Here: have at it with a Swedish nuclear power plant simulator. Raise and lower the control rods, turn pumps on and off, open and close valves, just make sure you don’t blowup anything.
Go look at the Chernobyl tour to see what happens when you mess up.
The original page includes this context:
The control-room operators of the Kärnobyl nuclear power plant are telecommuting and are running the plant through the Web. However, the mean time between failure for the components of Kärnobyl is not great. Try to keep the reactor stable when component failures occur!
tags: chernobyl, control rods, control room, control room operators, mean time between failure, nuclear power, nuclear power plant, nuclear power plant operator, nuclear power plant simulation, nuclear power plant simulator, operator, power plant, power plant operator, pumps, reactor, simulation, simulator, telecommuting


[Embargoed for release until 12 p.m. ET Thursday, August 5, 2004, to coincide with publication in the journal Cell.]
BAD NEWS FOR PATHOGENIC BACTERIA: SCIENTISTS FIND PROTEIN ESSENTIAL FOR BACTERIAL SURVIVAL
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Further investigation into how the common organism Escherichia coli regulates gene expression has given scientists new ideas for designing antibiotics that might drastically reduce a bacterium's ability to resist drugs.
The findings, reported in the current issue of the journal Cell, suggest that bacteria rely on a key protein in order to properly regulate gene expression -- a process fundamental to cell survival.
This protein, called DksA, coordinates the expression of numerous genes in response to environmental signals.
Figuring out how to block DksA production in harmful bacteria may help scientists develop antibiotics that these bacteria are less likely to resist, said Irina Artsimovitch, a study co-author and an assistant professor of microbiology at Ohio State University.
The current study suggests that DksA is the glue that holds together two key components of bacterial gene expression – a molecule called ppGpp and an enzyme called RNA polymerase. RNA polymerase carries out transcription, the first step in gene expression.
In recent work, Artsimovitch and her colleagues discovered that ppGpp regulates gene expression by controlling amino acid production in bacteria. A cell makes ppGpp when amino acid levels are low, and ppGpp tells a cell to go dormant until amino acid levels return to normal.
"But there was something missing from the ppGpp story," Artsimovitch said. "We knew that ppGpp had a dramatic effect on gene expression, but for some reason that effect was drastically decreased when we conducted experiments in the laboratory."
Work by other researchers had suggested a link between DksA and the ppGpp-initiated stress response in the cell. But scientists couldn't agree on what role, if any, DksA played in the effect of ppGpp on gene expression.
Working with a team of researchers led by Dmitry Vassylyev, a scientist with the RIKEN research institution in Japan, Artsimovitch and Ohio State microbiologist Vladimir Svetlov solved high-resolution crystal structures of DksA.
Solving this structure meant that the researchers could at last determine just how DksA helped ppGpp hold fast to its target, RNA polymerase.
DksA uses something scientists call the "backdoor of gene expression," a cavity on the RNA polymerase molecule called the secondary channel. DksA squeezes through this narrow tunnel toward the site where ppGpp binds to the enzyme. Once here, the protein helps ppGpp stay bound to RNA polymerase.
"The secondary channel seems to be the hotspot for many interactions," Artsimovitch said. "It leads straight to the active site, and presents a confined area where many proteins and antibiotics that control transcription may bind to carry out their business."
Knowing what roles ppGpp and DksA play in how bacteria respond to stress and other physiological stimuli may help scientists create new antibacterial drugs that target mechanisms specific and unique to harmful bacteria.
"Conventional antibiotics aimed at killing bacteria also put immense pressure on bacteria to survive, and to ultimately develop resistance to these drugs," Artsimovitch said. "Forcing harmful bacteria into a stationary state by controlling ppGpp levels may be the way to circumvent the rise in antibiotic resistance.
"ppGpp and DksA are found in all bacteria, including harmful ones," she continued. "Using ppGpp-based compounds to shut down gene expression in harmful bacteria could help curb the spread of infections."
Grants from the National Institutes of Health and from RIKEN supported this research.
Artsimovitch, Vassylyev and Svetlov conducted the study with Anna Perederina, Marina Vassylyeva, Tahir Tahirov and Shigeyuki Yokoyama, all with RIKEN.


In employment, a young person is someone who is over the compulsory school age but under the age of 18. In England and Wales, a person is no longer of compulsory school age after the last Friday of June of the school year in which their 16th birthday occurs. In Scotland, pupils whose 16th birthday falls between 1 March and 30 September may not leave before the 31 May of that year. Pupils aged 16 on or between 1 October and the last day of February may not leave until the start of the Christmas holidays in that school year. In Northern Ireland, a person is no longer of compulsory school age after the 30th June of the school year in which their 16th birthday occurs.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (or Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000) requires you to undertake a risk assessment before a young person starts work or work experience.
Try to look at your workplace from an adolescent's viewpoint. What dangers will they recognise? They may not be fully grown - will they find the workplace awkward and the tools too big?
In particular you should look at:
- How the workplace is laid out (and the particular site where they will work)
- What type of work equipment will be used and how it will be used
- How the work is organised
- The need to provide health and safety training
- The nature of any physical, biological and chemical agents they may be exposed to, for how long and to what extent
- The risks from certain work hazards.
Work they cannot do because of their age
You must not allow a young person to carry out activities when you find that a significant risk remains in spite of your best efforts to take all reasonable steps to control it.
You must protect your young employees and work experience students from the risks of accidents or ill health which they are unlikely to recognise because:
- They are inexperienced
- They have not been trained
- They may not pay enough attention to safety.
The overall rule is that young people under 18 years old must not be allowed to do work which:
- Cannot be adapted to meet any physical or mental limitations they may have
- Exposes them to substances which are toxic or cause cancer
- Exposes them to radiation
- Involves extreme heat, noise or vibration.
Young people who are over the minimum school leaving age can do this work under special circumstances which are:
- The work is necessary for their training
- The work is properly supervised by a competent person
- The risks are reduced to the lowest level, so far as is reasonably practicable.
Children below the minimum school leaving age must never do work involving these risks whether they are employed or under the following special circumstances.
Work activities permitted for children and young persons
At 13 years of age the following work activities are permitted (14 years in Scotland, but local education authority bylaws are likely to permit children aged 13 to do the following):
- Delivering newspapers
- Shop work
- Office work
- Working in hairdressing salons
- Washing cars by hand
- Work in a cafe/restaurant cleaning tables (not in a kitchen)
- Light work in riding stables
- Domestic work in hotels
- Light agricultural/gardening work (not using machinery)
There are also very detailed restrictions on the number of hours a child can work which are greatly restricted in term time and on Sundays.
Whilst of compulsory school age the following work activities are not permitted:
- Selling/delivering alcohol
- Delivering milk
- Delivering fuel
- Working in a kitchen including: use/cleaning of food slicers, mixers, food processors, potato chippers; cleaning/draining and use of fat fryers; de-boning meat
- Use of chemicals including corrosive cleaning materials, e.g. oven and beer line cleaners
- Collection/sorting of refuse including use of waste compactors
- Work in telephone sales
- Work more than 1 metre above ground (on ladders)
- Work in a cinema/nightclub
- Work as an attendant/assistant in a fairground/amusement arcade
- Work as a personal care assistant of residents in a nursing home


Causes of Cancer
Cancers can develop from a variety of sources and causes. A major source is a group of chemicals known as carcinogens, which have been found in industrial pollutants, cigarette smoke and some food additives and pesticides. People exposed to carcinogens are more susceptible to cancer, but not everyone exposed to these carcinogens develops cancer.
Other causes of cancer include obesity, excessive consumption of alcohol, a sedentary lifestyle, exposure to large amounts of radiation and too much sunlight. Certain viruses can also cause cancers, such as cervical cancer or liver cancer.
Cancer is also linked to heredity. If you have a strong family history of cancer, you may be more likely to develop cancer. Your parents can pass a gene to you that makes you more susceptible to cancer, or a genetic mutation can be passed to you through your father’s sperm or your mother’s egg that makes cancer more likely.
Many scientists believe that the combination of a hereditary susceptibility to cancer and an environmental trigger, such as exposure to a carcinogen or being obese, puts individuals at risk of developing cancer, especially at an earlier adult age.


Write a program that uses a loop to display the characters for each ASCII code 32 through 127. Display 16 characters on each line with one space between characters.
We are using the Starting out with C++ Early Objects 6th edition. I really don't know how to start this program, I'm not sure if it wants me to display ever character, or if I have to do get the user to input numbers and give me the characters that it should be or the other way around. If you can please help me that would be great.


Our Fifth Grade students have just held their Invention Convention, a culminating experience for a library research unit. In addition to learning about famous inventors and the invention process using books and online resources, each student had the opportunity to design an invention. Working individually or with partners, the students developed original ideas for new products, some of which help to solve everyday problems.
This creative group of students worked enthusiastically, brainstorming for ideas, developing models and prototypes, and creating ads to market their inventions. Some groups even wrote “commercials” to go along with their inventions. The students presented their inventions to an appreciative audience at school, and all were impressed with the level of creative enthusiasm.
The video below highlights the students talking about their inventions and features some of their commercials. Enjoy watching and please feel free to leave a comment on this post!


