text stringlengths 122 623k | id stringlengths 47 47 | probability float32 0.88 1 ⌀ | relevant bool 1
class | dump stringclasses 21
values | url stringlengths 13 3.66k | date timestamp[ns]date 2023-09-21 07:37:46 2024-03-05 15:40:28 ⌀ | file_path stringlengths 109 142 | language stringclasses 1
value | language_score float32 0.65 1 | token_count int64 27 143k | idx int64 0 1M ⌀ | score float32 2.52 5.25 ⌀ | int_score int64 3 5 ⌀ | source stringlengths 4 75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
9 August 2013 Further research is needed to identify the specific source – whether animal or otherwise – of the coronavirus that is causing the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in humans, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.
“It is not yet clear how people are becoming infected, or where the virus might come from,” Juan Lubroth, FAO’s Chief Veterinary Officer, said in a news release.
“We do not have enough information to identify with certainty the virus’ origin. Confirming the source and mechanisms of transmission and spread are key to developing ways to reduce the risks posed by this virus to humans or other countries.”
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that affect primarily birds and mammals. Some strains cause mild disease, while a limited number are more harmful such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The MERS coronavirus has been shown to cause acute respiratory illness in humans, but has not yet been shown to cause disease in animals.
FAO underlined that the potential role of animals in the spread of MERS required further investigation. This comes after a study led by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment of the Netherlands found antibodies for the MERS coronavirus in camel blood samples.
The samples for the study were taken in areas where human cases have not been reported, and in some cases, the tested camels have been isolated from other camels for many years.
“These antibody findings indicate that the MERS virus, or a similar coronavirus, occurs in some camels and potentially other species,” FAO said. “However, the only way to know with any certainty if the virus affecting humans is the same as the virus possibly affecting camels (or any other animal) is to isolate the virus in different species and compare them genetically.”
FAO urged countries to invest in efforts to better understand virus sources and mechanisms of transmission and spread, and said it is ready to support national and regional efforts to identify the source.
The Rome-based agency added that it is in close communication with national authorities as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and is monitoring the situation closely.
News Tracker: past stories on this issue | <urn:uuid:02ca6ec5-71ba-4290-92f6-fd860c7d9401> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45598&Cr=virus&Cr1= | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1430454316482.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20150501042516-00077-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945594 | 488 | null | 3.3125 | 3 | www.un.org |
A digital phase-measuring interferometer with a laser-diode source has been developed that is based on a fringe-scanning technique with a stepwise wavelength change by variation of the laser injection current. The phase is changed to produce a relative phase difference between the beams in the two arms of the interferometer. Calibrated phase shifts used for a phase-extraction algorithm are derived from one-dimensional least-squares fits to cosine fringe functions to achieve accurate results. Experimental results are presented.
© 1987 Optical Society of America
Equations on this page are rendered with MathJax. Learn more. | <urn:uuid:75f6944d-b383-41a4-ba2b-d672666e3c3a> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | https://www.osapublishing.org/ol/abstract.cfm?uri=ol-12-4-233 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1430454316482.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20150501042516-00077-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909336 | 128 | null | 3.015625 | 3 | www.osapublishing.org |
(2001, Scotland) Electric trains in Glasgow collect power from the overhead cable, and transmit any excess through the rails to a solid copper cable that routes it to a power redistribution box.
Copper is a favorite target for thieves. One enterprising fellow with a good knowledge of the electrical system planned to cut the copper cable during the time between trains, when no electricity was travelling through it. His plan might have worked... but for one small flaw.
In the pocket of his charred overcoat, police found an out-of-date rail timetable. The train arrived ten minutes before he thought it would, sending hundreds of volts of electricity through the thief's hacksaw and into his body, and putting an untimely end to his career.
DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2012
Submitted by: Sam Daly
Plausible? You tell me! | <urn:uuid:83ebfe03-765f-4f76-9686-9cd66f79222a> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2001-16.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959673 | 177 | null | 2.75 | 3 | darwinawards.com |
Argonne National Lab scientists Jeff Elam (left) and Anil Mane’s work in nanocomposite charge drain coatings represents a significant breakthrough in the efforts to develop microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS. This new technology earned one of the 36 R&D 100 awards from R&D Magazine that the National Labs took home in 2013. | Image courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory.
Every day, our National Laboratories lead the charge in fulfilling the Energy Department’s mission to use science and research to tackle our nation’s energy and security challenges. The development of these transformative solutions has great potential for direct application across the energy industry. For this reason, the process of transforming innovation into commercialization -- technology transfer -- is critical to the work at the Energy Department.
There are many ways in which the National Laboratories engage in technology transfer. CRADAs (Cooperative Research and Development Agreements) allow industry partners to share technical expertise and resources in a protected environment, access intellectual property and data emerging from the effort, and advance the commercialization of federally developed technologies.
In the Work for Others agreement, industry partners pay the National Laboratories to perform a defined scope of work that draws upon the unique facilities, equipment, and personnel of the Laboratory. Work for Others agreements typically allow these partners to retain certain intellectual property and data rights arising from their sponsored work at the Laboratory.
In other instances, some industry partners are developing unique research ideas that require facilities or instruments that only Energy Department laboratories can provide.Through User Agreements for Designated User Facilities, industry partners receive access to specific facilities and equipment available at the laboratories to conduct research and development. User facilities may be available for proprietary or non-proprietary research. Proprietary users pay the full cost of conducting the research at the lab and retain certain rights to the intellectual property and data. Non-proprietary users agree to publish the research results and are not required to cover the cost of the use of the facility.
The ways in which technology transfers occur are critical in helping to push innovation forward. The Department works to make patents easily accessible for startup companies, entrepreneurs and small businesses through initiatives like “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge,” the Energy Innovation Portal and tech transfer programs at the individual labs. To learn more, visit energy.gov/labs. | <urn:uuid:3218f697-415a-464d-95b1-decc3b3be76f> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://energy.gov/articles/innovation-commercialization-tech-transfer-national-labs | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911539 | 485 | null | 2.71875 | 3 | energy.gov |
SUSTAINABLE WATER113ecent events have placed food security atcentre stage. Unprecedented rising offood prices since 2007, the financialcrisis of 2008, the growing awareness ofthe impact of climate change on food production andconcern about the effect of political turmoil in theMiddle East on energy supplies have all put pressure onfood resources. Fundamental to this drama in manycountries, but not receiving the attention it deserves, is the quantity and quality of water available for agriculture. When world food prices increase, the poor suffer themost. The hardest hit regions are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa where 95 per cent of the world'spoverty and hunger reside. Many factors influence foodsecurity: farming practices, irrigation schemes, soilfertility, transport, trade, etc. But looking at thechallenges faced by these two regions shows how waterand food are intricately connected.In South Asia, an overwhelming 85 per cent of watergoes to irrigation in agriculture. This high consumptionis caused by inefficient practices, making waterproductivity, measured as "crop per drop", one of thelowest in the world and depriving other sectors of wateruse. In contrast, in sub-Saharan Africa, 97 per cent of agricultural production is dependent on rainfall and only three per cent of the cultivated area is under irrigation.Pressure on water resources stem from other dynamicsas well: rapid population growth, urbanisation andeconomic growth are causing changes in foodpreferences that require more water-intensive crops,meats, fish, fruits and vegetables. Yet the context isvastly different from nation to nation because ofdifferences in natural resource endowments, stages of" R"WATER IS THECONNECTINGTHREAD ACROSSECONOMIC SECTORS WHICHCAN NURTURE AND SUPPORTGREEN GROWTH development and the extent of population pressure onthe land. These local realities must be understood ifgovernments are to find credible solutions.Then there is the threat of climate variability andclimate change. Greater frequency of extreme weatherevents, warmer temperatures, increased incidence oftemperature-related diseases and pests, and increaseduncertainty from temperature and precipitationvariability are already evident.In South Asia, severe flooding in 2007 along theGanges and Brahmaputra rivers affected over 13million people in Bangladesh and the cost was overUS$1 billion; flooding in Pakistan in 2010 along theIndus River severely affected 20 million people andthe cost was nearly US$10 billion. India sufferednumerous events of extreme rainfall, flooding anddroughts. Sea level rise hurts the sustainability ofhuman settlements in low lying areas in Bangladeshand Sri Lanka.Sub-Saharan Africa already has increasedtemperatures and evaporation rates, greater rainfallvariability and higher incidences of pests and diseases.Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya and South Africaexperienced extreme flooding in 2000 and 2001, withdrought thereafter. In several African countries (e.g.,Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe), GDP and rainfall areclosely related, with GDP falling dramatically indrought years as well as in flood years. The long-term effects of climate change are not yetknown, but in all likelihood they will compoundexisting problems by increasing the difficulty ofmanaging water resources development and waterservices. Climate change will amplify the need forgroundwater to protect agriculture against droughtwhile simultaneously heightening the threat to theresource: aquifer levels are already dropping rapidly.Growing variability in precipitation will intensify theunreliability of irrigating from surface reservoirs. The likely effects include abandonment of cultivableareas, forced changes in cropping patterns to lesswater-intensive crops, forced changes in foodproduction locations, higher food imports and greatervulnerability of the poorest households -mostlywomen and children. A recent McKinsey report notedthat some solutions will require potentially unpopularpolicy changes and the adoption of water-savingtechniques and technologies by millions of farmers. The human suffering is, and will be, tragic. Millions oftonnes of food production are lost, adding an unknownnumber of food security-related deaths to thethousands of deaths already from flooding and itsaftermath, including the spread of disease.The Global Water Partnership urges, together withmany of its partners, a set of practical steps to helpAbove:In South Asia, 85per cent of water goes toirrigation in agriculture,such as rice cultivationOver page:Dr AniaGrobicki?
countries manage their response to achieving bothfood and water security:INFORMATION Greatly expand location-specific weather, soil andwater-related information on a timely, reliable andsustained basis; promote its rapid and widedissemination to vulnerable populations usingmodern technology; Redouble national efforts to address the risk to smallfarm agriculture, and to better prepare for climateresilience by improving the knowledge andinformation base on natural resources, especially soiland water;For disaster risk management, improve theunderstanding of the variability and reliability of water resources (e.g., by enhancing waterresources assessment);Monitor water resources availability in time andspace (e.g., by enhancing hydro-meteorologicalcapacity and networks);Monitor water use and the efficiency andeffectiveness of such use.INVESTMENTPromote investments to support climate-resilientagriculture; Place long-term strategies for the sustainable andequitable use of water at the heart of climateadaptation investment;Invest in preparedness for water related disasters -current and future, e.g., from the ineffective, costlyand inefficient surface irrigation systems and fromthe "tragedy of the commons" that causes rapiddepletion of aquifers; 114SUSTAINABLE WATERReduce complexity and increase flexibility indeveloping countries' access to adaptation fundsamong the myriad of climate-related funds bycreating standard, easy-to-follow requirements forborrowing countries.INFRASTRUCTUREEvaluate the appropriateness and need for large,small and natural water storage infrastructure, bothabove and below ground, in order to ensure access towater for multiple uses in an efficient, equitable andsustainable way.INSTITUTIONSDevelop regulatory frameworks that support theimplementation of both climate mitigation andclimate adaptation strategies and actions;Develop institutions that can manage inter-sectoraldisagreements;Promote regional integration, including trade in food,energy and water that will increase regional security(e.g., through hydroelectric power and its tradeacross borders);Improve policies for pricing of electricity, water, andfood procurement and distribution to protectvulnerable groups, while providing incentives toincrease agricultural production and productivityamong small farmers.Water is the medium that links food security, energysecurity, climate change, economic growth and humanlivelihoods. Making water security a top developmentpriority is one sure way to reduce countries' social,economic, political and environmental vulnerability. nThis article was prepared with the help of members ofthe Technical Committee of the Global WaterPartnership, an international network of 13 Regionaland 79 Country Water Partnerships, and more than2,300 institutional partners in 157 countries. TheGWP network is committed to the sustainabledevelopment and management of water resources atall levels.Global Water Partnership (GWP)Drottninggatan 33 SE-111 51 Stockholm, SWEDENTel: +46 (0) 8 522 126, www.gwp.orgABOUT THE AUTHORDr Ania Grobicki is the Executive Secretary of theGlobal Water Partnership. Dr Grobicki has spent mostof her working life on water-related issues, holdingpositions in the private sector as well as with NGOsand the United Nations. She has a PhD inBiotechnology from Imperial College, London. | <urn:uuid:13f7c406-a2ed-4c01-a12a-9b2b78b155c1> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://view.digipage.net/?id=g8climatechange2011&page=113 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89482 | 1,587 | null | 3.640625 | 4 | view.digipage.net |
Australia will largely meet its target of a 5 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2020 by doing nothing more than claiming offsets from revegetation of cleared land, regional forest agreements and ending logging of native forests.
But a report to be released today by Andrew McIntosh at the Australian National University says the federal government has deliberately underestimated these offsets to justify a weak target in international negotiations. The study, commissioned by Greenpeace, shows up to 40 per cent of cuts could come from the land-use sector. Given significant cuts can be achieved with little economic effort, Australia should be aiming for a higher emission reduction target, it says.
The Australian Financial Review | <urn:uuid:f75109cc-d84b-4264-8301-6d5042148225> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.afr.com/news/policy/climate/emissions-cuts-in-the-bag-20110216-iloyy | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941014 | 131 | null | 2.703125 | 3 | www.afr.com |
Learn about the War of 1812 and Dartmoor Prison songs
NEW SCOTLAND — Folklorist Paul Mercer will use music and words to tell the little known tale of the War of 1812 prisoners of war in England’s notorious Dartmoor Prison.
He’ll speak on Tuesday, May 6, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. for the New Scotland Historical Association, at the Wyman Osterhout Community Center, off of Route 85, in New Salem. The program is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 765-4212.
England and the United States signed the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, ending the War of 1812. The 6,000 American prisoners of war held in Dartmoor Prison were not freed until well into 1815.
Thomas Mott of New York was a 17-year-old seaman serving aboard the privateer Yorktown in July of 1813, when he was captured off the coast of Newfoundland. He was temporarily held at Melville Island Prison near Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then transported to England’s Dartmoor Prison where he spent the rest of the war.
Mott began writing songs in a small leather-bound notebook while at Melville. His satirical songs railed against prison conditions, cheered American sea victories, and simply recorded the lives of his fellow sufferers, reflecting the experience of POWs at Dartmoor and bringing a fresh perspective to the War of 1812.
Mercer has a master’s degree in folklore from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, and also has a master’s degree in information science from the University at Albany. He worked for over 30 years at the New York State Library and has published books and papers on New York State history, folklore, and popular culture. He was formerly chairman and on the board of directors of the New York Folklore Society.
Editor’s note: Ethie Moak is a member of the New Scotland Historical Association. | <urn:uuid:2c9ce37d-5a22-4c99-8f8e-149bc5ca03a2> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.altamontenterprise.com/community/community-news/04252014/learn-about-war-1812-and-dartmoor-prison-songs | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95505 | 420 | null | 2.578125 | 3 | www.altamontenterprise.com |
by Susan McGowan
"People "in the know" command powers that the ignorant lack," a thought taken from Francis Bacon, 1597. And from Samuel Johnson, c.1770, "society is held together by communication and information."
The transformation of society, from colonial to national, was a cumulative phenomenon. The population of the country in 1700 was 250,000, but by 1865 it was 36 million. Colonial society was a face-to-face culture in a time of relative scarcity of information with limited topical range. Most New Englanders were literate, driven by their Protestantism to read the Bible, but the majority of people at that time conversed, read, and attended public gatherings to satisfy personal needs and to express their sociable natures or to feed their spirituality by weekly church attendance. Word of mouth and personal correspondence were the major means of gathering information.
The rank or social stature of persons determined who would be the purveyors of information; those in power talked mainly to each other and were the ones who then made the decisions. Common folk spent their days at labor and joined in conversation with family members and neighbors of similar backgrounds. The rural poor, white or black, had little time or occasion for reading, except for the Bible and perhaps an almanac. Visits to the local tavern might bring news of a more global nature, if it were a place also frequented by travelers or tradesmen.
Even though diversified, colonial society was essentially a collection of local societies in which a coherent Christian culture was perpetuated. Both reading and oratory were dominated by religious messages; the themes of order and stability that were expressed by church and state were mutually subordinate to cooperation in both community and commercial life. As the nineteenth-century republic developed, competition began to replace coherence in public life.
Clergymen and politicians who could win the largest audiences, lyceum speakers who could sell the most tickets, authors whose works sold most widely became influential not because of any office they held or any prescribed public role, but because of their engaging public performances. In a competitive environment of regional or national dimensions, where purveyors of each type of information had to compete with others conveying similar information as well as with a multitude of entirely different sorts of information, each individual was invited to his or her own coherent culture from within the galaxy of religious sects, political parties, and reform societies that were thriving in the new republic.1
The change probably began in the Great Awakening of the 1730s with the notion of individual choice forcefully asserted. It was furthered when the consumer revolution - later in the century - which brought printed textiles, fashionable furniture forms, and improved ceramics, also brought a wealth of information to the general public.
