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H&R Reports Solid Q2 2013 Results and Successfully Completes the Integration of Primaris

of Primaris
TORONTO, Aug. 14, 2013 /CNW/ - H&R Real Estate Investment Trust ("H&R REIT")
HR.DB.H) today announced their financial results for the quarter ended June
30, 2013.
Capital Transaction Highlights
During the second quarter of 2013, H&R REIT acquired 100% of Primaris Retail
Real Estate Investment Trust ("Primaris") which consisted of 26 properties
valued at $3.1 billion. The acquisition was funded through the issuance of
62.5 million Stapled Units with a value of $1.4 billion and the assumption of
Primaris' outstanding mortgages, convertible debentures and bank indebtedness
totalling $1.6 billion. In addition, holders of 2.1 million exchangeable
units of certain subsidiaries of Primaris received the same number of Class B
units of subsidiaries of H&R REIT, each of which is exchangeable for 1.166
Stapled Units. The increased market capitalization relating to the
acquisition of Primaris has substantially enhanced liquidity for
unitholders. Through this transaction, H&R REIT has achieved broader
diversification by geographic region and tenant base into the enclosed
shopping centre asset class at a time when U.S. and international retailers
are expanding into Canada. H&R is pleased with its successful integration of
the Primaris portfolio and platform all in accordance with H&R's proforma
budgets. The property operating income of $41.0 million attributable to the
Primaris portfolio for Q2 2013 was in line with H&R REIT management's
expectation at the time of the Primaris acquisition and it is expected that
such property operating income will increase for Q3 and Q4 2013.
Operating Highlights
H&R REIT's average remaining term to maturity as at June 30, 2013 was 10.3
years for leases and 7.3 years for outstanding mortgages. Occupancy at June
30, 2013 was 98.7%, up slightly from 98.0% at June 30, 2012. Leases
representing only 4.9% of total rentable area will expire during the balance
of 2013 and 2014. As at June 30, 2013, the ratio of H&R's debt to fair
market value of assets was 48.5% compared to 50.3% as at December 31, 2012.
Development Highlights
Effective December 31, 2012, H&R REIT reached practical completion on the
construction of a two million square foot office building in Calgary, Alberta
(the "Bow"), which is fully leased to Encana Corporation for a 25-year term.
On March 15, 2013, the final floors were delivered to Encana Corporation and
the 25-year lease term commenced, and will continue until May 14, 2038. Rent
escalations will be at 0.75% per annum on the office space and 1.5% per annum
on the parking income for the full 25-year term. H&R REIT estimates a further
$12.5 million in costs will be incurred to fully complete this project. As
at June 30, 2013, the total cost incurred on the project, including the South
Block, amounted to $1.70 billion (December 31, 2012 - $1.67 billion) which
includes the costs for construction of 1,358 underground parking stalls.
Consistent with H&R's strategy to secure long-term fixed rate financing, on
June 20, 2013, H&R REIT issued $300.0 million, Series C bonds at an annual
rate of 3.797%, due June 13, 2023. These bonds rank pari passu to the $250.0
million, 3.690% Series A bonds due June 14, 2021 and the $250.0 million,
3.693% Series B bonds due June 14, 2022, which were both issued on June 14,
2012. Encana Corporation was entitled to a 60-day free rent fixturing period
and an additional rent credit equal to the delay penalty of approximately
$32.0 million for delays in delivering the tranches. As at June 30, 2013,
there is no more rent credit due to the tenant. For the three months ended
June 30, 2013, the Bow has contributed $16.1 million to AFFO. Although
mortgage interest will increase due to the issuance of the Series C bonds, the
REIT expects the Bow to generate approximately the same amount of AFFO going
The table below also provides an estimate of FFO and AFFO to be generated by
the Bow for the remainder of 2013:
|                   |      Actual   |Six months ended|Estimate((1)(2))|
|In Millions        |Q1 2013|Q2 2013|  June 30, 2013 |Q3 2013|Q4 2013 |
|Basic rent         |  $2.2 | $21.3 |        $23.5   | $23.3 |  $23.3 |
|Straight-lining of |       |       |                |       |        |
|contractual rent   |  20.6 |   3.3 |         23.9   |   1.8 |   1.8  |
|Interest           |       |       |                |       |        |
|capitalized        |   0.5 |    -  |         0.5    |    -  |     -  |
|Mortgage interest  | (4.4) | (5.2) |        (9.6)   | (7.3) |  (7.3) |
|Expected Bow impact|       |       |                |       |        |
|on FFO((3))        |  18.9 |  19.4 |         38.3   |  17.8 |   17.8 |
|Expected Bow impact|       |       |                |       |        |
|on AFFO((3))       | (1.7) |  16.1 |         14.4   |  16.0 |   16.0 |
((1)) This information is being provided so that investors are able to

      understand the expected impact of the Bow to H&R REIT's
      operations.  This information may not be appropriate for other

((2)) The estimates for Q3 and Q4 2013 supersede the estimates
      previously provided by H&R REIT.

((3)) H&R's combined MD&A includes reconciliations of: net income to
      FFO; FFO to AFFO; and AFFO to cash provided by operations.
      Readers are encouraged to review such reconciliations in the
      combined MD&A.

Financial Highlights
The following table includes non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
("GAAP") information that should not be construed as an alternative to
comprehensive income (loss) or cash provided by operations and may not be
comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers as there is no
standardized meaning of FFO under GAAP. Management believes that these are
meaningful measures of operating performance. Readers are encouraged to
refer to H&R's combined management discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for
further discussion of non-GAAP information presented.

|                       |3 months ended June 30|6 months ended June 30|
|                       |______________________|______________________|
|                       | 2013 |        2012   | 2013 |        2012   |
|Rentals from investment|      |               |      |               |
|properties (millions)  |$294.1|      $199.6   |$516.7|      $382.6   |
|Net income (millions)  |188.1 |       106.2   |320.3 |       305.5   |
|FFO (millions)((1)(2)) |119.5 |        92.6   |209.5 |       165.0   |
|FFO per Stapled Unit   |      |               |      |               |
|(basic)((2))           | 0.45 |        0.49   | 0.90 |        0.90   |
|Cash provided by       |      |               |      |               |
|operations (millions)  | 57.2 |       100.7   |194.3 |       241.4   |
|Cash distributions     |      |               |      |               |
|(millions)( (3))       | 68.0 |        38.5   |117.2 |        73.6   |
|Distributions per      |      |               |      |               |
|Stapled Unit           | 0.34 |        0.29   | 0.68 |        0.56   |

((1)) H&R's combined MD&A includes reconciliations of: net income to
      Readers are encouraged to review such reconciliations in the
      combined MD&A.

((2)) See below for significant and non-recurring items included in FFO
      and AFFO per Stapled Unit.

((3)) Cash distributions exclude distributions reinvested in units
      pursuant to H&R's unitholder distribution reinvestment plan.

Included in FFO are the following items which can be a source of significant
variances between different periods:

|In millions            |2013 |         2012   |2013 |         2012   |
|Additional recoveries  |     |                |     |                |
|for capital            |     |                |     |                |
|expenditures           |$2.1 |         $3.8   |$4.2 |         $4.8   |
|Gain on extinguishment |     |                |     |                |
|of debt                |   - |         10.3   |   - |         10.3   |
|Adjustment to          |     |                |     |                |
|straight-lining of     |     |                |     |                |
|contractual rent       |(2.4)|           -    |(2.4)|           -    |
|Sundry income          | 1.4 |           -    | 1.4 |         0.2    |
|Incentive fee waived by|     |                |     |                |
|the Property Manager   |   - |           -    | 1.1 |           -    |

Excluding the above items, FFO would have been $118.4 million for the three
months ended June 30, 2013 (Q2 2012 - $78.5 million) and $0.45 per basic
Stapled Unit (Q2 2012 - $0.42 per basic Stapled Unit). For the six months
ended June 30, 2013, FFO would have been $205.2 million (six months ended June
30, 2012 - $149.7 million) and $0.88 per Stapled Unit (six months ended June
30, 2012 - $0.81 per Stapled Unit).

Subsequent to June 30, 2013, H&R REIT:
    --  purchased a 200,145 square foot retail shopping centre in Fort
        McMurray, Alberta for $168.5 million.
    --  announced its agreement with the Property Manager to
        internalize H&R REIT's property management function effective
        July 1, 2013.  Upon closing of the transaction, a subsidiary of
        H&R REIT will acquire the Property Manager's H&R-related
        property management business in return for 9.5 million limited
        partnership units of that subsidiary, such units to be
        exchangeable on a one-for-one basis for Stapled Units.
    --  entered into an agreement to sell a 50% non-managing interest
        in Place d'Orleans Mall, a 759,462 square foot retail shopping
        centre in Orleans, Ontario for gross proceeds of $110.6
    --  acquired a one-third interest in ECHO Realty LP for U.S. $294
        million.  ECHO Realty LP's portfolio consists of 176 properties
        totalling approximately 7.4 million square feet with an average
        remaining lease term of 12.9 years.  Giant Eagle Inc. is a
        tenant in 161 of the properties and contributes approximately
        79% of ECHO's annual revenue.