When Edgar Degas painted his friend Henri Michel-Levy in 1878, he included a lay figure sprawled on the ground below him.
How did lay figures hold a pose? As we saw in the final illustration yesterday, lay figures could be held up with ropes attached to the extremities. But some of them also had adjustable screws in the joints.
For standing poses, the figure generally also had a support attached to the pelvis from behind. This wood and metal skeleton has many points of articulation, even separate radius and ulna “bones” in the arm.
In this one, the arms also pronate, and the knees can rotate outward. All the joints can be tightened with screws. It has sort of a pre-Steampunk (“wood-punk?”) mech vibe to it. Imagine an army of these guys with crossbows.
This full size lay figure had sufficient bulk and volume to support the shape of the clothes. But such mannikins never looked completely natural, and artists were often embarrassed to use them, regarding them as a poor substitute for a live model.
For this reason, lay figures were not often discussed, or if so, they tended to be disparaged. The Journal of the Society of the Arts in 1854 said that under pressing financial circumstances, a painter with a “mercantile spirit” might use a lay figure that “answers for both the male and female form,” which could lead to a disharmonious and incongruous figure.
Check out the robot blog where I'm a guest contributor: "Nuthin' But Mech."
Read the full GurneyJourney series on lay figures:Part 2


(Student produced study guide from Foss, Foss, and Trapp )
characterized by the use of the scientific method and based on the presumption that we (people) can know objectively and comprehend the objects around us. (146)
forms of understanding from which reality is to be deduced. (146)
refers to the philosophical movement and is not based on the problem of existence, but deals with the problem of words, and the ways of rhetorically thinking and speaking that were perfected as a way of philosophizing in the 15th Century. (147)
deals with scientific objectivity, universality, and rational deduction over other ways of knowing the world. (148) Cogito ergo sum: "I think; therefore I am." This is a self- evident axiom and is based on the human power to apprehend reality by means of reason. (146)
what in essence, separates the human being from the animal. (149)
ability to make adjustments in nature simply because we are humans. (149)
the basic process by which humans gain control over nature; refers to a basic capacity to grasp what is common or similar in ideas or experiences. (151)
"It leads to light because it stems from the need to see: that which is not obvious...is to be transferred," (154) and provides the connection between rhetorical and rational speech. (158)
fundamental or original principle upon which philosophical arguments are based. (155)
illuminates historical fact, making a situation concrete, relevant and understandable using metaphor and imagery. (157)
deductive in nature and achieving its effect through logical demonstration. (157)
a "system" of signs whose elements receive meaning through and within this system. Morse code is an example. (159)
superficial and mistaken definition of rhetoric, as a technical art of persuasion, that acts on emotions to form beliefs. (159)
practice, or doing. Reality is manifested in concrete situations.
coming to terms with things by studying words individually.
choosing what perspective to take in a situation; the unveiling of an essential meaning.
approaches in research which are concerned with human's role in constructing rhetorical knowledge rather than with the possibility of objective knowledge (165)
A. Grassi's education was the product of two opposing philosophic traditions: German Idealism and Italian Humanism.
1. Grassi's background of Italian Humanism was challenged at the University of Freiburg, where German philosophy dominated.
2. The dissonance of the two views led Grassi to examine his own beliefs more carefully, from which he determined that rhetoric constitutes the foundation of human thought.
B. Two people were especially influential in differentiating the two philosophies for Grassi.
1. Bertando Spaventa's (Italian philosopher of the late nineteenth century), following statement left an impression on Grassi. "The development of German thought is natural, free, and independent, in a word, it is critical. The development of Italian thought is unsteady, hindered, and dogmatic. This is the great difference." (p.145)
2. Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher who worked with Grassi for ten years in Freiburg, held a strongly negative attitude towards Italian philosophy. Heidegger's attitude was influential in causing Grassi to seriously consider the value of both German philosophy and Italian philosophy.
A. In order to understand Grassi's approach to rhetoric, more precise definitions are needed for the Scientific Tradition and Italian Humanism.
1. Scientific Tradition is based on objective knowledge.
a. Rational deduction is at the core of the scientific method and involves starting from the premises and deriving the inferences already inherent in them.
b. Grassi lists three limitations of this scientific paradigm, which he believes constrain what is studied as philosophy.
i. The scientific method examines first principles, but not their sources.
ii. The scientific method focuses on quantification.
iii Scientific thought is concerned only with universals.
2. Grassi's Italian Humanism refers to a philosophical movement.
a. Grassi's Humanism is Platonic and Aristotelian in orientation.
b. Grassi's Humanism is concerned with "the problem of words, metaphorical thought, and rhetorical thinking."
c. Grassi's Humanists sought to understand ways in which humans respond to a set of demands from the world and, by their linguistic choices, reveal the way they view this world around them.
B. The Scientific Approach was in direct opposition to Grassi's Humanist Approach. (p.147)
1. The Scientific approach deals with objectivity while the Humanist approach deals with distinctions and contextual variations.
2. The Scientific Approach came to dominate philosophy, while the Humanists were seen as searching for and moving toward this position.
3. Grassi believed that the Scientific Method was one tool for understanding, while Humanism dealt with broader areas and combined the areas of rhetoric and philosophy.
A. Grassi believed Vico represents the thought of Italian Humanism most fully.
1. Vico considered the rise of human history to be the basic problem of philosophy.
2. History is what differentiates humans from animals.
B. Grassi's support for Humanist thought is based in Vico's conception of the humanization of nature. (p.150)
1. Grassi has a term called "meeting the claims or demands of life."
a. All living beings experience the world using their senses, and inherently organize their environment to meet their basic needs.
b. Animals rely on instinct to function.
2. The human process is very complex.
a. Humans can choose and aren't limited to actions of instinct.
b. Humans can define images through language and therefore can interpret the world in different ways.
3. Humanization or historication of nature occurs when:
a. Humans become aware of these capabilities.
b. They begin to make adjustments in nature, or "direct their own destinies."
4. Humans must take sensory level meanings and translate them into an intellectual level.
5. The clearing of forests and the cultivating of land is the first unfolding of human consciousness. (p.151)
6. This feeling of control over nature wasn't a sudden change: there were three developing stages.
a. In the Cultural Age, humans felt they were a part of the cultural world.
b. In the Age of Heros, combination of heros and gods (superhuman benefactors) were seen as helping humans by introducing social institutions and laws.
c. In the Age of Humanity, humans realized that they could control nature.
C. Humans gain control over nature using the Ingenium, which is the process of humanization. (p.151)
1. Ingenium transfers meaning from the sensory world to a higher human one.
2. Ingenium frees humans by allowing them to see relationships and making connections in experience which are needed to think new thoughts.
D. There are three basic ways in which Ingenium is manifest to create the humans world. (p.152)
1. Imagination functions to grasp control of reality into two ways.
a. Imagination allows humans to realize that they are not bound to nature in the same way that animals are bound. (152)
b. Imagination allows humans to explain the world around them. It allows us to select certain interpretations of what we sense and allows us to define and order.
2. Work allows us to make and interpret connections of the sensory phenomena. Work allows us to act upon those interpretations made by our imagination. (p.153)
3. Language allows us to name and assign meanings to things in the world. By naming something we create a reality apart from the world.
E. Humanists sought to understand things in the context of practical human action.
1. Praxis is action: the application of abstract philosophical concepts into concrete situations. (p.153)
2. Grammarians examine words and interpret the abstract human condition in combination with individual action. (p.154)
A. Grassi refers to Aristotle and Cicero to define the metaphor.
1. Aristotle: "[The metaphor allows us] to see the similarity between what is actually the most widely separated."
2. Cicero's definition of metaphor said it was like a "light" which gives insight into a "relationship."
B. Metaphor transfers insight on several levels. (p.154)
1. At the most basic level, the metaphor allows us to grasp similarities between two unrelated things.
a. The metaphor operationalizes ingenium by allowing the human to connect himself/herself to the world of senses.
b. We relate to nature in human terms.
2. Language works metaphorically, transferring insight.
a. Language is symbolic because it helps us relate two dissimilar things.
b. Language helps us interpret and connect to our world and experiences.
3. The process of philosophizing is metaphoric.
a. A philosophical argument cannot be made without understanding the first principle.
b. First principles are nonrational and "experienced" as an "urge."
c. Philosophical systems are constructed with a first principle as the base.
d. The similarities we make between "urges" to understand philosophical problem and the actual logical arguments we use are metaphorical.
A. Grassi discusses the superiority of rhetorical language over rational speech.
1. Rhetorical language adapts various uses of imagery to illuminate historical fact and make it concrete, while rational speech is deductive and achieves effect through logical demonstration.
2. Rhetorical language deals with concrete particulars of life, while rational speech is universal and abstract.
3. Rhetorical language is like dialogue because it takes the world into account, while rational speech is monologic and has no need to interact.
4. Rhetorical language concentrates in images, symbols and metaphors, while rational speech is grounded in logical events and chronology.
5. Rhetorical language goes beyond a formal system, while rational speech is set in a "code" and can only move through the use of metaphor, which is indicative of rhetorical speech.
B. A third form of speech identified by Grassi is "external rhetorical speech."
1. This is the superficial and mistaken definition of rhetoric as a technical art of persuasion.
2. This is "false speech" because images do not stem directly from metaphors or nature, but a limited understanding of nature and its images.
A. Many feel that rhetoric is only the form of a message, while philosophy supplies factual content.
B. Humanists see rhetoric in a positive light, as a way to make logical reasoning palatable to an audience.
C. Grassi sees no separation of passion from logic.
1. The power of a message derives from its starting point in images that inspire wonder, admiration, engagement and passion.
2. Rhetoric, rather than logical deduction, is the true philosophy since it undertakes questions about the process by which "humans know, interpret, and create their world."
D. The emphasis on science in the Western world has resulted in this separation of content from form, and contrasts with the World View of the humanists. (p.161)
1. Without scientific proof, an idea will not be believed.
2. We have forgotten that we need to study the insights upon which these calculations are based.
E. There are many consequences for society that over-values the rational paradigm.
1. Those who believe in the "primacy of logic" and the ability for technology to deal with all problems tend to have an attitude of superiority.
a. Humans see their rationality as giving them a dominance over all things.
b. This actually limits humans' capability to fully interpret all things.
2. This affects our relationships with other cultures who do not share this attitude.
a. We see these cultures as being underdeveloped.
b. This view makes it impossible to fully understand them and constricts our interactions with them.
3. Logical thought has become synonymous with the domination of humans. (p.162)
4. The dawning of the atomic age is the ultimate example of humans' need to dominate nature.
F. The rational approach which has dominated Western culture has been detrimental to philosophy.
A. Renaissance Humanism defined folly as speaking irrationally without reason.
B. Grassi studied literature for examples of folly, defining it instead as the ability, using language, to choose the perspective to take on a situation to unveil something's essence. (p.163)
1. Folly is an engagement of ingenium
2. Folly is the fundamental process by which humans move from the nonhuman to the human realm.
3. Folly, as an extension of ingenium, allows humans to imagine themselves in new situation and to deal with these situations effectively.
A. Grassi's ideas of rhetoric are not well known among communication scholars.
1. Grassi has published in English only in Philosophy and Rhetoric and there are few essays or discussions on his work.
2. Grassi asserts the contributions of Italian Humanism to rhetoric and philosophy rather than with fully developing the contemporary implications of the philosophic perspective.
B. Grassi made several important contributions to rhetoric from the Humanistic perspective.
1. Grassi asserts that rhetoric and philosophy are necessarily connected, since rhetoric is the starting point of philosophy.
2. Grassi preference of thought, speech, and action made from connections with nature (ingenium) rather than from logical reasoning is similar to the "new paradigm."
3. Grassi's notion of folly allows humans choices in how they perceive the world they live in.
4. Grassi's work generated renewed interest in Renaissance Humanism.
5. Grassi gives new significance to rhetorical speech and asks us to reconceptualize our definition of rhetoric.
Grassi, Ernesto "Italian Humanism and Heidegger's Thesis of the End of Philosophy," Philosophy and Rhetoric, 13 (Spring 1980), 83. In this article, Grassi points to the parallelism between Heidegger's German Idealistic thought and the Italian Humanist tradition in order to create a historical framework in which to make evident the problems of Humanism in relation to present day. This article, separated into ten major ideas, begins with the End of Metaphysics and ends with Heidegger's Theory of the Brutality of the Being. In between these two major points, as Grassi explains Heidegger's Twofold thesis, the Traditional Model of Scientific Thought, the basic problem of Italian Humanism, The Question of the Veil of the Poetic Word, and the "clearing" of the Primordial Forest.
Grassi, Ernesto Die Macht des Bildes, 221, cited in Walter Veit, "The Potency of Imagery - the Impotence of Rational Language: Ernesto Grassi's Contribution to Modern Epistemology," Philosophy and Rhetoric, 17 (1984), 235. Veit gives analysis to some of Grassi's theories in this article. Grassi once again confronts the separation of logical reasoning and rhetoric. Many of Grassi's ideas have literally reconstructed the philosophical dimension of rhetoric in the eyes of contemporary Italian Humanists. Much of this article is similar to the subjects covered in FFT, and it even helps in the understanding since it gives different explanations and examples to similar material. Emphasis is placed on some of the ideals of eighteenth century philosopher Giambattista Vico, who Grassi found as a source for some of his rhetorical ideas. Once again, it is stated that Grassi believed that the philosophical revolution began with the Italian Humanists, who showed that philosophy gains insight into the principles "through the creativity of the image."
Grassi, Ernesto "Humanistic Rhetorical Philosophizing: Giovanni Pontano's Theory of the Unity of Poetry, Rhetoric, and History," Philosophy and Rhetoric, 17 (1984), 146. This article is simply Grassi's analysis and reaction to Potano's theories. It gives the reader some idea of the process of critical thinking that Grassi goes through in regards to the ideas of others. It is standard to differentiate between logic and rhetoric. The premises resulting from a rational process as exemplified by traditional metaphysics are necessary and universally valued. Rhetoric is bound by time and place, and it must use metaphor and images in order to be effective. In order for metaphor to be effective, there must be a common viewpoint shared between source and receiver which permits the audience to see the relationship of the metaphor. The unity of poetry, rhetoric, and history has a philosophical significance. All three are rooted in directive language. Potano's ideas are that the traditional thoughts need to be revised. A new kind of philosophy starts with the Humanists and the turn to rhetoric, away from rational argument.
Grassi, Ernesto "Remarks on German Idealism, Humanism and the Philosophical Function of Rhetoric," Philosophy and Rhetoric, 19 (1986), 125. Grassi discusses his blending of Vico's Italian Humanism and German Idealism. The entire system of thoughts is summarized as follows: "The faculty that is crucial to the making of metaphors is ingenium, which allows us to see the world. The power of language is beyond logic and rational thinking. To think rationally involves assuming some presuppositions and drawing inferences from them." This text is simply and expansion of the work in Foss, et al. and provides a historical context for Grassi's work.
Grassi, Ernesto "The Ordinary Quality of the Poetic and Rhetorical Word: Heidegger, Ungaretti, and Neruda," Philosophy and Rhetoric, 20 (1987), 248. This article is divided into three sections. The first section concentrates on making clear the philosophical function of poetical and rhetorical language, by looking at statements of philosopher Martin Heidegger and of two poets Ungaretti and Neruda. The poetic world, according to Heidegger, receives not only priority over the rational world, but also has a philosophical function comparing it to the ideas of philosopher Giambattista Vico. Second, it deals with the idea that reality cannot be revealed through a rational process. Next it deals with the philosophical function of poetry, showing that every beginning of a historical era is announced with a poetic expression, showing connection of poetry, rhetoric and history. Imagery is poetry. The third part shows what can happen when rational word becomes superior to rhetorical word, using the stories of Prometheus and Ulyssses. The fire Prometheus brought is considered metaphoric, but the fact that his liver is being destroyed keeps him historical and not eternal. Dante condemns Ulysses when he wishes to go beyond Hercules' pillars.
Grassi, Ernesto "Why Rhetoric is Philosophy," Philosophy and Rhetoric, 20 (1987), 75. Traditional philosophy arrives at an important admission: rational language cannot reach "passions." What is "true" language? The model provided by German romantic thought recognizes an essentially literary character. In Monologne, Noralis, language is a game; language does not occur for the determination of beings. Tongue speaks for itself alone. An object has its own destiny and at the same time it doesn't in that each appears in its merry through the code which is revealed in the history. Rhetorical, historical language is shown to be the true philosophical language because it is by means of it that we "uncover" the various world by "playing" with our "orders" at stake.
Verene, Donald Phillip, rev. of Die Macht der Phantasie and Rhetoric
as Philosophy, by Ernesto Grassi, Philosophy and Rhetoric, 13 (Fall
1980), 281. This article summarizes Grassi's ideas in Rhetoric as Philosophy:
The Humanist Tradition and in Die Macht der Phantasie. Zur Geschitchte
abenlandischen Denkens. According to Verene, these books are "treasure
houses of an understanding of the nature of rhetoric and its relationship
to philosophy that is absent in contemporary thought." Grassi's thesis
is that rhetoric is at the basis of philosophy. Considering this relationship,
Grassi asks his readers to understand the power of
language by choosing Humanism over science.
Verene, Donald Phillip, "Response
to Grassi," Philosophy
and Rhetoric, 19 (1986), 135. Verene is delighted to be discussing Grassi's
work. He admits skepticism to the blending of Italian Humanism and German
Idealism. The most important element of Grassi's thought is the metaphor
because metaphors embody the starting pints for thought. It is essentially
a recovery of ancient ideas that Verene feels is long overdue.
back to lecture note index


