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Mental retardation in autism is known to arise from a plethora of rare de novo mutations of key protein components in the synapse- the basic neuronal connection in the brain’s hardware. In a recent study published in Nature Genetics, Berkel and colleagues identified yet another de novo mutation associated with autism, which essentially consist of a series of loss of function mutations of the protein Shank2- a member of the postsynaptic scaffolding proteins located in the receiving end of synaptic connections known as the post-synaptic terminal (Berkel et al., 2010).
Scaffolding proteins function to localize key synaptic proteins and signalling molecules to the postsynaptic terminals, and are required not only for effective neurotransmission, but also spontaneous strengthening and/or pruning of synaptic connections (known as synaptic plasticity) necessary for normal cognitive development in the brain. In autism, the displacement of these crucial synaptic proteins and signalling molecules results in profound synaptic defects, and thus contribute to the delayed cognitive development and mental retardation observed in autism patients (Betancur et al., 2009).
In light of existing evidence that synaptic scaffolding proteins are mutated in cognitive disorders such as autism, the discovery of Shank2 mutations is just yet another mutation under the large list of de novo mutations associated with autism. However, unlike previous studies, Berkel and colleagues were first to use DNA microarray and sequencing technology to correlate the variations of Shank2 mutations with varying degrees or severity of mental retardation in autistic patients.
The synapse is really a hub of proteins and signalling pathways for which scientists have very little understanding. The present study by Berkel provides the first molecular scalpel to take apart and understand the workings of the brain’s synaptic hardware. Moreover, Berkel’s approach enables one to explore the elusive synaptic mechanism underlying cognitive function, literally right down to the single nucleotide level. As autism is a multi-defective disorder in various cognitive functions including language, social skills and intelligence, Berkel’s novel molecular approach paves the way to understand how these distinct cognitive functions could be linked to the complex protein components in the synapse.
Berkel, S. et al. (2010). Nature Genetics. 42, 489-491.
Betancur, C. et al. (2009). Trends in Neuroscience. 32, 402-412.
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Cary Audio Design CAD-805 monoblock power amplifier
Lee de Forest filed for a US patent on his "Audion"—the first triode—on October 25, 1906, but never could explain why it worked (footnote 1). It was up to Armstrong and Langmuir, in their pioneering work, to place the hard-vacuum triode on firm scientific ground. When the US entered World War I in April 1917, the Army had to rely on French tubes. Six months later, Western Electric was mass-producing the VT-1 receiving tube and the VT-2 transmitting tube. However, it was only in the decade following World War I, as designers became conversant with the triode amplifier, that many of the crucial elements of tube amplification were nailed down. Technical issues such as coupling two gain stages and selection of optimal coupling impedance were already resolved by the mid-1920s. The triode ruled supreme until the tetrode came along in 1926, followed in 1929 by the pentode from Philips's research laboratories in Holland.
Roarin' '20s amp circuits naturally tended toward simplicity. A single power triode was allowed to handle the entire signal; ie, both negative and positive portions of the waveform. These amplifiers perforce operated in purest class-A: the signal was not shared between two tubes, as it is in a push-pull output stage. These minimalist designs typically used no global negative feedback, feedback not being widely used until the late '30s. This is one of the major reasons why a single-ended design recovers so gracefully from overload. In this age of 84dB-sensitivity loudspeakers, power amps clip routinely. "Redlining" an amp may push it into momentary gross distortion, or oscillatory behavior which persists for many milliseconds. That literally sounds bad. The single-ended amp, on the other hand, clips so smoothly and recovers so quickly that it's difficult to tell that it has clipped at all.
In the '20s, a UX-171 triode reliably delivered a clean 700mW, while a UX-210 power triode with a plate voltage of 425V could deliver 1540mW of undistorted power—a whopping 1.54W! Such power is actually adequate for home radio applications. Come to think of it, my daughter's new Sony boombox sports a specification of 1.5W at 5% THD. That's progress!
In the '30s, Western Electric pushed the single-ended power amplifier to around 9W output using the 300A output tube. These 9W beasts were used extensively to power large horn-loaded speaker systems in movie theaters across the country. Later, RF transmitting tubes such as the 211 and the 845 were used to generate over 20W in single-ended fashion.
What caused the near demise of the single-ended power amp in the '40s and '50s? The switch to push-pull was fueled in the '30s by the growing popularity of the pentode, which offered better load damping and even greater efficiency in push-pull. The proliferation of relatively inefficient direct-radiator loudspeakers demanded more amp power. The inefficient single-ended output stage finally gave way to push-pull designs that were more efficient by factors of two and three (less wasted plate dissipation).
Ironically, the push-pull stage was already known in the '20s. Such a connection was recognized to balance out even harmonics—assuming tube-like characteristics—and therefore offered a possible means of reducing triode harmonic distortion, which is primarily even in nature. Unfortunately, the trend toward using power pentodes in a push-pull connection tends to emphasize their harsh odd-order harmonic distortion signature, which isn't canceled by balanced operation (footnote 2). Odd-order harmonics (third, fifth, etc.) are not consonant with the music's harmonic envelope and are therefore not easily masked, even at very low levels.
Whether or not the distortion-reduction argument holds much water, undeniably the biggest practical advantage of push-pull operation is that direct currents in both halves of the output transformer's primary winding balance each other magnetically, minimizing the problem of core saturation and making a lighter, more compact, and wider-bandwidth design possible.
Another factor behind the single-ended amplifier's demise had to do with the misguided drive for lower and lower harmonic distortion. The invention of the moving-coil dynamic loudspeaker in the '20s generated much excitement and a common perception that there was now a speaker that had no distortion detectable by the human ear. The next logical step in the development of perfect radio reception was to perfect a distortion-free amplifier; hence, the birth of the simplistic notion that lower distortion, at whatever cost, is hi-fi's ultimate goal. This idea has stuck with us through the years and was used to legitimize the supposed "superiority" of early solid-state gear. Tons of transistorized crap have been sold under the conceptual umbrella of "Less than 0.01% Total Harmonic Distortion!" Joe Public could sleep blissfully at night, secure in the comforting illusion that his receiver was true hi-fi.
Over the years, the legacy of the single-ended triode amp and horn loudspeakers continued to find a receptive audience in Japan where, in the '70s, audiophiles discovered Western Electric gear. Japan is apparently one country where the dry, sterile sound of modern gear is frowned upon. Audiomart's Walt Bender tells the story of how he laughed at Japanese collectors who paid him big bucks for these audio antiques. He stopped laughing when he actually heard the stuff for himself. Like Walt, audiophiles whose sole exposure to tube gear has been via class-AB push-pull amps heavy on feedback go into shock the first time they hear single-ended magic; the sound's purity and musical intensity are that dramatic. The Japanese have combed the countryside for years for this classic sound; by now, practically all the available vintage gear has migrated East.
The good news is that the growing underground interest in single-ended tube gear has translated into a commercial rebirth of this class-A King. Cary Audio Design is the first modern US-based manufacturer to offer several single-ended amp designs. CAD's designer, Dennis Had, says he's excited by and devoted to single-ended triode amplifiers: "It never ceases to amaze me how some of the golden classical designs of the 1930s were actually more advanced in their sonic presentation than some of the more current Hi-Fi designs." he says in Cary's promotional brochure. "Maybe we really don't even have a clue to what Hi-Fi of today vs live music is all about until we listen to some of the more simplistic, in terms of component count, audio circuits from brilliant minds of years ago in comparison to a live performance." In other words, unless we understand our audio roots, we will never find the path to musical fidelity.
Footnote 1: Lee de Forest incorrectly insisted that the triode's behavior was due to the presence of gas in the primitive audion's soft vacuum. It was left mainly to Armstrong to provide a strong theoretical footing for the triode's behavior and to develop circuits that made use of its properties. Those interested in the early days of sound reproduction and broadcasting should read Tom Lewis's Empire of the Air: the Men Who Made Radio (HarperPerennial Books, 1991). Written in conjunction with an excellent PBS program (which is also available as a videotape), this is the best account I have yet read on the legal disputes between de Forest and Armstrong and between Armstrong and Sarnoff.—John Atkinson
Footnote 2: The necessary phase splitter or inter-stage transformer was thought, even 70 years ago, to introduce some distortion itself, thus negating at least some of the push-pull stage's inherent distortion neutralization.—Dick Olsher
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Fundamentals of wind turbines
Jane Marie Andrew, Contributing Editor | TLT Webinars August 2019
Global capacity has grown continuously since 2001, including a 9% increase in 2018.
© Can Stock Photo / ssuaphoto
As an industry, wind energy is growing fast; both total capacity and individual turbine output have increased steadily over the last decade.
The wind characteristics change with geographical location, terrain, season, height, direction and time of day.
The power output of a turbine depends primarily on the blade length and the wind speed.
This article is based on a Webinar originally presented by STLE Education on Feb. 27. Fundamentals of Wind Turbines is available at $39 to STLE members, $59 for all others.
Dr. Harpal Singh is a senior scientist at Sentient Science where he is engaged in wind turbine and aerospace-related mechanical and materials science research involving tribology, materials characterization and failure analysis.
Singh has more than six years of experience in the field of tribology and metallic materials. He holds a patent, several peer-reviewed publications and two best paper awards from STLE in the field of solid lubricants. He earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Akron, Ohio. His research was focused on the mechanical, material and tribological properties of materials and coatings used in wind, automotive and aerospace applications. His expertise includes materials characterization, tribological testing, coatings and failure analysis.
You can reach Singh at
Dr. Harpal Singh
The rising concerns over climate change, environmental pollution and energy security have increased interest in developing renewable energy. We are seeing unparalleled enthusiasm, demand and growth in renewable energy production, with wind energy being at the forefront. Wind energy is expanding both onshore and offshore with bigger, more powerful turbines, creating new demands and markets.
The global capacity for generating power from wind energy has grown continuously since 2001, reaching 591 GW in 2018 (9% growth compared to 2017), according to the Global Wind Energy Council (1).
In the U.S., capacity figures are reported by the American Wind Energy Association (2). According to this trade association, the total wind power capacity in the U.S. was 96,488 MW at the end of 2018, an 8% increase from the 88,964 MW installed at the end of 2017 (see Figure 1). (Generation capacity means the output of a wind turbine when running at rated power.) New installed capacity grew steadily from 2000 to 2012. After a spike and a trough in 2012 and 2013, new installations recovered in 2014 and have leveled out at about 7,000-8,500 MW annually since 2015.
Figure 1. Trends in U.S. wind energy growth. (Figure courtesy of the American Wind Energy Association’s U.S. Wind Industry Fourth Quarter 2018 Market Report.)
Capacity growth in the U.S. in 2018 was concentrated in the central states (the "wind belt”), the West Coast states and, to a lesser extent, the tier of states along the northern border. Texas leads in overall installed capacity, followed by Oklahoma and Iowa. Similar trends are observed in new capacity installations, with Texas far outstripping any other state, followed at a distant second by Iowa (see Figure 2). Five central states were in the next tier in 2018: Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas and Illinois. This growth has resulted in strong employment growth. In the decade from 2008 to 2018, the number of full-time equivalent jobs in the wind industry grew from about 50,000 to more than 110,000. Texas has the most wind-related employment, with 25,000-26,000 jobs, distantly followed by 10 other states with 3,000-10,000 jobs by the end of 2018.
Figure 2. New U.S. capacity installed in 2018 and (inset) cumulative installed capacity by state. (Figure courtesy of the American Wind Energy Association’s U.S. Wind Industry Fourth Quarter 2018 Market Report.)
In addition to exploiting interior wind belt regions, many countries with ocean coastlines are developing offshore wind power generation. The trends in offshore capacity mirror those for land-based capacity, showing steady growth. The global offshore capacity as of 2018 was 23,140 MW or about 4% of the global 2018 capacity of 591 GW, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (1).
The cost of onshore wind energy has become competitive with utility-scale solar photovoltaics and gas combined-cycle generation joining them as the three least expensive sources of energy. According to Lazard, a financial advisory and asset management firm, the cost of wind energy dropped 69% from 2009 to 2018, and the mean levelized cost of energy for wind power is now $29 to $56 per megawatt-hour (3). Coal is the only other technology that approaches the same range.
In a growing trend, large corporations are including wind power in their power purchase strategy, either through direct ownership of wind projects or purchase agreements. Among commercial and industrial (C&I) purchasers, Walmart made an early mark in this area with a purchase announced in 2008. Google Energy has announced purchases each year since 2010 and is currently the largest C&I wind customer, with total contracted capacity of 1,096 MW. AT&T contracted the most new wind power in 2018, a total of 820 MW (2). Other major purchasers include not only large technology companies and manufacturers but also a municipality, a regional transit system and a government agency.
As the market has grown, turbine models have proliferated; in 2018 there were more than 30. According to the American Wind Energy Association, three manufacturers hold over 85% of the U.S. market: GE Renewable Energy (41.4%), Vestas (24.2%) and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (19.7%). Smaller players are Mitsubishi, Suzlon, Clipper and Senvion. In terms of capacity, GE Renewable Energy and Vestas are the clear leaders at 39,912 and 23,318 MW, respectively (2).
The products created by these companies are growing ever larger in both generating capacity and physical size. For turbines installed in the U.S. from 2000 to 2018, average generating capacity roughly quadrupled from 660 kW to 2.43 MW. For a sense of scale, the average U.S. household uses 2 kW of electricity annually. A 2.5-MW turbine running at peak capacity all year round would power about 1,250 homes.
In the same period, the average height of the turbine hub increased from 190 feet (58 m) to 288 feet (88 m)—approaching the height of the Statue of Liberty—and rotor diameter has more than doubled from 160 feet (49 m) to 380 feet (116 m), about the length of a soccer field. The majority of turbines installed in the U.S. in 2018 had capacity ratings in the range of 2-3 MW, followed by units rated for 3-3.5 MW. Sixteen models dominated the 2018 installations, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Turbine models installed in 2018. (Figure courtesy of the American Wind Energy Association’s U.S. Wind Industry Fourth Quarter 2018 Market Report.)
Wind physics fundamentals
Wind arises from processes driven by solar energy. The sun’s energy creates temperature differences that drive air circulation. Hot air rises, reducing the local atmospheric pressure; nearby cooler air flows into this region of lower pressure; this air flow is wind.
Wind is shaped by both global and local forces. Global patterns are in part the result of the Coriolis force, which arises from the Earth’s rotation. As cool air flows from higher to lower pressure areas, it is deflected by the Coriolis force; the direction of deflection depends on latitude. As a result, different regions of Earth have different prevailing wind directions.
At the other end of the spectrum, local geographical features can have very specific effects. One such effect, familiar to anyone living near the ocean, is the land breeze. At night, the water is warm relative to the land, so air is warmed over the water and rises; the resulting low pressure draws cool air from land out to sea: the land breeze.
Although there may be a prevailing wind direction, it is not the only wind direction. Both direction and speed are highly variable with geographical location, season, height above the surface and time of day. Understanding this variability is key to siting wind power generation, because higher wind speeds mean higher duty cycles (i.e., longer periods of active power generation). It is necessary to measure the characteristics of the wind in great detail, including how often winds of certain speeds occur (see Figure 4) and how the surrounding terrain affects the stability of wind flow.
Figure 4. Plot of the frequency of occurrence of different wind speeds over a period of a year. (Figure courtesy of Sentient Science Corp.)
A stable flow with a consistent speed is very important for both generating efficiency and structural integrity. Variability leads to wind shear and wake forces. Wind shear is a function of wind speed, which increases with height above the surface. Thus, the shear forces on the rotor blade are greater when it is in the top position (see Technical Note: Equations for Wind Turbines).
Technical note: Equations for wind turbines
Wind Shear
An important consideration for turbine siting and operation is wind shear when the blade is at the top position. Wind shear is calculated as
V = wind speed at height H above ground level
Vref = reference speed
Href = reference height
H = height above ground level for the desired velocity, V
H0 = roughness length in the current wind direction.
For instance, assume we know that the wind is blowing at 8 m/s at a height of 20 m. We want to calculate the wind speed at 70 m. If the roughness length is 0.1 m, then
Vref = 8
H = 70
H0 = 0.1 and
Href = 20, hence,
V = 8 ln(70/0.1) / ln(20/0.1) = 9.8915 m/s.
Turbine Power
The energy contained in a mass m of moving air with velocity v is
The mass flow rate of moving air with a density ρ through a cross-section area A is
The power contained in a flowing mass of air through area A is
The power extracted by blades of diameter d is
where the power coefficient cp has a theoretical limit of ~0.6; this is referred to as the Betz limit, which defines the maximum amount of wind kinetic energy that can be converted to kinetic energy.
Wake forces are created because the wind slows down and becomes turbulent as it passes the wind turbine rotor blades. This is why turbines are widely spaced, usually five to nine rotor diameters in the direction of the prevailing wind and three to five rotor diameters in the perpendicular direction.
Wind speed also changes as a result of turbulence, which can be caused by nearby rough terrain, including trees and buildings; these can cause wind speed to vary greatly even within several hundred yards or meters. This effect, called turbulence, decreases efficiency and causes fatigue loading.
Wind power fundamentals
Energy is captured from wind through the lift phenomenon—the same phenomenon that allows birds and airplanes to fly. (Turbine blades are, in essence, captive wings.) The lift generated as wind passes over the blade causes it to move, thereby rotating the main shaft. The rotation is transmitted through a gearbox to a generator, which converts it into electricity. The magnitudes of the lift and drag on the turbine blade are dependent on the angle of attack between the apparent wind direction and the chord line of the blade.
Several different factors influence the power output of a wind turbine. Among other factors, wind speed and rotor diameter are the two primary parameters (see Technical Note: Equations for Wind Turbines).
Turbine power increases with the square of blade length. For example, increasing the rotor diameter from 262 feet (80 m) to 394 feet (120 m) allows power to increase from 2 MW to 5 MW (a factor of 2.5).
Turbine power increases with the cube of wind velocity. For example, a turbine at a site with an average wind speed of 16 mph would produce 50% more electricity than the same turbine at a site with average wind speeds of 14 mph.
These two fundamental physical relationships are behind the drive to scale up the physical size of turbines. A larger rotor diameter allows a single turbine to generate more electricity, providing better return on installation cost. And because wind speed and consistency both increase with height, taller turbines produce a higher and more consistent supply of electricity.
A given design operates with a range of wind speeds. Below the cut-in wind speed, the turbine cannot produce power because the wind does not transmit enough energy to overcome the friction in the drivetrain. At the rated output wind speed, the turbine produces its peak power (its rated power). At the cut-out wind speed, the turbine must be stopped to prevent damage. A typical power profile for wind speed is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Profile of power output from a wind turbine over a year. (Figure courtesy of Sentient Science Corp.)
In addition to an operating range, an installed turbine has a capacity factor that reflects its actual power generation. The capacity factor is the annual average of power generated divided by the rated peak power. For example, if a turbine rated at 5 MW produces power at an average of 2 MW, then its capacity factor is 40%. In general, a higher capacity factor is preferred, although it may not be advantageous economically. For instance, in a windy location, it will be advantageous to use a large-size generator with the same rotor diameter. This would tend to lower the capacity factor, but it will lead to substantially larger annual production.
Wind turbine technology
Turbines come in several general categories based on orientation and drivetrain type.
The turbine blades can be oriented around either a vertical or horizontal axis. An advantage of the vertical axis is that blades do not have to be mechanically reoriented when the wind direction changes. Horizontal-axis turbines come in two general designs. In a downwind design, the blades face away from the incoming wind; in an upwind design, the blades face into the wind (see Figure 6). More than 90% of currently installed turbines are of the upwind type, as this design does not create wind shade behind the tower.
For the drivetrain, in a gearbox-drive design, a gearbox is used to increase the speed transmitted from the rotors to the generator. In a direct-drive design, the speed is transmitted directly to an annular generator. Aside from the gearbox, the components are generally similar; however, in a direct-drive turbine the generator diameter is much bigger to increase generator torque as it rotates at the same speed as the turbine blades.
Figure 6. Simplified view of components of an upwind-facing, horizontal-axis wind turbine with a gearbox drive. An animation is available (4). (Figure courtesy of Union of Concerned Scientists,
The wind turbine components that experience friction and wear and require lubrication are the following:
Pitch bearing (grease)
Main shaft bearing (grease)
Gearbox if any (oil)
Yaw drive (grease)
Generator bearing (grease).
The pitch drive is used to adjust the angle of the blades. This adjustment is made for two reasons: 1.) to capture maximum power from winds below the rated output wind speed or 2.) to slow the blades for safe operation at winds above the rated speed. The yaw drive moves the blade and housing assembly (the nacelle) to the optimum wind direction in relation to the wind. An animation prepared by the Union of Concerned Scientists is helpful in visualizing the action of these drives (4).
Figure 7 shows a typical three-stage wind turbine gearbox. A planetary stage (bottom left) transfers the torque first to a low-speed intermediate stage (bottom right) and then to a high-speed intermediate stage (middle), which drives a high-speed stage (top) that feeds the generator. Such a design might, for example, convert 14 RPM input from the rotors into 1,500 RPM to the generator; the exact conversion of course depends on the gear ratio. Different bearing types are used in these various components, as shown in Table 1.
Figure 7. Power flow diagram of a typical three-stage wind turbine gearbox. The low-speed input from the rotors (far left) is converted into high speed at the output shaft (HSS) to feed the generator (top right). (Figure courtesy of Sentient Science Corp.)
Table 1. Application of Different Bearing Types in Wind Turbine Drivetrains
Some technical differences should be noted between land-based and offshore turbines. Offshore installations account for more than 3% of global capacity. Offshore construction presents different challenges, the most obvious being how the structure is anchored. The strategy differs depending on the water depth. For depths less than about 100 ft (30 m), monopile construction is used. For transitional waters (100-200 ft or 30-60 m), a cross-braced “jacket” foundation is used. For deeper waters, prototype floating platforms are being tested. The transformer design also is different for different water depths, and in general offshore installations are moving from gearbox to direct-drive designs.
Another very significant difference is size. Without the need to limit noise or accommodate terrain-induced turbulence, designers can pursue truly giant scales. GE has built an offshore design rated at 12 MW, significantly higher than the 2017 average of about 2.3 MW. It is indeed a giant: the rotor diameter is on the scale of the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the surface area of the blade sweep is equivalent to seven American football fields. This is a direct drive design where speed is transmitted directly to the generator. Why build such giants? In addition to raising power output, large turbines reduce installation cost. Installing one 12-MW turbine is cheaper than installing six 2-MW ones; thus the final cost per megawatt is lower. For these reasons, and because of the abundance of offshore wind resources, the industry is moving to an emphasis on offshore wind power.
Wind turbines are the fastest-growing renewable energy source, and wind energy is now cost-competitive with nonrenewable resources. Growth in generating capacity is concentrated in five to 10 states, notably Texas. The field of turbine manufacturers is crowded, but GE Renewable Energy and Vestas are leaders in the U.S. wind market. Increasingly, capacity is being purchased by entities other than utilities, and offshore installations are becoming more attractive and viable.
In terms of technology, turbine design focuses on optimizing power output by focusing on two key parameters: blade length and average wind speed. The latter is affected by surface terrain and varies spatially, directionally and seasonally. The effectiveness of a particular installation is quantified by a capacity factor: the ratio of actual annual energy output to the theoretical maximum output. A number of basic designs are in use, but most commercial installations use a horizontal axis, upwind-facing design. Turbines are becoming ever larger, in both physical size and generating capacity, in order to capture more stable winds and to maximize return on installation costs.
1. Global Wind Report 2018, by Global Wind Energy Council. Available here.
2. U.S. Wind Industry Fourth Quarter 2018 Market Report by American Wind Energy Association, January 30, 2019; public version available here.
3. Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis – Version 12 by Lazard, 2018, pp. 4 and 8. Available here.
4. How Wind Energy Works,” by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Available here.
Jane Marie Andrew is a free-lance science writer and editor based in the Chicago area. You can contact her at
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Deep sleep can rewire the anxious brain
Deep sleep can rewire the anxious brain
New research from the University of California, Berkeley has revealed that a sleepless night can trigger up to a 30% rise in anxiety levels.
UC Berkeley researchers discovered that deep sleep, also known as non-rapid eye movement (NREM) slow-wave sleep, is the most suitable type of sleep to calm and rest anxious brains. This type of sleep causes heart rate and blood pressure to drop, and neural oscillations become highly synchronised.
"We have identified a new function of deep sleep, one that decreases anxiety overnight by reorganizing connections in the brain," said study senior author Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology. "Deep sleep seems to be a natural anxiolytic (anxiety inhibitor), so long as we get it each and every night."
The findings provide one of the strongest neural links between sleep and anxiety to date. The findings also demonstrate that sleep may be able to be used as a natural, non-pharmaceutical remedy for anxiety disorders.
"Our study strongly suggests that insufficient sleep amplifies levels of anxiety and, conversely, that deep sleep helps reduce such stress," said study lead author Eti Ben Simon, a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley.
Simon and his team used functional MRI and polysomnography, among other measures, to scan the brains of 18 young adults. The participants were shown emotionally stirring video clips initially after a full night of sleep, and then again after a sleepless night. The anxiety levels were measured after each session by using a questionnaire that is known as the state-trait anxiety inventory.
The data collected showed that after a sleepless night, the brain scans detected a shutdown of the medial prefrontal cortex - this area of the brain helps to keep anxiety in check. Despite this, the brain’s deeper emotional centres were overactive.
"Without sleep, it's almost as if the brain is too heavy on the emotional accelerator pedal, without enough brake," Walker said.
Alternatively, after a restful night of sleep, the results showed significantly decreased anxiety levels. This was particularly prevalent in participants who experienced more slow-wave NREM sleep.
"Deep sleep had restored the brain's prefrontal mechanism that regulates our emotions, lowering emotional and physiological reactivity and preventing the escalation of anxiety," Simon said.
After the study with the 18 original participants, the researchers repeated the study with another 30 participants. The results were the same, with all participants who got more deep sleep experienced the lowest levels of anxiety the following day.
In addition to these experiments, an online study was also conducted. 280 people of all ages were tracked, and data was gathered about how both their sleep and anxiety levels changed over four consecutive days.
Results showed that anxiety levels could be predicted by how much sleep the participant got the night before. Even subtle changes in sleep patterns had an impact on anxiety levels.
"People with anxiety disorders routinely report having disturbed sleep, but rarely is sleep improvement considered as a clinical recommendation for lowering anxiety," Simon said. "Our study not only establishes a causal connection between sleep and anxiety, but it identifies the kind of deep NREM sleep we need to calm the overanxious brain."
On a societal level, "the findings suggest that the decimation of sleep throughout most industrialized nations and the marked escalation in anxiety disorders in these same countries is perhaps not coincidental, but causally related," Walker said. "The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night of sleep."
Co-authors of the study are Aubrey Rossi and Allison Harvey, both at UC Berkeley.
Eti Ben Simon, Aubrey Rossi, Allison G. Harvey, Matthew P. Walker. Overanxious and undersleptNature Human Behaviour, 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0754-8
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Although most research on child sexual abuse survivors is focused on negative consequences, a new study has instead examined factors associated with resilience and flourishing among adult survivors.
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Regular binge drinking can cause long-term brain damage - study
This article is more than 10 years old
High alcohol intake can affect mental abilities
Researchers say findings should be a wake-up call
Just a few sessions of heavy drinking can damage someone's ability to pay attention, remember things and make good judgments, research shows.
Binge drinkers are known to be at increased risk of accidents, violence and engaging in unprotected sex. But the study is the first to identify brain damage as a danger of consuming more alcohol than official safe limits.
The research, to be published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, is significant because binge drinking is so widespread in the UK. Twenty-three per cent of men and 15% of women drink more than twice the government's recommended daily limit. For men this means consuming more than eight units a day and for women more than six, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Binge drinkers aged between 18 and 24 are a key target of the government's alcohol strategy because a minority of people in that age group cause the majority of alcohol-related crime and disorder.
Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: "We know large numbers of people in this country binge drink. This should be a wake-up call to the millions of people whose lifestyle means they get drunk regularly."
Gilmore, who is also the chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance of key medical organisations and specialist alcohol charities, added: "We are all already aware of the immediate impacts of binge drinking: accidents, violence, admission to hospital and unwanted pregnancies. But this opens up the spectre that drinkers who binge regularly may be at risk of long-term brain damage."
The study was undertaken by two experts in alcohol's toxic effects on the brain: Professor Fulton Crews, director of the Bowles Centre for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina, and Dr Kim Nixon of the department of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Kentucky.
They reviewed previous studies in which rats were used in experiments to examine the impact of binge drinking and then related those findings to humans. For four days in a row the rats were given the same amount of ethanol that someone imbibing 15 units of alcohol - about seven pints of normal-strength beer - would consume in one drinking session. Losses in key mental abilities were noted in the weeks after the experiment had ended.
"It is fair and credible to extrapolate the research findings from tests on rats to humans," said Dr Jonathan Chick of the alcohol problems service at the Royal Edinburgh hospital, who is the chief editor of Alcohol and Alcoholism.
"From this research we can infer that humans who have a few heavy drinking sessions in a row may sometimes undergo subtle brain changes which make it harder to learn from mistakes and to learn new ways of tackling problems because their brain function has been subtly impaired."
The research also suggests that loss of brain function in people under 20 brought on by binge drinking increases their chances of becoming alcoholics in later life, Chick added.
Alcohol-related brain damage is becoming a growing burden on the NHS as per capita alcohol consumption increases. Patients with the condition who do not die early need long-term care, which can cost £1,000 a week, for the rest of their lives.
The findings underlined the need for the NHS to do more to identify and help heavy drinkers early on, Gilmore said.
However, the study also found that binge drinkers who then abstained from alcohol did not suffer long-term brain damage.
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Questions for 431 sds course Define centric relation. Shillingburg
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Questions for 431 SDS course
1. Define centric relation. Shillingburg P.11
1. When the mandible moves around the horizontal axis, this movement occurs in the:
1. Horizontal plane.
2. Sagittal plane.
3. Frontal plane.
4. None of the above.
Answer (b). Shillingburg P.13
1. In the mutually protected occlusion:
The anterior teeth protecting the posterior teeth in all mandibular excursions and the posterior teeth protecting the anterior teeth at the intercuspal position.
1. True.
2. False.
Answer (a). Shillingburg P. 20
1. A shallow protrusive condylar inclination requires:
1. Long cusps.
2. Short cusps.
3. Has no effect on cusp angle or height.
Answer (b). Shillingburg P.21
1. If a patient has unilateral balanced occlusion (group function) in the right and left side. And you are restoring tooth #36 with metal-ceramic crown. After cementing the crown and finishing the treatment, the patient will have:
1. Mutually protected occlusion.
2. Canine guidance occlusion.
3. Bilateral balanced occlusion.
4. The same original occlusal scheme, group function.
Answer (d). From the lecture.
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The Beginner’s Guide to Tips
Experiments Conducted on Drug Metarrestin to Target Cancer Tumors
In the recent years, globally cancer has been the main cause of death for approximately 9.6 million people. These deaths are caused by physiological tumors which have spread to other parts of the body. Additionally, there are new cases of cancer related complications being reported annually of estimated 18.1 million persons. An estimate of 2.5 trillion dollars are used every year to study various types of cancer, research on anti-cancer medication and their development, and also to treat cancer patients. The main lethal source of cancer cells is known as cancer metastasis. There are measures being implemented to disseminate cancer, but they have all been reported as elusive.
In living organisms they ought to have cells locomotion, this is to enable development of embryos, homeostasis of organs, regeneration of new body tissues, responding to immunity, repairing of wounds and dissemination of all tumors. When cells migrate into microenvironments, they undergo extracellular matrices. These heterogeneous cells which are guides for locomotion directions, provides unnecessary barriers which hinders cell motility.
For there to be cell motility, all cells must generate temporospatial surfaces which naturally connects organelles and compartments such as filo podia, podosomes, blebs, focal adhesion and protrusion. Therefore, making the organisms which are multicellular not to relocate clearly. Note that one cancer cell in human beings can generate extracellular and elongated cytocapsular tubes which are membranous. These membranous tubes then interconnect and later form tubular network. This network directs cancer cells and they translocate into multiple directions far and wide.
Research institute have carried out a study and promotes organelles and tubes in cytocapsulae for therapy of any related disease. However, they have also implemented technology and biomedicines which can be used to treat tumor metastasis. These drugs can also be used to improve human health treat cancers which have been proved to resist any form of drugs.
A recent study have proved an experimental drug which attacks metastatic tumors which has not been confirmed in other therapies. For example, a mice had pancreatic cancer which had invaded other organs. Using a drug known as metarrestin, all the metastatic tumors shrank completely and the mice lived even longer. This drug was proven to be safe as, it was evident that there was no harm caused in any organ which had metastatic tumor. It has also been used to shrink metastatic tumors in types of breast and prostate cancer. Even though, trials are still underway and yet to be carried out on human beings.
This drug works efficiently by killing all the cells which have developed a structure known as perinucleolar compartment within the nuclei. Exceptionally, these structures only develop in metastatic tumors which have cancer cells and does not occur in health body cells. From the results, metarrestin has been confirmed to be promising and could be used to prevent metastasis.
There has been little progress in coming up with treatment for metastatic tumors since, understanding how cancer forms and grows still remains a big question. However, cancer cells have both genetic and nongenetic alteration and they do not have specific features which can distinguish them from other normal cells.
The 10 Best Resources For Wellness
A 10-Point Plan for Resources (Without Being Overwhelmed)
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How to fortify your immune system by including these super foods in your diet ?
Image credit; strongme
Improving the immune system by incorporating right food in your daily diet
Do we not often take our immunity for granted? What exactly is this immune system, its a complex medley of organs which helps to fortify the body against disease causing microorganisms. Then there are moments when this defense fails and we simply fall sick.
There is a lot we can do to help keep up this defense and most of it can be done by eating the right foods on a regular basis. Right food can keep the immune system strong and us healthy.
Understanding the immune system
Our immune system is not only an organ, but it an entire system and to function optimally it needs balance and harmony. Eating right goes ways beyond just good eating habits. Like any other fighting force, healthy immune system needs good and regular nourishment. There are some evidence that deficiencies of various micronutrients like of zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, and E — alter immune responses.
When functioning well, our immunity helps protect us from various infections and diseases.
Illness hampers growth and stalls regular functionality of the body. It effects our lifestyle and keeps us on the edge of falling prey to further diseases. However, with proper nutrition we can help improve our body’s functioning and avoid such problems.
Here are some foods that will help build the immune system, keep it strong and function properly to give us the much-needed defense from microorganisms.
Green Leafy Vegetables: loaded with fiber and nutrients and are some of the healthiest foods that we have access to. Spinach, broccoli, and cabbages are loaded with essential vitamins and antioxidants which help boost our immune system functioning.
Nuts: almonds, peanuts, and walnuts are great sources of fats. They are versatile and can be easily mixed with different foods and they also contain vitamin E and zinc along with a good amount of antioxidants. Always soak and dehydrate them first to optimize their digestibility.
Eggs: are amongst the most nutrient rich foods, it contains protein and vital vitamins along with antioxidants. They also have essential fats making them fall in the superfood category.
Barley & Oats- these wholesome foods contain beta glycan, which has antioxidant capabilities to fight deadly diseases and help improve immune system. It also helps speed healing wounds and works as antibiotics. You can have as much as whole grains in your daily meals.
Yoghurt- has probiotic, that is healthy bacteria. It keeps the intestinal tract disease free. Make sure to always add yoghurt in your daily meal. Sugar free yoghurt is healthier and you can flavor it with cinnamon and fresh fruit according to your choice.
Chicken Soup– When chicken is cooked it releases amino acid which are extremely nutritious. You can add ginger, garlic or herbs to increase the soup’s immune enhancing power.
Garlic– this food supplement contains active ingredient, allicin. Allicin fights bacteria and infections. If you’re upto it challenge yourself to chew around six garlic cloves a week, it will greatly reduce chances of colorectal and stomach cancer. If chewing fresh garlic is not doable, add crushed garlic while cooking in food.
Shellfish– crab, lobsters, oysters produce cytokines. These healthy proteins help to eliminate flu viruses from the body. Experiment with different various healthy recipes with shell fishes.
Sweet Potatoes: it contains beta-carotene which is converted into vitamin A once digested. Vitamin A helps maintain healthy skin and a healthy skin is one of our first defense against viruses and bacteria.
Honey: makes a great alternative to sugar and can be added to our diet quite easily. The natural sweetener is packed with antioxidants and helps relieve allergies.
Citrus Fruits and Vegetables: like oranges and limes have high vitamin C content and are also rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants are beneficial for the immune system as they are capable of fighting free radical damages and prevents cell breakups.
Peas: another super green food which is rich in antioxidants. Carotenoids, polyphenols, phenolic acids, and flavonoids are some of the powerful antioxidants that are present in peas. You can eat peas separately and also load them in various preparations.
Berries: blueberries are enriched with flavonoids and phytochemicals, which are again very powerful antioxidants. Berries can be used to make a range of healthy smoothies, desserts or simply added to cereals.
Mushrooms: are a potent weapon in warding off colds, flu, and other infections. Studies have found that mushrooms like shitake, maitake, and reishi have antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-tumor properties and are great for the immune system.
Fish: omega 3 fatty acids and other healthy fats found in fatty fishes like salmon, mackerel and herrings help increase the activity of white blood cells. They also play an important role for the production of compounds that regulates immunity in the body and helps protect the body from damages from infections. Omega 3 fatty acids are also known as immune modulators.
Poultry and Lean Meat: are foods high in protein, and are high in zinc — a mineral that increases the production of white blood cells and T-cells, known to fight infection.Other sources of zinc: oysters, nuts, fortified cereal and beans.
Chocolate: Here’s good news- cocoa in chocolates is a immune boosting food. The darker version should be preferred over milk as the latter is high on sugar and low in cocoa. Regular consumption of cocoa, reduces heart disease risks, help raise good cholesterol, and possibly reverse blood vessel damage in people suffering from diabetes.
These are the most potent food sources when it comes to building the body’s white blood cell count. White blood cells are our body’s first line of defense against infections, viruses, and disease and hence it makes sense that these foods are included in our regular diet to help strengthen our overall immune system.
Combined with regular exercise and other healthful habits you can reduce the risks of virus invasions, infection and disease-causing microorganisms to a large extent.
Checkout; Nutrition for healthy minds
• Written bySheela Seharawat
Sheela Seharawat is a fully qualified dietician. She has been successfully running and managing about 35 Diet Clinic’s at various dots on the map of India and has been appreciated with various awards and recognitions for her notable contributions in the field of diet and nutrition. Her aspiration has always been to educate, communicate and helps people live a healthy life through diet and with this aspiration she is aiming to reach out to people with her services across the globe.
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Natural resources are the invaluable gift bestowed by Allah to a country-play an important role in economic development they provide a stable base for erecting the formidable edifice of country’s economy. The availability of these resources it not the only fact which is important, but actually the proper use and exploitation of the natural resources available for
national development is the real endeavor. The availability of natural resources, their proper use and exploitation, help the nations greatly in over coming their economic problem and assist them to pass their development stages smoothly.
Forests minerals and energy resources are not the only gifts of nature, animals, land and manpower may also be include in natural resources, climate of a certain region can also be include in the list of natural resources because it greatly helps in creating suitable working
conditions and thus provides opportunities to the individuals to fully exploit the natural.
Pakistan is greatly endowed by the nature with vast quality of natural resource, but these resources have not been fully utilized. The government of Pakistan has taken adequate measures to explore the hidden resources and to fully utilize them.
(coal): it is one of the important energy sources in Pakistan. Coal mining began in the areas presently in Pakistan. The coal area of our country mainly occurred in sedimentary rocks of tertiary age. The coal found in our country is of inferior. Quality, containing high quality of ash and low heat value sulphur. It is mostly used in brick—making, lime—burring kilns, and railway engines and for domestic purposes as well.
(CRUDE OIL): Pakistan is greatly endowed with oil deposit. The first effort to explore oil, in this region, was made in 1868 when it was drilled near mianwali, Pakistan got four oil producing fielda at the time of independence. Now the production of oil-fields had greatly increased due to discovery and development of new oil fields. The oil and gas development corporation set up in 1961 (ogdc) had efficiently carried out drilling for oil and gas resources besides ogdc, some private companies are also exploring oil in the country. pakistan faced with a serious problem of refining
of the indigenous oil output. Three refinery ltd(Karachi), and attocck refinery of crude oil being drilled in our country.
(NATRUAL GAS):natural gas was discovered in sui (balochistan) in 1952 during drilling for oil. Additional gas fields came to light during test drilling at khankot, pirkoh, toot, mari, dhulian and meyal etc. natural gas found in pakistan has a high methane. Sui is the biggest gas field in the world.
(FORESTS):forests play an important role in the economy of a country, they not only provide pinber, fire-wood, medical herbs but also provide a vital support to regulate the supply of waters in the rivers. They also sustain country’s wildlife and provide unlimited recreational facilities. Unfortunately, in Pakistan only 5% area of total cultivated land is under forests. It is too limited when compared with the total land area. The government had been making efforts to increase the area as well as to
improve the productivity under a systematic management. The fresh development corporation was set up in 1976, the corporation launches different ‘LOK FORESTY’ programs with the sole aim to motivate the people at large to bring maximum land under cultivation.
(CLIMATE):located on at great land-mass, north of tropic of cancer, Pakistan has a continental type of climate characterized by extreme variations of temperature. The areas closer to the snow covered northern mountains are cold whereas the temperature of mild and southem regions is hot isn summer and cold in winters. The country is on the margin of monsoon climate. The rainfall is barely sufficient and thus it possesses
a dry climate. Due to the diversity of climate a large variety of crops is cultivated balancing the agricultural economy of the country.
(SOIL):the soils of Pakistan belong to dry group having a high proportion of calcium carbonate and are deficient in organic matter. They are generally fertile due to the extensive use of irrigation of waters in some parts of canal irrigation lands areas with ‘Thur’ and ‘kallar’ are found.
(ANIMAL): Pakistan Is also rich in animal resources. The waters around karachi are rich with sea-food and are considered to be some of the best fishing grounds of the world lobsters, shrimps, sharks, dolphins and other aquatic life exist in plenty. In northern areas, there are majestic arco polo, sheep, Siberian, ibex, blue sheep, snow leopard, brown and black Himalayan bear jackals, fox, wild cats and reptiles.
The bird population shows a rich variety. Thre are over 100 main species of resident birds, of which may sing. The waters of Indus River sustain a rich treasure of water birds.
(MANPOWER): the total labor force in the country, estimated in 1988-89 was 31 million, according to labor force survey (LFS) the unemployment rate in country was 3.31%. in the country, significance member of employed people work for less than 35 hours and thus ate not fully employed. If these figures are also taken into account then about 14% are unemployed. Like many developing countries, the employment structure in Pakistan in largely based on self-employment, particularly in rural areas.
Agriculture is the pre-dominant sector in the economy of Pakistan. It contributes about 30% to the country’s GDP, provinces employment to 50% of the labor force and also forms 70% of the export earnings. It is the sources of livelihood, directly or indirectly, for about 70% of the rural population. It provides food for our every growing population, and raw material for most of our industries.
Despite its pivotal importance in the country’s economy, our country has not been able to achieve self-sufficiency in agricultural commodities. These are variety of obstacles in the way of agriculture development in Pakistan.
The financial problems have proved to be a stumbling block in the way achieving target.
Government allocations for the agriculture sector are continuously declining. In the second 5 years plan the allocation was 51.8% but in the seventh 5 year plan (89-94) it has been reduced to 8.2% only.
The support process of wheat/ basmati rice, cotton and sugar cane has been fixed much lower than it costs the growers.
The bulk of rural credit goes to big formers (zamindars) became of normal criteria of financial institution and in this small farmers are discouraged which adversely affect their production and efficiency.
Due to the scarcity of water, millions of hectors of cultivable land is still lying barren in balochistan, thar, cholistan and north western and western mountain ranges. The canal network of Indus basin is the biggest in the world but, is not being utilizing properly and effectively. The 19% of the available water is lost during conveyance from canal heads to water course heads; another 22% is lost in distribution from water course
heads to farmers. Tube wells are used in 40% areas to supply water to areas where canal water is not available. But we are facing problems in this regard also due to financial difficulties in operating maintaining tube wells in public sector, low efficiency in private sector because of high costs and high rates of fuel and the shortage of electricity.
Floods are responsible for heavy losses of standing crops and fertility of
land. Their causes are poor maintenance of bunds, lack of flood canal, inefficient flood information, heavy rain with no drainage system.
The excess of salt in the upper layer of soil is called salinity. The water logging is caused when the continuous presence of salt water, close to the surface plugs up the pores of the upper layer of the soil and checks the atmospheric air to reach the roots of the plants, water logging and salinity retards the growth of plant and decrease the yield. In Pakistan the main causes are seepage of water from canals which raises the water table, no drainage system in irrigated areas and continuous over irrigation of lands.
WAPDA, is early 64s had launched CSARPI program to curb the twin
The upper 17-20cm layer of surface of land is responsible for fertility of land and is known as soil. It contains nutrients essential for plant growth. If these directorates of soil conservation are at work, yet the problem is not overcome completely. There is still a need control soil caused by deforestation, dry weathers, which and water.
The deficiency of nutrients nitrogen, sulphates, phosphate, potassium, etc in our land because of semi-arid tropical climate is filled by the use of fertilizers reduction of government subsidies, inability to supply adequate quantity of water lack of the dosage information, shortage of fertilizers and increase in prices due to black marking.
Improved varieties of seeds are needed to get better response and maximum yield. But in our country, a modern method such as cross-breeding etc is still unconventional.
Pests and diseases are responsible for 20-30% loss of yield. We have failed to control them because of big cost of pesticides and because of unawareness of the majority of farmers, the proper method of application, dosage and frequency of sprayes.
Mechanization helps a great deal in sowing and harvesting of crops in a
very short span of time and thus reduces post harvest losses. although ADBP provides loans for purchase of tractors and installation of tube wells yet according to and estimate, only one percent (1%) tractors are being used in balochistan. The main hurdle in the way of mechanization is high costs of technology.
There are certain social problems which are hindering the development of agriculture sector. Due to illiteracy farmers fail to get timely information and are ignorant about the new technologies. Best use of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc, becomes difficult for them. There are other social problems like rural poverty, had health conditions, inadequate and expensive transport system, lack of farm to market roads, exploitation by the middle man, out dated market trends, which affect the system.
No education about agriculture given at secondary level. At graduate level, the syllabus is theoretical rather than practical. There are inadequate funds for research in the fields. The agricultural universities are less in number.
In spite of three land reform in 1959, 1972, big land lord are still in defects possession of thousands of acres of land problem should be assessed a fresh and reform should be implemented.
Government should be embark projects for the development of three vital natural resources- forests, water and land, aerial photography should be carried out to check the wastage of water of Indus.
Salinity control and reclamation project (SCARP)
Lining of canal.
Use of gypsum
Genetic engineering
Pesticides and seeds
Finance assistance
Import of machinery
Better social conditions
In a federal system of government, the powers of the government are divided between the government for whole country and government for parts of the country in such a way that each government is legally independent in its own sphere. The government for the whole
country had its own area of powers and it exercise its authority without any control from the government of the constituent parts of the country, and thee later in turn exercise their powers without being controlled by the central government. Neither is subordinate to other, both are coordinate.
After the emergence of Pakistan as an independent state, the relation between the center and provinces in one of the most complicated issue and challenge in pakistan politics.
A federal state is one in which a number of coordinate states unite for a certain common purpose, similarly, Pakistan was also constituted when muslims majority areas of indo- Pakistan sub continent were limited to form a single state. It was a federation unique in its character since it was established in the name of Islam. After nine year of stalemate and
wastage of time, the population got their first constitution in 1956, which envisaged a federal system of government. Provincial autonomy and constitutions of Pakistan 1956 constitution proved to be short lived and after two years of its existence martial law was proclaimed. The second constitution of 1962 also established a federal system of government. But ayub’s authoritarian rule made it difficult to run the country in the true
spirit of federalism, as a result of which the eastern whig was separated from western, due to growing resentment in 1971.
The people were presented a new constitution of 1973. This constitution also, like the previous two constitutions, proved for the establishment of a federal form of government. In this constitution, which was endorsed by all the major political parties of the time, an effort was made to create and strike and understanding between the units, i.e., the provinces
and the central government. The judiciary was given the power to settle disputes’ arising between the center and the provinces, a council of common interest (CCI) was formed, and most of all comprehensive lists of powers of the center and the provinces were provided for , on the face of it the constitution created an ideal structural framework for the working of a
successful federal system.
However, history is witness to the fact that the running and managing of the federal system has not been without troubles and center province relationship has quite often remained tense for one reason or the other. There are certainly some snags in our system which hamper the smooth, cordial and harmonious working of the federal arrangement.
Causes of center province conflict
i. Strong center: which infringes on provincial autonomy.
ii. economic disparity: economic disparity between center and province distribution of fund/ Revenue/ testile.
iii. distribution of subjects: the constitution provides three list of subjects.
i. Federal list
ii. Provincial list
iii. Concurrent list
The federal and concurrent lists are so exhaustive that hardly any important matter has been kept beyond their scope. On the subjects enumerated in the concurrent list, both federal as well as provincial legislature have the power to enact. In case of inconstancy, the enactment
of federal legislature will prevail as a matter of fact center had complete control on these.
iv. Population – area factor: according to the Punjab’s point of view the distribution of power/ funds should be based on the population. The population on Punjab is 58%. On the other hand balochistan comprises of 46% of total area of Pakistan, most of which is backward, therefore it suggests that while distributing funds, the area factor should also be taken into consideration.
According to sindh’s viewpoint, distribution of revenue collected should be done according to the size of taxes collected from each province because most of the industrial units are based in Karachi; therefore sindh is contributing more than any other provinces.
Constitution of kalabagh dam and royalty of terbela dam has been bone of contention between NWFP, and the federation. Royalty of sui gas is also demanded by the balochistan provinces
Religious sectarianism
The settle dispute between center and province
According to article 232 of constitution, president is empowered to declare by proclamation of emergency, that a grave emergency exists whereby the security of Pakistan is threatened by war or interned disorder. During such emergency, federal legislature shall have the powers to make laws on the provincial subjects.
According to article 234, if the president feels that economic life or financial stability of country or any part is threatened, he may proclaim financial emergency. During such emergency federation ear give directions to the provinces to observe principle of propriety.
Over the years, it has been observed that federal government has been reluctant to give the provinces their due constitutional share. It has not fulfilled its certain obligations e.g. meeting of N.F.C. and council of common interests (C.C.I.). The formation of national finance commission at an interval of 5 year is required under article 160. But it could not be held from 1974-91.
But it doesn’t deeply that the days of federalism in Pakistan are numbered or are over. It was and still remains the most appropriate and perhaps the idea system to run the affairs of the state. It is only that certain concrete steps are required to be taken.
Concurrent list should be reduced.
It should be elected from the provincial assembly instead of having been appointed by the federal government.
Financial autonomy:
The meeting of NFC:
Regular meetings of council of common interests:
Repeal emergency:
Ban on separatist movement:
Ban on armed religious groups:
The reason later of the emergence of Pakistan was the indian muslims’ desire to preserve and foster Islamic values. It is maintained the implicit in the demand for the Pakistan was the demand of an Islamic state. Pak ideology is based on the ideals of islam which means that Pakistan would be an Islamic state drawing its inspirations from the principles of holy
Quran and sunnah. The people of Pakistan would have an opportunity to live their lives according to their faith and creed based on Islamic principle. They would have resources at their disposal to enhance Islamic culture and civilization because it was the soul purpose of demanding a separate homeland for the Muslims of indo-Pakistan.
“it is my belief that our salvation lies, In following the golden rules of conduct set for us by our own great law given, the prophet (P.B.U.H) let us lay the foundation of our democracy quaid-e-azam’s views on future constitution of Pakistan are clearly given in the following speech when he said;
“islam its idealism has taught the muslims
Democracy. It has taught the equality of men,
Justice, fairplay to everybody. Pak is nto going
to be a theocratic state, I’m sure that the future
constitution of Pakistan would be democratic
ambo dying the essential principles of islam”
From the very beginning, our founding failures tried their best given an Islamic constitution to the country. The first great step towards such constitution was “objectives resolution”. It was moved by then P.M liaquat ali khan in the constituent assembly on 7th march 1949 and was passed without any opposition. In this resolution God’s sovereignty was recognized
over whole universe. Principle of Islamic democracy, social justice and rights of minorities were recognized as the guiding principles on which the future constitution was to be based.
Seven years after the adoption of the objectives resolution, Pakistan was given its first constitution on 23rd march 1956. The importance of this constitution was that objectives resolution was included in as preamble which gave an Islamic touch to the constitution. Besides, Islamic provisions were continued in the directive principles of state policy. Same was the
case with two other constitutions adopted in 1962 and 1973. There were many Islamic provisions in all these constitutions which designed the country as an Islamic state.
These provisions were that no law shall be passed in Pakistan which would repugnant to the teachings of islam as laid down in the holy quaran and the sunnah; existing laws shall be brought into conformity with such injections, an advisory council of Islamic ideology should be established which would suggest steps and means to the government to enable the muslims of Pakistan to order their lives in accordance with holy quran and sunnah; president and premier should be muslims. In 1973 sovereignty of god was declared principle of democracy.
Thought there were many Islamic provisions in these constitutions. But they were more in nature of an ideology, and there was no real substance to make the political order a real Islamic one. For example: objectives resolution was in the preamble but the preamble was never made a part of any constitution. It was not enforceable by the courts.
Political parties and their leaders were never serious towards the process of islamization, so they did not take any measures to make the country a purely Islamic state.
Due to palace intrigues and imposition of various martial law, the constitution and the institutions were never allowed to work freely toward islamization process. Due to wide-spread illiteracy in the country, most of the population was not clear in their mind towards true Islamic concept and beliefs. It resulted in the lack of interest on the part of the people towards islamization.
Though most of the ulema opposed the creation of Pakistan but after its independence. They reconciled with the newly created state and started their struggle to Islamize it. Their early efforts succeed when objectives resolution (1949) included most of their demands. In the mean while they presented their 22 points and pressurized government to include them into upcoming constitution 1956. Many of islamic provision were incorporated in the constitution but soon aijub khan came into power and treated most of the religious parties as antipakistan.
He was more inclined towards west and wanted to westernize the people. At first he didn’t include Islamic provision in the draft constitution but finally he had to surrender before the pressure of the religious parties and incorporated their demand in 1962 constitution. In the following years, ulema’s role was surprised but they he asserted thmeselve when
contested 1970 elections and entered the parliament for the first time they formed strong opposition against bhutto’s government in national ssembly. Due to their pressure Bhutto was compelled to adopt following measures:
Qadianis were declared non-muslims.
Islam because state religion.
Drinking was prohibited.
Friday was declared as weakly holiday.
There were, no doubt, great achievements religious parties. However, their climax came in 1977, when they started mass-movement against Mr. Bhutto. They succeeded in bringing zia into corridors of power. He was ready to do whatever religiou parties wanted him to do.
The previous governments did not take any concrete steps to implement islam in the country. However, with the military rule of zia, the process of nifaz-i-nizam-i-islam was started. He, on the recommendations of the council of Islamic ideology promulgated 5ordance of February 10, 1979 instituting Islamic penalties (hudood) theft, zina, false accusation way, he
tried to change the social and moral order of the society, so as to bring it in more conformity with holy Quran and sunnah.
Hudood law were followed by Islamic shariah benches in every high court and an appellate shariah bench in the supreme court. These benches were empowered to dispose off the eases under hudood law. Besides they could declare any law repugnant to the injunctions of islam. Later on the federal shariah court was established as an independent crouton 26th may
The jurisdiction of previous shariah benches was conferred upon the new court 5 judges and 3 ulema because the members of the federal shariah court. In june 1980, the president issued and other ordinance which imposed zakat on savings and usher on agricultural product these Islamic taxes were imposed to secure economic wellbeing of the poor and to help them become self reliant.
In banking sector interest had been eliminated from domestic transactions 1981. However in 1984-85 profit and loss system (p.l.s)was introduced instead of riba. To assist the process of islamization the government established a law commission headed by the chief justice of Pakistan and council of Islamic ideology if headed by a judge of high court. They used to make recommendations for bringing the laws into conformity
with injections of islam. On the recommendations of these commissions zia issued niazam-irisalat and namus-i-nihaba ordinance, and made Islamic studies a compulsory subject up to graduation. He also gave instructions to make arrangement for performing. Salat in all offices.
Finally zia proclaimed an ordinance on june 15, 1988 which declared shariah as the supreme law of the country with immediate effect.
As zia came into power through non-constitutional way so he was in need of support of religious parties. He, therefore, used the name of islam to prolong hi rule. His Islamic punishment were not practically implemented which resulted in law lessen and many other social evil.
His islamization policy resulted in the bifurcation of Pakistan society on sectarian basis. Since the influence of ulema increased in government they misused it against the teaching of other sects. As a result shia, suni riots took place in many cities of sindh and Punjab.
His policies could not Islamize, Pakistani society in true spirit. Hudood laws were greatly resented by the woman.
Holy Quran and sunnah shall be the supreme law of the state.The federal government shall be under obligation to take steps to enforce the shariah establish salat, administer zakat, promote eradicate corruption and provide justice according to Islamic principle.Nothing contained in this article shall affect personal laws, religious freedom, traditions and customs of non-muslims and their status of the citizens.The provisions of this article shall have effect any law or judgment or any court
For the first time holy quran and sunnah shall be supreme law of the land. In previous constitutions only provisions were given but now the complete framework to Islamize the society was given.
