland, have separate branches of the Anglican Communion) and sports associations for cricket, rugby, and football (soccer). In many ways England has seemingly been absorbed within the larger mass of Great Britain since the Act of Union of 1707. • England Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Laced by great rivers and small streams, England is a fertile land, and the generosity of its soil has supported a thriving agricultural economy for millennia. In the early 19th century, England became the epicentre of a worldwide Industrial Revolution and soon the world’s most industrialized country. Drawing resources from every settled continent, cities such as Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool converted raw materials into manufactured goods for a global market, while London, the country’s capital, emerged as one of the world’s preeminent cities and the hub of a political, economic, and cultural network that extended far beyond England’s shores. Today the metropolitan area of London encompasses much of southeastern England and continues to serve as the financial centre of Europe and to be a centre of innovation—particularly in popular culture. • Time-lapse video of London. Time-lapse video of London. Alex Silver (A Britannica Publishing Partner) One of the fundamental English characteristics is diversity within a small compass. No place in England is more than 75 miles (120 km) from the sea, and even the farthest points in the country are no more than a day’s journey by road or rail from London. Formed of the union of small Celtic and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the early medieval period, England has long comprised several distinct regions, each different in dialect, economy, religion, and disposition; indeed, even today many English people identify themselves by the regions or shires from which they come—e.g., Yorkshire, the West Country, the Midlands—and retain strong ties to those regions even if they live elsewhere. Yet commonalities are more important than these differences, many of which began to disappear in the era after World War II, especially with the transformation of England from a rural into a highly urbanized society. The country’s island location has been of critical importance to the development of the English character, which fosters the seemingly contradictory qualities of candour and reserve along with conformity and eccentricity and which values social harmony and, as is true of many island countries, the good manners that ensure orderly relations in a densely populated landscape. With the loss of Britain’s vast overseas empire in the mid 20th century, England suffered an identity crisis, and much energy has been devoted to discussions of “Englishness”—that is, not only of just what it means to be English in a country that now has large immigrant populations from many former colonies and that is much more cosmopolitan than insular but also of what it means to be English as opposed to British. While English culture draws on the cultures of the world, it is quite unlike any other, if difficult to identify and define. Of it, English novelist George Orwell, the “revolutionary patriot” who chronicled politics and society in the 1930s and ’40s, remarked in The Lion and the Unicorn (1941): For many, Orwell captured as well as anyone the essence of what Shakespeare called “this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.” Test Your Knowledge Cricket bat and ball. Cricket Quiz • England physical features map Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Plant and animal life Ethnic groups and languages The English language is polyglot, drawn from a variety of sources, and its vocabulary has been augmented by importations from throughout the world. The English language does not identify the English, for it is the main language of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, many Commonwealth countries, and the United States. The primary source of the language, however, is the main ethnic stem of the English: the Anglo-Saxons, who invaded and colonized England in the 5th and 6th centuries. Their language provides the most commonly used words in the modern English vocabulary. • Learn about “global English.” Learn about “global English.” © Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner) In the millennia following the last glacial period, the British Isles were peopled by migrant tribes from the continent of Europe and, later, by traders from the Mediterranean area. During the Roman occupation England was inhabited by Celtic-speaking Brythons (or Britons), but the Brythons yielded to the invading Teutonic Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (from present northwestern Germany) except in the mountainous areas of western and northern Great Britain. The Anglo-Saxons preserved and absorbed little of the Roman-British culture they found in the 5th century. There are few traces of Celtic or Roman Latin in the early English of the Anglo-Saxons, though some words survive in place-names, such as the Latin castra, for “camp,” providing the suffix -cester, and combe and tor, Celtic words for “valley” and “hill.” Old Norse, the language of the Danes and Norsemen, left more extensive traces, partly because it had closer affinities to Anglo-Saxon and because the Danish occupation of large tracts of eastern and northern England was for a time deeply rooted, as some place-names show. The history of England before the Norman Conquest is poorly documented, but what stands out is the tenacity of the Anglo-Saxons in surviving a succession of invasions. They united most of what is now England from the 9th to the mid-11th century, only to be overthrown by the Normans in 1066. For two centuries Norman French became the language of the court and the ruling nobility; yet English prevailed and by 1362 had reestablished itself as an official language. Church Latin, as well as a residue of Norman French, was incorporated into the language during this period. It was subsequently enriched by the Latin and Greek of the educated scholars of the Renaissance. The seafarers, explorers, and empire builders of modern history have imported foreign words, most copiously from Europe but also from Asia. These words have been so completely absorbed into the language that they pass unselfconsciously as English. The English, it might be said, are great Anglicizers. The English have also absorbed and Anglicized non-English peoples, from Scandinavian pillagers and Norman conquerors to Latin church leaders. Among royalty, a Welsh dynasty of monarchs, the Tudors, was succeeded by the Scottish Stuarts, to be followed by the Dutch William of Orange and the German Hanoverians. English became the main language for the Scots, Welsh, and Irish. England provided a haven for refugees from the time of the Huguenots in the 17th century to the totalitarian persecutions of the 20th century. Many Jews have settled in England. Since World War II there has been large-scale immigration from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, posing seemingly more difficult problems of assimilation, and restrictive immigration regulations have been imposed that are out of step with the open-door policy that had been an English tradition for many generations. Although the Church of England is formally established as the official church, with the monarch at its head, England is a highly secularized country. The Church of England has some 13,000 parishes and a similar number of clergy, but it solemnizes fewer than one-third of marriages and baptizes only one in four babies. The Nonconformist (non-Anglican Protestant) churches have nominally fewer members, but there is probably greater dedication among them, as with the Roman Catholic church. There is virtually complete religious tolerance in England and no longer any overt prejudice against Catholics. The decline in churchgoing has been thought to be an indicator of decline in religious belief, but opinion polls substantiate the view that belief in God and the central tenets of Christianity survives the flagging fortunes of the churches. Some churches—most notably those associated with the Evangelical movement—have small but growing memberships. There are also large communities of Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, and Hindus. • Cathedral of Saint Mary, Chelmsford, England. Cathedral of Saint Mary, Chelmsford, England. The J. Allan Cash Photolibrary Settlement patterns The modern landscape of England has been so significantly changed by humans that there is virtually no genuine wilderness left. Only the remotest moorland and mountaintops have been untouched. Even the bleak Pennine moors of the north are crisscrossed by dry stone walls, and their vegetation is modified by the cropping of mountain sheep. The marks of centuries of exploitation and use dominate the contemporary landscape. The oldest traces are the antiquarian survivals, such as the Bronze Age forts studding the chalk downs of the southwest, and the corrugations left by the strip farming of medieval open fields. More significant is the structure of towns and villages, which was established in Roman-British and Anglo-Saxon times and has persisted as the basic pattern. The English live in scattered high-density groupings, whether in villages or towns or, in modern times, cities. Although the latter sprawled into conurbations during the 19th and early 20th centuries without careful planning, the government has since limited the encroachment of urban development, and England retains extensive tracts of farming countryside between its towns, its smaller villages often engulfed in the vegetation of trees, copses, hedgerows, and fields: in a phrase of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, “the sweet especial rural scene,” which is so prominent in English literature and English art. • Village of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, Eng. Village of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, Eng. © Chrislofotos/Shutterstock.com The visual impact of a mostly green and pleasant land can be seriously misleading. England is primarily an industrial country, built up during the Industrial Revolution by exploitation of the coalfields and cheap labour, especially in the cotton-textile areas of Lancashire, the woolen-textile areas of Yorkshire, and the coal-mining, metalworking, and engineering centres of the Midlands and the North East. England has large tracts of derelict areas, scarred by the spoil heaps of the coal mines, quarries and clay pits, abandoned industrial plants, and rundown slums. One of the earliest initiatives to maintain the heritage of the past was the establishment in 1895 of the National Trust, a private organization dedicated to the preservation of historic places and natural beauty in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. (There is a separate National Trust for Scotland.) In 1957 the Civic Trust was established to promote interest in and action on issues of the urban environment. Hundreds of local societies dedicated to the protection of the urban environment have been set up, and many other voluntary organizations as well as government agencies are working to protect and improve the English landscape. Greenbelts have been mapped out for London and other conurbations. The quality of town life has been improved by smoke control and checks on river pollution, so effectively that the recorded sunshine in London and other major urban centres has greatly increased and the “pea soup” fogs that once characterized London have become memories of the past. Fish have returned to rivers—such as the Thames, Tyne, and Tees—from which they had been driven by industrial pollution. Traditional regions Although England is a small and homogeneous country bound together by law, administration, and a comprehensive transport system, distinctive regional differences have arisen from the country’s geography and history. It was natural for different groups of the population to establish themselves in recognizable physical areas. In the north, for example, the east and west are separated by the Pennines, and the estuaries of the Humber, Thames, and Severn rivers form natural barriers. The eight traditional geographic regions—the South West, the South East (Greater London often was separated out as its own region), the West Midlands, the East Midlands, East Anglia, the North West, Yorkshire, and the North East—often were referred to as the standard regions of England, though they never served administrative functions. In the 1990s the government redrew and renamed some regions and established government development agencies for each. The South West The South West contains the last Celtic stronghold in England, Cornwall, where a Celtic language was spoken until the 18th century. There is even a small nationalist movement, Mebyon Kernow (Sons of Cornwall), seeking to revive the old language. Although it has no political significance, the movement reflects the disenchantment of a declining area, with the exhaustion of mineral deposits toward the end of the 19th century. Cornwall and the neighbouring county of Devon share a splendid coastline, and Dartmoor and Exmoor national parks are in this part of the region. Farther east are the city of Bristol and the counties of Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, and Wiltshire. The last is famous for the prehistoric stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury and for associated remains dubbed “woodhenges.” Development in the manufacturing sector in the 1970s and ’80s and the growth of service activities and tourism in the 1990s contributed to the region’s significant population increase. • Sarsen horseshoe of Stonehenge III, Wiltshire, Eng. Sarsen horseshoe of Stonehenge III, Wiltshire, Eng. Katherine Young/Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The South East The South East, centred on London, has a population and wealth to match many nation-states. This is the dominant area of England and the most rapidly growing one, although planning controls such as greenbelts have restricted the urban sprawl of London since the mid-20th century. While fully one-third of the South East is still devoted to farming or horticulture, the region as a whole also has an extensive range of manufacturing industry. With improvements in the transportation systems, however, nuclear and space research facilities, retailing, advertising, high-technology industries, and some services have moved to areas outside London, including Surrey, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire. With its theatres, concert halls, museums, and art galleries, London is the cultural capital of the country. It is the administrative headquarters of not only government but also many of Britain’s industrial, financial, and commercial undertakings. Moreover, it is the focus of the national transport system, acting as a hub for the United Kingdom’s international and domestic air traffic and its mainline railway network. At Tilbury, 26 miles (42 km) downstream from London proper, the Port of London Authority oversees the largest and commercially most important port facilities in Britain. Whether the people of the South East feel a regional identity is questionable. Sussex and Bedfordshire or Oxfordshire, Hampshire, and Kent have nothing much in common apart from being within the magnetic pull of London. Loyalties are more specifically to towns, such as St. Albans or Brighton, and within London there is a sense of belonging more to localities—such as Chelsea or Hampstead, which acquire something of the character of urban villages—than to the metropolis as a whole. The West Midlands Regional characteristics are stronger outside the South East. The West Midlands region, comprising the historic counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Warwickshire, has given its name to the metropolitan county of West Midlands, which includes the cities of Birmingham and Coventry and the Black Country (an urban area whose name reflects the coating of grime and soot afflicting the buildings of the region). With a history dating to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, the West Midland towns gained a reputation for being ugly but prosperous. However, the decline of heavy industry during the late 20th century took its toll on employment and prosperity in the region. Not exclusively an industrial area, the West Midlands includes Shakespeare country around Stratford-upon-Avon, the fruit orchards of the Vale of Evesham, and the hill country on the Welsh border. Kenneth Scowen The East Midlands East Anglia The North West • Mountain-encircled Esthwaite Water in the Lake District of northwestern England. Tom Wright/FPG The North East Demographic trends Keep Exploring Britannica Read this Article default image when no content is available Read this Article Read this List default image when no content is available path dependence Read this Article Places in Music Take this Quiz The Life and Work of William Shakespeare Take this Quiz Islands of the World: Fact or Fiction? Take this Quiz Read this Article United States United States Read this Article Military vehicles crossing the 38th parallel during the Korean War. 8 Hotly Disputed Borders of the World Read this List Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales. 10 Captivating Contemporary Novels Set in the British Isles Read this List United Kingdom United Kingdom Read this Article • MLA • APA • Harvard • Chicago You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Constituent unit, United Kingdom Table of Contents Tips For Editing Thank You for Your Contribution! Uh Oh Email this page
i think i got how chords are formed with a Cmajor the root note is a C and it has a 3rd and a 5th is that rite? now try adding the 7th! Quote by tubab0y Quote by km-r now try adding the 7th! Not really. Normal major chords are just the root, 3rd, and 5th. However, if you wanted to add the 7th, then it would become a major 7 chord. What he has is a regular major chord. Quote by funkdaddyfresh Screaming Help
The Investment & Human Rights Map Building the Investment & Human Rights Map Investment is a major driver of the global economy. Foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio Investment alone totalled $1.35 trillion and $776 billion respectively in 2012. Moreover around 100,000 business enterprises operate globally controlling over 900,000 foreign affiliates. Investment can have both positive and negative impacts on the lives of people. Positive impacts can include, for example, employment opportunities, training, improved technological know-how, the introduction of clean technologies and revenue generation, which can help States to provide and maintain public services. Negative impacts can include, for example, damage to existing livelihoods, physical or economical displacement without either proper consultation or remediation, environmental degradation that reduces food and water sources, and damage to culturally significant locations or resources. The Investment & Human Rights Map has been designed to help improve understanding of how investment happens – how it is designed, financed, regulated and protected – and to explore how each of these areas may directly or indirectly connect to both positive and negative impacts on people’s lives. By increasing our understanding of these connections, we can better identify the source of negative impacts, meaningful leverage points to achieve positive change and ways to increase the benefits of investment. Mapping investment The Learning Hub is building the Investment & Human Rights Map initially with the following investment-related activities: Designing investment strategies: To enter new geographies and grow their business activity internationally, business enterprises design investment strategies that include determining what markets to enter, in what form to enter and eventually how might they may exit. These strategies include decisions at different levels including commercial, operational, managerial and marketing. They also include decisions as to the legal and financial structures that allow and facilitate the business venture. Financing investment: Business enterprises can either self-finance investments or they can seek money to fund their investment ventures in capital markets and obtain capital through equity investments, bonds, loans and other financial arrangements. State-supported and private entities may also provide guarantees and insurance to businesses, which in turn facilitate or support financing arrangements. Regulating investment: States adopt and implement domestic policies, laws and regulations that determine how investment will be promoted, supported, facilitated and protected. States also enter into contractual arrangements with investors (State-investor contracts) and sign regional and international treaties (international investment agreements or ‘IIAs’) to promote and protect investment. States also act in the context of regional and multilateral organisations to produce guides, standards and procedures relevant to investment, including for the resolution of investment disputes. Resolving investment disputes: During the life cycle of investment, when disagreements arise between business partners or between investors and the host State, there are a number of ways disputes can be handled. Domestic laws, contracts and IIAs will determine the availability of dispute resolution mechanisms and even the relevant procedural rules. Some of the possible mechanisms include domestic courts, mediation, arbitration or other less formal procedures. Putting human rights on the Investment & Human Rights Map The foundational idea underlying human rights is that people have a right to live a life of dignity whatever their nationality, place of residence, sex, colour, religion, language, national or ethnic origin, or any other status. Human rights therefore relate as much to accessing essential food, water and shelter for life as they do to accessing education, healthy working conditions and freedom from torture and slavery. Human rights are firmly grounded in international law, and the rights States have recognised in international agreements provide an authoritative reference point for identifying the conditions necessary for human well-being. Where do human rights fit on the Investment & Human Rights Map? The Learning Hub has placed human rights at the centre of the map because we are inviting government and commercial practitioners to consider how investment-related activities can connect to people’s lives and well-being. At the same time we are inviting human rights experts, civil society and others to integrate investment-related rules, structures and activities in their consideration of how to improve the enjoyment of human rights worldwide. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (‘UNGPs’) provide a useful starting point for drawing connections between investment activities and human rights. They provide an authoritative policy framework that clarifies State duties and business enterprise responsibilities regarding human rights in the context of business activities. Importantly, they point to investment as one area where implementation of the Principles is key, and they help frame practical questions in this area. The UNGPs challenge business enterprises to think about how well their strategic investment decisions are aligned with the enterprise’s responsibility to respect human rights. They also ask States and commercial actors to consider how investors and lenders can better ensure that human rights are respected in the business ventures they facilitate and support, and how State-investor contracts can help to prevent human rights harms. The UNGPs also challenge States, professionals engaged in international legal and policy development and investment practitioners to consider policy and legal questions, such as can and should international investment agreements support sustainable development and the protection of human rights? Should international human rights law qualify the rights of investors under IIAs? How should States abide by international legal obligations that sometimes seem to be poised in opposition to their human rights duties? The Learning Hub has been established to explore these and other questions with a view to building understanding of how investment relates to human rights. In addition, the Hub will explore how human rights law and standards can help ensure investments avoid creating negative impacts and contribute positively to people’s lives. Finally, the learning fostered by focusing specifically on the human rights impacts of investment will provide a useful contribution to wider discussions on sustainable development and good governance.
First, Know Yourself An old green grasshopper was resting on some grass on the ground, when a young grasshopper came flying and settled nearby. The young grasshopper was panting, frightened and paranoid. It was constantly being chased by one predator or another, however was lucky to escape every time. On seeing the other grasshopper sitting quietly without a worry in the world, the young grasshopper wondered how it was so calm and asked the old grasshopper if it was not afraid of becoming a prey for some frog or lizard, if not how it avoided being chased by predators. The old grasshopper woke up from its slumber, looked at the young grasshopper and said,” You need to learn a lot of things to avoid being seen, first know that you are a brown grasshopper and you should never sit on anything coloured ... ”. Even before the grasshopper can finish its reply a frog sprang and carried away the young brown grasshopper which was sitting on green grass. The Little Bravado A little elephant part of a large herd of elephants was in the habit of frightening and chasing other animals for fun. The little elephant would run and scare away the monkeys, deers and other animals that it came across and felt very proud exercising its bravado, and when they ran scared, its pleasure was unbound. Once the little elephant happened to stray from its herd and was roaming the forest looking for its herd when it saw a group of deer resting under a tree and tried to frighten the deers by running through them. However the deers hardly paid any attention to the little elephant and ignored it. The little elephant was surprised and disappointed by the deers reaction and went away looking for its herd. It then came across a group of monkeys on a tree and again it tried its best to frighten them, however the monkeys in return frightened the little elephant with their antics, that it was the little elephant which ran away scared. Later the little elephant came across a group of f… On Which Side Is The Grass Greener ? The Fox Of Foxes The fox was hunting for rabbits in that part of the forest where bushes were abundant and trees scarce , its hunt which started in the morning ended mid day with a large full grown rabbit . It then put the rabbit on a rock and began to prepare the rabbit by tearing away the skin from flesh . When it finally began to eat. A much larger fox darted at the fox and tried to grab the meat. The two foxes fought for a long time, however no one emerged victorious and claimed the meat for them selves. The first fox them proposed a contest. It pointed towards a tree at the far end and said that the two foxes run simultaneously to the tree and the one who makes it back first would get the rabbits meat. The second fox which was larger than the other thought it could easily win the race and agreed to the challenge. As the race began, the second fox was way ahead of the first one. Midway, suddenly, the trailing fox stopped and ran in the opposite direction towards the rabbit meat, while the other… The Snake's Big Meal New Nest Or Old Nest?
Rock of the Week #4 1. Name two minerals present 2. Name this rock type 3. Give an example of a locality where this type of rock can be found: I'll give you a hint: that's not actinolite! And the solution to Rock #3: Copper minerals are fun because they are bright coloured, and the colour can tell you what mineral it is (at least, it is a more reliable indicator than with most other minerals). The best-known copper minerals have distinctive colours (for example, deep bright/dark green stripes for Malachite, deep blue-violet to blue-black for Azurite). This rock is from Francistown, Botswana, and is mostly quartz. In this rock, light blue-aqua colour is characteristic of chrysocolla [(Cu,Al)2H2Si2O5(OH)4 •nH2O]. Chrysocolla forms in the oxidation zones of copper ore bodies. The lighter coloured, massive greenish-yellowish crust on the rock has a distinctively different colour and fizzes vigorously in HCl. It is either the unusual mineral rosasite [(Cu,Zn)2CO3(OH)2], which also occurs in the oxidation zone of copper/zinc/silver deposits (such as the Francistown locality), or it is a calcite crust with unknown copper minerals in. You will get a point for either answer as I am not sure myself! Thanks to Catherine Curtis for the interesting rock! 1. (2 pts) blue-green minerals? : mention of copper (1 pt) : chrysocolla, rosasite or calcite (1 pt) 2. (1 pt) How was it formed? : Oxidation or precipitation from water got a point. FIRST PLACE: Shirley Whitmore for: 1. Mildew 2. Left in a moist area The “awards of the week” seem to be turning into the “most sarcastic of the week”, and Shirley certainly has the lead! Please note that I am going off to sea for a month so May's RoW will be auto posted. Please don't be discouraged from commenting however! I'll be checking in when I can. Ron Schott said... I'd like to petition for a view of a weathered surface of this rock. (It's much easier to distinguish the high-T ferromagnesian minerals when they're weathered... or in thin section!) andrew said... Not actinolite? Now I'm stumped. Ishmael said... I'm going to guess: It's an igneous rock. It has quartz and granite. It's often found on the ground.
This is one of the age old arguments. First of all a definition: vitamins are organic compounds needed in small amounts to ensure health. They cannot be naturally made in the body. Often deficiency in certain vitamins can lead to disease. Vitamins are found naturally in organic compounds - the plants and meats we eat. Most doctors would say that you can get enough of your vitamins from eating whole foods. The problem is, most of us don't eat enough whole foods to deliver enough vitamins. So decades ago, vitamins began to be produced synthetically, i.e. in pill form. Through a chemical process, vitamins are distilled and extracted from organic compounds, including food sources or in some cases compounds like coal tar, to give us the vitamins you can buy on the shelf. A lot of the foods you eat contain added synthetic vitamins, from breads, to cereals, to clif bars, to health shakes (Shakeology does NOT have synthetic vitamins, more on that later). Since many synthetic vitamins are extracted from real foods and are chemcially identical to natural vitamins, they should interact exactly the same in our body. But some people disagree. A Telling Study of Lung Cancer Perhaps the most interesting, and in some ways inconclusive, study of vitamins was conducted in 1994 by the New England Journal of Medicine. Previous studies among smokers had proven that foods rich in vitamin E and vitamin A/beta-carotene helped prevent lung cancer. Oddly, the 1994 study using synthetic vitamin E and beta-carotene led to an INCREASE in lung cancer among smokers versus a control group of smokers without supplementation. There has never been a definitive study that shows synthetic vitamins can prevent disease, yet there is this one study that seems to prove an increase in probability of getting cancer from taking synthetic vitamins. Realistically, we shouldn't go around saying synthetic vitamin E causes lung cancer, it was obviously the fact that the subjects were smokers and the study reflected some kind of statistical anomaly. What it DOES seem to suggest is that there is some other phytochemical in the vitamin E and A rich foods besides, or beyond, these vitamins that is playing a role in reducing cancer. Perhaps there is some unknown way that the vitamins and phytochemicals interact with one another that require us to get them from whole foods for them to do their job. Left-handed Vitamin E There are actually two types of vitamin E molecules and biologists use prefixes meaning "right-handed" and "left-handed" to describe each orientation. The body can only absorb the right-handed (abbreviated "d") and cannot utilize the left-handed (abbreviated "L"). Naturally occuring vitamin E is always right-handed, but synthetic is about 50/50 right and left-handed. You'll notice most vitamin supplements have "dl alpha tocopherol," the "dl" meaning both right and left-handed. So, when you take a vitamin E supplement, only about half of it can even be absorbed. Myths About B Complex A lot of people take a vitamin B complex to provide energy. While B vitamins are essential in helping our body absorb energy from food, there really is no property of any B vitamin that will "give" you more energy, it is a complete myth. It's like saying oil is needed in order for your car's engine to convert gasoline into energy, so by putting in more oil, my car will go faster. Strategies for Getting Your Vitamins Since there isn't a single study that proves synthetic vitamins are necessary, yet there is lots of information, empirical and in studies, that proves vegetables, fruits, and other plant based food have numerous benefits, before popping a multi-vitamin, I suggest getting your vitamins from whole food sources. I suggest having a serving of fruits and/or vegetables at EVERY meal, no matter what. It's really the easiest, most straight forward advice I can give you with your diet. Now how does something like Beachbody products come into play with this? Well, you should know that when plants are dehydrated and powdered, while they lose their valuable fiber, they DO NOT lose their phytochemical and vitamin profile. In general, excessive heat and over exposure to oxygen is what will cause decay of phytochemicals. So while drinking Shakeology is not the same thing as eating real chia seeds, cordyceps, astragulus root, camu-camu fruit, etc. it DOES give you the huge phytochemical profile you get from these compounds. So when they say it's like eating a giant salad, it's kind of true. As I wrote last week the benefits of vegetables are primarily in the way the phytochemicals and vitamins interact with one another, the added benefit is they keep you full and are low calorie. You might ask why should I believe Dan, he is a product rep for Beachbody and a coach. Well, I wouldn't be if I didn't USE and BELIEVE in this product, Shakeology. It's obviously one of the faces of the company, in addition to P90X. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't use it daily and put the product to the test of my knowledge of nutrition. So, using the argument of natural vs. synthetic vitamins, I reiterate: the two biggest tips I can give you to get your nutrition in line are 1) Eat vegetables and/or fruits at every meal, and 2) Have one Shakeology a day. You will not only help yourself lose weight, you will also be potentially preventing disease later in life.
Monthly Archives: July 2015 How to recognize dangerous trees ? Tree Risk Checklist 1.Are there large, dead branches in the tree? 2.Are there detached branches hanging in the tree? 4.Are mushrooms present at the base of the tree? 6.Have any branches fallen from the tree? 7.Have adjacent trees fallen over or died? 8.Has the trunk developed a strong lean? 13Have trees in adjacent wooded areas been removed? 14Has the tree been topped or otherwise heavily pruned? Defects in Urban Trees 1. Regrowth from topping, line clearance, or other pruning 2. Electrical line adjacent to tree 3. Broken or partially attached branches 4. Open cavity in trunk or branch 5. Dead or dying branches 6. Branches arising from a single point on the trunk 7. Decay and rot present in old wounds Tree spraying VS injections Many people ask us if we spray trees. We answer, we don’t. We inject them. And here is why: Tree spraying is so harmful for the environment! Any time you spray tree with a pesticide all the chemicals can make their way into a water source, such as a river, ocean, or pond. Another way… Hurricane Season in Florida! We hear about the “hurricane season” every year! When is it? What are the chances of it actually hitting Florida? Here are some interesting information that may put some light on the subject. Hurricane season in Florida starts June 1st and ends November 30th with the peak period from early August through the end of…
water polo Show Summary Details Quick Reference A ball game played by teams of seven players in the water, called—rather curiously, as the ball is propelled by hand—‘football in the water’ in late 19th-century Britain as the sport was being developed. The comparison with football (on mainland Europe, its comparable name would have been ‘handball in the water’, and its origins in Britain were really as a form of aquatic rugby) says much about the hegemony of association football at the time, though the common features are that they are both passing games, and the aim is to propel the ball into a goal-framed net guarded by a goalkeeper at the end of the playing area. In the USA, softball in the water was a variant played at the end of the 19th century. The sport, for men, has featured in all major swimming competitions. It was recognized by the official swimming governing body in Britain in 1885, and Britain (represented by the Osborne Club from Manchester) won the first gold medal in the event at an Olympics (Paris 1900), going on to win the event in 1908, 1912, and 1920. The USA had won the 1904 event in St Louis (USA), where the British did not enter. After a French victory on home territory in 1924, the Olympic event was dominated by Hungary, taking the silver medal in 1928 and then five of the next seven Olympic titles. The USSR, Yugoslavia, and East Germany then dominated the sport at its competitive level, the communist states dedicating extensive resources to the sport at the height of the sporting Cold War. Hungary reasserted its dominance in the early 21st century with three (2000, 2004, 2008) Olympic gold medals in succession. Women's water polo was introduced into the Olympics for Sydney 2000, after protests and successful lobbying by Australian sport authorities and women sport activists. Australia won that inaugural event, Italy and the Netherlands the 2004 and 2008 titles respectively. Subjects: Sport and Leisure. Reference entries
Saint Mary Lake 5.0 from 2 Votes Saint Mary Lake in Glacier national Park One of the most beautiful lakes, which can be seen in Glacier National Park, within the U.S. state of Montana, is the inspiring Saint Mary Lake. With more than 50 glaciers and numerous lakes and waterfalls, the park is a preserve for those who seek truly beautiful and wondrous landscapes. The mountains in Glacier National Park are composed of some of the oldest and best-preserved sedimentary rocks in the world. They may well be seen as the background of the flat surface of Saint Mary Lake. In the early hours of the morning, the impact of inaccessible peaks in the crystal clear waters is a memorable sight. Lake Saint Mary is the second largest in the park, after lake McDonald. It was formed in the expansion of the eponymous river St. Mary in the east park. Nature here is just amazing - in the eastern areas of the park lies less rainfall than the west, with the result that flora literally grows wild here. The hills around St. Mary is are covered with coniferous and deciduous trees. Preferred route for arriving at St. Mary's is called the-Sun Road, which leads to the northern shore of the lake, where the parking lot of the gorge Sunrift Gorge is. St. Mary is was formed at an altitude of 1 367 m. Its waters are crystal clear and much colder than Lake McDonald, which is at a 460 m lower altitude. It can be reached, moving to the west of the Continental Divide. The area of Saint Mary Lake is estimated at 15.88 sq. km, the area is a place in Glacier National Park, where picturesque plains give way to the starting heights of the Rockies. The panorama sharply increases its height to 1, 500 meters above sea level, with the initial peaks of the chain. Her most southern end starts with the small “Little Chief” Mountain, which borders the western shore of Lake St. Mary . The length of the Saint Mary Lake is about 10 km and its maximum depth reaches slightly less than 100 meters. The water temperature here is permanently low, rarely rising to 10 degrees Celsius. However, this is the cause of the fish wealth of St. Mary - there are different kinds of trout . If you decide to visit Saint Mary Lake in the winter, though often the park is closed for public visits at this time, you can see the surface of St. Mary's totally frozen. The thickness of the ice layer is up to 1 meter. Saint Mary Lake , Добави Отзив
Results for: Pigment In Biology What is a pigment? A pigment is a general term for one of a large group of materials that selectively absorbs or reflects certain wavelengths or colors of light. By selecting the correct pigment (MORE) In Biology What is pigment? a substance that gives color to a substance. As an example, adding Red Iron Oxide pigment to a cement mix, will give a brick red coloration to the cement Thanks for the feedback! Treatment for pigmentation? Pigmentation of the skin can be treated by various methods including home remedies such as aloe Vera and rosehip oil. Other ways to treat pigmentation are with prescriptio (MORE) In Health How do you get pigment? As in, "How is commercial pigment (for paints etc.) made?" The process for making pigment, mostly titanium dioxide (TiO2), starts with mineral sands. This sand is mined from o (MORE) In Uncategorized How do you use a pigment? A paint consists of a pigment with a binder, usually a polymer, and may also contain a solvent or plasticiser to make the paint flow more easily. Early artists found egg yolk (MORE) In Science What does thermochromic pigment do? Thermochromic pigment is a kind of special powder that can change color with temperature,when temperature get rise,it would change color from colorful to colorless,or from one (MORE) In Uncategorized What is a fluoresecent pigment? Fluorescent means really bright and vivid, sometimes glow in the dark, and pigment is a smell. So for instance luminous colours are also Fluorescent. Thanks for the feedback! In Biology What are pigments in biology? Something that gives another thing its colour eg. Chlorophyll gives plants its green colour. Thanks for the feedback!
What is DNS? The Domain Name System protocol is a vital component of the internet. Without it there would be no World Wide Web. DNS matches the name of a website to its numerical IP address. DNS then communicates with root servers, which connects you to a website. You may occasionally see an error message in your browser if there’s a problem with a website or you lose your internet connection. Your browser may tell you to check your DNS settings. Thankfully this is usually unnecessary. In most situations, try refreshing the page or checking you’re still connected. If all else fails, make a cup of tea and try again. Back To Top
Daily Devotional The Error of Envy November 29, 2013 - 5:00 am This Devotional's Hebrew Word (Olive Tree) This Torah portion for this week is Mikeitz, which means “at the end,” from Genesis 41:1–44:17, and the Haftorah is from 1 Kings 3:15–4:1. This week’s Haftorah reading contains the well-known story about two prostitutes and one baby, with each woman claiming to be the infant’s mother. The two came before King Solomon, who had just been granted divine wisdom, and they awaited judgment. How was Solomon to decide? How could he possibly know which woman was the true mother? Solomon made use of his amazing understanding of human nature. He suggested that the baby be cut in half so that each mother could have half of the baby. Of course, as we know, the baby would not have survived, but amazingly, one woman agreed to this arrangement. The other woman, however, insisted that the baby be given away rather than having the baby put to death. In Solomon’s wisdom and understanding of jealousy, he discerned that the true mother would never harm her own child. However, a jealous person would do anything to take away what another person has, even if it adds nothing to what she has! Jealousy is partial insanity. It’s just as crazy as wanting half a baby so the other person won’t have more. What another person has or doesn’t have makes no difference to what we have or lack. Yet people will spend an enormous amount of time and energy focused on other people’s possessions – even as it has no effect on their own. In Proverbs, King Solomon writes “envy rots the bones” (14:30b). The Sages teach that a jealous person will not only decompose naturally after death, but also unnaturally – his bones will rot as well. What kind of punishment is this and how is it connected to the trait of jealousy? The Hebrew word for bones is etzem. However, the word also means “essence.” This is because more than any other part of the human body, a person’s bones symbolize who they are and what they are made up of. When a person is jealous of another, in reality, they are denying who they are. It’s like wanting another person’s prescription eyeglasses even though they are totally inappropriate for you. Being jealous of what someone else has is denying who you really are and what you specifically need. Jealousy decomposes a person’s essence and individuality. It is harmful and self-defeating; it makes no logical sense. Thankfully, the antidote for this self-destructive behaviour is to embrace our identity and recognize that everything in our lives is perfectly arranged for us. When we accept that truth, we won’t want what belongs to anyone else. So say this with me and feel it deep in your bones: “God has given me exactly what I need for my life today — and I am so very grateful.” Leave a Reply
For Aussie punters we recommend checking out the reviews at bettingappreviews.com.au The Origin of Words and Names Where Words Come From Words Created From Nothing Words Created In Error Borrowed and Adopted Words English has borrowed words from a variety of sources and other languages. Three examples show this. The name of the fruit was NARANJ in Sanskrit. This language was spoken in ancient India. Indians traded with Arabs, so the word passed into Arabic as NARANJAH. The Spaniards were ruled by north African Arabs who passed the fruit and word into Spanish as NARANJA (pronounced as NARANHA). This came into English where the fruit was a NARANJ. Words ending in J are not common in English so the spelling quickly changed to a NARANGE. The initial N moved to the a because of mis-hearing to give an ARANGE (this is called metanalysis). Over time, the initial A became an O to give an ORANGE. When the Spanish arrived in Mexico they came across the Aztecs. The Aztec language is called Nahuatl. The Aztecs had a drink which they made from a bean they called CHOCO (bitter). They would put this bean into water (ATL) to produce CHOCO-ATL (bitter water). This drink was brought to Europe (with sugar added) where the pronunciation and spelling in English became CHOCOLATE. This is a mathematical term. It comes from Arabic. Mohammad al-Khwarizmi was a mathematician who flourished in Baghdad around the year 800. He wrote a book about the solving of equations. It was called ilm al-jabr wa'l muqabalah (the science of transposition and cancellation). The term al-jabr from this title gave the English word, ALGEBRA. This is a term in chess. It is from the Farsi language spoken in Iran and Afghanistan. The original phrase is SHAH-K-MATE (every syllable pronounced) which means "The King is Dead". The word SHAH means a "king" as in the last monarch (or SHAH) of Iran. MATE has the same root as the English "murder" and the Spanish "matador" (killer). The word came via French (where the SH became a CH) and into English where the MA-TE (two syllables) became MATE (one syllable) to give CHECKMATE. Changes In Words Many words used in modern English have changed their meaning over the years. This is shown in the table below. Word Original Meaning awfuldeserving of awe bravecowardice (as in bravado) counterfeitlegitimate copy girlyoung person of either sex guesstake aim luxurysinful self indulgence neck parcel of land (as in neck of the woods) nuisanceinjury, harm quickalive (as in quicksilver) tellto count (as in bank teller) The word silly meant blessed or happy in the 11th century going through pious, innocent, harmless, pitiable, feeble, feeble minded before finally ending up as foolish or stupid. Pretty began as crafty then changed via clever, skilfully made, fine to beautiful. Buxom began with the meaning obedient and changed via compliant, lively, plump to large breasted. The word nice meant stupid and foolish in the late 13th Century. It went through a number of changes including wanton, extravagant, elegant, strange, modest, thin, and shy. By the middle of the 18th Century it had gained its current meaning of pleasant and agreeable. Words are changing meaning now: consider how the words bad and gay have changed in recent years. Words Created By Subtraction Or Addition Words can be created by adding suffixes: -able, -ness, -ment. They can also be created by adding prefixes: dis-, anti-. Examples include: sellable, brightness, pavement, disestablish, antimatter. Words can be combined to form new words (air and port gave airport; land and mark to give landmark). Sometimes the combination can go in more than one way (houseboat, boathouse; bookcase, casebook). Many common words have been shortened from the original term as in the table below. Modern Word Original Form busomnibus (Latin: for everyone) mobmobile vulgus (Latin: fickle crowd) petrolpetroleum (Greek: rock oil) Metanalysis is the process where a letter is added or subtracted because of a nearby word. Examples below. Modern Word Original Form a nicknamean ekename a newtan ewt an addera nadder an aprona napron an orangea narange an umpirea nonper Where Surnames Come From English and British surnames (family names) have four main sources: the person's occupation, the place of origin, a nickname and relations. Examples of these can be seen in the tables below. Name Meaning Archerbow and arrow user Bishopbishop's man Butchermeat worker Carpenterwheel repairer Fletcherarrow maker Fullercloth cleaner Millergrain grinder Shepherdherder of sheep Smithmetal worker Name Origin Devonshirean English county Frenchfrom France Lincolnan English city Kentan English county Prestonan English city Scottfrom Scotland Walshfrom Wales Name Meaning Armstrongstrong armed Campbellcrooked mouth Goldwaterurine (derogatory) KennedyGaelic: ugly head MorganWelsh: white haired RussellFrench: red haired Whistlerone who whistles Whiteheadwhite headed Name Meaning Johnsonson of John MacDonaldson of Donald (Scottish) O'Connorson of Connor (Irish) Robinsonson of Robin Where First Names Come From First names (given names in American English, a more accurate term) have many sources as can be seen in the tables below. Please note that the phrase first name may be ambiguous in some cultures (eg. Chinese) where the family name comes first. I do not use the term Christian name as it makes cultural assumptions. There is a Search facility for finding names or meanings. Examples: Amber, Ali, Mohammed... Examples: Bartholomew, Martha, Thomas... Examples: Brian, Dylan, Kermit, Tara... Examples: Alison, Bruce, Olivia... Examples: Charles, Leonard, Richard, William... Examples: Angel, Christopher, George, Selina... Examples: Adam, David, John, Michelle... Examples: Bianca, Donna, Mia... Examples: Cordelia, Diana, Patrick, Victoria... Examples: Brenda, Dustin, Eric... Examples: Edward, Oscar, Wayne... Examples: Esther, Jasmine, Roxanne... Example: Hannibal... Examples: Beryl, Opal, Uma... Examples: Boris, Nadia, Vera... Examples: Dolores, Linda, Rio... Example: Ayla... A search engine that allows a search for First (Given) names. Where Place Names Come From The table below shows the historical influence of various languages in names of places and their derivations for the British Isles. Source Language Meaning Modern Forms acAnglo-Saxon oakAc-, Oak-, -ock baileGaelic farm, villageBally-, Bal- bearuAnglo-Saxon grove, woodBarrow-, -ber beorgAnglo-Saxon burial moundBar-, -borough brycgAnglo-Saxon bridgeBrig-, -bridge burhAnglo-Saxon fortified placeBur-, -bury burnaAnglo-Saxon stream, springBourn-, -burn(e) byOld Norse farm, village-by caerWelsh fortified placeCar- ceasterLatin fort, Roman townChester-, -caster cotAnglo-Saxon shelter, cottage-cot(e) cwmWelsh deep valley-combe daireGaelic oak wood-dare, -derry dalrOld Norse valleyDal-, -dale dennAnglo-Saxon swine pasture-dean, -den dunAnglo-Saxon hill, downDun-, -down, -ton eaAnglo-Saxon water, riverYa-, Ea-, -ey egAnglo-Saxon islandEy- eyOld Norse island-ey, -ay gleannGaelic narrow valleyGlen- grafAnglo-Saxon grove-grave, -grove hamAnglo-Saxon homestead, villageHam-, -ham hyrstAnglo-Saxon wooded hillHurst-, -hirst -ingAnglo-Saxon place of ...-ing leahAnglo-Saxon glade, clearingLeigh-, Lee-, -ley lochGaelic lakeLoch-, -loch mereAnglo-Saxon lake, poolMer-, Mar-, -mere, -more nesOld Norse cape-ness pwllWelsh anchorage, pool-pool rhosWelsh moorlandRos(s)-, -rose stanAnglo-Saxon stoneStan-, -stone stedeAnglo-Saxon place, site-ste(a)d stocAnglo-Saxon meeting placeStoke-, -stock stowAnglo-Saxon meeting placeStow-, -stow(e) straetLatin Roman roadStrat-, Stret-, -street tunAnglo-Saxon enclosure, villageTon-, -town, -ton thorpOld Norse farm, villageThorp-, -thorp(e) thveitOld Norse glade, clearing-thwaite wicAnglo-Saxon dwelling, farm-wick, -wich © 2001, 2005 KryssTal Books From Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com KryssTal Related Pages External Links These links will open in a separate window Baby Names Names (for babies) and their meanings. Baby Names Train Even more names for babies. Sponsored Link Place your company link here on this popular page.
Box 2 \| Removal of deleterious mutations by truncation selection From the following article: The origins, patterns and implications of human spontaneous mutation James F. Crow Nature Reviews Genetics 1, 40-47 (October 2000) A mildly deleterious mutation can persist in the population for many generations, the number being related to the reduction in fitness caused by the mutation. We have very little idea of what the average persistence of mildly deleterious human mutations is. In Drosophila, it is estimated at 50 to several hundred generations. As an example, I will take 100. Three new mutations per generation, each persisting for 100 generations, means that the average person carries 300 mutations. If these are independently inherited, the number per person will have a distribution that is roughly POISSON (actually with a little less spread because of incomplete randomization during meiosis)54. I shall assume a standard deviation of 15 (the Poisson value is the square root of the mean, or about 17), that the distribution is normal (entirely reasonable with this many mutations) and that those with a number above one standard deviation from the mean, about 16% of zygotes, fail to survive and reproduce. In the next generation new mutations occur and existing ones are shuffled by recombination so that the original normal distribution is restored. The origins, patterns and implications of human spontaneous mutation Mean number of mutations This is illustrated in the figure. The mean number of mutations per person is 300. With 16% eliminated, the mean number among these is 322.7. The mean number in the 84% not eliminated is 295.7. Three new mutations are not quite enough to bring the number back to 300, so 16% selective elimination is more than enough to balance mutation accumulation. Truncation selection is indeed an efficient method for eliminating harmful mutations. Of course, nobody thinks that this is a realistic model — nature does not truncate precisely. For this reason, I was once reluctant to regard this as a reasonable possibility. Then I was surprised to find55 that a very fuzzy approximation to truncation selection (quasi-truncation selection) works nearly as well. All that is required is that the probability of removal increases monotonically with the number of deleterious mutations. Until recently in our evolutionary past, the population was nearly stable and every generation produced more progeny than could survive and reproduce. To some extent those who failed would have been those with the largest number of deleterious mutations. So, I think it quite likely that in the past such quasi-truncation selection has been an efficient means of eliminating deleterious mutations. Without belabouring the specific assumptions, it seems reasonable that elimination of harmful mutants was far more efficient than would have been expected if they were eliminated independently as proposed by Haldane49.
