vaccine to reduce your pet ’ s chance of contracting this disease. giardiasis is another disease that is caused by a waterborne parasite found in untreated water such as creeks and ponds. it also occurs in mountainous areas where water supplies have become contaminated by infected animal feces. “ chlorination of surface water will not prevent this disease, ” cautions russell. “ presently, there are drugs to treat giardiasis, but none to prevent this intestinal disease. ” borreliosis, or lyme disease, is an infection caused by a bacteria that is spread by the bite of an infected tick, and the disease is endemic in some areas of the united states, explains russell. symptoms include fever, rash, listlessness, muscle stiffness, lack of appetite, and in severe cases, arthritic - type joint pain. “ the best method of prevention is to avoid tick - infested woods, brush and tall grass, ” russell believes. “ highly effective tick control products such as sprays, collars and spot - on treatments are available through your veterinarian. ” annual vaccination of your dog against the lyme disease is recommended if you live in or plan to visit endemic lyme disease areas in the united states. check with your veterinarian about the need for the vaccination of your pets. russell suggests that once you return home, your pet should visit the veterinarian for examination to make sure no internal or external parasites were picked up while traveling. “ an examination is important, because worms can hide and they may not be detected until they cause a clinical disease, ” russell adds. “ ticks can be too small to be easily seen by the untrained eye. they must be eliminated before they transmit diseases such as lyme disease, tularemia and rocky mountain spotted fever. “ also, avoid environments with ticks and mosquitoes ( dawn and dusk ), and allow your pet to swim only in clear, flowing water such as rivers or lakes, ” notes russell. “ be sure to bypass ponds or tanks. ” time spent traveling with loved ones is important, but it is even more important to take the necessary precautions during vacation to avoid any pitfalls when you return home. pet talk is a service of the college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences, texas a & m university. stories can be viewed on the web at http : / / tamunews. tamu. edu. suggestions for future topics may be directed to email @ example. com


the college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences, texas a & m university. stories can be viewed on the web at http : / / tamunews. tamu. edu. suggestions for future topics may be directed to email @ example. com. from the may 18 - 24, 2011 issue article printed from the rock river times : http : / / rockrivertimes. com url to article : http : / / rockrivertimes. com / 2011 / 05 / 18 / pet - talk - precautionary - travel - tips - for - pet - owners / urls in this post : firstname. lastname @ example. org : mailto : email @ example. com image : http : / / delicious. com / post? url = http % 3a % 2f % 2frockrivertimes. com % 2f2011 % 2f05 % 2f18 % 2fpet - talk - precautionary - travel - tips - for - pet - owners % 2f & title = pet + talk % 3a + precautionary + travel + tips + for + pet + owners image : http : / / digg. com / submit? url = http % 3a % 2f % 2frockrivertimes. com % 2f2011 % 2f05 % 2f18 % 2fpet - talk - precautionary - travel - tips - for - pet - owners % 2f & title = pet + talk % 3a + precautionary + travel + tips + for + pet + owners & bodytext = from + college + of + veterinary + medicine % 2c + texas + a % 26amp % 3bm + university % 0d % 0a % 0d % 0amost + summer + days + are + filled + with + outdoor + activities + and + times + spent + on + vacation. + as + the + summer + months + start + to + approach % 2c + it + is + necessary + to + understand + the + types + of + diseases + that + may + affect + your + pets + when + they + travel. + so % 2c + if + you % e2 % 80 % 99re + the + outdoor + type + and + y image : http : / / www. facebook. com / sharer. php? u = http % 3a % 2f % 2frockrivertimes. com % 2f2011 % 2


the + outdoor + type + and + y image : http : / / www. facebook. com / sharer. php? u = http % 3a % 2f % 2frockrivertimes. com % 2f2011 % 2f05 % 2f18 % 2fpet - talk - precautionary - travel - tips - for - pet - owners % 2f & t = pet + talk % 3a + precautionary + travel + tips + for + pet + owners image : http : / / www. reddit. com / submit? url = http % 3a % 2f % 2frockrivertimes. com % 2f2011 % 2f05 % 2f18 % 2fpet - talk - precautionary - travel - tips - for - pet - owners % 2f & title = pet + talk % 3a + precautionary + travel + tips + for + pet + owners image : http : / / www. stumbleupon. com / submit? url = http % 3a % 2f % 2frockrivertimes. com % 2f2011 % 2f05 % 2f18 % 2fpet - talk - precautionary - travel - tips - for - pet - owners % 2f & title = pet + talk % 3a + precautionary + travel + tips + for + pet + owners image : http : / / twitter. com / home /? status = http % 3a % 2f % 2frockrivertimes. com % 2f2011 % 2f05 % 2f18 % 2fpet - talk - precautionary - travel - tips - for - pet - owners % 2f image : http : / / rockrivertimes. com / 2011 / 05 / 18 / pet - talk - precautionary - travel - tips - for - pet - owners / feed copyright © 2009 the rock river times. all rights reserved.


garden cities of to - morrow by ebenezer howard among the many ' utopian ' proposals of the 19th century, this particular short text stands out. howard was a 19th century british reformer and city planner. he was influenced by bellamy ' s looking backwards. he saw new, planned towns as a necessary counterbalance to the squalid, dickensian 19th century london. these towns would balance urban and rural occupations, and include a whole range of amenities which we have come to take for granted : libraries, museums, schools, wide avenues, and a mix of commercial and residential zones. howard strove to keep a balance between the community and individual needs, and to operate within the framework of capitalism, rather than rejecting or attempting to replace it. this book was originally published in 1898 as to - morrow, and reissued in 1902 as garden cities of to - morrow. the first garden city, built under the aegis of howard, letchworth, was founded in 1903 ( howard was one of the first residents ). later he founded a second garden city, welwyn, 1919. both, now london suburbs, are still very much in existence and proved successful over time, with its residents, in particular, in better health than the general population. howard ' s proposal had a great influence on urban planning in the 20th century, particularly post - wwii. the american urban planning critic, lewis mumford, was one of howard ' s proponents. in the history of planned societies, ebenezer howard stands out as one of the successes, even though he is little - known other than to architects and urban planners. production notes : since the original book is hard to obtain, i used the 1967 mit press edition, omitting all new material. the pagination of this etext reflects the mit edition. a couple of start - of - chapter quotes are identified in the mit edition as belonging to the first edition. these are printed in green in this etext.


how much do you know about our constitution? if you ’ re like most australians your answer would probably be, “ not much ”! we all know there is something called “ the constitution ” and we know that the constitution has been a good thing, yet we know very little about what ’ s in it, or how it works in practice. the constitution is in fact the keystone of our parliamentary and legal system. it protects our democracy and our liberties. from time to time, assorted prominent people suggest that australia ’ s constitution is “ badly in need of reform ” and that we should now embark on a large scale process of “ constitutional review ”. these comments have set alarm bells ringing in the minds of many australians who regard such attempts to “ reform ” our constitution with great reserve, if not suspicion. written constitutions exist in many countries and have been established for very good reasons – maintaining law and order and protecting citizens from abuses of power and authority – including, particularly, abuses by governments. it is difficult for many australians who, if native born, have never experienced serious domestic turbulence, or civil wars, or openly oppressive government regimes, to appreciate fully the benefits of such civil quietness. nevertheless most of us would agree that we should always be alert against any attempt to undermine the liberties we currently enjoy. with these thoughts in mind the samuel griffith society was formed in 1992, and the fact that hundreds of australians have since joined the society indicates the general concern to uphold a constitution which has served us so well for so long. sir samuel griffith was, from 1903 until 1919, the first chief justice of the high court of australia. it is widely accepted that he was primarily responsible for writing the first constitutional draft of 1891. this document became the basis for our constitution, under which the six australian self - governing colonies came together to form a federation. the proper roles of federal and state governments under the constitution are of continuing and vital importance. the samuel griffith society ’ s prime role is to ensure that proposals to change the australian constitution will be subjected to the most intense scrutiny. constitutional change may well be desirable from time to time, but it should only occur after exhaustive, community - wide debate, leading up to consideration by the australian people under the referendum provisions of s. 128 of the constitution. the society now appeals to all australians to join in upholding their constitution – not only because it has served us well in the past, but also to ensure it continues to serve well future generations.


