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Cougars, which can reach seven feet long including their
tail, are powerful enough to take down an elk, though they
feed mainly on deer. As their habitat becomes increasingly
fragmented by roads and development, young cougars find it
hard to disperse. One of the greatest threats to cougars is
negative public perception. In Oregon, the Sierra Club is
the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to stop a planned experiment that involves
killing healthy cougars to observe the impact on elk populations.
But there's good news as well: Cougars may be making a comeback
in the East, where they were thought to have gone extinct,
and populations are growing in western states partly as a
result of bans on hunting with hounds.
State threatened, three subspecies are federally endangered.
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Telepathy - The induction of
mental states from one mind to another
the Greek τηλε, tele meaning
"distant" and πάθη, pathe meaning
"affliction, experience"), The term was coined in
1882 by the classical scholar Fredric
W. H. Myers,
a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has somehow
remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference. Many studies
seeking to detect, understand, and utilize telepathy have been done within this
field. The scientific community does not regard telepathy as a real phenomenon
as actual telepathy has never been demonstrated to a greater degree than pure
chance under controlled experimental conditions.
Telepathy is a common
theme in modern fiction and science fiction, with many superheroes andsupervillains having telepathic
abilities. In more recent times, neuroimaging has
allowed researchers to actually perform early forms of mind
of the concept
According to Roger
Luckhurst, the origin of the concept of telepathy (not
telepathy itself) in the Western civilization can be tracked to the late 19th
century. In his view, science did not frequently concern itself with "the
mind" prior to this. As the physical sciences made significant advances,
scientific concepts were applied to mental phenomena (e.g., animal magnetism), with the hope that this would help
understand paranormal phenomena. The
modern concept of telepathy emerged in this historical context.
The notion of telepathy
is dissimilar to two psychological concepts: delusions of thought
insertion/removal and psychological symbiosis. This similarity might explain how some
people have come up with the idea of telepathy. Thought insertion/removal is a
symptom of psychosis, particularly of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Psychiatric patients
who experience this symptom falsely believe that some of their thoughts are not
their own and that others (e.g., other people, aliens, or conspiring
intelligence agencies) are putting thoughts into their minds (thought
insertion). Some patients feel as if thoughts are being taken out of their
minds or deleted (thought removal). Along with other symptoms of psychosis,
delusions of thought insertion may be reduced by antipsychotic
on the other hand, is a less well established concept. It is an idea found in
the writings of early psychoanalysts, such as Melanie Klein. It entails the belief that in the early
psychological experience of the child (during earliest infancy), the child is
unable to tell the difference between his or her own mind, on one hand, and his
or her experience of the mother/parent, on the other hand. This state of mind
is called psychological symbiosis; with development, it ends, but, purportedly,
aspects of it can still be detected in the psychological functioning of the
adult. Putatively, the experience of either thought insertion/removal or
unconscious memories of psychological symbiosis may have led to the invention
of "telepathy" as a notion and the belief that telepathy exists.
Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists believe and empirical findings support
the idea that people with schizotypal personality disorder are particularly likely
to believe in telepathy.
Within the field
of parapsychology, telepathy is
considered to be a form of extra-sensory
which information is transferred through Psi. It is often categorized similarly
to precognition and clairvoyance. Various
experiments have been used to test for telepathic abilities. Among the most
well known are the use of Zener cards and
the Ganzfeld experiment.
Zener cards are cards
marked with five distinctive symbols. When using them, one individual is
designated the "sender" and another the "receiver". The
sender must select a random card and visualize the symbol on it, while the
receiver must attempt to determine that symbol using Psi. Statistically, the
receiver has a 20% chance of randomly guessing the correct symbol, so in order
to demonstrate telepathy, they must repeatedly score a success rate that is
significantly higher than 20%. If not conducted
properly, this method can be vulnerable to sensory leakage and card counting.
When using the Ganzfeld
experiment to test for telepathy, one individual is designated
the receiver and is placed inside a controlled environment where they are deprived
of sensory input,
and another is designated the sender and is placed in a separate location. The
receiver is then required to receive information from the sender. The exact
nature of the information may vary between experiments.
Parapsychology describes several different forms of
telepathy, including latent telepathy and precognitive telepathy.
formerly known as "deferred telepathy", is described as being the transfer of information,
through Psi, with an observable time-lag between transmission and receipt.
Precognitive, and Intuitive Telepathy is described as being the transfer
of information, through Psi, about the past, future or present state of an
individual's mind to another individual.
also known as remote influence or emotional
transfer, is the process of transferring kinesthetic sensations through altered
involves tapping into the superconscious to access the
collective wisdom of the human species for knowledge.
Although not a
recognized scientific discipline, people who study certain types of paranormal phenomena such as telepathy refer to
the field asparapsychology. Parapsychologists
claim that some instances of telepathy are real. Skeptics say that
instances of apparent telepathy are explained as the result of fraud, self-delusion
and/or self-deception and that telepathy
does not exist as a paranormal power.
skeptics agree that many of the instances of more popular psychic phenomena,
such as mediumism, can be
attributed to non-paranormal techniques such as cold reading. Magicians such
as Ian Rowland and Derren Brown have
demonstrated techniques and results similar to those of popular psychics,
without paranormal means. They have identified, described, and developed
psychological techniques of cold reading and hot reading.
A technique which shows
statistically significant evidence of telepathy on every occasion has yet to be
discovered. This lack of reliable reproducibility has led skeptics to argue
that there is no credible scientific evidence for the existence of telepathy at
all. Skeptics also
point to historical cases in which flaws in experimental design and occasional
cases of fraud were uncovered. Parapsychologists
such as Dean Radin, president of the Parapsychological Association, argue that the statistical
significance and consistency of results shown by a meta-analysis of numerous studies provides
evidence for telepathy that is almost impossible to account for using any other
Telepathy is commonly
used in fiction, with a number of superheroes and supervillains, as well as figures in many science fiction
novels, etc., use telepathy. Notable fictional telepaths include the Jedi in Star Wars. The mechanics of telepathy in fiction
vary widely. Some fictional telepaths are limited to receiving only thoughts
that are deliberately sent by other telepaths, or even to receiving thoughts
from a specific other person. For example, in Robert A. Heinlein's 1956 novel Time for the Stars, certain pairs of twins
are able to send telepathic messages to each other. Some telepaths can read the
thoughts only of those they touch, such as Vulcans in the Star Trek media franchise and Aro, a vampire
Meyer's book New
Star Trek science consultant and writer André Bormanis, has revealed that telepathy within the
Star Trek universe works via the "psionic field." According to
Bormanis, a psionic field is the "medium" through which unspoken
thoughts and feelings are communicated through space. Some humanoids can tap into this
field through a kind of sense organ located in the brain; in the same manner
sense portions of the electromagnetic field, telepaths can sense
portions of the psionic field. In the book "Eragon", Eragon can
communicate through his mind with almost anyone, including his dragon Saphira,
but it is possible to block people from your mind with a barrier.In the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, telepathy is a magical skill known
In the John Wyndham novel The Chrysalids, the main character and narrator David
Strorm is one of a group of nine telepaths. In Anthony Horowitz's Power of Five series twinsJamie and Scott Tyler were born with telepathic powers
that enable them to read people's minds and, ultimately, control them. They
always know each other's thoughts, which earns them money doing tricks at a
circus in Reno, Nevada, USA.
Some writers view
telepathy as the evolutionary destiny of humanity. In Tony Vigorito's
novel, Just a Couple of Days, telepathy emerges
across the entire human species as a result of the Pied Piper Virus, which
inadvertently eliminates humanity's symbolic capacity. In this instance,
telepathy is seen as a latent ability that emerges only when the distractions
of language are bypassed.
Some fictional telepaths
possess mind control abilities, which
can include "pushing" thoughts, feelings, or hallucinatory visions
into the mind of another person, causing pain, paralysis, or unconsciousness,
altering or erasing memories, or completely taking over another person's mind
and body (similar to spiritual
Examples of this type of telepath include the Carpathians from the novels in
as well as Professor Xavier, Psylocke, Jean Grey and the White Queen from Marvel Comics. Characters with this ability may or may
not also have the ability to read thoughts. The film Scanners concerns around people born with
this kind of telepathic as well as telekinetic abilities.
The Urdu novel "Devta"
is based on the character of Farhad Ali Taimur, a telepath involved in the fight
of good and evil.
mental connections (occasionally seen as a form of 'telepathy' as in the
following section, but not usually described using this word) are also present
in science fiction, often involving the usage of neural implants of some
description. For example, Robert Silverberg's 1971 story Tower of Glass features a technology called a
"shunt room" where participants wearing "shunt helmets" are
able to probe one another's thoughts, feelings and memories. Another example is
the Conjoiners in the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. Conjoiners rely on their technological
telepathy (referred to by them as "Transenlightenment") to the extent
that they no longer actually speak. Certain Conjoiners are able to read, attack
and control the minds of other Conjoiners and machines (though not standard
humans) using digital attacks, often having similar effects to other telepaths
in fiction. More generally, the concept of technological mental connections
quite often features in science fiction stories featuring group
such as the Borg in Star Trek.
See also a
of fictional characters with telepathy.
See also: Thought
Converging Technologies, a 2002 report
exploring the potential for synergy among nano-, bio-, informational and
cognitive technologies (NBIC) for enhancing human performance.
occasionally referred to by themselves or others as "transhumanists", believe that technologically enabled
telepathy, coined "techlepathy", "synthetic
telepathy", or "psychotronics",will be the inevitable
future of humanity. Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading, England is one of the leading proponents of this view
and has based all of his recent cybernetics research around developing
technology for directly connecting human nervous systems together with computers
and with each other. He believes techno-enabled telepathy will in the future
become the primary form of human communication.
§ Abhijna, the Buddhist "higher knowledges", the
third of which is "Mind-penetrating knowledge".
§ Alice Bailey
§ Body language or kinesics, another form of paralinguistics.
§ Extended mind, the concept that
things frequently used by the mind become part of it.
§ Lady Wonder, a horse that appeared to answer
§ List of parapsychology topics
§ Magnetoencephalography, measuring the magnetic
fields produced by electrical activity in the brain.
§ Mentalist, claims to manipulate
and change spiritual reality.
§ Morphic resonance
§ Neural oscillation, a concept measured as brain waves.
§ Precognition, a form of extra-sensory perception
involving seeing future events.
§ Quantum pseudo-telepathy, apparent telepathy as
a result of quantum entanglement.
§ Velostat, a purported insulator.
1. ^ a b c Carroll, Robert
Todd (2005). "The Skeptic's Dictionary;
SkepDic.com. Retrieved 2006-09-13.
2. ^ Following the
model of sympathy and empathy.
3. ^ a b c d Glossary of Parapsychological terms - Telepathy Parapsychological Association. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
4. ^ Luckhurst, R.
(2002). The Invention of Telepathy, 1870-1901. Oxford University Press.
5. ^ Pickup, G. (2006).
Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Volume 11, Number 2, Number 2/March 2006 , pp.
6. ^ Glossary of Parapsychological terms - ESP, Parapsychological Association. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
7. ^ a b Carroll, Robert
(2006-02-17). "Zener ESP Cards". The Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 2006-07-18.
8. ^ a b The
Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena by Dean I. Radin
Harper Edge, ISBN 0-06-251502-0
9. ^ Rennie, John
(1845), "Test for Telepathy", Scientific American,V3#1 (1847-09-25)
10. ^ Plazo, Dr. Joseph
R., (2002) "Psychic Seduction." pp.112-114 ISBN 0-9785922-3-9
11. ^ St. Claire,
David., (1989) "Instant ESP." pp.40-50
12. ^ "What is parapsychology?" From the FAQ of
the website of the Parapsychological Association. Retrieved February 3, 2007.
13. ^ "What is the state-of-the-evidence for psi?" From the FAQ of
the website of the Parapsychological Association. Retrieved February 3, 2007.
14. ^ Skepdic.com
Retrieved February 22, 2007.
15. ^ Eberhard
Bauer: Criticism and Controversy in
Parapsychology - An Overview[dead
link]. European Journal of
Parapsychology (1984), 5, 141-166. Retrieved February 9, 2007.
16. ^ O',Keeffe, Ciarán
and Wiseman Richard: Testing alleged mediumship: Methods
British Journal of Psychology (2005), 96, 16517.
17. ^ Rowland, Ian: The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading
18. ^ a b See for examples,
Randi, James. Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and
Prometheus Books (June 1982)ISBN 0879751983 or
Charpak, Georges and Henri Broch. Translated by Bart K. Holland.Debunked!:
ESP, Telekinesis, and Other Pseudoscience. The Johns Hopkins University Press
(March 25, 2004), ISBN 0801878675
19. ^ André Bormanis discusses telepathy in
20. ^ Dvorsky, George
(2004). "Evolving Towards
Betterhumans.com. Retrieved 2006-10-24.
21. ^ TakeAway Media
(2000). "Leviathan: Back to the Future:
An interview with Kevin Warwick". BBC Two. Retrieved 2006-10-24.
Physicist Nick Herbert Ponders Instantaneous Communication
§ Primary Quantum Model of Telepathy (PDF)
§ Soal-Goldney Experiment - a critical evaluation of the
Soal-Goldney Experiment, which claimed to prove the existence of telepathy
§ Dream and Telepathy - article in
Science and Psychoanalysis
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The properties of a material were once thought to be defined only by its chemical composition. But size matters too, especially for semiconductors. Make crystals of silicon small enough – less than 10 nanometres – and their tiny dimensions can start to dictate how the atoms behave and react in the presence of other things.
These tiny bits of semiconductor crystals – so-called quantum dots – have such remarkable, novel properties that scientists think they will soon be used in everything from light bulbs to imaging of cancer cells or in the design of ultra-efficient solar cells.
Semiconductors such as silicon or indium arsenide are chosen to build electronic circuits because of the discrete energy levels at which they can give off electrons or photons. This makes them useful in building switches, transistors and other devices. It was once thought these energy levels – known as band gaps – were fixed. But shrinking the physical size of the semiconductor material to quantum-dot level seems able to change the band gaps, altering the wavelengths of light the material can emit or changing the energy it takes to change a material from an insulator to a conductor.
Instead of looking for brand new materials to build different devices, then, quantum dots make it possible to use a single type of semiconductor to produce a range of different characteristics. Researchers could tune dots made from silicon to emit a range of different colours in different situations, for example, instead of having to use a range of materials with different chemical
"The main application for quantum dots at the moment is biological tagging of cells," says Paul O'Brien, a professor of inorganic materials at the University of Manchester and co-founder of Nanoco Technologies a quantum dot manufacturer also based in Manchester. They are used in the same way as fluorescent dyes, to label agents, he says, but with the advantage that a single laser source can be used to illuminate many different tags each with a specific wavelength.
By attaching different types of quantum dots to proteins that target and attach to specific cell types in the body, these bits of semiconductor can be used by doctors to monitor different kinds of cells. When a laser is then directed on to tagged cells, doctors can see what colour they glow.
The ability to shine also makes quantum dots well suited to produce white light. Existing white bulbs based on low energy light emitting diode (LED) technology tend to produce a garish and bluish form of light that notoriously feels cold, says O'Brien. This is because these LEDs use a phosphor that produces an artificial white light that contains less red wavelengths than natural white light. By embedding quantum dots into a film that is placed over a bulb containing blue LEDs, it is possible to get a much warmer colour of white light. The blue light from the LED stimulates the quantum dots which, in turn, emit light in a range of colours. Provided you have chosen your dots carefully, these will combine to form white light.
The first of these quantum dot lights hit the market in 2010, a partnership between QD Vision, an MIT spinout in Lexington, Massachusetts, and Nexxus Lighting of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Backlights for laptops, tablets and mobile devices are next in line, and they should appear in products before the end of 2012 says VJ Sahi, head of corporate development at materials design company Nanosys of Palo Alto, California. Besides the colour advantages, quantum-dot-based backlights can be three times more efficient than traditional backlights.
Eventually, says Sahi, quantum dots will do more than just light up displays. The long-term aim is use them to create each red, green and blue sub-pixel that makes up a coloured display. This should produce much brighter colours and consume less power than LCD or even the latest state-of-the-art organic LED (OLED) displays. They should also have no problems with viewing angles, he adds.
The interesting properties of quantum dots come from the fact that they behave like tuning forks for photons, a result of a phenomenon called confinement. At less than 10 nanometres in size – about 50 atoms – they fall within the dimensions of a critical quantum characteristic of the material known as the exciton Bohr radius. The energy levels of electrons within the material's atoms are constrained and, when a photon or electron hits an atom and excites it, the atom re-emits the energy as a photon of a very specific energy level.
Quantum dots also have another trick up their sleeve. Besides converting photons of one energy into photons of another, they can also be used to release electrons and create electrical currents: in other words they can be used to make solar cells. Arthur Nozik at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, says that quantum-dot solar cells would be much more efficient at converting the energy from photons and therefore boost the amount of power they can produce.
Such applications are many years from becoming commercial reality. But they serve to demonstrate that no material technology stands still; sometimes all you have to do is cut it down to size.
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The question that Bill Wylie-Kellermann failed to directly ask and answer in “An Assault on Local Democracy” (June 2012) is, why are some Michigan cities and school districts under the direction of an emergency manager? Certain cities/school districts have an emergency manager not because of their racial makeup, but because their elected officials were either unwilling or unable to make the difficult decisions to ensure the financial viability of the entities they were elected to govern. The City of Detroit was headed for bankruptcy. Without massive state aid and intervention, it would have run out of money and been unable to pay its employees or creditors. The Pontiac School District was more than $24 million in debt. All of the other political entities mentioned in the article were in similar dire financial straits. The emergency manager act was an attempt by the state to prevent cities and school districts from declaring bankruptcy, a move that would have dire economic consequences for the entire state.
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A smile is the facial expression that most engages others. With the help of the teeth — which provide structural support for the face muscles — the mouth also forms a frown and other expressions that show on your face.
The mouth also plays a key role in the digestive system, but it does much more than get digestion started. The mouth — especially the teeth, lips, and tongue — is essential for speech. The tongue, which allows us to taste, also helps form words when we speak. The lips that line the outside of the mouth both help hold food in while we chew and pronounce words when we talk.
With the lips and tongue, teeth help form words by controlling air flow out of the mouth. The tongue strikes the teeth as certain sounds are made.
The hardest substances in the body, the teeth are also necessary for chewing (or mastication) — the process by which we tear, cut, and grind food in preparation for swallowing. Chewing allows enzymes and lubricants released in the mouth to further digest food.
Here's how each aspect of the mouth and teeth plays an important role in our daily lives.
The entrance to the digestive tract, the mouth is lined with mucous membranes. The membrane-covered roof of the mouth is called the palate. The front part consists of a bony portion called the hard palate, with a fleshy rear part called the soft palate. The hard palate divides the mouth and the nasal passages above. The soft palate forms a curtain between the mouth and the throat, or pharynx, to the rear. The soft palate contains the uvula, the dangling flesh at the back of the mouth. The tonsils are located on either side of the uvula and look like twin pillars holding up the opening to the pharynx.
A bundle of muscles extends from the floor of the mouth to form the tongue. The upper surface of the tongue is covered with tiny bumps called papillae. These contain tiny pores that are our taste buds. Four main kinds of taste buds are found on the tongue — those that sense sweet, salty, sour, and bitter tastes. Three pairs of salivary glands secrete saliva, which contains a digestive enzyme called amylase that starts the breakdown of carbohydrates even before food enters the stomach.
The lips are covered with skin on the outside and with slippery mucous membranes on the inside of the mouth. The major lip muscle, called the orbicularis oris, allows for the lips' mobility. The reddish tint of the lips comes from underlying blood vessels. The inside portion of both lips is connected to the gums.
There are several types of teeth. Incisors are the squarish, sharp-edged teeth in the front of the mouth. There are four on the bottom and four on the top. On either side of the incisors are the sharp canines. The upper canines are sometimes called eyeteeth or cuspids. Behind the canines are the premolars, or bicuspids. There are two sets, or four premolars, in each jaw.
The molars, situated behind the premolars, have points and grooves. There are 12 molars — three sets in each jaw called the first, second, and third molars. The third molars are the wisdom teeth, thought by some to have evolved thousands of years ago when human diets consisted of mostly raw foods that required extra chewing power. But because they can crowd out the other teeth or cause problems like pain or infection, a dentist might need to remove them.
Human teeth are made up of four different types of tissue: pulp, dentin, enamel, and cementum. The pulp is the innermost portion of the tooth and consists of connective tissue, nerves, and blood vessels, which nourish the tooth. The pulp has two parts — the pulp chamber, which lies in the crown, and the root canal, which is in the root of the tooth. Blood vessels and nerves enter the root through a small hole in its tip and extend through the canal into the pulp chamber.
Dentin surrounds the pulp. A hard yellow substance, it makes up most of the tooth and is as hard as bone. It's the dentin that gives teeth their yellowish tint.
Enamel, the hardest tissue in the body, covers the dentin and forms the outermost layer of the crown. It enables the tooth to withstand the pressure of chewing and protects it from harmful bacteria and changes in temperature from hot and cold foods. Both the dentin and pulp extend into the root.
A layer of cementum covers the outside of the root, under the gum line, and holds the tooth in place within the jawbone. Cementum is also as hard as bone.
Humans are diphyodont, meaning that they develop two sets of teeth. The first set of 20 deciduous teeth are also called the milk, primary, temporary, or baby teeth. They begin to develop before birth and begin to fall out when a child is around 6 years old. They're replaced by a set of 32 permanent teeth, which are also called secondary or adult teeth.
Around the 8th week after conception, oval-shaped tooth buds consisting of cells form in the embryo. These buds begin to harden about the 16th week. Although teeth aren't visible at birth, both the primary and permanent teeth are forming below the gums. The crown, or the hard enamel-covered part that's visible in the mouth, develops first. When the crown is formed, the root begins to develop.
Between the ages of 6 months and 1 year, the deciduous teeth begin to push through the gums. This process is called eruption or teething. At this point, the crown is complete and the root is almost fully formed. By the time a child is 3 years old, he or she has a set of 20 deciduous teeth, 10 in the lower and 10 in the upper jaw. Each jaw has four incisors, two canines, and four molars. The molars' purpose is to grind food, and the incisors and canine teeth are used to bite into and tear food.
The primary teeth help the permanent teeth erupt in their normal positions; most of the permanent teeth form close to the roots of the primary teeth. When a primary tooth is preparing to fall out, its root begins to dissolve. This root has completely dissolved by the time the permanent tooth below it is ready to erupt.
Kids start to lose their primary teeth, or baby teeth, at about 6 years old. This begins a phase of permanent tooth development that lasts over the next 15 years, as the jaw steadily grows into its adult form. From ages 6 to 9, the incisors and first molars start to come in. Between ages 10 and 12, the first and second premolars, as well as the canines, erupt. From 11 to 13, the second molars come in. The wisdom teeth (third molars) erupt between the ages of 17 and 21.
Sometimes there isn't room in a person's mouth for all the permanent teeth. If this happens, the wisdom teeth may get stuck, or impacted, beneath the gum and may need to be removed. Overcrowding of the teeth is one of the reasons kids get braces.
The first step of digestion involves the mouth and teeth. Food enters the mouth and is immediately broken down into smaller pieces by our teeth. Each type of tooth serves a different function in the chewing process. Incisors cut foods when you bite into them. The sharper and longer canines tear food. The premolars, which are flatter than the canines, grind and mash food. Molars, with their points and grooves, are responsible for the most vigorous chewing. All the while, the tongue helps to push the food up against our teeth.
During chewing salivary glands in the walls and floor of the mouth secrete saliva, which moistens the food and helps break it down even more. Saliva makes it easier to chew and swallow foods (especially dry foods), and it contains enzymes that aid in the digestion of carbohydrates.
Once food has been converted into a soft, moist mass, it's pushed into the throat (or pharynx) at the back of the mouth and is swallowed. When we swallow, the soft palate closes off the nasal passages from the throat to prevent food from entering the nose.
Proper dental care — including a good diet, frequent cleaning of the teeth after eating, and regular dental checkups — is essential to maintaining healthy teeth and avoiding tooth decay and gum disease.
Common mouth and dental diseases and conditions — some of which can be prevented, some of which cannot — are:
Disorders of the Mouth
Aphthous stomatitis (canker sores). A common form of mouth ulcer, canker sores occur in women more often than in men. Although their cause isn't completely understood, mouth injuries, stress, dietary deficiencies, hormonal changes (such as the menstrual cycle), or food allergies can trigger them. They usually appear on the inner surface of the cheeks or lips, under the tongue, on the soft palate, or at the base of the gums. They begin with a tingling or burning sensation followed by a painful sore called an ulcer. Pain subsides in 7 to 10 days, with complete healing usually occurring in 1 to 3 weeks.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are birth defects in which the tissues of the lip and/or mouth don't form properly during fetal development. Children born with these disorders may have trouble feeding immediately after birth. Reconstructive surgery in infancy and sometimes later can repair the anatomical defects, and can prevent or lessen the severity of speech problems later on.
Enteroviral stomatitis is a common childhood infection caused by a family of viruses called the enteroviruses. An important member of this family is coxsackievirus, which causes hand, foot, and mouth disease. Enteroviral stomatitis is marked by small, painful ulcers in the mouth that may decrease a child's desire to eat and drink and put him or her at risk for dehydration.
Herpetic stomatitis (oral herpes). Kids can get a mouth infection with the herpes simplex virus from an adult or another child who has it. The infection can spread by direct contact, such as kissing, or by sharing utensils or a cup with someone with the virus. The resulting painful, clustered vesicles, or blisters, can make it difficult to drink or eat, which can lead to dehydration, especially in a young child.
Periodontal disease. The gums and bones supporting the teeth are subject to disease. A common periodontal disease is gingivitis — inflammation of the gums characterized by redness, swelling, and sometimes bleeding. The accumulation of tartar (a hardened film of food particles and bacteria that builds up on teeth) usually causes this condition, and it's almost always the result of inadequate brushing and flossing.
When gingivitis isn't treated, it can lead to periodontitis, in which the gums loosen around the teeth and pockets of bacteria and pus form, sometimes damaging the supporting bone and causing tooth loss.
Disorders of the Teeth
Cavities and tooth decay. When bacteria and food particles stick to the teeth, plaque forms. The bacteria digest the carbohydrates in the food and produce acid, which dissolves the tooth's enamel and causes a cavity. If the cavity isn't treated, the decay process progresses to involve the dentin. Without treatment, serious infections can occur.
The most common ways to treat cavities and more serious tooth decay problems are: filling the cavity; performing root canal therapy, involving the removal of the pulp of a tooth; crowning a tooth with a cap that looks like a tooth made of metal, porcelain, or plastic; or removing or replacing the tooth.
A common cause of tooth decay in toddlers is "baby bottle tooth decay," which occurs when a child goes to sleep with a milk or juice bottle in the mouth and the teeth are bathed in sugary liquid for an extended period of time. To avoid tooth decay and cavities, do not give your child a bottle when going to sleep. Also, teach your kids good dental habits — including proper tooth-brushing techniques — at an early age.
Impacted wisdom teeth. In many people, the wisdom teeth are unable to erupt normally so they either remain below the jawline or don't grow in properly. Dentists call these teeth impacted. Wisdom teeth usually become impacted because the jaw isn't large enough to accommodate all the teeth that are growing in and the mouth becomes overcrowded. Impacted teeth can damage other teeth or become painful and infected.
Dentists can check if a person has impacted wisdom teeth by taking X-rays of the teeth. If the X-rays show there's a chance that impacted teeth may cause problems, the dentist may recommend that the tooth or teeth be extracted.
Malocclusion is the failure of the teeth in the upper and lower jaws to meet properly. Types of malocclusion include overbite, underbite, and crowding. Most conditions can be corrected with treatment such as braces, which are metal or clear ceramic brackets bonded to the front of each tooth. The wires connecting braces are tightened periodically to force the teeth to move into the correct position. There are also ways to correct the bite using removable clear appliances.
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Skip to main content
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A member of our team will call you back within one business day.
When you have interstitial lung disease, your lungs become scarred. This makes it hard for you to breathe. To diagnose interstitial lung disease, your doctor needs to know about your job, lifestyle, and symptoms. Your doctor will listen to your lungs and heart and examine your nose and throat. Tests may also be ordered.
You may be asked some of these questions:
Do you have shortness of breath?
Have you been exposed to dust, asbestos, or other pollutants?
Do you smoke or use illegal drugs?
Have you been exposed to radiation therapy?
Have you had a lung infection?
What medications do you take?
Is there a family history of lung disease or connective tissue disorders?
You may need routine blood tests and a chest x-ray. Other tests may include:
ECG (electrocardiogram). This test checks your heart rhythm. It helps rule out heart disease as the cause of your shortness of breath.
CT(computed tomography) scan. This test produces a detailed image of your lungs.
Pulse oximetry. This test measures the level of oxygen in your blood at rest and with exercise.
Exercise treadmill test. This checks how well your heart and lungs work when you’re active.
Bronchoscopy. This test allows the doctor to look inside your airways with a thin, lighted tube called a bronchoscope. The bronchoscope is passed through your mouth and into your lungs. Tools may be passed through the bronchoscope to remove small samples of your lung tissue. This is called a biopsy. The tissue samples can help check for damage or inflammation in your lungs.
Surgical lung biopsy. This test removes samples of your lung tissue through one or more incisions made between your ribs or in your chest. The tissue samples are often larger than those taken with bronchoscopy. They may provide more accurate diagnosis of your lung problem.
PFTs are done in the doctor’s office or in the hospital lab. You may be tested both before and after taking medication. And you may have to repeat the tests from time to time during your treatment. Your doctor may order:
Spirometry. This test measures how much air you can take into your lungs and how much air you can blow out (vital capacity).
Lung volume tests. These measure how much air you inhale and how much air is left in your lungs after you exhale.
Lung diffusion test. This estimates how much oxygen is transported from the tiny air sacs in your lungs (alveoli) to your blood.
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- Tuesday, 01 July 2008
Foods in the grocery store list nutrition information on the package in a section called the “Nutrition Facts”. This is where manufacturers must declare the nutrition (both good and bad) in each serving of their product. Nutrition Facts are broken down into easy-to-read sections.
They are listed as follows:
Portion control is vital to proper weight management and a healthy diet, but food manufacturers don't always make it easy for us to figure them out. One full package rarely equals one serving, and often what you think of as a serving is not what the manufacturers think of as a serving. The serving on the food label may not be the same as the serving size in your food plan or the serving size you normally eat. If you eat twice the serving listed on the label, you would need to double all the numbers in the Nutrition Facts section. The information in the nutrition facts panel is for the serving listed. Remember that a serving size is based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Label reading is easy when a package states there are one or two servings. It's the fractions that will send you to the calculator.
The Daily Value Percentages are based on the USDA's suggestions that your diet be made up of 50% carbohydrates, 30% fats, and 20% protein.
Calories and Calories from Fat
Next you'll see how many calories are in a serving and how many of those calories come from fat. Calories provide a measure of how much energy you receive from a serving of food. Most people consume far more calories than they need without meeting recommended intakes for a number of vital nutrients. The calorie section of the label can help you manage your weight (i.e., gain, lose, or maintain.)
Remember: the number of servings you consume determines the number of calories you actually eat (your portion amount). The General Guide to Calories provides a general reference for calories when you look at a Nutrition Facts label. This guide is based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
The top portion of the nutrient section are those that you wish to limit (Total Fat, Saturated fat, Trans fat, Cholesterol and Sodium). These nutrients are the ones almost all of us eat too much of. Experts recommend limiting these Nutrients. Eating too much fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, or sodium may increase your risk of certain chronic diseases, like heart disease, some cancers, or high blood pressure.
The amount and types (unsaturated, saturated and trans fat) of fats are shown on this part of the label. The total fat is the number of fat grams contained in one serving of the food. Fat is an important nutrient that your body uses for growth and development, but you don't want to eat too much. The different kinds of fat, such as saturated, unsaturated, and trans fat, will be listed separately on the label. Trans fat numbers were the most recent addition and like saturated fat, should always be close to zero no matter how much fat you eat in a day.
Nutrition health experts recommend keeping your intake of saturated fat, trans-fats and cholesterol as low as possible as part of a nutritionally balanced diet.
Fat-free foods are not necessarily a better choice than the standard product, so read your labels carefully.
Next the nutrient section lists carbohydrates including dietary fiber and sugars. Most Americans don't get enough dietary fiber and get far too much sugar. Some foods are naturally high in sugar. “No sugar added” foods means that no sugar was added during processing or packaging. But remember, they may still be high in natural sugars and carbohydrates. For better health, ensure that the majority of your carbohydrates are in the form of fiber, not sugars (natural or added). Eating a diet high in dietary fiber promotes healthy bowel function and may reduce the risk of heart disease.
Next up in the nutrient section is "protein". It is important to have enough protein in our diet to maintain our bodily structure. However, we don't need as much protein as many people think we need.
Protein is an important component of every cell in the body. Your body uses protein to build and repair tissues. Protein is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood. The truth is, we need less total protein that you might think.
Many plant-based foods like soy and legumes can give you the same amount of protein as meats but are much healthier as the protein is balanced with vitamins, minerals, healthy fats and fiber.
Vitamins and Minerals
You can use the Nutrition Facts label not only to help limit those nutrients you want to cut back on but also to increase those nutrients you need to consume more of.Be a wise buyer by educating yourself. Don’t believe the hype on the front of foods. Go to where the real information is, the ingredients list and nutrition facts panel. Read and ensure you know what you’re putting in your body, always!
The FDA requires that information on calcium, iron, vitamin A, and vitamin C all be included on the Nutrition Facts label. Sometimes the food manufacturers will add information about other vitamins like niacin or folic acid if the product contains any significant amounts of those nutrients. Pay particular attention to vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron. They're listed first. Most of us don't get enough in our diets.
Eating enough of these macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) can improve your health and help reduce the risk of some diseases and conditions.
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The intestinal tract in strict carnivores is much shorter than in other animals. And unlike dogs, cats eat the intestinal tract of their prey last, or not at all, thus avoiding the plant fiber of the intestinal contents. These facts have led scientists and veterinarians to assume that cats need little fiber in their diet. The assumption being that a diet devoid of plant fiber is a non-fiber diet. But plants are not the only source of fiber.
The undigested fur, bone, cartilage, tendon and ligaments of prey also constitute intestinal fiber. The undigested hair from the fastidious grooming of cats also provides intestinal dietary fiber. Animal fiber may be extremely important in the nutrition of strict carnivores. A recent study in cheetahs has highlighted these insights.
Scientists alternately fed 14 captive cheetahs diets consisting of raw, supplemented butchered beef without bones and whole raw rabbits with fur. Each diet was exclusive for an entire month. The scientist monitored various fecal fatty acids and chemicals. What they found was that when cheetahs were fed whole rabbits the fatty acid profile in the feces was more favorable and resulted in a significantly decreased production of toxic metabolic chemicals. The scientist made no mention of fecal volume or consistency differences between the two diets. This study pioneers the concept of animal fiber and the digestive health of captive and domesticated cats. It also raises the question of whether substituting plant fiber in our cats’ diets adequately substitutes for animal fiber for intestinal health.
Plant Fiber in Commercial Cat Food
Oddly, cats share nearly the same spot on the mammal food chain as rabbits. Lacking the stamina to outrun their predators, wild cats have relatively short life spans and high infant mortality. That is why they are induced ovulators (if they have sex they get pregnant) like rabbits and easily become pregnant even while nursing.
As prey, cats have developed biological and behavioral traits to minimize the attention of predators. The feces or “scat” of wild cats is very small and not highly odiferous (smelly). Like their urine, they bury it to further hide any scent. Contrast that with the stool of cats on commercial dry food. Stool in cats fed those diets have huge stool “logs” that can be smelled two rooms away. Granted, this is not important for inside cats but such stool in outdoor or indoor/outdoor cats could draw the attention of dogs and coyotes. Without study, we have no way of knowing whether the substitution of plant fiber for animal fiber has the same beneficial effect in the colon that the cheetah study found. Are we creating larger amounts of stool without knowing its benefit or lack of benefit?
The grooming behavior of cats results in the ingestion of large amount of fur or animal fiber. Current owner preoccupation with preventing or blaming all digestive upsets and coughing on "hairballs" may actually be contrary to the digestive health needs of the cat.
In 29 years of veterinary practice, some feline exclusive, I have yet to remove a hairball from the intestine or esophagus of a cat. Sure it happens, but not to the extent to warrant the present level of concern. Why? Cats fed dry diets generally vomit much more than cats fed canned or meat diets. In addition to food, vomiting also brings up stomach fur. These cat parents assume the hairball is causing the vomiting. Hence all of the vomited Vaseline treated cat kibble to ward off hairballs. In light of the cheetah study the observation should be turned around. The dry food is causing the vomiting and preventing the hair to reach the intestines as intended. Owners who decrease or eliminate dry food from their cat’s diet almost always experience less vomiting and fewer hairballs in their pets, despite the same degree of grooming and hair consumption. Going back to the study, maybe plant fiber is not a good substitute for animal fiber and has unintended consequences in strict carnivores.
Obviously much more study is needed in this area. It would certainly help us understand the nutritional needs of these interesting carnivores that share our lives. I hope you found this study as interesting and stimulating as I did.
Dr. Ken Tudor
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On a daily basis, Lehigh materials science and engineering students conduct many types of experiments in the basement of Whitaker Lab. But not all of their work is as entertaining as smashing chocolate with a pendulum impact tester.
It isn't a professor's nightmare about what goes on in the lab when she's not around. It's just one element of a carefully-constructed plan to interest younger students in the wonders of science -- part of the 2010 annual NanoDays Celebration held at the Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown, Pa., co-hosted by the Da Vinci Science Center and Lehigh University. This year's event takes place Saturday, March 27, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Rick Vinci and Sabrina Jedlicka, assistant professors of materials science and engineering, along with some 30 undergraduate members of Lehigh's Student Materials Society, are planning many hands-on, nano-inspired activities to help first- through fifth- grade kids and their families develop a better understanding of nanotechnology's infinite possibilities.
The Da Vinci Science Center/Lehigh NanoDays event is part of a national, week-long coordination of similar events taking place all over the U.S. between March 27 and April 4 of this year.
According to the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network, it is a "festival of educational programs about nanoscale science and engineering and its potential impact on the future."
Prof. Vinci says that the national event is designed to inform the general public about nanotechnology and to demystify issues and answer questions -- a collaboration among scientists and science education institutions all over the country. The Lehigh group's participation is funded by the Student Materials Society, the Student Senate, and the National Science Foundation.
"The nano world is not something that's usually accessible to kids," Vinci says. "What we're trying to get across is a basic concept. If we can get them to understand that we're talking about really small scales of measurement, and that knowing what happens to objects at that scale gives materials invisible superpowers, that's probably enough. Making it fun helps make the lesson memorable."
The Lehigh students, led by Riyanka Pai, '10, and MariAnne Sullivan,'11, will set up stations with a variety of activities for the children. "There's things that go pop, they get to squirt things with squirt guns, they can get a little messy and no one will mind," says Vinci.
Vinci says that nanomaterials are already part of many aspects of daily life. He will present a lunchtime lecture that day for children about the applications for nanomaterials in space, and how those same materials make a difference every day right here on Earth.
The examples are endless. Scientists are working on new stain-resistant clothing made with nanotech fiber that feels less stiff and synthetic than ever before. Nanotechnology is also being applied to research into generating electricity through ordinary motion of the body, which could have applications into pacemakers and other life-saving devices.
"The whole point of nanotechnology is that you can add new functions to pre-existing materials and do so unnoticeably because the additions are so small," he says. "Those additions can essentially disappear into the material -- and provide a new property or benefit that the material couldn't otherwise perform."
The Da Vinci Science Center is an independent nonprofit organization that partners with Lehigh University and several other regional organizations on a variety of exhibits, educational programs, and public programs. The Center's collaborations with Lehigh University include the creation of a nanotechnology exhibit workbench for visitors along with instructional support for the Center's professional development programs and public programs.
Terry J. Hart '68, professor of practice in Lehigh's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics and a former NASA Astronaut, serves as Community Chairman of the Da Vinci Science Center's 2010 Science Hall of Fame Awards. The Center's signature annual event honors teachers who bring science to life vibrantly, community leaders who support the Center's mission, and high school students who demonstrate a unique for passion inside and outside the classroom. The Center's 2010 Science Hall of Fame Keynote Speaker will be former Astronaut Winston E. Scott, who overcame segregation and poverty to become the second African-American to walk in space.
"The Da Vinci Science Center is fortunate to have a partner in Lehigh University right in its backyard," said Troy A. Thrash, the Da Vinci Science Center's executive director and CEO. "The expertise of Lehigh's faculty and staff and its work with exciting, cutting-edge platforms help us provide a richer experience for the greater Lehigh Valley that connects its community members to science in a meaningful manner."
Nanodays is about bringing lives to science, a perfect fit within the mission of the Da Vinci Science Center. Says Rick Vinci: "The goal is to spark an interest and create a tangible association. We want them to hear 'nanotechnology' and associate it with real items -- better clothing, improved power production, better ink jet printers -- all sorts of 'things' as opposed to a vague word."
The NanoDays 2010 activities at the Da Vinci Science Center are open to everyone with paid Center admission. Two special classroom activities -- Stained Glass (1:30 p.m.) and Chocolate Composites (2:30 p.m.) -- will be presented for the first 30 registered children. Lehigh students will receive a $2 discount from their admission price that day with their Lehigh ID. Families can register by calling (484) 664-1002, Ext. 110.
For more information on this event or other Da Vinci Science Center programs, please contact the Da Vinci Science Center at (484) 664-1002.
Allyson Planders is a Lehigh journalism student working as a writing intern for the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science.
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Pub. date: 2010 | Online Pub. Date: May 06, 2010 | DOI: 10.4135/9781412958660 | Print ISBN: 9781412958653 | Online ISBN: 9781412958660 | Publisher:SAGE Publications, Inc.About this encyclopedia
Ontology is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with the “science of being” and thus with the basic categories of existence or reality and their relations to one another. The term onto-logia has its origins in scholastic writings of the seventeenth century, but the ideas and questions associated with ontology have their origins in various strands of ancient philosophy, including Aristotle's definition of metaphysics as the science of being qua being; the statement in Plato's Sophist , which opens Martin Heidegger's Being and Time , that the meaning of being remains perplexing; and the claims of the pre-Socratic Parmenides of Elea that only the one being “is” and that nothingness does not exist. In analytic philosophy, ontology has come to designate the study of the entities whose existence must be presupposed when affirming a scientific theory. Nevertheless, ontology is still often associated—and in some cases identified—with metaphysics and therefore with ...
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Recommendations for Cancer Prevention
7. Limit consumption of salty foods and foods processed with salt (sodium).
Consuming too much salt can be harmful to our health, increasing our risk of stomach cancer as well as high blood pressure.
Our daily intake of salt should be less than 2,400 milligrams. We actually need much less than this. Most people in the United States currently consume more than 2,400 mg, but there are simple ways to cut down on our intake.
The expert panel found that salt and salt-preserved foods probably increase the chance of developing stomach cancer. Studies have shown that high salt intake can damage the lining of the stomach. This is one way in which it might increase the risk of stomach cancer.
Most of the salt in our diets comes from processed foods. We are not always aware that these foods are high in salt because they may not taste "salty," so make sure to read the sodium content on the Nutrition Facts label. Watch out for breakfast cereals, bread, frozen meals, pizza and chips. Also, check the amount of sodium in canned products, such as soups and sauces, and avoid processed meats. Even sweet foods like cookies can contain high levels of salt.
Published on April 17, 2011
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Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields: the study of language form, of language meaning, and of language in context.
- Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
- Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
- Illustrating ambiguity.
- Misattributed to Groucho Marx; first recorded on Usenet group net.jokes in 1982: Bill Banze (1982-09-07). "<bnews.mork-cb.130> Time flies...". net.jokes. (Google Groups). Retrieved on 2009-08-31. See also Fred R. Shapiro, (2006). The Yale Book of Quotations, p. 498, in which the earliest appearance of the saying is attributed to the net.jokes post. Shapiro gives the post's date as 9 July 1982, transposing the day and month of the Usenet post.
- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
- Illustration of homonyms and homophones.
- William J. Rapaport, 1972, reported in William J. Rapaport, "A History of the Sentence "Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." (22 September 2006; accessed 23 September 2006) (archived copy).
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
- Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 460.
- Besides 'tis known he could speak Greek
As naturally as pigs squeak;
That Latin was no more difficile
Than to a blackbird 'tis to whistle.
- Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part I (1663-64), Canto I, line 51.
- A Babylonish dialect
Which learned pedants much affect.
- Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part I (1663-64), Canto I, line 93.
- For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious,
To smatter French is meritorious.
- Samuel Butler, Remains in Verse and Prose, Satire, Upon Our Ridiculous Imitation of the French, line 127. A Greek proverb condemns the man of two tongues.
- I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,
Which melts like kisses from a female mouth.
- Lord Byron, Beppo (1818), Stanza 44.
- * * * Philologists, who chase
A panting syllable through time and space
Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark,
To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's Ark.
- William Cowper, Retirement, line 691.
- He Greek and Latin speaks with greater ease
Than hogs eat acorns, and tame pigeons peas.
- Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, Panegyric on Tom Coriate.
- Lash'd into Latin by the tingling rod.
- John Gay, The Birth of the Squire, line 46.
- Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiss nichts von seiner eigenen.
- He who is ignorant of foreign languages, knows not his own.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Kunst und Alterthum.
- Small Latin, and less Greek.
- Ben Jonson, To the Memory of Shakespeare.
- Omnia Græce!
Cum sit turpe magis nostris nescire Latine.
- Everything is Greek, when it is more shameful to be ignorant of Latin.
- Juvenal, Satires, VI, 187. (Second line said to be spurious).
- Languages are no more than the keys of Sciences. He who despises one, slights the other.
- Jean de La Bruyère, The Characters or Manners of the Present Age (1688), Chapter XII.
- C'est de l'hebreu pour moi.
- It is Hebrew to me.
- Molière, L'Etourdi, Act III, scene 3.
- Negates artifex sequi voces.
- He attempts to use language which he does not know.
- Persius, Satires, Prologue, XI.
- This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist.
- Away with him, away with him! he speaks Latin.
- O! good my lord, no Latin;
I'm not such a truant since my coming,
As not to know the language I have liv'd in.
- But, for my own part, it was Greek to me.
- Speaks three or four languages word for word without a book.
- By your own report
- Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest to be understood of the two!
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Critic, Act I, scene 2.
Last modified on 25 May 2012, at 02:24↑Jump back a section
- We are caught in a traffic jam of discursive thought.
- Chogyam Trungpa
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An allergic reaction is an overreaction of the immune system to a substance called an allergen. Allergens include chemicals, foods, medicines, mold, plants, and pollen.
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Misconception: A misconception is a mistaken notion you might have about something—in other words, something you believe to be true but that is not true. Misconceptions about grief are common in our society because we tend not to openly mourn or talk about grief and mourning. You can see how we'd have misconceptions about something as "in the closet" as suicide grief.
As you journey through the wilderness of your suicide grief, if you mourn openly and authentically, you will come to find a path that feels right for you. That is your path to healing. But beware—others may try to pull you off this path. They may try to make you believe that the path you have chosen is wrong—even crazy—and that their way is better.
The reason that people try to pull you from the path is that they have internalized some common misconceptions about suicide grief and mourning. And the misconceptions, in essence, deny you your right to hurt and authentically express your grief. They often cause unrealistic expectations about the grief experience. To integrate this loss into your soul, you must first be willing to unlearn the following misconceptions about suicide and grief and mourning.
As you read about this important concept, you may discover that you yourself have believed in some of the misconceptions and that some may be embraced by people around you. Don't condemn yourself or others for believing in them. They can seem like common sense, and it is also easy to believe something about which you have no actual experience. Simply make use of any new insights you might gain to help you open your heart to your work of mourning in ways that restore your soul.
Misconception 1: Grief and mourning are the same thing.
Perhaps you have noticed that people tend to use the words "grieving" and "mourning" interchangeably. There is an important distinction, however. We as humans move toward integrating loss into our lives not just by grieving, but by mourning. You will move toward reconciliation not just by grieving, but through active and intentional mourning.
Grief is the constellation of internal thoughts and feelings we have when someone we love dies. Think of grief as the container. It holds all of your thoughts, feelings, and images of your experience when you are bereaved. In other words, grief is the internal meaning given to the experience of loss.
Mourning is when you take the grief you have on the inside and express it outside of yourself. Another way of defining mourning is "grief gone public" or "the outward expression of grief." Talking about the person who died, crying, expressing your thoughts and feelings through art or music, and celebrating special anniversary dates that held meaning for the person who died are just a few examples of mourning.
WARNING: After someone you love has competed suicide, your friends may encourage you to keep your grief to yourself. If you were to take this message to heart, the disastrous result would be that all of your thoughts and feelings would stay neatly bottled up inside you. A catalyst for healing, however, can only be created when you develop the courage to mourn publicly, in the presence of understanding, compassionate people who will not judge you. At times, of course, you will grieve alone, but expressing your grief outside of yourself is necessary if you are to slowly and gently move forward in your grief journey.
I think it's so interesting that many native cultures actually create vessels, usually baskets, pots, or bowls, that symbolically contained their grief. They would put these vessels away for periods of time, only to bring them out on a regular basis to help themselves mourn.
Another way to think about what these cultures were instinctively doing was dosing themselves with their grief. As I've said, grief must be embraced little by little, in small bits, with breaks in between. This dosing helps you survive what would, if absorbed in its totality all at once, probably kill you.
When you don't honor a death loss by acknowledging it, first to yourself and then to those around you, the grief will accumulate. Then the denied losses come flowing out in all sorts of potential ways (e.g., deep depression, physical complaints, difficulty in relationships, addictive behaviors), compounding the pain of your loss.
Misconception 2: Grief following a suicide death always results in "complicated" or "pathological" mourning.
Actually, there is research that indicates that survivors of suicide integrate grief at about the same pace as those who experience any kind of unanticipated death. This misconception could have you believing that you should suffer longer.
This does not mean that a suicide death won't be viewed differently. Obviously, there can be some natural challenges, such as the combination of sudden shock, the natural question of "why?", the trauma of witnessing or discovering the suicide, the lack of support from family and friends, and the potential of "secondary victimization" that results from cruel, judgmental, or insensitive comments. Yes, you will have griefbursts (and naturally do some "catch-up" mourning as you continue with your life, but do not let this misconception become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Do your work of mourning, and you will come out of the dark and into the light.
Misconception 3: Grief and mourning progress in predictable, orderly stages.
Probably you have already heard about the stages of grief. This type of thinking about dying, grief, and mourning is appealing but inaccurate. The notion of stages helps people make sense of death, an experience that is usually not orderly or predictable. If we believe that everyone grieves by going through the same stages, then death and grief become much less mysterious and fearsome. If only it were so simple!
The concept of "stage" was popularized in 1969 with the publication of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's landmark text On Death and Dying. In this important book, Dr. Kübler-Ross lists the five stages of grief that she saw terminally ill patients experience in the face of their own impending deaths: denial; anger; bargaining; depression; and acceptance. However, Dr. Kübler-Ross never intended for her stages to be interpreted as a rigid, linear sequence to be followed by all mourners. Readers, however, have done just that, and the consequences have often been disastrous.
As a grieving person, you will probably encounter others who have adopted a rigid system of beliefs about what you should experience in your grief journey. And if you have internalized this misconception, you may also find yourself trying to prescribe your grief experience as well. Instead of allowing yourself to be where you are, you may try to force yourself to be in another "stage."
For example, the common responses of disorganization, fear, guilt, and explosive emotions may or may not occur during your unique grief journey. Or relief may occur anywhere along the way and invariably overlap another part of your response. Sometimes your emotions may follow each other within a short period of time; or, at other times, two or more emotions may be present simultaneously. Remember—do not try to determine where you "should" be. Just allow yourself to be naturally where you are in the process.
Everyone mourns in different ways. Personal experience is your best teacher about where you are in your grief journey. Don't think your goal is to move through prescribed stages of grief. Your grief is unique. That word means "only one." No one ever existed exactly like you before, and no one will ever be exactly like you again. As part of the healing process, the thoughts and feelings you will experience will be totally unique to you.
Misconception 4: We can always determine the "whys?" of a suicide death.
You may naturally have some of what I like to refer to as psycho-spiritual "why?" questions. You may search for answers, look for clues, and try to make sense of the "why?" of this person's death. Do not punish yourself for this instinctive response to trauma loss. Why did the person do this can be a painful yet natural question to explore. As a matter of fact, watch out for well-intentioned people who sa,y "Don't ask why; it doesn't do you any good." Those people often do not understand the normalcy of how "why?" questions precede "how?" questions. "Why did this happen?" is part of the pathway to get yourself to "How will I survive that he or she did this?" Again, do not shame yourself if you find this is part of your journey.
Having acknowledged the normalcy of "why?" questions, detailed investigation of the factors that can lead to a suicide death demonstrate that there are usually many reasons people take their own lives. These signs may be unknown or masked to family members and friends. In fact, they are often not even able to be seen by the person who completes suicide.
So, the misconception is that we always know why, when the reality is we often don't know the specifics of why. My experience with many survivors suggests that you may very slowly, with no rewards for speed, discover that is possible to live with the uncertainty of never fully knowing the answer to "why?"
Misconception 5: All suicide survivors feel guilty.
The sad reality is that some people will actually say directly to you, "I bet you feel guilty" or pose the question, "Do you feel guilty?" This is one of the most prescribed responses for survivors of suicide. Many books about suicide survivorship give the most coverage to the topic of guilt.
In reality, as a survivor you may or may not feel guilty. Besides, assuming you feel guilt is the opposite of my belief that you are the expert of your own experience and therefore you must teach me what you feel; I must not prescribe what you should feel.
People do not know how you feel unless they give you the opportunity to teach them. People do not automatically assume survivors feel guilty after a death from a heart attack or cancer. Therefore, we should not assume guilt after a suicide death. Many survivors have worked long and hard to help someone prior to a suicide death.
As one astute person noted, "This assumption, from the Dark Ages, that we should have some brand to show people of guilt and shame from having a suicide in the family lives on." So, if you are experiencing guilt, find a safe place with caring people where you can explore it But, I plead with you, do not assume you have to feel guilty.
Misconception 6: Only certain kinds of people complete suicide.
This is a simple misconception to dispel. The reality is that suicide is a stranger to no race, creed, religion, age group, income bracket, or socioeconomic level. All kinds of people have completed suicide since the beginning of recorded history.
Misconception 7: Only a crazy person completes suicide.
While the person you loved who completed suicide may have been depressed, anxious, or hopeless, to be sure, most of us survivors don't find comfort when people try to tell us the person was crazy. Not all suicides meet some formal criteria for mental illness, and even when they do, we don't need to hear that they were crazy.
Related to this, according to the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), approximately two-thirds of people who complete suicide are depressed, and the risk of suicide in people with major depression is about twenty times that of the general population. Depression, often undiagnosed and untreated, is the major cause of suicide.
Again, some people will think they are helping you when they claim your loved one must have been crazy. However, this does not lighten your burden and uplift your spirit. And, it is not a good use of language to assist in your understanding. Even when the person you cared about so deeply had a diagnosable mental illness, we don't need to use the word crazy.
Misconception 8: It is a sin to complete suicide, and the person who does goes directly to hell.
It was not all that long ago that suicide was considered a sin by many of the major bodies of faith. Historically, it was considered by many not just be a sin, but an unpardonable sin.
Thank God we now have religious leaders and well-respected theologians who are compassionately and non-judgmentally educating people that suicide is not a sin. As one Catholic priest observed about suicide, "When its victims wake on the other side, they are met by a gentle Christ who stands right inside of their huddled fear and says, 'Peace be with you!' As we see in the gospels, God can g through locked doors, breathe out peace in places where we cannot get in, and write straight with even the most crooked of lines." But watch out for some people who do continue to preach this. Find people who recognize that faith is about being open to the mystery. I always like to remind myself that "mystery"—the ancient name for God—is something to be pondered, not explained. If someone starts preaching to you that suicide is a sin and that your loved one has gone to hell, get the hell away from them as fast as you can.
Personally, I believe there are no limits to God's compassion. God mourns with us. He doesn't send our loved ones to "burn in hell" as someone might try to tell you. If you believe as I do that God's nature is one of steadfast mercy and love, than we realize this is a misconception we need to keep educating the world about.
Misconception 9: Suicide is inherited and runs in the family.
Be alert for uninformed people who may project to you that because someone in your family completed suicide, you may have the same fate. This projection is not supported by the facts. Scientific research has not at this time confirmed a genetic basis for suicide risk. Please do not listen to people who try to tell you are doomed to one day complete suicide.
Having acknowledged the obvious, we do know through research that substance abuse disorders, depression disorders, and schizophrenia tend to run in families. However, even if you have family members who have died by suicide after having suffered from these types of disorders, you are not predestined to complete suicide. So, again, do not let anyone tell you that you are.
Instead, if you are just being wise and self-compassionate, you will use this research information to do what you can to reduce your risk. This can include educating yourself about the warning signs related to risk for suicide, not abusing alcohol or drugs, and not hesitating to seek help whenever you may need it.
Misconception 10: You should move away from suicide grief, not toward it.
Our society often encourages prematurely moving away from grief instead of toward it. The result is that too many mourners either grieve in isolation or attempt to run away from their grief through various means.
During ancient times, stoic philosophers encouraged their followers not to mourn, believing that self-control was the appropriate response to sorrow. Today, well-intentioned but uninformed relatives and friends still carry this long-held tradition. While the outward expression of grief is a requirement for healing, overcoming society's powerful message to repress can be difficult.
As a counselor, I am often asked, "How long should grief last?" This question directly relates to our culture's impatience with grief and the desire to move people away from the experience of mourning. Shortly after the death, for example, mourners are expected to be "back to normal."
Mourners who continue to express grief outwardly are often viewed as "weak," "crazy," or "self-pitying." The subtle message is, "Shape up and get on with your life." The reality is disturbing: Far too many people view grief as something to be overcome rather than experienced.