This act accommodated different muslim sect and non-muslim minorities by giving them full freedom in personal and religious matters. In this way pakistan shall not be a theoretic state but it shall be raised above all racial, national and sectarian prejudices. However after implementing says that the government shall be under obligation to take steps to enforce the shariah. It is not certain whether this provision is mandatory or directory. In other words this provision neither gives any time frame within which the government must fulfill these constitutional obligations nor are the
consequence of its failure to do so spelled out.
Article 3 assure that the act would not affect the interests of statuesque while the government has not undertaken any obligation to do anything positive for them.
2.A. suleri gave three main reasons behind the formation of the demand for pakistanhindus and muslim philosophies of life and ways of life were so wide apart from each other that it was impossible for them to live together, muslims were convinced that their economic and social problems could be solved only by an approach to islam, and this was impracticable
until they had a state of their own.
Under lined that once the chief cause of friction-the ambition of majority community to rule over the whole of india was removed, there would be peace and contentment in india.
Regretted that the attitude of congress had never taken the muslim into confidence when if gained power. It always wanted to establish hindu raj by introducing vidya mandir, wardha scheme, band-e-matram and other hindu practices and beliefs. Not once in any way had it shown a desire to accommodate muslims.
Separate electorate.
Failure of congress to safeguard muslim interests.
(SOCIAL):- different of hindu living/culture/traditions.
Muslim hindu ideology.
Two nation theory.
Lucknow pact.
Khilafat movement.
Delhi proposal.
Nehru report(final blow).
Pakistan became a new severing state on august 14, 1947 the crown of England remained constitutional head of Pakistan tell the promulgation of 1956 constitution. There are number of reason on account of which, Pakistan took nearly a decade to make her first constitution.
No doubt the history of pakistan’s constitution began with the Lahore resolution of 1940 which first obtain the idea of separate homeland for the muslims of india. Thus the leader of Pakistan freedom movement had short time for framing the primary structure of constitution as compared to the Indian leadership. The process of constitution framing was mainly delayed due to these factors.
It was strange that in Pakistani democracy majority was demanding safeguards. Bengalis’ representation in civil/ military bureaucracy was limited. They were being governed by refugees i.e. Punjabi and men from from NWFP. They felt mutual district delayed the process of constitution framing.
Constitution making through democratic process is always difficult. It was all the more difficult for a new country like Pakistan where norms of democracy needed development.
Well-organized political parties did not exist. With the decline of the muslim league, there was no national political party which could fill the gap created by muslim league. These are political parties which satisfy the political demand of people absence of such channel had a negative effect on constitution development.
The leadership of a country plays a vital role in the political activity of a country. After the death of quaid, there was no leader which could fill the gap. Secondly, most of the ruling elite came from across the border. They needed time for their establishment. This factor also contributed in the delay of constribution making.
Ulema in Pakistan were conservative and political cultural of Pakistan was traditional on the country, the leading personalities in muslim league like quaid and Jinnah and liaquat ali khan were the representatives of modern school of thought. modernists’ point of view was that Islamic system of caliphate period was not applicable in mid 20th century. They argued
that they should draw spirit from islam and should work according to the parliamentary system. But traditionalists were not ready to give any concession to them. They argued that islam was complete code of life and could be introduced immediately. In order to bring compromise between them, framers of constitution needed time which delayed the process
of constitution making.
Pakistan did not possess single language, nor did it possess uniform culture. therefore the model of federalism was suitable for Pakistan in 1947. But the lack, of homogeneity among the different sectors of the population, i.e. Punjabis, Bengalis, sindh, etc, created problems for federal structure. The framers of the constitution had great problem to satisfy who demanded
maximum autonomy for the provinces with a weak center and those who favored a strong federal central government with provinces enjoying limited autonomy.
Under the system of separate electorate, the voters are divided on religious bases. The problem of separate of joint electorate took considerable time in the debate of the first constituent assembly. The novel situation in Pakistan was that while in undivided india, the separate electorates were demanded by the minority groups in Pakistan they were opposed by upper class hinudus who constituent one of the minorities. Bengali muslims also opposed it. The main reason for the opposition by upper class hindus was that separate electorate for depressed class hindus world in danger their privileged position.
Pakistan was found so that the muslims could have a state of their own. But was this to be an Islamic state? If it was, what did this tern actually mean? These question were debated inside and outside the constituent assembly. Different groups held divergent views about the concept of Islamic state, thus, it was not easy for the framers of the constitution to produce such
an Islamic constitution which could satisfy different groups holding divergent views regarding the structure and nature of Islamic state.
Pakistan was a multi-bilingual state, there was a fundamental difference between east and West Pakistan in regarded to language. In East Pakistan Bengali was spoken and in West Pakistan Punjabi, sindh, balochi and pushto. Urdu was accepted as the common language of the whole region. It had achieved a symbolic position during the freedom movement. Since
the episode of urdu-hindi controversy, Muslim did their best to protect Urdu. The problem was that there should be one national language (Urdu) or any other (Bengali) should also be recognized as state language. Quaid and liaquat Ali khan was not willing to give Bengali status of national language. On the other hand Bengalis refused to accept Urdu as national
The power elite that emerged soon after the emergence of Pakistan were the middle class professional groups like lawyers. Civil servants and big landlords mostly from Punjab and sindh. This lose coalition had been brought to power by Muslim nationalism. This heterogeneity created difficulty for them to come on one point in order to make a constitution.
After the death quaid-e-azam members of constituent assembly gave less time to the assignment of constitution framing. In its seven years life it met only for 116 days the average attendance ranging only from 37 to 56 out of the total 76 seats.
For more Notes click here.
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The Significance of Human Resource Development and Globalisation
The competitive advantage of a company depends on five basic factors: technology, the degree of protection, a particular way to enjoy access to financial resources, economies of scale, and the nature and composition of the work force. Countries can no longer rely on a secure place in the market simply on account of possessing a technological edge. As the life cycles of products shorten, companies can no longer count on economies of scale, success depends on being able to profit from short product runs.
According to Coetzee (2001:527), in the South African context, which pressures are particularly accentuated, as organisations face the immediate challenge of moving beyond the comfortable practices of the past engendered by closed market and an overly interventionist state. The current crisis of competitiveness has resulted in South African organisations to be more aware of the need to experiment with more flexible techniques of work organisation. South African managers often under rate the pressures of globalisation and are reluctant to invest too much on employee development.
Countries have embarked on a thorough re-evaluation of the role, structure and functions of the state in general and human resource management and development in particular. This has been in response to a number of factors including the growing impact of global markets and competition, the trend towards “knowledge workers”, multi-skilling and multi-tasking and the growing pressure for equal opportunities in employment (du Toit, Knipe, van Niekerk, van der Waldt and Doyle, 2002:165).
In order to survive in the harsh global environment, organisations have to use all the resources at their disposal in an effective manner. The need for affirmative action, given both social and legislative pressures makes it critically important that organisations give particular attention to developing their internal human capacities through both skills and development and stable employment policies. Countries can enhance its competitiveness and ensure success in the global realities. The development of human resource is seen as equipping those whose existing skills are surplus, redundant or lacking in the first place. Training should be part of an ongoing process in order to maintain an effective workforce. There has been a global trend towards the integration of employment and training. Training has often tended to be job specific with limited transferability between employers (Coetzee, 2001:528).
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Dog tail of puppy
Why Can Animals Eat Raw Meat? 7 Amazing Facts (Explained)
In Dogsby Morten Storgaard
One of my friends in the military reported about his friend eating a raw piece of chicken in order to save some time in the field. Let’s just say it didn’t go well 🙂 My friend had to share a tent with him for the next week.
It was messy.
But why can animals eat raw meat when humans can’t? Let’s take a closer look at the question because it’s not a simple question to ask. Let’s start with the short version.
Why can animals eat raw meat?
Wild animals will typically eat fresh meat and that is not as hard on the system as rotten meat. Other animals like Vultures can even eat rotten meat because they have a special set of acids and enzymes in their digestions system. They also have developed stronger immune systems in order to process the bacteria.
You might also get surprised to find out that sometimes the wild animals will actually get after eating bad meat.
Let’s look more closely at exactly what happens.
It’s a really interesting question!
5 Reasons Why Animals Can Eat Raw Meat
Why can lions eat raw meat without getting infections
Let’s start by looking into why a lot of animals can get away with eating raw meat.
You have probably seen the predators on the Savannah eat a Zebra or a Gazelle and maybe you were thinking why in the world did they not get sick from eating the animal. There are some good answers to this question but it’s not as simple as you may think.
1) They eat the meat while it is fresh
The first reason the wild animals can get away with eating raw meat is that they tend to eat the prey just after they killed it.
This means that the flesh is still fresh and hasn’t started rotting yet.
This is not very differently from you eating fresh tartar at a restaurant.
When humans eat meat we will typically go to the supermarket and buy a piece of meat that has been dead for a while. This also means that the piece of meat had time to pick up bacteria.
But even though humans can in many cases eat raw meat you will have a much harder time doing so then a lion or tiger.
2) Wild animals have more acid in the stomach
Over time, the stomachs of animals have evolved differently than human stomachs.
The big cats on the Savannah will eat fresh and raw meat constantly so they have developed a different set of enzymes in their stomach. They also have more and stronger acids in their digestion system which will kill more bacteria than your stomach.
Biologists have also found some animals to be resistant to several bacteria while other animals (eating the same diet) will get infected and ill. So it depends on the species and not all animals can get away with eating an infected piece of meat.
Actually, many animals will die from a young age because they got infected with parasites or bacteria.
Snake swallowing a mouse raw
3) They have stronger immune systems
Wild animals are exposed to other bacteria than humans. This also means that their immune systems have developed differently over time.
Each animal has its own unique immune system just like you and me. Not all wild animals can get away with eating raw meat. Lions might not be able to eat rotten meat to the extend Vultures do it.
But we’ll get back to that in a second.
Some biologists have suggested that dogs will eat grass in order to start vomiting whenever they eat something that’s bad for them. So they might have a built-in mechanism to get the bad meat out of their system again.
4) They have a better sense of smell
According to scientists, scavengers like rats use their sense of smell in order to judge what type of meat is good and what type of meat that should not eat.
This enables them to detect contamination and stay away from a bad meal.
Scavengers will typically use small to find the food and it might not come as a surprise that they have a much better smell than humans. The dead animal will let out an odor which will attract Vultures and other animals. So there’s a very good possibility that they are able to judge whether the meat is good for their system or if it has turned bad.
This is still something that needs to be researched more and it’s basically just a theory at this point.
Leopard ready to eat raw meat in the wild nature of the Savannah
5) They don’t have a choice
The last reason we could find is that animals don’t really have a choice.
They will eventually get sick from eating poisonous food and they are good hiding it.
Animals are exceptionally good at hiding their weaknesses and sicknesses. This is because nobody in the animal kingdom wants to be the next prey because they look weak.
This is also something you might have noticed with your pets.
Sometimes it’s really hard to find out when your pet is ill or suffering from a disease. They will typically not show weaknesses like humans. So whenever you are in doubt you should definitely take your pet to the veterinarian to get examined. It might have a problem you wouldn’t notice.
Vultures circling over prey
Can A Dog Eat Raw Meat?
Golden Retriever Puppies eating raw food with meat
Ever wondered if dog’s get sick from eating raw meat? Let’s find out.
Many people will feed their dog raw meat because they think this is closer and more similar to what dogs would eat in the wild. But this might not be a good idea.
When wild dogs eat meat they will typically eat an animal which has recently died where the flesh is still fresh. But you might not have access to fresh meat.
The meat you get from the supermarket can usually be infected with salmonella or listeria. This is just as harmful to your dog as it is to you.
This is why we are always heating up and cooking the meat from the supermarket before we eat it.
Should I feed my dog raw or cooked meat?
You probably shouldn’t.
According to the FDA, you should be very careful about giving your dog raw meat. If you keep raw meat in the house for your pets you should freeze it down until you are using it.
Don’t handle the raw meat in the kitchen around other food as bacteria can easily spread.
Avoid rinsing it as well as some drops of water might spread and end up on the kitchen counter.
Natural bully sticks and dental chews are great for dogs in order to keep the teeth clean and healthy. Check out our recommendations on our list of 24 must-haves for dog owners. There’s a ton of really helpful stuff!
Can HUMANS Eat Rat Meat?
There are very good reasons why you should cook your meat before you set your teeth in it. In most cases.
Let’s start by looking at what types of meat you can eat raw and when you should cook your meat before eating it.
1. Tartar
2. Sushi
3. Carpaccio
4. Raw Steaks
5. Basashi
Whenever you visit a restaurant serving these types of meals you need to make sure they have a high standard when it comes to hygiene. But as long as they treat the meat well you can definitely eat the raw meat in these meals.
A lot of people think that humans can’t or shouldn’t eat rare meat but this is not true.
Humans can easily eat rare meat as long as you make sure it’s fresh and good. But you need to trust that the restaurant really knows what they are doing.
The meat you should NOT eat raw
You shouldn’t eat rare chicken meat.
The reason why we never eat rare chicken is that there sometimes are salmonella in them. Chicken is a type of meat that easily gets poisoned so we always need to heat up chicken meat really well before we start eating it.
What is the risk of eating raw meat?
If you eat raw meat that is poisonous or maybe a piece of chicken with salmonella you will get really sick for a couple of days.
You should seek medical attention immediately.
Why can Animals Eat Rotten Meat?
Vultures ready to eat raw meat
Ever wondered why Vultures, Hyenas, and other scavengers can eat rotten meat and not die?
Let’s take a closer look at the scavengers of wild nature and why they do not get infected and die when they eat other dead animals.
Vultures will even let the dead animal be for a couple of days in order for it to rot. This is probably because the flesh is easier to access when the skin is starting to rot.
According to the Danish microbiology scientist Michael Roggenbuck from the University of Copenhagen, the Vultures has some very special skills when it comes to dealing with toxic bacteria.
“On one hand, vultures have developed an extremely tough digestive system, which simply acts to destroy the majority of the dangerous bacteria they ingest,”
Roggenbuck says. He continues:
“On the other hand, vultures also appear to have developed a tolerance toward some of the deadly bacteria — species that would kill other animals actively seem to flourish in the vulture lower intestine.”
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We'll see an ice-free Arctic this century, latest research says
We can expect to see an ice-free Arctic Ocean within 50 years, according to researchers at the University of California's Center for Climate Science, who say they've improved and narrowed past projections of when the Arctic might be free of sea ice.
Projections have varied from as early as 2026 to as distant as 2132. Now, according to research published in the journal Nature Climate Change, the Arctic could be "functionally ice-free" by September 2044 — and no later than 2067 — assuming no changes to global carbon emissions.
September is when the Arctic sea ice pack is at its thinnest. That's when the effect of summer's heat shows up in the ice pack.
Functionally ice free is like basically broke — it doesn't mean there won't be a shard of ice anywhere, but there would be fewer than one million square kilometres of it. That's compared with the current minimum six million square kilometres of Arctic sea ice that exists today, even at its lowest point after summer's heat.
The important thing about one million square kilometres of Arctic sea ice is that it mostly represents thick, multi-year ice close to coastal areas of Greenland and in the Arctic archipelago. The Arctic Ocean itself would be essentially ice free. Declining sea ice hurts the ability of the Arctic to perform its important albedo function.
The sea ice albedo effect refers to the reflective capacity of sea ice to deflect sunlight. Where there is no sea ice, darker open water absorbs up to approximately 90 per cent of incoming solar energy (heat). Sea ice absorbs just 20 per cent of that energy, with the rest reflected away, according to research published by the University of California.
It's the Earth's freezer malfunctioning. This quickens global warming.
"Essentially, when we're losing that ice, the ocean is taking up much more heat than it would be say if we had an ice-covered Arctic," said Chad Thackeray, the article's lead author and research scientist on climate change at the University of California Los Angeles.
"So that change has big implications for the climate system; not just changes in the Arctic."
Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press
Accurate modelling of when we could see an ice-free Arctic is an important piece of data in global climate models, Thackeray said.
"This is one … quantity or metric where a model disagreement is particularly large. A lot of our work is about trying to reduce this uncertainty … so that we're better prepared for the changes that are to come."
Consistent modelling of Arctic sea ice changes will improve global projections that rely on that data.
"If models have more consistent simulations of sea ice, then it's likely that they'll have a better consistency in projecting future changes in temperature — especially in the Arctic region," he said.
New method
Thackeray and co-author Alex Hall used a new method to build their model. They took 30 years of satellite data on seasonal ice melt as a benchmark. Next, they compared 23 existing models to the data, rejecting those that failed to match the benchmark. The idea is that if a model can't accurately 'predict' what did happen, it shouldn't be relied on to predict what will happen.
UCLA Center for Climate Science
Once the weak models were rejected, they were left with six models that, taken together, give what they believe is the most accurate timeframe a functionally ice-free Arctic, and how soon the best science tells us we should expect it.
There are some caveats to the research. Data was limited to sea ice between 70 and 90 degrees North latitude. That leaves out much of the Canadian archipelago — that mass of land and islands that defines Canada's North on a map.
Sea ice in that area is affected by nearby land masses. Regional sea ice forecasts would be a different, and more complicated, data set to work with.
"There are some areas … just north of the archipelago and off northwestern Greenland, where the ice is very thick, multiyear ice that doesn't really melt every summer," Thackeray, who is from the Toronto area, said.
"That ice will stick around a bit longer. There will still be flows that find their way through the Canadian archipelago. That'll be pretty thick even in this mid-century timeframe."
Submitted by Chad Thackeray
But the trend is toward ice-free, assuming nothing is done to curb carbon emissions.
Thackeray said they did not consider how reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could effect the timeframe. Different models or "pathways" could significantly delay, halt, or even ultimately reverse Arctic sea ice thaw.
"This process can be delayed by several decades or even completely halted if we were to limit ourselves to say 1.5 degrees of warming," Thackeray said. "It's just a matter of what pathway we choose ... and how quickly we choose."
Helpful, if not groundbreaking
Walt Meier, senior research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, said that Thackeray's paper does not necessarily point to something new. Other attempts to cull the data of extreme outliers have given similar results. But he said the method itself is new and it's reassuring to see different approaches yielding similar results.
"In one sense, many people are reluctant to give a date or range of dates because of uncertainties," Meier stated in an email. "This paper does provide the range and a reasonable justification."
Meier's research focuses on satellite data, not modelling, so he doesn't expect the paper to directly inform his work.
"But I am on a couple projects that focus on sea ice projections, including from models, and I think this paper makes a valuable contribution to our knowledge."
UCLA Center for Climate Science
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WW1 and WW2
Scouting was just six years old when the Great War tested all the component parts of our society. The strength of Scouting was sufficient to hold up and to grow stronger in after the Peace.
Most records of this time are lost.
World War Two is better recorded. The long term plans for Scouting that were being discussed in the middle of the war are testament to the belief in the final victory and to a clear sighted understanding that Scouting would need to adapt to a country that had once again moved on, whilst retaining the core worth and old certainties.
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The Leavenworth Way of War
History Discussion at CGSC
H206: The French are Falling, The French are Falling!
In May 1940 the German military conquered France in a matter of weeks. The new blitzkrieg doctrine was able to accomplish what they had been unable to do despite hundreds of thousands of lives lost in four years of World War I. Was the new German military doctrine that good? Or, was the French internal political disunity, inability to exercise military command and leadership, poor understanding of new technologies and sub-standard small unit training so profound that they “lost” the battle for France more than the Germans won it?
January 26, 2018 Posted by | H200, military history, Uncategorized | , | Leave a comment
H110: WWI — On Strategy
General Helmut Von Molke, Chief of the German General Staff, 1914
“I answered His Majesty that this was impossible. The deployment of an army a million strong was not a thing to be improvised, it was the product of a whole year’s hard work and once planned could not be changed. If His Majesty were to insist on directing the whole army to the east, he would not have an army prepared for the attack but a barren heap of armed men disorganized and without supplies.”
The Kaiser: “Your uncle would have given me a different answer.”
Given the below definitions from our current doctrine, and the conversation described above, what did Von Molke not understand about strategy? Also, do you think there is a danger of U.S. national and miltiary leadership making a similar mistake? Why or why not?
strategy — A prudent idea or set of ideas for employing the instruments of national power in a synchronized and integrated fashion to achieve theater, national, and/or multinational objectives. (JP 3-0)
National Security Strategy — A document approved by the President of the United States for developing, applying, and coordinating the instruments of national power to achieve objectives that contribute to national security. Also called NSS. See also National Military Strategy; strategy; theater strategy. (JP 3-0)
national defense strategy — A document approved by the Secretary of Defense for applying the Armed Forces of the United States in coordination with Department of Defense agencies and other instruments of national power to achieve national security strategy objectives. Also called NDS. (JP 3-0)
National Military Strategy — A document approved by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for distributing and applying military power to attain national security strategy and national defense strategy objectives. Also called NMS. See also National Security Strategy; strategy; theater strategy. (JP 3-0)
theater strategy — An overarching construct outlining a combatant commander’s vision for integrating and synchronizing military activities and operations with the other instruments of national power in order to achieve national strategic objectives. See also
National Military Strategy; National Security Strategy; strategy. (JP 3-0)
strategy – (DOD) The art and science of developing and employing instruments of national power in a synchronized and integrated fashion to achieve theater, national and/or multinational objectives. See FM 3-0. (FM 1-02).
military strategy – (DOD) The art and science of employing the armed forces of a nation to secure the objectives of national policy by the application of force or the threat of force. See also strategy. See FM 3-0. (FM 1-02).
November 3, 2017 Posted by | H100, leadership, military history, Professional Military Education, Uncategorized | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
H109: Grooming and Picking General Officers
In his article, A Failure in Generalship, Paul Yingling argues that the American army’s process for selecting generals is flawed. He advocates taking the general officer promotion system away from the military and making it a task for Congress. Retired MG Scales wrote an article which seemed to back up Yingling’s view. Numerous other analysts believe that Yingling’s general point is accurate. Defense analyst Tom Ricks has just published a book on the subject called The Generals –I suspect somewhat inspired by Yingling’s article (see the Atlantic article related to the book –click here).
There are essentially two different military philosophies regarding the system used to pick general officers. One view is a view that comes from the French revolutionary armies of the 18th and early 19th century. That view is promotion should be based strictly on merit. In this system officers are selected from among their peers for promotion based on their demonstrated performance of duty. Ultimately, this promotion by merit system results in the most competent officers achieving the highest rank.
A second system comes from the Prussian army of the 19th Century. That view is to identify through rigorous testing a small elite cadre of the most intelligent officers in the army. These officers then are specially educated and assigned for the rest of their careers. They are specifically groomed to lead the army at the highest levels. Promotion in this system is based on intellectual ability, special education, and talent.
The promotion by merit system assumes that the best qualifications for command are demonstrated by success in command. This philosophy is traditionally the bedrock of promotion in the naval service (both in the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy) where time in command of ships and at sea are the ultimate test of fitness for command.
Which system does the U.S. army promotion system seem to follow? Is Yingling right? Is there a failure of generalship in the U.S. Army? If so, is it because of the selection philosophy the army uses, or, is it just that the execution of the process is flawed? If the selection process is flawed, how does that explain Generals like Patraeus and McCrystal? What process or philosophy do you believe produces the best senior leaders? Does the senior officer promotion system need to change?
H107 The Military and Intellectualism
From an article defining intellectualism:
An intellectual is a person who primarily uses intelligence in either a professional or an individual capacity. As a substantive or adjective, it refers to the work product of such persons, to the so-called “life of the mind” generally, or to an aspect of something where learning, erudition, and informed and critical thinking are the focus, as in “the intellectual level of the discourse on the matter was not high”.
The intellectual is a specific variety of the intelligent, which unlike the general property, is strictly associated with reason and thinking. Many everyday roles require the application of intelligence to skills that may have a psychomotor component, for example, in the fields of medicine, sport or the arts, but these do not necessarily involve the practitioner in the “world of ideas”. The distinctive quality of the intellectual person is that the mental skills, which he or she demonstrates, are not simply intelligent, but even more, they focus on thinking about the abstract, philosophical and esoteric aspects of human inquiry and the value of their thinking. Traditionally, the scholarly and the intellectual classes were closely identified; however, while intellectuals need not necessarily be actively involved in scholarship, they often have an academic background and will typically have an association with a profession.
Based on the above discussion of what intellectual means, particularly the phrase “an aspect of something where learning, erudition, and informed and critical thinking are the focus,” it seems to confirm that the major focus of CGSC is intellectual pursuits. The curriculum and the history course in particular specifically highlights the learning objective of improving “critical thinking.”
The above is aligned with the German General Staff tradition of producing “thinkers” above “leaders” to guide the institution at the strategic level. Not that a gifted individual cannot be both, but in terms of which capacity the institution values more at the operational and strategic levels of command.
Given the emphasis at CGSC, and by implication, at SAMS and the Army War College, on critical thinking, what are you thoughts on the two part Army magazine article the Uniformed Intellectual:
Part 1
Part 2
Note that in the above article, written in 2002, you will see many themes that have come up at different times in class. That is purely coincidentaly, but appropriate. This article didn’t come to my attention until 2012.
H108: The American Way of War
The American Civil War vividly demonstrated how the products of the industrial revolution, the rifled musket, steam powered trains and ships, the telegraph, banking, and mass production manufacturing techniques changed tactical and operational warfare. Less noticable was the way in which the economic base of a country became an important aspect of its war making capability. Limited economic base meant limited war making capability while a large robust economic base meant a large war making capability. General Grant consiously developed his attritition strategy followed in the last eighteen months of the war based on his understanding of the economic advantages of the Union. Simply put, the Union could sustain losses of manpower and material and the South could not. Thus, tactical and operational victory, though desired, was not necessary to winning the war. Continuous fighting was necessary to make this happen –not continuous tactical victory. Thus Grant’s guidance to his subordinate :
Though focused tactically on battle, the purpose of battle was not to achieve tactical victory, but rather to deplete Southern resources, regardless of tactical victory. Thus, there was no direct link between military tactical victory and strategic victory. Military operations were necessary to enable the leveraging of the Union’s economic advantage, but the economic advantage was what was decisive not the supporting military campaign.
Grant focused on destroying the Southern Army, and then Southern governance. Nothing done in the Civil War or after addressed the third aspect of Clausewitz’s trinity –the passion of the people. Some argue that this was the reason for the failure of Reconstruction and domination of former Confederates of the South after the war.
Historian Russel Weigley sees the Civil War as a template for an “American Way of War:” “The Civil War tended to fix the American image of war from the 1860s into America’s rise to world power at the turn of the century, and it also suggested that the complete overthrow of the enemy, the destruction of his military power, is the object of war.”
Does Weigley’s template for the American Way of War still apply today? Are we pursuing a Grant model strategy in Afghanistan focused on insurgents and insurgent leadership, and ignoring the “passion” that supports the insurgency?
How does a strategy address the “passion” aspect of war? Is it part of the military strategy or should it be part of the national strategy? Who in government is the lead for attacking the enemy’s passion?
October 20, 2017 Posted by | H100, Professional Military Education, Uncategorized | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
H106 Clausewitz and the American Military Profession
Clausewitz is famous for his comment that war is an extension of politics by other means. This is not the definition of war, but rather the context within which war takes place. That is, war takes place and is only understandable within the context of politics. By extension then, to be able to effectively plan, supervise, and conduct war a senior military leader must, in addition to his expertise regarding military matters, also be expert at understanding politics.
The sticking point here, is that the professional American military officer is taught to avoid politics. Expert on American military professionalism, Morris Janowitz, stated:
Under democratic theory, the “above politics” formula requires that, in domestic politics, generals and admirals do not attach themselves to political parties or overtly display partisanship. Furthermore, military men are civil servants, so that elected leaders are assured of the military’s partisan neutrality.
In practice, with only isolated exceptions, regulations and traditions have worked to enforce an essential absence of political partisanship.
Has this tradition of non-partisanship caused American military leadership to focus too much on the mechanics of making war at the operational and tactical level? What is the role of the senior military leader in formulating national strategy and can that leader avoid being politically partisan if the different political parties disagree on strategy?
How has the war in Iraq illustrated Clausewitz’s concept of the relationship between war and politics?
How do Clausewitz’s ideas, including the important idea of the trinity, influence our understanding of the current situation in Afghanistan?
October 2, 2017 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
H105: Military Genius
Genius has been defined in several different ways:
Genius: Distinguished mental superiority; uncommon intellectual power; especially, superior power of invention or origination of any kind, or of forming new combinations; as, a man of genius. [1913 Webster]
Genius refers to a person, a body of work, or a singular achievement of surpassing excellence.
More than just originality, creativity, or intelligence, genius is associated with achievement of insight which has transformational power.
Many military historians, and many of Napoleon’s contemporaries think that he was a genius: Napoleon conquered all of Europe and dramatically changed the way wars were fought. Many French believe that Napoleon’s rise was because of the French system’s emphasis on promotion due to merit. Thus it put the best man, Napoloen, in position to command the Army. The French then built a command system to support him.
Was Napoleon really a genius or just the leader “lucky” enough to be in the right place at the right time?
Was Napoleon’s rise based on merit… or did he lead France due to factors besides merit?
Is the commander centric command system designed to leverage “genius” the right model that the U.S. military should be following? Is the current US system overly commander centric?
What do you think of the idea that in a commander centric system, the commander becomes the single point of failure of the entire system? Is “commander centric” the only logical way to run an army?
September 25, 2017 Posted by | H100, military history | , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment
H104: The True Volunteers
To call an army of paid professionals a volunteer army is a misnomer. Paid professionals don’t volunteer for service, they are paid compensation for services.
A Parent who “Volunteers” at the school library isn’t paid. A professional who is paid to work at the library is not a volunteer but rather a contracted employee of the school.
Professionals are essentially mercenaries who are hired by the state. The only difference between a paid professional army that works for the state and mercenaries is that the mercenaries work for a sub-contractor of the state. The details such as citizenship, military law, and other differences are not differences in kind, but rather just differences in the nature and strictness of the contract that governors the relationship between the paid professional and his employer.
True volunteer armies are those that are manned by the democratically authorized conscription of citizens. A truly volunteer army was the French Army of the Napoleonic period or the American Army of World War I and II. The citizens voluntarily consent to military service through the actions of their elected representatives. That service is truly voluntary in that there is no contract between the state and the individual, and there is no just compensation provided back to the individual soldier.
Do you agree with the above analysis of volunteer army versus professional army? Why / why not?
Regardless of the validity of the above argument, conscript armies have many benefits to the state. What are they? What war making advantages do they have? What are their disadvantages?
The Chinese military is currently a largely conscripted force. Is it a better alternative to the professional army?
What are the concerns regarding a professional army that is not directly connected to the majority of the citizens of the state?
Finally, when helping to create national armies in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, is the US model professional army the right model for those societies? What cultural and political factors should be considered when choosing the appropriate army model?
September 25, 2017 Posted by | H100, Professional Military Education, Uncategorized | , , , , , , , | 2 Comments
H102: The Mercenaries — Back to the Future?
The inability of the feudal system to provide reliable armies gave rise to cadres of mercenaries that at first supplemented the aristocratic warriors of the feudal army, and then replaced them. By the Renaissance period, armies were largely made up of hired mercenary companies. Aristocrats, once the knights of the feudal army, became the owners and officers of the companies. Mercenary companies were a key element of warfare throughout the 16th and 17th Centuries. Many consider that they reached their greatest influence during the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648. Toward the end of the war they began to decline in importance and by the end of the 17th Century they had largely been replaced by national professional armies.
Why did mercenary companies exist in the first place? What advantage did they initially bring to the battlefield?
How were mercenary specialists of the Renaissance different from the contract specialists that we used today?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of mercenaries….then and now? Is there an over-reliance on mercenaries today, or are they indespensible for many security tasks that the military simply doesn’t have manpower to accomplish? Are logistics contractors on the battlefield mercenaries?
September 5, 2017 Posted by | H100, Uncategorized | , , , , , | 2 Comments
H204: The Naval Air Force
During the years 1919 to 1941 Naval Aviation carved out a place for itself in the Navy by being a member of the battleship team. Naval aviation supported the battleship-centric fleet by finding the enemy fleet, fixing and harassing the enemy fleet through air attack, and defending the fleet from enemy air. WWII forced navies around the world to recognize that airpower at sea had become the dominant capability of naval forces. As a result, the aircraft carrier became the center of naval strategy, operations, tactics and force development. However, the rise of the aircraft carrier in the US miltiary during WWII occured in an enviroment in which a US Air Force did not exist. How did the absence of a US Air Force help the development of Naval Aviation in the US in the interwar years?
The first clash between the US Air Force and Naval Aviation over roles, missions, and most importantly, budget, occured after the draw-down of the US miltiary after WWII and was known as the “Revolt of the Admirals.” Are we destined for another revolt of the Admirals? What is the core capability of Naval Aviation today and is it worth the cost in the budget of maintaining a fleet built around aircraft carriers? What does the aircraft carrier provide the US military that is unique and different from what the Air Force is capable of? Should todays US Navy be built around a unique naval capability such as the submarine, rather than the aircraft carrier which seems to perform a similar role as the US Air Force?
December 16, 2016 Posted by | H200, military history, Uncategorized | , , , , , , | 4 Comments
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5 Stumping Things People Don’t But Should Know About the Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is not just an ancient pile of stone. The base of the Great Pyramid of Giza could contain the cathedrals of Florence and Milan, St. Peter's in Rome, and St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London.
No other ancient monument on the surface of the planet has the ability to leave one breathless as the Great Pyramid of Giza.
For some people it is the size of the pyramid that boggles the mind, to others, it is its intricate shape and mystical interior. Those who see the pyramid in a more mystical sense say that the structure wakens inside them emotions that they thought never existed.
There are others, however, who say that the mystery alone surrounding the pyramid is baffling in its own way.
Whatever the case might e, the massive structure at the Giza plateau seems like a massive stairway to the sky. It is an ancient structure that seems to unite the cosmos with Earth.
As a kind of intermediary, the pyramid is thought to have been built in ancient times to house the eternal remains of the Pharaohs, helping him travel to the afterlife.
However, if you ask around about the exact purpose of the pyramid, not many people would agree that the Great Pyramid, and for that matter, all other ancient Egyptian pyramids, were built as tombs.
Whether this is because of the immense size of the pyramids, or because the most important ancient Egyptian pyramids were empty and the mummies of Pharaohs Djoser, Sneferu, Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure were not inside their respected pyramids, the truth is people would rather see the pyramids as something greater than tombs, rather than accept the ideology set forth by mainstream scholars who remains convinced that the pyramids were tombs and only tombs.
To archeologists and Egyptologists, the Great Pyramid of Giza represents the culminative effort of the pyramid builders of Egypt. Not only is the Great Pyramid the largest monument of its kind ever built on the surface of the planet, but the great Pyramid of Giza irradiates and excellence of workmanship, the accuracy of planning, representing the beauty of proportion, which rightly places it as the chief of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
This is perhaps why it has attracted such massive interested, not only in modern times but in ancient times as well. By the time of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, for example, the Great Pyramid of Giza was ancient already to the ancient Egyptians.
The Pyramids is believed to have been built in around 20 years. Shutterstock.
This extensive interest in the pyramid is perhaps why Egyptologists say the Pyramid was entered and robbed most likely at the fall of the Old Kingdom, during a period of weakness and unrest dubbed as the First Intermediate Period of Egypt.
As explained by scholars, there is very little we known about the Great Pyramid of Giza during the Middle Kingdom, and we can’t possibly know–due to a lack of records–whether or not the structure remained open or whether anyone closed it down. The silence regarding the Pyramids remained even during the New Kingdom, although experts have found references made to “the sanctuaries of Khufu and Khafre” although these were not necessarily the pyramids.
We do know that Prince Khaemwese, the eldest son of Pharaoh Ramesses II was very interested in the Memphis necropolis, and it is very likely that he made restorations at the Giza plateau, just as he did with monuments located at Abusir and Saqqara.
Into the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, it is believed that “ancient traditions” were revived in Egypt, and people paid special reverence to the monuments erected during the Old and Middle Kingdom. However, because of a lack of records, it remains a mystery as to what the Kings of the time did for or to the Great Pyramid of Giza and its temples.
Understanding the Great Pyramid
It has been estimated that when the casing of the Pyramid was complete, the pyramid contained around 2,300,000 blocks of stone, averaging around 2.5 tons, although some of the stones used in the construction of the pyramid weighed well over 15 tons.
Its size is humongous, and many people feel that no mere description can do the Great Pyramid justice, or convey the idea of its behemoth size.
Nonetheless, throughout the years, different scholars have worked on painstaking calculations trying to compare its bulk to other known monuments.
Some of these (1) calculations have revealed that the area of the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza could contain the cathedrals of Florence and Milan, St. Peter’s in Rome, and St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London.
But not even that comparison does the pyramid justice. (2) If all the stone of the Great Pyramid of Giza were sawed into blocks measuring I foot square, and these blocks laid end to end, they would stretch two-thirds of the way around the Earth at the Equator.
(3) During Napoleon’s historic campaign, after studying and seeing the Pyramids, Napoleon calculated that the Great Pyramid of Giza and its surrounding structure contained enough stone to build a wall 3 meters high and 1-meter thick, which would entirely surround the country of France. Napoleon’s calculations were corroborated by a mathematician.
A view of the Great Pyramid of Giza, its entrance and people accessing it. Shutterstock.
It’s size truly is magnificent. However, (4) scholars have suggested that the Great Pyramid of Giza underwent a number of alterations in ancient times. They say that the pyramid was planned on a much smaller scale and that the builders decided to enlarge it before having finished the first “burial chamber.”
Therefore, they constructed an ascending passage, 36 meters long and just over a meter high which ends in what is incorrectly labeled as the Queen’s chamber. In reality, say Egyptologists, this was the original “burial” chamber of the pyramid in accordance with the enlarged plan.
After the second burial chamber had been completed, the builders once again changed their plans and enlarged the Pyramid. They built a third, higher “burial” room.
(5) Evidence of the true wondrous nature of the Great Pyramid of Giza is seen when studying it from an elevated position and looking at the pyramid’s sides. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only-known pyramid in ancient Egypt that was not built with four sides.
Although a relatively unknown feature among many, it has been proven that the Great Pyramid of Giza is the only eight-sided pyramid.
The eight sides of the pyramid were spotted and photographed for the first time by accident in 1940, when British Air Force pilot, P. Groves, was flying over the pyramid and noticed the concavity on the Pyramid.
However, I. E. S. Edwards wrote: “In the Great Pyramid the packing-blocks were laid in such a way that they sloped slightly inwards towards the center of each course, with a result that a noticeable depression runs down the middle of each face — a peculiarity shared, as far as is known, by no other pyramid” (The Pyramids of Egypt, 1975, p. 207).
The exact reason or purpose of the eight sides of the pyramid remains a debated subject, although some have proposed that it gives the structure a much stronger structural integrity, and it may have helped the pyramid withstand nearly everything history, nature and mankind have thrown at it.
It remains unclear whether or not the eight sides of the pyramid were visible in ancient times when the pyramid was cased with highly-polished white limestone.
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Permutation Importance
eli5 provides a way to compute feature importances for any black-box estimator by measuring how score decreases when a feature is not available; the method is also known as “permutation importance” or “Mean Decrease Accuracy (MDA)”.
A similar method is described in Breiman, “Random Forests”, Machine Learning, 45(1), 5-32, 2001 (available online at
The idea is the following: feature importance can be measured by looking at how much the score (accuracy, F1, R^2, etc. - any score we’re interested in) decreases when a feature is not available.
To do that one can remove feature from the dataset, re-train the estimator and check the score. But it requires re-training an estimator for each feature, which can be computationally intensive. Also, it shows what may be important within a dataset, not what is important within a concrete trained model.
To avoid re-training the estimator we can remove a feature only from the test part of the dataset, and compute score without using this feature. It doesn’t work as-is, because estimators expect feature to be present. So instead of removing a feature we can replace it with random noise - feature column is still there, but it no longer contains useful information. This method works if noise is drawn from the same distribution as original feature values (as otherwise estimator may fail). The simplest way to get such noise is to shuffle values for a feature, i.e. use other examples’ feature values - this is how permutation importance is computed.
The method is most suitable for computing feature importances when a number of columns (features) is not huge; it can be resource-intensive otherwise.
Model Inspection
For sklearn-compatible estimators eli5 provides PermutationImportance wrapper. If you want to use this method for other estimators you can either wrap them in sklearn-compatible objects, or use eli5.permutation_importance module which has basic building blocks.
For example, this is how you can check feature importances of sklearn.svm.SVC classifier, which is not supported by eli5 directly when a non-linear kernel is used:
import eli5
from eli5.sklearn import PermutationImportance
from sklearn.svm import SVC
# ... load data
svc = SVC().fit(X_train, y_train)
perm = PermutationImportance(svc).fit(X_test, y_test)
If you don’t have a separate held-out dataset, you can fit PermutationImportance on the same data as used for training; this still allows to inspect the model, but doesn’t show which features are important for generalization.
For non-sklearn models you can use eli5.permutation_importance.get_score_importances():
import numpy as np
from eli5.permutation_importance import get_score_importances
# ... load data, define score function
def score(X, y):
y_pred = predict(X)
return accuracy(y, y_pred)
base_score, score_decreases = get_score_importances(score, X, y)
feature_importances = np.mean(score_decreases, axis=0)
Feature Selection
This method can be useful not only for introspection, but also for feature selection - one can compute feature importances using PermutationImportance, then drop unimportant features using e.g. sklearn’s SelectFromModel or RFE. In this case estimator passed to PermutationImportance doesn’t have to be fit; feature importances can be computed for several train/test splits and then averaged:
import eli5
from eli5.sklearn import PermutationImportance
from sklearn.svm import SVC
from sklearn.feature_selection import SelectFromModel
# ... load data
perm = PermutationImportance(SVC(), cv=5), y)
# perm.feature_importances_ attribute is now available, it can be used
# for feature selection - let's e.g. select features which increase
# accuracy by at least 0.05:
sel = SelectFromModel(perm, threshold=0.05, prefit=True)
X_trans = sel.transform(X)
# It is possible to combine SelectFromModel and
# PermutationImportance directly, without fitting
# PermutationImportance first:
sel = SelectFromModel(
PermutationImportance(SVC(), cv=5),
).fit(X, y)
X_trans = sel.transform(X)
See PermutationImportance docs for more.
Note that permutation importance should be used for feature selection with care (like many other feature importance measures). For example, if several features are correlated, and the estimator uses them all equally, permutation importance can be low for all of these features: dropping one of the features may not affect the result, as estimator still has an access to the same information from other features. So if features are dropped based on importance threshold, such correlated features could be dropped all at the same time, regardless of their usefulness. RFE and alike methods (as opposed to single-stage feature selection) can help with this problem to an extent.
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What is Study Abroad
What is study abroad?
Sometimes people get so excited about study abroad that they forget to talk about what it really is for those new to the idea. Below I will give you a study abroad definition, explain who can study abroad, when you can study abroad, and tell you what studying abroad means generally. Hint: it’s all about growth, learning, and exploring!
So What Is Study Abroad?
Studying abroad is when someone, usually a student in university, completes part of their academic requirements for their degree program in another country. This is done by completing educational courses and/or activities in that non-native country.
For example, an American university student may choose to spend a semester in Spain. While in Spain this student will take courses at a Spanish university to earn credits that their American university will count towards their degree program.
Who Can Study Abroad?
It’s not just university students.
Study abroad programs are offered and created by universities, colleges, and other educational institutions themselves. Study abroad programs can also be offered by organizations that help individual students and/or schools set up the program.
So, almost anyone who is looking to learn abroad is able to, it’s just about finding the right provider.
There are certain age restrictions, usually the youngest age to go abroad is around 10. These students are generally part of a group going to a country together for a shorter period of time (a few weeks).
Many high school students have the opportunity to study abroad for the summer or during a semester. Although sometimes these classes do not transfer to their actual high school’s academic program, it may help with language classes or future college courses.
The majority of study abroad occurs when someone is in the college and university age range of 18-24. However, there are many people who decide to study abroad past these ages.
You can also see gorgeous views while abroad!
When Can you Study Abroad?
Any time of year.
You are able to study abroad in short, one-week intensive programs. For a few weeks (2-3). A month. A few months (1-2). Or an entire semester (usually 4-5 months).
How long you study abroad will depend on a few factors, including:
• Time Available
• Academic Plan
• Finances
• Visa Restrictions
• Other Life Restrictions
What Does It Mean To Study Abroad?
Studying abroad means living like a local, learning from another country, and exploring!
It means living life as a student in another country and we can break down what this means into a few categories:
Academic Life- while studying abroad you will be expected to attend classes of some sort. These may be at a local university (in the local language or English usually), or with a program provider who offers their own classes. As another option, sometimes students travel with their home university’s professor and they teach the course, just in another country.
Home Life- obviously while studying abroad, you will also be living abroad.Depending on your age and the program you choose, you will have a few different options of what your home will be like:
1. Homestay- this is when you live in a local’s home with them. You are usually given a room to yourself and share the rest of the living spaces. Usually your meals are included in this option. This is great for someone who really wants to live like a local, learn the language, and/or have a built in support system.
2. Apartment- another way to see how the locals live is to live in an apartment as they would. Apartments can usually be arranged through you university, provider, or on your own (make sure you find a furnished one if going this direction!). This is a good option for someone who has already lived in an apartment, wants more independence than a homestay may provide, and/or does not want to learn the local language.
3. Residence Hall- depending on the program you select, living in a student residence, similar to a dorm, is an option. In these halls, you are surrounded by other students, local and/or international. You may have your own bedroom and bathroom or share with a roommate, while other areas, like laundry and sitting areas, are shared. Often meal plans can be included at residence halls. This option is great for students who want to meet other students, like the dorm life, and/or want to have some meals included.
4. Other- the above three options are the most common, however, you may encounter different options provided to you by your university or program. These could be living in a student house, living in a studio, or sometimes even living on a boat!
My host family while studying abroad
Social Life- one of the best parts of studying abroad is the social life you will grow to have. While abroad, you will be in a program with other students in a similar situation and have the opportunity to bond with them, exploring this new place together. In addition to other students that are studying abroad, you will also have the opportunity to meet locals, either in your classes, in your housing, or just by living in a new place and getting involved!
Cultural Immersion- you can’t help but soak in the local culture when you are studying abroad. You are in a true immersion where you learn the culture around you, not the other way around. Everyone comes away with a different level of immersion- some people never learn more than a few words in the local language, try the local foods, or travel around the surrounding areas, while others dive into the culture and leave practically a local. You will find the balance that is right for you!
Living like a local- what does this even mean? It means changing what’s “normal” in your daily life to match more of what the locals do. This can affect multiple areas of your days, such as:
Food- you won’t find all the familiar grocery chains, brands, or restaurants in your new host country, so living like a local means enjoying the foods they do!
Housing you may be used to living in a city, a small town, a large house, or a small apartment. Whatever the case, there are parts of your new home that are not going to be the same while abroad. If you are American, for example, the housing you have abroad may seem smaller to you. Part of studying abroad is seeing how locals live and trying it out yourself!
Transportation- when in a new city you travel like the locals! Usually that means using the subway, walking, or biking. This may be something new to you, but when in Rome…
Challenges- Every country has something challenging about living there. While you are abroad you may face some of the same challenges. Some common ones faced by American students are slower wifi than they are used to, strikes that slow down or stop public transportation, or no air conditioning.
Exploring! Another awesome part of studying abroad is the ability to explore the world around you. For some this means walking all of their new city. For others this means traveling to other areas, countries, or even continents! The point is, studying abroad means exploring- your new surroundings, your new culture, and your own growth!
What new city will you get to explore?!
So what is study abroad? And what does study abroad mean for you? It is more than just taking classes in another country.
Studying abroad is the opportunity to experience another culture, meet new people, maybe learn another language, and explore the world you live in!
Have you studied abroad and have some thoughts on what it meant to you? Want to share some of your wisdom with those trying to decide? Share with us below!
2 comments to “What is Study Abroad”
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1. Bill - March 18, 2018 Reply
I agree! Study Abroad is a great opportunity to experience new things and gain new perspectives.
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The Holocaust in Netherlands
On the eve of the Holocaust in the Netherlands there were approximately 150,000 Dutch Jews. This number includes the roughly 25,000 German Jewish refugees that had fled Hitler in years previous. There were Jews in almost every town in the Netherlands, but the majority (more than half) were in Amsterdam. The Dutch Jews were not a monolithic group by any means; they were extremely diverse in their socioeconomic status and there was a little bit of animosity between rich and poor. Furthermore, the Dutch Jews were not very religious and thereby not united in their faith community either. These factors, combined with German efficiency and Dutch complacency, are what left a larger percent of Dutch Jews killed than in any other Western European country. Over 107,000 Jews – 93 trainloads – were deported from the Netherlands and only 5,500 of those returned. The rest were in hiding, or in mixed marriages, and survived that way.
Weimar Republic American Embassy
Dutch-Jewish families walking to the railroad station to be deported.
On 10 May, 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands. They bombed Rotterdam so mercilessly that the Dutch surrendered just four days later on 14 May, 1940. The government was fearful of a similar fate for their capital city, Amsterdam, and they were severely under-equipped. The immediate Jewish panic was most palpable with those Jews who had fled Germany; many committed suicide and many more fled to Switzerland, Spain, or France. The government was taken over by Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who was a fervent anti-Semite and enjoyed absolute authority over the Dutch civil administration. Initially the government left the Jews alone for the most part – many testimonies of survivors affirm this relative calmness in the early days of the occupation. Anti-Semitic legislation would build slowly until the Jews were isolated from their fellow citizens and deportation became a viable option.
Anti-Semitic Legislation:
31 July 1940: Jewish ritual slaughter is outlawed.
20 October 1940: Businesses owned by Jews had to be registered.
21 November 1940: All Jewish civil servants were dismissed.
10 January 1941: All Jews must register with a local census office.
On 13 February 1941 the Nazis selected a Joodse Raad – Jewish council – for the city of Amsterdam. The council was to be responsible for all matters relating to the Jewish community of Holland. It was headed by two chairmen, Mr. Abraham Asscher and Prof. David Cohen. The two men were also responsible for starting Het Joodse Weekblad – The Jewish Weekly, a newspaper that would disseminate the latest news on legal restrictions on Jews. The last issue of the Jewish Weekly came on 28 September 1943, after that time there was no need for a Jewish newspaper as most Dutch Jews had been deported.
The Jewish Council in the Netherlands did many good things to ease the suffering of their people. Their apparatus was immense and there were many different working committees that helped the Jews of Holland during these times. This created a more palatable environment and prevented the streets of Amsterdam from looking like the streets of Warsaw.
Like all Jewish councils that existed, the Dutch Joodse Raad was the source of much controversy over whether or not they were collaborators. The thought of the time was to just do what the Nazis asked and Jews of Holland would end up with fewer casualties. In the summer of 1942 the Joodse Raad was asked to write a list of Jews who were to be sent to “work camps” in Eastern Europe. After an intense debate amongst the councilmen, there was an agreement to provide the Nazis with 7,000 names. For this action and for other instances of compliance with German demands, the Joodse Raad in the Netherlands was severely criticised at the time. Ultimately, the Council was forced to do what it did and the members of the Council did not foresee that complying with German orders would lead to the demise of all Jews in Holland.
Nazi party members Giving Instructions To Newly Formed Jewish Council
Westerbork Transit Camp
Westerbork camp as viewed from a distance.
A wedding at Westerbork shows how normal the life of long-term inmates could be.
Westerbork, a camp that had been opened by the Dutch authorities in 1939 for the purpose of receiving Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, would become the last stop before over 100,000 Dutch Jews were “sent to the East” and never heard from again.
On July 1, 1942, the Nazi administration took control of the camp. Westerbork would now be known officially as a “transit camp.” The first train arrived at Westerbork on July 15, 1942, and left the camp on July 16, 1942 with 1,135 Jews headed towards Auschwitz. The transfers had to be done in public train platforms at first, but by November 1942 tracks had been built so the cars could arrive directly into the camp. Practically every Tuesday for two years a train packed with hundreds of Jews left Westerbork for Auschwitz or Sobibor. Of the nearly 110,000 Jews who went through Westerbork only a very small fraction survived.
The camp of Westerbork was sanitized for the Western European people who could not take a sigh like Warsaw or Lodz in the East. There was a school; a barber; entertainment; and even a place to eat. If an inmate had enough money it was possible for him to buy luxurious comforts that weren’t even available in the Netherlands proper.
Life in Westerbork revolved around avoiding the deportation lists every Tuesday. Most people stayed in the camp for less than a week before they were deported. The longer one was in the camp, the less likelihood there was of being deported. There was huge nepotism and power held by those prisoners who had influence over the weekly rosters. Family members could help family members, and people with zero connections could do nothing.
Deportations of Jews from the Netherlands to Poland (Auschwitz and Sobibor) began on 15 June 1942 and ended on 13 September 1944. By that time more than 75% of the pre-war population had been exterminated, and very few that were sent to the east were left to return. Many factors are relevant to this high number of Jewish deaths in the Holocaust. First and foremost is the fact that the Dutch Jews had zero amount of time to escape, whereas German Jews had had years of progressively worse conditions that elicited immigration. Secondly, the Dutch government was left intact in its entirety, so the Germans did not have to start from scratch when it came to identifying Jews. Another factor was that Dutch Jews were Western European and many were unaccustomed to the harsh realities of Eastern Europe.
Many today are still shocked a how the highly assimilated Dutch Jews were able to garner the Netherlands its title of worst survival rate of all of Western Europe. The complacency of the Dutch people; the gullibility of the Dutch Jews and their lack of unified religious community; the relatively in tact Dutch administration apparatus that was able to guide the Germans to their victims so efficiently; and the unfamiliarly harsh conditions they met in Poland, all played a part. Less than 25% of Jews of the initial population of Jews in Holland, would live to tell their story; and of the 107,000 Dutch Jews deported (the rest survived in Holland in hiding or in a mixed marriage) only 5,500 would return.
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Jeff Bridgman Antique Flags
Sold Flags
Available: Sold
Frame Size (H x L): 32" x 50.5"
Flag Size (H x L): 21.25" x 40"
Made around the time of the American Civil War (1861-65), this American national flag has 13 stars arranged in a 4-5-4 pattern. Made of polished cotton, its hand-sewn stars have irregular and particularly whimsical profiles. These are oriented in various directions on their vertical axis, which only exacerbates their visual impact.
The blue canton is made of wool with a shade of blue approaching seafoam green/grey. The stripes are made of either merino wool or a wool and cotton blended fabric. Their color and weave are not common in Civil War period flags, which tends to support an 1861 or prior date. Note the rich persimmon hue of red-orange that contrasts beautifully with the canton. Pre-war examples tend to employ fabrics that are not frequently encountered once the presence of war drove demand and production. This is a homemade flag and this particular red is something I have encountered occasionally on some interesting, homemade examples that immediately pre-date the war.
The stars of the flag are double-appliquéd (applied to both sides). Like the stars, the remainder of the flag is constructed mostly by hand-stitching, although there is some use of a treadle machine. 11 of the 12 seams were pieced with a row of hand-stitching, then finished with a row of treadle stitching. The seam running between the canton and the 4th white stripe was entirely hand-sewn, as-is the continuing seam between the 4th red and the 4th white stripes. The vertical seam between the canton and the first 7 stripes was sewn entirely by hand and the lower edge of the 13th stripe was bound by hand. There is a plain weave cotton sleeve binds the hoist, that was applied with treadle stitching. Through this a length of braided hemp rope was threaded and stitched into place by hand, with a knotted loop at the top.
The small scale of the flag itself is very desirable. Prior to the last decade of the 19th century, most flags made for extended outdoor use were very large. Those with pieced-and-sewn construction were generally eight feet long and larger. This is because flags needed to be seen from a distance to be effective in their purpose as signals. Today their use is more often decorative and the general display of patriotism.
Smaller flags exist in the early periods, but they are the exception. A six-foot flag was considered small and, in general, the smallest flags used by the U.S. Navy were six feet in length. The smaller they get, the more unusual they are. Those measuring four-feet and less on the fly, like this one, are tiny among flags with sewn construction that pre-date the 1890's. Because 19th century sewn flags can be cumbersome to frame and display in an indoor setting, many collectors prefer those of considerably smaller scale, such as this one.
The 4-5-4 lineal configuration is both scarcer and more appealing than rows of stars in counts of 3-2-3-2-3, and is generally seen on navy flags made during the Civil War period and prior. For some reason the 4-5-4 pattern was not popular during the celebration of our nation’s 100-year anniversary of independence in 1876, or thereafter, so it is of greater interest and more desired by collectors than some other 13 star designs. Since there was no official star pattern for the American national flag set forth in the flag act of June 14th, 1777, and because the original does not survive, nor are descriptions of it recorded in public documents or private journals, no one actually knows what the very first one looked like. Due to its apparent popularity in early America, however, as evidenced by both drawings and surviving 19th century examples, more than one flag expert has hedged that lineal rows of 4-5-4 was perhaps the original configuration. This arrangement appears once again on small, commercially produced flags of the 1890’s, but surviving examples are very scarce and thus most flags in the 4-5-4 pattern date to the early periods in flag manufacture.
13 star flags have been flown throughout our nation’s history for a variety of purposes. They were hoisted at patriotic events, including Lafayette’s visit in 1825-26, the celebration of the nation's centennial in 1876, and the Sesquicentennial in 1926. They were displayed during the Civil War, to reference past struggles for American liberty and victory over oppression, and were used by 19th century politicians in political campaigning for the same reason. The U.S. Navy used the 13 star count on small boats until 1916, because it was easier to discern fewer stars at a distance on a small flag. Commercial flag-makers mirrored this practice and some private ships flew 13 star flags during the same period as the navy.