Combating AIDS Around the Globe
Lead story from the February Centerpoint
In November 2004, just prior to World AIDS Day, the Woodrow Wilson Center and UNAIDS, the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, held two high-level briefings as part of a three-part series to expand awareness of the global AIDS agenda outside of the health community, particularly within foreign policy and development circles.
World AIDS Day became an annual event in 1988 when some 5 million people were living with the disease. Since then, AIDS has killed more than 20 million people around the world and, this year, 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 25 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. In the Caribbean, the region second-hardest hit by the disease, at least 1 in 50 adults across five nations already are infected.
A November 10 seminar featuring Dr. Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director of UNAIDS, and Ambassador George Moose, former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, shed light on the disproportionate impact HIV/AIDS has had on women in developed and developing countries. The second briefing on November 30— featuring UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Randall Tobias—explored the aggressive U.S. emergency plan to combat AIDS and the dangerously fast spread of HIV/AIDS in East Europe and East Asia. A third upcoming seminar will delve into the effects of AIDS on security.
Every day around the world, 8,000 people die from AIDS, many of them young people in their productive years, many of them mothers and caretakers. It is a humanitarian crisis that poses serious social, economic, and security threats—one that requires a sustained, collective effort to overcome.
The Emerging Pandemic: East Europe, Asia
UNAIDS reported at the end of 2004 that nearly a half-million people died from AIDS in South and Southeast Asia and more than 7 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, while in East Asia more than 1 million people are HIV-positive. In addition, nearly 1 million Russians are living with HIV/AIDS, about triple the official statistics, according to Wilson Center Senior Scholar Murray Feshbach and Research Associate Cristina Galvin in a recently released report underwritten by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
"The situation we face in China, India, and Russia bears alarming similarities to the situation we faced 20 years ago in Africa," said Dr. Piot in his November 30 address. Piot said these countries are nearing "a tipping point," much like Africa had experienced. In South Africa, he explained, prevalence rates rose from .5 to 1 percent in five years but then in seven years, the rate leapt from 1 to 20 percent.
Piot said, "I am calling for intensified attention on these next wave countries-not at the expense of Africa, but also on behalf of Africa." If the epidemic spreads, he said, global resources for Africa could decrease or disappear. "If we don't prevent this breakout, and full-blown epidemics take hold in these large, populous states, there will be dire consequences not only for these countries, but for each of our own."
Well over half the world's population resides in Asian-Pacific countries, where HIV/AIDS-related income losses totaled more than $7 billion in 2001 alone. India and China, two of the world's most populous countries, have rapidly growing economies which would be devastated by the stunted growth that AIDS has caused elsewhere as would their global trading partners. AIDS threatens a nation's security and stability, and national defense can be compromised by the growing rates of AIDS in military ranks.
In Russia, incidents of HIV among potential military conscripts are estimated to be 25 times the level of five years earlier, according to the Feshbach/Galvin report. The report also noted that while HIV is on the rise, testing has dropped dramatically, in a society that stigmatizes those with the virus. In Asia, increasing populations help offset the AIDS mortality levels, but Russia has a declining population. Furthermore, the report noted, AIDS disproportionately impacts Russia's young people; more than 80 percent of HIV-positive Russians are under 30 years old.
"We can pay now for prevention," said Piot, "we can wait a bit longer and pay for treatment; or we can wait even longer and pay the price of losing tens of hundreds of millions of productive citizens. Early investment is everything...the price rises every minute we wait."
Women and AIDS
World AIDS Day, commemorated on December 1, focused special attention this year on the growing AIDS epidemic among women and girls. In sub-Saharan Africa, 60 percent of all HIV-positive people and 75 percent of infected young people, 15 to 24 years old, are female. Some of the steepest increases are occurring in East Asia, East Europe, and Central Asia. In Russia, the Russian Federal AIDS Center reported in 2003 that 38 percent of people living with HIV were women, compared with 24 percent in 2001. In Brazil, new AIDS cases among women increased by 75 percent in the late 1990s, compared to just 10 percent among men. And, in the United States, AIDS is the leading cause of death among African American women, ages 35-44.
"The disproportionate infection of millions of poor women isn't merely an injustice; it's a socioeconomic disaster," said Dr. Cravero, at the November 10 seminar, "Confronting the Crisis: Women and AIDS." Cravero said AIDS among women is on the rise in these countries because "women lack control over their bodies and their daily lives, and the tools, resources and support needed to change their situation."
Ambassador Moose discussed the debate within the U.S. government. He said while the U.S. government has recognized the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS threat and has made advances developing affordable antiretroviral treatments for developing nations, it has yet to address the challenge of women and AIDS.
"It's one thing to bring policymakers and politicians to an acceptance that HIV/AIDS represents a threat to national and international security interests," he said, "but it's quite another, I would argue, to convince them that the place where that battle will have to be fought and won is in the bedrooms and bordellos of every society around the world."
Piot also discussed the rise of AIDS among women and said that solely insisting on abstinence is unrealistic. "The scientists, the doctors, the activists, the churches, and all of us should come together and agree on a broad philosophy of prevention that takes cultural and religious differences into account, but embraces a common principle-that the highest moral ideal is to save lives."
Piot said developing countries must encourage educational and economic opportunities for women, pass and enforce laws that deter domestic violence, and promote access to the female condom and microbicides that women can use to protect themselves.
Said Cravero, "For women who can't choose when and with whom to have sex, for women whose partners will not use condoms or be faithful, and for women who are too beaten up or beaten down to ask, methods that they control...will make all the difference."
The U.S. Relief Plan
On November 30, Ambassador Randall Tobias presented the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which commits $15 billion over a five-year period toward combating the disease in more than 100 countries. The plan, which promotes integrated prevention, treatment, and care, is the largest commitment ever by a single nation toward an international health initiative.
With special emphasis on 15 focus nations in Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia, where half the world's infections occur, this plan aims to treat 2 million HIV-infected people, prevent 7 million new infections, and care for 10 million people, including orphans and vulnerable children.
The emergency plan "strives to bring donors, stakeholders on the ground, and national leadership onto the same page," said Tobias, adding that emphasis will be placed on monitoring and evaluating results. "If this HIV/AIDS challenge is to be met, we in the developed world will have to meet it. If we fail to rise to the occasion, there's really no Plan B." He underscored the importance of such organizations as UNAIDS remaining engaged in the fight. Such groups, he said, "offer other donors a vehicle to sharply increase their commitment, as America has done."


Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
The mission of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is to assure that every U.S. worker goes home whole and healthy every day. Toward that end, the agency sets and enforces workplace safety and health standards, encourages voluntary compliance through consultation and partnerships, and promotes safety training and education for workers and employers. Since Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act), which created OSHA as an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor, workplace fatalities have been cut in half and occupational injury and illness rates have declined 40 percent. At the same time, U.S. employment has nearly doubled.
Under the OSH Act, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthful work environment in line with standards set by OSHA. Protecting workers against workplace hazards requires every employer and every worker to make safety and health a top priority. OSHA's charge is to offer leadership and encouragement to workers and employers in carrying out this responsibility. OSHA has a staff of about 2,250, including about 1,250 inspectors in 67 field offices. Sharing the responsibility for oversight of workplace safety and health are twenty-five states that run their own OSHA programs with about 2,800 employees, including about 1,250 inspectors.
Early OSHA standards focused primarily on safety and establishing precise safety requirements, such as the specific height for guardrails on stairs. Newer standards take a performance or program approach, identifying a safety or health objective and providing a framework for employers to use in achieving that goal. OSHA standards cover the gamut of workplace safety and health issues, including machine guarding, fall protection, chemical-hazard communication, and protection against blood-borne pathogens such as HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and hepatitis B.
OSHA's enforcement program has changed dramatically over the years. The agency has continually attempted to target its resources toward the most hazardous worksites, as well as respond to worker complaints and investigate fatal accidents. Initially, OSHA focused on sites in industries with high injury rates. More recently, OSHA has obtained site-specific injury and illness data and has been able to concentrate on individual sites with poor safety and health records. The agency conducts about 35,000 inspections each year; states running their own OSHA programs inspect an additional 55,000 workplaces. To foster voluntary compliance with OSHA standards and assist employers in setting up ongoing safety and health programs, OSHA offers free consultations and seeks to establish partnerships with individual workplaces and with trade groups and unions.
The OSHA consultation program, designed for smaller employers, provides free assistance to employers who request help with safety and health programs and specific problems. Employers agree in advance to correct serious hazards identified by the consultant. The consultation program is administered by state authorities and is completely separate from the enforcement effort. OSHA's premier partnership is the Voluntary Protection
To further assist employers and workers, OSHA maintains an extensive web site (http://www.osha.gov) that includes the agency's standards, publications, training materials, interactive software covering specific standards and hazards, small business information, an online complaint filing system for workers, and links to many other sources of information on job safety and health. The agency also offers safety and health training at its Chicagoarea training institute and through twelve educational centers located at community colleges and universities around the country. OSHA is developing satellite-delivered and web-based training programs to make its training available to a wider audience. Through its New Directions grants, OSHA encourages nonprofit organizations such as unions and trade associations to develop additional training materials and offer training courses.
Improving work environments is a long-term proposition that requires daily diligence and ongoing commitment in the face of competing priorities for time, energy, and resources. OSHA's mandate is to aid employers and employees to make this commitment and continually pursue excellence in job safety and health.
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. All About OSHA. (OSHA 2056). Available at http://www.osha.gov.


"Nofollow" provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines "Don't follow links on this page" or "Don't follow this specific link."
nofollow attribute appeared in the page-level meta tag, and instructed search engines not to follow (i.e., crawl) any outgoing links on the page. For example:
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow" />
nofollow was used on individual links, preventing robots from following individual links on a page required a great deal of effort (for example, redirecting the link to a URL blocked in robots.txt). That's why the
nofollow attribute value of the
rel attribute was created. This gives webmasters more granular control: instead of telling search engines and bots not to follow any links on the page, it lets you easily instruct robots not to crawl a specific link. For example:
sign in
How does Google handle nofollowed links?
In general, we don't follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using
nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web. However, the target pages may still appear in our index if other sites link to them without using
nofollow, or if the URLs are submitted to Google in a Sitemap. Also, it's important to note that other search engines may handle
nofollow in slightly different ways.
What are Google's policies and some specific examples of nofollow usage?
Here are some cases in which you might want to consider using
- Untrusted content: If you can't or don't want to vouch for the content of pages you link to from your site — for example, untrusted user comments or guestbook entries — you should nofollow those links. This can discourage spammers from targeting your site, and will help keep your site from inadvertently passing PageRank to bad neighborhoods on the web. In particular, comment spammers may decide not to target a specific content management system or blog service if they can see that untrusted links in that service are nofollowed. If you want to recognize and reward trustworthy contributors, you could decide to automatically or manually remove the
nofollowattribute on links posted by members or users who have consistently made high-quality contributions over time.
- Paid links: A site's ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it. In order to prevent paid links from influencing search results and negatively impacting users, we urge webmasters use
nofollowon such links. Search engine guidelines require machine-readable disclosure of paid links in the same way that consumers online and offline appreciate disclosure of paid relationships (for example, a full-page newspaper ad may be headed by the word "Advertisement"). More information on Google's stance on paid links.
- Crawl prioritization: Search engine robots can't sign in or register as a member on your forum, so there's no reason to invite Googlebot to follow "register here" or "sign in" links. Using
nofollowon these links enables Googlebot to crawl other pages you'd prefer to see in Google's index. However, a solid information architecture — intuitive navigation, user- and search-engine-friendly URLs, and so on — is likely to be a far more productive use of resources than focusing on crawl prioritization via nofollowed links.
How does nofollow work with the Social Graph API (rel="nofollow me")?
If you host user profiles and allow users to link to other profiles on the web, we encourage you to mark those links with the rel="me" microformat so that they can be made available through the Social Graph API. For example:
My blog
However, because these links are user-generated and may sometimes point to untrusted pages, we recommend that these links be marked with nofollow. For example:
My blog
rel="me nofollow", Google will continue to treat the
rel="nofollow" as expected for search purposes, such as not transferring PageRank. However, for the Social Graph API, we will count the
rel="me" link even when included with a
To prevent crawling of a rel="me nofollow" URL, you can use robots.txt. Standard robots.txt exclusion rules are respected by both Googlebot and the Social Graph API.


