feb. 12, 2008 new arctic sea floor data just released by the university of new hampshire and the national oceanic and atmospheric administration suggests that the foot of the continental slope off alaska is more than 100 nautical miles farther from the u. s. coast than previously assumed. the data, gathered during a recent mapping expedition to the chukchi cap some 600 nautical miles north of alaska, could support u. s. rights to natural resources of the sea floor beyond 200 nautical miles * from the coast. " we found evidence that the foot of the slope was much farther out than we thought, " said larry mayer, expedition chief scientist and co - director of the joint hydrographic center at unh. " that was the big discovery. " coastal nations have sovereign rights over the natural resources of their continental shelf, generally recognized to extend 200 nautical miles out from the coast. the law of the sea convention, now under consideration in the u. s. senate, provides nations an internationally recognized basis to extend their sea floor resource rights beyond the foot of the continental slope if they meet certain geological criteria backed up by scientific data. the bush administration supports approval of the convention. the arctic mapping expedition, conducted between aug. 17 and sept. 15, 2007 aboard the u. s. coast guard cutter healy, employed sophisticated echo sounders to survey this relatively unexplored region, providing much finer - grained data and images than existed previously. " we now have a better geologic picture of what ' s happening in that area of the arctic, " said noaa office of coast survey researcher andy armstrong, co - chief scientist on the expedition and noaa co - director of the joint hydrographic center. " these are valuable data for noaa and the united states, and i ' m pleased that we ' re making them available for anyone to use. " mapping more than 5, 400 linear nautical miles, the research team also found scours on the chukchi cap some 1, 300 feet below the surface, likely caused by the scraping of an ice sheet on the sea floor, and deep pockmarks of unknown origin at a depth of 1, 600 feet. " the sea floor is full of mysteries, and beneath the arctic ice cap those mysteries are even harder to reveal, " said mayer. " the kind of full - coverage, high - resolution mapping we do provides critical insight for meeting the criteria of the law of the sea convention as well as the geologic history of the region. " prior to this work, the only seafloor mapping data available


kind of full - coverage, high - resolution mapping we do provides critical insight for meeting the criteria of the law of the sea convention as well as the geologic history of the region. " prior to this work, the only seafloor mapping data available in the ice - covered arctic came mostly from ice islands and helicopters. these sparse individual measurements produced low - resolution maps compared to the joint hydrographic center ' s mapping. other mapping expeditions led by the joint hydrographic center, a noaa - unh partnership, have explored the bering sea ( 2003 ), the atlantic coast of the u. s. ( 2004 and 2005 ), the gulf of alaska ( 2005 ), mariana islands ( 2006 and 2007 ), and the gulf of mexico ( 2007 ). " understanding the bathymetry and geological history of the arctic is an important part of understanding global climate change, " said mayer. " the arctic acts as a global spigot in controlling the flow of deep ocean currents that distribute the earth ' s heat and control climate. the arctic is the canary in the coal mine. " * one nautical miles equals 1. 15 statute miles or 1852 meters. other social bookmarking and sharing tools : note : materials may be edited for content and length. for further information, please contact the source cited above. note : if no author is given, the source is cited instead.


june 30, 2008 noaa experts are continuing to evaluate a group of bottlenose dolphins feeding in new jersey ’ s shrewsbury river. the biggest threat to them at the moment is the behavior of humans eager to commune with them, rather than lack of food, disorientation, entrapment in the river, or their apparent health. “ it ’ s not abnormal for coastal bottlenose dolphins to enter a high - saline river like this one in the summer to feed on the abundant prey, ” said larry hansen, protected resources branch leader at the noaa fisheries service laboratory in beaufort, n. c. “ i urge people to take advantage of the chance to see and appreciate these animals, but to do so from at least 50 yards away. ” noaa researchers onsite observed the dolphins actively feeding on menhaden, which are currently quite plentiful in the river. “ the animals appear to be in good body condition, they are socializing, and do not appear to be in distress, ” said annie gorgone, a marine mammal specialist from the noaa fisheries service laboratory in beaufort, n. c. who observed the dolphins today. noaa has no definitive plans to move or attempt to herd the dolphins at this time, although it is preparing to do so if it becomes necessary. “ it ’ s a last resort, ” said teri rowles, director of noaa ’ s national marine mammal health and stranding response program. such a process is complicated, usually has mixed success, and is highly stressful for the animals sometimes resulting in death. coastal bottlenose dolphins are accustomed to human activities in their habitat, but close encounters can be risky for both people and the animals. aslo, federal law prohibits interference with the animal ’ s natural behavior, and harassment is punishable by fines of up to $ 10, 000. aside from the obvious dangers presented by collisions between watercraft and dolphins with sometimes fatal consequences for dolphins, swimmers can also get a nasty surprise. “ these guys have teeth, ” said hansen, and they use their noses and tail flukes as battering weapons. they are very strong and are much larger than they look. in general it ’ s best to keep your distance, slow down if you are in a water craft, and let them behave naturally. feeding wild dolphins is also extremely hazardous. ” noaa biologists are taking the lead on day - to - day monitoring for the next few days. they will continue to observe and assess the dolphins and conduct prey.


may 28, 2009 a procedure that uses heat generated by radio waves to treat barrett ' s esophagus, a condition caused by acid reflux ( severe heartburn ), can eliminate signs of the potentially cancer - causing disorder and reduce the risk that the disease will progress. findings from the first multicenter trial of the procedure, called radiofrequency ablation, could mean patients have an alternative to surgery for treating barrett ' s esophagus. the procedure uses a scope inserted through the mouth to destroy the abnormal tissue. " patients with barrett ' s esophagus can go on to develop esophageal cancer, " says steven a. edmundowicz, m. d., lead investigator at the study site at washington university school of medicine in st. louis. " cancer of the esophagus usually is deadly. less than 15 percent of patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma survive for five years, and in those with advanced barrett ' s esophagus, the risk that the condition will advance to become cancer is about 6 percent per year. " in barrett ' s esophagus, part of the lining of the esophagus is replaced with cells that resemble intestinal cells. as the condition progresses, these cells become increasingly disordered. long - standing acid reflux disease is common in those who develop barrett ' s esophagus, which affects about 1 percent of adults in the united states. a total of 127 patients at 19 sites took part in the study, which used endoscopes to diagnose the disease and then to deliver radiofrequency ablation to the abnormal lining of the esophagus. the technique heats the abnormal tissue to destroy it while leaving the deeper layers of the esophagus undamaged. all patients in the study had the disordered, cellular growth called dysplasia associated with more advanced barrett ' s esophagus. patients were classified as having either low - grade dysplasia or high - grade dysplasia. regardless of how they were classified for the study, patients received the anti - reflux medication esomeprazole ( nexium ), to keep their reflux disease in check as much as possible. led by nicholas j. shaheen, m. d., at the university of north carolina at chapel hill, the investigators at the various study sites randomly selected patients to either receive radiofrequency ablation or to


as much as possible. led by nicholas j. shaheen, m. d., at the university of north carolina at chapel hill, the investigators at the various study sites randomly selected patients to either receive radiofrequency ablation or to undergo a sham procedure in which endoscopes were inserted through the mouth and the lining of the esophagus was examined, but no radio waves were delivered. two patients received the actual treatment for every one who got a sham procedure. those who received the ablation treatment could get up to four treatments during the 12 months of the study. following the study period, those who had not received ablation therapy were given the option of getting the treatment. in the patients who had the treatment, dysplasia disappeared in just over 90 percent of patients with low - grade disease and in more than 80 percent of those with high - grade disease compared to about 23 percent of the low - grade patients and 19 percent of the high - grade patients who had sham procedures rather than the ablation therapy. in 78 percent of treated patients, not only did dysplasia disappear, but all the abnormal intestinal - type cells were eliminated as well. " during the 12 - month study period, we detected fewer cancers in the ablation group than in the control group, " says edmundowicz, a professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology. " but because cancers occurred in a total of only five study patients, the numbers are not as powerful regarding cancer as they are regarding eradication of barrett ' s esophagus. " the risk of progressing from barrett ' s esophagus to esophageal cancer is approximately 1 percent for those with low - grade dysplasia and 6 percent for those with high - grade disease. " from these short term results, it appears we may have another useful tool in our treatment arsenal, " says edmundowicz, who is a staff physician at barnes - jewish hospital and a gastroenterologist at the siteman cancer center. " additional follow - up will be necessary to demonstrate the true effectiveness of radiofrequency ablation in preventing esophageal cancer in patients with barrett ' s esophagus. " most study subjects tolerated the treatments very well, he says. " the one side effect that most ablation patients experienced was soreness in the chest following therapy, this was easily managed with medications, and they were less sore than if they had surgery, which has been the primary treatment


very well, he says. " the one side effect that most ablation patients experienced was soreness in the chest following therapy, this was easily managed with medications, and they were less sore than if they had surgery, which has been the primary treatment option, " he says. the surgical option is offered to patients with barrett ' s esophagus found to have severe dysplasia or cancer. the type of surgery varies, but it usually involves removing most of the esophagus, pulling a portion of the stomach up into the chest and attaching it to what remains of the esophagus. the study was supported by barrx medical, which manufactures the ablation device. all patients in the study also received the anti - reflux drug. edmundowicz has received lecture support from barrx medical. study medication was provided by astrazeneca. statistical analysis and data management were supported by a grant from the national institutes of health. other sites involved in the study included the university of north carolina at chapel hill ; veterans affairs medical center and university of kansas school of medicine, kansas city, mo. ; gastrointestinal associates, knoxville, tenn. ; mayo clinic jacksonville, jacksonville, fla. ; south arizona veterans affairs health care system, tucson ; mayo clinic rochester, rochester, minn. ; cleveland clinic, cleveland ; oregon health and sciences university, portland ; mayo clinic arizona, scottsdale ; medical university of south carolina, charleston ; dartmouth - hitchcock medical center, lebanon, n. h. ; veterans affairs boston healthcare system, west roxbury, mass. ; university of california, irvine, orange ; university of texas southwestern medical center, dallas ; thomas jefferson university, philadelphia ; tacoma digestive disease research center, tacoma, wash. ; university hospitals – case medical center, cleveland ; and columbia university medical center, new york. other social bookmarking and sharing tools : - shaheen nj, et al. radiofrequency ablation in barrett ' s esophagus with dysplasia. new england journal of medicine, vol 330 ( 22 ), may 28, 2009 [ link ] note : if no author is given, the source is cited instead.


