20 1876, that a single bullet most probably fired by concealed ottoman sharpshooter hit botev in the chest, killing him almost instantly. after the death of their leader and chief inspiration, the company suffered a serious drop in morale and began to disperse. very few managed to evade capture or death. in all, 130 company members were killed and most of the others captured and imprisoned or executed. botev was survived by his wife, veneta, daughter, ivanka, and stepson, dimitar. in 1875 botev published his poetic works in a book called " songs and poems ", together with another bulgarian revolutionary poet and future politician and statesman, stefan stambolov. stefan nikolov stambolov ( стефан николов стамболов ( january 31 1854 – july 6 1895 was a bulgarian revolutionary and statesman, in botev ' s poetry reflected the sentiments of the poor people, filled with revolutionary ideas, struggling for their freedom against both foreign and domestic tyrants. his poetry is influenced by the russian revolutionary democrats and the figures of the paris commune. the paris commune ( la commune de paris was a government that briefly ruled paris from 18 march ( more formally from 26 march ) to 28 may under this influence, botev rose both as a poet and a revolutionary democrat. many of his poems are imbued with revolutionary zeal and determination, such as my prayer ( " moyata molitva " ), at farewell ( " na proshtavane " ), hajduks ( " haiduti " ), in the tavern ( " v mehanata " ), or struggle ( " borba " ). hajduk ( or haiduk, haiduc, hayduck, hayduk ) is a term most commonly referring to outlaws highwaymen or freedom fighters others are romantic, balladic ( hadzhi dimitar, perhaps the greatest of his poems ), even elegiac. dimitar nikolov asenov ( димитър николов асенов ( 10 may 1840 – 18 july 1868 ) better known as hadzhi dimitar | маице си | | maytze si | | to my mother | | към брата си | | kam brata si | | to my brother | | до моето първо ли


, at the ferdinand i tsar of bulgaria ( february 26 1861 - september 10 1948 born prince ferdinand maximilian karl leopold maria of saxe - coburg and gotha, was the prince regnant some of the most prominent bulgarians in the new history of the country, such as stefan stambolov and zahari stoyanov, devoted a lot of attention to botev and his deeds for bulgaria. stefan nikolov stambolov ( стефан николов стамболов ( january 31 1854 – july 6 1895 was a bulgarian revolutionary and statesman, in zahari stoyanov ( захари стоянов archaic bg захарии стоянов ( 1850 – 2 september 1889 ) born dzhendo stoyanov dzhendov soon botev became a mythical figure in the bulgarian national revival, and is even today commemorated as one of the two greatest bulgarian revolutionaries alongside vasil levski. every year at exactly 12 : 00 on june 2, air raid sirens throughout all of the country resonate for a minute to honour those who died for the freedom of bulgaria. events 455 - the vandals enter rome, and plunder the city for two weeks people everywhere stand still for 2 to 3 minutes until the sirens are stopped. after hristo botev are named :


in a suprising study, the recent research showing a link between sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and an increased risk of cancer shows that the disruption of sleep and rest and recovery can be more consequential than previously known. sleep - disordered breathing - - which includes obstructive sleep apnea - - is linked with an increased risk of dying from cancer, a new study suggests. researchers from the university of wisconsin school of medicine and public health found that people who have severe sleep - disordered breathing are five times more likely to die of cancer than people without the condition. sleep - disordered breathing occurs when a person stops breathing during sleep, thereby causing disrupted sleep. past research has linked the condition with heart risks, as well as metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance, according to the national institutes of health. the study was presented at the american thoracic society 2012 international conference, and will be published in the american journal of respiratory and critical care medicine. it included health data on 1, 522 people who were part of the wisconsin sleep cohort, which started in 1989. as part of the study, participants underwent an overnight sleep study every four years. the researchers found that people who had severe sleep - disordered breathing were 4. 8 times more likely to die of cancer, compared with people without the condition. " clearly, there is a correlation, and we are a long way from proving that sleep apnea causes cancer or contributes to its growth, " study researcher dr. f. javier nieto, a sleep epidemiology expert at the university of wisconsin, said in a statement. " but animal studies have shown that the intermittent hypoxia ( an inadequate supply of oxygen ) that characterizes sleep apnea promotes angiogenesis - - increased vascular growth - - and tumor growth, " nieto added. " our results suggest that sdb is also associated with an increased risk of cancer mortality in humans. " read more here :


marvel at hawaii ' s volcanoes for surfers, hawaii means perfect, monster waves roling in off the pacific ocean. but for geologists and volcanologists, the islands produce different waves : seismic. the islands are a hotbed of volcanic activity, and few places offer travelers a better view of the restless earth ' s molten core than kilauea, in hawaii volcanoes national park. more than 2 million people visit the park every year. in hawaiian tradition, kilauea is the home of pele, the volcano goddess. it is among the world ' s most active volcanoes, and its current eruption is now in its 26th year. the name " kilauea " means " spewing " or " much spreading, " in reference to the lava flows that it erupts, according to the united states geological survey. the famous crater is named halema ' uma ' u in hawaiian ; " hale " is a house, " ma ' uma ' u " a type of fern. sitting on the southeastern flank of 13, 677 - feet high mauna loa volcano, the smaller kilauea, at 4, 091 feet, is the youngest and southeastern most volcano on the big island of hawaii. even though it is so close to the larger mauna loa, geologists have shown that it has its own magma - producing system extending to the surface from almost 40 miles deep in the earth. though most of the lava from kilauea flows through hidden tubes, there are two hot spots where bright red rivers of molten rock meet the ocean. from afar, the dangerous cliff sides are scenic focal points on an already scenic coastline. up close, they can produce hot rock falls and large waves. usgs estimates that the current volcano is between 210 - 500 years old, and that kilauea ' s very first eruption happened 300, 000 to 600, 000 years ago. the oldest rocks found in the crater to date are about 23, 000 years old. it measures almost four square miles, and is about 180 yards deep. even if you only have a few hours, you can get close to this geologic spectacle using 11 - mile long crater rim drive, that circles the summit. ( call ahead : sometimes volcanic activity forces the park service to close the road. ) want to spend more time? the chain of craters road descends 3, 700 feet over 20 miles, ending where a 2003 lava flow crossed the road. or, explore the park on foot using its miles of trails. a third option : take to


by barbara floria, pure matters medical advances and technology can detect diseases earlier than ever before and save lives, but making prevention a part of your everyday life is just as important. " practicing prevention can lower your risk for developing the most deadly chronic diseases - - heart disease, diabetes and cancer, " says tricia trinite, msph, aprn, director of prevention dissemination and implementation for the agency for healthcare research and quality ( ahrq ). " there ' s nothing mysterious about taking preventive action ; it ' s really just a matter of making healthy choices on a daily basis. " eating healthy foods in the right amounts can help you live a longer, healthier life. many illnesses and conditions, such as heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes, can be prevented or controlled by eating a healthy, low - calorie, low - fat diet that includes at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, says ms. trinite. other dietary recommendations include eating more fiber and lean protein, such as chicken and fish, and less sodium, red meat and sugar. for specific information on how to improve your diet, ask your doctor and visit the national cancer institute ' s website, the american heart association ' s website or the u. s. department of agriculture ' s dietary guidelines for americans website. maintain a healthy weight being overweight increases your risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure. to stay at a healthy weight, you need to balance the number of calories you eat with the number you burn off in physical activity. you can reach a healthy weight and stay there by eating right and being physically active. your health care provider can tell you what you should weigh for your height. or you can calculate your body mass index ( bmi ), which should be 18. 5 to 24. 9 for optimal health. to calculate your bmi, first multiply your height in inches by your height in inches ; use this result to divide your weight in pounds. multiply this number by 703. exercise most days physical activity can help prevent heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, some cancers, and mental health problems, such as depression. " all kinds of physical activity, whether it ' s moderate or vigorous, will help you stay healthy, " say ms. trinite. " it ' s a good idea to aim for at least moderate activity, such as brisk walking, bike riding, housecleaning, or playing with your children


or vigorous, will help you stay healthy, " say ms. trinite. " it ' s a good idea to aim for at least moderate activity, such as brisk walking, bike riding, housecleaning, or playing with your children, for 30 to 60 minutes most days of the week. generally, the more active you are, the better you ' ll feel today and the healthier you ' ll become tomorrow. " if you ' ve been sedentary, smoke or have a chronic health condition, ask your health care provider how you should get started with an exercise program. more than 440, 000 americans die each year from smoking and smoking - related causes. smoking causes illnesses such as cancer, heart and lung disease, stroke and problems with pregnancy. " quitting is hard, and most people try several times before they quit for good, " says ms. trinite. " but when you ' re ready to quit, ask your doctor for advice on the best way for you. " take medicines correctly always be sure you know important information about a medicine before you take it. this will help you get the full benefit of the drug. it also will help you avoid taking too much or too little, which can be dangerous. each prescription medication comes with an information sheet. be sure to carefully read this sheet. if you have questions or aren ' t clear about anything on the sheet, check with your health care provider, nurse or pharmacist. get your shots you can prevent several serious diseases by getting immunized. check with your health care provider to be sure you ' ve had immunization for measles - mumps - rubella, tetanus - diphtheria, whooping cough, and influenza. if you are at risk for hepatitis a or b, you should be immunized against them. people older than 65 should be immunized against pneumococcal pneumonia. because of a resurgence of whooping cough ( pertussis ) in adults, a booster shot in combination with diphtheria and tetanus is now available for teens and adults. in 2005, the u. s. food and drug administration approved two new vaccines as adult boosters for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. these vaccines are designated as tdap and are recommended at 10 - year intervals for people up to the age of 64. current recommendations for adults 65 and older are to get boosters of tetanus and diphtheria only


