Nature Magazine reports that the European Commission has awarded up to €1 billion in research funding for the Human Brain Project led by neuroscientist Henry Markram. And while the official announcement is not expected until January 28, part of the project will be dedicated to the development of a exaflop supercomputer that will be used for the simulation of the brain model.
Brain researchers are generating 60,000 papers per year,” said Markram as he explained the concept in Bern. “They’re all beautiful, fantastic studies — but all focused on their one little corner: this molecule, this brain region, this function, this map.” The HBP would integrate these discoveries, he said, and create models to explore how neural circuits are organized, and how they give rise to behaviour and cognition — among the deepest mysteries in neuroscience. Ultimately, said Markram, the HBP would even help researchers to grapple with disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. “If we don’t have an integrated view, we won’t understand these diseases,” he declared.
The Human Brain Project is one of the two winner projects of the Future and Emerging Technologies Flagship competition launched by the European Commission, the other one being the “Graphene” project led by Swedish theoretical physicist Jari Kinaret.


Gramsci and education
Antonio Gramsci is one of the major social and political theorists of the 20th century whose work has had an enormous influence on several fields, including educational theory and practice. Gramsci and Education demonstrates the relevance of Antonio Gramsci’s thought for contemporary educational debates. The essays are written by scholars located in different parts of the world, a number of whom are well known internationally for their contributions to Gramscian scholarship and/or educational research. The collection deals with a broad range of topics, including schooling, adult education in general, popular education, workers’ education, cultural studies, critical pedagogy, multicultural education, and the role of intellectuals in contemporary society.


Charlotte Planners: John Nolen
Excerpted from Neighborhoods: Charlotte's Neighborhood Planning Tradition
by Dr. Thomas W. Hanchett
Photo from Mary Norton Kratt and Thomas W. Hanchett, Legacy: The Myers Park Story (Myers Park Foundation, 1986).
Three of the most important city planning firms in the United States helped shape Charlotte. They were the Olmsted Brothers, John Nolen, and Earle Draper. All worked in the city during the boom years of the 1910s and 1920s. They gave the city new ideals in urban design which are still followed today. In addition, Nolen and Draper took lessons learned in Charlotte's neighborhoods and applied them in hundreds of cities throughout the nation, giving Charlotte's early planning efforts special importance.
When Charlotte's original hundred acre tract was laid off in house lots in the 1770s the city fathers chose a gridiron street pattern. A surveyor, either hired by the village or supplied by the colonial government, laid out the streets at right angles to each other. Many cities of the era were not planned at all, with streets growing up from trails and cowpaths running in every direction. The grid was the most popular alternative because it was orderly and easy to understand, and its straight lines meant that it could be created quickly and broken up into lots easily. Charlotte's reliance on the grid continued throughout the nineteenth century.
In the 1910s Charlotte's New South leaders, as part of their drive to make Charlotte a modern city, hired John Nolen, the Olmsted Brothers, and Earle Sumner Draper who turned the city forever from the grid pattern. The very idea of having a landscape architect/city planner design streets was unusual. In progressive Dilworth, Latta had hired Joseph Forsyth Johnston, a landscape architect from New York City, to create Latta Park and evidently also asked him for suggestions on the surrounding street pattern. Most areas, though, were laid out methodically by surveyors or civil engineers.
Nolen, the Olmsteds, and Draper were part of a generation with a strong appreciation for nature. America's first National Parks were established in the era and the conservation movement blossomed, extending even to President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09). Landscape architects sought to bring this consciousness to city planning.
John Nolen's first job in Charlotte was the design of Independence Park in June of 1905. 7 Independence was the city's first public park, and it was also Nolen's first public commission after his graduation from Harvard University's School of Landscape Architecture. Nolen went on to become one of the nation's top city planners, designing more than 400 projects across the nation and helping to found the first city planning professional organization. 1
Nolen was part of a movement in the decades around the turn of the century that sought social reform in America's cities, a movement that included such well-known figures as social worker Jane Addams and muckraker Lincoln Steffens. Born in lower-middle-class circumstances in Philadelphia in 1869, Nolen graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's prestigious Wharton School majoring in economics and public administration. 2 He spent ten years as executive secretary of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, a "people's university" which brought college-level night classes to the urban working class.
By 1903, after visits to Europe's "Garden City" experiments, he became convinced that the new profession of city planning was more effective way for him to improve urban conditions. 3 The Garden City idea, begun in England in the 1890s, proposed medium-sized new towns surrounded by greenbelts. The new communities were to be carefully planned by professional designers to include the best features of both city and country, and to be self-sustaining with commercial and industrial areas as well as residences. No university in the United States yet offered a city planning degree, so Nolen enrolled in Harvard's School of Landscape Architecture and graduated in 1905 at age thirty-six. 4
It is not known how Nolen came to be engaged by the Charlotte Park and Tree Commission to design Independence Park. The job proved quite fortuitous to Nolen's career. While he was in town a young real estate developer named George Stephens commissioned him to design the grounds of Stephens' own residence. 5 Evidently the result greatly impressed Stephens, and he became Nolen's patron for a substantial number of projects all over North Carolina. 6
In 1909 Nolen drew plans for Stephens' Kanuga Lake resort colony Hendersonville, North Carolina, now a religious retreat for the Episcopal Church. 7 In the early teens, possibly as a result of Stephens' influence, he planned Greensboro's country-club suburb of Irving Park in Guilford County near where Stephens had been born. 8 Nolen did the 1918 plan for the expansion of the campus of Stephens' alma mater, UNC Chapel Hill. 9 In the 1920s he prepared a city plan for Stephens' adoptive home town of Asheville, North Carolina, a document that received national attention as one of the first thorough small city plans in the Southeast. 10 Later projects included a new town development called Penderlea in Pender County, North Carolina, for the U. S. Farm Service Administration, and a western North Carolina regional plan undertaken in connection with Stephens' advocacy of the proposed Blue Ridge Parkway. 11
At the same time, John Nolen continued his activities in Charlotte. Between 1905 and 1907 he designed grounds for private residences of Stephens' partner F. C. Abbott, Chamber of Commerce leader Wade Harris, E. R. Russell, P. M. Brown, A. J. Crowell, W.B. Rodman. L.A. Dodsworth, R.A.Dunn, F.O. Hawley, and O. A. Robbins. 12 In April 1907 Nolen visited the city and gave a slide lecture on "Parks and Playgrounds" illustrated with stereoptican slides. 13 That June, the Park and Tree Commission hired him once again, to provide designs for the area around the city Post Office, known as Vance Square, and for the old cemetery behind First Presbyterian Church, then known as Cemetery Square and now called Settlers Cemetery. 14
In 1911 John Nolen returned to Charlotte at George Stephens' behest, to work on his greatest project in the city, the suburb of Myers Park. 15 Stephens spared little expense, and gave Nolen free rein to plan a state-of-the-art "unified suburban design." Myers Park gave the city curving tree-lined avenues, grand boulevards with landscaped medians, and the beginnings of a system of greenway parks along creek banks. The results will be discussed in a later section of this report, but suffice it to say here that Myers Park has proved to be Charlotte's most lastingly successful suburb, and a model for similar developments across the South.
Nolen's final job in Charlotte was preparation of preliminary studies for what would have been the city's first master plan. The Charlotte Chamber of Commerce hired him in 1917 to gather and map data on existing land use, population densities, racial patterns, industrial location, transportation corridors, land values, water and sewer lines, and parks. 16 The resulting Civic Survey is an extremely comprehensive and meticulous picture of this Southern city at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The Civic Survey was intended to lead to preparation of a full scale plan. Such a plan was vital to Charlotte's orderly growth; Charlotteans had given up the old grid city with its easy understandability and it was necessary now that some other form or organization be developed to tie together all the new suburbs. At the end of the Civic Survey field supervisor Earle Draper sketched an indication of what the plan might look like. He extended Nolen's Independence Park and Edgehill Road Park into a city-wide network of greenways along stream beds. Boulevards radiated from the center of the city to carry commuters, and a belt road ringed the old urban core to provide easy cross-town travel.
The Chamber never appropriated the money to allow Nolen to turn his data into a master plan. Nolen watched sadly as potential greenways were cut up into residential backyards, and as expanding development made the possibility of new radial and belt roads more and more expensive. He wrote Chamber official Clarence Quester in 1924, "I think Charlotte is slipping so far as city planning goes. There are examples in the city of errors that are costly and more or less irremediable. Other errors will follow without a city plan." 16
Charlotte remained without a coherent development scheme throughout its early twentieth century boom years. No comprehensive plan was adopted until 1960. 18 Ironically, its proposals were very similar to Nolen and Draper's in concept. During the 1970s the city finally completed a belt road, dubbed "Charlotte 4", and in the 1980s is struggling to buy up floodplain greenways.
John Nolen's work in Charlotte and North Carolina in the 1900s through 1920s was only part of his growing national practice. From his start in Independence Park, Nolen went on to be one of the nation's busiest planners, with projects ranging from private estates to some of America's first regional plans. By the time he began Myers Park he had already had private commissions all over the East Coast from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Havana, Cuba. 19 In the teens and twenties he became sought after by municipalities. He delighted in drawing city plans to guide small Charlotte-sized places with great growth potential. His designs for such places as Wisconsin's capital city of Madison, and California's capital of Sacramento and port of San Diego, among many others, are important factors in the shape those cities retain to this day.