Luckily, Music Theory for Dummies shows you the fun and easy way to understanding the concepts needed to compose, deconstruct, and comprehend music. This helpful guide will give you a great grasp of:
- Note value and counting notes
- Treble and bass clefs
- Time signatures and measures
- Naturalizing the rhythm
- Tempo and dynamic
- Tone, color, and harmonics
- Half steps and whole steps
- Harmonic and melodic intervals
- Key signatures and circles of fifths
- Scales, chords, and their progressions
- Elements of form
- Music theory’s fascinating history
This friendly guide not only explores these concepts, it provides examples of music to compliment them so you can hear how they sound firsthand. With a bonus CD that demonstrates these ideas with musical excerpts on guitar and piano, this hands-on resource will prove to you that music theory is as enjoyable as it is useful. Don’t get discouraged by the seemingly complicated written structure. With Music Theory for Dummies, understanding music has never been easier!
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.


Family: Corvidae, Crows, Magpies, Jays view all from this family
Description ADULT Has a pale gray-brown back, but otherwise mostly dark blue upperparts; note, however, the dark cheeks and eyeline and pale forecrown, extending back as faint supercilium. Throat is whitish and streaked, with discrete demarcation from otherwise grubby pinkish gray underparts. JUVENILE Similar, but dull gray on head, back, and wing coverts, with blue flight feathers and tail.
Dimensions Length: 11" (28 cm)
Endangered Status The Florida Scrub-Jay is on the U.S. Endangered Species List. It is classified as threatened throughout its range in Florida. Like many other Florida wildlife species, the scrub-jay has declined as its habitat has succumbed to development. Remaining habitat has been fragmented and degraded, and existing populations are small and isolated. This makes them vulnerable to any change to their environment, as an entire population can be wiped out at once. In some areas the rate of mortality appears to exceed the rate at which the populations is reproducing. A long-term problem for this species could be rising sea levels caused by global warming, as their remaining habitat could easily become inundated.
Habitat Common and widespread resident of scrubby woodland and overgrown suburban lots. Has declined markedly due to habitat loss and degradation
Observation Tips Easy to see and often indifferent to people.
Voice Utters a harsh, nasal cheerp, cheerp, cheerpÖ and other chattering calls.
Similar Species Western Scrub-jay A. californica (L 11-12 in) is bluer on head but otherwise similar; a mainly western species, resident in Texas.
Discussion Florida endemic with slim body, long tail, and stout, but rather slender bill. An opportunistic feeder with an omnivorous diet that includes berries, fruits, insects, and the eggs and young of songbirds. Usually seen in family groups. Sexes are similar.


You can help keep your heart and blood vessels healthy by taking steps toward a healthier lifestyle. These healthy habits include not smoking, eating right, exercising regularly, staying at a healthy weight, and getting the screening tests you need.
A heart-healthy lifestyle is important for everyone, not just for people with existing health problems. It can help you keep your heart and blood vessels healthy. If you already have heart or blood vessel problems, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure, a healthy lifestyle can help you manage those problems.
If you have children, you can be their healthy role model. If your habits are healthy, your children are more likely to build those habits in their own lives.
Everyone who uses tobacco would benefit from quitting. When you quit smoking—no matter how old you are—you will decrease your risk of heart attack, stroke, and many other health problems. For help with quitting smoking, see these topics:
Eating healthy foods is one of the best things you can do to prevent and control many health problems, including heart and blood vessel disease. For help with healthy eating, see these topics:
Improving your fitness is good for your heart and blood vessels, as well as the rest of your body. Being active helps lower your risk of health problems. And it helps you feel good. For more information about being active, see these topics:
Staying at a healthy weight is also part of a heart-healthy lifestyle. Read more in these topics about reaching and staying at a healthy weight:
Seeing your doctor regularly and getting screening tests is important. The sooner your doctor diagnoses a disease, the more likely it can be cured or managed. To reduce your risk of heart and blood vessel problems, be sure to keep an eye on your cholesterol and blood pressure. The tests you might have to check your risk for heart and blood vessel problems depend on your age, health, gender, and risk factors. Talk to your doctor to find out which tests are right for you.
Other Works Consulted
- Expert Panel on Integrated Guidelines for Cardiovascular Health and Risk Reduction in Children and Adolescents (2011). Expert panel on integrated guidelines for cardiovascular health and risk reduction in children and adolescents: Summary report. Pediatrics, 128(Supplement 5): S213–S256.
- Redberg RF, et al. (2009). ACCF/AHA 2009 Performance measures for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in adults: A report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Performance Measures. Circulation, 120(13): 1296–1336.
|Primary Medical Reviewer||Rakesh K. Pai, MD, FACC - Cardiology, Electrophysiology|
|Specialist Medical Reviewer||Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD - Cardiology|
|Last Revised||April 6, 2012|
Last Revised: April 6, 2012
Author: Healthwise Staff
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. Symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They are different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through from time to time. Bipolar disorder symptoms can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide. But bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives. Bipolar disorder often develops in a person's late teens or early adult years. At least half of all cases start before age 25. Some people have their first symptoms during childhood, while others may develop symptoms late in life. Bipolar disorder is not easy to spot when it starts. The symptoms may seem like separate problems, not recognized as parts of a larger problem. Some people suffer for years before they are properly diagnosed and treated. Like diabetes or heart disease, bipolar disorder is a long-term illness that must be carefully managed throughout a person's life.


UNESCO describes the Site Piedmont and Lombardy Sacred Mounts as follows: The nine northern Italy’s Sacred Mounts
are composed of groups of chapels and other architectural elements built within the end of XV and the end of XVII century and dedicated
to different aspects of Christian Faith. In addition to their symbolic religious meanings, these places are characterized by a
remarkable beauty thanks to the careful integration of architectural elements into the surrounding natural landscapes: hills, woods
and lakes. Furthermore they boast very important works of art like frescos and statues.
UNESCO World Heritage Committee has put the Site on its List for the following reasons:
The realization of an architectural and sacred art’s work into a natural landscape for didactic and religious aims, finds its
highest expression in northern Italy Sacred Mounts and it has deeply influenced following developments of this phenomenon in the
rest of Europe.
Sacred Mounts of northern Italy represent the successful integration into a landscape of remarkable beauty of architecture
and fine arts realized for religious aims during a critical period of Catholic Church history.
UNESCO Site’s Sacred Mounts are mainly located in the Alpine arc, close to lakes or at the bottom of valleys crossed by river Po’s
tributaries and by important old routes. The complexes’ panoramic and prominent locations on hills or mountains and their subdivisions
into chapels, let them become territorial reference points easy to identify; we don’t have to forget that creating sort of territorial
reference points was probably one of the aims for such locations, considering that sacred mountains strategical position marks the
northern limit of the Po valley, which was, at that time, symbolically protected by them, that is by the Christianity itself.
There is an important thread ideally binding these nine Sacred Mounts: the first crib of Greccio, made by Saint Francis of Assisi,
the Holy Representations, the protection of the Holy Land, the Sacred Mounts foundations (first by gerosolimitani then by
counter-reformists) and the Viae Crucis, almost all the above stories in fact tell us about Franciscan fathers who had been
fundamental for all complexes’ building. Some had been the inventors, like Bernardino Caimi in Varallo, Tommaso of Firenze in
Montaione and Michelangelo of Montiglio in Belmonte; some the designers, like Cleto of Castelletto Ticino in Orta, or the preachers
like Giovan Battista Aguggiari in Varese, Fedele of San Germano in Oropa, Gioacchino of Cassano and Andrea of Rho in Domodossola.
More we remeber that between 1731 and 1751 it was again the Franciscan Leonardo of Porto Maurizio who built five hundred and
seventy-two Viae Crucis throughout Italy; we owe nineteenth-century-restoration and renewal of Crea’s Sacred Mount to Franciscan
fathers Costantino Cerri and Giuseppe Latini. Observants or Capuchins, that are disciples of the poor of Assisi, are the
most sensitive and active champions of the theatre-, sculpture- and painting-representations.
Dedications and histories told in each complexe remind both of
pre-existent local devotions and of religious and cultural foundation times. Therefore in Varallo prevails the representation of Jesus
Christs’ life, in Orta of Saint Francis of Assisi, in Oropa of the Virgin Mary, while in Varese and in Ossuccio they represent the Marian
Rosary prayer with its fifteen Misteries. Wishing to follow again the steps of Christ’s Passion, like the Jesus’s Via Dolorosa in
Jerusalem (that is ‘Very Painful Viae’), they modified the Sacred Mount of Crea and built the Sacred Mounts Calvaries of Domodossola
and Belmonte. In Ghiffa instead Holy Trinity’s devotion resulted so difficult and abstract to represent that, in the end, they went back
in part to a much usual and immediate issue: the Via Crucis.