analyzing the dynamic hydrologic conditions of the sandhills is critical for water and range management, sustainability of the sandhills ecosystem as well as for dune stability. there are complex models available to quantify both surface and subsurface hydrological processes. however, we present in this study an application of a relatively simple model to arrive at best estimates of the water balance components. using the thornthwaite - mather ( tm ) model, water balance components were estimated for 4 automated weather data network ( awdn ) weather monitoring stations. estimated averages of the water balance components suggested that mean annual precipitation of these four sites was only about 420 mm but water loss through plant evapotranspiration ( et ) was 861 mm, with pet of about 1214 mm. our investigation shows that there was surplus of water between december and march and a deficit occurs at the start of the growing season in may and extends through senescence in september - october. this study also suggests that the high plains aquifer possibly met the plant water requirement during this deficit period as well as during the soil water extraction period, from may through september. sridhar, venkataramana and hubbard, k. g.. ( 2010 ). " estimation of the water balance using observed soil water in the nebraska sandhills ". journal of hydrologic engineering, 15 ( 1 ), 70 - 78. http : / / dx. doi. org / 10. 1061 / ( asce ) he. 1943 - 5584. 0000157


while our direct knowledge of black holes in the universe is limited to what we can observe from thousands or millions of light years away, a team of chinese physicists has proposed a simple way to design an artificial electromagnetic ( em ) black hole in the laboratory. in the journal of applied physics, huanyang chen at soochow university and colleagues have presented a design of an artificial em black hole designed using five types of composite isotropic materials, layered so that their transverse magnetic modes capture em waves to which the object is subjected. the artificial em black hole does not let em waves escape, analogous to a black hole trapping light. in this case, the trapped em waves are in the microwave region of the spectrum. the so - called metamaterials used in the experiment are artificially engineered materials designed to have unusual properties not seen in nature. metamaterials have also been used in studies of invisibility cloaking and negative - refraction superlenses. the group suggests the same method might be adaptable to higher frequencies, even those of visible light. ' development of artificial black holes would enable us to measure how incident light is absorbed when passing through them, ' says chen. ' they can also be applied to harvesting light in a solar - cell system. '


a small room in xultaºn indicates that the mayan calendar goes well beyond 2012. in 2008, william saturno, who works at the archaeology department at boston university, us, began a systematic archaeological investigation in the maya ruins of xultaºn, northeastern guatemala. xultaºn was first reported in 1915, and it is considered the largest unexcavated maya city. it was until 2010 that a mural painting was found in a structured designated as 10k - 2. “ max chamberlain, one of my undergraduate students found remnants of paint in a looters ’ excavation during his lunch hour while doing survey and mapping in the residential areas of xultaºn. it was most definitely not a temple. it is a room in what seems a residential context, ” says saturno. the archaeologist believes the room might have been used by scribes or calendar priests, the official record keepers of the community who were tightly connected to the kings. according to david stuart, schele professor of mesoamerican art and writing at the university of texas, who deciphered the glyphs, the walls can be compared to a whiteboard in an office where people write possible solutions to problems yet to be resolved. this is the first time that archaeologists find a maya house containing artwork on its walls. the paintings depict men in black uniforms as well as calendrical cycles such as the 260 - day ceremonial calendar, the 365 - day solar calendar, the 584 - day cycle of the planet venus and the 780 - day cycle of mars. “ there are tiny glyphs all over the wall, bars and dots presenting columns of numbers. it ’ s the kind of thing that only appears in one place — the dresden codex, which the maya wrote many centuries later. we ’ ve never seen anything like it, ” says stuart. the small room ( roughly 2 x 2 metres ) was built in the 9th century. its paintings, astronomical tablets created by the local scribe, try to seek harmony between the sky events and sacred rituals. “ xultaºn numbers may have been devised to create schemes for synchronising predictable events connected with the movements of mars, venus, the moon and possibly mercury. why these four particular numbers were used, which range in duration from 935 to 6703 years, is uncertain, ” wrote the researchers in a paper published in the may issue of the journal science — their research was supported by the national geographic society. the dresden codex, a manuscript consisting of 39 sheets


in duration from 935 to 6703 years, is uncertain, ” wrote the researchers in a paper published in the may issue of the journal science — their research was supported by the national geographic society. the dresden codex, a manuscript consisting of 39 sheets inscribed on both sides that contains astronomical calculations, is perhaps the most - well known maya calendar, but it ends after 13 baktuns ( a baktun is a 144, 000 - day cycle ). the codex has caused a lot of speculation about the end of the world, but there is no sign that the mayan calendar ends in december 2012. the numbers painted in xultaºn, which predate the codices by some 500 years, reach well beyond 2012. “ it ’ s like the odometer of a car, with the maya calendar rolling from the 120, 000 to 130, 000, ” said co - author anthony aveni, professor of astronomy and anthropology at colgate university. “ the car gets a step closer to the junkyard as the numbers turn over ; the maya just start over. ” the 2012 end - of - the - world prediction has caused much controversy. “ one number on the wall relates a period of more than 6, 700 years, of that is counting forward from the date of the painting then, yes [ this paintings contain information well beyond 2012 ]. the year 2012 doesn ’ t figure into ancient maya thought in any way. this is a pop culture phenomenon, not one that would be recognised by the maya, ” says the archaeologist. archaeologist sylvanus morley ( 1833 - 1948 ) mapped xultaºn, whose name means “ rock, ’ in the 1920s, and thousands of structures still remain uncounted. “ it ’ s weird that the xultaºn finds exist at all ” ¦ such writings and artwork on walls don ’ t preserve well in the maya lowlands, especially in a house buried only a meter below the surface, ” says saturno. there are many other structures at xultaºn, and the mayanists hope to further explore the structures in the future. xultaºn is not as big as tical, but 99 per cent of its buildings, according to stuart, are yet to be excavated.


slides ( ppt, pdf ) many of the greatest advances in imaging technology ( motion pictures, electron microscopes, mri, etc. ) enabled us to capture and see the world in ways that were not previously possible. it ' s reasonable to expect that imaging breakthroughs of the future will continue to bend the limits of what we can and cannot see and produce new types of ( previously ) impossible images. impossible images have exciting applications in the field of computer vision. for example, analysis could be vastly simplified if there were no occlusions, i. e., if it were possible to see all sides of an object or scene in a single image. similarly, cameras that remove complex illumination effects such as shadows and interreflections could dramatically enhance the performance of existing algorithms. this talk will explore the creation of such images and their implications for computer vision and graphics. steve seitz is an associate professor in the department of computer science and engineering at the university of washington. he received his b. a. in computer science and mathematics at the university of california, berkeley in 1991 and his ph. d. in computer sciences at the university of wisconsin, madison in 1997. following his doctoral work, he spent one year visiting the vision technology group at microsoft research, and subsequently two years as an assistant professor in the robotics institute at carnegie mellon university. he joined the faculty at the university of washington in july 2000. he was twice awarded the david marr prize for the best paper at the international conference of computer vision, and has received an nsf career award, an onr young investigator award, and an alfred p. sloan fellowship. professor seitz is interested in problems in computer vision and computer graphics. his current research focuses on capturing the structure, appearance, and behavior of the real world from digital imagery


when i recently priced out a new pc, i opted for one that had as a standard feature error correction code ( ecc ) memory - - a type of system memory that supports advanced error correction. i was concerned that without ecc, i ' d be more prone to memory errors and was willing to pay a little extra for the insurance policy. there ' s no question ecc memory comes at a premium. not only is the memory itself more expensive, but the technology required to support it must be built into the motherboard of the computer that uses it ( which, in turn, raises the price of the system again ). to understand what ecc is really for, you have to delve into the history of commodity pc memory. history of error correction in memory when the desktop pc first appeared, memory was not only an expensive commodity, but it was also far more prone to errors than it is today. the traditional stopgap for memory errors was a technique called parity, where each byte of memory had an additional ninth bit associated with it as an error - checking measure. if the parity check failed, the system would be stopped to prevent data corruption. however, there were four problems to this approach : the only way to deal with a memory error was to shut down the whole system. this often meant lost work, even if you saved often ( simply because the process of saving was that much slower! ). parity didn ' t protect against there being an error in two bits of a given byte. while the chances of this happening are statistically very low, it was still seen as a defect in the design - - especially if the amount of information processed by computers as a whole was exploding geometrically each year, thereby increasing the odds of memory errors in general. parity memory was slightly more expensive than regular memory, and as the pc market became more competitive, parity was one of the first features to be dropped entirely from lower - end pcs. the quality of memory components increased dramatically over time, drastically reducing the need for aggressive error - checking. because of these issues, parity memory gradually faded from common use. today it ' s scarcely even offered. error correction code resembles auto insurance another technology eventually arose as a replacement for parity : error correction code. ecc has several advantages over parity. for one, it can detect and repair single - bit errors and do so without having to stop the whole system. multiple - bit errors will still return a parity error, but the odds of this happening are


kernel and its essential services being loaded. this is partly why, when some people tried to upgrade from windows 98 to xp on the same hardware, xp bluescreened when 98 hadn ' t. xp was that much more scrupulous about memory quality and wasn ' t going to allow itself to run if there was a risk of data corruption. vista adds another element to this mix - - address space layout randomization - - which guarantees that parts of memory that previously might not have been used in an older version of windows now are. since memory ' s as good as it is these days, who is ecc really for? " if your job is data, then ecc is for you, " says sanor. the more rigorous the need for data precision, i. e., cad, engineering, math and finances, the more useful ecc will be ( and the easier it will be to justify the cost ). the bottom line : most servers should have error correcting code memory, as should high - end workstations. but it ' s hard to cost - justify adding ecc memory to a commodity desktop pc. what matters more in a desktop pc is that the motherboard, power supply and other elements are well - engineered. about the author : serdar yegulalp is editor of windows insight ( formerly the windows power users newsletter ), a blog site devoted to hints, tips, tricks and news for users and administrators of windows nt, windows 2000, windows xp, windows server 2003 and vista. he has more than 12 years of windows experience under his belt and contributes regularly to searchwincomputing. com and searchsqlserver. com. this was first published in april 2007


