. and so that really fed into the whole icon of them, the whole idea of them as american folk heroes. conan : folk heroes. give us some idea. you quote any number of sources, literary and otherwise, in your book who worshipped these men. morris : yeah. one of the most prominent was stephen crane, the great american novelist, and he really - most of his preparation for writing the " the red badge of courage " and his other novels was spent being a catcher. and in fact, he really had two very unsuccessful stints in college where he spent most of his time trying to be the catcher for the college nine and didn ' t go to too many classes. and really, all he developed was a kind of love of baseball and a sense of what it took to be - to have great courage. and i think both of those really fed into " the red badge of courage. " conan : and courage, we see the beating that catchers take today. they got the same foul tips and balls off their various parts of their body back then too. morris : oh, it was tremendously difficult position to be in. you were right in the line of fire, and of course, you know, you could be the most prepared possible and then the batter might foul tip it. and it would just, you know, the angle will change just enough that it would, you know, hit your forehead usually. and a few of them had such great reflex. i mean, deacon white was known for his great reflexes and became an incredibly durable catcher. but it was sort of known that, you know, if you put a neophyte behind a plate, he would usually get injured within an inning or two. that was - the danger was so great. conan : and the early history of baseball is replete with teams that raided other teams for their catchers. morris : oh, and particularly in the 1870s that the best teams were the ones with the best catchers. you really couldn ' t be successful without one. and deacon white stood above everybody else to the point where he played on five consecutive championship teams. and he went from team to team and the championship just followed him around wherever he went. conan : he was quite a good hitter too. morris : he was a great hitter. he was a way above - average hitter, playing a position where, you know, the defense was so all - encompassing as a skill that you could, you know, you could really just put anybody there if they


: he was a great hitter. he was a way above - average hitter, playing a position where, you know, the defense was so all - encompassing as a skill that you could, you know, you could really just put anybody there if they could field the position and not worry about their bat. but he was a consistent. 300 and above hitter. conan : and i wonder - statistics then and now are so different. the game essentially was so different. when you were talking with the people on the veterans committee about deacon white, what were you saying that finally convinced them that this man, at long last, deserves to be in the hall of fame? morris : well, we had some great conversations about what it took to play the position. and you know, bob watson, who started out as a catcher, was one of the committee members. phil niekro, bert blyleven and don sutton, pat gillick, all pitchers, all hall famers, were really able to add a lot of insight to what it must have been like. and the other - one of the main things we talked about was just how they played much shorter schedules in the 1870s. so when you look at career statistics, that ' s a huge distortion. deacon white ended up with 2, 000 career hits, but he was playing in a - in an average of 40, 50, 60 - game schedules a year. so there was no way to generate the kind of career milestones that we look at as benchmarks today. you know, 3, 000 hits would be all but impossible. and 2, 000 was a terrific accomplishment. conan : and the number of errors he recorded even as a great defensive catcher would have been, you know, totally unacceptable by today ' s standards. morris : oh, exactly. yeah. and again, an issue where we had to really sort of look at what - compare him to people from his own era. and when we did that, you know, it became really obvious just how much he stood above his contemporaries. conan : are the records from those days good enough that you have reliable accounts of who was good and who was great? morris : well, they ' re getting a lot better. i mean, we have a very good full statistical record now. we ' re getting a better sense - it ' s becoming easier and easier to get back to the contemporary accounts of them in the newspapers and generate an idea from it then. and you know, the trouble over the years in putting people


record now. we ' re getting a better sense - it ' s becoming easier and easier to get back to the contemporary accounts of them in the newspapers and generate an idea from it then. and you know, the trouble over the years in putting people in the hall of fame has been that that ' s been either on a partial statistical record or, you know, after all their contemporaries are dead, so we don ' t have that record. and of course we can never bring those people back to life. but by accessing the newspaper accounts, we can get a better sense of it, and i think it ' s really encouraging to be able - to be able to - to be on a committee that, i think, did such great work in bringing back an era that happened so long ago that even when the hall of fame was founded in 1939, it was ancient history back then. conan : and it ' s interesting, your book had pictures of the hands of some of the great catchers of those days, gnarled and twisted. anybody who played catcher could expect to be crippled - their hands - for the rest of their lives. morris : exactly. and people would say, you know, i don ' t know what this guy looks like but just look for a catcher ' s hands. and as soon as you ' ll see - you see those hands, you recognize, oh, that ' s - that must be who it was. conan : are there stories about deacon white? you mentioned he traveled from team to team. i guess he had one fantastic year in boston. but what kind of a man was he? do we know? morris : he was a really high - character man. in a time when baseball had a lot of guys who spent their evenings drinking and carousing, deacon - he was known as deacon because he went to church and he was a sunday school teacher. and family came absolutely first for him. and so the only season in his first 15 years in the big leagues where he missed any significant amount of time was when his father was ill. and when his father passed away, he signed a new contract to come back and play. but he actually signed it - he signed a very unique contract that said he would only have to play for two months, and then he could decide for himself whether he needed to go back home when the harvest was ready to ( unintelligible ) ready and his mother would need help around the house. so he was a man of family. he was -


months, and then he could decide for himself whether he needed to go back home when the harvest was ready to ( unintelligible ) ready and his mother would need help around the house. so he was a man of family. he was - family came first and his religion came first. he never played on a sunday. and he was teammates with connie mack and billy sunday towards the end of his career. so... conan : two other well - known gentleman of the game, yes. conan : and it ' s interesting, you talked about the hero worship these catchers generated in the 1870s. when protective equipment did start to come in, gloves and then masks and pads, roger bresnahan and shin guards, that - the view of the catcher began to change. morris : exactly. it really - in a way it almost emasculated what had been this ultimate american hero. and instead of, you know, being able to look at themselves as this sort of ultimate warrior, this ultimate gunslinger, they started to see themselves, you know, they would - people would make fun of them, you know, this man with a mattress on, this man with a bustle on his face. you know, people would compare the mask to a bustle, which is part of a woman ' s dress, and it was very, you know, very insulting. and a lot of catchers had a really hard time adjusting to that. conan : and the gloves were pretty primitive by today ' s standards, but even the first ones were no more than just a pad, i guess, on the palm of the hand. the fingers were left exposed. morris : exactly. because the idea was you really - you had to catch the ball with both hands and then throw it with one. so catchers would have really very light gloves on both hands. and often they just cut the fingers off altogether because the idea was you would catch it, you would catch it like a spring, kind of like a receiver catches the ball where you just - you let it hit your hands and your hands moved back. and then you have to immediately adjust into the throwing position. so again, very much like a gunslinger. conan : and it ' s interesting. as you talk about this, the catcher today has regained some of that reputation from those days. morris : i think so. i think the catcher ' s toughness is really recognized. and also, the catcher ' s unique position, as somebody who ' s part of the


recording a macro is a great way to perform a one - time task, or to get things done quickly when you don ' t want to mess with vim script or mappings, or if you do not yet know how to do it more elegantly. in vim, the word " macro " may refer to : - a sequence of commands recorded to a register ( this tip ). - a mapping to expand a sequence of typed keys to a longer sequence ( see tutorial ). - a script written in the vim script language ( stored in a file with extension. vim – see : help script ). recording a macroedit each register is identified by a letter to enter a macro, type : to execute the macro < number > times ( once by default ), type : so, the complete process looks like : | | | start recording to register | | | | your complex series of commands | | | | stop recording | | | | execute your macro | | | | execute your macro again | running a macroedit use this mapping as a convenient way to play a macro recorded to register : nnoremap < space > @ q - start recording keystrokes by typing - end recording with q ( first press escape if you are in insert mode ). - play the recorded keystrokes by hitting space. suppose you have a macro which operates on the text in a single line. you can run the macro on each line in a visual selection in a single operation : - visually select some lines ( for example, type vipto select the current paragraph ). : normal @ qto run the macro from register qon each line. viewing a macroedit you can use the : registers command to view the current contents of any or all register values in vim. for example, use : reg to view all registers, or : reg a to view only what you have recorded into register : reg abx will show the contents of registers a, b, and x. saving a macroedit there are two primary ways of saving a macro for later use. the simplest way occurs by default if you run vim in nocompatible mode ( which is the default if you have a vimrc ). simply by including the proper text in your ' viminfo ' option or leaving the nocompatible default alone, vim will automatically write all your registers to a file and restore them at startup. by default, the content of each register is saved, and will be available next time