The messages, unfortunately, encourage you to repress your thoughts and feelings about the death. By doing so, you may refuse to cry. And refusing to allow tears, suffering in silence, and "being strong" are often considered admirable behaviors. Many people have internalized society's message that mourning should be done quietly, quickly, and efficiently—particularly when the death results from suicide. Don't let this happen to you.
After the death of someone loved, you also may respond to the question, "How are you?" with the benign response, "I'm fine." When you respond in this way, in essence you are saying to the world, "I'm not mourning." Friends, family, and coworkers may encourage this stance. Why? Because they don't want to talk about death. So if you demonstrate an absence of mourning behavior, it tends to be more socially acceptable.
This collaborative pretense about mourning, however, does not meet your needs in grief. When your grief is ignored or minimized, you will feel further isolated in your journey. Ultimately, you will experience the onset of the "going crazy" syndrome. (Masking or moving away from your grief creates anxiety, confusion, and depression. If you receive little or no social recognition related to your pain, you will probably begin to fear that your thoughts and feelings are abnormal.
Remember—society will often encourage you to prematurely move away from your suicide grief. You must continually remind yourself that leaning toward, not away from, the pain will facilitate the eventual healing.
Misconception 11: Tears of grief are only a sign of weakness.
Tears of grief are often associated with personal inadequacy and weakness. The worst thing you can do, however, is to allow this judgment to prevent you from crying. While your tears may result in feelings of helplessness for your friends, family, and caregivers, you must not let others stifle your need to mourn openly.
Sometimes, the people who care about you may, directly or indirectly, try to prevent your tears out of a desire to protect you (and them) from pain. You may hear comments like, "Tears won't bring him back" or "He wouldn't want you to cry." Yet crying is nature's way of releasing internal tension in your body, and it allows you to communicate a need to be comforted.
While data is still limited, research suggests that suppressing tears may actually increase your susceptibility to stress-related disorders. It makes sense. Crying is one of the excretory processes. Perhaps like sweating and exhaling, crying helps remove waste products from the body.
The capacity to express tears appears to allow for genuine healing. In my experience counseling suicide survivors, I have even observed changes in physical expression after crying. Not only do people feel better after they cry, they also seem to look better. Tension and agitation seem to flow out of their bodies.
You must be vigilant about guarding yourself against this misconception. Tears are not a sign of weakness or inadequacy. In fact, your capacity to share tears is an indication of your willingness to do the work of mourning.
Misconception 12: Being upset and openly mourning means you are being weak in your faith.
Watch out for those who think that having faith and openly mourning are mutually exclusive. Sometimes people fail to remember those important words of wisdom: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."
Above all, mourning is a spiritual journey of the heart and soul. If faith or spirituality is a part of your life, express it in ways that seem appropriate to you. If you are mad at God, be mad at God. Actually, being angry at God speaks of having a relationship with God in the first place. I've always said to myself and others, "God has been doing very well for some time now, so I think God can handle my anger." Grief expressed is often grief diminished.
Similarly, if you need a time-out from regular worship, don't shame yourself. Going to exile for a period of time often assists in your healing. If people try to drag you to a place of worship, dig your heels in and tell them you may go, but only when and if you are ready.
When and if you are ready, attending a church, synagogue, or other place of worship, reading scripture, and praying are only a few ways you might want to express your faith. Or, you may be open to less conventional ways, such as meditating or spending time alone in nature. To explore ways of expressing your spirituality, see the book Healing Your Grieving Soul: 100 Spiritual Practices.
Don't let people take our grief away from you in the name of faith.
Misconception 13: When someone you love completes suicide, you only grieve and mourn for the physical loss of the person.
When someone you love completes suicide, you don't just lose the presence of that person. As a result of the death, you may lose many other connections to yourself and the world around you. Sometimes I outline these potential losses, or what we call "secondary losses," as follows:
Loss of self
|self||("I feel like part of me died when he died.")|
|identity||(You may have to rethink your role as husband or wife, mother or father, son or daughter, best friend, etc.)|
|self-confidence||(Some grievers experience lowered self-esteem. Naturally, you may have lost one of the people in your life who gave you confidence.)|
|health||(Physical symptoms of mourning.)/|
|personality||("I just don't feel like myself...")|
|fiscal security||(You may have financial concerns or have to learn to manage finances in ways you didn't before.)|
|lifestyle||(Your lifestyle has changed and no longer feels safe.)|
Loss of meaning
|goals and dreams||(Hopes and dreams for the future can be shattered.)|
|faith||(You may question your faith.)|
|will/desire to live||(You may have questions related to future meaning in your life. You may ask, "Why go on...?")|
|joy||(Life's most precious emotion, happiness, is naturally compromised by the death of someone we love.)|
You may also experience secondary victimization. This is when, in this time of great loss and vulnerability in your life, someone knowingly or unknowingly victimizes you further by shaming you, accusing you, or otherwise making you feel even worse about the death. For example, someone whose son had taken his own life was told by a friend whose child has also died, "Your child chose to die. Mine didn't." Comments like those are not only hurtful, they may compound your already complicated feelings of grief.
Allowing yourself tocknowledge the many levels of loss the suicide death has brought to your life will help you continue to stay open to your unique grief journey.
Misconception 14: You should try not to think about the person who completed suicide on holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays.
As with all things in grief, trying not to think about something that your heart and soul are nudging you to think about is a bad idea. On special occasions such as holidays, anniversaries such as wedding dates and the day the person died, and your birthday or the birthday of the person who died, it's natural for your grief to well up inside of you and spill over—even long after the death itself.
It may seem logical that if you can only avoid thinking about the person who died on these special days—maybe you can cram your day so tight that you don't have a second to spare—then you can avoid some heartache. What I would ask you is this: Where does that heartache go if you don't let it out when it naturally arises? It doesn't disappear. It simply bides its time, patiently at first, then urgently, like a caged animal pacing behind bars.
No doubt you have some family and friends who may attempt to perpetuate this misconception. Actually, they are really trying to protect themselves in the name of protecting you.
While you may feel particularly sad and vulnerable during these times, remember – these feelings are honest expressions of the real you. Whatever you do, don't overextend yourself during these times. Don't feel you have to shop, bake, entertain, send cards, etc. if you're not feeling up to it.
Instead of avoiding these days, you may want to commemorate the life of the person who died by doing something he or she would have appreciated. On his birthday, what could you do to honor his special passions? On the anniversary of her death, what could you do to remember her life? You might want to spend these times in the company of people who help you feel safe and cared for.
Misconception 15: After someone you love completes suicide, the goal should be to "get over" your grief as soon as possible.
You may already have heard the question, "Are you over it yet?" Or, even worse, be told, "Well, you should be over it by now!" To think that as a human being you "get over" your grief is ludicrous! You don't get over it, you learn to live with it. You learn to integrate it into your life and into the fabric of your being. Suffice it to say that you never "get over" your grief. As you become willing to do the work of your mourning, however, you can and will become reconciled to it. Unfortunately, when the people around you think you have to get over your grief, they set you up to fail. Actually the more you try to get over your suicide grief, the more you sabotage your healing.
Misconception16: Nobody can help you with your grief.
We have all heard people say, "Nobody can help you but yourself." Or you may have been told since childhood, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." Yet, in reality, perhaps the most compassionate thing you can do for yourself at this difficult time is to reach out for help from others.
Think of it this way: Grieving and mourning may be the hardest work you have ever done. And hard work is less burdensome when others lend a hand. Life's greatest challenges – getting through school, raising children, and pursuing a career – are in many ways team efforts. So it should be with mourning.
Sharing your pain with others won't make it disappear, but it will, over time, make it more bearable. By definition, mourning (i.e., the outward expression of grief) requires that you get support from sources outside of yourself. Reaching out for help also connects you to other people and strengthens the bonds of love that make life seem worth living again.
Misconception 17: When grief and mourning are finally reconciled, they never come up again.
Oh, if only this were so. As your experience has probably already taught you, grief comes in and out like waves from the ocean. Sometimes when you least expect it, a huge wave comes along and pulls your feet right out from under you.
Sometimes heightened periods of sadness overwhelm us when we're in grief—even years after the death. These times can seem to come out of nowhere and can be frightening and painful. Something as simple as a sound, a smell, or phrase can bring on what I call "griefbursts." My friend Ken loved the Wisconsin Badgers football team. Every time I see something on TV about that team I have a griefburst.
Allow yourself to experience griefbursts without shame or self-judgment, no matter where or when they occur. Sooner or later, one will probably happen when you're surrounded by other people, maybe even strangers. If you would feel more comfortable, retreat to somewhere more private, or go see someone you know who will understand, when these strong feelings surface.
You will always, for the rest of your life, feel some grief over this death. It will no longer dominate your life, but it will always be there, in the background, reminding you about the love you had for the person who died.
Keep in mind that the misconceptions about grief and mourning explored in this chapter are certainly not all the misconceptions about suicide grief and mourning.
When surrounded by people who believe these misconceptions, you will probably feel a heightened sense of isolation. If the people who are closest to you are unable to emotionally and spiritually support you without judging you, seek out others who can. Usually, the ability to be supportive without judging is most developed in people who have been on a grief journey themselves and are willing to be with you during this difficult time. When you are surrounded by people who can distinguish the misconceptions of grief from the realities, you can and will experience the healing you deserve.
Now that we've reviewed the common misconceptions of grief, let's wrap up this article by listing some of the "conceptions." These are some realities you can hold onto as you journey toward healing.
Realistic Expectations for Grieving and Mourning
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Florence Indian Mound
Lauderdale County AL
1028 South Court St
Florence, Lauderdale Co, AL
Before the Cherokees moved into the area in the late 1700's, the Florence and Mussel Shoals area had been home to many other Native Americans, including prehistoric cultures and the historic Chickasaws and Creeks. For many years, it was believed that a thriving Mississippian culture referred to as the Krogers Island People built the Florence Mount on the Tennessee River sometime between 900 and 1200 A.D.
Excerpt of the book "Footsteps of teh Cherokee" by Vicki Rozema.
Located near the banks of the Tennessee River, the Florence Indian Mound is the Tennessee Valley's largest domiciliary mound. It is a typical example of the work of the early Native Americans who lived in Alabama before the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek nations inhabited this region.
It is a 42 foot high quadrilateral mound with a summit measuring 145 x 94 feet. Early settlers in the region found steps on the east side and evidence that the mound had been enclosed by a semi-circular earthen wall.
The museum contains Native American artifacts dating back over 10,000 years, arranged in chronological order from Paleo to Historic periods.
From the "City of Florence"
The mound is known as "Wawmanona" and was built about 500 A.D. in a rectangular, flat-topped shape. The mound is 42 feet high, with the summit measuring 145 feet by 94 feet.
Historians say the Indian Mound was used for ceremonies and other tribal activities such as promoting peace and solidarity, commemorating the passing of time and encouraging trade.
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What Is a WebQuest?
A WebQuest is an inquiry-based activity in which most of the
information that students use to complete a task comes from resources
on the Internet. Students analyze information, transform it in some
way, and then demonstrate knowledge of the material by creating something to which
others can respond.
What Will Students Learn Through the WebQuest?
The goal of this WebQuest is to answer one big question: What
should be done about child soldiers? While students grapple
with this question, they will be asked to make the connection between their own lives and the lives of child soldiers. In addition, they will approach this issue from different perspectives
within a given society and to make recommendations on
what should be done to resolve it.
In essence, this WebQuest is a consensus-building task. Students will
be exposed to different points of view and will be given practice
in communicating their position to others in a simulated governmental
forum. Once the different policy recommendations have been presented,
students will be asked to write about the recommendation(s) they feel
are most appropriate.
The educational objectives of this WebQuest include the acquisition
of knowledge, skills, attitudes,
and a consideration of the actions that ordinary people
can take to help resolve this issue.
Will Students Work As a Whole Class, In Small Groups, Or Individually?
Actually, students will do all three, if you like. The assignments
in this WebQuest can be customized to your class size and teaching
style. You may find it helpful to know:
- Step # 1 can be done by either individuals or small groups.
- Steps #2 &# 3
can be done in pairs
- Steps #4 & #5 work best if students work in groups
- Step #6 involves the whole class
How students complete the activities in Step #7 is completely up to you.
How Are Students Supported Throughout the WebQuest?
The WebQuest has clear, step-by-step directions, and direct links to the online resources needed to complete each activity. In addition,
students are prompted with questions along the way and can keep
track of their responses on printable forms that can be used to help them prepare their presentations.
It is also recommended that you share the rubrics you'll be using to score students' presentations with them in advance. This way students can use the rubrics to inform their presentations and written work.
What Is the Definition of a Child Soldier?
According to the Coalition
to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers,
"A child soldier is any person under 18 years of age who is a
member of or attached to the armed forces or an armed group, whether
or not there is an armed conflict. Child soldiers may perform tasks
ranging from direct participation in combat; military activities such
as scouting, spying, sabotage, acting as decoys, couriers or guards;
training, drill and other preparations; support functions such as
portering and domestic tasks; sexual slavery and forced labour."
(Child Soldiers Global Report 2004, p.15 )
Do Students Have to Complete the Whole WebQuest?
Feel free to tailor this WebQuest to the interests—and age—of your students, and available time. It's important to note that each of the steps of the WebQuest work sequentially, and that most steps have one or more related activities. However, students don’t need to do all of the steps or activities in order to have rich learning experience.
Felicity O. Yost. Source:
Marie, In the Shadow of the Lion, by Jerry Piasecki. ©
United Nations, 2001
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Mar 22, 2010
Guest Blog - Electricity used when pulling weight
We don't typically post items related to science fairs (I get a lot of them - they're always enjoyable but most aren't related to NXT but just use an NXT robot to facilitate something else), but I thought this was an interesting project worth sharing, especially because it's using an NXT to obtain the results - I've posted Keizo's results in the accompanying image.
BTW - Keizo is in 4th grade.
Thanks for sending this in Keizo! - Jim
How Much Electricity Is Used When A Robot Pulls A Certain Weight
By Keizo M.
Hypothesis: I think that the robot will use twice as much electricity when the weight of the car is doubled.
Why I Chose This Project: Last year I got a LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 for my birthday. I really enjoyed it, but while using it, I noticed that the batteries run out quickly. I decided to measure how much electricity would be used when a robot pulls a weight.
Materials: -Lego Mindstorms ® NXT 2.0 -Digital Voltmeter -6 Rechargeable Batteries -Weights
1) Make a robotic car out of Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0
2) Program the car to go forward and backward for 10 minutes
3) Charge the batteries
4) Measure volts in batteries
5) Put batteries in the car
6) Put weight on the car
7) Run the program
8) After 10 minutes stop the car
9) Take out batteries, and collect data
10) Repeat step 3 through 7 with different weights
Conclusion: When weight was increased, more electricity was used but it didn’t double. For example, when I doubled the weight from 1 pound to 2 pounds there was only a 0.066-volt difference.
Discussion: There wasn’t a huge difference when I increased the weight. Next time, I should make the robot go for 30 minutes instead of 10 minutes or put a heavier weight
Posted by: James Floyd Kelly (Jim) at 7:26 AM
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Salty snacks, sugary drinks, pizza, ice cream, and french fries may soon be hard for students to purchase in school vending machines, school stores, and cafeteria à la carte lines. In the coming weeks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expected to issue its new national nutrition standards for foods (snacks and beverages) sold in schools. These standards could limit the amount of sugar, salt and fat foods could contain.
Any food or beverage that “competes” with the school lunch program is considered a “competitive food”. Today, kids are consuming more than half of their daily calories in school – unfortunately, more and more students are getting most of their calories from competitive foods like snacks and drinks, not meals.
A lot has changed since the USDA last updated there guidelines in 1979. The school food environment has dramatically altered and so has the health of our children. Students have access to a lot of varieties of foods and often they are not the healthiest. The soon proposed national nutrition standards comes at a time when more than one-third of U.S. children are overweight or obese.
A recent poll by the Kids’ Safe & Healthful Foods Project finds that the vast majority of voters are in favor of national nutrition standards for snacks and beverages sold in schools.
- 80 percent of voters favor national standards limiting the calories, fat, and sodium in snack and à la carte foods sold in U.S. schools; and
- 81 percent of voters are concerned about childhood obesity, including more than half (54 percent), who say they are very concerned.
Watch this video to learn more about the issue of snacks and beverages sold in schools.
What do you think – do sugar-sweetened beverages, candy bars and other unhealthy foods deserve a place in schools?
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In any study of defense against air-landing and air-borne attack, the more
important lessons are those from Crete. The German conquest of this island in
May 1941 is as yet the chief instance of success in a purely air-landing
operation, against determined resistance, without the effective cooperation of forces
employing surface transport either by land or sea. The usual primary objective
of such operations is the capture of one or more airdromes through which
air-landed troops can be poured in to swamp the local defense, and this has nowhere
else been successfully done.
Crete is about 3,320 square miles in area, and of irregular, elongated
shape, with an east-to-west length of 160 miles and a north-and-south width
varying between 7 1/2 and 35 miles. Most of its surface consists of mountains
whose upper slopes are snow-covered throughout most of the year. The highest
peak rises to nearly 8,000 feet. As in most Mediterranean regions, the lower
slopes are largely, although not wholly, deforested. The climate is of Mediterranean
type, hot at midday, followed by an acute drop in temperature towards sunset
and the nights are cold.
The population in 1928 was just under 400,000. Most of the people live in
a narrow strip along the north coast, along which runs the main road of the
island. This strip also includes the 3 principal towns which are (from west to
east): Canea with about 27,000 people, Retymno with about 9,000, and
Candia (also called Herakleion) with about 33,000. The 3 air fields were near these
towns: at Maleme, on the alluvial fan of a creek on the north coast about 10 miles west
of Canea; at Retymno (a landing strip); and at a point about 4 miles east of
Candia. A small auxiliary field was being constructed in May 1941 at Kastelli-Hierapetra
in the southeastern part of the island.
The only sheltered harbor for large ships, the fine natural anchorage of Suda Bay, is
also on the north coast between Canea and Retymno and somewhat nearer to the former. The
one south-coast anchorage showing on the Admiralty chart is the imperfectly sheltered
roadstead of Sphakia, almost due south of Suda. The harbor at Candia is shallow and
artificial, and there is no shelter for vessels either at Canea or
Retymno (see Sketch No. 1). The air distances in statute miles going due
east along the north coast are about as follows: from the west end of the
island to Maleme, 14 miles; from Maleme to Canea, 10 miles; from Canea to
Retymno, 25 miles; from Retymno to Candia, 35 miles; and from Candia to the
east end of the island, 66 miles. Thus from Maleme to Candia the total
distance is 70 miles.
|Sketch No. 1|
This 70-mile north-central coastal strip was to be the combat zone. In it the
small and fertile alluvial lower valleys are often covered with old olive
groves affording good cover from air observation.
The position of Crete with reference to surrounding areas (see Sketch No. 2) made
it easy for the Axis to attack, difficult for the British to hold, and important to
both. On the recently conquered Greek mainland, the Greek islands, and the
Italian Dodecanese Islands, the Axis had a large number of airdromes
within easy flying range to the northwest, north, and northeast. The nearest, on the
Greek mainland at Molaoi about 30 miles north-northwest from Cape Malea, is
only about 93 miles from the northwestern point of Crete, and about 105 miles
from Maleme. The field on the island of Melos is only about 93 land miles
north of Suda, and that at Naxos about 135 miles northwest of Maleme. The
fields in Rhodes the most distant of the Italian-owned Dodecanese Islands, are
only about 220 miles east-northeast from Maleme. Numerous and well-established
fields lay further back on the Greek mainland at Argos and Corinth in the
southern part of Greece, and at Meneidi, Eleusis, and other fields near Athens.
By contrast, the British had to reinforce, if at all, over far greater
distances: 240 miles from Tobruk to Maleme, 340 from Mersa Matruh, 460 from
Alexandria, and about the same distance from Cyprus. Thus, even with equal
air numbers the Germans would have had the advantage, and with their greatly
superior numbers they had complete air supremacy.
|Sketch No. 2|
The importance of Crete to both sides lay in its geographical position. In
British hands it furnished a base from which they could bomb the Roumanian
oil fields, then the only natural source of oil for Germany. Furthermore, the
island was a possible stepping-stone to the Balkan mainland, helped to prevent
German isolation of Turkey, facilitated the movements of the British Mediterranean
fleet, and correspondingly cramped not only operations of the Italian fleet
but also all east-west coastwise shipping in Greek waters, since for the moment
the Corinth Canal was blocked. With the island in German hands the situation
would be reversed, and in addition Axis supply routes to Italian Tripolitania
would be relieved from an additional threat.
The general situation in late April was that the British, having occupied
Crete in November 1940 and having subsequently intervened on the Greek mainland
with a force of less than 40,000 men, had suffered a defeat in which about
a third of this force had been killed or captured and the remainder had been
evacuated, most of them with very little equipment.
On Crete, there were about 37,500 British and Allied troops, most of
whom had been evacuated from the mainland and had taken part in the campaign
in Greece. British troops numbered 23,500; about 4,000 were Palestinian and
Cypriot labor troops; and some 10,000 were Greek troops, including local
militia. As a result of its heterogeneous character and loss of vital equipment (including
even mess kits), this force was far weaker in fighting strength than the
figures would indicate. Another difficulty was the fact that commanders in Crete
had been so frequently changed (three times in April) that continuity in
preparations for defense had been impossible. The last appointment of Major General
Freyberg, came on April 28.
The ground defensive works had been improvised by the local British
commanders with scanty means and according to doctrines that varied with the
individuals concerned. Since it was evident that the airports would be the chief
German objectives, defenses were chiefly grouped around the Maleme and Candia
fields. A New Zealand brigadier afterwards said that the English officer
responsible for the defense of Maleme had laid out too fixed and rigid a scheme, and
one too easily visible from the air. By contrast, the defenders of the Candia-Herakleion
field were better concealed and were flexibly disposed in depth, with
most of them held out for counterattack.
General Freyberg's late arrival allowed him little time in which to rearrange
the field fortifications. However, a German officer, describing the
campaign, acknowledged the skill of the new British commander's troop
dispositions, especially the concealment of the New Zealanders in the old olive
grove near Aghya prison, about 8 miles east of Maleme and about 3 miles southwest
of Canea. In general, Freyberg's leading idea was to protect the airfields and to
deny them to the enemy, posting his troops so that the German parachutists, whose
attack he correctly anticipated, must land on a defended area within
striking distance of one of his detachments.
On or shortly after May 1, the British became certain that the Germans
would soon strike. The opinion of the 3 British services was therefore asked
as to whether Crete should be held. All 3 thought the chances slim. The RAF had
only 42 serviceable planes on the island, and the British air strength in the
whole Middle East was very limited. The Navy considered missions in Cretan waters
without adequate air support to be suicidal. Freyberg said he would fight
in any case, but thought the position hopeless without full air and naval support.
Against the 42 British planes, the Germans were about to attack with
nearly 800 bombers and fighters, 500 transport planes, and 75 gliders. Thus, with
the RAF strength negligible before May 19, and wholly absent after that
date, the ill-assorted and ill-equipped 37,500 British and Greek troops on the
ground were to contend unaided against about 35,000 German air-landing troops
backed by overwhelming air support.
The naval aspect may be summarized by noting that the powerful British
Mediterranean Fleet succeeded in preventing Axis small-boat landings during the
decisive phase, but only at the price of losses so great that, had the fleet not been
withdrawn, control of the Mediterranean might have passed to the Italians. The
Royal Navy contributed to the ground action only in an indirect way by diverting
German air strength; on the decisive day, May 22, there was a lull in the bombing
of British ground forces because German bombers were attacking the warships.
The German Intelligence made mistakes which might have affected the
outcome of the operations. Most serious was their idea that all British troops
evacuated from Greece had gone to Alexandria rather than to Crete; this led to
estimate of Allied strength on the island as 3,500--less than a tenth of the real
numbers. Other German miscalculations were that no Greek troops were on the
island, and that a considerable portion of the islanders
were pro-German. Nevertheless, German energy and flexibility
were to succeed in spite of a wholly inaccurate intelligence estimate.
The German attack, including preparations, falls into four clearly marked
phases, which suggest a possible pattern of air-landing operations. First, reconnaissance
and the establishment of air supremacy; second, air bombardment, including machine-gun
strafing; third, seizure of one or more fields by air-landing attacks; and
fourth, exploitation of the air-landing attack by pouring in air-landed
reinforcements. The third phase is usually the decisive one. The phases interlock: reconnaissance
continues through the operation, and air bombardment continues throughout both seizure and exploitation.
The timetable of the Cretan operations is as follows: organized British
resistance on the Greek mainland having ceased approximately on
April 30, phase 1 (reconnaissance of Crete), began on May 1 and
continued for 10 days accompanied by light dive-bombing and
strafing. On May 10, phase 2, that of heavy air bombardment, began
and was most successful. Phase 3, that of air landings, was
begun on May 20, ending late on May 22 with the clearing
of Maleme airport and its neighborhood of the British. On May 23,
phase 4, exploitation by normal air landings, was begun, and on the night
of May 31 the last organized British evacuation ended.
For about a month before May 20 there had been a general German movement
south. Transport planes and gliders gathered near Athens and Corinth. Special
troops came by air, sea, road, and rail. Supplies and stocks of munitions
were accumulated. Advance landing fields near Crete, on the Aegean Islands of
Naxos and Melos, and in the Peloponessus at Molaoi, were hastily constructed.
Air photography on Crete began about May 1 and continued
until May 10, accompanied by light dive-bombing and strafing. The
German plan for the main attack was based upon abundant air photographs, and
from them the assaulting troops were carefully instructed as to the
terrain and British positions. German prisoners taken during the main
attack were well provided with good sketch maps.
From May 11 to 17 inclusive, there was daylight bombing and strafing of
increasing frequency and intensity. By May 18, German air action had reduced
the serviceable British aircraft to three Hurricane fighters and three Gladiator
fighters at Candia, and one Hurricane at Maleme. Since they were contending
against odds of nearly a hundred to one, and seem to have had no good shelter on
the ground, this tiny remnant was flown to Egypt on May 19--which happened to
be the day before German air landings began.
The crews of the British antiaircraft guns suffered severely from lack of
adequate concealment, most of them were driven from their gunpits after firing
only a few rounds. Contemporary press reports spoke of one gunner who knocked
down a number of German dive bombers by holding his fire until each had dropped
its bomb and flattened out; thus the gunner did not give away his own
position. Often, however, groups of three German pilots would dive on a British gun
positions simultaneously from different angles, so that one or two of the group would
be attacking the gun in the flank or rear while it was being aimed at the third.
From May 17 to 19 inclusive, air bombing and strafing were further
intensified in order to break the defender's morale. Attacks on the Maleme and
Candia airdromes were especially heavy and frequent. Heavy air attacks were
also directed at the one good British debarkation point, Suda Bay, which became a
graveyard of ships. During May 18 Suda was heavily attacked seven times by
dive bombers with fighter support. The effectiveness of the air attacks on
British shipping may be judged from the following figures: of 27,100 tons of
supplies shipped from Egypt only 2,700 tons (10%) were successfully unloaded,
3,400 tons (12.5%) were sunk, and 21,000 tons (77%) had to be returned to Egypt
because it was not practicable to unload them between 2300 and 0300--which was
the only period when unloading could safely take place. At least 14 cargo ships
were sunk at Suda.
Having thoroughly reconnoitered, interrupted supply, beaten down the
slight air resistance, and partially worn down the ground defenders, the Germans
attacked with airborne troops at dawn on May 20.
THE ATTACK: MAY 20
The dawn attacks of May 20 struck the Maleme-Canea area, especially at
Maleme, where some defenders claimed the intensity of the 90-minute preliminary
bombardment exceeded any artillery preparations of 1914-18. Gliders landed
west of the airdrome under cover of the dust cloud raised by the air
bombardments, and parachute troops promptly began landing behind them
and on the airdrome itself. The New Zealanders made eight successful
bayonet charges, but were constantly driven back by intense bombing
and strafing, and during the night of May 20-21 withdrew one-half mile
eastward. The airdrome however was still under artillery fire.
Also at dawn, 1,800 glider troops and parachutists landed southwest of
Canea. Here, a New Zealand brigade with some crack Greek troops had been well
concealed and entrenched among olive trees. The fighting in this area was intense,
and a German officer states that the heaviest German losses occurred here. By
nightfall all Germans in the area had been mopped up, except those in a strongly
walled prison at Aghya, which they organized defensively, using the labor of the prisoners.
At Retymno, German parachutists landing at 1600 had been cleared from
the airdrome but had held nearby, and had captured some field guns and two tanks.
Candia, also attacked at 1600 but ably defended in depth from well-concealed
positions, held well, and all parachutists who landed within the airdrome
perimeter were killed.
Astonished but not discouraged by the unexpected strength of the garrison
and by their own heavy losses--the British estimated they had killed 80 percent
of the parachute troops who had landed--the German High Command decided to
throw in their whole air-landing strength.
In the attack phase which opened on this day, most of the offensive work
on the ground was done by parachute troops. However, in this instance, such
troops were preceded by the landing of glider troops.
The reasons of the Germans for having the first air-landed troops come
in gliders were that the silent approach of the motorless planes might achieve
surprise, and that if unmolested by the defenders these light aircraft would land
safely on almost any terrain. Also, their passengers could leave them fully
equipped and therefore ready for almost instant combat, whereas parachute
troops on landing are at first nearly helpless, and remain below their full combat
value for some time.
Parachutists are not only helpless while descending but also during the
first half minute after landing. They are more or less helpless during the first
two minutes and still very vulnerable throughout the first five minutes. If their
arms containers are captured or covered by fire they cannot fight. Consequently
prompt counterattack by the defenders, even when far inferior in numbers, is
On the other hand German gliders are vulnerable in the air because most
of the ammunition, instead of being carried on the men or packed in strong and
comparatively small containers as in the case of parachute troops, is packed
together in the fore part of the glider where it will explode if hit, destroying both
the ship and all on board. Moreover the slow speed of the glider as compared
with a motored plane makes it comparatively easy to hit on the wing.
The mission of the glider troops was to cover the first parachute landings.
The first parachutists to land followed the gliders closely. The parachutists
had the normal objectives of such troops--to seize airfields and to disrupt
the defender's communications, thus preventing defensive movements and
The German parachutists who landed in Crete were organized not merely in single
companies attached as advanced wards to normal air-landing divisions as in
Holland, but in an organic "division"--we might call it a reinforced brigade--of
Tactically the parachutists were light infantry with considerable small-arms
fire power but with no heavy weapons and only a few medium-heavy ones. Their
method was that of "vertical envelopment," divided into a holding attack
and main attacks as in envelopments on the ground. The main attacks are
intended to seize an objective; the holding attacks are made by smaller groups who
divert the enemy from concentrating on the main attack and cut his communications
in order to prevent him from counterattacking. On the ground, parachutists
are relatively immobile since they have no transport except what they may be
able to seize.
Thus the main attack against Maleme came from the west, the parachutists
landing behind an advance guard of glider troops. Meanwhile, two smaller
parachute groups landed farther east in rear of the defenders. Another main
parachutist attack was aimed southwestward against the Galatos-Aghya position
west and southwest of Canea, with a glider group and two small parachute
groups landing in the defender's rear.
A German account claims that the British expected the main attack to fall upon
Retymno and Candia, but there is no evidence of this in British accounts of
THE ATTACK: MAY 21
The second day, May 21, went somewhat in favor of the British except at
Maleme. There, and on the nearby beaches, planes attempted in the morning
of May 21 to land normally, or to crash-land, with troops, guns, and
motorcycles. Heavy German losses resulted, especially from artillery
fire, but at 1615, 500 fresh parachutists landed behind the airdrome
defenders. On the same day, May 21, an attack by reinforced
parachutists from Aghya against Galatos was repulsed. At Retymno the
British counterattacked, cleared the airdrome, and retook their captured guns
and tanks, but were unable to destroy other groups of parachutists who had
cut the road both east and west, and had been reinforced. The town of Candia and
its airdrome were held after bitter fighting, and only Maleme seemed insecure.
THE ATTACK: MAY 22
On the third day, May 22, two New Zealand battalions at Maleme attacked with
bayonets and reached the airdrome after fierce fighting, but could not hold
the airfield in daylight against 400 unopposed German dive-bombers and fighter
planes. Fresh Germans continually landed.
Late on May 22 the turning point was reached. Despite the extreme fatigue of
the troops--a number of units had made up to 20 bayonet charges--Freyberg
decided on a last desperate attack to retake Maleme airfield. Before this attack
could be made, however, reinforced German troops from Aghya succeeded in moving
north and cutting the communications between the British defenders of Maleme and
those in the Canea-Galatos area. Retreat of the Maleme defenders had to be
ordered; Maleme field became a secure German operational base; the
decisive phase of the attack ended; and the phase of German exploitation of
EXPLOITATION: MAY 23 to MAY 31
Throughout May 23 Retymno held. Shortages necessitated a 30 percent
cut in rations, and medical stores were also insufficient.
On May 24 the Germans further intensified their air attacks, brought in
fresh troops by air, and prepared to attack the Galatos position held by the
New Zealanders. During the night of May 24-25, a commando force originally
intended to lead a counterattack against Maleme was successfully landed at Suda by
destroyer, but the situation had so deteriorated that this force had to be
used as a rear guard. General Freyberg judged that his tired troops could not hold much
longer. Nevertheless, when about 2000 on May 25 the Germans broke through
the Galatos position of the New Zealanders and took Galatos village, two greatly
fatigued New Zealand battalions charged with the bayonet and retook the
village; General Freyberg considers this charge one of the great efforts
in the defense of Crete.
From May 26 to the last naval evacuation from Sphakia on the night of May 31, the
British mission was to save as many troops as possible. That they were able to
save 14,580 (53 percent) of the British garrison of 27,500, was because German air
attacks slackened. Continuation of intensive attacks, so British officers
estimated, would have meant practically complete destruction of the British garrison.
The defenders of Candia were in control of the local situation and considered
themselves victorious until ordered to evacuate on the night of May 28. The
seizure of Maleme airdrome had been decisive. The loss of a single airdrome meant
eventual defeat everywhere in Crete.
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In statistics, any of several fundamental theorems in probability. Originally known as the law of errors, in its classic form it states that the sum of a set of independent random variables will approach a normal distribution regardless of the distribution of the individual variables themselves, given certain general conditions. Further, the mean (see mean, median, and mode) of the normal distribution will coincide with the (arithmetic) mean of the (statistical) means of each random variable.
Learn more about central limit theorem with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Administration of territory by an occupying power. The definition does not cover military forces stationed in neutral or friendly territory that share administrative responsibilities with local civil authorities. Military government must also be distinguished from military law and martial law. Its control lasts until it either gives up power voluntarily or is overthrown. The term is popularly used for rule of a country by its own military, whether it comes to power through a coup d'état or is the legitimate governing body.
Learn more about military government with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Forecast of governmental expenditures and revenues for the ensuing fiscal year. In modern industrial economies, the budget is the key instrument for the execution of government economic policies. Because government budgets may promote or retard economic growth in certain areas of the economy and because views about priorities in government spending differ widely, government budgets are the focus of competing political interests. In the U.S. the federal budget is prepared by the president's Office of Management and Budget. The U.S. Congress has considerable input, influencing the budget's preparation through negotiations with the president and considering it in detail on its official submission to Congress.
Learn more about government budget with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Political system by which a body of people is administered and regulated. Different levels of government typically have different responsibilities. The level closest to those governed is local government. Regional governments comprise a grouping of individual communities. National governments nominally control all the territory within internationally recognized borders and have responsibilities not shared by their subnational counterparts. Most governments exercise executive, legislative (see legislature), and judicial (see judiciary) powers and split or combine them in various ways. Some also control the religious affairs of their people; others avoid any involvement with religion. Political forms at the national level determine the powers exercised at the subnational levels; these have included autocracy, democracy, fascism, monarchy, oligarchy, plutocracy (government by the wealthy), theocracy, and totalitarianism.
Learn more about government with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Institution, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve System, charged with regulating the size of a nation's money supply, the availability and cost of credit, and the foreign exchange value of its currency (see foreign exchange). Central banks act as the fiscal agent of the government, issuing notes to be used as legal tender, supervising the operations of the commercial banking system, and implementing monetary policy. By increasing or decreasing the supply of money and credit, they affect interest rates, thereby influencing the economy. Modern central banks regulate the money supply by buying and selling assets (e.g., through the purchase or sale of government securities). They may also raise or lower the discount rate to discourage or encourage borrowing by commercial banks. By adjusting the reserve requirement (the minimum cash reserves that banks must hold against their deposit liabilities), central banks contract or expand the money supply. Their aim is to maintain conditions that support a high level of employment and production and stable domestic prices. Central banks also take part in cooperative international currency arrangements designed to help stabilize or regulate the foreign exchange rates of participating countries. Central banks have become varied in authority, autonomy, functions, and instruments of action, but there has been consistent increased emphasis on the interdependence of monetary and other national economic policies, especially fiscal policies and debt management policies. Seealso bank; investment bank; savings bank.
Learn more about central bank with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Plateau region, south-central France. It is bordered by the lowlands of Aquitaine, the Loire basin, the Rhône-Saône valley, and the Mediterranean coastlands of Languedoc. Comprising about one-sixth of France, it occupies an area of 35,006 sq mi (90,665 sq km). It consists mainly of plateaus with elevations of 2,000 to 3,000 ft (600 to 900 m). Its highest peak is Puy de Sancy, which reaches 6,184 ft (1,885 m). It is the source of many rivers, including the Loire, Allier, Cher, and Creuse.
Learn more about Massif Central with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Valley, Chile. Located in central Chile between the Western Cordillera of the Andes Mountains and the coastal range, it extends about 400 mi (650 km) from the Chacabuco Range in the north to the Bío-Bío River in the south. The agricultural heartland of Chile, it was the original centre of European colonization beginning in the mid-1500s, and it continues to be home to most Chileans. Santiago is at its northern end.
Learn more about Central Valley with a free trial on Britannica.com.
World War I coalition that was defeated by the Allied Powers. Its primary members were the German empire and Austria-Hungary, the “central” European states that were at war from August 1914 against France, Britain, and Russia. The Ottoman empire entered the war on the side of the Central Powers in October 1914, followed by Bulgaria in October 1915.
Learn more about Central Powers with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Public park, New York, New York, U.S. Located in Manhattan, it occupies an area of 840 acres (340 hectares). It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and opened in 1876; it was artificially landscaped to create an impression of wild and varied terrain. It includes footpaths and bicycle paths, athletic fields, boating lakes, and a zoo. Free public concerts and performances are frequent, notably the Shakespeare in the Park series at an open-air theatre. The Metropolitan Museum of Art adjoins the park.
Learn more about Central Park with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Principal intelligence and counterintelligence agency of the U.S., established in 1947 as a successor to the World War II-era Office of Strategic Services. The law limits its activities to foreign countries; it is prohibited from gathering intelligence on U.S. soil, which is a responsibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Officially a part of the U.S. Defense Department, it is responsible for preparing analyses for the National Security Council. Its budget is kept secret. Though intelligence gathering is its chief occupation, the CIA has also been involved in many covert operations, including the expulsion of Mohammad Mosaddeq from Iran (1953), the attempted Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba (1961), and support of the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s.
Learn more about Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Learn more about Central African Republic with a free trial on Britannica.com.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 249.4 square miles (646.1 km²), of which, 247.9 square miles (642.2 km²) of it is land and 1.5 square miles (3.9 km²) of it (0.60%) is water.
There were 67 households out of which 14.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.3% were married couples living together, 1.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.7% were non-families. 43.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.00 and the average family size was 2.82.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 20.1% under the age of 18, 3.7% from 18 to 24, 27.6% from 25 to 44, 41.8% from 45 to 64, and 6.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 135.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 143.2 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $36,875, and the median income for a family was $41,250. Males had a median income of $60,750 versus $24,375 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $22,593. There were 15.8% of families and 22.5% of the population living below the poverty line, including 34.6% of under eighteens and none of those over 64.
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The Herd Dance by Pablita Velardé
The basic purpose of all animal dances is to maintain harmony with the animals to be hunted and to honor them for the food and clothing they provide for the Pueblo people. The Herd Dance depicts a group of male dancers costumed as deer, antelope, and mountain sheep, led by two buffalo dancers. The male dancers wear the kilts and feather-trimmed headresses common to many ceremonial dancers. With the exception of the buffalo dancers, they carry ornamental sticks, simulating forelegs, and are bent over in the position of four-legged animals. Pablita has painted herself as Buffalo Maiden, whose face bears a striking resemblance to her own.
Pablita Velarde is a native of Santa Clara Pueblo who now lives in Albuquerque. She learned painting techniques at the Santa Fe Indian School, now the Institute of American Indian Art, and dreamed of interpreting the traditions of her people through art. She overcame many obstacles and tried other pursuits, such as nursing and typing, before returning to the field she knew and loved. In addition to painting, she has sculpted clay figurines and has written and illustrated a book., Old Grandfather's Tales. Her work can be seen in the Museum of New York's Hall of Ethnology, the De Young Museum of San Francisco, many southwestern galleries, and numerous private collections. In 1954 she was decorated by the French government.
- Close window and return to Murals page -
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About the Profession
Cytogenetics is a highly complex specialty area of the clinical diagnostic laboratory. Cytogenetic technologists study the hereditary material at the cellular level by examining the structure and behavior of chromosomes. Chromosomes are the condensed form of the genetic material. Inherited or acquired genetic disorders may occur when there is a change in the number or structural arrangement of the genetic material composing the chromosomes. Cytogenetic analysis is crucial for patient care in providing diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and follow-up for chromosomal genetic disorders.
The cytogenetic technologist examines many cells from an individual's specimen to determine the cytogenetic diagnosis. The patient specimen must contain living cells; the most frequently used tissue types are blood, skin, bone marrow, amniotic fluid, tumors and chorionic villi. Chromosomes, the condensed form of the genetic material, are visible only for a short time period during each cell's lifetime. The technologist performs cell culture, manipulations of the cell cycle, cell harvesting and chromosome banding techniques. This allows visualization and identification of the chromosomes so they can perform analysis using state-of-the-art light microscopes. A sophisticated computer imaging system is used to capture images of the chromosomes from single cells, produce karyotypes and generate reports.
Deviations from the normal chromosome banding pattern can be either present at birth (inherited/constitutional) or acquired later in life. A common constitutional anomaly is known as Down syndrome and occurs when an individual's cells contain an extra copy of chromosome #21. Other common constitutional anomalies include translocations, inversions, deletions and duplications ranging in size from large to just barely visible at the light microscope. Smaller deletions and duplications are detected using molecular microarrays. A common acquired anomaly is an exchange of specific genetic material between chromosomes #22 and #9 in specific cells of an individual's blood. This results in a specific cancer called chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML). Any chromosome may be involved in anomalies and many less well-known disorders are routinely detected. Additional specific chromosomal rearrangements are readily detected and provide a definitive diagnostic for leukemia, lymphoma and many solid tumor disease states. Accurate diagnosis permits disease specific treatment decisions. Periodic cytogenetic monitoring is performed to access response to therapy, residual disease status and prediction of relapse.
In addition to the classical microscopic analysis of chromosomes, many genetic diagnostic laboratories include a molecular unit. Cytogenetic technologists have been leaders in the development of probe technology, FISH (fluorescent in situ hybridization), that is transforming modern diagnostic methods. DNA probes, hybridized to human chromosomes, provide information about gene location, deletion, rearrangement or amplification status. Additional techniques that are used to examine genetic anomalies at the molecular level include Southern blot, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and microarrays.
Cytogenetic technologists are employed in private laboratories, laboratories associated with teaching hospitals, pediatric hospitals, genetics specialty clinics, gynecological high risk care groups, cancer treatment hospitals, research laboratories of universities and pharmaceutical or chemical industrial companies. They may also work as educators, in sales or marketing or other genetics-related occupations. Experienced cytogenetic technologists may be responsible for the management and operation of cytogenetic laboratories. The work is challenging, much like piecing together a complex jigsaw puzzle.
Occupational Outlook Handbook
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2013-05-21T11:02:50Z
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On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon exploded and the lives of eleven people were lost. Nine days later oil began to hit the wetlands of coastal Louisiana. Between April 22 and July 15, 2010, it is estimated that 250 million gallons of crude oil were discharged from the Deepwater Horizon well and 1.84 million gallons of Corexit 9500 and 9527, toxic oil dispersant products, were applied, making the largest percentage of the oil unrecoverable, with unknown long-term environmental impacts.
Over a year later, our environment and our communities continue to see impacts on a daily basis. Across the Gulf Coast oil continues to wash ashore along beaches and wetlands. Local and state economies and household budgets are still suffering, and health impacts, potentially from exposure to the mixture of crude oil and toxic dispersant, are being reported.
Save Our Gulf is a coalition of Waterkeepers brought together in the wake of the BP oil disaster to lead the fight to restore and protect local watersheds, coastal communities and the Gulf of Mexico. We hold polluters and decision makers accountable and promote the sustainability of our communities. Our vision is for all communities to have waterways that are swimmable, drinkable and fishable.
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All things, including water, can be measured in density. Density is how much stuff is packed into the same amount of space. So a cup of water compared with a cup of honey — which is more dense? It's the gloopy, thick honey.
Solid things, including your bones, can be measured in density. Nice, solid bones will be strong, less likely to break, and have high bone density. If you get enough calcium when you're young, your bones are more likely to be dense and strong for your whole life. So drink milk and eat other calcium-rich foods!
Make a Candy-Colored Rainbow
But back to our density rainbow: Plain water is less dense than water mixed with other stuff, such as dissolved candy (sugar). In this experiment, you'll dissolve small and large amounts of candy into water. Then you can carefully layer the different-colored waters in a glass.
The water that contains only two dissolved candies will float on top of the water mixtures that contain four, six, eight, and 10 dissolved candies. Why? The water mixtures that are less dense (fewer candies) will float on top of the layers that are more dense (more candies).
What you need:
Microwave-safe measuring cup
Five small cups
A clear glass to display your rainbow
A wide spoon
Skittles in these colors: red, orange, yellow, green, and purple
What to do:
Warm a cup of water in the microwave for about 30 seconds. (Ask an adult for help with this step.)
Put 2 tablespoons of warm water into each of the five cups.
Cup 1 will be red: Add 2 red Skittles.
Cup 2 will be orange: Add 4 orange Skittles.
Cup 3 will be yellow: Add 6 yellow Skittles.
Cup 4 will be green: Add 8 green Skittles.
Cup 5 will be purple: Add 10 purple Skittles.
Allow the Skittles to dissolve in the cups for 1 hour. (It may take longer for them to dissolve. Using warm water will help.) Remove or ignore the waxy film that will float on the surface.
When the candies are entirely dissolved, begin with the purple cup. Pour the purple water into the clear glass.
Use the backside of a spoon with the tip touching the side of glass to carefully add each new layer of color, beginning with green. Slowly pour the green water over the backside of the spoon so the green water rests on top of — instead of mixing with — the purple water.
Repeat with the rest of the colors, in this order: yellow, orange, red.
Your rainbow won't last forever so enjoy it while it lasts!
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2013-05-22T00:29:29Z
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Nasa's Curiosity rover analyzed its first scoop on Mars, and found water molecules in "higher than anticipated" quantities, according to an announcement from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory today.
Initial readings found that levels of radiation are about the same astronauts typically experience in the low-Earth orbit.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory prepared for a lot of variables when it sent Curiosity, the car sized rover, to Mars, but it didn't prepare for it to become a tween-aged girl on Myspace.
Shiny objects found on the surface of Mars may, in fact, be native to the planet. Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory team sent commands to the Mars Curiosity Rover today to pick up a bit of the reflective stuff and, if all goes well, perform its first analysis of the landscape since landing.
The Mars Curiosity rover isn't just a bad-ass robot scientist roaming the badlands of Mars. It's also a jukebox. The rover transmitted Black Eyed Peas singer Will.I.Am's latest song "Reach for the Stars." Tacky? Maybe, but it's a song from Mars.
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There was a great deal of excitement from yesterday’s cosmically close shave as 3-mile-wide asteroid 4179 Toutatis zipped by the Earth. If you missed the action, we’ve rounded up some of the best images and videos from the event.
Toutatis is a long, irregularly shaped object that swings by Earth about once every four years, usually coming within a few million miles of our planet. The asteroid is officially classified as “potentially hazardous” but has very little chance of actually hitting the Earth. Astronomers have calculated that its odds of crashing into our planet over the next 600 years are effectively zero. This year’s pass brought Toutatis within about 3.7 million miles of Earth, roughly 15 times the Earth-moon distance, though the next flyby, in late 2016, will be at a more comfortable 23 million miles. The asteroid won’t get close again until 2069, when it be around 1.8 million miles from Earth.
Toutatis makes people realize that gigantic rocks zoom by our planet fairly regularly. Given its size — about half as big as the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs — and its close proximity, the asteroid gives us all a little scare wondering if and when we could be hit from space. Fortunately, NASA is on the case with its Near Earth Object program and the Spaceguard Survey, which has found and monitored about 90 percent of near-Earth asteroids larger than a half mile. A private non-profit organization named the B612 Foundation has also announced plans to be on the lookout for killer asteroids, cataloging everything larger than 500 feet wide in the vicinity of our planet.
If we do find a large and deadly rock headed our way, there are various ways to reroute the object, including nuking it, shooting it with lasers, pushing it with a small spacecraft, or tugging it with a giant space lasso. Perhaps one of these awesome plans will one day save the planet. In the meantime, we can all stop fretting about the end of the world.
We may see a few more images soon since the Chinese spacecraft Chang’e 2 is scheduled to visit Toutatis on Dec. 13. Chang'e 2 launched from Earth in 2010 and flew around the moon, conducting research from orbit. After completing its primary mission, the probe was rerouted toward Toutatis in April 2012.
NASA has been watching Toutatis closely with radar telescopes from its Goldstone Observatory in California. The above image shows the asteroid around its closest approach on Dec. 11. The two images, taken a few hours apart, show a small amount of rotation.
Toutatis From Earth
A short video sequence showing the bright white dot of Toutatis flying through a field of stars, as seen from a telescope in the Canary Islands on Earth. The film comes from the Slooh Space Camera consortium, which offered free live feeds of the asteroid passing by our planet. The feed was so popular that it briefly crashed their Google+ hangout.
Video: Slooh Space Camera
The irregular potato shape of Toutatis can be seen in these two images, taken on Dec. 9. Because of the object’s elongated shape and the radar shadow it casts, the lower part of the image appears almost disconnected from the top even though they are all one piece.
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A third of the world's population contracted the influenza virus between 1918 and 1920, and 50 million people died. Since warnings of a potential bird-flu pandemic began circling at the end of 2003, an estimated 332 people have died worldwide, all in developing countries. The first open-heart surgery was performed in 1952; today, more than half a million heart surgeries are performed each year in the United States alone. Medical science has arguably progressed further in the past century than it had in all prior human history, and the pace of progress appears to be accelerating. But there's no progress without cost.
Recent years have witnessed an explosion in health-care costs, causing particular consternation in the United States as our polarized political climate sharpens the debate over whether health care should be a right or a privilege. Despite all medicine's advancements -- or perhaps because of them -- we spend almost 4 times as much per person on health care as we did in 1970. If trends continue, the average cost of annual health-insurance premiums will be higher than most families' household incomes in the next 20 years.
As my colleague Morgan Housel pointed out in rebutting that ridiculous claim, trends tend not to continue in a straight line forever. Things change. The question will be what drives that change. Morgan identified compelling economic reasons why the current trajectory is unsustainable. I'll take a different angle, looking closer at the technology behind modern medicine and seeing how progress on the bleeding edge could arrest and reverse a decades-long bubble in health-care spending.
Agents of change
Although health care continues to be transformed by technological advancements, costs have not come down as they have in nearly every other arena where technology's been applied. The human body is, let's face it, a lot more complicated (and a lot more valuable) than a process on a factory floor, and we still know far less about how it works than we could. That could soon change.
I've identified three key technological trends working to make health care more effective and more affordable. They are:
- Automation: doing the work of doctors with algorithms.
- Robotics: performing surgery with far greater precision than human hands.
- Genetics: understanding the inner workings of each unique body.
Call it ARG. Yes, the future sounds kind of like a pirate.
Applying computing power to medical diagnostics is not new, but for a long time it was subject to the limitations of computation and algorithmic capabilities. An archaic medical-records system hasn't helped, nor did the fact that medicine, like computing, has seen the frontiers of its knowledge and functionality rapidly expand in recent years. I briefly highlighted a robotic nurse when discussing the effects of automation last year, but that's only one of many possible examples.
The Becton, Dickinson (NYSE: BDX ) FocalPoint medical imaging system, profiled in Slate last year, has nearly doubled a human examiner's speed of operation while simultaneously improving the ability to find cell abnormalities. Other machines can detect abnormalities in images of the colon, chest, and arteries. IBM (NYSE: IBM ) may soon leverage its Jeopardy!-winning Watson supercomputer as a diagnostic tool. More applications will undoubtedly be forthcoming. Speeding the diagnostic process while reducing labor requirements and improving accuracy can and should reduce costs over the long term.
There will be worries that machines will make mistakes, but humans make plenty of mistakes as well. Medical errors in hospitals have been cited as the cause of anywhere from 100,000 to a million unnecessary deaths per year. Even the most conservative estimate is far too high to accept. Medical-technology companies afraid of malpractice suits may be protected by the Supreme Court's 2008 Riegel v. Medtronic decision, which ruled that FDA-approved devices are protected from consumer lawsuits. Replacing doctors with devices might therefore save money on insurance premiums as well.
The encroachment of robotics into our hospitals should be no surprise to longtime Fool readers, who've been well aware of Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG ) and MAKO Surgical (Nasdaq: MAKO ) for years. These companies are not only great investment opportunities; they're also transforming the process of surgery itself. There may come a day when most surgeries, like the diagnostics I mentioned, are performed by robots controlled by highly sophisticated software, without the need for any direct human intervention. This won't happen any time soon, but in the long run, people will be as accepting of machine surgeons as they once were of bloodletting -- and machines are undeniably far more effective.
This is the area that offers the greatest transformative potential in years to come. Despite all science's efforts, we still know precious little about how our genomes make us tick. That's in large part due to the oppressively high cost of genome testing, which is finally poised to break through the $1,000-per-test barrier later this year. That's beyond the reach of most people, but my projections see testing costs approaching the price of a fast-food hamburger before the end of the decade. When you consider that a full-genome sequencing cost millions a mere decade ago, that's incredible progress.
Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN ) and Life Technologies are on the vanguard of this growing field, but their technology alone won't create the transformation we need. There's a vast chasm between information and knowledge. For example, Alzheimer's is well understood from a genetic standpoint but poorly served by current treatments. Complex diseases require vast amounts of information to be processed into meaningful analyses and viable prescriptions, and a broad base of cheaply sequenced genomes would be the necessary starting point to bridge that chasm. There may be fewer than 50,000 sequenced human genomes today. Imagine the wealth of information unlocked by the sequence of millions.
Imagine medicine tailored not to general symptoms but specific genetic markers. It would greatly cut down on both prescription-drug abuse and accidental drug-related deaths, which now outnumber car-related fatalities in the United States. Of course, it should also greatly improve the quality of care, as patients can be treated as individuals rather than symptoms. The combination of genetics and analytics may offer the greatest chance we have of breaking the cycle of rising medical costs -- provided the results are used for effective treatment instead of profit-seeking.
I'm not here to suggest that things are about to turn around. It's taken decades to reach this point, and there may be decades ahead before the dream of affordable universal health care comes to pass. But technology will have its part to play, as it always has. We can cure diseases we couldn't identify a century ago, and we can fix many defects that would have felled our parents and grandparents.
Even so, there's still a long way to go before science can say it really understands the human body. The gulf between information and knowledge continues to shrink with each passing year, and with it the need for unnecessary procedures shrinks, the risk of death lowers, and (so the theory goes) the costs of restoring health should fall. It's taken billions of years to create human beings, so a few more years to understand them should be worth the cost in the long run.
What do you think will happen to medicine once technology begins to really understand how we tick? Let me know with a comment.
Medicine might not see the next big technology transformation, but this industry will. Find out more about one company poised to reap windfalls in the next trillion-dollar revolution. All the info you need is right here in The Motley Fool's free report. Claim your copy now.
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Jump to:Page Content
Standardization, Certification and Labeling: Lessons from Theory and Practice
Kira JM Matus
A publication of CID's Sustainability Science Program.
Voluntary regulations have emerged in recent years as a popular way to address environmental problems. In particular, standards, certification and labeling are popular, market-based mechanisms that aim to use the provision of otherwise difficult to obtain information in order to create a market for more environmentally favorable products. The use of standards, certification, and labeling has been growing in a number of areas, as consumers demand more information about the products that they use. From a consumer perspective, they have become increasingly common in relation to information regarding nutrition, safety, and most recently, the environmental impact of a range of products. Understanding both the theory and the reality of these efforts to date are key to developing a deeper understanding of when and how standards, certification and labeling can be used with the greatest positive impact.
Empirical experience has shown that while some programs have been successful, there are many challenges in creating effective certification systems. Like any policy tool, they need to be considered along with other policy options.
In cases where certification systems are used, they need to be designed with care. First, they must address a clear goal, to which the standard, the certification process, and the labels can be clearly linked. Secondly, process, not just the end product, matters. Inclusion of stakeholders, and the institutional arrangements used in the decision making process can have long-lasting impacts on the eventual acceptance and uptake of a standard. Standards need to be based on solid scientific and technical knowledge - they must be salient to the goal, and the underlying knowledge should be credible. Similarly, the certification process must also be credible—it must be able to measure compliance and catch cheating. It must also be seen as legitimate, and free from capture or corruption. And finally, labels must also be credible, relate to the underlying goal, and be effectively targeted and branded. The entire process, at the end, should be able to relate otherwise unknown information to the consumers, in order to influence their purchasing decisions and create a market for the labeled products.