Face-to-face communication has never disappeared and remains crucial in the everyday experience, but when the diffusion of this burgeoning of public information moved from face-to-face networks to the newspaper page, profound public influences began to replace communal ones. Face-to-face communication is personal and governed by the relationship of the speaker to the listener. Print required no such inhibitions. The speaker, to be sure, was still subject to some restraints as a writer, but the listener/reader could react privately and, therefore, more freely. He could growl, frown, or ignore the text altogether. Newspapers opted to become neutral and non-partisan with the information they printed or to become frankly partisan. In either case, once the newspaper became cheap and abundant people expressed their own individuality by choosing to read or to ignore the information contained in them. The production and distribution of newspapers, periodicals, and books - small-scale in the colonial era and reliant chiefly on imports - became big business. By 1850, 22,000 men, plus a lesser number of women and children, were printing and binding billions of items annually, plus producing ink, paper, and the type necessary to support the system. Diffusing information became a great national enterprise and "parochial ignorance was no longer legitimate."2
Nineteenth-century American society was now characterized by the movement of public information from distant, impersonal sources direct to individuals, independent of family, neighborhood or any face-to-face connections. Aided by the republican belief in a social hierarchy based on achievement rather than heredity, the information explosion marched on; the acquisition of extensive knowledge was prescribed for republican citizens in all walks of life. The widespread aspirations of gentility, which took place at the time of the American Revolution, made it increasingly attractive from a commercial standpoint to introduce books, periodicals, newspapers, and public speech to a vast audience of common people.
By the mid-nineteenth century this proliferation of printed matter was available to all citizens through public and private library societies, clubs, lyceum lectures, newspapers, and book stores which featured fiction, reference works, legal, medical, and religious texts, as well as practical manuals and the continuously-present Bibles and almanacs.
1Brown, Richard D., Knowledge is Power, The Diffusion of Information in Early America, 1700-1865. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, 296.
2Brown, Richard D., Knowledge is Power, The Diffusion of Information in Early America, 1700-1865. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, 290.
top of page | <urn:uuid:899b00e0-0b1d-42f5-905f-55153f6fbc3c> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.americancenturies.mass.edu/classroom/curriculum_6th/lesson11/bkgdessay.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970196 | 1,099 | null | 3.59375 | 4 | www.americancenturies.mass.edu |
Scrabble word: SHARPIES
In which Scrabble dictionary does SHARPIES exist?
Definitions of SHARPIES in dictionaries:
- noun - an alert and energetic person
- noun - a professional card player who makes a living by cheating at card games
- noun - a pen with indelible ink that will write on any surface
- noun - a shallow-draft sailboat with a sharp prow, flat bottom, and triangular sail
- noun - a very alert person
There are 8 letters in SHARPIES: A E H I P R S S
Scrabble words that can be created with an extra letter added to SHARPIES
All anagrams that could be made from letters of word SHARPIES plus a wildcard: SHARPIES?
Scrabble words that can be created with letters from word SHARPIES
8 letter words
7 letter words
6 letter words
5 letter words
4 letter words
3 letter words
2 letter words
Images for SHARPIES
SCRABBLE is the registered trademark of Hasbro and J.W. Spear & Sons Limited. Our scrabble word finder and scrabble cheat word builder is not associated with the Scrabble brand - we merely provide help for players of the official Scrabble game. All intellectual property rights to the game are owned by respective owners in the U.S.A and Canada and the rest of the world. Anagrammer.com is not affiliated with Scrabble. This site is an educational tool and resource for Scrabble & Words With Friends players. | <urn:uuid:4ff21dba-353a-4675-848a-35f2591cbb32> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.anagrammer.com/scrabble/sharpies | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896236 | 334 | null | 2.609375 | 3 | www.anagrammer.com |
As early as possible. In the United States, 2 to 3 in 1,000 babies are born with a significant hearing loss. That loss can lead to speech and language delays in young children, but the earlier the hearing loss is detected and addressed, the more likely a child is to reach his normal language and speech developmental milestones.
Not so long ago, experts were unable to identify most children with hearing loss until they were about 2 1/2 years old. Thanks to modern tests and technology (such as otoacoustic emissions and automated auditory brainstem response), it's now possible to screen newborns for hearing loss before they leave the hospital.
Ten years ago only a handful of states were doing any kind of newborn hearing screening. Today, all 50 states have screening programs – with or without legislative mandates. Ten years ago, the average age of hearing loss identification in the United States was after 2 years old. In 2007, the average age of identification was before 6 months. | <urn:uuid:97347ce9-a7df-4ca0-9e78-1e69ad679692> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.babycenter.com/404_when-should-my-babys-hearing-be-tested_6856.bc | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97558 | 198 | null | 3.875 | 4 | www.babycenter.com |
There is bipartisan movement toward making the most important step the nation can take to improve the quality of public education in the country, particularly in its urban cores.
It’s the growth of the idea that early childhood education holds the key to making quality gains in performance.
The latest evidence of this unifying movement in a politically divided country came this month when the National Governors Association issued a series of principles meant to encourage more state and federal partnership in improving access to quality pre-K programs for all American children.
This is a huge step. It sends a signal that states are ready to work with the federal government to help implement President Barack Obama’s goal that every 4-year-old in the country have access to a quality pre-K program.
Costly but valuable
That’s an expensive promise. Keeping it would cost at least $75 billion in federal funds, according to some estimates. But increasingly, it matches with goals set in both red and blue states.
In Missouri, the legislature this year passed House Bill 1689. It could gradually trigger funding for every school district in the state to provide quality pre-K programs for low-income children. It goes into effect in the 2015-16 school year for unaccredited districts such as Riverview Gardens and Kansas City.
Unfortunately, one of the districts that needs the help the most, the former Normandy School District (now called the Normandy Schools Collaborative) won’t qualify for immediate help. That’s because the state Board of Education took away the previous unaccredited status applied to Normandy.
Putting a different set of administrators in charge doesn’t automatically improve the district’s performance. The legislature should address this issue before 2015, assuming Gov. Jay Nixon signs HB 1689, which he should.
The early childhood education effort in Missouri has been pushed hardest by Mr. Nixon and Sen. Joe Keaveny of St. Louis — both Democrats — but passed with overwhelming Republican support.
Why? Because study after study has shown that money spent on early childhood education is a good investment. It saves taxpayer money and serves as a serious economic development tool. That’s why there is little political dissension over the issue. States as politically different as Oklahoma and Minnesota have realized that increasing access to quality early childhood education is a winner for children, for fighting poverty and for improving the business climate.
“This is the best thing that we’ve accomplished education-wise in my tenure and probably for 10 years before that,” Mr. Keaveny told the Post-Dispatch’s Virginia Young at the end of the legislative session.
The set of principles from the National Governors Association embraces the idea of spending more federal money on early childhood education while urging the federal government to give states flexibility in how they spend the money. Considering how differently each state funds public education, this makes perfect sense.
Congress should get on board the early childhood education train and pass legislation — and fund it — to encourage every state to adopt universal pre-K programs.
Copyright St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Reprinted with permission. | <urn:uuid:4cba4be7-6254-4011-ac02-79c91538c32c> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.columbiamissourian.com/a/175925/what-others-say-push-for-more-pre-k-education-has-state-nation-on-right-track/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943347 | 642 | null | 2.671875 | 3 | www.columbiamissourian.com |
President Obama announced a government consolidation plan that would involve transferring parts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ("NOAA"), which is currently part of the Department of Commerce, to the Department of the Interior. NOAA oversees marine wildlife, including endangered marine species. The Fish and Wildlife Service, which is an agency within Interior, oversees freshwater species and land-dwelling wildlife. In his remarks regarding the proposed consolidation, President Obama, suggested that having the two agencies that conduct oversight over species in separate departments was inefficient.
As reported by Jason Samenow in the Washington Post, the consolidation plan is facing growing opposition. Several environmental groups, including the NRDC have spoken out against the plan arguing that it could hinder the government’s protection of the oceans and undermine the agency’s independence. The National Weather Service Employee’s Union is also opposed to the consolidation. However, not everyone thinks the consolidation is entirely bad. David Malakoff of Science quotes a former head of NOAA’s marine fisheries program as stating that "The place that NOAA sits doesn’t matter; what matters is that its operations need to be coherent and functioning" and that there are both advantages and disadvantages to the proposed consolidation. | <urn:uuid:a8bdd8a2-cd46-4131-a558-d7b97e6fcf1a> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.endangeredspecieslawandpolicy.com/2012/01/articles/congress/parts-of-national-oceanic-and-atomospheric-administration-to-be-transferred-to-department-of-the-interior/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962244 | 247 | null | 2.5625 | 3 | www.endangeredspecieslawandpolicy.com |
Process control drives almost all food safety measures, with the exception of handwashing and hand hygiene. These remain a frontier without meaningful, measureable, and manageable standards.
Operators are often content for hand hygiene to be covered in their FDA-promulgated good manufacturing practices, seeing little need for specific standards to drive enhanced hand hygiene. The FDA’s Model Food Code has been unable to provide guidance for a situation in which behavioral science is key to compliance. Codes and operational standards work best for physical measurements like temperature control or chemical factors such as pH. Logs can be easily maintained and monitored.
Solving handwashing issues in the food industry is not about knowledge, training, products, or equipment. It is all about linking best practices in a structured, sustainable solution.
Risks of Poor Hygiene
Poor hand hygiene is the most frequently mentioned contributing factor in outbreak reporting. Juxtaposing this risk with the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlights the risk reduction potential in pursuing improved hand hygiene process control:
“Handwashing is the single most important means of preventing the spread of infection.”
The food processing industry has made amazing advances when it comes to minimizing dangerous line-worker touches. Now the risk of hand contamination comes mainly from processing speed, batch size, and food prices.
Food service continues, however, to involve many hands in the race to serve tasty, safe food. In fact, as chefs recognize the value of visuals to a satisfying dish, more hands become involved. Garnishes and plating priorities often require the skill and touch of a clean bare hand. The challenge now becomes serving food that is tasty and artful but is still safe to eat.
Measuring risk is an exercise in approximation; the fact that it is not a true science must not prevent common-sense interventions.
The media has a strong influence on operator risk assessment and priorities. Sprouts. Cantaloupes. FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. Based on the headlines of the past year, one could easily put hand hygiene improvements on the back burner.
Shielding food safety from political partialities is impossible. From neighborhood issues to United Nations priorities, food safety permeates and affects our reality—from farms to the forks of the world. The recurring stories of 48 million foodborne illness-stricken Americans, the 128,000 hospitalizations, and the 3,000 deaths that occur each year are eclipsed by popularly provocative politics.
If the media were risk-based, poor hand hygiene would likely dominate, and we would be celebrating the comparative safety levels of our nation’s food processors.
A Range of Risks
Operators have a range of responsibilities, including moral, financial, and legal, when it comes to minimizing restaurant-acquired illness. And, while foodborne illness is a major part of this risk category, it is important not to minimize the risk of other illnesses that could be acquired by patrons of a restaurant, perhaps from a contaminated restroom or the table of a pathogenic patron. | <urn:uuid:c64b2900-89aa-46e0-9865-04c2ea8f6de3> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/a-recipe-for-hand-hygiene-process-control/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946019 | 623 | null | 3.09375 | 3 | www.foodqualityandsafety.com |
Rationing & Scrap Drives
During the Depression of the 1930s, Americans "did without" because they didn't have jobs to buy food and clothing. During World War II, Americans again "did without," this time because of the war effort. Rationing affected rural America particularly.
The federal government set up a rationing system in 1942 and limited purchases of sugar, coffee, meat, fish, butter, eggs, cheese, shoes, rubber and gasoline. Silk and newly invented nylon was used to produce parachutes, and so women around the world found it hard to get fashion stockings.
Other commodities were in short supply because trade routes were disrupted. Shellac, for instance, was produced in India and was used for building products and music record discs. Because of the war in Asia, trade with India was disrupted, and so new records were hard to come by.
The shortages became such a nuisance that they even got the attention of song writers. Jazz musician Louis Jordan was one of those who had fun with rationing when he wrote "Ration Blues." Click the jukebox to hear the song.
Farm production, however, was vital to the war effort, so farmers got extra rations of gasoline and other staples. Yet, it was hard to get new machinery as factories were retooled to produce tanks rather than tractors.
Here's how rationing worked: Each member of the household got a ration booklet, usually distributed at a the local school. Each booklet had stamps in it that translated into a certain amount of the commodity being rationed. For instance, there were only enough stamps for one person to buy 28 ounces of meat per week, 4 ounces per day. Merchants collected the stamps when you bought something, and when the stamps were gone so was the item for that week.
The challenge was to use everyone's stamps to buy the food the family needed. The Office of Price Administration gave out points that could be used to purchase goods in very short supply, but it was up to the consumer to use the coupons when buying rationed items.
Freddie Oglesby (left) remembers having to have coupons ready before she bought anything. "When you bought something," Freddie says, "you'd have to have the stamps ready to hand them because that was what our allotment was."
Kelly Holthus (right) remembers that, in a town of 600 people, everyone knew how much everyone else was supposed to be getting. So, cheating was hard to get away with. "It was all those little things that were so important," he says. "The gas rationing, the sugar stamps, the coffee stamps. The ladies couildn't get nylons."
Winton Wright (left) talks about how families adapted to rationing. "You done with what you had," he says. "Now, I often wonder if that happened again today, how people would cope with that."
Diena Schmidt (right) remembers how her family worked around the wartime shortages. "We just became more ingenious," she says. "If we could buy a box of Jell-O, we'd make a piecrust and put Jell-O in it and we had pie."
Regulating the supply of goods led to a "Black Market" the sale of items "off the records," from farm equipment to gasoline to beef and pork. The government was so concerned that they actually produced a short dramatic film encouraging people not to break the law.
Technically, Mildred Hopkins (left) sold cigarettes on the "black market," although she did it just to help out friends. She stopped after she stored a carton in a drawer with perfume and her friends complained about how the cigarettes tasted.
Millie Opitz and her husband Chris had to go on the black market to get a combine they needed in the middle of the war.
Save those scraps. With so many commodities in short supply, the government not only rationed them but also campaigned to save and reuse vital materials. Many people who were children or teenagers during World War II remember how their small towns held scrap drives. People collected scrap paper so it could be used for packing around equipment and weapons. All kinds of metal was collected so it could be recycled and made into bombs. Engine grease was saved. The government needed copper for war material and minted pennies from zinc-coated steel in 1943. Towns had paper drives, rubber drives, and scrap metal drives. Children went door to door in their neighborhoods. The drives generated a strong sense of community and a patriotic feeling that everyone was helping in the war effort. The actual savings from these drives is difficult to measure.
So today's recycling movement may have actually begun in the 1940s.
Written by Claudia Reinhardt and Bill Ganzel, the Ganzel Group. A partial bibliography of sources is here. | <urn:uuid:eb2cc49b-0daa-45ae-bfb4-8e1c2c872c6a> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/life_08.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988694 | 997 | null | 3.578125 | 4 | www.livinghistoryfarm.org |
Europe is the second-smallest continent of the world and yet the third most populated one which alone speaks volumes of its significance in the context of modern civilization. As some of the most magnificent civilizations man has ever produced, Europe is the proud home to the Greek civilization and Roman empire who made an almost unparalleled contribution to the world of art, literature, philosophy, politics and law. Overcome with an urge to dispel the ignorance of dark ages with the light of knowledge, great explorers and pioneers took off from this great continent to explore unknown parts of the world which literally set the stage for redrawing the world history. Exploration gave rise to development of trade routes which made way for a worldwide colonial era in due course of time. In this period, Europe came to play an immensely important role in shaping the course of world history.The outline Map of Europe
on this page clearly defines the geographical and political boundaries of the continent. The political boundaries of various countries in the continent are also marked on the map. | <urn:uuid:c523845f-c815-4687-8c0f-e5f3afecae8d> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.mapsofworld.com/europe-outline-map.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943955 | 202 | null | 3.609375 | 4 | www.mapsofworld.com |
In the mushroom cultivation sector the following remark is often heard during discussions about cultivation processes: ‘If the basis is good, not a lot can go wrong’. This is open to discussion as the more that is known about the basic material, the more questions are raised. The primary material meant here is compost. But to be entirely correct, what we are actually talking about is the production of the raw materials used to make compost. One of these is straw, which brings us to cereal farmers. For cereal farmers, grain is the main product and straw a by-product.
Straw production and storage
The type of cereal crop and the soil it is grown on have a major influence straw structure, but the cultivation process is also a contributing factor: is it ecological or conventional? Ecological cultivation systems allow no pesticides or fertilizers, which also means no growth inhibitors. For cereal farmers it is very important that grain kernels do not develop too high up on the stems, otherwise the first heavy storm will flatten the crop. Growth inhibitors and/or modified cereal varieties can be an option.
The weather during cultivation and harvesting are also influential to straw quality. Last summer in Europe was dry, which gave a short straw quality, i.e. the compost quality for the next season. In France the quality of dry harvested straw is good. It is too soon to speak of a good harvest as so much depends on the weather during harvesting.
High labour costs in West-Europe mean that the development of agricultural mechanization is an on-going process. With harvesting and threshing machinery, speed is becoming as important as quality, which can mean the crop is harvested more aggressively. Certain cereal varieties, where the kernel is tightly held in the ears, also have to be shaken more intensely. These measures obviously mean that the handling frequency of the straw will be higher. Some balers used to compress straw into bales have multiple blades, partly to achieve more weight per bale and to reduce transport costs. Large or small bales, the density and various suppliers all affect on compost structure.
The next factor is how the straw is stored: by the producer or the trader? Is it stored on a hard surface so that clay or sand particles are kept away from the straw, and little or no ground water can seep through? Is the stack under cover or in the open air? If straw is rained on during storage, it may later develop mould, with detrimental results during composting.