Monthly Distribution Declared
H&R's declared distribution for the month of September is scheduled as follows:

|         |Distribution/Stapled|Annualized|Record date  |Distribution |
|         |Unit                |          |             |date         |
|September|$0.11250            |$1.35     |September 10,|September 30,|
|2013     |                    |          |2013         |2013         |

About H&R REIT and H&R Finance Trust
H&R REIT is an open-ended real estate investment trust, which owns a North
American portfolio of 41 office, 112 industrial and 165 retail properties
comprising over 53 million square feet and 2 development projects, with a fair
value of approximately $13 billion. In addition, H&R REIT has a one-third
interest in ECHO Realty LP which owns 176 properties totalling 7.4 million
square feet. The foundation of H&R REIT's success since inception in 1996
has been a disciplined strategy that leads to consistent and profitable
growth. H&R REIT leases its properties for long terms to creditworthy tenants
and strives to match those leases with primarily long-term, fixed-rate

REIT. As at June 30, 2013, the note receivable balance is U.S. $216.6

Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements in this news release contain forward-looking information
within the meaning of applicable securities laws (also known as
the objectives of H&R REIT and H&R Finance Trust, strategies to achieve those
statements concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances,
performance or expectations that are not historical facts including, H&R
REIT's expectation in connection with the financial impact of The Bow and the
amount of distributions to unitholders. Forward-looking statements generally
beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. These
estimates and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties,
including those discussed in H&R's materials filed with the Canadian
securities regulatory authorities from time to time, which could cause the
uncertainties include, among other things, H&R REIT's expectation with respect
to the Bow and Primaris' Q3 and Q4 2013 results, risks related to: prices and
market value of securities of H&R availability of cash for distributions;
properties; competition for real property investments; environmental matters;
reliance on one corporation for management of substantially all H&R REIT's
properties; and changes in legislation and indebtedness of H&R. Material
forward-looking statements in this news release are qualified by these
or circumstances.

Additional information regarding H&R REIT and H&R Finance Trust is  available and For more information, please
contact Larry Froom, Chief Financial  Officer, H&R REIT, 416-635-7520, or
CO: H&R Real Estate Investment Trust
ST: Ontario
-0- Aug/14/2013 13:54 GMT
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Nourishment in the Swedish naval fleet 1500-1800

The Vasa from the Bow : Wiki Commons

This article will present some of the general results of the authors PhD-thesis. The thesis is written within the field of economic-history, however during the work with the thesis the author was allowed to work interdisciplinary. Therefore the source material for the primary sources was two; historical written records of different characters and maritime archaeological material.

During the period 1500-1800 the foodstuff in the Swedish naval fleet can be divided into the following categories; bread, meat and meat products, fish, dairy products, cereals, peas, vegetables and beverages. The consumption of these provisions (except for cereals, peas and vegetables) was at its highest level during the 16th century, which declined in the following centuries. Rations of cereals, peas and vegetables increased by 200 percent from the 16th century to the 18th century.

Not only did the consumption of provisions (except for cereals, peas and vegetables) decline over time; there was also a decline in the variation of food items. Fish is a good example. During the 16th century, there was plenty of fish even if they were served in small quantities. The decline starts in the 17th century and during the 18th century stockfish and herring are the only types of fish served.

The reason for the decline in fish consumption had nothing to do with Catholic fasting rules (as the Swedish King stated) and must be searched elsewhere. One reason for the decline was that the Admiralty Board did not consider fish as good as other provisions. A decree was issued by the Board in 1658 to the superintendent of provisions that he should deliver much smaller quantities of fish. This fits well with the decline of fish consumption in the Swedish navy during the 1660s and 1670s. Fresh fish is listed in the accounts from the 16th century for some warships.

It seems that when fresh fish was caught and served, the daily ration of salted or dried fish was withdrawn. Even if fresh fish is not found in the accounts for the other centuries, fishing equipment has been found in the salvage of the Vasa. This shows that the crew tried to vary their fish consumption while on board. Oysters have been found in the salvage of the Kronan, even though this item is not listed in the accounts. It is remarkable that this item is found. Oysters are very delicate since dead oysters can not be consumed. Oysters require a certain level of salt in the water in order to survive, and must be kept under pressure in their barrels.

Meat and meat products follow the same pattern as fish consumption. It was only during the 16th century that the navy served sausages, meat brawns and tongues. The daily meat rations also declined over time. Beef was the dominant meat for the crew. Pork had a much smaller role in the diet than beef throughout the period. In this case, the accounts and the artefacts tell the same story.

The bread ration follows the same pattern and decreased over time. As in the case of fish, the largest selection of different kinds of bread is found in the 16th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries only two kinds of bread were served, one for the ordinary men and another type for the officers.  The small ration of cereals, peas and vegetables during the 16th century was compensated with a larger bread ration. Generally, there was a substantial decline in total consumption from the 16th to the 18th century.

It developed from a diet based on meat and fish to a diet based on cereals and peas. This follows the food consumption pattern on land in Sweden during the same period. The change in the food consumption at sea seems to have had economic reasons. A diet based on cereals and peas rather than meat and fish worked out cheaper for the Admiralty Board.Apart from fish and meat, one finds hens, eggs and geese only in the accounts from the 16th century, albeit in small amounts. Bones from different kind of birds have been found in the Vasa salvage.

Beer was served during the 16th and 17th centuries. It was gradually replaced by aquavit and vinegar during the 18th century. The vinegar was supposed to be diluted in fresh water. Water is a beverage that is not listed among the provision items. This does not mean that water was not taken on board. The reason for the absence of water in the accounts is that the navy did not have to pay for it. Water was very difficult to keep fresh for a long period of time since it contained insects and other small organisms when it was transferred into the water barrels.

Ship deck of the Swedish ship of the line Kronan at Kalmar museum. : Wiki Commons

Only beer, aquavit and vinegar are listed as beverages in the accounts. However, the archaeological artefacts from the warships Vasa and Kronan reveal a different picture. The artefacts show that the men on board (most likely the officers) brought their own supplies of wine and distilled beverages. Most likely, one of the bottles found in the salvage of Vasa contained rum or arrack. This is one of the earliest pieces of evidence of these beverages in Sweden. The vessel Kronan carried large barrels containing wine. A part of this stowage for wine bottles and liquor has been found at the salvage site.

Cheese and butter were served as dairy products. One finds small amounts of eggs mentioned in the accounts only from the 16th century. Even though eggs are not listed in the accounts for later centuries, they have been found in the salvage of the Kronan. Further investigations of the animal bones from the vessel will inform us whether the Kronan had hens on board. If not, a new research question arises: how did they manage to store eggs on a war vessel in the 17th century?

Salt and spices

Salt is an item that is listed on a daily basis for the seamen throughout the period. During the 17th century, the daily rations are remarkably large, up to 77 grams per man. A modern recommendation is a daily intake of 5-10 grams. During the 16th century, the daily ration of salt was 13 grams per man and there is no specific amount for the 18th century. All the sources tell us is that salt was given directly to the cook on a daily basis for cooking purposes. However, in one of the menus from the 18th century, the daily ration of salt is stipulated to be approximately 13 grams. The salt consumption during the 16th and 18th centuries was much closer to the modern recommendations than the consumption during the 17th century. Spices, fruits, berries, nuts and edible fungi are not listed in the accounts. Nevertheless, all these items have been found in the Kronan salvage.

Galleys and cooking

We do not know what the galleys looked like on the Swedish warships in the 16th century, or how many galleys the vessels had and where in the vessels they were located. This is due to the fact that no 16th century wreck has been excavated yet. Ships like the Vasa (built in the Dutch tradition) had the galley deep down in the hold. This galley had a wooden frame that was covered with bricks and consisted of a floor and two walls, one to the starboard and the other to the portside. The galley was equipped with a large cauldron of 180 litres.

The Kronan was built nearly 40 years after the Vasa and was designed by an English master shipbuilder. The galleys were moved from the hold to the first gun deck in the vessel. The galley was still made of bricks and bricks have been found on two different locations at the wreck site of the Kronan. This indicates that the vessel had at least two galleys, one larger and most likely used for cooking for the ordinary men, whereas another smaller one was used for the officers. The smaller galley can also have been used to warm the officers’ food if it was cooked in the larger galley. The 18th century Swedish warships had two galleys, a larger one that was located in the forecastle and a smaller one in the cabin. The small one was used to cook for the officers. The stoves were built mostly of bricks in the 18th century and had a smoke hood of sheet metal. From the late 18th century, the stoves were made in sheet metal altogether. This changed the way of cooking dramatically. Now it was possible to grill, bake, roast, steam cook, and fry, and even prepare food in water-bath instead of boiling the food in a cauldron over an open hearth.

The men ate in groups since the ordinances were written for 5-8 persons for the crew (not the officers). Regardless of social group, food was served twice a day during the 16th and 17th centuries. Breakfast was served for the first time in 1743.

Food and housekeeping artifacts found in the salvages of the Vasa and the Kronan, along with the inventories of warships from the 1670s, gives us a fairly good picture of how the food was cooked and eaten.

On the Vasa (and most likely on other vessels), there was a clear social stratification between the crew and the officers. The crew ate their food on wooden discs and wooden bows with wooden spoons, and drank from cups made of wood or clay. The officers ate from tinplates, tin mugs and wineglasses made of glass. Their food was kept warm in the cabin. The officers on the Kronan ate with forks as well. These forks have between two and four prongs. The forks with four prongs are early examples of this kind in Sweden.

The common opinion has been that this kind of fork was introduced in Sweden during the 19th century. There was also a social stratification between the monarch, Gustavus Adolphus (1611-1632), and the officers when the King was on board. Since there have been no salvages of 18th century wrecks in Sweden, we do not have any information about the utensils the crew used then. But from the inventories we know that the officers drank, among other things, warm chocolate and ate cakes and pudding which was not served to the crew. Social stratification clearly continued into the 18th century.

The artefacts from the 16th century are as rare as the 18th century artefacts. The inventory of any salvage from 18th century wrecks would be extremely useful. The inventory lists from the 16th century include only limited information about the galley equipment and utensils for cooking. Salvages of 16th century wrecks would be very useful in providing new knowledge about the subject. Even though the sources say little about the social stratification on board during the 16th century, it is unlikely that there was no stratification.

How the meals were served is not yet clear. However, it is very likely that a ship boy served the officers in the cabin after getting the food from the galley. On the Vasa, it would have taken the ship boy a couple of minutes to fetch the meals hot for the officers. Since the crew worked in shifts, they probably ate in shifts as well throughout the day. This means that the cook had to have the fire going and the cauldron cooking most of the day. The distribution of the food must have been easier when the galley was moved up in the vessels, since the crew ate at their work stations. In order to get fresh food, the men caught fish or hunted. Among the artefacts from the Vasa and Kronan, hunting rifles have been found along with fishing equipment. In the accounts from the 16th century, fresh fish is listed and even though there is no fresh fish in the accounts for the rest of the period it is unlikely that the men did not try to get fresh food.

