Press Release: First Comprehensive National Study Finds Centers Safest Form of Childcare
Child care centers are much safer than all other forms of child care, according to a new national study.
Sociologists Julia Wrigley and Joanna Dreby of the City University of New York Graduate Center created a comprehensive database of child care failures, including fatalities, between 1985 and 2003. They found that child care is quite safe overall, and child care fatalities are rarer than outside of paid care. But the fatality rate for children who receive child care in private homes is sixteen times higher than the fatality rate for children in child care centers.
The study appears in the October issue of the American Sociological Review . It was funded by the Foundation for Child Development.
While more than 8 million children are in paid child care every day, until now little has been known about their safety. Wrigley and Dreby analyzed reports of 1,362 fatalities (among 4,356 caregiving failures) from 1985 to 2003. The fatality data was gathered from media reports, legal cases, and state records. Three forms of child care were investigated: child care centers, nannies working in children's homes, and family day care providers working in their own homes.
"While accidents can happen anywhere, child care centers are almost 100% protective against children's deaths by violence. They are much safer than arrangements in private homes," explains Wrigley.
Infants are by far the most vulnerable children in care. Their fatality rate from both accidents and violence is nearly seven times higher than that of children from one to four. Equally striking are differences in infant fatality rates across types of care. The infant fatality rate in the care of nannies or family day care providers is more than seven times higher than that in centers.
Why are centers the safest form of child care?
Wrigley and Dreby conclude that centers are the safest form of child care because they afford children multiple forms of protection. Most importantly, staff members do not work alone. They have others watching them and helping them cope with fussy infants or whining toddlers. This helps them maintain their emotional control. It also helps identify and remove unstable or volatile workers. Center teachers also have more training than most caregivers in private homes and they are supervised by professionally-trained directors. Finally, centers control access by outsiders more effectively to keep out people who might pose risks.
These protections help reduce risks of accidental deaths, such as suffocation and drowning. But they are especially important in preventing violent deaths. Not a single shaken baby fatality was found in a child care center, while 203 were reported in arrangements in private homes. The stress of infant crying, in particular, can drive caregivers to impulsive acts of violence. With little professional training, without supervisors or coworkers, and often paid very little for long hours of work, even some experienced caregivers can lose emotional control. Once children are past the toddler years, safety differences between centers and other forms of child care diminish.
Wrigley says, "Child care is quite safe overall, but it could be made safer. We need to recognize what a stressful and demanding job it is to look after young children. Improved safety will only come with more resources and closer regulation of care."
How can we improve child care safety?
A complete copy of the article, titled: "Fatalities and the Organization of Childcare," can be found beginning November 1 on the website of the American Sociological Association www.asanet.org which will also be linked from The Graduate Center's website www.gc.cuny.edu . Hard copies may be obtained from by contacting Johanna Ebner at the American Sociological Association, 1307 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20005.
While working on this research, Julia Wrigley was a Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she was recently appointed Acting Associate Provost. Her work focuses on social class and inequality. She is the author of Class Politics and Public Schools , on conflicts over the control and funding of Chicago's schools, and Other People's Children , on relations between middle-class parents and their children's caregivers. She edited Sociology of Education and chaired the ASA section on Children and Youth.
Joanna Dreby is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research interests include child care, the sociology of children, gender and families and immigration/transnational communities. She recently spent a year in Mexico on a Fulbright doing research for her dissertation on parent-child separation in Mexican transnational families.
The Foundation for Child Development is a national, private philanthropy dedicated to the principle that all families should have the social and material resources to raise their children to be healthy, educated, and productive members of society. PK-3, the Foundation's signature focus, seeks to create a new beginning for public education from prekindergarten through third grade. For more information, visit the Foundation's website, http://www.fcd-us.org.
The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York. The only consortium of its kind in the nation, the school draws its faculty of more than 1,700 members mainly from the CUNY senior colleges. Established in 1961, The Graduate Center has grown to an enrollment of about 4,000 students in 32 doctoral programs and six master's degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The Graduate Center also houses 28 research centers and institutes, administers the CUNY Baccalaureate Program as well as a number of other university-wide academic programs, and offers a wide range of continuing education and cultural programs of interest to the general public. Further information on The Graduate Center's programs and activities can be found on its website at: www.gc.cuny.edu.
Submitted on: NOV 1, 2005


January 21, 2010
An estimated 430,000 children worldwide became infected with HIV in 2008, mostly through birth or breastfeeding from an HIV-infected mother. Many regions of the world are gaining increased access to complex antiretroviral drug regimens for preventing HIV transmission from a mother to her child. However, these strategies have not yet been directly compared with simpler antiretroviral drug regimens in terms of their safety, efficacy, feasibility and cost-effectiveness.
On January 15, a large, multinational clinical trial began to determine how best to reduce the risk of HIV transmission from infected pregnant women to their babies during pregnancy and breastfeeding while preserving the health of these children and their mothers.
The PROMISE (“Promoting Maternal-Infant Survival Everywhere”) study aims to enroll 7,950 HIV-infected women who are pregnant or have recently given birth and 5,950 HIV-exposed infants of these women. The participants will come from as many as 18 countries whose levels of resources range from high to low. The International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials network is conducting the study with funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, both part of the National Institutes of Health. Led by protocol chair Mary Glenn Fowler, M.D., M.P.H., of the Makerere University–Johns Hopkins University Research Collaboration in Kampala, Uganda, the study team expects results in five to six years.
The HIV-infected women eligible to participate in PROMISE do not yet qualify for treatment—that is, their CD4+ T cell count, a measure of immune health, exceeds the level (350 cells per cubic millimeter of blood) at which highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) generally is recommended. HAART consists of a potent combination of three or more antiretroviral drugs.
The study addresses four distinct research questions. Most volunteers will participate in multiple components of the study to answer these questions. The first component will examine which of two proven strategies is safer and more effective at preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission before and during delivery: giving HIV-infected pregnant women a three-antiretroviral-drug regimen beginning as early as 14 weeks of gestation, or giving them the antiretroviral drug zidovudine beginning as early as 14 weeks of pregnancy and a single dose of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine during labor. The regimen of zidovudine and nevirapine is the standard of care in many countries for women who do not yet require treatment for their HIV infection. Some 4,400 women will be assigned at random to receive either one of these two interventions.
The second component of the PROMISE study will compare the safety and efficacy of two methods of preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission during breastfeeding. The study team will assign 4,650 mother-infant pairs at random either to receive a daily dose of infant nevirapine or to have the mothers take a three-antiretroviral-drug regimen throughout breastfeeding.
The third component of the PROMISE study will examine the effects of short-term use of a three-antiretroviral-drug regimen during pregnancy and breastfeeding to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission on the health of HIV-infected mothers who do not yet need treatment. For such women, it remains unclear whether stopping the three-drug regimen after giving birth or ceasing to breastfeed would compromise their health. Although past studies have shown that interrupting treatment with antiretroviral drugs has a negative effect, the conditions in those studies are different enough from the conditions of the PROMISE study to make extrapolating the results difficult, according to the study investigators.
The 4,675 women participating in this third component of PROMISE will be assigned at random either to stop the three-antiretroviral-drug regimen after giving birth or weaning, or to continue the drug regimen indefinitely. The health of these two groups will be compared. In addition, the women who receive the time-limited three-drug regimen will be compared with the women who participated in the first component of PROMISE and did not receive the three-drug regimen, but rather took zidovudine during pregnancy and single-dose nevirapine during labor.
The last component of the PROMISE study involves protecting the health of HIV-exposed but uninfected infants. In resource-limited settings, it is standard to give the antibiotic cotrimoxazole once daily to infants exposed to HIV at birth until the infant has stopped breastfeeding and is known to be HIV-uninfected. While cotrimoxazole prophylaxis improves the survival rate of HIV-infected infants, it is not known whether continuing to administer the drug after weaning similarly would benefit HIV-exposed but uninfected children.
In this fourth component of the PROMISE study, nearly 2,290 HIV-exposed but uninfected, weaned infants under one year old will be assigned at random either to continue receiving cotrimoxazole or to receive a placebo through age 18 months. Neither the mothers of the infants nor the study team will know which infants are in which group. The study will determine whether continuing cotrimoxazole prophylaxis in HIV-exposed, uninfected infants from the time they stop breastfeeding through age 18 months decreases their risk of illness and death without causing side effects or generating bacterial resistance to cotrimoxizole.
Media inquiries can be directed to the NIAID Office of Communications at 301-402-1663, firstname.lastname@example.org.
The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute’s Web site at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/.
NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of
infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News
releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at www.niaid.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research,
and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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Last Updated January 21, 2010