Is the straw transported after storage straight to the composting company or to a stable or riding school first?
In stables, straw is subjected to many influences, which can cause a fluctuating final quality. The structure differences in straw in horse manure is far more diverse than in straw compost. The difference in moisture content is an example.
We have now arrived at the start of phase 1. A straw bath or other pre-treatment is necessary to start decomposing the wax layer. In outdoor systems this occurs in the flat heaps belonging to the traditional methods used in our country in the past. Here too, the structure depends on the method used. When other ingredients (broiler manure, gypsum, horse manure, straw and percolate) are added in phase 1, achieving a homogenous mixture is essential. This is easier said than done.
A fundamental rule of composting is mixing but retaining structure. With outdoor systems mixing is important, but with indoor systems the shortened process time means precise mixing is even more vital. Mixing compost means the structure is changed. The question is not only the length and intensity of mixing but the type of machinery used and the type of mix. Short straw cannot be made longer. A good raw material like long straw is important to get the right compost structure.
For a good structure excellent aeration properties, in other words oxygen supplies and temperature management, are essential particularly in tunnel systems. With the development of phase 2 in tunnels, oxygen became the greatest focus of attention. An oxygen supply means fresh air in lightly filled compost with good aeration properties. Slatted or spigot floors and drag mats also play an important role.
It quickly became apparent that if the compost in a tunnel was too heterogeneous the process failed to progress optimally, with all the related consequences. This leads us back to the importance of a correct process in phase 1 so that the fresh compost supplied is of the highest quality, allowing tunnel companies to produce a selective nutrient medium in phase 2 for mushroom production.
Mixing, temperature and ammonia
In phase 1 extreme demands are placed on the product, buildings, machinery and the human element. A lot happens in a short space of time. The input materials are mixed as thoroughly as possible in a relatively short period.
However, speed should never be allowed to be at the cost of quality and structure. How often is the mixture lifted by the teeth, how often does it travel from one conveyor belt to another and how often are loaders used?
In addition to all these mechanical factors, the process itself also affects the structure. To activate the right microbiological and chemical processes the correct proportions and aeration techniques cause the temperature to rise as high as 85 degrees Celsius. An important aspect of phase 1 is softening the straw, which is achieved by this high temperature combined with a high ammonia content. The high temperature during phase 1 is beneficial for the compost; there is little decomposition of the organic matter in comparison to decomposition during the phase 2 process, namely conditioning. Oxygen use in phase 1 is less.
This high temperature destroys many micro-organisms. This in turn produces more ammonia, which remains present, as it cannot be absorbed in the lignin humus-complex. The limited fresh air cannot disperse the ammonia. The straw is in a condition where bacteria and mould can do their work effectively. Ultimately, the mushroom mycelium could also develop in the straw and not only on the surface. All these influences soften the straw, which in turn influences the structure.
When the fresh compost produced in this way is delivered to the tunnel company for phase 2 and 3 many treatments again influence the structure, such as emptying the composting tunnels, transport and pre-treatment at the phase 2 tunnel company, filling the tunnels, spawning via hauling winches, the incubation process and actual supplying.
When the spawned compost is finally delivered to the grower, expertise is needed to fill the growing room optimally. Each grower knows that structure of the compost used is a decisive factor in determining the final quality of his crop and profits. | <urn:uuid:325344f4-4383-4990-a77a-8e8ff7b77154> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.mushroombusiness.com/content/articles/detail/200/variety-of-factors-influence-compost-structure | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957004 | 1,344 | null | 3.046875 | 3 | www.mushroombusiness.com |
|December 1997||Volume XXXII--Number 4|
Laboratory observations of ice-floe processes made during long-term drift and collision experiments by Susan Frankenstein and Hayley Shen
Antarctic Treaty notes: CCAMLR's Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management meets in San Diego
Carried aboard the SeaStar spacecraft, the new orbiting satellite instrument SeaWiFS (the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor Project), views every square kilometer of cloud-free ocean every 48 hours. With each pass, it charts ocean color, which enables it to quantify the concentration of microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton. The color in most of the world's oceans varies with the concentration of chlorophyll and other plant pigments in the water--the more phytoplankton present, the greater the concentration of plant pigments and the greener the water. By charting water color against the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS), shown in the key with the image, SeaWiFS can derive chlorophyll concentrations and from them determine phytoplankton concentrations. The oceanographic community uses these data about the abundance of phytoplankton and other primary producers--that is, the algae and bacteria at the bottom of the food chain that use sunlight and chemicals, rather than other organic material, as sources of energy--to study ocean processes on a global scale. The information can also be used to assess the ocean's role in the global carbon cycle and the exchange of other critical elements and gases between the atmosphere and the ocean. The SeaWiFS mission is part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's "Mission to Planet Earth" project, whose goal is to help scientists and researchers gain understanding of the Earth as a functioning system by viewing it from space. (Image provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) provides awards for research and education in the sciences and engineering. The awardee is wholly responsible for the conduct of such research and preparation of the results for publication. The Foundation, therefore, does not assume responsibility for the research findings or their interpretation.
The Foundation welcomes proposals from all qualified scientists and engineers and strongly encourages women, minorities, and persons with disabilities to compete fully in any of the research- and education-related programs described here. In accordance with federal statutes, regulations, and NSF policies, no person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any program or activity receiving financial assistance from the National Science Foundation.
Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities (FASED) provide funding for special assistance or equipment to enable persons with disabilities (investigators and other staff, including student research assistants) to work on NSF projects. See the program announcement or contact the program coordinator at (703) 306-1636.
The National Science Foundation has TDD (Telephonic Device for the Deaf) capability, which enables individuals with hearing impairment to communicate with the Foundation about NSF programs, employment, or general information. To access NSF TDD, dial (703) 306-0090; for FIRS, 1-800-8339.
The Antarctic Journal is a medium for information about, and related to, the U.S. Antarctic Program. NSF welcomes ideas for improvement. Send comments to Winifred Reuning at WReuning@nsf.gov (e-mail) or Editor, Antarctic Journal, Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22230 (703-306-1033).
The Antarctic Journal invites contributions from members of the antarctic science, logistics, and policy communities who want to communicate their work and ideas to an audience of specialists and scientifically literate nonspecialists. The Antarctic Journal is not peer reviewed. It provides reports on U.S. activities in Antarctica and related activities elsewhere and on trends in the U.S. Antarctic Program. The September 1997 online issue contains author guidelines for submitting manuscripts to the review issue, as well as information about submitting materials for the monthly online issues. | <urn:uuid:a90f9b68-3043-4c8c-af50-f687cc2285f9> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.nsf.gov/geo/plr/antarct/ajus/nsf9850/nsf9850h/start.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.890986 | 878 | null | 3.328125 | 3 | www.nsf.gov |
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1878 in Ulm, Germany- His parents Herman and Rauline Einstein were very worried about young Einstein because he was very slow to lean*1 how to speak. When he was young he had no mark of being genius. He was the worst in class. When he was young his paifents moved several times looking for a place to open businesses. His parents settled in Italy when he was 15. He soon w*ras expelled from school in Germany and joined his family in Italy. He finished high school in Switzerland; where he graduated with a teaching degree from the "Swiss Federal Institufte of Technology." However he did not find a job until 1902. At the Swiss patent office, he worked there for seven years. lfln 1903, he married Maria Marie. Albt'ert Einstein conceptualized the theories of general relativitfty and special relativity. He came to realize that the univers^e was not made up of three dimensional space as was corflnmonly accepted, but four dimensional space-time. The fouirth dimension being that of time. Einstein made other great di iiscoveries, such as the speed of light. | <urn:uuid:1fd4774a-181d-450e-8576-ef2bf0441994> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.preservearticles.com/2011082812151/189-words-paragraph-for-kids-on-albert-einstein.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.99306 | 244 | null | 3.15625 | 3 | www.preservearticles.com |
The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii has a new way to look at the Universe, thanks to two revolutionary instruments called HARP and ACSIS. These instruments operate together, and they recently sliced through the Orion Nebula, recording for the first time the internal movements of its star-forming gases.
Orion is one of the most famous and recognisable constellations in the sky. At its heart, it harbours a vast cloud of gas and dust, the Orion Nebula, which is undergoing a burst of star formation. Astronomers refer to this and other similar regions as "stellar nurseries". Within this cloud, gas and dust extend over vast regions and help to "feed" the star formation. Gravity takes the gas and dust in these clouds and compresses it into stars.
HARP and ACSIS allow astronomers to see the motion of this gas with a clarity and precision not previously available at these wavelengths. Together they give the JCMT the powerful ability to record information in three dimensions. Unlike the previous generation of receiver systems, HARP/ACSIS can produce camera-like images of the sky across thousands of adjacent wavelengths simultaneously; forming a three-dimensional image set called a "spectral cube". The wavelength dimension permits the telescope to sense molecular tracers as well as to detect the motions of the gas.
These slices of wavelength reveal to astronomers the chemical make-up of our Galaxy and others in the Universe. There are many gas molecules that exist in space which emit radiation at wavelengths that HARP/ACSIS can tune to. The JCMT observes in the sub-millimetre range of wavelengths, much smaller wavelengths than a typical radio station, but much longer wavelengths than light waves.
The naturally occurring emission from gas and dust in the material between the stars is particularly effective at revealing the processes of material accumulation to form stars. This process is still mysterious in its details, and the HARP/ACSIS receiver system on the JCMT is exquisitely tuned to study the precise constituents and motions of the gas and dust as it collapses to form stars. And that makes this instrument the perfect tool to examine the Orion Nebula.
The information that is recorded along the third "wavelength" dimension shows how much the gas molecules, in this case carbon monoxide, are radiating and how fast they are moving. We see gas with large motions both towards us and away from us at velocities approaching and exceeding 200 km/s (that's nearly half a million miles an hour). These velocity slices can be combined into a movie, allowing us to see that the hot nebula at the centre, where star formation is occurring most vigorously, is forcing gas out in what is called a "Champagne flow".
Dr. John Richer of the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge (UK) says: "It's taken a long time to get to this point - the first science data from HARP/ACSIS - but it's been worth the wait. For the first time, we can make large-scale maps of the warm gas in molecular clouds and so begin to understand in detail the complex and spectacular processes which occur when stars form."
HARP (Heterodyne Array Receiver Programme) is an array of 16 spectral receivers, arranged in a 4x4 grid and using superconducting junctions as the detector elements. ACSIS (AutoCorrelation Spectrometer and Imaging System) is a system of high-speed digital electronics and computers for analysing the signals produced by HARP and other instruments. It contains more than 1000 customised chips and 30 microprocessors for handling the high data rate and producing results in a form that astronomers can use. ACSIS produces data at a rate 1000 times faster than the old JCMT system. Together these instruments have turned the JCMT into a sub-millimetre-wave 3-D camera rather than just a single-point telescope.
Dr. Jane Buckle of the Cavendish Laboratory says: "Commissioning HARP and ACSIS took a lot of hard work and dedication, particularly from the JAC, the Cavendish Laboratory and UK ATC staff, but the new spectral imaging capabilities at the JCMT make this a very exciting time for star formation research."
Dr. Bill Dent of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh says:" We often find gas clouds many tens of light-years across containing hundreds of stars all forming simultaneously. With this new system, we can map the structure and measure the speed of the gas that's forming all these new stars and, furthermore, do a chemical analysis, perhaps looking for regions rich in rare and exotic molecules. Before HARP/ACSIS arrived, it was just not possible to study and understand whole clouds in this way."
"It's really exciting to see science pouring out of this instrument at long last," says Professor Richard Hills of the Cavendish Laboratory, the Project Scientist for HARP. And Dr. Harry Smith, HARP Project Manager, says: "It was great to work on what turned out to be a world-beating facility instrument."
Dr. John Richer has used the JCMT for 19 years to make spectroscopic observations of molecular clouds. "It used to be a painstaking and slow process. Now with HARP's 16 sensitive detectors, we can take data at a much more rapid rate and begin to answer much more ambitious questions about the formation of new star systems.
HARP/ACSIS is revolutionising our view of star formation in the galaxy," said Richer.
Professor Gary Davis, Director of the JCMT, said "ACSIS and HARP have been developed over the last several years by a network of instrumentation laboratories around the world. By making use of the very latest technologies, we have introduced a new capability at the observatory which cannot be matched anywhere in the world.
Astronomers will now be able to study star-forming regions such as Orion with unprecedented scope and detail. We are really excited about the science that these instruments will make possible for the first time."
Cite This Page: | <urn:uuid:539714ef-4d92-4a55-bc16-5227363ff2c5> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070519133208.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937625 | 1,251 | null | 4.0625 | 4 | www.sciencedaily.com |
U.S. Bees Succumbing to Mystery Disease
Honeybee populations in the United States are being decimated by a mysterious new disease, the Associated Press reported last week.
|A mysterious disease is killing off bees in the United States.|
Honeybee populations in the United States are being decimated by a mysterious new disease, the Associated Press reported last week. The previously unknown ailment, termed “colony collapse disorder,” is killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country, costing some beekeepers as much as 50 percent of their bees.
Dave Hackenberg of Hackenberg Apiaries in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, first reported the disease to researchers at Penn State University last November. At that point he had lost nearly 2,000 colonies, and reports of unusual colony deaths have come from at least 21 other states. A colony can have some 20,000 bees in the winter and as many as 60,000 in the summer. The president of the American Beekeeping Foundation, Daniel Weaver, has called the disease a “serious” matter, according to the AP.
Worldwatch Institute agriculture expert Danielle Nierenberg notes that the disease’s attack on already declining U.S. bee populations could have serious effects on pollination. According to researchers, bees provide crop-pollinating services valued at some $92 billion, and their diversity is also linked to that of many wild plant species. Nierenberg says this latest blight points to the importance of ongoing research on emerging animal diseases. Her upcoming work will focus on the link between disease and the increased industrialization of food and livestock production.
This story was produced by Eye on Earth, a joint project of the Worldwatch Institute and the blue moon fund. View the complete archive of Eye on Earth stories, or contact Staff Writer Alana Herro at aherro [AT] worldwatch [DOT] org with your questions, comments, and story ideas.
FEBRUARY 19, 2007 | <urn:uuid:f8ef8948-30bb-474b-9df3-3684e1ddf534> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4924 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951934 | 410 | null | 2.6875 | 3 | www.worldwatch.org |
IBM has successfully integrated two emerging technologies with the CMOS manufacturing technology, the company has said.
Complementary-symmetry metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology is used in the manufacturing of most electronic equipment. On Monday, IBM told an IEEE International Electron Devices meeting that it had demonstrated CMOS compatibility for its Racetrack memory technology and for graphene.
"Today's breakthroughs challenge the status quo by exploring the boundaries of science and transforming that knowledge into information technology systems that could advance the power and capability of businesses worldwide," IBM Research science and technology chief TC Chen said in a statement.
Racetrack is an experimental, spintronics-based memory technology that IBM first showed off in 2008, claiming it would result in even faster and denser memory than that possible using flash technology. On Monday, IBM showed off the first Racetrack memory device integrated with CMOS technology on 200mm wafers.
"The researchers demonstrated both read and write functionality on an array of 256 in-plane, magnetized horizontal racetracks. This development lays the foundation for further improving Racetrack memory's density and reliability using perpendicular magnetized racetracks and three-dimensional architectures," IBM said in its statement.
Graphene is a wonder substance, composed of atom-thick carbon lattices, that many see as a potential successor to silicon — silicon electronics will not be able to comply with Moore's Law for much longer, as they stop working at a thickness of less than 2nm.
IBM has now shown off its first CMOS-compatible graphene device: a frequency multiplier. The company says the integrated circuit "can advance wireless communications and enable new, high frequency devices, which can operate under adverse temperature and radiation conditions in areas such as security and medical applications".
The IC is operational up to 5GHz and stable up to 200 degrees Celcius, IBM said, although it acknowledged that "detailed thermal stability still needs to be evaluated" before it can be sure the device would be usable in high-temperature environments.
"New architecture flips the current graphene transistor structure on its head. Instead of trying to deposit gate dielectric on an inert graphene surface, the researchers developed a novel embedded gate structure that enables high device yield on a 200mm wafer," IBM said.
The company also showed off an advance it has made with carbon nanotubes. This nanomaterial is already lined up to be used in devices ranging from solar cells to displays.
IBM's researchers said on Monday that they had demonstrated the first carbon nanotube transistor with sub-10nm channel lengths — a scale at which silicon struggles to perform well. According to the researchers, the demonstration proves that carbon nanotubes "can provide excellent off-state behaviour in extremely scaled devices". | <urn:uuid:765c8763-1953-4e85-b702-5afbf0e8aee6> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-integrates-graphene-and-racetrack-with-cmos-tech/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246634257.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045714-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945231 | 576 | null | 2.859375 | 3 | www.zdnet.com |
Why was clemency trending last week?
1690s, from senescent + -ence. Related: Scenescency (1660s).