mar. 12, 2012 children may perform better in school and feel more confident about themselves if they are told that failure is a normal part of learning, rather than being pressured to succeed at all costs, according to new research published by the american psychological association. " we focused on a widespread cultural belief that equates academic success with a high level of competence and failure with intellectual inferiority, " said frederique autin, phd, a postdoctoral researcher at the university of poitiers in poitiers, france. " by being obsessed with success, students are afraid to fail, so they are reluctant to take difficult steps to master new material. acknowledging that difficulty is a crucial part of learning could stop a vicious circle in which difficulty creates feelings of incompetence that in turn disrupts learning. " the study, published online in apa ' s journal of experimental psychology : general, could have important implications for teachers, parents and students, said jean - claude croizet, phd, a psychology professor at the university of poitiers who supervised the research based on autin ' s doctoral dissertation. " people usually believe that academic achievement simply reflects students ' inherent academic ability, which can be difficult to change, " croizet said. " but teachers and parents may be able to help students succeed just by changing the way in which the material is presented. " in the first experiment with 111 french sixth graders, students were given very difficult anagram problems that none of them could solve. then a researcher talked to the students about the difficulty of the problems. one group was told that learning is difficult and failure is common, but practice will help, just like learning how to ride a bicycle. children in a second group were just asked how they tried to solve the problems. the students then took a test that measures working memory capacity, a key cognitive ability for storing and processing incoming information. working memory capacity is a good predictor of many aspects of academic achievement, including reading comprehension, problem solving and iq. the students who were told that learning is difficult performed significantly better on the working memory test, especially on more difficult problems, than the second group or a third control group who took the working memory test without doing the anagrams or discussions with researchers. a second experiment with 131 sixth graders followed a similar procedure with the difficult anagrams and discussions with a researcher. an additional group of students took a simpler anagram test that could be solved, and this group was not told that learning is difficult. all of the students


131 sixth graders followed a similar procedure with the difficult anagrams and discussions with a researcher. an additional group of students took a simpler anagram test that could be solved, and this group was not told that learning is difficult. all of the students then completed a reading comprehension test. the children who were told that learning is difficult scored higher than the other groups, including the students who had just succeeded on the simple test. how students think about failure may be more important than their own success when learning challenging skills, the study noted. a third experiment with 68 sixth graders measured reading comprehension and asked questions that measured students ' feelings about their own academic competence. the group that was told that learning is difficult performed better in reading comprehension and reported fewer feelings of incompetence. the study noted that the students ' improvement on the tests most likely was temporary, but the results showed that working memory capacity may be improved simply by boosting students ' confidence and reducing their fear of failure. " our research suggests that students will benefit from education that gives them room to struggle with difficulty, " autin said. " teachers and parents should emphasize children ' s progress rather than focusing solely on grades and test scores. learning takes time and each step in the process should be rewarded, especially at early stages when students most likely will experience failure. " other social bookmarking and sharing tools : - frederique autin, jean - claude croizet. improving working memory efficiency by reframing metacognitive interpretation of task difficulty.. journal of experimental psychology : general, 2012 ; doi : 10. 1037 / a0027478 note : if no author is given, the source is cited instead.


may 4, 2012 researchers in spain have found that at least some of the individuals claiming to see the so - called aura of people actually have the neuropsychological phenomenon known as " synesthesia " ( specifically, " emotional synesthesia " ). this might be a scientific explanation of their alleged ability. in synesthetes, the brain regions responsible for the processing of each type of sensory stimuli are intensely interconnected. synesthetes can see or taste a sound, feel a taste, or associate people or letters with a particular color. the study was conducted by the university of granada department of experimental psychology oscar iborra, luis pastor and emilio gomez milan, and has been published in the journal consciousness and cognition. this is the first time that a scientific explanation has been provided for the esoteric phenomenon of the aura, a supposed energy field of luminous radiation surrounding a person as a halo, which is imperceptible to most human beings. in basic neurological terms, synesthesia is thought to be due to cross - wiring in the brain of some people ( synesthetes ) ; in other words, synesthetes present more synaptic connections than " normal " people. " these extra connections cause them to automatically establish associations between brain areas that are not normally interconnected, " professor gomez milan explains. new research suggests that many healers claiming to see the aura of people might have this condition. the case of the " santon de baza " one of the university of granada researchers remarked that " not all ' healers ' are synesthetes, but there is a higher prevalence of this phenomenon among them. the same occurs among painters and artists, for example. " to carry out this study, the researchers interviewed some synesthetes including a ' healer ' from granada, " esteban sanchez casas, " known as " el santon de baza ". many local people attribute " paranormal powers " to el santon, because of his supposed ability to see the aura of people " but, in fact, it is a clear case of synesthesia, " the researchers explained. according to the researchers, el santon has face - color synesthesia ( the brain region responsible for face recognition is associated with the color - processing region ) ; touch - mirror synesthesia ( when the synesthete observes a person who is being touched or is experiencing pain, s / he experiences the same ) ; high empathy ( the ability to feel what other person is feeling ), and schizoty


- mirror synesthesia ( when the synesthete observes a person who is being touched or is experiencing pain, s / he experiences the same ) ; high empathy ( the ability to feel what other person is feeling ), and schizotypy ( certain personality traits in healthy people involving slight paranoia and delusions ). " these capacities make synesthetes have the ability to make people feel understood, and provide them with special emotion and pain reading skills, " the researchers explain. in the light of the results obtained, the researchers remarked on the significant " placebo effect " that healers have on people, " though some healers really have the ability to see people ' s ' auras ' and feel the pain in others due to synesthesia. " some healers " have abilities and attitudes that make them believe in their ability to heal other people, but it is actually a case of self - deception, as synesthesia is not an extrasensory power, but a subjective and ' adorned ' perception of reality, " the researchers state. other social bookmarking and sharing tools : - e. g. milan, o. iborra, m. hochel, m. a. rodriguez artacho, l. c. delgado - pastor, e. salazar, a. gonzalez - hernandez. auras in mysticism and synaesthesia : a comparison. consciousness and cognition, 2012 ; 21 ( 1 ) : 258 doi : 10. 1016 / j. concog. 2011. 11. 010 note : if no author is given, the source is cited instead.


a study in the journal of cell biology shows how a transcription factor called stat3 remains in the axon of nerve cells to help prevent neurodegeneration. the findings could pave the way for future drug therapies to slow nerve damage in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. in lou gehrig ' s disease ( als ) and other neurodegenerative diseases, nerve cells usually die in stages, with axons deteriorating first and the cells themselves perishing later. axon degeneration may represent a turning point for patients, after which so much nerve damage has accumulated that treatments won ' t work. researchers have tested several proteins for their ability to save axons. one of these molecules, cntf, rescues axons in rodents and extends their lives. but it caused severe side effects in patients during clinical trials. " acting on the same pathway but farther downstream could be an ideal way to improve the situation for motor neuron disease " and possibly for other neurodegenerative diseases, says senior author michael sendtner from the university of wuerzburg in germany. a jcb study shows how the protein cntf activates the transcription factor stat3 ( green ), which lingers in the axon ( blue ) and helps stabilize microtubules by inhibiting a protein called stathmin ( magenta ). stat3 and stathmin colocalize in axonal branch points ( arrowheads ) and growth cones ( arrow ). to discover how cntf works, sendtner and his colleagues studied mice with a mutation that mimics als. the researchers found that cntf not only prevented shrinkage of the rodents ' motor neurons, it also reduced the number of swellings along the axon that are markers of degeneration. it is known that cntf indirectly turns on the transcription factor stat3, so the researchers wanted to determine if stat3 is behind cntf ' s protective powers. they tested whether cntf helps motor neurons that lack stat3 and discovered that, in the mutant mice, axons lacking stat3 were half as long as those from a control group after cntf treatment once it has been activated, stat3 typically travels to the nucleus of the neuron to switch on genes. but the researchers were surprised to find that most of the axonal stat3 did not move to the nucleus and instead had a local effect in the axon. specifically, the team found that activated stat3 inhibited stathmin, a protein that normally destabilizes microtub