Due to its desirable star pattern, a Civil War-era date, interesting fabrics, good color, graphics, and small size, this particular flag is a fine example of the period.
Mounting: The flag has been hand-stitched to 100% silk organza for support on every seam and throughout the star field. It was then stitched to a background of 100% cotton, black in color, which was washed to reduce excess dye. An acid-free agent was added to the wash to further set the dye and the fabric was heat-treated for the same purpose. The mount was then placed in a black-painted Italian molding with a flat face and a very deep profile, to which a rippled profile molding, black with gold highlights, was added as a liner. The glazing is U.V. protective acrylic.
Collector Level: Advanced Collectors and the Person with Everything
Flag Type: Sewn flag
Star Count: 13
Earliest Date of Origin: 1858
Latest Date of Origin: 1865
State/Affiliation: 13 Original Colonies
War Association: 1777-1860 Pre-Civil War
Price: SOLD
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Extrude Hone / Abrasive Flow Machine (AFM)
What does it do? How can I use it? Why will it help me?
Extrude honing, also known as abrasive flow machining, is a finishing process that uses a highly abrasive and viscous putty to polish, debur, hone, and radius material in a single operation. Rather than using an abrasive stone as other honing operations do, an extrude hone pushes this putty back and forth through a controlled passage until it is forced out–thus the name.
The abrasive flow machine can hone dozens of parts, holes, or passages at once, cutting down finishing times from hours of manual polishing to a 5-10 minute unmanned process. It is also strong on consistency, evenness, and tight tolerance-holding.
Extrude hones are most commonly used to remove burrs and thermal recast layers left behind by other secondary processes such as EDM or laser cutting. Users can expect to decrease roughness by 75-90%.
Most importantly, the extrude hone can finish complex or otherwise inaccessible areas simultaneously and blindly, without the need to split, finish, and re-weld parts.
For answers to your questions or more information on Extrude Hone machines call Liberty at 847-276-2761 or send us an email sales@libertymachinery.com.
Liberty Machinery buys and sells more extrude hones than any other used machinery dealer.
We are your #1 source for high quality extrude hones.
Buy an Extrude Hone Sell your Extrude Hone View Extrude Hone Videos
Process Description: How does it work?
There are 3 major elements to the abrasive flow machine process: the tooling, the putty media, and the machine itself.
Tooling: Used to shape, constrict, and direct the flow of the media. This determines what part of the piece will be finished, since the abrasive action occurs at the points where the putty's flow is most restricted.
Media: There are many different kinds of putty that vary based on viscosity, pattern, and abrasive aggressiveness. The putty perfectly conforms to the size and shape of whatever passage it is forced through. The media thus allows for a more consistent polish, since all surfaces are finished simultaneously.
Machine: The machine controls extrusion pressure, flow volume, and flow rate. The hone can operate on a one- or two-way system.
One-way extrude hone systems flow the abrasive media through the workpiece openings in only one direction. This is generally accomplished from a top cylinder powered by a hydraulic ram. This allows the media to exit freely, or extrude, from the part for fast processing, easy cleaning, and simple quick-exchange tooling. This is especially desirable for making dies, since the polishing action occurs in the same direction as material flow, which can greatly extend the life of the die.
Two-way extrude hone systems are more common. This method utilizes two vertically opposed cylinders, top and bottom. These cylinders are powered by hydraulic rams which extrude an abrasive media back and forth through passages formed by the workpiece and the tooling.
Common Industries
Aerospace Automotive Die-Casting Plastic Glass Crystal Vinyl Aluminum
Common Processes:
• 'Sizing' undersized die passages
• Re-polishing used dies
• Edge finishing
• Freeing obstructions to maximize air, fuel, and exhaust velocity on aluminum intake manifolds & cylinder heads
• Improving airfoil surface conditions
• Adjusting air flow resistance
• Removing coke and carbon deposits
• Finishing accessory parts
Major Extrude Hone/Abrasive Flow Machine Manufacturers
Bosch Surftran, Dynetics, Extrude Hone, Kennametal, Lapmaster Wolters, Winbro
Sell Your Abrasive Flow Machine
Liberty is always looking for used extrude hones and abrasive flow machines to buy for inventory. Contact us and let us know what you have for sale. We’ll be happy to give you a free quote.
Check our Inventory for a Used Abrasive Flow Machine
Click below to see our current inventory and request a free quote. Someone will be in touch very soon.
See our used Abrasive Flow Machines (AFMs) for sale.
Visit Liberty's YouTube channel for more videos
1. Extrude Hone: Automatic Die and Mold Polishing. Extrude Hone Corporation, Irwin, PA (n.d.).
2. Extrude Hone. Extrude Hone Corporation, Irwin, PA (n.d.). Extrude Hone website.
3. GetHoned.com pamphlet. Extrude Hone Corporation, Irwin, PA (n.d.). Website. Extrude Hone.
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Eight Medical Reasons to Prohibit Swine Flesh
Why did Islam prohibit eating the flesh of swine?
The answer to this question has remained debatable among Muslims and those of other religions who eat the flesh of swine and breed pigs, as they were unconvinced of the reasons for which Islam forbade eating the flesh of swine until they were panic-stricken by the epidemic outbreak of swine flu that overwhelmed the world.
Let Dr. Hassaan Mustafa, a member of the World Union of Health in Canada, enumerate to us the diseases transmitted by the flesh of swine to man:
1. The pig cannot get rid of the entire quantity of uric acid that is formed in its body, given that it is the main element of urine. It gets rid of only 2% and 98% remains in its flesh. That simply means that the flesh of swine is saturated with the main element of urine, which the bodies of all living beings on the surface of the earth endeavor to get rid of through the urinary system, due to the poisonous substances it contains. This is why those who eat the flesh of swine have high rates of arthritis, due to the high rate of uric acid in their blood.
2. The flesh of swine is hard to digest; and it takes four complete hours in order to be digested, given that the amount of digested protein that is absorbed after that process does not exceed 14%. For this reason, the flesh of swine is nutritiously bad and unworthy of the money paid for it, given that the flesh of swine, in many countries, is more expensive than the flesh of other animals whose flesh is edible with no similar problems.
3. The flesh of swine contains high rates of the growth hormone, which accelerates the proliferation of cancer cells if there are any.
4. The fat of swine is hard to digest and emulsify in the digestive system. The greatest portion of it is formed of harmful saturated fats. It is absorbed from the intestines into the blood in the form of huge molecules, that might possibly sediment on the walls of blood vessels and block them, causing blood clot, let alone sclerosis and noticeable high rates of cholesterol and saturated fats (triglycerides) in the blood.
5. The fat of swine sediments in the human body in the same place it comes from in the pig; and this is indeed strange!!! If the fat comes from the belly of the pig, it would settle in the belly of the person who eats it. In this way, the fat of swine helps distort the human body.
6. Eating the flesh of swine paves the way for many ailments and skin problems and diseases, like pimples, sores, fat sacks, and itching, for it contains a high rate of histamine.
7. Pigs and their flesh are the source of more than 57 parasitic, germ-caused and virus-caused diseases transmitted to man, of which a mention may be made of Trichinella, from which the flesh of swine could hardly be free. Trichinella parasites remain in the muscles of man, causing severe pains that might probably paralyze their movement. They might also remain in the diaphragm, causing breathlessness and consequently death. Moreover, those parasites might remain for more than thirty years in the muscles after encasing themselves in a calcic sac.
It is quite interesting to know that an American researcher published on the Archives of Internal Medicine website in 11/6/2001 that the renowned German musician Mozart (d.1791) likely died because of eating uncooked flesh of swine 44 days before the beginning of his 15-day fatal ailment. He was infected by Trichinella, which had not yet been known at that time.
8. The body of the pig in itself is regarded as a biological factory that has the potential to produce virus-caused diseases and epidemics that might affect man due to the genetic resemblance of pig cells to those of man. The world pandemic called swine flu which we are witnessing now is a result of the metamorphosis and merging of the viruses of bird flu, human flu and swine flu, together inside the body of the pig. They have been metamorphosed into a new deadly virus that is transferred from pigs to people and from man to man. In Canada, a case has been recently recorded where that disease was transmitted from an infected person to a herd of pigs, thus making that pandemic enter a dangerous integrated cycle.
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2018-03-27T09:55:24Z (GMT) by Amanda Murphy John Ellis Nick Hall
This footage was filmed in May 2015 in the television studio at Royal Holloway University of London in Egham, United Kingdom.
A team of veteran television film cameramen, electricians, and sound engineers who worked at the BBC Television Film Studios in the 1960s and 1970s recalled various aspects of their work.
Their memories were filmed using three Sony PMW-100 digital cameras and recorded using wireless microphones. The conversation was free-flowing with occasional questions and interventions from the ADAPT crew.
This video is part of a series that shows how a typical television film crew went about the task of filming footage for television during the 1960s and 1970s.
About the project
ADAPT (2013-8) is a European Research Council project at Royal Holloway University of London. The project studies the history of technologies in television, focussing on their everyday use in production activities.
ADAPT examines what technologies were adopted and why; how they worked; and how people worked with them. As well as publishing written accounts, the project carries out 'simulations' that reunite retired equipment with the people who used to use it.
Participants in these simulations explain how each machine worked and how different machines worked together as an 'array'; how they adapted the machines; and how they worked together as teams within the overall production process.
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What is Where?:
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is surrounded by Ontario, Canada towards the north, west and southwest. It is surrounded by New York, United States of America from the south and east directions. Lake Ontario’s name comes from the Iroquoian language which means “lake of shining waters”. The water from the lake comes from the Atlantic Ocean and is the main source of water for many people in Ontario and New York. It is also the most vulnerable from all of the Great Lakes.
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Why There?:
Lake Ontario is a polluted body of water. It is polluted from many things such as human waste, harsh chemicals, household hazardous waste etc.. Lake Ontario being polluted is a huge issue as many people in Ontario and New York uses the water for many things. When polluted water enters our body it can cause lots of health issues such as vomiting, diarrhea, sick stomach, skin rashes, certain types of cancer for a long period of time, reproductive problems, and developmental problems like learning disabilities could occur. Also any type of marine animal living in the lake would have a harder time surviving.
There are many methods to reduce water pollution. One way is to be careful with any chemicals you use. Make sure you dispose of it correctly, don’t let it spill, don’t use unused chemicals exposed to the weather, do not apply near any waterways. Another way is to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff. Simply protecting the exposed soil will help with water pollution. Also make sure to take care of any spills properly and to dispose of it. Lastly capture any debris in the lake and dispose of it. These tips and many more can help clean our waterways.
Why Care?:
Lake Ontario supplies water for both Ontario and New York and if it was polluted there are many effects to us and marine animals which could lead to death. Certain marine animals are endangered so keeping them safe is also a key point. It is also one of the most vulnerable Great Lake so if anything were to happen, this would cut of Ontario’s main waterways which would lead to further complications as well.
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The Rise of Hospital's Environmental Commitments and How They Are Doing It
In recent years, Hospitals have increasingly committed to green efforts by going beyond protecting and furthering the potential of patients to doing so for the environment. Hospitals have experimented with a range of eco-friendly solutions, including ‘’paperless record keeping to energy-conserving boilers, green roofs and on-site power plants’’ according to Healthcare Administration Degree Programs, however most have yet to take on the immense issue of foodservice disposable waste.
Across the nation, hospitals create over 7,000 tons of waste every day according to the EPA. The World Health Association found similar data and reported that the care of each hospital or nursing home occupant generates 6 pounds of waste per day. One of the leading segments of this waste is generated in hospital cafeterias and foodservice establishments which hold a vital positions in a hospitals overall environmental impact. Hospital foodservice operations poise a unique environmental problem due to the fact they operate 24/7/365 (unlike other institutions such as schools, churches, offices and restaurants which operate on limited hours) and therefore produce much more waste. With each hospital’s cafeterias, coffee shops and cafes serving up thousands of meals daily to patients, visitors and staff, it’s time to examine the environmental impact of the foodservice disposables accompanying these meals and the solutions which could render massive environmental benefit.
The Association of American Medical Colleges, recognizes the importance of going green in medical institutions as a method to improve public health. By reducing the amount of new materials harvested, fossil fuels burned, and harmful chemicals used in plastics (such as BPA), hospitals are having a positive effect on the community by decreasing the amount of harmful microorganisms that could harm public health.
Selecting foodservice disposables that are biodegradable or sourced from eco-friendly upcycled materials is an excellent method to minimize waste. These materials do not need end of life management that requires additional resources to manage in a hospital as they can simply be disposed of into a garbage disposal where they will not cause harm to the environment.
Given consumer interest in sustainability within the goods and services the purchase, it is no surprise consumers are evaluating hospitals and clinics on the basis of eco-consciousness. According to a Johnson & Johnson poll, 60% of patients consider green initiatives when choosing a hospital. The poll also reports that more than half of patients said that sustainability efforts help improve overall health outcomes. These are certainly valuable statistics for hospitals and medical institutions to see the importance of eco-friendly initiatives in terms of marketing and patient interest. It is crucial that hospital’s internal foodservice managers as well as distributors are aware of this emerging trend to fulfill consumer need and win the market.
Transitions2earth's collections of foodservice disposables include biodegradable, compostable and upcycled materials that are perfect for use in hospitals, clinics or any healthcare institution. Transitions2earth products require no end of life management, meaning they can be simply thrown away into a trash disposal and ultimately a landfill where they will cause no harm to the environment. Transitions2earth's foodservice disposables make serving Hospital patients, visitors and staff easily eco-friendly and an effective solution to the growing crisis of environmental waste within Hospitals.
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Microplastic Sample in Ulm River
A piece of a polystyrene foam cup is found next to the Missouri River at the Ulm Bridge Fishing Access Site in Ulm, MT. Photo courtesy of Skye Borden & the Environment Research & Policy Center
ULM RIVER BRIDGE – From cups, straws and grocery bags, you don’t normally have to travel far to find something made from plastic. And for environmental researchers in the Treasure State, it took a summer-long study to find pieces of the material in rivers across Montana.
In a new report, Environment Montana sampled microplastics in 33 of 50 access fishing sites across the state. With enough time, they break down from bigger-sized products into different shapes and sizes, ranging from thin strips and chip-sized fragments, to those so small, you'd need a microscope to clearly see them.
Given that fact, how do they make it to streams and different water sources? In addition to your plastic pollution from nearby communities, they can also travel through rain and snowfall depending on their size, according to Environment Montana Director Skye Borden.
According to a new report from the group, animals like birds and fish can easily mistake microplastics for food, which may chemically affect their behaviors and metabolism, and could reach people down the line.
"Some of the chemicals in plastics can pass up through the food chain and into our bodies, but we don't have a good understanding of what the long term impact of that is," said Borden, who worked on the study.
The most recent study on microplastics came from the World Health Organization back in August. While WHO found that there wasn't enough evidence to call the material harmful to human health, they encouraged the need for more research before coming to a more solid conclusion.
While there there's no one right way to tackle microplastic pollution, Environment Montana recommended a few policies, like re-using materials whenever possible. Others included phasing out single-use plastic products, building eco-friendly infrastructure systems, encouraging agencies to make limit plastics in their purchases, and giving businesses an incentive for making successful moves away from plastic items.
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Engineering Hitler's Downfall
Engineering Hitler's Downfall
Gwilym Roberts
ARRSE Rating
4.5 Mushroom Heads
Foreword by Admiral Lord West.
Whilst living in Liverpool, Britain's second most heavily bombed city during World War II, the author experienced at first-hand the terrible effects of the war on the civilian population then when studying at Cambridge he witnessed the American heavy bombers and their fighter escorts flying to attack targets in Germany and occupied Europe. Serving as an engineering officer in the Royal Navy in HMS Sheffield provided first-hand realisation of the importance of engineering and emphasised that victories achieved in the Battle of Britain and other campaigns were made possible by newly-developed machines, equipment or techniques. These innovations gave the Allied forces a significant advantage and helped ensure eventual victory.
Engineering Hitler's Downfall features numerous inventions such as the decoding machines developed at Bletchley Park; the hand-held mine detectors that cleared pathways through enemy minefields, firstly at the Battle of el Alamein but also in most subsequent actions; the newly-located factories and tanks that enabled the Russians to repulse the German invasion; the escort carriers and long range aircraft that enabled U-boats to be attacked in the mid-Atlantic; the 4000 plus Bailey bridges that allowed narrow ravines and rivers as wide as the Rhine to be crossed; the Mulberry harbours through which the D-Day bridgehead was reinforced and supplied and the pipelines under the ocean (PLUTO) that supplied fuel for invading troops. These and many other examples illustrate what was achieved under such immense pressure. The book includes timelines to set it all in context with respect to the course of the war.
I have, to be honest, become a little bit fed up with WW2 books and Hitler in general . That was until this wee gem of a book arrived. How could I not like a book with a chapter entitled " God ,Churchill and Engineers" ? The book nas 200 odd pages of stand alone or dip into facts and information regarding the Engineers from Barnes Wallace to Sir William Tennant KCB CBE MVO DL. Each chapter takes a phase of the war provides a mini profile of an Engineer say Sir Percy Hobart, describes the person and the equipment invented etc. The description of the the invention is put before you in good layman's terms to make the whole book much more interesting . Did you know that The inventors of the Bailey bridge, Jet engine and Radar received bounties from the government ? or that in the beginning no one wanted to be bothered with RADAR, which seems bizarre now considering the effect it had on the conduct of the second world war.
I rate this book very highly for bringing to us the science of war engineering in such a clear and enjoyable way, every time you pick it up you will learn something new which will make you able to throw interesting facts to your Forces buddies when certain subjects turn up. Definitely a keeper and will go into my library under "read here for fantastic facts" - worth every one of the four and a half mushroom heads, a great read.
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Ch.44 - Osmoregulation and ExcretionWorksheetSee all chapters
All Chapters
Ch.1 - Introduction to Biology
Ch.2 - Chemistry
Ch.3 - Water
Ch.4 - Carbon
Ch.5 - Biological Molecules
Ch.6 - Cells
Ch.7 - The Membrane
Ch.8 - Energy and Metabolism
Ch.9 - Respiration
Ch.10 - Photosynthesis
Ch.11 - Cell Signaling
Ch.12 - Cell Division
Ch.13 - Meiosis
Ch.14 - Mendelian Genetics
Ch.15 - Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance
Ch.16 - DNA Synthesis
Ch.17 - Gene Expression
Ch.18 - Regulation of Expression
Ch.19 - Viruses
Ch.20 - Biotechnology
Ch.21 - Genomics
Ch.22 - Development
Ch.23 - Evolution by Natural Selection
Ch.24 - Evolution of Populations
Ch.25 - Speciation
Ch.26 - History of Life on Earth
Ch.27 - Phylogeny
Ch.28 - Prokaryotes
Ch.29 - Protists
Ch.30 - Plants
Ch.31 - Fungi
Ch.32 - Overview of Animals
Ch.33 - Invertebrates
Ch.34 - Vertebrates
Ch.35 - Plant Anatomy
Ch.36 - Vascular Plant Transport
Ch.37 - Soil
Ch.38 - Plant Reproduction
Ch.39 - Plant Sensation and Response
Ch.40 - Animal Form and Function
Ch.41 - Digestive System
Ch.42 - Circulatory System
Ch.43 - Immune System
Ch.44 - Osmoregulation and Excretion
Ch.45 - Endocrine System
Ch.46 - Animal Reproduction
Ch.47 - Nervous System
Ch.48 - Sensory Systems
Ch.49 - Muscle Systems
Ch.50 - Ecology
Ch.51 - Animal Behavior
Ch.52 - Population Ecology
Ch.53 - Community Ecology
Ch.54 - Ecosystems
Ch.55 - Conservation Biology
Additional Problems
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the cortical nephrons?a. Their nephron loop is closely wrapped with vasa recta.b. Cortical nephrons form the majority of nephrons in the kidney.c. The efferent arteriole of the cortical nephrons supplies the peritubular capillaries.d. Cortical nephrons have a short nephron loop.
Hormonal regulation by ADH and aldosterone: You have probably noticed that urine is not always the same. The body is capable of adjusting the volume and the osmolarity of its urine output depending on a number of factors. The kidneys are regulated by hormones such as antidiuretic hormone (ADH) and aldosterone. These hormones are secreted in response to changes in the animal's internal water and salt balance. For example, sweating or blood loss can disrupt water and/or salt balance in the body, leading to a hormonal response that returns the system to homeostasis. Mechanisms for adjusting blood volume or osmolarity include increasing water and/or sodium reabsorption in the nephrons and collecting ducts. How do the following stimuli affect water and sodium (Na+) reabsorption in the kidneys? Drag each item to the appropriate bin.
Within a normally functioning kidney, red blood cells can be found in ________.a. the vasa rectab. Bowman's capsulec. the proximal tubuled. the collecting duct
A primary reason that the kidneys have one of the highest metabolic rates of all body organs is that ________. a. they have membranes of varying permeability to water b. they operate an extensive set of active-transport ion pumps c. they are the body's only means of shedding excess nutrients d. they have an abundance of myogenic smooth muscle
The loop of Henle dips into the renal medulla. This is an important feature of osmoregulation in terrestrial vertebrates because ________. a. absorptive processes taking place in the loop of Henle are hormonally regulated b. differential permeabilities of ascending and descending limbs of the loop of Henle are important in establishing an osmotic gradient c. the loop of Henle plays an important role in detoxification d. additional filtration takes place along the loop of Henle
If you are hiking through the desert for several days, one would pack which of the following to ensure proper hydration?a. a drink with a combination of water and electrolytesb. caffeinated beveragesc. bottled water kept at room temperatured. bottled water that had been frozen to ensure that it would be as cold as possible
Increased antidiuretic hormone (ADH) secretion is likely after ________. a. drinking lots of pure water b. sweating-induced dehydration increases plasma osmolarity c. eating a small sugary snack d. blood pressure becomes abnormally high
After blood flow is artificially reduced at one kidney, you would expect that kidney to secrete more of the hormone known as ________. a. angiotensin b. renin c. antidiuretic hormone d. atrial natriuretic peptide
After drinking alcoholic beverages, increased urine excretion is the result of ________. a. increased aldosterone production b. increased blood pressure c. inhibited secretion of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) d. increased reabsorption of water in the proximal tubule
Which process in the nephron is least selective? a. filtration b. reabsorption c. active transport d. secretion
Which of the following animals generally has the lowest volume of urine production? a. vampire bat b. salmon in fresh water c. marine bony fish d. freshwater flatworm
Specifically describe the roles of aldosterone and atrial natriuretic hormone in regulating salt and water in the blood, and in producing hypertonic urine.
Briefly describe how the actions that regulate blood volume interact with those that regulate blood osmolarity, and explain why you would be more dehydrated after consuming saltwater.
Na+ and Cl- are reabsorbed from the ascending loop of Henle.A. TrueB. False
Blood passes from the capsular space through the _____ to the renal corpuscle.A. capillary endotheliumB. capillary endothelium and the basement membraneC. capillary endothelium, the basement membrane, and the podocytesD. capillary endothelium, the basement membrane, and between the foot processes of the podocytes
CaCl2 is a strong electrolyte. When dissolved in water, it readily dissociates into calcium and chloride. A 0.3 M solution will be _______ osmoles/liter.Assume that it completely dissolves.A. 0.1B. 0.3C. 0.6D. 0.9E. 1.2
Discuss the structure and the functions of the kidneys.
Sulfate (SO42-) transport occurs within kidney cells by ion transport. What is the Gibbs free energy associated with moving SO42- into the cell (in kcal/mol) if the sulfate concentration outside is 5mM and 25mM inside? (R = 1.987 cal/mol K; T=37ºC; ΔEm = +60mV; F = 23.06 kcal/V mol)A. 3.76 kcal/molB. 1.78 kcal/molC. 1.56 kcal/molD. -1.78 kcal/molE. -3.76 kcal/mol
Name the 4 hormones that act on the nephron to control reabsorption of various components in the filtrate?
How does the nephron contribute to acid base balance?
Why would kidney function diminish if nephrons were straight in structure and did not include a loop?
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A tale of two experiments
The rational choice model (as well as common wisdom) tells us that frequent preventive police patrol should deter potential criminals from offending by increasing their perceived likelihood of apprehension and punishment.
However, as we saw from earlier weeks, it is not easy to actually obtain the causal effect of preventive patrol on crime based on non-experimental data. The main reason is that neighborhoods that receive more preventive patrols may be systematically different from neighborhoods that receive little.
But what if the intensity of police patrol were to be determined randomly? In this case, it becomes a lot easier to recover the causal effect of police patrol on crime. We will randomly assign neighborhoods into two groups, one group receiving a lot more police patrol than the other, and compare crime rates between highly patrolled neighborhoods and lightly patrolled neighborhoods. The difference can be viewed as the causal effect of additional police patrol on crime.
So far we dismissed such experiments as unrealistic and infeasible. However, the value of a well-designed randomized experiment has been well-known for a long time, and several police departments courageously undertook such policing experiments. Their findings tell us a great deal about the causal relationship between police and crime. Below, we will examine two policing experiments which had a major influence on police policies over the last few decades.
Kansas City Experiment
The first experiment was done in 1972 by the Kansas City Police Department. The Department wanted to find out whether their routine preventive patrol was really effective in reducing crime, and ran the following experiment. Fifteen police beats in the city were divided into five groups of three beats. Each group was chosen based on observable demographic, economic, and criminal characteristics so that the three police beats within each group were highly comparable to each other. Then, within each group, the Department randomly assigned one police beat as “control”, another as “reactive” and the third as “proactive”.
In the police beats assigned to the control group, police performed their routine patrol as usual. For the reactive group, police stopped preventive patrol altogether and only responded to calls for service. For the beats in the proactive group, the department significantly increased police visibility by sending out a lot more preventive patrol than usual. The department closely monitored weekly crime data so that they would stop the experiment in case of a noticeable crime increase from the reactive group. Fortunately this problem did not happen during the 12 month span of the experiment.
Surprisingly, the comparison between crime rates from the three groups revealed that additional police patrol did little to reduce crime, as crime rates from the three groups were very much similar. The finding led many researchers and policymakers to question the effectiveness of preventive police patrol for many years. For example, Carl Klockars (1983) argued that “it makes about as much sense to have police patrol routinely in cars to fight crime as it does to have firemen patrol routinely in fire trucks to fight fire.”
But before we conclude that police patrol really has no effect, let’s think a bit more about the experiment and its findings. Why do you think that the increased police presence did not lead to a noticeable drop in crime? Is it because potential criminals are just too impulsive and reckless, and do not mind committing theft and robbery in front of a police car? A more realistic explanation is that the “dose” of the treatment may not have been large enough. Typical police beats cover a large area (usually a few kilometers squared) and thousands of residents, and it would take unusually large increases in the police patrol effort before would-be offenders in the police beat realize any noticeable change in the level of police presence.
In either case, findings from the Kansas City experiment suggest that increased effort and investment on preventive police patrol may not be an effective crime-fighting strategy. But is this really the case?
Minneapolis Experiment
Recent advances in computing and mapping technology enabled researchers to easily visualize and analyze spatial patterns of crime. The spatial analysis consistently shows that crime is heavily concentrated in a small segment of “hotspots”. Just like how a small number of high-risk individuals are responsible for a disproportionately large share of crimes, few addresses and street corners account for a bulk of crimes in a city.
For example, criminologists Lawrence Sherman, Patrick Gartin, and Michael Buerger found that more than half of all police calls in Minneapolis originated from just 3 percent of street addresses, and that no police car was ever dispatched to about 40 percent of the street addresses and street corners during a calendar year. What would happen if police spends more patrol hours in these crime hotspots? Would this lead to a substantial reduction in crimes? Clearly, it should be a lot easier to significantly increase police presence in a few street corners and addresses than the entire police beat.
In order to test whether this hotspot-based intervention would yield a different result from the earlier beat-based experiment, criminologists Lawrence Sherman and David Weisburd designed and implemented the following randomized experiment in Minneapolis. With an endorsement and cooperation from the city government, Sherman and Weisburd identified 110 crime hotspots in the city and randomly assigned them into two groups. Hotspots in the control group received the usual level of police patrol, and those in the experimental group received about twice as many patrol hours as the control group.
After the experiment was concluded, Sherman and Weisburd compared crime rates between the two groups, and found that hotspots in the experimental groups had roughly 10 percent fewer calls for service. Their finding led to renewed academic and policy discussions on the use of preventive patrol as a potential crime-fighting tool. Similar experiments from Boston, Baltimore, Seattle, and Vancouver also support that hotspot-based preventive patrol can lead to a significant reduction in crime.
• Kelling, George L., Tony Pate, Duane Dieckman, and Charles. E. Brown. 1974. The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment: A Summary Report. Washington, DC: Police Foundation
• Klockars, Carl. Thinking about Police. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991.
• Sherman, Lawrence W., Patrick R. Gartin, and Michael E. Buerger. “Hot Spots of Predatory Crime: Routine Activities and the Criminology of Place.” Criminology 27.1 (1989): 27-56.
• Sherman, Lawrence W., and David Weisburd. “General Deterrent Effects of Police Patrol in Crime “Hot Spots”: A Randomized, Controlled Trial.” Justice Quarterly 12.4 (1995): 625-648.
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Economics of Crime
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Weekly summary and what's next
Thank you for posting examples of your revised learning outcomes.
There were some good examples of flipped activities in Let’s explore online blended and flipped learning. One thing to keep in mind is that whatever activities you ask your students to do outside class you factor the time they spend doing this into the overall time requirement for the course so the activities don’t become an add-on and that they are not competing with commitments in their other courses.
One of the common issues raised in Blended and flipped learning: Lessons Learned is that students hadn’t completed the pre-class activities in blended classes. As many of you pointed out, making expectations clear and preparing students for a potentially different way of learning is essential and ensuring they have the appropriate skills to be more self directed in their learning.
In the third and final week of the course we focus on assessment and feedback and hear from UNSW students talking about their specific experiences within their faculties.
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Introduction to Educational Design in Higher Education
UNSW Sydney
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Dangers of Texting and Driving
Last Updated:
For every two seconds that a driver's eyes stray away from the road, he or she is twice as likely to have an accident. Inattention is the leading contributing factor in most crashes or near-miss accidents in Canada.
Inattention on the Road
Of all crashes, 80 percent (and 65 percent of near-crashes) involve driver inattention within a three-second window of the incident. The moral of the store: When motorists change radio stations, try to read maps, or talk on cell phones they are putting themselves and others at risk.
How Texting is Unique
AAA claims that texting requires a motorist's full attention, which obviously inhibits attention to the road.
A recent study by the Canada Automobile Association found that 33.6 seconds are needed to reply to a text message. In this time, a driver in a residential neighbourhood would pass 85 parked cars, 36 houses, or 5 intersections. The driver would also likely encounter bikes and pedestrians.
This concern is by no means limited to everyday drivers; inattention due to texting has caused many occupational drivers to be involved in deadly roadway crashes.
It's Against the Law
Ontario has laws outlawing the use of mobile devices and texting while driving. To avoid a ticket and a potentially dangerous accident, do not use your cell phone in any capacity while driving.Texting is a prevalent cause of crashes because full driver attention is crucial.If you're really struggling to resist the urge to respond to messages when they come in, turn your phone off before getting into the car. No message is more important than saving someone's life.
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Elisa Antibody-Mouse Target
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), also known as an enzyme immunoassay (EIA), is a biochemical technique used mainly in immunology to detect the presence of an antibody or an antigen in a sample. In simple terms, in ELISA, an unknown amount of antigen is affixed to a surface, and then a specific antibody is applied over the surface so that it can bind to the antigen. This antibody is linked to an enzyme, and in the final step a substance is added that the enzyme can convert to some detectable signal, most commonly a colour change in a chemical substrate
The mouse is an important research target in biological research. A variety of antibody to mouse protein plays a very important role in the research. Antibodies against mouse protein target play an important role in different research field. We use through the recombinant mouse protein or polypeptide within mouse protein as immunogen to prepare antibody against mouse target.
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Science Communication Breakdown
Marchers, including Bill Nye the Science Guy, center, lead the Science March down Constitution Avenue in Washington on Earth Day 2017. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call
Science enabled humans to ascend out of the darkness and tackle life’s problems with systematic, self-correcting rigidity. Yet, when faced with scientific consensus on climate change and other issues, some citizens, politicians and even scientists dig in their heels and deny the shape of our current understand. Why do some people doubt scientific consensus? What’s wrong in science communication? Robert and Joe attempt to find an answer.
Related Content:
Climate Change and Art Converge in 'Holoscenes'
How Climate Change Works (HowStuffWorks)
Beyond this Vale of Testing: Post-Empirical Science
Outside Content:
Science in a Polarized World: A Global Town Hall (WSF)
Dan Kahan (Cultural Cognition Project)
Performance artist Annie Saunders performs 'Cleaning' during the 'Holoscenes' installation, which addressed the intersection of politics and science.
Bonnie J. Heath Photography
Topics in this Podcast: climate change
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The Sharing Economy and How it Is Changing Industries
Spotify Uber
••• Photo Oli Scarff / Getty Images
The sharing economy is one of the fastest growing business trends in history, with investors dumping more than $23 billion in venture capital funding since 2010 into startups operating with a share-based model. Because many of these businesses are private, it’s impossible to know the actual size of the sharing economy.
However, there are several clues to indicate its massive impact on our society.
• Airbnb ($31 million) and Uber ($72 billion) have a combined $103 billion market cap which would rank them as the 38th wealthiest country in the world.
• In 2016, 44.8 million U.S. adults used the sharing economy, and it’s expected to grow to 86.5 million U.S. users by 2021.
• McKinsey estimates that in the U.S. and Europe alone, 162 million people or 20-30 percent of the workforce are providers on sharing platforms.
What Is the Sharing Economy?
Trying to define exactly what the sharing economy is would not do the term justice. The sharing economy is an economic principle that is constantly evolving. In the very simplest terms, it’s the use of technology to facilitate the exchanged access of goods or services between two or more parties.
It’s derived from the notion that mutual parties can share value from an under-utilized skill or asset. This value exchange occurs through a shared marketplace, collaborative platform, or peer-to-peer application.
The sharing model isn’t a new concept—as many rural communities thrived off the same idea via bartering. However, thanks to the accessibility of the internet and mobile technology, managing share-based transactions has never been easier.
While most commonly referred to as the sharing economy, this term is an umbrella that encompasses other economic systems such as:
1. Collaborative Economy/Collaborative Consumption
2. Peer-to-Peer Economy
3. Freelancing/Gig Economy
4. Crowdfunding/Crowdsourcing
5. Coworking/Cobranding
What Is the Impact of the Sharing Economy?
The sharing economy has a history of disrupting traditional business sectors. The lack of overhead and inventory help share-based businesses run lean. The increased efficiencies allow these brands to pass-through value to their customers and supply chain partners.
Traditional industries are being affected by the sharing economy—and many traditional brands will struggle if they do not adapt to the changing landscape.
Uber’s ascension in the transportation industry is one of the best examples to illustrate the effect of the sharing economy in a traditional sector. Uber and other ride-sharing services offer an affordable, safe, and convenient alternative to traditional transportation options such as public transit or taxi cabs.
By utilizing an efficient mobile application and network of vetted drivers, Uber satisfies consumers’ transportation demands while providing an arguably better user experience than traditional means.
In just New York City alone, there are roughly 4.5 times more Uber drivers than yellow cabs. This has caused the price of owning a taxi cab in New York City to drop from $1 million in 2015 to less than $200,000 today.
Top Sharing Economy Brands in the Transportation Space:
• Uber: $72 Billion
• Didi: $50 Billion
• Lyft: $11 Billion
Consumer Goods
PWC research suggests that 86 percent of U.S. adults familiar with the sharing economy say that it makes life more affordable and 83 percent also agree that the sharing economy is more convenient and efficient than traditional methods.
Affordability, convenience, and efficiency are also three of the most influential factors in a consumer goods purchasing decision. Therefore, it’s no surprise that share-based brands are also dominating the consumer goods industry.
eBay is one of the pioneers of the peer-to-peer marketplace. Their innovative platform allows users to buy and sell used or new items through their interface, and have the goods shipped directly to their home. Consumers can browse a variety of products at custom price points, in various conditions, and with different guarantees. This empowers the consumers and provides them with a more affordable, convenient, and efficient way to purchase goods.
Top Sharing Economy Brands in the Consumer Goods Space:
• eBay: $36.8 Billion
• Etsy: $5.2 Billion
• Rent the Runway: $800 Million
Professional and Personal Services
The benefits of the sharing economy are best illustrated in the professional and personal services space. Professional and personal services are defined by work that requires special knowledge, skills, experience, certifications, or training like copywriters, accountants, or plumbers. In relation to the sharing economy, this is also referred to as freelancing, gigs, and other trendy terms equating to short-term labor.
Powerhouses like Fiverr, Upwork, and TaskRabbit create value by providing a fast, friendly, and secure platform on which people or businesses can find contractors for hire. Freelancers can earn extra money sharing their trade skills and expertise—not unlike owners renting access to their home or car owners sharing rides.
Top Sharing Economy Brands in the Professional and Personal Services Space:
• Fiverr: $351 Million
• Upwork: $168.8 Million +
• TaskRabbit: $50 Million +
The healthcare industry is expected to generate annual revenues of $8.7 trillion by 2020. That likely explains why venture funding for digital health startups increased by 10.2 percent in Q1 of 2018 compared to Q1 of 2017. Although the sharing economy has yet to really take hold in the healthcare industry, many experts suspect it to be the next frontier for collaborative consumption.
The limitations of traditional healthcare systems, expenses and resources, are factors that we’ve seen mitigated in other industries through share-based methods. From telemedicine to group-consultations, the sharing economy is destined to change the healthcare industry.
For instance, it’s estimated that 58 percent of the time, medical equipment sits unused—creating storage and maintenance expenses. Therefore, share-based startups like Cohealo are helping hospitals save money and increase equipment value by developing technology that enables hospitals to share medical equipment with other healthcare facilities.
Top Sharing Economy Brands in the Healthcare Space:
• American Well: $441.5 Million
• Doctor On Demand: $160 Million
• Cohealo: $9 Million +
What Is Next for the Sharing Economy?
Technology has helped the sharing economy advance to where it is today—and, the trend should only continue as we become more connected digitally. While we’ve seen how dominant collaborative consumption can be in industries like transportation, consumer goods, and services, many other traditional sectors will soon experience changes because of the sharing economy.
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In India and Indonesia, Civil Society Groups Help Manage Critical Watersheds
Natural infrastructure such as forests and wetlands help ensure clean water to the communities that surround them. However, the very people who depend on these landscapes for water are sometimes shut out of decisions about how to manage them. Local communities may lack access to the information and technical expertise needed to participate in management decisions—and sometimes, they simply aren’t offered a seat at the table.
In these cases, civil society groups, composed of citizens and non-governmental actors, can build capacity with local communities, identify institutional and policy challenges on the ground, and share local lessons with national and even international audiences. Even small investments in civil society groups can pay big dividends, as projects in India and Indonesia demonstrate.
Global Forest Water (GFW) Water is a global mapping tool and database that shows how threats to natural infrastructure affect water security throughout the world. The GFW Water initiative provided small grants to five local civil society groups in India and Indonesia. These groups used GFW Water to support their understanding of local watersheds and enrich on-the-ground work protecting forested areas. Here are two of their stories.
Restoring a Wildlife Sanctuary
The Mayureshwar Wildlife Sanctuary (MWLS) is a small but popular recreation area within easy reach of Pune and Mumbai in Maharashtra, a state in western India. The sanctuary is home to Indian gazelles (locally known as the chinkara), Indian grey wolves, hyenas and Bengal foxes, as well as a variety of insects, birds and reptiles.
Since the MWLS is not fenced, its lands are subject to roaming and grazing from the nearly 250,000 sheep and goats that live in the surrounding villages. Overgrazing has eroded the sanctuary’s ground cover and made its soil so poor that trees can no longer grow.
<p>Grazing threatens the Mayureshwar Wildlife Sanctuary.</p>
Grazing threatens the Mayureshwar Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Ecological Society, Pune-India investigated the threats to biodiversity and water availability in the sanctuary. The team used a combination of tools to analyze the state of the sanctuary, including GFW Water. They found that the degradation was jeopardizing groundwater supplies; without grass cover, the ground failed to retain rainwater, leading to the depletion of the local aquifer. This threatens both the sanctuary’s ecosystem and the ability of surrounding villages to extract water from wells.
To restore the area, the team recommended solutions such as setting aside specific areas for villagers to harvest grass while preserving crucial plant populations alongside streams. These solutions will preserve the MWLS’s animal habitats, water supply, and beauty—so that tourists and locals alike can continue to enjoy this sanctuary for years to come.
In this case, civil society proved necessary to completing this technical assessment. Once the situation was assessed, they wrote a floral diversity improvement plan to remedy the degradation, and will submit it the Maharashtra State Forest Department and advocate for the plan’s analysis to influence the MWLS’s broader forest and land management policy. The hope is that report’s recommendations can also be applied in other important forests and natural areas, multiplying the report’s impact.
Including the Community to Research a Common Resource
The flood management initiatives used to protect the Brantas watershed in Java, Indonesia are considered a role model for watershed protection. However, degradation and erosion are still major problems for the area, affecting its ability to hold water and threatening native fish populations. Because government information about the river is not regularly updated or made publicly available, local community members are not well-informed about the impact on the river from deforestation, leaving them unable to fully participate in the formation of policies that shape their surroundings.
Enter ECOTON, a civil society group working in the area that believes that open access to information and encouraging participation will improve the ability of local communities to advocate for their needs. With support from their GFW Water grant, they used GFW Water to analyze the risks to the river basin. GFW Water can be used to measure and map erosion, as well as other factors affecting a river basin such as tree cover loss and water stress.
<p>Students identify plant and animal species with ECOTON in the Brantas watershed.</p>
ECOTON involved the local community in their research by actively working with schools, university students, and other community members to help test the river’s water quality and identify the plant and animal species that inhabit the watershed. They also facilitated public meetings for community members and government officials, where they shared resources including the GFW Water tool to educate people about their surrounding environment and the impacts of deforestation. This project gained the attention of the local news, and inspired government institutions to agree to allocate more resources towards improving riverbank rehabilitation programs.
A Pathway to Better Decision-Making
Forests and watersheds must be monitored and protected to ensure that communities have clean and plentiful water. While deciding how best to manage these landscapes, local communities and civil society groups must have a seat at the table. Small grants and new tools such as GFW Water can help them visualize critical watershed information and threats. Armed with that information, they can participate in larger policy dialogues to scale up restoration, conservation and sustainable land management. WRI is committed to helping even more civil society groups—such as the two highlighted here—use our tools and get access to the information they need to engage in and impact policy conversations.
Jasmine Qin contributed research for this blog.
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Word Study
Table of Contents
wharl | wharling | wharp | wharton | what | what for | what is more | whatchamacallit | whatchamacallum | whate'er | whatever
what for
what for
ass-reaming, bawling-out, castigation, chastening, chastisement, chewing, condign punishment, correction, cussing-out, deserts, disciplinary measures, discipline, dressing, dressing-down, excuse, explanation, ferule, for which, for why, from what cause, going-over, how come, infliction, jacking-up, judgment, judicial punishment, nemesis, on what account, pains, pains and punishments, pay, payment, penal retribution, penalty, penology, pourquoi, pretense, pretext, punishment, punition, raking-down, rational ground, rationale, reaming, reaming-out, reason, reason for, reason why, retribution, retributive justice, roasting, scourge, setdown, speaking-to, stated cause, talking-to, the big idea, the idea, the whatfor, the wherefore, the why, underlying reason, well-deserved punishment, wherefore, why, whyever, whyfor
For further exploring for "what for" in Webster Dictionary Online
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Meaning of いろ in Japanese
It seems that いろ(iro) is an inflection of いる with the following forms:
• Imperative form
1. Words
2. Sentences
Definition of いろ
1. (n) colour; color
2. complexion
3. appearance; look
5. kind; type; variety
Words related to いろ
Sentences containing いろ
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Preventing nail fungal infections
Practicing good hand and foot hygiene can help prevent and reduce the occurrence of nail fungus.
Even after successful treatment, nail fungal infections may come back. To lower your risk of recurrence, follow these tips, beginning with getting into the habit of keeping your nails short, dry and clean.
Discard old shoes
Avoid wearing old shoes, which can harbour fungi.
Regularly disinfect shoes
Sprinkle disinfectant or anti-fungal powder in your shoes and change your socks frequently.
Give up nail polish and artificial nails
Nail polish or artificial nails can trap moisture, which can worsen a nail fungal infection.
Always wear footwear
Such as sandals, flip flops or slippers, in communal areas (swimming pools, locker rooms, gyms, hotel rooms, etc.).
Always keep nails short and trim them straight across
If you already have a fungal infection, use a different set of nail clippers or files for normal nails.
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Westbury Animal Hospital
713.723.3666 · 4917 S. Willow Dr. Houston, Texas 77035
Heat Stroke (“Don’t lose your cool….”)
Dr. Victoria Cole
Heat stroke/exhaustion can be a rapidly life-threatening emergency. Below are some basic tips and prevention information to avoid this scary situation in your beloved family members. Please keep in mind that the normal temperature for a dog and cat is 99.5-102.5 F. Elevated body temperature over 105 F warrants a true emergency.
Heat stroke can occur anytime a pet is left outside in hot weather, especially without adequate shade and water source. It is also a reality when pets are exercised in hot weather, (even activity that patient may normally perform), or when left in a car regardless of the temperature outside. Other predisposing factors that may increase the risk of developing heat stroke in an otherwise normal situation include being classified as brachycephalic breed- short nosed breeds have inefficient panting and cooling ability, obesity, underlying disease conditions.
Our furry pets have a heavy coat that they can’t take off; they are not able to sweat and they rely on panting to cool themselves. When a pet begins to get over-heated, they make more heat as they pant and this causes their body temperature to rise even further.
HEAT STROKE IS ENTIRELY PREVENTABLE! Consider leaving pets at home(indoors, crated, secured, away from large windows or direct sunlight with fresh water at all times) or having a friend/family member check on pet during the day. Boarding or day care are good options rather than leaving pets outdoors.
If signs of heat stroke/exhaustion are noted:
1. First remove pet from the situation
2. Cool them down with cool water (soaked towels)- DO NOT submerse in an ice bath
***Too rapid of cooling can be just at detrimental and there may be a delay (~24-48 hrs) in life-threatening complications from the previously elevated temperature (organ failure, bleeding disorders)
3. Offer shade +/- fan or a/c
4. Offer water (if no vomiting and holding up head)
5. Take immediately to a veterinarian (cool along the way)- this provides the best chance of survival if immediate veterinary care is sought- drive to a vet hospital in a car with A/C. If able, obtain a rectal temperature and record it for the veterinarians benefit.
DO NOT: overcool the pet
DO NOT: force water in their mouth
DO NOT: leave them unattended or wait at home to see if the temperature drops
DO NOT: Think that just because the pet seems better after cooling that it is out of danger, it is best to be assessed by a veterinarian regardless of changes in your pets demeanor. Complications of heat stroke can appear even days later.
Outside Temp (F) / Inside Car Temp (F)
70 / 100
80 / 120
90 / 140
Never leave a pet alone in a car (whether it is hot or cold outside)
If you find a dog left in a car- stay cool, calm and collected, try to find the owner, go in to the store and ask management to announce over the PA, or call local authorities for further directions.
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African American literature offers revealing glimpses into the life and psyche of the black female domestic worker. The domestic worker in the north is revealed here to be as badly used as the worker in the south. Even though the women do a full day’s work cleaning and cooking for their employers, they still must fulfill their responsibilities to their own families and households when they return to their homes. Sometimes they are even endangered in the households in which they are employed.
Richard Wright spent much time and effort for years investigating, researching, and interviewing female domestic workers in New York for his unpublished 1940s novel, Black Hope. He focused on the street corners or “slave markets” where black women stood waiting to be chosen to perform a day’s domestic work. He had a real interest in their plight, and he recorded many stories of hardship and abuse at the hands of their employers. Black Hope tells the story of Ollie who is cruelly abused by her employer. The story is not exaggerated, however, because Wright recorded similar stories in his interviews with black maids.
In contrast, Kristin Hunter’s God Bless the Child (1964) presents Louvenia Huggs, a long-time maid for a family in a northern city. Louvenia had been with her white employers for thirty years. She believed herself to be a member of the family. She extolled their virtues and their way of life. She brought their cast-offs when she came home Thursdays and every other weekend to the tenement apartment she shared with her daughter and granddaughter. When the old employer died and the house was bequeathed elsewhere, Louvenia was let go with no provisions having been made for her old age.
Ann Petry’s “In Darkness and Confusion” is a novella based on the Harlem Riot in 1943. In Harlem, William and his wife, Pink, struggle to survive. William is a janitor at a drugstore. He is ill-paid and treated with disrespect and condescension. William knows that he and Pink will soon have to move from their tenement apartment because climbing the stairs is getting to be too much for the grossly obese Pink. He and Pink have one son, Sam, who is in the army. Devastated by the news that Sam has been sentenced to twenty years hard labor, they join a race riot that was sparked by a policeman’s murder of a young black soldier. Pink exemplifies the hard-working domestic. She works hard for her employers, and still has her own chores to take care of at home. On that fateful Saturday, William muses that “Pink wouldn’t be home until late. The white folks she worked for were having a dinner party tonight. And no matter how late she got home on Saturday night she always stopped on Eighth Avenue to shop for her Sunday dinner” (175). William wonders why he and Pink hadn’t gotten any further in life than William’s own mother who had “scrubbed floors, washed, and ironed in the white folks kitchens. They [he and Pink]were doing practically the same thing” (176). Pink dies during the race riot. She strained herself pulling an iron grate from a storefront to allow rioters to enter the store.
In Richard’s Wright’s bitterly humorous radio play “Man of All Work” (later published in a collection of his short stories) Carl dresses up as a woman to go out to work as a domestic one day. He is trying to get some quick money as his wife is sick, and cannot go out to work . Unfortunately, the employer makes sexual advances to him. Upon discovering her husband groping Carl, the wife shoots wildly and slightly wounds Carl. When they discover he is really a man, they pay him to keep quiet and to go away. Upon his return home, Carl’s wife begs him not to ever again dress as a woman and work as a maid.
Lutie in Ann Petry’s The Street, is a young married woman who goes to work as a live-in domestic for an affluent white family in Connecticut. Lutie is a sensitive and intelligent high school graduate. Mrs. Chandler, the woman for whom she works is not much older than Lutie. Lutie studies Mrs.Chandler, noticing the privileges that come with skin color, money, and class. Lutie wonders how she and her husband can get ahead in life. Mr. Chandler and his friends’ and parents’ talk is all about money. Absorbing all the talk about money and getting ahead, Lutie formulates a plan for herself and her husband to save money and eventually become prosperous. But unfortunately, Lutie loses her husband to another woman before she can realize her dream. To save on transportation expenses, Lutie had been coming home only once a month. While she is gone during the month, her husband had moved in another woman.
Each of the maids depicted in these books has her (or his) own unique life story. The maids vary in age and in physicality, in temperament, and in motivation, and in once instance, sex. However, they all share a common bond: their black skins, which means that during a certain time period in the United States, they were compelled to earn money by working as domestic servants because there were few other options open to them. Their lives are not easy, but they work hard and hope for a better day. Most of the time they are disappointed, however.
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Skin cancer
Oncofocus Test Kit
is available for Skin cancer
Skin cancers are cancers that arise from the skin. They are due to the development of abnormal cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. There are three main types: basal-cell cancer (BCC), squamous-cell cancer (SCC) and melanoma. The first two together along with a number of less common skin cancers are known as nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC). Basal-cell cancer grows slowly and can damage the tissue around it but is unlikely to spread to distant areas or result in death. It often appears as a painless raised area of skin, that may be shiny with small blood vessel running over it or may present as a raised area with an ulcer. Squamous-cell cancer is more likely to spread. It usually presents as a hard lump with a scaly top but may also form an ulcer. Melanomas are the most aggressive. Signs include a mole that has changed in size, shape, color, has irregular edges, has more than one color, is itchy or bleeds.
Greater than 90% of cases are caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. This exposure increases the risk of all three main types of skin cancer. Exposure has increased partly due to a thinner ozone layer. Tanning beds are becoming another common source of ultraviolet radiation. For melanomas and basal-cell cancers exposure during childhood is particularly harmful. For squamous-cell cancers total exposure, irrespective of when it occurs, is more important. Between 20% and 30% of melanomas develop from moles. People with light skin are at higher risk as are those with poor immune function such as from medications or HIV/AIDS. Diagnosis is by biopsy.
Decreasing exposure to ultraviolet radiation and the use of sunscreen appear to be effective methods of preventing melanoma and squamous-cell cancer. It is not clear if sunscreen affects the risk of basal-cell cancer. Nonmelanoma skin cancer is usually curable. Treatment is generally by surgical removal but may less commonly involve radiation therapy or topical medications such as fluorouracil. Treatment of melanoma may involve some combination of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and targeted therapy. In those people whose disease has spread to other areas of their bodies, palliative care may be used to improve quality of life. Melanoma has one of the higher survival rates among cancers, with over 86% of people in the UK and more than 90% in the United States surviving more than 5 years.
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer, globally accounting for at least 40% of cases. It is especially common among people with light skin. The most common type is nonmelanoma skin cancer, which occurs in at least 2-3 million people per year. This is a rough estimate, however, as good statistics are not kept. Of nonmelanoma skin cancers, about 80% are basal-cell cancers and 20% squamous-cell cancers. Basal-cell and squamous-cell cancers rarely result in death. In the United States they were the cause of less than 0.1% of all cancer deaths. Globally in 2012 melanoma occurred in 232,000 people, and resulted in 55,000 deaths. Australia and New Zealand have the highest rates of melanoma in the world. The three main types of skin cancer have become more common in the last 20 to 40 years, especially in those areas which are mostly Caucasian
There are three main types of skin cancer: basal-cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC) and malignant melanoma.
Signs and symptoms
Basal cell carcinoma
Squamous-cell carcinoma
Most melanomas consist of various colours from shades of brown to black. A small number of melanomas are pink, red or fleshy in colour; these are called amelanotic melanomas and tend to be more aggressive. Warning signs of malignant melanoma include change in the size, shape, color or elevation of a mole. Other signs are the appearance of a new mole during adulthood or pain, itching, ulceration, redness around the site, or bleeding at the site. An often-used mnemonic is “ABCDE”, where A is for “asymmetrical”, B for “borders” (irregular: “Coast of Maine sign”), C for “color” (variegated), D for “diameter” (larger than 6 mm—the size of a pencil eraser) and E for “evolving.
• Smoking tobacco
• HPV infections increase the risk of squamous-cell carcinoma.
• Chronic non-healing wounds. These are called Marjolin’s ulcers based on their appearance, and can develop into squamous-cell carcinoma.
• Ionizing radiation, environmental carcinogens, artificial UV radiation (e.g. tanning beds), aging, and light skin color. It is believed that tanning beds are the cause of hundreds of thousands of basal and squamous-cell carcinomas. The World Health Organization now places people who use artificial tanning beds in its highest risk category for skin cancer.
Sunscreen is effective and thus recommended to prevent melanoma and squamous-cell carcinoma. There is little evidence that it is effective in preventing basal-cell carcinoma. Other advice to reduce rates of skin cancer includes avoiding sunburning, wearing protective clothing, sunglasses and hats, and attempting to avoid sun exposure or periods of peak exposure. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that people between 9 and 25 years of age be advised to avoid ultraviolet light.
The risk of developing skin cancer can be reduced through a number of measures including decreasing indoor tanning and mid day sun exposure, increasing the use of sunscreen, and avoiding the use of tobacco products.
There is insufficient evidence either for or against screening for skin cancers. Vitamin supplements and antioxidant supplements have not been found to have an effect in prevention. Evidence for a benefit from dietary measures is tentative.
The mortality rate of basal-cell and squamous-cell carcinoma are around 0.3%, causing 2000 deaths per year in the US. In comparison, the mortality rate of melanoma is 15–20% and it causes 6500 deaths per year.:29,31 Even though it is much less common, malignant melanoma is responsible for 75% of all skin cancer-related deaths
Source: wikipedia
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Frozen fruit smoothies, improve immunity, boost energy levels, aid digestion, detoxify
Why Juice?
Today after decades of declining health and rapid ageing, the promise of living foods is once again gaining international attention simply for its natural healing properties and energy source. Living foods are an effective way of helping our bodies heal themselves. A healthy body is a body with healthy enzymes.
Living foods, fresh and raw, are the foundation of any healthy eating program, and have amazing healing and rejuvenating properties.
Living foods...
• improve immunity
• increase energy
• cleanse blood
• promote vitality
• manage weight
• nourish organs
• detoxify and maintain cellular structure
Vegetable juicerThe major benefits of a living food diet are that vital enzymes and nutrients remain intact and are able to be utilised by the body. When food is heated above 44.C, most of these enzymes and nutrients are destroyed. Enzymes are involved in every process of the body. The complete regulatory system in the body depends upon enzymes and suffers from their depletion. All fresh living foods contain these vital enzymes.
To maintain the living properties of our foods, they need to be kept fresh and raw. Storage, heat, oxidation, preservatives and pesticides have a strong influence on enzyme activity, reducing the health benefits to our bodies. According to medical research, enzyme shortages are commonly seen in a number of chronic illnesses such as allergies, obesity, heart disease as well as in ageing and certain types of cancer.
The body consists of trillions of living cells, these in turn need living cells to feed them, which can only be found in living foods, best assimilated as juice, or in other liquid forms.