In addition to his planning work, Nolen was a major leader in the creation of a network of professional planning organizations. In 1917, just as he was completing Charlotte's Civic Survey, he helped found the American Institute of City Planners (later the American Institute of Planners). 20 He also participated in creation of the American Society of Planning Officials and the National Housing Association, and was the first American president of the International Federation of Housing and Town Planning. 21 The honors underscored the fact that Nolen was considered a leader of his profession. When he died in 1937 the New York Times praised him as an "internationally known architect and pioneer in modern city and regional planning." 22
Along with the Olmsted Brothers and a handful of other early twentieth century practitioners, John Nolen helped transform American city planning. 23 Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., had developed the principles of sensitive urban design in the nineteenth century, but it was Nolen's generation that created "city planning" as a full-fledged profession to carry out those principles, with its own educational background and professional organizations. John Nolen helped set up planning schools at major universities including Harvard and M.I.T. and his six books, dozens of articles, and thousands of speeches aided in "spreading the gospel" of city planning. By the end of his life, cities no longer saw planning as a rich man's luxury, but as an integral part of municipal growth, and many large places had their own planning departments. John Nolen's far-ranging impact as a city planning pioneer makes his early Charlotte work of special interest to students of urban development.
1 John L. Hancock, John Nolen: a Bibliographical Record of Achievement (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, Program in Urban and Regional Studies, 1976), pp. 13-17. See also Scott, p. 738.
2 Hancock, John Nolen: a Bibliographical Record. . ., pp. 15-16. John L. Hancock, "John Nolen and the American City Planning Movement: A History of Cultural Change and Community Response, 1900-1940" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1964), pp. 1-20.
3. Hancock, John Nolen: a Bibliographical Record. . ., p. 16. Hancock, "John Nolen and the American City Planning Movement. . .", pp. 21-37.
4 Hancock, John Nolen: a Bibliographical Record..., p. 16.
5 "Draft of Preliminary Finding Guide: Papers of John Nolen, Sr., 1869-1937," collection 2903, Cornell University Department of Manuscripts and Archives, Ithaca, New York. The "Finding Guide" includes a copy of Nolen's "job book" listing all his projects chronologically.
6 Hancock, "John Nolen and the American City Planning Movement. . .," p. 42.
7Charlotte Observer, December 15, 1943.
8 Stephens' connection with the Greensboro project needs to be explored. Plans for the street layout and gates are in the Nolen collection at Cornell. It has not been possible to determine exactly when Nolen created the streetplan. A draft essay by Ray Manieri of Greensboro, "From City Beautiful to City Useful: the Development of Civic Improvement Activities in Greensboro, North Carolina, 1900-1923," April, 1982, places the design in 1911, based on an undated promotional booklet. One large scale street plan in the Nolen papers is undated, but the rest of the documents were produced in 1915 and 1916.
9 Hancock, John Nolen: a Bibliographical Record. . ., p. 20.
10 Ibid., pp. 26, 30, 64.
11 Ibid., pp. 14, 66.
12 "Draft of Preliminary Finding Guide. . .," job list.
13 Charlotte Daily Observer, April 20, 1907.
14 "Draft of Preliminary Finding Guide. . .," job list. According to Kathleen Jacklin at the Cornell archives, Nolen's office discarded all material from these earliest designs.
16 John Nolen, "Civic Survey, Charlotte, North Carolina: Report to the Chamber of Commerce" (Cambridge, Massachusetts: typescript, 1917). The only known surviving copy of this document is in John Nolen's papers at Cornell.
17 John Nolen, letter to Clarence Kuester, March, 1924, in Nolen collection at Cornell.
18 Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission, "The Charlotte Mecklenburg Comprehensive Plan (draft)" (Charlotte: Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission, 1973), p. 4.
19 "Draft of Preliminary Finding Guide. . ," job list.
20 Scott, p. 164.
21 Hancock, John Nolen: a Bibliographical Record. . ., p. 16.
22 New York Times, February 19, 1937.
For more information...
Neighborhoods: Charlotte's Neighborhood Planning Tradition


Wednesday, March 11, 2009
rothbard on the utility of quantitative easing
Economist Murray Rothbard ("America‟s Great Depression", Ludwig von Mises Institute 2000) made extensive analysis of why the inflationary policies of the US Federal Reserve failed during the Great Depression. Those policies proved to be counterproductive:“American citizens lost confidence in the banks and demanded cash.. for their deposits.. while foreigners lost confidence in the dollar and demanded gold.. The more that.. the Fed tried to inflate, the more worried the.. public became about the dollar, the more gold flowed out of the banks, and the more deposits were redeemed for cash.. The Fed purchase of government securities was a purely artificial attempt to dope the inflation horse..”
this has to be a core concern of every briton at the moment, with the bank of england having entered the gilt market to monetize government debt. the grand experiment intends to goose economic activity at the expense of the real value of the already-slashed pound, with some sincerely icelandic tail risk.
in normal conditions, a devalued currency could be expected to assist exporters as well. as mentioned by the financial times, there is considerable doubt as to the efficacy of that pathway amid a global demand collapse. so the primary intention is to increase the currency in circulation in the hopes that more on hand will mean more spending and (critically) more borrowing.
this clearly did not work well in the 1930s to the extent it was undertaken as banks chose to hoard cash (much as today). of course, the united states also experienced a series of devastating bank runs which reinforced that tendency. today, with the FDIC, bank runs are a much smaller problem. aren't they?
the hard answer is that "it depends". much of the catastrophe of 2008 can be seen as a run on the shadow banking system -- that is, the uninsured and off-balance-sheet extensions of the financial system. the contraction of that massive credit generator is analogous in its effect to a systemic bank run that has resulted in failed "banks", boggling capital losses and widespread (and justifiable) paranoia.
that run has at times extended to more visible elements of the banking system, forcing insurance to be put into place on an ad hoc basis -- such as the commercial paper and money market fund backstops put in place following the collapse of lehman brothers, which were hoped to be able to forstall a systemic run on those markets which was actually underway.
beyond that there is the question of the fate of crossborder deposits -- international depositors in american banks have heretofore been well treated by the FDIC, but their accounts are not legally protected. these accounts are a massive part of the deposits in money-center banks such as C or JPM. crossborder runs have already become a reality in some parts of the world during this crisis.
and there is finally the question of the FDIC itself. michael panzner forecast in his sometimes-eerily-prescient "financial armageddon" (and has repeated elsewhere) that eventually deposit insurance (along with many overpromised government-backed obligations) will likely have to be diluted or perhaps even eliminated in the crisis now underway as the fiscal position of government may not allow it to backstop all failed banks as the debt unwind progresses and the losses being assumed by the government through the FDIC and other pathways become overwhelming. the mere anticipation of that development could reintroduce the bank run to american society after a long absence, which is probably why sheila bair recently approached congress for a $500bn line to the treasury, a move many see as preparatory of the resolution of a money-center bank. this comes on top of a draconian assessment levied across all banks, leaving many smaller community bankers incensed at what some term "confiscating the capital of the industry" on the part of the government in service of the majors.
and this is not to mention hoarding in anticipation of runs on other elements of the financial system -- most notably of late the insurance sector, which rolfe winkler delves into today.
beyond simply engendering some healthy skepticism of the value of government insurance in a real crisis, the two-pronged point here is
- that quantitative easing may not work to promote economic activity through increased lending in part because the value of assurances against losses are, even and perpahs particularly where comprehensive, questionable;
- that quantitative easing, or rather monetization, may be the only resort to which government could really appeal in the case of multiple large-scale bank resolutions.
it is impossible to know how this would work out in detail -- but should we witness a real spate of dollar weakness in forex markets as things go along, government may be faced with some very stark choices about what it can really afford to backstop.


Autoimmune hemolytic anemia, or immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA), is a complex disease in which hemolysis occurs because
of antierythrocyte antibody production. This article explores the pathophysiology of primary and secondary IMHA and diagnostic
and treatment options, as well as prognosis in dogs and cats. Our review of the recent literature regarding IMHA in veterinary
patients reveals a focus on individual cases and a lack of controlled clinical studies, which makes a detailed review of
IMHA triggers and treatment options difficult.
HEMOLYTIC ANEMIA VS. IMHA
Many causes of anemia exist in dogs and cats, so a clear distinction should be drawn between hemolytic anemia and IMHA.
Hemolytic anemias are conditions in which red blood cells (RBCs) are destroyed at an accelerated rate and a normal regenerative
response is seen in the bone marrow. In these non-immune-mediated conditions, RBCs can be destroyed as a result of inherited
membrane and enzyme defects, increased fragility from oxidative damage, or metabolic causes such as hypophosphatemia or water
intoxication.1 Traditional immune-mediated mechanisms (immunoglobulins, complement) do not mediate lysis in hemolytic anemia. Instead,
destruction occurs because of factors such as increased osmotic fragility, decreased RBC function in an alkalemic environment,
or increased clearance from oxidative damage.1 Unlike the treatment of immune-mediated anemia, immunosuppression is generally not used to treat hemolytic anemias. Thus,
it is imperative to investigate whether an anemia has an underlying cause before assuming it is immune-mediated.
Below we discuss some of the common causes of hemolytic anemia. A more exhaustive list can be found in Table 1.
Table 1: Selected Causes of Canine and Feline Non-immune-mediated Hemolytic Anemia
Zinc and copper toxicosis. One of the most common causes of hemolytic anemia in dogs is zinc toxicosis from the ingestion of zinc-containing objects.