( sen ) - inventive techniques using observations with some of the world ' s biggest telescopes have allowed astronomers to discover five new planets orbiting one of the closest stars to the earth. tau ceti, which lies only 12 light - years away and can easily be spotted on a clear night, is a star similar to the sun and also single. one of the new worlds around it is in its habitable zone, so named because water could exist on it in liquid form. the new planets all have sizes, or masses, between two and six times that of the earth, making the new solar system one of the least massive yet found. but that is not altogether surprising because smaller worlds are bound to be easier to detect when they are closer to us. the discoveries, which come just two months after the announcement of an earth - sized planet in the nearest star system to us, alpha centauri, were made by an international team from the uk, chile, the usa and australia. they examined the starlight from tau ceti using spectrographs on three telescopes - harps on the 3. 6m telescope at the european southern observatory in la silla, chile, ucles on the anglo - australian telescope in siding spring, australia, and hires on the 10m keck telescope on mauna kea, hawaii ( 567 data points ). after making more than 6, 000 measurements, the team using computer modelling techniques and managed to improve the sensitivity of their observations so that smaller planets than normal revealed themselves in the data. the team ' s leader, mikko tuomi from the university of hertfordshire in the uk, explained : “ we pioneered new data modelling techniques by adding artificial signals to the data and testing our recovery of the signals with a variety of different approaches. this significantly improved our noise modelling techniques and increased our ability to find low mass planets. " hugh jones, also from the university of hertfordshire, said : " we chose tau ceti for this noise modelling study because we had thought it contained no signals. and as it is so bright and similar to our sun it is an ideal benchmark system to test out our methods for the detection of small planets. " where to spot tau ceti in the night sky. credit : university of hertfordshire the new worlds add to a harvest of more than 800 exoplanets that have been discovered around other stars since 1995. most of those found have been " hot jupiters " - gas giants zipping round close to their host stars in just days. team member steve vogt


according to jerry ostriker ( plumian professor, cambridge ; professor of astrophysics, princeton ; provost, princeton ), " surveys aren ’ t just something that astronomers do, they are the only thing astronomers do. " these words are understandable, given prof. ostriker ’ s intimate association with the sloan digital sky survey that is presently transforming our view of the optical universe. the ability to systematically survey one quarter of the sky, with the dynamic range and spatial resolution to zoom in to study individual objects, is providing us with the first truly 3 - dimensional map of the nearby cosmos. the optical portion of the spectrum unveils the moderately energetic and hot components of the universe, but the physics of the cool constituents is probed at radio wavelengths. [ new paragraph ] the allen telescope array ( ata ) of 350 telescopes, each 6. 1 m in diameter, will do for the radio sky what the sloan digital sky survey has done for the optical sky. and it will do it so rapidly that it will also provide the first systematic look at the transient radio universe. the ata provides simultaneous access to any frequency between 500 mhz and 11. 2 ghz, with four separate frequency channels feeding a suite of signal processing backends that can produce wide - angle radio images of the sky in 1024 colors, and at the same time, study up to 32 point sources of interest within its large field of view. this new approach to commensally sharing the sky allows seti ( the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ) and traditional radio astronomical science to both use the telescope nearly all the time : our tools are beginning to be commensurate with the size of the vast explorations of the radio sky that we wish to undertake. [ new paragraph ] this talk will put the ata into context with the rest of the seti activities around the world and describe the initial seti observations we intend to conduct.


- may 31 - king library opens at 1 : 00 pm the holocaust ( 1939 - 1945 ) genocide, meticulously planned in nazi germany and executed with international complicity, resulting in the destruction of the european jewish community ( six million people - men, women and over one million children ) and taking the lives of “ political dissidents, p. o. w. ' s, slavs, gypsies, homosexuals and the mentally ill. “ the holocaust : a nightmare of brutal, technologically assisted criminality, with a destructive fallout working its devilment first amongst the living, and then into the being of generations to come. maus trilogy, by art spiegelman in graphic novel format, art spiegelman presents a unique and deeply personal account of the holocaust, intertwining history, parental interview, and his own memoir of historically induced emotional trauma. a tragic tale made bearable by its artistic presentation. vladek spiegelman ' s lifestory continues in this anguishing chronical of separation, loss, survival and lasting wounds. the inside story of the creation of art spiegelman ' s 1992 pulitzer prize awarded graphic novel, maus. ( complete with hyperlinked dvd. ) on exhibit through july 12th, 2012 at king library – 5th floor – cultural heritage area the courage to remember " is a 42 panel educational exhibit on the holocaust of 1933 - 1945. it is an historical account of the nazis ' murderous campaign in which 6 million jews and others ( political dissidents, p. o. w. ' s, slavs, gypsies, homosexuals and the mentally ill ) were killed between 1933 and 1945. the crimes of the nazis during the holocaust serve as a dark chapter of the 20th century. yet, the causes of the holocaust remain with us today. man ' s flawed nature, racism and complacency of ordinary people in the persecution of others persist therefore, the need for this exhibit. individual citizens must have the courage to remember, educate themselves of this tragedy and commit to prevent such crimes from happening again. this exhibit of the museum of tolerance is made possible by an educational grant from sncf and presented by the foundation for california. the holocaust - a research guide to the sjpl catalog


from abracadabra to zombies | view all n ' kisi & the n ' kisi project n ' kisi ( pronounced ‘ ‘ in - key - see ’ ’ ) is a captive bred eight or nine - year - old hand raised african grey parrot whose owner, aimee morgana, thinks uses language. she doesn ' t think he just sounds out words. she thinks he communicates with her in language, which would in effect make n ' kisi a rational parrot. for example, n ' kisi utters " pretty smell medicine " when he wants to describe the aromatherapy oils that aimee uses. * furthermore, aimee says her parrot has a fine sense of humor and knows how to laugh. imagine having conversations with a humorous parrot. think of all the things you could talk and joke about, besides aromatherapy. you could discuss the fame that would come to anyone who had a parrot that can think and converse in intelligent discourse, like pretty smell medicine and look at my pretty naked body. * and when some nasty skeptic makes fun of you, the two of you can joke about it. i ' m afraid that this story stretches the boundaries of reasonable credibility, though stories of rational parrots go back at least to the 17th century. john locke, for example, relates a tale of a portuguese - speaking parrot of some note in his essay concerning human understanding ( ii. xxvii. 8 ). these cases are more likely cases of self - deception, delusion, and gullibility than of language - using parrots. listen to this audio clip of n ' kisi, aimee, and a toy that " talks " when a button is pushed. first listen without reading the transcript. some of it is intelligible, especially after the fourth or fifth repetition, but it is difficult to understand the " conversation, " especially with the toy making its sounds as aimee stimulates her parrot. some of the tape sounds like gibberish until you are told what to listen for. when you listen while reading the transcript something amazing happens : you can hear just what you ' re reading. why is that? the same thing happens when you listen to audio tapes played backward. when you just listen without anyone telling you what to listen for, you usually don ' t understand anything intelligible. but as soon as someone shows or tells you what to listen for, you can hear the message. such is the power of suggestion and the way of audio perception. hearing is a constructive process, like vision, in that


understand anything intelligible. but as soon as someone shows or tells you what to listen for, you can hear the message. such is the power of suggestion and the way of audio perception. hearing is a constructive process, like vision, in that bits of sensory data are " filled in " by the brain to produce a visual or auditory perception that is clear and distinct, and in accord with your expectations. consider the following from an interview with dr. irene pepperberg, morgana ' s inspiration, who has been studying alex, an african grey parrot, for many years : we were doing demos at the media lab [ at mit ] for our corporate sponsors ; we had a very small amount of time scheduled and the visitors wanted to see alex work. so we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of alex, and asked, " alex, what sound is blue? " he answers, " ssss. " it was an " s ", so we say " good birdie " and he replies, " want a nut. " well, i don ' t want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so i tell him to wait, and i ask, " what sound is green? " alex answers, " ssshh. " he ' s right, it ' s " sh, " and we go through the routine again : " good parrot. " " want a nut. " " alex, wait. what sound is orange? " " ch. " " good bird! " " want a nut. " we ' re going on and on and alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. he finally gets very slitty - eyed and he looks at me and states, " want a nut. nnn, uh, tuh. " not only could you imagine him thinking, " hey, stupid, do i have to spell it for you? " but the point was that he had leaped over where we were and had begun sounding out the letters of the words for us. this was in a sense his way of saying to us, " i know where you ' re headed! let ' s get on with it, " which gave us the feeling that we were on the right track with what we were doing. * dr. pepperberg thinks the bird is responding cognitively to her questions rather than simply responding to a stimulus. she thinks the bird is getting frustrated, but she has stipulated earlier in the interview : i never claim that


with what we were doing. * dr. pepperberg thinks the bird is responding cognitively to her questions rather than simply responding to a stimulus. she thinks the bird is getting frustrated, but she has stipulated earlier in the interview : i never claim that alex has full - blown language ; i never would. i ' m not going to be able to put alex on a " t " stand and have you interview him the way you interview me. so, whereas you or i might say " give me the nut or this interview is over " were we parrots with intentionality and language, the parrot ' s movements and sounds have to be less direct and more complex, so that they have to be interpreted for us by pepperberg. in her view, alex is " clearly getting more frustrated " and his frustration culminates with a " very slitty - eyed " expression. but this is pepperberg ' s interpretation, as is her hearing the bird sound out the letters of the word ' nut '. it could have been a stutter for all we know, but pepperberg is facilitating alex ' s communication by telling us what she hears. the final paragraph indicates that pepperberg is having a hard time drawing the line between imagining what a parrot might be thinking and projecting those thoughts into the parrot ' s movements and sounds. she ' s also having a hard time getting grant money ( nih turned her down ), so she started her own private foundation, the alex foundation. when news of n ' kisi broke on the pages of bbc online, there was no mention in the article by alex kirby of the parrot having conversations with people other than aimee morgana. ( the story was originally told in usa today in the february 12, 2001, edition. ) despite the headline " parrot ' s oratory stuns scientists, " there was no evidence given that the parrot had stunned anyone during a conversation. it seems that aimee is to her parrot what the facilitator is to her client in facilitated communication, except that the parrot is actually providing data to interpret and is more like clever hans, the horse that responded to unconscious movements of his master, than a disabled human who may not be providing any content or direction at all to the facilitator. it is aimee who gives intentionality to the parrot ' s sounds. she is the one who attributes ' laughter ' to his shrieks and conscious awareness to his responses, though those responses could be due to any one of many stimuli, consciously or unconsciously provided by aimee or items in


