Probing the Mysteries of the Distant Universe with Canon Proprietary Technologies Prime-Focus Corrector for Subaru Telescope

How the universe began and how it will end: Dark matter and dark energy may help us unlock secrets of the universe that long predate the birth of humankind. Astrophysicists are unraveling the true nature of dark matter and dark energy with the Subaru Telescope, located atop Mt. Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. Canon proprietary opticals, measurement and high-precision processing technologies have greatly improved the performance of the Subaru Telescope and helped to accelerate the progress of this project.

Prime-Focus Corrector for the Suprime-Cam Prime-Focus Camera (1999) Capturing a Galaxy Approximately 13 Billion Light-Years Away from Earth

illust: Design of the Subaru Telescope

The galaxy known as SXDF-NB1006-2 is 12.91 billion light-years away from Earth.*1 Light from this galaxy travels inconceivable distances of time and space to reach our planet. The galaxy began emitting light about 750 million years after the Big Bang brought about the birth of the universe (approx. 13.7 billion years ago), long before our own planet came into being (about 4.6 billion years ago). The Subaru Telescope is capable of capturing faint light signals from the distant reaches of the universe, such as from this galaxy, and transforming them into sharp images observable to humans. Operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the Subaru Telescope is at the forefront of space research.
The most notable feature of the Subaru Telescope is that it is unique among 8-meter-class telescopes for incorporating an observational instrument at prime focus. The observation system's Suprime-Cam (SC) is equipped with a prime-focus corrector, a complex lens unit developed and manufactured by Canon. The prime-focus corrector not only corrects for light aberrations from the primary mirror, but also includes a function that corrects for the atmospheric dispersion of stellar light, delivering high imaging performance and a wide field of view measuring 0.5 degrees, about the equivalent in size to the diameter of the full moon. Since its first light in 1999, these features have helped the Subaru Telescope realize numerous impressive accomplishments.

  • *1 SXDF-NB1006-2
    The Subaru Telescope and Keck Telescope discovered SXDF-NB1006-2, a galaxy located 12.91 billion light-years from Earth. Announced on June 4, 2012, by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).

Prime-Focus Corrector for the New Hyper Suprime-Cam Prime-Focus Camera (2012) Seeking Insights into Dark Matter and Dark Energy to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe

photo: Galaxy merger as viewed by the Subaru Telescope

Since 1999, research into space and astrophysics has been progressing rapidly. We have come to discover that only a small percentage of the universe is composed of the atoms and other forms of matter that we know of, whereas dark matter and dark energy, which accounts for most of the universe, are still a mystery to humankind. By studying and clarifying the true nature of these phenomena, we expect to find promising clues about the origins and the future of the universe. Astrophysicists hope to accelerate their research efforts by using observation systems offering fields of view that are wider than the Subaru's SC (Suprime-Cam).
The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has worked to develop an ultra-wide-field prime-focus camera called the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC). The new HSC offers an expanded field of view to enable the observation of more galaxies, including distant ones that emit little light, across a broader region of the universe in a shorter amount of time. Observations by the HSC will help scientists calculate the dimensions of galaxies with higher accuracy and create 3-D spatial distribution maps of dark matter based on distortions of stellar images caused by the effect of gravitational lensing.*2 These advances are expected to shed light on the true nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Canon was in charge of developing and manufacturing the corrector for the HSC ultra-wide-field prime-focus camera. In order to install the HSC into the existing configuration of the Subaru Telescope, the company had to design the prime-focus corrector under severe weight and dimensional constraints. Tougher still, Canon also had to achieve a targeted field of view of 1.5 degrees without exceeding these constraints. The HSC's field of view is triple that of the SC, wide enough to capture the equivalent of three full moons at once.

  • *2 Gravitational lensing
    A phenomenon in which light rays from fixed stars, galaxies and other celestial bodies appear to bend and distort relative to the observer or split into duplicate images due to the gravitational pull of celestial bodies situated in the path of the light rays.

illust: The Lens Barrel Design Used in Prime-Focus Corrector for the Hyper Suprime-Cam

Exceptional Opticals, Measurement and Processing Technologies The Key to Overcoming Various Challenges

If the SC's corrector was expanded in diameter by three times then, theoretically, the field of view should also increase three fold. In practice, however, this approach would not satisfy the two rigid constraints imposed on the HSC for installation in the existing Subaru Telescope: a prime-focus corrector that weighs no more than 900 kg and has an external diameter measuring no larger than 1,000 mm.
Various Canon proprietary technologies helped to overcome the challenges faced during the development of the HSC. For the lens system, Canon employed aspherical lens elements, which are more difficult to manufacture as aperture increases, helping to reduce the number of lenses used and minimize the total weight without compromising resolving power. Compared with the SC, the lens's aperture was increased by about 1.6 times (effective diameter of 820 mm) while realizing a three-fold increase in field of view.
An ideal optical design bears fruit when the device is realized as planned. Canon improved its proprietary contact-type free-form measurement machine (A-Ruler) in order to measure the aspherical surface of a lens with more precision. In addition, the company developed a stitching method to measure the lens profile on a segment-by-segment basis and precisely join together the measurement data of each segment. This method enables the overall shape of a large lens measuring over one meter in diameter to be precisely measured on a scale of nanometers without changing the conventional segment area for measurement. Canon technological know-how, accumulated over many years of developing opticals systems for semiconductor lithography equipment, made possible the high-precision processing of large aspherical lenses. By bringing together advanced technologies, Canon has overcome the technological challenges faced when manufacturing large-size aspherical lenses.

photo: Prime-Focus Corrector Incorporated in the HSC

Key Canon Technologies Installed Approximately 4,200 Meters above Sea Level

Prime-focus corrector for the HSC makes use of several unique technologies and technological know-how. Atmospheric dispersion correction (ADC) enables the high-precision correction of the dispersion of light as it passes through the earth's atmosphere,*3 while wide spectral range anti-reflective coating (W-ARC) increases light transmittance and minimizes ghosting to help the HSC consistently attain high resolution over the whole observation area.
To reduce the total weight of the corrector, Canon had to substantially reduce the weight of the lens barrel supporting the highly accurate lens elements. Material selection has been an essential consideration since the start of the project. For the HSC's corrector, Canon selected a highly rigid, lightweight ceramic material with a coefficient of thermal expansion nearly the same as that of the quartz used in some of the lenses. Even in subtropical Hawaii, temperatures on a mountain summit located high above sea level can sometimes drop below zero degrees Celsius. When two different raw materials are used in combination, both materials are usually subjected to stress when changes in temperature cause them to expand and contract. The similarity between the thermal expansion coefficients of the quartz and ceramic in the HSC system almost nullifies this stress. For the lenses in the system, which were made using optical glass materials, Canon newly developed a lens-centering mechanism called S-Lec (Subaru LEns Centering mechanism) to keep the lenses consistently positioned at the center of the optical axis. This is another technology contributing to the superior imaging performance of the HSC's corrector.

  • *3 Atmospheric dispersion
    A blurring of stellar images caused by differences in refractive indexes between wavelengths of stellar light due to the dispersion of stellar light passing through the atmosphere.

Canon Continues to Take on Challenges Toward the Realization of the Next-Generation Ultra-Large Aperture Telescope

Test observations using the HSC ultra-wide-field prime-focus camera installed in the Subaru Telescope began in August 2012. And we may not have long to wait before the Subaru Telescope identifies the true nature of dark matter and dark energy, shedding light on the vexing mystery of what the universe is.
The next challenge for Canon is now in the works. This time, Canon is taking part in the construction of the TMT (Thirty Meter Telescope), an ultra-large telescope offering a 30 m aperture. The TMT is a joint project by scientists in Japan, the U.S.A. and Canada, slated for completion by 2021. The primary mirror of the TMT is to be constructed with an array of 492 segment mirrors, each with a 1.44 m diameter. Canon has just completed the first prototype of the segment mirror.
Canon is pressing ahead with technological innovations to satisfy the growing expectations of astronomical observers. New optical technologies and systems for high-precision measurement and processing are on the way.

photo: Subaru Telescope equiped with Hyper Suprime-Cam

Canon Technology

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Dominant-hegemonic Reading:
The position of a viewer who can identify with the hegemonic position and receive the dominant message of an image or text (such as a television show) in an unquestioning manner. In Stuart Hall's formulation of three potential positions for the viewer/consumer of mass culture, the dominant-hegemonic reading is one in which consumers unquestioningly accept the message that the producers are transmitting to them. According to Hall, few viewers actually occupy this position at any time because mass culture cannot satisfy all viewers' culturally specific experiences, memories, and desires, and because viewers are not passive recipients of the messages of mass media nad popular culture.

- from Practices of Looking, Sturken and Cartwright, p. 57 and glossary.


My Struggle with Homework

The math classroom I knew from school followed a typical pattern.

  1. Review/Collect/Correct previous assignment.
  2. Teacher introduces new concepts/topic(s).
  3. Teacher walks through several example problems.
  4. Students are given an assignment.
  5. Repeat process.

Some math teachers are quicker with a joke, or friendlier, or more strict, but ultimately I think the majority of classes follow this pattern most of the time. When I first started teaching I struggled with how to handle steps 1 and 4. Here is the story of how I came to my solution.

My first year teaching at my current school I followed this pattern fairly religiously. At first I collected homework assignment and tried to check every problem from every student. I quickly learned this is a nightmare. Between students not showing work, poor penmanship skills, and trying to decipher multiple approaches, it is just way too time consuming.