Keywords: Standardization, certification, labeling, voluntary regulation, voluntary standards
JEL codes: Q13, Q27, Q56
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http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/cid/publications/research-fellow-graduate-student-working-papers/cid-graduate-student-and-postdoctoral-fellow-working-paper-no.-37
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2013-05-18T08:49:29Z
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| 0.941682
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|Aesthetica Preprint, 60 (December 2000)
The present volume focuses on the musical aesthetics of two major protagonists of the Aufklarung: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) and Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786).
The separation of music from the liberal arts and its insertion among the fine arts on the basis of the principle of imitation raises the problem of the meaning of sounds: what does music imitate? what does a musical composition communicate? Dubos and Batteux had attributed to music the power to imitate the sounds of nature, as well as the feelings and passions of the human soul: the principle of imitation was part of an aesthetics of expression that would later be developed in the musical theories of Diderot and Rousseau.
Merging French approaches with the new British aesthetics of Burke, Harris, and Hogarth, Lessing and Mendelssohn define the system of the arts on a semiotic basis, moving beyond a strictly mimetic conception and locating the purpose of art in the principle of aesthetic illusion. Music produces illusion by placing natural signs - inarticulate sounds - consecutively in time. Lessing and Mendelssohn emphasize the basic temporal dimension of music and acknowledge its performative aspect. They voice the new interest in issues related to performance (together with the more traditional ones related to composition) shown by musicians active at the court of Frederick II (e. g., Marpurg, Kirnberger, C. Ph. E. Bach, Quantz). At the same time, the development of instrumental music promotes a new awareness of the communicative potential of sounds, which can express emotions and ideas without the support of a text. Lessing and Mendelssohn, however, still reveal a literary attitude influenced by the myth of ancient poetry (e. g., the Greek tragedy and the Biblical psalms), as they question the possibility of complete illusion in pure music.
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2013-05-21T00:56:11Z
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Technology Wednesday, May 16, 2007. Post by DV82XL
Stereolithography is the most widely used rapid prototyping technology. Stereolithography builds plastic parts or objects a layer at a time by tracing a laser beam on the surface of a vat of liquid photopolymer. This class of materials, originally developed for the printing and packaging industries, quickly solidifies wherever the laser beam strikes the surface of the liquid. Once one layer is completely traced, it’s lowered a small distance into the vat and a second layer is traced right on top of the first. The self-adhesive property of the material causes the layers to bond to one another and eventually form a complete, three-dimensional object after many such layers are formed.
Fused Deposition Modeling is the second most widely used rapid prototyping technology, after stereolithography. A plastic filament is unwound from a coil and supplies material to an extrusion nozzle. The nozzle is heated to melt the plastic and has a mechanism which allows the flow of the melted plastic to be turned on and off. The nozzle is mounted to a mechanical stage which can be moved in both horizontal and vertical directions. As the nozzle is moved over the table in the required geometry, it deposits a thin bead of extruded plastic to form each layer. The plastic hardens immediately after being squirted from the nozzle and bonds to the layer below. The entire system is contained within a chamber which is held at a temperature just below the melting point of the plastic.
Thermal Phase Change Inkjets machines uses a single jet each for a plastic build material and a wax-like support material, which are held in a melted liquid state in reservoirs. The liquids are fed to individual jetting heads which squirt tiny droplets of the materials as they are moved in X-Y fashion in the required pattern to form a layer of the object. The materials harden by rapidly dropping in temperature as they are deposited. After the object is completed, the wax support material is either melted or dissolved away.
The Three dimensional printing starts by depositing a layer of powder object material at the top of a fabrication chamber. To accomplish this, a measured quantity of powder is first dispensed from a similar supply chamber by moving a piston upward incrementally. The roller then distributes and compresses the powder at the top of the fabrication chamber. The multi-channel jetting head subsequently deposits a liquid adhesive in a two dimensional pattern onto the layer of the powder which becomes bonded in the areas where the adhesive is deposited, to form a layer of the object. Once a layer is completed, the fabrication piston moves down by the thickness of a layer, and the process is repeated until the entire object is formed within the powder bed. After completion, the object is elevated and the extra powder brushed away leaving a “green” object. No external supports are required during fabrication since the powder bed supports overhangs.
The Selective Laser Sintering process is somewhat similar to stereolithography in principle. In this case, however, a laser beam is traced over the surface of a tightly compacted powder made of the construction material be it metal or plastic. The powder is spread by a roller over the surface of a build cylinder. A piston moves down one object layer thickness to accommodate the layer of powder. Heat from a laser melts the powder where it strikes under guidance of a scanner system. SLS offers the key advantage of making functional parts in essentially final materials. However, the system is mechanically more complex than stereolithography and most other technologies.
In Laminated Object Manufacturing profiles of object cross sections are cut from paper or other web material using a laser. After cutting of the layer is complete,it is stacked on previous layers to form the finished object. In general, the finish, accuracy and stability of paper objects are not as good as for materials used with other RP methods. However, material costs are very low, and objects have the look and feel of wood and can be worked and finished in the same manner. This has fostered applications such as patterns for sand castings. While there are limitations on materials, work has been done with plastics, composites, ceramics and metals.
Laser Engineered Net Shaping® and similar laser powder forming technologies are gaining in importance and are in early stages of commercialization. A high power laser is used to melt metal powder supplied coaxially to the focus of the laser beam through a deposition head. The laser beam typically travels through the center of the head and is focused to a small spot by one or more lenses. The X-Y table is moved in raster fashion to fabricate each layer of the object. The head is moved up vertically as each layer is completed. Metal powders are delivered and distributed around the circumference of the head either by gravity, or by using a pressurized carrier gas. An inert shroud gas is often used to shield the melt pool from atmospheric oxygen for better control of properties, and to promote layer to layer adhesion by providing better surface wetting. A variety of materials can be used such as stainless steel, Inconel, copper, aluminum etc. Of particular interest are reactive materials such as titanium. Materials composition can be changed dynamically and continuously, leading to objects with properties that might be mutually exclusive using classical fabrication methods.
There are several other methods that have not yet reached commercialization, including techniques that utilizes photopolymers exposed and completely cured a layer at a time through a mask, electrosetting where material hardens in the presence of an electroctatic field, and several metal plasma depostion schemes.
Some good overviews of the field of Rapid prototyping can be found at these links.
Worldwide Guide to Rapid Prototyping
The Rapid Prototyping Home page
SciScoop Science is owned and operated by David Bradley Science Writer.
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— Here is a great question. What is the difference between a charter school and a traditional public school? Before we answer, let’s review the term “charter school.”
In 1995, the Texas Legislature authorized the formation of charter schools to improve opportunities for student learning and increase school choice. There are four types:(1) Home Rule District charters; (2) campus or campus program charters; (3) college or university charters; and (4) open-enrollment charters.
Home Rule District charters do not exist. Approximately 15 school districts have campus/campus program charters and a handful of university charters are in operation. The majority in existence is known as “open-enrollment” charters.
The State Board of Education holds the authority to grant these open-enrollment charters. Since 1995, the SBOE has awarded 305 charters and about 200 are still in operation. These particular schools can enroll students from any school district, cannot charge tuition but may charge fees and must provide transportation. These charters are publicly funded and have fewer state regulations than traditional public schools.
The difference between open-enrollment charter schools and traditional public schools may surprise you. According to the Texas Education Agency, highlights of a five-year comparison found the following:
• Spending on administration: Charter schools spend twice as much per student on central administration than traditional public schools.
• Administration staffing: Charter schools employ more administrators and spend a greater percentage of their operating budget on administration than traditional public schools.
• Spending on Instruction: Charter schools spend a lower percentage of their operating budgets on instruction for children than traditional public schools.
• Cost to the state: Because charter schools cannot levy a local tax rate, the cost of educating each student in a charter school is larger than the cost to the state for each public school student.
• Teacher salaries, experience and turnover rate: Charter schools pay teachers less, generally employ teachers with less experience, and have fewer teachers with advanced degrees than traditional public schools. Charter schools have significantly higher teacher turnover rate compared to traditional public school teachers.
• Student attendance and dropout rates: Charter schools have lower attendance rates and higher dropout rates than traditional public schools.
• TAKS and college readiness: Over the five years analyzed, a smaller percentage of charter students passed each of the TAKS tests and met the state’s standards for college readiness compared to their public school peers.
These facts and more are available at the Texas Education Agency website under the TEA’s 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 Snapshot reports.
As a society, we are the owners of your Texas public school system. Understanding how our tax dollars for public education are spent is a shared responsibility.
Standing together in a unified voice,
Aledo ISD – Dan Manning, superintendent; Bobby J. Rigues, board president
Azle ISD – Dr. Ray Lea, superintendent; Bill Lane, board president
Brock ISD – Richard Tedder, superintendent, Bill Cooper, board president
Garner ISD – Marion Ferguson, superintendent; Michael Collins, board president
Millsap ISD – Dr. David Belding, superintendent; Dr. Dene Herbel, board president
Paradise ISD – Monty Chapman, superintendent; Homer Mundy, board president
Peaster ISD – Matt Adams, superintendent; Scott Johnson, board president
Poolville ISD – Jimmie Dobbs, superintendent; Lynn Duvall, board president
Santo ISD – Greg Gilbert, superintendent; Randy Parker, board president
Springtown ISD – Mike Kelley, superintendent; Amy Walker, board president
Weatherford ISD – Dr. Jeffrey M. Hanks, superintendent; Charlie Martinez, board presiden
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The Fascinating History of the Sassafras
How to find the tree whose sweet-smelling leaves and bark have made it important to people for centuries.
An easily recognizable beauty, sassafras is a tree with a fascinating history.
What it is:
On our coastal plain, sassafras is typically a small tree, often multi-branched and shrubby. It can grow quite large, though, reaching heights of more than 60 feet. Thanks to its leaves, it’s one of the easiest trees to identify in our area.
Sassafras leaves are either oval (with no lobes), mitten-shaped (with two lobes) or what I can never avoid thinking of as dinosaur foot-shaped (with three lobes). You might find all three leaf shapes growing on a single slender branch.
And if you’re in doubt, just snap off a leaf at the base of its stout but tender stem and sniff or chew it. The sweet, spicy smell and pleasant, if slightly medicinal, flavor are giveaways.
Now is a great time to seek out a nearby sassafras, because the trees have striking fall color that’s almost unrivalled in the pinelands. The leaves will turn bright golden yellow, deep red and brilliant purple over the course of the next month.
Where to find it:
Sassafras is a widespread tree, and grows all over the eastern U.S. It loves acid soils and can even grow well in dry and sandy ones, so it’s a common sight in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens.
You’ll discover the biggest, most robust trees in wetter areas, such as bog edges and along streams.
Many probably know that sassafras has long been used in food and medicine, but few are aware of just how closely the plant has been tied up with human history on the continent.
The plant’s leaves, twigs and roots are fragrant, packed with an essential oil that offers up that spicy smell and taste, and has been believed to hold the cure to a host of human ailments, from hangovers to syphilis.
European newcomers to American seized on its purported medicinal qualities and began harvesting it and shipping it back to the Old World. The plant was at one point American’s second largest export after tobacco.
Since then, sassafras oil has been used in a huge variety of foods, medicines and other products. It used to be a major ingredient in root beer. But the oil contains a hefty amount of safrole, a chemical that was proven in the 1960s to be carcinogenic in rats.
In small amounts, safrole is likely no more dangerous to humans than a lot of other naturally occurring plant compounds that probably evolved as natural pesticides (tomatoes and oranges have them too).
Nevertheless, the FDA banned the use of sassafras extracts that contain safrole. You can still find sassafras-flavored candies and drinks on the market, but they’re made without the offending chemical.
The widespread tree has its roots deep in American folk medicine, though, and people all over the eastern part of the U.S. still cheerfully brew up a reasonably tasty and supposedly healing tea from the twigs and the root bark. If you want to try your hand at making syrup for your own sassafras soda, check out this recipe (and let us know how it works out!).
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Celebrating Black Women in American Culture and History
Last week, President Obama signed a proclamation, declaring February National African American History Month. This year's theme, "Black Women in American Culture and History," specifically recognizes the numerous, unique contributions that African-American women have made to the advancement of the Nation.
Today, the White House released a video message from the First Lady in honor of African-American History Month. In the video, the First Lady said, “You don’t have to be in a history book to make a contribution to our country.”
Mrs. Obama urges others to not only celebrate African-American heroes such as Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, whose contributions to the improvement of the country are depicted in many history books; but to also honor the women of today, “our aunts … our best friends … all those women who live each day with a spirit that is uniquely their own, and who continue to write our country’s story every single day.”
The First Lady’s message includes a challenge, for others to, “reinvest in those around us…and pledge to continue their story by contributing our own gifts for the good of our families, our communities, and our country.” Together, we can be the difference we search for while recognizing there are those around us who have continued to positively contribute to our community.
For additional information and updates on how President Obama and the Administration is celebrating African American History Month please visit www.whitehouse.gov/africanamericans.
Kevin Lewis is the White House Director of African American Media
Read a transcript of the First Lady's message below:
Hello everyone. It’s a pleasure to be with you as we celebrate African American History Month. This is a time when we honor the rich legacy of African Americans throughout our nation’s history, and this year, our national theme focuses on the unique contributions of African-American women.
They’re heroes like Sojourner Truth … Harriet Tubman … Dorothy Height … Rosa Parks … Maya Angelou. They’re women who fought against slavery … stood up for women’s suffrage … and marched in the streets for our civil rights. They’ve broken boundaries … stirred our souls … and opened our hearts.
But we all know that you don’t have to be in a history book to make a contribution to our country. So we’re also celebrating the women we call mom or grandma. We’re celebrating our aunts … our best friends … all those women who live each da with a spirit that is uniquely their own, and who continue to write our country’s story every single day.
So this month, as we recall all those whose shoulders we stand upon, let’s recommit to living up to their example. Let’s honor them by reinvesting in those around us. And let’s pledge to continue their story by contributing our own gifts for the good of our families, our communities, and our country.
White House Blogs
- The White House Blog
- Middle Class Task Force
- Council of Economic Advisers
- Council on Environmental Quality
- Council on Women and Girls
- Office of Intergovernmental Affairs
- Office of Management and Budget
- Office of Public Engagement
- Office of Science & Tech Policy
- Office of Urban Affairs
- Open Government
- Faith and Neighborhood Partnerships
- Social Innovation and Civic Participation
- US Trade Representative
- Office National Drug Control Policy
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Looking back on 2012, we have seen some amazing science – especially in space & astronomy.
1. The Mars Curiosity rover: When this six-wheeled, nuclear-powered robot completed its journey from Earth to Mars on August 5th of this year, it executed a flawless landing sequence that the NASA engineers named the “Seven Minutes of Terror”. So called because of the combination of the seven-minute-long landing sequence and the 14-minutes it took for signals from Mars to reach Earth, the source of the 'terror' was knowing that by the time the engineers received the signal from Curiosity that it was entering the Martian atmosphere, the rover would already have been on the surface of Mars – either intact and ready for its mission or in pieces strewn about the planet's surface – for a period of seven minutes.
After the nail-biting suspense, the engineers were elated when Curiosity reported in that the landing had gone exactly as planned, and they immediately got down to business. In the three months since its landing, the rover has run test after test of its systems and scientific instruments, has taken some spectacular pictures – including several awe-inspiring panoramic views of the Gale Crater and Mount Sharp and an excellent self-portrait – and has already made some great discoveries.
It's first major discovery: a rocky outcrop made up of small rounded rocks cemented together with dust and sand – what geologists call a conglomerate – that appeared to be similar to deposits found in streams and rivers here on Earth. The scientists didn't jump to conclusions, though. Close examination of these rocks by the rover showed the same wearing expected for rocks moved and knocked together repeatedly while being transported by a fluid such as air or water. However, the size of the rocks made them far too heavy to be moved around by Mars' thin atmosphere, even with the planet's lower gravity. They must have been transported and worn down by water, which was also supported by the 'cement' that held the rocks together. There has been plenty of evidence found by other missions that indicated water or water processes in Mars' past, but this was considered the first conclusive evidence that there was flowing water on the surface of Mars at some point.
There have been other discoveries since, such as finding a deposit of gypsum, a type of mineral formed only in the presence of water here on Earth, and more strange spherical rocks, similar to the hematite 'blueberries' found by the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, but with these new ones being very much like ones here on Earth that are created by microbial processes.
The rover's latest discovery? Radiation levels at the planet's surface are roughly the same as astronauts experience in low-Earth-orbit. This is great news for the future of manned missions to Mars, since we now know we will be able to keep our astronauts safe for the duration of their missions there.
2. Felix Baumgartner's 'space' jump: On October 14th, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner performed a 'space' jump from just over 39 kilometres above the Earth's surface – the highest jump ever made – and he set two other records, one for the highest balloon flight and one for being the first person two break the sound barrier without the assistance of a vehicle.
3. Earth-sized planet discovered: In mid-October, astronomers at the La Silla Observatory in Chile reported that they had found an Earth-sized planet orbiting one of the stars in the Alpha Centauri star system – our stellar next-door neighbour. While the planet is too close to Alpha Centauri B to support life, it not only gives us an excellent target for our first exoplanet to explore, but it may only be one of several planets in that star system!
4. 'Large object' strikes Jupiter: On September 10th, amateur astronomers spotted and actually recorded a large object – possible a comet – striking Jupiter, illustrating just how important the massive planet is to the survival of life on Earth as it 'sweeps up' these objects and keeps them from hitting us, and just how important amateur astronomers are in scanning our skies for potential dangers!
5. SpaceX launch 'Dragon' spacecraft: On October 7th, SpaceX Corporation launched their Dragon spacecraft on the first commercial cargo run to the International Space Station. While this isn't an Earth-shattering event in of itself, it makes the list for opening up space to the public. Up until this point, it was government agencies that flew regular missions to space. Private companies, like SpaceX, Orbital Sciences and Virgin Galactic, are ushering in a period of our history that will provide people with unprecedented access to the world, the Moon, and even the other planets in our solar system.
6. Planet Gliese 163 c discovered: Looking back out into space, on September 24th, astronomers reported discovery of the planet Gliese 163 c – a 'super-Earth' planet, roughly 7 times the size of our planet – that immediately jumped to the top of the list of planets (outside our solar system) that have the best chance of supporting life. Gliese 163 c orbits its parent star at a distance where the temperature is just right – not too hot and not too cold – for liquid water to exist on its surface. Given what we know about life here on Earth, with its dependence on water, but also its ability to take hold in nearly every environment that even has the remotest chance of supporting it, makes it a near-certainty that this newly-discovered world harbours at least some form of life.
7. Neptune-like planet discovered: In another amateur contribution this year, on October 16th, it was announced that a 'citizen-scientist' group called Planet Hunters had confirmed the existence of a large Neptune-like planet that was the first planet ever discovered in star system with four stars – with two of the stars orbiting each other near the centre of the star system, and the other two circling each other while they orbit the first pair at a distance of about 20 times the distance that Pluto orbits our Sun. This planet, designated PH-1 (Planet Hunters-1), orbits the two inner stars at a distance equivalent to somewhere between the orbits of Mercury and Venus in our solar system, taking only 126 days to complete one orbit. Again, without the assistance of these amateur citizen scientists, astronomers would likely have taken years to discover PH-1, given the amount of information there is to sift through, and this highlights that we have a chance to make a meaningful contribution to science!
8. Fifth moon orbiting Pluto discovered: On July 11th, the Hubble Space Telescope detected a fifth moon orbiting the 'dwarf planet' Pluto. This new discovery brings with it another potential shift in Pluto's planetary status. Downgraded from Planet status in 2005 with the discovery of Eris, an object that orbited even further out than Pluto, but was 25% more massive than our 9th planet. The decision was made to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet, bringing the count of planets in our solar system down to eight. However, with the discovery of this fifth moon, this may be further evidence that Pluto and Charon (the first moon we discovered orbiting Pluto) are in fact a Binary Planet – two planets that share the same orbit around the sun and orbit each other around a point that lies between the two worlds.
9. Light from the very first stars detected: In early November, it was reported that astronomers using the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope had detected the light from the very first stars that lit up our universe. These immense, short-lived stars were the first to form from the swirling clouds of hydrogen gas that condensed in the cooling, expanding new universe. The astronomers were not able to directly observe these stars, but instead used a novel approach to discover the light that the stars had emitted long ago. Using their knowledge of all the light from known sources – the extragalactic background light (EBL) – and using stellar objects known as 'blazars' – compact quasars that emit their radiation beams in the general direction of our region of space – in a way similar to lighthouse beacons, they examined how these radiation beams were diminished by the EBL 'fog' and isolated out the light from these earliest of stars.
10. Thirty-three exoplanets discovered: The Kepler Space Telescope has had a banner year in 2012 so far, with the confirmed discovery of 33 exoplanets orbiting around 16 different stars. More exoplanets are being found and confirmed all the time, with the total reaching 850 in November of this year. This follows a January announcement by the Kepler team that planets very likely outnumber stars in our galaxy, with an average of 1.6 planets per star. Most of the planets discovered so far have little potential for harbouring life, but with so many out there, the chance of finding life-bearing worlds continues to grow.
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Wired has an interesting article on the science of the spontaneous order of starling flocks, prompted by this amazing viral video:
There is no leader directing the flock. Each starling follows local rules, and order emerges on a global level.
Starling flocks, it turns out, are best described with equations of “critical transitions” — systems that are poised to tip, to be almost instantly and completely transformed, like metals becoming magnetized or liquid turning to gas. Each starling in a flock is connected to every other. When a flock turns in unison, it’s a phase transition.
At the individual level, the rules guiding this are relatively simple. When a neighbor moves, so do you. Depending on the flock’s size and speed and its members’ flight physiologies, the large-scale pattern changes. What’s complicated, or at least unknown, is how criticality is created and maintained.
It’s easy for a starling to turn when its neighbor turns — but what physiological mechanisms allow it to happen almost simultaneously in two birds separated by hundreds of feet and hundreds of other birds? That remains to be discovered, and the implications extend beyond birds. Starlings may simply be the most visible and beautiful example of a biological criticality that also seems to operate in proteins and neurons, hinting at universal principles yet to be understood.
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Barbecue Basics: Keeping Bacteria at Bay
By Howard Seltzer, FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, and Diane Van, Manager, USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline
Summer brings out barbecue grills—and bacteria, which multiply in food faster in warm weather and can cause food poisoning (also known as foodborne illness). Following a few simple guidelines can prevent an unpleasant experience.
Wash your hands
Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food. If you're eating where there’s no source of clean water, bring water, soap, and paper towels or have disposable wipes or hand sanitizer available.
Marinate food in the refrigerator
Don’t marinate on the counter—marinate in the refrigerator. If you want to use marinade as a sauce on cooked food, save a separate portion in the refrigerator. Do not reuse marinade that contacted raw meat, poultry, or seafood on cooked food unless you bring it to a boil first.
Keep raw food separate
Keep raw meat, poultry, and seafood in a separate cooler or securely wrapped at the bottom of a cooler so their juices won’t contaminate already prepared foods or raw produce. Don't use a plate or utensils that previously held raw meat, poultry, or seafood for anything else unless you wash them first in hot, soapy water. Have a clean platter and utensils ready at grill-side for serving.
Cook food thoroughly
Use a food thermometer to make sure food is cooked thoroughly to destroy harmful bacteria. Refer to the Safe Minimum Temperatures chart for safe minimum internal temperatures for foods. Partial precooking in the microwave oven or on the stove is a good way to reduce grilling time—just make sure the food goes immediately on the preheated grill to finish cooking.
Keep hot food hot and cold food cold
- Keep hot food at 140° F or above until served. Keep cooked meats hot by setting them to the side of the grill, or wrap well and place in an insulated container.
- Keep cold food at 40° F or below until served. Keep cold perishable food in a cooler until serving time. Keep coolers out of direct sun and avoid opening the lid often.
- Cold foods can be placed directly on ice or in a shallow container set in a pan of ice. Drain off water as ice melts and replace ice frequently.
- Don’t let hot or cold perishables sit out for longer than two hours, or one hour if the outdoor temperature is above 90° F. When reheating fully cooked meats, grill to 165° F or until steaming hot.
- Transport food in the passenger compartment of the car where it’s cooler—not in the trunk.
Put these items on your list
These non-food items are indispensable for a safe barbecue.
- Food thermometer
- Several coolers: one for beverages (which will be opened frequently), one for raw meats, poultry, and seafood, and another for cooked foods and raw produce
- Ice or frozen gel packs for coolers
- Jug of water, soap, and paper towels for washing hands
- Enough plates and utensils to keep raw and cooked foods separate
- Foil or other wrap for leftovers
These are very basic tips everyone should follow! There's no reason to ruin what could be a great BBQ because you forgot to follow some simple, common sense rules.
A lot of things to keep care of. Thanks for your very informational post! Learned new things.
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The oldest artifacts from the ice sport of curling are stones, today extant but unknown, which prehistoric people slid toward a target along frozen rivers or lakes. These people may also have used primitive brooms to clear snow from the path of their sliding stones.
In 1565, Holland's Peter Breugel painted "Hunters in the Snow" and another work depicting scenes resembling modern curling. Breugel's paintings support the premise held by some that curling originated in continental Europe. The Scots, however, are the undisputed developers and formalizers of the modern game. By 1638 curling was considered, with golf and archery (in M. H. Adamson's poem The Muses Threnodie), to be a usual recreational pastime. After a huge growth spurt in the 19th century, curling was played by thousands in nearly every Scottish parish.
Between the 16th and 20th centuries, Scotland's climate warmed, and today the lochs rarely freeze. The climate change hindered curlers, who played outdoors on natural ice until the 20th century. Nonetheless the Scots had, by the mid-1800s, formalized curling's rules of play and equipment and had established the "mother club" of curlers worldwide, the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. The RCCC is today the national governing body of curling in Scotland, with 20,000 active members now playing indoors on refrigerated ice.
The game of curling spread throughout the world through the efforts of thousands of Scottish soldiers and émigrés. In North America, curling's origins likely date to the late 1700s. The first documented record is the founding of the Montreal Curling Club in 1807.
In 1832, the Orchard Lake Curling Club, near Detroit, became the first curling club in the United States, organized at the home of Dr. Robert Burns. The Orchard Lake group curled on Lake St. Clair. The oldest continuously operating curling club in the United States is the Milwaukee, Wisconsin club, founded in 1845. The Scottish founders' roster included such names as Murray, Ferguson, Dunlop, Gunyon, Findlay, Kinney, McFarland and McFadyen.
Since the mid-1800s, curling has spread and thrived in northern states, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota, and also in the Great Lakes, New England and mid-Atlantic states. There are dedicated pockets of curling activity in other states, including Alaska, Washington, California, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and North Carolina. In all, there are active curling clubs in 26 states in the nation.
In the United States today, there are over 15,000 curlers in over 135 clubs, most of which own their ice facility. While many U.S. curlers have Scottish roots, modern curling club membership rosters tend to reflect an ethnic cross-section of their communities, which are preponderantly small-town rural. The largest curling club in the USA is the St. Paul, Minnesota, club, with over 700 members.
The United States Curling Association (founded 1958) governs curling in the USA. Like that other Scottish sport, golf, curling is both a recreational and an athletic pastime, marked by a strong code of fair play and courtesy (The Spirit of Curling). The USCA is a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee and the World Curling Federation, and has 131 member clubs in 11 regions. Curling debuted as a medal sport in the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Japan. About 1.5 million people from ages eight to 80 in over 33 countries curl.
The best-known American curler is Raymond "Bud" Somerville, of Superior, Wisconsin, the first inductee into the USCA's Hall of Fame. Somerville skipped his team to its first world championship in 1965, at age 28. In 1992, at age 55, he skipped his team to a bronze medal at the Albertville Olympics (curling was a demonstration sport).
The ice sport of curling, although never well known in the United States, has developed steadily throughout American history. The sport is often passed down through families and has provided enjoyable winter recreation to thousands of Americans.
Credit for preceding - USCA Histoy of Curling
Interested in more history of the game? See the following
Canadian Curling Associations History of the game
History of Curling in Canada
Scottish History of Curling
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2013-05-25T19:47:32Z
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Description: The North West Rebellion lasted less than three months in the spring of 1885. But the prairie uprising had an enduring effect on a nation. Its leader, Louis Riel, became a permanent symbol of language, religious and racial divisions in Canada. From the television series "Canada: A People's History." Includes links to educational resources, bibliography, games, puzzles, and video clips.
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http://www.cmhg.gc.ca/html/tl-tc/index-eng.asp?Num=&RT=&N=20001+1885&c=1800&d=1880&yr=1885
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2013-05-20T12:09:11Z
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Headaches, nausea, vomiting, weakened motor and facial muscles, seizures, behavioral problems, and a decrease in cognition are some of the general and non-specific symptoms of a brain tumor. In addition to these, there are more specific symptoms that can help in identifying the location of the tumor. For example, the nerves entering the brain cross at the base of the skull; a tumor on the left side of the brain causes symptoms on the right side of the body, and the other way around.
The brain is generally divided into midbrain, forebrain, and hindbrain, with each division having various structures. Specific structures control specific body functions, and symptoms of a brain tumor depend upon the anatomical structure that is affected. Below are some locations and the specific symptoms that they cause.
1. Brain Stem - the Midbrain, Pons, Medulla Oblongata
- Vomiting, especially on awakening.
- Clumsy or uncoordinated gait.
- Difficulty in swallowing.
- Slurred or nasal speech, or a one-sided smile.
- Double vision or restricted eye movement.
- Head tilt, drowsiness, hearing loss and personality changes.
2. Cerebellum, Posterior Fossa
- Nausea and vomiting.
- Swollen optic nerve due to an increase in intracranial pressure.
- Dizziness, shaking of limbs, swaying, and staggering.
- Tilting of the head or pain in the back of the head or neck due to nerve compression.
3. Cerebral Hemispheres - Frontal, Occipital, Parietal and Temporal Lobes
- Decrease in overall brain health.
- Mental focus, afflicted judgment, personality changes, and problems with communication.
- One-sided paralysis.
- Problems with urination.
- Difficulty understanding visual images and the written word.
- Visual disturbances and seizures.
- Decreased cognition.
- Inability to recognize sounds and their source.
- Problems with sleep, thirst, urination, body temperature, appetite, and blood pressure.
- Sensory loss such as sense of touch, especially on the side opposite to the side of brain affected.
- Decreased intellect.
6. Optic Tract
- Lack of proper eye movement and vision.
- Abnormal pupil reactions.
7. Pituitary Gland
- Inappropriate secretion of hormones.
- Breast enlargement and/or secretions.
- Hormonal disturbances like diabetes.
- Headaches and vision changes.
The list is by no means comprehensive. Many focal symptoms of brain tumor are common to more than one location. Tumors in certain brain structures produce symptoms due to the intracranial pressure that the enlarged mass applies on the neighboring structures. This is known as the mass effect. Increased pressure in the brain may be due to the tumor growing in size, edema, and/or hydrocephalus.
Hydrocephalus is an abnormal condition in which the cerebrospinal fluid collects in the ventricles of the brain. Tumors in the Meninges, Pineal region, skull base, and third ventricle regions normally produce symptoms due to this intracranial pressure.
While herbs and vitamins that promote mental focus can help in better concentration, a brain tumor is not only about improving overall physiological brain health. It is difficult to diagnose a brain tumor in its early stages because some of its general symptoms resemble other diseases. People who are concerned about their health and take notice of any change that occurs in their physiological or psychological state are better placed to approach a doctor for an early diagnose of brain tumor.
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http://www.nativeremedies.com/articles/brain-tumor-symptoms.html
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2013-05-18T17:28:30Z
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DM is the easiest type of myositis to diagnose because of the skin rash which is often seen before any muscle weakness is felt. The DM rash looks patchy, dusky, and reddish or purple. It is found on the eyelids, cheeks, nose, back, upper chest, elbows, knees and knuckles. Some people also have hardened bumps under the skin, called calcinosis. The skin rash and weak muscles are caused by inflammation, or swelling, in the blood vessels under the skin and in the muscles, also called vasculitis. Patients who have the skin rash but feel no muscle weakness have amyopathic DM, or DM sine myositis.
The weakness begins with muscles that are closest to and within the trunk of the body. Neck, hip, back and shoulder muscles are examples. Some DM patients have muscle pain.
Signs and symptoms
- Appearance of a rash on the eyelids, cheeks, nose, back, upper chest, elbows, knees and knuckles
- Scaly, dry or rough skin
- Trouble rising from a seated position, or getting up after a fall
- General tiredness
- Inflamed or swollen area around fingernails
- Painful and/or itchy rash caused by inflammation of blood vessels under the skin and in the muscles
- Sudden or progressive weakness in muscles in neck, hip, back and shoulder muscles
- Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia), a feeling of choking
- Hardened lumps or sheets of calcium, called calcinosis, under the skin
- Changes in voice (dysphonia), especially hoarseness
Updated March 2012
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http://www.myositis.org/learn-about-myositis/types-of-myositis/dermatomyositis
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2013-05-20T12:01:44Z
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Disposing of grass clippings the wrong way can add up to big pollution problems. Really! Also, placing yard waste near storm drains or directly into local lakes, streams, wetlands, and bays is illegal. This practice can:
- Block storm drains and cause flooding.
- Lead to harmful algae blooms from excessive growth of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus.
- Smother spawning beds of fish and destroy habitat for other aquatic life.
- Suppress native aquatic plants that support a healthy ecosystem.
- Cause depletion of oxygen and provide an opportunity for non-native plants to grow in their place such as Eurasion Watermilfoil and Brazilian Elodea.
- Lead to sickness in animals and humans if the clippings or yard waste is treated with fertilizers or pesticides.
Rather than dumping grass clippings there are many benefits of turning them into compost, which reduces waste. It also:
- Builds healthy soil for plants and gardens.
- Saves time and money by reducing the need for water, fertilizer and pesticides.
- Builds rich soil that absorbs run-off and breaks down urban pollutants such as oil, grease, metals, fertilizers and pesticides that harm fish in urban streams or Puget Sound.
- Improves landscape appearance.
- Place in curbside yard waste container provided by your waste hauler.
- Drop off at a yard debris collection site. Contact your local public works or solid waste department for details.
- Mow grass without a lawnmower bag and leave clippings to naturally decompose. Doing so will not produce thatch.
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http://ecologywa.blogspot.com/2012/08/good-yard-care-practices-help-protect.html
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2013-05-23T19:11:47Z
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Courtesy of EarthSky
A Clear Voice for Science
Can you see that the moon is farther from Spica tonight than it was last night? The moon is shifting farther and farthest east, with respect to the stars, each day. The moon always moves toward the east on our sky’s dome. This motion is a translation on our sky’s dome of the moon’s orbit around Earth.
You can observe the moon’s orbital motion from one night to the next by watching the moon’s location with respect to background stars.
Alternatively, you can look outside each evening at the same time to notice that the moon is in a more easterly location on the sky’s dome than it was the night before. Just remember, when you do this, that you’re actually observing the moon moving in its orbit around Earth.
The moon is now at the waxing gibbous phase. A waxing gibbous moon carries that designation because it is more than half illuminated but less than full. The terminator – or the shadow line dividing the lunar day from the lunar night – shows you where it’s sunrise on the waxing moon.
Every July, you’ll find the moon at or near the same phase when it swings between Spica, and the stars Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali in the constellation Libra. These two Libra stars have been seen as a “gateway” on the sky’s dome by stargazers in times past. That’s because at certain times in the moon’s cycle the moon passes in between Libra’s two brightest stars. For the next several years, though, the moon rides too far south to travel the passage between Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali. The moon won’t start to pass through the celestial “gateway” until the year 2014!
Written by Deborah ByrdPrint This Post
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http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2010/07/17/earthsky-tonight%E2%80%94july-18moon-moves-past-spica-approaches-celestial-%E2%80%98gateway%E2%80%99/
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2013-05-18T06:31:18Z
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Cornelia C. Tierney
In elementary school, great importance is placed on memorization of number facts. In teaching fifth through eighth graders, I have assumed that most of my students had made a concerted effort to memorize facts in earlier grades. I have observed, however, that children who have had a similar amount of practice have a great range of recall. A few students complete tests of 100 multiplication or division facts perfectly in less than three minutes, whereas others are made miserable by the whole process. They skip many problems, look around the room to compare their progress with that of other students, and finally give up with a few correct answers. Although those who have memorized the facts do better than others at whole-number arithmetic, they do not always do well in work with fractions.
In addition to reinforcing knowledge of number facts, the following activities give students practice in making generalizations that improve problem-solving skills and provide a foundation for work with fractions. Reducing fractions and factoring quadratics require students to do what are essentially division problems with only the dividend given. Before they can find the quotient, they must provide the divisor. For this task, rote memorization of facts is not sufficient. Children with total recall of multiplication facts often do not see that a fraction can be "reduced" by any number but 2 or 10. For example, 6/9 is left untouched or changed to
by a creative student. Also, students do not recognize ways to factor numbers that are not among the answers to the facts they have memorized.
Before beginning a unit on fractions in the middle grades and before introducing factoring in algebra, I teach some number theory. The students "discover" divisibility rules by studying patterns in the multiplication tables. For example, they learn that multiples of 5 end in 5 or 0, whereas in multiples of 9, the sum of the digits is 9 or a multiple of 9. Although students who have memorized the tables increase their understanding, it is often those who have been unable to memorize the number facts who enjoy these activities the most. Although these students make errors with details, they see the larger picture and are able to make comparisons between tables and between parts of tables.
I use the same activities for all grades, except that some classes see more patterns and so I push them to look farther. A sixth-grade class I worked with spent an hour on only half of the first activity. They looked only at patterns in the 2s, 3s, 4s, and 6s tables. They found many tables within tables and patterns in diagonals. Third- and fourth-grade students can try some of these activities before doing regular work with the multiplication facts, and fifth, sixth, and seventh graders can try them before working with fractions.
Patterns in the multiplication tables
For all the tables, I use an overhead transparency of a standard 10 x 10 hundred chart with stencils cut from tagboard that just fit over the chart, allowing only one set of multiples to be seen (fig. 1). I use stencils for 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 7s, 8s, 9s, and prime numbers. I start by projecting the 2s table on the chalkboard and asking, "What do you see here?" (If the chalkboard is used as a screen, notes can be written on the chart, or certain numbers can be circled. If all the numbers are circled, an interesting pattern remains on the board when the projector is turned off, which the students come to recognize as "the shape" of that table.)
To allow all children to participate, this activity should at first be done quietly and independently. For a few minutes after each table is projected, the children look for patterns and write notes to themselves. They then share their discoveries, which a student or I write on the board. Often only a few children respond to the 2s table, but many see patterns in the 3s table. One child's idea leads another to see something new, so that students notice far more than they had originally written down.
After 2s and 3s, I ask students what they think will show when both the 2s and the 3s are used together. After looking at this table (the 6s), we examine the 5s through 9s table in order of increasing size. Although the 9s table, like the 3s, is rich with patterns, the 7s table is notable for its apparent dearth of patterns. The 10s table can be made in a fashion similar to the 6s. The 11s can be made using the 9s stencil turned around with two numbers blocked off. Last of all, I show the prime numbers and ask the students if they can figure out what this group of numbers is.
Other combinations can be tried. Which two stencils together cover the hundred chart and leave only the 15s tables exposed? What is the last number left exposed if the stencils are put on top of one another in order -- 2s, 3s, 4s, and so on?
To reinforce the overhead-projector activity or to introduce a table that is to be memorized, students can make their own charts of multiples by circling all the multiples of one number on a 10 x 10 hundred chart or by circling multiples of several numbers each in a different color.
Once children have done these activities, it is interesting for them to try the same activity on number charts with different dimensions. If, for example, one with a width of 12 instead of 10 is used, multiples of 3 fall in a vertical line, whereas multiples of 5 are on a diagonal (fig 2).
Sieve of Eratosthenes
On a hundred chart, students circle the 2 and then cross out all its multiples; using a different color each time, they repeat this step with 3 and then 5 (as a multiple of 2, 4 was crossed out earlier). Continuing in this way, students circle the prime numbers and cross out the composites. How high a factor do we need to test before we are sure that all composites are crossed out and only primes are left exposed? How high a factor if the chart is continued to 200?
To provide practice with the divisibility rules, I make some cards, about 5 cm x 15 cm, and along the bottom narrow edge of each, I write a three- or four-digit number that has one or more of the factors the students have investigated (fig. 3(a)). In groups of four to six with one serving as the leader, students can play "slap factors." They decide on one factor for that round and follow the form of slapjack. The leader turns over a card in a deck placed in the middle of the group, and, if the number on the card has the chosen factor, the first student to slap the card with his or her hand gets it and any cards underneath. The round continues until all cards have been turned over by the leader. The child with the most cards wins the round.
Before taking a correctly slapped card, the student must "prove" that it is contained in that table by explaining how it passes the divisibility-rule test or by naming the quotient of the number divided by the factor. A student who slaps a card that does not have the desired factor returns a captured card to the pile in the middle or sits out while the next three cards are played.
A deck of forty cards works well. Those pictured in figure 3(b) are multiples of at least some of the following numbers: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10.
After some work with fractions, students can play the same game, except that they use cards with fractions having three- or four-digit numerators and denominators (fig. 3(c)). Those fractions that can be "reduced" by the factor are slapped. Some possibilities are shown in figure 3(b).
Posters: Ending rules or sum-of-digit rules?
Groups of students can make posters to show which tables have ending rules and which have sum-of-digits rules: one that displays the 2s, 5s, and 10s tables and another that displays the 3s and 9s tables. These posters can be displayed in a public area with questions underneath for other students to think about (figs. 4 and 5). It is important to stress differences between ending rules and sum-of-digits rules. Students tend to generalize their early learning and conclude, for example, that 253 is in the 3s table because "it ends with a 3."
As a class activity children count aloud, reciting multiples of 3, for instance. Each child in turn names one number while the teacher records the list on the chalkboard, writing each number as it is spoken. Related tables -- 3s, 6s, and 9s, for instance -- can be recited and recorded in succession so that patterns can be compared. This activity uses both oral and visual patterns to reinforce students' learning of the tables.
In board games where a spinner or die determines the size of moves, remainders can be used instead. Division problems, with divisors chosen from the factors studied, are written on cards. Students draw a card from the top of a stack and move the number of spaces equal to the remainder (fig. 6). To prepare students for this game, give them numbers that are not divisible by a certain number and ask them how much must be subtracted to get the next lowest number that is divisible by that number. For example, we know that 349 is not divisible by 3 because the sum of its digits is 16, but subtracting 1 results in a digit sum of 15, so we know 348 is divisible by 3. If 349 is divided by 3, the remainder is 1.
Other number bases
Able students enjoy figuring out divisibility rules for numbers in bases other than base ten. The base number and its factors have ending rules. The number that is one less than the base number and the factors of that number have sum-of-digits rules.
Students with intermediate BASIC programming skills can write programs related to these topics. For example, here are programs some of my seventh- and eighth-grade students have written. The first program asks for an input number and lists all factor pairs:
10 REM ALL FACTOR PAIRS
20 INPUT "PICK A NUMBER AND THE COMPUTER WILL LIST ITS PAIRS OF FACTORS. ":X
30 FOR Y = 1 TO SQR (X)
40 IF X / Y = INT (X / Y) THEN PRINT Y "*" X / Y
50 NEXT Y
The following program lists all prime numbers up to 200:
2 PRINT "PRIME NUMBERS < 200"
5 PRINT" "2" ":
10 FOR X = 2 TO 200
20 FOR Y = 2 TO SQR (X)
40 IF X / Y = INT (X / Y) THEN GOTO 70
50 NEXT Y
60 PRINT X" ":
70 NEXT X
Marion Walter introduced me to some of these activities in a mathematics methods course in the sixties. Like our students, we were really examining these patterns for the first time. Although we were perceptive then, we certainly did not see all the patterns. It has been exciting to learn more each year from my students. A sixth grader recently led me to see for the first time that in the 3s chart, the fourth right-to-left diagonal is a continuation of the first, whereas the fifth is a continuation of the second. Once the student pointed out this fact, another saw that the 12s table appeared as a combination of the second and sixth left-to-right diagonals.
These activities encourage students to think both inductively and deductively -- to see number patterns and to recognize which numbers fit those patterns.
The Schools Council. Mathematics in Primary Schools: Curriculum Bulletin No. 1. 3d ed. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1969.
Walter, Marion I., and Stephen I. Brown. The Art of Problem Posing. Philadelphia: Franklin Institute Press, 1983.
A middle school mathematics teacher, Cornelia Tierney is presently a doctoral student at the Harvard University School of Education, Cambridge, MA 02138, and a consultant on learning disabilities and mathematics teaching.
Other Articles by Cornelia C. Tierney:
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A Topic Best Avoided
- The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner
Norton, 426 pp, £21.00, February 2011, ISBN 978 0 393 06618 0
On the evening of 11 April 1865, Abraham Lincoln spoke to a crowd in Washington about black suffrage. The Civil War had been over for a week. Lincoln had already walked the streets of Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, taking in the devastation at first hand. ‘The only people who showed themselves were negroes,’ the radical senator Charles Sumner noted. The president had been thinking about what would happen after the war since 1862, when his generals began to seize swathes of Confederate territory, but had stubbornly resisted the idea that emancipated slaves would have to be given the vote to consolidate their freedom. Perhaps what he saw in Richmond changed his mind: the eerie absence of the city’s white inhabitants confirmed what Sumner saw as ‘the utter impossibility of any organisation which is not founded on the votes of negroes’. When Lincoln spoke from the White House balcony a week later, he was characteristically cautious. He didn’t advocate universal suffrage for blacks and suggested that the vote might only be ‘conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers’. For some in the audience, this was more than enough. ‘That means nigger citizenship,’ John Wilkes Booth told his companions. Three nights later, he followed the president to Ford’s Theatre and shot him in the head.
On the morning of 11 April, Lincoln met privately with General Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts. The subject of the meeting went unreported for nearly 20 years. That morning Lincoln admitted that he was ‘troubled about the negroes’ after emancipation. According to Butler, he worried that the 150,000 blacks of the Union army would fight their former masters if denied an equal place in Southern society. Lincoln’s instinct was to ‘export them all to some fertile country with a good climate, which they could have to themselves’. Butler had the perfect plan. Why not send 50,000 black troops to dig a canal across the Panamanian isthmus? Butler would lead the mission, and Congress could provide money to relocate the soldiers and their families in ‘a United States colony … which will hold its own against all comers, and be contented and happy’. America would have its highway between the oceans, and blacks would have a permanent home where they might enjoy freedom without white recrimination. ‘There is meat in that suggestion, General,’ Lincoln supposedly told Butler.
Butler’s story used to be widely accepted. These days, virtually every historian dismisses it. Lincoln’s staunchest defenders insist that he never seriously entertained removing blacks, that his public statements about colonisation in the 1850s and early 1860s were a diversionary tactic intended to persuade a prejudiced public to accept emancipation. More critical historians concede Lincoln’s enthusiasm for colonisation schemes, but argue that his views advanced in the war’s last years, and that his belated endorsement of limited black suffrage demonstrates how much he had ‘grown’ in the White House. Eric Foner has become the leading exponent of the second point of view, and The Fiery Trial is a sustained argument for Lincoln’s growth into greatness. Foner consigns Butler’s claims to an endnote and assures us that ‘most historians doubt the reliability of Butler’s recollection.’
As the United States enters its long commemoration of the Civil War’s sesquicentennial, Lincoln’s interest in black removal presents an awkward problem. The standard story of his achievement is as clear as it is reassuring: he freed the slaves, enabling the republic to escape from its founding sin and renewing the promise that ‘all men are created equal.’ When he died, racist Southerners prevented black citizenship with a sweeping system of segregation that endured for a century. In The Fiery Trial, Lincoln moves, haltingly but inexorably, towards a glimpse of black citizenship that is occluded by an assassin’s bullet. But Butler’s renegade recollection is not the only reason to resist the pull of this narrative. What if Lincoln himself was an advocate of the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine? What if the vision of black belonging forged by radical abolitionists was fatally undermined by Northern enthusiasm for black removal?
Before he went to Washington as president-elect in 1861, Lincoln had spent virtually his entire life in Indiana and Illinois, the heartland of free labour. Slaves were excluded from the Midwest by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787; free blacks were deterred by popular prejudice and, eventually, by a series of restrictive Black Laws. In 1834, when Lincoln began his political career in the Illinois state legislature, slavery was a topic best avoided. Between 1790 and 1830, even as the Northern states embraced gradual abolition, the number of slaves in the United States increased from 700,000 to two million. The old consensus, on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, that slavery was an unfortunate and dwindling inheritance from the colonial period, could no longer be squared with reality. Black and white abolitionists attacked the South with a new vehemence and demanded immediate emancipation; slaveholders rebranded the system as a positive good rather than a necessary evil.
Most Northerners had little appetite for a fight with the South: militant abolitionists were shouted down, roughed up and – in several cases – murdered by white mobs throughout the North. Lincoln set his course between the ‘extremes’ of abolitionism and anarchy. He combined his duties in the state assembly with a burgeoning law practice and waited for an opportunity on the national political stage. When it arrived in 1846, in the form of election to the House of Representatives on the Whig ticket, the timing was dreadful. President James K. Polk, a Democrat, had just declared war on Mexico. Along with many other Whigs, Lincoln denounced Polk, incurring the charge of disloyalty to the troops. Then the Whig Party confirmed its meretriciousness by nominating Zachary Taylor, a returning general, as its presidential candidate for 1848. Lincoln campaigned for Taylor, a Louisiana slaveholder, but was passed over for an appointment when Taylor captured the White House. With little to show for his time in the capital, he returned to Illinois.
Lincoln’s retreat coincided with the realignment in American politics that enabled him to become a national figure. The American victory over Mexico had reopened an old controversy about how to square territorial expansion with slavery. In 1820, a debate over the admission of Missouri had almost undone the Union. It was resolved by a territorial compromise: a line was plotted westwards from the southern border of Missouri, dividing the continent into a slave-holding south and a free north. The compromise held for decades, but the admission of new territories after the Mexican War – including California, which straddled the Missouri line – set off another crisis. Lincoln’s political hero, Henry Clay of Kentucky, proposed to keep the Union intact by trading a free California for slave states elsewhere in the southwest and by tightening the laws forcing Northern states to return escaped slaves to the South. But in the summer of 1850 Clay left Washington, despairing of his ability to steer the bargain through Congress. The legislative triumph went instead to Stephen Douglas, a politician from Illinois who, though four years younger than Lincoln, had already gained the national prominence he craved.
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[*] Colonisation after Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement (Missouri, 192 pp., £31.50, February, 978 0 8262 1909 1).
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Nanograms per Gram
Date: 06/08/2001 at 00:53:11 From: Weston Becker Subject: Mathematical symbols/terminology I am studying some water quality data and have a few questions. First, I understand that if something is a unit is given with a "/" sign then it means "per," e.g. "2 mg/L" means "two milligrams per liter." However, sometimes I see units that say something like "2 ng g-1" (the (-1) portion of this is an exponent). Please explain to me what this phrase is saying. This may be two questions really: what is the relation between "ng" and "g" (per?), and then what does the "-1" exponent mean? Thank you for your help!.
Date: 06/08/2001 at 08:41:04 From: Doctor Peterson Subject: Re: Mathematical symbols/terminology Hi, Weston. The exponent -1 means the same thing as the "/", on analogy with ordinary algebra, where b^-1 = 1/b and a * b^-1 = a/b (using our convention of "*" for multiplication and "^" for exponents). So "2 ng g^-1" means 2 ng/g, or 2 nanograms of something per gram of something else. You can read about metric symbol conventions, including this one, here: Using Abbreviations or Symbols - How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement - Russ Rowlett http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/symbol.html Rules and Style Conventions for Printing and Using Units - NIST Guide to SI Units http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP811/sec06.html - Doctor Peterson, The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
Search the Dr. Math Library:
Ask Dr. MathTM
© 1994-2013 The Math Forum
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| 0.861705
| 412
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“Got an industrial-grade 3D printer laying around that you don’t know what to do with? 3D print your own “invisibility cloak”!”
The achievement is a long-sought step toward harnessing the potential power of such cells to treat diseases. But the discovery raises ethical concerns because it brings researchers closer to cloning humans, and involves creating and then destroying human embryos for research purposes.
Graphic Source: Mitalipov Lab/OHSUGraphic
Credit: Adapted for NPR by Alyson Hurt
By the end of the century, ocean levels could rise by 2 or 3 feet. That’s enough to flood the colonists’ first settlement at Jamestown, Va. And it’s putting pressure on archaeologists to get as many artifacts out of the ground as quickly as possible — before it’s too late.
Photo: John Poole/NPR
They’re out of the lab now, flying through the air, crawling in the grass, buzzing near you, swimming in the ocean. They’re robots. They’re among us. We don’t notice yet. But we will.
It’s a story of geopolitical struggles, traditional medicine, and above all, a war of escalation between scientists and a tiny parasite. Malaria has proved to be a wily foe: Every time we think we have it backed into a corner, it somehow escapes.
Over the next several days, NPR’s Shots blog will be sharing stories about malaria. We’ll hear about drug resistance cropping up on Thailand’s border, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention’s antimalarial efforts here in the United States, and a woman who raises mosquitoes on her own blood.
But for now, take a look at our video (which is made entirely with historical photos and illustrations). You’ll travel from inside the human body to 17th-century Peru to the battlefields of the Vietnam War — in under three minutes!
Ado Ibrahim carries his son Aminu through a village in northern Nigeria. Aminu was paralyzed by polio in August. Photo: David Gilkey / NPR
Northern Nigeria is the only region in the world where the number of polio cases is on the rise. International groups have poured money and volunteers into the area to combat the disease. But vaccinators face daunting challenges — from security threats like terrorist bombings to a lack of basic resources like electricity.
Since the Nobel Prizes were established in 1901, more than 850 people and organizations have been awarded a Nobel Prize. Yet, just 44 of those prizes have gone to women. Many experts say a history of discrimination in the sciences is likely the cause.
An interesting story by one of our Kroc fellows, Chris Connelly. — tanya b.
Photo: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
WE WANT THIS MYSTERY SOLVED! — Tanya B.
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Southeastern Section, GSA - 57th Annual Meeting
10-11 April 2008
Charlotte has a population of about 700,000, but the surrounding region — commonly known as Metrolina — includes parts of North Carolina and South Carolina, with a population of over two million. Geologically, North Carolina has an international reputation for minerals and a mining history going back to colonial times. The first major ore-mining period in the United States was stimulated by the discovery of gold in Cabarrus County in 1799. North Carolina was the nation’s only gold mining state until 1828, and U.S. gold coins were minted in Charlotte from 1838 until 1861. You can learn about this history at the nearby Reed Gold Mine State Historic Park.
Charlotte has served as a launching point (or rest stop) for many geological excursions into the nearby Kings Mountain belt (known for lithium-bearing pegmatites) and, in older terminology, the Carolina slate belt, one of several non-Laurentian terranes in the Piedmont. In 1955, GSA published Guides to Southeastern Geology; Richard J. Russell edited this massive volume. It was intended to be a driver’s geological road guide for geologists heading to New Orleans, where that year’s national meeting was to be held. Sam D. Broadhurst wrote the North Carolina chapter for the guidebook. The only stop he noted in the immediate vicinity of Charlotte was the “Concord syenite ring dike” on Hwy. 29 just southeast of University City. (The Concord pluton is known in local urban mythology as the “speedway volcano.”)
We hope that you will not consider Charlotte just a convenience on the route to greater geological pleasures, but as a destination where the history of geology in the southeastern section continues to grow.
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“Undubbed by king, yet knights are we,
To sacred trust beholden;
And our insignia shall be,
A tiny horseshoe golden.
May those who climb,
To heights sublime,
In Honor’s arms be folden.”
Why did they give themselves this name? Their name for themselves leads us to believe that they already envisioned themselves as the makers of history, the makers of myth. How has this name grown beyond their vision?
According to historian Janet H. Gaines:
“For this expedition, they had to provide a great number of horseshoes…On their return from the journey Governor Spotswood presented to each of his companions a miniature golden horseshoe, studded with jewels, representing nail heads, and with the inscription, “Sic juvat transcendere moutes” (Thus it is a pleasure to cross the mountains). He furthermore provided that any gentleman who could prove that he had drunk his Majesty’s health upon Mount George, was entitled to wear the golden shoe. Spotswood called it the ‘Transmontane Order.’ Friske says, that ‘in later times this incident was called instituting the order of the ‘Knights of the Golden Horseshoe’” [2, 114]
Knights of the Golden Horseshoe and Other Lays by Robert Amistead Stewart (Richmond, VA : The Evans Press, Inc., 1909).
Hugh Jones, History of Virginia, 1724 in Janet Harris Gaines Governor Spotswood and His Times: The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe (1907).
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Technicians Calvin Vick (left) and John Massey
measure switchgrass stem density at Little Topashaw Creek in Mississippi.
Click the image for more information about it.
story to find out more.
Creek That Could Help Repair Waterways
By Luis Pons
May 3, 2004
It may not be among the great rivers, but
Little Topashaw Creek in north-central Mississippi is vital to
Agricultural Research Service scientists
seeking ways to best repair damaged waterways.
The 10-mile-long creek--which, when swelled, can pack a wallop within its
curving, 20-foot-high banks--is one of thousands of U.S. waterways that have
endured accelerated erosion due to neglect, poor management practices and
This situation led ARS hydraulic engineer Doug Shields and his colleagues at
the agency's National
Sedimentation Laboratory in Oxford, Miss., to launch the
Creek Stream Corridor Rehabilitation Project, which turned a two-mile
stretch of the creek into a research site.
Controlling streambank erosion traditionally requires costly stone or
concrete structures. According to Shields, who is in the lab's
Water Quality and
Ecological Processes Research Unit, they're evaluating tools such as large
woody debris structures, willow cuttings, switchgrass hedges and submersible
pumps as cost-effective ways of stabilizing streambanks and making up for past
The large woody debris structures--uprooted trees stacked in crossing layers
and anchored to the streambed with steel cables--can replicate an essential
component of stream aquatic habitat, as well as reduce sediment transport. They
cost 20 to 50 percent of the price of stone bank protection structures.