When set to hair mode, particle system creates only static particles, which may be used for hair, fur, grass and the like.
The first step is to create the hair, specifying the amount of hair strands and their lengths.
The complete path of the particles is calculated in advance. So everything a particle does a hair may do also. A hair is as long as the particle path would be for a particle with a lifetime of 100 frames. Instead of rendering every frame of the particle animation point by point there are calculated control points with an interpolation, the segments.
The next step is to style the hair. You can change the look of base hairs by changing the Physics Settings.
A more advanced way of changing the hair appearance is to use Children. This adds child hairs to the original ones, and has settings for giving them different types of shapes.
You can also interactively style hairs in Particle Mode. In this mode, the particle settings become disabled, and you can comb, trim, lengthen, etc. the hair curves.
Hair can now be made dynamic using the cloth solver. This is covered in the Hair Dynamics page.
Blender can render hairs in several different ways. Materials have a Strand section, which is covered in the materials section in the Strands Page.
Hair can also be used as a basis for the Particle Instance modifier, which allows you to have a mesh be deformed along the curves, which is useful for thicker strands, or things like grass, or feathers, which may have a more specific look.
- Regrow Hair for each frame.
- Enables advanced settings which reflect the same ones as working in Emitter mode.
- Set the amount of hair strands. Use as little particles as possible, especially if you plan to use softbody animation later. But you need enough particles to have good control. For a “normal” haircut I found some thousand (very roughly 2000) particles to give enough control. You may need a lot more particles if you plan to cover a body with fur. Volume will be produced later with Children.
Settings for adding movement to hair see Hair Dynamics.
- Draw hair as curves.
- Draw just the end points if the hairs.
- The number of segments (control points minus 1) of the hair strand. In between the control points the segments are interpolated. The number of control points is important:
- for the softbody animation, because the control points are animated like vertices, so more control points mean longer calculation times.
- for the interactive editing, because you can only move the control points (but you may recalculate the number of control points in Particle Mode).
- 10 Segments should be sufficient even for very long hair, 5 Segments are enough for shorter hair, and 2 or 3 segments should be enough for short fur.
Hair can be rendered as a Path, Object, or Group. See Particle Visualization for descriptions.
- Fur Tutorial, which produced (Image 4b). It deals especially with short hair.
- Blender Hair Basics, a thorough overview of all of the hair particle settings.


Maui’s death in set net takes species one step closer to extinction
WWF-New Zealand’s Executive Director Chris Howe says: “This death of a Maui’s dolphin is a tragedy for a species that is down to only about 100 individuals. Set nets in Maui’s habitat continue to pose an unacceptable risk to these dolphins. Until we get set nets out of the shallow coastal waters where they live, more Maui’s will needlessly get entangled and drown. The species could be extinct within our generation without urgent action.”
Maui’s dolphins, a subspecies of the South Island’s Hector’s dolphins, are found only off the west coast of the North Island. They are the world’s rarest marine dolphin, classified internationally as critically endangered.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) yesterday released a statement saying they believe that the dead animal was a Maui’s, not a Hector’s dolphin as originally reported, because of the location of its death. The dead dolphin was returned to the sea by the fisher. MAF claimed the death “occurred outside of the current known range of Maui’s dolphins, as well as outside the current restrictions.”
However there have been independent verified sightings of Maui’s dolphins in the coastal waters off Taranaki in recent years, and WWF-New Zealand is urging MAF and the government to extend protection measures throughout the Maui’s historical range to give the species the best chance of survival and recovery.
Despite fishing restrictions announced in 2008, Maui’s are not currently protected throughout their entire range. WWF is calling on the government to extend protection measures into harbours and the southern extent of their current range, along with better monitoring and policing of regulations.
WWF- New Zealand is urging all members of the public who see a Maui’s dolphin – noted for their rounded dorsal fin - to report it to a special sightings hotline, 0800 4 MAUIS. Mr Howe says: “Every sighting of one of these rare and precious dolphins matters. The more we know about where Maui’s range and their movements, the better we can protect them.
“WWF will continue to speak out on behalf of all those New Zealanders who want to stop the extinction of Maui’s dolphins, and urge the government to extend the current protection measures before it is too late.”


DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Cone Santa Paper Craft
Set Santa out on a coffee table or the mantle as a fun Christmas
decoration or put him on the top of a small Christmas tree as a tree topper
- something to color with
The directions are appropriate for an older child or adult to
assemble. Don't worry too much if younger children glue the pieces a bit
off kilter -- part of the fun of watching them grow is seeing their
progress over the years!
- Color and cut out the pieces.
- Roll the large triangular piece and use the tab to glue it into a cone
- Glue the nose onto the face using a dot of glue on the nose (this allows
the mustache to stick out from the edges a bit in a slightly 3d manner).
- Glue the hat band around the top, just above the face.
- Glue the beard around the top, just below the face. You can see how the
mouth fits into the little notch in the beard.
- Glue the belt around the center, just below the buttons.
- Fold the arms in half and glue together (so they're coloured on both
sides). Use a dot of glue on the top of the arms (shoulder) to position the
arms near the beard, leaving them sticking out in a slightly 3d manner. You
can have them sticking straight down, reaching forward, waving, etc...
however you want Santa to look!).
- Close template window when done printing to return to this screen.
- Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).
Printable version of these instructions


BJU Press' Spelling Grade 4 introduces new words to master for the 4th grade level. Word lists are primarily grouped by pattern, with lessons including the list of words plus two challenge words, and a "word sort" section that allows students to sort words by pattern. Additional exercises help students to master syllables, vocabulary knowledge, dictionary skills and more through a variety of fun activities. Thirty-two weekly spelling lists are included, and each list contains approximately 20 words. This 4th Edition has been completely revised to include colorful worktext pages with activities designed to strengthen spelling and communication skills. This resource is also known as Bob Jones Spelling Grade 4 Student Worktext, 2nd Edition.
- Type: Other ()
- Category: > Home Schooling
- ISBN / UPC: 9781606821923/160682192X
- Publish Date: 1/1/2010
- Item No: 319704
- Vendor: Bob Jones University Press


There is an overwhelming amount of news coverage related to the state of the economy, international politics, and various domestic programs. The environment and environmental policy on the other hand, are being ignored. When environmental policy is discussed many citizens and representatives champion the need for substantial policy reform. However, when actual policies are introduced, they are typically ignored or delayed. Due to the current state of the environment, politicians need to place a higher priority on environmental policy.
First, the public needs to understand exactly what environmental policy is and how it affects them. Environmental policy is defined as “any action deliberately taken to manage human activities with a view to prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on humans or the environment,” (McCormick 2001). It generally covers air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem management, biodiversity protection, and the protection of natural resources, wildlife, and endangered species. Issues like these, affect everyone across the globe and cannot be ignored.
Environmental policy became a national issue under Theodore Roosevelt, when National Parks were established in hopes of preserving wildlife for future generations. The modern environmental movement began in the 1970s during the Nixon administration, when a large amount of environmental legislation started rolling out. Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which established a national policy promoting the enhancement of the environment and set requirements for all government agencies to prepare Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements. Nixon also established the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. Legislation of the time established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The Clean Air Act, and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The EPA has received a lot of notoriety recently, mostly for republican’s desire to get rid of it, though it is still a source vital to protecting the environmental.
Rising gas prices in the 1970s inspired a wave of greener vehicles, a phenomenon witnessed again in 2008. High energy costs motivated Jimmy Carter to install solar panels on the white house roof, a clear message that helping the environment was everyone’s responsibility.
Focus on environmental policy began dwindling in the 1980s though, under the Regan administration. As the Soviet Union began to weaken and fall, the restructuring of Europe became a priority and the environment quickly slipped to the backburner.
Many of the environmental issues that the public faced in the late twentieth century are still issues today, including: climate change, lack of fossil fuels, sustainable energy solutions, ozone depletion, and resource depletion. Today, with the plethora of issues currently affecting the environment, it needs to become a priority again.
As gas prices reached record highs in 2007 and 2008, there was a surge in Green Startups to help companies struggling with high fuel costs. As fuel costs decreased, the focus on these Green Startups decreased as well. However, now that gas prices are again on the rise, there will likely be a green resurgence in the market.
These green initiatives should not rise and fall with the cost of gas. Environmental issues have impacts and implications far greater than the bottom dollar.
Rising sea levels, droughts, and other extreme weather events have enormous human impacts, killing or displacing scores of people each year. In an Oxfam International study at the University of Belgium, the earth is currently experiencing approximately 500 natural disasters a year, affecting over 250 million people (Guitierrez 2008).
It is paramount that our government focus significant attention and funding on environmental policy. If we continue to disregard the environment, the planet might be degraded to the point where it is no longer habitable. We only have one Earth; we need to do our best to preserve it.
Gutierrez, David. “Natural Disasters Up More Than 400 Percent in Two Decades.”
NaturalNews.com, June 5, 2008. Accessed March 10, 2012. http://www.naturalnews.com/023362.html.