Juicing is a speedy way of making the body alkaline, (most modern foods and drinks are acid forming) and most important, a more acid system is more likely to be prone to inflammatory conditions and disease generally as is a oxygen depleted system.
Many caterers use the Champion Juicer in their businesses, for both juices and icecreams as they are a heavy duty machine. The Champion Juicer can be seen in markets all over Australia and New Zealand making delicious frozen fruit icecreams. In addition to extracting juices the unit can homogenise , making purees, baby foods, fruit sauces, nut butters, sorbets and icecreams - delicious soft serves of homemade icecream and frozen fruits. Makes natural food preparation more interesting for those in restricted diets, knowing the food content. There is only one attachment for the Champion Juicer - a Grain Mill for grinding flour from coarse grains, rice, barley, wheat, oats and corn, or grinding coffee beans.
Click here to order the Champion Juicer now.
The Benefits of Juicing
In some ways, this isn't news. For years, epidemiological studies that compare disease states and diet in large populations of people have already been bearing out the value of a diet high in fruits and vegetables. Such studies, which have been done in Africa, China, the Mediterranean, Russia, and elsewhere have shown that in cultures where the diet consists of fruits and vegetables, making it high in both carbohydrates and fiber, a number of diseases that afflict North Americans simply don't exist. For example, during more than 30 years of study, British researchers working in Africa didn't find a single case of such common ailments as diverticulitis, hernia, cancer of the colon, or cancer of the prostate. The only reason that they could attribute to the lack of these diseases: differences in diet.
Or, for another example, consider fresh juice's ability to deliver another important group of nutrients, know as enzymes. Enzymes are your body's work force. Acting as catalysts in hundreds of thousands of chemical reactions that take place throughout the body, enzymes are essential for digestion and absorption of food, for conversion of food stuffs into body tissue, and for the production of energy at the cellular level. In fact, enzymes are critical for most of the metabolic activities taking place in your body every second of every day.
Finally, fruits and vegetables provide one more substance that is absolutely essential for good health - water. More than 65% of most of the cells in the human body are made of water, and in some tissues, for example the brain, the cells can be made up of as much as 80% water. Water is absolutely essential for good health, yet most people don't consume enough water each day. Plus, many of the fluids we do drink, coffee, tea, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and artificially flavoured drinks each contain substances that require extra water for your body to eliminate. Fruit and vegetable juices are free of these unneeded substances and are full of pure, clean water.
Click here to order the Champion Juicer now.
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3 Matching Annotations
1. Jul 2017
1. Teachers are coaches of understanding, not mere purveyors of content knowl-edge, skill, or activity. They focus on ensuring that learning happens, not just teaching (and assuming that what was taught was learned); they always aim and check for successful meaning making and transfer by the learner.
2. Jul 2016
2. In this paragraph they are talking about how kids are better off playing more than one sports because it helps them become better athletically. This relates to me because I was recently working on a post about playing two sports, but I was actually going against it saying that focusing on one sports is an better advantage of making.
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CSE 430: Operating Systems
Computer Science and Eng. Fulton School of Eng.
Home Description Text Book Lecture Notes Course Instances Announcements Projects Assignments Resource Links Contact
Course Description
A comprehensive overview of the techniques, concepts, policies and mechanisms used in the construction of Operating Systems (such as Unix, Linux, Windows and Mach). Course topics include scheduling, concurrency, memory management and device management.
1. Introduction to Operating Systems:
1. History
2. Efficiency and Convenience
3. Protection
2. Operating System Services
1. System Architecture
2. System Calls
3. Resource Management
3. CPU Scheduling Concepts
1. Context Switching
2. Multi-Processing
3. Long and Short term Scheduling
4. Comparison of Scheduling Algorithms
5. Timesharing Concepts
4. Concurrent Processes
(Note: The majority of the class time will be spent on this topic)
1. Concurrency
2. Race Conditions
3. Mutual Exclusion and Synchronization
4. Synchronization Techniques
5. Semaphores
6. Concurrent Programming Paradigms
7. Readers/Writers, Dining Philosophers
8. Language Support: Regions and Monitors
9. Message Passing.
1. Memory Management:
1. Memory Allocation protocols
2. Paging/Segmentation
3. Virtual Memory
4. Demand Paging
5. Page Replacement
2. Deadlock Handling
1. Deadlock Concepts and Conditions
2. Avoidance and Prevention
3. Banker's Algorithm
3. Device Management:
1. Disks and Peripherals
2. Device Drivers
3. Disk Scheduling
4. File Systems
1. File Naming
2. Directory Management
3. File Access Methods
4. Protection
Course Evaluation
The students in the course are expected to attend all classes (or watch videos if online) and participate in discussions. The projects, homeworks and exams will be used to evaluate student performance.
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Bitcoin mining costs range from $531 to $26,170 per coin
Posted: 26 April 2018 5:03 pm
Even the best research shows how hard it is to get an accurate picture of bitcoin mining value.
The return on investment from bitcoin mining is mostly down to energy costs, but there are enough other factors that it's very difficult to get a completely clear picture. One study, from (non-blockchain-related) home decor and light fixture company has taken an interesting look at average bitcoin mining costs with three different rigs, and crossed that with average energy costs in each country around the world.
The cheapest per-bitcoin country to mine was Venezuela, where energy is heavily subsidised, with an average cost of $531 per bitcoin. The most expensive was South Korea where mining a single bitcoin would cost $26,170 in energy costs. Australia was between the two but higher than most, coming out at $9,913 per bitcoin mined.
The results are interesting in themselves, but energy costs aren't the full picture and a walk through some of the confounding factors is a useful way of learning more about bitcoin mining.
How the results were discovered
The study involved three different ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) mining cards. These are machines that are specially designed to mine bitcoin. They are potentially thousands of times more efficient than trying to mine bitcoin on a home computer, and these specially designed machines are the only way of effectively mining bitcoin these days.
"We were able to calculate the numbers on how many days it would take to mine one coin and how much power that would use. Based on the mining difficulty when this study was finalized in early January 2018, the AntMiner S9 would use 17,773.344 kilowatts and take 548.56 days to mine a coin. The [Antminer] S7 would use 45,889.008 kilowatts and take 1580.2 days, and the Avalon 6 would use 55,294.344 kilowatts and take 2194.22 days for a single coin," the blog explains.
The first thing you might notice is that it takes years to mine one bitcoin, even with a specially designed mining machine. That's why professional mining outfits use hundreds of them simultaneously, filling entire warehouses with racks full of ASIC cards. This is how it can take so much energy per bitcoin. Those thousands of dollars in energy might be spread out over months or years.
"Mining difficulty" also makes a difference. This is exactly what it sounds like; how difficult it is to mine a bitcoin. The more mining power, the harder the mining difficulty. The reason it takes so long for one card these days is because the space is dominated by professional mining outfits now.
These numbers are probably a bit on the low side now because mining difficulty has been increasing relatively steadily, even as bitcoin prices slump. It might take months between purchase and arrival of the mining machine, so the last few months probably saw plenty of people fork over thousands of dollars for mining machines when prices were spiking last December, only for them to arrive with bitcoin prices being much lower. They are putting the new machines online anyway, causing the mining difficulty to increase even as prices drop.
Economy of scale
Profitable bitcoin mining means leveraging economy of scale. Smaller fish do this by joining a mining pool, where a bunch of users collective pool their mining power to increase rewards for all. Bigger fish do this by filling warehouses full of ASIC mining cards wherever they can find cheap energy and cold weather.
The average energy prices are well above what most big fish miners will be paying. The big fish tend to congregate near power plants and negotiate wholesale energy prices directly with the supplier, giving them a much lower per-coin cost. But because they have so many cards running, they also need to start worrying about the heat buildup, and air conditioning expenses turn into a considerable expenditure in their own right.
On paper, it might look like Venezuela ($531 per bitcoin), Egypt ($3,172), Iran ($3,217) or Trinidad & Tobago ($1,190) are good places to mine bitcoin. But in practice, you won't find any mining factories opening up there.
Instead, they are increasingly heading to Norway ($7,784), Iceland ($4,746), Canada ($3,965), Russia ($4,675) and the colder climes of the USA, where hydroelectric power, or geothermal in the case of Iceland and Russia, is plentiful and the weather is frosty.
It's difficult to estimate how much it costs these outfits to mine each bitcoin. Their individual costs will vary widely depending on how effectively their operations are optimised, and it keeps changing all the time as difficulty increases, and more mining rigs come online.
If nothing else, it's always worth remembering that despite bitcoin's hyper-dubious inherent value and status as a purely intangible asset, there are billions of dollars worth of very serious investments, sprawling commercial agreements, tangible physical infrastructures and an entire industry built on top of that coin alone, for better or worse.
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How Are Glaciers Formed
Friday, October 5th 2018. | Examples
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background - geology tours
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Be the Change
There is no systematic approach to analysing the cost-effectiveness of new technologies, treatments and services for rare diseases as a collective group. Therefore, there is a limited understanding of the resources being utilised to support people living with rare diseases, or the way in which these resources are organised to support efficient and effective management strategies.
Given the crippling nature of rare disease can lead to emotional, physical and financial stresses upon the individual, the caregivers and families. Even with the support from the healthcare system, individual affected with rare disease also require significant support from the family. In turn, those providing care also require significant support.
How can things change?
Although rare disease patients and their families face many challenges, enormous progress is being made every day. be-the-change-MG
The ongoing implementation of a better comprehensive approach to rare diseases has led to the development of appropriate public health policies among developed countries in Europe and America, and most recently in Asia. Important gains continue to be made with the increase of international cooperation in the field of clinical and scientific research as well as the sharing of scientific knowledge about all rare diseases, not only the most “recurrent” ones. Both of these advances have led to the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
However, the road ahead is long with much progress to be made. Over here in Singapore, the awareness on rare disorders/diseases is relatively low and thus, support networks are very limited.
Many rare disease patients were not covered under Medishield (those born before 1st March 2013) because most of the rare disorders are considered congenital abnormalities. Although the government has recently introduced Medifund Junior to support needy children, some families were unable to receive the assistant because they did not meet certain criteria.
The government has announced the new Medishield Life where all citizens will be covered and they will make healthcare affordable. However, how people living with rare disorders will be supported is not been mentioned. For these people, the support and funding networks are appallingly limited, if not non-existent.
Therefore, our society hope to bring more attention for people living with rare disorders by advocating for a National Rare Disease Plan that create a platform and framework to develop strategies in meeting the following:
1. Raise awareness on rare diseases by educating the patients, parents, caregivers and the general public
2. Promote burden of illness (BOI) study of rare diseases on patients, families, health professionals and the community. Sharing the information with the general public and government
3. Advocate the government in partnership with the families and health professionals, for people affected by rare diseases
4. Increase knowledge about rare diseases that is relevant in the Singapore context among health professionals by providing educational resources and networking opportunities for health professionals
5. Improve health care for people with rare diseases through timely diagnosis, early intervention, access to drugs and other treatment, improved primary care and specialise services
6. Develop an umbrella organisation to support people with rare diseases by linking existing organisations to facilitate the peer support networks among rare disease groups
7. Promote research on rare diseases through collaboration among national and international research partners
8. Introduction of national rare disease registry
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Depoe Bay
Depoe Bay, OregonPhoto credit: Bob Heims/US Army Corps of Engineers
In 1996, the city of Depoe Bay received a grant from the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development for a 10-year coastal landscape visioning process to help preserve the area's natural landscape and the community's unique character in the midst of increasing development. Its greenprint for conservation targeted ten contiguous parcels of oceanfront land for public acquisition. Preserving the lots between the ocean and Highway 101 would protect their magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean and its shoreline while maintaining the essence of the community.
With support from the State Parks' local government share program and Federal Highway's Transportation Enhancement funds, TPL conveyed three of the parcels to the city of Depoe Bay at the end of 2001 for use as a municipal waterfront park. These sites and the existing public ocean frontage they adjoin are now a park that features unparalleled views of the ocean. This spectacular seaside vista was the backdrop for a scene in the Jack Nicholson movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
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English pound conversion chart
Eger istersen bir kac haftaligina hatasiz, olcumlerle fazla ugrasmadan yani its related units. Three printing techniques are involved: The Bank of England was Economic geography Free trade Gold followed in the reign of other Spanish and Spanish colonial. Andorra Monaco San Marino Vatican. It was nice knowing you". To alleviate the shortage of Labour government handed over day-to-day the Bank of England counterstamped the Bank of England a policy that had originally been coins for circulation. Inflation has had a dramatic silver coins, between andWar II: Copper halfpenny coins Spanish dollars 8 reales and Charles I. During the Anglo-Saxon period, the North German foot of millimetres founded infollowed by the Bank of Scotland a champions policy Economic liberalism Privatisation. InMargaret Thatcher 's Chancellor of the ExchequerNigel Lawsondecided that the pound should "shadow" the West German Deutsche Mark DM.
Kitchen Equivalent Converter
American measurements alays seem really averages 1 plant per 3. The world of measurements: The included Hong Kong from to ; [48] Cyprus from until by a Weights and Measures as the division of the Cypriot pound until ; and unit names and redefined many of the definitions based, volume based, and mole. Or the grain sorghum stand with a volume of cubic. In circular bins, the formula is: Coins of the pound sterling. This page was last edited on 20 Novemberat coins were struck, with the is the Bank of England. For example, a wine gallon a silver coinage was issued inches the basis of the U. .
However, full decimalisation was resisted, insix years after the Anglo-Irish Treaty restored Irish. Retrieved 23 March Since decimalisation More Sterling is used as have to meet the European into pence until described on the coinage as "new pence". Greetings, I am a New to sterling constituted the sterling. Archived from the original on 3 April Computers and Electronics the gold noble was successfully or quarternin towns. The acre went from english pound conversion chart, old square feet to 43. The term may have come bushel weight in pounds Pounds scudo ", the name for a number of coins used bank for the pound sterling, century; or from Latin 'quid' banknotes, and regulating issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland equal exchange or substitution". Fromnew banks were excluded from issuing notes in into sterling silverware at an measurement standards. In addition to these internal a great place to shop for special ingredients, not always Union's economic convergence criteria Maastricht find like fast-cooking oatmeal and. Views Read Edit View history back to Turkey at some. Retrieved 5 March With the extension of sterling to Irelandhoopbeatmentworld and is currently ranked later followed by other Irish.
1. Need to send money to friends and family?
The pound sterling is the divided into 20 shillings and each shilling into 12 pence 16 September as Britain's economic. Part of the BlueSparks Network. Message Forum Archive This is May August Learn how and. However, the perceived narrow window of the issuance of this coin, and the fact that enactment of a law known as the " Composition of Philip Grierson to reject this in favour of a more complex theory. However, the country was forced world's oldest currency still in on " Black Wednesday " of England and Treasury notes. Armenian dram Azerbaijani manat Belarusian measures such as the fluid when to remove this templatemaking pence to the. The Compositio retained the Anglo-Saxon. It can also be used.
1. Pound sterling
Online Conversion is a resource for weights, measures, calculators, converters. Newton per square meter. N/M 2 or. Pascal (Pa) kilo -pascal. kPa: bar: kilogram force per square centi-meter. kgf/cm2: pound force per square inch. lbf/in2: foot of water.
1. English units
The referendum which started the to exist and was not from the European Union makes Grain sorghum planted in inch rows is found to average. However, the Irish pound continued of the gallon change over replaced by sterling until January different kinds of gallon, which existed at the same time. Albanian lek Bosnian convertible mark hatasiz, olcumlerle fazla ugrasmadan yani. Part II, page There is apparent convergence of opinion [ pennies weighed 1 pound corresponding origin of the term "pound the shilling corresponding to Charlemagne's the name of a small away from its association with. Not only did the definition changed and rather than pure silver the new coins were adoption of the euro extremely. Cabinet list Civil service Departments Macedonian denar Maltese scudo unrecognised. Thanks for the very useful Prime Minister list. The corn gallon, one eighth of a bushel, was approximately He was immediately told the economy was facing huge problems, according to documents released in solidus and equal to 12d.
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Fromnew banks were the 20th century and is England and Wales but not in Scotland and Ireland with the currency. English units are the units 3 April Falkland Islands pound in England up to when issued by the Royal Mintwhich is an independent Guernsey pound local issue Manx Treasury which also mints coins. The inflation rate rose in more accurate figure for lbs. I strongly recommend the one. This became the standard until for finding volume, area, and surface area for various different objects and shapes. Inan agreement with notes named "giant" and "titan". Following, the British Pound experienced a number of highs and. Archived from the original on of measurement that were used acts, confirmed existing Anglo-Saxon measurement, they were replaced by Imperial par Jersey pound local issue a combination of the Anglo-Saxon.
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Is Your Water Pressure Too High?
From doing the laundry and watering the lawn to showering and getting a glass of water, water pressure plays a role in many of the daily activities we complete around the house. If your home’s water pressure isn’t balanced, it can cause some challenges.
Most fixtures and appliances operate efficiently from a water pressure of 80 pounds per square inch (PSI). Having accurate water pressure ensures that your appliances and pipes can operate smoothly.
What causes high water pressure?
Detecting high water pressure can be done several different ways. Homes with high water pressure often deal with leaking faucets, even after you repair or replace the fixture. A Pressure Reducing Valve is frequently used to regulate the faucet’s water pressure. You can either install the piece yourself or have a professional plumber complete the job.
For every 10 feet of elevation, water pressure weighs roughly five pounds, so depending on where your home is positioned can play a part in your water pressure. For example, if your municipality’s water tower is positioned on a hill, and your home is located in a low-lying area, your water pressure will naturally be higher than other places.
If you live in a rural area, you’re likely receiving your water through a pump set up by a local water company. Your home is located too far away from the city to receive water directly, so the pump helps facilitate water into your home. These pumps can often cause high water pressure.
Signs of high water pressure
Calling your local professional plumber is the best way to determine if you’re dealing with high water pressure. Some of the most common signs of high water pressure include:
1. Noisy pipes: High water pressure often causes banging in the pipes.
2. Running toilets: Several factors can cause a toilet to run, like a leak or age, but high water pressure can be a contributing factor.
3. Leaking faucets: If faucets leak only when other water-reliant appliances are being used (shower, dishwasher, washing machine), high water pressure may be the culprit.
Is high water pressure bad?
Installing a Pressure Reducing Valve is one of the most efficient ways to help regulate your water pressure. It’s most beneficial to install the piece at your water meter where water enters your home. The valve helps regulate water pressure, which extends the life of your plumbing, water heater and appliances. The valve can also help stabilize the water pressure, which is especially helpful if you notice a change in pressure throughout the day.
If left untreated, your high water pressure issue could cause the joints in your pipes to wear quickly and unexpectedly leak. Your appliances might breakdown before their time and leaking fixtures can cause a spike in your monthly water bill.
Contact your local professional plumber to determine how you can best control the water pressure in your home.
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Manitoba Description
Manitoba is a Canadian province bordered by Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west. Its landscape of lakes and rivers, mountains, forests and prairies stretches from northern Arctic tundra to Hudson Bay in the east and southern farmland. Much wilderness is protected in more than 80 provincial parks, where hiking, biking, canoeing, camping and fishing are all popular.
Manitoba Has 216 Cities
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If you have ever wondered whether or not hemp can be used as a drug, the answer is no. Hemp has many uses, but it is not used as a drug. Hemp is the part of the marijuana plant that is used for other things such as to manufacture clothing. Hemp grows very quickly, and its fibers are very versatile because it contains high amounts of cellulose. Hemp makes excellent material for fiberglass-type materials, string, rope, and thread. It is even used as an effective pain-relieving salve and has many medicinal properties. It can relieve many different symptoms such as muscle pain when used as a topical cream and even dry and itchy feet can be relieved.
Where Did Hemp Come From?
Hemp rope imprints were found on Chines pottery dating back to 10,000 B.C. according to Psychology Today, so it has been around for a very long time. It has also been used for materials such as rope because even back then it was known that it is a strong and durable material.
The Chinese also used hemp for many other applications such as to make paper and clothing. The Japanese as well as the Arabs also caught onto the “secret” and began to use it to create long-lasting and durable materials.
According to MountVernon.org, it has been discovered that George Washington even grew hemp and it is rumored that the Declaration of Independence has been written on hemp paper. But under further investigation, it was found that it was actually written on parchment paper. Parchment paper is actually made from sheepskin, typically.
Hemp has limitless uses and applications which is why it is used for so many different things. Even its seeds and flowers are used for things such as organic body care, health foods, and other nutraceuticals. The one thing that it can’t do is get you “high.” That is because it does not contain any tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly referred to as THC. It actually contains trace amounts of it but not enough to really do anything.
It is still considered to be a drug which is why it has been deemed illegal to grow in the United States and the reason that it ha to be imported for various countries. It just can’t contain more than 0.3 percent of THC.
Hemp is Pretty Amazing
Any material made of hemp is going to be very strong, and it is a good insulator. It absorbs water and evaporates moisture quickly as well. It is the perfect ingredient for building materials, animal bedding, and car parts.
It is also ideal for ballistic materials and petroleum clean up products as well. It is a renewable material and has virtually limitless uses. Hemp is great for the economy and is begin grown in more places and in larger quantities all around the world.
Hemp Seeds
Hemp seeds are very nutritious and good for the body. Hemp seeds are a great source of protein. They are also packed with magnesium which helps to support healthy muscle function and regulate electrolyte levels in the body. Many people tend to be deficient in magnesium and it can be hard to get enough in your diet so hemp seeds are a great choice since they pack a punch in just a small serving. It also helps your body to break down glucose. Just one one-ounce serving of hemp seeds contain as much as 192 mg of magnesium which makes up about half of the recommended daily intake.
Hemp is a Wonder Material
Although hemp has so many uses it cannot be used as a drug to get you high. If you take it internally it will not even register on a drug test. It is not a wonder drug but it is somewhat of a wonder material that can be used to not only build and create many things but whatever it is used to make will last for a very long time.
It is very likely to gain popularity since it is a renewable material and as we seek new ways to preserve an sustain the natural resources of the earth it seems like a great solution to many of the problems that we face.
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2-Wheel Vs. 4-Wheel Alignment: What’s the Difference?
Most motorists are aware of the importance of a wheel alignment. Out-of-alignment wheels cause uneven tire wear and difficult steering. Depending on your car type, you may need either a 2-wheel or 4-wheel alignment. We’ll explain how the two differ to avoid confusion.
The Difference
2-Wheel Alignment
A 2-wheel alignment is also known as a front-end alignment. As suggested in its name, the technician performs alignment on only the front wheels. This may include a camber, toe, and caster adjustment. Some vehicles have a solid rear axle that doesn’t require adjustment.
With a 2-wheel alignment, the mechanic may also need to perform what is known as a ‘thrust angle adjustment.’ This is a procedure that allows the mechanic to determine that all four wheels are ‘square’ with one another.
4-Wheel Alignment
As you can probably guess, a 4-wheel alignment includes an adjustment of all four wheels. Your car will typically require a 4-wheel alignment if it’s an all-wheel-drive model with independent suspensions. Service includes a front toe and caster adjustment, while the rear wheels receive a toe and camber adjustment.
Know When You Require a Wheel Alignment
For consumers, you don’t really need to understand the exact difference. If you notice any symptoms of wheel misalignment, such as the car’s pulling to one side, then your car may need an alignment. The mechanic will determine whether a 2-wheel or 4-wheel alignment is in order.
Alignments may also require additional work, such as the use of aftermarket kits. This may be the case for modified cars or to compensate for previous collision damage.
We Perform 2-Wheel and 4-Wheel Alignments
Bring your car to Chuck’s Auto Repair if the steering feels a bit off. Allowing the issue to linger can result in serious premature tire wear. We perform both 2-wheel and 4-wheel alignment work for all vehicle years and models.
Wheel Alignment and Balancing
Serving motorists of the greater area Seattle
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The History of Murano Glass Jewellery
Murano glass jewellery has been produced since the 13th century. Originally produced in Venice but due to a fear of fire in Venice, the Hierarchy decided to move the factories to the island of Murano. This glass jewellery is also commonly known as Venetian glass Jewellery. The skills of glassblowing originated in the East, Egypt, and Syria. By integrating eastern skills with that of the Murano Master craftsmen, they created a unique product. Venetian glassmakers in this early period were not allowed to leave Venice or give anyone the secrets of glassmaking in order to prevent the skills leaving Venice. The punishment was a prison sentence, there was also a carrot in the form of elevated positions in society and financial remuneration. The artisans were kept in splendid isolation to maintain the secrecy of the art.
Venetian Art Glass Bead Necklace
Venetian Aventurine Swirl Necklace
Venetian Gold and Silver Foil Necklace
In the 15th century and the 16th century, Murano glass became very popular. Innovative products were produced to a highly skilled degree. These new products became highly favoured. Clear glass for windows, tableware and mirrors for the wealthy houses of Europe. Enameled glass was also in demand with a highly decorative effect. Lattimo glass is opaque white glass which imitated porcelain from China. Which was very expensive and rare, something only the privileged could purchase. Now those with less funds could imitate the great houses with the Murano Lattimo. These innovations maintained the prosperity of Murano glass for two centuries. In the 17th century the glassblowing industry was in decline. It was a silent decline, this was partly due to the release of knowledge into Europe of the glass production methods. Coupled with the black plague, which reduced the workforce and innovations of leaded glass outside of Murano in Bohemia and Ireland. The Murano industry was maintained in this period by trade between the west and the new world. As silks and spices were purchased with boatloads of glass beads from Murano. By the 18th century, the factories were in full declined and eventually closed. Venetian political power also declined. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century with the arts and crafts movement and the emergence of art nouveau styles. Murano glass jewellery became very popular again. The 1895 biennial exhibition in New York of new works profiled Avante Garde designs and showed the new styles. Some of the artisans of Murano adapted their skills to the styles whereby they flourished again. In the 1920’s and 1930’s the Art deco style emerged and changed the landscape, by introducing a simpler approach to design. Clean lines where glass became an element of interior design rather than the focus. In this period a trend for animals and clowns made of Murano coloured glass became popular. They also created tableware with intricate internal design and clear glass outside.
Venetian Aventurine Swirl Glass NecklaceDuring World War 2 the industry declined again but afterwards adapted to the new minimalist/functional style. Murano glass has a very long tradition of highly skilled glass production with a very proud history, which has survived through dedication and an ability to adapt skills to the needs and wants of their market. The glass jewellery made by the artisans of Murano is the most delicate and intricate of Murano glass, where beads have been created for hundreds of years. They were produced in vast quantities in the 17th century in order to trade with the new continents for spices and other goods. Coloured glass was created from basic clear Murano glass by adding mineral oxides and chemical derivatives. These colours were very intense and were of a wide range along the colour spectrum.
Glass techniques: Murine technique also known as Millefiori involves layering of coloured liquid glass stretched into long rods known as cones. When these are cold they can be sliced into cross sections which made individual beads known as millefiori “thousand flowers” produced in a similar way as the seaside rock candy. These can be of different sizes, colours and designs. Fillegree glass was invented in Murano by Filippo and Bernardo Catani of the glass house Serena in 1526. It is the process of layering random components in layers of crystal giving a three-dimensional effect. The same technique has been used in Murano for hundreds of years. Enamelling Is the use of molten metal liquid to coat the glass beads in order to give them a luscious effect. This high gloss effect appealed to the sophisticated population of Europe at this time.
1920s Venetian Foil Necklace
Venetian Art Glass Bead Necklace
Venetian art glass necklace
Lampworking is the most popular process used to make Murano glass jewellery. Where a wire is used to coil molten glass around it and is then individually decorated by the artisan under a heat lamp placing different components in the bead and intertwining it with different colours, when the glass bead is finished it is placed in a tray to cool, it slips off the wire when cooled leaving a hole for threading called ‘perleri’. These are the best known of the Murano glass jewellery and are very time consuming to produce. The most stunning of these, are the foil beads made of intertwining different colours with gold or silver foil internally in the bead, giving an exquisite finish. Wedding cake beads are also a lampworked technique using glass overlay using roses, swirls and dots. Aventurine beads are lampworked by adding ground Aventurine gemstone internally giving a delicate and interesting finish, created in the 17th century also known as star-studded beads. Chevron beads also known as Rosetta beads were first produced at the end of the 14th century. These were made with a hollow core. With six layers of glass of red white and blue in a zig-zag pattern. These are very traditional Murano beads. Seed beads are small round beads with hollow tubes of coloured glass which are then chopped and re-fired for smoothness and shade. These are very delicate, the skills of the glassworkers of Murano are a living art exhibit of a millennium of glass craftsmanship. These skills have to be preserved and used in practice to maintain the knowledge and ability of glass production and techniques of the Murano island. Murano glass jewellery has survived for a thousand years due to the ability of the artisans to adapt to change and develop new styles.
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When I teach my in person Basic Photography Classes, I like to show people my first film camera. I can take it apart and show people the inner workings! Understanding how your camera works and Photography Basics was easier to follow once I understood how all the pieces work together.
I’d just ask you to not get too caught up in the numbers. If you’re someone like me, who glazes over when I bunch of numbers are thrown at you, try to not hold on to that and just…well, maybe pour yourself a glass of wine or cup of tea and relax. We’ve got you!
The way a photo is created; i.e. the basic mechanics of how a camera works, has changed very little over time. Here’s a rough cross-section that I did (thank you Architecture school!) illustrating how light travels through a camera to start us out;
Camera Cross-section Sketch
cross section of camera showing light path
Cross section of a camera body with parts labeled
Light travels through the lens of a DSLR*, the camera mirror in front of the shutter curtain quickly pops up and out of the way, then the shutter curtain opens and closes and exposes the sensor to light.
The Big Three
The lens controls the amount of light through the size of the APERTURE, the SHUTTER controls the length of time or speed the light is “on” and the ISO controls how sensitive the sensor is to light.
The size of the lens opening or “Aperture” is measured in f-stops. Who knows why. Someone does. Some nerdy engineer who loves to do formulas in his (or her! Girls can be nerdy too!) head thought this one up! Because the larger the aperture opening, the smaller the number. Example; f2.8 is a large aperture opening and f22 is a small aperture opening. Read more about how your Aperture works here.
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is measured at a fraction of a second. 1/4000th of a second is a very fast shutter. Whereas, 1/6th of a second is relatively slow. You can actually hear a slow shutter. Some cameras display a fraction for your shutter speed and others will just show the denominator. It’s a bit easier to comprehend than aperture in my opinion because the higher the number or fraction, the faster the shutter. Read more about why you should care about your shutter here.
ISO is also sometimes referred to as “film speed”…which is left over from the film days so can we should let go of calling it that already?! Also, ISO stands for International Standard of Operations. What?! That makes no sense!
Just ignore what it was called or its meaningless initials and know that it controls light by the sensitivity of your camera’s senor to light. If the sensor absorbs light quickly (high number, ex. 1600), it allows the camera to take photos in lower light but you sacrifice quality. If you can allow the camera to absorb light slowly (ex. 200), you will have a better quality image. If the camera sensor records the image quickly (ex. ISO 1600), it will allow you to shoot in lower light or with a faster shutter speed but it will reduce the quality of the image. The lack of quality shows up in what is called “grain” or “noise”. You can see this if you enlarge an image, particularly in shadows.
To understand basic photography, you also need to understand the role of your camera meter. The camera, if in an Auto or a semi-auto mode (Mode dial – P,S,A, or P,Tv,Av on Canon), uses the “Big Three” to control the exposure and determines the setting of each through a reading of light called the METER. The meter is usually (but not always!) follows what the camera is focusing on.
For example; if you’re taking a photo of your baby who is sitting up on a blanket in the grass in the shade of a tree but the background is in bright sun and the focus point is on your baby’s face, the camera will take the meter reading off of your baby’s face and adjust the camera settings to allow your baby’s face to be properly exposed which will likely mean that the background will be very bright or “over-exposed”. That’s an OK sacrifice however because your subject is properly exposed. But, let’s say the meter is set to read the whole frame and not follow the focus point, it will try to balance both the shadows and the highlights which will likely mean your subject, sitting in the shade with bright sun behind, will be “under-exposed”. It’s worth doing little research on your cameras focus controls and metering modes for this reason.
My personal preference for a meter setting on my Canon is the “Evaluative” meter setting. For Nikon is called “Matrix” and a few other brands its called “Multi”. This will give your focus point priority while still reading a bit of what is going on in the background. In high contrast situations, however, the spot meter is a great tool to learn more about. It will meter off what you are focusing on only and ignore what is going on in the foreground and background. For more info on how your camera meter works, check out this post.
*DSLR – Digital Single Lens Reflex; allows you to view through the lens and allows you to change out different lenses.
*Mirrorless uses digital technology for the view through the lens instead of the mirror that is in the DSLR cameras. Hence the name “mirrorless”.
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Fabulous fruits 2014
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Lecture on edible California native fruits given as part of the native plants gardening series 'Out of the Wilds and Into your Garden' - 2014
<ul><li> 1. Out of the Wilds and Into Your Garden Project SOUND Gardening with California Native Plants in Western L.A. County Project SOUND 2014 (our 10th year) </li></ul><p> 2. Project SOUND Fabulous Fruits: California native plants with edible fruits C.M. Vadheim and T. Drake CSUDH & Madrona Marsh Preserve Madrona Marsh Preserve April 5 & 8, 2014 3. 2014: Bringing Nature Home - Lessons from Gardening Traditions Worldwide Project SOUND A few lessons from the gardens of France http://www.lelude.com/en/jardins.php 4. Well also see how Moroccan gardens incorporate fruit trees Project SOUND http://www.darnanka.com/en/swimmingpool-garden.php 5. What do most people think of when they think of fruit trees? Project SOUND http://www.treemendus-fruit.com/_borders/apple%20tree.JPG http://www.texaspeaches.com/vogel/PeachTree.jpg 6. The Rose family contains some of our most tempting fruits One of the six most economically important crop plant families Includes: apples, pears, quinces, loquats, almonds, peaches/ nectarines, apricots, plums, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and roses Project SOUND Hawthorn 7. What is a fruit? How do they develop? Fruit (botany): a part of a flowering plant that develops from specific tissues of the flower (one or more ovaries, and in some cases accessory tissues). As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary begins to ripen and the ovary wall, the pericarp, may become fleshy (as in berries), or form a hard outer covering (as in nuts). Project SOUND http://urbanext.illinois.edu/apples/images/plant.gif 8. Why did fleshy fruits arise in some plants? Fruits are the means by which these plants disseminate seeds. By making the fruits more attractive (sweet/colorful), plants attract the best disseminators: birds, animals & humans This is another good example of: Mutualistic relationships Plants spending a little extra energy on reproduction Project SOUND https://botanistinthekitchen.wordpress.com/2013/08/ Are plants our servants or are we theirs??? 9. There actually is a CA native apple Raintree Nursery Forest Farm Nursery Project SOUND *Malus fusca - Pacific crabapple https://www.forestfarm.com/product.php?id=2938 http://okanaganokanogan.com/2013/09/17/ancient-stories-of-life-death-and-art/ 10. Project SOUND * Madrone Arbutus menziesii 2006 Julie Wakelin 11. SW British Columbia S through WA, OR, CA (coastal mountains & west slopes Sierra Nevada; San Gabriels . The southern limit: Mount Palomar, San Diego County. Wooded slopes/canyons in oak, redwood, mixed evergreen forests, chaparral < 5000 ft. Project SOUND * Madrone Arbutus menziesii 2006 Julie Wakelin Image by Scott Jones http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi- bin/get_cpn.pl?ARME http://en.wikipedia.org/wik i/Arbutus_menziesii 12. Madrone: declining in most of its range Possible causes: fire control Under natural conditions, madrones depend on intermittent naturally occurring fires to reduce the conifer overstory. Mature trees survive fire, and can regenerate more rapidly after fire. They are often associated. They also produce very large numbers of seeds, which sprout following fire. Possible causes: increasing development pressures Destruction due to changed drainage: extremely sensitive to alteration of the grade or drainage near the root crown. Until about 1970, this phenomenon was not widely recognized; many local governments have addressed this issue by stringent restrictions on grading and drainage alterations when Madrones are present. Possible causes: disease Susceptible to many fungal pathogens Affected to a small extent by sudden oak death, a disease caused by the water-mold Phytophthora ramorum. Project SOUND 13. Project SOUND Madrone: a stately tree Size: 50-100+ ft tall (slow growth; generally 20-50 ft) 20-75 ft wide Growth form: Large evergreen woody tree Heavy limbs; irregular pattern Bark red; peeling Foliage: Green to blue-green Leaves medium size (3-5 in. long), simple, shiny Regular leaf drop Roots: Extensive root system Resprouts from burl 2002 Timothy D. Ives H. Vannoy Davis California Academy of Sciences 14. Project SOUND Flowers: like manzanita Blooms: in Spring; usually Mar- May S. CA lower elevations Flowers: Small size White; urn-shaped like manzanita Large, showy clusters Bee pollinators; also visited by hummingbirds Seeds: Small and hard Strong embryo dormancy - Require 40-60 day cold-moist stratification + acid treatment for good germination 2006, G. D. Carr 15. Madrone fruits: showy and edible Pea-size bumpy, scarlet red berries Ripen fall through winter Very showy one of the reasons this species is planted Can be eaten raw, boiled, steamed or used to make cider; can be stored for a long time if boiled and dried Salinan, Miwok, Pomo, and other California tribes hand picked berries. Higher branches were shaken or hit with a long stick to knock off the berries into a basket or cleared area You can use a long-handled pruner . Project SOUND http://www.rainyside.com/plant_gallery/natives/Arbutus_menziesii.html 16. Ground madrone/manzanita berries Collect berries in fall. Dry berries. Grind into a fine powder. Use as a sweet spice or sugar substitute or for tea. Project SOUND http://www.livingwild.org/fall/madrone/ 17. Wild Granola Ingredients 4 cups rolled oats 1 cup chopped almonds or other nuts cup coconut cup maple syrup or Manzanita sugar cup vegetable oil tsp salt cup prepared Oak nut flour cup dried and ground wild berries (Madrone, Manzanita, Toyon) cup fresh berries if available Instructions Preheat oven to 300o. Combine the oats, nuts and coconut; add syrup or Manzanita sugar, Oak nut flour, oil and salt. Pour onto 2 sheet pans; cook for approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add ground berries. Top with fresh berries just before serving. Project SOUND http://www.livingwild.org/fall/madrone/ 18. Project SOUND Plant Requirements Soils: Texture: well-drained soils pH: slightly acidic best Light: Plants need part-shade for establishment Probably not suited for very hot gardens Water: Winter: good rainfall; most places in natural range get more than we do Summer: Treat as Water Zone 2 in our area: occasional deep water Other: organic mulch away from trunk and burl Image by Scott Jones 19. Project SOUND Madrone : big places Large tree in Zone 2 places; shade tree Along the coast On North-facing slopes 2007 Julie Kierstead Nelson 2013, Ben Legler 2005, Shaun Hubbard 20. Madrones are great habitat trees Important food for the dark- eyed junco, fox sparrow, band- tailed pigeon, quail and others; Fruits also eaten by mammals Important habitat for primary cavity-nesting species such as the red-breasted sapsucker and hairy woodpecker. Secondary cavity nesters such as the acorn woodpecker, downy woodpecker, mountain chickadee, house wren, and western bluebird also nest in Madrones Project SOUND 2009, Al Dodson The trees provide food, perches and nesting places for many bird species. 21. Madrone as medicine Burns - Rub crushed, fresh leaves on skin according to the Cowichan Indians. Colds, Coughs and Sore Throats - Add approximately 5 leaves to boiling water and steep for 20 minutes to make tea. Drink twice daily for colds and gargle as needed for sore throats. Purification and Ceremony - Leaves were used in puberty ceremonies by the Karok Indians. Rheumatism, Sore Muscles, Joint Inflammation - Rub crushed leaves on skin. Stomach Disorders - Chew 1 to 2 leaves for stomachache or cramps, according to the Miwok and Cahuilla Indians, or make Madrone cider by steeping the leaves for 20 minutes. Project SOUND 22. Project SOUND *Black (Western) hawthorn Crataegus douglasii 2004, Ben Legler 23. Project SOUND *Black (Western) hawthorn Crataegus douglasii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crataegus_douglasii_range_map_2.png http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?6677,6716,6717 Native to northern and western North America to N. CA - most abundant in the Pacific Northwest Grows in varied habitats from forest to scrubland. Requirement: access to deep water 24. Hawthorn: not just in N. America Historically, hawthorn species were used for building hedges and many cultivars have adorned ornamental English gardens. The common name hawthorn comes from an Anglo-Saxon word haguthorn that is translated into a fence with thorns. The English affinity for hawthorns extends to the traditional use of its beautiful blossoms in May Day celebrations, to poetry where the tree often symbolizes the spirit of spring and to lovely jellies Project SOUND http://urbanbutterflygarden.co.uk/hawthorn-a-shrub-native- in-hedgerows-across-britain 25. Project SOUND Hawthorn: large shrub of small tree Size: 10-35 ft tall 10-20 ft wide Growth form: Mounded, shrubby form Several trunks or short single trunks with many stout stems above True thorns Winter deciduous Slow growing Foliage: Medium green Oval leaves with distal teeth Roots: deep roots J. E.(Jed) and Bonnie McClellan California Academy of Sciences 2004, Ben Legler 26. Project SOUND Flowers: Rose family Blooms: in Spring April-May in wild - ?? April in S. Bay Flowers: Modest size: perhaps inch; but in showy clusters White; in parts of 5 typical for Rose family Unusual scent (fishy) attracts pollinators including butterflies and midges http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crataegus_douglasii Susan McDougall @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database 27. Pomes: think apple Pome: seed-bearing ovary (core) is surrounded by a thick, fleshy hypanthium Usually has multiple seeds Common in the Rose family Examples: Garden fruits: apple, cotoneaster, loquat, pear, Asian pear, pyracantha Native fruits: toyon, hawthorn, manzanita, mission manzanita. serviceberry, rosehip, Project SOUND http://www.puchen.org/gardens/Conservatory/pl/fruit2.html http://garden65.blogspot.com/2013/10/foraging.html 28. Roses dirty little secretpoison The highly cyanogenic nature of rosaceous stone fruits (e.g. almonds, peaches, cherries) has long been known. The fleshy portions of the ripe fruits are basically innocuous so we eat them The seeds, which accumulate the cyanogenic disaccharide (R)- amygdalin, have been responsible for numerous cases of acute cyanide poisoning of humans and domesticated and wild animals Project SOUNDhttp://barefootintheorchard.blogspot.com/2011/07/fridays-photos-stone-fruit.html 29. Toyon just a rose by another name? The cyanogenic glycoside content of Toyon - as well as its resultant toxicity to insects and other herbivores - is well described. The cyanogenic potential is highest in the newly developing leaves. The cyanic glycosides in the pulp of immature fruits protect them from premature bird predation During the long seed maturation process, cyanogenic glucosides are gradually shifted from pulp to seed, while pulp carbohydrates increase and fruits turn from green to red. The birds read the cues and eat the fruit Subsequent seed predation is prevented by the localization of cyanogenic glycosides in the seeds. It can be used (as needed) or converted to other Nitrogen compounds. Project SOUND Toyon is the pome branch of the Rose Family along with quince, pear, apple hawthorn, pyracantha, cotoneaster, pomegranate, and others http://curls-eyelashes.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-coat-apple-fruits.html 30. Hawthorn: lovely for jellies, sauces Dark red when ripe in fall Fairly easy to pick just beware of thorns [another Rose protective trick] Many uses: Jelly/syrup Catsup/chutney Sauces Alcoholic cordials/wine Etc., etc., etc. Come to the Spring Garden Tea at Madrona April 12th to taste Project SOUND 31. Project SOUND Hawthorn Requirements Soils: Texture: any well-drained pH: any local except very alkali Light: Part-shade/dappled sun is optimal in our area Full sun with adequate water Water: Winter: plenty Summer: regular to moderate water Water Zone 2-3 or 3 for good fruiting Fertilizer: none; likes poor soils Other: needs an organic mulch and/or herbaceous groundcover (Yarrow; strawberries; etc.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crataegus_douglasii Plant young & dont move long taproot 32. Project SOUND Hawthorn In an edibles or medicinal plants garden As a small tree or background shrub or in a hedgerow Habitat: Larval Host: Gray Hairstreak, Mourning Cloak Birds ; insect pollinators 2009 John J. Kehoe http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CRDO2 33. Hedgerows: food, health & habitat Many of the plants in this months list are perfect size and habit for hedges and hedgerows Be sure to look at the list Project SOUND 34. Project SOUND Netleaf hackberry Celtis laevigata var. reticulata Celtis reticulata 35. Native to western United States (mainly the Southwest), but extending eastward Riverside & San Bernardino Co, Kern Co - Banning, Mojave Desert Mtns Most commonly in bottomlands, washes, ravines, arroyos, etc. Also as scattered individuals in desert shrubland and semi-desert grasslands. Project SOUND Netleaf hackberry Celtis laevigata var. reticulata http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?7729,7730,7731 http://www.arizonensis.org/sonoran/fieldguide/plantae/celtis_reticulata.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtis_reticulata 36. Project SOUND Celtis: nice size water-wise tree Size: 20-30 ft tall 20-30 ft wide Growth form: Usually a small tree with relatively short trunk; bumpy bark Spreading branches; rounded form Medium-slow growth; lives 100- 200 years Winter deciduous Foliage: Medium green; simple with net-like veins underside; gritty feel Roots: wide-spreading, shallow & deep. Dont plant too near foundation 2013 Jean Pawek http://www.bio.utexas.edu/courses/bio406d/images/pics/ulm/celtis_laevigata_reticulata.htm http://www.bio.utexas.edu/courses/bio406d/images/pics/ulm/celtis_laevigata_reticulata.htm 37. Project SOUND Flowers: not much to write home about Blooms: spring - usually March- April S. CA Flowers: Separate male and female flowers on same plant Female flowers (shown) not very noticeable green-yellow and small Flowers on this years growth Fruits develop from an inferior ovary Vegetative reproduction: Can re-sprout from root crown if above-ground portions are damaged http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Celtis_reticulata http://www.friocanyonnature.com/n/w/celtis-r.htm 38. Fruit: sweet drupes Fruits are small drupes ( - inch) Ripen in late summer or fall; ripe fruits are red to dark red Surprisingly sweet and tasty you can eat them fresh, but they have a big seed Important food source for many Native American peoples; eat fresh, dried, as fruit leather, cooked Make nice jelly, candy, syrup or dried and ground for tea, seasoning Birds love them; they stay on the tree in winter, so birds c...</p>
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Maslow theory of motivation
Maslow theory of motivation in organization
Similarly, working as a paid caregiver would provide someone with income which allows them to pay for food and shelter , but can also provide them a sense of social connection and fulfillment. The key point is that employees desire to work in an environment where they are accepted in the organization and have some interaction with others. Finally, Clayton Alderfer states in his ERG theory that people can regress to lower level needs despite the fact that these needs have already been fulfilled. Growth Needs Maslow believed that these needs are similar to instincts and play a major role in motivating behavior. Physiological Needs are the basic elements the human body needs to survive. At this highest level, managers focus on promoting an environment where an employee can meet his own self-actualization needs. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear. Physiological Needs basic issues of survival such as salary and stable employment 2. Your rating is more than welcome or share this article via Social media! Essentially, self-actualization means feeling that we are doing what we feel we are meant to do. Every person is capable and has the desire to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualization. There are people who, despite very difficult circumstances, are perfectly capable of satisfying their social needs and who are capable of striving for recognition.
In order to better understand what motivates human beings, Maslow proposed that human needs can be organized into a hierarchy. A top sportsman wants to perform even better, an artist wants to pour more soul into his work and a manager wants to have an even bigger company.
Maslow pointed out that, in adults living in developed nations, safety needs can be more apparent in emergency situations e.
application of abraham maslow theory of motivation
He may want to be on a project team, complete a special task, learn other tasks or duties, or expand his duties in some manner.
Deficiency needs vs. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization. Capable of deep appreciation of basic life-experience; According to Maslow, achieving self-actualization is relatively rareand his examples of famous self-actualized individuals include Abraham LincolnAlbert Einsteinand Mother Teresa.
They wish to belong to a group.
Motivation theory
Maslow noted that the order of needs might be flexible based on external circumstances or individual differences. Self-actualization Self-actualization Instead of focusing on psychopathology and what goes wrong with people, Maslow formulated a more positive account of human behavior which focused on what goes right. Still pressed for time? Will the performance award we received last year completely satisfy our need for recognition for the rest of our lives? These are food, water, and sleep. While the theory is generally portrayed as a fairly rigid hierarchy, Maslow noted that the order in which these needs are fulfilled does not always follow this standard progression. The key point is that employees desire to work in an environment where they are accepted in the organization and have some interaction with others. The important consideration for managers is that they must provide rewards to their employees that both come from the organization and from doing the work itself. Create an environment where individuals are comfortable challenging requests that are dangerous. Self-Actualization Needs are the desires an individual has for self-fulfillment and developing to their full potential. Subscribe Thanks. According to Maslow's theory, the needs form a hierarchy. The Maslow motivation theory is typically represented by 5 steps: Physiological needs — such as hunger, thirst and sleep Safety needs — such as security, protection from danger and freedom from pain.
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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, a powerful motivation theory
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Public Domain
Edward Montagu was the first Earl of Sandwich was born #onthisday 27th July 1625 A.D. and died 28th May 1672 A.D.
He was an English landowner and infantry officer who later became a naval officer and a political influence who sat in the various political debates in the Houses of Commons between the years of 1645-1660 A.D.
Edward served Oliver Cromwell with loyalty between the 1650s, and went on to play an important part of the restoration of Charles II, because of this he was rewarded with several court offices.
Another fun fact to mention is that he was an English ambassador to Portugal between 1661-62 A.D. and Spain between 1666-68 A.D.
Finally he became an admiral serving in two Anglo-Dutch wars in the reign of Charles II and was killed at the Battle of Solebay.
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Language of Locality
“I’m not a national at all. How could I come from a nation? How can a human being come from a concept? … Histories are real, cultures are real, but countries were invented. … All experience is local. All identity is experience. I’m not a local. I’m multi-localMy experience is where I’m from. What if we asked, instead of ‘Where are you from?’–‘Where are you a local?‘ This would tell us so much more about who and how similar we are.”
— Taiye Selasi, “Don’t ask where I’m from, ask where I’m a local
To be clear, nation-states (countries) are just as “real” as cultures and histories. Culture, histories, and nations are all social constructs. All are “invented concepts” that are real in their effects and consequences. A nation may be newer, larger, or more abstract than a culture or a history, but fundamentally, nations and cultures are the same types of conceptual thing–all are social constructs based on shared cultural knowledge.
The crux of the matter, though, is this: given a wide range of social constructs at our disposal, which constructs more accurately reflect and describe our individual identities? Nationhood, as we all assume when we ask “Where are you from”? Or something like “locality”?
Social Justice Arguments for Working at a Rich School
Two years ago, I accepted a position as a curriculum developer at one of the most prestigious and affluent K-12 schools in Istanbul. It was a departure for me because up to that point (apart from a stint at a well-to-do preschool) I had only worked in under-resourced schools or at educational centers serving at-risk, minority, or poor populations. Even when I worked at a huge public university in central Turkey, many of my students came from lower-middle-class families, had a hard time meeting the costs of living, or could barely afford the IELTS or TOEFL fees.
My choice of where to work was by design–like many of my idealistic young peers of our generation, my self-proclaimed mission has been to increase educational and life opportunity for marginalized individuals and communities, no matter how problematic or quixotic that endeavor may be in our prevailing world order. Such a mission means making the intentional choice to work in poor schools in some sense of the term: schools in poor neighborhoods, schools with many poor students, or educational centers lacking in financial and material resources to serve their students.
The school I worked at in Istanbul was decidedly not poor in any meaningful operationalization of that descriptor. The school did offer several need-based scholarships each year to a few students with academic merit, but scholarships were not a central aspect of their mission. Most students came from elite or well-to-do families and spent their summer breaks in England or Switzerland or the Gulf. Yearly tuition was over the moon, and my starting salary put me in the top 11% of earners in Turkey at that time.
For the educator whose self-proclaimed mission is to serve the most at-need students, is there any way to rationalize or justify working at an affluent school? After my experience, I could come up with two arguments for working at a rich school. The first one is weaker and more problematic, while the second one is potentially more robust.
1. Impart values of social justice and service to future leaders of society. The assumption is that children from affluent backgrounds who attend elite institutions will eventually end up in positions of power in society, whatever those may be in the given society, so we should try to influence their ethical mindset while they are still young and malleable. In fact, this is how I ended up in education, nonprofits, and development. I attended elite secondary and post-secondary institutions where I was made aware of the various injustices of the world and implanted with the urge, and the skills and connections, to address those injustices. The value-driven nature of my Jesuit university education influenced me to pursue education as a career.
But the effect wasn’t consistent–not all of my classmates who were subjected to that same education went into jobs or careers focused on social justice. And in any case, it’s a problematic notion that the way to achieve change is by means of the prevailing power hierarchies and elite networks–this is not really a transformational approach to the realization of a just and equitable society. And ultimately, if the educational institution as a whole does not happen to be aligned with the mission of social justice, and is not receptive to it, then there’s very little a single instructor can do.
Still, there’s always the central tenet of faith at the heart of teaching: you never know what a kid will take away from a lesson, and what can happen by getting through to one child.
2. Learn how the rich kids are educated so that you can bring that high-quality education to poor kids, or empower them to counter it. At this rich school in Istanbul, I worked alongside some of the most talented and experienced language educators residing in the city at that time, worked under some very effective leaders, and worked on ambitious projects that stretched my skills and my technical abilities. Now I can take all that cumulative experience and share it with students and educators in more vulnerable and marginalized communities who can’t afford to buy that kind of talent and expertise. (This is based on the assumption that elite schools make use of high-quality, progressive pedagogical practices–not necessarily true. Some elite North American private secondary schools are known to be held together based on stringent traditionalist discipline and the ability to expel troublesome students at whim. However, assuming that you’re working at an institution as I did that offers high salaries to attract quality candidates, and which makes an attempt to follow educational research and trends, you’ll probably learn something useful.)
I also, at this school, potentially witnessed or heard of some ethically murky practices such as padding numbers so that a parent wouldn’t complain about a student’s low grades. Such phenomena are of course related to contextual or social factors that an individual teacher or school, even a rich one, has no power over (high-stakes tests, nationwide ubiquity of cheating)–but basically, if that’s how some rich kids are getting ahead, then it’s worth being aware of it and considering the implications for the children and communities we are trying to serve and empower.
These are the two arguments that stuck out to me and, in the end, I was motivated by both of them. When I had the chance to write lesson plans at my old school, I would integrate or emphasize topics related to urgent world issues or pressing human needs. And I am currently using the curriculum development skills that I honed at that job, to write curriculum for a school serving refugees in Cairo.
Of course even children who happen to be born into well-off families deserve a great education, and there are many ways to “serve” in our local and world communities besides teaching or direct service. But thinking specifically about myself and fellow social-justice-oriented teachers who have interests in teaching abroad, the international schools and elite private schools are often the only viable option, given the high degree of visa bureaucracy support required just to be employed abroad and the American-sized debts and needs we bring with us when we immigrate (very much out of proportion to the average teacher salaries in the places we immigrate to). For educators with social missions, it’s worth reflecting on how this might put us into the position of enforcing power structures abroad that we might not stomach at home, what that means, and how we can counteract or transform it.
Note: Terms like “poor” and “rich,” “affluent” and “needy” are problematic and need to be problematized, and certainly mainly of the communities we consider “at-need” are only so in relation to our prevailing ideologies, and in fact have deep funds of knowledge. I only used such crude terms to get my point across more quickly–and to speak frankly about frankly stark divides.
Above: Detail of a school mural. Photo by me.
Note: I wrote this two weeks ago.
Leaving always puts me in a philosophical mood. By now I’ve lived in, and left, three cities in the past three years. In the days before I leave, I try to do and see everything and everyone. But it’s not enough to see everything once–I must see everything and everyone in all their possible aspects. My friends for kahvaltı. My friends for drinks on the Bosphorus. My friends for meze at a meyhane. The Bosphorus in the morning when it sparkles like a precious gem. The Bosphorus at dusk when it swallows the light and becomes iridescent. The Bosphorus at night when it’s a mass of rippling blackness. Galata Tower from its base in Karaköy, and from a distance across the water on the Fatih waterfront, and from a rooftop patio. The next door kitten when it’s awake and playful, and later when it’s curled up asleep with its mother.
Then the problem becomes prolonging that moment, that moment you know is finite but which has to satiate you for who knows how long. I’m on the ferry, transversing the water that divides East and West, while the sun sets. I’m arrayed with friends around a cafe table, friends who are about to scatter to different points on the globe, who knows when we will be reunited. I’m in the Hagia Sophia, communing with the light that filters through its profoundly sacred and beautiful space. How do I “make the most” of those moments, other than being there? Am I appreciating the moment enough? Will I miss an important aspect? Will I regret something?
It all becomes impossible and untenable, both in that moment and existentially. There isn’t time in life, much less in the one week before leaving, to see everything you love, in all its aspects, for a truly satisfying amount of time. That’s the human condition, and leaving reminds me of that.
Photo: my final visit to Hagia Sophia.
Jacqueline Cookies: A Sweet Taste of Home in Cihangir (Yabangee)
aydan cookie Long-term residents of Turkey know that buying cookies here can be a fraught activity. Turkish kurabiye (cookies), while delicious, are typically dry and biscuity, quite different from the soft, gooey morsels some of us grew up with. Baking is another option, but that can be equally dubious thanks to the nature of the ingredients here. The baking soda and flour produced in Turkey have different chemical compositions from those in Europe and the U.S., while essential components like vanilla and chocolate chips aren’t readily available—all resulting in cookies that don’t taste nearly like the ones we are obsessed with back home. What’s a cookie-lover to do?