Meanwhile, Shields and University of
Memphis wetland plant physiologist Reza Pezeshki are studying revegetation
of eroded riparian streambanks by planting soaked dormant black willow
(Salix nigra) cuttings, or posts. Soaking seems to significantly enhance
the posts' ability to take root and survive during the first year. Soaked posts
survived at a rate of 64 percent, while unsoaked posts survived at a 53 percent
more about this research in the May issue of Agricultural Research
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
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The Sun, Moon, stars and planets are visible to the unaided eye, and so they have been visible to astronomers since before recorded history. Some of the earliest records we do have tell us what the ancient astronomers thought about the heavens, and how they used the changing night sky in their daily lives.
Fraser: Welcome to Astronomy Cast, our weekly facts-based journey into
the Cosmos, where we help you understand not only what we know, but
how we know what we know. My name is Fraser Cain, I’m the publisher
of Universe Today, and with me is Dr. Pamela Gay, a professor at Southern
Illinois University at Edwardsville. Hi, Pamela how are you doing?
Pamela: I’m doing well, Fraser, how are you doing?
Fraser: I’m doing great. It is still really cold and snowy, so we can’t go
outside yet, but that’s going to be changing soon. OK, so this week — we
don’t have a lot of time so we gotta roll! The sun moon stars and planets
are visible with the unaided eye, so there were astronomers before recorded
history, but some of the earliest records we do have tell us what the ancient
astronomers thought about the heavens and how they used the changing
night sky in their daily lives. Let’s look at archaeoastronomy.
Archaeoastronomy? It’s like archeology and astronomy. Is it archeologists
who like astronomy? Or is it astronomers who like archeology?
Pamela: It’s like one of those bad interdisciplinary fields where everyone
lays claims to it, and so you really have to be good at all of it to be good at
the field. So you have…even anthropologists get thrown into the mix, but
that then becomes a word no one can say.
Fraser: Sort of an Indiana Jones with a telescope?
Fraser:Or a [missing audio] with a bullwhip?
Pamela: Not so much…
Fraser: OK, so can you give us some examples, then, of what would…are
we talking about buildings, documents…what is Archaeoastronomy?
Pamela: Generally, it’s a matter of talking about something that is
physically built that allows you to use the structure itself to make
predictions to make measurements about sky phenomena, so the classic
examples are the “spiral and dagger” that is seen near Chaco Canyon in the
American southwest. This is a place where sunlight passing between two
rocks makes a dagger of light that, on different special days of the year,
either appears just beside a spiral on one side or the other, or pierces it
directly through the center. And these alignments only occur on the
solstices and equinoxes.
Fraser: Oh, but this isn’t a natural structure. Some hard-working rock
chisellers went out and actually figured out the math, lined things up and
then cut the holes.
Pamela: This is actually probably something that required even more
patience than that — where someone noticed, “Hey, these two rocks make
this dagger of light. Let’s mark in (whatever the Stone Age equivalent of
pencil is) the location of that dagger on this equinox, on that equinox (well,
the equinoxes will be in the exact same place), on the winter solstice and on
the summer solstice…” and then very carefully, once they had figured out
where the dagger was on these three extremes of most northern, most
southern and central position, let’s carve a spiral into the rock to denote
when those locations occur.
Fraser: I’ve never seen this, so maybe you could kind of give people a
picture of what this…maybe people in the U. S. are more familiar with it,
but I’ve never even seen a picture of this. What does it look like?
Pamela: So, you’re looking at a rock, well it’s the inside of a cave, and the
way the sunlight comes through, there’s a spiral pattern carved into the
rock, and just like any spiral, there’s a central point and then it curves
outwards and forms basically – it’s round — and on the winter and summer
solstices, the dagger of light appears just touching one edge or the other of
the spiral, and then on the equinox (in both equinoxes the sun is in the exact
same place), that dagger of light pierces exactly through the center.
Fraser: Wow! So, can you give us some other examples? I mean, there
are some pretty famous ones, right? Stonehenge, the Pyramids…
Pamela: Those are the two big ones that everyone points to, and what’s
interesting about Stonehenge, in particular, is it’s an example of where we
do archeo-astronomy without having any social context for trying to
understand what we’re looking at. Archaeoastronomy…there’s two general
ways to do it: you either start from, “I have a giant something I don’t
understand,” and you try to find astronomy references within it using
statistics, or you start from the, “I know Venus was culturally very
important to this society,” and you look for references to that particular
thing that you know was important. So you’re either looking for
astronomy within the context of the society, or you’re trying to find
astronomy to give you context to the society. So these are two different
ways of doing it, and Stonehenge is the, “Wow! This is kind of awesome!
I wonder if it lines up with anything?” and it was very quickly realized that,
yes, there are summer solstice alignments with the heel stone in Stonehenge.
And people since then have been looking for all the possible alignments you
can find between “Stand here, look there — ah look, there’s the sun, a
planet, a star…”
Fraser: And so what is the event? If you wanted to go to Stonehenge on
the right day and really appreciate its use as an astronomical tool, what day
and what would you be seeing?
Pamela: Well, the big day to go to it that everyone goes to it — and I’ve
been there the day after, but not the day of is the summer solstice — and this
is because of the sun’s rising position directly over the heel stone…the
place, Stonehenge, is a lot smaller than you think of it. The rocks are huge,
the circle is huge, but the place that it’s located is wedged between the
north-south or east-west, I forget the directions of the highway…it’s kind
of odd…so you’d be crammed into this area between the two directions of
the highway, along with a lot of people who smoke interesting things.
Pamela: …and potentially are dressed as druids or wiccans, and then, of
course, you have all the photographers who are there and all the scientists
that are there, so it’s highly chaotic; but nonetheless it’s the kind of thing
that, looking at all the photos and being there the day after or the day
before, can give you a real appreciation for: “That is a giant well-aligned
rock.” And make you wonder just how is it that the ancient people were
able to do the things that they did.
Fraser: Making sure that rock was lined up with the sun on the summer
solstice was clearly very important to them.
Pamela: Right. It’s one of these things where we can’t even figure out
exactly how they moved these rocks. And then the idea of using a system
of pulleys, and logs, and rope…basically, you dig a hole dig a hole dig a
hole, stand the stone upright in the hole, and once it’s standing up, you’re
looking at leaving the entire village to adjust how it’s standing in that hole
– and it’s a perfect alignment.
Fraser: So Stonehenge is one great example, and I talked about the
Pyramids as well, which is, again, on an even grander scale…
Pamela: And with the Pyramids, it’s potentially even a double-alignment.
You have, on one hand, the directions of the Pyramids are exactly lined up
with the Cardinal points, and this is to within all observable limits of the
Fraser: Sorry, Cardinal points, what does that mean?
Pamela: North, South, East and West…
Fraser: OK so, what is it – the corners are North, South, East and West?
Pamela: The sides.
Fraser: So if you draw a line from two corners, you’ll go North-South, and
if you draw a line from the other corners, you’ll go East-West?
Pamela: Exactly. So one of the really neat things you can do with the
Pyramids is just go to Google maps and type in “Pyramids of Giza,” and
when you look at them you can see, “Wow! The edges are exactly North-
South – exactly East-West!” And then when you look at the 3 pyramids
(the 3 big ones), they form this slope. And when you look at them, yeah,
you can go “OK, they’re exactly lined up neatly on diagonals,” but the
other thing that people say is that they were designed to look like the belt
stars of the constellation Orion, so what the ancient Egyptians were actually
building was the belt of Orion when they put these three pyramids where
they put them. Now, it’s not known for certain if this is exactly what was
intended, but it’s just one of those neat things to look at on Google maps
and go, “Huh, yeah, I can see that!”
Fraser: If they had more time to build more Pyramids, then they could
have had the shoulders and the feet and the sword, and the shield…so yeah,
I guess they just didn’t really commit.
Pamela: Well, considering how big those suckers are, I’m not sure that you
really need to worry about commitment issues.
Fraser: Have you ever seen them?
Pamela: Yeah, I was actually there. We actually left Alexandria two hours
before the New Year’s Eve bombing; so I was there, and if can find the
picture, we can post the picture of me, a camel, and a pyramid on the
website. They’re really quite impressive to see, but if you do visit the
Pyramids, take a tour guide who speaks Arabic and will stick to your side
because the Pyramids are surrounded by people who are going to try and
sell you things, and it’s very overwhelming.
Fraser: Yeah, you gotta learn “Leh, shokrun,” — “No, thank you.” OK
great! So the Pyramids are another one, but there are ancient buildings
around the whole world designed for astronomy. These are just a few
examples. Let’s have some more.
Pamela: The other really neat example that I particularly like to use is…
I’m going to mispronounce it…it’s the “Chichen Itza.” I can’t say it — I’m
just going to let you say the word for me. It’s this ancient observatory, and
when you look at it, you’re like “Wow! That’s an observatory built out of
stone, except the dome doesn’t rotate!” And the building was set out with
slits in the dome that allow you see when different things line up. So the
way the dome is designed, it’s not good for letting in light, but it is good
for saying “Aha! That is lined up there now; therefore, I know when I
Fraser: So, it’s in Mexico, right?
Pamela: It’s in Mexico, and it has a lot of sites on it that are related to the
planet Venus. This is an old Mayan relic. Venus is one of the particularly
important stars, whether it was (not stars, planets)…whether it was up as an
evening object or a morning object. And one of the neat things about
Venus is you can trace its pattern on the sky by taking observations at the
same time everyday, and depending on exactly where Venus and Earth are
in their orbits, you get different snake-like patterns, and so the path of
Venus on the sky from night to night to night during each of its appearances
is traced out in a whole variety of different Mayan relics.
Fraser: OK, I see, and so they would take that path that you would trace,
and then they would make it look like a snake and have it be embedded in
some other object.
Pamela: So, it was often feathered serpents, and this was how they viewed
it. And it’s one of those things where you’ve got to imagine how they tried
to piece together what Venus was because it’s this object that only appears –
it was two different objects to them – it only appears either right after
sunset or right before sunrise, and it’s so amazingly bright, but it never
hangs around the entire night, and both objects are never up at the exact
same time, and so it was seen as two different sides of, basically, a god
depending on which culture you were in.
Fraser: But some of them did figure it out, I mean, they realized that it
spends some time in the night, then it spends some time in the morning and
then it sort of lines up, so if you were going to use Chichen Itza, then you
would be able to — what? — see through a hole at a certain time and see
Venus, and then be able to know “OK, it is this day in the Mayan
Pamela: Well, we’re still trying to figure out how you use it. That’s one
of the problems that we run into. This is an example of where we’re
understanding astronomy within the culture of the people. So we look at
the building; we see the orientations of the building relative to north, south,
east and west. We look at the carvings on the building; we see references to
Venus. We look at the slots; you can tell the slots are designed for lining
things up, and we’re not entirely sure what. It’s a challenge! We’re still
trying to figure out all these different details. We do know that there are
places where, if you’re standing on the right platform, and you’re looking
past the right pillar, it lines up with Venus when it’s a morning or an
evening star, but it’s not particular to a time on the Mayan calendar. It’s not
necessarily particular to a certain orbit, but the alignments are there.
Fraser: Hmm…so then, astronomers would look at this from one point of
view, I guess, and they would say, “What did they know then? What parts
of modern astronomy did they ancient people have figured out?”…[missing
audio] and so on, but I can’t imagine astronomers going the other way and
saying, “What do these things tell us about the people?”
Pamela: And this is where it ends up being two different areas of
archaeoastronomy. With things like the Nazca Lines, which are these giant
lines in the Atacama Desert that trace out spiders and geometric figures…
Fraser: Yeah, Google map them. I mean, you can see them; they’re pretty
neat! They are like these enormous, almost like roadways, ground into the
desert — in the Atacama Desert –visible from huge altitudes, and these
really elaborate shapes. They’re quite amazing!
Pamela: And the thing about the Nazca Lines is you have to be in an
airplane to see them. There’s a monkey, there’s a spider, there’s a chicken,
there’s all kinds of crazy geometric shapes, there’s birds and no one’s quite
sure why, and the way they’re made. Different scientists have tried to
replicate them, and it’s actually not that hard once you figure out how you
want to shape the lines. It’s just a matter of going through and moving the
stones to make the shape you want, so if you can imagine making crop
circles, or something…all you need is rope and something to bash down the
corn, and you can make any shape you want, but you can’t see what shape
you’re making while you’re in the cornfield. Nazca Lines are the same
thing. All you need is a rope and a plan and you can make any shape you
want, just by moving rocks around. And so, in trying to figure out why,
one of the theories that was come up with is, “Well, maybe the head of the
spider lines up with something? Maybe the tail of the monkey lines up with
something…” And so people have looked for astronomical alignments,
and what’s been realized is that if you take any one place to stand, and any
one thing to line up with on the horizon, and you run simulations, you can
always find at least one day of the year that a really bright star or planet
aligns with that particular position and place on the horizon, and that makes
understanding a lot of this stuff hard because you have to ask yourself,
?What’s chance and what’s on purpose?”
Fraser: Yeah, I mean is that likely? I mean, could you take any object?
Could I take a kids’ jungle gym and stand at the various corners of it
outside and line up with stars and planets? I mean, is it unlikely that you’re
going to get that kind of a situation?
Pamela: If you start to narrow it down and say “an alignment only on the
solstices and equinoxes,” if you start to say “only with planets,” if you start
to say “only with certain stars of known ethnic importance” – so, like the
star Sirius has importance in several societies, then it starts to become a
matter of, “No, chance alignment isn’t likely,” but if you open it up to any
day of the year, and any star that is third magnitude or brighter, you can
pretty much find alignment with anything if you open up the calendar wide
Fraser: But I think you touched upon something that is really important
there, which is that if you find some kind of structure and it lines up with
Sirius, for example, perfectly on the winter solstice, maybe, then that really
tells you that Sirius is important to that culture. Then you can start digging
to find some references to it. So you can see how the archeology will help
you, and then knowing the astronomy will then help you find something out
about the culture.
Pamela: And this is where it’s been so neat looking at Mayan ruins and
seeing the “snakes” that mark out the path of Venus in the sky, and this is
where it’s been so frustrating with Stonehenge trying to figure out, “Well,
there’s been 165 different alignments found, and there’s a 50/50 probability
that that‘s chance,” and so trying to figure out what’s chance and what’s
real, and things like: there’s a set of holes at Stonehenge — the Aubrey
holes — and you can come up with all sorts of crazy ways to move rocks
from one Aubrey hole to the other Aubrey hole that could predict solar
eclipses, lunar eclipses, star cycles, and it’s just a matter of: “Well, what do
we know? Very little. What is possible? A whole lot.”…and trying to
infer, “Well, what was it actually used for? Here are our best guesses…”
We can only go as far as our best guesses.
Fraser: I can imagine it’s almost like a typewriter where all the keys are on
it, and there’s any combination of keys that you could be mashing, but
obviously if you’re a writer you can make words. But it’s hard to know –
if you don’t know what the outcome was — it’s hard to know how they
were using it because it’s so flexible with all of the holes that you could,
indeed, predict almost anything you wanted if you were using it right, but
at the same time, it could be that they just banged holes in them and thought
that it looked good.
Pamela: And this is one of those things where an understanding of statistics
becomes very important. It’s very easy to say, “Well, because this city is
laid out like a grid with roads going north-south and east-west, clearly, the
equinoxes are very important to this city.” No, we’re just boring, it’s the
Midwest; we lay things out as grids. It’s easy to infer a lot of stuff and then
if you take it one step further, and say, “and this Queen Anne Victorian
house that has four chimneys…because these chimneys happen to line up
with the rising of Gemini with…” and you can come up with all of this
different stuff and suddenly you’ve created a culture that is a cult of
Fraser: Right — incorrectly.
Pamela: And so you have to step back and say, “OK, what is the
probability, in general, of this happening by chance? What are all the other
possible things that could have happened?” And it’s just like the work that
Simon Singh has done, pointing out that with the Bible code, you can also
take Moby Dick and find all sorts of things predicted in it just be looking
for chance alignments of words.
Fraser: Right, and I think this is where this whole endeavor just leads into
pseudo-science and madness because, as you said, you can use almost
anything to predict anything, and so you can then retro-fit it back in and
say, “See? Stonehenge predicted the Great Fire of London…” you know?
If you’re using it right — but it’s hard to know whether a person is using it
right — you can predict almost anything. I know that a lot of the 2012
predictions, Mayan calendar, Nostradamus — all that kind of stuff — totally
relies on that. There’s so many ways that you could examine: it could be
nothing, it could be an astronomical tool…who knows? You’ve skirted the
issue, but with the Nazca Lines, if you could make a picture big enough for
only an airplane to see, then they must have had airplanes, you know?
[laughing], hot air balloons, or aliens…but no, they might have just said,
?Let’s make some great, big pictures because it’s cool, and fun, and it
shows that I’m rich.”
Pamela: Right, and this is where we can come up with some good
conclusions. We know that there are things that definitely align with the
solstices. There is the marking of the summer solstice at Stonehenge. At
New Grange in Ireland there’s a clear marking of winter solstice. With the
sun dagger, we have the solstices and the equinoxes all clearly marked in
the American Southwest. We can tell that human beings like to line things
up with north, south, east and west. It’s just something we do.
Fraser: As someone who lives in Canada, I can tell you that when the days
start to get longer, it is a good thing! You want to know that, finally, we’re
done having shorter nights, now it’s time to have longer ones. I can see
how a winter solstice is an important thing, and not that complicated, right?
You can figure it out pretty easily by looking at the shadows every day, and
eventually you’ll hone in on the shortest and the longest days of the year.
Pamela: And to get much beyond these solar alignments, and these
Cardinal direction alignments, it starts to require us to know something
about these cultures. So when we look for alignments…with the Pyramids
there’s actually windows that only the light of certain stars on certain days
do pass through and they were culturally important. With the Mayans, we
see Venus replicated. So this is where when we start looking for the
alignments that are statistically harder to prove; you have to understand the
culture you’re working within. So archaeoastronomy is a very rich and
complicated field, where sometimes you’re just left going, “Huh! That’s
interesting, but I can’t prove it,” and other times you’re left going, “Wow!
I see the same thing over and over and over and, wow! They could observe
Fraser: And I bet with modern computers, that’s really helped crunch a lot
of these numbers. As you said, with statistics you can take this thing,
model it in a computer, and then compare it against the night sky and start
running simulations. You start to tease out statistical anomalies and say,
“Hey, look at that! It does work for the solstice, or the Cartesian
Pamela: And where this has become particularly useful, is the sky isn’t
where it was when the pyramids were built. The sky isn’t where it was
when Stonehenge was built.
Fraser: That’s right, and so the position of the stars, the procession of the
Earth’s tilt has changed all that, and so they line up with where they were,
Pamela: Exactly, and so this is one of the things that makes the Pyramids
particularly amazing at how well pointed they are. There wasn’t a North
Star when they built the Pyramids. They had to actually stand there, watch,
figure out — based on the rotations of the stars — where the North Pole was,
and that’s a hard set of observations to make; but nonetheless, they made
them and precisely aligned these giant structures.
Fraser: Wow! Alright, well that was great, Pamela. Thanks a lot!
Pamela: It was my pleasure.
Fraser: Take care. Bye.
Pamela: You too. Bye.
This transcript is not an exact match to the audio file. It has been edited for clarity.
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| 0.946591
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THE ANGLO-ITALIAN AGREEMENT
The Italian aggression against Albania raises in an acute form the question of the future of the Anglo-Italian Agreement, and of the maintenance of the "status quo" in the Mediterranean.
The Agreement was signed on April 16th, 1938, but with the prerequisite that it should not come into force until there had been a "settlement" in Spain. In November 1938, the British Government considered that the withdrawal of 10,000 Italian soldiers constituted such a settlement, and the Agreement was brought into force on November 16th.
Terms of the Agreement
The Anglo-Italian Agreement (Treaty Series, No.31, 1938, Cmd.5726) falls into two parts.
The first part consists of the following eight Annexes attached to a Protocol:
1. A reaffirmation of the so-called Gentlemen's Agreement of January 2nd, 1937, by which Italy and Great Britain "disclaimed' any desire to modify .. or to see modified the 'status quo' as regards national sovereignty of territories in the Mediterranean area."
2. An agreement to exchange military information about the movements of troops.
3. An agreement for preserving the integrity of the various Arab States in the Red Sea area.
4. A declaration that neither Government would "employ the methods of publicity or propaganda in order to injure the interests of the other."
5. A declaration regarding Lake Tsana, at the head waters of the Nile in Abyssinia,
6. A declaration by Italy that natives of Italian East Africa should not be compelled to undertake military duties other than local policing,
7. A declaration by the Italian Government that British nationals in Italian East Africa should have religious
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| 0.954539
| 352
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In 1831, Prudence Crandall opened a private academy for the daughters of the white families of Canterbury and neighboring communities. Sarah Harris approached Crandall and was accepted as the first black woman as a student at the Academy. In 1833, Crandall decided to close the school and re-open it as one exclusively for “young Ladies and Little misses of color”.
Between 20 and 25 black women and girls, ranging from ages 9 to 22, attended the Academy. They came from Philadelphia, New York City, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. During the Academy’s 17 months of operation, Crandall and her students endured court trials, harassment, and increasing violence. After an angry mob attacked the school building on the night of September 9, 1834, Crandall decided that she must close the Academy for the safety of her students. Although only open for a brief time, the Canterbury Female Academy was the first private educational opportunity for African-American women in New England.
The events that took place at Prudence Crandall’s Female Academy and the courage shown by both teacher and students remain without equal in the annals of Connecticut history. Friends of the Prudence Crandall Museum need your support to ensure that this important site is preserved for future generations.
Friends of the Prudence Crandall Museum sponsor and support special events at the Museum, such as lectures, children’s programs, and teas, to support fundraising for the Museum. See a listing of all our Programs and Events for 2013.
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By the end of the 18th century, travel by stage coach was becoming more common in England, especially for the middle and upper classes. Many outlying towns still had no coach services except for those that originated from London, but if one could reach a town or inn that lay along a stage-coach route (by carrier’s wagon, for example) then one could travel to London from any part of the country. People could also opt to travel by Kendal flying wagon, as illustrated below. Travel by stage-coach would have been similar to taking public transportation today, with inns and hostelries taking the place of hotels, motels, and restaurants. A changeover of a team of horses, or feeding them or watering them, would have been the equivalent of filling a tank with gas.
Dates and times of travel were clearly advertised, including the rates, which were 4 pence or 5 pence for a seat inside the coach, and 2 pence and 3 pence for sitting outside. These costs were prohibitive for the poor, who generally earned a shilling a week (12 pence). A seat outside the coach exposed a traveler to variable weather conditions and hazards, and it was not unusual for passengers to fall off a lurching coach or to be struck by a flying object.
Long distance travel during this time was still a novelty, since the majority of the populace (around 90%) rarely traveled from their place of birth. Most English roads were in poor shape, rutted in good conditions and a muddy quagmire after heavy rains. In addition, people were accustomed to walking long distances, and it was not unusual for laborers to walk 6 miles to work.* The working class would not have chosen to pay for expensive transportation when two sturdy legs could carry them just as well. (Although I imagine a free ride on a friend’s wagon was always welcome.) As with public travel today, passengers could be seated alongside anybody – a considerate traveling companion, someone they instinctively disliked, or a person from a different class or station.
Macadamized roads were just beginning to be introduced during this period and their crushed stone surfaces allowed for greater speed and heavier loads to be carried. Travel time was reduced with these road improvements and with coach modifications, thus a good coach could go as fast as 6.4 miles per hour. This was at the expense of the horses, who lasted only an average of three years pulling heavy loads in all kinds of weather conditions and terrains. Royal Mail coaches went even faster than ordinary coaches, reaching speeds of up to 9 miles per hour, but these elite coaches represented only about 11% of the total coach mileage at its height. Below is a 1754 advertisement for the Edinburgh Stage Coach. Setting out on Tuesday in summer, the coach reached London in ten days. In winter, the journey would take 12 days. Ultimately, after road and coach improvements and before more efficient trains replaced coach travel as the preferred mode of transportation, the 400 mile trip between London and Edinburgh had been reduced to 40 hours, including all stops and relays (Harper Book of Facts).
- *Transport in Britain, 1750-2000, Phillip Bagwell and Peter Lyth, 2006, partial Google book
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| 0.983013
| 665
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Early on August 6, 2012, NASA’s rover Curiosity executed a perfect landing after an eight-month journey took it an astonishing 325 million miles to Mars, a planet roughly 130 million miles from Earth. It was a huge leap forward for America’s space program and for human exploration of our solar system. It reminded us that our innate curiosity leads to great feats of discovery, scientific advancement and improvement of the human condition. And it was a breathtaking moment of national pride and wonder.
The team of NASA scientists and engineers who guided Curiosity on her long voyage endured “seven minutes of terror” as the spacecraft guided itself through a multi-step descent through Mars’s atmosphere, from a starting point of 13,000 miles per hour to a feather-light landing. The euphoria they felt at the safe touchdown was surely unmatched. But as the first pictures were beamed back to Earth, those of us who have fought to maintain our space program did feel our own extra measure of joy.Continue Reading
I have long maintained that America’s space program is an investment we cannot afford to shortchange. Science and research fuel both our financial and intellectual economy. Breakthroughs in healthcare, missile defense, even everyday products we use at home have come from NASA research. Some of these innovations were planned, others were pure happenstance. But all have made our lives better and created new products which, in turn, have created jobs and expanded the economy. The Mars rover offers almost limitless possibility for the same.
Both the rover itself and its unique delivery system represent engineering feats of historic proportions. Her landing bore out a new “guided flight” system for entering the Martian atmosphere, executing a perfect landing within its target area - in fact, almost perfectly at its center. Guided flight technology will be crucial for future Mars-bound spacecraft carrying crew members and it lays the scientific foundation for leaps forward in commercial aviation safety and reliability.
As Curiosity explores Mars, she will employ dozens of new technologies that will pave the way for development of new American industries and jobs. The signals the rover generated as she descended into the thin Martian atmosphere were referred to as “heartbeats”. And one of the first orders of business after landing was a “brain change”, the installation of new software from 130 million miles away to help control her ground-based activities. She - and the team does refer to Curiosity as a “she” - will use her “arm”, which has a “shoulder”, an “elbow” and a “wrist”, to probe the secrets of Gale Crater and Mount Sharp. Curiosity’s ChemCam rock-blasting laser will allow instant chemical analysis of Martian soil and rocks. She will both navigate and share the view with us through her 3-D camera “eyes.”
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Bathymetric map showing a global view of the mid-ocean ridge (MOR). The mid-ocean ridge wraps around the globe for more than 65,000 km like the seam of a baseball, with an average depth to the ridge crest of 2500 m. Click image for larger view and image credit.
What Is The Mid-Ocean Ridge?
Professor, Marine Geophysics
University of California, Santa Barbara
The mid-ocean ridge system is the most extensive chain of mountains on earth, but more than 90% of this mountain range lies in the deep ocean. The mid-ocean ridge wraps around the globe for more than 65,000 km like the seam of a baseball. The average depth to the crest (top) of the ridge is 2500 m, but it rises above sea-level in Iceland and is more than 4000 m deep in the Cayman Trough.
Mid-ocean ridges are geologically important because they occur along the kind of plate boundary where new ocean floor is created as the plates spread apart. Thus the mid-ocean ridge is also known as a "spreading center" or a "divergent plate boundary." The plates spread apart at rates of 1 cm to 20 cm per year. As oceanic plates move apart, rock melts and wells up from tens of kilometers deep. Some of the molten rock ascends all the way up to the seafloor, producing enormous volcanic eruptions of basalt, and building the longest chain of volcanoes in the world! The molten rock that does not erupt freezes onto the edges of the plates as they spread apart. In 1783, a segment of the ridge which emerges above sea-level in Iceland erupted more than 12 cubic kilometers of lava- enough to pave the entire U.S. interstate freeway system to a depth of 10 meters. The scorching lava (~1200 ºC), as well as 50 million tons of sulfur dioxide released into the atmosphere, ruined crops and caused the death of more than 10,000 Icelanders, a quarter of the nation's population at the time.
A big picture cross section showing melt (molten rock) in the upper mantle beneath the East Pacific Rise. Melt extends over 100 kilometers deep below oceanic crust, and spans a breadth of several hundred kilometers. Click image for larger view and image credit.
Since most of the mid-ocean ridge is more than 2000 meters deep, most of its eruptions go unnoticed. In fact, accurate maps along the mid-ocean ridge did not exist until the last ten years, and even now much of it remains unmapped. Accurate maps that exist along portions of the mid-ocean ridge show that the zone of recent volcanic activity is narrow, less than 10 km and often less than 1 km wide. This region generating new ocean floor is also characterized by many small to moderate earthquakes. Some of these earthquakes are caused by volcanic eruptions, and others are caused by breaking and ripping of the thin, newly created plate as it spreads to either side of the ridge.
Two of the most carefully studied mid-ocean ridges are the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise (called a rise because it has more gentle slopes). The Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs down the center of the Atlantic Ocean. It spread apart at rates of 2 to 5 cm per year, and at these relatively slow spreading rates, the ridge has a deep rift valley along its crest. The rift valley is 1 to 3 km deep, about the depth and width of the Grand Canyon. In contrast, the East Pacific Rise spreads fast at rates of 6 to 16 cm per year (more than 20 cm per year in the past). Due to the fast spreading rates, there is no rift valley, just a smooth volcanic summit with a crack along the crest that is much smaller than the Atlantic rift valley. Every 50-500 km, the mid-ocean ridge is offset sideways right or left by transform faults (found where two plates slide sideways against each other). The ridge also has many smaller lateral offsets which, together with larger transform faults, divide the mid-ocean ridge into many segments.
Along the crests of the volcanoes of the mid-ocean ridge, cracks allow the near-freezing sea water to seep deep into the hot new crust. This water becomes superheated to temperatures of greater than 400ºC (752 ºF), causing the water to become so buoyant it shoots out of the seafloor at very high speeds, like water gushing from a broken fire hydrant. This water, however, is not clear and looks like thick black smoke. The hot "hydrothermal" water dissolves minerals out of the basalt crust and reacts with cold sea water when coming back up to the seafloor. The black appearance is caused by precipitation of tiny mineral particles in the plume of hot water as it gushes out of the seafloor. Chimneys and mounds of minerals deposit very rapidly around these "black smoker" hydrothermal vents. The main minerals are zinc-, copper-, and iron-sulfides (such as pyrite "fool's gold"). Sometimes there are traces of platinum, gold and silver, but usually not enough to make these deposits economic since they are so deep. [The author of this article, K. Macdonald, was Co-Chief Scientist of the expedition that first discovered black smoker vents and their deposits in 1979 using the deep-diving submersible, Alvin, on the East Pacific Rise].
The heat from the volcanoes and the hydrothermal vent waters provide the energy base for a very unusual community of deep sea animals. These animals live completely independent of sunlight, mining the energy of deep sea volcanoes. Instead of relying on floral (plant) use of the sun's energy to make organic material through photosynthesis, the food chain relies on microbes able to oxidize hydrogen sulfide and other compounds in hydrothermal vent waters, and convert large amounts of carbon dioxide in sea water into organic material through a process called chemosynthesis. The community consists of hundreds of species, including clams, mussels, crabs, vent fish, octopus, and the very unusual giant tube worms which grow as tall as 4 m. Conditions are hostile here; water pressures reach 200-300 atmospheres (3000 to 4500 lb./sq. in.), it is pitch dark, and volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur frequently.
Like the rest of the deep ocean floor, we have explored less of the mountains of the mid-ocean ridge system than the surface of Venus or Mars, or the dark side of the moon. Use of submersible or remotely operated vehicles to explore the mid-ocean ridge has provided information on less than 0.1% of the mid-ocean ridge! Much of the mid-ocean ridge still remains a mystery, and we will continue to explore it.
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Heart Catheterization for Congenital Heart Defects
Exam Overview Back to top
A heart catheterization is a procedure used for both diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects.
As a test, this procedure allows doctors to see how blood flows through the heart chambers and arteries.
As a treatment, the doctor can use special tools to fix a heart defect during this procedure.
How is it done?
A thin, flexible tube called a catheter is threaded through a blood vessel in the groin, or sometimes in another location, and into the heart. Through the catheter, the doctor can measure pressures, take blood samples, and inject a special dye (contrast material) into the chambers of the heart or blood vessels. The doctor watches the movement of the dye through the heart's chambers and blood vessels.
If the doctor is also going to treat a defect, special tools are moved through the catheter into the heart. The doctor uses these tools to correct the defect. Then the tools and the catheter are removed.
A heart catheterization usually takes between 2 and 3 hours to complete. After the procedure, pressure must be applied over the catheter site for 10 to 20 minutes to stop bleeding and bruising. Then a large bandage might be used to apply pressure to the catheter site for 4 to 6 hours. Your child will need to lie as still as possible and keep the leg in which the catheter was inserted straight to prevent bleeding. You may need to hold your child in your lap after the test to prevent leg movement, or your child can wear a leg board with a Velcro strap to hold the leg still.
Your child might be able to go home the same day. If the procedure is more complex, your child might stay in the hospital overnight.
A heart catheterization might also be called angiography (angiogram), cardiac catheterization, or heart cath.
Why It Is Done Back to top
As a test
A heart catheterization can be used to:
- See details of the heart structure.
- Measure pressures in the heart chambers and see how the blood is flowing through the heart.
- Collect samples of blood from inside the heart.
- Inject a dye into the heart or arteries to see whether there are abnormal blockages in the blood vessels or abnormalities of the heart chambers (such as defects or holes between chambers).
As a treatment
A heart catheterization can be used to fix certain types of heart defects. A few different types of procedures can be used during a catheterization. The type of procedure used depends on the type of defect. These procedures include: 1
- Septostomy. For a septostomy, an opening is made in the wall of the heart between the upper chambers to allow blood to mix between the heart chambers. This procedure is typically used to treat transposition of the great vessels, tricuspid atresia, and hypoplastic left heart syndrome. It does not correct the congenital heart defect but allows oxygen-rich blood to get out to the body until surgery can be done to correct the defect.
- Closing a defect. A doctor uses the catheter to insert a small closure device into the heart. This device prevents blood from flowing between chambers. This procedure might be done to treat an atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, or patent ductus arteriosus.
- Balloon valvuloplasty. A doctor uses the catheter to move a tiny balloon to the heart valve. The doctor then inflates the balloon to widen the valve. The balloon separates and stretches the valve opening. This allows blood to flow more easily through the heart. This procedure can be used to treat pulmonary valve stenosis and aortic valve stenosis.
- Balloon angioplasty. A doctor uses the catheter to move a tiny balloon into a blood vessel. The balloon is inflated to widen the vessel. This procedure can be used to treat narrowed blood vessels in the lungs or coarctation of the aorta.
- Stents. A doctor can use the catheter to place a small, expandable tube (stent) in an artery. The stent keeps the artery open. Stents might be placed in arteries outside the heart, such as the pulmonary arteries or the aorta.
Results Back to top
In a child who has a congenital heart defect, a heart catheterization shows how the blood is flowing through the heart. The exact heart problem can be seen and sometimes treated during the same procedure or a later one.
If your child has a complex heart defect, he or she might need a combination of surgery and catheterization to treat it.
Your child will continue to see the doctor to be sure that his or her heart is working right. Many children with a heart defect that was treated live healthy and normal lives with few or no restrictions. Your child will need regular checkups throughout life.
What To Think About Back to top
Your child might have other tests along with a catheterization so that the doctor can fully understand your child's heart defect. These other tests might be an MRI or a CT scan.
Complications related to the catheter include:
- Pain, swelling, and tenderness at the catheter insertion site.
- Irritation of the vein by the catheter.
- Bleeding at the catheter site.
- A bruise where the catheter was inserted. This usually goes away in a few days.
Serious complications are rare, but they can be life-threatening. These complications may include:
- Irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias).
- Puncture of the heart muscle or a blood vessel.
- Allergic reaction to the contrast material, with hives and itching and, rarely, shortness of breath, fever, and shock.
- Death from bleeding, blood clots, or an allergic reaction. This is rare.
References Back to top
Credits Back to top
|Primary Medical Reviewer||John Pope, MD - Pediatrics|
|Specialist Medical Reviewer||Larry A. Latson, MD - Pediatric Cardiology|
|Last Revised||October 11, 2011|
Last Revised: October 11, 2011
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2013 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.
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|Gerard P. Kuiper Early Graduate Students Missions to the Moon Telescopes & Research|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
In the mid-sixties, when I was still a graduate student, I have distinct memories of walking across the campus and looking up and seeing the daytime Moon in the Arizona sky very clearly. I’d be thinking to myself, gee, it’s only going to go around maybe 60 times before we actually try to land on it. Having grown up looking at the Moon through my telescope in the backyard and making drawings of the craters and so forth, it was kind of a personal relationship with the Moon.
In Kuiper’s day, it was initially planetary astronomy. He realized that going to the Moon you were looking at a rocky body. He brought in some of the first planetary geologists. Bob Strom is the most prominent of those—to this day he’s the world’s expert on Mercury, and the guy who figured out that Venus was resurfaced a few hundred million years ago.
Kuiper’s appreciation of geology actually came from a very odd thing. He got it in his head, correctly, that Mauna Kea in Hawaii would be a great astronomical observatory site. In the process of looking at Mauna Kea, he flew over the lava flows in Hawaii. He recognized what lava flows looked like from the air, and then when he looked through telescopes and subsequently orbiting spacecraft at the Moon, he realized he was looking at lava flows.
That sounds like a simple thing now—we all know the dark areas of the Moon are made of basaltic lava—but in the 1960s, before Apollo, there were other thoughts. Harold Urey, Kuiper’s great competitor—along with Kuiper one of the two founders of planetary science—thought the Moon was completely primitive, undifferentiated. He called it a Rosetta Stone: You could see what all the original building blocks looked like if you went to the Moon. But Kuiper knew what lava flows looked like from above, and realized he was seeing lava flows out there.
When Gerard Kuiper first got here, his charge was to map the Moon, and understand the geology of the Moon well enough to be able to land a person on it, because this was imminent. They were going to land somebody on there, and one of the hypotheses at the time was that the thing was just an electrostatically-charged clump of dust, and as soon as you stepped out of your spacecraft you were going to fall into dust as high as your eye.
It was an unlikely theory, but there was no way to prove it wrong, because nobody had done the research. And we were just a few years away from landing somebody there. That was why LPL got started to begin with, so one of the tasks was to make really good maps of the Moon and be able to choose places to land.
What they would do is go out to the telescope and take these gorgeous pictures of it, but of course it was what we call a point-perspective projection. It’s not even a round globe; it’s just what you see. What they would do is put those in a slide projector, take them down to the basement, and in the basement of LPL—I think it’s still hanging up there now—is a round sphere. They’d go way across the building and project this thing onto the sphere from a distance, and come around and take photographs of the sphere. They’d be able to get various perspectives of the Moon that you wouldn’t be able to see from Earth. Things that looked like ovals would become circles. The things those guys did in the days before digital image processing were amazing.
|Directory | LARS | LPL Library | LPL WebMail | Webmaster|
Department of Planetary Sciences
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
1629 E. University Blvd.
Tucson AZ 85721
Copyright © 2008 Arizona Board of Regents
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Texas is in the middle of a serious outbreak of West Nile Virus (WNV). The mayor of Dallas, the hardest hit locale, has gone so far as to declare a state of emergency and begin aerial spraying for mosquitoes. According to an August 20 update on the situation, the Texas Department of State Health Services has "confirmed 586 human cases of West Nile illness in Texas this year, including 21 deaths."
West Nile is not limited to Texas or to people. Here in Colorado, five equine cases have been reported to the State Veterinarian’s office thus far in 2012. More are surely to come. According to State Vet’s press release:
The incidence of the disease varies from year to year and depends on a number of factors, including mosquito numbers. The West Nile virus can be carried by infected birds and then spread locally by mosquitoes that bite those birds. The mosquitoes can then pass the virus to humans and animals.
Infected horses may display symptoms including head tilt, muscle tremors, stumbling, lack of coordination, weakness of the limbs, or partial paralysis. If horses exhibit clinical signs consistent with WNV, it is very important for horse owners to contact their veterinarian in order to confirm the diagnosis through laboratory testing. Horse owners should consult their private practicing veterinarian to determine an appropriate prevention strategy for their horses.
Vaccines have proven to be a very effective prevention tool … Of the five horses that have been WNV-positive, we have not been able to confirm that any of the horses have been vaccinated for WNV.
In addition to vaccinations, horse owners also need to reduce the mosquito populations and their possible breeding areas. Recommendations include removing stagnant water sources, keeping animals inside during the bugs’ feeding times, which are typically early in the morning and evening, and using mosquito repellents.
Dogs and cats can also be infected with West Nile virus via mosquito bites, but they rarely become sick from the exposure. Most individuals have such mild, minor, and short-lived symptoms (e.g., fever and lethargy, if they have any clinical signs associated with infection at all) that their owners are never even aware that infection has occurred. Dogs and cats that have been diagnosed with West Nile virus infection do not pose a health risk to people.
If you are concerned about West Nile and want to reduce your own and your pets’ potential exposure to the virus, limit outdoor activity during the dusk to dawn hours, remove standing water from your property, and keep windows and doors shut or make sure that screens are in good repair. Mosquito repellants can be helpful too, but do not apply human products to pets or canine products on cats. Used incorrectly, they can be more dangerous than the disease you are trying to prevent!
Repellants made specifically for both dogs and cats are available and can help keep mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit at bay.
Dr. Jennifer Coates
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The first half of the nineteenth century in England was much like contemporary America: It was a country strangled by bureaucratic regulations. Many people were always hungry, not because of poverty level wages, but because the price of grain for bread was kept artificially high by laws which simultaneously prevented the importation of foreign grain and subsidized domestic producers. Food riots, domestic unrest, and a stagnating economy were not sufficiently frightening to make the government eliminate these barriers.
In the midst of all this lived a successful young Manchester textile manufacturer named Richard Cobden (1804-1865). He saw the social injustice, and it made him furious. He was determined to change it, and he did. As a result, the world owes the existence of the free market to him. Cobden demonstrated methods that we can use to break down our own protectionist fair trade laws and massive food subsidies.
Richard Cobden began his public life by leaving his calico printing company to his brother. He received a portion of the profits, which allowed Cobden to devote full time to the cause of free trade. It seemed an impossible task. Yet, seven years later, England had undergone a revolutionary economic, political, and social change. Taxes on grain had been decimated. Unequaled prosperity flooded England. For the next 85 years Britain maintained world economic leadership, and the rallying cry of free trade became much more than an economic slogan. Free trade denoted the philosophy of limited government, social justice, and freedom.
Cobden understood the moral truths behind unregulated commerce. Breaking down barriers to trading freedom broke down class barriers and obstacles to civil rights. It reduced military expansion, since a powerful navy was a legacy from the old mercantile idea that warships protected trade between colonies and other controlled markets.
The Corn Laws
Protectionist tariffs were called Corn Laws. They restricted the free flow of corn, wheat, barley, and oats between Great Britain and foreign countries to shield the British farmer from competition.
Systematic government interference in grain production began in the 1660s. The amended Corn Law of 1774, which controlled legislation for the next half century, is a typical example: when the domestic price of corn, as paid to the farmer by the baker or dealer, fell below £2.4 a quarter (28 pounds), the farmer was encouraged to sell his products abroad, to prevent the market price from falling still further. He was given a bounty of five shillings for each quarter exported. When corn sold for £2.8, export was forbidden. At prices between these levels, there was a duty of six pence a quarter. Over time, this system became progressively more bureaucratized, with elaborate regulations specifying how and in what town the price was to be measured, with specific procedures for reporting and allowances for regional differences.1
The Corn Laws displayed another characteristic of government controls: Regulations and subsidies in one area led to the manipulation of tangential areas. In this case, when bad harvests triggered soaring grain and bread prices, the Corn Law mechanism exacerbated the problem, causing still higher prices. This provoked civil disturbances to the point where the government feared insurrection. To defuse the threat, workers wages were subsidized, relative to the price of bread. This subsidy came from the Poor Rates, the British nineteenth-century welfare system. This greatly expanded state entitlement programs, leading to massive fraud, inequities, and even greater civil unrest.
The Corn Laws are not merely things of the past. Their spirit exists in most countries of the world. In the U.S. today, agricultural products are subsidized and stored, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars annually, to keep the price of food artificially high. This enhances the farmers income but it also prevents the poor from eating as they should. This has led, as in nineteenth-century England, to protectionism, international tensions, and the threat of trade wars.
Richard Cobden: Businessman to Pamphleteer
Cobden was born in Dunford, West Sussex, in 1804. Because of a succession of family business failures, his father could not support young Richard. He went to live with an uncle who trained him to be a clerk in his London warehouse. At twenty-one Cobden became a traveling salesman. He was so successful that in 1831 he went out on his own and took over the calico printing company in Manchester.
Manchester was the worlds first great industrial city. It was viewed as the metropolis of the future. Alexis de Tocqueville best explained the paradox of Manchester: From this foul drain the greatest stream of human industry flows out to fertilize the whole world. From this filthy sewer pure gold flows. Here humanity attains its most complete development and its most brutish; here civilization works its miracles, and civilized man is turned back almost into a savage.2
In Manchester Cobden had his first lesson as to what free trade meant. As he assumed ownership of the company, the protective tariff on calicos was repealed, making it possible to export them competitively. This opened up vast new markets that could not exist before, allowing Cobden to develop a new kind of international selling strategy. Cobden introduced a new mode of business. The custom of the calico trade at that period was to print a few designs, and watch cautiously and carefully those which were most acceptable to the public, when larger quantities of those which seemed to be preferred would be printed off and offered to the retail dealer. Cobden and his partners did not follow the cautious and slow policy of their predecessors, but fixing themselves upon the best designs, they had those printed off at once and pushed the sale energetically throughout the country. Those pieces which failed to take in the home market were at once shipped to other countries and the consequence was that the associated firms became very prosperous.3
Yet, at the height of his achievements, Cobdens interest in calico waned. He was eager to pursue other courses. By 1835 he wrote his first political pamphlets. One, called Russia (describing the threat of Russia against the decaying Turkish Empire), contained the core of this mature thought: It is labor improvements and discoveries that confer the greatest strength upon a people. By these alone and not by the sword of the conqueror, can nations in modern and all future times hope to rise to power and grandeur.4
Cobden wrote that Englands rulers inhibited discovery and improvements by wasting millions on the military. His favorite target was Britains obsession with the doctrine of the balance of power. He saw it as a source of conflict, not stability. Empires have arisen unbidden by us; others have departed despite our utmost efforts to preserve them.5
Cobdens ideas were not idealistic dreams. The United States industrial strength had revolutionized the world economy and political equilibrium. Cobden: The new world is destined to become the arbiter of the commercial policy of the old.6 Already the need to trade with America had compelled Britain to abandon many regulations governing colonial commerce.
Since free trade and military non-intervention were the same to Cobden, he pleaded for Britain to abandon the past and repeal protectionism. This would make Britain turn moralist, in the end, in selfdefense.7
Manchester Incorporation: Prelude to Repeal
Cobdens pamphlets attracted the attention of the editor of the Manchester Times, Archibald Prentice, who asked him to speak on free trade issues. This led to Cobdens being elected to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. Here he met two men who would influence his thinking and direction: John Benjamin Corn Law Smith and John Bright. Smiths nickname was due to his years of singlehandedly fighting for Corn Law repeal, long before it became a major topic. It was Smith who converted Cobden to total repeal, not just incremental reductions. John Bright became Cobdens chief lieutenant in the long war for repeal. Brights speaking tours around the country were a great factor in victory.
Cobden used the Chamber of Commerce as a vehicle for focusing public issues. The first political problem he tackled was the incorporation of Manchester. Like many of Englands new industrial cities, Manchester had no borough (an urban political administrative area) charter. Its government was manorial, with the power of a small town, instead of one of Englands largest urban centers.
In 1837 Cobden led the battle for a charter. One factor in winning was that he fought for it as if it were a national issue. His pamphlet, Incorporate Your Borough, portrayed the struggle as one of democracy versus privilege, the rights of the productive classes against the rapacious aristocracy. He showed that the nobilitys gerrymandering of counties forced the middle and working classes to be their vassals.
Incorporation required a petition of taxpayers. There was powerful opposition from the upper class Tories. To counter this, Cobden focused on the shopocracy, the smaller merchants and manufacturers, for petition signatures. Then, using electoral registers, the Incorporationists sent a circular to all parliamentary electors who supported reform causes, to aid them by filling seats at public meetings. They did, and incorporation passed despite the fact that the Tories had three times as many signatures. Cobden made a name-by-name check of the opposition petition and found that 70 percent were invalid. With incorporation, Cobden was elected to his first public offices: borough councilor and alderman.8
The Manchester League: Fighting for Free Trade
Cobden now set his sights on an ambitious national goal that had previously proved impossible to attain: repeal of the Corn Laws. In 1838 the Manchester Anti-Com Law Association (later, the Manchester League) was created. Cobden saw repeal as the greatest single battle of his time. It would unite workers, farmers, and commercial interests against privilege to radically alter the political power structure of the country.
The Leagues initial goal was to educate the public. Lecturers went all around England, giving free trade conferences. At this stage, political pressure did not seem necessary. But the League did have an ally in Parliament: Charles Villiers. For years he had unsuccessfully tried to initiate a Corn Law repeat debate in the House of Commons, which was dominated by big landlords. However, Cobden knew that Villiers efforts helped identify supporters at the national level. This would influence the Leagues strategy in the provinces.
Within the first year Cobden realized that he had underestimated the Protectionists strength. In rural areas, League meetings were disrupted by physical violence. The farmers erroneously believed that free trade would bring unemployment and depression. The Chartists, representing the urban workers, were hostile for the same reason. Cobden hoped that the Leagues message would convince both groups that repeat would open up new markets which would raise all wages. It required years of educating for these truths finally to be perceived.
This generated a strategic change: the lectures were now combined with petition drives for Parliament. Thus began overt political activism. By 1840 the Manchester League transformed itself, creating in every borough an anti-Corn Law party, or at least an effort to prevent the return of any candidate at the next election, whatever his political party may be, who supports ... the landowners bread tax.9 This meant a more aggressive League, less compromising, less fearful of making enemies.
In 1841, a major economic depression occurred. Suddenly Prime Minister Robert Peel resorted to the free trade idea of lower tariffs to stimulate the economy. This made the Corn Laws nationally significant and gave greater credibility to the League.
By now the League had several members in Parliament, including Cobden. But he was a reluctant member. He did not want to be a party man, loyal and compromising. He needed to be free to harass the government.
Cobdens speeches in Parliament were not influential and this dampened League members enthusiasm. Support dropped sharply. In all mass movements, zeal is critical. There is a constant need to exceed earlier achievements or risk dissolution. So Cobden created make-work projects like conferences and fund-raisers to keep the fervor at high pitch.
By 1843, paradoxically, economic recovery made the League acceptable to the one group most antagonistic to repeal: the aristocratic landowners. When times had been bad, high prices and high subsidies compensated for the poor yields. But now, prices kept failing with increased abundance and the Tories saw that the Corn Laws did not shore up their incomes.
Cobdens speeches became more moderate. Instead of attacking the Corn Laws, he attacked the greater evils behind them: the economic woes to workingmen and farmers. The new accent was on distress, not repeal. Now he no longer seemed menacing to the Tories. Gone were the threats of the collapse of society because of high food prices. No longer did he say that the Corn Laws benefited only the rich. He appealed to the landlords themselves, showing them that protective tariffs deterred them from investing to improve their crops, thus hindering their prosperity.
This wider view drew many leading Tories to the repeal side and was responsible for Robert Peel receiving a League delegation after repeatedly turning them down.
This was followed by a new League political plan. All the boroughs were classified as either safe, doubtful, or hopeless. Voter registration focused on the hopeless districts. Teams of lecturers and voter canvassers fanned out and recruited thousands of new members. Cobdens overall objective was staggering: to reach every voter with League material through the canvassers. The sheer scale of it produced more enthusiasm, more fund-raisers, more activities, but it failed and did not destroy the Protectionists. Cobden had the courage to admit he was wrong and turned around completely in mid-campaign, refocusing on the winnable boroughs.
Cobden targeted 160 boroughs as winnable. The 1845 national election showed substantial gains in 112. This still wasnt sufficient to win a Parliamentary vote. League members were now thoroughly demoralized. Their tremendous work seemed futile. Then Cobden discovered a loophole in the election law, enabling the League to attack from an entirely different direction. This proved to be the key to victory.
Previously Cobden had conceded the counties (the rural political districts). To win them he would have to create a vast new electorate. This seemed impossible because of the large property qualification required. Or so he thought. But a little-known law made it possible to vote in a county election if one owned a forty-shilling freehold, a small piece of property that almost anyone could afford. By promoting forty-shilling freeholds as a great real estate investment, the number of free-trade voters was greatly expanded. Immediately the Tories retreated. They acknowledged that protectionism hindered agricultural modernization and conceded that subsidies did not stabilize corn prices.
Seeing that his opponents were caving in, Cobden once again switched the mode of attack: de-emphasizing public education to put more pressure on Parliament. This forced Prime Minister Peel over to the League side, provoking a governmental crisis. He was forced to resign and his government collapsed. Repeal now seemed within reach. But the chaos compelled a Parliamentary re-organization, reflecting the revolutionary change in the balance of power that repeal represented, shifting away from the aristocrats toward the urban middle class. It appeared that the Protectionists had formed a last-ditch coalition to block repeal just when it seemed assured. League members held their breath. Repeal passed Parliament and became law.10
The Consequences of Repeal
Following repeal, Richard Cobden was physically, mentally, and financially drained. He considered retiring permanently from politics. For the five years prior to repeal he saw very little of his wife and children. My only boy is five years old ... he did not positively know me as his father, so incessantly was I upon the tramp.11 Yet Cobden felt the necessity to go on. He saw repeal as a beginning, not an end. More than prosperity, it would bring world peace. He spent the next fourteen months on a missionary tour of Europe, promoting the social benefits of trade without barriers.
He wrote: Warriors and despots are generally bad economists and they instinctively carry their ideas of force and violence into the civil politics of their governments. Free trade is a principle which recognizes the paramount importance of individual action.12
Several years later his evangelism led to the second great triumph of his political career, the Anglo-French Commercial Treaty of 1860. France was still a protectionist country, but Cobdens tour had converted important Frenchmen into freetraders. They had influenced Napoleon III. One such person was Michel Chevalier, a political economist.
For centuries England and France had been military antagonists, but in the Crimean War of 1854-55 they were allies. Through free trade there was a unique opportunity to strengthen the bonds for permanent peace.
Initially there were several secret meetings in London among Chevalier, Cobden, and Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Then Cobden, with no official status, quietly left for Paris. He believed then, as always, that free trade would undo the national animosities kept alive by the professional diplomats and the military. I would not step across the street just now to increase our trade, for the mere sake of commercial gain .... But to improve moral and political relations of France and England, by bringing them into greater intercourse and increased dependence, I would walk barefoot from Calais to Paris.13
Napoleon realized that he had to convince his own government about the benefits of free trade. He asked Cobden how to go about it. Cobden replied, I told him, I would act precisely as I did in England, by dealing first with one article which was the keystone of the whole system. In England, that article was corn, in France, it was iron; that I should totally abolish and at once the duty on pig iron, and leave only a small revenue duty, if any, on bars ... this would render it much easier to deal with all the other industries, whose general complaint is that they cant compete with England owing to the high price of iron and coal.14
When the negotiations reached their critical phase, Cobden thought he would be replaced by professional diplomats. Instead he was given plenipotentiary powers and continued on his own. The agreement was signed in January 1860.
Cobden died in April 1865. He was sixty years old. His legacy is enormous and remains so to this day. For eighty-five years free trade reigned as Englands national policy, influencing the commercial principles of every major country in the world. Richard Cobdens idealism and passionate dream can be summed up by his statement: I see in the free trade principle that which will act on the moral world as the principle of gravitation in the universedrawing men together, thrusting aside the antagonisms of race, and creeds and language, and uniting us in the bonds of eternal peace.... I believe the effect will be to change the face of the world, so as to introduce a system of government entirely distinct from that which now prevails. I believe the desire and the motive for large and mighty empires and gigantic armies and great navies will die away .... when man becomes one family, and freely exchanges the fruits of his labor with his brother Man.15
1. Norman Longmate, The Breadstealers: The Fight Against the Corn Laws, 1838-1846 (New York: St. Martins Press, 1984), pp. 3-4.
2. Alexis de Tocqueville, Journeys to England and Ireland, edited by J, P. Mayer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1958), pp. 107-108.
3. John Mcgilchrist, Richard Cobden, the Apostle of Free Trade (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1865), p. 20.
4. Richard Cobden, Russia, from The Political Writings of Richard Cobden, 4th edition (London: W. Ridgway, 1901), p. 26.
5. Cobden, America, from Political Writings, p. 5.
6. Ibid., p. 21.
7. Ibid., p. 256.
8. Nicholas Edsall, Richard Cobden, Independent Radical (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986), pp. 51-59.
9. Ibid., p. 85.
10. Ibid., pp. 53-153.
11. Ibid., p. 174.
12. Ibid., p. 186.
13. Ibid., p. 333.
14. Ibid., p. 334.
15. Richard Cobden, Speeches on Public Policy, By Richard Cobden, M.P., edited by John Bright and J. E. Thorold Rogers (London: Macmillan & Co., 1870), pp. 225-226.
|John Chodes is a writer in New York City.|
Reprinted with permission from Ideas on Liberty (March 1993). © Copyright 1993, Foundation for Economic Education.
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On a mission for more informed decisions about nature
09 January 2013 | Article
We start the year by taking a look at IUCN’s role in the newly-established ‘platform’ to assess the state of biodiversity, the Earth’s fragile ecosystems and the essential services they provide to all of us. Explore the content of the IUCN monthly focus on IPBES and follow IUCN at the First Session of the IPBES Plenary to take place from 21- 26 January 2013 in Bonn, Germany,.