E Numbers: Emulsifiers Sunday, Oct 16 2011
Emulsification is the word scientists give to mixing liquids together. Specifically, it is the process by which immiscible liquids, liquids that cannot normally mix, are mixed together. The chemical agent used is called an emulsifier. Emulsifiers are not unique to food, we use emulsifiers to clean ourselves (soap), and in order to produce medical injections.
Emulsifiers in Food
The most familiar emulsifier is probably the egg. Eggs are used as an emulsifier in everything from cakes and custard, to mayonnaise (Figure 1) and from hollandaise, to soufflés. What the egg is doing chemically is allowing the other ingredients to form a stable emulsion (mix). Interestingly, egg itself actually contains two types of emulsifier: one is protein, the other is lecithin (Figure 2). They both have chemical properties that are shared by both water and fatty substances. This helps mix things up sufficiently well to make a homogeneous mixture of water, fat and lecithin, that looks not unlike baby sick. There are others that are used regularly in cooking too. As well as the egg in mayonnaise, mustard powder is also added to many recipes. This also helps it to stay homogeneous.
In industrial food production, several harmless emulsifiers, not common-place in the home, have been used for some time. One such is xanthan gum. The name is perhaps misleading as it is not a gum as such when bought, but an off-white powder that is usually accused of being either cocaine or flour. The usage of the word gum is perhaps clearer when we consider the properties it has on being mixed with fat and water. Figure 3 shows the transformation. Here, I include weights and volumes so you can do this yourself if you want to.
In part A we see the oil (clear yellow layer, 10 mL) above the water (colourless layer, 25 mL). Adding the xanthan gum (B, 5 g) appears to do little initially (C), however a brief agitation of the system leads to homogenesis of the three substances (D). Not only do we have an homogenous mixture, but also one that is thicker than it was previously – squeezing it out gives the appearance of an off-white turd (E). Said turd goes brilliantly with a sprig of basil or rosemary and glass of chilled white Sancerre.
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U.S. Navy in Florida
The presence of the U.S. Navy in Florida officially began with the transfer of the peninsula by Spain to the U.S. in 1821, and the subsequent establishment of Florida as a U.S. Territory. Two of the earliest American military vessels which sank in Florida waters were actually American privateers captured by Britain's Royal Navy during the American Revolution, and which later sank while in Royal Navy service. The captured American privateer Who's Afraid was placed into the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Mentor. The captured American privateer Independence was placed into the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Racer. HMS Mentor was burned by the British at Pensacola in 1781 to prevent her capture by invading Spanish forces. HMS Racer foundered in a gale in the Gulf of Mexico in 1814. The first commissioned Navy ship lost in Florida waters was USS Alligator, which wrecked in the Florida Keys in 1822, while assigned to combat piracy. Many naval, and other military craft have been sunk in Florida waters since 1821, through military action, foundering, grounding, fire and explosion, deliberate sinking to create artificial reefs, and other causes. Such shipwrecks are the major focus of the Florida Navy Legacy Shipwreck Project.
During its long history in Florida, the U.S. Navy has established a number of naval bases and stations. The most strategically significant of these have been at Pensacola, Key West, and Jacksonville. There has been a U.S. Navy presence at Pensacola since 1825, at Key West since 1822, and more recently at Jacksonville since the Second World War. There have been several military conflicts in Florida since 1821 in which the U.S. Navy has played an important role. These were the First Seminole War (1816-1818), the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), the Third Seminole War (1855-1858), the Civil War (1861-1865), the Spanish American War (1898), the First World War (1917-1918), the Second World War (1941-45), and events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis (1963).
During the Seminole Wars, the Spanish American War, and First and Second World Wars, there were a number of smaller Naval stations established along Florida's vast coastline. During the Seminole Wars, these stations were often operated as supply depots, intended for the joint Army-Navy operations being conducted. One example is the Naval Depot established on Key Biscayne in 1836, which lasted until 1926. During the First and Second World Wars, with new developments in aviation technology, these coastal naval stations were outfitted to serve as stations for lighter than air craft (dirigibles), conventional aircraft, and smaller surface craft, used to patrol Florida's coastline and offshore waters. Between the spring of 1942, and the fall of 1943, German submarines attacked and sank large numbers of ships on Florida's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The Navy's system of coastal defense was ultimately one of the major factors which turned the tide against the U-Boats and caused Germany's Naval Command to redirect its effort to other locations where targets were easier to attack.
Since the Second World War, the U.S. Navy has continued to maintain a significant presence in Florida. The Key West Naval Station became a major staging area for the Navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example. Recognizing the on-going strategic significance of the Key West Naval Station, the Navy invested large amounts of money in the early 1980s to upgrade its facilities. Since the stationing of the Navy's first aircraft carrier at Pensacola in 1925, Pensacola has become the focus for naval aviation activities and training. A Naval Training Center was in operation at Orlando from 1968 to 1994. Today in Florida, there are naval facilities at Pensacola, Panama City, Key West, Homestead, Mayport and Jacksonville, as well as some other smaller stations.
The U.S. Navy's history in Florida spans 175 years, from the earliest days of U.S. territorial expansion to the Space and Nuclear Age. Although much valuable work has already been done, much of this interesting chapter of U.S. Naval history remains to be studied and written by future historians.


by Nate Jones, Vertebrate Ecology Lab
(still in the Bering Sea) … Of course the bad weather I’ve been writing about was nothing compared to what happens on the Bering during the months of February or March, and the Gold Rush fishes regularly during that time of year, so I had complete faith in the seaworthiness of the ship and the judgment and skill of the crew. I took comfort in that thought, and stumbled down to my bunk for what became a grueling 72 hours of bumps, rolls, and queasy stomachs. During this stormy time the crew exchanged watches at the helm, keeping the ship pointed into the fury.
We all hoped for the best, but by the time the seas had calmed to (a more manageable?) 8-10’, the hungry ocean had damaged and ripped off much of our scientific equipment, snapping several ¼” steel bolts and ripping welds clean apart!
The Gold Rush itself weathered this storm in fine shape (wish we could say the same of our scientific equipment!), and there were no major injuries to anyone on board. It really was quite a minor event in the context of the Bering Sea; just another blowy, bumpy day or two out on the water.
But, it impressed me and I couldn’t help contemplating darker scenarios – what happens when there is a true emergency? What if someone had been swept overboard, or, worse yet, what if the ship itself had been damaged or taken on water and started to go down? Such things do happen, although not as frequently now as they have in the past (coast guard regulations and improvements in technology and crew training have contributed to much increased safety).
In my next post I’ll put up some images from training exercises that are routinely undertaken to help prepare crew and passengers (scientists) for emergencies at sea…


Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave
Barnave, Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie (äNtwänˈ pyĕr zhōzĕfˈ märēˈ bärnävˈ) [key], 1761–93, French revolutionary. A member of the States-General of 1789 from Grenoble, he was a brilliant speaker and leader of the Jacobins. After Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette fled to Varennes in 1791, Barnave believed that the king might finally be persuaded to accept a constitutional government, thereby avoiding the impending political anarchy. He began a correspondence with Marie Antoinette, encouraging her to convert the monarchy to the Revolution; this correspondence was later used as evidence of Barnave's treasonous activities. In July, 1791, he spoke in the assembly in favor of the restoration of the king as a constitutional monarch and appealed for an end to the Revolution. He retired to Grenoble, and was tried for treason and guillotined (1793). His history of the French Revolution, written during his imprisonment, is considered a major work that tried to put the Revolution into a broader political and social framework.
See E. Chill, Power, Property, and History: Barnave's Introduction to the French Revolution and Other Writings (1971).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: French History: Biographies


There was no question that the monarch was in charge. Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and James I (1603-25) both made it very clear that they ruled the country. They made the laws, they fought the wars, they appointed the top ministers and so on. However, the monarchy worked on the basis of cooperation between the monarch and the political nation.
The political nation was the nobles and gentry. The nobles were the very rich landowners. The gentry were the wealthy smaller landowners and also rich merchants in the towns. They were a tiny minority of the population, but they held most of the wealth and power in the kingdom. They saw themselves as the protectors of the ordinary people. They were the Members of Parliament and they collected the king’s taxes. The local gentleman or merchant was usually the local magistrate. The gentry were in charge of the local militia (armed forces). They were also in charge of law and order because there was no police at this time. Their estates and businesses made them the biggest employers.
The court was the gathering of people around the monarch. Wherever the monarch was, the court would also be. It included all the top nobles and officials. James I ran a very informal court. In fact he had a reputation for being too informal – he sometimes got drunk and there were lots of stories of very bad behaviour. It was quite easy for a top noble to get to talk to the king. The noble might want to do this because he was concerned about a particular law or policy that he did not agree with. James was usually prepared to explain his policies, and he often made compromises with the nobles. The court was one way that the top nobles could communicate with the king.
Parliament was made up of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords contained the great nobles from the richest and most powerful families. The MPs in the House of Commons were elected. Members of the gentry and wealthy merchant classes elected men from their own class to sit in Parliament.
Parliament was an important way that the political nation and the monarch could communicate. The monarch made speeches to Parliament. MPs also made speeches and wrote letters of advice to the monarch.
James I and most other monarchs preferred to rule without Parliament. However, James often ran short of money. He needed the support of MPs to agree to new taxes to raise money. He also needed the cooperation of MPs to collect these taxes. As a result, he usually agreed to listen to the concerns of MPs and accepted some of their advice.
Charles I was James I’s son. He came to the throne in 1625. He was the ruler of three kingdoms – England, Ireland and Scotland. It was a hard job to rule three kingdoms. They had different laws, churches, languages and traditions.
Charles spent most of his time in his richest and most powerful kingdom – England. His biggest problem was working with the MPs in England’s Parliament. Charles believed very strongly in the Divine Right of kings. This meant that the right to rule was based on the law of God. The King was responsible to God alone therefore nobody could question the King or disobey him. Unfortunately for Charles, the political nation was not happy about such views. They expected to be able to talk to the monarch, discuss policies and reach agreements. Charles was not suited to this approach. He was a private man who did not speak much and who liked order and discipline in all aspects of his life. He never developed his father’s political skill in working out compromises to tricky problems.
Charles was shy, small and had a stammer. This probably made him insecure. This may help to explain why his court was very grand and formal. It was held in magnificent palaces like Whitehall, full of riches. Charles invited great painters like Anthony van Dyck to his court. The people there wore expensive, impressive clothes. There were rules about how everyone should behave. Charles also restricted the number of people who could come and talk to him. They had to have an appointment. His right-hand man, the Duke of Buckingham, controlled access to Charles.
Charles tended to rely too heavily on one or two officials he trusted. His closest minister was George Villers, usually known as Buckingham. Buckingham used his position of power and influence with Charles to make himself and his family rich. He made sure that his friends and family were appointed to the top jobs in the government. As a result, he was widely hated by many Lords and MPs. What was worse, Buckingham was not particularly good at his job. Charles I gave him command of a military expedition against Spain in 1625. It was a failure, with many of the troops being killed by disease or made ill by cheap Spanish wine. He led another disastrous military campaign in 1627. The following year Buckingham was assassinated.