High zinc concentrations can be found in pennies minted since 1983, board game pieces, zippers, zinc oxide ointment, and various
other sources. Zinc toxicosis can cause a severe intravascular hemolysis that is associated with small amounts of Heinz body
and spherocyte formation. Hemolysis from zinc toxicosis can be easily mistaken for IMHA if a survey abdominal radiographic
examination is not performed. Treatment consists of removing the foreign object and providing supportive care. Copper toxicosis
can also result in a marked intravascular hemolysis and methemoglobinemia.1
Heinz body anemia. Heinz bodies are dark-staining refractile material that indicate irreversibly denatured and precipitated hemoglobin in RBCs
and can occur from oxidative damage in animals that have ingested onions or received drugs such as methylene blue, dl-methionine,
or vitamin K3.1 In some cases of hemolytic anemia, eccentrocytes—cells in which the damaged hemoglobin is clustered together and shifted
to one side of the RBC membrane, leaving a clear crescent-shaped region—are also present. Eccentrocytes and cells containing
Heinz bodies have less deformability and more rigidity, making them more likely to be lysed or removed from the circulation
by the spleen.
Feline RBCs are especially sensitive to oxidative damage because of a high number of sulfhydryl groups in their hemogloblin.
In addition, feline spleens, because of their nonsinusal conformation, are less effective at removing Heinz bodies than are
canine sinusal spleens. Thus, Heinz body anemia is more commonly seen in cats and can be present during toxicosis as well
as in a variety of other diseases such as hyperthyroidism, diabetes mellitus, and lymphoma.1
Hypophosphatemia. Hypophosphatemia can also cause hemolytic anemia in patients being treated for diabetes mellitus, hepatic lipidosis, starvation,
and other conditions.1 In these cases, it is thought that an abrupt drop in plasma phosphate concentrations can cause a concurrent depletion of
RBC adenosine triphosphate, diphosphoglycerate, and reduced glutathione. These depletions lead to less deformability, more
osmotic fragility, and more susceptibility to oxidative injury in erythrocytes. A rapid drop in packed cell volume and a mild
Heinz body anemia can be seen in animals with hypophosphatemia. Treatment consists of phosphate supplementation (intravenous
in cases of severe depletion, oral in mild cases).1


'Old Earth Scientists'... I've never heard that before ... You aren't suggesting that there are 'new earth scientists' are you ?
Well sort of, there are commonly two types of scientists - old earth (who believe that the earth is billions of years old) and then young earth who believe that the earth is around 6,000 years old.As far as Science is concerned the big bang occured between approx 14 - 18 billion years ago
As stated above, there are both old earth scientists and young earth scientists. Old earth scientists believe in the big bang theory and that the age of the earth is in the order of billions of years. Having said that perhaps the above statement should read "As far as old earth scientists believe, the big bang occurred between approx 14 - 18 billion years ago." Furthermore, when you say "concerned" it makes the assumption that the big bang actually did happen. The big bang is a theory and unless scientists can replicate it, it will forever remain a theory.thats not a theory formed by 'old earth scientists' that is calculated using every method we have at our disposal
Unfortunately your statement falls short from the beginning - remember, the big bang theory is just that, a theory.measuring the expansion rate of the universe, measuring light from distant stars etc..there are too many to mention.
The Bible also confirms that the universe is expanding. Isaiah 40:22 teaches that God “stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.” This verse was written thousands of years before secular scientists accepted an expanding universe. It was until more recently that scientists changed their mind from the universe being constant to actually expanding.
There are a few theories floating around with respect to the apparent red shift of stellar objects. old earth scientists believe it to be a result of bodies moving away from earth. As such, they have suggested that there should be no fully formed stellar bodies further away than about 8 billion light years. Astronomers have pointed telescopes into supposed redshift deserts (I.E. locations in space where there should be no fully formed bodies) and they found a sky full of fully formed galaxies.
Measuring light from distant stars relies on the assumption that light has always moved at a constant rate, which unfortunately has not been proven.1. The moon moves away from the earth at around 4cm per year. If the earth was billions of years old, the moon could not be as close to the earth as it is.
That suggests that the moon has always been in orbit around the earth for the 4.5 billion years...it hasn't
Unfortunately this is not what old earth scientists believe. They believe that the earth and moon have been around for over 4 billion years.2. Oil deposits in the earth are under extreme pressure. If the earth was billions of years old this pressure would have caused the oil to have seeped through the rock layers and eventually the pressure would all be gone - I.E. there would be no oil under pressure today
The oil deposits aren't 4.5 billion years old either... they are from rotting animal/vegetable sources from much later .. millions of years not billions
I should have written this statement differently I.E. millions of years. The problem still stands however that if oil has was around millions of years ago, then it could not be under pressure today.3. The sun is shrinking at a rate of five feet per hour. this means that the sun would have been touching the earth a mere 11million years ago (let alone billions of years ago)
No, that asssumes a constant state universe...the universe is very far from constant...its expanding and has been since the beginning. Nobody has ever suggested that the earth - moon - sun position has been in existance let alone constant since the big bang.
Don't old earth scientists make assumptions also? If you look above, old earth scientists make the assumption that the speed of light is constant. Furthermore they still hold to the assumption that the earth, moon and sun have been around for over 4 billion years.4. Helium is added to the atmosphere everyday. Basically there is not enough helium in the atmosphere to support billions of years.
Helium hasn't been added for 4.5 billion years ... again the earth wouldn't have had an atmosphere until recently ( recent related to its 4.5 billion age )
According to old earth scientists. The oxygen enriched atmosphere (basically as we know it today) was formed around 2.7 billion years ago. The amount of helium contained within our atmosphere today is only enough to support thousands of years, certainly not billions.5. Comets lose mass over time, there would be no comets left if the universe was billions of years old. (because comets were apparently a by product of the big bang)
Thats misleading. The origin and time of origin of comets is not claimed to be the big bang. Thats a straw man.
(I am guessing that a straw is another way of saying clutching at straws?)
Again with this one I should not have just skimmed over it but should have elaborated. Comets have long been a good evidence due to their fragile nature and life expectancy. Comets are commonly huge chunks of ice traveling at tremendous speeds through space, when they come close to a star, they begin to melt and so form a trail of moisture. This can't last forever and it will eventually disintegrate. Here in-lies a problem for old earth scientists because there should be no comets left - they should all have been disintegrated by now (giving the billions of years). And if we are talking about clutching at straws - here's a good one for you.
Old earth scientists have come up with another theory to try and explain why we still have comets today. So in comes the Oort Cloud. The Oort Cloud is a hypothetical spherical cloud of comets which may lie roughly 1 light year away from our sun. Apparently, these comets become dislodged from the Oort Cloud by the gravitational pull of passing stars and the milky way itself (due to it apparently being at the outer edges of our milky way) These comets are then free to move about and disintegrate (which is how we see comets today) Now this Oort Cloud has not been detected or seen it is another theory - it is just a hypothetical cloud to try and fit in with the mold of an old universe.6. The earths magnetic field decays by approximately 5% every century, this means that a mere 10,000 years ago, the earths magnetic field would have been so strong that the heat it would have produced would have made life on earth impossible.
No doubt taken from Barnes's magnetic field argument 1973. The decay rate he stated has been debunked and stated as flawed.
How has it been debunked?7. fossilized dinosaur bones - these bones have been found and it is impossible for them to have lasted for millions of years.
Why not ? They have
The evidence available suggests an asteroid hit the earth approx 65 million years ago leading to a catastrpohic global event. There is a layer of iridium in the earths stratography that supports this theory.
Speaking of clutching at straws - "Why not? they have" This goes against what old earth scientists have been telling us for years! Blood cells decay at a much faster rate than the rate at which bones can fossilize. How then can you have a fossilized dinosaur bone which contain blood cells?
If we are talking about debunking theories or practices - radio carbon dating techniques have terrible flaws and rely on many assumptions. Therefor how can you be sure that your 65 million years is accurate?8. Salt is added everyday to the dead sea by inflows. Since it has no outlet - the salt content continues to grow. The amount of salt contained within it is not enough to support billions of years.
The dead Sea didn't spring into existance billions of years ago. Its a result of millions of years of constant change on the earth by volcanic, tectonic, atmospheric activity. The dead sea is a baby compared the age of the earth
I would have thought that you would line up the forming of the seas as we know them now with the catastrophic global event that wiped out the dinosaurs. If not that, then what are you basing your idea that the dead sea is a baby compared to the age of the earth? are we talking thousands of years, hundreds of thousands, millions or perhaps billions?9. The earths population doubles every 50 years (approx) it would take around about 4,000 years to reach the number of people that are on earth today (Lines up nicely with the world wide flood of Noah's day) if we use this figure for millions of years - the earth could not contain the amount of people.
Also that matches for the evolution model. The expansion in the earths population is also linked to the expansion of civilisation .. .not just the existance of humans and their descendants.
Could you expand on which evolution model you're referring to?10. Spiral galaxies appear this way due to their 'rotation' this rotation would eventually cause them to straighten out I.E. lose their spiral. There should be no spiral galaxies if the universe was actually billions of years old.
That again is a straw man. The big bang theory doesn't suggest spiral galaxies popping into existance at the moment of the big bang. They are formed over many millions of years
Why not? The big bang suggests that everything else popped into existence at the moment of the big bang. If this is not the case - then how did they form?The earth, the universe and everything in it was brought about in creation week. It was a divine event brought about by a supernatural creator.
No it wasn't ( that which can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence )
We have just been discussing a page full of evidences!And faith .....