How lego does it today.
I found little information about Autodesk Maya being the 3D modeling software being used.
Here`s a blurb about their current design process :
Primary concept and development work takes place at the Billund
headquarters, where the company employs approximately 120 designers.
The company also has smaller design offices in the UK, Spain, Germany,
and Japan, which are tasked with developing products aimed
specifically at these markets. The average development period for a
new product is around twelve months, in three stages. The first stage
is to identify market trends and developments, including contact by
the designers directly with the market; some are stationed in toy
shops close to holiday periods, while others interview children. The
second stage is the design and development of the product based upon
the results of the first stage. As of September 2008 the design teams
use 3D modeling software to generate CAD drawings from initial design
sketches. The designs are then prototyped using an in-house
stereolithography machine. These are presented to the entire project
team for comment and for testing by parents and children during the
"validation" process. Designs may then be altered in accordance with
the results from the focus groups. Virtual models of completed Lego
products are built concurrently with the writing of the user
instructions. Completed CAD models are also used in the wider
organization, such as for marketing and packaging.
source : wikipedia
How lego used to do it
do you know?
How people do it themselves
Lego provide software that does just that. Check for "Lego digital designer" which allows to create a model, save a building manuals and buy the lego parts online.
Also check up this related question :"Do any programs exist that allow you to build own LEGO plans?"
For more information on how to create high quality computer images of lego models, check this question : "How can I create synthetic imagery (rendering) of lego models?"


The continuing Texas drought has taken an enormous and growing toll on trees, killing as many as half a billion – 10 percent of the state’s 4.9 billion trees – this year alone, the Texas Forest Service estimates.
That calculation did not include trees claimed by this year’s deadly and extensive wildfires, even if they were drought-related, Burl Carraway, who heads the agency’s Sustainable Forestry Department, told Texas Climate News.
(Previously, the Forest Service estimated that about 1.5 million trees were lost on 34,000 charred acres in the Bastrop County fire, most destructive in Texas history. In another damage assessment, the agency said more than 2,000 fires in East Texas had charred more than 200,000 acres. Texas has about 63 million acres of forestlands.)
The estimate that up to half a billion trees have been lost to drought in 2011 was issued Monday by the Forest Service. It was based on statistics tabulated by agency foresters after they canvassed local forestry professionals in their regions, developed estimated percentages of drought-killed trees, and applied them to regional tree inventories.
The resulting estimate was that 100 million to 500 million trees with a diameter of at least five inches had perished because of the drought – two to 10 percent of the nearly five billion trees of that size in the state.
In 2011, Texas experienced an exceptional drought, prolonged high winds and record-setting temperatures. Together, those conditions took a severe toll on trees across the state. Large numbers of trees in both urban communities and rural forests have died or are struggling to survive. The impacts are numerous and widespread.
The agency found that trees in three areas appeared to be hurt the most by the drought:
- An area in West Texas including Sutton, Crockett, western Kimble and eastern Pecos counties, with extensive death of Ashe junipers.
- An area in Southeast Texas including Harris, Montgomery, Grimes, Madison and Leon counties, where many loblolly pines succumbed.
- An area southeast of Austin, including western Bastrop and eastern Caldwell counties as well as neighboring areas, which had widespread mortality among cedars and post oaks.
Also, the agency said, “localized pockets of heavy mortality were reported for many other areas.
The Forest Service plans to use aerial imagery in a more detailed analysis next spring, when trees that entered early dormancy because of the drought may start to recover. In addition, the agency said, “a more scientific, long-term study” of tree losses will be carried out through its Forest Inventory and Analysis program’s census of the state’s trees. Carraway said Forest Service officials “fully expect mortality percentages to increase if the drought continues.”
Texas state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon has said that a second year of drought in 2012 is “likely,” perhaps with more dry conditions following that.
Nielsen-Gammon has estimated that about a tenth of the excess heat this past summer was attributable to manmade climate change. He and other climate experts have said hotter, drier conditions are expected to increase in Texas in decades ahead as concentrations of human-created greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere.
What the warming average temperature of the planet could mean for forests and other ecosystems was the focus of research findings announced last week by NASA.
The study, carried out by researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, used a computer model that projected massive changes in plant communities across nearly half of the earth’s land surface, with “the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major ecological community type – such as forest, grassland or tundra – toward another.”
The NASA announcement added:
The model projections paint a portrait of increasing ecological change and stress in Earth’s biosphere, with many plant and animal species facing increasing competition for survival, as well as significant species turnover, as some species invade areas occupied by other species. Most of Earth’s land that is not covered by ice or desert is projected to undergo at least a 30 percent change in plant cover – changes that will require humans and animals to adapt and often relocate.
In addition to altering plant communities, the study predicts climate change will disrupt the ecological balance between interdependent and often endangered plant and animal species, reduce biodiversity and adversely affect Earth’s water, energy, carbon and other element cycles.
“For more than 25 years, scientists have warned of the dangers of human-induced climate change,” said Jon Bergengren, a scientist who led the study while a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. “Our study introduces a new view of climate change, exploring the ecological implications of a few degrees of global warming. While warnings of melting glaciers, rising sea levels and other environmental changes are illustrative and important, ultimately, it’s the ecological consequences that matter most.”
When faced with climate change, plant species often must “migrate” over multiple generations, as they can only survive, compete and reproduce within the range of climates to which they are evolutionarily and physiologically adapted. While Earth’s plants and animals have evolved to migrate in response to seasonal environmental changes and to even larger transitions, such as the end of the last ice age, they often are not equipped to keep up with the rapidity of modern climate changes that are currently taking place. Human activities, such as agriculture and urbanization, are increasingly destroying Earth’s natural habitats, and frequently block plants and animals from successfully migrating.
– Bill Dawson
Image credits: Photos – Texas Forest Service; Map – NASA


Girl Scout Preserves Florida's Wildlife
March 23, 2012 – Miami, Fla. – Senior Girl Scout Caitlin Kaloostian earned the Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can receive, by completing a new butterfly garden and wildlife themed mural for The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
The FWC works with community and youth organizations to demonstrate the importance of safeguarding Florida’s Natural resources and to encourage the next generation of conservationists. To further this mission, Kaloostian held fundraisers such as garage sales and solicited help from fellow high school students to raise funds necessary to complete the project. With the help of her troop, Girl Scout Troop 305, Kaloostian painted a mural at the FWC’s Division of Law Enforcement Office which featured native fish and wildlife including a Florida panther, a manatee, an alligator, fish and many other animals. The butterfly garden uses native plants to attract butterflies and birds. Both the mural and the butterfly garden will help to preserve Florida’s future.


CMS Web Guide (University of Michigan-Flint)
What is a CMS and how can it be used?
A CMS (content management system) is a piece of software used to effectively organize and manage large amounts of digital content. Content, in reference to the university's CMS, includes all web pages, documents, and other files made available via the university web site. The CMS makes it possible for almost anyone to easily manage web content, without needing to know how to write HTML (hyper-text mark-up language, the typical method for creating web pages). By using a CMS the university will also have an easy way to implement version control.
Once in place and properly utilized, the CMS will improve the overall quality of content (by reducing broken links, content redundancy, human error, and providing a more uniform appearance for ease of navigation).