Closing remarks

This text has been dealing with the major results from my PhD study regarding food and diet in the Swedish Navy during the period 1500-1800 and there is a future and continuation on the study. The result presented here will be in cooperated with the future forthcoming result of the project “Nautical and Naval Foodways assessment”. The project is based at MARIS (Maritime archaeological research institute) Södertörn University in co-operation with INA (Institute of Nautical Archaeology). The project should be seen as part of a larger historical and archaeological study, the project’s aim is to work, with the permission of INA and with the various principal investigators, on artefacts from INA excavations in the Bodrum Research Center that specifically address questions of nautical and naval foodways over a large time span and geographical area.

The span of analysis will be decided by available and accessible materials from INA and other excavations, beginning with the oldest and the earliest excavated/investigated shipwreck material pertinent to the study.  Obviously, the range of available material culture related to the study will define the temporal and geographical parameters of the project.  For INA material, the project has obtained provisional permission from the President of INA and the director of the Bodrum Research Center to query the BRC staff and principal investigators. The project while focusing on artefacts that can be linked to provisions, foodstuff, cooking, eating, drinking aboard the different ships which have been excavated, will also assess literary and historical accounts. A single study on the evolution of shipboard foodways, galleys and cooking is envisioned. The aim is that the final outcome of the research will be a publication that can fill the knowledge gap that now exists about foodways aboard ships. A study like this is lacking in contemporary nautical research.

Söderlind, Ulrica, 2006, Skrovmål- måltidsordning och kosthållning i Svenska flottan 1500-1800, Stockholm

Written by Ulrica. Soderlind

HeritageDaily : Archaeology News : Archaeology Press Releases

© Copyright HeritageDaily - Heritage & Archaeology News

About author

Ulrica Söderlind


Medicare and Medicaid Decoded

-A +A

Nearly half (44 percent) of adults surveyed recently said they were concerned about paying for the care they might need as they get older. Thats not surprising, since healthcare costs continue to rise and insurance options are increasingly complicated. Fortunately, there are resources to help, both with your planning and your payments.

For many, Medicare and Medicaid will be an important part of the financial equation. These government administered health insurance programs help individuals and families with some of the costs of care, but its important to know exactly what they do and dont cover so you arent stuck with an unexpected bill.

Theres a lot of helpful information about Medicare and Medicaid right here on, including links to other useful online resources. But if youre just getting started, its best to begin with the basics. Here are three of the most frequently asked questions about the programs, and their answers:

Q: Whats the difference between Medicare and Medicaid?

A: Anyone over the age of 65 qualifies for Medicare. To quality for Medicaid, you must prove that your income is below a certain amount. It is possible to qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid.

Q: Does Medicare pay for long-term care, like assisted living?

A: No, the program does not pay for long-term care options like assisted living. For that reason, many people supplement Medicare with private long-term care insurance.

Q: What about short-term care, like skilled nursing care after a surgery? Does Medicare cover that?

A: Yes, in some cases Medicare will cover skilled nursing care or rehabilitative care. But, to receive those benefits the patient must be admitted to a hospital for at least a three-night stay just before entering a skilled nursing center. A discharge planner is a good person to talk to about the transition from the hospital to a skilled nursing center. provides resources and advice to help you and your loved ones make informed and confident decisions about the care they may need now and in the future. Visit our About page to learn more.


081. Modernism As Media

J. Emery-Peck (English)
Full Course -- 4 Credits
Fall Semester FYSP 081-01  TR 3:00-4:15
Spring Semester FYSP-081-01  Time TBA

In this first year seminar, we will analyze modernist literary productions in a variety of genres—readings will include poetry (T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”), short fiction (Henry James’s “In the Cage” and “The Real Thing”) and novels (E.M. Forster’s Howards End and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway)—and will analyze the forms of modern media featured within these texts.  We will examine the ways in which these modernist texts engage with modern media forms: telegrams, phonographs, photographs, and advertisements.  Modernist authors saw their texts as competing with these other expressive media.  How is a poem like or not like a photograph?  What traits does a novel share with a telegram?  How do our reading and writing strategies change when we think about modernist literature as media?  In other words, we will learn to read across media and to compare the textual strategies of modernist literary texts with competing media forms.  In addition to exploring old “new media” featured in modernist texts, in the writing for this course we will also experiment with the kinds of condensation required by the telegraphic 140-character “tweet.”  You will tweet and write multiple close-reading analyses which will build toward an extended analytical argumentative essay.


The Omega Point

Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman reveal why the difficulties in your closest relationships is rooted in the things you don't understand about yourself and why
Renowned physician and expert on mind-body wellness, Gabor Maté, MD, speaks at the Yoga Service Council conference about the long-term effects of stress and
Arielle Ford
The idea for Arielle Ford's best-selling book "The Soulmate Secret" originated when she decided to apply the tools she used to launch her successful busines
Gods and Goddesses Within
Spiritual life counselor, Iyanla Vanzant shares why every relationship you have is a reflection of the relationship you are having with yourself.
Cocreators of the Sharing the Path retreat, Judith Ansara and Robert Gass demonstrate the powerful impact appreciation can have in your relationship.
Yoga teacher, Colleen Saidman discusses the power of your family to transform your life when your children become your teachers because the unconditional lo


Yeast Infections: What You Must Know Now

Don’t use scented or irritating products when you’re dealing with a yeast infection. This is especially true of vaginal sprays or menstrual pads. These products can disturb the natural balance of your vagina. This will increase your chances of getting a yeast infection. Try to stick with only products that are mild and designed to be used on that area of the body.

TIP! Stress is one factor that can cause yeast infections. Stress keeps your immune system from working properly, which means that your body won’t be able to fight off a yeast infection very well.

Add some cider vinegar (about 2 cups) to your bath each night. Vinegar promotes your body’s natural pH balance can can decrease the development of yeast. Try not to sit in your bath longer than you typically would. You could also try a douche with 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar and one quart water if you prefer that.

If you are trying to keep yeast infection at bay, be certain to practice good hygiene. Thoroughly wash your genitalia, and be certain to cleanse all skin and folds. When finished thoroughly dry the area. Yeast grows in warm moist areas, so keeping your genital area dry is one of the best actions you can take in your battle against yeast infections.

Immune System

TIP! If you notice a yeast infection beginning, go to a doctor quickly and get treatment immediately. You don’t want to sit around and let the infection get worse.

You should get a lot of rest. You need a healthy immune system to fight off all infections. When you’re tired, the immune system is tired, too. Try to have a regular sleeping schedule, and avoid exercising or drinking caffeine before bedtime to get some quality sleep.

If yeast infections tend to occur every month and coincide with your period, you need to take proactive action. You should start taking two acidophilus tablets both before and after your period. Typically, these pills will help you avoid a yeast infection. By taking charge, you’ll hopefully be able to stop the infection in its tracks!

Douching is one of the more common reasons people get yeast infections. It is a common misconception that douching can help prevent yeast infections. Douching upsets the natural balance of bacteria in your vagina. When vaginal bacteria is unbalanced, you are more susceptible to yeast infections.

TIP! Things that are scented or caustic should be avoided. Douches and scrubs are used often by many.

If you are an avid exerciser or swimmer, it is important to change your clothes. Whether swimming or working out, it is important to remove damp clothes immediately. Yeast thrives in moist environments. When you are done exercising, change your wet clothes and get a good shower. Don’t just change your outerwear, but put on new undergarments as well.

Oral Yeast

It may be surprising, but oral yeast infections are pretty common. If an oral yeast infection happens to you, you need to schedule a visit with your doctor as soon as you can. Home remedies meant to ameliorate the impact of oral infections include saltwater rinses and the intake of cold liquids.

TIP! Eat yogurt. If you feel like you may be getting a yeast infection, start eating yogurt.

If you constantly find yourself suffering from yeast infections, it is vital that you start to make some fundamental changes to your lifestyle in order to get the chronic infections under control. Treating an infection or two is one thing, but repeated infections may require more intensive attention and prevention. Try changing your clothing, diet or lifestyle.

Learning about your body is the key to handling a yeast infection. With the information in this article, you should be able to avoid and treat yeast infections.


Pre-Roman Spain

Human fossils in Spain belong to modern humans (Homo sapiens), the Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis), and even earlier members of the human lineage, possibly H. erectus or H. heidelbergensis. Bones of several individuals in the Cueva Mayor (“Main Cave”) A large number of bones have been recovered from caves at Atapuerca, Burgos, which come from Middle Pleistocene sediments that are at least 280300,000 years old. Other important sites are at Torralba and Ambrona (Soria), where elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were trapped accidentally in marshy ground and their remains scavenged. From these sites were excavated shouldered points fashioned from young elephant tusks, as well as hundreds of stone implements (hand axes, cleavers, and scrapers on flakes, made from chalcedony, quartzite, quartz, and even limestone) and wooden objects. Pieces of charcoal show that fire was known and used. But H. erectus or H. heidelbergensis humans were already living in Spain in the Early Pleistoceneas early as 1.2 million years ago, as indicated by finds at Atapuerca and by stone tools recovered from beaches in the Algarve (Mirouço), Huelva (Punta Umbria), and Cadiz (Algeciras) and the terraces of the lower Guadalquivir, Tagus, Manzanares, and Ter rivers. Choppers, angular balls, and flakes from the terraces of the Jabalón River (Ciudad Real) are older than 700,000 years and perhaps more than 1,000,000 years.