Would you build an electronic project based on faith ? would you cross the road by faith ?
But you yourself are obviously a man of great faith. You believe that the universe and all it contains was brought about by a supposed big bang. To put it lightly - 'Nothing became something and the something exploded'
Where did this matter come from in the first place? doesn't the big bang go against the law of conservation of mass and energy?
If you are dismissing faith, then you must have proof of the big bang. You obviously weren't there when the supposed big bang took place so therefor it would stand to reason that you can replicate the big bang - after all, we are dismissing faith here.If I am sick I see a Doctor, If I have trouble seeing I go to an optician etc etc. Faith would not heal me or make me see. Rather countless selfless individuals who over thousands of years have devoted their lives to bettering mankind.
Yes indeed! Isn't it interesting how even though we apparently all stemmed from a common singularity we are all unique and have our own special gifts and talents? If we look to God's word though, we find that we all have been given these unique gifts and talents - some to be doctors, some to be opticians, some to make super pong tables and some to be astronauts!
But back on topic, isn't there an underlying reason that you go to a doctor? You go specifically to a doctor because you have faith in him. If you didn't have faith in him and all his years of training then you would just go to anyone wouldn't you?Its just not the case at all. For a start evolution doesn't need a set of ready to be assembled parts lying around. Its a process beginning with the smallest building blocks at chemical level and taking millions and millions of years to progress.
Fair enough, Let's walk though this one step at a time starting from the beginning - how did the very first building block get here?
Also a 747 ( or an LED pong table ) isn't carrying about obselete parts of earlier less successful aircraft in its frame like we are.
Could you list these supposed obsolete parts and explain why they are not required (I think you'll find that every part of our body plays it's own important role)
You say that you have faith in fellow humans. Why is that? If we are just a result of random chemical reactions then why do you trust in them?
On that note, why does anyone have morals? why do we have laws and rules? if we are the by product of natural selection in that it is survival of the fittest, who is to say that I can't go out and kill someone - after all this is how we supposedly came to be!
Do you feel sorrow when a family member or close friend dies? I am guessing that you would, but hold on a second - why on earth would you get sad if this is simply what you are arguing for in motion? To expand, If we are brought about by the strongest cells living on and the weaker ones dying off, isn't it good that your family member or friend has died because it means that the strong have survived and the weak are now dead? you should be sitting there giving hi five's to everyone shouting "Way to go natural selection!"
And finally, Why on earth would scientists use evidence from the past to predict the future? If the universe came about by disorder and random chemical reactions then how on earth could we use this information to reliably predict the future. Uniformity does not make any sense in a universe created by random chance and disorder.
Of course this is not the case, we find that the universes history is very much ordered because God designed it that way.


Problem: Tall buildings risky in high seismic zones; Status: Hill-stations are getting concretised and growing vertically; Challenge: Use local construction material; regulate traffic
Evam Piljain, an 80-year-old Toda who's spent all her life in Ooty, feels distraught at the sight of her hometown. "I cannot sit in the verandah anymore," she says. She moves to her drawing room and gazes wistfully at a photograph of Ooty taken in the early part of the twentieth century -- green, picturesque. But outside, hill after hill is chock-a-bloc with concrete buildings.
Other Indian hill-stations are no different. Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) has taken over from wood and mud and is now synonymous with construction. Reminisces B P Rai, secretary, Federation of Societies for Environmental Protection, a Darjeeling-based NGO, "Earlier, there were only small wooden houses. But with increased population, the need was felt to construct RCC multi-storey buildings, which can take a load of 7-8 storeys. This has spelt disaster."
Centre for Science and Environment’s Sustainable Buildings Programme is organizing 5 day training on Green buildings. The programme aims to enable participants to adopt a common sense approach to green buildings, one that blends traditional wisdom with modern science.


The marriage of artificial and bio-materials to create cyborg insects and rats is still a bleeding-edge field with fascinating possibilities for human applications. That sometimes controversial vision of the future just took a dramatic turn towards blurring the man-versus-machine lines with the debut of a 3D-printed robot that uses heart cells to walk.
Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created the tiny biological robots, or biobots, using a 3D printer to fabricate a flexible gel scaffold, and then injected the structures with heart cells from rats. Once powered by a form of liquid food, the heart cells beat and worked to give the biobot movement, traveling at roughly 236 micrometers per second.
According to the scientists, future versions of the biobot will use more controllable skeletal muscle cells for movement, neurons that will give the devices the ability to sense toxins, and a two-legged structure that will offer more freedom of movement. Extrapolate this development forward about 50-80 years and you have the makings of what could turn out to be real-life Replicants.
You can see the slow, creepy, but nonetheless groundbreaking crawl of the biobot in the video below.


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To help you get a clearer picture of British North America's territorial evolution, this section provides a series of maps that recount important moments in Canada's history. These maps cover the period from the French colonial era of the seventeenth century to the creation of Nunavut in 1999.
The map descriptions provided below have been reproduced from the original maps.
First successful French settlements in North America: Port Royal (1606), and Québec (1609). English settlements in Virginia begins (1606-07). French and English territorial claims overlap Acadia. Acadia is recognized as French possession by the Treaty of Breda (1667). A Royal Charter (1670) grants sole trading rights in Hudson Bay drainage basin to the Hudson's Bay Co.
By the Treaty of Paris (1763), eastern North America becomes British territory except St-Pierre and Miquelon Islands (France). British colonial governments for Quebec, Newfoundland (with Île d'Anticosti and Îles de la Madeleine), Nova Scotia (including present-day N.B. and P.E.I.). Hudson's Bay Co. still administers Rupert's Land. Louisiana is ceded to Spain by France.
Following the Constitutional Act, Quebec is divided into Upper and Lower Canada (1791). Spain cedes Louisiana back to France (1800). U.S.A. purchases Louisiana (1803).
The Province of Canada is formed by uniting Upper and Lower Canada (1840). The international boundary from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific is described by the Oregon Treaty (1846). The northern portion of the Oregon Territory is called New Caledonia, a name used by Simon Fraser in 1806. The Hudson's Bay Co. is granted Vancouver's Island to develop a colony (1849).
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Canada are united in a federal state, the Dominion of Canada, by the British North America Act (July 1, 1867). The province of Canada is divided into Ontario and Quebec. The United States of America proclaims the purchase of Alaska from Russia (June 20).
The North-West Territories (Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory) are acquired by Canada by the Hudson's Bay Company. From part of them Manitoba is created as the fifth province.
British Columbia joins the Dominion of Canada as the sixth province.
Prince Edward Island enters Confederation as the seventh province.
Boundaries are changed in the Districts of Mackenzie, Keewatin, Ungava, Franklin and Yukon (1897). The District of Yukon becomes a Territory separate from the North-West Territories (1898). Quebec boundaries are extended north.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are created as provinces to make a total of nine provinces in the Dominion of Canada (1905). The district of Keewatin is transferred back to the Northwest Territories. Due to changes in adjoining areas the boundaries of the Northwest Territories are redefined (1906).
At its own request, after a plebiscite, Newfoundland enters the Confederation as the tenth and most recent province of the Dominion of Canada.
Nunavut became Canada's third territory April 1, 1999. For the first time since the entry of Newfoundland into Confederation fifty years ago, the internal boundaries of Canada have changed.


Weevils are actually defined as any beetle from the Curculionoidea super-family. With that said, there are over 60,000 species of weevils, however, keep in mind that although there are some types of beetles that include “weevil” in their common name, they may not actually be a part of the weevil super-family. Weevils, also commonly known as snout beetles, are usually best characterized by the shape of their heads because they elongate out into a snout. This characteristic is usually common amongst all weevil species. Weevils are actually so broad in the variety of species that they can infest a variety of areas. Some species are considered pantry pests while others are wood-attacking insects. Furthermore, some may just be an occasional invader and a nuisance inside the home with they enter to overwinter. Weevils are found all throughout the United States and even in Canada.>> Read More
Depending on the species, the size of weevils varies from about 3 to 11 mm long. Their bodies have an elongated shape or can be almost oval in shape. Their heads protrude out into a snout shape with mandibles for feeding at the end. The color will also vary widely depending on the species of weevil. They can range from almost all colors. Some species will have a uniform color whereas others will have a significant design or pattern on their shells.
There are several common weevil species that will invade your home. In the United States, there are several different representative species. By identifying the species, a homeowner can better adjust the control method according to where they are infesting and how they are invading your home.
Since weevil larvae burrow underground and remain they reach maturity, they are rarely seen. Also, adult weevils are nocturnal and since most of their activity is done during the night, they are also not often spotted. They will remain hidden on the plant that they are infesting or in leaf litter and soil during the daytime. If the plant is disturbed, they can be noticed dropping to the soil and scurrying off into the litter or debris around the plant. Most gardeners will notice the presence of adult weevils by the plant aesthetics. The tips of the leaves will seem chewed off and the surface looks spotted.
All species of weevils will enter structures when outdoor conditions have been too adverse or unfavorable. Usually, it will be towards the end of the season when plants die off.
The key to proper removal is identification. Because different species will attack or infest different plants or locations around your home, it is the most important to identify the weevil before control methods are applied. Also, exclusion is an important method to get rid of weevils in your house. Exclusion will involve sealing cracks and crevices around the structure. Screens to windows and doors should be tight fitted and in good condition. Exclusion methods should be applied either before or after they enter the home.