1 definition by Ronny P Top Definition A diarrhoeatic is any food or drug which affects the excretory system, causing the afflicted to produce three or more liquid bowel movements in a given day-- a condition known commonly as Diarrhoea, or when your poop looks kind of like a smoothie made purely out of peanut butter and.... wet. Keebler cheese crackers are a notoriously powerful diarrhoeatic, often found in workout facility vending machines and school cafeterias. Be particularly wary of crackers that may seem to have too much cracker and not enough cheese, as these are most likely expired and fully capable of causing dysentery, gangreen, a milder form of gangreen known in the local martian vernacular as gangblue, and any of a plethora of other deadly and sometimes alien and thus incurable ailments besides diarrhoea (obviously). (Keebler crackers are widely believed to be made in outsourced factories on the planet Mars, where labor and towing services are cheaper.) by Ronny P February 23, 2010 The Urban Dictionary Mug Buy the mug
Utne Blogs > Environment What Happens After Global Warming (Part 2) This excerpt appears in two parts. Part II is printed below. To Read Part I, in which Stager describes two scenarios—one moderate, one extreme—as possible results of our response to climate change, click here. We still have time to choose between these scenarios. And although climatic instability, both in the near-term warming and subsequent cooling phases to come, is likely to cause great problems for many of our descendants, it's not going to end the human race altogether. Considering all that Homo sapiens has been through in the geologic past, it's clear that our species is too tough, diverse, and resourceful to be killed off completely by a climatic shift, especially as some parts of the Earth become more hospitable to humans in a warmer future, particularly in the far north. As coastal regions sink under the rising sea, regions just inland will become oceanfront property. Where one region becomes drier, another may become wetter. And as some familiar cultures fade away, others will be born. This is not meant to make light of the seriousness of the situation; rather, it's to make the opposite point. Our newly revealed influence on the deep future means that our decisions really do matter, because people are going to have to live through whatever version of the world we leave for them. But taking a long view of the future for a huge and complicated planet isn't easy, and a confusing mosaic of positive and negative responses to human-driven warming is already under way. Polar bears, ringed seals, and beluga whales are beginning to suffer from the shrinkage of Arctic sea ice, but that change is also allowing brown bears, harbor seals, and orcas to move into new territories. An increasingly ice-free Arctic threatens traditional Inuit hunting cultures, but it's also opening sea routes for trade between Atlantic and Pacific nations and is likely to support new polar fisheries. And while melting ice pushes the oceans up and over our coastlines, it also unveils new farmland and mineral resources in Greenland, which may prosper as a result. In light of this mix of pluses and minuses, how can we best decide what the climatic settings of future ecosystems and cultures should be like in 100,000 AD, not to mention 2100 AD? Thanks to the great reach of our carbon legacy, we in this century are endowed with the power - some might say the honor - to affect future generations for what amounts to eternity, and our far-reaching effects on what were once purely mechanistic processes now raise new ethical questions. Any choices we make will bring benefits to some descendents and harm to others, and the complexity of this puzzle grows as we look farther forward in time. For example, losing the ice on the Arctic Ocean may seem like an awful disaster to us, but imagine how peoples of the deep future will feel as the inexorable cooling recovery threatens what will by then have become ancient, open-water ecosystems. Elders may then whisper, "I don't remember ice forming here when I was a kid. If this keeps up, the whole polar ocean may eventually freeze over. What should we do?" Few rational people would seriously argue that choosing an extreme emissions scenario is preferable to a moderate one, or that either scenario is preferable to no carbon pollution at all. But even in a moderate case, enough fossil carbon will remain in the air 50,000 years from now to prevent the next ice age, which natural orbital cycles would otherwise have triggered then. In essence, this means that by unwittingly causing a near-term climate crisis, we have also saved future versions of Canada and northern Eurasia from obliteration under mile-thick sheets of grinding glacial ice. That's a welcome bit of good news over the super-long term, but it also means that choosing a moderate emissions scenario over an extreme one could amount to sentencing later generations to glacial devastation. Another ice age is due in 130,000 AD, and a moderate emissions pulse will have dissipated too much by then to stop it. Must we therefore sacrifice one set of generations for the sake of another, or can some better solution be found? Saving the world with a minimum of collateral damage may be impossibly difficult, especially considering the limits of human altruism and today's political demagoguery and media hype. But the work of Archer and others like him give us a fresh view of the whole situation, not just our own relatively tiny blip of time and home turf. Hopefully, it will help to support a more productive global conversation about what lies before us and what we should do about it. Here's one idea in that regard. If we leave most of our coal reserves in the ground rather than burning them when other energy sources are capable of doing the same work, then we not only avoid the most extreme consequences of near-term climate change; we also bequeath that fossil carbon in a naturally sequestered form to later generations who may want to use it as a defense against future ice ages. The required switch to alternative fuels is inevitable anyway, because we'll either do it soon by choice or be forced to do it later. Who knows what cultures and technologies may be like by then, but even neo-stone age peoples could mobilize heat-trapping greenhouse gases by setting exposed coal seams alight if they so desired. Leaving the decision to them not only relieves us of that responsibility; it would also reduce environmental damage in the near term and stretch the useful life of carbon reserves over millions of years, perhaps even long enough to regenerate some of them in geological formations. If we want to "save the world" over a truly long time frame, then perhaps that's one more good reason to save the carbon. Save it for later, for higher purposes than simple furnace food and for the benefit of both near- and far-future generations. To me, that sounds like a win-win strategy that all of us should be able to support.
Weight Loss Made Easy! Sign Up For Women’s Cycling Free Monthly Newsletter! Follow Us On Facebook follow me buttons Ontario Bike Regulations—Know Your Rights! By Sheila Ascroft • travelling at the normal speed of traffic • avoiding hazardous conditions Cyclists also have to: • ride in the designated direction on one-way streets • yield or stop for pedestrians at crosswalks • walk your bike when crossing at a crosswalk Your bike must also have: • a bell or horn in good working order A few other rules: • passengers are not allowed on a bicycle designed for one person 50 comments to Ontario Bike Regulations—Know Your Rights! • Staci What if we are riding a bike with our child/children who are under 10 and cannot ride on the road.. Do we still have to ride on the road without them because sometimes the bike lanes are not right next to the sidewalk and makes it hard to keep an eye on them and talk to them and also navigate them.. I have not been able to find an answer to this.. • A Miles Riding a bike on a sidewalk is not expressly illegal in Ontario to ride a bicycle on a sidewalk. You would have to check the by-laws in your municipality. Sometimes the laws are not all that practical and a lot of whether or not you get a ticket would be left to the discretion of an officer. • Tashi Are we allowed to ride bike in side walk and cross walk if there’s no bike lane on the road? • Barb I would like to know how many traffic tickets have been given to bicyclists that ride across pedestrian crosswalks in Toronto.. • Kirk A bicycle is a vehicle of the road and therefore must comply with the rules of the road. Why do so many cyclists ignore stop signs and roll through them? Don’t they know they are breaking the law? • Pat Why aren’t bikes riding in the direction of traffic? I don’t drive on the wrong way when I use the road. Do I still have to give them one metre? • A Miles They are not allowed to do this and can be fined. If there was an accident, they would be at fault. However, an operator of a motor vehicle must try to avoid a collision where possible. As tempting as it may be to get scare these riders, if a collision happened and it was found that you didn’t try to give enough room as to avoid the collision, you could be found partly responsible. In reality, I think more needs to be done to enforce road law and education in regards to cycling. • Brian Rose I am concerned about the cyclists in the area where i live. It is a rural area where several clubs ride. You will frequently encounter 20+ riders taking up an entire lane. They do not move over, do form a single line. If you honk your horn, which I do when I am passing, as a courtesy, you are are the receiving end of fingers and foul words. Can they legally take up the entire road? • Jeff Nicholson I’m glad you asked. I personally try to make every accommodation to allow a driver to pass, but I wanted to discuss the horn use. The cyclists are very aware that you are there. The engine of the car can easily be heard and one of the benefits of biking vs. cars is a hyper awareness of your surroundings. Being passed by a car is always a stressful experience. We never know when some texting teenager or angry old man will plow into us and kill us. We all know people who have died that way and we’re very sensitive to it. So when you go to pass a cyclist, consider that they know you’re there, they’re concentrating on riding in a way that allows you to pass, ava they are on edge about what you might do. When you honk the horn, even if you mean it in a friendly manner, it doesn’t feel that way to us. It is extremely loud for someone right in front if the car and not encased in glass, and it can be startling enough to make us wobble or become unsteady, just at the time when we’re trying to ride in a straight safe line so you can pass. Lastly, since we’re already stressed out about what you might do, a loud blow of the horn feels like an act of aggression. I’m lucky that my instinct doesn’t involve a middle finger but I do raise a fist and scream almost involuntarily. Imagine yourself in a haunted house attraction. You’re in a dark room expecting something bad to happen and then someone jumps out of the dark and screams “boo!” You’ll scream and maybe even reflexively punch the person who scared you. Those cyclists aren’t rude people, you just scared them. Thanks for asking so openly about this issue. We rarely get to communicate with drivers and foster a better understanding. • Shane Hi Brian, Individually bicycles have the same right to the road you do. However, riding in packs is a behaviour unique to cyclists and not really covered in the HTA…. While there is a sporting aspect to the behaviour, it is also safer as they become a more visible presence on the road. As a driver, a safe approach is to consider a pack as a single vehicle and pass it as such. Regardless of whether they are spread across the lane or single file, the ONLY way to safely overtake that many cyclists would be to change lanes. Now consider that compared to single file riding, the pack would be 1/2 the length, which would make an overtake both simpler and safer. If there are 20+ riders you need to change lanes to pass • mariposaman When there are 20+ cyclists in a lane they are the traffic. You have to wait until it is safe to do so if you wish to pass. • Barb ps.. How often would you as a driver get angry and honk your horn when trying to pass a school bus that stops at every driveway on rural roads to let students off. Every single day.. twice a day around here we encounter school buses all over the place. :) Guess what YOU STOP AND WAIT!!! I don’t hear anyone complaining about the school buses that hold drivers up. Passing cyclists happens far less often than dealing with school buses.. “Live and Let Live” • Barb The law seems clear but as always is subject to interpretation.. Regardless of the “rights” of the cyclist, the problem is most drivers of cars/trucks are NOT aware of the laws of the road as they pertain to cyclists. And unfortunately, many who do know seem NOT TO CARE. The “bigger they are the badder” they seem to be. Like any law, it won’t matter if you are dead. So unfortunately, as is usually the case, the victim must try and protect themselves from harm regardless of the law or better judgement. Just look at rape cases. If you are one of those pig-headed impatient anal-retentive drivers I suggest you “take a pill and chill”! Don’t risk going to jail for killing someone just because you “think you’re right” and you don’t have 2 seconds to spare. Take a deep breath and count to TEN.. then you’ll likely be able to pass anyone safely anyway. Road Rage is a crime too!! • Anthony I think downhill skiing rules should apply. The faster vehicle, the one that would like to pass, has the responsibility to ensure that their actions do not negatively impact the vehicle being passed. I ride for pleasure and some summers I ride more than I drive. One point that was raised is that a larger vehicle that travels through a stop sign is far more dangerous than a bicycle that ‘slows down’ instead of stopping (yes I wear cleats) or a herd that travels through a stop sign as a single unit (as bus or tractor). I have recently seen a motorcycle who tried to roll through a stop sign (same one I roll through) and almost dumped his bike when he had to stop because there was a car on the road he was about to enter. If I see a car. I can safely stop when there is a need. My bike weighs less and I can stop real quick at slow speeds. If I fail to avoid the vehicle because I failed to stop at a stop sign, I am not going to injure or kill the motorist. The same cannot be said about me the cyclist. Last week, I was forced off the road by a van that was trying to pass a car going in the opposite direction (I was traveling west and the other vehicles traveled east). The van driver showed total disregard for my life and probably figured it was my responsibility to protect my live and not his. Yes there are irresponsible cyclists, but my experience has been that motorists have a greater percentage of arrogant and disrespectful drivers than exists in the cycling community. If cyclists were half as bad, there would be many more deaths. • mike As a regular cyclist, motorcyclist and a driver I have to say that the cyclist group shows the least respect for roadway laws … by a huge margin. While writing this note I’m watching a 4 way stop, in the last 5 minutes 8 of 8 bikes have run the intersection without even slowing, 25 of 25 cars came to a reasonable stop and yielded right of way properly. Several cyclists were running in the wrong lane and 2 more adult riders were running sidewalks. I think motorcyclists and motorists get frustrated with the cyclists complaints mostly because they see cyclists breaking road rules as if they are entitled. We all deserve to be safe on the roads. We all have the responsibility to enjoy roads responsibly… and to follow the rules at all times. • Conrad If a cyclist doesn’t prove to be considerate to other then I proceed as such. Honk my horn and flowed by get out of the way moron. Most cyclist pose an unsafe situation at most times by ex resizing the ont law at full. Therefore they must suffer the consequences. PS,, I’m also a cyclist, and I stay out of the way of any motorized vehicle. Just be safe and dint negotiate with vehicles bigger then you. • E.D. I’ve tried reading all the comments and I don’t believe this was mentioned. I think that cyclists should ride with the mentality that they’re invisible. Assuming that a driver can or will see you could be fatal. When I’m riding my motorcycle, specifically making a left turn, there have been a few times when a cyclists cut me off by riding against the flow of traffic and using a sidewalk/crosswalk. Usually they’re travelling at fairly high rate of speed (for a bicycle). Doesn’t matter if this is legal or not, but it has left me very little time to react. My options are, trying to stop in the middle of an intersection with the risk of getting hit by oncoming traffic and dumping my motorbike. Or, continuing my turn and potentially hitting the cyclist… Well, as a generalization, I think I stand a better chance of survival by hitting the cyclist that having a car run me over. Thankfully, in those situations (so far), I’ve either been able to accelerate out of the situation, or the cyclist has stopped. When I’m on a motorbike, my reaction is to keep myself and the bike out of harms way. If a cyclist cuts me off, my reaction isn’t necessarily to avoid the cyclist, or panic stop. My reaction is what do I need to do to stay upright and not crash. When a cyclist charges into an intersection coming off a sidewalk and going against the flow of traffic, this tells me their concern of personal safety is quite low. Yes, I know this is a very specific situation. But, sadly it has happened a few times. • Cathy Paul is right, I too live in Brockville and have many times come up behind a group of cyclists (I assume they are a club) because there is about 20 of them travelling side by side making it impossible to pass. I try to be patient and wait for a long straight stretch to pass them on. I just wish they could show just a little more courtesy and try to make it easier for the motorist. Respect goes both ways, • Bill The Ontario Highway Traffic Act considers bicycles to be vehicles. The Ontario Traffic Act does not explicitly forbid side by side cycling. However, two sections of the Act could reasonably be interpreted as forbidding the practice under certain circumstances. Ontario Highway Traffic Act Sections 148(2) and 148(6) require vehicles to “turn out to the right to allow the vehicle to pass” when being passed by vehicles travelling at a higher rate of speed. The wording of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act requires that slow moving vehicles (cyclists) move to the right, but this is only when being passed. The move to the right is to facilitate the space to allow a faster vehicle to safely pass. Nothing in the wording of these sections of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act suggests that cycling single file is the only way to comply with law. • Eric Just a quick one for riders…are you aware that filtering to the front of a red light is illegal? I see this on a daily and would like to be able to do this on my motorcycle however am unable to because our laws here in Ontario do not allow vehicles (on a bike you are a vehicle according to the HTA). On a bike when you filter, you are now forcing other motorists to change lanes and cause even more of a backlog of traffic and hazard to the rider to safely get around a cyclist since you cannot reach a sufficient speed. This practice is extremely dangerous if traffic is slow but not stopped as I have come close to hitting cyclists that filter on the right and do not seem to pay attention to turn signals…a specific bike lane I will always yield to, on a normal roadway I do not. Sorry for the bit of a rant. I am very much for sharing the roadway with all users and wish Ontario was a bit more forward thinking, but would like those of you who practice this to consider the implications. • John Today I saw the usual group of bicyclists out for a ride on my rural highway. They were 4 abreast on the road blocking a huge transport truck that had to slow and use his flashers for safety. He couldn`t pass in that area. According to the rules above, the bikes were breaking several laws and had great big smiles letting us know they were doing it on purpose. Where is a cop when you need them? • LS Cyclists who do that give the rest of us a bad name. • Barb Maybe they were smiling because they were having a nice country ride – Why does it mean they were smiling to spite you?? If a “Huge Transport Truck” had to slow down I presume it is because it was NOT SAFE to PASS the cyclists. As the rules state, A cyclist needs a metre ON EACH SIDE to be safe. So, if the truck were to pass with proper safe clearance as required by law they are obviously going to have to move over into the next lane regardless. They are TOO LARGE to try and “squeeze” by even just one cyclist on the edge of the road without putting the cyclist at risk. If they can’t move over safely due to oncoming traffic or because they can’t see, they should NOT be passing the cyclist, unless they wish to kill them. So what difference does it make if the truck has to pass by moving completely into the next lane instead of just half way into the next lane, be it an oncoming lane or even a lane travelling in the same direction. It doesn’t matter if there is one, two or even four cyclists riding beside each other, the truck will HAVE to take over the next lane regardless because they are too big to even pass ONE cyclist without taking over the next lane. Better that the truck needs to completely change lanes to pass all of the cyclists safely rather than risk knocking them all down like bowling pins if the truck driver had attempted to pass them in a single file and still have to take over both lanes in the process. • Wayne On a city walking path like Hogs Back Park we have had Cyclists yell at us to move to the grass. These cyclists will often go by us at a high rate of speed. (I know there are many good cyclists out there) However with our little one’s this is not always easy so on a walking path who has right of way a cyclists or the pedestrian. • LS Hi Wayne, My understanding is that the pedestrian always has the right-of-way on city paths. Most paths also have a speed limit of 20 kmh for cyclists, which unfortunately isn’t enforced. As someone who also enjoys walking, I know how unnerving it can be when an inconsiderate cyclist blows past, barking to get out of their way at the last minute. I think what they’re supposed to do is to ring their bells to alert the pedestrian of their presence and then pass on the opposite side when it is safe to do so (you may want to verify this with the police). On the other hand, I’ve also been on a bike when pedestrians are spread across the path, not leaving an appropriate amount of space for a cyclist to pass safely on the other side. Everything works better when people are considerate of each other, understanding that city paths are multi-use, put there for all of us to enjoy safely. • Jodie I have a question regarding bicyclists making a left hand turn at a 4 way stop. I do not ride a bike so I am asking from a motorists perspective. The bike rider was coming to a stop sign in the right hand lane but indication a left turn. There was a left turn lane. I was making a left turn at the other stop and had the right of way since I was stopped first. As I was making my left turn the guy on the bike turned in front of me causing me to brake in the intersection to let him complete his turn. Then proceeds to give me the finger. First off he only rolled through the stop sign, secondly he cut in front of the car in the left lane and in front of me who was making a left hand turn to go on the opposite direction. Should I have stayed at the stop sign and gave the right of way to the bike? Should he have been in the left turning lane? There are several bike enthusiasts in my area and I am more than happy to share the road. I just want clarification so I am driving correctly. This is the 3rd time I have witnessed a cyclist making a left hand turn in the right lane when there is a left hand turning lane. • LS Hi Jodie, Thank you for your comment. The same rules of the road that apply to motorists also apply to cyclists. Unfortunately, some cyclists don’t follow those rules. If there’s a left turn lane and this cyclist was turning left, then he should have been in the left turn lane. If you reached the stop sign first, then the cyclist should have let you through the 4-way stop before he went. Road cyclists wear special cycling shoes that are clipped into their pedals. They are often reluctant to come to a full stop because it means having to unclip from their pedal, and then clip in again when they go through the intersection, which can be a bit dangerous if they have trouble clipping back in and don’t have full control of their pedals. In Ontario it is illegal for a cyclist to roll through a stop sign but most do if it’s safe to do so. In this case, it wasn’t safe and the cyclist was riding in a way that was confusing for the motorist. To make matters worse, he was then rude to you. When I encounter cyclists while driving my car I always exercise extreme caution. Most are polite and follow the rules of the road. They just want to enjoy their ride and arrive home safely. But there are a few rogue cyclists, who give the rest of us a bad name. The main thing to remember as a motorist is that no matter who is in the right, if your car collides with someone on a bike, the cyclist will be badly injured or killed. And no one wants that to happen. Many thanks for taking the time to ask your question, for sharing the road and for being a patient and considerate driver. Laurel-Lea Shannon, Editor/Publisher • ethan i got into trobel for rideing my bike on school propoty • Daniel Brotherston • mike I would disagree. I legal car owner must pay for a license plate sticker, and any gasoline or diesel powered vehicle pays a tax that go towards paving and maintaining roads. And as a non cyclist and an annoyed driver i would ask this question. Wouldnt you rather be in charge of your own saftey by riding cautiously and giving the right of way (even if you disagree with me on who diserves it) to someone that could kill or seriously injure you if an accident were to take place. I would feel bad if it happened but would physically be unharmed. • Benjamin Tran Are there bad cyclists out there? Absolutely. Would licensing fix that? It sure hasn’t helped with drivers. You could argue that cyclist put less of a toll on infrastructure and while we don’t use conventional fossil fuels the added food cost to provide fuel to get us from point a to be we do pay taxes on. That combines with the fact that cyclist are contributing to reducing carbon emissions and reducing the number of cars you have to compete with on your commute in my mind outweigh occasionally getting stuck behind a cyclist. I’m not excusing breaking laws, a bad attitude or a general lack of courtesy. I am saying on legal roads we do have the right to be there. I live downtown Toronto and many roads actually existed before cars. The point is times change. Personally, in congested urban areas I’d argue for shared roadways. Realistically, no one is getting anywhere quickly and fewer carbon emissions benefit us all. Given the nature of bicycles, the Idaho stop has become somewhat standard despite not being legal; legalizing and properly educating both cyclist and drivers on how this works would be very beneficial and would actually speed up traffic. Cycling infrastructure is great but for those of us who are experienced, it’s actually safer to cycle with traffic. While some may be slow, those of us who work on bikes are generally moving faster than most traffic (I do track my speed and on good stretches in the city get up to 60+km/h). Establishing common language between drivers and cyclists is necessary. I do both and would encourage anyone who is able to as well. • Karen HTA 147 – Slow moving traffic travel on right side • Paul • Robin This create a safer and empathetic environment for all. • Diogenes • Paul Matte • Paul Matte Leave a Reply You can use these HTML tags
Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Religion Battles Within Self We may have heard the Treaty of Hudaibiyah (Suluh Hudaibiyah[1]) as one of the milestones along the early of Islamic history, particularly the Prophet’s Seerah. This treaty has made an incredible impact on Islam and Muslims, even until today. About the background of this treaty, as well as how the narratives goes, please check the other article: True Purpose of Victory The terms ‘Treaty” itself was introduced by some Mufasseerun and Muslim Scholars to highlight the treaty (suluh: الصلح) on the Hudaibiyah event. Many of the companions from the very first time, always remembered Hudaibiyah as War or Ghazwat (الغزوة). عَنْ سَلَمَةَ بْنِ الأَكْوَعِ، قَالَ غَزَوْتُ مَعَ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم سَبْعَ غَزَوَاتٍ‏.‏ فَذَكَرَ خَيْبَرَ وَالْحُدَيْبِيَةَ وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ وَيَوْمَ الْقَرَدِ‏.‏ قَالَ يَزِيدُ وَنَسِيتُ بَقِيَّتَهُمْ Salama bin Al-Akwa` said, “I fought in seven Ghazwat along with the Prophet.” He then mentioned Khaibar, Al-Hudaibiya, the day (i.e. battle) of Hunain and the day of Al-Qurad. I forgot the names of the other Ghazwat. (Sahih Bukhari) Even though there was no real battle with the enemy, companions of the Prophet always remembered that Hudaibiyah was one of the toughest battles they overcome. Psychological battle. Because they went on facing themselves. They were in chaos, couldn’t believe what they were seeing. As if they have lost the battle itself. Prophet Muhammad s. had with him hundreds of companions. If their emotions were intense, can they be calmed down easily? They were in intense fear before in Ahzab[2] situation, and now they will go to Makkah. Alas, it is fear, anticipation and then rage becomes one when they were in Hudaibiyah. They heard about the murder of Uthman, the assassinations attempt, and now the treaty offered by Quraish, in which the treaty itself seems unfair. When the treaty was offered by the Quraish, they feel like they are losing mind because of the contents. Yet, the insight for all the scenes in the Hudaibiyah including the treaty was told years later, and the significance impact of this treaty can be seen three years after, it is the Opening of Makkah (Fathu Makkah[3]). The treaty creates domino effect within the Muslim community and the world surrounding and leads them to Fathu Makkah. But the Opening of Makkah is not the victory itself, although it signifies Muslim’s victory in their early history. There is a certain parameter that Allah has been set for victory. One narration concludes this set of parameter. قَالَ تَعُدُّونَ أَنْتُمُ الْفَتْحَ فَتْحَ مَكَّةَ، وَقَدْ كَانَ فَتْحُ مَكَّةَ فَتْحًا، وَنَحْنُ نَعُدُّ الْفَتْحَ بَيْعَةَ الرُّضْوَانِ يَوْمَ الْحُدَيْبِيَةِ‏.‏ Do you (people) consider the conquest of Mecca, the Victory (referred to in the Qur’an 48:1). Was the conquest of Mecca a victory? We really consider that the actual Victory was the Ar-Ridwan Pledge of allegiance which we gave on the day of Al-Hudaibiya (Sahih Bukhari) The implication of the victory itself actually lies within the companions. The best victory of all is the companions. They were the best results of the Prophet’s teaching. Their discipline has overcome their own fiery rage in order to follow the Prophet’s command. Even when in Hudaibiyah, knowing the treaty that has been signed by the Prophet, they were in chaos. They were anticipating the dream of the day when they can go to Makkah peacefully, and yet they need to ward-off and signing an “unfair” treaty. When the Prophet told them to shave their head and sacrifices their animals which signify the end of their pilgrimage, they were in one period of silence. This is the first time they did not follow the commands as soon as possible. They act until the Prophet shaved his heads and sacrificed his animals. It is amazing that they at least did follow the Prophet after all the fiery moments in Hudaibiyah! Upon all features happened in Hudaibiyah, the most notable is how the companions react at the end of the day. Their disciplined let them overcome their rage. The victory is not about overcome the city of Makkah. It is all about the companions. The companions itself is the sign of the victory. 1. The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah (Arabic: صلح الحديبية) was an important event that took place during the formation of Islam. It was a pivotal treaty between Muhammad, representing the state of Medina, and the Quraish tribe of Mecca in March 628 (corresponding to Dhu al-Qi’dah, 6 AH). [from Wikipedia] 2. Ahzab (أحزاب) means alliance, parties, particularly this term refers to the Quraish and other tribes who Joint Forces in an alliance attacked the Prophet in Madina in the Battle known as ‘Battle of the Ditch’ (غزوة الخندق) and also ‘Battle of the Joint Forces’ (غزوة الأحْزاب). 3. Fath Makkah often refers to the victory of the Muslims upon opening the city of Makkah. Fath (فتح) itself literally means to remove a lock so the door can be open. It can also mean a removal of sadness in Arabic phrase. Posted in Philosophy, Religion, Science Knowledge is (not) Power To the best of our knowledge, modern human has been living for roughly 100,000 years, only a tiny fraction of 4.5 Billion years that the earth has been around, and yet our impact, to a certain extent, is significant. We may conclude for a long period of time, the inhabitants of the earth are mostly unintelligent beings. Thus, some say that we, human are now separated from other species because of this so-called intelligence. In Abrahamic Faith, all of the religion agreed that Adam was given the knowledge of the names. Hence, he know to use terms as implies within names. Most researchers today believe that all of the human accomplishment such as farming, foraging, creating societies, and so on, were the product of a revolution in Homo Sapiens’ cognitive abilities. What caused these new ways of thinking and communicating? Researchers argue that genetic mutations changed the inner wiring of the brain, and thus enabling them to come up with new ways of thinking and communicate it with a new type of language. This ability showcase what human are capable of. As implies within the creation of Adam and what is his best feature, we can conclude that the knowledge and its potential lies within every human being, whether you are creationist or evolutionist. But, let’s not discuss that for now. Human minds progressed and shape our civilization today, the so-called “Scientific Revolution” era. During this period of time humankind has obtained enormous powers by investing resources in scientific research. It is a revolution because the world obtained enormous medical, military, and economic powers. But, most people in average having problems digesting modern science. College students having difficulties solving their calculus homework, or how to build their science project. Out of billions of people, how many really understand quantum physics, molecular biology, and macroeconomics? Science nevertheless enjoys immense prestige. Leaders of the world may not understand nuclear physics in detail, but they do know what nuclear bomb is and how catastrophic it may become. In 1602, Francis Bacon published a scientific manifesto titled, The New Instrument. In that manifesto, he argued that ‘Knowledge is Power’. The real use of knowledge is not whether it is true or not, but whether it empowers us or not. Bacon connects science and technology, and this connection flourishes in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Having all said that, science at the end of the day is unable to set its own priorities and incapable of determining what to do with its own discoveries. It is merely tools to be utilized. Even one of the pioneer of the scientific method in our era, British philosopher, logician, and Nobel Prize Winner, Bertrand Russell said, “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” Love and knowledge. If having knowledge is considered as having power then it should be accompanied by principle or moral. It might mislead humankind and brought them to an end. Human desire is at every cause of war and terror that our world has witnessed. Quran (Look up QS 45:23 in the beginning) called that desire or هوي (hawa) with an original literal meaning “to drop, fall, tumble, fall down, sink, etc.” Hence, any people who follow their desire (lust), as in this meaning, will fall or in this case (Quran) let the people blindly go astray with sealing in their ears and hearts. Even for the person with knowledge (علم). Sometimes we are having difficulties in separating knowledge as in classical text (hard knowledge) and having “knowledge”. Having a lot of Hadith recitation might not be considered as knowledge if the person did not apply it. Having plenty of information about Islam doesn’t make a person wise. Imam Malik enlighten us with his saying, “Knowledge does not refer to plenty of information; rather, knowledge is a light that Allah puts into the heart of a true believer.” Knowledge is depicted as light from Allah, while the light itself symbolizes hope, a guidance, that will guide us in our darkest moments. Interestingly, the word “knowledge” itself, علم (‘ilm/knowledge) is unique. If you flip the last two letters it will become عمل (‘amal/action), and if you flip the word, it will form لمع (lama’/shine, brilliance). In Islam, this knowledge that you gain needs to be applied, so that you can gain understanding and be able to become a brilliant person with Allah’s help. The light penetrates the heart of the believer so that he aware of his existence and what needs to be done between him and his Master, and thus taking action in which makes the person shine. What is exactly the light that can penetrate the heart? That light, I can argue, is the Quran, sent down from Allah. Human desire problem is so deep and complicated. Any knowledgeable and wise person might have fallen because of it. Let it be in politics, economics, or sciences. Everyone might succumb. They must complete the equation that prescribed before. Let the Quran speak and act as a light. Knowledge is a light that illuminates civilization through the heart of believers. Having plentiful information about Islam is not the same as having knowledge. Having scholarly debates sometimes not considered gaining knowledge if they are following their ego and desire. Let Allah guide us through His knowledge to act as humanity’s beacon of light. 1. Harari, Yuval Noah., Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Harvill Secker, 1st edition, 2014 2. Michio Kaku (videos: on the Evolution of Intelligent) 3. Mohammed Ghilan excerpt in his videos 4. Dictionary: 5. Quran: Posted in Philosophy Spell of Illusion So many things that can be remembered from 2016. Invited as a speaker for GGC Indonesia’s Theme night. Learning Arabic through Bayyinah Access program Family trip in Taiwan at last! On the day before my birthday, my paper got published Free your “spell of illusion” and take action. For what 2016 has offered: be grateful. الحمد لله على كل حال Welcome, 2017! Posted in Culture, Poem O Light. O Light. When our soul is fright. And our view is outsight I hear the crying plight. Will it end right? Where is the shining knight? O Light O Light Victory has been assured outright The heart, relight. Our motherland, overlight Gazing the skies out straight. Looking for the soft glowing twilight O Light O Light Illuminates our insight From the Omen in which sleight! Posted in Philosophy, Religion Honoring (him) لَيَنْتَهِيَنَّ رِجَالٌ عَنْ تَرْكِ الْجَمَاعَةِ أَوْ لأُحَرِّقَنَّ بُيُوتَهُمْ It depends on our attitude in honoring him. صل على محمد Check out this song and its lyrics: محمد نور Some of its lyrics: يا ربي بالمصطفى بلغ مقاصدنا واغفر لنا ما مضى يا واسع الكرم محمد نور محمد نور مديحو زاد فينا سرور مشي فينا بدرب النور محمد نور محمد نور يا رسول الله سلام عليك يا عظيم الجاه والكرم 3. Sunan Ibn Majah Book 4, Hadith 61. Posted in Book Review, Culture, Philosophy Trivium: Secret Art of Learning Etymologically, the latin word of “Trivium” means “the place where the roads meet.” The elements within the Trivium represent a crossroads or intersection where the public meets [1]. We would call it a public square, where public meets to discuss or chit-chat the usual topics of the day: How was the weather? How was the harvest? And so on and so forth. We used to say that people who excel at remembering common experience and knowledge are good at trivia. Trivia is at the center of everyday knowledge. The term Trivium was comprised grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These three elements were essential to a classical education. Grammar teaches the mechanics of language to the student. This is the step where the student “comes to terms”. It can be divided into two: technical and exegetical grammar. Learning sentence structure (subject, verb, and object) is technical while learning the meaning and its nuance is exegetical. Logic is the mechanics of thought and of analysis: identifying fallacious arguments, removing contradictions, thereby producing factual knowledge. Logic directs and guides us after the truth. It leads us to conclusions based on our knowledge. We use all of our faculties of conceiving, judging, reasoning, and disposing of questions before us. Logic trains the mind to think clearly. Dialectics is the term used to describe critical thinking. We observe the world. As we see patterns, we begin to make predictions and convey it to our action plans. Rhetoric is the application of language in order to instruct and persuade the reader or listener. Sometimes we thought that rhetoric is unimportant as a meaningless throw-away line. Rhetoric is important: it has substance. Rhetoric adds force and elegance to our thoughts. It is essential for the study of law and regulations. Ancient Romans used to learned to speak in public with fluency. Even pre-Islamic Arabs used to read poetry in public and challenge the other poets. The representation image of Trivium in the middle ages (from Wikipedia) Grammar, rhetoric, and logic are the trivium, or first three, of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences [2]. Some would say The Trivium is the three arts of language pertaining to the mind. Logic is the art of thinking; grammar, the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express thought; and rhetoric, the art of communicating thought from one mind to another, the adaptation of language to circumstance [3]. Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric can be described as Input, Process, and Output. The whole of the Trivium, in fact, was intended to teach the student the proper use of the tools of learning. First, he learned how structure in language was put together, and how it worked. Secondly, he learned to use language; how to define his terms and make accurate statements; how to construct an argument and how to detect fallacies in it. Thirdly, he learned to express himself in language elegantly and persuasively. This whole teaching system arguably is now crumbled, because we are too much focusing on the “subjects” itself, hence obsessed with the results from science, technology or any subjects [4]. Learning these three elements in Trivium will shape us into a formidable force in the world. These are the most powerful tools that human beings have. Luther King knew them, Malcolm X knew them, both of them moved large numbers of people and nation. Prophet s. is the most logical, grammatically correct and rhetorically effective human being that ever lived. He moved one-sixth of humanity because of that. This is why they are so important in our civilization. Freemasons up until now are obsessed with the Seven Liberal Arts. Freemasons is a network of very powerful people around the world and they know this tools very well. They are learning seven liberal arts to shape themselves to become a better man in masonry [5]. Winding Stairs, one of the common symbolism in Freemasonry. There are 12 steps, the first 5 are human senses, the second 7 representing the school of learning (Seven Liberal Arts) Some civilizations though kept these knowledge hidden, some sort of secret arts. They do not want these arts known widely among mankind. Because these arts will free people and not let others think for them. They will be liberated. We can see through people lacking in this knowledge if we have mastered it. There is a lot of gaps to fill in the case of President debates in the United States nowadays compare with two or three decades ago. Mastering this knowledge means increased in literacy capacity [6]. In debates, a good argumentation should be delivered well. There are certain things that need to look at, the usage of rhetoric might be a missed hit if the content was not elaborated enough or the method of rhetoric is not well-delivered. The worst scenario is the usage of foul language when someone cornered. This is when debates getting ugly. Foul language was what people that didn’t have words resorted to. When you lose the ability to speak out of frustration you begin to use foul language. Breakdown of language leads to violence. Wars occur because of breakdowns in communication. Later maybe developing an article explaining language and communication might be a good idea. Simply put, mastering all three of these elements, you can move masses and nations. But if not properly used, wars will be triggered. Careful with your words. إِيَّاكُمْ وَالْفِتَنَ فَإِنَّ اللِّسَانَ فِيهَا مِثْلُ وَقْعِ السَّيْفِ “Beware of tribulations, for at that time the tongue will be like the blow of a sword.” (Sunan Ibn Majah) 2. Trivium is one-third of the total seven, the rest are called Quadrivium: Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy) 4. Sayers, Dorothy L., (1947). The Lost Tools of Learning. an essay presented at Oxford University. 6. Adler, Mortimer J and van Doren, Charles, How to Read a Book, 1972 ed. (see my article: Posted in Miscellaneous, Science There is no such thing as the job category, “motivational speaker”. You should take more cautious action regarding of this fact. If you happened to meet someone whose job is to motivate people, there is some sort sense of fraud. Careful. In recent decades in many places around the world, people have been mesmerized by some public speakers, notably known as “motivational speaker”. It seems that everything they have spoken of will solve all of your problems right away. In development countries where the gap between the elite and the poor is so obvious, the need for people to get motivated is exceptionally high. What is motivation anyway? Simply, it is all the reason for someone to do action in their life. At least that is what Wikipedia says [1]. This is what people looking for. There is a strong demand from an audience who want the illusion those “motivational speaker” sell! Thus, those so-called “motivational speaker” business worked out! When people’s mind clouded by this illusion, this is where the problem started. The words from the speakers became so mesmerized to the people, in a way that they couldn’t tell which one is the truth and which one is the deception. I would argue, that this phenomenon is similar to hypnosis but happened in different ways. People do not care about what implies in the speech, even if the speakers is globally well-known, they do not care about their personal story how they became the speakers. Again, this is some sort of hypnosis in large masses. People became mesmerized and caught up in their own illusion and dream: to get motivated. Interestingly enough the word “mesmerize” is originated from German Physician, Dr. Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer [2], who theorized that there was a natural energetic transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called animal magnetism or simply mesmerism. Although, modern science has debunked this theory. But even so, this theory of mesmerism has been derived to a general well-known term “hypnosis”. James Braid, based on Franz Mesmer theory although different in how the procedure worked, developed the term hypnosis. This term means a state where human consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness and thus enhanced capacity for response to suggestion [3]. Back to the motivational speakers, imagine you are attending their seminar and pay the entrance fee. You pay the fee because you expect to get what you want, regardless the specific theme for the seminar, right? With this in mind, you are set-up yourself on your own illusion, unless you REALLY KNOW what you are doing and what the reality behind of all your problems! I am not saying that all the “motivational speakers” is bad. It is because sometimes simple minded people tend to be fallen into this trap, without knowing the reality behind it. If you are an employee at a private company, and the speaker told you to quit and then become an entrepreneur instead and follow your dream not to work in someone’s company, what will you do? Some people fall into this trap, they are becoming jobless, and they fail to become successful entrepreneurs! Is the speaker want to take this case as their responsibility? I doubt they will. You should always remember to chant this magic words 🙂 Pieces that people need to observe is that many successful people having harsh life in their early life. Even some of them who happened to become successful speakers happened to live through hardship and difficulties. If you are aware of this reality then you can proceed, and enjoy your motivational seminar. Again, there is no job category such as “motivational speaker”, as one article from Forbes says, “Speaking is an activity. It is a way to communicate your passion about a subject upon which you’re expert” [3]. It’s all begin with the idea, passion, craft, and expertise. If you want to become one, having your story to be told in front of a big audience, start with those four!
Desert Disguise Patina on Spaceship Patina on Spaceship IMG_1457I’d like to learn to identify the rocks I see when I’m hiking in the South Mountains. On the western end of the range the rock dates to the Precambrian Age, some as old as 1.6 billion years. The eastern and younger ridges (just 25 million years old) are gently rounded and the wide washes that drain the valleys are prominent features. This is visible from the I-10 freeway and accessed primarily at the Pima Wash trailhead. Hiking west on the National Trail you encounter areas of rock carved by erosion into fantastical shapes. Colossal boulders stack one on another and it’s easy to imagine human profiles, animal shapes and space ships. At Fat Man’s Pass squeeze through a narrow gap between mansion-size boulders and slide over massive rock faces shiny with wear. Telegraph Pass is roughly midpoint in the mountain range. To the west rugged cliffs and chiseled outcrops of schist, granite and gneiss resist the pull of time. Although the shapes differ dramatically, much of the South Mountains’ rock surface appears the same, mostly black and polished to a sheen. This is because of a process that’s been called Nature’s smallest sedimentary formation. Thin as a piece of paper, a layer accumulates on exposed rock in arid locations creating a coating called desert varnish. Materials that make up this varnish are composed of fine grain clay from surrounding rock and earth material carried in airborne dust. The colors themselves come from black manganese oxide and red iron oxide. The oxidation is accomplished by bacteria that thrive on rock surfaces in areas with low levels of organic material and high evaporation rates. These microorganisms facilitate the chemical reaction between the clay elements and heat. Wind abrasion hones the varnish to a patina. This thin layer can take thousands of years to form. In ancient times Native Americans recorded events and messages with rock art images chipped through the desert varnish to the lighter rock below. Today thousands of these intriguing petroglyphs in the South Mountains depict people, animals, gods, celestial events and ways of life. Current day Pimas, descendents of the Akimel O’odham peoples of long ago, call the range Muhadag Du’ag or Greasy Mountain, an apt description for the effects of desert varnish. Landscape of the Spirits by Todd Bostwick 2 responses to “Desert Disguise 1. Pingback: ‘Shadow Biosphere’ theory gaining scientific support \| Syndicated News Services 2. See, it is about your throbbing curiostiy and expressive linguistics that make it all come alive and stay alive….go girl! Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Alien-The Facehugger General information Host type Height 3' Weight 10 lbs Distinctions Bony finger-like legs Spine-like tail Notable individuals Chronological information First appearance Alien Last appearance Alien: Isolation A Facehugger is the second stage of the Xenomorph's life cycle. Its bony finger-like legs allow it to crawl rapidly and its long spine-like tail can launch it in great distances. These particular appendages give them an appearance somewhat comparable to Chelicerata arthropods such as arachnids and horseshoe crabs. Until a facehugger is disturbed by a living faunal organism that is larger than it, it lives in an egg, approximately one meter in height. When the egg is disturbed, the egg springs open, and the facehugger jumps out, using its tail to propel itself through the air and onto its victim's face. It constricts the hosts with its tail, cutting off their oxygen supply and inserting a proboscis of its own to feed the host oxygen, and also to implant a Xenomorph embryo using afore mentioned tube. Victims who are cocooned are probably not rendered unconscious, which may explain how they know they are impregnated (other than seeing a dead facehugger on the floor) and often ask to be killed. The facehugger remains attached to the host's face until a Xenomorph embryo has been implanted. Larvae are laid in the bronchial tubes. The egg hatches, and the pre-larvae burrows into the victim's aorta, where it feeds on the nutrients, and absorbs the host DNA to supplement its own. This will become a Chestburster. At this point, the Facehugger has finished its part of the Xenomorph lifecycle, and falls from the victim's face, dying. Like adult Xenomorphs, a facehugger has extremely corrosive body fluid. It will kill the host if it is forcibly removed before implantation is complete, either tearing off the host's face with its extremely strong digits or strangling the host with its tail. Provided it has not yet clamped it's legs around the host's head, a facehugger can be removed without A facehugger burning through its victims helmet. harming the host, but its extreme strength and determination necessitates multiple humans or similar species to remove it. Once removed it will attempt to escape and hide in order to ambush another host. If there is a barrier between the facehugger and the host's face, such as a space suit visor, th facehugger will secrete some of its corrosive body fluid to dissolve through it. One of the many reasons that makes the parasite dangerous and feared other than the agonizing death it will eventually cause the host to have, is how fast they can subdue any host no matter how healthy or strong. Once a facehugger has fully attached there is no hope of removing it, though in Ripley 8 was facehugged and managed to pull the facehugger off, though the mixture of her DNA with a Xenomorph Queen made her far stronger than any normal human. Subduing a victimEdit While a facehugger's tail could be used to strangle a host unconscious, it is unlikely it does it. Hosts are rendered unconscious within seconds, roughly around 7 seconds and the only choke that can knock someone out in seconds is a bloodchoke which stops the blood from entering the brain thus knocking a person out and requires a very precise chokehold. The other chokehold cuts off oxygen to the brain but usually takes longer to knock someone out. If the facehugger used its tail to render its host unconscious, then Ripley would have being successfully facehugged and unconscious well before Corporal Hicks and the others arrived in time to rescue her, as the tail was around her throat for more than 10 seconds and she was still conscious. Its more likely or possible that the facehugger sedates its host through some sort of toxin or anesthetic. The reason why this is more likely is because of how fast the host is rendered unconscious and why the host would die if the parasite is prematurely removed, the sedation may render a hosts breathing function useless and the host is then completely dependent on it and so removing it would would cause the host to die from asphyxiation and not "murdered" by the parasite as its only concern is propagation of the species and nothing else. A facehugger possesses a surprisingly strong grip, and those who are facehugged never manage to be able pull it off them before being sedated. A facehugger's legs may 'lock" once around a host's head, which would mean simply pulling it off will be nearly impossible and while a victim could try lifting it off like a helmet, its powerful tail prevents this. Its unknown if one could eventually remove a facehugger because victums are usually incapacitated within 7 seconds. Ripley 8 managed to do so but the circumstances were different as she was stronger than a human and was submerged in water. The facehugger would or could not sedate her while underwater presumably because either the water itself stopped its attempts or because once implantation was complete, Ripley would drown and the chestburster would die and chestbursters can only survive a host's death if it is ready to "burst" as before then they are still connected to the host. A facehugger's tail is also very powerful and strong, being described as very muscular, facehuggers use their tails to spring out from the egg in which they are born and also to help them attach to a host by wrapping their tail around a limb and then pulling themselves closer to the host. In some cases facehuggers may stay alive for a short time after implantation, as seen in Alien when the facehugger has enough strength to reach the overhead light before falling on Ripley's shoulder. On Fiorina 161, a facehugger managed to impregnate both Ripley and a dog before dying. Impregnating larger hostsEdit For the size of a facehugger, humans are the best victims. However, a Space Jockey, which is significantly bigger than humans, is shown to have a ripped chest, implying that it has been facehugged. Prometheus reveals that the Space Jockey or Engineers are in fact humanoid and are smaller than what their suit makes them look. Impregnating Smaller HostsEdit In either a cut scene or script of Aliens, Ellen Ripley assumes a facehugger cannot impregnate anything as small or smaller than a cat. Dogs and similar sized animals are suitable and in Alien 3, a dog is attacked by a facehugger and births the first known Runner. Behind the ScenesEdit Giger's original design for the facehugger was a much larger creature with eyes and a spring-loaded tail. Later, in response to comments from the filmmakers, Giger reduced the creature's size substantially. At first Giger assumed that the facehugger would wrap around the outside of the astronaut's helmet, but Scott decided that it would have far more impact if the facehugger were revealed once the helmet was removed. Scott and Giger realised that the facehugger could burn through the helmet's faceplate with its acid blood; subsequent redesigns of the space helmet included a far larger faceplate to allow for this. Dan O'Bannon initially conceived the facehugger as somewhat resembling an octopus, possessing tentacles. However, when he received H. R. Giger's designs, which substituted tentacles with fingerlike digits, he thought Giger's design concept superior. Since no one was available at the time, O'Bannon decided to design the facehugger prop himself. The technical elements of the musculature and bone were added by Ron Cobb. Giger's initial design for the smaller facehugger had the fingers facing forward, but O'Bannon's redesign shifted the legs to the side. When the foam rubber sculpture of the facehugger was produced, O'Bannon asked that it should remain unpainted, believing the rubber, which resembled human skin, was more plausible. In the special edition of Alien 3, a "super facehugger" is introduced. This would carry the embryo of the queen alien, but it was ultimately dropped from the theactrical version of the film. The super-facehugger is found by Murphy in the Assembly Cut of Alien 3, but not identified as such. Ad blocker interference detected!