pertussis. these vaccines are designated as tdap and are recommended at 10 - year intervals for people up to the age of 64. current recommendations for adults 65 and older are to get boosters of tetanus and diphtheria only, every 10 years. in 2006, the advisory committee on immunization practices ( acip ) recommended a second varicella ( chicken pox ) vaccine immunization for adults previously immunized against chicken pox. all adults not previously immunized and who have not had chicken pox should talk to their doctor about immunization. for people older than 60, the vaccine zostavax was licensed by the fda in 2006 to prevent shingles. shingles is a disease caused by the varicella - zoster virus, the same virus that causes chicken pox. after an attack of chicken pox, the virus lies dormant in certain nerve tissue. as people age, it is possible for the virus to reappear in the form of shingles, which is estimated to affect two in every 10 people in their lifetime. shingles is characterized by clusters of blisters, which develop on one side of the body. the blisters can cause severe pain that may last for weeks, months or years after the virus reappears. studies showed that the vaccine reduced the occurrence of shingles between 50 and 64 percent.


( cnn ) - - the powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami friday appears to have moved the main island of japan by 8 feet ( 2. 4 meters ) and shifted the earth on its axis. " at this point, we know that one gps station moved ( 8 feet ), and we have seen a map from gsi ( geospatial information authority ) in japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass, " said kenneth hudnut, a geophysicist with the u. s. geological survey ( usgs ). reports from the national institute of geophysics and volcanology in italy estimated the 8. 9 - magnitude quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches ( 10 centimeters ). the temblor, which struck friday afternoon near the east coast of japan, killed hundreds of people, caused the formation of 30 - foot walls of water that swept across rice fields, engulfed entire towns, dragged houses onto highways, and tossed cars and boats like toys. some waves reached six miles ( 10 kilometers ) inland in miyagi prefecture on japan ' s east coast. the quake was the most powerful to hit the island nation in recorded history and the tsunami it unleashed traveled across the pacific ocean, triggering tsunami warnings and alerts for 50 countries and territories as far away as the western coasts of canada, the u. s. and chile. the quake triggered more than 160 aftershocks in the first 24 hours - - 141 measuring 5. 0 - magnitude or more. the quake occurred as the earth ' s crust ruptured along an area about 250 miles ( 400 kilometers ) long by 100 miles ( 160 kilometers ) wide, as tectonic plates slipped more than 18 meters, said shengzao chen, a usgs geophysicist. japan is located along the pacific " ring of fire, " an area of high seismic and volcanic activity stretching from new zealand in the south pacific up through japan, across to alaska and down the west coasts of north and south america. the quake was " hundreds of times larger " than the 2010 quake that ravaged haiti, said jim gaherty of the lamont - doherty earth observatory at columbia university. the japanese quake was of similar strength to the 2004 earthquake in indonesia that triggered a tsunami that killed over 200, 000 people in more than a dozen countries around the indian ocean. " the tsunami that it sent out was roughly comparable in terms of size, " gaherty said. " [ the 2004 tsunami


' it ' s safe. it ' s effective. ' it ' s time to get flu shots annual injection protects against 3 strains tuesday, september 18, 2012 while it may not feel like fall in clark county, the season will officially be upon us saturday. and with the colorful leaves and cooler temperatures comes the emergence of the seasonal flu - - a reality that has health officials urging everyone older than 6 months to get their flu shots early. " we want people to get the vaccine as soon as it ' s available, which means now, " said dr. alan melnick, clark county health officer. " this should provide protection if the flu season comes early. " the flu can flare up anytime, but the season typically runs from october through may. the last couple of years, flu season in clark county and across the country has emerged later - - as late as march. but there is no way for health officials to predict when the disease will start to spread this year, melnick said. each year, the centers for disease control and prevention, the world health organization and the u. s. food and drug administration work together to develop a vaccine that protects against three strains of the disease predicted to circulate the most. this year ' s shot protects against h1n1 ( also known as " swine flu " ) as well as two other strains. the influenza vaccine takes about two weeks to build up enough antibodies to protect against the flu. injected flu shots use inactive, or dead, strains of the disease. healthy people between the ages of 2 and 49 also have the option of receiving a nasal mist version of the vaccine, which uses live, but weakened, strains of the disease. vaccines are the most effective way to prevent the flu, melnick said. " it ' s safe. it ' s effective. it protects other people, " he said. the flu is a contagious respiratory disease, so people who are sick with flu - like illness should stay home from school or work and limit contact with others as much as possible. to prevent the spread of the disease, people should cough or sneeze into their elbow or cover their nose and mouth with a tissue ; wash hands often with soap and water ; and avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth, according to health officials. young children, pregnant women and people 65 and older are at greatest risk for complications from the flu, such as pneumonia. health care providers and some pharmacies offer flu vaccines. clark county public health does not provide vaccines. " everybody who


in southeastern kenya, a remarkable reversal of centuries - old tradition has taken place : maasai tribes have made the choice to start protecting lions and other large predators. on the community - owned mbirikani group ranch, cattle herders have found a financial alternative to killing the lions that prey on their livestock. through the predator compensation fund ( pcf ) – an innovative program that provides economic incentives for conservation – the maasai are compensated every other month at market value for livestock killed by predators such as lions, cheetahs and hyenas. upon proof and verification of a predation, herders receive $ 80 for every donkey and $ 200 for every cow killed. since its inception in 2003, the fund has paid claims to mbirikani herders for nearly 750 head of livestock every year. in a region where the predators are being slaughtered to extinction, the pcf has nearly eliminated lion killings on the ranch. only four lions were killed on the mbirikani group ranch since 2003, compared to 65 killed on neighboring ranches. the 300, 000 - acre mbirikani ranch is some of the lion ’ s last remaining habitat in the world, and perhaps the best remaining habitat outside of existing protected areas in kenya. lions have declined from more than one million worldwide at the beginning of the 20th century to fewer than 30, 000 today. they are increasingly threatened by habitat loss and hunting. ci is working with the maasai and community organizations in kenya to expand the program throughout the amboseli - tsavo ecosystem – a 2. 2 - million - acre area of six adjacent maasai group ranches and four of africa ’ s most storied national parks, including mt. kilimanjaro.


a century ago most people understood what the term militia meant, but after decades of neglect, that understanding has been largely lost, so that now most people are unclear on the concept. it is unfortunate that it has taken the tragedy in oklahoma city to revive interest in the concept, especially considering the way that incident has been used to stigmatize the term. when people join to form a society, one of the main reasons they do so is for mutual defense. they pool their individual rights of self - defense into a mutual duty to defend one another. they are not relieved of that duty when they form a government and delegate defense duties to officials. delegation is not a transfer, but appointment of an agent, who is delegated no authority or powers not held by the people, which they retain and may exercise at any time their agents fail to do so. essentially, a militiaman is any citizen in his capacity as a defender of the state. by " state " we do not mean " the government ", but a community of citizens in possession of a territory. a citizen whose behavior makes him an enemy of the state is not a militiaman, because he cannot both defend the state and attack it at the same time. furthermore, he may have official duties, such as serving in an executive, judicial, or legislative position, or as a member in the armed forces, which take precedence over general militia duties. therefore, in the broadest sense, the militia is all citizens who are not enemies of the state and who do not have official duties that take precedence over their militia duties. that may include officials when they are off - duty. if you defend yourself against a criminal attack, what you are really doing is not just defending yourself. you are calling up the militia, consisting of yourself, to defend a member of the community, also consisting of yourself, and thereby forming a militia of one. if you ask someone else to help you, you are calling up the militia consisting of the two of you. although every citizen has the duty to defend the state, that duty extends only as far as he is able to carry it out. no one has the duty to do what is impossible for him. on the other hand, he has the duty to exercise his abilities to make them as great as he can. his duty does not begin when a situation arises that requires him to act. he also has a duty to prepare to respond to any reasonably foreseeable contingencies. since situations requiring the response of many citizens require that they act in concert