visualization of model output visualization of output from mathematical or statistical models is one of the best ways to introduce introductory geoscience students to the results and behavior of sophisticated models. example of good sites include : - climate impact of quadrupling atmospheric co2 : an overview of gfdl climate model results ( more info ) - ccm3 t170 cloud and precipitation simulation ( more info ) a beautiful simulation of global atmospheric circulation. - global fluid dynamics laboratory ( gdfl ) gallery ( more info ) of climate model simulations, storms, stratospheric circulation, etc. - nasa giss global change data access has links to model output like this. - mantle convection movies on - line at caltech ( more info ) includes a discussion of assumptions and science behind simulation. - animations of plate tectonics and more ( more info ) from tanya atwater at ucsb. these are conceptual visualizations showing the evolution of plate boundaries and plate movements - geophysical and geologic java applets, movies, animations, articles, tutorials, class notes, etc ( more info ) has several links to mantle convection movies, plate tectonics, and other interesting links. - florida state university weather pages ( more info ) with qt movies of forecast model output and other interesting information. - pacific northwest mesoscale model ( mm5 ) weather forecasts ( more info ) this is an incredible site with an enormous amounts of imagery related to pacific northwest weather forecast model output. - northamerican plots of temp, pressure, winds, dew point, etc. great site with model output ( more info ) - noaa / pmel / tao el nino distributed numerical simulations - commonwealth bureau of meteorology : forecast enso conditions ( more info ) - geomagnetic and solar activity forecast service ( more info )


once the preserve of science fiction, increasingly sophisticated robotic devices are vying for a place side by side with humans in the real world. at italy ' s sant ' anna university, a bionic arm commanded by the human brain or a limb extension that allows rescuers to lift rubble after earthquakes are just some of the futuristic innovations in the pipeline. " the idea is to get robots out of factories where they have shown their worth and to transform them into household machines which can live together with humans, " says professor paolo dario, director of the college ' s bio - robotics department. the university in the historic town of pisa in tuscany is a veritable factory of ideas. researchers here are working on projects ranging from a robot that can come to your door to collect your recycling to tomatoes that slow the effects of ageing and plants that survive underwater to help flood - prone regions of the world. " you can innovate here. whoever has a project gets help, ideas are not blocked. we are investing in individuals, " the rector of sant ' anna, maria chiara carrozza, a professor of bio - robotics said in an interview. the dustcart looks like the famous r2 - d2 from star wars with its laser scanner and location sensors. the idea is that it can work through phone bookings to come to your street at a fixed time to collect your waste. " we tested it for two months with 15 families living in one of the towns near here. everything worked well but there are still some problems to sort out, " said pericle salvini, a member of the team behind the project. " first of all it is slow for security reasons and it sometimes blocks the traffic. also it cannot legally be on the road since there is no type of insurance for this type of robot in case of an accident, " he said. professor dario also heads up a project entitled " the robot companions for citizens " which is one of six contestants for a european union prize of one billion euros ( $ 1. 2 billion ) in funding spread out over a decade. marco controzzi, who is working on a bionic arm, says it will operate by using electrodes attached to the skin or implanted in your head. " it will move only according to your intentions, " he said, adding that powering it would be easy as it can run on just two mobile phone batteries. the exoskeleton or " body extender ", a prototype costing a million euros, meanwhile, is a kind


two years ago, i wrote a post over at feministe calling out google doodles – described by google as “ changes that are made to the google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists ” – for pretending women haven ’ t existed for most of history. at the time, i counted only 8 women out of the 109 birthdays that had been celebrated in the program ’ s history. this has irked me every time i ’ ve seen a doodle honoring a dude since i wrote that post but i stopped blogging, got a full time job, and never went back to count again. until this morning, when i saw that today ’ s doodle is honoring howard carter, the british archaeologist credited with discovering egyptian king tutankhamen ’ s tomb and accused, by some, of stealing artifacts from his famous find. i wondered, ‘ how is google doing on representing women ’ s history in 2012? ’ the answer is sad and disappointing, if not surprising. of 48 global google doodles honoring birthdays in 2012, 5 have honored women. that ’ s 10 percent. [ citation ] really, google? women are more than 50 % of the world but you insist, in the way that you mark historical achievement, that only 10 % of notable historical humans are female? with all the serious challenges women face, why is this important? what i wrote back in 2010 still stands : because we ’ ve lived with the myth that men created the world and everything good in it for long enough. as long as men get to designate who and what in history is important, young women will continue to learn that all their sex has contributed throughout all of history is their wombs. if we can ’ t see ourselves as the inventors, artists, revolutionaries and creators that came before, how the hell are we supposed to fashion ourselves into the modern versions? schools certainly aren ’ t doing a very good job in this department and since it processes over a billion searches a day, google plays an increasingly important role in how and what young people learn. the company recently posted a job opening for a doodler in mountain view. google, like many of its tech counterparts, would do well to realize that more female voices in the room are proven to be better for business. in this case, a woman who was willing to teach them about half a world of history could do a whole world of good.


fight the heat with deep impact ' s edible comet 15 jul 2003 ( source : jet propulsion laboratory ) newsletter for the deep impact mission welcome to the nearly 7, 000 of you who have told us you want to know more about the deep impact mission. we are currently in phase c / d. during this 34 - month period, the twin spacecraft - the projectile impactor and the observing flyby spacecraft, and their science instruments are being built and the software that will drive them is being designed and tested. all factors will work together to make this the first mission to look deep beneath the surface of a comet. for more about the mission, visit the deep impact web site at http : / / deepimpact. jpl. nasa. gov or http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu. mission update with principal investigator dr. mike a ' hearn for the latest on the deep impact mission, take a look at the pi ' s update. dr. mike a ' hearn writes to tell us about the current status of the mission, the construction of both spacecraft and our science team ' s most recent research. update page : http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu / mission / update. html send your name to a comet! if you haven ' t joined the over 200, 000 people who have registered to have their name put on the side of the impactor that will make a huge crater in comet tempel 1, check out http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu / sendyourname / sign up before it ' s too late. don ' t miss the boat - uh, or the impactor. what a blast! the science team continues to develop tools for visualizing and analyzing the impact. jim richardson, a graduate student working with prof. jay melosh, has developed a useful tool that will allow us to vary the orientation of a simulated impact until we can reproduce our observations. ultimately, these simulations will be used to understand the physical processes that occur in the cometary nucleus based on theories of hypervelocity impacts into solid bodies. we have posted two of these simulations on the web page for your viewing. the animations show the field of view of the two cameras. hey kids - cool off with an edible comet! looking for a way to cool down on those hot summer afternoons? make a comet model and eat it! this is an activity the whole family can do together. make an ice cream comet and add


. hey kids - cool off with an edible comet! looking for a way to cool down on those hot summer afternoons? make a comet model and eat it! this is an activity the whole family can do together. make an ice cream comet and add your own " cometary candy debris. " science never tasted so good! did you know? cool fact! did you know that the deep impact spacecraft won ' t be the only " observer " during our encounter with comet tempel 1 on july 4th, 2005? while the flyby spacecraft and impactor do their job, an international group of professional and amateur astronomers will watch the " cometary fireworks " from earth. what are they doing to gear up for this incredible event? well, they ' ve been watching comet tempel 1 since the year 2000. to see some of their images visit our small telescope science program web site and take a look at http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu / stsp /. questions from you : will the impact knock the comet off its path and send it somewhere else? no. you can think of the impactor hitting the comet in the same way as a pebble hitting the side of an 18 - wheeler. in both cases, there is a small effect in terms of adding energy to the target and subtracting it from the projectile, but again, in both cases, the impacts are not strong enough to knock the truck or the comet off their course. mission brain twister : the flyby spacecraft has a solar panel to take in the sun ' s energy and turn it into power for the spacecraft. the early concept for the solar panel was that it be one piece. during the design phase, the engineers decided they needed a larger panel to provide enough energy for the entire spacecraft. now the spacecraft has two panels that are hinged. why was the hinge necessary? important to our deep impact outreach team are our master educators ( solar system educator program ) and our ambassadors to the public ( solar system ambassadors ). these people are specially trained in the deep impact mission and its activities. if you are interested in having an ssep educator give a workshop in your area, or you think you might want an ambassador to speak at a public event, go to : http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu / disczone / community. html contact those organizations directly, or contact us at : http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu / feedback. html.


http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu / disczone / community. html contact those organizations directly, or contact us at : http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu / feedback. html. calling all girl scouts! did you know that deep impact is part of a new nasa partnership with the girl scouts of the usa? leader trainers from across the country are excited about the deep impact activities to make ice cream comets and comet models out of recyclable materials. for a large event, you can even earn the nasa solar system patch for your scouts. ask your council to check into schedules for nasa trainings this year. or, you can go to our web site activities and try them yourself : http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu / educ / index. html some scout leaders and troops are already planning to throw community star parties in their area the night of the deep impact encounter, july 4th, 2005. you could be one of them. talk to your local observatory, university or library about a community partnership with your troop or council and contact us to let us know your plans at : http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu / feedback. html. deep news features information about the mission, the deep impact web site and our products and special programs. the deep impact mission is a partnership among the university of maryland ( umd ), the california institute of technology ' s jet propulsion laboratory ( jpl ) and ball aerospace & technology corp. deep impact is a nasa discovery mission, eighth in a series of low - cost, highly focused space science investigations. deep impact offers an extensive outreach program in partnership with other comet and asteroid missions and institutions to benefit the public, educational and scientific communities. http : / / deepimpact. umd. edu.


