Recently there has been a substantial increase in the attention being paid to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) by the media, state and federal natural resource agencies, and hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) developed this page to provide background information on CWD and explain what is being done to determine if the disease is in Florida, and if it is not, what we are doing to make sure it never gets here.
What is Chronic Wasting Disease?
Chronic Wasting Disease is a progressive, neurological, debilitating disease that belongs to a family of diseases known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs). It is believed to be caused by an abnormal protein called a prion. CWD has been diagnosed in mule deer, white-tailed deer, and Rocky Mountain elk in captive herds and in the wild. Other cervids (antlered animals) may also be susceptible.
CWD attacks the brains of infected animals, causing them to become emaciated, display abnormal behavior, and lose bodily functions. CWD is a fatal disease. Clinical signs include excessive salivation and grinding of teeth, increased drinking and urination, dramatic loss of weight and body condition, poor hair coat, staggering, and finally death. Behavioral changes, including decreased interaction with other animals, listlessness, lowering of the head, blank facial expression, and repetitive walking in set patterns also may occur.
How is CWD transmitted?
Transmission of CWD occurs by direct contact with body fluids (feces, urine, saliva) or by indirect contact (contaminated environment). The prion is persistent in the environment and premises may remain infective for years. Crowding, such as in deer farms or by artificial feeding, facilitates transmission. There is no evidence that CWD can be transmitted to livestock or humans.
Where is CWD found?
CWD has been found in captive and/or free-ranging cervids in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, and South Korea. In the US, the core endemic area is contiguous portions of Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska. The prevalence of CWD in this area is approximately <1% - 15% in mule deer and <1% in elk, although this varies greatly by location. Virginia and West Virginia are the only Southeastern states where CWD has been detected. CWD has not been found in Florida.
How is CWD diagnosed?
Currently the only practical method for diagnosing CWD is through analysis of brain stem tissue or lymph nodes from dead animals. There is no practical live-animal test. A tonsilar biopsy may be done on live animals; however, this is difficult and deer have to be held until diagnosis.
How is CWD controlled in a population?
Control is extremely difficult once CWD becomes established in a natural population. This is because of the lack of a practical live-animal test, long incubation periods, and the persistence of the prion in the environment. Also, there is no vaccine or treatment once an animal gets the disease. If detected early in free-ranging populations, i.e. when prevalence is low, then eradication may be an achievable goal. This is not currently considered possible in the core endemic area; Wisconsin, however, has initiated an aggressive eradication program in the portion of the state where CWD has been found.
What steps is FWC taking to determine if CWD is in Florida, and if it is not, what is being done to keep it from getting here?
The FWC has initiated a comprehensive monitoring program to make sure CWD is not already in Florida. We are asking the general public to keep their eye out for deer showing symptoms indicative of CWD. If you see a sickly, extremely skinny deer (see photo) report its location to the CWD hotline, toll free (866) 293-9282. If you harvest such a deer, do not handle it but call the CWD hotline. A biologist will collect the deer and take it to a lab for a necropsy. In addition, we will be collecting and testing tissue samples from hunter-killed deer during the hunting season. All CWD test results will be posted on this site as they are received. Click here for Florida CWD test results.
The number one objective in CWD management is to prevent it from spreading into new areas. One theoretical mode of disease transmission is through infected deer, elk or moose carcasses. Therefore, in an effort to minimize the risk of the disease spreading, Florida has adopted regulations affecting the transportation of hunter-harvested deer, elk and moose from CWD-infected areas.
It is illegal to bring into Florida carcasses of any species of the family Cervidae (e.g. deer, elk and moose) from 21 states and two Canadian provinces where CWD has been detected. At this time, CWD has been detected in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Visit the United States Department of Agriculture's Web site for state-to-state CWD reports.
Hunters still can bring back de-boned meat from any CWD-affected region, as well as finished taxidermy mounts, hides, skulls, antlers and teeth as long as all soft tissue has been removed. Whole, bone-in carcasses and parts are permitted to be brought back to Florida if they were harvested from non-affected CWD states.
The most likely way CWD will get to Florida is through importation of live infected animals. To prevent this, live cervids (mule deer, white-tailed deer and elk) cannot be imported into Florida unless they come from a herd certified CWD-free by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Any illegal importations of cervids should be reported to 1-888-404-FWCC.
Public health and wildlife officials advise hunters to take the following precautions when pursuing or handling deer that may have been exposed to CWD:
- Do not shoot, handle or consume any animal that is acting abnormally or appears to be sick. Contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) toll free at (866) 293-9282, if you see or harvest an animal that appears sick.
- Wear latex or rubber gloves when field dressing your deer.
- Bone out the meat from your animal. Don't saw through bone, and avoid cutting through the brain or spinal cord (backbone).
- Minimize the handling of brain and spinal tissues.
- Wash hands and instruments thoroughly after field dressing is completed.
- Avoid consuming brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils and lymph nodes of harvested animals. (Normal field dressing coupled with boning out a carcass will remove most, if not all, of these body parts. Cutting away all fatty tissue will remove remaining lymph nodes.)
- Avoid consuming the meat from any animal that tests positive for the disease.
- If you have your deer commercially processed, request that your animal is processed individually, without meat from other animals being added to meat from your animal.
For additional information on Chronic Wasting Disease check out these sites:
USDA - Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services
USGS - National Wildlife Health Center
Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study
Florida Department of Health - Disease Control
Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance
Other FWC Resources:
Florida Monitoring Program 2002-2009
If you see a sickly, extremely skinny deer report its location to the CWD hotline, toll free (866) 293-9282.


Someone with cataracts sees the world as if they were looking through a pair of foggy glasses in the winter.
Everything looks blurry and doing normal things, like driving, becomes extremely difficult if not impossible. The description is perfectly accurate because cataracts are actually the fogging up of the eyes natural lenses.
The lens of the eye focuses light into the retina and controls the eye’s ability to focus between short and long distances. The iris and pupil are both in front of the lens.
The lens is clear and composed of both protein and water. Aging, disease and injury can cause the proteins to mass together and a small part of the lens to become clouded up. The cataract can then become larger over time and vision becomes more and more difficult.
Cataracts are not dangerous to your overall health. They can be extremely frustrating because of the loss of vision, though. There are rare circumstances when a cataract becomes white. This is called an overripe cataract, or hypermature cataract. This type of cataract affects your vision so much that it can cause other symptoms like a headache or other types of pain. Hypermature cataracts usually require surgery because they are such a nuisance.
If you notice your vision declining you should go talk with your doctor or optometrist. There are several tests they can give you to quickly determine if you have cataracts. A visual acuity test is the standard eye test where you read letters and numbers (like when you get your drivers license). A slit-lamp exam is a specialized microscope that examines your eye closely. Retinal exam is performed by putting special drops into your eye, which dilate your pupils, so the doctor can better see what is going on with your eye lens.
The most common treatment for cataracts is surgery. People tend to wait as long as possible before surgery even though it can be performed in the early stages of vision loss.
There are several herbs that can help strengthen your eye if you opt out of surgery in the early going. Bilberry is great if you are looking to make your eye capillaries stronger and restore your eyes to their once strong state. Roobios and Sutherlandia Frutescens are very helpful in allowing the body to deliver plenty of oxygen, blood and other nutrients to the eyes. This gives your eyes all they need to be able to recover and become stronger.
Vizu-All Plus is a natural remedy that may help maintain healthy eyes and circulatory health. Vizu-All Plus may also help lessen common problems associated with night vision and eye sensitivity often associated with the normal aging process.
It is a good idea to use the right type of vitamins or herbs as you advance in age. This will help ensure that you keep your vision well into your golden years.
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Other Qs & As
What is pleurisy? I have been prescribed amoxycillin 500mg three times daily but cannot find any information about this condition or where I got it from.
How long will it last and will it affect me in the future?
Other times when I got a bad dose of the flu, my breathing has been strained and sore – then I get a cold like a tight band round my chest.
Could this be connected or not?
Thank you for your email. Pleurisy is simply an inflammation of the membrane that covers your lungs inside your chest.
It is usually caused by a lung infection such as pneumonia, which can easily result from a bad cold.
The antibiotic you have been prescribed is to remedy just such an infection. Pleurisy is not uncommon and its main symptom is a fairly sharp pain on breathing deeply in following on from having a cold.
It usually lasts no more than a week to 10 days once antibiotics have been started, and there is no reason why it should affect you in the future.
Some people do seem to have ‘weak’ chests in that infection tends to move downwards from the head onto the lungs fairly easily, but if you are one of these people, having antibiotics by you to take at the first sign of any chestiness is a good idea and preventative.
Finally, I would only recommend that you ask your GP to test you for asthma as mild undiagnosed asthma can sometimes be a predisposing factor for pleurisy and also for the feeling of having a tight band around the chest when exercising, suffering from a cold or even breathing cold air.
Incidentally, I see that you are taking an anti-inflammatory agent, ibuprofen, for pain in joints as well as cimetidine to prevent inflammation of the lining of the stomach which anti-inflammatory medication can in itself cause.
To answer your other question, you should have some investigations for these joint pains to rule out any form of arthritis, and you should not be having repeat prescriptions without these investigations or having your medication reviewed.
The NetDoctor Medical Team