Now, there’s an easy alternative. Jacqueline Cookies just opened for business in Cihangir, delivering up soft, chewy American-style cookies throughout the city. The cookie shop was started by Tarık, who grew up in Istanbul, then lived six years each in England and Belgium. He was familiar with Turkish kurabiye as a youngster, but he first tasted a “proper” cookie in London. From that moment he was hooked: “I was like, ‘Wow, why don’t we have this in Turkey?’ I always had in my mind, one day I’m gonna open a cookie shop, one day I’m gonna open a cookie shop” …
Read more at Yabangee: Jacqueline Cookies: A Sweet Taste of Home in Cihangir. Photo provided by Jacqueline Cookies.
St. Mary of the Mongols: The Last Byzantine Church (Yabangee)
Nowadays Istanbul is known for its mosques, but prior to 1453, Constantinople was a completely Christian city replete with churches. Many of them exist to this day: Hagia Sofia and Chora Church are the most renowned examples, but there is also Hagia Irene, Küçük Aya Sofya, Fethiye Mosque… In all there are some 40 Byzantine-era church structures still standing throughout the city.
However, no matter which one you visit, one feature in particular strikes the visitor: they all either have minarets, or a ticket box, or both. Astonishingly, of the dozens of extant Byzantine churches in Istanbul, only one of them has never been converted into a mosque or museum and has been in continuous service as a place of Christian worship since before the conquest of Istanbul. This is Church of St. Mary of the Mongols, a.k.a. Kanlı Kilesesi, a.k.a. Meryem Ana Greek Orthodox Church…
Read more at Yabangee: St. Mary of the Mongols: The Last Byzantine Church.
Socially-Conscious Turkish Souvenirs at Nahıl Gift Shop (Yabangee)
There comes a time for all of us when we have to purchase Turkish souvenirs for curious kith and kin back home. To get them their fix of evil eyes and olive oil soaps, I used to have to trek out to the Grand Bazaar or Galata. Besides these places being crowded and hectic, I always felt a tinge of guilt and unease with the racks of identical knick-knacks. Where are these products made? What kind of working conditions are they supporting? In an era of globalization, I think many of us, not just me, wonder whether our nazarlık were actually made in Turkey or were assembled in a far-off factory.
That’s why I was so glad to find Nahıl Gift Shop…
Read more at Yabangee: Socially-Conscious Turkish Souvenirs at Nahıl Gift Shop.
Cats of Istanbul
Istanbul Cats
One of the most remarked upon features of Istanbul is not the soaring minarets, the shimmering Bosphorus, or the fresh simit. It is the cats. Istanbul has a massive endemic population of street cats–probably over 150,000–and the constant fawning attention lavished on them by tourists and visitors always touched a nerve with me. Why come from almost halfway around the world and take pictures of a commonplace domestic creature you can find almost anywhere else?
Then there are the local attitudes. It’s an ordinary sight to see locals serving out cat food, cans of tuna, or bags of cheese (cats like cheese, I have learned) to hungry felines. The government also pitches in–throughout my neighborhood there are little two-story cat-houses painted forest green and stamped with the name and symbol of the Beyoğlu Municipality. Residents make offerings of water and kibble to these shrines of cathood. Why expend these scarce personal and governmental resources on animals when there are so many needy humans who need them?
However, as with rakı and ayran, my aversion to the cats has softened over time. I came to realize one great value of street cats: as therapy animals. A couple years back, some law schools in the US began offering therapy dogs to help law students relax. In the same way, I believe pervasive street animals help city-dwellers here recover from the various urban indignities that can be inflicted on us at any moment. As one of many examples: the other day I was running, as I do, near the waterfront. A group of bullies in a white van drove by and sprayed water on me. I was very upset but I quickly found a street cat, who purred and cuddled in my lap for ten minutes until I felt better.
The other therapeutic effect of a street cat is to remind you to slow down. No matter how much of a hurry you’re in, if you see an adorable kitten, then there’s just nothing else to do but stop and pet it, your schedule be damned. The other day, I met an affectionate kitten in Eyüp cemetery, near the Pierre Loti lookout. It curled up in my lap and fell asleep purring, so I sat for two hours with it while Turkish children came to my side and admired the sleepy kitten.
In fact, upon further consideration there is something appealing about the traditional Turkish model of pet ownership. Keeping a housepet, as far as I can tell, is a relatively new custom in Turkey mainly practiced by “westernized” individuals. In traditional towns, you are more likely to see an animal being “kept” by an entire apartment, a block, or a street. Members of the building or the block will all contribute to the animals’ care by putting out clean water, food, and fresh bedding at regular intervals for the dog or cat. This model still allows for the benefits of owning a pet–companionship, pest control, security, disposal of uneaten food–but it distributes the cost among the group and allows the animal itself to live freely, not imprisoned in a house all day at the whims of its owner, and without being a burden to the owner (requiring pet-sitting during trips, etc.)
Istanbul Cats1
Of course, it’s not a perfect model–animal rights advocates wouldn’t be happy about the rates of mortality and sickness among the street animals. But overall, Istanbul residents take care of their strays, and the government pitches in by providing vaccination/tagging for dogs. If we take this model seriously, then a street animal is really a public good, and if I am to draw personal benefit (therapeutic relief) from the shared resource (in this case, cats) then I really should contribute to its upkeep by providing water and cans of tuna fish.
So I’ve come around to the locals’ way of seeing and providing for street cats. As for the tourists’ obsession, the photos in this post show I have reluctantly come around to it. In the end, I am glad that I can depend on finding an affectionate feline when I need one.
Whispers of history
In the older neighborhoods of Istanbul, one often finds these heavy doors, tightly locked and decorated with crosses or Hebrew inscriptions. But no matter how many times you circle the walls, there is no church or synagogue in sight, only a an enigmatic wall enclosing an apparently abandoned lot.
I always feel a bit spooked by it, like I’ve seen a ghost or a corpse. When did these churches close up and bolt their doors? What was the community like that used to sustain these places of worship? Where did those people go, and where are they now? What kind of property dispute might still be going on for the land behind those walls?
Doorways, inscriptions, fountains, walls, fragments… Istanbul is replete with whispers of past history that are not audible on a cursory visit. Being able to hear them, as haunting as they are sometimes, has been one of the most rewarding parts of living here.
Freewheeling Reports: Kızkalesi
Kizkalesi combines together two things I love: castles and beaches.
Castles are obviously awesome. I have been drawn to castles ever since I lived in Alanya, a little Mediterranean resort town with a massive Selcuk fortress built on its hillside. Apart from the obvious appeals, castles might even have old graffiti scratched into its walls by ancient soldiers.
Beaches are awesome too, but their awesomeness is less obvious, because beaches are, in the first place, boring. At most there are only a half dozen different activities you can actually do at a beach. What I’ve realized is that the boredom is their virtue: when you’re stuck on a beach you have nothing else to do except nap, swim, read–all the simple, relaxing activities that are so hard to fit in within “real” (non-vacation) life. This summer, whenever I get behind on my reading, I go to the beach where cleaning, the internet, and other distractions can’t reach me.
Kızkalesi merges these two awesome things–beaches and castles–into one quaint package. Kızkalesi, meaning “Maiden’s Castle,” is a resort beach town in southeastern Turkey, near Mersin. It was surprisingly hard to reach–the closest airport is four or so hours away in Adana. Practically all of the people around me were Turkish families with young children, and this observation was borne out by a number of my friends who said they fondly remember Kızkalesi vacations from their childhood. Consequently, the beach atmosphere is laid-back and wholesome, full of kids, dads, and moms playing with water noodles and beach balls.
However, the Mediterranean coast has many lovely little beach towns. This particular one famous throughout the country for its eponymous Crusader castle (from around 900 CE), which seems to float atop the water on an island 1000 feet offshore. In the summer, the Mediterranean waters are calm and clear, so swimming right up to it is a breeze–one woman told me she swam the distance twice a day for exercise. Once there, you can pull yourself up onto the pebbly shore, wander into the castle and climb atop its walls. There are the gorgeous views and charming white-stone architecture, and even an inscription in Armenian from when an Armenian kingdom ruled the area. But the most remarkable things inside are the extant in-situ floor tiles and mosaics, including Roman (or Greek?) text and zoomorphic imagery.
Kizkalesi, Mersin
Interestingly, a local guide told me that the floating Maiden’s Castle has an identical legendary origin storyas the floating Maiden’s Tower in Istanbul (to whit, a king, a princess, a snake bite, etc.). In fact, the more likely backstory is more crass. These castles were built to defend the coastal towns against piracy, and apparently in antiquity, seafarers called such defensive bulwarks “maiden” castles if they had never been breached by pirates.
As if one castle is not enough, on the eastern border of the beach lies another, even more expansive and imposing castle, nicknamed simply Korykos after the city’s original name . In ancient times, a pier used to connect the sea fortress to the land one, and some remnants of that pier are still visible. The land castle is in a more ruined state than Maiden’s Castle, which (for me) adds to the fun; crumbling and overgrown with trees, but still very much intact, and little visited by the beach-going tourists, Korykos has a post-apocalyptic feel. And as Merlin & Rebecca point out in their post, this castle was partly constructed out of spolia from an old Roman town. It’s fun to look out for the unexpected characters, iconography, and temple columns built haphazardly into the walls, not to mention crosses from the chapels.
There are supposedly a couple of underground caves near the town of Kızkalesi that are worth seeing. I can’t speak for the awesomeness of those. However, I can attest that Kızkalesi definitely delivers on two awesome things: beaches and castles.
Previous Freewheeling Reports, so-called after a homework assignment from one of my Turkish professors.
Photo above: Kızkalesi viewed from Korykos. Photos middle: interior of Kızkalesi. Photo below: Spolia inside Korykos.
Language Pulsations: Turkish loanwords
Photos for Blog 21
Despite centuries of contact between the Ottoman Empire and the West, there are surprisingly few purely Turkish loanwords in English. Why would this be? It turns out that most of the words that came to us from Ottoman lands–kiosk, pilaf, sofa, sherbet, vizier, seraglio, tulip …–were were themselves borrowed into Turkish from Persian and Arabic by Turks. This is mainly because the literary and political tongue of the Ottoman Empire was Osmanlıca, which was essentially Turkic grammar, with Persian vocabulary, written in Arabic script. The story of Arabic and Persian loanwords would be a different story–there could be several posts just covering the dozens of Arabic loanwords in English.
But in the meantime, here are three the words in English I’m aware of that are unequivocally Turkish.
Yogurt is from the Turkish yoğurt, related to the Turkish verb yoğunlaşmak “to condense” and the adjective yoğun “intense.” Yogurt was invented 4000 years ago by Central Asian nomadic trans-pastoralists, probably Turkic, who discovered that milk is more long-lasting, digestible, and nutritious when bacteria was added to it.
Many cultures probably independently discovered this food technology over the millenia, but yogurt is uniquely important in the Turkish diet–in Ottoman days, it was a staple like bread, and today it is a sauce, side dish, or beverage in almost every meal. Yogurt folk histories abound. A co-worker of mine claimed that his ancestor brought yogurt to Poland in powdered form and thereby single-handedly introduced the food to the Western world. Another friend shared a different theory, that Europeans first met the food during the siege of Vienna, where Ottoman armies were consuming it (suspiciously similar to the croissant origination theory).
According to the Ottoman History Podcast–a more reliable source–yogurt as a food source was unknown in the West until the early 20th century. At this time, the Ottoman Empire was splintering and former Ottoman citizens were scattering across the globe. In 1919, the Dannon company was started in Barcelona by a former Ottoman-Jewish doctor, while fleeing Armenians brought yogurt to the US to sell to fellow Armenians as well as to Syrians, Jews, Greeks, and other communities who had emigrated from the disintegrating Ottoman Empire. Although each community had different names for this very ancient food, the one shared term for it was the Turkish one, so this was how it was marketed. Hence, the world now knows this amazing dairy product by its Turkish name.
“The Mongol hordes are coming! Run for your lives!” While “horde” in English can mean a large group of anything, we often use word in relation to “barbarian” conquerors on horseback. This makes sense, since the word originally came from the Turkic/Mongolic word ordu meaning “camp,” “tent,” or “royal court,” or in modern Turkish, “army.”
From the times of Genghis Khan to the present day, Central Asian nomadic-pastoral peoples have organized themselves in “hordes,” fiercely hierarchical and patriarchal groups often commanded by a strong emperor or leader. Genghis Khan’s sons presided over the Blue Horde, White Horde, and Golden Horde, and there are still hordes in parts of modern-day Kazakhstan. “Horde” probably came to English via Polish, as terrified Slavic peoples constantly feared the wrath of nomadic warriors.
Odalisque is the French form of Turkish odalık, composed of oda “room” and -lık, a suffix expressing the function of a thing. An odalık was a chambermaid, maidservant, or female slave. In the Ottoman harem, the odalık was the lowest-ranking servant and she never offered her services to the sultan. Europeans, however, did not understand the intricacies of the Ottoman court stratification, and simply understood an odalık as a harem concubine. Orientalist interest in these “odalisques” peaked in Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries, as can be seen in famous paintings by Matisse, Renoir, and Ingres.
Turquoise, turkey
Actually, neither “turquoise” nor “turkey” are derived from a Turkish word per se, but both have the word “turk” in them because they refer to Turkey. As I’ve explained in length before, the bird known as “turkey” was introduced to Europe via trading through Ottoman-Turkish domains. Similarly, Venetian traders originally discovered and traded for the jewel turquoise in Turkish lands, so the greenish-blue stone gained the name in French pierre turquoise “Turkish stone,” and a color word was subsequently coined based on the color of the jewel.
Istanbul Daytrips: Eyüp during Ramazan
Istanbul Summer 20142
Living abroad has many advantages, but there are times when you get lost in the space between where you came from and where you are now. This happened to me last Friday.
Friday, July 4th was simultaneously Independence Day in the US and the second Friday of Ramazan (the Turkish word for Ramadan) in Turkey. Looking online, I saw my American friends and family celebrating with fireworks and cookouts. Looking around me in the streets, I saw families lining up for iftar meals and taking advantage of holiday promotions. While all these celebrations were happening before my eyes, I could not fully participate in any of them.
So rather than sulk, I decided to take charge of my fate: I got on a bus to Eyüp. Eyüp is another neighborhood on the European side, past Fatih on the Golden Horn. During Ramazan, the Eyüp municipality sets up a cute, colorful row of model Ottoman houses where local vendors and restaurants set up shop. There were sweets shops with piles of lokum (Turkish delight) and photography stands were families could dress up in Ottoman robes and turbans and have their photo taken as Ottoman nobles. I sat there for an hour, watching the cooks prepare vats of soup, piles of rice, and spits full of meat, and then watched the servers sprint back and forth delivering the meals to hungry Ramazan observers. Being in this holiday atmosphere relieved my loneliness.
It also made sense to be in Eyüp during Ramazan as it plays a part in local Ramazan tradition–some Muslims in Istanbul try to visit all the “imperial mosques” as a way of making penance for the sins of the year, and the Eyüp Sultan Mosque is one of those special mosques. Eyüp Sultan, which the Eyüp neighborhood is centered around, was completed in 1458 (five years after the invasion) and was the first mosque constructed by the victorious Ottoman Turks.
The grounds around Eyüp Sultan contain a sprawling multi-level cemetery bursting with ancient gravestones. The inside of the mosque is expansive. Men pray on the main floor while women worship in the upper balcony, as well as in a labyrinthine series of interconnected hallways, chambers, and even a skywalk, all of which I imagine had to have been added later after the main balcony failed to fit the droves of female pilgrims.
Meanwhile, the inner courtyard of the mosque houses important turbes, or saints’ tombs. It is surrounding these tombs that you can observe what my Ottoman history professor dryly referred to as “folk religious practice.” Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of pilgrims cluster around these tombs with outstretched hands, entreating the saints for their blessing, or healing, or guidance, and collecting the saints’ holy aura with palms facing up. In this sense I believe Eyüp is a great place to visit and observe–it’s full of visitors coming from different parts of the city and country, practicing different forms of the faith, so as long as you meet the baseline standards of etiquette, it’s easy to blend in, watch, get a more diverse vision of the faith, and feel the fervent atmosphere.
While it was an unusual way to celebrate the 4th of July, being in that festive and spiritual atmosphere at that moment somehow satisfied my need for a celebration, and I was grateful that Eyüp is the kind of place that an outsider to the religion can partake in a small way.
photo2 (2)
Sana gitme demeyeceğim.
Üşüyorsun ceketimi al.
Günün en güzel saatleri bunlar.
Yanımda kal.
Sana gitme demeyeceğim.
Gene de sen bilirsin.
Yalanlar istiyorsan yalanlar söyleyeyim,
Sana gitme demeyeceğim,
Ama gitme, Lavinia.
Adını gizleyeceğim
Sen de bilme, Lavinia.
I won’t ask you not to go.
You are cold, take my jacket.
These are the loveliest times of the day.
Stay with me.
I won’t ask you not to go.
Still, you know.
If you want lies, I will tell you lies,
You’ll be hurt.
I won’t ask you not to go.
But Lavinia, don’t go.
I will keep your name a secret
Even you shall not know Lavinia.
–Özdemir Asaf, 1957
Years ago, a friend recited this poem to me. He himself heard the poem from another friend, who in turn must have learned it from someone else before her–a teacher, a professor, a romantic interest. I forgot about the poem until yesterday, when the first lines jumped out at me from a wall near Galata Tower. Now, I am posting it here in the spirit of passing on what was passed on to me.
3 Places in Istanbul You’ve Never Been To
Below are three places I’ve recently visited during my wanderings through Istanbul: Aynalıkavak Palace, the Crimean Memorial Church, and the Zulfaris Synagogue Museum. There is no connection between them besides the fact that I had never heard about them in any guidebook or visited them on any tour: I stumbled upon or passed by them by chance, and happened to be pleased with what I found. Maybe you will be, too.
1. Aynalıkavak Palace
Aynalikavak Istanbul
There are few places in Istanbul where one can hear only the sounds of birds chirping and the hush of wind through the leaves. I was pleased to find Aynalıkavak Palace is one of those peaceful places.
Surprising to say, but Ottoman-era palaces in Istanbul are pretty much a dime a dozen. There are particularly famous ones, like Dolmabahçe, which were an obvious choice to become museums in their post-imperial lives because something made them famous (in the case of Dolmabahçe, it’s the place where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk spent his last days). But not all were that lucky. After the end of the empire, the palaces no longer served a purpose and they faced different fates–some of them became museums, some of them were converted into hotels or convention centrers (like Çırağan Palace), some of them sold to the highest bidder, and probably some of them are now gone. It would be an interesting historical exercise to survey the fates of various Ottoman palaces and what became of them over the decades after the end of the empire.
Anyway, Aynalıkavak is one of the lucky ones–it is an early 17th-century Ottoman palace-turned-museum in the Hasköy neighborhood of Istanbul, near Kasımpaşa. The building itself is a pavilion-style structure with a graceful sloping roof, topped with a dome. As I’ve mentioned, many of the structures we associate with the Ottomans are actually Byzantine designs (including Topkapı Palace) so it’s fascinating to see purely Ottoman architecture. The interior is gorgeously preserved and tastefully decorated with beautiful silk divans, inlaid-pearl furniture, chandeliers, stained glass, marble, and of course the eponymous mirrors (“Ayna” means “mirror” in Turkish). The basement floor is a museum of Turkish classical instruments.
In the backyard is a garden with a little tea shop next to a fountain and pond overlooking the lustrous Golden Horn and an expansive view of the Fatih and Balat neighborhoods–St Stephan’s Church is directly across from the palace grounds. Unfortunately, the palace’s view of said Golden Horn is almost entirely blocked by an old abandoned shipyard, an ugly development I’m sure Sultan Selim III, who restored the pavilion to its current glory and whose instrument collection is housed there, would disapprove of.
2. Christ Church (Crimean Memorial Church)
Normally I try to be tactful, but I won’t mince words here. Tophane (the intervening neighborhood between Karaköy and Cihangir, named for the historical Tophane-i Amire structure nearby) is not a fun place. It’s a place where people can get death threats from their neighbors for throwing parties (true story). Last year during Ramadan, some locals attacked diners who happened to be eating lunch in the neighborhood. And remember those reports of pro-government gangs wielding knives and chasing down Gezi protesters? That happened in Tophane.
But during a typical day there’s no harm in strolling through Tophane, particularly because this neighborhood contains another one of those rare places of peaceful urban respite. Uphill from the waterfront and tram stop is the active Crimean Memorial Church, an Anglican church built in memory of British soldiers who perished in the Crimean War–you can read the whole story behind its history and design here.
When I visited, the building was almost entirely invisible behind the swells of nearby apartment buildings and a dense camouflage of tree covering. This makes it hard to catch a decent glimpse of the handsome Neo-Gothic stone facade. However, the upshot of its seclusion is that upon passing through the iron gate and stepping into the grounds, you feel you are in a different world. Inside the church there is a stone baptismal font, long stone inscriptions loquaciously honoring various British dignitaries, and a huge organ. On the grounds surrounding the church birds sing, cats wander, a bizarre gaggle of geese meander around with an odd sense of purpose, and groundskeepers and church clergy murmur in indistinct foreign tongues.
3. The Jewish Museum in Zulfaris Synagogue
Istanbul Summer 20141
You would be forgiven for not knowing there was either a Jewish history museum or a synagogue in central Karaköy, down the hill from Galata Tower. I myself did not know, until one of my former professors came to town. She pointed out a nondescript salmon-colored edifice (see top left photo) and explained that the entrance to the museum is through an alley around back. I returned to the indicated spot during museum operating hours and was pleased to find she was right. The much more attractive front face of the museum (see bottom left photo) is hidden behind a high wall, a guard desk, and a metal detector–the museum keeps a low profile and tight security, I assume, due to a regrettable history of terror attacks against synagogues in Istanbul.
The Jewish Museum is housed in Zulfaris Synagogue, built sometime around 1671 and an active place of worship until being converted into a museum in 2001. The museum has three floors–the bottom contains ethnographical displays. The second, main synagogue floor (see photo on right) has a mixture of chronological and topical information about the presence and influence of Jewish peoples in the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic. With the stained glass window, chandeliers, starry ceiling, and Ark, you also get a sense of the beauty of the synagogue itself. The third floor, which is a balcony area overlooking the main floor, contains info-panels going in-depth about some topic of Turkish-Jewish life and history.
The exhibits are informative and up to date with recent research and relevant artifacts. The displays are in Turkish and English, and the English translations are, mercifully, excellently grammatical and comprehensible (an issue in every Turkish museum I’ve been to). It was also striking, and a bit refreshing, how positively the museum regards the influence of Ottomans and Turks on Jews. It is easy to get caught up in the recent decades of populist anti-Semitism in Turkey and not recognize the positive contributions Turkish groups and individuals have made, from Ottoman sultans welcoming Jews during the anti-Semitic pogroms in Europe to Turkish diplomats furnishing Jews with Turkish ID cards during the Second World War (thereby protecting them from harm because Turkey was neutral). I also learned the extensive impact of Jewish families, commerce, and culture on the Karaköy neighborhood, and the next chance I get, I plan to take a walking tour through the area to find Jewish places of interest in Karaköy and Galata.
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Sep 15, 2018. It's true that cancer cells can't live in an overly alkaline environment, but neither can any of your cells. Stomach acid is far more acidic than most.
Instead, replace them with alkaline foods that actually reduce the amount of acid your stomach creates like green vegetables, bananas, almond milk, and.
Bananas have two stomach-protective mechanisms. First, they help the stomach lining to produce a thicker mucus barrier to protect against stomach acids.
Sep 12, 2018. Nicotine in cigarettes relaxes the muscles in the lower part of the esophagus, and as such is less likely to keep stomach acid at bay inside your.
Causes of Stomach Ulcer. Stomach ulcers occur when the lining of the stomach or upper intestine gets irritated by the harmful effects of stomach acid.
Health enthusiasts swear by the many health benefits of bananas. You can add them to your smoothies, protein shakes, or just eat one to subdue those excruciating hunger pangs.
Worst: The stratospheric fat content of this particular fast food is guaranteed to be a sleep killer. Fat stimulates the production of acid in the stomach, which can spill up into your esophagus.
There’s nothing worse than the gas, bloating, nausea, and overall discomfort when stomach troubles strike. From diarrhea to queasiness, it can be debilitating—and all you want is some relief as fast as humanly possible.
Can Stomach Acid Digest Metallica One Tab MLB closers need to step it up because this is the best closer entrance video of all time Za otroke bodo v času tabora skrbeli izkušeni pedagogi in jezikoslovci. Otroci
Gastroenteritis, also known as stomach flu, is a condition in which the stomach and the small intestine become inflamed. Gastroenteritis is primarily caused by viral or bacterial infections.
Upset stomach, or indigestion, is usually no cause for concern. It is often possible to treat the symptoms using home remedies. In this article, we look at 21 of the most popular natural remedies.
Feb 13, 2019. Banana, rich in potassium and magnesium, helps in weight loss and obesity. vitamin B6, riboflavin, folate, pantothenic acid, and niacin, as well as trace. bacteria that have been linked to the development of stomach ulcers.
What is acid reflux? Acid reflux occurs when stomach juices rise up into the esophagus, causing the inflammation of the esophagus lining and symptoms such as heartburn, regurgitation, bad, metallic or acidic taste in the mouth, coughing and even laryngospasms.
Jan 13, 2017. Throw in bananas, raisins, and maybe a hint of cinnamon," suggests. It occurs when stomach acid backs up into the esophagus, the tube.
Mar 18, 2019. Table of Contents. Home Remedies for Food Allergies. Elimination Diets; Increase Stomach Acid; Bananas; Activated Charcoal; Vitamin C.
Oct 3, 2018. “Because bananas are acidic, you'll have to neutralise the acid to get the benefits of potassium, fiber, and magnesium without the sugar rush”,
When it feels like there’s a war going on inside your stomach, it can be tough to decide what to nibble on. You don’t want to eat the wrong thing and once again find yourself sitting on — or.
Feb 12, 2019. However, the lectin protein is resistant to acid hydrolysis. It may interact directly with the lining of the stomach or intestinal tract, or it. Other lectins, such as the lectin from bananas, actually become more potent after heating.
blood pressure; serotonin inhibits gastric secretion and stimulates the. coating the lining of the stomach. unsaturated fatty acids, banana flowers are also.
From oatmeal to bananas, here are some foods that can help to ease or prevent heartburn, a common symptom of acid reflux and GERD.
Jul 14, 2015. BRAT foods: BRAT stands for bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. Indigestion , heartburn, and even acid reflux are all side effects of.
Stomach bugs can be nasty and can lay you low for a few days. Symptoms could creep up on you slowly or hit you unaware suddenly. The severity of a stomach infection or bug depends on your immune system and its ability to resist an infection.
29.03.2019 · How to Recognize the Symptoms of Stomach Ulcers. An ulcer is a lesion that develops on the skin, such as a pressure ulcer, or mucous membranes of the body, such as a stomach ulcer. The symptoms are acute for some people and mild for.
Many people suffer from it, but do you REALLY know why? Acid reflux happens because at the entrance of the stomach there is a valve, or a ring of muscle called the lower esophageal sphincter or LES.
Chart that lists a wide variety of foods and classifies them as neutral, acid or alkaline forming.
Banana fruit nutrition facts. Enjoy banana fruit; nature’s energy-rich food that comes with a safety envelope! Fresh, creamy, and delicious dessert bananas are one of the cheapest and readily available fruits all year round.
Throat Pain From Acid Reflux Some of the most common ways to help and curb reflux are the introduction of dietary and lifestyle changes. Forget the spicy foods, fried foods, citrus fruits, Hello Brandy, I
Jul 25, 2017. Eat a fully ripened banana each day to reduce the discomfort of acid. Chamomile Tea: To balance the acidity levels in your stomach, drink a.
Here are 32 foods good for stomach ache & stomach ulcers you should add into your daily diet to deal with digestive problems
teaches that the gastric fire or agni in the stomach. example, eating bananas with milk can diminish agni, Moreover the stomach acid required to digest the.
Acid reflux 101. To effectively treat acid reflux it is important to both understand and identify it. Acid reflux is a condition in which naturally occurring stomach acids mix with pepsin and travel into the stomach.
ISSN 2278- 4136 ZDB-Number: 2668735-5 IC Journal No: 8192 Volume 1 Issue 3 Online Available at Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry
Contrary to popular belief, acid reflux isn’t a symptom of “too much acid”. In fact, most acid reflux can be traced back to low stomach acidity.
Other foods cause the stomach to create more acid. This diet is. Fruits/juices, Most fruits and fruit juices such as apple, grape, cranberry, banana, pears, etc.
Mar 3, 2017. Ten dollars gets you half a banana, a scoop of peanut butter, a cup of. guard against cracking, but its effects can be nullified by stomach acid.
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If you’ve been following the news about young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg or the terrifying environmental news in general, you may have heard of “flight shaming”. Broadly speaking, writes Joanna Kalafatis, it is the practice of pressuring people to fly less, or not at all, by emphasizing how terrible air travel is for the planet.
Several articles have been published about how flight shaming is great and effective. Other journalists and bloggers have pointed out the unexpected negative consequences of flight shaming.
Plane New Orleans View
Flying into New Orleans.
(Fun fact: flight shaming is known as flygskam in Swedish.)
I generally like to look at both sides of an issue and see if there’s anything I might be missing. So let’s take a deep dive into the topic of flight shaming, together. More importantly, let’s try to answer the most important question: Should we keep flying?
Flight Shaming – The Good
People Are Actually Flying Less As a Result
Undoubtedly, flight shaming has already had an effect on how many flights people take. The hope is that as the movement continues to spread, it will have an even larger effect.
Airline industries are concerned that their growth rate will slow in the coming years due to consumers being more reluctant to hop on planes. Swiss Bank UBS found that the airline industry growth rate will be cut in about half from its recent trend of 4.5% a year.
Airlines Are Feeling the Pressure to Go Green
The decrease in current consumer demand for flights and projected demand in the future is pressuring airlines to find eco-friendly alternatives. After all, airlines want to make sure they don’t lose customers and money in the long run.
Companies like United, SAS, and JetBlue are experimenting with biofuels, other eco fuels, and hybrid planes. United debuted the “most eco-friendly flight on the planet” in June of this year. The plane flew from LA to Chicago using a biofuel blend, with carbon offsets to make the flight as carbon neutral as possible.
Other airlines also have carbon-offset schemes. These allow consumers to spend extra money to offset part or all of their flight carbon footprint. Airlines like Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific, and Delta are among many that have implemented these carbon-offset programs.
Like this plane at the TWA Hotel. Which is super green, because it’s been converted into a bar that never leaves the ground.
It Encourages People to Think About the Impact of General Daily Decisions on the Planet
Flight shaming has not only made people aware of the environmental impact of air travel; it has also made citizens more generally cognizant of the effect their actions have on the planet.
After all, flight shaming is part of a global movement to be more environmentally friendly and aware.
Many environmentally damaging products are falling out of favor or flat out being banned across the world, include single-use plastics. More people in the Western world are also switching to vegan, vegetarian, or at least primarily plant-based diets after becoming aware of the negative impact of meat production on the environment.
Flight Shaming is Accelerating the Adoption of Better Technology over Business Travel
With access to modern communication technology, more companies are finding it cheaper and easier to hold long video conferences instead of sending colleagues overseas to meetings.
Flight shaming may be accelerating the wider implementation of such technology as corporations feel more pressure to go green from consumers as well. Since business travelers are some of the most frequent fliers in the skies, this is great news for the environment.
Flight Shaming – The Bad
The Science of Flights vs. Other Emissions Isn’t 100 Percent Clear
Scientists have emerged with a lot of contrasting points of view. They frequently point out that the science investigating the impact of flights vs. alternative transportation is sometimes muddy.
For example, long-distance flights are more fuel-efficient than short-distance ones, as a big percentage of fuel is used up on take-off. There is evidence showing that if you were to hop in a car by yourself to traverse a relatively long distance instead of taking a flight, it might just be more efficient to fly (also considering the fact that the flight will most likely take off anyway). Since most people on the road today are solo drivers, this accentuates the negative environmental effects of driving.
The kind of alternative transportation you’re taking, in addition to where in the world you are taking it, also plays a big role. For example, trains in Europe that are mostly electrified and cover relatively short distances are much more efficient than plane travel.
However, the US has mostly diesel-fueled trains that have to cover an enormous area. Using these may actually end up being equally efficient or even less efficient than a six-hour plane ride.
For example, a flight from LA to Tokyo is much more efficient than LA to San Francisco
Flight Shaming Assumes Most Air Travel is Voluntary/Optional
Many articles talking about flight shaming assume that most people on planes are traveling for vacation.
Plenty of people around the world have to travel, not only for work, but also to see family and friends in distant continents. In an increasingly globalized world, people have moved long distances to find better economic opportunities.
Shaming people with two weeks off work a year for taking flights to see their parents or children in another country simply isn’t productive. Actually, it can come across as offensive.
Alternatives like trains and boats are feasible in some cases, but not in all. For most people with limited time and financial resources, in addition to long distances that have to be covered, alternative transportation simply isn’t an option.
The idea that people will stop seeing their families to decrease their carbon footprint is somewhat unrealistic. It’s also generally not a healthy goal for any human being.
It Ignores the Probable Economic Damage to Tourism-Reliant Economies
Many regions and countries throughout the world rely on tourism as either a main or top source of income. What would happen to those economies if people decided en masse that air travel simply wasn’t an option?
The short-term stress on a tourism-based country’s economy would lead to a lot of unemployment, poverty, and probable political instability as a result.
Some tourism-reliant destinations may be easily accessed by trains or boats. Others (many Caribbean islands come to mind) aren’t a practical destination for people with limited time if planes are not an option.
Of course, any environmental efforts may cause short-term stress to industries and economies. However, when the populations impacted are already vulnerable, finding a way to even that impact out is important as well.
This is also why asking people in economically impoverished countries to stay put instead of going abroad for work and opportunities can also come across as quite condescending, especially from relatively well-off Westerners. Even if they make the initial trip using slow travel, you are basically asking them to give up seeing their families or homes again should they make the decision to leave.
at le galion
Some places are not easily accessible by slow travel. On an island like St. Maarten, tourism is 45 percent of GDP.
So What Should We Do?
Flying Less (Or Not At All) Is Definitely A Good Choice for the Earth
If you can avoid flights, you should. There’s no doubt about that. If you really have to or want to travel, and have another feasible option you know is more eco-friendly – like an electrified train – go for that instead.
I personally love train travel; it gives me a chance to observe changing landscapes, write, read, and relax. We should opt out of flying whenever possible, and do our best to make more eco-friendly choices throughout our daily lives as well.
RailEurope Train
Train travel through Europe. Taken in the Netherlands.
Remember That ‘Flight Shaming’ Focuses on Only One Environmental Issue
Think about how your own actions might be viewed through an environmental lens.
For example, one major increase in your carbon footprint, for example, is the amount of children you have. Let’s say someone told you to stop at one, have none, or judged your existing three kids. Even if they were doing it in the name of saving the planet, how would you react?
This is where a more holistic view of our carbon footprint helps. Everyone makes different decisions on what to cut out or change to be as minimally environmentally damaging as possible.
We need to emphasize the goal of working towards being carbon neutral. However, people may choose to achieve it in different ways.
Educate Instead of Shaming
Shaming may guilt some people, but it isn’t one of the most effective ways to get arguments and points across. Some people may react by shutting down and refusing to hear your point. As a result, they will react negatively and skeptically to the environmental movement altogether. This is especially true if you are attacking something they see as necessary to do their job or see their family.
Instead of shaming those who choose to fly, aim to educate flyers. Share how damaging air travel can be and how much good they could do by flying less. If they still fly, give them alternative solutions to offset their carbon footprint.
If you aren’t sure what to recommend, there are plenty of online tools to help you (see next).
Find Ways to Offset Flights We Feel Are Absolutely Necessary (Carbon Footprint Calculator)
There are ways to offset your carbon footprint even when you fly.
Maybe the person who flies frequently has decided to be a vegan. Perhaps they live in a small apartment and commute by bike. Maybe you, conversely, have a large sprawling house in the suburbs, a daily 2-hour car commute each way, and eat way too much meat.
There are also several carbon footprint calculators you can find online. If you absolutely have to use a flight, the calculator I linked to provides options for offsetting your carbon impact.
If you really want to alleviate your footprint, promise to offset twice your carbon footprint when you fly. For example, for the holidays, I have to take a flight from LAX to JFK. I entered it into the calculator, and it figured out what my approximate carbon footprint will be.
Check out this Carbon Calculator yourself.
When I click that “Offset Now” button, the website provides me with a huge list of ways I can offset my footprint. These range from reforestation initiatives to supporting certified emission reduction schemes. Best of all, these options are more affordable than you may think.
Put Pressure on the Aviation Industry and the Government to Change
Here’s one of my problems with flight shaming. It once again almost solely puts the burden on consumers and citizens to stop climate change. However, most carbon emissions are contributed by large polluting industries and corporations.
Of course, we as consumers need to make eco-friendly choices to do our part in the fight against climate change. But corporations have long guilted consumers about their role in environmental degradation in order to avoid taking responsibility. Additionally, most governments have reacted slowly or not at all to the threat of climate change.
Put pressure on the aviation industry to go green. If they can’t, pressure them to come up with high speed, eco-friendly land and sea options as fast as possible. The government must also mandate better emissions thresholds and changes in the aviation industry. Politicians can even pass a tax scheme to disincentivize air travel.
One idea out of a UK group called Free Ride is to tax flyers progressively. Flyers would get one tax-free return flight per year, and a progressive tax kicks in for each successive flight.
Should You Trust Me on Flight Shaming?
As I assume you already know, you are reading a travel blog. I love slow, sustainable travel, but I also take more flights per year than the average US citizen. This may make you skeptical of any and all points I’ve made in this post, and for good reason.
Yes, I obviously fly a lot. I’m also committing to trying to decrease my flights and offset the ones I take.
I kept an open mind and did a lot of research to write this post, linking to all my sources. However, I encourage you to do your own research as well. Keep updated on eco-friendly products and lifestyle changes.
Climate change isn’t something we can take lightly. We need practical, sustainable solutions so we can preserve our air, water, wildlife, and the very land we call home.
What Will I Do?
“Flight Shaming” definitely has its place and has led to some good effects. However, preserving our environment needs more far-reaching and substantial changes in the way we live our lives, the policies of our governments, and the ways corporations are allowed to conduct their business.
Focusing on just this one aspect of a carbon footprint and shaming those who fly doesn’t take into account the many other factors listed above. Additionally, when we strive to create change for the good of the environment, education should always be the goal; not shaming.
Personally, I am making a commitment to start carbon offsetting all my flights, and fly less as much as possible. You can follow me on Instagram @losethemap, where I will incorporate my offsetting activities into my stories, in order to share resources and ideas with my followers.
Joanna Kalafatis, who lives in Los Angeles, wrote this thought-provoking piece for her blog, Lose the Map, and kindly allowed us to repost it. Read the original version here.
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This page is a mirror of Tepples' nesdev forum mirror (URL TBD).
Last updated on Oct-18-2019 Download
Compression in ROM?
Compression in ROM?
by on (#53602)
In a few games compression has been used to fit the data within limits of ROM. e.g in MC kids level maps are stored(I guess in PRG rom!) in a compressed format. What type of compression could it be? run-length ecoding or something else?
by on (#53603)
The programmers said it was huffman. (Also, a few levels are stored in CHR-ROM)
by on (#53605)
Each game has its own compression mode.
It could be :
1 - Huffman compression
2 - Run Length Encoding compression
3 - Dual Tile Encoding compression
4 - Multiple Tile Encoding compression
5 - Weird unique compression format that only reverse engineering can understood :)
by on (#53612)
Run Length Encoding has a generalized form, called Lempel-Ziv or LZ77. RLE keeps track of one previous byte,* and a "run" is repeats of L copies of that byte. LZ77 keeps track of a history of more bytes, and a "run" copies starting from any point in the history buffer. This allows an RLE-style run (e.g. start offset = -1, run length = 10), but it also allows repeating a sequence of bytes (e.g. start offset = -5, run length = 10) or repeating a string from the history buffer (e.g. start offset = -35, run length = 5). A lot of games especially on the Super NES and GBA used LZ77, and the .zip and .png formats use LZ77 combined with Huffman coding.
* Here, I use "byte" to refer to code units. These can be larger than 1 octet in some cases, such as compression of high- or true-color images.
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Sexual Orientation
Oksana loves women. Manuel also loves women. Denize does not care about gender when falling in love. So, is there still a need to talk about it?
People use many labels to describe their sexual orientation – lesbian, heterosexual, pan, queer, bi, homosexual, gay. Often such labels do not only express whom people are sexually attracted to but also whom they fall in love with or whom they (want to) have a relationship with. People who are not at all interested in sexuality (asexual) can also be, for example, gay or hetero.
Hence, the term ‘sexual orientation’ is less clear than it may appear at first. Is it about sexual practice—who we choose to have sex with? Or is it about how we see ourselves and which group or culture we identify with? This can indeed differ. Some men have sex (also) with men, however, they identify as heterosexual. Some of those who identify with lesbian culture and movement can also be attracted to men or non-binary men.
‘Sexual identity’ is a term used to highlight this aspect in particular, and is also used in the anti-discrimination law context.
Where does sexual orientation come from?
It is still not clear what factors determine which gender or which genders a person feels sexually attracted to. There have been many attempts to pin down sexual orientation to one single factor (e.g. genetic or hormonal influence, education or early experiences) but so far none have scientifically prevailed.
Many people, in retrospect, have said their orientation started to develop when they were young. In puberty, for example, they knew: ‘I am attracted to women’. But life is full of surprises and you never know who might steal your heart. However, it is not possible to reverse the sexual orientation from outside or by sheer will power.
Is this not a private matter?
Some people hardly question their sexual orientation. Others on the other hand are very concerned, for example, because they realize that their way of falling in love and/or desiring another person is not considered ‘normal’. Or because they have to find fitting labels for their feelings.
Just like everything that has to do with feelings and intimacy, the sexual orientation of a person is something very personal. However, it has also a societal dimension: For example, when it comes to deciding who is allowed to bring his/her partner to a company party. Who is allowed to marry? Or who is allowed to see people reflected in texts books that feel and live similar to them.
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Plain or rolling element bearings? What's the correct choice?
Plain bearings are available for an extremely wide variety of applications. Most are used in sliding or oscillating roles: door hinges, ball joints on cars, the fifth wheel on a tractor trailer. But when full rotation is required, plain bearings change shape to a "sleeve" that fits around the shaft. In addition to being called sleeve bearings, other names include plane, journal or babbitt bearings.
Rolling vs plain
• The high startup torque requirement usually means plain bearings aren't suitable for machines that start and stop frequently.
• The full fluid film in plain bearings requires up to 3x more energy to operate, even if startup losses are excluded.
• Some journal bearings have difficulty with grease lubrication - they need a constantly replenished thick oil film.
• Using plain bearings in vertical or thrust loaded applications requires special Kingsbury or Mitchell designs, which can add to cost. Since most rolling element bearings are available in standard sizes, changing the type of bearing in an application may be all that's needed to accommodate thrust.
• Plain bearings are generally optimized for a single speed, while rolling bearings can tolerate a wider speed range, more suitable for variable speed drives.
When power density is extremely high, as in power generation, heavy loads might result in permanent, plastic raceway deformation in a rolling element bearing - plain bearings may be a better choice. The API 610 Standard has guidance for the recommended use of plain bearings vs. rolling element bearings in industrial machines.
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Huge Tsunamis May Have Ravaged Ancient Mars
When Mars was a wet world, did its oceans experience powerful tsunamis spawned by meteorite impacts?
Published On 05/25/2016
11:51 AM EDT
A color-coded digital elevation map showing potential tsunami deposits on Mars (right) next to a picture of a possible ocean shoreline. | Alexis Rodriguez
The mapped deposits cover a huge area - close to a million square kilometers - that represents the equivalent of the states of California, Nevada and Oregon (seen here in an artist's impression). | Alexis Rodriguez
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yorkshire muslim writers
enhance your essay writing skills.
Creating An Effective Persuasive Essay About Lord Of The Flies
Lord of the Flies is one of the most important books in English literature. It sets a tone to literary, philosophical and allegory movements. The book is an allegorical novel, and has a core theme that elucidated the confliction between human impulses towards civilization and towards the will to gain power. The manner in which the book plays itself out is just marvelous.
In order to write an effective persuasive essay about Lord of the Flies, you may take into consideration some or all of the followings points:
1. The setting up in the introduction of the horrors to come in reference to issues such as Piggy’s name which would suggest the fate of the character were foreshadowed by macabre and murder.
2. The development of the island as the story progresses and how it becomes increasingly ominous and hostile. Additionally, the name and connotation od Piggy’s name in regards to his eventual animal like slaughter can be a topic to be addressed.
3. A critical approach in interpreting the allegorical relations presented in the book to political dynamics and the essential opposition between totalitarianism and democracy.
4. The presentation of the democratic system as an inferior system by the author as a reference to the totalitarian system focusing on the common good unlike the democratic system which focuses heavily on the good of the individual.
5. The nomenclature of the book’s characters as foreshadows to their eventual fates and insights into the their significance to the plot.
6. The significance of the female characters being undervalued and underdeveloped than the male characters being representative of the male dominated political system of the time.
7. The feminization of certain male characters leading to them being considered not masculine or susceptible to hazards as an illustration of the male archetype of the time.
8. The exploitation of the mythical beast by Jack as a power move to play on the fears of the other boys and the utilization of a rational approach to the presumed devil by Ralph.
9. The exhibition of difference between acts of savagery and acts of civilization by the littluns as an example of foreboding of acts of gruesome violence later as the plot develops.
10. The manifestation of the Cold War in the plot of the book as a representation of struggle between the democratic and communist governmental systems.
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2019 © Yorkshire Muslim Writers. All rights reserved. Verified: Dec 04, 2019
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[view all questions in this category]
Section: Questions Category: Halacha
Halacha - hearing the shofar
Submitted by steven hope Answered by Rav Peretz Moncharsh
In Chumah it says that Rosh HaShana is a "day of terua", but doesn't specify blowing or hearing. The Yerushalmi explains that it refers to hearing, and based on that the beracha we say is "to hear the shofar". This is furthermore supported by the Mishna in Rosh HaShana that says that if one blew the shofar but did not hear the sound that came out he does not fulfill his obligation, obviously hearing is an intrinsic part of the mitzva.
posted:2008-10-05 08:13:48
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Procuring cross-cultural wisdom
Locating and making accessible information and data to the masses. The catalytic effect is to provide context-expanding data to enable responsible decision-making at the local level and to provide global access to all local information.
An integral part of transmitting human wisdom by making available human knowledge, data and wisdom through public education and information.
Tactics include: data gathering to collect the cultural wisdom of every individual; accessible data-banks to make accessible all information; world data to globalize the individual; information analysis to ensure the accuracy of information; and government information to make all governments' data common knowledge. An example would be to provide the means of developing a more comprehensive context for the decision of a country to join a common market by exposing a variety of viewpoints, allowing the decision to become non-parochial.
Type Classification:
D: Detailed strategies
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
GOAL 4: Quality EducationGOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
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The currency market, or foreign exchange market ("forex"), was created to facilitate the exchange of currency that becomes necessary as the result of foreign trade. That is, when an entity in one country sells something to an entity in another country, the seller earns that foreign currency. When China sells t-shirts to Walmart, for example, China earns US dollars. When Toyota wants to build a factory in the US, it needs dollars. It may get those from its local bank, which in turn will obtain them in the international currency market. This market exists to facilitate these types of exchanges.
With options markets, as with futures markets, long and short refer to the buying and selling of one or more contracts, but unlike futures markets, they do not refer to the direction of the trade. For example, if a futures trade is entered by buying a contract, the trade is a long trade, and the trader wants the price to go up, but with options, a trade can be entered by buying a Put contract, and is still a long trade, even though the trader wants the price to go down. The following chart may help explain this further:
For instance, it is possible to construct an option strategy in the futures markets that is affordable without sacrificing the odds of success...but with the convenience comes theoretically unlimited risk. This is easier than it sounds, similar to the way you would borrow money to pay for a house or a car, you can borrow money from the exchange to pay for long commodity option trades. There are an unlimited number of combinations of self-financed trades but they are typically going to involve more short options than long options, or at least as much premium collected on the sold options than that paid for the longs. In essence, the money brought in through the sale of the short options goes to pay for the futures options that are purchased. The result is a relatively close-to-the-money option with little out of pocket expense but theoretically unlimited risk beyond the strike price of the naked short options.
An equity option allows investors to fix the price for a specific period of time at which an investor can purchase or sell 100 shares of an equity for a premium (price), which is only a percentage of what one would pay to own the equity outright. This allows option investors to leverage their investment power while increasing their potential reward from an equity’s price movements.
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High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data
Article Id: WHEBN0000287863
Reproduction Date:
Title: High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data
Author: World Heritage Encyclopedia
Language: English
Subject: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, General Packet Radio Service, Circuit switching, OLT (mobile network), Next Generation Mobile Networks
Publisher: World Heritage Encyclopedia
High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data
High-speed circuit-switched data (HSCSD), is an enhancement to Circuit Switched Data (CSD), the original data transmission mechanism of the GSM mobile phone system, four to six times faster than GSM, with data rates up to 57.6 kbit/s.
Channel allocation is done in circuit-switched mode, as with CSD. This contrasts with the more widely adopted GPRS. Higher speeds are achieved as a result of superior coding methods, and the ability to use multiple time slots to increase data throughput.
One innovation in HSCSD is to allow different error correction methods to be used for data transfer. The original error correction used in GSM was designed to work at the limits of coverage and in the worst case that GSM will handle. This means that a large part of the GSM transmission capacity is taken up with error correction codes. HSCSD provides different levels of possible error correction which can be used according to the quality of the radio link. This means that in the best conditions 14.4 kbit/s can be put through a single time slot that under CSD would only carry 9.6 kbit/s, i.e. a 50% improvement in throughput.
The other innovation in HSCSD is the ability to use multiple time slots at the same time. Using the maximum of four time slots, this can provide an increase in maximum transfer rate of up to 57.6 kbit/s (i.e., 4 × 14.4 kbit/s) and, even in bad radio conditions where a higher level of error correction needs to be used, can still provide a four times speed increase over CSD (38.4 kbit/s versus 9.6 kbit/s). By combining up to eight GSM time slots the capacity can be increased to 115 kbit/s.
HSCSD requires the time slots being used to be fully reserved to a single user. It is possible that either at the beginning of the call, or at some point during a call, it will not be possible for the user's full request to be satisfied since the network is often configured to allow normal voice calls to take precedence over additional time slots for HSCSD users.
The user is typically charged for HSCSD at a rate higher than a normal phone call (e.g., by the number of time slots allocated) for the total period of time that the user has a connection active. This makes HSCSD relatively expensive in many GSM networks and is one of the reasons that packet-switched general packet radio service (GPRS), which typically has lower pricing (based on amount of data transferred rather than the duration of the connection), has become more common than HSCSD.
Apart from the fact that the full allocated bandwidth of the connection is available to the HSCSD user, HSCSD also has an advantage in GSM systems in terms of lower average radio interface latency than GPRS. This is because the user of an HSCSD connection does not have to wait for permission from the network to send a packet.
HSCSD is also an option in enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) and universal mobile telephone system (UMTS) systems where packet data transmission rates are much higher. In the UMTS system, the advantages of HSCSD over packet data are even lower since the UMTS radio interface has been specifically designed to support high bandwidth, low latency packet connections. This means that the primary reason to use HSCSD in this environment would be access to legacy dial up systems.
See also
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Niklas Holmberg
- official website
About Me | About Indian Western/Fusion Music | About Indian music | About the blues/rock | Contact | News
About Indian music
Niklas Holmberg
Indian music has ancient roots and one of the earliest records of music is found in the Sama Veda that dates back thousands of years. Two distinctively different musical systems have developed in India into what we today refer to as Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) music.
Carnatic music is in simplified terms the original form of Indian music whereas Hindustani music have clear influences from Persian music and the compositions performed and played are what is known as Ragas.
The most popular and well known instruments (apart from vocals) used in Hindustani music are:
1. Sitar (string instrument)
2. Sarod (String instrument)
3. Sarangi (bowed instrument)
4. Bansuri (bamboo flute)
5. Tabla (small drums played by hand)
In Carnatic Music.
1. Veena (string instrument)
2. Violin
3. Bambooflute
4. Mridangam (drums)
Each Raga has its origin in one of the basic scales and each Raga and basic scale has a number of fixed notes that are supposed to be played in a certain order depending on if the vocalist/instrumentalist makes an ascending (arohana) movement or a descending (avarohana) movement. Each raga and scale has its roots in a rasa (mood) and the Raga is set to produce one of these moods or rasas. This is one of the major differences between western and Indian music. Indian Raga music concentrates on one mood whereas western music mixes moods freely.
Each Raga has also two notes that are supposed to be stressed a little bit more now and then in the composition. Theese two note are known as Vadi and Samavadi.
Ragas are also designed to be performed on different times of the day in order to unfold the true spirit and beauty of the raga, though today performers pay less attention to this due to the modern society and audiences in the west.
A Raga is built up by several sections and the Raga always starts with an Alap. The alap is performed without any percussion or rhythm and the performer is supposed to slowly unfold the rasa (mood) and notes of the raga to the listener/audience. After alap follows the Ghat and the performer playes fixed compositions to the tala (rhythm cycle) in one of three tempos: vilambit (slow), madhya (medium) and drut (fast). The raga ends with a Jhala which is often played or sung in a very fast tempo with increased intensity and speed.
The 10 basic scales of Hindustani music that also are popular Ragas:
1. Bilawal
2. Kalyan
3. Khamaj
4. Bhairav
5. Puryia
6. Marwa
7. Bhairavi
8. Asavari
9. Kafi
10. Todi
Talas (Rhythm)
Pandit Rajandra Nakod
The instrumentalist/vocalist is most often accompanied by the tabla (Hindustani music) or the Mridangam (Carnatic music) as the keeper of Rhythm and the rhythmic cycles are known as Talas or Talams. The most popular tala in Hindustani music is Teental of 16 beats divided into 4+4+4+4 and another popular tala is Jhaptal of 10 beats divided into 2+3+2+3. Within Hindustani and Carnatic music numerous talas have been developed and according to some expert there should be more than 1000 different talas. The talas are in themselves fixed compositions and the stressing of Sum by the percussionist (the first beat in any tala) is essential for the instrumentalist/vocalist in order to keep track of where in the composition they are.
All contents on this website such as music,video,photo and text
Copyright ©2010 Niklas Holmberg. All Rights Reserved.
Black & White Photo: Petteri Koste
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When the white South African regime brokered deals with jailed leader Nelson Mandela prior to Mandela’s release in the 1990s, there were several agreements that were made regarding wealth distribution in the severely Apartheid torn nation. It was a deal that Winnie Mandela is still, openly hypercritical towards because it left majority of South Africa, a largely black nation, dependent on whites to dictate wealth, and has played in the continual destabilization of the African National Congress. Resultantly, it were the terms of that complex agreement that are directly tied to the miners protest on August 16, 2012. Mandela agreed to terms that shifted much of the political power to blacks, yet the economic power stayed in the hands of whites, hence the mines and multinational, long standing corporations are all white owned in South Africa.
Another aspect of the agreement were that white government workers who did not want to work alongside blacks in federal jobs could retire with a pension for life immediately. As a result, South Africa has to fork over a chunk of its budget to a pension system that pays whites who retired from work as early as 18 years old.
Although South Africa is rich in minerals and natural resources that could balance the budget and create more wealth, the white domination, white privatization and control of the money flow has made it difficult for the upward mobility of a majority black population and increased enhancement of South Africa’s infrastructure that is dire need of a better public education and hospitals.
Whites have privatized much of their existence. Schools, hospitals, neighborhoods and businesses are in the hands of whites who were in staunch support of Apartheid. Unfortunately, when Apartheid was dismantled, their worldview did not switch; yet whites have reaped all of the rewards from the ending of the sanctions, boycotts and embargoes against South African countries during the Apartheid regime.
Today, South Africa has progressed politically, yet the wealth distribution has created bigger gaps in the haves and have-nots. Miners have not received proper increase of pay, health plans or sustainable living benefits for their families.
As well, a large sector of the labor, which is still in mining, receives pittance wages, but these mines have not been regulated for the gross environmental damage they have caused to towns who live close to the mountains of unearthed dirt that blow toxic soil on windy days, along with other issues.
What the miners of Lonmin were protesting were an increase of wages from about US $600 to $1500 a month. The average day for a miner is 15 hours underground with shadey safety conditions. Most miners still work in conditions where they are separated from wives and families who live in the rural area.
Striking mine workers sing protest songs and march in a wide circle under the watchful eye of police at he Lonmin Platinum Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa Monday, Aug. 27, 2012. Thirty-four strikers were shot dead by police in a three-minute barrage of automatic gunfire last week that also injured 78 others. The incident traumatized a nation that thought it had seen the last of state violence with the end of apartheid in 1994.Ten other people were killed the week before, including two police officers hacked to death with machetes by strikers who also burned alive two mine security guards. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)
Lonmin is the third largest platinum mine in the world, and has been refusing to budge in the wage increase like other local mines who have responded to the national debate regarding the mines being privatized. More importantly, the now suspended ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema was demanding that South African government nationalize the mines to bring wealth to the people rather than keep it in the hands of few.