If genealogy books were rated by the pound, the book I examined this week would be number one. I don't recall ever picking up a single genealogy book as thick and heavy as this one. Of course, genealogy books are not graded by heft. Nonetheless, this particular book is the definitive guide to descents from the Magna Carta Barons of 1215 A.D. for over 200 individuals who emigrated from the British Isles to the North American colonies in the 17th century.
Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, by Douglas Richardson is a 1,099-page reference to those descents, combining both research in original records with the use of published literature to provide well-documented ancestral lines for American colonists with Magna Carta ancestry. Yes, that is one thousand ninety-nine pages. Best of all, nearly every page is full of high-quality, well-researched genealogy information.
Magna Carta (Latin for "Great Charter") is a document written in 1215 A.D. that serves as the charter of England which limited the power of English monarchs. King John was the ruler at the time, and he ruled with an iron fist, much to the chagrin of his noblemen. The barons of England organized numerous uprisings. In the face of such strong and well-organized opposition, King John was forced to renounce certain rights and to grant a charter of liberties. This document stated that the King would respect certain legal procedures and accept the premise that the will of the king could be bound by law. Magna Carta is widely considered to be the first step in a long historical process leading to the rule of constitutional law.
Magna Carta was signed in the meadow at Runnymede on June 15, 1215. Numerous disagreements arose immediately, and King John soon refuted it. A civil war then erupted. In the midst of this war, King John died of dysentery on October 18, 1216. His death quickly changed the nature of the war. His nine-year-old son, King Henry III, was soon crowned King of England. The civil war stopped, and a somewhat modified Magna Carta was issued. When he turned eighteen in 1225, Henry III himself reissued Magna Carta a third time, this time in a shorter version with only 37 articles.
The twenty-five barons who signed the Magna Carta were the leading nobles of England at the time. Most were married, and many had large families. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of people alive today can trace their ancestry back to one or more of these twenty-five barons. Indeed, this book, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, lists 238 Colonial-era immigrants to the United States with proven descent from the Magna Carta barons. If one of these immigrants is in your family tree, this book will trace your ancestry back to the meadow at Runnymede in 1215 A.D.
This scholarly book features thousands of biographical sketches of people who lived in medieval England and their descendants through to those who immigrated to America. The book also contains more than 28,000 source citations to published materials, making it the most documented source book of its kind. In fact, the extensive cross-referencing makes the text simple to follow. The book also contains a 93-page bibliography, probably the most exhaustive listing of medieval genealogy and history ever published. Finally, Magna Carta Ancestry contains an index of over 18,000 entries.
Author Doug Richardson has refuted numerous published genealogies in this new book, pointing to source citations that disprove many lineages that have been accepted for decades. If you believe that you have royal or noble English ancestry, you need to check this book!
Many new additions to the book show the lineages of colonial immigrants that previously were unknown. As a result, many people will be able to claim noble ancestry for the first time.
While the primary audience for this book is anyone with American ancestry in the Colonial era, the book contains extensive biographical information about thousands of individuals who lived in England between 1215 and the 17th century. As such, the information will be of interest to anyone with ancestry in England, even if their later ancestors moved to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or elsewhere.
A complete list of the 17th-century American immigrants with proven Magna Carta ancestry can be found on the publisher's web site at http://www.genealogical.com/item_detail.asp?afid=&ID=4887
Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, by Douglas Richardson will be the standard reference for many, many years. This huge scholarly work with more than 28,000 source citations belongs on the shelf at every genealogy library as well as in many private collections.
Magna Carta Ancestry sells for $100 and is available directly from Genealogical Publishing Company at http://www.genealogical.com/item_detail.asp?afid=&ID=4887 as well as from Amazon.com and from many other bookstores. You can order it by specifying ISBN 0806317590.


Fragmented across Central Asia, China, and Tibet, snow leopards (Uncia uncia) roam through mountain corridors and montane habitats. Today, scientists think there are between 4,000 and 7,500 snow leopards exist in the wild with most of them living within China. But accurate estimates are difficult to make when dealing with this elusive master of camouflage in its unwelcoming home.
Snow leopards have developed many interesting characteristics that help it survive in the cold, mountainous terrain they call home. Their long tails help them balance on steep, rocky terrain, and their large paws and furry feet act as snow shoes in deep mountain snows. Living at heights of 2,000 to 6,000 kilometers, they also have special nasal cavities that help them breath low-oxygen mountain air.
Did you know? Snow leopards can leap vertically 6-10 meters (20-30 feet). This helps them hunt prey on steep, rocky mountainsides.
Because food is scarce at such high altitudes, snow leopards are solitary animals, hunting and eating whatever meat they are able to find – including deer, marmots, boars and farm livestock. This also means, however, that they are not as possessive of their home ranges. In areas where food is more plentiful, a snow leopard might have a small range of 12-15 km2, whereas if food is not available, a snow leopard may roam up to 40 km2 to find sufficient food.
Threats to the Snow Leopard
Snow leopards are hunted for their bones, which are in demand to replace tiger bones in Chinese medicinal traditions. Additionally, in eastern Asia, fur coats and similar items made from snow leopard skins have become increasingly popular.
Habitat loss and changing patterns of land use have also threatened snow leopard populations. In the Central Asian mountains, the animals that snow leopards prey on have been hunted to dangerously low numbers, threatening the food supply of these sleek animals. Decreasing wild food supplies have often driven snow leopards to small farms, resulting in unfortunate clashes between these threatened animals and local farmers.
Although some conservation projects have been put in place to conserve the habitats and environments for the snow leopard populations, additional projects focusing on local education and corridor-building would make an important contribution to snow leopard conservation.


PROVIDENCE, RI -- Shifting glaciers and exploding volcanoes aren't confined to Mars' distant past, according two new reports in the journal Nature.
Glaciers moved from the poles to the tropics 350,000 to 4 million years ago, depositing massive amounts of ice at the base of mountains and volcanoes in the eastern Hellas region near the planet's equator, based on a report by a team of scientists analyzing images from the Mars Express mission. Scientists also studied images of glacial remnants on the western side of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system. They found additional evidence of recent ice formation and movement on these tropical mountain glaciers, similar to ones on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.
In a second report, the international team reveals previously unknown traces of a major eruption of Hecates Tholus less than 350,000 million years ago. In a depression on the volcano, researchers found glacial deposits estimated to be 5 to 24 million years old.
James Head, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and an author on the Nature papers, said the glacial data suggests recent climate change in Mars' 4.6-billion-year history. The team also concludes that Mars is in an "interglacial" period. As the planet tilts closer to the sun, ice deposited in lower latitudes will vaporize, changing the face of the Red Planet yet again.
Discovery of the explosive eruption of Hecates Tholus provides more evidence of recent Mars rumblings. In December, members of the same research team revealed that calderas on five major Mars volcanoes were repeatedly active as little as 2 million years ago. The volcanoes, scientists speculated, may even be active today.
"Mars is very dynamic," said Head, lead author of one of the Nature reports. "We see that the climate change and geological forces that drive evolution on Earth are happening there."
Head is part of a 33-institution team analyzing images from Mars Express, launched in June 2003 by the European Space Agency. The High Resolution Stereo Camera, or HRSC, on board the orbiter is producing 3-D images of the planet's surface.
These sharp, panoramic, full-color pictures provided fodder for a third Nature report. In it, the team offers evidence of a frozen body of water, about the size and depth of the North Sea, in southern Elysium.
A plethora of ice and active volcanoes could provide the water and heat needed to sustain basic life forms on Mars. Fresh data from Mars Express – and the announcement that live bacteria were found in a 30,000-year-old chunk of Alaskan ice – is fueling discussion about the possibility of past, even present, life on Mars. In a poll taken at a European Space Agency conference last month, 75 percent of scientists believe bacteria once existed on Mars and 25 percent believe it might still survive there.
Head recently traveled to Antarctica to study glaciers, including bacteria that can withstand the continent's dry, cold conditions. The average temperature on Mars is estimated to be 67 degrees below freezing. Similar temperatures are clocked in Antarctica's frigid interior.
"We're now seeing geological characteristics on Mars that could be related to life," Head said. "But we're a long way from knowing that life does indeed exist. The glacial deposits we studied would be accessible for sampling in future space missions. If we had ice to study, we would know a lot more about climate change on Mars and whether life is a possibility there."
The European Space Agency, the German Aerospace Center and the Freie Universitaet in Berlin built and flew the HRSC and processed data from the camera. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) supported Head's work.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Teachers, register your class or environmental club in our annual Solar Oven Challenge! Registration begins in the fall, and projects must be completed in the spring to be eligible for prizes and certificates.
Who can participate?
GreenLearning's Solar Oven Challenge is open to all Canadian classes. Past challenges have included participants from grade 3 through to grade 12. Older students often build solar ovens as part of the heat unit in their Science courses. Other students learn about solar energy as a project in an eco-class or recycling club.
How do you register?
1. Registration is now open to Canadian teachers. To register, send an email to Gordon Harrison at GreenLearning. Include your name, school, school address and phone number, and the grade level of the students who will be participating.
2. After you register, you will receive the Solar Oven Challenge Teacher's Guide with solar oven construction plans. Also see re-energy.ca for construction plans, student backgrounders, and related links on solar cooking and other forms of renewable energy. At re-energy.ca, you can also see submissions, photos and recipes from participants in past Solar Oven Challenges.
3. Build, test and bake with solar ovens!
4. Email us photos and descriptions of your creations by the deadline (usually the first week of June).
5. See your recipes and photos showcased at re-energy.ca. Winners will be listed there and in GreenLearning News.