Last year more than 90 governments agreed to establish IPBES – the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
The aim of IPBES is to provide the latest science and knowledge to support more informed decisions on how biodiversity and ecosystem services are conserved and used around the world. IUCN plays a key role in providing this science and knowledge.
The first session of the IPBES plenary will be held in Bonn, Germany from 21 to 26 January, hosted by the Government of Germany. It will aim to agree on the next steps needed to put the IPBES work programme into operation.
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Sackets Harbor and Madison Barracks
Sackets Harbor was founded in 1801 by Augustus Sackett, who saw the commercial advantages of the vast lumber resources and the deep natural harbor of the Black River Bay. The village became a major shipping and shipbuilding center due to its location to Canada across Lake Ontario. This meant profitable trade with Canada and England. Sackets Harbor became the headquarters of the U.S. military for the northern frontier with the declaration of war against England in 1812. The village was now a major military outpost and shipbuilding center with the sudden swarm of troops and ship carpenters. Hastily prepared earthen works named Fort Volunteer were established at the start of the War of 1812 to defend the northeast end of Sackets Harbor. A new set of breastworks and a blockhouse named Fort Pike was constructed adjacent to Fort Volunteer; these two forts would later form the core of Madison Barracks. Another string of defensive land forts followed. These were Forts Kentucky, Virginia, Chauncey, and Stark. On Lake Ontario at the land’s end of Navy Point was Fort Tompkins.
British forces led by Lt. Gen. Sir George Provost, who was also the British governor general of Canada, began moving towards Sackets Harbor on May 27, 1813. As the British forces neared the harbor, they spotted ships at a distance, and Provost feared these were American ships. Thinking they were American ships, he withdrew, which allowed the Americans time to strengthen their defenses. The Americans received 500 more militiamen as reinforcements who were added to the force of 500 regulars and 250 militiamen commanded by Lt. Col. Electus Backus. On May 29, the British finally attacked and attempted to land south of the town, but with American defenses being too strong, they were forced instead to land on the north side of town. The Americans were initially pushed back, but they rallied and succeeded in stopping the British advance. Provost called off the attack and withdrew when his forces failed to dislodge the Americans.
After the War of 1812, the U.S. saw the importance of trained troops, which led to the building of Madison Barracks at a cost of $85,000. It became a substantial link in Sackets Harbor’s chain of defense. Named for President James Madison, the barracks was operated by the U.S. Army until after World War II. It was continuously enlarged and improved throughout its existence to accommodate the military’s needs at the given time. During its use, Madison Barracks was considered one of the nation’s best military posts. A few well-known leaders who spent time at Sackets Harbor were Ulysses S. Grant, Gen. Mark Clark, Gen. Jacob Brown, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, and President Martin Van Buren.
Of all the Soldiers and units stationed at Sackets Harbor, the 9th Infantry Regiment was probably the most well-known. In 1892, the 9th Infantry Regiment was stationed at Madison Barracks at the end of the Indian Campaigns. Here their military training continued with long marches, inspections, and marksmanship training. During its stay at Madison Barracks, the 9th Infantry Regiment was involved with the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and the Boxer Rebellion in China. During the battle to capture Tientsin in China, the 9th Infantry Regiment was engaged in deadly combat. The regiment commander, Col. Emerson H. Liscom, was fatally wounded while recovering the colors from the wounded color bearer of the regiment. Before Liscom died, he handed off the colors to the adjutant with his final command to the Soldiers: “Keep up the Fire!” The fighting continued, and the regiment was successful in its attack.
When service in the Pacific was over, the 9th Infantry Regiment returned to Madison Barracks. Affixed to the water tower, one of the most prominent landmarks on the military post, is a large plaque on which are listed the names of Soldiers of the 9th Infantry Regiment who lost their lives in service in Cuba, the Philippines and China between 1898 and 1907.
During action in these locales, five Soldiers of the 9th Infantry Regiment earned the Medal of Honor:
· Second Lt. Ira C. Welborn, Santiago Cuba, July 2, 1898;
· Second Lt. George W. Wallace, Tinuba, Luzan, Philippine Islands, March 4, 1900;
· Pvt. Robert H. Von Schlick, Tientsin, China, July 13, 1900, (posthumous);
· First Lt. Louis B. Lawton, Tientsin, China, July 13, 1900; and
· Capt. Andre W. Brewster, Tientsin, China, July 13, 1900.
Col. Philip Reade, as regimental commander of the 23rd U.S. Infantry at Madison Barracks, was a driving force behind Camp Hughes’ selection and success. Reade realized that developments in modern military weapons such as bolt action rifles, machine guns, and rapid firing artillery pieces had exceeded the capability of the U.S. Army to train at Sackets Harbor. He then coordinated with local North Country leaders and the Watertown Chamber of Commerce to look for a new training area. The area in Felts Mills, immediately north of the Black River, was chosen. Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, 1907, the New York National Guard established a temporary tent encampment, which they called Camp Hughes. Camp Hughes was named for Charles E. Hughes, who was then the governor of New York. Since that summer, U.S. Army Soldiers have trained annually at that site.
The following year in 1908, Brigadier General Frederick Dent Grant, the oldest son of President Ulysses S. Grant, led thousands of Soldiers back to the area north of Black River, known locally as Pine Plains. Grant commanded 2,000 Regular Army Soldiers and 8,000 militia men from throughout the Northeast. He found Pine Plains to be an ideal place to train troops and money was allocated to purchase the land and summer training continued there through the years. The camp at Pine Plains formally opened on June 11, 1908, and training continued throughout the summer.
The camp's first introduction to the national spotlight came in 1935 when the largest peacetime maneuvers were held on Pine Plains and surrounding farmlands. Thirty-six thousand five hundred Soldiers came from throughout the Northeast to take part in the exercise. Some Soldiers travelled by trains, which arrived in town every 15 minutes, coming from as far away as Buffalo and New York City. For 36 hours, young men from offices, factories, and farms marched, attacked and defended in tactical exercises on the 100-mile stretch of land the Army had leased for its war games. The maneuvers were judged to be most successful, and the War Department purchased another 9,000 acres of land.
Pine Camp Cantonment
With the outbreak of World War II, the area then known as Pine Camp was selected for a major expansion when an additional 75,000 acres of land were purchased. With that purchase, 525 local families were displaced. Five entire villages were eliminated, while others were reduced from one-third to one-half their size. By Labor Day 1941, 100 tracts of land were taken over. Three thousand buildings, including 24 schools, six churches and a post office, were abandoned. Contractors then went to work, and in a period of 10 months at a cost of $20 million, an entire city was built to house the divisions scheduled to train here. Eight hundred buildings were constructed: 240 barracks, 84 mess halls, 86 storehouses, 58 warehouses, 27 officers' quarters, 22 headquarters buildings, and 99 recreational buildings as well as guardhouses and a hospital. Construction workers paid the price, as the winter of 1941-42 was one of the coldest in North Country history. The three divisions to train at Pine Camp were Gen. George S. Patton's 4th Armored Division (Gen. Creighton Abrams was a battalion commander here at the time), the 45th Infantry Division and the 5th Armored Division, along with the 754th Tank Battalion, which went on to fight in the jungles of the Pacific. The post also served as a prisoner of war camp. Of those prisoners who died here, one Italian and six Germans are buried in the cemetery along Route 26 between the 45th Infantry Division Gate and the Oneida Gate.
Fort Drum: 1945 to 1985
Pine Camp became Camp Drum in 1951, named after Lt. Gen. Hugh A. Drum, who commanded the First Army during World War II. During and after the Korean Conflict, a number of units were stationed and trained here to take advantage of the terrain and climate. Since its earliest existence, the post has been a major annual training site for Northeastern National Guard and Reserve forces. Throughout Camp Drum’s existence, it was still considered a temporary training facility for the U.S. Army, and Soldiers continued to be quartered in World War II temporary barracks during summer drills.
The post was designated Fort Drum in 1974, and a permanent garrison was assigned. In April 1980, B Company, 76th Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy) was reassigned here from Fort Meade, Md. It was followed by the rest of the battalion, less D Company, three years later. In January 1984, the Department of the Army announced it was studying selected Army posts to house a new light infantry division. On Sept. 11, 1984, the announcement was made that Fort Drum would be the new home of the 10th Light Infantry Division. The first division troops arrived at Fort Drum on Dec. 3, 1984. Between 1986 and 1992, 130 new buildings, 35 miles of roads, and 4,272 sets of family housing units were built at a cost of $1.3 billion.
Fort Drum is also a major training center for reserve component forces, and units of the New York Army National Guard rank among the post’s most frequent customers. The nearly 12,000-member New York Army National Guard is comprised of state headquarters and three major commands: Headquarters, 42nd Infantry Division (Mechanized); Headquarters, 53rd Troop Command, and the 27th Separate Infantry Brigade (Enhanced). Battalions, companies and detachments of these commands are distributed among more than 60 armories across the state from Niagara Falls to the tip of Long Island. These units regularly come to Fort Drum for weekend inactive duty training and annual training during the year. Fort Drum’s ranges, training areas and facilities are essential to the New York Army National Guard to meet readiness objectives and federal training requirements.
Today, Fort Drum consists of 107,265 acres. Its mission includes commanding active component units assigned to the installation, providing administrative and logical support to tenant units, providing support to tenant units, providing support to active and reserve units from all services in training at Fort Drum, and planning and providing support for mobilization and training of almost 80,000 troops annually.
10th Mountain Division Reactivated: 1985
On Feb. 13, 1985, the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) was officially reactivated at Fort Drum, and, as this was written, has been one of the most deployed units in the U.S. Army. The division commander after reactivation was Brig. Gen. William S. Carpenter. The 10th was the first division of any kind formed by the Army since 1975 and the first based in the Northeast since World War II. The 10th Mountain Division (LI) was designed to meet a wide range of worldwide infantry-intensive contingency missions. Equipment design was oriented toward reduced size and weight for reasons of both strategic and tactical mobility.
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reptiglo: Eyelash viper (Bothriechis schlegelii)
Like other Bothriechis members, this species is arboreal, having a strongly prehensile tail. It is largely nocturnal, consuming small rodents, frogs, lizards, and small birds. They are not known to be an aggressive snake, but will not hesitate to strike if harassed.
A typical ambush predator, it waits patiently for unsuspecting prey to wander by. Sometimes, it is known to select a specific ambush site and return to it every year in time for the spring migration of birds. Studies have indicated that these snakes learn to improve their strike accuracy over time. Sometimes these snakes (especially juveniles) will employ what is known as “caudal luring”, where they will wiggle their tail in worm-like motions to encourage potential prey to move within striking range. There is a myth among villagers in some small areas of South America that the snake will wink, flashing its eyelashes at its victim, following a venomous strike. (Snakes are not physiologically capable of such behavior.)
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Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is water-soluble and easily destroyed. It is essential in wound healing and in the formation of collagen, a protein important in the formation of healthy skin, tendons, bones, and supportive tissues. Deficiency results in defective collagen formation and is marked by joint pains, irritability, growth retardation, anemia, shortness of breath, and increased susceptibility to infection. Scurvy is the classic disease related to deficiency. Symptoms peculiar to infantile scurvy include swelling of the lower extremities, pain upon flexing them, and bone lesions. Excessive ascorbic-acid intake can cause kidney stones, gastrointestinal disturbances, and red-blood-cell destruction.
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I often hear about relaxation techniques in pop psychology. We also discussed them in the mental health section of our Occupational Therapy (OT) curriculum when we explored anxiety. But are they effective and science-based?
Stress and anxiety are common but relatively nebulous issues that can be hard to treat – especially as the cause of stress can be difficult to localize and anxiety has no direct apparent “cause”. Prolonged psychological stress or anxiety can even manifest a variety of physiological symptoms – high blood pressure, poor cognitive performance, mood problems, gastrointestinal disturbance, changes in eating habits, weight changes, somatic symptoms, and substance abuse.
Prolonged or excessive stress and anxiety are recognized by the DSM as psychiatric disorders if they persist and interfere with a person’s ability to engage in daily activities. Now, that is a gross oversimplification and there are many kinds of anxiety disorders with specific symptoms, but a lengthy description is beyond the scope of this article. For more information, consult the DSM (Axis I).
Due to the discomfort of these symptoms, many people seek professional treatment (some never do). Patients with mild to moderate cases or who are averse to pharmaceutical treatment may seek/require relatively mild treatment methods. In those cases, it is important to consider the efficacy of the interventions used in order to ensure a high quality of health care.
Treatments for stress generally fall into two categories: cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and pharmaceutical intervention. Sometimes a combination of techniques is necessary to provide relief and treatment depends on severity of distress and the level of impact on daily life. CBT can incorporate some first-line techniques to help moderate stress and anxiety such as relaxation and meditation.
Some of these techniques are progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), relaxation therapy, meditation, and transcendental meditation (TM). The goal from an OT perspective is, after initial professional training, to give the patient some measure of control over their symptom management and increase independence.
PMR This is basically what is sounds like – tensing and relaxing muscles. The idea is to relieve tension in the muscles, producing a feeling of relaxation and therefore hopefully lessening feelings of anxiety. Also, if the patient is concentrating on their muscles rather than their worries, they focus and relax mentally as well. This is also used as a technique for tension-related insomnia.
Relaxation Therapy The aim of relaxation therapy is to use psychological methods to treat the psychological feeling of stress/anxiety, thereby reducing physiological symptoms. If one can reduce their state of arousal, they could theoretically also prevent themselves from feeling more and more anxious, allowing them to internally recognize and manage their own anxiety before it becomes severe (or develops into a panic attack).
Meditation This is a relatively broad term, but generally involves clearing one’s mind and concentrating on something – usually breathing, a chant, or some other relaxing imagery – in a silent, distraction-free environment. The theory is that meditation reduces the heart and breathing rate. There are also questionable claims that meditation directly reduces the production of cortisol.
TM This is a technique that has basically the same characteristics of meditation, but with added East Indian flair. During this meditation the person concentrates on and repeats a mantra. The goal is to experience different levels of consciousness (note that these levels are derived from spiritual belief and are not supported with research) – specifically the transcendental/pure consciousness (4th) level. TM differs from other methods in that there is a specific target in mind. Whereas the other methods are aimed at reducing anxiety (in whatever amount that may be), this methods seeks to reach a specific level of consciousness with anxiety reduction as a secondary effect.
Supporting evidence ranges from weak (meditation) to generally positive (relaxation). Some of these techniques (PMR) are still somewhat inferior to other psychiatric interventions (i.e., CBT). None appear demonstrably harmful when used with other therapies, but the objective benefits are questionable in those techniques with weaker supporting evidence. These techniques seem appropriate as a first-line treatment for patients with mild to moderate symptoms, but may not be effective in patients with co-morbid conditions that affect arousal or muscle tone.
However, the evidence for TM is suspect. TM suffers from publication bias – specifically, multiple publications of the same data falsely bolsters evidence of efficacy. Also, there is reason to believe that it is no more effective than regular meditation. Studies of TM that report positive results sometimes fail to incorporate adequate controls to account for this effect. Also, so far there is no support for the varying levels of consciousness proposed to accompany the process. Furthermore, as the aim is to reach a certain level of consciousness rather than to marginally reduce anxiety, patients may actually experience anxiety or frustration if (or arguably, when) they fail.
In all cases it’s difficult to separate the positive effects from the general interactions with therapists. People may feel improvement simply because someone is finally helping them, not because of what they are being helped with.
Reducing stress outside of pharmaceutical intervention essentially depends on a person’s ability to self-regulate. Giving a patient some measure of control over their treatment reduces dependence on the therapeutic relationship and increases self-reliance. So it makes sense that interventions would attempt to enhance self-controlled anxiety management. However, evidence for the efficacy of these methods are mixed. Some work better than others, they may not work for everyone, and they require initial training/supervision by a professional.
There is a plethora of self-help books on the topic of stress reduction, but attempting the techniques above without seeking professional help could lead to exacerbation of symptoms due to prolonged absence of treatment and incorrect application of methods. While it’s possible that a well-crafted video or book may guide someone sufficiently on their own, people are generally bad at evaluating their own progress. That is where a trained professional who sees these symptoms all the time can also be helpful.
In any case, with regard to TM in particular, there is no need to add a mystical belief system in order to increase effectiveness. Certainly if a patient wishes to add a metaphysical element to their own meditation, there is no need to necessarily discourage it, but there is also no need to promote it unnecessarily. It is beyond the scope of a health care practitioner (HCP) to impose spiritual beliefs onto their patients/clients and there is no evidence that there are more positive outcomes with TM over other therapies.
HCPs should avoid language that makes these treatments sound more effective than they generally are. While the results indicate that some of these therapies are an improvement over doing nothing, they can be less effective than regular CBT. They are a good supplement to maintain independent anxiety reduction, to give the patient a measure of control, and possibly reduce feelings of helplessness.
Chronic anxiety is a serious health condition and the above techniques require training and commitment, if they work for the patient at all – they aren’t a guarantee. If someone promises to cure anxiety in X number of “simple” steps or claims that a mystical belief added to therapy increases efficacy, be skeptical.
*The author of this article is a recently-graduated student of OT. This article is for information purposes only and should not replace medical advice. The treatments discussed in this article are most effective under the supervision and/or training of a professional HCP. Talk to your doctor or therapist before trying any of these methods.
Note: Minor edits for clarity, 4 December 2009.
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|NATIONAL PARKS QUICKLINKS|
Backpacker Magazine – May 2008
Here are the top three wildfire dangers and how to avoid them.
The last two wildfire seasons rank as the most severe–in terms of total acreage burned–in the Lower 48 since 1960. Lots of charred terrain is not necessarily a bad thing, as any ecologist or wildflower fan will attest. But it does pose special hazards for backpackers.
Heat The missing forest canopy creates unobstructed views, but also increases exposure to UV rays and dehydrating wind. Pack extra sunscreen and water to protect yourself.
Debris On particularly gusty days, avoid natural wind tunnels like ridges, passes, and valleys. Strong wind blasts can topple dead trees and strip away dangling branches. Climbing over (and scrambling under) fallen trees can slow your pace to a crawl; detour around them if possible. Plus, heavy rains can spawn mudslides and debris flows on steep, denuded slopes.
Brush After a fire, fast-growing alder and poplar can obscure trails and signs. Pack a topo map and GPS, and consult local rangers about post-fire route changes and disruptions to water sources. When traversing featureless burn zones, orient yourself using permanent landmarks like lakes and peaks.
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|What are the characteristics of Successful Schools?|
FAMILY, SCHOOL, AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
Family and community participation in the schools recognizes the important role that families, communities, and schools play in helping all children succeed in school and in life. Partners bring their own strengths, skills, perspectives and knowledge to the educational process, and they all need to be welcomed and respected for their contributions.
Parents are their children's first and most influential teachers. Research clearly shows the important role families play in the success of their child's learning, growth, and personal development in school. When families actively participate together, children do better in school and school becomes a better place for all children to learn.
- When parents, teachers, students, and others view one another as knowledgeable partners in education, a caring community forms around students.
- Partnerships should be an integral part of the school's regular work.
- Students learn and grow at home, at school, and in their communities.
- The best predictor of a student's achievement in school is not income or social status, but the extent to which the student's family is able to (1) create a home environment that encourages learning; (2) communicate high, yet reasonable expectations for their children's achievement and future careers; and (3) become involved in their children's education at home, at school, and in the community.
Successful Schools Have Family and Community Partnerships That:
- include administrative leadership and support for family-school-community partnerships.
- provide well-designed, goal-oriented, and culturally responsive activities developed by teachers, parents, administrators, and other stakeholders.
- are geared to the diverse needs of families and their children and to the particular conditions of each school.
- foster varied and imaginative forms of two-way communication between home and school, address family skills, enable parents and community members to volunteer, provide learning opportunities at home and in the community, include parents in governance and decision making, and promote collaboration with the community.
- build on strengths within the family, the school, and the community.
- recognize that not all parents have experienced affirming and respectful relationships with schools and educators.
For questions about this information, contact the Title I and School Support Team at (608) 267-3721 or by email at email@example.com.
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An example of one kind of IQ test item, modeled after items in the Raven's Progressive Matrices test.
|Abilities, traits and constructs|
|Models and theories|
|Fields of study|
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. The abbreviation "IQ" comes from the German term Intelligenz-Quotient, originally coined by psychologist William Stern. When modern IQ tests are devised, the mean (average) score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation (SD) almost always to 15, although this was not always so historically. Thus, the intention is that approximately 95% of the population scores within two SDs of the mean, i.e. has an IQ between 70 and 130.
IQ scores have been shown to be associated with such factors as morbidity and mortality, parental social status, and, to a substantial degree, biological parental IQ. While the heritability of IQ has been investigated for nearly a century, there is still debate about the significance of heritability estimates and the mechanisms of inheritance.
IQ scores are used as predictors of educational achievement, special needs, job performance and income. They are also used to study IQ distributions in populations and the correlations between IQ and other variables. The average IQ scores for many populations have been rising at an average rate of three points per decade since the early 20th century, a phenomenon called the Flynn effect. It is disputed whether these changes in scores reflect real changes in intellectual abilities.
Early history
The first large-scale mental test may have been the imperial examination system in China. According to psychologist Robert Sternberg, the ancient Chinese game known in the West as the tangram was designed to evaluate a person's intelligence, along with the game jiulianhuan or nine linked rings. Sternberg states that it is considered "the earliest psychological test in the world," although one made for entertainment rather than analysis. Modern mental testing began in France in the 19th century. It contributed to separating mental retardation from mental illness and reducing the neglect, torture, and ridicule heaped on both groups.
Englishman Francis Galton coined the terms psychometrics and eugenics, and developed a method for measuring intelligence based on nonverbal sensory-motor tests. It was initially popular, but was abandoned after the discovery that it had no relationship to outcomes such as college grades.
French psychologist Alfred Binet, together with psychologists Victor Henri and Théodore Simon, after about 15 years of development, published the Binet-Simon test in 1905, which focused on verbal abilities. It was intended to identify mental retardation in school children. The score on the Binet-Simon scale would reveal the child's mental age. For example, a six-year-old child who passed all the tasks usually passed by six-year-olds—but nothing beyond—would have a mental age that exactly matched his chronological age, 6.0. (Fancher, 1985). In Binet's view, there were limitations with the scale and he stressed what he saw as the remarkable diversity of intelligence and the subsequent need to study it using qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, measures (White, 2000). American psychologist Henry H. Goddard published a translation of it in 1910. The eugenics movement in the USA seized on it as a means to give them credibility in diagnosing mental retardation, and thousands of American women, most of them poor African Americans, were forcibly sterilized based on their scores on IQ tests, often without their consent or knowledge. American psychologist Lewis Terman at Stanford University revised the Binet-Simon scale, which resulted in the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (1916). It became the most popular test in the United States for decades.
General factor (g)
The many different kinds of IQ tests use a wide variety of methods. Some tests are visual, some are verbal, some tests only use abstract-reasoning problems, and some tests concentrate on arithmetic, spatial imagery, reading, vocabulary, memory or general knowledge. The psychologist Charles Spearman in 1904 made the first formal factor analysis of correlations between the tests. He found a single common factor explained the positive correlations among tests. This is an argument still accepted in principle by many psychometricians. Spearman named it g for "general factor" and labelled the smaller, specific factors or abilities for specific areas s. In any collection of IQ tests, by definition the test that best measures g is the one that has the highest correlations with all the others. Most of these g-loaded tests typically involve some form of abstract reasoning. Therefore, Spearman and others have regarded g as the (perhaps genetically determined) real essence of intelligence. This is still a common but not universally accepted view. Other factor analyses of the data, with different results, are possible. Some psychometricians regard g as a statistical artifact. One of the most commonly used measures of g is Raven's Progressive Matrices, which is a test of visual reasoning.
The War Years in the United States
During World War I, a way was needed to evaluate and assign recruits. This led to the rapid development of several mental tests. The testing generated controversy and much public debate in the United States. Nonverbal or "performance" tests were developed for those who could not speak English or were suspected of malingering. After the war, positive publicity on army psychological testing helped to make psychology a respected field. Subsequently, there was an increase in jobs and funding in psychology in the United States. Group intelligence tests were developed and became widely used in schools and industry.
L.L. Thurstone argued for a model of intelligence that included seven unrelated factors (verbal comprehension, word fluency, number facility, spatial visualization, associative memory, perceptual speed, reasoning, and induction). While not widely used, it influenced later theories.
David Wechsler produced the first version of his test in 1939. It gradually became more popular and overtook the Binet in the 1960s. It has been revised several times, as is common for IQ tests, to incorporate new research. One explanation is that psychologists and educators wanted more information than the single score from the Binet. Wechsler's 10+ subtests provided this. Another is Binet focused on verbal abilities, while the Wechsler also included nonverbal abilities. The Binet has also been revised several times and is now similar to the Wechsler in several aspects, but the Wechsler continues to be the most popular test in the United States.
Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory
Raymond Cattell (1941) proposed two types of cognitive abilities in a revision of Spearman's concept of general intelligence. Fluid intelligence (Gf) was hypothesized as the ability to solve novel problems by using reasoning, and crystallized intelligence (Gc) was hypothesized as a knowledge-based ability that was very dependent on education and experience. In addition, fluid intelligence was hypothesized to decline with age, while crystallized intelligence was largely resistant. The theory was almost forgotten, but was revived by his student John L. Horn (1966) who later argued Gf and Gc were only two among several factors, and he eventually identified 9 or 10 broad abilities. The theory continued to be called Gf-Gc theory.
John B. Carroll (1993), after a comprehensive reanalysis of earlier data, proposed the Three Stratum theory, which is a hierarchical model with three levels. The bottom stratum consists of narrow abilities that are highly specialized (e.g., induction, spelling ability). The second stratum consists of broad abilities. Carroll identified eight second-stratum abilities. Carroll accepted Spearman's concept of general intelligence, for the most part, as a representation of the uppermost, third stratum.
More recently (1999), a merging of the Gf-Gc theory of Cattell and Horn with Carroll's Three-Stratum theory has led to the Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory. It has greatly influenced many of the current broad IQ tests.
It is argued that this reflects much of what is known about intelligence from research. A hierarchy of factors is used; g is at the top. Under it are 10 broad abilities that in turn are subdivided into 70 narrow abilities. The broad abilities are:
- Fluid intelligence (Gf) includes the broad ability to reason, form concepts, and solve problems using unfamiliar information or novel procedures.
- Crystallized intelligence (Gc) includes the breadth and depth of a person's acquired knowledge, the ability to communicate one's knowledge, and the ability to reason using previously learned experiences or procedures.
- Quantitative reasoning (Gq) is the ability to comprehend quantitative concepts and relationships and to manipulate numerical symbols.
- Reading and writing ability (Grw) includes basic reading and writing skills.
- Short-term memory (Gsm) is the ability to apprehend and hold information in immediate awareness, and then use it within a few seconds.
- Long-term storage and retrieval (Glr) is the ability to store information and fluently retrieve it later in the process of thinking.
- Visual processing (Gv) is the ability to perceive, analyze, synthesize, and think with visual patterns, including the ability to store and recall visual representations.
- Auditory processing (Ga) is the ability to analyze, synthesize, and discriminate auditory stimuli, including the ability to process and discriminate speech sounds that may be presented under distorted conditions.
- Processing speed (Gs) is the ability to perform automatic cognitive tasks, particularly when measured under pressure to maintain focused attention.
- Decision/reaction time/speed (Gt)reflects the immediacy with which an individual can react to stimuli or a task (typically measured in seconds or fractions of seconds; it is not to be confused with Gs, which typically is measured in intervals of 2–3 minutes). See Mental chronometry.
Modern tests do not necessarily measure all of these broad abilities. For example, Gq and Grw may be seen as measures of school achievement and not IQ. Gt may be difficult to measure without special equipment.
g was earlier often subdivided into only Gf and Gc, which were thought to correspond to the nonverbal or performance subtests and verbal subtests in earlier versions of the popular Wechsler IQ test. More recent research has shown the situation to be more complex.
Modern comprehensive IQ tests no longer give a single score. Although they still give an overall score, they now also give scores for many of these more restricted abilities, identifying particular strengths and weaknesses of an individual.
Other theories
J.P. Guilford's Structure of Intellect (1967) model used three dimensions which when combined yielded a total of 120 types of intelligence. It was popular in the 1970s and early 1980s, but faded owing to both practical problems and theoretical criticisms.
Alexander Luria's earlier work on neuropsychological processes led to the PASS theory (1997). It argued that only looking at one general factor was inadequate for researchers and clinicians who worked with learning disabilities, attention disorders, mental retardation, and interventions for such disabilities. The PASS model covers four kinds of processes (planning process, attention/arousal process, simultaneous processing, and successive processing). The planning processes involve decision making, problem solving, and performing activities and requires goal setting and self-monitoring. The attention/arousal process involves selectively attending to a particular stimulus, ignoring distractions, and maintaining vigilance. Simultaneous processing involves the integration of stimuli into a group and requires the observation of relationships. Successive processing involves the integration of stimuli into serial order. The planning and attention/arousal components comes from structures located in the frontal lobe, and the simultaneous and successive processes come from structures located in the posterior region of the cortex. It has influenced some recent IQ tests, and been seen as a complement to the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory described above.
Modern tests
Well-known modern IQ tests include Raven's Progressive Matrices, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Stanford-Binet, Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities, and Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children.
Approximately 95% of the population have scores within two standard deviations (SD) of the mean. If one SD is 15 points, as is common in almost all modern tests, then 95% of the population are within a range of 70 to 130, and 98% are below 131. Alternatively, two-thirds of the population have IQ scores within one SD of the mean, i.e. within the range 85-115.
IQ scales are ordinally scaled. While one standard deviation is 15 points, and two SDs are 30 points, and so on, this does not imply that mental ability is linearly related to IQ, such that IQ 50 means half the cognitive ability of IQ 100. In particular, IQ points are not percentage points.
Reliability and validity
Psychometricians generally regard IQ tests as having high statistical reliability. A high reliability implies that—although test-takers may have varying scores when taking the same test on differing occasions, and they may have varying scores when taking different IQ tests at the same age—the scores generally agree with one another and across time. A test-taker's score on any one IQ test is surrounded by an error band that shows, to a specified degree of confidence, what the test-taker's true score is likely to be. For modern tests, the standard error of measurement is about three points, or in other words, the odds are about two out of three that a person's true IQ is in range from three points above to three points below the test IQ. Another description is there is a 95% chance the true IQ is in range from four to five points above to four to five points below the test IQ, depending on the test in question. Clinical psychologists generally regard them as having sufficient statistical validity for many clinical purposes.
Flynn effect
Since the early 20th century, raw scores on IQ tests have increased in most parts of the world. When a new version of an IQ test is normed, the standard scoring is set so performance at the population median results in a score of IQ 100. The phenomenon of rising raw score performance means if test-takers are scored by a constant standard scoring rule, IQ test scores have been rising at an average rate of around three IQ points per decade. This phenomenon was named the Flynn effect in the book The Bell Curve after James R. Flynn, the author who did the most to bring this phenomenon to the attention of psychologists.
Researchers have been exploring the issue of whether the Flynn effect is equally strong on performance of all kinds of IQ test items, whether the effect may have ended in some developed nations, whether or not there are social subgroup differences in the effect, and what possible causes of the effect might be. Flynn's observations have prompted much new research in psychology and "demolish some long-cherished beliefs, and raise a number of other interesting issues along the way."
IQ and age
IQ can change to some degree over the course of childhood. However, in one longitudinal study, the mean IQ scores of tests at ages 17 and 18 were correlated at r=.86 with the mean scores of tests at ages five, six and seven and at r=.96 with the mean scores of tests at ages 11, 12 and 13.
For decades practitioners' handbooks and textbooks on IQ testing have reported IQ declines with age after the beginning of adulthood. However, later researchers pointed out this phenomenon is related to the Flynn effect and is in part a cohort effect rather than a true aging effect.
A variety of studies of IQ and aging have been conducted since the norming of the first Wechsler Intelligence Scale drew attention to IQ differences in different age groups of adults. Current consensus is that fluid intelligence generally declines with age after early adulthood, while crystallized intelligence remains intact. Both cohort effects (the birth year of the test-takers) and practice effects (test-takers taking the same form of IQ test more than once) must be controlled to gain accurate data. It is unclear whether any lifestyle intervention can preserve fluid intelligence into older ages.
The exact peak age of fluid intelligence or crystallized intelligence remains elusive. Cross-sectional studies usually show that especially fluid intelligence peaks at a relatively young age (often in the early adulthood) while longitudinal data mostly show that intelligence is stable until the mid adulthood or later. Subsequently, intelligence seems to decline slowly.
Genetics and environment
Heritability is defined as the proportion of variance in a trait which is attributable to genotype within a defined population in a specific environment. A number of points must be considered when interpreting heritability. Heritability measures the proportion of 'variation' in a trait can be attributed to genes, and not the proportion of a trait caused by genes. The value of heritability can change if the impact of environment (or of genes) in the population is substantially altered. A high heritability of a trait does not mean environmental effects, such as learning, are not involved. Since heritability increases during childhood and adolescence, one should be cautious drawing conclusions regarding the role of genetics and environment from studies where the participants are not followed until they are adults.
Studies have found the heritability of IQ in adult twins to be 0.7 to 0.8 and in children twins 0.45 in the Western world. It may seem reasonable to expect genetic influences on traits like IQ should become less important as one gains experiences with age. However, the opposite occurs. Heritability measures in infancy are as low as 0.2, around 0.4 in middle childhood, and as high as 0.8 in adulthood. One proposed explanation is that people with different genes tend to reinforce the effects of those genes, for example by seeking out different environments. Debate is ongoing about whether these heritability estimates are too high, owing to inadequate consideration of various factors — such as the environment being relatively more important in families with low socioeconomic status, or the effect of the maternal (fetal) environment.
Recent research suggests that molecular genetics of psychology and social science requires approaches that go beyond the examination of candidate genes.
Family members have aspects of environments in common (for example, characteristics of the home). This shared family environment accounts for 0.25–0.35 of the variation in IQ in childhood. By late adolescence, it is quite low (zero in some studies). The effect for several other psychological traits is similar. These studies have not looked at the effects of extreme environments, such as in abusive families.
Although parents treat their children differently, such differential treatment explains only a small amount of nonshared environmental influence. One suggestion is that children react differently to the same environment because of different genes. More likely influences may be the impact of peers and other experiences outside the family.
Individual genes
A very large proportion of the over 17,000 human genes are thought to have an effect on the development and functionality of the brain. While a number of individual genes have been reported to be associated with IQ, none have a strong effect. Deary and colleagues (2009) reported that no finding of a strong gene effect on IQ has been replicated. Most reported associations of genes with intelligence are false positive results. Recent findings of gene associations with normally varying intelligence differences in adults continue to show weak effects for any one gene. and in children.
Gene-environment interaction
David Rowe reported an interaction of genetic effects with Socioeconomic Status, such that the heritability was high in high-SES families, but much lower in low-SES families. This has been replicated in infants, children and adolescents in the US, though not outside the US, for instance a reverse result was reported in the UK.
Dickens and Flynn (2001) have argued that genes for high IQ initiate environment-shaping feedback, as genetic effects cause bright children to seek out more stimulating environments that further increase IQ. In their model, an environment effects decay over time (the model could be adapted to include possible factors, like nutrition in early childhood, that may cause permanent effects). The Flynn effect can be explained by a generally more stimulating environment for all people. The authors suggest that programs aiming to increase IQ would be most likely to produce long-term IQ gains if they caused children to persist in seeking out cognitively demanding experiences.
In general, educational interventions, as those described below, have shown short-term effects on IQ, but long-term follow-up is often missing. For example, in the US very large intervention programs such as the Head Start Program have not produced lasting gains in IQ scores. More intensive, but much smaller, projects Abecedarian Project have reported lasting effects, often on Socioeconomic status variables, rather than IQ.
A placebo controlled double-blind experiment found that vegetarians who took 5 grams of creatine per day for six weeks showed a significant improvement on two separate tests of fluid intelligence, Raven's Progressive Matrices, and the backward digit span test from the WAIS. The treatment group was able to repeat longer sequences of numbers from memory and had higher overall IQ scores than the control group. The researchers concluded that "supplementation with creatine significantly increased intelligence compared with placebo." A subsequent study found that creatine supplements improved cognitive ability in the elderly. However, a study on young adults (0.03 g/kg/day for six weeks, e.g., 2 g/day for 150-pound individual) failed to find any improvements.
Recent studies have shown that training in using one's working memory may increase IQ. A study on young adults published in April 2008 by a team from the Universities of Michigan and Bern supports the possibility of the transfer of fluid intelligence from specifically designed working memory training. Further research will be needed to determine nature, extent and duration of the proposed transfer. Among other questions, it remains to be seen whether the results extend to other kinds of fluid intelligence tests than the matrix test used in the study, and if so, whether, after training, fluid intelligence measures retain their correlation with educational and occupational achievement or if the value of fluid intelligence for predicting performance on other tasks changes. It is also unclear whether the training is durable of extended periods of time.
Music and IQ
Musical training in childhood has been found to correlate with higher than average IQ. In a 2004 study indicated that 6 year-old children who received musical training (voice or piano lessons) had an average increase in IQ of 7.0 points while children who received alternative training (i.e. drama) or no training had an average increase in IQ of only 4.3 points (which may be consequence of the children entering grade school) as indicated by full scale IQ. Children were tested using Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition, Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement and Parent Rating Scale of the Behavioral Assessment System for Children.
Listening to classical music was reported to increase IQ; specifically spatial ability. In 1994 Frances Rauscher and Gorden Shaw reported that college students who listened to 10 minutes of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos, showed an increase in IQ of 8 to 9 points on the spatial subtest on the Standford-Binet Intelligence Scale. The phenomenon was coined the Mozart effect.
Music lessons
In 2004, Schellenberg devised an experiment to test his hypothesis that music lessons can enhance the IQ of children. He had 144 samples of 6 year old children which were put into 4 groups; keyboard lessons, vocal lessons, drama lessons or no lessons at all, for 36 weeks. The samples' IQ was measured both before and after the lessons had taken place using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition, Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement and Parent Rating Scale of the Behavioral Assessment System for Children. All four groups had increases in IQ, most likely resulted by the entrance of grade school. The notable difference with the two music groups compared to the two controlled groups was a slightly higher increase in IQ. The children in the control groups on average had an increase in IQ of 4.3 points, while the increase in IQ of the music groups was 7.0 points. Though the increases in IQ were not dramatic, one can still conclude that musical lessons do have a positive effect for children, if taken at a young age. It is hypothesized that improvements in IQ occur after musical lessons because the music lessons encourage multiple experiences which generates progression in a wide range of abilities for the children. Testing this hypothesis however, has proven difficult.
Another test also performed by Schellenberg tested the effects of musical training in adulthood. He had two groups of adults, one group whom were musically trained and another group who were not. He administered tests of intelligence quotient and emotional intelligence to the trained and non-trained groups and found that the trained participants had an advantage in IQ over the untrained subjects even with gender, age, environmental issues (e.g. income, parent's education) held constant. The two groups, however, score similarly in the emotional intelligence test. The test results (like the previous results) show that there is a positive correlation between musical training and IQ, but it is not evident that musical training has a positive effect on emotional intelligence.
IQ and brain anatomy
Several neurophysiological factors have been correlated with intelligence in humans, including the ratio of brain weight to body weight and the size, shape and activity level of different parts of the brain. Specific features that may affect IQ include the size and shape of the frontal lobes, the amount of blood and chemical activity in the frontal lobes, the total amount of gray matter in the brain, the overall thickness of the cortex and the glucose metabolic rate.
Health and IQ
Health is important in understanding differences in IQ test scores and other measures of cognitive ability. Several factors can lead to significant cognitive impairment, particularly if they occur during pregnancy and childhood when the brain is growing and the blood–brain barrier is less effective. Such impairment may sometimes be permanent, sometimes be partially or wholly compensated for by later growth.
Developed nations have implemented several health policies regarding nutrients and toxins known to influence cognitive function. These include laws requiring fortification of certain food products and laws establishing safe levels of pollutants (e.g. lead, mercury, and organochlorides). Improvements in nutrition, and in public policy in general, have been implicated in worldwide IQ increases.
Cognitive epidemiology is a field of research that examines the associations between intelligence test scores and health. Researchers in the field argue that intelligence measured at an early age is an important predictor of later health and mortality differences.
Social outcomes
Intelligence is a better predictor of educational and work success than any other single score.
Some measures of educational SAT aptitude are essentially IQ tests; For instance Frey and Detterman (2004) reported a correlation of 0.82 between g (general intelligence factor) and SAT scores another has found correlation of 0.81 between g and GCSE scores.
Correlations between IQ scores (general cognitive ability) and achievement test scores are reported to be 0.81 by Deary and colleagues, with the explained variance ranging "from 58.6% in Mathematics and 48% in English to 18.1% in Art and Design".
School performance
The American Psychological Association's report "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns" states that wherever it has been studied, children with high scores on tests of intelligence tend to learn more of what is taught in school than their lower-scoring peers. The correlation between IQ scores and grades is about .50. This means that the explained variance is 25%. Achieving good grades depends on many factors other than IQ, such as "persistence, interest in school, and willingness to study" (p. 81).
It has been found IQ correlation with school performance depends on the IQ measurement used. For undergraduate students, the Verbal IQ as measured by WAIS-R has been found to correlate significantly (0.53) with the GPA of the last 60 hours. In contrast, Performance IQ correlation with the same GPA was only 0.22 in the same study.
Job performance
According to Schmidt and Hunter, "for hiring employees without previous experience in the job the most valid predictor of future performance is general mental ability." The validity of IQ as a predictor of job performance is above zero for all work studied to date, but varies with the type of job and across different studies, ranging from 0.2 to 0.6. The correlations were higher when the unreliability of measurement methods was controlled for. While IQ is more strongly correlated with reasoning and less so with motor function, IQ-test scores predict performance ratings in all occupations. That said, for highly qualified activities (research, management) low IQ scores are more likely to be a barrier to adequate performance, whereas for minimally-skilled activities, athletic strength (manual strength, speed, stamina, and coordination) are more likely to influence performance. It is largely through the quicker acquisition of job-relevant knowledge that higher IQ mediates job performance.
In establishing a causal direction to the link between IQ and work performance, longitudinal studies by Watkins and others suggest that IQ exerts a causal influence on future academic achievement, whereas academic achievement does not substantially influence future IQ scores. Treena Eileen Rohde and Lee Anne Thompson write that general cognitive ability, but not specific ability scores, predict academic achievement, with the exception that processing speed and spatial ability predict performance on the SAT math beyond the effect of general cognitive ability.
The US military has minimum enlistment standards at about the IQ 85 level. There have been two experiments with lowering this to 80 but in both cases these men could not master soldiering well enough to justify their costs
Some US police departments have set a maximum IQ score for new officers (for example: 125, in New London, CT), under the argument that those with overly-high IQs will become bored and exhibit high turnover in the job. This policy has been challenged as discriminatory, but upheld by at least one US District court.
The American Psychological Association's report "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns" states that since the explained variance is 29%, other individual characteristics such as interpersonal skills, aspects of personality etc. are probably of equal or greater importance, but at this point there are no equally reliable instruments to measure them.
While it has been suggested that "in economic terms it appears that the IQ score measures something with decreasing marginal value. It is important to have enough of it, but having lots and lots does not buy you that much.", large scale longitudinal studies indicate an increase in IQ translates into an increase in performance at all levels of IQ: i.e., that ability and job performance are monotonically linked at all IQ levels. Charles Murray, coauthor of The Bell Curve, found that IQ has a substantial effect on income independently of family background.
The American Psychological Association's 1995 report Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns stated that IQ scores accounted for (explained variance) about quarter of the social status variance and one-sixth of the income variance. Statistical controls for parental SES eliminate about a quarter of this predictive power. Psychometric intelligence appears as only one of a great many factors that influence social outcomes.
Some studies claim that IQ only accounts for (explains) a sixth of the variation in income because many studies are based on young adults, many of whom have not yet reached their peak earning capacity, or even their education. On pg 568 of The g Factor, Arthur Jensen claims that although the correlation between IQ and income averages a moderate 0.4 (one sixth or 16% of the variance), the relationship increases with age, and peaks at middle age when people have reached their maximum career potential. In the book, A Question of Intelligence, Daniel Seligman cites an IQ income correlation of 0.5 (25% of the variance).
A 2002 study further examined the impact of non-IQ factors on income and concluded that an individual's location, inherited wealth, race, and schooling are more important as factors in determining income than IQ.
IQ and crime
The American Psychological Association's 1995 report Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns stated that the correlation between IQ and crime was -0.2. It was -0.19 between IQ scores and number of juvenile offenses in a large Danish sample; with social class controlled, the correlation dropped to -0.17. A correlation of 0.20 means that the explained variance is less than 4%. It is important to realize that the causal links between psychometric ability and social outcomes may be indirect. Children with poor scholastic performance may feel alienated. Consequently, they may be more likely to engage in delinquent behavior, compared to other children who do well.
In his book The g Factor (1998), Arthur Jensen cited data which showed that, regardless of race, people with IQs between 70 and 90 have higher crime rates than people with IQs below or above this range, with the peak range being between 80 and 90.
The 2009 Handbook of Crime Correlates stated that reviews have found that around eight IQ points, or 0.5 SD, separate criminals from the general population, especially for persistent serious offenders. It has been suggested that this simply reflects that "only dumb ones get caught" but there is similarly a negative relation between IQ and self-reported offending. That children with conduct disorder have lower IQ than their peers "strongly argues" for the theory.
A study of the relationship between US county-level IQ and US county-level crime rates found that higher average IQs were associated with lower levels of property crime, burglary, larceny rate, motor vehicle theft, violent crime, robbery, and aggravated assault. These results were not "confounded by a measure of concentrated disadvantage that captures the effects of race, poverty, and other social disadvantages of the county."
Other correlations with IQ
In addition, IQ and its correlation to health, violent crime, gross state product, and government effectiveness are the subject of a 2006 paper in the publication Intelligence. The paper breaks down IQ averages by U.S. states using the federal government's National Assessment of Educational Progress math and reading test scores as a source.
The American Psychological Association's 1995 report Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns stated that the correlations for most "negative outcome" variables are typically smaller than 0.20, which means that the explained variance is less than 4%.
Tambs et al.[better source needed] found that occupational status, educational attainment, and IQ are individually heritable; and further found that "genetic variance influencing educational attainment ... contributed approximately one-fourth of the genetic variance for occupational status and nearly half the genetic variance for IQ." In a sample of U.S. siblings, Rowe et al. report that the inequality in education and income was predominantly due to genes, with shared environmental factors playing a subordinate role.
A recent USA study connecting political views and intelligence has shown that the mean adolescent intelligence of young adults who identify themselves as "very liberal" is 106.4, while that of those who identify themselves as "very conservative" is 94.8. Two other studies conducted in the UK reached similar conclusions.
Real-life accomplishments
|MDs, JDs, or PhDs||125+||WAIS-R||1987|
|1–3 years of college||104||KAIT|
|Clerical and sales workers||100–105|
|High school graduates, skilled workers (e.g., electricians, cabinetmakers)||100||KAIT|
|1–3 years of high school (completed 9–11 years of school)||94||KAIT|
|Semi-skilled workers (e.g. truck drivers, factory workers)||90–95|
|Elementary school graduates (completed eighth grade)||90|
|Elementary school dropouts (completed 0–7 years of school)||80–85|
|Have 50/50 chance of reaching high school||75|
|Professional and technical||112|
|Managers and administrators||104|
|Clerical workers, sales workers, skilled workers, craftsmen, and foremen||101|
|Semi-skilled workers (operatives, service workers, including private household)||92|
|Adults can harvest vegetables, repair furniture||60|
|Adults can do domestic work||50|
There is considerable variation within and overlap between these categories. People with high IQs are found at all levels of education and occupational categories. The biggest difference occurs for low IQs with only an occasional college graduate or professional scoring below 90.
Group differences
Among the most controversial issues related to the study of intelligence is the observation that intelligence measures such as IQ scores vary between ethnic and racial groups and sexes. While there is little scholarly debate about the existence of some of these differences, their causes remain highly controversial both within academia and in the public sphere.
Most IQ tests are constructed so that there are no overall score differences between females and males. Because environmental factors affect brain activity and behavior, where differences are found, it can be difficult for researchers to assess whether or not the differences are innate. Areas where differences have been found include verbal and mathematical ability.
The 1996 Task Force investigation on Intelligence sponsored by the American Psychological Association concluded that there are significant variations in IQ across races. The problem of determining the causes underlying this variation relates to the question of the contributions of "nature and nurture" to IQ. Psychologists such as Alan S. Kaufman and Nathan Brody and statisticians such as Bernie Devlin argue that there are insufficient data to conclude that this is because of genetic influences. One of the most notable researchers arguing for a strong genetic influence on these average score differences was Arthur Jensen. In contrast, other researchers such as Richard Nisbett argue that environmental factors can explain all of the average group differences.
Public policy
In the United States, certain public policies and laws regarding military service, education, public benefits, capital punishment, and employment incorporate an individual's IQ into their decisions. However, in the case of Griggs v. Duke Power Co. in 1971, for the purpose of minimizing employment practices that disparately impacted racial minorities, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the use of IQ tests in employment, except when linked to job performance via a Job analysis. Internationally, certain public policies, such as improving nutrition and prohibiting neurotoxins, have as one of their goals raising, or preventing a decline in, intelligence.
A diagnosis of mental retardation is in part based on the results of IQ testing. Borderline intellectual functioning is a categorization where a person has below average cognitive ability (an IQ of 71–85), but the deficit is not as severe as mental retardation (70 or below).
In the United Kingdom, the eleven plus exam which incorporated an intelligence test has been used from 1945 to decide, at eleven years old, which type of school a child should go to. They have been much less used since the widespread introduction of comprehensive schools.
Criticism and views
Relation between IQ and intelligence
IQ is the most researched attempt at measuring intelligence and by far the most widely used in practical setting. However, although IQ attempts to measure some notion of intelligence, it may fail to act as an accurate measure of "intelligence" in its broadest sense. IQ tests only examine particular areas embodied by the broadest notion of "intelligence", failing to account for certain areas which are also associated with "intelligence" such as creativity or emotional intelligence.
There are critics such as Keith Stanovich who do not dispute the stability of IQ test scores or the fact that they predict certain forms of achievement rather effectively. They do argue, however, that to base a concept of intelligence on IQ test scores alone is to ignore many important aspects of mental ability.
Criticism of g
Some scientists dispute IQ entirely. In The Mismeasure of Man (1996), paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould criticized IQ tests and argued that that they were used for scientific racism. He argued that g was a mathematical artifact and criticized:
...the abstraction of intelligence as a single entity, its location within the brain, its quantification as one number for each individual, and the use of these numbers to rank people in a single series of worthiness, invariably to find that oppressed and disadvantaged groups—races, classes, or sexes—are innately inferior and deserve their status.(pp. 24–25)
Psychologist Peter Schönemann was also a persistent critic of IQ, calling it "the IQ myth". He argued that g is a flawed theory and that the high heritability estimates of IQ are based on false assumptions.
Psychologist Arthur Jensen has rejected the criticism by Gould and also argued that even if g was replaced by a model with several intelligences this would change the situation less than expected. All tests of cognitive ability would continue to be highly correlated with one another and there would still be a black-white gap on cognitive tests.
Test bias
The American Psychological Association's report Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns stated that in the United States IQ tests as predictors of social achievement are not biased against African Americans since they predict future performance, such as school achievement, similarly to the way they predict future performance for Caucasians.
However, IQ tests may well be biased when used in other situations. A 2005 study stated that "differential validity in prediction suggests that the WAIS-R test may contain cultural influences that reduce the validity of the WAIS-R as a measure of cognitive ability for Mexican American students," indicating a weaker positive correlation relative to sampled white students. Other recent studies have questioned the culture-fairness of IQ tests when used in South Africa. Standard intelligence tests, such as the Stanford-Binet, are often inappropriate for children with autism; the alternative of using developmental or adaptive skills measures are relatively poor measures of intelligence in autistic children, and may have resulted in incorrect claims that a majority of children with autism are mentally retarded.
Outdated methodology
A 2006 article stated that contemporary psychologic research often did not reflect substantial recent developments in psychometrics and "bears an uncanny resemblance to the psychometric state of the art as it existed in the 1950s."
"Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns"
In response to the controversy surrounding The Bell Curve, the American Psychological Association's Board of Scientific Affairs established a task force in 1995 to write a report on the state of intelligence research which could be used by all sides as a basis for discussion, "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns". The full text of the report is available through several websites.
In this paper the representatives of the association regret that IQ-related works are frequently written with a view to their political consequences: "research findings were often assessed not so much on their merits or their scientific standing as on their supposed political implications".
The task force concluded that IQ scores do have high predictive validity for individual differences in school achievement. They confirm the predictive validity of IQ for adult occupational status, even when variables such as education and family background have been statistically controlled. They stated that individual differences in intelligence are substantially influenced by both genetics and environment.
The report stated that a number of biological factors, including malnutrition, exposure to toxic substances, and various prenatal and perinatal stressors, result in lowered psychometric intelligence under at least some conditions. The task force agrees that large differences do exist between the average IQ scores of blacks and whites, saying:
The cause of that differential is not known; it is apparently not due to any simple form of bias in the content or administration of the tests themselves. The Flynn effect shows that environmental factors can produce differences of at least this magnitude, but that effect is mysterious in its own right. Several culturally based explanations of the Black/ White IQ differential have been proposed; some are plausible, but so far none has been conclusively supported. There is even less empirical support for a genetic interpretation. In short, no adequate explanation of the differential between the IQ means of Blacks and Whites is presently available.
The APA journal that published the statement, American Psychologist, subsequently published eleven critical responses in January 1997, several of them arguing that the report failed to examine adequately the evidence for partly genetic explanations.
Dynamic assessment
Notable and increasingly influential alternative to the wide range of standard IQ tests originated in the writings of psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) of his most mature and highly productive period of 1932-1934. The notion of the zone of proximal development that he introduced in 1933, roughly a year before his death, served as the banner for his proposal to diagnose development as the level of actual development that can be measured by the child's independent problem solving and, at the same time, the level of proximal, or potential development that is measured in the situation of moderately assisted problem solving by the child. The maximum level of complexity and difficulty of the problem that the child is capable to solve under some guidance indicates the level of potential development. Then, the difference between the higher level of potential and the lower level of actual development indicates the zone of proximal development. Combination of the two indexes—the level of actual and the zone of the proximal development—according to Vygotsky, provides a significantly more informative indicator of psychological development than the assessment of the level of actual development alone.
The ideas on the zone of development were later developed in a number of psychological and educational theories and practices. Most notably, they were developed under the banner of dynamic assessment that focuses on the testing of learning and developmental potential (for instance, in the work of Reuven Feuerstein and his associates, who has criticized standard IQ testing for its putative assumption or acceptance of "fixed and immutable" characteristics of intelligence or cognitive functioning). Grounded in developmental theories of Vygotsky and Feuerstein, who recognized that human beings are not static entities but are always in states of transition and transactional relationships with the world, dynamic assessment received also considerable support in the recent revisions of cognitive developmental theory by Joseph Campione, Ann Brown, and John D. Bransford and in theories of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg.
High IQ societies
There are social organizations, some international, which limit membership to people who have scores as high as or higher than the 98th percentile on some IQ test or equivalent. Mensa International is perhaps the best known of these. There are other groups requiring a score above the 98th percentile.
Reference charts
IQ reference charts are tables suggested by test publishers to divide intelligence ranges in various categories.
See also
- Neisser U (1997). "Rising Scores on Intelligence Tests". American Scientist 85: 440–7.
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- Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns (Report of a Task Force established by the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association, Released August 7, 1995—a slightly edited version was published in American Psychologist: Neisser, Ulric; Boodoo, Gwyneth; Bouchard, Thomas J., Jr.; Boykin, A. Wade; Brody, Nathan; Ceci, Stephen J.; Halpern, Diane F.; Loehlin, John C. et al. (1996). "Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns". American Psychologist 51 (2): 77–101. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.51.2.77. )
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- Murray, C. (1998). Income Inequality and IQ (PDF). Washington (DC): AEI Press. ISBN 0-8447-7094-9.
- Noguera, P.A (2001). "Racial politics and the elusive quest for excellence and equity in education". Motion Magazine. Article # ER010930002.
- Plomin, R.; DeFries, J.C.; Craig, I.W.; McGuffin, P (2003). Behavioral genetics in the postgenomic era. Washington (DC): American Psychological Association. ISBN 1-55798-926-5.
- Plomin, R.; DeFries, J.C.; McClearn, G.E.; McGuffin, P (2000). Behavioral genetics (4th ed.). New York (NY): Worth Publishers. ISBN 0-7167-5159-3.
- Rowe, D.C.; Vesterdal, W.J.; Rodgers, J.L. (1997). The Bell Curve Revisited: How Genes and Shared Environment Mediate IQ-SES Associations.[verification needed]
- Schoenemann, P Thomas; Sheehan, Michael J; Glotzer, L Daniel (2005). "Prefrontal white matter volume is disproportionately larger in humans than in other primates". Nature Neuroscience 8 (2): 242–52. doi:10.1038/nn1394. PMID 15665874.
- Shaw, P.; Greenstein, D.; Lerch, J.; Clasen, L.; Lenroot, R.; Gogtay, N.; Evans, A.; Rapoport, J. et al. (2006). "Intellectual ability and cortical development in children and adolescents". Nature 440 (7084): 676–9. doi:10.1038/nature04513. PMID 16572172.
- Tambs, Kristian; Sundet, Jon Martin; Magnus, Per; Berg, Kåre (1989). "Genetic and environmental contributions to the covariance between occupational status, educational attainment, and IQ: A study of twins". Behavior Genetics 19 (2): 209–22. doi:10.1007/BF01065905. PMID 2719624.
- Thompson, Paul M.; Cannon, Tyrone D.; Narr, Katherine L.; Van Erp, Theo; Poutanen, Veli-Pekka; Huttunen, Matti; Lönnqvist, Jouko; Standertskjöld-Nordenstam, Carl-Gustaf et al. (2001). "Genetic influences on brain structure". Nature Neuroscience 4 (12): 1253–8. doi:10.1038/nn758. PMID 11694885.