Commercially-pressed CD's and CD-R or CD-RW disks are fundamentally different technologies, which is why a commercial CD will continue to be readable long after a CD-R has become unusable.
A CD drive uses a focused laser beam that is reflected from the media surface in the CD disc. The beam is reflected onto a sensor that detects changes in the amount of energy that is reflected. The original (commercial) process used perforated aluminum as the media surface. When you use the term "pressed" you are using an old vinyl record term, but the production process is pretty much the same. There is a "master" disk that is put into a press which is filled with polycarbonate. The master disk has little pins sticking up everywhere there is to be a hole in the aluminum. The disk is cooled, and liquid aluminum is spun onto it. This results in an aluminum layer with holes in it.
When the disc is played, the laser reflects strongly from the shiny aluminum or less strongly (or not at all) from the holes. The reflection/non-reflection is translated into the ones and zeros of the binary data stored on the disk.
Over time the aluminum can oxidize or there can be other changes in the plastic and other materials that make the disc unusable. These are long term effects and the ultimate statistical life of a commercial CD is often debated, without conclusion, by the experts.
The CD-R and CD-RW do not use an aluminum media surface. Instead, they use a dye. When the disc is written, a high-powered laser causes spots on the disk to turn dark (hence the term "burning"). When played back, the sensor in the player sees the difference in reflectivity of the dark and not-so-dark spots as the binary data.
Unfortunately, because the dye is a light-sensitive chemical, over time it will fade. This can happen from the heat of the reading laser, from ambient light, and from chemical degradation in the dye and support media.
CD-R/RW media is safe for backup, and for creating alternate media (copying music files to play in your car so that if they are damaged from heat or wear out you can make another one, and preserve your originals elsewhere), and similar purposes. However, they are not safe for archival storage because they are not stable enough for that purpose.
Side note: when burning CD's for use in a car, for best results get "music CD's" which are designed for that application, or slow your burning speed down to 12x or 16x to get a darker spot from your high speed burner. The car will read the disc more reliably.
Insofar as tape storage is concerned, tape is also not a good archival choice of media. It's generally better than CD-R, although I haven't seen any comparative studies.
Major data centers who use tape storage refresh the storage periodically. Their Tape Management System (TMS) remembers the date the tape was recorded, and will call it up to be copied periodically. The old tape is then erased and reused until it reaches end of life (sometimes a fixed usage or time interval, sometimes when the number of recoverable errors reaches a threshold) at which time it is scrapped.
The whole issue of long term archive is complex, and goes beyond media. For media, if a data center stored its files on a 9 track magnetic tape twenty years ago, how would it retrieve that data today (you cannot find working 9 track drives). What if it had used an early Magneto-Optical (MO) drive? Small businesses have trouble when their tape drive fails, and they can't buy another drive in that old format.
File formats are another problem. I have word processing documents that deceased family members created years ago. I no longer have word processing software that will import some of those formats. I can (sometimes) extract the raw text and then try to reformat it in a current program, but if I don't have a printed original I don't know how it was intended to be formatted.
The only archival format that has stood the test of time is paper.
Submitted by: Kevin G. of Dallas, TX
Well, Carl, that so-called expert sure has stirred the waters and a LOT of people are wondering about the same question. However, your friendly Federal Government has studied the problem even longer.
To be specific, the National Archives and Records Administration, in charge of all of the record archiving of the government, has no standard on media storage, and requested NIST, that's National Institute of Standards and Technology, to write a new standard on media durability.
If you never heard of NIST, you're not alone, as NIST is more of a background organization, but suffice to say, they're the ones who creates the standards, references, and accuracy tests for all industries, from DNA to Time accuracy (in fact, if NIST operates one of the Internet "clocks" you can calibrate your PC to). NIST DNA reference material improves forensic DNA test accuracy. NIST also invented closed captioning and many other technology, but enough about NIST.
A gentleman by the name of Fred Byers spent a whole year testing various media, and wrote a guide for NIST to librarians who need to archive information on how to care for optical media such as CD-R and DVD-R's and such. In the guide, he basically stated that with proper handling (store in low humidity, no scratching, stored vertically, etc.) a DVD-R should last 30 years with no fear of losing any information. However, that is NOT an absolute number as it is dependent on a LARGE NUMBER OF FACTORS, some of which in your control, and some not:
Factors that affect disc life expectancy include the following:
type -- as recordable media is more durable than rewritable media manufacturing quality -- you get what you pay for condition of the disc before recording -- obvious quality of the disc recording -- garbage in, garbage out handling and maintenance -- scratches are bad for any discs environmental conditions -- humidity and temperature can warp disc, ruining the reflective layer in the media. light, esp. UV light can destroy the dye used in recordable media, etc.
Let us discuss each factor in a bit more detail
All types of media can be damaged through warpage (disc bending), scratches, and reflective layer breakdown due to oxygen leakage.
Recordable media, in addition, is susceptible to UV rays, which affects the dye used in the process.
Rewritable media, with phase-change recording, is even more susceptible to UV ray and temperature.
It is generally acknowledged that certain brands of media are better than others, and often the stuff on sale is not the stuff you may want to buy and keep around.
What you may not know is that there are only like 16 media manufacturers in the world. They make the media for all the brands that you see in the market, and some brands / factories are known to make high grade media (i.e. they tested best for maintaining data integrity, even when the media was subject to aging tests). While few independent labs did comprehensives tests, a test in Europe a while back for CD-R's revealed that Taiyo Yuden (Verbatim), Kodak (Kodak), and TDK (TDK) kept the most data intact.
Condition of the disc before recording
A disc should be brand new when used. While shelf live of a media is up to 5 years, why take chances? Buy them as you need tem.
Handling and maintenance
Scratches are bad for any discs, as it breaks open the substrate layer and allows air to tarnish the inside silver reflective layer inside.
Scratches also can make information on the media unreadable by interrupting the laser's path.
Environmental conditions -- humidity and temperature can warp the media, and exposure to UV light can destroy the dye used in CD-R's and DVD-R's.
Hope that answers your questions.
Submitted by: Kasey C. of San Francisco, CA
In the '80's, the CD was introduced in the market and portrayed as "THE" solution to the vinyl records.
The CD could be thrown in a mud pool, step on it, scratch it, nothing would harm he CD.
Now we all know that CD's has a lower lifetime as their vinyl counterparts and are more susceptible to errors than them. This is also true for the CD as a media to record software.
The early CD's, were recorded at maximum 640 MB. Mostly not even 640 MB but something like 528 MB. This made them less susceptible to scratches.
But as the CD technology was in a constant evolution, overburning a CD to 800 MB and more became common use. Also the DVD was introduced, offering 4/9GB on a wafer of the size of a CD.
It is obvious the the tracks are becoming so small that the finest scratch, the smallest fault, can ruin the CD/DVD forever.
Answering your question, there is no miracle solution to keep CD/DVD from deterioration trough age. But with a little bit of care, you can have many years of pleasure of your recordings.
1. Buy only CD/DVD from a good brand.
Buying low priced CD/DVD will mostly result in very disappointing experiences.
2. Dont overburn a CD/DVD.
While the overburn technique is now widely accepted by most software, it is still not fully reliable and mostly dont approved by the CD manufacturers.
3. Put every CD back in the jewel case after use, clean them as prescribed by the manufacturer, and avoid as much as possible touching the reading surface of the CD.
As a final remark, CD/DVD are nowadays not expensive and if you can make a backup of them, make a backup and store it in a safe place.
I use an external harddisk of 250GB (<300 CD's) to store a backup of the CD's/DVD's I have. Price of the harddisk is about 100$.
I have been able many times to rescue recordings which were otherwise lost forever by this harddisk.
Hope this helps,
Submitted by: Carlos
You have just discovered what most people don't discover until they actually lose data: commercial CDs and home-burned CDs are not the same. While a commercial premade CD will last a very long time if it is cared for properly, a home-burned CD will begin to deteriorate. The reason is that the home-burned version uses dyes to accomplish what the premade CD does by having it built into the disk. This is, of course, an oversimplified explanation, but it will suffice.
There are a few ways to maximize the amount of time a CD will last. First of all, buy good quality CDs to begin with. Stick with brand names that you are familiar with and have used successfully in the past.
Do not assume that just because a blank CD is made by a well-known company that it will be high quality.
Test them out by actually using them. One of the best ways to do this is to use them for your regular system backups. Be sure to actually restore from those backups periodically (easier if you have another computer handy that you can wipe out data on) or else use a backup program that allows you to mount the backup as a "virtual drive" and retrieve data from it.
This lets you know if there is a problem with a brand deteriorating unusually fast.
Second, never use labels on CDs. I found this out the hard way. Labels cause the CD to deteriorate much more rapidly than it otherwise would. Certain inks used in pens have been reported to do the same, but I have never encountered this problem, so it shouldn't be too severe. Do be certain, however, that you are gentle when marking CDs. Use a felt tip and do not press hard.
Third, put a note somewhere on the CD that tells you when you made it. This lets you monitor how long it has been since the CD was burned. If the data is irreplaceable, burn it to a new CD every 2 years.
As for the recommendation to use magnetic tapes, that has its own set of problems. Magnetic tapes also deteriorate, and they are subject to some damage that CDs are immune to, notably damage from electrical or magnetic fields.
In short, CDs are good for long term storage-- but don't assume that "long term" means forever. Check them regularly and burn them to new media when problems develop or even before if you can't replace what's on them.
As for storage, that is pretty much common sense. Keep the CDs in a case or an envelope if they are not actually being used. Avoid temperature extremes and handle gently. I also recommend making two copies of every important CD. This practice just saved my data when I discovered that the labels on my CDs had wiped out some irreplaceable family photos. It costs twice as much, but if the data is important to you then it isn't really very expensive, is it?
Submitted by: Denise R. of Lebanon, Missouri
Hi Carl N,
Your question has been set by a lot of people over the last 10 years. I've burned CD in 100s over the years and only found 2 discs with missing information. Lifetime of CDs is not limited due to one parameters only, more issues are setting the limit of lifetime. One is related conditions of storage and how you handle the discs. In other word, how careless or careful you are as the user. Then the material used in the CDs - how cheap a blank CD did you buy. And lastly your burning equipment, that is the laser diode.
When pressed CDs were introduced in beginning of the 80s lovers of vinyl records claimed, that CDs would last for 2 years only. But as you have experienced CDs from this period can still be played. I remember one report from about 1990, which claimed a lifetime of only 3-4 years. Looking into the report, it turned out that the condition of storage was -30C (some -25F) and reading/playing equipment had a worn laser diode. Most of us can only say: I don't store my CDs in the freezer and todays laser diodes doesn't wear out as they used to.
Turning towards recordable CDs, the whole issue is a matter of having a whole bunch of clear holes placed in circles in a foil. Readability of these holes are depending on a number of issues. How clear are the holes? Is edge of the hole clear? Is the reflectivity of the materials sufficient? Is the laser still as effective as it was? or has the surface become matte? For the early CD-burners this was jeopardized by increasing burning speed and some blank CD had doubtful foil material. Adding, to this some CD-burners were even sold with writing speeds beyond its capability. Many blank CDs were rejected in this period due to bad burners rather than bad discs. It is my conclusion, that this interim period has given us some doubtful discs.