KDL Recommends For Kids > PLAY-GROW-READ! - Books for Early Literacy > Katie L. Talks: Books that Invite Participation
Shout! Shout It Out!
Title: Shout! Shout It Out!
Author: Denise Fleming
CONCEPT E FLEMING
Mouse invites the reader to shout out what he or she knows as they review numbers, letters, and easy words.
Kids are often told to sit still and be quiet. But Denise Fleming encourages them to shout, shout it out! By taking basic learning concepts like numbers, letters, and colors and putting them on display, she asks kids to shout out what they know—and her readers will be happy to oblige.
With bold colors and her unique handmade paper art, Denise Fleming makes learning into a game. Long-time fans and sharp-eyed newcomers will be happy to see that Mouse returns on every page, shouting along with the crowd!


Entomological Survey of Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area, Belize
Peter Kovarik, John Shuey, and Chris Carlton
During the mid-late 1990's, lepidopterist John Shuey became interested in testing the widely touted concept that insect communities are useful in evaluating impacts to ecological integrity in tropical forest communities. At that time the literature had been advocating insects, especially butterflies, as appropriate indicators for assessing the impacts of specific management activities on tropical forests. People were already using insects as indicators, despite the fact that this simple premise had yet to be tested. John enlisted coleopterist Peter Kovarik as a partner in this study. The two decided that in addition to butterflies, scarabaeine scarabs and hister beetles would become part of the study. The taxa that were selected were chosen in part because of their susceptibility to bait and or passive trapping techniques. In fact the beauty of this study was that we envisioned relatively little active collecting. This way we could quasi enjoy ourselves while our traps were filling with insects!
The site chosen for our study was Rio Bravo Conservation Area located in Orange Walk Province, Belize. Rio Bravo is a 230,000 acre nature preserve in the northwestern corner of the country near the corner where Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico meet. Rio Bravo is a beautiful mosaic of semitropical moist forest, savanna, and wetland habitats with over 230 species of trees, 70 species of mammals, and approximately 400 species of birds. Among large animals, the area has healthy populations of jaguar, puma, Baird's tapir, and two species of monkeys. There are also significant Mayan archeological sites, and the area has a colorful recent history of mahogany logging, chicl? extraction, and marijuana farming. This preserve is ministered by Programme For Belize (PfB), a private conservation organization that holds Rio Bravo in trust for the people of Belize. PfB integrates elements of sustainable forestry and natural product harvesting, ecotourism, and education into a single comprehensive long-term management plan. For a location map of Rio Bravo click on the PfB logo above. For additional information about The Nature Conservancy's role, click on that logo.
Rio Bravo turned out to be an ideal setting for our study. In addition to extensive areas of oak-pine savanna, there were huge expanses of contiguous limestone rainforest without excessive topographic variability. Within this expanse of fairly homogenous habitat, there were areas along trails or roads through the forest that had been fairly recently logged. We sought to imbed our sample sites within areas that were both recently disturbed by man and others which had been relatively untouched for quite some time. Because Rio Bravo is a preserve and PfB encourages research activities, we felt confidant that human impact on both the ecosystem and our sampling devices would be minimal. Thus, it seemed probable that any potential differences we observed in insect communities between our sample sites would be primarily due to forest integrity rather than extraneous factors.
Our core studies were conducted once during the dry season and twice during the rainy season. They were completed in 1996. Since neither John nor Pete knew much about scarabaeine scarabs, expert Bill Warner was coaxed into participating by promising him many scarabs with no strings attached. In fact Bill eventually joined us in Rio Bravo in July 1996. We are still awaiting some of our quantitative insect data, but we have botanical assessments of each forest tract, and data from the sample events for butterflies and hister beetles in hand. As soon as the last of our insect data is cleaned up, we will finish off the ecological end of this work.
Like many studies, this one began small and focused and eventually expanded into a full blown entomological survey. Coleopterist Chris Carlton became the third major player in our survey. Chris has made several trips to Rio Bravo and done some intensive leaf litter work and set up many a flight intercept trap in search of tiny pselaphid beetles. We collected massive amounts of insects and have spent the last several years processing our samples and farming specimens out to various specialists who have generously provided us with identifications. We have learned, with little surprise that many of the insects that inhabit the forests and savannas of Rio Bravo are new to science. Many others are new country records. This is not surprising either since the entomofauna of Belize is poorly known. What is perhaps a bit of a surprise are the many unusual range extensions for some of the described insect species. This indicates that knowing the insect fauna of Belize will improve our understanding of the zoogeography of Mexico and Central America.
The following checklists and are now available and more will be added as they mature. Available images may be accessed through links within the checklists.
- Anthribidae, by Charles O'Brien
- Cerambycidae, by Robert Turnbow
- Chrysomelidae, by Shawn Clark
- Curculionidae, by Charles O'Brien
- Elateroidea, by Paul Johnson
- Erotylidae, by Paul Skelley
- Mordellidae, by John Jackman
- Staphylinidae: subfamily Pselaphinae, by Chris Carlton
- Tenebrionidae, by Charles Triplehorn and Otto Merkl
For questions and comments contact Peter Kovarik.


UK Telegraph had the original report
This astounding achievement is a big step toward protecting sensitive electronics and the delicate human body against the radioactive effects of manned missions between the planets.
Earlier paper from 2008 - The interaction of a flowing plasma with a dipole magnetic field: measurements and modelling of a diamagnetic cavity relevant to spacecraft protection
Minimag presenation from Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, early 2010
In results just published in the journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, they have devised a system no bigger than a large desk that uses the same energy as an electric kettle. Two mini-magnetospheres will be contained within two mini satellites located outside the spaceship. Should there be an increase in solar wind flux, or an approaching cloud of energetic particles from a flare and/or coronal mass ejection (CME), the magnetospheres can be switched on and the solar ions are deflected away from the spacecraft.
If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks
Ocean Floor Gold and Copper
Ocean Floor Mining Company


