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Have a question? We have the answers.
What Is The #1 Cause Of Confined Space Fatalities?
Oxygen deficiency is still the leading cause of death in Confined Space incidents.
The concentration of oxygen in normal air is approximately 20.9%. The balance (over 78%) consists primarily of nitrogen. The remaining fraction includes small amounts of water vapor, carbon dioxide and argon, as well as traces of other gases.
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.146, “Permit Required Confined Spaces”, contains the requirements for practices and procedures to protect employees in general industry from the hazards of entry into permit-required confined spaces. The OSHA standard defines an oxygen deficient atmosphere as any atmosphere containing less than 19.5% oxygen by volume. Any atmosphere that contains less than 19.5% oxygen is hazardous, and may not be entered by unprotected workers.
Any oxygen concentration other than 20.9% indicates an abnormal condition. A less than normal concentration of oxygen by definition indicates a greater than normal concentration of some other component or the presence of a contaminant in the atmosphere being sampled. Even when the oxygen concentration does not constitute a statutory hazardous condition, workers should determine the cause of the abnormal reading prior to entering a confined space. The safest approach is to initiate entry only when monitoring has determined that a “fresh air” oxygen concentration of 20.9% exists in the space.
How do I Pick the Best Gas Detector for Use in a Confined Space?
The “best” Confined Space Gas Detector does not come from any one manufacturer. It is the instrument that best fulfills the requirements for your operational application(s). Price must not be the sole consideration, as many features of the instrument should be determined:
Sensor Selection – Does the instrument offer the selection of sensors needed for the known and potential atmospheric hazards associated with the confined spaces to be monitored?
Diffusion or Sample-Draw Method – Determine the best function of gas detecting for your application. Diffusion instruments utilize natural air currents to bring the atmosphere being sampled to the instrument. They are often preferred for work area monitoring. Sample-Draw kits enable diffusion-type instruments to sample from remote locations. This is useful for below ground stratification of gases tested such as down a manhole or utility vault.
Classification for Intrinsic Safety – Instruments purchased for use in a confined space, hazardous location, or other environment characterized by the potential presence of flammable or explosive gases, should carry a Classification of Intrinsic Safety.
Durability – Is the instrument durable enough to take the abuse it is likely to receive in the application? How well is it protected from the effects of radio frequency interference (RFI) and electromagnetic interference (EFI)? Consideration should be given to the effects of high and low temperatures on the design, and resistance to water and dust.
Source of Power – Instruments today are powered with Alkaline batteries, rechargeable battery packs, or both. Considering the pros and cons of each should be a consideration.
Alarms – The majority of new detectors offer three types of alarm function; audible, visual and vibratory. Alarms should be loud, highly visible and sufficient to grab the attention of the instrument user.
Consideration of the package of included accessories, instrument warranty, calibration frequency, available technical service and overall operability of the instrument being evaluated will help ensure a suitable product selection. Note: Many manufacturers offer a “field evaluation” period prior to purchase… there is no substitute for hands-on experience!
If I Calibrate My Instrument With Pentane, Will It Sense Methane As Well?
The Catalytic Bead (LEL) sensor can degrade due to “poisoning” and if so, the sensitivity tends to be lost first with regards to Methane. A partially poisoned sensor might still respond accurately to Pentane, while showing a dangerously reduced response to Methane. Some manufacturers offer an “equivalent” mixture of calibration gas (Methane) to address this condition. Contact the instrument manufacturer for specific information and guidance on the potential effects to their technology.
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Monthly Archives: April 2014
Is it good or bad to praise the kids? It all depends on how it is done.
To praise or not to praise, that is the question.
Several research reports published recently have asserted that ‘overpraising’ children can actually set them up to fail. One such study carried out at Utrecht University in the Netherlands found that over exaggerated praise is well intended, but for. kids who have low self-esteem it can make them less confident. Eddie Brummelhein, a doctoral student at Utrecht, states that praise causes less confident children to believe that they must constantly achieve to a high level. Unfortunately, this belief actually stops those students trying new tasks in case they fail.
A similar study found that telling pupils they are clever before an examination can actually worsen their grades. The rationale is that in telling a student that they are bright can increase performance anxiety and fear of failure.
It is understandable that some parents are left feeling a little confused. Mums and Dads are left thinking do I or do I not praise my child? What is helpful encouragement and what is potentially damaging? So should you praise your child?
The answer is a resounding ‘Yes’. It is good to praise your child and to start praising them early. The guiding rule is that praise must be appropriate to the task accomplished. It must also be earned.
Exaggerated praise, however well-meaning is likely to eventually backfire. Too much praise and your child may acquire a tendency to give up early on tasks or to over inflate their skills. These behaviours could eventually result in underperformance, a lack of general efficacy and ultimately the Achilles syndrome, (the secret fear of failure.) Appropriate praise and encouragement on the other hand builds genuine self-esteem and self-confidence. Well-proportioned praise leads to self-belief.
The development of self-belief is essential for the concepts of stamina, perseverance and successful problem solving.
It is also the case that children are able to recognise when you are over egging the praise. When an adult gives exaggerated praise, children tend to think you are ‘bigging up’ their skills because they are really not good at something. Essentially praise that was meant to build esteem actually kills it stone dead. Some professionals assert that praise makes a child dependant on an adult and instead encourage parents to simply reflect back to the child what they have accomplished. ‘Oh you finished that puzzle’ rather than ‘well done for finishing the puzzle’. The belief being that the child will respond to ‘Oh you finished that puzzle’ with ‘I am clever’. This is potentially dangerous thinking. A young child needs to hear positive reinforcement to develop the ability to self-evaluate. They are unable to self-evaluate fully unless they are shown how to do this.
Many decades ago the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky in his seminal work on child development spoke of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and the role that parents play in scaffolding or helping a child to extend their skills beyond their chronological age. Praise given correctly is a vital component in scaffolding a child’s emotional and physical development. This remains true.
The key is to provide appropriate and encouraging praise in a timely and proportioned manner. It is not overpraising every routine thing your child does. The most effective praise contains the message ‘you have done well and you have the potential to build on this’. Not, ‘you are fabulous’, the ‘cleverest’ and the ‘greatest star’, even if, like most parents you really believe they are.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner & E. Souberman., Eds.) (A. R. Luria, M. Lopez-Morillas & M. Cole [with J. V. Wertsch], Trans.) Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. (Original manuscripts [ca. 1930-1934])
Written by Dr Christine Tizzard Consultant Chartered Adult, Child and Adolescent Psychologist. Clinical Director Sheehan Brooke Psychology. Chichester.
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Grand Harbour Malta
Grand Harbour Malta (Il-Port il-Kbir) is the single most important geographic feature of the country, and is the reason it has been a key Mediterranean crossroads for millennia. There are numerous excellent natural harbors in the country, including on both Gozo Island and on tiny Comino Island, even though the latter is only one square mile in area. But it is this largest harbor in Malta that has played a key role in Malta's and the world's history.
Grand Harbour history began as far back as the Phoenicians, who originated in the areas where Lebanon, Syria, and Israel exist today. The Phoenicians spread across the Mediterranean from about 1550 to 300 B.C. making port in Malta during that time. But is seems clear that ancient mariners made their way here long before that, as evidenced by the numerous megalithic temples found on the islands of Gozo and Malta. These mysterious temples were built between about 3000 and 2600 B.C. probably by mariners from nearby Sicily who undoubtedly sailed into Grand Harbour Malta on their voyages of exploration. In fact, two of the ancient temples, the Hal Salflieni Hypogeum and the Tarxien Temples, are located very close to the port.
It was the Knights of Malta who made Grand Harbour history during their 268 year reign that began in 1530. They are also known as the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights of Rhodes. When were expelled from Jerusalem and then from Rhodes by Suleiman the Magnificent, the King of France granted them Malta as their residence. They transformed what they called at the time "merely a rock of soft sandstone" into a prosperous kingdom, and developed this main natural harbor in Malta into a major port for world commerce with formidable defenses and massive forts.
Grand Harbour Malta is on the southeast coast of the island, and actually consists of two twin harbors. The northern harbor is Marsamxett, forming the southern shore of the town of Sliema. The peninsula occupied by the city of Valletta separates Marsamxett from its sister harbor. The southern edge of Grand Harbour is occupied by the "Three Cities" of Vittoriosa, Cospicua, and Senglea. The Knights of Malta Grand Harbour history actually began in these three cities, which comprised their headquarters when they first arrived from Rhodes.
Six formidable citadels protect the harbor in Malta and they were all built by the Knights. These forts played a key role in the Great Siege of 1565, when the vastly outnumbered Knights repelled the forces of the Ottoman Empire from Turkey, changing the course of European history. After the siege, they moved their headquarters from Vittoriosa to Valletta and continued building scores of cathedrals, churches, palaces, and grand summer villas. This ensemble of beautiful buildings in Valletta led to it being designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As an Allied naval base during World War II, the cities were heavily bombed and repair on some buildings continues to this day.
Today, much of the commercial shipping traffic has shifted to the Freeport on the southern tip of the island near the town of Marsaxlokk, but large ships on Mediterranean cruises still come into Grand Harbour. One of the most popular things to do near Grand Harbour is to enjoy a relaxing sailing excursion around the shore, admiring the spectacular views of the domes and spires of the many beautiful medieval and baroque buildings. There are many traditional passenger cruises as well as brightly painted traditional fishing boats (called luzzus) that take passengers on scenic cruises. You can also take tours of the forts, and several of the palaces are now fascinating museums. A walk along the seafront will also reward you with scenic vistas as well as some excellent cafes and dining spots.
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Drinking too much in middle age can lead to memory loss in later life, a study has found.
Scientists questioned 6,542 American middle-adults about their past alcohol consumption and assessed their mental abilities over a period of eight years.
They found that a history of problem drinking - described as alcohol use disorders (AUDs) - more than doubled the risk of developing severe memory impairment.
Lead researcher Dr Iain Lang, from the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "We already know there is an association between dementia risk and levels of current alcohol consumption - that understanding is based on asking older people how much they drink and then observing whether they develop problems.
"But this is only one part of the puzzle and we know little about the consequences of alcohol consumption earlier in life. What we did here is investigate the relatively unknown association between having a drinking problem at any point in life and experiencing problems with memory later in life."
He added: "This finding - that middle-aged people with a history of problem drinking more than double their chances of memory impairment when they are older - suggests... that this is a public health issue that needs to be addressed."
Problem drinking was identified using the Cage (cut down, annoyed, guilty, eye-opener) questionnaire.
Participants were asked four specific questions: had they ever felt they should cut down on their drinking, had people annoyed them by criticising their drinking, had they ever felt bad or guilty about their drinking, and had they ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady nerves or get rid of a hangover.
The findings appear in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Dr Doug Brown, director of research and development at the Alzheimer's Society charity, said: "When we talk about drinking too much, the media often focuses on young people ending up in A&E after a night out. However, there's also a hidden cost of alcohol abuse given the mounting evidence that alcohol abuse can also impact on cognition later in life.
"This small study shows that people who admitted to alcohol abuse at some point in their lives were twice as likely to have severe memory problems, and as the research relied on self-reporting that number may be even higher.
"This isn't to say that people need to abstain from alcohol altogether. As well as eating a healthy diet, not smoking and maintaining a healthy weight, the odd glass of red wine could even help reduce your risk of developing dementia."
Dr Eric Karran, science director at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: " One strength of this study is its long time period: as dementia develops slowly over a number of years it's crucial to understand what factors could affect our risk of the condition earlier in life.
"Although studies such as this one can be very useful for observing health trends, it's important to note that they are not able to show cause and effect, and it's not clear whether other factors may also have influenced these results."
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What if everybody had a gun?
• Photo
The Iowa Legislature is working on many interesting bills.
For instance, there is Senate File 25 — a “stand your ground” bill.
There is Senate Joint Resolution 2, which allows people to carry guns without permits.
There is Senate File 108, which calls for eliminating federal prohibitions on machine guns and sawed-off shotguns.
And there is Senate File 145, which wants to eliminate requirements for annual permits; it also calls for allowing permits from other states to be valid in Iowa. That includes the states, which have limited, if any, background checks.
What if these bills become laws? With lots of people running around with different guns, it would be impossible to distinguish good people with guns from bad people with guns. The results could be drastic.
Here is a scenario: I am a good person with a gun. I am in a shopping mall. All of the sudden shots are being fired. People are screaming and run around in panic. For me, the choice is obvious: I need to find the bad person with a gun.
My sawed-off shotgun is ready. So am I. And there I see him: A person with a machine gun. I yell, “Freeze!” He turns toward me; gun in hand. So, I stand my ground and shoot him. After all, I don’t know him, and I did not have time to ask him whether he is a bad person or a good person.
What if I do know him and I know that he is a good person? But good people have been known to turn bad. People who used to be good have done most mass killings in the U.S. So, I stand my ground and shoot him.
But what if I actually know that he is a good person? He doesn’t know me. What he sees is a person with a gun. I could yell that it’s OK, that I am a good person. But why should he believe me? So he will try to stand his ground and shoot me. Therefore, I have no choice. I have to stand my ground and shoot him.
Chances are there will be more than two people with guns in that place. So, we can safely multiply the number of people in this scenario by, say, twenty. Which means that many good people will shoot other good people. And the bad person can sit back and enjoy the show.
To those who think that this scenario is improbable and otherwise crazy, I have a question: Why?
With lots of people carrying guns distinguishing a good person from a bad person would be impossible. Therefore, the aforementioned bills threaten to transform public places in Iowa into free fire zones.
• Jozef Figa grew up in Poland, is a naturalized American citizen, and earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of New Hampshire. He has lived and taught in Cedar Rapids since 1988, and serves on the board of Iowans for Gun Safety.
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Pop Stars Are Younger and “Different”!
Pop music has always been a genre for the young and the “different”. It is a way to create their own individuality as well as to express themselves culturally and sometimes politically as well. Counter-cultures are, by definition, in opposition to what the “establishment” considers as normal, and both it see any connection with each other as a “lost cause”, and eventually the two cultures find some common ground and call a truce and the new “culture” finds its “niche” and some cultural common ground. But often the ground can be rocky!
Breaking traditions and morals is a trademark of music as it is in all arts. Frank Sentra and his “Rat Pack” were like the “Beatles” in the 60’s: new, different and to many a threat to the “establishment”. Deliberately going to “extremes” and challenging the norm” is a trait and a necessity for all art.
The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were “mavericks”. Now we have female and even gay groups performing: groups that don’t fit the all-white, all male and all “strait” models of the 50’s and early 60’s. Artists like Jana Hunters rock band “Lower Dens” describe themselves as being “gender non-binary artistic”; another way of saying “We Go Both Way!”
Music has always influenced youth, whether we approve or not. It leads young soldiers to battle; and to fight racism as support civil rights. Many animals make “music”, but only humans use it for good or evil. However it is used, music is a powerful tool that mirrors our own values- both good and bad. Music evolves as we evolve.
It is a tool. And like all tools, they can be used for good purposes or bad.
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Benjamin Franklin Was One Of History's Greatest Inventors
When it comes to Benjamin Franklin, where does one even start? He invented the glass harmonica, was a volunteer fireman, a lifelong writer, a passionate scientist and an engaged civil leader. Franklin could speak at least five different languages and defied death at least twice during scientific experiments. He essentially popularized modern-day journalism and newspapers.
And although he's been credited with the discovery of electricity by way of a string, key and kite, that story may not actually be true. So how did he come to stumble upon electric current, and what other roles did he play in society besides inventor? Franklin is one of the most celebrated minds in science, literature, American history and more. Get to know him, his life and get a peek inside his mind with these videos.
Watch And Learn: Our Favorite Videos About Ben Franklin
5 Amazing Inventions By Benjamin Franklin
He's a legendary inventor for a reason.
A Biography Of Ben Franklin
How much do you really know about the life of this iconic figure?
Share the knowledge!
Ben Franklin's Kite-Flying Experiment Never Happened
Wait, what??
Why Benjamin Franklin SHould Be Your Favorite Scientist
Here's a little refresher on what exactly was so impressive about this man.
10 Of Ben Franklin's Best Quotes
"There was never a good war, or a bad peace."
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Art and the Media’s Influence on the Way it is Perceived
The way this kitty sees itself influences the way it feels about itself and consequently the way it treats others
“Seeing comes before words…It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled…The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.”(Berger, 7)
The way artists present their work directly influence the way a spectator perceives it. Good artists attempt to manipulate the audience’s surroundings by providing insightful perspectives to invoke and maximize interest and understanding. The works of Chris Nolan, Nan Goldin, and Lady Gaga are shining examples of artists displaying their work in a way that manipulates the viewer’s perception to the artist’s best advantage. Consequently, these three artists will be used to support the argument that the best way modern day artists influence the audience’s perception of their work to their benefit, is through substantial usage of the media.
Let us immediately examine the way one of Chris Nolan’s greatest works, “Inception” influences the viewer’s perception. The movie “Inception” is one of the most successful movies of all time grossing upwards of $800 million. Nolan accomplished this by enlisting some of the best actors of our generation to portray his characters, using Hans Zimmer the most successful movie soundtrack composer of all time, stealing plots from successful movies (“Memento”, “Galactica”, “The Last Samurai”, “Hitchcock”), utilizing the most expensive special effects, using a great advertisement campaign, and lastly fine-tuning the plot for a very long period of time (10 years).Nolan’s usage of an effective advertisement campaign was a critical factor in this movie’s success. In contrast to most movie trailers, the trailers of “Inception” stayed true to the “hype”. In fact, most moviegoers commended the movie for exceeding their expectations. The advertisement campaign maximized the publicity garnered by the film, the number of moviegoers willing to venture out to the cinemas, and consequently the profits and sales made by this movie.
Now let us focus our attention on analyzing the underlying psychological concepts present in “Inception”. There is parallelism between Nolan’s role as the film’s director and the roles of the architects of the film’s dream realms. Instead of performing “inception” on Fischer, Nolan performs “inception” on the audience by effectively planting the idea that this movie was worth spending money to see in theaters. According to the film’s protagonist Dominic Cobb,
“ Inception is successful when the dream-trapped target adopts an idea from an external source as his/her own and then changes their behavior based on that idea.”
Similarly to film directors, Cobb and his crew disregard senses of touch, smell, and taste, concentrating solely on recreating visual and aural features. They work tirelessly to conceal the fact that the worlds they create are finite sets in a mental studio lot. When they need to shift scenes, they do so with discernible musical prompts.
The soundtrack of “Inception”[1] is critical to Nolan influencing and effectively performing “inception”[2] on the audience. The soundtrack amplifies the viewer’s emotional attachment to the imaginary realms created over the 2-hour course of the movie. According to Hans Zimmer, “the soundtrack of Inception is filled with nostalgia and sadness to match Cobb’s emotions…”The soundtrack of “Inception” composed by Zimmer, takes the audience on an expected emotional journey that carries the audience through a climatic cartharsis of emotion and leaves it complacent. In contrast, a soundtrack composed by Bertolt Brecht would shock the audience by alienating and influencing it to adopt an analytical outlook. This outlook would alert the audience to be aware of the director’s attempt to “incept” them by highlighting the constructed and variable nature of the movie’s reality.
Of particular importance, the musical piece played towards the end of the film when Cobb and his crew complete their mission entitled “Time” is worthy of discussion. Simply put, this piece sounds like something found on God’s I-pod. “Time” begins with violins playing, then it progresses with violins and the piano, finally at the climax of the song the electric guitar plays in unison to create a beautiful crescendo with the piano and violins. The song’s building tempo is created with the increased number of instruments played paired simultaneously with the decreased intervals heard between the notes. After the song’s climax the music slowly dies to a peaceful serene halt. Based on the context upon where “Time” is played in the movie and the mood that “Time” creates, it is safe to conclude that “Time” is an encore[3]from the director dedicated to the cast.
The film ends ambiguously with the totem[4] spinning and shaking uncontrollably leaving the audience on a cliffhanger, left to draw assumptions on the actual outcome.
“The last shot isn’t directed at Cobb. It’s directed at us. Cobb isn’t watching the top. He spins it and leaves it behind. If this is a dream, he doesn’t want to know. The decision of whether he finally finds happiness or whether he has merely retreated once and for all into his own memories is ours to make. Nolan builds the structure, but he leaves us to fill in the detail [like a Gestalt image]…” (Adams)
Nolan does this on purpose as a final and last attempt at “incepting” any remaining audience members that managed to resist the alluring charm of this movie. For a brief moment in time the viewer is absorbed in distinguishing not only between the reality and fantasy within the movie, but also in distinguishing between their own and the alternate reality created. Though, we cannot share dreams in real life this movie comes mighty close to achieving this feat. To the ordinary spectator this fantasy appears no longer to be a dream but an objective to aspire to achieve. To summarize upon seeing this film Nolan makes it nearly impossible for a spectator to perceive it in a negative light.
Nan Goldin presents her photography in a manner that causes her to be perceived by the viewer as bold and endearing. Goldin treats her photographic style almost biographically by using her camera like a journal to capture the people she encounters throughout her life every day. For Goldin the camera is not a prop or even a tool, it is an extension of herself. Sherryl Garratt mentions in an interview with her for the “Guardian”,
“…by pointing her lens at the people close to her…she has managed an intimacy few others have come close to, burrowing beneath the surface to show the feelings which lie beneath.”(Garratt)[5]
For Goldin the camera helps her forge stronger relationships and learn hidden things about her friends.
Goldin’s imagery is often noted for being colored with liberal and avant-garde qualities. The Lower East Side provides a great backdrop for the themes found throughout her imagery like death, drug use, domestic violence, love, gender, and sexuality. A majority of her photograph’s subjects are hipsters/ nonconformists from the Lower East Side. The liberal and avant-garde characteristics of her photographs often compel media critics to heavily discuss them. The “buzz” created by these critics often convinces many people to see her photography in person.
Phillippe and Suzanne Kissing at Euthanasia
Phillippe and Suzanne Kissing at Euthanasia
Upon first inspection of the photograph “Phillipe and Suzanne Kissing at Euthanasia”the viewer is immediately puzzled by the identity of the subjects. It is not clear if this is a photograph of two males kissing, two females kissing, or even of a male and a female kissing. This confusion is created by the subjects’ lack of gender indicators[6], short androgynous haircuts, unisexual clothing, and the imbalanced angle at which this photograph is captured. The imbalanced angle at which this photograph is captured causes one to question if it was done deliberately in this manner to arouse a subtle curiosity and to perhaps dispel the ‘taboo’ created around the LGTBQ community during the early 1980’s when this photograph was taken. Furthermore, this imbalance creates the unequal portrayal of both subjects’ status. The viewer can conclude that the person on the right is dominant while the one on the left is submissive. This photograph is polarizing; it possesses the ability to produce two possible outcomes upon viewing it, either the embracing of the new or the refusal to accept and change one’s beliefs.
Continuing to look at this photograph one will notice not only the subjects’ passion for each other, but also the fact that both are amidst a French kiss. This is evident by both subjects’ closed eyes, full focus, and the slanted positions of their heads angled against each other’s faces. One can conclude that the two are probably lovers or have (or will become) sexually active, since the French kiss is generally reserved for lovers. Furthermore, the suggestion of a French kiss between the two coupled with the bottom halves of both bodies not being depicted, makes the viewer query whether or not the two in this photograph are already amidst sexual intercourse.
Upon a second more in depth inspection of this photograph paired simultaneously with the discovery of the photograph’s title[7] (“Phillipe H. and Suzanne Kissing at Euthanasia), a viewer at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) will be able to deduce that this photograph is of a male-female couple kissing. In retrospect, Goldin probably used an androgynous heterosexual couple instead of an androgynous homosexual couple to control the degree of controversy that would translate across to the viewer of the time. In other words, Goldin wanted to be controversial enough without actually getting into too much trouble with the public. As mentioned earlier this is a tactic used by Goldin to garner publicity and “buzz” from the media, it is only successful if the media creates a “buzz” strong enough to convince people to come view the photograph in person.
“…the image is at the very edge of being recognizable, at that liminal point where the information it contains could be read in any number of ways and the mind must struggle to create a whole, or pictorial Gestalt, out of the diffuse, ill-defined contours…” (Richter, 49)
The photograph’s background is very dark and blurred to focus the viewer’s attention on the subjects’ actions. These two qualities create the gritty feel that dominates the image. The blurred image technique was probably used intentionally by Goldin to convey her message; behind every image there is always something at stake. In the case of this photograph, the moral values of the viewers’ are at stake.
Though Goldin started off her photography as a hobby initially showing her photographs only to her friends, her hobby eventually blossomed into an enduring and reputable career. Goldin is successful at manipulating the viewer’s emotions to cause him/ her to feel the intended emotions and question their concept of a “normal” relationship.
Lady Gaga on the cover of V Magazine
Lady Gaga on the cover of V Magazine
Lady Gaga presents her music in way that has caused many people to refer to her as a innovator. She is unafraid to be unexpected; she often portrays herself in an androgynous way through her choice of make-up and clothing. She is frequently seen wearing avant-garde outfits like a pyrotechnic bra, a dress made of Kermit the Frogs, a bubble dress, and attached prosthetics that give the appearance of horn-like ridges on her cheekbones, temples, and shoulders. Lady Gaga calls her fans “little monsters”; super fans that live, breathe, and worship her music. Gaga combines art, fashion, and technology to produce glam pop. These are all ploys that contribute to Gaga’s mass manipulation and successful marketing of her persona to the media.
Lady Gaga first stepped into the spotlight with her smash hit single “Just Dance”. After achieving mild fame with “Just Dance” she continued the circulation of her name in the media with the utilization of a bad press rumor that questioned whether her sex (male, female, or transgender). At the height of this horrible rumor Christina Aguilera upon being compared to Gaga in an interview commented on the ambiguity of Gaga’s gender. This whole situation provided even more press for Gaga to utilize to promote her music. Consequently, in a later interview Gaga thanked Aguilera stating,
“… if anything I should send her flowers, because a lot of people …didn’t know who I was until that whole thing happened. It really put me on the map in a way.” This rumor gave Gaga enough time to release her second smash-hit single, “Poker face”, which topped the charts around world. Though Gaga portrays herself as a trendsetter there is much leeway for her image to be misconstrued by an audience. A skeptic or non-supporter could easily label her as a delusional fame obsessed individual. In her music video for “Marry the Night” she describes the metamorphosis of her persona,
“…it’s not that I don’t want to see things exactly as they happened, it’s just that I prefer to remember them in an artistic way…It’s sort of like my past is an unfinished painting and as the artist of that painting, I must fill in all the ugly holes and make it beautiful again…”
Contrary to the way this quotation depicts Gaga, she is far from crazy, in fact she is both a genius and a master strategist. Every action, picture, outfit, magazine cover, tweet, comment, video, interview, and dance move she executes is planned out to acquire maximum coverage, attention, and sales of her music from the media and general public. Moreover, this quote was another cleverly devised ploy by Gaga to garner maximum attention from the public. In actuality, Lady Gaga is very talented musician with a solid foundation is piano playing, opera singing, and song writing. Before becoming famous she sang mainly soulful jazz, however she made a career decision to shift to singing and writing catchy electro-pop beats with skillfully worded one line hooks to gain a broader audience.
Lady Gaga’s accomplishments before her rise to fame are remarkable. Most people are surprised when they hear that Lady Gaga was a childhood musical protégé. At the tender age of four she began playing piano; by thirteen she was composing her own songs, and by fourteen she was performing frequently at public venues. During high school she was studious, disciplined, and dedicated to the performing arts. Her avid love for musical theatre brought her lead roles in her high school’s musical productions and a minor role in a 2001 episode of The Sopranos. When her high school career ended she successfully applied and gained early admission into the Collaborative Arts Project 21[9] (CAP21) at N.Y.U.’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. While at Tisch she refined her songwriting skills and composed analytical papers on art, religion, social issues, and politics. Upon her sophomore year she decided Tisch was not allowing her to reach her full potential as a performer so she withdrew from school to focus on her music career.
Around September of 2005 she began a band called the Stefani Germanotta Band (SGBand) with some friends from NYU. The band played a combination of self-composed and classic rock songs. Playing in bars around the Downtown Area, the band eventually developed a small fan base to which they were able to sell their extended plays. SGBand reached their career peak in June at the 2006 Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters Showcase where a talent scout for music producer Rob Fusari saw her performing. Upon being notified by the talent scout of Gaga’s vocal abilities Fusari immediately contracted her, resulting in the immediate split of SGBand. Soon enough Lady Gaga was travelling daily to New Jersey to work on songs she had previously written while simultaneously working on new material with Fusari. Together they recorded unusual and provocative tracks that were able to garner the attention of the head of Def Jam Recordings “L.A.” Reid. Reid was so impressed that he signed her to the label in September 2006 with the intention of having an album ready in nine months. Sadly however, after only 3 months of being on the label she was dropped.
Devastated, Lady Gaga returned home to the nightlife of the Lower East Side. There she met performance artist Lady Starlight, the woman who helped her mold her on-stage persona and musical niche. The two began performing together while Fusari continued to modify the songs he created with Gaga. He then redistributed these modified tracks throughout the music industry. His friend, a producer and executive at Streamline Records (a subdivision of Interscope Records), upon hearing the tracks was quick to sign her to the label. At Interscope she initially wrote songs for artists like Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls. However, one day while she was working at Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon noticed her vocal abilities upon hearing her sing a vocal reference for one of his tracks. He then convinced the Chairman and CEO of Interscope to form a joint deal signing her to Interscope and his own label, Kon Live Distribution. As 2007 came to an end, she was introduced to songwriter and producer RedOne. Eventually she collaborated with RedOne on her debut album; which winded up producing chart-topping singles such as “Just Dance”,” Poker Face” and “Love Game”. The rest is history.
After a star reaches a certain point, it’s easy to forget what they became famous for and concentrate solely on their persona. Lady Gaga is such a star, she is successful not only in the way that she presents her music but also in the way that she presents herself. She is now one of the most successful musicians of all time. Since her arrival into the spotlight she has acquired a status as a role model, fashion icon, and self-esteem booster for her fans. She cranks the unexpected up to 11 on a scale from 1-10, and the audience loves it. Moreover some people are even calling her the new reigning Queen of Pop. Is she worthy of this title?
Publicity is the livelihood of the modern-day artist. Publicity plays a vital role in the widespread success of these artists’ (Chris Nolan, Nan Goldin, and Lady Gaga) in their respective fields. It is through substantial usage of the media through which artist’s such as Christopher Nolan, Nan Goldin, and Lady Gaga are able to successfully manipulate the audience’s surroundings and its perception of their work.
[1]Inception: the film
[2]inception: the act of performing inception defined by the film’s protagonist Cobb as the “successful when the dream-trapped target adopts an idea from an external source as his own and then changes his or behavior based on that idea.”
[3]Encore: A piece of music played at the end of a show responding to the audience’s enthusiastic reaction to the performance, shown by continuous applause.
[4]Totem: is an object that is used to test if one is in reality and not in a dream. A Totem has a specially modified weight, balance, or feel in the real world but in a dream the characteristics of the totem are off.
[5]Garratt, Sheryl. “Interview: Nan Goldin | From the Observer | The Observer.” Guardian., 05 Jan. 2002. Web. 08 Nov. 2011. <;.
[6] Gender indicators include but are not limited to make-up, facial hair, and earrings.
[7]The title was discretely placed out of the way on the distant left of the photograph in very fine print, to not detract attention away from the photograph.
Follow the link to the Bibliography
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Transparency in Troubled Seas
China’s announcement of its first ADIZ was controversial for several reasons. First, China’s ADIZ includes multiple disputed territories—most prominently, the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu in China), which are administered by Japan, but also Ieodo (Suyan) Rock, which South Korea claims too. This led the ROK to expand its own ADIZ. Second, China made its declaration without consulting other states in the region, which is not illegal but does break with custom. Third, China declared that it would require all aircraft, including military aircraft, to identify themselves to Beijing, regardless of whether or not they were bound for China as opposed to passing through the zone in transit elsewhere. This led the United States to fly two B-52 nuclear-capable bombers through the ADIZ in a demonstration of military noncompliance. ADIZs generally increase transparency and reduce the risk of accidents, and Beijing insists that this one is no different. But last November, US and other officials insisted that these three unique features made the East China Sea ADIZ fundamentally destabilizing.
So what of China’s ADIZ one year on?
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Study Help Essay Questions
2. Prospero's need for revenge could easily have led to tragedy. Compare The Tempest to one of Shakespeare's tragedies, such as Hamlet. What elements of revenge are present in both plays? How are they different? In what way is Prospero's revenge neutralized by romance?
3. Compare the plot to murder Prospero to the plot to murder Alonso. Shakespeare clearly intended one murder plot to mirror the other. What does each group of conspirators have in common? How important are social status and rank in evaluating these two murder plots?
4. Compare Gonzalo's ideas of the ideal society and commonwealth with those of Sir Thomas More in his Utopia. Why do you think that utopian dreams are destined to fail?
Pop Quiz!
Caliban warns Stefano that he must possess what before killing Prospero?
When our teacher was introducing the next reading assignment, he said we'll be using the unexpurgated version. What did he mean?
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Acceleration on a pulley system with 3 blocks
1. Mar 30, 2014 #1
Three objects are connected on an inclined table. The objects have masses 8.0 kg, 4.0 kg and 2.0 kg as shown, and the pulleys are frictionless. The tabletop is rough, with a coefficient of kinetic friction of 0.47, and makes an angle of 20.0° with the horizontal. The 8.0kg block hangs on the left, the 4.0kg block in the middle on the table (20.0° t the left and above horizontal), and the 2.0kg is hanging on the right.
Draw a free-body diagram for each object. (did this but can't display on the forum)
Determine the acceleration and direction of motion of the system.
Determine the tensions in the two cords.
2. Relevant equations
3. The attempt at a solution
I can do this with two blocks but 3 on a angle through me off.
mg for the 8.0kg block =78.4N and mg for the 2 kg block is 19.6kg
I know that for the block on the table:
Fgx = sin 20 (39.2) = 13.4N
Fgy = cos 20 (39.2)= 36.83N - Force normal and Fgy are equal
The using εFx=max
19.6=13.4-17.3-78.4 = (14)a
a= -4.5m/s/s or 4.5 m/s/s moving to the left.
Not sure if I did this right and when calculating tension in a 3 block pulley system on a angle.
2. jcsd
3. Mar 30, 2014 #2
Doc Al
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It's a bit unclear what you are doing here.
You need equations for all three masses, which you will solve together to get the acceleration.
4. Mar 30, 2014 #3
Sorry, first time using this forum. What i did was
εFx=max and i used mg for the masses on either end of the system
so in this case i had
εFx = m3g+Fgx-Ff-m2g=(m1+m2+m3)a
εFx = 8x9.8 + sin20(4x9.8) - .47xcos20(4x9.8) - 2x9.8 = (8+4+2)a
19.6+13.4-17.3-78.4 = (14)a
The Fgx and Ff apply to the box on a slant on the table.
5. Mar 30, 2014 #4
Doc Al
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I think what you did was assume that the tension in each rope equals the weight of the hanging mass. You can't do that!
If the tension equaled the weight of the masses, then the net force on each hanging mass would equal zero. No acceleration!
Instead, call the unknown tensions T1 and T2 (or whatever). You need to solve for the three unknowns: the acceleration and the two tensions. That's why you need three equations, one for each mass.
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Bragg's law modification
1. May 11, 2009 #1
problem: In Bragg's law equation, mormally, we measure the angle θ from the surface If instead the light strikes the grating at an angle of incident θ’ (measured from the normal), show that the condition for an intensity maximum is not 2dsin θ= mλ (m=1,2,3...)
but rather
d(sin θ + sin θ’ ) = mλ (m=0, ±1, ±2, ±3...)
No matter which way I tried, I finally ended up with 2dcosθ’ rather than d(sin θ + sin θ’ ) = mλ (m=0, ±1, ±2, ±3...).
Can anyone help me?
2. jcsd
3. May 12, 2009 #2
When you say "Bragg's law" usually you mean x-ray diffraction on a lattice.
Here it seems that you have something else: diffraction of light from a diffraction grating.
Or maybe a mix-up.
The formula with the sum of the two sines applies to the diffraction grating when the light hits it at an angle theta'.
There is a path difference between the incident rays hitting two different "holes" in the grating and this is given by d*sin(theta'). And then there is the path difference between the rays on the other side of the grating which is d*sin(theta).
I hope this helps.
4. May 12, 2009 #3
Is this what you mean:
The Bragg's law becomes:
the length of the red+ blue lines = d(sin θ + sin θ’ ) = mλ
5. May 12, 2009 #4
No. As I said, I was referring to an optical diffraction grating.
something like this:
The math is similar though.
For x-ray diffraction from the crystal the maximum occurs when the two angles are equal.
6. May 12, 2009 #5
oh, thanks.
The problem seems clear now :D
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Ceiling and floor operators used for min max
1. Dec 8, 2015 #1
I remember seeing somewhere people using symbols for ceiling and floor operators together with super/subscripts as substitutes for min and max. Example:
[tex]\lceil x \rceil ^k[/tex]
to mean min(x,k).
Has anyone ever seen this? Where? Thanks!
2. jcsd
3. Dec 8, 2015 #2
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I'm sorry, I haven't seen this. But I just wanted to say that this certainly ranks among the top 10 worst notations I've ever seen.
4. Dec 8, 2015 #3
Staff: Mentor
I haven't seen the notation as you used it, to give the minimum of two numbers, but I have seen this:
##\lceil x \rceil##, also called the smallest integer function. It is defined as being the smallest integer that is greater than or equal to x. Many programming languages, including C, C++, and others, have a ceiling function, ceil(x), that does this.
For example, ##\lceil 1.8 \rceil = 2##.
The counterpart is the floor function, or greatest integer function, denoted ##\lfloor x \rfloor##. C, C++, and others have floor(x). This is defined as the largest integer that is less than or equal to x.
For example, ##\lfloor 2.35 \rfloor = 2##.
I agree with micromass that ##\lceil x \rceil^k## is terrible notation.
5. Dec 8, 2015 #4
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It would be a reasonable notation for denoting the smallest multiple of k greater than or equal to x. That is, the generalization of ceiling to a modulus other than 1.
6. Dec 9, 2015 #5
Yes, that's definitely incorrect notation and most people will confuse it as exponents. As someone else stated, the notation that is correct and seen in programming languages is [7.8]=8 or [5.1]=5. These are more standard and less likely to be confused.
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Conceptual Check - Momentum
1. Jan 12, 2014 #1
Im new to PF and Physics so pardon my likely extremely basic question (teaching myself physics).
1.) Question: (a) an empty sled is sliding on frictionless ice when susan drops vertically from a tree above onto the sled. When she lands, does the sled speed up, slow down, or keep the same speed? (b) Later, susan falls sideways off the sled. When she drops off, does the sled speed up, slow down, or keep the same speed?
2.) Relevant Equation(s)
Conservation of momentum?
m1v1 + m2v2 = m1v1' + m2v2'
3.) Attempts:
(a) this makes sense to me - I think. Initially the sled has some momentum but susan does not. When susan lands on the sled all she has is vertical velocity and not horizontal. Thus, the equation might look something like (assume 1 is the sled and 2 is susan):
m1v1 + 0 = v(m1+m2)
-when solving for v using some numbers the speed has decreased - I think thats right.
(b) honestly do not know where to start with this one - if someone could point me in the right direction in order to solve this I would greatly appreciate it. I know that susan will for a few seconds (or ms) have a horizontal velocity equal to what she previously had on the sled but im stuck after that. If her momentum doesnt change then neither does the sleds?? So confused...
2. jcsd
3. Jan 12, 2014 #2
Also credits to Physics by Giancoli (6th edition) for question - forgot to post on there and cannot edit from my phone.
4. Jan 12, 2014 #3
Well, in part a the sled should slow down. You could view your calculations as
[tex]\frac{m_1}{m_1 + m_2}\times v_1 = v[/tex]in which case the sled would only maintain its initial velocity if the girl had no mass, seeing that is not possible, the sled will slow down.
Part b sounds tricky though. I assume she falls off the sled not affecting sled's direction and is not giving it a "push" by falling off. As the law states though, the system's total momentum cannot change. Therefore both will maintain their velocity of v and continue their own separate ways.
5. Jan 12, 2014 #4
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I agree. Consider two sledges tied together side by side. Push them off a hill with no riders on them. Cut the string holding them together using a high power long range laser. Both sledges will still keep going at the same speed after being separated (conservation of momentum). Then one hits a tree! The other will keep going at the same speed it had before.
6. Jan 13, 2014 #5
I see, could one also think of it as driving a car in a world without any nonconservative forces and jumping out of the car at 30 mph? Both the person jumping put and the car will
have the same velocities but different momentums?
V(M+m)=m1v1 + m2v2
7. Jan 13, 2014 #6
If the velocity of the girl with respect to the sled just after "falling" is zero then the speed will remain the same. If this is not the case then the sled will speed up.
8. Jan 13, 2014 #7
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Yes, but I would suggest the equation is..
Momentum before jumping out = Momentum after jumping out
V(M+m) = VM + Vm
9. Jan 14, 2014 #8
Prove your theory. It does not make sense. Sure the surface is frictionless, but momentum is not dependant on such phenomena. What you say would break the conservation of momentum.
If the girl falls at 0 velocity with respect to the sled's direction then the sled would for sure have to slow down, because the same momentum must then support an extra mass, no doubt, a much larger mass.
If the girl is moving at the same speed before falling on the sled then you would have to be careful how you think about it. If you are chasing a sled running down the hill and then jump on it your own velocity will be quite a bit faster than the sled's and your own momentum will be humongous compared to the sled. You feel the thrust when you land, because the sled is nothing in comparison to the body's mass. However, for there to Not be any extra things to keep in mind, she would have to kind of float at a velocity of V and drop on the sled from pointblank range, considering the velocities are equal, then:
[tex]m_1 V + m_2 V = (m_1+m_2)V_x\Rightarrow V = V_x [/tex]
This does not reflect reality, though, so don't get confused - imagine a fairy tale world where every law of nature is applied in its most simple/perfect form.
10. Jan 14, 2014 #9
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I think "consciousness" was referring to the girl falling OFF the sledge not onto it.
11. Jan 14, 2014 #10
I was helping with part (b), because the OP has answered part (a) already. :biggrin:
Last edited: Jan 14, 2014
12. Jan 14, 2014 #11
Oh pardon me, I mis-understood - I thought "falling" meant the falling in part a, onto the sled.
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Decay chain solution
1. Jun 17, 2013 #1
For the decay chain N1 -> N2 -> N3 -> ... -> Ni -> ... -> Nd, how can I find the amount of particles of Ni, n(Ni), at any point in time t, with a single equation where i can vary from 1 to d? I have already seen WIkipedia's suggestion on the Bateman equations but that method seems to collapse for the case when i=d (as lambda=0 so we'd be dividing by 0).
2. jcsd
3. Jun 17, 2013 #2
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You can use the equation with an additional decay to Nd+1, and take the limit of an infinite lifetime of Nd. Alternatively, subtract all the other elements from the total number of particles.
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Around the Yard
May 18, 2000
Things to do this week:
* Water with wisdom. Irrigate too often in summer and you may kill plants because too much moisture rots the roots. The trick is to water long enough but not too frequently so the soil surface can dry out between irrigations. Watering for five minutes at a time is not long enough, and watering every day or every other day is too often.
Most plant roots are in the top 18 inches of soil, so you need to let the sprinklers or hose run long enough for water to soak at least a foot deep, or even the full 18 inches. Once water is that deep in the soil, it will not readily evaporate so there is no need to irrigate again for several days.
When in doubt--don't judge by how dry the soil surface is--probe with a trowel to see if the soil or individual plants are too wet or too dry. Remember that plants wilt when roots rot from being too wet, just like they do when they get too dry!
The exceptions are those things that have been recently planted and don't yet have roots out in the native soil. These are best hand watered separately from the other established plants until they become well rooted. Another exception are some kinds of drip irrigation, which daily replenish water sparingly.
* Plant pumpkins. This is the week to have your kids get ready for Halloween by planting seeds of big pumpkins, like 'Prizewinner' or 'Big Moon.' To grow truly big pumpkins, start with the right seed (remember some varieties are naturally small or medium size). After they sprout, thin the plants so only one remains, then keep only one or two pumpkins on the vine, so they get all the plant's nutrients.
If you're not after size, try a medium-size pumpkin of another color this year, such as the ghostly white 'Lumina,' or the glossy golden-orange 'Autumn Gold.'
Los Angeles Times Articles
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How many calories you can eat and still lose weight depends on a number of factors -- not only on your current weight. The number of calories you should eat per day also depends on how quickly you would like to lose weight, how active you are, how old you are and your gender. The key to losing weight is to create a calorie deficit by burning more calories with physical activity than the number of calories you eat.
The Minimum Number of Daily Calories to Lose Weight
No matter how quickly you'd like to lose weight, it's advisable to eat a certain number of calories -- and not fewer than this number -- because doing so might affect your metabolism and make it difficult to get enough of your essential nutrients. For women, this number is 1,200 calories per day; for men, it's 1,800. Once you cut calories to this level, you'll need to increase the amount of exercise you get to create a greater calorie deficit instead of eating fewer calories.
Calories Needed to Maintain 200 Pounds
If you don't want to go down to the minimum number of calories -- which can be a drastic cut for some people -- start by figuring out how many calories you need to maintain your current weight of 200 pounds. A quick way to do this is to take your current weight in pounds and multiply it by 15 -- which works out to about 3,000 calories each day to maintain 200 pounds of weight, if you don't do a lot of exercise.
A more accurate way to estimate calorie needs and to also account for exercise is to calculate your basal metabolic rate or BMR. To do this, plug it into a formula that takes exercise into account.
BMR for Women = 655.1 + (9.6 x weight [kg]) + (1.8 x height [cm]) − (4.7 x age [years])
For women, start with 655.1 and add this to your weight in kilograms times 9.6. Add the result to your height in centimeters times 1.8, and then calculate your age in years times 4.7 and then subtract from the total.
BMR for Men = 66.47 + (13.7 x weight [kg]) + (5 x height [cm]) − (6.8 x age [years])
For men, start with 66.47, and multiply your weight by 13.7, your height by 5 and your age by 6.8, using the same formula.
Once you have your BMR, you multiply it by your activity factor. If you don't exercise much, multiply the results by 1.2. If you exercise a couple of days a week, multiply the results by 1.375. If you exercise three to five days a week, multiply the results by 1.55. If you exercise every day, multiply your BMR by 1.725. If you have a very physically active job, by 1.9.
The final result is the number of calories you need to maintain your current weight.
The Number of Calories to Cut
For a quick estimate of how many calories to eat to lose weight, you could also plug in your desired weight to the BMR calculation. This will give you approximately the number of calories you need if you want to maintain the lower weight you're aiming for.
Typically, men need 2,000 to 3,200 calories a day and women need between 1,600 and 2,400 calories to maintain a healthy weight, depending on their age and activity level.
To achieve a specific rate of weight loss, keep in mind that each pound has 3,500 calories. To lose 1 pound a week, you need to eat 500 fewer calories each day; to lose 2 pounds a week, you need to eat 1,000 fewer calories a day. This is now being called into question, however, as it doesn't take into account people's decreasing calorie needs as they lose weight, which is most likely due to having less body mass.
Using a new formula created to take more factors into consideration, hypothetically, if a 40-year old who's 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 200 pounds cuts 500 calories a day, he or she will lose about 20 pounds a year, not the expected 52.
Exercise Considerations
While you may be able to lose weight by cutting calories alone, you'll lose more fat and find it easier to maintain weight loss if you exercise as well. Without exercising, about 25 percent of any weight you lose will consist of muscle rather than fat. A combination of strength training and aerobic exercise will help minimize muscle loss. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise and at least two strength training workouts each week.
For weight loss, however, you may need as much as 300 minutes per week of aerobic exercise. This exercise makes it easier to create the calorie deficit needed for weight loss as well. For example, a 200-pound person who bikes for an hour burns about 364 calories, and one who walks for the same amount of time at 2 miles per hour burns 255 extra calories.
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What does a film editor do?
Skills Required of a Film Editor
Film editors often rely on director's notes to use when editing a film.
© Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Getty Images
If you don't like long hours, rush assignments or working alone, being a film editor isn't for you. At the same time, if you can't work well with others, are looking for personal artistic acclaim or aren't willing to keep up with changing technology, you'll be happier in another job than movie editor.
But if you like detail work and being part of a major production in the film industry, film editing may be the career for you. If you're interested in becoming an established feature film editor, here are some of the film editor skills you'll need:
• Knowledge of the film industry and movie production
• A good photographic eye for camera angles and special effects, as well as knowledge of audio effects
• Ability to work alone on detailed and sometimes tedious work
• Strong interpersonal skills to work well with directors, cinematographers, sound editors, special effects editors and music producers
• Willingness to work long hours on rush assignments
• A personal code of ethics and commitment to following the director's vision rather than altering material to make a personal artistic statement
[sources: State of California Occupational Guide and Learner]
Even established feature film editors find their skills stretched by the demands of complex movies heavy with visual effects, like the Matrix Trilogy. Zach Staenberg, film editor for the trilogy, won an Oscar for "The Matrix" (1999) and edited all three films in only four years, with "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" both released in 2003.
He found himself sorting out footage shot at the same time and location for two different films ("Reloaded" and "Revolutions") -- and editing both films simultaneously. To make that happen, he worked with a staff of seven, several focused primarily on special effects.
Staenberg also had to work 440 visual effects shots into "The Matrix," 1,100 into "Reloaded" and 750 into "Revolutions." Every time the editors got a visual effects shot, he told an Editors Guild writer, they had to make changes to the film, ranging from switching a few frames to rearranging the entire sequence. Adapting to that ever-changing workflow was the biggest challenge in editing the trilogy, he said [source: Editors Guild].
Do you think you have the skills and the interest to be a film editor? Keep reading to find out the type of training and experience you'll need.
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Saturday, 11 January 2014
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia, province of eastern Canada, consisting of a peninsula on the Canadian mainland, Cape Breton Island, and numerous smaller islands. The peninsula is connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land called the Isthmus of Chignecto. Cape Breton Island is separated from the peninsula by the Strait of Canso. Nova Scotia is one of the Maritime provinces of Canada, along with Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick; it is also one of the Atlantic provinces (the Maritimes plus Newfoundland and Labrador). Halifax is Nova Scotia’s capital and largest city.
Nova Scotia juts out into the Atlantic Ocean from the mainland, and no part of the province is far from the sea. Teeming with fish and shellfish, the sea has always been central to life in Nova Scotia. The province’s many fine harbors and close proximity to sea lanes have given Nova Scotia an important role in Canada’s defense. The harbor at Halifax, one of the world’s largest, is open year-round and is one of Canada’s busiest ports.
Long before Europeans arrived, Nova Scotia was inhabited by the Mi'kmaq and Abenaki, Algonquian-speaking indigenous peoples. Seafaring Vikings, who explored the coast of northeastern North America in the 10th century, were likely the first Europeans to see Nova Scotia. About five centuries later, in 1497, the Italian navigator John Cabot made a landing in the area, possibly at Cape Breton Island. Cabot was followed by many other explorers and fishers who plied Nova Scotia’s coastal waters.
In 1605 the French explorers Samuel de Champlain and Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts established a settlement in Nova Scotia at Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal)—the first permanent French settlement in Canada. Nova Scotia was part of a maritime colony that France called Acadia, possibly after the Mi’kmaq word meaning “plenty.” The British, too, laid claim to Acadia, which they later called Nova Scotia (Latin for “New Scotland”). In the imperial rivalry that ensued, the territory passed back and forth between the two countries until 1713, when France ceded Acadia to the British (apart from Cape Breton Island and other areas). During the 1750s, French Acadians in Nova Scotia who refused to swear allegiance to the British crown were forcibly deported by British troops. In 1867 Nova Scotia became one of Canada’s four original provinces, along with New Brunswick, Ontario, and Québec.
Nova Scotia is the second smallest Canadian province (only Prince Edward Island is smaller). Nova Scotia is about 560 km (about 350 mi) long, averages 110 km (70 mi) in width, and has an area of 55,284 sq km (21,345 sq mi), including 1,946 sq km (751 sq mi) of inland water. No part of the province is more than 80 km (50 mi) from the sea.
A Natural Regions
The Maritime provinces are part of the Appalachian Region, a geographic zone that extends over much of eastern North America. More than half the area of Nova Scotia lies within the Atlantic Upland, a large upland plateau that gradually rises from the Atlantic coast. The Atlantic Upland stretches from the southern tip of the peninsula to Cape Breton Island in the northeast. Underlain by granites, quartzites, and some slates, the upland consists of five main sections that are separated by lowlands. The most important lowlands are in the southwest, along Minas Basin and the Bay of Fundy, and in the north, along Northumberland Strait. Thick glaciers covered the entire province during the last ice age, and in many areas the hills were stripped of their soil as the glaciers retreated. In other areas, the action of glaciers produced numerous bogs and lakes.
The highest elevations in Nova Scotia are found in the Northern Highlands, areas of uplands that reach across northern parts of the province. The highest point, 532 m (1,745 ft) above sea level, is found in Cape Breton Highlands National Park near the extreme northeastern end of the island. However, the average elevation of the uplands is less than 300 m (1,000 ft), with occasional rounded knobs rising above the general level. In the north central region are the Cobequid Mountains, which rise to slightly more than 300 m (1,000 ft) and extend about 140 km (about 90 mi) from east to west. Further to the west a steep ridge, called North Mountain, separates the Annapolis Valley from the Bay of Fundy.
The largest and most important lowland in Nova Scotia is the fertile Annapolis Valley, which is drained by the Annapolis and Cornwallis rivers. The valley is about 130 km (about 80 mi) long and varies in width from 5 to 15 km (3 to 10 mi). The valley consists mainly of red sandstones and shales. The valley’s tidal marshes were the first lands cultivated by European settlers in Canada, and some of the original dikes built to control tidal flooding survive to the present day.
East of the Annapolis Valley and extending southward toward the interior of the peninsula is another lowland that contains shales and sandstones. Most of the southern half of Cape Breton Island is a region of lowlands underlain by sandstones, limestones, and coal. Bordering Northumberland Strait are the Northumberland coastal lowlands, which are generally marshy and much cooler than the Annapolis Valley. These lowlands are underlain by old sedimentary rocks that give the soil a red color in some places. Many of the sediments contain coal.
B Coastline
Nova Scotia’s rugged Atlantic coast in the south is deeply indented with many coves and harbors, and numerous small islands dot the shoreline. It is a good example of a drowned coastline, the land having been depressed by the weight of the ice during the last glacial period. Halifax and Lunenburg, centers of the fishing industry, are located on deep inlets on the coast. In the west the shores are swept by the Bay of Fundy, which records among the highest tides in the world. The difference between high tide and low tide may be as much as 18 m (60 ft).
C Rivers and Lakes
Nova Scotia has hundreds of rivers and small streams and several thousand lakes. Most rivers are narrow and short, generally less than 80 km (50 mi) long. All have their origins in the Atlantic Upland. The Annapolis, Sissiboo, and Shubenacadie rivers flow into the Bay of Fundy. Among other rivers, the Mersey drains Lake Rossignol, and the Saint Mary’s flows into the Atlantic Ocean east of Halifax.
Located on the western side of Cape Breton Island, Lake Ainslie is the largest natural freshwater lake in Nova Scotia. Even larger is Bras d’Or, a saltwater tidal lake linked to the Atlantic Ocean that covers nearly one-fourth of Cape Breton Island. Extensive bogs are found throughout the province.
D Climate
Although Nova Scotia is almost entirely surrounded by water, its location on the eastern side of the continental landmass results in a climate that is distinctly continental, rather than maritime. The weather systems that influence the climate of Nova Scotia generally originate over the mainland. Halifax, for example, has average January temperatures that range from a high of 0°C (32°F) to a low of -9°C (16°F). Moist Atlantic air often brings mild weather in winter and cooling squalls in summer.
Nova Scotia receives an average of more than 1,140 mm (45 in) of rain annually, with the Atlantic shore receiving 1,400 mm (55 in) or more. Most of the province receives about 1,900 mm (about 70 in) of snow, and considerable winter precipitation comes in the form of rain or ice storms. The average temperature in January, the coldest month, is generally about -4°C (about 25°F) near the coast and somewhat colder toward the interior. The average temperature in July, the hottest month, is about 18°C (about 65°F) in the interior and about 16°C (about 60°F) near the shore. Thick fog from the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Fundy is common during the early summer months.
E Soils
The soils of Nova Scotia are generally thin and stony as a result of glacial erosion. The mature soils are all podzols, which are soils that form in moist climates and have a high content of aluminum and iron compounds. They are also highly acidic and relatively infertile. There are exceptions, as in the Annapolis Valley, in the marshlands of the Bay of Fundy, and along Northumberland Strait. The most fertile soils are found in the river valleys.
F Plant Life
The forests of Nova Scotia are extensive and commercially valuable. About three-fourths of the province’s land area is forested. In northern areas, sugar maple, yellow birch, beech, red maple, black ash, and white ash are common. In the south, black spruce, red spruce, tamarack (American larch), hemlock, white pine, and fir are widespread. The northern half of Cape Breton Island is an extension of the great coniferous forest of northern Canada, where white spruce and balsam fir are the dominant species.
Nova Scotia is noted for its profusion of wildflowers, including the mayflower, wild rose, and several species of violet. In bogs and shallow water are found the pitcher plant and white water lily. Bracken, wintergreens, and shrubs abound, as do many kinds of berries, including blueberries and cranberries. A variety of marsh grasses thrive in low-lying areas along the Bay of Fundy.
G Animal Life
The wildlife of the province consists principally of small animals such as fox, muskrat, mink, otter, groundhog, weasel, skunk, and porcupine. White-tailed deer are among the most common large animals. Other large animals include black bear, moose, and wildcat. Seals, whales, and porpoises live in offshore waters, as do many kinds of fish and shellfish, including cod, halibut, flounder, herring, mackerel, lobsters, clams, and scallops. The province’s plentiful birdlife includes the partridge, duck, grouse, pheasant, heron, plover, loon, and woodcock. Eagles, hawks, owls, kingfishers, and several species of woodpecker are also common. Salmon and trout are found in streams and lakes.
H Environmental Issues
One of the most serious environmental issues facing Nova Scotia is acid rain, a form of air pollution that is harmful to many types of plant and aquatic life throughout the Maritime provinces. A principal component of acid rain is sulfur dioxide, which is emitted by local coal-burning power plants. Prevailing winds also bring sulfur emissions from the northeastern United States. Domestic production of sulfur dioxide has dropped considerably since the early 1980s due to more advanced pollution prevention technology at power plants, and acid rain has declined since that time. However, many scientists believe that acid rain still poses a threat to Nova Scotia’s environment, and they advocate further emission reductions to protect the long-term health of vulnerable areas.
Another environmental concern in the province is water pollution, which results mainly from untreated domestic sewage, discharges from industry (including pulp and steel mills), and highway deicing salts. Untreated sewage is routinely pumped directly into the sea, degrading near-shore habitat and the associated fisheries, including those of Halifax and Sydney harbors. In 2002 the federal and provincial governments pledged funds to begin building three sewage-treatment plants in Halifax to help the city clean up its harbor. Water pollution has also contaminated groundwater in some areas and affected the water quality in wells from the Annapolis Valley to Cape Breton Island.
Nova Scotia’s department of natural resources manages efforts to conserve and protect forests, mineral resources, and wildlife habitat. Much of the department’s work is focused on reforestation and forest management. Hunting and the inland salmon and trout fisheries are closely regulated in the province. In addition, Nova Scotia is widely considered a leader in recycling in Canada. A deposit-refund system ensures that nearly all beverage containers are recycled, and most households and businesses have access to a curbside recycling program.
Nova Scotia’s economic development has been shaped largely by its natural resources and geographic location. The economy was initially dominated by mining, fishing, forestry, and farming. Since the 1930s, manufacturing industries have grown in importance. Most manufacturing jobs, such as fish processing and pulp and paper production, are closely tied to the province’s natural resources. The service sector, which includes the increasingly important tourism industry, grew rapidly in the 20th century and today is the leading source of income and employment in the province.