to the parrot ' s sounds. she is the one who attributes ' laughter ' to his shrieks and conscious awareness to his responses, though those responses could be due to any one of many stimuli, consciously or unconsciously provided by aimee or items in the immediate environment. nevertheless, dr. jane goodall, who studies chimpanzees, met n ' kisi and said that he provides an " outstanding example of interspecies communication. " there is some evidence, however, that much of the work with language - using primates also mistakes subjective validation by scientists for complex linguistic abilities of their animal subjects ( wallman 1992 ). according to mr. kirby, n ' kisi not only uses language but has been tested for telepathy and he passed the test with flying colors : in an experiment, the bird and his owner were put in separate rooms and filmed as the artist opened random envelopes containing picture cards. analysis showed the parrot had used appropriate keywords three times more often than would be likely by chance. kirby doesn ' t provide any details about the experiment, so a reader might misinterpret this claim as implying that this parrot did about twice as well as people did in the ganzfeld telepathy experiments. in those experiments, subjects in separate rooms were monitored as one tried to telepathically send information from a picture or video to the other. typically, there was a 20 % chance of guessing what the item was but results as high as 38 % were reported in some meta - analyses. if the parrot scored three times better than chance, then he would have gotten 60 % correct. the odds of a parrot randomly blurting out words that match up 60 % of the time with pictures being looked at simultaneously in another room are so high that there is virtually no way that this could happen by chance. however, as you might suspect, kirby ' s claim is a bit misleading. i assume that kirby was writing about an experiment that was part of the n ' kisi project, a joint effort by morgana and rupert sheldrake to test not only the parrot ' s language - using abilities but his telepathic talents as well. sheldrake has already validated the telepathic abilities of a dog and thinks the " findings [ of this experiment ] are consistent with the hypothesis that n ' kisi was reacting telepathically to aimee ' s mental activity. " * the full text of sheldrake ' s study published in the peer reviewed journal of scientific


findings [ of this experiment ] are consistent with the hypothesis that n ' kisi was reacting telepathically to aimee ' s mental activity. " * the full text of sheldrake ' s study published in the peer reviewed journal of scientific exploration is available online. the title of the paper would send most journal editors to their grave, killed by laughter : " testing a language - using parrot for telepathy. " fortunately for sheldrake and his associates there will always be a sympathetic editor for another story like that of j. b. rhine and the telepathic horse, " lady wonder. " at least sheldrake ' s protocols show some measure of sophistication, unlike rhine ' s. even so, as the editor at the journal of scientific exploration commented : " once again, we have suggestive results, a level of statistical significance that is less than compelling, and the devout wish that further work with refined protocols will ensue. " * so, we ' ll just have to wait and see whether further study of n ' kisi supports the telepathic hypothesis. anyway, here is how sheldrake set up the experiment. he first compiled a list of 30 words from the bird ' s vocabulary that " could be represented by visual images. " a package of 167 photos from a stock supplier was used for the test. since only 20 of the photos corresponded to words on the list, the word list was reduced to 20. the word ' camera ' was removed from the list because ' n ’ kisi " used it so frequently to comment on the cameras used in the tests themselves. " thus, they were left with 19 words. during the tests, n ’ kisi remained in his cage in aimee ’ s apartment in manhattan, new york. there was no one in the room with him. meanwhile, aimee went to a separate enclosed room on a different floor. n ’ kisi could not see or hear her, and in any case, aimee said nothing, as confirmed by the audio track recorded on the camera that filmed her continuously. the distance between aimee and n ’ kisi was about 55 feet. aimee could hear n ’ kisi through a wireless baby monitor, which she used to gain ‘ ‘ feedback ’ ’ to help her to adjust her mental state as image sender. both aimee and n ’ kisi were filmed continuously throughout the test sessions by two synchronized cameras on time - coded videotape. the cameras were mounted on tripods and ran continuously without interruption


help her to adjust her mental state as image sender. both aimee and n ’ kisi were filmed continuously throughout the test sessions by two synchronized cameras on time - coded videotape. the cameras were mounted on tripods and ran continuously without interruption throughout each session. n ’ kisi was also recorded continuously on a separate audio tape recorder. ( sheldrake and morgana 2003 ) according to sheldrake : we conducted a total of 147 two - minute trials. the recordings of n ’ kisi during these trials were transcribed blind by three independent transcribers.... he scored 23 hits : the key words he said corresponded to the target pictures.... if n ’ kisi said a key word that did not correspond to the photograph, that was counted as a miss, and if he said a key word corresponding to the photograph, that was a hit. ( sheldrake and morgana 2003 ) however, sixty of the trials were discarded because in those trials n ' kisi either was silent or uttered things that were not key words, i. e., showed no signs of telepathy. a few other trials were discarded because the transcribers did not agree on what n ' kisi said. in short, sheldrake ' s statistical conclusions are based on the results of 71 of the trials. i ' ll let the reader decide whether it was proper to omit 40 % of the data because the parrot didn ' t utter a word on the key word list during those trials. some might argue that those sessions should be counted as misses and that by ignoring so much data where the parrot clearly did not indicate any sign of telepathy is strong evidence that sheldrake was more interested in confirming his biases than in getting at the truth. n ' kisi ' s misses were listed at 94. ten of the 23 hits were on the picture that corresponded to the word ' flower ', which n ' kisi uttered 23 times during the trials. the flower image, selected randomly, was used in 17 trials. the image corresponding to water was used in 10 of the trials. the bird said ' water ' in twelve trials and got 2 hits. it seems oddly biased that almost one - third of the images and more than half the hits came from just 2 of the 19 pictures. one of the peer reviewers thought that the fact that the flower word and picture played so heavy a role in the outcome that the paper ' s results were distorted and that the paper


and more than half the hits came from just 2 of the 19 pictures. one of the peer reviewers thought that the fact that the flower word and picture played so heavy a role in the outcome that the paper ' s results were distorted and that the paper should not be published. the other reviewer accepted sheldrake ' s observation that even if you throw out the flower data, you still get some sort of statistical significance. this may be true. however, since the bird allegedly had a vocabulary of some 950 words at the time of the test, omitting sessions where the bird said nothing or said something not on the key list, is unjustifiable. furthermore, there is no evidence that it is reasonable to assume that when the parrot is by itself uttering words that it is trying to communicate telepathically with morgana. or are we to accept sheldrake ' s assumption that the parrot turns his telepathic interest off and on, and it was on only when he uttered a word on the key list? that assumption is no more valid that morgana ' s belief that the telepathy doesn ' t work as well when she makes an effort to send a telepathic message to her parrot. in any case, i wonder why sheldrake didn ' t do a baseline study, where the parrot was videotaped for two - minutes at a time while morgana was taking an aromatherapy bath or meditating or doing something unrelated to the key word pictures. had he made several hundred such clips, he could then have randomly selected 71 and compared them to the 71 clips he used for his analysis. if there was no significant difference between the randomly selected clips and the ones that emerged during the experiment, then the telepathy hypothesis would not be supported. on the other hand, if he found a robust statistically significant difference, then the telepathy hypothesis would be supported. i suggest he do something along these lines when he attempts to replicate his parrot telepathy test. in some trials, n ’ kisi repeated a given key word. for example, in one trial n ’ kisi said ‘ ‘ phone ’ ’ three times, and in another he said ‘ ‘ flower ’ ’ ten times, and in the tabulation of data the numbers of times he said these words are shown in parentheses as : phone ( 3 ) ; flower ( 10 ). for most of the statistical analyses, repetitions were ignored, but in one analysis the numbers of words that were said more than once in


numbers of times he said these words are shown in parentheses as : phone ( 3 ) ; flower ( 10 ). for most of the statistical analyses, repetitions were ignored, but in one analysis the numbers of words that were said more than once in a given trial were compared statistically with those said only once for both hits and misses. for each trial, the key word or words represented in the photograph were tabulated. some images had only one key word, but others had two or more. for example, a picture of a couple hugging in a pool of water involved two key words, ‘ ‘ water ’ ’ and ‘ ‘ hug. ’ ’ ( sheldrake and morgana 2003 ) he calculated 51 hits and 126 misses when repetitions were included. i ' m not going to bother with any more detail because by now the overall picture should be clear. once the statisticians went to work on the data, they were able to provide support for the claim that the data were consistent with the telepathic hypothesis. but nowhere in sheldrake ' s paper can i find a claim that the parrot did three times better than expected by chance. in any case, i have to agree with the editor who published sheldrake ' s parrot paper : the results have a statistical significance that is less than compelling. however, unlike that editor, my devout wish is that when such studies as these are published in the future, responsible journalists continue to ignore them and recognize them for the rubbish they are. on the other hand, if you happen to think your parrot is psychic, drop dr. sheldrake a line. he ' s set up a page just for you. sheldrake has responded to this article. his comments and my responses are posted here. books and articles new grey parrots use reasoning where monkeys and dogs can ’ t " christian schloegl and his team at the university of vienna, let six parrots choose between two containers, one containing a nut. both containers were shaken, one eliciting a rattling sound and the other nothing. the parrots preferred the container that rattled, even if only the empty container was shaken.... thus, grey parrots seem to possess ape - like reasoning skills.... " [ / new ] last updated 16 - aug - 2012