Australian Bureau of Statistics
2901.0 - Census Dictionary, 2001
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/04/2001
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This variable identifies holders of Australian citizenship.
Citizenship data are used to obtain information on the tendency of different migrant groups to take out citizenship and to measure the size of groups eligible to vote. The data are useful cross-classified with birthplace, year of arrival in Australia and age data.
This page last updated 27 July 2006
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War: The Jacobite Rebellion of 1745
Date: 21st September 1745 (Old Style) (2nd October 1745 New Style). The dates in this page are given in the Old Style. To translate to the New Style (current dating system) add 11 days.
“The Highland Attack”
Place: South East of Edinburgh in Scotland
Combatants: The Highland Army of Prince Charles and the Royal Troops of King George II
Generals: Prince Charles, Lord George Murray and Sir John Cope
Size of the armies: Royal Army: 2,300 men and 6 guns. Highlanders: 2,500 men.
Winner: Prince Charles’ Army
“A contemporary print showing Sir John Cope arriving at Berwick to announce his defeat at Prestonpans”
British Regiments: This battle is not a battle honour for British Regiments. The regiments present at the battle were: Gardiner’s (13th) and Hamilton’s (14th) Dragoons, Guise’s (6th), Lee’s (44th), Murray’s (46th) and Lascelles (47th) Foot
On 25th July 1745 Prince Charles landed near Moidart in the Highlands of Scotland with seven companions. He raised his standard at Glenfinnan and assembled an army from the clans that supported his bid for the throne. This army marched into Edinburgh on 17th September 1745. The two royal dragoons regiments fled at the highland approach in the infamous “Colterbrigg canter”.
General Sir John Cope, the commander of the small royal force in Scotland, had marched to Inverness with his four regiments of foot. Cope brought his troops south to Dunbar by sea and met up with the dragoons. None of his troops, dragoons or foot, were experienced or even adequately trained. Cope’s artillery can only be described as a “scratch” force comprising invalids and seamen under headed by one aged gunner. Cope marched North along the coast road towards Edinburgh.
The cavalry found the rebel army to be inland and to the south, causing Cope to form his army against the sea behind a marsh. During the night of 20th September 1745 the rebels made use of a path through the marsh to come up on the left flank of the royal army.
Cope reformed his line to the left with the foot in the centre, the guns and mortars on their right and dragoon regiments on each end of the line. The highland army launched a charge at which the gunners fled leaving two officers to fire the six guns and six mortars.
The Battle of Prestonpans
On being threatened the dragoon regiments also fled and the foot began to give way. Finally under the impact of the highland attack the whole royal army, other than small groups of men under officers such as Lieutenant Colonel Peter Halkett, fled the field. Only the dragoons were able to get away in any numbers. All the foot bar some 170 were killed, wounded or captured. The injuries inflicted by the highlanders using broad swords and bill hooks are reported to have been horrific.
Casualties: The royal casualties are said to have been: around 300 killed, 400 to 500 wounded and 1,400 to 1,500 captured. Only 170 of the foot got away.
The highlanders probably lost less than 30 killed and 70 wounded.
Following the battle most of Scotland was in Prince Charles’ hands bar Edinburgh Castle held by General Guest and Stirling Castle held by the stalwart General Blakeney.
Regimental anecdotes and traditions:


paramagnetism n (Physics) the phenomenon exhibited by substances that have a relative permeability slightly greater than unity and a positive susceptibility. The effect is due to the alignment of unpaired spins of electrons in atoms of the material Compare →
electron paramagnetic resonance
n (Physics) another name for →
electron spin resonance (Abbrev.)
English Collins Dictionary - English Definition & Thesaurus
Add your entry in the Collaborative Dictionary.
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"Collins English Dictionary 5th Edition first published in 2000 © HarperCollins Publishers 1979, 1986, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000 and Collins A-Z Thesaurus 1st edition first published in 1995 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995"


This interactive resource gives students practice in identifying and working with the parts of speech to improve reading and writing skills. The CD is divided into six sections, each focusing on a different part of speech: nouns/pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions. Each section:
- Defines the part of speech and its usage
- Gives examples to illustrate the definition
- Provides a range of interactive exercises to develop and consolidate understanding
- Offers additional printable activity sheets to extend the learning.
Ideal for interactive whiteboards, or as individual activities on a computer, this engaging CD makes learning the parts of speech fun and challenging for the entire class.
PC: Windows XP and up
Mac: OS X (10.1) and up
Resolution: 800 x 600 or higher


A garden path needs to take you where you're going, but it can do so much more if properly designed.
A path should enhance the experience of your garden, says Darcy Daniels of Bloomtown Garden Design and Nursery. The route of the path, the materials used to make it, the plantings along its sides and its scale all combine to send a message about the experience you want to have in your garden.
A straight path, for example, allows people to move more quickly and might be fitting for the connection between the house and the everyday dining area. You'll also want to cover this area with smooth materials so you don't trip while balancing plates of food.
On the other hand, a path with sinuous curves and a somewhat uneven surface will cause people to move more slowly and appreciate the journey. If there's no room for curves, Daniels suggests using screens or a trellis to break up the space; you can "green" them with climbing plants.
Repeat plants or colors along the path to lure the eye forward and create continuity. For example, says Daniels, place a beautiful grass on one side of the path, then a bit farther down the path, an identical grass on the opposite side, and so on.
Placing a taller plant -- say a hydrangea -- at the inside of a curve will help obscure the view and provide a bit of discovery as you walk along.
Many designers recommend that paths be at least 3 feet wide, but Daniels doesn't abide by such rules. Instead, she recommends that you keep your path in scale with the garden and your plantings.
Now that your head is full of these general concepts, Daniels suggests that you stand back and look at the space:
• How will the trees develop over time?
• Consider the existing hardscape, buildings and plants that you are working with.
You also need to consider function:
• The path has to get you to such places as the back gate and the compost pile, for example, so it has to be practical for the purpose.
Now pull out all of your garden hoses and start defining your path:
• Outline the path's route and leave it in place for a few days.
• Walk the path as you use the garden -- take the trash out, go to your favorite sitting area, take the wheelbarrow for a spin.
• You might even want to put empty pots or other objects along the path where you intend to place plants.
Again, think about the experience:
• Is this section going to have lush plantings and a jungle-like effect?
• What does that mean for the path?
• Adjust the hoses until you're comfortable with the route and width of the path.
NEXT WEEK'S BLOG: We'll start the real work of building a path yourself. In the meantime, if you've got some design tips to share, please post a comment here.
-- Kay Balmer; email@example.com