Nova Scotia’s unemployment rate is higher than in most other provinces, 7.8 percent in 2006, and per-capita incomes are below the national average. This is due mainly to fluctuating demand for many of Nova Scotia’s products and to the seasonal nature of employment in industries such as tourism. Federal financial support in the form of transfer payments and grants helps compensate the province for these fluctuations.
A Agriculture
The climate and geography across Nova Scotia are suitable for growing a variety of crops. The Annapolis Valley is the largest and most fertile agricultural region in the province and is suited to horticulture, livestock production, and livestock feeds. Livestock and livestock products generate a majority of farm income in Nova Scotia. Dairying is the largest sector, accounting for one-quarter of total farm production. The production of poultry, beef, and pork are also important.
The most common field crop in Nova Scotia is hay, which is not a market crop, but is used to support livestock. Grain crops are of only minor importance.
Nova Scotia is one of a handful of areas in the world where wild blueberries are harvested commercially. Blueberries thrive throughout much of the province and account for nearly half of Canada’s annual blueberry crop. Considerable quantities of apples and strawberries are also grown.
B Fisheries
Excellent fishing banks lie a few miles offshore, and fishers have long made a living from the sea. Among the Canadian provinces, Nova Scotia ranks second only to British Columbia in the value of its annual fish production. The most valuable species are shellfish—especially lobsters, scallops, and crabs. Other important species include haddock, herring, and pollock. In recent years dwindling cod stocks have nearly decimated the cod fishery—once a leading industry in the province. Since 1992, cod-fishing bans and strict quotas imposed by the federal government have caused hardship for many cod fishers throughout the Maritimes.
Aquaculture (fish farming) is a rapidly growing industry in Nova Scotia. The provincial department of agriculture and fisheries encourages aquaculture development through training and financial assistance. Among the species raised are Atlantic salmon, steelhead, blue mussels, scallops, rainbow trout, and oysters.
In 1984 the United Nations International Court of Justice (World Court) resolved a long-standing dispute between Canada and the United States over ownership of the Georges Bank, a fishing bank located near the coast of Massachusetts. Although the World Court awarded Canada just one-sixth of the disputed territory, Canada’s portion contained the richest fishing grounds. The decision gave Nova Scotian and other Canadian fishers exclusive fishing rights to an area long fished by both countries.
C Mining
Mineral production in Nova Scotia remains an important activity. Historically, Nova Scotia’s most valuable mineral product was coal. Mines in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality contain excellent coking-quality coal, which was long used to generate electricity and to produce iron and steel. However, much of the coal is expensive to extract, and in 2001—after years of financial difficulties—the last of Cape Breton’s once-numerous coal mines was forced to shut down.
Other valuable minerals found in Nova Scotia are salt and gypsum. Important salt deposits are located in north central Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia leads all the other Canadian provinces in the production of gypsum, which occurs in outcroppings throughout the northern half of the province. Much of Nova Scotia’s gypsum is exported to the United States.
Nova Scotia has large deposits of barite, used primarily in oil well drilling. The province also produces sand and gravel, cement, stone, and clay. Offshore deposits of petroleum and natural gas are mined near Sable Island.
D Forestry
Some 37,700 sq km (14,600 sq mi) of Nova Scotia is productive forestland. Most of the forests are privately owned, and many can best be called farm woodlots. Large sawmills are found primarily in northern Nova Scotia. The principal forestry products are pulpwood and sawn lumber. Many woodlot owners, especially in northern areas, produce maple syrup from the sugar maple.
Forestry has been important to the economy of Nova Scotia since the early 18th century. In the 19th century, Nova Scotia’s forests provided timber for wooden ships and planking that was carried to British markets overseas. The development of the pulp and paper industries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries greatly added to the value of the province’s forests.
E Manufacturing
Manufacturing is a leading economic activity in Nova Scotia. In 2004 manufacturing employed 10 percent of the province’s workers. Most manufacturing employment is based on the processing of local resources. The primary industries are food processing and pulp and paper production. Food-processing industries include the processing of fish and seafood, milk, fruits and vegetables, and livestock. Fish-processing plants are found throughout Nova Scotia. Important plants are located in Lunenburg, Yarmouth, Chéticamp, and Digby. Forest-based industries have had a historic role in the development of Nova Scotia, and they are still significant. Besides pulp and paper mills, there are a number of sawmills and furniture manufacturing plants.
Other industries include the manufacture of motor vehicle tires, transportation equipment, metal containers, concrete products, petroleum products, and electronic equipment. Historically, shipbuilding was important to the provincial economy although it has declined in recent years. Halifax is a center for the assembly of automobiles and the manufacture of railroad cars, aircraft, and aerospace equipment.
F Services
Most of the labor force in Nova Scotia is employed in service industries, which include personal and business services, wholesale and retail trade, banking and finance, communications, government administration, and public utilities. Taken together, services accounted for 79 percent of Nova Scotia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001.
With an economy based largely on the extraction and processing of natural resources, Nova Scotia depends heavily on trade with other provinces and foreign countries to provide markets for its products. Fish and fish products and forest products are leading exports. Most sales outside Canada are to the United States.
More than 1 million tourists visit Nova Scotia annually, with June to October being the most popular travel months. About one-quarter of all tourists arrive from foreign countries. Visitors are attracted to the province’s scenic areas and to its many cultural institutions and historic sites. Nova Scotia is often called Canada’s Ocean Playground because of its numerous beaches. There is excellent sport fishing in offshore waters, and inland streams offer trout and salmon fishing. The provincial department of tourism and culture plays an active role in marketing Nova Scotia at home and abroad as a tourism destination.
G Electricity
More than 90 percent of Nova Scotia’s electrical energy comes from coal-fired power plants, with waterpower and oil-fired plants providing the rest. The major steam-driven power plants are at Lingan Bay, in Cape Breton; Tufts Cove, in the city of Dartmouth; Point Aconi; and Trenton. There are more than 30 small hydroelectric power plants, of which the largest is at Wreck Cove in the Cape Breton Highlands.
The absence of long rivers and high elevations precludes any extensive development of conventional waterpower in Nova Scotia, but sea tides have enormous potential to generate electricity. In 1984 Nova Scotia opened a tidal power plant at the estuary of the Annapolis River on the Bay of Fundy—the first such facility of its kind in North America. The plant uses the largest turbine ever constructed for hydroelectric production.
H Transportation
Nova Scotia’s earliest transportation route was the sea, with road construction beginning only in the late 18th century. Construction of railroads began in the mid-19th century, with most major rail lines completed by World War I (1914-1918). Today, Nova Scotia has an extensive network of roads, air routes, and rail lines, but maritime transportation and shipping remains important. Of the Atlantic ports of Canada, Halifax, with its year-round ice-free harbor, is second only to Montréal in the number of ships calling. Halifax Harbour is located a full day closer to Europe than any major U.S. port and is renowned for its international shipping business. The harbor has excellent facilities and is deep enough to permit easy entry to the largest oceangoing vessels. Cape Breton and Windsor also have excellent harbors. Nova Scotia has the second largest number of vessels with Canadian registry, although most are small fishing craft.
Nova Scotia’s mainline railroad carrier is Canadian National (CN) Railways, which connects international shippers in Halifax to the major urban centers of Montréal and Toronto in Canada and Chicago in the United States. Nova Scotia also has two privately owned short line railway carriers that offer service to regional and local shippers, as well as some passenger service. They are Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway (CBNS), which links Truro in central Nova Scotia with Sydney on Cape Breton Island, and the Windsor and Hantsport Railway, which offers service between Windsor Junction and New Minas. In addition, VIA Rail provides transcontinental passenger service between Halifax and Montréal six days a week. Acadian Lines offers bus service to most major communities in Nova Scotia. Several smaller bus companies also provide regional and local transportation services.
There are more than 48,700 km 30,260 mi>) of roads in Nova Scotia, although just over half are paved. The highway system includes more than 400 km (250 mi) of the Trans-Canada Highway, which links Cape Breton with Moncton, New Brunswick, via a causeway across the Strait of Canso. Halifax has an international airport. There are also airports at Cape Breton and Yarmouth. Automobile and passenger ferries connect Nova Scotia to locations in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Maine.
A Population Patterns
According to the 2001 Canadian census, Nova Scotia had a population of 908,007, an increase of less than 1 percent over the 1991 figure of 899,942. Although the population density is 18 persons per sq km (45 per sq mi), most settlement is in coastal or valley locations. The interior regions of the province are largely unoccupied.
In the 2001 census, 31 percent of Nova Scotians claimed only British descent, 5 percent claimed French ancestry, and 7 percent claimed European ancestry. Some 51 percent said they were of Canadian origin, and about 3 percent identified themselves as aboriginal peoples. English is the first language of almost all the residents. During the colonial period, large numbers of Scots immigrated to Nova Scotia, and many people of Scottish ancestry still speak Gaelic as a second language, especially in eastern areas. French is the first language of a small minority. The Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia have about 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) of reserve land set aside for their use. According to the 2001 census, 7,770 Mi’kmaq lived on this reserve land.
B Principal Cities
In 2001, 56 percent of Nova Scotians resided in urban areas, which are communities of 1,000 or more inhabitants. The major cities in Nova Scotia, with their 2006 populations, are Halifax (372,679) and Cape Breton Regional Municipality (109,330).
Halifax, the capital and chief port of Nova Scotia, is situated on a small peninsula in Halifax Harbour. The city is Nova Scotia’s administrative center, chief port, and major manufacturing center. Across the harbor and connected to Halifax by the Angus L. Macdonald and A. Murray MacKay bridges is Dartmouth, an industrial and commercial center that merged with Halifax in 1996. Cape Breton Regional Municipality, situated on the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island, was formed through the consolidation of several cities and towns, including Sydney and New Waterford. Historically, the municipality was a center for coal mining and the iron and steel industries, as well as an important center for fishing. With the collapse of these traditional activities, the region has struggled to attract new industries. Truro, in central Nova Scotia, and Amherst, in the northwest, are strategically located trade and transportation centers. New Glasgow, in the north, was long an important shipbuilding center. Today, New Glasgow’s most important industries are the manufacture of railroad cars and automobile tires.
C Religion
Almost two-thirds of the population belong to Protestant denominations, the largest being the United Church of Canada, the Anglican Church, Baptists, and Presbyterians. About one-third of the population is Roman Catholic.
A Education
Public education in Nova Scotia is free for primary and secondary students, and nearly all students attend public schools. Attendance is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. Public schools are administered by the provincial department of education, but regional school boards, whose members are locally elected, are responsible for their operation. The schools are supported by provincial grants and local taxes.
Higher education is provided by a number of nonsectarian and denominational institutions. The major degree-granting universities are Acadia University in Wolfville; Dalhousie University, Mount Saint Vincent University, and Saint Mary’s University in Halifax; St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish; and the University College of Cape Breton in Cape Breton.
Located on Dalhousie University’s campus is the University of King’s College. Another institution of higher education is the Université Sainte-Anne at Church Point, the province’s only French-language university. There are also a number of institutes of post-secondary study, as well as the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), which offers vocational and job-specific training at campuses located throughout the province. Special institutes of NSCC include the Nautical Institute at Port Hawkesbury and the Aviation Institute at Shearwater.
Among Nova Scotia’s other specialized education institutions are the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. The Institute of Marine Biosciences (IMB), a branch of the government-funded National Research Council of Canada, is also located in Halifax.
B Museums and Libraries
The Nova Scotia Museum (NSM), a part of the provincial department of tourism and culture, contains 26 museums across the province. It includes specialized museums, historic buildings, and other historically significant sites. The NSM is highly decentralized, with many branches operated by local boards or societies. The NSM also provides financial grants to dozens of community museums. Among the NSM’s specialized museums are the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the Museum of Natural History, both in Halifax; the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, in Lunenburg; Ross Farm Museum; the Museum of Industry at Stellarton; and the Fundy Geological Museum in Parrsboro. Historic sites include Barrington Woolen Mill, Sherbrooke Village, and Haliburton House.
The Nova Scotia Provincial Library, a part of the provincial department of education, coordinates public library services throughout Nova Scotia. The public library system includes nine regional libraries, each with many community branches. Nova Scotia was the first province in Canada to offer free Internet access in all public library branches. Specialized libraries include the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Legislative Library, and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society Library.
C Communications
Canada’s oldest newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, was first printed in 1752; in 1867 the newspaper became an official publication of the province under the name Nova Scotia Royal Gazette. The principal daily newspapers in Halifax are the Halifax Chronicle-Herald and its afternoon edition, the Mail Star. Cape Breton is served by the daily Cape Breton Post. There are also daily papers in New Glasgow, Truro, and Amherst. In 2002 there were 15 AM and 11 FM radio stations and 2 television stations in Nova Scotia.
D Arts
For many years Nova Scotia’s relative geographic isolation and undeveloped transportation left it somewhat outside the main currents of Canadian culture. Transportation improvements and the development of national media have helped bring Nova Scotia into the Canadian mainstream and diminished some aspects of traditional life. Today, Nova Scotia is home to a flourishing arts community, and the provincial government is an active supporter of cultural activities.
Halifax is the center for much of the province’s cultural activity, including visual arts, theater, and music. The portrait painter Gilbert Stuart Newton, a nephew of the noted U.S. painter Gilbert Stuart, was born and lived for a time in Halifax, and the city is home to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design—a respected instructional institute. The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, an agency of the government based in Halifax, acquires and exhibits a wide range of historic and contemporary visual arts. Halifax’s Neptune Theater and Mermaid Theatre are among the premier theater companies in the province, and Symphony Nova Scotia, also in Halifax, is the only professional symphony in the Maritimes. The Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design, located in Halifax, was founded in 1991 to support a wide variety of work in crafts and design, and it maintains studios in jewelry, woodworking, weaving, and other arts.
Scottish culture remains strong in the province, particularly in eastern areas, where Celtic bagpipe bands, singing, dancing, and handicrafts are popular. An Acadian festival, held annually at Clare, features Acadian crafts, theater productions, and music.
Nova Scotia is renowned for its varied scenery, from the lush orchard country of Annapolis Valley to the rocky shores of Peggy’s Cove on the Atlantic Coast. The sea is never far away, and there are many sandy beaches, campgrounds, and picnic areas.
A Parks and Historic Sites
Nova Scotia has 2 national parks and 122 provincial parks. Cape Breton Highlands National Park, near the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, is renowned for its rugged coastline and mountain scenery. Kejimkujik National Park, in southwestern Nova Scotia, attracts hikers, campers, and canoeists. There are 16 national historic sites, including Fort Anne at Annapolis Royal, Canada’s oldest fort; Louisbourg National Historic Site on Cape Breton Island, a reconstruction of a walled town built by the French; Halifax Citadel in Halifax; Port Royal, near Annapolis Royal, the reconstructed Habitation of 1605; Grand Pré, with its statue of Evangeline, the heroine of Longfellow’s poem; and Alexander Graham Bell Museum at Baddeck.
Nova Scotia has many well-preserved historic houses and buildings that are maintained by the provincial government and open to the public; many of these historic sites are part of the Nova Scotia Museum (NSM) system. They include the Perkins House, located in Liverpool and built in 1766; the Ross-Thomson House at Shelburne, erected in the 1780s; Uniacke House, built at Mount Uniacke near Halifax, from 1813 to 1815; and the Wolfville Historic House at Wolfville.
B Annual Events
Nova Scotia is host to numerous festivals and special events. At the Antigonish Highland Games in July and the Nova Scotia Gaelic Mod at Saint Ann’s, many Scottish games, dances, and songs are performed. The Apple Blossom Festival, held in the Annapolis Valley each June, features parades, music, dancing, foods, and crafts. Among the many other festivals and events in Nova Scotia are the Nova Scotia International Tattoo in Halifax, a military and civilian extravaganza; the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival; the Nova Scotia Bluegrass and Oldtime Music Festival at Ardoise; the Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax, a weeklong celebration of chamber music; and the Nova Scotia International Air Show in Shearwater.
Nova Scotia has a parliamentary system of government that is similar in structure and powers to those of other Canadian provinces. It consists of a lieutenant governor, a cabinet composed of a premier and about 20 other ministers, and an elected legislature. All citizens 18 years of age and older may vote.
A National Representation
Nova Scotia is represented in the Canadian Parliament by 11 elected representatives in the House of Commons and by 10 senators, appointed by the federal government, in the Senate.
B Executive
The nominal head of government is the lieutenant governor, who is appointed by the federal government and represents the British monarch. Real power resides in the premier, who is the leader of the political party or coalition of parties that holds a majority of seats in the legislature. The premier appoints a cabinet, or executive council, from among the members of the legislature. These cabinet members head the various government departments. The premier and cabinet must resign if they lose the confidence of a majority in the legislature.
C Legislature
Nova Scotia’s unicameral (single-chamber) legislature, or House of Assembly, consists of 52 popularly elected members. The members serve for five years unless early elections are called by the lieutenant governor, on the advice of the premier, or in the event the government loses a vote of confidence. The legislature meets annually in regular sessions, each lasting several weeks. Established in 1758, the House of Assembly is the oldest elected legislative body in Canada.
D Judiciary
The highest provincial court is the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, with 11 justices. The court hears appeals from lower criminal and civil courts in the province. The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia is the highest trial court in the province, with authority to try a wide range of criminal and civil matters. There are 25 justices on the Supreme Court, including a chief justice and associate chief justice. All justices of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court are appointed by the federal government.
Nova Scotia has various provincial courts. The most important of these are the Family Court, which hears issues relating to the family, and the Provincial Court, which hears most criminal proceedings involving persons aged 16 or older. The province also has a Bankruptcy Court, Probate Court, and Small Claims Court.
E Political Parties
Historically, the two main political parties in Nova Scotia have been the Liberal Party and the Progressive Conservative Party. The Liberals have administered provincial affairs most of the time since 1848, when responsible government (local self-government) was first established in Nova Scotia. During the 20th century, the Liberals governed until 1925, from 1933 to 1956, 1970 to 1978, and 1993 to 1999; the Progressive Conservatives were in power during the other periods. The Progressive Conservatives regained control of the provincial government in 1999.
Two groups of Algonquian-speaking indigenous peoples, the Abenaki and the Mi'kmaq, inhabited Nova Scotia when the first Europeans arrived. Both groups established friendly relations with the French and traded with them. During the many wars between France and England for control of the region, the indigenous peoples generally sided with the French. When the wars ended with British victories, they made peace with the British.
A Exploration
Vikings may have been the first Europeans to reach Nova Scotia, having explored coastal areas of northeastern North America about ad 1000. In 1497 John Cabot, an Italian navigator sailing in the service of England, made a landing in the region. Cabot believed he had reached northeastern Asia, and he claimed the lands for the English crown. French claims to Nova Scotia were established by Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 and by Jacques Cartier ten years later. Located near rich fishing grounds, the peninsula soon became an outpost for French and Portuguese fishers. The French also made two unsuccessful attempts to establish colonies on the sea-lashed and windswept Sable Island, in 1518 by Baron de Léry, and in 1598 by Marquis de la Roche.
B French Settlement
In 1604, Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts, holder of a French royal fur monopoly and land grant, set out for North America with Samuel de Champlain, Baron de Poutrincourt, and a group of colonists. The colonists endured a difficult winter on Saint Croix Island in Passamaquoddy Bay, and many died of scurvy. In the following spring the 44 survivors moved across the Bay of Fundy to Port Royal in the Annapolis Basin. However, de Monts lost his monopoly in 1607 and Port Royal was briefly abandoned. In 1610 Poutrincourt returned to the site and established what became the first successful agricultural settlement of Europeans in present-day Canada. The settlement of Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal) marked the beginnings of Acadia, a French colony encompassing Nova Scotia and the lands around it.
C French and English Conflicts
Poutrincourt’s son, Charles de Biencourt, differed with the Jesuits, a Roman Catholic religious order that tried to settle on Port Royal. He expelled them, and they founded a mission on Mount Desert Island, Maine. The English, basing their claim to Nova Scotia on Cabot’s voyage and on charters to the London and Plymouth companies, sent Sir Samuel Argall to the area. He destroyed the mission, expelled the colonists, and burned Port Royal. Biencourt and several companions, including his successor, Charles de La Tour, escaped to Cape Sable.
In 1621 James I of England gave the land to Sir William Alexander. The royal charter granting Alexander the land referred to the area as Nova Scotia (Latin for “New Scotland”). To encourage colonization, Nova Scotia was endowed with an order of baronets and a coat of arms in 1626. Scottish colonists soon established two settlements in Nova Scotia—at Charlesfort, near Port Royal, and at Rosemar, on Cape Breton Island—but both proved unsuccessful. The French drove the settlers from Rosemar, and Charlesfort was abandoned in 1632, after the Treaty of Saint Germain awarded Nova Scotia to France. In the same year, Isaac de Razilly brought a number of French settlers to the peninsula to supplement the small French Acadian population. With him came Sieur d’Aulnay Charnisay, with whom La Tour fought over royal privileges. La Tour moved his Cape Sable settlement to a fort on the site of Saint John, New Brunswick, but the rivalry continued.
D Wars for Control of Nova Scotia
Twice more in the 17th century the English captured French settlements in Nova Scotia, only to later return them. In 1654 Robert Sedgwick, leading an English fleet from Boston, seized Port Royal and Fort La Tour. Three years later the Treaty of Breda restored Acadia to France. Similarly, Sir William Phips’s capture of Port Royal in 1690, during King William’s War, was reversed by the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697.
In 1710, during Queen Anne’s War, Francis Nicholson led an American colonial force and captured Port Royal for a fourth and final time—despite a brave defense made by Sieur de Subercase, the last French governor. In 1713 the Peace of Utrecht, which ended Queen Anne’s War, confirmed British control and transferred Acadia to Great Britain. Under the terms of the treaty, French Acadians were permitted to stay in Nova Scotia if they agreed to pledge an oath of loyalty to Britain within one year. The French retained Cape Breton Island and Prince Edward Island, and to protect their territorial possessions, they built a fortress at Louisbourg.
When Britain entered King George’s War in 1744, the French believed they could easily drive the British from Nova Scotia. A French force captured Canseau (now Canso) and marched on Annapolis Royal (formerly Port Royal), but failed to take the town. One year later New England troops commanded by Sir William Pepperell and a British fleet under Sir Peter Warren avenged the French attacks by seizing Louisbourg. France then sent a great fleet to attack British possessions in Canada and the West Indies, but the sailors were beset by plague and famine and returned to port without having fired a shot. In 1746 Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Roch de Ramezay, aided by the Mi’kmaq, who were organized by a Jesuit priest, Pére le Loutre, captured Grand Pré but not Annapolis Royal.
To the dismay of the British colonists, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed in 1748, returned Louisbourg to France. The British government, however, had resolved to make Nova Scotia an undisputed British possession. Although Acadians still refused to take the oath of allegiance, the character of the peninsula changed. Nearly 3,000 European immigrants to Nova Scotia were joined by a steady flow of New Englanders. Halifax was founded as a fishing port and naval station, and other towns were planned.
The French, fearful that the growing British population was a threat to their empire in North America (see New France), sought to strengthen their military presence in the maritime region. In 1751 the French built two more forts—Fort Beauséjour, near Aulac, and Fort Gaspereau, near Port Elgin, both in New Brunswick.
In 1755, during the French and Indian War, Fort Beauséjour fell under an American attack and Fort Gaspereau fell to the British. Although only a few Acadians participated in the prolonged conflict, the British governor, Charles Lawrence, gave them a final opportunity to declare their loyalty to England. When they refused, more than 6,000 were deported to the American colonies, although about 2,000 escaped. Three years after the Acadians’ expulsion a British force captured Louisbourg, weakening French control over the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the interior.
E British Colony
By the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ended the French and Indian War, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick were joined to Nova Scotia. However, Prince Edward Island was separated from Nova Scotia in 1769 and Cape Breton Island and New Brunswick were detached in 1784. Cape Breton Island was reannexed in 1820.
By 1758 nearly 2,000 colonists from the British Isles had moved to Nova Scotia, but the vast majority of immigrants were from New England. This American influence led to the introduction of the town meeting and Canada’s first representative assembly election, which took place in 1758 in Halifax. The influx of New Englanders expanded in 1760 and continued for several years. At the same time, many more settlers arrived in Nova Scotia from the British Isles. Beginning in the 1770s, large numbers of Scots immigrated to Nova Scotia, and they continued to do so for the next five decades, establishing numerous communities in eastern Nova Scotia.
Despite its large New Englander population, Nova Scotia maintained an uneasy neutrality during the American Revolution (1775-1783). When an invasion seemed likely, the British defenses were strengthened. The revolution had its effects: About 30,000 United Empire Loyalists migrated to southwestern Nova Scotia, which was reconstituted as the province of New Brunswick in 1814.
Although many Loyalists left Nova Scotia for New Brunswick, the loss was almost balanced by returning Acadians who had consented to take the oath of allegiance. Nova Scotia also received many of the 20,000 Scots who immigrated to Canada between 1815 and 1838, as well as many Irish immigrants who arrived after 1830.
The Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815) and the War of 1812 stimulated Nova Scotia’s economy. Halifax became a shipbuilding center for the British fleets engaged in European and American waters. A pioneer in steam navigation, Sir Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, won a contract in 1839 to conduct regular steamship service to carry mail between England and North America.
F Responsible Government
After 1758, Nova Scotia had a bicameral legislature: an elected house of assembly and a legislative council appointed by the governor. The council conducted secret sessions, and by combining legislative, judicial, and executive powers, held most government authority. By 1820 reformers were demanding responsible government that granted local autonomy and representation. Their leader, Joseph Howe, publisher of the Novascotian, used his newspaper and his influence as speaker of the assembly to combat the power of the council. In 1848, during the governorship of Sir John Harvey, Nova Scotia became the first British colony to obtain responsible government. James Boyle Uniacke led the new government as premier.
G Confederation
When a movement began in the 1860s to unite the Maritime colonies, opinion in Nova Scotia was divided. Later, Upper Canada and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Québec, respectively) proposed unification of all the British North American colonies. Nova Scotians generally distrusted the other colonies, disliked the financial terms of union, and had too much local pride to enter the union willingly. Nevertheless, Sir Charles Tupper, Nova Scotia’s premier (and later premier of Canada), agreed to the terms of the Québec Conference of 1864. By the British North America Act of 1867, Nova Scotia entered the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867. The formation of this union is known to Canadians as Confederation.
However, 18 of the 19 Nova Scotians elected to the new federal House of Commons opposed Confederation. The chief opposition spokesman, Joseph Howe, went to Britain to negotiate secession for Nova Scotia. When better financial terms were offered, however, he agreed to union and took a seat in the new government, thus weakening the opposition.
At the time of Confederation, Nova Scotia had entered a period of economic turmoil. Its leadership in wood shipbuilding diminished and eventually disappeared as steel and iron replaced wood as the preferred construction material for large vessels. Trade and industry lagged after the American Civil War ended in 1865, and large numbers of Nova Scotians migrated to the newly opened lands of western Canada and the United States. The demands of World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945), however, improved the economy, especially in the Halifax area. The port played an important role in both wars.
H Nova Scotia Since World War II
Nova Scotia did not keep pace with the rapid growth experienced elsewhere in Canada after World War II. However, the province made significant gains, especially after 1950, and manufacturing began to play a vital role in the provincial economy. Coal mining remained important, gypsum production on Cape Breton Island increased, and several coal-fired electric power plants were built. Both of the major parties in the province—the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals—worked to bring new industries to Nova Scotia. Traditional industries expanded, and new industries, such as petroleum refining and the manufacture of plastics and electronic equipment, emerged. Industrial and commercial expansion were also encouraged by the 1955 bridging of the Strait of Canso, which connected Cape Breton Island with the mainland, and by the construction of a section of the Trans-Canada Highway through Nova Scotia in the 1960s.
During the 1970s coal mining in Nova Scotia expanded, driven in part by the global energy crisis, and provincial funds were used to build an industrial park on the Strait of Canso and to modernize the port at Halifax. In the 1980s Nova Scotia enjoyed continued economic gains. Additional container-handling facilities were opened at Halifax, the tourism industry expanded, tin mining began near Yarmouth, and exploration for oil and natural gas deposits continued around Sable Island. By the late 1980s, however, the decline of several traditional industries weakened the economy. Dwindling Atlantic fish stocks hurt the fishing industry and brought the centuries-old cod fishery nearly to a halt. At the same time, the coal and steel industries incurred growing losses; by the early 2000s the last of Cape Breton’s once-vigorous coal mines and steel mills were forced to close.
The commercial production of oil, which began off Sable Island in the early 1990s, partially offset these economic hardships, as did the emergence of new employment opportunities in the late 1990s in industries such as telecommunications. Nova Scotia’s large offshore natural gas fields also promised to expand job opportunities and reduce unemployment, and by the late 1990s new efforts were underway to develop this resource.
The late 20th century witnessed the further diversification of Nova Scotia’s economy, as new manufacturing and service industries emerged alongside traditional resource-based industries. Nova Scotia has continued to seek new sources of income to raise living standards, which remain low by national standards. However, these initiatives have met limited success, in part due to reductions in federal economic development funds available to the province.
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Elam (עֵילָם) in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 10:22, Ezra 4:9;) is said to be the oldest son of Shem, the son of Noah. It is also used (as in Akkadian), for the country of Elam in what is now southern Iran, that the Hebrews believed to be the offspring of Elam, son of Shem. This implies that the Elamites were considered Semites by the Hebrews, although their language was actually unrelated to the Semitic languages family. This does not conflict with Hebrew beliefs because the Hebrews believed that the diversity of human languages originated at the Tower of Babel.
Elam (the nation) is also mentioned in Genesis 14, describing an ancient war involving a king of Elam it calls Chedorlaomer.
The prophecies of Isaiah (11:11, 21:2, 22:6) and Jeremiah (25:25) also mention Elam, and the last part of Jeremiah 49 is an apocalyptic oracle against Elam, self-dated to the first year of Zedekiah (597 BC).
• Elam is a priest who helps in the rededication of the rebuilt walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 12:42.ko:엘람 (히브리어 성경)
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Home Md Sohanur Rahman Sobuj
Md Sohanur Rahman Sobuj
Student of Bangladesh University of Textiles (BUTex)/ Department: Apparel Engineering
Acid wash | Random wash | Acid Wash by Stones
Acid wash / Random wash At present times, the most popular denim garments are random washed among the fashionable people. When solid washed the fading, effects are even and uniform in the garments but when random washed effects are uneven. […]
Feed of the Arm Sewing Machine II Study on industrial feed of the arm sewing machine with thread path diagram
Experiment Name: Study on industrial feed of the arm sewing machine with thread path diagram. Introduction: The machine which practices stitches by the loop of one group of thread links with the loop of other group of thread by the process of interloping is called the industrial feed of the arm machine. There are two […]
Weak-link effect
In general, the effect of sample length on breaking strength has been shown that the mean measured the strength of a specimen decreases as the sample length is increased. This fact is well known as the “weak-link” effect.
Creep and Crimp of fiber
Crimp is a term to describe the waviness of a fiber. We can also describe this in terms of the force or energy required to uncrimp a fiber. It’s expressed in percentage. A crimped fiber placed on a flat plane is l0 and the length of the same fiber when the crimp is removed by applying a tension is l, then the crimp is given by …
Instantaneous and time-dependent effect
When a load is applied on a specimen constantly for a period of time, the specimen initially extends rapidly giving the instantaneous effect and then less rapidly which yields to time dependent effect.
Finisher Card Machine
Electron Microscope
There are two different types of electron microscopes, scanning electron microscopes (SEM) and transmission electron microscopes (TEM). In the TEM method, an electron beam passes through an extremely thin section of the specimen.
X-ray diffraction method
It is an independent method to determine the amount of crystalline matter present in the fiber. W. L. Bragg presented a simple explanation of the diffracted beams from a crystal. When X-ray beam is incident on a crystal, it strongly reflected wherever its layers of atoms at an angle show in fig. Such that, nλ=2dsinθ
Absorption of IR radiation method
Infra-red (IR) spectroscopy is one of the most common and widely used spectroscopic techniques. When electromagnetic waves interact with matter, they are scattered and absorbed. Infrared spectroscopy, radiation with wavelengths between 1 -15 μm is absorbed at certain characteristic frequencies, which yield structural information.
Crystalline and Amorphous Structure of Fiber
Amorphous region of the fiber is defined as the region of the fiber where there is no longer the order of chain molecules. The polymer chains are randomly placed in amorphous region. As a result, there is more air space in the amorphous fiber.
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Legendary Castles of the Palatinate
The Coat of Arms of Rhineland-Palatinate
The Pfalz, or Palatinate, is a wonderfully beautiful land of high green mountains and lush valleys, very similar to the American Appalachians except for the many huge and bizarre deep red colored rock outcroppings and spires (called Felsen) protruding from their summits. The Pfalz is situated in the west/southwest of Germany bordering on France. It is known to have been settled as early as the beginning of the 5th century and because of it's location has been at the center of frontier struggles reaching back to the Roman empire. Throughout the rich Palatinate lands are to be found many perseverant standing castles and ruins testifying to the richness of it's history. They preserve the romantic memories and tales of the Knights, Ladies, Lords, and Hierophants who ruled, lived in, and strove over them along the centuries leading to the present, a visible reminder of the many remarkable events that transpired and the various interesting memorable personages that shaped them.
In these pages I've put together both a photographic and historically introspective look at some of these magnificent constructions and their stories with the help of the best photography from many other Castle enthusiasts and visitors. The histories were obtained by having personally been to many of the displayed castles and listening to their stories first hand, as well as translating and extracting them from various German historical and folk records. These events are portrayed as accurately as possible, but if any inconsistencies are noticed it would please me for them to be brought to my attention.
I sincerely hope you enjoy tripping back to ages past, and that you learn something from the colorful history on the way.
- Keith Laney
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Tuesday, October 16, 2012
these letters are real-life stories. They are not "anecdotes."
"The secret of caring for a patient is caring for the patient."--
Sir William Osier
Q: Why are 30 percent of Americans overweight?
A: Because of a most basic confusion!
They don't know when they are thirsty; they also don't know the difference between "fluids" and "water."
Let us discuss the letters from Mr. Peck, Mr. Paturis, Priscilla Preston, and Donna Gutkowski that follow. All of them stated they lost between 30 and 45 pounds in weight when they switched to water as their preferred beverage.
There is another person who gradually lost 58 pounds in less than a year, weight she had gained in six years. As you read on, you will see how simply we gain weight. You would think it "simplistic" if you did not have the proof in front of you.
The central control system in the brain happens to recognize the low energy levels available for its functions. The sensations of thirst or hunger also stem from low, ready-to-access energy levels.
To mobilize energy from that which is stored in the fat, one needs hormonal release mechanisms. This process takes a while longer (and some physical activity for energy release) than the urgent needs of the brain.
The front of the brain either gets energy from "hydroelectricity" or from sugar in blood circulation. Its functional needs for hydroelectricity are more, urgent—not only the energy formation from water, but also its transport system within the micro-stream flow system that depends on more water.
Thus, the sensation of thirst and hunger are generated simultaneously to indicate the brain's needs. We do not recognize the sensation of thirst and assume "both indicators" to be the urge to eat We eat food even when the body should receive water. In these people who lost weight, by drinking water before eating food, they managed to separate the two sensations. They did not overeat to satisfy an urge for the intake of water.
Overeating Further Explained
The human brain is roughly 1/50th of the total body weight. It is said to possess about nine trillion nerve cells (computer chips). Brain cells are said to be 85 percent water.
Twenty percent of blood circulation is allocated and made available to the brain. This means that the brain gets to pick and choose from the circulating blood what is needed for its normal functions. The brain is the only part of the body that is constantly active. It processes all information from different parts of the body, as well as that which enters it from daily exposure to physical, social,and electromagnetic environment.
To process all these inputs and alert all parts of the body for coordinated response, the brain spends a vast quantity of energy. At the same time, it spends energy in manufacturing primary ingredients and different brain chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) that are made in the brain cells and have to be transported to the nerve endings wherever they are. The transport system uses a vast quantity of energy. This high rate of energy consumption by the brain is the main reason why it receives about 20 percent of blood circulation.
Brain cells stockpile energy in two main forms: ATP and GTP reserves—like the coal and coke dumps next to power plants. Certain actions are supplied with energy from ATP stockpiles that are located in different parts of the cell, mainly within its membranes. The cell membrane is where the information enters and where an action is initiated. There is a system of energy rationing in operation in each cell. Not all stimulation will achieve an allocation of energy from the ATP stockpile to get registered and invoke a response.
There is a threshold for energy release for some "inputs." The brain calculates and understands what is important and what is not for its energy expenditure. When ATP reserves are low, many stimuli do not invoke a response. This low ATP reserve in some overactive brain cells will become reflected as a fatigue state in functions controlled by those brain cells. Exactly the same process is in operation for the GTP stockpiles. In certain emergency actions,
some energy from GTP stockpile can be diverted to boost the ATP stockpile to sustain some of the most essential functions that would otherwise suffer from lack of local energy.
Storage of energy in the brain's energy pools seems to rely heavily on the availability of sugar. The brain is constantly drawing from the blood sugar to replenish its ATP and GTP stockpiles. Recently it has been discovered that the human body has the ability to generate hydroelectric energy when water, by itself, goes through the cell membrane and turns some very special energy generating pumps; very much like the hydroelectric power generation when a dam is built on a large river. Thus, the brain uses two mechanisms for its energy requirements: One, from metabolism of food and formation of sugar: two, from its water supply and conversion of hydroelectric energy. It now seems that the brain depends very extensively on energy formation from "hydroelectricity,"
particularly for its transport system in its nerve supply to different parts of the body.
To satisfy the brain's requirements, the human body has developed a very delicate balancing system to keep a normal range of sugar concentration in the blood. It/does this in two ways. One, by stimulating the intake of proteins and starchy foods that it will convert to sugar, in addition to the sugar in the diet; two, by converting some starch and proteins from stored reserves of the body into sugar. This latter mechanism is called "gluco-neo-gene-sis." It means remaking of sugar from other materials. This re-manufacturing of sugar for use by the brain is done in the liver.
The dependence of most brain functions on energy from sugar has developed a satiety or pleasure association for the sweet taste. It has established a certain coding system for coordination of functions by the other organs, particularly by the liver when sweet taste stimulates the tongue. When there is not enough sugar in circulation, the liver begins to manufacture it and constantly tops up blood levels by the addition of more sugar. At the beginning, it
will convert stored starch, followed by proteins and small quantities of fat. Fat conversion is a very slow process.
The body needs to go without food for some time before a higher rate of fat metabolism is established. Proteins are more accessible and broken down more easily than fat. Fat deposits are made up of many single units of "fatty acids" joined together. It is the individual fatty acids that are broken for their energy value. Each gram of fat gives nine calories of energy. Each gram of protein or sugar provides only four calories of energy. This is the reason,
when fat is metabolized, a person is far less hungry.
In children, fat stores are brown in color and have much blood circulation in them. In brown fat, fat is metabolized directly and heat is generated. In later years of life, fat stores have less blood circulation and are less accessible to the enzymes that would mobilize the fatty acids for conversion in the liver and the muscles. When muscles are inactive, they are more easily attacked and their protein is broken down for conversion into sugar. However, if
muscles are used, they begin to metabolize some of their stored fat as a choice source of energy to do work and maintain or increase their bulk To do this, they begin to activate a fat-breaking enzyme called "hormone sensitive lipase." It has been shown in repeated blood tests in Sweden that this enzyme's activity is seen after one hour's walk and retains its fat-breaking activity for 12 hours. Once muscles begin to use fat, more sugar will become available to be used by the brain.
With repeated walks, activity of the fat-burning enzymes become much more pronounced. Thus, a component of any dieting program should be muscle use for its long-lasting, primary and direct physiological effect on fat breakdown. It is this enzyme in blood circulation that will also clean all blood vessel walls of fatty plaques and deposits. It was this physiological response of the body to walking that reversed the health problems of Mr. John Fox. Increased water intake gave him energy and stamina and walking stimulated the enzymes that cleared his arteries.
Office work and desk jobs in our modern way of life are only a cultural transformation. The body physiology has not yet transformed sufficiently to accommodate for this functionally abnormal use of the human body. The human body still needs muscle activity to maintain normal functions. If the body functions normally, it will know when to eat and how much to eat without storing fat. Every part of the body will use its share of energy supply for efficient and well coordinated functioning. This is what it is designed for.
However, if the brain is used more (in times of stress) and the body is not used proportionately to supply the brain with its sugar needs, a less-disciplined person will give in to eating more often and in larger quantities. It becomes more dramatic if one does not recognize the other thirst signals of the human body when it needs water for its energy supply, when in place of drinking water by itself more food is consumed. In stress, the body becomes
dehydrated. The reason we tend to gain weight is one simple fact: we eat to supply the brain with energy for its constant round-the-clock activity. However, when food is eaten, only about 20 percent of it reaches the brain. The rest will gradually become stored if muscle activity does not use up its allocated portion. With water as a source of energy, this storage does not happen. Excess water is passed out in the form of urine.
Diet Sodas Can Cause Weight Gain.
My observation has been that diet sodas (all variety of manufactured soft drinks are called soda instead of using the
label on the drink), even though containing no appreciable number of calories, are possibly the cause of more weight gain in people who resort to taking them to control their weight. One person stands out: A young man in his twenties, about 5' 5" in height. Like most college students, he used to drink regular sodas while under constant pressure for completion of his studies. He had already gained excess weight by the time he graduated.
After graduation, to reduce weight, he began drinking eight cans of diet sodas per day. In about two years, he must have gained another 30 pounds. He seemed to get as round as he was tall. His walk became difficult, and he seemed to have to swing his hip to take a step. He also drank his diet soda at mealtimes and ate more than his
body needed. He still consumes his diet sodas—he seems to be addicted—and, despite all other efforts, continues to be overweight.
This paradox in our understanding of the relationship between taking a sweetener that does not directly contribute to the total calorie intake of the body and weight gain needs explanation. The following is the result of my research into this enigma. There are many such persons who resort to taking diet sodas and, instead of losing weight, they begin to gain it. The transcript of a testimonial from Donna Gutkowski, who for years only consumed sodas and steadily gained weight regardless of anything else she did to shed the excess pounds, will also follow.
The 1994 annual report of the beverage industry shows that per-capita consumption of sodas is 49.1 gallons per year. Of this amount, 28.2 percent of consumption is the share of different diet sodas. Diet soda consumption is beginning to decline. Eighty-four percent of all sodas consumed belong to two companies (Coca-Cola 48.2 percent and Pepsi-Cola 35.9 percent). Of this 84 percent share of market and their different labels manufactured, only 5.5 percent are caffeine-free diet sodas. These figures indicate that a vast number of people are drinking caffeinated sodas, of which 22 percent consists of diet sodas.
A survey at the campus of Pennsylvania State University has shown that some students drank 14 cans of soda a day. One girl had consumed 37 Cokes in two days. Many admitted they could not live without these soft drinks. If deprived, these persons would develop withdrawal symptoms, very much like those addicted to other drugs. Boys Life magazine surveyed its readers and found that eight percent of them drink eight or more sodas a day. The administrators of one Boy Scout Jamboree had collected 200,000 empty cans for recycling. The Soft Drink Association surveyed the use of soft drinks in hospitals in America and found 85 percent of them serve sodas with their patients' meals. Research has shown that caffeine is addictive. The media, to placate a beverage industry that spends vast sums of money for advertising its products, have come up with a less expressive word to announce the news. They call it "caffeine dependency."
When consumption of sodas is encouraged by society, it is assumed these manufactured beverages can replace the needs of the body for water. It is assumed, just because these beverages contain water, the body will be adequately served. This assumption is wrong. This broad-base increase in consumption of mainly caffeine containing sodas forms the background to many of the health problems of our society. The mistaken assumption
that all fluids are equivalent to water for the water needs of the human body is the main cause of many of the ills of the human body, and it is frequently associated with the initial excessive gain in weight. To understand the above statement, we need to recognize some simple principles of anatomy and physiology of the brain that regulate eating and drinking.
The confusion that all manufactured beverages will supply the body with its daily water needs, more than any other cause, is responsible for some of the diseases that we encounter. Gross disfigurement of the body by fat collection is the initial step in the decline of the human body, and in my opinion is caused by the wrong choice of fluids intake.
Some of these beverages do more damage than others.
Caffeine, one of the main components of most sodas, is a drug. It has addictive properties because of its direct action on the brain. It also acts on the kidneys and causes increased urine production. Caffeine has diuretic properties. It is physiologically a dehydrating agent. This characteristic is the main reason a person is forced to drink so many cans of soda every day and never be satisfied. The water does not stay in the body long enough. At the same time, many persons confuse their feeling of thirst for water. Thinking they have consumed enough "water" that is in the soda, they assume they are hungry and begin to eat more than their body's need for food. Thus, dehydration caused by caffeine-containing sodas, in due time, will cause a gradual gain in weight from overeating as a direct result of confusion of thirst and hunger sensations.
Caffeine has "pick-me-up" properties. It stimulates the brain/body even when a person is exhausted! It seems that caffeine lowers the threshold of ATP stockpile control. Stored ATP is used up for some functions that would not normally gain access to it when there is a set level of reserves.
When sodas contain sugar, at least some of the brain's need for sugar is satisfied. If caffeine is releasing ATP energy to enhance performance, at least its sugar companion will replenish some of the lost ATP, even if the final result is a deficit expenditure of ATP by the brain.
In early 1980s, a new product was introduced into the beverage industry—an artificial sweetener other than saccharin. It is called aspartame. Aspartame is 180 times as sweet as sugar without any calorie output. It is now in common use because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has deemed it safe to use in place of sugar. In a very short period of time, it has been incorporated in over 5000 recipes.
In the intestinal tract, aspartame converts to two highly excitatory neurotransmitter amino acids: aspartate and phenylalanine, as well as methyl alcohol/formaldehyde—wood alcohol. It is claimed the liver renders methyl alcohol non-toxic. I personally think this claim is made to brush aside voiced objections for commercialization of a
manufactured "food" that has a known toxic byproduct.
If caffeine converts ATP to AMP, a spent energy "ash," aspartate converts GTP energy stockpile to GMP. Both AMP and GMP are spent fuels; they cause thirst/hunger to replace the lost fuel stockpiles in the brain cells. Thus, diet sodas cause indiscriminate overuse of energy reserves of cells in the brain.
It is a well-recognized, scientific fact that spent fuel (AMP) does cause hunger. Caffeine causes addiction, and people who consume it on a regular basis should be assumed to be "sodaholics." Hence, caffeinated diet sodas in sedentary persons must cause weight gain; they indirectly stimulate more food intake because of the brain's forced use of its energy reserves. Bear in mind that only some of the energy value of foods eaten will be used by the brain.
The rest of the consumed energy will be stored in the form of fat if not used by muscle activity. This weight gain is one of many results of diet soda consumption.
The more important reflex that occurs is a brain reaction to sweet taste. The jargon used is "cephalic phase response." A conditioned reflex becomes established as a result of life-long experience with sweet taste that is associated with the introduction of new energy into the body. When sweet taste stimulates the tongue, the brain
programs the liver to prepare for acceptance of new energy— sugar—from outside. The liver, in turn, stops the manufacture of sugar from the protein and starch reserves of the body and instead begins to store the metabolic fuels that are circulating in the blood. As Michael G. Tardoff, Mark I. Friedman, and other scientists have shown,cephalic phase responses alter the metabolic activity in favor of nutrient storage; the fuel available for conversion is reduced which leads to the development of appetite.
If it is indeed sugar that stimulates the response, the effect on the liver will be the regulation of that which has entered the body. However, if sweet taste is not followed by nutrient availability, an urge to eat will be the outcome. It is the liver that produces the signals and the urge to eat The more sweet taste without the accompanying calories that stimulates the taste buds, the more there is an urge to eat—overeat.
The effect of cephalic phase response to sweet taste has been dearly shown in animal models with the use of saccharin. Using aspartame, several scientists have shown a similar urge to overeat in humans. Blundel and Hill have shown that non-nutritive sweeteners—aspartame in solution—will enhance appetite and increase short-term food intake. They report: "After ingestion of aspartame, the volunteers were left with a residual hunger compared with what they reported after glucose. This residual hunger is functional, it leads to increased food consumption."
Tardoff and Friedman have shown that this urge to eat more food after artificial sweeteners can last up to 90 minutes after the sweet drink; even when all blood tests show normal values. They showed that even when blood levels for insulin, the higher readings of which is thought to be the cause of hunger, achieved normal levels test animals consumed more food than the control batch. What this means is that the "brain" retains for a long time the urge to eat when the taste buds for sugar are stimulated without sugar having entered the system. The sweet taste will cause the brain to program the liver to store supplies rather than release supplies from its storage.
Basically, this physiological response to sweeteners without their accompanying calories that the body has been told has entered it will compel the person to find and make good the registered marker for energy consumption. This is another physiological reason why people who consume diet sodas to reduce weight may suffer from the paradoxical response of their body to repeated stimulation of the taste buds with sugar substitutes.
When caffeine and aspartame are introduced into the body, they will dictate their stimulating effect on the cell physiology in the brain, the liver, the kidneys, the pancreas, the endocrine glands, and so on. Aspartame is converted to phenylalanine and aspartate. Both have direct stimulatory effects on the brain. The sum total of the
effect of caffeine and aspartame will very quickly establish a new mode of activity for the brain just because they are repeatedly available in larger quantities than the ones that would otherwise establish a balanced physiology.
Most neurotransmitters are secondary products from one or another amino acid. However, aspartate is one of a pair of unique amino acids that don't need to be converted to a secondary product to act on the brain to cause an effect.
There are receiving points (receptors) for these two stimulant amino acids (aspartate and glutamate) on certain nerve cells that influence body physiology very dramatically.
The use of artificial sweeteners for their false stimulation of "nerve terminals" that register the entry of "energy" supplies into the body have more severe repercussions than simply causing increase in weight. These chemicals constantly swing the body physiology in the direction dictated by the nerve system they stimulate. Their use without a thorough understanding of their long-term effects in the body, just because they also pleasantly stimulate the taste buds, is shortsighted. My understanding of the micro-physiology within cells causes me concern when I think of the routine use of these amino acids. I worry for the outcome of the long-term effect of the direct stimulation of the nerve/ glandular systems in the brain with these chemical sweeteners. They are naturally positioned for other important, but balanced functions, in the body.
Research has shown that receptors for aspartate are abundantly present on some nerve systems whose products also stimulate the reproductive organs and breasts. A constant stimulation of breast glands without the other factors associated with pregnancy may well be implicated in the rise in the rate of breast cancer in women. The hormone, prolactin, may play a major role in this direction. One of the less explored complications of aspartame may be its effect as a possible facilitator in cancer formation in the brain. Fed to rats, aspartame has been implicated in brain tumor formation in experimental animals.
As an analogy, imagine a small sail boat that is going from one nearby port to another and has to reach its destination before dark when the direction of the winds is not ideal. If the sailor, instead of paying strict attention to the rules of sailing, gives in to the pleasure and exhilaration of fast sailing with the wind, he will have abandoned his purpose and sailed his boat to totally different and unknown shores, and in the dark. The odds are that he and his
boat will not survive the trip.
On its journey of life, the human body is just like a sail boat. If the mind abandons purpose and forgets the design of
the body, and gives in to the overstimulation of the palate with artificial and non-representative products (such as spices), in the long run, the body chemistry may not be able to deal with constant false information and not suffer damage.
It is primitive and simplistic thinking that one could easily lace water with all sorts of pleasure-enhancing chemicals and substitute these fluids for the natural and dean water that the human body needs. Some of these chemicals,caffeine, aspartame, saccharin and alcohol, through their constant lopsided effect on the brain, unidirectionally—single mindedly—program the body chemistry with results contrary to the natural design of the body. Very much like the sail boat in the dark that will get beached in uncharted shores if its sailor gives in to the pleasures and exhilaration of fast sailing in place of sticking to the rules of sailing with safety in mind, the intake of wrong fluids will affect the life of anyone who continually consumes them.
As it has been explained so far, the human body has many different indicators when it runs short of water. At these times, it needs only water. As it has been explained, it will complicate matters if one gives the body artificial taste enhancing fluids on a regular basis and in full substitution of the water needs of the body.
One should remember that caffeine is similarly an addictive drug, the use of which has become "legal." Children, in particular, become vulnerable to the addictive properties of these caffeine-containing beverages. Stimulating the body at the early stages of life of a child with pleasure-enhancing chemicals in beverages, in some will program the senses to use harder addictive drugs when they reach school age.
Dr. Marcia Gutkowski is a nutrition consultant. After reading my book, she convinced her daughter Donna to begin changing her habit in fluids intake. The result has astounded the mother and daughter. The following is the transcript of Donna's testimonial.
Dear Dr. Batmanghelidj
April 25,1994
My mother asked, that I write to you and tell you about my recent weight loss success. I know that I could have a much more successful loss if I would follow your formula and curb my eating habits, along with starting a regular routine of exercise. However just getting myself to get off of 6 to 8 cans of Mountain Dew a day is a miracle in itself.
Within the last 9 months to a year, I have successfully been able to keep 35 excess pounds of baggage off. I am able to wear clothes that I thought would never touch my body again. I also have just about reached my goal size for my upcoming wedding. Even my fiancé had to admit that lam looking much better than when he first met me five years ago.
My success has been contributed to faithfully drinking 1/2 my body weight in ounces in water every day. Wherever I go, so does my water. To work, shopping, even my long 7 hour long car rides. (That does make for a lot of rest area stops, but they are worth it.) I do treat myself to an occasional mineral water or beer when I go out, but I have usually gotten my quota of water in for the day. One interesting thing that I have noticed however is that once I have finished drinking my quota of water, I have absolutely no desire to drink anymore. Also I have found that I'm not thirsty anymore and it will usually take me awhile to drink some other type of beverage whether it be juice, milk, beer, mineral water, etc.
I am looking forward to October 1st which is my wedding day when I can walk down the aisle looking better than I have looked in 15 years, since I graduated from high school. It will also be nice to put my weight on my new drivers license without having to cringe for the first time in my life.
Thanks for the smaller me!!!!
Donna M. Gutkowski
It is now February of 1995. Donna is happily married. By the time of her wedding in October 1994, she had lost over 40 pounds.
This science-based way of weight loss will be permanent, whereas with only food limitation, even if some weight is lost, it is regained in a short period of time. Worse still, one is constantly hounded by the fallacy of needing to limit this or that food, particularly on the subject of cholesterol content of food, a temporary present-day vogue. Do not be shocked. Contrary to present trends for exclusion of eggs from daily diet, I eat as many eggs as I feel like eating—
no limitation whatsoever; eggs have a well-balanced protein content. I also happen to understand how excess cholesterol formation in the body is associated with prolonged dehydration.
[Higher blood cholesterol is a sign that the cells of the body have ... Want To Read More Click Here ]
Priscilla Preston's letter on the next page further explains the relationship of dehydration, not only to weight gain, but to the more devastating problem of asthma, the subject of the next chapter. In taking steps to prevent asthma, she managed to lose 35 pounds.
Another important point in her letter is the role of salt in disease prevention. Salt is important to the body. Salt sensors on the tongue, when strongly stimulated, remove the body's anxiety and stop it from panicking for water. When salt is available, the body is at least assured of an efficient water filtration system for its emergency supply to the important cells. You will read more about salt in this link, JUST CLICK HERE.
Please bear in mind, these letters are real-life stories. They are not "anecdotes." We do not need statistics to convince people of the efficacy of water, when the body is demonstrating an urgent need for it. Whose fault is it that the human body's regional calls for water, and its programs of adaptation to dehydration, have been labeled as disease conditions? Is there any plausible reason why, for evaluation of natural treatment procedures, we should adhere to the self-serving methodology and the yardstick of the pharmaceutical industry? Their inaccurate assertions have until now caused so much pain and agony for people whose bodies were only crying out for water!
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Planet Name: Allvae Location: Taunican System Description: A large rocky planet with high gravity and a thin atmosphere. The atmosphere only extends about 1 mile above sea level, and many mountain tops are exposed to the vacuum of space. Native flora and fauna live in the deep valleys between mountain ranges. Many of these valleys are isolated, causing an interest amount of biodiversity.
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We are talking about the opening of a new session for the federal Parliament in Ottawa. Here are some quick facts about a key event in that opening.
What is the speech from the throne?
Why is it important?
Who delivers it?
The Governor General reads the speech, but the prime minister and his or her cabinet write it.
Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean delivers the speech from the throne in the Senate chamber on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 3, 2010. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Why the Governor General?
Who is the Usher of the Black Rod?
It's a position that dates back to 14th-century England, and it has several ceremonial and security duties. One of these is to call parliamentarians formally to the Senate for the throne speech.
What happens afterward?
Sources: Canadian Encyclopedia, Government of Canada
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Although relativism is most often associated with ethics, one can find defenses of relativism in virtually any area of philosophy. The following article first discusses the general structure of relativist positions and arguments. It then examines several influential ideas concerning relativism in the late twentieth century. Finally, it ends by considering the rise of relativism in one area outside of ethics: epistemology.
What Is Relativism?
Issues and Arguments Relating to Relativism
As obvious as it may seem that we ought to be relativists about some things, late-twentieth-century philosophical discussions of relativism spent a surprising amount of time simply trying to state the view coherently. The ethical relativist familiar to most of us, for instance, combines all three above relativist theses in a way that best illustrates the problem. He will begin with the innocent observation of a diversity in moral practices, infer that therefore there is no single universal moral standard, and then confidently wrap up with the conclusion that therefore no person should judge the actions of those from other cultures or times. As Bernard Williams points out, although this crude bit of reasoning is obviously self-contradictory (the conclusion asserts a universal moral requirement the existence of which the premises deny), avoiding this kind of incoherence has proved surprisingly difficult.
Second, philosophers have also been concerned with the extent of defensible tolerance. For any outlook, sincerely holding that outlook seems incompatible with regarding it as merely one among a number of outlooks, each different, but not better, than the others. How, for instance, could morality have the grip on us that it does if it does not lead us to condemn those who, however distant from us in time and place, radically violate its deepest tenets? The normative relativist requirement of tolerance apparently can only be taken seriously by those who have no sincere moral convictions. Thus the basic relativist dilemma is this: either the "ought" in the claim that we ought not to condemn standards radically at odds with our own is a relative "ought" from within our own standards or an "ought" tied to an absolute standard. The former is incompatible with sincerely embracing and living within a standard. The latter is incompatible with relativism.
Third, does relativism about a given F require skepticism? Skepticism about F holds that there are no good grounds for believing anything really is F. The question is whether relativism about Fness undermines any good grounds for believing that there really is such a thing as Fness. Size, for instance, is relative to some frame of reference, such that a given whale might be tiny while a mosquito huge; but this seems compatible with claiming that the tiny whale really is tiny and the huge mosquito really is huge. Suppose what we morally ought to do is relative to the culture or era in which we find ourselves; is this compatible with claiming that what we ought to do is what we really ought to do? Some, such as J. L. Mackie, have argued that it is not. Moral beliefs, in his view, are beliefs about an absolute standard of conduct. If what exists are multiple standards, each no better than the others for its context, then it follows that there really is nothing answering to our moral beliefs. Others, such as David Wong, argue that moral beliefs are not about absolute standards but about prevailing standards. Hence there is something answering to these beliefs in his view.
The most powerful consideration philosophers have mobilized in favor of the claim that there is a plurality of equally correct standards of Fness is that it provides the most satisfying explanation of existing differences over the question of whether something is F. If relativism explains existing differencesdifferences that persist even against the background of agreement on non-F factsthen we should be relativists about F. Consider the question whether, for instance, C's "thumbs-up" to D was a rude gesture. Suppose A from one culture and B from another agree on all the nonetiquette facts: C gestured toward D with his fist out and thumb extended skyward. A thinks this was rude. B denies it. One explanation for the dispute is that they have yet to uncover some further fact about the gesture, its deeper etiquette nature. But there is a better one available: A is judging relative to standards from his culture according to which the thumbs-up is rude, while B is judging relative to a different standard according to which the thumbs-up is not rude. Indeed, A and B will likely conclude this quickly. B will say "In my culture, the thumbs-up is a sign of encouragement," while A will say in his it is not.