' viminfo ' option or leaving the nocompatible default alone, vim will automatically write all your registers to a file and restore them at startup. by default, the content of each register is saved, and will be available next time you run vim. for example, you might record a macro to register a, then exit from vim with : q!. on restarting vim, you can press @ a to run the macro from register viminfo ' option can disable the saving of registers. if : set viminfo? shows a value including ( for example ) s10 then up to 50 lines and 10kb will be saved in each register. if either item is zero, no registers are saved. : help ' viminfo ' the second way to save a macro for later use ( especially if you think you might overwrite the macro by accident, therefore restoring the wrong value from the viminfo file ) is to use a let command in your vimrc. for a very simple example, suppose you have recorded a macro to jump to the first occurrence of the letter a in a line into register a, using the following key sequence in normal mode : if you want to restore this macro whenever you start vim, regardless of what might be in your viminfo file, you would edit your vimrc and add the following line : assuming that you already have the macro recorded, you can easily insert the register contents rather that typing them all again. while entering the above line, after typing let @ a = ', simply type ctrl - r ctrl - r a to insert the contents of the a register. the double ctrl - r is to insert the contents literally, rather than interpreting them as if typed. single quote characters ( ' ) are recommended and used in the above examples, because they allow you to type almost everything literally, whereas in double - quotes ( " ) you need to escape certain characters. compare ' \ 1 \ 2 \ 3 " abc " ' with " \ \ 1 \ \ 2 \ \ 3 \ " abc \ " ", for example. however, if your register must itself contain single quote characters, you use a second single - quote character to escape it. for example, if you want your register to contain " vim ' s quote handling is a little tricky " you would type : let @ a = ' " vim ' ' s quote handling is a little tricky " ' note however, that the above method using : let


want your register to contain " vim ' s quote handling is a little tricky " you would type : let @ a = ' " vim ' ' s quote handling is a little tricky " ' note however, that the above method using : let will not work as expected for any macros which you make ending in a < cr > or < nl > character ( carriage return or newline ). this is because, as documented in : help : let - @, vim will treat the register as " linewise " under these conditions. the reason for this is to make registers set with : let act " the right way " when dealing with yanked / deleted text, but it can cause headaches when dealing with recorded macros. possible workarounds include using the setreg ( ) function or adding " no - op " commands to the end of the macro, such as a < esc >. see the discussion on vim _ dev about unexpected behavior of the : let command for details. appending to a macroedit if you have recorded a macro that is almost right, but you need to add a few commands to it, you can easily append the commands to an existing macro instead of recording the whole thing over again. simply replace the register letter with a capital letter. for example, if you recorded into register qa... q, you could add to the macro ( without replacing it ) using editing a macroedit suppose that you have recorded a macro in register a and you would like to edit the macro. the procedure is explained above, but here is a summary of the steps : - press ctrl - r ctrl - r ato insert the current contents of register a ( type ctrl - r twice to insert the register exactly ). - edit the text as required. - append an apostrophe ( ' ) to finish the command, and press enter. : reg ato view the new value in the register. @ ato execute the contents of register note the caveat above about macros which end in < cr > or < nl >. - record a recursive macro - reversing order of blocks of text example of recording a macro to move blocks - using command - line history repeating ex commands without a macro - recursive repeats for quick editing of structured text - easy playback of recorded keys - recording keys for repeated jobs todo : need a couple more simple examples. is it possible to have different sets of registers for different jobs, par example


dandruff is defined as the shedding of dead scalp skin cells exceed normal cell normal flaking. a small amount of flaking is common most of which is invisible to the naked eye and is washed away when we wash our hair. however, with dandruff, the skin cell turnover is unusually rapid ( up to 8 - 10 times faster ) and visible due to the cells clumping with oil before they shed. in addition, when the shedding is accompanied by redness and irritation it is more likely to be dandruff. triggers to an outbreak of dandruff include exposure to extreme hot and cold ( hot showers in winter ) but the underlying cause is the result of a combination of factors including the overgrowth of skin microorganisms known as malassezia globsa, a fungus that is normally present on the skin surface of the scalp. malassezia interacts with components in sebum creating and inflammatory response in the scalp of susceptible persons which results in excessive shedding of the top layer of the skin. extremes in temperature such as hot showers in cold weather may trigger an attack. dandruff may also be the result of an allergic reaction to chemical hair products such as styling products, shampoos and hair oils. the other common cause of redness and flaking of the scalp is seborrhoeic dermatitis, however this condition is not usually confined to the scalp alone and will commonly be occurs in the eyebrows and around the folds of the nose in addition to the scalp. this was not so for claire and so strengthens the identification of dandruff in her case. so to the treatment and management of dandruff. what you read next may surprise many of you … i recommended claire go and get a commercial anti - dandruff shampoo containing either 1. 5 % selenium or 2 % zinc. yes the base of these products is full of synthetic ingredients but they are only used once, or twice at most and quickly break the cycle of inflammation and kill of the fungus overgrowth. in some cases with skin and scalp issues it is better to break a cycle quickly and then repair any damage and improve health to prevent reoccurrance. i think this is particularly so when the treatment is very effective and relatively harmless or short term. in the meantime we worked to improve claire ’ s diet and reduce her sugar intake, both of which are necessary to maintain a healthy scalp post - treatment. i also recommended claire change


so when the treatment is very effective and relatively harmless or short term. in the meantime we worked to improve claire ’ s diet and reduce her sugar intake, both of which are necessary to maintain a healthy scalp post - treatment. i also recommended claire change her hair care products and she now uses natural “ sls - free ” shampoo and conditioner, a gorgeous smelling hair oil which styles her hair at the same time as nourishing her scalp and a sugar - based hair spray for firmer hold when needed. if you have had success with the treatment of dandruff i would love to hear what worked for you as well as any comments you may have about the treatment suggested above. this is a great “ how - to ” post from jodie of bodecare body brushes …. nothing balances my energy and brightens my mood faster or better than a good scalp massage. no matter how tired i am to start with, by the end of brushing and massaging my scalp i feel energized and refreshed. the scalp, being an extremity is one of the hardest places for blood to flow. the increased blood flow helps to nourish the follicle. the scalp depends on blood flow to bring oxygen and nutrients to the hair follicles. tension causes tightness in the scalp, which restricts blood flow and can cause hair loss. scalp massage restores pliability and relieves tension, helping to create an ideal environment for new hair growth. massaging the scalp also helps loosen and remove dead cells and excess sebum on the scalp, which can hinder new hair growth. scalp massage helps to distribute the hairs natural oils to protect and condition the hair. scalp massage stimulates the circulation and awakens the nervous systems. it can assist to relieve muscle tension that keeps the head feeling tight. the muscles and nerves in the scalp are stimulated by rubbing, tapping, brushing and slapping. these percussion techniques restore circulation to your scalp and produce a lively tingling feeling that can definitely pull you out of the sleepy doldrums. regular scalp massage can also increase the shine and health of hair. try the following scalp massage technique for an energy lift. how to dry massage scalp : hope you are feeling re - energised again! the beauty of this treatment is you can do it any time of the day. leave your hair brush at work in your desk, in your bag or in the car and you can quickly give your scalp a lovely massage and it will only look like


! the beauty of this treatment is you can do it any time of the day. leave your hair brush at work in your desk, in your bag or in the car and you can quickly give your scalp a lovely massage and it will only look like you are brushing your hair. twitter it! i went to the store yesterday with wet hair. when commented upon, i replied that using a hair drier just made me look like a poodle. the other problem i have with using hair driers is that they make my hair even more dry than it normally is. curly hair tends to be dry and mine is no exception so to counteract this tendency i use rich shampoos, minimise hair washing to twice a week and ensure i get heaps of good oils in my diet. whether you have dry, normal or oily hair, there are some key ways you can look after your hair. you are what you eat we ’ ve heard it all before, but nutrition is key when it comes to healthy, shiny hair. why? because hair not only depends on a constant supply of blood and oxygen, but also nutrients, and a deficiency in these nutrients will show up on your skin, hair and nails. brittle, dry or dull hair that easily breaks is therefore a tell - tale sign of poor nutrition. eating protein three to five times a week will help maintain hair colour and texture, while keeping a close check on sugar levels will also help – high sugar consumption creates a higher demand for b group vitamins, which can also affect your locks. on top of this, an imbalance between good and bad fat consumption can either lead to an overly dry and flaky scalp and dry hair or excessive oil production. correcting the imbalance will help to normalise the health of the scalp and the relative dryness or oiliness of the hair. the type of surfactant in your shampoos may also be wrecking havoc with your locks – those containing sodium or ammonium lauryl sulphate contribute to irritated and dry scalp and hair issues. softer surfactants such as decyl glucoside and coco glucoside or coco betaine are better choices. try to avoid conditioners and stying products containing added silica as this will build up on the hair shaft and create ‘ artificially ’ shiny and silky hair. these products also increase the need to wash hair, which in turn dries the hair out, creating a cycle of poor hair management and ultimately poor hair health. blow - drying or straightening your


shaft and create ‘ artificially ’ shiny and silky hair. these products also increase the need to wash hair, which in turn dries the hair out, creating a cycle of poor hair management and ultimately poor hair health. blow - drying or straightening your hair, if done excessively, can also cause damage, weakening the hair shaft. the less you dry and straighten, the better the hair condition will be. in conventional styling products synthetic plastics such as pvp ( polyvinyl pyrrolidone polymer ), acrylic copolymers, va ( vinyl acetate ), polymer and acrylamide polymer are used as holding agents, all of which are synthetic petroleum - based plastics. while these may not be specifically damaging to your hair, they are not environmentally friendly and are easily absorbed through the scalp, contributing to the total toxic load your body has to deal with. instead look for natural products containing beeswax or coconut oil and sugar biopolymer - based products instead of hair spray or mousse. the natural wax products will also help to keep the hair shaft moisturised. wash less often most people wash their hair too often, stripping back the protective oils from the scalp and hair. if your scalp is dry or itchy try waiting an extra day before washing, allowing the sebum to protect the scalp for longer. washing twice weekly for normal to dry hair is a good benchmark – obviously oily hair needs to be washed more frequently. if you have any great hair tips please let us know. out and about in paddington recently i came across what was for me a completely new concept in hair – a colour - only salon. curious, as i tend to be, i ventured in and it was what i didn ’ t see rather than what i did that was interesting. instead of the traditional mirror facing cutting chairs, i was seated at a large table with a floral display. there wasn ’ t a mirror in sight … well not until later anyway. there were also no hair cutters. this salon is for colour only. popping up around brisbane, colour salons are ideal for women, and men, that want color specialists to determine the best hair colour for them. my appointment followed standard hair salon lines with a few nice treats thrown in. i was treated to a relaxing shoulder massage and then had an in depth discussion about what particular shade of brown i wanted my hair. i was given wine, nuts and numerous magazines to read while waiting for my hair to dye. i didn ’ t have