can. his duty does not begin when a situation arises that requires him to act. he also has a duty to prepare to respond to any reasonably foreseeable contingencies. since situations requiring the response of many citizens require that they act in concert, and not as an aimless mob who get in each other ' s way, citizens also have the duty to prepare themselves to work in concert with their neighbors to meet any foreseeable contingency. this leads to the requirement that citizens, in their capacity as militiamen, have the duty to organize and train themselves and maintain themselves in a high state of readiness. this is what the u. s. constitution meant by the term " well - regulated " in the second amendment. contrary to some contemporary disinformation about that term, the original meaning, and the meaning that matters in interpreting the constitution, is organized and trained. not necessarily by public officials. most of the militias to which the term was applied during the period the constitution was written were independent of official control, electing their own commanders, although this was commonly the locally - elected sheriff. the framers feared two things : large standing armies and select militias. a select militia was an armed group formed not from the entire population of a jurisdiction by public notice, but selected by some method that might make them unrepresentative of the community, and a threat to lawful government or to the community. a regular standing army or police force is always a select militia, and it may serve the will of those in power, and be used against the people. therefore, the framers intended that the militia should always be able to prevail over the government and its armies or select militias. they did not trust those in power to voluntarily refrain from corruption or the abuses that attend it. the militia was seen as one of the checks on the power of government, like division of powers between the central and state governments, between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, and between the two houses of the legislative branch. of all the countries in the world, only switzerland now has a militia system similar to what the framers intended for this country. there every able - bodied male in a certain age range is required to regularly report for training, and to keep a weapon in his home suitable for militia duty. presently, that is a full - automatic rifle. it is no accident that switzerland has never been invaded in modern times, or that it has one of the lowest crime rates of any modern country. the militia training every male


interested in linking to " controlling the post - oil energy economy "? you may use the headline, deck, byline and url of this article on your web site. to link to this article, select and copy the html code below and paste it on your own web site. our planet receives more solar energy in 45 minutes than what mankind will need by the end of the century in a year. therefore, if the global conversion to renewable fuels is completed by the end of this century, from that time fuel will be inexhaustible and free. to meet the total global energy need expected for 2100 ( when the life style of the 3rd world has reached our present one ) all we need to do is to cover 3 % to 4 % of the sahara ( or the mojave desert ) with solar collectors. therefore, it is time to “ retune the economy control loop ”. the first step in this retuning process must be to get accurate sensors ( start dealing with facts )! in order to accomplish this transformation, we must start building the world ’ s first solar - hydrogen demonstration power plant described in my book ( post - oil energy technology ). a key component of this solar - hydrogen demonstration power plant is the reversible fuel cell which i invented ( see the reversible fuel cell model ). during the day the rfc operates as an electrolyzer and generates hydrogen while at night it works as a fuel cell converting hydrogen back into electricity. naturally, hydrogen would also be available as a transportation fuel, shipped and distributed as is lng today. considering that fuel cells are twice as efficient as internal combustion ( ic ) engines, hydrogen will not only be less expensive, but should provide twice the mileage as the ic engine and will emit no pollutant, only distilled water. figure 2 provides a “ bird ’ s eye view ” of my proposed solar hydrogen power plant.. if this plant is built close to an existing fossil power plant, it could also convert the carbon dioxide emission of that conventional power plant into methanol fuel. if an electric grid exists in the area, the excess solar electricity can be “ stored ” on that grid. figure 2 : the components of the world ’ s first solar - hydrogen power plant. as was shown in table 1, all fossil and nuclear fuel deposits are exhaustible, in addition fossil is dirty, nuclear in unsafe. similarly, biofuels generate carbon emissions and interfere with the food supply. yet, contrast, the solar electricity and


as was shown in table 1, all fossil and nuclear fuel deposits are exhaustible, in addition fossil is dirty, nuclear in unsafe. similarly, biofuels generate carbon emissions and interfere with the food supply. yet, contrast, the solar electricity and solar - hydrogen is already economical ( figure 3 ) and the transition can be done in a calm, orderly and economical fashion. figure 3 : nrel projections of renewable energy cost 1980 to 2020. i believe that the time for building has arrived, that it is time for mankind to install a new “ control loop ” for our economy, but what i believe is completely irrelevant! what is relevant is that the building and operating this, the world ’ s first solar - hydrogen demonstration power plant will close the debate on “ what to do? ” and will initiate action! the factual data generated will force “ top management ” ( the voters in our free society ) to tell our “ operators ” in the control room ( the leaders of mankind ) to stop running the system in manual on - off and reconfigure our control loop to optimize it for the smooth transition to the new inexhaustible energy economy. feedback control alone ( market forces, cap and trade, increased fuel costs, taxation, etc. ) will not be fast enough to convert our economy and in addition they will stifle the global economic growth. instead, during the transition, temporary feed forward is required ( applying large - scale public funding ) to develop and demonstrate the feasibility of cost effective, clean, free and inexhaustible energy technologies. to achieve these goals, to start this, the third industrial revolution will need vision and commitment, but so did the landing on the moon. the scale of the effort will exceed that of the marshall plan. the transition will start not only with the building of solar - hydrogen power plants, but also with the installation of millions of solar roofs to make millions of homes “ energy free ” and with the conversion to a totally electric transportation system. it is debatable, if our “ operators ” ( political leaders ) have any idea what process control is or how pid loops are tuned. i doubt that they understand the requirements for converting a batch process ( operating with exhaustible resources ) to a continuous one ( operating with inexhaustible resources ). it is also debatable how much fossil or nuclear resources are left on the planet, how much climate change can we live with or how long can we use our atmosphere as a global garbage dump. what is


the battle of midway : turning the tide in the pacific - - by looking at the battle of midway : turning the tide in the pacific, students learn about a fight over two tiny islands that affected the course of world war ii. those interested in learning more will find that the internet offers a variety of interesting materials. midway atoll national wildlife refuge midway atoll national wildlife refuge is maintained by the u. s. fish and wildlife service, which administers the battle of midway national memorial. visit ' s the refuge ' s web pages for information on both the continuing work of maintaining and preserving the atoll ' s historic properties and on its abundant wildlife. naval historical center the naval historical center web site contains an excellent, detailed history of the battle of midway, historic photographs, primary documents, and oral history interviews. it also includes paintings from the navy art collection recreating the battle. aviation : from sand dunes to sonic booms this national register of historic places ' on - line travel itinerary provides information on more than 100 historic places listed in the national register associated with history of aviation. numerous sites featured on the itinerary are associated with military aviation, including the world war ii facilities at midway. also included are essays on the idea of flight, the wright brothers, aviation pioneers, modern aviation, air power, and space. national security agency the national security agency web site contains a section on world war ii cryptography that gives more detail on the breaking of the japanese code. naval postgraduate school the naval postgraduate school web site of the dudley knox library at the naval postgraduate school in monterey, ca, has compiled a bibliography for the battle of midway. it includes links to over 100 web pages covering people, ships, and aircraft involved in the battle. world war ii veterans the world war ii u. s. veterans web site contains information and services for veterans of world war ii. created by dick berry, a world war ii navy veteran, and his son, the site has information regarding the proposed world war ii u. s. veterans memorial museum, a veterans forum, as well as world war ii and 1940s memorabilia. the site also features various links that may be of interest such as the veterans administration and the official u. s. military reunion site. florida state university the institute on world war ii and the human experience has a tremendous online archive of newspapers, photographs, letters, cartoons, ration cards, and more that help detail the history of americans in world war ii. the program is also gathering oral histories of veterans, their spouses, and others


human experience has a tremendous online archive of newspapers, photographs, letters, cartoons, ration cards, and more that help detail the history of americans in world war ii. the program is also gathering oral histories of veterans, their spouses, and others related to the defense industry. library of congress : american memory collection american memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the united states. the site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections. use the search engine to find primary sources for world war ii, midway, and other related subjects. the national archives the national archives online exhibit hall feature, the powers of persuasion, explores the strategies of persuasion as evidenced in the form and content of world war ii posters. also see the japanese surrender document signed on september 2, 1945, by japanese representatives. it was the official instrument of surrender, prepared by the war department and approved by president truman. maritime heritage program the national park service ' s maritime heritage program works to advance awareness and understanding of the role of maritime affairs in the history of the united states by helping to interpret and preserve our maritime heritage. the program ' s web pages include information on national park service maritime parks, historic ships, lighthouses, and life saving stations. for further reading students and educators wishing to learn more about the battle of midway and the war in the pacific might want to read : miracle at midway, by gordon w. prange, donald m. goldstein, and katherine v. dillon ( new york : mcgraw - hill, 1982 ) ; eagle against the sun : the american war with japan, by ronald h. spector ( new york : free press, 1985 ) ; or coral sea, midway and submarine actions : may 1942 - august 1942, volume 4 of samuel eliot morison ' s history of united states naval operations in world war ii ( boston : little, brown, 1947 - 62 ).


join us on add to favorites you ’ re off to antarctica on an expedition to study penguins! how many different species can you identify? research the various species of penguins. learn about their size, shape, recognizable characteristics, and habitats. how many species of penguins can you identify? where are their natural habitats? this accordion - folded display will give you, and penguins, an opportunity to strut your stuff! cut a long, narrow piece of poster board with crayola® scissors. with crayola erasable colored pencils and a ruler, divide the strip into several identical boxes. make two sections for each kind of penguin. in every other box, draw a picture of a different species of penguin. using crayola twistables, color in the penguins. highlight each one ’ s unique characteristics. write the names and descriptions of penguins in the boxes next to them. fold your strip back and forth along the lines to display your penguin parade. people around the world give thanks for their food. celebrate a harvest of pineapples, pumpkins, or pomegranates - and sho add to favorites display the 7 principles of kwanzaa in a one - of - a - kind accordion window book. paper - bag puppets hold original poetry about pirates, pets, or any preferred topic. young writers put the puppet ' s arms gild torn - paper edges and make golden leaf imprints on this decorative frame. display original poetry, photos, or other imagination and problem - solving go to work as children check out real bugs and create their own. create your own coral reef and learn about these delicate ecosystems. how in this media rich era can we use students ’ creative energy to develop original songs and visual posters that captur picasso ’ s art career spanned many decades and included a variety of styles and influences. create a portrait collage ins our crayons have been rolling off the assembly line since 1903, and you can see how it ’ s done. visit us » be the first to know!