Of course, it does not follow from the fact that different frameworks for judging Fness exist or have existed that no single correct universal standard of Fness exists. Different frameworks might be assessable as more or less close to some all-encompassing universal standard. Perhaps because of its complexity, it is simply difficult to understand or know the correct universal standard of Fness. But it may be that the existence of different frameworks could be explained by the absence of a universal standard. It also does not follow from the fact that there appear to be different frameworks for judging Fness that there are in fact different frameworks. The parametric universalist in moral standards, for instance, holds that diversity is a result of the application of a very general but universally shared standard to locally diverse conditions. If that view is right, then the philosophical relativist position that there is no such universal standardsometimes referred to as "metaethical" relativismlacks its main support, as an explanation of moral diversity.
Shared Motivational Attitudes
Real and Notional Confrontations
Bernard Williams was concerned to come up with some way of stating normative relativism such that it is coherent and does not fall victim to self-contradiction. Recall that the self-contradictory ethical relativist view is the claim that since there are no universal moral standards, no one ever ought to condemn the practices of other cultures. The main issue is whether philosophical relativism can coherently be grounds for normative relativism. Coherent normative relativism requires recognizing the absence of a vantage point from which one can make meaningful evaluative comparisons between alternative frames of reference for judging Fness. Such a vantage point would result in what Williams calls a "real confrontation" between systems of belief (1981, pp. 132143).
The idea is this: the possibility of normative relativism arises only when some action or practice is the locus of disagreement between holders of two self-contained and exclusive systems. Two systems of belief, S1 and S2, are exclusive of one another when they have consequences that disagree under some description but do not require either to abandon their side of the disagreement. When groups holding S1 and S2 encounter one another, this can result in a confrontation between their systems of belief. A real confrontation between S1 and S2 occurs when S2 is a real option for the group living under S1. In a notional confrontation, S2 is not a real option. S2 would be a real option for a group living under S1 if two conditions held. First, those in S1 could "retain their hold on reality" living under S2, in the sense that they would not, for instance, need to engage in radical self-deception. Second, they could acknowledge their transition to S2 in the light of a rational comparison to S1. If the conditions for a real confrontation are not met for holders of S1, however, then there is only a notional confrontation with S2 and there is no "point or substance" to considerations of whether S2 might be a better or worse system of belief than S1. If a member of S1 does not regard the confrontation with S2 as a real confrontation, then "the language of appraisalgood, bad, right, wrong and so on is seen as inappropriate, and no judgments are made" (Williams, 1985, p. 161). The suspension of such judgments amounts to adopting normative relativism about S1 and S2.
The language of appraisal is appropriate regarding S2 only if those in S1 could "go over" to S2. The hoi polloi who pursue the pleasures of so-called "low" culture may judge that there is little of value in a life crowded with the elite activities of "high" culture. It is a real possibility that they could learn to love opera and lose their taste for country music, so they may evaluate doing so in their own terms. Those from the low culture judge high culture to be boring; those from high culture judge low culture to be tacky and lacking depth. However, Williams observes, "the life of a Bronze Age chief or a medieval samurai are not real options for us: there is no way of living them" (1985, p. 161). They are too alien to permit us to make the same judgments made between culture mavens.
In this respect, however, Williams's account, like Harman's, fails to deliver what it set out toa coherent normative relativism. For it is not clear in what sense it would not be "appropriate" to appraise these moralities as less morally enlightened than our own. If appraisals of S2 are inappropriate, then they must be inappropriate according to some S. Can S1, then, forbid appraising other Ss? It is difficult to see how it could, if, as we assume, a system of belief requires having a grip on the thinking of those within it that prevents taking an external view of it. Suppose Williams thinks that a "real option" is an option that would be as good or better from a point of view external both to S1 and S2say, the point of view of human well-being. This would be to abandon relativism. For according to the relativist, there is no S external to particular systems such as S1 or S2, a universal standard from which one could judge that appraisal is inappropriate. To measure S2 and S1 by human well-being would be to hold human well-being up as a universal standard. Alternatively, suppose Williams is thinking, like Harman, that this is a "soberly logical thesis"; it is just nonsensical to judge medieval samurai morals to be better or worse than our own. Williams himself denies this claim, saying that the vocabulary of appraisal in such cases "can no doubt be applied without linguistic impropriety" (1981, p. 141). But if he were to accept that this was a logical or linguistic impropriety, then he, like Harman, would have to explain how this could be so, given it seems intelligible enough to say that their morals were worse in many respects than our own.
With respect to some areas of thought and discourse, unbridled relativism will be less attractive than a relativism that requires certain boundaries be respected. As we have seen, it is difficult to see how tolerance about alternative standards of Fness can be maintained unless we suppose there is some viewpoint independent of these alternative standards from which to evaluate them. Many philosophers have come to the conclusion that there is such a viewpoint, although it can only be a very broad standard imposing limits on the range of acceptable standards. Some such philosophers, such as David Wong and Michael Walzer, do not shun the label "relativists," but they are perhaps better described as "pluralists." Pluralism holds that a range of different standards of Fness exists and can be tolerated, but only within limits. One sort of pluralism might be based on a kind of indeterminacy among acceptable standards: Begin with a universally valid framework for any acceptable standard, including, for instance, demands such as that any valid standard must treat like cases alike. Such a framework alone is not itself a standard for Fness and so cannot provide any kind of guidance. It is, rather, a second-order standard, or a standard for any acceptable first-order standard Fness. Suppose, further, this framework marks off a "range" property of standards, in the sense that no standard fits the framework any better than any other standard fits the framework (as when, for a given circle, no point within the circle is more within it than any other) (see Rawls, p. 508). As long as a given standard fits the framework, it is acceptable, but an indefinite number of different standards could meet it. This case offers no grounds for judging that any standard of Fness is "better" or "worse" than any other, based on the second-order framework, except to say that either a standard fits the framework or it does not. Limited tolerance, then, would amount to approving of those standards within the range that fit the framework and disapproving of those outside of that range, based on the second-order standard of acceptability provided by the framework.
A different sort of pluralism would be based simply on epistemic modesty (i.e., a justifiable reticence to assert claims that one does not know to be true). One can even combine this with parametric universalism: a single universally valid framework yields standards that deliver opposed conclusions in a given case depending on the circumstances. Modesty implies that even if there is a determinate answer to the question whether, for any given thing, it is F or not, it may not be possible to be confident enough of this in any case. Suppose, then, no one can be confident that he or she knows how that framework is to be put into practice in any particular culture or time. That is, she does not know which of the available standards that fit the framework is best given the circumstances. Then, where one is not confident, one should be tolerant.
Whether pluralism of either kind can meet the challenge of developing a coherent defense of tolerance is not clear. For one thing, pluralism based on epistemic modesty implies a kind of diffidence in the face of alternative standards that is sufficient to prevent the modest judge from condemning the alternative standards. Yet it must also leave one confident in the importance of one's own standard. Moreover, although pluralism based on indeterminacy allows one to see one's own standard as acceptable based on meeting a sort of minimum, this is hardly the sort of endorsement that can sustain its grip on us in the face of a variety of equally acceptable alternative standards.
Contextualism and Relativism in Epistemology
By far the most discussed form of relativism is ethical relativism. However, relativist issues arise quite frequently in almost every area of philosophical research. One of the most significant trends in late-twentieth-century epistemology has been the rise of views that are broadly either relativist or pluralist and are loosely collected under the banner "contextualism." Contextualists hold that the truth of sentences attributing knowledge, such as "S knows that p," like the truth of sentences attributing tallness, such as "S is tall," depends on the contexts of their use. In particular, the speaker's context determines which standards of epistemic justification are in play. Hence, A's statement "Stella knows that Stanley loves her" may be true, while B's seemingly contradictory statement "Nobody ever knows anything at all" might also be true, since their contexts of utterance might invoke quite different standards of justification. A's may be a conversational context; perhaps Stella has told A about Stanley's having confessed his feelings to her, A knows that Stella is a good judge of dissembling, and so on, so A can rule out the possibility that she is ignorant. In A's context, that possibility is not salient. B, on the other hand, has been studying Descartes and in that context the possibility that everyone is being tricked by an all-powerful evil demon is very salient. In A's context, the demon hypothesis is out of place. That "Stella knows" is true relative to one context of A's statement that she does, but not relative to B's context.
In effect, contextualism amounts to a kind of speaker relativism, in which the standards in play are determined by the person making knowledge claims. Standards are relative to contexts, and the context is set by the speaker. A certain standard is appropriate for each context. A speaker then "picks out" the relevant standard when making knowledge claims that then determine the truth conditions of the claim. However, it may be better to classify contextualism as a kind of pluralism, because any contextualist will hold that there are standards of justification no lower than which can be gone in any circumstance. For instance, there are no contexts in which simply having a belief that something is so counts as knowledge. Thus a range of standards exists, each appropriate for some context, but all are subject to a certain baseline minimum of justification.
It also seems as if contextualism could be regarded as a parametric universalist view. For instance, evidentialism is the view that S knows p only when S's belief fits the evidence. When someone says that S knows that p, the evidentialist who is a contextualist will say that this will be true only when, according to the speaker's context, there is enough evidence and the belief fits it well enough. What varies here, then, is not the standard of justification; the standard is that a justified belief must fit the evidence. It is the degree of fit that varies according to context, and that is not a matter of standards varying.
Steven Stich, however, defends an unambiguously relativist view of knowledge. In his view, it doesn't make sense to think that there are standards of rational belief formation independent of those that happen to be accepted in a given place and time. Standards of rationality in belief formation vary from locality to locality. And this, it seems, is grounds for holding there is no universal standard. But someone knows something only if her beliefs about it are rationally heldformed for good reasons. Since the standards vary, knowledge varies with it. Hence, according to the prevailing standards of rationality in one locality, a belief may be held for good reasons, while in another those selfsame reasons may not be good enough.
Stich's statement of epistemological relativism appears to conform to Harman's original model. In particular, it conforms to Harman's view that "there is no sense attached to" judging dimly the practices of someone who conforms to standards other than our own. Because of this, it also inherits the difficulty of explaining why that kind of judgment seems to make sense. There is no apparent confusion about what someone is saying when she says that those people over there have no reason to believe what they believe, even though they think they do. We may think it morally inappropriate to make such judgments, but it is not nonsensical. Indeed, we may even think our condemnation to be epistemically rash. But just as in the case of ethical relativism, if we do think it epistemically rash to condemn the epistemic practices of others, it must be based on some standard of rationality. If it is based on our own standards, however, it is not clear how we can maintain confidence in those standards when forming beliefs on their basis. If it is not based on our own standards, then we must be invoking some nonrelative standards. It seems that relativism in epistemology faces the same dilemma that ethical relativism faces.
See also Philosophy: Historical Overview and Recent Developments ; Philosophy, History of ; Philosophy, Moral: Modern ; Skepticism .
Cohen, Stewart. "How To Be a Fallibilist." Philosophical Perspectives 2 (1988): 91123.
. "Knowledge and Context." Journal of Philosophy 83 (1986): 575583.
DeRose, Keith. "Solving the Skeptical Problem." Philosophical Review 104 (1995): 152.
Lewis, David. "Elusive Knowledge." Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74 (1996): 549567.
Robert N. Johnson
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"Relativism." New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. . 20 Aug. 2017 <>.
Relativism, put very generally, states that a particular feature varies (or at least can vary) relative to certain phenomena. Prime candidates for the varying feature have been meaning, truth, rationality, justification, knowledge, value, and morality. Relativism thus arises in many areas of inquiry, and it has numerous variations within each area.
Relativism about truth states that truth varies relative to, for example, the concepts, the beliefs, the purposes, or the reasons possessed by an individual or a group. Relativists about truth thus suggest that truth is, in a sense, always truth for an individual or a group with certain concepts, beliefs, purposes, or reasons. Cultural relativism about truth, for instance, implies that truths are true for a culture (perhaps in virtue of that cultures system of concepts, or conceptual scheme) but need not therefore be true for a different culture (say, with a different conceptual scheme). Relativism about truth, then, denies that truths obtain in virtue of reality independently of an individuals or a groups concepts, beliefs, purposes, or reasons. It thus opposes certain kinds of realism, or objectivism, about truth. Relativists must be cautious, however, not to suggest that their relativism about truth is true absolutely, or nonrelatively. If, however, relativism is true relatively, and not absolutely, opponents will find room for their absolutism about truth.
Concepts, truth-bearers, and statements are perhaps relative, regarding their existence, to a natural language or some other person-dependent phenomenon. This position seems coherent at least. Even so, we cannot thereby infer that what concepts, truth-bearers, or statements are about is similarly relative to person-dependent phenomena. Referring, describing, and explaining are perhaps relative to a natural language or some other person-dependent phenomenon, but it does not follow that the things about which one says something are similarly relative. Relativists and antirealists sometimes overlook this important lesson. It calls for a plausible distinction between human semantical activity and what such activity is about (e.g., objects, properties, states, or relations).
Morality has long been a prime candidate for relativism. Moral relativism, put very broadly, states that certain moral features vary relative to certain phenomena. Such moral features can include the basic moral beliefs accepted by an individual or a group, the basic moral requirements pertaining to an individual or a group, and the correctness of moral judgments or standards. Relativism corresponding to such moral features encompasses moral-belief relativism, moral-requirement relativism, and moral-correctness relativism. Moral-belief relativism can be assessed by empirical investigation, and is much less controversial than the other two versions.
Moral-requirement relativism entails that the moral requirements binding on a person depend on, and are relative to, the persons intentions, desires, or beliefs (or those of certain people in the persons society). Moral-requirement relativism has two common forms. Individual moral-requirement relativism states that an action is morally obligatory for a person if and only if that action is prescribed by the basic moral principles accepted by that person. Social moral-requirement relativism states that an action is morally obligatory for a person if and only if that action is prescribed by the basic moral principles accepted by that persons society.
Moral-correctness relativism states that moral judgments are not objectively correct or incorrect and thus that different people or societies can hold contradictory moral judgments without any incorrectness. In other words, what is morally correct for one person or group need not be correct for another person or group. Moral-correctness relativism can be developed with various accounts of relative correctness, some of which do not imply that whatever moral judgments a person accepts are correct for that person.
Proponents of moral-correctness and moral-requirement relativism have based their case on various considerations, including moral tolerance. They sometimes stress that people should tolerate diverse moral views by allowing those views to be freely expressed. Even so, opponents of moral relativism need not disagree; they can hold that views conflicting with their own should be treated with full tolerance in terms of expression. In contrast, moral-correctness relativists cannot consistently hold that it is objectively correct that a person morally ought to be tolerant of the views of others. Such relativists, then, may face a problem of tolerance in morality.
Some moral-requirement relativists hold that a moral requirement applies to a person only if that person accepts (perhaps implicitly) the requirement as reasonable for himself or herself. This view upholds a connection between (1) what is morally required of a person and (2) what that person approves of and has a convincing reason to do. Many relativists hold that a persons moral reasons (and thus moral requirements) have their basis in that persons own psychological attitudes, such as that persons desires, intentions, or beliefs. Gilbert Harman thus proposes that for Hitler there might have been no [moral] reasons at all not to order the extermination of the Jews (1975, p. 9). The underlying relativist position is inspired by David Hume (1711-1776); it claims that desire-independent objective principles of morality are inadequate as a source of moral reasons and that certain psychological attitudes (e.g., intentions) of a person are central to any source of moral reasons for that person. The opposite view is inspired by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804); it implies that desire-independent moral principles themselves can supply compelling moral reasons and requirements.
Is a person subject to a moral requirement only if that person has a psychological attitude, such as an intention, that recommends the satisfaction of that requirement? We can evidently be subject to a moral requirement in two ways: (1) as a motivating principle and (2) as a rightnessdetermining principle. A moral requirement is a motivating principle for me if and only if I have, on the basis of my psychological attitudes, an inclination to satisfy that principle. In contrast, a moral requirement is a rightness-determining principle for me if and only if that principle determines whether an action I might perform is morally right. The first concerns motivation for a person; the second concerns moral rightness of an action for a person.
Relativism about the motivational efficacy of moral requirements does not entail relativism about the rightness-determining relevance of moral requirements. A persons motivating psychological attitudes are not automatically morally obligatory or even morally permissible. For instance, Adolf Hitlers psychological attitudes motivated him to wipe out millions of innocent Jewish people. Obviously, however, Hitler morally should have renounced those evil attitudes, given their role in bringing unjust harm to others.
According to a plausible nonrelativist view, the moral rightness of an action is determined by the actions consistency with what is prescribed by the set of correct moral principles. Of course, we cannot quickly or easily specify the exact conditions for a moral principles belonging to the set of correct moral principles. The task is difficult. Even so, we need not finish that demanding task to recognize that a rightness-determining moral principle for a person does not depend on that persons intending to satisfy that principle. A moral principle can be rightness-determining for me even if I intend not to act in accordance with it. Morality, as ordinarily understood, is intention-independent in this respect.
Some relativists will reply that there is no such thing as a correct moral principle in the sense suggested. These relativists, however, will need to identify the defect in the view that moral principles are correct in the sense suggested. In particular, they will need to show why we should not hold on to a robust notion of moral correctness. They must also specify, in this connection, the sense of should in the previous sentence in a way that fits with relativism. In response, nonrelativists will then be able to consider whether the resulting relativism is true for them. If it is not, they may proceed with their non-relativism.
A general lesson emerges. Relativists must avoid a self-referential problem in their needed relativist notion of correctness: the problem that their notion of correctness either assumes nonrelativism about correctness or fails to challenge nonrelativism about correctness in virtue of allowing for absolutism about correctness. This is no easy task for relativists about correctness.
SEE ALSO Cultural Relativism; Fundamentalism
Harman, Gilbert. 1975. Moral Relativism Defended. Philosophical Review 84: 3-22.
Krausz, Michael, ed. 1989. Relativism: Interpretation and Confrontation. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Moser, Paul K. 1993. Philosophy after Objectivity: Making Sense in Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.
Moser, Paul K., and Thomas L. Carson, eds. 2001. Moral Relativism: A Reader. New York: Oxford University Press.
Paul K. Moser
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relativism The word relativism is used loosely to describe intellectual positions which reject absolute or universal standards or criteria. Thus, epistemological relativism is the view that there are no universal criteria of knowledge or truth. What counts as true is a function of criteria which are internal and so relative to local cultures, historical periods, or socio-political interests (the scientific community, the ruling class, revolutionary proletariat, and so forth). The critiques of positivism which were influential in the 1960s and 1970s often (mistakenly) advocated some form of relativism as the only alternative. The subsequent work of Michel Foucault, linking ‘regimes of truth’ with power relations, added to the currency of relativist perspectives in sociology and related disciplines. Moral relativism, likewise, is the view that there are no objective moral standards. This view, like epistemological relativism, has become especially influential through the popularization of the work of the German philosopher Nietzsche by Foucault and others. Though often welcomed by sociologists in a spirit of tolerance and respect for cross-cultural difference, it is often forgotten that these views have strong historical links with political irrationalism, and (in particular) with European Nazism. It should be remembered that, from the standpoint of a thoroughgoing moral relativism, the values of respect and tolerance themselves have no general validity, but are mere peculiarities of particular, localized moral traditions (for example liberalism).
One of the most forceful statements of a thoroughgoing relativism can be found in the works of Paul Feyerabend. In a series of controversial polemics against scientific objectivity, method, and rationality, Feyerabend refers to himself as a ‘flippant Dadaist’. In Against Method (1975) he uses historical studies of scientific change (as had Thomas Kuhn) to show that for each proclaimed methodological principle of science, an at least equally good case could be made for adopting its opposite. The purpose of the argument was to weaken faith in method as such. The only principle Feyerabend was prepared to support was, famously, ‘anything goes’. In subsequent writings (such as Science in a Free Society, 1978, and Farewell to Reason, 1987), Feyerabend has made clearer the moral and emotional basis of his relativism. He sees a world increasingly dominated by a Western industrial-scientific way of life, which eliminates cultural diversity, destroys the environment, and impoverishes life. The key culprits in this scenario are science and its associated claims to objectivity and reason. This trio are so corrupted by their incorporation into global monotonization that they should be abandoned in favour of a free-for-all in which magic, witchcraft, traditional medicine, and other alternatives have equal access to power and resources.
Against Feyerabend it has been argued that misuse of science by powerful interests is not a sufficient reason for abandoning all the actual or possible benefits which might flow from its detachment from those interests. It might also be argued that the abandonment of reason has been historically no less destructive than its misuse. See also CULTURAL RELATIVISM; METHODOLOGICAL PLURALISM; PARADIGM; POST-MODERNISM.
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rel·a·tiv·ism / ˈrelətəˌvizəm/ • n. the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute. DERIVATIVES: rel·a·tiv·ist n.
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August 20, 2017
Urmia, the City on the Edge of Empires (Orumiyeh, Iran)
One upon a time not too long ago there was a splendid little city called Urmia in what is now Iranian Azerbaijan. Though its precise origins aren’t known, the city was occupied and thrived under a people known as the Urartu. Being a place where the Anatolian highlands meet with Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau, the Urartians and their prosperous kingdom were sitting on a very strategic junction of cultures, trade and ideas. Due to this, city and the areas surrounding it were coveted and conquered by various warlords, kingdoms and empires. Uremia’s location also brought it traders, artisans and even refugees who couldn’t find sanctuary elsewhere. Many of the people who came to Urmia stayed behind and formed their own communities while mixing with those which were already established, thus creating the diversity that Urmia has been known for through most of its existence. Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Armenians, Assyrians, Persians, Kurds, Turks and several other religious and ethnic groups at one time or another all called Urmia their home.
History of Urmia
As mentioned above, the city of Urmia (many today spell it Urumiyeh or Orumiyeh) had its origins in the remote past. Archaeological evidence indicates that an urban site existed here at least 4000 years and was within the realm of the ancient kingdom of Urartu. Living in such a volatile region, the Urartians were under constant attack from their neighbors, especially the Assyrians and later the Cimmerians. Weakened by the constant fighting, the state of Urartu eventually went into decline until it was finally overtaken by the Medes in the years between 610 and 590 BCE. From that point onward, the independent political entity known as Urartu disappeared from the historical record.
Since Urartu’s demise, Urmia has been ruled by several dynasties and peoples, most notably the Persians, Greeks and Macedonians, Romans, Armenians, Arabs and successive Turkic dynasties until it came under Persian rule once again in the 16th century under the Safavids. Since then it has more or less remained as part of Iran.
For over a thousand years, Urmia was a religiously and ethnically diverse melting pot of various peoples. There were several Christian denominations with members in the tens of thousands that once lived in the area including Armenian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Nestorian and Russian Orthodox churches. There was also a Zoroastrian and a large Jewish community that numbered in the thousands, although most of these have left.
For the most part, all of these peoples lived peacefully among the Muslim population (mostly ethnic Azeris) until about the later part of the 19th century. It was around this time that foreign Christian missionaries (probably thinking that a city with a large Christian population would make an ideal base for converting the people of the region) began coming to Urmia in swarms. This ultimately caused problems for the local, indigenous Christians of Urmia. The missionaries, who were mostly from Protestant and Catholic churches, created resentment among the majority Muslim population for their proselytizing activities, and this ultimately created disdain for other Christian groups as well.
However, religion was not the only issue. Just next door, the Ottoman Empire was collapsing. This prompted many minorities and political groups within the crumbling empire to try their luck at achieving greater autonomy from the state, if not outright independence. Many in the Ottoman government saw the large Armenian population within their borders as a western fifth column that had to be dealt with. Thus, they drove hundreds of thousands of them into the harsh mountains of western Anatolia to die in what has commonly become known as the Armenian genocide. Many Armenians and other Christians found refuge in Urmia among the already established Christian communities there.
Assyrian Christian community in Urmia, Iran – date of photo or original source unknown
The problem though was that this part of the Iranian frontier was also not completely stable. WHEN World War I came to the region, Urmia changed hands several times between Russian, Iranian and Kurdish forces. The influx of Christian refugees from Anatolia only exacerbated the situation, especially because they were seen as natural allies of the Russians. Things came to a head when in February of 1918, Muslim residents of Urmia attacked the Christian quarter of the city. The Christians, especially the Assyrians who were well armed, counterattacked and took over the city until June of that year when they were defeated by a Turkish army and their Kurdish nationalist allies under Simko Shikak. Shikak had the Assyrian Church’s Patriarch, Shimun XXI Benyamin, assassinated and led his men in the massacre of thousands of Christians, also mostly Assyrians. He and his militia ended up ruling much of the area until 1922 when the Iranian army defeated his forces and he fled to Turkey. He was assassinated on June 30th, 1930 in an ambush by Iranian agents of the new king (Shah), Reza Pahlavi. The Shah encouraged the Christian population to return, a few of which ultimately did. Today though the Christian population in Urmia, once in the tens of thousands, is currently believed to be under five thousand souls.
Assyrian Christian community in Iran
Interestingly enough, the city’s name changed to Rezaiyeh in honor of the Shah. Whether it was the population of the city who bestowed this name or the Shah himself is not for certain. Regardless, the name was changed back to Urmia (or Orumiyeh) after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Today, Urmia is the 10th largest city in Iran. Its population is mostly Shia Muslim.
What’s in Urmia, Iran
Urmia (Orumiyeh) – Photo by Parviz “PAYA” on panoramio.com
The attractions of Urmia can be seen in less than a day, the more interesting of these being:
Seh Gonbad
This is a nine meter, 12th-century Seljuk burial tower that is believed to have been built atop the ruins of a Zoroastrian fire temple. It’s an interesting structure with a small park surrounding it.
St. Mary’s Church
According to legend, this church was believed to have been founded by St. Thomas on the burial site of the three Magi, the three “Kings” (actually Zoroastrian priests) who visited and brought gifts for the baby Jesus in the famous gospel story. If this story is true, that makes it one of the oldest functioning churches in the world.
Orumiyeh Museum
The is a small but very good museum that houses many ancient artifacts including pottery, cuneiform tablets and various objects crafted out of gold.
Masjid-i Jameh (Friday mosque)
This is the main mosque in Urmia and was allegedly built over an old Zoroastrian fire temple. The two most striking features of the current structure are its dome and beautifully-decorated Seljuk-era mihrab (object that indicates the direction to the Muslim holy city of Mecca).
More Information and Interesting Links
Map of Assyrian Villages in Urmia, Iran
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Buzz Aldrin’s plan for Mars
Buzz Aldrin has a plan to go to Mars.
Establishing private outposts in LEO [Low Earth Orbit] is just the first step in Aldrin’s plan for Mars colonization, which depends heavily on “cyclers” — spacecraft that move continuously between two cosmic destinations, efficiently delivering people and cargo back and forth…
Step two involves the international spaceflight community coming together to build cyclers that ply cislunar space, taking people on trips to the moon and back. Such spacecraft, and the activities they enable, would allow the construction of a crewed lunar base, where humanity could learn and test the techniques required for Mars colonization, such as how to manufacture propellant from local resources, Aldrin said…
Aldrin foresees these various cycler iterations enabling a crewed mission to a near-Earth asteroid by 2020 and a Venus flyby by 2024. If all goes well, the first future Mars settlers could launch in the early 2030s, he said.
So a sustainable Mars colony could be not an ambitious goal for the next 100 years, as Stephen Hawking just suggested, but 20 years or so out.
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While Florida is the capital of roadside attractions, Georgia is proving formidable in its own right. A short day trip to St. Mary’s mined not just the submarine museum but also the sail of a submarine itself (at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay) and the ruins of a sugar/starch mill, all on the same road.
The tabby ruins are set back a bit in the woods, as is a commemorative plaque that reads:
These are the ruins of a tabby sugar works built by John Houston McIntosh at New Canaan Plantation soon after 1825. In his sugar house McIntosh installed what was, according to Thomas Spalding, the first horizontal cane mill worked by cattle power.
McIntosh, born in 1773 in what is now McIntosh County (Georgia), settled in East Florida as a young man and became the leader of a group of American citizens who, during the War of 1812, plotted the annexation of East Florida to the United States. This plot crushed by the Spanish government, McIntosh removed to Georgia and acquired two plantations in Camden County, Marianna, where he built a home, and New Canaan, where he began the cultivation of sugar cane under the influence of Thomas Spalding, who had experimented in sugar production and seen the use of steam-propelled horizontal cane mills in Louisiana.
After McIntosh’s death in 1836, New Canaan was sold to one Col. Hallowes, who changed the name of the plantation to Bollingbrook and lived there until after the Civil War. During the war, Hallowes planted cane and made sugar in the McIntosh sugar house. He also used the tabby sugar works as a starch factory, producing arrowroot starch in large quantities.
A few hundred yards down the road is the sail of the submarine USS George Bancroft (SSBN-643) at the main gate of the entrance to the base. This is a ballistic missile submarine launched in 1965 and decommissioned in 1993.
As exciting as these finds are–and believe me, a submarine sail is a huge roadside score–even they pale in comparison to what we found in St. Mary’s, which will be subject of tomorrow’s post.
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Getting the Buggers to respond: The complexities of feedback and what we can learn from Mr Miyagi.
Teaching is a frustrating business, and perhaps there is nothing more frustrating than marking. Firstly because you see where students have misunderstood your teaching, secondly you spot silly mistakes and finally after writing what you think is clear and accurate feedback the buggers don’t respond! or they respond with ridiculously frustrating but well intentioned comments such as “thank you for your comments I will try harder” or even when you have spent DIRT (Dedicated Improvement and reflection time) they seem to have only mimicked your comments by saying ” I shall make sure that I include more wow words in my writing” which is not your intention when you wrote ” Use some of the wow words we have explored in order to create interest” especially when you see in their next redraft that they have indeed used more wow words… badly. Indeed getting the buggers to respond well (if at all in some cases) is frustrating.
But there is often as reason that students respond badly to feedback, and there are things which we can do about it.
Feedback is complex and knowing this will help.
Feedback is complex. Students respond in a number of ways depending on their perception of their own ability, you and the task. Not to mention the time of day or the mood of the teenager reading your comments.
It often seems that the word “Feedback” has become more used in schools than “Student” “Teaching” or “lesson”, and perhaps for a very good reason. If feedback is done correctly it can dramatically increase achievement, in fact in terms of effect size it is at the top the league table of things you can do.
It is no surprise then that schools have often taken the approach that more feedback is desirable. But just doing more of something does not mean that you will getting better results, feedback is no different. In fact the complexities around the impact of feedback on learning are well, complex. Very complex. Consider the table below:
Of the eight ways that student can respond to feedback only two (italics) are desirable. The others are results at best with no improvement or at worse a lowering of learning. All feedback that is given should come with a cautionary note “This may or may not improve learning” the Growth Mindset ideas that are based upon Carol Dwecks work came out of extensive research spanning 30 years into how students make sense of their successes and failures resulting in the promotion of a growth mindset which would combat the problems in the table.
Clearly the problems of feedback are a concern for teachers “marking” books. Investing time in reading and then giving students feedback is only beneficial if students use the feedback to improve their understanding. The comment(s) that a teachers make on a students work is crucial for all the reasons in the table. In addition if a teacher has spent a substantial amount of time marking a set of books and students do not respond appropriately the opportunity cost of that time is huge; the teacher would have been better off spending that time planning resources.
In addition to the problems of feedback in the table above student often don’t respond to feedback well because:
1. The Feedback given is accurate but not helpful
2. Mistakes are treated the same as errors (and how do you know which one is which)
3. Students are not given enough time or instruction to respond.
Feedback is often very accurate, but of no help to the student. For example an accurate piece of feedback on a science assignment might be “You need to be more systematic in planning your experiment” if the student doesn’t know what systematic means then or where to be more systematic the feedback is next to useless. (Example taken from Dylan Wiliam: Embedded Formative Assessment) Students will then often just mimic what the teacher says with no clue of what that means.
Another problem with written feedback in particular is that often comments are based around mistakes and not errors. A mistake is something that the student knows but has just not included ( or has run out of time to include) so for example explaining a final cause of world war two. If the teachers feedback is that they need to include this then the student may reject the feedback as they already know the answer but just couldn’t do it in the time frame. Knowing if the student has made a mistake or has genuinely not understood something and has made an error effects the feedback that should be given and how that feedback is received. This is sometimes easy to see, but sometimes is not. Be aware of it.
Linking both of these problems is that students are often not given enough support to respond and correct their errors. Feedback is only useful if it changes the actions and understanding of the student. Any feedback given will invariably need explanation and re-teaching.
Feedback and particularly written feedback is complex. There are a few things though that can make marking more effective. Mr Miyagi can be a source of help (weirdly) and guidance
The Mr Miyagi’s approach to feedback.
For those of a certain vintage the Karate Kid would have featured as part of their teenage pop culture. The wise old man Mr Miyagi teachers wimpy bullied kid Daniel Larusso in the art of karate. Mr Miyagi is so effective in his teaching that Daniel is able to win a State level championship in a matter of months. What is Mr Miyagi’s secret? Well in the scene below it appears to be two things:
Firstly the student Daniel has had to practice constituent parts of a skill to the point of being achingly and frustratingly bored (wax on wax off) by painting Mr Miyagi’s house, cleaning his car, creosoting the fence etc.
Secondly Mr Miyagi gives Daniel very precise feedback by showing him the correct way when he gets it wrong – by modelling for example “sanding the floor” “Wax on Wax off” etc.
What lessons can we take from this about written feedback, and how to get the buggers to respond?
1. Firstly written feedback should be given once students have completed enough learning for it to be meaningful. Feedback can hinder learning if it is given too soon in the learning process. Perhaps consider marking second drafts as opposed to first drafts. Let students struggle and get frustrated before jumping in with feedback.
2. Comments should be specific, accurate and helpful. Mr Miyagi could have said to Daniel “You need too improve the way you wax on wax off” that would not have been helpful but it would have been accurate and specific. The feedback was only helpful because Mr Miyagi showed Daniel how to do it. So in written feedback give examples of what you mean.
3. DIRT time is only useful if students are retaught or instructed how to improve. Imagine Mr Miyagi had not instructed Daniel but had instead posed a series of questions, would it have worked as effectively as instruction – with examples?. Use exemplars in feedback just like Mr Miyagi did.
In essence Feedback is only as good as the action it creates. The reason the “Buggers” aren’t responding is because they are not been given the framework, the time, the skills or the teaching to effectively engage in that feedback. Find ways to navigate around this complex and subtle part of teaching and learning.
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Quoted from The Hundred-Year Lie:
• When you read “made with natural flavors” on a food label, you are probably being deceived, because natural flavors and artificial flavors usually contain the same synthetic chemicals.
• Many of our commercial dairy and meat products come from animals that consumed livestock feed made from remains of tens of millions of dogs and cats that were killed with euthanasia drugs at animal shelters and veterinary clinics.
• Medical evidence is emerging that suggests that artificial sweeteners in diet soft drinks may cause brain tumors and neurological diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The occurrence of these diseases has risen dramatically, in proportion with the expanded use of those artificial sweeteners.
• At least 70 percent of the processed foods in your local grocery store contain at least one genetically engineered ingredient that has never been tested for its potential harm.
• More than three thousand synthetic chemicals are regularly added to U.S. food products, and hardly any have been tested for their synergistic (interactive) toxin-producing effects in the human body.
• Most vitamins and supplements sold in the United States that are advertised as natural are actually synthetic chemical concoctions that contain coal tar, preservatives, artificial colorings, and a vast range of other potentially harmful additives.
• More than twenty-five thousand chemicals are in the cosmetics sold in the United States, yet less than 4 percent of these ingredients have ever been tested for toxicity and safety.
• Within the nine or so vaccines given to your children before they enter school are additives and preservatives, including mercury, aluminum, MSG, formaldehyde, and others linked to disorders ranging from brain and nerve damage to autism and attention deficit disorder.
Randall Fitzgerald, The Hundred-Year Lie, pg. 7-8
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From Many Worlds: “Getting Real About the Oxygen Biosignature”
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Many Worlds
Marc Kaufman
An image of Cyanobacteria, Tolypothrix.
Date 22 January 2013
Author Matthewjparker
Oxygen bonds quickly with many other molecules. That means has to be resupplied regularly to be present as O2 in an atmosphere . On Earth, O2 is mostly a product of biology, but elsewhere it might be result of non-biological processes. Here is an image of oxygen bubbles in water.
The lengthy paper (originally planned for 6 pages but ultimately 34 pages because research from so many disciplines was coming in) was published last month in the journal Astrobiology. It seeks to both warn researchers about the possibilities of biosignature false-positives based on oxygen detection, and then it assures them that there are ways around the obstacles.
“There was this view in the community that oxygen could only be formed by photosynthesis, and that no other process could make O2,” Meadows told me. “It was a little simplistic. We now see the rich complexity of what we are looking at, and are thinking about the evolutionary paths of these planets.
Artist’s impression of the exoplanet GJ 1132 b, which orbits the red dwarf star GJ 1132. Earlier this year, astronomers managed to detect the atmosphere of this Earth-sized planet and have determined that water and methane are likely prevalent in the atmosphere. (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy)
“What I see is a maturing of the field. We have models that show plausible ways for oxygen to be produced without biology, but that doesn’t mean that oxygen is no longer an important biosignature.
“It is very important. But it has to be seen and understood in the larger context of what else is happening on the planet and its host star.”
Before moving forward, perhaps we should look back a bit at the history of oxygen on Earth.
For substantial parts of our planet’s history there was only minimal oxygen in the atmosphere, and life survived in an anaerobic environment. When exactly oxygen went from a small percentage of the atmosphere to 21 percent of the atmosphere is contested, but there is broader agreement about the source of the O2 in the atmosphere. The source was photosynthesis, most importantly coming from cyanobacteria in the oceans.
As far back as four billion years ago, photosynthesis occurred on Earth based on the capturing of the energy of near infrared light by sulfur-rich organisms, but it did not involve the release of oxygen as a byproduct.
A chart showing the percentage rise in oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere over the past 3.8 billion years. The great oxidation event occurred some 2.3 billion years ago, but it took more than a billion additional years for the build-up to have much effect on the composition of the planet’s atmosphere.
Then came the the rise of cyanobacteria in the ocean and their production of oxygen. With their significantly expanded ability to use photosynthesis, this bacterium was able to generate up to 16 times more energy than its counterparts, which allowed it to out-compete and explode in reproduction.
It took hundreds of millions of years more, but that steady increase in the cyanobacteria population led to what is called the “Great Oxidation Event” of some 2.3 billion years ago, when oxygen levels began to really climb in Earth’s atmosphere. They did level off and remained well below current levels for another billion years, but then shot up in the past billion years.
As Meadows (and others) point out, this means that life existed on Earth for at least two billion years years without producing a detectable oxygen biosignature. It’s perhaps the ultimate false negative.
But as biosignatures go, oxygen offers a lot. Because it bonds so readily with other elements and compounds, it remains unbonded or “free” O2 only if it is being constantly produced. On Earth, the mode of production is overwhelmingly photosynthesis and biology. What’s more, phototrophs — organism that manufacture their own food from inorganic substances using light for energy — often produce reflections and seasonally dependent biosignatures that can serve as secondary confirmations of biology as the source for abundant O2 in an atmosphere.
So in a general way, it makes perfect sense to think that O2 in the atmosphere of an exoplanet would signify the presence of photosynthesis and life.
The problem arises because other worlds out there orbiting stars very different than our own can have quite different chemical and physical dynamics and evolutionary histories, with results at odds with our world.
For instance, when it comes to the non-biological production of substantial amounts of oxygen that could collect in the atmosphere, the dynamics involved could include the following:
Perhaps the trickiest false positive involves the possible non-biological release of O2 via the photolysis of water — the breaking apart of H2O molecules by light. On Earth, the water vapor in the atmosphere condenses into liquids after reaching a certain height and related temperature, and ultimately falls back down to the surface. How and why that happens is related to the presence of large amounts of nitrogen in our atmosphere.
But what if an exoplanet atmosphere doesn’t have a lot of an element like nitrogen that allows the water to condense? Then the water would rise into the stratosphere, where it would be subject to intense UV light,. The molecule would be split, and an H atom would fly off into space — leaving behind large amounts of oxygen that had nothing to do with life. This conclusion was reached by Robin Wordsworth and Raymond Pierrehumbert of the University of Chicago and was published by the The Astrophysical Journal.
Another recently proposed mechanism to generate high levels of abiotic oxygen, first described by Rodrigo Luger and Rory Barnes of Meadow’s VPL team, focuses on the effects of the super-luminous phase of young stars on any rocky planets that might be orbiting them.
Small-mass M dwarfs in particular can burn much brighter when they are young, exposing potential planets around those stars to very high levels of radiation for as long as one billion years.
Modeling suggests that during this super-luminous phase a terrestrial planet that forms within what will become the main sequence habitable zone around an M dwarf star may lose up to several Earth ocean equivalents of water due to evaporation and hydrodynamic escape, and this can lead to generation of large amounts of abiotic O2 via the same H2O photolysis process.
Non-biological oxygen can also build up on an exoplanet, according to a number of researchers, if the host star sends out a higher proportion of far ultraviolet light than near ultraviolet. The dynamics of photo-chemistry are such, they argue, that the excess far ultraviolet radiation would split CO2 to an extent that O2 would build up in the atmosphere.
There are other potential scenarios that would produce an oxygen false positive, and almost all of them involve radiation from the host star driving chemistry in the planet’s atmosphere, with the planetary environment then allowing O2 to build up. While some of these false positive mechanisms can produce enough oxygen to make a big impact on their planets, some may not produce enough to even be seen by telescopes currently being planned.
As Meadows tells it, it was Shawn Domagal-Goldman of NASA Goddard and VPL who first brought the issue of oxygen false-positives to her attention. It was back in 2010 after he found an anomaly in his photo-chemical code results regarding atmospheric oxygen and exoplanets, and followed it. Since that initial finding, several other VPL researchers discovered new ways to produce O2 without life, and often while undertaking research focused on a different scientific goal.
Six years later, when she was writing up a VPL annual report, it jumped out that the group (and others) had found quite a few potential oxygen false positives — a significant development in the field of biosignature detection and interpretation. That’s when she decided that an analysis and summary of the findings would be useful and important for the exoplanet community. “Never let it be said that administrative tasks can’t lead to inspiration!” she wrote to me.
While Meadows does not downplay the new challenges to defining oxygen and ozone as credible biosignatures, she does say that these new understandings can be worked around.
Some of that involves targeting planets and stars for observation that don’t have the characteristics known to produce abiotic oxygen. Some involves finding signatures of this abiotic oxygen that can be identified and then used to discard potential false positives. And perhaps most telling, the detection of methane alongside free oxygen in an exoplanet atmosphere would be considered a powerful signature of life.
The official goal of Meadows’ VPL is to wrestle with this question: “How would we determine if an extrasolar planet were able to support life or had life on it already?”
This has led her to a highly interdisciplinary approach, bringing together fifty researchers from twenty institutions. In addition to its leading role in the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the VPL is also part of a broad NASA initiative to bring together scientists from different locales and disciplines to work on issues and problems of exoplanet research — the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, or NExSS.
Given this background and these approaches, it is hardly surprising that Meadows would be among the first to see the oxygen-false positive issue in both scientific and collective terms.
“I wanted the community to have some place to go to when thinking about O2 false positives,” she said. “We’re learning now about the complexity and richness of exoplanets, and this is essential for preparing to do the best job possible {in terms of looking for signs of life on exoplanets} when we get better and better observations to work with.”
“This story needed to be told now. Forewarned is forearmed.”
See the full article here .
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About Many Worlds
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Algebra 2
posted by .
I need help with this problem,
(3-x)/-4 = (x+6)/3
Thanks! I've tried it myself several times and I keep getting stuck.
multiply both sides of the equation by -12
add 4x to each side, subtract 9 from each side.
I don't really see how that works.
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89. Solve for x in the equation: 6/7x - 6 = -2 I posted this before, and this is the reply I got from someone: multiply both sides by 7 6x-42=-14 add 42 to each side 6x=28 x=14/3 But I don't get how this is done because to eliminate …
I believe this answer to be correct. Just need to know. -13<= 4x-2<=-1; First equation:-13<=4x-2: ADD 2 TO BOTH SIDES; -13+2<=4X-2+2; -11<=4X; DIVIDE BOTH SIDES BY 4; X|-11/4<=X; Second Equation: 4x-2<=-1 ADD 2 …
9. Math
Emmy is 12. She writes an equation to find her mother's age, m. m - 12 + 35 What operation solves the equation for m?
10. Algebra
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math help
posted by .
This problem is a little different Simplify:
^5 sqrt symbol(x^7 y^4)
How would I solve this problem?
• math help -
Is it supposed to be 5 square root of (x ^7 and y^4)?
It should be 5 then you expand everything in the sqroot to be (x x x x x x x y y y y)
Then take out for every two of each letter, make it one whole one..... so you get
5 x^3 y^2 squareroot (x)
I think that's what it means....Hope it helps!
• math help -
On the paper the 5 is a small five and over the sqrt root symbol and inside the square root is x^7 and y^4
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1. math
how would you solve for y in this problem: x=(y^2+3y)^(1/3) would it equal: y= x^3/y - 3 ?
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how would you simplify this equation: y = (x+3)/[(4-sqrt(16+h))] please help me! you have three variables. I am not certain "simplify" is an appropriate term here. ohhhh it was my mistake. I meant: y = h/[(4-sqrt(16+h))] y = h/[(4-sqrt(16+h))] …
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solve 2x^2+3x+8=0 and express the solutions in a+bi form. Let's use the quadratic formula to solve for x and express those solutions in a+bi form. x = [-b + or - sqrt(b^2 - 4ac)]/2a Note: sqrt = square root. a = 2, b = 3, and c = 8 …
4. algebra,math,help
Use Property 2 to simplify each of the following radical expressions. sqrt (10)/ sqrt(49) My answer: sqrt (10) / (7) THis next one i need help: Use the properties for radicals to simplify each of the following expressions. Assume that …
5. math,correction
6. Algebra 2: Radicals URGENT!!
Could some kind, saintly soul help me solve this problem?
7. Math/Calculus
8. math
9. algebra
simplify: square root of 5 + square root of 20 - square root of 27 + square root of 147. simplify: 6/4square root of 2 sqrt 5 + sqrt 20 - sqrt 27 + sqrt 147 = sqrt 5 + sqrt (4*5) - sqrt (3*9) + sqrt (49*3) = 3 sqrt 5 - 3 sqrt 3 + 7 …
10. Math
Simplify ^3 sqrt symbol 4x ^3 sqrt symbol 6y Would I combine the 4x and the 6y?
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Are You And Your Business Ready for IPv6?
UKFast IPv6 rolloutIf your business relies on the internet then you need to ensure you’re prepared for the move to the new IP address protocol, better known as IPv6. Don’t worry, at UKFast we have got it covered and have pulled together a few commonly asked questions to help you understand what IPv6 means for you and your business.
So, what is it and what do you need to do? Let’s start with some basics.
What is an IP address?
An IP address, or internet protocol address to give it its technical name, is what computers, networks and other devices use to communicate over the internet. Now, if you found yourself lost at the word protocol then don’t panic, this brief guide has been compiled to help you understand a little more about the forthcoming changes and how they affect you.
The current IP addresses that are assigned to practically every device that can access the internet – computers, smartphones, cameras – currently follow what is known as the IPv4 naming scheme, which was developed in 1977. You have probably seen an example of IPv4 and not even know what it was; it looks something like this This is an IP address.
What is IPv6?
Simply put, IPv6 is the latest version of IP address that is being adopted by the internet. In really simple terms, it means that the internet is expanding its address directory to allow more devices, such as smart phones, tablets and even cars, to connect.
Why do we need a new version, what is wrong with the old one?
The current version of IP address being used today hasn’t been changed since 1981. This version IPv4 currently has an address capability of 4.3 billion addresses, although that sounds a lot, the internet has expanded rapidly and 4.3 billion just isn’t enough. In other words, we are running out of space…
Prior to the 1990s, consumers and internet users accessed the internet through dial-up modems, remember them? However, with the rapid growth and use of ‘always-on’ connections like broadband, address consumption has increased beyond anyone’s imagination. On top of this, the expansion of mobile and tablet devices has added to the quick depletion of any remaining IP addresses. This is where IPv6 comes in.
Who created IPv6?
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) created IPv6. The IETF is a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors and researchers all tasked with the evolution of the internet architecture and the smooth operation of the internet. Its goal is to make the web work better for all of us.
Will IPv6 addresses run out eventually?
No. An enormous amount of IP address space exists under the new protocol – there are 340 undecillion (that’s 340 trillion trillion trillion) addresses available with IPv6. This addressing capacity will enable the trillions of new addresses needed to support connectivity for a huge range of devices such as phones and tablets, household appliances and even vehicles.
Is there an IPv5?
Good question. IPv5, also called the Internet Stream Protocol, was developed in the 1980s as an experiment. It was created to transmit audio, video, and simulations over the internet. While it did gain some popularity with large corporations it was never used as an official protocol like IPv6 is being used. In its original form, IPv5 was never really widely distributed. It was, however, adapted and developed into what’s now known as ST2. But thats another story.
What is UKFast doing about it?
What do I need to do now?
You need to begin by evaluating and assessing your needs to be able to start building up an IPv6 readiness plan. Here are a few pointers to get you started:
• Construct a list of vendor dependencies for your computing environments and confirm that they’re IPv6-ready.
• Review the software applications on your websites for IPv6 compatibility and adjust them as needed.
• After you do this, you can start building a list of required actions and scheduling time for the tasks you’ll need to perform to get IPv6-ready.Please get in touch with your account manager if you have any questions about these changes.
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(redirected from Production function)
the creation or bringing forth of something.
n the amount of work that can be accomplished in a specific length of time.
1. the act of producing.
2. the total of things produced.
animal production
production diseases
diseases caused by systems of management, especially feeding and the breeding of high-producing strains of animals and birds, in which production exceeds dietary and thermal input. Includes the group of diseases known in veterinary literature as 'metabolic diseases'. They differ from nutritional deficiencies in which it is the nutritional supply which falls short of normal production.
production efficiency
the efficiency of conversion of feedstuffs to animal product. The basis of the cost-efficiency of any animal production undertaking.
production function
the relationship between the input of a single variable and the output of the product.
production indices
specific indices such as live pigs produced per sow per year, intercalving interval, rate of gain of body weight per day in beef cattle, used as benchmarks of productivity.
production ketosis
ketosis (acetonemia) as a production disease, one which is produced by animal management; failure of the dietary input to satisfy the demands of the energy output in milk.
production losses
product which is produced but not harvested or sold, e.g. mastitic milk from cows with mastitis.
production medicine
see production diseases (above).
production program
a schedule of activities relating to feeding, breeding and health maintenance aimed at maximizing the profitability of an animal enterprise. Includes the establishment of targets of production in the areas of specific indices of productivity and the monitoring of production. The programs may be computerized so that the entry of data is simplified and analysis of the data automatic and regularly periodic. The establishment of programs and their maintenance by way of modification of practices and strategies to match changes of production efficiency require the participation of species specialists. See also management factors.
Patient discussion about production
A. You may find it all here:
Q. are colon cleansing products safe and are they beneficial?
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References in periodicals archive ?
In this study, the final and implicit form of the production function used for the steel plant is as below:
The estimates of production function parameters and inefficiency estimates are biased in the models without inefficiency bound if the bound is finite.
On the national level, the production function with electricity is E-GDP function as shown below:
By imposing constant returns to scale, the restricted Cobb-Douglas production function is
Then we prove that if a quasi-sum production function satisfies the constant elasticity of substitution property, then its graph has vanishing Gauss-Kronecker curvature (or its graph is a flat space) if and only if the production function is either a linearly homogeneous generalized ACMS function or a linearly homogeneous generalized Cobb-Douglas function.
The results of the OLS estimates of the Cobb-Douglas production function are in Table 3.
We assume a priori that aggregate production in Finland can be represented by the standard Cobb-Douglas production function with constant efficiency levels.
The economy-theoretical vision of the production function applied to education requires modifications, because in education one acts with human beings in contrast to the economy perspective, that uses other inputs.
Newer developments also consider to vary technical variables of the technology and to verify their effects to GUTENBERGS production function (Sonntag, 2004).
In an ambitious analysis, they embed a production function definition of potential output within a large-scale dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model and calibrate separate versions of the model to U.
Examples include considering raw materials (Stier and Bengston 1992) and constant elasticity of substitution production function with two factors of labor and capital (Monroney 1968; Greber and White 1982; Stier 1982, 1983).
The production function pre-supposes technical efficiency, whereby maximum output is obtained from a given level of inputs combination; hence it is a factor-product relationship.
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The Right Way to Compare Energy Prices
Since a lot of people today are constantly looking for ways on how they can save money in every possible way they can, saving on electricity costs is one of their primary concerns. People have come to realize that they are able to achieve this aim by learning how to compare energy prices. Although the idea may not appeal to some due to their hectic schedules, lack of time and many other reasons, there are numerous aids that can be used in order to achieve this aim. The information highway also known as the internet is the best place where people can get the information that they need. In these websites, you can find many charts and computations that help make the procedure become a lot easier.
Once you have already gained access to these websites, make sure to hold a calculator in your hand just in case there are computations that you need to make. Start browsing through websites to help you find out what fuel type is the least expensive one. What’s good about these websites is that they enable their visitors to know the unit cost of fuel in their location. Since they have this feature, might as well use it. Select which are fuels together with their costs are the ones that you want to calculate. Once you already have this data, you can now input them one by one and compute their equivalent. Once the computation is done, you will see that a chart will now appear on your screen.
That’s not all, below the chart is the explanation that can help you understand which among these energy sources is the most economical of all. One good way to compare energy prices is by checking comparison charts regarding energy rates. If you do this, you will be able to immediately see the cost differences. There are certain websites on the internet which allows you to see the various fuel types and their heat values, energy efficiency and price equivalent. If you really want to know what the exact cost differentials are, just make use of this formula: Cost of Fuel A= [(heat value Fuel A x heat efficiency Fuel A) / (heat value Fuel B x heat efficiency Fuel B)] x Cost of Fuel B. You must then input the cost for "Cost of Fuel B" and don’t forget to input the numbers coming from the charts in the right place in order for you to be able to see Fuel A cost.
You can save a lot of money on your utilities by building a zero point magnetic power generator. This will probably only cost you a couple hundred of dollars in supplies. You get the right guide and you are all set.
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Expert Reviewed
wikiHow to Care for Someone with Alzheimer's
Three Parts:Providing Health CareReducing FrustrationsCreating a Safe EnvironmentCommunity Q&A
Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible and progressive brain disorder that gradually impairs a person’s memory and thinking skills. It also slowly destroys a person’s ability to do simple tasks. Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Symptoms of the disease generally present around the age of 65, but can appear earlier or later.[1] Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s can be both difficult and rewarding.[2] You can care for a person with the disease by providing support for the person’s health and wellbeing, creating a safe environment, and reducing frustrations.
Part 1
Providing Health Care
1. 1
Work with the individual’s team of health professionals. You are likely one caregiver who is part of a larger team working to keep the person happy and healthy. Because of this, it’s important to coordinate your care with any medical professionals or other caregivers in your efforts. Doctors, nurses, social workers, and case managers can provide important information about individual’s case and proper care strategies. This can help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s and boost the person’s health.[3]
• Ask other caregivers questions you may have about providing care. Consider factors such as knowing when and how much medication to give, promoting overall health, and reducing potential frustrations for the person and you.
• Inform the rest of the care team if you notice any changes in the health or behavior of the person. Because the disease affects the memory and thinking, you may notice potential problems or changes that the person can’t recognize. This could be vital information for doctors about the person’s health, including the progression of the disease.
• Medical professionals to consider for the person's health team (beyond their physician) include a therapist, social worker, or psychologist to support mental health; an occupational therapist who can evaluate the safety of the person's home and provide tips for transport, driving, and self-care.
2. 2
Obtain permission to care for the person. Make sure you have the person with Alzheimer’s permission to coordinate care and treatment with the health care team members. This helps the individual feel more independent and that any decisions you make are in their best interest.[4]
• Be aware that in some cases, you may need written permission to legally make decisions on the person’s health and treatment. If this is the case, explain to the person that you would like their signature to be a member of the health care team. The Alzheimer's Association is a great resource for how to handle the legal and financial aspects of caregiving. Check out their free pamphlets here:
• Ask at a time when the person is most alert. Speak clearly to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunications. For example, “Hi Sam, I would really like to help care for you. I need legal permission, though. Please sign this form so that I can be a caretaker. Do you have any questions?”
3. 3
Pay attention to medications. Many people with Alzheimer’s are on a regimen of medication to slow the disease’s progression and related symptoms such as anxiety or sleep changes.[5] Make sure the person takes medication daily and gets prescription refills on time. This can help the person maintain brain health for a longer period of time.
• Read the dosing instructions for every medication the individual takes. Keep a notebook of medications to ensure the person takes the daily doses. Note the times the person takes the medication and any problems that may arise. This can also be vital information for other members of the care team.
4. 4
Learn common Alzheimer’s medications and treatments. If you are giving the person medication, you may want to learn more about the treatment regimen. This can ensure that you are providing the best care and disease management options. Some of the most common medications and treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are:[6]
• Cholinesterase inhibitors including donepezil, galantamine and rivastigmine. These slow the process that breaks down one of the brain’s key neurotransmitters.
• Memantine, an NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor antagonist, that slows down neural cell damage.
• Sleep medications such as zolpidem (Ambien), eszopiclone (Lunesta)[7]
• Anti-anxiety medications such as clonazepam, lorazepam
5. 5
Schedule regular appointments at the same time. Routine is a key component of caring for a person with Alzheimer’s. It supports the person’s sense of wellbeing and continued ability to function. One way to support that is by scheduling the person’s regular appointment with care team medical professionals at the same time on the same day as much as possible. Speak to the doctors’ offices about the need to maintain this routine for the person and ask if they can accommodate you.[8]
Part 2
Reducing Frustrations
1. 1
Recognize that frustration is common. As Alzheimer’s progresses, a person with the disease may become easily frustrated as once easy tasks become increasingly difficult. Limiting challenges and managing situations can reduce potential frustration.[9] For example, you could:
• Pre-select a couple of dishes for the person to eat at a restaurant so they don't get overwhelmed and/ or frustrated with an entire menu.
• Have a tailor replace buttonholes with snaps.
• Give the person a comfortable spot away from the action at family gatherings.
2. 2
Establish a routine. A person with Alzheimer’s can still learn and follow routines. Set a regular daily routine for the person that varies only as necessary. This can make situations less agitating and confusing for the individual.[10]
• Schedule tasks such as bathing and medical appointments when the person is most alert.
• Incorporate some flexibility in the schedule for spontaneous activities the person would like to do.
3. 3
Allot extra time for activities. Even with a routine, a person with Alzheimer’s may need more time to do once easy tasks. Take your time with care and allow the person to take breaks as necessary. This can keep the person from feeling hurried, which may increase anxiety and agitation.[11]
• Incorporate cushions of time for each task. For example, if the person has a doctor’s appointment at 9 a.m., start getting ready at 8:45 to give the individual time to put on a coat, walk to the car, and arrive on time.
4. 4
Let the individual do as much as possible. Involve your Alzheimer’s patient to continue doing tasks with as little assistance as possible. This can boost the person’s wellbeing and help stimulate the brain, which is important in slowing the disease’s progression.[12]
• Keep the tasks as simple as possible so that the person isn’t overwhelmed. This can lead to anxiety and agitation. For example, let the person set the table with the help of visual cues. You can also lay out the person’s clothes and allow the individual to dress independently.
5. 5
Offer the person different choices. Although a person with Alzheimer’s can get frustrated with variety, it’s still important to provide the person different choices every day. This can help the individual feel like they still have control over their life and also helps stimulate brain cells. This may slow the disease’s progression.[13]
• Recognize that fewer options are better, but that giving the person a choice is important to health and wellbeing. For example, you can let the person choose between two outfits, what type of meal to eat, or if a movie or walk is a preferable activity.