I next tried an approach I picked up student teaching. I wouldn’t correct every assignment, but I would choose them randomly. It was still time consuming to correct, but at least that time consumption was limited. However, there was still a flaw with this system. One day when I went to collect a homework assignment to grade I had a student approach me. He didn’t have the assignment done. Every other assignment was completed, but something came up and he didn’t get that assignment done. I liked the kid, he normally was everything a teacher wants from a student, so I decided to give him a break. The problem was that more and more students asked for breaks, and every now and then I would get the rare student that skipped every assignment, but just happened to complete the one that was collected. I felt like this system was just to coincidental and happenstance to represent some sort of accurate measure of knowledge.

And it was still time consuming. So I adopted something I saw during student teaching, instead of collecting entire assignments, I started collecting just a few specific questions from homework assignments. But the outcome was still largely the same, it just felt like the grades were coincidental and happenstance.

There was also one large problem with which I had an issue. Correcting homework for accuracy led a lot of students to blatantly copy a handful of students. This defeated the purpose of homework to me. I firmly believe homework is there for students to reflect and practice the skills covered in class.

I decided to handle this problem by making homework a participatory grade. About two times a chapter I would collect homework from the students and just check to make sure they did something. I used this system for three years. I liked it because it allowed me to distance myself from student responsibility. If students took the time to understand the homework, great, and if they just filled in their notebooks to get the participation points that was fine with me too because they would just get low test grades. They didn’t put in the effort to learn the material, so they would suffer the low grades. I didn’t feel bad because I was essentially offering 30% of their grade for free by making homework participatory.

Then, at the end of one school year, about 20% of my students failed. It came down to their homework. They weren’t making the connection between doing quality work and success in school. I heard reason after reason, excuse after excuse, as to why the homework wasn’t done. Some of them were legitimate and some weren’t, but that wasn’t the point. They saw me as an authority figure and the homework I assigned was about following directions, not an educational opportunity. I had already struggled with the cycle of detention, and I do fall on the side of the debate believing they don’t achieve the desired result. I kept second guessing myself, thinking maybe I should have assigned more detentions. But those detentions just would have reinforced the cycle of obedience for those students.

If my goal is to breed compliance and obedience in students there are much more effective ways than math homework and detentions. Actually, the more I think about it, math homework and grades are about the dumbest way to teach concepts of compliance, obedience, and following directions. A paycheck and a job are much more effective for that.

Sending 20% of my class to summer school or back to Algebra I again wasn’t enough to make me change my ways though. I spent one year teaching summer school and have had several students go through the process. Though summer school itself is largely unresearched, my personal experience is that it serves largely as a prolonged detention to avoid repeating a class. By sending kids to summer school, the homework wasn’t about obeying me, as a detention would have been, but the homework was about obedience in the system.

And I was perfectly okay with this set up until the end of the next school year. I didn’t have nearly as many students fail this time. Actually only a couple, but one stood out in my mind. It was the last day of class and I had a student who was sitting at around 50 some percent. His homework, 30% of his overall grade, was negligibly above a zero. I had always told students it’s not when you learn something, but rather that you learn it. Well, here it was, the last day of school. Simply do some of the homework and the student could pass the class. I knew the kid had the math ability, I had watched him do math during class before, he just needed to get enough participation points to pass the class.

When he claimed he didn’t have enough time to get the work done, one of his classmates offered the use of her old notebook and worksheets to copy. He still refused because, as he stated, he didn’t care. Homework still wasn’t having the impact I wanted it to. I decided I needed to change something for next year. I couldn’t keep going having so much of a student’s grade represent obedience.

I needed to devise a way to grade so that those grades represented math ability and not classroom obedience. I needed to get students to realize the work they do with homework is what led to success, not watching me give notes. Most of all, I needed to break the cycle where students defend their behaviors with, “…but I didn’t think you’d care.” If all we ever teach is school is to do things because the teachers care we haven’t really educated anybody.

I Used to Teach Algebra I

This worked for me because of two reasons.

I give out too many A’s.

No one learns anything in your class.

There needs to be more ways to succeed in your classroom.

It is impossible to learn anything in your class.

You let the students do nothing.

More people would be complaining if the grades were lower.

Students will lie to defend you.

There needs to be more grades in your class.

I’m not going to do it since it’s not graded.

Is School Really About Education?

Living with Labels

The last couple of weeks have been rough, to put it mildly, so I want to take some time a write about something positive in my life.

My education has been made up of a series of epiphanies. I remember the first one occurring in college, and the last one occurring on April 7th, 2016.  I know it happened that day because while I was writing about school spirit, I stumbled upon a religion blog. I have been reading it on a regular basis since then. During this past weekend, my pastor had a sermon about “what is in the way” between me and God. In among the Google searches for school leadership pops up one religion blog, and then the sermons the past couple of weeks, for me it is just too much to be coincidental.

(A quick aside, I realize I am a public school teacher and I would never dream of preaching during class. I do value the separation of Church and State, and it is because of my religion that I value that separation. However, this is my personal blog and I think I am allowed to voice a religious opinion, even though I am not trying to hide from anyone. I need to express it because it is so central to the way I define myself.)

Let me start in the beginning. (Punny!) I want to make this post about labels. Normally I don’t openly identify in public as a Christian. This is because some of the few people I would consider close friends are openly atheist or agnostic. Several of my favorite students are also openly atheist or agnostic.  And I empathize with them when they tell me stories about how mean and hypocritical some of the people who claim to be Christian are.

From my experience, there are those who define their Christianity by avoiding curse words, dirty jokes, alcohol, and evil television shows like Family Guy. They use their avoidance of such immoral things as a reason not to interact with those that do accept them. But I use all of those, and actually enjoy some of them. Does that make me someone Christians should avoid ? If I want to claim Christianity as my label is there just a list of moral and ethic choices I should be making?

From my experience, there are those who define their Christianity by reading the right books, by participating in praise bands, and going on mission trips. But I grew up as part of the Frozen Chosen, a reference to both the climate of North Dakota and the demeanor of many of the people. Does it make me un-Christian that I am not comfortable waving my hands in the air during hymns, or that I don’t desire to go on mission trips to neighboring states and countries when I seek the Kingdom of God out my own window?

My atheist and agnostic friends will point out what they see as hypocrisy in the behavior of their friends. Honestly, most of the time I agree with them. Then I cringe because the actions of those who claim Christianity just pushed more people away.

This post is supposed to be about labels though, so let me get back to that. In the ether of society I believe there is an image of teachers that most people hold. There are certain mannerism, behaviors, and boundaries that are somewhat universally accepted.  During the 2011-2012 school year I became very jaded towards the system of education, to the point that I questioned my entire purpose for being there. I started to believe that many of the qualities that are typically associated with being a good teacher are really rooted in obedience. At the same time, after spending 6 years in the education profession, I started to realize that much of what masquerades as “the best interest of the students” in schools are really the manifestation of power struggles of the adults in the system. Because of this, I entered the 2012-2013 school year in somewhat of a crisis mode, questioning my place in the educational establishment.

My answer came when I decided to do what I thought was the right thing to do as a teacher, and not what the education system wanted me to do. I stopped justifying my actions with, “that’s what good teachers do.” If I couldn’t think of a reason to explain my actions I shouldn’t do them. For example, let me explain why stopped grading homework. There were many students who failed Algebra I and History with me during the 2011-2012 school year. When I looked at the overall grades more closely, I realized that many of the failing students failed because of terrible homework grades. I thought about the financial impact of summer school, the social stigma of having to repeat a class, and I felt bad for many of these students. The justification for graded homework was that’s what good teachers do because students need to practice, and to make students practice they need to be motivated with grades. That’s when it hit me, those students failed because they didn’t do what I wanted them to do. For them homework wasn’t about learning, it was about grades. The relationship between me and my students wasn’t centered on any sort of grace, but rather on obedience.

The next year I still did largely the same thing, but I will admit that homework grades were skewed to have students avoid summer school and failing. My image of a good teacher tells me that I should feel guilty, but I don’t. To this day I don’t assign homework. (That doesn’t mean that I think individual practice is pointless, but attaching grades to the practice confines its purpose to obedience rather than knowledge.) Eventually I changed my practices to the point that my classroom became unrecognizable to a traditional teacher. I dropped the idolatry of being a good teacher and decided to do what I thought was the right thing. Consequently, the 2013-2014 school year was one of the most rewarding I have ever had. We watched movies and did math at the same time in my Algebra I classes. It worked as great, as the extrinsic motivation I provided motivated those students who normally would have tuned me out. I made my upper level courses about the art of learning in general, attacking phrases such “teach me how to,” in addition to covering mathematical topics. I worked with the upperclassmen on ACTs and college applications. I pushed several students beyond their normal comfort levels to make them question their own knowledge. Several realized the shallowness of their knowledge, despite high grades. I pushed several to want and desire more after graduation besides going to the local college and entering a field that will get them most money the quickest. I pushed to the point of tears. I pushed until a student told me to “fuck off.”

And those are the few students with which I maintain contact. Those are the students who have written some of the most heartfelt thank you notes that I keep stashed in my desk.

I was so eager to start the 2014-2015 school year. My grandiose experiment of changing my use of extrinsic motivation, of abandoning the justifying principles of being a “good teacher” felt so rewarding. I wanted to share my experiences, and I did, much to a detrimental effect. In my classes I couldn’t motivate the students to drop their idolatry of grades. Instead of giving them time to realize that the most effective learning takes place in an environment free of grades, I became bitter and  started blaming the students.