Fossils of Neanderthals were found at Bañolas (Girona) and Cova Negra (Valencia). Fully developed Neanderthals, some represented by well-preserved skulls, come from more than 10 different localities throughout Spain, including Los Casares, Carigüela, Gabasa, and Zafarraya, with a cluster in Gibraltar (Forbe’s Forbes’ Quarry, Gorham’s Cave, and La Genista).

The appearance of modern humans (H. sapiens) in Spain after 35,000 BP opened a new era, when material culture acquired an innovating velocity it never lost. Flint tools became more varied and smaller, and bone and antler were used for harpoons, spears, and ornaments. Needles from El Pendo Cave (Cantabria) hint at sewn clothing of furs and skins. Most remarkable were the intellectual achievements, culminating in the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) caves found in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain. These caves were painted, engraved, and sculpted and visited intermittently between 25,000 and 10,000 BC. On the walls and ceilings are images of cold-weather animals—such as bison, mammoths, Przewalski’s horse, aurochs (wild oxen), and woolly rhinoceroses. Predators such as bears, wolverines, and lions are rarely represented, and depictions of humans are extremely scarce. Many caves (such as the group of caves at El Castillo, Cantabria) show rows of coloured dots, arrowlike marks, negative impressions of human hands, and signs interpreted as vulvas. Animals may be drawn skillfully in black outlines, like the horses at Ekain (Guipúzcoa), or painted in polychrome, as at Altamira (Cantabria), and in bichrome, as at Tito Bustillo (Asturias). These are scenes and standard compositions, but figures are also drawn singly (Puente Viesgo, Cantabria), engraved repeatedly, or drawn on top of other representations. Although the main animals hunted for food were red deer, ibex (mountain goat), and reindeer, the most common depictions are of aurochs, bison, and horses. Salmon, a seasonal food, was rarely drawn, and plants never appear. Similar themes occur on portable objects made of bone and antlers and on stone plaques. At the habitation site of the cave of Parpalló (Valencia), thousands of engraved stone plaques accumulated; although their interpretation is difficult, it should be stressed that Paleolithic art follows conventions. Figures are placed formally within selected caves (probably sanctuaries), with meanings hidden from modern eyes. Paleolithic visitors left stone lamps and pine firebrands as well as footprints and hand marks on muddy surfaces in the French caves of Fontanet, Isturitz (Haristoi), and Lascaux. The complexity of the Paleolithic mental universe is demonstrated by the mortuary practice in two graves in the Cueva Morín (Cantabria), where four mutilated burials survived as casts formed by a compact, greasy sediment that had replaced the bodies. The dead were accompanied by meat offerings and ochre and buried below low mounds, on top of which ritual fires burned.

After 10,000 BC the climatic changes accompanying the end of the last glaciation led to the disappearance of cold-tolerant game and the flooding of their grazing lands near the coasts. Hunters responded by widening their range of food and collecting quantities of marine shellfish. Such adaptations can be seen in caves as far apart as Santimamiñe (Guipúzcoa), Costalena (Zaragoza [Saragossa]), and Dos Aguas (Valencia). More than 7,500 figures painted by these hunters and gatherers are known from all over the eastern and southern Iberian Peninsula, dating from 7000 to 3500 BC and giving tantalizing glimpses of their society. Located in the open air, usually beneath rock overhangs or in protecting hollows, are animated representations of people dancing (two women in voluminous skirts at Dos Aguas; three women in skirts and two nude ithyphallic men at the Barranco del Pajarejo, Albarracín), fighting, robbing honey, stalking red deer, and hunting wild goats. Some scenes are constructed around a narrative. The Remigia Cave and the series of 10 cavities with outstanding paintings at the Cingle de La Gasulla (Castellón) next to it show scenes of remarkable activities; in cavity IX two matched groups of archers, led by a man sporting a headdress, are engaged in hand-to-hand combat, while nearby in the rock shelter of Les Dogues another combat pits two bands of archers rhythmically against each other at close range. Bees are depicted more than 200 times, often near hives, and in cavity IV of the Cingle de la Ermita del Barranc Fondo (La Valltorta, Castellón) a scene shows a long fibre ladder with men climbing it to reach a hive defended by oversized bees. Other well-preserved groups of paintings are found at Minateda and Alpera (Albacete) and around Bicorp (Valencia).

The craft of pottery making and the cultivation of domestic cereals and livestock that characterize the Neolithic (New Stone Age) economy in Europe reached Spain from the central Mediterranean, and perhaps from northwestern Africa, after 6000 BC. Although agriculture and husbandry were known early in eastern and southern Spain, they were assimilated extremely slowly and irregularly. Caves and sites conveniently located for hunting, like those around Montserrat (Barcelona) and at La Sarsa (Valencia) and Carigüela (Granada), were still preferred, and people lived in extended families or small bands. A different pattern prevailed in southwestern Spain and Portugal, where the advent of the Neolithic Period came later, between 4500 and 3800 BC. By 4000 BC the first big collective tombs were built from boulders, and by 3500 BC funerary monuments were prominent in the landscapes of Alentejo (Portugal), Extremadura, and the Atlantic littoral. Veritable megalithic cemeteries arose around Pavia and Reguengos de Monsaraz (Alentejo).

Significant changes in technology and social organization occurred after 3200 BC. Skills in copper working were accompanied by a tendency to live in larger village communities. Differences in natural resources and population density meant that regions developed unequally, and centres of innovation are known all around the southern and southwestern coasts of Spain and Portugal. Particularly impressive is the settlement at Los Millares (Almería), which extends over five acres (two hectares) and is protected by triple walls of stone reinforced with towers at regular intervals. A formidable barbican with arrow slits and guard chambers projected from the gateway. These defenses stretch over 330 yards (300 metres) and cut off a triangle of land high above the Andarax River, with a cemetery of more than 70 collective tombs lying just outside the walls. On the nearby hills, 10 or 15 smaller citadels watched over the natural approaches to the village. Modest dwellings lay inside, and an especially large building was used as a workshop to melt copper and to cast objects in simple molds; the metal wastes and crucibles show that pure copper and copper mixed with a small amount of arsenic as a hardening agent were regularly selected. Mines and copper smelting slags of this date are known from the Alhamilla highlands, less than 12 miles (20 km) to the east. Smaller, undefended villages are known from El Barranquete and Almizaraque (Almería). The agricultural economy was based on growing wheat and barley, raising common domestic animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats, and probably tilling small areas of river bottomland, the only land plentifully watered in this arid region. Varied grave goods such as copper implements, personal ornaments, and decorated vessels for drinking and feasting (called bell beakers from their distinctive shape) indicate a stratified tribal society at Los Millares with marked inequality of riches and access to the good things in life. The defenses and multiple forts suggest social instability and the raiding and fighting that went with it. Similar villages and their megalithic tombs are known in the western outskirts of Sevilla (Seville), eastward at the Cabezo del Plomo (Murcia), and at Vila Nova de São Pedro and Zambujal north of Lisbon (Portugal).

Many Copper Age villages were abandoned by 2000 BC, and Bronze Age settlement shifted to new sites, sometimes only a few hundred yards away. Steep hilltops were favoured for their inaccessibility, and in southeastern Spain the custom of burying people below the floors of their houses replaced the collective practices of the Copper Age societies. Social stratification is very marked at settlement sites like El Argar and El Oficio (Almería), where the richest women were adorned with silver diadems while their male consorts were equipped with bronze swords, axes, and polished pottery. At Fuente-Álamo (Almería) the elite lived apart from the village, in square stone houses with round granaries and a water cistern nearby. Such customs were practiced with less intensity on the southern Meseta, where fortified hamlets known as motillas dominated a flat landscape. In eastern and northern Spain people did not live in villages at all but in hamlets such as Moncín (Zaragoza) or on isolated family farms such as El Castillo (Frías de Albarracín, Teruel). In the wetter regions of Spain and Portugal, along the Atlantic coast and Bay of Biscay, so-called castros—small settlements fortified with a deep ditch and inner bank—arose, with a flourishing bronze industry linked to southern Britain and France and a custom of burying hoards of metal tools and weapons. Mining for copper ores was practiced at El Milagro and Aramo (Asturias), where the last miners abandoned their antler picks and levers deep in the underground galleries. Such differences in settlement patterns and customs indicate that Bronze Age Spain was not homogeneous but a social mosaic that included centralized tribal societies as well as looser associations based on smaller units. Such Bronze Age societies were prospering when Phoenician sailors reached Spain about 800 BC.

Greeks from Phocaea reached Spain’s shores, but by 575 BC they had established only two small colonies as offshoots of Massilia (Marseille) in the extreme northeast, at Emporion (Ampurias) and Rhode (Rosas). There was, however, an older Archaic Greek commerce in olive oil, perfumes, fine pottery, bronze jugs, armour, and figurines carried past the Strait of Gibraltar by the Phoenicians. It developed between 800 and 550 BC, peaking sharply from 600 to 550, and was directed along the southern coast in precisely the areas of most intense Phoenician influence and settlement.

After 450 BC there was renewed Greek interest in Spain, although directed to the eastern peninsula rather than to the west and south. Greek objects were widely traded by Carthaginian middlemen, as the shipwreck at El Sec (Palma de Mallorca) suggests. The vessel sank with a mixed cargo including millstones, ingots, and decorated Greek pottery, some scratched with personal Punic names such as “Slave of Melqart” (MLQRT’BD) or “Baal is Merciful” (B’HLM).

The indigenous Bronze Age societies reacted vigorously to the culture of the Phoenicians and then the Greeks, adopting eastern Mediterranean values and technologies. At first the process of assimilation was exclusive, affecting few people; then it gathered pace and volume, drawing entire societies into the transformation. Everywhere the process of change was rapid and intense, lasting a few generations between 700 and 550 BC. As old patterns of patronage were overturned with the arrival of new prestige goods outside the control of the former rulers, new adventurers came onto the scene. Their traces can be seen in rich tombs around Carmona at cemeteries such as El Acebuchal, Setefilla, and in Huelva at the cemetery of La Joya. Princely wealth from La Joya included a chariot of walnut wood, an ivory casket with silver hinges, bronze mirrors, tiered incense burners, and ornate libation jugs. Gold jewelry is known from many spectacular treasures in southern Spain, of which the regalia from El Carambolo (Sevilla) and the mixture of jewels, engraved scarabs, and tableware of silver and glass from Aliseda (Cáceres) are good examples. Glass and ivory were imported, but the impressive goldwork of filigree and granulation was probably western Phoenician craftsmanship.