the making of arduino how five friends engineered a small circuit board that ’ s taking the diy world by storm the picturesque town of ivrea, which straddles the blue - green dora baltea river in northern italy, is famous for its underdog kings. in 1002, king arduin became the ruler of the country, only to be dethroned by king henry ii, of germany, two years later. today, the bar di re arduino, a pub on a cobblestoned street in town, honors his memory, and that ’ s where an unlikely new king was born. the bar is the watering hole of massimo banzi, the italian cofounder of the electronics project that he named arduino in honor of the place. arduino is a low - cost microcontroller board that lets even a novice do really amazing things. you can connect an arduino to all kinds of sensors, lights, motors, and other devices and use easy - to - learn software to program how your creation will behave. you can build an interactive display or a mobile robot and then share your design with the world by posting it on the net. released in 2005 as a modest tool for banzi ’ s students at the interaction design institute ivrea ( idii ), arduino has spawned an international do - it - yourself revolution in electronics. you can buy an arduino board for just about us $ 30 or build your own from scratch : all hardware schematics and source code are available for free under public licenses. as a result, arduino has become the most influential open - source hardware movement of its time. the little board is now the go - to gear for artists, hobbyists, students, and anyone with a gadgetry dream. more than 250 000 arduino boards have been sold around the world — and that doesn ’ t include the reams of clones. " it made it possible for people do things they wouldn ’ t have done otherwise, " says david a. mellis, who was a student at idii before pursuing graduate work at the mit media lab and is the lead software developer of arduino. there are arduino - based breathalyzers, led cubes, home - automation systems, twitter displays, and even dna analysis kits. there are arduino parties and arduino clubs. google has recently released an arduino - based development kit for its android smartphone. as dale dougherty, the editor


home - automation systems, twitter displays, and even dna analysis kits. there are arduino parties and arduino clubs. google has recently released an arduino - based development kit for its android smartphone. as dale dougherty, the editor and publisher of make magazine, the bible of diy builders, puts it, arduino has become " the brains of maker projects. " but arduino isn ’ t just an open - source project that aims to make technology more accessible. it ’ s also a start - up company run by banzi and a group of friends, and it ’ s facing a challenge that even their magic board can ’ t solve : how to survive success and grow. " we need to make the next jump, " banzi tells me, " and become an established company. " arduino rose out of another formidable challenge : how to teach students to create electronics, fast. it was 2002, and banzi, a bearded and avuncular software architect, had been brought on by idii as an associate professor to promote new ways of doing interactive design — a nascent field sometimes known as physical computing. but with a shrinking budget and limited class time, his options for tools were few. like many of his colleagues, banzi relied on the basic stamp, a microcontroller created by california company parallax that engineers had been using for about a decade. coded with the basic programming language, the stamp was like a tidy little circuit board, packing the essentials of a power supply, a microcontroller, memory, and input / output ports for attaching hardware. but the basic stamp had two problems, banzi discovered : it didn ’ t have enough computing power for some of the projects his students had in mind, and it was also a bit too expensive — a board plus basic parts could cost about us $ 100. he also needed something that could run on macintosh computers, which were ubiquitous among the idii designers. what if they could make a board that suited their needs themselves? banzi had a colleague from mit who had developed a designer - friendly programming language called processing. processing was rapidly gaining popularity because it allowed even inexperienced programmers to create complex — and beautiful — data visualizations. one of the reasons for its success was an extremely easy - to - use integrated development environment, or ide. banzi wondered if they could create similar software tools to code a microcontroller instead of graphics on a screen. a student in the program, hernando


success was an extremely easy - to - use integrated development environment, or ide. banzi wondered if they could create similar software tools to code a microcontroller instead of graphics on a screen. a student in the program, hernando barragan, took the first steps in that direction. he developed a prototyping platform called wiring, which included both a user - friendly ide and a ready - to - use circuit board. it was a promising project that continues to this day, but banzi was already thinking bigger : he wanted to make a platform that was even simpler, cheaper, and easier to use. banzi and his collaborators were strong believers in open - source software. since the purpose was to create a quick and easily accessible platform, they felt they ’ d be better off opening up the project to as many people as possible rather than keeping it closed. another factor that contributed to that decision was that after operating for five years, idii was running out of funds and was going to close its doors. faculty members feared their projects would not survive or would be misappropriated. " so we said, ‘ forget it, ’ " banzi recalls. " ‘ let ’ s make it open source. ’ " the open - source model had long been used to fuel innovation for software, but not hardware. to make it work, they had to find an appropriate licensing solution that could apply to their board. after some investigation, they realized that if they simply looked at their project differently, they could use a license from creative commons, the nonprofit group whose agreements are normally used for cultural works such as music and writing. " you could think of hardware as piece of culture you want to share with other people, " banzi says. to make the board, the group had a specific, student - friendly price as their goal : $ 30. " it had to be the equivalent of going out to dinner at a pizza place, " banzi says. they also wanted to make it quirky, something that would stand out and be cool - looking to erudite geeks. if other boards were often green, they ’ d make theirs blue ; while some manufacturers economized on input and output pins, they ’ d add plenty to their board. as a final touch, they added a little map of italy on the back of the board. " a lot of the design choices are weird for a real engineer, " banzi says with a knowing laugh, " but i ’ m not a real


as a final touch, they added a little map of italy on the back of the board. " a lot of the design choices are weird for a real engineer, " banzi says with a knowing laugh, " but i ’ m not a real engineer, so i did it in a silly way! " for one of the " real " engineers on the team, gianluca martino, the unconventional, meatball - surgery approach to circuit board design was enlightening. martino describes it as a " new way of thinking about electronics, " he says, " not in an engineering way, where you have to count electrodes, but a do - it - yourself approach. " the product the team created consisted of cheap parts that could easily be found if users wanted to build their own boards, such as the atmega328 microcontroller. but a key decision was to ensure that it would be, essentially, plug - and - play : something someone could take out of a box, plug into a computer, and use immediately. boards such as the basic stamp required that diyers shell out for half a dozen other items that added to the total cost. but for theirs, a user could just pull out a usb cable from the board and connect it to a computer — mac or pc — to program the device. " the philosophy behind arduino is that if you want to learn electronics, you should be able to learn as you go from day one, instead of starting by learning algebra, " says another member of the team, telecommunications engineer david cuartielles. the team would soon put that philosophy to the test. they handed 300 blank printed circuit boards to the idii students with a simple directive : look up the assembly instructions online, build your own board, and use it for something. one of the first projects was a homemade alarm clock that hung from the ceiling by a cable. whenever you hit the snooze button, the clock would rise tauntingly higher into the air until you just had to get up. soon other people heard about the boards. and they wanted one. the first customer was a friend of banzi ’ s, who ordered one unit. the project was starting to take off, but one major thing was missing — a name for their invention. one night over drinks at the local pub, it came to them : arduino, just like the bar — and the king. word of arduino quickly spread online, with no marketing or advertising. early on,


name for their invention. one night over drinks at the local pub, it came to them : arduino, just like the bar — and the king. word of arduino quickly spread online, with no marketing or advertising. early on, it attracted the attention of tom igoe, a professor of physical computing at the interactive telecommunications program at new york university and today a member of the core arduino team. igoe had been teaching courses to nontechnical students using the basic stamp but was impressed by arduino ’ s features. " they had the assumption that you didn ’ t know electronics and programming, that you didn ’ t want to configure an entire machine just so you could program a chip — you could just open up the board, press upload, and it works, " he says. " i was also impressed with the goal of a $ 30 price, which made it accessible. this was one of the key factors for me. " in that regard, the success of arduino owes a lot to the prior existence of processing and wiring. those projects gave arduino one of its essential strengths : the user - friendly programming environment. before arduino, coding a microcontroller brought with it a difficult learning curve. with arduino, even those with no previous electronics experience gained access to a previously impenetrable hardware world. now, beginners don ’ t have to learn much before they can build a prototype that actually works. it ’ s a powerful movement at a time when some of the most popular gadgets out there work as " black boxes " that are closed and patent protected. for banzi, this is perhaps the most important impact of arduino : the democratization of engineering. " fifty years ago, to write software you needed people in white aprons who knew everything about vacuum tubes. now, even my mom can program, " banzi says. " we ’ ve enabled a lot of people to create products themselves. " not all engineers love arduino. the more persnickety ones bemoan the product for dumbing down product creation and flooding the hobbyist market with lackluster goods. mellis, however, doesn ’ t see the innovation as devaluing the role of the engineer at all. " by providing a platform that lets the artist or designer get a little way in there, it makes it easier for them to work with engineers and say, ’ this is what i want to do, ’ "