1650s, from Latin senescentem (nominative scenescens), present participle of senescere "to grow old," from senex "old" (see senile).
senescence se·nes·cence (sĭ-něs'əns)n. The process of growing old; aging.
senescent se·nes·cent (sĭ-něs'ənt)adj. Growing old; aging. | <urn:uuid:8b10c14d-074b-40a1-a522-42d71df18974> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/%20senescence | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246641054.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045721-00223-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.809911 | 136 | null | 2.515625 | 3 | dictionary.reference.com |
Date of this Version
On July 16, 1998, President Clinton signed the National Drought Policy Act into law. This law creates the National Drought Policy Commission (NDPC), which will examine current laws and programs and make recommendations to the president and Congress on the needs for a national drought policy. The Farm Service Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will serve as the chair for the Commission, which will comprise 16 members. In addition to the Secretary of Agriculture, other members of the Commission will include the Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Army, Secretary of Commerce, Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, two governors nominated by the National Governors’ Association, and two persons nominated by the National Association of Counties and the United States Conference of Mayors. The Commission will also include six persons (nominated by the Secretary of Agriculture, in coordination with the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of the Army) representing groups acutely affected by drought emergencies, such as the agricultural production community, the credit community, rural and urban water associations, Native Americans, and fishing and environmental interests. Numerous groups are currently requesting representation on the Commission. | <urn:uuid:f6ee10c7-c254-4ea1-adfe-81188419199f> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/droughtnetnews/97/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246641054.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045721-00223-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96127 | 238 | null | 3 | 3 | digitalcommons.unl.edu |
A vestry refers to a robing and storage room in or attached to a place of worship. It also referred in England to the committee for secular and church government for a parish which met in the vestry of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquially as the "Vestry".
A vestry is a room in a church or synagogue in which the vestments are kept, and in which the clergy and choir don these liturgical clothes for worship services. Valuable or sacred items such as communion vessels or collection plates may be kept there, usually in a secure safe, along with official records such as registers of marriages and burials.
In Welsh chapels, the room is often the location of a tea served to the congregation, particularly family members, after a funeral, when the congregation returns to the chapel after the burial or cremation.
The Vestry Committee in England
The vestry was a meeting of the parish ratepayers chaired by the incumbent of the parish, originally held in the parish church or its vestry, from which it got its name. The vestry Committees were not established by any law, but they evolved independently in each parish according to local needs from their roots in medieval parochial governance. By the late 17th century they had become, along with the County magistrates, the rulers of rural England.
In England, until the 19th century, the parish Vestry Committee was in effect what would today usually be called a parochial church council, but was also responsible for all the secular parish business, which is now the responsibility of a parish council.
The original unit of settlement among the Anglo-Saxons in England was the tun or town. The inhabitants met to carry out this business in the town moot or meeting. At this they appointed the various officials and the common law would be promulgated. Later with the rise of the shire, the township would send its reeve and four best men to represent it in the courts of the hundred and shire.
However, the independence created by the Saxon system was lost to the township by the introduction of the feudal manorial Court Leet which replaced the town meeting. The resistance of inhabitants to these changes led to a new form of township or parish meeting, which dealt with civil and ecclesiastical affairs. This new meeting was supervised by the parish priest, probably the best educated of the inhabitants, and it evolved to become the vestry meeting.
With the decay of the feudal system, the vestry meetings succeeded in acquiring greater responsibilities, they having the power to grant or deny payments from parish funds. They were later given the task of administering the Edwardian and Elizabethan systems for support of the poor. With their resumption of civil responsibilities, the ecclesiastical parishes acquired a dual nature and might therefore be classed as civil as well as ecclesiastical parishes. In England, until the 19th century, the parish vestry was in effect what would today usually be called a parochial church council, but was also responsible for all the secular parish business. Records of parish business would be stored in a "parish chest" kept in the church and provided for security with three locks, the keys to which would be held by the incumbent and the churchwardens.
The vestry had a number of legal obligations. The vestry was responsible for appointing parish officers, including churchwardens, overseers of the poor, sextons and scavengers. Depending on local arrangements the vestry could also be responsible for constables and nightwatchmen.
In 1835 more than 15,600 ecclesiastical parish vestries looked after their own: churches and burial grounds, parish cottages and workhouses, their common lands and endowed charities, their market crosses, pumps, pounds, whipping posts, stocks, cages, watch houses, weights and scales, clocks and fire engines. Or to put it another way: the maintenance of the church and its services, the keeping of the peace, the repression of vagrancy, the relief of destitution, the mending of roads, the suppression of nuisances, the destruction of vermin, the furnishing of soldiers and sailors, even to some extent the enforcement of religious and moral discipline. These were among the multitudinous duties imposed on the parish and its officers, that is to say the vestry and its organisation, by the law of the land.
At their most active, just prior to removal of Poor Law responsibilities, the vestries spent not far short of one-fifth of the budget of the national government itself. However, this was the high point of the parish vestry. During the 19th century the parish vestry progressively lost its powers to ad-hoc boards and other organisations, such as the loss of responsibility for poor relief through the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. From 1837 the provision of support for the poor was no longer the direct responsibility of the vestry, but came under elected boards of guardians for single parishes or poor law unions. In the London area, vestries were incorporated under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 to create civil bodies for parishes, which were distinct from the ecclesiastical vestries. In another example, Sanitary Districts were established in England in 1875 and took these responsibilities from the parish. Such replacement boards were each able to levy their own rate in the parish. Consequently the church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and was abolished altogether in 1868.
However, proliferation of local bodies led to fragmentation of local government resonsibilities and became a driver for the 1894 Local Government Act. This was expressed by H H Fowler, President of the Local Government Board, who said in the parliamentary debate for the 1894 Act....
"62 counties, 302 Municipal Boroughs, 31 Improvement Act Districts, 688 Local Government Districts, 574 Rural Sanitary Districts, 58 Port Sanitary Districts, 2,302 School Board Districts ... 1,052 Burial Board Districts, 648 Poor Law Unions, 13,775 Ecclesiastical Parishes, and nearly 15,000 Civil Parishes. The total number of Authorities which tax the English ratepayers is between 28,000 and 29,000. Not only are we exposed to this multiplicity of authority and this confusion of rating power, but the qualification, tenure, and mode of election of members of these Authorities differ in different cases."
The secular and ecclesiastical duties were finally separated nationally when a system of elected rural parish councils and urban district councils was established under the 1894 Local Government Act. This replaced the parish vestry with a parish council or parish meeting to manage all secular parish matters.
Open and select vestries
A "select vestry" was an administrative committee of selected parishioners. This committee was also known as the "close vestry". The "open vestry", which selected many of those committee members, was a meeting open to the general public who were rate-paying residents. There were both open vestries or select vestries, although in practice the division was somewhat blurred. Open vestries were rather like today's parish meetings, but some select vestries acted more like the pre-Municipal Corporations Act 1835 borough councils, with co-option of members rather than by open election.
An open vestry was a general meeting of all inhabitant rate-paying householders in a parish.
A select vestry or "close" vestry was the governing body of a parish, the members generally having a property qualification and being recruited more or less by co-option. The open vestry elected the bulk of the select vestry members or, if dissatisfied, could exercise their power to do so.
Ecclesiastical use today
Following the removal of civil powers in 1894, the vestry meetings continued to administer church matters in Church of England parishes until under the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1921 Act Parochial Church Councils were established as their successor on church matters. Since then, the only remnant of the Vestry Meeting has been the Meeting of Parishioners, which is convened annually solely for the election of churchwardens of the ecclesiastical parish. This is sometime referred to as the "Annual Vestry Meeting". All other roles of the Vestry Meetings are now undertaken by parochial church councils.
The term vestry continues to be used in some other denominations for a body of lay members elected by the congregation to run the business of a church parish, such as in the Scottish Episcopal Church.
- The Vestries Act 1818 (58 Geo 3 c 69)
- The Vestries Act 1819 (59 Geo 3 c 85)
- The Vestries Act 1831 (1 & 2 Will 4 c 60)
- The Parish Notices Act 1837 (7 Will 4 & 1 Vict c 45)
- The Vestries Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict c 57)
- The Vestries Act 1853 (16 & 17 Vict c 65)
- An overview of London Vestry committees at "London Lives".
- Parish Notices Act 1837
- The Companion to British History. Charles Arnold-Baker, 2nd edition 2001, Routledge.
- Parish Government 1894-1994. KP Poole & Bryan Keith-Lucas. National Association of Local Councils 1994
- Webb, Sidney; Potter, Beatrice (1906), English Local Government from the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations, London: Longmans, Green & Co.
- Arnold-Baker on Local Council Administration, 1989
- "Local Government of England and Wales Bill". Hansard 1803 - 2005. Parliament of the United Kingdom. 21 March 1893. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- Tate, William Edward (1969), The Parish Chest: a study of the records of parochial administration in England (3rd ed.), Cambridge University Press.
- - Parochial Church Councils Measure 1921
- "Churchwardens Measure 2001 No. 1". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 24 August 2008.
- http://www.scotland.anglican.org/vestry-resources/] The vestry duties in the Scottish Episcopal Church
- The Short Titles Act 1896, section 2(1) and Schedule 2 | <urn:uuid:15e30657-d10a-4343-8edf-9eb090a859a6> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestry | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246641054.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045721-00223-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970546 | 2,121 | null | 3.640625 | 4 | en.wikipedia.org |
By soaking up excess CO2 from the atmosphere oceans are undergoing a rise in acidity causing ramifications across their ecosystems, most frequently highlighted in the plight of coral reefs around the world. However, a new study in Nature Geoscience shows that the acidification is affecting another type of marine life. Foraminifera, a tiny amoeba-like entity numbering in the billions, have experienced a 30 to 35 percent drop in their shell-weight due to the high acidity of the oceans.
Although incredibly small, the tiny foraminifera are vital. They play an important role in trapping CO2 on the ocean's surface and carrying it down to the ocean floor after dying, where the CO2 is stored. Scientists are concerned how the change in their effectiveness to create heavy shells may transform foraminifera's role in carbon sequestration.
“The big challenge will be how do we scale up this kind of change to what I means for the ecosystem,” author William Howard told ... | <urn:uuid:feedd48e-b4b1-442b-8074-f86e8ac603e3> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=121374 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246641054.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045721-00223-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925767 | 205 | null | 3.875 | 4 | www.climateark.org |
No antidote or vaccine is available for ricin. Regardless of the route of exposure, treatment remains mainly supportive.
If exposure is from inhaled aerosol, the person may need assistance with breathing. If particularly severe, the person who was exposed may require intubation and use of a ventilator.
If ricin was ingested, the stomach may need to be pumped (called gastric decontamination). Superactivated charcoal may also be given to help soak up the poison. To treat dehydration, intravenous fluids may be given.
Ferdinando L Mirarchi, DO
Must Read Articles Related to Ricin
Biological weapons include any organism (such as bacteria, viruses, or fungi) or toxin found in nature that can be used to kill or injure people.learn more >>
Injury from chemical weapon agents, known as CWAs, may result from industrial accidents, military stockpiling, war, or a terrorist attack.
Industrial accide...learn more >> | <urn:uuid:45d17ddf-9738-49b2-a3cb-77c643818ed3> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/ricin/page7_em.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246641054.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045721-00223-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908149 | 201 | null | 3.140625 | 3 | www.emedicinehealth.com |
Greenpeace today released evidence that hazardous chemical residues in clothing items sold by major brands are released into public waterways when washed by consumers. Upon entering our rivers, lakes and seas, these chemicals then break down into even more toxic and hormone-disrupting substances.
The evidence is revealed in the Greenpeace report, Dirty Laundry: Reloaded, launched today by the banks of the Marikina River, with activists visually demonstrating how toxic chemicals may leach from consumer garments and into washwater. The launch is timed a day ahead of the commemoration of World Water Day, which highlights “water and food security,” this year’s theme.
The Greenpeace study measures for the first time the percentage of the hazardous chemicals nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) washed out during simulated standard domestic laundering conditions of 14 items . The results show that consumer brands, such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, are unknowingly polluting the public water supplies in regions and countries around the world, including those where there are restrictions or bans on the use of these chemicals .
“While other countries try to improve measures protecting their citizens from hazardous chemicals, the Philippines is even steps behind in terms of regulations on hazardous chemicals. Nonylphenols, for example, are banned in Europe for their endocrine-disrupting properties, and yet it is not even included in the Priority Chemicals List in the Philippines,” said Beau Baconguis, Greenpeace Southeast Asia’sToxics Campaigner.
“Filipinos are, thus, doubly vulnerable to toxic discharges – both from manufacturing processes and from consumer end-products. This is the reason why we are calling for the institution of a mechanism respecting the public right-to-know about toxic discharges, such as a Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR), and for the textile industry to lead the move to safe alternatives to toxic chemicals,” Baconguis added.
In 2011 Greenpeace published two reports: one investigating the discharge of hazardous substances from textiles manufacturing in China linked to major clothing and sportswear companies (Dirty Laundry) , and another detailing the presence of NPEs in clothing and footwear of 15 leading brands (Dirty Laundry 2: Hung Out to Dry) . With the publication of these reports, Greenpeace challenged these global brands to eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals from their supply chains and products by 2020. The call has led so far to public commitments by Nike, Adidas, Puma and Li-Ning, along with fast-fashion retailers H&M and C&A .
Given the scale of the problem, Greenpeace is calling for more brands to join the Detox challenge. For the companies which have already committed, Greenpeace is demanding that they respond to the urgency of the situation by setting clear and ambitious short term deadlines for the elimination of the most hazardous chemicals
- Beau Baconguis, Toxics Campaigner, +63917 8715257, +63 2 3321807 loc 119,
- JP Agcaoili, Media Campaigner, +63 917 631 2750, +63 2 3321807 loc 109,
- Report available at http://www.greenpeace.org/international/dirty-laundry-reloaded
- For the lists of brands and products against the percentage of released chemicals check Dirty Laundry report Figure 1, page 6
- NPEs are chemicals used in textile manufacture. Even where wastewater containing NPEs is treated, this only speeds up the conversion into the toxic NP. More detailed information on these substances is available on page 12 of “Dirty Laundry II” at http://www.greenpeace.org/dirtylaundry2.pdf and on page 51, Box 2.2, of the “Dirty Laundry” report, available at www.greenpeace.org/dirtylaundry
- The tested sample consisting of 12 made of plain fabric and two samples of fabric bearing a plastisol print The items were part of the samples found containing residues of NPEs as specified in the report Dirty Laundry - Hang out to dry report is available at http://www.greenpeace.org/dirtylaundry2.pdf
- “The use of NP and NPEs in clothing manufacture has effectively been banned within the EU and similar restrictions are also in place in the US and Canada. In the EU, releases of NP/NPEs due to the washing of textile products imported from outside the EU have been estimated to constitute by far the largest source of these chemicals entering wastewater treatment facilities in some instances.” Dirty Laundry Reloaded, Executive Summary, page 7.
- Dirty Laundry report is available at www.greenpeace.org/dirtylaundry
- Dirty Laundry - Hung Out to Dry report is available at http://www.greenpeace.org/dirtylaundry2.pdf
- So far six international brands have committed to Detox. These include:
- Puma: http://safe.puma.com/us/en/2011/07/puma-is-committed-to-eliminate-discharges-of-hazardous-chemicals-2/
- Nike: http://nikeinc.com/news/nike-inc-commitment-on-zero-discharge-of-hazardous-chemicals
- Adidas: http://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/statements/2011/Commitment_to_Zero_Discharge_Aug_2011.aspx
- H&M: http://about.hm.com/content/hm/AboutSection/sv/About/Sustainability/Commitments/Use-Resources-Responsibly/Chemicals/Zero-Discharge.html
- C&A: http://www.c-and-a.com/uk/en/corporate/fileadmin/templates/master/img/fashion_updates/International_Press_Releases/C-and-A_Commitment_to_Zero_Discharge.pdf
- Li-Ning: http://www.li-ning.com/info/info.html?swf=news.swf (If accessing in China). http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/toxics/Water%202011/LiNing-commitment-to-zero-discharge.pdf (if outside of China) | <urn:uuid:a5bd531b-f70e-4c56-8755-1d05022827ed> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/ph/press/releases/New-Greenpeace-Research-Washing-Big-Name-Brands-Makes-Consumers-Polluters/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246641054.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045721-00223-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.891557 | 1,385 | null | 2.609375 | 3 | www.greenpeace.org |
Translation of disaster in Spanish:
- 1 countable (flood, earthquake) (before noun) disaster fundfondo (masculine) para los damnificadosdisaster reliefayuda (feminine) en caso de catástrofe or desastreExample sentences
- Hurricane Katrina will be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history by a factor of five.
- The horrific devastation caused by this tsunami may be the worst natural disaster in recent history.
- And President Bush is offering U.S. aid and condolences to people affected by the Asian tsunami disaster.
- 2 countable 2.1 (fiasco) a catalog of disastersuna serie de desastres or de calamidades2.2 (hopeless person) [colloquial]Example sentences
- And it was fine for all the media celebs to go to a ball game but it was a total disaster for Kerry to do so.
- He's had a very hard time. His current situation is a total disaster.
- Maize, a relatively new crop, is looking like a total disaster, according to Mr Dempsey.
- But a series of personal disasters and financial ruin triggered a mental disorder that was to turn the father of two into a killer.
- The suite contains the computers and equipment necessary to help a small business function in the event of a company disaster.
- It was recognised as such by the Iraqi people, but the subsequent handling of events was a disaster.