i was treated to a relaxing shoulder massage and then had an in depth discussion about what particular shade of brown i wanted my hair. i was given wine, nuts and numerous magazines to read while waiting for my hair to dye. i didn ’ t have to look in one mirror during this entire 40 minute or so process and i didn ’ t miss it at all! at the end of the consultation, i was moved to a styling room ( with mirrors ) and had my “ hair do ” completed. initially i wondered how a colour only salon would survive with so many standard cutting and colour salons to compete with. however, as i drank my glass of wine, i contemplated the many people that would suit this very concept and i decided that i was one. with curly hair, i only need a cut every 12 or so weeks. however, colour is another matter and i make a regular visit every 6 weeks for a “ top up ”. i also remembered the numerous times i have asked for ash brown and emerged with magenta or chestnut hair which just accentuates the red tones in my skin and makes me look like ronald mcdonald. with the focus across all industries on specialization, there is definitely room for technicians that specialize in matching hair colour to skin and eye tone. so once complete, i made a follow up appointment and now i visit the colour salon every 6 weeks or so and see my regular hairdresser for a cut only every 12 weeks. and i am spectacularly happy with the colour of my hair! to experience this for yourself visit micolor in paddington for your very own colour consultation. ( tell leah & megan i sent you! ) of course, another big trend is environmental consciousness. there is a growing awareness of the importance of ecologically sustainable products and all industries are “ greening up ”. however, expectations still remain high for the best in technological development and performance … and in the hair industry a natural henna dye just doesn ’ t cut it! finding the balance between environmental responsibility and modern technology is the challenge, and there are a growing number of haircare brands that are meeting this challenge by creating products that address both. ranges such as eko organica, nature ’ s symphony, h2 colour, organic hair systems and essensity care collection are proving that they are not only viable alternatives from an environmental perspective but that they also provide the high level of performance that we all want. natural hair colours which are free from ammonia, fragrance, silicones, paraffin, mineral oils, parabens and formal


they are not only viable alternatives from an environmental perspective but that they also provide the high level of performance that we all want. natural hair colours which are free from ammonia, fragrance, silicones, paraffin, mineral oils, parabens and formaldehyde - derivates used only be available in home dyi kits. i spent too many years with multi - coloured hair and hair dye stains on my bathroom sink to go there again. fortunately now you can experience professional hair colour ranges in salons so you can have the best of both, great colour done by a professional and be pampered at the same time. naturally organic hair salons in toombul uses organic hair systems again with no ammonia, no parabens or sodium laurel sulphate. they see their salon as a viable alternative for those with sensitive scalps and skin. micolor in paddington uses the essensity range. krop hair in norman park also uses ammonia free hair colours. have you had any unique salon moments, disasters or glamour moments? tell us about your hair care experiences and the brands you love. twitter it! we wash, style and blow - dry in order to tame our often un - ruly tendrils. yet some of the everyday hair care practices we use are actually doing more damage than good. this article takes a look at the issues we face in our efforts to achieve well groomed, shiny and healthy hair. the average human head has about 100 000 hair follicles and from each one emerges a shaft of hair. nourished by blood vessels the follicles produce new keratin cells promoting the constant growth of new hair. the inner layer or medulla, which is protected by the outer keratin cells, contains pigment cells ( for colour ), fat granules and oxygen. separate glands run alongside the follicle producing sebum, a natural hair and scalp conditioner. straight, shiny hair is the result of sebum produced by the glands easily travelling the length of the hair shaft. by contrast, curly hair will often look and feel dry because the sebum has a more difficult time getting from the base of the hair shaft to the tip. the overall health of the hair depends on numerous factors however nutritional status is key. there are no topically applied hair products that can compensate for poor nutrition. hair cannot repair itself because it is already dead tissue. however, you can grow healthier hair from the “ inside - out ”. healthy hair depends on a constant supply of blood,


no topically applied hair products that can compensate for poor nutrition. hair cannot repair itself because it is already dead tissue. however, you can grow healthier hair from the “ inside - out ”. healthy hair depends on a constant supply of blood, oxygen and nutrients to grow and maintain the look and feel. any deficiency in key hair nutrients will show up in our skin, hair and nails first, before affecting our internal organs. therefore, brittle, dry, dull hair that easily breaks may actually be a signifier to check your general nutritional status. hair is predominately made up from protein so a deficiency can result in changes to the colour and texture resulting in brittle, weak and thinning hair. eating protein 3 - 5 week will help maintain your levels. if you have had a protein deficiency you will notice hair returning to healthy condition within 12 weeks of correcting the deficiency, as the new hairs grow through. in addition diets high in sugar and animal fats may contribute to poor hair health. an imbalance between good and bad fat consumption can either lead to an overly dry and flaky scalp and dry hair or excessive oil production. correcting the imbalance will help to normalise the health of the scalp and the relative dryness or oiliness of the hair. high sugar consumption creates a higher demand for b group vitamins, which can also affect hair health. reducing highly processed and sugar rich foods will not only help hair health, it will also improve general health. while internal factors affect hair health, external factors also have the potential to damage hair. if you have ever washed your hair with soap you would know that it tends to get tangled and knotty afterwards. the outer “ scales ” on the hair shaft stand up when in the presence of an alkali, such as soap and get caught up creating a tangled, messy “ do ”. the scales will lie down flat in the presence of an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar, which is why vinegar hair rinses were traditionally used after washing. while shampoos don ’ t create this effect they come with their own set of issues as they are stronger cleansers than soap and strip more of the natural oils from the scalp and hair, leaving it dry and in desperate need of moisture. this is where conditioners come in, their key functions to make the hair scales lie back down and coat the hair so that it feels smooth again. in addition the type of surfactant used to clean hair in shampoos can be problematic with those such as


conditioners come in, their key functions to make the hair scales lie back down and coat the hair so that it feels smooth again. in addition the type of surfactant used to clean hair in shampoos can be problematic with those such as sodium or ammonium lauryl sulphate contributing to irritated and dry scalp and hair issues. softer surfactants such as decyl glucoside, coco glucoside or coco betaine are better choices for both hair and scalp health. in general try to avoid conditioners and stying products with added silica as these will just build up on the hair shaft and create “ artificially ” shiny and silky hair. they will also increase the need to wash hair which in turn dries out hair again, creating a cycle of poor hair management and ultimately, poor hair health. how often we wash hair is an individual choice however, most people tend to wash their hair too frequently, each time stripping back the protective oils from the scalp and hair. if your scalp is dry or itchy, try waiting one extra day before washing allowing the sebum to protect the scalp for a longer period. twice weekly for normal to dry hair is a good benchmark. obviously oily hair needs to be washed more frequently and often daily. washing hair often entails blow - drying or straightening which if done excessively, damage the hair shaft. the less you dry & straighten, the better your hair condition will tend to be. hair styling agents can also impact on the health of the hair and more importantly your general health. in conventional styling products synthetic plastics such as pvp ( polyvinyl pyrrolidone polymer ), acrylic copolymers, va ( vinyl acetate ) polymer and acrylamide polymer are used as holding agents, all of which are synthetic petroleum based plastics. while these may not be specifically damaging to your hair, they are not environmentally friendly and in addition are easily absorbed through the scalp thereby contributing to the total toxic load your body has to deal with. look instead for natural products such as beeswax or coconut oil based products for strong hold pastes or gels and sugar biopolymer based products from corn or vegetables instead of hair spray or mousse. the natural wax products will also help to keep the hair shaft moisturised. generally styling products based on such ingredients are healthier for you and for the environment. related articles : twitter it! i am on a hair care theme at the moment. and always when i bang


also help to keep the hair shaft moisturised. generally styling products based on such ingredients are healthier for you and for the environment. related articles : twitter it! i am on a hair care theme at the moment. and always when i bang on about hair care, i have to mention sodium laurel sulphate ( sls ) so yes a bit more about how drying and irritating it is to your scalp however, in this video blog i also discuss the use of silica in conditioners. the cycle of hair washing is : well this is my story anyway! and i didn ’ t get the results with my hair that i wanted until i had been using a good natural shampoo & conditioner for at least a month. it can take time to really see results when moving away from sls and silica. regardless, do yourself a favor and ditch the sodium laurel sulphate. in this video i talk more about the cycle with sls and silica above and discuss the nature ’ s symphony range of hair care. twitter it! hair styling products are a must for me. in the last newsletter i wrote about my leo sayer tendencies … maybe one day i will do a video showing before and after styling shots … on the other hand that is probably something no - one needs to see! of one thing i am sure, i love that i can find a natural alternative to synthetic hair styling products. i this video blog i discuss two products, the third stone botanicals hair wax i use and nature ’ s symphony pure lustre, a product natarsha our center manager uses. i would love to hear the products that you use, natural or not and the results you are after for your hair. twitter it! when it comes to shampoo it seems that bubbles are what counts. why? because the bubbles show that the shampoo is cleaning our hair effectively. bubbles are created when the surface tension of the water is broken by a surfactant and air is trapped within the film of the soap. unfortunately while bubbles may represent clean hair, more bubbles aren ’ t necessarily better for our hair or scalp. some of the surfactants used in shampoos have the potential for scalp and skin irritation and hair damage. we use many surfactants in our daily life, soaps and detergents, cleaning compounds, shampoos and a host of personal hygiene products. this article will look at two commonly used surfactants used in shampoo namely sodium lauryl sulphate, and decyl glucoside.