the second trimester begins with the sixteenth week of pregnancy. for the mother, many of the minor discomforts of the first trimester will disappear, and she will start to look pregnant and be able to feel the baby move. good nutrition is important to ensure that both mom and baby gain weight at the right rate. in the fourth month, the baby weighs about six ounces and grows to be about eight to ten inches long. the umbilical cord continues to grow and thicken in order to carry plenty of blood and nourishment. soon, the mother may start to feel a slight sensation of movement, like bubbles, in her lower abdomen. this movement, called ' quickening, ' can actually help a doctor determine when the baby is due. by the fifth month, the baby will have grown to weigh around eight ounces, and is half as long as it will be at delivery. the doctor will now be able to hear the baby ' s heartbeat. this month, the mother may gain three to four pounds and begin to breathe deeper. the area around her nipples may look darker and wider as her breasts prepare to make milk. in the sixth month, the baby is a fully formed miniature with red, wrinkled skin and virtually no fat. the baby still needs to grow, being now only about twelve inches long and weighing about one and a half pounds. the baby sucks on its thumb, and the mother can regularly feel the baby ' s movement. mom may gain three or four more pounds and experience fatigue or fluid retention, but gentle, regular exercise can relieve these symptoms to some degree. for more information on fetal development in the second trimester, contact a health care professional.


a politically sexy ribbon - cutting ceremony for a new pro - environment fueling station in bloomfield, conn., took place on dec. 9. three weeks later, on new year ' s eve, a scary 4. 0 magnitude earthquake rocked youngstown, ohio. the link between those events is natural gas and the increasingly controversial method of getting it out of the ground known as " fracking. " and standing somewhere in the middle of it all is connecticut congressman john larson, who ' s become a leading national advocate for increasing use of natural gas as a cleaner, safer alternative to foreign oil. geologists in ohio insist the new year ' s eve earthquake — one of 11 in that area recently — was not natural. fracking, which comes from the term " hydraulic fracturing, " involves using high pressure to force water and chemicals deep underground to push up natural gas. those ohio experts say convincing circumstantial evidence suggests the most likely trigger for the quakes were deep wells used to pump huge amounts of fracking waste water thousands of feet into the earth. natural gas wells in the area have now been shut down while investigations continue. but the quakes are only the latest and most dramatic developments in a series of revelations and investigations involving the potential environmental and health risks of america ' s frantic, almost headlong rush to develop and use its vast natural gas resources. in 2011, scientific studies tied the fracking process to all kinds of nasty crap. according to propublica, which has published a series of investigative articles on the issue, the u. s. environmental protection agency concluded fracking was responsible for ground water pollution in central wyoming. other studies found private wells near pennsylvania fracking sites were 17 times more likely to be contaminated with methane gas. a department of energy panel reported substantial environmental risks surrounding the process. a propublica report in september detailed cases of people in various areas of the country who live near fracking wells and suffer from health symptoms that include tumors and skin lesions. none of that was mentioned at the dec. 9 opening of the new bloomfield compressed - natural - gas fueling station. larson was at the event, as was u. s. sen. richard blumenthal and a bevy of happy state and local politicians and proud energy dudes from all over. " natural gas is affordable, abundant and american, and could hold the key to breaking our dependence on foreign oil, " an ebullient larson told the assembly dignitaries. there was praise for clean energy, the company that built the station


over. " natural gas is affordable, abundant and american, and could hold the key to breaking our dependence on foreign oil, " an ebullient larson told the assembly dignitaries. there was praise for clean energy, the company that built the station. and for the yellow cab company, which is the first cab operation in the nation to convert its cars to run on compressed natural gas. and for all the benefits the station would bring to the public, because anyone with a cng vehicle can fill up there. the bloomfield station is part of a planned network of natural gas and other alternative energy stations being set up around connecticut with the help of $ 13. 2 million in federal energy cash. there are already fueling stations in bridgeport and west haven. another is due to open in windsor locks. there ' s an upgraded station in norwich being used by the local utility, and a similar operation is targeted for glastonbury. in a lot of ways, natural gas is cleaner, cheaper and a more reliable energy source than oil, and advocates like larson insist it can be a " bridge " to a future of sustainable wind and solar energy systems. but even larson admits there is a dark side ; that natural gas — like nearly all energy sources — " contains certain risks. " asked last week about those ohio quakes, larson was quick to point out that the legislation he is sponsoring in congress to encourage the conversion of the u. s. transportation system to natural gas " has nothing to do with fracking. " larson says he is also supporting a new bill that would place new controls over natural gas fracking to eliminate health risks and reduce environmental pollution. " we want to be sure [ fracking ] isn ' t placing anyone in danger, " he says, adding that natural gas " can potentially be a great resource to our nation for energy. " lee grannis is coordinator of the greater new haven clean cities coalition, which is administering the federal grants to set up connecticut ' s new natural gas fueling system. and he ' s an even more outspoken defender of the push toward natural gas than larson. grannis says that, despite those ohio quakes and new fracking studies, he ' s now " less concerned " about nasty environmental and health risks of natural gas than he was before. in part, that ' s because grannis says all the attention is triggering a big response in congress and the states to stop irresponsible natural gas " wildcatters " from screwing things up. he blames the pollution and health issues on


in part, that ' s because grannis says all the attention is triggering a big response in congress and the states to stop irresponsible natural gas " wildcatters " from screwing things up. he blames the pollution and health issues on " wildcatters who didn ' t know what they were doing. … when you ' ve taken all the right precautions, there ' s not been any problems. " " if you compare it to all the [ oil ] drilling, and what happened in the gulf, it ' s next to nothing, " grannis says of the natural gas fracking stuff. charles rothenberger, a staff attorney for the connecticut fund for the environment, disagrees. he believes the u. s. has simply moved too fast to exploit natural gas resources without reckoning with the consequences. " the wildcatting nature of hydraulic fracking around the country now … is just inappropriate, " rothenberger argues, saying tough national standards need to replace the hodgepodge of state and local regulation occurring now. the trouble in all this is that natural gas is a double - edged environmental sword : cleaner burning than oil, but possibly just as polluting because of all the methane produced. perhaps less damaging to get out of the ground than oil, except for that fracking crap and those unexpected and frightening earthquakes. as larson is fond of pointing out, one natural - gas - powered tractor trailer can reduce air pollution equivalent to taking 300 cars off the road. but rothenberger ' s skeptical attitude echoes that of an increasing number of environmentalists who remember other so - called " silver bullet " energy solutions like the ethanol craze that didn ' t quite turn out to be what advocates claimed. " this needs to be studied more … before we rush headlong into developing this resource, " he says.


fudging it : chocolate really can be good for you a single cup of flavanol - enhanced cocoa increases blood flow in the brain, studies show. the boost in circulation is sufficient to power a short - term enhancement of cognitive skills. ( fotolia. com / february 20, 2013 ) an especially bitter cocoa beverage is still favored by kuna indians living off the coast of panama, who drink about five cups a day. researchers believe the bitterness is a mark of the very high content of flavanol phytonutrients in chocolate in its unprocessed state - - which explains why the island - dwelling kuna have unusually low rates of heart disease and cancer. when the indians move to the mainland, where they don ' t drink the same cocoa, they are no longer medically privileged. scientists have gathered evidence that a high concentration of flavanols enhances blood vessel function throughout the body, and ongoing studies confirm that high - flavanol cocoa preparations especially boost brain blood flow. want to do a favor for someone in the early stages of memory decline? give them a chocolate bar. in a double - blind randomized study, 90 elderly individuals with mild cognitive impairment were mentally quicker and more verbally fluent after consuming a daily cocoa drink loaded with flavanols. there were additional effects as well : blood pressure decreased and metabolic and cardiovascular function improved during the eight - week trial. and there were no adverse effects. a daily treat of chocolate can help keep blood pressure under control. and that ' s a tasty way to modify a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. a meta - analysis of subjects who consumed cocoa products yielded a " small but statistically significant blood pressure - reducing effect. " the flavanols in cocoa may be lowering blood pressure by stimulating production of nitric oxide, a powerful dilator of blood vessels. increases in blood delivery to the brain generally enhance neural activity. strike against stroke scandinavian researchers found that high chocolate consumption was associated with a lower risk of stroke. for those study subjects consuming the greatest amount of chocolate - - 2. 2 ounces a week - - the risk was nearly 20 percent less than for those consuming none. the effect was independent of type of stroke, whether hemorrhagic or obstructive. researchers cite a variety of mechanisms by which chocolate helps - - it ' s antioxidant, antiplatelet, and anti - inflammatory. a single cup of flavanol - enhanced cocoa increases gray - matter blood


obstructive. researchers cite a variety of mechanisms by which chocolate helps - - it ' s antioxidant, antiplatelet, and anti - inflammatory. a single cup of flavanol - enhanced cocoa increases gray - matter blood flow, studies show. the boost in circulation is sufficient to power a short - term enhancement of cognitive skills. " this raises the possibility that certain food components like cocoa flavanols may be beneficial in increasing brain blood flow and enhancing brain function among older adults or for others in situations where they may be cognitively impaired, such as fatigue, " says ian macdonald, of the university of nottingham. a shot in the dark it isn ' t the darkness of chocolate that brings health benefits. nor, despite its prominence in labels, can you tell from the cocoa content of a chocolate bar how good it will be for you. in fact, the darkest chocolate can miss entirely what is medicinally good - - flavanol phytochemicals. by nature, flavanols are bitter, and reducing the bitterness - - by dutch processing, or alkalinization - - also reduces the amount of flavanol. until labels show flavanol content, look for chocolate that has not undergone dutch processing.