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed. | <urn:uuid:d3dc1520-836c-4ee4-9714-dc7e01aa7b18> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/english-spanish/disaster | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246641054.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045721-00223-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908953 | 339 | null | 2.59375 | 3 | www.oxforddictionaries.com |
America’s Cape Cod has long been celebrated as a summer paradise where vacationers enjoy swimming in the surf, digging for clams, and fishing. But there’s trouble in paradise. The Cape is essentially a large sandbar that sits over an aquifer from which residents and visitors draw their water. They have to be very careful about what they take out of the ground and put into it. Most of the houses on the Cape dispose of waste water through septic systems, and that’s causing environmental problems. Nitrogen is building up in the bays on the Cape, depleting oxygen levels and killing shellfish and beneficial plants, and producing blooms of algae. If this keeps up, the Cape won’t continue to be attractive to vacationers–who provide the financial lifeblood of the economy.
The people of the Cape are faced with some uncomfortable truths. They must address the waste water problem, most likely by building sewer systems and water treatment facilities. This will cost billions of dollars, which likely will have to come from taxes and user fees.
In an effort to head off environmental and/or financial calamities, the Cape Cod Commission, a regional planning group, has engaged with IBM to create the Smart Cape Cod initiative. The plan is to use sensing, networking, data management, and data analysis technologies to track a wide array of information related to water quality. By understanding the problem better, the commission and the governments of the 15 towns on the Cape hope to be able to address it most effectively–safeguarding the environment and easing the financial burden on residents and businesses. “We have to take innovative approaches,” says Paul Niedzwiecki, the commission’s executive director. “We have a substantial problem but not a lot of existing infrastructure. If we’re smarter about the solutions, we can do it less expensively–without breaking the backs of the year-round residents of the Cape.”
The Cape has just 220,000 year-round residents, but the population can triple during the tourist season. So the new waste water treatment systems will have to be built to handle peak demand. The commission believes that if the people of the Cape address the problem themselves and use innovative technologies and approaches, the fix-up can be done for about $3 billion. It’s possible that only about 40% of the homes will require sewers. But if the towns tarry and are forced to act by state or federal agencies, or courts, the tab could be much higher.
Here’s some nasty algae in one of the bays:
There’s another benefit that could come from the initiative: economic development. The Cape is already home to two oceanographic laboratories and a number of water quality technology startups. It received a $32 million grant as part of the Federal stimulus program that’s being combined with other funds to build a high-speed broadband network, called Open Cape. Through the combination of expertise, networks, and data analysis, the Cape could develop water management as a new growth industry.
For IBM, the Smart Cape Cod project creates an opportunity to showcase and develop the company’s Smarter Planet technologies in a high-profile location. It has already launched major water projects in Ireland, Malta, and California’s Sonoma County. “The big lesson we have learned is you want to get as many people engaged in the process as possible. You want to drive an open, collaborative process,” says Michael Sullivan, a business development director in IBM Big Green Innovations.
For Sullivan and Sharon Nunes, who heads up IBM Big Green Innovations and the Smarter Cities initiative, there are personal motivations, as well. They both live on Cape Cod.
Here’s some additional info on IBM’s water projects:
Galway Bay: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/water_management/examples/index.html
Overview of wastewater situation on Cape: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=SPECIAL25 | <urn:uuid:896c8c4b-a999-4155-a4e3-4186243fc12c> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2010/11/smart-cape-cod-initiative-aims-at-solving-water-problems-and-boosting-the-economy.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937323 | 854 | null | 2.9375 | 3 | asmarterplanet.com |
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education developed this guide to provide information concerning your rights and responsibilities as the parent of a child with a disability as defined in the Missouri State Plan for Special Education.
MPACT is a statewide parent training and information center that serves parents of children with all disabilities. MPACT's primary goal is to assist parents in their effort to effectively advocate for their children's educational rights and services. MPACT staff and volunteers are located throughout Missouri and work with public and private agencies, parent groups, professional organizations and advocacy groups to achieve that goal.
Parent Toolkits and Training Materials
This page includes links to pertinent parent resources such as Parents as Teachers, The Missouri PIRC, helping your child with school subjects, and more.
"PACER Center’s National Family Advocacy and Supports Training (FAST) Project will provide family support leadership training to families of children with disabilities in the United States and territories."
- Getting and Keeping the First Job
- The Journey to Adulthood: What Every Parent Needs to Know
- Skills for Effective Parent Advocacy
- Working for Change: Using the Power of a Personal Story
U.S. Department of Education
"The mission of the Department of Education is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access."
Helpful Resources for Parents
Center for Evidence-Based Practice:Young Children with Challenging Behavior
This brochure includes eight practical tips for parents of young children with challenging behavior.
The Education Trust
The Education Trust promotes high academic achievement for all students at all levels—pre-kindergarten through college. The goal is to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement. The guide below gives parents and the public tools to collect and analyze school data to improve student achievement.
Family Center on Technology and Disability (FCTD)
FCTD is a resource designed to support organizations and programs that work with families of children and youth with disabilities. FCTD offers a range of information and services on the subject of assistive and instructional technologies for organizations, parents, and educators to provide information that supports each in their efforts to bring the highest quality education to children with disabilities.
Learning Disabilities Association of America
Here you will find a wealth of information on understanding learning disabilities, negotiating the special education process and helping your child and yourself.
National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD)
NCLD provides essential information to parents, professionals and individuals with learning disabilities, promotes research and programs to foster effective learning and advocates for policies to protect and strengthen educational rights and opportunities.
National Center on Secondary Education and Transition
NCSET coordinates national resources, offers technical assistance, and provides information related to secondary education (high school) and transition for youth with disabilities in order to create opportunities for youth to achieve successful futures.
National ParentNet Association
This site shares the resources of many individuals, groups, and organizations working toward the goal of increasing family engagement through positive youth development.
National Center on Learning Disabilities
NCLD's goal is to help educators, policymakers, and parents understand the complexity and importance of making sound decisions regarding whether a child has a specific learning disability. Our research in this area—including studies of the role of and best practices associated with responsiveness to intervention—is the foundation underlying all of the materials available on this site.
The Sibling Support Project
The Sibling Support Project is a national effort dedicated to the life-long concerns of brothers and sisters of people who have special health, developmental, or mental health concerns.
Thompson Center, University of Missouri — Columbia
The Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the University of Missouri — Columbia was established on April 29, 2005 to promote research, teaching, and service innovations designed to improve the lives of children with ASD and other neurological conditions. The center serves as a resource for families and professionals, providing help today through clinical services and hope for tomorrow through research and professional training.
- Thompson Center main website
- Roadmap to the Future: Transitioning into Adulthood with ASD
The purpose of this site is to give families, self-advocates, teachers, health care providers and other professionals an introduction to the process of planning for the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It is also meant to provide resources and options to consider for the future. The resources provided here address the following:
- General guidance about the process of planning for the transition from adolescence to adulthood
- How youth can be involved in the transition planning process
- Key contacts to make during the transition process
- A roadmap of resources in the areas of community living, health and safety, emergency preparedness, education and training, employment and adult services and benefits planning | <urn:uuid:0f5e33bd-297f-4417-8c56-c446e80734ae> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://dese.mo.gov/special-education/effective-practices/parents | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940863 | 968 | null | 2.875 | 3 | dese.mo.gov |
We will start with the assumption that most people perceive musical notes as occuring in pitch classes, which differ by octaves (or factors of 2 in frequency).
The simplest music consists of just a single note, or perhaps unison octaves. Maybe the most interesting example is the One-Note Samba (Samba de uma Nota Só) of Tom Jobim.
Of course, this song really goes on to use two notes in the melody, notes separated by a perfect fifth, or a ratio of 3/2 in frequency. The Richard Strauss quote made famous by the Kubrick film 2001 also starts out using the same two notes.
A fifth is close to half an octave. If we start around the circle of fifths F-C-G, we're almost back where we started. Of course it stretches the imagination a bit to make this exact. If we make a two-note, equal tempered scale, the perfect fifth is approximated by a tritone. These examples really don't sound good.
Continuing around the circle of fifths, we find F-C-G-D-A-E and E is much closer to F than any of the previous notes have been. If we decide that E=F, then we are left with a five-note or pentatonic scale, FGACD. (Often pentatonic music on this scale is considered to be in major, minor or dorian mode if the pitch center is F, D or G, respectively.)
Many common melodies, in music found around the world, use the notes from a pentatonic scale. Examples include Camptown Races (by S. Foster) and Mary Had a Little Lamb (lyrics by S. Hale). We can hear them in a pentatonic scale tuned to have 4 perfect fifths.
If we instead try to switch to an equal-tempered pentatonic scale, the melodies again sound very different. Two-fifths of an octave is relatively close to a perfect fourth, but not at all close to the major third F-A found at one point in the true pentatonic scale.
Continuing around the circle of fifths, we find F-C-G-D-A-E-B-F# and again, F# is closer to F than any of the previous notes. If we decide it is close enough to not count as different, then we end up with a seven-note or diatonic scale, CDEFGAB. Depending on the pitch center, we can have the usual major or minor scales, or any of the seven Renaissance modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian).
Almost all common melodies use the notes of this diatonic scale. We use Happy Birthday (without permission) as an well-known example that does include all seven notes. Again, we start with the Pythagorean tuning, where all six fifths are perfect.
Now let us try an equal-tempered 7-note scale. When playing Happy Birthday this seems to lose much of the sense of a pitch center, as there are no longer the characteristic whole steps and half steps, but just seven equal steps. The melody seems to have wrong notes as well as notes out of tune. However, this scale does a surprisingly good job of rendering our earlier pentatonic melodies: they are recognizably the right notes, though not quite in tune.
If we continue further, F-C-G-D-A-E-B-F#-C#-G#-D#-A#-E#, we find that E# is much much closer to F than any previous note. In fact it differs from F only by the so-called Pythagorean comma. If we take F=E#, then we get the common twelve-note chromatic scale. It of course can be tuned in many ways, including a Pythagorean tuning with 11 perfect fifths, or an equal-tempered tuning. We will not demonstrate any chromatic melodies, but close with all the previous examples in 12-tone equal-tempered tuning.
We have not discussed equal-tempered scales with 3, 4 or 6 notes because they do not give better approximations to the fifth than the 2-note scale does. These are, of course, subsets of the equal-tempered 12-note scale. The 3-note scale gives augmented triads, and the 4-note scale gives diminished seventh chords, as demonstrated in these arpeggios.
Similarly, no equal-tempered scale between 7 and 12 gives good approximations of fifths.
The MIDI files on this pages were sequenced with Rosegarden, a public domain sequencer running under Linux and Irix. Pitch bends for the different tunings were automatically inserted by Manuel Op de Coul's Scala software, which is designed for exploration of different scales and tunings. | <urn:uuid:bfc96973-7f3b-4720-9cd5-b657c1fa7b66> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://torus.math.uiuc.edu/jms/Scales/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942555 | 1,034 | null | 3.578125 | 4 | torus.math.uiuc.edu |
Heart Bird Paper Craft
Source: Babycenter Community
In: Arts & Crafts
Instructions:Tip 1: Include the message "Loving you is such a tweet!"
Tip 2: Glue the heart animal to the front of a folded over piece of construction paper or a doily to make a cute Valentine's Day card.
Tip 3: Purchase fancy paper from the scrapbooking store and print the B&W version onto this for an extra fancy Heart Animal.
Tip 4: Scotch tape a straw or popsicle stick to the bottom to make a puppet
Tip 5: Glue a small piece of sandpaper on the back to make a felt board character
Tip 6: Cut construction paper into 4 inch wide strips as long as you can make them. Tape two together to make even longer. Measure around child's head to make a construction paper 'crown'. Glue Heart Animal to front of the crown to make a Valentine's Day hat.
Print out the template of choice. I like printing the B&W version on colored paper.
Color (where appropriate).
Cut out the template pieces. (the pieces on the template are at about the angle they will be on the finished craft. That should help you sort out which pieces belong where)
Glue pieces together:
Glue the small orange heart into the dip of the large face/body heart to form the beak.
Glue one small yellow heart at an angle onto the body to form the wing.
Stack the remaining small yellow hearts on top of each other and glue to the tip of the large heart to form the tail.
Glue the legs with heart feet onto the bottom of the bird.
Option for mass-producing - young children: Print out the B&W template. Trace the pieces onto stiff cardboard (back of paper pads works well) or margarine/ice cream container lids. Cut out to make permanent templates. Allow the children to trace these permanent templates onto different colors of construction paper to make their animal
Option for mass-producing - older children: Omit the templates. Let the children cut out heart shapes in various sizes from colored construction paper (show them how to fold paper in half and then cut to make a perfectly symmetrical heart). Let the children create their own animals by putting together hearts of different sizes (you can pre-make a few example animals to give them some inspiration).
Visit website for templates
Similar activities:Love Birds Valentine, Bird Biscuit, Paper Heart Wrappings, Love Bird Magnet, Heart Cat Paper Craft, Heart Dog Paper Craft, Heart Caterpillar Paper Craft, Heart Kangaroo Paper Craft, Heart Fish Kissing Paper Craft, Heart Monkey Paper Craft, Heart Owl Paper Craft, Valentine's Day Heart Hunt, Valentine's Day Heart Flower, Find the Hearts, Valentine's Day Birdfeeder
Tags: activities , animal , children , craft , creative , duck , family , kids , love , paper , valentines day
Coloring book pages | <urn:uuid:76f1f7d3-bc06-4bc8-bcfa-f27541c3bb1c> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.babycenter.com/210_heart-bird-paper-craft_5927.bc | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.831572 | 614 | null | 2.609375 | 3 | www.babycenter.com |
Can Red Wine Prevent Breast Cancer?
A new medical study from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center found that red wine consumption would help women to reduce the risk of breast cancer. A regular glass of wine is suggested to prevent the growth of cancer cell. Regular alcohol consumption raises the risk for breast cancer and other diseases, except for red wine. The study was based on a small group of 36 women, published in the Journal of Women’s health, has found that red wine has the opposite effect when consumed in moderation.
Estepa Merlot Red Wine Series
No Safe Level of Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol is a known risk factor for several cancers. The use of alcohol is absolutely linked to high risk of breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence. Even a small amount of alcohol consumption may also increase the risk of breast cancer, a new study suggests. There is no exact mechanism how alcohol consumption levels affect the risk of breast cancer. However, the more women drink; the greater risk of breast cancer cases likely to happen. For more information, visit About.com click here.
Red Wine Effects on Breast Cancer
Red grapes is an excellence source of resveratrol and other polyphenols like grapes, it has been shown to inhibit the development of breast cancer. Polyphenols has been found to have the antioxidant properties to prevent breast cancer and other several cancers. Resveratrol is a type of polyphenol that shown to boost the immune system and inhibit the growth of cancer cells. More studies of red wine on animals have examined the effects as anti cancer properties. However, the study of the association between red wine consumption and cancer in humans are in their initial stages. For more information, please visit Medicinenet.com click here.
Can Breast Cancer Patients Drink Red Wine?
Probably drinking red wine would be harmful to breast cancer patients and those at high risk of breast cancer. For breast cancer patients, the cancer promoting effects of red wine outweigh its potential benefits. Drinking pure grape juice or eating red grapes and other dietary sources of resveratrol will be preferable.
Leave your comment:
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *. | <urn:uuid:d769640a-14b3-4cd7-ad35-8050272fd455> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.breastcancercare.us/index.php/Can-Red-Wine-Prevent-Breast-Cancer/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953973 | 444 | null | 2.765625 | 3 | www.breastcancercare.us |
The views generally held about the rise of the factory system in Britain derive from highly distorted accounts of the social consequences of that system—so say the distinguished economic historians whose papers make up this book. The authors offer documentary evidence to support their conclusion that under capitalism the workers, despite long hours and other hardships of factory life, were better off financially, had more opportunities, and led a better life than had been the case before the Industrial Revolution.
Back to top
Rent Capitalism and the Historians 1st edition today, or search our site for Louis textbooks. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by University of Chicago Press. | <urn:uuid:4495e0af-f9cb-4c35-96e6-ceea1d1c0550> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/capitalism-and-the-historians-1st-edition-9780226320724-0226320723?trackid=NeQTGTUb&strackid=SCc1KevN&ii=1&om_ss=1 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954597 | 134 | null | 2.59375 | 3 | www.chegg.com |
Definitions for narrow down
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word narrow down
pin down, peg down, nail down, narrow down, narrow, specify(verb)
"I cannot narrow down the rules for this game"
specialize, specialise, narrow, narrow down(verb)
become more focus on an area of activity or field of study
"She specializes in Near Eastern history"
Make more specific.
Find a translation for the narrow down definition in other languages:
Select another language:
Word of the Day
Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
Are we missing a good definition for narrow down? Don't keep it to yourself...
The Web's Largest Resource for
Definitions & Translations
A Member Of The STANDS4 Network
Nearby & related entries:
Alternative searches for narrow down:
Thanks for your vote! We truly appreciate your support. | <urn:uuid:ab134562-40bd-4290-bb48-975d48894728> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.definitions.net/definition/narrow%20down | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.79051 | 217 | null | 2.671875 | 3 | www.definitions.net |
Find the first derivative of the function:
dy/dx = (2-x)^(1/2) - (1/2)x.(2-x)^(-1/2)
You have to be careful in this matter, especially since you've encountered a square root form in the denominator.
* take the denominator, ignore the constant in front of the square root. We know that the original rule for square root that to have a non-imaginary result, the value under the root should be >= 0. However, since this form is in the denominator, the rule now becomes > 0. So:
2 - x > 0
x < 2
* now take the nominator. Since the denominator value will always be positive, nominator value will be the 'decision maker', whether the graph function is increasing or decreasing.