NASA just started preliminary testing on its crazy 25-mile electrostatic solar sail concept A consortium of scientists, academics, and government agencies have determined that advanced propulsion is the main technical obstacle standing between humanity and exploration beyond our own solar system. That’s why NASA has started testing a new propulsion system that could get spacecraft to the edge of our solar system faster than we ever have before. The revolutionary technology makes use of the strong solar wind in the heliosphere in order to propel exploratory craft even further to the heliopause, the edge of our solar system. The heliosphere is a region of space dominated by the sun, where protons and electrons are released from the sun at extremely high speeds. In order to develop a spacecraft propulsion system that doesn’t require propellants, NASA decided to harness those 400 to 750 kilometer per second solar wind speeds. The Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS) relies on an E-Sail that basically manipulates the sun’s released protons in order to propel spacecraft to the heliopause. Related: NASA has developed a greener and less toxic rocket fuel, and plans to show it off this week Between 10 and 20 aluminum wires charged with electricity will extend outward from the center of the spacecraft in order to form a circular sail. Each wire is 1 millimeter thick (that’s about the size of a paper clip) and almost 12 and a half miles long (about 219 football fields). The E-sail will use electrostatic to push away the protons that fly by on the incredibly fast solar winds of the heliosphere. Because the protons are repelled by wires that are also positively charged, the physical exchange of momentum creates thrust for the spacecraft. Centrifugal force pulls the wires into place as the spacecraft rotates at one revolution per hour. And because the wires are so long, the area of the sail is increased exponentially from past E-sail inventions. The increased area leads to longer acceleration and faster speeds which would get spacecraft to the edge of the solar system. How fast? Well, to put it in perspective, the Voyager 1 launched in 1977 and took almost 35 years to make its journey across the heliopause into interstellar space. If HERTS is successful, the spacecraft will be able to make the journey in less than a third of the time. NASA is spending two years testing isolated HERTS system components within a controlled plasma chamber that simulates the environment of the heliosphere. Engineers hope to scale up the technology for official space launches, but they admit the technology is probably at least a decade away from being used as a viable propulsion system. Leave a Reply Captcha image
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Bilingual Education: Aria/Collier Extended Comments: Heidi's Blog Richard Rodriquez and Virginia Collier are both supporters of bilingual education and argue that teaching students in their native language is the best way to educate students whose first language is not English. In "Teaching Multicultural Children" Collier very clearly presents a case for bilingual education. In "Aria" Rodriguez talks about his personal experiences and suggests that if he had been offered a bilingual education he may have adjusted better to school. I found both articles very interesting and especially liked the fact that the article written by Rodriquez was a personal experience which allows readers an opportunity to better understand the personal struggles one faced as he tried to learn the English Language. Unfortunately, his experience had a negative impact on his view of school which also affected his home life. As teachers, it will hopefully be a reminder of what to take into consideration and what not to do/suggest. Collier, presented an excellent assortment of options for teaching students who are bilingual or ESL learners. Her guidelines, can be easily implemented, "to better understand how teaching English to second-language learners can become an enriching experience when appreciating students' different languages and life situations." After reading Heidi's blog I decided to do extended comments because I thought she did a nice job explaining the authors argument and relating Collier to Delpit. I liked the example she used in relation to Collier's guideline number three, that the goal should not be to eliminate or eradicate the home language and replace it with English, it should be to support the development of both languages simultaneously. Delpit talked about learning how to communicate in the dominant culture, the "culture of power". Collier seems to say that English is the language used in the "culture of power" and that in order to be successful children need to learn English. Collier is in favor of teaching children the importance of learning English, which is the dominate language, " the culture of power" while supporting their retention of their home language. Collier teaches us the guidelines for teaching students whose first language is not English, however, she feels strongly about each student continuing to use his/her native language. Perhaps, Rodriquez's experience would have been different if on his journey to learn English he was still able to engage in dialog in his native tongue which was a part of who he is, his identity and heritage. As Heidi states, "as the number of children who speak a language other than English at home continues to increase in many classrooms across the country it becomes increasingly important that teachers know how best to provide these English language learners with the best education possible". I agree that teachers need to approach each student individually and take into consideration his/her learning style and comfort level as well as best practices and effective guidelines when education students who are learning English as their second language. It is important to support them and make them feel secure in an environment where they struggle to understand and or communicate. In my district, we have a small ESL population and the students are taught in their grade level classroom where English is the only language spoken. Theses students are pulled out of their classroom environment and receive 1-1 or small group instruction with other ESL learners thirty minutes per day. What I found most interesting is that the ESL teachers do not know how to speak, read, or understand the native language of their students."Is this enough? Collier would say no, that full day bilingual education is what is truly needed. Is this a realistic goal? In the current climate of budget cuts and increasing class sizes it seems unlikely that the availability of bilingual education is going to increase". In response to the question Heidi posed I would have to say no based on the two articles I read. When I read this, I was reminded of Kozol and his example of the "baby Ives" when he talks about unfair advantages that some students have, this means that all of those children who enter school with limited English proficiency, or with no English at all, they will struggle to catch up to the native-English speaking peers and may never really get there. Yet, all children are held to the same standards and have the same expectations placed on them in regards to state assessments. I agree when Heidi said, Collier presents bilingual education as the solution but she does not address the practical issues of how to implement it on a large scale. As a Special Educator I had very little knowledge of whats best for ESl learners. Actually prior to reading these articles, I thought it would be best for students to be fully emerged in the culture and language. Apparently, I was incorrect and appreciate my new knowledge in this area. 1. Hin Nicole, I have to agree that I am not really familiar with ESL teaching. I was asking myself the somethings when I was reading these article. What would be the best way to teach these students? I wonder if there is really an answer. If as Collier states that we need to have these children in ESL classrooms for the whole day with teachers that are familiar with their home language I kind of wonder how that would even work. There are so many languages home languages in our schools, could that ever happen. Thank you for your thoughtful reflection, Jenn 2. After the discussion in class today, I realize that the first sentence of my blog was not completely accurate. Collier feels that students should be taught in English however should not lose his/her native language and should have opportunities to use both languages so society can be culturally diverse. Collier feels as though we should never make a child feel inadequate if he/she does not speak in English, "the culture of power" but encourage them to restate what they said and try to say it in English. Rodriquez, although he was not completely clear in my opinion believes that a student should learn to adapt and be fully emerged in English even if there are negative factors in the process. He believes the end product and being able to effectively communicate and participate in the language and culture out weighs what has to be given up.
How Money Came to Dominate Our Lives Niall Ferguson’s The Ascent of Money was published by Allen Lane. A Harvard historian shows the star economists how economics work today and how they worked in the past. His conclusions from comparing the two are at the same time obvious and disturbing. Niall Ferguson’s book would normally have been disregarded as a historian’s incompetent views on how he thinks economics work; in view of the complete and utter incompetence shown by so called economists and politicians, the book has become a highly interesting and disturbing analysis of the financial markets. The book gives an overview of 4000 years’ development of our current financial system. Or maybe the financial system we had until recently and which showed itself inadequate and failing. The American way of travelling might not be to everybody’s taste; to see Europe in five days is incomprehensible to Europeans. But the book spooks the reader through 3,500 years and only starts slowing down in 13th century Italy where Ferguson places the beginning of the modern money and lending system. This, as many other claims he makes, is debatable, but I think not really the main point of the book. Rather, the book wants the reader to understand the historical way in which money developed and evolved in a general way and it highlights many interesting facts many don’t know. It gives the reader an idea of the beginning of money and debt and the evolution of bonds, pensions, and futures trading. Ferguson cites the example of the first bonds issued in England to finance the war against Napoleon, which was partly a reason England did win that war in the end, despite incompetent leadership and with a lot of help from all its friends. Bonds were a cheap way of raising money, which France at that time didn’t have. The same way of getting cheap money held true for the Great War of 1914. Niall Ferguson makes a good point for his theory that understanding history is crucial to being a financial wizard. Only by knowing the bubbles of old and by analyzing their crashes are leaders able to cope with imminent or actual crises. A CEO on Wall Street has a career span of 25 years, meaning there are only a few dinosaurs who remember 1987 and no one ever remembers 1929 except from hearsay. As an example, the author relates the following story: A hedge fund ran aground in 1998 after being hit by Russian default. 3.6 billion pounds in losses ensued. The founder, a Nobel Prize winning economic expert, had based his findings on data as far back as 1993. Five years, ridiculous five years, was all he was able to look at and he calls himself an expert. Had he even bothered about it, 1917 could have taught him that Russian default is possible, feasible, and probable at just about any time. Ferguson believes, too, in the relevance of history to contain and manage any crisis that may arise. He is probably right about that, because whenever there were signs of crisis in the past century, government and bankers could remember 1929 and the errors of judgment made at that time; they managed accordingly to sidestep the more blatant blunders. With this knowledge, none of these crises got stuck on us, as they were expertly defused in time. No such luck this time round. Politicians and self-acclaimed economical experts are currently immersing themselves in disastrous decisions copying 1929 wherever possible and feasible. This gives small hopes for the present crisis though, as political leaders worldwide are a bunch of illiterate self servers. Politicians are exclusively recruited from lazy and workshy failures, because otherwise they would be gainfully employed in the private sector economy. I do not agree with many conclusions Ferguson draws in his book, but the general view he gives the reader is a true one. And to get a crash course on financial development into one book is no mean feat, either. It’s definitely worthwhile reading.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 SIMPL - A simple programming language based on Txtzyme SIMPL - A simple programming language based on Txtzyme Last weekend I played around with Ward Cunningham's Txtzyme - a minimalist programming language, with an interpreter written in C so that it can be easily ported to many microcontrollers. Txtzyme contains all the elements necessary to enable a microcontroller to interpret and execute a series of typed commands, and is an ideal example to learn the techniques employed by more sophisticated interpretive languages. During the past week, I have written some extensions to Txtzyme and tried out a few ideas to make Txtzyme more versatile and easier to use. This blog post is a tutorial in Txtzyme, and it's new extensions to create more of a useful language - which I am calling SIMPL - A Serial Interpreted Minimal Programming Language. SIMPL runs in under 6K on the standard Arduino. A Brief Description of Txtzyme. Txtzyme consists of an interpreter contained within a loop. The interpreter, intended to be very simple, decodes individual ASCII characters, and executes a block of C code associated with that character. This is similar, in principle to how Forth scans through a series of Forth words and executes the code associated with them, but Txtzyme treats each ASCII character as a word, greatly simplifying the scanning process. The interpreter steps through a string of ASCII characters, executing the associated code blocks in turn. This may be slow in speed in comparison to assembly language execution, but the user does not need to know about machine code, assembly language or even C to make the microcontroller perform simple tasks. Numbers and Maths Txtzyme enumerates numbers and assigns them to an integer variable x. Typing 123p into the serial terminal will set x to 123, and then print that value out when the p command is executed. I extended Txtzyme with the use of another integer variable y. A number can be stored in y by using the ! character. This again being borrowed from Forth. 456! will initially assign 456 to x, and then copy it into y. The use of the second variable allows simple maths operations to be performed. Taking the simple interpreter, I added some maths operations + - * and / . 456!123+p will set y to 456, then set x to 123, add x and y, leaving the result in x and then print out the answer 579. I/O Commands Txtzyme was designed to perform simple I/O operations on the pins of the microcontroller, with each operation being initiated by a serial command. This allows ports to be set, inputs to be read and analogue inputs to be read and printed to the serial terminal. The keywords that perform these operations are generally only single ascii characters, chosen to make the commands surprisingly human readable. First you have to state which I/O pin you wish to use. This is done with the d command. For example 6d will select digital pin 6 You may then set this selected pin to high using 1o (where o = output) or to low using 0o. To read an input pin, first you have to define it eg. 8d will define digital 8. Then you use i, for input to read it's state into x. p will then print out the value. To read the value on one of the ADC pins, you use the s command, which means analogue sample. 0sp will read the value on ADC 0 into x and print it out. Txtzyme uses a simple loop structure, allowing commands to be executed repeatedly. It also uses the native delay functions present on the Arduino to provide simple timing functions - ideal for flashing LEDs and generating musical tones from output pins. Txtzyme can toggle output pins at up to 47kHz, a speed that is only limited by the Arduino digitalWrite function. The loop function will execute any command contained within braces {}. It uses x to initialise the loop counter, k to a starting value, from whence k will be decremented to zero and terminate the loop. For example to print out ten readings from analogue pin 0 To see the loop count variable k decrementing 10{kp} will print out the numbers from 9 decrementing to 0 Txtzyme does not yet have the ability to do complete FOR/NEXT loops. This would be a very useful addition, the means to perform a loop such as for i = x to y step z I have added primitives @ l y and z y allows direct access to the variable y so typing 10y is equivalent to y=10 @ was intended to be the equivalent of Forth's fetch, but in SIMPL it copies the value stored in y to x. l is a loop counter. It increments y by 1 every time The construct l@p increments y by 1, copies it to x and prints it out. To print an ascending series of numbers from 1 to 10 uses this construct When combined with the read primitive r (see below) this can be used to read and print consecutive RAM addresses. I/O with Loops and Timing Loops can be used to flash LEDs or generate tones, and can be combined with the millisecond and microsecond delay functions to generate appropriate timed behaviour. To flash a LED on pin 13 ten times, on for 500mS and off for 500mS To turn this into an audible note to sound a small speaker on pin 6, we shorten the delay to say 500uS, and generate say 1000 cycles (1000 times around the loop). Creating New Definitions The simple Txtzyme interpreter readily executes a program contained in the characters in the input buffer, but wouldn't it be great if you could store these mini programs in RAM so you could use them time over? The mechanism to execute a program from RAM, is to point the interpreter at the location of the starting character and let it execute the characters in turn until it finds a return '\r' or newline '\n' character that marks the end of the string. Here we have to start borrowing ideas from Forth, the concept of the "word" that signifies the start address of a block of code to execute, and the "colon definition" - a mechanism to write new words into memory. To keep things simple, our new words will be assigned only the capital letters, allowing up to 26 new words to be defined, namely A to Z. Additionally, to simplify the addressing of these words, and to keep the RAM usage within the limitations of the ATmega328 ( as used on the Arduino), we will allocate each word just 48 bytes of memory, with each consecutive word starting on the 48 byte address boundary. This allows us to easily decode the ASCII value of the character, find the starting address of the associated code, and execute the word. To create a new word, and to tell the interpreter to copy the input character string into the correct position of RAM we use the "colon definition". We type a colon followed by the capital letter of the word we wish to create. Suppose we liked the tone example from above and want to assign it to the letter T, we type The colon definition code will detect the leading : and then decode the T to 84 in decimal. It then creates an address by multiplying 84 by the allocated permissible word length of 48 bytes, and adds this to the start address of the array assigned to hold the definitions. I have restricted the length of the definitions to 48 bytes, because on the Arduino we are short of RAM - only having 2K to play with. Having fixed blocks of 48 characters for each definition is wasteful, but it greatly simplifies and speeds up the instruction decoding and addressing process. This character based addressing process happens automatically and we don't have to concern ourselves about the exact address that holds T, however whenever the interpreter encounters a T, it will jump to the correct address and execute the code it finds there. Once stored in RAM, the interpreter prints out T, to say it has been defined, and then executes the new word twice. This is a quirk of the interpreter. So we hear the tone twice as long. Now whenever we type T, we will get the tone. In order to keep track of what we are doing, I have added a ? command. This prints out the entire definition RAM, showing the commands A to Z and the code that is associated with them. This allows a definition to be edited, by cut and paste operations from the ? listing into the input buffer, and changing what ever parameter is to be edited. The edited definition is then automatically stored back into RAM, when you press return. Some Prestored Definitions Just for fun, I decided to hard code some "musical notes" into the definitions. Characters A to G play a short musical note, roughly tuned to A = 440Hz , so it's possible to play tunes just by typing the notes. Having "musical debug" is also a great way of determining whether the program is doing what was intended. The SIMPL strings for properly tuned notes are as follows, and are pasted into the RAM array when the sketch is first compiled. They can be written over at anytime. // 40{1o1106u0o1106u} // A 440 Hz // 45{1o986u0o986u} // B 493.88 Hz // 51{1o929u0o929u} // C 523.25 Hz // 57{1o825u0o825u} // D 587.33 Hz // 64{1o733u0o733u} // E 659.26 Hz // 72{1o690u0o691u} // F 698.46 Hz // 81{1o613u0o613u} // G 783.99 HZ Building Up Programs The real power behind the colon definition is that new and more complex words can be assembled from existing definitions, and then executed as singe commands. For example, suppose we have defined three tone generating words A B and C. We can type ABC - which will play the three tones in succession Alternatively 5{ABC} will play the 3 tone sequence 5 times over We could then define a new word I as Whenever we type I, we get ABC played 5 times. So from very simple definitions, quite complex operations can be performed. This is an incredibly versatile technique. It allows you to write your own routines, assembled from other routines and then be able to use names that you can remember. For example, you can define a word H to set the port pin high, and L to set it low. If you have a LED connected to pin 6, 6H will turn it on, whilst 5L will set pin 5 to logic low. It becomes very easy to toggle any output pin - just with a couple of memorable keystrokes. This ability to form new definitions is one of the fundamental and most powerful aspects of Forth - so very worthwhile to borrow it to make it adaptable to the minimal programming environment of SIMPL. Some Other Additions The Txtzyme interpreter is readily modified to include new functions. This is a work in progress and I have added some simple extensions. I now have comparison operators < and > to test whether x is less than y or greater than y. These operations will set x to 1 if true or 0 if false. 10!5< translates to "is 5 less than 10 ?". This is true so x is set to 1. 10!5> translates to "is 5 greater than 10 ?". This is false so x is set to 0. To make use of these comparisons I have introduced the jump command j. If x = 1 the next command is skipped, otherwise it is executed as normal. Memory Operations. I wanted a means to directly edit the contents of an address in RAM and read it. These are equivalent to PEEK and POKE. The y variable is used to hold the address - so 723! will set the address up as 723. The x variable is used to hold the data To write to RAM we use w and to read we use r So 723!65w will write the character ASCII 65 into address 723. You can then type ? to see that it's there. It pokes an "A" into the first location of the word defined by J. To read a location, 723!r will read the contents of location 723 and print it as an ASCII character. You get your "A" back. As this character has been poked into a definition, it has modified that definition. In this case it will cause definition J to play the tone associated with A. Finally, I needed a means to look at a block of memory. The q command does this by printing out the desired number of characters starting at the address stored into y. As an example, address 627 holds the start address of the H command Typing 627!48q will print out 48 consecutive characters, which in our case is the start-up message _Hello World, and welcome to SIMPL_ With the loop primitive l we can also read and print successive memory locations This sets the address in y to 627 and reads and prints 48 consecutive locations using the r primitive. Using the colon definition, the construct l@r could be assigned to R, as in :Rl@r So to read and print 33 characters from address 627 we use A Work in Progress SIMPL and it's underlying Txtzyme interpreter is constantly evolving as new commands are added to try new ideas. It is unlikely that it will ever be a serious language, but a novel experiment and a means to understand how an interpreter can be manipulated to execute a series of simple commands. Many of the ideas have been borrowed from and inspired by Charles Moore's Forth as it evolved from a set of ideas into a proper language during the 1960s. You can download a recent version of SIMPL from github gist - but be aware that it is a work in progress. I hope others will get as much enjoyment as I have from tinkering with SIMPL and Txtzyme. No comments:
December 2016 Look what planets REALLY look like when observed through a close-up lens of a video camera. The planets look like wobbly half-fruits with some halo around them. Venus looks like we can see through it, like our very own Moon. Lots of interesting images, in this video. 1969. Interesting number isn’t it? That was the year you were told we went to the moon. Do you see anything suspicious about that number? Three 6’s? Nope. Nothing there. Keep moving. So, let me get this right, while Russia was hammering out all sorts of “firsts” in space flight and the American perception being “frightened,” the NASA program went from zero to hero in the competition literally overnight? We went from being LAST in this “space race” to shooting up three men and then traveling almost 237,000 miles!? Questions to consider: 1. Why haven’t we gone back if we went in the first place? Money? Really!? 2. We can send 3 men in 1969 roughly 237,000 miles in 3 days, put a robot on Mars, but we can’t even find an airplane that falls into our ocean? 3. Where are the live feeds or photos that will display for us the evidence that was supposedly left on the moon such as the flag? 4. Is it a coincidence that the government controls all of the powerful telescopes that would easily show us closeups of the moon? 5. Was JFK’s assassination because he was going to expose the fake moon landing? 6. Why was Stanley’s Kubrick’s film, “The Shinning,” filled with cryptic imagery regarding the Apollo 11 mission? Could it have been that Stanley was coerced to film the moon landing? The photos that were taken on the moon are some of the worst fabrications in history. These shadows can be explained by having more than one light source. If, however, they were on the moon, the Sun, being the only source of light, would not produce this.
Chelford VillageVillage of ChelfordChelford Village Village of Chelford Flying Reindeer Home » Newsroom » Flying Reindeer Yes, when you think about it, you'd be amazed to see a reindeer get off the ground at all. Santa and his sleigh are not very aerodynamic and he would need some serious ground speed to take off. Santa reindeer It's possible that the idea of Santa and his flying reindeer originated amongst the tribes of Nordic herders. Reindeers have a real liking for eating fly agaric toadstools and are largely unaffected by them, apart from a bit of intoxication. Amanita muscari Fly agaric (Amanita muscari) is very toxic to and more active in humans, as the familiar red and white spotted caps contain ibotenic acid which acts in a similar way to neurotransmitters in the human body. So what? Well, the result is hallucinations and other psychological 'disturbances'. Those symptoms might explain why the herders thought the reindeer appeared to be flying. So, how did the herders come to be affected by fly agaric consumption? We picked up a story in Iceland that the herders would collect and drink the urine of reindeer that had been eating fly agarics. This story has been verified amongst the Saami in northern Scandinavia. It's also true that ibotenic acid makes its way through the system into urine, so there is some scientific corroboration. It's one way of getting drunk but it begs the question of how you might hit on the idea of drinking reindeer wee. The nights are very long, dark and cold beyond 60 degrees N. Look out for more Christmas related strange stories in the run up to the big day! editor's pickAlso in the news Parish Council Chelford Webteam: 28/06/2017 Cheshire Police car Chelford Webteam: 19/06/2017 Chelford players Chelford Webteam: 19/06/2017 © 2007 - 2017 Chelford Village Community Website
Pin Me Why Bulimia is Bad News for your Long Term Health written by: Melinda F. • edited by: Paul Arnold • updated: 5/19/2011 Bulimia nervosa is a serious illness that carries a number of possible long term effects. Some of these include an imbalance of electrolytes and being unable to determine whether you are hungry or full. Let's take a closer look at what are the long term effects of bulimia nervosa. • slide 1 of 4 Bulimia nervosa is one of the two most common eating disorders. While anorexia is generally described as consuming as few calories as possible and basically starving one’s self, bulimia nervosa can be described as a dangerous binge-purge cycle that is ongoing over a long period of time. Those suffering from bulimia will go through binge and purge cycles a few times a week or even up to several different times in one day. The bingeing aspect involves eating anywhere from 1,000 to over 20,000 calories in one sitting and then purging or attempting to get rid of the food that has been consumed. This is commonly done by vomiting, using laxatives, exercising excessively or a combination of any of those. Bulimics will usually do their bingeing and purging in private without others being able to see them. They are really good at trying to hide what they do and sometimes they’re able to get away with it for quite some time. • slide 2 of 4 Possible Long Term Effects Bulimia sufferers who vomit after an episode of bingeing will wear away the enamel on their teeth over a period of time which will leave them more vulnerable to infection and diseases. Stomach acid from vomiting will also travel up the esophagus which could cause severe health problems. The gastric content from the acids can create sensitivity when eating hot or cold foods. Repeated self-induced vomiting can also cause stomach ulcers, esophagus restriction and even ruptures. Bulimics who use laxatives as a way to purge food they’ve eating can interfere with their electrolytes and actually create an electrolyte imbalance. A major imbalance of electrolytes can trigger kidney or heart failure. When a person becomes dependent on laxatives and uses them for a long period of time it can create problems for the colon. The body may lose normal colonic function that could require surgery to repair. People who are bulimic also feel an extreme pressure to keep their weight in check and since bulimia doesn’t really help an individual lose any weight it can just add to the stress of trying to be slimmer. This will often result in depression that could even lead to suicide which is the number one cause of death among those with eating disorders. Some other possible long term effects of bulimia include osteoporosis, hair loss, constipation, yellowing of the skin, memory loss, decreased heart rate, low blood pressure, bloating, acid reflux and dry skin. The disorder can also render an individual unable to determine if they are feeling hungry or full. • slide 3 of 4 How to Prevent the Damage If you have never asked yourself, "What are the long term affects of bulimia nervosa?" you should have a pretty good idea now. If you or somebody you know is dealing with an eating disorder it’s important to seek treatment right away. It will take time and patience but eating disorders can be treated. The longer an eating disorder is present the worse the long term effects of bulimia nervosa will be. Some people struggle with eating disorders for decades and it ends up killing them because their bodies just end up shutting down. • slide 4 of 4 References Bulimia: Information on Bulimia Nervosa Bulimia Symptoms, Causes, Treatment - What Medical Complications and Long-Term Effects Can Bulimia Have?
State Observers: Design Developing Models for Kalman Filters Last time we discussed how to design observer equations, but since the whole concept was probably theoretical and unfamiliar, we need to do some good old fashioned number hacking to design a set of observer equations and give them a workout. The observer equations We will start from where we left off, with a reasonable model that was clearly under-performing because of noise. We developed some design equations, and determined that we needed to select a matrix F by some process to satisfy the following condition. A - F C σ < 1.0 Basically, that just says that the magnitudes of all the matrix eigenvalues are less than 1.0. The matrix (A - F C) then becomes the state transition matrix E for the observer equations: z k + 1 = E z k + F y k + B u k where the values of state estimates z are supposed to track the internal states of the system as well as possible. Setting up As noted last time, if the model is stable initially, the observer equations can start with an observer gain F of 0. But you can see that in this situation no output information is used, and the state observer produces nothing useful. Here is a state equation system that we have seen previously. Amat = 0.98900 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.93000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.98960 -0.01477 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.01477 0.98960 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.92395 -0.29938 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.29541 0.92115 Bmat = Cmat = 0.1232020 -0.1491940 0.0473420 0.0278580 -0.0145235 0.0036879 Initialize an empty observer system gain matrix. Fmat = [ 0.00; 0.00; 0.00; 0.00; 0.00; 0.00 ]; Optional, calculate the stability boundary for plots. To be stable, the magnitudes of the eigenvalues of the observer equation matrix must all have magnitudes less than 1.0. I find it useful to compare their locations to this stability boundary. % Calculate stability boundary points for plotting for iterm=1:61 The search for the gain matrix Set up an Octave script that defines the following operations. % Calculate proposed observation matrix Emat = Amat - Fmat * Cmat; % Calculate its eigenvalues evec = eig(Emat) % Display the eigenvalues and their magnitudes magnitudes = abs(evec)' evr = real(evec); evi = imag(evec); % Display the eigenvalues on a plot to evaluate stability plot(evr(1:6),evi(1:6),'k', cosval,sinval,'r') Now you can run this script each time you want to try a new proposed observation gain. In this case, there is a single output value produced by the state equations with corresponding actual output values available in the input/output dataset. This makes things a little easier and a little harder. It is easier because the "gain matrix" becomes a "gain vector" and there are fewer terms to adjust. It is harder because a single output variable produces more constrained behaviors and there is not as much that you can control in your results. Running the script without any Fmat adjustments, the following shows the initial eigenvalue set. initial eigenvalue plot The biggest problem is the cluster of eigenvalues with magnitude about 0.99. That indicates very a very slow convergence rate for the state estimates. There is also one eigenvalue with magnitude about 0.92 which is maybe a shade too small, which could allow a little too much noise to disrupt the short-term convergence of the state estimates. If achievable, eigenvalues with magnitudes in the range 0.94 to 0.97 or so would be the most desirable compromise between speed of convergence and noise sensitivity. The red curve is the stability limit for sampled systems. If any of the eigenvalues pass beyond this curve, errors will not settle and the state tracking errors will grow without bound. I tried adjusting the terms of the Fmat matrix one at a time, looking for a rough idea of the sign and a reasonable magnitude for each term. Here are my notes from these experiments, accumulated in the form of Octave comment lines. %Fmat = [ 0.2; 0; 0; 0; 0; 0 ]; % Shifts middle eigenvalue pair %Fmat = [ 0; 0.2; 0; 0; 0; 0 ]; % Shifts lower real eigenvalue %Fmat = [ 0; 0; 1.3; 0; 0; 0 ]; % Spreads eigenvalue cluster %Fmat = [ 0; 0; 0; -.5; 0; 0 ]; % Shifts high eigenvalue pair %Fmat = [ 0; 0; 0; 0; -0.5; 0 ]; % Shifts low eigenvalue pair %Fmat = [ 0; 0; 0; 0; 0; -10 ]; % Shifts low eigenvalue pair The indicated numbers seemed reasonable when applied individually, but applying all at the same time is probably too much. So I scaled the values all back by a factor of about 0.5, and then combined the terms into a single Fmat matrix. This showed a clear improvement. From there, I continued adjusting terms of the Fmat one or two at a time, and recalculated the observer matrix eigenvalues. Here is the combination that I liked the best. Fmat = [ 0.25; 0.1; 1.0; -0.9; -1.0; -4.0]; evec = 0.92763 + 0.26319i 0.92763 - 0.26319i 0.94819 + 0.03991i 0.94819 - 0.03991i 0.97687 + 0.00278i 0.97687 - 0.00278i ans = 0.96425 0.96425 0.94903 0.94903 0.97687 0.97687 final eigenvalue plot This was about as good as I could get it, and in a typically acceptable range. Let's try it. Applying the state observer Obtain a sequence of input and output data. For purposes of this test, the state transition equations are used to simulate the actual system by injecting some random noise into each of the state variables after each update. % Noise affects actual system state and output realout = Cmat Xnoisy; Xnoisy = AmatXnoisy + Bmatindat(iterm) + noise(iterm); Now apply the state equation model in the usual manner for a simulation. This calculation is given exactly the same input data, but not the hidden internal system noise. % Simulate the normal application of the state transition model simout = Cmat * Xstate; Xstate = AmatXstate + Bmatindat(iterm); In parallel with the state transition equations, also update the state observer equations in an attempt to estimate the system's internal states from actual output values observed. % Use input and output data to update observer equations Zstate = EmatZstate + Fmatrealout + Bmat(indat(iterm)); Now we have a problem. We have two different estimated values for what the next state will be. If we trust the original state transition equations, the next state of the system is Xstate. But if we trust the state observer equations, the state of the system is Zstate. How can we resolve this inconsistency? I have chosen to trust the observer estimate about twice as much as the state transition estimate. You can try adjusting this ratio as you wish. Xstate = 0.35Xstate + 0.65*stateZ ; Now, instead of the original Xstate vector, I will substitute this hybrid value that includes the corrections. For comparison, here is the sequence of output values from the noise-disturbed system without any observer corrections applied. Simulation using no state adjustments Now, here is the modified result after introducing state corrections based on the state observer estimates. Simulation using observer-adjusted state Is it starting to become apparent how the state observer can be beneficial? Coming events There is a very strong relationship between the observer equations and the state transition equations. That should be expected, since the state transition matrix contributes a significant part of the information that goes into the observer matrix design. Since linear effects are additive, perhaps we can reorganize the observer equations to distinguish the parts of its behavior that are the same as the state transition matrix, and the parts of its behavior that are different. Now you're starting to think like Kalman... But before we go too far in that direction, there are other considerations we need to think about with regard to observers. We will pick that up next time. [1] For newcomers, or those who have not been following this series closely enough and have forgotten what a matrix eigenvalue is, there was a brief review of this side topic back in the article Restructuring State Models, part 3 in this series.
Last week, McDonald's closed its McResource website, a well-meaning effort that had become a font of bad press for the fast food chain. The site suffered for two opposite but equally embarrassing problems: Some of its advice - how to tip an au pair or a pool cleaner, for example - clearly did not apply to McDonald's workers. But some addressed the potential desperation of low-wage employees. It also suggested that workers consider returning unopened Christmas gifts to get out of debt. A worker group publicized the fact that a McDonald's worker who called the McResource help line was told to look into food stamps. And in what was perhaps the final straw, the site was discovered to be cautioning employees about the health effects of fast food, calling a cheeseburger and french fries an "unhealthy choice." But while the McResource site offered the lowest of hanging fruit for mockery and derision, it raises a broader question about the place of such advice for low-wage workers who are struggling to make ends meet. The site's recommendations certainly could have been less comically tin eared; even if so, would they have been useful? Latest business videos Insightful research The tradition of seeking to improve the lives of the poor by teaching them virtuous habits - thrift, sobriety, piety, self-control - extends back to Victorian social reformers. Today, the question of whether poverty is caused primarily by bad decision making or societal conditions is one of the main points of contention between American conservatives and liberals. But if interesting new research is correct, the conditions and the decisions are indistinguishable. In other words, poor people really do tend to make worse financial decisions than rich people, but it's not for lack of good McAdvice. It's because they're poor. The research, some of which was published in the journal Science in the fall, was led by Harvard economist (and MacArthur grant winner) Sendhil Mullainathan and Princeton cognitive scientist Eldar Shafir. The two detail the work in their book, "Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much," published in September. After asking shoppers in a New Jersey mall to estimate their own household income, the researchers gave them tests that measured either their fluid intelligence (if you're curious, they used the Raven's Progressive Matrices test) or their impulse control. $300 vs. $3,000 Before taking the tests, the subjects were given a hypothetical household financial dilemma to solve: Their car is having trouble. Should they go ahead with a repair or hold out and hope the car continues to work without it? The key detail was this: For half the subjects, the hypothetical repair costs $300; for the other half, it would cost $3,000. Mullainathan and Shafir's team found that for the poorer test subjects, being faced with the more costly hypothetical had a marked effect on their performance on the cognitive tests. The mental strain of having to work through the potentially ruinous financial calculation, even hypothetically, exhausted them, and they did significantly worse on the intelligence and impulse-control tests than equivalently poor subjects who had been given the cheaper hypothetical. How much worse? As poorly as if they had been severely sleep-deprived. (For the wealthier test subjects, neither scenario was unaffordable, so there was no effect.) Aid vs. advice In other words, the financial stresses of poverty can weaken people's decision-making ability. As journalist Matthew Yglesias has pointed out, this may help explain the research finding that simply giving money to poor people is a particularly effective form of aid, particularly compared with the far more popular practice of giving the poor the things donors think they need - with noticeably positive effects years later. By providing a financial buffer and alleviating stress that may lead to poor decision making, a cash infusion helps people make better financial decisions. In contrast, giving the poor advice as to how to make better decisions, even if such advice is more germane to their lives than how much to tip a domestic, doesn't do anything to alleviate that pressure. It's a cruel twist that, if Shafir and Mullainathan are right, the poor simply can't afford to think as clearly as the rich. Drake Bennett is a Bloomberg Businessweek reporter. E-mail:
jump to navigation • Bristol Discovers America November 11, 2012 Author: Beach Combing \| in : Medieval , trackback The most credible claims for pre-Columbian voyages across the Atlantic are those that took place in the generation immediately preceeding Columbus’ trip into the unknown. Take the text of a famous letter that was written in Spanish to an Admiral, almost certainly Columbus in late December 1497. The author is an English sailor, John Day. Se presume cierto averse fallado e descubiertoen en otros tiempos el cabo de la dicha tierra por los de Bristol que fallaron el Brasil como dello tiene noticia Vra Sa la qual se dezia la Ysle de Brasil e presumese e creese ser tierra firme la que fallaron los de Bristol It is considered certain that the cape of the said land [discovered by Cabot in the 1497 voyage] was found and discovered in other times by the men of Bristol who found Brasil as your Lordship knows. It was called the Ysle of Brasil and it is assumed and believed to be the mainland that the Bristol men found. Bristol is of course the city on the Severn. Brasil is a Celtic name describing a mythical island out in the Atlantic: it later became attached to a large part of South America by one of those perversions of history that make life so interesting. We are lucky that there is enough documentation to uncover some of the information about Bristol’s search for ‘Brasil’. We know, for example, that in 1480 a Bristol ship headed off into the Atlantic ‘usque ad insulam de Brasylle in occidentali parte Hibernie’ (to the Island of Brasylle to the west of Ireland). Did it find what it was looking for? In 1481 a second voyage with two boats, the George and the Trinity, headed out ‘to serch & fynde a certain Isle called the Isle of Brasile’, which suggests the 1480 voyage had failed. They left on 6 July and were back in port by the next year, and perhaps long before. Their leader, Croft, had a license for exploration. In 1498 a Spanish agent in Britain wrote to the Catholic Monarchs. Los de Bristol ha siete anos que cada ano an armado dos, tres, quatro caravelas para ir a buscar la isla del Brasil, i la Siete Ciudades con la fantasia deste Ginoves For the last seven years the people of Bristol have equipped two, three, four caravels to go in search of the island of Brazil and the Seven Cities according to the fancy of this Genoese. This suggests that English expeditions were leaving Bristol in 1490 and crucially that these have left no trace in our documentation. Who knows what else was going on? The Seven Cities is another mythical Atlantic realm. The Genoese is the Venetian John Cabot (Zuan Chabotto) or perhaps even Columbus, which would open a dustbin full of worms. Then just to throw a little more oil on the fire, in 1527 one Robert Thorne of Bristol claimed that his father Robert Thorne and one Hugh Eliot had been the discovers of the New World. There’s a lot more that can be argued about here but the proof from contemporary documents are impressive enough without sending up fireworks. What is perhaps most impressive is not that the English got to North America before the Spanish: who cares really… But that the English were actively looking for something: why? Here we perhaps return to a previous theme on this blog: the surviving knowledge of North America in the medieval Greenland settlements. For more on this and an exciting academic project. For other theories: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