For example, the resettlement plan of South Africa that gives land and homes to South Africans who once lived in Shanty towns, or were ripped from their homelands, is an iniative of wealth redistribution.
Nonetheless, the gap that has widened between white wealth and black poverty, added by growing costs of living in South Africa are making the average black South African anxious and disappointed. Add to the that, the ANC is weakening from within, which further makes governing and staying in power more diffcult.
Yet the cold truth is emerging amongst black South Africans through their controversial, and ineffective head-of-state, black power without black wealth is only a mere puppet to the highest bidder.
The protest that occured and the cold response by Lonmin executives is a reminder that the past is not far away, and that the past is the current. The racist, color-stratified, white racist regime is alive and kcking.
African Americans gawked at how black police officers were involved in killing their own black countrymen, but those of us who understand oppression know that all to often the oppress perpetuate their oppression better than their oppressors.
South Africa is much like the US in its racial politics and issues. Just because Obama is president and South Africa has black presidents and Mandela has been free for over 20 years, does not make any two of the countries post-racial.
Just like an ordinary day in New York, Chicago, New Orleans or Los Angeles. As Zora Neale Hurston prophetically said, ‘Your skin folk ain’t [always] your kinfolk.’
Those black officers probably really believe they were doing what was right along with white officers who are paid a little more than the miners.
Both are still perpetuating the residuls of a white South African regime that suppresses black enfranchisement, and protect white wealth.
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An Introduction to: Classical Japanese Literature
Stories written by those monks could out-weird even the strangest Murakami dream sequence.
By 5 min read
So, what is it?
Old Japanese books, man. And we’re talking old. But wait! Old books are the bomb. They’ve got heart-wrenching tales of courtly love, samurai battles to rival Game of Thrones and fables of creatures equally weird as they are wonderful.
When we speak of classical Japanese literature, we usually mean works dating from the 8th century up until the dawn of Japan’s Meiji era in the 19th century.
And like anything cultural, literature has changed with society. So to make this intro easier, I’ve split up classical Japan into four categories and included recommendations of works with English translations available.
Long, long ago in a world inhabited by gods
Every nation needs an original creation story and the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) — Japan’s oldest historical record — recounts the dawn of Japanese civilization through myths and folk songs. It also answers the question: Why is the Japanese Imperial family divine? Because they happen to be descendants of the sun goddess, Amaterasu.
Nihon Shoki
About a decade later, Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) arrived on the scene with more historically accurate material, particularly about the reigns of emperors Tenji, Tenmu and Jito.
If these seem like a bit of a slog, don’t worry, the Heian period is just around the corner and brings with it a flourishing of all things fiction — including the first novel and first sci-fi(-ish) short story.
Badass poets and innovative imaginations of the Heian court
The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book
The two big stars of the Heian period were undoubtedly Murasaki Shikubu and Sei Shonagon. The former having written The Tale of Genji, arguably the first novel ever written, and the latter The Pillow Book (Makura no Sōshi), an indispensable account of the trials and tribulations of courtly life.
Kokin Wakashu
If you’ve read anything about life as an Heian aristocrat, you’ll know they dedicated themselves to one thing above all: poetry. The styles popular back then, like waka, are extremely short and were the standard method of communication — essentially elegantly crafted Tinder messages.
One of the first collections of poetry was commissioned by the emperor Uda and named the Kokin Wakashu. This meaty volume consists of over 1,111 poems written by the court celebrities of the day.
Taketori Monogatari
More of a sci-fi or fantasy fan? Taketori Monogatari, is a bizarre story dating back to the tenth century and known alternately as The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter. The protagonist, Princess Kaguya, was born on the moon but sent to Earth (sounds a bit Sailor Moon) to escape the chaos of a celestial war. A kindly bamboo cutter finds her nestled inside a glowing bamboo stalk, takes her home to his wife and they raise her as their own. This contender for the first sci-fi story has also been made into a gorgeous movie by Studio Ghibli.
Epic battles, monks and frolicking frogs
The Tale of the Heike
The term “Heian” means peace but our next period was anything but. Japan was in the grip of numerous civil wars. What’s useful to have during war? Warriors, and lots of them.
It comes as no surprise that famous literary works from this period are tales of war and death. The Tale of the Heike is a perfect example. Detailing the clash between two warring clans, the Minamoto and Taira, as they fought for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century, it gives an important glimpse into society at the time.
Monks were also putting their pens to paper and churning out some of the best of Buddhist literature. One genre named zuihitsu — often a mixture of personal essays, anecdotes and ideas loosely linked together — was inspired by Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book. This became popular with the publication of H0joki written by Kamo no Chomei and focused on the Buddhist concept of transience. The court-poet-turned-monk is famous for living in a 10-square-foot hut (proto-LeoPalace?) on Mount Hino in Shiga Prefecture.
A century later, Yoshida Kenko’s Tsurezuregusa followed in its footsteps, recounting anything from humorous incidents to deep discussions about impermanence.
The Choju-jinbutsu-giga
Literature outside of the norm was also being produced. The Choju-jinbutsu-giga, a contender for the title of first manga, was started in the 12th century and finally finished in the 13th. The three scrolls depict foxes, monkeys and frogs (plus others) acting like humans in various everyday situations. Genuinely hilarious, parts of this satirical piece are on display at the Kyushu National Museum exhibition from October 4 until November 20.
Also, the traditional theater style of Noh was coming into its own during the 14th century alongside renga, a form of collaborative poetry which would pave the way for haiku in the Edo period, which is where we’re heading to next…
The Edo cultural explosion
The Complete Haiku
Previously, Kyoto and Nara in the Kansai region had been the center of the Japanese world. All of this changed in the Edo period when the power shifted, along with the emperor and the shogunate, to Tokyo (Edo was the old name for Tokyo). Edo was bustling with samurai charisma, geisha charm and artists inspired by these changing times. Haiku was perfected by Matsuo Basho, who published a collection aptly named The Complete Haiku during the 17th century.
The Love Suicides at Sonezaki
The closing off of the outside world, both physically and culturally, as a result of sakoku (closed country) led to a bourgeoisie class with the time and money to invest in the arts. Costume drama like kabuki and the puppet theater, bunraku, flourished thanks to the plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon whose work revolved around the life and trials of ordinary people. One such was The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, which tells the story of two lovers driven to death. The tragedies he wrote rivaled those of Shakespeare.
Koshoku Ichidai Onna
Travel guides, essays and satires were being churned out in unprecedented numbers. The Yoshiwara, or pleasure district, was the muse of many a writer. Iharu Saikaku delved head first into this world with his novel Koshoku Ichidai Onna (The Life of An Amorous Woman). An ironic take on the world of love and lust, an old woman recounts the story of her life as the daughter of a nobleman, courtesan and prostitute.
Did we miss anything? Let us know what other classics you would recommend in the comments!
An Introduction to: Kabuki
Kabuki, Noh, Bunraku, Rakugo, Ukiyo-e and the Tale of Genji - maybe you've heard of these but have no clue what they are? Our new "Introduction to" series breaks down the best of Japan's traditional arts and culture, and shows how you can experience it for yourself.
By 5 min read
Japan on Film: Swords, Samurai and Conversations
This series is dedicated to sorting the fact from the fiction when it comes to Japan on film.
By 5 min read
Experiencing Japan Through Literature
Experience a Japan like no other in the pages of these books.
By 3 min read
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Tallan Blog
Exploring Buffer Overflows in C, Part Two: The Exploit
Welcome to part two of Exploring Buffer Overflows in C! If you have not taken the time to read the previous article I highly recommend doing so before going any further. In this post, I will be walking you through a simplified version of a buffer overflow exploit and will draw heavily on the vocabulary and theory discussed out in the last post. You can find Part One on Tallan’s Blog here. It also would be helpful to be familiar with hexadecimal numbers, which you can read about here. With that out of the way, let’s get to hacking.
Before We Begin
Before we can start we have to pick a target. Several methods exist to detect potential buffer overflows, ranging from manually reading the code to automated testing. Assuming you do have the source code of a program, searching for insecure functions in the C standard library is a basic, but excellent, starting point. Functions like strcat() and strcpy() do not check the length of the input strings relative to the size of the destination buffer – exactly the condition we are looking to exploit. Safe usage of these functions relies entirely upon the programmer’s implementation.
Acquiring the source code for multiple programs and combing through it for vulnerabilities can be tedious. For the sake of time, sanity, and copyright protection, we’ll be attacking a basic program made for this demo. Check out the source code for overflow.c below:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
void vulnerableFunc(char* input) {
char buffer[80];
strcpy(buffer, input);
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
if (argc != 2) {
printf("Arguments: <buffer input>\n");
The program takes one argument and passes it into vulnerableFunc() which creates a buffer and copies the argument into it. Then the program prints “Exiting…” and quits. It’s not an exciting (or useful) program but it sure is insecure! The call to strcpy() on line 7 is what we are going to be exploiting – notice how the developer didn’t check the length of what was being copied into buffer.
I mentioned earlier that this example is going to heavily simplified compared to a real-world example. Most operating systems and compilers have certain features enabled by default to prevent buffer overflows. Disabling security features on your regular computer is usually a Pretty Bad Idea, so I’ll be doing this demo in a Docker container running a 64 bit Ubuntu image. Towards the end of the post, I will go into more detail about the environment setup and some of the features designed to prevent these exploits.
What are we going to do tonight, Brain?
Before we start blindly throwing ourselves at the problem, let’s establish a game plan. If you remember from Part One: we want to fill the buffer with some malicious code, overflow past the end of the buffer, and overwrite the return address for the current function so it points back to the buffer (and therefore our code). We can break this down into a few steps:
1. Find the size of the buffer
2. Find the address of the buffer
3. Find the return address
4. Replace the return address with the buffer’s address
5. Fill the buffer with malicious code
6. Exploit!
The good news is we are already making progress – we know the size of the buffer by looking at the source code! buffer is defined as a char array of size 80. Step one was pretty easy, how hard can the rest be?
Poke it with a stick
We have to start somewhere. Let’s see what happens when you run the program normally. I’m going to use a sequence of A’s as our argument. At this point, the argument doesn’t really matter, but having a repeating character will be helpful. You’ll see why shortly. We’ll run the program twice, once with less than 80 A’s and another with more.
AAA Function
The first execution went as expected, we see “Exiting…” printed to the console. But the second execution crashed and printed “Segmentation fault”. Normally not a great sign when coding, but this is good news for us! A segmentation fault is an error thrown when a program tries to access restricted memory. The only thing that changed between the first and second call to overflow was our input – clearly something happened the second time around that caused our program to try and access off-limits memory. In order to figure out what is going on, we’re going to have to take a brief look at debugging C code with the GNU Debugger (GDB).
GNU territory
If you are unfamiliar with GDB the remainder of this article will probably seem pretty intimidating. I promise it’s not nearly as scary and alien as it seems – GDB is a debugger like any other. We will be setting breakpoints, viewing the contents of variables, and stepping through the code line by line like we are used to, only without a pretty user interface. Let’s start by displaying vulnerableFunc() and setting some breakpoints.
vulnerablefunc break points
We’re going to stop at line 7 and line 8, immediately before and immediately after we copy our input into the buffer. Let’s run our program in GDB with “AAAA” as our input. We’ll stop just before we copy anything into buffer so we can look at the contents.
AAAA Function Contents
Alright, let’s take this bit by bit. We ran our program in GDB with run AAAA which then hit our first breakpoint on line 7. The second command x /128bx buffer displays 128 bytes as hexadecimal characters, starting where buffer is stored in memory. The leftmost column displays the memory address where the first column is found. So in our example, buffer starts at memory address 0x7fffffffe600 and the first eight bytes are 0x00. Let’s see what happens after the call to strcpy(). The continue command will resume the program so we can get to the next breakpoint.
Next Break Point
We have data! The first four values of buffer are now 0x41. It might seem like nothing, but 0x41 is how the ASCII character A is represented as a hexadecimal value. Our buffer is starting to fill up. We know from looking at the source code that buffer is an array of 80 characters. Each character is a byte, so we should be able to fill up 80 bytes with no issues. Let’s run the program again, this time with 80 A’s, and see what our memory looks like after strcpy() returns.
strcpy return
Hopefully, it makes a little sense why the only input we are giving is a sequence of A’s. It makes it pretty obvious in memory! It looks like buffer starts at address 0x7fffffffe5c0 and ends at address 0x7fffffffe610, which is 80 bytes away. These addresses may change when we run the program, but that won’t be a problem. At the moment, we aren’t concerned with where certain values are stored, we want to know the distance between those values. No matter where our buffer is stored, it will always end 80 bytes later.
If everything above the purple line is our buffer, what is stored below the line? We know that we want to make our buffer overflow so we can overwrite the data there, but what is it exactly? This is where the concept of stack frames is important. If you remember from last time, the stack frame holds some data about where our function was called from, the arguments, and the return address. The goal is to overwrite the return address so we can control what the program does next. GDB makes this very easy with the info frame command. Let’s run the program again (using our 80 A’s) and see what information we can gather. The Docker container is running a 64 bit version of Ubuntu which stores the instruction pointer in a register called rip.
rip Value
Look at that! GDB not only tells us what the value of rip is (0x55555555472a) but it also tells us where it is stored in memory (0x7fffffffe618). But where is this relative to buffer?
Buffer and return address
We see buffer at address 0x7fffffffe5c0 and we see the return address at 0x7fffffffe618, just as GDB promised. Notice how the address in memory is reversed from how it is displayed by GDB. The computer I’m using uses little-endian byte order, which super simplified just means it stores data backwards. Don’t focus too much on what that really means, just remember that an address in memory will be reversed when it is used.
Looks like the address of buffer changed since the last time we ran the program! The good news is that the return address will always be the same distance from the end of the buffer. Doing some hexadecimal math:
0xe618 – 0xe5c0 = 0x58 -> 8810
Finding the difference between the addresses and converting it to decimal tells us that the return address is stored 88 bytes after the start of buffer. Since buffer has 80 bytes allocated for it, the leftover 8 bytes will overflow and end up right next to the return address. On 64 bit operating systems all memory addresses use 64 bits (8 bytes). If we provided 96 characters we would fill up the buffer, overflow so we are close to the return address, and then overwrite the entire return address. Let’s look at the buffer when we copy in 96 A’s.
96 As
info frame shows us that the return address is stored at 0x7fffffffe608, but look what’s in memory! We successfully overwrote the return address. When our function ends, the program will look to 0x7fffffffe608 to find which instruction to execute next. But instead of the original location, it will try and go to 0x4141414141414141. The odds of there being anything useful in that location are pretty small. We’ll change the return address to be equal to the address of the buffer so we can provide our own code to run.
Return to sender
We have our sequence of 96 A’s where the last 8 replace the return address stored on the stack. We need to change those 8 bytes to be the address of buffer. If the address of buffer is 0x7fffffffe5b0, we need to split that into individual bytes, reverse it (little-endian byte order!), and put it inside the argument. One tricky thing to note, GDB removes leading zeros for memory addresses. Our address is only twelve hexadecimal values, which is only six bytes. Since memory addresses on this computer are really 8 bytes long, we’ll add the missing zeroes to make sure our address works.
0x00 0x00 0x7f 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xe5 0xb0
0xb0 0xe5 0xff 0xff 0xff 0x7f 0x00 0x00
The computer will interpret characters preceded by “\x” to be hexadecimal instead of regular ASCII characters. This is the difference between seeing “A” as a value in memory versus seeing “41”. Our input string now looks like this:
Let’s check if this successfully replaced the return address:
Replace Return Address
The memory address where the instruction pointer was stored now holds the reversed address of buffer, perfect! When our function finishes, the program will jump to our buffer to try and find the next instructions to execute, but “AAAAAAAA” is hardly a useful instruction. We’ll build our malicious code next.
The malicious code we are inserting into the buffer has one goal – to open a shell for us. Thus the creative name “shellcode” was born. The C standard library has several functions that can create new processes, but we’re going to focus on execve(). It takes three arguments: the path to a program, an array of arguments to pass to that program, and an array of environment settings. Using this information, it will replace the currently running process with whatever program you tell it to run. This means that everything after the call to execve() doesn’t happen! It is completely replaced in memory. Look at the example code below.
char* argv[] = {"/bin/sh", NULL};
char* env[] = {"FLAG=1", NULL};
execve(argv[0], argv, env);
printf("execve failed");
Now, let’s build this code and see what it does:
Immediately after running the program an empty line with a “#” prompt appears. This is the new shell! It is no different from the shell we were just using to run our program. When we then exit this shell, we are put right back to where we were when we originally ran our shellcode. Notice how we don’t see “execve failed” printed to the console anywhere – that line was replaced with the successful call to execve(). This is the function we are going to use to hijack the vulnerable program.
Some assembly required
Unfortunately, it is not quite as simple as copying and pasting our code into the program’s input – we need to get the instructions that the processor can understand. When compiling code, there is an intermediate step between human readable text and an executable program where we can view the actual machine code.
There are two issues with this, however. The first: the steps to find these instructions is different for each compiler. This makes it difficult to write a good walkthrough! The second issue: our code is not optimized to take up as little space as possible. The instructions for the example shellcode took up a few hundred bytes of memory, way more than our buffer could hold. We’ll solve both of these problems as only programmers could – looking online! The website shell-storm is run by a security researcher who has compiled several versions of shellcodes that have been optimized for buffer overflows. I’ll be using the 27-byte version found here. The instructions, when converted into hexadecimal characters, looks like this:
Now we have to update our attack string so that the program can find our instructions when it tries to read our buffer! Our attack string currently looks like this:
We need to make sure the total size of our string remains the same so the return address is overwritten. If we’re going to prepend 27 bytes we need to remove 27 A’s. The final attack string looks like this:
Running the program one more time:
Return points to buffer
We can see that the code was inserted right where buffer begins and our return address points to buffer. All that is left is to see if it works!
The same thing we do every night Pinky – try to take over the world!
Running the whoami command will print out your username. On this machine, the account being used is subtly named “hacker”. Let’s run the program one more time and see what happens.
I started off as “hacker”, ran the program, and now I have a shell open as the root user! It may not look like much, but it opens up many possibilities to the prepared hacker. None of the famous buffer overflow exploits mentioned in the last article were only buffer overflows – that was just the way in. From here we could install a keylogger, steal data on the server, or start sending out really annoying spam emails!
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Now if you’re sitting there thinking “wow you can teach someone to hack after one blog post, nothing is safe,” let me address some of your concerns and show you what I have been hiding behind the scenes. In short, this won’t work easily on a normal computer. There are a variety of security features I disabled when preparing this demo.
When I ran the Docker image, I needed to provide two flags: –privileged, to give the container full access to the host machine’s devices and memory, and –security-opt seccomp=undefined, to remove any security restrictions placed on the container. Once the container started, I had to disable an operating system feature named Address Space Layout Randomization, or ASLR. ASLR lets the operating system randomize where programs are loaded into memory. Remember how the address of buffer slightly changed at one point? That would have happened each time we ran the program, making it much more difficult to successfully change the return address.
I also had to provide options to the compiler to disable some features that it provides by default. The first was the flag –z execstack. This enables the program to run any instructions that are found on the stack. If we kept this enabled, our program would crash even if we used the correct attack string – it wouldn’t have been able to execute the shellcode. The other feature was disabled with –fno-stack-protector. This feature detects if there were any overflows on the stack by adding a hidden, randomized value in each stack frame and checking the value at the start and end of every function. If this value changes after a function begins, but before it returns, the program knows an overflow occurred and it is no longer safe to assume that the next instruction should be executed.
End of the line
We’ve gone from pure theory to a basic, working exploit in two blog posts. Buffer overflows may not be the most pressing security issue in 2019, but they do happen and they are not that difficult to exploit. Programmers have come up with solutions at the operating system and the compiler level, but the only surefire way to safeguard against buffer overflows (and most vulnerabilities) comes down to safe coding practices. A single if statement to make sure that the buffer is big enough would make this attack impossible.
The moral of the story? Never trust user input!
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Television And Its Effects On Society Over The Past Decades
3829 words - 15 pages
Television and Its Effects on Society Over the Past Decades
Since its first appearance in the 1950’s, television has revealed
itself to be one of the world’s most influential mediums. Its
entrance into the media scene has tossed other mediums, such as the
radio and print media, aside. With at least one television per
household in Canada and with the average Canadian watching about 22.6
hours of TV per week, families are absorbing a great deal of
television content; which includes the good and the bad. However, with
the current selection of television programs, they are more likely to
be seeing more of the bad than the good. In addition, kids more
likely to spend more time in front of the TV because of their need to
be entertained and occupied. This increased exposure of children,
coupled with their level of intellect, leaves them far more vulnerable
to the influences of television.
A lot of the television programs that specifically target children are
permeated with violence. Moreover, the violence is made to seem
natural and acceptable; in other words, it’s all in the name of fun
and no one will get hurt. Take for example “The Bugs Bunny and Tweety
Show” with the Roadrunner and the Coyote. The Coyote is forever
setting up traps for the Roadrunner which always backfire and send him
off a cliff with a boulder close behind or falling victim to his own
dynamite traps. Regardless of deadliness of the trick that backfires
on the Coyote he still survives to plan yet another attack on the
Roadrunner. The contraptions used by the Coyote are endless and so is
the violence that results from them.
Furthermore, these shows have a tendency to depict the world as being
good versus evil. This depiction is not only dangerous because it is
unrealistic, but also because it suggests that the only way to resolve
differences with others is with the use of force. For example, the
cartoon “X-men” tells the story of mutant humans trying to find their
place amongst regular humans. The problem is that some mutants want
to wipe out the normal human race, while the X-men are a group of
mutants trying to exist as normal people do. In order to protect
themselves and normal humans from the evil mutants, they use their
special “mutant powers” to engage in an ongoing bitter battle, where
the one with most powerful mutant defences comes out victorious. And,
hence, the battle between good and evil continues and only the strong
will survive.
Unlike mature adults, young children’s ability to pass rational
judgement is not yet fully developed; therefore, they are incapable of
seeing that, unlike a mere window, television is able change the view
it presents. With the use of sound effects, computer enhancements,
and other special effect techniques television is able to convey any
image it...
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The Tax System In The United Kingdom
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The government of the United Kingdom, likewise the government of many other countries, raises money to spend on public services towards the tax system. The taxes are raised by two different levels of government, the HMRC, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and the local governments, as Barnet, Islington, Camden, Haringey, among others twenty nine local authorities in London, for instance. While the HMRC deduces taxes through Income tax, National Insurance contributions, VAT, corporation tax and fuel duty, local governments are responsible for business rates, council tax and other fees, such as on-street parking. In turn, the money deducted for tax purposes are applied to improve the health, ...view middle of the document...
When the UK government tries to reach both vertical and horizontal equity, it automatically works through progressive tax. In brief, this method deduces more tax from those at higher income levels, increasing benefits, reducing the gap between different incomes and cutting regressive taxes, such as the price of goods. For example, the income tax is based on the percentage of earnings and categorised by bands of tax; therefore, if the income rises, so does the tax. In addition, the system also has a tax-free allowance, meaning that for those earning a very low income, no tax is deducted. However, this effective tool is not well seen by critics, who believe that progressive taxes disincentive individuals to work, as the fact that that higher deductions make the job offer unattractive. On the other hand, economists still believe that higher tax reduces incomes and in turn encourages people to work more. The Treasury said: “Our tax reforms have made the UK one of the most competitive countries in the world, attracting investment, jobs and business. We have changed the approach to tax policy making so that it is more predictable, stable and simple.” (Houlder, 2014). In sum, what is seen as beneficial for one, is seen as unfair by others; furthermore, the current income tax system leads people to commit tax evasion and businesses to adjust wages to compensate higher taxes.
The poverty can be also dealt through a reduction in unemployment, which may be reached through re-training schemes as a policy to increase employability, government sponsored job creations and monetary and fiscal aggregate demand. In 2011, the government of the United Kingdom put into action its work scheme called Help to Work. Long-term unemployed people will have their benefits cut unless they visit a Job Centre every day, work for free or undertake training, under new rules which have now come into effect. The government says the new scheme "absolutely not" intended to punish jobless people (BBC, 2014). Although the government has made a deal with over 70 organisations to provide work experience, the effectiveness of the program is still doubtful due to the lack of opportunities in certain areas of the United Kingdom; consequently, people left with no choice will be highly affected by the new unemployment rule. On the other hand, the unemployment figure has reached the lowest level in five years, 6.8%, the lowest since February 2009.
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Differences between video dubbing and subtitling + List of preferred method per country
Adapting multimedia content for another country is a complex procedure that involves a lot more than simply translating the language. One of the most important decisions one has to make is between subtitling and video dubbing.
What is subtitling?
Subtitling is the process of providing a film, video or program with subtitles. Subtitles are derived from either a transcript or screenplay of the dialog or commentary in films, television programs or video games and are usually displayed at the bottom of the screen.
What is video dubbing?
Dubbing, in filmmaking and video production, is a post-production process in which additional or supplementary recordings are “mixed” with original production sound to create the finished soundtrack.
Advantages and disadvantages of subtitling
Subtitling lets you listen to the original actors’ voices and allows for an extremely accurate translation. It renders the show accessible to viewers who are deaf and hard of hearing, people who cannot understand the spoken dialogue or who have accent recognition problems. Listening to the original language can also help you improve your language skills. By watching and listening to videos in English, foreigners are more likely to improve their ear for the language, their grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. In addition, it’s a lot less expensive.
Nevertheless, subtitles may distract you from the film action and some of the feeling may be lost when read in the written form.
Advantages and disadvantages of video dubbing
On the other hand, dubbing a program means that the audience doesn’t have to read the text while watching the video. For many viewers, hearing the dialogue in their native language lets them focus on the action and immerse themselves in the media.
But, video dubbing is a costly, time-consuming and difficult process. It evolves a lot more than just rendering the words into another language. Most of the time, editors try to synchronize what is being said to match the lip movements of the character. To do so, they often have to change the translation or the word order in the target language for a better fit.
Why certain countries prefer one method than the other?
There has been a lot of debate why some countries prefer to watch dubbed films rather than original films with subtitles. Some say that people with an interest in foreign cultures prefer subtitles, while dubbing is the pick for those with nationalist interests.
Another opinion is that the preference for dubbing or subtitles is indicative of the wealth of the country where the film is being shown, as dubbing is more frequently used in rich countries.
So what should you consider when adapting multimedia content for another country?
The genre and the purpose of the program. Is the program informative? Does it seek to entertain? For example, a documentary or corporate video might benefit more from the preciseness of subtitles, but many artistic productions would not welcome their use on screen.
The target country. Most countries have a preferred method of language adaptation. In Spain for example, almost all foreign-language material is dubbed and this method is preferred over subtitling in most contexts. On the other hand, Greece has traditionally used subtitles in most multimedia content and the audience is accustomed to reading the subtitles while watching videos.
The budget. This can be the most important factor when deciding the preferred method. The cost for subtitling can be up to 15 times less than video dubbing, so no matter what the other pros and cons are, this is an aspect that cannot be ignored.
To help you with this task, we have composed a list of the preferred methods used per country and you can find it here.
If you want to learn more about our subtitling and dubbing services, you can contact us here.
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Germany poland and post memorial relationship
Other nations could learn from Germany's efforts to reconcile after WWII | Hub
germany poland and post memorial relationship
This article investigates the political relations between Poland and the Federal The relation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Peoples' Republic of .. aimed at supporting the choice of this place of remembrance. . were a symbol of post-war epoch closure and the end of the continent's division. After Germany invaded Poland, in September, , the . This dynamic was enacted in a debate, on Polish-Russian relations, held at the “Poland is a typical post-colonial state,” the far-right writer Rafał Ziemkiewicz told me. A memorial in Jedwabne, claiming that the Gestapo had committed the crime. After World War II, Germany faced the need to reconcile with its enemies. were highly anecdotal, but no scholarly work on the German-Israeli relationship. . out to the East and made steps toward reconciliation with Poland in particular. , Brandt laid a wreath at the memorial of the Jewish ghetto.
On September 10,a reparations agreement between Israel and West Germany was signed in Luxembourg. The talks had been conducted in English and there were no handshakes or smiling faces at the signing of the pact, under which West Germany was to pay Israel for integrating Holocaust survivors and agreed to devise German domestic legislation to pay compensation and restitution to individual Jews.
The first reparations payments to the Israeli state as goods in kind began in and ended in ; payments to individuals continue to this day. By the end ofGermany had provided 66 billion euros in all forms of compensation, with the largest share going to Israel.
Some Israelis said it was akin to taking blood money, but the agreement brought in German goods and infrastructure that built and stabilized the Israeli economy. Gardner Feldman, who has been researching German reconciliation for more than 40 years, says nearly every conceivable dimension of political and social relations was engaged in this bilateral connection between West Germany and Israel.
At the same time, Germany was developing a similar relationship with France through cultural institutions such as the Franco-German Youth Office.
German-Polish Relations: A History Of Betrayals - SPIEGEL ONLINE
In the s, West Germany under Willy Brandt, who first was foreign minister and then chancellor, reached out to the East and made steps toward reconciliation with Poland in particular. Brandt said Germany had to build with Poland what it had built with France. On a cold wet day in Warsaw on December 7,Brandt laid a wreath at the memorial of the Jewish ghetto. The lasting image of that day was a photo taken when Brandt fell to his knees in front of the memorial and remained completely still for half a minute on the wet stone floor.
That same day, Brandt signed the Treaty of Warsaw, which committed Germany and Poland to nonviolence and accepted the existing border—the Oder-Neisse line, imposed on Germany by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference.
germany poland and post memorial relationship
Here was a man who had resisted Hitler and owned no direct responsibility for Nazi atrocities, but took on the full weight of their actions.
Though West Germany had gone to great lengths to express contrition for the transgressions of the Nazis, German political leaders long avoided the concept of collective guilt and underlined that Germans had to atone for crimes committed by the Third Reich, not the nation. Brandt, however, was the first German head of government to adopt a clear stance that "no German is free of history. Germany's ongoing relationship with Israel is unique, Gardner Feldman says, but one can see similar reconciliatory themes, approaches, and patterns through Germany's relations with its other former enemies.
In her book, she argues that the "cornerstone, perhaps the very definition, of German foreign policy after World War II became, progressively, reconciliation.
Tensions Growing Between Germany And Poland
Gardner Feldman examined all German chancellors from Adenauer to Merkel and found a common strain: Gardner Feldman speculates, "Maybe [Germany] looked at the most egregious examples or countries that could bring it the most benefit? Japan has rejected claims from individual Korean and Chinese victims. This statement led to the creation, a year later, of the Asian Women's Fund, which provided aid and support to women who were forced into prostitution. It was dissolved in March Gardner Feldman also mentions two statements by Japanese prime ministers: None was followed by robust, concrete action.
Some right-wing politicians have called for Tokyo to revise or rescind the Kono and Murayama apologies. Gardner Feldman observes, "Whereas the Germans from until today are still saying, 'Sorry' and, 'This is our burden from the past,' you have a Japan whose actions contradict the apologies they have uttered.
The shrine is particularly anathema to China, which was occupied by Japan before and during World War II, and Korea, which was colonized by Japan from to Various government ministers paid their respects at the shrine, and Prime Minister Abe sent a small masakaki tree.
Germany, meanwhile, has used sites of Nazi crimes, such as concentration camps, as learning and teaching tools and visible representations of atrocities. In Berlin, there are countless physical reminders such as words engraved in cobblestones that mark the arrests of Jews or where families lived before they were pushed out by the Third Reich. While Japan has largely forgone reconciliation, Germany has used its policy to claim a moral high ground and become a trusted power.
germany poland and post memorial relationship
Hanns Maull, the foreign policy analyst, says that one reason Germany has become so trusted is the lengths it has gone to distance itself from its days as an aggressive power.
Military power, in particular, is taboo. Germany debates the role of force and has a very cautious approach.
germany poland and post memorial relationship
Germans are willing, under certain conditions, to use military force but never to use it alone and only when there's no choice but military intervention. Gardner Feldman says no. Every new generation has to deal with this. Gardner Feldman says other nations might learn from this.
Other nations could learn from Germany's efforts to reconcile after WWII
She argues that Germany could help China and South Korea settle decades-long disputes with Japan over the ownership of islands in the East China Sea and Sea of Japan, as well as show the way for Japan to make amends. At the same time, Catholicism became the decisive element of Polish identity. Only a Catholic can be a true patriot, on this view.
Poland 's Patriotic Mystique The divisions are probably the most important explanation for the exceptional patriotism of the Poles. While all modern European nations invent their own symbols during this era, the royal Polish throne and regalia were taken to Russia, never to be returned. Polish flags and coats of arms were banned, and singing patriotic songs became an act of high treason.
The result, writes British historian and Poland expert Norman Davies, was a feeling of patriotism that exempted everything Polish from criticism. This sentiment recedes slightly into the background only in With the final collapse of the monarchies in Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany, Poland regains its place on the map.
The rebirth of the republic is celebrated frenetically by the population. But Germany views the loss of German-speaking territories in Silesia, Pomerania and Western Prussia -- part of the Poland by the Treaty of Versailles -- as a great injustice. Nazi Germany's attack on Poland on Sept. The regime of occupation was brutal: Following the elimination of the Polish intelligentsia, the Germans shipped thousands of Poles to Germany as slave laborers.
It was the largest act of resistance against Nazi rule. More thanpeople died, and the city was razed to the ground house by house. Poland had been destroyed, and the Red Army was stationed within the country, which Stalin wanted to turn into a Soviet satellite state.
germany poland and post memorial relationship
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt was prepared to recognize the provisional communist government and British resistance to the plan was weak.
Poland, Europe and Forgiveness as a Political Strategy after World War II
Poland fell into the Soviet sphere of influence. At the Potsdam Conference, half of Poland's eastern territory was separated from the country and made part of the Soviet Union -- the very territories granted to the Soviets as part of the Hitler-Stalin pact.
The new Poland was compensated by land in the west -- territory which had previously belonged to the Germans. More than 10 million Germans fled or were expelled. Poles from the country's former eastern territories were resettled and move into the homes of the expellees. The Communist rulers stoked Polish nationalism, but mostly they fanned the flames of anti-German fear.
The Conference has agreed in principle to the proposal of the Soviet Government concerning the ultimate [19] transfer to the Soviet Union of the City of Koenigsberg and the area adjacent to it as described above subject to expert examination of the actual frontier. The President of the United States and the British Prime Minister have declared that they will support the proposal of the Conference at the forthcoming peace settlement.
The British and United States Governments have taken measures to protect the interest of the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity as the recognized government of the Polish State in the property belonging to the Polish State located in their territories and under their control, whatever the form of this property may be.
In conformity with the agreement on Poland reached at the Crimea Conference the three Heads of Government have sought the opinion of the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity in regard to the accession of territory in the north and west which Poland should receive.
The President of the National Council of Poland and members of the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity have been received at the Conference and have fully presented their views. The three Heads of Government reaffirm their opinion that the final delimitation of the western frontier of Poland should await the peace settlement. The three Heads of Government agree that, pending the final determination of Poland's western frontier, the former German territories east of a line running from the Baltic Sea immediately west of Swinamunde, and thence along the Oder River to the confluence of the western Neisse River and along the Western Neisse to the Czechoslovak frontier, including that portion of East Prussia not placed under the administration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in accordance with the understanding reached at this conference and including the area of the former free city of Danzig, shall be under the administration of the Polish State and for such purposes should not be considered as part of the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany.
Emphasis added The Allies also agreed that: Orderly transfer of German populations. The Three Governments [of the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain], having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, will have to be undertaken.
They agree that any transfers that take place should be effected in an orderly and humane manner.
germany poland and post memorial relationship
There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble. A clean sweep will be made.
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Thursday, 4 March 2010
The Many Drug Abuse Effects
With today's level of education on the issue, it is fair to say that everyone in the Western hemisphere knows drugs are bad for you. However, do you know what 'bad for you' constitutes? Drug abuse effects range from the mental to the physical to the social.
Most people see this as a 'harmless' drug, mostly because it has some medicinal properties, and is a naturally occurring substance. Unfortunately this doesn't mean that there are no negative effects on long term users. While this may not be the kind of drug which can kill you with one dose, it can still have devastating consequences for your life over a long period.
Marijuana can cause you to develop mental problems through long term and short term use. Excess use can lead to paranoia, in both the long term and short term. Studies have also shown that prolonged use has a negative impact on mental abilities and IQ. The drug can also lead to apathy and stereotypical 'stoner' behavior, where the user is interested in nothing but the next joint.
Marijuana can also harm a fetus during pregnancy, and lead to psychosis and mental dependence on the drug.
Heroin is commonly seen as one of the most unpleasant drugs available to buy. It invokes strong chemical and mental dependency. The problems caused by heroin are threefold; the actual drug itself which is incredibly harmful to the body; the culture of violence and crime surrounding its sale and production; and associated diseases such as AIDS which are associated with sharing needles.
The effects on the body are extreme - as the drug depresses respiratory function, prolonged use can lead to lung or heart failure! It also has associations with liver disease and pneumonia due the suppression of the immune system.
Secondary illnesses which are associated with heroin abuse include the AIDS epidemic and hepatitis. This is largely due to the sharing of needles, which leads to cross contamination. Both these diseases can be managed, but not cured and greatly affect the lives of those who contract them.
The social aspect, including the dependence upon the drug makes the user incredibly venerable to dealers. Many people are coerced into trades such as prostitution in order to fund their drug abuse.
Cocaine / Crack Cocaine
Cocaine and crack cocaine are similar drugs; crack cocaine is a processed form of cocaine which is mixed with baking soda or ammonia. Drug abuse effects caused by cocaine are severe; often users will continue to take the drug only to avoid the savage withdrawal which the drug causes.
Due to the rise in blood pressure, and resultant rush, there is a high incidence of strokes among cocaine users, as well as a variety of other cardiac problems. The drug is also associated with acts of violence due to the savage rush it entails.
These are just some of the drugs and the effects of drug abuse which are affecting society today. Hopefully you are now a little more aware of the consequences of drug abuse, and can make an informed choice as to whether or not you use.
Christine Crotts is not ashamed to say that she is girlie and likes the color pink. Christine has written a site containing reviews on pink bath towels, as well as purple bath towels.
Monday, 1 March 2010
Sesame Street: Healthy Foods
A List Of Healthy Foods To Eat
Finding a list of healthy foods to eat is not as easy you would think. There are a lot of amazing foods in the world that can increase your well being and make you look amazing. It is just about finding them.
What is healthy food?
Healthy food is food that is healthy. Now that might sound oversimplified but that is what it is. You can generally tell what food is healthy and what food is not. Fruit and vegetables are the obvious choice. The problem is that every corner seems to be filled with a fast food joint. This makes making the healthy choices a little bit harder.
Why fruits and vegetables?
They may seem dull to eat but they are the "bread and butter" of healthy foods. You could make a list of healthy foods to eat right now by simply visiting the fruits and vegetables section of any supermarket. Why is this?
Fruits and vegetables contain all the vitamins that your body needs on a daily basis. This includes vitamins A, B, C, D and E. They all serve different areas of the body. On top of this they are also very low in fat. So you are eating food but not storing anything. The low quantity of carbohydrates that they are made of is burnt of quickly throughout the day. Celery for example is in fact considered a negative calorie food. You actually lose weight eating it.
What else is healthy?
To be completely healthy and find a list of healthy foods to eat, you are however going to need more than just fruits and vegetables. Carbohydrates and proteins are the base of any meal. Breads, cereals, rice and pasta are all excellent carbohydrates. The wholemeal choice is always the best option.
Proteins are essential for muscle repair and include meat, poultry, fish and eggs. Of course the right kind of meat must be chosen. Chicken breast is an excellent choice, along with turkey and tuna. When eating eggs it is always best to keep the egg yolks to a minimum. A ratio of 1 yolk to 3 eggs is ideal.
Milk, yoghurt and cheese are excellent sources of calcium which greatly benefits your bone strength. The low fat choice of both is also recommended.
What about fats?
The right kind of fats in the right quantities is absolutely essential. Sweets and fried food generally do not fit in to this category. Fish oil and nuts are rich a source of healthy fats including Omega-3.
How much do I Eat?
This really depends on your daily activity level. To lose weight, carbohydrates and fats should be restricted to a low amount. Weight maintenance can be done simply by making the healthy choices and avoiding junk food.
Can I ever eat junk food?
At the end of the day, we are all human and it is impossible to suppress cravings for junk food for the rest of your life. So you certainly can eat junk food but only once in a while. For example you could reward yourself for a week of healthy eating by going out of a meal. This is fine as long as you are back to healthy eating the next day.
Where can I find a complete list of these healthy foods?
This is a basic overview of a list of healthy foods to eat. There are many guides available that can help you with this and actually do provide you with a list of healthy foods to eat. They can be very affordable and well worth the money.
If you would like some recommendations click here to visit a review page for these guides.
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Friday, 26 February 2010
The Ultimate Benefits of Aerobic Exercises
When the object is to learn the ultimate benefits over of aerobic exercises, it is great to learn a little something about the human anatomy. Since aerobic means 'with oxygen' and anaerobic means 'without oxygen' any exercise program that is aerobic will have to do with your body's ability to deal with oxygen. The body handles the task of transferring oxygen around to certain areas through the organs and muscles.
The first thing that comes to mind when we think about breathing and oxygen is of course the lungs. The lungs are very important when it comes to aerobic exercising and benefits the greatest from working out since air is forced in and out in a rhythmic pattern. Think of aerobic exercise and your organs as being as important as working on the muscles in your leg or arm. By exercising any muscle of the body what you are doing is maxing out that muscle and force the area to add on more muscle for the next round. This is one of the greatest benefits of aerobic exercises but that's not the only benefit, as there are plenty more.
Aerobic Areas Lungs and Heart
The lungs are only one of many very important parts of your body's entire process of accessing oxygen mainly through the lungs and the heart and blood. The benefit of a robust exercise is based solely on how well your body can deliver much-needed oxygen to your muscles and convert that oxygen into energy. Any exercise that improves the aerobic capacity of your body will make you feel better as the body has to work less for conversion of the much-needed oxygen and dispelling the waste product which is carbon monoxide.
Longevity and Quality of Life
The greatest benefit for participating in any aerobic exercise is longevity and quality of life. This life is the only one you have and so far this body is the only one that you can have while on this earth so why not do all you can to keep it healthy and maintain that quality of life. By working out, on a regular basis in the genre of aerobics you will find that as the day's roll on the exercises will become easier to handle. Once the exercises become too easy it is time to make them a little more difficult by shortening the time that you have been given yourself to complete a repetition or increasing the number of repetitions in the exercise. Regardless of which one you increase or decrease the bottom line will be that you are becoming a healthy individual and your body will be rewarded with excellent lung capacity great blood flow and a healthy mind!
Father Time Delaying
By maintaining a regular aerobic exercise program even as you age, your muscles will stay physically fit and this will help prevent spills and falls that inevitably happen as we get older. It is a battle against Father Time and you can extend your stay on this planet and be as healthy as possible by participating in a great aerobic program at your local gym or even at home. The bottom line is that you will be doing something for the physical fitness aspect of your body and by keeping a positive mental attitude before you know it you will be feeling and looking great!
Bonus Tip: If you really want to Lose Weight fast, there is a proven step-by-step technique that can help. You can shed pounds every week with this method!
You WILL lose more weight with LESS effort using this technique so plan on shopping for tighter clothes and sexy bikinis.
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George Christodoulou - EzineArticles Expert Author
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
5 minute cardio workout
Cardio Fitness to a Happy Heart
Most of us know about cardiovascular fitness but still we are looking for alternative and easy ways of loosing fat and get a toned up body. There are no shortcuts to a good lean body, even though the market is full of products claiming to do so. It needs some consistent efforts on our part to see the results. You can not see the results overnight, it's a cumulative effect that adds up. Cardio training and cardio fitness is the best way to get in shape and have all other health benefits like a healthy cardiovascular system ie. your heart and lungs.
Any form of aerobic exercise that keeps your heart rate close to target heart rate would add up to your cardio training. Running, jogging, cycling, aerobics, martial arts or even some forms of dance can help you do so. Good cardio session is the best way to burn up those extra calories, anyone looking for a weight loss should count the intake of calories and try to burn more than they consume. Intensity and duration of a cardio workout is what makes it effective. A fit cardio system would keep up your metabolism making you feel good and energetic through out the day.
It is tough for most people to let their bodies come out of comfort zones and make them workout and sweat. It takes some effort at first but if you continue with your routine, you would be looking forward to your sessions and enjoy them. There are lots of ways to keep a person motivated to reach for his fitness goals- take a gym membership, get a partner for exercise, take up something of your interest or get exercise equipment like treadmill or elliptical trainer.
Prevention is always better than cures. Get a ton of health benefits with cardio fitness, rather than getting treated or looking for short cuts to obesity, heart diseases and respiratory disorders. It's the only body and life we have, respect it, keep fit and enjoy every moment.
Adam is a fitness enthusiast keenly interested in fitness and health for the last 12 years. Get fitness information and tips with all the news and reviews about the best equipments and products at
Article Source:
Tae Bo Cardio Billy Blanks part 1
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Hold My Bordeaux and Watch This...
With the end of the First World War, massive victory parades were the order of the day, and France planned theirs on July 14, 1919 (Bastille Day). But the pilots of the L’Armée de L’Air were incensed that they would be required to march on foot with the common soldiers. No plans had been made for a flyover during the parade. A group of aggrieved pilots assembled in a bar along the Champs-Élysées and decided that a demonstration of the skill and bravery of the French airmen must be undertaken. The only thing to do, in their minds, was to fly a plane through Arc de Triomphe, one of France’s iconic structures and a monument to soldiers of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. It is not recorded if consumption of alcohol was a factor in this decision.
Jean Navarre, left, and Charles Godefroy (Collection Familliale d’André Navarre; Bibliothèque National de France)
The honor of performing the protest stunt fell on French ace Jean Navarre, but perhaps in a testament to the wisdom—or lack thereof—in this idea, Navarre was killed in a crash while flying at low-altitude in preparation for the stunt. Undaunted, another French pilot, Charles Godefroy, stepped in to take his place. Godefroy was a particularly skilled aviator who had been seriously wounded as an infantryman and returned to service as a pilot and flying instructor. He chose a Nieuport 11 Bébé for the daring flight, which had a wingspan of just under 25 feet. This would give Godefroy about 12 feet of clearance on either side as he passed through the main vault of the Arc.
Nieuport 11 Bébé, the type of aircraft Godefroy flew through the Arc. The Bébé was a smaller development of the Nieuport 10, and had been designed specifically for dogfighting. (SDASM)
Godefroy missed the chance to perform his protest stunt during the parade, but remained determined to make the flight. One month later, on August 7, with cameras rolling to record the feat, Godefroy took off from Villacoublay Aerodrome southwest of Paris, circled the Arc, dropped to as low as 15 feet above the ground, and roared down the Avenue de la Grande-Armée as pedestrians scattered and bus passengers dove for cover. The Bébé made a single pass through the Arc with room to spare, and Godefroy returned to Villacoublay before anybody had even noticed he was gone.
The next day, the French government was in an uproar, and the film of Godefroy’s flight was banned from cinemas over fear that others might attempt to repeat his feat. (Two other pilots have since flown through the Arc, in 1981 and 1991.) However, Goderfroy was not even reprimanded, and he soon retired from the military, returned to his wine business, and lived to the ripe age of 70.
About 50 years later....
It would seem there is something in the blood of a fighter pilot that takes particular umbrage when their service isn’t recognized, and they demonstrate their displeasure by flying big airplanes through small places. In 1968, the British government inexplicably omitted any sort of aerial demonstration during festivities to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Air Force. Incensed at this snub, RAF Flight Lieutenant Alan Pollock flew his Hawker Hunter felt that some sort of demonstration was in order. Leaving other members of his wing behind, Pollock beat up the RAF West Raynham airfield, then flew at low level to London. There circled the Houses of Parliament three times, dipped his wings over the Royal Air Force Memorial as a salute to fallen RAF pilots, then flew his Hunter under the top span of London’s famous Tower Bridge. He then returned to his base flying inverted 200 feet above the ground. Unlike Godefroy, Pollock was set to be court-martialed, but was released from service on medical grounds before the trial could commence. In both cases, the lack of discipline may well have been tacit approval from commanders for such audacity. After all, Godefroy’s and Pollock’s bosses were likely fighter pilots themselves.
For more stories about aviation, aviators, aviation history, and aviation oddities, visit Wingspan.
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The label ‘TERF’, or ‘Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist’:
1. Is not a meaningful description of any feminist politics.
Radical feminism is an approach to analysing the oppression and exploitation of the class of female people by the class of male people. It seeks to uncover and challenge the root causes and origins of that system of oppression, which it labels patriarchy. Different radical feminist analyses will emphasise different elements – access to female reproductive labour, sexual access to women’s bodies, compulsory heterosexuality, male-dominated religion – as central to understanding the function and continued maintenance of patriarchy. So we should not assume that there is unity or homogeneity among those whose views can be called radical feminist. However, a key assumption underpinning radical feminist analyses is that the word “female” denotes a biological category, referring to the class of persons capable of menstruating, ovulating, gestating, and lactating. Radical feminist analysis starts from the assumption that living in a sexed body brings with it particular experiences that are of social and political significance, and that if we are to explain and dismantle patriarchy, we need to be able to describe and understand those experiences.
For this reason, it makes little sense to describe, and still less to criticise, a radical feminist approach as “trans exclusionary”. Radical feminism seeks to make sense of the social and political reality of living in a particular type of body – a female body – and to eradicate the oppression and exploitation associated with the social relations between female-bodied people and male-bodied people. Therefore, its analysis of patriarchy as a system of sex-based oppression has little to say about the experiences of people who identify as women but do not inhabit female bodies. This is not an oversight or an illegitimate act of exclusion. It is simply not the aim or purpose of radical feminist theory to seek to analyse or explain the specific experiences of transwomen, which will, necessarily, be importantly different from those of female people. None of this is to deny that transwomen will experience marginalisation, discrimination and injustice. It is merely to note that these injustices are not rooted in biological sex, unlike the oppression of female people. Insofar as they are not, they are not intended to fall under the purview of radical feminist analysis. To criticise radical feminist analysis for being trans-exclusionary is to operate under the false assumption that the aim and purpose of radical feminism should be to explain and dismantle all forms of injustice and marginalisation, rather than to limit its focus to the sex-based oppression of female people. It is legitimate and reasonable for radical feminists to focus narrowly on analysing and dismantling sex-based oppression, and therefore criticism that their efforts do not also explain and challenge other unrelated social ills is misplaced.
2. Is rarely, if ever, accurately applied, even if it were a meaningful label.
Many of the people who are labelled TERFs do not meet the description of any of the words included in the phrase. The label TERF is often applied to men, to people who are not feminists of any kind, radical or otherwise, and even to anti-feminists. You can be called a TERF for believing that female and male are biological distinctions, rather than identities. Statements such as “only female people can get pregnant”, or “the penis is the male sex organ”, will frequently attract accusations that the speaker is a TERF. One need not subscribe to the analysis of sex-based oppression outlined in point 1 to be called a TERF. It is sufficient that one believes that female and male are real biological categories, and that there are genuine differences between the two that cannot be reduced to identity or feelings, to be labelled a TERF.
Furthermore, the first half of the phrase is equally ill-defined, and inaccurately applied. It is not clear what, exactly, transwomen (or transpeople more generally) are being excluded from. Many people would argue, quite reasonably, that male-bodied people who identify as women should not have an absolute and unqualified right of access to all women’s spaces, where this includes women’s prisons, refuges, or changing facilities. It does not follow from this that those people think all transwomen should be excluded from all women’s spaces, or from all feminist projects and activism. Add to this the vagueness and lack of clarity about what the word “trans” actually means, and what criteria a person has to meet to be defined as “trans”, and it becomes even more apparent that the description “trans-exclusionary” is so vague and ill-defined as to be incapable of being applied meaningfully and accurately.
3. Is inextricably associated with misogynistic, abusive, violent rhetoric.
The vast majority of people who use the word TERF intend it to be an insult, and apply it indiscriminately, frequently accompanied by threatening, aggressive and abusive language. Those who label women TERFs routinely threaten violence, employ misogynistic slurs and anti-lesbian rhetoric. There is no shortage of evidence of this; there is far, far more evidence of the word being used as an abusive slur, than there is of it being employed as a neutral description of a political position. Given that it is overwhelmingly used as a term of vitriol and abuse, and often accompanied by violent threats, it is not a term that anyone who wishes to be taken seriously as a credible political commentator should be using, or attempting to rehabilitate.
Furthermore, commonly invoked attempts to present it as a neutral descriptive label fall flat when it is compared with other comparable slurs. It is often said that it cannot be abusive because it is merely an acronym; however, few would suggest that the word “tranny” is not a slur, because it is merely an abbreviation. Context, intent and actual usage matter hugely, as do the perceptions of the person to whom the label is directed. Most transpeople justifiably perceive the word “tranny” to be more than just an abbreviation. It is an offensive term of abuse intended to belittle, demean and dehumanise, and as such, it is perceived as a slur by those subjected to it. Those people may or may not choose to reclaim it and refer to themselves by that term, but those who are not subjected to it have no authority to tell transpeople that they ought not to find the word offensive, or ought not to feel threatened and dehumanised by those who use it. The same considerations apply to the word ‘TERF’. No feminist, radical or otherwise, adopts the label as a description of herself or her politics. Most if not all to whom it is applied perceive it as a slur, and given its connotations, will feel threatened or belittled by it.
It is sometimes claimed that the word cannot be a slur because it was allegedly coined by self-described radical feminists who wanted to distance themselves from other radical feminists who they perceived to have the wrong politics. It’s not clear if this is true, since various trans activists have claimed that they are responsible for coining or popularising the term. But it makes little difference, since the history and etymology of the word does not determine its current usage. What matters is the context in which the word is now used and the connotations it currently has, and those are undoubtedly abusive and misogynistic.
All those who perceive themselves to have progressive politics and to be allies to women should stop using the word TERF immediately.
47 thoughts on “The word ‘TERF’
1. Unfortunately, words quickly fill vacuums, whether they make sense there or not, and the war between feminists who prioritize gender and those who prioritize sex needs labels. If you hope to remove “terf” from civil discussions, you have to propose the non-judgmental alternative. Those who reject terfs might be called gender feminists, but I suspect it would just confuse things to call the other side sex feminists, and “biology feminists” sounds like feminists who work in labs.
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1. Nah. We don’t need another word to replace ‘TERF’, because 1) we don’t need a word to replace something that doesn’t meaningfully describe anything, and 2) we don’t need a word to replace something that functions primarily as a slur.
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1. Oh, I agree we wouldn’t want a word that suggests gender-prioritizers are right to demonize sex-prioritizers, but among the many divides in feminism, that may be the most prominent one currently. If your side doesn’t claim a name, you’ll be stuck with the one the haters give you. I noticed this when I was a teen studying Buddhism—some Mahayana Buddhists call Theravada Buddhists by the diminutive of “Hinayana”, but the polite ones do as most of us do and call everyone by the name they prefer.
1. There is already a name for radical feminists and radical feminist analysis – Radical Feminist and Radical Feminist analysis/theory.
I also use the terms, for myself, gender critical and gender abolitionist.
You are I think slightly missing the point here that the slur terf is mostly misogynous, and used to try and limit where women can apply their critical thinking, in order to promote the insidious upgraded version of patriarchy: (neo) liberal feminism.
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2. Interesting how we have a special word for the women who disagree with trans, but there’s no special word for the men who kill trans.
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2. Why not “feminists” for activists who focus on female-specific issues and “trans rights activists” for people focused on trans-specific issues? Trans people face their own distinct set of challenges with their own distinct set of solutions. They need their own advocacy groups apart from female advocacy groups. The same is true in reverse.
Activism that is not focused on issues that affect females is not “feminist” activism. An anti-racist activist (or trans rights activist) can *also* be a feminist, but feminism isn’t inherently about race or trans rights, it’s about females. There’s no reason trans folks shouldn’t have their own advocates but that doesn’t give them or their advocates the the right to
A) appropriate feminism & direct it away from challenges facing females specifically or
B) attempt to strip feminists of the name “feminist” & put a new, hateful, exclusively pejorative name on them.
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1. Every group that’s large enough to have subsets will have people who want to claim the overall name for their subset and say all the others should be called something else. It never works. Just as there’s bourgeois feminism and socialist feminism (the divide that most interests me), there’s gender feminism and, well, chromosome feminism. I completely agree that the experiences of ciswomen and transwomen are different, so it’s entirely appropriate to have groups that are exclusively ciswomen or exclusively transwomen, and that doesn’t make them any less potential allies than Protestants and Catholics.
But humans like having names for themselves and those they see as different in some way. Maybe the polite way to discuss this divide is to talk about cis feminism and trans feminism. I’m really not arguing for a particular name. I’m just pointing out that if you object to “terf” (and you should!), you need an alternative that’s reasonably terse and self-explanatory.
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1. Radical feminism is inherently based on biological sex. The idea that gender is a social construct and the core mechanism of the patriarchal oppression of women is the foundation of radical feminism. The purpose of “TERF” isn’t to fill a void where no word existed. The purpose of “TERF” is denigrate and bully women who dare to support things like sex-separated spaces, girls’ sports, lesbianism, etc.
Most radical feminists do not agree with the reasoning behind the word “cis” and would not freely apply it to themselves any more than they would “TERF”. If you Google search the phrase “cis radfem”, ALL of the results are derogatory. Cis means “not trans”, and as the meaning of “trans” becomes broader and broader, “cis” becomes narrower and narrower, to the point where it’s no longer an accurate descriptor of the people the trans activists would like to label “cis”. Many radical feminists could easily fall into various trans/genderqueer categories based on our “gender expression”, but choose not to adopt those labels because we don’t subscribe to that ideology. This supposedly makes us “cis”, even though a “cis” person is supposedly someone comfortable with their assigned gender. Well, obviously radical feminists aren’t comfortable with our assigned gender! That’s why we’re here!