in addition to the direct contact effects of sls, many shampoos contain nitrate compounds. these compounds can react with sls with the potential to form carcinogenic nitrates. given the potential, however small for the creation of carcinogenic compounds, it is advisable to choose personal hygiene products that do not contain sls. glycosides and poly glycosides, also called saponins are present in most plants. some of these saponins are toxic however there are many saponins which are safe for topical or medicinal applications and even for human consumption as food. a wide variety of species, their geographical distribution, their applications and use by mankind are documented. soap bark ( quillaya ), soap nut, yucca plant, soap wort, horse chestnut, bracken and soap lily are a few examples of soap plants, from different parts of the world decyl glucoside is a surfactant derived from two natural products, decyl alcohol and glucose. decyl alcohol ( deca means ten ) is produced from capric acid. capric acid itself is a fatty acid with a ten member carbon chain and is a constituent fatty acid of coconut and palm oils ( coconut sources are preferable as the palms are sustainable ). capric acid is present to the extent of around 7 % and 4 % in coconut and palm oils respectively. glucose, the other ingredient is produced from corn, maize and other starch based products. it is important to clarify that a natural starting material does not necessarily equal a natural ingredient at the end of the manufacturing process. as pointed out with sls, the addition of synthetic or petrochemical ingredients during the process of manufacture can completely change the starting material. while decyl glucoside is similarly changed from it starting material during manufacture, it does not carry the same risks of contamination as sls so the end material is a very mild nonionic surfactant produced from corn, maize and other starch based products. decyl glucoside is classified as ether in chemical terminology. it is produced by reacting decyl alcohol with glucose in the presence of an acid. the product is then purified and extraneous ingredients and reactants removed. purified decyl glucoside is a liquid, which dissolves in water in any proportion. due to its mild nature on skin and its bio degradability, it is used in shampoos, hair creams, lotions and other personal hygiene products including baby products.


is a liquid, which dissolves in water in any proportion. due to its mild nature on skin and its bio degradability, it is used in shampoos, hair creams, lotions and other personal hygiene products including baby products. generally decyl glucoside is much more expensive and labour intensive to produce and described as “ tricky ” to formulate with. many products use decyl glucoside as a primary or secondary surfactant. it is a good emulsifier and has excellent foaming and lather properties. for this reason, the lack of potential for irritation and the absence of potential carcinogicity, decyl glucoside is a better choice in personal care items than sls. some of the characteristics of decyl glucoside are decyl glucoside is by no means the only alternative to sls however it is more and more commonly seen in shampoo and other personal care items and when it comes to choosing what to use on a daily basis, the more you know about the ingredients, the better. it also creates lots of lovely bubbles so lather away! author : maree watson, hairdresser and creator of the eko organica range of hair care. edited by ananda mahony, naturopath and skin specialist. twitter it! following up from the previous blog on sls, i thought i would mention some of the issues that customers come in with after routinely using commercial shampoo. and let me say for the record that many of the more expensive “ salon ” brands also use sls even though it is basically a cheap, nasty ingredient. what it does do is produce bubbles, lots of lovely bubbles! as consumers we have been programmed to expect shampoo that foams – anything less and we think the product isn ’ t working. however, all a surfactant ( see previous blog for explanation ) needs to do is break the surface tension of the hair follicle and it will wash out all the dirt and oil. a soap based product is needed but it doesn ’ t have to foam at all! so back to the issues i often see. most often it is a dry scalp that builds up a scurf of dead skin cells. sometimes the dead cells flake off making people think they have dandruff when in fact it is just that the scalp has been stripped of its protective oils. the opposite problem can also occur, a scalp that over - produces oil, creating greasy hair and sometimes blocked pores


off making people think they have dandruff when in fact it is just that the scalp has been stripped of its protective oils. the opposite problem can also occur, a scalp that over - produces oil, creating greasy hair and sometimes blocked pores around the hairline. this happens because the skin, including the scalp has a great balancing mechanism – when stripped of naturally produced oil by a product like sls, it responds by producing sebum and in some cases it goes a little bit over the top creating too much sebum resulting in greasy hair. increasingly i also see people that come in with a “ sensitive scalp ”. they find their scalp feels irritated, itchy or sensitive to touch after shampooing. in this case it is likely that the sls has stripped back the scalps protective layer leaving it exposed to other irritating ingredients such as artificial fragrances. usually, changing to a naturally scented or unscented shampoo with no sls will clear this problem up. if your scalp is still sensitive or irritated at this stage, a natural scalp oil including calendula and jojoba oils will help to soothe and nourish the cells. scalp oils can be applied the night before a morning hair wash so that they have a chance to work effectively. or they can be left in for a few days if the hair doesn ’ t look too greasy. the scalp responds quite quickly to products that don ’ t contain sls. after about 4 - 6 weeks, the dry, itchy or oily scalp starts to rebalance and any scurf build up starts to clear. when i made the switch to natural sls free hair care my scalp was fine after about 6 weeks however it took a little longer for my hair to become healthy again as it was dyed and very dry ( as curly hair tends to be ). i also stopped washing my hair so often and now only wash it once a week. gross you may say, but being dry anyway, my hair doesn ’ t build up grease and still looks and smells fine for that time. i also use natural wax based hair styling products that don ’ t build up grease in my hair. in general i think that most people tend to wash their hair too frequently, each time stripping back the protective oils from the scalp and hair. i did a quick vox pop of the staff at vitale to see how frequently they washed their hair. the average was twice a week. natarsha ( the office manager ) told me that she tried to stop washing her hair


a mannerist silver - gilt ewer and basin until the nineteenth century, when water began to be widely available from taps, sets comprising a matching jug ( ewer ) and basin in which to wash your hands or face were familiar objects in households throughout europe. this magnificent set of ewer and basin, made from gilded silver, could in theory be put to practical use but, in reality, it is highly unlikely that they would ever have served any purpose other than display, for example on a buffet in a ceremonial space. it is difficult at first to take in all the extraordinary embossed decoration which covers virtually every part of the surfaces of both ewer and basin. this over - abundant decoration is typical of the style known as mannerism, popular throughout western europe during the period c. 1520 - 1600. forming a bridge between early renaissance art and the 17th - century baroque period, mannerism saw artists moving away from the serene balance and order of the earlier renaissance, instead placing greater value on movement, as well as the virtuosity of the artist. certainly the goldsmith who made this pair of objects was making a strong claim for his virtuosity. the ewer is quite conventional in its decoration, with strapwork, vegetable motifs and little cartouches depicting sea monsters, referring to the association of ewers with water. the handle in the form of a dragon ’ s body is especially exciting and inventive. the basin ’ s decoration on the other hand forms a more coherent programme, in fact an allegorical presentation of the cosmos. in the outer field are figures in chariots representing the then known planets, interspersed with biblical and classical heroes and heroines. in the well are four large cartouches with allegorical representations of the four elements ( water, earth, air and fire ) together with figures denoting branches of learning ; finally, around the boss are the four seasons. the planet gods are based on engravings made in 1563 by the german artist nicolaus wilborn, but this does not necessarily mean that the ewer and basin are german. in fact, around 1570 mannerist style was so international that it is very difficult to attribute pieces to a particular school. it has sometimes been thought that the ewer and basin, which are accompanied by a group of smaller silver pieces, are most likely to have been made in portugal around 1560 - 70. when they were lent to an exhibition by sir richard wallace in 1881, they were said to have come from the collection of the counts of anadia


mighty countries have often been ruled by children who were grade - school age, or even younger! take a look at the cute little faces of monarchy gone wrong. louis xiv, age 5 just a year after louis became king of france in 1643, the venetian ambassador wrote, “ he knows that he is king and wants to be treated as such. ” at 7, he signed his first decree with his own hand, granting amnesty to defected enemies. at age 10, when other boys liked to pretend they were kings, louis would make - believe he was a valet! he ruled for 72 years. louis xv, age 7 the great - grandson of louis xiv, this louis liked to pretend he was a cook. shortly after he became king in 1715, he hid behind a curtain to avoid giving an audience to an ambassador. those caring for the young king were so concerned about assassination they kept his food under lock and key – and stored his handkerchiefs in a triple - locked safe, fearing someone would lace them with poison. king tut, age 8 the egyptian ruler assumed the throne in about 1366 b. c. it is unclear on who his parents were, but historians believe his uncle was the ruler akhenaten. tutankhamun spent his eleven years as ruler reversing the monotheistic changes his uncle had made to the egyptian religion. king tut died at the young age of nineteen, apparently from gangrene contracted from a broken leg. pages : 1 2