6. 6
Simplify instructions. Confusion is a typical symptom of Alzheimer’s disease.[14] Giving the person simple and clear instructions can help minimize confusion and may prevent anxiety or agitation.[15]
• Use clear, one-step instructions. For example, “Dad, please grab the water glasses,” or, “Sara, put on your shirt.” If the task requires multiple steps, break it up into several steps and give the person breaks as necessary.
7. 7
Minimize distractions. Distractions can impair a person with Alzheimer’s ability to focus. Reducing the number of ambient distractions, such as the TV, helps a person with Alzheimer’s focus. This can minimize confusion, frustration, anxiety, and/ or agitation.[16]
• Turn off TVs, stereos, or other media during mealtimes, conversations, or activities such as reading. Allow one person to speak at a time during conversations so the person can follow along.
Part 3
Creating a Safe Environment
1. 1
Prevent falls. Alzheimer’s destroys brain cells and impairs a person’s judgment and problem-solving skills. This increases the risk of injury, including from falls. Avoiding clutter, area rugs around the house and installing grab bars can minimize the risk of the person falling.[17]
• Remove extension cords, excess furniture or other clutter on which the person may trip.[18]
• Make sure the person’s shoes and slippers have good traction and are comfortable.
• Take away area rugs or secure them with anti-slide material. This can keep the person from slipping and hitting their head.
• Clean up spills as soon as possible.[19]
• Install sturdy handrails or bars in potentially dangerous areas such as stairways and bathrooms.
• You can employ and occupational therapist to come in and evaluate the home for safety concerns and advice on how to make the home safe and efficient for the person.
2. 2
Install locks. As the person’s Alzheimer’s progresses, use locks on cabinets that contain potentially dangerous items. This can keep the person from accidentally ingesting chemicals or exposing themselves to other hazards. Some items to lock include:[20][21]
• Medicine
• Alcohol
• Guns
• Toxic chemicals, including cleaning substances
• Knives or other sharp kitchen implements
• Tools
• Scissors
• Gasoline
3. 3
Control water temperatures. A hot water heater set to higher temperatures may accidentally burn a person with Alzheimer’s. Setting the thermostat lower or placing a water temperature controller in showers and kitchen sinks can minimize the risk of burns.[22]
4. 4
Take fire safety precautions. Fires may also occur if a person with Alzheimer’s gets confused about matches or lighters. Placing fire implements out of reach and having alarms and extinguishers easily accessible can minimize the risk of injury or property destruction by fire.[23]
• Make sure you have a full and easily accessible fire extinguisher. Check the date of the last fill and replace it if it’s older than one year.
• Check smoke detectors to ensure the batteries are full and working properly.
• Light cigarettes and supervise smoking if the person does it.
5. 5
Store valuables in one place. A person with Alzheimer’s may place items such as keys, wallets, mobile phones and jewelry in unusual places if they are confused. Keeping these items in one secure place can minimize the risk of them getting lost.[24]
• Consider having an area in an entry way the person can set items. Place a dish or basket in a prominent spot for things such as keys, wallets, and phones.
6. 6
Prevent and prepare for wandering. A person with Alzheimer's may begin to wander around the house. Keep detailed notes about wandering patterns — when they occur, how often they occur, and how long the wandering lasts. This can help you determine the cause of the wandering. For instance, if the person wanders first thing in the morning, it may be because they are hungry. Ensure the person is fed, hydrated, and going to the bathroom regularly, as these impulses may cause wandering. It is also important to take steps to prevent the person from wandering out of the house and to protect them should this happen.[25]
• Give the person an ID bracelet with contact information or fit them with a wristband transmitter. You may want to slip a card with this information into their jackets, wallet, etc.
• Make sure you have a current photo of the person. Ask the police department about keeping one on file, should the person wander off.
• Consider installing an electronic chime that will sound when someone enters or exits the home to notify you if the person attempts to exit.
• Post signs that read "DO NOT ENTER" or "STOP" on exits. Placing a black mat in front of exits may also prevent the person from leaving — the mat may appear to be a hole in the floor to someone with dementia.
7. 7
Keep meaningful objects around the house. Alzheimer’s destroys a person’s ability to remember things. Setting photographs and other meaningful objects around the person’s house and those of loved ones can help the person recall family, friends, and special events such as weddings or births.[26]
8. 8
Reduce exposure to mirrors. Limit the number of mirrors the person can access. This minimizes the risk of the person finding images in the mirror frightening, which can also decrease anxiety and/or frustration. For example, if the individual has a beloved antique mirror, consider displaying that and removing other options such as entry way or decorative mirrors that have no purpose.[27]
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• Get clear, written information about treatment regimens and medications. Ask medical professionals what each drug does and any side effects it may have.
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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ category
Changing Attitudes toward Fibromyalgia
June 18, 2014
The Importance of Diet in the Fight against Obesity
May 28, 2014
Obesity, the presence of excess amounts of fat in the body, is a medical condition that can lead to adverse health effects, such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac problems. More than simply a cosmetic concern, obesity can contribute to the considerable shortening of an individual’s life. More and more physicians are taking the initiative to engage in respectful dialogue with patients about strategies for maintaining a healthy weight.
Obesity can stem from or be exacerbated by any number of factors, including lack of adequate physical activity; a largely fast-food, high-calorie diet; pregnancy; certain medications; and even lack of proper rest and sleep.
While prescription medications and even surgery can be effective in addressing the problem of obesity, dietary changes and regular exercise often produce the most long-lasting positive effects. Most physicians and nutritionists believe that the best way to achieve permanent, healthy weight loss is to take the simple step of reducing the amount of calories consumed and increasing physical activity to an appropriate level.
Even moderate changes that result in small amounts of weight loss can show health-boosting results. For example, an individual who is overweight at 200 pounds and loses only 10 to 20 pounds can achieve noticeable benefits. People who obtain the longest-lasting results lose weight slowly and steadily, by about one or two pounds per week.
In addition to a low-calorie diet, a nutrition plan that focuses on eating significant quantities of fruits and vegetables is best. These foods tend to result in a full feeling throughout the day, thereby reducing the likelihood of people experiencing hunger pangs and the urge to indulge in unhealthy snacks.
An individual concerned about obesity should consult his or her physician or nutritional team, who can recommend an individual program of nutrition and exercise and discuss any risk factors involved.
Obesity – A Serious World Health Problem
May 13, 2014
The World Health Organization has called obesity an epidemic worldwide. According to WHO statistics, the number of people who die each year from complications associated with being overweight or obese is approaching 3 million. The problem is no longer confined to wealthier populations in the developed world: it has now become a matter of increasing concern among people of low and middle incomes in many developing nations, especially in population-dense urban centers.
In the WHO definition, the terms “overweight” and “obese” refer to an excess amount of fat that significantly impairs an individual’s health. The term “overweight” denotes a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or greater, with the criterion for being “obese” a BMI of 30 or greater. People who are overweight or obese are more likely than their peers are to develop cancer, cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, and other chronic diseases.
Recent studies have found that the rate of obesity in the United States has remained largely unchanged over the past decade. While incidences of obesity in young children from the ages of 2 to 5 decreased by more than 40 percent over that period, the overall rates for adults have stayed the same, or even risen. Today, close to one-third of American adults, and more than 15 percent of children, are clinically obese. In addition, obesity rates for women over age 60, in particular, rose significantly during the period measured by the study.
Medical professionals point to a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables, as well as moderate, regular exercise, as key components of a healthy weight-loss program for most people. In certain cases, medication or surgery can assist people struggling with obesity to lose weight when other means cannot.
Sorting through the Names of Flu Strains
April 30, 2014
In today’s world, we hear of new strains of flu every season or two: avian flu, swine flu, H1N1, H5N1, and a variety of other terms regularly make headlines. For the average individual, understanding and preparing to avoid so many kinds of flu can quickly become confusing.
The key to understanding a flu strain’s name is understanding the structure of its virus. Three categories of virus, designated A, B, and C according to their antigenic types, are responsible for the range of influenza viruses we see today. Types A and B are those capable of quick contagion in human populations, while type C may result in moderate respiratory symptoms without packing the force of an epidemic. Each flu virus comprises eight distinct segments, built up from single-stranded RNA and coated in proteins. These surface proteins assist the virus in latching on to a host’s cells so that it can begin replication.
Influenza virus strains receive names based on the type of the surface protein of each. “H” stands for “hemagglutinin,” and “N” stands for “neuraminidase.” Therefore, H1N1 refers to a virus with one part of each protein type. Hemagglutinin can exhibit 18 subtypes, while neuraminidase includes 11 subtypes. H1N1 and H3N2 are the two current “A” subtypes; they spread rapidly among humans through person-to-person contact. Other types tend to stay within animal populations. In certain instances, such as that of the dreaded H5N1 “avian” flu, the virus can leap directly from animals to infect humans. To date, researchers have found H5N1 to be fatal in about 60 percent of human cases.
Current nomenclature for flu viruses makes use of the following pieces of information: the antigenic type, whether A, B, or C; the host species if of animal origin; the geographic location; the assigned number of the strain; the year marking first isolation; and for viruses of the A type, the “H” and “N” designations, given within parentheses.
What You May Not Know about Schizophrenia
April 15, 2014
Schizophrenia, a chronic or recurring psychosis, is a severe form of mental illness most commonly manifested in delusions or auditory or visual hallucinations. The condition has received widespread coverage in the news and in popular culture, although much of this material has contributed to misconceptions among the general public.
Contrary to some sensationalized media portrayals, most people who suffer from schizophrenia do not exhibit violent behavior. Also contrary to popular perceptions, schizophrenia is not the same as the condition often called “multiple” or “split” personality, which psychiatrists consider a dissociative identity disorder. While the word “schizophrenia” comes from root words meaning “split mind,” it specifically connotes an imbalance in thought and emotion, rather than a true splitting off into various individually functioning personalities. In addition, not all people with schizophrenia present with the same symptoms; behavioral responses can vary widely from one patient to another.
Individuals with schizophrenia interpret reality in maladaptive ways. Most exhibit disorganized, illogical thinking and bizarre behaviors. Delusions may take the form of belief that one is being harassed or pursued, or that a major disaster or catastrophic event is about to occur. Patients may express their disordered thoughts in haphazard speech patterns, with nonsensical words strung together. Hallucinations usually involve the hearing of voices, although they may take other forms.
The condition is usually diagnosed during a person’s 20s, with initial diagnosis very rare in childhood or middle age. People with schizophrenia typically require ongoing treatment over the course of their lifetimes.
Several Factors Combine to Lift Biotech Industry
March 31, 2014
Last year saw a number of strong performances in the biotechnology industry as the sector benefited from several overall trends. In the past, many fund managers avoided biotechnology, as it requires specialized knowledge and a strong tolerance for risk. Managers fleeing a weakening mining sector and trying to dodge the falling price of gold, however, took to biotechnology in 2013, just as companies were posting startling gains.
Several small international firms saw their share prices rise by multiples of up to six, while others raised tens of millions of dollars in capital or successfully navigated initial public offerings. Executives with histories of success took the helms of several businesses, and in the fourth quarter, the biotech market rose to yearlong highs. In the United States, the market turned around after poorly performing for several years. Biotech companies able to find new funding in 2013 did so on the back of prospects for treatments in a variety of areas, including Alzheimer’s disease, regenerative medicine, and infectious diseases.
What to Consider Before Seeking Venture Capital
December 2, 2013
Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald maintains expertise in several areas of finance, from direct investing to venture capital. Today, many entrepreneurs, like Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald, turn to venture capitalists for the money they need to realize their ideas. Before seeking funding, however, they must consider several factors.
First, entrepreneurs must have a clear market for their product and be able to demonstrate to investors how and why the product or service will generate money. Some ideas that sound great on paper simply lack a viable market, thus making them unlikely to receive funding. Additionally, the market must be large enough to attract substantial revenue. Venture investors typically look for markets of a certain size before they will even consider putting money into a new idea.
Entrepreneurs should gather a team of experienced, knowledgeable managers capable of developing the envisioned business, particularly when asking for funding at a later stage of the enterprise. When leaders can point to the past successes of team members and clearly spell out their contribution to the current project, they will more likely convince a venture capitalist to invest in the plan.
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The Heart of the Matter (Part II)
The purpose of this post is to explain in relatively simple terms how excessive carbohydrate consumption increases triglyceride (fat) and blood pressure levels (aka the risk factors for developing heart disease). I will preface this by making clear that this is a complex process that I will not pretend to understand in its entirety; however, there are some basic concepts behind the process of arterial plaque formation that I’m aiming to outline.
For the sake of clarity, I will start off with an obvious but crucial fact: all carbohydrates we consume (e.g. candy, white flour, whole wheat bread, oatmeal, pasta, legumes, high sugar fruits, agave nectar, evaporated cane juice, quinoa, etc) are broken down into sugar, or glucose.
Complex carbohydrates take longer to break down, so they cause a more gradual (and consequently less damaging) spike in our blood sugar; unfortunately, in the end, they all become blood sugar which triggers the need for insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas that manages our blood sugar levels. This leads into a discussion of the variables in developing heart disease:
1. Insulin Resistance: When you ingest sugar, blood sugar rises, and the pancreas releases the amount of insulin needed to take the excess glucose and store it in the liver and muscles as glycogen. This is certainly useful for having energy reserves stored for later if need be.
But if your glycogen reserves are already filled up (depending your activeness and the amount of sugar you ate), then there is no room for that excess glucose in the liver or muscles. This begins the process of insulin resistance: the pancreas needs to pump out more insulin to get the same effect, the excess glucose and insulin remain in the blood stream for longer, and and the sugar is eventually stored in fat cells.
2. Glycation: Glucose should not be present in the bloodstream for longer than necessary; the longer it floats in the bloodstream, the higher the risk of glycation. Glycation occurs when a sugar molecule like glucose or fructose binds to a protein or fat molecule without the protective help of an enzyme. Without an enzyme to moderate the reaction that protein or fat molecule gets damaged.
More importantly, this reaction leads to advanced glycated end-products (AGEs). AGEs can degrade any cell in the body, and the accumulation of their destruction signals an inflammatory response.
3.Inflammation: Generally speaking, inflammation is defined as the immune system’s response to damaged cells, foreign invaders, toxins, etc. If you hurt your leg, it might swell and bruise. While it hurts, this is the immune system initiating the healing process. This is an example of a straightforward case of acute inflammation.
Chronic, low-level inflammation, on the other hand, keeps your body in a state of alarm: the immune system is waging a constant battle that is neither significantly traumatic nor ignorable. This battle often requires the expenditure of cytokines and various types of infection-fighting white blood cells like monocytes and macrophages. The longer the inflammation goes on, the higher the risk of tissue damage. In short, regular, excessive carb/sugar consumption leads to chronic AGEs which lead to chronic inflammation.
Below is an image of a glucose molecule binding to a protein molecule to produce an AGE that triggers an immune response from a macrophage:
Luckily, there are ways to quantify inflammation and blood glucose levels. Inflammation is often measured via a white blood cell count (WBC) and C-Reactive Protein (CRP) level. A 1-h plasma glucose test measures short-term (one hour to be exact) blood sugar levels, and Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) measures long-term blood glucose levels. Knowing this, let’s tie the evidence together:
• There is a link between inflammation and insulin resistance: this study establishes a connection between insulin resistance and inflammation, again, in nondiabetic people. Inflammatory markers like CRP and white blood cell counters were associated with insulin resistance, and CRP levels were positively correlated to weight.
• High blood sugar levels have been studied as a risk factor for heart disease. Another study also finds a connection between HbA1c levels (long-term blood glucose) and heart disease.
• AGEs are correlated to to inflammation and atherosclerosis in diabetics.
• Chronic inflammation is also strongly correlated to heart disease. One study observed a higher incidence of aortic inflammation with people who have inflammatory rheumatic disease than those with no inflammatory diseases.
So if atherosclerosis isn’t the mere accumulation of dietary fat and cholesterol, then how does it form?
To be continued….
2 responses to this post.
1. Posted by MTD on January 18, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Very impressed with the overview provided in part II. You touch upon a lot of key players in the development of atherosclerotic plaques. In addition, there is a lot of ongoing research to further characterize the roles of insulin resistance, inflammation, cytokines, etc…
2. Thank you! The more information I find, the more fascinating the whole topic becomes.
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Thursday, August 04, 2016
The Olympic Dream?
The most notable fact about the Rio Olympics is that many Brazilians can't even afford tickets to the events. In 2014, Rio's mayor promised to give away 1.2 million tickets for free to students and the poor: To date, the city has set aside 47,000 tickets — only 4% of his promise. Many Brazilians who actually built the Olympic facilities don't have enough money to attend any the events. "I can't afford tickets for the Olympics because they are too expensive for me," construction worker Dennis Claudinho told Reuters.
One recent survey from polling firm Datafolha found that half of Brazilians were opposed to hosting the games, and 63% of them think the costs of hosting — such as the massive wave of evictions from Brazil's "favelas" or shantytowns — outweigh the benefits. Brazilians are also frustrated about the amount of money being spent on the games while important city services are being neglected, as the country grapples with a terrible recession. Millions of Brazilians have lost their jobs, and a new austerity program has led to drastic cuts to government services in education and healthcare. Most improvements to Rio infrastructure have been restricted to a wealthy suburb, Barra da Tijuca, and many of the new facilities, such as the Olympic Village, are slated to be converted into luxury housing.
The opening Olympic torch relay was challenged by hundreds of demonstrators angry at the high cost of hosting the Games. Riot police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
Lucas Rodrigues Alves, a university student in Rio, wrote in a letter to the Guardian, “I see the millions and billions spent on overpriced Olympics construction, which should be spent on education, health and projects for people of the favelas to have opportunities to grow and participate in the development of the whole city. Rio does not need the Olympics. We need basic things that, unfortunately, are not in the interests of the politicians, who live in Leblon and Ipanema, facing the beach.”
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When you add buttermilk to baking soda in a mixing bowl, does the pH increase or decrease? Explain your answer, and identify which of the substances is acidic and which is basic.
1 Answer
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ncchemist | eNotes Employee
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This is an acid base reaction. Baking soda is primarily composed of NaHCO3, or sodium bicarbonate. This is a basic substance and will have a pH above 7. Buttermilk has lots of fatty acids which are mild acids as their name implies. As such, the pH of buttermilk is below 7. When the two are mixed together, they will neutralize each other and the pH of the mixed contents will be close to 7 (neutral pH). The byproduct from this reaction is CO2 gas, so you will see bubbles emerge from the liquid as the CO2 escapes into the atmosphere.
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Preventing Heat Stroke in Pets
The summer months are approaching and with it comes the often oppressive heat and humidity. The best way to prevent a problem with heat is to help pets avoid it. Outdoor pets will need access to shade all throughout the day. Tree cover, an area easily accessed under a porch or a dog house with good ventilation are all good ways to keep animals cool. Providing access to clean water that can’t be easily turned over is imperative. NEVER leave your pet in a car, even for a short period of time. Cars can reach temperatures of 110 degrees very quickly even with the windows cracked. Leaving the air conditioning on helps but there have been cases where dogs have accidentally turned it off jumping around inside the car. Walk dogs during the cooler hours of early morning and late evening. Avoid walking dogs on asphalt surfaces, they are very hot and can easily burn the pads on your dog’s feet. Brachycephalic breeds (the short-nosed breeds, such as Bulldogs and Pugs), large heavy coated breeds, and dogs with heart or respiratory problems are at more risk for heat stoke.
Be aware of the symptoms of heat stroke: excessive panting, dark or bright red tongue and gums, staggering, stupor, seizures, bloody diarrhea, vomiting, coma and worst of all death. If you have the ability to take a temperature it will be above 104 degrees.
Heat stroke in pets, hot cars
Beware of Heatstroke
If you suspect heat stroke, it is considered an emergency and you should seek veterinary attention immediately. You can help cool your pet by wetting it down with cool water (not ice water). You can offer ice cubes for the animal to lick until transport to a veterinary hospital. Just because you have cooled the animal down and it “appears” to be okay, do NOT assume everything is fine. Internal organs such as brain, liver and kidneys are definitely affected by body temperature elevation and blood tests and a veterinary examination are needed to assess this. There is also a complex blood problem call DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation) that can be a secondary complication to heat stroke that can be fatal.
Debbie Justice-Obley, DVM
April 29, 2016
Links for more information:
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Aliens could be Much Easier to Explore with the World’s Largest Telescope
It is possible to find life (extraterrestrial life or any other form of life) somewhere else in the universe? The universe is consisting millions of galaxies, black holes, nebulas, millions of stars, unidentified planets and other heavenly bodies millions of light years away from our solar system. There is no concrete evidence yet to prove the presence of extraterrestrials but one must keep in mind not to rule out the probability of the existence of some form of life outside planet Earth. Paranormal group dealing with extraterrestrials or aliens documented a lot of paranormal encounters between people and aliens. Paranormal phenomena including crop circles, unusual killing of animals and many more have been attributed to aliens.
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Political History | About Ghana
On 6 March 1957, the British colony of Gold Coast became independent and assumed the name Ghana. Until 1957, the Gold Coast consisted of the Gold Coast colony which comprised British processions on the Gold Coast littoral and extended less than one hundred miles inland up to the Pra; Ashanti,
which included today’s Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and parts of Easter Region. A name Ghana was assumed at independence for three reasons. First, some of the founding fathers of Ghana argued that the Akan of the Gold Coast, who constituted 45% of the population were descendants of the ancient Ghana Empire that flourished from the 9th to the 13th Centuries between the Sahara and head waters of the Senegal and Niger rivers. Second, the spectacular example of ancient Ghana in building a great African empire that endured for three centuries was emulating by the emergent nation. Finally, the name was not ethnically specific to any of the countries numerous ethnic groups, it will therefore engender the spirit of national coercion and consciousness.
The total land area of Ghana is 238,538 square kilometres (92,100 square miles); the southern coast line being 554 kilometres (334 miles) wide and the distance from the south to the north being 840 kilometres (522 miles). Ghana is located on the Gulf of Guinea and boarded on north by Burkina Faso on the east by the Republic of Togo and on the West by Cote d’Ivoire.
Today, the population of Ghana is about 22 million with the highest population densities on the urban areas. The principal ethnic groups are the Akans who constitute about 45% of the population is made up of the Ashanti, the Fanti, the Ahanta, the Guan, the Bonu, the Akyem, the Akwamu, the Kwahu, the Akwapim, the Sefwi and the Nzema; the Mole, Dagbani, 16% is made up of Nanumba, Dagbani, Mamprusi, Wala, Bruilsa, Frafra, Talensi and Kusasi; the Ewe, 13% made up of the Anlo, the Some, the Tongu and the Ewedome; the Ga-Adangbe, 9% made up of the Ga, the Shai or Adamgbe, the Ada and the Krobo or the Kloli; the Gurma, 4% and the Grusi, 2% made up of the Mo, the Sisala, the Kasena, the Vagala and the Tampolene,. Living among the Ewe are non-Ewe speaking groups such as the Akpafu, the Lolobi, the Likpe, the Santrokofi, the Nkonya, the Avatime, the Logba and the Tafii.
The peoples of Ghana are composed of two principal linguistic groups: the Gur and the Kwa group of languages, which are respectively spoken to the north and south of the Gurma and the Grusi and the speakers of Kwa are the Akan, the Guan, the Ewe and the Ga-Adamgbe.
Political History
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Martial Arts Wisdom
Seiyunchin Kanji
Seiyunchin is a very old Chinese kata, and it's origins are probably in the Hsing-i internal system. All of the movements are hand techniques with no kicks, a very unusual feature. It is in the tiger series of katas. Seiyunchin may be thought of as an earth fire kata. It starts with solid rooted stances then exploded into fast movement only to return just as quickly to the rooted stances. One of the things unique in this kata is the direction of movement. Normally in a shiko dachi we work at a 45 deg. angle to the front leg. This kata includes working directly over the front leg to a 45 deg. angle to a 90 deg. angle. This is the only kata in Goju that uses all three angles in the same form. Opposite to Sanseru which follows a four directional pattern Seiyunchin works a four diagonal pattern.
The following thoughts on the kanji for this kata are from an e-mail conversation with Chuck TC Kwan (kwantc@globalserve.net): 1st kanji translates as system/method and the 3rd kanji battle/fight/war.
I read the kanji as "pulling" in the sense of "sucking/drawing/leading/setting up the person into a trap", (eg: an "attack by drawing") in JKDC terminology. Thus, I read and speculate Seiyunchin as a kata which illustrates a system of drawing the opponent to make the initial attack into your counter or traps. I see Seiyunchin as a more generalised kata showing different methods of engaging the opponent in a favourable manner (the idea of the 2nd kanji).
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Computer Networking Glossary
Access Control List
Anonymous FTP
A reference like
ftp: euagate.eua.ericsson.se /pub/eua/erlang/info
Application Layer
The top layer of the OSI seven layer model. This layer handles issues like network transparency, resource allocation and problem partitioning. The application layer is concerned with the user's view of the network (e.g. formatting electronic mail messages). The presentation layer provides the application layer with a familiar local representation of data independent of the format used on the network.
Every network should only have one root bridge.
When two hosts transmit on a network at once causing their packets to collide and corrupt each other.
Collision Detection
A class of methods for sharing a data transmission medium in which hosts transmit as soon as they have data to send and then check to see whether their transmission has suffered a collision with another host's.
If a collision is detected then the data must be resent. The resending algorithm should try to minimise the chance that two hosts's data will repeatedly collide. For example, the CSMA/CD protocol used on Ethernet specifies that they should then wait for a random time before re-transmitting.
Data Link Layer
Layer two, the second lowest layer in the OSI seven layer model. The data link layer splits data into frames for sending on the physical layer and receives acknowledgement frames. It performs error checking and re-transmits frames not received correctly. It provides an error-free virtual channel to the network layer. The data link layer is split into an upper sublayer, Logical Link Control (LLC), and a lower sublayer, Media Access Control (MAC).
A local area network first described by Metcalfe & Boggs of Xerox PARC in 1976. Specified by DEC, Intel and XEROX (DIX) as IEEE 802.3 and now recognised as the industry standard.
File Transfer Protocol
A computer connected to a network.
The term node includes devices such as routers and printers which would not normally be called "hosts".
Local Area Network
Metropolitan Area Network
Hardware and software data communication systems.
Network Address
Network Layer
Network Management
The process of controlling a network so as to maximise its efficiency and productivity. ISO's model divides network management into five categories: fault management, accounting management, configuration management, security management and performance management.
Fault management is the process of identifying and locating faults in the network. This could include discovering the existence of the problem, identifying the source, and possibly repairing (or at least isolating the rest of the network from) the problem.
Configuration management is the process of identifying, tracking and modifying the setup of devices on the network. This category is extremely important for devices that come with numerous custom settings (e.g. routers and file servers).
Security management is the process of controlling (granting, limiting, restricting or denying) access to the network and resources thereon. This could include setting up and managing access lists in routers (creating "firewalls" to keep intruders out), creating and maintaining password access to critical network resources, identifying the points of entry used by intruders and closing them.
Performance Management is the process of measuring the performance of various network components. This also includes taking measures to optimise the network for maximum system performance (periodically measuring of the use of network resources).
Network Transparency.
A feature of an operating system or other service which lets the user access a remote resource through a network without having to know if the resource is remote or local.
Open Systems Interconnection
Physical Layer
The physical layer is used by the data link layer.
Presentation Layer
The physical layer is used by the data link layer.
The physical layer is used by the data link layer.
Session Layer
The third highest protocol layer (layer 5) in the OSI seven layer model. The session layer uses the transport layer to establish a connection between processes on different hosts. It handles security and creation of the session. It is used by the presentation layer.
Token Bus
(IEEE 802.4) A networking protocol which mediates access to a bus topology network as though it were a token ring. This eliminates the collisions found in carrier sense collision detect protocols. Nodes can be configured to pass the token in any order, not necessarily related to their physical ordering on the bus. The token is sent from one node to its successor in the logical ring by broadcast on the bus and is ignored by the other nodes.
Transit Network
Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP) The most common transport layer protocol used on Ethernet and the Internet. It was developed by DARPA.
TCP is the connection-oriented protocol built on top of Internet Protocol (IP) and is nearly always seen in the combination TCP/IP (TCP over IP). It adds reliable communication and flow-control and provides full-duplex, process-to-process connections.
TCP is defined in STD 7 and RFC 793.
User Datagram Protocol is the other, connectionless, protocol that runs on top of IP.
Transport Layer
(Or "host-host layer") The middle layer in the OSI seven layer model. The transport layer determines how to use the network layer to provide a virtual error-free, point to point connection so that host A can send messages to host B and they will arrive un-corrupted and in the correct order. It establishes and dissolves connections between hosts. It is used by the session layer.
An example transport layer protocol is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).
Transport Layer Interface
Transport Layer Security protocol
(TLS) A protocol designed to allow client/server applications to communicate over the Internet without eavesdropping, tampering, or message forgery.
Encapsulation of protocol A within protocol B, such that A treats B as though it were a data link layer. Tunnelling is used to get data between administrative domains which use a protocol that is not supported by the internet connecting those domains.
Twisted Pair
A type of networking cable in which pairs of conductors are twisted together to randomise possible cross-talk from nearby wiring. Inadequate twisting is detectable using modern cable testing instruments.
Uniform Naming Convention
(UNC) Used in IBM PC networking to completely specify a directory on a file server.
The basic format is:
where "servername" is the hostname of a network file server, and "sharename" is the name of a networked or shared directory. Note this is not the same as the conventional MS-DOS "C:\windows" directory name. E.g.
might be set up to point to
on a server called "server1".
Value Added Network
(VAN) A privately owned network that provides a specific service, such as legal research or access to a specialised database, for a fee. A Value Added Network usually offers some service or information that is not readily available on public networks.
A Value Added Network's customers typically purchase leased lines that connect them to the network or they use a dial-up number, given by the network owner, to gain access to the network.
Vampire Tap
A device to connect a network node to an RG8 thick ethernet cable without affecting other connected nodes.
A vampire tap has an interface box with a "V" shaped groove along one side. A sharp needle protrudes from the center of the groove. The cable is clamped into the groove by a grooved plate held in position by two thumb screws. With sufficient practise, tightening the screws forces the needle through the cable jacket and into contact with the cable's center wire while other spikes bite into the outer conductor. The interface box has a 15 pin connector to connect to the network node.
The vampire tap is often built into the transceiver, with a more flexible multi-wire "drop cable" to connect the transceiver to the node.
Virtual Host
Most computers on the Internet have a single Internet address; however, often via special kernel patches, a given computer can be made to respond to several IP addresses and provide different services (typically different Web services) on each. Each of these different IP addresess (which generally each have their own hostname) act as if they were distinct hosts on distinct machines, even though they are actually all one host. Hence, they are virtual hosts. A common use is when an Internet Service Provider "hosts" World-Wide Web or other services for several of their customers on one computer but giving the appearence that they are separate servers.
Virtual LAN
Software defined groups of host on a local area network (LAN) that communicate as if they were on the same wire, even though they are physically on different LAN segments throughout a site. To define a virtual LAN, the network administrator uses a virtual LAN management utility to establish membersip rules that determine which hostss are in a specific virtual LAN.
Virtual Loadable Module
Virtual Local Area Network
Virtual Path
Virtual Private Network
(VPN) The use of encryption in the lower protocol layers to provide a secure connection through an otherwise insecure network, typically the Internet. VPNs are generally cheaper than real private networks using private lines but rely on having the same encryption system at both ends. The encryption may be performed by firewall software or possibly by routers.
Well-known Port
Wide Area Information Servers
Wide Area Network
A network, usually constructed with serial lines, extending over distances greater than one kilometre.
Wideband ATM
An enhanced form of ATM networking that transfers digital data over local area networks, originally at 0.96 Gbps, now (Aug 1996) at 1.0 Gbps.
Windows Internet Naming Service
(WINS) Software which resolves NetBIOS names to IP addresses.
Windows NT Network Model
The network model used by Windows NT. The model has the following layers:
User Applications (e.g. Excel)
File System Drivers
NDIS Wrapper
NDIS Card Driver
Network Adapter Card
Windows Sockets
Wireless Networking
Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP) An open international standard for applications that use wireless communication, e.g. Internet access from a mobile phone.
Wireless Local Area Network
Source: "The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, http://www.foldoc.org/, Editor Denis Howe"
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2) In the public switched telephone network (PSTN), a channel is one of multiple transmission paths within a single link between network points. For example, the commonly used (in North America) T-carrier system line service provides 24 64 Kbps channels for digital data transmission.
6) In computer and Internet marketing, a channel is a "middleman" between a product creator and the marketplace. Value-added resellers (VAR) and retail store chains are examples of channels in this context.
7) Using Internet Relay Chat, a channel is a specific chat group.
8) In IBM mainframe systems, a channel is a high bandwidth connection between a processor and other processors, workstations, printers, and storage devices within a relatively close proximity. It's also called a local connection as opposed to a remote (or telecommunication) connection.
9) In a field-effect transistor (FET), a channel is the semiconductor path on which current flows.
Related terms include: clear channel, channel extender, Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over IP, channel associated signaling, and channel bank.
This was last updated in September 2005
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File Extensions and File Formats
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How is it possible for parents to make an informed decision about whether or not to vaccinate their children when they are not even being presented with all the facts? This is the subject of a new report by‘s Shawn Siegel, who so eloquently explains to his readers how “informed consent,” at least as we currently understand it, is essentially a misnomer due to the fact that most doctors, the mainstream media and government health agencies do nothing but lie to the public about vaccine safety.
Citing an extensive array of published studies proving his point, Siegel shows how the scientific literature is replete with evidence showing, for instance, that the mercury added to some vaccines is definitively linked to causing the same speech and learning disorders associated with autism. Other studies, many of which were conducted by federal agencies, show that vaccines are also linked to causing SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, as well as rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, brain damage and diabetes, among many other conditions.
Why are these studies so often covered up, leading to widespread confusion about vaccine safety? Siegel attributes much of it to academic indoctrination, as the physicians constantly being churned out of medical school are not being told the truth about vaccine adverse effects and contraindications, which means that they, in turn, are not disclosing this information to their patients. And yet, it is these same medical professionals in whom most parents are putting their trust when it comes to vaccine safety and efficacy.
“[M]edical schools don’t teach the history and nature of vaccine damage and death; nor do nursing and pharmacy schools,” writes Siegel. “Yet doctors, nurses, and, these days, pharmacists, are the very ones who administer vaccines, and upon whom we rely for full information. Somewhere there is made a conscious decision to exclude the reality of serious vaccine damage from the curricula.”
‘Informed consent’ a misnomer when most people are lied to about vaccine safety, 3/18/14
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Most snoring sound is generated from the mouth and throat
When we look to solve a person’s snoring problem you need to know or be at least fairly certain what exactly is cause it to happen. By intentifying and understanding what cause an individual to snore you are maybe wasting time and money to solve the problem. With snoring in general you are looking at structures in the mouth and throat that vibrate due to restricted air flow these vibrations result in the snoring sound. By addressing the restricted airflow you are closer to preventing or reducing the snoring sound.
Throat mouth structures that vibrate
The structures in the throat and mouth that can vibrate are uvula and the soft palate.
The uvula is simple to find it is a teardrop shaped skin flap that hangs down from the throat center. This skin flap can vibrate when it touches the soft palate or possibly the tongue. The soft palate is also on the roof of the mouth is the softer area behind the teeth. By focusing on reducing the possibly these structures don’t touch or vibrate you can stop or reduce snoring. One quick way is to maintain breathing through the nose so the air flow does not pass by these structures. To reduce the possibility that the air flow will go directly through the mouth is to breath thought the nose but that is difficult to do consistently at time the 2nd option is to reduce restrictions to air flow that passes though the mouth when sleeping.
Four Special types of exercise can help reduce air flow restrictions
Below are four exercises that can help reduce restrictions for clearer breathing to help to reduce the vibrations that cause snoring.
1. The first one strengthens the jaw and throat it is called open close jaw- with your hand holding your jaw push your jaw out and hold this position for five to ten seconds.
2. The second address the same area exercising the lower jaw hold a relaxed lower jaw with your hand for ten seconds and repeat.
3. This exercise helps the tongue be less of an impediment to clear breathing, stretch out the tongue and hold do this ten times daily.
4. Singing is an overlooked way to help with snoring-sing vowels (a, e, i, o, u) or notes do briefly then repeat.
Nutrition and weight loss and its role in snoring
Overall better nutrition can help you with snoring, because it can reduce nasal congestion and promote clearer breathing. By losing weight particularly if you have fatty tissues around the neck area which again promotes less obstructed breathing which can reduce or stop snoring. By trying these tips you should see improvement in reducing your snoring, keep in mind as you do these exercises and/or lose weight it may take some time before the results begin to happen.
If no results consider working with specialists
If you don’t see results or any improvement, particularly if you have a problem of consistent or chronic snoring, you may want to consult with medical specialists. Some of the most common are ENT doctors (a throat, nose and ear specialists) and sleep laboratories.
Joe Smith enjoys helping others find knowledge and solutions to improve their lives, For more great information on exercise to reduce snoring visit my website at http://youcanstopsnoringremedy.com is an amazing website for you to fix dll missing error. See more details:
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Thursday, October 13, 2011
10 Health Benefits of Eggs
Some of you may have eaten eggs over the Easter weekend so I thought I'd post ten health benefits of eggs (and it doesn't count if they were chocolate eggs!)
Monday, June 20, 2011
Home Remedy for Common Fever
Home Remedies For Common Fever
Common Fever Information
Our body has a definite temperature range - between 36.9oC and 37.5o C or 98.4o F and 99.5o F. A rise or fall in the body temperature, beyond this range, is termed as fever. Striking both adults and children, common fever is characterized by a decline in the normal functioning of the body. The lowest temperature of the body occurs between 1.30 a.m. to 7 a.m. and the highest between 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. There are several factors that lead to the rise and fall in the body temperature. In the following lines, we have provided the various causes and symptoms of common fever.
Causes Of Common Fever
• Bacteria
• Virus
• Protozoa
• Sunstroke
• Intake of chemical or poison
• FUO (fever of unknown origin)
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Which Type of Milk Is Best?
Question: Is there a difference in milk: skim, 2%, and whole? Our daughters are not overweight and one is 17 and one is 11. Is there some reason we should not all be drinking skim? Should the 17-year-old be drinking 2% and the 11-year-old be drinking whole to get everything they need to grow strong and healthy, or is this rating just a bunch of hype to get us to buy two or three types of milk?
Answer: The difference in those labels on milk are due to different amounts of fat in the milk. Whole milk is milk that has nothing removed. All milk has protein and carbohydrate, and in whole milk about 4 % of its total content is composed of fat. 2% milk has two percent fat; that means it has about half the fat of whole milk. Similarly, 1% milk has half as much fat as the 2%, and skim milk has all of the fat removed (The term skim comes from the way that the fat is removed. When milk is not homogenized the cream, which is the fatty part, rises to the top. A utensil is then used to "skim" the cream off the top of the milk).
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Benefits of Wild Morse Milk
We often hear in the media ads that offer wild horse milk, but often ask how the hell it was, what could be wild horse drawn milk? The answer, of course, horse milk can be squeezed anything so wild. It was also not inferior to milk from other animals.
Prof. DR. Made Astawan, food technologists and nutrition from IPB ( Institute Pertanian Bogor ) mention, that the wild horse milk nutrient is not inferior to cow's milk nutrients. Popular in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, wild horses were also bred in Sukabumi, West Java - Indonesia. Even very popular in Southern France. Milk is also processed into cheese.
Milk protein content of horse milk Quality Approach
Content of protein content in milk and horse higher quality than cow's milk as an additional alternative to breast milk (breast milk) for infants and growing brains for intelligence.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Drinking Milk May Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Benefits of Lemon Peel
1. Oil repellent
Take a look around and observe, anything that looks oily around your kitchen? Is it a skillet, a suburb of the stove or kitchen table? Before cleaning it with water, soap and cloth, use lemon oil to repel stains. Sprinkle a pinch of salt to the juice of half a lemon and rub the oily areas, then wash with a cloth.
Note: be careful using the lemon over the surface of marble or other materials that are sensitive to acids.
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Wednesday, 23 March 2016
The Fifth Largest Economy?
Brexiteers repeatedly argue that a Britain outside the EU would prosper because Britain, after all, is the world's fifth largest economy. But, in fact, not only is this argument spurious, but it also shows what is wrong with their underlying world view. We will set aside the fact that a hundred years ago, Britain was the world's largest economy, and still ruled the world, and the fact that even sixty years ago, it was still the world's second largest economy behind the US, which had taken over its first place spot. We can set aside the fact that not too many years ago Britain was still the third or fourth largest economy. In other words, we can set aide the fact that Britain's standing in the world rankings has been rapidly declining over the last one hundred years, and was one reason it needed to become part of a larger economic bloc in the first place.
Instead, let's look beneath the fact of this fifth place, and examine what it means in reality. As the saying goes, “In the world of the blind, the one eyed man is king.” In other words, what exactly does being fifth largest economy mean in a global economy that comprises more than 200 different countries. We might have, for example, a distribution that was something like A $ 2 trillion, B $1.5 trillion, C $1 trillion, D $0.99 trillion, E $400 billion, F $300, G-Z $ 50 billion.
In that case, economy E, is the fifth largest economy, but it is only a fifth the size of the largest economy, and half the size of the fourth largest economy. Its actual standing appears quite different when viewed in this way, and when the vast number of economies are seen as being more or less in a different league. A football team might be 20th, out of a league of 100 clubs, but its 20th position doesn't change the fact that it is at the bottom of its division, and about to get relegated!
The world's largest economy, the United States has a GDP of $18 trillion. China, which is the second largest economy, has a GDP of $11.4 trillion. Third place is held by Japan, with a GDP of $4.1 trillion. In fourth place is Germany with a GDP of $3.4 trillion. Britain's GDP is $2.9 trillion, whilst France is close behind with $2.4 trillion. (All figures for 2015, based on the CIA World Factbook).
In other words the UK may be the fifth largest economy, but it is only a seventh (14%), of the size of the US economy. It is only a fifth the size of the Chinese economy, and getting smaller in proportion by the minute. It is only three-quarters the size of the Japanese economy, which has itself been going backwards for the last 25 years. What is more, behind France comes a list of economies, which are moving in the opposite direction to the UK. Where the UK has been in decline for more than a hundred years, when its top spot began to be challenged by Germany, the US, France, Japan and so on, economies like Brazil, India and so on, which occupy the positions below France, have been growing, and moving up the rankings quickly. Britain, may be the fifth largest economy today, but on the basis of its relative decline over the last century and the relative rise of these other economies, it will only be a matter of at most a decade, before Britain sinks to being only the tenth largest economy, and possibly even just the fifteenth largest economy behind places like South Korea and Mexico.
But, what is more, looking at the ranking of the UK economy, on the basis of the relative sizes of different national economies is itself misleading, precisely because the global economy has long since gone past the stage of such national economies, and instead been divided into competing regional economic blocs. In fact, a look at the world ranking of economies provided by Wikipedia, shows the world's largest economy being not the US, but the EU, with a GDP of $18.5 trillion, or about 25%, of global GDP.
An independent UK economy with its GDP of just $2.9 trillion, would then appear as a rather insignificant minnow squeezed between the EU economy of $18.5 trillion, and the US economy of $18 trillion. It would be rather like the little corner shop, squeezed between a giant Tesco at one end of the road, and a giant Sainsbury's at the other, and all the time, it would be seeing its position deteriorate, as other large supermarkets opened around it, and other independent traders grouped together in larger associations. In fact, it was precisely for that reason, that the EU was formed so that the individually small economies of Western Europe, could create a much larger single market so as to compete with the rise of the naturally, and geographically much larger single market of the United States.
But, even the giant US economy no longer stands alone, in this new global economy divided into large economic blocs. It has joined with Canada and Mexico to form NAFTA, with a combined GDP of around $20 trillion. It is a market of around 470 million people, compared to the market of around 500 million people in the EU, and 1.4 billion in China. By contrast, the UK has a domestic market of just 60 million people.
And that message, that the days of the individual national economy are long dead, has not been lost on all of those in the newly rising economies. In South America, Mercosur has been established. It has a domestic market of around 290 million people, and a GDP of around $ 4 trillion. In South-East Asia, ASEAN has a domestic market of 625 million people, and a GDP of $ 2.8 trillion.
Some of the world's fastest growing economies today are in developing sub-Saharan Africa. Ethiopia, for example, grew in 2014/15 by more than 10%, and it has grown by around that amount for the last decade, other than for 2008, when it grew at 8.8%, and 2011, when it grew at 8.7%. Along with it have arisen a number of African economic blocs. The Organisation of African Unity aims at establishing something akin to the EU, across Africa by 2030, which is probably an ambitious target, but it indicates the direction of travel for global economies, and it is a direction of travel that the Brexiteers are moving in the opposite way from.
So, the Brexiteers talk about the UK as the world's fifth largest economy is entirely misleading because it fails to take into consideration the actual relative strength of the UK economy not only compared with its main competitors, and with the direction of travel of these different economies, but more importantly, it fails to recognise that a UK economy standing on its own, would not be competing with these other various economies as individual national economies, but as economies which are themselves integrated into larger economic blocs.
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How Do Zombies Know Where You Are?
24 Jun
I watched the World War Z movie on Friday, and there were a couple of scenes which got be thinking about how zombies know where people are. I won’t discuss the scenes themselves in case you haven’t seen it yet (and I’d definitely recommend doing so), but I think this is an interesting question and it’s one I’ll explore in this post. As humans, we are primarily visual animals and, for most of us, our eyesight is the main sense we use to find out about the world around us. To a lesser extent, we also use sound while our remaining senses, smell, taste and touch, are usually only used once we’re already aware of what’s going on.
With zombies, things might be different, but this will depend on the type of zombies we’re talking about. If we’re talking about living humans infected with some sort of disease, sight and sound will still be the primarily senses by which they will detected uninfected humans. The more traditional risen-from-the-dead type zombies, however, will be differ. While in some cases, it appears that these dead zombies can still use their sight, as a rule they seem to be less visual creatures. In particular, in many cases the eyes are specifically portrayed as being clouded over (as an indicator of death), meaning that such zombies are probably limited to seeing changes in light intensity rather than any actual images. This means the best they can probably do visually is detect movement and orient towards it. In contrast, sound seems to be a much more important sense for dead zombies, and in almost all zombie scenarios, it’s unintended noises which alert zombies to the presence of humans. There’s the possibility that such zombies might also rely more on other senses such as smell to tell if humans are nearby but given the limitations of the human nose, this will, at best, be an imperfect mode of detection.
However, when it comes to zombies knowing where you are, there’s more to this than just whether zombies can tell you are there or not. In particular, there’s the question of how zombies tell the difference between normal humans and their fellow undead, since almost every scenario presented in films and books suggests that zombies don’t attack each other. Well, I think there’s two options here. The first is through something like smell. If we’re talking about infected type zombies, many diseases cause humans to give off specific odours, and indeed this is the basis for diagnosis in some cases, while if we’re talking about dead zombies, they may also smell different because of decomposition. This means zombies could tell who’s normal and who isn’t by their scent. This possibility is the basis of the scene from The Walking Dead where the characters cover themselves in rotting flesh from dispatched zombies to allow them to walk through the undead which surround them. However, this would only work across small distances and it seems even over longer distances, zombies can tell the difference between their brethren and normal humans, pursuing the former while ignoring the latter. This suggests zombies can also tell the differences through movements. In almost all cases, zombies, whether fast or slow, and humans move in very different ways and these differences may allow zombies to identify their prey from a great distance. This possibility is the basis of the scene in Shaun of the Dead, where the eponymous hero and his friends cover the last few yards to the Winchester through a mass of zombies by mimicking their movements.
Yet, this still leaves some apparent problems. For a start, zombies seem to be able to know where humans are from greater distances than they could possibly see, hear or smell them, and they seem to be drawn towards areas of human habitation from great distances and across landscapes where lines of sight are limited. How else could you explain the hordes of zombies which tend to descend on and surround the safe houses where humans are hiding? Well, I think the answer here is what I’ll call the ‘vulture’ effect. Vultures hunt by soaring on thermals and scanning the ground below them searching for dead or dying animals. Yet, they don’t devote all their attention to what is going on below; they also watch the other vultures in the skies around them. When one detects food and starts to dive towards the ground, those around them know what this means and do the same, and so do the ones around them and so on. This means hundreds of vultures spread over great distances can descend on a potential food supply within minutes. Zombies, I suspect, would operate in a very similar way and when they hear or see other zombies reacting as if they’ve detected humans, they will be drawn towards the same point. This means that once one zombie detects your presence, you are likely to find yourself inundated within a very short space of time as all the zombies within the local area follow each other towards your location. Interestingly, this concept is depicted in the World War Z book, where they drop soldiers into a location, have them form a square and keep shooting until all the zombies which are drawn to the location from all over the place by other zombies are dead.
So what does all this mean for your survival if you’re unlucky enough to find yourself caught up in a zombie apocalypse? Well, firstly, if even one zombie detects that you are there, the vulture effect is likely to come into play, and many other zombies are likely to be drawn to you very quickly. This means you will only have a very short space of time to escape before you’re surrounded on all sides by hordes of flesh-munchers intent on tearing you limb from limb. If you can’t get away fast enough, there’s an outside possibility that you might be able to disguise yourself in some way so that the zombies can’t tell you are a normal human. You could try mimicking their movements or covering up your scent, but without knowing exactly how they are telling human from zombie this will always be a very risky strategy. In addition, this will probably only work for dead-type zombies and it’s unlikely that the infected type will be fooled so easily. In this way, infected-type zombies are probably more difficult to evade than the dead ones. Either way, however, your best chance of survival is to make sure the zombies don’t find out you’re there in the first place, so keep quiet and keep still!
5 Responses to “How Do Zombies Know Where You Are?”
1. Serenity 24/06/2013 at 16:42 #
I have always thought that zombies always knew where humans were by their smell, first and foremost. What smell? I am not sure. I don’t think it is fear or sweat, I think it is more primal, much more primal than that. I have always hypothesized that it was something like when an animals hunts another animal…or my favorite scenario I like to go back to is when raptors hunt out another dinosaur or easier for me to imagine is when those raptors hunted out those humans in Jurassic Park…by smell…but once again, what smell???
As for the clouded eyes…you either see them clouded or dilated. It takes muscles to make your pupils constrict, so when you die, the muscles deconstrict and your eyes dilate. When light is shined into the eyes and the pupils dilate, it shows that there is brain activity. Zombies obviously have not brain activity. Eyes only cloud over just when conditions are right. Those conditions include temperature, bacteria colonizing in the eye, the eyes become soft and full of fluid, all which lead to the eye decomposing. This is the scientific explanation of the eye question. Hollywood just does whatever they want to do with the eyes that suits the scenario of the movie and how they want the shock effect of the movie.
I was not trying to debunk your theories or derail your post, merely to comment on your post and offer my own hypothesis.
Thank you for another awesome post!
• cmdrysdale 24/06/2013 at 17:15 #
You’ve obviously put a lot of thought into this, which is great. I had always thought that smell might be important until I started thinking about how good the basic human sense of smell is. Presumably, a zombie’s sense of smell can’t be any better that than of the human it once was. If this is the case, then no matter what scent humans give off, zombies wouldn’t be able to smell them from any great distance, and this is what would differentiate them from animals, such as predatory dinosaurs, which are specifically adapted to hunting by smell. Thus, my feeling is that a zombie velociraptor (now there’s a thought!) might be able to hunt by sense of smell but not a zombie human (at least not from any great distance).
Your points about the eyes are interesting. I’d always presumed that eyes always clouded over to a greater or lesser extent, so it’s good to know the real situation (even if Hollywood does whatever it wants!). In terms of the irises relaxing (so making the eyes dark), this would presumably make their vision quite limited because the eye would have a wide aperture and so any light coming in would be unfocussed (I’m going by my knowledge of photography here). The muscles around the lens would also be relaxed, preventing it from doing anything to improve the focus. This would still suggest that visual detection is primarily related to detecting movement rather than by recognising objects. But then again, maybe I’m wrong here. What we really need to do is get a zombie and give it an eye test just to see how well it can see. Any volunteers?
2. T.R. 24/06/2013 at 19:08 #
Well thought out. Lots of things about Hollywood zombies make me raise my eyebrow. Lots of artistic license going on. I agree that clouded eyes depict lifelessness so its an obvious zombie marker. They do seem to be sight-feeders though. Since zombies must be cold-blooded any chance of them reading heat signatures? Do humans have that ability latent somewhere? And that begs another question. How do zombies avoid attacking each other? If you’re hungry you’re hungry. Many predatory animals have strong urinary proteins that identify them to other members of the hunting group, strong possibility that zombie pee is the ticket. If so that’s how you avoid being attacked. Spray zombie urine on you.
Oddly enough I am finishing a zombie-like apocalypse book based on factual disease states that can cause something like this. I am looking for reviewers before I release it. It should be in final draft by the end of July. Would you like to get a copy to review?
• cmdrysdale 24/06/2013 at 19:39 #
These are some interesting points. I agree that zombies seem to be sight-feeders, but this is at odds with the apparently reduced vision. However, many real animals respond to movements (or simple changes in light and shade) and can key in on that even if they might be what we would call blind (i.e. they can’t really see an image as such, so maybe this is not necessarily a problem.
I like the heat signature suggestion. I’m not too sure whether humans could ever detect heat with any existing organs, which would seem to rule this option out, but may be there could be some sort of change in the proteins in the light receptors in the eyes which would allow them to detect infra-red (heat) rather than just the usual red. This might be one at least vaguely viable option. If they could sense humans by heat signatures, this would also neatly solve the issue of why they don’t attack each other (since dead zombies wouldn’t have heat signatures – or at least they would have different ones to normal humans).
The book you’re working on sound interesting. Email me at cmdrysdale [at] and we can discuss the possibility of me reviewing it further. It will depend on the exact timing of when you’d want it done by, and whether I can fit it in around various projects, as much as anything else.
1. Hiding From Zombies In Plain Sight | Colin M. Drysdale - 26/03/2014
[…] it requires that zombies only recognise humans by sight and not by other senses such as smell (see this post for more information about how zombies know you’re there). This approach is probably only best used for short forays into areas where you might encounter […]
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For years this has sat inside my mind, being revealed only in conversation with family and friends. But now-now it can be shown in full.
I give you-the story and rules of Ring the Gong, a fictional sport I have made.
Ring the Gong was invented in 1879 by a British proto-sociologist named N. Amadeus Cobwell. Cobwell saw increased industrialization, increased mechanization, and increased automation (even in his time). To this, he theorized that the gift of manhood, the skills that allowed “humanity to flourish in its prime” would soon be lost, with catastrophic consequences for all of civilization. To counter this, he invented Ring the Gong.
The game has gone through innumerable rule changes, but the basics have not changed since Cobwell’s day. The players go into a huge pit that has padding (ideally) and netting on the sides to enable an easy climb. To score a point, a player must climb up to the top of the pit and ring a gong at the top-hence the name. At the same time, each team must prevent the players on the other team from doing the same. The players carry mallets in various shapes and sizes, and the game is very violent. Cobwell intended for nothing less.
Cobwell died playing his sport. The initial rules included two players on horseback on each team. On April 2, 1882, Cobwell was knocked into the muddy ground by an opposing player, and then trampled upon the head by one of his own team’s horses. The game went on for twenty minutes before the players even noticed his predicament, and he died several hours later.
But the sport did not. In the 1880s and 1890s, the sport continued hesitatingly. But it was not until the 1920s that it both flourished and developed into political gongism. One of the reasons why aficionados of Ring the Gong turned to political talk was because the game itself was becoming a circus. With both teams wearing identical seersucker suits, players banging the gong repeatedly, and lots of smoke and alcohol, it was hard to tell what was going on. Another was that, in the aftermath of World War I, political gongism-with its min-max philosophy, offered a way to solve conflicts.
The idea being that the state would be replaced by local communities centered around Ring the Gong teams, overseen by an international league/federation. The Gong Association was founded to great aplomb in 1919, and reached its height with the first World Season in 1932. Only seven hundred deaths happened during it.
Meanwhile, the game was forming into a genuine sport. A player nicknamed “The Mighty George” wore a distinctive striped suit-soon he founded an entire team, and uniforms developed. A rule was made-and enforced- that stated that players could only ring the gong once per trip up and that play stopped once it was rung. Positions began to develop.
From there, the unified history of Ring the Gong stops. My various concepts range from it being a slightly unconventional sport with the same focus on safety to a bloodbath free-for-all. But in all forms, teams are armies in their own right, with waves of brave-though-unintelligent fans backed by heavily armed better-trained “sweeper” commandos.
The effect of Ring the Gong on geopolitics is also varied, but the basics of the sport itself have not been-everything involves excessive violence and people climbing up pits to ring a gong and hit each other.
2 thoughts on “The Basics of Ring the Gong
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Health risks of alcohol use | Substance Abuse Problems
Substance Abuse Problems
Table of Contents
1. Also called: Drinking
2. Frequently Asked Questions
3. Alcohol Facts
4. Nutrition and healthy eating
5. Understanding alcohol’s impact on your health
6. Overview of Alcohol Consumption
7. What Is A Standard Drink?
8. Discussing Drinking. A Back-to-School Conversation You Need to Have
9. Health risks of alcohol use
10. Alcohol use and safe drinking
11. Responsible drinking
12. Do you have a drinking problem?
13. Harmful Interactions
14. Wine and heart health
15. Alcohol and Cancer Risk
16. Talking to your teen about drinking
17. Women and Drinking
01.- Also called: Drinking
NIH: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
02.- Frequently Asked Questions
Introduction to alcohol
• What is alcohol?
• How does alcohol affect a person?
• Why do some people react differently to alcohol than others?
• What is a standard drink in the United States?
• Is beer or wine safer to drink than hard liquor?
Drinking levels
• What does moderate drinking mean?
• Is it safe to drink alcohol and drive?
• What does it mean to be above the legal limit for drinking?
• How do I know if it’s okay to drink?
Excessive alcohol use
• What is excessive alcohol use?
• What is binge drinking?
• What do you mean by heavy drinking?
• What is the difference between alcoholism and alcohol abuse?
• What does it mean to get drunk?
Drinking problems
• How do I know if I have a drinking problem?
• What can I do if I or someone I know has a drinking problem?
• What health problems are associated with excessive alcohol use?
Special populations
• I’m young, is drinking bad for my health?
• Is it okay to drink when pregnant?
What is alcohol?
How does alcohol affect a person?
Alcohol affects every organ in the body. It is a central nervous system depressant that is rapidly absorbed from the stomach and small intestine into the bloodstream. Alcohol is metabolized in the liver by enzymes; however, the liver can only metabolize a small amount of alcohol at a time, leaving the excess alcohol to circulate throughout the body. The intensity of the effect of alcohol on the body is directly related to the amount consumed.
Why do some people react differently to alcohol than others?
Individual reactions to alcohol vary, and are influenced by many factors; such as:
• Age.
• Gender.
• Race or ethnicity.
• Physical condition (weight, fitness level, etc).
• Amount of food consumed before drinking.
• How quickly the alcohol was consumed.
• Use of drugs or prescription medicines.
• Family history of alcohol problems.
What is a standard drink in the United States?
Is beer or wine safer to drink than liquor?
What does moderate drinking mean?
Is it safe to drink alcohol and drive?
No. Alcohol use slows reaction time and impairs judgment and coordination, which are all skills needed to drive a car safely.2 The more alcohol consumed, the greater the impairment.
The legal limit for drinking is the alcohol level above which an individual is subject to legal penalties (e.g., arrest or loss of a driver's license).
• Legal limits are measured using either a blood alcohol test or a breathalyzer.
• Legal limits are typically defined by state law, and may vary based on individual characteristics, such as age and occupation.
All states in the United States have adopted 0.08% (80 mg/dL) as the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle for drivers aged 21 years or older. However, drivers younger than 21 are not allowed to operate a motor vehicle with any level of alcohol in their system.
How do I know if it’s okay to drink?
• Children and adolescents.
• Women who may become pregnant or who are pregnant.
• Individuals with certain medical conditions.
• Persons recovering from alcoholism.
What is excessive alcohol use?
Excessive alcohol use includes binge drinking, heavy drinking, any alcohol use by people under the age 21 minimum legal drinking age, and any alcohol use by pregnant women.