choosing your first telescope every year millions of people buy a telescope, but few know what to look for when making their purchase. online telescope help guide.. or if you want something that you can print out and read at your leisure, click here to download " what to know before you buy " from skywatch 2010, our annual magazine, as a 2 - megabyte pdf file. many ( arguably most ) good starter scopes cost $ 400 or more, but some superb choices are available for under $ 250. for some specific recommendations, read our review of low - cost starter scopes. but read this article first, so you ' ll understand the terminology in that review. the telescope you want has two essentials : high - quality optics and a steady, smoothly working mount. and all other things being equal, big scopes show more and are easier to use than small ones, as we ' ll see below. but don ' t overlook portability and convenience the best scope for you is the one you ' ll actually use. the most important characteristic of a telescope is its aperture the diameter of its light - gathering lens or mirror, often called the objective. look for the telescope ' s specifications near its focuser, at the front of the tube, or on the box. the aperture ' s diameter ( d ) will be expressed either in millimeters or, less commonly, in inches ( 1 inch equals 25. 4 mm ). as a rule of thumb, your telescope should have at least 2. 8 inches ( 70 mm ) aperture and preferably more. avoid telescopes that are advertised by their magnification especially implausibly high powers like 600×. for most purposes, a telescope ' s maximum useful magnification is 50 times its aperture in inches ( or twice its aperture in millimeters ). so you ' d need a 12 - inch scope to get a decent image at 600× and even then, you ' d need to wait for a night when the observing conditions are perfect. you ' ll encounter three basic telescope designs. • reflectors gather light using a mirror at the rear of the main tube. for a given aperture, these are generally the least expensive type, but you ' ll need to adjust the optical alignment periodically especially if you bump it around a lot. • compound ( or catadioptric ) telescopes, which use a combination of lenses and mirrors, offer compact tubes and relatively light weight ; two popular designs are called schmidt - cassegrains and maksutov - cassegrains


. • compound ( or catadioptric ) telescopes, which use a combination of lenses and mirrors, offer compact tubes and relatively light weight ; two popular designs are called schmidt - cassegrains and maksutov - cassegrains. the objective ' s focal length ( f or fl ) is the key to determining the telescope ' s magnification ( " power " ). this is simply the objective ' s focal length divided by that of the eyepiece, which you ' ll find on its barrel. for example, if a telescope has a focal length of 500 mm and a 25 - mm eyepiece, the magnification is 500 / 25, or 20x. most telescopes come supplied with one or two eyepieces ; you change the magnification by switching eyepieces with different focal lengths. your telescope will need something sturdy to support it. many telescopes come conveniently packaged with tripods or mounts, though the tubes of smaller scopes often just have a mounting block that allows them to be attached to a standard photo tripod with a single screw. ( caution : a tripod that ' s good enough for taking your family snapshots may not be steady enough for astronomy. ) mounts designed specifically for telescopes usually forgo the single - screw attachment blocks in favor of larger, more robust rings or plates. some telescopes come with small motors to move them around the sky with the push of a keypad button. in the more advanced models of this type, often called " go to " telescopes, a small computer is built into the hand control. once you ' ve entered the current date, time, and your location, the scope can point itself to, and track, thousands of celestial objects. some " go to " s let you choose a guided tour of the best celestial showpieces, complete with a digital readout describing what ' s known about each object. but go to scopes aren ' t for everyone the setup process may be confusing if you don ' t know how to find the bright alignment stars in the sky. and lower - priced go to models come with smaller apertures than similarly priced, entry - level scopes that have no electronics. a telescope can literally open your eyes to a universe of celestial delights. with a little care in selecting the right one, you ' ll be ready for a lifetime of exploring the night sky!


can you train your pet cat? yes, but it won ' t be easy. a border collie named chaser has been trained to recognize and respond to 1, 022 nouns, according to a new york times profile published last monday. the extent of chaser ' s vocabulary is astonishing, but it ' s no surprise that a dog could be trained to sit, stay, or fetch particular objects from under the couch. what about a cat? is it possible to train your tabby? yes, but it ' s slightly more difficult. cats were domesticated about 9, 000 years ago, and were originally used to hunt mice. it ' s likely they were selected for their solitary hunting abilities, not for any particular social acuity or inclination to follow instructions. ( dogs, on the other hand, were selected for those very traits. ) that doesn ' t mean you can ' t train a cat ; it just means they won ' t always respond to the same rewards as dogs. while some dogs are content with a pat on the head and a " good boy! " in exchange for proper behavior, cats typically work for food and might be slower to pick up new tricks. even so, both species can be trained with the same methods. ( the most common are positive reinforcement, clicker training, and targeting. ) cats can be trained to use a toilet bowl instead of a litter box, follow their owners at a command, or perform a high - five. dogs dohave larger brains than cats, both in absolute terms and relative to the size of their bodies. that feature may have evolved to help them meet the social demands of living in a pack. and a heightened sociability could in turn make them better at reading and responding to human facial expressions and commands. if it ' s possible to train cats, why don ' t we do it more often? cats are less of a bother than dogs when they misbehave. while a hyperactive canine might rip up your curtains and your couch, a problematic cat tends to be disobedient in more subtle ways — like waking you up at 5 a. m. for breakfast. cats are also quieter and less likely to drool on your belongings or jump on strangers. when cats do develop behavioral problems, their owners are more likely to accept and ignore the issue, rather than embarking on a training protocol. got a question about today ' s news? ask the explainer explainer thanks, christine bellezza of the cornell feline health center, nicholas dodman


dynamic nasopharyngoscopy ( dn ) is a simple method of : the examination is performed with the patient lying on their back and under local anesthetic with topical lidocaine that is sprayed onto the back of the throat and into the nasal passages. the flexible fiberoptic endoscope is introduced through the nose and advanced into the pharynx. note is taken of any fixed obstructions such as a deviated septum, nasal polyps, and enlarged adenoids and tonsils. the tip of the endoscope is then positioned at the level of the hard palate and the patient is asked to perform a series of maneuvers. note is taken of the size and shape of the airway. this patient has a heart - shaped airway because of narrow insertion of the posterior tonsillar pillars and edema. note is taken of the degree of collapse that occurs when the patient attempts to inspire with their mouth closed and nostrils pinched shut. | with jaw thrust this simulates the wearing of a dental appliance that advances the mandible. this patient could use such a device if the overnight oximetry shows mild disease. opening of the jaw opening the mouth to breathe relaxes the pharynx and promotes backward collapse of the tongue. this increases the likelihood of apnea. interpretation of the findings requires a detailed knowledge of the anatomy of the upper airway and a good understanding of the physical principles that determine why certain structures are stable and others are not. back to dynamic nasopharyngoscopy page


culture has a special historical and social significance in slovenia. it was primarily thanks to their culture and their common language of slovene that the people of slovenia were able to forge themselves into a nation and survive. language and culture have for centuries compensated slovenes for the lack of their own state and political institutions. slovenia is one of those rare countries, if not the only country in the world, where a day of culture is a national holiday. in honour of the poet slovenia ’ s national day of culture is 8 february, the anniversary of the death of its greatest poet, france preseren, whose wonderful works from the first half of the 19th century are a supreme example of european romanticism. one such work is a toast, now slovenia ’ s national anthem. the relevance of preseren ’ s poetry played a role in the creation of the first real national political programme, which helped to forge the slovenian national identity. the annual preseren prizes are the highest awards for the most important and momentous achievements in culture. credit to the protestant one of the most important foundations of slovenian culture was established by another literary figure, the protestant pastor primoz trubar, who published the first book in slovene in 1550. it was then that slovene officially joined the family of european literary languages. the power of verse and the written word literature also held a special place in slovenian culture in the 20th century, when the playwright ivan cankar, the poet srecko kosovel, contemporary poets like ciril zlobec, kajetan kovic, tomaz salamun and dane zajc and the writers vitomil zupan, drago jancar, boris pahor and lojze kovacic all left their mark. many of their works have been translated into multiple european languages. further evidence of the importance of books in slovenian culture is that slovenia is ranked at the top of european countries in terms of the number of books published per head. in 2010, ljubljana was selected by unesco to be the world book capital. in 2012, maribor was the european capital of culture pillars of culture slovenia has a very well - developed network of cultural institutions, organisations and associations, comparable with the wealthiest and most progressive countries in europe. the slovenian philharmonic is one of the oldest orchestras in europe, with a history of more than 300 years. there are professional opera and ballet companies in ljubljana and maribor, and numerous professional theatre groups, including drama ( slovenia ’ s national theatre ), the youth theatre and the puppet theatre cultural life is