the role of the engineer at all. " by providing a platform that lets the artist or designer get a little way in there, it makes it easier for them to work with engineers and say, ’ this is what i want to do, ’ " he says. " i don ’ t think it ’ s replacing the engineer ; it ’ s just facilitating that collaboration. " to fuel greater adoption of arduino, the team is exploring how to integrate it more deeply into the education system, from grade schools to colleges. several universities, including carnegie mellon and stanford, already use arduino. mellis has been studying how students and laypeople take to electronics in a series of workshops at the mit media lab. mellis invites 8 to 10 people to the lab, where they ’ re given a task to complete over the course of a day. the projects have included building ipod speakers, fm radios, and a computer mouse using some of the same components that arduino uses. but spreading the arduino gospel is only part of the challenge. the team must also keep up with demand for the boards. in fact, the arduino platform doesn ’ t consist of one type of board anymore — there ’ s now an entire family of boards. in addition to the original design, called the arduino uno, the new models include a more powerful board called the arduino mega, a compact board called the arduino nano, a waterproof board called the lilypad arduino, and a recently released, net - enabled board called the arduino ethernet. arduino has also created its own cottage industry for diy electronics. there are more than 200 distributors of arduino products around the world, from large companies such as sparkfun electronics, in boulder, colo., to mom - and - pop operations serving local needs. banzi recently heard from a man in portugal who quit his job at the phone company to sell arduino products from his home. arduino team member gianluca martino, who oversees production and distribution, says they ’ re working overtime to reach emerging markets such as china, india, and south america. at this point, he says, about 80 percent of the arduino audience is split between the united states and europe, with the rest scattered around the world. because the team can ’ t afford to stock hundreds of thousands of boards, they instead produce anywhere from 100 to 3000 per day at a manufacturing facility near ivrea. the team created


the united states and europe, with the rest scattered around the world. because the team can ’ t afford to stock hundreds of thousands of boards, they instead produce anywhere from 100 to 3000 per day at a manufacturing facility near ivrea. the team created a custom system for testing the pins on each board, which for the uno includes 14 digital i / o pins, 6 analog input pins, and another 6 pins for the power supply — a big quality - assurance challenge when you ’ re handling thousands of units a day. the arduino board is inexpensive enough for the team to promise to replace any board that doesn ’ t work. martino says the failure rate is below 1 percent. the arduino team is now earning enough to support two of its members as full - time employees and is making plans to bring even more circuit board power to the people. in september, at the maker faire, a convention in new york city sponsored by make magazine, the team launched its first board with a 32 - bit processor — an arm chip — up from the 8 - bit one of the past. this will serve the demand for powering more robust peripherals. the makerbot thing - o - matic, for example, is a 3 - d printer kit built on arduino, but it would benefit from a faster processor to achieve more complicated tasks. arduino got another boost this year when google released an arduino - based developer board for its android system. google ’ s android adk, or accessory development kit, is a platform that lets an android phone interact with motors, sensors, and other devices. you can build an android app that uses the phone ’ s camera, motion sensors, touch screen, and internet connectivity to control a display or robot, for example. enthusiasts say that the added android capability opens up the possibilities for arduino projects even more. the team is cautious, however, about overcomplicating arduino. " the challenge is finding a way to accommodate all the different things that people want to do with the platform, " mellis says, " without making it too complex for someone just getting started. " in the meantime, they ’ re enjoying their unlikely fame. fans travel from far away just to have a drink at the pub in ivrea where the phenomenon got its name. " people go to the bar and say, ’ we ’ re here because of the arduino board, ’ " banzi says. there ’ s just one problem, he adds with a laugh


our shoes neckerchief is designed with colorful renderings of shoes in the museumis costume institute collection. featuring an array of styled pumps and heels, our neckerchief is fit to satisfy the true shoes enthusiast. from earliest times, footwear has served as a reflection of current fashion trends and designersi visions. the more than two thousand shoes in the metropolitan museumis costume institute are cherished both as artifacts of social history and as inspirations for future styles. they allow a fascinating glimpse into the lives and times of those who made and wore them. balancing function and fantasy, the great designers of the twentieth century created some of the most beautiful shoes ever made, often adapting styles from the past with a contemporary sensibility. silk twill. imported. 22 ' ' x 22 ' '. - silk twill - 22 ' ' x 22 ' ' art historythe metropolitan museumis costume institute houses over 5, 000 examples of shoes throughout history and across cultures. the collection includes shoes dating back to the fourteenth century, in which materials used to make them included thick woven cloth, wool felt, and various grades of leather. shoes became more functional and affordable to the middle class as more technology and industrialization advanced around the late eighteenth century. it was not until the twentieth century that designers took creative reign on shoes, experimenting with materials, styles, and construction. shoes by designers and manufacturers such as roger vivier, salvatore ferragamo, vivienne westwood, herbert levine, manolo blahnik, and charles jourdan can be found in the costume institute collection.


there ' s one brewing in the midwest, another raging in the southeast and a third building in the southwest. they ' re regional, inter - state conflicts over distribution of dwindling groundwater resources. in the southeast, the army corps of engineers is under simultaneous attack by lawsuits from georgia, florida and alabama, each state accusing the corps of unfairly giving too much of their shared water resource to the others. it ' s a situation that could well worsen quickly as sea level rise begins to impact freshwater reserves including the everglades. in the southwest, it ' s the colorado river under pressure from several states and which, by treaty, is supposed to be shared with mexico. it is in the drought - stricken midwest, america ' s heartland, that the newest battles are occurring. the water wars are raging again in america ' s heartland, where drought - stricken states are pleading for the increasingly scarce water of the missouri river — to drink from their faucets, irrigate their crops and float the barges that carry billions of dollars of agricultural products to market. from montana to west virginia, officials on both sides have written president barack obama urging him to intervene — or not — in a long - running dispute over whether water from the missouri ' s upstream reservoirs should be released into the mississippi river to ease low water levels that have imperiled commercial traffic. the quarrel pits boaters, fishermen and tourism interests against communities downstream and companies that rely on the mississippi to do business. in oklahoma, they ' re reporting the drought has leveled off. it usually does by the time river beds look like this : and, in case you thought of drought as a seasonal scourge, think again. reuters is the latest to report that the drought that hammered america ' s midwest this summer is expanding threatening to devastate the winter wheat crop. even the region ' s deer population is being hard hit by drought - related disease. and in texas, severe drought is expected again this year and there ' s already not enough to meet the needs of residents and farmers. there is drought now extending from the carolinas to california, essentially coast to coast, from the gulf to the mississippi and missouri river headwaters. this year that drought extended into canada. how many years of this do you think we can handle before something gives?


allium family stinks so good bulbous, smelly, yet oh so good is one description of the allium genus, or onions. these popular rhizomes can be either perennial or biennial. the onion is native to the northern hemisphere, ethiopia, south africa and mexico. various species of onion have been cultivated since the earliest times and are universally important as vegetables, flavorings and medicinal plants. the smell that we associate with the onion is caused by sulfur compounds. these same compounds are what make the onion family good for our circulatory and digestive system. garlic, a member of this group, is the most pungent and highest in therapeutic value. it is also one of the most ancient herbs, recorded in babylonian times and placed in the tomb of tutankhamun around 52 bc. look for rich, well - drained soil in full sun to grow your choice of allium. a few varieties will tolerate more water or more shade. farmers suggest planting onions, garlic and chives as companions to deter pests, weeds and diseases. you can try your hand at propagating by seed sown in spring or by bulbils planted in autumn or spring. look for “ sets ” ( small bulbs ) at your local garden center for planting in your own container or garden. there are lots of options in this rich, flavorful category called allium. the allium ursinum is a carpeting perennial with a pervasive garlic smell and elliptic leaves. its rounded clusters of white, star - like flowers can be seen above the foliage in late spring and early summer. leaves are used to taste in salads, sandwiches, omelets and sauces. allium tuberosum ( chinese chives, garlic chives ) have flat, solid long leaves. sweetly scented white flowers appear in late summer. chopped leaves and flower buds are added to salads, soft cheeses and stir - fries. try your hand at growing an allium. joette is an avid gardener and prides herself on staying up - to - date on the latest gardening activities and tips. to share your gardening news, e - mail joreger [ at ] msn [ dot ] com.


blended learning | viewpoint 5 skills for blended - learning teachers in the seventh installment of their monthly column, blended learning experts michael b. horn and heather staker outline the five skills that will increasingly be important for many teachers in the future. - by michael horn, heather staker as more schools adopt blended - learning models, the role of the teacher is shifting. as a result, teachers need different skills to be successful. although it is hard to generalize across the landscape of blended learning because of the rapid pace of innovation in the models, the differences between the models, and the continued changes in technology, there are five common skills that teachers will likely need to be successful in a blended - learning environment. 1 ) comfort with ' chaos ' one of the biggest shifts in a blended - learning environment is often that students will be engaged in different activities and working on different concepts and skills. teachers must learn to be comfortable facilitating learning in this environment and creating a culture that sets high academic expectations and encourages students to own their learning. a teacher shouldn ' t be alarmed at seeing students conferring with peers while she is working in small groups or one - on - one with other students. if teachers invest in creating a strong culture up front with clear norms and expectations, blended learning will amplify that culture. if there is a negative culture in place, however, blended learning is likely to amplify that as well. 2 ) student - learning data analysis and decision making many groups make a big deal out of teachers using more data to drive better instruction for students, but it ' s tough to do in the traditional classroom. teachers only receive real data on how students are doing every few weeks, and they don ' t have a lot of time to do anything with it. as the charter school growth fund ' s alex hernandez writes, the shift to online learning will produce a " fire hose of real - time student data. " responding to individual student data in real time - - or even on a daily basis, as happens in many blended - learning models today - - is a significant and important shift for teachers to master. not every teacher will become a data automaton of course, but what will help teachers is that increasingly they won ' t have to be the ones actively collecting every piece of data ; instead they will be able to spend more time analyzing and figuring out what to do about it, coupled of course with their own " data " that they collect on students from their intuition and observations. 3 ) targeted learning opportunities historically, teachers have been