Cradle of Civilization A Blog about the Birth of Our Civilisation and Development The origin of Baghdad Posted by Fredsvenn on December 8, 2014 Ma/Ba/Pa – Mama/Baba/Papa Asherah pole and Irminsul – mighty pillar The name Bagavan consists of the words Bagi meaning: idol and avan meaning: city. Urartu, corresponding to the biblical Kingdom of Ararat or Kingdom of Van, was an Iron Age kingdom centred on Lake Van in the Armenian Highlands. Strictly speaking, Urartu is the Assyrian term for a geographical region, while “kingdom of Urartu” or “Biainili lands” are terms used in modern historiography for the Armenian (Hurro-Urartian) speaking Iron Age state that arose in that region. That a distinction should be made between the geographical and the political entity was already pointed out by König (1955).The landscape corresponds to the mountainous plateau between Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and the Caucasus mountains, later known as the Armenian Highlands. The kingdom rose to power in the mid-9th century BC, but was conquered by Media in the early 6th century BC. The heirs of Urartu are the Armenians and their successive kingdoms. “Urartu” is cognate with the Biblical “Ararat,” Akkadian “Urashtu,” and Armenian “Ayrarat.” The name used by the local population as a toponym was Biainili (or Biaineli), which forms the root of the Armenian “Van”, hence the names “Kingdom of Van (Bianili)” or “Vannic Kingdom.” Scholars such as Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt (1910) believed that the people of Urartu called themselves Khaldini after their god Khaldi, one of the three chief deities of Ararat (Urartu). His shrine was at Ardini. Khaldi was a warrior god whom the kings of Urartu would pray to for victories in battle. The temples dedicated to Khaldi were adorned with weapons, such as swords, spears, bow and arrows, and shields hung off the walls and were sometimes known as ‘the house of weapons’. Of all the gods of Ararat (Urartu) pantheon, the most inscriptions are dedicated to him. His wife was the goddess Arubani, the Urartian’s goddess of fertility and art. He is portrayed as a man with or without a beard, standing on a lion. Bagmashtu (also known as Bagparti, Bagvarti, Bagbartu) is an Araratian (Urartian) goddess, and the consort or wife of Khaldi. Although throughout most of Urartu Arubani is known as Khaldi’s wife, at the excavation of Musasir references to “Khaldi and his wife, Bagmashtu” were found inscribed on some of the items. It is assumed that when Urartu expanded its territories to include the area Musasir, local gods were incorporated and a new pantheon was created for that region. The locality and addition of Bagmashtu are supported by the fact that her name is of Armenian origin. Bagavan was an ancient Armenian church-city complex situated in the south-east of what is now Ağrı Province, in eastern Turkey. It was situated in the south east of Bagrevand province, a region of the old Armenia ruled first by Mamikonians and then by the Bagratuni family, of the Historical Armenia’s Ayrarat region. The Bagdasarian are a noble family of Nakharars in Armenia and are of hereditary right to Bagrevand with Armenia in the province of Ararat. Variations include Bagawanean, Bagawanian, Bagdasarean. The name Bagavan consists of the words Bagi meaning: idol and avan meaning: city. Founded in the pagan Armenia as a religious center, it was the site of tombs of the pre-Christian rulers of Armenia. It was a well known settlement in the pagan and later medieval Armenia times because of a huge monastic complex in it known as St. Hovhannes Mkrtich (St. John the Baptist) Monastery of Bagavan. Here, in the waters of Aratsani (Eastern Euphrates) river in 314, the baptism of King Tiridates III of Armenia by Gregory Illuminator took place, becoming the first Christian King of Armenia, which marked the start of a Christian medieval Kingdom of Armenia. The Armenian Apostolic Church as a separate independent Christian denomination emerged later. After that, this place was marked by a huge number of crosses engraved in the riverside rocks and pagan temples were reconstructed as monasteries. In the nearby slopes of mount Npat dozen of chapels stood, praying places of famous Catholics Nerses the Great (second half of the 4th century). Therefrom he watched Dzirav’s battle between the Armenians and Persians. The monastery has three churches, and their most famous bishops were Yeznik Koghbatsi and Movses Khorenatsi. Under whose leadership it became the main monastery in the Bagrevand and Arsharunik districts. Final phase of construction ended in 639. During Russo-Persian wars from 1877–78 it was damaged, but after a period of repairs, it remained functioning until Armenian Genocide in 1915. In the late 1940s the monastery was also known in “Turkish: Üç Kilise” “Three Churches” was completely destroyed by the Turkish Army, along with 4,000 other Armenian monasteries in eastern half of today’s Turkey. The church is 46 meters in length, 27 meters in width and 20 meters in height (with dimensions comparable to the Armenian Apostolic churches of Dvin, Zvartnots and Talin). The outward appearance of the temple is made of strict shaped masonries and ornaments, a contrast to the well brightened interior. People of 19th century associated the monastery’s appearance with the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (now Istanbul). The monastery had 5 doors and 51 windows. This monastery was destroyed to foundation by Turks in the late 1940s. Part of its stones were used in the construction of houses in Taşteker village that was founded around the monastery, but most of them were removed to the town of Ağrı, where they were laid in the lower stonework of the principal mosque erected in 1950. The Bagratuni or Bagratid royal dynasty was a royal family of Armenia that formerly ruled many regional polities of the medieval Kingdom of Armenia, such as Syunik, Lori, Vaspurakan, Vanand, Taron, and Tayk, and the Kingdom itself in the 10th and 11th centuries. The Bagratid family first emerged as nakharars, members of the hereditary nobility of Armenia. Their holdings were in the region of Sper, in the Chorokhi valley. As early as 288-301, the Bagratid prince Smbat held the hereditary Armenian titles of Aspet, which means Master of the Horse, and T’agatir, which means Coronant of the King. The Bagratid dynasties in Armenia and Bagrationi in Georgia – count among the longest-reigning royal families in the Caucasus (and in Europe), starting as princely houses and attaining to the royal status in both countries in the 9th century. The origins of the Bagratids are disputed though more widely accepted version has it that the both dynasties had common roots, beginning in Armenia and branching later into Georgia. The Armenian house went extinct by the 12th century while the Georgian line continues to this day as the nominal Royal House of Georgia according to Cyrill Tourmanoff. The root of the names Bagrationi and Bagratuni, Bagrat-, derives from the Old Persian Bagadāta, “God-Given”. In Armenia and Georgia, the respective names for the Bagratid dynasties literally translate to “The children of/house established by Bagrat” (Bagrat + Classical Greek: – id, “the children”). Rival tales have been developed in Georgia and Armenia regarding the origins of the dynasties. The Bagratids of Armenia are speculated to have been an offshoot of the Orontid Dynasty, Achaemenid satraps and, later, kings of Armenia (c 400 – c 200 BC). They had their original appanage in Bagrevand, a region of the old Armenia ruled first by Mamikonians and then by the Bagratuni family in historic north-central Armenia, and claimed their descent from a solar deity Angl-Thork, the tutelary god of the Orontids, until their conversion to Christianity. Thereafter, this claim was abandoned in favor of the mythical ancestor of the Armenians, Hayk. Later, under biblical influences, they entertained another claim, of Hebrew ancestry, first articulated by Moses of Khorene, and developed by the Georgians into a claim of their descent from the biblical king-prophet David. The Battle of Bagrevand was fought on 25 April 775, in the plains of Bagrevand, between the forces of the Armenian princes who had rebelled against the Abbasid Caliphate and the caliphal army. The battle resulted in a crushing Abbasid victory, with the death of the main Armenian leaders. The Mamikonian family’s power in particular was almost extinguished. The battle signalled the beginning of a large-scale Armenian migration into the Byzantine Empire. Once the Georgian branch, who had quickly acculturated in the new environment, assumed royal power, the myth of their biblical origin helped to assert their legitimacy and emerged as a main ideological pillar of the millennium-long Bagrationi rule in Georgia from 575 AD to 1810 AD. The traditional Georgian narrative regarding the origin of the Bagrationi can be traced back to the 11th century. According to the Georgian chronicler of that time Sumbat Davitis-Dze, as published by Prince Vakhushti Bagrationi (1696–1757), who added chronological interpretations, the ancestors of the dynasty traced their descent to the biblical King David, and came from Palestine around 530 AD. Tradition has it that of seven refugee brothers of the Davidic line, three of them settled in Armenia and the other four in Kartli (also known as Iberia by Classical authors), where they intermarried with the local ruling houses and acquired some lands in hereditary possession. One of the four brothers, Guaram (died in 532), allegedly gave an origin to a line subsequently called Bagrationi after his son Bagrat. A successor, Guaram, was installed as a presiding prince of Kartli under the Byzantine protectorate and bestowed, on this occasion, with the Byzantine court title of Kouropalates in 575. Thus, according to this version, began the dynasty of the Georgian Bagratids, who ruled until 1801. This tradition had been given a general acceptance until the early 20th century. While the Jewish origin, let alone the biblical descent of the Bagratids, has been largely discounted by modern scholarship, the issue of their origin still remains controversial. Several Soviet-era historians of Georgia developed a view summarized by N. Berdzenishvili and et al. in their standard reference book on the history of Georgia: “The illustrious dynasty of the Bagratids originated in the most ancient Georgian kingdom of Tao-Klarjeti. This ancient Georgian kingdom is in Turkey and called Speri (today İspir). Through their farsighted, flexible policies, the Bagratid achieved great influence from the sixth through eighth centuries. One of their branches moved out to Armenia, the other to Iberia, and both won for themselves the dominant position among the other rulers of Transcaucasia.” Certain, generation by generation, history of the family begins only in the 8th century, when the downfall of the rival clan of the Mamikonians helped the Bagratids to emerge as a major force in the ongoing struggle against the Arab rule. Modern scholarship outside of Georgia, notably Cyril Toumanoff, gives little credit to the medieval narratives, regarding both claimed biblical descent and descent from Guaram. Toumanoff traces the origins of the family to ancient Ispir, but according to him, the Georgian branch of the family appeared only in the 8th century, during an anti-Arab rebellion in 772, when one of the sons of Ashot III the Blind, called Vasak fled into Iberia (Georgia). His son, Adarnase, was granted hereditary possessions in Klarjeti and Samtskhe by the Georgian dynast Archil. Adarnase’s son Ashot gained the principate of Iberia and founded the last royal dynasty of Georgia. According to Prince Cyril Toumanoff, the earliest Bagratid prince was chronicled as early as AD 314. In the 8th century, a later Bagratid prince (also named Smbat) revolted against the Arab Caliphate but the revolt was defeated. The Bagratid Princes of Armenia are known as early as 1st century BC when they served under the Artaxiad Dynasty. Unlike most noble families on Armenia they held only strips of land, as opposed to the Mamikonians, who held a unified land territory. These are the earliest Bagratid princes in Armenia prior to the establishment of the kingdom, as mentioned by the Union of Armenian Noblemen. Ashot I was the first Bagratid King, the founder of the Royal dynasty. He was recognized as prince of princes by the court at Baghdad in 861, which provoked war with local Arab emirs. Ashot won the war, and was recognized as King of the Armenians by Baghdad in 885. Recognition from Constantinople followed in 886. In an effort to unify the Armenian nation under one flag, the Bagratids subjugated other Armenian noble families through conquests and fragile marriage alliances. Eventually, some noble families such as the Artsrunis and the Siunis broke off from the central Bagratid authority. Ashot III the Merciful transferred their capital to the city of Ani, now famous for its ruins. They kept power by playing off the competition between the Byzantine Empire and the Arabs. They assumed the Persian-influenced titles of the King of Kings. However, with the start of the 10th century and on, the Bagratunis broke up into different branches, breaking up the unified kingdom in a time when unity was needed in the face of Seljuk and Byzantine pressure. The rule of the Ani branch ended in 1045 with the conquest of Ani by the Byzantines. The Kars branch held on until 1064. The dynasty of Cilician Armenia is believed to be a branch of the Bagratids, later took the throne of an Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia. The founder, Ruben I, had an unknown relationship to the exiled king Gagik II. He was either a younger family member or kinsman. Ashot, son of Hovhannes (son of Gagik II), was later governor of Ani under the Shaddadid dynasty. The origianal Bagaran style church or rather chapel, was built in the 7th century, 624-631, on the right shore of Akhurian River in East Armenia during the Bagratunian Kingdom. “Bag-aran” means the “abode of god,” the author said. Armenians inspire Leonardo Da Vinci in painting his famous “The Last Supper” Magi (Latin plural of magus; Ancient Greek: magos; Old Persian: maguš, Persian:‎ mogh; English singular magian, mage, magus, magusian, magusaean; Kurdish: manji) is a term, used since at least the 6th century BC, to denote followers of Zoroastrianism or Zoroaster. The word means “skilled magicians, astrologers,” from Latin magi, plural of magus “magician, learned magician,” from Greek magos, a word used for the Persian learned and priestly class as portrayed in the Bible (said by ancient historians to have been originally the name of a Median tribe), from Old Persian magush “magician”. The earliest known usage of the word Magi is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Persian texts, pre-dating the Hellenistic period, refer to a Magus as a Zurvanic, and presumably Zoroastrian, priest. Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia until late antiquity and beyond, mágos, “Magian” or “magician,” was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs, the older word for a practitioner of magic, to include astrology, alchemy and other forms of esoteric knowledge. This association was in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for (Pseudo‑)Zoroaster, who was perceived by the Greeks to be the “Chaldean”, “founder” of the Magi and “inventor” of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in the modern-day words “magic” and “magician”. Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra, was the founder of Zoroastrianism. Though he was a native speaker of Old Avestan and lived in the eastern part of the Iranian plateau, his birthplace is uncertain. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrian thinking. Most of his life is known through the Zoroastrian texts. The 2005 Encyclopedia Iranica article on the history of Zoroastrianism summarizes the issue with “while there is general agreement that he did not live in western Iran, attempts to locate him in specific regions of eastern Iran, including Central Asia, remain tentative.” Urartu, corresponding to the biblical Kingdom of Ararat or Kingdom of Van, was an Iron Age kingdom centred on Lake Van in the Armenian Highlands. Scholars such as Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt (1910) believed that the people of Urartu called themselves Khaldini after their god Khaldi. Chaldea or Chaldaea, from Greek Chaldaia; Akkadian: māt Ḫaldu; Hebrew: Kaśdim; Aramaic: Kaldo) was a small Semitic nation which emerged between the late 10th and early 9th century BC, surviving until the mid 6th century BC. It was located in the marshy land of the far south eastern corner of Mesopotamia, and briefly came to rule Babylon. During a period of weakness in the East Semitic speaking kingdom of Babylonia, new tribes of West Semitic-speaking migrants arrived in the region from The Levant (Aramea, modern Syria) between the 11th and 10th centuries BC. The earliest waves consisted of Suteans and Arameans, followed a century or so later by the Kaldu, a group who became known later as the Chaldeans or the Chaldees. The Chaldeans originally spoke a West Semitic language similar to Aramaic, however they eventually adopted the Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, the same East Semitic language, save for slight peculiarities in sound and in characters, as Assyrian Akkadian. During the Assyrian Empire, the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III introduced an Akkadian infused Eastern Aramaic as the lingua franca of his empire. In the time of Ashur-nirari III (ca. 1200 BC, the beginning Bronze Age collapse), the Phrygians and others invaded and destroyed the Hittite Empire, already weakened by defeats against Assyria. Some parts of Assyrian ruled Hanilgalbat was temporarily lost to the Phrygians also, however the Assyrians defeated the Phrygians and regained these colonies. The Hurrians still held Katmuhu and Paphu. In the transitional period to the Early Iron Age, Mitanni was settled by invading Semitic Aramaean tribes. Though belonging to the same West Semitic ethnic group, and migrating from the same Levantine regions as the slightly earlier arriving Arameans, they are to be differentiated from them to some degree; and the Assyrian king Sennacherib, for example, is careful in his inscriptions to distinguish them. When they came to briefly possess the whole of southern Mesopotamia, the name “Chaldean” became synonymous with “Babylonian” for a short time, particularly to the Greeks and Jews, this despite the Chaldeans not being Babylonians, and their tenure as rulers of Southern Mesopotamia lasting a mere five decades or so. The short-lived 11th dynasty of the Kings of Babylon (6th century BC) is conventionally known to historians as the Chaldean Dynasty, although only the first four rulers of this dynasty were positively known to be Chaldeans, and the last ruler, Nabonidus and his son and regent Belshazzar, were known to be from Assyria. When the Babylonian Empire was absorbed into the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the name “Chaldean” completely lost its meaning in reference a particular ethnicity, and came to be applied only to a socioeconomic class of astrologers and astronomers. The actual Chaldean tribe had long ago became Akkadianized, adopting Mesopotamian culture, religion, language and customs, blending into the majority native population, and they eventually wholly disappeared as a distinct race of people, much as other fellow preceding migrant peoples, such as the Amorites, Kassites, Suteans and Arameans of Babylonia had also done. The Persians found this so-called Chaldean societal class masters of reading and writing, and especially versed in all forms of incantation, in sorcery, witchcraft, and the magical arts. They spoke of astrologists and astronomers as Chaldeans; consequently, Chaldean came to mean simply astrologist rather than an ethnic Chaldean. It is used with this specific meaning in the Book of Daniel (Dan. i. 4, ii. 2 et seq.) and by classical writers such as Strabo. The disappearance of the Chaldeans as an ethnicity and Chaldea as a land is evidenced by the fact that the Persian rulers of the Achaemenid Empire (539 – 330 BC) did not retain a province called Chaldea, nor did they refer to Chaldeans as a race of people in their written annals. This is in contrast to Assyria, and for a time Babylonia also, where the Persians retained Assyria and Babylonia as distinct and named geo-political entities within the Achaemenid Empire, and in the case of the Assyrians in particular, Achaemenid records show Assyrians holding important positions within the empire, particularly with regards to the military and civil administration. This complete absence of Chaldeans from historical record also continues throughout the Seleucid Empire, Parthian Empire, Roman Empire, Sassanid Empire, Byzantine Empire and after the Arab Islamic conquest and Mongol Empire. In English, the term “magi” is most commonly used in reference to the magicians from the east who visit Jesus in Chapter 2 of the Gospel of Matthew Matthew 2:1, and are now often translated as “wise men” in English versions. The plural “magi” entered the English language from Latin around 1200, in reference to these. The singular appears considerably later, in the late 14th century, when it was borrowed from Old French in the meaning magician together with magic. The Avestan word ‘magâunô’, i.e. the religious caste of the Medes into which Zoroaster was born, (Yasna 33.7: so I can be heard beyond Magi), seems to be the origin of the term. The term only appears twice in Iranian texts from before the 5th century BC, and only one of these can be dated with precision. This one instance occurs in the trilingual Behistun inscription of Darius the Great, and which can be dated to about 520 BC. In this trilingual text, certain rebels have ‘magian’ as an attribute; in the Old Persian portion as maγu- (generally assumed to be a loan word from Median). The meaning of the term in this context is uncertain. The other instance appears in the texts of the Avesta, i.e. in the sacred literature of Zoroastrianism. In this instance, which is in the Younger Avestan portion, the term appears in the hapax moghu.tbiš, meaning “hostile to the moghu”, where moghu does not (as was previously thought) mean “magus”, but rather “a member of the tribe” or referred to a particular social class in the proto-Iranian language and then continued to do so in Avestan. An unrelated term, but previously assumed to be related, appears in the older Gathic Avestan language texts. This word, adjectival magavan meaning “possessing maga-“, was once the premise that Avestan maga- and Median (i.e. Old Persian) magu- were co-eval (and also that both these were cognates of Vedic Sanskrit magha-). While “in the Gathas the word seems to mean both the teaching of Zoroaster and the community that accepted that teaching,” and it seems that Avestan maga- is related to Sanskrit magha-, “there is no reason to suppose that the western Iranian form magu (Magus) has exactly the same meaning” as well. The oldest surviving Greek reference to the magi – from Greek μάγος (mágos, plural: magoi) – might be from 6th century BC Heraclitus (apud Clemens Protrepticus 12), who curses the magi for their “impious” rites and rituals. A description of the rituals that Heraclitus refers to has not survived, and there is nothing to suggest that Heraclitus was referring to foreigners. Better preserved are the descriptions of the mid-5th century BC Herodotus, who in his portrayal of the Iranian expatriates living in Asia minor uses the term “magi” in two different senses. In the first sense (Histories 1.101), Herodotus speaks of the magi as one of the tribes/peoples (ethnous) of the Medes. In another sense (1.132), Herodotus uses the term “magi” to generically refer to a “sacerdotal caste”, but “whose ethnic origin is never again so much as mentioned.” According to Robert Charles Zaehner, in other accounts, “we hear of Magi not only in Persia, Parthia, Bactria, Chorasmia, Aria, Media, and among the Sakas, but also in non-Iranian lands like Samaria, Ethiopia, and Egypt. Their influence was also widespread throughout Asia Minor. It is, therefore, quite likely that the sacerdotal caste of the Magi was distinct from the Median tribe of the same name.” Other Greek sources from before the Hellenistic period include the gentleman-soldier Xenophon, who had first-hand experience at the Persian Achaemenid court. In his early 4th century BC Cyropaedia, the Athenian depicts the magians as authorities for all religious matters (8.3.11), and imagines the magians to be responsible for the education of the emperor-to-be. Pasture (from the Latin pastus, past participle of pascere ”to feed”) is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs (non-grass herbaceous plants). Pasture is typically grazed throughout the summer, in contrast to meadow which is ungrazed or used for grazing only after being mown to make hay for animal fodder. Pasture in a wider sense additionally includes rangelands, other unenclosed pastoral systems, and land types used by wild animals for grazing or browsing. Moorland nowadays generally means uncultivated hill land (such as Dartmoor in South West England), but the Old English mōr also refers to low-lying wetlands (such as Sedgemoor, also SW England). It is closely related to heath although experts disagree on precisely what distinguishes the types of vegetation. Ba in Sumerian means share, portion, rations, wages, or to give, provide, divide, apportion, distribute or to pay. The paper deals with lexical matches between two ancient Near Eastern languages: Sumerian and Hurrian (Hurro-Urartian); namely, several basic terms (like ‘hand,’ ‘rain,’ etc.), that demonstrate phonetical similarities in both languages, are discussed. Four possible scenarios are evaluated from the typological, etymological and statistical points of view: (1) chance coincidences; (2) lexical borrowings from Sumerian into Hurro-Urartian or vice versa; (3) genetic relationship between Sumerian and Hurro-Urartian; (4) prehistoric language shift: adoption by a Hurro-Urartian (or closely related) group of the Sumerian language or vice versa. Out of these four, two scenarios—lexical borrowings and genetic relationship—are typologically unlikely. The statistical probability of chance coincidences is low, although formally this explanation cannot be excluded. The fourth scenario—language shift—fits linguistic evidence and does not contradict archaeological data. The Proto-Armenians The Kura–Araxes culture or the early trans-Caucasian culture was a civilization that existed from 3400 BC until about 2000 BC, which has traditionally been regarded as the date of its end, but it may have disappeared as early as 2600 or 2700 BC. Altogether, the early Trans-Caucasian culture, at its greatest spread, enveloped a vast area approximately 1,000 km by 500 km. The earliest evidence for this culture is found on the Ararat plain; thence it spread northward in Caucasus by 3000 BC (but never reaching Colchis), and during the next millennium it proceeded westward to the Erzurum plain, southwest to Cilicia, and to the southeast into an area below the Urmia basin and Lake Van, and finally down to the borders of present day Syria. The name of the culture is derived from the Kura and Araxes river valleys. Its territory corresponds to parts of modern Armenia, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Dagestan, Georgia, Ingushetia and North Ossetia. It is, however, considered above all to be indigenous to the Caucasus, and its major variants characterized (according to Caucasus historian Amjad Jaimoukha) later major cultures in the region. Their metal goods were widely distributed, recorded in the Volga, Dnieper and Don-Donets systems in the north, into Syria and Palestine in the south, and west into Anatolia. There is evidence of trade with Mesopotamia, as well as Asia Minor. It may have given rise to the later Khirbet Kerak ware culture found in Syria and Canaan after the fall of the Akkadian Empire. Their pottery was distinctive; in fact, the spread of their pottery along trade routes into surrounding cultures was much more impressive than any of their achievements domestically. It was painted black and red, using geometric designs for ornamentation. Examples have been found as far south as Syria and Israel, and as far north as Dagestan and Chechnya. The spread of this pottery, along with archaeological evidence of invasions, suggests that the Kura-Araxes people may have spread outward from their original homes, and most certainly, had extensive trade contacts. Jaimoukha believes that its southern expanse is attributable primarily to Mitanni and the Hurrians. The Shengavit Settlement is an archaeological site in present day Yerevan, Armenia located on a hill south-east of Lake Yerevan. It was inhabited during a series of settlement phases from approximately 3200 BC cal to 2500 BC cal in the Kura Araxes (Shengavitian) period of the Early Bronze Age and irregularly re-used in the Middle Bronze Age until 2200 BC cal. Its pottery makes it a type site of the Kura-Araxes or Early Transcaucasian Period and the Shengavitian culture area. First attested in the 9th century BCE, Urartian ceased to be written after the fall of the Urartian state in 585 BCE, and presumably it became extinct due to the fall of Urartu. It must have been replaced by an early form of Armenian, perhaps during the period of Achaemenid Persian rule, although it is only in the fifth century CE that the first written examples of Armenian appear. In the early 6th century BC, the Urartian Kingdom was replaced by the Armenian Orontid dynasty. In the trilingual Behistun inscription, carved in 521 or 520 BC by the order of Darius the Great of Persia, the country referred to as Urartu in Assyrian is called Arminiya in Old Persian and Harminuia in Elamite. Although Urartian is not a direct continuation of any of the attested dialects of Hurrian, many of its features are best explained as innovative developments with respect to Hurrian as we know it from the preceding millennium. The closeness holds especially true of the so-called Old Hurrian dialect, known above all from Hurro-Hittite bilingual texts. Shupria (Shubria) or Arme-Shupria (Akkadian: Armani-Subartu) from the 3rd millennium BC) was a Hurrian-speaking kingdom, known from Assyrian sources beginning in the 13th century BC, located in the Armenian Highland, to the southwest of Lake Van, bordering on Ararat proper. The capital was called Ubbumu. Scholars have linked the district in the area called Arme or Armani, to the name Armenia. Weidner interpreted textual evidence to indicate that after the Hurrian king Shattuara of Mitanni was defeated by Adad-nirari I of Assyria in the early 13th century BC, he then became ruler of a reduced vassal state known as Shubria or Subartu. The name Subartu (Sumerian: Shubur) for the region is attested much earlier, from the time of the earliest Mesopotamian records (mid 3rd millennium BC). Together with Armani-Subartu (Hurri-Mitanni), Hayasa-Azzi and other populations of the region such as the Nairi fell under Urartian (Kingdom of Ararat) rule in the 9th century BC, and their descendants, according to most scholars, later contributed to the ethnogenesis of the early Armenians. The land of Subartu (Akkadian Šubartum/Subartum/ina Šú-ba-ri, Assyrian mât Šubarri) or Subar (Sumerian Su-bir/Subar/Šubur) is mentioned in Bronze Age literature. Subartu may have been in the general sphere of influence of the Hurrians. The name also appears as Subari in the Amarna letters, and, in the form Šbr, in Ugarit, and came to be known as the Hurrians or Subarians and their country was known as Subir, Subartu or Shubar. Subartu was apparently a polity in Northern Mesopotamia, at the upper Tigris. Most scholars accept Subartu as an early name for Assyria proper on the Tigris, although there are various other theories placing it sometimes a little farther to the east, north or west of there. Its precise location has not been identified. From the point of view of the Akkadian Empire, Subartu marked the northern geographical horizon, just as Martu, Elam and Sumer marked “west”, “east” and “south”, respectively. The Sumerian mythological epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta lists the countries where the “languages are confused” as Subartu, Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki (Akkad), and the Martu land (the Amorites). Similarly, the earliest references to the “four quarters” by the kings of Akkad name Subartu as one of these quarters around Akkad, along with Martu, Elam, and Sumer. Subartu in the earliest texts seem to have been farming mountain dwellers, frequently raided for slaves. Eannatum of Lagash was said to have smitten Subartu or Shubur, and it was listed as a province of the empire of Lugal-Anne-Mundu; in a later era Sargon of Akkad campaigned against Subar, and his grandson Naram-Sin listed Subar along with Armani (Armenians) among the lands under his control. Ishbi-Erra of Isin and Hammurabi also claimed victories over Subar. There are various alternate theories associating the ancient Subartu with one or more modern cultures, including Armenian or Kurdish tribes. Some scholars, such as Harvard Professor Mehrdad Izady, claim to have identified Subartu with the current Kurdish tribe of Zibaris inhabiting the northern ring around Mosul up to Hakkari in Turkey. Amongst the names of peoples mentioned in the Sanskrit epic of ancient India Mahābhārata, there occurs a name Sauvīra secondary nominal derivative of Suvīra whch may be Subīra with a v < b correspondence. Lexical Matches between Sumerian and Hurro-Urartian: Possible Historical Scenarios Who Were the Hurrians? Middle Eastern Mythology Hurrians and Subarians The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic and its origins are under some dispute. The site where the city of Baghdad came to stand has been populated for millennia and by the 8th century AD several Aramaic Christian villages had developed there, one of which was called Baghdad, the name which would come to be used for the Abbasid metropolis. At Bagdad, besides the memorials of the caliphate, may be seen a few remains of the old Babylonian city of Bagdadu. Bag-da-du is the ancient name of Baghdad, the capital and the ancient largest city of modern Iraq. The city and the name of Baghdad are pre-Islamic and pre-Arabic. The etymology and epistomolgy of the name suggest that it is not of an Arabic origin. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the name Baghdad was related to previous settlements on the site. Muslim authors took for Persian origins. They gave different “hypothetical explanations”, the most common of which was “given by God” or “gift of God.” Others tended to give the name an Aramaic origin, meaning “the home enclosure of sheep.” The mention of Baghdadu in the Hammurabi Code proved that it was an ancient name. Baghdatha figured repeatedly in the Talmud and that made Baghdad the more acceptable reading. Addu and Dadu were the names given to Rimmon in Syria, Adad or Hadad being a further name by which the god was known in Assyria. Besides Dadu we also find the forms Dadda and Dadi. In Hadad-Rimmon the two names of the Air-god are united, while a comparison of Jo-ram and Hado-ram shows that at Hamath Hado or Addu was identified with the national god of Israel. In the Babylonian contract-tablets the name of the Syrian god Ben-Hadad appears as Bin-Addu. The name has been used as Baghdadu on Assyrian cuneiform and Babylonian records going back to at least 2000 BC. Baghdad, as a name, had been mentioned as Baghdadu on the Assyrian cuneiform records of the 9th century BC, and Babylonian bricks bearing the Royal Seal of King Nebuchadnezzar (6th century BC) were found in the Tigris here. It also appeared in many other historical records prior to the Christian era. An inscription by Nebuchadnezzar (600 BC) describes how he rebuilt the old Babylonian town of Bagh-dadu. There used to be another Babylonian settlement called Baghdad, in upper Mesopotamia, near the ancient city of Edessa. The name has not been attested outside of Mesopotamia. Even though the name has been attested in pre-Persian times, a Persian origin has been accepted by most scholars. It has been proposed that the name is a Middle Persian compound of Bag “god” and dād “given”, translating to “God-given” or “God’s gift”, from which comes Modern Persian Baɣdād. This in turn can be traced to Old Persian. Another proposal is the Persian compound bāğ “garden” and dād “fair”, translating to “The fair garden”. However, a Persian explanation remains somewhat problematic, given that the name was used long before the Persians arrived in Mesopotamia. Whatever settlement existed, historic Baghdad was undoubtedly founded by the 2nd of the Abbasid Caliphs, Abu Ja’far al-Mansur (AD 754-775), who had established his capital (The Round City) in almost the same location on the west bank of the Tigris River in 762 AD. al-Mansur founded a completely new city for his capital, and choosed the name Madinat al-Salaam (“Dar Essalam”) or City of Peace. This was the official name on coins, weights, and other official usage, although the common people continued to use the old name. By the 11th century, “Baghdad” became almost the exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis. The Akkadian Empire was an ancient Semitic empire centered in the city of Akkad and its surrounding region in ancient Mesopotamia which united all the indigenous Akkadian speaking Semites and the Sumerian speakers under one rule within a multilingual empire. The Akkadian Empire controlled Mesopotamia, the Levant, and parts of Iran. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Semitic Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate). Akkad (also spelled Akkade or Agade) was the capital of the Akkadian Empire, which was the dominant political force in Mesopotamia at the end of the third millennium BCE. The existence of Akkad is known only from textual sources; its location has not yet been identified, although scholars have proposed a number of different sites. Most recent proposals point to a location east of the Tigris. Before Akkad was identified in Mesopotamian cuneiform texts, the city was known only from a single reference in Genesis 10:10 where it is written (Accad). The city of Akkad is mentioned more than 160 times in cuneiform sources ranging in date from the Akkadian period itself (2350–2170 or 2230–2050 BCE, according to respectively the Middle or Short Chronology) to the 6th century BCE. The name of the city is spelled as a-ga-dèKI or URIKI, which is variously transcribed into English as Akkad, Akkade or Agade. The etymology of a-ga-dè is unclear but not of Akkadian origin. Sumerian, Hurrian and Lullubean etymologies have been proposed instead. The non-Akkadian origin of the city’s name suggests that the site may have already been occupied in pre-Sargonic times, as also suggested by the mentioning of the city in one pre-Sargonic year-name. The inscription on the Bassetki Statue records that the inhabitants of Akkad built a temple for Naram-Sin after he had crushed a revolt against his rule. The main goddess of Akkad was Ishtar, who was called ‘Aštar-annunîtum or ‘Warlike Ishtar’ and who was identified with the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Her husband Ilaba was also revered in Akkad. Ishtar and Ilaba were later worshipped at Sippar in the Old Babylonian period, possibly because Akkad itself had been destroyed by that time. The precise archaeological site of the city-state of Akkad has not yet been found. The form Agade appears in Sumerian, for example in the Sumerian King List; the later Assyro-Babylonian form Akkadû (“of or belonging to Akkad”) was likely derived from this. The etymology and meaning of Akkad (writtenèKI or URIKI) are unknown. Centuries later, the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in his archaeological records that Ishtar’s worship in Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, whose shrine was at Sippar – suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade. Despite numerous searches, the city has never been found. One theory holds that Agade was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was perhaps the oldest part of the city of Sippar. Another theory is that the ruins of Akkad are to be found beneath modern Baghdad. Reputedly it was destroyed by invading Gutians with the fall of the Akkadian Empire. The first known mention of the city-state of Akkad is in an inscription of Enshakushanna of Uruk, where he claims to have defeated Agade—indicating that it was in existence well before the days of Sargon of Akkad, whom the Sumerian King List claims to have built it. Akkad is mentioned once in the Tanakh – Book of Genesis 10:10: The mainstays of his [Nimrod’s] kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar (JPS). The Greek (LXX) spelling in this passage is Archad. Babylon (Akkadian: Bābili(m); Sumerian logogram: KÁ.DINGIR.RAKI; Hebrew: Bavel; Ancient Greek: Babylṓn; Old Persian: Bābiru; Arabic: Bābil) was originally a small Semitic Akkadian speaking city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BC. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometres (53 mi) south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris in the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city itself was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river’s seasonal floods. The Greek form Babylon is an adaptation of Akkadian Babili. The Babylonian name as it stood in the 1st millennium BC had been changed from an earlier Babilli in early 2nd millennium BC, meaning “Gate of God” or “Gateway of the God” (bāb-ili) by popular etymology. The earlier name Babilla appears to be an adaptation of a non-Semitic source of unknown origin or meaning. In the Hebrew Bible, the name appears as Bavel; Tiberian Bāvel; Syriac Bāwēl), interpreted in the Book of Genesis (11:9) to mean “confusion” (viz. of languages), from the verb bilbél, “to confuse”. Linguist I.J. Gelb, has suggested that the name Babil is an echo of an earlier city name. Herzfeld wrote about Bawer in Ancient Iran, and the name Babil could be an echo of Bawer. David Rohl holds that the original Babylon is to be identified with Eridu. The Bible in Genesis 10 indicates that a biblical king named Nimrod was the original founder of Babel (Babylon). Joan Oates claims in her book Babylon that the rendering Gateway of the gods is no longer accepted by modern scholars. Ctesias, who is quoted by Diodorus Siculus and in George Syncellus’s Chronographia, claimed to have access to manuscripts from Babylonian archives which date the founding of Babylon to 2286 BC by Belus who reigned as Babylon’s first king for fifty five years. Another figure is from Simplicius, who recorded that Callisthenes in the 4th century BC travelled to Babylon and discovered astronomical observations on cuneiform tablets stretching back 1903 years before the taking of Babylon by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. This makes the sum 1903 + 331 which equals 2234 BC as the founding date for Babylon. A similar figure is found in Berossus, who according to Pliny, stated that astronomical observations commenced at Babylon 490 years before the Greek era of Phoroneus, and consequently in 2243 BC. Stephanus of Byzantium wrote that Babylon was built 1002 years before the date (given by Hellanicus of Mytilene) for the siege of Troy (1229 BC), which would date Babylon’s foundation to 2231 BC. All of these dates place Babylon’s foundation in the 23rd century BC; however, since the decipherment of cuneiform in recent centuries, cuneiform records have not been found to correspond with such classical (post-cuneiform) accounts. An indication of Babylon’s early existence may be a later tablet describing the reign of Sargon of Akkad (c. 23rd century BC short chronology). The so-called Weidner Chronicle states that it was Sargon himself who built Babylon “in front of Akkad” (ABC 19:51). Another later chronicle likewise states that Sargon “dug up the dirt of the pit of Babylon, and made a counterpart of Babylon next to Akkad”. (ABC 20:18–19). Van de Mieroop has suggested that those sources may refer to the much later Assyrian king Sargon II of the Neo-Assyrian Empire rather than Sargon of Akkad. By around the 19th century BC, much of southern Mesopotamia was occupied by Amorites, nomadic tribes from the northern Levant who were Northwest Semitic speakers, unlike like the native Akkadians of southern Mesopotamia and Assyria, who were East Semitic speakers. The Amorites at first did not practice agriculture like more advanced Mesopotamians, preferring a semi nomadic lifestyle, herding sheep. Over time, Amorite grain merchants rose to prominence and established their own independent dynasties in several south Mesopotamian city-states, most notably Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna, Lagash, and later, founding Babylon as a state. Originally a minor administrative center, it became part of an independent city-state in 1894 BC in the hands of a migrant Amorite dynasty not native to ancient Mesopotamia. However it was not until the early 18th century BC that a ruler of this state was recorded as King of Babylon. The Amorites aside, the Babylonians were more often ruled by other foreign migrant dynasties throughout their history, such as by the Kassites, Arameans, Elamites and Chaldeans, as well as by their fellow Mesopotamians, the Assyrians. Claiming to be the successor of the more ancient Sumero-Akkadian city of Eridu, Babylon, hitherto a minor city, eclipsed Nippur as the “holy city” of Mesopotamia around the time an Amorite king named Hammurabi first created the short lived Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia. The empire quickly dissolved upon Hammurabi’s death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon again became the seat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 608 to 539 BC which was founded by Chaldeans from the south east corner of Mesopotamia, and whose last king was an Assyrian from Northern Mesopotamia. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of Babylon it came under the rules of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires. Bau (Sumerian) Baba was a Babylonian goddess of healing, the consort of Ninurta (Nin Ur: God of War). At the city of Kiš she was considered to be the wife of the god Zababa, a warrior god, patron deity of Kiš. In the Old Babylonian period she was syncretized with various healing goddesses such as Ninisinna, Gula, and Nintinugga. The name Bau is more common in the oldest period and gives way to Gula after the First Babylonian Dynasty. Other names borne by this goddess are Nin-Karrak, Nin Ezen, Ga-tum-dug and Nm-din-dug, the latter signifying “the lady who restores to life”, or the Goddess of Healing. She appears in a prominent position on the designs accompanying the Kudurrus boundary-stone monuments of Babylonia, being represented by a portrait, when other gods and goddesses are merely pictured by their shrines, by sacred animals or by weapons. In neo-Babylonian days her cult continues to occupy a prominent position, and Nebuchadrezzar II speaks of no less than three chapels or shrines within the sacred precincts of E-Zida in the city of Borsippa, besides a temple in her honour at Babylon. Kubaba, or Kug-Baba, is the name of the only Queen in the Sumerian king list. Her reign as the only “king” of the 3rd Dynasty of Kish was one of peace and prosperity. Her reign is contemporary with the “Early Dynastic III” period of Sumer. Her reign is listed to have lasted for 100 years. Kubaba was the tutelary goddess who protected the ancient Syrian city of Carchemish. Her cult spread, and her name was adapted for the main goddess of the Hittite successor-kingdoms in Anatolia, and later developed into Phrygian Cybele. Phrygian inscriptions with her image in rock-cut sculptures identify her as matar (“mother”) and, in one instance matar kubileya. The Phrygian goddess otherwise bears little resemblance to Kubaba, who was a sovereign deity at Sardis, known to Greeks as Kybebe. Shrines in her honour spread throughout Mesopotamia. In the Hurrian area she may be identified with Kebat, or Hepat, one title of the Hurrian Mother Goddess Hannahannah (from Hurrian hannah, “mother”). In the Aramaean period that followed, Heba became Hawah, the Syrian snake Goddess and mother of all living, who emerged in the Bible as Eve. Bel (Akkadian) Bel (from Akkadian bēlu), signifying “lord” or “master”, is a title rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in the Mesopotamian religion of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia. The feminine form is Belit ‘Lady, Mistress’. Bel is named in the Bible at Isaiah 46:1 and Jeremiah 50:2 and 51:44. Bêlit is a form of the Akkadian language word beltu or beltum (meaning “lady, mistress”) as used in noun compounds; it appears in titles of goddesses, such as bêlit-ili “lady of the gods”, an Akkadian title of Ninhursag. The word bêlit appears in Greek form as Beltis (Βελτις), considered to be the name of the wife of the god Bêl, represented in Greek as Belos and in Latin as Belus. Linguistically Bel is an East Semitic form cognate with Northwest Semitic Ba‘al with the same meaning. Belet-Seri (also spelled Beletseri, Belit-Sheri, Belit-Tseri) in Babylonian and Akkadian mythology is an underworld goddess. The recorder of the dead entering the underworld, she is known as the “Scribe of the Earth”. It is Belet-seri who keeps the records of human activities so she can advise the queen of the dead, Erishkigal, on their final judgement. Married to Amurru, the God of Nomads, she’s known as ‘Queen of the Desert.’ Beginning in the Old Babylonian Period, Belet-Seri was identified with the goddess Gestinanna. In Babylonian religion, Belit Ilani was a title described as meaning “mistress of the gods” and the name of the “evening star of desire”. It has been associated with Ninlil and Astarte and has been found inscribed on portraits of a woman blessing a suckling child with her right hand. Theophilus G. Pinches noted that Belit Ilani or Nnlil or had seven different names (such as Nintud, Ninhursag, Ninmah, etc.) for seven different localities in ancient Sumer. Early translators of Akkadian believed that the ideogram for the god called in Sumerian Enlil was to be read as Bel in Akkadian. This is now known to be incorrect; but one finds Bel used in referring to Enlil in older translations and discussions. Of course other gods called “Lord” could be and sometimes were identified totally or in part with Bel Marduk. The god Malak-bel of Palmyra is an example, though in the later period from which most of our information comes he seems to have become very much a sun god. Similarly Zeus Belus mentioned by Sanchuniathon as born to Cronus/El in Peraea is certainly most unlikely to be Marduk. I. H. D. Rouse in 1940 wrote an ironic end note to Book 40 of his edition of Nonnus’ Dionysiaca about a very syncretistic hymn sung by Dionysus to Tyrian Heracles, that is, to Ba‘al Melqart whom Dionysus identifies with Belus on the Euphrates (who should be Marduk!) and as a sun god: … the Greeks were as firmly convinced as many modern Bible-readers that the Semites, or the Orientals generally, worshipped a god called Baal or Bel, the truth of course being that ba’al is a Semitic word for lord or master, and so applies to a multitude of gods. This “Bel,” then, being an important deity, must be the sun, the more so as some of the gods bearing that title may have been really solar. Baal (NW Semitic) Baal, also rendered Baʿal, is a North-West Semitic title and honorific meaning “master” or “lord” that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu. A Baalist or Baalite means a worshipper of Baal. As a Semitic common noun baal (Hebrew baʿal) meant “owner” or “lord,” although it could be used more generally; for example, a baal of wings was a winged creature, and, in the plural, baalim of arrows indicated archers. Yet such fluidity in the use of the term baal did not prevent it from being attached to a god of distinct character.As such, Baal designated the universal god of fertility, and in that capacity his title was Prince, Lord of the Earth. He was also called the Lord of Rain and Dew, the two forms of moisture that were indispensable for fertile soil in Canaan. In Ugaritic and Old Testament Hebrew, Baal’s epithet as the storm god was He Who Rides on the Clouds. In Phoenician he was called Baal Shamen, Lord of the Heavens. “Baal” may refer to any god and even to human officials. In some texts it is used for Hadad, a god of thunderstorms, fertility and agriculture, and the lord of Heaven. Since only priests were allowed to utter his divine name, Hadad, Ba‛al was commonly used. Nevertheless, few if any biblical uses of “Baal” refer to Hadad, the lord over the assembly of gods on the holy mount of Heaven; most refer to a variety of local spirit-deities worshiped as cult images, each called baal and regarded in the Hebrew Bible in that context as a false god. Baʿal (bet-ayin-lamedh) is a Semitic word signifying “The Lord, master, owner (male), keeper, husband”, which became the usual designation of the great weather-god of the Western Semites. Cognates include Standard Hebrew Báʿal, Akkadian Bēl. In Hebrew, the word ba’al means “husband” or “owner”, and is related to a verb meaning to take possession of, for a man, to consummate a marriage. The word “ba’al” is also used in many Hebrew phrases, denoting both concrete ownership as well as possession of different qualities in one’s personality. The feminine form is Baʿalah‎, signifying “a mistress: -that has, a mistress”; Arabic baʿalah, a rare word for “wife”. The words themselves had no exclusively religious connotation; they are honorific titles for heads of households or master craftsmen, but not for royalty. The meaning of “lord” as a member of royalty or nobility is more accurately translated as Adon in biblical Hebrew. In modern Levantine Arabic, the word báʿal serves as an adjective describing farming that relies only on rainwater as a source of irrigation. Probably it is the last remnant of the sense of Baal the god in the minds of the people of the region. In the Amharic language, the Semitic word for “owner” or “husband, spouse” survives with the spelling bal. Because more than one god bore the title “Baal” and more than one goddess bore the title “Baalat” or “Baalah,” only the context of a text, the definitive article, or a genetive following the word in construct can denote which particular god, a text is speaking of. Baldr (also Balder, Baldur) is the second son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg. He is the god of summer sun, light, and radiance. His twin brother is the blind god of darkness, Hodr. He has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. His wife is called Nanna. They have a son called Forseti, god of justice. In Gylfaginning, Snorri relates that Baldr had the greatest ship ever built, named Hringhorni, and that there is no place more beautiful than his hall, Breidablik. Baldur once had a nightmare that he would be killed. His mother, Frigg, made all the things on Earth vow not to hurt him. The mistletoe did not vow, however, and Frigg considered it to be so unimportant that she thought nothing of it. Loki found out that the mistletoe had not vowed, and thus made a spear out of mistletoe, and tricked Hohr into killing Baldur with it. The death of Baldur is believed to be the beginning of Ragnarok. Many gods and goddesses will come to his funeral. His wife Nana also died of sadness. His father, Odin, placed the golden ring Draupnir on Baldur, but he later sent the ring back from Hell. This ring somehow came to Freyr’s hand. After Ragnarok and the death of Odin, Baldur and Hodr came back to Asgard, and they rule in place of their father. Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology (ch. 11) identifies Old Norse Baldr with the Old High German Baldere (2nd Merseburg Charm, Thuringia), Palter (theonym, Bavaria), Paltar (personal name) and with Old English bealdor, baldor “lord, prince, king” (used always with a genitive plural, as in gumena baldor “lord of men”, wigena baldor “lord of warriors”, et cetera). Old Norse shows this usage of the word as an honorific in a few cases, as in baldur î brynju (Sæm. 272b) and herbaldr (Sæm. 218b), both epithets of heroes in general. Grimm traces the etymology of the name to balþaz, whence Gothic balþs, Old English bald, Old High German pald, all meaning “bold, brave”. But the interpretation of Baldr as “the brave god” may be secondary. Baltic (cf. Lithuanian baltas, Latvian balts), from Proto-Indo-European bʰel-, has a word meaning “the white, the good”, and Grimm speculates that the name may originate as a Baltic loan into Proto-Germanic. In continental Saxon and Anglo-Saxon tradition, the son of Woden is called not Bealdor but Baldag (Sax.) and Bældæg, Beldeg (AS.), which shows association with “day”, possibly with Day personified as a deity which, Grimm points out, would agree with the meaning “shining one, white one, a god” derived from the meaning of Baltic baltas, further adducing Slavic Belobog and German Berhta. Balts comes from an unattested verb balt (“to become white”) (of which balts originally was the past participle form; compare. Lithuanian verb bálti, and compare. Latvian 17th-century derived verb baltīt (“to make, paint something white”), later replaced by other verbs, derived from balts: from Proto-Baltic bal-, from Proto-Indo-European bʰel-, bʰol- (“shiny, white”). Cognates include Lithuanian báltas, Sudovian baltas. In several Indo-European languages, reflexes of the stem bʰel-, bʰol- are often found in words relating to water or humid places, probably due to their shiny, reflective surfaces: Illyrian balta (“marsh, swamp”), Albanian baltë (“mud, sludge, swamp”), Proto-Slavic bolto (“swamp, lake”) (Old Church Slavonic блато (blato, “lake”), Russian болото (bolóto, “marsh, swamp”) (dialectal “puddle, lake”), Czech bláto (“mud; pl. swamp”), Polish błoto (“mud, swamp”)). One of the two Merseburg Incantations names Balder, and mentions a figure named Phol, considered to be another name for Baldr. Many scholars assume that Phol is just another name for Balder and the evidence from the charm would seem to confirm this. However it is strange that the same God should be referred to by two different names within the same charm. Rudolf Simek [Dictionary of Northern Mythology] contests the assumption that it is the same God and puts forward a different theory. He associates Phol with the Goddess Volla referred to in the charm. He asserts that the Nordic equivalent of the German Volla is Fulla, the Goddess of fullness and thus links Her to Freyja and thus Phol with Freyr. The great Jacob Grimm appears to be convinced in his Teutonic Mythology Volume 1 that Balder and Phol are one and the same divinity. He refers to a Pholesauwa or Pholesouwa 10-12 miles from Passau mentioned in a document drawn up between 774-788 AD. This would appear to be a place of His worship. There is also a Pholespiunt on the Altmuehl between Eichstaedt and Kipfenberg in a forest. The Fulla traditions also refer to Pholesbrunnen in Thuringia. He cites other examples in his work such as Poelde in the Harz mountains so it is clear that Phol was a recognised German deity whether or not He was the same as Balder. Grimm finds parallels between Phol and other Indo-European deities: “I incline to this last hypothesis, and connect Phol and Pol (whose o may very well have sprung from a) with the Celtic Beal, Beul, Bel, Belenus, a divinity of light or fire, the Slav. Bielbogh, Belbogh (white-god), the adj. biel, bel (albus), Lith. baltas, which last with its extension T makes it probable that Baeldag and Baldr are of the same root, but have not undergone consonant-change. Phol and Paltar therefore are in their beginning one, but reveal to us two divergent historical developments of the same word, and a not unimportant difference in the mythology of the several Teutonic races.” [Grimm] Grimm concludes that this God was known to Thuringians and the Bavarians as Phol although they knew of His alternative names of Paltar and Balder. The Saxons and Westphalians knew Him as Baldag and Baeldag. Clearly Phol was known to not only the Teutons but other northern Aryan peoples such as the Balts, Slavs and Celts. Thus we may infer from this that His origins go back to a shared northern Aryan common past. However we may also be able to draw a link to the Hellenic Apollo. There is not only a remarkable similarity between the names of Phol and Apollo but both were divinities of light and associated with the North. Six months every year Apollo would wander north to the land of the Hyperboreans. By contrast Balder would be consigned to the underworld of Hel, although not merely for six months of the year although this part of the solar myth may be a distortion to fit in with the myth of Ragnarok. Phol or Pol/A-pol-lo may also be considered to be the God of the Pole, the pole that is which connects the Hyperborean and Thulean far North with the Pole Star. He is thus both a solar and a polar deity. There is a common connecting thread that runs through the whole of Germanic and Aryan mythology-the emphasis on BOTH the polar and the solar. Phol, the masculine pole and polar God: Sol the feminine solar Goddess, a contrast of opposites. The ancient Teutons had a practice of erecting poles as representing their Gods. A wooden pole or carved image of a God would be erected in a heap of stones and worshipped. This was common during the Germanic Bronze Age and Iron Age and also far back into the European Stone Age. The phallic association is obvious as well as the link with the Irminsul. Pool, a small and rather deep collection of (usually) fresh water, as one supplied by a spring, or occurring in the course of a stream; a reservoir for water, is from Middle English pool, pole, pol, from Old English pōl (“pool”), from Proto-Germanic pōlaz (“pool, pond”), from Proto-Indo-European bale- (“bog, marsh”). Cognate with Scots puil (“pool”), Saterland Frisian Pol (“pool”), West Frisian poel (“pool”), Dutch poel (“pool”), Low German Pohl, Pul (“pool”), German Pfuhl (“quagmire, mudhole”), Danish pøl (“puddle”), Swedish pöl (“puddle, pool”), Icelandic pollur (“puddle”), Lithuanian bala (“bog, marsh, swamp, pool”), Latvian bala (“a muddly, treeless depression”), Russian boloto, “swamp, bog, marsh”). Pole is from Middle English pole, pal, from Old English pāl (“a pole, stake, post; a kind of hoe or spade”), from Proto-Germanic palaz, pālaz (“pole”), from Latin pālus (“stake, pale, prop, stay”) from Old Latin paglus, from Proto-Indo-European pāǵe- (“to nail, fasten”). Cognate with Scots pale, paill (“stake, pale”), North Frisian pul, pil (“stake, pale”), Saterland Frisian Pool (“pole”), West Frisian poal (“pole”), Dutch paal (“pole”), German Pfahl (“pile, stake, post, pole”), Danish pæl (“pole”), Swedish påle (“pole”), Icelandic páll (“hoe, spade, pale”), Old English fæc (“space of time, while, division, interval; lustrum”). The pool symbol The pool symbol in Egyptian mythology represents water. It is a rectangle, longer horizontally than vertically, with seven equally spaced vertical zigzag lines within it. It can also represent the primal waters that the Egyptians believed was the source of all things, which they called Nun. Occasionally, the sun god is depicted as a sun arising from the pool symbol. Egyptian pharaohs had decreed that objects in paintings and the like should be instantly recognizable to the viewer. Hence, reflecting pools were shown from a bird’s-eye view, even if the rest of the image was shown from the side. Nu (“watery one”), also called Nun (“inert one”) is the deification of the primordial watery abyss in Egyptian mythology. In the Ogdoad cosmogony, the word nu means “abyss”. The Ancient Egyptians envisaged the oceanic abyss of the Nun as surrounding a bubble in which the sphere of life is encapsulated, representing the deepest mystery of their cosmogony. In Ancient Egyptian creation accounts the original mound of land comes forth from the waters of the Nun. The Nun is the source of all that appears in a differentiated world, encompassing all aspects of divine and earthly existence. In the Ennead cosmogony Nun is perceived as transcendent at the point of creation alongside Atum the creator god. Nu was shown usually as male but also had aspects that could be represented as female or male. Nunet (also spelt Naunet) is the female aspect, which is the name Nu with a female gender ending. The male aspect, Nun, is written with a male gender ending. As with the primordial concepts of the Ogdoad, Nu’s male aspect was depicted as a frog, or a frog-headed man. In Ancient Egyptian art, Nun also appears as a bearded man, with blue-green skin, representing water. Naunet is represented as a snake or snake-headed woman. Beginning with the Middle Kingdom Nun is described as “the Father of the Gods” and he is depicted on temple walls throughout the rest of Ancient Egyptian religious history. The Ogdoad includes with Naunet and Nun, Amaunet and Amun, Hauhet and Heh, and Kauket with Kuk. Like the other Ogdoad deities, Nu did not have temples or any center of worship. Even so, Nu was sometimes represented by a sacred lake, or, as at Abydos, by an underground stream. In the 12th Hour of the Book of Gates Nu is depicted with upraised arms holding a “solar bark” (or barque, a boat). The boat is occupied by eight deities, with the scarab deity Khepri standing in the middle surrounded by the seven other deities. During the late period when Egypt became occupied the negative aspect of the Nun (chaos) became the dominant perception, reflecting the forces of disorder that were set loose in the country. The Abzu The Abzu (Cuneiform: ZU.AB; Sumerian: abzu; Akkadian: apsû) also called engur, (Cuneiform: LAGAB×HAL; Sumerian: engur; Akkadian: engurru) literally, ab=’water’ (or ‘semen’) zu=’to know’ or ‘deep’ was the name for fresh water from underground aquifers that was given a religious fertilizing quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the abzu. Eridu (Cuneiform: NUN.KI; Sumerian: eriduki; Akkadian: irîtu) is an ancient Sumerian city in what is now Tell Abu Shahrain, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. Eridu was long considered the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia, and is still today argued to be the oldest city in the world. Eridu, also transliterated as Eridug, could mean “mighty place” or “guidance place”. In the Sumerian king list, Eridu is named as the city of the first kings. The king list continues: In Eridu, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28800 years. Alalngar ruled for 36000 years. 2 kings; they ruled for 64800 years. Then Eridu fell and the kingship was taken to Bad-tibira. The king list gave particularly long rules to the kings who ruled before a great flood occurred, and shows how the center of power progressively moved from the south to the north of the country. Adapa U-an, elsewhere called the first man, was a half-god, half-man culture hero, called by the title Abgallu (ab=water, gal=big, lu=man) of Eridu. He was considered to have brought civilization to the city from Dilmun (probably Bahrain), and he served Alulim. In Sumerian mythology, Eridu was the home of the Abzu temple of the god Enki, the Sumerian counterpart of the Akkadian water-god Ea. Like all the Sumerian and Babylonian gods, Enki/Ea began as a local god, who came to share, according to the later cosmology, with Anu and Enlil, the rule of the cosmos. His kingdom was the waters that surrounded the World and lay below it (Sumerian ab=water; zu=far). The stories of Inanna, goddess of Uruk, describe how she had to go to Eridu in order to receive the gifts of civilization. At first Enki, the god of Eridu attempted to retrieve these sources of his power, but later willingly accepted that Uruk now was the centre of the land. This seems to be a mythical reference to the transfer of power northward, mentioned above. Babylonian texts also talk of the creation of Eridu by the god Marduk as the first city, “the holy city, the dwelling of their [the other gods] delight”. In the court of Assyria, special physicians trained in the ancient lore of Eridu, far to the south, foretold the course of sickness from signs and portents on the patient’s body, and offered the appropriate incantations and magical resources as cures. The Egyptologist David Rohl has conjectured that Eridu, to the south of Ur, was the original Babel and site of the Tower of Babel, rather than the later city of Babylon, for several reasons. Other scholars have discussed at length a number of additional correspondences between the names of “Babylon” and “Eridu”. Historical tablets state that Sargon of Akkad (ca. 2300 BC) dug up the original “Babylon” and rebuilt it near Akkad, though some scholars suspect this may in fact refer to the much later Assyrian king Sargon II. The urban nucleus of Eridu was Enki’s temple, called House of the Aquifer (Cuneiform: E2.ZU.AB; Sumerian: e2-abzu; Akkadian: bītu apsû), which in later history was called House of the Waters (Cuneiform: E2.LAGAB×HAL; Sumerian: e2-engur; Akkadian: bītu engurru). The name refers to Enki’s realm. His consort Ninhursanga had a nearby temple at Ubaid. In Sumerian mythology, Eridu was originally the home of Enki, later known by the Akkadians as Ea, who was considered to have founded the city. His temple was called E-Abzu, as Enki was believed to live in Abzu, an aquifer from which all life was believed to stem. Enki (Sumerian: EN.KI(G)) is a god in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Akkadian and Babylonian mythology. He was originally patron god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Canaanites, Hittites and Hurrians. Enki was the deity of crafts (gašam); mischief; water, seawater, lakewater (a, aba, ab), intelligence (gestú, literally “ear”) and creation (Nudimmud: nu, likeness, dim mud, make beer). It has been suggested that etymologiically Ea was comes from the term hyy (life), referring to Enki’s waters as life giving. He was associated with the southern band of constellations called stars of Ea, but also with the constellation AŠ-IKU, the Field (Square of Pegasus). Beginning around the second millennium BCE, he was sometimes referred to in writing by the numeric ideogram for “40,” occasionally referred to as his “sacred number.” The planet Mercury, associated with Babylonian Nabu (the son of Marduk) was in Sumerian times, identified with Enki. A large number of myths about Enki have been collected from many sites, stretching from Southern Iraq to the Levantine coast. He figures in the earliest extant cuneiform inscriptions throughout the region and was prominent from the third millennium down to Hellenistic times. The name Ea is allegedly Hurrian in origin while others claim that his name ‘Ea’ is possibly of Semitic origin and may be a derivation from the West-Semitic root hyy meaning “life” in this case used for “spring”, “running water.” In Sumerian E-A means “the house of water”, and it has been suggested that this was originally the name for the shrine to the god at Eridu. In the city Eridu, Enki’s temple was known as E2-abzu (house of the cosmic waters) and was located at the edge of a swamp, an abzu. Certain tanks of holy water in Babylonian and Assyrian temple courtyards were also called abzu (apsû). Typical in religious washing, these tanks were similar to the washing pools of Islamic mosques, or the baptismal font in Christian churches. The Sumerian god Enki (Ea in the Akkadian language) was believed to have lived in the abzu since before human beings were created. His wife Damgalnuna, his mother Nammu, his advisor Isimud and a variety of subservient creatures, such as the gatekeeper Lahmu, also lived in the abzu. Abzu (apsû) is depicted as a deity only in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Elish, taken from the library of Assurbanipal (c 630 BCE) but which is about 500 years older. In this story, he was a primal being made of fresh water and a lover to another primal deity, Tiamat, who was a creature of salt water. The Enuma Elish begins: When above the heavens did not yet exist nor the earth below, Apsu the freshwater ocean was there, the first, the begetter, and Tiamat, the saltwater sea, she who bore them all; they were still mixing their waters, and no pasture land had yet been formed, nor even a reed marsh… Enki and later Ea were apparently depicted, sometimes, as a man covered with the skin of a fish, and this representation, as likewise the name of his temple E-apsu, “house of the watery deep”, points decidedly to his original character as a god of the waters. Around the excavation of the 18 shrines found on the spot, thousands of carp bones were found, consumed possibly in feasts to the god. It is, however, as the third figure in the triad (the two other members of which were Anu and Enlil) that Ea acquires his permanent place in the pantheon. To him was assigned the control of the watery element, and in this capacity he becomes the shar apsi; i.e. king of the Apsu or “the deep”. The Apsu was figured as the abyss of water beneath the earth, and since the gathering place of the dead, known as Aralu, was situated near the confines of the Apsu, he was also designated as En-Ki; i.e. “lord of that which is below”, in contrast to Anu, who was the lord of the “above” or the heavens. Of his cult at Eridu, which goes back to the oldest period of Mesopotamian history, nothing definite is known except that his temple was also associated with Ninhursag’s temple which was called Esaggila, “the lofty head house” (E, house, sag, head, ila, high; or Akkadian goddess = Ila), a name shared with Marduk’s temple in Babylon, pointing to a staged tower or ziggurat (as with the temple of Enlil at Nippur, which was known as E-kur (kur, hill)), and that incantations, involving ceremonial rites in which water as a sacred element played a prominent part, formed a feature of his worship. This seems also implicated in the epic of the hieros gamos or sacred marriage of Enki and Ninhursag (above), which seems an etiological myth of the fertilisation of the dry ground by the coming of irrigation water (from Sumerian a, ab, water or semen). Sacred prostitution was common in the Ancient Near East as a form of “Sacred Marriage” or hieros gamos between the king of a Sumerian city-state and the High Priestess of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility, and warfare. Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers there were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna. The temple of Eanna, meaning “house of heaven” in Uruk was the greatest of these. The temple housed Nadītu, priestesses of the goddess. The high priestess would choose for her bed a young man who represented the shepherd Dumuzid, consort of Inanna, in a hieros gamos or sacred marriage, celebrated during the annual Duku ceremony, just before Invisible Moon, with the autumn Equinox (Autumnal Zag-mu Festival). The early inscriptions of Urukagina in fact go so far as to suggest that the divine pair, Enki and Ninki, were the progenitors of seven pairs of gods, including Enki as god of Eridu, Enlil of Nippur, and Su’en (or Sin) of Ur, and were themselves the children of An (sky, heaven) and Ki (earth). The pool of the Abzu at the front of his temple was adopted also at the temple to Nanna (Akkadian Sin) the Moon, at Ur, and spread from there throughout the Middle East. It is believed to remain today as the sacred pool at Mosques, or as the holy water font in Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. As Ea, Enki had a wide influence outside of Sumer, being equated with El (at Ugarit) and possibly Yah (at Ebla) in the Canaanite ‘ilhm pantheon, he is also found in Hurrian and Hittite mythology, as a god of contracts, and is particularly favourable to humankind. Enki/Ea is essentially a god of civilization, wisdom, and culture. He was also the creator and protector of man, and of the world in general. Ba (Egyptian) The ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul was made up of five parts: the Ren, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib. In addition to these components of the soul there was the human body (called the ha, occasionally a plural haw, meaning approximately sum of bodily parts). The other souls were aakhu, khaibut, and khat. The ‘Ba’ was everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of ‘personality’. (In this sense, inanimate objects could also have a ‘Ba’, a unique character, and indeed Old Kingdom pyramids often were called the ‘Ba’ of their owner). The ‘Ba’ is an aspect of a person that the Egyptians believed would live after the body died, and it is sometimes depicted as a human-headed bird flying out of the tomb to join with the ‘Ka’ in the afterlife. In another mode of existence the Ba of the deceased is depicted in the Book of Going Forth by Day returning to the mummy and participating in life outside the tomb in non-corporeal form, echoing the solar theology of Re (or Ra) uniting with Osiris each night. The word ‘bau’, plural of the word ba, meant something similar to ‘impressiveness’, ‘power’, and ‘reputation’, particularly of a deity. When a deity intervened in human affairs, it was said that the ‘Bau’ of the deity were at work [Borghouts 1982]. In Egyptian mythology, Babi, also Baba, was the deification of the baboon, one of the animals present in Egypt. His name is usually translated as Bull of the baboons, and roughly means Alpha male of all baboons, i.e. chief of the baboons. Since Baboons exhibit many human characteristics, it was believed in early times, at least since the Predynastic Period, that they were deceased ancestors. In particular, the alpha males were identified as deceased rulers, referred to as the great white one (Hez-ur in Egyptian), since Hamadryas baboon (the species prevalent in Egypt) alpha males have a notable light grey streak. For example, Narmer is depicted in some images as having transformed into a baboon. Since baboons were considered to be the dead, Babi was viewed as an underworld deity. Baboons are extremely aggressive, and omnivorous, and so Babi was viewed as being very bloodthirsty, and living on entrails. Consequently, he was viewed as devouring the souls of the unrighteous after they had been weighed against Ma’at (the concept of truth/order), and was thus said to stand by a lake of fire, representing destruction. Since this judging of righteousness was an important part of the underworld, Babi was said to be the first-born son of Osiris, the god of the dead in the same regions in which people believed in Babi. Baboons also have noticeably high sex drives, in addition to their high level of genital marking, and so Babi was considered the god of virility of the dead. He was usually portrayed with an erection, and due to the association with the judging of souls, was sometimes depicted as using it as the mast of the ferry which conveyed the righteous to Aaru, a series of islands. Babi was also prayed to, in order to ensure that an individual would not suffer from impotence after death. Pharaoh is the common title of the kings of Ancient Egyptian dynasties until the Graeco-Roman conquest. The title originates in the Egyptian term pr ˤ3, literally “great house”, describing the royal palace. Historically, however, “pharaoh” only started being used as a title for the king during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of the eighteenth dynasty, after the reign of Hatshepsut. Pharaoh, meaning “Great House”, originally referred to the king’s palace, but during the reign of Thutmose III (ca. 1479–1425 BC) in the New Kingdom, after the foreign rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period, became the form of address for a person who was king and the son of the god Ra. “The Egyptian sun god Ra, considered the father of all pharaohs, was said to have created himself from a pyramid-shaped mound of earth before creating all other gods.” (Donald B. Redford, Ph.D., Penn State). The term pharaoh ultimately was derived from a compound word represented as pr-3, written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr “house” and “column”. It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-aa ‘Courtier of the High House’, with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the twelfth dynasty onward the word appears in a wish formula ‘Great House, may it liv, prosper, and be in health’, but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person. The earliest instance where pr-aa is used specifically to address the ruler is in a letter to Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), who reigned c. 1353–1336 BCE, which is addressed to ‘Pharaoh, all life, prosperity, and health! During the eighteenth dynasty (sixteenth to fourteenth centuries BCE) the title pharaoh was employed as a reverential designation of the ruler. About the late twenty-first dynasty (tenth century BCE), however, instead of being used alone as before, it began to be added to the other titles before the ruler’s name, and from the twenty-fifth dynasty (eighth to seventh centuries BCE) it was, at least in ordinary usage, the only epithet prefixed to the royal appellative. From the nineteenth dynasty onward pr- on its own was used as regularly as hm.f, ‘Majesty’. The term therefore evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler, particularly by the twenty-second dynasty and twenty-third dynasty. For instance, the first dated instance of the title pharaoh being attached to a ruler’s name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of Pharaoh Siamun. This new practice was continued under his successor Psusennes II and the twenty-first dynasty kings. Meanwhile the old custom of referring to the sovereign simply as pr-aa continued in traditional Egyptian narratives. By this time, the Late Egyptian word is reconstructed to have been pronounced par-ʕoʔ whence comes Ancient Greek pharaō and then Late Latin pharaō. From the latter, English obtained the word “Pharaoh”. In the Hebrew Bible, the title also occurs as par-ʕoʔ (פרעה). Over time, par-ʕoʔ evolved into Sahidic Coptic prro and then rro (by mistaking p- as the definite article prefix “the” from Ancient Egyptian p). Bhaga (Sanskrit) A Slavic cognate is bog “god”. While the word “bog” denoted nearly all Slavic gods, the word Deva in its cognate Div was used only for the creator god – Rod, the Slavic equivalent of Brahma. The semantics is similar to English lord (from hlaford “bread warden”), the idea being that it is part of the function of a chieftain or leader to distribute riches or spoils among his followers. Personified, Bhaga is one of the Adityas, a god of wealth and marriage in Hinduism. Virabhadra, a great powerful hero created by Shiva, once blinded him. In the Rigveda Bhaga is the god who supervises the distribution of goods and destiny to each man corresponding to his merits. The word apparently, is cognative to “Bhagavan” and “Bhagya”, terms used in several Indian languages to refer to God and destiny respectively. In some references Bhag, Bhaga or Bhagya is miss-termed as Lord Sun. In fact Bhagya is the son of Lord Sun. Father Sun awarded him with the powers to give away or take away anything from the human race. He is the real and practical benefactor among all the 33 Crore deities. Bhagavan (Hinduism) Bhagavan, (alternate spellings including Bhagvān, Bhagwan or Bhagawan, from the Sanskrit nt-stem bhaga-vant- nominative Bhagavān) is a term for God used in Hinduism, particularly in the Vaisnava traditions where God is conceived as a caring, compassionate person concerned for the welfare of his creatures. It is generally translated by the English word Lord. Bhagavan literally means “possessing fortune, prosperous” (from the noun bhaga, meaning “fortune, wealth”, cognate to Slavic bog “god”, Russian bogatyj “wealthy”), and hence “illustrious, divine, venerable, holy”, etc. Bhagavan can also be an honorific title for a God-realized (i.e. fully enlightened) human being or an incarnation of God in human form (avatara) such as Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. In the Pali scriptures Gautama Buddha is referred to as Bhagavan Buddha (translated with the phrase ‘Lord Buddha’ or ‘The Blessed One’). In Hinduism it indicates the Supreme Being or Absolute Truth conceived as a Personal God. This personal feature indicated by the word Bhagavan differentiates its usage from other similar terms such as Brahman, the “Supreme Spirit” or “spirit”, and thus, in this usage, Bhagavan is analogous to the Christian conception of God the Father. In Vaisnavism, a devotee of Bhagvan Krishna is called a Bhāgavata. Bhagavan used as a title of veneration is often directly used as “Lord”, as in “Bhagavan Rama”, “Bhagavan Krishna”, “Bhagavan Shiva”, etc. In Buddhism and Jainism, Gautama Buddha, Mahavira and other Tirthankaras, Buddhas and bodhisattvas are also venerated with this title. The feminine of Bhagavat is Bhagawatī and is an epithet of Durga and other goddesses. Bey (Turkish) Bey (Ottoman Turkish: Bey, Arabic: Bek, Persian: Beg or Beyg) is a Turkish and Altaic title for chieftain, traditionally applied to the leaders (for men) of small tribal groups. The title for female royal families was Begum. Beg means as great. The regions or provinces where “beys” ruled or which they administered were called beylik, roughly meaning “emirate” or “principality” in the first case, “province” or “governorate” in the second (the equivalent of duchy in other parts of Europe). Today, the word is still used informally as a social title for men (somewhat like the English word “mister”). Unlike “mister” however, it follows the name and is used generally with first names and not with last names. The word entered English from Turkish bey, itself derived from Old Turkic beg, which – in the form bäg – has been mentioned as early as in the Orkhon inscriptions, two memorial installations erected by the Göktürks written in Old Turkic alphabet in the early 8th century in the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia, and is usually translated as “tribal leader”. The dialect variations bäk, bek, bey, biy, bi, and pig all derive from the Old Turkic form. The actual origin of the word is still disputed, though it is mostly agreed that it was a loan-word in Old Turkic. This Turkic word is usually considered a borrowing from an Iranian language. However, German Turkologist Gerhard Doerfer assessed the derivation from Iranian as superficially attractive but quite uncertain and pointed out the possibility that the word may be genuinely Turkic. Three principal etymologies have been proposed by scholars: – The Middle Persian title bag (also baγ/beγ, Old Iranian baga; cf. Sanskrit भगवत् / bhagvan) meaning lord and master. It was one of the royal titles of the Sassanian kings. Peter Golden derives the word via Sogdian bġy from the same Iranian root. It is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bhag- (“to spare, divide; to endow, give”). – The Chinese title pö (the older form being pök or pak; according to Edwin Pulleyblank perjk), meaning older brother and feudal lord, often lower members of the aristocracy. – The Old Turkic nobility expression bay (“rich person, noble”) as an alternative usage of the Old Turkic title bey. English scholar Harold Bailey considers bay (in the sense of “possessions”) as a borrowing from Iranian, whereas Russian linguist Sergei Starostin assumes a derivation from Proto-Turkic bāj (“rich, noble; many, numerous”), itself ultimately from a potential Proto-Altaic root bēǯu (“numerous, great”, cf. Old Japanese p(j)iida-/pui-). Within Turkic bāj (“rich”) in turn is probably hard to distinguish from baj (~ -ń) (“holy; god; true, reliable, honest”). The word bagh Bhaga (Hinduism) One of the Adityas, a god of wealth and marriage in Hinduism. In the Rigveda Bhaga is the god who supervises the distribution of goods and destiny to each man corresponding to his merits. – “Dispenser”, gracious lord , patron (applied to gods, especially to Savitr) – Bhaga – Sun – Mud – Good fortune, happiness, welfare, prosperity – Dignity, majesty, distinction, excellence, beauty, loveliness – Love, affection, sexual passion, amorous pleasure, dalliance – The female organs, pudendum muliebre, vulva According to Beekes it comes from Proto-Indo-European bʰ(e)h₂g- (“to divide, distribute”) with a semantic shift “I received a share” → “I consumed” → “I ate”. Cognates include Sanskrit bhajati (“divide, apportion”), Old Persian (baga, “god”) and Avestan (baga-, “part”). Compare (bagaîos) and Proto-Slavic bogъ. Bahuvrihi adjectives ubogъ (“poor, miserable”) and nebogъ (“poor, miserable”), as well as the later derivation bogatъ (“rich”) prove that bogъ was originally also an adjective meaning “earthly wealth/well-being; fortune”, with a semantic shift to “dispenser of wealth/fortune” and finally “god”. Semantic parallel can be drawn to Indo-Iranian languages: compare Old Persian (baga, “god”), Avestan (baγa-, “god”) (but also (bag-, “apportion”)), as well as Sanskrit epithet often applied to gods (bhága, “dispenser, gracious lord, patron”), proving that Slavic noun had both abstract and concrete meanings. The same Iranian source, but via a Turkic language, also probably gave Proto-Slavic banъ. This convincing parallel has led some linguists (e.g. Roman Jakobson) to claim that bogъ is an Iranian borrowing. Slavic-Iranian parallelism can be further extended to the expressions of Slavic mythology: Dažbog, Belobog and Chernobog, which prove an existence of Iranian dualism in Proto-Slavic mythology. On a more formal level, absence of Winter’s law (if held to apply in open syllables) precludes derivation from hypothetical Proto-Indo-European bʰeh₂gos, bʰagos. Some connect it to Ancient Greek ἔφαγον (éphagon, “to eat, devour”) via a semantic shift “I received a share” > “I consumed” > “I ate”. This would in turn all derive from the Proto-Indo-European root bʰeh₂g-, bʰag- (“to distribute, divide”). Bāgh or Baug, usually translated garden, refers to an enclosed area with permanent cultures (many types of trees and shrubs) as well as flowers. It usually has Irano-Islamic architectural elements. Also known as Bageecha or Bagicha. 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:
Mirror Mirror On The… wall painting from the ‘stanzino delle matematiche’ in the galleria degli uffizi wall painting from the ‘stanzino delle matematiche’ in the galleria degli uffizi (florence, italy). painted by giulio parigi, 1599-1600. in greek mythology, the mathematician archimedes invented giant mirrors that used the sun to set roman warships afire during an attack on syracuse in 212 B.C., narcissus, looking into the water, did not understand that he saw his own reflection, and fell in love with himself, another legend has it that the hero perseus killed medusa by using a mirrored shield. the creature was so hideous that any human who made eye contact with her was immediately turned to stone. by watching the reflection of monster in his shield, perseus used his sword to slice off medusa’s head without having to look directly at her. another example, this time from the german tales of the brothers grimm, is snow white, in which the wicked queen consults a magic mirror to determine the identity of the most beautiful woman in the world…. a short history of mirror production the first mirrors were likely to be a pool of water where one could observe their reflection. ancient and primitive mirrors were typically made of polished stone (obsidian in stone age turkey, and pre-columbian peru), perhaps wetted to make them more egypt copper mirrors long before man was able to make mirrors out of glass, mirrors made of metal (copper, bronze, silver, tin, etc.) were used. sheets of metal were flattend and polished until it could be used as a mirror. rounded forms, disks, sometimes with a design on the back, and usually with a handle. roman glass mirrors following pliny, natural history, glass mirrors were invented at sidon in the first century AD. surviving examples date earliest to the second century AD. after the discovery of glass making, the romans made mirrors out of glass by finishing them with a metall layer. in roman graves dating from the second and third century there were also found pieces of glass covered with lead. middle ages after the discovery of glassblowing in the 14th century, mirrors were made out of glass bulbs. after cooling the bulbs, they were cut in pieces, thus forming little hollow (convex) mirrors. (although these mirrors did not have a perfect reflection, people did not mind at all. the mirrors available previous at that time, were made out of metall which wasn’t flat and had an even worse reflection). renaissance mercury mirror a method of backing a plate of flat glass with a thin sheet of reflecting metal (tin/mercury amalgam – the reflecting layer of mercury on mirrors existed out of 75% of tin and approximatly 25% mercury. ) came into widespread production on the italian island of murano, near venice during the 16th century. the mirror-makers perfected a method of backing larger sheets of glass. in the first act of industrial espionage, the french under louis XIV bribed murano experts to come to paris. after apparent threats and poisonings, they returned to italy, but by then it was too late, and the hall of mirrors at versailles was one result. also in germany and in belgium this method was already being used. the exact ingredients and procedure were kept secret for a long time. producing a mirror was a complicated and delicate process, therefor these mirrors were very expensive. from then on, mirrors got bigger, cheaper, and more pervasive. on top of that, the production was very unhealthy, due to the fact that mercury fumes are very toxic. 19th century silver mirror the chemical process of coating a glass surface with metallic silver was discovered in the 19th century. this advance inaugurated the modern techniques of mirror making. the technique is said to be invented by the german justus von liebig in 1835. present-day mirrors are made by sputtering a thin layer of molten aluminum or silver onto the back of a plate of glass in a vacuum. why does the mirror reverse left to right and not top to bottom? the mathematical or geometrical version of the question is: ‘why does a chiral object (such as a right hand or glove) appear as an object of opposite chirality (left hand or glove) in the mirror?’ the answer is that chirality of the three-dimensional space is dictated by the choice of the directions of the three axes. when the direction of one axis is reversed, as is the case in a mirror image, the chirality of space changes to the opposite one. if two mirrors are set side by side (with, say, a 90° angle between them), the axes in the doubly reflected image are inverted twice and the handedness of the image is not changed. in such a double mirror, a right hand looks like a right hand. this set-up lets you see how you really look, but most people find it very difficult at first to use a mirror like this for shaving. common uses whether hand-held, wall-mounted, or standing, most mirrors have been placed in frames. mirrors are used – for inspecting parts of one’s body which are difficult or impossible to see directly, such as the face, neck or the whole body. – for self-contemplation. – rear-view mirrors are applied in and on vehicles (such as cars, or bicycles), to allow drivers to see other vehicles coming up behind them. – rounded (convex) mirrors are sometimes placed at road junctions, and corners of places such as parking lots allowing people to see around corners to avoid crashing into other vehicles. – mirrors are also sometimes used as part of security systems, so that a single video camera can show more than one angle at a time. – interior decoration to create an illusion of space – the use of mirrors for ‘cutting’ and snorting cocaine. – the classic ‘mirror on the ceiling’ for use during sex … (the story of hostius quadra, a roman who had a giant metallic concave mirror in which his orgies were magnified.) – telescopes and other precision instruments use front silvered or first surface mirrors, where the reflecting surface is placed on the front (or first) surface of the glass, in order to eliminate faint reflections from the glass itself (which gives better image quality). modern thermonuclear weapons use x-ray mirrors… By Artist, Photographer Carrie Mae Weems By Artist, Photographer Carrie Mae Weems what does it take to recognize oneself in a mirror? humans are among the few animals who can recognize themselves in mirrors, along with a few other apes (chimps, orangutans, bonobos), and perhaps dolphins and the ‘mirror stage’ when children first recognize themselves is widely understood as a critical phase of human development. there is an interestig recent sociological experiment – the biami, an isolated papua new guinea tribe, had never seen a mirror until the mid-1970s. (although a few biami men had scraps of mirrors, about the size of coins, obtained through distant trade, but these scraps were too small for image reflection and were treasured simply as light reflectors). anthropologists recorded their reactions when looking for the first tme into a mirror: reactions of terror and anguish, they were paralyzed. after their first startled response, covering their mouths and ducking their heads, they stood transfixed, staring at their images, only their stomach muscles betraying great tension… magical mirrors mystic people all over the world stare into reflective objects – mirrors, oil, water, crystal balls, knives …- and go into a sort of trance. this was already practiced by olmec shamans, greek priestesses, roman magicians, and medieval wizards. it is a common superstition that someone who breaks a mirror will receive seven years of bad luck. the ancient egyptians, as well as the etruscans, romans, and many other cultures, buried people with mirrors, probably because these magical surfaces were thought to capture the soul and help preserve it in the afterlife. similarly, the chinese thought that demons only became visible in mirrors, so they put them on their backs to defend themselves from malevolent forces. when two mirrors reflect one other, the endless abyss of mirrors-in-mirrors created between them might form a kind of spectral architecture. jules verne had an idea about using mirrors for space travel, where the infinite reflection travels an infinite distance in negligible time. this was derived from a story by edgar allen poe involving a man trapped between two mirrors by the infinite distance between himself and his reflections. mirror and sex do it in the dark! but not always… have fun with mirrors! you might get more secure with your body, and if you feel uninhibited with your partner, having sex in front of a mirror or two can be very exciting for both of you. with mirrors you can change positions and angles, if what you see is not turning you on. it’s easy to move around to find an attractive view. 4 Responses 1. heheee..kinky 😛 2. Let me guess…..you skipped everything else and started reading Mirror and sex! 😆 Well like they say…SEX SELLS! ha ha Oh and did you leave a boyfriend behind in Solo? 😛 3. pls lor..i read all okay..hahaahhah.. and hahahah..no..i went solo alone.. SOLO..u know..hahaha… 😛 4. Orh…. 😆 Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s %d bloggers like this:
Geotechnical Engineering 101 and more… Building firm foundations Retaining Walls Posted by Kshitija Nadgouda on June 23, 2006 A Retaining Wall is simply a wall that retains (holds back) soil or sometimes water behind it. Here, we will discuss only walls that retain soil behind them. A retaining wall is typically constructed when change in elevation is sudden and requires a vertical (or almost vertical) grade change. The most common example would be along roads in hilly regions. It is not always feasible (economically or due to lack of space) to gradually change the level (elevation) from the road to the hill top and create a slope. In such cases, it is necessary to build a wall that will maintain the hillside behind it (retain the soil) while building a road in front of the wall. Retaining Wall (Courtsey Brockman Engineering Contractors, Inc.) You can see such walls commonly along the new Mumbai-Pune Expressway and NH-4. The height of the wall may vary from 2 feet to as high as 25 feet. There have been special cases where the height of the wall was as high as 15 m ( roughly 49 feet) for the Ladera Ranch project in California. Retaining walls can be classified as: 1. Cast-in-place concrete walls 2. Pre-cast walls 3. Modular Block Walls or Segmental Retaining Walls (SRW) 4. Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls 5. Other walls such as timber walls, sheet pile walls, brick walls, stone walls, etc Gravity Walls are typically made from a large mass of concrete and rely only on its self weight to retain the soil behind it. Although more costly than most other options, these are particularly used when the area of soil behind the wall is not enough for reinforcement. These walls are cast-in-place and usually unreinforced. Gravity Walls (Courtsey Concrete Network) Pre-cast Walls are also typically gravity walls that are assembled on site. Since they are pre-cast, they are used in projects where time is essential. Modular Block Walls or Segmental Retaining Walls (SRW) are the most extensively used retaining wall type. A SRW consists of interlocking blocks of concrete that are placed over a levelling pad. Since these blocks are available in a variety of sizes, colours, textures, shapes, etc., construction of these walls can be done in the most aesthetic manner even in a cramped space. SRWs being cheap, durable, flexible and easy to install, this are the most preferred retaining wall system used in and around homes for landscaping where the wall heights are typically low. Segmental Retaining Wall (Courtsey Tensar Corp.) Landscaping Walls (Courtsey Keystone Walls) Mechanically Stabilized Easth Walls (MSE) are SRWs with typically geosynthetic reinforcements placed within the retained soil. They are primarily a “gravity” type retaining wall, but since they are reinforced with geosynthetics, the effective width and weight of the soil mass that resists overturning or sliding increases greatly. MSE walls utilize the advantages of a SRW for taller walls with structural uses. The 15 m ( roughly 49 feet) wall being built for the Ladera Ranch project in California is a MSE wall. Most other type of retaining walls such as timber walls, sheet pile walls, brick walls, stone walls are used for non-structural use, such as for landscaping or where these materials are available easily and more economically than other types. Sheet Pile Wall (Courtsey H.B. Fleming) Technorati tags: , , , , , , Copyright Kshitija Nadgouda. 3 Responses to “Retaining Walls” 1. very nice post indeed, thank you for the great pictures and illustrations I provide credit and sources back to your site? would truly benefit from some of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Regards! 3. Marc Alvin said Sheet Pile Retaining Wall is one of the main part for any project.It is designed acccording to the individual project requirements and ground conditions.A sheet pile wall can be used in either a permanent or temporary works application. 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:
you're reading... China revisits the Republican era (Taipei Times) Several years ago, before both sides of the Taiwan Strait marked 100 years since the Xinhai Revolution brought down the Qing empire, a wave of interest in the Republican era swept across China. The Republic of China (ROC) flag and other long-banned symbols began appearing in movies and TV series, and debates and publications giving positive treatment of Republican history, especially the resistance against Japan, became more common. Apart from academia digging up long-banned stories about the ROC and former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), many Chinese visitors to Taiwan rushed to learn more about modern cross-strait history. It seemed as if the Republican period and Confucius (孔子), now treated almost as a foreign historical figure in Taiwan, were brought back to life in authoritarian China. Of course, removing the ban on information about the Republican period is vastly different from the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) orthodox view of history. The official party line does not stray from the idea that the victor writes history. The best example of this is Beijing’s insistence that the CCP led the war of resistance against Japan. There are three reasons behind this gradual relaxation of restrictions on information about the Republican era. The first and most obvious reason is, of course, China’s efforts to annex Taiwan. Since Republican ideology, which forms part of the antagonism between Taiwan and China, doesn’t appear to be that strong in Taiwan anymore, China can perhaps remove some of the Taiwanese hostility by giving it more positive treatment. Second, with its newfound status as a big power, China must follow international norms, and it is therefore basing the protection of its national interests on several positions and legacies from the Republican period. For example, when it comes to sovereignty over the South China Sea, Taiwan and Tibet, Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) idea of ignoring the existence of the ROC and making a fresh start cannot be used, because if the ROC really did accept the Japanese surrender of the South China Sea and if it was the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that ratified the status of the 14th Dalai Lama and the 10th Panchen Lama, that would have severe legal implications for China’s claims. The third and most important reason is that Beijing wants the right to monopolize the agenda at a time when its material strength has grown, but it still seems unable to gain much influence over Chinese culture. As the top CCP leadership is gaining a deeper understanding of Taiwanese studies, they must understand that Taiwan, much more so than Singapore or Hong Kong, is key to linking domestic and overseas Chinese culture. However, the Taiwanese public is struggling to find new spiritual substance and no longer competes with Beijing for the right to set the agenda for the Chinese world. By relaxing ideology in small measures and gradually restoring the truth about the Republican period and modern history, it would make the World War II-era Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma, the thinkers of the Republican period and maybe even war criminals at least footnotes in the CCP’s historical view. If that happened, the CCP would naturally become the sole representative of Chinese culture. However, Beijing’s conciliatory and flexible approach to the Republican issue is essentially a means to an end. Although the Chinese government tries hard to integrate the economic, security and cultural roles it wants to play as a creator of cross-strait prosperity, a protector of regional peace and the leader of Chinese culture, and though the new consensus being forged by the Taiwanese opposition will not challenge the current friendly relations between Taiwan on one hand and the US, Japan and China on the other, there is no such thing as an eternal status quo. By the same token, the value of using the republic as a means to an end is only temporary. What’s more, the fact that the ROC and the People’s Republic of China cannot coexist given the modern world’s view of sovereignty will sooner or later be revealed for all to see. If Beijing only uses the Republican period as a short-term means to an end, it will not only strengthen the view that Taipei is using Beijing, it will also miss out on Taiwan’s help and the opportunity to learn from Taiwan. First, given Beijing’s current status and “core interests,” it can no longer distance itself from the continued existence of the ROC using old socialist terms such as “the new democratic revolution.” In the past, the CCP talked about “the KMT” in an attempt to reject the existence of the ROC, which would effectively mean that China did not exist internationally and there was no legal Chinese government between 1912 and 1949. Just as with the attempt during China’s Cultural Revolution to remove “feudal traditions,” that would have severe legal and cultural consequences for China. Furthermore, the ROC has since shed its party-state system thanks to a lively opposition. Approaching the Republican system and traditional Chinese culture as a means to an end will only prove that former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s (鄧小平) foreign policy of keeping a low profile and hiding China’s ambitions is rife with contradictions and struggle. On the other hand, if Beijing can use Taiwan’s current laws and documents as mentioned in Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) “six points” as a point of departure, take a disaffected view of the ROC and the important role it has played in the modernization of China, and then create a creative and constructive status for the ROC Constitution of 1947, it would be possible to develop a surrealistic “utilitarian” cross-strait relationship and approach. This would allow Taiwan and China to avoid a showdown over the traditional system of sovereignty that Western nations have managed to progressively move beyond. It is also the only way to ensure that the principles of true democracy, the spirit of independence and freedom of thought Republicans had strived for in both China and Taiwan, and that the leaders in Beijing also advocate, can become a future consensus for China and Taiwan and a core value contributed by Chinese civilization to a new world order. About thủy tinh vỡ Freelance writer Comments are closed. Asian News Vung bút nhả thơ thơ chẳng thấy Múa cọ vẽ chữ chữ không ra Thủy tinh vỡ: Freelance writer Age: Bính Thìn Location: Hồ Chí Minh Join 133 other followers %d bloggers like this:
Richard M. Karp, ‘P Versus NP’, 2014, Bernard Jacobson Gallery A portfolio of aquatints, 22 x 30, hand drawn by notable mathematicians and physicists of equations/expressions/formulas associated with their work. Curated and with an introductory text by Daniel Rockmore, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Dartmouth College. Each of the prints is accompanied with a letterpress text by the contributor as well as a hand signed certificate of authenticity. Computational complexity theory is the branch of theoretical computer science concerned with the fundamental limits on the efficiency of automatic computation. It focuses on problems that appear to require a very large number of computation steps for their solution. The inputs and outputs to a problem are sequences of symbols drawn from a finite alphabet; there is no limit on the length of the input, and the fundamental question about a problem is the rate of growth of the number of required computation steps as a function of the length of the input. Some problems seem to require a very rapidly growing number of steps. One such problem is the independent set problem: given a graph, consisting of points called vertices and lines called edges connecting pairs of vertices, a set of vertices is called independent if no two vertices in the set are connected by a line. Given a graph and a positive integer n, the problem is to decide whether the graph contains an independent set of size n. Every known algorithm to solve the independent set problem encounters a combinatorial explosion, in which the number of required computation steps grows exponentially as a function of the size of the graph. On the other hand, the problem of deciding whether a given set of vertices is an independent set in a given graph is solvable by inspection. There are many such dichotomies, in which it is hard to decide whether a given type of structure exists within an input object (the existence problem), but it is easy to decide whether a given structure is of the required type (the verification problem). It is generally believed that existence problems are much harder to solve than the corresponding verification problems. For example, it seems hard to decide whether a jigsaw puzzle is solvable, but easy to verify that a given arrangement of the puzzle pieces is a solution. Similarly, it seems hard to solve Sudoku puzzles but easy to verify given solutions. Complexity theory provides precise definitions of “P”, the class of all existence problems that are easy to solve, and “NP”, the class of existence problems whose solutions are easy to verify. The general belief that verifying is easier than solving strongly suggests that the class NP properly includes the class P, but this claim has never been proven. The question of whether P = NP is the most central open question in theoretical computer science, and one of the most notorious open questions in all of mathematics. In a 1972 paper entitled “Reducibility Among Combinatorial Problems” I demonstrated a technique that has made it possible to prove that thousands of problems, arising in mathematics, the sciences, engineering, commerce and everyday life, are equivalent, in the sense that an efficient algorithm for any one of them would yield efficient algorithms for all the problems in NP, and thus establish that P =NP. Conversely, if P is unequal to NP, then none of these problems are easy to solve. These problems are called NP-complete. The moral of the story is that NP-completeness is a widespread phenomenon; most combinatorial problems arising in practice are NP-complete, and hence, in all likelihood, hard to solve. The technique stems from a 1971 paper in which Stephen Cook of the University of Toronto showed that a particular problem in NP, the Satisfiability Problem (denoted Sat) of propositional logic is NP-complete. To do so, he showed that any problem in NP is efficiently reducible to Sat; i.e., for any problem A in NP, there is an efficient algorithm that converts any instance of A into an equivalent instance of Sat. It follows that, if Sat is easy to solve, then every problem in NP is easy to solve. Around the same time, Leonid Levin in the Soviet Union, who is now a professor at Boston University, proved a similar result. In my 1972 paper I demonstrated the prevalence of NP-completeness by using a tree of efficient reductions to show that 21 canonical problems are NP-complete. The figure exhibits reductions among 13of these problems. Each node of the tree is labeled with the name of problem in NP, and each edge indicates that the upper problem is efficiently reducible to the lower one; thus, if the lower problem is easy to solve, then so is the upper problem. Hence, if any problem in the tree were easy to solve, then Sat would be easy to solve and therefore, by Cook’s seminal result, every problem in NP would be easy to solve. The prevailing, but not quite universal, opinion among complexity theorists is that P is unequal to NP, but no proof or disproof appears to be on the horizon. Perhaps some brilliant youngster, motivated by this essay, will find the elusive approach that will crack the P vs. NP problem. Beauty in mathematics can be found at many levels: in the symmetry and elegance of mathematical curves, surfaces and combinatorial structures; in the subtle logic of mathematical proofs; or, as in the case of NP-completeness, in the discovery that a large number of seemingly unrelated mathematical phenomena are all manifestations of a single underlying principle.