You have to be careful with your CDs and also a little bit extra careful with your own. They don't like heat, bright light, bending, and writing with aggressive writing pens is also nasty. Especially pens with unknown chemicals may etch the CDs, it is just like burning, but this time controlled by the chemicals.
In case you wanna increase the lifetime of your recordings, you may buy CDs which is claimed to 300+ years lifetime. These CDs are referred to as GOLD-CD. These CDs has a special layer which include some 24ct gold. The advantages of these CDs are the ability to create clear holes into it with reduced oxidation or corrosion over time. Amazing almost also unbelievable 300 year. Just 100 years could be great for me. In 10-20 years everything would be transferred to new media type anyway. I saw a report on the 300 years at
Price of these GOLD CDs is 10-20x times the usual ones.
You have been suggested to use magnetic tape. Nor tapes does not last forever. As matter of fact the sound quality decays over time; frequency range is decreased by each use. This loss you can not be restored as with a digital media. Only digital storage keeps its audio frequency range over time and use. Like R&R;DIGITAL media is here to stay. You may call it CD, DVD, MPx, Blu-ray or whatever, but it's digital.
I believe that todays discs and equipment can provide a disc with sufficient lifetime for most of us and may even restore your more doubtful discs from the early burning time with success. Even discs which are registered as 'No disc' may be restored by copying it today. In case you wanna assure yourselves; let the PC verify the burned disc, this option is normally disabled by default.
What shall I do with my precious discs from the early days? My best recommendation would be to make a new copy, while the old is still readable. This is easy and cheap to most of us today as having two drives in your PC is not uncommon. Lastly, the quality and lifetime of recorded discs is today likely to most depended on your own care.
Submitted by: Leif M. of Helsingor, Denmark
Regarding problems developing over time with recordable CD-R media, I've run into some of this myself, but I also have quite a few discs that were made back when the very first 1x CD burners were made available to the public, and they still read just fine for me.
I suspect that there are several factors involved here.
1. I'm certain there's a difference in quality between brands of CD-R media. A number of my really old CD-Rs that still read flawlessly today were Kodak branded, and were considered expensive "premium quality" discs at the time. They're even physically a little bit thicker than most other media I've handled. By contrast, some of the generic media I purchased because of the low price on 100-pack spindles has actually developed "bubbles" where you can see the dye that's sandwiched between the layers of plastic is disintegrating. (Of course it won't read if small spots are completely gone!) There were/are several different types of dye used for CD-R media, as well, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's turning out that some types have better longevity than others. For example, Verbatim was known for using their trademark blue-tinted dye, while others were shades of green or gold.
2. From what I've read and observed, handling makes a big difference too. Leaving your CD-R's exposed to sunlight (as folks tend to do with music CDs used in their cars or trucks) probably shaves years off of their lifespan. Putting them in some type of jewel-case or sleeve when not in use is a very good idea. Boxes of empty jewel-cases can be purchased fairly inexpensively at most office supply and electronics chain stores.
3. A CD-R holding computer data is inherently more "fragile" and subject to data loss than a CD-R recorded as an audio disc. The standard used for recording audio CDs incorporates quite a bit of error correction information to handle small scuffs and scratches on the media, but besides that, audio data is spread out over a much larger portion of the CD-R. If you have a .ZIP file stored on a CD-R, for example, a pinhole-sized mark someplace on the disc where that .ZIP file is stored can easily be enough to prevent the whole archive from extracting properly. By contrast, the same sized mark might only cause a very brief "stutter" at one point of a song on a music disc (or not pose a discernable problem at all, due to the error correction).
If your audio discs are already deteriorating to the point where players are rejecting them as "unreadable" or they're skipping badly, it sounds to me like things have gotten pretty bad. The only recommendation I'd have is to re-record your music to fresh, good-quality CD-R media and throw out the old ones - and in the future, make a habit of transferring your music to fresh discs every few years or so.
Luckily, in the case of computer software backups, they tend to become so outdated, you no longer really need to keep them by the time the media they're recorded on starts failing. But for those trying to preserve digital photos and the like, I'd recommend this same procedure. Make a fresh set of backups every so often and discard the old media - before it fails on you and you lose something priceless!
Submitted by: Tom W.
CD burned media fails after time.
I am a practicing technician and this is not a new complaint. It is my firm belief that most consumers burn their media at the fastest speed possible for both their software and the media they use. This is fine but there may well be a trade-off in doing this.
What most consumers do not perhaps understand is that commercially produced CD's have actual pits pressed into them that represent the digital data of the original sound data. A burned CD on the other hand is made by fabricating a photo sensitive layer to mimic the pits found in pressed media.
I have found three major causes for this consumers problem they are as
1. A slower burn makes a stronger image representation in the photo
sensitive layer of a burned CD. A faster burn while successful may not impress the photo sensitive layer as effectively as a slow burn. Over time the burn fails as the photo sensitive layer deteriorates.
2. Sunlight and other forms of intense light can effect a burned CD
because it can cause a distortion in the burned media's photo sensitive layer.
3. Scratches by far are more evident on burned media and more easily
caused than on pressed media. Most consumers seem to ignore the manufactures warning and suggestions. Handling of the disc in a careful manner as advised by the manufacturer is the best policy here. I use a camera lens cloth to clean surface of all my media. A camera lens cloth will not scratch the disc surface. Paper and regular household cloths will cause scratches.
Observe the above and I do believe you will have better results.
One more thing always use the media recommended by the burner manufacturer. It is endorsed and guaranteed to work, many of the cheap non name discs out there are just not up to par. Its just like the old cassette tape days.
Most audiophiles went for tapes like Maxell, JVC, Sony etc. but as everyone knows there were a lot of bogus brands out there for the un-informed to purchase.
Submitted by: Peter K.
> I recently read an article by a data storage expert who claimed that
> burned CD-Rs and CD-RWs can be expected to last only two to five years
> and not a whole lot more. I personally have commercially pressed CDs
> from the 1980s that still play fine, but I have begun to notice that
> some of my burned CD-Rs are beginning to skip
you mention that there are basically two types of CDs: Those that are created with all information in place and those you can buy and write on.
The first type is quite robust as the information has been "engraved" into the surface just below the reflector. The most critical part of such a CD is the reflector, most often a very thin layer of aluminum.
The second type of CD works a bit differently: There is a dye layer below the reflector and the information is written onto the CD-R(W) by "burning"
and thereby locally changing the optical properties of the dye. The most critical part is the dye, besides the reflector as above. If the dye degrades the CD easily gets unreadable. The dye of CD-RW is even more critical as it must be "resetable" - another constraint.
> The expert suggests that for secure long-term storage, high -quality
> magnetic tape is the way to go.
This solution is quite expensive as you need a tape drive and enough tape cartridges, but has the advantage of a much larger storage capacity. If the manufacturers say their tape cartridges are reliable for a very long time they have one advantage above CD-R: This type of storage device has been around long enough to prove it. CD-R has been on the market for no more than 10 years.
The best strategy for the private user is: Have a good archive strategy, save often and store the media carefully in a dry, dark, cool place. If you store every file more than once you have a better chance to retrieve it.
There is no real alternatives to CD-R. Use high-quality ones. Do not use any DVD variety as their reliability is much less. DVD may be used for an image backup of your boot drive so you can restore your present configuration for the months to come.
Submitted by: Alexander V.
Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD. There are a few things you can do to extend the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but not a whole lot more.
The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data "shifting" on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam.
Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years, In fact, there are some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years. Distinguishing high-quality burnable CDs from low-quality discs is difficult, I think because few vendors use life span as a selling point.
I've had good luck with Verbatim media, and bad results with TDK. Playback with the TDK discs I used degraded steadily over time, in spite of very little use, and not much in the way of scratches or other blemishes on the disc. On the other hand, the Verbatim discs I've used have held up well over time, and under more use than the TDK ones I used.
Opinions vary on how to preserve data on digital storage media, such as optical CDs and DVDs. I have my own view: To overcome the preservation limitations of burnable CDs, Im suggesting using magnetic tapes, which, as I read, can have a life span of 30 years to 100 years, depending on their quality. Even if magnetic tapes are also subject to degradation, they're still the superior storage media.
But I want to point out that no storage medium lasts forever and, consequently, consumers and business alike need to have a migration plan to new storage technologies.
A Good Question to get in this subject is Does Burning Speed makes difference in quality of CDs? Someone told me that the burning speed makes a difference in the quality of the records. The lower it is, the deeper it burns and therefore the better the quality is. I heard that there are some audio technicians decide to burn masters at 2x and copies at 4x due to getting digital noise from higher burn rates. Might just depend on the burner quality and the burning program...
Hoping you get the Point of my explanation.
Submitted by: Sameer T.
Everyone who owns a business is always trying to be enticed by the security and the longevity of magnetic tape. And although I'm apt to agree with them on its durability, I don't use it to back up important data in my business. I have two problems with magnetic tape vs. CD or DVD. The first problem is hardware. Data backed up on a CD or DVD can be loaded into any computer with a drive capable of handling the media. The same can be said about tape backup, however you are more likely to find a computer off the shelf with a compatible CD or DVD drive vs a magnetic tape drive. The other problem is the need for long term storage.
As a business owner, I'm backing up my important data every one to three days. I've been using CD-RW media to do this for years. If a disk gets corrupt, you can reformat it using your burning software, then use it again. If you are concerned about your CD becoming corrupt, simply burn two or three. The cost of three CD or even DVD media is much more reasonable than the cost of one of those tapes. And if my server dies, I can buy any computer at any store, and load the data onto the new computer right away and I'm back in the game. I have several people trying to convince me of the benefit of a paper backup system. I find it easier (and cheaper) to have multiple electronic backups. My business server has a RAID 1 card and two hard drives which mirror each other. I have the CD backup, and I then take this data and save it to a secure partition on another machine in a separate location.
The likelihood of all of these systems failing at one time is highly unlikely. And if it does, I'm taking the day off, because that's just real bad luck. As far as long term storage (like music), I've noticed that CD-RW can lose the data in the long haul, but haven't had any problems with CD-R media. I have some that skip, but not for a reason I didn't know about. I buy the large spools of CD-R which don't come with jewel cases. So these disks get abused. If you know you are going to keep something for a really long time, I would make sure the disks you buy have jewel cases. And you can apply the multiple disk system with this as well. The media is easy on the wallet, and the more backups you have, the lower the risk you will actually lose the data.
I don't think I answered all the questions, but that's my take.
Submitted by: Dave K.