By 550 BC a distinctive Iberian culture can be recognized throughout the entire south and east of the peninsula. The name Iberian was the one used by Classical writers, although it referred to a culture having an ethnic and linguistic diversity that remained politically distinctive until its incorporation into the Roman Empire. Iberian civilization had an urban base, and indigenous cities arose after 600 BC, imitating aspects of the Phoenician and Greek colonies. They were especially large and numerous in western Andalusia (Andalucía), at Ategua, Cástulo, Ibros, Osuna, Tejada la Vieja, and Torreparedones, and, somewhat later, also at the other end of the Iberian world, in northeastern Spain at Calaceite (Teruel), Olérdola, Tivissa (Tarragona), and Ullastret (Girona). Cities were political centres with territories; while some joined into confederacies, others were independent city-states. The urban heartland in western Andalusia prospered uninterruptedly from 550 BC, but many towns in southern and eastern Spain were destroyed in the middle of the 4th century amid political turbulence attributed to Carthaginian influence.

The economy continued to be based on agriculture, though supplemented with cultivated grapes and olives of eastern origin. Ironworking was introduced by the Phoenicians, and iron was available everywhere for basic agricultural tools by 400 BC; forging inlaid and damascened weapons brought the blacksmiths’ art to a peak. The fast potter’s wheel allowed mass production of crockery and storage vessels. There were many regional centres of production, and the artistic repertoire grew from geometric designs in the early stages to complex figurative compositions after 300 BC. Important centres arose at Archena, Elx (Elche), Liria, and Azaila, whose artisans depicted scenes from Iberian myth and legend. Mining for silver continued at the Tinto River, expanding up the Guadalquivir valley to the area around Cástulo and to the coast around Cartagena. The scale of extraction at the Tinto River was enormous, and the Phoenician and Iberian workings built up more than six million tons of silver slag. Silver was abundant in Iberian society and was widely used for tableware among the upper class. An outstanding treasure from Tivissa has dishes engraved with religious themes.

Figurative stone sculpture shows Greek influence in the sophisticated modeling of human forms—especially in the friezes from Porcuna—and of animals. Sculptures of deer, griffins, horses, and lions were used as emblems to decorate tombs and were either placed on top of freestanding columns, as at Monforte de Cid, or displayed on tiered monuments. There are sphinxes from Agost and Salobral and a tower tomb from Pozo Moro (Albacete), built by 500 BC, which is decorated with bas reliefs of the Lord of the Underworld in a style reminiscent of 8th-century sculpture from northern Syria. Temples at the Cerro de los Santos (Albacete) and Cigarralejo (Murcia) yielded hundreds of stone human and horse figurines, respectively, while bronze was favoured for statuettes at the sanctuary of Despeñaperros (Jaén). Striking funerary sculptures of enthroned ladies, bejeweled and robed, from Elx and Baza represent the Carthaginian goddess Astarte; the throne had a side cavity to receive cremations.

Three native writing systems developed in Iberia. An alphabet derived from Phoenician signs was used in the southwest by 650 BC, and alphabets based on Greek models arose in the southeast and in Catalonia after 425 BC. Many inscriptions exist, including letters inscribed on rolled-up lead sheets found in houses at Mogente (Valencia) and Ullastret, but they cannot be read. Only the names of places and some personal names can be recognized. The Iberian writing systems remained in use until the Roman conquest.

Inland Spain followed a different course. To the west and north developed a world that has been described as Celtic. Iron was known from 700 BC, and agricultural and herding economies were practiced by people who lived in small villages or, in the northwest, in fortified compounds called castros. The people spoke Indo-European languages (Celtic, Lusitanian) but were divided culturally and politically into dozens of independent tribes and territories; they left behind hundreds of place-names. Celts, living on the central mesetas in direct contact with the Iberians, adopted many Iberian cultural fashions, including wheel-made pottery, rough stone sculptures of pigs and bulls, and the eastern Iberian alphabet (inscriptions on coins and on the bronze plaque from Botorrita [Zaragoza]), but they did not organize themselves into urban settlements until the 2nd century BC. Metalworking flourished, and distinctive neck rings (torques) of silver or gold, along with brooches and bangles, attest to their technical skills. The Mediterranean way of life reached the interior only after the Romans conquered Numantia in 133 BC and Asturias in 19 BC.

Roman Spain
The conquest

The Romans became interested in Spain after the conquest of much of the region by Carthage, which had lost control of Sicily and Sardinia after the First Punic War. A dispute over Saguntum, which Hannibal had seized, led to a second war between Rome and Carthage.

Although the Romans had originally intended to take the war to Spain on their own initiative, they were forced to do so defensively to prevent Carthaginian reinforcements from reaching Hannibal after his rapid invasion of Italy. Roman generals, however, had great success, conquering large sections of Spain before a disastrous defeat in 211 BC forced them back to the Ebro River. In 210 Scipio Africanus resumed Rome’s effort to remove the Carthaginians from Spain, which was achieved following the defeat of the Carthaginian armies at Baecula (Bailén) in 208 and Ilipa (Alcalá del Río, near Sevilla) in 207. Scipio returned to Rome, where he held the consulship in 205, and went on to defeat Hannibal at Zama in northern Africa in 202.

After the expulsion of the Carthaginians from Spain, the Romans controlled only that part of the peninsula which had been affected by the war: the eastern seaboard and the valley of the river Baetis (Guadalquivir). Although over the next 30 years the Romans fought almost continuously, chiefly against Iberian tribes of the northeast, against the Celtiberians in the northeastern Meseta, and against the Lusitanians in the west, there is little sign that this opposition to Roman rule was coordinated, and, although the area under Roman control increased in size, it did so only slowly. The region was divided into the two military areas (provinciae) of Nearer and Further Spain (Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior) in 197, after which elected magistrates (praetors) were sent out, usually for two-year periods, to command the armies; the Romans, however, were more interested in winning victories over Spanish tribes (and so gaining the accolade of a triumph—a ceremonial victory march through the city of Rome) than in establishing any organized administration. After the campaigns of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (father of the famous tribune of the same name) and Lucius Postumius Albinus in 180–178, treaties were arranged with the Celtiberians and probably with other tribes, as a result of which Roman taxation seems to have become more regular.

In the middle of the 2nd century, during a period when Rome was not otherwise occupied by fighting in the eastern Mediterranean or Africa, large-scale wars broke out in Celtiberia in the northern part of the Meseta and in Lusitania, which resulted in a series of consuls (senior magistrates) being sent to Spain. These struggles continued sporadically for the next two decades, during which Roman armies were defeated on several occasions, notably in 137 when an entire army commanded by the consul Gaius Hostilius Mancinus was forced to surrender to the Celtiberians. The war against the Lusitanians was ended only by the assassination of their leader, Viriathus, in 139, and the Celtiberians were finally subdued in 133 by the capture of their main town, Numantia (near modern Soria), after a prolonged siege conducted by Publius Scipio Aemilianus (Scipio Africanus the Younger), the grandson by adoption of Hannibal’s opponent.

In the 1st century BC Spain was involved in the civil wars afflicting the Roman world. In 82 BC, after Lucius Cornelius Sulla captured Rome from the supporters of Gaius Marius (who had died four years earlier), the Marian governor of Nearer Spain, Quintus Sertorius, relying partly on his good relations with local Spanish communities, successfully frustrated the attempts of two Roman commanders, Quintus Metellus Pius and the young Pompey, to regain control of the peninsula, until Sertorius’s assassination in 72 resulted in the collapse of his cause. During the wars between Julius Caesar and Pompey, Caesar rapidly secured Spain by a victory over the Pompeians at Ilerda (Lleida); but after Pompey’s murder in Egypt in 48 his sons, Gnaeus and Sextus Pompey, raised the south of the peninsula and posed a serious threat until Caesar himself defeated Gnaeus at the Battle of Munda (in present-day Sevilla province) in 45. Not until the reign of Augustus, who, after the defeat of Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31, became master of the entire Roman Empire, was the military conquest of the peninsula complete. The last area, the Cantabrian Mountains in the north, took from 26 to 19 BC to subdue and required the attention of Augustus himself in 26 and 25 and of his best general, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, in 19. It was probably after this that the peninsula was divided into three provinces: Baetica, with its provincial capital at Corduba (Córdoba); Lusitania, with its capital at Emerita Augusta (Mérida); and Tarraconensis (still called Hispania Citerior in inscriptions), based on Tarraco (Tarragona).

It does not seem that the Romans pursued a policy of deliberate “Romanization” of their Spanish provinces, at least for the first two centuries of their presence there. Scipio left some of his wounded veterans at Italica (Santiponce, near Sevilla) in 206; the Roman Senate allowed a settlement of 4,000 offspring of Roman soldiers and native women to be established at Carteia (near Algeciras) in 171; and further veteran settlements were probably placed at Corduba and Valentia (Valencia) during the 2nd century BC. There had certainly been migration from Italy to the silver-mining areas in the south during this period, and in Catalonia Roman villas, whose owners were producing wine for export, appeared at Baetulo (Badalona) before the end of the 2nd century. It was not until the period of Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus, however, that full-scale Roman-style foundations (coloniae) were established for the benefit of Roman legionary veterans, some on already-existing native towns (as at Tarraco), some on sites where there was relatively small-scale habitation previously, as at Emerita Augusta. By the early 1st century AD there were nine such foundations in Baetica, eight in Tarraconensis, and five in Lusitania. An inscription from one of these colonies, the colonia Genetiva Iulia at Urso (Osuna), which contains material from the time of its foundation under Julius Caesar, shows a community of Roman citizens with their own magistrates and religious officials, a town council, and common land assigned to the town.