if you have no deep knowledge of acids it comes as a surprise that an acid with very interesting properties has so simple a formula as h2so4. my, my : just look what those darn chemicals do. if you have thus far read jane austen for her exciting plots it will come as a surprise to be told that she invented the free indirect style in the english novel and achieved in that way her comic effects. remarkable. notions such as these stick. the unsurprising matter does not. you could call it, in honor of jerry seinfeld, the yada - yada - yada theory of learning. " yada - yada - yada, " you will recall, is the all - purpose filler, the etc., the and - so - forth, the proceed - as - before. no one learns from yada. stick to the surprising stuff. fortunately most of what people think they already know is wrong. and so you can rather easily surprise them, avoid yada, and teach. consider, for example, what you think you know about the subject of these three imposing volumes, the economic history of britain since william and mary, written by 51 expert contributors and ably edited by roderick floud and paul johnson. the subject is parceled out into vol. 1 on industrialization 1700 - 1860, vol. 2 on economic maturity 1860 - 1939, and vol. 3 on structural change and growth, 1939 - 2000. all the numbers and arguments are here, everything you wanted to know - - - or think you already know. to put the three volumes in leading questions, ( 1. ) how did britain ( scotland is treated as rather an appendage ) come to be rich? ( 2. ) did victorian or edwardian or georgian britain fail? ( 3. ) did the experiment with massive state intervention after 1939 help or hurt? if you are like most educated people you have without being sharply aware of it rather a lot of opinions on these matters. in fact you possess a full and even coherent account that goes something like this : the economic life of a nation is like a tree, with stages from acorn to oak, or like human growth, childhood to old age. in england population exploded - the child grew - - - because death rates fell after the gin age. enclosures were crucial, driving people off the land and into the dark satanic mills. exploitation, not population growth and the napoleonic wars, kept wages low. the overseas slave trade was a crucial source for


because death rates fell after the gin age. enclosures were crucial, driving people off the land and into the dark satanic mills. exploitation, not population growth and the napoleonic wars, kept wages low. the overseas slave trade was a crucial source for financing the industrial revolution. that revolution was a matter of big mills and big machines, especially the steam engine. after the railway age and the repeal of corn laws, though, britain failed. the germans and americans were better, it turned out, at everything. agriculture suffered a great depression. britain was crippled by not having investment banks and technical colleges like germany. for the rest the family firm was stuffy and rigid, and sent the young man off to a minor public school, where he became a twit. fortunately he could go to india and govern. the empire was responsible for the prosperity of late victorian britain. loss of the empire explains britain ' s troubles in the 20th century. trade unions were a big factor in improving conditions for the workers. capitalism needed to be brought to heel, and fortunately state enterprise, planning, regulation, and subsidies were devised to accomplish this. the balance of payments is a suitable object of policy. policy, by the way, is easy, a matter of ministerial intent. the received wisdom, the newspaper account of british economic history, your personal yada - yada - yada about the first industrial nation is in every detail mistaken. nothing of what you think you know is correct. or so your friends the economic historians of britain are here to tell you. the received wisdom c. 1970 was for example that the industrial revolution was a matter of investment. this " capital fundamentalism, " as william easterly has called the comparable conviction among western economists trying to help the third world at the time, has been revived in the so - called " new growth theory " over in the department of economics. the historian of technology joel mokyr thinks differently : " the years 1760 - 1815 witnessed more than just some lucky breaks in a handful of industries : it was also the period in which people defied gravity through hot - air balloons, began the conquest of smallpox, and learned to can food, to use binary codes for manufacturing purposes, to infer geological strata from fossil evidence, and to burn gas for lighting.... in pottery, one of the oldest techniques known to mankind, josiah wedgwood and others introduced new materials, new moulding techniques, and improved over - firing. " you might think if you were over the department of economics that


... in pottery, one of the oldest techniques known to mankind, josiah wedgwood and others introduced new materials, new moulding techniques, and improved over - firing. " you might think if you were over the department of economics that these were merely routine returns on investment, though you would then have the problem of explaining why history waited until britain in the 18th century to make the investments. " most of the payoff to technologically creativity, " mokyr points out, on the contrary, " occurs in a more remote future and is spread over a longer period than was previously believed. " so there was an enormous change in spirit, which was not aggregately profitable until too late to be explained by mere profit. it was, as mokyr puts it, an " industrial enlightenment, " that is, an intellectual - - - could one say " spiritual "? - - - change. david mitch, in one of the few sustained and successful attempts at humor in the volumes, asks what would have happened if the british population had been replaced overnight by eskimos. the mental experiments gets at the quality of " human capital, " and mitch does point out that the british human capital in turn would work poorly in the arctic. but surely he is right that " britain ' s intellectual vibrancy is the late 18th century... would be one of the major losses. " something about those british. the received wisdom was that modern economic growth was a matter of heroic innovations in steam and cotton. false, says kristine bruland of the university of oslo. " innovation was a broad process, " she argues, " pervasively embedded in many industries, " and looks like " a general social propensity to innovate. " " the claims for steam as a driving force for growth, " to take one example, " are seriously overdone, " as nick von tunzelmann has long argued. again, it was something about those british, as david edgerton ( not in the volumes ) has been arguing for the period of alleged economic decline. radar and television and jet engines, among other items, do not come out of a failing economy. the received wisdom was that population growth during the 18th and 19th century had to do mainly with a falling death rate, the same " demographic transition " which other countries exhibited in the late 19th and 20th centuries. research since 1970 led by, and here described by, anthony wrigley has reversed the history : it was rising fertility, giving new


a falling death rate, the same " demographic transition " which other countries exhibited in the late 19th and 20th centuries. research since 1970 led by, and here described by, anthony wrigley has reversed the history : it was rising fertility, giving new meaning to the phrase " the sentimental revolution. " dudley baines and robert wood, in a particularly lucid chapter in the second volume, make it clear that " a new found desire to cheat biology " was behind the fall at the other end in the number of children a woman had 1851 - 1931. all this and more since 1970 and the application of quantitative methods to economic history. the received wisdom was that families in olden times were " extended " and were wrecked by a " rise of individualism " the findings of the cambridge group led by wrigley, jane humphries notes, was " cataclysmic for the presumption that pre - industrial households were large and complex. the majority contained fewer than five persons.... the discovery... exploded belief in the rise of individualism. " as alan macfarlane of the cambridge group has been arguing for decades, individualism " rose " in england in saxon times. the received wisdom was that countries grew by stages, like the seven ages of man, or like trees, with rigid sequence in the leaf, the blossom, or the boll. the stage model, pat hudson argues, is quite wrong, as shows in the varied industrial history of england in the 18th century. the point was made in the 1960s by alexander gerschenkron for the general case. some places and industries and people did not carry on the march to modernity. as hudson notes, " the fate of many former proto - industrial regions such as east anglia and the weald of kent was deindustrialization. " and so forth. but not yada - yada - yada. women were not frivolously in charge of 18th - century consumption. foreign trade was not an engine of british growth in the 19th century. transportation innovations in the 18th and 19th centuries made more contribution than cotton textiles. britain ' s lack of good managers for state enterprises was the chief obstacle to the success of nationalization after 1947. not that 1372 pages on farm size, vocational training, and national insurance benefits doesn ' t have its passages of yada - yada - yada. consecutive reading of a textbook like this can be a bit trying, and the books lack the interpretive sparkle of a norman davies or