in the year after an expert panel ’ s recommendation that women delay regular breast cancer screenings until age 50, the number of women in their 40s undergoing mammograms slightly declined, a new study shows. the study, carried out by the mayo clinic, found a drop of roughly 6 percent in the number of mammograms among these younger women, a change that the researchers called modest but still significant. at the same time, while the panel had recommended that older women get a mammogram every other year rather than yearly up to age 74, the number of mammograms among women ages 50 to 64 remained fairly steady, the study found. the recommendations were made in late 2009 by the united states preventive services task force, a government - appointed group of outside medical experts. the recommendation that women in their 40s forgo routine mammograms stirred particular controversy, in part because of widespread belief among many breast cancer patients that the screening test saved their lives and because it conflicted with those of other medical groups, like the american cancer society, which advise annual mammograms starting at 40. the federal task force said that unless a woman has unusual risk factors for breast cancer, being screened so early could potentially lead to more harm than good because mammograms tend to spot cancers that grow slowly and might never prove lethal and could lead to unnecessary biopsies and other invasive tests and treatments. in the new study, which was presented last week in orlando at the annual research meeting of academyhealth, a research and policy group, mayo clinic researchers analyzed data from 100 health plans across the country. looking specifically at the number of mammograms performed from january 2006 to december 2010, they compared the number of procedures that took place before the task force ’ s guidelines with the number that were performed in the year that followed. over all, about eight million women ages 40 to 64 were included in the study. in the year after the guidelines were published, nearly 54, 000 fewer mammograms were performed on women ages 40 to 49. that represented a 5. 72 percent decrease from the previous period. the authors said that the modest reductions probably reflected some public resistance to the new recommendations, in part because of conflicting guidelines from other groups that urge more frequent routine screenings. “ i don ’ t think we expected a huge impact from the guidelines, ” said nilay d. shah, an author of the study and a researcher at the mayo clinic center for the science


information literacy in geology ( →articles & curricula ) revision as of 15 : 50, 17 april 2009 the acrl is information literacy in the disciplines committee has gathered links and citations to information literacy standards and curricula developed by accrediting agencies, professional associations, and institutions of higher education. accrediting agencies & professional associations ala / acrl / sts task force on information literacy for science and technology. information literacy standards for science and technology. american library association. 2006. http : / / www. ala. org / ala / mgrps / divs / acrl / standards / infolitscitech. cfm ( accessed april 17, 2009 ). the geological society of america http : / / www. geosociety. org / educate /. ( accessed april 17, 2009 ). national association of geoscience teachers http : / / www. nagt. org /. ( accessed april 17, 2009 ). articles & curricula dechambeau, aimee l. and ira d. sasowsky. 2003. using information literacy standards to improve geoscience courses. journal of geoscience education 51 ( 5 ) : 490 - 495. beyond google : strategies for developing information - literate geoscience students. 2003. geology society of america annual meeting. 4 november 2003, seattle, washington. various poster presentations http : / / gsa. confex. com / gsa / 2003am / finalprogram / session _ 9674. htm. ( accessed april 17, 2009 ). savina, mary e. 2001. a skills matrix as a geology department curriculum planning tool. geological society of america annual meeting, 5 - 3 november 2001, boston, ma. http : / / gsa. confex. com / gsa / 2001am / finalprogram / abstract _ 18289. htm. ( accessed april 17, 2009 ). yocum, patricia and gretchen s. almy. 2000. information literacy in the geosciences : report of a practical inquiry. ” in proceedings of the 34th meeting of the geoscience information society 30 : 15 - 22.


serving multicultural populations the ala office for literacy and outreach services website provides information and resources on improving service to traditionally underserved populations. this page includes resources for serving linguistically, ethnically, or nationally diverse populations. services to special populations includes resources for other populations. the ala office of diversity has developed a list of recommended reading for individuals interested in exploring diversity issues in the delivery of library and information services. this listing is intended to supplement that resource. the ala office for literacy and outreach services has assembled extensive resources on services to people of color. multicultural review, a quarterly journal for teachers at all grade levels, college professors, librarians, administrators, and anyone else who is interested in learning about new developments and trends in the field of cultural diversity. myra michele brown. " what works - kids on campus. " school library journal, april 1, 2002 from the council on interracial books for children is a quick checklist 10 quick ways to analyze children ' s books for racism and sexism ( pdf ) may, stephen. language and minority rights : ethnicity, nationalism and the politics of language. new york : routledge, 2008. york, sherry. booktalking authentic multicultural literature : fiction, history and memoirs for teens. columbus, ohio : linworth pub, 2008. bilingual collections and services dale, doris cruger. bilingual children ' s books in english and spanish : an annotated bibliography, 1942 through 2001 = los libros bilingues para los ninos en ingles y en espanol : una bibliografia con anotaciones, 1942 a 2001. jefferson, nc ; london : mcfarland, 2003. paper tigers blog reports and musings on multicultural books for children and young adults from a group of writers. amy fisher and deborah lee. native residential schools in canada. this bibliography accompanies the exhibition " where are the children? healing the legacy of the residential schools " produced by the national archives of canada, the aboriginal healing foundation and the aboriginal healing charitable association in collaboration with the national library of canada, numerous church and other archives presented at the national archives of canada in ottawa from june 18, 2002 to february 3, 2003. alire, camila a., and jacqueline ayala. serving latino communities : a how - to - do - it manual for librarians. new york : neal - schuman publishers, 2007. avila, salvador. crash course in serving spanish - speakers. westport, conn : libraries unlimited, 2008. immroth


search for native plants by scientific name, common name or family. if you are not sure what you are looking for, try the combination search or our recommended species lists. search native plant database : bruso, george h. clarkia pulchella pursh deerhorn clarkia, beautiful clarkia, ragged robin, pink fairies usda symbol : clpu usda native status : native to u. s. deerhorn clarkia is a member of the evening - primrose family ( family onagraceae ), which includes mainly herbs, rarely shrubs or trees with often showy flowers borne singly, in racemes or spikes, or in branched clusters. plant characteristicsduration : annual habit : herb leaf : bloom informationbloom color : purple bloom time : apr ct, id, ma, mt, oh, or, sd, vt, wa, wy canada : bc usda native status : l48 ( n ), can ( n ) growing conditionswater use : medium light requirement : part shade caco3 tolerance : medium benefitconspicuous flowers : yes from the national organizations directory according to the species list provided by affiliate organizations, this plant is either on display or available from the following : native seed network - corvallis, or recommended species lists find native plant species by state. each list contains commercially available species suitable for gardens and planned landscapes. once you have selected a collection, you can browse the collection or search within it using the combination search. view recommended species page record modified : 2010 - 04 - 25 research by : twc staff


fri april 6, 2012 indian engineers build a stronger society with school lunch program originally published on wed may 23, 2012 10 : 54 am at a government - run public middle school in bangalore, the blackboard ' s cracking, the textbooks are tattered and most of the students are barefoot. but with all those challenges, the biggest obstacle that teachers face in keeping kids in school is hunger. many students show up at school having had nothing to eat for breakfast. on mornings one student comes to school hungry, the thought of school makes her break down, she says. " when i had to get on the bus, i would start crying, " says k. suchitra, 13. suchitra is an unusually talented student, says her teacher, sheelavati shakti. she shows a strong aptitude for music and dance, and is strong academically. but when she joined this school a year ago, suchitra looked unhealthy, shakti says. her skin was discolored, but she didn ' t have an infection ; she was just malnourished. suchitra ' s life has recently been turned around, however. an ambitious school lunch program now supplies kids at her middle school with a nutritious, freshly cooked meal. on days she comes to school hungry, she knows she can eat at school. " after eating this food i ' ve become stronger, " suchitra says. " that ' s why i ' m able to come to school and study and play. " the skin discoloration disappeared after she started the lunch program, suchitra says. but the program has done more than improve her physical health ; it ' s allowed her to dream of a better life. she now imagines going to college to study science. and one day, she says, she hopes to become a software engineer. the lunch program that provides meals to suchitra ' s school currently feeds 1. 3 million children across india, making it one of the largest school lunch programs in the world. it was initially begun more than a decade ago as part of the religious outreach of a hindu group known as iskcon, better known in the west as the hare krishna movement. the hindu group is still actively involved in the program. but the lunch program is now operated as a secular, public - private partnership, serving poor children of all backgrounds. government officials supply grain and other lunch ingredients at a discount, and provide a cash subsidy. donors from india and around the world supply the rest


the lunch program is now operated as a secular, public - private partnership, serving poor children of all backgrounds. government officials supply grain and other lunch ingredients at a discount, and provide a cash subsidy. donors from india and around the world supply the rest. " feeding a child is not charity, " says shridhar venkat, who directs the lunch program through the akshaya patra foundation. he used to be a corporate executive. to him, a child like suchitra is not a hungry 13 - year - old girl in poverty. she ' s an opportunity, and giving her lunch is an investment. tomorrow, an educated suchitra could produce a huge return on that investment to her community, he said. the program prepares most of the food using centralized kitchens. some 17, 000 pounds of rice and 4, 500 gallons of soup are produced by one kitchen in bangalore. engineers have designed the kitchen and the logistics of delivering the food to schools. " we have never failed to deliver a meal on any day in the last 11 years, " venkat says. the program is so cost - effective it ' s become a harvard business school case study. today it costs only about 11 cents to place a meal before each child. by 2020, the program hopes to feed 5 million children every day. the combination of efficiency and high purpose makes for a strange marriage : ruthlessly efficient corporate management techniques married to a goal that is deeply emotional. " we want to do things with heart, " venkat says. " it ' s not just, ' build large kitchens. ' all these large kitchens have a big heart. " venkat is constantly looking for ways to increase efficiency so the program can feed more children. he studies the data to see if the lunch program is having a discernible effect. he ' s recently noticed more children are coming to school on one particular day each week : the day the lunch program includes dessert. venkat said he was going to try to use the inducement of dessert to get kids to come to school. typically, the children know on which day dessert is going to be included in lunch. " we are trying to make it a secret, so they keep guessing and they come to school, " he says with a laugh. independent audits of the program have found it ' s having a profound effect. " the school attendance goes up, malnutrition level comes down, dropout rates comes down, " venkat says. but besides the statistics, ve