What is binge drinking?
What do you mean by heavy drinking?
What is the difference between alcoholism and alcohol abuse?
Alcohol abuse4 is a pattern of drinking that results in harm to one’s health, interpersonal relationships, or ability to work. Manifestations of alcohol abuse include the following:
• Long-term alcohol abuse can turn into alcohol dependence.
Dependency on alcohol, also known as alcohol addiction and alcoholism4, is a chronic disease. The signs and symptoms of alcohol dependence include—
• A strong craving for alcohol.
• Continued use despite repeated physical, psychological, or interpersonal problems.
• The inability to limit drinking.
What does it mean to get drunk?
“Getting drunk” or intoxicated is the result of consuming excessive amounts of alcohol. Binge drinking typically results in acute intoxication.
Alcohol intoxication can be harmful for a variety of reasons, including—
• Impaired brain function resulting in poor judgment, reduced reaction time, loss of balance and motor skills, or slurred speech.
• Dilation of blood vessels causing a feeling of warmth but resulting in rapid loss of body heat.
• Increased risk of certain cancers, stroke, and liver diseases (e.g., cirrhosis), particularly when excessive amounts of alcohol are consumed over extended periods of time.
• Damage to a developing fetus if consumed by pregnant women.5
• Increased risk of motor-vehicle traffic crashes, violence, and other injuries.
Coma and death can occur if alcohol is consumed rapidly and in large amounts.
How do I know if I have a drinking problem?
Drinking is a problem if it causes trouble in your relationships, in school, in social activities, or in how you think and feel. If you are concerned that either you or someone in your family might have a drinking problem, consult your personal health care provider.
Consult your personal health care provider if you feel you or someone you know has a drinking problem. Other resources include the National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Referral Routing Service available at 1-800-662-HELP. This service can provide you with information about treatment programs in your local community and allow you to speak with someone about alcohol problems.6
What health problems are associated with excessive alcohol use?
• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
• Alcohol abuse or dependence.
I’m young. Is drinking bad for my health?
Yes.7, 8 Studies have shown that alcohol use by youth and young adults increases the risk of both fatal and nonfatal injuries.9, 10, 11 Research has also shown that youth who use alcohol before age 15 are five times more likely to become alcohol dependent than adults who begin drinking at age 21.12 Other consequences of youth alcohol use include increased risky sexual behaviors, poor school performance, and increased risk of suicide and homicide.13, 14, 15
Is it okay to drink when pregnant?
No. There is no safe level of alcohol use during pregnancy. Women who are pregnant or plan on becoming pregnant should refrain from drinking alcohol.16 Several conditions, including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders have been linked to alcohol use during pregnancy. Women of child bearing age should also avoid Binge drinking to reduce the risk of unintended pregnancy and potential exposure of a developing fetus to alcohol.
U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010.[PDF-2.89 MB]. 7th Edition, Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office; 2010.
2. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Available at
3. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. NIAAA council approves definition of binge drinking [PDF-1.6MB]. NIAAA Newsletter 2004;3:3.
4. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), published by the American Psychiatric Association, Washington D.C., 1994.
5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. Available at
6. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator. Available at
7. Bonnie RJ and O’Connell ME, editors. National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Committee on Developing a Strategy to Reduce and Prevent Underage Drinking. Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2004.
8. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: 2007.
9. Hingson RW, Heeren T, Jamanka A, Howland J. Age of onset and unintentional injury involvement after drinking. JAMA 2000;284(12):1527–1533.
10. Hingson RW, Heeren T, Winter M, Wechsler H. Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 18–24: Changes from 1998 to 2001. Annu Rev Public Health 2005;26:259–79.
11. Levy DT, Mallonee S, Miller TR, Smith GS, Spicer RS, Romano EO, Fisher DA. Alcohol involvement in burn, submersion, spinal cord, and brain injuries. Medical Science Monitor 2004;10(1):CR17–24.
13. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. A Comprehensive Plan for Preventing and Reducing Underage Drinking [PDF-513KB]. Washington, DC; 2006.
16. Department of Health and Human Services. U.S. Surgeon General Releases Advisory on Alcohol Use in Pregnancy; urges women who are pregnant or who may become pregnant to abstain from alcohol. Washington, DC; 2005.
03.- Alcohol Facts
These drink sizes have about the same amount of alcohol in them:
• 1 ½ ounces of hard liquor
• 5 ounces of wine
• 8 ounces of malt liquor
• 12 ounces of beer
Some slang names for alcohol are:
• Booze
• Juice
• Hooch
• Sauce
• Rotgut
04.- Nutrition and healthy eating
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Moderate alcohol consumption may provide some health benefits. It may:
• Reduce your risk of developing and dying from heart disease
• Possibly reduce your risk of diabetes
Examples of one drink include:
Beer: 12 fluid ounces (355 milliliters)
Wine: 5 fluid ounces (148 milliliters)
• You're pregnant or trying to become pregnant
• You have liver or pancreatic disease
• Pancreatitis
• Sudden death if you already have cardiovascular disease
• Heart muscle damage (alcoholic cardiomyopathy) leading to heart failure
• Stroke
• High blood pressure
• Liver disease
• Suicide
• Accidental serious injury or death
• Brain damage and other problems in an unborn child
• Alcohol withdrawal syndrome
1. Rethinking drinking. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Accessed Sept. 10, 2013.
2. Mukamal KJ. Overview of the risks and benefits of alcohol consumption. Accessed Sept. 10, 2013.
3. Tangney CC, et al. Cardiovascular benefits and risks of moderate alcohol consumption. Accessed Sept. 10, 2013.
4. Mukamal KJ, et al. A 42-year-old man considering whether to drink alcohol for his health. JAMA. 2010;303:2065.
5. Robert Post (expert opinion). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alexandria, Va. Aug. 8, 2011.
6. Kloner RA, et al. To drink or not to drink? That is the question. Circulation. 2007;116:1306.
7. O'Keefe JA, et al. Alcohol and cardiovascular health. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2007;50:1009.
8. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Accessed Sept. 10, 2013.
9. Drinking and driving: A threat to everyone. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed Sept. 10, 2013.
10. Hoffman HS, et al. Management of moderate and severe alcohol withdrawal syndromes. Accessed Sept. 13, 2013.
05.- Understanding alcohol’s impact on your health
Beyond Hangovers
A brightly colored cosmopolitan is the drink of choice for the glamorous characters in Sex and the City. James Bond depends on his famous martini—shaken, not stirred—to unwind with after confounding a villain. And what wedding concludes without a champagne toast?
Alcohol is part of our culture—it helps us celebrate and socialize, and it enhances our religious ceremonies. But drinking too much—on a single occasion or over time—can have serious consequences for our health. Most Americans recognize that drinking too much can lead to accidents and dependence. But that’s only part of the story. In addition to these serious problems, alcohol abuse can damage organs, weaken the immune system, and contribute to cancers. Plus, much like smoking, alcohol affects different people differently. Genes, environment, and even diet can play a role in whether you develop an alcohol-related disease. On the flip side, some people actually may benefit from drinking alcohol in small quantities. Sound complicated? It sure can be. To stay healthy, and to decide what role alcohol should play in your life, you need accurate, up-to-date information. This brochure is designed to offer you guidance based on the latest research on alcohol’s effect on your health.
Knowing how much alcohol constitutes a “standard” drink can help you determine how much you are drinking and understand the risks. One standard drink contains about 0.6 fluid ounces or 14 grams of pure alcohol. In more familiar terms, the following amounts constitute one standard drink:
• 12 fluid ounces of beer (about 5% alcohol)
• 8 to 9 fluid ounces of malt liquor (about 7% alcohol)
• 5 fluid ounces of table wine (about 12% alcohol)
• 1.5 fluid ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits (40% alcohol)
Research demonstrates “low-risk” drinking levels for men are no more than 4 drinks on any single day AND no more than 14 drinks per week. For women, “low-risk” drinking levels are no more than three drinks on any single day AND no more than seven drinks per week. To stay low-risk, you must keep within both the single-day and weekly limits.
Even within these limits, you can have problems if you drink too quickly, have health conditions, or are over age 65. Older adults should have no more than three drinks on any day and no more than seven drinks per week.
Based on your health and how alcohol affects you, you may need to drink less or not at all. People who should abstain from alcohol completely include those who:
• Plan to drive a vehicle or operate machinery
• Are pregnant or trying to become pregnant
• Take medications that interact with alcohol
• Have a medical condition that alcohol can aggravate
Effects on the brain
You’re chatting with friends at a party and a waitress comes around with glasses of champagne. You drink one, then another, maybe even a few more. Before you realize it, you are laughing more loudly than usual and swaying as you walk. By the end of the evening, you are too slow to move out of the way of a waiter with a dessert tray and have trouble speaking clearly. The next morning, you wake up feeling dizzy and your head hurts. You may have a hard time remembering everything you did the night before.
These reactions illustrate how quickly and dramatically alcohol affects the brain. The brain is an intricate maze of connections that keeps our physical and psychological processes running smoothly. Disruption of any of these connections can affect how the brain works. Alcohol also can have longer-lasting consequences for the brain—changing the way it looks and works and resulting in a range of problems.
Most people do not realize how extensively alcohol can affect the brain. But recognizing these potential consequences will help you make better decisions about what amount of alcohol is appropriate for you.
The brain’s structure is complex. It includes multiple systems that interact to support all of your body’s functions—from thinking to breathing and moving.
These multiple brain systems communicate with each other through about a trillion tiny nerve cells called neurons. Neurons in the brain translate information into electrical and chemical signals the brain can understand. They also send messages from the brain to the rest of the body.
Chemicals called neurotransmitters carry messages between the neurons. Neurotransmitters can be very powerful. Depending on the type and the amount of neurotransmitter, these chemicals can either intensify or minimize your body’s responses, your feelings, and your mood. The brain works to balance the neurotransmitters that speed things up with the ones that slow things down to keep your body operating at the right pace.
Alcohol can slow the pace of communication between neurotransmitters in the brain.
There still is much we do not understand about how the brain works and how alcohol affects it. Researchers are constantly discovering more about how alcohol interrupts communication pathways in the brain and changes brain structure, and the resulting effects on behavior and functioning. A variety of research methods broaden our understanding in different ways:
BRAIN IMAGING Various imaging tools, including structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and positron emission tomography (PET), are used to create pictures of the brain. MRI and DTI create images of brain structure, or what the brain looks like. fMRI looks at brain function, or what the brain is doing. It can detect changes in brain activity. PET scans look at changes in neurotransmitter function. All of these imaging techniques are useful to track changes in the alcoholic brain. For example, they can show how an alcoholic brain changes immediately after drinking stops, and again after a long period of sobriety, to check for possible relapses.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS – Researchers also use psychological tests to evaluate how alcohol-related brain changes affect mental functioning. These tests demonstrate how alcohol affects emotions and personality, as well as how it compromises learning and memory skills.
ANIMAL STUDIES – Testing the effect of alcohol on animals’ brains helps researchers better understand how alcohol injures the human brain, and how abstinence can reverse this damage.
Using brain imaging and psychological tests, researchers have identified the regions of the brain most vulnerable to alcohol’s effects. These include:
CEREBELLUM – This area controls motor coordination. Damage to the cerebellum results in a loss of balance and stumbling, and also may affect cognitive functions such as memory and emotional response.
LIMBIC SYSTEM – This complex brain system monitors a variety of tasks including memory and emotion. Damage to this area impairs each of these functions.
CEREBRAL CORTEX – Our abilities to think, plan, behave intelligently, and interact socially stem from this brain region. In addition, this area connects the brain to the rest of the nervous system. Changes and damage to this area impair the ability to solve problems, remember, and learn.
Heavy alcohol consumption—even on a single occasion—can throw the delicate balance of neurotransmitters off course. Alcohol can cause your neurotransmitters to relay information too slowly, so you feel extremely drowsy. Alcohol-related disruptions to the neurotransmitter balance also can trigger mood and behavioral changes, including depression, agitation, memory loss, and even seizures.
Long-term, heavy drinking causes alterations in the neurons, such as reductions in the size of brain cells. As a result of these and other changes, brain mass shrinks and the brain’s inner cavity grows bigger. These changes may affect a wide range of abilities, including motor coordination; temperature regulation; sleep; mood; and various cognitive functions, including learning and memory.
One neurotransmitter particularly susceptible to even small amounts of alcohol is called glutamate. Among other things, glutamate affects memory. Researchers believe that alcohol interferes with glutamate action, and this may be what causes some people to temporarily “black out,” or forget much of what happened during a night of heavy drinking.
Alcohol also causes an increased release of serotonin, another neurotransmitter, which helps regulate emotional expression, and endorphins, which are natural substances that may spark feelings of relaxation and euphoria as intoxication sets in. Researchers now understand that the brain tries to compensate for these disruptions. Neurotransmitters adapt to create balance in the brain despite the presence of alcohol. But making these adaptations can have negative results, including building alcohol tolerance, developing alcohol dependence, and experiencing alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Different people react differently to alcohol. That is because a variety of factors can influence your brain’s response to alcohol. These factors include:
HOW MUCH AND HOW OFTEN YOU DRINK – The more you drink, the more vulnerable your brain is.
YOUR GENETIC BACKGROUND AND FAMILY HISTORY OF ALCOHOLISM – Certain ethnic populations can have stronger reactions to alcohol, and children of alcoholics are more likely to become alcoholics themselves.
YOUR PHYSICAL HEALTH – If you have liver or nutrition problems, the effects of alcohol will take longer to wear off.
Not only does alcoholic liver disease affect liver function itself, it also damages the brain. The liver breaks down alcohol—and the toxins it releases. During this process, alcohol’s byproducts damage liver cells. These damaged liver cells no longer function as well as they should and allow too much of these toxic substances, ammonia and manganese in particular, to travel to the brain.These substances proceed to damage brain cells, causing a serious and potentially fatal brain disorder known as hepatic encephalopathy.
Hepatic encephalopathy causes a range of problems, from less severe to fatal.These problems can include:
• Sleep disturbances
• Mood and personality changes
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Shortened attention span
• Coordination problems, including asterixis, which results in hand shaking or flapping
• Coma
• Death
Doctors can help treat hepatic encephalopathy with compounds that lower blood ammonia concentrations and with devices that help remove harmful toxins from the blood. In some cases, people suffering from hepatic encephalopathy require a liver transplant, which generally helps improve brain function.
Alcohol can affect the brain at any stage of development—even before birth. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are the full range of physical, learning, and behavioral problems, and other birth defects that result from prenatal alcohol exposure. The most serious of these disorders, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), is characterized by abnormal facial features and is usually associated with severe reductions in brain function and overall growth. FAS is the leading preventable birth defect associated with mental and behavioral impairment in the United States today. The brains of children with FAS are smaller than normal and contain fewer cells, including neurons. These deficiencies result in life-long learning and behavioral problems. Current research is investigating whether the brain function of children and adults with FAS can be improved with complex rehabilitative training, dietary supplements, or medications.
Effects on the heart
Americans know how prevalent heart disease is—about 1 in 12 of us suffer from it. What we don’t always recognize are the connections heart disease shares with alcohol. On the one hand, researchers have known for centuries that excessive alcohol consumption can damage the heart. Drinking a lot over a long period of time or drinking too much on a single occasion can put your heart—and your life—at risk. On the other hand, researchers now understand that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol can protect the hearts of some people from the risks of coronary artery disease.
Deciding how much, if any, alcohol is right for you can be complicated. To make the best decision for yourself, you need to know the facts and then consult your physician.
Your cardiovascular system consists of your heart, blood vessels, and blood. This system works constantly—every second of your life—delivering oxygen and nutrients to your cells, and carrying away carbon dioxide and other unnecessary material.
Your heart drives this process. It is a muscle that contracts and relaxes over and over again, moving the blood along the necessary path. Your heart beats about 100,000 times each day, pumping the equivalent of 2,000 gallons of blood throughout your body.
The two sides, or chambers, of the heart receive blood and pump it back into the body. The right ventricle of the heart pumps blood into the lungs to exchange carbon dioxide from the cells for oxygen. The heart relaxes to allow this blood back into its left chamber. It then pumps the oxygen-rich blood to tissues and organs. Blood passing through the kidneys allows the body to get rid of waste products. Electrical signals keep the heart pumping continuously and at the appropriate rate to propel this routine.
Long-term heavy drinking weakens the heart muscle, causing a condition called alcoholic cardiomyopathy. A weakened heart droops and stretches and cannot contract effectively. As a result, it cannot pump enough blood to sufficiently nourish the organs. In some cases, this blood flow shortage causes severe damage to organs and tissues. Symptoms of cardiomyopathy include shortness of breath and other breathing difficulties, fatigue, swollen legs and feet, and irregular heartbeat. It can even lead to heart failure.
Both binge drinking and long-term drinking can affect how quickly a heart beats.The heart depends on an internal pacemaker system to keep it pumping consistently and at the right speed. Alcohol disturbs this pacemaker system and causes the heart to beat too rapidly, or irregularly. These heart rate abnormalities are called arrhythmias. Two types of alcohol induced arrhythmias are:
ATRIAL FIBRILLATION – In this form of arrhythmia, the heart’s upper, or atrial, chambers shudder weakly but do not contract. Blood can collect and even clot in these upper chambers. If a blood clot travels from the heart to the brain, a stroke can occur; if it travels to other organs such as the lungs, an embolism, or blood vessel blockage, occurs.
VENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA – This form of arrhythmia occurs in the heart’s lower, or ventricular, chambers. Electrical signals travel throughout the heart’s muscles, triggering contractions that keep blood flowing at the right pace. Alcohol-induced damage to heart muscle cells can cause these electrical impulses to circle through the ventricle too many times, causing too many contractions. The heart beats too quickly, and so does not fill up with enough blood between each beat. As a result, the rest of the body does not get enough blood. Ventricular tachycardia causes dizziness, lightheadedness, unconsciousness, cardiac arrest, and even sudden death. Drinking to excess on a particular occasion, especially when you generally don’t drink, can trigger either of these irregularities. In these cases, the problem is nicknamed “holiday heart syndrome,” because people who don’t usually drink may consume too much alcohol at parties during the holiday season. Over the long-term, chronic drinking changes the course of electrical impulses that drive the heart’s beating, which creates arrhythmia.
A stroke occurs when blood cannot reach the brain. In about 80 percent of strokes, a blood clot prevents blood flow to the brain. These are called ischemic strokes. Sometimes, blood accumulates in the brain, or in the spaces surrounding it. This causes hemorrhagic strokes.
Both binge drinking and long-term heavy drinking can lead to strokes even in people without coronary heart disease. Recent studies show that people who binge drink are about 56 percent more likely than people who never binge drink to suffer an ischemic stroke over 10 years. Binge drinkers also are about 39 percent more likely to suffer any type of stroke than people who never binge drink.
Chronic alcohol use, as well as binge drinking, can cause high blood pressure, or hypertension. Your blood pressure is a measurement of the pressure your heart creates as it beats, and the pressure inside your veins and arteries. Healthy blood vessels stretch like elastic as the heart pumps blood through them. Hypertension develops when the blood vessels stiffen, making them less flexible. Heavy alcohol consumption triggers the release of certain stress hormones that in turn constrict blood vessels.This elevates blood pressure. In addition, alcohol may affect the function of the muscles within the blood vessels, causing them to constrict and elevate blood pressure.
A variety of factors, including diet, genetics, high blood pressure, and age, can cause fat to build up in your arteries, resulting in coronary heart disease. An excess of fat narrows the coronary arteries, which are the blood vessels that supply blood directly to the heart. Clogged arteries reduce blood supply to the heart muscle, and make it easier for blood clots to form. Blood clots can lead to both heart attacks and strokes.
These benefits may not apply to people with existing medical conditions, or who regularly take certain medications. In addition, researchers discourage people from beginning to drink just for the health benefits. Rather, you can use this research to help you spark a conversation with your medical professional about the best path for you.
Effects on the liver
Liver disease is one of the leading causes of illness and death in the United States. More than 2 million Americans suffer from liver disease caused by alcohol.
In general, liver disease strikes people who drink heavily over many years.
While many of us recognize that excessive alcohol consumption can lead to liver disease, we might not know why. Understanding the connections between alcohol and the liver can help you make smarter decisions about drinking and take better control of your health.
Your liver works hard to keep your body productive and healthy. It stores energy and nutrients. It generates proteins and enzymes your body uses to function and ward off disease. It also rids your body of substances that can be dangerous—including alcohol.
The liver breaks down most of the alcohol a person consumes. But the process of breaking alcohol down generates toxins even more harmful than alcohol itself. These by-products damage liver cells, promote inflammation, and weaken the body’s natural defenses. Eventually, these problems can disrupt the body’s metabolism and impair the function of other organs.
Because the liver plays such a vital role in alcohol detoxification, it is especially vulnerable to damage from excessive alcohol.
Heavy drinking—even for just a few days at a time—can cause fat to build up in the liver. This condition, called steatosis, or fatty liver, is the earliest stage of alcoholic liver disease and the most common alcohol-induced liver disorder. The excessive fat makes it more difficult for the liver to operate and leaves it open to developing dangerous inflammations, like alcoholic hepatitis.
For some, alcoholic hepatitis does not present obvious symptoms. For others, though, alcoholic hepatitis can cause fever, nausea, appetite loss, abdominal pain, and even mental confusion. As it increases in severity, alcoholic hepatitis dangerously enlarges the liver, and causes jaundice, excessive bleeding, and clotting difficulties.
Another liver condition associated with heavy drinking is fibrosis, which causes scar tissue to build up in the liver. Alcohol alters the chemicals in the liver needed to break down and remove this scar tissue. As a result, liver function suffers.
If you continue to drink, this excessive scar tissue builds up and creates a condition called cirrhosis, which is a slow deterioration of the liver. Cirrhosis prevents the liver from performing critical functions, including managing infections, removing harmful substances from the blood, and absorbing nutrients.
A variety of complications, including jaundice, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and even liver cancer, can result as cirrhosis weakens liver function.
Risk factors ranging from genetics and gender, to alcohol accessibility, social customs around drinking, and even diet can affect a person’s individual susceptibility to alcoholic liver disease. Statistics show that about one in five heavy drinkers will develop alcoholic hepatitis, while one in four will develop cirrhosis.
The good news is that a variety of lifestyle changes can help treat alcoholic liver disease. The most critical lifestyle change is abstinence from alcohol. Quitting drinking will help prevent further injury to your liver. Cigarette smoking, obesity, and poor nutrition all contribute to alcoholic liver disease. It is important to stop smoking and improve your eating habits to keep liver disease in check. But when conditions like cirrhosis become severe, a liver transplant may be the primary treatment option.
Effects on the pancreas
Each year, acute pancreatitis sends more than 200,000 Americans to the hospital. Many of those who suffer from pancreatic problems are also heavy drinkers. Habitual and excessive drinking damages the pancreas, and commonly causes pancreatitis.
Learning more about the links between alcohol and pancreatic problems can help you make better decisions to protect your health.
The pancreas plays an important role in food digestion and its conversion into fuel to power your body. It sends enzymes into the small intestine to digest carbohydrates, proteins, and fat. It also secretes insulin and glucagon, hormones that regulate the process of utilizing glucose, the body’s main source of energy. Insulin and glucagon control glucose levels, which helps all cells use the energy glucose provides. Insulin also ensures that extra glucose gets stored away as either glycogen or fat.
When you drink, alcohol damages pancreatic cells and influences metabolic processes involving insulin. This process leaves the pancreas open to dangerous inflammations.
A pancreas unaffected by alcohol sends enzymes out to the small intestine to metabolize food. Alcohol jumbles this process. It causes the pancreas to secrete its digestive juices internally, rather than sending the enzymes to the small intestine. These enzymes, as well as acetaldehyde—a substance produced from metabolizing, or breaking down the alcohol—are harmful to the pancreas. If you consume alcohol excessively over a long time, this continued process can cause inflammation, as well as swelling of tissues and blood vessels.
This inflammation is called pancreatitis, and it prevents the pancreas from working properly. Pancreatitis occurs as a sudden attack, called acute pancreatitis. As excessive drinking continues, the inflammation can become constant. This condition is known as chronic pancreatitis.
Pancreatitis is also a risk factor for the development of pancreatic cancer.
A heavy drinker may not be able to detect the build-up of pancreatic damage until the problems set off an attack.
An acute pancreatic attack causes symptoms including:
• Abdominal pain, which may radiate up the back
• Nausea and vomiting
• Fever
• Rapid heart rate
• Diarrhea
• Sweating
Chronic pancreatitis causes these symptoms as well as severe abdominal pain, significant reduction in pancreatic function and digestion, and blood sugar problems. Chronic pancreatitis can slowly destroy the pancreas and lead to diabetes or even death.
While a single drinking binge will not automatically lead to pancreatitis, the risk of developing the disease increases as excessive drinking continues over time.
These risks apply to all heavy drinkers, but only about 5 percent of people with alcohol dependence develop pancreatitis. Some people are more susceptible to the disease than others, but researchers have not yet identified exactly what environmental and genetic factors play the biggest role.
Abstinence from alcohol can slow the progression of pancreatitis and reduce its painful symptoms.A low-fat diet also may help. It is also critical to guard against infections and to get supportive treatment. Treatment options, including enzyme-replacement therapy or insulin, can improve pancreatic function. In some cases, surgery is necessary to relieve pain, clear blockages, and reduce attacks.
The effects of alcoholic pancreatitis can be managed, but not easily reversed.
Cancer risks
Genetics, environment, and lifestyle habits can all heighten your risk of getting cancer. We can’t do anything to change our genes, and we often can’t do much to change our environment. But lifestyle habits are a different story.
Drinking too much alcohol is one lifestyle habit that can increase your risk of developing certain cancers. This does not mean that anyone who drinks too much will develop cancer. But numerous studies do show the more you drink, the more you increase your chances of developing certain types of cancer.
For example, a group of Italy-based scientists reviewed more than 200 studies examining alcohol’s impact on cancer risk.The collective results of these studies clearly demonstrate that the more you drink, the higher your risk for developing a variety of cancers.The National Cancer Institute identifies alcohol as a risk factor for the following types of cancer:
• Mouth
• Esophagus
• Pharynx
• Larynx
• Liver
• Breast
At least 7 out of 10 people with mouth cancer drink heavily. Drinking five or more drinks per day can also increase your risk of developing other types of cancers, including colon or rectal cancer. In fact, summary estimates from the recent World Cancer Research Fund report indicate that women who drink five standard alcohol drinks each day have about 1.2 times the risk of developing colon or rectal cancer than women who do not drink at all.
People who drink are also more likely to smoke, and the combination increases the risk significantly. Smoking alone is a known risk factor for some cancers. But smoking and drinking together intensifies the cancer-causing properties of each substance. The overall effect poses an even greater risk.
The risk of throat and mouth cancers is especially high because alcohol and tobacco both come in direct contact with those areas. Overall, people who drink and smoke are 15 times more likely to develop cancers of the mouth and throat than nondrinkers and nonsmokers. In addition, recent studies estimate that alcohol and tobacco together are responsible for:
• 80 percent of throat and mouth cancer in men
• 65 percent of throat and mouth cancer in women
• 80 percent of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, a type of esophagus cancer
• 25 to 30 percent of all liver cancers
One recent, groundbreaking study followed the drinking habits of 1.2 million middle-aged women over 7 years. The study found that alcohol increases women’s chances of developing cancers of the breast,mouth, throat, rectum, liver, and esophagus. The researchers link alcohol to about 13 percent of these cancer cases.
In addition, the study concluded that cancer risk increases no matter how little or what kind of alcohol a woman drinks. Even one drink a day can raise risk, and it continues to rise with each additional drink. While men did not participate in this study, the researchers believe this risk is likely similar for men.
This study also attributes about 11 percent of all breast cancer cases to alcohol. That means that of the 250,000 breast cancer cases diagnosed in the United States in 2008, about 27,000 may stem from alcohol.
Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how and why alcohol can promote cancer. There are a variety of possible explanations.
One explanation is that alcohol itself is not the primary trigger for cancer.We know that metabolizing, or breaking down, alcohol results in harmful toxins in the body. One of these toxins is called acetylaldehyde. Acetylaldehyde damages the genetic material in cells—and renders the cells incapable of repairing the damage. It also causes cells to grow too quickly, which makes conditions ripe for genetic changes and mistakes. Cancer can develop more easily in cells with damaged genetic material.
In addition, recent animal studies have shown that as cells try to break down alcohol, they cause the body to produce additional amounts of a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF promotes the growth of blood vessels and organ tissue. But, the flip side of having too much VEGF is that it allows blood vessels to grow in cancer cells that would die on their own. This allows the cancer cells to develop into tumors.
We also know that alcohol can damage the liver, causing cirrhosis. Cirrhosis results when too much scar tissue builds up within the liver and leaves it unable to perform its vital functions. One of the many complications that can result from cirrhosis is liver cancer.
Hormones may be the link between alcohol and breast cancer. Alcohol can increase the amounts of some hormones in the body, including estrogen. An excess of estrogen may lead to breast cancer.
Finally, genetics may play a role in preventing some heavy drinkers from developing cancer. A European research team examined 9,000 people with similar lifestyle habits to determine why some of them developed mouth and throat cancers, and some did not. Of the participants who were heavy drinkers, those who did not develop cancers had a particular genetic alteration that enabled them to break down alcohol about 100 times faster than in those without it. The study suggested that this gene is the reason why some people are less likely to develop cancer in response to heavy drinking.
Fortunately, studies show that you can reduce your risk for cancer by drinking less. A recent Canadian report analyzed studies from 1966 through 2006 and concluded that risk reduction is possible, specifically for head and neck cancers.The study found that as people abstained from drinking, their risk for developing cancer plunged. After 20 years of abstinence, former drinkers had the same risk for head and neck cancers as people who never drank.
Effects on the immune system
Germs and bacteria surround us everywhere. Luckily, our immune system is designed to protect our bodies from the scores of foreign substances that can make us sick. Drinking too much alcohol weakens the immune system, making your body a much easier target for disease. Understanding the effect alcohol can have on your immune system can inform the decisions you make about drinking alcohol.
Your immune system is often compared to an army. This army defends your body from infection and disease. Your skin and the mucous that lines your respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts help block bacteria from entering or staying in your body. If foreign substances somehow make it through these barriers, your immune system kicks into gear with two defensive systems: innate and adaptive.
The innate system exists in your body before you are exposed to foreign substances like bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites. These substances, which are called antigens, can invade your body and make you sick. The components of the innate system include:
WHITE BLOOD CELLS – White blood cells form your first line of defense against infection.They surround and swallow foreign bodies quickly.
NATURAL KILLER (NK) CELLS – Natural Killers are special white blood cells that detect and destroy cells infected with cancer or viruses.
CYTOKINES – White blood cells send out these chemical messengers directly to an infected site. Cytokines trigger inflammatory responses, like dilating blood vessels and increasing blood flow to the affected area. They also call on more white blood cells to swarm an infected area.
The adaptive system kicks in after you are exposed to an infection for the first time. The next time you encounter the same infection, your adaptive system fights it off even faster and more efficiently than the first time. The components of the adaptive system include:
T-LYMPHOCYTE CELLS – T-cells reinforce the work of white blood cells by targeting individual foreign substances.T-cells can identify and destroy a vast array of bacteria and viruses.They can also kill infected cells and secrete cytokines.
B-LYMPHOCYTE CELLS – B-cells produce antibodies that fight off harmful substances by sticking to them and making them stand out to other immune cells.
ANTIBODIES – After B-cells encounter antigens, they produce antibodies.These are proteins that target specific antigens and then remember how to combat the antigen.
Alcohol suppresses both the innate and the adaptive immune systems. Chronic alcohol use reduces the ability of white blood cells to effectively engulf and swallow harmful bacteria. Excessive drinking also disrupts the production of cytokines, causing your body to either produce too much or not enough of these chemical messengers. An abundance of cytokines can damage your tissues, whereas a lack of cytokines leaves you open to infection.
Chronic alcohol use also suppresses the development of T-cells and may impair the ability of NK cells to attack tumor cells. This reduced function makes you more vulnerable to bacteria and viruses, and less capable of destroying cancerous cells.
With a compromised immune system, chronic drinkers are more liable to contract diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis than people who do not drink too much. There is also data linking alcohol’s damage to the immune system with an increased susceptibility to contracting HIV infection. HIV develops faster in chronic drinkers who already have the virus.
Drinking a lot on a single occasion also can compromise your immune system. Drinking to intoxication can slow your body’s ability to produce cytokines that ward off infections by causing inflammations.Without these inflammatory responses, your body’s ability to defend itself against bacteria is significantly reduced. A recent study shows that slower inflammatory cytokine production can reduce your ability to fight off infections for up to 24 hours after getting drunk.
At this point, scientists do not know whether abstinence, reduced drinking, or other measures will help reverse the effects of alcohol on the immune system. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that avoiding drinking helps minimize the burden on your immune system, particularly if you are fighting a viral or bacterial infection.
06.- Overview of Alcohol Consumption
Here at NIAAA, we are constantly researching the answers to these, and many other questions about alcohol. Here’s what we know:
• How much you drink
• How often you drink
• Your age
• Your health status
• Your family history
Consequences of drinking too much
• Reduced inhibitions
• Slurred speech
• Motor impairment
• Confusion
• Memory problems
• Concentration problems
• Coma
• Breathing problems
• Death
Other risks of drinking can include:
• Car crashes and other accidents
• Risky behavior
• Violent behavior
• Suicide and homicide
07.- What Is A Standard Drink?
• Regular beer: 5% alcohol content
• Some light beers: 4.2% alcohol content
How do you know how much alcohol is in your drink?
Although the "standard" drink amounts are helpful for following health guidelines, they may not reflect customary serving sizes. For example, a single mixed drink made with 80-proof spirits (whiskey, gin, rum, vodka, tequila, etc.) can contain 1 to 3 or more standard drinks, depending on the type of spirits and the recipe.
08.- Discussing Drinking. A Back-to-School Conversation You Need to Have
As college students arrive on campus this fall, it's a time of new experiences, new friendships and making memories that will last a lifetime. Unfortunately for many, it can also be a time of excessive drinking and dealing with its aftermath-vandalism, violence, sexual aggression and even death. For those beginning their college experience, a rapid increase in heavy drinking over a relatively short period of time can cause serious problems with the transition to college. Alcohol abuse can also be a problem for high school students. Fall semester is a good time to sit down with your child to have a frank discussion about drinking.
We go through many changes in our teen years. Relationships change as our bodies and brains mature. Recent research has shown that the human brain continues to develop into a person's early 20's.
This period is also marked by taking risks. This can include risky drinking. And early drinking is associated with other risky behavior, such as academic failure, unsafe sexual behavior and drug use. Over the long-term, early drinking is associated with an increased risk of developing an alcohol use disorder at some time during the life span.
The consequences of excessive drinking by young people are more significant, more destructive and more costly than many parents realize. According to the College Drinking Task Force report to NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), drinking by 18- to 24-year old college students contributes to an estimated 1,700 student deaths, 599,000 injuries and 97,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape each year.
Students form their expectations about alcohol from their environment and from each other. As they face the insecurity and stresses of establishing themselves in a new social setting, environmental and peer influences combine to create a culture of drinking. This culture actively-or at least passively -promotes drinking through tolerance, or even unspoken approval, of college drinking as a rite of passage.
The transition to college can be difficult, with about 1 of 3 first-year students failing to enroll for their second year. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the first 6 weeks of the first semester are critical to a first-year student's academic success. Many students begin drinking heavily during these early days of college, and this can interfere with their successful adaptation to campus life.
But parents can still play a major role in preventing alcohol problems. The time to start is before your child leaves for college. As the fall semester begins, prepare your college-age children by talking with them about the consequences of drinking. Stay involved during the crucial early weeks of college. Inquire about campus alcohol policies, and ask your children about their roommates and living arrangements.
High school students can also come under pressure to drink from their peers at school. It's important to talk to your high school students about peer pressure and how to resist it. They need to know that alcohol can harm their judgment, coordination and reflexes. It can cause them to lose control, take chances and do things they never would do otherwise. In fact, alcohol is linked with an estimated 5,000 deaths in people under age 21 each year-more than all illegal drugs combined.
When you sit down to talk with your child about the consequences of drinking, discuss the penalties for underage drinking as well as how alcohol use can lead to date rape, violence and academic failure. Underage drinking has also been linked with deaths and injuries from burns, falls, alcohol poisoning and suicide.
Now's the time to talk to your children about the dangers of alcohol. Help prevent them from doing something that they-and you-might regret for the rest of their life.
Alcohol Poisoning
When you sit down to talk to your children about the dangers of alcohol abuse, take a few minutes to help them recognize the signs of alcohol poisoning. It could mean the difference between life and death for them or one of their friends.
What Is Alcohol Poisoning? Too much alcohol can shut down the parts of the brain that control breathing and the gag reflex, which prevents choking. Someone who drinks a fatal dose of alcohol will eventually stop breathing. Even if someone survives an alcohol overdose, the experience can cause irreversible brain damage. Rapid binge drinking is especially dangerous because victims can continue drinking beyond a fatal dose before they lose consciousness.
A person who appears to be sleeping it off may still be in real danger. Blood alcohol levels can continue to rise even after someone’s passed out, since alcohol in the stomach and intestine can continue to enter the bloodstream and circulate throughout the body.
What Should I Look For? Critical signs of alcohol poisoning include mental confusion, unconsciousness, vomiting, seizures, slow (fewer than 8 breaths per minute) or irregular (10 seconds or more between breaths) breathing and hypothermia (low body temperature, bluish skin color and paleness).
What Should I Do? Know the danger signals. If you suspect someone has alcohol poisoning, don’t wait for all the critical signs to be present. If you suspect an alcohol overdose, call 911 immediately for help.
09.- Health risks of alcohol use
Alternative names
Alcohol use and your health
Long-term use of alcohol increases your chances of:
• Poor nutrition.
Damage to nerves from alcohol use can cause many problems, including
• Problems with erections in men.
• Leaking urine or having a hard time passing urine.
How alcohol use can affect your life
• Make these problems worse over time
• Cause sleep problems or make them worse
• Increase the risk of suicide
• Do poorly in school
• Have marriages that end in divorce
• Car accidents
• Falls, drowning, and other accidents
• Suicide
• Violence and homicide
What you can do
First, ask yourself what type of drinker you are?
• Your doctor
American Psychiatric Association.Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol use disorder: a comparison between DSM-IV and DSM-5. November 2013. on May 11, 2014.
Sherin K, Seikel S. Alcohol use disorders. In: Rakel RE, Rakel DP, eds.Textbook of Family Medicine
10.- Alcohol use and safe drinking
Alcohol use involves drinking beer, wine, or hard liquor.
• Get drunk
• Have accidents related to alcohol use
Alcoholic drinks have different amounts of alcohol in them:
• Wine is usually 12 to 15% alcohol.
• Hard liquor is about 45% alcohol.
Alcohol gets into your bloodstream quickly.
• 0.05 -- reduced inhibitions
• 0.10 -- slurred speech
• 0.20 -- euphoria and motor impairment
• 0.30 -- confusion
• 0.40 -- stupor
• 0.50 -- coma
• 0.60 -- respiratory paralysis and death
Alcohol increases the risk of:
• Alcoholism or alcohol dependence
• Falls, drownings, and other accidents
• Head, neck, stomach, and breast cancers
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Suicide and homicide
• Never drink alcohol and drive a car.
Other resources include:
• Local Alcoholics Anonymous or Al-anon/Alateen groups
• Local hospitals
• Public or private mental health agencies
• School or work counselors
• Student or employee health centers
Alternative Names
Beer consumption; Wine consumption; Hard liquor consumption; Safe drinking
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol and health. Available at: on February 24, 2014.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Screening and behavioral counseling interventions in primary care to reduce alcohol misuse: recommendation statement. Available at: on February 24, 2014.
11.- Responsible drinking
Alternative names
What you need to know
The tips in this article are for people who:
• Are old enough to drink legally
• Are not pregnant
• No more than 4 drinks a day
• No more than 14 drinks a week
• No more than 3 drinks a day
• No more than 7 drinks a week
Other habits that will help you be a responsible drinker include:
• Never drinking alcohol and driving.
Can responsible drinking improve your health?
• Reduced risk of heart disease or a heart attack
• Reduced risk of strokes
• Lower risk of gallstones
• Lower risk of diabetes
When to call the doctor
Call your doctor if:
American Psychiatric Association.Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
12.- Do you have a drinking problem?
Alcohol use; Alcohol abuse; Alcoholism
One drink equals one 12-ounce can or bottle of beer, one 5-ounce glass of wine, 1 wine cooler, 1 cocktail, or 1 shot of hard liquor. Think about:
• How often you have an alcoholic drink
• How many drinks you have when you do drink
• How any drinking you are doing affects your life or the lives of others
Responsible drinking
Here are some guidelines for drinking alcohol responsibly, as long as you do not have a drinking problem.
Healthy men up to age 65 should limit themselves to:
• No more than 4 drinks in 1 day
• No more than 14 drinks in a week
Healthy women up to age 65 should limit themselves to:
• No more than 3 drinks in 1 day
• No more than 7 drinks in a week
• No more than 3 drinks in 1 day
• No more than 7 drinks in a week
When you start to drink too much
Doctors consider your drinking medically unsafe when you drink:
• Many times a month, or even many times a week
• 3 to 4 drinks (or more) in 1 day
You can use the AUDIT-C questionnaire to help you decide if your drinking is risky. Your doctor can advise and help you cut down or even quit.
Knowing when you have a drinking problem
You may have a drinking problem if you have at least 2 of the following characteristics:
• You do not do what you are expected to do (at home, work, or school) as a result of drinking.
• You use alcohol in situations where your drinking could injure or endanger you or someone else.
• You have trouble or conflict with your family, friends, or coworkers because of the effect alcohol has on you.
• You need to drink more to get the same effect from alcohol.
• You have not been able to cut down or stop drinking alcohol on your own, even though you've tried or you want to.
• You have symptoms of withdrawal when you try to quit or cut down, such as tremors, sweating, nausea, or insomnia.
• You crave alcohol, meaning you have a strong desire or urge to use it.
• You continue to drink, even though alcohol is causing emotional or physical problems for you, or problems with your family, friends, or job.
• You spend a lot of time drinking, thinking about drinking, or recovering from drinking.
• You spend less time on other activities that used to be important or that you enjoyed.
When to call the doctor
If you or others are concerned, make an appointment with your doctor to talk about your drinking. Your doctor can help guide you to the best treatment.
Other resources include:
• Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) --
• National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) --
American Psychiatric Association.Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
13.- Harmful Interactions
Mixing Alcohol With Medicines
Some medicines that you might never have suspected can react with alcohol, including many medications which can be purchased “over-the-counter”—that is, without a prescription. Even some herbal remedies can have harmful effects when combined with alcohol.
Did You Know…
Mixing alcohol and medicines can be harmful. Alcohol, like some medicines, can make you sleepy, drowsy, or lightheaded. Drinking alcohol while taking medicines can intensify these effects. You may have trouble concentrating or performing mechanical skills. Small amounts of alcohol can make it dangerous to drive, and when you mix alcohol with certain medicines you put yourself at even greater risk. Combining alcohol with some medicines can lead to falls and serious injuries, especially among older people.
Medicines may have many ingredients
Some medications—including many popular painkillers and cough, cold, and allergy remedies—contain more than one ingredient that can react with alcohol. Read the label on the medication bottle to find out exactly what ingredients a medicine contains. Ask your pharmacist if you have any questions about how alcohol might interact with a drug you are taking.
Some medicines contain alcohol
Alcohol affects women differently
Women, in general, have a higher risk for problems than men. When a woman drinks, the alcohol in her bloodstream typically reaches a higher level than a man’s even if both are drinking the same amount. This is because women’s bodies generally have less water than men’s bodies. Because alcohol mixes with body water, a given amount of alcohol is more concentrated in a woman’s body than in a man’s. As a result, women are more susceptible to alcohol-related damage to organs such as the liver.
Older people face greater risk
Timing is important
14.- Wine and heart health
Studies have shown that adults who drink light to moderate amounts of alcohol may be less likely to develop heart disease than those who do not drink at all or are heavy drinkers. However, people who do not drink alcohol should not start just because they want to avoid developing heart disease.
There is a fine line between healthy drinking and risky drinking. Do not begin drinking or drink more often just to lower your risk of heart disease. Heavier drinking can harm the heart and liver. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in people who abuse alcohol.
• For men, limit alcohol to one to two drinks a day.
• For women, limit alcohol to one drink a day.
One drink is defined as:
• 4 ounces of wine
• 12 ounces of beer
• 1½ ounces of 80-proof spirits
• 1 ounce of 100-proof spirits
• Controlling blood pressure and cholesterol
• Exercising and following a low-fat, healthy diet
• Not smoking
• Maintaining an ideal weight
Alternative Names
United States Department of Agriculture. Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 2010
15.- Alcohol and Cancer Risk
What is alcohol?
• Beers and hard ciders: 3-7 percent alcohol
• Wines, including sake: 9-15 percent alcohol
• 12 ounces of beer
• 8 ounces of malt liquor
• 5 ounces of wine
Research on alcohol consumption and other cancers:
How does alcohol increase the risk of cancer?
How does the combination of alcohol and tobacco affect cancer risk?
Can drinking red wine help prevent cancer?
What happens to cancer risk after a person stops drinking alcohol?
Most of the studies that have examined whether cancer risk declines after a person stops drinking alcohol have focused on head and neck cancers and on esophageal cancer. In general, these studies have found that stopping alcohol consumption is not associated with immediate reductions in cancer risk; instead, it may take years for the risks of cancer to return to those of never drinkers.
In several studies, the risk of esophageal cancer was also found to decrease slowly with increasing time since stopping alcohol drinking. A pooled analysis of five case–control studies found that the risk of esophageal cancer did not approach that of never drinkers for at least 15 years after stopping alcohol drinking (18).
Selected References
1. IARC Working Group on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. Alcohol consumption and ethyl carbamateExit Disclaimer. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks in Humans 2010;96:3-1383.
2. IARC Working Group on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. Personal habits and indoor combustions. Volume 100 E. A review of human carcinogens.Exit Disclaimer IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks in Humans 2012;100(Pt E):373-472.
3. Nelson DE, Jarman DW, Rehm J, et al. Alcohol-attributable cancer deaths and years of potential life lost in the United States. American Journal of Public Health 2013;103(4):641-648.
4. Baan R, Straif K, Grosse Y, et al. Carcinogenicity of alcoholic beveragesExit Disclaimer. Lancet Oncology 2007;8(4):292-293.
5. Hashibe M, Brennan P, Chuang SC, et al. Interaction between tobacco and alcohol use and the risk of head and neck cancer: pooled analysis in the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 2009;18(2):541-550.
6. Grewal P, Viswanathen VA. Liver cancer and alcohol. Clinics in Liver Disease 2012;16(4):839-850.
9. Fedirko V, Tramacere I, Bagnardi V, et al. Alcohol drinking and colorectal cancer risk: an overall and dose-response meta-analysis of published studies. Annals of Oncology 2011;22(9):1958-1972.
14. Kanda J, Matsuo K, Suzuki T, et al. Impact of alcohol consumption with polymorphisms in alcohol-metabolizing enzymes on pancreatic cancer risk in Japanese. Cancer Science 2009;100(2):296-302.
15. Yokoyama A, Omori T. Genetic polymorphisms of alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases and risk for esophageal and head and neck cancersExit Disclaimer. Alcohol 2005;35(3):175-185.
18. Rehm J, Patra J, Popova S. Alcohol drinking cessation and its effect on esophageal and head and neck cancers: a pooled analysis. International Journal of Cancer 2007;121(5):1132-1137.
16.- Talking to your teen about drinking
• Get drunk
• Have accidents related to drinking
By saying nothing, you are saying something
Free and curious
When talking with your teen:
• Remind your teen that drinking comes with serious risks.
How problems at home might influence children to drink
Children are more likely to drink if:
• Conflict is present between parents or caregivers
• Parents are having money problems or are stressed from work
If alcohol abuse runs in the family, it is very important to talk with your child. Do not keep secrets. Your child should know what the risks of drinking are. Talk honestly about how drinking has affected family members, and talk about the effects of alcohol on your own life.
Set a good example by drinking responsibly. If you have a problem with alcohol abuse, make the decision to get help quitting.
Get help for your child
• Local hospitals
• Public or private mental health agencies
• Counselors at your child's school
• Student health centers
American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Substance Abuse. Alcohol use by youth and adolescents: a pediatric concern. Pediatrics.
American Psychiatric Association.Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and American Academy of Pediatrics. Alcohol screening and brief intervention for youth: a practitioner's guide. 2011. on May 14, 2014.
17.- Women and Drinking
Alcohol presents yet another health challenge for women. Even in small amounts, alcohol affects women differently than men. In some ways, heavy drinking is much more risky for women than it is for men.
With any health issue, accurate information is key. There are times and ways to drink that are safer than others. Every woman is different. No amount of drinking is 100 percent safe, 100 percent of the time, for every woman. With this in mind, it’s important to know how alcohol can affect a woman’s health and safety.
How Much Is Too Much?
Sixty percent of U.S. women have at least one drink a year. Among women who drink, 13 percent have more than seven drinks per week.
For women, this level of drinking is above the recommended limits published in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are issued jointly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (The Dietary Guidelines can be viewed online at
The Dietary Guidelines define moderate drinking as no more than one drink a day for women and no more than two drinks a day for men.
The Dietary Guidelines point out that drinking more than one drink per day for women can increase the risk for motor vehicle crashes, other injuries, high blood pressure, stroke, violence, suicide, and certain types of cancer.
Some people should not drink at all, including:
• Anyone under age 21
• Women who may become pregnant or who are pregnant
Why are lower levels of drinking recommended for women than for men? Because women are at greater risk than men for developing alcohol-related problems. Alcohol passes through the digestive tract and is dispersed in the water in the body. The more water available, the more diluted the alcohol. As a rule, men weigh more than women, and, pound for pound, women have less water in their bodies than men. Therefore, a woman’s brain and other organs are exposed to more alcohol and to more of the toxic byproducts that result when the body breaks down and eliminates alcohol.
What is a drink? A standard drink is:
One 12-ounce bottle of beer or wine cooler
One 5-ounce glass of wine
1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits
Keep in mind that the alcohol content of different types of beer, wine, and distilled spirits can vary quite substantially.
Moderate Drinking: Benefits and Risks
Moderate drinking can have short- and long-term health effects, both positive and negative:
Heart disease: Once thought of as a threat mainly to men, heart disease also is the leading killer of women in the United States. Drinking moderately may lower the risk for coronary heart disease, mainly among women over age 55. However, there are other factors that reduce the risk of heart disease, including a healthy diet, exercise, not smoking, and keeping a healthy weight. Moderate drinking provides little, if any, net health benefit for younger people. (Heavy drinking can actually damage the heart.)
Drinking and driving: It doesn’t take much alcohol to impair a person’s ability to drive. The chances of being killed in a single-vehicle crash are increased at a blood alcohol level that a 140-lb. woman would reach after having one drink on an empty stomach.
Medication interactions: Alcohol can interact with a wide variety of medicines, both prescription and over-the-counter. Alcohol can reduce the effectiveness of some medications, and it can combine with other medications to cause or increase side effects. Alcohol can interact with medicines used to treat conditions as varied as heart and blood vessel disease, digestive problems, and diabetes. In particular, alcohol can increase the sedative effects of any medication that causes drowsiness, including cough and cold medicines and drugs for anxiety and depression. When taking any medication, read package labels and warnings carefully.
Breast cancer: Research suggests that as little as one drink per day can slightly raise the risk of breast cancer in some women, especially those who are postmenopausal or have a family history of breast cancer. It is not possible, however, to predict how alcohol will affect the risk for breast cancer in any one woman.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Drinking by a pregnant woman can harm her unborn baby, and may result in a set of birth defects called fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is the most common known preventable cause of mental impairment. Babies with FAS have distinctive changes in their facial features and they may be born small. The brain damage that occurs with FAS can result in lifelong problems with learning, memory, attention, and problem solving. These alcohol-related changes in the brain may be present even in babies whose appearance and growth are not affected. It is not known if there is any safe drinking level during pregnancy; nor is there any stage of pregnancy in which drinking—at any level—is known to be risk free. If a woman is pregnant, or wants to become pregnant, she should not drink alcohol. Even if she is pregnant and already has consumed alcohol, it is important to stop drinking for the rest of her pregnancy. Stopping can reduce the chances that her child might be harmed by alcohol.
Another risk of drinking is that a woman may at some point abuse alcohol or become alcoholic (alcohol dependent). Drinking four or more drinks on any given day OR drinking eight or more drinks in a typical week increases a woman’s risk of developing alcohol abuse or dependence.
The ability to drink a man—or anyone—under the table is not a plus: it is a red flag. Research has shown that drinkers who are able to handle a lot of alcohol all at once are at higher—not lower—risk of developing problems, such as dependence on alcohol.
Heavy Drinking
An estimated 5.3 million women in the United States drink in a way that threatens their health, safety, and general well-being. A strong case can be made that heavy drinking is more risky for women than men:
• Heavy drinking increases a woman’s risk of becoming a victim of violence and sexual assault.
• Drinking over the long term is more likely to damage a woman’s health than a man’s, even if the woman has been drinking less alcohol or for a shorter length of time than the man.
The health effects of alcohol abuse and alcoholism are serious. Some specific health problems include:
Alcoholic liver disease: Women are more likely than men to develop alcoholic hepatitis (liver inflammation) and to die from cirrhosis.
Brain disease: Most alcoholics have some loss of mental function, reduced brain size, and changes in the function of brain cells. Research suggests that women are more vulnerable than men to alcohol-induced brain damage.
Cancer: Many studies report that heavy drinking increases the risk of breast cancer. Alcohol also is linked to cancers of the digestive track and of the head and neck (the risk is especially high in smokers who also drink heavily).
Heart disease: Chronic heavy drinking is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease. Among heavy drinkers, women are more susceptible to alcohol-related heart disease, even though women drink less alcohol over a lifetime than men.
Finally, many alcoholics smoke; smoking in itself can cause serious long-term health consequences.
Alcohol in Women’s Lives: Safe Drinking Over a Lifetime
The pressures to drink more than what is safe—and the consequences—change as the roles that mark a woman’s life span change. Knowing the signs that drinking may be a problem instead of a pleasure can help women who choose to drink do so without harm to themselves or others.
Consequences of Unsafe Drinking
• Drinking under age 21 is illegal in every State.
Staying Away From Alcohol. Young women under age 21 should not drink alcohol. Among the most important things parents can do is to talk frankly with their daughters about not drinking alcohol.
Women in Young and Middle Adulthood
Heavy drinking and drinking problems among White women are most common in younger age groups. Among African American women, however, drinking problems are more common in middle age than youth. A woman’s ethnic origins—and the extent to which she adopts the attitudes of mainstream vs. her native culture—influence how and when she will drink. Hispanic women who are more “mainstream” are more likely to drink and to drink heavily (that is, to drink at least once a week and to have five or more drinks at one time).
Stress and Drinking
Consequences of Unsafe Drinking
Older Women
As they grow older, fewer women drink. At the same time, research suggests that people born in recent decades are more likely to drink—throughout life—than people born in the early 1900s. Elderly patients are admitted to hospitals about as often for alcohol-related causes as for heart attacks.
Older women may be especially sensitive to the stigma of being alcoholic, and therefore hesitate to admit if they have a drinking problem.
Consequences of Unsafe Drinking
• Older women, more than any other group, use medications that can affect mood and thought, such as those for anxiety and depression. These “psychoactive” medications can interact with alcohol in harmful ways.
• Research suggests that women may be more likely to develop or to show alcohol problems later in life, compared with men.
Age and Alcohol. Aging seems to reduce the body’s ability to adapt to alcohol. Older adults reach higher blood levels of alcohol even when drinking the same amount as younger people. This is because, with aging, the amount of water in the body is reduced and alcohol becomes more concentrated. But even at the same blood alcohol level, older adults may feel some of the effects of alcohol more strongly than younger people.
Alcohol problems among older people often are mistaken for other aging-related conditions. As a result, alcohol problems may be missed and untreated by health care providers, especially in older women.
Staying Well. Older women need to be aware that alcohol will “go to their head” more quickly than when they were younger. Also, caregivers need to know that alcohol may be the cause of problems assumed to result from age, such as depression, sleeping problems, eating poorly, heart failure, and frequent falls.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recommends that people ages 65 and older limit their consumption of alcohol to one drink per day.
An important point is that older people with alcohol problems respond to treatment as well as younger people. Those with shorter histories of problem drinking do better in treatment than those with long-term drinking problems.
Women and Problem Drinking
Fewer women than men drink. However, among the heaviest drinkers, women equal or surpass men in the number of problems that result from their drinking. For example, female alcoholics have death rates 50 to 100 percent higher than those of male alcoholics, including deaths from suicides, alcohol-related accidents, heart disease and stroke, and liver cirrhosis.
An Individual Decision
A woman’s genetic makeup shapes how quickly she feels the effects of alcohol, how pleasant drinking is for her, and how drinking alcohol over the long term will affect her health, even the chances that she could have problems with alcohol. A family history of alcohol problems, a woman’s risk of illnesses like heart disease and breast cancer, medications she is taking, and age are among the factors for each woman to weigh in deciding when, how much, and how often to drink.
What Are Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism?
Alcohol abuse is a pattern of drinking that is harmful to the drinker or others. The following situations, occurring repeatedly in a 12-month period, would be indicators of alcohol abuse:
• Missing work or skipping child care responsibilities because of drinking
• Drinking in situations that are dangerous, such as before or while driving
• Being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or for hurting someone while drunk
• Continuing to drink even though there are ongoing alcohol-related tensions with friends and family.
Alcoholism or alcohol dependence is a disease. It is chronic, or lifelong, and it can be both progressive and life threatening. Alcoholism is based in the brain. Alcohol’s short-term effects on the brain are what cause someone to feel high, relaxed, or sleepy after drinking. In some people, alcohol’s long-term effects can change the way the brain reacts to alcohol, so that the urge to drink can be as compelling as the hunger for food. Both a person’s genetic makeup and his or her environment contribute to the risk for alcoholism. The following are some of the typical characteristics of alcoholism:
Craving: a strong need, or compulsion, to drink
Loss of control: the inability to stop drinking once a person has begun
Tolerance: the need for increasing amounts of alcohol to get “high.”
Know the Risks
Research suggests that a woman is more likely to drink excessively if she has any of the following:
• Parents and siblings (or other blood relatives) with alcohol problems
• A partner who drinks heavily
• The ability to “hold her liquor” more than others
• A history of depression
• A history of childhood physical or sexual abuse.
The presence of any of these factors is a good reason to be especially careful with drinking.
How Do You Know if You Have a Problem?
Answering the following four questions can help you find out if you or someone close to you has a drinking problem.
• Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?
• Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your drinking?
One “yes” answer suggests a possible alcohol problem. If you responded “yes” to more than one question, it is very likely that you have a problem with alcohol. In either case, it is important that you see your health care provider right away to discuss your responses to these questions.
Treatment for Alcohol Problems
Treatment for an alcohol problem depends on its severity. Women who have alcohol problems but who are not yet alcohol dependent may be able to stop or reduce their drinking with minimal help. Routine doctor visits are an ideal time to discuss alcohol use and its potential problems. Health care providers can help a woman take a good hard look at what effect alcohol is having on her life and can give advice on ways to stop drinking or to cut down.
Research Directions
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supports about 90 percent of the Nation’s research on alcohol use and its effects. The goal of this research is to better understand the causes and consequences of alcohol abuse and addiction, and to find new ways to prevent and treat alcohol problems.
Finding out what makes some women drink too much is the first step to preventing alcohol problems in women. Scientists are studying the role of genetics and family environment in increasing or decreasing the risk of alcohol problems. They also are studying other features of a woman’s life, such as the type of job she has; whether she combines family and work; life changes like marriage, divorce, and the birth and departure of children; infertility; relationship and sexual problems; and ethnic background.