, vocational training, and national insurance benefits doesn ' t have its passages of yada - yada - yada. consecutive reading of a textbook like this can be a bit trying, and the books lack the interpretive sparkle of a norman davies or eric hobsbawm product. perhaps a third editor would have been a good idea, someone to cross out the turns to yada - yada and to ask insistently what for the most part the writers do a pretty good job of answering but sometimes miss : and your point is... exactly what? just a thought. the third volume is particularly scrappy, and could have used a steadying editorial hand. but that is not entirely fair to the brave and learned contributors to the third volume. any recent history is bound to have an especially serious yada - yada problem. history starts with headlines, but if it ends with them it is liable to feel like hundreds of pages of the economist rewritten by university lecturers. older subjects have the advantage that the superficialities have been squeezed out by many generations of scholars. the history of enclosures, for example, went from headlines ( so to speak ) about the goths and vandals of the open field farmers to the fabian socialist views of the hammonds a century ago, through a conservative reaction fifty years ago, through numbers and economics beginning thirty years ago, to something like a consensus now : concerning the crucial role of enclosures : on the whole, not. the belief that the victorian economy " failed " started with the panic over the german commercial invasion of the 1890s, developed into the blaming of fathers in the 1920s, modulated to the less fevered assessments after the second war, and then to analysis and counter - analysis in the 1960s and 1970s down to, again, something like a consensus : on the whole, again, not. oddly, therefore, the first volume, the most remote in time, is most suitable for the general reader than the second, and the second more than the third. many of the chapters, i am gratified to report, confirm notions i put forward in the 1970s and 1980s, as a young and then young middle - aged economic historian. trade, not. open fields and enclosures. victorian failure. productivity change, dual and primal. good on me. but in one respect my younger self was disastrously and persistently and ignorantly mistaken. like half of the contributors to these volumes i was quite sure that " spirit " had nothing to do with it, that entrepreneurship


and primal. good on me. but in one respect my younger self was disastrously and persistently and ignorantly mistaken. like half of the contributors to these volumes i was quite sure that " spirit " had nothing to do with it, that entrepreneurship was a silliness of sociologists, that we can tell the story of modern economic growth by sticking to the virtue of prudence. modern economic growth is the increase of income per head by a factor of 15 or 20 since the 18th century in places like britain - - - and a factor of 8. 5 ; worldwide even including the places that have not had the luck or skill to let it happen fully. it is certainly the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals and plants, perhaps the most important since the invention of language. it bids fair to free us all, eventually. and it cannot be explained by the usual economist ' s tools of scarcity and calculation. the tools are still very good to have, but like wittgenstein ' s point about philosophy curing philosophy, they are for this big question useful mainly in disposing of mechanical explanations. the central puzzle is why britain, or why northwestern europe, and why the 18th and 19th centuries. why did britain then escape permanently from the poverty that has been the human lot since adam, or the mitochondrial eve? was it freedom of an unusual sort? was it the ideology of capitalism? was it science, itself a cumulative miracle? no one knows, and until we do we will not understand the modern world. barry supple, my very first teacher of economic history, was among the commentators at the conference producing these volumes. at the beginning of it all, at a conference in 1970 of " new " economic historian of britain, he was also a commentator, and was moved to verse : bliss was it in that dawn to be alive but to be young [ and numerate ] was very heaven.


serving up all the latest food news, cool foodie products, gossip, and good deals that are fit to print! nestle uses avalanche research to study ice cream nestle may be known for chocolate, but the company is getting serious about ice cream. so serious, in fact, that a team of scientists was hired to use research about avalanches to improve nestle ' s ice cream. according to nestle. com, the company hopes that new technology originally used to study avalanches can help solve the biggest, and possibly the only, ice cream - related mystery. what is this mystery that needs solving? ultimately, the nestle company would like to figure out how to get rid of those pesky little ice crystals that form when ice cream is left in the freezer for too long. it ' s an age - old problem that has had ice cream makers stumped and customers frustrated for years. in the past, it was impossible to study this phenomenon because opening an ice cream carton ruined the sample. therefore, scientists couldn ' t determine how the ice crystals formed over time. now the nestle scientists are using x - rays to look into a carton of ice cream without opening it. this same technique was originally created by the scientists at the institute for snow and avalanche research to look into the center of an avalanche without disturbing the development of ice crystals. so far nestle ' s findings have been somewhat predictable. they published a paper in a scientific journal called " soft matter " explaining that the main cause behind ice crystals forming was the process of refreezing. basically ice cream gets icy when it ' s allowed to melt slightly and is then refrozen. although these findings aren ' t particularly surprising, nestle hopes that further research will allow them to understand ice crystals well enough to develop ice cream that will resist forming the crystals, even throughout the refreezing process. do you get those ice crystals in your ice cream at home? do you think it ' s worth it for nestle to study this phenomenon in order to invent ice crystal - resistant ice cream?


trees have been providing energy for humans since before recorded history. cavemen used fire to release the stored energy in wood to cook food and provide illumination at night. medieval castles were heated by massive wood - burning fireplaces. wood burning locomotives helped connect the atlantic and pacific by rail in the 19th century. today, trees continue to be an important store of energy for humans. throughout our long history of using trees for energy, the primary means of releasing that energy has been combustion. i was very interested, therefore, to read “ trees, save yourselves ” in technology review. researchers at mit, led by dr. shuguang zhang, have hit upon an alternative means of extracting energy from trees without setting them on fire. by harnessing the ph difference between trees and the soil in which they are rooted, a small amount of electricity can be generated. while this phenomenon has been observed for years, a company is now capitalizing on mit ’ s research to power sensor networks in forests. voltree power has built a “ bioenergy converter ” that parasitically harvests metabolic energy from trees. the available energy is certainly not enough to make a dent in human consumption. however, according to the technology review article, enough energy is available to power wireless mesh networks within forests that can transmit data about local temperature and humidity conditions. these networks could be used for agricultural monitoring or early detection of forest fires. voltree power is planning to test their so - called early wildfire alert network ( ewan ) beginning in the spring. a quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3d printing oems and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, stratasys. the industrial revolution is now led by 3d printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time - to - market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. bruce bradshaw, director of marketing in north america, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help cad designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. this broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3d printing. 3d printing is


every january we rightly turn our attention to roe v. wade — the poorly argued supreme court decision that was driven by ideology rather than by actual case law. it was not the first unjustly decided case that impacted tens of thousands of vulnerable lives. in the early decades of the 20th century in the united states, there were deeply held prejudices against the three types of people : the poor, those with disabilities of all kinds, and people of color. these prejudices, along with their social and scientific acceptability, made up the fabric of what became known as the eugenics movement. the argument went something like this : if only we could prevent the births of ‘ feeble - minded ’ people, we could have perpetual prosperity in a society governed by morally upright people. prominent people in law, government, media, business and the ' church ' supported such efforts. state laws were enacted across the country to forcibly sterilize anyone considered unfit. when the courts said okay it didn ’ t work. by the early 1920s, the eugenics sterilization movement in the united states seemed to be on its last legs. eugenic sterilization laws in several states had been struck down by the courts. in oregon, a populist movement prevented a law from being passed. scientists in the new field of genetics called into question the conclusions of those who thought all ‘ shiftless ’ behavior was determined by heredity. a proponent of eugenics, dr. harry laughlin, reviewed all that was happening across the united states and determined what was really needed was a model law, backed by research, that would return eugenic sterilization to its former prominence. he wrote and published eugenic sterilization in the united states in 1922, a nearly 500 page tome on his research, which included language for a law he was certain would be acceptable to the courts. eugenic proponents in virginia immediately took this language to the virginia legislature. a vulnerable young woman was chosen to test the law. her legal representative actually supported the law rather than his client. the united states supreme court would eventually hear it. their 1927 decision on buck v. bell didn ’ t just make legal an abhorrent practice, it breathed life into an entire international movement. 1 united states law and nazi war crimes by the time world war ii began, 30 states had sterilization laws. germany would use dr. laughlin ’ s model law language to create the law for protection against genetically defective offspring. after the war, during the nuremberg trials for nazi crimes against humanity


time world war ii began, 30 states had sterilization laws. germany would use dr. laughlin ’ s model law language to create the law for protection against genetically defective offspring. after the war, during the nuremberg trials for nazi crimes against humanity, lawyers for nazi war criminals attempted to use the buck v. bell decision in their clients ’ defense. don ’ t let that quickly go by you : nazi war criminals who had terrorized, tortured and murdered millions of people attempted to use a decision of the united states supreme court as a defense for their forced sterilization program that was determined to be a crime against humanity. three lessons here thankfully, this practice has gone out of favor even though the decision has never formally been reversed. our culture finds the practice repugnant, and laws have followed. virginia repealed its law in 1974, but left open some compulsory sterilization until 1979. north carolina finally repealed its law in 2003. there may still be laws in some states. here are three lessons i take away : first, the god of this world doesn ’ t easily let go of his evil desires to destroy the most vulnerable among us. the eugenics sterilization movement was nearly dead until new life was breathed into it by just a few people who knew how to use legal, legislative and academic systems to their advantage. we should prepare, as jesus told us : “ behold, i am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves " ( matthew 10 : 16 ). second, it will not stand. when christ returns, perfect justice will reign without challenge. those who today are strong will no longer be able to rule over and abuse the weak without fear. third, until then, we must stand for the most vulnerable among us. today, the most vulnerable human beings on the planet are those with disabilities in the womb. they have neither the law nor the culture siding with them. will you stand for them? 1i am grateful for dr. paul lombardo ’ s work on the buck v. bell decision. much of this discussion has come from his thorough history of that case, three generations, no imbeciles : eugenics, the supreme court and buck v. bell. recent posts from " the works of god " —


deworming schoolchildren : a smart investment for policymakers and philanthropists submitted by grace on mon, 05 / 14 / 2012 - 12 : 00 may 14, 2012 | copenhagen consensus center the copenhagen consensus center ranks deworming fourth among the sixteen most cost - effective investments to overcome the world ’ s biggest challenges in 2012. this list is compiled by an expert panel of nobel laureate economists charged with determining the smartest ways to advance global welfare, particularly in developing countries. the panel recommends that us $ 300 million be allocated annually for deworming, providing an endorsement that policymakers and philanthropists can look to when prioritizing allocation of limited resources. nobel laureate economist robert mundell is quoted by the center, saying : “ deworming is an overlooked intervention deserving of greater attention and resources. this simple, cheap investment can mean a child is healthier and spends more time in school. ” deworming is mentioned in three of the ten challenge papers due to its impact on education, health, and nutrition status of school - age children. to learn more about the economists ’ rankings and read the outcomes and challenge papers, please visit the copenhagen consensus center website, and see the related slate articles by center director bjørn lomborg on strategies for fixing education, and the best solutions to combat infectious diseases.