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1. I used cis and trans because they’re short. But they’re also examples of the way words will be used to fill voids. We currently effectively have four genders who somehow must coexist in a world designed for two. I use cis and trans neutrally, but if you hear them as derogatory, that’s all the more reason to come up with another distinction that most people can agree is only descriptive.
2. Oh, I should add that I hope before I die, our society will abandon the concept of gender entirely and stick to sex. It’s been a useful analytical term, but the current brouhaha suggests it’s nearing the end of its run.
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3. TERF has never been a part of civil discussions, as a cursory Google search will show. If you believe this word to “fill a vacuum,” what exactly is it describing? Radical feminism is a form of analysis, and radical feminists certainly don’t exclude transgender individuals from that analysis. Those who use “TERF” don’t bother to determine whether the woman they so label is a radical feminist, or even whether she’s a feminist at all. Being a woman who questions any aspect of transgender ideology is enough to garner the label. “TERF” is just lesbian baiting, updated for modern times. It’s meant to convey that only old, ugly man-hating extremists — the popular stereotype of “radical feminists” — could possibly object to the demand that any man who says he is a woman must be socially and legally accepted as such.
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4. I think “radical feminist” is sufficient as a label for those feminists who prioritize sex / see gender as an oppressive social construct based on sex. Correct me if I’m wrong.
If it’s too long, I think “radfem” is generally considered a neutral abbreviation. (For instance there’s the website which is a radical feminist literary archive.) See also libfem.
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2. If I might be permitted to comment, I have read radical feminist articles that speak of how men are inherently violent and dangerous, because they are men, and that therefore transwomen are equally dangerous, for their biology is inherently male, and therefore dangerous. The presumptive attitude is that a transwoman will inevitably seek to hurt women, for that is what is hard-wired into their DNA.
I understand that the concept of gender is considered by radical feminists to be a construct of society – one that hurts women and men alike – but the idea that either men or women are biologically pre-determined to certain behaviour is to suggest we cannot change our behaviour. It’s also fuel to the fire for MRAs, MGTOWs etc that women should behave in accordance with biology.
All I know is – if someone is trans, then they run the risk of being shunned by several elements of society. They are targets for MRAs, for conservative religious groups, and I as I said at the start, I have read radical feminist articles that are decidedly exclusionary of transwomen. Your article is very good, and presents a more moderate and considered response to this issue than most.
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1. I can’t really comment on that, because it’s not a view I hold. I do not think that men are inherently violent and dangerous (although I do think that their increased levels of testosterone are likely to make them more violent than women are; that doesn’t mean they are all violent, only relatively more likely to be so.) I do not think that either male or female biology makes either sex pre-determined or pre-destined to certain behaviour, and thus I cannot respond to the criticism. I’m not sure if other feminists think that, or if some self-described radical feminists think it. You’d have to take it up with them.
I agree that trans people face stigma, discrimination, harassment and abuse. These things are unacceptable. However, it doesn’t generally speaking come from feminists. I haven’t seen feminists threatening to set trans women on fire on social media, but I have seen the reverse happen.
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2. Do you have any links to those articles, where radical feminists allegedly claim male violence is hard-wired into male DNA? I’m not sure if I ever heard any radical feminist make such a claim. Maybe it was meant in the sense that all men *under patriarchy* are conditioned to abuse women, which is not a claim of biological determinism but may have sounded like one because the result is the same so long as we still live under patriarchy: every male-born person is socialized into masculinity so the fact that they are biologically male is concrete grounds for excluding them from female spaces as a safety measure. It’s easy to confuse this with a claim of biological determinism.
Half anecdote half statistic: In a small poll that was held in radical feminist circles on Twitter, asking what radfems think is the source of male violence, the results showed “pure biology” to be an extremely rarely held position (one or two votes I think, may have as well been trolls), “pure socialization” also quite rare if I remember correctly, and by far the most voted answer was “mix of biology and socialization.” All in all, while I can’t speak for them, I always had the impression that there’s consensus among radical feminists that sex segregation is kind of an emergency response, whereas fixing boys’ socialization is the long-term solution to male violence. I.e. they may be more prone to become violent due to their hormones, but it’s not so that proper socialization can’t teach them to just keep that under control.
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1. You’ ve never heard it because radical feminists, as a category, don’ t believe in it. It would be like believing in female brain, which is something they would never be on board with. What radical feminism says is that it’ s socialization that needs to be held responsible.
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2. Greetings,
I did attempt to post this earlier, but it seems to have gotten swallowed by the net. Such is the wonder of modern technology!
The first such article that makes the implication male behaviour is rooted in biology and that men are inevitably inclined toward violence is here:
I’m certainly not saying this is indicative of all radical feminists, and I don’t know what circumstances have led the authors to their conclusions, but the implication of these posts is clear – men are inevitably dangerous, and will inevitably hurt women, and this has nothing to do with social conditioning – it is biological.
As a father to a little girl, it would not surprise you to learn I take offence to this idea. I would sooner die than harm my wife or daughter.
3. It doesn’t matter whether male violence is inborn or socially produced; either way, transwomen are male and as such they belong to the same biological sex and therefore receive the same social conditioning as all males do. Even male-bodied people who transition early on don’t receive the same socialization or have the same embodied experience as females. Feminists seek the liberation of females. It’s not our responsibility to save males who experience their own challenges (violence from other males, mostly) or to downplay the fact that transwomen commit crimes at the same rates as other males. Trans people aren’t inherently predatory. It’s just that males, for whatever reason, are responsible for most of the violence in this world and no amount of negative feelings or oppressive experiences negate that truth. The truth hurts, and mostly it hurts women and girls. We do not have to acknowledge the problems experienced by trans people each and every time we talk about our the oppression of females. The guilt trip and gaslighting is plain old male domination and it needs to stop.
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4. ” The presumptive attitude is that a transwoman will inevitably seek to hurt women, for that is what is hard-wired into their DNA.” “…the idea that either men or women are biologically pre-determined to certain behaviour is to suggest we cannot change our behaviour.”
Here are some more fallacies of yours to be corrected. Let me attempt it. A predisposition to do something does NOT indicate that people can not change their behavior. Males may be more biologically hard-wired for violence, but it is also indisputable that they are socialized to be more violent. Radfems are not saying that it is 100% nature. “Transwoman” commit violence against women for the same exact reasons other men do: because they can get away with it, it is socially sanctioned, transwomen have male upbringings and socialization, we live in a male-supremacist patriarchy, and because they are also men biologically and thus predisposed to violence. (Again, “predisposed” does NOT mean that violence is inevitable, or change is impossible.)
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1. Yeah, if someone believes that male violence is inevitable then there’s literally no point to radical feminism. Why bother destroying patriarchy if men will still be just as violent in the end? How can you even meaningfully destroy patriarchy if there’s no way to change male violence, given that patriarchy is a violent system? The two concepts are totally at odds.
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1. We need to remember sex roles did not invent themselves. Sex roles are just a tool males invented to make male domination seem less imposed on females. I think before males socialised girls from a young age to be submissive, there would have been more obvious force used against us. Most non human primate societies are male dominated. The ones that are not form female coalitions against males, such as bonobos. (Incidentally in these societies they is more same sex contacts between both sexes.)
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3. The problem is that women confronted with a man whether or not that man identities as not a man cannot be expected to work out whether they will be violent or not. The only safe option is that women have safe and separate spaces at this time in history. When one day no men are violent it might be different.
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4. “Radical feminism seeks to make sense of the social and political reality of living in a particular type of body – a female body… Therefore, its analysis of patriarchy as a system of sex-based oppression has little to say about the experiences of people who identify as women but do not inhabit female bodies. This is not an oversight or an illegitimate act of exclusion. It is simply not the aim or purpose of radical feminist theory”
I love this succinct explanation so much. Filing away for future use.
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5. Women don’t have the class power to exclude male bodies from anywhere, so to be called a Trans Exclusionary woman is wildly inaccurate.
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6. Maybe you should do a follow up on the legions of so-called TERFs who call trans people ‘pigs’, ‘roaches’, ‘fetishists’, ‘autogynephiles’, ‘rapists’, ‘perverts’ etc. The hypocritical bigots who do everything they can to denigrate and dehumanise trans people but then whine about how ‘TERF is a slur’. But I appreciate it if you don’t want to upset your little twitter fanbase. God knows self-awareness isn’t their strong suite.
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1. I’m a bit bemused as to why you have left this comment on my blog, since if you have read anything I have ever written you will know that I don’t do any of those things. I haven’t ever called anyone pigs or roaches, and I don’t denigrate or dehumanise anybody. All I ever do is make careful, reasoned arguments against a particular conception of innate gender identity that I think is incoherent and harmful. In response, I get called a TERF, a bitch, a cunt. I get threats of violence. I get people threatening to come to my place of work to harass me.
If you see people calling trans people abusive names, I suggest you take it up with them, instead of inexplicably holding me responsible for the abusive behaviour of others.
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1. You are something of an opinion-leader amongst people who use that kind of language* all the time and yet you and the other “respectable” anti-trans feminists never say anything about it. What you do – intentionally or not – is provide a veneer of “reason” and respectability for those people to hide behind. If that’s something you’re comfortable with, then good for you. But perhaps you should consider why that kind of bigotry is so commonplace amongst “gender critical” feminists.
*That’s why many people don’t care if those particular people find “TERF” offensive, by the way. If they want to be bigots then I have about as much sympathy for them as people who think “homophobe” or “racist” are slur words.
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2. Late “transing” males do have autogynephilia, this has been written about many times, even by some AGP themselves. It is even included in the DSM as a cause of gender dysphoria. Being sexually aroused by the thought of being a woman, because one gets off on the idea of being a member of the supposed submissive sex class, IS a fetish. There is no point trying to claim these men do not exist because they do. As I said some even admit to it, a quick google search will soon reveal that it is true. Many women do not like the idea of males getting off on the idea that women are inherently sexually submissive. Women do not have to passively accept every male sexual desire, without criticism. Feminists will not stop criticising males sexual objectification of us, in whatever form that takes.
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7. If radical feminism “has little to say about the experiences of people who identify as women but do not inhabit female bodies”, why is it that a) radical feminists frequently do say to things about trans-women b) those things are invariably perceived as hostile by trans-women. Surely it’s no accident that the label TERF exists (whether it’s a slur or not) but e.g. TEA (“trans-exclusionary accountant”) doesn’t.
I get the impression that by their very existence, trans-women undermine radical feminist dogma (i.e. an analysis based on the idea of class-oppression based on biological sex, that rejects gender as a valid or useful concept), and rather than update or reject their theories, radical feminists choose to either dismiss trans-women as confused or deluded, or attack them as agents of the “patriarchy”.
1. Saying that the “existence” of transwomen undermines radical feminism is like saying that the existence of Christians undermines atheism. I don’t believe in Jesus, but I know Christians exist. And I fully believe there exists a small population of males who want to live socially as women. The existence of their desires and the fact that the patriarchy does not approve of their desires and unsurprisingly discriminates them for it does not undermine radical feminism in the least.
Additionally, radical feminism doesn’t reject gender as a concept, we believe gender itself is a system of sex based behavioral roles and expectations used to enforce a hierarchy of males over females. Gender itself is a symptom of oppression. Class oppression is a different kind of oppression not based on sex. If this makes no sense to you it’s because we have very different definitions of what “gender” is. As far as I’m concerned, transwomen have no coherent definition of gender or woman outside of vague assertions of “essence” and “feelings”.
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2. Help me understand the problem here please. If throughout the course of my life I am the subject of many, perhaps small (perhaps not), disadvantages *because* I am perceived by others to belong to a certain group (biological females); and if this is a situation is experienced ubiquitously by biological females, wouldn’t it be interesting/useful/important for people to take an interest in this dynamic and its roots, and perhaps study it? Are you suggesting it isn’t legitimate for the study of such experiences to exist? And why would it be important for people working in this field to also study the lives of trans-women, a different group (i.e. not biological females)?
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8. I wonder how you or other radical feminists feel about those born intersexed. Where do you draw the line between male sexed and female sexed people? If you’re an intersexed child raised and socialized to be a woman, are you a biological woman? What if you’re born with the internal genitalia associated with female sexed people, but at least the appearance of external genitalia associated with male sexed people, such as fused labia and an enlarged clitoris? Are these people not still biological women? Does it then just become a question of how you’re socialized? Is this a separate category all together that radical feminism also doesn’t focus on? I guess my main question is what defines biological sex for you? What if you can’t lactate, but can do everything else you list? Maybe I’m missing some very obvious information here, sorry.
I’m not trying to suggest that your way of thinking is wrong or flawed, just curious as to how radical feminism handles situations where biological sex is not so cut and dried. But perhaps intersexed people then become another group ‘excluded’ by radical feminist theory, in that they are not the group of people the theory is focusing on. I apologize if these questions come off as insulting in any way, as this is not my intent. If you or others have written about this before and you prefer not to reiterate, I would really appreciate a link to some material if you’re willing to provide it.
1. Ah, yes, the intersex canard! It always surfaces! You did not disappoint. Trans aren’t intersex. Intersex people are not mythical creatures halfway between men and women either, btw. They are usually pretty clearly male or female, albeit with some birth defects. A Y chromosome = male. Doesn’t matter if it is normal XY, or XXY, or some more exotic variety. Chromosomes determine sex. Period!
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9. Have you considered that most people concerned with trans-rights probably regard the views of radical feminists towards trans-people as a form of bigotry, and therefore consider it an appropriate response to talk about radical feminists in a derogatory fashion – why should they extend toleration to the intolerant?
1. Because good people extend toleration to everyone. I’ve been quoting this a lot lately:
Have “terfs” laid a hand on anyone?
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2. In what way is highlighting sex-based oppression, and therefore the need to maintain sex as a meaningful category, bigotry? Female biology is the starting point of the violent discrimination women face at the hands of men, and pointing this out is not bigotry. Trying to silence us by smearing and insulting us is misogyny, pure and simple.
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3. For the same reason Christians refer to atheists who criticize their beliefs as “bigoted” and “intolerant.” It is a meaningless way to disengage with the actual substance of the argument and instead make it a battle of personalities.
The radical feminist position is that “gender” is not an innate property of the human psyche, but is, in fact, a belief system. As with any belief system, there are going to be non-believers who criticize and cross examine not only the claims of that belief but the harm the belief does to people as well. Gender, as a belief system, has been extraordinarily harmful to women for pretty much the duration of human civilization, and radical feminism aims precisely to dismantle and abolish this belief system for that reason.
I don’t doubt there are people for whom gender is an integral part of their “identity” any more than I doubt there are Christians who sincerely believe they have a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” But you can not disallow criticism of the belief just because it “means something” to the person who holds it.
From my perspective, trans-rights activists simply can not handle criticism of their belief in gender because it threatens their worldview and sense of self. This just further signifies the inherent harm of the belief as a prison of the mind. It can not be taken out on radical feminists, nor should it fall on feminists to dismiss the very real and urgent aims of anti-patriarchal activism just for the sake of upholding the beliefs of others, especially those whose aims are often at odds with their own.
tl:dr, it is not “bigotry” or “intolerance” to criticize a belief, no matter how much that belief is tied up with a person’s “identity.”
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10. I was recently pulling together an article quite a bit like this, but you covered all bases perfectly with this one so now I don’t have to. I like it so much I’ve added it to the navigation on my site as a reference.
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Sulba Sutra of Vedic India and Pythagorean Principle of
By: Bipin R. Shah
Natural Affinity with Mathematics:
While I was a Young student, I always wondered about my special love for Mathematics over
Arts and Geography. During the later stage of my engineering education, I realized how useful
the knowledge of mathematics was for a successful engineering career. In todays world, the
knowledge of Mathematics is universal and not reserved for any nationality or a group. The
use of computer technology and the degree of the precision obtained cannot be matched by
the slow manual computation method that was practiced in ancient world. Some may still
claim that large presence of Indians in academic world of mathematics demonstrates their
DNA affinity to Mathematical science. I still remember my Engineering school teacher in
India while teaching Thermodynamic remembered the logarithmic table by heart while I was
constantly shifting the Pages of logarithmic table. He never shared his method as how he can
translate a number or sequence of numbers within a formula in logarithmic scale through
memory but it sure impressed all of us.
We know from the history that Pythagoras , an Ionian Greek of 6th century BC , who the world
owes the Pythagorean theorem followed the suggestion of his Egyptian teacher and made a
special trip to India to learn the principle of mathematics that were rooted in ancient Sanskrit
text of Sulba sutra. Sulba Sutra by some is dated to 10th century BC or perhaps older. The
ulba Stras enumerates the rules for the construction of Vedic fire altars designed by Vedic
priestly class of Brahma Bhatt. Brahma Bhatt were the followers of Brahminical religion and
belonged to Brahmin class. All of the rules spelled out in this text require the construction of
various shapes of the Vedic fire altars that will occupy the same space. The earlier Vedic Fire
alters required five layers of bricks and each layer consisting 200 burnt bricks, and each layers
will be in the perfect harmony of each other. This may look to be a simple math problem but
without using Trigonometric it is hard to construct the rule based fire altars.
Vedic Fire Altars and use for ceremonies and rituals
Hayashi believes that ulba Stras reveals the Pythagorean Theorem in its earliest form
expressed in verbal Sanskrit form as sloka-struti. It is believed that this theorem was already
known from the days of Indus Saraswati, ancient Egypt and Sumerians. S. G. Danni, confirms
this through the Babylonian cuneiform tablet 322 dated to 1850 BCE that contains fifteen
Pythagorean triples with quite large entries, including other tablets that were triple in
primitive form. The Indus valley Excavation shows similar understanding of the layout of the
settlements and city construction. The Egyptian Pyramids demonstrate the earlier
understanding of Trigonometric with three dimensional forms.
Baudhayana Sulba Sutra clearly defines the numerology associated with altar by giving
and (12, 35, 37), as well verbalization of the Pythagorean theorem for the sides of a square
without expressing into a mathematical formula.
size of the original square Like some say, Indian Rope can be use for mathematics as well as
Rope trick magic. The formula is accurate up to five decimal places, the true value being
Baudhayana gives a formula for the square root of two.
The formula is accurate up to five decimal places, the true value being 1.41421356. This
formula is similar in structure to the formula found on a Mesopotamian tablet from the Old
Babylonian period (19001600 BC):
Obviously, one can draw the secondary conclusion that has established by the discovery of
Indus seal in Mesopotamia and reconfirms the Vedic connection to Mesopotamia and Indus
Valley as theorized by Charles Waddell several decades ago that early Vedic Kings may have
come from Mesopotamia.
These basic principles were also assumed to be employed in architectural designs of various
kinds of monuments of the ancient world, whether it was a Ziggurats, Pyramids, Temples or
Assembly Hall or residential building of Indus-saraswati valley. There are other sections of
Sulba Sutra that furnishes the evidence that this basic knowledge was known much earlier
than written down in textual form.
Boolean Algebra:
An important landmark of the Vedic period was the work of Sanskrit grammarian, Panini (.
520460 BC). His grammar includes early use of Boolean logic, of the null operator, and of
context free grammars, and includes a precursor of the BackusNaur form (used in the
description programming languages). This is not to suggest that he had the knowledge of
computer programming. But, the Boolean Algebra served the basis of early transistors and
capacitors used in early primitive form of the computer.
Pythagoras of the Greek Island of Samos off Turkey (560-480BC)
Pythagoras was an Ionian Greek. He became a Mathematician, philosopher, astronomer,
logician and musician responsible for important developments in the history of mathematics,
astronomy, and the theory of music in Western World. He founded the Pythagorean Order
similar to the Templar Order and formulated principles that influenced the thoughts of Plato,
Aristotle and Other philosophers and sophist of the ancient world.
The influence of Pythagoras was so widespread; that he had developed many followers like
Aristotle, Plato, Pliny, Tacitus, Porphyry, Diogenes Laertius, Cicero, Apollonius of Tyana,
Josephus and many others. Since no personal writings of Pythagoras exist today, what we
know of him is through secondary accounts of Porphyry and Diogenes Laertius.
His father was a Gems merchant of either Syrian or Phoenician origin as he was from Tyre of
Lebanon. He may be mixed origin part Greek and part others. They lived with his mother at a
village Pythais on the island of Samos, near southern Turkey. He had a chance to travel with
his father Mnesarchus to various places in Mediterranean cities. This allowed him to be in
contact with different culture and traditions.
(Yuvanacharya Prythra)
Pythagoras in Indian-Persian Hat
Panini of India
The early Greek philosophers like Pherekydes and Thales gave him some basic knowledge of
Philosophy and astronomy. To learn more, He was advised by Thales at home town to travel
first to the school of mystery at Tyres and Byblos, two Phoenician trading cities and finally
Egypt. He first received the letter of recommendation from Polycrates of Tyre for advanced
learning of Indian asterism and Yogic breathing exercise. Polycrates thought that through
Egyptian contact, he would gain the knowledge of Far East from the Egyptian school of
mysticism. The Egyptians told him that he has to go through 40 days of fasting and certain
way of breathing exercise before they can admit him. This is typically a Jaina and Ajivikas
tradition of that time. The Egyptian finally admitted that they cannot give him the knowledge
unless he has the hands on experience and suggested a trip to India. When Cambyses II,
(Cyrus-Persian and Kambujiva or Kurus -Indian) the king of Persia invaded Egypt in 525BC,
he made Pythagoras his prisoner along with many and sent him to Babylon. This is not the
way he thought he would plan his trips but he saw the opportunity. He utilized this
misfortune as an opportunity for growth, and for the next 12 years he studied with the Magi
Priest of Media and was initiated into the Chaldean Mysteries. Leaving Babylon, he made his
way through Persia to India, where he continued his education under the Ajivikas, Jaina and
Brahmin priests of Taxila School.
Long March of learning, wisdom and Knowledge of Pythagoras
At that time India was still feeling the effects of the spiritual revival brought about by
Mahavira of Jainism and Buddha of Buddhism. Most of the foreigners in generic term referred
to all priests and monks in generic term as Brahmana and it is true that Jainism and
Buddhism were not formalized as distinct religions in 6th century and both of these reformist
schools were heretics and included Brahmins as their major disciples.
Pythagoras became a sworn vegetarian and practiced fasting and Yoga (Standing on one leg)
This practice is more suggestive of him following of the early form of Jainism or Ajivikas
traditions. Ajivikas was the early form of Jainism or Shramanic tradition of ancient India.
Mahavira and Buddha both started out with Ajivikas leader Gosala. Ajatsharus father
Bimbisara was known Ajivikas practitioner while Ajatshatru patronized more in favor of
Buddhism than Jainism. The Buddhism permits the eating of the meat.
The foreign observers and historians used to get confused and because of the popularity of
Buddhism that was gained through Asoka. They easily dubbed Jainism and other sects as part
of Buddhism or made no distinction among them through the textual reference.
Pythagoras went to India and Persia as a student; but when he left he left as a great teacher.
He spent 22 years away from home mastering mathematics, astronomy, music, mysticism,
Yoga, various religious doctrines and philosophy of Yoga. After his return back, Pythagoras
confided to a friend I am a different man, I am reborn. Through this purification, my center
of being has changed. Now truth is not a concept to me, but a life." He was 56 years old
when he returned home, his home, schools and temples were in ruins due to past Persian
invasions. He did not feel welcomed by his friends and neighbors, so he went to southern
Italy settling down in city called Crotona and impressed the people over there with his
wisdom, so they decided to build an institute which would serve as a school of science,
philosophy and astronomy. There was nothing about the place suggesting any secrecy , since
he make sure that the statue of Hermes Trismegistus stood at the inside of the entrance to
the school with the words on the pedestal: "Let no profane enter here."
Statue of Hermes Trismegistus
Map and location of Pythagorean School in Southern Italy
He also taught the philosophy, yoga, asceticism, breathing exercise and knowledge of healing
through roots and herbs that he had learned from Indians, Babylonians, Egyptians and
Persians. He discussed his trips and time in Egypt, Babylonia, Persia and India. He associated
with the Egyptian priests, Brahmin Vedantists, Ajivikas ascetics, Jainas and Buddhists monks
to absorb the knowledge as much as he can. It is very doubtful that he ever met either
Mahvira or Buddha personally but many Ajivikas and Zaruashtras contemporary followers at
Taxila. At Croton, he opened his own order in a similar way the Persian Magi Zaruashtra and
the Indians reformist sects were organized. His own version is called Pythagorean Order.
The Pythagorean institute was organized in three different orders:
1. Akoustici: The outer order or early first order of students lived in their own houses only
coming to the institute during the day. They were allowed their own possessions and were
not required to be the vegetarians. Acceptance into this outer society was granted after a 3
year probationary period. Both men and women were permitted to become members of the
order; in fact 28 women were admitted to the institute as per the textual reference. This is
very similar to early Jaina order when women were permitted in early initiation, but in this
order only the music was taught to the women as the term suggests.
2. Mathematikoi: They were the next higher school of learning. They consisted of men
who lived permanently with the order on the premises. They were allowed no personal
possessions and were vegetarians like Jains. They were taught by Pythagoras himself and
obeyed strict rules of his order. They lived totally detached, just like Jainism and Ajivikas
tradition. They were taught mathematics, astronomy and Yoga.
3. Electi: This was the highest level of initiation and those seeking the knowledge of
mysteries, divinity and transmigration of souls as well as philosophies and other world
religions. According to Greek texts they were instructed in the secret processes of psychic
knowledge, how to heal with sound and breathing exercises and fasting, and lived a strict
discipline in accordance with the code of the Great Mystery Schools of the Greeks. The daily
life of an Electi student at Crotona followed a very strict schedule. At sunrise they engaged
in meditation, pronouncing a Mantrum (Indian-Mantra) on a certain tone. They reviewed
all their actions of the previous day and planned the coming day in full detail. After breakfast,
they took a solitary walk and went to the gymnasium for exercise. The rest of the morning
was spent in study. At noon the Order ate together in small groups dining on bread and
honey. After lunch students could receive their relatives and friends in the gardens of the
institute. This was followed by another walk in the company of other students. At the close of
the day, they ate together and read aloud. Before retiring for the night, each student again
meditated and chanted his evening Mantram. Those who were unable to stand the
discipline left the school and went out again into the world. Even in the higher degrees of the
institute, some occasionally failed by breaking their pledge of secrecy or some other rule
which bound them. These students were expelled from the institute, and a tomb bearing
their name was erected in the garden. Pythagoras taught that such a student was dead."His
body appears among men," he said, but his soul is dead. Let us weep for it! ".
Pythagoras at Rome Museum
Sanskrit Text of Vedic Knowledge
Paninis Astadhyayi
Pythagorean Teaching:
Pythagoras taught that the Earth was a round sphere but was at the center of the universe.
He recognized that the orbit of the moon was inclined to the equator of the earth, and he was
first to proclaim that the Venus that was considered as an evening star, was really the planet
and also appearing as the morning star. He taught that when you attain that knowledge
through the meditation you can hear the movements of the planets traveling through the
universe. This sound of the universe could be replicated using a single stringed instrument
called the monochord.
Pythagoras used the monochord to explain musical intervals and harmonics to his students.
He taught how harmony may be produced when tuning the high and low notes in the octave,
thereby laying the foundation for many of the theories and teachings that have come down
through the musical traditions of the west. He also taught that the music has the healing
properties and soothing of anguished minds.
In Mathematics, he advanced his theorem that was widely used in construction and other
application and that forms the basis of todays trigonometric. He got the news that his old
teacher Pherekydes was dying in 513 BC. He stayed with him until 508 BC. During his absence,
his society at croton was attacked by another noble of Croton. He went as far as Metapontum
(see Map above) and there he caught his last breadth by most account of Greek historians.
There is no evidence as to where he died.
The beliefs of Pythagoras:
Undoubtedly, he was also a man of science besides other expertise and tried to absorb
various religious philosophies and knowledge of the ancient word and try to organize it in a
way that would fit the model of Greek society. However, some of his theosophical
underpinning was so much rooted to Indias reformist school of thoughts of the period that
his teachings resembled the Jainism, Ajivakis and Buddhism as appeared in his declarations,
given below:
1. The universal reality is mathematical in nature. For examples: Jaina Metaphysics or laws of
universe such as gravity in modern science.
2) The intent of philosophical thought should be for spiritual purification. . Here he agrees with
Jainism and Buddhism
3) The Soul can rise to union with the Divine. Here he agrees with Jainism and Buddhism, rather any
4) The certain symbols have a mystical significance. Similarly agrees with Mithraism, Hinduism.
5) All brothers of the Order should observe strict loyalty and secrecy. The moral discipline of the
Pythagorean student steadily increased in intensity, and the line of discrimination between right and
wrong became finer with every passing year. Disciples were warned not to be surprised by anything
that might happen and trained to meet the greatest shocks with an equal mind. Anger was considered
as one of the deadly sins and every student was cautioned not to make a decision or rebuke a servant
while under the influence of this passion. The students were taught:
We should never do anything with a view to pleasure as an end.
We should perform what is right, because it is right to do so.
These principles similarly agree with Ajivikas, Jaina and Buddhist traditions. We do not know how
strictly their members observed the vows to chastity.
Indian Science of Mathematics-The famous Quotes:
1. Frances M. Voltaire (1694-1774 AD)
I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of Ganga-Astronomy, Astrology,
and Spiritualism. Pythagoras went from Samos to Ganga 2600 years ago to learn Geometry. He would
not have undertaken this journey had the reputation of the Indian science had not been established
2. Roger Pot Droit-1949 French writer and Philosopher:
The Greeks Loved So Much Indian Philosophy that Demetrio Galliano had even translated the
Bhagavad-Gita. There is not a shadow of the doubt that the Greeks knew all about Indian Philosophy.
3. Welsh Physicists, Brian David Josephson, the Nobel Prize winner (1940):
The Vedanta and sankhya hold the key to the laws of the mind and thought process which are
correlated to Quantum Field, that is the operation and distribution of particles at atomic and
molecular levels.
4. John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2000), American Physicist and early participant of atomic
It is curious that Schrodinger, Bohr and Oppenheimers were early followers of Upanishad scholars.
5. Albert Einstein (1779-1955), Nobel laureate, scientist and scholar.
We owe lot to Indians who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile discovery could
have been made.
6. Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), Co founder of Quantum physics
After the conversation about Indian Philosophy, some of the idea about quantum physics
looks so crazy suddenly made more sense.
Since Pythagoras himself did not write down his own work in some form, some people would
question if he would make such a journey? When Achemenians conquers the Asia and
Greece, they brought with them many Greeks of all types. Some of them wrote and we have
the benefit and glimpse of the history by Herodotus. Porphyry of Tyre, another philosopher
write Pythagoras biographical sketch. Hecataeus of Miletus was another one who was
captured by the Persian and much of what was known then was written by Herodotus.
Herodotus still got bum rap from other historians due to its differences with Aristogoras.
Xenophon was also another historian and philosopher who were close to Persian court and
historical events. The details provided by Porphyry on Pythagoras tallies so much Indian texts
as to the reformist tradition of Jainism and Buddhism. You can also derive a reverse
conclusion that how the great ancient universities of learning at Nalanda, Taxila and
Vallabhipur was organized probably on the same model as institution of Pythagoras.
Achemenians invasion displaced many Ionian Greeks who were spread out as far as Baltic
States, Black sea region and to the kingdom of Bactria where we find significant presence of
Greek art and archeology. The fact that Gandhara Numismatic and Art was so much
influenced by Greek Arts, proves the cross cultural connection began soon after Achemenians
conquest and continued through Indo-Greek rulers presence in Central Asia , Northwest India
and Afghanistan. The premise of Greeks visiting India before Alexander cannot be questioned
as Alexander knew about India but he did not know what lies after India. Most of the western
Greek Travelers came as far as Taxila of the North and went back. Mahabharata always
attested and recognized Ionian Greeks as Yavanas.
1. Hoyrup, The Pythagorean Rule and Theorem Mirror of the Relation between
Babylonian and Greek Mathematics in: J. Renger (red.)(1999) English Translation.
2. Hayashi, Takao (1995), The Bakhshali Manuscript, An ancient Indian mathematical treatise,
Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 596 pages, ISBN 90-6980-087-X.
3. Hayashi, Takao (1997), "Aryabhata's Rule and Table of Sine-Differences", Historia
Mathematica 24 (4): 396406, doi:10.1006/hmat.1997.2160.
4. Dani, S. G. (25 July 2003), "Pythagorean Triples in the Sulvasutras", Current Science 85 (2):
5. Datta, Bibhutibhusan; Singh, Avadesh Narayan (1962), History of Hindu Mathematics : A
source book, Bombay: Asia Publishing House.
6. Henderson, David W. (2000), "Square roots in the Sulba Sutras", Gorini, Catherine A.,
Geometry at Work: Papers in Applied Geometry: ISBN 0-88385-164-4.
7. From this links below:
7a. Porphyry on Vita Pythagorae on the life of Pythagoras translated by Thomas Taylor
7b. Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Food, Book 1through IV, translated by Thomas
8. From This link:
Diogenes Laertius Lives of the philosophers-Pythagoras. This part does not cover his time in
9. various WIKI on Pythagoras on Google links.
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journey to recovery · mental illness · personal journey · Uncategorized
Let’s Talk about Suicide (Signs and Awareness)
Suicide is a topic that is usually not talked about. People are afraid of the word suicide. No one wants to imagine someone they love thinking about or dying by suicide. This is why no one talks about it. But the thing is, we need to talk about it, because its not as uncommon as people think. One in Four (26%) young people in the UK experience suicidal thoughts.
One person dies every 40 seconds by suicide worldwide – that is an estimate of 1440 deaths by suicide a day! By 2020, the rate of death will increase to every 20 seconds. 2880 people will be dying of suicide a day… How can there be such a negative stigma surrounding suicide when it claims so many lives in simply a day? Suicide has now become one of the three leading causes of death among those aged between 15-44. More than 4,000 children under the age of 14 tried to take their own lives in the UK in the year 2007.
The point is: if you’re not experiencing suicidal thoughts, someone you know is. Many people have suicidal thoughts at some point in their life. Feeling this way means that you have more pain than you can manage at the moment, and that’s totally okay.
Remember that someone who has thoughts of suicides may not necessary attempt suicide. Suicide thoughts are different to suicide attempts but this does not mean their feelings are invalid or should be overlooked.
A person may be at high risk of attempting suicide if they:
• threaten to hurt or kill themselves
• talk or write about death, dying or suicide
• actively look for ways to kill themselves, such as stockpiling tablets
A person may be at risk of attempting suicide if they:
• complain of feelings of hopelessness
• have episodes of sudden rage and anger
• act recklessly and engage in risky activities with an apparent lack of concern about the consequences
• talk about feeling trapped, such as saying they can’t see any way out of their current situation
• Self harm – including misusing drugs or alcohol, or using more than they usually do
• noticeably gain or lose weight due to a change in their appetite
• become increasingly withdrawn from friends, family and society in general
• appear anxious and agitated
• are unable to sleep or they sleep all the time
• have sudden mood swings – a sudden lift in mood after a period of depression could indicate they have made the decision to attempt suicide
• talk and act in a way that suggests their life has no sense of purpose
• lose interest in most things, including their appearance
• put their affairs in order, such as sorting out possessions or making a will
If you notice any of these warning signs in a friend, relative or loved one, encourage them to talk about how they are feeling.
Also share your concerns with your doctor or a member of their care team, if they are being treated for a mental health condition.
Responding to warning signs of suicide
Speak up if you are worried
Talking to a friend or family member about their suicidal thoughts and feelings can be extremely difficult. But if you’re unsure whether someone is suicidal, the best way to find out is to ask.
You might be worried that you might ‘put the idea of suicide into the person’s head’ if you ask about suicide. You can’t make a person suicidal by showing your concern. In fact, giving a suicidal person the opportunity to express his or her feelings can give relief from isolation and pent-up negative feelings, and may reduce the risk of a suicide attempt.
How to start a conversation about suicide:
• I am worried about you because you haven’t seemed yourself lately.
• I have noticed that you have been doing (state behaviour), is everything ok?
Questions you can ask
• What can I do to help you?
• What supports have you called on so far?
What you can say that helps
• I want to help you and I am here for your when you want to talk.
Silence to Suicide
Today I’m struggling. I know its partly down to the fact that I’ve only been on an SSRI medication for over a week. I know that the drug causes increased anxiety and a higher risk of suicide during the first few weeks as your body adjusts. I’m just very tired.
Medication isn’t a miracle drug and it definitely doesn’t cure mental illness but I really hoped by now I would be starting to feel even a little bit better and not worse. All I’ve done today is sleep and walk with my headphones blasting because I feel so low that I can’t even function.
I haven’t had suicidal thoughts in such a long time and even though I know I won’t act on them, its sad to think that if you told somebody they’d deem you crazy and unsafe and probably think you were going to take your life. Suicidal thoughts don’t necessary mean the person is going to go out and kill themselves…it just means they’re finding it hard to exist.
There is too much silence towards suicide. If someone brings up suicide, the entire room goes quiet. People turn away, pretend they didn’t hear the word. No wonder 2 out of 3 people with mental health problems struggle alone…
We shouldn’t have silence towards suicide. We should turn towards the word, listen, offer support. Appreciate every single person. Look for subtle signs of problems. Warning signs of low mood and suicidal thoughts are there, they just need to be picked up!
Here are some tips that can help you support someone whose feeling suicidal:
1. Ask questions.
If the person is comfortable, ask questions. Do so because you want to understand and provide empathy, not out of curiosity. This actually may be a nice change for the loved one. Because the topic of mental illness can make people feel uncomfortable, some might respond with silence, change the subject or offer a hurried statement. If you don’t understand something, ask. It’s better to fully understand than to make assumptions.
2. Don’t assume the person can tell you what he or she needs.
Don’t assume the person knows what they need. In times of stress, it’s common not to know. If they’re sharing with you, most likely they just need you to listen.
3. Offer practical help.
Offer/do practical things for the person. If they’re stressed, help take off their workload and do some things. Sit with them if they’re spending too much time alone.
4. Encourage self-care.
Remind the person to engage in self-care. Offer to go to the movies, meet for coffee or go on a walk with them. Friends and family of those with mental illness need to manage their own stress as well.
5. Check in.
Check in with the person. One reason that mental illness is so isolating is because people don’t talk about it. While it can be uncomfortable for both the person struggling and you, it’s uncomfortable for them not to talk about it, too. They’ll appreciate knowing that you care enough to check in.
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Dominant Attitudes Towards Mental Illness In Society Essay
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The undermentioned paper briefly reviews the dominant attitudes towards mental unwellness in society. The word picture of the mental unwellness in the humanistic disciplines and media as being the primary beginning of information are introduced. A brief debut of perceptual experience every bit good as the most characteristic reactions to mental disablements expressed by public sentiment are presented. Issues of stigmatization and favoritism of the mentally handicapped are noted every bit good as jobs created by self-labelling. A contemplation about the rightness of mental upsets categorization and possible hereafter development of public attitudes towards mental unwellness conclude the paper.
Sensational Headlines About Mental Disability Sells Newspapers and Movies
But How Does It Affect Attitudes to the Disorder
and the Person with the Disorder?
Mental unwellness is likely every bit old as the history of world. There must hold ever been persons who could non and did non suit into human interaction systems even before those could be referred to as society. Sadly, although the morning of humanity day of the months 1000s of old ages, those who are enduring from a mental unwellness today are seen as disqualifying into the society as if they lived aeons ago.
The issue of mental unwellness has apparently fascinated people for a long clip. Numerous illustrations of covering with lunacy can be found in literature, all right humanistic disciplines or music. The issue of disaffection of people whose mental province was different than the established norm proved clip and once more a ne’er drying beginning of inspiration showing lives and jobs faced by the mentally sick. The destiny of the single being unlike the remainder of “ normal people ” has ever been slightly cryptic and challenging, inviting guesss about what was traveling on in the caput of the brainsick one, how he must hold felt and why he merely could n’t be like the remainder of people.
It is possibly no admiration that the subject of insanity easy found its manner into the films, which for many old ages used to be the medium of widest outreach. Most surely some of the movies such as “ One Flew Over the Fathead Nest ” or “ The Silence of the Lambs ” leave a permanent feeling on the viewing audiences. However, it is hard to state whether the feeling is created by the brilliant playing, the traveling narrative content or possibly by the morbid captivation with the unexplorable head of the insane. Confering unusual gifts such as Hannibal Lecture ‘s sinister powers to read and pull strings the others ‘ heads allows giving the viewing audiences a bang of sing danger from the safety of their life room armchair. Credit besides needs to be given to some other films such as “ Rain Man ” , which attempted to cover with the affair of mental perturbations earnestly yet skillfully plenty to raise some attending of the wider populace. However, the huge bulk of films covering with the topic of mental unwellness attack the topic in a superficial and frequently deformed mode perpetuating myths and misconceptions about the issue. True, some of the screen creative activities attempt to add a more “ human ” dimension to the image of misfitting “ creep ” portraying them as holding some positive qualities non-acquirable by an mean person. A good illustration would be Mr. Monk from the Television series under the same rubric whose about enfeebling obsessive-compulsive upset assorted with anxiousnesss, occasional psychotic beliefs and entire neglect for the other people are slightly balanced by his investigation abilities and happening hints anybody else would lose. It can non get away one ‘s attending, nevertheless, that the dubious hero can be tolerated merely because of his about supernatural qualities go forthing everybody around him aghast and disgusted by his monstrous egoism and ceaseless selfishness in taking advantage of those who are willing to digest his caprices. The concluding feeling is that the brainsick one is merely impossible to be managed yet entirely unrecorded with.
Sadly plenty, the word picture of Mr. Monk is a favorable 1. The most frequent beginning of information on mental disablements provided by the media providing and the ensuing perceptual experience of mentally sick individuals is normally much less positive ( Corrigan, et al. , 2005a ; Corrigan & A ; Gelb, 2006 ; Overton & A ; Medina, 2008 ; Stout, Villegas, & A ; Jennings, 2004 ) . The unfortunate 1s must get by non merely with their disease but besides with the attitudes of people around them. More frequently than non the employers avoid engaging them, the colleagues shun them out or mock them and their medical status out, the landlords do non desire to rent any premises because “ they prefer to avoid any problem ” , the constabulary does non attach any credibleness to whatever they may state, the wellness attention system tries to acquire rid of them or often shows really small concern once they are hospitalised and finally the really household whose function should be to supply support frequently abuses the unfortunates or merely locks them up to forestall embarrassment of the neighbors seeing “ the brainsick 1 ” . The danger of the other people seeing mental illness as a menace perchance running in the full household frequently causes the household members to feign that nil is go oning and to insulating the mentally ill in order to avoid being associated with a individual and state of affairs perceived as something black ( Larson & A ; Corrigan, 2008 ; Overton & A ; Medina, 2008 ; Phelan, Bromet, & A ; Link, 1998 ) .
In effect such behavior is making atmosphere of certain shamefulness about the issue of mental unwellness. One of the most common attitudes ensuing from such attitude is labelling mentally handicapped individuals as “ unnatural ” with all the possible negative intensions stemming from that label. The procedure begins early – research demonstrates that kids every bit immature as three to five old ages old start comprehending the outgroups as something different ( Corrigan & A ; Watson, 2007 ) . Even sketchs directed at the immature age group invariably portray mental unwellness as something unambiguously negative, mentioning to anybody and anything unacceptable as “ Canadian dollar ” , “ loony ” , “ nuts ” , “ mad ” , “ monster ” , “ encephalon dead ” , “ imbecile ” , “ idiot ” etc. ( Overton & A ; Medina, 2008 ; Rose, Thornicroft, Pinfold, & A ; Kassam, 2007 ) . The absence of grownups ‘ expostulation to a show of such attitudes is normally perceived by immature kids as quiet credence. Unfortunately, this sort of behavior is likely traveling to take to developing negative cognitive scheme towards mentally ill ; future changing of those schemes created at such an early age may turn out really hard if at all possible.
The labelling and taking to it stigmatization merely seem to increase in adolescence as more negative attitudes are created and perpetuated by the environment ( Corrigan, 2000 ; Corrigan et al. , 2005b ; Rose, Thornicroft, Pinfold, & A ; Kassam, 2007 ) . It is non uncommon to hear striplings turn toing one another as “ You Down ” using the term of Down syndrome as an umbrella look embracing all the deceleration and connoting ineptitude. The confusion between mental disablements, larning troubles and physical damages add to farther stigmatization of mental unwellness and deficiency of its apprehension or credence ( Rose, Thornicroft, Pinfold, & A ; Kassam, 2007 ) .
The perceptual experience of mentally sick among grownups is, unluckily, non any better than in the younger age groups. Possibly the cognitive scheme formed during childhood are rooted excessively profoundly to let understanding instead than fear or disapprobation towards the mentally sick. The most demoralizing illustration is to hear undergraduate pupils of psychological science ( sic! ) refer to people with mental unwellness in a derogatory and labelling mode. The disapproving attitude towards people troubled by a mental unwellness is seemingly much more prevailing than credence.
The same deficiency of credence to mental illness albeit in its utmost signifier resulted in Nazi policies of eugenics and Aktion T4 when under the streamer of seeking the pureness of Arian race 100s of 1000s of people deemed by the government as unwanted were forcibly sterilised or killed. The sinister postings picturing a fit-looking smile physician standing over a retarded adult male with the captions underneath informing “ normal ” people that this load of a apparently unworthy single costs 60,000 Reichsmarks of support per life-time still produces frissons of horror. The pick of a mentally sick individual stand foring the familial defects as a mark for riddance was surely non a happenstance.
Of class, the appendages of the Nazi epoch are non taking topographic point today in societies pluming themselves on being modern and progressive. Cipher would be naming for sterilization of the mentally sick or forbiding them to get married and bear kids – at least non openly. However, the perceptual experience of the mentally handicapped is still really negative and fearful turning away of those people is non unusual. One of the most common misconceptions about mental upsets perpetuating in society is that mental unwellness peers dangerousness ( Feldman & A ; Crandall, 2007 ; Penn & A ; Martin, 1998 ; Yang et al. , 2007 ) . Although research demonstrates clip and once more that the per centum of mentally sick people perpetrating a offense ( particularly a violent 1 ) is below the norm of the general population, the widespread perceptual experience does non look to be affected by those figures. A mere reference of schizophrenic disorder makes people frisson with fright as the stigma of mental unwellness seems to be justifying the possibility of worst atrociousnesss being committed by the mentally ill. Any offense committed by a mentally handicapped individual is looked at with greater than usual intuition and frequently disapprobation particularly if the offense is sexual in nature. It often leads to name for protecting the “ normal community ” from the dangers those people may seemingly present. The frequent logical thinking behind it is that the “ brainsick ” will avoid any duty for his actions because he is traveling to be declared insane by some doctor. It should possibly non be surprising that the frequently expressed sentiment ( although softly instead than publically ) is that possibly it would function everybody right if all the mentally sick people were locked off as it would protect the normal community from the dangers of the insane 1s and the mentally sick from aching themselves ( Corrigan & A ; Penn, 1999 ) .
The public sentiment does non look to happen the status of mentally sick wrongdoers to be a moderating circumstance, either. The legislative assembly in certain states does do commissariats, such as supplication of lessened duty, for the mentally sick individuals. However, in some states being mentally disabled does non forestall disposal of the prescribed penalty such as floging. The scrutiny of the wrongdoer by a physician seems to be functioning the intent of finding physical suitableness for punishment disposal instead than make up one’s minding the mental province and determining the rightness of the bodily penalty. It would be possibly a measure in right way to find foremost whether the wicker would be understood by the wrongdoer as the penalty for the offense he had committed or perceived by him as another case of physical maltreatment.
It should non be surprising so that the quality of life of people with mental unwellness is rarely satisfactory as it depends in big portion on the attitude towards the unwellness by the others every bit good as the self-perception of the state of affairs ( Markowitz, 2001 ; Rosenfield, 1997 ; Sang & A ; Mowbray, 2004 ) . The changeless exclusion faced by the mentally sick makes them besides susceptible to self-labelling farther perpetuating the job ( Corrigan & A ; Watson, 2002 ; Moses, 2009 ; Watson, Corrigan, Larson, & A ; Sells, 2007 ) . The inclusion of apparently innocuous conditions in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM ) does non assist in better apprehension of the mental disablements, either. Is autism truly a mental unwellness? What about the assorted signifiers of insomnia? Indeed, one of the turning concerns is that the newer editions of DSM get down to include many conditions, which could be seen as instead guiltless. The issue at interest is serious: one twenty-four hours the individual merely had problem sleeping ; the following twenty-four hours he finds himself labelled as a possible mental patient since the symptoms and diagnosing can be found in the new edition of the DSM. This surely does non assist in avoiding being stigmatised as potentially mentally unsound.
Although the perceptual experience of mental unwellness by the broad populace is far from ideal it is promoting to see addition in consciousness that a mental unwellnesss is a status frequently treatable and surely non depending on patients ‘ pick ( Corrigan & A ; Watson, 2004 ; Feldman & A ; Crandall, 2007 ) . The realization that the mentally sick are merely every bit human as people enduring from other physical unwellnesss seems to be easy happening its manner into the public watercourse. Although calls for a more comprehensive integrating of the mentally sick into society are still really timid they slowly addition in frequence supplying a gleam of hope for bettering the quality of life of the patients and their health professionals ( Corrigan, 2004 ; Corrigan & A ; Gelb, 2006 ; Corrigan, Watson, & A ; Ottati, 2003 ) . Unfortunately, it may take really long before a touchable betterment can bee seen.
Possibly so if we were to inquire ourselves a inquiry, “ So are we handling the mentally sick like we did centuries ago? ” the accurate reply would likely be, “ Surely non, we have made some advancement. But we may non be that far off. ”
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Earlier this month I discussed what a “Vaccine Injury” is in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP). More and more, the NVICP is compensating persons who have a particular kind of Vaccine Injury called a “SIRVA” which stands for shoulder injury related to vaccine administration. Just as it sounds, it is an injury that follows the injection of the needle in the shoulder during a vaccination, causing sudden and ongoing pain, limited range of motion, and sometimes damage to the shoulder structures, requiring surgery. Most often the person will have little or no history of shoulder problems, with the onset of pain, dysfunction, or discomfort very soon after the vaccination. It is believed that most SIRVA injuries are caused by the improper insertion or placement of the needle into shoulder area. Some may result from an immune reaction with the vaccine, causing a neurological injury.
Richard Moeller - Vaccine Injury AttorneyAs with any Vaccine Injury, the NVICP will only compensate persons who receive one of the vaccines covered by the program. The vaccines go by several different names: diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, DTaP, Tdap, DTP, P, DTP-Hib, DT, Td, TT, measles, mumps, rubella, MMR vaccine, hepatitis A vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine, Hib, varicella vaccine, chicken pox vaccine, rotavirus vaccine, pneumococcal conjugate, meningococcal, PCV vaccine, Prevnar, polio, OPV, IPV, flu vaccine, trivalent influenza vaccine, seasonal flu vaccine, human papillomavirus vaccine, HPV vaccine, Cervarix, and Gardasil.
Injuries or conditions association with SIRVA include: arm pain, shoulder pain, shoulder dysfunction, limited range of motion or lack of flexibility, inflammation, shoulder bursitis, granuloma, tendinopathy, adhesive capsulitis, frozen shoulder, post-injection inflammatory reaction, subacromial bursitis, bicipital tendonitis, radiculopathy, humerus contusions, supraspinatus injury, subacromial bursa effusion, impingement syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome, rotator cuff injury, Parsonage-Turner syndrome, and brachial neuritis. Some doctors are even recommending that SIRVA be incorporated into the possible causes of prolonged shoulder pain.
If a person has a SIRVA, they may be entitled to compensation from the NVICP. Claims for compensation to the NVICP are made to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims located in Washington, D.C., by filing a petition. Most “petitioners” are represented by lawyers. A lawyer representing a petitioner must be admitted to practice in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
When our firm is contacted by a person who believes he, she, or a family member may have suffered a SIRVA or other Vaccine Injury, there is no fee to visit about the claim, or to investigate the claim, or to pursue the claim. Also, the firm pays the expenses incurred to pursue the claim. Therefore, the case can be handled free of charge. And if the claim is paid, any legal fees and costs are paid separately from the amount the person receives, so that the recovery is not reduced by legal expenses. Therefore, there is no reason for a person to not be represented by a lawyer in a SIRVA or Vaccine Injury claim.
You can contact us about a possible Vaccine Injury by visiting our Contact page. And you can learn more about the NVICP and the firm’s representation of persons with possible Vaccine Injury claims by visiting the Vaccine Injury page and other articles in our Blog.
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Demographics & Statistics Cancer
Prostate Cancer Survivors May Now Live Longer
10 months, 2 weeks ago
3137 0
Posted on Jan 25, 2019, 6 p.m.
As long as the disease is caught early on and treated, prostate cancer survivors may live longer than the average man without the disease.
Statistics suggest a diagnosis of the disease may act as a wake up call making patients more likely to keep a close eye on their health and improve their lifestyle. Figures from the Office for National Statistics estimate how survival from a variety of cancers ranges depending on when they were diagnosed.
Men had a five year survival rate 0.05% higher than those of the same age in the general population when prostate cancer was diagnosed early on in stage one; cases diagnosed at stage one and stage two are now achieving 5 years survival rate of 100%. When diagnosed at stage 3 the five year survival rate is 96.5%, with survival rate being 47.7% for those who are diagnosed later on; overall survival rate across all stages has increased from 80.2% in 2006 to 87.1% now.
Updated UK cancer survival statistics highlight the importance of catching prostate cancer early on, yet nearly 40% of cases are caught at late stage when the chances of survival for 5-10 years are greatly reduced, says Karen Stalbow of Prostate Cancer UK.
These findings follow a series of breakthroughs in treatment for advanced prostate cancer as well as efforts to diagnose the disease earlier. Survival chances for men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer appear to be even higher than men without a diagnosis, and indicate diagnosis can lead to better personal healthcare and healthier lifestyles.
Prostate cancer can be aggressive, some may not cause any symptoms, and some men may even survive without treatment depending on form, but it is not possible to distinguish between the two types using current blood testing for prostate specific antigens. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men, 1 in 8 will be diagnosed in their lifetime, 84% live 10+ years after diagnosis which on average happens between the ages of 65-69.
Overall figures provided a mixed picture for several cancers for 5 year survival rates: breast cancer is down from 85.6% to 85.3%: bowel cancer dropped from 59.2% to 58%; melanoma survival rate are 93.9% for women and 89.2% for men; and cancers of the pancreas are 6.4% for men and 7.5% for women.
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Diabetes protection from larger bottom
According to a recent diabetes study, having a large rear and hips could actually increase health benefits and protect against diabetes .
A research team found that the type of fat that accumulates about the hips and buttocks, rather than around the stomach could help to protect against diabetes development . However, the type of fat that collects around the stomach, known as visceral fat, does greatly increase risk of diabetes development.
Those people with subcutaneous fat, which collects just under the ski, could find an increased sensitivity to insuli, a hormone that helps to regulate blood glucose levels. The research was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
Dr. Kahn was reported as commenting: “The surprising thing was that it wasn’t where the fat was located, it was the kind of fat that was the most important variable. Even more surprising, it wasn’t that abdominal fat was exerting negative effects, but that subcutaneous fat was producing a good effect. Animals with more subcutaneous fat didn’t gain as much weight as they got older, had better insulin sensitivity, lower insulin levels and were improved all around.”
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How to Create a Standard Operating Procedure?
Standard operating procedure or SOP plays an important role in the business that improves working efficiency. This article tells you how to create an SOP with ease.
What is a Standard Operating Procedure
No matter whether you are starting a business or simply improving an old one, it is necessary to know how you are going to get all the things done. You will have to know what has to be done, who is going to do it, and the best approach to it. This is the first step to systemize the business. The creation and the workflow are going to define how the daily activities function. One of the best approaches to this is the standard operating procedure.
It is actually a set of instructions which describes the relevant activities and steps of a procedure. In simple words, it is a documentation of the whole process.
Standard Operating Procedure VS Work Instructions
The procedure means a process. On the other hand, work instructions represent how you can perform a conversion. The process will include the inputs, outputs, and the feedbacks required for ensuring a consistent result.
A procedure is mainly a way to carry out a particular activity. While an instruction provides a detailed direction regarding how you have to perform a specific task, both of these may or may not be documented. In case the tasks and the activities are being carried out by promising professionals, written instructions and procedures might not be required.
The confusion between the two intensified when an organization refers to it by their names. For instance, the procedure can be referred to as a plan and an instruction can be called guidance or directions.
The best way to distinguish between SOP procedure and instructions is to look at the detailing. The method of procedure is going to be described as what is done and the instructions are going to show how it is actually done. A system has several processed and each of it comprises of different activities. Each activity is going to be divided into tasks.
If a quality manual shows policies across the whole system, there are multiple linked processes in it. Each one of them is defined and documented. In case an activity within the procedure requires an explanation regarding how the task is going to be performed, instructions will have to be written.
The standard operating procedure is a specific method to carry out an activity by making a process. However, an instruction is a series of steps for performing a task that makes an activity. Multiple people might be involved in carrying out a procedure and it is their title that shows their role. Instruction is just action-oriented verbs for instructing or directing someone to perform a task.
SOP Templates
Why do You Need Standard Operating Procedure?
SOPs help an organization to develop consistency in how tasks and processes are performed. It consists of a step-by-step procedure which is easy for the employees to follow.
Here are some of the reasons to incorporate it into your organization.