Scientists want to know why women in general seem to develop long-term health problems from drinking more quickly than men. Researchers are examining issues like alcohol and breast cancer in women, and the extent to which alcohol may lower the risk of heart disease, and possibly osteoporosis, in some women.
Finally, research is helping determine how to identify women who may be at risk for alcohol problems, and to ensure that treatment will be effective.
The Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) serves as the focal point for women’s health research at NIH. ORWH works in a variety of ways to encourage and support researchers to find answers to questions about diseases and conditions that affect women and how to keep women healthy, and to establish a research agenda for the future. ORWH encourages women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds to participate in clinical studies to help increase knowledge of the health of women of all cultures, and to understand the health-related similarities and differences between women and men. The office also provides opportunities and support for the advancement of women in biomedical careers.
Getting Help and More Information
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) World Services
Internet address:
Phone: 212–870–3400
Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters
Internet address:
For locations of Al-Anon or Alateen meetings worldwide, call 888–4AL–ANON (888–425–2666), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.–6 p.m. (EST)
For free informational materials, call 757–563–1600, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.–6 p.m.
National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA)
Internet address:
Works on behalf of children of alcohol- and drug-dependent parents.
National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI)
Internet address:
Phone: 800–729–6686
Provides alcohol and drug abuse information produced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD)
Internet address:
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
5635 Fishers Lane, MSC 9304
Bethesda, Maryland 20892–9304
Internet address:
Phone: 301–443–3860
Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator
Internet address:
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History of scholarly study[edit]
Aspects and definitions[edit]
Habitability requirements[edit]
Preliminary stages[edit]
Prospective planets[edit]
Artist's conception of a terraformed Mars
Second, the lack of a magnetosphere around Mars may have allowed the solar wind to gradually erode the atmosphere.[18] Convection within the core of Mars, which is made mostly of iron,[19] originally generated a magnetic field. However the dynamo ceased to function long ago,[20] and the magnetic field of Mars has largely disappeared, probably due to "... loss of core heat, solidification of most of the core, and/or changes in the mantle convection regime."[21] Results from the NASA MAVEN mission show that the atmosphere is removed primarily due to Coronal Mass Ejection events, where outbursts of high-velocity protons from the sun impact the atmosphere. Mars does still retain a limited magnetosphere that covers approximately 40% of its surface. Rather than uniformly covering and protecting the atmosphere from solar wind, however, the magnetic field takes the form of a collection of smaller, umbrella-shaped fields, mainly clustered together around the planet's southern hemisphere.[22]
Terraforming Mars would entail two major interlaced changes: building the atmosphere and heating it.[24] A thicker atmosphere of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide would trap incoming solar radiation. Because the raised temperature would add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, the two processes would augment each other.[25] Carbon dioxide alone would not suffice to sustain a temperature above the freezing point of water, so a mixture of specialized greenhouse molecules might be manufactured. [26]
Establishment of a Mars settlement can be eased with terraformation of a city-region. The proposed Mars Terraformer Transfer (MATT) accomplishes such a terraformation by creating a structured impact in 2036. The proposed impact crater's pitted topography, heat, very low elevation and ice-rich bedrock enable construction of bodies of fresh water that can persist for thousands of years. This water makes possible mass-efficient, water-roofed facilities that can grow to city-scale. Facility oxygen production can create a protective ozone layer within the crater, enabling photosynthetic life on the open crater floor. [27]
Artist's conception of a terraformed Venus
Terraforming Venus requires two major changes; removing most of the planet's dense 9 MPa carbon dioxide atmosphere and reducing the planet's 450 °C (723.15 K) surface temperature.[28][29] These goals are closely interrelated, because Venus's extreme temperature is thought to be due to the greenhouse effect caused by its dense atmosphere. Sequestering the atmospheric carbon would likely solve the temperature problem as well.
Artist's conception of what the Moon might look like terraformed
The Moon[edit]
Although the gravity on Earth's moon is too low to hold an atmosphere for geological spans of time, if given an atmosphere, it would retain the atmosphere for spans of time that are long compared to human lifespans.[30] Landis[30] and others[31][32] have thus proposed that it could be feasible to terraform the moon, although not all agree with that proposal.[33] Landis estimates that a 1 PSI atmosphere of pure oxygen on the moon would require on the order of two hundred trillion tons of oxygen, and suggests it could be produced by reducing the oxygen from an amount of lunar rock equivalent to a cube about fifty kilometers on an edge. Alternatively, he suggests that the water content of "fifty to a hundred comets" the size of Halley's comet would do the job, "assuming that the water doesn't splash away when the comets hit the moon."[30] Likewise, Benford calculates that terraforming the moon would require "about 100 comets the size of Halley's."[31]
Other bodies in the Solar System[edit]
Other possible candidates for terraforming (possibly only partial or paraterraforming) include Titan, Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and even Mercury, Saturn's moon Enceladus, and the dwarf planet Ceres.
Other possibilities[edit]
Biological Terraforming[edit]
Many proposals for planetary engineering involve the use of genetically engineered bacteria.[34][35]
As synthetic biology matures over the coming decades it may become possible to build designer organisms from scratch that directly manufacture desired products efficiently.[36] Lisa Nip, Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab's Molecular Machines group, said that by synthetic biology, scientists could genetically engineer humans, plants and bacteria to create Earth-like conditions on another planet.[37][38]
DARPA is researching using photosynthesizing plants, bacteria, and algae grown directly on the Mars surface that could warm up and thicken its atmosphere. In 2015 the agency and some of its research partners have created a software called DTA GView − a 'Google Maps of genomes', in which genomes of several organisms can be pulled up on the program to immediately show a list of known genes and where they are located in the genome. According to Alicia Jackson, deputy director of DARPA's Biological Technologies Office by this they have developed a "technological toolkit to transform not just hostile places here on Earth, but to go into space not just to visit, but to stay".[40][41][42][43]
Also known as the "worldhouse" concept, paraterraforming involves the construction of a habitable enclosure on a planet which encompasses most of the planet's usable area.[44] The enclosure would consist of a transparent roof held one or more kilometers above the surface, pressurized with a breathable atmosphere, and anchored with tension towers and cables at regular intervals. The worldhouse concept is similar to the concept of a domed habitat, but one which covers all (or most) of the planet.
Adapting humans[edit]
It has also been suggested that instead of or in addition to terraforming a hostile environment humans might adapt to these places by the use of genetic engineering, biotechnology and cybernetic enhancements.[45][46][47][48][49]
Ethical issues[edit]
Economic issues[edit]
Political issues[edit]
National pride, rivalries between nations, and the politics of public relations have in the past been the primary motivations for shaping space projects.[55][56] It is reasonable to assume that these factors would also be present in planetary terraforming efforts.
In popular culture[edit]
See also[edit]
2. ^ Sagan, Carl (1961). "The Planet Venus". Science. 133 (3456): 849–58. Bibcode:1961Sci...133..849S. PMID 17789744. doi:10.1126/science.133.3456.849.
4. ^ Sagan, Carl (1973). "Planetary Engineering on Mars". Icarus. 20 (4): 513. Bibcode:1973Icar...20..513S. doi:10.1016/0019-1035(73)90026-2.
5. ^ Averner& MacElroy, 1976
11. ^ ποίησις in Liddell and Scott.
13. ^ Fogg, 1996
14. ^ 1960-, Fogg, Martyn J., (1995). Terraforming : engineering planetary environments. Society of Automotive Engineers. ISBN 1560916095. OCLC 32348444.
17. ^ Kargel 2004, 99ff
20. ^ Schubert, Turcotte & Olson 2001, p. 692
21. ^ Carr 2007, p. 318
22. ^ Solar Wind, 2008
23. ^ Forget, Costard & Lognonné 2007, pp. 80.
24. ^ Faure & Mensing 2007, p. 252.
26. ^ Gerstell, Francisco, Yung, Boxe, & Aaltonee (2001) PNAS 98, pp. 2154-7.
27. ^ SatMagazine, May 2017, pp. 78-80.
28. ^ Fogg, Martyn J. (1987). "The Terraforming of Venus," Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 40, pp. 551-564. (abstract).
29. ^ Landis, Geoffrey (2011). "Terraforming Venus: A Challenging Project for Future Colonization" (PDF). doi:10.2514/6.2011-7215. Paper AIAA-2011-7215, AIAA Space 2011 Conference & Exposition, Long Beach CA, Sept. 26–29, 2011.
30. ^ a b c Landis, Geoffrey (1990) "Air Pollution on the Moon," Analog, June.
31. ^ a b Benford, Greg (2014) "How to Terraform the Moon", Slate, July 14. Retrieved 30 January 2017
32. ^ Williams, Matt (2016) "How Do We Terraform the Moon", Universe Today, 31 March. Retrieved 30 January 2017
33. ^ Dorminey, Bruce (2016) "Why The Moon Should Never Be Terraformed", Forbes, July 27. Retrieved 30 January 2017
34. ^ Hiscox, JA; Thomas, DJ (October 1995). "Genetic modification and selection of microorganisms for growth on Mars." (PDF). Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. 48 (10): 419–26. PMID 11541203.
35. ^ "Mercury". The Society. The Society. 29. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
36. ^ Menezes, A. A.; Cumbers, J.; Hogan, J. A.; Arkin, A. P. (5 November 2014). "Towards synthetic biological approaches to resource utilization on space missions". Journal of The Royal Society Interface. 12 (102): 20140715–20140715. doi:10.1098/rsif.2014.0715.
37. ^ "Video: Humans Could Engineer Themselves for Long-Term Space Travel". Live Science. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
38. ^ "You Can Now Play God From The Comfort Of Your Garage". Fusion. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
39. ^ "Here's How We'll Terraform Mars With Microbes". Popular Mechanics. 7 May 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
40. ^ "Will tweaked microbes make Mars Earth-like? - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
41. ^ "DARPA: We Are Engineering the Organisms That Will Terraform Mars". Vice Motherboard. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
43. ^ "DARPA Wants To Use Genetically Engineered Organisms To Make Mars More Earth-Like". Tech Times. 27 June 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
44. ^ Taylor, 1992
45. ^ Gronstal, A.; Pérez, J.E.A.; Bittner, T.; Clacey, E.; Grubisic, A.; Rogers, D. (1 January 2005). "Bioforming and terraforming: A balance of methods for feasible space colonization". 2. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
46. ^ Lunan, Duncan. Man and the Planets: The Resources of the Solar System. Ashgrove Press. ISBN 9780906798171. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
47. ^ Spitzmiller, Ted. Astronautics: A Historical Perspective of Mankind's Efforts to Conquer the Cosmos. Apogee Books. ISBN 9781894959667. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
48. ^ "Could We Marsiform Ourselves? - Universe Today". Universe Today. 10 January 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
49. ^ "Be Your Own Spaceship: How We Can Adapt Human Bodies for Alien Worlds". Vice Motherboard. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
50. ^ MacNiven 1995
52. ^ Fogg 2000
56. ^ Thompson 2001 p. 108
External links[edit]
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Voice work
Day 102:
After the break we gathered around the piano and tried to guess if the two notes Lynn was playing were the same or not with our eyes closed. I don’t know if I got mine right but I understand how it works. The piano is divided in octaves ‘do’, ‘re’, ‘mi’, etc. From these they can either be more high pitched or lower. I had to sing the note really quietly to myself whenever it was played to see where it was and then on the second one try to keep singing it and if it didn’t work then it was different.
We could only say yes or no in pairs; I was the ‘yes’ person. The objective of this exercise is to make you understand what different ways of saying it there are and what they mean. This was the introduction to this game called ‘Word Orchestra’ where we had a list of words each, pairs again, and had to make a conversation out of that. We could only say one word at a time and the other person would say their word after ours and us after them, etc until the story was finished. We each had different words and there were about 8 for each. There were a few words I wasn’t sure of how to say because I couldn’t make out what they meant in the story. Some of them I ended up understanding and being able to say them properly, others I never really got their exact meaning.
Day 72:
We played a game where we had an expert who was from another country that spoke an unintelligible language and the translator had to translate for the interviewer and vice-versa. After watching some clips of people speaking gibberish language that sounded like a specific dialect; a completely foreign language that was saying actual words that we could pick up on the general sounds that they made when speaking it, we had to: make a scene using some sort of gibberish language which sounded like an actual language. We had to make it sound like a real language and explain something in it.
Day 26:
Today we learned a bit of music and how it works.
Pentatonic scale: 5 note scale played only on the black keys on a piano.
Octave: Sequence of 8 notes; 1 and 8 sound the same.
Interval: Gap between notes.
Perfect pitch: Being able to sing a given note without reference.
Concert pitch: How most western instruments are tuned.
Major chord: Notes 1,3 and 5 of a major scale.
Minor chord: Notes 1,5 and a flattened 3.
Flat: Lower than said note.
Sharp: Higher than said note.
We worked on our pitch by saying “more” going from the lowest note we could do to the highest. We also learned how different an open throat voice is to a nasal voice. Nasal voice is very hard to articulate words with and whenever we do an open throat voice we suddenly sound a lot more dimmer.
Day 16:
We did voice projection exercises where firstly we had to speak in a regular voice to our partner and say “I can’t hear you”. We could clearly hear each other though and saying that took no effort. When we moved to having our partner in the other side of the room, as everyone was shouting I had to shout too and so I shouted and made extra effort to articulate my words correctly. I also spoke a bit slower. Then we were moved outside and our partner was quite far from us so to have our partner hear “I can’t hear you” was quite difficult. I noticed I leaned in, spoke even slower, and as was mentioned we also take a massive breath before saying anything because we know we have to put in a lot of effort.
Second exercise had us close our eyes when our partner was speaking (inside the room but the pairs were separated to be facing each other from opposite ends of the room) and try to locate them and find out what they were saying. I was able to catch that Ines was saying “Twinkle, twinkle little star” But Ines wasn’t able to catch that I was saying “5 little monkeys jumping on the bed” I tried but Lynn said that it could be that sometimes no matter how well you articulate the words, how loud you speak or how slow you say it, sometimes the other person is just expecting it to be said in another accent, more specifically RP and my accent is not even close to that. So I must practice the RP accent.
Day 2:
My group partner had to watch my body language while I spoke about something, and afterwards we had to discuss what we observed. The way he talked about me was “he kind of leans in forward and moves his hands around when he talks”. Now, this is interesting because my body language was compensating for the way he speaks, which is a bit quiet. I had to pay attention to his voice and to imitate him all I did was lower my volume, go for a slightly mild tone and fumble a bit on the words. We learned these speaking variables: Pitch (high/low, tune); Volume (loud/quiet); tone (aggressive/mild); accent (Irish, Russian, Italian, etc…); articulation; tempo. We discussed on what forms are the best to listen and capture someone else’s accent and I learned where the alveolar ridge is located as well as how to do an alveolar “r”, which my colleagues struggled a bit with.
Please refer to the blogs for more information
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Posted: 11/23/2003 12:20:56 PM EDT
The history of the modern assault rifle began during World War II when German Weapons engineers designed the 'Sturmgewehr'. The Sturmgewehr was the first rifle that could fire a medium size bullet at high rates of fire. Its main advantages were small size and light weight. After World War II, the American Military realized that it needed a new rifle, which would be at least capable of the features of the German Sturmgewehr.
As written by Edward C. Ezell in The Great Rifle Controversy, the development of the M16 rifle began with the research conducted at John Hopkins University in September of 1948. The research was to question infantrymen, who fought in Korea, about their battle experiences. It was found that 95% of their firing was within 300 yards. Also, there were just as many lethal hits from un-aimed shoots as from aimed ones. This information led the military to the conclusion that a .22 caliber rifle capable of selective fire was the best solution.
With this information the military went to Eugene Stoner, a Marine Corps Veteran who started to design rifles after being decommissioned, and asked him if he was interested in designing a weapon based on their research. The requirements for the new weapon were that it had to weight less than 6 pounds loaded, it had to be a .22 caliber, it had to be selective fire capable and it had to be able to penetrate a steel helmet out to 500 meters.
The rifle the military was using up to that date, the old M14, was a heavy, .308 caliber, large, selective fire capable rifle. The benefits of a large caliber like the .308 NATO, which are longer range and greater penetration, were not needed. The rifle has actually some major disadvantages. Due to its large caliber, when fired in full-auto mode the rifle recoils so much, that only the first one or two bullets hit the target. Secondly, the large caliber means that the ammunition itself is quite heavy and large compared to an M16 round, which means that soldiers must carry less ammunition. Its large size and heavy weight make it difficult for soldiers to use during combat situations. Even though, I have to give the M14 some credit. It was very popular among soldiers due to its great reliability. Also, the M14 is still used by the military in limited quantities. To get back to the differences between the M14 and M16, I will explain the advantages of the M16 over the M14.
Because the military demanded a .22 caliber round which could penetrate a steel helmet at 500 meters, Stoner needed a more powerful cartridge than there was currently available. Stoner had Remington Arms company increase the capacity of their .222 Remingt on to fire a 55-grain bullet at 3300 feet per second. This new round meet the criteria, and compared to the .308 NATO caliber round of the M14 it was much lighter, smaller and produced less recoil when fired. Recoil is the force acting on the shooter when firing any kind of powder gun. The larger the caliber is, the more powder is used to propel the bullet out of the barrel, and more powder means more recoil. Compared to the M-14's 10-inch jerk upwards the M-16 jerks only about 2 inches up after firing. Thus, a smaller cartridge, with less recoil keeps the rifle aimed at the target after fired. Because the ammunition is lighter and smaller, soldiers can carry a lot more ammunition. The lower weight of the rifle itself benefits the soldiers simply by less weight, which they have to hold in their hands. Besides that, it made the weapon easier to handle, which was probably the more important factor. When Stoner was designing the M16, he used design features from many different weapons, to create the perfect rifle for the American soldier. Another important aspect included in Stoners' design was the simplicity of the M16 rifle. Stoner eliminated many moving parts, to make the rifle simple to operate and cheaper to manufacture.
When the Army began first tests in March 1958, the rifle was not fully developed yet. There were some problems with the rifle but Stoner fixed them within short periods of time. The only major problem that was not discovered yet was that the Army told its soldiers that the M16 need not to be cleaned. This would have been true if the Army had used the ammunition the M16 was designed for, but instead the army used cheaper ball powder, which clogged up the barrel and lead to malfunctions of the rifle. From Ezell's book I quote:
"When Stoner developed the 5.56mm cartridge, he used a commercial gunpowder called Improved Military Rifle (IMR) powder. Stoner had used this extruded gain propellant because it was cleaner-burning than the ball type specified by the Ordnance Corp. ...transmitted powder residues that tended to dirty up the bolt and bolt carrier assembly, and in turn jam the rifle."
This was quickly taken care of by issuing cleaning kits to the soldiers. Other problems remain to be unseen up to today.
The M16 was first issued to American Soldiers in Vietnam in 1968. Since then, it was adopted by a dozen of military and police forces throughout the world. Operation Desert Storm was one of the more current situations were the M16 has proven itself to be an excellent rifle. The military is discussing to adopt a new rifle as their standard issue rifle. The M4A1, a variant of the M16 rifle has a shorter barrel and an adjustable buttstock. Even though, the M4A1 is not a newly designed weapon, rather a modification of the M16 rifle.
The operational debut of the M16 appeared to go quite well when the rifle was first issued to troops in the battle in the Ia Drang Valley of Viet Nam in early November, 1965. Lieutenant Colonel, later Lieutenant General, Harold G. Moore Junior reported "brave soldiers and the M16 brought" the allied victory. But as the number of M16s "in country" increased, so did the reports of their failure in combat. In May, 1967, one Marine wrote home about it:
"I just got your letter today aboard ship. We've been on an operation ever since the 21st of last month. I can just see the papers back home now - "Enemy casualties heavy, Marine casualties light". Let me give you some statistics and you decide if they were light. We left with close to 1400 men in our battalion and came back with half. We left with 250 men in our company and came back with 107. We left with 72 men in our platoon and came back with 19. I knew I was pressing my luck. They finally got me. It wasn't bad though, I just caught a little shrapnel. I wish I could say the same for all my buddies.
...believe it or not, you know what killed most of us? Our own rifle. Before we left Okinawa, [we] were all issued this new rifle, the M16. Practically everyone of our dead was found with his rifle torn down next to him where he had been trying to fix it. There was a newspaperwoman with us photographing all this and the Pentagon found out about it and won't let her publish the pictures. They say that they don't want to get the American people upset. Isn't that a laugh?"
This got posted on another forum I go to in a thread involving the "Replace the M16!" article that already got torn up here as being stupid.
I know most of it's crap, like Stoner designing the AR-15 (and no mention of the AR-10), but figured you guys could pull it apart better than I can.
Link Posted: 11/23/2003 12:26:54 PM EDT
The article sound good to me. Stoner did design the AR-15 which became the M-16 when adopted by the Army. I didn't see anything all that wrong with the article, what were you looking for?
Link Posted: 11/23/2003 12:53:22 PM EDT
Originally Posted By TNFrank:
From what I've always heard:
Stoner designed the AR-10.
James Sullivan and Robert Fremont did the work on the AR-15, which is based upon the AR-10.
I'm not sure about the round development mentioned in the article, having read next to nothing on the subject.
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Jul 10th 2017
Introduction to Process Mining with ProM (FutureLearn)
Taught by:
What topics will you cover?
Process mining provides a critical, process-centric perspective on data, which is not available with classical data mining or machine learning techniques. For example, with process mining you can:
- analyse how people use public transportation;
- verify whether the loan application process in a bank is executed correctly;
- gain insights in customer journeys on a website and combine this with interactions on different channels such as phone and e-mail;
- analyse learning behaviour of students in a MOOC to improve course contents;
- predict when hardware parts are likely to fail.
Week 1 introduced process mining and showed that event data is everywhere. Furthermore, it explained how you can translate event data that you might have for use in our tool. We also discussed how to start investigating the event log and how to filter the event log based on these insights for further analysis.
Week 2 discussed process models and how to evaluate how good a process model is with respect to the data. We also demonstrated several techniques to automatically learn a process model from the data, and discussed the pros and cons of each approach.
Week 3 covered additional process mining techniques such as conformance checking, performance analysis and social network analysis. This week also showed process mining application examples.
Week 4 provided learners with time to work on the peer assignment where they were asked to write a real process mining report on real-life event data.
After this course learners can:
- work with the free and open source process mining tool ProM;
- process raw event data into an event log for further analysis;
- execute core process mining analysis techniques, and correctly interpret the results;
- gain concrete and actionable process insights from (their own) event data.
What will you achieve?
- Identify event data suitable for analysis
- Apply various process mining techniques in the ProM lite tool to event logs
- Interpret the results of various process mining techniques in the ProM lite tool
- Describe the process flow, based on the event data
- Improve processes based on process mining analysis of the event data
Already taken this course? Please rate.
Average: 7 (1 vote)
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Although Verona is not as well known as the other cities in Italy like Venice and Rome, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the importance of many historical buildings. Verona is famous for its Roman amphitheater. Known as the Verona Arena, it is like a smaller version of the Rome Colosseum. It was completed at around 30 AD. The arena is still being used today for public events and fairs. It is located in Piazza Bra, a big piazza surrounded by colorful buildings.
Dante Alighieri, the Italian poet who wrote the Divine Comedy, was given shelter in Verona after he was expelled from Florence in 1303. His statue can be found in Piazza dei Signori.
Verona is also known as the hometown of Romeo and Juliet. The famous Juliet’s balcony is a popular attraction in Verona.
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Aside from being an art form, crochet is also a science. Every pattern contains detailed instructions about the stitches you need to make and you need to follow this closely in order to get the desired results. As such, one of the key skills every beginner needs to master in crocheting is learning how to read pattern instructions.
Normally, crochet patterns will look like they are told in gibberish to the novice. Stitches are abbreviated and there are unique terminologies being used. However, it will all make sense to you once you get into the craft and start being more deliberate about learning crochet lingo. The good news is that there are several crochet glossaries you can check for reference and a lot of them are even explained in detail by many crochet experts who also share their own designs and tips in books or in their blogs.
When it comes to reading patterns, the first thing you have to know is whether it should be worked in rows, rounds or both. As a beginner, it is important to choose the kind of pattern that suits you best and is appropriate for your skill level. Selecting an entry-level pattern will normally ease you into the jargons used by the world of crochet. In other words, it will serve as your introductory crash course to help you familiarize yourself. So don’t overwhelm yourself with advanced patterns just yet. Aside from the abbreviations, you will also find asterisks and brackets in a crochet pattern. Rather than writing the steps repeatedly from time to time, most patterns make use of asterisks to indicate the repeats needed. Brackets, on the other hand, are used to enclose a certain series of stitches you need to do. The number following the brackets indicates how many times you have to repeat the stitches enclosed in the bracket.
One common terminology used in crochet is to “continue around”. You will most likely stumble upon this term when you are working in circles, spirals, ovals and the like. Other spiral patterns will require you to join the beginning and end of each round. Joining the round means you have to end the row or round by slip stitching to the first stitch of that round. When the pattern states that you should “continue around” though, this means that you need to continue your next round or row by working in the round before that without a stop or start stitch in place. Basically, “joining the round” means you are ending your row using a stitch while “continuing around” means you do not end your row at all. So if the pattern states you need to “continue around” on the next 5 rows, and join the last stitch to turning chain with a slip stitch, what you need to do is stitch 5 rows of the same stitch that’s required of you before you join the ends with a slip stitch.
Another term that is often used and misunderstood is “work even”. It is vague and can hold a lot of different meanings when you are left to your own devices to interpret it. Unfortunately, its meaning is highly dependent on the context of when it’s being used. An example of which is when the instruction tells you that you’re supposed to work even in a crochet stitch. This means that you need to complete the number of rows indicated without any increase or decrease in the number of stitches you are making. If the pattern tells you to work even for the next row, it means that if you did 15 stitches for the previous row, you will need to do the same on the next row where you need to work even.
Normally, you will encounter the term “work even” when you are working in the round. When you crochet circles, you will generally have to increase the number of stitches per round up to a certain point to make the circle bigger. And when you no longer need to increase the size of the project, you will find the term work even. Other times, you will also need to decrease the number of stitches you are doing and when you no longer need to do so, the pattern will tell you to work even. Basically, when the pattern calls for you to stop the increase or decrease of the stitches, it will indicate that you need to work even. When it says that, all you need to do is to take note of the number of stitches you did on the last row and do the same number on the next row.
Sometimes, you can’t help but be confused as to which stitch you need to use. As a general rule, you need to follow the stitch and the number of stitches you did on the last row you completed. However, there are patterns that will state otherwise. If it says, work even using single crochet, what this means is to simply use the single crochet stitch this time but in exactly the same number of times you’ve done so for the previous row you’ve completed.
These are only a few of the terminologies you will encounter as you go on your adventure in the world of crochet. But as with everything you take up, it’s always the first time that will be the biggest challenge of all. Instead of feeling stressed and getting overwhelmed, take a few rounds of deep breaths and read your pattern thoroughly before you even pick up your yarn and needle. You will soon find that it’s not that hard to decipher what those cryptic words mean.
Should you stumble upon something that seems like it’s about to wreck your brain open, take comfort in the fact that there are a number of forums that can help you out with what you don’t understand. You can even phone your grandma for some help if you like. Remember, there is a big crochet community all over the world and there is absolutely nothing wrong with seeking help.
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Protein: Building Block Of The Human Body
Protein: Building Block Of The Human Body
Fitness Blender
THE HUMAN BODY NEEDS the regular intake of protein for a number of reasons. Protein helps to build new tissue cells, bone cells, and blood cells; consequently, it's needed in order to make antibodies necessary for fighting illnesses. It's needed to help keep the human heart and other organs healthy. Protein balances the body's energy and metabolism, keeping a natural and healthy BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate. It also provides a vehicle for maintaining correct levels of glucose and; therefore, protein stems the tide of high sugar levels and type-2 diabetes. Finally, protein helps your body build and repair muscle.
The most helpful sources of protein include:
· Lean meats such as poultry and fish
· Ova-lacto sources such as milk, cheese, yogurt, and eggs
· Soy
· Protein powder
· Other sources include nuts, seeds, legumes, beans, and tofu
There are several signs indicating that the human body is deficient in protein. Many of them can be attributed to other causes, but don't rule out an improper intake of protein. Those include: loss of muscle and lean body tissue, muscular weakness, chronic pain, susceptibility to infections and impaired healing of wounds, digestive problems, dry skin, dry and brittle hair, brittle nails, and obesity. Mental factors include mood swings, depression, chronic fatigue, insomnia, nervousness, and excessive worry. Many of these may have differing or several causes, but never rule out the improper protein intake as at least a contributing cause.
These rules of thumb may vary depending upon age, body type, and size, but generally these are accurate for the average individual. The average adult female needs 53 grams per day and the average adult male needs 63 grams per day. Now, four ounces of steak is about the size of a deck of cards and that size of steak contains 28 grams of protein. Two such serves would provide a woman with her necessary daily intake of protein. Another measure is to ensure that 15 to 30 percent of your daily intake of calories should be from protein. In other words, if you consume 3000 calories per day, approximately 450 to 900 calories should come from protein.
· Add nuts, seeds, and whey or soy powder to your hot oatmeal
· Add protein powder to pancakes or waffles
· Don't skip meals, if you're in a hurry, substitute a protein bar
· Add grilled fish or chicken to your salads
· Add beans and legumes or nuts and seeds to your salads
· Keep cans of tuna and sardines on hand for quick meal substitutes
· Plan your meals in advance when possible
Follow all this helpful information about protein and you'll be well on your way to building a healthy body and an active mind
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Monday , 21 August 2017
Siraj-ud-Daula was the last independent Nawab of Bengal who succeeded Alivadi Khan to the throne. He was born in 1733 and died on July 23, 1757. The end of his reign marks the end of the independent rule in India and beginning of the company’s rule that continued unabated over the next two hundred years. His father, Zain-ud-Din was the ruler of Bihar and his mother Amina Begum was the youngest daughter of Alivardi Khan. Alivardi Khan had no male heir to succeed him after his death. Therefore, he adopted Siraj-ud-Daula and was brought up like an heir to the throne. He was provided all the necessary training essential for a ruler of a state. He was very beloved one of Alivardi Khan. He was nominated as the Crown prince in 1752 and declared that he was to succeed Alivardi as the next Nawab of Bengal. But this declaration caused fissures in the family and many of the family members turned against him especially his aunt Ghaseti Begum, Mir Jafar and Shaukat Jung.
Alivardi Khan died in 1756 and he was succeeded by Siraj-ud-Daula as the new Nawab of Bengal. At that time he was just 23 years old. Though incompetent to manage the state affairs but he was very energetic and enthusiastic. He tried to take the reins of administration in his hands and appointed his favourites to all important posts. He was a handsome and a good looking young man but at the same time was quite suspicious and skeptical about the people surrounding him. He trusted only the few people. Moreover, he was very harsh tempered that produced some disastrous results. Instead of the subject people revering and loving the young Nawab developed a fear in their hearts. He used to ridicule his nobles. Besides, he adopted a very stern approach towards his opponents. He dispossessed Ghaseti Begum of her wealth because that was a source of concern for him. He replaced Mir Jafar with Mir Mardan to the post of Bakhshi. He also suppressed Shaukat Ali as well.
He was a true follower of his grandfather who never provided a maneuvering space to the Europeans so that they could pose a threat to his rule. The situation in south India was in his sight where the colonial powers out of their own rivalry had started a war there by using their proxies. Siraj-ud-Daula continued the same policy. He forbade both the French and the British to stop construction of the additional fortifications being built in anticipation of a war. However, these orders were not liked by the British who refused to abide by them. This infuriated the Nawab who reacted sharply by capturing Calcutta. He also took over the Fort William. The captives were placed in a small room for a night where most of them died of suffocation. The incident came to be known as the Black Hole incident.
The Black Hole and loss of Calcutta made the council at Madras to react. They sent an expeditionary force under the command of Sir Robert Clive who recaptured Calcutta and restored the council there. But at the same time he realized that the young Nawab could be threat to the interests of the company and the only way to protect the interest of the company was to replace him with a docile one. So he hacked a conspiracy with the estranged nobles to get rid of Siraj-ud-Daula. After having made all the necessary preparation, he sent a note to the Nawab alleging a violation of the treaty of Alinagar by providing refuge to the French in his territory. All the circumstances prepared the road to the battle of Plassey. In the battle though the Nawab fought bravely and was not far away from a victory, the sudden death of Mir Mardan turned the victories march into a defeat. Mir Jafar betrayed him and the Nawab was killed in the end. This led to the establishment of the company’s over lordship in Bengal marking the establishment of the British Empire in India.
Siraj-ud-Daula is revered as a hero as he stood against the British and refused to kowtow before them that even cost him his life. But there is another angle to view the truth. The Nawab was playing in the hands of the French against the British and if the British were defeated in the battle of Plassey, there would be French rule in India. Then the same hero and sovour of the nation might have been regarded as a villain in our textbooks.
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Digital Classics Project
Livy's Ab Urbe Condita
Many scholars have commented on the complex and unique style and diction of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita. Quintilian, an early critic of the work, praised Livy for his "richness and fullness," or his "lactea ubertas." On the other hand, Livy has also been the subject of significant criticism for his pleonastic and redundant writing style. A notable critic, Caligula, claimed that Livy was "verborum in historia neglentem" (Sueton. Calig., 34). Contrasting critiques of Livy's historiogrpahic style have remained prevalent throughout the literature over time. As tools for analyzing classical texts have become more robust in recent years, specifically with regard to the emerging field of Digital Classics, Livy's Ab Urbe Condita presents an ideal opportunity for implementing advanced machine learning, visualization, and language processing techniques to better formulate arguments pertaining to Livy's style and diction.
Numerous attributes position Ab Urbe Condita for this unique type of computational analysis. First, Livy wrote the text over a period of forty to forty-five years. Thus, we can expect that Livy's style evolved over that time period, and in fact, similar computational scholarship has demonstrated this fact. In Moerk 1970, we note that Livy is the only one out of the nine comparable authors who demonstrated statistically significant differences across individual samples of his work based on 19 style-based features in a Chi-Square test. Thus, highly sensitive and properly trained algorithms can address these nuances in style that evolve over Livy's career.
Additionally, many authors have commented on Livy's oratorical style in his writing. Given the ornate and verbose style employed during the era of Livy's authorship, some scholars believe that his writing style reflects a refusal to fully adopt these contemporary practices. In fact, many scholars have concluded that Livy maintained a natural style with a proper balance of ornamentation, in order to keep the history itself pure. Nevertheless, this perspective exists in the presence of other forms of criticism, which assert that Livy used too little discretion or discrimination in his historical sources. Despite these widely varying interpretations, Livy's sentence structure is still more complex than that of comparable writers, such as Cicero.[1] Much of the literature attributes a special Livian fullness and sense of balance to these structures, but this style has also been construed as overly embellished purple prose.[5] In a unique comparison of Polybius to Livy's Book 21, where he details the Hannibalic Wars, Ebeling (1907)[2] highlights differences in historiographic emphasis between the two authors. Specifically, Ebeling highlights that throughout Hannibal's passage across the Alps, Livy condenses the narrative portion in exchange for dramatism and emotional appeal. This style differs significantly from that of Polybius, who instead is said to focus on the circumstantial and factual details.[2]
Finally, throughout Livy's work, one can find instances of poetic enrichment, which further distinguish his prose style and encourage textual analysis of his work. This employment of poetic style begins with the opening of the text, which is written in dactylic hexameter. Many scholars have commented on the presence of Vergilian elements throughout the text as well. The cumulative result of these nuances in Livy's style includes powerful graphic, scenic depictions, dramatism, profound speeches with conventional oratorical style, character development, and use of thematic elements throughout.[3]
Overall, the largely inconclusive body of literature pertaining to Livy's style positions Ab Urbe Condita in the spotlight for novel analysis. Motivated by a long history of analysis addressing the unique facets of Livy's diction and historiographical tone, this project explores several questions pertaining to Livy's vocabulary and sentiment throughout the first pentad, enabled by contemporary tools from computer science and data science.
Essential Questions
1. In what ways does Livy exhibit an abbreviated vocabulary in the first pentad of Ab Urbe Condita, if at all?
2. What is the sentiment of Livy's history and how does this sentiment evolve over the first pentad?
3. How does the sentiment relate to historic scenes?
Scroll through the boxes to view the two types of methodolgy employed in this work.
In order to investigate the essential questions of this project, I analyzed both Latin text and English translation. For questions pertaining to word choice, the Latin text was utilized, whereas for questions pertaining sentiment, the English translation was utilized. Before working with the Latin text, I had to perform lemmatization, removal of stopwords, and punctuation normalization, described below. Similarly, before working with the English translation, I had to employ a variety of text processing techniques in order to prepare the text for sentiment analysis, including stemming, removal of stopwords, and punctuation normalization.
Textual Sources
Latin Textual Source
I built a corpus of Livy's first pentad and Book 21, as well as selections from the remains of the first five books of Tacitus' Annales and the first and second parts of Sallust's Bellum Iugurthinum. All Latin text was sourced from The Latin Library:
Via novel lemmatization methods built strictly for the analysis of Latin text, I performed an analysis of Livy's diction.
English Translation Source
In addition to a Latin corpus, I built a corpus of companion English translations only for the first pentad and Book 21 of Livy's AUC.
All translations were adapted from Bruce J. Butterfield from the Kennedy Association Webpage.
The companion English translations enabled sentiment analysis of Livy's history over the first pentad and Book 21. Sentiment analysis was performed via the Porter Stemmer Algorithm with AFINN sentiment analysis, described in the methods section.
Textual Analysis
Classical Language Toolkit
For this project, I implemented the Classical Language Toolkit (CLTK), an open-source natural language processing support for Classical languages. Within this toolkit, I utilized the lemmatization methods. The purpose of lemmatization is to reduce inflectional forms and sometimes derivationally related forms of a word to a common base form. For each chapter in each book analyzed from Livy's AUC, I performed lemmatization. Essentially, I ran the lemmatizer on every word of the first pentad in order to normalize the words to the nominative, singular form. This method was employed for Livy's work as well as the works of Tacitus and Sallust, for comparative analysis. The CLTK lemmatizer performs this normalization process via a key-value store. For ambiguous forms, the lemmatizer selects which word occurs most. This arbitrary selection method does not yield 100% accuracy; however, given the low percentage of ambiguous forms in the first pentad, the method sufficed for this project and is currently implemented for comparable projects in the digital classics field. Lemmatization enabled normalization of the corpus, which motivated questions around Livy's diction and enabled the creation of word clouds via the R statistical language wordcloud package.
Porter Stemmer Algorithm
The Porter Stemmer Algorithm originated from the following publication:
The algorithm defines consonants as letters other than A, E, I, O or U, and other than Y preceded by a consonant and denotes consonants with a C and vowels with a V. The variable m represents repetition of a letter pattern, such that [VC]^m where m=2 would denote VCVC. From this, m also represents the measure of a word when in this form. It is the case that:
1. Da, m=0
2. Danger, m=1
3. Dangers, m=2
In order to remove a suffix from a word (i.e. S1 -> S2), the appropriate conditions must be satisfied for both the suffix and V/C representation before the suffix. Below are the 5 essential steps in the Porter Stemmer algorithm. Where removed stems are not indicated, the -- denotes that the entire stem is removed.
(m>0) ES -> --
(m>0) S -> --
(m>0) ATIONAL -> ATE
(m>0) TIONAL -> TION
(m>0) ENCI -> ENCE
(m>0) ANCI -> ANCE
(m>0) IZER -> IZE
(m>0) ABLI -> ABLE
(m>0) ALLI -> AL
(m>0) ENTLI -> ENT
(m>0) ELI -> E
(m>0) OUSLI -> OUS
(m>0) IZATION -> IZE
(m>0) ATION -> ATE
(m>0) ATOR -> ATE
(m>0) ALISM -> AL
(m>0) IVENESS -> IVE
(m>0) FULNESS -> FUL
(m>0) OUSNESS -> OUS
(m>0) ALITI -> AL
(m>0) IVITI -> IVE
(m>0) BILITI -> BLE
(m>0) ICATE -> IC
(m>0) ATIVE -> --
(m>0) ALIZE -> AL
(m>0) ICITI -> IC
(m>0) ICAL -> IC
(m>0) FUL -> --
(m>0) NESS -> --
(m>1) AL -> --
(m>1) ANCE -> --
(m>1) ENCE -> --
(m>1) ER -> --
(m>1) IC -> --
(m>1) ABLE -> --
(m>1) IBLE -> --
(m>1) ANT -> --
(m>1) EMENT -> --
(m>1) MENT -> --
(m>1) ENT -> --
(m>1 and (*S or *T)) ION -> --
(m>1) OU -> --
(m>1) ISM -> --
(m>1) ATE -> --
(m>1) ITI -> --
(m>1) OUS -> --
(m>1) IVE -> --
(m>1) IZE -> --
(m>1) E -> --
Data-Driven Documents (D3.js)
For all visualizations in this project, with the exception of the wordclouds and barcharts, I utilized D3.js, a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data (
Sentiment Analysis
For sentiment analysis, I implemented AFINN. AFINN is a list of English words rated for valence with an integer between minus five (negative) and plus five (positive).
Textual analysis lends itself well to visualization. Thus, the culminating products of the aforementioned analysis can be observed in the visualizations below.
Livy's Word Choice: First Pentad and Book 21
A boxplot demonstrating sentiment across the first pentad (English Translation).
Hover over each box plot for a brief summary of the book.
A zoomable line chart demonstrating sentiment across each chapter of each book of the first pentad (English Translation).
Scroll in and out of the line chart to zoom in on specific books. Hover over the lines or points to discern the specific book number.
The visualizations above provide insight into the essential questions of this project.
Essential Question 1:
In order to understand whether Livy's vocabulary is significantly redundant, I performed both intratextual and comparative analyses of Livy's word choice. For the intratextual analysis, I created word clouds to observe the evolution of Livy's word choice over time. It appears that the use of words at the crux of the Latin language, such as forms of sum, relative pronouns, and specific prepositions remained fairly consistent throughout Livy's first pentad. Additionally, thematically relevant words, such as bellus and populus remained prevalent in this initial part of the text. One interesting finding is the rise of the use of urbs in the first pentad, which carried into later parts of the text, such as Book 21. Potentially, this finding reflects the growth of Rome as an imperial center and highlights Livy's evolving depcition of Roman urbanization.
For the comparative analysis, I compared Livy with Tacitus (Annales Books 1-4 and the small surviving part of Book 5) and Sallust (Bellum Iugurthinum 1 and 2). After performing lemmatization on all of these texts, I selected the top 98th perceptile of words in each of the texts in order to generate the bar charts. The top 98th percentile for words utilized in Livy's AUC contained 286 words. For Sallust, the top 98th percentile contained 89 words. Lastly, for Tacitus, the top 98th percentile contained 243 words. From this initial understanding, it appears that Livy had the greatest number of words in the top portion of the distribution. Overall, Livy used 5985 unique words, whereas Sallust and Tacitus used 3147 and 5266 unique words respectively. Interestingly, each author seemed to favor three to four of the same words. For Livy, these four words were: sum, qui, is, and ut; for Tacitus: is, qui, sum, and ut; and for Sallust: is, qui, and sum. This finding is not surprising, as these words are expected to be greatest in number, given Latin sentence structure. Nevertheless, it is interesting that Sallust utilized ut less than Livy and Tacitus, potentially indicating a difference in clausal structures.
Overall, Livy employed the greatest number of unique words, with Tacitus and Sallust following, respectively; however, the first pentad of Ab Urbe Condita was the longest text segment used in this analysis, given that Tacitus's work was comprised of the first four books of the Annales and only a small surviving portion of Book 5. Moreover, Sallust's work was the shortest out of all three selections, comprised of only 2 books in this analysis. Thus, there exists inherent bias in the text selection, given that the work with the highest number of unique words was also the longest. I was unable to develop a robust method to control for text length in this analysis. Still, from this work, it is apparent that Livy does not fall significantly behind his peers, as the lengths of Tacitus's Annales and Livy's AUC differed by roughly one book, but exhibited similar unique word counts. It was also evident that as the length of texts increased, the number of unique words increased. Potentially, this is related the lemmatization process. The lemmatization method utilized in this project was not robust enough to determine accuracy of lemmatization, so it is unclear if the lemmatizer contributed to this increasing trend, or if authors actually diversify their diction increasingly as they write.
Essential Questions 2 and 3:
Overall, Livy's sentiment changes radically throughout each book in the first pentad. Sentiment generally stayed in the range of -30 to 30, but a few sentiment breakouts occurred. While no specific conclusions can be drawn from these sporadic trends, the data supports the body of literature that has established Livy as a dramatic historiographer who evokes emotion with his style. There are a couple interesting sentiment breakouts to note:
Book 1, Chapter 34: Tarquinius Priscus comes to Rome and becomes very popular
This book had a high sentiment of 40. A high sentiment indicates frequent use of positively affiliated words, thus suggesting positive sentiment. In this chapter, Livy describes the rise of Tarquinius Priscus and details the journey of Tarquinius Priscus and his wife, Tanaquil, to Rome. Tanaquil is described as wealthy and high class, while Priscus is depicted as ambitious and eager to gain power. In this chapter, Livy also explains the omen of Priscus's cap, which is plucked from his head by an eagle, yet quickly returned. People thought that this omen signified Priscus' future kingship at Rome. The data indicates that these depictions and events are implemented by Livy to evoke hopeful and excited feelings from the reader, supported by the high sentiment obtained for this chapter.
Book 5, Chapter 39: The Gauls, recovering frmo their astonishment at so easy a victory, reach the walls of Rome before nightfall. The Romans at any moment expect their attack. They take measures to protect their most sacred posessions and to defend the Capitol. (Livy Book V, R.I. Ross)
This book had a very low sentiment of -37. A low sentiment indicates frequent use of negatively affiliated words, thus suggesting negative sentiment. In this chapter, after being devastated by the Gauls, much of Rome flees to Veii and the remaining individuals withdraw to the Capitoline Hill. At this point in history, the city is completely destroyed and only grief and terror remain. Based on the sentiment analysis performed for thie project, it appears that Livy fully capitalizes on the literary opportunity to evoke the pain of one of Rome's most tragic defeats, and does so convincingly.
There exist several additional instances of similar correlations between the underlying history and the sentiment calculated for a given chapter. These results suggest that the English translation of Livy's work employed in this analysis likely corresponds well to Livy's underlying dramatization in his history. Still, because English translations were utilized in this anlaysis, it is unclear how Livy's actual Latin text would relate to the content of each chapter; however, I perceive that the relationship would be even stronger. An area of future research should develop parallel sentiment analysis capabilities from AFINN for Latin words.
1. Canter, H.V. "Livy the Orator." The Classical Journal 9.1 (1913): 24-34. Web.
2. Ebeling, H. L. "Livy and Polybius: Their Style and Methods of Historical Composition." The Classical Weekly 1.4 (1907): 26. Web.
3. Mcdonald, A. H. "The Style of Livy." Journal of Roman Studies J. Rom. Stud. 47.1-2 (1957): 155-72. Web.
4. Moerk, Ernst L. "Quantitative Analysis of Writing Styles." J. Ling. Journal of Linguistics 6.02 (1970): 223. Web.
5. Steele, R.B. "Livy." The Sewanee Review 15.4 (1907): 429-47. Web.
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Meditation can Heal You in Less than a Day
Meditation can heal you in less than a day, this what the data shows in research done by Yi-Yung Tang, of Dalian University of Technology in China, and Michael Posner, of the University of Oregon. Their research shows that meditation creates physiological changes in the brain in as little as 11 hours.
Meditation can heal you in Less than a Day
Meditation can heal you in Less than a Day
In what amounts to a revolution in science, recent discovers reveal that the human adult brain remains open to change during our full lifespan. How and what we think about creates and regulates a flow of energy and information, understanding this we then understand that the mind can change the brain. In other words, what and how we focus our attention and intention on, how we direct the flow of energy and information can directly affect the brain’s structure and activity.
In his post, Stephan Schwartz, explores this subject. He links the seemingly universal need to connect to something greater than ourselves to meditation, and meditation to science. Scientific studies verify that when compassion is practiced that the social circuits of the brain light up, which helps us to transform all our relationships, even the one we have with ourselves.
According to Stephan Schwartz:
This work has documented a kind of deep “stillness” that affects the entire brain. When this occurs, the frontal and temporal lobe circuits — which track time and create self-awareness — seemingly disengage. The mind-body connection dissolves. These studies show us that the limbic system is responsible for assigning emotional values to persons, places, everything in our total life experience. Since the limbic system, among other things, regulates relaxation and ultimately controls the autonomic nervous system, heart rate, blood pressure and metabolism, it produces both emotional and physiological effects when you react to a specific object, person or place. This is why your hair “stands on end,” your skin “crawls,” your stomach “lurches” or your heart “beats faster.”
In 2009, at the Center for Functionally Integrative Neuroscience at Denmark’s Aarhus University, Peter Vestergaard-Pulsen led a team seeking to explore the effects of long term meditation on brain structure. They found, as they report in their paper, also in Neuroreport:
” … meditation practice has been shown not only to benefit higher-order cognitive functions but also to alter brain activity … meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the right hippocampus. Both orbito-frontal and hippocampal regions have been implicated in emotional regulation and response control. Thus, larger volumes in these regions might account for meditators’ singular abilities and habits to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability, and engage in mindful behavior.” Read full story here…
Though the study by Yi-Yung Tang and Michael Posner shows that meditation can heal you in less than a day, even Mr. Schwartz believes that a person should commit to at least a nighty day program in order to affect lasting changes. His belief is that if a person practices meditation for ninety days, they will have established a regular practice.
So take a deep breath, sit and quiet your mind, take a break from your daily stress and overwhelm from multitasking and running on autopilot, and balance your brain and let the connections in your brain improve along with the connections others and yourself.
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Source Water Protection
Source Water Protection - Watersheds and the Water Cycle
Watersheds are places we call home
A watershed is an area of land that is drained by a river and its tributaries into a particular body of water such as a pond, lake or ocean. Think about your local creek, river or stream. Where does it start? What types of landscapes does it pass through and where does it end up? All of the area covered is a watershed.
A watershed is made up of a unique mixture of habitats that influence one another. These habitats include forests, wildlife, creeks, rivers and lakes, farms and even cities or towns. Watersheds come in all sizes – large and small.
Hydrologic Cycle Watershed Diagram
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Viva! Origami
Viva! Origami
Jun Maekawa
Pages: 169
ISBN: 2:00069304
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Jun Maekawa, who studied physics, is credited with developing a new origami method based on fundamental geometric patterns. His insights into the connection between mathematics and origami are summed up in the Maekawa Theorem. He is a chief councilor of the Japan Origami Association and executive manager and engineer for a software company producing scientific engineering calculations.
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Stop Thief!
Full Screen Image – Bohemian Cuckoo Bumblebee, Glen Convinth, Highland Scotland ©Nick Sidle
There is a crime wave sweeping the countryside and a new report from the University of Stirling aims to bring it to our attention. The team at Stirling led by Dr Mario Vallejo-Marin, an evolutionary biologist, indict some bees for taking pollen from flowers without acting as effective pollinators in return, which as far as the plant is concerned, is rather the point of the arrangement. It’s a bit like having a meal at a restaurant and leaving without paying – theft. Just like restaurants, plants try and put security measures in place to make sure this doesn’t happen, for example by having structures designed to only allow a bee to reach the pollen after they have provided a cross pollination service in the flower. Bees however have tried to get back to getting a free lunch by finding ways to open up the protective structures, such as by producing the right frequency of buzzing sound, and the study shows that this can mean in some flowers that 80% of visiting bees collected pollen but failed to brush up against the female parts of the flower and so were of very little use to the plant in return.
University of Stirling – Threat posed by pollen thief bees
The system does still work overall, and without bees plants and people would be in a lot of trouble, but this study throws a new light on how it is a much more complex interaction and not always fair in the outcome.
Scotland’s Insects and Arachnids Gallery
Glen Convinth
Bohemian Cuckoo Bumblebee – Bombus bohemicus
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Germany in 30 Seconds
Leader: Kaiser William II
Politics: Germany only became a country in 1871, when the German Empire was proclaimed. Previous to unification it was a collection of small principalities and cities, dominated by the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire, lead by the Hapsburg family. Prussia, under Otto von Bismark fought a series wars between 1864 and 1871 to unify Germany under Prussian control. From 1871 until the establishment of the Wiemar Republic at the end of WWI Germany will be dominated by military powers and the aristocratic landowners.
A new sense of German nationalism is also growing during this time. It is grounded in several ideas. The first is that this German Empire is the continuation of the Holy Roman Empire, a loose federation of central European states during the Middle Ages. Thus it is the Second Reich (Empire). German nationalism is also strongly anti-Semitic. It is also rooted in a long-standing distaste for the French.
Religion: Northern Germany is dominated by Lutherans, while the south is predominantly Catholic. There is small Jewish population concentrated in the major cities. This is the period of “Victorian Christianity” with a focus on proper appearance and etiquette, but lacking the deep religious convictions of earlier times. All kinds of sexuality, but especially homosexuality, are often violently repressed. It is at this time that the philosopher Frederich Nietzsche declares, “God is dead.” If you can think of the worst time to be a teenager exploring their sexuality, it’s this period.
* An exercise in dramaturgy: the art of cramming an entire unit of AP Euro knowledge into a one-page summary so actors can better understand the context of the show without having to do hours of research on their own. Bonus points if you can figure out what musical this selection is for.
allieyacina said...
I know which, but I'm cheating.... Also I had no idea that was the setting/time period because I know nothing about anything anymore
Michelle said...
History has more uses than people think!
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Mustard Allergy Symptoms
Mustard is a condiment of choice for hot dog lovers, sandwich eaters and pretzel dippers alike. But in some cases, a taste of this spicy, yellow condiment can result in a severe reaction. Symptoms of mustard allergies are easy to identify if you know what to look for. As with all food allergies, consult a physician if any symptoms manifest or you suspect that you have an allergy to mustard.
bowl of mustard seeds and mustard spread
bowl of mustard seeds and mustard spread (Image: YelenaYemchuk/iStock/Getty Images)
According to the "Prospective Study of Mustard Allergy" published in the journal "Allergy" in April 2003, about 1.1 percent of children with food allergies are allergic to mustard. Mustard is found not only in the condiment but also in sausages, deli meats, salad dressings, barbecue sauces and some topical ointments for pain relief.
spoonful of brown mustard seeds
spoonful of brown mustard seeds (Image: Quanthem/iStock/Getty Images)
Minor Reactions
Minor reactions to mustard typically include an itchy palate (the soft part of the roof of the mouth) and a rash or burning near the lips. These are histamine reactions and are the body's way of fending off a potential invader or toxin. In some cases, minor symptoms may result only in a person's aversion to mustard (such as not liking the taste or finding it foul-tasting), and in other cases, symptoms may progress to more severe reactions.
child having allergic reaction
child having allergic reaction (Image: antpkr/iStock/Getty Images)
Severe Reactions
In some severe cases, a reaction to mustard can result in painful, sensitive rashes on the skin of the back or abdomen, stomach cramps and vomiting. In these cases, the reaction is the body's attempt to remove the offending substance or to purge the body of toxins. Often, reactions this severe will only get more severe as exposure continues.
woman with stomach ache
woman with stomach ache (Image: Wavebreakmedia Ltd/Wavebreak Media/Getty Images)
Life-Threatening Reaction
In rare cases, an allergic reaction to mustard can prompt an anaphylactic response. Anaphylaxis can include dizziness, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, swollen tongue, rapid heartbeat, dramatic change in blood pressure and fainting. If you experience these symptoms, you must be seen by a physician immediately.
patient with doctor
patient with doctor (Image: AlexRaths/iStock/Getty Images)
The best prevention of a reaction to mustard is to avoid contact with the seed, its powder and other products containing mustard. In some cases where a patient has experienced life-threatening reactions, a doctor may prescribe an "epi pen," which is a one-use injection of epinephrine. It is used in instances of accidental exposure to arrest the worst symptoms and buy time for the victim to get to a hospital.
woman using an epi pen
woman using an epi pen (Image: robeo/iStock/Getty Images)
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This Is Why It Was Easier For Our Mums To Lose Weight
Ever wondered why it can be such a major struggle to lose weight?
Maybe you’ve found it a little difficult to zip up your jeans, or perhaps you’ve joined the gym after seeing a particularly unflattering Facebook photo of yourself.
But the most annoying thing of all? Your mum probably NEVER had these issues when she was your age.
However, there’s actually (*celebratory dance*) a scientific reason why our generation finds it harder to shift the pounds.
Yep, it’s true. The clever researchers at Toronto’s York University found this out when they studied the dietary and physical activity of American adults between 1971-2008.
They found that given the same food intake and level of physical activity, people in 2008 were 10% heavier than those in 1971 and 5% heavier than people in 1988.
Therefore, the study – which was funded by the Canadian Institutes Of Health Research – has concluded that external factors must be partially to blame for the rising obesity rate.
So what ARE these external factors?
According to lead researcher Jennifer Kuk, genetics, medication, environmental pollutants and even the time of day people eat their food could all be making it harder for us to lose weight.
‘If you think about it from an evolutionary standpoint, you wouldn’t eat when it was dark out. So maybe we are genetically programmed to eat during the day and not during the night,’ she says.
‘The reasons why we are seeing this increase in body weight might be because we can now do things that we are not programmed to do.’
There’s also the fact that women have begun to have babies later in life. Jennifer continues: ‘Mothers who are older tend to have heavier babies later on in life.
‘If the mother herself is struggling with obesity, then that child will be even more likely to struggle with it as well.’
There’s also some ‘strong research’ to suggest that pesticides, the by-products of burning fossil fuels, forest fires and cigarette smoking could be linked to obesity.
Some medications contain molecules that act like estrogen, which can change our metabolism and make us better at storing fat.
As Jennifer says: ‘You can’t just look at someone and say: “You’re not healthy because you weigh too much. You need to eat less and exercise more.”
‘There could be many more factors that are in play as to why they have that increased body weight that have nothing to do with their diet.’
And that’s an important message for us all to note.
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Algebraic number
An algebraic number is any complex number that is a root of a non-zero polynomial in one variable with rational coefficients (or equivalently – by clearing denominators – with integer coefficients). All integers and rational numbers are algebraic, as are all roots of integers. The same is not true for all real and complex numbers because they also include transcendental numbers such as π and e. Almost all real and complex numbers are transcendental.
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Wild Bird Articles
FAQ: Feeding Wild Birds
When's the best time to start?
The beauty of wild bird feeding is that you can start whenver you want to. The birds can really use your help in the winter and very early spring when natural seed sources are scarce.
Should I stop feeding at certain times?
If you enjoy feeding the birds, there is no reason to stop. Feel free to feed all year-round. Feeding the birds throughout the summer will not make them "lazy" or "dependent."
How long does it take for birds to find a feeder?
Sometimes it can seem like forever. It may take more time for birds to find window feeders than hanging or pole-mounted feeders. Start with a feeder full of black oil sunflower. If that doesn't get their attention, try wrapping aluminum foil around the top of the feeder hanger. Sometimes all it take is the reflection of light on the foil to catch their attention.
My feeder is full of seeds and I haven't seen a bird in months. Am I doing something wrong?
When birds desert your feeder, it may simply be that a lot of natural food is available, your seeds may have spoiled or your feeder could be contaminated. Throw the seeds away and wash the feeder. Also take a look at where your feeder is placed. Be sure it's not vulnerable to predators.
Can birds choke on peanut butter?
There's no evidence that birds can choke on peanut butter. However, birds have no salivary glands. Make it easier on them by purchasing commercially manufactured suet cakes (seed, fruit or peanut butter mixed with lard). Remember to supply your birds with fresh water.
Won't suet go "bad" in the summer?
It's safer to use commerically rendered suet cakes in the spring and summer months. Rendering, boiling the fat, kills bateria. It's okay to feed your woodpeckers year round.
How close to your window can you put a feeder?
Birds will come right up to your window. Don't worry that a feeder on the window will cause birds to fly into the window. Birds fly into the window because they see the reflection of trees. Window feeders and decals can break up the reflection.