At the same time I became worried for my job security. I had informational gathering, non-walkthroughs sessions because of what was heard. I was pulled into the hallway and lectured in front of my students about acceptable behavior. I received numerous emails in ALL CAPS. I was forced to change my teaching methods to appease authority figures. I had awkward,  “off the record” conversations. I was accused to pressuring students to confront the administration on my behalf. I was told that my students are lying to me. My evaluations came back as ineffective.

One of my weaknesses is that I am not a strong willed individual, meaning there are only so many times I can bear the label of ineffective before I start to internalize it. I was confronted with a dilemma. I could change back to the teacher I was, and get rid of that ineffective rating, protecting my job security. Or I could stick to the principles I had developed, which I know are right, but it would jeopardize my job security. What did I do? Some sort of in between garbage. I kept the structure of my classroom, it still appeared the same on the surface, but I lost the connectedness that had previously made me successful.

So, for the past year and a half I have been a horrible teacher. I abandoned my principles that made me such an effective teacher for a couple of years and replaced it with an idol. My idol became losing that label of ineffective. I threw the education of those students under a proverbial bus to appease my idol. I became an asshole. Should I be surprised when so many of my students retained their idolatry of grades to keep me at a distance? (I think I should make grade worship a post in and of itself.) Why should they care about what I care about when I don’t care about them because I am living a me-centric life. But it was on April 7th that I read this post, equating being an asshole with sinning. It is such a simplistic thought that clarifies how I should define my actions in a Christian sense. If I asshole, I sin. I want to avoid being a sinner, so I need to avoid being an asshole.

Since I read that post I have been trying to make amends. I have pushed less on the academics. I started literally sitting with my students instead of talking at them in front of the room. I have noticed a slight change in the demeanor of the room, but I fear it is too late for a couple of students. I so desperately want to recreate what I had back in the 2013-2014 school year. I want that environment back  where both my students and I were able to abandon our idols and actually learn something. But I fear that because I have spent the last year and a half being an asshole, those students that I want back, that I want back because I know I can be a positive influence for them, those students have lost all faith and trust in me.

I need to apologize and grovel. I need to ask for forgiveness. I am back to thinking of all the things I should have done, and now  I am living a life of regret. I wish I could make amends, but it is just too late.

Fun with Numbers

Time for fun with numbers. Also, time to practice math speak and poor reasoning skills.

Assume that we take a sample of 100 students at my high school. The following statistically will likely be their future.

  1. 97 of the students will graduate, based upon the past four year trend.
  2. 67 of the students will go to college, 44 entering a four year institution and 23 entering a two year school based upon Bureau of Labor and Statistics data.
  3. Of the 44 only 26 will graduate and of the 23 only 7 will graduate (with two year degree), ever according to National Center for Education Statistics.
  4. Of the 23 that start at a two year school, only 5 will transfer to a four year school, but 4 of the 5 will graduate according to Inside Higher Education.
  5. Between two year and four year degrees, there will be 37 graduates, but 17 will be underemployed and 2 will be unemployed according to Federal Reserve research.
  6. Therefore, 18 of the 100 students who were students at my high school will finish some sort of post-secondary education and be employed in a career that requires a post-secondary education. However, that does not account for the credential inflation among those 18. Aspiring Certified Public Accountants need 5 years of college rather than 4 years, or 2 years like it was ages ago.

Why do I care about this? It is because the educational experience of these students will shape the messages they send their children. Of my grandparents generation, those going to high school in the 1920s through 1940s, only 25 to 35 percent took Algebra I and only 1 to 2 percent attempted Pre-Calculus/Trigonometry. By the late 1970s about one third of high school students would complete Algebra II as the highest math course and Pre-Calculus/Trigonometry had crept up to 10 percent. Even when I was in high school (2001 graduate), Algebra II was suggested and strongly encouraged, but not required. I was placed in the gifted track in Junior High School and my first introduction to a variable occurred in the 7th grade.

Now, Algebra II is a graduation requirement and is suggested to be taken during the junior year. Anything below an Algebra I level cannot count for high school credit. Variables and algebraic equations are now standard fair in upper elementary. I rarely encounter a parent that can help their high school student with math homework. I more often encounter a student who is helping a parent returning to school with math homework.

But inevitably, that frustrated and jaded student, will ask Mom and Dad, “Why do I have to learn math?” As the students become older and older this question is harder and harder to answer. Because of the ever increasing academic requirements most parents cannot relate to the requirements their children face. Increasingly abstract math creeps to lower grades, making math seem more and more like a subject from Hogwarts. And just like Harry Potter, abstract math can be entertaining to some, annoying and frustrating to others, and virtually worthless when it comes to paying the bills or any other “real life” scenario.

Eventually the parent, or the teacher, starts to run out of answers for the, “Why do I have to learn math?” The reply becomes, “Because you have to take math to graduate/get into college/whatever.” Remember the list at the top. Let’s reexamine it for a moment.

  1. 30 of the 100 students never attempted college, which means their children will have to take more math just to get the same high school diploma. They will tell their children that they have to learn the math to graduate.
  2. 30 of the 67 who attempted college never finished, jading them to the educational experience. They will tell their children that college isn’t worth it so don’t push yourself to try, or they might encourage their children to go to college unlike themselves and that they have to learn the math to get into college.
  3. 19 of the 37 who graduate will end up at a job that they could have had right out of high school. What kind of message do you think they will send about math
  4. Of the 18 who graduated and work in a field that requires a college degree only 4 will routinely use math at a level of Algebra I or higher. 14 of those 18 will tell their children that college is important, but the math is just something you have to do.

Only 4 of the future parents, only 4 of the current 100 students have any hope of finding the math I am trying to teach relevant. The other 96, 96% of future parents, of current students do the math because they “have to.” Sadly though, that’s what I think school is about. We tell students you “have to” take this class, you “have to” fill out this form, you “have to” wear these clothes. From where I sit it seems like society has said to schools, “You ‘have to’ create obedient students.”

We use measure success in education by numbers and awards. GPAs, ACT scores, honor roll, all these awards are supposed to measure academic achievement, but all they really measure is complacency and obedience.

Did George Orwell create public schools?

My Goal: Make Myself Unessecary

In a three part series, I had laid out my brief journey of how I define my purpose as a teacher. In part three, I stated that my main goal, the one that keeps me coming back day after day, year after year, is to create free and independent thinkers.

Another purpose of maintaining a blog was to document interesting phenomenon as it occurred. I have several years of bound up frustration that I want to share with the world, but I want to record events as they happen, while they are fresh in my mind.

Recently I had one of those class periods where several students were out for a field trip at the end of an already grueling week, making for a period that the remaining students were pretty lackluster in their desire for mental exertion. We did a little review and then began talking. We started talking physics and one of the girls in class chimed in that she felt like she was only able to do the examples in class, that she need formulas to be able to accomplish the exercises. Here is roughly how our exchange went.

Me: “Why don’t you make up some problems?”

Another Student: “That’s what I did.”

Her: “I don’t know how.”

I go to the board draw a little scenario. We start messing around with the problem. One of the students puts up a formula involving the square of final velocity and gravity. We are hung up on the use of acceleration due to gravity and how it would affect projectile motion. Bell rings, but I am still intrigued by the problem. Luckily, she usually stays in my room during the next class and I keep going back to the problem every so often. Eventually I come to the conclusion that the acceleration due to gravity is unnecessary.

Her: “I said that a long time ago.”

She was right, she did, but we had discounted it at the time. That, and she didn’t state that gravity was not needed she ASKED if gravity was needed. When she asked she is admitting that she wasn’t sure. She is admitting that she doesn’t want to support her idea. She is looking for me to support her idea because if I do it she can remember that she is right and never has to find a reason why her idea was right. She is granting me the power and authority of knowledge and admitting weakness.

I dismissed her because I didn’t know better. She stopped because I didn’t affirm her. What should have happened was that she would have challenged my dismissal and forced me to see how her idea was correct. She is acting as a microcosm of how school functions for many of our students. Too many of our students seek the approval of their ideas from an external source (teachers) rather than reason out the correctness of their ideas for themselves.

That’s my goal though, to rectify that scenario. Every time a student leaves my care answering every question with a question, seeking that approval, I feel like I have failed. Every time a student leaves my class feeling good about their grade, but not sure of what they know, I feel like I have failed. I want my students to be able to confidently answer questions, to reason the answers for themselves. My students should eventually view me as a resource, but not a necessity.

Maybe this isn’t such a good goal.  Is it really a great idea to make myself unnecessary?

Why I don’t do homework

I hate homework. For the few people that know me, I feel like I have at least an average vocabulary, I would pretend that it is above average. And I cannot stress the importance of the choice of words. I hate homework. I am not annoyed with homework, I am not repulsed by homework, I am not disgusted with homework. I hate homework. There are two major misconceptions about homework that I would like to attack to explain why I hate homework.

But first a clarification, homework can have a purpose. Readings that provide students with information that will be necessary for participation in a class discussion. Using flashcards to memorize medical terminology prefixes and suffixes, those are good uses of homework. So why do I have a problem with homework? Here’s why.

Homework reinforces the concepts covered in class.

If I ignore whether an assignment is graded based upon completion or accuracy, I see eight possible outcomes from the homework assignment. If a homework assignment is to achieve its maximum benefit it needs to be in a place where a student has mastered the material enough to complete the task, but still has to expend intellectual effort. The goal for this homework is that the student is moving recently learned information to become part of a long-term schema. Once in schema, the material becomes intertwined with prior knowledge and can be used to interpret and understand even more concepts.