U.S. Power Plant Carbon Emissions Zoom in 2007
WASHINGTON, DC, March 18, 2008 (ENS) – The biggest single year increase in greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants in nine years occurred in 2007, finds a new analysis by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project. The finding of a 2.9 percent rise in carbon dioxide emissions over 2006 is based on an analysis of data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Now the largest factor in the U.S. contribution to climate change, the electric power industry’s emissions of carbon dioxide, CO2, have risen 5.9 percent since 2002 and 11.7 percent since 1997, the analysis shows.
Texas tops the list of the 10 states with the biggest one-year increases in CO2 emissions, with Georgia, Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Virginia and North Carolina close behind.
The top three states – Texas, Georgia and Arizona – had the greatest increases in CO2 emissions on a one, five and 10 year basis.
TXU’s coal-fired Martin Lake power
plant in east Texas (Photo
Director of the Environmental Integrity Project Eric Schaeffer said, “The current debate over global warming policy tends to focus on long-term goals, like how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent over the next 50 years. But while we debate, CO2 emissions from power plants keep rising, making an already dire situation worse.”
“Because CO2 has an atmospheric lifetime of between 50 and 200 years, today’s emissions could cause global warming for up to two centuries to come,” he warned.
Data from 2006 show that the 10 states with the least efficient power production relative to resulting greenhouse gas emissions were North Dakota, Wyoming, Kentucky, Indiana, Utah, West Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado, Missouri, and Iowa.
The report explains why national environmental groups are fighting to stop the construction of new conventional coal-fired power plants, which they say would make a bad situation worse.
“For example” the report points out, “the eight planned coal-fired plants that TXU withdrew in the face of determined opposition in Texas would have added an estimated 64 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, increasing emissions from power plants in that state by 24 percent.”
Some of the rise in CO2 emissions comes from existing coal fired power plants, the analysis found, either because these plants are operating at increasingly higher capacities, or because these aging plants require more heat to generate electricity. “For example, all of the top 10 highest emitting plants in the nation, either held steady or increased CO2 output from 2006 to 2007.”
Robert W Scherer Power Plant is a coal-fired
plant just north of Macon, Georgia.
It emits more carbon dioxide than
any other point in the United States.
(Photo credit unknown)
Georgia Power’s Scherer power plant near Macon, Georgia is the highest emitting plant in the nation. It pumped out 27.2 million tons of CO2 in 2007, up roughly two million tons from the year before.
In view of these facts, the Environmental Integrity Project recommends that the nation’s oldest and dirtiest power plants should be retired, and replaced with cleaner sources of energy. That will require accelerating the development of wind power and other renewable sources of energy.
Another good solution is cutting greenhouse gases quickly by reducing the demand for electricity, the authors advise. Smarter building codes, and funding low-cost conservation efforts, such as weatherization of low-income homes, purchase and installation of more efficient home and business appliances will reduce demand and yield greenhouse gas benefits.
Texas tops every state measurement in the report from the most carbon dioxide measured in total tons to the largest increases in CO2 emissions over the last five years between 2002 and 2007.
Ken Kramer, director of the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club based in Austin, Texas, says his state not only has more emissions than any other state – it has solutions to offer, such as a recent boom in wind power installations.
“The bad news is that Texas is #1 in carbon emissions among the 50 states, and our emissions have grown in recent years,” Kramer said. “The good news is that Texas has the potential to play a major role in addressing global warming if we embrace smart energy solutions such as energy efficiency and renewable energy, solutions which pose tremendous economic as well as environmental benefits.”
In Des Moines, Mark Kresowik, Iowa organizer of the Sierra Club’s National Coal Campaign, said, “Energy efficiency and renewable energy are powering a renaissance in rural Iowa and creating thousands of new manufacturing jobs for our state. By rejecting coal plants and reducing pollution through energy efficiency and renewable energy our states will prosper and attract new businesses and young workers for the future.”
The consumption of electricity accounted for more than 2.3 billion tons of CO2 in 2006, or more than 39.5 percent of total emissions from human sources, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Coal-fired power plants alone released more than 1.9 billion tons, or nearly one third of the U.S. total.
The Department of Energy projects that carbon dioxide emissions from power generation will increase 19 percent between 2007 and 2030, due to new or expanded coal plants.
An additional 4,115 megawatts of new coal-fired generating capacity was added between 2000 and 2007, with another 5,000 megawatts expected by 2012.


Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women
The first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was held on May 9, 1837. Approximately 200 women gathered in New York City to discuss their role in the American abolition movement. Mary S. Parker was the President of the gathering. Other prominent women went on to be vocal members of the Women's Suffrage Movement, including Lucretia Mott, the Grimké sisters, and Lydia Maria Child. The attendees included women of color, the wives and daughters of slaveholders, and women of low economic status. The convention was a monumental step, both for the women's rights movement, and the abolition movement as a whole. Despite the event's significance, it receives very little historical attention.


Humans are intimately connected with the physical environment, even though we have only been present for a fraction of the vast history of the Earth. We strive to understand how the Earth has evolved since its formation over 4 billion years ago and what types of processes have fostered these changes. Our knowledge of the Earth is critical, not only for piecing together its history, but also to aid in the understanding of issues relevant to our present-day lives, such as: availability of natural resources, pollution, climate change, and natural hazards.
During this course, we will perform a general survey of the physical Earth. We will examine the minerals and rocks of which the solid Earth is composed, the processes that generate Earth's landforms, natural hazards associated with geologic processes, geologic time, and surface processes (e.g., glaciers, streams, groundwater).
Final Exam (May 17: 10:30-12:30)
The final exam will be on materials presented during the final quarter of the course (lectures and materials in chapters 16, 15, 18, 19, 12). The exam will be comprehensive and will include material from the entire course. To get the most recent copies of the study guides click at left.
The field trip to Great Falls (MD) took place on Saturday April 22. About 100 students attended on a morning that set a record for rainfall at Dulles Airport (over 3 inches of rain). The field trip was teh only opportunity for extra credit in the course. To see some photos from previous trips, click here.


The commerce of the ancient world was gathered into the warehouses of Tyre. "Tyrian merchants were the first who ventured to navigate the Mediterranean waters; and they founded their colonies on the coasts and neighbouring islands of the Aegean Sea, in Greece, on the northern coast of Africa, at Carthage and other places, in Sicily and Corsica, in Spain at Tartessus, and even beyond the pillars of Hercules at Gadeira (Cádiz)".
In the time of King David (c. 1000 BC), a friendly alliance was entered into between the Kingdoms of Israel and Tyre, which was ruled by Hiram I.
The city of Tyre was particularly known for the production of a rare and extraordinarily expensive sort of purple dye, produced from the murex shellfish, known as Tyrian purple. This color was, in many cultures of ancient times, reserved for the use of royalty, or at least nobility.
It was often attacked by Egypt, besieged by Shalmaneser V, who was assisted by the Phoenicians of the mainland, for five years, and by Nebuchadnezzar (586–573 BC) for thirteen years, without success, although a compromise peace was made in which Tyre paid tribute to the Babylonians. It later fell under the power of the Persians.
In 332 BC, the city was conquered by Alexander the Great, after a siege of seven months in which he built the causeway from the mainland to the island, but it continued to maintain much of its commercial importance until the Christian era. The presence of the causeway affected water currents nearby, causing sediment to build up, making the connection permanent.
In 315 BC, Alexander's former general Antigonus began his own siege of Tyre, taking the city a year later.
In 126 BC, Tyre regained its independence (from the Seleucids) and was allowed to keep much of its independence when the area became a Roman province in 64 BC.


Researchers report some success in using a gene therapy technique to treat one form of congenital blindness. Two teams of scientists have used modified viruses injected into the eye to partially restore vision to people suffering from Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA, a congenital illness that results in the degradation of the retina. People with LCA slowly lose all vision, and typically are completely blind by their 20s or 30s. The modified virus used in the therapy carries a replacement gene to the retina, allowing it to produce a missing protein responsible for the disease. In this segment, Ira talks with one of the authors of one report on the research, which was published this week in two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Produced by Annette Heist, Senior Producer


Answer the question referring to each photograph above the question.
To find the answer, pass the cursor over the photo to see the "title" of the photo.
1. Identify the number of chomatids in this cell during this stage of mitosis
2. Identify the structure indicated by the arrow:
B) Zona Occludens
C) Junctional complex
D) Mitotic Cell
E) Terminal web
3. Identify the stage of cell division in this photograph.
A) Prophase of mitosis
B) Anaphase I of meiosis
C) Metaphase II of meiosis
D) Anaphase of mitosis
4. In this section through the testes, what is the C amount of DNA in the nucleus of the cell noted by the arrow?
5) In this section through the testes, what is the stage of cell division of the cell noted by the arrow:
A) Anaphase of Meiosis
B) Metaphase of Mitosis
C) Prophase of Mitosis
D) Metaphase of Meiosis
E) Prophase of Meiosis
6) Identify the process shown by the arrowhead
A) Gap junction formation
C) Desmosome formation
D) Spindle apparatus formation
E) Formation of the nuclear membrane
7. Identify the structures noted by the horizontal arrows:
A) Nuclear pore complex
C) Gap junctions
D) Zonula occludens
8. Identify the structures supporting and moving the chromosomes.
A) Actin filaments
D) Intermediate filaments