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> News > October
E-Cat Test Validates Cold Fusion Despite Challenges
The test of the E-Cat (Energy Catalyzer) that took place on October 6, 2011 in Italy has validated Andrea Rossi's claim that the device produces excess energy via a novel Cold Fusion nuclear reaction. Despite its success, the test was flawed, and could have been done in a way that produced more spectacular results -- as if confirmation of cold fusion is not already stunning enough.
Andrea Rossi stands in front of his E-Cat
apparatus, October 6, 2011
Photo by Maurizio Melis of Radio24
by Hank Mills
Pure Energy Systems News
Andrea Rossi has made big claims for the past year, about his cold fusion "E-Cat" (Energy Catalyzer) technology. He has claimed that it produces vast amounts of energy via a safe and clean low energy nuclear reaction that consumes only tiny amounts of nickel and hydrogen. A series of tests had been performed earlier this year that seemed to confirm excess energy is produced by the systems tested. Some of the tests were particularly impressive, such as one that lasted eighteen hours, and was performed by Dr. Levi of the University of Bologna. Unfortunately, the tests were not planned out as well as they could have been and had flaws.
The most recent test that took place on October 6, 2011 in Bologna, Italy, was supposed to address many of the concerns about the previous tests, and be performed in a way that would put to rest many issues that had been discussed continually on the internet. Despite showing clear evidence of excess energy -- which is absolutely fantastic -- this most recent test failed to live up to its full potential. It was a big success in that it validated the claim the E-Cat produces excess energy via cold fusion, but it was not nearly as successful as it could have been. Or as successful as we, the outsiders looking in, would like for it to have been.
The Inventor's Mindset
One thing that should be stated is that inventors do not always think like the people who follow their inventions. They have their own mindset and way of looking at things. This should be obvious, because they are seeing *everything* from a different perspective. For example, when we think seeing the inside of an important component would be exciting and informative, they consider it a threat to their intellectual property. Or, for example, when we would like to see a test run for days, they are thinking that a few hours is long enough. In their mind, they know their technology works, and running it for hours, days, or weeks would be more of a chore to them than an exciting event.
In Rossi's case, he has worked with these reactors for many years. He has tested them time and time again. In fact, he has built hundreds of units (of different models), and has tested every one of them. He is aware of how the units operate and how they perform. Actually, for a period of many months to a year or more, he had an early model of E-Cat heating one of his offices in Italy. Satisfying the curiosity of internet "chatters" by operating a unit for an extended period of time -- beyond what he thinks is needed to prove the effect -- is just a waste of his time, according to his thinking. He could spend the time getting the one megawatt plant ready to launch.
Don't forget, Rossi is a busy person. In addition to finishing the one megawatt plant, he has a new partner company to find, a wife at home, and a life to live! We need to consider that he works sixteen to eighteen hours a day building units, testing them, addressing other issues about the E-Cat. Although he is a very helpful person in many ways (willing to communicate with people and answer questions), he simply does not have the time to grant all of the many requests made of him. If he did, he could not get any work done at all, and the E-Cat would never be launched, or ever make it to the market place!
The Outsider's Mindset
I consider myself an outsider. I have never built a cold fusion device, have never spent years working to develop a technology, and have never gone through the grueling process of trying to bring a product into the market place. Although I spend a lot of time researching various technologies on the internet, I don't work sixteen to eighteen hours a day. In addition, I have no vested interest in the success of any technology, other than simply wanting at least one to hit the market place, ASAP.
As an outsider, I do not think like Rossi thinks. I don't think the majority of people think like Rossi thinks, because they are not in his shoes. They are not working to the point of exhaustion, and do not have years of their life invested in an exotic technology. Due to the fact we do not think like Rossi, his actions or sometimes lack thereof can seem strange, bizarre, or odd. Sometimes, they can make us want to smack ourselves, to make sure we are not in some sort of strange dream.
The recent test on October 6, 2011 is an example of a situation in which outsiders would have liked to have seen a very different test. Here are examples of how an outsider would have liked to see the test performed, compared to Rossi's possible mindset.
(Please note that I am making speculations about what Rossi is thinking, and his mindset. I do not know for sure if my guesses are accurate. If they are not, then I would like to apologize to Rossi, and give him the chance to respond in any way he sees fit.)
In the recent test, the output producing capability of the reactors was throttled down for safety reasons. This may have been done by keeping the hydrogen pressure low, or adding less of the catalyst to the nickel powder. Also, only one out of the three reactors that were inside of the module, were used in the test. For an experimental test to prove the effect beyond a shadow of a doubt, I, as an outsider, would have loved to have seen the device fully throttled up, despite the safety risks. Even if it meant everyone that attended would have had to sign long legal disclaimers, it would have been worth it.
I think it would have been great if all three reactors were utilized, and they all were adjusted to produce their maximum level of output. This would have increased the amount of output produced dramatically, and would have reduced the amount of input needed. The more heat produced by the system, the less heat would have needed to be input via the electric resistors.
Rossi, on the other hand, probably thought throttling up the device to a high level was not worth the risk, and was not needed to prove that excess energy was being produced. It is true that an explosion causing injuries -- while probably VERY unlikely -- could result in a setback of his project, and possible legal ramifications. Also, in reality, the test proved excess energy was being produced even with only one, throttled down reactor being used.
So even though a test of the device adjusted to operate at full power would have been useful and exciting, it was not absolutely needed for what Rossi wanted to accomplish.
I would like to ask Rossi to consider performing a demonstration with a module both adjusted to operate at full power, and utilizing all three reactor cores. Even if he has to limit the number of people involved, perform the test remotely with cameras monitoring the module, utilize a blast shield, or only allow certain individuals (who have signed disclaimers) to go into the room in which the module is running.
A Longer Self Sustain
As an outsider, I have not had the chance to look at test data from these devices self-sustaining for long periods of time -- 12 hours, 24 hours, days, weeks, etc. I would really like to see one of these units self sustain for a *very* long period of time. This is not because I think the output of the E-Cat during the recent test was due to stored energy being released (the 'thermal inertia' theory being floated around the internet). In fact, I think that the flat line in NyTeknik's graph -- showing self sustain mode for three and a half hours without any drop in output temperature -- provides clear evidence against the thermal inertia theory. The reason I would like to see a longer period of self sustain, is that it would not only document a huge gain of energy, but one that no individual could rationally deny!
Rossi has claimed that these devices represent an alternative energy solution that could change the world. I think this is true. However, to show just how much potential this technology has, an even more extended test of the E-Cat in self sustain mode (at full power or at least with all three reactors inside the module being used), would have been much more impressive. I am not saying the Oct. 6 test was not impressive -- it was very significant because it demonstrated excess energy and proof of cold fusion -- but that a longer test would have been better. It would have done more to shut up the cynics (a few of which will never change their minds), and help the technology get into the mainstream (dumbstream) media.
I really don't think Rossi cares too much about showing off the technology's full potential, at this point. He also does not seem to appear to want the attention of the mainstream media, or at least any more than he thinks he needs. If he did, the test would have been far different, and would have produced such a gigantic amount of excess energy everyone's jaws would have dropped. My jaw dropped when I saw the flat line during self sustain mode (because it proved beyond a doubt the system was producing excess energy), but my jaw did not drop as far as it could have, if the period of operation had lasted longer.
Interestingly, I have known inventors, of unrelated energy technologies, that purposely held back from showing the *best* version of their technology. They did not want to show off too much, because they did not want to deal with the fallout of attracting too much attention. Instead of performing an amazing demonstration, they performed one that proved the point -- at least to their satisfaction -- but would not attraction too much attention. I think Rossi may feel the same way. If he had his way, he would have never done a single test before the launch of the one megawatt plant. It was Focardi that convinced him to do a public test, because he feared that (due to health problems) he may not live long enough to see the technology be revealed to the world.
A longer test (at least 12 hours) in self sustain mode would have been great, exciting, and would have produced even more excess energy. However, in Rossi's mind, it was not needed, for potentially valid reasons (at least from the perspective of someone on the inside).
I would simply like to humbly plead with Rossi, to try and step in the shoes of the outsider, and at the next test allow the module to run for a longer period in self sustain mode.
Modern Testing Methods and Tools
I have looked at the data acquired during the test, but have not had a chance to study it as in depth as I would like to. The data shows a clear gain of energy in my opinion, and confirms that the E-Cat is producing excess energy. As I said before, the test was a success. However, it could have been performed in a more modern way.
For example, all of the temperature measurements, power input measurements, and water flow measurements should have been fed into the same computer, to be recorded in a real time manner. This way all the data would have been automatically recorded into one data set, including the hour and second of every measurement. It seems data collection was not done this way at the test, and some of the data was actually taken by hand!
Because the data was not all automatically recorded into one computer during the test, NyTeknik (who had the exclusive right to be the first to post a report on the test) has not yet posted a graph that charts all the measurements of all the factors of the test. What I would like to see is a single high resolution graph, that shows all of the measurements that were taken of every parameter of the test. If one graph showing everything would be too complex for a non-expert to easily interpret, then a series of graphs would be ideal. This would allow everyone to more simply determine the total energy in, and the total energy out.
The data collected and the manner in which it was collected is good enough to show there was a significant amount of excess energy produced, especially during self sustain mode. It may also be good enough to show even more details about the excess energy produced. Sadly, I'm not an expert in scientific data interpretation, so it takes me more time to interpret data than an expert who does so full time (like Rossi).
I hope that when I have had the time to examine the data in more depth, I will see that Rossi's claims about the results of the test (not just excess energy but a six fold gain of energy, in a worst case scenario) are accurate. At this point, I am not going to doubt him. He is the expert, and there are many people going over the data, and hopefully more data from the test will be coming in the near future.
What I would like to do, is request that he upgrade his data acquisition methods for any upcoming public tests. However, from Rossi's perspective, the way the data was acquired was good enough, and proved the point he wanted to make. I respect his view, but I do hope that he will change his mind in the future.
For the record, I am not stating that I think better data acquisition techniques are needed to verify his technology produces excess energy, and even significant amounts of it. I simply think it would make analysis of test data much simpler, quicker, and precise.
One of the most useful tools in the scientific method is a control. A control is an object or thing that you do not try to change during the experiment. For example, if you were giving an experimental drug to a hundred people, you might want to have a number of additional people who do not receive the drug. You would compare how the drug effects the people who consumed it, to those who did not receive the drug at all. By comparing the two sets of people, those who consumed the drug and those who did not, you could more easily see the effectiveness of the drug -- or if it was doing harm.
In Rossi's test, a control system would have been an E-Cat module that was setup in the exact same way, except it would have not been filled with hydrogen gas. It would have had the same flow of water going through it, the same electrical input, and it would have operated for the same length of time as the E-Cat unit with hydrogen. By comparing the two, you could easily see the difference between the "control" E-Cat (that was not having nuclear reactions take place), and the "real" E-Cat (that was producing excess heat).
If a control had been used in the experiment, the excess heat would be even more obvious. It would have been so obvious, that it could have made the test go from a major success (with some flaws), to the most spectacular scientific test in the last hundred years.
Yes, a control would have made that much of a difference!
I understand that Rossi may not see the need for a control, when the test that was performed clearly showed excess energy without it. A control might have made the experiment so mind blowingly amazing, it could have attracted too much media attention, too many scientists that would want to get involved, and too many individuals wanting additional information. The result could have been that Rossi would not even have the time to finish his one megawatt plant.
However, from the view point of an outsider, I think a control would have greatly benefited the experiment. If it created too much media attention, perhaps someone could volunteer to work for a month as an unpaid intern, filtering through all of the requests from media representatives, and taking care of many non-technical tasks, so Rossi could focus on getting the one megawatt plant ready!
I sincerely hope that during the test of the one megawatt plant, and any tests before then, a control run will be performed, in which no hydrogen is placed in the reactors.
Rossi's Statement about the Test Results
Andrea Rossi responded to an email we sent him that had questions about the test. Here is the email, and his responses.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUOUS ATTENTION. PLEASE FIND THE ANSWERS IN BLOCK LETTERS ALONG YOUR TEXT:
Dear Andrea Rossi,
In regards to the latest test of the Energy Catalyzer, I have a number of questions I hope you can answer.
1) My understanding is that if a reactor core is not adjusted to be under-powered (below its maximum potential) in self-sustain mode, it can have a tendency to become unstable and climb in output. If the reactor is left in an unstable self-sustaining mode for too long, the output can climb to potentially dangerous levels. Can you provide some information about how the reactor core in the test was adjusted to self-sustain in a safe manner?
NO, VERY SORRY
a) For example, there was only one active reactor core in the module tested. How was the single reactor core adjusted to be under-powered?
b) Is adjusting the reactor core as simple as lowering the hydrogen pressure?
2) What is the power consumption of the device that "produces frequencies" that was mentioned in the NyTeknik article? Although the power consumption of this device is probably insignificant, providing a figure could help put to rest the idea (that some are suggesting) that a large amount of power was being consumed by the frequency-generating device, and transmitted into the reactor.
THE ENERGY CONSUMED FROM THE FREQUENCY GENERATOR IS 50 WH/H AND IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED, BECAUSE THIS APPARATUS WAS PLUGGED IN THE SAME LINE WHERE THE ENERGY-CONSUME MEASUREMENT HAS BEEN DONE
a) Can you tell us anything more about this frequency generating device and its function?
NO, SORRY, THIS IS A CONFIDENTIAL ISSUE
b) Is the frequency-generating device turned on at all times when a module is in operation, or only when a module is in self-sustain mode?
c) Some are suggesting that this device is "the" catalyst that drives the reactions in the reactor core. However, you have stated in the past that the catalyst is actually one or more physical elements (in addition to nickel and hydrogen) that are placed in the reactor core. Can you confirm that physical catalysts are used in the reactor?
YES, I CONFIRM THIS
3) Does the reaction have to be quenched with additional water flow though the reactor, or is reducing the hydrogen pressure enough to end the reactions on its own?
NEEDS ADDITIONAL QUENCHING
a) If reducing the hydrogen pressure (or venting it completely) is not enough to turn off the module, could it be due to the fact some hydrogen atoms are still bonded to nickel atoms, and undergoing nuclear reactions?
b) If there is some other reason why reducing hydrogen pressure is not enough to quickly turn off the module, could you please specify?
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, and for allowing a test to be performed that clearly shows anomalous and excess energy being produced. Hopefully, the world will notice the significance of this test.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, AND, SINCE I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOT TIME TO ANSWER (I MADE AN EXCEPTION FOR YOU) PLEASE EXPLAIN THAT BEFORE THE SELF SUSTAINING MODE THE REACTOR WAS ALREADY PRODUCING ENERGY MORE THAN IT CONSUMED, SO THAT THE ENERGY CONSUMED IS NOT LOST, BUT TURNED INTO ENERGY ITSELF, THEREFORE IS NOT PASSIVE. ANOTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION: IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY AT THE REPORT, YOU WILL SEE THAT THE SPOTS OF DRIVE WITH THE RESISTANCE HAVE A DURATION OF ABOUT 10 MINUTES, WHILE THE DURATION OF THE SELF SUSTAINING MODES IS PROGRESSIVELY LONGER, UNTIL IT ARRIVES TO BE UP TO HOURS. BESIDES, WE PRODUCED AT LEAST 4.3 kWh/h FOR ABOUT 6 HOURS AND CONSUMED AN AVERAGE OF 1.3 kWh/h FOR ABOUT 3 HOURS, SO THAT WE MADE IN TOTAL DURING THE TEST 25.8 kWh AND CONSUMED IN TOTAL DURING THE TEST 3.9 kWh. IN THE WORST POSSIBLE SCENARIO, WHICH MEANS NOT CONSIDERING THAT THE CONSUME IS MAINLY MADE DURING THE HEATING OF THE REACTOR DURING THE FIRST 2 HOURS, WE CAN CONSIDER THAT THE WORST POSSIBLE RATIO IS 25.8 : 3.9 AND THIS IS THE COP 6 WHICH WE ALWAYS SAID. OF COURSE, THE COP IS BETTER, BECAUSE, OBVIOUSLY, THE REACTOR, ONCE IN TEMPERATURE, NEEDS NOT TO BE HEATED AGAIN FROM ROOM TEMPERATURE TO OPERATIONAL TEMPERATURE.
WARMEST REGARDS TO ALL, ANDREA ROSSI
He claims that the test produced 25.8 kilowatt hours of power, and consumed only 3.9 kilowatt hours, not considering the losses from using two circuits of water and a heat exchanger. This would be very impressive for a system that is only using one reactor core (out of three), that has been adjusted to only produce a fraction of its maximum potential power.
However, from my analysis of the data so far (still trying to wrap my head around it), I have not been able to confirm his claim of a COP of 6. I am not saying it is not the case, or not in the data. I simply have yet to fully examine the data, and I am waiting for more data to be released.
Actually, I hope that someone will release all the data in one file and/or graph that will be easier to interpret. Perhaps NyTeknik, if they have not done so already, could contact Rossi or someone else who attended and recorded the data, and ask for any test data they are missing.
Bottom Line - Cold Fusion Is Here
The fact of the matter was that the October 6th test was a success in many ways.
- It documented a gain of energy.
- It documented a gain of energy in self-sustain mode.
- It documented massive "heat after death."
Most importantly, it proved beyond a doubt, that cold fusion is a reality.
Italian scientific journalist Maurizio Melis of Il Sole 24 Ore, who witnessed the test in Bologna,
"In the coming weeks Rossi aims to activate a 1MW plant, which is now almost ready, and we had the opportunity to inspect it during the demonstration of yesterday. If the plant starts up then it will be very difficult to affirm that it is a hoax. Instead, we will be projected suddenly into a new energetic era."
The test could have been made better in many ways. It had flaws. However, it was the most significant test of the E-Cat so far, for one reason in particular....
This graph shows that the E-Cat is a device producing excess energy, because the red line does not go down until after the hydrogen is vented.
- Some may legitimately argue about how much energy was produced, because we don't yet have all the test data in one easy to interpret graph or file.
- Some may point out the flaws in the test, such as the lack of a control, the lack of another several hours of operation in self sustain mode.
- Some may point out ways the test could be improved.
However, that graph by NyTeknik makes it clear the test was a success -- not a failure.
Mainstream media, your alarm clock is buzzing, it's time to wake up!
# # #
This story is also published at BeforeItsNews.
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Other PES Coverage
PESN Coverage of E-Cat
For a more exhaustive listing, see News:Rossi_Cold_Fusion
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- June 6, 2013 - EU Parliament gives LENR thumbs
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- May 30, 2013 - additional info on the E-Cat
3rd party test report (PESN)
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- May 23, 2013 - E-Cat 3rd Party Results Posted (PESN)
E-Cat Validation Creates More Questions (PESN;
May 21, 2013)
Third-Party E-Cat Test Results
Posted - posted on ArXiv.org
May 20, 2013)
Interview with E-Cat Distributor License Broker, Roger Green (PESN;
May 17, 2013)
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- May 9, 2013 - Interview with Rossi about recent 1 MW plant delivery
Interview with Andrea Rossi About 1 MW E-Cat Plant Delivery (PESN;
May 7, 2013)
LENR-to-Market MONTHLY -- April 29, 2013 - E-Cat teases with April 30
delivery date (PESN)
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- March 28, 2013 - E-Cat 3rd-Party testing
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- March 7, 2013 - more on NASA (PESN)
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- February 21, 2013 - NASA on nuclear reactor in
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- February 14, 2013 - Piantelli self-sustains 2
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- February 7, 2013 - CF 101 week 2 (PESN)
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- January 31, 2013 - CF 101 week 1 at MIT (PESN)
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- January 24, 2013 - Piantelli gets CF patent,
Rossi rebuffs (PESN)
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- January 17, 2013 - Defkalion joint venture
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- January 10, 2013 - Rossi having problems
finding certification for home application (PESN)
LENR-to-Market Weekly -- January 3, 2013 - Hot-Cat creating
electromotive force? (PESN)