During the reign of Augustus and through the period up to the overthrow of the emperor Nero in AD 68, native communities also began to model themselves on the Roman pattern, setting up public buildings (including a forum, buildings for local government, temples, and bathhouses); some acquired the status of municipium, by which the inhabitants gained the so-called Latin right, which afforded privileges under Roman law and allowed the magistrates of the town to become Roman citizens. This process was advanced rapidly during the reign of the Flavian emperors—Vespasian (AD 69–79), Titus (AD 79–81), and Domitian (AD 81–96). Vespasian is said to have granted the Latin right to all the communities of Spain, and, although this is almost certainly an exaggeration, epigraphic evidence from towns in Baetica (especially a long inscription on six bronze tablets from Irni [near Algámitas, Sevilla] unearthed in 1981) reveals the existence of a general charter for these Latin municipia issued in the reign of Domitian, requiring them to adopt the forms of Roman law and to organize themselves on lines not unlike those used by the coloniae of Roman citizens. It is likely that this particular interest in Spain resulted from the support given by Spanish communities to Servius Sulpicius Galba, who, while governor of Tarraconensis in AD 68, had participated in the uprising against Nero and had been emperor for a few months in 68–69.

The extent to which the upper classes in the towns and cities of Spain, of both immigrant and native stock, were part of the elite of the Roman Empire as a whole in the 1st century AD can be seen by the appearance of men of Spanish origin in the life of Rome itself. These include the philosopher and writer Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 BCAD 65) from Corduba, who was the tutor and subsequent adviser to Nero, and the poet Martial (c. AD 38–c. 103), born at Bilbilis (near Calatayud)—a municipium since the time of Augustus—who was active in Rome under the Flavian emperors. A growing number of Roman senators were natives of Spain, including Trajan and Hadrian, who later became emperors (AD 98–117 and 117–138, respectively); both came from Italica.

The same period saw a progressive reduction in the number of Roman troops stationed in the peninsula. During the Cantabrian War under Augustus the number of legions had risen to seven or eight, but these were reduced to three by the reign of his successor, Tiberius, and to one by the time of Galba’s accession. From Vespasian’s time to the end of the empire the legionary force in Spain was limited to the VII Gemina Felix legion, stationed at Legio (León) in the north. Both this legion and the other auxiliary units in Spain seem to have been recruited increasingly from the peninsula itself, and recruits from Spain served throughout the Roman world, from Britain to Syria. From the time of Vespasian onward, military activity in Spain itself was restricted in scope and occasional, such as the repulsion of an attack by the Mauri (probably Imazighen [Berbers]) from Africa in the 170s and raids by barbarians during the chaotic period of the later 3rd century, which, according to some late sources, involved the sack of Tarraco. It seems probable that the legion VII Gemina was split in the late 3rd or 4th century, with one part being transferred to the comitatenses, the mobile army that accompanied the emperor. Certainly the remaining forces in Spain, further reduced by the removal of soldiers to fight in the civil war that followed the attempt by the usurper Constantine to seize power from the emperor Honorius in 406, were unable to provide much resistance to the Vandals, Suebi, and Alani, who swept across the Pyrenees in 409.

From the time of Augustus, the work of the provincial governors, who under the Roman Republic had been commanders in military areas, became more focused on the administration of their provinces. Baetica, the most thoroughly pacified of the three Augustan provinces, was governed by a proconsul chosen by the Senate in Rome, while Tarraconensis and Lusitania had governors appointed directly by the emperor (legati Augusti). These provincial divisions continued to be used down to the time of the emperor Diocletian (AD 284–305), who subdivided Tarraconensis into three sections—Gallaecia, Tarraconensis, and Carthaginiensis. In Baetica, financial matters were handled by another magistrate (quaestor), as had been the case under the republic, while in Augustus’s provinces this work was done by imperial agents (procuratores Augusti). The administration of law, which had always been the responsibility of the provincial commanders, was undertaken at a number of centres, each of which had a district (conventus) attached to it: in Baetica these were Corduba, which was the provincial capital, Astigi (Ecija), Gades (Cadiz), and Hispalis (Sevilla); in Tarraconensis, Tarraco itself, Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza), Nova Carthago (Cartagena), Clunia (Peñalba de Castro), Asturica (Astorga), Lucus Augusti (Lugo), and Bracara Augusta (Braga); and, in Lusitania, Scallabis (Santarém), Pax Iulia (Beja), and the provincial capital, Emerita Augusta. The larger number in Tarraconensis, the result of the larger geographic size of that province, led to the appointment of an additional official (the legatus iuridicus) to help with the work, at least from the time of the emperor Tiberius (AD 14–37) onward. The extent to which the governor was regarded as the source of law in the province can be seen from the requirement set forth in the charters issued to municipia that local magistrates should post, at the place where they dispensed justice, a copy of the governor’s edict specifying which categories of legal suits he was prepared to hear.

The economy of Roman Spain, as throughout the ancient world, was primarily agricultural. In addition to the food grown for local consumption, there was a considerable export trade in agricultural products, which has been demonstrated by the investigation of shipwrecks and amphorae found in Spain and elsewhere in the Roman world. Particularly important are the amphorae from Monte Testaccio, a hill in Rome, still some 160 feet (50 m) high, that is composed mostly of the remains of amphorae in which olive oil had been carried from Baetica to Rome in the first three centuries AD. Wine from Baetica and Tarraconensis, even though not highly regarded in Rome, was shipped in quantity from the 1st century BC to the mid-2nd century AD. Spain also was famous for the production of piquant fish sauces, made especially from tuna and mackerel, of which the most reknowned was garum. Glass, fine pottery, and esparto grass (for making ropes and baskets) were also exported from Spain. Mining was another highly important economic activity; Spain was one of the most important mining centres in the Roman world.

Religion in Spain was shaped by the spread of Roman control. Along the eastern coast and in the Baetis valley the anthropomorphic deities of the Romans absorbed or replaced earlier nonanthropomorphic gods, particularly in the Romanized towns and cities. In areas of Greek and Phoenician colonization, local gods were readily identified with Roman ones, the most striking example being the cult of Hercules/Melqart at Gades. In the north and west, native deities survived longer. In the imperial period the worship of the emperor was widespread, especially in the provincial capitals, where it provided a focus for expressions of loyalty to the emperor, and priesthoods in the imperial cult were an important part of the careers of local dignitaries. Mystery religions from the eastern Mediterranean appeared in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, particularly that of the Egyptian goddess Isis. Christianity became established in the 2nd century, and the extent of its organization is attested not only by accounts of martyrdoms during the 3rd century but also by the records of one of the earliest councils at Elvira, about 306. It is noteworthy that Hosius (Ossius; c. 257–357), bishop of Corduba, acted as religious adviser to the emperor Constantine after his conversion in 312.

Roman remains

Monumental remains of the Roman occupation can be seen throughout Spain, of which some of the most remarkable are the city walls of Tarragona and Lugo, the aqueducts at Segovia, Mérida, and Tarragona, the reservoir, theatre, and public buildings at Mérida, the bridges at Alcántara and Córdoba, and the towns of Italica and Ampurias (Emporion). Particularly fine collections of Roman art and remains can be seen in the National Archaeological Museums in Madrid and Tarragona and the provincial archaeological museums in Mérida, Sevilla, Zaragoza, and Barcelona, as well as in Conimbriga (in Portugal).


Kid Decoder

How Traumatic Events Affect Child Development

After a life-threatening event, try to reduce the damage

Despite your best efforts to protect your children, it's still possible that they'll be exposed to a traumatic event during their childhood. Unfortunately, any child may witness or even experience a car accident, a house fire, physical violence or a serious injury. Traumatic events such as these can interfere with a child's normal growth and development. Fortunately, there are things caregivers can do to foster resiliency and reduce the damage.

Type of Trauma

Kids' behavior is often a barometer for how they are feeling. Since most young children aren't good at verbalizing their feelings, their behavioral changes often indicate they are struggling to deal with a traumatic event. Increased oppositional behavior, aggression, impulsivity and self-destructive behavior can be common. Other kids go to the opposite extreme and become overly compliant. Changes in eating and sleeping habits may be present as well. Young kids often re-enact the trauma in their play repeatedly. For example, a child who experienced a car accident may portray a car crash in his pretend play over and over as he tries to make sense of what happened.

RELATED: Teens and Psych Meds

Mood Regulation

Traumatic events can affect children's moods and their ability to regulate their emotions. Kids who have been traumatized often get upset easily and have trouble calming down. Increased outbursts and tantrums are common and their emotions may change quickly. They may become hypersensitive to certain sights, sounds, smells or anything that reminds them of the traumatic event. Kids who are exposed to repeated trauma may appear to be detached from their emotions. They may have developed coping skills to help them survive the repeated trauma that cause them to appear numb to emotions.

Physical Development

RELATED: 10 Tools for Dealing With Tween Stress

Cognitive Development

Fostering Resiliency

Amy Morin is a licensed clinical social worker who works as a therapist for adults and children. She is also an instructor at a community college, where she teaches courses in psychology and mental health. Morin received her Master of Social Work from the University of New England.