SINCE evidence of the existence of the belief that the soul lives on is so indubitable, the question arises--what is its condition? In what state does the discarnate spirit find itself after final separation from the body? And first, as to what we may be allowed to call, for want of a better term, its physical condition.
We have already noted that soul is conceived as having both form and substance, the latter, so to speak, greatly rarefied. Moreover, it has been brought to our attention that the most common idea concerning form is that the soul is a replica of the body it inhabited. Consistency in primitive thinking is not to be assumed, as we have seen, nor are logical processes among primitives quite the same as ours. Yet when a disembodied soul took up its post-mortem residence in a serpent, for example, we may not suppose that that soul was still regarded as human in shape. But so far as the author has discovered, no decisive evidence exists on this point. The probabilities favor greatly the supposition that in such cases transformation of the soul shape was supposed to have taken place. Evidence of the common idea, retention by the soul of its human shape, has been before us. We have noted that some tribes mutilate the body of the dead, thinking that by so doing they inflict like wounds upon the soul and thus impose incapacity for harm upon the ghost, the double of the body. The Omahas slit the soles of a murdered man's feet that his spirit may be unable to return and cause damage to the people. Mangaeans prefer death in battle--men are then in their full strength; disease weakens them, and souls have the nature of the body at death. Barongo believe that souls are young or old, according to the age at death, and so do the Indians of Gran Chaco. Naga tribes of Manipur think that ghosts bear whatever tattoo marks, mutilations, or other blemishes or embellishments occurred on the body. Some people carry this idea so far as to prefer
[1. Fletcher and La Flesche, 27th Report, etc., p. 215.]
death before decay of natural powers sets in, and so commit suicide or are buried alive, that the soul may continue to exist in full vigor.
Having form and substance, the soul has certain physical needs. It hungers, thirsts, feels cold and heat. The degrees of grossness of these wants vary greatly. Sometimes the hunger, thirst, and wants and passions may be appeased by the mere spirit or ghost of food, drink, etc.; and the ghosts are served by the spirits or (as our theosophical friends might be imagined as saying) the astral bodies of dishes, implements, or weapons which are destroyed (i.e., killed) that their spirits may accompany the ghost into the spirit land. Indeed, this is by all odds the most prevalent conception. Sometimes it is the more evanescent or the more vital elements, such as the blood, which are used by the ghost, as in the celebrated case of Tiresias in the Odyssey. The cases already cited of food, drink, weapons, utensils, and the like possessing souls and being offered or placed with the dead, oftentimes being broken or mutilated so as to "kill"
[2. Cases are cited in Frazer's Dying God, pp. 9-14.
3 Book XI.]
them, furnish direct testimony to the supposed needs of the ghost. The hunger felt by the disembodied soul is vividly expressed by most African tribes, whose belief is that ghosts can and do eat even human bodies A Ghosts also suffer from cold, hence New Guineans, and others, make fires at the graves, and even build huts, so that when the ghosts come up from the body they may find comfort.'
Ghosts have voices, too, but thin and shadowy like themselves. They chirp like crickets or utter their words in whistling tones. So the wizards by ventriloquistic art impose upon the credulous, and by wheezing utterance produce the effect of communications from a shadowy being or from the ground. Note the indications of shamanistic practice in the Prophet Isaiah (8:19- 29:4).
What we may regard as the disposition of the ghost is by most peoples held to be fixed by the character of the person while on earth.
[4. Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush, pp. 224-225, 232-233, 238, etc.; ERE, vi. 65 ff. The testimony is being exhaustively collected in Frazer, Belief in Immortality--see the Index, under "Food."
5. Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, pp. 442 ff.; Neuhass, Deutsch Neu-Guinea, iii. S18; Frazer, Belief in Immortality, i. 150-152.]
Was he cruel, warlike, passionate, generous, revengeful in the body, so will he be as a discarnate ghost. So, for instance, the New Guineans hold. Only account must be taken of a very common notion, that the ghost is endowed with increased power. One might find many reasons for this common idea. The general fearsomeness of the unknown and invisible, the fad that the ghost has joined the terrible host of free spirits, its very remoteness, combine to add the idea of power. That which is distant in space or time gains enchantment and enlargement from the imagination, which is the faculty most employed in this sphere. Australians credit to their ancestors deeds to themselves impossible, though they are themselves their ancestors reincarnate. The greed and liking for possessions which existed on earth are attributed in some parts to the spirit, and among the Bakongo, for instance, this desire is satisfied by placing all the deceased's wealth about the grave. The soul's assumed mobility,
[6. Neuhass, Deutsch Neu-Guinea, iii. 142 ff.
7. Roscoe, Baganda, pp. 282 ff.
8. Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes, pp. 489 ff
9. Weeks, Primitive Bakongo, p. 278.]
such as was displayed in its power to leave the body during life and to make investigations at even a considerable distance, is not lost but rather enhanced. It has become a free agent, no longer bound by the body's necessities and limitations of locomotion, at liberty to roam unfettered, to use in the wide universe its powers--those that remain or are acquired in its new condition. If it in earthly life could leave the body temporarily and like the lightning speed hither and thither, now, disfleshed, its mobility has gained by the change.
Especially is it believed that spirits acquire a larger knowledge. Not only do they gain a completer survey of the past and the present, but a knowledge of the future becomes theirs. According as their dispositions prompt, they become helpers of their survivors or hostilely active against them.
Particularly interesting in this connection is the relationship of the ghost and other beings to warning and prediction. Among the powers of the soul is that of return and manifestation to survivors. Melanesian, Andaman, and African ghosts, for instance, reappear to and converse with their people and become a medium of information. Particularly through dreams do they mediate--a performance recorded in antiquity and attested by present day belief over a large area. Indeed, it is through the dream that approach to human comprehension is most easily made by divine, superhuman, or discarnate powers, the spirit in this condition being loosed from fleshly trammels. The human spirit in sleep is regarded as not bound by quite the same inflexible laws to the bodily limitations. The employment of the dream as a means of information or warning at once occurs to the reader--Jacob, Joseph, Pharaoh, Nebucbadrezzar; clasctical cases will be found in Pindar, Olympiacs, XIII, 105 and Pausanias, X, xxxiii, II. It will be remembered that in an earlier section the importance of the dream as an index to animistic thought was dwelt upon at some length. One specimen of developed classical and philosophical thought on this has been summarized from Jamblichus.
[10. Seligmann, Melanesians, pp. 190 ff.; Klosts, In the Andamans, p. 296; Weeks, Congo Cannibals, pp. 264-265.
11. Herodotus, IV, 172; Pomponius Mela, I. viii. 8; Mauss, Origines des pouvoirs magiques, p. 15; Haddon, Anthropological Essays, p. 179.]
"There is nothing unworthy of belief in what you have been told concerning sleep and the meaning of dreams. I will explain it thus. The soul has a twofold life, a lower and a higher. In sleep the soul is released from the constraint of the body, and enters as one emancipated on its divine life of intelligence. Then as the noble faculty which beholds the objects that truly are, the objects in the world of intelligence, stirs within and awakens to its power, who can be surprised that the mind, which contains within itself the principles of all that happens, should in this, the state of liberation, discern the future in those antecedent principles which will make that future what it is to be? The nobler part of the soul is thus united by abstraction to higher natures, and becomes a participant in the wisdom and foreknowledge of the gods. Recorded examples of this are numerous and well authenticated; instances too occur every day. Numbers of sick by sleeping had their cure revealed to them in dreams. Would not Alexander's army have perished but for a dream in which Dionysius pointed out the means of safety? Was not the siege of Aphritis raised through a dream sent by Jupiter Ammon to Lysander? 'The night time of the body is the daytime of the soul.'"
The student of anthropology will at once recognize here the advanced justification for beliefs which go back very far for their origins. But even in the advanced stage of thought represented by Jamblichus there are present elements that are duplicable today in the most primitive regions.
Several doors open here to alluring bypaths--to inspiration, prediction, oracles, on the one side, these presuming a favoring: disposition on the part of the ghost; and, on the other, to necromancy and the "black art" or black magic, if the ghost or his control be evil. Melanesians and Africans say that the soul may return to seize and inspire the unconscious shaman or prophet to pregnant utterance. We have said "unconscious"--for it seems practically established that, in the earlier stages of culture, prediction and the delivery of the oracle took place only when the medium was in ecstasy. Vergil's description of the
[12. Theurgia or the Egyptian Mysteries, Part III, chap. vii.
13. Codrington, Melanesians, pp. 218 ff.; Roscue, Baganda, p. 113.]
raging sybil will recur to the classical student. Plato says that "inspired and true divination is not attained to by anyone in his full senses, but only when the power of thought is fettered by sleep or disease, or some paroxysm of frenzy." It is well known that the American Indians regarded the simple or mentally incompetent as peculiarly endowed and in closer touch with the supernatural than those possessed of all their mental powers. In the Old Testament there is an unconscious testimony to the veracity of many parts of the narrative, guaranteed by psychological conclusions, in the fact that the earlier phases of prophecy and prediction are described as involving the ecstatic state or a condition of unconsciousness. Such are the use of the dream, the case of Balaam, the prophets among whom Saul found himself, this form of affection being communicable or "catching"--compare the "dancing mania" of the middle ages-and Elisha, for whom music was in at least one case a prerequisite to the delivery of the oracle--the "hand of the Lord " (2 Kings 3:15) being the Old Testament expression for the modern psychological term
[14. Æneid, V1, 45 ff., 77ff.
15. Timæus, 71.]
"ecstasy" adopted from the Greek. So among perhaps most primitive peoples, like the Melanesians and Africans referred to above, warnings from the supernatural and even knowledge of other matters, as of charms, are supposed to be received under such conditions.
Ghosts do not figure merely as indicators of coming events or as guardians against evil fortune. Their larger capacity for action may make them powerful intercessors with still higher supernatural beings or spirits, through shamans who control them or know them intimately. Or their own success in their earthly vocation makes them interested in survivors who follow their trade. In Africa the spirit of a dead hunter is powerful to help in the chase, and is propitiated to that end. In Melanesia the help of ghosts in securing the right kind of weather, in performing feats of healing, in success with the fishing net or line, and in agriculture is obtained by sacrifices
[16. So the Australians: Howitt, Native Tribes, pp. 435-437. On the facts at large of Carpenter, Comparative Religion, pp. 181, 182.
17. Carruthers, Unknown Mongolia, i. 243.
18. Weeks, Primitive Bakongo, pp. 181-183.]
and offerings. Indeed, from the inhabitants of Ghosttown may come some of the good gifts, agricultural, for instance, which make life worth living. The spirits of the dead may keep a watchful eye upon survivors, preventing or punishing infractions of tribal customs that involve offence to themselves, and warning against repetition by inflicting sickness or failure in various enterprises. Foundation sacrifice had the purpose of procuring for the structure the protection of the spirits of the dead.
On the other hand, ghosts may be among the spirits whose malevolence needs to be guarded against. In fact, among the post mortem transformations may be that into ill disposed spirits. Usually, when this is conceived to be the case, the cause is found in some misfortune in life or death. Among the Ibo, for instance, a childless woman, a wifeless or moneyless man, or a suicide may as ghosts attempt to increase the population
[19. Codrington, Melanesians, pp. 132. ff.: Lambert, Murs et superstitions, pp. 24, 26, 218, 224 ff., 293 ff.; Turner, Samoa, pp. 345 ff.
20. Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush, pp. 238-239.
21. Seligmann, Melanesians, pp. 192, 310.
22, B. D. Eerdmans, in Expositor, Nov. 1913, p. 197.]
of the underworld by attacks upon those left on earth. Similarly in New Guinea those who die in childbirth, suicides, and those who have lost their heads become maleficent. The Omahas hold that ghosts of the murdered return and inflict punishment by disease, or by causing the wind to blow from hunter to game and so to spoil his sport. Among Congo cannibals the soul seen in dreams is a wandering human spirit aiming at evil in its travels, and the witch doctor may be hired to kill it. The nostrils of the dead are plugged immediately after death to keep the spirit in the body as long as possible. If the ghost is for any reason unwelcome in the nether world and is driven out, it becomes malicious and aims at mischief, either inflicting positive ills by sending storms and like disasters or preventing success in various pursuits. In some cases ghosts are normally neutral, and their disposition and consequent actions depend upon the treatment they receive from
[23. Thomas, Anthropological Report, p. 312
24. Frazer, Belief in Immortality, i. 212.
25. Fletcher and La Flesche, 27th Report, p. 212.
26. Weeks, Congo Cannibals, p. 263-264, 269.]
the living. So that the well-being of survivors depends on propitiation by gifts and ceremonies or on manifestations of abiding affection. The duties of classic Greeks and Romans to their dead--careful and honorable burial, celebration by games at the funeral or on anniversaries--recur at once to the mind: and in these and other matters these peoples handed down in memory at least and often in ritual the doings and beliefs of far away ancestors. Close parallels to classic customs have been observed among African, Melanesian, and Polynesian peoples, where not only is the funeral offering placed on the ground, but dramatic performances in honor of the dead take place. Among some races, such as British New Guineans and the Mafulu, ghosts are always malevolent.
Among the exercises of the enlarged powers
[28. Williamson, South Sea Savage, pp. 65, 68, 74, 75, 76, 81 ff.; Roscoe, Baganda, pp. 116, 278, 286.
29. Taplin, Narrinyeri, p. 19; Curt, Australian Race, i. 87; Howitt, Native Tribes, pp. 461, 463, 473; Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes, p. 507, and Native Tribes, p. 511.
30. Talbot, In the Shadow of The Bush, p. 18; Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, pp. 214 ff.; Milligan, Fetish Folk, pp. 233-236.
31. Williamson, South Sea Savage, p. 281 and Mafulu Mountain People, pp. 243 ff., 266 ff., 297 ff.; JAI, xxviii (1899), 216 ff.]
attributed to ghosts by quite diverse peoples is one which, as we shall see later, they possess in common with non-human spirits. This is the infliction of disease in an access of malignancy. Such a belief is held by American Indians, South Sea islanders, Hindus, New Guineans, and many others. They may inflict lockjaw by a blow, cause death, induce phthisis, and bring pestilence. Shamans and medicine men may use them to secure revenge or haunt the living; and this again calls up the need for exorcism. This gives rise to various devices and taboos, aiming at propitiating or deceiving the ghosts, such as change of names assigned to things belonging to the dead, or dropping out of the language words which contained the name borne in life, this going so far in some cases as to involve the destruction of huts, plantations, trees, and other possessions." It is quite in keeping with the
[32. Folk-lore, ii. 420 ff., 431; Kloss, In the Andamans, p. 305; Declé, Three years in Savage Africa, pp. 236, 344.
33. Talbot, In the Shadow of The Bush, p. 230; Weeks, Congo Cannibals, p. 266; Roscoe, Baganda, p. 100; Williamson, South Sea Savage, pp. 81 ff.; Crooke, Tribes and Caste, iii. 436.
34. Williamson, South Sea Savage, pp. 81 ff.; Roscoe, Baganda, p. 126.
35. Seligmann, Melanesians, pp. 631 ff.; Cambridge Anthropological Expedition, v. 250.]
whole conception of things that ghosts should be especially dangerous at night.
From all this, to anticipate slightly what is yet to come, fear of discarnate spirits may lead to a cult, a worship, which is apotropaic, deprecatory, or propitiatory in character. On the other hand, the sense of favors received or to come gives the rationale of a cultus which embodies more of gratitude and pleasure than of fear. With both these varieties of mental qualities attributed to ghosts, shared by them in common with non-human powers, it seems to require somewhat of ingenuity and a miscalculation or misappreciation of native human traits to force one to derive all worship from fear. Timor fecit deos is now hardly tenable in its original sense, in view of abundance of ascertained fads. Most of the animals, especially those domesticated, display amiable traits, including gratitude. We can hardly hold, therefore, that man, whether the product of evolution or of special creation, developed one of his noblest exercises, that of worship, from a sense of fear alone.
[36. Neuhass, Deutsch Neu-Guinea, iii. 64, 147.
37. Chalmers and Gill, Work and Adventure, pp. 84 ff.]