Treatment to outdoor ornamental gardens with an appropriately labeled pesticide will also discourage infestation. Use appropriately labeled insecticides when notching of plant leaves first begin to appear. This is usually going to be in late June to early July. For indoor control, apply an appropriately labeled insecticide in areas like the attic, wall void, near the baseboard area, window sills, door frames, and etc. Keep in mind that all product labels must be thoroughly reviewed before any applications and treated areas must be left alone to dry before you can come in contact with those areas again.
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Insomnia Might Boost Heart Failure Risk
WEDNESDAY, March 6 (HealthDay News) -- Insomnia may triple the risk of developing heart failure, a large new study from Norway suggests.
Heart problems definitely lead to sleep problems, said lead researcher Dr. Lars Laugsand, but his team tried to determine whether the reverse might also be true.
"Insomnia is a frequent and easily recognized, potentially manageable and treatable condition," said Laugsand, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of public health at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in Trondheim.
Laugsand added that the researchers found an association between insomnia and heart failure, not that insomnia actually causes heart failure.
"We still do not know whether heart failure is really caused by insomnia, and it is still unclear why insomnia is linked to higher heart failure risk," he said.
Heart failure is a chronic condition in which the heart does not pump blood efficiently enough to meet the body's needs.
There are some indications that a biological cause might explain an insomnia-heart failure connection, Laugsand said. "One possible mechanism could be that insomnia activates stress responses in the body that might negatively affect heart function," he explained.
"If our results are confirmed by others and there is a real causal association, evaluation of insomnia symptoms might have consequences for cardiovascular prevention," Laugsand added.
The report was published March 6 in the online edition of the European Heart Journal.
To measure the effect of insomnia on the risk of heart failure, Laugsand's team collected data on more than 54,000 men and women who took part in a Norwegian study on public health factors between 1995 and 1997. None of the participants had heart failure at the start of the study.
As part of the study, researchers asked about the quality of the participants' sleep and if they had difficulty going to sleep and staying asleep.
After 11 years of follow-up, more than 1,400 participants had developed heart failure, Laugsand's group found. People who had multiple insomnia symptoms had a threefold increased risk of developing heart failure, compared to people who slept well. When depression and anxiety were accounted for, the risk was slightly more than fourfold.
Specifically, having difficulties going to sleep and staying asleep almost every night, and feeling tired in the morning more than once a week, were associated with an increased risk of heart failure, compared to people who never or rarely suffered from these symptoms.
These findings remained even after the researchers took age, sex, marital status, education, shift work, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, weight, physical activity, smoking, alcohol use and previous heart attacks into account.
Dr. Gregg Fonarow, professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said,"Heart failure results in substantial [illness], mortality and health care expenditures."
Insomnia has been associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular events and death, and two earlier studies have suggested that insomnia may also be associated with the risk of heart failure, he noted.
Insomnia can increase the body's inflammatory and stress responses, said Fonarow, who's also a spokesman for the American Heart Association.
"Activation of these systems, as well as other mechanisms, may link insomnia to an increased risk of developing heart failure and other cardiovascular disease," he said. "However, whether preventing or treating insomnia would lower the risk of developing heart failure requires further study."
To learn more about insomnia, visit the National Sleep Foundation.
SOURCES: Lars Laugsand, M.D., postdoctoral fellow, department of public health, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim; Gregg Fonarow, M.D., spokesman, American Heart Association, and professor, cardiology, University of California, Los Angeles; March 6, 2013, European Heart Journal, onlineRelated Articles
- Underactive Thyroid and Heart Failure a Bad Combination: Study
May 22, 2013
- Having Both Migraines, Depression May Mean Smaller Brain
May 22, 2013
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Object-oriented editing means the ability to edit and/or process individual objects, such as a MIDI or audio clip — whether they last the entire length of a song or only a few milliseconds. This is a different way of thinking than linear-style track editing, where you (for example) insert a plug-in into a virtual mixer that processes a track, or apply an automation curve to control a parameter for the duration of a track.
The word 'object' is essentially interchangeable with 'clip', but for clarity when working with Sonar, we'll define an object as a 'sub-set' of a clip with its own characteristics. Amongst other advantages, object-oriented editing can simplify the automation process compared to drawing track envelopes, and make it easier to do 'microsurgery'-type editing.
At first glance it might seem that this adds another level of tedium to the editing process, as working with little pieces of audio seems more involved than working with tracks. But that's not always the case; for some applications, object-oriented editing can be far more efficient. As one example, consider plug-ins. If you load a plug-in into a track insert, it's active for the entire length of the song — and drawing CPU power. But if the effect is needed in only a few places, you can create individual objects that are processed with that effect. The effect only draws power from the CPU when these particular objects are being processed.
Of all current DAW programs, I feel that Samplitude has taken object-oriented editing the furthest, as the program allows you to open up a clip and access a huge number of clip-related parameters. Sonar, on the other hand, was not designed with object-oriented editing in mind, and takes a bit more of an ad hoc approach, so you'll find different object-editing options in different places. This is a bit less convenient, but you can still get the benefits of object-oriented editing.
This is perhaps the most important use of object-oriented editing. Sonar can apply MIDI effects (MFX) to MIDI objects, and audio processing plug-ins to audio objects. For example, suppose you want to add delay to the last word of a vocal, so that the word trails off into silence. Here's how you'd do it:
1. Do a track split at the beginning and end of the word, to isolate it as a separate object. The easiest way to do this is to click at the beginning of the word and type 'S', then click at the end of the word and type 'S'.
2. Right-click on this object and select Open Clip Effects Bin (keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+B).
3. An effects bin opens up that's a miniature version of the track effects bin you'll see in the Track view of the Console window.
4. Right-click on a blank part of the effects bin and select the desired audio effect from the pop-up menu.
5. The effect will now appear in the bin. As in the standard effects bin, there's a small tick-box to the left of the effect name; when this is green, the effect is enabled. When it's grey, the effect is disabled.
6. You can insert more effects, if desired. As soon as you click anywhere other than the effects bin, the object's effects bin shrinks to a small box marked 'FX'. This lets you know that there's an effects bin in the object. To open an effects bin again, just click on that box.
One very significant aspect of inserting an effect into an object is that any effect comes to a complete halt at the end of the object. In other words, if there's a reverb tail or delay decay caused by feedback, it will not extend past the object. Fortunately, there's a workaround.
1. Place the Now time just past the end of the object.
2. Put the track containing the object into record mode, but turn down the level of any signal feeding into the track, so you can record silence.
3. Click on the transport Record button.
4. To make sure this clip is truly silent, click on it and go Process / Audio / Gain. Set all Gain levels to minimum, then click on OK.
5. Click on the object you're processing, then Control-click on the clip containing silence, so that they're both selected.
6. Go Edit / Bounce to Clip(s).
7. The object will now be extended by the amount of silence you added, and any delay or reverb can spill over into it.
Note that the process of bouncing clips removes any effects bins inserted in those clips. So in this example you would need to re-insert delay, reverb or whatever into the new, longer clip.
Now that we know how to add effects to objects, here are some ideas on how to use this editing option.
Emphasise a guitar solo. In a guitar track, split the guitar solo into a separate object, and add slight EQ boost around 2-3.5kHz. This will make the guitar more prominent.
Avoid 'stepping on' vocals with a background instrument part. Suppose you have piano as a prominent track behind a singer. Split the piano track wherever the vocal occurs and scoop out some of the mid-range (whatever falls in the same range as the vocalist). If used subtly, this can give a better effect than simply lowering the volume. What's more, you could automate just that section, as we'll describe shortly.
Compress particular sections of a track. Bearing in mind the growing backlash against excessive use of compression, one good application of object-oriented editing is to compress the lead vocalist when singing solo, but if background vocalists are present, remove compression from the lead to allow more dynamics and interplay with the background singers.
Distort individual drum hits. Do you ever find you want the snare drum to really crack when it hits on the fourth beat of a measure just before the transition to a new chorus or verse? Raising level might not be enough, so separate that hit into a separate object and add a hint of distortion!
If you've been using Sonar for a while, you probably know that you can right-click on a clip, select Envelopes, choose Create Clip Envelope and add either a Gain or Pan envelope to the clip. However, if there's an effect inserted in the object effects bin, you can also create envelopes within the object itself for the effects. To do this, proceed as you normally would to select a Gain or Pan envelope and you'll see automatable effect(s) listed below the Pan Envelope option.
This allows an exceptional amount of control within very short audio events, if desired. Furthermore, you can insert track effects that kind of act as 'master' effects. One example would be to add a fairly standard delay (such as a quarter-note or half-note) to a track, then add delay with a dotted value (for example, a dotted half-note) within individual objects.
You can't drag the effects bin itself from one object to another. However, you can drag an effect, whether from another object's effects bin or from the track effects bin, into an object's effects bin. Here are the rules for dragging effects:
Control-drag an effect from a standard track effects bin or an open object effects bin into an object: this creates an object effects bin and inserts a copy of the effect you dragged. The effect that was copied remains in its original location as well.
Drag an effect from a standard track effects bin or an open object effects bin into an object: this creates an effects bin, inserts the effect you dragged, and removes the effect from the track effects bin.
Control-Drag an effect from a standard track effects bin or an open object effects bin into a closed object effects bin: this inserts a copy of the effect you dragged. If there's already an effect in the bin, the effect you dragged in will be added at the end of the list of effects. The effect you copied remains in its original location.
Drag an effect from a standard track effects bin or an open object effects bin into a closed object effects bin. The effect you dragged is removed from its original location and placed in the object effects bin.