"Have you ever passed a nail salon gasping from the chemicals seeping through the open door, while a dozen women patrons and their handlers are breathing in those same chemicals without a trace of discomfort?"
There was a time shortly before the human genome was sequenced that many believed genetic science was on the cusp of a medical revolution. Our sequenced DNA was thought to hold the key to understanding the onset of disease. Why are some children afflicted with autism? Why do some adults stop producing enough insulin? Why do some otherwise healthy individuals who reach their senior years lose mental functions and memory? Ten years after the human genome was sequenced, biomedical scientists have become more cautious in their optimism about how DNA sequencing will change medicine by revealing the existence of a disease years before its onset or by introducing new therapies with the tools of molecular medicine and stem cells.
The terms "gene-environment interaction" and "epigenetics" are now recognized as the clue to many disease conditions. The switches that turn genes on and off may be more important in understanding clinical pathology than mutations in coding sequences of DNA. These switches, which may stop or modify gene expression, are in the form of protein complexes that overlay the DNA code, such as histones or methyl groups, or the RNA interference molecules that reside in the genome.
On the website of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences we find the following statement: "A good part of who we are is 'written in our genes,' inherited from Mom and Dad. Many traits, like red or brown hair, body shape and even some personality quirks, are passed on from parent to offspring. But genes are not the whole story. Where we live, how much we exercise, what we eat: These and many other environmental factors can all affect how our genes get expressed."
Despite the growing awareness that environmental factors interact with and affect the human genome, most of the research remains focused on the mechanisms operating at the molecular level. Thus, there is much discussion about sequencing the epigenome to gain an understanding of the genetic switches or to probe deeply into non-coding DNA for discovery of RNA sequences that interfere or modulate gene expression.
Meanwhile, we know that around 100,000 people die from adverse drug reactions. Some people are highly sensitive to chemicals in perfumes or outgassing from carpets or plastic. The detoxification mechanisms of people vary widely. Without a sufficient quantity of enzyme production, our bodies cannot break down certain chemicals fast enough before experiencing harm. If we expect to make any major inroads into preventing the many environmentally-induced diseases, each of which may affect a small percentage of the population, then we must use the human genome and the epigenome to acquire an understanding of why some people are more adversely affected by environmental agents. What we need is a massive effort to unravel the "gene-environment" interaction in disease causation. We have over 100,000 chemicals in current industrial use. Many of these chemicals were introduced into commerce without much toxicological evaluation. It takes between 25-50 years to regulate or ban a chemical that has been shown to be harmful to humans. The United States has only banned about a half dozen chemicals over half a century. In part this is because the regulatory system is geared toward industrial interests. The government requires very minimal safety studies to permit a chemical into industrial use, but demands an extraordinary body of replicable scientific studies and cost-benefit analyses before a chemical is removed from the marketplace.
The one area where there have been major contributions in deciphering the gene-environment interaction is in the study of the genetic effects of ionizing radiation. Perhaps radiation effects on health is the low hanging fruit because of the mutations the radiation produces, although low level radiation effects remains highly controversial.
How can we learn what chemicals are adversely affecting the healthy human genome and what chemicals have differential effects on different genomes? How can we detect the detoxification potential of each individual toward a chemical? The differences in people's ability to detoxify a chemical may be the result of shorter genes coding for the relevant detoxifying enzymes, or the enzyme-producing gene is switched off.
Most of the commercial interest in the sequenced human genome has been focused on risk factors for certain diseases that are read from the individual's DNA. There is nothing in direct-to-consumer testing kits that reveals the cause of any disease other than what is encrypted in the code itself. And there are only a small number of illnesses where there is a one-to-one correlation between having a particular form of a gene and a disease, such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia and Canavan's disease.
Of course, a massive effort to determine how chemicals interact with the human genome may have unintended consequences. Instead of banning the chemical, it may result in a genetic classification of people-those hypersensitive to chemical X, those with peanut allergies, etc.-putting the onus on them about how to navigate through life. Many people have figured out they are hypersensitive to new carpets, latex or perfumes and learn how to keep away. But if we had a mechanism that showed us these people were not psychologically challenged but rather had a normal genome with less capacity to metabolize chemical toxins, we would have a new regulatory mechanism for removing the chemicals from the environment.
Biomedical scientists have been able to titrate chemotherapy agents to individuals based on genomic information. Gene expression patterns associated with sensitivity and/or resistance to chemotherapy may be used to help provide more effective treatment.
Scientists have used genetic testing to identify patients at high risk of bleeding from the drug warfarin. Two genes account for most of the risk. Recently, genetic variants in the gene encoding Cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP2C9, which metabolizes warfarin, and the Vitamin K epoxide reductase gene (VKORC1), has enabled more accurate dosing that takes account of the genome of an individual. Genotyping variants in genes encoding Cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYP2D6, CYP2C19, and CYP2C9), which metabolize antipsychotic medications, have been used to improve drug response and reduce side-effects. Pain killers like codeine affect people differently. Tests for certain enzymes (P450-2D6) can determine whether someone will be an ultra-rapid metabolizer of codeine, which could induce life-threatening toxicity.
If we can understand through certain enzyme pathways that individuals react differently to drugs and that some of us cannot efficiently metabolize certain chemicals, why couldn't we do the same for industrial toxins within the next 20 years? Once we learn that many people cannot de-toxify a chemical that bioaccumulates in their body, it provides new grounds for finding a substitute for that chemical rather than waiting a quarter century to complete hundreds of studies with mixed results.
Sheldon Krimsky, PhD, is Chair of the Board of Directors and a founder of the Council for Responsible Genetics. He is a Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University.