WEDNESDAY, July 4 (HealthDay News) -- For safety's sake, Americans should avoid using fireworks of any kind this Independence Day, experts say.
Prevent Blindness America urges consumers to attend only authorized public fireworks displays conducted by licensed operators. Individuals should not buy, use or store fireworks, including sparklers, the nonprofit organization added.
Although sparklers are sometimes considered to be safe, they were responsible for 17 percent of the injuries, including 36 percent of those sustained by children under 5 years of age, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Injuries from sparklers and other novelties also made up two out of five emergency room injuries, the CPSC found.
Overall, an estimated 6,200 people went to the emergency room between June 17 and July 17, 2011, for injuries they sustained while using fireworks, according to the CPSC. Their 2011 Fireworks Annual Report noted that children younger than 15 accounted for 26 percent of those injuries.
Prevent Blindness America announced it supports bans on the importation, sale and use of all fireworks and sparklers by non-licensed operators, such as bans established in Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
Last year alone, there were also more than 1,100 reported eye injuries, according to the CPSC report. To help Americans avoid the emergency room this July 4th, Prevent Blindness America offered the following safety tips:
If there are specks in the eye:
- Do not rub the eye.
- Allow tears to wash out the particles or use an eye wash.
- Lift the upper eyelid outward and down over the lower lid.
- If the speck doesn't wash out, see a doctor or visit the emergency room.
If the eye or eyelid is cut or punctured:
- Do not rinse the eye with water.
- Do not try to remove any object stuck in the eye.
- Cover the eye with a stiff shield, such as the bottom of a paper cup, without applying any pressure.
- Visit a doctor or an emergency room immediately.
"The 4th of July should be a time when we come together to honor our country by celebrating our great nation safely and responsibly," Hugh Parry, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness America, said in an organization news release. "We hope all Americans have a wonderful holiday with their loved ones, not in the emergency room."
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about eye injuries.
SOURCES: Prevent Blindness America, news release, June 15, 2012; June 2012, 2011 Fireworks Annual Report, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/21/mars_geysers/
Martian pole freckled with geysers
Unlike anything on Earth
Every spring, the southern polar cap on Mars almost fizzes with carbon dioxide, as the surface is broken by hundreds of geysers throwing sand and dust hundreds of feet into the Martian "air".
The discovery was announced in the journal Nature by researchers at the Arizona State University, based on data from the Thermal Emission Imaging System on the Mars Odyssey orbiter.
Images sent back by the probe showed that as the sun began to warm the pole, the polar cap began to break out in dark spots. Over the days and weeks that followed, these spots formed fan-like markings, and spidery patterns. As the sun rose higher in the Martian sky, the spots and fans became more numerous.
"Originally, scientists thought the spots were patches of warm, bare ground exposed as the ice disappeared," said lead scientist Phil Christensen. "But observations made with THEMIS on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter told us the spots were nearly as cold as the carbon dioxide ice, which is at minus 198 degrees Fahrenheit."
The team concluded that the dark spots were in fact geysers, and the fans that appeared were caused by the debris from the eruptions.
Christensen said: "If you were there, you'd be standing on a slab of carbon-dioxide ice. Looking down, you would see dark ground below the three foot thick ice layer.
"The ice slab you're standing on is levitated above the ground by the pressure of gas at the base of the ice."
He explains that as the sunlight hits the region in the spring, it warms the dark ground enough that the ice touching the ground is vaporised. The gas builds up under the ice until it is highly pressurised and finally breaks through the surface layer.
As the gas escapes, it carries the smaller, finer particles of the soil along with it, forming grooves under the ice. This "spider" effect indicates a spot where a geyser is established, and will form again the following year. ®