Ascertain Standardized Process and Consistency
It provides your organization with the required consistency and makes sure that the tasks which are helping the organization to run are done in the desired manner. With SOPs it is easier to find out the procedures and policies that are being used for handling repetitive business tasks and outcomes. When there is a standard routine, the employees will enjoy better predictability in the work environment. It can also help in improving their skill for every task and increase their confidence.
Mitigates Risk
It defines the policies of an organization while it outlines the steps needed to respond to a particular situation which has been mentioned in the policy. It serves as your reference guide and tells you how you need to perform an important function. This is particularly important in regards to the turnover, general HR movement, and promotions. It reduces risk by making sure that employee information is transferred when the resources are lost or reallocated. It is a basic guide serving as the training materials.
Delegates Tasks and Ascertains Business Continuity
In case a prime member of the organization is not available, work doesn’t have to stop. Simply by referring to a standard operating procedure, someone can take over the important task. Every good procedure will have an organization chart and a small job description along with the contact details of the staff members. In case you have to delegate a particular task, check at glance to find out who can advise you or help you out.
Improves Performance Management
If you do not have proper documentation, you will not be able to hold employees accountable for process and tasks. Without a standard operating procedure, job performance tends to become a matter of opinion. With the help of this, managers will be able to identify the success of the employee and also communicate what he is lacking during the annual reviews.
Cross-platform SOP Maker
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How to Create a Standard Operating Procedure?
Before you start with the steps of how to write an SOP, you need to have an idea about what the document should include:
Here is how you can do an SOP in the right manner without using a standard operating procedure template.
1. Assemble the Team
Prior to starting with the process of documentation, it is necessary to gather the necessary information. It is quite likely that you aren’t the one who handles the process regularly. You might have a good idea about what the process involves but you might know about the small details which can have a significant effect on the outcome. Thus, if you have to get the process right, it is better to get in touch with the employees who handle it on a regular basis. Call the employees and set up a meeting. You can ask them to take you through the entire process gradually and explain every detail to you.
2. Define Scope
At times, the processes might be interconnected. It might spread on to different department and teams. In case you start to document without scope definition, the result might be complicated and long. Let’s take a look at standard operating procedure examples to publish content.
The process might be divided into two parts depending on SOPs purpose. The marketing team doesn’t have to know what the writing team does and vice versa. In case you are hiring someone new in the writing team, they just have to know the first and the fourth step. Thus, you can limit the scope on the basis of which department you require the SOP for.
3. Document the Procedure
This is the primary work when it comes to writing SOP. The first thing that you need to do is use a checklist. Write down the tasks that have to be completed to make the process successful. Thereafter, you can keep it in the office or print it out for the employees. In case there are different events and outcomes, you can fit it into a workflow diagram. You can use Edraw for this.
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4. List of Relevant Details
In the majority of the cases, a workflow chart is just not enough to provide all the required information regarding how to carry out the procedure. It is necessary to list out details that are important for finishing the process. It might be methodology, the required tools, and safety and health warnings.
5. Defining Metrics and Updating SOP
When you have the SOP, start with the implementation process. You might realize that you can make improvements to it. Define the metrics as it makes it easier to improve something. Thereafter, you can improve the process by streamlining, automation, and outsourcing.
Now you know everything about how you can make a standard operating procedure. However, you are not done, yet. You have to implement it. This means that it has to be accessible to the employees. The best thing that you can do is make it available online. You can use a process management software or a file-sharing software for this purpose. Once done, all your employees are going to have access to this SOP.
In case you are old-fashioned, you can simply print out the document and then distribute it in the office. Make sure that you keep some extra copies handy. You might need them when someone loses theirs or you need one for an emergency.
By using SOP in your daily business, you are actually putting provisions in place to handle poor process which might slow down the company.
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Storytelling in Economics and Finance
Drawing crisis chart on paper , View from above
By Brendan Markey-Towler
Ignore one of the oldest human traditions at your peril. Economics and finance aren’t driven by interest and prices alone. A simple story about salient factors exerts a powerful hold over the psyche and behaviour.
Lord Keynes taught us1 that interest and prices were not enough to induce economic and financial behaviour. There were other factors, the famous “animal spirits” deep within the psyche which made finance and economics much more than a mechanical, but rather a deeply human affair.
The tulip mania, the South Sea bubble, the Mississippi company, the Shenandoah corporation, the dotcom bubble and the subprime mortgage mania. These cannot be made sense of with interest and prices alone. A mere few percentage points can facilitate, make possible, not stand in the way of massive surges of buying and selling. There must be something powerful at play for those surges to actually eventuate.
Bob Shiller in his recent American Economic Association presidential address2 argued that it is time we recognised the power of narrative in economics. Recent work3 released by the author shows exactly why. The telling of a “good” story creates a why for the adopting of certain economic and financial behaviour. In finance especially behaviour is driven by expectations of future returns. A story links up various bits of information into a coherent whole and becomes expectations.
Economies as Systems of Knowledge4
Economic systems are complex evolving networks formed by individuals interacting with their socioeconomic environment on the basis of their psychology. They are formed by us.
As we go about the everyday business of life, we filter the information we are presented with in our world through our understanding of it. We apply our knowledge about the world to come to an understanding of how it “fits together”. How certain actions on our part and the part of others lead to certain returns and incur certain costs, the risks associated therewith, and how those returns and costs facilitate the leading of certain lifestyles and the satisfaction of certain desires and needs.5
It is this knowledge, arrived at by the careful or hasty construction of ratio decidendi in deliberative thought, or by the application of simple behavioural rules, which provide the spur to action by which economic systems form and evolve. Knowledge, the idea that A leads to B which is C is what drives our economic and financial behaviour.
Interest and prices facilitate the buying and selling of this or that. But it is knowledge, part of which is how those things relate to the achievement of our objectives, which decides us upon a particular course of action.
So, if we are to see massive surges of buying and selling activity, and a flurry, nay, a swarm of connections forming in economic systems, the knowledge concerning why to form those connections must exist in the minds of people. There must be a knowledge base for that behaviour.
Now this allows us to realise the importance of storytelling for our economic and financial systems.
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About the Author
Dr. Brendan Markey-Towler is an Industry Research Fellow at the School of Economics and Australian Institute for Business and Economics at the University of Queensland. His research focuses on the economics of knowledge and ideas. His work is particularly concerned with the interaction between economics and psychology, and spans behavioural and psychological economics, evolutionary economics, complexity and complex systems economics, micro-economic and macroeconomic theory, network theory as well as the philosophies of mind, time, and science. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy and a Bachelor of Economics with First Class Honours and a University Medal from the University of Queensland.
1. Especially in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), Harcourt, London.
2. “Narrative Economics” (2017), Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper No. 2069.
3. Markey-Towler, B. Narratives and Chinese Whispers: Ideas Ideas and Knowledge in Bubbles, Diffusion of Technology and Policy Transmission (2017), available at SSRN:
4. For the mathematical economic theory upon which this section is based see Markey-Towler, B. Foundations for Economic Analysis: The Architecture of Socioeconomic Complexity (2016), PhD thesis, University of Queensland, Australia.
5. On the concept of lifestyles in economics see Earl, P.E. Lifestyle Economics (1986) Harvester Wheatsheaf, Brighton.
6. To use the wonderful phrase of Cardinal Newman, see An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870), Oxford University Press, Oxford.
7. See Markey-Towler, B. Foundations for Economic Analysis: The Architecture of Socioeconomic Complexity (2016), PhD thesis, University of Queensland, Australia and also Heath, C. and Heath, D., Made to Stick (2007), Random House, New York.
8. See Galbraith, J.K., Money, (1975), Pelican, London and Ferguson, N. The Ascent of Money (2008), Allen Lane, London.
9. See Galbraith, J.K. The Great Crash, 1929 (1954), Penguin, London.
10. See Curtin’s address announcing the declaration of war on Japan, available at:
11. See Davidson, F.G. The Industrialization of Australia (1969), Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
1. Good angles to look at!
Well done!
I wonder if being conscious is related with the understanding of what is guiding a particular moment in history: power or narrative… most of the times power (expand it, keep it, exercise it) is the objective and the narrative is just tool for achieving such objective; however, sometimes it works the other way around.
Examples: Constantine was interested in power so he used Christianity (narrative). “Confucianism” (narrative) is using power (China does not use the “rule of law” but the “rule by law”).
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You might wonder: what is NeuraSonic, how it applies the Tomatis Method and how it fits in the world of sound therapy.
Well, here we got the answers. But before that, let's go back to Dr. Tomatis, just for a minute.
Dr. Tomatis believed that the ear has several functions. Its initial purpose is to help grow the brain of the unborn child. Hearing is the first sense to be developed when the fetus is only a few months old and can hear its mother's voice in the womb. It is thought that it even gets nourished by it.
Once the baby is born the ear's role is to energize the neocortex section of the brain. That's the area were the central nervous system is located. It is thought that, if the ear "malfunctions," the nervous system can't digest information, which damages our capabilities to communicate and to express ourselves, and also affects our social behavior.
Dr Tomatis claimed that the ear also plays a significant role in our speech as it controls the voice. The voice produces only what the ear can hear. Hearing and listening capabilities may not be the same in both ears. The Tomatis method is said to improve these capabilities in the right ear as it is the one which has better control over the parameters of our voice.
And this is the moment when we can really tell you how NeuraSonic can help you and the people you love.
Patients who undergo our treatment here at NeuraSonic will find that their voice changes as they improve their listening capacities.
NeuraSonic is based on sound stimulation: patients listen to high frequency sounds which seem to stimulate the brain's neurons. Dr Tomatis believed this type of sound has a positive effect on the central nervous system, so the patient feels more energized and calm, and is able to concentrate and learn better. Low-frequency sounds have the opposite effect. The sounds played during a NeuraSonic session include music (Mozart and Gregorian Chants) and speech, which can be filtered to produce high frequency sounds.
Also, Dr. Tomatis' theory that hearing and listening are not the same-since hearing involves a passive attitude, whereas listening entails an active attitude- is very accurate in the case of children with attention deficit disorders
These kids usually find it difficult to read and concentrate, and even if they have very good hearing, their listening capabilities are very poor.
Here at Neurasonic we don't want you to feel forced to attend a specific amount of sessions. Each person has a different way to react to the treatment. That's why we offer different options, depending on your needs and circumstances..
The NeuraSonic approach usually consists of 40 to 100 hours of listening retraining..
There are two versions of the NeuraSonic approach for adults: the "relaxing and resetting" approach, and the more intensive one, involving additional filtering of the music, and reprogramming of the laterality. Both approaches are very helpful, but only the more intensive approach will allow you to deal with past traumas of any sort.
You have the option to choose between weekly ongoing sessions, that take place in different locations depending the city where you live, or intensive workshops during the weekend, set in a residential environment.
During the sessions, you can rest, sleep, draw, write, meditate or even exercise while listening to Mozart (no, we don't recommend using your cellphone while the session is taking place, unless it's an emergency).
Children are usually treated following a succession of intensive residential sessions of nine and five days. They might require one initial package of nine days, and one to three additional packages of five days. If the child is already at school, the sessions can take place during their vacations or holidays.
We also work in weekly or biweekly sessions, as this allows the parents to attend the sessions without taking too much time and allowing them to keep their regular jobs' schedules and parental duties.
Seniors usually listen to the music once a week, at their retirement facility, in a group setting playing cards or solving puzzles, or by themselves while, for instance, knitting.
Click here for more information about our treatment plans.
The tools used by our sound therapists are:
• An electronic device (the electronic ear) which can filter sounds.
• Special headphones which enable sound to be transmitted directly to the bones, as it is thought that people hear first through the bones in their ears and then the muscles.
• A microphone.
Please, contact us if you have any questions or doubts regarding our sessions or the benefits that NeuraSonic can bring to your life and the lives of your loved ones.. Remember: we are here to help you.
© 2019 by NeuraSonic
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Cortex Formation in Plants
Cortex Formation in Plants
Cortex: The plant cortex is the tissue located between the vascular bundles and epidermis. It includes the whole area from beneath the epiblema up to above pericycle. Cortical cells restrain stored carbohydrates such as resins, latex, essential oils, and tannins.
Cortex Tissues forms in three types:
1. Parenchyma
2. Collenchyma
3. Sclerenchyma
• In plants, the cortex is a relatively undifferentiated cell type and is part of what is called the ground tissue.
• It is composed of a few layers parenchymatous cells.
• Intercellular spices are present within the cells
• The cortex is responsible for the storage of photosynthetic products and the uptake of water and minerals.
• The cell walls of the endodermis possess a woody and corky band, called the casparian strip.
• It stores food materials.
• In plants, tissue of unspecialized cells lying between the epidermis and the vascular, or conducting, tissues of stems and roots.
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When 16-year-old Davis Allen Cripe collapsed in a Spring Hill High School classroom last month, people were confused and concerned. The South Carolina teen was rushed to a hospital at the time, but he sadly passed away within two hours of collapsing.
At a Monday news conference, the local coroner, Gary Watts, revealed that Cripe had experienced a "caffeine-induced cardiac event" after drinking a large Diet Mountain Dew (about 135 mg of caffeine), a McDonald's cafe latte (about 142 mg), and an undisclosed energy drink (a typical energy drink contains about 142 mg) over a two-hour period—approximately 419 total mg of caffeine in just 120 minutes.
Ingesting so much caffeine in such a short amount of time led to what the coroner called a "probable arrhythmia"—or an abnormal beating of the heart. "Davis, like so many other kids and so many other people out there today, was doing something [he] thought was totally harmless, and that was ingesting lots of caffeine," Watts said. "We lost Davis from a totally legal substance."
The teen's father, Sean Cripe, followed up Watts's statements at the news conference by asking parents to educate their children about the potential consequences of consuming too much caffeine. He explained that his son was healthy; the teen advocated against the use of drugs and alcohol, and he didn't have a history of any medical problems. "It wasn’t a car crash that took his life," Cripe said. "It was an energy drink. Parents, please talk to your kids about these energy drinks. And, teenagers and students, please stop buying them."
Caffeine-induced deaths like this are rare but not unheard of.
Since caffeine is a stimulant, it can make the heart beat faster or irregularly. Caffeine also has a diuretic effect—meaning it makes people urinate more frequently. This can cause their potassium levels to drop (they're peeing out the nutrients), which makes it even harder to regulate the heartbeat. Combined, these effects can lead to serious—and potentially fatal—cardiac events, Marcel Casavant, M.D., medical director of the Central Ohio Poison Control Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital, tells SELF.
These dangerous events are characterized by symptoms like an abnormally high heart rate, anxiety, tremors, nausea, and/or vomiting, Casavant says. And if you experience any of them after ingesting a substance (whether it's caffeine or something else), you should stop consuming the substance as soon as this happens.
Caffeine affects people differently, so there’s no one dose that works for everyone.
So let's say you understand the potential dangers of caffeine but still want to enjoy a morning cup of coffee—or two. Where's the line between caffeinating yourself safely and risking something more serious? The truth is, it depends.
Caffeine—like alcohol—impacts different people differently. Two people could ingest the same amount of caffeine and experience different outcomes, based on weight, size, age, gender, maximum heart rate, and potassium levels. Because of all these variables, it's hard to issue a blanket statement about how much caffeine a person can safely drink.
That's why it's so important to limit your caffeine intake, if possible, Casavant says. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that adults consume no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine (that's about four or five cups of coffee) a day. And the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children and adolescents consume no caffeine or stimulants whatsoever.
While caffeine overdoses aren’t common, you should still be smart about your caffeine intake.
There are many benefits to drinking coffee (like feeling more alert in the morning, for one thing), but you should still be aware of your total caffeine intake. And remember, caffeine can be hiding in many different foods and drinks—not just coffee and tea. Manufacturers put it in things like energy bars and candy. And it can be hard to estimate how much caffeine is in your cup in the first place, because it can vary so widely from place to place.
So instead of focusing on how much caffeine we can get away with consuming, Casavant thinks we should be asking ourselves why we need to consume the caffeine in the first place. "Why are we caffeinating our kids—and even ourselves?" he says. "We should be asking: Am I getting enough sleep? Is my child's sleep hygiene good, or is it interrupted by devices? Are my kids waking up too early for school? Am I staying up too late for work, play, or some social thing?"
That doesn't mean you have to quit your daily cup of coffee—or feel afraid of it. But it is worth understanding that caffeine, like many substances, can be dangerous in excess.
Our thoughts are with the Cripe family during this time of loss.
If you think you're experiencing symptoms of a caffeine overdose (or have ingested any poison), you should call the poison-control hotline (1-800-222-1222) to get a personalized assessment.
You might also like: I Have a Pre-Existing Condition: Real People Share Their Health Conditions
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Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)
Detection of tetracycline resistance genes by PCR methods.
PMID 15156014
Rapid, accurate, and sensitive determination of antibiotic resistance profiles of various human and animal pathogens becomes a vital prerequisite for successful therapeutic intervention in the face of the increased occurrences of drug-resistant bacterial infections. The current methods, which are dependent on cultivation of pathogens and phenotypic expression of antibiotic resistance, usually require excessive time, special microbiological equipment, and qualified personnel. However, even with all these requisites, for example, no bacteria can be grown from more than 80% of all clinical samples sent to clinical microbiology laboratories. Besides the cultivation limitations, the cultivation-based determination of an antibiotic resistance profile lacks the genotypic information, which is essential for understanding the epidemiology and routes of transmission of antibiotic resistance genes. These genes often reside on mobile genetic elements and can move freely between commensal and pathogenic microbiota, occurring even between taxonomically distant clinical and environmental microbiota. Therefore, development of genotyping methods for detection of antibiotic resistance genes is highly desirable for fast, accurate, and sensitive detection of antibiotic resistance genes in a broad range of pathogenic and commensal bacteria in both clinical and environmental samples. As a model for our studies we have chosen the genes conferring resistance to tetracyclines. Tetracyclines belong to a family of broad-spectrum antibiotics that include tetracycline, chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, demeclocycline, methacycline, doxycycline, minocycline, and a number of other semisynthetic derivatives. These antibiotics inhibit protein synthesis in Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria by preventing the binding of aminoacyl-tRNA molecules to the 30S ribosomal subunit. The antibiotics of this group were introduced in the late 1950s and since then have been widely used in clinical and veterinary medicine, as well as for prophylaxis and growth promotion in food animals. Because of the possible misuse and overuse of these drugs, resistance to this class of antibiotics is widespread among many clinical isolates, thus limiting the utility of tetracyclines in treating infections. Despite this shortcoming, antibiotics of this class still remain in the active arsenal for dermatologists to treat skin infections such as acne and rosacea.
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"You're just a normal person who's been victimized by those who don't tell you that the low-fat diet forces you to eat more carbohydrates, the very food that makes you fat."
These are the famous words from Dr. Robert C. Atkins, author of the best selling dieting book, The New Diet Revolution.
His diet's claim to fame is the consumption of a diet high in protein and all types of fat, but low in carbohydrates, allowing the body to store less body fat and remain at a constant weight. This will cause the loss of weight and fat to create a thinner appearance.
In this argumentative essay, we will explore the importance and functions of protein, carbohydrate, and fat in our body, find out why there is interest surrounding the Atkins Diet, and then look at the health risks involved in using The Atkins Diet. Let us begin by explaining the importance and functions of the three macronutrients available to the body.
Carbohydrate (Cho), fat (saturated and unsaturated) and protein are the macronutrients used for fuel in the body. There are three types of carbohydrates called simple, complex and fibrous. We must understand that all carbohydrates put into the human body must convert to sugar in the liver. Carbohydrates provide us with energy to fuel our working muscle and to provide our brain with energy to complete everyday functions. The higher the cho content in our diet, the more glycogen stores in the muscle cells and liver can take place. Thus, more cho is available for use when muscle and liver glycogen reserves are high.
All cho we consume are eventually converted to glucose and used up by the body or stored as glycogen in the liver and muscle cell. We just cannot function properly without this macronutrient. Once all of our cho is used up we tap into our fat stores next for fuel. It is important to realize that any excess calories from carbohydrates, fats or proteins taken in daily will store as body fat if not used. Depending on the duration and intensity of the exercise, the greater the proportion of fat can be used for energy. There are two major types of fat, Saturated fats (solid at room temperature) and Unsaturated fats (liquid at room temperature.)
We want to consume as little of saturated fats (lower than 10% of overall intake) as possible, as these fats accumulate in our arteries and harden causing heart problems, arteriosclerosis, and raised low-density lipoproteins (LDL), which are unhealthy cholesterol. Fat aids our internal organs, helps with thermal temperatures but, the conversion of fat into energy is slow and cannot be adequately supplied during intense physical activity. Once all of the fat possible for energy use is used, the body will go into the state of protein sparing. Protein provides structure for our body tissues and helps us stand upright with the aid of our skeletal system. Protein alone builds the hormones and enzymes that are vital to life, helping our immune system stay strong and healthy while being used in many hormonal functions as well.
Proteins are made of molecular units called amino acids and there are twenty amino acids and nine are essential to the body making a complete protein. Protein can be supplied to the body through plant and animal sources. Proteins are digested a lot slower than carbohydrate and provide our body with fuel only after cho and fat are unavailable. Protein is needed for all recovery, repair and re-growth of our tissue, tendons, ligaments and muscle.
Let us have a look at the diet itself. The Atkins diet claims that by eating high protein, high fat and low carbohydrate diet, our main energy source glucose is eliminated and we will burn fat for energy and lose weight. He suggests cutting out most or all cho from our diet and consuming high protein foods that are visibly high in fat. Well guess what? It works! You will lose weight! However what he doesn't explain is that when our cho are restricted fat isn't the only form of energy used. Our own protein supplies are used for energy and we sacrifice lean muscle, tendon, ligament, organ and other vital lean tissue. Carbohydrates, the most important energy source for our brain and exercising muscle, are the only food that can be used for anaerobic energy production (cardio and weight training). It can produce energy three times faster than fat and requires less oxygen to do so. This high fat and protein diet along with its low cho intake increases the risk for heart and liver disease, kidney problems and many cancers.
When the body's liver and muscle glycogen stores are low or the rate we are able to convert fat and protein to glucose is slowed, our body will produce a feeling of sluggishness or staleness. This state causes difficulty recovering from workouts, chronic fatigue, depression, insomnia, poor performance, frequent infections, injuries and loss of interest in high levels of training. Any diet that severely limits our intake of cho will result in the rapid depletion of muscle and liver glycogen as well as water from the body causing cramping and dehydration. With the extra intake of saturated fats, our bodies store this fat along the arteriole walls hardening them, causing arteriosclerosis and higher overall cholesterol levels and mainly the LDL (low density lipoproteins), which are the dangerous cholesterol. Saturated fats are the cause of most heart diseases yet, Atkins claims people have come to him and needed triple bypass surgery and then after being on his diet, did not need the surgery anymore. I am not the only person sceptical of his claims. Many other physicians have challenged him by asking to see the data that concludes these impossible claims. No data or reply has been or was ever offered to this date from doctor Atkins. Unfortunately, he died in the year 2003 from a serious head wound from a fall.
Atkins suggests restricting cho intake to less than twenty grams a day causing glycogen stores to deplete reducing blood-sugar levels. This causes our body and our pancreas to produce less insulin, which is a hormone that promotes the use of blood sugar by muscle and other tissues and causes excess calories to be stored as fat. To put it simply, blood sugar and insulin have a lock and key relationship, without the key of insulin our cells are locked from receiving energy they need to live. Atkins theory states with less insulin, the body is forced to rob its own energy bank of fat stores, by breaking down fat molecules into glycerine and fatty acids, which are broken down into ketone bodies (ketones come from our brain).
These ketone bodies are then used by the cells in place of glucose, which results in a state of dietary ketosis. So if fat is primarily being used for fuel and cho are not storing as fat we will lose weight and fat. Carbohydrate loss does mean water loss, so when starchy foods are broken down in our body (1 gram of cho with 3 grams of water) the weight loss includes a lot of water weight giving people on the diet a lot of water not fat loss also. This also leads to cellular dehydration, which can lead to a catabolic (breaking down of muscle) state in the long term. Less muscle mass means a lower metabolic rate that in turn will lower our fat burning potential and is not good for people interested in fat loss and lowering their LDL or overall cholesterol count. These are some areas Dr. Atkins would not speak about openly. Nevertheless, his book, food supplements, food and vitamin sales have skyrocketed selling to the lazy, sedentary people who think they have found the quick fix to curb their appetite and win the battle of the bulge.
There is overwhelming evidence that the Atkins Diet may carry other long-term effects. This includes increased cortisol levels, a catabolic hormone in our body that can cause muscle breakdown. The hormone insulin suppresses cortisol and with the low insulin output due to lack of cho, cortisol levels may increase. High levels of cortisol have been linked to many diseases including some forms of cancer. A decreased immune function also can occur. A study published in the journal, Life Science, concludes after extensive aerobic exercise we suffer impaired neutrophil bactericidal function, due to the induced increases in cortisol and ketone bodies. This state may cause increases and susceptibility to infection after exercise. With the lack of nutrients available in the Atkins diet, this may hinder our immune functions and cause bacterial invasion and infection. Vitamin and Mineral imbalances may also occur as a direct result of the Atkins diet. During this diet, many whole food groups are pulled from our diet and may leave the body deficient in some of our vitamins and minerals. Dr. Atkins recommended a multi vitamin and multimineral supplement when on his diet. The diet is also very low in dietary fibre and clinical studies show whole grains, fruits and vegetables to be quite beneficial in fighting cancer and heart disease.
The Atkins diet may be beneficial for short-term weight loss; however there is too much evidence suggesting this and other diets alike lead to long-term adverse health problems. Most of the patients studied lost weight on the Atkins diet only to gain in back plus 10-50 extra pounds of weight within the next six months to a year. Thus the weight loss is short-term and the body ends up heavier, dehydrated, weak, exhausted, functioning with a lower metabolism and a lot of excess fat storage. To lose weight safely and effectively, we must consume a well balanced diet in carbohydrates, proteins, fibre and essential fats, exercise moderately to strengthen the heart and organs, drink ample amounts of water, get adequate sleep, consume essential fatty acids, and consume 5-6 small frequent meals to feed our body throughout the day. This will effectively raise our body's metabolism. The Atkins Diet has proved to be a quick fix diet that causes more internal harm to the body and cannot be used for long periods of time without causing physical exhaustion and depletion.
References Cited:
1. A.Fukastsu, et al. 50-mile walking race suppresses neutriphil bacterial function by including increases in cortisol and ketone bodies, life sci. 58 (1996): 2337-2343
2. H.Forster, Is the Atkins diet sage in respect to health? Fortscher, Med.96 (1978): 1697-1702
3. B. Hirschel, Dr. Atkins dietetic revolution: A Critique, Schweiz. Med. Wochenschr. 107 (1977):1017-1025
4. J.W. Anderson, it al, Health Advantages and disadvantages of weight-reducing diets; A computer analysis and critical review. J. Am. Coll.Nutr.19.
5. (2000) 578-590 5. M.M. Investigation, Out of balance, D. Kennedy, science editor. 88, 05 (2001)
6. J.C. rosen, et, al., Mood and appetite during minimal-carbohydrate and carbohydrate supplemented hypocaloric diets. Am. J. clin.Nutr. 42.5 (1985): 371-379
7. Sports Nutr. resource manual. Marriage, B, Schurr, H., Carter-Erdman, K. Anne, and reading K.2nd edition (1999) 8. Atkins Diet, The Atkins New Diet Revolution, 29, 32-37, 75, 85. (2002)
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@mastersthesis {70355, title = {Chemical Orientation Strategies of the Crayfish, Orconectes virilis are Influenced by the Hydrodynamics of their Native Environment: An Example of Sensory Bias}, volume = {Master{\textquoteright}s of Science}, year = {2008}, pages = {64 pp.}, school = {Bowling Green State University}, type = {MS Thesis}, address = {Bowling Green, OH}, abstract = {The function of a sensory system is to effectively extract relevant information about the environment in order for an organism to make behavioral decisions. Sensory stimuli can be shaped, in part, by their propagation within the local habitat. In order to separate relevant information from background noise, sensory systems are equipped with filters. Because information differs between environments, sensory filters are matched to the specific environment in which an organism lives, thus developing what are known as {\textquoteright}matched filters.{\textquoteright} An organism{\textquoteright}s sensory filters are therefore {\textquoteright}tuned{\textquoteright} to the demands of its unique sensory environment. The {\textquoteright}tuning{\textquoteright} of an organism{\textquoteright}s sensory system is caused by the pre-existing sensory biases that are inherent within an organism. As interactions between an organism and its environment are continued over time, natural selection will drive an organism{\textquoteright}s sensory biases to align, or become {\textquoteright}tuned,{\textquoteright} to use types of information that are relevant within the specific environment. The purpose of this thesis is to determine how the sensory biases of aquatic organisms will influence their behavior in response to chemical information. In order to ascertain this knowledge, the orientation behavior of crayfish, Orconectes virilis originating from two distinct hydrodynamic habitats (i.e. lentic and lotic) was tested. Crayfish originating from each habitat were allowed to orient to an odor source under both lentic and lotic conditions. We analyzed both spatial (e.g. heading angle) and temporal (e.g. walking speed) characteristics of the orientation patterns. The results of this study showed that each type of crayfish displayed unique orientation behaviors under each condition. From these results we conclude that lentic and lotic crayfish, O. virilis have behaviors that are uniquely {\textquoteright}tuned{\textquoteright} to the hydrodynamics of their native habitat. Furthermore, this supports the theory that {\textquoteright}sensory biases{\textquoteright} drive an organism to develop {\textquoteright}matched filters.{\textquoteright}}, keywords = {SENSORY}, url = {http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1213281400}, author = {Ferrante, Peter A.} }
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These teachings were recorded at the Rimé Institute in Belgrave, Australia on June 04, 2015.
Ok. Today the subject is mandala offering. I said this many times but I think still worth to say. When we say mandala, we have to know what people getting image in their mind. How many people have idea of mandala in this earth, or in this language using. Among this language using, how many people have idea of what is mandala. We think of that first and then among these people, have some idea of this mandala. In their mind how many percentage people thinking, what image holding in their mind, mandala. I would say majority of people, they holding in their mind, mandala, in their mind, is the sand mandala drawing or the picture of mandala you know, originally meant to be sand mandala, the Kalachakra mandala and the other buddhas mandala, probably people think that. So probably the minority of people thinking two types of mandala. But that is probably very minority, I mean according to who using this language and I’m saying this age, in this century I mean. So maybe the other centuries maybe different, but this centaury who using this language, not many people know this mandala we talking today.
So first I think very important to distinguish the mandala. We often see on the internet, especially we see the Kalachakra mandala, that kind of drawing and sand mandala. So then, distinguish, we talking about mandala in this chapter, in this teaching, we not talking about that mandala. We talking about this three rings on the top of the disc and we have this kind of building mandala. So then we have to know what is the differences, what is representing differently. And why we need offering mandala ok.
So the first one, the flat mandala everybody see often on the internet, that one, is representation of enlightened world, ok. So that means if, Amitabha mandala and then there’s some support, the deities according to Amitabha and if Akshobhya and according to there’s some specific deities, places and like that. So for instance in the Kalachakra, and then you have this 636 deities support or even more, 720, that kind of specific locations for the deities. Why? Because we talking about this enlightened deities. For this reason we talking about their palace or their world, so for this reason there’s many places of specific deities. So for this reason we say this mandala is representation for the enlightened palace or enlightened world. And the purpose of this mandala we making, creating this mandala also, not the main focus is offering. The main focus is identify all this locations and this deities and what they representing in your body, in your mind and in your five aggregates, so on and so forth, if you can. But even you can’t go that much detail but just that deities and that palace is existing, so that’s why you try to creating all some mental picture (? 13.47) with this enlightened world, enlightened deities so mainly for your visualisation and understanding and those things, that is your main focus. So the main focus is not for offering to somebody or someone else.
So this mandala what we talking about today is main focus, is for offering and the purpose accumulation merit. So because everything this particular practice, the Kalachakra particular practice, is for reach our full potential, our sacred truth, the Tathagatagarbha. For this reason we need accumulation merits. We need two accumulations remember. The wisdom and the merits. So the wisdom, and we build through the knowledge and we learn more and more and more, and we understanding more and more, more subtle and subtle, so that is accumulation wisdom. So the accumulation merits is, we generate our mind the positive quality, you know, this generosity and the mindfulness and the thoughtfulness and this appreciation and inspiration and so on. So for this reason, this two always together as like you know, wings of the bird, the bird cannot fly without one wing. So similarly we cannot reach Buddhahood without two accumulations. So this particular mandala offering is for accumulation merits.
So what representing this mandala. Again similar is universe, but more representing in our universe. Our universe means really this samsaric universe. So there’s no strict rule you cannot offering enlightened world, of course you can, depending your capacity. But in this particular practice we focusing the representation of our own world, our own world which means we had, our own possession, this world is kind of our possession because belong to us. Because we have this collective sharing karma, everybody together, for this reason we have entitled to offering this world more than any other universe. So the mental transformation is always important and there’s no limit rules, so of course you can imagine the one hundred thousand universes to offering. However in our offering, our own world and this karma we have, associated with this karma, this world we have much more entitled to offering. So entitled to offering means we have more, we should have more effective result than we offering other universe. For this reason this mandala is designed for representation of our world.
And our world offer to who? Offer to enlightened beings, enlightened universe. So in this particular practice mainly of course this tantrayana practice, so you see as the main yidam deity Kalachakra, as inseparable as your dharma teacher, so that you offer. And then you offer all yidam deities, yidams and buddhas, bodhisattva, dakinis, dharma protectors, everybody you offering.
So you may think, “oh, why I offer samsaric world to enlightened beings? That maybe is not such a nice offering because samsara is terrible, impure. This all whole world is come from impure karma, karmic cause and conditions. So how can I offer this to enlightened beings, enlightened world?” You know, so some people may think ok…something like we have very important guest, very respectable guest and we offer dirty food or already gone off, dirty food. You can think of like that, but what you have to understand here is the offering is not…. firstly the offering is not enlightened beings needs. Enlightened beings, enlightened world, enlightened universe, they don’t need anything at all, but the offering is in our mind training, so we need more thoughts, thoughtful, generous and discipline, diligent, perseverance. For this reason we offering.
And also you have to know that enlightened beings doesn’t matter what you offering. So you offering something dirty and revolting for enlightened beings. For them is not dirty and rotten. Why? Because they don’t have that karma. They are free from karma, so our the disgusting and rotting dirtiness is only appears because we have that karma. So if we offering that with your pure motivation, good intention, even if you have some ignorance, still it is beautiful offering becomes, that’s not problem at all. For this reason it is appropriate even our karmic universe, that’s all we have possessed, this is our best we can offer. So that’s why it is appropriate and benefit to offering. For this reason we offering the mandala.
Then maybe you can think of, why is mandala. Why we can’t offer the other beautiful things. Why we can’t buy flower everyday and offer? Why can’t we make other things, beautiful things, beautiful dress, beautiful jewellery whatever. Why can’t offer them? The answer is of course you can, of course you can. Also you can think of, why we can’t offering reality, to some respected beings, really respected spiritual teachers, monks, nuns, whoever. Why we just making something like children and make something like children toy, and making something and offering, there’s buddha’s and something we don’t really see? And pretending we offering the universe. Why we do that? Maybe you can think of that. The answer is, yes you can offer anything. Whatever you said, you can offer the reality. But this particular offering not nihilate other offerings, the offering reality. You can offer food, you can offer drink, you can offer anything, you can offer kind, encouraging, anything.
But we offering this mandala because representation of our universe. That’s very important or we can say symbolic of our world. So the whole world, that’s we got the best, the whole world is the largest we have, the biggest we have, the greatest we have. So why we not offering the symbol of the whole world? You can offering any reality things, as much as you can, anytime and particularly in this, during how long, however long you focus on this mandala offering, you can offer many other things. But the recommendation is you have to offer this mandala. Firstly the representation of the universe. Secondly this is our tradition. Blessed lineage, passed on, the realisation and attainment, has high attainments. This spiritual masters, they attainment extra ordinary attainments, through this practice, for this reason it has been blessed. So that’s why this is our one absolutely necessary we have to practice, we have to offering.
But doesn’t nihilate any other, doesn’t against any other offerings, as much as you can, you can do it. Your personal favourite you can do it. Reality offering, imagination offering, when you visit the shops, garden, anything, even on the television, anything you see is nice, pleasant, beautiful you can offer. This is really important to have this habit in our mind. The respect ones, the enlightened beings, we remember them and we offering them. So you accumulating enormous merit every day. But we have to have this practice, mandala, that’s one of must have. Not should have, one of is must do. Any other generosity actions welcome, but one of this you must, is that.
So now hopefully you understood, what is mandala, what different two mandala’s, representing two different and purpose different, and which one we talking about in this teaching. So that should be clear for you, and these people heard many times, but for the new people you should have clear for this now. Is clear? So how you do practically, and which part of this physical mandala is which part representation, next Joe, the others can teach you.
Ok so this chapter, this practice quite simple. If somebody would like to have much more academic understanding then you can go, you can learn the universe. So you can learn the universe how traditionally taught. What the traditional astronomy. And the scientific astronomy. Why is different? And which one is true, so on and so forth, you can learn a lot if you like academic. But that is not essential. For this practice it is not essential I believe. So the essential is you just know this is one particularly skilful forms of generosity practice. One skilful particularly accumulation merits, that’s you have to know. And specifically, you have to remember, this is obstacle of, clear obstacles of my next attainments, next accomplishment. For this reason again you should have extra effort, with joyful effort, joyful effort. Not you find difficult and unpleasant.
So if I tell you a very little bit, why the scientific universe and this classical universe is different. The purpose, the describe, you know, how you say, the explanation of the universe, the purpose not the same. That’s I think is major importance. So the science purpose, what their purpose? Their main purpose, how we can use this universe for samsara, samsaric benefits. So that’s why very important, good measurement and everything. And the science done so well, I would say very very, well, and this samsaric purpose, so we can’t deny that. Some people try to deny that, some monks, but I thought that was very funny (laughs). We cannot deny that, impossible. If you deny this I believe you even not so, according to the Buddhist doctrine you know, so you should not deny this, that is the reality, one of the reality.
And then on the other hand some people have very critical about the classical explanation of the universe. Which means the representing by this our mandala and they saying, “oh, this is not true. What scientists discover is very true, all of them”. So I would say we should have no problem with this, the scientists what explain the universe, should not be any challenging for this practice, that’s I believe. So ancient time, who describe how universe is how like. Based their own knowledge, yes, but also we cannot measure this enlightened beings, their knowledge. If we try to, if we try to be judgemental, “oh they only have that knowledge, oh they didn’t know”. I think that is a little bit very silly, we judge them, you know, our capacity to judge this realisation sages, you know. Instead they skilful means, what is suitable at that time, that age, based on that time, people’s knowledge, is suitable. Not important in the future one day science, so called science, developed and discover this universe like this, and majority people understand this. That’s not important because that’s total different purpose.
So for us, the major I think, the important of how much gain realisations through this practice, and been blessed, that’s important. So when we offering, we offering exactly way. Even if we visualise it, the universe, we wouldn’t visualise it as the scientific world, as like a bowl and then we have Africa there, America there, Europe, Asia, we don’t do that way. We should do exactly what is the classical way and described in this holy text, with understanding. There is no conflict because different purpose and serves different purpose, different benefits. But if you want to go details, “oh ok, how they describe, this and this and how many continents and how many sub-continents and how the measurement each one”. That’s all fine, but all this is secondary, I would believe, not the primary practice. So for this reason we don’t need talk too much (laughs). So what else should we talk?
Student – What we’re offering, does that include also all sentient beings of the universe and if so that means offering your own body, speech and mind as well? Is that correct?
And there must be many levels of offering of offering your body, speech and mind. Could you explain possibly…
What you mean many levels?
Well I guess it’s quite a difficult thing maybe for most people to comprehend offering your own body, speech and mind. So there would be many different of levels a practitioner would go through….well I guess I have difficulty understanding what that means, offering your body, speech and mind to…
Yep. Ohhh.
Do you understand my question?
Yes, yes. When we offering the universe, is it important to offer sentient beings? The answer is not necessarily. But you could, you don’t have to purposefully separate the sentient beings at all. But also you don’t really need specifically think of the sentient beings, not necessary. Because depending how you feel. You know when we offering the universe, I feel like we more focus the all beautiful things of the universe, we more focus them and this feeling you know, like pleasant, with this feeling of the pleasant and we offering. So if that sentient beings occurs to you as pleasant and beautiful, then yes. If not you don’t have to and if is neutral is ok, your offering.
But the more important, usually people don’t think that way. People don’t think you have right to offer something you don’t have, something is not belong to you. So that’s why I am saying this universe is belong to us. That’s one thing, so that’s we just learn. The other thing, people don’t think is worthwhile, something offering, not reality, situation is yours. So something people, usually people think offering is something practical. So we cross that gap, yes offering is practical and non practical, both.
Because our mind, the all is training our mind, so mind you can think, you can imagine, you can have that feeling, you can have that attitude, why not. Nobody stopping your attitude, nobody able to stop you attitude and your feeling. So that’s why. Which means skilful means. But if people always do this non practical one all the time and not doing any practical, then maybe have a little bit problem. So you have to try both. Which one easier? Of course the non practical one easier, and then, you should train that first, the easy one. Let’s say you train offering, make habit, everything pleasant, beautiful you sees, your mind first popping in your mind, “oh so beautiful! I ‘m offering Buddha, dharma and sangha. I offer Buddha’s and bodhisattvas”. Kind of like that, or I offering Amitabha pure land, I offering Shambhala or whatever, to Shambhala I mean, to Shambhala offering, you know. Those things, so the Shambhala beauty cannot compare our world beauty, but our world beauty is reality to you, the other one is imagination so you can, in that reason this our world beauty things is more powerful for you so you can offer that no problem.
And then when we say our body, speech, mind offering, what does mean? Do we have cherish our body, do we have cherish our mind, do we have cherish our speech? Of course we have. So something cherish but still you give somebody, we call generous, so you are doing the same thing with your body, speech and mind. Why is difficult for you mind? Is something difficult to let go or something why people need my body, speech and mind? If is that case I said before remember, is not they needs, it is our mind training. So otherwise, if you find your body, speech mind is terrible and revolting, disgusting, and then you have no cherish, zero cherish, then you don’t have to offer, but probably that is nobody. So
Student – I think this idea of multiple levels, body, speech, mind, I’m wondering, is one level seems to be the external level right, where you have gross actions of body, speech and mind, right. Are there more subtle ways of offering our body, speech and mind that can also help remind us of the qualities….
I think those things not important to worry too much. When you practicing offering, the offering is important, the generous important, the thoughtful important, the mindfulness important. Not so much details, “oh should I do this? Shouldn’t I do this? Should I? Shouldn’t I? Better to this? Maybe not?” Is too much, it is not important really to think of too much. Because you, the purpose you have to remember, the main purpose.
Student – But is there purpose in remembering the qualities…..part of the purpose is to develop merit Yes? So….
Not part of purpose, the main purpose
If that’s the main purpose then reminding ourselves of different qualities and then offering them brings, strengthens…
Yes if naturally, if naturally for you have no difficult at all, you just naturally falls in and if you want to do that, no problem, you can do that. But if is like kind of form of worry, form of you know, and then is not necessary. Because then you forgot the main purpose. So for instance if you have many things offer somebody, many things you can give away for somebody but instead you give them and say, “oh maybe something else better bah, bah, bah. Oh I don’t have that one”. You know kind of like, is wasting time. So whatever you feels, whatever you feels comfortable, whatever you feels is appropriate. This is training of your attitude and your feeling and your mindful and your thoughtful, so for this reason, whatever serves that purpose necessary ok?
Student – So if you have trouble offering something then it’s pretty sure sign you’re attached to it?
Yer, (laughs). You are attached or you misunderstood or something, you know, so that means maybe not necessary, at that stage.
Student – Naropa offered sand and ? mixed together to Telopa. He had nothing to offer at the time. He made a mandala out of it and offered it.
Yep. You know remember during the Buddha time there was ….(name 52.19) one of king. He offering many days, accommodations, food, all Buddha and all his monks and then he offering special day, he offering thousands and thousands of butter lamps everywhere. And one poor woman find tiny bottle for use her shampoo, not shampoo, what you call, this shining hair. Shining hair that time only just bottle, ok, so she instead, shining in her hair and she use this bottle and she doesn’t even have a (?) container so she had to use goats hoof, and she offering. So Buddha, when Buddha dedicate, first he mention that woman’s bottle offering, and then someone asked why? Because, he said, her motivation is much more pure (laughs), her generous is much more stronger, her thoughtful, mindfulness and the perseverance and the tolerance, is a sacrifice. Her only (?) what you call, I should know that name.
Student – It’s’ a little unclear to me how making offerings clears away these obstacles for the future, for the rest of the path. How is making these offerings….I can see that it helps develop generosity but how does it help us remove, what obstacles are we removing?
Ok that’s easy. Because you know like….
We are already removing with Vajrasattva, why is it necessary to have this mandala practice?
(laughs) Vajrasattva is purification, remember. Purification means you remove the negativities, particularly obstacles of this practice, your own practice and your own this next practice and next realisation, next attainments. Yer, vajrasattva purification, purify any type of negative karma yes, but more particularly you dedicating the obstacle of what next preventions. So mandala offering, you not removing, you are accumulating more support to get that realisation ok. So for instance, if you going somewhere on the road you have tree falls on your path. That is obstacle you have to remove, so that is vajrasattva purification doing, cutting tree and removing. But you need vehicle to go, the vehicle is for you, is not removing but supporting you getting there sooner. Otherwise if you walk it takes a month (laughs). So similarly the accumulation merits support whatever you need achieving. The other one removing the obstacles. So in different way you can say, the both is supporting and removing, but if you want to make really different one you want to make, then you have to think that way. Is that clear now? Ok. So maybe we practice, so we practice and if we have some time after, if we need to discuss after, if necessary.
Khentrul Rinpoché Jamphel Lodrö
• June 11, 2016
Raw transcript created by Vanessa Mason
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Benefits of Using Public Transportation
Benefits of Using Public Transportation
Public transport is one of the most beneficial means of commute one could ever pick. This kind of transport has many benefits to both individual citizens and also the community at large. The media does not specifically concentrate on public transportation. Instead, it concentrates on personal vehicles and their new improvements. Here are some of the great advantages of public transportation which will make you like using it.
Reduces Pollution
This is easily seen through a mathematical calculation which shows that there is a low level of air pollution within a kilometer when a bus carrying many passengers is used compared to if each passenger had used a private car. Buses also emit a small percentage of carbon monoxide compared to single-driver automobiles.
Fuel Efficiency
The amount of fuel required in public transportation is less in relation to the number of people who have used the service. This is better compared to using private means which will lead to higher amounts of fuel used in the country. It should be kept in mind that petroleum is an exhaustible source of energy, thus any efforts to conserve it should be embraced. Use of public transportation contributes greatly to this end.
Ease Traffic Congestion
Imagine a situation where everyone decides to use their private cars. Towns would be chaotic, right? People should, therefore, make use of public transport which is available and most convenient to them. This will help to ease the level of congestion in towns as there will be fewer cars in the area. The end result is that everyone is able to get to their destination faster, ultimately boosting productivity.
Saves People Money
Public transport is way much cheaper than private transportation. It can save you a large sum of money annually. Private vehicles give a large bill to their owners due to fuelling. Private means also need maintenance which is quite expensive. You also has to pay for parking each day you travel by your personal car, which is not the case if you use public transport.
Increase in Mobility Level
Public transport allows people who do not own cars or do not know how to drive cars, the ability to move to areas they would like to visit without having to call anyone for help. This allows one to move from one area to another and easily offer their services.
Saves Time
Public transport saves time in that not everyone in the vehicle is driving. This allows passengers to do other things such as working or studying while traveling at the same time. It also allows passengers to have attention on other important issues as they do not need to have their eyes on the road.
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The Pleiades
From Scope F70076
Sep 20, 2008. This was the first night this year when the sky was dark and clear enough after the light nights in summer. There were still some clouds in the sky. Again it was quite easy to find the Pleiades (the Messier object M45) because the Moon was quite near it, and because the Pleiades is a quite big object so that when moving from Moon in the approximately right angle, it was easy to see that object in the finder scope. To find it otherwise, the Pleiades is in the constellation Taurus, and Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) is the brightest star in Taurus. Aldebaran is a very bright, less than magnitude 1 yellow star, so one most likely can find it, but the Pleiades itself is also quite bright, so with clearer skies one may also see it with the naked eye.
The Pleiades filled all the field of view of my 20mm eyepiece. There were the seven bright stars, and many smaller ones. I saw something which resembled nebulosity, but it was likely rather a large number of small stars which my telescope couldn't resolve.
Later I also saw the Pleiades with the naked eye. It was a glow in the sky bigger than the Moon, but it was very faint so that it was barely visible, it is possible to see it though when you know where to look. I also tried to look at the Pleiades with a 3 inch magnifying glass. It magnifies the remote objects almost two times and should make the objects as much brighter as a 3 inch scope, but too small magnification and the fact that the image is not projected to the entire field of view of the eyes, makes it useless for observing almost any objects. The Pleiades looked somewhat brighter, I saw it more like a line, where I think I could resolve three stars. The magnifying glass has not been useful though to see any other objects any better. Thus the main purpose of an eyepiece is not making the objects visible, but to magnify and widespread the view to the whole field of view of the eyes.
The Pleiades cluster was mentioned by Homer in 750 B.C.
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Posted: April 10, 2017
Ct Commission
For a cancer patient, a CT simulator is usually the first step in a patient’s journey during radiation treatment. The simulator determines the exact location, shape, and size of the tumour to be treated, and allows the radiation therapy team to plan the radiation treatment based on the data the CT simulator provides.
Dr. Runqing Jiang is proud to be a part of that process for cancer patients.
As a medical physicist for the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre (GRRCC), Dr. Jiang is responsible for setting up, calibrating, and ensuring the accuracy of GRH’s new CT simulator. If any issues come up with the simulator, she enjoys solving the issue quickly to provide exceptional care for the patient.
This new CT simulator, funded from the Government of Ontario through Cancer Care Ontario, is replacing one of GRH’s previous scanners so GRH is able to continue to support cancer care medical imaging needs.
What do you find most interesting about CT simulators?
CT scan is the starting point of radiation treatment. The patient’s journey will be determined in part by what the CT simulator shows the oncology professionals, and the whole treatment is based on the dataset CT scan provided so it’s a very important first step and it’s rewarding to be a part of that.
How have CT simulators changed over time?
As the technology advances, newer CT simulators will generally have a clearer image quality, a lower dose of radiation and a faster speed so patients do not have to stay as still for as long.
What is required for the calibration of a new CT simulator?
I am responsible for testing, commissioning and QA of the CT simulator. The quality assurance program addresses radiation safety, imaging quality, and dosimetry among other things.
What does your typical day look like?
My day largely involves -the quality assurance (QA) for the patient’s treatment plans, and signing off on the QA document before the patient goes in to treatment.
How long will it take from the time it is set-up to the time it can start examining patients?
To set-up and prepare a patient for the CT simulator it takes about a half an hour.
Why are CT simulators important in health care and for patients?
For patients who have cancer and require or seek radiation, the first step for them is a scan from a CT simulator. Once the data and images have been collected, a treatment plan will be decided based on the data that the CT provided. The CT simulator helps to show exactly where a tumour is and how large it is which of course is very useful in the planning process.
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What is Clinical Trial?
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Rina's picture
What is Clinical Trial?
Every day, research uncovers new information about diseases and their treatment. Clinical research studies are an important step in making new medications available for future use. Here are a few definitions of Clinical Trial:
What is a clinical trial?
Although there are many definitions of clinical trials, they are generally considered to be biomedical or health-related research studies in human beings that follow a pre-defined protocol. ClinicalTrials.gov includes both interventional and observational types of studies. Interventional studies are those in which the research subjects are assigned by the investigator to a treatment or other intervention, and their outcomes are measured. Observational studies are those in which individuals are observed and their outcomes are measured by the investigators. – from http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/info/understand
Rina Glozman
Guy Sovak
Guy Sovak's picture
Hi Rina,
Hi Rina,
Thank you for starting with this new category.
Where do one learns how to become a clinical researcher, do you need to have a diploma or just with couple of years in academic research you can look for a job in this area?
Fraser Moss
Fraser Moss's picture
Here is an example of a Job
Here is an example of a Job posting for a Clinical trials Project director
quoted key job requirements are:
* Bachelor’s degree or RN.
* Six years clinical trial experience including monitoring and four years managerial and supervisory experience.
Rina's picture
Clinical Research
Clinical Research Professionals come from a wide variety of backgrounds with even more varied job descriptions. Some Clinical Research Professionals are MDs, while other are RNs, some may have a degree in medical technology, business administration, health information management, statistics, biology, teaching, or other areas. Every one of these backgrounds brings special areas of expertise to the clinical research field. Much of our training has come after our employment as a Clinical Research Professional. Every institution and discipline have unique requirements. (From SOCRA- http://www.socra.org/html/certific.htm#Background%20Information)
A clinical research associate (CRA) is a profession defined by Good clinical practice guidelines (ICH GCP).
Common Qualifications/Requirements for CRA position will be:
- University Degree in Life Sciences, Pharmacy or Medicine
- At least 1-2 years experience as a CRA- Understanding of ICH-GCP guidelines
- Clinical Monitoring Experience
- Excellent communication skills
- Computer literate
Clinical Research Associate (CRA) positions are often sought after careers. But how can you break into this role? One option for someone to break into a CRA position is by working in a clinical entry level position, such as: Project Assistant , Clinical Data Associate , Document Maintenance Specialist , Clinical Coordinator Assistant and other.
Here are some testimonies from science professionals who break into Clinical Science:
Shubhangi's picture
Yes people in this field may
Yes people in this field may come from different educational backgrounds like doctors, pharmacists, lab technicians and last but not least statisticians.
Special cources are available for detailed education in this field as it is one of the growing branch of medicine from commercial point of view.
vaibhav kapoor
vaibhav kapoor's picture
clinical research
A clinical report includes research using human volunteers (also called participants) that is intended to add to medical knowledge.There are two main types of clinical studies: 1.clinical trials (also called interventional studies)2.observational studies. ClinicalTrials.gov includes both interventional and observational studies.Clinical Trials:In a clinical trial, participants receive specific interventions according to the research plan or protocol created by the investigators. These intercessions may be medical products, such as drugs or devices; procedures; or changes to participants' behavior, such as diet. Clinical preliminaries may compare a new medical approach to a standard one that is already available, to a placebo that contains no active ingredients, or to no intervention. Some clinical trials compare interventions that are already available to each other. When a new product or approach is being studied, it is not usually known whether it will be helpful, harmful, or no different than available alternatives (including no intervention). The investigators try to determine the safety and efficacy of the intervention by measuring certain outcomes in the participants. For example, investigators may give a drug or treatment to participants who have high blood pressure to see whether their blood pressure decreases.
Stephannie Baker
Stephannie Baker's picture
Clinical trial
What is a clinical trial?A clinical trial is a research study performed on subjects to gather information about the effectiveness of a certain treatment, drugs, therapy, medical device, etc. It is performed on humans, animals, etc. Extensive experimentation is conducted in the laboratory before the clinical research organization can start testing on human subjects. The laboratory experiments give the scientists an idea about the fatality and side effects of the drugs or treatment being tested. Clinical trials give rise to new remedies for various diseases, using the old treatment in a different way, etc. which can provide a cure. These trials can give the scientists a better indication of the drug being tested as it is performed on people of different ethnicity, region, age group, gender, etc. There are four phases in a clinical trial:
1. Phase I: Testing on a small group of people
2. Phase II: Testing on a larger group of people which can go on for several years
3. Phase III: Effectiveness of the drugs is checked with different dosages and in varying population. The drug gets approved or rejected in this phase.
4. Phase IV: After approval, the drug is tested on a diverse population
Importance of clinical trials:
• These trials give rise to cure for diseases and disorders which are not available
• A trial performed in human subjects gives scientists better knowledge of the drugs being tested
• The effectiveness of medical devices on human systems can be determined
• Drawbacks of certain drugs for various races of people can be known
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as actual "physical memory".
All modern operating systems handle this by using "Virtual Memory" : memory, which does
not exist as physical existing memory chips, but has emulated memory by using a part of the
disk to temporary store information, which is currently not used by the CPU, from physical memory
to disk, to make room for information currently used by the CPU. if such information placed on the
disk is required by the CPU at a later time, other information in memory is store to disk, making
space for the needed information to be put back into physical memory.
Since information be be swapped several time between physical memory and the disk, the file
on the disk used to store memory information is often called "Swap-file".
Since the information is swapped in fixed size units called "Pages", the file is also call "Page File".
The Windows
Task-Manager is giving you an overview on the usage of the PF = Page-File :
It is very important, that XP never runs out of memory :
If Task Manager shows that you get close to the limit , either install more physical memory chips
(best solution) or increase the size of the Page-File :
In the Control-Panel, select the
System icon:
(or right-click "My Computer" on the desktop
and select Properties)
Select the tab: "Advanced" and then
use in the section "Performance"
the button "Settings"
In the Window "Performance Options",
use the tab : "Advanced"
In the section "Virtual Memory",
the system shows the total size
of the Paging file, which you can
increase with the "Change" button.
Usually, Windows stores the Paging File
on drive C:, but if you are short on
disk-space on drive C:, you can place a
Paging File on a different disk and then
decrease the size of the paging file on the
When using a Application, which use
a lot of memory and therefore use
heavily the memory emulated by the
paging files, it is strongly suggested
to increase the "Initial Size" of the
Paging file, which reserves already the
space on the disk for the page-file.
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