. independent audits of the program have found it ' s having a profound effect. " the school attendance goes up, malnutrition level comes down, dropout rates comes down, " venkat says. but besides the statistics, venkat says he regularly sees the human face of the results. a young man recently visited venkat. he was in one of the earliest cohorts of children who ' ve been helped by the lunch program. the man told venkat he was the son of a security guard. when the son was in the eighth grade, his father was earning less than a dollar a day. he was so hungry, he used to faint at school. academically, he was scraping by. then, the free lunch program started. " he told me, ' my attention span went up. my concentration went up, ' " venkat says. so did the boy ' s grades. he went on to college and became an engineer. when the young man visited venkat, he handed him an envelope. " and the envelope... had an offer letter from india ' s leading multinational software company as a software programmer, " venkat says. audie cornish, host : from npr news, this is all things considered. i ' m audie cornish. nearly half of all small children in india are malnourished. and there ' s now an effort under way to change that using school lunch programs. but npr ' s shankar vedantam found during a recent visit that the math of the undertaking is, well, daunting. how can you provide a fresh, nutritious meal cooked from scratch every day to more than a million kids when all you have to spend on each meal is 11 cents? shankar vedantam, byline : the answer to that question means a lot to this 13 - year - old girl i met at a middle school in bangalore. suchitra :... fairy went a - marketing. she bought a little fish. vedantam : her name is suchitra. suchitra is struggling to learn english. when i meet her, she ' s reciting a poem about a fairy and a goldfish. she has pigtails and blue ribbons. with her bright eyes and quick mind, i can tell she ' s hungry to learn. but most of the time, she ' s just hungry. on many mornings, there ' s nothing for breakfast. on those days, she tells me, the thought of


bright eyes and quick mind, i can tell she ' s hungry to learn. but most of the time, she ' s just hungry. on many mornings, there ' s nothing for breakfast. on those days, she tells me, the thought of school makes her cry. her teacher said she looked unhealthy when she arrived about a year ago. unidentified woman : ( foreign language spoken ) vedantam : the teacher says suchitra ' s skin was discolored. medicines didn ' t help. she didn ' t have an infection. she was malnourished. the teacher tells me she ' s seen lots of kids drop out because of hunger. if that happens to suchitra, all her potential - her love of music and dance, the fact she ' s so dedicated to learning - none of it will matter. but suchitra ' s story isn ' t a tale of woe. it ' s actually a success story. and it ' s built around a program that ' s figured out how you place a very nutritious, freshly cooked lunch every day before more than a million schoolchildren. and yes, it ' s found a way to do it at a cost of 11 cents per meal. outside suchitra ' s classroom, i see men unloading giant containers of food. lunch is being set up. when they opened the containers, i see the food ' s piping hot. the kids have been waiting all morning. dozens of them get in line. ( soundbite of conversations ) vedantam : suchitra piles her plate and sits down on the floor to eat with her classmates. i ask her what she ' s eating. ( foreign language spoken ) suchitra : tomato, beans, carrots. vedantam : tomatoes, beans and carrots. nutritious vegetables cooked just a couple of hours ago. american parents would love their kids to eat food this fresh. all over india, hundreds of thousands of children are sitting down to eat lunches like this. they ' re the result of a public - private partnership that has turned into one of the world ' s largest school lunch programs. by 2020, it ' s expected to feed 5 million children every day. suchitra still comes to school with an empty stomach, but now she knows she ' ll eat at school. she says it ' s made it possible for her to come to school regularly. suchitra : ( through translator ) after eating this food, i have become stronger


school with an empty stomach, but now she knows she ' ll eat at school. she says it ' s made it possible for her to come to school regularly. suchitra : ( through translator ) after eating this food, i have become stronger. that ' s why i ' m able to come to school and study and play. vedantam : the lunch program has done more than fill her stomach. it ' s allowed suchitra to dream of a life she wasn ' t supposed to have. she now imagines going to college to study science and one day to become a software engineer. shridhar venkat : feeding a child is not charity. vedantam : that ' s shridhar venkat, who directs this massive school lunch program through the akshaya patra foundation. he used to be a corporate executive. to him, suchitra is not a hungry 13 - year - old girl in poverty. she ' s an opportunity. giving her lunch is an investment. tomorrow, an educated suchitra can produce a huge return on that investment for her community. venkat : our vision is to see that no child in india is deprived of education because of hunger. vedantam : no child in india should be deprived of education because of hunger. that ' s a vision for tens of millions of children. it ' s a messiah - type vision. venkat doesn ' t look like a messiah. he ' s a clean - cut guy - glasses, buttoned - down - an engineering - type. in fact, he is an engineer and his program has designed an engineering solution to keep hungry kids in school. venkat : we have never failed to deliver a meal on any day in the last 11 years. vedantam : so you ' re saying that of the 1. 3 million children you have right now, who get meals every single day, there has not been a single day the children have not gotten meals? venkat : yes, absolutely. vedantam : giant centralized kitchens prepare hundreds of thousands of meals every day. trucks deliver the food to schools. every aspect of the program has been engineered for efficiency. the program is so cost - effective it ' s become a harvard business school case study. to me, it looks like a strange marriage : ruthlessly efficient corporate management techniques married to a goal that ' s deeply emotional. venkat : so we want to do things with heart. it ' s not to just build large kitchens. all these


me, it looks like a strange marriage : ruthlessly efficient corporate management techniques married to a goal that ' s deeply emotional. venkat : so we want to do things with heart. it ' s not to just build large kitchens. all these large kitchens have a big heart. vedantam : i had to find out how this marriage of heart and mind come together. on this morning, it ' s before 6 : 00 when i get to one of the centralized kitchens. dozens of workers have been toiling since 3. they chopped mountains of fresh vegetables. there ' s steamed lentils. buckets of turmeric and other spices are ready. it ' s fresh cooking on an industrial scale. there ' s no butylated hydroxyanisole or sodium benzoate, no preservatives because everything made in this kitchen is going to be eaten by 100, 000 children within four hours. on the main floor, workers are attending to 10 large steel cauldrons. and giant bubbles are rising up in this cauldron making little splashes. i ' m seeing turnips and beans and carrots and leaves. once the mixture of rice and lentils and vegetables is cooked, it ' s packed in a sterilized container. in seconds, the container ' s on a truck. within minutes of being cooked, the food is on its way to a school. when venkat, the lunch program director, looks at this operation, he sees room for improvement. he ' s now developing algorithms so trucks take more efficient routes to school. venkat : so we are trying to optimize here by doing route cost optimization. vedantam : the trucking and delivery cost of each meal is about 1 cent. with efficient routes, venkat might save a fifth of that 1 cent. multiply that tiny amount by a million and the savings feed another 20, 000 kids. venkat ' s obsessed with data. he ' s recently noticed more children are coming to school on one particular day each week. it ' s the day the lunch program includes dessert. now, do the children know on which day the dessert is going to come? venkat : they know. but we are trying to keep it a secret so that they keep guessing and they come to school. ( soundbite of laughter ) vedantam : independent audits of the program have found it ' s having a profound effect. venkat : the school attendance goes up, malnutrit


that they keep guessing and they come to school. ( soundbite of laughter ) vedantam : independent audits of the program have found it ' s having a profound effect. venkat : the school attendance goes up, malnutrition level comes down, dropout rates come down. vedantam : not only is the dropout rate falling, more girls are showing up at school. and children who started on the lunch program a decade ago are now finding jobs. venkat eagerly tells me the story of one young man who came to visit him. venkat : so he said, sir, i ' m - i was the son of a security guard. my father used to earn 30 to 35 rupees every day... vedantam : his father used to earn 30 to 35 rupees. that ' s less than a dollar a day. the young man told venkat he was in the eighth grade at the time. he was so hungry, he used to faint at school. academically, he was scraping by. then the free lunch program started. venkat : so he told me : my attention span went up. my concentration went up. i was... vedantam : so did the boy ' s grades. he went on to college, became an engineer, and then venkat says the young man handed him an envelope. venkat : and the envelope was he had an offer letter from india ' s leading multinational software company as a software programmer. suchitra : ( foreign language spoken ) vedantam : remember that girl i met at the start of this story with the big dreams of becoming an engineer? this is the payoff venkat is hoping to see in her life. if she turns out like that young man with the envelope, it ' s hard to imagine a smarter investment of 11 cents. shankar vedantam, npr news. cornish : to see a slideshow about suchitra and to learn more about this school lunch program, visit npr. org. transcript provided by npr, copyright national public radio.