europe, with a history of more than 300 years. there are professional opera and ballet companies in ljubljana and maribor, and numerous professional theatre groups, including drama ( slovenia ’ s national theatre ), the youth theatre and the puppet theatre cultural life is rich and varied at the museums, galleries and cultural centres, pride of place among which is taken by cankarjev dom there are a host of top festivals in slovenia, particularly in the summer : the ljubljana festival at krizanke, the festival of early music in brezice, the primorska cultural festival and a series of cultural events under the aegis of imago sloveniae. maribor ’ s lent festival is also a favourite. there are 45 permanent galleries in slovenia, and over 800 spaces where works of fine art are exhibited permanently or occasionally. the most important in ljubljana are the museum of modern art, which focuses on modern works, and the national gallery, whose collection consists of older works. impressionism made slovenian painting known throughout europe in the first half of the 20th century, while the ljubljana graphic school was renowned after the second world war. there are five professional orchestras in slovenia, and a host of musicians who are famed outside the country. the largest concert halls are at the cankarjev dom cultural and conference centre, which holds close to a thousand events each year. slovenia ’ s own brand of polka music reached its peak in the accordion and ensemble of slavko avsenik, while the annual festival in sticna is a feast of choral singing, and the france marolt folk group have performed their singing and dancing all over the world. the contemporary thrill of classical music is the territory of the slovenian philharmonic, particularly its top musicians, flautist irena grafenauer, pianist dubravka tomsic and soprano marjana lipovsek. laibach have been a highly influential band in the last few decades in modern alternative music. the ethno - pop of magnifico has gained a rising international profile. the giants of slovenian pop music are vlado kreslin, while slovenian djs are welcome on global dancefloors, most notably dj umek. architecture is also a vital part of slovenian culture. the most famous native architect, joze plecnik, was a pioneer of modern slovenian and european architecture of the 20th century. ljubljana is famed for his work. many of plecnik ’ s students continued his legacy in the second half of the 20th century. international cultural events each year slovenia hosts a


history of the somerville fire department in 1838, charlestown, ma authorities paid a sum of $ 400 to have a two - story wooden engine - house built at the corner of washington and prospect streets ( this area is property of somerville today ). in this engine - house, the " mystic no. 6 " was stored. mystic no. 6 was not much more than a " tub " measuring three feet six inches long, by two feet wide. it consisted of an oblong wooden tank sheathed with metal, pistons which worked perpendicularly, and handsome lancewood brakes. it could not " draught " water, and all it threw was water which was poured into it by buckets. a law was enforced starting that year which required each household to have two buckets hung in their front hallway. when an alarm was sounded for a fire, each man was to run with his buckets to the fire location and lineup with the others to pass the buckets of water from a well or cistern to the men who operated mystic no. 6. in 1842, somerville set off from charlestown to become a town of its own. mystic no. 6 was left as a legacy to somerville and the engine ' s valuation of $ 50 was entered into the town ' s record books. all firemen at this time were volunteers and were paid a generous sum of $ 1. 50 per year. on november 12, 1849 town officials appropriated $ 1, 438. 75 for the purchase of a " good and sufficient fire engine ". the first - class modern suction machine, one of the best ever made by the celebrated hunneman & co. of roxbury arrived about january 1, 1850 and was dubbed " somerville no. 1 ". it had six and a half inch cylinders, folding brakes and all of the latest improvements. on january 15th of that same year, nathan tufts jr. was named the first chief fire engineer and george brastow was named the clerk by the town ' s selectmen. the first fire that the new department responded to was the burning of johnson ' s barn which was located on school st. toward union square. in 1853, the members of the fire department requested a pay raise from $ 1. 50 to $ 12. 00 per year. when the board of selectmen refused to consider it, the department went on strike. the town fathers yielded, however, and the strike was short - lived. this was also the year that mystic no. 6 was sold for the amount of $ 33. 00 and


of selectmen refused to consider it, the department went on strike. the town fathers yielded, however, and the strike was short - lived. this was also the year that mystic no. 6 was sold for the amount of $ 33. 00 and it was taken to east boston and broken up for old junk. it was also in 1853 that the first flagstaff in town was erected by the firemen in union square. the engine - house was destroyed by fire on december 24, 1855 but somerville no. 1 was saved. a new brick building was erected on the same plot of land in 1856 for a cost of $ 5, 000. the first report made by fire engineers was made by chief samuel h. gooding, in 1862, for the preceeding year, in which he states that the department consists of one engine company, " whose membership has been reduced by members being in the army. " he recommends the placing of larger wheels and a " stouter beam " on the engine, also the purchase of a hook and ladder truck for one horse to carry the ladders distributed about town which can not be found when wanted : to quote his own words, " they being out among the neighbors generally. " he also recommended the purchase of an extra hose carriage. there were 8 fires that year, with a loss of about $ 3, 300. of the 800 feet of hose, 200 feet were good, 300 feet were fair and 300 feet were poor. there was also 6 ladders, 1 hook, 6 reservoirs and 3 hydrants. in april of 1863, an amount of $ 300 was appropriated for a hook and ladder truck. one was finally purchased in september of that year for the amount of $ 350 but it was not formally manned at that time. in april 1865, a sum not to exceed $ 4, 000 was appropriated to purchase a hose carriage and horse, and provide a suitable place to locate it in east somerville. in june of 1865, engineers purchased a second - hand hose carriage formerly used by gen. john e. wool hose co. of troy, ny for the sum of $ 600 and it went into service on october 1st of that year as " liberty hose co. 1 ". the company disbanded on july 9th, 1866 due to internal dissention and fighting, but a new company was formed within a few days, taking the name of " john e. wool. " in march of 1866, the selectmen and engineers were instructed to purchase a steam fire engine, horses and all appurtenances there


but a new company was formed within a few days, taking the name of " john e. wool. " in march of 1866, the selectmen and engineers were instructed to purchase a steam fire engine, horses and all appurtenances thereto not to exceed in cost $ 10, 000 and to locate the same. it arrived on may 26th and occupied hand engine 1 station in union square. hose no. 1 station was built on webster street in east somerville that same year. winter hill hose co. 2 was organized in 1869 and occupied a station on marshall street in 1872. a new station was erected at the corner of highland avenue and walnut street ( the somerville public library now occupies this site ) in 1871 and engine co. 1 was relocated from the station in union square to this new station on july 20th, 1871. george h. foster hose co. 3 was organized when engine co. 1 was transferred to its new station, and with hook & ladder co. no. 1, which was organized in 1870, it occupied the station that engine 1 vacated in union square. the first silby engine owned by the town was purchased in 1873 and it was also that year in which the " john e. wool " was sold to the town of everett for the amount of $ 400 and later went out of service and was returned to its original company in troy, ny. it was also in 1873 that the george brastow hose co. no. 4 was organized and assigned to a building at the corner of highland avenue and grove street. it was at this point in time that every apparatus in the city ( somerville became a city on january 1, 1872 ) was equipped with horses. the gamewell fire alarm telegraph system was established in 1874 at a cost of $ 34, 500 and it went into service on june 17th of 1874. the first box alarm pulled in the city occured on june 25th, 1874 when box # 34 was pulled on the corner of broadway opposite marshall street. in 1874 a new ladder truck was bought and the winter hill company became the robert a. vinal hook & ladder company. chief james r. hopkins declined to allow the new ladder truck to be named for himself. in 1877, the power to remove men was placed in the hands of the mayor and the aldermen. in 1885 the department became all uniformed. hose co. no. 5 was organized on august 15th, 1889 and placed into service in september of 1889 at a brick station located at the corner of somerville avenue and lowell street. a huge central


##dermen. in 1885 the department became all uniformed. hose co. no. 5 was organized on august 15th, 1889 and placed into service in september of 1889 at a brick station located at the corner of somerville avenue and lowell street. a huge central fire station was built in 1894 at highland avenue and medford street. the new station sheltered engine 1, a hose wagon and the new chemical engine a. it also included accommodations for a combined aerial - ladder truck and a water tower. the second floor of the station was used for sleeping rooms, a recreation room, hayloft, workroom and the chief ' s quarters. the third floor was used exclusively as the headquarters of the of the fire - alarm telegraph system. the station which had stood at the corner of highland avenue and walnut street was torn down. also in 1894, a station was built on highland avenue near cedar street to house two pieces of apparatus. a truck was bought shortly thereafter and hook & ladder co. no. 2 was organized to operate out of the new station. in 1896 a new fire station, designed to accommodate three pieces of apparatus, was erected at the corner of broadway and cross street. to this building hose company no. 1 was transferred from the old wooden building on webster street and reorganized into an engine company. relief engine co. 2 was also assigned to this new station. the station at teele square was erected shortly before the turn of the century, and covers all of the territory west of willow avenue. since 1900, the department has become completely motorized. in 1918 the somerville fire dept. joins the international association of fire fighters as local 76. the above histories were written by john c. mcnally, william e. brigham & h. h. easterbrook. special thanks to somerville firefighter bob " monty " doherty. page last updated : mar 05, 2012 ( 12 : 11 : 59 )