The United Nations Convention on Narcotic Drugs readmitted Bolivia into its fold on Friday, universally recognizing the right of Bolivians to chew the coca leaf. This gives President Evo Morales one of his most important victories thus far in his global efforts to decriminalize the coca leaf.
Bolivia had voluntary withdrawn from the UN group a year ago because it classified the coca leaf as an "illicit drug." On Friday, however, a majority of the convention's members voted to allow Bolivia back into the committee and also approved a statute which says that chewing the coca leaf is legal within Bolivia's borders.
It's a largely symbolic victory, as this UN commission lacks the power to regulate coca leaf consumption in Bolivia in the first place. But the UN declaration has been welcomed by the Bolivian government, which is planning to invite the country's coca growers to massive coca-chewing events in the cities of La Paz and Cochabamba next Monday.
The coca leaf is the base material for cocaine. But for centuries indigenous people in the Andean mountains have chewed this leaf in its natural form to gain energy and decrease hunger. Some groups in the region also consider the coca leaf to be a sacred plant, and use it regularly for social and religious rituals.
Evo Morales, who is himself a former coca grower, has championed the decriminalization of the leaf since he came into office in 2006, chewing coca in international forums, praising its nutritional qualities, and even asking Sean Penn to be his global ambassador for the coca leaf.
But the UN's decision to tolerate coca leaf chewing in Bolivia was not well taken by U.S. diplomats, who claim that most of Bolivia's coca crops are being used for cocaine production, and not for traditional chewing.
"We oppose Bolivia's reservation and continue to believe it will lead to a greater supply of cocaine," a senior U.S. State Department official, told the AP.
"While we recognize Bolivia's capacity and willingness to undertake some successful counternarcotics activities, especially in terms of coca eradication, we estimate that much of the coca legally grown in Bolivia is sold to drug traffickers, leading to the conclusion that social control of coca (allowing some legal growing) is not achieving the desired results," the official said in a statement.
Only a handful of UN member states voted against the readmission of Bolivia into the antinarcotics group. These included big cocaine consumers like the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom, but also Mexico, a key U.S. ally and the main transit point for most cocaine headed to the United States.
Most member states did not object to Bolivia's readmission into the antinarcotics group or to the new statute which says that chewing, and growing the coca leaf, is fine within Bolivia. The non-objectors included Colombia and Peru which are the world's two biggest cocaine producers and also have very large crops of the coca leaf. U.S. diplomats may want to chew on that dilemma.


Most of you probably don't remember. I don't, besides that I was in residency.
I bet you have no idea how close you came to dying (it was 2 minutes). Or, if you didn't die, having your life dramatically altered.
A Black Brant is a type of goose. It's also the name of a Canadian rocket routinely used for atmospheric experiments. It's launched with a bunch of instruments (depending on what's being studied) and the instruments are monitored during the flight. They then parachute back to Earth and are recovered for further data.
Black Brants are commonly used by Canada, the U.S., and several other countries for research. And so it was on this day in 1995.
A team of U.S. and Norwegian scientists launched a Black Brant from northwest Norway to study the Aurora Borealis. It contained standard scientific instruments.
But things - almost - went horribly wrong.
Routine notification of scientific and test launches is customary, and this one was no exception. 30 countries were told, including Russia. But due to layers of bureaucracy, the notice wasn't passed along their military chain. After all, the cold war had been over for 4 years.
As the rocket climbed, it was picked up by Russian radar early warning systems. It was on a trajectory that matched a predicted Trident missile launch from U.S. nuclear submarines in the Arctic circle. As it flew it also crossed an air corridor between American ballistic missile silos in North Dakota and Moscow, which resulted in Russian satellites tracking it.
The Russians read it as an American first strike. Both sides had practiced war games where a single high-altitude nuclear explosion from a submarine would be used to blind radar and satellites from the real attack, while the electromagnetic pulse would paralyze their defenses.
The Russian military went to full alert. Their ballistic missile submarines in the Arctic were all ordered to prepare for immediate launch. Silo crews on land were notified. Their targets would be the major cities of North America and western Europe. They knew the American/NATO forces would respond in kind.
The Black Brant used in this case was a 4-stage rocket. As it separated the radar pattern matched that of a ballistic missile with multiple re-entry warheads coming down, further convincing the Russians that an attack was underway.
The nuclear briefcase, with its launching codes, was brought to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Like the Americans, the Russians use a mandatory 10 minute launch window (the time needed for a submarine-launched missile to reach either country). Yeltsin activated his nuclear keys to launch a counterattack- but waited for final verification.
At 8 minutes into the alert the rocket's course became clearer, and the Russians realized it was not incoming. With 2 minutes left before the mandatory nuclear launch time, Yeltsin deactivated the briefcase and ordered all nuclear forces off alert. The incident wasn't reported at the time.
The Black Brant rocket completed it's planned flight, landing near Spitsbergen and recovered. The scientists involved had no idea what had happened.
Did that story scare you? Then think about this: It's a single incident.
On November 9, 1979 the U.S. military was testing a radar training tape of what an incoming missile strike would look like. Unfortunately, while being tested, the tape was accidentally broadcast on screens at the American nuclear missile headquarters (NORAD).
The long range nuclear bombers in Alaska were ordered to take off to bomb Russia, while the command tried to verify the attack with other radar systems and satellites (which didn't show anything unusual). It took 6 minutes before an anonymous officer discovered the error, and the bombers were recalled.
We've all heard of Yeltsin, but have you ever heard of Stanislav Petrov? He's a retired Soviet military officer, now living in Fryazino, Russia.
In September, 1983 U.S.-Soviet relations were likely at their worst point since the Cuban Missile Crisis. To top it off, the Russians had just installed a new early-warning system.
On September 26, 1983, Petrov was the shift officer in command of the Soviet early-warning radar defenses. The system twice reported an incoming nuclear strike from North America, once with a single missile, a second time with 4.
Petrov, in a remarkably gutsy move, overrode the computer both times. He declared it an error and didn't pass the information to his superiors. His reasoning was based entirely on his gut instinct that the new system couldn't be trusted. As it turned out, he was right.
Petrov himself couldn't launch a strike. But both sides were on such a hair trigger at the time that if he'd passed the information farther up the line, most historians agree that his superiors would have assumed the worst and ordered a retaliatory attack.
You want more? During the Cuban Missile Crisis Vasili Arkhipov was First Officer on a submarine stationed in the Caribbean. His submerged boat was surrounded by American destroyers, who were trying to identify it.
The captain thought war between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. had started, and wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo. To do so required a unanimous opinion of the boat's 3 top officers. The other 2 wanted to launch, and Arkhipov refused. He argued so forcefully against doing so that the captain decided to surface, identify himself, and check with Moscow. The movie "Crimson Tide" was based on his story.
In only one incident was it actually a world leader who averted disaster. In the rest (and there are many others, read here, or over here) it was a few people (even one), considerably lower in the chain.
On this day in 1995 it was only 2 minutes. Just 120 seconds. Less time than it took you to read this.
Life on the edge is precarious.