4 - 3x = 0
x = 4/3
To find the global extreme values, just substitute this value to the original equation to find y
As for the behaviour, test one condition. Say that you want to know when the graph of this function is increasing
4 - 3x > 0
x < 4/3
So, we can say that the function is increasing at interval [-2,4/3) or -2<=x<4/3, and decreasing at the interval (4/3,2) or 4/3<x<2 | <urn:uuid:f4a8c1de-e650-4522-a6ae-529408c885bd> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1298762685 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.872417 | 300 | null | 2.875 | 3 | www.jiskha.com |
MBARI Ridges 2005 Expedition
Juan de Fuca Leg: August 7–18, 2005
Gorda Leg: August 22–September 2, 2005
August 30 update posted by Dave Clague
Tiburon dive 891 - Exploring the central vent area of the Escanaba Trough
We completed the fifth and final dive at the NESCA eruption site today, with a dive near the inferred eruption vents. During the dive, we continued our collection of sediment cores to determine the sizes and shapes of volcanic particles in the sediment, as well as the total amount of glass deposited close to the vents. We also performed several biological transects over different type of flows to see how much variation in community structure there was between this flow and the other younger flows we have seen during this cruise.
The lava flow that we explored today surrounds several uplifted hills of sediment. We believe that these hills were uplifted by magma that flowed beneath the surface to form shallow sills. One of the small sediment hills was bounded by a lava-block talus slope rather than an in-place lava flow, which suggests that this particular hill was uplifted after the lava flow was emplaced. However, the fact that the flow also flowed around the hill suggests that the hill began to uplift before the emplacement of the flow around it. Taken together, these two observations provide evidence that the eruption and the local uplift caused by lava-sill emplacement occurred at about the same time.
In several places we observed that the early lava flows took the form of flat, folded, or jumbled sheet flows, but later flows contained more pillow lavas. This sequence is what we would expect if large amounts of lava flowed from the vent at the beginning of the eruption, but the flow rate decreased as the eruption proceeded. This eruption pattern is common for volcanoes on land, in Hawaii and elsewhere in the world.
During our transects across the lava flow, we spent a lot of time discussing what the different pillow-lava shapes and textures could tell us about the rates and styles of lava emplacement. Many of the lava pillows had thick "bread-crust" rinds. These rinds suggest that the pillows inflated slowly at first, allowing a thick crust to form, then reinflated due to a later lava surge, which caused them to split open. Other pillows were smooth-skinned.
During our five dives in the Escanaba Trough, we collected about 135 push-cores of sediment and 25 new samples of volcanic rock. These samples will be analyzed along with previously collected samples from this area to help us evaluate the homogeneity of the flow and to determine if the different flow morphologies reflect differences in lava temperature and emplacement rates. The push-core sediment samples we collected have all been sieved to separate the sand- and silt-sized grains of glass from the mud, which makes up more than 95% of the samples. Our next step will be to determine the largest grain sizes found at each location as well as the distribution of the grain sizes and the amount of glass in each sample. After we get all this done, we will be able to build computer models that relate the dispersal of the volcanic glass particles to the style and rate of the initial eruption.
At the end of today’s dive, we revisited a hydrocarbon-seep site where we had collected chemosynthetic clams in 2002. The samples from the 2002 dive smelled like diesel because they contained "cracked" hydrocarbons (essentially crude oil, which was created when hot hydrothermal fluids "cooked" the organic carbon buried in the Escanaba Trough sediments). It took us several hours to relocate the site, but when we did, all we found were dead clamshells. We also didn't see the bacterial mats or black, hydrocarbon-rich sediments that were present in 2002. This suggests that the seep stopped flowing some time during the last 3 years.
As on previous days, we observed several new and strange animals today, including “the basketball”--a large, round, bumpy, reddish-brown benthic mollusc, which we carefully scooped into the biobox on the ROV. We also collected a branched animal (a gorgonian coral?) with small balls on the end of each branch. Both are completely new to all of us. Finally, we collected several sea stars--a white one that occurred everywhere on the lava flow and a second, larger species that was unlike any we have seen previously. We also saw found additional examples of some of the new animals from yesterday's dive, including a diaphanous benthic mollusk that we collected yesterday and a large (30-cm) white polychaete worm we saw but could not collect because it was too quick for us.
On the way back to the surface, we stopped to buy a postcard showing a few more of the animals of the Escanaba trough (thanks to Janice Fong for the inspiration). | <urn:uuid:570f33cc-aab1-49c3-8b3e-702afce59744> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.mbari.org/expeditions/ridges2005/august_30.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967433 | 1,058 | null | 2.71875 | 3 | www.mbari.org |
ASK DR. PETRUSO!
Helpful Responses™ to Important Questions
(almost a blog)
SOME WISDOM TO HELP YOU GET THROUGH
YOUR DULL, DRAB AND DREARY DAY.
Q: What is meant by the phrase "We should bomb them back into the Stone Age"?
--G.W.B., Washington, DC
A: "Stone Age" is an archaeological term used primarily in the Old World to designate the era beginning with the appearance of tool-making hominids. During this long period, which began some 2 million years ago, various types of stone (e.g., flint, chert, quartzite, obsidian) constituted the primary--or at least best-surviving--raw material for tools. The Stone Age ends by convention with the emergence and diffusion of metallurgy (the working of copper and, not long thereafter, bronze), ca. 4000 BC in the Near East.
The phrase "We should bomb them back into the Stone Age" dates to the Vietnam War era. It has been attributed to U.S. Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay (1906-1990), who was, without a doubt, the scariest Cold Warrior in American history. We might note in passing that the Vietnam War inspired a number of other colorful but dark phrases, including the Vietnam-era "We had to destroy the village in order to save it [from Communism]."
But Dr. Petruso digresses. It is technically impossible to bomb an enemy back into the Stone Age. Doing so presupposes mastery of time travel, which technology (if we had it) probably would not involve the use of explosives. It is theoretically possible, however, to bomb an enemy into a Stone Age mode of subsistence (i.e., hunting and gathering/early agricultural), if enough of the enemy's modern infrastructure is "degraded," or "compromised," to use a few popular military euphemisms.
Some readers may well be wondering whether Afghanistan can be bombed back into the Stone Age. Perhaps. But Dr. Petruso is reminded of Gore Vidal's observation at the end of Fellini's Roma, when he noted that--with reference to the concept of Italian efficiency--it wasn't impossible for Mussolini to get the trains to run on time. It was pointless.
Q: What is the best cut on Steely Dan's recent Grammy-winning CD, Two Against Nature?
--D.F., Los Angeles, CA
A: "West of Hollywood," without question. Chris Potter's tenor sax solo channels Bird.
Q: What neologisms, solecisms and fad phrases do you find particularly odious?
--K.B.J., Fort Worth, TX
A: Dr. Petruso is glad you asked. Here are a few. Additions will be posted when they reach DEFCON 4 on the grating scale."on the ground," as in "My people on the ground tell me that … " This is military jargon, suggesting that the speaker is a can-do, mission-oriented, strategy-and-tactics kind of guy. Unless you happen to be Gen. Tommy Franks or some other highly-placed ops or logistics officer, please spare us this image.
"at the end of the day," a particularly silly CEO-speak metaphor used in lieu of the perfectly adequate "when all is said and done" or "in the final analysis."
"is is," as in "The problem is, is that … " Why speakers should feel obliged to reduplicate this verb mystifies Dr. Petruso. The only persons who should be permitted to get away with daisy-chaining these two words are womanizing former U.S. presidents.
"weaponize" and "weaponeer" -- a pair of truly loathsome verbs given wide currency by the current geopolitical crisis. They have been used by DoD types and journalists to refer to what can be done to anthrax and airplanes, respectively, to render them lethal.
"securitize," a word actually spoken by President W in a sentence which also contained as a bonus the word "nookyular" (weapons, that is) during his visit to Berlin in May 2002, as he attempted to rally support for the US-led war on terrorism. Dr. Petruso is not making this up.
"No problem," when the speaker means to say, "You're welcome."
"Absolutely," when the speaker means to say, simply, "Yes." There is no need to stroke the listener, at least in most cases.
"Not really," when the speaker means to say, simply, "No." Don't pussyfoot around: if the answer is no, say no.
"issue," when the speaker means to say "problem."
"out of pocket," which many use to convey the idea "out of town" (this is a common phrase in Texas). "Out of pocket" should be reserved to describe business-related expenses, typically incurred while traveling, which are unanticipated and/or which one must absorb immediately, and which might not be reimbursed by one's employer (e.g., meal and taxi tips). The phrase is usually transitive. Example: "I'm out of pocket $30."
In football, a quarterback is often described as dropping back into the pocket--a zone of protection in which he is defended by his linemen--to pass the ball. Subsequently he might venture out of the pocket, at his peril. But in this case the article provides important information, and is essential.
"feel like that," as in "I feel like that the referee made a bad call." This is another colorful Texasism (or perhaps Southernism). "That" alone will suffice in such a construction.
"might could," as in "We might could go to Luby's for dinner tonight." See above, under "feel like that."
"as far as," when not followed up by "goes" or "is concerned." This ungainly phrase leaves the listener hanging as the speaker launches off into another clause.
"very unique." Now hear this: The word "unique" is exclusive. There are no degrees of uniqueness. Something is unique or it is not unique. Period.
"If you're ... , " when the predicate is a collective noun rather than a person. Dr. Petruso first heard this nails-scraping-on-blackboard construction during the O.J. Simpson trial, when it was voiced frequently by Jack Ford (NBC's legal consultant/pundit) in such sentences as, "If you're the prosecution, you have to be worried about the testimony of that witness." Nowadays it is quite common to hear it voiced by sports announcers (e.g., "If you're the Packers, you have to wonder about that out-of-bounds call.").
Memo to Jack et al.: Syntax! Avoid nonparallel constructions! A group is not and cannot be a person. Please dummy up.
"It's about ... " This peculiar clause came to Dr. Petruso's notice in NBC's Motown 25th anniversary tribute to Berry Gordy in 1983. Diana Ross was one of a dozen or so certifiably supergalactic (not to mention superannuated) Motown stars who padded onto the stage to gush over Gordy. Her paean was terse and cryptic: "It's not about who leaves. It's about who comes back." Ummm ... huh? What's about who comes back?? This construction is especially noisome when repeated several times over. Predictably, perhaps, it has come to roost most comfortably in advertising copy.
Numbers in parentheses. Some authors love to reformat and repeat numbers to give their writing an official or authoritative air, as in "Students must complete eighteen (18) credit hours in the minor." Pay attention here: The only reason to repeat a number in a different form is to guard against the possibility that the first version might be misunderstood or (more to the point) corrupted. In the sentence above, it is far more likely that the shorter (numerical) version of the number will be corrupted. We write out the dollar amount of a check in words in order to keep unscrupulous persons from performing mischief on the numerical version (by, e.g., moving the decimal point). Thus, the only way a reduplicated construction makes sense is if the numerical version comes first, i.e., "Students must complete 18 (eighteen) credit hours in the minor." The second version confirms and clarifies the first.
"deodorancy," a word that is now featured on Arm & Hammer deodorant. It is a highfalutin neologism and a stupid attempt to turn body odor into High Concept. This is a stretch.
And while we are on the subject of advertising hype, it might be noted that the DVD of "The Last Waltz," the music documentary (let us avoid the term rockumentary) of The Band's final concert, is, as of this writing, being sold with an impressive gold sticker on the shrinkwrap proclaiming that it is a LIMITED EDITION PACKAGING product. Presumably this superamazing packaging will be available for only a short time ("Once they're gone, they're gone, folks!"), but there is nothing at all remarkable about it; nor is it clear how the next generation of this particular DVD's packaging will be any less worthy than the current one.
Here are two of the most nauseatingly overused terms in bureaucratese in the early 21st century: "moving forward" or "going forward" (when the speaker means to say "from now on") and "transparent," as in "the process should be transparent." Both of these terms spread like SARSophobia, and were touchstones of flaks in the W administration as it bumbled its way through nation-building operations in Iraq.
"Prior to" is used in temporal, never spatial, contexts. You do not see a traffic backup prior to Exit 23, you see it before Exit 23. Traffic helicopter pilots especially take note.
"Poster boy for ..." Please, can we stop using this stupid metaphor? Please?
"Wake-up call," which now signals any event that causes one to be on guard.
"Push back," to describe resistance of any sort. Nice phrase, but terminally overused.
"Having said that, ..." an idiotic expression which goes some distance to negating, or at least taking most of the force out of, what the speaker has just said. Can you say mealymouthed?
"Please RSVP," the literal translation of which, for those who have no French, is "Please respond if you please." It's redundant. Get it? It's redundant. And repetitive.
"Perfect storm," a metaphor so overused that it has by now lost all its mojo. The book and movie that inspired it are so twentieth-century.
"800-pound gorilla in the room," used by the most unimaginative newly-elected Democrats in Congress to refer to Iraq. If this is an indication of the extent of creativity and subtlety of the loyal opposition in the 110th Congress, we will be in Iraq for the long haul, no question about it.
Q: What about the whole postmodern lexicon thing? Don't some of the terms used in literary scholarship also just drive you around the bend?
--F.J., Chapel Hill, NC
A: Dr. Petruso loves questions like this. The following ultrasilly terms, which are among the most execrable flotsam and jetsam of postmodern scholarship, are to be avoided at all costs.
Other (when preceded by the article "the")
Project (as in "The project of capitalism is …")
Space (in non-spatial conexts)
Terrain (see above, Space)
OTHER OFFENSIVE EFFLUVIA:
Parentheses, underlines and slashes within words
Intentional cutesy misspellings
Quotation marks (when used ironically)
Q: Will you PLEASE tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!?
--R.G., New York, NY
A: This is a tough one. Since 9/11/01 this country has been an unfathomably weird, gloomy and jumpy place. Unfortunately, however, as of this writing it's not yet clear what the hell is going on here. Dr. Petruso would like to be able to give you succor (a wonderfully archaic word that Secretary of State Colin Powell has revived to threaten nations that harbor terrorists). As an empiricist and fan of the Heisenberg Principle, however, Dr. Petruso feels obliged to reserve judgment at this time (not "at this point in time," as the dissembling three-piece-suited bagmen and assorted bottom-feeders who ran the Nixon White House were wont to say).
But please stay tuned. As soon as Dr. Petruso figures out what the hell really is going on here, he will post a sage explanation to this web page. Bookmark it.
Q: What are you sitting on that makes you so insufferable?
--N.S.P., Arlington, TX
A: We assume you refer puckishly here to Dr. Petruso's chronic case of existential dyspepsia. What it comes down to, he has concluded, is this: An exhilarating combination of the license to say just about anything--which tenure provides--and the irrelevance and pointlessness of this license in the end.
Q: The lady at the AARP office says she doesn't know where I can get a Passing Lane Camping Permit. Where did you get yours?
--M.A., Nazareth, PA
A: The first thing you need to understand here, M.A., is that Dr. Petruso is a professional. Yes, camping in the passing lane might look glamorous and all, and it certainly makes for good cocktail party conversation. But never lose sight of the fact that it is dangerous. It demands quick wits and catlike reflexes. It takes years of practice at an extremely high and sustained level of commitment to be able to do do it well. In short, M.A, passing lane camping is not for everyone.
The fact that you called AARP for information on camping in the parking lane suggests that you are one of what your PC types nowadays refer to as our "senior citizens." Far be it from Dr. Petruso to cast aspersions on the esteemed geezers of this country, but I'd suggest that you consider carefully whether you still have the mental acuity, nerves and physical stamina required to make you successful at this exciting and demanding activity.
If, upon reflection, you decide to take it up, Dr. Petruso can provide you with a PLC permit for a fee of only $100.00 (postpaid).
Q: So I was watching Monday Night Football when my worldview was shattered by the comment of one John Madden. Thanks to his acute observational powers, he had noticed that punts were not traveling very far in some less-than-conducive-to-long-punts conditions (it was a cold night in Green Bay). There were some awkward mumblings. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of rust breaking away from a hamster's exercise wheel (something has to power his brain, right?). And then came his explanation of those poor punts that challenged my conception. He turned to Al Michaels and asked, "Below 32 degrees, that's when things freeze, right?" And Michaels never responded to his question. Was he as troubled by the implications of Madden's observation as I was? So my question for Dr. Petruso is simply this: When do aforementioned "things" freeze?
--B.V., location not provided
A: Interesting that you should ask. Dr. Petruso has long pondered a related question, namely whether the wind-chill factor affects machinery. Will your car be harder to start at, say, 27 degrees with a wind of 20 mph than it will be at 27 degrees on a calm day? Dr. Petruso must admit that he doesn't know the answer to this. Perhaps they've done studies on it.
And, as it happens, Dr. Petruso was talking with a physicist colleague just the other day about why a slab of marble always feels cooler at room temperature than a wooden board--clearly they are both the same temperature, i.e., precisely "room." The physicist temporized and equivocated, and after dancing around the question for a few minutes, finally provided a thoroughly unsatisfactory answer, full of abstruse technical terms like "thermal conductivity" and "density" and "molecules." Is it any wonder that the W administration is suspicious of pointy-headed intellectuals?