Note that the same rules apply when going in the other direction — ie. dragging from an object effects bin into a track effects bin or another object effects bin.
Here's a shortcut you can use if you need the same effect (or a variation on a particular effect) in several small, sequential objects. For example, suppose you want to apply a rhythmic 'sample and hold' filter effect to a sustained guitar power chord, where the filter's cutoff frequency changes every eighth note:
1. Split the power chord off as a separate object.
2. Open an object effects bin in this object, then insert a filter.
3. Adjust the filter as desired for the first step. Typically, you'd set a relatively high resonance.
4. Split the power chord at every eighth note. The filter will appear in each split of the object.
5. Set the filter in each split to the desired cutoff frequency.
You can open an object's effects bin when it's just a small square marked 'FX' by right-clicking on it and choosing Open Clip Effects Bin (for which the keyboard shortcut is Control + B).
Once it's open, you can bypass the bin and all its effects by clicking anywhere within the bin and selecting Bypass Bin; rearrange the order of effects within the bin by clicking and dragging, just as you would with the standard tracks effects bin; and delete an effect by either clicking on it and hitting the Delete key, or right-clicking on the effect or its enable box and selecting Delete from the pop-up menu.
MIDI Effects & Groove Clips
The instructions regarding applying effects to audio objects also apply to MIDI effects and MIDI tracks: they're inserted in the same way, and they follow the same rules when copying and moving. Groove clips follow the same rules as well. If you roll out a groove clip (MIDI or audio), the effects bin will remain in the original part of the object. If you then split the object, the effects bin will be copied to the split(s).
One other object-oriented editing window continues to evolve (if Cakewalk ever decide to consolidate everything in Sonar that's related to clips/objects in one window, this would be the one): the window that appears when you right-click on an object and select Clip Properties.
The General tab shows the name of the clip, its start time and its length (in Measures:Beats:Ticks; Samples; Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames; and Seconds). You can edit all of these parameters. Time base lets you select musical or absolute time for the clip, which affects where the clip starts if you change tempo. With a musical time base, the Measures:Beats:Ticks position remains the same, but the absolute (SMPTE) time changes. With SMPTE as a time base, the reverse occurs.
However, you can also mute the clip, and 'lock' it from this window (both options are also available if you right-click on the object). Lock is crucial for audio-for-video work, as it lets you tie samples to a specific SMPTE time. For example, suppose you build a sound effect that coincides with a particular visual cue into a soundtrack, but the producer decides you need to speed up the music just a bit. Locking the clip to SMPTE ensures it will always hit on the visual cue that happens at a specific SMPTE time, regardless of how the tempo changes.
Note that locking can involve the position only, the data only, or both; when locked, a small padlock appears on the clip (yellow for position only, blue for data only, and white for both).
While it may seem that the option to set a 'snap offset' (in samples) for audio clips is useful, the function can only shift the clip late compared to a snap point. So if you have something like a pad sound with a long attack time that needs to start early in order to build over the right amount of time, using snap offset can't help you. However, if you find just the right amount of delay for a snare-drum hit, for example, you can copy or change the object's position while being sure that the amount of offset will be preserved.
Finally, there's also a Clip Effects display. Although you can't drag effects into or out of this display, you can delete effects, change their order, instantiate new effects and bypass the clip's effects bin. We'll ignore the Audio Stretching tab for now, as that opens up a whole other world of options.
Object-based editing may not be a particularly sexy topic, but anything that saves time or makes your life easier is worth investigating. Although I still use track processors a lot, being able to create effects in different bits of audio can simplify the process of making complex edits, as well as opening up a lot of creative possibilities.


Biology 107 Lab Exam Review
Science B01 with Magor at University of Alberta
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When is a plant cell plasmolyzed?
What is a hypertonic solution?
A hypertonic solution is a solution that has a higher concentration of solutes than found inside the cell
What are some of the functions of cell membranes?
Separation of cell contents from external environment
Organization of chemicals and reactions into specific organelles within the cell
Regulation of the transport of certain molecules into and out of the cell and its organelles
Beet cells red pigment, located in the cell's large central vacuole and surrounded by the tonoplast membrane
Molecule or part of a molecule that absorbs radiant energy (light)
Graph that shows the amount of light absorbed at a number of wavelengths
Four parts of a spectrophotometer
Device that isolates a photoelectric tube
Standard curve limitations
Standard curve is specific to the pigment and its buffer
Standard curve cannot be used for absorbances beyond the range of the standard curve
Cu = Cd/D
Deposits single bacterial cells from a liquid culture over the surface of an agar medium
Prevents bacteria in the environment from contaminating work, and prevents bacteria in work from contaminating the environment
Aspetic techniques that can be used
Sterilize surfaces and working surfaces
Washing hand before and after
Flaming inoculating loop and lip of culture tubes
Reduce time sterile medium, cultures, or bacteria are exposed to air
Work in area with low resident population of bacteria
What does the blank used with a spectrophotometer consist of?
How is a spectrophotometer zeroed?
Define each term in the "fluid mosaic model"
Fluid: membranes are able to move, things may pass through them (selective permeability)
Mosaic: membranes are composed of a variety of different things - phospholipid bilayer, enzymes, proteins that act as channels
Explain phospholipid bilayers
Fatty acid bilayers, where the hydrophobic ends of the fatty acids attract each other to the inside of the layer and the hydrophilic ends are on the outside of the membrane in the water, creating a double layer of fatty acids
How are bacterial species identified?
Cell and colony morphology, chemical composition of cell walls, biochemical activities, and nutritional requirements
What is the best way to isolate individual cells?
Streaking them onto an agar plate, so that each individual cell will produce a colony
Cell wall is composed of a thick layer of peptidoglycan surrounding the cell membrane
Differential stain to divide bacteria into Gram-positive and Gram-negatie
Steps of a gram stain
A basic dye (crystal violet) is used to stain the peptidoglycan in both cells, then iodine is used to increase affinity of the dye to peptidoglycan. Ethanol is then used to dissolve lipids in outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, allowing iodine dye complex to leave cells (peptidoglycan layer too thin to retain dye), while Gram-positive cells retain the dyed due to the thick layer of peptidoglycan - a counterstain is then applied that dies the Gram-negative cells pink
Commonly reocognized cell morphologies
Cocci: spherical shape
Bacilli: shaped like rods or cylinders (long and slender, or so short they resemble cocci)
Spirilla: resemble a corkscrew
What are three other ways to identify bacteria besides morphology?
Presence of flagella (motility)
Formation of endospores
How is motility in bacteria tested?
Bacteria are injected into a tube containing a dye that turns red when oxidized by growing bacteria- distribution of red dye indicates swimming ability
How is formation of endospores determined in bacteria?
Sample can withstand extreme conditions (high temperatures) and will grow at optimal conditions
What are the different enzymatic activities in bacteria that can be tested?
How can resolution be decreased (improved)?
Using an illumination source with a smaller wavelength
Increasing the numerical aperture of the objective lens, as well as using immersion oil with the 100x objective lens
How is the resolution value calculated?
Why do Gram-positive bacteria stain purple?
They contain a thick layer of peptidoglycan which retains the iodine-crystal violet complex CV-I, causing cells to hold the dye and thus retain the purple colour even after the ethanol wash
Why do Gram-negative bacteria stain pink?
Gram negative cells have only a thin layer of peptidoglycan, so the CV-I complex easily washes out, and thus the cells are able to be counterstained pink because they no longer contain any crystal violet dye
What is the effect of high temperatures on bacteria that do not form endospores?
High temperatures will kill cells that do not produce endospores as it can damage cell membranes and denature proteins, resulting in cells that are unable to function
Microtubules, microfilaments, and intermediate filaments which function in cell structure, cell motility (flagella and cilia - microtubules as part of their ultrastructure), and various biological processes
Mitochondria, chloroplasts, Golgi apparatus, endoplasmic reticulum, nucleus, and vacuoles/vesicles
Function in cell motility (flagella and cilia) and one organism also uses cilia to propel food towards its oral groove
Used in amoeboid movement and organelle movement (intermediate filaments give nucleus its shape - nuclear lamina)
How do microfilaments act in amoeboid movement?
Phase contrast microscope
Phase contrast microscope
Cells and medium have different refractive index, and therefore light traveling through a material with different refractive indexes show a change in phase of light waves, which the microscope then translates to a change in light intensity (areas of higher refractive index appear darker)
Some cell structures contain autofluoresce, some require staining - by exposing cells to several stains at once, different structures will fluoresce different colours
How can contrast be improved?
Staining compounds (vital stain - living cells/tissue, or dead cells and tissues), using special types of microscopes to manipulate light, and by reducing the amount of light
What effect would cytochalasin (inhibits microtubules) and cholchicine (inhibits microfilaments) have on Pelomyxa?
Cytochalasin would cause amoeba to become sessile, as the microfilaments are responsible for the movement of amoebas - cholchicine would have no effect
What effect would cytochalasin (inhibits microtubules) and cholchicine (inhibits microfilaments) have on Euglena?
What effect would cytochalasin (inhibits microtubules) and cholchicine (inhibits microfilaments) have on motile prokaryotes?
What is phagocytosis, and how does it differ from receptor-mediated endocytosis?