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Brussels sprout plant
Brussels sprout plant
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Caption: Brussels sprout plant (Brassica oleracea gemminifera). The lower leaves fall off leaving the buds, which swell up to form the vegetable. The leaves at the crown of the stem pass food down to the lower buds, which swell up. The sprouts are harvested when the sprouts are relatively small. They are cooked and eaten as vegetables, and are rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fibre. Photographed on a farm in Devon, England.
Keywords: agricultural, agriculture, biological, biology, botanical, botany, brassica oleracea, britain, british, brussel sprout, brussels sprout, crop, devon, dietary fibre, edible, england, english, europe, european, farm, farming, flora, folic acid, garden, leaf, leafy, leaves, nature, nutrition, plant, plants, sprouts, uk, united kingdom, vitamin a, vitamin c, wild mustard
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Chrysotile asbestos mineral
Chrysotile asbestos mineral
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Caption: Chrysotile mineral. Chrysotile is an asbestiform (fibrous) variety of the silicate mineral serpentine. Like all asbestos minerals, chrysotile forms strong, flexible fibres that are highly heat resistant, which can be woven into insulating fabrics and materials. The mining of asbestos minerals has declined following the discovery of their link with a fatal lung condition, now known as asbestosis. This sample measures 45 millimetres across.
Keywords: asbestiform, asbestos, chrysotile, earth science, fibre, fibres, fibrous, geological, geology, heat resistant, heat-resistant, insulating, insulation, iron, magnesium, magnesium-iron, metamorphic, mineral, mineralogy, minerals, phyllosilicate, serpentine
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Head of a snarling grey wolf (Canis lupus)
Head of a snarling grey wolf (Canis lupus)
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Caption: Grey wolf. Head of a snarling grey wolf (Canis lupus). This is a sign of aggression, and is used as a threat between wolves. Grey wolves live in packs of between 5 and 15 individuals. Packs are led by a dominant pair. As a pack, they prey on large herbivores such as elk, deer, bison and mountain sheep. A wolf could not catch such large prey alone. Grey wolves are found mainly in northern North America and Asia. They may take domesticated animals, which has led to their persecution in many areas. They are coursers, running for long distances while hunting, and a pack may cover up to 60 kilometres in a day. Photographed in Montana, USA.
Keywords: aggression, animal, canis lupus, grey, grey wolf, grey wolf snarling, head, mammal, nature, snarl, snarling, teeth, wildlife, wolf, zoology
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Healthy and crenated red blood cells, SEM
Healthy and crenated red blood cells, SEM
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Caption: Red blood cells. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of normal healthy red blood cells (red) and a crenated red blood cell (white). Crenation is caused by dehydration, which distorts the cell. The main function of red blood cells (erythrocytes) is to distribute oxygen to body tissues, and to carry waste carbon dioxide back to the lungs. Crenation leads to a severe reduction in their ability to carry out this function. Magnification: x6000 when printed at 10 centimetres wide.
Keywords: abnormal, biconcave, biological, biology, blood, cell, cells, colored, coloured, compared, comparison, crenated, crenation, damage, damaged, erythrocyte, erythrocytes, false-coloured, haematological, haematology, haemoglobin, healthy, hematological, hematology, hemoglobin, human, normal, rbc, rbcs, red blood cell, scanning electron micrograph, scanning electron microscope, sem, spiked, spiky, unhealthy
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Symptoms of heart attack in women over 50
| August 14, 2015
Heart disease heart attack
Affect your heart muscle, blood vessels, and electrical system and is the leading cause of death among women. The most common form of heart disease is coronary artery disease in which plaque (a fat-like substance) deposits on artery walls. Plaque build-up is called atherosclerosis. This is a chronic condition that occurs in people with risk factors such as diabetes, obesity, smoking, abnormal blood fat levels, high blood pressure, a family history of heart disease and age. When a plaque ruptures, it causes a blood clot to form and suddenly block an artery. If this happens in an artery in the heart, resulting in a heart attack. Treatment
Not smoke
control blood pressure control cholesterol levels.
maintain a healthy weight.
Exercise regularly.
Eat a low-fat diet.
care of diabetes.
Be aware of chest pain.
Blood pressure High blood pressure (also called hypertension) occurs when blood moves through the arteries at a higher pressure than normal. The heart is a pump designed to force blood through our body. Blood is pumped from the heart through arteries to our muscles and organs.
Pumps work by generating pressure. Put simply, too much pressure puts a strain on the arteries and the heart itself. This can cause an artery to rupture or the heart to fail under the strain – in the worst case stopping altogether. Treatment
Blood pressure is measured with a monitor called sphygmomanometer. This is a digital box attached to a tube with a cuff end. The cuff is placed around the arm and inflated to a certain level, then deflated slowly. A sensor in the cuff provides information about blood pressure or a doctor or nurse will listen to the blood flow using a stethoscope. Hypertensive heart disease heart disease
Hypertensive is any one of a number of complications of hypertension which affects the heart. It is one of the most common causes of death in Western societies. Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death associated with hypertension and is actually a group of disorders that include heart failure, ischemic heart disease and left ventricular hypertrophy Treatment of common medications
Include diuretics, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers , angiotensin -converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor antagonists and vasodilators direct. Intravenous diazoxide or nitroprusside may be prescribed if hypertension is extremely severe and intensive care is necessary. Preventive measures against hypertension heart disease emphasize control over weight, healthy diet (rich in fiber and vitamins), and abstinence from drugs and alcohol. In case of a severe heart problem, surgery may be needed to restore normal blood flow in the heart and / or blood vessels.
In addition to medications, recommended lifestyle changes include weight loss, exercise, and dietary adjustments. Dietary recommendations include fruits, vegetables, and low fat dairy products increase. Whole grains, poultry and fish are also generally recommended. It should be avoided Tran fats and saturated fats. Patients may benefit from reducing salt intake. If you smoke, stop smoking – cigarettes are a major cause of hypertension and related heart disease. Reducing excessive alcohol consumption may also help.
Category: Healthcare Basics
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As Far As It Is Translated Correctly
One of the criticisms of the Latter-day Saint (Mormon) faith is based on its 8th Article of Faith: “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly;we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”
When critics, especially of the Evangelical kind, come across this statement, they frequently believe it to mean that LDS reject the Bible, and can simply reject parts that supposedly don’t agree with their theology as not being “translated correctly”.
Recently, I began to read a somewhat controversial New York Times bestseller, “Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why“, by Bart Ehrman (Ph.D and M.Div from Princeton Theological Seminary, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). In this book, Ehrman discusses (somewhat briefly) what “scripture” is, the evolution of what was considered as “canon” in Judaism and early Christianity, how manuscripts were copied anciently (i.e. by hand), who the scribes were, and the textual variants found among Biblical manuscripts in various languages (English, Greek, Latin, etc).
What does all of this have to do with the LDS church accepting the Bible as the word of God as it is translated correctly? I think that this article of faith of Mormonism touches on something that many non-Biblical scholar Christians do not realize, or perhaps do not think about: the Bible(s) that we have today is a translation, which was translated from another manuscript that may have also been a translation. When we look at the various English Bibles available, such as the King James Version, the New International Version, the New American Bible, etc., we note that the differences between these translations are not just about “modern English” versus “archiac English”. There are actually differences in certain passages, whether certain words are translated differently, certain sentences may be omitted or added, etc. There are of course differences between the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament) and the Masoretic Text (Hebrew version of the Old Testament). There are differences among ancient manuscripts such as the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus. In some of these comparisons, we find multiple verses missing, differences in wording (some because of similar spelling in the Greek that was misinterpreted), etc. The “Johannine Comma” is a popular example of extra words appearing in 1 John 5:7-8 that supposedly emphasis the Trinity. These words do not appear in the most ancient manuscripts of 1 John, but were added much later (in fact, for example, the KJV includes the “comma” (phrase), while the NIV does not).
So, when a traditional Christian states that they believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, which Bible are they talking about? Is it the Latin Vulgate, the King James Version, or the original manuscripts? I think that all Christians would agree that originals certainly were inspired. However if what we have today includes additions and substractions caused by various issues throughout the ages, then how can we be certain as to what the original authors really said? Some may counter that sure, there may have been additions and subtractions, however they don’t change the meanings of the overall texts. To me, that misses the entire point: if the original text was inspired, then who are we to say that it doesn’t matter if uninspired changes were introduced, some accidently and some intentionally?
This is why I find the LDS article of faith on accepting the Bible as far as translated correctly extremely insightful. The fact is that Biblical scholars and textual critics aim to find the most ancient manuscripts, comparing them to each other, as well as to our modern translations, understanding how and why they vary. Since we don’t have the original manuscripts, it is especially important for this work to continue, and for modern Christians to realize that the Bible that we read from is not the same as the Bible that your neighbor may be reading, or the same as the Bible that someone in Egypt is reading, or that someone in the 300s was reading.
With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as the work in Biblical scholarship, it is clear that the Bible has not always been translated correctly (whether intentionally or unintentionally), Greek, Hebrew and Latin manuscripts vary to various degrees (some more serious than others, including additions of verses not found in older manuscripts, or in converse, some older manuscripts subtracted certainv erses) and this is something that all have to come to accept and study. Latter-day Saints therefore are right to qualify their acceptance of the Bible as the word of God in light of the historical realities of Biblical textual scholarship (much of which is done by believers).
Comparing Translations: Textual Criticism and Interpretation
Codex Sinaiticus
Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts
Heyns Lecture Series: Misquoting Jesus
1. It’s pretty simple, really. The Holy Spirit kept the translations essentially correct in the Catholic Church from the time of the first writings until now. The meaning hasn’t changed, even if the translation of a few words is different. Catholics believe, and have always believed, that their leaders are protected from error by the Holy Spirit. Our differences of opinion with Protestant faiths and Mormons is the meaning attached to those phrases.
Does the Johanine Comma change the essential message of the entire letter? Not really.
1. Thank you for your comments David.
Yes, I am well aware of the Catholic (and Orthodox) position that the Holy Spirit protects the leaders, the Bishop of Rome, etc. Unfortunately, that is not really relevant to the substance of my post, as that is a faith-based assertion (which itself is based on an interpretation of scripture directed at apostles).
Stating that the Holy Spirit kept the translations essentially correct from the time of the first writings until now does not make it so, unless it is demonstrated. What does “correct” mean? The very existence of Biblical scholarship in textual variance says otherwise, especially because we also don’t have the autographs (originals) to say what is “correct”. Instead, scholars compare manuscripts, from different and same time periods, languages, etc. Which is the correct translation that the Holy Spirit kept correct? How do you know?
Traditional Christians frequently criticize the New World Translation of the Bible, used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, because it is seen as a misleading translation used to support their unique theology. The fact is, similar claims are made in the field of Biblical scholarship about “traditional” translations as well (critique of Catholic translations is well known). The Johannine Comma is only one example of this. Whether or not it changes the “essential message” of the entire letter is irrelevant, as I mentioned in my post. The point is that it is an insertion of something that was not there in the first place, perhaps in support of a theological point of view (Trinity perhaps), and it therefore causes one to think about how exactly we have received the texts of the Bible we have today, and whether we are reading the same things as the early Christians did.
When one actually researches this field, it is very clear that the meaning of a number of verses and chapters is changed because of these translation and transmission issues.
Unfortunately, this is not that simple, really.
1. We have the writings of the disciples of the apostles which gives us a very consistent view of what the writings meant. There was little dispute about Christianity and what the Bible meant until the 1500’s. Before that, people asked questions, or posed alternatives, and could directly determine whether their positions were correct or not. This is how the Catholic Church has operated since it began in 33AD. In fact, it’s also how the canon of the Bible was determined for Christians.
2. Thank you again for commenting David.
“There was little dispute about Christianity and what the Bible meant until the 1500s” (I assume you are referring to the Reformation)?? That assertion is not based in historical fact. The entire point of the early Ecumenical Councils was that there were disputes in Christianity, over issues as fundamental as the nature of God and how Jesus Christ was divine and human. Arianism, Modalism/Sabellianism, Adoptionism, etc. are just samples of the disputes leading up to the first Ecumenical Council. “People asked questions, or posed alternative, and could directly determine whether their positions were correct or not” certainly was not how the early Church functioned, by the very existence of the Ecumenical Councils, since these fundamental issues couldn’t be decided in such a simple manner. Then of course there was the schism of the Oriental Orthodox over the nature(s) of Christ, and the schism of the Eastern Orthodox over a number of issues. And of course the Orthodox Church sees itself as the church that “began in 33 AD”, not the Catholic Church. Clearly, things were not simple and easily decided pre-Reformation. Reading about what actually happened at the Ecumenical Councils shows otherwise. A good book for you would be “The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787): Their History and Theology” by Davis S.J. (a Jesuit).
The setting of the canon is a separate issue (and not really related to my post). I will say that I find it interesting that Catholics state that they use the Septuagint, when really most (not all) of the books in the Septuagint canon are used, while the Eastern Orthodox use the entire Septuagint canon. The canon wasn’t infallibly declared (according to the Catholic Church) until 1546 AD at the Council of Trent. Previous to that, only non-universal and non-infallible local councils addressed it. Many of the early Christians regarded the Shepherd of Hermas as scripture (Irenaeus, bishop of Lugdunum thought it was, and it was included in the ancient Codex Sinaiticus, which dates to the 300s AD), yet of course it is not included in the canon for anyone.
2. “The entire point of the early Ecumenical Councils was that there were disputes in Christianity, over issues as fundamental as the nature of God and how Jesus Christ was divine and human.” Yes, exactly! And how did they determine the answer to these questions? They went to the Bible, and to the early Church Fathers writings. The Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church were one Church in 33 AD. The Orthodox chose disobedience. To this day, both sides work to try to reconcile.
All other Christian religions are an offshoot of Catholicism. Whether they believe so or not. They all diagree to some degree, and would rather believe what they believe than what God teaches.
The fact that the declaration of the canon was not infallibly declared has no bearing on whether it existed or not. It just means that it was written down. Also, the fact that one Father or another thought some book should be or shouldn’t be has no bearing on the entire Church.
Melito, bishop of Sardis, an ancient city of Asia Minor (see Rev 3), c. 170 AD produced the first known Christian attempt at an Old Testament canon. His list maintains the Septuagint order of books but contains only the Old Testament protocanonicals minus the Book of Esther.
The Council of Laodicea, c. 360, produced a list of books similar to today’s canon. This was one of the Church’s earliest decisions on a canon.
Pope Damasus, 366-384, in his Decree, listed the books of today’s canon.
The Council of Rome, 382, was the forum which prompted Pope Damasus’ Decree.
Bishop Exuperius of Toulouse wrote to Pope Innocent I in 405 requesting a list of canonical books. Pope Innocent listed the present canon.
The Council of Hippo, a local north Africa council of bishops created the list of the Old and New Testament books in 393 which is the same as the Roman Catholic list today.
The Council of Carthage, a local north Africa council of bishops created the same list of canonical books in 397. This is the council which many Protestant and Evangelical Christians take as the authority for the New Testament canon of books. The Old Testament canon from the same council is identical to Roman Catholic canon today. Another Council of Carthage in 419 offered the same list of canonical books.
Since the Roman Catholic Church does not define truths unless errors abound on the matter, Roman Catholic Christians look to the Council of Florence, an ecumenical council in 1441 for the first definitive list of canonical books.
The final infallible definition of canonical books for Roman Catholic Christians came from the Council of Trent in 1556 in the face of the errors of the Reformers who rejected seven Old Testament books from the canon of scripture to that time.
1. Thank you again for commenting David.
Yes, the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Roman Catholic churches were all one until the various schisms. Obviously as a Catholic you believe that the others went into schism from Catholicism. Obviously the other groups see this differently (especially when Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem all stayed together as “Eastern Orthodoxy”, while Rome was left alone). It is very easy for Orthodoxy to respond that Catholicism split off, “whether they believe so or not”, and that Catholicism chose disobedience (historically, Rome has much more doctrinal development to account for than the East, which pretty much has not developed doctrinally).
If you believe that at the Ecumenical Councils they simply went to the Bible and the ECF writings and solved things, simple as that, you should really read more about what exactly happened at these Councils. They were hardly as quick, easy, and organized as you may believe. Even the emperors were involved in these church councils. The very existence of the Ecumenical Councils shows that dissent was in existence in early Christianity, long before the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s. There were “Protestants” from the beginning (Arianism, Modalism, Montanism, Docetism, etc.).
As far as the canon, well it’s easy to say that just because one (in reality more than one) ECF said a certain book or two should be in the canon doesn’t mean that it had bearing on the church. But these are bishops we’re talking about, who are shepherds of the church. Odd that they would not know the “correct” canon, and would include certain books that never made it in the canon. The Shepherd of Hermas was widely considered to be scriptural in the early Church.
The Council of Laodicea (363 AD) omitted the Book of Revelation from the canon, and also includes Baruch. The point is that the canon was not set in stone until over 300 years after the Apostles. Even if we go closer to the apostles, such as Bishop Melito or Tertullian, etc., we still see variance in the canon, with books omitted that we accept today, or books accepted that we reject today. What was happening in the interim that individual bishops and even a Council could give differing canons?
What is also interesting is that the Eastern Catholics include more books in the canon than the Roman Catholics (they are following the Orthodox tradition of using the entire Septuagint, and not just some of the books like Roman Catholicism). So who’s right about the canon if Eastern Catholics, in communion with Roman Catholics, have more books?
My overall point is that early Christianity was not a homogeneous entity, and there were many schisms, heresies, etc. The Protestant Reformation was not the first instance of dissent, and numerous bishops were anathematized, exiled, etc. All of these things led to the necessity of Councils to decide things (with the first Council being called by the Emperor, not any bishop).
Also, it is helpful to cite your sources if you copy and paste part of an article.
1. Citing facts from various sources that I’ve used in teaching ? They come from various places.
Here’s how schisms happen, in a nutshell:
Someone says “I believe XYZ about ABC”. People start to follow him. Others notice. They say but So and So says otherwise about that. The schismatics say “but it feels better this way than that way”. The Church says, “But that’s wrong. Our forefathers, who sat at Christ’s feet (or Paul’s feet, or Peter’s feet) disagree.” The schismatics say “Well, we’ll just go our own way with that.” And thus a branch of the one true church that Jesus created is established. So the Church defines the answer to the question.
Bishops are entitled to their opinions, and opinions can be wrong. The only bishop that’s infallible and protected from teaching error is the Bishop of Rome. All others together, in concert with the Bishop of Rome, form the teaching office of the Church. There were schismatic and heretical bishops. Most recently Archbishop Lefevre.
What the council of Laodicea did was not definitive. Much of the writing in the New Testament was not even widely distributed untill 100 years after the Apostles. Considering the spread of Christianity around the Mediterranean rim, it’s understandable that it took time to build the canon. We know, to this day, that we don’t have all the letters of St. Paul. Your characterization that the Orthodox use the entire Septuagint is incorrect. And your suggestion that all the Orthodox Churches march together is also incorrect. There are many Orthodox Churches. The only books of the Septuagint not in the Roman Canon are books of dubious authorship-3 and 4 Maccabees (Which could have been written as late as 40AD, and Psalms of Solomon, which wasn’t even discovered until very late.
By the way,the Churches in communion with the Roman Church are allowed to have other writings. They’re just not considered canon.
The first church council was not called by any emperor. It was called by Peter, James and John. The next council was convened by Constantine, but suggested by the Church after a synod couldn’t come to an agreement on when Easter should be celebrated.
There has often been questioning of Church doctrine, even to this day. So the Church then declares the doctrine that the Early Church held, and sets it in stone. When people disagree with it, they become dissident and out of communion, therefore not Catholic.
2. Thank you again for commenting David.
By “copying and pasting” I simply meant that I found part of your last post on an apologetic website (and a few others) word for word, so it seemed to me that you simply copied and pasted it without attributing it.
I agree that bishops are entitled to their opinions. However it is very odd that a fundamental issue such as which books go in the Bible was left in such an ambiguous state for over 300 years, long after all of the Apostles died, and that someone with such authority as a bishop would be able give a list of canonical texts, some of which did not make it into the current canon, while others that did were not included in those lists. So, while it is okay to pick and choose which councils and bishops we look to as “proof” of the current canon, we also have to acknowledge that other bishops and councils also gave other canons as well. The canon clearly was a fluid entity with no definitive Church definition until Florence and Trent (since no one since then in the Church would dare say that, for example, Revelation should not be included, and that we should add the Shepherd of Hermas. They certainly wouldn’t remain a bishop in good standing).
As far as Papal Infallibility, well that’s a non-issue for that time period, since it wasn’t declared until recent times, and there is no evidence of such a belief in the ancient Church (we certainly don’t have a list of infallible Papal statements pre-1870. This doctrine only became speculated on in the Middle Ages). It is an example of doctrinal development (nothing wrong with that per se).
I’m not sure what you mean by the writings of churches in communion with Rome are “not considered canon”. The Eastern Catholic churches follow Orthodox tradition in using the entire Septuagint as part of their Biblical canon. So, it is certainly odd for a Roman Catholic to tell an Eastern Catholic that the “extra books” are not canon, when the Eastern Catholics themselves believe that they are. It is also odd that the Melkite Catholic Eparchy of Newton states on its website that there have only been 7 ecumenical councils, and that the Vatican Council was not ecumenical. The point here is that the Pope has said that the Eastern Catholic churches must be true to their Eastern Orthodox heritages (i.e. not give in to “Latinizations”), yet this Orthodox heritage involves accepting as canonical books that the Roman Catholic church does not, which is what they do.
By “first council”, of course I was not talking about the Biblical Council of Jerusalem. When people talk about the “first 7 ecumenical councils”, they always begin with the First Council of Nicaea as the first one.
Of course all the [Eastern] Orthodox churches “march together”. They are multiple churches/jurisdictions that are united in their one Orthodox faith, with the Ecumenical Patriarch as the symbol of unity (who became the “first among equals” after Rome went into schism from the other 4 Patriarchates, in their opinion). The Catholic Church has a similar setup, with 23 churches together making up “the Catholic Church”, in union with the Bishop of Rome.
Besides 3 and 4 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Odes, and Psalm 151 are missing from the Western canon.
I’m glad that you recognize that there has often been questioning of Church doctrine. I just wanted it to be clear that Christianity wasn’t nice and unified until the Protestant Reformation, but that there were multiple “Protestant” groups from the beginning. It is always interesting to look at schism from another perspective, such as the Eastern Orthodox view of the Catholic Church.
3. I may have gotten info from some site you found, but it’s from my library, and I don’t necessarily know exactly where. But I’ve done the work and verified, so I’m not projecting error.
I have to remind you that Jesus did not tell his apostles “Go out and write…”, he told them go out and teach. The books were written (especially Paul’s letters) to keep the faithful in line with the truth. The truth that the Jesus handed to the apostles, who handed it on, first verbally, then in writing, to others. There is merit in all the writings. The canon was generally held to those works written by, or in the name of, the apostles.If the book was not clearly apostolic in origin, it was generally rejected as canon. To this day we use the Didache as a teaching document, as we do the Protoevangelium of James. But they aren’t canonical.
Russian orthodoxy does not equal Greek Orthodoxy. IF you’re talking about Eastern Orthodox, we were not talking of the same thing.
My understanding is that 1 Esdras = Ezra. Prayer of Manasseh was not in all versions of the Septuagint. Odes, I’ve never heard of.
The point I am making is that Christ only gave one message. He also only instituted one Church. He told the apostles that the gates of hell would not and could not prevail against his Church. The Catholic Church is that Church. Others have had disagreements with the Catholic understanding, and have let their pride get in the way. As for “protestants” (as if that was one Christian faith), you can tell that no Protestant church has the fullness of the faith, because no two Protestant Churches holds exactly the same doctrine. In fact, if you don’t like what your new pastor is teaching, or what they’re doing in one church, you can go to the one across town and see if they say what you like. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has had one message for 2000 years, since the first Pentecost. It has never changed.
You mention infallibility, as if it was something conjured up in the 1800’s. What you don’t know is that the definition of infallibility was always held for the pope, from day 1. It was defined in the 1800’s because of questions about what ‘infallibility’ means. If you’re interested, it means that a pope is protected by the grace of God (the Holy Spirity) from teaching error to the entire Catholic Church for the purposes of faith and morals. And if you examine all 260+ popes, you will find that this is a true statement.
1. Thanks again for commenting David.
Russian Orthodoxy and Greek Orthodoxy are the same faith, expressed differently. It is no different than the Ukrainian Catholic church and the Melkite Catholic church being the same faith as the Roman Catholic church, expressed differently. Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox are part of the same “[Eastern] Orthodox Church”, and in the United States, they are part of the same representative body, the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America (SCOBA).
I agree that Jesus did not say to “go out and write”. The point here is simply that the canon was a fluid entity within the Church itself (with bishops and councils stating that certain books were canonical that later were deemed not) until much later in history, hundreds of years after the books were written. The idea of a “canon” is itself of late origin, with the Jews not having a Hebrew Bible canon concept until after the 1st century AD.
1 Esdras is not Ezra. Ezra is equivalent to 2 Esdras.
I agree that Christ only gave one message. As a Catholic, I know that you believe that the Catholic Church is the “one true church” established by Jesus. However I also believe that the Orthodox Church also has a legitimate claim to that title (despite your claim that they broke off of the Catholic Church, since they believe that Catholicism broke off from itself), especially because they have changed much less than Catholicism has. Saying that the Catholic Church is true because it is doesn’t make it so.
As far as Papal Infallibility, please demonstrate that it existed pre-1054 AD schism, let along before the Middle Ages. There is simply no evidence for this belief in the patristic writings. I am well aware of what it means (I studied Catholic history and theology at my undergrad Catholic university). It is interesting that the Eastern Orthodox, who were in union with Rome pre-Great Schism, also deny that such a belief existed. It is also interesting that there is no list of Infallible Papal documents pre-1870 (which should be easy to produce if it always existed). If it always existed from day 1, please demonstrate the exercising of Papal Infallibility, and that the Popes that did so were aware of it.
1. First off, let me say you’ve been very polite, and I appreciate that. Thank you.
We’re quibbling over minor pieces of the Septuagint which were not in all versions. And by the way, the “Orthodox Canon” you describe wasn’t defined until 1672. So for most of Christianity, the Catholic Bible has been the Bible.
Christianity is about obeying the commandments and the word of God. Jesus, who was and is the Son of God, said that it would last until the end of time, and that the gates of Hell would not prevail against his Church. There is only one Church which meets those ideals. The Catholic Church is true because God made it true. Part of the problem of the Great Schism is that the EOs decided that they did not want to obey God the way he told them to, but the way they thought they should. ( I wonder who wrote that Catholic History course you took, and who explained Catholic theology to you…) Regarding lists of “infallible documents” there is none, that I know of. But yet the doctrine exists. But it’s in the Bible. Matt 28:19-20, Christ taught us to preach everything that he taught, and (John 16:13) promised to send the Holy Spirit to “guide you in all truth”. Since there was one infant Church when Christ preached these, he was talking to “the” Church. The Catholic Church. And that the early Fathers knew this, Cyprian of Carthage “”Would the heretics dare to come to the very seat of Peter whence apostolic faith is derived and whither no errors can come?” (Letters 59 [55], 14). Augustine followed with “Rome has spoken, the case is concluded:” (Sermons 131,10)
As for your understanding of infallible pronouncements, the Church only does something infallibly when pressed-when a doctrine is called into question.
2. Thanks again for commenting David.
In regards to my education in Catholic history and theology, what I have been stating in my responses to you is not necessarily reflective of the positions in those courses and books that I have read. What is taught in such courses and books would mostly agree with everything you are saying, because they are written from the Catholic perspective. My point in these responses has simply been that there are Eastern Orthodox courses and books (many of which I have read) that give another view of those same events, and that I am not really giving the Catholic view of things in responding to you (as you realize). So while you (and those Catholic-related courses and books I’ve taken and read) may believe that part of the cause of the Great Schism was that “the EOs decided that they did not want to obey God the way he told them to, but the way they thought they should”, the Eastern Orthodox of course don’t view it that way, and may even apply what you said to Catholics themselves. The Great Schism was as much the fault of the East as it was the fault of the West. It is only with this beginning that reconciliation can ever happen. The Catholic Church itself recognizes that the Orthodox Church has valid apostolic succession and valid sacraments, and that if necessary, Catholics can receive sacraments in an Orthodox church (though the Orthodox most likely would not give it to them anyway). It is with that understanding that I believe that the Orthodox Church has a strong claim to being the “one true Church”, especially when another “one true Church”, the Catholic Church, recognizes its priesthood validity and sacraments.
I agree that the Bible says that the Holy Spirit will guide in all truth and to teach everything Jesus taught, however that doesn’t really lead to the conclusion of a doctrine of Papal Infallibility. In the pre-Schism Church, we see no exercising of Papal Infallibility (nor have their ever been documents from that time period retroactively declared infallible by the Catholic Church post-1870 AD), yet of course we do see Conciliar Infallibility (i.e. the Ecumenical Councils).
3. Oh I forgot to ask: what is the standard used to decide when Papal Infallibility should be exercised instead of calling an Ecumenical Council? I assume that there must be some standard if we accept your view that the belief in Papal Infallibility always existed, since it wasn’t exercised until more recently, beginning with the declaration of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 (I can’t remember, but I apologize if I incorrectly stated that it wasn’t exercised until after it was defined in 1870, since this seems to be the only retroactive declaration of Papal Infallibility exercising confirmed by the Magisterium). So, why didn’t the Church simply use Papal Infallibility to declare/settle doctrines instead of going through Ecumenical Councils? This is something I haven’t looked into.
4. What a great thread of responses to this article. My only complaint is that it ended. This is how a conversation on religion should be had. With respect, openess, and the desire to learn from one another. I’m so glad I found this blog: An answer to my prayers really. I myself am in a search for truth and this is proving to be a great source of information. I’ll be reading every single thing posted here – starting from FEB 2010 all the way to DEC 2011. I really hope this blog continues. Thank you.
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Fun Cambridge Exam Activity (7)
Adjective Game: Warmer Thread
AIM: To elicit as many adjectives from the students as possible
You should have written ‘beautifulightall’ on the board.
1. Now continue with the same sequence
Classroom management alternatives
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Fun Cambridge Activities (4)
In a Nutshell: Speaking Activity
Classroom Layout
B B
A A
B B
Phase 1
Give a different card to student ‘A’.
Phase 2
Phase 3
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Cambridge Fun Activity (3)
Sentence Transformation – Running Dictation
Classroom management is crucial for a successful competition so give the instructions clearly unless you´ll be confused and your students even more so.
AIM: This activity teaches the three processes needed to complete the sentence transformation exercise that is on the FCE, CAE and CPE tests.
Material: Cut up sentence transformation questions from the Cambridge exam you are working with. Make sure they are numbered so you understand the sequence.
You can´t explain all the activity at first or it won´t work so do so in phases
Phase 1: Allocate Roles First
Split the class into groups of three. Then give the instructions in these steps
Ask one of the members of each group to be the writer. Make clear who is the writer and make sure they have a piece of paper and pen to write with.
Then ask when member of each group is going to READ. Make sure the allocation is clear by having them put their hand up.
Now tell the last student that he/she will be show you (the teacher) the answers.
Students will still at this point not be clear but don´t worry now you will explain the game
Phase 2: The game
Show students a question from the exam.
Tell them that one student (the reader) will come up and read the paper and go back to their group where the writer will note it down.
Tell them that there is a word (I call it a magic word for emphasis) which will help the group transform the sentence into a new one with exactly the same meaning. Tell them this word CANNOT be changed.
• Explain that the reader will come up and read this information, they will then tell the writer what to note down.
• Now all three will change the sentence and the writer will rewrite the new version.
• Then the 3rd person will bring what the students think is the correct answer to you for checking
Phase 3: Correction
When the answer is shown to the teacher they only will respond YES or NO. If yes then the reader can come up and see the next sentence transformation question. If NO then student
must return to the group for them to produce the correct answer. YOU MUST ONLY ACCEPT THE CORRECT ANSWER
TIP: At this stage don´t help the learners as usually it is a simple mistake and they can correct it. If they can´t make the change after a 3rd attempt give them a cluse such as spelling, tense, wrong prepositions (be minimal with your help). This is the time when students really work and must do it together.
Keep this sequence going until the learners have read, wrote and shown all of the sentence transformation questions to you. It is crazy but fun!
Phase 4: Checking
When the game is complete go through all of the questions and discuss what problems the students had. They will see they had similar problems and this will help you know what areas they are weak in i.e. past simple to present perfect, phrasal verbs, verb + infinitive or gerund, conditionals, inversions, collocations etc.
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Fun Activities for Cambridge (1)
Posted on July 25, 2010. Filed under: ABCI 2010, Activities, CAE, CPE, FCE, Training |
Opening Warmer – Word Transformation for Use of English
This is an excellent introduction on the first day to the word transformation exercise.
Materials – Pieces if small squared paper
Note this activity uses the students knowledge and helps you see who may have been placed incorrectly. It also can be done with sufixes, which I do after this game, but here I will explain with prefixes.
A. Preparation
Before class write different a suffix on each piece of paper. Different Cambridge exams will demand different prefixes with CPE being the most advanced (of course) but for FCE you could use:
TIP: Look at the word transformation section of the Cambridge exam practice papers to get an idea of the prefixes you´ll need
Now number each preffix beforehand unless you may get in a mess
B. The Classroom
1. Now split your class into 3 or 3 students depending on the size you have ( you could do it in pairs but a minimum of 3 is much better.
2. Now assign one student to write.
3. Now present the task
4. Write the word manage on the board
5. Ask students if they know the suffix (they may say manag(er) or maneg(ment)
6. Now ask them what the prefix is and hopefully they´ll say ‘miss-‘
7. Now make sure the Ss realise these are siffixes and prefixes and in the Use of English they will have to transform words using these. Tell them they are going to work with prefixes. The prefixes MUST modify a root word (such as manage)
8. Now hand the first prefixes (they must be different) to each group. Now tell Ss you are going to give them 1 minute to write down any words.In groups Ss must tell the person writing as many words as possible. Why is it important that the groups have different prefixes? because they could overhear words from other groups and copy so again… make sure the prefixes are different.
9. Now after one minute…. go to the first group and give them a new prefix. Then take their prefix and give it to the next group and then do the same with this group i.e. remove their prefix and give it to the next group. So you are introducing one new prefix and giving the other groups a new prefix but one the previous group has already done.
10. Keep doing this by introducing a new prefix after one minute. Timing MUST be strict as it is more fun under pressure. You´ll notice why numbering the papers is imprtant here.
11. At the end give the learners 2 extra minutes to go through their list of words.
12. After 2 minutes swap the lists of each group. Then another group can check their work
C. Checking
1. Now the teacher selects a prefix, for example ‘im-‘
2. Now ask the groups to check their ‘new’ list and say how many ‘im-‘ worsds the other group have.
3. Here you can clarify language doubts but the group with the highest list wins. be carfeul here in managing this. You may have 4 groups and you don´t have time to here all of the words from each of the groups so just listen to the longest list and if this is still the most compared to the other groups. They win.
4. Allocate a point (on the board) for each time a groups gets the most words correct with each prefix.
5. The group who gets the most point wins.
6. Be ready with a prize.
I give ‘the super shaun smile’ but this is another story
Now they learners can do an exercise from the test or book
Have fun and comment if anything is not clear
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Jan 022010
(as a few had noticed, I had an error in the schematic shown. It’s been updated, thanks!)
A recent question from a friend who made a really cool BlinkM hoodie was: How can you turn a momentary button press into an on/off toggle?
There are tons of ways to do this if you like getting into electronics. Most all work off of some flip-flop like principle. And while I could have suggested a true flip-flop chip, I thought it would be cooler if you could use a 555 timer chip (which contains a single flip-flop and a couple of comparators). After scouring my childhood collection of Forrest Mims electronics books and a few 555 timer devoted websites (two of the best I found were: http://www.bowdenshobbycircuits.info/ & http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/555timer.htm), I cobbled together the following circuit based off a few almost-what-I-wanted examples.
This is what it looks like in use:
The schematic is pretty straightforward, but does use a bit of feedback trickery to get the toggle functionality:
On/off toggle switch from a momentary switch using 555
(old incorrect version here)
The parts cost is pretty low. The 555 timer chip can be had for about $0.43, the 2N3904 transistor for ~$0.40, and various resistors & capacitors are essentially free if you have them.
The circuit has 3 external two-pin connections: 5V&Gnd, button input, and the two pins of the thing to switch. In this case, the switched thing is a power supply to a BlinkM.
By changing the transistor to a beefier one, you can switch much larger loads. The little 2N3904 transistor in there now can switch around 200mA, but a bigger NPN or FET transistor and you could switch a few amps.
It can be made pretty small on a tiny breadboard (courtesy of FunGizmos.com) like this:
Simple on/off toggle from a momentary switch
It’s not the greatest for battery-powered applications. When “off” it draws about 4-6mA, depending on the brand of 555 timer chip you use. When on it draws that plus whatever power the switched device draws. Best to put a proper power switch on the battery pack to eliminate this quiescent drain.
On/off toggle switch from a momentary switch using 555
Posted by at 11:29 pm
52 Responses to “Momentary Button as On/Off Toggle using 555”
1. how would you have to alter the circuit if you had a 12V DC source and your LEDs were 12V 5A 60W led strips with built in resistors. I’m assuming you would need a different transistor?
2. I’ve found the solution for this circuit. With only a few modifications in the schematic diagram it’s possible to correct the problem of the “self-shoot” on the output when connecting or disconnecting the power supply, no matter how the circuit is powered, either an AC/DC adapter or a battery.
1) Pins 4 and 8 (both together), must be connected to +V through a 220 ohm resistor, adding a 4.7?F bypass capacitor from that pins to GND.
2) The seventh pin from the IC must be grounded.
3) A 5K6 resistor should be added from the base of the transistor to GND.
4) R4 in the schematic should be 10K instead of 1K.
Sorry for my poor english, i’m from Argentina.
Regards. :)
3. Hello,
What if I want the cirduit to be “ON” state when I power up ? is there a “reset” on power up which grants that the satet is alwys “ON” on start?
Many thanks!
4. for George,
try http://circuit-diagram.hqew.net/On-And-Off-Button(NE555)_19629.html but there is some threshold when power supply re-setted
5. Hi guys,
works pretty well, how can I modify this to work on 3.7volts?
I can get it to switch on, but not off again on the 3.7v?
6. Hey Dave,
So far as I can recall, the 555 chip can have an output of around 1.7 Volts below Vcc.
The circuit in this article needs capacitor C1 to be charged to over 2/3 Vcc to turn off.
This is probably what’s going on here – when using a Vcc of 3.7V, the output pin may only charge capacitor C1 to ~2.0V. However, since you need a voltage of 2.47V or higher to get the output to go low, your circuit isn’t going to switch off.
Luckily, there’s a way around this. Pin 5 of the 555 (the CON pin) can be used to set the threshold voltage at which the output will turn off. If we assume that the internal voltage divider of the 555 chip uses 5k? resistors, then by connecting pin 5 in between a voltage divider composed of a 10k? resistor and a 5k? resistor between Vcc and ground should give us a new threshold voltage of around ½ Vcc.
In this case ½ Vcc corresponds to 1.85 V, meaning that our output voltage of ~2.0V should charge capacitor C1 high enough to turn the output low and switch the circuit off.
If the threshold still isn’t low enough, then you can manipulate the resistor values to get even lower threshold values. For example, you could try using a 1k? resistor instead of a 5k? resistor.
– Michael
7. Note:
I forgot one detail in the modified circuit. You’re going to have to modify the original external voltage divider so that pins 2 and 6 (Threshold and Trigger) sit between 1/4 Vcc and 1/2 Vcc when the switch is open. You can hold the open switch voltage at 3/4 Vcc by using a 5kOhm resistor for R1 and a 3kOhm resistor for R2.
8. I saw somebody asking how to make a 555 I C to have 3 stable states you can make two latches in which each one has two switches ON/OFF and then make OFF to become on switch for both latches while each latch is having a seperate ON switch. So as to have ON-OFF-ON.
9. How do you replace the switch with a sensor so that it can be turn ON when a given signal is detected for a while and turn OFF when the same signal is detected the second time. I did my own design but one has to use two 555 ICs which is not cost effective and will lead to a bit high power consumption.
10. It is nice but how can we improve the circuit to work with a car battery?
11. You can make this to a ON OFF ON switch. Some one should try, this is only bistable switch.
12. […] Momentary Button as On/Off Toggle using 555 […]
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S: Benito Mussolini
FC: Benito Mussolini By: Johnny Davis
1: What I already knew: Benito Mussolini was El duce (prime minister) of Italy.
2: Did he fight in World War 2? Mussolini was a corporal in WWI and was discharged for being hit with shrapnel while in a trench.
3: Why did he join Germany? Mussolini joined the war to help Germany invade France in 1943.
4: What happened when he tried to invade more land? Mussolini suffered heavy setbacks when Russia and United States entered France.
5: What happened to Mussolini after his attacks? Mussolini was arrested for treason soon after he was cast off his throne.
6: How did Mussolini get out of jail? Afterwards a German commando broke Mussolini out of jail and put him in command of a puppet government in northern Italy.
7: What happened after he got out of jail? In the spring of 1945 Northern Italy collapsed and on April 27, 1945 Italians captured Mussolini and Executed him publicly.
8: Afterwards American soldiers watched after the capital and the army to keep more soldiers from leaving and going to battle with Germany again.
9: Resouces | Photos: Google images. Photobucket. Research: http://www.comandosupremo.com/Mussolini.html Encyclopedia Britannica #15 publisher: William Bentom
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Electron Undergoing Annihilation
1. Apr 13, 2005 #1
A 5MeV electron undergoes annihilation with a positron that is at rest, producing two photons. One of the photons travels in the direction of the incident electron. Calculate the energy of each photon.
So the 5 MeV electron undergoes annihilation with a positron and from that 2 seperate photons are formed. The energy of both photons should equal back up to the 5 MeV correct? Also one of the photons travels back the same way the electron came but I am not clear on how to use that piece of info.
2. jcsd
3. Apr 13, 2005 #2
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Don't forget to include the rest energy of the stationary particle. Is 5 MeV is the total energy or kinetic energy of the other one?
You need to conserve both momentum (a vector) and energy (a scalar).
4. Apr 13, 2005 #3
Ah, right..momentum is conserved. So the particles will be a sum of the 5MeV and the rest energy of that positron.
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A surprising solution: Bacterial computing Add to ...
When Laurie Heyer's students wanted to find a solution for a mathematical sorting problem, they decided to let a bunch of e. coli bacteria guess the answer. The bacteria that guessed wrong were killed.
That fairly Machiavellian approach is at the heart of the emerging field of bacterial computing - simply put, getting living cells to do the computational heavy lifting.
"Bacterial computing is massive parallel computation," says Ms. Heyer, an associate professor in the mathematics department at Davidson College in North Carolina. "You might have a billion computers in a millilitre of culture."
As with quantum computing, bacterial computing is still in its infancy. Much of the computational work involves coding a problem by altering the bacteria's DNA, and then letting the living cells try to "guess" a solution through trial and error. It may seem inefficient, but bacterial computing has a key advantage over traditional computing: bacteria can reproduce, and through the process, the computer can organically become more powerful.
But as Ms. Heyer points out, scientists are only now discovering how powerful bacterial computing can be. She estimates it'll be another decade or two before there are any commercial applications, but notes that reproduction isn't the only advantage of bacterial computing.
"They naturally mutate, so you get some noise and randomness in your computing," she says. "That sounds like a bad thing, but you can take advantage of that. You can get them to learn."
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Re: SPACE/IDEA FUTURES: Is the Pluto Mission a silly idea?
From: Robert J. Bradbury (
Date: Wed Dec 05 2001 - 18:58:32 MST
On Tue, 4 Dec 2001, Amara Graps wrote:
> Robert wrote:
> >Now here is the rub. It isn't supposed to get there until 2020.
> Why do you make this an issue? The outer solar system is a loooooong
> distance away.
For the reason I mention -- that it is in theory possible Pluto
will not be there when the probe gets there.
It isn't the fact that the outer solar system is a long distance away.
Its the fact that we don't have the energy budget to launch a probe
at 0.1c to get there! At 0.1c (the Project Daedalus Starship design
speed), it only takes 1.9 days to get to Pluto. So assuming its
an unmanned probe (no need to accelerate & decelerate at 1g), we
could probably launch a probe in 2019 and have it get there before
the 2006 launched probe.
Part of the point I'm trying to make is the possibility of a future
depression in conventional engineering applications. When it becomes
obvious that "real" nanotech is just the blink of an eye away, where
the "blink" may be anything from a year to 20 years (as is the case
with the NASA probe), it will become pointless to do certain construction
or exploration activities the "old" way.
Given that it will probably take 10 years to rebuild the WTC
(if they decide to rebuild it), does it not make sense to wait
until you can build it out of diamondoid which is much stronger
than steel and/or titanium carbide which has a much higher M.P.?
NASA runs into the problem before most engineering firms because
some of its missions have such long lifetimes. Because some of
them are so expensive -- I think the Pluto-Kuiper mission price
tag is $400M -- looking at the big picture one has to ask at what
point shifing that amount of funds into nanotech development
would payoff with the same science being done sooner because
it would have accelerated the development curve?
Homework problem for Amara -- how much energy/radiation is the probe
going to produce encountering inner solar system dust at 0.1c?
(Another way of looking at the question is, "What should the inner
solar system speed limits be set at?".)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:24 MDT
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About the Breed
There are two modern breeds of Cocker Spaniel, the Cocker Spaniel (English) and the American Cocker Spaniel. They were bred as gun dogs to use their sense of smell in order to flush birds into the air to be shot by the hunter. Once the bird has fallen to the ground, they use their eyes and nose to locate the bird and retrieve the bird with their soft mouths. Compared to the Cocker Spaniel which is popular in England, The American Cocker Spaniel is smaller with a shorter back, a domed head and a shorter muzzle.
Coat Colours
Cocker spaniel coat colours can be black, liver, red and golden, sometimes with additional white markings. There is also black and tan, liver and tan and a variety of color mixtures, including roans, roan and tans and tricolors.
Cockers are compassionate, determined, kind, intelligent, athletic, alert and resilient and make great family pets. The breed does not like being alone, and will bond strongly to one member a family. Known for optimism, intelligence and adaptability, the breed is extremely loyal and affectionate with a cheerful nature.
Working Cockers and Show Ring types
As with other Gundog breeds, there are differences in type of working Cockers and those bred purely for the show ring. With regard to physical appearance of working stock, the coat and ears are shorter than the show-bred type which is an advantage in the field. Regarding working abilities, Cockers bred solely as working Gundogs excel in doing what they were bred to do as a result of selective breeding. Cockers from show winning lines do vary in their ability to hunt, however many have retained their working instinct and, while running in the countryside, will remind you of what they were bred for.
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how to pronounce gun
how to improve pronunciation of gun
press buttons with phonetic symbols to learn about each sound.
press Play to play an example pronunciation of gun.
video examples of gun pronunciation
An example use of gun in a speech by a native speaker of american english:
“… 5-inch naval gun which can reach 4 …”
meaning of gun
A gun is a weapon that shoots bullets or other projectiles.
words with pronunciation similar to gun
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Harman Patil (Editor)
Ambush predator
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Ambush predator httpssmediacacheak0pinimgcom564x482c27
Lifespan Cat: 12 – 18 years, Lion: 10 – 14 years
Height Cat: 23 – 25 cm, Lion: 1.2 m, Polar bear: 2 m
Gestation period Cat: 64 – 67 days, Lion: 110 days
Mass Cat: 3.6 – 4.5 kg, Lion: 190 kg, Polar bear: 450 kg
Speed Lion: 80 km/h, Polar bear: 40 km/h, Tiger: 49 – 65 km/h
Length Cat: 46 cm, Lion: 1.7 – 2.5 m, Polar bear: 2.4 – 3 m
Representative species Cat, Lion, Polar bear, Tiger, Cheetah
Ambush predators or sit-and-wait predators are carnivorous animals or other organisms, such as some nematophagous fungi and carnivorous plants, that capture or trap prey by stealth or by strategy (typically not conscious strategy), rather than by speed or by strength. In animals, ambush predation is characterized by an animal scanning the environment from a concealed position and then rapidly executing a surprise attack.
15 scariest ambush predators
Animal ambush predators usually remain motionless (sometimes hidden) and wait for prey to come within ambush distance before pouncing. Ambush predators are often camouflaged, and may be solitary animals. This mode of predation may be less risky for the predator because lying-in-wait reduces exposure to its own predators.
So long as the active predator cannot move faster than its prey, it has little advantage over the ambush predator. However, if the active predator's velocity increases, its advantage increases sharply.
There are many intermediate strategies for ambush predators; for example, when a pursuit predator is faster than its prey over a short distance, but not in a long chase, then either stalking or ambushing becomes necessary as part of the strategy.
There are however, many dimensions to predation and many overlapping strategies; for example some predators exploit predictable prey pathways that offer opportunities intermediate between ambush and pursuit. Animals with such strategies include cats of all sizes, crocodiles and some insects such as predators that haunt ant trails. Ambush predators include many fish, snakes, and other reptiles, as well as some mammals, birds, insects and spiders.
Leopards and domestic cats are also ambush predators with similar tactics.
Ray-finned fish
Many ray-finned fish are ambush predators. Depending on the species, their ambushes can occur at the surface of the water, in the main body of the water, or at the bottom. The methods used also vary and include a sudden lunging, rapid inhalation of water containing prey, and the use of lures.
Alligator gars (Atractosteus spatula) are relatively passive, seemingly sluggish solitary fish, but voracious ambush predators. They are opportunistic night predators and are primarily piscivores, but they will also ambush and eat water fowl and small mammals that may be floating on the surface. Their method of ambush is to float a few feet below the surface, and wait for unsuspecting prey to swim within reach. They lunge forward, and with a sweeping motion grab their prey, impaling it on their double rows of sharp teeth.
Open-water dwellers
The Esociformes are a small order of ray-finned fish, with two families, the Umbridae (mudminnows) and the Esocidae (pikes). Pikes tend to be lie-in-wait, ambush predators, with elongated snouts, long, well-muscled torsos, forked tails, and dorsal and anal fins set well back and opposite each other for rapid acceleration along a straight line, allowing the fish to quickly emerge from cover to capture their prey. Prey capture is facilitated by the impaling of the prey animal on the sharp teeth, after which the pike retreats to cover, turns the prey around, and swallows it, head first. The northern pike may reach lengths as great as 1.5 m (4.6 ft). Anatomically, the pikes are characterized by the presence of shark-like, maxillary teeth. Mudminnows are much smaller than the related pikes, with usual lengths of less than 20 cm. However, they are also extremely efficient ambush predators, feeding mostly on the invertebrates commonly found in warm backwaters.
The Malawi eyebiter (Dimidiochromis compressiceps) is a non-territorial, open-water predator, but also an ambush predator. Their laterally-compressed bodies are an adaptation that permits them to hide amongst aquatic plants and dart out to grasp prey as it passes. These cichlids are mainly piscivorous, especially on small fish.
The eastern frogfish (Batrachomoeus dubius) is a bottom-dwelling fish endemic to coastal eastern Australia. The fish is found at depths of 1–150 metres along the continental shelf but also estuaries and inshore reefs. It is an ambush predator with a large expandable mouth. It catches prey by suddenly opening their jaws, which enlarges the volume of the mouth cavity up to 12-fold and pulls the prey (crustaceans, molluscs and other whole fishes) into the mouth along with water. The attack can be as fast as 6 milliseconds,
The devil scorpionfish (Inimicus filamentosus) is a piscivorous ambush predator. It is nocturnal and typically lies partially buried on the sea floor or on a coral head during the day, covering itself with sand and other debris to further camouflage itself. It has no known natural predators. When disturbed by a scuba diver or a potential predator, it fans out its brilliantly colored pectoral and caudal fins as a warning. Once dug in, it is very reluctant to leave its hiding place. When it does move, it displays an unusual mechanism of subcarangiform locomotion — it crawls slowly along the seabed, employing the four lower rays (two on each side) of its pectoral fins as legs.
The warteye stargazer (Gillellus uranidea) is a species of sand stargazer which can be found in sandy areas on reefs or among rocks. It is an ambush predator, burying itself nearly completely in the sand and waiting for prey items to come along. It can reach a maximum length of 5 cm.
Mastiglanis asopos is a species of three-barbeled catfish. It is a strictly sand-dwelling species which spends the daytime buried in the top layer of sand. It forages mostly at night and sometimes in the morning. As an ambush predator, it poises in the streamlet channels where water is flowing, supported by a tripod formed by its pelvic and anal fins, spreading both its very long barbels and the filamentous dorsal and pectoral-fin rays, thus forming a kind of "drift-trap". When the fish intercepts food, it will lunge at these food particles; after lunging for a short distance, it will return to its previous hunting spot. This behaviour is similar to that seen in the tripod fish.
The tripodfish Bathypterois grallator uses tactile and mechanosensory cues to identify food; it apparently does not have special visual adaptations to help it find food in the low-light environment. When the fish is perched with its long rays on the ocean floor, it can get food without even seeing it. The tripodfish’s mouth ends up at just the right height to catch shrimp, tiny fish, and small crustaceans swimming by. They seem to prefer to perch on the mud using much elongated fin rays in their tails and two pelvic fins to stand, facing upstream into the current to ambush with the pectoral fins turned forward so the outthrust projecting fins resemble multiple antennae. The fish senses objects in the water with its front fins. These fins act like hands. Once they feel prey and realize it is edible, the fins knock the food into the fish’s mouth. The fish faces into the current, waiting for prey to drift by.
Some fish have the ability to change colour and use this in their ambush behaviour. The Ambon scorpionfish camouflages itself by changing colour and then waits for prey to come close whereupon they lunge forward and inhale the prey.
Variable habitat
The American anglerfish (Lophius americanus) is an ambush predator which spends most of its time on the seabed partly covered in sediment waiting for suitable prey to pass. It can swim slowly or "walk" with the help of its pectoral fins. Its diet normally consists of fin and ray fish, squids, cuttlefish and occasionally carrion. After storms it has been reported on the sea surface where it has been recorded as catching seabirds.
Cartilagenous fish
The cookiecutter shark (Isistius brasiliensisis) is best known for being an ambush predator that bites neat, round chunks of tissue from marine mammals and large fish. It is considered a facultative ectoparasite but also wholly ingests smaller prey. It has a wide gape and a very strong bite, by virtue of heavily calcified cranial and labial cartilages. With small fins and weak muscles, this shark spends much of its time hovering in the water column. To maintain neutral buoyancy, its liver, which can comprise some 35% of its weight, is rich in low-density lipids. As this species has higher skeletal density than Euprotomicrus or Squaliolus, its body cavity and liver are proportionately much larger, and the oil content is much higher. Its large caudal fin allows for a quick burst of speed to catch larger, faster prey that come in range.
Like other members of its family (Squatinidae), the angelshark (Squatina squatina) is a nocturnal, ambush predator that buries itself in sediment and waits for passing prey, mostly benthic bony fishes but also skates and invertebrates. It is well-adapted for camouflaging itself on the sea floor, as it has a flattened form with enlarged pectoral and pelvic fins, giving it a superficial resemblance to a ray.
The tasselled wobbegong (Eucrossorhinus dasypogon) feeds on fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods. Its capacious mouth allows large prey to be swallowed, with one documented case of a 1.3 m (4.3 ft) long individual consuming a 1.0 m (3.3 ft) long brownbanded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum). During daytime, this species is an opportunistic ambush predator. It preys upon schooling nocturnal fishes such as squirrelfishes, soldierfishes, and sweepers that often shelter in the same cave. Tiny fishes and crustaceans have been seen settling atop the resting wobbegong's head, attracting larger fishes that are in turn attacked by the wobbegong. Observations in captivity have further revealed that this species engages in active luring behaviour. When it perceives food nearby, it begins to slowly wave its tail back and forth; its caudal fin resembles a small fish, complete with a dark eyespot at the base. The shark typically rests with its head elevated, which places it within striking distance of any prey drawn by its tail.
The Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) possesses unusual predatory behaviour as it has the ability to hunt both within its natural habitat and out of it, which often results in unpredicted attacks on almost any other animal up to twice its size. Nile crocodiles are apex predators throughout their range. In the water, they are an agile and rapid hunter, using both movement and pressure sensors to catch any prey unfortunate enough to place themselves inside or near the waterfront. Most terrestrial prey are caught by ambush attacks when the animal approaches water to drink. The crocodile slowly comes closer, most of its body underwater, sometimes only its eyes and nostrils visible. On other occasions more of its head and upper body visible. The attack is sudden and unpredictable. The crocodile lunges its body out of the water and grasps its prey. The teeth of a crocodile are not for tearing up flesh but to bite deep in to the prey and hold on to it. The immense bite force, which may be as high as 22,000 N in large adults, ensures the prey item can't escape from the grip. The prey is usually killed by drowning or being torn apart by "death rolls". On land, the Nile crocodile can gallop to chase prey. Most hunting on land is done at night by lying in ambush near forest trails or roadsides, up to 50 m from the water's edge.
Chameleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are highly adapted to being ambush predators. They can change colour to match their surroundings and often climb through trees with a swaying motion to mimic the movement of the leaves and branches they are surrounded by. All chameleons are primarily insectivores and feed by ballistically projecting their long tongues from their mouths to capture prey located some distance away. While the chameleons' tongues are typically thought to be 1.5 to 2.0 the length of their bodies (excluding the tail), smaller chameleons (both smaller species and smaller individuals of the same species) have recently been found to have proportionately larger tongue apparatuses than their larger counterparts. Thus, smaller chameleons are able to project their tongues greater distances than the larger chameleons that are the subject of most studies and tongue length estimates, and can project their tongues more than twice their body length. Tongue projection occurs extremely quickly, reaching the prey in as little as 0.07 seconds, having been launched at accelerations exceeding 41 g. The power with which the tongue is launched, known to exceed 3000 W kg−1, exceeds that for which muscle is able to produce, indicating the presence of an elastic power amplifier to power tongue projection.
The mulga dragon (Caimanops amphiboluroides) is a species of agamid lizard found in Western Australia. The species grows up to 25 cm long. The patterning over the legs and body is grey and brownish streaks. This provides an excellent camouflage on mulga trees, its usual habitat, The mulga dragon generally remains motionless and unobserved, allowing it to be an ambush predator and to elude animals that would prey on it.
Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) are carnivores. Although they eat mostly carrion, they will also ambush live prey with a stealthy approach. When suitable prey arrives near a dragon's ambush site, it will suddenly charge at the animal and attempt to grasp the underside or the throat. The Komodo dragon's diet is wide-ranging, and includes invertebrates, other reptiles (including smaller Komodo dragons), birds, bird eggs, small mammals, monkeys, wild boar, goats, deer, horses, and water buffalo. The Komodo dragon hunts in the afternoon, but stays in the shade during the hottest part of the day. These special resting places, usually located on ridges with cool sea breezes, are marked with droppings and are cleared of vegetation. They serve as strategic locations from which to ambush deer. Komodo dragons have been observed knocking down large pigs and deer with their strong tails.
A number of turtle species are ambush predators, including chelydrid snapping turtles. The common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentinais) is an aquatic ambush hunter, capturing its prey with its beak-like jaws.
Cantor's giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii) can grow up to approx 2 m in length. It is an ambush predator and primarily carnivorous, feeding on crustaceans, molluscs and fish (although some aquatic plants may also be eaten). The turtle spends 95% of its life buried and motionless, with only its eyes and mouth protruding from the sand. It surfaces only twice a day to take a breath. Similarly, the New Guinea giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys bibroni) is considered to be an ambush predator.
The eastern green mamba is a diurnal, arboreal, secretive species of snake. It tends to spend most of its time above the ground in relatively dense brush, where it is well camouflaged. This species is not commonly found on land unless motivated by thirst, prey, or the need to bask in the sun (thermoregulation). It is an alert, nervous, excellent climber and extremely agile snake. In a study of the movement patterns of two adult specimens of this species over a 27-day period, the researcher found their activity range areas to be very small compared to other predators who actively hunt prey rather than ambush them. This is in contrast to most elapid species, including other mambas, who tend to actively hunt or forage for prey. The study's preliminary evidence sheds some light on this species' method of hunting prey and suggests that it may be an ambush predator due to the sit-and-wait behaviour displayed. However, this evidence does not preclude active foraging by this species; one specimen systematically hunted a sleeping bat.