However, very few homework assignments covered in class actually fall into this sweet spot. If all outcomes on my flowchart have equal probability (which is a big assumption) only one out of eight homework assignments will have the desired result. Only one out of eight outcomes will reward intellectual effort positively. Seven of the eight will reward aspects of school that do not help us learn.  Imagine homework for a student, with the student thinking, “that was dumb, that was dumb, that was dumb, that was dumb, that was dumb, that was cool, that was dumb, that dumb.” Now repeat that over and over and over for twelve years. Is it surprising that so many of our high school students have a negative view of the purpose of school?

Students need something to work on at home.

Often I will get a question from a parent the first time we meet. Usually it goes something like, “What should my child be working on at home?” Deep down I really want to tell the parent that their children should be working on whatever interests them. In reality though, I get a sense that work is associated with learning. If a large math assignment is completed, much learning has occurred. Big assignment equals big smarts (insert caveman imagery here).

But work is just that and nothing more, work. A better option for parents who are concerned with their children would be to simply have them demonstrate what they are learning in class. What follows might come in fits and bursts, with some information being comprehensible and mastered, while some of it might lack clarity, but that is the nature of learning. A student working doesn’t necessarily mean that the student is learning. Learning takes work, but not all work is learning.

So what’s the solution?

I wish there were an easy answer, but there isn’t. Research is mixed, even personal experience is mixed. So what I have chosen to do is have my students do as much work in front of me as possible. At least that way I know what they can and cannot do. I will list a practice assignment for students to work on if they desire, but it is optional. It is optional precisely because the student would need to see the benefit of homework, how homework’s purpose shouldn’t be grades, but rather homework should exist to benefit understanding and mastery. Not many take advantage of this opportunity, but a few have.

I hope more will.


Bad breath

halitosisFoul breath—also known as halitosis—is an unpleasant condition that affects almost everyone. Because it is so widespread, determining and subsequently diagnosing each individual patient can be difficult. And it gets even harder because patients really can’t smell their own bad breath. But strong-nosed scientists have been discerning the truth bit by bit: there is now hope for those hoping to remedy their morning dragon’s breath.

Originally many believed that malodors originated in the stomach and blamed things like acid reflux, indigestion and gut flora. But what people are beginning to see is that in most cases of halitosis, the mouth is to blame. Halitosis originates from bacteria on the tongue, a condition known as tongue coating. The byproducts are largely responsible for bad breath in patients.  They produce what are known as volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) such as hydrogen sulfide and methyl mercaptan. In order to then treat halitosis, efforts have focused on developing products that will either reduce these odiferous bacteria or neutralize the VSCs themselves.

The main form of treatment against halitosis is to simply brush the tongue to remove built-up bacteria. When halitosis persists, patients instead try to stop the creation of VSCs. By neutralizing the VSCs, the malodor does not volatilize, and the mouth does not stink. Some of the most successful neutralizing compounds have been zinc salts, chlorhexidine and hydrogen peroxide. Chlorhexidine can result in stained teeth, tongue numbness and burning; on the other hand, hydrogen peroxide can be highly oxidative and damaging to soft tissues. Zinc seems the best breath-fighting agent out there.

Zinc ions have a very high affinity for sulphur and can therefore inhibit the formation of stinky sulphur compounds by reacting with them before they leave the mouth. Zinc is also non-toxic and does not stain teeth, making it an ideal candidate to treat bad breath. While protocols to measure the efficacy of bad breath levels vary, the best measure of a persons’ breath is when the human nose smells it. And generally, these smell-tests result in accurate and reproducible results. When put to the schnoz studies show that mouthwashes, lozenges, and gums containing zinc in 0.2-0.5% are the most pleasant and effective in treating halitosis. It should not be used alone, however. A careful combination of good dental hygiene, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, and drinking plenty of water will help minimize the smell.

Chloe Nevitt

Cellulose has a bark, but no bite!

Long chemical names on the back of food labels very frequently send people running for the hills. These “food additives” quickly get pegged as dangerous food fillers out to ruin the digestive systems and the very lives of consumers. One of these “scary” chemicals found in our daily diet is carboxymethylcellulose, also known as cellulose gum. It comes from the cell walls of plants, and is used to make paper. That’s right – trees, in your food. Sort of.

Fiber One, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and even Duncan Hines, whose Devil’s Food Cake mix pierces both your heart and arteries, contains cellulose gum. And while many resent the “lies” spewed by large food companies, proclaiming that additives are taking away from other “natural” ingredients, remember that every food we eat is made up of chemicals.

Apples are known to contain trace amounts of cyanide, and cassava, more commonly known in North America as tapioca, has enough cyanide to actually kill a man. And yet, there is no hesitation in eating these products. It is important to realize that the synthesis of a compound in a lab can be safer than one found in nature. Nature, more frequently than not, produces the most toxic compounds known to man.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with international organizations, regulate food additives, such as cellulose gum. After the passage of the Food Additives Amendment in 1958, any ingredient must be reviewed by the FDA to be approved as an additive.

Cellulose is an abundant, natural polysaccharide found in all plants. Cellulose gum is water-soluble gum based on cellulose. Manufactures will use an acetic acid derivative, the same acid found in vinegar, to break down the cells and form the gum. It has been used for over 50 years as a thickening agent, a stabilizer, and an emulsifier.

Gums provide many positive functions in food, without the benefit of not changing the flavor of the food to which they’ve been added. They are a good source of fiber, and can be used to reduce the calories of the food in which they’ve been added by replacing fats. They’ve provided a larger variety of foods for celiacs and other gluten sensitive individuals because those who cannot tolerate gluten can generally tolerate food gums.

Because texture, freshness, and general visual appeal all contribute to the enjoyment of food, additives aid and maintain many of the desirable aspects of food. Emulsifiers are responsible for allowing the mixing of two, usually, insoluble liquids, for example, salad dressings. And for those who believe that this is unnatural, the same result can be obtained from taking a drop from the yolk of an egg and placing it in any homemade dressing!

Ice cream, cakes, and bread all achieve better consistency, volume, and smoothness because of the addition of gums. They prevent the formation of crystals, stabilize beer foam, and help form jellies. Without pectin, another additive found from plants, there would be no Smucker’s strawberry jam, because it allows the formation of gels.

Gels and gums are just a small percent of all the additives being put into food. “Fortified foods,” which is the name given to food which has had various minerals and vitamins added to it has helped millions of people around the world. Vitamin D added to milk has helped curb rickets, a disease of the bonds. Niacin in bread and cornmeal has helped eliminate pellagra, a disease associated with the nervous system. Iodized salt has helped reduce the prevalence of goiters, or the enlargement of the thymus.

All of these food additives have helped to nearly eliminate nutritional deficiencies in the United States. They are safe and nutritious, and are added to keep consumers happy, and most importantly, healthy.

Chloe Nevitt

http://makingfoodbetter.org/benefits/taste-texture/ “Making Food Better”

http://www.foodadditives.org/food_gums/common.html “Food Additives”

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11012915/6/cellulose-wood-pulp-never-tasted-so-good.html “The Street”

The Promise of Stem Cells

stem cellWe frequently hear about them on the news, they’re controversial, and their application is perhaps one of the most important advances in modern science. But what exactly are stem cells?
Most cells in our body have specialized functions. Red blood cells carry oxygen, heart muscle cells allow the heart to pump blood, bone cells support our skeleton. Stem cells are unspecialized but they do, however, give rise to all of those other cells. After a stem cell divides each new cell can either remain a stem cell or become a different cell with a specialized function, for example, muscle, brain, or liver.
Stem cells come from two sources: embryos, appropriately called embryonic stem cells, and those found in adult tissue, called adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells come from usually four- or five-day old human embryos, generally obtained from embryos created through in vitro fertilization, a technique that generates more embryos than are needed for implantation into a prospective mother and can be donated by the donor with consent. Basically then, human embryonic stem cells are derived from donated embryos that would otherwise be discarded. Adult stem cells, on the other hand, can be found at all stages of life. These are found amongst many tissues and organs, and their primary role is to maintain and repair the tissues where they are found.
Typically, while embryonic stem cells can become any and all cell types, adult stem cells are limited to generating the cell types of the organ from which they originate, potentially regenerating the entire organ from a few cells. There is no ethical controversy about experimenting with adult stem cells but they are more difficult to isolate because they are rare in mature tissue.
Stem cells are categorized based on their potential to differentiate into other types of cells. Totipotent cells have the ability to differentiate into all possible cell types, pluripotent, the ability to differentiate into almost all cell types, and multipotent, the ability to differentiate into a closely related family of cells.
The study of stem cells, be they adult or embryonic, opens the door for all kinds of applications. Most notable is the potential for tissue regeneration. Currently, we rely on organ donors for transplants, however if stem cells can be engineered to produce new organs, then organ supply would finally meet demand. Stem cells also hold potential for the treatment of cardiovascular disease with embryonic stem cells being investigated as a potential source for regenerating damaged heart tissue.
Drug testing is another potential application. Stem cells can be differentiated into a variety of cell types which can then be used to study the effects of drugs.
Research in this area is progressing quickly. The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to. John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka who showed that mature cells can be changed back to embryonic-like states. This is highly significant because the technique can allow for the prolific generation of stem cells which will accelerate research..
Chloe Nevitt

A Beautiful Study: synthesis of petrol-like biofuel by Escherichia coli

Chloe Nevitt

Escherichia coliPaul Freemont of Imperial College London called it a “beautiful study.” My dad called it a load of “sciencey words.” I call it “innovation.”