; instead they will be able to spend more time analyzing and figuring out what to do about it, coupled of course with their own " data " that they collect on students from their intuition and observations. 3 ) targeted learning opportunities historically, teachers have been forced to deliver a relatively unified, monolithic educational experience. teachers will now need new skills to learn how to support students who are learning different things, at different paces, through different approaches. they will need to be able to facilitate different learning opportunities for students - - such as one - on - one tutoring, small - group instruction, project - based learning, and lectures. given that leading small - group interventions will be a major part of this, becoming masterful at that skill rather than lesson planning for an entire class is a good starting point. teachers increasingly won ' t have to be all things to all people and will have opportunities to specialize. as blended - learning models mature, there will be opportunities for team teaching and differentiated roles for teachers. some may be content experts, others learning coaches or facilitators, and still others might be non - academic teachers who look much more like caseworkers. not every teacher may have to be a pro at data analysis, for example. as public impact has written, increasingly many elementary school teachers, for example, may need to learn to be specialists in particular subjects. for example, one teacher may be an expert in math and science, another in language arts and social studies, and paraprofessionals can support students with social and behavioral skills and watch students during lunch and recess. 5 ) technological prowess because technology is becoming simpler to use and more ubiquitous in our daily lives, teachers won ' t actually need as much as people may think in the way of technology skills to teach in a blended - learning environment. still, they will likely need a few basic skills. as the international association for k - 12 online learning ' s ( inacol ) national standards for quality online teaching documents, teachers will need to be able to communicate via a variety of mediums, explore, identify, and use a variety of online tools to meet student needs, and be able to do basic troubleshooting - - such as helping students reset passwords, download plug - ins, and so forth. for many teachers, being able to teach effectively offline as well as online will be critical. michael horn is co - founder of innosight institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on education and innovation. heather staker is a senior education research fellow at


new underground lake is found in wonder cave of the ozarks springfield leader january 27, 1921 page 1 and 10. "... pool of undetermined size discovered by explorer in marvel cave, stone county by harold nelson " the natural wonders of marvel cave, located in stone county, 50 miles south of springfield, have gained further interest through the discovery of another underground lake of considerable extent. the lake connects with lake genevieve [ note : see page 157 in caves of missouri for map ], formerly considered the end of the waterway in the great cave. " the lake was discovered last week by pete alexander, owner of a drug store at branson. a partial exploration of the lake has been made and alexander is building a special collapsible boat to continue the exploration. a small passageway near the entrance of the cave makes it impossible to take a larger boat into the cave. r. h. condie, springfield boy scout executive, dr. g. d. callaway, director of the greene county health association, t. stanley skinner, dean of the drury college school of music, e. s. shipp and a representative of the the leader visited the cave yesterday to explore the new found lake, but due to the lack of equipment were unable to get to the shores of the lake. joins lake genevieve " the lake is beyond lake genevieve, which connects with no name river, a stream which was discovered many years ago. seven years ago a group of men from chicago and a st. louis newspaperman carried two air tanks through the passages of the cave leading to no name river and improvised a float on which one of the party floated down the river several hundred feet. he discovered lake genevieve, a lake a few hundred feet in width and in length. " that lake genevieve was the end of no name river was the belief of the men who explored the cave. last week alexander on the same float went 750 feet down the river, across lake genevieve and in the new lake. [ two or three lines missing. ] … entrance to the river or there is danger of becoming lost in the underground waterway. psize not determined " alexander said after his trip to the lake that he was unable to determine the size of the lake or the height of the ceiling over it. he was equipped with only a small carbide light. " the springfield men who visited the cave yesterday in an effort to view the new found lake were unable to reach its shores, although one of the number went down the river for some distance. " exploration work


with only a small carbide light. " the springfield men who visited the cave yesterday in an effort to view the new found lake were unable to reach its shores, although one of the number went down the river for some distance. " exploration work difficult. " it is with great difficulty that the river is reached from the outside. the distance is slightly more than 1, 000 feet from the chamber at the entrance of the cave. the first passage encountered on the trip to the river is known as the rock crawl. the passage is just large enough for a man to crawl through. the floor of the passage is rough and irregular and is made up of large rocks. it is [ 300? ] feet in length. water is encountered on the floor of the crawl. " at the end of rock crawl are two chambers probably a hundred feet in height and as much in length, while they vary in width from 25 to 50 feet. these chambers are known as the epsom salts chambers on account of the outcroppings of the salts on the walls. " at the end of the chambers another crawl, the dry [ dust? ] crawl 200 feet in length is encountered. unlike the first crawl this one is filled with a dry dust and bats, hundreds of them. this crawl ends in a chamber called pandemonium on account of the irregular shapes of the rocks in it. it is 60 feet high. " descend rope to river. " at one end of this chamber is found a ledge at the foot of which is the river. it is necessary to be lowered over this ledge to the river ’ s edge, 40 feet below. only a slender person could visit the river as the crevasse in the ledge in which the visitor must be lowered is only a foot wide in places and extremely hard to squeeze through. for travel on the river a float has been constructed. it is made of two air tanks held together with ropes and boards. the passenger lies down on the float and with a light fastened to his hat, paddles his way with his hands. a sudden turn to the side with the body would mean falling off the float and a bath in the cold water of the river. " cave is wonder place. " marvel cave, probably the most wonderful cave in the world, was purchased 31 years ago by w. h. lynch at that time connected with the diplomatic corps of the canadian government. he visited the place every year until seven years ago, when he and his daughter, miss mariam, went there to live. they


purchased 31 years ago by w. h. lynch at that time connected with the diplomatic corps of the canadian government. he visited the place every year until seven years ago, when he and his daughter, miss mariam, went there to live. they reside in a quaint old log cabin a quarter of a mile from the entrance to the cave. he owns not only the cave but 800 acres of timber land around it. although now nearly 80 years of age mr. lynch seldom misses a daily visit to the cave. " entrance to the cave is gained by descending stairs 150 feet in length. here the visitor alights on a pile of debris, millions of tons, which has fallen onto the floor of the great chamber. this chamber is between 165 to 185 feet in height [ missing lines ] the chamber, without removing the debris, could easily accommodated the ten - story landers building and still there would be room left. " monster stalagmite in cave. " in the chamber, among other features, is a stalagmite, 100 feet in diameter. it is called liberty bell on account of its bell shape. the size of this stalagmite raises some question as to the largest one in the country. recently newspaper articles stated that a stalagmite 30 feet in diameter in a cave at ha ha tonka was the largest one in the country. there are two rooms within the liberty bell in which the stalagmite at ha ha tonka would rest with room to spare. " residents of branson are now making efforts to interest members of the legislature in the cave and surrounding country as a state park. they point out that no official visit has ever been made in the cave by a state official although at several times they have been within a few miles of it. " in a letter from kevin s. lotter, senior manager, attractions & guest services at silver dollar city, " the article makes reference to the area of the cave we now call the lakes passage. originally called no - name river, the body of water explored in this area of the cave consists of two connected underground lakes. the smaller lake genevieve is connected to the larger lake miriam. " find this article at


continuing the space scenery series … nebulae are clouds of dust and gas in space ( the word ‘ nebula ’ comes the latin for ‘ cloud ’ ). they usually have stars forming within them, which gives them the aesthetically pleasing quality of being lit from the inside. visible in the southern sky, the great carina nebula ( also known as ngc 3372 ) is over 300 light - years wide. it is one of the milky way ’ s largest star forming regions. it is 7500 light years away and yet still easily visible to the naked eye. i ’ ll start with a fantastic widefield view. click for the 3300 × 2236 version : this image is one of the most detailed images ever captured of the carina nebula. it shows prominent dark molecular clouds – these clouds so thick ( relatively ) that they have become opaque. in reality they are less dense than, say, earth ’ s atmosphere. click for the 4000 × 1937 version : here is a view from earth – from the european southern observatory in chile. click for the 4000 × 3966 version : stellar winds from new stars burn away accumulations of dark dust creating a “ sculpted landscape ”. click for the 2825 × 1090 version : last, but not least, here is my favourite image. a new star ( not visible ) is slowly eroding the 1 light year wide pillar of gas and dust from inside. like many other new stars in this region, it is ejecting energetic beams of particles. the pillars will be completely destroyed to reveal a new open cluster of stars. the red stars are also newly formed but have already been freed from their clouds. click for the 2083 × 1918 version : follow @ kashfarooq


i ride my bike to work. it seems so pure. we ' re constantly urged to " go green " - - use less energy, shrink our carbon footprint, save the earth. how? we should drive less, use ethanol, recycle plastic and buy things with the government ' s energy star label. but what if much of going green is just bunk? al gore ' s group, repower america, claims we can replace all our dirty energy with clean, carbon - free renewables. gore says we can do it within 10 years. " it ' s simply not possible, " says robert bryce, author of " power hungry : the myths of ' green ' energy. " " nine out of 10 units of power that we consume are produced by hydrocarbons - - coal, oil and natural gas. any transition away from those sources is going to be a decades - long, maybe even a century - long process.... the world consumes 200 million barrels of oil equivalent in hydrocarbons per day. we would have to find the energy equivalent of 23 saudi arabias. " bryce used to be a left - liberal, but then : " i educated myself about math and physics. i ' m a liberal who was mugged by the laws of thermodynamics. " bryce mocked the " green " value of my riding my bike to work : " let ' s assume you saved a gallon of oil in your commute ( a generous assumption! ). global daily energy consumption is 9. 5 billion gallons of oil equivalent.... so by biking to work, you save the equivalent of one drop in 10 gasoline tanker trucks. put another way, it ' s one pinch of salt in a 100 - pound bag of potato chips. " how about wind power? " wind does not replace oil. this is one of the great fallacies, and it ' s one that the wind energy business continues to promote, " bryce said. the problem is that windmills cannot provide a constant source of electricity. wind turbines only achieve 10 percent to 20 percent of their maximum capacity because sometimes the wind doesn ' t blow. " that means you have to keep conventional power plants up and running. you have to ramp them up to replace the power that disappears from wind turbines and ramp them down when power reappears. " yet the media rave about denmark, which gets some power from wind. new york times columnist thomas friedman says, " if only we could be as energy smart as denmark. " " friedman doesn