osama faisal / ap activists criticizing what they called a slow pace to climate talks protest saturday at the convention center in qatar. norway ' s environment minister, bard vegar, speaks to some of them. doha, qatar - - almost 200 nations on saturday extended until 2020 a weak international plan for fighting global warming, averting a new setback to two decades of u. n. efforts that have failed to halt rising greenhouse gas emissions. the eight - year extension of the kyoto protocol keeps it alive as the sole legally binding plan for combating global warming. but it was sapped by the withdrawal of russia, japan and canada, so its signatories now account for only 15 percent of global greenhouse emissions. a package of decisions, known as the doha climate gateway, would also postpone until 2013 a dispute over demands from developing nations for more cash to help them cope with global warming. all sides say the doha decisions fell far short of recommendations by scientists for tougher action. though expectations were low for the two - week conference, many developing countries rejected the deal as insufficient to put the world on track to fight the rising temperatures that are raising sea levels. some pacific island nations see this as a threat to their existence. " this is not where we wanted to be at the end of the meeting, i assure you, " said nauru foreign minister kieren keke, who leads an alliance of small island states. " it certainly isn ' t where we need to be in order to prevent islands from going under and other unimaginable impacts. " " it was not an easy ride. it was not a beautiful ride. it was not a fast ride, but we managed to cross the bridge and hopefully we can increase our speed, " added european climate commissioner connie hedegaard. she said the deal would pave the way to talks on a new, global u. n. pact meant be agreed in 2015 and enter into force in 2020, when kyoto now expires. it will have emissions goals for all, including emerging nations led by china and india. the 1997 kyoto protocol, which controls the greenhouse gas emissions of rich countries, expires this year. however, the second phase only covers about 15 percent of global emissions after canada, japan, new zealand and russia opted out. originally, kyoto obliged about 35 industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an average of at least 5. 2 percent below 1990 levels during the period from 2008 to 2012. the u. s. never joined kyoto, partly because


russia opted out. originally, kyoto obliged about 35 industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an average of at least 5. 2 percent below 1990 levels during the period from 2008 to 2012. the u. s. never joined kyoto, partly because it didn ' t include china and other fast - growing developing countries. poor countries came into the talks in doha demanding a timetable on how rich countries would scale up climate change aid for them to $ 100 billion annually by 2020 — a general pledge that was made three years ago. but rich nations - - including the united states, members of the european union and japan - - are still grappling with the effects of a financial crisis and were not interested in detailed talks on aid in doha. the agreement on financing made no reference to any mid - term financing targets, just a general pledge to " identify pathways for mobilizing the scaling up of climate finance. " the two - week u. n. meeting had been due to end on friday but the talks went on into saturday evening. world carbon dioxide emissions are set to rise by 2. 6 percent this year, and are more than 50 percent higher than in 1990. recent growth has come mostly from emerging nations, led by china and india. the associated press and reuters contributed to this report. more world stories from nbc news : - suspect in us envoy ' s killing in libya arrested in egypt - djs in prank call over royal birth suspended - secretary of state talk opens rice to criticism - - from left - psy will perform for obama even after anti - american rap


with all of the research, i have forgotten to talk about the steps involved with inferential genealogy. dr. jones puts step 3 this way. step 3 : understand the records if we don ’ t understand the records, we won ’ t get all the information from them that we need to answer our research goal. • know why a document was created. • follow document creation processes from beginning to end. • note differences in records. is there something that appears in your ancestor ’ s record that is different than the records of others? i really focused on this step early on, and will cycle back through this with other records. the first example is the understanding civil war records. this study took me to look at these records. i really hadn ’ t looked at them, as my earlier research just hadn ’ t taken me there. the two lessons learned with looking at these records is : 1 ) where to look, and 2 ) the details that you might find. fold3. com ( formerly footnote. com ) has a great collection ( for me ) of civil war records. what i didn ’ t know is that the union records are federal records, while a csa veteran records are archived by state. this is interesting for me, in that maryland was on which side. this would be an issue if you didn ’ t know which side your person fought for. do you look at union records or confederate records. i didn ’ t have a problem locating the records in fold3. this was one place where i found that david ridgely howard had brothers in the civil war. the information included in the records i looked at were incredible. in these records i found that he was wounded in gettysburg and about a year later lost his leg in another battle. what hospital he went to, when he “ didn ’ t show up ” for a muster, due to he being in the hospital. 18 pages in information. one of his brothers had 30 pages. some can be read, some couldn ’ t. the second area was understanding the census records. what information is important, which pieces in a specific census year should be recorded in my genealogy software, and how to record what was found. understanding the census records prior to 1850 may not have a lot of detail, i took a blank census record year, on a blank form, and marked up which columns i was going to record for each person listed. back in an earlier step, we were asked to check to see what relationships were recorded. looking at the census records, 1850 – 1930,


( files in red – history ) 26h. birkeland, 1895 27. aurora from space 28. aurora origin 28a. plus and minus 29. low polar orbit 30. magnetic storms 30. a chicago aurora 31. space weather 32. magnetic planets 33. cosmic rays 34. energetic particles 35. solar fast particles but there also exists a practical angle : in a world increasingly dependent on electricity and electronics, the " space weather " outside the atmosphere can have serious effects, in particular on human communications. currently more than 200 communication satellites circle the earth in synchronous orbit. a large magnetic storm can greatly increase the number of fast ions and electrons which hit those satellites ; such ions and electrons are similar to the ones emitted by radioactive substances and can create serious problems. the simplest effect is an electric charge on the satellite, usually negative, raising its voltage to hundreds or even thousands of volts. charging by itself has little effect on the satellite ' s operation, although on a scientific satellite it would seriously distort observations ( if the satellite is charged to, say, - 500 volts, electrons with less energy than 500 electron - volts are repelled and cannot be detected ). however, if different parts of the satellite are charged to different voltages, the current between them can cause damage. particles with higher energy can permanently degrade solar cells. also, high - energy particles can penetrate the circuitry and cause either damage or false signals which lead to unintended responses by the satellite. all these have occured in the past. another effect of magnetic storms ( and to lesser extent, of substorms ) is a greater intensity of the electric currents circulating between earth and distant space. as already noted, these currents are associated with the polar aurora, and they flow from space into the auroral zone or the other way around. in big storms, not only is the magnetic disturbance more intense, but it also spreads further equatorwards, into more densely populated areas. for instance, in the picture on the right, taken from space during a storm in march 1989, aurora blankets the northern states of the us as well as southern canada | this disturbance also induces extra currents in the wires of the electrical power grid, creating a temporary overload. serious overloads of this type can trigger circuit breakers and thus cause widespread " power blackouts, " and on occasion they have even destroyed power transformers. for these reasons, conditions at the sun, in interplanetary space and in the magnetosphere are closely watched. the


this type can trigger circuit breakers and thus cause widespread " power blackouts, " and on occasion they have even destroyed power transformers. for these reasons, conditions at the sun, in interplanetary space and in the magnetosphere are closely watched. the space environment center in boulder, colorado, maintained by of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration ( noaa ), has a space weather operation facility which constantly tracks the " weather " in space. this is done in several ways. noaa satellites of the goes series, in synchronous orbit, observe the local radiation environment and also monitor the sun ' s x - rays, which come from the corona and increase at active times. telescopes on earth observe the sun through special filters and in special wavelength ( e. g. x - rays ), all of which highlight active features. for a view of noaa ' s " space weather report, " click here ; another such report, from the university of michigan, is linked here. in an interesting development, the recent soho spacecraft, currently at the l1 lagrangian point, allows scientists to detect ( by special processing of its images ) coronal mass ejections, not just in a sideways view but even when they are headed straight for earth. a cme noted in this way on january 6, 1997, arrived as predicted on the 10th - 11th and caused a widespread disturbance. another such event occured april 7 - 11, 1997. of course, the sideways view of cmes contains additional information, and nasa ' s planned solar missions include stereo ( solar terrestrial relations observatory ), with a pair of well - separated solar observatories, to get a stereoscopic view of such eruptions. one spacecraft would orbit near earth, the other would be stationed elsewhere in the earth ' s orbit around the sun, capturing a sideways view of solar eruptions. so far there is unfortunately no sure way of predicting whether the direction of the magnetic field carried by an erupting solar plasma would slant northwards or southwards, an important factor in predicting " space weather. " closer to earth, spacecraft near the l1 point such as soho and wind, and since august 1997 also ace, intercept shocks and plasma clouds up to one hour before their arrival at earth and serve as early warning stations. an obvious question is whether the high energy particles produced by such events constitute a hazard not just for spacecraft but also for astronauts. so far no astronauts have been seriously exposed, not even those on the russian space station " mir " whose inclined orbit extends to


an obvious question is whether the high energy particles produced by such events constitute a hazard not just for spacecraft but also for astronauts. so far no astronauts have been seriously exposed, not even those on the russian space station " mir " whose inclined orbit extends to fairly high latitudes, closer to the auroral zone than the planned orbit of the international space station planned by nasa. nothing in space can be guaranteed, however, and re - entry modules for quick escape into the protecting atmosphere have been studied. further links and articles : an article about the violent consequences of the arrival at earth of an interplanetary shock wave from the sun, on 24 march 1991, titled " the birth of a radiation belt " ( part of this site ). " storms in space : a fictionalized account of ' the big one ', " john w. freeman, jr., eos, transaction of american geophysical union 6 september, 1994. " geomagnetic storm forecasts and the power industry, " by john g. kappenman, lawrence j. zanetti and william a. radasky, eos, transaction of american geophysical union 28 january, 1997. questions from users : * * * why has the aurora been so frequent lately? * * * does the magnetosphere affect weather? ( a ) * * * risks from stormy " space weather " * * * magnetic storms and headaches * * * electric and magnetic energy * * * radio propagation * * * magnetism and weather ( b ) * * * waves in the magnetosphere