John Love from the University of Exeter took DNA from the camphor tree, from soil bacteria and from blue-green algae and spliced them into the DNA of Escherichia coli bacteria. The genetically altered bacteria now were able to convert glucose into fatty acids which they then converted into hydrocarbons chemically identical to those found in gasoline. Since the original material, in this case glucose, comes from a plant source, such fuels are referred to as biofuels.

The reason biofuels are so desirable is because it means using carbon that is already in the atmosphere instead of digging up carbon that has been buried for millions of years (fossil fuels). They present an alternative: a carbon neutral cycle. It is as much a carbon sink as a carbon source. What then, does this ultimately mean?

Today, the demand for transport fuel represents 60% of global oil production. If this were 100% renewable it would mean tremendous things for the environment. Many argue that “evil” oil companies will fight against these developments for fear of lowering revenue. However, implementing this will reduce risk, cost, and competition for oil companies because simply stated; they don’t have to drill for oil anymore. These companies, such as Exxon and Chevron, have already begun investing millions in making oil from algae. This particular study was even partly funded by Shell.

Difficulties present themselves when trying to “scale-up.” Glucose is a simple monosaccharide, easy for bacteria to convert it into fatty acids. However trying to commercialize this is hard. Love and his colleagues aim to tweak the enzymes to allow the bacteria to feed on straw or animal manure. These complex compounds will undoubtedly be harder to break down. For example, lignin, a compound found in the cell walls of plants cannot currently be broken down by the genetically engineered microbes. It is also important to note the cost of making glucose.

Biofuels today are mainly algae-based. Solazyme, Inc., one of the companies at the forefront of renewable oil, uses algae to produce oils and biomaterials. Their oil has been used in jets, ships and both military and commercial purposes. The fact that there are companies in this field, and that they are doing well, is promising.

The purpose of the study was to determine whether it were possible to develop a biological route for the production of industrially-relevant alkanes and alkenes- and it was. The difficult task now remains to apply this to commercial production, but the future seems hopeful.


You can also get an ALMA antenna in augmented reality. To do this, you will need to have a tablet or smartphone with a camera and follow these steps:

nro_01Download the AReader application from the applicable link: • Apple AppStoreGooglePlay (Android)
nro_02While the app is being installed on your device, print this figure: ALMAkids_virtualantenna
nro_03Once you have completed steps 1 and 2, open the AReader application, point your camera at the code you printed and an ALMA antenna will automatically appear on the screen.


Starewicz Animations

Ladislaw Starewicz is considered to be one of the inventors of stop-motion animation. His groundbreaking films, produced in Russia and dating back as early as 1910 are nothing short of breathtaking. Reanimated insects, frogs, foxes and rats are set as characters in decidedly surreal retellings of classic fables and fairy tales as well as in Starewicz’s original stories.

In 1998, Tin Hat began a project of performing new original scores for these silent classics, along with help from a live foley artist. I’ve written soundtracks for the following films:
Insect’s Christmas (1913)
The Frogs Who Wanted A King (1922)
The Lily of Belgium (1915)
Town Rat, Country Rat (1926)

“Starewicz’s shorts, created in the early years of the 20th century, are charming in their dotty, sweetly surreal old-worldliness, a sensation matched by the wonderfully mercurial scores written for five of them by Tin Hat. Dreamily eclectic, the music is a deft soup of American folk melodies with middle-European hamishness, the high modernism of Stravinsky and Schoenberg with the brash, wise-guy jazz of Looney Tunes composer Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott. Familiar sounds bubble up and tickle the ear, then transmute into something witty, rich and strange.”

more info:


Positive Political Economics http://lists.repec.orgmailman/listinfo/nep-pol Positive Political Economics 2017-04-09 Multi winner Approval Voting: An Apportionment Approach http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77931&r=pol We extend approval voting so as to elect multiple candidates, who may be either individuals or members of a political party, in rough proportion to their approval in the electorate. We analyze two divisor methods of apportionment, first proposed by Jefferson and Webster, that iteratively depreciate the approval votes of voters who have one or more of their approved candidates already elected. We compare the usual sequential version of these methods with a nonsequential version, which is computationally complex but feasible for many elections. Whereas Webster apportionments tend to be more representative of the electorate than those of Jefferson, the latter, whose equally spaced vote thresholds for winning seats duplicate those of cumulative voting in 2-party elections, is even-handed or balanced. Brams, Steven J. Kilgour, D. Marc Potthoff, Richard F. Approval voting, apportionment methods, multiple winners, proportional representation, cumulative voting 2017-03-26 Electing a parliament: an experimental study http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ver:wpaper:11/2016&r=pol We use laboratory experiments to explore what electoral outcomes emerge and how voters behave in a setting in which the electorate must determine the number of seats that two parties obtain in the parliament. Previous experimental work has mainly focused on winner-take-all elections and voting over fixed agendas, and has not studied elections where participants decide on the composition of a parliament. We consider two electoral systems, multidistrict majoritarian and single district proportional. Relying on De Sinopoli et al.'s (2013) model of a parliamentary election, we obtain a unique perfect equilibrium outcome under both systems and exploit this uniqueness to gauge, and compare, the predictive value of the equilibrium concept in the two systems. The experimental results are broadly supportive of the theory and reveal that electoral outcomes and individual votes are more often in line with the equilibrium in the proportional than in the majoritarian system. Francesco De Sinopoli Giovanna Iannantuoni Maria Vittoria Levati Ivan Soraperra Voting, Majority election, Proportional election, Experiment 2016-07 Place of registration and place of residence: the detrimental impact of transport cost on electoral participation http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/249250&r=pol Few studies have tried to assess the empirical impact of transport cost on electoral turnout. Unfortunately, these researches suffer from different limits, especially limites related to the endogeneity of the voting station localization. Our study, based on French data, overcomes the main usual empirical difficulties. In particular, the French case provides a very valuable opportunity for testing the impact of transport cost on individual decision of turnout, because voters can be registered in another municipality than their residential municipality. As such, some of them have to travel important distance in order to cast their ballot. And this distance is totally exogenous to the electoral manipulation of places of voting location potentially made by local administration. So, we show that distance, and in fine cost of voting, have a highly significant impact on electoral turnout: at average distance (122 km) a 1% increase of distance induces a 0.05% decrease at the first round of 2012 presidential election and 0.04% at the second round. This result is robust to many tests: if we change the empirical method carried out or the election studied or if we control for the weight of the largest distance, the results remain the same. Christine Fauvelle-Aymar Abel François Electoral turnout; cost of voting; transport cost; transport cost; electoral registration; voting paradox 2017-03-30 The Price of Political Uncertainty: Evidence from the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and the U.S. Stock Markets http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01419295&r=pol There is bountiful evidence that political uncertainty stemming from presidential elections or doubt about the direction of future policy make financial markets significantly volatile, especially in proximity to close elections or elections that may prompt radical policy changes. Although several studies have examined the association between presidential elections and stock returns, very little attention has been given to the impacts of elections and election induced uncertainty on stock markets. This paper explores, at sectoral level, the uncertain information hypothesis (UIH) as a means of explaining the reaction of markets to the arrival of unanticipated information. This hypothesis postulates that political uncertainty is greater prior to the elections (relative to pre-election period) but is resolved once the outcome of the elections is determined (relative to post-election period). To this end, we adopt an event-study methodology that examines abnormal return behavior around the election date. We show that collapsing stock returns around the election result is reversed by positive abnormal return on the next day, except some cases where we note negative responses following the vote count. Although Trump’s win plunges US into uncertain future, positive reactions of abnormal return are found. Therefore, our results do not support the UIH hypothesis. Besides, the effect of political uncertainty is sector-specific. While some sectors emerged winners (healthcare, oil and gas, real estate, defense, financials and consumer goods and services), others took the opposite route (technology and utilities). The winning industries are generally those that will benefit from the new administration’s focus on rebuilding infrastructure, renegotiating trade agreements, reforming tax policy and labour laws, increasing defense funding, easing restrictions on energy production, and rolling back Obamacare. Jamal Bouoiyour Refk Selmi US election,Trump's victory,stock market,Political uncertainty 2017-03-01 The Political Economy of Higher Education Admission Standards and Participation Gap http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lec:leecon:17/11&r=pol We build a political economy model in order to shed light on the empirically observed simultaneous increase in university size and participation gap. Parents differ in income and in the ability of their unique child. They vote over the minimum ability level required to attend public universities, which are tuition-free and financed by proportional income taxation. Parents can invest in private tutoring to help their child pass the admission test. A university participation gap emerges endogenously with richer parents investing more in tutoring. A unique majority voting equilibrium exists, which can be either classical or “ends-against-the-middle” (in which case parents of both low- and high-ability children favor a smaller university). Four factors increase the university size (larger skill premium enjoyed by university graduates, smaller tutoring costs, smaller university cost per student, larger minimum ability of students), but only the former two also increase the participation gap. A more unequal parental income distribution also increases the participation gap, but barely affects the university size. Philippe De Donder Francisco Martinez-Mora majority voting, ends-against-the-middle equilibrium, non single-peaked 2017-03 Unlikely Democrats: Economic Elite Uncertainty Under Dictatorship and Support for Democratization http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77567&r=pol Influential recent scholarship assumes that authoritarian rulers act as perfect agents of economic elites, foreclosing the possibility that economic elites may at times prefer democracy absent a popular threat from below. Motivated by a puzzling set of democratic transitions, we relax this assumption and examine how elite uncertainty about dictatorship -- a novel and generalizable causal mechanism impacting democratization -- can induce elite support for democracy. We construct a noisy signaling model in which a potential autocrat attempts to convince economic elites that he will be a faithful partner should elites install him in power. The model generates clear predictions about how two major types of elite uncertainty -- uncertainty in a potential autocratic successor's policies produced by variance in the pool of would-be dictator types, and uncertainty in the truthfulness of policy promises made by potential autocratic successors -- impact the likelihood of elite-driven democratization. We demonstrate the model's plausibility in a series of cases of democratic transition. Gay, Victor Albertus, Michael Game theory, Comparative politics, Political economy, Democratization, Political elites, Economic elites, Formal methods, Dictatorships, Autocracies, Authoritarianism, Democratic transitions 2017-03 Can Television Reduce Xenophobia? The Case of East Germany http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trr:wpaper:201701&r=pol Can television have a mitigating effect on xenophobia? To examine this question, we exploit the fact that individuals in some areas of East Germany – due to their geographic location – could not receive West German television until 1989. We conjecture that individuals who received West German television were exposed more frequently to foreigners and thus have developed less xenophobia than people who were not exposed to those programs. Our results show that regions that could receive West German television were less likely to vote for right-wing parties during the national elections from 1998 to 2013. Only recently, the same regions were also more likely to vote for left-wing parties. Moreover, while counties that hosted more foreigners in 1989 were also more likely to vote for right-wing parties in most elections, we find counties that recently hosted more foreign visitors showed less xenophobia, which is in line with intergroup contact theory. Lars Hornuf Marc Oliver Rieger Mass media, Television, Xenophobia, Attitudes towards foreigners, East Germany, Natural experiment 2017 Precision-Guided or Blunt? The Effects of US Economic Sanctions on Human Rights http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ilewps:2&r=pol We use endogenous treatment-regression models to estimate the causal average treatment effect of US economic sanctions on four types of human rights. In contrast to previous studies, we find no support for adverse effects of sanctions on economic rights, political and civil rights, and basic human rights. With respect to women's rights, our findings even indicate a positive relationship. Emancipatory rights are, on average, strengthened when a country faces sanctions by the US. Our findings are robust when applying various changes to the empirical specification. Most importantly, this study provides strong evidence that the endogeneity of treatment assignment must be modelled when the consequences of sanctions are studied empirically. Gutmann, Jerg Neuenkirch, Matthias Neumeier, Florian Democratization,Discrimination,Economic Sanctions,Endogenous Treatment Model,Human Rights,Interventionism,Protectionism,Repression,United States 2016 News Consumption, Political Preferences, and Accurate Views on Inflation http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trr:wpaper:201703&r=pol Using three waves of a customised survey among Dutch households, this paper studies the variation in people’s views on inflation. Based on a range of panel regressions, we find that accurate perceptions of recent price changes are an important determinant of the accuracy of next-year inflation expectations. The realism of inflation perceptions is, in turn, related to the intensity of newspaper consumption and also affected by the broadness of a person’s political preferences. However, more frequent newspaper usage does not necessarily reduce errors in inflation perceptions. David-Jan Jansen Matthias Neuenkirch Inflation expectations, inflation perceptions, newspaper readership, political preferences, household survey data 2017 Subpoena Power and Information Transmission http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adl:wpaper:2017-05&r=pol This paper studies the role of subpoena power in enabling a policymaker to make better informed decisions. In particular, we take into account the effect of subpoena power on the information voluntarily supplied by interest groups as well as the information obtained by the policymaker via the subpoena process. To this end, we develop a model of informational lobbying in which interest groups seek access to the policymaker in order to provide him verifiable evidence about the desirability of implementing reforms they care about. The policymaker is access-constrained, i.e., he lacks time/resources to verify the evidence provided by all interest groups. The policymaker may also be agenda-constrained, i.e., he may lack time/resources to reform all issues. We find that if a policymaker is agenda-constrained, then he is better off by having subpoena power. On the other hand, if a policymaker is not agenda-constrained, he is made worse off by having subpoena power. The key insight behind these findings is that subpoena power influences interest groupsÂ’ incentives to provide information voluntarily, and that this influence differs depending on whether or not the policymaker is agenda-constrained. Arnaud Dellis Mandar Oak Lobbying; Information transmission; Subpoena; Agenda. 2017-03 Do Political Connections Reduce Job Creation? Evidence from Lebanon http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cid:wpfacu:70&r=pol Using firm-level census data, we determine how politically-connected firms (PCFs) reduce job creation in Lebanon. After observing that large firms account for the bulk of net job creation, we find that PCFs are larger and create more jobs, but are also less productive, than non-PCFs in their sectors. On a net basis, at the sector-level, each additional PCF reduces jobs created by 7.2% and jobs created by non-PCFs by 11.3%. These findings support the notion that politically-connected firms are used for clientelistic purposes in Lebanon, exchanging privileges for jobs that benefit their patrons’ supporters. Ishac Diwan Jamal Ibrahim Haider job creation; politically-connected firms; clientelism; Lebanon 2016-06 The performance of four possible rules for selecting the Prime Minister after the Dutch Parliamentary elections of March 2017 http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77616&r=pol Economic policy depends not only on national elections but also on coalition bargaining strategies. In coalition government, minority parties bargain on policy and form a majority coalition, and select a Prime Minister from their mids. In Holland the latter is done conventionally with Plurality, so that the largest party provides the chair of the cabinet. Alternative methods are Condorcet, Borda or Borda Fixed Point. Since the role of the Prime Minister is to be above all parties, to represent the nation and to be there for all citizens, it would enhance democracy and likely be optimal if the potential Prime Minister is selected from all parties and at the start of the bargaining process. The performance of the four selection rules is evaluated using the results of the 2017 Dutch Parliamentary elections. Plurality gives VVD. VVD is almost a Condorcet winner except for a tie with 50Plus. Borda and BordaFP give CU as the prime minister. The impossibility theorem by Kenneth Arrow (Nobel memorial prize in economics 1972) finds a crucially different interpretation. Colignatus, Thomas Political economy; public choice; political science; optimal representation; electoral systems; elections; coalition; impossibility theorem 2017-03-17 When to expect a coup d’état? An extreme bounds analysis of coup determinants http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ilewps:3&r=pol Over the last several decades, both economists and political scientists have shown interest in coups d’état. Numerous studies have been dedicated to understanding the causes of coups. However, model uncertainty still looms large. About one hundred potential determinants of coups have been proposed, but no consensus has emerged on an established baseline model for analyzing coups. We address this problem by testing the sensitivity of inferences to over three million model permutations in an extreme bounds analysis. Overall, we test the robustness of 66 factors proposed in the empirical literature based on a monthly sample of 164 countries that covers the years 1952 to 2011. We find that slow economic growth rates, previous coup experiences, and other forms of political violence to be particularly conducive to inciting coups. Gassebner, Martin Gutmann, Jerg Voigt, Stefan Coups d’état,Military coups,Coup-proofing,Extreme bounds analysis 2016 Aristotle’s Politics: On Constitutions, Justice, Laws and Stability http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iik:wpaper:104&r=pol Aristotle's Politics can be divided into two inquiries, each amenable to mathematical representation. The first inquiry assumes, probably idealistically, that individuals act in the collective interest and leads to the following theorem: polity (a rule of many good men) is better than aristocracy (few good men), and aristocracy is better than monarchy (one good man). The second inquiry assumes, more realistically, that individuals act in self-interest and leads to the following theorem as a justification for democracy: Among various systems of government, democracy (a mixed constitution with a rule of law sustained by competing factions) offers the best prospect to deliver two things at once: justice (pursuit of the common interest) and stability (obedience of the rule of law). The latter theorem implies that institutionalization of competing factions governed by good laws is likely to be just and stable. It applies to nations, corporations and towns facing the tragedy of the commons, externalities and reneging. Krishna K Ladha Frequency Based Analysis of Voting Rules http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2017006&r=pol Chatterjee, Swarnendu Storcken, Ton voting, Unimodal distribution, Condercet consistent rule, Borda rule, Plurality rule 2017-03-23 Simultaneous and sequential voting under general decision rules http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:euvwdp:394&r=pol In an economic theory of voting, voters have positive or negative costs of voting in favor of a proposal and positive or negative benefits from an accepted proposal. When votes have equal weight then simultaneous voting mostly has a unique pure strategy Nash equilibrium which is independent of benefits. Voting with respect to (arbitrarily small) costs alone, however, often results in voting against the "true majority". If voting is sequential as in the roll call votes of the US Senate then, in the unique subgame perfect equilibrium, the "true majority" prevails (Groseclose and Milyo, 2010, 2013). In this paper, it is shown that the result for sequential voting holds also with different weights of voters (shareholders) or with multiple necessary majorities (EU decision making). Simultaneous voting in the general model can be plagued by non-existent or non-unique pure strategy equilibria under most preference constellations. Bolle, Friedel voting,free riding,binary decisions,unique equilibria 2017 Organised crime and international aid subversion: evidence from Colombia and Afghanistan http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:62748&r=pol Scholarly attempts to explain aid subversion in post-conflict contexts frame the challenge in terms of corrupt practices and transactions disconnected from local power struggles. Also, they assume a distinction between organised crime and the state. This comparative analysis of aid subversion in Colombia and Afghanistan reveals the limits of such an approach. Focusing on relations that anchor organised crime within local political, social and economic processes, we demonstrate that organised crime is dynamic, driven by multiple motives, and endogenous to local power politics. Better understanding of governance arrangements around the organised crime-conflict nexus which enable aid subversion is therefore required. Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic Denisa Kostovicova Mariana Escobar Jelena Bjelica aid subversion; organised crime; corruption; Colombia; Afghanistan 2015-07-06 Perfection of the Jury Rule by Rule-Reforming Voters http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iik:wpaper:103&r=pol With no authority to change the constitution, a jury does the next best thing: it adopts the optimal rule given the constitution. At equilibrium, some jurors, called the rule reformers, vote independent of their information producing the second-best rule. The remaining jurors vote on the basis of their information enabling aggregation of the dispersed information. Arising from this asymmetric voting in a simultaneous jury game is an equivalence class of asymmetric strong Nash equilibria in pure strategies at which the information aggregation is at its best. Thus, the strategic act of rule reforming enables individual rationality to yield collective rationality. The coordination problem, as to which juror would play which role, can be solved by letting the jurors make a non-binding pre-play agreement specifying each juror’s role; the agreement is self enforcing. The results hold for any voting rule, and any costs of erroneous conviction and acquittal. Krishna K Ladha Endogenous Public Evidence in Committee Persuasion Games and Private Communication http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2017_06.rdf&r=pol I extend a Jury decision making model allowing jurors to observe, in addition to their private information, public evidence strategically designed by a Prosecutor who wants to maximize the probability of conviction of a defendant under trial. I show that jurorsâ€™ communication, modeled as a non-binding straw vote before the final verdict, allows the Jury to force Prosecutor to supply evidence whose accuracy becomes perfect as the num- ber of jurors goes to infinity. Thus, the same outcome predicted by the Condorcetâ€™s Jury Theorem is reached although evidence is strategically de- signed so as to prevent this outcome. Luca Ferrari 2017 THE PARADOX OF UNBIASED PUBLIC INFORMATION http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iik:wpaper:102&r=pol Recent game-theoretic literature on juries proposes many reforms including the abandonment of the unanimity rule. Considering the scope of the proposed change, this paper sets out to do one thing: it tests the critical game-theoretic assumption that jurors vote on the basis of being pivotal. The test is devised such that if the groups do well in aggregating dispersed information, they would support the game-theoretic view of juries; if not, they would oppose the game-theoretic view. Here is how. In theory, as shown in the paper, large enough juries remain relatively unaffected when public signals the jurors observe happen to be misleading because theoretical juries do not erroneously overweight the public signals at the expense of the private signals. In reality, however, each individual may overweight misleading public signals leading real juries to a terrible outcome. It is this potential for direct contradiction between theoretical and experimental juries that makes our experimental test sharper than previous tests: given misleading public signals, rational voting would still produce information aggregation; naïve voting would not. In prior research with no public signals, both rational and naïve voting produced information aggregation. Hence, we present a sharper test. Certain public policy implications of our work pertaining to the media are offered. Krishna K Ladha Gary J. Miller