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Alan Turing

Alan Turing

Alan Mathison Turing was born in Paddington, London on the 23rd June 1912, the son of Julius Mathison and Ethel Sara Turing, and was educated at Sherborne Public School. Turing could be rightly described as the effective founder of modern Computer Science. Yet he was thought to be an undistinguished pupil who was probably wasting his time with his interest in scientific matters - not thought then to be appropriate to a Public School education. However, he was successful in his School Certificate and from 1931-34 he was an undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied quantum mechanics, probability and logic.
By 1935 he had been elected a fellow of King's College and was awarded a Smith's Prize in 1936 for work on probability theory - he seemed on course for a successful and uneventful career. In 1936 he published "The Turing Machine: On Computable Numbers" , in which he outlined and defined the essential principles of the computer - a single machine which can be turned to any well-defined task by being supplied with the appropriate programme. The paper attracted a great deal of attention in scientific circles.
From 1936 to 1938 he worked at the University of Princeton where he worked on theories of using electromagnetic relays to multiply binary numbers, and gained his PhD, as well as publishing various scientific papers on logic, algebra and number theory. As the prospect of war with Germany loomed he turned his attention to the study of ciphers and codes. In 1939 he returned to Cambridge and began work on the German Enigma cipher problem, devising the so-called "Bombe" machine for Enigma decryption.
On the outbreak of war he was moved in September 1939 to Bletchley Park, and took up full-time work on analysis of codes and code-breaking. By 1942 his machines were effectively breaking German U-boat codes, saving many lives in the Battle of the Atlantic.

In 1948, Turing worked at Manchester University, developing further his work on programming and world's first serious use of a computer, as well as publishing numerous philosophical papers on machine intelligence. In 1951 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Turing was also a homosexual. At the age of 41 he was arrested in Manchester on a charge of indecency, and tried as a homosexual, (at that time a criminal offence in the United Kingdom), with ensuing loss of all security clearances, and was thus prevented from completing, or even having access to his own work in biology and physics. The court also ordered that he undergo "chemical therapy" for his condition (ie. his homosexuality) - a course of libido suppressing hormone drugs.
Tragically, he committed suicide by cyanide poisoning on 7th June 1954 at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Earlier that year he had been appointed to the Readership in the Theory of Computing at Manchester University.
He is best remembered as the tragic genius who laid the foundation for the modern theory of artificial intelligence and as one of our greatest code-breakers who was instrumental in cracking the Nazi Enigma Machine during the Second World War.
Alan Turing Way at Eastlands which runs between the City of Manchester Stadium and the National Velodrome is named after him.

In September 2009 Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a public apology on behalf of the British Government for the harsh and inhumane treatment to which Alan Turing had been subjected.

Sir Bernard Lovell

Sir Bernard Lovell

Sir Bernard Lovell was the celebrated Professor of Radio Astronomy at Manchester University and Director of Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope from 1951-1980. The world's first radar transmitter and receiver was installed by Lovell at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, in December 1945.
Initially, Doctor Lovell, (as he then was), had installed ex-Second World War military radar equipment at the University's botanical research station in the Cheshire countryside, but, by the late 1940s he had already conceived the idea of a steerable radio telescope. Construction of the 250 foot diameter parabolic reflecting bowl began in October 1952 and the telescope entered service in August 1957. Later, in October 1957, it was also involved in tracking the Soviet Union's (and the world's first) 'Sputnik' artificial satellite. Subsequently, Jodrell Bank has been involved in innumerable astronomical and space research projects. Initially the telescope was known simply the 'Mark 1A'. It still remains one of the largest steerable radio telescopes in the world today.

The development of astronomy at Jodrell Bank really stems from Lovell's very small and modest installations, though the observatory has now grown to a total of eight telescopes, including the MERLIN array of smaller telescopes distributed over England. Work initially concentrated on the behaviour of meteors, but gradually shifted to cosmic radio waves emanating from deep space. This was to dominate the activities at Jodrell Bank, and established radio astronomy as a revolutionary and viable method of investigating the universe. Before Jodrell Bank, astronomers had worked almost entirely within the visible light spectrum, and what could actually be seen with the naked eye. This was Lovell's main claim to fame - that he pioneered radio astronomy and made it a feasible method of space observation and exploration.
As a result of this important and costly work, most of the cost of the radio telescope was met by Lord Nuffield and the observatory was later renamed the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories. The Mark I is now known as the Lovell Telescope, in honour of Sir Bernard Lovell.

Edmund Cartwright

Edmund Cartwright

Edmund Cartwright was born in Nottingham in 1743, into a fairly wealthy land owning family. His brother John was to go on to be a famous parliamentary reformer, but Edmund chose religion, and became rector of a church in Leicestershire. Although, so far as is known, he never ever came to Manchester, his invention of the power loom was to fundamentally influence the development of industrialisation in the city by the beginning of the 19th century.
It began when Cartwright visited Richard Arkwright's factory in 1784, and was inspired by what he saw of Arkwright's mechanised factory systems; he immediately started work on developing a machine that could improve the speed and quality of weaving. With the help of a carpenter and a blacksmith he produced his first working power loom. It performed rather poorly - nevertheless, he took out a patent for his machine in 1785.
By 1787 he had opened a weaving mill in Doncaster and had soon installed looms driven by the radical new steam powered engines produced by Watt and Boulton. Practically all the processes in the production of weaving were now be performed mechanically. The main task of the weavers employed by Cartwright was repairing broken threads on the machine. Problems ironed out, eventually Cartwright's power looms performed well.

But he was no businessman and was eventually declared bankrupt. Disappointed but not disheartened, Cartwright turned to new projects - between 1790 and 1797 he took out patents for a wool-combing machine and an alcohol engine. In 1799 four hundred of Cartwright's power looms we purchased by a Manchester company; despite the factory burning to the ground, probably as a result of arson carried out by Luddite workers who feared losing their jobs, the power loom had arrived, and was to be instrumental in the rise of Manchester as a major textile producing City.
Other local manufacturers were dissuaded for a time from buying Cartwright's machines, but in the fullness of time their advantages were self-evident and the power loom was here to stay.
By the early 19th century, most factories in the region were using a modified version of Cartwright's power loom, despite the patent on his invention, and he applied to Parliament for compensation. MPs such as future Prime Minister and local Bury mill-owner, Sir Robert Peel, had already made a great deal of money from the modified power loom, and there was general support for Cartwright's claim. In 1809 Parliament granted Cartwright the sum of �10,000 in compensation for his loss of earnings through theft of his idea. He went on to retire to a farm in Kent where he died in 1823.

Charles Macintosh

Charles Macintosh, rubberised waterproof fabrics

Charles Macintosh was born in 1766 in Scotland. By 1777 his father had set up a factory in Dennistoun to manufacture a material called "cudbear", a violet-red dying powder.
From the outset, Macintosh inherited a strong interest in chemistry. In his middle age, in 1818, he discovered how to produce dissolved India rubber from coal gas. By joining two sheets of fabric together with this new rubber solution, he had invented a new material that was waterproof.
In the 1820s Macintosh had gone into partnership with Hugh Birley, a cotton manufacturer from Manchester. During this time he had developed his revolutionary waterproof material and later went into business with Thomas Hancock. By 1824, with Hancock, he had resolved all outstanding problems and to develop a viable manufacturing process for the production of waterproofed sheets and coats. His new rainproof coat became known as a "Macintosh", or simply a "Mack".
In 1834 he founded a waterproofing company in Glasgow, but because of intense opposition from local tailors, who were unhappy about the new material, he moved to Hulme in Manchester where he established a factory in 1840 to exploit the material further. The factory is now owned by the Dunlop Rubber Company.
Although Macintosh is best remembered for his raincoats, he was also a brilliant chemist with achievements in many other fields, including the invention of new bleaching powders, as well as working with James Neilson to develop a hot-blast process to produce high quality cast iron. He also established the first Scottish alum works. Macintosh died in 1843.

Sir Henry Roscoe

Sir Henry Roscoe

Henry Enfield Roscoe was to become Professor of Chemistry at Owens College, later to become the University of Manchester, from 1857 to 1886, and built the first ever practical chemistry laboratory in Britain. Also at one time he was elected Liberal MP for South Manchester.
The present University School of Pharmacy contains the laboratory in which he first isolated the element 23 - Vanadium in 1865. In 1858 Roscoe also reputedly produced the world's first flashlight photograph. The Roscoe Medal, commemorating this distinguished Victorian chemist is awarded for outstanding contributions to and excellence in Chemistry in the UK.
Roscoe believed that students should be given "a careful and complete general training". In his presidential address before the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1884, he stated that his students would be given "as sound and extensive a foundation in the theory and practice of chemical science as their time and abilities will allow." Roscoe was a Fellow of the Royal Society. The University's Roscoe Building is named after him.

Patrick Steptoe & Dr Robert Edwards

Doctor Patrick Steptoe, Oldham gynaecologist
Patrick Steptoe
Dr Robert Edwards, Cambridge University physiologist
Dr Robert Edwards

Patrick Steptoe was the Oldham Royal Hospital gynaecologist, who, together with Cambridge physiologists Dr Robert Edwards and Doctor Barry Bavister, with a research team from Cambridge University, succeeded in producing the world's first ever 'test tube' baby, Louise Joy Brown, on 25 July 1978.
Baby Louise, hailed at that time as "a miracle baby", was born to mother Lesley Brown of Bristol, who, like many other infertile women at the time, had little hope of ever conceiving naturally.
Louise, a perfectly normal baby, weighed 5lb 12 oz at birth by Caesarian section in a groundbreaking procedure. She, and Dr Steptoe were the subject of an hour long television documentary which was seen by 400 million people world-wide. Baby Louise also had the distinction of having a Royal Mail commemorative stamp being struck to mark her birth.
Steptoe's pioneering IVF procedures were to make possible thousands of births to otherwise childless couples throughout the world, and is widely held to be one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century. Doctor Edwards died in the spring of 2013.

Sir James Chadwick

Sir James Chadwick

Born on the 20 October 1891 in Bollington, Cheshire, the son of John Joseph Chadwick and Ann Mary Knowles, he attended the Manchester High School and in 1908 entered Owens College (now the University of Manchester). He graduated from the Honours School of Physics in 1911 with an MSc and in 1921 was awarded a PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge.
After 2 years working with Professor Ernest Rutherford in Manchester, in 1913 he was recommended for a research scholarship at Reichsanstalt in Berlin to work with Hans Geiger. This resulted in his internment during the First World War as a potential security threat. After the war, in 1919, he returned to England to work at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and was destined to eventually became its director.
In 1925, he married Aileen Stewart-Brown of Liverpool. They had twin daughters, and the family lived in Denbigh, North Wales. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1927, and was awarded the Royal Medal of Royal Society in 1928.