- Wechsler, D. (1997). Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (3rd ed.). San Antonia (TX): The Psychological Corporation.
- Wechsler, D. (2003). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (4th ed.). San Antonia (TX): The Psychological Corporation.
- Weiss, Volkmar (2009). "National IQ means transformed from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Scores". The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies 31 (1): 71–94.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient
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2013-05-24T22:36:24Z
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|
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| 0.866168
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The other day, environmental blog the Thin Green Line wrote:
At the American Geophysical Union meeting late last month, University of Miami geologist Shimon Wdowinski argued that the devastating earthquake a year ago may have been caused by a combination of deforestation and hurricanes (H/T Treehugger). Climate change is spurring more, stronger hurricanes, which are fueled by warm ocean waters....
The 2010 disaster stemmed from a vertical slippage, not the horizontal movements that most of the region's quakes entail, supporting the hypothesis that the movement was triggered by an imbalance created when eroded land mass was moved from the mountainous epicenter to the Leogane Delta.
I have heard this theory before, that landslides and other surface changes can trigger earthquakes. Now, I am not expert on geology -- it is one of those subjects that always seems like it would be interesting to me but puts me in a coma as soon as I dive into it. I almost failed a pass-fail geology course in college because in the mineral identification section, all I could think to say was "that's a rock."
However, I do know enough to say with some confidence that surface land changes may have triggered but did not cause the earthquake. Earthquakes come from large releases of stored energy, often between plates and faults. It's remotely possible land surface changes trigger some of these releases, but in general I would presume the releases would happen at some point anyway. (Steven Goddard points out the quake was 13km below the surface, and says "It is amazing that anyone with a scientific background could attempt to blame it on surface conditions.")
The bit I wanted to tackle was the Thin Green Line's statement that "Climate change is spurring more, stronger hurricanes." This is a fascinating statement I want to attack from several angles.
First, at one level it is a mere tautology. If we are getting more hurricanes, then by definition the climate has changed. This is exactly why "global warming" was rebranded into "climate change," because at some level, the climate is always changing.
Second, the statement is part of a fairly interesting debate on whether global warming in general will cause more hurricanes. Certainly hurricanes get their power from warm water in the oceans, so it is not unreasonable to hypothesize that warmer water would lead to more, stronger hurricanes. It turns out the question, as are most all questions in the complex climate, is more complicated than that. It may be hurricanes are driven more by temperature gradients, rather than absolute temperatures, such that a general warming may or may not have an effect on their frequency.
Third, the statement in question, as worded, is demonstrably wrong. If he had said "may someday spur more hurricanes," he might have been OK, but he said that climate change, and by that he means global warming, is spurring more hurricanes right now.
Here is what is actually happening (paragraph breaks added)
2010 is in the books: Global Tropical Cyclone Accumulated Cyclone Energy [ACE] remains lowest in at least three decades, and expected to decrease even further... For the calendar year 2010, a total of 46 tropical cyclones of tropical storm force developed in the Northern Hemisphere, the fewest since 1977. Of those 46, 26 attained hurricane strength (> 64 knots) and 13 became major hurricanes (> 96 knots).
Even with the expected active 2010 North Atlantic hurricane season, which accounts on average for about 1/5 of global annual hurricane output, the rest of the global tropics has been historically quiet. For the calendar-year 2010, there were 66-tropical cyclones globally, the fewest in the reliable record (since at least 1970) The Western North Pacific in 2010 had 8-Typhoons, the fewest in at least 65-years of records. Closer to the US mainland, the Eastern North Pacific off the coast of Mexico out to Hawaii uncorked a grand total of 8 tropical storms of which 3 became hurricanes, the fewest number of hurricanes since at least 1970.
Global, Northern Hemisphere, and Southern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclone Accumulated Energy (ACE) remain at decades-low levels.
The source link has more, and graphs of ACE over the last several decades (ACE is a sort of integral, combining the time-average-strength of all hurricanes during the year. This is a better metric than mere counts and certainly better than landfall or property damage metrics).
So, normally I would argue with alarmists that correlation is not causation. There is no point in arguing about causation, though, because the event he claims to have happened (more and stronger hurricanes) did not even happen. The only way he could possibly argue it (though I am pretty sure he has never actually looked at the hurricane data and simply works from conventional wisdom in the global warming echo chamber) is to say that yes, 2010 was 40-year low in hurricanes, but it would have been even lower had it not been for global warming. This is the Obama stimulus logic, and is just as unsupportable here as it was in that context.
Postscript: By the way, 2010 was probably the second warmest year in the last 30-40 years and likely one of the 5-10 warmest in the last century, so if warming was going to be a direct cause of hurricanes, it would have been in 2010. And yes, El Ninos and La Ninas and such make it all more complicated. Exactly. See this post.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/tag/energy
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2013-05-21T01:40:09Z
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Oct. 9, 2002
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650/604-5026 or 604-9000
NASA SCIENTIST SIMULATES SUB-MICROSCOPIC PARTS AND WINS BIG AWARD
Growing atomic-scale 3-D computer circuits that may lead to human-like sensory systems is the latest simulation effort of a NASA scientist who recently won a scientific medal for years of work.
Using a computer to simulate molecular carbonnanotubes, so small they cannot be seen with a conventional microscope, is the work of NASA scientist Deepak Srivastava for which he earned the prestigious Eric Reissner Medal. Carbon nanotubes are only a few atoms wide, but these extremely strong tiny carbon pipes someday could be the major pieces from which scientists make future artificial brains as well as tiny machines that may help with tasks as diverse as planetary exploration and the curing of disease.
"We have proposed a system of three-dimensional carbon nanotube networks that could function similarly to a biological nerve system," said Srivastava, a senior scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Californias Silicon Valley. "The biologically inspired computer structure will have sensing and learning capabilities similar to a human sensory system."
The International Conference on Computational Engineering & Sciences recently presented the medal to Srivastava during a meeting in Reno, Nevada, for his distinguished contributions to nanoscience, "with particular relevance to carbon nanotubes."
"I am pleased NASA Ames contributions in computational nanotechnology have been recognized through this award," said Meyya Meyyappan, the director of the Center for Nanotechnology at NASA Ames. "Computational nanotechnology has been the trail blazer, uncovering the properties and potential of nanomaterials."
"We are simulating nanotubes for use in three general areas: the next generation of molecular computers, synthetic composite materials and molecular machines," Srivastava said. The carbon nanotube is a new form of carbon. Using several laboratory techniques, scientists grow the tiny carbon pipes that are just a few nanometers in diameter, and a few microns long. A micron is one-millionth of a meter. The tubes are stiff and as strong as diamond.
Scientists want to use carbon nanotubes to build tiny electronic circuits in 3-D arrays, unlike the two-dimensional circuits that are the standard of todays microelectronics industry.
"We recently showed that three nanotubes connected at one place can serve as switches and can process information," he said. "These properties inspired us to consider the concept of a system architecture similar to the biological neural system, but made of synthetic material such as nanotubes or nanowires."
An artificial brain or computing system, if fully developed, could be used to power robotic probes on spacecraft, planets and moons. The computing power of these nano-carbon circuits could be many, many times as great as todays most powerful supercomputer, but housed in a package the size of a small teakettle, according to Srivastava.
Five years ago, Srivastava and his collaborator, Madhu Menon of the University of Kentucky, first proposed and simulated a simple, biological-like, carbon-nanotube branched structure. Srivastava used a powerful NASA computer to simulate and see what the architecture of the nanotube structure would look like. As recently as August, university scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, N.Y., created the branched nanotube structure that Srivastava had predicted.
"That scientists can make these simple, branched 3-D nanotube structures is a really exciting development," he said. "Using our NASA supercomputers, we now are starting to simulate complex, tree-like carbon-nanotube networks, and how these networks can be used for sensing and computing."
"In addition to making computer parts with nanotubes, we envision simulating new materials out of a combination of tiny amounts of carbon nanotubes and traditionally manufactured materials. These composite materials are expected to be much stronger and lighter weight than todays best-known materials used to build airplanes, cars and even spacecraft," he said. "If these materials can be made in large quantities, they could be used to make spacecraft that could be much less massive with the same or better capabilities of todays aerospace systems."
Srivastava is working with a team including scientists from NASA; Stanford University; the University of Kentucky; University of Crete, Greece; and St. Petersburg University, Russia. The NASA Computing, Information and Communications Technology (CICT) Program funds Srivastavas work.
One of the major reasons Srivastava received the award for his work is that he accurately predicted the stiffness, the strength and breaking point properties of carbon-nanotubes and composite materials that contain carbon nanotubes.
"Previously, it was predicted that carbon nanotubes could be stretched as much as 30 percent to 40 percent before they would break, but we recently simulated the more realistic breaking point value to be about 10 percent. This agrees very well with recent experimental observations," he said.
Additional technical information about Srivastavas carbon-nano-tube work is on the Internet at
- end -
To receive Ames news releases via e-mail, send an e-mail with the word "subscribe" in the subject line to email@example.com. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to the same address with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2002/02_108AR.html
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2013-06-18T23:05:45Z
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On Thursday, March 24 at about 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EDT), NASA's Stardust spacecraft will perform a final burn with its main engines.
At first glance, the burn is something of an insignificant event. After all, the venerable spacecraft has executed 40 major flight path maneuvers since its 1999 launch, and between these main engines and the reaction control system, its rocket motors have collectively fired more than 2 million times. But the March 24 burn will be different from all others. This burn will effectively end the life of NASA's most traveled comet hunter.
"We call it a 'burn to depletion,' and that is pretty much what we're doing – firing our rockets until there is nothing left in the tank," said Stardust-NExT project manager Tim Larson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's a unique way for an interplanetary spacecraft to go out. Essentially, Stardust will be providing us useful information to the very end."
Burn to depletion will answer the question about how much fuel Stardust had left in its tank.
"We'll take those data and compare them to what our estimates told us was left," said Allan Cheuvront, Lockheed Martin Space Systems program manager for Stardust-NExT. "That will give us a better idea how valid our fuel consumption models are and make our predictions even more accurate for future missions."
Fuel consumption models are necessary because no one has invented an entirely reliable fuel gauge for spacecraft. Until that day arrives, mission planners can approximate fuel usage by looking at the history of the vehicle's flight and how many times and for how long its rocket motors have fired.
Stardust's burn to depletion is expected to impart valuable information, because the spacecraft has essentially been running on borrowed time -- for some time. Launched on Feb. 7, 1999, Stardust had already flown past an asteroid (Annefrank), flown past and collected particle samples from a comet (Wild 2), and returned those particles to Earth in a sample return capsule in January 2006 – and in so doing racked up 4.63 billion kilometers (2.88 billion miles) on its odometer. NASA then re-tasked the still-healthy spacecraft to perform a flyby of comet Tempel 1, a new, low-cost mission that required another five years and 1.04 billion kilometers (646 million miles). After all those milestones and all that time logged on the spacecraft, the Stardust team knew the end was near. They just didn't know exactly how close.
Prior to this final burn, Stardust will point its medium-gain antenna at Earth – some 312 million kilometers (194 million miles) away. As there is no tomorrow for Stardust, the spacecraft is expected to downlink information on the burn as it happens. The command from the spacecraft computer ordering the rockets to fire will be sent for 45 minutes, but the burn is expected to last only between a couple of minutes to somewhat above 10 minutes. It is estimated the burn could accelerate the spacecraft anywhere from 2.5 to 35.2 meters per second (6 to 79 mph).
"What we think will happen is that when the fuel reaches a critically low level, gaseous helium will enter the thruster chambers," said Larson. "The resulting thrust will be less than 10 percent of what was expected. While Stardust will continue to command its rocket engines to fire until the pre-planned firing time of 45 minutes has elapsed, the burn is essentially over."
Twenty minutes after the engines run dry, the spacecraft's computer will command its transmitters off. They actively shut off their radios to preclude the remote chance that at some point down the road Stardust's transmitter could turn on and broadcast on a frequency being used by other operational spacecraft. Turning off the transmitter ensures that there will be no unintended radio interference in the future.
Without fuel to power the spacecraft's attitude control system, Stardust's solar panels will not remain pointed at the sun. When this occurs, the spacecraft's batteries are expected to drain of power and deplete within hours.
"When we take into account all the possibilities for how long the burn could be and then the possible post-burn trajectories, we project that over the next 100 years, Stardust will not get any closer than 1.7 million miles of Earth's orbit, or within 13 million miles of Mars orbit," said Larson. "That is far enough from protected targets to meet all of NASA's Planetary Protection directives. "
Some planetary spacecraft, like the Galileo mission to Jupiter, are intentionally sent into the planet's atmosphere to make sure it is destroyed in a controlled way. Others have their transmitters shut off or just fade away, said Larson. "I think this is a fitting end for Stardust. It's going down swinging."
Stardust-NExT is a low-cost mission to expand the investigation of comet Tempel 1 initiated by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Stardust-NExT project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C., and is part of the Discovery Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Joe Veverka of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., is the mission's principal investigator. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft and manages day-to-day mission operations.
Use this link to experience Stardust's final hour before decommissioning, then use Eyes on the Solar System to relive the entire mission from 1999 to 2011: http://go.usa.gov/2ry . A free software download is required.
For more information about Stardust-NExT, please visit: http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/news/stardust20110323.html
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2013-05-22T08:34:09Z
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701508530/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105148-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
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Location on the Periodic Table
The alkaline earths are the elements located in Group IIA of the periodic table.
The alkaline earths possess many of the characteristic properties of metals. Alkaline earths have low electron affinities and low electronegativities. As with the alkali metals, the properties depend on the ease with which electrons are lost. The alkaline earths have two electrons in the outer shell. They have smaller atomic radii than the alkali metals. The two valence electrons are not tightly bound to the nucleus, so the alkaline earths readily lose the electrons to form divalent cations.
Summary of Common Properties
- Two electrons in the outer shell
- Low electron affinities
- Low electronegativities
- Readily form divalent cations.
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<urn:uuid:c7c3afb5-3132-4f49-992a-8150b898fc16>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://chemistry.about.com/od/elementgroups/a/alkalineearths.-Ns_.htm
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2013-05-24T02:46:24Z
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Portrait of Juana Inés de la Cruz at age 15
Juana Inés de la Cruz de Asuaje y Ramirez was born in San Miguel Nepantla, near Mexico City. She was the illegitimate child of a Spanish Captain, Pedro Manuel de Asuaje, and a Criollo woman, Isabel Ramirez. Her illegitimacy was due to her mother’s refusal to marry.
She learned how to read and write at the age of three. By age five, she could do accounts, and at age eight she composed a poem on the Eucharist. By adolescence, she had mastered Greek logic, and at age thirteen she was teaching Latin to young children. She also learned the Aztec language of Nahuatl, and wrote some short poems in that language.
In 1664, at age sixteen, Juana was sent to live in Mexico City. She asked her mother’s permission to disguise herself as a male student so that she could enter the university. Not being allowed to do this, she continued her studies privately. She came under the tutelage of the Vicereine Leonor Carreto, wife of Viceroy Antonio Sebastián de Toledo. The viceroy, wishing to test her learning and intelligence (she being then seventeen years old), invited several theologians, jurists, philosophers, and poets to a meeting, during which she had to answer, unprepared, many questions, and explain several difficult points on various scientific and literary subjects. The manner in which she acquitted herself astonished all present, and greatly increased her reputation. Her literary accomplishments soon made her famous throughout New Spain.
She was much admired in the vice-royal court, and declined several proposals of marriage, for in the spirit of her mother, she refused to marry. In 1667, she entered the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites of St. Joseph as a postulant. In 1669, she entered the Convent of the Order of St. Jérôme.
In Juana’s time, the convent was often seen as the only refuge in which a female could properly attend to the education of her mind, spirit, body and soul. It was Juana’s only refuge from marriage. Nonetheless, she wrote literature centered on freedom. In her poem Redondillas, she defends a woman’s right to be respected as a human being. Therein, she also criticizes the sexism of the society of her time, poking fun at and revealing the hypocrisy of men who publicly condemn prostitutes, yet privately pay women to perform on them what they have just said is an abomination to God. Sor Juana asks the sharp question in this age-old matter of the purity/whoredom split found in base male mentality: “Who sins more, she who sins for pay? Or he who pays for sin?” For these works, she is regarded as one of the first feminists.
Foolish men who wrongly accuse women, Without seeing that you are the cause of what you fault them for; You want with unthinking presumption to find in the woman you seek… Either love women for what you force them to be, or fashion them according to what you want them to be.
marvellous portrait and person.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://aviatrixes.tumblr.com/post/20507982788/torayot-elgin-marbles-portrait-of-juana
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2013-06-18T22:51:36Z
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
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Watercress (Nasturtium officinale), is a fast-growing, aquatic or semi-aquatic, perennial plant native to Europe and Asia, and one of the oldest known leaf vegetables consumed by humans. It is a member of the family Brassicaceae, botanically related to garden cress, mustard and radish — all noteworthy for a peppery, tangy flavour.
Nasturtium nasturtium-aquaticum (nomenclaturally invalid) and Sisymbrium nasturtium-aquaticum L. are synonyms of N. officinale. Watercress is also listed in some sources as belonging to the genus Rorippa, although molecular evidence shows the aquatic species with hollow stems are more closely related to Cardamine than Rorippa. Despite the Latin name, watercress is not closely related to the flowers popularly known as nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus).
Cultivation of watercress is practical on both a large-scale and a garden-scale. Being semi-aquatic, watercress is well-suited to hydroponic cultivation, thriving best in water that is slightly alkaline. It is frequently produced around the headwaters of chalk streams. In many local markets, the demand for hydroponically grown watercress exceeds supply, partly because cress leaves are unsuitable for distribution in dried form, and can only be stored fresh for a short period.
Watercress can be sold in supermarkets inside sealed plastic bags, containing a little moisture and lightly pressurised to prevent crushing of contents. This has allowed national availability with a once-purchased storage life of one to two days in chilled/refrigerated storage.
Also sold as sprouts, the edible shoots are harvested days after germination. If unharvested, watercress can grow to a height of 50–120 centimetres (1.6–3.9 ft). Like many plants in this family, the foliage of watercress becomes bitter when the plants begin producing flowers.
In the United Kingdom, watercress was first commercially cultivated in 1808 by the horticulturist William Bradbery, along the River Ebbsfleet in Kent. Watercress is now grown in a number of counties of the United Kingdom, most notably Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset. The town of Alresford, near Winchester, holds a Watercress Festival that brings in more than 15,000 visitors every year, and a preserved steam railway line has been named after the local crop. In recent years,[when?] watercress has become more widely available in the UK, at least in the southeast; it is stocked pre-packed in some supermarkets, as well as fresh by the bunch at farmers' markets and greengrocers.
In the United States in the 1940s, Huntsville, Alabama was locally known as the "watercress capital of the world". Today, Oviedo, Florida in the United States is known by that title, while Alresford in England is considered to be that nation's watercress capital.
Health benefits
|Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)|
|Energy||46 kJ (11 kcal)|
|- Sugars||0.2 g|
|- Dietary fiber||0.5 g|
|Vitamin A equiv.||160 μg (20%)|
|- beta-carotene||1914 μg (18%)|
|- lutein and zeaxanthin||5767 μg|
|Thiamine (vit. B1)||0.09 mg (8%)|
|Riboflavin (vit. B2)||0.12 mg (10%)|
|Pantothenic acid (B5)||0.31 mg (6%)|
|Vitamin B6||0.129 mg (10%)|
|Folate (vit. B9)||9 μg (2%)|
|Vitamin C||43 mg (52%)|
|Vitamin E||1 mg (7%)|
|Vitamin K||250 μg (238%)|
|Calcium||120 mg (12%)|
|Iron||0.2 mg (2%)|
|Magnesium||21 mg (6%)|
|Manganese||0.244 mg (12%)|
|Phosphorus||60 mg (9%)|
|Potassium||330 mg (7%)|
|Sodium||41 mg (3%)|
|Link to USDA Database entry
Percentages are relative to
US recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA Nutrient Database
Watercress contains significant amounts of iron, calcium, iodine, and folic acid, in addition to vitamins A and C. Because it is relatively rich in Vitamin C, watercress was suggested (among other plants) by English military surgeon John Woodall (1570–1643) as a remedy for scurvy.
Many benefits from eating watercress are claimed, such as that it acts as a stimulant, a source of phytochemicals and antioxidants, a diuretic, an expectorant, and a digestive aid. It also appears to have antiangiogenic cancer-suppressing properties; it is widely believed to help defend against lung cancer. A 2010 study conducted by the University of Southampton found that consumption of watercress may also inhibit the growth of breast cancer. The content of phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) in watercress inhibits HIF, which can inhibit angiogenesis.
Side effects
Watercress crops grown in the presence of manure can be a haven for parasites such as the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica. Watercress is a known inhibitor of the cytochrome P450 CYP2E1, which may result in altered drug metabolism for individuals on certain medications such as chlorzoxazone.
See also
- Fools watercress - Apium nodiflorum
- Al-Shehbaz I, Price RA (June 1998). "Delimitation of the genus Nasturtium (Brassicaceae)". Novon 8 (2): 124–6. doi:10.2307/3391978. JSTOR 3391978.
- "Huntsville's Missile Payload", MotherJones.com, July 2001.
- Clara Renner (13 November 1986). "Flavor Is An Added Bonus With Nutritional Watercress". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- Rick Peters (30 March 2010). "Seasonal food: watercress". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- "Watercress Nutritional Analysis". Southern Europe Fruits And Vegetables. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- Watercress soup and the health benefits of watercress
- Hecht SS, Chung FL, Richie JP, et al. (1 December 1995). "Effects of watercress consumption on metabolism of a tobacco-specific lung carcinogen in smokers". Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 4 (8): 877–84. PMID 8634661.
- Medical News TODAY - Compounds in broccoli, cauliflower, and watercress block lung cancer progression
- Times Online - Eating raw watercress every day may reduce risk of cancer
- Hecht SS, Carmella SG, Murphy SE (1 October 1999). "Effects of watercress consumption on urinary metabolites of nicotine in smokers". Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 8 (10): 907–13. PMID 10548320.
- Science Daily - Watercress May 'Turn Off' Breast Cancer Signal
- Template:Avodah Zarah, 28a
- CDC Parasites & Health: Fascioliasis
- Leclercq I, Desager JP, Horsmans Y (August 1998). "Inhibition of chlorzoxazone metabolism, a clinical probe for CYP2E1, by a single ingestion of watercress". Clin Pharmacol Ther. 64 (2): 144–9. doi:10.1016/S0009-9236(98)90147-3. PMID 9728894.
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134a Refrigerant Explosion
The owner of an automobile was attempting to recharge the air conditioning system using a kit sold for that purpose. The refrigerant was tetrafluoroethane, commonly called Refrigerant 134a. The common use of "Refrigerant 134a" to identify "tetrafluoroethane" is not linked to any particular product or manufacturer in the context of this investigation summary.
The recharging product, in addition to containing Refrigerant 134a, also contained lesser amounts of lubricants and sealants. The complete mixture was packaged in a Department of Transportation (DOT) 2Q metal container.
The individual attempting the recharge testified that he placed the container of 134a product on the engine valve cover for a short period of time while the engine was running. The container of 134a was never connected to the A/C system. Per testimony, shortly after the engine was turned off, the bottom of the container exploded off creating a rocket that hit the individual in the eye causing the loss of the eye. This is called a "mechanical explosion" and the mode of failure is a "deformation failure."
It may seem illogical that the container exploded after the engine was turned off, but water-cooled, automobile engines get hotter for a short period of time after they are turned off. Experiments confirmed that this continued heating does in fact take place.
measurements determined that the vapor pressure of the contents (134a plus lubricants
and sealants) was 200 psig at 130°F. This exceeded the maximum pressure (180
psig) allowed by DOT Regulations by 20 psig. The pressure versus temperature behavior
of the product tracked that of pure tetrafluoroethane almost exactly, as one would
expect. The vapor pressure of pure 134a is 199 psig at 130°F.
Per DOT Regulations, contents with 130°F pressures between 180-200 psig need to be packaged in special DOT-E containers, not DOT 2Q containers. Experimental heat-to-burst tests demonstrated that the product exploded below the minimum burst pressure (270 psig) required by the DOT more often than they exploded above the DOT minimum. One exploded as low as 200 psig. These experimental findings led to several scientific publications in a peer-reviewed journal and conference.
Test methods developed at an earlier time by Chemaxx and applied to this investigation were challenged under Daubert in Federal Court. The Court ruled that most of the test methods satisfied the Daubert criteria.
Chemaxx-funded research conducted in parallel to the legal case led to the discovery of a correlation between the strength of the container bottom and its explosion temperature in the heat-to-burst tests. This method has been published in a peer-reviewed, scientific journal. In fact, this paper won the 2007 Paper-of-the-Year Award in the ASM Journal of Failure Analysis & Prevention. The correlation methodology makes it possible to determine the explosion temperature of a container that has already exploded, provided that the bottom can be found and it is not too severely mangled from impact.
The main issues involved in the case were whether the container and its contents met DOT specifications. Measurements showed that the 130°F pressure of the contents exceeded the maximum of 180 psig for a DOT 2Q container. Experiments also showed that the DOT 2Q containers exploded in heat-to-burst tests at pressures below the minimum DOT requirement (270 psig) more often than they failed above that minimum pressure. This was experimentally determined to be due to a lack of safety margin in the strength of the container bottom. However, the case settled prior to trial without any admissions or legal decisions concerning these issues.
The methods used in the investigation included:
The above research led to a peer-reviewed scientific publication in ASM's Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention, April 2006. It also prompted a Petition to the Department of Transportation by Dr. Fox. To read the DOT Petition, Click Here
Dr. Michael Fox of Chemaxx, is accredited in Aerosol Technology by the Center for Professional Advancement as well as the British Aerosol Manufacturers Association, and certified by the DOT in the transportation of hazardous materials. (The DOT regulates aerosol containers and the products that can go in them).
Dr. Fox is a Certified Fire & Explosion Investigator who is also an aerosol expert. He made presentations at national societies on the fire and explosion hazards associated with aerosols and was the first to publish a peer-reviewed paper on aerosol failures. He now leads the field in the number of peer-reviewed papers on aerosol failures.
©2007 CHEMAXX, INC
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2007) — Online video games with thousands of simultaneous players, such as “World of Warcraft,” have become hugely popular in the last two decades and are now a multibillion dollar industry with tremendous financial success. Joshua Smyth, associate professor of psychology in The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University, recently conducted a randomized trial study of college students contrasting the effects of playing online socially interconnected video games with more traditional single-player or arcade-style games.
While both multiplayer and traditional single player video games present a double-edged sword, Smyth’s research found that online, socially integrated multiplayer games create greater negative consequences (decreased health, well-being, sleep, socialization and academic work) but also garner far greater positive results (greater enjoyment in playing, increased interest in continuing play and a rise in the acquisition of new friendships) than do single-player games.
“The most striking result of this study is that playing online multiplayer games had much greater positive and negative effects on people than playing traditional single-player video games,” says Smyth. “Students in the study who played online multiplayer games did so about three times as much as those playing single-player game types, averaging over 14 hours a week.”
In his study, Smyth randomly assigned 100 college student volunteers to play one of four types of video games: traditional, arcade-style games (such as those found in the local mall); console games like the Sony PlayStation; single player computer games; and fantasy-themed persistent online multiplayer games.
Computer networking—linking players from across the world together in a single game—has dramatically changed the nature of... [continues]
Cite This Essay
(2008, 10). Effects of Online Gaming Addiction in College Student. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 10, 2008, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Effects-Online-Gaming-Addiction-College-Student-168371.html
"Effects of Online Gaming Addiction in College Student" StudyMode.com. 10 2008. 10 2008 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/Effects-Online-Gaming-Addiction-College-Student-168371.html>.
"Effects of Online Gaming Addiction in College Student." StudyMode.com. 10, 2008. Accessed 10, 2008. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Effects-Online-Gaming-Addiction-College-Student-168371.html.
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A new study shows bugs, even those that feed on crops, might not always be a bad thing for farmers. It's possible some could ultimately do more good than harm to the plants they feed on, by helping them pull through hardships like this year's drought. Biologist Richard Musser at Wester Illinois University found the saliva of horn worms can turn on frost and drought resistant genes in plants:
"If we could figure out what is really involved in protecting plants from those drought respon...you know, turn on those drought responses earlier that plant might be able to deal with less water."
Musser's findings are being published in the Journal of Chemical Ecology this month. His latest study is a follow up to an earlier discovery that some plants, including tomatoes, will actually call for help when attacked by herbivores such as caterpillars. The S-O-S attracts insect predators that eat the caterpillars. Musser calles the phenomenon "screaming tomato plants."
Support Your Public Radio Station
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I need the ans with relevant figure :
Two particles P and Q, are 30m apart with Q due north of P. Particle Q is moving at 5m/s in a direction 90 deg and P is moving at 7m/s in a direction 30 deg. Find
(a) the magnitude and direction of the velocity Of Q relative to P,
(b) the time taken for Q to be due east of P,to the nearest second.
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Mr. Strickland and his Seventh Grade Civics classes at Wilkerson Middle School.
Malachi Wilkerson Middle School; Birmingham City Schools
The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in our nation's history. Its words and ideas are still quoted by everyone from our nation's to our community's leaders. The children in Mr. Strickland's seventh grade Civics classroom present here their own interpretation of an excerpt from the document. The students used humor, metaphor, and sometimes literal translations of Jefferson's Declaration of Natural Rights. The video makes a terrific study helper for those attempting to learn the Declaration.
Content Areas: Social Studies
Alabama Course of Study Alignments and/or Professional Development Standard Alignments:
[T1] CIT (7) 1: Describe influences of ancient Greece, the Magna Carta, and the Mayflower Compact on the government of the United States.
NSS-C.5-8.2 FOUNDATIONS OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEMWhat are the Foundations of the American Political System?
What is the American idea of constitutional government?
What are the distinctive characteristics of American society?
What is American political culture?
What values and principles are basic to American constitutional democracy?
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March on Washington, D.C. for Jobs and Freedom August 28, 1963
By John E. Hansan, Ph.D., An Organizer for Cincinnati’s Delegation
A major event in the centuries-long struggle to help black Americans achieve equal rights was the 1963 “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people from across the nation came together in Washington, D.C. to peacefully demonstrate their support for the passage of a meaningful civil rights bill, an end to racial segregation in schools and the creation of jobs for the unemployed. It was the largest demonstration ever held in the nation’s capital, and one of the first to have extensive television coverage. The march is remembered too as the occasion for Reverend Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. It was a speech of hope and determination, and it epitomized the message the marchers proclaimed of racial harmony and a belief that blacks and whites could live together in peace. The march also gave widespread publicity and political impetus to the then pending civil rights legislation a version of which was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964.
During the early 1960s numerous civil rights demonstrations and protests were held, particularly in the south. The widespread use of non-violent peaceful civil rights demonstrations in the south in the 1960s can be said to have started on February 1, 1960 when, after shopping for school supplies in a Woolworth department store in Greensboro, N.C, four black freshmen from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College asked to be served at the store’s segregated lunch counter. The basic plan of the sit-ins was that a group of students would go to a lunch counter and ask to be served. If they were, they would move on to the next lunch counter. If they were not served they would not move until they had been. If they were arrested, a new group would take their place. The students always remained nonviolent and respectful. Some students in northern cities eventually joined the protests and by August 1961, the movement had attracted over 70,000 participants and resulted in more than 3,000 arrests.
Building on the success of the “sit-ins,” another type of protest was planned using “Freedom Riders.” The Freedom Riders were a volunteer group of men and women, black and white, young and old (many from university and college campuses) across the country who boarded buses, trains and planes bound for the deep south to challenge outdated laws and practices and the region’s non-compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited segregation in all interstate public transportation facilities. The most notable Freedom Ride was one that left Washington DC on May 4, 1961 and scheduled to arrive in New Orleans, LA on May 17. These Freedom Riders never made it to New Orleans. Many spent their summer in jail. But their efforts were not in vain. The Kennedy administration was forced to take a stand on civil rights, which was the intent of the Freedom Rides in the first place. Also, the Interstate Commerce Commission, at the request of Attorney General Robert Kennedy, outlawed segregation in interstate bus travel.
These and other civil rights demonstrations moved President John F. Kennedy to send to Congress a civil rights bill on June 19, 1963. The proposed legislation offered federal protection to African Americans seeking to vote, to shop, to eat out, and to be educated on equal terms. To capitalize on the growing public support for the civil rights movement and to put pressure Congress to adopt civil rights legislation, a coalition of the major civil rights groups was formed to plan and organize a large national demonstration in the nation’s capital. The hope was to enlist a hundred thousand people to come to Washington, D.C.
Initially, the March on Washington was supported by leaders of the “Big Six” civil rights organizations: James Farmer, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., .Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); John Lewis, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Roy Wilkins, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); and Whitney Young, National Urban League. The march was planned to take place on August 28, 1963 and Bayard Rustin was named chief coordinator of the March.
A short time later, the sponsoring committee was expanded to included religious and labor interests: Matthew Ahman, National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice; Reverend Eugene Carson Blake, Commission on Race Relations of the National Council of Churches; Rabbi Joachim Prinz, American Jewish Committee; and Walter Reuther, UAW & AFL-CIO. The published demands of the march organizers were: the passage of meaningful civil rights legislation; the elimination of racial segregation in public schools; a major public-works program to provide jobs for unemployed workers, Negro and white; the passage of a law prohibiting racial discrimination in public and private hiring; a $2 an hour minimum wage; and a new Executive Order banning discrimination in all housing supported by federal funds. Details about the purpose, sponsors and plans for the organization and conduct of the march were included in an “Organizing Manual No. 2”
An “Appeal by the March Leaders?” distributed in advance of the event stated: “…It (the march) was conceived as an outpouring of deep feeling of millions of white and colored American citizens that the time has come for the Government of the United States of America and particularly the Congress of that Government, to grant and guarantee complete equality in citizenship to the Negro minority of our population…It (the march) will be orderly, but not subservient. It will be proud, but not arrogant. It will be nonviolent but not timid. It will be unified in purposes and behavior, not splintered into groups and individual competitors….”
The Cincinnati Committee for the Washington March?
Those who discounted the appeal of the march were astounded to discover that it received broad support from many sectors of American life. Local religious, labor and civic organizations joined the major civil rights groups in planning, publicizing the march and recruiting participants. For example, in Cincinnati, OH (an area sometimes referred to as “up south” because of its conservative politics and treatment of blacks) a Committee For The Washington March was formed and it included leaders from the local affiliates of the: AFL-CIO, Catholic Interracial Council, CORE, Council of Churches, Jewish Community Relations Committee, NAACP and Flyers promoting the march were widely distributed and supporters were encouraged to contact their friends, neighbors and colleagues in churches, lodges, union halls and other organizations to which they belonged. Active promotion of the march resulted in approximately 500 Cincinnati area residents paying their own fare for a two-night round trip to Washington, DC on a chartered train. Leaving Cincinnati’s Union Station at 5:00 p.m. on August 27, the Cincinnati areea contingent arrived in Washington, D.C. at 8:15 a.m. on August 28. Because of long lines on the train, a number of Cincinnatians chose to freshen up in the public rest rooms at Union Station. The rest room experience proved to be a very good omen for one of the marchers.
After leaving Washington’s Union Station, the Cincinnati area marchers joined up with other delegations and walked to the Washington Monument grounds where the marchers were instructed to assemble. (insert link to map, set of instructions, schedule and program) Participants carried a variety of signs and joined in singing civil rights songs and hymns. At the Washington Monument, a stage had been set up and famous singers and Hollywood stars entertained the crowd waiting to march to the Lincoln Memorial and the start of the formal program. Among the entertainers and stars that morning were: Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, Odetta, Josh White, Ossie Davis, Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis, Jr., Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll, Paul Newman, and Harry Belafonte.
The formal program started from a platform in front of the Lincoln Memorial at 2:00 p.m. Ms. Marian Anderson was delayed and not able to open the program singing The National Anthem. After the invocation, March Director, A. Philip Randolph, addressed the crowd. After remarks by Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, Bayard Rustin, in the absence of Mrs. Myrlie Evers, paid tribute to “Negro Women Fighters for Freedom.” He introduced to the crowd: Rosa Parks, Daisy Bates, Diane Nash, Gloria Richardson, and Mrs. Herbert Lee (widow of the slain Mississippi activist), as well as citing Myrlie Evers, widow of Medgar Evers, the assassinated civil rights leader. Dr. King was the last speaker and delivered an eloquent articulation of the American dream and his hope that it would be fully realized. Entitled “I Have a Dream,” the speech outlined his hopes for a time when his ‘four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.’
On Line Resources
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There are 3 websites for periodic tables of elements that have been the most popular ones on the internet since the 1990s. The article that follows describes them. These three are examples of many excellent websites about academic knowledge that are created by experts in a subject and kept up-to-date and authentic by their authors.
The most remarkable thing about the following article is that it was true in 1999, true in 2006, when I first wrote it, and remains true today in 2011. The three tables of elements described in the article remain in the top Google search results, as they have for over a decade.
Amateur, Laboratory and University Open the Tables: Interactive Tables of Elements
By Judy Breck 2006
One of the most popular early topics for digital education interpretation was the periodic table of elements. The reason is obvious. The table begs to be interactive. On a webpage, each of the elements can become interactive: click on an element and you arrive at its details.
In the late 1990s dozens of tables of elements clogged the popular search engines. Then Google came along to elevate the tables of elements that users liked best. Three of them floated to the top of the Google search return. Those same three have stayed there for several years.
I described these three open education resources for tables of elements in Education Technology magazine in the summer of 2006*:
“On February 28, 1996, eighth grader Yinon Bentor presented his science project to his class at school. It was an interactive periodic table of chemical elements displayed on an Internet browser — a new tool that Yinon had coaxed out of the connecting digital world. At the time there were only a handful of periodic tables on the World Wide Web. In the months that followed his class presentation, Bentor’s project took first place in his school science fair’s brand new Computer Science/Mathematics category and won the “Navy/Marines Distinguished Achievement Special Award” at the 40th Piedmont Region, Illinois Science Fair. These are commendable achievements for an eighth grader, but school recognition was just a beginning.
“The project Yinon Bentor put online a decade ago is still there and he still hosts it and tinkers along with improvements. Two other period tables of elements, one from Los Alamos National Laboratory and another from the University of Sheffield, along with Bentor’s, nearly always are the top three periodic tables listed in a search for “periodic table of elements” on Google.”
These websites are prime examples of open education resources. Are their tables of elements really of high quality? Materials that cost money are better, we feel it in our gut. There must be a highly paid expert inside ivy walls somewhere who has created the superior learning material for every and any subject.
The way the Internet has developed, that line of thinking has proven wrong. In the example of tables of elements, in what kind of superior walled off source of origin would those websites be? The three open tables of elements described here are tended, respectively, by a devoted amateur, scientists at a leading government laboratory, and academics at a major university. Here is what these keepers say about the open education resources they oversee.
Yinon Benton writes on the About page of ChemicalElements.com, the website he has been nurturing and supporting personally since he was in junior high school: “Recently, I’ve added advertising to this site in order to make up for the costs I incur because of having this site on its own domain hosting the site on Pair Networks, a fast commercial host, and in order to make a profit from the work I put into this site . . . . More Coming Soon! I’m always looking to update this site and add more information. If you know of something that would make this page better, please let me know and I’ll do my best to add it in future updates.”
The scientists at Periodic Table of the Elements at Los Alamos boast about their web-child: “Originally this resource, the Periodic Table, was created by Robert Husted at Los Alamos National Laboratory during his time as a Graduate Research Assistant. The Periodic Table that you are currently viewing was inherited by the Chemistry Division from the Computer Division who provided the laboratory some of the internet’s first web sites. This page was given a face lift, tummy tuck, and lobotomy in 2002/2003 by Mollie Boorman.” [Current version here]
The Papa of WebElements, the periodic table at the University of Sheffield, is Dr. Mark J. Winter of the Department of Chemistry. He explains how the website came to be that he continues to tend for thousands of online visitors: “The periodic table on the WWW [is my] first site. Running since 1993, although its origins lie in a HyperCard program (MacElements) I started work upon around 1989.”
Open education resources like the three tables of elements discussed here are custom projects by experts in the knowledge they interface. They virtually let the student look over the shoulder of scholars like Dr. Winter, shown here—sparking study and exciting learning.
* Judy Breck, “Why Is Education Not in the Ubiquitous Web World Picture?” Education Technology, July-August 2006, pp. 43-46.
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The Andaman Islands are located in the Bay of Bengal about 900km from India. The group of around 274 islands (26 of which are inhabited) makes a delicate chain stretching 755km, strung off the southern tip of Burma, and aligned north to south, to the fringes of Sumatra. The Andaman Islands is a magical place. Life here moves more slowly, untouched by commercialism and modern intrusions. Thickly covered with wild tropical jungles, the islands support a profusion of wild life including some extremely rare birds and animals you will only find in the Andamans. You値l find beautiful unspoiled beaches here, surrounded by warm tropical waters in shades of blues and greens. The seas around the Andamans are some of the worlds most unspoiled and undiscovered. Filled with pristine reefs, a kaleidoscope of colors and corals and a mind-boggling array of fish.
The climate remains tropical throughout the year, with temperatures ranging from 24 - 35 C (75 - 95 F) and humidity levels never below 70%. The best time of the year to visit is between January and may. From mid may to October heavy rains flush the islands, while November and December less severe rains arrive with the northeast monsoon. Despite being so far east the islands run on Indian time, so the sun rises as early as 4:30am in the summer and darkness falls soon after 5:00pm
The name Andaman conceivably came from Nagnamanaba, a Sanskrit word meaning "naked man" the indigenous tribes of the Andamans intrigued all that sailed by, not just by their nudity, but they had an appearance that suggested African roots rather then Asian. The alleged ferocity that surrounded the tribes keeps them virtually untouched until modern times. There are still tribal people, although numbers have been slashed dramatically, currently living in the Andamans. There contact with outsiders is limited, and the reserves are strictly off limits to foreigners. They ask to be left alone so they can continue to live in their traditional ways. There is one island, North Sentinel, which has never been colonized. It痴 inhabitants still live completely free of outside influence, just as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. (to learn more about the tribes in the Andamans we recommend the book The Land of the Naked People: Encounters with Stone Age Islanders by Madhusree Mukerjee.)
The first settlers on the Andamans arrived in 1789. Archibald Blair of the Royal Indian Navy founded a naval base on a small island adjoining South Andaman. The naval base proved to be unhealthy for the settlers and in 1796 its residence, almost 800 people, evacuated the island. In 1858 British colonists established a penal settlement on South Andaman at Port Blair. The British used the island to imprison Indian freedom fighters. Those who sought to rid India of British colonizers by violent means were sentenced to life on the Andamans. During World War II the Japanese took control of the Andamans. The British regained control in 1945. And in 1947, the British left, handing the Andamans over to the newly freed India.
The island of Havelock is about 30km north east of Port Blair, the capital city of the Andamans. The small island (55 square miles) is covered mostly in dense green jungle with beautiful white sandy beaches shaded by tall green trees, lapped with warm waters in sublime shades of blues and greens. As far as islands in the Andamans go, Havelock is one of the more developed ones, we have phone lines and electricity, (most of the time). A couple of places in the market for Internet use, but the connection are very slow. You値l find almost everything you need here, but at a slower pace. Free of all the hassles that come with a big city. The majority of the locals are Bengali, they settled here with their families after India won its independence in 1947. You値l find them to be warm and friendly people. Still living a traditional village life untouched by mass commercialism. Their main sources of income come from farming and fishing. There is definably an air of peace and serenity that comes with the island. But we may be a bit bias, this is where us at Andaman Bubbles have chose to make are home.
Getting around Havelock is fairly simple. The ferry arrives on the northern part of the island in village 1 (all locations are numbered in Havelock). Going down the northeastern side of the island are beaches 2, 3 and 5. On the southwestern side of the island is Beach 7 (a beautiful place to watch sunset) and somewhere in the middle is Village 6. Most resorts and activities are located along the northeast (1-5) or along number 7. You can walk from beach 1 to 5 in about an hour. To get to beach 7, (which is about 30 min away by bus) you値l need auto transportation. There is a few local buses that run on Havelock and. Auto rickshaws are readily available. You can also rent a motor bike (remember to get your drivers license) or bicycle.
Most of Havelock runs off of cash, with a few of the larger resorts accepting credit cards and foreign currency for a nominal fee, usually 3 %. There is an ATM in Havelock but the money changing facilities are not dependable on Havelock. There are money changing facilities and ATMs in Port Blair.
Havelock has a wide variety of activities to offer, which we at Andaman Bubbles will be happy to arrange for you. Whether you池e exploring the treasures of the sea by either scuba diving or snorkeling. Spending time deep sea fishing, hiking through the jungle, experiencing traditional village life, or enjoying the simplicity of the island. By simply laying in a hammock gazing at the wonders, lazing on the beach looking for treasures in the sand or floating in the sea. You値l leave here with memories that you値l treasure for a lifetime.
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Early in the reign of King Jehoiakim (the son of King Josiah), the prophet Jeremiah found himself in legal difficulty at the temple in Jerusalem. This public encounter and perilously close call with the law have become an unforgettable feature in the cultural and religious landscape of Lehi's world. Gauging by the number of points of contact between the Book of Mormon and the account of the trial of Jeremiah found in Jeremiah 26, this lawsuit and its contemporary points of jurisprudence were influential both in the life of Lehi and also in the legacy he left his posterity. Some of those contacts were broad, cultural phenomena; other points were more direct, conscious reactions. Several legal elements manifested in or relevant to this proceeding remained pertinent in Nephite jurisprudence for many centuries to come. Reliving Jeremiah's courageous denunciation of the political potentates of his day affords readers over twenty-six hundred years later a significant glimpse into the social and legal dynamics of Lehi's day.
Several factors indicate that Lehi and Nephi probably knew of Jeremiah's temple sermon and the legal complications that his remarks sparked. It is even possible that Lehi was present on that occasion and witnessed the arrest of Jeremiah and the ensuing legal fracas. The trial of Jeremiah, which is the earliest autobiographical information recorded in the book of Jeremiah, occurred around 609 BC, in the first year of the reign of King Jehoiakim. Lehi would have been around forty or forty-five years old at the time, making him a close contemporary of Jeremiah.1 Jerusalem was a small city;2 therefore, Lehi and the other men functioning concurrently in the circle of prophets in Jerusalem would undoubtedly have known each other fairly well.3 Jeremiah himself refers to other prophets who had stepped forward to criticize the wickedness that prevailed among the Jews in Jerusalem at that time (Jeremiah 26:5), so it is clear that Jeremiah did not operate alone. Nephi similarly attests that only a few years after that time "there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed," with Lehi delivering the same message (1 Nephi 1:4, 13).
In addition to his personal familiarity with Jeremiah (see 1 Nephi 7:14), Lehi may have had a written account of the trial of Jeremiah on the plates of brass, for they included "many prophecies which have been spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah" (1 Nephi 5:13). Although one cannot be sure which passages were contained on the plates of brass, Jeremiah's discourse in which he delivered the word of the Lord prophesying the destruction of the temple and the cursing of the city (Jeremiah 26:3–6) would have been among his earliest prophecies and thus among the most likely passages from this prominent prophet to have been found by Lehi on those hard-won plates. The trial of Jeremiah, of course, was not the only legal text found on the plates of brass. Also included were five books of Moses, which contained the Ten Commandments and other legal materials and precedents. All these legal sources contributed to the legal legacy transported by Lehi from Jerusalem to the New World, but this study focuses on the trial of Jeremiah in particular because it can be dated with certainty to the world of Lehi's Jerusalem. Words and phrases, in addition to the overall pattern of legal concerns and procedures in the trial of Jeremiah, are echoed much later in the Book of Mormon, further indicating that Lehi and his posterity were familiar with this pivotal episode in Jeremiah's life.
Shortly after the catastrophic death of King Josiah in 609 BC, Jeremiah positioned himself prominently in the court of the temple at Jerusalem in order to deliver his message to everyone who came in and out of that holy place. As directed by God (Jeremiah 26:2), he called the people of Jerusalem to repentance, their wickedness having well been the cause of God's disapproval that led to the debacle at Megiddo.
Jeremiah's aggressiveness may remind Book of Mormon readers of the boldness of the prophet Abinadi, who entered the temple city of Nephi to deliver a similar message of repentance or doom to the people of King Noah in the land of Nephi (Mosiah 11:20; 12:1).4 Besides affording these prophets the opportunity to speak to large crowds of influential people, the temple location of Jeremiah's prophetic reprimand also made his words that much more provocative.5 Predictions of doom and destruction made in private, outside the hearing of most people, and distant from the Holy Presence could probably have been tolerated in most cases; but the authorities administering the temple could not tolerate such direct effrontery to the house of the Lord.
New Testament readers will readily recall that Jesus likewise caused offense when he disrupted the business of the money changers and predicted the destruction of the Temple of Herod while standing squarely in the temple precinct (Mark 11:15–18; 14:58). Interestingly, Jesus himself was compared by some people in his own day with the prophet Jeremiah (Matthew 16:14) and was quoting Jeremiah 7:11 ("Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?") when he denounced the temple administrators for turning the house of God into a den of thieves (Mark 11:17). The fact that significant similarities exist between the report of the trial of Jeremiah and the way in which the trial of Jesus is told in the New Testament Gospels shows that the trial of Jeremiah retained a prominent place in Jewish memory for several centuries in the Old World,6 making it all the more plausible that this legal encounter was vividly remembered in the New World as well. For instance, perhaps recalling the problems encountered by Jeremiah and Abinadi and thus attempting to avoid overly provoking the people in the city of Zarahemla to anger, Nephi, son of Helaman, did not go into the temple precinct but instead prayed from his own tower, from which he ended up delivering his message of prophetic warning and rebuke while more safely positioned on his own property (Helaman 7:10).
Jeremiah was instructed by the Lord to deliver a certain message word for word—"diminish not a word" (Jeremiah 26:2). The ability and duty of official messengers and legal agents in the ancient world to deliver the words of their patron perfectly verbatim is well attested in many literary sources from this time. For example, verbatim messages are common in the conduct of messengers in the Homeric epics.7 Similarly, in Lehi's world, messengers did not have authority to add to or subtract from the message that they were to deliver, and accordingly Jeremiah makes a point of affirming that he delivered every word with which he had been entrusted, "all that the Lord had commanded him to speak" (Jeremiah 26:8). The Hebrew legal system, which depended primarily on verbal communication and oral testimony rather than on written documentation, placed particularly high value on the accuracy and faithfulness of such deliveries by messengers, spokesmen, witnesses, and officials.
In reading King Benjamin's speech and other texts in the Book of Mormon, one senses that the same principle continued to operate in Nephite legal religious practice. In Mosiah 3:23, for example, Benjamin certified that he had faithfully and precisely delivered the words given to him by the angel of the Lord: "And now I have spoken the words which the Lord God hath commanded me."8 Similar certifications of messengers are found in Mosiah 11:20 and 12:1.
The substance of Jeremiah's complaint against the people was that they had not conducted themselves according to the laws that God had set before them (Jeremiah 26:4) and that they had not obeyed the words of the prophets that God kept sending to them (Jeremiah 26:5). Significantly, Jeremiah required obedience to both the law and the prophets: "If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, . . . then will I . . . make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth" (Jeremiah 26:4–6). For Jeremiah, these two sources of divine direction are not mutually exclusive. Typically, modern scholarship has segregated these two domains as wholly separate spheres of operation, but the warning and indictment given by Jeremiah sees legal and prophetic mandates going hand in hand.9
In a similar way, the Book of Mormon prophets find themselves in strong support of both the law and the prophets, a dualistic position tracing back to the words of the prophet Jeremiah. Despite knowing the "deadness of the law" without its proper spiritual context (2 Nephi 25:27), the Nephites were strict to obey the law of Moses (2 Nephi 5:10; Jarom 1:5; Alma 30:3; 3 Nephi 1:24–25) until it was fulfilled through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (3 Nephi 9:17). At the same time, the Nephites perpetually venerated and utilized the writings of Isaiah and all the other holy prophets.10
Unfortunately, Jeremiah is not specific about which prophets or which laws the people had ignored. It would, of course, be extremely significant to know which laws (he uses here the word torot, the plural of torah) he had in mind. One may assume that he made reference to the laws of Deuteronomy, but other bodies of written or customary law are also possible. At a minimum, Jeremiah's accusation provides evidence that laws were known, were used as standards of behavior, and could provide the basis for legal prosecution at the time of Lehi.
The threat from the Lord lodged by Jeremiah against the people in Jerusalem took the form of a simile curse: "I will make this house like Shiloh" (Jeremiah 26:6).11 This curse alludes to the destruction of the shrine at Shiloh that resulted in the loss of the ark of the covenant in the disastrous battle of Ebenezer around 1050 BC when the Philistines dealt a severe military blow to the Israelites.12 The point of Jeremiah's curse, of course, was that even the tabernacle and the ark had not protected the Israelites at Shiloh, and similarly the temple at Jerusalem would not protect the kingdom of Judah unless its people would repent and remain righteous.
Jeremiah's use of simile curses and other symbolic speech-acts seems to have remained strong in the Nephite memory. The form of his judgmental simile curse, as well as its content and context, aligns well with the simile curse issued by Abinadi when he cursed King Noah to the effect that his life would "be valued even as a garment in a hot furnace" (Mosiah 12:3). Not only is the comparative form the same in both of these curses, but the essence of Abinadi's curse was also grounded, like Jeremiah's, in the warning that even the temple in the city of Nephi would not shelter the people as long as they retained their wicked ways. In addition, simile curses appear elsewhere in the Book of Mormon.13
Jeremiah also prophesied that the city of Jerusalem would become "a curse to all the nations of the earth" (Jeremiah 26:6). In other words, people in anger or distress would speak the name of Jerusalem in disparaging and denigrating ways in connection with oaths and cursing. The shame and dishonor of having one's name ridiculed and associated with evil and malediction was deeply offensive and insulting to ancient people.14
Reflecting not only this general sentiment but also the particular words of Jeremiah, the Book of Mormon also predicts that people who would reject the Holy One of Israel would become a "hiss and a byword and be hated among all nations" (1 Nephi 19:14; and conforming to Seidel's law of ancient Israelite rhetoric, this two-part imprecation is quoted in reverse order in 3 Nephi 16:9).15
Legal action against Jeremiah was then initiated by the priests, prophets, and all the people who heard him (Jeremiah 26:8).16 They had witnessed his language and conduct. Under Israelite law, anyone who heard or knew of a violation of the law was under an obligation to take action to prosecute and punish the offender: "If a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity" (Leviticus 5:1). An example of the operation of this legal duty is found in the trial of the blasphemer in Leviticus 24:14; when "all that heard" the blasphemy brought the blasphemer before Moses, he sought the will of the Lord in the matter, pronounced the verdict, and turned the offender over to all those who had heard the blasphemy to take him outside the camp and stone him. Accordingly, in commencing the trial of Jeremiah, the priests, prophets, and presumably all the people seized him, thronging about him in a moblike action.17 Perhaps he was about to be lynched, exactly as would later just about happen to the apostle Paul, who was also seized at the temple of Jerusalem for the offense of bringing Gentiles inside the inner court of the temple, thus allegedly "pollut[ing] this holy place" (Acts 21:28–31).
Reflecting this typical Israelite practice, groups of people in the Book of Mormon were frequently the initiators of legal actions. The people seized Abinadi and took him to King Noah (Mosiah 12:9). The people apprehended Nehor and took him to Alma (Alma 1:10). Later, in Zarahemla, Nephi's political opponents ask the people, "why do ye not seize upon this man and bring him forth, that he may be condemned according to the crime which he has done?" (Helaman 8:1), suggesting that even these Gadianton affiliates recognized that not only prudence but also long-standing legal tradition required them to wait until the people took action before they could initiate legal charges against Nephi.
The people accused Jeremiah with the phrase, "for this you must die" or, as in the KJV, "thou shalt surely die" (Jeremiah 26:8).18 The Hebrew expression used here is mot tamut, "die a death," and is related to the legal formula mot yumat, which is often used in legal contexts—for example, throughout the Code of the Covenant in Exodus 21–23—to describe offenses for which a person is subject to the death penalty or is worthy of death.19
Apparently the same formulation was invoked by King Noah in stating the charge of blasphemy against Abinadi: "We have found an accusation against thee, and thou art worthy of death" (Mosiah 17:7).
Before matters could develop very far in the trial of Jeremiah, however, certain princes or officials (sarim) from the palace arrived (Jeremiah 26:10). It is unclear whether they heard the commotion and came on their own accord or if they were summoned by Jeremiah's friends or other concerned citizens.20 Either way, their strong intervention in the case must have confronted and annoyed the priests and religious leaders associated with the temple, whose interests had been threatened by Jeremiah.21 Interestingly, the officials assumed full jurisdiction over the proceeding and, as far as the narrative in the book of Jeremiah discloses, the concerns and allegations of the accusers were given little attention.
This culture of factional interests competing against each other continues in the culture of the Book of Mormon, where the interests of the palace and the temple, not surprisingly, often collided. Thus, perhaps consciously following Jeremiah's very example, the priest Jacob went to his temple in the city of Nephi (Jacob 2:2) to rebuke especially the royal faction who had begun "to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms" by citing the precedents of Kings David and Solomon (Jacob 2:23). Often in the books of Helaman and 3 Nephi, civic leadership was at odds with religious leaders, and righteous religious groups frequently found themselves in the minority.22 Whether consciously designed or unconsciously developed, the competition between these elements in Nephite government created a type of balance of power, preserving the expectation manifested in the trial of Jeremiah that one segment of government would keep the other in check.