New Scientist has an article on the contenders for the Google Lunar X Prize. If you haven’t heard of this, it is a contest sponsored by Google to see who can land a rover on the Moon and accomplish a set of pre-assigned tasks. Do this and your team gets a great deal of recognition and $20 million.
The Google Lunar X Prize site details what the rovers need to accomplish: “The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million international competition to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth. Teams must be at least 90% privately funded and must be registered to compete by December 31, 2010. The first team to land on the Moon and complete the mission objectives will be awarded $20 million; the full first prize is available until December 31, 2012. After that date, the first prize will drop to $15 million. The second team to do so will be awarded $5 million. Another $5 million will awarded in bonus prizes. The final deadline for winning the prize is December 31, 2014.”
So, on the New Scientist site there photos of some of the more interesting and unique entries. They cover the range of hoppers, wheeled rovers, and, in one case, a sphere-shaped robot reminiscent of a hamster ball. You can see this planned lunar bot in the photo below. Click on the photo to go to the page in the New Scientist article about this creation by Team Frednet, one of the Google X Prize entrants. And look at the video on You Tube of the PicoRover, as it is called. This innovative approach to a lunar rover is very intriguing because it weighs only 500 grams. It certainly won’t need a Saturn 5 to get it to the Moon. And besides, if this design doesn't make it to the Moon, it certainly has a future as a cat toy.
Image: Team Frednet/Joshua Tristancho
More than a dozen teams are racing to claim a $30 million prize for landing a robot rover on the moon – see the most advanced prototypes so far…
Hamster balls and lunar hoppers: meet the X Prize teams
Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:50:14 GMT


King cobra is the longest venomous snake in the world. Although its venom is not much powerful like Black mamba or other snakes. But his large size make him more deadly. This huge snake can grow up to (19ft) and 20 kg in weight which is a lot for venomous snake. In ancient times peoples worshiped king cobra and some peoples are still doing so.
King Cobra mostly lives in forested areas. This huge snake can be found in Southeast Asia and some parts of India. It normally eats other small snake that’s why its genus name is Ophiophagus , which means “snake- eater”. It can also eat pythons which is size able snakes. Its color is pale olive, tan, yellow olive color or something like this.
This huge snake mostly hunt at day time and very little at night time. It hunts with their long fangs which may be growing up to 0.5 inches which make this snake more deadly. It swallows its prey and his toxins help him in digestion of prey. King Cobra venom is also very dangerous. The bite taken from king cobra can lead you to death. Its mortality rate of a bite is 75%.
Defense Against Enemy
The great predator of King cobra is mongoose, which is quite resistance to neurotoxins. King cobra will try to fight with its hood flatten this help him in closed mouth strikes. If all fails, he will generally try to flee. But it is also hard for mongoose to defeat such a long snake.
Due to king cobra long size and deadly venom make him perfect predator. Although his venom is not much powerful like black mamba or Russell viper. But it is five times faster reactive venom then black mamba. With every bite king cobra inject 6 mil of venom to prey with the help of its fangs. Which is enough for killing elephant in three hours. Venom is produced in salivary glands. When this huge snake injects his venom to a prey his fastest venom paralysis it in two minutes, thus the prey go in comma due to respiratory system failure and prey died.
The female King cobra lay about 20 to 50 eggs but before laying eggs she make a nest or mound with leaf litter to lay eggs in it. She guards her eggs and prevents any big animal to come near it. When eggs hatch a new king cobras arise from it and the life cycle of king cobra remains continuous.
- King cobra is the world longest venomous snake.
- King Cobra average life span is 20 years.
- King Cobra fastest venom allows him to kill elephant in three hours.
- King Cobra is used by snake charmers for dancing and for fun.
- King Cobra can smell blood from far away.
- King Cobra is one of the snakes who create nest or mound.
- The natural predator of king cobra is mongoose which is small mammal.
- Ancient peoples worshiped king cobras some are still doing so.


On April 30, 1803, the United States government made one of the greatest land transactions of all time when it purchased from the French Republic for $15 million dollars, a piece of real estate extending from the Gulf of Mexico north to Canada, and from the Mississippi River Basin west to the Rocky Mountains. Called the Louisiana Purchase, this transaction added 830,000 square miles of uncharted wilderness to the territory of the United States.
The Louisiana Purchase opened the west for settlement by Europeans and Americans and had grave implications for American Indians, who would soon find their ancestral homelands taken from them. It allowed for the extension of slavery, brought an end to French and Spanish domination in Arkansas and allowed a diversity of settlers to develop and perpetuate their own cultures in the six distinct geographic regions of the state.
Play the games below or download the lesson plans and activity sheets to learn more about the Louisiana Purchase.
Download these lesson plans and activity sheets for use in your classroom. All documents are in PDF Format.
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Nappies and the environment
Both reusable and disposable nappies have some environmental impact stemming from the production, cleaning and disposal of the both nappy products.
- Many cloth nappies are made from cotton, which is a crop that uses large amounts of pesticides and water in its production. Two other choices are hemp and bamboo which are slowly becoming more popular choices.
- The soaking, rinsing and washing of cloth nappies uses water and energy in the heating of the water. This process also releases detergents into the environment.
You can educe the environmental impact of cloth nappies by:
- Choosing to use biodegradable, phosphate-free detergents
- Using a cold water cycle and then using solar power (on the washing line) to dry the nappies
- Only wash your nappies when you have a full load, thereby avoiding wasting water
- Choosing not to use a fabric softener
- Buying affront-loading washing machine which uses less water than a top-loader
- Considerably add to the world's landfill each year
- use chemicals in their manufacture and disposal
- can cause fecal pollution on disposal.
- 1. Best pregnancy books and DVDs
- 2. Bathing your toddler
- 3. Your diet and healthy teeth and gums
- 4. Best baby car seat guide
- 5. Toy safety
- 6. Water safety
- 7. First aid and emergencies
- 8. Your baby and immunisation
- 9. Baby cold and cough
- 10. Your baby and hot weather
- 11. Teething
- 12. Personal fitness for mums
- 13. 10 benefits of exercise during pregnancy


The OED “is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from those of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find these in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to films scripts and cookery books.” For more information about this resource, visit their site.
To access this database, please visit the Databases A-Z page or visit the English Literatures LibGuide. Contact Sue Samson, firstname.lastname@example.org, with questions or for more information on how this database can help you with your research or teaching.


During this week's close encounter with Earth, astronomers tracked the aircraft-carrier-sized asteroid 2005 YU55 with radar instruments, infrared cameras, visible-light telescopes — and an ultraviolet-sensitive space telescope as well.
This video shows the view from NASA's Swift satellite, which trained its Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope on the space rock as it zoomed away from Earth at 24,300 mph on Wednesday. Swift is best-known for its observations of high-energy outbursts and cosmic explosions, but it turns out that the spacecraft has been involved in 10 asteroid-observing sessions as well.
Swift's scientists had the satellite watch a couple of patches of sky that YU55 was predicted to pass through, and during the second observing opportunity, the telescope got a good fix on the asteroid.
"We observed the asteroid with Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical and X-ray telescopes but, as expected, we saw it only in the UV," Dennis Bodewits, a Swift team member at the University of Maryland in College Park, said in today's video advisory from NASA.
During the 27-minute long exposure, Swift detected short-term variations in brightness caused by the asteroid's rotation.
"The result is a movie of 2005 YU55 at ultraviolet wavelengths unobtainable from ground-based telescopes," NASA reported today. "For planetary scientists, this movie is a treasure trove of data that will help them better understand how this asteroid is put together, information that may help make predictions of its motion more secure for centuries to come."
More about the asteroid encounter:
- Parting shots from the asteroid
- Passing asteroid puts on a show
- Your guide to the asteroid encounter
- How to save our planet from a killer asteroid
- Could the asteroid destroy the moon? (No)
- Why radar's the best for tracking near-Earth objects
- Interactive: Close encounters of the asteroid kind
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or following the Cosmic Log Google+ page. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.


Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have developed a new type of miniature endoscope that produces three-dimensional, high-definition images, which may greatly expand the application of minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. In the October 19 issue of Nature, the team from the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at MGH describes their prototype device and a demonstration of its use in a mouse model.
"This new ultraminiature endoscope is the first to allow three-dimensional imaging of areas inside the body," says Guillermo Tearney, MD, PhD, of the MGH Wellman Center, the report's senior author. "Its ability to go places that other imaging tools cannot reach opens new possibilities for medical diagnosis and eventually treatment."
Standard miniature endoscopic devices – which give physicians access to hard-to-reach internal organs and structures – utilize bundles of optical fibers to supply light to and transmit images from the areas of interest. Larger endoscopes that use image sensors to produce high-quality, two-dimensional images can be a centimeter or more in diameter. Existing miniature endoscopes using smaller fiber bundles may be more flexible but have difficulty producing high-quality images.
The new device developed at MGH-Wellman uses a technology called spectrally encoded endoscopy (SEE). Multicolored light from a single optical fiber – introduced through a probe about the size of a human hair – is broken into its component colors and projected onto tissue, with each color illuminating a different part of the tissue surface. The light reflected back is recorded, and the intensity of the various colors decoded by a spectrometer, which analyzes the wavelengths of light. Another device called an interferometer, which calculates structural information based on the interaction between two waves of light, provides the data required to create three-dimensional images.
To demonstrate the device's application in a live animal, the researchers used the system to image metastatic ovarian tumors on the abdominal wall of a mouse. The SEE probe was passed into the abdominal cavity through a fine-gauge needle. The resulting three-dimensional image showed several raised areas of tumor nodules, the presence of which was confirmed by histologic analysis of the tissue.
"The most important feature of this new endoscope is the ability to obtain three-dimensional images, something we don't believe is offered by any commercially available miniature endoscope system," says Dvir Yelin, PhD, first author of the Nature paper. "While the image resolution we achieved in this demonstration is similar to existing small-diameter endoscopes, with further optimization of the optics it is possible to obtain images with 10 times the number of pixels provided by other miniature endoscopes."
"This new technology will offer physicians and surgeons the capability to bring many more procedures into outpatient settings, reduce anesthesia requirements and minimize tissue damage," Tearney adds. "The device's size and flexibility should allow safer navigation through such delicate structures as the salivary ducts, the fallopian tubes and the pancreatic duct. Fetal and pediatric procedures may also benefit from this tool. Eventually, SEE could give rise to new procedures that permit diagnosis and microsurgery in previously inaccessible areas of the body."
Tearney is an associate professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He and his colleagues are working on adapting the SEE device for human studies in the near future. Additional co-authors of the Nature report are Imran Rizvi, Matthew White, MD, Jason Motz, PhD, Tayyaba Hasan, PhD, and Brett Bouma, PhD – all of the Wellman Center. The research was supported by grants from the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, the National Science Foundation and the Whitaker Foundation.
Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of nearly $500 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, transplantation biology and photomedicine. MGH and Brigham and Women's Hospital are founding members of Partners HealthCare System, a Boston-based integrated health care delivery system.
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.