In 1930 working with Bothe and the Joliot-Curies, Chadwick identified a neutral particle, the so-called 'neutron'. This discovery subsequently lead to the development of the nuclear fission process. That same year he also jointly published "Radiation from Radioactive Substances" with Ellis and Geiger. In 1935 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
Chadwick remained at Cambridge until 1935 when he was elected to the Lyon Jones Chair of Physics at the University of Liverpool where he initiated an accelerator programme. From 1943-1946 he headed the British Mission to the Los Alamos atomic weapons project, and he was knighted in 1945. He went on to become master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. From 1957 to 1962 he was a part-time member of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. He retired in 1959 and died on the 22 November 1974 at Cambridge.

Lawrence Earnshaw

(c.1707 - 1767)
Lawrence Earnshaw, born into a weaving family at Mottram Moor some time around 1707, is perhaps, undeservedly, one of the least remembered of local celebrities. He spent much of his adult life inventing ingenious machines, yet died in relative obscurity.
Despite having no formal education, from a young age he was showing a curiosity and interest in clock mechanisms and other machines. He began his working life as an apprentice to a local tailor - a position he maintained for eleven years, while developing an impressively wide range of other skills, including engraving, painting, making optical instruments and sundials, tuning violins and harpsichords, gun making, bell founding and coffin-making. But of all these, it was clock-making that held his interest most, and he specialised in creating many long case clocks, culminating in his greatest achievement, an astronomical clock. For this he made all the calculations, and spent over seven years in its creation, despite continuing money problems. Finally, the finished timepiece was sold to the Earl of Bute for the sum of £150. One of Earnshaw's clocks still survives in Mottram Court.
Around 1753 he invented a machine to spin and weave cotton, but, more of an inventor than businessman, and awe-struck by the speed and efficiency of his invention, he soon after destroyed it, believing that it would cause widespread unemployment and hardship among local spinners and weavers. Thus his machine disappeared into obscurity and Earnshaw failed to achieve either the fame or wealth which he undoubtedly would have earned from the invention.
Lawrence Earnshaw died on the 12th May 1767 and is buried in St Michael's churchyard in Mottram in an unmarked grave. The local parish record shows an entry for his death, describing him as an "...ingenious man of Mottram".A Blue Plaque erected on the Court House in Mottram marks his achievements.

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Sending US Dollars Overseas

In a recent book titled “The Next Decade” by George Friedman, Mr. Friedman makes the point that the US remains the world economic power with 25% of the world economic production. His contention is that the US President must exert that power in many ways, always mindful that the USA is the world’s economic powerhouse….


Sodium keeps your mind sharp

  • By Monique Ryan
  • Published Jun. 18, 2008
  • Updated Nov. 29, 2012 at 11:18 AM EST

With the hot weeks of summer stretching out before them, cyclists are paying closer attention to their sodium replacement strategies during training and racing. Sodium replacement during training can prevent hyponatremia or lowered blood sodium levels. At the very least hyponatremia can slow down your training efforts while more serious symptoms include headache, confusion, nausea, or cramping. At the very worst, severe hyponatremia can be extremely dangerous or even fatal.

Replacing sodium

While there are multiple causes of hyponatremia, the main instigators are excess fluid intake in which blood sodium is diluted, and a high rate of sodium loss from sweating. Cyclists who have a high concentration of sodium in their sweat and/or a high sweat rate are more susceptible to this condition.

In some endurance athletes, measured sweat losses have exceeded 1.8 liter per hour and range from 0.5 to 2.5 liters per hour. While cyclists can check body weight pre and post-training and make some educated calculations about sweat loss, estimating sweat sodium losses is more difficult. Research measured results have ranged from 230 to 1380 milligrams per liter or even higher. Sodium sweat losses per hour are then multiplied by your sweat rate and sodium content of sweat, and for heavy sweaters and salty sweaters result in high sodium losses per hour.

You may have identified yourself as a heavy sweater or as a salty sweater and made the switch to a higher sodium sports drink, or even added electrolyte tablets to your training mix. If you are getting good results from your current sodium replacement plan, some new research recently presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Meeting this past May presented yet another twist on the benefits of smart sodium supplementation during serious training.

Brain twist

Exercise physiologist, researcher, and PhD student Matt Pahnke, MA at the University of Texas at Austin studied the effects of sodium replacement on brain function. “During endurance exercise we see an increase in cognitive function. When we tested subjects with very high sodium sweat losses who had a drop in blood sodium during three hours of endurance exercise, we found no improvement in cognitive function,” said Pahnke. So when these salty sweaters lost sodium and their blood sodium dropped, they did not derive the usual benefit in brain function seen with endurance exercise.

Based on these results, Phanke chose to study some salty sweaters and designed a testing protocol to determine if replacing sodium during training and subsequently maintaining blood sodium levels preserved or resulted in the expected improvement in brain function.

Subjects were heat acclimatized endurance trained males and tested in a warm environment of 33 degrees Celsius. Subjects cycled for three hours at 60 percent of maximal oxygen uptake. Body mass was maintained by consuming water with carbohydrate. Sodium chloride or a placebo was ingested in capsule form at 15-minute intervals during the cycling trials to match individual sweat sodium losses. Individual sodium losses were determined two to seven days before the experimental trial.

As would be expected, at both 120 minutes and 180 minutes into the trial, blood sodium levels were significantly lower in the subjects receiving the placebo compared to those receiving sodium replacement. Subjects maintained body mass during the trials, reflecting appropriate fluid replacement. The salty sweater subjects required on average 2.4 grams of sodium per hour to maintain blood sodium levels while remaining hydrated via drinking.

Before and after the trials, subjects were given the Stroop Color-Word Test which tests reaction time for complex tasks. “In the sodium replacement group, response time for correct answers improved,” said Pahnke. So in athletes that have high sodium losses, blood sodium will be maintained during endurance exercise with appropriate sodium supplementation designed to match sweat sodium losses. The Stroop test response time improved after exercise in subjects that maintained blood sodium with supplementation, but did not change when blood sodium was not maintained.

Salty Sweat

Determining your own sodium losses without the benefit of laboratory testing can be difficult. In some of Pahnke’s previous work, he investigated the variation in sweat sodium losses in over 130 endurance athletes, half of which were competing in the Ironman World Championship in Kailu-Kona. When exercising in a warm environment at 70 to 75 percent of heart rate maximum, Phanke found a very large range of sodium losses in sweat. While the average losses of sodium in sweat were 1.5 grams of sodium per hour, Pahnke measured losses among these endurance athletes ranged from 0.3 to 5 grams of sodium per hour, in males and females.

Pahnke followed a smaller group of subjects and found that in males, a drop in blood sodium was related to their changes in body mass, which represents both hydration levels and sweat sodium losses. “A first good step to understanding sodium losses is to measure sweat rate by measuring changes in body weight,” said Pahnke.

Check weight before and after exercise. Changes in body weight will be due primarily to sweat loss. Pahnke has a sweat calculator at

Replacing sweat losses with a higher sodium sports drink may be sufficient for many athletes. Check labels of various sports drinks to find a high sodium product that you like and tolerate. If you are on the higher end of sodium losses, as observed by white salt crystals on your skin and clothing after a training session, consuming an appropriate volume of a high sodium sports drink may be sufficient to maintain blood sodium levels. But athletes at the higher end of sodium sweat losses and with a high sweat rate can also add in additional sodium supplementation, such as electrolyte tablets to their training mix.

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Daily Lessons for Teaching When We Were Orphans

Buy the When We Were Orphans Lesson Plans

Lesson 1

Objective: Kazuo Ishiguro is very specific about the years and dates of the seven parts of WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS. The novel is conveyed to the reader, however, through highly subjective, and often imprecise, memories of the narrator's past. This lesson will explore the influence of time and place in the novel.

1) Divide the class into groups: Have the groups comb through the novel to answer the following. How many specific dates and years are given in the novel? What are they? How many significant events have no particular date or year attached? What is the difference between events the reader is given dates for and the ones the reader is not?

2) In-class discussion: Discuss the contrast between the fuzziness of memory and the precision of dates and years in the novel? Is it effective? Why? What does this contrast reveal about Christopher Banks?

3) In-class writing: Have...

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Provisional Application for Patent

6. Patent Priority and Provisional Application for Patent

PLEASE NOTE that with the passage, on September 16, 2011, the US will be changing to a "First-Inventor-to-File" system--meaning that, once that change is implemented, the first to invent will no longer receive a patent UNLESS he or she is ALSO the first to file a patent application for that invention. Until the change is implemented, please use the below for reference.

Under U.S patent law, the "first-to-invent" gets the patent rights. However, this only applies if you can prove you were the first person to come up with an invention and, again, it applies only until "First-Inventor-to-File" takes effect in early 2013.

Some people believe mailing yourself a letter with your invention notes can prove your conception date. This is not true. Instead, under "first-to-invent," you should keep a detailed log book which describes the activities you took to create and test the invention. Each entry should be signed, dated and witnessed by others. In addition, each participant and his or her role should be noted.

Get your Provisional Patent today.

Even with a log book, it is often difficult to prove you came up with an invention before someone else. That's why the first person to file a patent application is almost always deemed to be the first to invent, and will be unqualifiedly deemed the patent owner in the future. This is also why Provisional Applications have become so popular: they establish an official filing date.

Back in 1876, two people independently came up with an invention that could carry speech electronically over a wire - the telephone. Both men rushed their designs to the patent office USPTO. Alexander Graham Bell beat the other man by only two hours. Bell eventually won a long legal battle and was awarded the patent for the telephone, which eventually became known as "the most valuable patent." Do you know the name of the man who came in second? Probably not. With the shift to "First-Inventor-to-File," this story should carry even more weight.

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