why is the global economy constrained by the energy cost of energy? from getting down to earth : practical applications of ecological economics, island press, 1996 ; isbn 1 - 55963 - 503 - 7 http : / / www. amazon. com / exec / obidos / asin / 1559635037 historical knowledge is essential to practical applications of ecological economics. systems of problem solving develop greater complexity and higher costs over long periods. in time such systems either require increasing energy subsidies or they collapse. diminishing returns to complexity in problem solving limited the abilities of earlier societies to respond sustainably to challenges, and will shape contemporary responses to global change. to confront this dilemma we must understand both the role of energy in sustaining problem solving, and our historical position in systems of increasing complexity. in our quest to understand sustainability we have rushed to comprehend such factors as energy transformations, biophysical constraints, and environmental deterioration, as well as the human characteristics that drive production and consumption, and the assumptions of neoclassical economics. as our knowledge of these matters increases, practical applications of ecological economics are emerging. yet amidst these advances something important is missing. any human problem is but a moment of reaction to prior events and processes. historical patterns develop over generations or even centuries. rarely will the experience of a lifetime disclose fully the origin of an event or a process. employment levels in natural resource production, for example, may respond to a capital investment cycle with a lag time of several decades ( watt 1992 ). the factors that cause societies to collapse take centuries to develop ( tainter 1988 ). to design policies for today and the future we need to understand social and economic processes at all temporal scales, and comprehend where we are in historical patterns. historical knowledge is essential to sustainability ( tainter 1995a ). no program to enhance sustainability can be considered practical if it does not incorporate such fundamental knowledge. in this era of global environmental change we face what may be humanity ' s greatest crisis. the cluster of transformations labeled global change dwarfs all previous experiences in its speed. in the geographical scale of its consequences, and in the numbers of people who will be affected ( norgaard 1994 ). yet many times past human populations faced extraordinary challenges, and the difference between their problems and ours is only one of degree. one might expect that in a rational, problem - solving society, we would eagerly seek to understand historical experiences. in actuality, our approaches to education and our impatience for innovation have made us averse to historical knowledge ( tainte


one of degree. one might expect that in a rational, problem - solving society, we would eagerly seek to understand historical experiences. in actuality, our approaches to education and our impatience for innovation have made us averse to historical knowledge ( tainter 1995a ). in ignorance, policy makers tend to look for the causes of events only in the recent past ( watt 1992 ). as a result, while we have a greater opportunity than the people of any previous era to understand the long - term reasons for our problems, that opportunity is largely ignored. not only do we not know where we are in history, most of our citizens and policy makers are not aware that we ought to. a recurring constraint faced by previous societies has been complexity in problem solving. it is a constraint that is usually unrecognized in contemporary economic analyses. for the past 12, 000 years human societies have seemed almost inexorably to grow more complex. for the most part this has been successful : complexity confers advantages, and one of the reasons for our success as a species has been our ability to ' increase rapidly the complexity of our behavior ( tainter 1992, 1995b ). yet complexity can also be detrimental to sustainability. since our approach to resolving our problems has been to develop the most complex society and economy of human history, it is important to understand how previous societies fared when they pursued analogous strategies. in this chapter i will discuss the factors that caused previous societies to collapse, the economics of complexity in problem solving, and some implications of historical patterns for our efforts at problem solving today. this discussion indicates that part of our response to global change must be to understand the long - term evolution of problem - solving systems. complexity is a key concept of this essay. in an earlier study i characterized it as follows : complexity is generally understood to refer to such things as the size of a society, the number and distinctiveness of its parts, the variety of specialized social roles that it incorporates, the number of distinct social personalities present, and the variety of mechanisms for organizing these into a coherent, functioning whole. augmenting any of these dimensions increases the complexity of a society. hunter - gatherer societies ( by way of illustrating one contrast in complexity ) contain no more than a few dozen distinct social personalities, while modern european censuses recognize 10, 000 to 20, 000 unique occupational roles, and industrial societies may contain overall more than 1, 000, 000 different kinds of social personalities ( mcguire 1983 ; tainter 1988 ). 1 as


social personalities, while modern european censuses recognize 10, 000 to 20, 000 unique occupational roles, and industrial societies may contain overall more than 1, 000, 000 different kinds of social personalities ( mcguire 1983 ; tainter 1988 ). 1 as a simple illustration of differences in complexity, julian steward pointed out the contrast between the native peoples of western north america, among whom early ethnographers documented 3, 000 to 6, 000 cultural elements, and the u. s. army, which landed 500, 000 + artifact types at casablanca in world war 11 ( steward 1955 ). complexity is quantifiable. for over 99 % of the history of humanity we lived as low - density foragers or farmers in egalitarian communities of no more than a few dozen persons ( carneiro 1978 ). leslie white pointed out that such a cultural system, based primarily on human labor, can generate only about 1 / 20 horsepower per capita per year ( white 1949, 1959 ). from this base of undifferentiated societies requiring small amounts of energy, the development of complex cultural systems was, a priori, unlikely. the conventional view has been that human societies have a latent tendency towards greater complexity. complexity was assumed to be a desirable thing, and the logical result of surplus food, leisure time, and human creativity. although this scenario is popular, it is inadequate to explain the evolution of complexity. in the world of cultural complexity there is, to use a colloquial expression, no free lunch. more complex societies are costlier to maintain than simpler ones and require higher support levels per capita. a society that is more complex has more sub - groups and social roles, more networks among groups and individuals, more horizontal and vertical controls, higher flow of information, greater centralization of information, more specialization, and greater interdependence of parts. increasing any of these dimensions requires biological, mechanical, or chemical energy. in the days before fossil fuel subsidies, increasing the complexity of a society usually meant that the majority of its population had to work harder ( tainter 1988, 1992, 1994a, 1995a, 1995b ). many aspects of human behavior appear to be complexity averse ( tainter 1995b ). the so - called " complexity of modern life " is a regular complaint in popular discourse. some of the public discontent with government stems from the fact that government adds complexity to people ' s lives. in science, the principle of occam ' s razor has enduring appeal because


complexity of modern life " is a regular complaint in popular discourse. some of the public discontent with government stems from the fact that government adds complexity to people ' s lives. in science, the principle of occam ' s razor has enduring appeal because it states that simplicity in explanation is preferable to complexity. complexity has always been inhibited by the burdens of time and energy that it imposes, and by complexity aversion ( which is no doubt related to cost ). thus explaining why human societies have become increasingly complex presents more of a challenge than ' is customarily thought. the reason why complexity increases is that, most of the time, it works. complexity is a problemsolving strategy that emerges under conditions of compelling need or perceived benefit. throughout history, the stresses and challenges that human populations have faced have often been resolved by becoming more complex. while a complete review is not possible here, this trend is evident in such spheres as : in each of these areas, complexity increases through greater differentiation, specialization, and integration. the development of complexity is thus an economic process : complexity levies costs and yields benefits. it is an investment, and it gives a variable return. complexity can be both beneficial and detrimental. its destructive potential is evident in historical cases where increased expenditures on socioeconomic complexity reached diminishing returns, and ultimately, in some instances, negative returns ( tainter 1988, 1994b ). this outcome emerges from the normal economic process : simple, inexpensive solutions are adopted before more complex, expensive ones. thus, as human populations have increased, hunting and gathering has given way to increasingly intensive agriculture, and to industrialized food production that consumes more energy than it produces ( clark and haswell 1966 ; cohen 1977 ; hall et al. 1992 ). minerals and energy production move consistently from easily accessible, inexpensively exploited reserves to ones that are costlier to find, extract, process, and distribute. socioeconomic organization has evolved from egalitarian reciprocity, short - term leadership, and generalized roles to complex hierarchies with increasing specialization. the graph in figure 4. 1 is based on these arguments. as a society increases in complexity, it expands investment in such things as resource production, information processing, administration, and defense. the benefit / cost curve for these expenditures may at first increase favorably, as the most simple, general, and inexpensive solutions are adopted ( a phase not shown on this chart ). yet as a society encounters new stresses, and inexpensive solutions no longer suffice, its