But Dr. Petruso digresses. It is a safe bet that things actually do freeze below (actually, at) 32 degrees--Fahrenheit, that is. How does he know this? Because he used to own a Ford Explorer, and for several years drove on Firestone's Tires of Death before Mrs. Petruso forced him to trade it in. Anyway, it had a digital thermometer mounted above the rearview mirror, you know, 747-style, to give one the feeling that he is piloting a powerful, sophisticated vehicle. Whenever the temperature dipped below 32, it flashed "ICE", I suppose to alert the pilot to dangerous road conditions, or maybe to suggest that he call the de-icing truck to get hosed down.
So you can trust John ("Boom! Boom!") Madden on this. He is a professional. He knows a Nickel D from an audiblized bootleg.
Bottom line: Be on your guard when the temperature drops to 32.
Q: What's the deal with those machines in supermarkets that convert your coins to paper money?
--T.M., Arlington, TX
A: Long has Dr. Petruso mused over the question of whether these Coinstar® machines have any socially redeeming value. It seems that every other time he sashays into his local Tom Thumb ISO radicchio and arugula, he sees some feeb pouring a coffee can full of coins into a Coinstar® hopper. The charge for this useful service is 8.9¢ on the dollar--that is, nearly 9% of the total wad. And just check out the big bright sign on the machine, which announces, "Turn your change into cash!", suggesting that coins are not, in fact, legal tender.
Whoever thought up this idea is a cynical genius. He showed that all-American quality of generating a totally gratuitous concept--itself easy enough to do--but then he acted on it. He bought and set up in public places machines that are identical to those in banks. You know, banks, where you can get your coins counted and converted from specie to paper currency for free. Even more incredibly, at Dr. Petruso's Tom Thumb, not forty paces away, also within the store, is a Wells Fargo Bank branch.
And you wonder what makes this country great.
Q: Why does Dallas Cowboys head coach Dave Campo make such boneheaded 4th-quarter decisions?
--T.D.B., Tacoma, WA
A: Dr. Petruso (winner of an honorary Heisman Award in 1994 for Monday Morning Quarterbacking) unfortunately can't help you out here. NFL fans will recall three recent strategic muffs of humiliating proportions in the 2002-03 season alone, the end result of which arguably cost the Cowboys their playoff chances:
October 6, 2002: Down by 4 points, Campo calls for a punt in a 4th-and-9 situation on the Giants' 48. Did he think that the 2:03 remaining was time enough to regain possession and score a TD? (A field goal wouldn't have cut it.) New York runs out the clock.
November 22, 2002: It's 26-10 Denver in the 4th. Dallas scores, then opts for the extra point instead of a 2-point conversion. Then Dallas astonishingly scores again, with less than 5 minutes on the clock; but by this time they are down by 9, so even a 2-point conversion would not have helped. Denver runs out the clock. (Yo! Dave! A 16-point deficit requires two TDs and two 2-point conversions. Just to tie, Dave.)
December 8, 2002: With 2:21 to go in the game, it's Dallas's ball, 4th and less than a yard. Dallas leads San Francisco 27-24, and the 49ers have burned all their timeouts. Instead of relying on Emmitt Smith (who has been having a very good day) to make a first down so Dallas can eat up the clock, Campo calls for a 47-yard field goal from a kicker who by most accounts should not be on any NFL roster. He misses. The 49ers take over at their own 28 and march down the field for a touchdown with 12 seconds left on the clock. The Cowboys get the kickoff and, with 0:02 remaining, do the obligatory Hail Mary thing, unsuccessfully.
What was Campo thinking? A FG, even if successful, would have increased the Dallas lead to 6 points, and thus would not have been proof against the TD-cum-extra-point that Garcia-Owens ultimately put up. Final score: 31-27 San Francisco.
MEMO TO DAVE: Please notify your offensive coordinator that Dr. Petruso watches Cowboys games with his phone at his side, and is available to call in plays every Sunday afternoon. (xc: Jerry Jones)
Q: Why can’t newscasters—that is, people who read prose professionally—pronounce the name of Russia’s president correctly?
--D.S., Arlington, TX
A: One need not know any Russian to suspect that the “t” in Putin is pronounced, not swallowed. It is POO-tin, not pootin’ (as in rootin’ tootin’). In linguistics terms, the “t” is an aspirated alveolar stop. This is yet another piece of evidence, if evidence were needed, that Americans have lazy, provincial tongues.
Q: Who is the rudest, most obnoxious and most supercilious news announcer on BBC World Service radio news?
--K.P., Arlington, TX
A: Oliver Scott, hands down. His interviews are unswervingly hostile. He mercilessly interrupts his guests. He speaks in an offensive sneer, dripping contempt. He is, truth be told, the Beeb equivalent of our own Bill O'Reilly. He is absolutely insufferable.
BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS!
Dr. Petruso posts below in full a turgid, bureaucratic email response from one "Graham", who purports to be on the staff of the BBC, received 2/27/04 (bracketed comments added by Dr. Petruso for purposes of clarification and/or sarcasm):
“My apologies that pressing matters such as the appointment of the new DG [Director General] of the BBC [as a result of the sordid Tony Blair/ "sexing up the WMD intel report"/ suicide of David Kelly affair] have prevented me from picking up on and responding to your comments ("Ask Dr Petruso") about Oliver Scott's presentational skills. Please be assured that your views have been noted and that Oliver's future as a presenter for the BBC World Service will come under close scrutiny as part of the wider review being conducted into delivery of the Corporation's main aims.
As you will doubtless know, the World Service dimension of the Corporation's output has been fundamental to the delivery of the founding belief that "Nation will speak unto nation". Although at times it may appear that this is best achieved by everyone speaking the "Queen's English", it must be recalled that this reflects to this day the vital role assumed by the Service during the Second World War and indeed even more so during the painful period of reconstruction that followed. The Board of Directors' decision in 1997 to "virtualise" the Service in partnership with Microsoft reflected the Corporation's desire both to maintain public confidence in a widely respected if somewhat "hoity toity" news service and to work within silly--I mean really silly--budgetary constants. The result is what you hear. Oliver Scott for instance is an amalgam of various interviewers' voices heard over the years withal a bit of Churchill, Sir John Mills and a pinch of Herr Hitler [!], I understand, thrown in. John Humphreys (currently being trialled [trialled?] on domestic Radio 4) is considered to be a better blend altogether. It really is a matter of time as the bigger the data base becomes the more reassuringly cosy it will all again be. In the Greenwich Mean time, tune in to the Shipping Forecast (Do you have Long Wave?) and just let things go "Sailing By"....... ”
Can it be? Oliver Scott not a real individual, but rather "an amalgam"? Why? To protect the actual announcer, whoever he is, from retaliation by offended interviewees? Oh, puh-leeze. "Oliver Scott" is not exactly a restaurant reviewer whose identity needs to be kept a secret.
Looks to Dr. Petruso as if the Beeb has caved, abandoning all pretense of journalistic reptuation to American-style infotainment, and more's the pity.
Not to mention the fact that this email leaves no doubt whatsoever that BBC management now has nothing better to do than troll the web for mentions of its announcers' names.
Q: Hello. My name is Muffy Merkin. I am a college student and I frequently have to write personal statements for applications for scholarships and awards. Please give me some pointers on writing these things. How can I make my personal statements stand out from the rest of the crowd?
--M.M., Cambridge, MA
A: Pay attention here. This is important stuff:
(1) Never begin a personal statement with the word "Hello." This goes for letters, too, and even e-mails, like the one you have just sent to Dr. Petruso. As long as we're on this subject: Never type the word "hello" in the subject line of an e-mail. Dr. Petruso finds that whenever he opens such messages, they are, without exception, spam ads for products which allegedly will lengthen either his love life or a certain part of his anatomy. He now consigns all such "hello" messages to the trash, even if he recognizes the name of the person who sent it. So if you want your e-mails to be read, put something pertinent and comprehensible in the subject line. But Dr. Petruso digresses.
(2) Never begin a personal statement by stating your name. The reader will already know it. If you are worried that your bio might be confused with that of some other applicant, sign the document at the end, as if it were a letter.
(3) Scholarship review committees will want to get to know who the real Muffy is, what makes her tick. Use your personal statement to make clear what exactly it is that makes Muffy Muffy. There are some tried-and-true strategies for this. For example: Readers are always favorably impressed to learn that applicants have overcome adversity in their lives. Have you completely kicked that heroin addiction? Then shout it out, proudly. Have you outgrown your desire to be a contestant on American Idol ? Did you grow up in a Republican household? (Note: Even if you yourself voted for George W. Bush in the last presidential election, most scholarship committees will regard that as a youthful indiscretion, and your lapse will not automatically put you out of the running. Keep in mind that many criteria are considered in selection processes, of which appalling stupidity in the realm of political beliefs is only one.)
(4) Muffy is a risible nickname. Lose it before sending out your next scholarship app.
Q: In reference to the list of literary terms that you feel can only be safely dealt with as biological waste, I question the inclusion of "recursive." Do you prefer the awkward "self-referential," or do you contend that works of literature are incapable of using themselves as topics? And you might consider that if a work of literature were to include itself as an element of its own narrative, describing it as self-referential may not be strong enough, leading us to such prodigies as self-inclusive and monstrosities like tail-biting and ourobouric. Do you want to encourage this sort of abuse of the language?
--J.A.W., University Park, PA
A: Works of literature have no business referring to themselves. That kind of thing is way incestuous, if you know what I mean. Haven't you ever heard of the Quaker Oats Box Syndrome? That way lies madness.
This probably goes a long way toward explaining why so many researchers who wallow in po-mo scholarship suffer from brain damage.
Q: So what do you think of the "Recycle!" brochure distributed by the City of Arlington to remind everyone of the environmental benefits of recycling?
--R.C., Arlington, Texas
A: It certainly is garish. But one of the benefits listed on the brochure is that "Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV set for three hours." Dr. Petruso asks his readers to ponder: Is there a net advantage to using the energy so conserved to soak up the drivel foisted upon the American public by the plug-in drug? Of course not.
Having learned about the unhappy relationship between aluminum and television, Dr. Petruso has decided to throw his cans into the garbage henceforth, as a public service. With humility he accepts the accolades of a grateful Arlington citizenry, whose aggregate IQ has already begun to increase.
Q: When did the polite "May I have?" become "Can I get?" Did I miss something?
--S.L.S., Arlington, Texas
A: You have identified a real Dr. P bugagoo here. We were in line at our local Starbuck's the other day (double decaf latte, half-skim, half-2%, with a dash of amaretto, thank you very much), when we heard three customers ahead of us use this ugly construction when placing their orders. It very nearly put us off our coffee for the morning. These maladroits seem blissfully unaware of the difference between permission and capability on the one hand, and accepting and grabbing on the other. Please don't do this.
Q: I am reading Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged. Have you read it? What opinions do you have of this piece of literature?
--M.C., Arlington, TX
A: Dr. Petruso surmises from your question that you are young--late teens, early twenties, tops. At least he hopes this is the case, since that would be less troubling than the possibility that you are older, in which case you should know better.
Two types of people read Ayn Rand: young idealists casting about for interesting ideologies to try on for a while, to see how they fit; and heartless old warmed-over radicals desperate to have something distinctive and unusual to believe in.
Most thinking American adolescents of the generations following WWII have gone through an Ayn Rand phase (as did Dr. Petruso his ownself, many decades ago, when he dipped rather deeply into the Rand oeuvre, and he makes no apology for it now). But, like television, facial piercings, droopy trousers that reveal your underpants, and an inability to speak a complete sentence that does not include the word "like", Dr. Petruso hopes that a fascination with Rand's "philosophy" of objectivism will eventually pass, at least for most thinking youths in this generation, as they move on to more adult pursuits.
The last time Dr. Petruso heard anything about Ayn Rand's legacy was a few years ago, in the context of a rant from her breathtakingly strident, even combative, intellectual heir, the raving lunatic Leonard Peikoff (like Rand, an addle-brained ex-Bolshevik). Among the offensive stands he took was that persons who are incapacitated physically, mentally or emotionally have no right to expect compassion, much less assistance, from either government or society; and that they should get down on their knees in gratitude for any sops and dregs they might be thrown. Shrill, brutal and, in the end, deplorable, untenable except by provocateurs and unfortunates with deep-seated pathologies.
So by all means continue your explorations for an identity, young M.C. And don't neglect to peruse the writings of Albert Camus, whose existentialist/absurdist philosophy (not to mention his persona) Dr. Petruso has always found a whole lot more fascinating than those of Ayn Rand. Not to mention the fact that Camus always looked terminally cool in a trenchcoat and fedora, sucking on a Gauloise ...
Q: I am curious about the musical genres and artists that speak to you. Is there a musician who can make tears come to your eyes? Or perhaps a singer whose words draw you so close to him/her that you feel a true connection with the person? I feel such a connection with Dave Mustaine of the band Megadeth. His lyrics, many of which are political, draw me in, as does his astonishing guitar work. What do you think about heavy metal music?
Also: what does it mean to "exchange a walk-on part in The Wall for a lead role in a cage"?
--B.B., Arlington, TX
A: Yes, B.B., there are indeed musical works that Dr. Petruso finds profoundly affecting. Here are some of them, always in heavy rotation on his iPod: Pat Metheny's more soaring and more contemplative guitar compositions (e.g., "Phase Dance," "September 15th" [the latter an hommage to Bill Evans]); Tom Waits's mid-'70s melancholy down-and-out ballads in beat verse and prose (many of the songs on The Heart of Saturday Night and Nighthawks at the Diner); Joni Mitchell's songs of loss, missed opportunity and redemption ("Don't Interrupt the Sorrow," "Shadows and Light," "Song for Sharon"—in fact, all of Hejira); Franco Corelli's over-the-top rendition of "Vesti la Giubba" from the opera Pagliacci; and Arlo Guthrie's amusing but biting "Alice's Restaurant Massacree," which brings to the surface a jumble of conflicted emotions about Vietnam (the defining event of Dr. Petruso's generation), and about war in general. Then there are Dr. P's guilty pleasures, including the works of Leon Redbone and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, which the current Mrs. Petruso unaccountably cannot abide, and forbids him to play in the house.
The lyric you quote (erroneously), actually goes like this:
"Did you exchange a walk-on part in a war
for a lead role in a cage?"
Dr. Petruso has always taken these lines to be a reference to what would later inspire The Wall, namely Roger Waters's rage at his father, who in Waters's view abandoned his family to go off and die in WWII. The Wall did not come out, though, until four years after Wish You Were Here, which is the album on which the aforementioned song appears. The anguish Waters vents, incidentally, was first expressed in literature nearly 3000 years ago by Homer, who recounts Odysseus's visit to Achilles in Hades in Odyssey XI, lines 556-58 (you can look it up). It's a very creepy scene, and it expresses a deep and remarkably unheroic, even un-Hellenic, anxiety. Be warned that Homer can suck you in, though; you just might find him more compelling than Megadeth.
Q: How does Dr. Petruso feel about ring tones? People search for that perfect ring tone in a public restaurant, movie theater, library, church, etc. As a society, we seem to be on a quest for our own special theme songs, as if to validate our identity. All this leaves me utterly confused. Please help me, Dr. Petruso!
--B.B., Arlington, TX
A: If you have carefully studied the companion piece to "Ask Dr. Petruso," you will know that he regards people who feel compelled to babble into their cell phones every waking hour--including while eating, driving, and tending to their excremental functions--as total morons whose identity should by no means be subject to validating, at least if thinking people have any say in the matter. If ennui was the malaise of the late twentieth century, the compulsion to reach out and touch someone by satellite is already a contender for the malaise of the twenty-first.
But Dr. Petruso appreciates the opportunity your question has provided to pontificate on telephone etiquette. Listen up: The perfect ringtone is "vibrate." And consider for a moment what a wonderful world this would be if everyone recorded the following message on his or her voicemail: "I am not available to take your call at this time. Come to think of it, I am not interested in taking your call. Ever. When you hear the tone, please hang up. And have a nice day, you moron."
By the way, B.B., have you finished reading the Odyssey yet? Get on it.
Got a question for Dr. Petruso? Click here to submit it (make sure you type "Q for Dr. P" in the subject line!). Because of the high volume of questions received, he cannot guarantee that all questions will receive responses, but he does promise to smirk at the naïveté of yours.
Return to Petruso Homepage | <urn:uuid:57f12674-d88a-4f22-8c97-d5730eb8b37a> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.uta.edu/honors/faculty/petruso/askdrp.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953859 | 8,079 | null | 2.59375 | 3 | www.uta.edu |
The 15th annual “State of the Air” report shows that a pollutant that recently was found to cause lung cancer, still remains as a significant health problem. Ozone is the most common air pollutant in the country, and also happens to be one of the hardest to reduce. This report shows that levels of smog in 2014 are much worse than they were in 2013.
Twenty-two of the 25 most ozone-polluted cities had more high ozone days on average this year than the year before, and thirteen of those 25 cities with the worst year-round particle pollution reached their lowest levels ever.
As previously stated, Los Angeles has the worst ozone pollution levels in the country. But, over the last 15 years, it has erased more than one third of its unhealthy ozone level days. Salt Lake City, Utah and San Diego, CA also a less amount of unhealthy ozone days.
Bangor, Maine, Fort Myers, FL, and Salinas, CA were named some of the cleanest cities because they had zero days of unhealthy levels of ozone.
Below are some tips that the American Lung Association has given to help improve the air that people breathe.
- Clean up power plants: The EPA needs to reduce carbon pollution, the ALA says: Ozone and particle pollution that blows across state lines must be controlled. In the next year, the Obama administration has pledged to set standards for carbon pollution from new and existing power plants.