curtain call, death, legacy though washington had accumulated many enemies over his eight years as president, when he retired all was forgotten. people hailed him as a hero. he attended the inauguration of the new president, john adams, in a simple black coat. he sat in the corner. adams was dressed splendidly, ready to take office, but no one seemed too interested in adams : all eyes were on washington. washington returned home to mount vernon to find, again, that it had declined in his absence. he went to work trying to fix it up, and quickly made it profitable again. yet he lacked the energy he used to have. he also seemed to lose some of his judgment ; where he had always been polite and gentlemanly before, he now sometimes became violently angry. he realized that his mind was deteriorating. president adams was soon faced with an emergency : war with france seemed imminent. congress passed a resolution to raise an army. there was no question as to who would lead it. washington reluctantly took command. soon, however, he fell to bickering with adams over who would be his generals. his behavior was erratic. fortunately the threat of war passed, and before washington had a chance to make a bigger fool out of himself the army disbanded. in his final days, washington was lonely. martha was ill and could not provide much company. many of his best friends were dead or had turned on him. he sensed the end was near. it came on december 12, 1799. washington had been out riding in poor weather and returned feeling ill. soon he was bedridden. his doctors bled him, a practice common at the time, which only made him weaker. on december 14, he died. the entire nation mourned. the new country had never seen such an outpouring of grief. nearly every one of washington ' s former enemies came forward to affirm the man ' s greatness. henry lee, a fellow virginia planter, spoke the words at washington ' s funeral that have since become famous. washington, he said, was " first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. " even in death washington managed to be extraordinary. in his will, he ordered that his slaves be freed and commanded that elderly slaves receive a pension from his estate. the children were to be educated in local schools. this was radical : the whole economy and society of the south depended on slavery. famous patriots such as jefferson and madison talked loudly of freedom while owning slaves, but none


receive a pension from his estate. the children were to be educated in local schools. this was radical : the whole economy and society of the south depended on slavery. famous patriots such as jefferson and madison talked loudly of freedom while owning slaves, but none of these men freed their slaves in life or death – only washington. washington ' s old age was a tragic time for him. he felt isolated from his friends and from the society in which he had been raised. by the end of his life, he had relatively little in common with his fellow planters. he had seen the country and was convinced of the importance of the federal government. he sympathized with hamilton ' s plans to build a powerful economy based on trade and manufacturing in addition to agriculture. he enjoyed the fine food and intelligent people he found in cities such as philadelphia. most significantly, washington came to doubt the culture he had come from. he grew to hate slavery. he distrusted jefferson ' s ideal of an agrarian society because he recognized that such a society relied on slaves. he hoped for slavery to end and saw that it would ultimately divide the north and south. he even admitted in private that if the north and south should separate, he would go to the north. with his belief in an american future involving a strong national government, washington was becoming a federalist. he resisted the name and tried to stay distant from the two developing political parties. in reality, though, he was on the side of the federalists and always had been. though he ultimately failed to stay " above politics " as he thought the president should, he succeeded in making the presidency a legitimate office. by the time he left office he had many enemies, but no one called for the office of president to be changed or abandoned. this fact is remarkable given how many americans feared a strong leader before washington took office. though he angered many people as president for supporting hamilton ' s pro - capital and pro - british policies, washington ' s reputation remained strong. after his death this reputation grew to mythic proportions. americans soon made it a custom to place portraits of washington in their homes and speak of him reverently, as though he were a god. myths ( like the one about the cherry tree, which of course never happened ) sprang up everywhere. the press would routinely compare political leaders to washington, always unfavorably. he was the gold standard of heroism. he has become such a hero, in fact, that today many americans find it difficult to relate to washington. he seems huge


it security is, generally, defined as a defensive approach to protect a company and its assets from unauthorized access by an intruder. it security efforts include network security appliances, honeypots, robust authentication, limiting authorization to least necessary privileges, as well as other perimeter security defenses. however, these approaches do not provide definitive protection of the company ' s most valuable asset, its data, because a single intrusion could result in sensitive data being compromised. additionally, in today ' s workplace culture the disgruntled employee may be as much of a threat as any external threat. data encryption is a direct response to internal and external security threats that may also meet compliance regulations. encryption provides strong security for data " at - rest " ; in our case, the data stored in the database, but to be effective should be implemented as a part of a broader security plan. there are many issues involved with the implementation of encryption, details that require decisions and actions to ensure the success of the implementation and the security of the data. this document will discuss the issues associated with database encryption implemented using sql server ' s native transparent database encryption ( tde ) mechanism. encryption has been integral to human history beginning with the babylonian use of intaglio other historical examples include the caesar cipher, scytale transposition cipher, enigma, and even jimkryptos sculpture. throughout history our society has enjoyed the ability to protect information using cryptographic methods including steganography, microdots, invisible ink, digital watermarks, and encryption which may be defined as the conversion of data so as to keep its meaning private. as the amount of sensitive data collected by commercial entities continues to grow the regulatory requirements for protecting the sensitive data will become more robust ; meeting the regulatory requirements will necessarily require the continued use of data encryption methods. encryption requires the application of an algorithm to transform the target data into a form that is unusable to anyone that does not have access to the encryption process used. in practical terms encryption applies a cryptographic algorithm with a " key " to the target data producing the encrypted form of the data which cannot be accessed without the key used to encrypt the data. the two primary forms of key encryption are symmetric and asymmetric which are distinguished by the number of keys used in the encryption / decryption process. symmetric encryption uses a single key while asymmetric encryption uses a pair of keys generally referred to as public and private keys. while asymmetric encryption appears ideal for implementation because only the public key need ever be shared


encryption / decryption process. symmetric encryption uses a single key while asymmetric encryption uses a pair of keys generally referred to as public and private keys. while asymmetric encryption appears ideal for implementation because only the public key need ever be shared there are disadvantages with regard to performance. a sampling of asymmetric algorithms includes rsa, dsa, elgamal, ecdsa, and xtr. figure 1 demonstrates the asymmetric encryption process. figure 1 asymmetric key encryption / decryption process symmetric algorithms require a single key for both encryption and decryption which allows for high - performance ; however, with this approach the strength of the encryption is dependent on the security of the key. common symmetric algorithms include aes / rijndael, blowfish, des, triple des, serpent, and idea to name only a few. figure 2 demonstrates the symmetric encryption process. figure 2 symmetric key encryption process both symmetric and asymmetric encryption approaches are vulnerable to brute force attacks and cryptanalysis. brute force is an attack during which every possible permutation of the key value is attempted. cryptanalysis, on the other hand, applies computational techniques to circumvent the encryption. in general, the use of sufficiently long keys will mitigate these attacks. in summary, a symmetric key algorithm is fast but less secure than an asymmetric algorithm. another approach is a hybrid wherein a symmetric key is used to encrypt the data while an asymmetric key is used to encrypt the symmetric key. it may be important to know in order to maintain perspective that there is only one encryption algorithm that is impossible to crack, one - time pad ( otp ), any other algorithm may be broken given sufficient time and / or computer resources. security concerns, in general, and encryption, specifically, are new concepts for most it professionals ; therefore, a glossary of security / encryption terms is included as an appendix for reference. overview of transparent database encryption the primary benefit of transparent database encryption ( tde ) is the ability to encrypt data without affecting any application that uses the data while providing security for the entire database. tde is implemented at the database - level, unlike cell - level encryption tde does not require modification to applications or database column data types ; furthermore, database - level encryption allows for higher performance than cell - level encryption. however, tde may allow more data leakage because encrypted data is decrypted when read into the buffer


to applications or database column data types ; furthermore, database - level encryption allows for higher performance than cell - level encryption. however, tde may allow more data leakage because encrypted data is decrypted when read into the buffer pool ; therefore, the data is not protected if the operating system writes data from memory to disk during paging operations, or during hibernation, or memory dumps, nor is the data protected while in memory. database encryption is achieved by leveraging the data protection api ( dpapi ) in windows® which protects the service master key ( smk ) which protects the database master key ( dmk ) which is used to protect the certificate or asymmetric keys which are used to protect the database encryption key ( dek ). these dependencies create a security chain from the operating system to the data eliminating user interaction thus strengthening security. the relationships and dependencies between keys is represented in figure 3 below : figure 3 sql server encryption key hierarchy with tde and ekm ( source : bol - http : / / msdn. microsoft. com / en - us / library / cc278098. aspx ) the hierarchy of keys in tde is protected from the dpapi to the dek allowing the server to manage encryption and decryption automatically. the dmk and the certificate are stored in the master database while the dek is stored in the user database. this hierarchy and the key management chain provide tde the capability to transparently encrypt and decrypt the database. the process for encrypting a database is conceptually simple : - create a master key - obtain an authentication certificate - create dek - enable tde on the database however, significant complexity will be introduced if the database encryption strategy is undertaken without proper planning that addresses important implementation issues. those issues are discussed in the following section. the level of security necessary to protect the database should be documented during the planning phase. individually and in combination the following encryption mechanisms are available to secure the database : - encrypting file system ( efs ) - transparent database encryption ( tde ) discussion of the benefits and performance implications of each mechanism and their combinations is beyond the scope of this paper. data encryption must address two equally important issues : encryption technology and cryptographic key ( key ) management. encryption technology provides for variable granularity of data protection, performance, and integration with existing applications, as well as ease of implementation and management. however,