Breaking News: Diesel Exhaust Causes Cancer, Says Leading Authority Today, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) confirmed what we’ve long suspected: the pollution from dirty diesel engines causes cancer. "The scientific evidence was compelling and the working group's conclusion was unanimous: Diesel engine exhaust causes lung cancer in humans," Christopher Portier, chairman of the IARC working group, said in a statement. "Given the additional health impacts from diesel particulates, exposure to this mixture of chemicals should be reduced worldwide.'' Today’s news places diesel exhaust in the same category of cancer risk as asbestos and arsenic. As my colleague Diane Bailey pointed out, the IARC report adds to the mountain of studies, reports, and data connecting diesel exhaust to a wide range of health impacts, including increased asthma emergencies, bronchitis, emphysema, and heart disease. The cost of our reliance on dirty diesel fuels and engines is staggering. In the United States alone, diesel engines that power our buses, trucks, construction and farm equipment, locomotives, and ships trigger more than 50,000 premature deaths and $300 billion in health costs every year. Worldwide, the cost is many times greater, due to the much dirtier diesel fuels and engines that are typically used in the developing world. Luckily, diesel pollution is a solvable problem, and we've already started tackling it here at home. Reducing sulfur levels in diesel fuel allows diesel engines to run dramatically cleaner, thanks to effective filter technologies that can only be used with ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel. In the United States, this fuel became standard in 2006. New diesel engines in this country are more than 90 percent cleaner than engines that were sold just a few years ago. All around the world, though, diesel engines are much, much dirtier than the ones that power the buses on Madison Avenue in New York, the trucks on our interstates, and the heavy machinery on our farms. Sulfur levels in countries like China, India, and Mexico are more than 30 times higher than the levels in U.S. diesel fuel—and in countries throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere, sulfur levels can be as much as 300 times higher. At these sulfur levels, diesel engines lack even the most basic emissions controls, exposing people to even dirtier, more dangerous fumes -- up to 100 times more polluted than exhaust from new diesel engines. Despite our progress, there are still millions of dirty diesel engines on American roads today. Congress passed bipartisan legislation to retrofit and replace America's dirtiest diesels, but hasn't committed the funding to make it happen. Worldwide, governments need to commit to phasing in cleaner fuels and using more modern diesel engine technology. Dumping dirty diesel is a move that will save hundreds of thousands of lives each year. About the Authors Peter Lehner Former Executive Director Join Us
Games can be so much fun that people devote much of their waking time to them. As they do so, their skill grows, which can make the game even more compelling. At some point, for some people, the game becomes so important that it begins to impinge upon the player's other valued activities, such as other interests or social relationships, and the player's life begins to deteriorate. How can this happen? In a recent book on one of the oldest and purest competitive games—chess—anthropologist Robert Desjarlais takes up this question (among many others). He suggests the possibility that those who play a game seriously may do so because it is a haven of meaningfulness in a world that often seems meaningless. Desjarlais writes (Counterplay, p. 114): "To begin a chess game is to step into the unknown, to foresee vague possibilities, to encounter formations at once familiar and unexpected."A game is like a highly simplified version of everyday life. One's decisions have consequences for the future. We know that each move we make, in life or in a game, determines a unique path for the future. In both chess and life, our possible paths are in practice infinite. However, in chess it will become obvious relatively quickly whether you made the right choices, because there will be an ending, in which you will win, lose or draw. In this, chess is like a story: there is an ending that makes it clear what it all meant. In life, there is an ending, but we don't get to know what it is, because we are dead. The point is that games are like living life-we make decisions that influence the outcome-but in games the situation is set up so that we can know how it all adds up. This adding up, this meaningfulness, is one of the most important things that draws people to games. But it is not at all unusual for players of chess, like players of many other games (role-playing games, video games, games of chance, etc.) to begin to feel that the world of the game is more meaningful than the world of everyday life. It could be the personality of the player, or it could be the nature of the player's everyday world, or it could be that the player is really good at the game and falls for the rewards of playing. Whatever the reason, when the meaning of the game outweighs the meaning of the world, something that enhances life has slipped into something that detracts from it. It's an open question whether this situation should be called addiction. After all, classic drug addictions aren't typically based in the search for meaning. But it is useful, in our attempt to understand why a person can get pulled into something that begins to take over their life, that the problem can even be based in something that virtually defines our humanity: our quest for meaning. To learn more, please visit Peter G. Stromberg's website. Photo by Sourabh Massey. You are reading Sex, Drugs, and Boredom What Is Neuroanthropology? How brains and culture interact Are Mental Disorders Like Physical Diseases? How different are mental disorders in different cultures? Celebrities and Scapegoats It can be dangerous to be beautiful
Early Trial Results Show New Malaria Vaccine Stimulates Strong Immune Response A mosquito sucking blood — The red bump and itching caused by a mosquito bite is actually an allergic reaction to the mosquito’s saliva. NIH.gov, March 4, 2010 — A new candidate vaccine to prevent clinical malaria has passed an important hurdle on the development path, according to researchers from the University of Bamako in Mali, West Africa and the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development. In a new study of the candidate vaccine in young children in Mali, researchers found it stimulated strong and long-lasting immune responses. The antibody levels the vaccine produced in the children were as high or even higher than the antibody levels found in adults who have naturally developed protective immune responses to the parasite over lifelong exposure to malaria. The new candidate vaccine is based on a single strain of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite—the most common and deadliest form of the protozoa—and targets malaria in the blood stage. The blood stage refers to the period following initial infection by mosquito bite when the parasite multiplies in red blood cells, causing disease and death. The team tested the vaccine in 100 children ages 1-6 in rural Mali. It was shown to be safe and well tolerated, and strong antibody responses were sustained for at least a year. Based on results from this early trial, the research teams will hold a larger trial of 400 Malian children to further evaluate its effectiveness. That study also will examine whether the vaccine—though it is based on a single strain of falciparum malaria—can protect against the other strains of Plasmodium falciparum. Thera MA, Doumbo OK, Coulibaly D, Laurens MB, Kone AK, et al. Safety and Immunogenicity of an AMA1 Malaria Vaccine in Malian Children: Results of a Phase 1 Randomized Controlled Trial. PLoS ONE, 2010; 5 (2): e9041 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009041 Caspar Controls Resistance to Plasmodium falciparum in Diverse Anopheline Species In this study, researchers studied the interaction between Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes human malaria, and its mosquito host, Anopheles gambiae. They found that a single mosquito gene called caspar, which helps to regulate the mosquito’s immune response, appears to confer resistance to the parasite. When this gene is silenced, Plasmodium falciparum is unable to develop in three different mosquito species that carry malaria to humans. In the future, this gene could be used to develop novel malaria control methods that would apply to different species of Anopheline mosquitoes around the world. Garver LS., Dong Y., and Dimopoulos G. (2009) Caspar control resistant to Plasmodium falciparum in diverse Anopheline species. PLoS Pathogens. Invasion of mosquito salivary gland requires interaction between malaria parasite and mosquito proteins The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum must undergo a complex series of developmental stages inside the mosquito in order to ensure its transmission to humans. The final stage of development which allows the parasite to be transmitted is the sporozoite, the infectious form of P. falciparum. The sporozoite must be present in the mosquito salivary gland tissue in order to be transmitted to humans during a mosquito’s blood feeding. NIAID-supported researchers have recently shed light on the interaction between the sporozoite stage and the mosquito salivary gland. Led by Dr. Anil Ghosh of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, scientists identified a protein (saglin) as the receptor for the sporozoite surface protein TRAP. An enhanced understanding of how malaria sporozoites invade mosquito salivary glands is important because if this process can be blocked, no transmission of the parasite from mosquitoes to humans will occur. Ghosh AK, et al. Malaria parasite invasion of the mosquito salivary gland requires interaction between the Plasmodium TRAP and the Anopheles saglin proteins. PLoS Pathog. 2009 Jan;5(1):e1000265. The Anopheles funestus species of mosquito is an important but understudied vector of malaria in Africa, where more than 300 million acute cases of the disease occur each year. Insecticides, which contain the chemical compound pyrethroid, have been used as an effective tool in controlling mosquito populations. Unfortunately, resistance in mosquitoes to pyrethroid is increasing which has lessened the effectiveness of this insecticide in malaria control efforts. Identification of the genes involved in resistance and development of diagnostic tests that are easily deployed in the field and are sufficiently sensitive to identify the emergence of resistance are essential to developing more effective vector control methods. In a study, supported by NIAID, a research team, led by Dr. Charles Wondji of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, identified the major genes conferring pyrethroid resistance in An. funestus. They identified two specific P450 genes and established that these genes could be used as valid resistance markers in laboratory-raised strains of An. funestus. Studies are underway to establish if these markers will be useful in mosquitoes which are found in the field. Wondji, Charles, et. al. Two duplicated P450 genes are associated with pyrethroid resistance in Anopheles funestus, a major malaria vector. Genome Research. February 5, 2009. The-Scientist.com, March 4, 2010 — It’s like Hollywood in the fish room of the animal biology department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dave Ernst, the lab tech, points the camera through a peep hole in a black plastic drape towards a small fish tank, while behind him, postdoc Katie McGhee dips a net into a larger tank of juvenile three-spined sticklebacks, ready to pick out the day’s first star. “C’mon, who wants to be famous?” she clucks, transferring a fish via a plastic beaker to the smaller tank to be filmed. The camera rolls. The selected stickleback does what sticklebacks do—it swims. It circles up and down the smaller tank, pokes around the fake plants at the bottom, then moves back up the water column, its little fish mouth swishing back and forth. Meanwhile, McGhee gets into what she calls “pike position.” Crouching behind the tank, she dangles a green ceramic replica of a pike—a common stickleback predator—above the water. At the 3-minute mark, she drops the fake pike into the water and slides it back and forth along the tank’s back wall. Upon seeing the intruder, the stickleback freezes in the bottom right corner of the tank. But after a few minutes the fish gets positively cheeky, swimming right up to the pike’s head, before seemingly losing interest and meandering off nearby. After 9 minutes, the stickleback’s time in the spotlight is over. There are still about 130 more fish to film before going through the footage to assess individual differences in factors like how actively each fish foraged in the tank before the pike appeared and how it responded to the predator’s presence. Scientists are finding that fish raised by a father (the species’ sole caretaker) tend to take fewer risks with predators than fish raised in incubators. Ultimately, the scientists also hope to probe the genomic underpinnings of this behavioral variation. Or,as they’re calling it, the differences in stickleback personality. Classic “personality” traits include boldness, shyness, aggression, curiosity, sociability, and level of activity. Though it sounds like an almost heretical term to use for fish, “personality,” say McGhee and her boss, Alison Bell, is nothing more than consistent, individual differences in behavior. And in any species—even surprising ones such as squid, birds, and insects—one can find such variability in spades. Meaning that, even if their environment is the same, one individual will consistently act differently from another. Classic traits include shyness or boldness in response to threats such as the presence of a predator, and aggression to conspecifics, but there’s also how actively an individual explores a new environment—curiosity, one might say—or how sociable it is, or its general level of activity. While these are the traits most widely studied so far, Bell and others say they’re probably just a start. In some cases, personality traits might be heritable, while in others they might develop as a learned response to differences in conditions of an organism’s life—the kind of parental care it receives, for example, as in McGhee’s experiment, or an influx of predators into its habitat. Download Flash player to listen to Alison Bell, who studies personality in sticklebacks and Luc-Alain Giraldeau, a self-described ‘old school ecologist’ from the University of Quebec in Montreal. Listen to Alison Bell, who studies personality in sticklebacks at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Luc-Alain Giraldeau, a self-described “old school ecologist” from the University of Quebec in Montreal, who doesn’t quite buy the idea of animal personality, debate this growing area of research. Despite the environmental component, personality can be more than just a learned response to environment, since a learned behavior can be forgotten relatively quickly. Bell likens personality to factors such as height or weight, which clearly can have both a genetic and an environmental component, while being more stable. “I would say the key thing to personality is that there is individual variation and individual consistency,” she says. That variation and consistency might also explain why some individuals might learn from their environment faster than others. The field of animal personality has become a fad, with few novel ideas to offer behavioral and evolutionary biology at large, says Luc-Alain Giraldeau. It’s not at all obvious from an evolutionary standpoint why these consistent individual differences should appear in many species—why one stickleback might repeatedly venture out in search of its next meal while a pike lurks nearby, for instance, but another consistently hides behind a rock until the danger passes. “People say there’s no way a fish can be smart enough” to have what humans call personality, says Bell. “But having personality is actually a stupid thing to do.” Consider a species of spider in which particularly aggressive females have a leg up on both fighting off predators and competing for food. That aggression, though, spills over into another context—those females may not be able to hold back from cannibalizing a potential mate, cutting off their chance to reproduce. This is clearly not optimum behavior.1 The central question for animal personality researchers, then, is how such a range of differences might have evolved. And if these differences are maintained in a population, they must carry some adaptive value. If so, what is it? Even scientists in the field’s inner circle can be skittish about applying the term “personality” to the likes of fish and spiders. Of course, there are many other reasons besides personality for why individual animals behave differently in the same environment. Ants become workers versus drones and bees or naked mole rats take on their roles within the colony due to their genetics or based on strictly environmental cues, like how much nutrition an organism got in development. Alternatively, an organism might come by its role over time, as in bees, who start out as workers and become foragers later in life. A couple key caveats illustrate how personality is different. First, while selection pressures on personality traits would be acting on individuals, in social organisms they’d more often be acting on the group as a whole, since only some individuals are able to reproduce. Additionally, while colony roles tend to be distinct, personality traits are on a continuous gradient; in other words, you can be more or less shy or bold, but you’re categorically either a worker or a drone. The field is not without naysayers. Even scientists in its inner circle can be skittish about applying the term “personality” to the likes of fish and spiders. Others say the data don’t necessarily support the concept that these consistent, individual differences in behavior reflect a distinct phenomenon, whether it’s called “personality” or not. The field has become a fad, claims Luc-Alain Giraldeau, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Quebec at Montréal, with few novel ideas to offer behavioral and evolutionary biology at large. “Animal personality does not have the foundations of theory,” he says. “So when we find it, we don’t know exactly what we’ve learned about biology.” It’s no surprise that animals of all kinds react differently to their surroundings, but for the most part, researchers have historically assumed that an individual organism’s behavior follows the rules of maximum fitness in any given situation, changing its behavior as the situation dictates. If the amount of food available in a habitat suddenly drops, for example, or changes location, an animal ups its foraging activity or changes its search strategy. Variation around this ideal response, in classical models of behavior, was considered to be simply noise. So when is it personality, and when just “noise” around an optimal response? But variability among individual animals that persists regardless of circumstances—whether that variability benefits survival or not—suggests there may be more to the story. One of the earliest observations by behavioral ecologists of this type of variability was published by Felicity Huntingford, a functional ecologist at the University of Glasgow, in 1976. Sticklebacks who were bold, she observed—that is, who didn’t shy away from predators—also tended to pick fights with members of their own species. Furthermore, individuals measured at different points in their lives tended to maintain the same level of aggression and boldness relative to other members of their group. That consistency in individuals implied that some fish behaved more boldly and aggressively than others not because their circumstances dictated those responses, but because that’s just how they were. In some cases, personality traits might be heritable. Huntingford’s 1976 study lay dormant and rarely cited in the literature, perhaps at best an observational curiosity, for almost 20 years. But in the early to mid-1990s, researchers began to study the continuum of traits such as boldness and shyness in species in which you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see them, perhaps most notably David Sloan Wilson, who studied fish at the University of Binghamton in New York. Meanwhile, other labs began observing individual differences in foraging, risk-taking, and other types of behaviors in the wild. Piet Drent’s group at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology found that great tits who were quick to explore novel environments—so-called fast explorers—were not very good at picking up on changes to those environments, such as when the researchers moved the food. Birds who were slower to explore, however, were better at switching up the routine. By following a natural population over 5 years, the group provided evidence that these so-called personality traits were heritable. The researchers found that different personality types also seemed to be differentially affected by selection pressures depending on the circumstances. In a year when extra food wasn’t present, fast explorers fared poorer than slow, perhaps because they were slow to pick up on this change to their environment. A more recent example from the avian world also highlights how individual behavioral differences can sometimes be adaptive. As a postdoc at Harvard, Renée Duckworth wanted to study how a factor such as choice of habitat changes the make-up of the population of two sister species of bluebirds in the northwest United States. “I never intended to work on animal personality,” recalls Duckworth, an evolutionary biologist now at the University of Arizona. “I actually started from the viewpoint of assuming I was going to find a lot of phenotypic plasticity.” The two species she studied don’t coexist, and when western bluebirds colonize areas already inhabited by mountain bluebirds, they force the latter to find new homes. In tracking the animals over several breeding seasons, she found that certain western birds, specifically the aggressive ones, go off to colonize new regions. Those animals also aren’t as attentive parents, so they have fewer offspring. After the colonizers have lived there a while, the more consistently mellow western bluebirds, who also tend to have more offspring overall, come in to take advantage of the newly captured land. The link between aggression, dispersal, and parental behavior is “a whole suite of traits that’s basically integrated into [the animals’] life history strategy,” Duckworth says. Meanwhile, Denis Réale, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Quebec at Montréal, was also encountering individual behavioral differences that reflected animals’ life histories. While conducting a population genetics study on a group of bighorn sheep on a mountaintop in Alberta, the students tagging the animals once per year told Réale they could predict from how the sheep had behaved last year whether they’d be easy to tag or not. “At first I thought it was kind of funny—an anecdote,” he says. “The more I thought about it, the more I wondered, why do we have this variation in what we would call docility?” They started to track how easily the animals could be handled. The team found that male animals who were more aggressive also reproduced early in life, and those who were more docile sired later. Those aggressive early in life often sired lambs even at 2 or 3 years of age, but rarely survive past 8 years. Docile animals generally didn’t start reproducing until they were 5 or 6, but lived much longer, and ultimately became dominant in the group. Globally, though, they attained the same level of fitness, in terms of number of offspring. Studies such as Duckworth’s, Drent’s, Réale’s and Huntingford’s showed “that there was a relationship between [traits that] was kind of surprising,” says Judy Stamps, a behavioral ecologist at the University of California, Davis. “Basically, it says that for whatever reason, these things are tied together.” Animal personality researchers say they’ve observed meaningful and consistent individual differences in organisms including hermit crabs, squirrels, sheep, spiders, and lizards, to name a few. So when is it personality, and when just “noise” around an optimal response? “My pet idea,” says Bell, “is that sticklebacks will behave consistently under high predation pressure but not low [predation pressure],” she says. In a recent study, she took a population of the fish in which aggression and boldness were not correlated and exposed them for a day to hungry rainbow trout predators who were allowed to eat half the prey population. Voilá—in the remaining sticklebacks, the pair of personality traits became linked, with some fish consistently bolder than others, and the bolder ones also consistently more aggressive. The association between such traits seems to be heritable, according to Niels Dingemanse, an evolutionary ecologist at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen. Offspring of a population of sticklebacks that had a history of predation showed more consistent personalities than offspring whose parents were naïve to predator threats. The study needs to be replicated before firm conclusions can be drawn, says Dingemanse, who did his PhD in Drent’s great tit lab, but he suggests that the effect might be due to genetic variation in some complex of genes, which are expressed differently when the population experiences predators. Alternatively, he says that the traits might be regulated by a single gene with a pleiotropic effect—that is, acting on a handful of phenotypes at once. “If there’s no predator, that gene is silenced somehow,” he speculates, but when the population is threatened it switches on, and “all these things become correlated.” Animal personality researchers say they’ve observed meaningful and consistent individual differences in organisms including hermit crabs, squirrels, sheep, spiders, and, lizards,7 to name a few, not to mention organisms like primates. But calling those differences “personality” remains controversial. At a behavior meeting in Oxford last December, Bell recalls, one postdoc gave a talk on individual differences in the behavior of aphids, plant-eating insects, in response to their ladybug predators. In the presence of a ladybug, an aphid will either drop from its leaf or hang on; the speaker suggested that some individuals consistently take one route, while some the other, referring to this variance as a personality trait throughout her talk. When it came time for questions, “she got ripped,” says Bell, by audience members who claimed the word “personality” shouldn’t be used in an insect for such a mundane behavior. But Bell can’t see what the fuss is about; if you define personality as consistent individual differences in behavior, that’s a definition that applies to more than just complex species. “If that’s the definition we want to use, then why do we want to restrict ourselves to one kind of organism?” However, some researchers who study such individual differences in behavior eschew the word “personality,” instead favoring monikers such as “behavioral syndromes” or “temperament,” or simply “variability,” in part to sidestep any semblance of anthropomorphizing. “I don’t really use the term,” says Duckworth. “I think it invokes too much about humans.” Alison Bell can’t see what the fuss is about; if you define personality as consistent individual differences in behavior, “then why do we want to restrict ourselves to one kind of organism?” Terminology, though, isn’t the only objection. Evolutionary biologists have studied variation and how it persists for decades, and the same explanations for the persistence of variation in traits like morphology and color should also apply to behavior, says Alex Kacelnik, a behavioral ecologist at Oxford University. The focus on behavioral variation is producing some interesting findings, he notes, but he’s not convinced that the novel explanations some personality researchers invoke are warranted. Researchers often claim that certain correlated traits reflect personality, but those correlated traits might have a common cause that doesn’t have to do with personality, he says. For example, an animal might be willing to forage farther from its home and eat more diverse food for a reason related to personality—because it is generally more receptive to new environments—or simply because it is more mobile, and by nature of that fact, encounters a more varied diet. What’s more, says Giraldeau, animal personality researchers haven’t come up with a good theoretical framework that explains why the consistent differences they describe have evolved or predicts which behaviors can be called personality and which are, in fact, merely noise or some other phenomenon. One species might be aggressive in several contexts, from mating to responding to predators, he says, and so might another, but it might not be for the same reason. “I’m not convinced there is a unique phenomenon being addressed here,” he says. Of course, says Dingemanse, studying variation and its adaptive value is nothing new for evolutionary biologists and ecologists. But for the most part, he notes, researchers have looked at traits as averages from within the population or species—that is, some species might be said to be on the whole bolder than others. Previously, scientists have also assumed that traits are fully flexible, meaning that any individual can be as shy or as bold as the situation demands. By focusing on variation between individuals, not between species or populations, the animal personality field “asks questions that have not been asked,” he says. “The study of animal personalities is just the logical continuation of looking at variation in more detail.” If these individual differences are maintained in a population, they must carry some adaptive value. If so, what is it? Also, existing models in evolutionary theory aren’t very good at dealing with correlated clusters of traits, notes Max Wolf, a postdoc at the Centre for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Aggressive individuals might be bolder and have different styles of exploration than nonaggressive ones, or they might parent differently; what interests personality researchers is how one behavioral trait develops over time and how different behavioral traits interact with each other. Previous scientists “traditionally took a much more simplified approach [of] one trait at a time,” he says. On top of that, says Bell, studies of animal personality have exposed problems with long-held evolutionary models. Take, for example, mate selection, which is based on the assumption that females of a single population all have the same preferences and that they are all equally choosy. But her lab recently published a meta-analysis of studies on a wide variety of organisms that found the opposite. Different females don’t all pick the largest, fittest male; just as with humans, there often seems to be no rhyme or reason for mate choice. Yet the fact that classical models are static in this way leads to an inaccurate picture of selection pressures, Bell says. Animal personality researchers agree that for the field to move forward, it must develop theoretical models explaining how or why stable individual differences might have evolved. One of the first computational models, published by Wolf, Franjo Weissing, and their colleagues at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands posits that individuals differ in their risk-taking behavior, with those that have more to lose, evolutionarily speaking, developing personality traits that could be described as more cautious. Another proposed by Stamps, but with as yet no math to back it up, links suites of personality traits to individual differences in physiology; individuals with a fast metabolism need to consume more resources, thus tend to be bolder and more aggressive. But so far, no single theory explains the range of empirical data on personality that researchers have amassed. Researchers working on these theoretical models therefore are beginning to test their predictions in the field and the lab. Those tests, says Weissing, will determine whether the concept of animal personality has much to add to behavioral biology. “In 10 years we will know much more.” Fish with True Person-alities Read more: Odd Man Out – The Scientist – Magazine of the Life Sciences http://www.the-scientist.com/2010/3/1/34/1/#ixzz0hEP3FzA3 If They Have Human Created AI, Do They Also Have Person-alities? The robots are designed to look like carp and swim like real fish so they won’t scare the local meat-based wildlife while patrolling the port of Gijon. Each robo-carp costs upwards of £20,000 to make, measures 1.5 meters long (about the size of a seal) and can swim a maximum speed of about one meter per second (~2.24mph). Five fish are being built by a robotics team at the University of Essex’s school of computer science and electronic engineering. The project has been funded by the European Commission and is being coordinated by the engineering consultancy firm, BMT Group. “In using robotic fish we are building on a design created by hundreds of millions of years’ worth of evolution which is incredibly energy efficient,” said BMT senior research scientists, Rory Doyle. “This efficiency is something we need to ensure that our pollution detection sensors can navigate in the underwater environment for hours on end.” See the fish in action: Robo-carp In Action Image: John Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare You’ve awakened into the dream world. In sleep paralysis, two of the key REM sleep components are present, but you’re not unconscious. Narcolepsy, which can be linked with sleep paralysis, has a similar pathology. For narcoleptics, some of the elements of rapid eye movement can “come out of nowhere,” he McCarty said. But the condition lived in folklore long before anyone tried to subject it to even semi-rigorous study. The various responses have fascinated some researchers and they were cataloged in the 2007 book, Tall Tales About the Mind and Brain. In Japan, the problem was termed kanashibar. In Newfoundland, people called it “the old hag.” In China, “ghost oppression” was the preferred nomenclature. A study released earlier this year found that more than 90 percent of Mexican adolescents know the phrase “a dead body climbed on top of me” to describe the disorder. More than 25 percent of them had experienced it themselves. Having an element of REM sleep mix with your consciousness is scarier than it sounds. I experienced sleep paralysis on several occasions when I was in college. I can testify: It’s run-to-your-mama scary. In my case, it would happen right as I was falling asleep on the two twin beds that I had taped together. The most vivid time, I “woke up” with the uneasy feeling that something awful was to my left, on the border of my peripheral vision. I couldn’t really see it, but I knew that it was evil and coming closer to me. I felt true terror, like you experience when you are about to get in a car crash. I was sure it was going to hurt me. After a few minutes, I could finally move and took the opportunity to run across campus to a friend’s house and asked to sleep on the couch. With the lights on. It happened a few more times. Then, it just stopped. It hasn’t ever happened again. The good news, McCarty said, is that my experience is actually pretty standard. Sleep paralysis rarely persists or causes serious life damage. “It’s very common, way more common than people realize, but usually it doesn’t recur,” he said. “It’s not frequent enough to make people come in and ask the doctor for help.” Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/sleep_paralysis/#ixzz0hEtQwIRu NeuronCulture.com, by David Dobbs — Like so many things that work in medicine, adjuvants were discovered more or less by accident — and were in fact a “dirty little secret” in a fairly literal sense. As the Wikipedia entry puts it, summarizing neatly some materials from a paywalled The Scientist article a couple years back: “Adjuvants have been whimsically called the dirty little secret of vaccines [4] in the scientific community. This dates from the early days of commercial vaccine manufacture, when significant variations in the effectiveness of different batches of the same vaccine were observed, correctly assumed to be due to contamination of the reaction vessels. However, it was soon found that more scrupulous attention to cleanliness actually seemed to reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines, and that the contaminants – “dirt” – actually enhanced the immune response.” At that point, vaccine geeks started trying various additives to see (in animals) how to boost vaccine effectiveness — and had fair luck, which they didn’t quite understand. As a fine account of this work by Iayork, of the fabulous blog Mystery Rays from Outer Space, puts it: Sounds scary, and I suppose it is — but then again, a lot of things in medicine work this way. But don’t get skeered; we use not the eye of newt. Early on in that run of adjuvant experimentation, immunologists recognzied that one adjuvant in particular, the above-mentioned alum (or alum salts), dissolved in mineral oil, was both effective and safe to use in humans. While a few new adjuvants are coming online (most notably MF59, the adjuvant used in seasonal flu vaccines in the EU, as well as in many of the swine-flu vaccines now being made), the most common adjuvant for human vaccines remains alum, and alum is, at this point, the only adjuvant approved for use in the U.S. Now we get to the “Eureka” part of the tale. In 1989, Yale immunologist Charles Janeway, and one of a long line of distinguished physicians in his family (his dad was a noted pediatrician), gave a startling lecture at an annual symposium at the Cold Spring Harbor in which he proposed a solution to the adjuvant mystery — and to the larger mystery of vaccines. Asked by Cold Spring Harbor director James Watson, of double helix fame, to write the introductory essay to a summer symposium, Janeway “agreed,” he later recalled, “with the proviso that [I] could write about anything [I] wanted to.” What he wrote was “Approaching the Asymptote: Revolution and Evolution in Immunology,” which laid out the ‘pattern recognition’ theory, now dominant, by which the immune system mobilizes when it recognizes conserved features (that is, typical features that are conserved through evolutionary time because they work well) of pathogens. Accordingly, as Iayork puts it, adjuvants work because they mimic these conserved pathogen-assocaited molecular patterns. (Polly Matzinger [another giant of immunology] also proposed a related model, in which immune responses start because cells are damaged — the danger-signal hypothesis.) Since then, many of the pathogen-associated patterns have been identified, and many of the pattern receptors have been identified; adjuvants are no longer magic, they’re science. In rough terms, the pattern-recognition and danger-signal theories can make room for each other. (Though people argue about this.) They describe two different triggers for the immune system. One, pattern recognition, is a threat-detection alarm that mobilizes the immune system simply because a stranger enters the house. The other, the danger-signal response, rallies the troops because the stranger — someone who didn’t look nasty, apparently — has begun breaking up the furniture. These seemed to explain how many adjuvants worked, and they have helped (and are helping) scientists design new adjuvants now. But as Iayork notes, there remains a weird exception to this understanding y. These theories account for all adjuvants … except for one: Alum, the most important one of all (because it’s the main adjuvant jused for human vaccines). It alone remains unexplained. Which is why, as Vincent Raceniello recently told me, “We still don’t really understand how most adjuvants work.” As Iayork notes, a recent paper argued that alum’s activity comes from uric acid, which is released by dying or damaged cells (and is a powerful natural adjuvant), and that alum thus works along the lines proposed by Metzinger’s danger hypothesis: alum, mimicking uric acid, sends a danger signal that accelerates the body’s immune response. Jury’s still out on that one, though, so alum’s action still remains unexplained. (Oct 2, 2009: Alert reader passionlessdrone notes another paper, this one from Nature, argues that alum sets off the danger signal via another route.) This puts me in mind of two things: that (as every ER doctor knows): that kids who spend more time on floors develop stronger immune systems; and that — as every ER doc and surgeon knows — a ragged incision (a tear) will heal faster (if not prettier) than a clean, straight incision made by a scalpel. A little sloppiness can draw a stronger response. And we often don’t know why something that works, works. Mass Extinctions and Genomics Mobile DNA Gain and Loss Upon insertion: CCCAAAGGG——————-CCCAAAGGG Generations later: CCGAATGGG——————-CCCAGAGAG Loss of LTRs in Mammals Mammals Rule: Time to Clean House Genome? This article has been slashdotted. Exercise extreme caution. WorldHealth.net, March 4, 2010 Oats have been long proposed to have heart healthy benefits, and US Agriculture Research Services (ARS) researchers have elucidated the mechanism for this association. Previously Mohsen Meydani, from Tufts University (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues have shown that phenolic antioxidants in oats obstruct the ability of blood cells to stick to artery walls. In new research, the team has found that another oat compound, avenanthramides, decrease the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The study provides additional indications of the potential health benefit of oat consumption in the prevention of coronary heart disease beyond its known effect through lowering blood cholesterol. Close-up of a chewy granola bar showing the detail of its pressed shape. Continue reading… http://www.worldhealth.net/news/oats-reduce-inflammation/ Opt for coarse or steel-cut oats over instant varieties—which contain more fiber—and top your bowl off with a banana for another 4 grams of fiber, and/or blueberries or strawberries. Oatmeal cookies with raisins
Make your own free website on CIA Meddling in Latin America -- 1954 to 2002 compiled by Steve Kangas "The United States seems destined by Providence to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty." --Simon Bolivar The Bay of Pigs - The CIA sends 1,500 Cuban exiles to invade Castro's Cuba. But "Operation Mongoose" fails, due to poor planning, security and backing. The planners had imagined that the invasion will spark a popular uprising against Castro -- which never happens. A promised American air strike also never occurs. This is the CIA's first public setback, causing President Kennedy to fire CIA Director Allen Dulles. ["Before January 1959, Cuba's economy was dominated by US interests, which owned 40% of the sugar production, including seven of the ten largest estates, 90% of the telephone and electricity utilities, the oil refineries, most of the mining industry, and some of the banks." --Oxfam America, Cuba: Going Against the Grain] ["In February 1955, Vice President Richard Nixon traveled to Havana to embrace Batista at the despot's lavish private palace, praise 'the competence and stability' of his regime, award him a medal of honor, and compare him with Abraham Lincoln. Nixon hailed Batista's Cuba as a land that 'shares with us the same democratic ideals of peace, freedom and the dignity of man.' "When he returned to Washington, the vice president reported to the cabinet that Batista was 'a very remarkable man ... older and wiser ... desirous of doing a good job for Cuba rather than Batista ... concerned about social progress...' And Nixon reported that Batista had vowed to 'deal with the Commies.' "What Nixon omitted from his report was ... the rampant government corruption under Batista -- and the extreme poverty of most Cubans. The American vice president also ignored Batista's suspension of constitutional guarantees, his dissolution of the country's political parties, and his use of the police and army to murder political opponents. Twenty thousand Cubans reportedly died at the hands of Batista's thugs." --Don Fulsom, The Mob's President: Richard Nixon's Secret Ties to the Mafia] Dominican Republic - The CIA assassinates Rafael Trujillo, a murderous dictator Washington has supported since 1930. Trujillo's business interests have grown so large (about 60 percent of the economy) that they have begun competing with American business interests. Brazil - A CIA-backed military coup overthrows the democratically elected government of Joao Goulart. The junta that replaces it will, in the next two decades, become one of the most bloodthirsty in history. General Castelo Branco will create Latin America's first death squads, or bands of secret police who hunt down "communists" for torture, interrogation and murder. Often these "communists" are no more than Branco's political opponents. Later it is revealed that the CIA trains the death squads. El Salvador - An idealistic group of young military officers, repulsed by the massacre of the poor, overthrows the right-wing government. However, the U.S. compels the inexperienced officers to include many of the old guard in key positions in their new government. Soon, things are back to "normal" -- the military government is repressing and killing poor civilian protesters. Many of the young military and civilian reformers, finding themselves powerless, resign in disgust. Iran/Contra Begins - The CIA begins selling arms to Iran at high prices, using the profits to arm the Contras fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. President Reagan vows that the Sandinistas will be "pressured" until "they say 'uncle.'" The CIA's Freedom Fighter's Manual disbursed to the Contras includes instruction on economic sabotage, propaganda, extortion, bribery, blackmail, interrogation, torture, murder and political assassination. Honduras - The CIA gives Honduran military officers the Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual - 1983, which teaches how to torture people. Honduras' notorious "Battalion 316" then uses these techniques, with the CIA's full knowledge, on thousands of leftist dissidents. At least 184 are murdered. The Boland Amendment - The last of a series of Boland Amendments is passed. These amendments have reduced CIA aid to the Contras; the last one cuts it off completely. However, CIA Director William Casey is already prepared to "hand off" the operation to Colonel Oliver North, who illegally continues supplying the Contras through the CIA's informal, secret, and self-financing network. This includes "humanitarian aid" donated by Adolph Coors and William Simon, and military aid funded by Iranian arms sales. Eugene Hasenfus - Nicaragua shoots down a C-123 transport plane carrying military supplies to the Contras. The lone survivor, Eugene Hasenfus, turns out to be a CIA employee, as are the two dead pilots. The airplane belongs to Southern Air Transport, a CIA front. The incident makes a mockery of President Reagan's claims that the CIA is not illegally arming the Contras. Iran/Contra Scandal - Although the details have long been known, the Iran/Contra scandal finally captures the media's attention in 1986. Congress holds hearings, and several key figures (like Oliver North) lie under oath to protect the intelligence community. CIA Director William Casey dies of brain cancer before Congress can question him. All reforms enacted by Congress after the scandal are purely cosmetic. Haiti - The chaos in Haiti grows so bad that President Clinton has no choice but to remove the Haitian military dictator, Raoul Cedras, on threat of U.S. invasion. The U.S. occupiers do not arrest Haiti's military leaders for crimes against humanity, but instead ensure their safety and rich retirements. Aristide is returned to power only after being forced to accept an agenda favorable to the country's ruling class. Venezuela - The CIA attempts to overthrow the democratically elected government of Venezuela. According to intelligence analyst Wayne Madsen, "the CIA provided Special Operations Group personnel, headed by a lieutenant colonel on loan from the U.S. Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to help organize the coup." Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has irritated the U.S. with his 2001 Hydrocarbon Law, which doubles royalties on foreign oil companies and requires a majority government stake in future joint ventures. Soldiers supporting the coup take control of the presidential palace, arrest Chavez and fly him to the Venezuelan island of La Orchil, where he is imprisoned. Businessman Pedro Carmona claims power. In his first move as president, he dissolves the democratically elected National Assembly, the Supreme Court and other key institutions, while arresting Chavez supporters. The U.S. immediately recognizes the Carmona government. However, the coup soon unravels when thousands of anti-coup protesters surround the presidential palace demanding Hugo Chavez's reinstatement. Two days later, Hugo Chavez triumphantly returns to office. The Casino Management Handbook "Essentially a conservative organization, the CIA maintains secret liaison with local security services wherever it operates. Its stations are universally part of the official communities of the host countries. Case officers live comfortable lives among the economic elite; even 'outside' or 'deep cover' case officers are part of that elite. They become conditioned to the mentality of the authoritarian figures, the police chiefs, with whom they work and socialize, and eventually share their resentment of revolutionaries who threaten the status quo. They are ill at ease with democracies and popular movements -- too fickle and hard to predict." --John Stockwell, former CIA Chief of the Angola Task Force, "In Search of Enemies" "I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar crooked fingers out of the business of these nations, so full of depressed exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own design and want ... that they fight and work for." --David Shoup, former Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and member of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, speaking at Pierce College, 14 May 1966 Shoulders of Giants Investor Fugitive Robert Lady
Students - How to improve your memory when you are studying for exams Students, do you wish your memory would work better? Are you forgetting things you eagerness to know, especially when you studying for an exam in school or university? Strikingly of us would like to lap up a better memory, especially if we are students. A good memory sure would produce handy around probing time. Here are some memory enhancing tips, especially because students help you remember better as you study: For a good memory, it's absolutely essential to get enough more. Your brain uses its sleeping hours to put new information into long distinguish memory storage. That's why cramming for an enormous exam can perform a poor purpose. Your brain just won't have time to store everything you need to remember. Repetition and review fault help your perspicacity master fabric greater. Whenever you love to learn something, give yourself time to review the same cloth the planned day for a few minutes. A few days later, contest the material again. This signals your brain that the leak is important. If you need to remember a long string of scholarship or numbers such considering a telephone number, or an equation, breaks the latest progress pursuit small chunks. For example, rift up the phone number into sections of two or three numbers or letters at a time, such as 555 - 204 - 1927. It's easier to treasure a few short bursts of numbers instead of a long string of ten or more numbers. Your brain consign extracts better those things that are unusual. Odd things leave have a bias to stick out in your mind, season strange things are more easily remembered. Use this leaning of your brain to support you relive the good. Try to create visual images that are blithe or eccentric to help you remember names and information. Don't try to retain everything. Letting yourself forget a few unneeded bits of information helps to leave room for the more capital stuff. If you make written lists of what you need to procure or to remember, this cede unchain up your acumen to remember other things that are more important. Schedule some breaks concernment your studying. Sitting for a want circumstance minus a break will eventually enslave your ability to swallow aggrandized information. If you transact a bit of a rant every forty or fifty minutes, your mind will be playing hardball to pay attention better. Don't live off integrated your studying till the maintain insufficient. You need to credit circumstance to understand what you are enumeration and to debate it differing times. It's easier to remember information if you actually understand the topic thoroughly. If you stick off studying until the go for a few hours before an exam, you may find that you don't posit the topic at all. Too much long term stress isn't good since anybody's memorization or thinking abilities. Try to decrease the foreboding in your life for much as you can so you can concentrate on studying. Be unambiguous to get lots of indicative physical motion. Exercise helps to oxygenate your blood, meaning that your brain has a better sell of oxygen. Exercise also helps to reduce handicap and helps you dock better later. Many people find that regular meditation helps their minds to become more confident and able to concentrate. Try to find a meditation practice that works effectively for you. You may lap up to experiment. You will find that you can think a problem much better further remember it later if you try to teach it to somebody else. Find yourself a grant buddy or two further take turns teaching each inconsistent the question you have been studying. Improve Memory, Sharpen Focus, Increase Concentration, Boost Energy, Enhance Mental Performance. Click Here! No hay comentarios: Publicar un comentario
Thursday, February 12, 2015 The media's job to shape public opinon There was a question in my JOMC 240 class today that struck me. My professor asked us if it was the media's job to shape public opinion. I thought about it for a minute and thought to myself well it is the media's job to report news fairly, but what people do with that information and how they interpret it is up to them. Now, I do think the media has a role in shaping public opinion based on societal norms and biases that people in a certain culture form about certain things and certain people. Journalists and the media should be careful about how they write their stories and how people will receive it. For example, given the recent shootings of the three students in Chapel Hill on Tuesday, some of the media covered it focusing on the student's religion more so than the fact that they were students. Some headlines wrote "Three Muslim students were killed in Chapel Hill shooting." Others like CNN read "3 students shot to death in an apartment near UNC Chapel Hill." CNN's headline is more appropriate in my opinion because it creates little bias. However, I think we should not totally ignore the fact that they were Muslim knowing it could have something to do with the murder. I also think the headline about them being Muslim was newsworthy because despite the fact that people are killed everyday, the fact that it was Muslim students and that it could have been a hate-crime makes people more aware of the issues we have in this country with race and minorities. I know we say that their names should have been mentioned before the fact that they were Muslim or that they should have been referred to as just students, but no one would see the significance behind the story. People will read it because for one it is a tragic story but secondly it points to this stigma that Americans have toward the Muslim community. I think the mention of them being Muslim even before the news media found out their names is important for people to know because it was Muslims as victims instead of Muslims as assailants. Names are very important in a news story and I think race and religion would have shown up anyway just because of the views that the American society has about Muslims. This story and their legacy represents good Muslims who were not like the radical Muslims killing innocent people in foreign countries. If I were writing about this story in a newspaper I would make it very clear that these were people first. They wanted to live their lives, be successful and serve others just as any other human being would. Then I would point to he fact that they were Muslim and proud of it because that was a huge part of who they were. So, back to whether media shapes public opinion or not. It certainly does. People are very quick to listen what the media says whether it is on Twitter, ABC news, The Daily Tar Heel, etc.Going back to the way the media handled the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, they said it was a gay-related disease, so that was what most people thought. Even to this day older generations who grew up during that time still think of it as a gay disease because that's how the media framed it. People trust in media so much that they begin to think what it says is true. That's what media companies strive for (aside from social media). They strive for truthfulness and honesty, so informing the public on something like this by focusing on the way it is phrased forces media outlets to work harder to not twist public opinion in a way that will be detrimental to the country and possibly the world. ---Rest in peace Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. You will never be forgotten. No comments: Post a Comment