ladies and gentlemen, for this post, i will look at how the younger dryas ( yd ) the most - well researched of the late glacial abrupt climate shifts, supposedly cut - off the thermohaline circulation ( thc ) causing an abrupt cooling event. the thc, also known as the atlantic meridional overturning circulation ( amoc ), is the method by which the ocean regulates global energy budgets by transporting heat and water across the globe and through the water column. by transporting heat from the equator polewards, together atmospheric circulation, heat is transported to mid - and high - latitude areas. the thc is driven by ocean currents which travel as a factor of sea - water density, affected by temperature and salinity. cold, saline water at high latitudes is transported to low latitudes via the oceans ' deep currents, warmer water is then transported from low - latitudes to replace this deficit. water from the northern atlantic sinks and flows to the southern hemisphere and eventually to the conveyors circulating the antarctic continent. here more cold, saline water joins and is transported to the indian ocean before interactions with the pacific basin. in areas of upwelling, especially in the pacific, cold deep water rises to the surface and is heated and evaporated leaving saltier water behind. such water flows north to join up with the gulf stream which travels from the gulf of mexico along the north american eastern seaboard and eventually towards nw europe. the evaporated heat from this maintains the relatively mild british climate for its latitude. evaporation, sea - ice formation and cooling within this process leaves very cool, saline water behind which sinks to the deep to re - start the process. since the thc relies on the sinking of cold, saline water in the polar regions, if a large volume of freshwater was dumped into the system, the water would become too light to sink. in this case, no warmer water would replace the regular sinking cold water and so the heat transfer to the polar regions would cease from the thc causing a rapid return to glaciation. please see figure 1 for a visual representation of the earth ' s ocean currents. | figure 1 : thermohaline circulation ( source : 1. tsc ) | interposed between the start of the holocene and the allerod / bolling warming stages, the yd cooled the earth from c. 12, 800 cal yr bp before coming to an abrupt stop c. 11, 500 cal yr bp. as temperatures rose


of the holocene and the allerod / bolling warming stages, the yd cooled the earth from c. 12, 800 cal yr bp before coming to an abrupt stop c. 11, 500 cal yr bp. as temperatures rose through the allerod and bolling warm stages, the laurentide ice sheet over north america retreated creating the largest north american lake by volume, lake agassiz. in these warm stages, the lake periodically released water to the north ( arctic ocean ), south ( gulf of mexico ) and east ( north atlantic ocean ) as shown by figure 2. | figure 2 : suggested overflow routes from lake aggasiz causing the younger dryas ( 2. broecker, 2006 ). note : the axes show latitude ( y ) and longitude ( x ) | however, it is widely believed that a large outburst of freshwater from aggasiz into the north atlantic caused the yd. this disrupted the thc plunging the northern hemisphere, and especially europe into a period of cooling once more. the evidence for such large outbursts affecting the thc and causing the yd is well summarised by teller et al. ( 2002 ). teller et al suggest that freshwater inputs to the thc as low as a 0. 1 sv flux ( where 1 sverdrup = 1 x 106 m3s - 1 ) may interrupt the formation of north atlantic deep water ( nadw ) which drives the cool, saline water in the deep thc of the north atlantic. data from lake agassiz outbursts suggest that a 0. 3 sv flood flux of 9500km3, the second largest recorded outburst, occurred 12. 9 ka cal yr bp in line with the beginning of the younger dryas. its route was through the great - lakes to the east and the st. lawrence river flowing nw into the north atlantic. if this flux was seen over a period of 1 year, it would be at least 6 times higher than the regular flow into the st. lawrence from agassiz. other authors have proposed different reasons for the inception of the yds which will be explored next time. following this, i will look at evidence for the yd ' s abrupt termination.


the comprehensive nuclear - test - ban treaty organization ( ctbto ) and the office of... at the seventh plenary meeting, it was decided to merge the previous task group 1 ( international and administrative boundaries ) and task group 2 ( core geo - database ), highly related and complementary at different levels and scales, into one single task group named " core geo - database ". the objectives of this task group are : to identify and prepare a global framework core data layers for the un systems ; to provide the international community with a working platform for the collection, management, analysis, visualization and sharing of sub - national data down to the 2nd sub - national level. this task groups is principally looking at the following set of fundamental layers : - international and administrative boundaries - human health : boundaries and facilities - human population : centers and distribution - infrastructure : roads, railways, airports, harbors, and navigation - bathymetry, topography and digital elevation model - hydrology : drainage, water bodies, watersheds the task group is looking at the issues that would insure that the different projects and initiatives taking place within the un, in relation to these layers, are converging towards the creation of an homogeneous and seamless un core geo - database. two specific projects are also directly attached to this task group : the international boundaries project ( focal point : ayako kagawa ). this project offers a 1 : 1 and 1 : 15 million - scale dataset, which reflects the cartography practice of the un cartographic section for the representation of international boundaries. due to the sensitivity linked to international boundaries, this layer is only accessible to the un community from boundaries. ungiwg. org. the second administrative level boundaries project ( salb ) ( focal point : firstname. lastname @ example. org, unsd and uncs ). this project launched in 2001 provides, for the un member states, the following information and data validated by the national mapping agencies of the respective countries : - the contact information of these national mapping agencies ; - the historic changes observed since 1990 at the 1st sub national level and since 2000 at the 2nd sub national level as well as well as maps ; - 2nd administrative level digital maps ( esri format ) for each period of representativity observed since january 2000. this project has also lead to the development of a specific coding scheme that allows the management of sub national data through time and space. more details about this project, the coding scheme, as well as the data already available can be downloaded


interest area : land use the bay area is one of the most expensive and challenging housing markets in the country. on average, local households spend 48 % of their income on housing, compared to 29 % for the country as a whole, and just 12 % can afford the median priced home. a quarter of bay area renters meet hud ’ s definition of severely housing burdened, dedicating more than 50 percent of their income to housing. anticipated growth will place even more pressure on the region ’ s housing market. the association of bay area governments ( abag ) projects an additional 1. 9 million people and 1. 6 million jobs by 2035. meanwhile, new funding for transit approved by bay area voters will add 100 new stations, many in already built - up areas, to the region ’ s existing 300 rapid transit stations and transit corridors. although the planned new transit facilities will help to accommodate much of the population growth, they also present a challenge. researchers generally agree that new transit investment will bring higher property values to the surrounding area ( except in the immediate vicinity of the transit station ). this could spur a process of gentrification, which will be beneficial to some – but not to those who cannot bear rent increases and are forced to leave the neighborhood. this report was prepared for abag as part of its development without displacement project funded by an environmental justice grant from caltrans. what : a public meeting to learn about and comment on options for setting a " target " or goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks for the san francisco bay area. who : the metropolitan transportation commission ( mtc ) and the association of bay area governments ( abag ) are hosting the workshop in conjunction with the california air resources board ( carb ), the bay area air quality management district and the san francisco bay conservation and development commission. donald shoup, ucla department of urban planning professor and author of the high cost of free parking, will speak february 24 about the critical reasons cities need to change their parking policies. in the high cost of free parking, donald shoup argues that parking policies distort transportation choices, debase urban design, damage the economy, and degrade the environment. he also proposes reforms designed to undo the damage caused by a century of bad planning for parking. some cities have already begun to adopt these reforms.