encryption must address two equally important issues : encryption technology and cryptographic key ( key ) management. encryption technology provides for variable granularity of data protection, performance, and integration with existing applications, as well as ease of implementation and management. however, the success of the selected encryption strategy may depend most on key management policies and processes. key management issues include : key access, key storage, and cryptographic algorithm. key management is one of many important issues that must be considered when planning the encryption project. the important issues to consider during the planning phase of the encryption project are listed below : - encryption algorithm : des, triple des, triple _ des _ 3key, rc2, rc4, 128 - bit rc4, desx, 128 - bit aes, 192 - bit aes, and 256 - bit aes - key management : key storage, hardware security module ( hsm ), key scheduling, key availability / mobility / security - performance impact. encryption / decryption - microsoft claims 3 - 5 % ; however, independent tests indicate 6 - 12 %.. - tempdb encryption - encryption of any one db will encrypt tempdb. - transaction log is encrypted. - log shipping implementation changes - encrypted database log shipping requires the recipient database to possess the key in order to apply the logs. - backup and recovery plan changes - encrypted databases cannot be recovered to a different instance without the key. - disaster recovery plan changes - encrypted databases cannot be recovered to a different instance without the key. - increased disk space requirements - no sql server native backup compression. third party tools may be available ; however, in general, encrypted data cannot be significantly compressed. - tde operates during i / o ; therefore, any data written to disk outside of the buffer pool is not protected - no support for filestream data - type the diagram in figure 4 represents a nominal encryption project planning process with each major area of consideration represented. the end result of the planning process is to produce a document detailing the decisions made that address the issues related to encrypting the database. figure 4 encryption planning process a comprehensive it security policy provides a layered defense against threats to the system. however, even the most thorough perimeter network and physical defenses do not obviate the vulnerability of plaintext data stored in databases. data encryption provides a means to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access as a part of a coordinated it security policy that includes network security, robust authentication


most thorough perimeter network and physical defenses do not obviate the vulnerability of plaintext data stored in databases. data encryption provides a means to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access as a part of a coordinated it security policy that includes network security, robust authentication and authorization, as well as other physical security considerations. sql server and windows® provide several mechanisms for the protection of data either at the file, database, or data levels. transparent database encryption ( tde ) is a new technology available in sql server 2008 enterprise edition which provides a simplified the data encryption option. tde is a database - level encryption mechanism that reduces the implementation complexity by negating the need to modify the data and / or the client applications. however, the benefits of performance and simplicity are balanced by tde ' s potential for data leakage ; therefore, for the most sensitive data tde alone may not suffice as a data security strategy. any data protection strategy must weigh the costs and benefits of implementation to arrive at a usable solution that meets the security requirements defined by the business. tde ' s protection of sensitive data in low to moderate threat environments may be sufficient for some business requirements while highly sensitive data or data in high threat environments will require the combination of tde with other encryption mechanisms such as cell - level encryption, efs, or bitlocker.


what is the | what does " bypass surgery " mean? bypass surgery can be performed on any artery in the body, but most often involves the coronary arteries ( the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle itself ). during bypass surgery, a graft vein or artery is taken from a healthy blood vessel in the body. the graft is then surgically attached above and below an obstructed or poorly functioning artery. after surgery, the blood will flow thru the graft vessel, avoid or " bypass " the blocked vessel, and provide oxygen and nutrients necessary for survival to the area of tissue beyond the blockage. why is the doctor performing this surgery? to bypass, or go around, the obstruction caused by a coronary ( heart ) artery filled with a clot or with plaque ( atherosclerosis ). if the obstruction is not bypassed, the heart muscle beyond the obstruction is denied oxygen and nutrients leading to heart damage ( heart attack or chest there are two types of coronary artery bypass surgeries ( cabgs ) routinely - on pump - on pump cabg is also known as " traditional bypass surgery ". the pumping and oxygenation function of the heart is taken over by a heart - lung machine during the surgery, and medications are given that briefly paralyze the heart ( cardioplegia ). this way, the heart is completely at rest while the surgeon performs the bypass surgery. - off pump / beating heart - off pump cabg is also known as " beating heart bypass surgery " and is another method of bypass surgery. surgeons at st. mary perform nearly 80 percent of cagb procedures off - pump. a heart - lung machine is not used, and the heart is not stopped with medications. instead, the heart continues to perform its pumping and oxygenation functions while the surgeon works. the surgeon stabilizes just the portion of the heart where the bypass is needed, while the remainder of the heart continues to function normally. according to the journal of the american heart association, off - pump bypass, in the appropriate patients, is as safe and effective as standard on - pump coronary bypass surgery, and many healthcare professionals, including our surgeons believe it may reduce the risk of stroke, bleeding and renal failure. off - pump bypass is not for everyone, and there is no long - term data available about outcomes … yet. however, it is a highly effective surgical option which you can discuss with your doctor. there are four sources used during bypass surgery for the healthy graft blood - endoscopic vein


and there is no long - term data available about outcomes … yet. however, it is a highly effective surgical option which you can discuss with your doctor. there are four sources used during bypass surgery for the healthy graft blood - endoscopic vein harvesting - the saphenous vein in the leg is the most common vein used as a bypass graft. traditionally, the saphenous vein was obtained via a long incision in the leg, from groin to ankle. contrary to popular perception, this usually presents the highest degree of post - procedural pain. this new endoscopic technique requires only two or three 1 - inch long incisions in the leg. an endoscope connected to a video camera is then inserted into the smaller incisions and the saphenous vein is removed with far less scarring and trauma. this technique is only available in select centers throughout the us. - arterial bypass - there are several arteries that can be used as grafts for bypass surgery, but the most common is the left internal mammary artery ( lima ). the right internal mammary artery ( rima ) may also be used as a graft. these arteries are accessed thru the same chest incision used to access the heart. occasionally, the radial ( in the arm ) or the gastroepiploic ( near the stomach ) arteries may be used, each accessed thru separate incisions. - sutureless anastomic device - on occasion, surgeons use a sutureless device, which can be used for the part of a vein graft that is attached to the aorta. the saphenous vein is loaded onto a device that is inserted into a small hole the surgeon has cut in the patient ' s aorta. he or she then pushes a button, releasing a tiny web of wires, which unfold to form a star - shaped rivet. your doctor can determine if this is an option for you. - donor saphenous vein - this is a vein that has been cryopreserved and stored in a tissue bank. it is blood type specific for the patient. where is the surgery performed? both on - pump and off - pump / beating heart surgeries are performed in the operating room ( or ), and under general anesthesia. how long does this surgery take? the length of time surgery takes will vary based on the number of vessels being bypassed, the graft location, on - pump vs. off - pump / beating heart procedure, the patient ' s associated medical problems


a hernia occurs when the contents of the abdomen ( usually part of the small intestine ) push through a weak point or tear the thin muscular wall of the belly, which holds the abdominal organs in place. a femoral hernia is a bulge in the upper part of the thigh near the groin. femorocele ; enteromerocele ; crural hernia causes, incidence, and risk factors : most of the time, there is no clear cause of a hernia. some hernias may be present at birth ( congenital ), but are not noticed until later in life. some factors that contribute to the development of a hernia include : - chronic constipation - chronic cough - heavy lifting - straining to urinate because of an enlarged prostate femoral hernias tend to occur more often in women than in men. you may see a bulge in the upper thigh just below the groin. most femoral hernias cause no symptoms. there may be some groin discomfort that is worse when you stand, lift heavy objects, or strain. sometimes, the first symptoms are sudden groin pain, abdominal pain, nausea, or vomiting. this may mean that the intestine within the hernia is blocked. this is an emergency. signs and tests : the best way to tell if there is a hernia is to have your health care provider perform a physical exam. if there is any doubt about the exam findings, an ultrasound or ct scan may be helpful. treatment depends on the symptoms present with the hernia. if you feel sudden pain in your groin, a piece of intestine may be stuck in the hernia ( called an incarcerated hernia ). this needs treatment right away in a hospital emergency room, and you may need emergency surgery. when you have chronic discomfort from a femoral hernia, talk to your health care provider about treatment choices. - hernias often get larger with time, and they do not go away on their own. - femoral hernias are more commonly incarcerate compared to other types of hernias. your surgeon may recommend femoral hernia repair surgery to avoid a possible medical emergency. if you do not have surgery right away : - increase your fiber intake and drink fluids to avoid constipation. - lose weight if you are overweight. - see your health care provider if you have trouble urinating ( men ). - use proper lifting techniques. the chances of a femoral hernia coming back after surgery are about low.


##pation. - lose weight if you are overweight. - see your health care provider if you have trouble urinating ( men ). - use proper lifting techniques. the chances of a femoral hernia coming back after surgery are about low. if the intestine or other tissue becomes stuck, a portion of the intestine may need to be removed. calling your health care provider : call your health care provider or local emergency number ( 911 ) or go to the emergency room right away if : - you suddenly develop pain in the hernia and the hernia cannot be pushed back into the abdomen using gentle pressure. - you develop nausea, vomiting, or abdominal pain. - your hernia becomes red, purple, dark, or discolored. call your health care provider for an appointment or advice if you have a bulge in the upper thigh next to the groin. malangoni ma, rosen mj. hernias. in : townsend cm jr., beauchamp rd, evers bm, mattox kl, eds. sabiston textbook of surgery. 19th ed. philadelphia, pa : saunders elsevier ; 2012 : chap 46. | review date : 8 / 17 / 2012 | reviewed by : linda j. vorvick, md, medical director and director of didactic curriculum, medex northwest division of physician assistant studies, department of family medicine, uw medicine, school of medicine, university of washington ; and joshua kunin, md, consulting colorectal surgeon, zichron yaakov, israel. also reviewed by david zieve, md, mha, medical director, a. d. a. m. health solutions, inc. the information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. a licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. call 911 for all medical emergencies. links to other sites are provided for information only - - they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. © 1997 - a. d. a. m., inc. any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.