The black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) is a diurnal ambush predator. If the prey attempts to escape, the black mamba will follow up its initial bite with a series of strikes. When hunting, the black mamba has been known to raise a large portion of its body off the ground. The black mamba will release larger prey after biting it, but smaller prey, such as birds or rats, are held onto until the prey's muscles stop moving. They have been known to prey on bushbabies, bats, and small chickens.
The Antiguan racer (Alsophis antiguae) is a diurnal snake which is an ambush predator, primarily eating lizards. While the species sometimes hunts for its food, it is more typically an ambush predator, waiting for prey with most of its body buried beneath leaves. The racer typically eats a lizard once every two weeks.
The zone-tailed hawk (Buteo albonotatus), which resembles the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura), flies among flocks of turkey vultures then suddenly breaks from the formation and ambushes one of them as its prey. There is some controversy about whether this is a true case of mimicry.
Darters feed mainly on mid-sized fish but far more rarely, they eat other aquatic vertebrates such as frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, snakes, turtles and even baby crocodilians, and large invertebrates including crabs, crayfish, shrimps, insect and molluscs. These birds are foot-propelled divers which quietly stalk and ambush their prey; then they use their sharply pointed bill to impale their prey. They do not dive deep but make use of their low buoyancy made possible by wettable plumage, small air sacs and denser bones. On the underside of the cervical vertebrae 5-7 is a keel, which allows for muscles to attach to form a hinge-like mechanism that can project the neck, head and bill forward like a throwing spear. After they have stabbed the prey, they return to the surface where they toss their food into the air and catch it again, so that they can swallow it head-first. Like cormorants, they have a vestigial preen gland and their plumage gets wet during diving. To dry their feathers after diving, darters move to a safe location and spread their wings.
Vertebrates using lures
Many ambush predators actively attract their prey towards them before ambushing them. These animals are often classified as aggressive mimics. The promise of nourishment as a way of attracting prey. The alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) is a well-camouflaged ambush predator. Its tongue bears a conspicuous pink extension that resembles a worm and can be wriggled around; fish that try to eat the "worm" are themselves eaten by the turtle. Similarly, some snakes employ caudal luring (tail luring) to entice small vertebrates into striking range.
Some ambush predators build traps to capture their prey. Lacewings are a flying insect in the order Neuroptera. In some species, their larval form, known as the antlion, is an ambush predator. Eggs are laid in the earth, often in caves or under a rocky ledge. The juvenile creates a small, crater shaped trap. The antlion hides under a light cover of sand or earth. When an ant, beetle or other prey slides into the trap, the antlion grabs the prey with its powerful jaws.
The majority of the 2,400 species of praying mantises are ambush predators, although some ground and bark species actively pursue prey. Species that are predominantly ambush predators camouflage themselves and spend long periods standing perfectly still. They largely wait for their prey to stray within reach, but most mantises chase prey if it strays closely enough. In pure ambush mode, a mantis lashes out at remarkable speed when a target does get within reach. When the prey is a butterfly or other flying insect, the mantis snatches it out of the air. Praying mantises are deliberate when they move, and only do so when there is good reason to. When they do move, they often travel forward while gently rocking back and forth. This helps them to blend in with the bush or tree on which they are climbing, as it sways in the breeze.
The Reduviidae, also known as "assassin bugs", are a large family of the Hemiptera order. They are slightly unusual among the Hemiptera because almost all are terrestrial ambush predators (most other predatory Hemiptera are aquatic). Though there are spectacular exceptions, most members of the family are fairly easily recognizable: they have a relatively narrow neck, sturdy build and formidable curved proboscis (sometimes called a rostrum).
The atypical tarantulas, or purseweb spiders, (family Atypidae) build a silken tube parallel to the surface of the ground. While up to 8 cm of the tube lie on the ground, about 20 cm are buried vertically. The spider rests at the bottom of the tube. When prey walks on the exposed part, the spider, alerted by the vibrations, stabs it through the silk, cuts the web and drags it inside to be eaten.
The European yellow-tailed scorpion (Euscorpius flavicaudis) is a small, black scorpion measuring about 35–45 mm long. It is a fossorial scorpion with relatively large, strong claws (pedipalps) and a short, thin tail. It is an ambush predator, lying motionless at the entrance to its lair, but moving quickly to capture prey that wander past. The main prey of E. flavicaudis are woodlice, although most small insects are taken. Scorpions may go for long periods of time without food.
A wide range of spiders are known as "trapdoor spiders". These spiders excavate a burrow and seal the entrance with a web trapdoor hinged on one side with silk. The most well-known door is the “cork”-type, which is thick and beveled to precisely fit the opening. The other is the “wafer”-type door, a more simple sheet of silk and dirt. The top of the door is usually camouflaged with bits of debris such as twigs and rock, making it very difficult to detect. The spider spins silk fishing lines, or trip wires, that radiate out of the burrow entrance. When the spider is using the trap to capture prey, its chelicerae hold the door shut on the end furthest from the hinge. The vibrations of passing prey are conducted by the silk and alert the spider whereupon it quickly throws open the door, ambushes the prey and returns with it down the tube.
The water mite Neumania papillator (known in behavioral ecology as an example of sensory bias) is another arachnid ambush predator that uses vibrational stimuli in hunting - males and females perch among the fronds of aquatic vegetation in a characteristic stance termed the 'net stance' - their first four legs are held out into the water column, with their four hind legs resting on aquatic vegetation. This allows them to detect vibrational stimuli produced by swimming copepods, small crustaceans on whom which they prey - N. papillator then uses this information to orient towards and clutch at their prey.
Polycheles typhlops is a species of blind, deep-water, decapod crustacean. It probably acts as an ambush predator, hiding buried in the sediment with its claws raised above the surface. Its main prey are bony fish and other crustaceans, such as shrimp, mysids and amphipods.
Mantis shrimp (Stomatopoda) consist of both ambush predators (‘spearers’) and foragers (‘smashers’). Spearers hide in sandy burrows and capture evasive prey, whereas smashers search for prey away from their burrows and typically hammer hard-shelled, sedentary prey. Zebra mantis shrimp (Lysiosquillina maculata) ambush evasive prey primarily at night while hidden in burrows, striking very hard and fast (mean peak speed 2.30 m s–1 and mean duration 24.98 ms).
The world's largest invertebrate, the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), roams the deep waters of the Southern Ocean where it is believed to be an ambush predator of prey such as chaetognatha, large fish such as the Patagonian toothfish, and other squid. It is thought to have a slow metabolic rate, needing only around 30 grams (1.1 oz) of prey daily. A single 5 kg Antarctic toothfish provides enough nourishment for a 500 kg colossal squid to survive for 200 days. These estimates of its energetic demands suggest it is a slow-moving ambush predator which uses its large eyes primarily for predator detection rather than active hunting.
Leptasterias tenera is a small starfish with five arms and a slow growth rate. It can grow to a diameter of 16 cm. Leptasterias tenera is an ambush predator. It remains stationary on the seabed for long periods, snaring any small crustaceans which come into contact with it, gripping them with its tube feet and pedicellariae and flexing its arms to transfer the prey to its mouth. Large items are pushed as far as they will go into the pyloric stomach but only the portion inside is digested at first.
In microorganisms
Pfiesteria is a genus of heterotrophic dinoflagellates that has been associated with harmful algal blooms and fish kills. Research suggests that Pfiesteria behaves as an ambush predator and utilizes a "hit and run" feeding strategy by releasing a toxin that paralyses the respiratory systems of susceptible fish, such as menhaden, thus causing death by suffocation. It then consumes the tissue sloughed off its dead prey.
In extinct animals
The thylacine was exclusively carnivorous. Its stomach was muscular, and could distend to allow the animal to eat large amounts of food at one time, probably an adaptation to compensate for long periods when hunting was unsuccessful and food scarce. Analysis of the skeletal frame and observations of it in captivity suggest that it preferred to single out a target animal and pursue that animal until it was exhausted. Some studies conclude that the animal may have hunted in small family groups, with the main group herding prey in the general direction of an individual waiting in ambush. Trappers reported it as an ambush predator. Although the living grey wolf is widely seen as the thylacine's counterpart, it has been proposed that the thylacine was more of an ambush predator as opposed to a pursuit predator. In fact, the predatory behaviour of the thylacine was probably closer to ambushing felids than to large pursuit canids. Consequently, at least in terms of the postcranial anatomy, the vernacular name of "Tasmanian tiger" may be more apt than "marsupial wolf".
Ambush predator Wikipedia
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Discussion and responses | Human Resource Management homework help
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Write a 175- to 265-word response to the following questions:
• What impact does the use of demographic data have on public health initiatives?
• What type of data do you believe is most valuable for this purpose?
Respond 2 the following students post with 50 words minimum
Response 1: Israa
Demographic data has a huge impact on public health initiatives. The data helps dictate on what initiatives should be prioritize to help the community better. It also allows the community to see that their information is being valued and used to help cater more to their concerns. These days although all the data is critical I believe that age is the biggest factor. Because we are in global pandemic and a heavy percentage of deaths from COVID-19 are in individuals from age 65 and above I believe that information is vital. I also believe that information concerning previous health history because those persons are more at risk when it comes to COVID-19. Like I said earlier though all the data is important because it helps drive the changes that are needed to keep the community healthy and safe. Another big piece of data that should be considered is ethnicity. Some ethnicities or more acceptable to certain diseases. So that information is very vital that the correct public health and community precautions can be taken.
Response2: Ricardo
This weeks question regarding the importance of demographic information/data has on public health initiatives is a vast one. The demographic information of the community surrounding a clinic or hospital can help asses what tools they need to better serve them. Whether pulling information from the Census, medical or school forms, the socioeconomic data will help educate and get the community what they need. There are so many demographic categories that can help depending on the area like:
• Gender
• Race
• Faith
• Salary
• Education
• Zipcode
Depending on what information is needed, somethings may affect men over women (vise versa), understanding a persons faith or culture may assist in how to communicate medical information, some things affect lower income families than higher income families, some diseases affect different races differently. Understanding cultures is a big demographic importance in my opinion because it lets you approach the community with the understanding of how they will receive the information or care you are trying to provide to them. Age is another category that is important as well to better understand the generations of people that are in the community and even serve them better.
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What is Big Data?
Erik Larson mentioned the term Big Data for the first time in 1989, but it was in the late 1990s that business intelligence tools to monitor and analyze business performance became popular.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Throughout history, many scientists (such as Turing and Boole, among others) have considered the possibility of building a machine that would reach an intelligence similar to human, and that is when the concept of Artificial Intelligence or AI is born.
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Rainwater Harvesting Systems – A Practical Guide
Rainwater harvesting systems may sound technical and complicated but they are actually one of the simplest and oldest ways for self-supply of household water and for a garden or crop irrigation.
Rainwater harvesting refers to the process of collecting, storing, and redistributing the water from rainfalls for your personal use. This can be done and has been done in many different ways throughout history – wells, shafts, boreholes, barrels, aquifers, and other reservoirs.
The standard uses for harvested rainwater typically include gardening and crop irrigation, livestock care, residential heating, and even domestic use under certain conditions and water treatments.
What is a rainwater harvesting system?
When talking about a rainwater harvesting system in this article, we’re going to talk specifically about modern and professionally manufactured systems sold for residential and commercial use. You can also make a DIY rainwater harvesting system from barrels, a tarp, a well or other methods and we’ve talked about those here as well.
As far as commercially sold rainwater harvesting systems are concerned, these are several main types of systems you’re likely to encounter: direct & indirect pumped harvesting and indirect gravity or gravity only harvesting. All of those systems collect water from the roof and drain pipes of your home or other buildings and redirect it toward a storage tank. The differences lie in how the water is collected and redistributed.
Direct pumped rainwater harvesting systems
Rainwater harvesting system explained
These systems store the rainwater in underground tanks after passing it through intricate filtration systems. This system is usually easy to install and is mostly used for domestic purposes. The water gets to the tank with the help of both gravity and often a pump, and is then redistributed from the tank to your desired appliances via another pump. If that pump is inside the tank, the system is called a “Submersible direct pumped rainwater harvesting system” and if the pump is located by the appliances and “sucks” water out of the tank, it’s a “Suction direct pumped rainwater harvesting system.”
Indirect pumped rainwater harvesting systems
The storage tanks of these systems are not located underground but can be placed anywhere on your property. Sometimes, there are multiple tanks, both underground and inside the building. The benefit here is that the water is redistributed via a booster pump inside the main tank which offers pressurized supply. This system offers great flexibility in how you can use the collected rainwater.
Indirect gravity rainwater harvesting systems
The storage tanks of these systems are usually placed in a high level header tank, typically located by or on the building’s roof. The rainwater collected from the roof and the drains is redirected to the tank via a pump, however, it can be redistributed from the tank using only the force of gravity. This can save you a lot of energy consumption as this system only needs to pump the water once.
Gravity only rainwater harvesting systems
These are the most economical and efficient rainwater harvesting systems you can get and the easiest to install as well. They don’t work for any situation, however. Gravity only systems use only the natural force of gravity as they collected the rainwater from your roof and drainpipes by just placing the storage tank underneath the drainpipes.
After that, the water is also redistributed to your home and property via gravity alone as long as the water tank is located higher than the garden or appliances it needs to supply. The tank needs to be situated perfectly under the rainwater drainpipes and above these things it has to supply.
Gravity only systems are most commonly used on two- or three-storage homes and are especially useful for gardening and groundfloor water supply. Essentially, these systems are a better and professionally-made variant of the DIY rainwater barrel rainwater harvesting method.
Stages in a rainwater harvesting system
The basic rainwater harvesting system stages are the same for all of the above systems regardless of the specific water supply or water redistribution methods they use:
1. Collecting the rainwater. All systems do this by collecting the water from the roof and drainpipes of your home or other buildings. The larger the roof, the more water can be collected.
2. Filtration. Even when the rainwater isn’t collected for a drinking water supply – which it usually isn’t – good rainwater harvesting systems will still pass it through water filters to make sure it’s clean of debris and certain contaminants.
3. Storage. All rainwater harvesting systems collect rainwater in one or more storage tanks for later use. This tank can be underground, on the roof, even inside the building.
4. Redistribution. Whether that’s done via gravity or by pumps, the rainwater is redistributed to wherever it’s needed – your garden, crops, a heating system, or anywhere else.
Design recommendations for rainwater harvesting systems
No rainwater harvesting system is always better than the others – they are all designed for different circumstances and preferences. If you want to minimize your energy expenditure and if your needs allow for it, gravity only systems are easy to install, easy to use, and incredibly cheap.
If you’re going to use the rainwater for many different purposes inside your home and around your property, you’ll likely want the superior control and flexibility of an indirect pumped rainwater harvesting system.
If you want to minimize expenses but still have better control over the stored water, indirect gravity systems are a good choice.
And if you want something simple and straightforward but your property or needs don’t allow for a gravity-only system, a direct pumped system is the most common choice.
Rainwater quality
Untreated rainwater can vary a lot in its contents. Aside from debris, it can also contain all types of contaminants. That’s why it’s important to install adequate filtration systems inside your rainwater harvesting system. The filters you’re going to want will depend not only on what you want to use the water for but also on what type of rain falls in your area.
Is a rainwater harvesting worth it?
To answer this in detail you’ll have to calculate how much water you’re going to need for a given period of time (month or year, for example), how much it would cost to use municipal water, how much it would cost to install the rainwater harvesting system of your choice, how much energy it’s going to cost for the same period, and how long you intend to use it overall.
Most of the time, big rainwater harvesting systems with significant energy consumption won’t be worth it if you only need them for minor household water use. However, if you want to supply a large indoor heating system, a garden, or a crop field, they are almost always more than worth it.
Can you drink rainwater?
It wouldn’t be a good idea to drink unfiltered rainwater even if you know it’s not overly polluted. If the water filtration in your rainwater harvesting system is good, however, and you know it accounts for all pollutants present in the rainwater, then it can be safe to drink.
At the end of the day, rainwater is the same as the groundwater municipal water suppliers harvest, it’s just in a different stage of the hydrologic cycle.
How do you filter rainwater?
A good rainwater harvesting system will use multiple different water filters to make sure that the water is safe for whatever it’s going to be used for. The filters you’ll see in a good system include:
• Cartridge filters. These filters are the workhorse of a rainwater filtration system and they do most of the heavy lifting. They include a series of different filters inside of them such as activated carbon filters, ceramic filters, sediment filters, alkaline ionizer filters, and/or a reverse osmosis membrane.
• Chlorine. Chlorine is widely used as a water disinfectant in all municipal water and public water systems such as schools, pools, and others. That’s because it eliminates many water-borne diseases such as hepatitis, cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and others. It does have side effects but those are counteracted by activated carbon filters.
• Ultraviolet (UV) light filters. UV light works by penetrating the cell walls of live organisms inside the water and preventing their reproduction. This reduces the harmful pathogens inside the water. Such filters are usually installed at the end of the filtration system after all other filters have already done their job.
How much does a rainwater harvesting system cost?
This depends on many different factors – what type of system you want to install, how many and how large its components have to be (i.e. the gutter outlets, the gutter mesh, the size of the container tank, the type of pumps, the size and number of pipes, and so on), where you live, what the construction costs are going to be, and more.
The tank, pump(s), and filter(s) are usually the most costly components. Many water tanks and bases will vary from several hundred to several thousand dollars, and most pumps and filters are usually in the 3-digit range.
The additional expenses such as screens, pipes & fittings, diverters, mesh, outlets, screens, and others can also pile up quickly, however.
Overall, a basic system can cost in the low thousands (~$2,000) and an advanced system will usually cost over $10,000.
What happens when your rainwater tank is empty?
Many rainwater harvesting systems are set up in such a way that if/when the water tank is in danger of running dry, it’s fed a small amount of mains water to keep it full. This is mostly done for underground or near ground level tanks.
Roof tanks usually don’t have this precaution and if they run dry the user simply needs to switch to using mains water for the time being.
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Why E-Liquids May Not Be Harmful For The Young
Why E-Liquids May Not Be Harmful For The Young
An electric cigarette is a special digital camera which behaves like cigarette smoking. It usually consists of a coil, a battery, an electric power source just like a lithium ion battery, and a tank or cartridge like container such as a glass jar or carton. As opposed to nicotine cigarettes, where the smoker releases nicotine through the lungs, an electronic cigarette produces its own smoke by heating up a medium and this can be either paper or metal. However, instead EightVape of tar or nicotine, the user inhards vapor. As such, using an electronic cigarette is often described as “smoking” rather than “smoking”.
Like smoking, vapors released from the cigarettes contain the same chemicals that are bad for the smoker’s health, including carbon monoxide and tar. But rather of containing these harmful chemical compounds, they contain harmless flavorings. To make them even less harmful, flavoring substances are combined with vegetable oil and other natural fats. This makes them even less harmful and thus more fun.
Electronic cigarettes usually do not release large particles of ash or soot like common ones. The reason for this is that these vapes usually do not use combustion gases to create smoke. Instead, they use heated electrically conductive materials that produce small droplets of flavored mist which fill the air space. This results in less exposure to harmful chemicals than what’s within conventional smoking conditions. These flavors also donate to the “lowest possible” degree of airborne particles.
Because the vapors produced by the unit do not contain any chemicals, they have no potential risks on the the respiratory system of users. Even with being within an enclosed area, the vapor produced does not cause any irritation to the lungs. Also, because there is no actual fire or combustion involved with vaping, there is no such thing as secondhand smoking. In other words, e-Cigarette users do not have to worry about the health effects of secondhand cigarette smoke.
Many industry experts agree that electronic cigarettes can be compared to conventional ones in many ways. Like for example, they both provide nicotine in a vapor form. Also, while conventional smoking could cause serious health problems such as cancer, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, vaping e-liquid will not pose any such risk. The only thing they share in keeping is that e-liquid produces thicker clouds of vapor than the nicotine found in tobacco smoke.
It has been observed that smokers who switch to the unit gradually reduce their reliance on tobacco. Nonetheless it must be understood that e-juices are just another alternative for tobacco products. They are not 100% safe and could definitely not be safer than regular tobacco. Just like regular cigarettes, there is no sure shot way to ensure that e-liquids produced by electronic cigarettes do not impact the user’s lungs very much the same as ordinary tobacco.
In accordance with experts, the easiest way of evaluating the dangers of e-juice is to compare it with traditional cigarettes. E-juices produced for electric cigarettes do not contain any of the harmful chemicals found in regular cigarettes. Similarly, they don’t produce the tar or toxic gases that are so prevalent in smoke from tobacco. However, you should start using e-juices for short durations and then slowly incorporate it into your daily smoking routine.
Young people who have just started smoking are more likely to try this novel method. It is believed that it may be because they are unaware of the dangers of traditional smoking. E-Cigarettes are also better than traditional cigarettes in terms of the flavor they deliver. Some vapers are reported to have reported increased flavors which are less harmful to the young people. E-juices will not be a panacea for all your problems related to smoking, but they could prove to be the very best friend of young people when they begin to introduce them to their daily routine.
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K12 LibreTexts
12.9: Dry Climates
• Page ID
• How do plants that evolved in different places end up being so similar?
Organisms evolve to fit the conditions they are in. There are only so many ways to minimize the use of water. Plants in arid climates evolve very similar structures to lessen water use. They also have structures to protect themselves from the Sun. The cactus on the right is from South America. The cactus on the left is from North America. These plants are just one of many examples of organisms evolving under very similar conditions and turning out to be very similar.
Dry Climates
Dry climates receive very little rainfall. They also have high rates of evaporation. This makes them even drier.
The driest climates are deserts. Most occur between about 15° and 30° latitude. This is where dry air sinks to the surface in the global circulation cells. Deserts receive less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain per year. They may be covered with sand dunes or be home to sparse but hardy plants. With few clouds, many deserts have hot days and cool nights.
Picture of deserts
Some deserts receive a small amount of rain during the winter and again during the summer. This is enough to keep plants alive as in the left photo. Some deserts receive very little rain or rain only one season a year. These deserts have few plants as in the right photo.
Other dry climates get a little more precipitation. They are called steppes. These regions have short grasses and low bushes (Figure below). Steppes occur at higher latitudes than deserts. They are dry because they are in continental interiors or rain shadows.
A steppe in Mongolia
A steppe in Mongolia.
Science Friday: Superbloom: How Death Valley Springs to Life
A massive seed bank of desert wildflowers lies beneath Death Valley. This video by Science Friday shows that when heavy winter rains soak deep into the soil, these hidden wonders spring to life, in an event called a “superbloom”.
• Deserts receive very little rainfall. They are often home to very unusual and well adapted plants.
• Steppes receive more rain than deserts. They are higher and have grasses and scrub.
• Plants adapt to local conditions. If conditions are the same but the plants are far apart, they may still be very similar.
1. What is the reason that an arid desert has so little rainfall?
2. What is the reason that a steppe has so little rainfall?
3. What is the difference between a desert and a steppe in vegetation?
4. What adaptations do arid climate zone plants have to the dry conditions?
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What is Pharmacotherapy?
Pharmacotherapy is therapy using pharmaceutical drugs, as distinguished from therapy using surgery (surgical therapy), radiation (radiation therapy), movement (physical therapy), or other modes. Among physicians, sometimes the term medical therapy refers specifically to pharmacotherapy as opposed to surgical or other therapy; for example, in oncology, medical oncology is thus distinguished from surgical oncology. Pharmacists are experts in pharmacotherapy and are responsible for ensuring the safe, appropriate, and economical use of pharmaceutical drugs.
The skills required to function as a pharmacist require knowledge, training and experience in biomedical, pharmaceutical and clinical sciences. Pharmacology is the science that aims to continually improve pharmacotherapy. The pharmaceutical industry and academia use basic science, applied science, and translational science to create new pharmaceutical drugs.
As pharmacotherapy specialists and pharmacists have responsibility for direct patient care, often functioning as a member of a multidisciplinary team, and acting as the primary source of drug-related information for other healthcare professionals. A pharmacotherapy specialist is an individual who is specialised in administering and prescribing medication, and requires extensive academic knowledge in pharmacotherapy.
In the US, a pharmacist can gain Board Certification in the area of pharmacotherapy upon fulfilling eligibility requirements and passing a certification examination.
While pharmacists provide valuable information about medications for patients and healthcare professionals, they are not typically considered covered pharmacotherapy providers by insurance companies.
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Evolution of Electronic Dance Music – A Wide Variety
Electronic Dance Music, or EDM, is a term encompassing a wide variety of musical styles. It can be described as a generic term for any music that is created on keyboards using computer-based software. (Organist/Performance Artist: A performer who works using musical instruments and software to create new music). EDM can also be used in conjunction with other styles like House, Dubstep, Club, Latin, Old School Rave and Hip Hop.
From its beginnings in the 1970s New York nightclubs and ’80s Detroit hard techno, to today’s global, club-based explosion of these genres, electronic dance music has changed the popular musical landscape. This evolution has been fuelled by technological advancements, changes in popular culture and social trends. The early days of EDM were characterized by dark, moody sounds, synthetic beats and reverb. Today, EDM thrives with exciting new tracks that combine dance with electronics. These tracks are becoming more popular each day and are ideal for clubs and raves alike.
When looking at the history of electronic dance music, it is evident that such music had many precursors. These included the use of sampling, which was introduced by the British acid-pop group the Beatles. Another important influence was the ‘guitarwave’, which refers to the technique that allowed musicians to send their audio tracks into other programs that played them back at full volume.
But what really started the transformation of electronic dance music? Well, in the early seventies ‘free’ dance music emerged in the UK. This free form of music combined the ideas of’Disco, Rap and New Generation’. Such music was characterized by high tempo beats, tight pants and ‘no limits’ attitude. Such dance styles were quite popular in bars and clubs in the early days. But as the years went by, these practices began to change as more people began to experience dancing as a more innocent and free form of entertainment.
Then in the eighties new styles began to appear. People were attracted to the sultry sound of techno dance and the cool visuals of break dance. As the trends in electronic dance music began to change, the manufacturers of electronic equipment began to create new and improved devices that helped make dancing even easier and more exciting. Nowadays, electronic equipment has completely revolutionized the way that dance sets are made and play.
The evolution of electronic dance has also seen the growth of online dance clubs, with the increase in popularity of online video sharing websites. Such websites allow users to upload their favorite dance videos and share them with fellow enthusiasts all over the world. Such sites have also promoted electronic dance by allowing users to download the dance mixes for free or for a low fee.
The birth of the online dance club is probably the most significant development in the history of electronic music. As the availability of downloading became easier, the birth of online clubs and social networking sites that allowed users to show off their dance skills online. Such networking sites have been greatly responsible for the emergence of professional dance musicians and DJs who ply their trade on dance tracks all over the world. Many of these DJs started from home as enthusiastic hobbyist electronic music fans and gradually built up an impressive list of regular dance radio shows, DJ mixes and exclusive dance mixes for record deals with famous record labels.
This evolution has also seen the rise of the home-made clubs and rave joints. These home-based clubs usually feature an eclectic mixture of rave gear and party music that often makes these places the perfect place to take breaks during the day. The evolution of dance has seen the evolution of electronic dance music take the world by storm. Thanks to the networking and social networks that have been made possible over the Internet, it is now possible to connect to any of your chosen artists from anywhere in the world. Electronic dance music has even reached Hollywood with the huge popularity of dubstep and house music.
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How Food is Preserved
How Food is Preserved
Posted by Admin / in Science Articles
In nature, organic material, including the food we eat, does not last long before spoiling. Bacteria also eats meats, fruits, and vegetables and causes our food to spoil. Over the years, advancements have been made in the way we are able to keep our food fresh.
Early people did not have much scientific knowledge, but they used trial and error to learn new things. They discovered that if meat was smoked it would last much longer than regular cooked meat. We later learned that there are phenolic compounds in the smoke that slow down the growth of harmful bacteria. The smoking process allowed people to preserve their food longer after hunting or butchering a domestic animal.
Around 6500 B.C. salt mines were discovered in Salzburg, Austria. It was also discovered that when salt was added to food it allowed the food to be eaten longer (even though it was very salty). The scientific reason is that the salt removes the water in the food. The bacteria cannot survive without water so the growth of bateria is slowed down.
800 B.C. Ancient Greeks discover that food does not spoil as fast when it is cooled by ice or snow. This early discovery used a method we still use today for many foods in our refigerators to slow bacteria growth in fresh foods.
1803 It was almost 2600 years after discovering that cold temperatures allowed foods to last longer did people discover that a storage box that was insulated helps all the food in the box consistantly last longer. This was the first use of an ice box.
1810 Canning was first invented by a chef in France named Nicolas Appert. He discovered that by cooking foods and sealing it in metal cans, the food would last longer. How this actually works is that cooking the foods kills that bacteria. When the food is sealed in cans bacteria cannot reach the food so it lasts much longer. Many pre-cooked foods like soup, sauces, and vegetables are still canned today. Some uncooked foods are also canned today such as canned fruit. The corn syrup or fruit juice canned with the fruits stops oxidation of the fruit. See this science experiment stop oxidation in fruit.
1864 Pasteurization is discovered by Louis Pasteur. Pasteur heated foods to a very high temperature and then cooled them quickly. Most of the existing bacteria in the food or drink is killed during pasteurization. Then the food or drink can be sealed or kept cool to last much longer. Drinks like apple juice and milk are pasteurized today.
1925 Flash-freezing food was developed by Clarence Birdseye. Flash freezing rapidly cools food to a frozen state. This method of keeping food color to stop the growth of bacteria is an improvement on the original ancient Greek idea. Flash-freezing is also found to provide improved food quality when the frozen food is thawed.
1949 An inventor from Cincinnati, Ohio develops the first portable refrigeration unit for truck and train cars. The invention allowed foods to be transported between countries without spoiling. This invention allow chain restaurants and fast-food companies to start.
1969 The first foods were transported to the moon. The astronauts took freeze-dried foods to the moon. The freeze drying process was the combination of two methods that were found to increase the useful life of food including drying and rapid freezing.
1990 Irradiation of foods is approved by the USDA. Irradiation is the process of exposing foods to an irradiation field. The foods are considered safe and according to scientists do not absorb any radiation. Irradiation is widely used now on produce such as stawberries, dried spices, and poultry.
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How Does a Propane Regulator Work?
Propane barbecue grills deliver carefully regulated, even heat.
••• Ryan McVay/Digital Vision/Getty Images
Propane Tanks
At one point in time, propane gas was used for interior gas stoves and home heating. Today, small propane tanks now heat our grills for barbecues and modern outdoor kitchens. These tanks contain a flammable liquid that is pumped from larger tanks into the smaller ones used for the home consumer. Since this gas is a liquid under pressure that becomes a lighter-than-air substance when being consumed, it can build to a very high pressure. This pressure must be regulated as it exits the tanks, or else it can rupture hoses or, worse yet, create a substantial explosion. Pressure regulators are generally used on propane systems for this exact reason: to dispense the liquid in the tank so it can be consumed in a safe and efficient manner.
Brass Aluminum Connections
Propane regulators and the connection they make to the tank are made of brass. Brass is used because it is generally resistant to sparking. In other words, if you were to slip with the wrench when tightening the fitting from the regulator to the tank, a spark would not necessarily be created. Sparks and propane can lead to a deadly combination. Aluminum is another metal that is used in the construction of the regulator. Not only is the metal lightweight, but it also has a resistance to being a spark generator. Generally, the housing that holds the mechanism of the regulator is made of aluminum. Most regulators look as if they were modeled from a flying saucer. This saucer design contains the interior controlling diaphragm. At the top and center of the saucer is a round cap. This round cap contains the pressure spring.
Springs and Diaphragms
The purpose of the regulator is to control the high-pressure gas that exits the propane tank and reduce it to a safe level. Generally propane regulators emit a working gas pressure in the area of less than 1 lb. of pressure that can be measured on a gauge. This is accomplished by a rubber diaphragm that is attached to the inside of the aluminum saucer. The pressure spring rides against this diaphragm and helps to control the exiting gas. This is done by the force of the spring against the diaphragm to exert a back pressure. This back pressure retards the flow of the high-pressure gas in the tank. Some regulators have a removable cap in which the interior spring can be replaced. This allows for different pressures exiting on the outlet side of the regulator. Slightly higher pressures of propane may be needed for the modern full-sized outdoor cooking grill in which more than one burner is used.
Generally, the stronger the spring, the lower the gas pressure on the exit side, and the lighter the spring, the greater the pressure coming from the regulator. Typically, though, most home consumer propane regulators have a fixed cap on the spring housing. This prevents tampering with the pressure because the final result could be explosive.
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Studying different ways to generate random numbers according to a distribution and the below algorithm describes the "box method". A search on Google led to the Box-Mueller method. Are they related? Also, what would be a simple implementation of this algorithm for $f(x)=\sin{(x)}$ on $[0,\pi]$? Is it correct that $y$ should be scaled to $[0,1]$?
We generate two random numbers $x$ and $y$. We scale $x$ so that it gives a random point in the restricted range we want to generate random numbers in. Now we scale $y$ so it matches the range from 0 to the maximum value of the function $f(x)$ we want to generate. Now we accept $x$ if $y < f(x)$ and reject $x$ otherwise.
Implementation example:
#include <math.h>
int main(){
double x = (double)rand();
double y = (double)rand();
double xs = fmod(x,pi);
double ys = fmod(y,1);
if(ys < sin(xs)) return sin(xs);
First of all $f(x)$ needs to be a density, so $\sin(x)$ doesn't do the job. Let's sample from standard normal distribution, i.e. $$f(x)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}e^{-x^2/2}$$ in the range $[-3,3]$, where most of the samples reside.
A note for your C code: You shouldn't return the number from main function. Either write to a file or print out for plotting (or directly plot if you have suitable libraries). Most random samplers give you uniform RVs in $[0,1]$, so let's assume we have such $X,Y$. You can achieve that in C by dividing the generated number with INT_MAX macro.
First we scale $X$ to our new range, i.e. $X\leftarrow6X-3$. Now, our $X$ is uniform in the range $[-3,3]$. Also, $\max f(x)=1/\sqrt{2\pi}$, and therefore let $Y\leftarrow \sqrt{2\pi}Y$. Then, we compare $Y$ and $f(X)$ and accept the scaled $X$ if $Y$ is smaller. Here is an example C code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <limits.h>
int main()
int N = 100000;
double x = ((double) rand()) / INT_MAX;
double y = ((double) rand()) / INT_MAX;
x = 6 * x - 3;
y = y / sqrt(2*M_PI);
if( y < 1/sqrt(2*M_PI) * exp(-x*x/2) )
printf("%f\n", x);
return 0;
If you redirect the standard output to a file, via > opearator while running, you'll see a histogram as follows:
Normal RV Histogram
Now, why does it work?
By sampling $X$ within $[a,b]$ (i.e. the interested range) and $Y$ within $[0,f_{max}]$, you create a box in the x-y plane, and sample random points on it as follows, just like you're throwing darts to a rectangular window:
Dart Box
Then, you accept the points which are under the curve, i.e. $y<f(x)$, which actually makes up the histogram for you, i.e. the higher $f(x)$ in the region, the higher the probability of acceptance.
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How to Build a Rain Garden
A rain garden can be a beautiful and functional addition to your landscaping. Here’s how to build one…
* The information below is an excerpt from our guide “Rainwater Harvesting in SLO County”. You can get much more information about rain gardens and rainwater harvesting by downloading the guide for free HERE.
A rainwater harvesting system that diverts rainwater into an area where it can permeate into the ground is called a Passive Catchment System. The idea behind a passive system is to slow the rainwater, spread it out, and allow it to sink into the soil.
There are many ways to build a passive catchment system, but for the purposes of this guide, we are going to focus on rain gardens. A rain garden uses rainwater that is diverted from a roof or another impermeable surface to provide the majority of its irrigation needs.
A rain garden is usually contoured using swales (basins) and berms (mounds) in order to maximize the amount of rainwater that can be absorbed by the land.
This system decreases the amount of supplemental irrigation that is required for the plants, helps recharge groundwater reservoirs, and reduces the amount of pollution in our waterways and the ocean. This is especially important on the Central Coast, where we must use water strategically and where water that goes into our storm drains can flow directly to the ocean.
Site Selection
Before you build your rain garden, there are a few considerations to plan out.
First, sketch out and measure the area where the rain garden will be located. Find an area that is near your downspout or catchment surface so that the rain can easily be diverted into your catchment basin.
Take note of the slope of the rain garden site. Preferably it will be located in an area that slopes gently away from the catchment surface or downspout. This will allow gravity to bring the water downhill into the catchment basin. Be careful of slopes that are too steep, however. If this is the case, special care will need to be taken when designing the catchment basin to ensure the water can be slowed as it runs down the slope.
Make sure your catchment basin is set back far enough from sidewalks, retaining walls, and foundations. These setbacks are often mandated by municipalities and can vary from one location to the next. Generally, they are 5-10 feet from foundations and retaining walls, and 3 feet from sidewalks.
Another important aspect of site selection is determining where the rainwater will go if the swale overflows. During heavy storms, it is possible for the swale in your rain garden to become full of water. In most cases, with healthy soil the rainwater will absorb into the ground very quickly and the swale won’t overflow. However, there will be times when it rains a large amount in a short period of time and the soil will not be able to soak up the water quickly enough.
When selecting a location for your rain garden, consider where the water will go if it overflows. You will need to shape the swale in such a way so that when it overflows, the excess water will go somewhere that won’t cause damage. In most cases, this will be towards a driveway or storm drain.
Site selection is very important to consider before beginning your rain garden. By doing your due diligence before starting, you will avoid costly mistakes and achieve better results.
Now that you have your site picked out and know the space you have available for your rain garden, you will need to determine the depth of the catchment basin or swale.
For rain gardens, a good rule of thumb is to size it to catch the first 1 inch of rainfall whenever it rains. Sizing it to catch more than that is sometimes difficult for standard residential areas.
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To determine how large to make your rain garden:
1. Calculate the cubic feet you will need for your catchment basin by dividing the number of gallons you can catch off your roof from 1 inch of rainfall by the coefficient 7.48.
Example: 1,000 Sq. Ft. x 1 inch x .62 (inches to gallons coefficient) = 620 gallons
620 gallons / 7.48 = 83 Cu. Ft.
2.Now you must figure out how deep you will need to make the basin. For this, divide the number of cubic feet from step 1 by the square footage of the area you have available for your rain garden. Then convert that number to inches by multiplying by 12.
Example: 83 Cu. Ft. / 200 Sq. Ft. = 0.41 feet
0.41 feet x 12”/ft = 4.9 inches
3.Using the calculations above, you have determined the depth that you will need to make your catchment basin.
Example: To catch 83 Cu. Ft. of rain in a 200 Sq. Ft. area, you will need to make your basin about 5 inches deep.
With all the pre-planning complete, it’s finally time to get your hands dirty! This can vary in difficulty quite a bit depending on site conditions such as soil type, obstructions, and weather. Also, please be aware of your physical limitations. Digging and planting can be strenuous. Please consult a professional if you need a hand.
Diverting the Downspout
downspout 2In most cases, your rain garden will be fed from the water that comes off your roof. In order to make this happen, you’ll need to divert your downspout into the garden.
Depending on the location of the rain garden in relation to the downspout, this can be as easy as using a downspout extension that is directed towards your swale.
If there is a greater distance between the downspout and your rain garden, or if there is a sidewalk or other obstruction in the way, you’ll need to use an underground drainage pipe.
If this is the case, dig a trench from the downspout to the swale, making sure that there is at least a ¼ inch per foot slope to allow the water to flow. Next attach the drainage pipe to your downspout and lay it in the trench all the way to where the swale begins. Finally, fill in the trench and bury the pipe.
Now when it rains, the water will flow through the drainage pipe and into your rain garden!
Building the Swale
A swale, or catchment basin will be needed to slow down and retain the rainwater. A swale can be a dry creek bed, a wide basin, a depression that is contoured into the earth, or any other earth shaping that is designed to slow, spread, and sink rainwater.
Before you begin digging, it is helpful to know what you want your swale to look like. Sketch out your ideas on paper until you decide on a type of swale that you like. Next, use a spray can of marking paint to mark out the shape of the swale in your yard. This will give you a guide to follow as you are digging.
A rain garden swale dug out in San Luis Obispo, CANow it’s time to get the shovel and start digging. You can use the soil you remove to create berms (mounds) around the swale to add to the contouring of the space. This creates a natural look and adds dimension to the landscape. As you dig out the swale, use your tape measure to determine when you are at the depth you determined in the sizing section above.
Before you start digging, don’t forget to call 811 to get your utility lines marked. Also, watch for underground irrigation lines as you dig, they have a tendency to be where you least expect them.
In the site selection section above, you learned about the importance of shaping and locating your swale to direct overflow appropriately. When digging your swale, don’t forget to incorporate your overflow plan. Shape the swale so that if it overflows with water, the excess will run off towards a storm drain or an area that will not cause damage.
Build a Soil Sponge
A rain garden is not just about the swale, it’s about permeability. The whole idea is to allow rainwater to permeate into the soil and provide water for your plants. In order to make this happen, you need to have sponge-like soil.
Soil in handsSponge-like soil soaks up water quickly, and remains moist and fluffy for long periods of time. This allows for fast drainage when it rains, and it keeps the moisture there for the plants to use long after it’s stopped raining.
Building a soil sponge is simple. It involves adding organic matter in the form of compost and mulch, reducing compaction, and avoiding fertilizers and herbicides.
To do this, place a 2”-3” layer of compost over your entire rain garden before planting. After you are done planting, add a 4” layer of bark or wood chip type mulch. The compost and mulch break down into the soil to loosen it and increase its water holding capacity.
Reducing compaction is done by avoiding heavy traffic or machinery on the rain garden. This helps keep space between soil particles which increases its absorption capabilities.
Finally, by not using fertilizers and herbicides, you keep the microorganisms in the soil healthy. These microorganisms feed the plants, help to aerate the soil, and break down pollutants.
Although it’s not required, many people enjoy the look of having rocks in their swale. These can be boulders, river rock, or smaller gravel (or all of the above!). This can give the rain garden a natural feel that mimics a creek or rocky basin.Building a swale for a rain garden in San Luis Obispo, CA
The rocks also help to stabilize the soil which reduces erosion as water flows through the swale.
When adding smaller rock, try to make a layer that is a few inches thick. When placing boulders, dig them into the soil slightly to make sure they stay in place. Think creatively about your rock use. This is an excellent opportunity to create an artistic and eye catching focal point for your new rain garden.
It’s finally time to plant, but before you start digging holes, you will want to pull out your rain garden plan and make a planting design. Mark down which plants you will be placing where. Ensure proper spacing between plants and that they will all look good together once mature.
Placing plants for a rainwater catchment landscape in San Luis Obispo, CAFor a rain garden to be most effective, it is recommended that you use plants that are well adapted to our climate. These plants are accustomed to our seasonal weather patterns, which means they will require less supplemental water and care. In the natural world, they get the majority of their water during the winter months. That water is what carries them through the dry season. In your rain garden, they will get extra water during the rainy season and this will lower or even eliminate their irrigation requirements in the summer.
After you have decided on what plants you will use and where you will place them, you are ready to put them in the ground. Dig your holes to be 1.5 times the diameter of the pot. After you place the plant in the hole, mix in some of the compost with the native soil to bury the root ball of the plant. With most plants, it is preferable to leave the very top of the root ball just above the soil level. Transplant them all carefully and water them in well to avoid transplant shock.
With a rain garden, the idea is to maximize the rainfall in order to give the plants the majority of their water needs for the year during the rainy season. However, you may still need or want to have supplemental irrigation.
At first, you will need to use irrigation to get your plants established. It can take a couple years before plants have truly established a root system that can enable them to sustain themselves on the least amount of water. In the meantime, they will need a little bit of help getting them through the summer months.
Even after your plants are established, you may want to give some of them just a bit of extra irrigation in the summer months. It doesn’t have to be much, depending on the plants it could even be a watering every few weeks. This will help them stay green and bloom longer.drip emitter
For watering, it is recommended that you use drip irrigation and an automatic irrigation controller. Drip irrigation uses emitters that deliver a specific quantity of water directly to the base of the plant. This minimizes evaporation, excess watering, and run off.
After you install the drip irrigation, put the valve that controls the watering in that space on an automatic controller. These are typically mounted in the garage or on the side of the house. With an automatic controller, you can set an exact watering schedule which will enable you to effortlessly give the plants the precise amount of water they need.
The last step is to apply a thick layer of bark or wood chip type mulch over the planting areas. There are many styles and colors of mulch availableRainwater hervesting and drought-tolerant landscaping in San Luis Obispo, CA, but it is recommended that you use either Petite Walk-On bark or fresh wood chips.
By using a 3”- 4” layer of mulch, you will help to retain soil moisture, reduce the number of weeds that can grow, and provide organic matter that will break down into the soil.
Mulch can be ordered from a tree service company or from a local landscape materials supplier. Spread it out evenly around your plants, being careful not to smother the plants or cover up woody stems and trunks.
That’s about it! Now you can enjoy the beauty of your new garden while knowing that you are doing your part to conserve water and help the environment. 3D Ebook Cover
If you found this article helpful, you will love our free guide “Rainwater Harvesting in SLO County”. It’s full of information you will need in order to have a successful rainwater harvesting project.
Get it in your inbox instantly by heading to the download page HERE.
As always, if you have any follow up questions or need help installing your rain garden, please feel free to contact us. We’d love to hear from you!
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Information on Over The Counter Drugs, Detox and Treatment
Created On Wednesday, 25, November 2009
Modified On Friday, 01, October 2021
Over the Counter drugs, or OTC drugs, are any drug or medication which can be purchased legally without a prescription. OTC drugs or medicines treat various symptoms that people can suffer from, including illnesses, headaches, digestive issues, pain, inflammation, and many more.
Some OTC drugs have a potential for misuse because they contain ingredients that can produce a "high" at higher-than-recommended dosages. Many of these can even cause addiction. US consumers make around 26 trips per year to retail stores and pharmacies to purchase OTC medications, spending almost $350 annually. But they only visit physicians three times a year on average. OTC medications are utilized by people to address their healthcare issues, mainly to save costs and time. Due to their affordability and accessibility, they play a vital role in the country's healthcare system. But these same benefits have also become liabilities, making OTC drugs one of the most abused types, particularly among American youth.
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The History of Over the Counter Drugs
Over the counter drugs are not something that "began" per se. Instead, virtually all drugs were OTC until they were made not so. Even more generally, there is no historical inception of over the counter medication. Instead, there is a point where drugs began being controlled, thus, giving birth to the term "Over-the-Counter."
To understand this, we must first examine the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This Act was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws, which led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration. Under the law, drug labels had to list any of the ten ingredients deemed "addictive" or "dangerous". Alcohol, morphine, opium, and cannabis were all included on the list of these addictive and dangerous drugs. The 1906 Act paved the way for the Food and Drug Administration's eventual creation and is generally considered to be that agency's founding date. Next came the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act. This was enacted in 1914 and was a United States federal law regulating and taxing the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and cocaine products. It initially appeared to be concerned with the marketing of opiates. However, a clause applying to doctors allowed distribution "in the course of his professional practice only." This clause was later interpreted to mean that a doctor could not prescribe opiates to an addict, since addiction was not considered a disease. Many doctors were consequently arrested, and some were imprisoned, teaching the medical community quickly not to prescribe opiates to drug addicts. This was the beginning of the restriction of prescribing in America.
Prescribing is not a strictly modern phenomenon. Humans have prescribed drugs since around 2000 BC. Records of prescribing and dispensing medications have been found throughout history since then, in cultures like ancient Greece up to modern times. But just because drugs were prescribed for specific medical purposes doesn't mean that they were likewise restricted. All drugs could be legally obtained as well without a prescription until they were restricted. The Controlled Drug Act of 1970 was the first concerted effort to classify and restrict drugs based upon their abuse and addiction potential. The legislation created five classifications (schedules), with varying qualifications for a substance to be included in each. Classification decisions are required to be made on criteria including potential for abuse, currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and international treaties. Since its inception, the Act has been amended but continues to be the prevailing and controlling method of drug restriction. Prescribing laws are based upon the scheduling of drugs per the Controlled Drug Act. Because of drug scheduling and subsequent prescribing guidelines, over the counter drugs originate by default of not being controlled. But they still must be approved, and cannot be sold carelessly for human consumption without control.
In the United States, all OTC substances' manufacturing and sale are overseen by the Food and Drug Association. Information must be printed on all labels through this restriction, which includes ingredients, dosing, guidelines, and warnings for those products that can be misused. Certain OTC medications may fall into categories that necessitate age restrictions or other special limitations, like quantity limits. Individual states may have specific guidelines, like Oregon, where products containing pseudoephedrine can only be obtained with a prescription. The meth problem there became so bad that cold medicines containing the meth manufacturing product, pseudoephedrine, have become highly restricted. These products may be purchased in other states but only with valid identification and with daily quantity limits. Other states have looser guidelines on the ingredient comparatively.
What do Over the Counter Drugs Look Like?
There are so many different kinds of over the counter medications available for purchase in the United States. There are approximately 800 OTC active ingredients available today that make the more than 100,000 OTC products that exist in the US healthcare marketplace. OTC medicines should not be confused with dietary supplements (vitamins, minerals, and herbs) that have different rules.
Effects of Over the Counter Drugs
Because there are so many OTC drugs, and a lot of them can be misused, we will only be discussing those commonly abused.
Dextromethorphan (DXM) is one of the most commonly abused Over the Counter drugs currently. This medication is used as a cough suppressant and sold in various preparations. It is commonly found in syrups and cold tablets. Psychoactive effects occur when the drug is taken at higher-than-recommended dosages. Short term effects of high doses include euphoria, drunkenness, hallucinations, and slurred speech.
DXM's adverse effects include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and increased heart rate and blood pressure. The long-term effects of abusing DXM are unknown.
Loperamide is another commonly abused OTC drug. It is an active ingredient in anti-diarrheal drugs and is derived from a chemical relative of opium. When taken in higher-than-recommended dosages, Loperamide can produce effects similar to opioids. These include euphoria, drowsiness, and mild intoxication. The drug is also misused to alleviate opioid withdrawal symptoms in people who are addicted to drugs like painkillers and heroin. Because it can be easily found and purchased, Loperamide is often resorted to when opioids cannot be found. The long-term effects of Loperamide abuse are unknown, but immediate dangers of high doses of Loperamide include fainting, stomach pain, constipation, loss of consciousness, cardiovascular toxicity, pupil dilation, drowsiness, dizziness, and kidney failure from urinary retention. Addiction can occur and is similar to opioid addiction with withdrawal symptoms that include severe anxiety, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Diphenhydramine is yet another common household drug that gets abused readily. The medication is an antihistamine and is commonly used to treat allergies and insomnia. Diphenhydramine can produce sedation and euphoria, but may also cause a burst of energy in the individual in high doses. The drug is commonly taken as a sleep aid and combine with other medications or drugs and alcohol to induce intoxication. Because it has so many effects and is used for many different conditions, the drug can easily be misused.
Over the Counter Medication Overdose
Each different OTC medication may have a different overdose toxicity level, which will also vary from person to person. These medications can all cause an overdose in different ways. Some may cause toxicity of the liver or other organs, like Loperamide, which can cause cardiac toxicity. Drugs like DXM can cause breathing problems and issues with other organs. Poison Control is an excellent resource for learning how to assist someone who is potentially overdosing on an OTC substance. Because there are so many OTC drugs, giving all of that information to the public is pointless because they could not possibly remember it. Poison Control keeps updated lists of OTC medications and their adverse effects, and will quickly advise on the appropriate course of action during an emergency.
Over the Counter Medication Addiction
Addiction to OTC drugs can occur just the same as with any other substance. There is a common misconception that if a drug is available without a prescription, it is "safe." OTC medications are still drugs, and they can be abused and cause addiction.
Regardless of how addictive a substance may be, physically, anyone can become addicted to the chemical cascade produced from indulging in virtually any chemical substance. Some people can even become addicted to non-chemical experiences, like gambling. But for addiction to occur, there must be a problem.
Initially, drugs are not the problem. They are a solution to it. The person struggles with some difficulty in life, which could be anything from physical pain to mental or emotional issues. Whatever it is, the substance alleviates this or provides an escape in some way. The person will continue to take the drug, experiencing relief and reward, and reinforcing the cycle of addiction. When the person doesn't have the drug, the problem returns, but now is worse because it has been neglected, and the root cause has been ignored.
Because the person is abusing the substances and knows this is wrong to whatever degree, they will feel guilty. To remove this guilt, they will rationalize their drug use by coming up with reasons why it is okay. This process is known as justification. They will also keep their drug use hidden from anyone who would try to get them to stop, which may involve outright lying, with omissions being commonplace. This serves to drive a wedge between them and their loved ones, and they will isolate to avoid further feelings of guilt or concerns of getting caught.
When it comes to over the counter medications, addiction can occur insidiously. The person may first take them for a valid reason, such as a cold. Perhaps they discover that it also makes them feel good, so one night, when they are particularly stressed out, they recall this and take some cough medicine to relax and get some extra sleep. But this time, they take a double dose to make sure it works because they are so stressed out.
Now they feel excellent and have found a way to wind down each night. This cycle can quickly get out of hand, and one day before a work meeting, the person may take a swig of cough syrup to calm their nerves. It helps, and their addiction soon becomes full-blown.
How to help a loved one addicted to over-the-counter drugs
If someone that you know is struggling with addiction to over the counter drugs, do not take this lightly. It can seem easy to dismiss the seriousness of such an addiction because the drugs are perceived as safe and often non-habit forming. But this is far from the case and many OTC drugs can be even deadlier than illicit drugs because they’re not intended to be consumed in high doses. They frequently have other medicines or compounds withing the drug which are toxic when consumed in excessive levels. Every time the person uses, they are playing roulette with their life.
These drugs can cause real dependence and withdrawal. Some of them contain very small amounts of chemicals that are similar to addictive drugs like opioids or stimulants like meth. When taken in excess, they cause serious addiction and dependence and can be tough to treat.
Much like alcohol, OTC drugs can be purchased almost everywhere by anyone who is an adult. Some may not even have age restriction depending on where they are being sold. This can make recovery very challenging when compared to illicit drug addiction where the person isn’t constantly surrounded by their drug of choice.
You must approach the person if you suspect that they are addicted to OTC drugs. Keep in mind that they may be embarrassed to admit their addiction because of the stigma attached, and the stereotyping that exists about addiction. Many people who are addicted to OTC drugs also use this as a rationalization for how they couldn’t possibly be addicted, so don’t buy into it.
It is important to be direct but approachable. Never become angry with them. Rather than give them an opportunity to lie to you, do not ask them if they are using drugs. Instead, tell them what your concern is and let them know that you want to listen and help. They may not be forthcoming, but that’s okay. What you are doing is letting them know that you know and moving the situation to the forefront.
If they become upset with you or defensive, they are probably lying. They will likely try to get out of the conversation as soon as possible so look out for this as confirmation of your suspicions. Just remember that the reason why they have not told you yet is because they know you do not approve. There is no need to drive this point home.
If they are honest with you, perfect. Get them help immediately. You can always call the number on this page and get help with finding treatment or intervention services. If they continue to lie, it may be time to investigate the matter. Remember, their life is on the line. Just because they made it through today doesn’t mean that tomorrow, they will be so lucky.
Over the Counter Medication Treatment
Specific treatment for over the counter medications doesn't exist. At least, not specifically. Little is known about the subject because it is understudied, so there are no known treatment interventions for most OTC drugs. Those like Loperamide, which mimic another drug, may have inherited interventions by default. Opioid treatment and overdose medications are effective for Loperamide abuse and overdose, and those who are addicted can enter opioid dependence treatment programs and experience results.
Otherwise, most people who arrive at treatment for OTC medication addiction are viewed as anomalies and refereed to traditional rehabilitation programs for general substance abuse. This consists mainly of 12 Step inpatient treatment programs. Inpatient treatment is where the person lives and stays at the facility for the rehabilitation process's duration. This may not be necessary, however, depending on the severity of the addiction. OTC drug addiction may respond to outpatient treatment adequately depending upon individual drug use and life circumstances.
billion retail trips annually to purchase over-the-counter drugs
of adults use over-the-counter drugs as a first response to minor ailments.
retail outlets sell OTC products in the United States
Over the Counter Medication Abuse Statistics
• Roughly 1 in 4 teenagers know someone who has abused OTC cough medicine to get high. 75% of teens believe that abusing OTC cough medicine to get high is risky. That means that 25% don't think it's risky. Additionally, approximately 1 in 30 teens reports abusing OTC cough medicine to get high.
• In 2019, it was reported that 3.2% of eighth-graders had abused non-prescription cough medicine within the last year. The same was true of 2.6% of 10th graders and 2.5% of 12th graders.
• More than one in three households (40 million) uses dextromethorphan-containing OTC medicines each year. Two-thirds of adults choose to self-medicate with an OTC medicine when they develop a cough.
• Statistics from the NSDUH show that abuse of dextromethorphan is at its highest prevalence among 12-to-17-year-olds. Just under 2% of teens in this age group report abuse of OTC cough-cold products in the past year. This declines to 1.5% in young adults and then drops significantly.
• In 2006, a survey showed that 5.4 % of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students reported non-medical use of OTC cough medicine in the past year. Voluntary efforts by more than 20 national and regional retailers have been made to stop selling OTC cough medicine to consumers under 18. According to the market research firm IRI, between legislative and voluntary measures, 88–90 % of the market does not sell dextromethorphan to those under 18.
• Between 2010 and 2015, the National Poison Data System showed a 91% increase in intentional loperamide exposures with 11 related deaths, and 13 deaths in one year in 2016-2017.
Key Word List for Over The Counter Drugs
Term Definition
OTC Over the Counter, meaning the drug or medication does not require a prescription to possess or obtain.
Prescription An authorized medical professional's instruction for someone to take a particular medication in a specific way. This authorizes the person to obtain and possess the drug, and the pharmacy to dispense it legally.
DXM Dextromethorphan, a cough suppressant medication that has abuse potential and is available over the counter.
Robotripping The process of consuming large quantities of DXM and getting high. "Robo" comes from the brad Robitussin cough syrup, a common medicine that contains DXM. "Tripping" comes from the slang term used to describe hallucinating. It was initially coined to describe taking acid but has been extended to refer to taking any hallucinogen. Robotripping is a conjunction of these two terms.
Triple C's A slang term for the medication Coricidin Cough and Cold, a commonly abused brand because it contains DXM.
Poor Man's PCP Another slang name for DXM.
Lope Dope A slang name for the drug Loperamide, an opioid relative used to treat diarrhea that has high abuse potential.
Poor Man's Methadone Another slang name for Loperamide.
Rehabilitation The process of restoring someone or something to a former capacity. In terms of addiction, this means that they are no longer actively addicted to or abusing chemical substances and become productive members of society again. This is usually achieved through substance abuse treatment services such as detox, inpatient, and outpatient treatment.
Toxicity The state of becoming toxic, or achieving levels of concentration of a particular substance within a system that causes the system's failure or damage. For a specific organ, this could include tissue damage or organ failure.
Marcel Gemme, DATS - Author
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Michael Leach, CCMA - Medically Reviewed on October 1, 2021
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Michael Leach is a Certified Clinical Medical Assistant, who has over 5 years of experience working in the field of addiction. He spent his career working under the board-certified Addictionologist Dr. Rohit Adi. His experience includes working with families during their loved one’s stay in treatment, helping those with substance abuse issues find treatment, and teaching life skills to patients in a recovery atmosphere. Though he has worked in many different areas of rehabilitation, the majority of his time was spent working one on one with patients who were actively withdrawing from drugs. Withdrawal and the fear of going through it is one biggest reason why an addict continues to use and can be the most difficult part of the rehabilitation process. His experience in the withdrawal atmosphere has taught him that regardless of what approach a person takes to get off drugs, there are always mental and emotional obstacles that need to be overcome. He believes having someone there to help a person through these obstacles can make all the difference during the withdrawal process.
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