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Violent eviction and arrests of peasant families, including children, in Honduras

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It was supposed to be a regular day of work for the Honduran peasant communities of San Isidro, El Despertar and La Trinidad farms, located by the Aguan River, in Trujillo municipality, Colon. After recovering their lands two years ago, the peasants produce several crops, such as maize and bananas, in addition to developing a livestock project. In the morning of May 21, the peasant families were surprised with a violent eviction by 300 members of the Xatruch III Operative and the Honduran National Police.

The security forces broke into the farms, shooting directly at people and throwing tear gas bombs at them. As a result, 15 people were arrested and injured, among them 3 underage people. The peasants have already been released but they have been summoned to a hearing to take place in a month.

Powerful interests

The peasants have been legally living in these lands for the past two years, after their lawyer, Antonio Trejo, managed to have the Tegucigalpa Court enforce a historical sentence in favor of the communities. Trejo paid for this victory with his life, just a few months later.

He had denounced receiving death threats, blaming landowners Miguel Facusse and Rene Morales, in case he was murdered. Both landowners hold interests in these lands to develop African palm oil monoculture plantations, and they occupied these lands illegally, displacing the 3500 families that live in the farms covering 2700 hectares.

The current eviction "has no legal basis", said Walter Cárcamo, head of the MARCA peasant movement in interview with Real World Radio, a few hours after being released and injured by the police. "We have the titles, we are registered at the Ownership Record". Trejo ensured us that we were the owners of the land, and we were certain that they could not evict us as they did", said Carcamo.

"Here in Honduras, they violate human rights, laws and with their economic resources they do what they want" said the leader. The violent eviction took place just13 days after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures to 123 leaders from several peasant movements of Aguan, Honduras.

Imagen: Via Campesina Honduras

(CC) 2014 Radio Mundo Real

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When standing on top of Gaper Buttress, one looks down onto Triple Tier Crags on the other side of the gorge. It‟s an amazing place to climb and explore, there are some top class routes and lots of potential, but it just requires a little effort. Some routes here are reached by abseiling onto a stance and then climbing out.

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Apprentice Wordsmith A Writer's Blog

How Do I...? Dialogue

We’ve been talking about macro-level stuff on this blog so far, but I’ve yet to dive into some of the craft of writing – the wordsmithing part that all writers should know. So I’m starting this series of posts on craft. I hope this will become a regular thing.

Today’s topic is dialogue. I assume most of you have learned how to punctuate in and around quotation marks. Perhaps you’ve even learned how to incorporate quotes into an academic paper. (If not, then there are plenty of resources online.) Dialogue, however, is more than just the quotation marks, which makes it a beast unique to creative writing. This post is going to focus more on construction and word choice rather than grammar.

Dialogue Tags

A tag is the two-word phrase placed outside of the quotation marks which identifies who is talking. These are the he said, she said of the piece. The tag could be more than two words, especially when the speaker isn’t given a name. “The man said”, “the woman in red whispered”, “the Dwarven bartender yelled” are all longer examples. Regardless, all tags include a noun and a speech-related verb, such as the ones in the examples above.

Most tags follow the standard grammar rules and put the noun first. The tag itself can be placed before or after the character’s line.

Eileen shouted, “The beasts cannot be stopped! What good are hunters now?”

“The beasts cannot be stopped! What good are hunters now?” Eileen shouted.

You can also reverse this structure and put the verb before the noun. This only works if the tag comes after the character’s line, not before.

“The beasts cannot be stopped!” shouted Eileen.

All of these are functionally equal. The only differences are in the rhythm of the syllables, the shifting of emphasis on verb or noun, and how all of these factors effect the flow of the sentence. These are the nuances that are more a matter of taste and style rather than effective communication.

A dialogue tag can interrupt the line as well.

“The beasts cannot be stopped!” Eileen shouted. “What good are hunters now?”

Here, the tag comes in between two sentences. If you have a more complex sentence, you can insert the tag at a natural breaking point within it. In the example below, I’ve inserted the tag between the two halves of this compound sentence.

“That wasn’t necessary of you,” Eileen said, “but you have my thanks.”

I find this construction particularly useful for the start of speeches and monologues – any time a character is going to be saying a lot of stuff. It allows me to identify the speaker quickly before they take up the rest of the paragraph with their dialogue. However, interrupting tags can be jarring for the reader when there’s only one line of dialogue, like in these examples. The interruption can set the whole line off-kilter. This is something you need to develop an ear for, so it can only be mastered through practice and reading your work aloud.

No Tags

The problem with dialogue tags is that they can get repetitive after a while. Thus, writers have come up with a number of ways to avoid using them. From a functional perspective, all of these methods take advantage of the reader’s natural inclination to associate things that are in close proximity to each other. In other words, if a single character is the focus of a paragraph, the reader will assume that all dialogue within that paragraph is also spoken by the character in focus. It’s sounds complicated, I know, but once I get into the examples, you should see what I mean.

There are two methods I want to identify in this post; these are the ones I use and see others use the most. First is narration which implies the act of speech.

Eileen’s voice echoed off the high ceiling of the cathedral. “The beasts cannot be stopped! What good are hunters now?”

The sentence before the dialogue talks about Eileen’s voice. Naturally, voice is a sound, and further, a sound must be produced in order for it to echo off anything. Both of these facts indicate that Eileen is saying something. The dialogue tells the reader what she is saying.

The second method is describing what the characters are doing as they are saying their lines. In acting, this is called “business.”

Eileen smiled wearily at her comrade. “Don’t you worry about me.”

Eileen’s business here is smiling. Since this action is in close proximity to the dialogue, the reader will assume that these two things happen (more or less) simultaneously. And because Eileen is identified as the one who is smiling, the reader will also assume she is the one talking.

A method I don’t see as often involves the preposition “with.”

Eileen threatened her adversary with “Your blood is mine.”

Just like in the examples in the previous section, this example takes advantage of proximity to connect Eileen with the dialogue. Yet there’s an additional implication at work here. Eileen isn’t merely speaking these words. The words themselves are (at least metaphorically) doing something. In this case, the words are the threat. They are how Eileen is threatening her adversary with bodily harm. This technique is one I would recommend using sparingly in order to remain effective. Use it too often and the reader will stop attributing additional weight to the words.

Dialogue is not just one person talking. Conversation is where dialogue shines. It is best to start a new paragraph every time you switch between speakers. Reasons why are that the paragraph break visually indicates this switch to the reader, and the paragraphs help contain each character’s line. Paragraphs become essential when there are no tags or narration to help the reader identify who says what.

“You don’t need to worry about him anymore.”
“Don’t you ever listen to your elders?”
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t…”
“No matter. You did save my life.”

The paragraph breaks create a back and forth rhythm. So while there are no tags nor narration, the reader can still identify two speakers in this passage. Further, they understand that the first and third paragraphs belong to speaker A, while the second and fourth paragraphs belong to speaker B.