It is unclear, however, what authority was held by the officials who came in and took charge. In an effort to sort out this uncertainty and confusion, one may turn to the account of the legal reforms of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 17 and 19. Although those reforms are attributed to King Jehoshaphat, who was a contemporary of Elijah three hundred years before the time of Jeremiah, scholars often argue that the judicial system reported in this text reflects more accurately the courts at the time of the Chronicler (shortly after the time of Jeremiah and Lehi) rather than the system in operation in the early monarchy. Be that as it may, the purported reforms of Jehoshaphat offer important clues about the law courts as they would have existed in preexilic Israel generally.23
At the outset of his reforms, King Jehoshaphat ordered five of his princes or officials (sarim) to go into the cities of Judah to teach, taking with them "the book of the law of the Lord" (2 Chronicles 17:7–9). After the death of Ahab, Jehoshaphat was rebuked by Jehu, the seer, for having helped the ungodly Ahab; in response, the king "set judges in the land throughout all the fenced [walled] cities of Judah, city by city" (2 Chronicles 19:5). He instructed these judges to judge righteously and to warn the people not to break the law of the Lord. Moreover, in Jerusalem a more elaborate court system was established, with the Levites, priests, and the chief of the fathers of Israel being appointed as judges (2 Chronicles 19:8). Amariah, the chief priest, was given stewardship over "all matters of the Lord" or sacral concerns, while Zebadiah, the leading chief, was given jurisdiction over "all the king's matters" (2 Chronicles 19:11). Interestingly, however, the sarim were not mentioned specifically in 2 Chronicles 19, although it may be understood that the terms "chief of the fathers of Israel" and "ruler of the house of Judah" were synonymous with these "officials" or "princes."
That being the case, the sarim, who arrived at the temple and who took issue with the priests and the prophets who were accusing Jeremiah, technically may only have had jurisdiction over the civic matters of the king, whereas one would have expected that a charge of false prophecy would have arisen as a religious concern, a "matter of the Lord." Nevertheless, in Jeremiah's day (and in the ancient world generally), jurisdictional lines were not always sharply divided. Although a charge of false prophecy might technically be a matter of sacred concern, if the oracle impinged upon the king or his royal administration (as certainly was the case with Jeremiah's broad censure of all the people, together with his cursing of the city of Jerusalem), then the matter could easily evolve into a concern worthy of royal cognizance.
Indicating the likely operation and persistent endurance of this divided judiciary in Jerusalem in Lehi's day, a similar jurisdictional situation arises 450 years later in the trial of Abinadi (see Mosiah 12–17), where the interests of King Noah and the concerns of his priests were alternately raised against that prophet, who, like Jeremiah, had also chastised the people and cursed the king and his regime. In Abinadi's case, however, the royal and priestly interests were allied together against the prophet, whereas in Jeremiah 26 the royal officials opposed the priests and prophets who had commenced action against Jeremiah.
The officials took their seats in the New Gate of the house of the Lord.24 Doing "justice 'at the gate'" was idiomatic in ancient Israel.25 When he purchased Naomi's property and with that acquisition assumed the liabilities associated with raising up seed to Elimelech, Boaz convened a court of ten elders at the town gate (Ruth 4:1–2). Archaeology demonstrates that seats were placed within the gates of the walled cities of Israel.26 The gates were quintessential public places controlled by guards and central to general traffic, making them ideal places for public legal proceedings. Jeremiah's account makes particular reference to the fact that the officials "sat down in the entry of the new gate" (Jeremiah 26:10) on their judgment seats.
No physical feature of the Nephite justice system is more prominent than is the governmental judgment seat, which is mentioned forty-seven times in the Book of Mormon during the period of the reign of the judges.27 While the high priests of Noah in the city of Nephi had seats that were "set apart" specifically for them in their temple (Mosiah 11:11), the Nephite records do not indicate where the judgment seats were located in Zarahemla. But the tradition of having a place of judgment with seats that imbued officials with the cloak of judicial authority was clearly a part of Lehi's world in Jerusalem that seems to have carried over into the Nephite legal system.
Before these seated officials, the prophets and priests pressed their charge against Jeremiah, accusing him of having "prophesied against this city" (Jeremiah 26:11). Typical of ancient jurisprudence, the alleged crime was not particularly well defined. Modern lawyers would want to define the criminal charge more specifically: Was the problem treason or false prophecy? In all likelihood, it was both. Any prophet who prophesied falsely could be subjected to the death penalty under the legal rules reflected in Deuteronomy 18:20, but it is unlikely that common people would have become very agitated over an alleged false prophecy unless it affected something very important, such as the temple, the king, or the core values of the nation.28
Accordingly, Abinadi's charges against King Noah (Mosiah 12:3), Alma's castigation of the people in Ammonihah (Alma 9:12–24), or Stephen's declamation against the law of Moses (Acts 7:47–53) were not only socially offensive to their audiences but became the impetus for legal actions precisely because they were inimical to such crucial and central institutions.
No lawyers or advocates, of course, were used in ancient Israelite courts. Jeremiah, like the Nephite prophets Jacob, Abinadi, and Alma, was given the chance to defend himself (Jeremiah 26:12–15). He testified that he spoke in the name of the Lord. He submitted to the will of the officials, telling them that he was willing to have them do what they thought was "good and meet [proper]" (Jeremiah 26:14). The words used by Jeremiah seem to indicate his acceptance of the jurisdiction of these officials.29 Since Jeremiah, of course, would rather have the officials as his judges than have the priests and people carry out their own version of justice, his preference to come under the jurisdiction of the princes is understandable.
Similar language was used by the people in Mosiah 12:16, as they willingly turned Abinadi over to the jurisdiction of King Noah, saying, "Do with him as seemeth thee good." Evidently this phrase reflects some kind of formality in ancient Israelite law, for otherwise this would be an odd thing for the people to say to their king. One would think that a king could do whatever he wanted in any event. Whenever a lawsuit had begun in the hands of one group of people, however, it would be important for that group to relinquish their jurisdictional interest in the case as they formally turned the matter over to someone else.
Jeremiah, like Abinadi, defended himself most effectively by raising the specter of "innocent blood," the shedding of which would bring divine judgment upon the judges, the city, and all the people (Jeremiah 26:15). God was seen in Jeremiah's world as a redeemer, and in this capacity he was seen theologically as carrying out the ancient legal duties borne by the avenger or redeemer of blood. Members of a murder victim's family were obligated to avenge that death and to seek blood for blood (see Genesis 9:5–6; Numbers 35:19, 21). Cities of refuge were established to harbor those who had shed blood accidentally, unintentionally, or involuntarily, but anyone who consciously shed innocent blood was given no place to hide, especially from divine judgment. In the same way, Jeremiah argued that if these judges and officials, who ruled over the city, acted wrongly, their misconduct would be answered with a collective curse of divine judgment upon the entire city. Likewise, because the people had initiated the action against Jeremiah, the entire populace could be held liable under the legal principle of collective responsibility that still had force and effect in Jeremiah's day even though a more distinct sense of personal accountability was also emerging in biblical thought at this time (Deuteronomy 24:16; Jeremiah 31:29–30; Ezekiel 18).30
Consistent with the underlying rationales implicit in Jeremiah's legal defense, similar conceptual forces remained operative in Nephite jurisprudence for several ensuing centuries. The fear of shedding innocent blood arises on several occasions: Abinadi warned Noah that "if ye slay me ye will shed innocent blood" (Mosiah 17:10); Alma argued that Gideon's blood "would come upon us for vengeance" (Alma 1:13)—that is, would bring condemnation not only upon Alma but also upon all his people if they were not to reach a proper verdict and execute Gideon's slayer, Nehor. Alma assured Amulek that the "blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against [their slayers], yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day" (Alma 14:11). It is understood in these texts that the entire populace would suffer from the miscarriage of justice by the leaders of the land; nevertheless, the doctrines of the Book of Mormon (for example, Alma 34:11) and the teachings of Lehi in particular (for example, 2 Nephi 1:5–22) stand at an important juncture in the transition from a legal system based primarily on corporate responsibility to a theology and ideology grounded more on individual responsibility.
The officials seated in the trial of Jeremiah reached their decision and announced their verdict fairly quickly, finding Jeremiah innocent without much difficulty, having decided that he had indeed spoken in the name of the Lord (Jeremiah 26:16). In particular, older members of the panel of judges remembered and cited as precedent the case of Micah the Morasthite, who had prophesied against Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah. Micah had said that Zion would become a plowed field, Jerusalem would be left as heaps of rubble, and the temple site would revert to a wooded ridge as the high places of a forest (Micah 3:12); in other words, the holy city would become an unoccupied, obliterated site filled only with trees, either natural or perhaps involving pagan worship.
These warnings, also expressed in the form of a simile curse, echo again the literary form that was used so provocatively by the Book of Mormon prophet Abinadi. The threat that Jerusalem would be piled up in "heaps" may also be an indirect allusion to Deuteronomy 13:16, where the law of the apostate city provides that after a city has been warned and does not repent of its apostasy, it will be destroyed by the sword and the city shall remain a ruin forever. The powerful effect of this formulation of divine judgment in Jeremiah 26:18 may well indicate that the elders in Jeremiah's day were conscious of the law of the apostate city in Deuteronomy 13:12–18, giving further legal emphasis to the prophetic warnings of Micah in the days of Hezekiah. The fate of an apostate city—that it would become a "heap" or rubble—was suitably remembered by Alma and associated with the complete destruction of the apostate inhabitants and buildings of the city of Ammonihah: "Yea, every living soul of the Ammonihahites was destroyed, and also their great city, which they said God could not destroy, because of its greatness. But behold, in one day it was left desolate; and the carcases were mangled by dogs and wild beasts of the wilderness. Nevertheless, after many days their dead bodies were heaped up upon the face of the earth, and they were covered with a shallow covering" (Alma 16:9–11).31
The elders at the trial of Jeremiah encouraged the people at the gate to be like their predecessors, who had listened to Micah and who had repented and sought to please Jehovah (Jeremiah 26:19). Jeremiah was released, but apparently the case was a close one even after the arguments and wisdom of the older men had been presented. One of the officials in particular, Ahikam, favored the release of Jeremiah; without his support, the text speculates that Jeremiah probably would have been executed (Jeremiah 26:24). Presumably he would have been turned over to the people to be put to death, following the traditional legal practice in which those who had heard and witnessed the misconduct would carry out the execution (Leviticus 24:14).
The trial of Jeremiah was an important part of the cultural landscape in the world of Jerusalem in the late seventh century. Not only did this procedure impress itself deeply on Nephite judicial procedure for years to come, but the specter of Jeremiah's trial must have hung ominously over Lehi himself, for Lehi and his fellow prophets would certainly have been well aware of Jeremiah's narrow escape. When asked to deliver essentially the same message as Jeremiah had already delivered (1 Nephi 1:13–18), Lehi could well have expected to receive a similarly hostile and life-threatening reception.32 Only with great courage could he have gone forward, delivering his message while knowing full well that serious legal ramifications would almost certainly follow.
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Computer assisted assessment: Designing online quiz questions to assess a range of cognitive skills
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Reid, N. & McLoughlin, C. (2002). Computer assisted assessment: Designing online quiz questions to assess a range of cognitive skills. In P. Barker & S. Rebelsky (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2002 (pp. 1625-1630). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/9989.
World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications (EDMEDIA) 2002
Denver, Colorado, USA
Philip Barker & Samuel Rebelsky
More Information on EDMEDIA
Table of Contents
This paper discusses the design and pedagogy underpinning the use of online quiz items in which students are presented with a range of questions designed to enhance understanding of complex linguistic constructions. It explores the design of different types of quiz question from the perspective of pedagogy and design of question types. The particular types of questions presented in this learning setting demonstrate a formative approach to assessment, closely integrated with learning processes. A matrix of questions is presented using Bloom's taxonomy showing the type of question, pedagogical underpinnings and cognitive skills required. The implication of the paper is that quiz type questions do not necessarily imply a narrow focus on recall, but can be designed to assess a range of learning processes.
- E-learning and visualization – Bringing change to Adult Vocational Education?
- Biggs’ Constructive Alignment: Evaluation of a Pedagogical Model Applied to a Web Course
- The New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and Implications for Designing Instruction for Distance Learning Delivery
- Technology as a Developmental Influence
- Quizzes are not enough to reach high-level learning objectives!
- Bells and Whistles or Effective Instructional Presentations
- Generation Why? Designing Learning to Engage the New Workforce
- Using Bloom's Taxonomy to Enhance Test Security
- The use of simulations for training on complex equipment in manufacturing
- A Taxonomy of Learning Through Asynchronous Discussion
Comments & Discussion
Comment on the paper above. You must be registered to participate. Registration is free.
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Diabetes and eye disease
Diabetes can harm your eyes. It can damage the small blood vessels in your retina, the back part of your eye. This is called diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetes also increases your risk of having glaucoma, cataracts, and other eye problems.
Retinopathy - diabetic; Photocoagulation - retina; Diabetic retinopathy
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Diabetic retinopathy is caused by damage to blood vessels of the retina. The retina is the layer of tissue at the back of the inner eye. It changes light and images that enter the eye into nerve signals that are sent to the brain.
Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in working-age Americans. People with type 1
and type 2 diabetes
are at risk for this condition.
Diabetes - retinal conditions
There are two stages of diabetic retinopathy:
The chance of getting retinopathy and having a more severe form is greater when:
- You have had diabetes for a long time
- Your diabetes has been poorly controlled
Other problems that may develop are:
-- cloudiness of the eye lens
-- increased pressure in the eye that can lead to blindness
- Macular edema -- blurry vision due to fluid leaking into the area of the retina that provides sharp central vision
- Retinal detachment
-- scarring that may cause part of the retina to pull away from the back of your eyeball
Most often, diabetic retinopathy has no symptoms until the damage to your eyes is severe.
Symptoms of diabetic retinopathy include:
Many people with early diabetic retinopathy have no symptoms before major bleeding occurs in the eye. This is why everyone with diabetes should have regular eye exams.
Signs and tests
The health care provider can diagnose diabetic retinopathy by dilating your pupils with eye drops and then carefully examining the retina. A retinal photography
or fluorescein angiography
test may also be used.
You may not know there is any damage to your eyes until the problem is very bad. Your doctor can catch problems early if you get regular exams. You will need to see an eye doctor who is trained to find and treat diabetic retinopathy.
Everyone with diabetes should have regular diabetic eye exams
by an eye doctor who is skilled in the treatment of diabetic retinopathy.
If you have the early stage of diabetic retinopathy (nonproliferative), your health care provider may see:
Blood vessels in the eye that are larger in certain spots (called microaneurysms)
Blood vessels that are blocked
Small amounts of bleeding (retinal hemorrhages) and fluid leaking into the retina
If you have more advanced retinopathy (proliferative), your health care provider may see:
People with the earlier form (nonproliferative) of diabetic retinopathy may not need treatment. However, they should be closely followed by an eye doctor who is trained to treat diabetic eye diseases.
Once your eye doctor notices new blood vessels growing in your retina (neovascularization) or you develop macular edema, treatment is usually needed.
Several procedures or surgeries are the main treatment for diabetic retinopathy.
Laser eye surgery creates small burns in the retina where there are abnormal blood vessels. This process is called photocoagulation. It is used to keep vessels from leaking or to get rid of abnormal, fragile vessels.
A surgical procedure called vitrectomy is used when there is bleeding (hemorrhage) into the eye. It may also be used to repair retinal detachment
Drugs that prevent abnormal blood vessels from growing, and steroid drugs injected into the eyeball are possible new treatments for diabetic retinopathy.
If you cannot see well:
Make sure your home is safe so you do not fall
Organize your home so that you can easily find what you need
Get help to make sure you are taking your medicines correctly
You can improve your outcome by keeping good control over your blood sugar and blood pressure.
Treatments can reduce vision loss. They do not cure diabetic retinopathy or reverse the changes that have already occurred.
Other problems that may develop are:
Calling your health care provider
Call for an appointment with an eye doctor (ophthalmologist) if you have diabetes
and you have not seen an ophthalmologist in the past year.
Call your doctor if any of the following symptoms are new or are becoming worse:
You cannot see well in dim light.
You have blind spots.
You have double vision (you see two things when there is only one).
Your vision is hazy or blurry and you cannot focus.
You have pain in one of your eyes.
You are having headaches.
You see spots floating in your eyes.
You cannot see things on the side of your field of vision.
You see shadows.
Tight control of blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol is very important for preventing diabetic retinopathy.
Do not smoke. If you need help quitting, ask your doctor or nurse.
American Diabetes Association. Standards of medical care in diabetes--2012. Diabetes Care. 2012 Jan;35 Suppl 1:S11-63.
O'Doherty M, Dooley I, Hickey-Dwyer M. Interventions for diabetic macular oedema: a systematic review of the literature. Br J Opthalmol. 2008;92:1581-1590.
Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network (DRCR.net), Beck RW, Edwards AR, Aiello LP, Bressler NM, Ferris F, Glassman AR, et al. Three-year follow-up of a randomized trial comparing focal/grid photocoagulation and intravitreal triamcinolone for diabetic macular edema. Arch Ophthalmol. 2009;127:245-251.
Shehzad Topiwala, MD, Chief Consultant Endocrinologist, Premier Medical Associates, The Villages, FL. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
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Body language reveals how person really feelsWhat do you believe – a person’s words, their tone of voice or their body language?
By: Val Farmer, INFORUM
What do you believe – a person’s words, their tone of voice or their body language?
Research findings show that if there is a discrepancy between the various modes of communication, 7 percent rely on words, 38 percent rely on tone of voice, and 55 percent rely on body language. If the three modes of communication are congruent, belief in words rises to about 33 percent while belief in tone of voice and body language drop to about 33 percent each.
Body language. Body language means hand gestures, body posture, openness of the arms, lean of the body, facial expressions, tilt of the head, and other signals. It is a subtle, nonverbal language. Learned along with verbal language from infancy, it is a trustworthy guide to meaning.
Good listening skills involve a general turning toward a conversational partner. Other nonverbal communication includes smiles, open posture, eye contact, forward lean of the body, compassionate touch at key moments, the amount of space between speaker and listener, and head nods that show close attention. When there is exceptional rapport, even body movements become synchronous.
People may reflect the meaning of thoughts back correctly, but their body language communicates disbelief, disinterest and disapproval of what they are hearing.
Eyes are another key to communicating – a veritable window to the soul. Eyes can show acceptance or rejection, love or hostility, hope or despair, gratitude or indifference, admiration or contempt, threat or safety – the whole gamut of human emotion. Animals know this. If they want to know about human intention, they look at people right in the eyes.
“An eye can threaten like a loaded pistol, or can insult, like a hissing or kicking; or in an altered mood, can, by beams of kindness, make the heart dance with joy.” – Emerson
Tone of voice. The meaning of words can be completely altered to its opposite by tone of voice. Voice is another mirror of the heart. Are the tones we hear soft, gentle and inviting, or are they shrill, hard and disapproving?
A raised voice betrays anger sometimes before the angry person may be even be aware of it. We understand attitudes and emotions such as doubt, enthusiasm, discouragement, kindness and fear through the way words are said, not just the words themselves.
People can learn to mask their tone of voice as cleverly as a poker player masks his or her body language. However, it isn’t easy. Comparatively speaking, the spoken word is far easier to disguise. No wonder we scan all three modes of communicating and attempt to integrate them into a coherent message before we trust our understanding.
Couples need to pay attention to their body language and tone of voice so they give clear and unambiguous messages. If they are reconciling after an argument, their non-verbal language is often the key to their genuine intent.
Some people need to be easier to read and to be better at projecting their non-verbal language of love and intimacy more than they do. Eyes, face and voice are like a title page of a book that invites a reader to delve further.
Misinterpretation. If you think words are easily misunderstood, try body language and tone of voice. Many individuals believe they know better what another person is feeling or thinking because of assumptions and beliefs that they are making based on non-verbal messages.
Sometimes they are intuitive and right on the mark, while other times they are dead wrong. Right or wrong, it is dangerous. Body language and tone of voice can be denied. Sometimes rightfully so. Arguments about what non-verbal communication really mean go nowhere and arouse anger. They can’t be resolved through debate as easily as disputes about words.
The perceiver, in order to justify his or her preferred explanation of what is going on, interprets body language and tone of voice in line with what he or she already believes.
This is a delicate matter. Is the perceiver on to something truthful or is this a provocative insinuation based on a projection of inner need?
When in doubt, ask about tone of voice or body language. Take the speaker at his or her word and don’t accuse him or her of deliberate deception. Words and intent should be taken at face value, but monitor closely the actions that follow. The speaker deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Spouses sometimes are driven crazy by their jealous partners reading way too much into their tone of voice, their glances and even their smallest actions. There is little an innocent spouse can say or do to alleviate the fears of his or her insecure mate. This is difficult however because occasionally infidelity is often discovered through the intuitive reading of non-verbal behavior.
Non-verbal behavior and trust. When people are making changes, their non-verbal behavior communicates care and concern and matches the changes being made. People need time to observe, trust and experience changes, especially in the non-verbal arena, before they begin to trust the changes that are being made.
Val Farmer is a clinical psychologist specializing in family business consultation and mediation with farm families. He lives in Wildwood, Mo., and can be contacted through his website, www.valfarmer.com.
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The walking palm – or stilt palm - is a very common palm tree found in the lowland forests of Central and Northern South America, including the Peruvian Amazon. The tree gets its name from it tall, spiny root system that may be upwards of five feet in height, appearing like multiple legs. While the tree obviously cannot move, the walking palm may lean toward a light filtering through a gap in the canopy, as the crown of the 50–60 foot high tree seeks light.
This palm provides fruit that is eaten by a number of animals and the palm trunk is used by local people in the construction of their huts. The palm tree is cut down and the trunk is split. The split trunk is used for floors and walls in the thatched roof huts of the riberenos living along the river. As Amazon cruise guests walk along forest trails, IE’s naturalist guides will point out various flora, including the walking palm. The tree typically draws attention as it is very unlike any other palm tree in the region. Close inspection reveals the spines on the exposed roots and it would not be wise to fall into one nor lean on it as the spine punctures on human skin frequently result in infection.
Naturalist Greg Greer is a favorite among IE travelers, and has gained a reputation for his friendliness and good humor, along with his incomparable knowledge of natural history, photos and articles have been widely published in books and magazines, including Georgia Outdoor News, Bird Watcher’s Digest, Alabama Outdoor News, Riversedge and Southern Wildlife.
You might also like:
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meteoblue NMM (numerical mesoscale models) divide the space into grid cells. These cells represent the area surrounding them.
The distance between the grid cells determines the spatial resolution which is equivalent to twice the radius of each grid cell. Each cell is defined by a center point, with coordinates and an altitude. The altitude is the calculated average of all surface points within the grid cell (radius), based on a 100 meter topography model. Other grid cell attributes include surface type, land cover and inclination.
p☼int technology further adapts the the grid cell information locally (downscales) to a place, using attributes such as altitude, exposition, land cover and surrounding features.
Grid cell information is used in products which show weather information for an area (not a particular p☼int ). Examples for products which display grid cell information are:
Grid cell information is also available as Professional services
Specific information for defined places
can be obtained using the p☼int
Più descrizioni se può trovare al link Norme
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¿Hablas Inglés? Bạn có nói tiếng Anh? Вы говорите по-английски? هل تتكلم الإنجليزية؟
When we think about learning a language, we generally think about language taught as an add-on – like an ESL class for non-native English speakers or a class that is separate from academic content instruction. You learn German, Spanish or French in your language class, and knowledge and skills are taught in the native language. For example, math and history are taught in English here in the US or in the native language in other countries. But this approach, bilingual education, has been controversial since 1960s and is all about effective strategies for teaching and learning language.
Speaking in Tongues, a film by Ken Schneider and Marcia Jarmel explored this issue. In a time where 31 states have passed "English Only" initiatives, one urban school district is exploring the provocative notion that speaking a foreign language can be a national asset. Speaking in Tongues follows four diverse students and their families as they encounter the challenges and delights of becoming fluent in two languages. Witness how speaking more than one language changes them, their families, their communities, and maybe even the world. The film was presented on KQED's Truly California. Here's the trailer:
In a dual-language English immersion program, all instruction is given in English and teachers adjust the English level to the proficiency level of the class. Students develop language skills as they learn subject material. Similarly with Mandarin or Spanish – students would be taught math and other subjects in Mandarin or Spanish. The important difference is that the immersion teacher is able to speak the non-English native language, so that the teacher can tell if problems arise from understanding the language or from content. They can then use this language to explain further.
The California Department of Education estimates that there are 318 bilingual immersion programs in the state, up from 201 in 2006, with “about 50,000 students enrolled in dual-language programs …and about half of them are English learners. Ninety percent of the programs offer Spanish as the second language, followed by Mandarin (4 percent), Korean (3 percent) and other languages (3 percent).” - Eleanor Yang Su, KQED’s MindShift (March, 2012)
“We have more research now that shows students who develop two or three languages to a high level have certain cognitive advantages,” said Julie Sugarman, a research associate with the Center for Applied Linguistics, a Washington, D.C.-based organization. “They do as well or better than their peers in English-only programs.”
And it seems California is leading the way.…
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What is a heat pump?
A heat pump utilizes solar energy that remains in ground, air and water.
The working principle is the same as in a current refrigerator, freezer or A/C unit. A heat pump is based on a closed circuit filled with special coolant that evaporates under low temperature and absorbs energy. Coolant vapors are compressed in a compressor, getting heated up. Under higher temperature, the gaseous coolant gives off its heat into heating water which brings it back to liquid form, and the entire cycle repeats.
Like a fridge can draw heat from food as cold as -20°C, a heat pump can work and draw heat from air, water or ground even under extremely low temperatures. A COP (Coefficient of Performance) shows its efficiency, namely how many times more energy it supplies than consumes. With falling temperature of the heat source also the COP sinks.
Types of heat pumps
- air to water: in an air-to-water heat pump, air passes through the heat pump, directly heating the coolant in the heat exchanger (evaporator).
- ground to water: a ground-to-water heat pump uses a biologically degradable antifreeze fluid to transfer heat from the ground into the heat pump. When the fluid enters the heat pump from the ground, it is about 4°C warm. It gives off its energy to the coolant circulating in the closed circuit inside the heat pump.
How does a heat pump work?
The heat from air or from the ground collector causes evaporation of the coolant that has a low boiling point. Coolant vapour get compressed by the compressor which makes it heat up. The hot vapour then passes through a heat exchanger (condenser), condensing and giving off its heat to heating water. Then it cools down swiftly when passing through the expansion valve and the cycle starts again.
A heat pump in combination with solar collectors
Solar collectors gain heat directly from the sunshine as the Sun heats the fluid inside a solar collector. A solar system needs almost no energy for its operation. A combination of a heat pump and a solar system makes it possible to utilize solar energy directly through solar collectors for DHW heating and space heating support. In cool days solar energy is utilized indirectly through a heat pump.
With ground coupled heat pumps the heat gained from a solar system can be stored into the bore during the summer time. Then in the winter the heat pump can utilize the higher temperature from the ground, working with a higher COP. For summer cooling the cool from the bore can be used directly (without a heat pump), or for a higher cooling output, the heat pump can be used.
Regulus heat pumps
Regulus offers excellent CTC heat pumps that are manufactured by a renowned Swedish company with 80 years of tradition. CTC applies the latest technologies in its development of new models in order to reach top parameters, however the mass production enables favourable pricing.
Regulus is active in the heating branch since 1992, concentrating on renewable energy sources since 1999. Our team of engineers is ready to suggest you an optimum cost saving solution for your heating. It is not our goal to sell you a heat pump without any considerations, our aim is to calculate and design the best technical solution for you that will be suitable for your home and your needs and will bring you the highest savings, maintaining the heating comfort.
We are a member of AVTC, more at http://www.avtc.cz/
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Daily News Archive
Keep People Out, But They Can’t Keep Pesticides In
Pesticides, the poisonous chemicals applied to agricultural fields to kill insects, weeds and other pests, regularly move off the fields they’re applied to and on to surrounding homes, yards, businesses and waterways, a problem known as “pesticide drift.” For Edna Williams of Elizabeth City, NC and many other North Carolinians who live, work, drive, or go to school near sprayed fields, the chemical smell and respiratory irritation from pesticide drift are all too familiar during peak agricultural seasons. Pesticide residues from crop dusters drift on to Edna Williams’ Elizabeth City home from the surrounding fields almost daily during the summer months.
More than just an annoyance, exposure to pesticide residues from drift poses serious health risks, especially for children, pregnant women, and other vulnerable populations. One-time exposure to many common pesticides can cause poisoning symptoms like dizziness, skin and eye irritation, and respiratory distress. Exposure to pesticides over time has been linked to increased risk of asthma, reproductive disorders like miscarriage or decreased fertility, birth defects, developmental and learning disorders, and some forms of cancer.
North Carolina has regulations against pesticide drift, but since drift incidents often go un-reported, drift continues to pose a serious threat to the health and safety of NC’s rural residents.
If you live in North Carolina, to get help reporting pesticide drift and protect yourself and your family, call the Drift Watch Hotline toll-free at 1-877-NO-DRIFT. The hotline is operated by PESTed, which offers assistance in English and Spanish, and regardless of the caller’s legal status in the United States. For those outside of North Carolina, call Beyond Pesticides at 202-543-5450.
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Risk and probability are factors that we deal with on a daily basis. Our daily behaviour from the moment we get up and make our way to work involves numerous, generally low level, assessments of risks and we adapt our behaviour accordingly. Our reaction to a car moving at speed towards us is entirely different to a report of a meteor heading towards earth. While the end result of both could be disastrous, the probability of the former at the point in time when the headlights are heading towards you is much greater. So we understand simple risk and probability from day to day experience, don’t we?
I recently came across the Monty Hall paradox which suggests otherwise. Monty Hall hosted a game show in the 1950s, where a contestant had to choose one of three doors. Behind two of the doors there was no prize, but behind the third door was a car. After the contestant had chosen a door, Monty Hall would open one of the two remaining doors to reveal nothing. He would then ask the contestant whether they would like to stick with their original choice or change to the other unopened door. What would you do given that choice?
Logic appears to suggest that the contestant has started with a 1 in 3 chance, but that once the losing door has been opened it becomes a 1 in 2 chance. And if it is a 1 in 2 chance, there is no incentive to change.
The reality is however different. By changing your mind when faced with the choice of 2 doors you increase your chance of winning from 1 in 3 to 2 in 3. How can this be?
There are two elements to answering this question. The first is proving that there is an increased chance of winning by changing your mind, and the second is explaining why. The Excel link below looks at proving the benefit of changing your mind.
Click here for link to Excel solution
The spreadsheet randomly makes the contestant’s choice for 500 samples and randomly assigns the door which has the car behind it. The losing door that Monty Hall opens is then shown, and the number of wins for the contestant’s original choice and for the option they could swap to is calculated. The entire 500 samples are recalculated by pressing the F9 key. No matter how many times you recalculate, changing your mind roughly doubles your chance of winning.
The why is not as easy to explain. At the time that the original selection is made, there is a 1 in 3 chance of choosing the car compared to a 1 in 2 chance when the losing door is removed. The question can be reframed as: would you rather choose 1 out of 3 then have a losing door removed, or would you rather chose 1 out of 2? The original 1 in 3 odds remain unchanged if you stick with your original choice because the additional information you have received is that one of the other doors is a loser. You already knew that, and knowing which door number it is would only help you if it was the door you selected. As the odds of that original selection are 1 in 3, the odds of switching are 2 in 3.
Better and more detailed explanation and further proofs can be found at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem.
How the Spreadsheet Works
The spreadsheet uses the randbetween() function to select the contestant choice and the door that has the car behind it. The losing door to be opened is then calculated by first testing whether the contestant and car doors are different. If so, the switch door is 6 (1+2+3) minus the sum of the two doors. If the contestant and care doors are the same, a further randbetween () function is used to decide the losing door to be opened. The randbetween function recalculates every time the spreadsheet is calculated.
The spreadsheet is a simple example of Monte Carlo simulation. This is a method that uses repeated random sampling to compute results, and is an example of the innovative and creative approach to financial and operational modelling that Optimal Financial consultancy offers its clients.
Good business modelling puts the power to vary assumptions in the hands of the user. The user will not always know which variables they want to change before the model is developed, sometimes because the model itself prompts the user to extend their anaysis, ansd sometimes due to changes in external factors. Understanding the relationship between events is an important element to creating this flexibility. Where an event has a assumed date, there may be income and expenditure implications before and after that date.
For example, when a company opens a new branch, there may be legal costs and property agents fees prior to the lease start date, and there may be fit out costs after the lease start date. There may be regulatory or licencing issues to deal with before the branch can open, or there may be marketing activities and costs to incur in the period leading up to the opening date. Sales are also likely to be a period of time after the rental start date.
As is often the case, Excel offers a choice in how this can be achieved. The example being used here is the opening of a new branch. The lease is assumed to start in February 2013, but legal costs will be incurred two months before, and fit out costs one month after the lease starts.
The example file can be downloaded at: http://www.optimalfinancial.biz/USERIMAGES/offset&date.xlsx
The file shows the input cells in yellow. Any changes to the yellow cells will update the output.
The simplest way to deal with these costs is to manually enter them against the relevant dates. You could input the dates of December 2012 for legal costs and March 2013 for fit out costs. This works for these specific dates, but if you want to sensitize for a delay in the lease date to August 2013, you need to remember to amend the legal costs and fit out dates as well. In user flexibility terms this method is a total failure.
The spreadsheet shows two more elegant solutions using the offset function and using the date function.
1. Offset Function
The offset function is not commonly used, but enables you to reference a cell a specified number of rows and/or columns away from a named cell. The syntax is Offset(Reference, Rows, Columns). In the example attached, offset(D4,3,1) would return the contents of cell E7 which is 3 rows down and one column to the right of cell D4 i.e. 2. Cell E7 tells us that legal fees will be paid two months before the reference date.This cell is used in row 15, where the formula used is: Offset(F14,0,$E$7). The 0 tells us that we are referencing row 14 and $E$7 two column to the right i.e. H14. Row 14 identifies whether the rent start date has been triggered. The same logic applies to fit out costs. Cell E8 shows that the cost is incurred one month after the start date. This cell is used in row 16 where the formula is: Offset(F14,0,-$E$8). In this case the column reference (-$E$8) is negative because the event is after the start date.
The cost section (rows 19-23) calculates the monthly rent recognising that fit out and legal costs are one off costs. It does this by finding the month where the trigger date changes from 0 to 1.
2. Date Function
The date function can be used to achieve the same result. The UK date function syntax is Date(Year,Month,Day). This method works by adding or subtracting the number of months in cells E7 and E8 from the starting date. Cell I7 has the formula: Date(Year($D$4),Month($D$4)-E7,Day($D$4)). This formula splits the start date into its year, month and day components and subtracting two months. The functions Year, Month and Day will return the relevant component of a date. Therefore if cell A1 contained 31-Mar-12, then Year(A1) would give 2012, Month(A1) would return 3, and Day (A1) would return 31.
A particuarly clever part of the Date formula is that it recognises the need to change the year when the month is less than 0 or more than 12.
Changing the start date will recalculate the legal and fit out dates.
Both of these methods enable "what ifs" to be answered immediately. The example here is relatively simple, but a real life example would also have an income linkage, and may be part of a cashflow projection for a branch opening programme, These methods would enable the cashflow to be calculated, and scenarios to be run to fit the programme within funding constraints.
I have tended to use the offset method, but the date function has the advantage that it shows you the calculated date beside the input file. Let me know if you use a different method, or if you have any views on the two methods above.
It’s an old interview trick to ask a candidate to identify their greatest strengths in order to identify potential weaknesses. Being focussed is great unless it really means being too single minded to be a team player, being flexible and open minded is also good unless it translates into indecisiveness, and being creative is also a positive attribute unless it results in an inability to deal with day to day tasks.
So it is with Excel. It would turn up at interview supremely confident about its flexibility, its capacity for analysis, its reporting skills, its ability to perform routine functions as well as medium and long term strategic planning. It has a CV that includes every blue chip company. It’s undoubtedly a formidable skill set. Excel relaxes in its seat waiting to hear the words “You’re hired”. The interviewer clears his throat. “That’s great, Excel, but I don’t see anything on your CV about these horror stories that European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group have collated www.eusprig.org/horror-stories.htm . In the last four months alone, you have released confidential internal information on AstraZeneca to analysts, cost a local authority $400,000 in interest, and worst of all you have deprived 10,000 people of the opportunity to watch synchronised swimming at the Olympics.”
Excel squirms awkwardly then composes itself. “I appreciate that the outcome of each of these cases was poor, but I did absolutely everything I was asked to do. I am the ultimate team player. I won’t be beaten on calculation speed even on complex logic and high data volumes. But I rely on other team members to understand the business and to provide quality control. Each of these cases involved situations where the quality wasn’t in place. If you look at my work where there are standards in place across the organisation, and where checks and controls are routine, you won’t find these issues.”
“Okay” replies the interviewer “I don’t think you’ll ever make team leader but I’m confident that you can be an excellent team member with the right support and supervision”.
So what does this mean in the real world. Well the power and flexibility of Excel are undoubtedly its strength as well as its weakness. Excel is used for a massive range of purposes from simple single sheet instances with only basic functions to complex multi scenario long term planning models. Virtually all organisations use Excel to some extent for mission critical functions and for strategic planning. And yet very few organisations have taken the time to put in place standards for spreadsheet development. These would include:
· The structure of spreadsheets (separating inputs, data, calculations and outputs);
· Controls used to avoid errors when the spreadsheet is amended;
· Checks put in place to identify any errors or potential errors;
· The layout and colour schemes used, the functions used;
· Identifying responsibilities for maintaining and updating key spreadsheets.
It’s not an onerous task to put this in place, but the investment in doing so will pay itself back within a matter of months. As well as a greater level of confidence in accuracy, there will be a much lower exposure to individual employees who have developed critical spreadsheets. There will be less time spent on employees learning how to use other people’s spreadsheet, and it will raise the company’s skill level in using Excel.
The answer to what standards companies should put in place will vary depending upon the organisation, its use of Excel and current practice. Optimal Financial Consultancy can guide you through that process. We don’t tell you what you to do; we use our expertise to work with you in a workshop setting to involve all stakeholders. The end product is a straight forward manual backed up by a training session. And we’re so confident about the services we provide that we are offering money back guarantee if payback is not achieved within a year. Contact Atholl Craigmyle at firstname.lastname@example.org or on 07947 740287 for a no obligation chat.
My experience of spreadsheets goes way back to the pre Excel days of the mid 1980s. Lotus 123 was new, graphics were monocrome and the mouse was being talked about in almost sci-fi langauage as a future productivity aid. Having heard the buzz about Lotus, I was keen to understand what it could offer.
I was working for a offshore survey company who provided staff and equipment for rig moves and seismic surveys, and had implemented its first computerised accounting system and developed a management accounts pack. Much of the activity behind the accounting sysytem was manual. Quotes, bookings and personnel/asset chargaeability records were maintained manually. The opportunities for improved decision making and better management information were immense. One of these opportunities came in the form of the largest contract that the company had been invited to tender for. Creating my first ever fianncial model for this contract made clear the potential of spreadsheets, and amazed the directors when they saw the ability to vary assumptions. The next development was moving chargaebility records on to spreadsheet which steamlined the billing process and provided management information on staff and equipment utilisation. It was some years later while reviewing my CV that I realised that I had developed KPI reporting before the term had been coined!
The early spreadsheets, though a massive step forward, were basic and limited compared to today. Today's Excel can be viewed as a programming language. The sophistication of the product means that it can be, and is, used for complex high value pricing models across the financial services sector. This brings its own issues and concerns that I will explore in my next blog. However, Excel is still often under utilised, and even more often poorly utilised.
Every organisation should have a business model that shows what the profit and cash flow will be based on current expectations of the short to medium term. But they don't. On one occassion I encountered a publicly quoted company that did have a profit forecast and a cashflow forecast for the year ahead. All fine and good, except that the profit forecast had different assumptions from the cash forecast. And this was a business that was in a tight liquidity position.
But what about the realities of business life? Excel can't cope with seasonality, or in year cost/price changes, or calcualting increased/decreased staffing requirements as circumstances change, or any other situation you might encounter. Wrong every time. Excel can cope with all of these as long as the model is built well, and as long as the developer understands the business and can provide strategic analysis.
While there are some tasks that can be done better in other environments, I have yet to encounter a sitauotion that can't be dealt with in Excel. But I'm open to challenges at email@example.com!
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First identified in a group of children in Lyme, Connecticut, Lyme disease has now been found in nearly all states and 18 other countries. Most cases -- more than 90% -- are reported in three regions of the U.S.:
Northeast, from Massachusetts to Maryland
North Central States, mostly in Minnesota and Wisconsin
West Coast, particularly Northern California
Because the symptoms are random and vague (aside from a bull's-eye rash), Lyme disease can be hard to diagnose. Unfortunately, unless Lyme disease is treated promptly, it can also be difficult to cure. For these reasons, people living in high-risk areas can have considerable anxiety about Lyme disease, and doctors tend to over-diagnose and over-treat it.
The bull's-eye rash of Lyme disease is distinctive. If you have been exposed to a tick and have the rash, this is enough to make the diagnosis. But if you have no such rash, Lyme disease is hard to diagnose. It mimics other diseases, such as the flu and arthritis, and there is often a long time lapse between symptoms.
Your doctor will check for flu-like symptoms and take a sample of blood to check for a high antibody response to Lyme disease. However, blood testing is not completely reliable. It...
Lyme disease is caused by bacteria transmitted through the bite of the tiny black-legged, or deer, tick found in the Eastern and Central U.S. and the western black-legged tick in the Pacific West. The riskiest months for Lyme disease are from May through September, when young ticks are likely to be biting.
In humans, the bacteria may cause flu-like symptoms. It invades many tissues -- including the heart and nervous system -- and triggers an immune response that leads to Lyme arthritis.
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As with every successful event, behind every successful malware attack there’s a great planning process. Now, don’t think of an attacker as a mere well-organised event planner. Cybercriminals who launch data and money-robbing attacks are great strategists that make use of already existing malware-producing and distributing infrastructures called “malnets”.
Malnets, short for “malware networks”, have become serious internet security threats because of their scope and the difficulty in uncovering them. As they are prone to last beyond several attacks, they enable cybercriminals to adapt to new vulnerabilities in web structures, and launch dynamic attacks over and over again.
How does a malnet work?
Built, managed and maintained by cybercriminals, a malnet can serve cybercriminals’ malicious purposes whenever they want to launch an attack. In order to avoid falling victim to such internet security danger, first you have to learn what it’s all about:
Complex structure. A malnet comprises thousands of domains, servers, websites and cybercriminals spread over large geographical regions. They work together to compromise your internet security and drive you to the malware payload, that is: the damage caused by malware. It is important to mention that not all servers and websites in a malnet are malicious – some of them are legitimate e-mail servers and websites hacked by cybercriminals. With this infrastructure in place, they can plan and launch an attack at any time.
All-in-one-place targets. Attackers focus on places on the web buzzing with user activity, because the success of an attack highly depends on having lots of users in one place. It comes as no surprise that search engines, social networks and e-mail platforms are primarily targeted and used as “malnet entry points”. So, while browsing the web, socializing or sending/opening e-mails there’s always a chance you become the victim of an internet security breach or scam.
Common attacks. How do attackers trick you into “entering” a malnet? They either build malicious websites or hack trusted websites to infect them with links to their websites. Then, they start spreading links to these websites accompanied by enticing messages – these are malicious links. Usually, for the messages accompanying the links, they exploit trending news or celebrity-related content, national holidays or important world events, and even the need for certain services to lure you into the malnet funnel. But what techniques do they use to make those malicious links reach you?
- SEO poisoning – pushing malicious links up in your search results.
- Spam – sending you deceiving e-mails that contain such links.
- Malvertising – inserting malicious ads into legitimate ad networks.
- Polluting social networks – placing malicious links in social media news feeds.
Malware onto your computer. Once you enter the malnet, you’re exposed to malware infections that can really shake up your internet security. You may be tricked into downloading a virus, Trojan, spyware or other type of malware disguised as some kind of freeware (internet security programs, software needed for running other programs, Flash or browser updates). In reality, after you install them on your computer they enable cybercriminals to take over your computer, data and/or identity, and maybe infect your friends as well.
Like any other criminal gang, these malnets have names. The largest malnet, and most efficient in compromising users’ internet security, is called Shanukle and operates in North and South America, Europe and Asia. It spans over a wide range of threats and numerous online activities: drive-by downloads, malvertising, Firefox and Flash updates, botnets, work-at-home scams, and even pornography and gambling.
How to avoid becoming the victim of a malnet – tips that need to become habits:
- Stay informed about internet security threats. Part of an effective defence strategy is knowing the enemy, how they attack and their weapon of choice.
- Get internet security software that comes with Safe Browsing, to flag all malicious websites. BullGuard Internet Security 12 comes with such a feature. It gives you detailed information on those high-risk websites, even when you run into them on Facebook.
- Have a strong Firewall in place to block attacks on your computer. Check your Firewall logs for unusual traffic and block all unsecured traffic that attempts to use port 443 – bots may exploit it to take over your computer. If you don’t seem to find your way around your Firewall settings, contact the Support service of your Firewall provider.
- Install a proactive internet security program and schedule regular antivirus scans just in case. BullGuard’s internet security suite comes with a state-of-the-art antivirus engine which brings together Signature-based Detection that brings down already known malware, and Behavioural Detection which spots unknown (yet) malware by how it “acts” and blocks it.
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Cambridge, Massachusetts (map) is a city in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England. Cambridge is most famous for two prominent iversities, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 101,355. It is the fifth most populous city in the state.
The site for what would become Cambridge was chosen in December 1630, and the first houses were built in the spring of 1631. The settlement was initially referred to as “the newe towne”. Official Massachusetts records show the name capitalized as Newe Towne by 1632. Located at the first convenient Charles River crossing west of Boston, Newe Towne was one of a number of towns (including Boston, Dorchester, Watertown, and Weymouth) founded by the 700 original Puritan colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony under governor John Winthrop. The original village site is in the heart of today’s Harvard Square. The marketplace where farmers brought in crops from surrounding towns to sell survives today as the small park at the corner of J.F.K. and Winthrop Streets, then at the edge of a salt marsh, since filled. The town included a much larger area than the present city, with various outlying parts becoming independent towns over the years: Newton (originally Cambridge Village, then Newtown) in 1688, Lexington (Cambridge Farms) in 1712, and both West Cambridge (originally Menotomy) and Brighton (Little Cambridge) in 1807. West Cambridge was later renamed Arlington, in 1867, and Brighton was later annexed by Boston, in 1874.
In 1636 Harvard College was founded by the colony to train ministers and the new town was chosen for its site by Thomas Dudley. By 1638 the name “Newe Towne” had “compacted by usage into ‘Newtowne’.” In May 1638 the name was changed to Cambridge in honor of the university in Cambridge, England. The first president (Henry Dunster), the first benefactor (John Harvard), and the first schoolmaster (Nathaniel Eaton) of Harvard were all Cambridge University alumni, as was the then ruling (and first) governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop. In 1629, Winthrop had led the signing of the founding document of the city of Boston, which was known as the Cambridge Agreement, after the university. It was Governor Thomas Dudley who in 1650 signed the harter creating Harvard College.
Cambridge grew slowly as an agricultural village eight miles (13 km) by road from Boston, the capital of the colony. By the American Revolution, most residents lived near the Common and Harvard College, with farms and estates comprising most of the town. Most of the inhabitants were descendants of the original Puritan colonists, but there was also a small elite of Anglican “worthies” who were not involved in village life, who made their livings from estates, investments, and trade, and lived in mansions along “the Road to Watertown” (today’s Brattle Street, still known as Tory Row). In 1775, George Washington came up from Virginia to take command of fledgling volunteer American soldiers camped on the Cambridge Common — today called the birthplace of the U.S. Army. (The name of today’s nearby Sheraton Commander Hotel refers to that event.) Most of the Tory estates were confiscated after the Revolution. On January 24, 1776, Henry Knox arrived with artillery captured from Fort Ticonderoga, which enabled Washington to drive the British army out of Boston.
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Lesson Plans and Worksheets
Browse by Subject
Marbling Teacher Resources
Find teacher approved Marbling educational resource ideas and activities
Perfect for summer camp, an after school program, or your classroom, these instructions will make tie-dying a breeze! Simple instructions and helpful images make tie dying a fun and easy project. Tip: Have learners predict the outcome of their intended design. Have them look at possible outcomes based on images, determine what they'd like to achieve, then see if they can make it happen.
Readers explore characters through qualities of light and dark in Ursula K. Le Guin's books A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan. They connect the concepts to their own personalities with questions on a beautiful reproducible. In another handout, the visual art technique chiaroscuro, use of light and dark to reveal character, is examined, and exemplified in literature with an excerpt from Atuan.
Seventh graders design a skateboard park. They make a model of their design, working to make the model visually appealing. Students test their ramps and skateboard paths with marbles. The tricky part of the assignment is that the building must "fit" with the communities style.
Students read paragraphs and study pictures to learn about museums and in particular the Musee' d'Orsay. In this museum study lesson plan, students study the range of activities found in a museum and the characteristics common to all museums. Students also study the characteristics of the Musee' d'Orsay.
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http://www.lessonplanet.com/lesson-plans/marbling/4
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The results of the long-awaited California Autism Twin Study (CATS) have been published. The article, Genetic Heritability and Shared Environmental Factors Among Twin Pairs With Autism appears in the Archives of General Psychiatry and is open-access (i.e. free). The study set out “To provide rigorous quantitative estimates of genetic heritability of autism and the effects of shared environment.”
The basic idea of a twin study is fairly straighforward: “identical” (or monozygotic, MZ) twins share 100% of their DNA, “fraternal” (dizygotic, or DZ) twins share about 50% of their DNA. If a condition is purely genetic, identical twins will both have the condition or not have the condition. The percentage of twins with a condition is called concordance. High concordance implies a highly genetic condition.
Early twin studies showed a high concordance. These studies were relatively small. The first study, Infantile autism: a genetic study of 21 twin pairs, was published in 1977 and included, as you might guess, only 21 twin pairs. Of these, 10 DZ and 11 MZ twins. There were three twin studies which made up the main body of knowledge suggesting a strong heritability of autism, including a total of 56 pairs.
The California Twin study sought to take a much closer look. First by including a much greater number of twin pairs, and second by including modern diagnostic methods. They used the California Department of Developmental Services as a resource to identify twin pairs with at least one autistic. The CDDS database has advantages and disadvantages. First, the database is large and covers fairly diverse state. This is important when you consider that (a) only about 1% of the population is autistic and (2) only about 3.2% of the population are twins. That means about 1 in 3000 are twins+autistic.
The disadvantages of the CDDS as a resource include the fact that not everyone with an ASD qualifies for services or is correctly classified. Of those who qualify, inclusion in the CDDS is voluntary. Technically, the CDDS serves only those with autistic disorder or those in the “fifth category” which includes “…disabling conditions found to be closely related to mental retardation or requiring treatment similar to that required for individuals with mental retardation.” This would limit the ability to identify ASD concordance. For example, twins who both have Asperger syndrome.
One major strength of the study was the use of clinical assessments plus parent interviews for diagnosis. They did not rely upon the CDDS reports for diagnoses. Also, the study determined twin status (MZ or DZ) through genetic testing, something which wasn’t available when the first twin studies were performed.
Here is the abstract for the study:
Context Autism is considered the most heritable of neurodevelopmental disorders, mainly because of the large difference in concordance rates between monozygotic and dizygotic twins.
Objective To provide rigorous quantitative estimates of genetic heritability of autism and the effects of shared environment.
Design, Setting, and Participants Twin pairs with at least 1 twin with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) born between 1987 and 2004 were identified through the California Department of Developmental Services.
Main Outcome Measures Structured diagnostic assessments (Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) were completed on 192 twin pairs. Concordance rates were calculated and parametric models were fitted for 2 definitions, 1 narrow (strict autism) and 1 broad (ASD).
Results For strict autism, probandwise concordance for male twins was 0.58 for 40 monozygotic pairs (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.42-0.74) and 0.21 for 31 dizygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.09-0.43); for female twins, the concordance was 0.60 for 7 monozygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.28-0.90) and 0.27 for 10 dizygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.09-0.69). For ASD, the probandwise concordance for male twins was 0.77 for 45 monozygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.65-0.86) and 0.31 for 45 dizygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.16-0.46); for female twins, the concordance was 0.50 for 9 monozygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.16-0.84) and 0.36 for 13 dizygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.11-0.60). A large proportion of the variance in liability can be explained by shared environmental factors (55%; 95% CI, 9%-81% for autism and 58%; 95% CI, 30%-80% for ASD) in addition to moderate genetic heritability (37%; 95% CI, 8%-84% for autism and 38%; 95% CI, 14%-67% for ASD).
Conclusion Susceptibility to ASD has moderate genetic heritability and a substantial shared twin environmental component.
The concordance values are 77% for male MZ twins and 50% for female MZ twins. These values are high. But the heritability estimates are influenced not just by the MZ twin concordance, but by the difference between MZ and DZ concordance. Consider if 100% of “identical” twins had a condition. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the condition is fully caused by hertiablity if, say, 100% of the “fraternal” twins also had the condition. In the California Twin study, DZ concordance values were relatively high (31% for males and 36% for females).
Based on these values, the authors calculate that shared environment accounts for 55% of the risk of autism and 37% for genetic heritability. There are big “error bars” (or confidence intervals) for the concordance and heritablity values. It is worth noting that the concordance values here are similar to those reported recently by Bearman’s team at Columbia (40-50% pairwise concordance for MZ twins. This study also used the CDDS as a resource, but did not use clinical assessments) and Goldsmith’s group at the University of Wisconsin (43% pairwise concordance). These studies also concluded that genetic heritability was lower than previously thought.
The authors concluded their paper:
Our study provides evidence that the rate of concordance in dizygotic twins may have been seriously underestimated in previous studies and the influence of genetic factors on the susceptibility to develop autism, overestimated. Because of the reported high heritability of autism, a major focus of research in autism has been on finding the underlying genetic causes, with less emphasis on potential environmental triggers or causes. The finding of significant influence of the shared environment, experiences that are common to both twin individuals, may be important for future research paradigms. Increasingly, evidence is accumulating that overt symptoms of autism emerge around the end of the first year of life. Because the prenatal environment and early postnatal environment are shared between twin individuals, we hypothesize that at least some of the environmental factors impacting susceptibility to autism exert their effect during this critical period of life. Nongenetic risk factors that may index environmental influences include parental age, low birth weight, multiple births, and maternal infections during pregnancy. Future studies that seek to elucidate such factors and their role in enhancing or suppressing genetic susceptibility are likely to enhance our understanding of autism.
The authors can be heard on KQED in San Francisco discussing the paper.
In a companion commentary on Archives of General Psychiatry, Is Autism, at Least in Part, a Disorder of Fetal Programming?, Peter Szatmari comments on the shift in perception based on the new heritability estimates: “The autism field can now join the chorus and ask, “Where did all the heritability go?” We now appear to have an answer, at least in part: those original estimates were inflated.”
“Inflated” seems a bit of a loaded word. There are big error bars on the current study, there were even bigger ones in the old studies. What I found very interesting was this peak at an upcoming paper by the Baby Siblings Research Consortium:
The high DZ concordance rate is consistent with estimates reported from the Baby Siblings Research Consortium. In these studies, infant siblings of children with ASD are followed up from birth to age 36 months so that risk can be calculated in a prospective fashion. The latest report from the Baby Siblings Research Consortium suggests that the risk is upwards of 20%, which is slightly less than the DZ rate provided by Hallmayer and colleagues (31%-36% for ASD). The confidence intervals of the estimates overlap to be sure, but this may also suggest potential ascertainment bias for concordant as opposed to nonconcordant DZ twin pairs or that twinning itself is a risk factor for ASD.
(reference: Ozonoff S, Young G, Carter AS, Messinger D, Yirmiya N, Zwaigenbaum L, Bryson SE, Carver L, Constantino J, Dobkins K, Hutman T, Iverson J, Landa R, Rogers S, Sigman M, Stone W. Recurrence risk for autism spectrum disorders: a Baby Siblings Research Consortium Study. Pediatrics. In press.)
They commentary poses some good questions about potential bias in the California Autism Twin Study:
One must ask whether there was any bias artificially reducing concordance in the study by Hallmayer and colleagues. One possibility is missing data, which are substantial. Another possibility is differential misclassification. It is not inconceivable that parents are more likely to rate MZ twins with a disability as more dissimilar than DZ twins. There may be an unconscious effort on their part to see one twin as less affected than the other. Such reporting effects, known as sibling deidentification, have been reported for twin studies of temperament.8 It would be extremely interesting to see whether concordance rates differ by instrument, ie, the Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised, which is based on parental report, vs the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, which is based on an independent observer. If the sensitivity of the measurement tool is less in MZ twins than in DZ twins, a smaller difference in observed concordance rates would be expected compared with true concordance rates based on no measurement error.
A third threat to the validity of the findings is that twinning itself might be a risk factor for ASD, so that the heritability estimates generated would not be generalizable to the population of nontwin children with ASD. There may be some factor associated with twinning such as maternal age, coming from a monochoreonic placenta, prematurity, or in vitro fertilization that could place twins at risk for ASD. There is in fact some evidence that twins have a higher rate of autism than nontwins,9 but further work needs to be undertaken to provide better evidence.
It’s taken 34 years since the first autism twin study until the much larger California Autism Twin Study. This has been a time consuming and expensive undertaking. I doubt there will be a chance in the near future for a larger study to address the issues laid out above. This doesn’t preclude some other studies to clarify some questions, but the California Autism Twin Study will likely stand for some time before being challenged or confirmed.
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- Introduction to the Third Edition.
- On Civil Liberty and Self-government.
- Chapter I.: Introductory.
- Chapter II.: Definitions of Liberty.
- Chapter III.: The Meaning of Civil Liberty.
- Chapter IV.: Ancient and Modern Liberty.—Ancient, Medieval, and Modern States.
- Chapter V.: Anglican Liberty.
- Chapter VI.: National Independence—Personal Liberty.
- Chapter VII.: Bail.—Penal Trial.
- Chapter VIII.: High Treason.