this short biography of charles darwin provides a brief overview of his personal life, but concentrates on presenting his main intellectual contributions, including, of course, the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. short biography of charles darwin charles darwin was born february 12, 1809, in the town of shrewsbury, in the county of shropshire in england, he died april 19, 1882, in the town of down, in the county of kent, england. charles darwin ' s theory of evolution by natural selection is one of the most important scientific theories ever to have been discovered. its importance arises from providing an explanation for the origin of species without having to posit a divine creator. the theory of evolution came to charles darwin after a voyage of discovery comparable to those undertaken by columbus or magellan. but more of that later, for now we follow his biography in sequence and begin with his early life. charles darwin ' s early life in this biography we want to concentrate on charles darwin ' s ideas, so we will produce only a short account of his early life. darwin had a very fortunate start to life by being born into a rich family. unlike michael faraday, poverty and the necessity of earning a living were never to be his lot. charles darwin was the son of robert darwin, a rich society doctor, and susannah wedgwood, the daughter of the famous pottery industrialist josiah wedgwood. darwin ' s other grandfather was the famous intellectual erasmus darwin. but being rich did not save charles darwin from the trials of the british public school system. charles darwin hated the rote learning of classics that was imposed on him at shrewsbury public school between 1818 and 1825, and he was made fun of by teachers and pupils for his interest in chemistry. somehow, darwin managed to retain his fascination with science, and went up to edinburgh to study medicine. but he was also interested in theology, and moved to cambridge, to train as a clergyman. however, he spent much of his time at cambridge frequenting society balls, picnics, country sports and gambling. hardly pursuits befitting a man of the cloth, or, far that matter, a dedicated scientist. fortunately, his disparate ways were curtailed by a change of circumstance that left him with nothing but science and exploration to fall back on for entertainment. the voyage of the beagle charles darwin ' s love of adventure, and a desire to escape the responsibilities of the church, led him to volunteer for the post of naturalist on the voyage of the beagle at the age of 22. the expedition was


the voyage of the beagle charles darwin ' s love of adventure, and a desire to escape the responsibilities of the church, led him to volunteer for the post of naturalist on the voyage of the beagle at the age of 22. the expedition was to take five years, and darwin was seasick for much of it. but he performed his responsibilities assiduously, and collected many specimens of insects, flowers and lizards in south america. his notebook, available in full online, was full of impressive detail and gives a good indication of his talent as a biologist. after many adventures, including monkeys, earthquakes, giant fossils and volcanic eruptions, charles darwin and the beagle arrived in the galapagos. it had taken three and half years for the beagle to reach these far - flung islands, lying hundreds of miles off the west coast of chile. their amazing variety of fauna and flora were to captivate darwin for the rest of his life. darwin found all the sixty one galapagos islands to be very strange. besides the multitudinous variety of minutely differing species, the animals were amazingly docile. for instance, darwin was able to saunter up to a hawk and touch it with his gun barrel. in exploring these magnificent islands darwin became totally dedicated to the study of nature, and any other intellectual or professional pursuits now became very much less important to him. on returning to england, he declined any attempt by his father to force him into a career in the anglican church. charles darwin back in england on his return, charles darwin looked closely at the mockingbirds, tortoises, finches and other species he had studied in the galapagos. he found it remarkable that different islands had similar, but quite distinct, species filling the same niche. these different species, he thought, could have evolved from a common ancestor. darwin also spotted similarities between argentine fossils of giant, armour - plated megatheres and tiny, modern armadillos. these nudged him towards the idea of evolution in time, supplementing his observations of the different species in the galapagos that had provided evidence for evolution through their separation in space. for the rest of his life, darwin was far from a gentleman of leisure. he spent his time supplementing the knowledge gained from the voyage of the beagle with intense study, the writing of letters to experts, and the badgering of sailors and explorers for more information about strange creatures from distant lands. charles darwin & down house darwin even applied scientific analysis to the question of whether he should


of the beagle with intense study, the writing of letters to experts, and the badgering of sailors and explorers for more information about strange creatures from distant lands. charles darwin & down house darwin even applied scientific analysis to the question of whether he should marry. this involved him making a list of pros and cons, and finally deciding marriage would be a good thing. he married his cousin emma wedgwood, and they retired to down house ( close to london ) where darwin became a recluse and used the house and grounds as a laboratory. in down house, the correspondence of charles darwin stretched to fourteen thousand letters. these mostly contained closely argued disputations with scientist friends like thomas huxley and charles lyall. but he also sought help from those involved in practical animal husbandry, like pigeon fanciers. his children became objects of close study, and he compared their emotional reaction to those of monkeys in the local zoos. in the grounds, he bred pigeons, grew seeds, observed bees, tracked earthworms, and counted blades of grass. like many great men, he spent a lot of time walking while contemplating the mysteries of universe. he even had a thinking path in the grounds of down house. it was in this " home brewed laboratory ", after decades of work, that the theory of evolution by natural selection was given its final formulation. influences on charles darwin lamarck ' s philosiophie zoologique ( 1809 ) was a significant influence on charles darwin, but had major flaws. it was marred by the assumption that the earth was only a few thousand years old, but its major error was assuming that characteristics acquired in a lifetime could be inherited. before darwin, robert chambers suggested all creatures could have evolved from a simpler form. like darwin, he used fossil evidence to support his case. but he thought that new animals emerged through ' monstrous birth ', so a sheep might give birth to a peacock. darwin suggested he was lacking in observational evidence and scientific caution. the public scorn that chambers suffered made darwin wary of publishing until he had all his facts in order. there were many other evolutionary theories. one, quoted in origin as due to w. c. wells, points out that livestock is improved by farmers selecting the fittest specimens. but it needed darwin to extend this notion to suggest that evolution involved the natural selection of all species. darwin was forced into publication when he was sent an essay by alfred russell wallace that proposed a theory of evolution identical to his own. he


search the web content tagged ' science ' massive solar storm could hit earth within two years scientists are monitoring solar activity and say it ' s possible that the earth will experience a massive solar storm in the near future. announcement : high school students ’ scientific research will be featured july 27th at the u of m this friday will mark the culmination of a special seven - week course at the university of memphis for 12 students from several local and out - of - state high schools. sky gazers view once in a lifetime transit of venus it has been called one of the most important events in scientific history. the transit of venus provided astronomers with invaluable information about our solar system. view the transit of venus in memphis in a few days you ' ll be able to see the planet venus in its rare trek across the sun. new nasa satellites to increase tornado warning lead time the goes - r satellite series will revolutionize forecasting abilities, gathering data more quickly and increasing tornado warning lead time by 50 %. vanderbilt discovery will revolutionize mosquito repellent researchers from vanderbilt university have discovered a compound that can change the behavior of a mosquito. it is expected to be 100 % stronger than deet. da vinci robot makes hysterectomy surgery less painful painful hysterectomies are a thing of the past at baptist memorial hospital. massive solar storm has little impact to mid - south the largest solar storm in five years enveloped earth thursday morning. high : 88° | low : 73° this site is hosted and managed by mobile advertising for this site is available on local ad buy search the web seek it local movies & review report a story fcc public profile ©1998 - 2013 abc24. com nexstar broadcasting, inc. all rights reserved copyright & trademark notice


no one had to guess who had the strongest navy when the civil war started. the union boasted 42 ships, while the confederacy had none. and both sides knew the struggle might be won or lost by the ability to control the waterways — including hampton roads — on which the south ' s economy depended. those grim odds help explain why confederate navy secretary stephen mallory — a former florida senator who had chaired the committee on naval affairs — placed such a huge bet on the completion 150 years ago of a new kind of naval super weapon. raising the scuttled union steam frigate merrimack at portsmouth ' s gosport navy yard, more than 1, 500 men worked around the clock for 9 months, slowly transforming the burned - out hulk into a lethal ironclad that observers in both north and south began calling a " monster. " when it emerged from the mouth of the elizabeth river on march 8, 1862, the newly rechristened css virginia was like no ship ever seen before. in just one afternoon, its shot - proof armor and advanced weaponry would not only terrorize the hapless union blockading fleet but also put an abrupt end to a centuries - long tradition of wooden fighting vessels. " the virginia was designed to sound the death knell of wooden warships — and that ' s what it did in hampton roads, " says historian john v. quarstein, author of the newly published book " css virginia : sink before surrender. " " the damage and casualties it inflicted marked the nation ' s worst naval disaster until pearl harbor. there was nothing here on march 8 that could stop it. " often regarded as the most capable member of the confederate cabinet, mallory moved swiftly to even his daunting odds. but given the urgency and the handicaps posed by the south ' s limited industrial capacity, he turned to europe first, hoping to buy one of the early ironclads completed just before the war by england and france. when that gambit failed, he started anew at home, producing a revolutionary ship through several small miracles of enterprise, improvisation and genius. " almost everything about the virginia was make - do and jury - rigged — and it turned out to be less than it should have been, " says anna holloway, curator of the uss monitor center at themariners ' museum. " but the concept was pretty brilliant. " meeting with naval ordnance officer john mercer brooke in early june 1861, mallory floated a plan to build the vessel from scratch. but within weeks the pair switched gears, thwarted by the lengthy


##ariners ' museum. " but the concept was pretty brilliant. " meeting with naval ordnance officer john mercer brooke in early june 1861, mallory floated a plan to build the vessel from scratch. but within weeks the pair switched gears, thwarted by the lengthy construction time and the south ' s inability to produce a steam engine. " the engines they needed didn ' t exist — except for the ones that had been sent to the bottom of the elizabeth river when the union scuttled the merrimack, " holloway says. " then they met with gosport engineer william price williamson, who said, ' we have the merrimack and its engines — and we can use that as the base on which to build an ironclad. ' " drawn by gosport naval constructor john l. porter and refined by brooke, the plan called for cutting the merrimack down, then using its reshaped hull to support a single deck of 10 guns protected by an armored casemate. making the slanted sides of the casemate shot - proof was the paramount goal. and after tests at jamestown, brooke determined that two layers of 2 - inch armor plate bolted onto 22 inches of oak and pine would resist most, though not every union naval cannon. " brooke wanted to make the virginia invincible, " quarstein says, " and that shot - proof casemate gave it an almost insurmountable advantage. " brooke armed the warship with unusually powerful guns, too, including two large smoothbores set up to fire the blazing hot shot so deadly to wooden vessels.