The loss of biodiversity affects us in many ways. For some of us, its loss is felt in the same way that we regret the destruction of a great work of art- it may not affect us directly, but the indirect impact is strong. For others, its loss is felt in changes in lifestyles and livelihoods- the measurable costs are high. Striking the right balance between the conservation/sustainable use and the loss of biodiversity requires accounting for all the impacts of its destruction. Weighing the loss against any potential benefits will ensure that the social, as well as economic, well-being of every one are at the best levels possible. Market based economic systems have the potential to ensure that such a balancing occurs, but require that all the impacts of its loss, or use, have been fully internalised into market transactions. This book shows how public policy in the form of market creation can be used to internalise the loss of biodiversity. It promotes the use of markets to ensure that our collective preferences for conversation and sustainable use are reflected in economic outcomes.
Executive Summary available.
How to obtain this publication
Readers can access the full version of Handbook of Market Creation for Biodiversity: Issues in Implementation choosing from the following options:
- Subscribers and readers at subscribing institutions can access the online edition via SourceOECD, our online library.
- Non-subscribers can purchase the PDF e-book and/or paper copy via our Online Bookshop.
- The report is available to journalists from the OECD Media Relations Division (Media Relations Division)
Executive Summary Handbook of Market Creation for Biodiversity: Issues in Implementation


Serious illness or the death of a child is a tragedy that touches all of our hearts. Over this past week four seriously ill children have been hospitalized in Oregon after drinking unpasteurized milk contaminated with E. coli O157, and although the milk in question is no longer being distributed, additional cases may yet occur. The lives of these children currently hang in the balance.
These tragedies are made even more distressing when one considers that those who gave this milk to these children undoubtedly believed they were doing what was best for them. As a parent, my heart goes out to those adults.
Unpasteurized, or "raw," milk, like many unprocessed food products, may sound healthier, but it is not. Hundreds of years of experience have demonstrated that raw milk can carry many kinds of harmful bacteria that can make you very sick or kill you, and that's why pasteurization was invented in the 19th century. While it is possible to get food-borne illnesses from many different foods, raw milk is one of the riskiest of all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pasteurization is a simple but very effective process. It involves heating up milk for a brief period. No chemicals are added, and pasteurization can be done on organic or regular milk. This simple heat treatment is enough to kill a host of bad germs that can get into the milk from the cow's skin, udder or feces, such as salmonella, listeria, yersinia, campylobacter, mycobacterium tuberculosis and staphylococcus aureus, in addition to E. coli. While there are occasional outbreaks from pasteurized dairy products, the rate of outbreaks from unpasteurized products, per unit consumed, is about 150 times greater than from pasteurized products. So pasteurization works.
While there is great value in eating locally sourced foods and strengthening the connections between consumers and farmers, those strategies are not enough to prevent contamination of milk with dangerous bacteria. Nor is it a matter of preventing lax procedures used by farmers; it would be impossible for even the most conscientious farmer to prevent contamination, and that is why pasteurization is required for commercially distributed milk. The milk implicated in this outbreak came from a "herd-share," and so was legally distributed to 48 members, even though it was not pasteurized.
In the wake of this outbreak, I had occasion to review some clippings from 1922 in The Oregonian documenting 13 deaths and many illnesses from an outbreak caused by a different type of bacteria transmitted by unpasteurized milk from the Pleasant View Dairy. But we don't have to go back to the 1920s to find these outbreaks. In the past two decades we have had at least six outbreaks linked to raw milk in Oregon alone, and many others nationwide.
Milk is good for most people. It is packed with vitamins, calcium and protein. But history has taught us over and over again that milk needs to pasteurized to be safe. These latest events have taught us that painful lesson yet again.
Mel Kohn is director of the Oregon Public Health Division of the Oregon Health Authority.


Hundreds of years ago, settlers who came to Fort Worth were greeted by rolling prairies for as far as the eye could see. Today, those welcoming fields have been replaced by growing cities and towns, but Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) remembers this heritage and culture with the annual celebration of Prairie Day.
BRIT's Prairie Day offers family-friendly education about the beauty and importance of the North Texas landscape through hands-on events and activities that kids will love. Kids will be encouraged to get a little dirty as they help to make seed balls, a Prairie Day tradition. Using a Native American technique, visitors will combine seeds, humus, and red clay into tiny packets of life that will be tossed into the fields surrounding BRIT to populate the area with native plants. Imagine the fun of returning to the BRIT next spring to see the plants you helped to grow!
Other activities throughout the day will combine fun family games with opportunities to learn about nature, including face painting, balloon twisting, and a variety of games provided by the Log Cabin Village. In addition, live music and cowboy poets will be on hand to entertain the crowd.
Don't miss these other great activities:
- Beekeeping demonstrations
- Soap and candle making
- Children’s coloring contest
- Basket Weaving
- Solar Cooking Demonstrations
- Meet two special guest prairie dogs
The 3rd annual Prairie Day event will be held on Saturday, May 18th from 10 am to 2 pm at BRIT Headquarters 1700 University Drive.


No flood, no money. What a trade!
When asked about his future, Nguyen Van Nghe, a fisherman in Dong Thap Province answered: “No flood, no money. What a trade!” He was referring to the fact that over the last 10 years the construction of high dykes in Dong Thap and the Long Xuyen Quadrangle has blocked the annual replenishment of freshwater, nutrients, and sediment on which fish depend. In turn, this has destroyed the wild fisheries on which the landless, including Nghe, who make up 20% of the Mekong Delta’s population, depend. Wild fish production has declined by 40% over the last 10 years and species that were once used as fertilizer now sell for VND180,000/kg. The predatory snakehead, which once occupied the top of the aquatic food chain, has disappeared. The high dykes have also greatly reduced the annual flushing. This has resulted in the accumulation of pathogens and toxins in the surface water and growing public health problems.
High dykes were built to allow a third, or autumn-winter, rice crop to be grown because of the high prices this off-season crop can fetch on the international market. In 2011, 560,000 hectares of autumn-winter rice were planted, up from 520,000 hectares in 2010. But because of the loss of sediment, rice productivity can only be maintained through the heavy use of fertilizer. Nguyen Huu Thien, a wetland specialist based in Can Tho, questions whether the third rice crop is profitable once you take into account the increased use of fertilizer and pesticide, the cost of dyke maintenance, the loss of wild fish, and, inevitably, the cost of dyke failure: when dykes failed in 2011, 50 people were killed and tens of millions of dollars of houses, roads, and other infrastructure was destroyed. The intensification of rice production has also resulted in the virtual extinction of the traditional long-stem floating rice varieties, which in Brazil sell for $3,500/ton, almost ten times the price of autumn-winter rice.
Dr. Ngo Van Be of the Dong Thap Muoi Institute of Research and Development says that the floods that used to be “mild” are now “fierce” and unpredictable. In hydrological terms, what the high dykes have done is to separate the Mekong River from its 1.5 million-hectare floodplain. According to Dr. Le Anh Tuan of Can Tho University, these dykes have narrowed the floodplain during the peak October-November flood from 150 kilometers to a few tens of kilometers. This has accelerated the water flow and displaced flooding to residential areas downstream. Reduction of the flooded area has also reduced groundwater recharge, reduced river base flows, and increased dry season saline intrusion, which increases the cost of drinking water supplies. The violent floods of 2011 call into question the value of the third rice crop and instead argue for a more natural hydrology that provides multiple benefits, including greater resilience to climate change, which is likely to result in more intense rainfalls and flash flooding.
To learn more about these issues, watch this 30-minute file produced by the Center for Water Resources Conservation and Development (WARECOD) and VTC16.