- Chapter IX.: Communion.—Locomotion, Emigration.
- Chapter X.: Liberty of Conscience.—Property:—Supremacy of the Law.
- Chapter XI.: Quartering Soldiers.—The Army.
- Chapter XII.: Petition.—Association.
- Chapter XIII.: Publicity.
- Chapter XIV.: Supremacy of the Law.—Taxation.—Division of Power.
- Chapter XV.: Responsible Ministers.—Courts Declaring Laws Unconstitutional.—Representative Government.
- Chapter XVI.: Representative Government, Continued.—Basis of Property.—Direct and Indirect Elections.
- Chapter XVII.: Parliamentary Law and Usage.—The Speaker.—Two Houses.—The Veto.
- Chapter XVIII.: Independence of the Judiciary.—The Law Jus, Common Law.
- Chapter XIX.: Independence of Jus, Self-development of Law, Continued.—Accusatorial and Inquisitorial Trials.—Independence of the Judge.
- Chapter XX.: Independence of Jus, Continued.—Trial By Jury.—The Advocate.
- Chapter XXI.: Self—Government.
- Chapter XXII.: American Liberty.
- Chapter XXIII.: In What Civil Liberty Consists, Proved By Contraries.
- Chapter XXIV.: Gallican Liberty.—Spreading of Liberty.
- Chapter XXV.: The Institution.—Its Definition.—Its Power For Good and Evil.
- Chapter XXVI.: The Institution, Continued.—Institutional Liberty.—Institutional Local Self-government.
- Chapter XXVII.: Effects and Uses of Institutional Self-government.
- Chapter XXVIII.: Dangers and Inconveniences of Institutional Self-government.
- Chapter XXIX.: Advantages of Institutional Government, Farther Considered.
- Chapter XXX.: Institutional Government the Only Government Which Prevents the Growth of Too Much Power.—Liberty, Wealth, and Longevity of States.
- Chapter XXXI.: Insecurity Op Uninstitutional Governments.—Unorganized Inarticulated Popular Power.
- Chapter XXXII.: Imperatorial Sovereignty.
- Chapter XXXIII.: Imperatorial Sovereignty, Continued.—Its Origin and Character Examined.
- Chapter XXXIV.: Centralization.—Influence Of Capital Cities.
- Chapter XXXV.: Vox Populi Vox Dei.
- Appendix I.: A Paper On Elections, Election Statistics, and General Votes of Yes Or No.
- Appendix II.: A Paper On the Abuse of the Pardoning Power.
- Appendix III.: A Paper On Subjects Connected With the Inquisitorial Trial and the Laws of Evidence.
- Appendix IV.: Magna Charta of King John, Fifteenth Day of June, In the Seventeenth Year of the King's Reign, A.d. 1215.
- Appendix V.: The Petition of Right. 1
- Appendix VI.: An Act For the Better Securing the Liberty of the Subject, and For Prevention of Imprisonments Beyond the Seas, Commonly Called “the Habeas Corpus Act.” 1
- Appendix VII.: Bill of Rights, Passed 1 William and Mary, Sess. 2, Ch. 2, 1689.
- Appendix VIII.: A Declaration By the Representatives of the United States of America In Congress Assembled.
- Appendix IX.: Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union Between the States.
- Appendix X.: Constitution of the United States of America.
- Appendix XI.: The French Constitution, Adopted and Proclaimed On the Twenty-fourth of June 1793. the First Republican Constitution
- Declarations of the Rights of Man and of Citizens.
- Constitution of the Twenty-fourth of June, 1793.
- Appendix XII.: French Charter of Louis XVIII. And That Adopted In the Year 1830.
- Appendix XIII.: Constitution of the French Republic. Adopted November, 1848.
- Appendix XIV.: The Present Constitution of France.
- Appendix XV.: Report of the French Senatorial Committee On the Petitions to Change the Republic Into an Empire, In November, 1852, 1 and the Senatus-consultum Adopted In Conformity With It.
- Appendix XVI.: Letter of the French Minister of the Interior, Mr. De Morny, Addressed to the Prefects of the Deparments In the Year 1852.
the french constitution, adopted and proclaimed on the twenty-fourth of june 1793.
the first republican constitution
Had the space permitted it, I would have given all the French constitutions, from the first in the first revolution, to that now called the constitution of the empire. As it is, I must restrict myself to the following selection.
I have copied the translation of the first republican constitution of France from a work by Mr. Bernard Roelker, of the New York bar, The Constitutions of France, Monarchical and Republican, together with Brief Historical Remarks, relating to their Origin, and the late Orleans Dynasty, Boston, Mass., 1848.
DECLARATIONS OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF CITIZENS.
The French people, convinced that oblivion and contempt of the natural rights of man are the only causes of calamities in the world, has resolved to explain these sacred and inalienable rights in a solemn declaration, that all citizens, by comparing always the acts of the government with the whole social union, may never suffer themselves to be oppressed and dishonored by tyranny; that the people may always have before its eyes the fundamental pillars of its liberty and welfare, and the authorities the standard of their duties, and the legislator the object of his problem.
It accordingly makes, in the presence of the Highest Being, the following declaration of the rights of man and of the citizens.
1. The object of society is the general welfare. Government is instituted, to insure to man the free use of his natural and inalienable rights.
2. These rights are equality, liberty, security, property.
3. All men are equal by nature and before the law.
4. Law is the free and solemn proclamation of the general will; it is the same for all, be it protective or penal; it can command only what is just and beneficial to society, and prohibit only what is injurious to the same.
5. All citizens are equally admissible to all public offices. Free nations are in their elections guided by no other considerations than virtues and talents.
6. Freedom is the power, by which man can do what does not interfere with the rights of another; its basis is nature; its standard is justice; its protection is law; its moral boundary is the maxim: Do not unto others what you do not wish they should do unto you.
7. The right of communicating thoughts and opinions, either through the press, or in any other manner; the right of assembling peaceably; the free exercise of religion, cannot be prohibited.
The necessity publicly to claim these rights, presupposes the actual existence of despotism, or the fresh recollection of the same.
8. Security rests on the protection given by society to each of its members, for the preservation of his person, his rights and his property.
9. Law must protect the general and the individual liberty against the oppression of those who govern.
10. No one can be accused, arrested, or kept in close custody, except in the cases specified by law, and according to the prescribed forms; every citizen who, by virtue of the law, is summoned before court or arrested, must immediately obey; every refusal shows him to be guilty.
11. Every order against a person, in cases and forms not specified by law, is arbitrary and tyrannical; the person against whom such an order should be executed by force, has the right to resist it by force.
12. Those who cause, aid in, sign, execute or cause to be executed, such arbitrary acts, are culpable, and must be punished.
13. Since every man is deemed to be innocent, until he be proved guilty, if his condemnation will necessarily lead to arrest, every severity, not required for the forthcoming of his person, is strictly prohibited.
14. Only he who has been first heard or legally summoned, can be condemned and punished, and this only by a law promulgated before the commission of the crime. A law which would punish transgressions, committed before its publication, would be tyranny; and it would be a crime to give retrospective force to law.
15. Law shall order punishments only which are unavoidably necessary; the punishments shall be suitable to the crime, and beneficial to society.
16. The right of property is that by which every citizen can enjoy his goods and his income, the fruits of his labor and industry, and dispose of them at pleasure.
17. No kind of occupation, employment and trade can be prohibited to citizens.
18. Every one may dispose of his services and time at pleasure; but he can neither sell himself nor be sold. His person is inalienable property. The law does not recognize a state of servitude; an agreement only for services rendered and a compensation for them, can exist between him who labors and him who employs him.
19. Without his consent, no one can be deprived of the least part of his property, unless it be required by a general and legally specified necessity, and then only on condition of a just and previously fixed indemnity.
20. No tax can be laid except for the common welfare. All citizens have the right to have a voice in the laying of taxes, to watch over the application of them, and to have an account rendered thereof.
21. The public support of the poor is a sacred obligation. Society takes upon itself the support of needy citizens, either by giving work to them, or by giving subsistence to those who are unable to work.
22. Instruction is a want for all. Society shall further with all its power the progress of the public welfare, and regulate instruction according to the wants of all citizens.
23. Social guarantee rests on the activity of all to secure to each one the enjoyment and the preservation of his rights. This guarantee rests on the sovereignty of the people.
24. It cannot exist, if the boundaries of public administration be not definitely specified by law, and unless the responsibility of all public officers be secured.
25. Sovereignty belongs to the people. It is one and indivisible, imprescriptible and inalienable.
26. No single part of the people can exercise the power of the whole people; but every assembled section of the sovereign people enjoys the right to express its will with perfect freedom.
27. Every individual who would assume the sovereignty shall be at once condemned to death by the free men.
28. The people have the right to revise, amend, and alter their constitution. One generation cannot bind succeeding generations to its laws.
29. Every citizen has the right of taking part in the legislation, and of appointing his representatives or agents.
30. Public functions are in their nature temporary;they cannot be considered as distinctions, nor as rewards, but as obligations.
31. The offences of the representatives of the people and of its agents, shall not be unpunished. No one has the right to hold himself more inviolable than the other citizens.
32. The right of presenting petitions to the public authorities can in no case be interdicted, abolished or limited.
33. Resistance to oppression is the inference from the other rights of man.
34. It is oppression of the whole of society, if but one of its members be oppressed. Oppression of every single member exists, when the whole of society is oppressed.
35. When government violates the rights of the people, insurrection of the people and of every single part of it, is the most sacred of its rights and the highest of its duties.
(Signed) COLLOT D'HERBOIS, President.
DURAND MAILLANE, DUCOS, MEAULLE, Charlesde laCroix, Gossuin, P. A. Laloy,
of the twenty-fourth of june, 1793.
of the republic.
1. The French Republic is one and indivisible.
of the division of the people.
2. The French people is, for the purpose of exercising its sovereignty, divided into primary assemblies according to cantons.
3. For the purpose of administration and justice, it is divided into departments, districts, and municipalities.
of the right of citizenship.
4. Every man born and living in France, of twenty-one years of age, and every alien, who has attained the age of twenty-one, and has been domiciled in France one year, and lives from his labor;
- or has acquired property;
- or has married a French woman;
- or has adopted a child;
- or supports an aged man;
and finally every alien whom the legislative body has declared as one well deserving of the human race, are admitted to exercise the rights of a French citizen.
5. The right of exercising the rights of citizen is lost:
- by being naturalized in a foreign state;
- by accepting offices of state, or favors which do not proceed from a democratic government;
- by being sentenced to dishonorable or corporal punishments, till reinstated in the former state.
6. The exercise of the rights of citizen is suspended:
- by being in a state of accusation;
- by a sentence in contumaciam, so long as this sentence has not been rescinded.
of the sovereignty of the people.
7. The sovereign people embraces the whole of French citizens.
8. It chooses its deputies directly.
9. It delegates to electors the choice of administrators, public civil judges, penal judges, and judges of cassation.
10. It deliberates on laws.
of the primary assemblies.
11. The primary assemblies are formed of the citizens who have resided six months in a canton.
12. They consist of no less than 200 and no more than 600 citizens, called together for the purpose of voting.
13. They are organized, after a president, secretaries and collectors of votes have been appointed.
14. They exercise their own police.
15. No one is allowed to appear there with arms.
16. The elections are made either by secret or loud voting, at the pleasure of each voter.
17. A primary meeting can in no case prescribe more than one manner of voting.
18. The collectors of votes note down the votes of those citizens who cannot write, and yet prefer to vote secretly.
19. The votes on laws are given by “Yes,” and “No.”
20. The elections of primary assemblies are published in the following manner:
The united citizens in the primary assembly at—, numbering—votes, vote for, or vote against, by a majority of—.
of the national representation.
21. Population is the only basis of national representation.
22. For every 40,000 individuals, one deputy is chosen.
23. Every primary assembly which is formed of from 39,000 to 41,000 individuals, chooses directly a deputy.
24. The choice is effected by an absolute majority of votes.
25. Every assembly makes an abstract of the votes, and sends a commissioner to the appointed central place of general record.
26. If at the first voting, no absolute majority be effected, a second meeting shall be held, and those two citizens who had the most votes, shall be voted for again.
27. In case of an equal division of votes, the oldest person has the preference, no matter whether he was voted for, or whether he was chosen without it. In case of an equality of age, the casting of lots shall decide.
28. Every Frenchman, who enjoys the rights of a citizen, is eligible throughout the whole republic.
29. Every deputy belongs to the whole nation.
30. In case of non-acceptance, of abdication, or expiration of office, or of the death of a deputy, the primary assembly which had chosen him shall choose a substitute.
31. A deputy who hands in his resignation, cannot leave his post till his successor shall have been appointed.
32. The French people assembles every year on the 1st of May for election.
33. It proceeds thereto, whatever the number of citizens [present] may be, who have a right to vote.
34. Extraordinary primary meetings are held at the demand of one-fifth of the eligible citizens.
35. The meeting is, in this case, called by the municipal authority of the usual place of assembly.
36. These extraordinary meetings can transact business only when at least more than one-half of the qualified voters are present.
of the electoral assemblies.
37. The citizens, united in primary assemblies, nominate in proportion of 200 citizens, (they may be present or not,) one elector; two, for from 301 to 400;three, for from 501 to 600.
38. The holding of election meetings, and the manner of election, are the same as in the primary meetings.
of the legislative body.
39. The legislative body is one, indivisible and continual.
40. Its session lasts one year.
41. It assembles on the 1st of July.
42. The national assembly cannot be organized, unless at least one more than one-half of the deputies are present.
43. The deputies can, at no time, be held answerable, accused or condemned on account of opinions uttered within the legislative body.
44. In criminal cases, they may be arrested if caught in the act;but the warrant of arrest and the warrant of committal can be issued only by the legislative body.
mode of procedure of the legislative body.
45. The sessions of the national assembly are public.
46. The debates in their sessions shall be printed.
47. It cannot deliberate, unless it consist of 200 members.
48. It cannot refuse to members the floor, in the order in which they demand the same.
49. It decides by a majority of those present.
50. Fifty members have the right to demand a call by names.
51. It has the right of censorship on the conduct of the members in its midst.
52. It exercises the power of police at the place of its sessions, and within the whole extent of its environs.
of the functions of the legislative body.
53. The legislative body proposes laws, and issues decrees.
54. By the general name of law, are understood the provisions of the legislative body which concern:
- the civil and penal legislation;
- the general administration of revenues and of the ordinary expenditures of the republic;
- the national domains;
- the inscription, alloy, stamp and names of coins; declaration of war;
- every new general division of the French territory; public instruction;
- public demonstrations of honor to the memory of great men.
55. By the particular name of decrees are understood those enactments of the legislative body, which concern:
- the annual establishment of the land and marine forces; the permission or refusal of the marching of foreign troops
- through the French territory; the admission of foreign vessels of war into the ports of the republic;
- the measures for the common peace and safety; the distribution of annual and momentary relief and of public works;
- the orders for the stamping of coins of every description; the unforeseen and extraordinary expenses;
- the local and particular orders for an administration, a commune, and any kind of public works;
- the defence of the territory;
- the ratification of treaties;
- the nomination and removal of the commander-in-chief of the army;
- the carrying into effect the responsibility of members of the executive council, and of public officers;
- the accusation of discovered conspiracies against the common safety of the republic;
- every alteration in the division of the French territory; the national rewards.
of the making of laws.
56. A notice must precede the introduction of a bill.
57. Not till after a fortnight from the giving of notice can the debate begin, and the law be temporarily accepted.
58. The proposed law is printed and sent to all the communes of the republic, under the address of, Proposed law.
59. If, forty days after the sending in of the proposed law, of the absolute majority of departments, one-tenth of all the primary meetings, legally assembled by the departments, have not protested, the bill is accepted and becomes a law.
60. If protest be made, the legislative body calls together the primary meetings.
of the superscription of laws and decrees.
61. The laws, decrees, sentences, and all public transactions are superscribed:
In the name of the French people, in the—year of the French Republic.
of the executive power.
62. There shall be an executive council, consisting of twenty-four members.
63. The electoral assembly of each department nominates a candidate. The legislative body chooses from this general list the members of the executive council.
64. It shall be renewed each half session of every legislature, in the last months of its session.
65. The executive council has the management and supervision of the general administration. Its activity is limited to the execution of laws and decrees of the legislative body.
66. It appoints, but not out of its midst, the highest agents of the general administration of the republic.
67. The legislative body establishes the number of these agents, and their business.
68. These agents form no council. They are separated one from the other, and have no relation among themselves. They exercise no personal power.
69. The executive council chooses, but not from its midst, the foreign agents of the republic.
70. It negotiates treaties.
71. The members of the executive council are, in case of violation of duties, accused by the legislative body.
72. The executive council is responsible for the non-execution of the laws and decrees, and the abuses, of which it does not give notice.
73. It recalls and substitutes the agents at pleasure.
74. It is obliged, if possible, to inform the judicial authorities regarding them.
of the mutual relations between the executive council, and the legislative body.
75. The executive council shall have its seat near the legislative body. It shall have admittance to, and a special seat at the place of session.
76. It shall every time be heard, when it shall have to give account.
77. The legislative body shall call it into its midst, in whole or in part, when it is thought necessary.
of the administrative authorities and the municipalities.
78. There shall be a municipal authority in each commune of the republic; and in each district an intermediate administration; and in each department a central administration.
79. The municipal officers are chosen by the assemblies of the commune.
80. The administrators are chosen by the electoral assemblies of the departments and of the district.
81. The municipalities and the administrative authorities are annually renewed one-half.
82. The administrative authorities and municipal officers have not a representative character. They can, in no case, limit the resolves of the legislative body, nor the execution of them.
83. The legislative body assigns the business of the municipal officers and of the administrative authorities, the rules regarding their subordination, and the punishments to which they may become liable.
84. The sessions of the municipalities and of the administrative authorities are held in public.
of civil justice.
85. The civil and penal code is the same for the whole republic.
86. No encroachment can be made upon the right of citizens to have their matters in dispute decided on by arbitrators of their own choice.
87. The decision of these arbitrators is final, unless the citizens have reserved the right of protesting.
88. There shall be justices of the peace, chosen by the citizens of the districts, appointed by law.
89. They shall conciliate and hold court without fees.
90. Their number and extent of power shall be established by the legislative body.
91. There shall be public judges of arbitration, who are chosen by electoral assemblies.
92. Their number and districts are fixed by the legislative body.
93. They shall decide on matters in controversy, which have not been brought to a final decision by private arbitrators or by the justices of the peace.
94. They shall deliberate publicly. They shall vote with loud voice.
They shall decide in the last resort on oral pleadings, or on a simple petition, without legal forms and without cost. They shall assign the reasons of their decisions.
95. The justices of the peace and the public arbitrators are chosen annually.
of criminal justice.
96. In criminal cases, no citizen can be put on trial, except a true bill of complaint be found by a jury, or by the legislative body.
The accused shall have advocates, either chosen by themselves, or appointed officially. The proceedings are in public. The state of facts and the intention are passed upon by a jury. The punishment is executed by a criminal authority.
97. The criminal judges are chosen annually by the electoral assemblies.
of the court of cassation.
98. There is a court of cassation for the whole republic.
99. This court takes no cognizance of the state of facts.
It decides on the violation of matters of form, and on transgressions expressed by law.
100. The members of this court are appointed annually through the electoral assemblies.
of the general taxes.
101. No citizen is excluded from the honorable obligation to contribute towards the public expenses.
of the national treasury.
102. The national treasury is the central point of the revenues and expenses of the republic.
103. It is managed by public accountants, whom the legislative body shall elect.
104. These agents are supervised by officers of account, whom the legislative body shall elect, but who cannot be taken from their own body: they are responsible for abuses of which they do not give legal notice to the courts.
of the rendition of accounts.
105. The accounts of the agents of the national treasury, and those of the administrators of public moneys are taken annually, by responsible commissioners appointed by the executive council.
106. Those persons appointed to revise the accounts are under the supervision of commissioners, who are elected by the legislative body, not out of their own number; and they are responsible for the frauds and mistakes of accounts, of which they do not give notice.
The legislative body preserves the accounts.
of the military forces of the republic.
107. The general military power of the republic consists of the whole people.
108. The republic supports, also, in times of peace, a paid land and marine force.
109. All Frenchmen are soldiers; all shall be exercised in the use of arms.
110. There is no generalissimo.
111. The distinction of grade, the military marks of distinction and subordination, exist only in service and in time of its duration.
112. The general military force is used for the preservation of order and peace in the interior; it acts only on a written requisition of the constituted authorities.
113. The general military force against foreign enemies is under the command of the executive council.
114. No armed body can deliberate.
of the national convention.
115. If of the absolute majority of departments, the tenth part of their regularly formed primary assemblies demand a revision of the constitution, or an alteration of some of its articles; the legislative body is obliged to call together all primary assemblies of the republic, in order to ascertain whether a national convention shall be called.
116. The national convention is formed in like manner as the legislatures, and unites in itself the highest power.
117. It is occupied, as regards the constitution, only with those subjects which caused its being called together.
of the relations of the french republic towards foreign nations.
118. The French nation is the friend and natural ally of free nations.
119. It does not interfere with the affairs of government of other nations. It suffers no interference of other nations with its own.
120. It serves as a place of refuge for all who, on account of liberty, are banished from their native country.
These it refuses to deliver up to tyrants.
121. It concludes no peace with an enemy that holds possession of its territory.
of the guaranty of rights.
122. The constitution guarantees to all Frenchmen equality, liberty, security, property, the public debt, free exercise of religion, general instruction, public assistance, absolute liberty of the press, the right of petition, the right to hold popular assemblies, and the enjoyment of all the rights of man.
123. The French republic respects loyalty, courage, age, filial love, misfortune. It places the constitution under the guaranty of all virtues.
124. The declaration of the rights of man and the constitution shall be engraven on tables, to be placed in the midst of the legislative body, and in public places.
(Signed) COLLOT D'HERBOIS, President.
Durand-Maillane, Ducos, Meaulle,
Charlesde laCroix Gossuin, P. A. Laloy,
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News flash: There are plenty of ways to cook up juicy and flavorful food without adding tons of unnecessary extras. While most people know to ditch the fryer when cooking up healthy meals, many don’t think about how their cooking method affects the nutritional make-up of their entrée.
Heat can break down and destroy 15 to 20 percent of some vitamins in vegetables — especially vitamin C, folate, and potassium. And as you’ll see below, some methods are more detrimental than others. (This is why raw foodists cut out cooking altogether, claiming that uncooked food maintains all of it’s nutritional value and supports optimal health.)
But other studies suggest certain foods actually benefit from cooking. With carrots, spinach, and tomatoes, for example, heat facilitates the release of antioxidants by breaking down cell walls, providing an easier passage of the healthy components from food to body.
Nuking may be the healthiest way to cook because of its short cooking times, which results in minimal nutrient destruction. Microwaves cook food by heating from the inside out. They emit radio waves that “excite” the molecules in food, which generates heat, cooking the food. While microwave cooking can sometimes cause food to dry out, that can easily be avoided by splashing on a bit of water before heating, or placing a wet paper towel over your dish. The way that microwaves cook food nixes the need to add extra oils. The best part is, you can microwave just about anything, from veggies and rice to meat and eggs. And studies suggest it may just be one of the best ways to preserve nutrients in veggies; microwaving broccoli is the best way to preserve its vitamin C, for example. Just make sure to use a microwave-safe container.
Boiling is quick, easy, and all you need to add are water and a touch of salt. But the high temperatures and the large volume of water can dissolve and wash away water-soluble vitamins and 60 to 70 percent of minerals in some foods, especially certain vegetables. But research actually suggests boiling could be the best way to preserve nutrients in carrots, zucchini, and broccoli (when compared to steaming, frying, or eating raw).
Cooking anything from fresh veggies to fish fillets this way allows them to stew in their own juices and retain all their natural goodness. And no need for fat-laden additions to up the moisture. It’s always good to add a little seasoning first, whether that’s a sprinkle of salt or a squeeze of lemon juice. If the carcinogen-fighting glucosinolates in broccoli are important to you, some research suggests steaming could be the best way to cook the little green trees. In the body, glucosinolates become compounds called isothiocyanates, which some research suggests may inhibit the growth of cancer cells.
The same goes for boiling’s cousin, poaching — no additives. Basically, poaching means cooking the given food in a small amount of hot water (just below boiling point). It takes slightly longer (which some experts believe can decrease nutrient retention), but is a great way to gently cook delicate foods like fish, eggs, or fruit. (Plus, it’s just about the most delicious way to cook an egg in our book.)
Broiling entails cooking food under high, direct heat for a short period of time. Broiling is a great way to cook tender cuts of meat (remember to trim excess fat before cooking), but may not be ideal for cooking veggies, since they can dry out easily.
In terms of getting maximum nutrition without sacrificing flavor, grilling is a great option. It requires minimal added fats and imparts a smoky flavor while keeping meats and veggies juicy and tender. While these are definitely healthy benefits, not everything about grilling is so good for you. Some research suggests that regularly consuming charred, well-done meat may increase risk of pancreatic cancer and breast cancer. Cooking at high heat can also produce a chemical reaction between the fat and protein in meat, creating toxins that are linked to the imbalance of antioxidants in the body and inflammation, which can lead to an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
This doesn’t mean BBQs are forbidden — just stick with lean cuts of meat that require less cooking time, and keep dark meats on the rarer side.
While this method does require some oil in the pan, it should only be a moderate amount — just enough to get a nice sear on your meat and vegetables. It’s effective for bite-sized pieces of meat, grains like rice and quinoa, and thin-cut veggies like bell peppers, julienned carrots, and snow peas.
Raw food diets have gained tons of attention recently, and for good reason. Many studies suggest there are of benefits of incorporating more raw foods into the diet: Studies have shown eating the rainbow consistently reduces the risk of cancer, but the jury’s out on whether raw or cooked is really best overall. On the one hand, since the diet is mostly plant-based, you end up eating more vitamins, minerals, and fiber, with no added sugars or fats from cooking. But while some raw items might be super-healthy, studies have found that cooking can actually amplify some nutrients, like lycopene in tomatoes and antioxidants in carotenoids such as carrots, spinach, sweet potatoes, and peppers.
This article has been read and approved by Greatist Experts Lindsey Joe and Elizabeth Jarrard.
Greatist is the fastest-growing fitness, health and happiness start-up. Check out more tips, expert opinion and fun times at Greatist.com.
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ORIGIN OF NAME: The name "the North-Western Territories," initially assigned by the British government, once referred to all the lands held by the Hudson's Bay Company.
NICKNAME: Canada's Last Frontier, Land of the Polar Bear, or North of Sixty.
ENTERED CONFEDERATION: 15 July 1870; reorganized 1 September 1905.
MOTTO: The New North (unofficial).
COAT OF ARMS: The crest consists of two golden narwhals (representing marine life) on either side of a compass rose, which symbolizes the magnetic north pole. The white upper portion of the shield represents the polar ice pack and is crossed by a wavy blue band symbolic of the Northwest Passage. The wavy diagonal line symbolizing the treeline separates the red (the tundra of the north) from the green (the forested lands of the south). The historical economic resources of the land—mineral wealth and the fur industry—are represented respectively by gold bricks in the green portion and the head of a white fox in the red area.
FLAG: The territorial shield of arms centered on a white field, with two vertical blue panels on either side. The white symbolizes the snow and ice of the winter, while the blue represents the territory's lakes and waters.
FLORAL EMBLEM: Mountain avens.
TARTAN: The official tartan of the Northwest Territories is a registered design in shades of red, green, yellow, and blue.
TERRITORIAL BIRD: Gyrfalcon.
TREE: Jack pine.
TIME: 5 AM MST = noon GMT.
At some time in its history, the Northwest Territories (NWT) has included all of Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon, and Nunavut, and most of Manitoba, Ontario, and Québec. The Northwest Territories occupies about six percent of the total land area of the country. The NWT has a total area of 587,206 square miles (1,541,844 square kilometers), making it almost as large as the state of Alaska.
Between 1905 and 1999, the Northwest Territories included all of Canada north of the 60th parallel, except the Yukon and portions of Québec and Newfoundland. On 1 April 1999, the NWT was officially divided, with the eastern part becoming the new territory of Nunavut. The western part so far has kept the name "Northwest Territories," but is sometimes referred to as "western NWT" or "Western Arctic" in order to avoid confusion with the larger pre-1999 NWT. The NWT is now bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, Beaufort Sea, and polar ice; on the east by Nunavut; on the south by Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia; and on the west by the Yukon Territory. From the 60th parallel, the NWT stretches 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) to Cape Malloch on Borden Island; the territory is 823 miles (1,325 kilometers) long from east to west. The NWT covers 452,478 square miles (1,171,918 square kilometers) and includes Banks Island, Prince Patrick Island, and the western portions of Victoria Island and Melville Island.
|Estimated 2003 population||41,900|
|Population change, 1996–2001||-5.8%|
|Percent Urban/Rural populations|
|Foreign born population||6.4%|
|Population by ethnicity|
|North American Indian||3,375|
Like the Yukon, the NWT can be divided into two broad geographical regions: the taiga (a boreal forest belt that circles the subarctic zone and is typified by stands of pine, aspen, poplar, and birch trees), and the tundra (a rocky arctic region where the cold climate has stunted vegetation). One of the most remarkable features of the NWT is the Mackenzie River, one of the world's longest at 2,635 miles (4,241 kilometers).
There are two major climate zones in the NWT: subarctic and arctic. In the subarctic zone, average temperatures in January are -9°F (–23°C) and 70°F (21°C) in July, while average temperatures in the arctic zone range from -27°F (–33°C) in January to 50°F (10°C) in July. The average temperatures in Yellowknife are 8°F (–22°C) from November to March and 57°F (14°C) from June to August. As in the Yukon, the varying amounts of daylight over the year are an important influence on the climate: between 20 and 24 hours of daylight in June and up to 24 hours of darkness in December. The lowest recorded temperature was -71°F (–57.2°C) at Fort Smith on 26 December 1917.
A short but intense summer produces many small but brilliant flowers, including purple mountain saxifrage and fireweed. The animal population of the NWT includes an estimated 700,000 barren-ground caribou, 50,000 muskoxen, 26,000 moose, 10–40,000 wolverines, 15,000 wolves, and smaller numbers of Woodland caribou, Dall's sheep, bears (polar, black, and grizzly), bison, and mountain goats. Bird species include grouse, ptarmigan, phalarope, Pacific loon, and peregrine falcon. Fish include lake trout, arctic grayling, arctic char, walleye, whitefish, and northern pike.
The Environmental Protection Service of the Department of Resources, Wildlife, and Economic Development of the NWT (RWED) has programs to address hazardous substances, waste management, air quality, and environmental impact assessment. Since the early 1990's, dust conditions in Yellowknife have improved and the 2002 total suspended particulate (TSP) levels were the lowest ever. The Giant Mine gold roaster was the largest single source of sulphur dioxide in the Yellowknife area until it closed in 1999. Only minor levels of sulphur dioxide had been detected by 2002. The Arctic Environmental Strategy introduced by the federal government in 1991 as part of its Green Plan involves northerners in projects to protect the arctic environment. It also supports communities in the development of their own plans to deal with environmental issues. The NWT has a beverage recycling program and encourages composting.
According to the 2001 census, the NWT had a population of 37,360; only the Yukon and Nunavut were smaller. Yellowknife, the capital, had a population of 16,055 in 2001. Other urban areas, and their 2001 populations, include Hay River, 2,892, and Inuvik, 2,884.
The median age of the NWT in 2001 was 30.1 years. This was much younger than the national average of 37.6. It was second youngest only to Nunavut, which was 22.1 years.
In 2001, Aboriginals (Native Peoples) accounted for 47.2 percent of the western NWT's population. In the western Arctic, the Dene have inhabited the forests and barrens for the past 2,500 years. Once nomads, today they live in communities, many still using traditional skills of hunting, trapping, and fishing. There are four major Dene cultural groups: Chipewyan, Dogrib, Slavey (north and south), and Gwich'in (Loucheux). The Inuvialuit reside primarily around the Mackenzie River delta. The Métis are descendants of Dene and ethnic European parentage and comprise eight percent of the territory's population. Other ethnicities found in the western NWT include Irish, French, German, and Ukrainian.
The NWT has eight official languages, but English is the language used most often for business and commerce. As of 2001, 77 percent of the territory's residents claimed English as their native language, while 2.6 percent declared French as their mother tongue. The Dene have four linguistic groups: Chipewyan, Dogrib, Slavey (north and south), and Gwich'in (Loucheux).
In 2001, 31.3 percent of the population—about 11,610 people—were Protestant, including Anglicans, members of the United Church of Canada, Pentecostals, Baptists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, in that order. The territory also had about 17,000 Catholics and about 180 people of Muslim faith. There were less than 160 people each of the following: Eastern Orthodox, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Hindus. About 6,600 people had no religious affiliation in 2001.
Territorial highways are mostly all-weather gravel roads, with some paved sections; clouds of dust, flying gravel, soft spots, and long distances between service stations are common. In the north, the Dempster Highway (#8) connects Inuvik, on the Mackenzie River delta, with Dawson, Yukon, across the Richardson Mountains. In the south, the Mackenzie Highway (#1) provides access to Alberta via connecting roads leading from Yellowknife (#3), Hay River (#2), Fort Resolution (#6), and Fort Smith (#5). The Liard Highway (#7) provides entry to British Columbia. The Canol Road (#9) and the Nahanni Range Road also provide access from the Yukon, but terminate just inside the NWT border. In 2003, the NWT had 22,005 registered motor vehicles, 3,429 trailers, 371 motorcycles and mopeds, 95 buses, and 1,105 off-road vehicles.
From January to March, the coldest months of the Canadian winter, truckers drive heavy and dangerous loads across hundreds of miles of ice roads plowed on frozen lakes in order to deliver supplies to mines. There are no roads to many of the mines, which are often isolated by hundreds of lakes scattered across the territory.
Ferry service is provided in the summer for Highways 1, 3, and 8, which cross major rivers; in the winter, motorists simply drive over the frozen rivers. During the freezing months of fall and thawing months of spring, however, crossings by vehicles are not possible.
Air Canada provides service to Yellowknife from Edmonton, Alberta.
The Northwest Territories include many islands, lakes, rivers and the northernmost portions of mainland Canada. The first Inuit (the name given to Eskimos in Canada) are believed to have crossed the Bering Strait, a land bridge separating Asia and North America, about 5,000 years ago. They spread east along the Arctic coast and were the only people in the area for thousands of years.
The very first European explorers to arrive there were most likely the Vikings, who sailed to the eastern Arctic Ocean around 1000 A.D. The first documented visit (a visit for which definite records exist) to the territory was led by English explorer Martin Frobisher in 1576. In 1610, English navigator Henry Hudson, while looking for a sea passage to Asia (the Northwest Passage that links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans), landed briefly on the western shore of the bay that now bears his name. His discovery opened the door for further exploration of the New World's interior. In the years that followed, European explorers like Thomas Button, Thomas James, and Luke Foxe traveled to the region and mapped a large portion of the eastern Arctic, particularly the western coast of Hudson Bay.
In 1670, in an effort to stimulate the area's fur trade, the British government granted the lands west of modern Ontario to the Hudson's Bay Company. The company set up fur-trading posts along the rivers to the west as far as Alberta. They also established a few posts farther north along the shores of Hudson Bay. In 1770, the company sent one of its employees, Samuel Hearne, on an expedition north of its territorial borders into what would become the Northwest Territories. Although his journey was a success in terms of the area he covered—about 3,200 kilometers in total—the number of fur-bearing animals he encountered was lower than he had expected.
The exploration reports of a rival trading agency, the North West Company, were more encouraging. In his 1789 journey along the river that now bears his name, Alexander Mackenzie noted that the forests lining this waterway were full of fur-bearing animals. The North West Company soon set up posts along the Mackenzie River. Meanwhile, however, the Hudson's Bay Company became interested in trading in the area. A fierce competition developed between the two companies, and the rivalry continued until 1821, when the North West Company was taken over by the Hudson's Bay Company. Hudson's Bay had succeeded in forming a trade monopoly over all of the explored land in northwestern Canada and was responsible for maintaining law and order there as well.
Fur trading wasn't the only industry doing well in the Northwest in the nineteenth century. Whaling became a big business, as well. The Inuit had hunted whales for centuries, eating the skin and blubber, using the whalebones to make tools and build furniture, and burning the oil for light and heat. Europeans began whaling in the Northwest back in the 1600s, mostly looking for valuable whale oil. Whaling activity peaked between 1820 and 1840.
Between the fur traders and the whalers, Europeans reshaped the Northwest Territories, bringing with them a new economy and way of life. Communities grew around trading posts, mission schools, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police stations with the arrival of fur traders, missionaries, and government officials. Caribou, used as food for the whalers, became scarce, so the Inuit had to turn to the Europeans for food and clothing. Prior to this, the Inuit were completely self-sufficient, meaning they were able to live on their own from the land and the sea. This sudden reliance on trade with the settlers changed their lives forever. The Europeans also brought diseases like typhus, scarlet fever, and measles to the Northwest Territories. The Inuit had never been exposed to these diseases before, and many died because they lacked the resistance necessary to fight them off.
In 1870, the British government transferred control of the Hudson's Bay Company's land to Canada. This included all of the Northwest Territories, as well as most of the rest of western Canada. Later, the government added the islands of the Arctic archipelago to the Territories.
The westernmost part of the Northwest Territories was the location of the Klondike gold strike in 1896. The resulting rush of settlers (hence the term gold rush) into the region prompted the Canadian government to create a separate territory, the Yukon Territory, in 1898. In 1905, both Alberta and Saskatchewan were created from the Territories. Seven years later, the provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, and Québec were enlarged, and the Northwest Territories assumed the boundaries it would maintain until its division in 1999.
Since land in the Northwest Territories is so remote and its climate is so harsh, it was largely overlooked by settlers and developers for decades after its creation. By World War II (1939–45), however, mineral exploration and the military were playing a role in northern development. Radium, a radioactive metal, was discovered in the Great Bear Lake region in the 1930s, and in 1935 a major gold find was made in Yellowknife. This discovery, along with better transportation routes, brought more settlers to the area. Yellowknife's population grew from 200 before 1930 to 1,000 by the mid-1940s. When a hydroelectric plant was built in Yellowknife in 1948, even more people and industries were drawn to the city.
During World War II, the location of the Northwest Territories made it an important part of North America's defense. To protect Canada and the United States from enemy attack, military bases and airstrips were built along the Arctic Coast. An oil pipeline was also built at this time to transport oil from the Northwest Territories to the Yukon.
During the 1950s and 1960s, bombers were stationed in the Northwest Territories to keep an eye on northern Canadian airspace. Prior to the development of ballistic missiles, this served a vital role in the defense of North America against a possible nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. Also in the late 1950s, the educational system in the Northwest Territories was largely reformed. Until this point, schooling had been provided almost exclusively through church missions. In 1959, the federal government of Canada instituted a territorial school system; ten years later, operation of the school system was turned over to the territorial government.
The issue of settling Aboriginal, or native, land claims in the Northwest Territories (as well as in other parts of Canada) emerged in the 1970s. The native people argued that their culture, ways of life, and rights to the land were lost with the arrival of Europeans to the region. Their grievances were presented to the federal government, and in 1984, a final agreement was reached with the Inuvialuit of the western Northwest Territories. It provided some 2,500 people with 91,000 square kilometers (35,100 square miles) of land, monetary compensation, hunting rights, and a greater role in solving social and environmental problems. In 1992, the Gwich'in (another group of native people) settled a similar land claim that provided them with a variety of environmental rights, monetary compensation, and two portions of land: 22,422 square kilometers (8,657 square miles) in the northwestern portion of the Northwest Territories and 1,554 square kilometers (600 square miles) in the Yukon.
By far, though, the largest land claim to be settled in Canada was reached with the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut in 1993. The agreement provided about 17,500 Inuit of the eastern Northwest Territories with 350,000 square kilometers of land, financial compensation, a share in resource royalties, hunting rights, and a greater role in the management of land and the environment. The final agreement also led to the creation of a new territory, Nunavut, on the first of April 1999. The creation of this new territory has changed the Northwest Territories considerably. The area is much smaller, and the population is now almost evenly split between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals. Matters such as land claims and self-government will undoubtedly continue to create controversy early in the twenty-first century.
In 2004, Premier Joe Handley called for a greater openness and discussion in local communities. Local and regional leaders were encouraged to work together in the emerging self-governments of municipalities.
In the NWT, political power rests with elected representatives. Although a federally appointed commissioner is technically in charge of the territorial administration, the role of that office has diminished, and it generally follows the lead of the elected territorial government. Executive power is held by a 19-seat elected assembly, whose members remain as political independents. This assembly then appoints a 7-person executive council, of which 1 is chosen as government leader for the territorial government (in 1994 the title "government leader" was changed to "premier").
Territorial legislators campaign as political independents. The last election was held on 24 November 2003.
|1905–19||Frederick D. White|
|1919–31||William Wallace Cory|
|1931–34||Hugh Howard Rowatt|
|1947–50||Hugh Llewellyn Keenleyside|
|1950–53||Hugh Andrew Young|
|1953–63||Robert Gordon Robertson|
|1963–67||Bent Gestur Sivertz|
|1967–79||Stuart Milton Hodgson|
|1979–89||John Havelock Parker|
|1989–94||Daniel Leonard Norris|
|1999–00||Daniel Joseph Marion|
|2000–||Glenna F. Hansen|
|1985–87||Nick Gordon Sibbeston|
|1987–91||Dennis Glen Patterson|
|1991–94||Nellie Joy Cournoyea|
|1994–95||Nellie Joy Cournoyea|
A village must have a total assessed value of C$10 million for the entire community to be incorporated; for a town, C$50 million; and for a city, more than C$200 million. As of 2004, Yellowknife was the sole city; there were also four towns, one village, ten hamlets, three settlements, and four charter communities. There were also twelve "first nations," or aboriginal bands, which had a degree of self-government.
The Canadian Constitution grants territorial and provincial jurisdiction over the administration of justice, and allows each territory and province to organize its own court system and police forces. The federal government has exclusive domain over cases involving trade and commerce, banking, bankruptcy, and criminal law. The Federal Court of Canada has both trial and appellate divisions for federal cases. The nine-judge Supreme Court of Canada is an appellate court that determines the constitutionality of both federal and territorial statutes. The Tax Court of Canada hears appeals of taxpayers against assessments by Revenue Canada.
The territorial court system consists of a Territorial Court, which deals with most criminal offenses, family law matters, youth proceedings, small claims, and traffic violations; a Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, which handles serious criminal and civil cases; and a Court of Appeal, which is the highest court in the territories, hearing appeals from the Territorial Court and the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories.
The annual number of homicides varies, but usually ranges from 2 to 10. Because of the small population, the NWT often has the highest homicide rate in Canada. In 2002, there were 4 homicides in the territory. That year, there were 5,688 violent crimes per 100,000 persons and 6,046 property crimes per 100,000 persons.
Some 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, the ancestors of the modern day Dene crossed a land bridge over the Bering Sea and dispersed throughout the Western Hemisphere. The Dene first migrated into what is now the NWT some 7,000 to 8,000 years ago. The Inuvialuit migrated into the NWT from Alaska in the 1800s, replacing the Mackenzie Inuit who were decimated by diseases introduced from migrant whalers.
In 2001, 19.5 percent of the 2,355 immigrants living in the NWT had come from the United Kingdom, 9.1 percent from United States, 21.9 percent from Southeast Asia (mostly from the Philippines), and 14.2 percent from Northern and Western European countries other than the United Kingdom (mostly from Germany).
During 2001, 1.5 percent of the NWT population age 5 and over were living abroad. About 6.6 percent were living elsewhere in the NWT, and 16.8 percent were living in another province. Most interprovincial migration is with Alberta.
The Aboriginal Peoples' traditional subsistence activities—fishing, hunting, and trapping—have an impact on the territorial economy. Sports fishing and big-game hunting also play a small role. Commercial fishery development in the NWT—both freshwater and saltwater—is being encouraged. Fur harvesting continues to be very important, supplementing the income of many Aboriginal families.
Inuit arts and crafts distribute a greater amount of income more widely than any other economic activity; some 1 in 14 people of working age in the NWT earns some income by this means.
The settling of northern land claims sets the stage for increased economic activity in which all can share and have a voice. But even if development is welcome and necessary for economic prosperity, it must be managed so as not to threaten the fragile arctic ecosystem and the traditional lifestyles of the northern peoples.
In 2002, the NWT had a gross domestic product (GDP) of C$2.9 billion, or about 0.25 percent of the national total.
In 2000, the average family income was C$79,241 for a family of five. This was the highest average family income of all the provinces.
Industry in the NWT centers on processing raw materials. Food products, wood, printing and publishing, nonmetallic mineral products, and chemical products are important manufacturing sectors. In 2002, the value of manufactured shipments for the NWT was C$43.6 million.
As of 2002, employment in the NWT was 21,000 persons. There were 1,300 unemployed persons, and the unemployment rate that year was 5.8 percent. The hourly minimum wage as of January 2004 was C$8.25, the second-highest rate among the provinces, behind Nunavut.
The sectors with the largest numbers of employed persons in 2002 were: public administration, 4,500; trade, 2,500; health care and social services, 2,400; transportation and warehousing, 1,800; forestry, fishing, mining, and oil and gas, 1,500; educational services, 1,400; accommodation and food services, 1,400; construction, 1,300; finance, insurance, and real estate and leasing, 900; professional, scientific, and technical services, 800; information, culture, and recreation, 700; other services, 700; management, administration, and other support, 600; and manufacturing, 300.
A brief but intense summer growing season (due to the midnight sun) limits local production of crops, of which seasonal berries and produce for home consumption are the most prominent. There were 30 farms in the NWT in 2001. Farms in the territories are smaller than those in the southern provinces, averaging under 150 acres. Hay accounts for three-quarters of total field crops in the territories. Reindeer, musk-oxen, and horses are found on territory farms.
The territorial government has been involved in a joint project with the University of Alberta to study the use of fiber optics to illuminate greenhouses with natural light on a year-round basis.
For centuries, indigenous peoples have bred dogs as draft animals to carry packs and later to pull sleds. Before modern transportation was available, dog teams often served as the primary form of transportation during the winter months. The territory has no commercial cattle, pig, sheep, or poultry farms. Fur trapping is still practiced and is an important contributor to the economy. In the 2001/02 season, fur production was valued at C$780,000.
The Dene and Inuvialuit once depended on subsistence fishing to sustain their families and dog teams. Today, sport fishing is a popular activity and is a source of income from tourism. In 2000, there were 4,720 active resident anglers in the NWT. Over 20 world sport fishing records have been set in the NWT. Principal species sought include lake trout, arctic grayling, arctic char, northern pike, walleye, and whitefish.
Although 151.8 million acres (61.4 million hectares)—or 58 percent—of the NWT is covered by forests, only 35.4 million acres (14.3 million hectares) of this land is useful for tree harvesting. The territorial government owns 83 percent of the forests and the federal government controls the remaining 17 percent. In 2002, the forest industry produced $110,548 of domestic exports, almost entirely converted paper. Cuba is the main export
Mining is by far the largest private sector of the NWT economy. In 2003, the total value of mineral production was C$1.8 billion, with diamonds and gold accounting for nearly all of this amount. Production in 2003 included 2,746 kilograms (6,053.8 pounds) of gold and 11.2 million diamond carats. That year, the NWT provided 100 percent of the value of Canada's diamond and tungsten production. The NWT also produced small amounts of silver, sand and gravel, and stone in 2003.
The first major gold discovery in the western NWT was made in 1935 on the west side of Yellowknife Bay, an area than is still mined. In 1991, the discovery of diamonds in the NWT started one of the largest land claim rushes in recent Canadian history. During 1993–98, expenditures on diamond exploration in the NWT totaled C$744 million and accounted for more than 15 percent of Canada's mining exploration expenditures. Expenditures on diamonds increased to about C$160 million in 2000.
Canada's first diamond mine, the EKATI open-pit mine at Lac de Gras, opened in October 1998. As of 2003, there were five kimberlite pipes (pipe-shaped deposits of molten rock that has solidified) at the EKATI Diamond Mine at Lac de Gras (Panda, Koala, Misery, Fox, and Leslie), and applications were being processed for three more (Beartooth, Sable, and Pigeon). Four additional pipes were being sampled.
Oil and gas exploration and development are important to the territory's economy, but the industry is open to wide fluctuations in world markets. The Norman Wells oil field has been in production since 1943. The field was expanded in 1985. The field produces between 11 and 12 million barrels per year, valued at C$250–C$300 million per year. Natural gas is produced at Fort Liard, Pointed Mountain, Ikhil, and Norman Wells. New gas discoveries around Fort Liard came on stream in 2000. Initial production rates of 50 million cubic feet per day have been achieved. In 2002, 1.24 million cubic meters of crude petroleum were produced, valued at C$289.27 million. That year, 848 million cubic meters (29.95 billion cubic feet) of natural gas were produced, worth C$107.28 million. In 2000/01, electricity generated totaled 334 gigawatt hours.
In 2002, total merchandise exports for the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the Yukon amounted to C$1.1 billion. Total imports for the three territories amounted to C$65 million. The major export markets were Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and Finland. The major import suppliers were the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. Over 83 percent of merchandise exports from the three territories were pearls and precious stones (including diamonds). Retail trade in the NWT amounted to C$505.6 million in 2002.
Inuit arts and crafts account for a great amount of retail income in the NWT, spread out over a wide geographical area. About one in 14 persons of working age in the NWT earns some income through the sales of craft items. Services related to tourism have become increasingly important sources of income.
The fiscal year runs from 1 April to 31 March. For fiscal year 2002/03, total revenues were estimated at C$856 million, about 45 percent coming from the government of Canada. Expenditures were almost C$853 million. Major expenditure areas were health, education, public works, social services, municipal and community services, NWT housing corporation, renewable resources, transportation, and economic development and tourism.
The NWT has no provincial sales tax. There is a C$0.107 per liter tax on gasoline, and a tax of C$33.20 per carton on cigarettes.
The territorial income tax rates in 2003 ranged from 7.2 to 13.05 percent. The combined federal/territorial tax rate on ordinary income was 42.05 percent for the top marginal rate.
In 2001, there were 613 live births in the NWT, a decrease of 8.9 percent over 2000. There were 163 deaths that year, a 3.8 increase over 2000. The NWT was one of only four provinces or territories to have an increase in the number of deaths in 2001. The life expectancy in 2001 was 74.4 years for men, and 79.6 years for women. These were the second-lowest life expectancy rates in Canada. Only Nunavut had lower life expectancy rates. Reported cases of selected diseases in 2002 for the NWT included gonococcal infections, 123; chicken pox, 68; giardiasis, 10; and salmonellosis, 8. Between November 1985 and June 2003, 35 residents had become infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Larger communities such as Yellowknife, Inuvik, Hay River, and Fort Smith have well-equipped hospitals; smaller communities have nursing stations. Air ambulance (Medevac) service is available throughout the NWT and is coordinated by the local nursing stations.
Excessive alcohol consumption is a health problem in the NWT. Smoking rates are among the highest in Canada.
In 2001, there were 12,565 households in the NWT, and the average number of persons in a household was 2.9, the second-highest number after Nunavut. Due to permafrost and a short construction season, the cost of building a house is more expensive in NWT than elsewhere in Canada. In 2001, 8,085 households lived in single-detached houses, 245 households lived in apartments in buildings with five or more stories, 485 households lived in mobile homes, and 3,745 households lived in other dwellings, including row houses and apartments in buildings with fewer than five stories. In 2002, C$102.1 million was invested in residential construction.
Elementary and secondary schools are supported by eight community boards of education and by the provincial Department of Education. There are 46 public schools offering instruction in English, 2 schools offering instruction in French, and 3 private schools. There were approximately 9,800 students enrolled in all schools in 2001.
Aurora College (formerly the Arctic College) has campuses in Inuvik, Fort Smith, and Yellowknife. There are Community Learning Centres (CLC), operated by Aurora College, in most communities. Postsecondary community college enrollment in western NWT in 2001 was about 1,200 full-and part-time students.
Nearly every community in the NWT has artisans who produce clothing, accessories, tools, weavings, beadwork, jewelry, or carvings. Other skilled crafts include the making of birchbark baskets, moose-hair tuftings, and porcupine quillwork. Studios are often found in the more populous areas of Holman, Inuvik, Fort Laird, and Yellowknife. Inuvik is the site of the mid-summer Great Northern Arts Festival, which draws artisans from throughout the territory. Per capita territorial spending on the arts in the NWT in 2000/01 was C$172, much higher than the national average (C$68) for the territories and provinces.
The NWT Public Library Services, based in Hay River, coordinates public library service throughout the territory. Member libraries are located in Fort Norman, Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Hay River, Hay River Reserve, Igloolik, Inuvik, Norman Wells, and Yellowknife. Museums in the NWT include the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, the Northern Life Museum & National Exhibition Centre at Fort Smith, and the Nunatta Sunaqutangit Museum at Iqaluit.
Yellowknife has 3 radio stations (2 AM and 1 FM). CABL-TV is a cable television station based in Yellowknife; Mackenzie Media Ltd. provides cable service to the capital.
Periodicals and magazines published in the NWT include Above & Beyond, L'Aquilon, Deh Cho Drum, Inuvik Drum, News/North, Slave River Journal, Up Here, and The Yellowknifer.
Recently, tourism has become increasingly important. The NWT offers a variety of landscapes of great natural beauty, which are well-suited to fishing, wildlife observation, and other outdoor activities. The western NWT has four national parks: Nahanni National Park Reserve, west of the Liard River in the Mackenzie Mountains; Wood Buffalo National Park, west of Fort Smith and extending into Alberta; Aulavik National Park, on northern Banks Island; and Tuktut Nogait National Park, located northeast of Inuvik. Great Slave Lake's East Arm is currently under consideration as the NWT's fifth national park.
Local sporting organizations (for such sports as badminton, basketball, track and field, and volleyball) are popular in the territory, as are canoeing and kayaking.
Early English explorers who traveled the waterways of the NWT in search of a northwest passage included Sir Martin Frobisher (1539?–94) and Henry Hudson (d.1611). Famous early fur traders included Sir Alexander Mackenzie (b.Scotland, 1764–1820), who explored the Slave River and Great Slave Lake area, and American Peter Pond (1740–1807), who established the first trading post.
Nellie Joy Cournoyea (b.1940), from Aklavik, became the first woman head of government in Canada upon her 1991 election as government leader of the NWT. Ethel Blondin-Andrew (b.1951), from Fort Norman, became the first Native woman elected to the Canadian parliament, in 1988. Actress Margot Kidder (b.1948) is a native of Yellowknife.
Bumsted, J. M. The Peoples of Canada. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Daitch, Richard W. Northwest Territories. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1996.
Holmes, J. R. The Story of Fort Steuben. Steubenville, OH: Fort Steuben Press, 2000.
LeVert, Suzanne. Northwest Territories. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2001.
Moore, Christopher. The Big Book of Canada. Toronto: Tundra Books, 2002.
Roy, Geoffrey. North Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut: The Bradt Travel Guide. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2000.
Weihs, Jean. Facts about Canada, Its Provinces and Territories. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1995.
Goverment of Northwest Territories. http://www.gov.nt.ca (accessed on March 22, 2004).
Statistics Canada. http://www.statcan.ca (accessed on March 22, 2004).
Travel Canada: Northwest Territories. http://www.travelcanada.ca/tc_redesign/app/en/ca/destinations.do?provinceId=7l (accessed on March 22, 2004).
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|
2013-06-19T14:37:58Z
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|
en
| 0.953637
| 7,993
|
Radiated Emissions Measurement How To
|Ambient Field Strength
values are measured as follows.
the antenna at the proper distance from the source of
the emissions, or the product being tested. This will
be one, three or ten meters depending on the exact specification
the antenna at the product being tested. This includes
bore-site direction, and polarization (polarity).
the output of the receiving antenna to the input of the
receiving system (spectrum analyzer used to measure field),
using a low VSWR, low loss coaxial cable. The input impedance
for the receiving system, and the receiving antenna should
all be matched to 50W
. Most antennas are already matched to this impedance,
if they are EMI/EMC antennas, as should most receiving
systems. If this is not the case, the readings will require
correction for the impedance mismatch.
the frequency of interest on the receiving system. Ensure
that the receiving antenna is capable of providing accurate
measurements at that frequency. This includes ensuring
the antenna can receive a signal at the frequency of interest
by its designed frequency range, provided by the manufacturer,
and that the antenna is properly calibrated at that frequency.
the RF Voltage, Va, referenced to the receiving
system. The units should be in decibels referenced to
1 micro-volt, dBm
V. If the units are in absolute micro-volts (dependent
on the receiving system used), they must be converted.
The conversion factors are as follows, however, more information
about the conversion can be found in the Conversion Technical
V) = 20Log10[Va(mV)]
the reading is converted to dB micro-volts (dBm
V), it can be added to the antenna factor to determine
absolute field strength. The antenna factor is provided
with an antenna when it is calibrated or newly purchased.
If the antenna factor for an antenna is not known, typical
values can be used to approximate field strength, in development,
however, this is not acceptable for compliance.
Field Strength (dBm
V/m) = RF Voltage (dBm
V) + Antenna Factor (dB/m)
V/m) = Va (dBm
V) + AF (dB/m)
|However, the losses
due to the cable between the receiving antenna and the
receiving system should also be included. The cable losses
can be determined easily, by connecting the cable in question
between a transmitter (such as a tracking generator) and
the receiver (the spectrum analyzer) at the frequency
of interest, and examining how much lower the signal is
than the output source is set to provide. (for example,
if the tracking generator is transmitting at a given strength,
then this strength minus the strength measured at the
spectrum analyzer is the cable loss). The above formula,
including cable losses, now becomes…
V/m) = Va (dBm
V) + Ac (dB) + AF (dB/m)
A.H. Systems, inc.
9710 Cozycroft Ave. • Chatsworth, CA 91311
phone: (818) 998-0223 • fax: (818) 998-6892
© 1996 - 2013 A.H.Systems, inc.
All Rights Reserved.
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|
en
| 0.890527
| 722
|
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