( cnn ) - - this week super fans from around the world are gathering in new york to celebrate the 159th birthday of the legendary consulting detective sherlock holmes. never mind that holmes is a fictional character. to this day, in books, tv and movies, sir arthur conan doyle ' s creation remains just as popular as he was when he debuted in the late 19th century. much of holmes ' appeal has always been his amazing mind - - how he is able to solve a seemingly insurmountable mystery through simple observation and deep thought. wouldn ' t we all like to borrow from his bag of mental tricks? just imagine the possibilities if you put holmes ' brain power to use in the workplace, the classroom or social situations. that ' s the premise of maria konnikova ' s fascinating new book, " mastermind : how to think like sherlock holmes. " konnikova, a columnist for scientific american and a doctoral student in psychology, explores the latest science to dissect the inner workings of the iconic detective ' s mind. in turn, konnikova uses holmes as an example of how anyone can learn to think more clearly, improve his or her memory and generally increase everyday mental power. cnn recently spoke to konnikova about the book and the benefits of learning to think like holmes. the following is an edited transcript : cnn : how did you become a fan of sherlock holmes? konnikova : i was introduced to sherlock holmes by my dad when i was young. we had a tradition every sunday night, he would read to us. different stories, different books. " the count of monte cristo, " " the three musketeers, " things kids would really enjoy. one sunday we started the sherlock holmes stories, and it was just a completely eye - opening experience. i remember sitting there riveted. it really stuck with me as i grew older. i realized how powerful they were from a literary standpoint. conan doyle was such a phenomenal writer. i don ' t think people appreciate just how good the work really is. he ' s masterful with voice, with conversation, with pacing, with description. he has it all down. i was also struck by how incredibly accurate his psychological observations were. sherlock holmes became this figure who predated modern psychology, neuroscience and our understanding of how the mind works by more than a century. combing through the stories, i thought it would be a fascinating way of looking at the mind by using this fictional character. cnn : can you briefly explain holmes


modern psychology, neuroscience and our understanding of how the mind works by more than a century. combing through the stories, i thought it would be a fascinating way of looking at the mind by using this fictional character. cnn : can you briefly explain holmes ' thought process? konnikova : holmes is really a mindful detective, someone who knows the true value of observation, which means being mindful and in the present moment, really taking in your surroundings, really taking in everything. that type of approach permeates all of his thinking. he ' s not just aware of his environment ; he ' s aware of himself ; he ' s aware of the contents of his own mind. he has a powerful knowledge of how he thinks, what mistakes he is likely to make. holmes puts it best when he says it ' s the difference between seeing and observing. cnn : what is the " brain attic " holmes talks about? konnikova : it ' s his analogy for how we store and process information. how is it that we take the world around us and we form it into the permanent memories that we will then use as the basis of future decisions, future thinking, of future knowledge. the reason he uses an attic is twofold. first, an attic is finite. you can ' t just keep stuffing things up there and expect it not to give. that ' s true of the mind as well. the human mind is more expandable than an attic, but there is this finite capacity for working knowledge. which is holmes ' second point, and why the analogy works so well. it doesn ' t just matter what you put up there ; it matters how you do it. so if you think about it like an attic in an old house, if there are just boxes everywhere filled with junk and none of them are labeled, you ' re not going to be able to find anything. what holmes tells you is be careful, label everything, make sure everything is organized and accessible. that way, not only will you know where to find it, but you will remember it better. we really only know what we can remember at any given moment. it doesn ' t matter if you memorized the information, and it ' s in your attic somewhere. if you can ' t access it when you need it, you might as well not know it at all. cnn : are there everyday benefits of learning to think like holmes? konnikova : absolutely, this type of approach can make you healthier, happier and sharper. cnn :


you need it, you might as well not know it at all. cnn : are there everyday benefits of learning to think like holmes? konnikova : absolutely, this type of approach can make you healthier, happier and sharper. cnn : where would you start? konnikova : the first thing to do - - and this is difficult in our modern environment - - but realize that multitasking is not your friend. when you multitask, you cannot think like sherlock holmes. that ' s just anathema to his mindful approach. if we take chunks out of the day where we focus, where we allow ourselves to just do one thing and nothing else, you ' ll find your mind becomes better at doing that one thing and better at managing multiple inputs, filtering out distractions and creating a cleaner slate for you to work. when you ' re cognitively busy, you ' re not thinking as clearly. if you ' re someone with a busy schedule who has to multitask all the time, even if you just practice this quiet mindfulness a few minutes a day, just let your mind focus on the present moment, it can make a huge difference in the clarity of your thinking. ( learn more about the book and read an excerpt on konnikova ' s website. )


charley : almost everything. for a start, we don ’ t really have one. when you ask a biologist, “ are viruses alive? ”, half of them will say yes, and half will say no. we don ’ t want a terrestrial - life - only definition. we want one that could apply elsewhere in the universe. this is important because nasa is trying to build an instrument to detect life elsewhere. so we can ’ t just head off and look for the molecules of life as we know it? charley : imagine if some historian wanted to know about the origin of france. most french people now have passports. so imagine the historian went out on an archaeological dig to look for french passports. that would be ridiculous. france as a nation has evolved over time, and only in the modern version do you get passports. same for life. you could say all life today has dna, but in the past, who knows? many biologists define life as anything that undergoes darwinian evolution. charley : we pretend that makes sense, but if you look it makes no sense at all. what is the unit of darwinian evolution? is it the gene? is it the cell? is it a multicellular organism? is a city evolving? how about gaia? is that a life form? so how would you define life? charley : to the extent that the question makes sense, as a “ far - from - equilibrium dissipative system ”. what do you mean by that? charley : a system that feeds on the free energy associated with the gradients in the environment. for example, a hurricane is a dissipative structure because it feeds on the free energy of air pressure, humidity and thermal gradients. hurricanes dissipate the free energy – they undo the gradients and bring the environment closer to equilibrium. that ’ s what life is. we take chemical energy and undo it – move it closer to equilibrium. why would you want to draw the line there? charley : if you ’ re going to draw a line anywhere between life and non - life, it makes sense to draw it on physical criteria. if you ’ re going to be black and white, let ’ s use the physicists ’ black and white. but you really should give up the black and white and go to a spectrum. by your definition, a hurricane and a star are both alive. are you really saying that? charley : if you want to chain me to a black and white view, then yes, i am. the distinction between


a federal medical panel recently recommended that all pregnant women receive the tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine during every pregnancy and that at - risk infants receive four doses of a newly approved meningococcal vaccine. the federal advisory committee for immunization practices voted 14 - 0 for the new tdap recommendation and 13 - 1 for the meningococcal vaccine recommendation. each vote had one abstention. acip ’ s recommendations are usually accepted by the u. s. centers for disease control and prevention, according to cidrap news. “ by getting tdap during pregnancy, maternal pertussis antibodies transfer to the newborn, likely providing protection against pertussis in early life, before the baby starts getting dtap [ the children ' s version of tdap ] vaccines, ” the cdc said, cidrap news reports. “ tdap will also protect the mother at time of delivery, making her less likely to transmit pertussis to her infant. ” acip also said that if women are not administered the tdap during pregnancy, they should receive it immediately after giving birth, before leaving the hospital if possible. the committee approved meningococcal vaccine, called the hibmency vaccine, is intended for use against haemophilus influenzae type b and neisseria meningitidis serogroups c and y. it was approved for use infants at increased risk for the disease. the cdc said those at increased risk include “ infants with recognized persistent complement pathway deficiencies and infants who have anatomic or functional asplenia including sickle cell disease. ” “ the majority of infant cases are caused by a type of the bacteria that are not prevented by meningococcal vaccines, ” the cdc said, cidrap news reports.


children, teens and entertainment media : the view from the classroom october, 2012. read the new york times story on the national survey of teachers we directed for common sense media, about how teachers view the impact of entertainment media on students ’ academic skills and social development. download the full report or visit common sense media ’ s research library for more of their work. digital literacy and citizenship : the teacher ’ s perspective this survey snapshot for common sense media surveys teachers regarding how they assess their students ’ digital skills. download survey > social media, social life : how teens view their digital lives june 26, 2012 : read the new study we directed and wrote for common sense media, about how teens think social media impacts their social and emotional well - being. download report > download infographic > october 2011 : having an accurate understanding of the role of media in children ’ s lives is essential for all of those concerned about promoting healthy child development : parents, educators, pediatricians, public health advocates, and policymakers, to name just a few. the purpose of this study is to provide publicly accessible, reliable data about media use among children ages 0 to 8, to help inform the efforts of all of those who are working to improve children ’ s lives. read more > children, media, and race : media use among white, black, hispanic, and asian american children june 2011, northwestern university study this report documents differences in the role of media in the lives of white, black, hispanic, and asian children in the united states : which types of media they use, how much time they spend in various media activities, which media platforms and devices they own, and what the media environment is like in their households. the data presented here are the result of new analyses of two data sets, breaking out the findings by race and ethnicity : the 2010 kaiser family foundation generation m2 survey of media use among 8 - to18 - year - olds, and the foundation ’ s 2006 survey about media use among children age six and under ( the media family ). read more > conference on children, media and race for northwestern june 8, 2011, washington, d. c. how should we interpret, explain and understand the differences in media use by children of different races and ethnicities? what are the broad implications for young people and society? these were the questions that northwestern university ’ s center on media and human development wanted to address at its annual lambert family communications conference. vjr consulting brought together a lively and eclectic group of experts ranging from federal communications commission member mignon


and society? these were the questions that northwestern university ’ s center on media and human development wanted to address at its annual lambert family communications conference. vjr consulting brought together a lively and eclectic group of experts ranging from federal communications commission member mignon clyburn to the head of mtv ’ s latino network mtvtr3s and the deputy director of the national telecommunications and information administration. click here to see the agenda for the conference. protecting our kids ’ privacy in a digital world : a common sense policy brief december 2010, common sense media most kids today live their lives online, immersed in a mobile and digital landscape. this brave new world has revolutionized childhood. kids and teens now create and consume enormous amounts of online and mobile content. their access to people and information presents both possibilities and problems. while the internet is a platform for innovation and economic growth and brings rich resources for entertainment and learning, the very nature of digital interaction creates deep concerns about kids ’ privacy. today, our kids are growing up in public. whatever they text or post can be searched, copied, pasted, distributed, collected, and viewed by vast invisible audiences. parents rightly fear that their children ’ s activities and personal information are being tracked and traced. read more > vicky rideout speaks with 360 kid ’ s scott traylor about the release of new research on media use among children ages 0 - 8. watch video >