- Strengthen the outdated ozone standards: The EPA needs to set a strong, health-based standard to limit ozone pollution, the association urges. Strong standards will drive the needed cleanup of ozone across the nation.
- Clean up new wood-burning devices: The EPA needs to issue strong standards to clean up new wood stoves, outdoor wood boilers and other residential wood-burning devices.
- Fund the work to provide healthy air: Congress needs to adequately fund the work of the EPA and the states to monitor and protect the nation from air pollution, ALA adds.
- Protect the Clean Air Act: Congress needs to ensure that the protections under the Clean Air Act remain strong and enforced. | <urn:uuid:c644877f-a59e-48d5-9682-24ba5aefbf3f> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | https://nhozonepollution.wordpress.com/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246651873.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045731-00085-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95828 | 440 | null | 3.15625 | 3 | nhozonepollution.wordpress.com |
It’s long been known that the undersea noise we create with our large machines — oil drilling equipment, ships and submarines — has a detrimental effect on whales, causing hearing damage and changes in feeding, mating and communication. And noise from snowmobiles has often been cited as the reason some species of animals in Yellowstone National Park are being stressed and pushed out of their preferred habitats, impacting their health and increasing mortality.
It turns out that our large machines, though, may not be our only cause for concern when it comes to outdoor noise pollution and its effects on the natural world. Our small, compact mobile phones — and the apps we put on them — have been shown to change the behavior of birds.
Will the noise we individuals are increasingly capable of imposing upon other species outdoors soon also have enough power to affect their ability to survive?
Whether you’re an avid sportsman or purely a wildlife-watcher, it’s a fact that the animals, birds and fish you endeavor to see are “paid for” mostly by hunters. Those who engage in hunting, fishing and trapping are the major contributors to conservation funds in almost every state. Surprisingly, the monies animal-viewers and birdwatchers donate to conservation efforts rarely add up to even a third or a half of what hunters put into department of natural resources funds — even though watchers greatly outnumber them.
In my own state of Wisconsin, deer-hunting licenses and permits generated $22.7 million in revenue for the department of natural resources in 2010. And in most years, an excise tax on hunting equipment provides an additional $10 million to the state for wildlife management — in one case, supplying $400,000 to study and prepare for the likely arrival of a deadly bat disease. The problem is, however, that the number of hunters — along with anglers and trappers — is declining. And it promises to keep decreasing as the population ages.
So as the economy tightens, causing state and federal budgets for wildlife conservation to continue to be cut, and if younger people are not taking up hunting and fishing, where will future environmental monies come from?
One in five Americans considers himself or herself a “bird watcher,” according to a report published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last summer. Going by the report’s guidelines, in order to qualify as a “bird watcher,” you either had to have taken a trip one mile or more away from home for the primary purpose of watching birds, or you had to have closely observed birds around your house. If you mostly spotted birds passively — while mowing the yard, for example, or while at a zoo — you would not be counted as a “bird watcher.”
As I hiked with my dog through prairie open space on a recent morning, we were both captivated by the wild creatures around us. In his case, it was the prairie dog colony; in mine, a long V of geese honking overhead. The swallows have left, and I haven’t heard a meadowlark since early September. | <urn:uuid:af055703-9036-40ab-af8d-91e55cfb8819> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://blog.gaiam.com/tag/bird-watching/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246659319.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045739-00260-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963368 | 649 | null | 2.734375 | 3 | blog.gaiam.com |
Jun 3rd, 2009 by houghtonmodern
In 1861, President Lincoln signed a bill making the United States Sanitary Commission into a government agency. Organized by thousands of women volunteers across the country, the commission succeeded in raising almost twenty five million dollars during the course of the Civil War, and worked to cut the disease rate of the Union Army in half.*
In early 1864, the USSC held a “Sanitary Fair” in Brooklyn and Long Island to raise money for their efforts. The group published a daily newspaper titled The Drum Beat from 22 February to 5 March, with an extra issue on 11 March 1864. The paper was professionally edited, illustrated, and printed, included work by leading writers and artists, and sold nearly 6000 copies per day at the fair and by subscription. While an interesting example of a Civil War publication in its own right, the newspaper holds special significance for our collection at Houghton.
In the March 2, 1864 issue, an unsigned poem titled “Flowers” (“Flowers – Well – if anybody”) appeared. A poem titled “Sunset” (“Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple”) was published February 29, and “October” (“These are the days when the birds come back”) appeared March 11. It was not until 1984 that scholar Karen Dandurand** attributed these poems to Emily Dickinson. The Drum Beat was edited by the Reverent Richard Salter Storrs, Jr., a graduate of Amherst College and acquaintance of Emily’s brother Austin Dickinson. Dandurand believes that Dickinson voluntarily contributed these poems to the war effort, perhaps through her brother, perhaps on her own. (Prior to this discovery, scholars believed Dickinson felt ambivalent towards the Civil War, and gave up seeking publication of her work following numerous rejections.)
*See http://www.forttejon.org/ussc/ussc.html for more information on the USSC.
** See Dandurand, “New Dickinson Civil War Publications,” American Literature 56.1 (March 1984), p. 17.
US 6090.33. From the bequest of Evert Jansen Wendell, 1918. Houghton Library, Harvard University. | <urn:uuid:a28c8a59-6a83-43df-bf63-2d9c24d5873c> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghtonmodern/2009/06/03/earlydickinson/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246659319.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045739-00260-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960227 | 481 | null | 2.859375 | 3 | blogs.law.harvard.edu |
The report has lots of detailed information about how wealth is held in financial and nonfinancial forms, trends in the last year, and trends back to 2000. I found especially interesting the discussion of what happens if we look at the distribution of global wealth not as averages across regions, as in the table above, but across individuals?
"To determine how global wealth is distributed across households and individuals – rather thanHere's a pyramid of wealth for the world economy. The 32 million people around the world who have more than $1 million in wealth represent 0.7% of the world population, and hold 41% of the world's wealth.
regions or countries – we combine our data on the level of household wealth across countries with information on the pattern of wealth distribution within countries. Our estimates for mid-2013 indicate that once debts have been subtracted, an adult requires just USD 4,000 in assets to be in the wealthiest half of world citizens. However, a person needs at least USD 75,000 to be a member of the top 10% of global wealth holders, and USD 753,000 to belong to the top 1%. Taken together, the bottom half of the global population own less than 1% of total wealth. In sharp contrast, the richest 10% hold 86% of the world’s wealth, and the top 1% alone account for 46% of global assets."
What about if we look at the top of that wealth pyramid, with a focus on those who have more than $1 million in wealth? There are roughly 100,000 people in the world with more than $50 million in wealth.
And finally, how about if we look at the ultra-wealthy, the top of the top of the wealth pyramid, meaning those 100,000 people with more than $50 million in wealth. What countries are they from? The United States is first on the list, which isn't big surprise, but I found it startling that among countries, China has the second-largest number of ultra-wealthy people. | <urn:uuid:b1b7f2b9-0cf5-45e9-85a1-43212517f209> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-global-wealth-distribution.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246659319.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045739-00260-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945985 | 415 | null | 2.828125 | 3 | conversableeconomist.blogspot.com |
Lee County, Iowa
|Lee County, Iowa|
Courthouse located in Fort Madison
Location in the state of Iowa
Iowa's location in the U.S.
|Seat||Fort Madison and Keokuk|
|Largest city||Fort Madison|
|• Total||539 sq mi (1,396 km2)|
|• Land||518 sq mi (1,342 km2)|
|• Water||21 sq mi (54 km2), 4.0%|
|• Density||69/sq mi (27/km²)|
|Time zone||Central: UTC-6/-5|
Lee County, Iowa, was established in 1836. As of the 2010 census, the population was 35,862. It has two county seats — Fort Madison and Keokuk. Lee County is part of the Fort Madison–Keokuk, IA-IL-MO Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Fort Madison dates to the war of 1812. Lee County was the location of the Half-Breed Tract, established by treaty in 1824. Allocations of land were made to American Indian descendants of European fathers and Indian mothers at this tract. Originally the land was to be held in common. Some who had an allocation lived in cities, where they hoped to make better livings.
Large-scale European-American settlement in the area began in 1839, after Congress allowed owners to sell land individually. Members of the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints) fled persecutions in Missouri to settle in Illinois and Iowa. Nauvoo, across the border in Hancock County, Illinois, became the main center of Latter-day Saints settlement, but there was also a Latter Day Saints stake organized in Lee County under the direction of John Smith, the uncle of Joseph Smith, land that was sold to them by Isaac Galland in 1839.
Lee has two county seats — Fort Madison and Keokuk. The latter was established in 1847 when disagreements led to a second court jurisdiction. Lee county was named for Marsh, Delevan & Lee, of Albany, New York, and the 'New York Land Company', who owned extensive interests in the Half-Breed Tract in the 1830s.:398
Lee County's population grew to about 19,000 in 1850, the first US census, to 37,000 per the 3rd census in 1870, peaking at 44,000 people in 1960. It has continuously decreased since and as of 2010, 35,862 people lived there, comparable to the years between 1860-1870.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 539 square miles (1,400 km2), of which 518 square miles (1,340 km2) is land and 21 square miles (54 km2) (4.0%) is water. The lowest point in the state of Iowa is located on the Mississippi River in Keokuk in Lee County, where it flows out of Iowa and into Missouri and Illinois.
Lee County is surrounded by Henry County to the north, Des Moines County to the northeast, Henderson County, Illinois, across the river east, Hancock County, Illinois to the southeast, Clark County, Missouri in the southwest and Van Buren County, Iowa in the west.
As of the census of 2000, there were 38,052 people, 15,161 households, and 10,248 families residing in the county. The population density was 74 people per square mile (28/km²). There were 16,612 housing units at an average density of 32 per square mile (12/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 94.24% White, 2.80% Black or African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.39% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 1.03% from other races, and 1.21% from two or more races. 2.37% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 15,161 households out of which 30.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.70% were married couples living together, 10.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.40% were non-families. 28.30% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41 and the average family size was 2.93.
In the county the population was spread out with 24.40% under the age of 18, 7.80% from 18 to 24, 26.70% from 25 to 44, 24.60% from 45 to 64, and 16.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 97.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.40 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $36,193, and the median income for a family was $42,658. Males had a median income of $32,286 versus $21,821 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,430. About 7.10% of families and 9.70% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.60% of those under age 18 and 9.60% of those age 65 or over.
The 2010 census recorded a population of 35,862 with a population density of 69.3133/sq mi (26.7620/km2). There were 16,205 housing units, of which only 14,610 were occupied.
- Cleng Peerson (1783–1865) pioneer settler in Lee County in 1840
- Richard Proenneke (1916–2003) naturalist subject of books and documentary
- William Elliott Whitmore (born 1978) singer and songwriter
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Lee County, Iowa
- Lee County Courthouse in use in Fort Madison Original and oldest courthouse.
- Lee County Courthouse in use in Keokuk Originally a Federal courthouse and post office.
- "State & County QuickFacts". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
- "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
- North Lee County Historical Society, Museums USA, accessed 11 Aug 2008
- Naming of Iowa Counties. The Annals of Iowa. 36 (1962), 395-400. ISSN 0003-4827
- "U.S. Decennial Census". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
- "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
- "Historical Census Browser". University of Virginia Library. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
- "Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900 to 1990". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
- "Census 2000 PHC-T-4. Ranking Tables for Counties: 1990 and 2000" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
- "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- "Population & Housing Occupancy Status 2010". United States Census Bureau American FactFinder. Retrieved May 19, 2011.
- Swansen, H.F. "The Sugar Creek Settlement in Iowa". Norwegian-American Historical Association. pp. Volume IX: Page 38. Retrieved May 21, 2011.
- "Alone In The Wilderness". Bob Swerer Productions. Retrieved May 21, 2011.
||Henry County||Des Moines County|
|Van Buren County||Henderson County, Illinois|
|Clark County, Missouri||Hancock County, Illinois||Hancock County, Illinois| | <urn:uuid:eeb462d2-73fa-4052-bdac-611a357b8ff6> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_County,_Iowa | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246659319.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045739-00260-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930601 | 1,660 | null | 2.921875 | 3 | en.wikipedia.org |
In the Garden:
Dahlias produce spectacular flowers, such as these unusual red-purple flowers of 'Amante'.
Whether they boast dinner-plate-sized flowers or diminutive 2-inch blossoms, dahlias offer more flamboyance per plant, and in more varied colors and shapes, than most other garden plants. If you can dream up a dahlia look, it probably exists. Choose from nearly every color under the sun (except true blue or black), including multicolored ones, and from flower types as varied in shape and form as cactus, water lily, pompon, single, anemone, peony, and more. In fact, there are thousands of named varieties.
The mature height of dahlias also varies, from about 12 inches tall to 5 feet or more, making them versatile players in the garden, from front-of-the-border standouts to stately background plantings. And dahlias make excellent cut flowers for bouquets, typically lasting about a week if cut early in the day just as they first open.
Native to Mexico, dahlias grow from tubers that somewhat resemble sweet potatoes. You can probably find both tubers and started plants at local garden stores, but for the widest selection check out specialist mail-order companies that offer dahlias in many colors and types. Short-growing dahlias, usually referred to as bedding dahlias, are usually started from seed, but the resulting tubers can be kept from year to year.
You can start tubers or seeds indoors in pots to get a jump on the season, then transplant to the garden when it's warm enough. Wait until the threat of frost has passed and the soil is about 60 degrees F. before planting outside.
In the Garden
Dahlias grow best and produce the most flowers when grown in full sun and rich, well-drained soil with a pH of about 6.5. Before planting, work some compost or peat moss into the soil as well as a complete fertilizer that's low in nitrogen. The shorter-growing types of dahlias should be spaced 9 to 12 inches apart. Those that grow about 3 feet tall are spaced 2 feet apart, while the tallest types are spaced 3 feet apart.
Prepare a planting hole 12 inches deep and 12 inches in diameter. Then partially fill the hole until it is about 6 inches deep. Place the tuber horizontally in the bottom of the hole with the "eyes" pointing upward. For taller-growing types, insert an appropriate-sized stake next to the tuber at planting time to avoid damaging the tuber later. Cover the tuber with 2 inches of soil and water thoroughly. As the sprouts emerge from the soil, gradually add soil until the hole is filled. As the plant grows, attach it loosely to the stake, adding more ties as needed.
Because dahlias have shallow roots, applying an organic mulch, such as well-aged compost, is important. Water plants during droughts but avoid wetting the leaves. Fertilize dahlias monthly until mid-August. Slugs can be a problem, so take appropriate precautions.
Dahlias begin flowering in July and continue until the hard frosts of autumn. In areas colder than Zone 7, dahlias will not survive the winter in the ground. If you choose, you can store the bulbs over the winter, then replant into the garden next summer. Wait about a week after the plant has died back before digging in order to allow new sprouts to develop for next year. Gently wash and dry the clump of bulbs, place in a box filled with sawdust or vermiculite, and store in a dry area at about 40 to 55 degrees F.
Pinching and Pruning
You can shape dahlias by pinching and pruning. On low-growing varieties, pinch back the new growth several times to promote compact, bushy growth. For the largest flowers on tall types, remove all of the side buds at the end of each branch, leaving only the central bud. Or do only minimal pruning for more flowers that are a bit smaller.
Whatever types or colors of dahlias you chose, they will surely reward you and inspire you to make them a regular addition to the garden.
Care to share your gardening thoughts, insights, triumphs, or disappointments with your fellow gardening enthusiasts? Join the lively discussions on our FaceBook page and receive free daily tips! | <urn:uuid:0f8fa33d-60dd-49ef-bca3-92acc737467f> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.garden.org/regional/report/arch/inmygarden/4498 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246659319.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045739-00260-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929697 | 930 | null | 3.046875 | 3 | www.garden.org |
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
(Росси́йская Сове́тская Федерати́вная Социалисти́ческая Респу́блика [РСФСР] Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika [RSFSR]
), also called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic
, the Russian SFSR
and the RSFSR
for short, was the largest and most populous of the fifteen Soviet republics
of the Soviet Union
and became the Russian Federation
after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was by far the largest sub-national entity
in the world by area and 2nd in population after Uttar Pradesh
, India. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Sichuan
, China became the 2nd most populous subnational entity until 1997 when it was divided. The capital was Moscow
, also the capital of the Soviet Union.
RSFSR was established on November 7, 1917, and on July 10 1918 the 1918 Constitution was accepted. In English, the term Bolshevist Russia is commonly used for the period 1917–1922. In Russian official documents of the time it was referred to as Russian Republic (Российская Республика Rossiyskaya Respublika) and Soviet Republic (Советская Республика Sovetskaya Respublika). RSFSR was only internationally recognized by only a few states, the Irish Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania. The four last-mentioned countries recognized the Soviet Russia in the Treaty of Tartu, 1921.
The RSFSR became part of the Soviet Union in 1922, an act formalised by the 1924 Soviet Constitution.
Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1955.
The Congress of Soviets of RSFSR voted to leave the Soviet Union on December 12, 1991. The country was renamed the Russian Federation on December 25. | <urn:uuid:108c18a6-f57d-4924-89d2-254c0ff214a9> | null | null | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.reference.com/browse/Russian%20Soviet%20Federated%20Socialist%20Republic | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246659319.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045739-00260-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932064 | 506 | null | 3.65625 | 4 | www.reference.com |
End of preview. Expand in Data Studio
README.md exists but content is empty.
- Downloads last month
- 40