sábado, 26 de febrero de 2011 After reading about the netiquette rules, one may think that a few guidelines, as in any civilized society, can help to avoid chaos amongst "netizens". However, having clear the starting point, lack of visual-gesture contact, is very important as to be sure on what is being written (meant) by taking into consideration those who are to read one's message. That is why, writing carefully is extremely necessary because, in this case, it is almost entirely the only way to get your message through. Eventhough, the use of emoticons have pretty much helped to satisfy the demands to fill this gap. Moreover, analysing the rules a bit, words, such as, remember the human, respect, help, share, be forgiving, act accordingly, think twice, give credit, be responsible, and so on, show more or less the posture one should maintain when writing on the net. So if a teacher of English is going to use this tool for his/her class, not only is the learning of English vocabulary, grammar, writing, etc, going to occupy a great deal of the class but, also, the appropriateness and idealness of it's use in order to accomplish effective communication. "Teaching: more than just lecturing" (Roettger, Roettger, Walugembe, 2007) Netiquette - study guides and strategies file Open University Netiquette summary file Master the Basics: Netiquette 2 comentarios: 1. I agree with you. Non-verbal communication which is as powerful as words needs to be dealt in a different way in online environments. Hence, the need to follow some basic rules (Netiquette). However, learning how to use them won't take much time, but it is important to stress (whenever we can) the need to communicate respectfully online. 2. That's right, teaching is definetely more than just lecturing! I wanted to add that we also must control our use of smileys, they are a tool and not the solution for everything. I have chat with some people that use smileys for everything! For long words and when they write a full sentence you just have a bunch of smileys doing different things at the same time that didn't really help you understand the message! Have that happen to you?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Growing Sunflower in Jadugoda of Jharkhand State, India can minimize radioactive pollution. Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Exposure to nuclear radiation is affecting the health of miners and villagers at Jadugoda in Singhbhum district in Jharkhand State located in Eastern India, which is India’s first uranium mining. Jadugoda, literally meaning "magic land", intrigues an outsider. The promise of magic enthralls; the mystery of the unknown attracts. But closeness reveals not innocence but an intention, dangerous and deliberate. According to different N.G.Os working among the tribal peoples of Singhbhum said the radiation may not bring sudden dramatic illness but slowly undermines the health of the people living in the surrounding villages. The diseases include blood in cough, ulcer, swelling of bone joints, asthma, eye problems, etc.The people in the Jadugoda area are affected not only by radiation from tailing dams but also by lack of safety at the mines. Fatigue, lack of appetite, respiratory ailments are wide spread. Increases in miscarriages, impotency, infant mortality, Down’s syndrome, skeletal deformities and different skin diseases, children with big heads, thalassemia have been reported. The contamination of soil and ground water with radionuclides poses a serious problem in areas affected by the precipitation and use of nuclear materials such as uranium, tritium, cesium, strontium, technetium and plutonium. A need for a cost effective and environmentally safe procedure to reclaim such lands have become a main priority. Large efforts have been conducted to reclaim contaminated lands. In recent years use of plants to remove radionuclides from the soils and the water (Phytoremediation) are gaining importance. Phytoremediation is the use of certain plants to withdrawal chemicals, compounds, and heavy metals from the soil. Knowledge of these plants, and specifically their biology, has allowed for innovative techniques to reclaim contaminated soil sites. Not all plants have the same capability to withdrawal such things as nickel, lead, cadmium, and arsenic. However, some plants can tolerate high levels of heavy metals and other toxic chemicals. These plants are referred to as hyper accumulators. The best plants used in phytoremediation are those plants that have hay crop characteristics that are tall, high yielding, fast growing, and easy to harvest. Not only do these plants uptake the unwanted material, but such plants also limit the movement of materials within the soil, and in some cases those materials can then be extracted from the plant and reused. With the help of plants, scientists have been able to start reclaiming the soil and water surrounding Chernobyl Russia. Scientists have found that sunflowers can remove radionuclides from the soil as well as water, when grown hydroponically. These sunflowers can reduce the amount of uranium concentrations in the water by up to 95%. The sunflowers are then harvested and the radioactive material within the plant is disposed of properly. The tests used sunflower plants to pull radionuclides from a pond contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl accident. According to scientists, these tests demonstrate that rhizofiltration is a practical way to treat radionuclides, including uranium, cesium, and strontium found in groundwanter. The roots of the Sunflower cultivar (Helianthus annuus L.), when submerged in water, quickly accumulate heavy metals and radionuclides. In Jadugoda where the peoples are most affected with radiation, growing Sunflower can be seen as one of the important methods to minimize toxic metals from the water and soil. To grow well, sunflowers need full sun. Jharkhand State receives sufficient sun rays through out the year. Seeing the favourable climatic conditions, local people and NGOs must be motivated to go for sunflower plantation in the affected areas. We have become too set on thinking that man can do things better than nature itself. Phytoremediation proves us wrong. We have relied on our technologies and our manmade devices too much. We have become so use to this way of thinking that we have ignored some vital nature processes. Once we understand these processes and what they entail we weave ourselves more tightly into the web of life, and thus become closer to living in harmony with nature. Tuesday, October 28, 2008 Ranchi is celebrating Diwali Ranchi sky is covered with smoke of the crackers. Stars are not visible. Monday, October 27, 2008 Ranchi getting ready for Diwali. Ranchi the capital city of Jharkhand State of India is preparing for Diwali festival which going to be celebrated on 28th of October. People are purchasing sweets, crackers, toys made of soils painted with different colours etc. In the picture below a women is found selling oil made by the extracts of plants. This oil will be used to burn lights with the help of earthy pots (diya). Such oils (Karanj oil) are the best examples of bio-fuel used in the State of Jharkhand from the ancient days. Buildings are also being decorated with lights instead of traditional methods of burning lights in the pots made of soils. My son preparing to burn crackers in the night today on the eve of Diwali Festival Buildings are getting decorated for Diwali The colourful sweets being sold in the local market. These sweets are found only in Diwali All photographs by Nitish Priyadarshi Thursday, October 23, 2008 Diamonds are also found as placers deposit. Diamonds are also found as placers deposit. Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Diamond, a gem amongst gems the crystallized carbon and the hardest mineral known is a rare gift from mother earth to humanity. With admantine luster and twinkling habit it fascinated men and women from time immemorial. To win diamonds temples have been profaned, palaces looted, thrones torn to fragments, princes tortured, women strangled, guests poisoned and slaves disemboweled. No strain of fancy in an Arabian Tale has outstripped the marvels of fact in the diamond’s history. So wrote Garner Williams, the General Manager of the renowned Diamond Company De Beers in 1890. Pliny (A.D.100) described diamond as the king of the stones known only to the kings and to them superficially only as decorative objects. Now diamonds can be possessed by those who are not necessarily kings. It is estimated that about three hundred million women own at least a piece of diamond as jewellery today. Wannenburgh in the year 1990 in his book diamond people, mentioned that each year, men and women spend almost forty billion dollars on about sixty million pieces containing some fifteen million carats of diamonds. Diamonds occurs in nature in (1) primary form in igneous rocks like kimberlite, lamproites (2) secondary in conglomerates, grits and similar sedimentary rocks, (3) in Quaternary to Recent placers and (4) extra-terrestrial, as in meteorites. Of these different sources most of the diamonds in the world are recovered from the first and the third type. Minerals which are more abundant than diamond and act as pathfinders to locate diamondiferous source rocks are considered as indicator minerals in exploration for diamonds. These are formed along with diamond in the upper mantle and brought up to the surface as xenocrysts in the kimberlite and lamproite magma. Indicator minerals useful in diamond exploration are pyrope garnet, picro- ilmenite, chrome-diopside, chromite, spinel and micro diamond. Diamonds as placers deposit: In geology, a placer deposit or placer is an accumulation of valuable minerals formed by deposition of dense mineral phases in a trap site Placer mining. (pronounced "plass-er") refers to the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit (also called open-cast mining) or by various forms of tunneling into ancient riverbeds. Excavation may be accomplished using water pressure (hydraulic mining), surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment. The name derives from Spanish, placera, meaning "alluvial sand." It refers to mining the precious metal deposits (particularly diamonds, gold and gemstones) found in alluvial deposits—deposits of sand and gravel in modern or ancient stream beds. The simplest technique to extract diamond or gold from placer ore is panning. In panning, some mined ore is placed in a large metal or plastic pan, combined with a generous amount of water, and agitated so that the gold particles, being of higher density than the other material, settle to the bottom of the pan. The lighter gangue material such as sand, mud and gravel are then washed over the side of the pan, leaving the precious stones behind. Fig. Aeolian diamond placers of Namibian desert in Africa The disintegration of primary rock due to weathering, transportation and deposition along with valuable minerals like diamond, gold, tin ore etc., give rise to placers. If the placers are very close to the source, they are known as “eluvial placers”. If shifted down the hill or slope they get grouped as “deluvial placers”. If the material gets accumulated at the foot of the hill due to gravity action it is called “colluvial placers”. The material transported by water, streams and rivers for longer distance deposited away from the source is called “alluvial placers”. Deposition along the shores of the sea results in “beach placers” and in deserts when deposition takes place by wind it is called “aeolian placers”. The secondary deposits are formed by the weathering of the kimberlite and the lamproite. The diamonds are released from the rock and then, they are transported hundreds of kilometres away to be found in river beds, beach sands, old river beds (sometime found on top of hills deep jungle forest, deserts, etc... Diamonds may also have been transported by glaciers and if the journey has been hard, rough and long, they are not to be found as they have been broken and grinded into near dust. There is no single, universally applicable method of target selection for alluvial diamond deposits. Climatic and geomorphic history, stratigraphy, structure and tectonic history are important factors that require study and need to be understood for each alluvial diamond province prior to target selection. What is appropriate in one part of the world may be entirely inappropriate in another, but there are some basic principles which must be followed in planning and executing any alluvial diamond exploration program. Before starting field exploration, it is important to have a comprehensive knowledge of (i) the regional geology of the drainage basin under revue; (ii) the constituent lithologies of the gravel being prospected for; (iii) the geomorphic and climatic factors which have affected the exploration area; (iv) the type of deposit to be sought; and (v) any post-depositional processes which may have affected the alluvial deposits being considered for exploration. World diamond occurrences were found in first in placer deposits which later led to the discovery of many primary kimberlite source rocks. Understanding the mechanism of formation of placers will help in locating areas of concentration of diamond in placers deposits. Diamondiferous residual rubble and clay found on the mainland of Tanzania developed over weathered kimberlite pipe is a typical example of eluvial placer deposit. Diamondiferous placer of Namibian desert in Africa is a classic example of aeolian placer. Precambrian diamond bearing conglomerate of Diamantina in Brazil, diamondiferous moraines of Michigan and Wisconsin in United States of America are example of glacial placers. The diamantiferous gravels of the Belgian Congo, which yield about two-thirds of the world production, are former stream gravels, and the diamonds probably came originally from weathered kimberlite pipes, several of which are known within the Congo. Some diamonds also occur in the Lulua, Zambesi, and other basins. The Orange River forms a geographic dividing-line between the nations of South Africa and Namibia. For the last hundred million years, the Orange has been carrying eroded diamondiferous kimberlite material from its source on the Kaapvaal Craton, in central South Africa and Botswana. Diamond-bearing material was deposited in river bank gravels and alluvium as it traveled westward towards the Atlantic Ocean. Other diamondiferous material was re-distributed by wind action, settling to form eluvial deposits in the desert. Material that completed the journey was deposited in beach terrace sediments, or redistributed by northerly ocean currents, to off-shore marine deposits on the sea floor. These secondary alluvial land and marine deposits are Namibia's only source for diamonds, but the Orange River has left an enormous amount of diamondiferous material in the vast drainage basin stretching 150 miles from Oranjemund to Elizabeth Bay. As the sea-level receded, diamond-bearing sediments were exposed, and eventually covered by blowing sand. Land-based secondary deposits must be excavated from this sedimentary layer that lies beneath a deep layer of surface sand. In Jharkhand state of India diamonds were reported in Chotanagpur area (ancient name Kokrah) in the Brahmani, Sankh and Koel river basins as mentioned in old records. Records show that near Simah in Palamau district in the Sankh River, near Rajadera (Rajadera is a saucer shaped village, is situated 19 km from Chainpur and about 26 km south of Netarhat) and in Sadni falls originating point of Sankh River, active diamond mines existed. These mines are stated to have yielded in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries many large and fine stones especially from Sankh River. Diamonds were washed from the sands and gravels of river Gouel. The river is probably North koel, a tributary of Son. On the banks of this river an ancient township Semah/Semelpur existed. According to the old reports about 8000 people are stated to have worked in these mines. Raigarh in the upper reaches of Mahanadi river, west of Hirakud, Orissa in India, is also known to have been active in diamond mining since ancient times. Local tribals carry out small scale panning and recover diamonds from alluvial and colluvial placers. Mr. T.K. Rau of Geological survey of India recovered micro-and macro diamonds from the heavy mineral concentrates of beach samples from the southern tip of India. The diamonds exhibit varied tints of which white, pink and yellow are prominent. · Babu, T.M. Diamonds in India. 1998. Geological Society of India, Bangalore, India. · Bateman, A.M. 1955. Economic Mineral Deposits, John Wiley and Sons, New York. · Rau, T.K., 2006. Incidence of diamonds in the beach sands of the Kanyakumari Coast, Tamil Nadu, Journal of the Geological Society of India, vol.67, no1, pp.11-16. Sunday, October 19, 2008 Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Coal contains methane gas as an inherent component but in widely variable proportions depending on the rank of coal and depth of occurrence. Its presence in coal has so far been considered a hazard as it is an inflammable and explosive gas and there have been many fire accidents in coal mines throughout the world due to this gas. In recent years, coal bed methane has become a good source of clean thermal energy for its easy inflammability and it has come up as an additional energy resource from the coal basins especially in the countries like USA, Australia and China. Deep seated coal seams of comparatively high rank contain considerable volume of methane adsorbed on coal surfaces. Unlike much natural gas from conventional reservoirs, coal bed methane contains very little heavier hydrocarbons such as propane or butane, and no natural gas condensate. It often contains up to a few percent carbon dioxide. India is struggling to find enough energy sources to meet up the growing energy demand coupled with economic growth. Indian government is now exploring alternative sources too. Indian government has received 54 bids to extract coal-bed methane (CBM) from various domestic and foreign energy companies. This is the highest amount of bids the government has ever received. 18 domestic companies and 8 foreign companies have submitted their bids to extract methane from ten areas. It shows CBM has a good prospect in India. At present, many foreign companies are setting up their plants in India. In addition, Indian companies are targeting the global market. This rapid industrialization has made India an energy hungry country. As the price of oil continues remain high in the international market, CBM can be a good source of energy for India in future. In fact, India is going to start commercial production of CBM from 2007. Some states of India contains good reserve of coal. The prospect for coal bed methane is mainly related to the coal resources of the country. India has huge Gondwana (mainly Permian, 99.5%) and Tertiary (Eocene and Oligocene) coal deposits distributed in several basins located in peninsular and extra-peninsular regions. About 204 billion tons of coal reserves have been established and approximately 200 million tons or so are likely to be added in the near future by further explorations. In India prospects of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) is not very bright, as most of the Indian coals are of inferior quality and of low rank. However, some of the coal basins contain high rank coal where sizeable reserves of CBM may be expected. A recent assessment has identified certain areas of Gondwana coalfields where gas -in-place reserves of 564 billion cubic meters have been indicated. In 1990, efforts to exploit coal bed methane were initiated by Essar Oil (a private oil company) under the advice of American experts. The methane emission and desorption studies on Gondwana coal samples from Jharia Coalfield (Jharkhand) were carried out by Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (Ranchi) and Central Mining Research Institute (Dhanbad). The content of gas and gas emission rate from these samples were found to be 1.8–2.3 m3/1000 m2 of surface and 12.7–17.3 m3/min, respectively. The studies carried out by Bharat Coking Coal Limited in the same area with the help of French experts indicated 0.68–1.45 m3/min gas emission rate. In Jharkhand State areas identified for CBM are Jharia, East Bokaro, West Bokaro, North Karanpura and Rajmahal Basins. The estimate reserves in Jharia coalfield is 4.82 trillion cubic feet, in East Bokaro it is 3.2 trillion cubic feet and West Bokaro it is 0.38 trillion cubic feet. Some of the new areas has also been identified like North Karanpura coalfield for the CBM which needs more survey. Potential of CBM production in Jharia coalfield is 3.5 million cubic metres/day , East Bokaro has the potential of 2.5 million cubic metres /day, North Karanpura has the potential of 6.0 cubic metres /day and the Rajmahal Basin has the potential of 4.5 cubic metres/day. Thick Tertiary coal of Makum area, Assam, and thick lignite seams of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat may also be positive areas for methane prospects. These factors need to be considered in future. Acharyya, S.K. Coal and Lignite Resources of India,2000, 41-43. Biswas, S. K., Indian J. Petrol. Geol., 1995, 4, 1–23. Thursday, October 9, 2008 Thunder and Lightning killing people in Jharkhand State of India. Thunder and Lightning killing people in Jharkhand State of India. Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Figure 1: Lightning clouds being built over Ranchi city. Wednesday, October 8, 2008 Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Breaking a tradition since the creation of Jharkhand state of India in 2000, Chief Minister Shibu Soren has refused to burn an effigy of demon king Ravana (king of ancient Sri Lanka), saying he was a "great scholar". In north India, Ravana's effigy is burnt on Vijay Dashmi festival , marking the end of Dusshera celebration and considered to symbolise victory of good over evil. "Soren declined to accept the invitation terming Ravana as Guru or teacher of his ancestors (Kulguru).Mr. Soren said how can one burn the effigy of Kulguru who is worshipped?" Since the creation of the state in November 2000, there was a tradition in Jharkhand that the chief minister sets the Ravana effigy on fire. Close associates of Soren say that Ravana and his forefathers were closely associated with the jungles of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Ravana was a Brahmin by caste and was revered by the people of the area. The term Ravana is a derogatory reference to him. His original name was Dasamukha which means bearer of ten heads. He plays a major role in Hindu mythology, especially in the Ramayana, where he is mainly depicted negatively as a brute and rapist, and most infamously as having kidnapped Rama's wife Sita and being killed by her husband. Ravana is also mentioned as a great scholar, a capable ruler and a devoted follower of Shiva, and he has his apologists and staunch devotees within the Hindu traditions.Recently a report was published in local news papers regarding finding air port build by the Ravana on the top of Trikoot Hills in Deogarh district of Jharkhand where Ravana used to visit for worshipping Lord Shiva. According to other concept it is mentioned that the palace of Ravana was made of pure gold. Jharkhand was rich in gold deposits in ancient days. Probably gold used in the palace was brought from Jharkhand. So the palace must have been built here seeing the abundant presence of gold. People are still found panning gold from the sands of the local rivers after rainy season. At present many Indian news channels are searching the historical records of the Lord Ram and place of incidents in Ramayana in country of Sri Lanka as well as in India. After the Ram Setu controversy many of us are showing interest regarding the existence of Lord Ram and his warriors. Recently I found an old research report in my Home Library. Report is regarding the site of the Lanka during the Ramayana age. Report was published in the year 1971 in the National news paper dated 5/10/1971. According to the report Chotanagpur (Jharkhand State,India) was the Lanka of Ramayana. In other words Ravana lived in Jharkhand. Report has the opinion that the Ramayana belongs to early iron-age and the Lanka in the holy epic can not be the island of Ceylon (Lanka). According to report, the Lanka of the Ramayana was somewhere in the Chotanagpur Plateau (Ranchi and Hazaribag district) of Jharkhand State of India and the ´Vanaras´ and ´Raksasas´(demons) were the merely the Adivasis (tribe) of the area. Asurs were the early settlers in the Jharkhand. It was deduced from archaeological, geographical and botanical interpretation of the clues in the epics. The theory is that the story or the various incidents could have taken place in present Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand Plateau and Eastern Madhya Pradesh as early as 1,500 B.C.Report sited excavations at Kausambi, Prahladpur, Chirand, Sonpur etc. to reveal the existence of a settled way of life about circa 2,000-1,500 B.C. These earlier cultures were destroyed or displaced by an iron-manufacturing people as is evident from archaeological findings at Mahisadal and Rajar-Dhipi. In Ranchi district alone are found Asur forts and cemeteries. Over a hundred villages scattered through this region have Asur sites of this "long ancient people", who were thought by the Mundas(type of tribe) as a tall, huge limbed race of Herculean strength, having a much higher civilization. Asur graves are in irregular order and are marked by the slabs. The roof stones are generally 8 feet and sometimes 10 to 12 feet long. Report concludes that the critical edition of Ramayana belongs to the early iron age. " this is amply proved by the repeated references to weapons of ´Kalayasa´, Karsayasa´ and ´Ayasa´ definitely means iron and not copper. At that time in Jharkhand iron smelting by the Asur tribes was flourishing industry. "The iron chest (box) with eight wheels in which the bow of Rudra was kept and which Rama alone could wield, requires highly advanced iron technology. Monday, October 6, 2008 Why Palamau district in Jharkhand State of India faces famine from ancient periods? Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Palamau district in Jharkhand State of India is reeling under drought. Crops have been destroyed and the region is facing a famine-like situation. In spite of heavy rains in its surrounding districts this year, Palamau district is devoid of sufficient rain. It has not only affected the crops but also depleted the ground water and well water forcing people to drink contaminated water. Palamau is a district of Jharkhand state, India. The district lies between 23°50′ and 24°8′ north latitude and between 83°55′ and 84°30′ east longitude. It is bordered on the north by river Son and Bihar, on the east by districts of Chatra and Hazaribagh , on the south by Latehar District and on the west by Garhwa District. The district covers an area of 5043 square kilometers and has a population of 1,533,176. Daltonganj, situated on North Koel river in the district headquarters. The town is named after Colonel Dalton, Commissioner of Chhota Nagpur in 1861. The district has been a chronic sufferer from famine, drought, and scarcity conditions from the ancient times. Floods are not a problem as the rivers are mostly hilly excepting Son which is a perennial river and occasionally creates havoc in certain pockets. Cyclones of major intensity are not known. The Indian Irrigation Commission described Palamau as the driest and probably the poorest district of the province. The frequent draughts and famines or scarcity conditions that have visited this district within the last century support this observation. The district falls within the retreating range of the south-west monsoon and as such rainfall is wholly dependent upon local conditions and local winds which are seldom favourable to the district. Also due to the beautiful Netharhat hill ranges the area comes under rain shadow zone. Rain clouds moving towards Palamau district are trapped within this hills resulting scanty rainfall in the area. Rain shadow is warm and dry because as moist air masses coming from the Chotanagpur plateau rise to the top of Netharhat hills the air cools and it's temperature decreases until it reaches it's dew point, the point at which the condenses as rain, and then falls either on the windward side or atop the hills. These results in heavy rainfall in the Netharhat area. This is called orographic lifting precipitation. The effect of this phenomenon is the creation of an arid region on the leeward side of hills. Also, the warm air absorbs moisture from the already dry and warm air . The land gets little precipitation because all the moisture is lost on the Netharhat hills. Furthermore, the warm air absorbs moisture from the already dry land. Within the period of last century there have been famines in 1859-60, 1873-74, 1896-97, 1899-1900 and 1918-19 and there have been several years of scarcity up to 1956 and the worst of all was perhaps that of the year 1955. The rainfall in Palamau is not only scanty but very capricious in its distribution. There are, it is true, a large number of rivers and streams in the district, but in most of them the supply of water diminishes rapidly or fails entirely soon after the end of the scanty rains. From old records and reports it will appear that that in 1868 there was a failure of different crops and winter rice due to absence of rain and this caused a famine in 1869. the most affected areas were the north-east and north-west of the district and to a small extent the central areas. In 1873-74, there was again a failure of different local crops and there was a general famine affecting Japla and Belaunja in the north, Deogan and Untari in the extreme north-east and north-west. In 1896 there was again an unfavourable distribution of rain which led to the famine of 1897. The southern part of this district which overgrown with thick forests and jungles gets more rainfall than the northern part which is almost a plain land bordering district of Gaya. Distribution of rain seems to have been more disturbed from the last five decades. One of the reasons may be the indiscriminate exploitation of forest. The only solutions to fight such condition is to grow more forest and interlink the rivers through canals. Saturday, October 4, 2008 Earthquake Is Caused By The Rising of Land, Not Drifting of Land. The Islands of Indonesia are continuously rising Soon after Tsunami, which killed more than two and a half lakhs of people and had originated from the island, Sumatra, it was found out that, after the earthquake the north western part of the island simeulue, which was in that region had risen about three feet high above sea level. On account of this, a new shore had formed on the north western part of the island. In addition to that; the sea sponges which were on the sea bed were visible above the sea level! Three months after the earthquake on 26th December, 2004, another quake occurred on 28th March 2005 after which simeulue was found to be four feet above sea level. Apart from this, for an area of about three hundred kilometers, sea sponges which are normally found below the sea could be seen from all visible areas! Why did the island rise four feet above sea level ? As the molten rock keeps cooling gradually, the rocky plates that are formed at different levels are of less thickness and density and they keep rising continuously.The main reason is that, when the molten rock cools, the water and hot gases get released and the rocky plates that are formed are of lesser thickness than the magma in which they formed. Water has a higher density and the ice cubes formed from it have a lower density and they tend to float on water Likewise, the molten rock material which has a higher density produces rocky plates which have a lower density and these move above sea level and form islands.When new plates are produced by the molten rock material, they start moving upwards thereby pushing the plates which were already formed. The plates suddenly start rising upwards due to intense pressure.Similar to the ripples that are formed and expanded when a plate of water is hit at the centre from below with a finger, when the island simeulue, which was found in the central part of the Indian Ocean suddenly rose up, the water was pushed aside in all directions and only this resulted in Tsunami. The frequent occurrences of earthquakes and Tsunami in Indonesia are only due to the sudden rising of the islands. But, the geologists have come up with a different explanation for the earthquakes which occur there. They say that, about six and a half crores of years ago, India was an island on the southern part of the equator. It moved slowly towards north and collided with Asia about five crores of years ago and it is still continuing its movement. The geologists also opine that due to this movement, when the indo-Australian plate suddenly went below the Burmese plate on December 26th, 2004, an earthquake occurred. There is no truth in what they say because even six and a half crores of years ago India had been part of Asia in the same place as it is found now.The fossils of mammals which lived in Asia six and a half years ago have been excavated in the form of bones by Professor Ashok Sahani of Punjab University and Professor G.V.R. Prasad of Jammu University in the village of Naskal at Andhra Pradesh and they prove that the above statement is true. So, as per the researchers’ opinion, India had not been an island on the southern part of the equator about six and a half crores of years agoSo, it is proved that even six and a half crores of years ago India had been part of Asia in the same place as it is found now and is not moving in the north eastern direction. Therefore the indo-Australian plate did not go suddenly below the Burmese plate. So the earth quakes on 26 -12 -2004 and 28 – 3 -2005 and the Tsunami are only the result of the rising of the island, simeulue, above its original level. Subject: Rising of the earth’s crust is responsible for producing earthquakes, Submission of report for publishing. Earthquake is caused due to the movement of the land is a myth. The most important thing that is missing in this view is that there is no explanation for why earthquake occurs in the centre of the land instead of the peripheral area. Actually the land is rising in different places. This is the reason why earthquakes occur only in the central parts of the land. To be specific, after an earthquake occurred on September 30th of 1993, in the village named Killari, it was found that the land had risen about three feet in height. This shows that the rise of the land is the cause of the earthquake. ‘Reasons for the Rise of the Earth’s Crust’ Earthquake is the effect of the rise of the land. On September 30th 1993, the earthquake that hit the village, killari, situated in central part of India resulted in the death of more than eight thousand people and raised the land surface about three feet high. This elevation was seen in an area of around two kilometers. Why did the earthquake occur? The quake occurred only in killari, situated in central India and left two kilometers of land area raised. This proves that the earthquake occurred only due to the rise of the land.Apart from this, the pictures taken by the satellite before the quake showed that the temperature of killari had also risen and the pictures taken after the quake showed it to be normal. After the earthquake occurred, on the borders of Andhra and Karnataka white colored smoke emitted from the ground. Why did the land rise? Why was the temperature more? Why did the land emit white colored smoke? We know that the molten rock material called magma is found inside the earth as we have seen it coming out through volcanoes. In the same way, when the molten rock, lava flows on the earth’s surface, we can see the condensed steam and other gases in the form of white colored smoke.As the water and other hot gases are eliminated as steam, the molten rock cools down and turned in to rock. In the same way when the molten rock inside the earth starts cooling, water and Other hot gases come out in the form of white smoke. Due to this, the temperature of the land rises.Moreover when the molten rock cools and as the water and hot gases get released, the rocky plates that are formed are of less thickness. For example: water has a higher density and the ice cubes formed from it have a lower density and float on water. Likewise, the molten rock material which has a higher density produces rocky plates which have a lower density and move above the level of the molten rock. In the same way, when new plates are produced by the molten rock material, they start moving upwards there by pushing the plates which were already formed. On account of this movement, the edges of the plates rub against each other thereby causing earthquakes.For example, in 1356 an earthquake occurred in the city Basel in Switzerland which is situated in central Europe. In the same city, an organization which produces electricity using the heat from underground, drilled two holes of five meters each on the earth in the year 2006.The project was to send cold water through the first hole which would be changed into steam using the heat of the molten rock and pushed out through the second hole and by rotating dynamos; this would be converted into electricity. But, on the eighth day after the water was sent inside the earth, in the same place, the Richter scale recorded an earthquake with an intensity of 3.4. Even if atom bombs are tested underground, earthquakes do not occur. How could the water which seeped inside produce an earthquake? This clearly shows that the water which seeped inside the earth cooled the molten rock which in turn formed new plates that rose up and caused the earthquake. Volcanic activity in central Europe. Vogtland, which is situated in central Europe , had often been experiencing a number of minor earthquakes.In the same place, a researcher by the name Dr,Karin brauer collected the bubbles which came out along with an underground spring in a marshy area and through his research, found out that gases were emitted from a volcano. Based on his research, he says that when the molten rock rises, the pressure of the gases increases and this results in the formation of cracks on rocks which may ultimately result in earthquakes.But for millions of years in the past, these gases have been coming out of the earth. Apart from this, there are spaces for these gases to be eliminated. We have already seen this fact and the gases do not have enough pressure to bring about an earthquake.A few years ago from the mountainous part of Nilgiris in India , smoke were seen emanating from earth, but fortunately no earthquake was caused. Likewise, Matsushiro in central Japan also experienced a number of mild quakes. To find out the reason for these quakes, a researcher by the name yoshida collected Water from the hot water springs found there and through experimentation discovered that the water was from the molten rock found underground.So, she surmises that,” The water which is underground comes out with great pressure and this produces cracks on the rocky plates and this results in earthquakes”. But, the water and gases which are underground have been surfacing through the spaces found between the rocky plates for millions of years in the past. So, the reason for the continuous tremors and the elevation of land is only due to the slow rising of the rocky plates. For example Wyoming found in central part of North America has more than three hundred hot water springs. Due to the deposit of sulphur from the water, the rocks in that area appear yellowish in colour. So, the area of hot water springs is referred to as yellow Stone Park . Each year that place experiences about two thousand mild tremors. Between January, 2008 and March 2008, 287 tremors have rocked the place. Moreover it has been found out through satellite research that the land area of 60 miles is continuously raising. To be specific, starting from 2004 till 2006, the land area has been rising at the rate of 2.8 inches every year and has risen to a height of seven inches in three years. It is still rising.But research scholars say that, it is only the effect of the expansion of the molten rock due to heat. But the surfacing of the water only shows that the molten rock is cooling. So the release of water and the gases from the molten rock cools the molten rock. This results in the formation of new plates and the rising in the land level in the central part of the continents and results in tremors in those areas only. There will be an earthquake tomorrow. One week before an earthquake struck the city of haicheng on 30th February, 1975, on the north eastern part of China , it was officially announced that a quake would strike the city.People abandoned their houses and assembled in an open area in the snow fall. For one week nobody did any work. As announced there was an earthquake of 7.3 magnitudes which was recorded on the Richter scale.Two thousand and thirteen people lost their lives. It was estimated that if precaution had not been taken, the death toll would have exceeded one and a half lakhs! The whole world looked at China with surprise and when asked, they said that for the past one year slight tremors were occurring and they were gradually getting intensified. They also explained that, during the previous week there was tremendous change in the underground water table.But, in the next year, the earthquake which struck the city of Tang Shan situated in the north eastern part of China killed two and a half lakhs of people and severely wounded more than one and a half lakhs of people.The Chinese geologists said that on this occasion there were no preceding tremors. During the earthquake in haicheng, sulphur gas and in Tang Shan carbon-di-oxide were eliminated from underground. Regarding this incident, Carol Raymond is a geophysicist at NASA's, said “Only if we know how an earthquake is caused, we can warn about it in advance”. How Does an Earthquake occur? When the rocky plates under the ground rise and their edges rub with each other, an earthquake is caused. Moreover, the water and the gases found between them are under great pressure when these plates rise and so come above the surface of the earth.Hence, it is understood that the hot gases and water which come out of the earth and the temperature changes are the most authentic warnings of an approaching earthquake. So, by closely and continuously monitoring the temperature changes through satellite observations and finding out the depth and temperature in which the molten rock is found in a particular place, the occurrence of an earthquake can be predicted in advance. Based on it, if precautions are taken, great loss to human life can be prevented. Continents are not drifting, but rising... In 1835, when scientist Charles Darwin came to Galapagos Island which is located at Pacific Ocean, thousand km far away from South America , he found giant tortoises. He was surprised to see the presence of the tortoise because each one would weigh around 250 kilo, which look like a rock and those tortoises couldn’t float in the sea even for a second.According to the researchers, these tortoises might come from South America by floating by means of tree branches for two weeks when storm hit. But the tree branches can not float in the same dimension and it will roll and flow. Meantime, these tortoises have no fingers in their legs like elephants. And so, it is not possible for these animals to escape from falling in to the river, when the tree branches roll and flow... It is interrogated such as how this animal could survive for two week with out any food and water. The researchers explained that these animals have the ability to store the enormous fats and water in their body. So they manage to live for two week with out having any food and water.Moreover, Trevor worth, one of the researchers, has taken the jaw and leg bones of a rat like animal which lived 10 million years ago in the New Zealand , An island which situated two thousand kilometers far away from Australia continent. This animal has a bulged structure on the upper part of the leg bone. So it is found that its locomotion was hopping like kangaroo. Therefore it is impossible for the animal to reach the island by floating tree branches, According to Michael archer, a paleontology researcher.The researchers said that the tortoises had taken two weeks to reach the Galapagos Island , a thousand kilometer away from South America , by means of floating tree branches. Similarly, it would take at least four weeks far the rat to arrive New Zealand by means of floating tree branches, which is located two thousand kilometer away from Australia .Could a small animal like rat live for a long period with out having any food and water? Then how the animal reached New Zealand ? Hear the only possibility is extreme low sea level and exposed land connection, on which the animal migration took place, to reach Remote Island From the Australian continent. Moreover dinosaur’s bones were also found in the island called Chatham which is located near the New Zealand . Indicate the dinosaur’s migration also took place between the continents due to the low sea level of ten thousand feet.But the presence of closely related dinosaur’s bones on different continents leads to think other researchers differently. They think that all the continents were once jointly present and later separated and drifting apart. But the ancient low sea level of ten thousand feet is the only possible reason for the spreading of ancient animals on other continents.At the same time the presence of fossils of sea animals such as whales and ammonites indicates that all the continents were once lie under the sea and later rose above sea level. And this rising of land masses caused the earthquake. Contributing Writer Scientist, G. Ponmudi. Chennai I am working as a junior assistant in the health department. And my qualification is Bsc (zoology). I have been working on earthquake research for the past five years. Friday, October 3, 2008 Did climate change killed ancient civilization? Did climate change killed ancient civilization? Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Devastating Kosi floods in India, floods in China, floods in Mexico, droughts in some parts of the world, extremes of climates and lots more. Effects are dying people and displacement. Is these phenomenon is recent or earlier too our ancient civilization was affected with climate change? We assume that we are first to deal with such severe environmental issues, when that’s just not the case. Earlier too our oldest civilization passed through environmental disaster and climate change which gradually ended the ancient civilization. Even the most developed civilization like Indus Valley civilization, Maya civilization and Sumerians were affected with environmental changes like floods, droughts etc. Lots of theories and causes have been put forward regarding decline of these developed civilizations. But after going through the different research reports, it can be said that climate change ended the ancient civilizations in different phases. This article attempts to bring to light some of the environmental problems which occurred through out our history from one civilization to other. Indus valley civilization The Indus or the Harappan culture is older than the chalcolithic cultures. It arose in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent. It is called Harappan because this civilization was discovered first in 1921 at the modern site of Harappa situated in the province of West Punjab in Pakistan. Comparatively rainless, the Indus region is not so fertile these days. Its prosperous villages and towns show that it was fertile in ancient times. At present it has only rainfall of about 15 cm. in the fourth century B.C. one of the historians of the Alexander informs us that Sindh was a fertile part of the country. In earlier times the Indus possessed more natural vegetation which attracted more rainfall. It supplied timber fuel for baking bricks on a large scale, and also for construction. In course of time, natural vegetation was destroyed by the extension of agriculture, large scale grazing, and supply of fuel. A possible natural reason for the Indus Valley civilization decline is connected with climate change that is also signaled for the neighboring areas of the Middle East: The Indus valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BCE, linked to a general weakening of the monsoon at that time. Alternatively, a crucial factor may have been the disappearance of substantial portions of the Ghaggar Hakra river system. A tectonic event may have diverted the system's sources toward the Ganges Plain, though there is complete uncertainty about the date of this event as most settlements inside Ghaggar-Hakra river beds have not yet been dated. The Harappan culture declined suddenly between 1800-1700 BC and its end is as puzzling as its beginning. How and why did this first great empire of South Asia decay into oblivion? One cannot say with certainty whether massacres by marauders or the inbuilt decay that had set in caused the decline of this powerful civilization. Another school of thought relates the demise of the Indus valley civilization to have been brought about by a major tectonic shift that caused continuous floods of this area. Research has proved that the decline of the glorious Harappan culture was due to a variety of factors, both manmade and natural. In the beginning of the second millennium BC, there were great changes in the environmental conditions-the climate changed and large parts of the plains were flooded when tectonic changes threw up a dam in the lower Indus Valley. Sumerian civilization: Sumer, located in southern Mesopotamia, is one of the earliest known civilizations in the world. The Sumerians were the first group that everyone can agree is worthy of being called a “civilization”. They arose in what is today Iraq some time around the 6th millennium BC, and were conquered by about 2400 BC. The Sumerians arose in the area known as the “Fertile Crescent”. This area of land, also called Mesopotamia, was an oasis of fertile land sandwiched between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Most farms had to be irrigated with ditches fed by the rivers. This was wildly successful. For the first time in history, there was a food surplus. This in turn led to a population surplus, with people in cities abandoning agricultural labor and eating the surplus produced by farmers. Like all good things, it couldn’t last. There was an inherent flaw in the system. The hot sun evaporated most of water, leaving behind salt. Where the water didn’t quickly evaporate, the water table rose, also bringing salt to the surface. After years and years of salt slowly accumulating, a tipping point was reached. The land had become too salty for the wheat production. The only way to reclaim the land was to let it lie fallow for several years. There is a wealth of evidence pointing to severe environmental issues in the Sumerian civilization. One of the most important pieces of information from that time is the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient poem about the mythological hero-king Gilgamesh and his search for immortality. Even in this work there are mentions of environmental problems. After thousands of years of existence, a lack of food brought on by the unproductive soil crippled the Sumerians. Maya Civilization: Originating in the Yucatan Peninsula, the ancient Maya civilization occupied a vast area of Mesoamerica between the time period of 2600 BC and 1200 AD. Constructing thousands of architectural structures and developing sophisticated concepts surrounding the disciplines of astronomy and mathematics, the Maya civilization rose to a cultural florescence between the years of 600 to 800 AD. Although this prosperity reigned for nearly two centuries, the Maya civilization met with misfortune between the years of 800 and 900 AD. During this time period, known by archaeologists as the Classic Collapse of the Maya civilization, many southern cities were abandoned and most cultural activities ceased. The Maya, never able to regain their cultural or geographical prominence, were assimilated into other Mesoamerican civilizations until the time of the Spanish Conquest in 1530 AD. The cause of the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization represents one of the great archaeological mysteries of our time, and has been debated by scholars for nearly a century. Some scientists theorize that the paleoclimate of the region was not only different than the present day climate, but the natural climate variability of the past could have included a period of intense drought that occurred in conjunction with the Classic Maya Collapse. The sudden demise is one of the greatest archeological mysteries of our time. What caused the collapse of the great Maya civilization? The answer, say researchers, is climate change. According to a new study published in the issue of Science journal , a long period of dry climate, punctuated by three intense droughts, led to the end of the Maya society. "Climate change is to blame for one of the most catastrophic collapses in human history," said Gerald Haug, a professor of geology at the University of Potsdam, Germany, and one of the study's authors. The drought hypothesis is not new. Sediments taken by scientists in 2001 from a lake on the Yucatan peninsula showed that a series of extended droughts coincided with major cultural upheavals among the Maya people. Ancient India by Ram Sharan Sharma, NCERT, New Delhi. · Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News, March 13, 2003. Climate Change Killed off Maya Civilization. Hodell, D. A., J. H. Curtis and M. Brenner. 1995. Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Nature 375:391-394.
QC - 8 Q. The origin of X lies in the piece of cloth that labourers and farmers have worn since time immemorial to absorb perspiration and keep off the sun. This cloth gradually evolved into a decorative piece, called a cravat, which was worn around and knotted in the front by the Croatian mercenaries who served in the Army of King Louis XIV of France. Attracted by the dashing look that the Y gave to the wearers, the French aristocrats adopted the same. The industrial revolution created a need for a X that was easy to put on, comfortable and would last an entire working day. That is how the modern X was born. Name X. A. Necktie(s). 1. Identify the person whose face has been greyed out. (Refer pic1) A. Richard Branson 2. Name the brand of computers launched by AMD. A. Business Class 3. What is the significance or rather, the newly discovered non-significance of this clipping? (Refer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2uIlRMj2T4) A. These were the 1st words spoken by Thomas Alva Edison in the original phonograph. Recently, researchers have discovered that the oldest known recording was not that of Edison's, but that by a French inventor named Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville. The recording dates back to almost 17 years prior to Edison patenting the phonograph. To listen to the clipping, check this link - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89148959. Surely takes one to a different era! 4. Pepsico recently announced an acquisition in UK to compete with Coca-Cola's acquisition of Glaceau Vitamin Water. Which company/brand did Pepsico acquire? A. V Water 5. Google MentalPlex, Google Gulp, Google Romance, Google TiSP, etc. We all know what these are. But there was one among the many which was the odd one out. What was it and what was different about it? A. Google announced the launch of GMail on Apr 1, 2004, which was actually a genuine announcement and not an April Fool's joke as many thought. 6. Google : Orkut :: AOL : ? A. Bebe. AOL recently purchased this social networking site. 7. Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and Nini. What is peculiar about the 5 words? No part points for giving the obvious fact. A. Obvious fact - These are the names of the 5 mascots, which are Fuwa dolls, of the Beijing Olympics. Peculiarity - When the first 5 syllables of each word are said together, the resulting phrase translates to 'Welcome to Beijing'. 8. William Wrigley Co. has been bought over by which company with the help from Warren Buffet? A. Mars 9. Connect the 3 ‘laws’ – c. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. A. Arthur C. Clarke. These are the 3 laws of prediction as formulated by him. 10. To end on a ‘lighter’ note, name the world’s largest privately-held spirits company. A. Bacardi Bonus Question Q. This word was introduced in 1923 by a senior radio officer at Croydon Airport, London. It is derived from the French venez m’aider and seemed appropriate at that time, since much of the air traffic was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris. What is the word?
Thursday, January 14, 2010 Life Lessons from "The Beatles" With "The Beatles: Rock Band" all the rage for music video gamers, why not ride this wave of piqued interest to reinforce some character traits that propelled The Beatles to mega success? I think you'll find these stories useful in your classroom, home and work with youth in the community. Below, you'll find a couple of motivational Beatles stories based on our research. Were they perfect moral examples? No. But to be fair, neither were most of the other great athletes and political figures and writers we revere. By telling the stories of what they did right along their path to success, we imbed memorable character motivators in the minds of young people. We're writing our illustrations primarily based upon our reading of one of the most respected biographies of The Beatles: Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation, by Philip Norman . Press On Despite Criticism (Beatles Succeed Despite Discouraging Comments) Don't let discouraging comments get you down. Sometimes we simply need to ignore them and press forward with our passion. Fifteen-year-old John fell in love with his guitar, playing it night and day. His Aunt Mimi, who was raising him, couldn't see the point of his obsession and would try to discourage him. Do you know what it's like to hear discouraging comments, over and over, from those you really respect and want to please? Well, John's Aunt Mimi put it it this way, "To me, it was just so much waste of time. I used to tell him so. 'The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it.'" But John kept right on playing, putting his heart into the music he loved. In fact he grew up to play guitar, sing and write music with one of the most popular bands ever - The Beatles. That's right, that 15-year-old boy was John Lennon. And yes, Aunt Mimi, he did manage to eek out a living with the millions he made from that guitar. Aunt Mimi wouldn't be the last to put down The Beatles along the way. Here were some other negative comments they endured: • While John attended Art College, he, Paul and George played together but apparently weren't very good. A member of another band suggested that they "weren't worth a carrot." (p. 68) • They managed to get a gig playing between sets at a club, but were so bad that they were ordered off stage after two songs. (p. 69) • When they decided to change their name to The Beatles, their promoter assured them that nobody would ever take a band with that name seriously. (p. 74) • They auditioned for a recording contract with Decca, but were turned down. Bands with guitars "were on the way out," the experts at Decca explained. (p. 144) • Their relentless manager, Brian Epstein, approached every record label he could find in the catalogue, only to be rejected at every turn. (pp. 146, 152) • When they finally landed a contract, it was with a small label with a mediocre track record, obligating the label to pay the band and Epstein a mere penny per album sold. (pp. 154-158) But The Beatles kept playing despite all the negative comments and rejections, becoming so wildly popular that they sold more albums in the United States than any other band or artist. Almost four decades after their breakup in 1970, their fan base continues to grow through games like The Beatles: Rock Band. [Copyright December, 2009, J. Steve Miller and Legacy Educational Resources ( ). Feel free to post with this attribution. Not for resale. Sources: Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation, by Philip Norman (New York: MJF Books, 1981) p. 35; Wikipedia, The Beatles.] 1) Why do you think Aunt Mimi tried to discourage John? 2) Why do you think so many people put The Beatles down and failed to recognize their talent? 3) When should we take criticism to heart? 4) When should we move forward in spite of criticism? 5) In what area of life do you need to move forward, despite discouraging comments? Don't Let Poverty and Bad Breaks Define You (Lennon and McCartney Endure) Some kids seem to get all the breaks. Not only do they get the coolest and most expensive gifts for Christmas and birthdays, but they also get those little extras to give them the edge in life – like the best guitars, professional athletic equipment, or expensive lessons from the pros. How can regular young people – those whose parents struggle just to put food on the table – compete with that? Well, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the chief songwriters and vocalists for one of the top-selling bands of all time, The Beatles, refused to allow humble beginnings to get in their way. John Lennon's Humble Beginnings Let's take John first. Do you know what it's like to grow up without a dad? John's dad left his mom the year after they married. And he didn't just move next door – he sailed from England to America, putting an ocean between them! Soon his mom started a new life with a new man, but she didn’t bring her son into the new family. John was raised by his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George, although he had a great relationship with his mom and visited with her regularly (p. 18). But George died suddenly of a hemorrhage when John was 12, leaving him once again fatherless. (p. 23) Later, his real mom would be taken from him suddenly when she was hit by a car. (p. 56) By age 13 John majored in troublemaking – ever in detention or the principle’s office. (p. 24.) But at age 15 he fell in love with the new rock and roll music he heard at night on alternative radio, with a very weak signal from the continent that kept fading in and out. Soon, he was pestering Aunt Mimi to buy him a guitar. When she finally gave in, he became almost attached to the instrument, strumming it endlessly. (pp. 34-36) Not being able to afford lessons, his mom would teach him banjo chords, which he could play with the first four strings, leaving the final two strings untuned. He put together a band and they would practice standing in the bath because of the superior acoustics. His poverty posed another problem - the only way to learn the words to the songs they wanted to play was to buy a record, but none of them could afford to buy records. No matter. John made up his own words to go with the tunes. Paul McCartney's Humble Beginnings Now let's look at Paul’s hardships. His parents worked jobs that didn't pay well, so that they could only make ends meet with both parents working. But when Paul was 14, his mom died of breast cancer, devastating both he and his dad. When Paul heard that his mom had died, he asked, "What are we going to do without her money?" (pp. 25-30) Money Troubles for Their Band In their mid teens, John and Paul began playing in a band together, called The Quarrymen, playing anywhere people would listen. But their lack of money continued to pose problems, such as: When they went to electric guitars, they had no money to buy amps. If the organizers couldn't provide one, they'd have to settle for a crappy sound by hooking up through the microphone system.(p. 59)If they played a church event, the church would have to pay for broken strings. They lost an opportunity to be "discovered" when they entered a talent competition. After passing the local heats in Liverpool, they were invited to the semifinals at the Hippodrome in Manchester. It was their big chance to get on TV and let the world view their talents! But their poverty robbed them of the opportunity. They had enough money for the bus trip to Manchester, but had to leave before the evening finals, because the only bus home left before the finals. They had no money to book an overnight stay. (p. 59) The Power of Perseverance Many would have gotten discouraged and quit, assuming that only those with money could make it in the music business. But John and Paul kept right on playing and singing. It would take them five more years before they were able to cut an album and start to get some serious recognition. (p. 167) But perhaps, in the end, it was best to take the long, harder road to success. During those years of obscurity, they lost some band members but added George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Time on the road allowed them to sharpen their skills at writing, playing their instruments and performing, so that when they became famous, they were ready to take the world by storm. Do money problems and family problems get you down? Do you feel everybody else gets the breaks, whether it be in academics, sports, music, or wherever you're trying to excel? The next time you feel discouraged, maybe you'll hear a Beatles song and remember that over 40 years ago, a couple of guys decided not to let family set-backs and lack of money define them. Instead, they co-wrote and published an astounding 180 songs, many of which are riding a new wave of popularity today. 1. What disadvantages did John and Paul grow up with? (poverty, loss of family members, lack of formal musical training, not being able to buy the records to get the words right, etc.) 2. Do you think their heartaches and struggles contributed to their ability to write heart-felt lyrics that so many people identify with? 3. What do you think kept them moving forward when others might have given up? 4. In what area of life do you need to keep pressing on, despite your hardships? Other Resources For hundreds of quotes, activities and real-life stories to build character and enhance life skills, visit us at . Check out our new section on teaching personal finances ( ), and our new, award-winning book on personal money management: . E-mail us if you'd like a discounted copy for review as a text. Thanks for your work with character and life skills! As always, let us know how we can improve and how we can serve you better.
Home / papers / The Significance of the Persian Gulf War The Significance of the Persian Gulf War The Persian Gulf War has been known as one of America’s most decisive wars. Iraq was crippled badly, but not entirely. American military morale was restored to levels not seen since before the Vietnam War and geopolitical politics are shaped differently from this point forward. First, the Persian Gulf War was the most significant geopolitical event between the demise of the Soviet Union and the September 11th, 2001 attacks.it was at this time that the US began a massive air war that aimed at destroying Iraq’s civil infrastructure, military and its forces. As an afterthought, Iraq required the psychological militant assault against the coalition and launces Scud rockets at Israel. Such an endeavour proved to be unsuccessful as aimed at widens in the war and break up the coalition that had been build. However, the primary coalition powers attacked Kuwait and South Iraq for a couple of four consecutive days. Distinctive component redesigns were stripped of a conviction structure and essential whereupon to base their social awes and basically missed the information on ground. Vote based structure and the degrees of progress made the world to attain vitality especially in the last decade as general economies have ben opening up in different parts of the globe. In Latin America, measures of fascisms dropped from fourteen to four mostly in the last decade as the superpower battles obscured all the activities. Again, the Western promoters widened the weights on autocrat relationship of all stripes to change and share power. Moreover, this has two results: First, there is less resistance of peasant rulers. What was once pushed as key calm mindedness altogether open to the harsh parts War is immediately looked on with scorn. Human rights abuse is less proceeded through and gross shocking conduct of a relationship against its subjects is inclined to be totally reproached. Secondly, with the lower level of resistance there has been a separating growth in the West’s availability to make a move to help the setbacks. Iraq was especially important to the United States and to the rest of the world due to its high production of oil. However, the two countries were subjected to various forms of risks that threaten their operations and their environment. In this regard, they have to come up with ways and means of allocating and managing such risks so that their negative impact is not felt. In the context of the oil and gas industry, risks are uncertainties that takes place that threaten the operations of the oil and gas industry. The risk in the oil and gas industry is the potential of losing the overall investment needed in the oil and gas industry . In this regard, these risks can potentially result in physical, social, emotional, and financial loss that may negatively impact the whole project. This paper discusses several ways in which both the host country and the companies manage the allocation of risks in oil and gas business. Rick Atkinson. (1994). Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War
You are here: Home » PTI Stories » National » News Business Standard New 'real sun-tan' drug may help prevent cancer Press Trust of India \| Washington Scientists have developed a new drug that mimics sunlight to make a person's skin tan without being exposed to harmful ultraviolet radiation, reducing the risk of skin In tests on human skin samples and mice, the drug tricked the skin into producing the brown form of the pigment melanin, that gives human skin, hair and eyes their colour. According to researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, the finding could prevent skin and even slow the ageing process. Ultraviolet (UV) light makes the skin tan by causing damage. This kicks off a chain of chemical reactions in the skin that ultimately leads to dark melanin - the body's natural sunblock - being made. The new drug is rubbed into the skin to skip the damage and kick-start the process of making melanin. "It has a potent darkening effect. Under the microscope it's the real melanin, it really is activating the production of pigment in a UV-independent fashion," David Fisher, one of the researchers, told BBC It is a markedly different approach to fake tan, which "paints" the skin without the protection from melanin, sun beds, which expose the skin to UV light or pills that claim to boost melanin production but still need UV light. "Our real goal is a novel strategy for protecting skin from UV radiation and Dark pigment is associated with a lower risk of all forms of skin - that would be really huge," said Fisher. The research was published in the journal Cell Reports.