Phagocytosis is the process that Paramecium use to take in food. It differs from receptor-mediated endocytosis in that receptor-mediated endocytosis is very specific and allows the cell to acquire bulk quantities of specific substances, whereas phagocytosis is more general and can take in different substances
Organelles (enzymes) that digest or break down waste materials and cellular debris, such as worn out organelles, food particles, and engulfed bacteria and viruses
Contains cell's genetic information, and is surrounded by the nuclear lamina (made up of intermediate filaments) to protect the DNA
Engulfs food via phagocytosis and uses lysosomes to break the food down
Organelles found in plant cells that are used in photosynthesis - they capture light and convert it to usable energy
Proteins that catalyze metabolic reactions without being consumed or destroyed by the molecule - lower a reaction's activation energy (substrate specific)
Molecule to be reacted, that fits into a uniquely shaped pocket of the enzyme called the active site and binds with the enzyme as it is converted into the end product
Allows plants to use starch it has stored after photosynthesis - takes amylose and breaks it down into smaller molecules by hydrolysis (glucose molecules, maltose, and shorter chains of amylose)
Polymeric macromolecule composed of glucose monomers that is too large to pass through a cell membrane
What are enzymes made up of?
Enzymes are proteins, which are made up of amino acids
What is an active site?
An active site is a site that uniquely fits the substrate specific to the enzyme, and will activate the enzyme once the substrate binds to the site
Energy transfer from light to chemical bonds through series of light reactions
What series of reactions occurs in photosynthesis?
Light energy from sun strikes pigments in thylakoid membrane of chloroplast, which is transformed into excited electrons (electrical energy), then into chemical energy in the form of bonds in ATP and NADPH molecules, and the ATP and NADH molecules are then used to power the fixation of carbon dioxide into sugar molecules (Calvin cycle, occurring in stroma)
Determines which wavelengths of light the chloroplasts maximally absorb (these wavelengths also produce the highest rates of photosynthetic activity)
Chloroplast suspension is mixed with indicator dye DCPIP - as DCPIP accepts electrons from the electron transport chain of Photosystem II it becomes reduced and therefore colourless, allowing absorptions to be measured to determine concentrations
What were the controls in the photosynthesis in spinach chloroplasts experiment?
Controls must show that DCPIP is stable and there is no other source of electrons to reduce DCPIP (colour does not change spontaneously) and that the colour of chloroplast suspension is stable and does not change colour spontaneously
What are the independent and dependent variables for the absorbance spectrum of photosynthesis in spinach chloroplasts?
The independent variable is the wavelength of light, and the dependent variable is the absorbance of the chloroplast suspension at varying wavelengths of light
What are the independent and dependent variables for the action spectrum of photosynthesis in spinach chloroplasts?
The independent variable is the colour of light, and the dependent variable is the absorbance of the solution
Why are spinach leaves green?
Spinach leaves are green because they maximally absorb blue and red wavelengths, and green wavelengths are absorbed the least and are therefore reflected back the most, resulting in the green colour
At what wavelength is the action spectrum measured at?
The wavelength that photosynthesis occurs at maximally
Where do light reactions take place in the chloroplast? Reactions of the Calvin cycle?
Light reactions take place in the stroma of the chloroplast, and reactions of the Calvin cycle take place in the stroma
Measuring oxygen levels, sugar produced, or carbon dioxide levels
How is ATP produced?
Through the catabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats
Glycolysis in eukaryotes
Cytosolic reactions to convert glucose to pyruvate (one molecule of glucose results in the net production of 2 molecules of ATP via substrate level phosphorylation
After glycolysis, what occurs in the presence of oxygen?
Eukaryotes convert pyruvate into acetyl CoA, which is transported to Kreb's cycle in mitochondria (produces 2 more molecules of ATP) and then oxidative phosphorylation (the transfer of electrons from food to oxygen) produces the rest of the ATP molecules (carbon dioxide is also formed as a by-product)
After glycolysis, what occurs in the absence of oxygen?
Pyruvate is degraded via a series of cytostolic pathways - lactic acid fermentation and alcohol fermentation (produces ethanol and carbon dioxide, regenerates NAD+ - required for glycolytic pathway)
What sort of feedback system occurs in alcohol fermentation?
Fermentation of glucose produces ethanol, but high concentrations of ethanol are toxic to yeast
Physiological response curve
Why is fermentation necessary?
Why was the yeast flask swirled prior to adding yeast to each tube?
To re-suspend the yeast and therefore the ensure that similar concentrations of yeast were present in each tube (constant)
What would happen if the metabolism in yeast experiment were done without the 10 minute pre-incubation period?
The lag phase of the physiological response curve would be significantly longer as the pre-incubation period brings the tube to a temperature at which yeast metabolizes glucose most effectively, and therefore without the incubation period the yeast would not metabolize glucose as well
What process are the yeast in the Durham tube undergoing?
The yeast are undergoing fermentation - other eukaryotes undergo aerobic respiration, and only prokaryotes undergo anaerobic respiration
What metabolic processes occur in the cytoplasm?
Alcohol fermentation, ATP production, glycolysis, and NADH production
What metabolic processes occur in the mitochondria?
ATP production, Krebs cycle, electron transport chain, and NADH production
Bacterial genomic DNA
Consists of a double stranded DNA helix arranged in a circle that is anchored to the bacterial plasma membrane - 4000 genes that encode all the functions of the bacterial cell
Bacterial plasmid DNA
Floats freely in cytoplasm of bacterial cell
Circular and can assume supercoiled conformation in which circular double helix molecule twists on itself
Much smaller than genomic DNA (2- 25 genes)
Can sometimes conform extra properties to the cell that allow the cell to survive in conditions that it could not survive without the plasmid DNA (only when there is selective pressure)
Arranged in linear strands (chromosomes - 23 pairs) in nucleus of cell (30 000 - 35 000 genes - high molecular weight DNA)
Can be used to analyze small amount of plasmid DNA - DNA is not very pure and maxi prep must be used for further analysis as it is a larger quantity of very pure DNA - separates plasmid DNA from bacterial genomic DNA based on size and conformation
How can high molecular weight (HMW) DNA be extracted?
High affinity for glass - buffer solution must contain Tris and EDTA as it binds magnesium ions which are required for DNAse, preventing DNAse from functioning and degrading the DNA into nucleotides
What does centrifuging do?
Creates a centrifugal force that causes bacterial cells to collect in a pellet at the bottom of the tube - liquid above is referred to as the supernatant
What does vortexing do?
Vortexing disrupts the pellet of cells so that they may be re-suspended
Why is STE added to the DNA treatment?
Washes the medium away from the cells
What is Solution I in the DNA treatment?
A buffered, isotonic solution that is used to re-suspend bacterial cells
What is Solution II in the DNA treatment?
Contains sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) and sodium hydroxide (an alkali) - SDS denatures proteins and disrupts the plasma membrane, causing the cell to lyse and releasing cell components into the solution, and NaOH raises the pH of the lysate to denature the hydrogen bonds between the base pairs of DNA, separating the helix
What is Solution III in the DNA treatment?
Acidic potassium acetate solution that neutralizes the pH in the lysate so that some hydrogen bonds in the DNA will re-form in random base pairs, resulting in a tangled, insoluble mass of DNA - hydrogen bonds in the plasmid DNA reform between the original complementary base pairs (when solution is placed on ice potassium forms white, insoluble mass with SDS that precipitates out along with many of the proteins, cell wall, debris, and genomic DNA)
What does centrifuging do to the genomic DNA-potassium-SDS-protein-cell wall complex?
Causes the complex to pellet in the bottom of the tube and the plasmid to remain in the supernatant solution
What does the 95% ethanol wash do in the DNA treatment?
Removes water molecules from macromolecules by decreasing hydrogen bonding between water molecules and macromolecules (plasmid DNA and RNA come out of solution and precipitate, so that they may be centrifuged into a pellet)
What does the 70% ethanol wash do in the DNA treatment?
Removes the salts which were not removed with the 95% ethanol, and hydrates the pellets slightly so that it may dissolve in the aqueous solution
Why is the 30 minute incubation period necessary in the DNA extraction?
Why is sodium acetate used to precipitate HMW DNA?
The salt ions compete with macromolecules (DNA) for the water molecules
What are the 2 properties of DNA that allow you to separate genomic DNA from plasmid DNA
Size - big genomic DNA precipitates faster with centrifugation
Conformation (shape of molecule) - supercoiled plasmid DNA maintains its shape even when hydrogen bonds in backbone are broken
How can HMW DNA be extracted from solution?
Its affinity for glass and the fact that it forms very long "threads" of DNA
What would happen if the tube were vortexed after the addition of Solution II?
Genomic DNA would break and would not all be centrifuged out, therefore contaminating plasmid DNA
What is the difference between genomic DNA, plasmid DNA, and eukaryotic DNA?
Genomic DNA contains the majority of genes needed for the bacterial cell to function
Plasmid DNA is a small, circular structure of DNA in the cell cytoplasm that contains genes that can allow the bacteria to survive in conditions where it could otherwise not survive
Eukaryotic DNA is much larger and is contained within the nucleus, in 23 pairs of chromosomes, encoding all the genes necessary for the survival of the eukaryote
What is the purpose of the 95% ethanol and 70% ethanol wash?
95% ethanol dehydrates the cell
70% ethanol treatment removes the salts and rehydrates the plasmid DNA, allowing it to dissolve faster
Why must plasmid DNA be kept on ice following incubation?
DNAse will break down DNA at room temperature - T solution has EDTA to inactivate DNAse
What was the experiment performed by Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty?
Tested various cellular macromolecules for their ability to transform non-virulent Streptococcus pneumoniae into virulent bacteria - discovered DNA was the only macromolecule capable of transforming non-virulent bacteria into virulent bacteria
How did the experiment performed in Biol 107 differ from Avery et al?