A rising tide of drug-resistant staph infections
Spider bites and pimples that just won't heal.
That's how parents are describing their children's skin infections that turn out to be caused by a deadly strain of drug-resistant "staph" bacteria, says C. Buddy Creech, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.
Creech has been following the rising tide of cases of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA, and he's concerned.
He describes deaths of children, particularly adolescents, who are healthy and then develop sudden, devastating disease.
"These are cases where a child has a fever on Saturday night, feels bad on Sunday, collapses in the pediatrician's office on Monday, and then dies. It's horrible."
Skin abscesses are the most common presentation, and recent MRSA outbreaks have occurred among athletes, prisoners and tattoo recipients, with the germ spreading through skin contact or shared items like towels.
Of the skin abscesses treated in the adult and pediatric emergency departments at Vanderbilt from Nov. 1, 2004 to Oct. 31, 2005, about 70 percent were
positive for MRSA, according to a study conducted by Thomas Talbot, M.D., assistant professor of Medicine.
These findings mirror the national scene. A study published this summer
in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that 59 percent of all skin infections among adults treated in emergency rooms in 11 U.S. cities in August 2004 were caused by MRSA.
"We culture every abscess now," Creech says. "Not only do we want to know if it's MRSA, we want to keep tabs on what MRSA is doing – is it becoming resistant to the drugs that we think still work?"
Physicians have been able to turn to some "old" antibiotics to treat community-associated MRSA, sulfa-type drugs like Bactrim that were not being routinely used because other germs had developed resistance to them, Creech says.
"There are two MRSA treatment arms right now – we still have a small number of drugs that are easy to give to people at home for uncomplicated MRSA infections, and we have several intravenous drugs, such as vancomycin, that we reserve for the critically ill patients."
With any of these antibiotics, Creech warns, "it's the finger in the proverbial dike. We will inevitably see resistance – it's just a matter of time."
Wendy Inman, a 30-year-old mother of three from Waynesboro, Tenn., knows about resistance firsthand.
She has battled skin abscesses caused by MRSA for the past three years. Because of repeated boils in her underarm area, both wearing clothing and letting her arms hang at her side have been painful.
Bactrim would help for only about six weeks, then the pus-filled cysts would return. She was referred to Vanderbilt's Patty Wright, M.D., assistant professor of Medicine, in June, and prescribed Bactrim and a decontaminating-cleansing regimen that has kept the skin abscesses at bay.
Twice a day, for the first week of each month, Inman cleanses with a surgical-type scrub and uses an antibiotic nasal ointment. She also takes diluted bleach baths twice a week during that week, and takes a daily dose of Vitamin C. "People who have never had this don't realize how bad this is," she said. "It's like living with a toothache, a constant pain. But, now, it's such a blessing to be free of pain," she says.
- Leigh MacMillan and Nancy Humphrey


In ancient China one’s Zodiac sign was fixed by the position of the planet Jupiter during the year of one’s birth (it takes twelve years for Jupiter to orbit the sun). On this level, Ai Weiwei Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads represents a system of measuring time and distinguishing characteristics of the human psyche linked to the heavens above.
In the mid-eighteenth century the Qianlong Emperor, ruler of the Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty—a Manchu (not Chinese) by birth—was fascinated by European technology. On the condition that they not proselytize, he invited European Jesuit priests into the Forbidden City, where they worked as scientists, engineers, architects, and artists. These priests spoke, read, and wrote Chinese fluently; in this way they could easily communicate with the most eminent Chinese and Manchu scholar-officials in the Forbidden City. Sent to China by the Vatican with the mission of converting China to the Catholic Church (in which they largely failed), these priests nonetheless had an enormous influence on Chinese intellectual and artistic life.
Among the projects commissioned by the Emperor from the Jesuits was a grand palace known as the Yuan Ming Yuan, or “Palace of Perfect Brightness.” It consisted of a mix of styles: sections built in traditional Chinese wooden architecture and others made of marble, imitating such European palaces as Versailles. In front of one building in the European manner was a large fountain, with twelve animal-headed waterspouts. These functioned as symbols of the Zodiac and of the hours of the day (the Chinese measured the day in units equivalent to two Western hours, which when multiplied by twelve makes up a twenty-four hour day).
In an astonishing irony, in 1860 the entire Palace was destroyed and looted by British and French troops as part of military actions of the Second Opium War. Of the twelve original bronze heads, seven survive. In casting his new Zodiac Heads, Ai Weiwei carefully followed the style of the originals, but exercised considerable artistic license in designing the five heads whose models are missing (including the dragon).
Ai Weiwei’s Zodiac Heads are thus a multi-layered meditation on political power, the nature of time, and the often tormented relationship between China and West, at the same time calling into question the arbitrary nature of such concepts as “national treasure.” That all of this is accomplished with considerable humor is a tribute to Ai’s detachment. I am proud that LACMA is showing this work by one of China’s greatest artists and most courageous social critics.
Stephen Little, curator, Chinese and Korean Art


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