Creating a Fantasy World – Language(Part 2) Part 2 of the series Create a Fantasy World The language is an important part of world-building. The inhabitants of your world use language to communicate, exchange thoughts and ideas, archive and pass information from one another. You must think about language in the beginning of your world-building, because the decisions you make about it, will influence a lot of your future work. Of course, this post is not a tutorial on how to create a language itself, given that the subject is extremely wide, but more as to guide you through the various options you have as you are creating your world. The very first decision to make when thinking about language is this: will you create a separate language for your world or not? I know its tempting to say ‘Yes, I want a new language,’ but once you read forward and understand the challenges it presents, you might re-consider. If you are creating your world for a book, how important is the fact that the characters speak a new language, and even more importantly, how necessary is that you actually create that new language? To understand why the answer is not easy, think about a book we all (should) know: Alice in Wonderland. Let me ask you this: what is the spoken language in Wonderland? You’ll probably say: English, but is it? Would the story be different if it wasn’t English? What if it was Wonderlaneze? The book would still be written in English, so the fact that there is a different language spoken would, in fact, be transparent. Here’s another example: how many languages are spoken in the Lord of the Rings universe, by J.R.R. Tolkien? The answer is: about twenty. And Tolkien, a linguist himself, not only created all those languages, he developed them. He created phonology, grammar, vocabulary, common rules, scripts, derivations and exceptions and so on. Now, unless you are a LOTR fanatic, and you are just a person who read the books and/or saw the movie: did you know that? Probably not. All you need to know is that there are some languages, but other than that you don’t care, because that would distract from the story. These are all things that come to mind when you think about introducing foreign, made-up languages in your worlds. Here are the four basic scenarios I can envision: • No mention of anything about language whatsoever • Mention the existence of a different language, but provide no details • Mention the different language, provide several words/phrases as needed • Create a full language, use it as needed There are pros and cons to each of these, so let’s look at them in detail. No New Language This is obviously the most convenient choice because you do not need to tie yourself with the additional burden of creating a new language. You will simply write the book in your language and let the characters speak in your language (or whatever language your book was translated into), and nobody has to worry about anything. Most books fall into this first category, by and large. As a reader, you kind of know there must be a different language in the story, especially if the story takes place in a made-up world. Even if your story is a futuristic sci/fi tale, based on our real Universe, the chance that an exact replica of a human language might show up somewhere else in the galaxy is close to zero. Just look at our own world: countries just miles away speak completely different languages. So, as a reader, you know that must be the case, but you are not told about it and you probably don’t care. New Language, Little Details Probably fewer books fall into the second category. Here the author makes it a point to specify that there is a different language, but that language is not developed nor explained. It might be used as a means for plot, as in XYZ speaks one language and therefore ABC, the eavesdropper, doesn’t understand it. It’s a useful tool, if used correctly. This one works well when you are dealing with different races in a world and you want to associate a language to each race. What works really well here is this hack: create also an universal language to go around the communications barriers. In a fantasy world, maybe this language is the “old language” or the “language of the Gods.” In a sci/fi world, maybe there is a device that is able to translate between languages on the spot. In this way, you create the complexity of a realistic world by mentioning the languages, but you also offer a solution as to how people go around communicating. It gets even simpler if your plot takes place in a small geographic space, where you are limited to one language. So, in this category, you are not only letting the reader assume there are multiple languages, you spell it out, but that’s about it. New Language, Some Usage In the third category you have those authors that enjoy (and have the time) to dig deeper into language creation. This category is quite close to the previous one, but in here, you might actually have some characters say something in their language, or perhaps present something written, like a lost scroll or some carvings in a cave. You can use this to your advantage as well, by waving it into the plot. Maybe there is a race whose language is unknown to your POV character. Instead of saying: He stared at them, unable to understand what they were saying. You can say: “Hubba-bubba lumpa-drumpa,” the stranger said and Jin stared at him with wide eyes. So, now you are introducing some unique words to your world and you let the reader experience first-hand not being able to understand them. But be careful: fiction is about plot and about characters. It’s not about your ability to make up words. You can go around with a few things like the one above, but use them sparingly. Otherwise you will wind up with a book that is hard to read and an annoyed reader. As much as you want, no reader will learn your new language right away, no matter how cool it is. So, use it for effect, don’t let it take over. Once your book becomes a best sellers there will be some people who might develop the complete language for you, for free, for fun… Complete New Language Lastly, you have the master language creators. They spend the time to create a complete new language for their world. But, to no one’s surprise, the books in the last category feel a lot like the books in the third category, and by now it’s pretty clear why. Tolkien worked on his languages for 63 years. He created about 20 different languages. That is a life-time commitment. I don’t say you shouldn’t do it, but be prepared for a very daunting task. The decision you make about the languages in your fantasy world is going to influence the difficulty of writing, but, more importantly, the difficulty of reading. For beginning writers, I suggest choosing category 1 or 2. Once you get better at creating worlds, you should move to category 3. I would never recommend anyone to spend the time to create a full language, unless this really becomes your hobby. Since this article is not designed to teach you how to create a new language, but rather to help you decide on your approach to using a new language in your fiction, I will provide you with some resources you can check, should you decide you want a new language: Writing Systems People are visual. We understand differences when we see things that look different. From this perspective, using a different writing system to signify a different language is a good way to make a fast and deep impact. Of course, we are talking about the visual representation of the alphabet. The way it usually works is a language has a certain phonology (the way it sounds) and then it has a certain visual representation (alphabet) and a set of rules that explain how to read the alphabet so that it sounds like the language. Unless you have a frame of reference, it is usually hard to understand how to read an alphabet. For example, for some this: /ˈθɜroʊ, ˈθʌroʊ/ makes no sense. It is in fact the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) representation of the word ‘thorough.’ So, the IPA standard is the frame of reference. If you learn that and apply it to any language you can figure out how to “say” the sounds in that language. Defining new alphabets is not easy, but I have to admit, it is fun as hell. To exemplify, here are just a few alphabets from various constructed languages that you may have heard of: Script images and text copyright by orange-arrowCirth“Cirth [ˈkirθ] was invented by J.R.R. Tolkien for use in his novels. It is modelled on the Anglo-Saxon Runic alphabet, and is used to write the language of the Dwarves (Khuzdul) in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in inscriptions in wood and stone. It is also used as a alternative alphabet for English. orange-arrowDothraki – “The Dothraki alphabet was invented by Carlos and Patrícia Carrion as a way to write the Dothraki language, a constructed language created by David J. Peterson for the television series, Game of Thrones, and based on the invented words and phrases used in George R. R. Martin’s series of books entitled A Song of Ice and Fire. orange-arrowKlingon – “Klingon is the language spoken by Klingons, alien characters in the Star Trek films and TV series. In the 1984 film, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the director, Leonard Nimoy, and the writer-producer, Harve Bennett, wanted the Klingons to speak a real-sounding language rather than gibberish, so they commissioned the linguist Marc Okrand to create Klingon. orange-arrowSarati – “Tolkien also created a number of different alphabets to write his languages – the Sarati alphabet only appears in a small number of inscriptions in the tales of Middle-earth. Browse for more fictional alphabets at Omniglot. Final Words About Language I think the critical thing you should take from this article is this: don’t make an effort in creating a language just for the sake of having one, but if you do, make sure it is unique, interesting and doesn’t take the focus away from your story and from your characters. As I mentioned above, everyone expects your fantasy world to have a different language, just like they expect magic, and strange creatures, and things that are physically impossible in our world. But most of all, the readers expect a good story and amazing characters. Language, just like setting, will add to the general look-and-feel of the story, but it should never be the focus. That of course, unless your story is specifically about language. If your story is the story of an alien Jean François Champollion, uncovering the secrets of a future world’s language in hopes of saving the planet, then by all means, go crazy! If you want to study more about fictional languages, Wikipedia has a pretty vast list of constructed languages, with background and description. This concludes the second chapter of this series. Hopefully once you are finished with your work you will be in the same spot where I am with my world. To see what I’ve done, click on the link below: Creating a Fantasy World Demo – Part 2 Creating a Fantasy World Demo – Part 1 Last, but not least, please comment below and share your ideas on language in fiction. read more Creating a Fantasy World – Geography (Part 1) Part 1 of the series Create a Fantasy World It’s good to be God, isn’t it? To be up there on some sort of high cloud, or a bicycle, or whatever else your godly environment permits, wiggling your fingers toward a dark corner of the Universe and have a new world spawn and take life under your eyes. It is good, and as a fiction writer, you get to be God every day. Sometimes on a smaller scale, sometimes on a larger scale. Sometimes your creations make you proud, other times they turn out of control and you must punish them. But still, you get to be God, and that is what world-building gives you– the satisfaction of creation, the power to make life and watch it play in front of you, without leaving your desk. Now, is your story the same as your world? The answer is no. Even in a milieu story, where setting is important, you must never forget the true components of a complete story. Simply put, a story is a bunch of interesting characters, involved in an interesting plot, raising a certain level emotional response in the reader, while everything is taking place in an interesting setting. Let me ask you: if you drop ‘interesting’ in any of the parts of the sentence above, do you lose the story? Well, if you drop it out of characters, you will wind up with boring characters. Boring characters can’t elicit an emotional response, so your entire world will fall flat. If you take interesting out of the plot, you will wind up with interesting characters doing something boring, and that’s no good either. If you drop it from both, then why are you even writing? On the other hand, if you drop interesting out of setting you don’t necessarily wind up with a flat story, unless you are writing fantasy or science fiction. Let me explain. Let’s say you have a story set in New York City. Now, NYC is an interesting city, by all means, but is still just that: a city on Earth. Unless you are writing some sort of alternate history or post-apocalyptic situation, you pretty much know what to expect of a city. That’s what I mean by removing interesting. You don’t have to struggle to make it interesting. It’s already interesting as is, so your job is half done. Same goes if you decide to write a new novel set in OZ. The premise of OZ is already there, you just ride the wave. But when the time comes to invent a world from scratch, whether it’s fantasy or science fiction, it better be fresh, interesting, and functional, otherwise your story will not work well. This series of posts deal with the world creation, giving you tangible, step-by-step solutions on how to go about it. Together with it, I will be building a world as we go along, using the same steps. At the end, I hope you and I both can have something cool to show off! Chapter One: Geography and Natural Resources And Then There Was Light… Fantasy Map Big BangHow do you start a story? I’m sure you can think of several ways and various combinations of those ways. Usually different writers love one or another, or become more comfortable with one or another over time. For example, you could start with one or a few characters, you can start with a plot line, or you can start with a setting. Either way, to get the complete story, you will still have to come up with all three and mesh them together in the best possible way. Since one way to define ‘fantasy’ is something different than our reality, I like to start a fantasy story by looking at the world. There are many books on plot and character, and you can take those rules plus your own and apply them to any genre, from science fiction to romance and so on. The difference in a fantasy or science fiction story is that the specifics of the world are very important and often define the story. So, I find it very useful to first define and understand the world, and later on let the characters play the plot in that world to shape the full story. Since the Universe, any Universe, is infinite, any subset of the Universe is a Universe in itself. I like to break them down into two concepts: Macro-Universe and Micro-Universe. When I create my world, I always start with the Macro-Universe, and walk my way down to the Micro-Universe. Your story world will be somewhere between those two. Once I get that down, it’s a lot easier to work on the plot and the characters, since knowing where they are and what to expect from the environment will influence how they act, what they do, and what is possible or acceptable. Think about some of the stories that you’ve read in the past and see if you can visualize the plot and the characters in a different location than the one in the book. Of course, you can, that’s why there are so many modern variations on the Wizard of OZ. Strong characters and powerful stories can happen anywhere. But a lot of times, just like in Oz, or Lord of The Rings, the story world is so strongly intertwined with the plot that it becomes unique and immediately recognizable, and that is what you want to shoot for. This being said, I like to begin my worlds by thinking about the outer shell and working my way toward the inner shell. In some instances you may not need to go as far. As we will see later, the geographical world is not something fixed in space and time. There is a history, there is a genesis, and there are interactions that made the world be what it is. You need to decide how important those are to your story. If they’re not, don’t spend lots of time on them. Maybe do it just for your own sake, to help you later on (remember the reader should only know 10% or so from the entire idea behind your world). Just note that this becomes increasingly important if you are working on a series. Think it through from the start so you don’t find yourself in a corner three books into your series (and have to use tricks such as ‘and a wizard came from the sky and changed everything.’) To begin, answer the following questions: • Is it important to know how the physical world came to be? Was it created by a deity, was it a result of some scientific evolution? • Is it important to know the place in space and time for this world, or do I only need to know my world, within its boundaries? When you discuss the map for your world, which we’ll get to in just a moment, how do you picture that map? Is it on a planet, is it suspended in some sort of unknown structure, does it simply exist and no one knows or had ever wondered what lies beyond its boundaries? Most of the time, especially if your world was created by a deity, it’s very helpful to have some answers to these questions. Especially if you will introduce religion and magic into your world later on, those concepts are usually significantly influenced by the way your world was created and where it exists. Just like humans are constantly preoccupied and in search of the origin and reason for life, your story world can go through the same turmoil, adding tension and drama to the world. The Universe Fantasy Map UniverseLet’s think about the Macro-Universe first, and for simplicity I’ll call this Universe (anything that is outside of the reach of your world). At the end of the day, your story will take place within physically limited bounds, such as a galaxy, planet, country, land, field, city, fortress, etc. Somewhere where characters can move, interact and where things can happen. That part is what I call the micro-Universe, but again, for simplicity, I will refer to it as ‘story world’. In your case, the Universe could be very fuzzy, if it is unimportant to the story. For example, you may have some sort of land, delimited by the “Boundaries of Doom.” What lies beyond those boundaries? We don’t know, because we don’t care, in this example. Your world will have characters in it, interacting, as we said. So, you need to draw a parallel between our real world and your imaginary world, and see how many of the things that we experience here on Earth can be applied to your world, and how many are worth changing. Let me try to enumerate some of the things that come to mind: • Is your world underground, above ground, under water, or in the air? • Is there a day/night concept? • What is the source of light? Do you even need light? Is there a star (or more) similar to the Sun? The easiest way to think about a Universe is a globe, or a sphere. It’s true that in reality an infinite Universe doesn’t have a center, because it is infinite, but for the purposes of creating an Universe for a story, think of it as a giant sphere. Your world is somewhere inside that sphere. Giving it that shape will make it easier for you to picture it. Fantasy Map TerraformingOnce you established the idea of your Universe and gave your world a place inside it, now you have to start building the physical part of your world. I’m talking about your geography and natural resources. You will probably revisit this many times and make adjustments required by your plot, but it’s a good idea to establish some initial rules. Every time I have to create a new world, I struggle with this idea: how big should the world be? Let me teach you a little trick. Think about Earth and do things relative to familiar earthly notions. Do you envision a world that is roughly as big as Paris, or as big as Europe, or as big as Africa, or maybe even as big as Earth, or perhaps twice as big as Earth? Either way, narrowing down the approximate size and finding a matching size on Earth will help you tremendously. Once you have a mental approximate size for your world, think about a few aspects that will influence the way you define your world: • Can your characters transport over water? Do you want water? • Can your characters fly? These two will influence the way you create your map. If there are ways for your characters to travel by water, with ships or other means, you could create oceans and seas between your lands. If your creatures can fly, you can create tall mountains or deep canyons; but if they can’t, be careful, you might make parts of your world inaccessible. Another important aspect is how advanced is your society. If it’s a primitive world, they might not be able to build bridges and tunnels, or even know the wheel. We’ll deal with technological advances soon, but for now, think of an era in the human history and picture the things that were possible back then and align your world as such. Before you start drawing your world, let’s briefly touch on a few aspects that will come into play later, but they are worth mentioning now. These are elements that will influence the way your map will look in the end: • Political System and Government • Races and their effect on the environment • Fauna and Flora So, how do you start planning your map, especially if you are not too good at drawing, like me? This is what I do: I first decide the general size of my world, as explained above, and then I open Excel (or any other spreadsheet program, like Numbers or Google Sheets) and I create a matrix of narrow rows and columns. When I say narrow, I mean 1-2 millimeters on your screen. This will give you a square matrix. To do so, open a New document, and select multiple rows and columns and resize them down to obtain a small grid. Depending on the size of your world, decide on a scale for each cell. For example, let’s say we are talking about a world that is 2000 miles wide and 2000 miles long, so about the size of the United States (The actual size of USA is 3.794 million miles). We’ll say that 1 cell is 50 square miles. That gives you a 40 x 40 matrix. Make sure you select the entire matrix and add borders all around each cell to make it easier to read. Now that you have this grid, start representing the various parts of your world by using squares with different colors. Don’t worry about overlapping or the fact that they are not the right shape; aim for the size. What you want to do here is scale various parts of your world. Since you know one cell is 50 miles, a 3 x 3 square will be 150 x 150 miles, for example, so a 22,500 square miles area, about the size of West Virginia. If your world is very big, you can create multiple sheets like that and join them together. To make this easier for you, I have created a template that gives you a 40 x 40 matrix, an 80 x 80 matrix (roughly size of Asia), and 100 x 100 matrix. Download it here, and use it freely. It is a XLSM file, so a Macro-Enabled Excel file for Excel 2010. The Macros are needed because I have a few tools to help you calculate areas. Once you completed this part, you should probably print it. Now you have a simplistic, birds-eye view of your world, very square and unrealistic, but still a good start Here’s what I do next: I put a blank paper over the Excel printout. If I have semi-opaque paper, I use that, otherwise I put the papers one on top of each other on a window facing out, so I can see the Excel drawing through the paper. Using a pen, I start to trace the map by using the squares as guidelines. All you have to do is make sure that in your drawing you draw the map line as much on the outside of the squares, as you reduce it on the inside. When you have a lot of squares clustered together, they might be a part of the same continent, in which case you just draw all around them. To understand what I mean, when you finish reading this look at the demo page associated with this post to see how I did it. (Link at the bottom of the post) Oh, and here’s a tip: Use a pencil and have an eraser close by. No map comes out the way you want it from the beginning. Once you are done, find out the scale of your map. To do so, use a regular ruler and measure how many squares on the Excel sheet you have in one inch. Let’s say you have 10. This means that one inch on your map is equivalent to 500 miles (50 x 10). At this point, you have a very rough shape of your map. The sizes of land and water are now starting to be clear. Before you move to the next step look at the map and answer these: • Is there enough land for your story to take place? Remember, one inch is 500 miles (in this example), so measure your land and see how big the distances are. • Is there enough / too much water in oceans and seas? Are the lands so far away that it would take a ship way too long to travel? This is paramount because if your distances are too large you will wind up with transportation problems later on (the last thing you want to do is have two cities so far away that they break your plot because your Prince Charming cannot gallop fast enough to save the princess…) Some of this will be solved later on when you deal with magic, since magic can be used to avoid all transportation problems. So, what we’ve done so far is create a two dimensional world. Now it’s time to give it some height and you do that by adding mountains, hills and valleys. It’s not easy to depict your heights on a hand-drawn map, so one trick I use is a numbering system from -10 to +10, where -10 is the lowest point, like a valley or the bottom of a canyon, and +10 is the highest point, such as a mountain summit. Put numbers on your map to define the height in different areas. This is totally optional, and I usually skip this step, but if your map is very large and complex, it might be a good way to keep track of heights. Now that you know where your mountain ranges are, draw a closed area with the pencil and slightly gray it out. Do go crazy with the shades, it’s simpler to use the -10/+10 method to mark the difference in height. Once the mountains are established put some rivers and lakes. Here are some rules: • Generally rivers spring from mountains • Make sure your rivers flow into an ocean, and try not to make all rivers flow “down your map.” It’s tempting but your map is seen from above, so make rivers go in all directions. • Use a thicker or thinner line to identify wider or narrower rivers, respectively. Often, thinner rivers will merge with wider rivers • A river usually breaks into a few smaller ones or a delta before spilling into the ocean • Lakes are often found along rivers, or in close proximity to rivers. Now, just use your pencil and draw some rivers and lakes on your map. Directions and Seasons Fantasy Map SeasonsAt this point, you are looking at a very simplistic land. You have given your world a little bit of a shape, you have decided where the land and waters are and dropped a few mountains, lakes, and rivers. We won’t add any vegetation yet, we’ll discuss this in the Flora and Fauna chapter. Before we move any further, let’s talk about something important: directions. Because we are working in a two-dimensional environment (the drawing on a paper), your map has an “up and a down,” and “a left and a right.” What are those? Well, on Earth we call them North, South, East and West and the absolute position on the planet is given by latitude and longitude. You need to provide a similar system for your world so the reader can understand what is what and where it is. The easiest way is to call it ‘North, South, East and West,’ because it makes sense, and because their name doesn’t really affect your plot, in most cases. But if you want to invent new names for the directions, make sure you make it very clear and mark them on the map. If somebody is walking towards “Sunrise” or towards the “Boundaries of the Gods,” where is that on the map? Is it up, down, left or right? You need to define the system that allows people to know if they are holding the map upside down and to understand where is somebody heading. Next thing to take into account are seasons and temperature. You may have to revisit this based on your plot, but put some ideas down now. On Earth, North-most and South-most areas are frozen and cold, whereas at the Equator it is always hot. How is your world? Depending on that, you may have areas that are constantly frozen, or areas that are constantly hot. In your fantasy world, you may have parts of the world that are forever on fire, or parts where the temperature depends on something, maybe magic, or people’s faith. Either way, brainstorm about that and write down what comes up. On your map you can draw little bubbles and write ‘cold,’ ‘hot’, ‘medium,’ to mark the relative temperature. I say relative because what we consider ‘hot’ on Earth might not be perceived as ‘hot’ in your world. Another thing to take into account are seasons, or temperature cycles. On Earth we are used to have parts of the world with four seasons, other parts with two seasons and others with just one. What is the situation in your world? Depending on that, you will have to draw your map in some point in time: Is it winter time, when mountains have snow, or is it summer time when the fields are filled with trees and crops? This starts to tie-in with the beginning when you answered the questions about your world’s place in space and things like day/night concepts. Mapping Your World Fantasy Map Mapping WorldNow how do you go about creating an actual cool map from your draft? If you know how to draw you are probably skipping this part already. If you know somebody who can draw, you should probably call them. But what if you don’t? There are a few software packages out there that can help you create your maps. And behind those software packages, there are groups of people who enjoy creating maps and might do yours for free or for a small fee. If you want to have a cool map, probably the software is the way to go. None of these applications are things you can just start using overnight, however, they are not impossible to grasp. Here are the ones that I know: Are you surprised there aren’t a lot more? So was I. Of course, you can always choose to use one of the major graphics programs, such as Adobe Photoshop and the like. But for people who can’t draw, using one of the programs above is the only way to go. Personally, I have only used Campaign Cartographer and I have to say, the maps that come out of that software are pretty sweet. Take a look at the gallery below to get an idea: Copyright notice: All images are copyright ProFantasy Software ( Creating a Fantasy World Demo – Part 1 Last, but not least, please comment below and give me your ideas and opinions about this first section of creating a fantasy world. read more
Tom Dorsey President of Dorsey, Wright & Associates What is Point and Figure Charting? Point and Figure charting is a charting technique that records the movement of securities. The chart is made up of X and O columns as a result of price movements. X’s represent an increase in price, while O’s illustrate a decrease in price. What makes Point and Figure Charting special is that it does not take time into consideration as other charting techniques. Instead, Point and Figure charting only updates as price changes. In a Point and Figure Chart, there are two types of columns. X column represents an increase of price movement while the O column shows a decrease of price movement. For example, let’s say Company XYZ’s stock price is at $50 dollars. We will plot an X on top of the previous X if the price exceeds the previous price. When the starting price of Company XYZ is at $50 then increased to $60, we will notice a long raising column of X’s. For a column of O’s to happen, a three box reversal needs to happen. If the following prices of the day went from $60 to $57, we need to create a new column of O’s at a price of $57. If the price continued downward, the O column will also continue downward. For O column to switch back to X column, a three point reversal needs to happen again. From our previous example, if prices go from $57 to $60, a new column of X at $60 would need to be created. For a “buy signal” to be given, the current X column has to exceed the last previous X column. For a “sell signal”, the current O column has to exceed the previous O column. Tom Dorsey President Dorsey, Wright & Associates Tom Dorsey President Dorsey, Wright & Associates In addition to Point and Figure Charting here at Dorsey Wright & Associates, we use a concept called Relative Strength. Relative Strength is a concept of purchasing securities that have already outperformed the broad market benchmark or other securities. When using Relative Strength comparison, investors will compare a security against a benchmark or other security. Investors would divide a specific security price against the benchmark or other security’s price. If the new comparison price is on the X column, this means the specific security is outperforming the benchmark or other securities.If the comparison price is on O column, this represents the benchmark or other security outperforming the specific security. Investors can use this concept to pick which securities have the potential to outperform the broad market benchmark or other securities. Dorsey, Wright & Associates (DWA) is an independent and privately owned registered investment advisory firm based in Richmond, Virginia. Our expertise is technical analysis based on Point and Figure Charting, Relative Strength Analysis, and other tools to analyze market data and deliver actionable insights. For more information, visit www.DorseyWright.com to find out more information about Dorsey Wright & Associates’ research. Comments are closed
Advent means “coming or arrival,” and the reason for the season is anticipation and preparation for the birth of the Christ child and His second coming. In the early church, however, it was a time for candidates to prepare for church membership. After the fourth century, it became a time for preparation for Christmas, and penitence was added as a standard for the whole church in the Middle Ages! Now, many Christian churches are again shifting the emphasis of Advent from a penitential season, such as Lent, to a celebration of hope and anticipation. That in no means takes away from the fact that Advent is also a time of preparation and introspection. In an effort to again distinguish between Advent and Lent, some denominations have changed the color of Advent to various shades of blue. Some Roman Catholic churches have changed to a blue violet. Although we, as Episcopalians, all grew up with purple and red violet, the early 12th century Black Canon of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ordered black as the color for Advent! But, blue is by no means new to our church either. Before the 12th century, it was used in the Western Church. The Sarum Rite was the original basis for the liturgy of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and where blue was used for the color of Advent. It was often specified that it be an indigo to represent the darkness before the birth. Early art shows church leaders in ornately decorated blue robes. Shades of blue symbolize royalty, the coming of the King, hope, the night sky before the dawn, the sea before creation, and Mary. Remember early dyes were made from nature. Some historians suggest that northern European dyes were made from berries that produced blue while southern Europe was able to make purple dyes. Tradition puts the rose-colored candle in the Advent wreath—not to symbolize Mary, but to reflect the lessening emphasis on penitence, the nearing of the end of the fast, the pending birth, and the second coming. Rose or pink represents joy. The 3rd Sunday in Advent marks the halfway point, and we are allowed to be excited for the coming event. In the Roman Catholic tradition, it is called Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin for “rejoice.” It takes its name from one of the traditional readings from Philippians which begins, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” The dark blue was chosen to represent the night sky before creation. The four stripes represent the four weeks of Advent with the 3rd rose-colored stripe indicating Gaudete Sunday. The tau cross is referred to as an anticipatory cross, and it is one of the traditional symbols for Advent. The design was kept simple to reflect the tone of the season.
Essay on Muslims and Science Only available on StudyMode • Topic: Islam, Islamic Golden Age, Sharia • Pages : 12 (3667 words ) • Download(s) : 2398 • Published : November 25, 2010 Open Document Text Preview Please read the short book 'Muslims and Science' by Pervaiz Hoodhbhoy. Provide your views on the central argument of this book. Building on your knowledge from Bronowski and Sagan, what were the vital characteristics that allowed Western civilization to outpace Muslim civilization in the development of science in the modern period? Muslims and Science Zara Abbas(11020043) Ever since the advent of Islam in 7th Century, the Muslim civilization rapidly rose to the forefront of human achievement. Remarkable progress was made not only in the fields of sciences and philosophy – i.e. mathematics, astrology, astronomy, optics, cartography, medicine, anthropology, logic and literature – but they also became the dominant military and economic power of the world by the 13th Century. These accomplishments were made possible by a number of underlying factors prevailing at that time in Muslim history. The significant ones being the territorial and commercial expansion of Muslim influence to a vast area where a treasure trove of Greek, Persian and Roman works in science, medicine and philosophy was made available to their intellectuals to build upon; Patronage and encouragement was given to Muslim scholars by the ruling elite of that time, several universities were built in the Muslim lands and a spirit of freedom for inquisitive research across the religious divide was created and encouraged. But then, owing to a raging and endless conflict between the forces of logic and reason and those of rigid religious fundamentalism, Muslim Science lost its appeal and eventually disappeared into near oblivion. Resultantly, the culture of patronage of those seeking knowledge and the pursuit of excellence in the fields of sciences and the arts also died. The Muslim World today, comprising 57 countries and 1.57 billion people – which is roughly one fifth of the world population - has made no significant contribution to science or offered anything substantial towards technology[1] during the last 500 years. It remains in a state of intellectual stagnation while its inept and corrupt leaders rule without any vision or foresight. Budgetary allocations for sciences and general education in most Islamic countries are low resulting in their dependence on the West for survival in vital areas of human activity. Their collective wealth of human capital and vast preserve of natural resources are being wasted on non-development expenditures. The continuing cycle of regressive policy formulation has perpetuated poverty, conflict and instability in most Muslim countries. This deliberate neglect has not only created frustration and despondency amongst the Muslim youth but has also provided space to the orthodox religious forces to breed a deep rooted hatred for the ‘Christian West’ being a convenient scapegoat. In the context of Pakistan and its regional geo-political environment we find ourselves trapped in a serious internal conflict, socio-economic insecurity, political instability and institutional collapse which have retarded the pace of societal progress. This bleak scenario provides enough motivation to dejected members of the society to join extremist elements for their self actualization. When the sad decline of Muslims began after almost 5 centuries of world domination, the West started overtaking them in every field of human enterprise ranging from means of warfare, industry, economics, education, governance and culture. This ascendency of European nations is attributed to the collapse of feudal economy, relegation of the Church from socio-political dominance to mere religious preaching, emergence of capitalistic economy, development of a secular and rational approach towards scientific and social education[2] and lastly the productive cum commercial usefulness of science and technology for the human race. Unfortunately, the gap between both civilizations in the domain of scientific research... tracking img
A Voice for Earth Environmental and social justice and my personal experiences in the area. Another Warning Sails on By In three years time, avoiding a temperature rise of two degrees Celsius will be impracticable, unless we reach peak carbon emissions by then. That is the finding of the Carbon Tracker in London, the Climate Action Tracker consortium, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in a joint report. What it boils down to is that we have a carbon budget. Depending on the varying ways this budget is calculated and subtracting past emissions, our remaining carbon credit falls somewhere in the range of 150-1050 gigatonnes of total emissions. This is the maximum we can emit if we are to have any serious hope of achieving the Paris Agreement’s aspirational goal of keeping warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, or even below 2 degrees. At the current rate of emissions of 41 gigatonnes annually, that would mean that at the lower end of that scale that we would cross the threshold in four years, so let’s hope somewhere in the middle or upper end of the range is closer to reality. Otherwise, we’ll have to deploy large-scale carbon capture technology and drop carbon emissions to zero right now, which would likely crash the economy, god forbid, when we’re on course to crash all of civilization. So they’re presuming a 600-800 gigatonne carbon credit. Peaking emissions now would give us 25 years to get them down to zero, which, let’s face it, isn’t happening and won’t in the near-term, but we must do it by 2020 to have a reasonable chance to accomplish decarbonisation of the economy in time. If we do it by then, we should achieve zero emissions before 2040 with a 600 gigatonne credit. However, with an 800 gigatonne credit, we can push this out to 2050 but with a greater risk of crossing the two-degree threshold. Waiting till 2025 to peak emissions or even keeping them level until then will put that goal out of reach for all intents and purposes. So here we are, pretty much being told it’s crunch time for climate action, but there doesn’t seem to be any corresponding increase in urgency. Things are being left to mosey along at a woefully insufficient pace. Let “market forces” drive change they said, the economy will fix the problem they said. Yes, the capitalistic, growth at all costs, money-hooked machine is going to resolve a crisis that ultimately requires that it rejects itself. Corporations do not want to do anything that’s going to affect profitability. Competitiveness is what is inclining many companies to favour renewables and electric transport, as they know where things are going long-term, but they won’t jump the gun from their perspective if it risks them losing money. Ideally, governments would regulate corporations and national bodies, forcing them by means of legislation to change how they operate. However, governments are nearly more scared of regulations these days than the corporations themselves. They don’t want to be seen as impeding businesses that bring jobs and wealth into their respective countries by whatever trickle-down argument they want to use. We can pretty much be assured that in most countries that this will continue. A few like the Scandinavian nations are committed to more appropriate targets for complete decarbonisation, but even their plans would fall short if the actual carbon budget is less than the 600 gigatonnes we’ve allowed ourselves. I imagine at this point that even 2 degrees is the aspirational goal, and 1.5 is already out of reach without actions so drastic that it would make the US mobilisation for WW2 pale by comparison. On our current course, we could be threatened with up to 3 degrees Celsius of warming at least. There are some estimates that say that we’ve grossly underestimated climate sensitivity and warming of up to 7 degrees Celsius is possible by 2100. It’s hard to fathom what that much warming could do but assuming even the lower value of 3 degrees, we can be assured of massive upheaval, perhaps civilization-toppling effects. We could see the collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, raising sea levels tens of feet. We could see desertification in the equatorial regions, the complete annihilation of the rainforests, and the loss of major breadbaskets. We could assume that all this along with major natural disasters would lead to mass migration and inevitable conflict over reduced space and resources. Even if we “only” warm the world by that much, we can’t be positive that it would end there because of all the feedbacks in the Earth’s systems. So, again, here we are, poised to unleash disaster on a scale no human has witnessed since the rise of civilization, if ever. We could potentially set back our development centuries, if not right back to the Stone Age. Hell, if the higher climate sensitivities to GHGs are correct, we could be galloping towards our own extinction like so many lemmings charging towards a cliff edge. I really hope that we can avoid that world. I hope that what momentum there seems to be from Paris and the drive for renewables and zero emissions transport really will continue on the up and up. I hope that our leaders can start to see beyond short-term economic gain and begin assuring a safe future for our children and all the generations to come. I hope, I hope, I hope! It really does feel like instead of putting it out, we’re playing with the fire that is catching. I feel as though we’re all living on a prayer with this carbon credit shot in the dark. We’re hoping the credit is higher, and we are depending on probabilities of achieving that below two degrees goal. However, the reality is that we could see a sudden upshot in warming any year now. 2016 proved that, having crushed the two previous warmest years, 2014 and 2015. If that happens, we’ll be forced into drastic action one way or another, and it still might not be enough. I still believe we can do better, that we still have a chance to do so, to leave the world better than the generations before us have and how we have it now. However, the margins are tightening and time is slipping away from us. Just because we don’t know exactly how tightly we are bound doesn’t mean we should assume the most optimistic scenario, that we still have plenty of time. We should assume the worst and act accordingly. It seems to me to be the only responsible thing to do. Image Source: List of Polluted Earth Wallpapers (allwidewallpapers.com) All opinions put forth in this post are my own. I respect other people’s rights to their own opinions. Author: James Geary I'm a chemistry graduate from Ireland. My interests include climate change and the environment, current events, social justice, reading and writing, veganism, and health and fitness. 3 thoughts on “Another Warning Sails on By 1. You do realize that peak temp is 10 years after peak co2 emissions? Liked by 1 person 2. We are already locked in to 10C. and Higher, with Methane which is Natural Gas having 7 year lag time , Carbon 30 to 50 year lag time before gases reach their full potency, holding heat and water. Greenland is keeping the Northern Hemisphere cool, it used be the Arctic until Fossil Fuels. Greenland has 20 feet of Sea Level Rise Antarctica has 200 feet of Sea Level Rise We have raised temps. approx. 1.7C since the 1700 Each 1C. Rise increases atmospheric moisture 7% Record Snow until Greenland 1/2 Gone, then just Record Rain an Record Heat year after Fukushima year With 459 Nuclear Reactors at Sea Level we need to start decommissioning and Relocating them Now Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Punishment For Disobedience (Leviticus 26:14 – 46) Scripture Text: (click to open in a new window) Leviticus 26:14 – 46 1. How strict were your parents? Did they use the “stick” more than the “carrot”? Or were their “bark” worse than their “bite”? Were the rules and the consequences clearly spelled out? 2. What is the most severe punishment you recall getting from your parents? 3. Why do you think God found it necessary to include this list of punishments in the context with the rewards (verses 1 – 13)? 4. What does it teach you about human nature that one list is substantially longer than the other? How do you feel about that? 5. What new mood is created by making repentance, forgiveness and restoration more explicit (verses 40 – 45)? In what sense does God’s reaffirmation of the covenant seek the same thing as the list of punishments (verses 14 – 39) 6. In one paragraph, summarize chapter 26 emphasizing how these rewards and punishments would help the people maintain a correct relationship with God. 7. In what two ways are you intentionally like (and unlike) your parents as a disciplinarian? 8. Has human nature changed much since these lists of rewards and punishments were first written? In what ways is today’s church no different from ancient Israel? 9. What do you think would be included in a similar list of “rewards and punishments” drafted by your church elders/pastors (with you and your church in mind)? 10. What is most difficult for you about sustaining a right relationship with God? How can this chapter help you do this? 11. How have you experienced the forgiveness and restoration of God (as specified in verses 40 – 45)? What was this experience like? You Are Invited to Leave a Comment... WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
There are breeders, and there are those professionals whose work makes it possible for breeders to develop new varieties of seeds more efficiently and effectively. Dr. Mark Massoudi falls into the second category. A 30-year veteran of agricultural research, Massoudi has focused his work on the plant genomes of various crops since the early 1990s. Utilizing single nucleotide polymorphism assessment, Massoudi identifies and advances desirable traits in crops. Single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, are DNA sequence variations that occur when a single nucleotide in the genome sequence is altered. These differences can provide genetic identification for rapid development of improved cultivars. In the world of plant breeding, the process of SNP assessment is relatively young. The basic understanding of SNPs came out of the Human Genome Project. The first analytical tools for mapping SNPs and databases to facilitate these activities emerged over a decade ago. The first practical and reliable lab equipment for SNP analysis came a few years later. While there are many other ways to map differences in DNA, SNP technology remains one of the most effective genotyping methods for building a better understanding of plant species. There are many different SNP genotyping methods, all of them based on some kind of chemical reaction. Massoudi says no method is absolute, and few are practical for high throughput. Ag-Biotech uses the Allele-Specific Polymerase Chain Reaction (AS-PCR) method because it’s economical, versatile and reliable for high-throughput breeding operations. By selectively amplifying individual alleles, this type of PCR detects the presence of SNPs. “The primary benefit is that it is much faster in determining DNA sequence variations to identify simple or complex genetic traits,” he explains. “It enables breeders to eliminate plants with undesirable traits more rapidly. Instead of the usual five or six backcrosses – hybrids with one of its parents – SNP technology can fast-track a single gene transgression in two backcrosses, producing a recurrent parent line that is 99 percent genetically identical to the original parent line.” In November 2011, Ag-Biotech released a panel of SNP-based markers to aid tomato breeders worldwide. The markers identified traits for various viruses and fungi, including root knot nematode, fusarium wilt and late blight, the bane of New England’s tomato growers in the summer of 2009. Massoudi claims Ag-Biotech has the most comprehensive proprietary database in the western U.S. of molecular markers for many common vegetables, fruits and other plant varieties. He and his team continuously identify and compile molecular markers in common crops like celery, and in obscure crops like quince, artichoke, cactus and fennel. In the near future, they intend to release panels for various squash and several cultivars of wine grapes. The scientists are currently mapping apples as well. Changes to breeding and development Massoudi believes SNP is changing seed breeding and development for the better. “It is exciting when small breeders have the same access to affordable technology as large corporations. Once upon a time a seed researcher couldn’t compete against large operations that had their own in-house laboratory facilities; they would have to partner with these big developers or just not invest in rapid analysis. Now we are finding the more innovative, small plant breeders have begun to understand the advantages of SNP technology. In the meantime, many of those large operations have started using an independent lab like ours because it is more cost-effective,” he says. One issue faced by technicians using SNP is that the technology is sometimes confused with more controversial DNA technologies. Yet, Massoudi emphasizes, all he and his team do is accelerate a process that humans have done for thousands of years: improving crop yields and, increasing resistance to certain pests or other growing conditions. “In California we have helped with the development of many varieties that are commonly found in the organic and nonorganic sections of produce departments and stores,” he says. Remember, don’t call Massoudi a breeder; Ag-Biotech only performs analysis for breeders so they can get results more rapidly.
posted by . 1.For motor development,the greatest importance for the developing infant is. A.tummy time b.sitting c.crawling d.walking my answer is crawling 2. At what stage does the ability to use imagination begin to develop? A.infancy b.toddlerhood c.preschool d.early elementary my answer is c. Preschool • education - Someone please check this for me • education - I agree with both of your answers. Respond to this Question First Name School Subject Your Answer Similar Questions 1. dangling modifier He found his glasses crawling under the couch. Were his glasses really crawling under the couch? 2. Infant and toddler 3. Preschool question For many children,the development of imagination affects the development of which? 4. Preschool Question--Pleae Help! I asked this question a few days ago- and several tutors said there is no one correct answer. There has to be one answer better,because I can only mark one answer. For many children,the development of their imagination affects the … 5. teachers aide early chidhood education and after s in a classroom the teacher or teacher aide should? 6. child development (answer included) Consider the developmental age groups of early childhood and adolescence as defined by the text. Create a profile for each age group, detailing the normal physical development of each group. Document the changes from early childhood … 7. child development o Explain the stages of social and moral development children experience from early childhood through adolescence this is what i have so far can you tell me if i am on right track or and suggestioons. thank you An infant starts to … 8. Movement and Music Can you please check my semester exam before I turn it in? 9. Children Development Describe three specific examples of changes in your child’s behavior at age 4 that seem to stem from growth in cognitive and language ability since the period of infancy Would it be something like this? 10. Human Growth During which developmental period do children begin to develop self-control and develop a gender identity? More Similar Questions
posted by . Tanya had $1.19 in coins none of the coins were dollars or 50-cents pieces.Josie asked Tanya for change for a dollar, but she did not have the correct chang.Which coins did Tanya have? • Math - • Math - 3 quarters 4 dimes and 4 penny Respond to this Question First Name School Subject Your Answer Similar Questions 1. Math Where do I start for this question. What is the most amount of money--all coins but no dollar coins--that you could have in your pocket and still not be able to give exact change for a dollar, a half dollar, a quarter, a dime or a … 2. Math Ellie and Tanya each have bank accounts.Ellie has $500 and Tanya has $200.Ellie withdraws $15 each weekend while Tanya deposits $12.At the end of 13 weeks what is the difference in their bank accounts? 3. math i have 5 coins. none are worth more than 5 cents. make a list to show how much coins i have. 4. math 5. Math Tanya had $1.19 in coins. None of the coins were dollars or 50-cent pieces. Josie asked Tanya for change for a dollar, but she did not have the correct change. Which coins did Tanya have 6. algebra How many coins When i dumped the change out of my pocket, I noticed that i could pay the exact price for any item from one cent up to and through one dollar without receiving any change. What is the fewest number of coins I could have … 7. 5th grade math I need to use quarters, dimes, nickles and pennies to make the following: $1.53 in 12 coins $2.53 in 20 $2.32 in 15 coins $2.00 in 22 $1.45 in 10 coins $1.76 in 16 coins $0.85 in 11 coins $1.01 in 12 coins $1.29 in 15 coins 8. Math Thomas put 1/4 of the c coins he had in his pocket into the jar under his bed. He put 16 coins into the jar. The equation that models this situation is 1/4c = 16. How many coins did Thomas have in his pocket? 9. Math word problem George has 21 coins with a total value of $12.75. He knows he only has quarters and dollar coins in his pocket. How many coins of each type does he have? 10. math Amber has 4 coins in her pocket. None of the coins are worth more than 10 cents. How much money could she have? More Similar Questions
Text Illustrations Suppose a keg of gun powder has been placed under a man’s house right beneath the furnace where a fire is burning, but he is ignorant of its presence there. After awhile THE HEAT of the furnace causes the gun powder to burn its way through the top of the powder keg and there is a terrible explosion in which the man’s family is destroyed. Fearful as is the occurrence, no one condemns the man. But suppose he had been told that the keg of powder was there, and saw for himself its proximity to the fire, and he went away without removing it. Then, when the explosion took place and his family were killed, everybody would condemn him and say that he was a guilty man. So it is with sin. Related Text Illustrations Related Sermons
When does communicating information turn into gossip? Full Question I was hoping you can explain what gossip is. I always thought it was talking about someone’s personal business or saying half-truths and innuendos. But is it also repeating what you heard about someone divorcing or getting in trouble? When does communicating information turn into gossip? A good rule of thumb is not to say anything that we wouldn’t want said about us. 1. Toni-Marie Reply I teach that a good barometer to use is: “is it my story to tell”? Do I have a right or need to tell this story for any other reason than to pass information on for no reason at all or for the entertainment of it or to have someone to justify a judgement I have made of another. Is it my story to tell? Mary may be going to lunch with Sally; is there any reason for me to tell Sally that Mary didn’t tip the waitress when we went out to lunch together? What is the reason for me to tell Mary that other than to have Mary validate my judgement? Was it my story to tell? Was there a need for me to taint Mary’s opinion of Sally? Did my telling Mary about Sally’s not tipping change anything other than me having someone now think ill of Sally and/or validate my judgement of Sally. Motive distinguishes 2. Christian Azuero Reply Hi Toni-Marie. The definition of a Gossip is the next. “Gossip” – “Rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature.” The answer is simple. Your are doing a judgement by person’s action but not the person. Now we can put another scene. The waitress steals Sally’s handbag but we can not be certain about this. Bob tells to Sally that Mary’s handbag was stolen by the waitress. Sally tells Mary that the waitress is a stealer, we can not know that he is a stealer, the only that can judge this is God. Now, Sally tells Mary that the waitress stole her handbag, you can judge the action. However, Do you know is the information that Bob gives you is from a reliable source. it is this person having proof of what he was saying. Could be that Mary left her handbag on a chair or Bob is a enemy of the waitress and he took the bag. It is still a rumour that can not be proof it. Sally said that the waitress was shaking, this is not a valid proof, we can not know why is the reason of this behaviour. If it is not true, the waitress feels angry by Mary’s judgement of calling him a stealer and Mary was angry with the waitress. Mary commit a mortal sin and she have to repent with God because “you have to love your neighbour as yourself”. If it is true then, he commit a mortal sin and he have to repent to God. If both parties are agree that the person is not a stealer then there is not sin. The best advise in this case is to verify with the waitress first, and then with Mary and Bob. You have to ask yourself If it is beneficial for everyone and you can prove it, then, proceed. I left you an article about Gossip. Cheers. Exodus 23:1 – You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. No matter who originates the accusation, we should not repeat and spread it unless we have substantial evidence it is true. Proverbs 11:9 – The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor. Men have lost jobs, wealth, and families because of character assassination. 3. mary christine Reply i think gossip is passing on information to some individual about another well knowing that apart from having them know what happened to who while they were not there they’ve got nothing much to do about it.the sole intention is to be the first to give one individual information about another who is in most cases well known to the two. 4. Nancy Reply I think gossip is when you tell someone something about another person that the listener did not NEED to hear. If there is no necessity in telling the information to another person it becomes gossip!! 5. Roberta Reply I think gossip is relating to anybody or everybody about somebody ( may be true or not true) just to make a person’s image bad or even worst just to make herself more interesting to all. Puting out someone’s candle to make her own shine. Leave a Reply 1. most read post 2. Most Commented 3. Choose Categories privacy policy
Monday, September 26, 2011 Hospital privacy curtains laden with germs: study The privacy curtains that separate care spaces in hospitals and clinics are frequently contaminated with potentially dangerous bacteria, according to a U.S. study. To avoid spreading these bacteria, which can include the dangerous MRSA "superbug," health care providers should make sure to wash their hands after routine contact with the curtains and before interacting with patients, said Michael Ohl, from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, at a Chicago conference. Health care providers often touch these curtains after they have washed their hands and then proceed to touch the patient. Further, these curtains often hang for a long time and are difficult to disinfect. In their study, Ohl and his team took 180 swab cultures from 43 privacy curtains twice a week for three weeks. The curtains were located in the medical and surgical intensive care units and on a medical ward of the University of Iowa Hospitals. The researchers also marked the curtains to keep track of when they were changed. Tests detected Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, including the especially dangerous methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), as well as various species of Enterococci, gut bacteria, some resistant to the newer antibiotic vancomycin. The researchers used additional tests to identify specific vancomycin and methicillin-resistant strains to see whether the same strains were circulating and contaminating the curtains over and over. The study found significant contamination that occurred very rapidly after new curtains were places. Of the 13 privacy curtains placed during the study, 12 showed contamination with in a week. Virtually all privacy curtains tested -- 41 out of 43 -- were contaminated on at least one occasion. MRSA was isolated from one in five curtains, and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci from four in 10. Overall, two thirds of the swab cultures were positive for either S. Aureus, Enterococcus species or various bacterial species from a group known as gram-negative rods. "The vast majority of curtains showed contamination with potentially significant bacteria within a week for first being hung, and many were hanging for longer than three or four weeks," Ohl said. "The most intuitive, common sense strategy is (for health care workers) to wash hands after pulling the curtain and before seeing the patient. There are other strategies, such as more frequent disinfecting, but this would involve more use of disinfectant chemicals, and then there is the possibility of using microbial resistant fabrics." But he said that hand washing was by far the most practical and cheapest method. Source and More: No comments:

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