Escherichia coli was used
E. coli was examined for transformation by a gene on the plasmid DNA instead of the genomic DNA
E. coli cells needed to be made competent to uptake DNA using a calcium chloride solution
Mice were not used (medium containing kanamycin was used instead)
Only DNA was focused on (as opposed to various parts of the cell)
How were kanamycin sensitive E. coli cells made proficient to take up DNA?
A calcium chloride solution was made, which created holes in the cellular membranes (competent cells)
How is a competent cell transformed?
If plasmid DNA entering competent cells is capable of replicating, the competent cells will be genetically altered or transformed (kanamycin resistant) - all descendants of transformed cells should be genetically altered
What is kanamycin?
Antibiotic belonging to the family of antibiotics characterized by their ability to inhibit protein synthesis in prokaryotic cells - they are transported into the cell by oxygen dependent active transport system and irreversibly inhibit protein synthesis by binding to a small subunit of ribosomes in bacterial cell, so cells are unable to synthesize proteins - cell death
What occurs in kanamycin resistant cells?
Phosphotransferase enzyme is encoded and expressed in the presence of kanamycin, which phosphorylates (adds a phosphorous group) to kanamycin and renders the antibiotic inactve
Use of a DNA template to synthesize RNA
Reading of mRNA to produce protein
Plate Count Method
Viable cell count (living cells only) in which original cell suspension is diluted into suspensions of decreasing cell concentration, which are spread onto the surface of an agar medium and allowed to incubate so that single cells may grow into a colony - following incubation colonies may be counted, and each is representative of a single cell originally deposited on the plate
Petroff-Hausser Counting Chamber
Total cell count (living and dead) using a specially designed microscope slide with a depressed surface and etched grid, where a thin layer of cell suspension of known volume is spread and the number of cells in the volume is directly counted with the aid of a microscope
Optical Density (OD)
Indirect method of total cell count, measuring turbidity (cloudiness of a solution due to the presence of particles such as cells), measured using a spectrophotometer, and developing a standard curve
Why is Solution T (Tris) buffer used in the Transformation of Bacterial Cells lab?
Maintains the pH at 8.0 and is the solvent for plasmid DNA
Solution B is the solution used to dissolve DNAse but does not contain DNAse
What occurs during the first incubation period of the Transfomation of Bacterial Cells lab?
What occurs during the heat shock incubation period in the Transformation of Bacterial Cells lab?
Helps the plasmid DNA enter the competent cells and induces the expression of survival genes necessary to repair damage to the plasma membrane
What does the third incubation period in the Transformation of Bacterial Cells lab do?
Allows time for kanamycin resistance gene to be expressed - must be transcribed into mRNA, then mRNA must translate it into a polypeptide chain (phosphotransferase)
The plate which does not contain plasmid DNA, and instead contains solution B, Tris buffer, and competent cells
The plate that contains plasmid DNA that has been broken down into nucleotides by DNAse, as well as solution B and competent cells
There would be colony growth on plate 5+K, as the DNAse cannot enter the competent cells and the plasmid DNA would not have been broken down - the kanamycin resistant gene would have been expressed in the competent cells
What would occur if the environment in which the E. coli was grown was anaerobic?
The kanamycin would not affect the growth of the cells, as kanamycin enters the cell in an oxygen dependent manner
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Racism uber alles 0
Auschwitz looms as a testament to the rabid quest for 'racial purity' undertaken by Hitler and the Nazis. But rather than a product of the Left or the Right, writes Queen's professor Timothy Smith, Nazism was 'tyranny with an unabashedly brutal face.'
Was Hitler a socialist? Certainly he had nothing in common with the strain of Social Democracy that emerged during the 1930s in Scandinavia and survives there and in Germany. This variant of socialism respects the rule of law and private property; it is not under examination in this article.
But was Nazism related to Soviet-style socialism? Hitler’s party was, after all, named the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP). Early on, the party’s message was peppered with anti-big-business and anti-labor-union rhetoric alike. Some of the early leaders of the party (Hitler did not take full control for several years after joining it) were anti-capitalist, and Hitler’s early speeches can indeed be mined for denunciations of high finance and monopoly capitalism, which Hitler equated with the Jews.
These criticisms are largely rooted in Hitler’s anti-Semitism and his contempt for the profiteering of large firms during the war—they don’t stem from a sympathetic reading of Marx. In power, the Nazi party expanded the welfare state, just as Mussolini had done in Italy, and just as conservative governments did in France. Hitler subsidized leisure programs and he increased the value of family allowances (for those deemed racially “fit”). But this does not make him a socialist.
The Nazis were obsessed with the class conflict in general, and they strove to “solve” it—on their authoritarian terms. But the pursuit of racial “purity” was Hitler’s revolutionary principle. His social policy was always subordinated to his racial policy. Hitler’s world-view revolved around biological determinism; the Soviets’ world-view centred on the inevitability of the class conflict.
Under Hitler, rampant individualism would be replaced by a martial devotion to the racially pure Nation. The Nazis were suspicious of many traditional institutions. Hitler was no conservative, even if he needed, and got in 1933, the reluctant support of conservative leaders naive in the belief that they could control him.
Hitler displayed no ideological commitment to curtailing the rights of private property. He mobilized a war economy, and like the democracies during both World Wars, he requisitioned factories, but he accepted the basic contours of capitalism. There was no plan to collectivize German farms, nor were businesses and bank accounts taken over for the sake of taking them over.
Jews and political enemies were robbed of their property and eventually their lives. The Nazis’ willingness to violate property rights stemmed entirely from their racism and militarism; the state did not direct the production of basic consumer goods, as it did in the USSR.
One cannot understand Hitler’s 1941 invasion of the USSR without reference to his ideology of “Jewish Bolshevism.” Describing his own political awakening in Vienna, Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, “in this period my eyes were opened to two menaces of which I had previously scarcely known the names ... Marxism and Jewry.”
Addressing the judge at the trial of the Beer Hall Putsch conspirators, a failed coup d’état Hitler launched in 1923, he said: “I wanted to become the destroyer of Marxism.” Shortly after becoming Chancellor, Hitler imprisoned Socialist and Communist leaders on trumped-up charges. Next he murdered several of them and demolished their unions and political parties.
Like Lenin and Stalin, Hitler had contempt for individual political rights, that quaint bourgeois notion. Like the Soviets, Hitler crushed civil society, politicizing everyday life, from the composition of city councils to the boards of directors of charities and athletic clubs.
Soviet-style Socialism was tyranny with a supposedly humane goal—the abolition of poverty, the dawning of equality, and the liberation of the individual from the alienation of modern industrial life and the backwardness of quasi-serfdom in the countryside. Hitler had no such concerns. Nazism was tyranny with an unabashedly brutal face. The end goal was certainly European domination (some historians believe world domination), the elimination of the Jews and the Marxists, and the enslavement of Eastern Europeans.
Communism and fascism treated individuals as mere abstractions, to be murdered or imprisoned if need be. But the end goals were profoundly different. Hitler did not seek to overthrow capitalism. If he threw “socialistic” crumbs of comfort to the workers who toiled in his war machine it was not out of ideological commitment. His concern was to prop up his regime and to ensure “racial fitness.” Like the men who ruled the USSR, Hitler was, in politics, a collectivist - but he was no socialist. The difference is more than semantic. Hitler was first and foremost a racist whose associated military goals required a form of intervention in the economy that should not be confused with socialism.
Timothy Smith is a history professor at Queen's University and an expert in modern European history.


Health care employment has been the bright spot in the otherwise lackluster recent jobs reports. As overall employment decreased by 2 percent from 2000 to 2010, employment in the health care sector actually increased by 25 percent.
But that’s not necessarily a good thing, according to an opinion piece published in the most recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Treating the health care system like a (wildly inefficient) jobs program conflicts directly with the goal of ensuring that all Americans have access to care at an affordable price,” write Katherine Baicker and Amitabh Chandra, two researchers from Harvard.
By 2020, almost one out of nine American jobs will be in health care, an April study from the Center for Health Workforce Studies projects.
As the country wrestles to reduce health care spending, which already consumes about 18 percent of GDP, those extra jobs could be a step in the wrong direction.
“Salaries for health care jobs are not manufactured out of thin air—they are produced by someone paying higher taxes, a patient paying more money for health care, or an employee taking home lower wages because higher health insurance premiums are deducted from his or her paycheck,” write the authors of the NEJM column.
Yet hospitals and politicians alike often tout the jobs that the health care industry creates in local communities. “The health care sector is an economic mainstay, providing stability and even growth during times of recession,” the American Hospital Association wrote in a fact sheet entitled “Economic Contribution of Hospitals Often Overlooked.”
The authors argue that the focus should instead be on improving health outcomes and efficiency, rather than simply more people working in the field, pointing to “mounting evidence that out health care system could deliver better care without spending more and that there are tremendous opportunities for improvements in productivity.”
Several provisions of the 2010 health care law aim to reduce inefficiencies by rewarding higher-value care and reducing some of the incentives for doctors to deliver more testing and care with unproven benefits. Such policies may serve to reduce health care employment, the authors argue, by “allowing us to get the same health outcomes with fewer health care workers.”
Some jobs in health care could be lost; however, taxpayers and workers in other fields would likely pay less in premiums.
“The bottom line is that employment in the health care sector should be neither a policy goal nor a metric of success,” they conclude.