curve for these expenditures may at first increase favorably, as the most simple, general, and inexpensive solutions are adopted ( a phase not shown on this chart ). yet as a society encounters new stresses, and inexpensive solutions no longer suffice, its evolution proceeds in a more costly direction. ultimately a growing society reaches a point where continued investment in complexity yields higher returns, but at a declining marginal rate. at a point such as b1, c1 on this chart a society has entered the phase where it starts to become vulnerable to collapse. figure 4. 1. deminishing returns to increasing complexity ( after tainter 1988 ). two things make a society liable to collapse at this point. first new emergencies impinge on a people who are investing in a strategy that yields less and less marginal return. as such a society becomes economically weakened it has fewer reserves with which to counter major adversities. a crisis that the society might have survived in its earlier days now becomes insurmountable. second, diminishing returns make complexity less attractive and breed disaffection. as taxes and other costs rise and there are fewer benefits at the local level, more and more people are attracted by the idea of being independent. the society " decomposes " as people pursue their immediate needs rather than the long - term goals of the leadership. as such a society evolves along the marginal return curve beyond b2, c2, it crosses a continuum of points, such as b1, c3, where costs are increasing, but the benefits have actually declined to those previously available at a lower level of complexity. this is a realm of negative returns to investment in complexity. a society at such a point would find that, upon collapsing, its return on investment in complexity would noticeably rise. a society in this condition is extremely vulnerable to collapse. this argument, developed and tested to explain why societies collapse ( tainter 1988 ), is also an account of historical trends in the economics of problem solving. the history of cultural complexity is the history of human problem solving. in many sectors of investment, such as resource production, technology, competition, political organization, and research, complexity is increased by a continual need to solve problems. as easier solutions are exhausted, problem solving moves inexorably to greater complexity, higher costs, and diminishing returns. this need not lead to collapse, but it is important to understand the conditions under which it might. to illustrate these conditions it is useful to review three examples of increasing complexity and costliness in problem solving


, higher costs, and diminishing returns. this need not lead to collapse, but it is important to understand the conditions under which it might. to illustrate these conditions it is useful to review three examples of increasing complexity and costliness in problem solving : the collapse of the roman empire, the development of industrialism, and trends in contemporary science. the collapse of the roman empire one outcome of diminishing returns to complexity is illustrated by the collapse of the western roman empire. as a solar - energy based society which taxed heavily, the empire had little fiscal reserve. when confronted with military crises, roman emperors often had to respond by debasing the silver currency ( figure 4. 2 ) and trying to raise new funds. in the third century a. d. constant crises forced the emperors to double the size of the army and increase both the size and complexity of the government. to pay for this, masses of worthless coins were produced, supplies were commandeered from peasants, and the level of taxation was made even more oppressive ( up to two - thirds of the net yield after payment of rent ). inflation devastated the economy. lands and population were surveyed across the empire and assessed for taxes. communities were held corporately liable for any unpaid amounts. while peasants went hungry or sold their children into slavery, massive fortifications were built, the size of the bureaucracy doubled, provincial administration was made more complex, large subsidies in gold were paid to germanic tribes, and new imperial cities and courts were established. with rising taxes, marginal lands were abandoned and population declined. peasants could no longer support large families. to avoid oppressive civic obligations, the wealthy fled from cities to establish self - sufficient rural estates. ultimately, to escape taxation, peasants voluntarily entered into feudal relationships with these land holders. a few wealthy families came to own much of the land in the western empire, and were able to defy the imperial government. the empire came to sustain itself by consuming its capital resources ; producing lands and peasant population ( jones 1964, 1974 ; wickham 1984 ; tainter 1988, 1994b ). the roman empire provides history ' s best - documented example of how increasing complexity to resolve problems leads to higher costs, diminishing returns, alienation of a support population, economic weakness, and collapse. in the end it could no longer afford to solve the problems of its own existence. figure 4. 2. debasement of the roman silver currency, 0 - 269 a. d. ( after tainter 1994b with modifications ). the


in the end it could no longer afford to solve the problems of its own existence. figure 4. 2. debasement of the roman silver currency, 0 - 269 a. d. ( after tainter 1994b with modifications ). the chart shows grams of silver per denarius ( the basic silver coin ) from 0 to 237 a. d., and per 1 / 2 denarius from 238 - 269 a. d. ( when the denarius was replaced by a larger coin tariffed at two denarii ). population, resources, and industrialism the fate of the roman empire is not the unavoidable destiny of complex societies. it is useful to discuss a historical case that turned out quite differently. in one of the most interesting works of economic history, richard wilkinson ( 1973 ) showed that in late - and post - medieval england, population growth and deforestation stimulated economic development, and were at least partly responsible for the industrial revolution. major increases in population, at around 1300, 1600, and in the late 18th century, led to intensification in agriculture and industry. as forests were cut to provide agricultural land and fuel for a growing population, england ' s heating, cooking, and manufacturing needs could no longer be met by burning wood. coal came to be increasingly important, although it was adopted reluctantly. coal was costlier to obtain and distribute than wood, and restricted in its occurrence. it required a new, costly distribution system. as coal gained importance in the economy the most accessible deposits were depleted. mines had to be sunk ever deeper, until groundwater came to be a problem. ultimately, the steam engine was developed and put to use pumping water from mines. with the development of a coal - based economy, a distribution system, and the steam engine, several of the most important technical elements of the industrial revolution were in place. industrialism, that great generator of economic well - being, came in part from steps to counteract the consequences of resource depletion, supposedly a generator of poverty and collapse. yet it was a system of increasing complexity that did not take long to show diminishing returns in some sectors. this point will be raised again later. science and problem solving contemporary science is humanity ' s greatest exercise in problem solving. science is an institutional aspect of society, and research is an activity that we like to think has a high return. yet as generalized knowledge is established early in the history of a discipline, the work that remains to be done is increasingly specialized. these types of


is an institutional aspect of society, and research is an activity that we like to think has a high return. yet as generalized knowledge is established early in the history of a discipline, the work that remains to be done is increasingly specialized. these types of problems tend to be increasingly costly and difficult to resolve, and on average advance knowledge only by small increments ( rescher 1978, 1980 ; tainter 1988 ). increasing investments in research yield declining marginal returns. some notable scholars have commented upon this. walter rostow once argued that marginal productivity first rises and then declines in individual fields ( 1980 ). the great physicist max planck, in a statement that nicholas rescher calls ' planck ' s principle of increasing effort, observed that "... with every advance [ in science ] the difficulty of the task is increased " ( rescher 1980 ). as easier questions are resolved, science moves inevitably to more complex research areas and to larger, costlier organizations ( rescher 1980 ). rescher suggests that " as science progresses within any of its specialized branches, there is a marked increase in the overall resource - cost to realizing scientific findings of a given level [ of ] intrinsic significance... " ( 1978 ). exponential growth in the size and costliness of science is necessary simply to maintain a constant rate of progress ( rescher 1980 ). derek de solla price noted that in 1963 science was, even then, growing faster than either the population or the economy, and of all scientists who had ever lived, 80 - 90 % were still alive at the time of his writing ( price 1963 ). in the same period, such matters prompted dael wolfle to publish a query in science titled " how much research for a dollar? " ( wolfle 1960 ). scientists rarely think about the benefit / cost ratio to investment in their research. yet if we assess the productivity of our investment in science by some measure such as the issuance of patents ( figure 4. 3 ), the productivity of certain kinds of research appears to be declining. patenting is a controversial indicator among those who study such matters ( machlup 1962 ; schmookler 1966 ; griliches 1984 ), and does not by itself indicate the economic return to the expenditures. medicine is a field of applied science where the return to investment can be determined more readily. over the 52 - year period shown in figure 4. 4, from 1930 - 1982, the productivity of the united states health care system for improving life expectancy declined by nearly 60 %


applied science where the return to investment can be determined more readily. over the 52 - year period shown in figure 4. 4, from 1930 - 1982, the productivity of the united states health care system for improving life expectancy declined by nearly 60 %. the declining productivity of the united states health care system illustrates clearly the historical development of a problem - solving field. rescher ( 1980 ) points out : once all of the findings at a given state - of - the - art level of investigative technology have been realized, one must move to a more expensive level.... in natural science we are involved in a technological arms race : with every victory over nature the difficulty of achieving the breakthroughs which lie ahead is increased. the declining productivity of medicine is due to the fact that the inexpensive diseases and ailments were conquered first ( the basic research that led to penicillin costing no more than $ 20, 000 ), so that those remaining are more difficult and costly to resolve ( rescher 1978 ). and as each increasingly expensive disease is conquered, the increment to average life expectancy becomes ever smaller. figure 4. 3. patent applicatications in respect to research inputs, 1942 - 1958 ( data from machlup 1962 ) figure 4. 4. productivity of the u. s. health care system, 1930 - 1982 ( data from worthington 1975 ; u. s. bureau of census 1983 ). productivity index = ( life expentancy ) / ( national health expenditures as percent of gnp ). implications of the examples the roman empire, industrialism, and science are important, not only for their own merits, but also because they exemplify : ( 1 ) how problem solving evolves along a path of increasing complexity, higher costs, and declining marginal returns ( tainter 1988 ), and ( 2 ) some different outcomes of that process. in the next section, i discuss what these patterns imply for our efforts to address contemporary problems. this historical discussion gives a perspective on what it means to be practical and sustainable. a few years ago i described about two dozen societies that have collapsed ( tainter 1988 ). in no case is it evident or even likely that any of these societies collapsed because its members or leaders did not take practical steps to resolve its problems ( tainter 1988 ). the experience of the roman empire is again instructive. most actions that the roman government took in response to crises - such as debasing the currency, raising taxes, expanding the army,