Compound Sentence

There is one exception to the convention I just described. It is when two speakers’ lines are combined into a single, compound sentence. Then, grammatical rules regarding compound sentences win out. I have only seen one published writer do this, however.

“I can listen now,” he said, but she said, “Not now. Later. You are tired.”
– Ursula K. Le Guin, A Man of the People

When I came upon this sentence the first time I read Le Guin’s novella, I was confused. It took me reading it a couple of times to finally figure out what Le Guin was doing and how this dialogue fit into the larger scene. Why did she decide to write it this way? I don’t know. I present this example to show that writers can and do break their own conventions. Personally, I would never do this, since I strive for clarity in all of my writing. I also wouldn’t encourage beginning writers to do this either. Get comfortable with the standard rules and established conventions first, so that, when you decide to break them, you will better understand what you are doing and why.

When to Identify Speakers

So when should you use tags (or narration) and when can you rely on paragraphing? Standard practice is to identify the speakers at the start of the conversation.

The young hunter emerged from the cathedral, wiping the blood off his blade. “You don’t need to worry about him anymore.”
“Don’t you ever listen to your elders?” Eileen asked.
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t…”
“No matter. You did save my life.”

Here, the speakers of lines 1 and 2 are identified within the text, via narration and a tag respectively. Following the logic outlined in the “Paragraphing” section, the reader also understands that the young hunter says line 3 and Eileen says line 4.

Conversations aren’t always restricted to two people. When a third character enters, identify them at their first line. Then, re-identify the other two characters in places where the reader might get confused. Look at this example and I’ll show you what I mean.

The priest asked, “That old lady over there. Was it you who saved her?”
“I told her about this place, if that’s what you mean,” the hunter replied.
“Well, she’s not much for conversation and a bit sour if you ask me.”
“I have ears you know!” the old woman shouted from across the chapel.
“Still, it’s good to know she’s safe. What with the beasts and all.”
“Right. Glad I could help,” the hunter said.

The tag identifies the priest as the speaker for line 1, and the back and forth of paragraphs identifies him as the speaker for lines 3 and 5. A tag identifies the hunter as the speaker of line 2, but they are not the speaker for line 4. The tag there attributes that line to the old woman. Thus, a tag for the hunter is repeated in line 6. If that tag were removed, the reader could accidentally attribute line 6 to the old woman through the back and forth of paragraphs.

There may come a time when your story requires a scene that is essentially a long conversation between characters. If said conversation spans multiple pages, a rule of thumb that I follow is to include tags or speaker-identifying narration at least once per page. Twice per page is even better, if you can manage it. The tags and narration add variety to the prose (which has multiple benefits), but it also re-establishes the back and forth order you are depending on the reader to leverage. If you are writing a long story that is not intended to be read in a single session (such as a novel or novella), then this rule of thumb becomes especially advantageous. It allows the reader to put down the book in the middle of this conversation, and when they return, they don’t have to reread as much in order to figure out who is saying what.

I hope you’ve found this post useful. If you have suggestions for the next craft post, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

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In 1792, in Paris, at the place de Grève, the guillotine was used for the first time on a human, highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier, after having been tested during its development with corpses and sheep. The executioner was Charles-Henri Sanson. The severed head fell into a wicker basket; sawdust absorbed the blood. According to the Chronique de Paris, “The people were not satisfied at all. ... Everything happened too fast. They dispersed with disappointment,” wanting the gallows back, with more spectacle. The guillotine, as used in France, was invented (1788) by the King's physician, Antoine Lewis, built by a German harpsichord maker, Tobias Schmidt, and named for the French politician Joseph Ignace Guillotin who promoted its use as a more humane method of execution.«

Chad Daniels: Genetic Advancements

I cant wait until they could put wings on humans. Because when they could put wings on humans, they could put wings on pigs, and when they could put wings on pigs, lots of pretty girls from college owe me sex.
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Saraiki Wasaib Gallery سرائیکی وسیب

Seraiki Culture Gallery, سرائیکی وسیب

Saraiki Wasaib Gallery

Sarāikī (Perso-Arabic: سرائیکی, Gurmukhi: ਸਰਾਇਕੀ, Devanagari: सराइकी) word “Sarāiki” originated from the word سوویرا “Sauvera”,a state name in old India. Sauvera was south of Sindhu in the delta of the Indus river; while later historians (Al-Beruni) considered Sauvera to represent southwest Punjab, including Multan, Mithankot and adjacent areas at the region of the confluence of Indus river with other rivers of Punjab. Sauvera is presumed to be derived from two words: Su (great or good) or Sau (one hundred) and Veer (brave or wise). Sauveraki, the language spoken by inhabitants of the Sauvira kingdom, is currently known as Saraiki and has spread to the entire south and southwest parts of Punjab.(Dr. Ahmed Hassan Dani)
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Water, Soil and Sediment Investigations to Explore the Status and Management Options of Aquatic Ecosystem
Raushan Kumar and T.V. Ramachandra
Introduction    l    Objectives    l    Methods    l    Analysis    l    Management Options    l    Conclusion    l    References    l    PDF    l    HOME
Citation : Raushan Kumar and Ramachandra T.V., 2005. Water, Soil and Sediment Investigations to Explore the Status and Management Options of Aquatic Ecosystem, In Aquatic Ecosystems - Conservation, Restoration and Management, Ramachandra, Ahalya N. and Rajasekara Murthy (ed), Capital Publishing Company, New Delhi.

Aquatic ecosystem quality is of vital concern for living beings as it provides habitats for a variety of flora and fauna, recharges ground water, augments and maintains stream flow, recycles nutrients, purifies water etc. The components of aquatic ecosystem and their working pattern are highly dependent on the catchment structure and the land use pattern in the catchment (Ramachandra and Ahalya, 2001).

Aquatic ecosystems worldwide are being severely altered or destroyed at a rate greater than any other time in human history and faster than they are being restored. Some of these losses occur through intentional exploitation of resources. Other losses occur cumulatively through lack of knowledge or fragmented approach in resource management (UNEP, 1994). The capacity of rivers and their biota to maintain any substantial degree of ecological integrity and to perform ecosystem services, such as pollution dilution and water quality protection, is under immense pressure from large diversions and regulation.

Maintenance and enhancement of economically valuable aquatic ecosystem functions especially floodwater storage and conveyance, pollution control, ground water recharge, anq fisheries and wildlife support have all too often been largely ignored in aquatic resource management. The amount of water entering as precipitation that ends up in the stream depends greatly on the characteristics of the catchment, such as catchment geomorphology, geology, soil type and development and vegetation types and extent of cover (Dodds, 2002). Water falling on the ground may infiltrate the soil or run overland. In catchments with permeable surface, water infiltrating the soil percolates down to the water table. Streams arise where the land surface intersects the water table and groundwater from the water table usually comprises a major part of the stream discharge. Perennial streams are maintained by the ground water flow during times of little or no rainfall (Tideman, 1996). Ecological processes within catchments exert a strong control on the inputs of organic and inorganic chemicals, both particulate and dissolved, into the down slope streams. The disruption of inputs from the catchments is a reliable signal of disturbance. Natural disturbing forces on catchments include fire, cyclones, grazing, defoliation by insects etc., while human-generated/induced disturbances consist of forces such as encroachment, conversion of forest to agricultural land, timber harvesting, livestock grazing and land clearing. It may be due to developmental projects or population pressure on the natural resources (Downes et al., 2002).

Water related developmental projects like hydroelectric power projects have both direct and indirect effect on the river basin and attendant socioeconomic condition of the region. Because of their strategic location in the mid-hills (lower contour elevation) and valley bottom, storage reservoirs invariably inundate populated valleys, large forest tracts, and wildlife habitat endowed with rich biodiversity of immense conservation significance (Abbasi, 2000). There are mainly two types of disturbances caused by hydroelectric power projects like submersion and change in basin morphometry and biotic disturbances. Change in catchment practices gives rise to alteration in the physicochemical and biological properties of streams and rivers.

In aquatic ecology, the disturbance is most commonly conceived as being due to physicochemical and biological factors. The alteration in the physicochemical characteristics of aquatic ecosystem is the result of inputs of pollutants from point and non-point sources. The non-point sources of pollution are very difficult to assess and manage. Remediation is also difficult because it usually requires measures to be implemented over a large scale (Gilpin, 1996). In this study the source of pollution was non-point sources like agricultural runoff, bank and catchment soil erosion, diversion of water from rivers for irrigation and poor catchment agricultural practices in the Sharavathi river catchment.

Corresponding Author :
  Dr. T.V. Ramachandra
  Tel : 91-80-23600985 / 22932506 / 22933099,
E-mail : cestvr@ces.iisc.ernet.in, energy@ces.iisc.ernet.in,
Web : http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy


small dreams : a Changeling Chronicle

Chronicle Resources

Write-ups on player and non-player characters.
Basic information on important places.
Session summaries.
In Character Knowledge
Basic information about the campaign world that every character might reasonably know.

This website is a resource for those participating in small dreams, a Changeling: the Dreaming set in modern day London. It contains information on the people, places and events of the game's past and present. The game began in 1998, went on hiatus in 1999, came back, then went on hiatus again in 2002.

small dreams was in part inspired by Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry. Neil Gaiman has personally given his blessing (and autograph) to the chronicle.

One spinoff of the game is the Dreaming Web, an encyclopaedia on the history and nature of the Dreaming. While only parts of it have appeared in small dreams, and some of it isn't compatible with the campaign, it does reflect the thoughts and work of two of the players and the Storyteller.